ACNA meets in Jerusalem at the close of GAFCON III
The Provincial Council of the Anglican Church in North America had the unique opportunity to meet in Jerusalem this year.
Recognizing that all of the Provincial Council delegates were also Gafcon delegates, the decision was made to hold a one-day meeting immediately following the Gafcon conference.
Hosted at the Jerusalem YMCA, Council delegates received reports from around the church, passed the budget and new canon changes, and elected members to the Executive Committee. Archbishop Foley Beach shared stories of the spiritual reality and numeric of the Church.
He reminded the Council of our mission, “We are about reaching North America with the transforming love of Jesus Christ. North America has millions of people who have not heard the Gospel of Jesus. Who is going to share the Good News with them? It falls to us to reach our generation with the most important news and the best news anyone could ever receive.”
On the numeric side, in 2017 the church increased from 951 to 1,037 congregations. Membership increased by 24,920. The Average Principal Service Attendance increased by 16,878.
Canon Changes
The Rev. Canon Phil Ashey, chair of the Governance Task Force, presented the timeline and procedures for feedback on canon changes which had been initiated last January. A number of proposed canon changes did not make it to the Provincial Council, but rather, due to received feedback, were postponed or referred to the College of Bishops for further consideration. The new canon changes that were passed provide guidance for situations in which an archbishop or bishop has become incapacitated and situations in which the relationship between a bishop and diocese has broken down.
Executive Committee Elections
Every year the staggered terms of the Executive Committee members results in the election of four members (2 clergy and 2 lay). The clergy elected this year were the Rev. Filmore Strunk of All Saints Anglican Church in Charlotte, North Carolina and the Rev. Jonathan Millard from the Church of the Ascension in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The lay delegates elected were Mr. Jeff Walton of Restoration Anglican in Arlington, Virginia and Mr. Gus Haddad of St. Clement’s in El Paso, Texas. These will be the second consecutive terms for Strunk and Haddad.
Learn More
The Provincial Council documents are available for download from the Document Center in Dropbox at the following link:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7stcpg36y20u1jd/AABGo2vxyvhqUkJistzf4KNea?dl=0
