is understood as a sacrifice, re-presenting Christ's death, in which Christ is truly present and gives grace. Good deeds are not considered to earn salvation, but are instead "a natural response to God's free and unelicited gift of grace to man in Christ." God gives grace freely, with which God's people are called to cooperate by a godly, righteous, and sober life. The XXXIX Articles are not considered to have normative, independent authority on matters of doctrine or practice. Morals & Ethics The Anglican Catholic Church believes in the sanctity of human life. The Archbishop of the ACC, Mark Haverland, authored academic articles on bioethics, particularly end-of-life issues. He signed the Statement Opposing Brain Death Criteria released by Citizens United Resisting Euthanasia. At the 2019 Anglican Joint Synods, the ACC along with the other G-4 churches, released a joint proclamation on abortion in response to the Reproductive Health Act that had been passed by the New York State legislature earlier that year. The proclamation affirms a right to life as given by natural law, and calls for evangelistic action to curtail abortion laws through prayer and support for crisis pregnancy centers. The ACC holds that sexual acts are only licet and moral within monogamous heterosexual marriage. A homosexual orientation is defined as objectively disordered but not subjectively sinful. Marriage, as one of the seven sacraments, is held to be an indissoluable union between a man and a woman for the purposes of mutual comfort and the procreation of children. Original Province Source: Dioceses in the Americas Diocese of the Holy Cross Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic States Diocese of the Midwest Diocese of New Orleans Diocese of the Holy Trinity Diocese of the Resurrection Diocese of the South Diocese of the New Grenada (Colombia, Venezuela, Chile and Brazil) Missionary Diocese of the Caribbean Missionary Diocese of Canada Dioceses in Europe Diocese of the United Kingdom Deanery of Europe Dioceses in Oceania Missionary Diocese of Australia and New Zealand Missionary Diocese of the Philippines Dioceses in Africa Diocese of Kenya Diocese of Cameroon Diocese of Congo (South Kivu (exclusive Fizi, Uvira and Mwenga), North Kivu, Central, West, North and South) Missionary Diocese of Eastern Congo (Fizi, Uvira and Mwenga) Missionary Diocese of Rwanda Diocese of the Aweil (Sudan) Missionary Diocese of the West (South Africa) Diocese of Christ the Redeemer (South Africa) Second Province In 1984 the five dioceses of the Church