Английская Википедия:Convergence Movement

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The Convergence Movement, also known as the Ancient-Future Faith, whose foundation is primarily attributed to Robert E. Webber in 1985, is an ecumenical movement. Developed as an effort among evangelical, charismatic and Pentecostal, and liturgical Christians and denominations blending their forms of worship, the movement has been defined for its predominant use of the Anglican tradition's Book of Common Prayer; use from additional liturgical sources common to Lutheranism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Catholicism have also been employed.

Christian denominations and individuals within the movement have identified themselves as Ancient Faith or Ancient Church, Ancient-Future, Convergence, Charismatic Orthodox, evangelical Episcopal, paleo-orthodox, or Pentecostal Catholic or Orthodox. Denominations in this movement have also been referred as some form of broader, or new Anglicanism or Episcopalianism.

The pioneers of the Convergence Movement were seeking to restore a primitive form of Christianity in contrast with the teachings of the Restoration Movement. The Ancient-Future Faith was inspired by the spiritual pilgrimages of Protestant writers like Thomas Howard, Robert E. Webber, Peter E. Gillquist, and ancient Christian writers including the Church Fathers and their communities. These men—along with theologians, scripture scholars, and pastors in a number of Protestant denominational traditions leading to the movement's foundation—were calling Christians back to what they saw as their roots in the early Church prior to the East–West Schism and rise of the state church of the Roman Empire.

Background

In 1973, Campus Crusade for Christ missionary Peter E. Gillquist (1938–2012) of Chicago established a network of house churches throughout the United States of America, aiming to restore a primitive form of Christianity, which was called the New Covenant Apostolic Order. Researching Christian history, Gillquist and his colleagues found sources for this restoration in the writings of the early Church Fathers. This led the New Covenant Apostolic Order to practice a more liturgical form of worship than in their previous evangelical background.

In 1977, "The Chicago Call" was issued by the National Conference of Evangelicals for Historic Christianity, meeting in Warrenville, Illinois. Led by Robert E. Webber (Assoc. Professor of Theology at Wheaton College), along with Peter Gillquist, Thomas Howard, Richard Holt, Donald Bloesch, Jan Dennis, Lane Dennis, and Victor Oliver, the conference discussed the need for evangelical Protestants to rediscover and re-attach to the Christian Church's historic roots. The conference issued several documents which together are known as "The Chicago Call." Components of the document include: "A Call to Historic Roots and Continuity; A Call to Biblical Fidelity; A Call to Creedal Identity; A Call to Holistic Salvation; A Call to Sacramental Integrity; A Call to Spirituality; A Call to Church Authority; and A Call to Church Unity."

In 1979, the Evangelical Orthodox Church was organized. The belief of needing apostolic succession and the historic episcopacy led most members of Evangelical Orthodoxy to join the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America in 1987. Others later joined the Orthodox Church in America or Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. Today, the Evangelical Orthodox Church—remaining relatively small—has been categorized as Eastern Protestant.

In 1984 Charisma magazine—one of the most influential magazines of the Charismatic Movement—published an article by Richard Lovelace entitled, "The Three Streams, One River?" (Sept 1984). Lovelace approvingly noted the trend of Catholics, Evangelicals, and Charismatic and Pentecostal Christians moving closer together.

Robert Webber's 1985 book—Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail: Why Evangelicals are Attracted to the Liturgical Church—documented the stories of six evangelical Protestants who, for various reasons, had transitioned to the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. Publication of this book stirred up a great deal of interest in the evangelical Protestant press, generating numerous reviews in Christianity Today and other widely read evangelical publications. In the following years, Webber wrote several additional books that had great influence on evangelical churches seeking to incorporate liturgy and traditional practices into their worship, and numbers of evangelical Protestants and charismatics continued to migrate to the historic liturgical denominations.

