“Today we’re in a very different place and today is a day of opportunity,” Bishop MacDonald told First Nations, Metis and Inuit Anglicans gathered at the 6th Indigenous Sacred Circle here.
While some might predict the collapse of the church in indigenous communities across Canada, said Bishop MacDonald, “I would like to predict that we’re going to see great things happen.”
History has shown that the greatest revival of the church in other parts of the world took place when missionaries left and native congregations took up the responsibilities of being church, Bishop MacDonald said in his keynote speech. He noted that American and European missionaries predicted the “total collapse” of churches in Asia and Africa when they left in the 70s due to lack of funds. What took place instead, he said, was “the greatest revival and greatest turning to Christ in any period since the time of the apostles.”
I believe the article may have understated the dynamism of Canadian first-peoples within the Anglican tradition. Folks such as the Tlingit (amongst whom I lived for a couple of years), the Loucheux [Gwitchin], Cree, and Inuit have a strong faith within our tradition. It was a Cree in northern Alberta who first introduced me to evangelical Anglicanism.
Faithful Anglicans across northern Canada are significantly trapped within a revisionist national church structure owing to its covering the substantial expenses of moving around in that part of the world. Were those to be met by ACNA it is quite likely that the entire Diocese of the Arctic (led by ++Andrew Atagotaaluk) would shift affiliation, along with many parishes (or even the entire dioceses) of Yukon and Athabaska.
Bishop MacDonald is based out of the national church office in Toronto. He’s an American with one-quarter native ancestry (Huron), most recently serving in Alaska and amongst the Navajos. When bishop of Alaska he allowed Yukon’s ++Terry Buckle to provide alternate orthodox oversight to a parish in Alaska. Though ++MacDonald voted consent for Gene Robinson in 2003, he has since stated he was told to vote on the basis only of whether Robinson’s election had been “fraudulent.”
++MacDonald remains bishop of Navajoland and managed to be [i]ABSENT[/i] during the GC’09 votes on D025 and C056. The only interesting thing about his position in Toronto is that he is a “sociological” bishop rather than a geographically bound bishop. That makes him the second Canadian bishop (along with the Armed Forces bishop) to be doing exactly what the Anglican Church of Canada says orthodox bishops and primates may not do.