The appeal affirms the “inherent dignity and equality of women,” but asserts that any view of ministry that ignores sexual differences “opposes God’s created order.” According to Conor Hanson, a former ACNA lay catechist and data analyst who did a statistical analysis of the Augustine Appeal signers, all but one of the clergy who signed appear to be men, and while most signatures are unsurprisingly from dioceses that don’t ordain women as priests, there are signatures from 27 of the 29 dioceses. Those signing the letter seem to represent a cross-section of ACNA — priests who entered by way of The Episcopal Church, the Reformed Episcopal Church (a theologically conservative sub-jurisdiction of ACNA that split from TEC in 1873), evangelical churches and other backgrounds.
The Diocese of Fort Worth resolution echoes the Augustine Appeals’ argument that women’s ordination is a first-order issue that “imperils” the denomination. The Diocese argues that women’s ordination can affect the validity of the Eucharist, and the grace bestowed via the sacrament.
The Rev. Hannah King, a priest in residence at an Anglican church in North Carolina, told RNS she wasn’t surprised by the Augustine Appeal but added that the denomination’s ability to hold together difference on women’s ordination is one of ACNA’s greatest strengths.
“I grew up Southern Baptist, so I wasn’t raised in a tradition where women were ordained,” said King. “I respect the conscience of people who disagree on that matter, and I liked the idea of it not being something that needs to break fellowship.” She hopes to see more people embrace the denomination’s ability to honor differences of conviction on what she views as secondary matters.
But while the diversity of opinion on this topic in ACNA is longstanding, some ACNA clergy and lay members say the effort to prevent women’s ordination is escalating, and there’s a new willingness for bishops to sidestep church bylaws.
In an FAQ published after the open letter, the authors of the Augustine Appeal write that “a constitutional amendment is not the only way to attend to this issue.” However, the authors declined to specify how they hope the bishops will end women’s ordination, leaving it up to the College of Bishops. The authors do indicate, however, that they view women’s ordination as a matter of scriptural integrity that supersedes church bylaws.
“We interpret the legal stipulations of our provincial constitution to be non-constraining of our Bishops in their stewardship and teaching of the Catholic Faith,” they write in the letter.
ACNA’s constitution can only by amended by a two-thirds vote of the Provincial Assembly, which is made of clergy and lay representatives. The number of representatives is in part allocated based on dioceses’ average Sunday attendance — and according to Hanson’s data, the dioceses that don’t ordain women priests currently do not have enough representatives to secure two-thirds of the votes.
“The signers of the Augustine Appeal do not have votes, within their respective dioceses, to change the Constitution on this point. Therefore, they’re not making a canonical argument,” the Rev. Aaron Harrison, an ACNA priest and church planter in the diocese C4SO, told RNS. “They are appealing to the personal authority of each bishop. The question is, is this how Anglicanism views bishops’ authority?” The answer, according to Harrison, is no — bishops in ACNA are elected, not appointed, and have a representative function.
In 2017, ACNA’s College of Bishops unanimously agreed to continue recognizing individual dioceses’ authority to ordain women priests. The Vancouver Statement followed a five-year task force study on women’s ordination, but while some ACNA members view the statement as definitive, others argue that Bishops’ statements aren’t binding, and women’s ordination is still a live issue.
“I’m always surprised when the clergy people who are in a structure that essentially has a hierarchy with a bishop holding authority, disregard the statement that bishops made in 2017 or say it’s insufficient,” Marissa Burt, an ACNA layperson and clergy spouse in the Seattle area, told RNS.