Development

In June 1992, the Charismatic Episcopal Church was established as a part of the Convergence Movement following the episcopal ordination of Randy Adler by Herman Adrian Spruit of the Catholic Apostolic Church of Antioch—an Independent Catholic jurisdiction embracing religious pluralism. By 1997, Adler and the clergy of the Charismatic Episcopal Church were conditionally ordained by the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church. By 2007, former Charismatic Episcopal Archbishop Randolph Sly joined the Catholic Church and was ordained into the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, broadening recognition of the Convergence Movement among the ancient liturgical Christian denominations.

In 1995, the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches was organized. In October 1995, approximately 300 individuals gathered from multiple denominational backgrounds; various bishops from Anglican, independent Eastern Orthodox and Old Catholic churches assisted in the episcopal ordination of the denomination's first two bishops, and the ordination of 25 pastors and 7 deacons.

In 2011, Evangelical Episcopal Bishop Derek Jones was received by the Convocations of Anglicans in North America into the Anglican Church in North America. By March 2012, under the leadership of Quintin Moore, the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches entered full communion with his Christian Communion International as the denomination's United States province. From 2008–2014, the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches held informal ecumenical dialogue with the Catholic Church through Bishop Tony Palmer. During an audience with Pope Francis, Palmer and Bishop Emilio Alvarez served; Alvarez was official translator for the meeting. Palmer continued to serve in papal audiences until his death, befriending Pope Francis. His death was initially disclosed by Archbishop Charles Hill of Ambassadors for Christ Ministries of America, whom he also befriended and was member of the same communion. Archbishop Hill would later lead a Charismatic Old or Liberal Catholic denomination named the Ancient Church Global, claiming descent from the Knights Templar. In May 2023, a religious university founded by Hill for this denomination conferred an honorary degree upon Liberian politician Matthew Zarzar.

In 2019, the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches split and the Continuing Evangelical Episcopal Communion was founded. Alvarez also left the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches and organized the Union of Charismatic Orthodox Churches; by October 2020, he was elected to lead the denomination as its primate and in 2021 was installed as archbishop and primate for the denomination. In December 2020, leadership of the Union of Charismatic Orthodox Churches met with Archbishop Elpidophoros of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (Ecumenical Patriarchate). Alvarez and the Convergence Movement were featured by Religion News Service, after a trend of young Christians returning to traditional churches.

In 2019, the Apostolic Communion of Anglican Churches—currently organized as the African Episcopal Church though originally in 2005 as the Abyssinian Apostolic Church—received the suspended Anglican Church in North America priest Jack Lumanog. Joining this denomination, Lumanog was declared to have no ecclesiastical status through any province of the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans following his election and ordination to the episcopacy by Archbishop Darel Chase. Following Lumanog's episcopal ordination and the formation of the Anglican Diocese of St. Ignatius Loyola, in 2020, Gideon Arinzechukwu was appointed interim archdeacon for this diocese in the Apostolic Communion of Anglican Churches. Arinzechukwu was a deposed Episcopalian priest accused of sexual misconduct and fraud. In December 2022, his church was publicly disowned by the Church of Nigeria to prevent alleged misrepresentation. Chase's denomination also ordained a claimant to the Roman papacy, and organized the National Bible College Association accreditation mill which accredited their self-established Metropolitan Christian University and Midwestern School of Divinity for their churches.

In 2022, Archbishop Sterling Lands II of the Evangelical Episcopal Communion—once part of the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches—and Archbishop Deng Dau Deng, former archbishop-elect of the Anglican Church of South Sudan, joined the African Episcopal Church. By 2023, Jonathan Kyangasha, an expelled Church of Uganda priest joined the African Episcopal Church.

Holy orders

Since the advent of Convergence Christianity, numerous denominations and organizations have sought or claimed apostolic succession through excommunicated Latin Catholic bishops and wandering bishops of Anglican and Orthodox traditions including Carlos Duarte Costa, Arnold Mathew, Joseph Vilatte, Aftimios Ofiesh, and others in order to preserve doctrinal and apostolic continuity and establish sacramental legitimacy.

