The true call and mark of the church is faithfulness to the gospel of Christ. This is nothing but the worship of God and the preaching of the message of the cross: the proclamation of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The call to focus on Christ and His Mission is essential, but the idea that church structure is set in stone and that bishops deserve unquestioning respect would seem to go against the very teaching and practice of our Lord Jesus. The actions of synods and bishops will always be open to question. What next? Will laypersons be accused of abandoning the Anglican Communion if we work with our Pentecostal, Baptist and Presbyterian brothers and sisters? The urgency of our common calling is relevant to those who are lost and who need to know that The Living God will one day come again to judge this world.

The only means to unity is faithful obedience to Jesus. No human may break this bond. Some in the Anglican Church of Canada would have us believe that decisions made by synods or bishops are capable of overriding the will of God Himself. It is puzzling to see my own corner of the church fragmented because Anglican leaders have failed to provide effective pastoral oversight to those of differing viewpoints. Our officials seem to have a very limited and confused ecclesiology. They think that they can pronounce whole congregations as being out of fellowship with each other, as though unity depends on ecclesiastical agreements or instruments of unity. When I join my brothers and sisters through the week I do not leave the Anglican church behind. I represent my church and bring my heritage with me to work with and draw upon as I serve the lost and encourage my co-workers. This includes all that I have learned as a Christian whether from my own tradition or that of a co-worker. Indeed whenever Christians work together, God’s Church, both visible and invisible, is truly present with all its warts and powers.

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Canada’s Anglican primate has called the jailing of six Northern Ontario native community members a throwback to colonialism, a dangerous violation of the rights of native people and an act of the Ontario government putting itself above the law.

Archbishop Fred Hiltz’s unusually forceful language appears in a letter to Premier Dalton McGuinty, in which the Anglican leader implies that members of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation are being punished solely for defending the sacred trust of their traditional lands.

He also links the jailing of KI Chief Donny Morris, the deputy chief and four councillors to the abuses of the residential school system, and says it has caused a “serious impasse” between Canada’s native peoples and the Ontario government.

On March 17, Mr. Justice Patrick Smith of the Ontario Superior Court ordered the KI six jailed for six months for being in contempt of court by refusing to allow mining company Platinex to test drill for minerals on land the band claims as its own.

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Schism is not a “catastrophic” event and is preferable to placating those who do not treat gays as equal simply for the sake of unity, a Canadian Anglican theologian says.

“There are moments when treating unity as kind of absolute virtue that’s higher than anything else is not necessarily the right thing,” Rev. Paul Gibson said in an interview, concerning an essay he wrote that was posted on the Anglican Church of Canada’s Web site Tuesday.

He wrote the essay in relation to the present schism in the Anglican Church over same-sex blessings, and concluded that a unified church that treats gays unequally would be a greater evil than a divided church. Since the start of the year, eight Anglican parishes, out of a total of about 2,000 across the country, have formally left the national Church.

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Canadian Bishop who is part of a high-level advisory group to the worldwide Anglican Communion has been elected Bishop of Christchurch.

The Rt Revd Victoria Matthews is currently bishop-in-residence at Wycliffe College in Toronto. She was Bishop of Edmonton for 10 years from 1997 to late last year, and Suffragan (Assistant) Bishop of Toronto from 1994-97.

She narrowly missed being elected Primate of Canada last year.

Announcing the appointment today, the Primate of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, NZ and Polynesia, Archbishop Brown Turei, said he looked forward to welcoming Bishop Matthews into the church of these islands. “I’m sure that, with all her experience, she will make a good contribution to our life and witness,” he said.

Bishop Matthews, 54 and unmarried, is only the second woman to become a diocesan bishop in New Zealand. The first was the Rt Revd Dr Penny Jamieson, Bishop of Dunedin from 1989-2004.

Bishop Matthews chairs the Canadian Primate’s Theological Commission, and has just been appointed to the Windsor Continuation Group, which will look at crucial questions about the shape of Anglican common life around the world.

