ORTHODOX ANGLICANS DEFEND OHIO ACTION AS NECESSARY PASTORAL RESPONSE

Multiple traditionalist Anglican groups—including Anglicans United, Forward in Faith/North America (FIF/NA), and the American Anglican Council—expressed strong support for the Ohio confirmations, framing them as a necessary act of compassion amid decades of theological drift.

Canon Kendall Harmon (Diocese of South Carolina) called the move “an act offered out of deep pastoral concern” for Episcopalians alienated by liberal leadership, adding: “Religious authorities often struggle with the offer of genuine compassion to those who are oppressed.” He urged bishops to provide “Adequate Episcopal Oversight,” as envisioned by Anglican Primates in 2003, warning that failure would deepen division.

FIF/NA President Rev. Dr. David Moyer linked the Ohio event to a 2000 precedent in Pennsylvania, stressing that such actions “are not acts of provocation, but responses to the ongoing crisis of faith and authority.” Anglicans United’s Rev. Todd Wetzel argued that “ecclesiastical disobedience… in good conscience” is now morally justified—mirroring tactics long used by liberal factions to advance same-sex blessings and ordinations.

He noted Ohio’s membership has fallen from 40,000 to under 24,000 in two decades and demanded “Godly oversight” for every traditional parish: “The old notion of diocesan boundaries has already been destroyed by the liberals.”