October 22, 2015 Episcopal Losses Accelerate Although you likely didn’t see many headlines, the past two weeks have been significant. Biblically faithful Anglicans are witnessing encouraging developments on the global, provincial and local levels. I’ll outline three of them for you here. First, there is increasing international recognition and support for the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). The Global South, a grouping of 24 out of 38 provinces in the worldwide Anglican Communion, formally voted to recognize ACNA as a partner province and extended an invitation for ACNA to join the group with both voice and vote. While ACNA has long had strong support from the leaders of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), the Global South includes additional primates representing provinces like Burundi, the Indian Ocean and the Middle East and North Africa. Separately, the synod of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney, Australia passed a motion declaring itself “in communion” with ACNA. These orthodox allies recognize that ACNA is a partner in Gospel mission and has staying power. Anglicans also have continuing dialogue with ecumenical partners in the Lutheran, Orthodox and messianic Jewish traditions, among others. A formal invitation by the Russian Orthodox Church for a visit by ACNA leaders early this autumn was testament to increasing common ground between the churches. We can expect all of these developments to have an impact on the primates’ gathering that Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has proposed for this coming January. You’ll recall that Welby has also issued an invitation to ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach to participate, a first for the new province. Secondly, the Episcopal Church recently released its 2014 membership data. The top-line summary continues to be that the Episcopal Church (TEC) maintains an alarming membership and attendance decline unbroken since the early 2000s. Even more alarmingly, Episcopal Church baptisms have dropped by almost half in the last decade, boding poorly for the future. We can be encouraged that a false gospel presented in some Episcopal churches is failing to gain traction. But make no mistake: this is not a zero-sum situation. Whenever I report on Episcopal Church decline, I need to qualify that the places where the ACNA has met with much success – Texas, the Carolinas, the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area – are all places where the Episcopal Church has seen minimal decline. Meanwhile, those places where TEC is in absolute freefall – northeastern dioceses like Vermont, Rhode Island, and predominantly rural areas like the Dioceses of Northern Michigan and Eastern Oregon – have a sparse ACNA presence (if any at all). I cite this information because Anglicans need to understand that the reports of TEC diminishment (what I have termed ‘decline porn’) are only that: confirmation of TEC failure. When a long-declining TEC parish shutters in a small town, there will be no further Anglican presence in that community for a long, long time. Young pastors will plant new congregations in major metropolitan areas and college towns, but few seem drawn to communities where TEC is in steep decline. It’s something for us to think and pray about as we attempt to reach communities across North America: ACNA is not an escape from the problems plaguing Episcopalians, it is an opportunity to minister to the lost in a way that we were sometimes hindered from doing in TEC. Click here for the rest of the article: https://juicyecumenism.com/2015/10/22/episcopal-losses-accelerate/