Orthodox Anglican Church - History

History

The church was founded as a conservative alternative to the Episcopal Church, with apostolic succession being initially preserved through Eastern Orthodox and Old Catholic lines. For more than the first 25 years of its history the church was led by Bishop James Parker Dees and practiced a very low church variety of Anglicanism, even limiting the celebration of Communion to once a month. Though his churchmanship was consistent with much of Anglicanism in the American South, Dees views did not play as well to a wider audience. Issues of churchmanship represented some of the difficulties other conservative Anglicans had with Bishop Dees, many of whom opted to form new jurisdictions rather than deal with Dees. Dees views were also an issue with some of his most gifted ministers such as Richard Boyce, Walter Grundorf, and Tony Clavier, all of which left Dees and became leaders and bishops in other Anglican jurisdictions. (These men were dismissed by Bishop Dees.)

Upon the death of James Parker Dees, Stephen C. Reber, at the time a priest of the jurisdiction, left to serve in the United Episcopal Church of North America where he served for many years as the Presiding Bishop. This tension between a Standing Committee closely associated with the founding bishop, and the current Presiding Bishop would cause problems throughout the 1990's.

In 1999, the Presiding Bishop, Robert Godfrey, and the majority of the clergy and laity met in synod and decided to align the church closer to the liturgical standards of the majority of the Continuing Anglican jurisdictions. Lay leaders close to the founding bishop, and a minority of clergy, who were opposed to the changes, negotiated a legal settlement to form the continuing identity of the Anglican Orthodox Church name. Some time later this group elected Jerry L. Ogles its third Presiding Bishop. The OAC agreed in the settlement not to use the name of James Parker Dees or the Anglican Orthodox Church in any communication.

On April 30, 2000, Bishop Godfrey retired as Presiding Bishop in favor of his suffragan bishop, Scott Earle McLaughlin. Bishop McLaughlin was the fourth Presiding Bishop of the church. In order to match the name of its international communion founded in 1969, in 2005 the U.S. jurisdiction changed its name from the Episcopal Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of America to the Orthodox Anglican Church.

Bishop Godfrey and Bishop McLaughlin were signatories to the Bartonville Agreement in 1999. Bishop McLaughlin in 2007 signed a Covenant of Intercommunion between the OAC and the Old Catholic Church in Slovakia, represented by the Most Revd Augustin Bacinsky. The Old Catholic Church of Slovakia had suceded from the Utrecht Union in 2004 because of the Union's approval of women's ordination and same-sex blessings.

On Ash Wednesday 2012, Archbishop McLaughlin announced his retirement and nominated Creighton Jones of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to be his successor. His nomination was confirmed by a vote of the General Convention of the Orthodox Anglican Church on June 9, 2012. Jones was consecrated as a bishop and enthroned as the Presiding Bishop and Metropolitan Archbishop on July 21, 2012, at the Anglican Church of the Good Shepherd in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.