The Forward In Faith parish in the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego, Christ The King, Alpine, California (East County of San Diego) has walked away from their building to walk with the Primates of the Global South. Their Rector, the Rev’d Keith Acker, is also the Communications Director for Forward In Faith North America.

Fr Pannitti & Fr Acker of Alpine Anglican Church

We have been very blessed by the new freedom to fulfill the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. Everyone has been revitalized to reach out to those who don’t know Jesus. We’ve wasted too much energy on endless debate and watching the decline of the Episcopal Church USA. “Everyone is enjoying the cooperation and challenge to make Christ known in our modern world. We hold Holy Scripture to be authoritative in our daily living. We speak to the challenges in the lives of men, women, and children by understanding the eternal God’s revelation of Truth in the person of Jesus Christ. We don’t adapt scripture to speak to this confused and fallen world. We share the Gospel of Life,” explained Father Acker. “We are a group of Christians who see the hurt, the struggle, the confusion, and the brokenness in the lives of everyday people around us. We tell the of Jesus’ love and words of life which will make them whole,” said Father Pannitti.

The parish took seriously the 1998 Lambeth bishop’s call to reach out to disenfranchised Anglicans who have left over the years. Father Acker’s parish has been doing that for 7 years, prior to his arrival at the parish. It began when Father Frank Pannitti, a priest of the Anglican Province of America, was asked to celebrate a weekday service from the 1928 BCP. Over time it became a shared ministry with Father Acker.

The parish leaders have been waiting patiently for the Holy Spirit to show them the proper time to make a stand. That time came when on his way to the airport to attend the Hope and a Future Conference and At the Name of Jesus FiFNA Assembly in Pittsburgh, Father Acker opened a letter from the Right Rev’d James Mathes, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego which would no longer allow Father Pannitti to function sacramentally. In a meeting with the parish, Bishop Mathes said that his ordination vows required him to “follow a process.” The pastoral concern would not be accommodated for this vital shared ministry.

While members and clergy were friendly and hospitality was extended at their meetings with the Mathes, the Bishop’s only offering on biblical teaching was that we needed more discussion on “biblical interpretation.” When pressed on the biblical teaching of homosexual behavior from a biblical perspective, the Bishop only offered that he approached it from “the compassion of Christ.” What the parish expected was to demonstrate the theological biblical explanation and how it was consistent with the teaching of the whole church. The message was a call for “more debate.”

The reality lived out was the congregation rallied around the priests in a bi-located congregation, an early Sunday service meeting at a school auditorium and a later service at the church building. Father Acker and some parishioners attended both services. What became obvious was this was the time to “walk with the Anglican Communion” and walk away from the building. The Vestry didn’t want to get bogged down in litigation over a building, as much as is a holy place. The decision was 7 to 0 with one abstention.

Father Acker was accepted in the Anglican Province of America as a priest of the Diocese of the West. The congregation will this Sunday make a formal request to become a mission under Bishop Richard Boyce. The congregation has taken the name Alpine Anglican Church of the Blessed Trinity. They have received greetings and blessings from the Right Rev’d Keith Ackerman, President of Forward In Faith North America, and the Right Rev’d Robert Duncan, Moderator of the Anglican Communion Network. The congregation has been members of both organizations which uphold orthodox Anglicanism.

We’ve remained a loving fellowship who will continue to follow Jesus as our Savior, our Lord, and our King. As Rick Warren, author of the Purpose Driven Life, frequently says, “The Church is people, not the steeple.” We must walk with Jesus. We must walk with the Anglican Church. We must walk with virtually all Christians who believe and conform their lives to Holy Scripture. This is true freedom in Jesus Christ, to live in the life He has given you and to fulfill the purpose He has for your life. “I am truly humbled by this congregation who has taken a step of faith and sacrifice that they might make the Gospel of Jesus known. I am personally blessed in having a fellow priest with whom to walk shepherding this new venture of faith. I am honored that Bishop Richard Boyce, the Anglican Province of America, has welcomed me with open arms,” concluded Father Acker.

“We continue to pray for those few who have chosen to stay with the building, we pray for Bishop Mathes and the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego. These people have been our friends over the years and will continue to be our friends. But as truly loving friends we have told them we must walk with the overwhelming majority of our Anglican brothers and sisters,” offered Father Acker.

The Rev’d Keith Acker

Communications Director FiFNA

619-368-9838

Two articles related to this subject are printed below:

A New Church In Alpine by Keith Acker

Resignation of Episcopal Priest 1^st Sign of Rift in S.D.

by Sandi Dolby, San Diego Union-Tribune 12/16/2005

An Episcopal priest has resigned from his church and taken much of his congregation with him in the first significant sign that the divisions between the U.S. Episcopal Church and its Anglican counterpart have arrived in San Diego.
 
The Rev. Keith Acker, rector of Christ the King Episcopal Church in Alpine, resigned Monday and turned over the church keys to the diocese, San Diego Bishop James Mathes said yesterday. Most of the parish's leaders also have resigned.

Acker, 49, said last night that come Sunday morning he will be at his new parish, the Alpine Anglican Church of the Blessed Trinity, at Alpine Elementary School.

"The Episcopal Church has distanced itself from the rest of the Anglican Communion and that, in fact, is where the difficulty lies," said Acker, who has been an Episcopal priest for 23 years. "I've always seen myself as an Episcopalian, but I was an Anglican first."

The 77-million-member global Anglican Communion is at odds with the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States over the ordination of an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire two years ago and for blessing same-sex unions.

But Acker said his departure, along with the exodus of about 50 of the 80 or so parishioners, also was triggered by the new bishop's balking at allowing an Anglican colleague to continue to perform "sacramental ministry" at Christ the King.
 
The Rev. Frank Pannitti, a priest with the Anglican Province of America, a traditional, evangelical denomination, has been helping at Christ the King for several years, with the informal approval of the previous bishop, Acker said. However, Mathes, who became the new bishop in March, said Pannitti needed to go through the process of being properly licensed by the diocese.

Angered by that stand, many members of the conservative parish boycotted Mathes' visit to Christ the King on Nov. 20. Instead, they held a separate service at the school – and a new church was born.

The departure is a blow to Mathes, who appealed for patience, unity and communication as he took office. He said yesterday that he had tried several times to reach out to Acker and the congregation.

The bishop will send two priests to conduct a joint service at Christ the King on Sunday, followed by a meeting to pick new leadership. "We're going to do what we can to assist them in building up their congregation," Mathes said.