The Anglican Province of Christ the King

The American based Province of Christ the King is Christ-centered and celebrates Apostolic Christianity in the Anglican tradition. Our beliefs are founded on Holy Scripture, the ancient creeds of the Church and New Testament morality. They are expressed in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, used in our worship services.

In the aftermath of World War II, attacks upon the Christian faith concerned many Episcopalians. These attacks peaked in the 1976 General Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota, when the Episcopal Church made sweeping changes. The convention abandoned the majestic spirituality and apostolic faith of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. The convention allowed bishops and priests to break their vows and renounce the doctrines and disciplines of the apostolic Church.

Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Episcopalian clergy and laity gathered in 1977 in St. Louis, Missouri. They issued a statement of faith, the Affirmation of St. Louis, which confirmed their belief in orthodox Christianity. With the authority of the Affirmation, six parishes formed the Anglican Province of Christ the King, electing as Bishop the Rev. Robert Sherwood Morse, rector of St. Peter’s, Oakland, California. Father Morse was consecrated to the episcopacy by the requisite three bishops on January 28, 1978. The Rt. Rev. Albert A. Chambers, retired Episcopal Bishop of Springfield, Illinois, served as chief consecrator.

The Province of Christ the King has grown to three dioceses: The Diocese of the Western States, the Diocese of the Atlantic States and the Diocese of the Southwestern States.

In 1979, to ensure future priests would be trained in the apostolic faith, the Province of Christ the King established the Saint Joseph of Arimathea Theological College in Berkeley, California, under the patronage of this legendary founder of English Christianity.

The Province embodies the Anglican faith that has produced:

• The King James Bible
• The literature of writers such as William Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot, C.S. Lewis and Dorothy Sayers
• Eleven U.S. Presidents and most of our Nation’s founding fathers

Our parishes are open to all who seek the love of God and an eternal and unchanging faith, founded in Christ and expressed in a timeless liturgy.

The 1928 Book of Common Prayer

All the churches of the Anglican Provence of Christ the King express our worship through the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Its liturgy is direct, scripture based and sound. It is lyrical, majestic and poetic. You will notice its use of Shakespearean English (e.g. “thee” and “thou”). That is because the liturgy reflects its roots of that era. Our conversation with God employs a language justly unique to that conversation.