The Worldwide Anglican Church began on September 2nd, 1921, and was called 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. While it admitted to membership and other privileges persons of all races, it sought particularly to reach out to millions of African descents in both hemispheres and declared itself to be perpetually autonomous and controlled by Africans. Hence the name, African Orthodox.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 See of St Peter the Apostle was the first Bishop.

In a Bull issued by Ignatius Peter III, Patriarch of Antioch and the East, permission was given for the Consecration of the Priest Joseph Rene Vilatte as Archbishop – Metropolitan of the Archdiocese of America, namely, for churches adhering to the Orthodox Faith; and, on May 29th, 1892, Archbishop Vilatte was duly consecrated in Ceylon by Archbishop Julius Alvarez, assisted by the Syrian Bishops George Gregorius and Paul Athanasius, all three being under obedience of the Patriarch of Antioch. His Grace, the Most Rev ++ George Alexander McGuire, the first Bishop, Metropolitan Archbishop of the African Orthodox Church was born on March 28, 1866, in Sweets, Antigua. He was also a physician and surgeon at the Boston College of Physicians and Surgeons, was an Episcopal priest, who became involved in a movement to establish a Black Anglican denomination. He was consecrated a Bishop on September 21, 1921, in Chicago, according to the book “Black Moses: The Story of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association.”

Father McGuire left his Boston pulpit in 1920 to become Chaplain General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, founded by Garvey. McGuire served many years with UNIA, which was based in New York. Garvey argued that “God was made in our image—black.” When the Fourth International Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World met in 1924, Bishop McGuire urged Negroes to name a day when they would tear down and burn pictures of a white Madonna and white Christ in our homes. “Then let us start our Negro painters getting busy,” Bishop McGuire said. “And supply a black Madonna and a black Christ for the training of our children.” At the time of his death on November 10, 1934, the African Orthodox Church had 30,000 members and about 50 clergies in 30 parishes in the United States, Africa, Cuba, Antigua, and Venezuela. He was canonized by the African Orthodox Church on July 31, 1983. He is a saint of the church.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the Church played a massive role in the fight against APARTHEID in South Africa and worked with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr in the United States of America. In 1997, AOC implemented the reform and changed its name to the 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.) WAC formed an International Congress on Faith and Justice with the intention of fighting for civil rights across the world. The WAC believes it is our duty to speak for those who have no voice, and whose lives are subjected to cruelty, racism, and discrimination.

Unjust leadership prompts the Church Reformation. The initiative to commence the ACW reform was taken by the prevailing Bishops and Priests because of the egocentric leadership, obscure accounting and duplicitous exploitation demonstrated by the former Presiding Archbishop in Illinois, USA during his administration. Following the eradication of wrongful concords of the previous administration, the ACW renounced its name and became the Worldwide Anglican Church (WAC) in July 2017, and Installed its new Patriarch, His Grace the Most Rev ++ Christopher Lwanga Tusubira.

A historical appointment. After much prayer, fasting, and discussion, the WAC and Mercy Worldwide Ministries Anglican Church (MWMAC) came into Intercommunion with each other to form a robust union in December 2018. In addition to this Intercommunion, The WAC Worldwide Anglican Church is honored to have an unbroken lineage in both the West and East Succession.)

To this day, The Presiding Bishop Patriarch of the Worldwide Anglican Church is the Most Rev Christopher Lwanga Tusubira from Uganda.

In August 2019, a conference was held to expand ongoing theological traditions within the church. As a result of the deliberations, the conference resolved to expand the church by appointing new Bishops in The United States, Europe,  India, China, South Asia, Latin America and the rest of the world.  The WAC formally approved the resolution of the conference of which regulates the expansion of the church and the inheritance of orders from East and West led by The Patriarch Christopher Lwanga Tusubira.  Furthermore, The WAC arrived at a partnership agreement and agreed to maintain mutual cooperation and mutual apostolic succession with its partners and affiliates.