American Anglican Council

American Anglican Council
Formation	1996
Type	Orthodox Anglican non-profit (includes Anglicans and Episcopalians)
Headquarters	Atlanta, Georgia
Location	40 U.S. states
Membership	80,000 congregants in affiliated parishes
Website	http://www.americananglican.org

The American Anglican Council is an organization which exists to allow theologically conservative Anglicans to network with one another. It was incorporated in 1996 and is one of several key organizations in the movement for Anglican realignment and is a founding member of the Anglican Church in North America.

Mission

According to their website, the American Anglican Council is "a network of individuals, parishes, dioceses and ministries who affirm biblical authority and Christian orthodoxy within the Anglican Communion" whose mission is "to build up and defend Great Commission Anglican churches in North America and worldwide through advocacy and counsel, leadership development and equipping the local church."

Positions

The AAC believes that "Christian mission is rooted in unchanging biblical revelation." Presently it sees "specific challenges to authentic faith and holiness [...] which require thoughtful and vigorous response." These challenges include moral relativism, a lack of "Christian ethical principles" in "the public life of the nation", "abortion, unwanted pregnancy, and end-of-life illness", and questions of sexual ethics.

Ecclesiastical status

The American Anglican Council is not an ecclesial body, but rather claims to be an orthodox Anglican advocacy organization with ministry involving education, communication, strategic planning, diplomacy, counsel and resource networking with other Anglican bodies domestically and internationally.

It works directly with orthodox Episcopal Churches and Episcopalians who are committed to remaining in the Episcopal Church for the foreseeable future, and those orthodox Anglican Churches and individuals who are in the process of leaving the Episcopal Church, and those orthodox Anglican Churches and individuals who are outside or never affiliated with the Episcopal Church. This ministry to all three areas will continue into the anticipated future.

As a freestanding orthodox Anglican advocacy organization the AAC is neither in nor out of TEC, but entirely separate from it. Some have charged that the AAC sees itself as forming the nucleus of a replacement Anglican jurisdiction. Any future restructuring of the provincial status of North American Anglican churches will not involve the AAC being a nucleus of the replacement, since the AAC is not an ecclesial body itself.

Leadership

The AAC is governed by a Board of Trustees. The current leaders are:

• The Rt. Rev. David C. Anderson, President and CEO
• The Rt. Rev. Peter H. Beckwith, (retired) Bishop of Springfield, Vice President

See also

• Anglican realignment
• Anglican Communion
• Anglican views of homosexuality
• Confessing Movement
• Continuing Anglican Movement

External links

• American Anglican Council
• memo from Rev. Geoff ChapmanPDF (3.88 MiB)
• Institute on Religion and Democracy