Common Cause Partnership

"The Common Cause Partnership" is an Anglican college of bishops in the United States and Canada who have unified to create a "separate ecclesiastical structure" [http://www.acn-us.org/archive/2007/09/anglican-bishops-take-first-steps-to-new-structure.html] in their countries, that is, separate from the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (TEC) and Anglican Church of Canada. This meeting, from the American perspective, comes especially in reaction to perception that the Episcopal Church has not met demands of the Windsor Report, by the time of the September 30, 2007 deadline set by the February 2007 Anglican Communion Primates' Meeting in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. This idea is reflected in a statement made by The Most Rev. Peter Akinola, Primate of Nigeria. [http://www.americananglican.org/site/c.ikLUK3MJIpG/b.2604393/apps/nl/content2.asp?content_id={A936691F-6012-47BC-AC25-A07F9F357F0E}&notoc=1]

The Common Cause Partnership's initial meeting to discern direction and to bind themselves constitutionally was held on September 25-28, 2007 in Pittsburgh, PA. They declared, "We intend a founding constitutional convention for an Anglican union."

51 Bishops representing more than 600 congregations were present for the creation of the new partnership. Some of the bishops present were foreign bishops, including a retired archbishop. [http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=6797]

Members

The constituent organizations of the Common Cause Partnership are called Partners. The current list of Partners include:
*The American Anglican Council (AAC)
*The Anglican Communion Network (ACN)
*The Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMiA)
*The Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA)
*Forward in Faith, North America (FIF/NA)
*The Reformed Episcopal Church (REC).
*Anglican Essentials Canada
*The Anglican Province of America (APA) - "observer only"

An executive officer called the Moderator is selected from the leaders of the Partners. The current Moderator of the Common Cause Partnership is The Rt. Rev’d Robert Duncan.

Features of note from the result of the initial meeting include:
* a broad sharing of clergy between the varied groups
* an intention to be a "missionary" or church-planting entity
* an intention after a brief time to seek international organizational recognition

GAFCON

Key members of the Common Cause Partnership participated in the June 2008 meeting of conservative Anglican Bishops in Jerusalem, the Global Anglican Future Conference. A final statement issued by the conference stated: "we believe the time is now ripe for the formation of a province in North America for the federation currently known as Common Cause Partnership". [Citation|title=GAFCON final statement|url=http://www.gafcon.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=79&Itemid=29|date=2008-06-29]

Sources

Sources connected to the Common Cause Partnership:
* The Anglican Communion Network post of the Common Cause Partnership constitutional document: [http://www.acn-us.org/archive/2007/09/anglican-bishops-take-first-steps-to-new-structure.html]
* The American Anglican Council : "A Statement On the Response of the Episcopal Church to the Dar es Salaam Communiqué" [http://www.americananglican.org/site/c.ikLUK3MJIpG/b.2604393/apps/nl/content2.asp?content_id={A936691F-6012-47BC-AC25-A07F9F357F0E}&notoc=1]

Sources sympathetic to the Common Cause Partnership:
* Virtue Online (news outlet) : [http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=6797]

Sources connected to the Episcopal Church:
* The Episcopal Church News Service : "Common Cause Bishops Pledge to Seek Anglican Recognition" [http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_90545_ENG_HTM.htm]

References

External links

* [http://www.united-anglicans.org/ Common Cause Partnership]
* [http://www.americananglican.org/site/c.ikLUK3MJIpG/b.551235/k.CBA8/Home.htm American Anglican Council (AAC)]
* [http://www.acn-us.org/ The Anglican Communion Network (ACN) ]
* [http://www.theamia.org The Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMiA) ]
* [http://www.anglicannetwork.ca/ The Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) ]
* [http://www.anglicanprovince.org/ The Anglican Province of America (APA) ]
* [http://www.canaconvocation.org/ The Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) ]
* [http://www.anglicanfederation.ca/ The Anglican Essentials Federation (AEF) ]
* [http://www.forwardinfaith.com/ Forward in Faith, North America (FIF/NA) ]
* [http://rechurch.org/recus/recus/index.html The Reformed Episcopal Church (REC) ]