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Jane Alexander’s father was so anti-church that he forbade her from attending religious classes at school in England, where she was born and raised.

As a girl, she obeyed her father. But it was while singing hymns and oratorios in choirs and school assemblies that she says she heard “the first whisperings of God.”

“I remember rather nervously reaching out to Him at a time of great upheaval as a teenager and being overwhelmed with a sense of welcome.”

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I normally stay away from commenting on the convulsions of the Anglican Communion ”“ whether here in the Diocese of New Westminster, whose bishop is a heretic and schismatic (by the standard definitions of those terms); or in the Anglican Church of Canada, which tolerates such behaviour; or in the Anglican Communion worldwide, which is wracked by controversy over the legitimacy of homosexuality (ostensibly) and a lot of other things, such as heresy, schism, power politics, racism and more (fundamentally).

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Worth a look; one of the panelists, an Anglican, comments on the diocese of New Westminster.

Members of an Anglican parish in Metchosin, determined to quit the church over gay marriages, can continue to use the premises of St. Mary of the Incarnation.

Under an agreement reached this week, the two ministers of St. Mary of the Incarnation have resigned. Sharon Hayton is no longer rector and Andrew Hewlett is no longer assistant priest.

But also under the agreement, the Diocese of British Columbia has agreed to allow the breakaway parishioners to continue to meet at the church at 4125 Metchosin Rd., at least temporarily.

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St. Chad’s Anglican Church sits empty after the Toronto diocese changed the locks and told all parishioners to go elsewhere, in response to the congregation voting recently to split from the Anglican Church of Canada.

“They’ve locked us out of the building,” said Cheryl Chang, a lawyer for the breakaway parishioners. “They’ve closed the building to worshippers.”

In a press release, the diocese said the west-end premises will remain closed to all parishioners for an unspecified “cooling off period” following a vote last month in which the small congregation voted to leave the Anglican Church of Canada in a growing dispute over same-sex marriage blessings.

Read it all.

Canon law expert Perry says, however, that the 39 Articles also spell out that a priest must be appointed by the local bishop to be allowed to preach within a diocese, something the Network churches have relinquished by voting to split.

“The notion that a parish could be freestanding and claim to be Anglican is perverse in the Anglican structure,” he said. “It just wouldn’t exist.”

Liberal Anglicans also argue that theological understanding continues to evolve.

“It’s an ongoing revelation,” Niagara Archdeacon Michael Patterson says.

And there is no requirement that the revelation be the same for everyone, says Perry, adding that a founding principle of the church was that, unlike the Catholic Church from which it split in the 16th century, there is no central authority decreeing the beliefs that define an Anglican.

Says Perry, “Somebody once said that the good thing about the Church of England is that it doesn’t tend to interfere with your religion.”

In fact, he says, the openness to diversity of opinion has traditionally been its strength, enabling it to span divergent cultures around the world.

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Some recent media stories have implied that women’s ordination is somehow an issue in the current crisis in the Canadian Anglican church. It is not.

While the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone currently does not practice women’s ordination, the North American churches which have sought and received refuge under the Primate of the Southern Cone are completely free to practice their consciences on this matter.

Of the eight clerics currently licenced by Anglican Network in Canada moderator Bishop Donald Harvey under the jurisdiction of the Province of the Southern Cone, three are women, including the Rev Desiree Stedman (Ottawa) who holds the prestigious role of assistant to Bishop Harvey.

The real issue is theological: the profound differences on key Christian teachings and the irreconcilable views of the Bible. Even to say the issue is sexuality is a gross simplification. Sexual ethics is merely the tip of the iceberg, a reflection of much deeper theological constructs.

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An Ontario Superior Court judge ruled on Feb. 29 that the diocese of Niagara may not send its clergy into two area churches in the next two weeks to hold Sunday services for members of the congregations that remain loyal after most of their fellow parishioners voted to leave the Anglican Church of Canada.

