American Church Union (ACU) is the name of several distinct Anglican organizations in the American Episcopal Church and the

Anglican Continuum The Continuing Anglican Movement, also known as the Anglican Continuum, encompasses a number of Christian churches, principally based in North America, that have an Anglican identity and tradition but are not part of the Anglican Communion. Thes ...

. The groups have had an

Anglo-Catholic Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholic heritage and identity of the various Anglican churches. The term was coined in the early 19th century, although movements emphasising the Catholic nature of Anglican ...

orientation. It is named in imitation of the

English Church Union The Church Union is an Anglo-Catholic advocacy group within the Church of England. The organisation was founded as the Church of England Protection Society on 12 May 1859 to challenge the authority of the English civil courts to determine questio ...

. The first American Church Union held its inaugural annual meeting at Trinity Church, Wall Street, on April 23, 1868. It participated in controversies about Anglican

Ritualism Ritualism, in the history of Christianity, refers to an emphasis on the rituals and liturgical ceremonies of the church. Specifically, the Christian ritual of Holy Communion. In the Church of England, Anglican church in the 19th century, the rol ...

and emerging Anglo-Catholicism in the Episcopal Church. Another group calling itself the American Church Union was organized in 1908 in response to the Open Pulpit Controversy of William McGarvey and his followers in the

Congregation of the Companions of the Holy Saviour The Congregation of the Companions of the Holy Saviour (CSSS for ''Congregatio Sociorum Sancti Salvatoris'') is an Anglo-Catholic dispersed religious order founded in 1891 at the former Church of the Evangelists in Philadelphia (now the Samuel S. ...

(CSSS). It organized Anglo-Catholic Episcopalians who resisted departures to the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. This ACU subsequently became the Churchman's Alliance, which organized events and publications in the 1910s and 1920s. On May 31, 1936, a third American Church Union was organized as an outgrowth of the Catholic Congress movement of the Episcopal Church. The purpose of this ACU was: "To uphold the doctrine, discipline and worship of the Episcopal Church, to extend the knowledge of the Catholic Faith and Practice of the Church at home and abroad; to seek thereby to bring everyone to worship and serve our Lord Jesus, Saviour and King." The current ACU organization had offices in New York City, Pelham Manor, and Berkeley, California. This American Church Union was incorporated in 1947 in California with EIN 13-1883818 and is currently a publishing imprint of the

Anglican Province of Christ the King The Anglican Province of Christ the King (APCK) is a Continuing Anglican church with traditional forms both of doctrine and liturgy. It is considered one of the more Anglo-Catholic jurisdictions among Continuing Anglican church bodies. History ...

. Its periodical ''American Church News'' was the immediate predecessor of ''The New Oxford Review'' (NOR); NOR was formed in 1984 when the majority of ''American Church News'' staff and writers became Roman Catholics. The ACU also sponsored a youth wing known as the Servants of Christ the King, with its own rule of life and annual events. During its existence in the Episcopal Church, the ACU provided resources and political organization for many allied causes, such as removing the word Protestant from the official name of the church, opposing the creation of the united churches of

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territo ...

and

North India North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Central ...

, resisting changes to marriage discipline, promoting fasting before reception of communion, offering advice on liturgical revision and canonical changes, attempting to derail the creation of the jurisdiction of Navajoland, and eventually removing itself from the Episcopal Church over the ordination of women to the priesthood. It was a sponsor of ''

The Living Church ''The Living Church'' is a magazine based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, providing commentary and news on the Episcopal Church and the wider Anglican Communion. In continuous publication since 1878, it has generally been identified with the Anglo-Catho ...

'' weekly magazine, and issued an internal cycle of prayer for member parishes, tracts, and a directory of churches in sympathy with its aims. After the decision of most ACU members to join several bodies that left the Episcopal Church from 1976 onward, the Church Union sold its retreat center an
mansion at 60 Rockledge Drive, Pelham, New York
in order to settle indebtedness toward contracted employees who remained Episcopalians.

Notable members

* Reginald R. Belknap *

Albert A. Chambers Albert Arthur Chambers (June 22, 1906 – June 18, 1993) was the seventh bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Springfield, serving from 1962 to 1972. He then retired in part because he opposed revising the Book of Common Prayer and ordaining women ...

*George H. Clendenin SSC *Edward Darrach *

Albert J. duBois Albert Julius duBois (June 9, 1906 — June 6, 1980) was an influential American Anglo-Catholic priest during the 20th century. Born in Neenah, Wisconsin, he was the son of Albert Julius du Bois and Emma Luella (Thurston) du Bois. He was a Phi ...

, executive director 1950-1974 * William Elwell *Howard Lane Foland * Loren N. Gavitt *Washington Irving III *Perry Laukhuff *Ella Lingley (1889-1983, ACU secretary 1945-1974) *Admiral Ephraim R. McLean *

Frederic Cook Morehouse Frederic Cook Morehouse (March 19, 1868 – June 25, 1932) was a prominent lay Episcopalian journalist and publisher. In 1900, Morehouse succeeded Charles Wesley Leffingwell as editor of ''The Living Church'' magazine following the purch ...

, publisher * Robert S. Morse, executive director 1976-2015 * Henry Harrison Oberly *Charles H. Osborn, executive director 1974-1976 *Jerome Politzer *Thomas Newton Whiteside Rae *

Roy Rogers Roy Rogers (born Leonard Franklin Slye; November 5, 1911 – July 6, 1998) was an American singer, actor, and television host. Following early work under his given name, first as co-founder of the Sons of the Pioneers and then acting, the rebra ...

, American singer and actor * George W. Rutler *John Stoll Sanders (1947-2021, manager and director of publications) *Judge F. H. Schlichting *Ruth C. Sloan (1924-2013) *William Knipe Tinkham * Frank L. Vernon

Bibliography

*Elliot White, ''The American Church Union: Its Origin, Organization, Aims, Principles, Methods, and Work'' *''Canon Nineteen: What It Is, How We Got It, and How It Works'' *Frank L. Vernon, ''Union or Unity?'' *F. C. Morehouse, ''Protestant Episcopal: An Appreciation'' *M. M. Benton, ''Unity and the Change of Name'' *G. Woolsey Hodge, ''Why Protestant'' *Frank L. Vernon, ''The Reconciliation of the Schools of Thought'' *W. A. Buchanan, ''Why Not Our True Name?'' *Elliot White, ''What Is a Catholic?'' *Louis T. Scofield, ''Confirmation''

References

*C. Clarke Kennedy,
The American Church Union—A Rebirth
(1936) from ''

'' *Clinton Rogers Woodruff,
An Earlier American Church Union
' (1936) *
American Church News
' from archive.org

External links

Official websiteHistorical documents from and about the American Church Union
from

Project Canterbury Project Canterbury (sometimes abbreviated as PC) is an online archive of material related to the history of Anglicanism. It was founded by Richard Mammana, Jr. in 1999 with a grant from Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, and is ho ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:American Church Union Anglo-Catholicism Anglican organizations Religious organizations established in 1868

Notable members

Bibliography

References

See also

External links