The Episcopal Missionary Church (EMC) is a Continuing Anglican church body in the United States and a member of the Federation of Anglican Churches in the Americas. Its founding in the early 1990s can be traced to the protests of members of

The Episcopal Church The Episcopal Church, based in the United States with additional dioceses elsewhere, is a member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is divided into nine Ecclesiastical provinces and dioces ...

who were concerned that their church had become massively influenced by

secular humanism Secular humanism is a philosophy, belief system or life stance that embraces human reason, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality an ...

(i.e., liberal theologies). At first, these clergy and laymen sought to change the direction of their church by working from within it, to which end they formed a voluntary association, the

Episcopal Synod of America Forward in Faith (FiF) is an organisation operating in the Church of England and the Scottish Episcopal Church. It represents a traditionalist strand of Anglo-Catholicism and is characterised by its opposition to the ordination of women to the pr ...

. When they later concluded that this approach would not succeed, a new missionary diocese was formed by them, still attempting to remain within ECUSA. In 1992, however, the missionary diocese withdrew from ECUSA and formed a separate church, the Episcopal Missionary Church.

A. Donald Davies Archibald Donald Davies (April 15, 1920 – October 16, 2011) was an American Anglican bishop. A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he became the fourth Episcopal bishop of Dallas and subsequently the first Episcopal bishop of Fort Worth. Davies ...

, retired ECUSA Bishop of Dallas and Fort Worth, was named the first Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Missionary Church. The Episcopal Missionary Church affirms the Holy Scriptures as containing all things necessary to salvation and as the ultimate rule and standard of faith. The church acknowledges the Nicene and Apostles' Creeds and the necessity of the Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion. It uses the 1928 American edition of the Book of Common Prayer or the Anglican Missal based upon it, and emphasizes the preservation of

apostolic succession Apostolic succession is the method whereby the ministry of the Christian Church is held to be derived from the apostles by a continuous succession, which has usually been associated with a claim that the succession is through a series of bish ...

. The Episcopal Missionary Church embraces a variety of liturgical styles from low church to high church, evangelical to Anglo-Catholic. The name Episcopal "Missionary" Church was selected as part of the church's desire to provide a home for all Episcopalians and other Christians who feel that they have been forced from their churches by the growth of liberalism within them. At present, the Episcopal Missionary Church has approximately thirty small parishes scattered throughout the United States. The Episcopal Missionary Church endorsed a concordart of communion in January 2020, which was signed by Archbishop Foley Beach and EMC Presiding Bishop

William Millsaps William Wesley Millsaps (born December 19, 1939) is a Continuing Anglican bishop. He is bishop of the Episcopal Missionary Church. He is the rector of Christ Church in Monteagle, Tennessee, and Presiding bishop of the Episcopal Missionary Chur ...

on 14 September 2020.College of Bishops Communiqué, ACNA Official Website, January 2020
/ref>ACNA and Episcopal Missionary Church enter formal concordat, Virtue Online, 11 September 2020
/ref>

Leadership

The current Presiding Bishop of the EMC and Bishop of the Diocese of the East is Vince McLaughlin. Bishops of the Episcopal Missionary Church are:

, Bishop of the Diocese of the South, and a former chaplain of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee; Vince McLaughlin, Presiding Bishop and Bishop of the Diocese of the East; Michael Pease; Peter N'gnanga (Missionary Bishop, Kenya); Frank Gentsch; Arthur Rushlow; Ibiso Igani; Wilbert Bailey; Doug Pieper, (Ret.); and Edward P. Whately (Ret.) Other members of the leadership staff of the EMC include The Rev. Canon Charles Moncrief, Federal Chaplain Endorser; The Rev. Canon Dr. Brian Turner, Chancellor; and The Rev. Mary Marshall, Clerk. The EMC is exploring a relationship with an independent body, The Episcopal Missionary Church of South Africa, whose Presiding Bishop is Albert Shange.

References

External links

Episcopal Missionary ChurchFederation of Anglican Churches in the AmericasHoly Cross Anglican Church, Franklin TN
{{Continuing Anglican Christian organizations established in 1992 Continuing Anglican denominations Anglican denominations in North America Anglicanism in the United States