“I am disappointed with the decision today, but we have to respect and abide by it. I feel for those faithful members of the parishes. We will try to make some arrangement for them if we possibly can,” said Bishop Michael Bird, who is based at the diocesan office here. It was the first court decision since 11 Anglican Canadian parishes decided, at their regular vestries (annual meetings) in February, to separate. They now identify themselves as part of the Anglican Network in Canada.

Clergy and lay people who supported separation were cheered by the ruling. “We are so thankful. We want to be able to worship together as a community uninterrupted. (Those loyal to the diocese) are more than welcome to attend any of our services,” said Rev. Ray David Glenn of St. George, Lowville.

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I am the spokesperson for St. John’s Shaughnessy Anglican Church in Vancouver. Dr. Packer has been an honourary assistant at St. John’s for well over 20 years. We are a church in serious theological dispute with the Diocese of New Westminster which was the first diocese in the worldwide Anglican Communion to write a rite for the blessing of same sex unions and then allow them to happen. This is, of course, only a symptom of the underlying theological dispute which is currently ripping the worldwide communion apart.

Two weeks ago St. John’s voted by a 97.7% margin to accept an offer of temporary emergency episcopal oversight from the Province of the Southern Cone under Archbishop Greg Venables. Dr. Packer strongly supported this move. To see Dr. Packer’s specific views on the situation in the Anglican Church I encourage you to check out a YouTube posting where he discusses the issue with a reporter. You can find it on YouTube by searching for St. John’s Shaughnessy. It is a 10 part video (115 minutes in all) with our rector, David Short, and Dr. Packer giving a very comprehensive explanation of the Anglican Church’s situation right now.

I’d also encourage you to look up The Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC). This the the new structure the orthodox Anglican churches are joining in order that we might remain in full communion with the worldwide church . Currently, The Anglican Church of Canada and the Diocese of New Westminister have been declared to be in imapired or broken communion with about 20 of 38 National Anglican Churches around the world.

As a result of St. John’s vote on Fevruary 13, 2008:

Dr. Packer together with the other clergy at St. John’s have been served with a Notice of Presumption of Abandonment of the Exercise of the Ministry under Canon XIX and the notice is based on the following facts:

1. that he has publicly renounced the doctrine and discipline of the Anglican Church of Canada; and
2. that you have sought or intend to seek admission into another religious body outside the Anglican Church of Canada.

The notice also states that if Dr. Packer does not take advantage of provisions under the Canons to dispute the facts stated above, Dr. Packer’s spiritual authority as a minister of Word and Sacraments conferred in ordination will be revoked on April 21, 2008.

The legal team of ANiC is reviewing and considering the validity and alleged consequences of such Notice of Presumption of Abandonment.”

None, of this in any way affects Dr. Packer’s status or standing at Regent College or any other of the many organizations he represents.
I hope this helps clarify things. Please don’t hesitate to contact me again.

Sincerely,

Lesley Bentley
Spokesperson
St. John’s Shaughnessy, Vancouver.

A judge in the Ontario Superior Court in Hamilton, Mr. Justice James Ramsay, has ruled today that, for the next couple of weeks, the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) parishes of St George’s Lowville (Milton, Ontario) and St Hilda’s (Oakville, Ontario) can retain exclusive use of their church facilities. There is another court hearing set for March 20, where the judge will be asked to determine a longer term interim arrangement while the bigger legal issue of who owns the church buildings is sorted out.

“We are deeply grateful to God for allowing us to maintain our ministries and care for our parishioners over the next few weeks without disruption”, said the Rev Canon Charlie Masters, rector of St George’s Lowville. “The last couple of weeks have been very trying. This judgment will be such an encouragement to our parishioners, some of whom were deeply distressed by last Sunday’s sharing arrangement.”

The Rev. Paul Charbonneau, rector of St. Hilda’s added, “We are most relieved that our many outreach services to the community, like our weekly food delivery to needy families and our free lunch program for the local high school students won’t be disrupted for this interim period.”

The court decision allows the ANiC parishes as well as the Diocese of Niagara to carry on their ministries as they always have without unnecessary disruption. A third ANiC parish, Good Shepherd in St. Catharines, was not part of the litigation but we trust the same decision will be applied.

