Anglican Orthodox Church
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The Anglican Orthodox Church (AOC) is a small Anglican body that separated from the Episcopal Church in the USA in 1963. Although often considered one of the Continuing Anglican churches because it shares with them various conservative doctrinal emphases, the Anglican Orthodox Church preceded the founding of the Continuing Church movement by a decade and a half. The Rev. James Parker Dees, a North Carolina priest of the Episcopal Church left that church because of a concern that it had become steadily more politically and theologically liberal.
The Most Rev. James Parker Dees was consecrated a bishop for the AOC by bishops representing the Ukranian Autocephalic Orthodox Church and the United Episcopal Church. Thereafter, Bishop Dees, as the AOC's new presiding bishop, established the church's offices in Statesville, North Carolina where they remain today. At one time the church reported forty parishes in the United States as well as overseas affiliates in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Pacific basin. Bishop Dees died during heart surgery in 1990. The church currently is led by the Most Rev. Jerry L. Ogles of Enterpise, Alabama, the bishop of the United States and Metropolitan of the Anglican Orthodox Church International.
The Anglican Orthodox Church firmly holds to the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, the use of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, the Homilies, and the Holy Scriptures as containing all that is necessary for salvation. Additionally, the church preaches the importance of Biblical morality both in the individual's life and as public policy. The AOC strongly identifies itself as in the Anglican Low Church tradition, and rejects the use of the title "Father" for its ministers, as well as many of the priestly vestments commonly used in other Anglican jurisdictions, the five "minor sacraments," and any veneration of the saints.
In 2007, the Anglican Orthodox Church reported seven parishes in the USA and Canada, plus bishops and churches in other countries including India, Liberia, Madagascar, South Africa, Kenya, the Philippines, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands. The church holds a triennial convention in the same years as does the Episcopal Church USA.
