The largest Chinese Anglican congregation in Canada has voted unanimously to leave the Anglican Church of Canada and come under the spiritual care of a South American archbishop. It was not alone. This past February saw an unprecedented exdous of congregations and clergy from the national church as more dioceses voted to bless same- sex unions.
The Church of the Good Shepherd in Vancouver, a 119 year-old Cantonese-speaking congregation, attracts 300 people each Sunday with another 100 attending midweek services and fellowship groups. Although many of its members are young, it is the oldest Chinese Anglican church in Canada. It has a remarkable outreach into Vancouver’s substantial Chinese community. And it helped plant a Chinese ministry at St. Luke’s in 1993. Most of the Chinese who take part in home fellowship groups are first-generation immigrants. Once they learn more about Christianity, many begin to attend church and are baptized as adults.
On Feb. 17 this vibrant, thriving church voted unanimously 203-0 with no abstentions to leave the national church and affiliate instead with the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC). “When you have to defend your faith, you grow stronger,” said the Rev’d Stephen Leung, the rector.
It will be interesting to see how the Diocese of New Westminster handles this one. Think of the optics should they go after the property of a visible minority.
No problems. No problems. No problems. No problems…..”just a few reactionaries who are ill-educated”.
That’s the trouble with living so high up in an Ivory Tower as many bishops do. The air is thin up there. Less oxygen to the brain.
[blockquote] St Mary of the Incarnation, in Metchosin … the vestry voted 105-14 … [/blockquote]
That is one large vestry!
Cole, In Canada, the vestry meeting is the equivilent of an Annual General Meeting, where everyone in the parish (depending on Diocesean regs, but usually, has worshiped in the church at least twice, and has not voted in another vestry meeting in any other parish that year).
If a Canadian parish talked about an Advisory Board, or Parish Council, that would be a close equivelent to an American Vestry.
Mithrax+: Thanks for the clarification.
Now, if we in North America could only come to agreement about what the syntax “communion” with other fellow Christians means?
This is a fine summary article. BTW, I stumbled over the same problem with a huge “vestry” vote when the article mentions big St. John’s, Shaughnessy left the Ang. Ch. of Canada. It says the “vestry” voted 475 to 11 (with 9 abstentions). Immediately, I thought as an American, there’s something fishy here; they can’t have almost 500 people on the vestry. One of those interesting and quaint quirks by which different Anglican traditions can differ.
But one of the fascinating things is how lopsided these votes are. And it was unanimous in this latest case with the ethnic Chinese congregation. Clearly, we are dealing with a very polarized situation, with some very solidly conservative churches effectively “differentiating” themselves from the very liberal ACoC, as Kendall would say. The 15 churches that have realigned so far seem to be good models of how to successfully differentiate yourself from an increasingly liberal and even apostate denomination. I’d love to hear more about them on a regular basis. We should lionize them as heroic pacesetters.
David Handy+
A word to the Anglican Church in BC – I heard the owl call your name.
The Gordian (#7),
Brilliant. Marvelously apt allusion. I simply LOVE that novel. For those not familiar with it, according to the traditions of the local Kwakiutl Indians of British Columbia, when someone hears the owl “call their name,” it’s a sign they are about to die.
David Handy+
And one must remember that the Chinese communities are very large and prosperous. These are not largely the emigres from Fukian and Amoy and the like such as we had in the US. Larry
I would like to hear more about this largely Chinese churches. What are the congregations like? What socio/economic classes are they drawn from? How long have the members been citizens? What dialect to they commonly speak? Larry