Dual Integrity and Holy Orders in the Anglican Church in North America

Dual integrity in the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) describes the accommodation of differing convictions and practices concerning the ordination of women within a single province. Some ACNA dioceses ordain women to the diaconate and the priesthood; others do not. All ACNA dioceses agree that women are not consecrated as bishops. The arrangement raises questions about the relationship between provincial membership, doctrinal agreement, and the recognition of Holy Orders.

Traditionalist opposition concerns more than whether an individual diocese chooses to ordain women. It includes the conviction that the Church lacks authority to admit women to particular ordained offices and, for those who reject the validity of such ordinations, that provincial membership cannot require recognition of the disputed orders. The Reformed Episcopal Church's 2017 pastoral letter explained its continued participation in ACNA while maintaining male-only Holy Orders and seeking an eventual change in provincial practice.

The distinction between constitutional accommodation and theological agreement is therefore central to the traditionalist understanding of the arrangement. Whether this accommodation should endure or give way to a common provincial practice remains part of the disagreement.

Definition and scope

"Dual integrity" is used in this article for the coexistence, within one province, of two practices regarding women's ordination: dioceses that ordain women to the diaconate and priesthood, and dioceses that do not. The phrase is not itself a defined term in ACNA's Constitution and Canons. The Constitution regulates the arrangement by limiting provincial authority, not by declaring both practices theologically equal; the Reformed Episcopal bishops' 2017 letter argued explicitly that the College of Bishops' 2017 language "negate[s] the notion that both practices have an equal 'dual integrity.'"

Three distinctions govern the discussion, and they are not interchangeable:

• Choosing not to ordain women is a matter of diocesan practice. A diocese may simply not ordain women while leaving the theological status of other dioceses' ordinations unaddressed.
• Believing ordination of women impermissible is a doctrinal claim: that the Church lacks authority to admit women to a given office, even if an ordination rite is performed.
• Denying that an ordination confers orders is a sacramental claim: that the rite, as performed for a woman, does not make her a deacon, presbyter, or bishop in the sense the Church understands those offices.

The three ordained offices must also be discussed separately, because ACNA's settlement treats them differently. The diaconate and the priesthood are left to diocesan practice. The episcopate is not: ACNA's canons require a candidate for bishop to be "a male Presbyter at least 35 years old," and the College of Bishops stated in 2017 that it had been "unanimously agreed that women will not be consecrated as bishops in the Anglican Church in North America." Traditionalists have treated the male-only episcopate as a condition of the whole settlement: the REC bishops wrote that agreement that women cannot be bishops is "essential to sustaining apostolic succession" and that "[w]ithout this commitment on Order, the REC/NA could never have joined ACNA."

A further distinction concerns the office of deaconess. The REC states that it has restored "the ancient and Biblical lay Office of Deaconess" as a ministry for women, and it distinguishes that lay office from ordination to the diaconate. See Deaconess.

Constitutional framework

ACNA was formed in 2009 from the Common Cause Partnership. Its Constitution names the Reformed Episcopal Church and Forward in Faith – North America among its founding entities, alongside the American Anglican Council, the Anglican Coalition in Canada, the Anglican Communion Network, the Anglican Mission in the Americas, the Anglican Network in Canada, the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, and the missionary convocations of Kenya, the Southern Cone, and Uganda.

The constitutional provisions that create the accommodation are as follows:

• Limits of provincial authority. "The Province shall make no canon abridging the authority of any member dioceses or networks ... with respect to its practice regarding the ordination of women to the diaconate or presbyterate." The provision is framed as a limit on what the province may legislate, not as an endorsement of either practice.
• Reserved diocesan authority. Member dioceses and jurisdictions "retain all authority they do not yield to the Province by their own consent," and each diocese may "establish and maintain its own governance, constitution and canons not inconsistent with the provisions of the Constitution and Canons of this Province."
• Diocesan norms for ordination. "Except as hereinafter provided, the norms for ordination shall be determined by the Bishop having jurisdiction." The canons' stated requirements for deacons and presbyters, drawn from 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, contain no sex qualification; the sex qualification appears only in the canon for bishops.
• Withdrawal. "Member dioceses (or groups of dioceses organized into distinct jurisdictions) are free to withdraw from the Province by action of their own governing bodies at any time."
• Change requires conciliar action. The 2017 College of Bishops statement notes that the founding positions on women's ordination "are established within our Constitution and Canons and, because we are a conciliar Church, would require the action of both Provincial Council and Provincial Assembly to be changed."

