The
Congress of St. Louis was held in response to the
Episcopal Church's revision of the
Book of Common Prayer, which organizers felt abandoned a true commitment to both scripture and historical
Anglicanism. The decision to allow the
ordination of women was one part of a larger theological position opposed by the congress. As a result of the congress, various Anglicans separated from the Episcopal Church and formed the "Anglican Catholic Church" to continue the Anglican tradition as they understood it. Its adherents have therefore claimed that this church is the true heir of the
Church of England in the United States. The congress's statement of principles (the "
Affirmation of St. Louis") summarized the new church's reason for being as follows: In January 1978, four bishops (
Charles Doren,
James Orin Mote,
Robert Morse, and Francis Watterson) were consecrated. The new church continued to appeal to disaffected Episcopalians to join. The Anglican Catholic Church created the missionary diocese of the Caribbean and New Granada in 1982, and consecrated Justo Pastor Ruiz, a former Episcopal priest, its first bishop. Questions over jurisdiction and authority caused the church to be eventually divided. The Canadian parishes formed the
Anglican Catholic Church of Canada, and American parishes formed three separate bodies, the Anglican Catholic Church, the
United Episcopal Church of North America and the
Diocese of Christ the King. In 1981, the Anglican Catholic Church had 8 dioceses and a missionary district, each with their own bishop, with around 200 congregations in 38 states. The number of members was estimated to be between 10,000 and 20,000 persons. In 1983, a statement of unity led to the coalescence of the Anglican Catholic Church. Those opposed to the newly organized church and the adoption of the Constitution and Canons that were drafted in 1978 in Dallas, left with Bishop Robert Harvey of the Diocese of the Southwest, among whom was Fr.
Lester Kinsolving. In 1984 a portion of the Anglican Episcopal Church of North America which had not previously merged with the American Episcopal Church, including the bishops Walter Hollis Adams, Thomas Kleppinger, and Robert G. Wilkes, merged with the ACC to become the non-geographical Diocese of St. Paul. In 1986, Adams and some congregations left the ACC and reconstituted the Anglican Episcopal Church of North America. In 1988 the church reported 12,000 members, with 200 parishes and priests, in the United States. Worldwide membership included an additional 8,000 members. In addition to the eight dioceses in the United States, there were missionary dioceses in Australia, South Africa, Columbia, and the United Kingdom. At the 1989 Provincial Synod, Archbishop
Louis Falk proposed that the Anglican Catholic Church become a worldwide traditional alternative to the Anglican Communion. In 1990, the ACC was reported to have 10 dioceses, 14 bishops and 200 U.S. congregations serving 20,000 people. Due to resistance to aspects of Falk's plan, in 1991 a number of parishes left the Anglican Catholic Church to merge with the
American Episcopal Church and form the
Anglican Church in America, and Falk left the ACC to become primate of the newly formed
Traditional Anglican Communion. In 1997 additional parishes and five bishops left and formed the
Holy Catholic Church (Anglican Rite). Since 1990 the Anglican Catholic Church has expanded to six continents and nearly two dozen countries, including the Americas, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Africa, so that today the Anglican Catholic Church has over 250 parish churches and missions worldwide, and at the end of 2015 the membership of the Original Province was counted as 30,711. Worldwide mission and development is done through the St. Paul Mission Society, which was founded to "provide funding, personnel, and other forms of support for domestic and international missions," and to assist in "the amelioration, relief, and assistance of persons and communities distressed by natural or man-made events or disasters or by adverse social or political situations." Based in the US, the main focus of the Society is in the developing world. At Provincial Synod, October 2007, Wilson Garang and his
Diocese of Aweil in Sudan were received into the Anglican Catholic Church. In 2015, the number of ACC dioceses in South Africa grew to four. At the 24th Provincial Synod, in September 2021, a new province, the province of South Africa, was canonically erected. In 2024, the ACC expanded into
Tanzania.
Archbishop Haverland intalled Bp. Kutta as the first ACC bishop in Tanzania on September 15, 2024. In October 2005
Mark Haverland of
Athens, Georgia, replaced
John Vockler, who was in charge from 2001 to 2005, as
archbishop and
metropolitan. In 2017 the ACC signed the Atlanta Concordat with the
Anglican Church in America, the
Anglican Province of America, and the
Diocese of the Holy Cross forming the "G4." At the Provincial Synod in September 2021, the
Diocese of the Holy Cross voted to join the ACC as a non-geographical diocese. In January 2025, the Anglican Catholic Church received international media attention when it decided to remove Fr.
