Traditionalist Episcopalians Form Their Own ‘Church Within a Church’

Traditionalist Episcopalians have formed a “church within a church” in an effort to hold their ground against what they consider to be increasingly liberal tendencies within the 2.5-million-member denomination.

Meeting June 1-3 in Ft. Worth, the traditionalists voted to establish the “Episcopal Synod of America” as a way of staying within the church while providing an ecclesiastical framework for those who strongly oppose such church-endorsed concepts as the ordination of women and revisions to the Book of Common Prayer.

Delegates to the meeting, which was called by the traditionalist Evangelical and Catholic Mission, repeatedly declared that their action does not represent a schism and is within the laws of the church.

However, formation of the structure appears to lay the groundwork for a head-to-head confrontation with the Episcopal Church hierarchy, which has strongly opposed the establishment of “parallel” jurisdictions that could create divided loyalties within the church.

Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning was abroad during the Ft. Worth gathering. Browning last month issued his first pastoral letter, cautioning against “precipitous actions” at Ft. Worth that could further divide the Episcopal Church and pleading for church unity.