When I have to work out of town at another location they only have an APA Continuing Church. Is there a big difference between them and the ACNA?
@Shane R would be the best one to answer that for you. In my own (admittedly limited) experience, the Continuing churches can vary widely, from your very normal traditional 1928 BCP style parish, to a flamboyant Mass in Latin.
bwallac2335, PM me. I think I may know the parish you are thinking of visiting. Generally, yes, there will be some significant differences. Admittedly, most of my experience in their worship services has come in some of their largest churches or churches run by a bishop. Bp. Giffin chants virtually the whole service from the Anglican Missal at his home parish. I have supplied as the priest at an APA parish on 2 occasions. They told me they were pretty much used to a straight '28 BCP service except they put hymns in a couple of spots my home parish does not. So the first time I went that is what I prepared for and it was a mess. The next time I went was Easter and I made a special effort to prepare to celebrate according to the Missal and it went much smoother (that is, thus far, the only time I have celebrated Holy Communion according to the Missal). Their will most likely be kneelers and some of the congregation may genuflect from time to time. Also, incense is almost a certainty. You may be getting better preaching at your ACNA parish. The Anglo-Catholics in the various continuing churches are hard pressed to work up more than 10 minutes of sermon material on any given week. APA is more tolerant of evangelicals than the ACC and I have heard of parishes that have maintained a low churchmanship in the APA (I think half of them are here in Virginia). My best advice is to call ahead a week or two in advance and have a short chat with the rector or senior warden. From time to time one will come across an older clergyman who is practicing closed communion.
Also, I'm not going to say too much about this, but there were some hurt feelings when ACNA formed. There were a few groups that ended up joining the initial confederation that had expected APA to join ACNA at that time. APA had signed a concordat with REC and, if memory serves, APCK a few years before ACNA formed up. It was fairly clear that APCK was not going to come into ACNA, and I think that was around the same time they were having some significant internal strife surrounding their presiding bishop. It was thought that both REC and APA would come but Abp. Grundorf determined not to take the APA into ACNA.
Alphabet Soup ACNA - Anglican Church of North America - https://anglicanchurch.net/ APA - Anglican Province of America - https://anglicanprovince.org/ REC - The Reformed Episcopal Church - http://www.rechurch.org/ APCK - The Anglican Province of Christ the King - https://www.anglicanpck.org/
Yes, unfortunately. Some of us are working on that issue. Every time we take a step forward some clown comes along and forms some new supposed Anglican jurisdiction with 1 bishop, 6 priests, and 25 people and sets up their own 'communion'. edit: I forgot the obligatory African or SE Asian contact. Can't be a communion if you're not international.
I am not sure what ACC is. Apostolic Christian Church - http://www.acc-nazarean.org/ Apostolic Christian Church - http://www.apostolicchristian.org/ The Anglican Church of Canada - https://www.anglican.ca/healingfund/projects/national-office-acc/ Anglican Catholic Church - http://www.anglicancatholic.org/ This is where the alphabet soup gets less helpful.
ACC is Anglican Catholic Church. I could give you more than 1/2 a dozen others off of the top of my head. I thought it was mostly an American problem but I've learned in the last year or so that the British are much afflicted too. And don't get me started on Brazil.
bwallac, if you're just visiting some area a time or two, I'd say not to worry too much about the particular doctrinal flavor of the church. Assuming they have open communion, I personally would not hesitate to attend any Anglican church. Or, for that matter, a Methodist, Lutheran, or Episcopal church if that's all there was in town. The idea is to praise and worship our Lord with some brothers & sisters. If they're a little bit off here and there, well, I'm sure they would think the same if they visited our churches, but so what. We serve the same God. Not too sure about those Presbyterians, though.... (just kidding.)
FWIW, I attended an APA parish for a short time. It was very faithful to the traditional Anglican forms, but was unapologetically Anglo-Catholic in outlook. My experience with ACNA was decidedly more evangelical, contemporary, and casual.