Reflection: The 2024 APA Clergy Retreat on G3 Unity

This past week, the clergy from the Diocese of the Eastern United States of the Anglican Province of America gathered in Helen, Georgia for a clergy retreat centered around the topic of unity in the Continuing Anglican Movement. We had a wonderful time of fellowship, enjoying the German-themed town of Helen which is full of exquisite cuisine and lots of German beer. In the proceedings of the conference, we heard from several speakers and had thorough conversation in which different voices and perspectives were given room to express questions and thoughts about what institutional unity might look like. We also heard from Fr. Briane Turley about reviving a Priests for Life ministry and Fr. Mark Perkins talked about the developments at St. Dunstan’s Academy. The major conversations revolved around three sessions: (1) Bp. Markus Dogo, the Bishop of Kafanchan in the Church of Nigeria; (2) presentations from Bp. Chad, canon theologian Fr. Glenn Spencer, and Archdeacon Mike Ward; and (3) a forum for the clergy to express their opinions.

Bp. Dogo’s talk was an informative look at the Church of Nigeria. The CoN began when missionaries from the Church of England brought the Gospel to the people of Nigeria. The CoN continues to be a faithful bearer of that same Gospel, growing at astounding rates: There are over 20 million Anglicans in Nigeria and 161 dioceses. While they remain members of the Anglican Communion—meaning they are in communion with the Church of England—they have been in an uneasy situation since the 1998 Lambeth Conference where the topic of revising the Church’s teachings on sex and sexuality was first broached. Their consternation at the Anglican Communion’s policies on women’s ordination and sexual ethics resulted in the Kigali Commitment of 2023. The Commitment empowered the orthodox provinces of the Anglican Communion to double down on their commitment to the authority of Scripture while highlighting the failure of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the rest of the Anglican Communion to uphold the historic faith. The Commitment calls for repentance and a reconfiguration of the Anglican Communion. Bp. Dogo was sent to our clergy retreat on behalf of the CoN to begin a conversation about what kind of relationship we could have with them in the future. Nothing concrete was proposed, but Bp. Dogo did provide a potent exhortation for us all to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints by earnestly standing by the truth of the Christian faith.

The second session on the topic of institutional unity in the G3 featured three presentations. The first was Bp. Chad who gave a talk on the theological understanding of the unity of the Church. He pointed out that the current relationship between the Anglican Province of America, the Anglican Catholic Church, and the Anglican Church in America is a sacramental one based on the Communion Concordat of 2017. Bp. Chad reminded us that the APA is “entirely committed” to that agreement and in fully realizing its vision for full unity. Together, we possess the four notes of the Church: one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic; the goal now is to restore koinonia. To do so, we must move forward in a deliberate manner, being careful not to repeat the mistakes of the past or wander into new errors.

Bp. Chad then read a report from Fr. Spencer titled “Intercommunion or Union?” Fr. Spencer examined two relevant case studies. The first is the Standing Conference of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA) which was a group of bishops from various Orthodox jurisdictions in the United States that met to pave the way for greater unity between their groups. It was later replaced by the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America when SCOBA had succeeded in its mission. The second case study was the debacle at Deerfield Beach in which unity between Continuing Anglicans was rushed and further schism occurred as a result. From these two studies, Fr. Spencer urged us to resist the tyranny of the urgent, gather data about our respective jurisdictional situations, be attentive to the unique cultures of the various jurisdictions involved, think through the question of authority, and to be attentive to our Solemn Declaration, Constitution, and Canons.

The final speaker of the second session was Fr. Mike Ward on the topic of canonicity and institutional unity. The crux of the canonical issue is that while the ACC canons allow for the potential dissolution of the entity (see 21.13), the APA Constitution and Canons lack such a provision. From a canonical standpoint, then, there are a few possible solutions moving forward: (1) the APA could amend its founding documents to allow for dissolution or adaptation to a new ecclesiastical situation; (2) clergy and laity could receive letters dimissory that allows them to move to a new ecclesial environment and the APA could exist purely as an “empty shell”; (3) The APA could receive letters dimissory from the members of other jurisdictions and assume them; or (4) a SCOBA-like structure could be erected as a means of supporting further dialogue and mutual ecclesiastical work.

The third session of the retreat was a conversation in which clergy had the opportunity to voice comments and questions about the material that had presented in the previous presentations. Not all the comments can be communicated here, but in general, the desire to move the process forward in a responsible way was articulated by several of the clergy. This was evident in a number of questions about and suggestions for moving forward, like the establishment of a committee with representatives from each of the jurisdictions that could craft certain proposals to be adopted by the G3 provinces and implement the will of the G3 in creating common resources, like a joint website, a joint catalogue of G3 parishes, and policies, like uniform standards for the Boards of Examining Chaplains. Further, the commitment to unity was evident in the desire for real grassroots communications and connectivity between members of the various provinces.

It’s been seven years since the Communion Concordat was signed by the then-G4 in Atlanta. That watershed moment was the end of a 40-year wilderness wandering during which the Continuing jurisdictions remained separated. Perhaps another Bible story is instructive here: Jacob’s 14 years of labor for his wife Rachel. While we have certainly seen many good things in the first seven years, progress has been slow. But the story of Jacob reminds us that these years of laboring for something so important are worth it, even when they’re hard and even when they take longer than we might have originally anticipated. Personally, I left our clergy retreat feeling excited about the prospects for the future, and I look forward to seeing what God will do in our midst.