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VANCOUVER, BC: ACiC Says 'Common Cause Partner' sold down the river by Panel of Reference
Orthodox Canadian Anglicans Respond to the POR
October 14, 2006
Vancouver, BC--We feel sad for our 'Common Cause Partner' ACiNW/Anglican Network in Canada brothers and sisters who have been 'sold down the river' by the Panel of Reference. The Panel of Reference has clearly 'dropped the ball' after such a long period of procrastination.
It has been eight years since the Diocese of New Westminster first voted to do same sex blessings, and since the orthodox Anglicans in the Greater Vancouver, BC area first appealed for the wider Anglican constituency to intervene. It has been four and a half years ago since the orthodox Anglicans walked out of New Westminster Synod and officially appealed for another orthodox Anglican Bishop to provided oversight.
The Panel of Reference does not seem to realize the level of trauma that faithful Greater Vancouver Anglicans have endured during their stand for biblical truth and traditional Anglican morals. This has not been a Sunday School picnic. Many faithful Anglican congregations in Greater Vancouver have been closed, taken over, decimated, or forced to 'move overseas' to Africa to obtain new Anglican jurisdiction and oversight.
The POR's suggestion that Holy Cross Abbotsford and Church of the Resurrection, Hope should go back to the diocese, reveals that the POR does not really comprehend the level of spiritual abuse that these two congregations have been through.
The POR is encouraging the four remaining ACiNW parishes still in the New Westminster diocese to repay their withheld assessments and go back to the very Synod they courageously walked out from four and a half years ago. In return, all they are offering is a temporary visiting bishop with no jurisdiction. No where does the POR challenge the diocese of New Westminster to repent of its apostasy and immorality. The POR has given the ACiNW a stale crust of bread.
We agree with the deep concerns about the POR report expressed by Archbishops Greg Venables and Drexel Gomez. We hope that the rest of the Global South Primates soon speak clearly with one voice about this deeply flawed POR report.
This unfortunate, long-delayed POR report merely reinforces our gratitude that two and a half years ago, the Anglican Coalition in Canada http://www.acicanada.ca was rescued from this burning house by our five Global South Anglican primates. We are so grateful that they kept their promises 'not to leave us as orphans'. This Global South solution is readily available to other Canadian Anglicans who are willing to put everything on the line.
--The Rev Ed Hird+ is Communications Officer, Anglican Coalition in Canada. He lives in Vancouver, BC http://www.acicanada.ca
