United Episcopal Church of North America

United Episcopal Church of North America
Updated UECNA crest
Classification	Continuing Anglican
Orientation	Classical Anglican - Broad to Low Church
Polity	Episcopal with Apostolic Succession
Leader	Peter D. Robinson
Associations	Intercommunion with Anglican Catholic Church and the Anglican Province of Christ the King
Region	North America
Founder	Charles Doren
Origin	1981 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Separated from	Anglican Catholic Church
Congregations	30 parishes, missions and affiliated congregations
unitedepiscopalchurch.org

The United Episcopal Church of North America (UECNA) is a traditional Anglican Christian church that is part of the Continuing Anglican movement. It is not part of the Anglican Communion.

The UECNA describes itself as "embracing the broad base of ceremonial practice inherent in the Historic Anglican Communion" though historically the UECNA has tended to be Low or Broad Church in its ceremonial practice. The UECNA uses the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, in the US, and the 1962 edition of the Canadian Prayer Book in Canada. Occasional use of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer is permitted.

The changes in the mainline denominations that it and other continuing churches object to include the acceptance of lax policies on the authority of Scripture, divorce, abortion, the ordination of women, and changes to the theology of the Book of Common Prayer. They also object to more recent innovations such as the ordination of openly homosexual clergy, but these were not at issue when they broke with the Episcopal Church.

The origins of the United Episcopal Church of North America lie with the Congress of St. Louis in September 1977, and with Charles D. D. Doren, the first bishop consecrated for the Anglican Church of North America (Episcopal) - later called the Anglican Catholic Church. Doren had been elected bishop of the Diocese of the Midwest immediately following the St. Louis meeting, and was consecrated on 28 January 1978 by Albert A. Chambers, acting bishop of the ACNA(E), and Francisco Pagtakhan. Letters of consent were received from bishops Mark Pae of Taejon, Korea, and Charles Boynton, formerly Assistant Bishop of New York. He was translated to the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic states in 1979, but he soon backed away from active participation in the Anglican Catholic Church. He was alienated by the numerous constitution and canonical revisions undertaken in 1978-1981, and by the "stained glass ceiling" which kept Low Church clergy out of the episcopate. He finally resigned his diocese at the end of 1980.

Parallel to Bishop Doren's departure from active episcopal ministry in the ACC, three parishes left the Anglican Catholic Church, and set about the task of forming a body that would be more hospitable to Classical Anglican, and especially to Low Churchmen. This led to the creation of the United Episcopal Church of North America, at a meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in October 1981. The standing committee of the new jurisdiction invited Bishop Doren to be its first bishop and, subsequently, the first archbishop. In more recent years, the church has described itself as representing the Broad/Central and Low Church traditions, but it also has one or two parishes from the Anglo-Catholic tradition. The church's constitution and canons are modeled on the PECUSA's 1958 code with some amendments, including provisions for the erection of dioceses in Canada, and more specific direction is given as to the circumstances in which the jurisdiction will consecrate bishops for overseas. The last significant revision of the UECNA canons was made in 1992/1996 with minor amendments being made in 2011 and 2014.