Though it will be difficult for the CCP effort to gain recognition from two-thirds of Anglican archbishops and their provinces, Virtue reported that 22 such provinces have already declared themselves to be in "impaired" or "broken" communion with TEC.
Bishop Martyn Minns, a leader in the Common Cause Partnership, claimed nearly a dozen primates will support the new province, which is about half the number required for recognition.
However, Rev. Dr. Ephraim Radner, a leading conservative Episcopal theologian living in Toronto, Canada, has argued that the obstacles to the new Anglican group will be nearly insurmountable, according to VirtueOnline.org.
Rev. Radner noted that the Communion Partners group, a reform group advocating orthodoxy within TEC, will not be part of the new project but has 13 dioceses, various parishes, and more than 300,000 in membership.
Litigation will continue and not all primates will recognize the new province, Radner argued, claiming it will be another source of division and will ultimately strengthen both TEC and the Anglican Church of Canada.
The organization seeking to form a new province "will move forward as continuing and undisciplined members of the Communion. All of this will merely hasten the demise of our common life, even among Global South churches themselves," Radner said, according to VirtueOnline.org.
Robert S. Munday, president and dean of the Episcopal seminary Nashotah House, disagreed, saying Episcopalians who want to remain faithful Anglicans should be able to form their own province in communion with as many other Anglican provinces as possible.
Munday also argued against concerns that the new province tries to bring together too many diverse bodies with differing theological and ecclesiological views.
"The diversity in theology is notably less than that which has brought the Anglican Communion into crisis," Munday said, according to VirtueOnline.org. "If Anglicanism has held together for nearly five hundred years, a Province united in its commitment to the authority of Scripture and Gospel-centered mission and ministry will have even less trouble doing so; and it may, in fact, succeed in healing some of the theological divisions that have troubled Anglicanism in the past."
David L. Holmes a professor of religious history at the College of William & Mary, was more optimistic about the CCP’s prospects, saying: "My hunch would be that this new Anglican denomination will persist over the years. We cannot predict the future."
Episcopal Bishop of Washington John Chane criticized the proposal:
(Story continues below)
Subscribe to our daily newsletter
"We face our share of problems in the Episcopal Church, but wholesale defections to a movement committed to denying gay and lesbian Christians the birthright of their baptism is not one of them."
John Bauerschmidt, the Episcopal Bishop of Tennessee, also criticized CCP advocates, claiming that catholic Christianity is not "self-authenticating" and cannot establish its credentials simply by asserting them. He also appealed to the authority of Scripture and the creeds and councils of the Christian church.
David Virtue responded to Bishop Bauerschmidt, saying the new province formed "precisely because TEC could not affirm the authority of the Scriptures, does not believe in the ‘faith once delivered’, and has substituted faith with sexual inclusivity and a very perverse theological diversity."
Virtue predicted that an Episcopalian General Convention will test the consciences of remaining "loyal orthodox" dioceses. He also predicted that the developing Anglican Church of North America will win the recognition of many other Anglican primates.
While describing it as an "unlikely scenario" at present, he warned that if the Archbishop of Canterbury does not recognize the new Anglican province, some provinces in the "global South" will eventually be forced to end their relationship with Canterbury and "the Communion will be lost."