Anglican Church steps back from tactic used in its formation.

OK, gang. Way back when the Anglican Church in North America was getting formed, before ACNA was all nice and prettied up, ACNA precursor dioceses, and diocese like entities were given to all sorts of border crossing for purposes noble and otherwise.  The former now deposed Bishop of Pittsburgh did an amazing shell game involving David Moyer who went to Africa for a day and then returned to the fold of the Episcopal Church by way of Pittsburgh where his deposition was held to be invalid.  The thing is, this made Moyer, resident in the Diocese of Pennsylvania, a priest of the Diocese of Pittsburgh.  This was at the very least a matter of 'overlapping jurisdictions,' and since then Bishop Duncan was still a bishop in The Episcopal Church, highly irregular, not to say un-canonical. But never mind. It was, it was suggested, for a noble cause. 

True also for such overlapping jurisdictions as a diocese in the US being "housed" for some weird Anglican purpose, in the Province of the Southern Cone, or CANA congregations in ANCA areas where there is an area bishop, and well... you know... all sorts of messy stuff like that.

Well it turns out that ACNA kind of gets it.  The old order: one diocese defined by area, one ecclesiastical authority, one province, and so forth, is about "godly Anglican Church structures."  Anglican INK reports on the meeting of the ACNA college of bishops and writes, 

"A report on overlapping dioceses and episcopal jurisdictions was also presented to the College.  A communique from the meeting stated the ACNA sought to bring the church into conformity “with historic Anglican practice. The goal of the work is to organize each region for the long-term sustainability of the movement in recognizable, godly Anglican Church structures.”

So, it appears that slamming the jurisdictional argument is just fine when you are not getting your way in the old order. But holding to it when you are organizing in a new structure is even better.

This has an edge of a very old insanity about it. 

Still, perhaps ACNA finally gets it.  Now, since there ought not be two overlapping jurisdictions (certainly without agreement among the parties) both claiming to be the Province of the Anglican Communion in the United States, or in Canada, perhaps ACNA will be interested in reconsidering if it really wants to be a Province of the Anglican Communion overlapping or in place of The Episcopal Church and/ or the Anglican Church of Canada. At the outset it doesn't seem very much like a "godly Anglican Church structure" thingy.

Then again maybe ACNA is just playing around with words, being one thing here, another there, always to its own benefit.  

Hard to tell.