Constitutional permission therefore does not settle the theological question. The Constitution says what the province may not forbid; it does not say that women's ordination is good, biblical, or desirable, and it contains no provision requiring one diocese to recognize another diocese's ordinations. That silence is precisely what makes the traditionalist position possible within the province — and what leaves the underlying dispute unresolved.

Traditionalist convictions concerning Holy Orders

Traditionalists in ACNA who oppose women's ordination ground their position in Holy Scripture as interpreted by the Great Tradition of the Church, in the historic practice of the undivided Church, and in the formularies ACNA itself confesses: the 1662 Book of Common Prayer with its Ordinal, and the Thirty-nine Articles. The REC bishops stated the position in its strongest form: "based on the authority of the Holy Scriptures as understood by the Great Tradition of the Church for two thousand years, we believe that only a baptized male may be ordained into the Holy Orders of Deacon, Presbyter, and Bishop," a position they said the REC had held "without dispute for over one hundred forty-four years."

Within the REC, the conviction is canonical, not merely customary. The REC Constitution and Canons provide that "[i]n accordance with the plain teaching of Holy Scripture, and the historic practice of the One, Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, only males may be admitted as Postulants for Holy Orders in this Church," and that no person ineligible for postulancy or candidacy may "be received as a Deacon, Presbyter, or Bishop or licensed to function in any capacity reserved for those in Holy Orders." The REC bishops' 2017 letter adds that this position is "solidly anchored in the canons of the church and the resolute commitment of every bishop in the Reformed Episcopal Church."

Traditionalist argument also appeals to the unity of Holy Orders. Because the episcopate is male-only by provincial agreement while the diaconate and priesthood vary by diocese, traditionalists ask what a divided practice implies for the order as a whole — for example, whether a woman ordained presbyter in one diocese could ever be consecrated bishop, given that the canons require a bishop to be a male presbyter. That question was already being raised in founding-period discussion within Forward in Faith circles.

Provincial membership and recognition of orders

The traditionalist case turns on a distinction between belonging to the same province and recognizing one another's orders. Membership in ACNA is a matter of shared constitution, shared confession as stated in Article I, and participation in common structures. Recognition of orders — accepting that a person ordained in another diocese is truly a deacon or presbyter, whose sacramental acts are valid — is a separate theological judgment, and ACNA's Constitution does not compel it.

Three documented practices illustrate the distinction:

• Impaired communion. In his address to the 35th Convention of the Diocese of Fort Worth on November 4, 2017, Bishop Jack Iker, a founding bishop of ACNA, declared his diocese to be "in a state of impaired communion" with ACNA dioceses that ordain women, on the ground that the Task Force had concluded that "both sides cannot be right." Iker further stated that he would "no longer give consent to the election of any bishop who intends to ordain female priests, nor will [he] attend the consecration of any such bishop-elect in the future," and that he had resigned from his provincial committees because it was "no longer possible to have 'business as usual' in the College of Bishops."
• Sacramental boundaries in REC practice. The REC bishops stated: "We do not receive Holy Communion where a woman consecrates the elements. Also, when we meet as a whole in our province or in GAFCON, male bishops preside. In fact, with the exception of servers, the current practice is that only bishops are in the chancel." They added that even bishops who hold a different conviction agree that such practices "are the only way to be able to have a provincial service where all may receive Holy Communion." The letter states the practice without using the word "invalid" for women's ordinations; the validity question is framed more directly in Fort Worth's later resolution (see below).
• The Fort Worth statement of the principle. The Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, in a resolution adopted unanimously on June 4, 2024, argued that "[f]ull communion necessitates the interchangeability of clergy and sacraments from bishop to bishop and diocese to diocese. Without the mutual recognition of orders, there can be no communicatio in sacris." It added that "the consecration of the Holy Eucharist requires a validly ordained priest," so that where women's ordination is not recognized, "this sacrament of the Supper of the Lord is not recognized as true and valid throughout the province."

