The United Episcopal Church and "Foreign Churches"

As Archbishop-Coadjutor of the United Episcopal Church, I think I may take the liberty to point out a couple of misunderstandings about UECNA and churches outside North America.

The assumption tends to be made when discussing the United Episcopal Church in North America on this blog that it is purely a North American phenomomen. Whilst this is true today, the UECNA has had relationships with overseas juridictions in the past. Whilst it is accurate to say that the UECNA's Constitution confines its jurisdiction to affiliated parishes within North America,(1) this does not preclude us being in full Communion with suitable Continuing Anglican groups abroad.

How so?

The UECNA's Canons allow it to consecrate Bishops for other Churches provided they fall within the parameters set by the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral.(2) The Canons also grant permission for the ordination of priests and deacons for overseas churches. For those not familiar with it, the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral is the document that has traditionally regulated Anglican relations with other, non-Anglican, Churches. In its day, the Quadrilateral paved the way for the old Anglican Communion's relationships with the Church of Sweden and the Old Catholics. Looking to the future, it could be used in a similar manner between the Continuing Anglicans and the remaining orthodox Old Catholic body, the Polish National Catholic Church.

For churches to enter into FULL communion with the UECNA it is necessary that, in addition to adhering to the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral, the potential partner Church uphold the Anglican Tradition in theology and liturgy. This would include adherence to their local edition of the Book of Common Prayer - provided it pre-dates 1977, the Ordinal, the Thirty-nine Articles (3), and the two Books of Homilies. The UECNA has been approached several times by overseas groups, but, so far, none of them have been able to fulfill the requirements for full inter-communion(4).

So to summarize. The United Episcopal Church of North America confines its jurisdiction to the USA and Canada. However, our Constitution and Canons permit the UECNA to ordain clergy for suitable jurisdictions abroad, and to enter into full Communion with other Continuing Anglican Churches both within, and outside of, the United States and Canada. As a statement of policy, it is accurate to say that the UECNA House of Bishops remains receptive to any approach from Continuing to Anglican bodies overseas with a view to entering into full Communion as equal partner Church within the Anglican tradition.

+Peter D. Robinson,
Archbishop-Coadjutor, UECNA

Notes:
(1) UECNA Constitution makes no specific provision limiting the UECNA to North America other than only Bishops having jurisdiction, or resident, in North America can be voting members of the House of Bishops.

(2) UECNA Canon 44.

(3) The concordat with the ACC is based on the Affirmation of St Louis rather than the Articles due to our common origin in the St Louis Congress (1977) and the Denver Consecrations (1978).

(4) The stumbling block in relations with churches overseas has usually been orders. The applicant churches have had doubtful TEC, or Old Catholic, orders and have been unwilling to submit to 'sub conditione' ordination to remove the element of doubt from their Orders.

News from the UECNA

The United Episcopal Church of North America is not as well known as it should be, but is one of the three "St Louis Churches" that represent the mainstream of the Anglican Continuum in the USA. It was founded in 1981 by the Right Rev. C. D. Dale Doren, who was the first of the four bishops consecrated at Denver in January 1978. At that time apparently irreconcilable differences had grown up over how the Affirmation of St Louis was to be interpreted. The United Episcopal Church of North America came into being to represent the "minimalist" interpretation of the Affirmation. In short, the new Continuing Church was the old Protestant Episcopal Church without the heresy and goofiness. To this end, the UECNA adopted, with very little adaption, the 1958 PECUSA Constitution and Canons as its administrative standard, and required a specific undertaking to abide by the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion from its clergy.

From three parishes at its founding, the UECNA grew to some forty parishes by 1991/2 under the leadership of first Archbishop Doren and then Archbishop Albion Knight. Sadly, UECNA then declined during the long illness of the Most Rev. John Gramley (III Archbishop, UECNA) to the point where only seven parishes were represented at the 1996 General Convention. The present Archbishop, the Most Rev. Stephen Reber had to practically rebuild the UECNA from scratch during his first eight years as Archbishop growing the jurisdiction to twenty-seven parishes.

Now it has to be admitted that the sixteen months between January 2008 and April 2009 were stormy for the UECNA. Firstly, the then suffragan bishop decided to leave to take control of a diocese in another continuing church. Subsequently, we lost a number of parishes when we were "raided" by a bishop and several clergy who decided that their future lay elsewhere. However, as you may have deduced from the potted history above, the UECNA is a survivor, so it was time to once again pick ourselves up, dust off, and start again.

In November last year, Archbishop Reber, the present writer, and the National Council reorganised the jurisdiction. The old structure with an Archbishop and one or more regional suffragan(s) has been replaced. The church is now organised as three Missionary Dioceses - East, South & Ozarks, and West - each with its own Ordinary. This basic aim has been to make the UECNA's structure more responsive to the needs of local congregations. Bishops have now been consecrated for the South & Ozarks, and to succeed Archbishop Reber as Ordinary in the East.

