As Christ-centered Episcopalians, we have inherited the faith of the undivided Catholic Church once practiced in the British Isles; together with the apostolic orders of bishop, priest and deacon, in succession from the Apostles of our Lord; and the discipline and moral standard of the historic Catholic Christian Church. In 1979, St. Augustine of Canterbury Church began in a house with two Chico families. They acquired the services of a retired Episcopal priest (Father Reed) for Communion once a month. A new church was formed. This group later moved into the Seventh Day Adventist facilities. Then the growing parish bought its own building at 8th & Spruce Avenues in Chico in 1987. In 1994, St. Augustine's bought Chico's historic Episcopal church building at 3rd and Salem Streets in downtown Chico, rescuing it from 12 years of being a Chinese restaurant and bar complex. The building has been restored to the faith, order and discipline of the sanctuary's first worshippers who built it in 1904. The Anglican Movement The Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA) continued in the faith, order and discipline of historic Christianity until it became radically restructured, particularly at the 1976 General Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota. ECUSA adopted sweeping changes to accommodate several "New Age" beliefs and practices. These changes have been further advanced since 1976, including: 1. the theological innovations of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer; 2. bishops denying Trinitarian theology and the Deity of Jesus Christ; 3. refusal to uphold the authority of the Bible and Scriptural standards of morality in the church; 4. the ordination of women to the priesthood and the episcopacy; and 5. a growing confusion about the nature of human sexuality, resulting in tolerance of homosexual ordinations, "same-sex" unions, and abortion as a convenient means of birth control. Concerned Episcopal clergy and laity who objected to these changes in their church gathered at St. Louis, Missouri, in 1977, where they declared their statement of faith, The Affirmation of St. Louis, expressing commitment to true orthodox Christianity. They called themselves at various times "The Anglican Movement" and "The Continuing Church." The Anglican Province of Christ the King The creation of the Diocese (now The Anglican Province) of Christ the King put the St. Louis statement of faith into action. Six western parishes joined together and elected as their first Bishop the Rev. Robert Sherwood Morse, then rector of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Oakland, California. On January 28, 1978, in Denver, Colorado, Father Morse was consecrated Bishop of the Diocese of Christ the King by the Rt. Rev. Albert A. Chambers, retired Episcopal Bishop of Springfield, Illinois, as chief consecrator. Since that time, Christ the King has progressed from a small diocese of concerned Episcopalians to a growing national province of many churches, blessed to promote the historic Christian faith in the Anglican tradition. New churches are being built (and old ones like ours restored) all over the country, and a national headquarters has been established at the Parish of Christ the King in Washington, D.C. The Saint Joseph of Arimathea Anglican Theological College in Berkeley, California, since 1980 has produced a steadily increasing number of dedicated clergy trained with a classic seminary education for Christian ministry for a believing Anglican Church and for the promotion of God's Truth to an unbelieving world. It is the only seminary of its kind. Not Alone What happened in ECUSA is also happening in other major denominations internationally. A new "gospel" is being presented in which the timeless truths of Christianity are denigrated in favor of humanism, ecology, psychology, political agenda, and a strident disregard for moral absolutes. How did this occur? About 150 years ago, German theologians developed a new "scientific" approach to The Bible which produced doubt in the authenticity of its sources and thus demoted the Word of God to the status of a "mere human document written by people of weak and insufficient understanding." These "scholars" treated the Bible as an artifact, instead of as an Historic Fact. The most recent example of this school of thought is the "Jesus Seminar," which produced five color-coded "Gospels," and announcing that 80% of biblical quotes attributed to Christ were fake. This teaching, filtering down from Germany, England and America through many Christian seminaries have produced the recent anti-biblical stands on moral issues' perversions that undermine the social fabric of family, home, church, and the saving faith of Christ crucified. As a result, mainline denominations in America and Europe have dwindled in size, losing millions of members in just a few decades. The reason to worship God has been lost in a cloud of conflicting causes and frustrated Christians have faced new agenda imposed on the churches by the world. Feminism has produced strange results indeed while trying to adapt itself to Christianity. Applying the world's standard of "gender equality" to God's ordained ministry has destroyed the uniqueness of the female, and neutered all males. When a woman attempts to present herself in the place of Jesus Christ-the Bridegroom-to His Bride-the Church, she turns the worship of God into a mere social experiment, at best. The worship of the female "goddess" has been promoted at feminist religious conventions, leading to excursions into witchcraft. Using the church to further this practice kills all zeal for salvation and makes a mockery of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for us. What Do We Stand For?
As Christ called His Church to be both salt and light to this fallen world, we believe that committed action to correct political, economic or environmental evils is the vital duty for all believing Christians. Such action, however, should never be a substitute for a relationship of faith in the mystery of the Incarnate and Transcendent Christ Jesus, our only means of redemption. The Church's duty is to believe, understand and then to teach Christ's revelation to this contemporary world. We stand firmly on these things in order to contend for "that faith once delivered to the saints." (St. Jude 3) |
We
are an Episcopal Church with a traditional message
and a traditional form of worship. We use exclusively the 1928 Book
of Common Prayer. Our membership in the Anglican Province
of Christ the King, the Diocese of the Western
States, both led by 
Archbishop
James Eugene Provence, entitles us to full Apostolic, Anglican
orders, the comfort of the Holy Sacraments, an uncompromised assurance
of the authority of Holy Scriptures, and a nationwide and growing
church body of very enthusiastic believers without affiliation
to the Episcopal Church, USA.
The
Anglican Province of Christ the King stands for historic
Christianity, expressed in Holy Scripture, in the Creeds, and in
the best Episcopal and Anglican traditions. We experience and express
our beliefs through timeless worship, profoundly respectful of and
intimately involved with our Almighty God. His essential message
to each of us for our personal redemption through Jesus Christ has
not and will not ever change, and so we remain faithful to this
calling.