Developed as an effort among evangelical, charismatic and Pentecostal, and liturgical Christians and denominations blending their forms of worship,[3] the movement has been defined for its predominant use of the Anglican tradition's Book of Common Prayer; use from additional liturgical sources common to Lutheranism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Catholicism have also been employed.
[13][14] In 1973, Campus Crusade for Christ missionary Peter E. Gillquist (1938–2012) of Chicago established a network of house churches throughout the United States of America, aiming to restore a primitive form of Christianity, which was called the New Covenant Apostolic Order.
Researching Christian history, Gillquist and his colleagues found sources for this restoration in the writings of the early Church Fathers.
[15] In 1977, "The Chicago Call" was issued by the National Conference of Evangelicals for Historic Christianity, meeting in Warrenville, Illinois.
Professor of Theology at Wheaton College), along with Peter Gillquist, Thomas Howard, Richard Holt, Donald Bloesch, Jan Dennis, Lane Dennis, and Victor Oliver, the conference discussed the need for evangelical Protestants to rediscover and re-attach to the Christian Church's historic roots.
[17] The belief of needing apostolic succession and the historic episcopacy led most members of Evangelical Orthodoxy to join the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America in 1987.
[21] Lovelace approvingly noted the trend of Catholics, Evangelicals, and Charismatic and Pentecostal Christians moving closer together.
[22] By 2007, former Charismatic Episcopal Archbishop Randolph Sly joined the Catholic Church and was ordained into the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, broadening recognition of the Convergence Movement among the ancient liturgical Christian denominations.
[31][11] Palmer's death was initially disclosed by Archbishop Charles Hill of Ambassadors for Christ Ministries of America,[32][33][34] whom he also befriended and was member of the same communion.
[38][39] This denomination led by Hill upon their departure from the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches also uniquely claims to hold apostolic succession and continuity with Ancient Egyptian polytheistic religious practices;[40] their additional claims to succession and the historic episcopate stem from various wandering bishops within Independent and Old Catholicism, the American Orthodox Catholic Church, Anglicanism, and Gnosticism.
[41][42] In May 2023, a religious university founded by Hill for their Charismatic denomination conferred an honorary degree upon Liberian politician Matthew Zarzar.
[47] Alvarez and the Convergence Movement were featured by Religion News Service, after a trend of young Christians returning to traditional churches.
Joining this denomination, Lumanog was declared to have no ecclesiastical status through any province of the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans following his election and ordination to the episcopacy by Archbishop Darel Chase.
[76] Since the advent of Convergence Christianity, numerous denominations and organizations have sought or claimed apostolic succession through excommunicated Latin Catholic bishops and wandering bishops of Anglican and Orthodox traditions including Carlos Duarte Costa, Arnold Mathew, Joseph Vilatte, Aftimios Ofiesh, and others in order to preserve doctrinal and apostolic continuity and establish sacramental legitimacy.