Anglican Episcopal Church
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The Anglican Episcopal Church (AEC) is a Continuing Anglican church consisting of parishes in California, Arizona, Nevada, Alaska, and Florida served by two bishops and 18 other clergy. The AEC was founded at St. George's Anglican Church in Ventura, California.
The Anglican Episcopal Church is an Anglican jurisdiction that describes its faith as being based on the 1928 Book of Common Prayer and the Authorized Version of the Bible.[1] The Thirty-nine Articles of Religion are accepted as authoritative.
This church body is not to be confused with the Anglican Episcopal Church of North America which was founded in 1972 by Bishop Walter Hollis Adams (1907 to 1991), with the Anglican Episcopal Church, Celtic Rite which was founded in 1993 by Bishop Robert Harold Hawn (1928 to 1999),[2] with the Anglican Episcopal Church International which was founded by Bishop Norman S. Dutton in 2008, or with the "Anglican Episcopal Church of Europe" which was founded more recently.
History
The Anglican Episcopal Church's first bishop was the Rt. Rev. Reginald Hammond (1918 to 2004). Bishop Hammond was consecrated for the Anglican Episcopal Church on 20 April 2000 by the Rt. Rev. Robert J. Godfrey, a former presiding bishop of the Anglican Orthodox Church. The co-consecrators were: the Rt. Rev. Richard Boyce of the Anglican Province of America and the Rt. Rev. Scott McLaughlin, the Rt. Rev. Hesbon Njera, and the Rt. Rev. Thomas Shank, all of the Orthodox Anglican Church. Following Bishop Hammond's death on 5 May 2004, the church was reduced from three parishes to the one parish in Ventura which then voted to ask for the episcopal oversight of two bishops of the Anglican Diocese of the Good Shepherd: the Rt. Rev. Melvin Pickering and the Rt. Rev. George Connor.
In 2006, St. George's withdrew from its association with the Diocese of the Good Shepherd along with several other parishes. Delegates to an October 2006 General Convention which had been called for the purpose of re-establishing the Anglican Episcopal Church elected Bishop Conner to be its presiding bishop. Canon David Pressey was elected by the AEC Convention of 2008 to be a suffragan bishop. He was consecrated on 22 November 2008.
In 2008, the Anglican Episcopal Church joined with the Diocese of the Great Lakes in founding the North American Anglican Conference. Cooperation on the training of clergy is one objective of the conference. These Continuing churches consider themselves to be in the Anglican Low Church tradition, Evangelical, and conservative. The Thirty-nine Articles are accepted unconditionally; and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer is used for all public worship.
The Anglican Diocese of Texas became a mission partner of the AEC in 2010.
References
- ↑ Churches not ‘in the Communion’, at anglicansonline.org, retrieved on September 14, 2006
- ↑ History of St. George's Anglican Church, retrieved on September 14, 2006
External links
- Anglican Episcopal Church website
- Listing of Anglican tradition churches outside of the Anglican Communion