Since ANiC launched its ecclesial structure last November under the jurisdiction of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, it has received two bishops (the Rt. Rev. Donald Harvey and the Rt. Rev. Malcolm Harding) and 15 parishes. Parishes, like St George’s and St Hilda’s (and Church of the Good Shepherd in St. Catharines), that have elected to seek episcopal oversight from Bishop Harvey and ANiC are determined to stay biblically faithful and true to historic Anglican doctrine and teaching and within mainstream Anglicanism. While orthodox Anglicans are in a minority in Canada, they are in the majority worldwide. What is happening in Canada is part of a much bigger controversy in the global Anglican Communion.

Since 2003, the leaders of the global Anglican Communion have repeatedly asked the Anglican Church of Canada to return to faithful Anglican practice and teaching. They have also called upon the Anglican Church of Canada to provide appropriate spiritual care and oversight for parishes like these which remain faithful to established Anglican teaching.

“We sincerely regret that it was necessary to go to court for these congregations to maintain their ministries in the interim” said Cheryl Chang, a director of ANiC who is also a lawyer. “It is our hope and prayer that we can continue amicable discussions toward a resolution of all matters and prevent further court proceedings which hinder the ministry of all those involved.”

Archbishop Gregory Venables, Primate (or leader) of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, has responded to the needs of biblically faithful Canadian Anglicans for spiritual protection and care on an emergency and interim basis ”“ pending a resolution to the crisis in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Archbishop Venables is well respected as an orthodox leader in the global Anglican Communion. He leads the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone which is one of 38 Provinces that make up the global Anglican Communion. It encompasses much of South America and includes Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay and Argentina.

What is your response to the recent votes here in Canada, what do you think of these decisions?

It’s very, very, sad that it should come to this, it’s a tragedy for the church, for the church in Canada and for the church throughout the world ”“ but it shows how serious the division is. This has never happened before. It has happened significantly with very large groups in the United States in recent years and recently with a whole diocese moving ”“ and now it’s happening in Canada. It shows how serious this division is and how strong the convictions are which are pulling the church apart.

In your view is this solely about the Canadian churches stand on homosexuality? Does it go beyond that?

No. This is about two versions of Christianity which are in a strong state of difference. You’ve got the original biblical Christianity which the church, the Christian church throughout the world has held to over the past two thousand years and then you’ve got this new liberal post-modern Christianity which has evolved especially in the western world over the last 100 years or so. It’s like two ships that have gradually pulled apart and can longer really sail together and the trouble is it’s pulling the church apart as it does that.

Read it all.

Words fail me, he was my theology professor in Vancouver B.C. from 1982-1984.

Here is another link:

http://www.anglicanplanet.net/TAPCanada0803b.html

One more link:

http://www.lambethconference.net/canada/?p=92

The ownership of three breakaway Ontario Anglican churches will be the subject of a courtroom battle Friday after the collapse of negotiations aimed at staving off legal proceedings.

Efforts to settle an ownership dispute between the Niagara Anglican diocese and three dissenting area congregations in southwestern Ontario – Lowville, Oakville and St. Catharines – broke down Thursday following several days of talks.

Cheryl Chang, director of the Anglican Network in Canada, which supports the dissenting parishes, said the two sides found a lot of common ground but couldn’t agree on who should ultimately maintain possession of the church properties.

Read it all.

The priest at a breakaway Anglican church in St. Catharines has reportedly been suspended.

Church of the Good Shepherd Rev. Gerry Brodie was suspended with pay Tuesday afternoon by the Anglican Diocese of Niagara, Church warden Pat Decker told Osprey News Network Wednesday.

She said Archdeacon of Lincoln and Rector Bruce McPetrie had been appointed administrator of the church, which voted Sunday to leave the diocese and align with the more conservative Anglican Network in Canada.

“We, at this moment in time, are conducting business as usual,” Decker said Wednesday afternoon.

