WHEATON, IL: North American Anglican Province Formed As Rival To The Episcopal Church

Provisional Constitution and Nine Canons Approved

By David W. Virtue in Wheaton, Illinois
www.virtueonline.org
12/3/2008

A new Province of the Anglican Church in North America, a rival province to The Episcopal Church USA complete with a provisional constitution and nine canons was birthed today with 700 churches and 100,000 church-going members. A formal ratification of the constitution and canons will take place in a provincial assembly in six months in Bedford, Texas at St. Vincent's cathedral in the diocese of Ft. Worth.

It is historic and unprecedented, said Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan moderator of the Anglican Communion Network. "It is an extraordinary day for us. We have reversed 40 years of Anglican history and years of division among The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church in Canada. Today we bring together 11 jurisdictions in Canada and across the US. Today marks 5 years of labor and attempts to come together."

Duncan said the Provisional Constitution is a response to what 7 Primates of the Anglican Communion asked us to do. "They (archbishops) represent the majority of the worlds' who met recently in Jerusalem recently. They asked us to form a provisional province that would be recognized by the bulk of the Anglican world. Today we have done that."

Duncan said the new province was a work in the spirit of unity and mutual submission and was as fine and as great as "I have ever known." The nine canons put in place were unanimously adopted by all the partners of Common cause, he said.

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