The Diocese of the Holy Cross (DHC) is a constituent diocese of the Anglican Catholic Church, a continuing Anglican church body in the United States. Unlike most dioceses, it is not geographically defined.[1]
The DHC was formed by clergy and parishes belonging to the Anglican Province of Christ the King (APCK).On March 5, 2003, Ash Wednesday, the Diocese of the Holy Cross seceded from the Anglican Province of Christ the King over questions surrounding the successor of Robert S. Morse, James Provence, following a disagreement with the APCK over the election of a divorced and remarried priest to be a bishop in the church.[2][3]
The diocese's founding bishop, Robert Waggener, unsuccessfully sought to lead the diocese into the Eastern Orthodox Church. Meeting with little support, Waggener left Anglicanism to become a Western-Rite Orthodox priest in the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America.[4]
The DHC became a member of the Federation of Anglican Churches in the Americas,[5][6] of Forward in Faith UK, and maintains friendly relations with other continuing churches.[7]
In response to the Apostolic Constitution for a Personal Ordinariate, Bishop Paul Hewett characterized the initiative as "generous, courageous, creative and unprecedented" but determined that the offer needed careful discernment and that it should not be a distraction from "the vital work of setting our own house in order."[8]
In January 2016, the Anglican Catholic Church, the Anglican Church in America, the Anglican Province of America, and the Diocese of the Holy Cross reached a formal accord. Forming the Anglican Joint Synods, a "Group of 4" churches, called the G-4, pursuing eventual corporate unity.[9]