As a people called forth to follow the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to keep authoritative the Word of God, and to stand firm for the Gospel once delivered to all the saints (Jude 3), we were encouraged to come together…
We were encouraged to come together to produce the organizational structure of a fellowship of orthodox Anglican congregations in the Western United States. Our purpose was to lead our congregations into a servant community of mutual respect, support, cooperation and shared values, under guidance from our bishops and archbishops.
In June, 2007 sixty delegates from fourteen orthodox Anglican congregations in Southern California and Arizona met to begin the process. We adopted the Theological Statement of the Common Cause Partners (See Statement of Faith) and elected an Executive Committee of six clergy members and six lay members tasked to form the needed standing committees, ad hoc task groups, and to manage their progress. We incorporated as the Association of Western Anglican Congregations in July 25, 2007 as a California Religious Nonprofit Corporation and applied to the Internal Revenue Service for Section 501(c)3 tax free status.
In early October, 2007 the House of Delegates, augmented by delegates from a new member congregation in Arizona, met and approved our organizational structure and plans for the future. The organizational work was accomplished in only 120 days and Western Anglicans became a diocese-in-formation flourishing in shared ministry and promise for the future. In 2008, we connected with the Common Cause Partnership—forerunner of the Anglican Church in North America—asking for and receiving the appointment of a Collegiate Vicar to serve as an ambassadorial link between our organizations, as we added our blessing to the groundbreaking work of Common Cause Partnership and received its blessing in return.
In June of 2009, the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) was born and one of the first new dioceses to be admitted was the Diocese of Western Anglicans with the Rt. Rev. William Avery Thompson selected to be the first Bishop of the Diocese of Western Anglicans. In January 2015, our second Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Dr. M. Keith Andrews was consecrated by the Archbishop and Bishops of the ACNA.