Calvin Robinson from active ministry. This decision followed a controversial gesture made by Robinson at the 2025 National Pro-Life Summit. Robinson had moved to the United States in September 2024 to serve as Priest-in-Charge of an ACC parish in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The ACC released a statement indicating that Robinson's license was revoked due to his engagement in online trolling and other behaviors deemed incompatible with the priesthood. Following extensive media coverage, the ACC issued a follow-up statement clarifying that Robinson had not been "defrocked" in the sense of being deposed from the priesthood, but was at liberty to seek alternative ecclesial membership.
Ecumenical relations and relations with other Anglican jurisdictions ACC-APCK-UECNA-ACA From 2005 to 2011, the ACC and the
United Episcopal Church of North America (UECNA) explored opportunities for greater cooperation and the possibility of achieving organic unity. On May 17, 2007, Archbishop Haverland signed an inter-communion agreement negotiated with the United Episcopal Church of North America. In July, Archbishop Haverland published a statement on church unity, calling on UECNA and the
Anglican Province of Christ the King (APCK) to join him in building "full organic unity." Bishop Presley Hutchens of the ACC addressed delegates to the UECNA convention of October 2008 and discussed the possibility of uniting the ACC and UECNA. Although well received at the time, there was a feeling among many of the delegates that the proposal was being rushed, and that no proper consideration was being given to the theological, constitutional, and canonical issues thrown up by the move. In January 2009 one bishop from each jurisdiction consecrated three
suffragan bishops in St. Louis, intending that they serve all three jurisdictions. Moves towards unity with the Anglican Catholic Church were referred for further discussion and subsequently stalled in 2011 by the decision of UECNA to remain an independent jurisdiction. On August 1, 2025, the ACC ended intercommunion with the UECNA due to doctrinal differences around the Affirmation of St. Louis and the Anglican Formularies. The ACA voted to merge with the ACC on June 6, 2025.
GAFCON and ACNA In 2008, Archbishop
Mark Haverland published a response to the 2008 meeting of
Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem, which states "GAFCON produced a now widely published statement which does not address the innovations that led to the formation of our own Continuing Church in 1976-8: namely the "ordination of women," a new and radical Prayer Book, and a pro-abortion policy." The response concludes:We call upon all self-described Anglicans to reject clearly and decisively all of the liturgical, moral, and theological errors of recent years, beginning with the ordination of women. We call upon all self-described Anglicans to return to the central Tradition of Christendom and to recognize that evangelical and neo-Pentecostalist Protestantism is no safe haven. We welcome GAFCON as a small step in the right direction. But we confidently predict that the ambiguities and silences that characterize its statement will lead rapidly to fragmentation and confusion without any countervailing theological achievement. The only issue addressed in a somewhat adequate fashion by GAFCON is homosexuality. Far more is at stake.In 2009, Archbishop
Mark Haverland published a letter to Bishop
Robert Duncan, concerning the invitation to participate in the inaugural provincial assembly of the
Anglican Church in North America on June 22–25, 2009. The letter indicates that the differences between the ACC and ACNA are "first principles" which do not allow unity, but offers a dialogue in the future if those "first principles" are resolved. In December 2012, Archbishop
Mark Haverland, together with the Rt. Rev. Paul Hewett (
Diocese of the Holy Cross), the Most Rev. Walter Grundorf (
Anglican Province of America), the Most Rev. Brian Marsh (
Anglican Church in America), and the Most Rev. Peter D. Robinson (
United Episcopal Church of North America) published a joint open letter to ACNA titled "An Appeal from the Continuing Anglican Churches to the ACNA and Associated Churches" which called for ACNA to re-examine the post-1976 innovations they have accepted:We call upon ACNA to heed our call to return to your classical Anglican roots.We commend to your prayerful attention the Affirmation of Saint Louis, which we firmly believe provides a sound basis for a renewed and fulfilled Anglicanism on our continent. We urge you to heed the call of Metropolitan
Jonah, whose concerns we share. Anglicanism in North America cannot be both united and orthodox on a partially revolutionized basis. We call upon you to repudiate firmly any claim to alter doctrine or order against the consensus of the Catholic and Orthodox world. We call upon you to embrace the classical Prayer Book tradition.
Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter In 2009, Archbishop
Mark Haverland published a response to Rome's announcement of the erection of the
Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter. The response states that it "does not mark in any respect an ecumenical advance" and that as it provides only for "relatively one-sided conversions of former Anglicans with minimal concessions, we fear that the Note and Constitution in fact will harm and retard genuine ecumenical progress" and concludes: We hope eventually for a genuine dialogue concerning the Petrine Office and long for the day when we, with our Orthodox and Oriental Christian friends, may again find in the successor of Saint Peter a patriarch with the primacy of honor and with high authority both as an organ for strengthening the Church's unity and also as an instrument for the articulation of the Church's teaching. We regret that the forthcoming Constitution, while kindly meant, seems set to delay that happy day.Archbishop Haverland later characterized the concessions to Anglicans as "trivial" as they were policies that already existed in the
Pastoral Provision, without addressing key theological concerns. He stated that the offer may attract Anglicans unhappy in their current churches rather than traditional Anglicans, and viewed the lack of interest in the papal offer among ACC members as a sign of their stability and commitment to their faith. Other clergy of the ACC also wrote critically of
Anglicanorum Coetibus.
