The 'Convocation of Anglicans in North America'...

... is an Anglican missionary effort in the US sponsored by the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion).

Click here to read about CANA. Click the image to the right for the video.

In the news: Virginia churches break from U.S. Episcopal Church:

Eight congregations in the Virginia Diocese of the Episcopal Church voted overwhelming to break away, the Church announced on Sunday, in the latest sign of a rift in the U.S. denomination over its ordination of a gay bishop.

Two of the larger parishes, The Falls Church and Truro Church in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, voted to join the conservative Convocation of Anglicans in North America organization, which is linked to the Episcopal Church of Nigeria.

The Nigerian church is headed by Peter Akinola, who has supported a proposed law in Nigeria that calls for prison terms for homosexual activity.

The breakaway is the latest challenge to Presiding U.S. Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first woman to head the 2.4 million-member U.S. Episcopal Church. She has been under fire from conservative Episcopalians because of her stand in favor of blessing same-sex unions and support for the 2003 consecration of an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire.

In addition to voting to join the breakaway Convocation of Anglicans of North America, The Falls Church and Truro Church congregations voted in favor of keeping parish property worth millions of dollars, the churches said. ...

From my local newspaper...

The Episcopal Church, the U.S. wing of global Anglicanism, has been under pressure from traditionalists at home and abroad since the 2003 consecration of the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

Theological conservatives are a minority within the 2.2 million-member U.S. denomination, but their protests have had an impact.

Episcopal researchers estimate that at least one-third of the nearly 115,000 people who left the denomination from 2003 to 2005 did so because of parish conflicts over Robinson.

Seven of 100 U.S. Episcopal dioceses have threatened to break from the denomination, but have so far stayed put. The closest any have come to leaving was a vote earlier this month in the Diocese of San Joaquin, in Fresno, Calif., endorsing a first step toward seceding. But the diocese must take a second vote next year before they can formalize a split.

The state of the 77 million-member Anglican Communion is far worse.

Most overseas Anglicans believe gay relationships violate Scripture and contend liberal interpretation of the Bible should not be accepted.

Struggling to hold the communion together, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the Anglican spiritual leader, has said that the communion may have to create a two-tier system of membership, with branches that ordain partnered gays given a lesser status.

I am personally encouraged by this move. FAQ about CANA.