About​ Us

WAC Diocese in India​

WAC (Worldwide Anglican Church) Diocese is an Anglican Church in India, it was formed with a group of Bishops and Clergies under the leadership of The Most Revd, Dr. V. Moses Paul Raja Singh the Primitive Archbishop, Ecclesiastical Province of India, In association with the Worldwide Anglican Church, Uganda. In the year 2018 the Worldwide Anglican Church was first Introduced in India and was registered in 2019 as The Worldwide Anglican Church of India Diocese and later to accomplish the Vision for the Church the Church was registered as WAC DIOCESE ASSOCIATION under the Govt. of India.

The Worldwide Anglican Church Since 1921

We warmly welcome you to the Worldwide Anglican Church, founded in 1921 with one solid mission of evangelism and service – namely, the ‘Great Commission.’ We achieve this by being a culturally diverse, dynamic, and loving family with churches throughout the world. We are honored to be part of the rich tapestry of the ancient Anglican tradition with many of our clergies coming from Roman Catholic and Anglican seminaries, whilst others have a Methodist, Baptist and Pentecostal background before being called to the Anglican Church. We embrace this fact enthusiastically, for it enables us to meet people exactly where they are.

Although we are a conservative Church, we respect all Christians and fellowship with each other in organized Interfaith services when appropriate. Our clergies passionately serve in their communities around the world for the glory of God! We are proud to serve some of the most economically challenged communities on earth, and we work with community leaders and organizations to serve the homeless, the poor, the dying, orphans, refugees, and those whose voices cannot be heard. We are grateful to know that we have helped people in their times of suffering, sadness, crisis, and bereavement to celebrating with families in their times of joy, unions, and births. We offer services and sound biblical teachings true to the Anglican tradition and celebrate with the Book of Common Prayer.

All our churches are appropriately lively, culturally rich, and offer a combination of Anglo/Catholic Eucharist services, as well as opportunities for the expression of dance and music. Through passionate evangelism, we take you from the cross to the throne in heaven, for we firmly believe that our hope, Salvation and Resurrection Power comes from the ultimate sacrifice that our Lord made for us at Calvary.

Brief History

The name of this Church, which was organised on September 2nd, 1921, was The African Orthodox Church. Its faith, as declared, was Orthodox, in conformity with the Orthodox Churches of the east from which its Episcopate was derived. 

The African Orthodox Church (AOC) owed its Episcopate and Apostolic Authority to the Syrian Church of Antioch where their disciples were first called Christians, and of which the Sea of St Peter the Apostle was the first Bishop. 

On September 28th, 1921, in the United States, George Alexander McGuire, who was born in South Africa, served in Anglican Church in South Africa and the United States of America until 1918、until he was rejected by the administration of the Anglican Church (Canterbury) after he had been elected to the office of Bishop, was consecrated to the first Bishop and Primate of the AOC by Archbishop Joseph Rene Vilatte, assisted by Bishop Carl A. Nybladh who had been consecrated by Vilatte. Bishop McGuire was thrived to lay the foundation of the new-born AOC and on September 10th, 1924, he was elected to Archbishop. Then Archbishop McGuire declared that he is forming a sect of the Anglican Church “for our race”, thus the unity of the AOC, South Africa and the United States of America, began. Archbishop McGuire was elected as Patriarch by the Conclave of Bishops with the title of Alexander I. 

AOC implemented the reform and changed its name to Anglican African Orthodox Church (AAOC). From its inception, the AAOC set out to prevent the notion that we are a black church. We made it clear that we serve all God’s people; thus, in 2002 there was a name change to Anglican Church Worldwide (ACW.) Then ACW renounced its name and became the Worldwide Anglican Church (WAC) in July 2017. 

The work of this body began in earnest and it took (and is) in developing a strong foundation. We began in South Africa, the USA and India but now we have purview over thousands of parishes and clergies across five continents which will enhance the unified traditional Anglican faith. 
We serve across the world in the following countries: The USA, India, Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, Rwanda, Uganda, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Johannesburg, Brazil, Chile, Nicaragua, South Sudan, Barbados/West Indies, Nepal, Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Cameroon, Cape Town/ South Africa, Guatemala, Mexico, Argentina, Paraguay, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Australia, Canada, The United Kingdom. 

