It will take sometime to write the history of the ACW. Now completing its first decade, it
was born out of the need to preserve the traditional faith. We do not claim to have all
the answers, but we stand by the Word of God.
The ACW was formed in 1997, from the roots of the African Orthodox Church (AOC),
which began in South Africa, and was commissioned here in the United States.It was
formed in 1919, by Archbishop George Alexander McGuire, a black Moravian minister
from the Caribbean country of Antigua who was rejected to be consecrated by his
Anglican brethren after he had been elected to the office of Bishop in the church.
Taking a handful of people with him, he moved to New York and declared that he was
forming a church for "our race". Thus, the unity of the AOC, South Africa and the USA
began. As the years rolled after his death in 1934, the AOC fell on hard times and as
with all denominations there was a split, in which our beloved Archbishop George
Ford, 1897- 2004, carried on the mantle. In 1997, a group of like minded, priests and
bishops began the Anglican /African Orthodox Church; and to prevent the notion that
we are a black church, the name was Changed in 2002, to Anglican Church
Worldwide, which we are today.
The word of this body began in earnest in that year and it took (and is) in
developing a strong foundation. We began in New York and Illinois, but
now is represented in Asia, the Caribbean, Europe and Africa.
In 2003, we began to look at mergers with other Anglican branches, but
we found that while those we sought mergers were true to the faith, their
administrative positions were not as our; thus, we decided to build on that
which we began and leave mergers alone.
A proper history of the ACW cannot be written today, it is today early. We shall hope
that our successors will write the history of this church, and it is our hope that we who
have planted the seed of growth, while we will not see it, will bear fruit that brings
others to the kingdom of God. We pray at that time that much will not be said of who
we were, but that what we have done as our motto proudly declares, "Reaching out to
the word and …..beyond." Under the protection of the Cross.
