Year In Review: Top Ten Anglican Stories Of 2023

No. 3 Fourteen Primates and ten observers from the GSFA meet in Cairo to reaffirm biblical doctrine of marriage. They call for a “reset of the communion” turning up the heat on Archbishop Justin Welby.

No. 4 GAFCON Primates meeting in Uxbridge, UK reaffirm commitment to the Jerusalem Statement which rejects the proposition that authentic Anglicans are only those recognized by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Reaffirm they are not leaving the Anglican Communion. Will work with GSFA to reset the communion. They say they will not attend the 2024 Primates’ Meeting in Rome with those who support a revisionist agenda.

No. 5 Wisconsin’s three dioceses – Milwaukee, Fond du Lac and Eau Claire – vote to approve a resolution to make a final vote to merge during the 2024 Easter season. They voted to reunite as a single diocese. A committee researching the possible reunification of the dioceses of Bethlehem and Central Pennsylvania is also underway.

No. 6 A fall in the numbers training for ordination in the Episcopal Church, together with churches’ inability to pay for full-time ministry, is causing a crisis in clergy recruitment. Only five of 11 seminaries now offer residential formation programs.

No. 7 TEC attendance numbers show continued fall. The drop between 2021 and 2022 was the largest on record – 5.6%. The data are clear – losses are piling up now and only accelerating. 150,000 fewer Episcopalians in 2022 compared to 2020 – nearly a ten percent loss in just twenty-four months. Membership numbers are bleak. Weekly attendance dropped 11% from 2019 to 2020. In 2021, weekly attendance was down 40%. Church reports a weekly attendance figure of about 373,000 souls.

No. 8 Orthodox Florida Wannabe bishop Charlie Holt washed down the river by TEC’s revisionist fanatics over allegations he did not accept sodomy and was a racist. Outgoing Bishop John Howard called the churchwide decision a “reactionary rejection” of Florida’s election.

No. 9 The Rt. Rev. John Sentamu, former Archbishop of York, was reprimanded for failing to pass on disclosures of abuse by a vicar. Sentamu insisted that he did not act on the disclosure because the abuse did not happen in his diocese. He has now been barred from ministry in the CofE.

No. 10 The Anglican Church of Canada is facing a wake-up call about the future of its congregations. A report commissioned by the church indicates that there may be no more members in about 20 years (approximately 2040). Five different methodologies included in the research for the report gave the same result.

Christianity Today’s Top Ten Stories for 2023: https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2023/december-web-only/top-ct-news-umc-sbc-keller-asbury-abuse-bickle-list.html?utm_source=CT%20Weekly%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_term=15333&utm_content=15282&utm_campaign=email

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YEAR IN REVIEW: TOP TEN ANGLICAN STORIES OF 2023

By David W. Virtue, DD
www.virtueonline.org
December 29, 2023

No. 1 Church of England allow blessings for same sex unions. They say no change in doctrine of marriage. Conservatives upset. Revisionists and pansexualists say it did not go far enough. Welby takes heat from both sides over Living in Love and Faith (LLF) report calling for S-S blessings. Welby offers to resign.

No. 2 GAFCON leaders meeting In Kigali, Rwanda reject Archbishop of Canterbury as the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion. GAFCON chairman Foley Beach, said that unless Justin Welby repents, “we can no longer recognize him as first among equals.”