In ordinary provincial life, the canons already assume that recognition is mediated diocese by diocese: clergy may not function in a diocese other than their domicile without written permission from that diocese's ecclesiastical authority. A traditionalist diocese therefore need not license a woman presbyter from another diocese to function within its bounds, and the Constitution gives the province no power to compel it to do so.

The 2017 statements

The Task Force on Holy Orders

In 2012 the College of Bishops appointed a Theological Task Force on Holy Orders, chaired by the Rt. Rev. Dr. David Hicks of the REC, to study Holy Orders and specifically women in Holy Orders. Its report, presented to the College in 2017 and running to 318 pages, set out the arguments for and against women's ordination from Scripture, history, and theology. Its conclusion, as the REC bishops summarized it, was that "[b]oth positions cannot be right" — while urging that work toward resolution continue with patience and under the leading of the Holy Spirit.

The College of Bishops' statement (Victoria, September 7, 2017)

The College of Bishops met in conclave at the Church of Our Lord, Victoria, British Columbia, September 5–7, 2017, to consider the Task Force report, and adopted a statement unanimously. Its preamble recalled the founding agreement: "In an act of mutual submission at the foundation of the Anglican Church in North America, it was agreed that each Diocese and Jurisdiction has the freedom, responsibility, and authority to study Holy Scripture and the Apostolic Tradition of the Church, and to seek the mind of Christ in determining its own convictions and practices concerning the ordination of women to the diaconate and the priesthood."

The statement itself held two things together:

• "we acknowledge that there are differing principles of ecclesiology and hermeneutics that are acceptable within Anglicanism that may lead to divergent conclusions regarding women's ordination to the priesthood";
• "we also acknowledge that this practice is a recent innovation to Apostolic Tradition and Catholic Order. We agree that there is insufficient scriptural warrant to accept women's ordination to the priesthood as standard practice throughout the Province. However, we continue to acknowledge that individual dioceses have constitutional authority to ordain women to the priesthood."

The statement also committed the College to affirming more adequately "the ministry of all Christians as the basic agents of the work of the Gospel," repenting of failure to disciple and equip all Christians, "male and especially female, lay and ordained."

The 2017 statement is not a provincial declaration that women's orders are invalid. It does not use the word "invalid," and it expressly continues to acknowledge diocesan constitutional authority to ordain women to the priesthood. At the same time, it does not declare women's ordination theologically equal to male-only ordination: its language of "innovation" and "insufficient scriptural warrant" is the language traditionalists have cited ever since.

The REC pastoral letter (October 2, 2017)

The REC bishops met at the Church of the Holy Communion, Dallas, Texas, on October 2, 2017, and issued a pastoral letter to the REC family of churches in response to the College's statement. The letter had two stated purposes: to reaffirm that the REC retains male-only Holy Orders, and to explain why the REC in North America became a founding member of ACNA and why it should continue in the relationship.

On the statement itself, the REC bishops welcomed its "unprecedented, positive lines" — the first time, they said, that the College had called women's ordination an innovation to Apostolic Tradition and Catholic Order and had found insufficient scriptural warrant for it as standard provincial practice. They voted for the statement, they explained, while making clear that voting for it "certainly does not imply that we are in favor of ordaining women." They acknowledged the constitutional reality frankly: changing the Constitution and Canons would require near-unanimous support among the bishops plus a lengthy process involving laity and clergy, and "[t]his level of consensus does not exist in the ACNA College of Bishops, nor is it perceived to be within ACNA as a whole at present."

The letter then gave the REC's reasons for continued participation:

