The Orthodox Anglican Communion was established on February 1, 1969, as a self-governing worldwide fellowship of national churches in the Anglican tradition. The Orthodox Anglican Communion was one of the first such communions to be formed outside of the See of Canterbury and therefore is not part of the Anglican Communion. The Orthodox Anglican Communion adheres to the doctrine, discipline and worship contained in the classic Anglican formularies, especially in the 1662 English, 1928 American, 1929 Scottish and 1962 Canadian Books of Common Prayer.
The presiding bishop of the American branch of the communion, Creighton Jones, known in the United States as the Orthodox Anglican Church, serves as metropolitan of the global communion.
The communion has over one million members worldwide with branches in North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. The first regional conference of bishops was convened by the communion's primate at the Imperial Hotel in Kisumu, Kenya on August 24, 2009. The five African bishops in attendance elected Archbishop Jacob Welbourne of Ghana to be the first President of the OAC African Bishop's Conference. Clergy in the United States and Europe train at Saint Andrew's Theological College and Seminary based in North Carolina. The apostolic orders of the communion are Anglican, Old Catholic and Orthodox in origin.
Famous quotes containing the words orthodox, anglican and/or communion:
“All orthodox opinion—that is, today, “revolutionary” opinion either of the pure or the impure variety—is anti-man.”
—Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957)
“The Anglican Church is marked by the grace and good sense of its forms, by the manly grace of its clergy. The gospel it preaches is, “By taste are ye saved.” ... It is not in ordinary a persecuting church; it is not inquisitorial, not even inquisitive, is perfectly well bred and can shut its eyes on all proper occasions. If you let it alone, it will let you alone. But its instinct is hostile to all change in politics, literature, or social arts.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“They eat, they drink, and in communion sweet
Quaff immortality and joy.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)