The vast majority of Anglican churches have fewer than 100 attendees on a Sunday. But there have always been a few parishes that welcome many more. These are typically legacy churches with centuries of history, such as Falls Church in Virginia (est. 1732) and St. Philip’s in Charleston, South Carolina (est. 1680). Even newcomers to these ranks, such…
Summer Youth Camps in the ACNA
It’s that time again. The weather is heating up, and the kids have abandoned their scholarly pursuits for a life of lounging on the family couch like it’s their job to keep it from floating away. Thank the Lord for summer church camp! It’s time to send your beloved little saints out of the air…
The Anglican Bulletin Board: Inspiration on our Events Page
Have you seen our new Events Page? It’s a bulletin board for the entire province, a place where anyone can discover the latest happenings within their own diocese or across the Anglican Church in North America. It’s only been a few weeks since launch, and I’m thrilled to share that the page has become a…
The Bishop as Grandfather
Anglican Compass is proud to publish the Rev. Canon David Roseberry’s new book, The Rector, the Vestry, and the Bishop. It is already getting widespread acclaim from rectors, vestry members, and bishops throughout the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). Below is an excerpt from the book’s chapter “The Bishop as Grandfather.” Bishops are chiefly pastors…
Powered by Church Planting: Analyzing Growth in the ACNA
From 2018-2022, only four dioceses in the ACNA reported attendance growth. While this is discouraging, there is also a sign of hope. A clear pattern emerges among the four growing dioceses: they are doing so through church planting.
The Purposes of Marriage
Marriage is purpose-driven, that is to say, driven by God’s design from the beginning. In the marriage liturgy, after the majestic words introducing the origins of marriage, there follows a statement of its “causes” or purposes: The union of husband and wife in heart, body and mind was ordained by God: for the procreation of…
Learning to Love the Whole Church: Why I Decided to Join the Anglican Church in North America
If someone had told me ten years ago that today I would be an Anglican priest, I would not have responded with joy or even disappointment; I simply would have been confused. Raised in a squarely evangelical culture, I grew up without conscious knowledge of liturgical denominations—and probably a degree of suspicion toward them. I…
Missed the ACNA’s 2019 Provincial Assembly? Watch These Videos
Just wanted to share the following main sessions from the Anglican Church in North America’s 2019 Provincial Assembly in Plano, TX. You can also read a recap of Assembly at the ACNA website here. Opening Eucharist Processional I’m including this mainly because the music and singing were absolutely spectacular. Opening Eucharist Sermon: Archbishop Foley Beach…
Notes from Camp St. Christopher
When you drive out to St. John’s Island from Charleston, South Carolina, you move through filtered sunlight through overhanding oak branches draped with Spanish moss. The low country is filled with tall grasses and salt marshes. And when you pull up to Camp St. Christopher, at the very point of the barrier island, you are…
Here’s the New ACNA Daily Office Lectionary, Formatted in a Single Table
UPDATE: I’ve created an experimental, two-year version of the ACNA Daily Office Lectionary. Click here to access it. I recently wrote a Rookie Anglican guide to the Daily Office Lectionary. This was partially prompted by a reader’s request for such an article. However, another reason the Daily Office Lectionary has been on my mind is that…
The Gift of Lent
Lent begins with a necessary reminder: you are dust and to dust you shall return. In Ash Wednesday, we speak these difficult words so that we might resist the influential fictions that our daily lives impress upon us. The fiction that we are in control. That we can fix ourselves. That we were designed first and…
Here Are All the Morning and Evening Prayer Scripture Readings for this Church Year (ACNA Daily Office Lectionary Year B, 2017-2018)
UPDATE: The ACNA has released a new (January 2018) Daily Office Lectionary. CLICK HERE to access the new version. In the interests of making the ACNA Daily Office Liturgies and Lectionary more accessible, I’ve been creating Rookie Anglican Daily Office Booklets for just over a year. As I prepare to release the next Daily Office…
