Reflections on the Historic Synod

After the first morning making official the unification of the ACA and ACC, the remainder of the Oct 14-16 Synod of the Anglican Catholic Church might have seemed anti-climatic. But —as with a service of Holy Matrimony — the day after was really just the first full day of our lives together, the parishes, parishioners and clergy of the ACC and ACA learning to live together as one.

As a practical matter, while the name and links are changing on the ACA web pages, the life in most ACA (and ACC) dioceses are unchanged, with a few exceptions:

• The only major change is that the 23 parishes of the Diocese of the Northeast (née ACA) and the four parishes of the Diocese of the Resurrection are now functioning as one, under the former’s leader, Bp. Alexander Webb. The merger is already reality, with the only unresolved issues the final name and the southernmost boundary of the diocese (NY or Penn.)

• The Diocese of the Missouri Valley (ex-ACA) and Diocese of Midwest share a bishop, with the former’s bishop as acting bishop (“Episcopal Visitor”) for the latter. At some point, the 24 parishes will end up in one (or perhaps two) Midwest-centric geographic diocese(s).

Two other ACA dioceses have a sunset clause of December 31, 2030:

• The Diocese of the West (12 ex-ACA parishes) and Diocese of the Holy Trinity (6 parishes) will merge into one (or perhaps two) dioceses.

• The ex-ACA Diocese of the Eastern United States (10 parishes) will somehow merge with or distribute its parishes to other eastern ACC dioceses.

Other re-alignments will likely be necessary if the APA and APCK later merge with the ACC.

Bishops and some of the clergy of the ACC gathered at the end of Wednesday’s session.

Moving Forward

Bp. David Haines of the APA stayed for the entire Synod, dialoguing (for lack of a better term) about future unity with ACC clergy and laity. Fr. Johnny Lawrence has updated his map to show all the ACC and APA parishes. The ACC delegates also endorsed a resolution to better integrate diocesan communications of the 10 US dioceses with those of the ACC province.

The APCK was not represented, but because they are in full communion with the G-2 — and clergy are being loaned between all three — for many purposes the ACC, APA and APCK are working together much like the G-4 of 2017 or the G-3 of 2021.

So, in the end, the dioceses and parishes of the ACC and (former) ACA have the same mandate as a month ago — build healthy parishes and parishioners in their local communities. With our YouTube channel of guest speakers on such topics, Continuing Forward stands ready to do our part to help, by providing ideas and inspiritational success stories from throughout the G-2 (and beyond).

Continuing Forward co-founders at the 2025 ACC Synod: Joel West, Bp. Paul Hewett, Fr. Matt Mirabile

Viewing the Synod

The ACC live-streamed and recorded the two days of the synod: the videos for Day 1 (Oct 15) and Day 2 (Oct 16) are on YouTube. With regards to the future unity of Continuing Anglicans, the two recommended videos from the Oct 15 morning’s session are

• Address by Bp. David Haines (APA)

• Ecumenical report by Abp. Mark Haverland (ACC)