On April 24th, at the consecration of the Rt. Rev. Glen Hartley as Bishop of the Missionary District of the South & Ozarks, Archbishop Reber announced that the Right Rev. Peter D. Robinson would be succeeding him Archbishop upon his retirement in September. On 26th June 2010, when the Ven. Joseph Dobson was consecrated as Bishop-coadjutor of the Missionary District of the East. For the first time in the history of the UECNA, all three of the consecrating bishops were from the UECNA.

In the past year, two congregations have joined the UECNA from other jurisdictions and two new congregations have been founded. The UECNA is planning more missions in areas not yet served by Continuing Anglicanism. We remain committed to mission and evangelism and the continuation of the old Episcopal Church tradition. UECNA is also working on closer relations not just with the ACC, but also with the APCK with whom we already "share" clergy.

The United Episcopal Church is optimistic about its future and about the future of Classical Anglicanism. Unlike those doomsters who say, because of the rampant revisionism of western theology, that the Elizabeth Settlement has failed, the UECNA firmly believes that the Reformed Catholicism of the English Reformation is of continuing importance. We retain our commitment to the sort of "Central Churchmanship" Anglicanism that balances of the Reformed and Catholic traditions on the basis of the 1559 and 1662 Settlements, whilst being open to churchmen from both the Evangelical and Anglo-Catholic schools of thought. To walk away from that broad inheritance in favour of either Rome or Geneva would permanently impoverish not just Continuing Anglicanism, but Christendom as a whole.

An Imprimatur

Archbishop Mark Haverland, Metropolitan of the Original Province of the Anglican Catholic Church, has told me he fully supports the post below, More on Alleged Donatism, and has given permission to note this approval publicly.

ACC, UECNA in Communion Accord

(Archbishops Haverland, left, and Reber)

I read the following news this morning with great joy.

On Ascension Day, May 17, 2007, The Anglican Catholic Church (ACC) and the United Episcopal Church (UECNA) entered into a communion agreement. Archbishop Stephen Reber of the UECNA and Archbishop Mark Haverland of the ACC signed the agreement at Saint Stephen's Pro-cathedral, Athens, Georgia to restore or reaffirm the state of communio in sacris between the churches. This agreement came into immediate effect, though it still needs to be ratified by the ACC Provincial Synod and the UECNA Convention.

“This comes at a time when Anglicanism in the USA is at a crossroads, when people are looking for firm ground to stand on and a place to belong,” said Bishop Leo Michael of the UECNA, who was present at the meeting along with Bishop Presley Hutchens of the ACC. The four Bishops celebrated Ascension Day with a noon Eucharist after signing the agreement.

“We recognize in each other the presence of the essentials of the Christian Faith, Catholic Order, Apostolic Succession, Anglican worship, and Christian morals,” said Archbishop Mark Haverland.

The 1977 Congress of St. Louis, thanks to the efforts of the Fellowship of Concerned Churchmen (FCC), was an answer from faithful Episcopalians and Anglicans, both laity and clergy, to the exigencies of changes wrought by the then Episcopal Church USA. Their ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate and the doctrinally controversial 1979 Book of Common Prayer necessitated the birth of the Continuing Church. The churches were determined to “continue in the Catholic Faith, Apostolic Order, Orthodox Worship and Evangelical Witness of the traditional Anglican Church, doing all things necessary for the continuance of the same.”

Thirty faithful years later, impelled by the commonness of origin and the common participation in the one holy catholic and apostolic church, the ACC and the UECNA have come forth with a pastoral provision. The effect of the agreement will be to make explicit the somewhat doubtful continuation of the communion that many believe has always persisted between the two churches, both of which stem from the Denver consecrationsof bishops in January 1978.

Members of both churches will be welcomed at the altars of both bodies, and the clergy of both will be available for baptisms, funerals, and marriages as needed. Each church has agreed to consult carefully with the other in all matters affecting the other, including episcopal acts and ecumenical relations with other bodies and churches.

“This agreement constitutes an important movement towards restoring the unity of the Continuing Church, which stems from the Congress of Saint Louis and the Denver consecrations," said Archbishop Mark Haverland. “It is the contention of both that this Continuing Church subsists in the ACC, the UEC, and the Anglican Province of Christ the King. The organic unity of these three Churches remains our first and most urgent ecumenical task.”

Both the churches pledge to work towards full organic union in a patient, unhurried manner, meanwhile respecting inessential differences and the other church's internal integrity.

“His church is trustworthy, not because it depends upon men, but because it depends upon Him who endowed it with power and who is ever present in its council called in His name” said Archbishop Stephen Reber of the UECNA.