Rev. Andrew Pearson, Dean of the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, AL has left the Episcopal Church, and was received into the ACNA. I believe this happened a few months ago, but the podcast interview has just come out. The description of his ordeal is absolutely riveting, revealing a narrative of struggles among the bishops, and eventually by the priests and laity against heterodox bishops. He reveals plans in the Episcopal Church to enshrine transgender-friendly rites ceremonies in 2022, and charts the course of his reception into the safety of the ACNA. Upon his departure, the cathedral immediately capitulated to the demands of the female bishop, and abandoned its stand for traditional sexual ethics. Incredible front-row seat to the realignment happening in Anglicanism in America (and worldwide): https://standfirminfaith.com/59-a-stand-firm-conversation-andrew-pearson/
https://www.al.com/news/2021/07/the...tarting-an-anglican-church-in-birmingham.html Here is an article about it. This is only 2 hours or so from me.
I am happy the guy is in the ACNA but he should not be allowed to be a priest right away. I am not even sure he has valid orders because I am not sure if his bishops who ordained him had valid orders. Most likely he did. Women just can't be priests or bishops in my view and that makes me question if he got valid orders if he even had one woman bishop. . He should be at least retrained as a priest in the use the 2019 BCP
I agree with you that great care should be taken with every new cleric entering into the hierarchy, but in this case it seems that that was taken. He was ordained by one of the last faithful bishops in the Episcopal Church, as he describes. The woman bishop who forced him out wasn't his ordinand. And if he entered the ACNA Diocese of the South, then his orthodoxy and valid orders have been thoroughly vetted. The ordinary, ++Foley Beach, is extremely solid.
I was following this also and think he should have stayed. The situation is most unfortunate. I think he made the wrong choice. But what’s done is done. Since ACNA allows women in Holy Orders I doubt there will be any question over “validity”, unless there’s some extra level of vetting that occurs when ordained clergy enter from another jurisdiction. But if that comes up then that’s something he’ll just have to deal with I guess.
For more than a decade, the Advent had allowed members to steer their giving away from the diocese and the national denomination by selecting “Advent Only” on their pledge cards.Outgoing Bishop Kee Sloan, who retired in January, and Bishop Glenda Curry, who took his place as head of the diocese, had been urging Advent to change that. Here was part of the problem TEC had with the parish: money, money, money. Ka-Ching! After seeing how TEC treated other parishes that departed from it, I'm not surprised.
In all fairness, the answer can’t be quasi-congregationalism. That situation couldn’t and shouldn’t have lasted no matter what the underlying conflict was.
Well, let's suppose and pretend that TEC had announced that its official doctrine concerning salvation is 'by grace plus works.' If this had been the "underlying conflict," would you under those circumstances say that the various parishes were justified in exiting TEC?
How does a parish exit? The diocese owns the property. Our polity isn’t congregationalism. The individual members can simply leave if they disagree with what the national Church is saying. Many have. Or, they can stay and work to change it.
Okay, well, glad to hear it. That's what the people of my local parish did: they left the property to TEC and went down the road, seeking fellowship with the Anglicans of Nigeria. And now the parish joined ACNA.
I think an important part of Anglican churchmanship in general is the ability to compromise and to accept settlements one isn’t entirely happy with. Samuel Seabury wasn’t the least bit amused when the first General Convention in America opted to remove the Athanasian Creed from the Prayer Book (one of many quite radical revisions in 1789). He thought it was an important issue. He pleaded with the Convention not to take that route. And he expressed the hope that it would one day be included again (it was added back in 1979). But he didn’t leave, and he didn’t insist on continuing to use the old Book because he didn’t like some of the changes. In time, all of the changes he lamented were reversed. That’s a far better example to follow, IMHO.