ACNA - why so many diocese?

[tampasteve]

Can anyone explain why the ACNA has so many non-geographical boundaries? Obviously there is some history behind this, but it is unclear to me.

 

[Arcangl86]

Can anyone explain why the ACNA has so many non-geographical boundaries? Obviously there is some history behind this, but it is unclear to me.

I'm not ACNA, but my understanding is that many of the bodies that came together to form ACNA already had dioceses that were pretty large on a geographic level, and that the existing dioceses, some of which were semi-independent to begin with, didn't want to be merged. I could be misunderstanding it though.

 

[Shane R]

ACNA is more a confederation than a unified church. When ACNA formed it was pulling dioceses in from 5 or 6 different places and many of them overlapped. Then they formed a few affinity dioceses to suit the piety of certain parishes, which further complicated the map. Archbishop Beach had briefly talked quite a bit about moving to a more geographical model but there has never seemed to be much inertia for that. What bishop actually wants to cede 6 parishes to some other diocese and get 2 in return because it makes sense on the map?

 

[tampasteve]

Thanks for the explanation!