• Catholicity. Participation rests on "the principle of catholicity as confessed in the Apostles' Creed: 'I believe in One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church'" — kata holos, "according to the whole" — which implies "a tangible commitment to connectivity with the Global Anglican Family, if possible." "To be an 'independent Anglican,' or isolated jurisdiction, is an oxymoron allowed only if there is no other option."
• History. The REC had sought such connection before: the favorable conclusions of the Frank Wilson Commission of the late 1930s toward Reformed Episcopal orders and admission to the Anglican Communion, which could not be followed up because of the Second World War; ecumenical dialogues with the Episcopal Church in the 1990s; and, in 2008–2009, the opening provided by ACNA and GAFCON.
• Connection through ACNA/GAFCON. Through ACNA and GAFCON the REC is in communion with many dioceses and provinces that do not ordain women, and its historic covenant with the Anglican Church in Nigeria (2005) continues through the province: at the first GAFCON meeting in Jerusalem (2008), Archbishop Peter Akinola instructed the REC to direct its concordat through the new North American province. The bishops argued that "on the traditionalist side of the connections through ACNA/GAFCON, we are actually in communion with more Christians who do not ordain women than we would be if we were not participating in ACNA."
• Practical benefits. The letter lists mission projects, seminary growth, ecumenical engagement, educational materials, benevolence through the Anglican Relief and Development Fund, and publication of the Reformed Episcopal Hymnal at ACNA's publishing house — "all the while maintaining our historic Biblical convictions and jurisdiction."
• Preservation of jurisdiction. The ACNA Constitution allows the REC to remain "a special jurisdiction retaining our own Reformed Episcopal [Constitution and Canons] that explicitly call for males only in Holy Orders." The bishops stated the condition plainly: "If ACNA were to try to coerce us away from our special jurisdiction status, we would leave," and they pledged "vigilance in and ongoing evaluation of our relationship to ACNA."

The letter also noted the balance of practice within the province as the bishops saw it in 2017: "the vast majority of dioceses do not ordain women to the priesthood; many do not ordain women to the diaconate either. Yet there are dioceses that do ordain women to both offices." On that point, the letter said, "these dioceses are not in full compliance with catholic order, whereas in all other points of catholic faith there is adherence." That sentence is the letter's own characterization, not a provincial judgment: the province as a whole has not declared ordaining dioceses out of compliance.

Sacramental and practical consequences

The disagreement has concrete consequences for worship and ministry across the province:

• Reception of Communion. REC bishops do not receive Holy Communion where a woman consecrates the elements, and provincial services are arranged — male bishops presiding, only bishops in the chancel apart from servers — so that all present may receive. Traditionalists who deny the validity of women's priestly orders hold that what is at stake is not preference but whether the Eucharist is confected at all; Fort Worth's 2024 resolution states the point in terms of validity and of communicatio in sacris.
• Episcopal consent and consecrations. Because the College of Bishops consents to episcopal elections, a traditionalist bishop may withhold consent from a candidate who intends to ordain women priests, and may decline to attend such a candidate's consecration, as Iker did in 2017.
• Licensing and transfer. A woman ordained presbyter in one diocese has no provincial right to function in a traditionalist diocese; permission rests with that diocese's bishop.
• No province-wide rule on recognition. Beyond these diocesan and personal practices, the province has adopted no canon defining whether, or in what circumstances, one diocese must recognize another's women clergy. Practice therefore varies: some traditionalist bishops describe the province as in impaired communion; others participate without using that term. The article should not attribute one diocese's practice to all traditionalists.

Provisional accommodation or permanent settlement?

This is the most contested question in the article, and the sources do not support a single simple answer. What can be documented is a difference between what traditionalist sources hoped and what the province as a whole agreed.

What traditionalist sources actually say. The REC letter says that "[a]lthough the hope may have been that the practice would be reversed through a study, many of us who were there from the beginning realized that no single study and meeting of bishops would immediately change an erroneous practice deeply imbedded in culture for decades." Its hope is stated as a prayer: "We pray that in the course of time the Holy Spirit will use the acknowledgment of Holy Scripture and the Great Tradition of historic interpretation to transform ACNA into greater consistency with the Word of God," and, more directly, "We still want to see the latter come about" — that is, the rejection of women's ordination. Iker, in 2017, described the founding understanding differently and more sharply: "Those of us who agreed to the formation of the ACNA in 2009 did so with the clear understanding that a serious theological study would be done and that a decision would be made at that time." Finding the study complete and no decision made, he concluded: "We now need to work with other dioceses to amend the Constitution to remove this provision."

The Fort Worth "provisional" language. Fort Worth's 2024 resolution describes the diocese's 2009 entry as "provisional membership in that new province." The 2009 resolution it appends does not itself use the word "provisional": it commits the diocese to "continued participation in the development of the Anglican Church in North America, acceding to the Constitution and Canons thereof during this process," while maintaining its status as a member diocese of the Province of the Southern Cone "while the formal process of recognition of this new province continues in the Anglican Communion." The "provisional" characterization is therefore Fort Worth's later description of its own entry during a period of formation and recognition — not a province-wide agreement that the women's-ordination accommodation itself would expire.

