Anglican Church in North America

The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is a Christian denomination in the Anglican tradition in the United States and Canada. It also includes ten congregations in Mexico, two mission churches in Guatemala, and a missionary diocese in Cuba. Headquartered in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, the church reported 977 congregations and 124,999 members in 2022. The first archbishop of the ACNA was Robert Duncan, who was succeeded by Foley Beach in 2014.

Anglican Church in North America
AbbreviationACNA
ClassificationProtestant (with Anglo-Catholic, charismatic and evangelical orientations)
OrientationAnglican
ScriptureHoly Bible
TheologyAnglican doctrine
PolityEpiscopal
ArchbishopFoley Beach
COOAlan J. Hawkins
AssociationsGAFCON, Global South
RegionCanada, United States, Mexico, Cuba
OriginJune 22, 2009
St. Vincent's Cathedral, Bedford, Texas, United States
Separated fromAnglican Church of Canada and Episcopal Church in the United States
Merger ofCommon Cause Partnership
Congregations977 (2022)
Members124,999 (2022)
Official websiteanglicanchurch.net

The ACNA was founded in 2009 by former members of the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada who were dissatisfied with liberal doctrinal and social teachings in their former churches, which they considered contradictory to traditional Anglican belief. Prior to 2009, these conservative Anglicans had begun to receive support from a number of Anglican churches (or provinces) outside of North America, especially in the Global South. Several Episcopal dioceses and many individual parishes in both Canada and the United States voted to transfer their allegiance to Anglican provinces in South America and Africa. In 2009, many Anglican groups which had withdrawn from the two North American provinces united to form the Anglican Church in North America.

Unlike the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada, the ACNA is not a member province of the Anglican Communion. From its inception, the Anglican Church in North America has sought full communion with those provinces of the Anglican Communion "that hold and maintain the Historic Faith, Doctrine, Sacraments and Discipline of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church"; and the church maintains full communion with the Anglican Global South primates.

The ACNA has attempted to incorporate the full spectrum of conservative Anglicanism within Canada and the United States. As a result, it accommodates Anglo-Catholic, charismatic, and evangelical theological orientations. It also includes those who oppose and those who support the ordination of women. Women can serve as clergy members in some dioceses, while other dioceses maintain an exclusively male clergy. Women are ineligible to serve as bishops. This disagreement over the ordination of women has led to "impaired communion" among some dioceses. The ACNA defines Christian marriage exclusively as a lifelong union between a man and a woman and holds that there are only two expressions of faithful sexuality: lifelong marriage between a man and a woman or abstinence. The church opposes abortion and euthanasia.

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