Anglican Episcopal Church
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The Anglican Episcopal Church (AEC) is a Continuing Anglican church consisting of parishes in Arizona, Alaska, and Florida served by a presiding bishop and several 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 Reginald Hammond (1918 to 2004). Hammond was consecrated for the Anglican Episcopal Church on 20 April 2000 by Robert J. Godfrey, a former presiding bishop of the Anglican Orthodox Church. The co-consecrators were: Richard Boyce of the Anglican Province of America and Scott McLaughlin, Hesbon Njera, and Thomas Shank, all of the Orthodox Anglican Church. Following 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: Melvin Pickering and 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 Conner to be its presiding bishop. David Pressey of St. George's parish was elected by the AEC Convention of 2008 to be a suffragan bishop. He was consecrated on 22 November 2008. In September 2014, St. George's withdrew from membership in the AEC and is currently an independent parish.
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 was 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.
Following votes by the Standing Committee of the Anglican Episcopal Church, and the its parishes, Conner petitioned the United Episcopal Church of North America for admission as a non-geographical diocese of the larger jurisdiction. He and the AEC were received into the UECNA on 11 February 2015.
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