The ACNA has consecrated and elected two bishops for its dioceses, which represent the full span of its theological spectrum, while also highlighting the fragility of the new province-in-waiting’s theological boundaries.On Aug 22, the Rt Rev William Ilgenfritz was consecrated Bishop of the Missionary Diocese of All Saints by Archbishop Robert Duncan. The new diocese consists of 13 congregations across the United States, and is part of the wider ACNA.
In 2002 FiFNA elected Fr Ilgenfritz and the Rev David Moyer to be consecrated as bishops in order to fulfill an episcopal ministry in the US similar to that exercised by the ‘flying bishops’ of the Church of England.
Their names were then “lain on the table" pending their consecration at the hands of sympathetic Anglican bishops.
In 2007 FiFNA reaffirmed its nomination of Fr Ilgenfritz as its preferred bishop to oversee Anglo-Catholic congregations, and at the June meeting of its College of Bishops, the ACNA formally endorsed the election.
Bishop Ilgenfritz told The Church of England Newspaper that “all congregations and clergy wishing to affiliate with this new diocese must be members of Forward in Faith North America, but some FIFNA parishes and clergy will continue, at least for the present, in the Episcopal Church or in their present continuing ecclesial structures.”
The FiFNA diocese will gather independent congregations as well as churches in the process of withdrawing from the Episcopal Church. “I will be receiving some parishes from other jurisdictions of the Continuum and we will be planting new churches,” he wrote in an email to CEN, but added that it was “important to note that the new diocese will work cooperatively with Pittsburgh, Quincy, Fort Worth, San Joaquin, AMIA, REC, CANA, etc. We condemn any spirit of competition for parishes.”
The traditional Anglo-Catholic model of episcopal ministry was placed in contrast with the Aug 30 election by the ACNA’s Diocese of the Gulf Atlantic of the Rev Neil Lebhar to oversee approximately 5,000 conservative Anglicans in 22 North Florida and South Georgia evangelical parishes.
Bishop-elect Lebhar, who brought a case before the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Panel of Reference for arbitration, but was rebuffed when the Bishop of Florida refused to accede to the Panel’s recommendations, told the Florida Times-Union the Gulf Atlantic Diocese had adopted a new model of episcopacy.
“With the model we're now in, the bishop operates as clergy in his home parish and the structure is much flatter and the ministry is much more parish-oriented. Only a third of my time will be spent as bishop,” he said, adding that the term of office would be set at seven years. The office came with a time limit so as to “be able to refresh leadership on a regular basis. It's also so that parishes do not have an indefinite burden of sharing their priests with the diocese,” Bishop-elect Lebhar said.
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