Independent Anglican Church Canada Synod

The Independent Anglican Church (Canada Synod) (IACCS) is an Anglican jurisdiction with a presence in Canada and the United States of America. The Most Rev. Peter Wayne Goodrich of Niagara Falls, Ontario is its Primate. There are five suffragan bishops. The church is not affiliated with the Anglican Communion headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The IACCS was legally constituted as the "Independent Catholic Church of Canada" by Letters Patent in 1978, by Peter Goodrich, then Archbishop of the Liberal Catholic Church. In 1978, the Ottawa Journal reported Goodrich's consecration as Primate of the Liberal Catholic Church: "Most Rev. Peter Goodrich, Archbishop of Ontario, was elected primate of the Canadian Liberal Catholic Church International at the Canadian synod". Subsequently, Goodrich established the "Independent Catholic Church of Canada" which was legally renamed "Independent Anglican Church (Canada Synod)" in Supplementary Letters Patent in 1988.

This church has merged with a series of other Anglican bodies in the United States over the past half-century. None of these arrangements lasted more than a few years, after each of which the IACCS returned to its earlier status.

In 2006, the Anglican Independent Communion in the Americas, led by the Rt. Rev. John W. Gains of Georgetown, Delaware, merged with the IACCS to become the "Anglican Church, Province of North America, Inc." The union was dissolved in 2008. Bishop Gains and his parish later joined the IACCS as did Bishop Michael Fedechko, formerly Bishop Primus of the Reformed Episcopal Church of Canada, along with his parish in New Liskeard, Ontario.

The IACCS describes itself as conservative, having retained the use of the historic Book of Common Prayer, the Book of Common Praise 1938, and Anglican Chant for the Psalms and Canticles. It requires that all clergy subscribe to the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion. The church permits the ordination of both men and women as deacons, believing this to be consistent with the writings of St. Paul (Romans 16:1). The IACCS allows members to hold various views on the question of ordaining women to the priesthood; however, in practice ordination to priesthood and episcopate are reserved to men.

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