On Feb. 8, the diocesan council of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas officially welcomed Resurrection South Austin, a church planted by the Anglican Church in North America, which itself was formed when some 700 dissident parishes broke away from the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada in 2009 over disagreements about marriage for same-sex couples and the ordination of women.

The second ACNA parish to enter the Episcopal Church, Resurrection South Austin doesn’t represent a return to Episcopalianism. It was founded in 2015, years after the ACNA split, and only a small percentage of its congregants are former Episcopalians. This fits the profile of most in ACNA’s pews: Though data is sparse, the churches that have prospered most seem to be those founded since the split.

“It would be difficult for me to name one person who had been in the Episcopal Church,” said Shawn McCain Tirres, Resurrection South Austin’s founder and rector, or senior priest. That includes all of Resurrection South Austin’s clergy, he added.

Like many ACNA churches, it is full of people who grew up in a conservative evangelical Christian church and sought out Anglicanism after becoming frustrated with the evangelical tradition. Over time, the parishioners began to realize that the kind of Anglicanism they wanted to practice would be a better fit in the Episcopal Church than ACNA.

When the question was put to the church membership in 2023, about 120 people — 85% — voted to disaffiliate from ACNA. Some parishioners and at least one priest at Resurrection who didn’t want to join the Episcopal Church founded a new ACNA church instead, Immanuel Anglican. (Requests for comment from leadership there went unanswered.)

“I’m excited,” said Bishop Kai Ryan, a suffragan, or assisting, bishop in Resurrection’s new home diocese. “They have a strong ministry in South Austin, and they gather and form people in Christian discipleship. They will bring a lot of gifts,” she added.

In an essay in The Living Church, an Episcopal publication, McCain Tirres cited ACNA’s “treatment of women, people of color, and sexual minorities” as key reasons for moving. “And, while within contemporary Anglican politics there’s a tendency to fixate on matters of sexuality (important as they are), I want to resist this oversexualized reductionism.” 

In an interview, McCain Tirres further explained that his congregants “wanted rootedness and wanted to feel connected to something ancient and global” in joining the long-established form of American Anglicanism. He described the parish as “low-key high church,” which broadly refers to a greater emphasis on the Eucharist and ritual, as well as more traditional music. McCain Tirres said that for him it also means making it clear the church welcomes children and their noise and desire to wander around during the service as a blessing to the community.

He said the sacramental character of the Episcopal Church has particular appeal to those who grew up in an evangelical tradition. “The good news about the sacraments is whether or not you feel it, or whether or not you believe it, God is there. That’s reassuring in a world of doubts. I don’t have to have it all together. The community holds me in faith even when my faith is shaking,” he said.

But their parish isn’t just about the liturgy. Rez, as congregants call their church, is involved with El Buen Samaritano (The Good Samaritan), a Diocese of Texas ministry that provides services to the poor. As an ACNA church, McCain Tirres said, the parish felt it could not fully express its desire to serve those in need. 

“Reverence for God without reverence for the poor doesn’t make sense in the Christian faith,” he said. “Some of the conservative evangelicals would flag that as social justice or ‘woke.’ It transgresses something fundamental to white evangelicalism,” he said, adding that some ACNA Christians had called the parish “Marxist” or “woke.”

“We’re a part of this (Episcopal) diocesan family because we found people who are doing the same things we’re doing, ministries of reconciliation without reservation,” he said.

Resurrection South Austin’s former diocese, the Diocese of Churches for the Sake of Others, declined to comment on the church’s departure.

Tashara Angelle, a parishioner who is now a seminarian for the Diocese of Texas, said Resurrection’s care for the poor was what drew her. “We came because we loved Rez, and how they were seeking justice for the marginalized,” she said.

Angelle, who is Black, said these concerns were central to her faith. “The Black church is very involved in social justice issues, and we knew we had to be somewhere that was a priority, and part of your faith. It’s not just Rez, but the Episcopal Church, that’s a thing they care about. There’s a very spiritual side,” she said.

Over time, she said of Resurrection, “it became obvious we were moving away from the ACNA,” noting, “We felt a little bit like we were on an island.” Though the congregants didn’t know much about the Episcopal Church, she said, “There’s so much community, and it’s so stabilized, and there’s other like-minded clergy,” which was not the case in ACNA. “It feels really good to come into something that’s settled.”

Having attended Church of God in Christ, Baptist and nondenominational churches, Angelle said her own spiritual path had begun to track toward Anglicanism and the priesthood after she encountered Anglican authors, such as Esau McCaulley, a Black evangelical who had become an ACNA priest. She praised McCain Tirres for supporting and developing her call to ministry, which wasn’t an option for women in the local ACNA churches.

Joel Yu and his family had been Presbyterians until they began attending Resurrection about a year ago. “It’s a bit of an unexpected turn for us as a family that had been Presbyterian for a long time,” he said. “We wouldn’t have thought about being Episcopalian a few years ago, but we’re really excited.”

Yu said he appreciated the episcopal (or bishop-centered) polity that gives the denomination its name. While ACNA has bishops, the denomination’s structure intentionally includes more autonomy for dioceses and parishes, in order to allow for doctrinal differences. “As someone who’s been involved in nondenominational churches, it’s nice to feel like there’s some accountability and support at the diocesan level for the church and church leadership,” he said. 

Parishioner Adisyn Pyles and her family had returned to the U.S. after living overseas for several years, and were looking for a church that was passionate about social justice with a developed sense of liturgy. Searching for an Episcopal church and not knowing the difference between the Episcopal Church and ACNA, she came across Resurrection and joined. She feels as if “the move really aligns with our values,” she said.

Pyles has spent her career working with women who have been sexually abused or trafficked, and Resurrection’s commitment to serving those in need, including women at a local domestic violence refuge, appealed to her. Growing up in evangelical churches, she was frustrated by what she felt was a lack of attention to a “holistic gospel.”

While a move from ACNA to the Episcopal Church is rare, McCain Tirres said, the desire for justice-oriented community is not. “Our generation is beginning to take the teachings of Jesus seriously,” he said.

Greta Gaffin is a freelance writer and contributor to Religion News Service.