Anglican Joint Synod The Anglican Catholic Church invited representatives from the
Anglican Province of America, the
Anglican Church in America, the
Diocese of the Holy Cross and the
Reformed Episcopal Church to its 2015 Provincial Synod. In January 2016, the Anglican Catholic Church reached a formal accord with the
Anglican Church in America, the
Anglican Province of America, and the
Diocese of the Holy Cross. Forming the
Anglican Joint Synod, a "Group of 4" churches, called the G-4, pursuing eventual corporate unity. On October 6, 2017, at a joint synod in
Atlanta, Georgia, the primates of the Anglican Province of America, the Anglican Church in America, the Anglican Catholic Church, and the Diocese of the Holy Cross signed a concordat of full communion. The Most Rev. Brian R. Marsh (ACA), the Most Rev.
Mark Haverland (ACC), the Most Rev. Walter H. Grundorf (APA), and the Rt. Rev. Paul C. Hewett (DHC) signed the following document, called the Atlanta Concordat, which reads in part: We acknowledge each other to be orthodox and catholic Anglicans in virtue of our common adherence to the authorities accepted by and summarized in the Affirmation of St. Louis in the faith of the Holy Tradition of the undivided Catholic Church and of the seven Ecumenical Councils. We recognize in each other in all essentials the same faith; the same sacraments; the same moral teaching; and the same worship; likewise, we recognize in each other the same Holy Orders of bishops, priests, and deacons in the same Apostolic Succession, insofar as we all share the episcopate conveyed to the Continuing Churches in Denver in January 1978 in response to the call of the Congress of Saint Louis; therefore, We welcome members of all of our Churches to Holy Communion and parochial life in any and all of the congregations of our Churches; and, We pledge to pursue full, institutional, and organic union with each other, in a manner that respects tender consciences, builds consensus and harmony, and fulfills increasingly our Lord's will that His Church be united; and, We pledge also to seek unity with other Christians, including those who understand themselves to be Anglican, insofar as such unity is consistent with the essentials of Catholic faith, order, and moral teaching. Kevin Kallsen of Anglican TV Ministries interviewed the G-4 bishops, the Most Rev. Brian R. Marsh (ACA), the Most Rev. Mark Haverland (ACC), the Most Rev. Walter H. Grundorf (APA), and the Rt. Rev. Paul C. Hewett (DHC), on October 9, 2017, concerning the recently signed concordat. In 2019, a joint mission and evangelism ministry called
Continuing Forward was formed for these G-4 jurisdictions. On September 23, 2021, the Diocese of the Holy Cross voted to join the Anglican Catholic Church as a non-geographical diocese, making the "Group of 4" a "Group of 3" (G-3) churches. The Anglican Joint synods further consolidated on October 15, 2025, when the Anglican Church in America merged into the Anglican Catholic Church, resulting in the Joint Synods being a Communion of two Churches.
Dialogue with the Polish National Catholic Church A dialogue between the G-3 (at the time, G-4) churches and the
Polish National Catholic Church (PNCC) was opened, resulting from the desire to restore the kind of intercommunion that the PNCC had shared with the
Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States before 1978. The meetings began after representatives of the PNCC were invited to attend the Anglican Joint Synods of the G-4 in 2017. The first official dialogue was held January 15, 2019, in
Dunwoody, Georgia. The jurisdictions of the G-4 were represented by their presiding bishops and archbishops from the Anglican Catholic Church, the Anglican Church in America, the Anglican Province of America, and the Diocese of the Holy Cross. Also in attendance was a bishop of the
Anglican Catholic Church of Canada (ACCC). The PNCC was represented by three bishops, including Prime Bishop
Anthony Mikovsky and Bishop
Paul Sobiechowski, and two senior priests. Annual meetings between these churches have continued, and G-3 representatives were also in attendance with the bishops of the PNCC at the 125th anniversary and General Synod of the Polish National Catholic Church in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Dialogue with the Nordic Catholic Church As a part of the ACC's worldwide efforts with the
Union of Scranton, meetings have been held between the ACC
Diocese of the United Kingdom and the
Nordic Catholic Church, an
Old Catholic denomination of
High Church Lutheran patrimony. == Church governance ==