Clergy and lay leaders from 63 Anglican congregations formerly affiliated with the Episcopal Church and now under the jurisdiction of overseas Anglican primates met March 22-24 at Christ Church in Overland Park, Kan., and agreed to “work together to build a biblical, missionary and united movement of Anglicans in North America.”

Invitations to the private meeting were issued by the Rt. Rev. Robert W. Duncan, Bishop of Pittsburgh and moderator of the Anglican Communion Network (ACN).

“The participants acted unanimously to create an International Conference of Network partners,” according to a news release issued by the ACN. “The purpose of the International Conference is to meet pastoral and missional needs and bring coherence among the growing number of U.S. congregations under temporary overseas jurisdictions.”

Daryl Fenton, ACN's chief operating officer, said the conference is not the precursor to a replacement province of the Anglican Communion in the United States.

“There were people from congregations who were under the same bishop and whose churches were less then 30 miles away from each other and they had never met before this meeting,” he said. “Congregations under the authority of different provinces also wanted to work together to do joint ministry.”

Bishop Duncan presided at a joint worship service and one plenary session, according to Mr. Fenton, who emphasized that only the leadership of the Anglican Communion can decide if there will be a new province in the United States.

“There was not a lot of retracing of old ground and old hurts,” he said. “There was a spirit of wanting to move forward in ministry without the rancor, pain and political machinations” members experienced while in the Episcopal Church.

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