ACNA '09: New Bishop to be consecrated for FiF North America Missionary Diocese

by Rev'd Keith Acker,
FiFNA News Release
June 22, 2009

Meeting on Sunday, in Fort Worth, Texas, the College of Bishops of the new province of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) elected the Revd William Ilgenfritz as the new bishop of a new Missionary Diocese of All Saints. Father Ilgenfritz will head a cluster of Forward in Faith North America affiliated congregations whose mission is to bring Christ and establish congregations in the historic Anglican tradition of the Christian Faith.

Father Ilgenfritz (62), Rector in Diocese of Pittsburgh (Anglican), Charleroi, Pennsylvania USA, will be consecrated by Archbishop Robert Duncan (Primate of the ACNA, Anglican Communion), the bishops of FiFNA and other bishops of the ACNA College of Bishops.

Father Ilgenfritz was nominated by FiFNA seven years ago by FiFNA, an pan-Anglican organization "upholding the faith and order of the undivided Church." Father Ilgenfritz was put forward to lead this missionary effort by a vote of FiFNA congregation, not an appointment by the College of Bishops.

This consecration is significant in the sense two areas: the FiFNA insistence that the consent for the consecration comes not only from the organization but also affirmed under the authority of the larger Anglican world; and FiFNA shifting to an intentionally mission oriented structure.

The larger FiFNA organization will continue its teaching mission which spans the partner jurisdictions of the ACNA, but also other jurisdictions including wide spectrum of The Episcopal Church to the Traditional Anglican Communion. This teaching effort is seeing significant acknowledgement that the Priesthood of Jesus is not a functional leadership of bishops and priests, but the bishop/priest is the icon, the man Jesus being made visible to the Christian community. The ACNA has affirmed in its constitution the appropriateness of male persons as its bishops, although not yet having extended this teaching to the closely related priest ('presbyter').

Father Ilgenfritz is scheduled to be consecrated on August, 22nd at Charleroi, Pennsylvania. It is expected that several Primates from other parts of the worldwide Anglican Communion will take part in the consecration along with the Archbishop and College of Bishops of the Anglican Church in North America.

Biographical Background:

The Reverend William Ilgenfritz

The Rev'd William Ilgenfritz, a one-time U.S. Steel employee, was baptized at St. Stephen's in McKeesport in 1946. He has served working with troubled teenagers in Kansas, enrolled in Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in 1981, was ordained to the priesthood in 1986, and has served at parishes and youth related ministries before returning to Pennsylvania to be Rector at Charleroi.

The Rev'd William Ilgenfritz is a national Anglo-Catholic leader and a youth advocate having served in five states. Fr. Ilgenfritz has been active in Forward in Faith North America (www.ForwardinFaith.com) since 1999. In 2002 he was nominated by the FiFNA Assembly with the request for his being made a bishop for those affiliated with the Anglo-Catholic organization. His nomination was again affirmed by the FiFNA Assembly of 2007 as the Common Cause Partnership was beginning to form what would become the new province of the Anglican Church in North America. Fr. Ilgenfritz has served as Chaplain at St. Jude's Ranch for Children in Nevada, and the Executive Director of the Children's Aid Society.

The Rev'd William Ilgenfritz (1946), and his wife, Lois, have 2 children and 6 grandchildren.