The largest Anglican congregation in the country has voted overwhelmingly to leave the Canadian Church and put itself under the authority of a parallel conservative Anglican movement — a move that may help accelerate a schism and open the way for a nasty legal battle over Church property.
St. John’s, which has more than 2,000 members in the affluent Vancouver neighbourhood of Shaughnessy, has been at odds with the Diocese of New Westminster, which lets its churches perform same-sex blessings, since 2002.
The congregation has withheld financial support from the diocese for the past six years as a protest, but now has taken the radical step of breaking off all together.