What the province has not adopted. No source located for this article shows ACNA adopting an expiration date for diocesan authority over women's ordination, or a unanimous promise to end the practice. The 2017 statement contains no deadline and no commitment to a future vote on the practice; its commitments concern the ministry of all Christians and moving forward in unity. The Constitution as amended in June 2026 still contains Article VIII, § 2. The claim that "ACNA established dual integrity as a temporary measure" should therefore not be made. The accurate formulation is narrower: REC bishops explained continued participation in terms of maintaining their convictions while seeking change within ACNA, and Fort Worth described its own entry as provisional.

How traditionalists defend continued participation. On the traditionalist account, participation is defensible precisely because the Constitution protects their jurisdiction, because the episcopate remains male-only, because sacramental boundaries can be observed in practice, and because remaining "in the game" — the REC letter's phrase is "staying in the game, rather than living separate in isolation" — preserves witness, catholic connection, and the possibility of persuading the province over time. The letter's condition governs the whole argument: participation continues "as long as our convictions and jurisdiction are not compromised," under "vigilance in and ongoing evaluation." Continued participation is thus presented not as acceptance of the practice, but as a provisional accommodation directed toward eventual doctrinal resolution — provisional in the traditionalists' hope and purpose, not in any provincially agreed timetable.

How supporters of women's ordination understand the arrangement. Supporters read the same documents differently. The 2017 statement's acknowledgment that "differing principles of ecclesiology and hermeneutics that are acceptable within Anglicanism" may lead to divergent conclusions is, for them, a recognition that their position stands within Anglican faith and order, not outside it. In an essay written at the ACNA bishops' request in August 2018, Bishop Grant LeMarquand and Dr. William G. Witt argued that "the ordination of godly women as leaders in Christ's church should continue to be authorized in ACNA dioceses that have decided, or may in future decide, in favor of this policy," and that bishops and dioceses not convinced "should not be forced to do so" — diocesan freedom, on this reading, is the settlement, protecting both sides. A diocesan statement from the Diocese of Christ our Hope (September 23, 2017) likewise described the founding flexibility as honoring "the historical positions and convictions of the various Dioceses forming the Province," on the shared assumption that all dioceses are "united in unwavering submission to the authority of God's Word," and noted that no ACNA diocese is structured "in a fully egalitarian fashion" — that is, with all offices open regardless of sex, since the episcopate is male-only throughout.

Continuing disagreement

The disagreement has not been resolved since 2017, and recent provincial documents confirm that it remains live rather than settled:

• In June 2024, Fort Worth's Standing Committee called on the College of Bishops, "under the leadership of the next archbishop," to "agree to a moratorium on the practice of the ordination of women in order to facilitate full communion throughout the province as we come to a common mind on the issue." No moratorium has been adopted by the province.
• At its fall meeting in Plano, Texas, September 21–25, 2026, the College of Bishops reviewed the history of the province's efforts on women's ordination, including a recorded interview with Archbishop Emeritus Bob Duncan on the 2009 founding decision. The College's recap states: "Under that settlement, each diocese is free to determine its own practice concerning the ordination of women to the diaconate and the priesthood, and the College remains united that women will not be consecrated to the episcopate." It adds that "[t]he College has now agreed to consider the matters requested by the Task Force and to take up the commitments it made in 2017," and announced a new standing body, Custodia Fidei, for questions of doctrine, sacramental practice, ecclesial relationships, and ministerial order. The recap announces further work; it does not announce a resolution of the women's-ordination question.

The arrangement therefore continues as it began: constitutionally protected, theologically disputed, and — in the traditionalist telling — provisional in hope but without an agreed end date; in the supporters' telling, a standing settlement of diocesan freedom under a shared confession.

See also

• Anglican Church in North America
• Reformed Episcopal Church
• Anglican realignment
• Anglican Communion
• GAFCON
• Thirty-nine Articles
• Book of Common Prayer (1928)
• Apostles' Creed
• Deaconess
• Ordination of women in Anglicanism
• Traditionalist Opposition to Women's Ordination