ANGLICAN COMMUNION NETWORK AND THE COMMON CAUSE PARTNERSHIP

The Anglican Communion Network (ACN) currently represents an alignment of five major Anglican orthodox groups:

· Anglican Mission in America

· Forward in Faith North America

· Anglican Province in America

· American Anglican Council

· Reformed Episcopal Church

Eleven dioceses and scores of individual congregations are in relationship with the Network, numbering more than 800 parishes and nearly 200,000 individual members. 

The Anglican Communion Network is moderated by the Right Reverend Robert Duncan, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburg. According to information on the ACN website “the Anglican Communion Network is a 'gathering place' for Orthodox believers in the Anglican tradition.” The Network was chartered in January, 2004, primarily in response to what they see as “the unfaithful actions of the 2003 General Convention of the Episcopal Church, USA” The Southeastern Convocation of the ACN was established per Article V of the Network's charter. Convocations exist to support and care for individual parishes and congregations who are not within a Network diocese, but who wish to be affiliated with the network. The Diocese of Tennessee is located within the ACN Southeastern Convocation.

Three congregations in the Diocese of Tennessee have formally affiliated with the ACN: St. Bede’s, Manchester; St. Barnabas, Tullahoma; and Trinity Church, Winchester. Other congregations in the Diocese of Tennessee have formally affiliated with one or more of the bodies represented in the ACN, including:

· St. Bartholomew’s, Nashville (American Anglican Council).

· St. Joseph of Aramathea, Hendersonville (American Anglican Council).

· St. Bartholomew’s, Nashville (American Anglican Council).

· St. Matthias, Nashville (American Anglican Council).

· Holy Spirit Church, Nashville (American Anglican Council).

· St. Andrews, Nashville (Forward In Faith North America)

· Church of the Redeemer, Nashville (Anglican Mission in America) (Note: The clergy of this congregation was deposed by the Bishop after he lead a breakaway congregation from St. Bartholomew’s, Nashville)

Other congregations in the Diocese are known to be informally affiliated or are at least highly sympathetic to the “Common Cause” of the ACN and its aligned organizations.

The intent of the “Common Cause” partnership formed in June 2004 is to express theological and/or physical separation from ECUSA.

Several Diocese of Tennessee congregations formally aligned with the recently chartered Tennessee Anglican Council, the local American Anglican Council body, including:

(INSERT CHARTER CONGREGATIONS HERE)

The views espoused by one or more of these orthodox Anglican groups include:

· Belief that the Christian ministerial priesthood is exclusively male.

· The “inevitable necessity” for presbyters who disagree with their Bishop on doctrinal or moral matters to realign themselves with bishops in other dioceses.

· That ECUSA “has drifted away into revisionist doctrines” and “false teachings and practices.”

· Belief that the U.S. population is “spiritually disconnected.”

· Belief that homosexuals can be “reordered” to a heterosexual orientation.

· A pledge of resistance to “all present and future attempts to compromise the Order of the Church, without regard to the temporal consequences of any agency.”