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Anglican Essentials Canada Responds to the Anglican Church of Canada's House of Bishops' Statement issued 27 April 2005
On Wednesday, April 27, 2005, the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada issued a Statement of Commitment from their meeting at Windsor, Ontario.
Anglican Essentials Canada is thankful that our bishops have unanimously affirmed their desire to continue membership in the worldwide Anglican Communion, although we note it appears clear from the Primates Communiqué that continuing membership will require adherence to the teaching of the Communion.
We are thankful the bishops have acknowledged that synodical decisions in the Anglican Church of Canada have been the cause of much distress in the worldwide Communion. We hope and pray that the bishops are undertaking a new initiative to "achieve a level of consultation deemed sufficient" in order to recover a spirit of true interdependence (as has been described in the Windsor Report) amongst all the Provinces of the Anglican Communion.
We are disappointed and deeply concerned, however, that the bishops' statement does not address critical issues in the task of repairing the situation of torn communion. We find it difficult to understand how this statement in fact honours the spirit and intent of the call for a moratorium set out in the Windsor Report (§ 144) and confirmed in the Primates' Communiqué (§ 14) for a moratorium on "all such public Rites" for the blessing of same sex unions.
We note that the commitment "neither to encourage nor to initiate the use of such rites" fails to address the continuing practice in the Diocese of New Westminster nor to address the situation should it occur anywhere else in Canada. In fact, we note with grave concern that spokespeople for the Anglican Church of Canada and the Diocese of New Westminster have made public statements confirming "the statement does not change the status quo as only new rites will be banned".
We fear that the ambiguity of the statement which appears to effect a moratorium, but in fact does not, will preclude the re-establishment of trust within the Communion. The situation within our church is clearly too strained and volatile to permit anything but the most transparent and charitable response to the Communiqué.
We call upon the bishops to actively encourage the Council of General Synod to comply fully with the directives and spirit of the Primates' Communiqué. Regardless of the outcome of the meeting of Council of General Synod, we remind the bishops of their responsibility to uphold the doctrine and discipline of the Anglican Church of Canada as expressed in our foundational documents.
And so we urge our bishops also to encourage those dioceses, that have stated their intentions to move ahead with more innovations that further threaten communion, to refrain from such actions and, thus, to respect, in the most charitable way, the clear message of the Primates. Finally, we call on all our bishops to grant, in the same spirit of charity, full protection for those Canadian Anglicans who have simply tried to remain faithful to the standards of doctrine, worship and discipline which define our Anglican Christian identity.
Our prayer is that our bishops will be especially mindful, in the coming days, of their responsibilities to uphold the doctrine and discipline of the Anglican Church of Canada as stated in the Solemn Declaration of 1893 which binds the church in Canada to the Anglican Communion and, through that, to the Church Universal.
--AEC is a national movement of Canadian Anglicans who share a common commitment to faithful biblical orthodoxy and desire to remain in full communion with the Church of England throughout the world (the global Anglican Communion) pursuant to the Solemn Declaration of 1893. Membership in the AEC is comprised of people who affiliate with or join either the Essentials Federation or the Anglican Network in Canada (the Essentials Network).
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