NY Nuns quit TEC for ACNA
from Anglican Ink:
On Monday, April12, 2021, the American Sisters of the Community of St. Mary, Eastern Province, in consultation with their African Sisters, voted to leave the Episcopal Church (TEC), entering the Diocese of the Living Word in the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) under the authority of the Rt. Rev’d Julian Dobbs, Bishop.
The canons of the Episcopal Church (Title III, Canon 14) stipulate that recognized Episcopal Religious Orders are neither parishes nor an adjunct of any particular Diocese and/or General Convention, but are connected to the larger Church through the oversight of a Bishop Visitor. The recent trial, forced resignation as Diocesan bishop and retirement of their Episcopal Visitor, the Rt. Rev’d William Love, did not affect the Sisters directly — he was able to continue to serve as their liaison with the Episcopal Church as a retired bishop. But Bishop Love’s withdrawal from TEC and later reception as a Bishop in ACNA left the Eastern Province Sisters without a Visitor connecting them with TEC or any Anglican body. And though the canons permit the free election of a Bishop Visitor by an Order, if that chosen Visitor is not the Bishop of the Diocese where the Order’s motherhouse is located, then the selection must be approved by the Diocesan. It may be eighteen months or more before the vacancy in Albany can be filled.
Bishop Love’s recent trial put into sharp focus the reality of what happens when General Convention preempts a Bishop exercising his authority within his own diocese to uphold diocesan canons based on biblical principles and time-tested traditions of the Church. In leaving TEC and realigning with ACNA, the Sisters of the Eastern Province embrace a body whose values more closely align with their own, allowing their witness as Religious vowed under the Evangelical Counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience to continue to enrich the Church within the Anglican tradition.
Read also: ALBANY: Community of St Mary, Eastern Province Quits TEC for Anglican Church in North America, Virtueonline
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