Anglican Catholic Church in Australia

The ACCA originated from the Anglican Catholic Church of Australia, which was formed in 1987 with Albert Haley of Bisbane, Australia, who resigned as Rector of All Saints' Wickham Terrace, a parish of the Anglican Church of Australia.[1][2] The Rt Rev'd. William Rutherford was the first Continuing bishop to visit Australia, having been welcomed by Bishop John Hazlewood. In early 1986, Bishop Hazlewood, along with the Bishop of London, Dr. Graham Leonard, participated in a national gathering of Continuing Church leaders in the USA.[3] Albert Haley was consecrated bishop in 1988 by Alfred Woolcock of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada, assisted by Louis Wahl Falk, Robert C. Crawley, Robert Mercer and Bruce Stewart Chamberlain.[4] When the Traditional Anglican Communion was formed in 1991 the ACCA joined as a constituent church.

On 29 June 1996, John Hepworth was consecrated as a bishop, together with Robert John Friend, in the Pro-Cathedral of the Resurrection, Brisbane, by bishops Albert N. Haley (then diocesan bishop of the ACCA), Robert C. Crawley (Anglican Catholic Church of Canada), Wellborn Hudson (Anglican Church in America) and John Hazlewood (retired Bishop of Ballarat in the Anglican Church of Australia). Hepworth served as an assistant bishop until April 1998 when Bishop Friend (who had succeeded Haley as diocesan) resigned. From then until November 1999, Hepworth acted as bishop administrator. At the national synod of the ACCA, held from 25 to 29 November 1999, he was elected as the new diocesan bishop. In 2002 he was elected as primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) in succession to Louis Falk.

Under the leadership of Archbishop John Hepworth as primate, attempts were made to bring the TAC and Forward in Faith into closer alignment. Two bishops were consecrated by John Hepworth to provide "orthodox" and Anglo-Catholic oversight in parishes belonging to the Anglican Church of Australia.[5][6] This was done without the approval of the Anglican Church of Australia.[7]

In February 2010, the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia, along with Forward in Faith Australia, filed a petition to the Roman Catholic Church's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican to join the Roman Catholic Church as a personal ordinariate under the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus.[8] The Church of Torres Strait (a diocese in Queensland) submitted a similar but separate proposal in May 2010. Some priests of the ACCA have joined the Australian Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, along with some of their people. Despite the corporate petitions to Rome, Anglicanorum Coetibus did not make any provisions for the reception of entire ecclesial bodies.[9]

In 2012, the TAC College of Bishops met and formally accepted the resignation of Archbishop John Hepworth.[10][11] Archbishop John Hepworth was officially expelled from the TAC College of Bishops on October 10, 2012.[12]

Some clergy and parishes remained in the ACCA and on 18 October 2013 (the 25th anniversary of the consecration of Albert Haley, the first bishop ordinary of the ACCA) a new bishop ordinary, Michael Pope, was consecrated for the ACCA in Lincoln, England, in the same ceremony in which Ian Gray was consecrated for the Traditional Anglican Church in Britain.[13][14] The chief consecrators of Bishop Pope were Archbishop Prakash with Bishop David Robarts and Bishop¨Craig Botterill.[15]

The present Bishop Ordinary is the Rt Rev'd. David Robarts OAM, who was consecrated a bishop in the Traditional Anglican Communion in 2006,[16] and enthroned as diocesan bishop of the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia in 2016.[17] The Vicar General is Rev'd. Canon Brian Tee.[18]

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