Rift now causing shift in church

About 30 congregations in North Georgia with an estimated 3,000 members could join a new conservative Anglican church that would compete with the Episcopal Church for worldwide recognition.

The rift is the result of theological conservatives pulling away from what they believe is a liberal drift in the Episcopal Church, the American branch of Anglicanism.

Conservative leaders, including former Episcopal bishops, announced the creation of the Anglican Church in North America on Wednesday. It is expected to begin with about 700 congregations and 100,000 members in North America.

“It’s a no-brainer. We are already in, as far as I understand,” said the Rev. Michael Fry of All Saints Anglican Church in Peachtree City.

Fry was happy to see theological conservatives in the U.S. finally form a national organization.

“It’s the opinion of the conservatives that the Episcopal Church has left its roots,” he said.

Fry’s congregation, which grew out of a group that left Saint Andrew’s in the Pines Episcopal Church in 2007, has about 300 members. Such congregations have been leaving the Episcopal Church and forming new associations in reaction to liberalizing influences in the church. They believe the church has pulled back on the view of Jesus as the world’s unique Savior and differ with liberals on biblical interpretation. Many conservatives see the culmination of that drift in the church’s election of a gay bishop, Gene Robinson, in 2003.

Splinter associations have been forming for more than a decade, including the American Anglican Council in Atlanta, an association with 10 churches in Georgia.

Other countries with Anglican churches have not experienced the kind of rift apparent here. Many Anglican churches and bishops south of the equator have remained conservative and have more worshippers than churches in the U.S. or Europe.

Foreign Anglican archbishops, such as Nigeria’s, have recognized some of the splinter groups or individual churches from the U.S.

The Rev. Foley Beach, who pastors Holy Cross Anglican Church in Loganville, resigned from the Episcopal Church about five years ago to start a new congregation. It has been recognized and taken under wing by an archbishop in Bolivia.

Beach attended the meeting in Wheaton, Ill., to form the new church. He thinks that all the like-minded churches coming together will strengthen the conservative movement and give it impetus to grow. His church has about 600 members.