So a little primer on ACNA. The Anglican Church in North America was founded after the election of Gene Robinson as the first openly gay (and married) bishop in TEC. It was founded almost entirely by white men clergy who were upset about TEC becoming inclusive of LGBTQ people https://twitter.com/lambeth981/status/1379601974962888704

But more than that, this group of clergy decided that this was actually a wider problem with the use of Scripture in TEC. They pointed to the instances where there were, in their opinion, lack of engagement with the Bible.

In some ways this was true. But like any tradition, there's a broad range of people. It did make a helpful broader tent appeal. TEC didn't actually care about the Bible. And that, along with the brewing LGBT culture war allowed for another foil.

In order to make the conservatives not seem like an all-white, mostly-men constituency, they utilized the frustration and anger of some African bishops to legitimize movement. If you were for LGBTQ inclusion, you were against the global church, and Black people.

To cement this, ACNA devised an alternative bishopric where they would continue to operate under the authority of certain African bishops. Which, of course, is not how the episcopal part of Episcopal works. I won't get into the polity details. I don't know them well enough.

Despite the erasure of LGBTQ Africans, and in the face of heinous anti-gay legislations promoted by African bishops, LGBTQ inclusion in the U.S. is offered up by ACNA as a form of "cultural imperialism" https://livingchurch.org/covenant/2016/01/16/blaming-the-africans-cultural-imperialism-and-the-meeting-of-the-primates/

(Peter Akinola did indeed advocate publicly for outlawing LGBTQ people in Nigeria)

But the other piece of this to be aware of was that the anti-gay clerics also promised to make space for the sexist clerics. There have always been bishops and clergy in TEC who were not happy with women being ordained, and so this provided an important opening.

In ACNA, women can be ordained if their bishop approves it ("agree to disagree" as a body) but cannot be bishops. https://anglicanchurch.net/college-of-bishops-statement-on-the-ordination-of-women/

Since then ACNA has pushed church-planting and has done really well with keeping their history a secret, or their church members don't care. But I've come across quite a few people who were very surprised to find out their going to an anti-gay, anti-woman church

In sum -- born out of anti-gay commitments by white U.S. clergy in concert with, and often using African bishops as a shield. Formed at the epicenter of the culture war. And pretty shady about being upfront re: their commitments around LGBTQ people and women.

I think this is an accurate portrayal, but if it seems like it's ungracious or ahistorical, feel free to correct. I was there. I saw it with my own eyes. But, of course, history is told from a vantage point.

"Wait, am I going to an ACNA church? I thought I was going to an Anglican church that was just another name for Episcopal?" You can check here! https://anglicanchurch.net/find-a-congregation/

Oh, and of COURSE TEC, and the wider Anglican Communion is deeply invested in cultural imperialism. I'm sure y'all know the history of English colonization and the state-church: the Church of England. But I don't think anyone in the Anglican Communion gets a pass on that one.