Worldwide Anglican Church’s Central Office is registered and incorporated in Uganda and also Registered in Ohio of the United State of America and in India.

The Anglican Communion

The roots of the Anglican, or English, Church go back as far as the 2nd century, but the church traces its current structure and status back to the reign of King Henry VIII, who ruled from 1509 to 1547.

The Worldwide Anglican Church Since 1921

The events that led to the formation of the state Anglican Church are a curious mix of ecclesiastical, political, and personal rivalries. Henry petitioned Pope Clement VII for an annulment of his marriage with Catherine of Aragon but was denied. When Protestant Thomas Cranmer became Archbishop of Canterbury, Henry saw his chance to bypass the Pope’s authority and get what he wanted. In 1531, Henry compelled the English clergy to accept him as head of the Church in England. In 1532, Henry forced the national convocation to agree in The Submission of the Clergy that they would not promulgate any papal bull in England without the king’s consent. In 1534, Henry led Parliament to pass a series of laws depriving the Roman Catholic Church of any authority in England. The Act of Supremacy declared the king to be “the supreme head of the church in England,” thus giving Henry the same legal authority over the English church that the Pope exercised over the Roman Catholic Church.

The English church didn’t assert total independence from Rome until Henry VIII’s reign, and Henry himself made little true reform in the church. The true English Reformation began during the short reign of Henry’s son Edward VI and was spearheaded by Cranmer. There had been aspects of ecclesiastical independence throughout England’s history. The Saxon church, founded by Saint Augustine in 597, was under papal direction, but not without resistance. The various tribes of England had never fully submitted to Roman occupation, and when the Roman Legion was withdrawn, the Saxon church continued on an independent course. In 664, King Oswey of Northumbria called the Synod of Whitby to merge the Saxon and Celtic churches nominally under the Roman Catholic Church. The long history of English resistance laid the groundwork for Henry’s acts in the sixteenth century.

The doctrine of the Anglican Church is an interesting mix of Catholicism and Protestant Reformation theology. The Apostles’ Creed and Nicene Creed are authoritative declarations of belief for the Anglican Church and are typically recited in worship services. Interestingly, the church does not require individuals to agree with or accept all the statements of those creeds but encourages its members to join in the process of discovery. The 39 Articles, developed in the reign of Elizabeth I, laid out the Protestant doctrine and practice of the Anglican Church, but were deliberately written to be so vague that they were open to various interpretations by Protestants and Catholics. As in the Catholic Church, the celebration of the Eucharist is central to the worship service, along with the communal offering of prayer and praise through the recitation of the liturgy. In all liturgical churches, there is a danger of allowing the form of religious ceremony (Isaiah 29:13) to replace the personal application of faith (Psalm 51:16-17). This was a key point of contention by the Puritans and others who ultimately left the Anglican Church. Thomas Shepherd, who was expelled from the Anglican Church in 1630 for non-conformity, was a spiritual giant who was concerned that people distinguish between the work of grace in genuine conversion and the religious pretense that was common within the church. (Shepherd was one of the pivotal men in the founding of Harvard College and became a mentor of Jonathan Edwards, who was mightily used of God in the Great Awakening.)

The Anglican Communion has 80 million members worldwide in 38 different church organizations, including the Episcopal Church. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the recognized spiritual head of the church, though each church organization is self-governing under its own archbishop. In addition to those churches, the Continuing Anglican Communion, established in 1977, is composed of churches which share the historic Anglican faith but reject the changes in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer as well as the ordination of women and gays/lesbians to the clergy, and have thus severed their ties with the main church. The Anglican Church in North America, formed in 2009, has broken ties with the Anglican Communion over the issue of homosexuality and does not recognize the Archbishop of Canterbury as their leader. Joining the Anglican Church in North America are the Church of Nigeria, the Church of Uganda, the Episcopal Church of South Sudan and others.

WAC and the Anglican Communion

Many of the continuing Churches of the Anglican faith wrestle with whether they are in communion with Canterbury or not.

The WAC Diocese is NOT in communion with Canterbury administratively, BUT spiritually.