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VANCOUVER, BC: Key parish denies leaving Anglican Church
By Frank Stirk
Canadian Christianity
ST. JOHN 'S Shaughnessy -- the largest Anglican parish in Canada -- is denying a seemingly persistent rumour that it has left the Anglican Church of Canada.
Church officials say they have received several queries from media outlets who had been given information that members had voted earlier this year to abandon the national body and join the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC).
But while it is a fact that the parish has joined the ANiC, Cheryl Chang -- the group's executive director and also until recently a trustee of St. John's -- insisted they have not severed their ties with the Anglican Church.
"What we're doing is joining a group of similar-thinking orthodox Anglicans across Canada," she said. "All we've done is basically state the same principles that we've stated all along, that we are in an impaired state of communion with our bishop and diocese."
The ANiC was born out of a meeting in September 2004 of the conservative umbrella group Anglican Essentials Canada to provide leadership and support to individuals and parishes that find themselves at odds with their bi shops on doctrinal issues.
St. John's has been in an "impaired" relationship with Bishop Michael Ingham since the Diocese of New Westminster voted in June 2002 to approve a marriage-like blessing for same-sex couples.
Some of the other dissenting New Westminster parishes and priests have since broken away and formed the Anglican Coalition in Canada (ACiC). They now relate to the rest of the Anglican Communion through the archbishop of Rwanda.
Chang said she suspects people may have confused the two groups and drawn the wrong conclusion about St. John's status in the national body. "We are in common cause with the members of the ACiC," she said, but pointed out they remain completely separate entities.
In related news, Ingham has reasserted his authority over yet another parish that had broken with him in 2003 over the issue of a rite of blessing for same-sex couples.
Ingham reclaimed Holy Cross, a century-old, mostly Japanese-speaking parish in East Vancouver, in November, after its rector, Dawn McDonald, resigned. She now serves under Terry Buckle, bishop of the diocese of Yukon, at St. Mary Magdalene Anglican Church in Fort Nelson in northern B.C.
According to the Diocese of New Westminster's website, Ingham named two parishioners as Bishop's Wardens, and appointed two retired priests who speak Japanese to oversee Holy Cross until a new rector can be found.
"We have an historic heritage ministry [in Holy Cross]," Ingham told his diocesan council. "I hope we will do everything we can to continue this ministry."
But McDonald said she sees it differently. "In my mind, the parish dissolved itself," she told VirtueOnline. "Most of the members scattered in different directions. . . . Some liberal members who earlier left the parish because of my conservative views returned, and Ingham is simply trying to rebuild from nothing."
Twenty of the members joined St. Matthias and St. Luke, one of the few remaining dissident New Westminster parishes that has not broken with the Anglican Church of Canada, to begin a new Japanese ministry.
Meanwhile, priests who belong to the breakaway ACiC recently welcomed a new addition to their number.
On February 19, Kathy King was inducted as the full-time rector at Light of Christ Church in Nanaimo. A former resident of Buena Vista, Colorado, King is a long-term member of the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA).
Adherents of both the ACiC and the AMiA consider themselves out of communion with their respective Canadian and American denominations.
END
FOOTNOTE: This writer had been in touch with Ms. Chang and leaders of this parish some weeks ago about rumors this parish was leaving the Anglican Church of Canada. They were persistently denied. This article confirms it.