According to Catholic teaching, such ordinations are "valid but illicit." The Code of Canon Law within the Roman Catholic Church states Catholic bishops are able to ordain in holy orders, yet ordinations without authorization are deemed illicit and result in automatic excommunication (and for some, laicization, i.e., Emmanuel Milingo). In Anglicanism, it is taught "once a bishop, always a bishop."

There is also an understanding through Catholic teaching on sacramental character; dogma suggests those excommunicated for valid but illicit ordinations—even those deposed and laicized—cannot have their orders or episcopal genealogy (apostolic succession) vacated or revoked though their use of the sacraments go unrecognized among those in communion with the Pope of Rome, as they have only been relieved of episcopal duties within the Latin Catholic Church and its Eastern Catholic Churches specifically. In Catholicism, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992), §1121 expresses:

From mainstream Eastern Orthodox teaching no holy orders outside of their churches are generally recognized considering a strict adherence to the letter of the law (see also: legalism), although some mainstream Eastern Orthodox may consider outside holy orders as valid and forgo conditional ordinations via divine economy, thereby recognizing the Augustinian method of holy orders. The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, for example, teaches through "extreme oikonomia [economy]", those who are baptized in the Oriental Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Old Catholic, Moravian, Anglican, Methodist (except the Salvation Army), United Church of Christ, Presbyterian, Church of the Brethren, Assemblies of God, or Baptist traditions can be received into the Eastern Orthodox Church through the sacrament of Chrismation and not through re-baptism. This is also because each autocephalous church determines the validity of another's holy orders and other sacraments.

Statistics

Through the establishment of multiple denominations in the Convergence Movement, more than 2 million individuals have been claimed as adherents of its multiple organizations. According to self-reported statistics in 2023, the largest denomination in the movement is the Continuing Evangelical Episcopal Communion—reporting an estimated 2,100,000 members and 10,703 churches. The second-largest denomination is the Evangelical Episcopal Communion, claiming to have planted more than 5,000 churches through its Province of St. Peter; and over 100 churches and ministries altogether through Missio Mosaic and the Province of India. Following, the Charismatic Episcopal Church with more than 1,600 churches as of 2008, has been the movement's third-largest. The Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches had 150+ churches and ministries through its provinces and U.S. dioceses.

Denominations

The following is not a complete list, but aims to provide a comprehensible overview of the diversity among denominations of Convergence Christianity. Only organizations with Wikipedia articles will be listed.

• Apostolic Pastoral Congress
• Charismatic Episcopal Church
• Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches
• Continuing Evangelical Episcopal Communion
• Evangelical Episcopal Communion
• Holy Communion of Churches
• Union of Charismatic Orthodox ChurchesШаблон:Div col end

See also

• Paleo-orthodoxy
• Anglican realignment
• Ecumenism
• Evangelical Catholic
• Hebrew Roots
• Independent sacramental movement
• Open evangelicalism

Further reading

• Gillquist, Rev. Peter E. Becoming Orthodox: A Journey to the Ancient Christian Faith. Ben Lomond, CA: Conciliar Press, 1989. (Шаблон:ISBN)
• "Sound of Rushing Waters", by Daniel W. Williams, ACW Press/DQuest Publications, 2005. Шаблон:ISBN
• "Forgotten Power", William L. DeArteaga, 2002 Zondervan Publishing, Grand Rapids Michigan, 49530, Шаблон:ISBN
• "Evangelical, Sacramental, and Pentecostal: Why the Church Should Be All Three", Gordon T. Smith, 2017 IVP Academic, Шаблон:ISBN

External links

• Documents from The Chicago Call
• The Convergence Movement, article written in 1992 by Wayne Boosahda and Randy Sly for the Complete Library of Christian Worship, Robert Webber, ed.
• Convergence Movement, Association of Religion Data Archives
• Website of the Apostolic Pastoral Congress
• Website of the Charismatic Episcopal Church
• Website of the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches
• Website of the Holy Communion of Churches