Exit strategies

News of the Year | Frustration mounts for Anglicans in and outside the United States | The Editors

Associated Press/Photo by Kim Johnson

It may be remembered as the year the Episcopalian exodus took hold. On Dec. 3 disaffected church leaders meeting in Wheaton, Ill., formed the Anglican Church of North America with 100,000 members and 700 congregations from four breakaway U.S. dioceses plus other churches. For years the breakaways have fought scriptural deviancy and the ordination of homosexuals within the denomination; and severing of ties accelerated in 2008 as three dioceses—Pittsburgh, Fort Worth, and Quincy, Ill.—followed the lead of San Joaquin, Calif., in seceding from The Episcopal Church.

Frustration also mounted for Anglicans outside of the United States, including theologian J.I. Packer, who in April cited "poisonous liberalism" for his decision to break with the Anglican Church of Canada.