“We have not vacated the premises and we have not been asked to do so … at this moment.”

McPetrie and Brodie couldn’t be reached for comment.

Read it all.

To our minds this passage of the Windsor Report is not recommending a ten-month process; it is recommending something much more like a ten-year process.

Our present disagreements are deep; they are the result of not listening to one another for many decades. The most shocking allegation of the Windsor Report was that the Church in North America had sprung to its honoring of homosexual partnerships without having done the theological work to back it up.

But this work has been a central engagement of Anglican theology in North America for three if not four decades. The thing is that the rest of the church did not read that work; we did our theology but no one else bothered to read it.

Only in this way can the surprise of the rest of the Communion at Gene Robinson’s consecration be explained; to us, at the time, it seemed a perfectly natural development. That is why our disagreements can only be resolved “in an educative context” – there are four decades of education to catch up on, and that cannot be accomplished in ten months.

Actually the most shocking thing is that the author is shocked to be charged with not having done the theological homework necessary. Read it all.

Two parishes in the Diocese of New Westminster have voted to ask to be added to the list of places where same sex blessings may take place.

St. Mary’s Kerrisdale in Vancouver, and the Church of the Holy Spirit in Whonnock, Maple Ridge (formerly St. John’s Whonnock), by large margins voted to ask Bishop Michael Ingham to grant his permission for the parish to conduct services for persons in committed, monogamous same sex relationships.

At present, same sex blessings may take place only in eight parishes of the diocese.

Read it all.

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Breakaway Anglicans and the national church sit down today in a last-ditch effort to resolve a potentially ugly dispute over who gets the keys to three local churches.

The three congregations, in Oakville, Lowville and St. Catharines, all voted recently to split from the Anglican Church of Canada, which they see as having become too liberal. If no agreement is reached at the closed-door session between the churches and the Diocese of Niagara, the matter goes to court Friday.

“It’s not in anybody’s interest for this to end up in court,” said Cheryl Chang, lawyer for the breakaway churches.

Chang will argue today the disputed properties were built to uphold a historic Anglican tradition that the church itself no longer follows.

“When people gave money to build the churches, they gave it because the believed in the Anglican Church,” Chang said.

“They believed in the faith that the Anglican Church was teaching and that it is bound to.”

The Anglican Church of Canada is among the most liberal in the worldwide communion, which Chang called “a breach of trust” with past generations.

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For her entire life, Phyllis Wilson has worshipped in the Anglican Church’s Niagara diocese, but on Sunday she voted to break away from the pack.

“It’s been coming for a long time,” the 84-year-old said after the congregation at Church of Good Shepherd in St. Catharines overwhelmingly voted to leave the diocese.

Instead, church members will align with the more conservative Anglican Network in Canada.

“It’s wonderful,” Wilson said. “The main thing is to stick to the New Testament and the teaching of Jesus.”

With a show of hands, members voted 82-4 to split in a closed-door meeting, before breaking into Hymn No. 275, How Firm a Foundation.

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The cracks in the Anglican Church of Canada are widening over the issue of blessing same-sex marriages, with three more congregations voting to split with the national organization over the weekend – and the two sides headed to court on Friday.

So far, the legal battle is limited to the diocese of Niagara in Ontario, where two congregations voted to break away last week and a third, the Church of the Good Shepherd in St. Catharines, followed suit yesterday. Two congregations in the diocese of New Westminster in B.C. – Church of the Good Shepherd, and St. Matthias and St. Luke, both of Vancouver – also voted to break away, bringing the total of dissident churches to 15. They have all put themselves under the authority of the Archbishop Gregory Venables of the Province of the Southern Cone in South America.

That traditional branch of the Anglican church does not recognize same-sex marriages.

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Same-sex marriage blessings are the “flashpoint” but not the main reason a St. Catharines Anglican church is voting on whether to break from the national body, a spokesperson said.

Members of the Church of the Good Shepherd on Grantham Avenue will make their decision Sunday in a meeting after the morning service.

It’s a move that could see them booted from the church building if they vote to separate.

“It comes down to the fact that as long as the Anglican Church has been established, it has based its beliefs on the reliability and authority of scripture,” said Pat Decker, the church’s treasurer and people’s warden. “We have seen in the last 20 years, a major drift by the hierarchy of the church.”

In November 2007, lay and clergy members of the Anglican Diocese of Niagara voted to allow reverends to bless same-sex unions. At that time, the Good Shepherd’s Rev. Gerry Brodie voted against the blessing, saying his congregation didn’t support it.

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Anglican Bishop Michael Ingham, whose New Westminster diocese sparked a still-boiling controversy when it approved the blessing of same-sex unions several years ago, issued an ultimatum to clergy members Friday.

Ingham wants eight clergymen to declare whether they are in or out of the Anglican Church of Canada.

He sent rectors and clergy working in the St. Matthew’s Abbotsford and St. John’s Shaughnessy parishes “notice of abandonment of the exercise of ministry.”

The letter asks them to tell Ingham whether they have left the ministry of the Anglican Church of Canada, and whether they intend to join another Anglican ministry in another part of the world.

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The Anglican Diocese of British Columbia has temporarily softened its position against a pair of priests who have been suspended for leading a congregation of breakaways.

Diocesan Archdeacon Bruce Bryant-Scott wrote in an e-mail to parishioners on Thursday that he has agreed to a 12-day grace period, during which no disciplinary action will be taken against the Venerable Sharon Hayton, the rector, and Rev. Andrew Hewlett, the assistant priest, of St. Mary’s of the Incarnation in the Victoria suburb of Metchosin.

Ms. Hayton and Mr. Hewlett were told a week ago to stop performing their duties “as an ordained priest.”

“You will recall that the inhibition required that they not contact members of the parish, but during this period I will not take notice if they do,” Mr. Bryant-Scott wrote after a meeting with the two and their lawyers on Wednesday.

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With two conservative breakaway churches refusing to hand over their keys, the Anglican Church of Canada is looking for a place for its faithful to worship this Sunday.

“We have a pastoral duty to these people,” Niagara Archdeacon Michael Patterson said.

“They want assurance that the graveyard where their ancestors are buried will remain part of the Anglican Church of Canada.”

Patterson said up to 40 members of 150-year-old St. George’s Anglican church in Lowville, north of Hamilton, do not agree with its decision ”“ in a 128-to-3 vote Sunday ”“ to sever ties to the national church and join the conservative Anglican Network in Canada.

They want to stay with the national church and hope to one day return to St. George’s. For now, they can’t, however, because the minister there refused yesterday morning to cede control of the property to the local diocese.

“We were asked, and declined,” said Rev. Canon Charlie Masters, adding he will be conducting services at St. George’s this weekend. “All are welcome on Sunday.”

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The Anglican Church of Canada is approaching an “open schism” because of its inability to resolve differences over issues such as same-sex marriage, an expert in Anglican church history said Thursday.

“We’re at a danger point,” said Bill Acres, a professor of religious studies at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont. “There will be some really sad consequences if this whole thing breaks apart. We’re a very spread out church and there are not a lot of Anglicans in Canada as is.”

Acres estimates there are 77 million members of the Anglican church, worldwide.

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In our earlier releases, it was indicated that two parishes in the Diocese of Niagara voted in favour of leaving the Diocese and the Anglican Church of Canada to seek a more conservative leadership. These parishes are St. Hilda’s in Oakville under the pastoral leadership of The Rev. Paul Charbonneau and St.George’s, Lowville, under the pastoral leadership of The Rev. Charles Masters.

It is the Bishop’s responsibility to uphold the unity of the Church and ensure that the laws of the Churchand of the land are observed, in order to protect the people of the church and its heritage. To that end,as of Tuesday February 19th, Bishop Spence and Bishop Bird have appointed:

The Rev. Dr. Brian Ruttan as administrator of St. Hilda’s Church in Oakville and
The Rev. Susan Wells as administrator of St. George’s, Lowville.

Read it all.