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VANCOUVER, BC: Bishop Ingham Calls on ABC Williams to look for St. John's Shaughnessy Replacement
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
October 17, 2011
The Archbishop of Canterbury became an accessory after the fact when revisionist New Westminster Bishop Michael Ingham asked the Archbishop of Canterbury if he would consider casting his eye around the communion for a possible interim appointment for St John's, Shaughnessy.
Speaking to Williams at a recent annual meeting of the Compass Rose Society at Lambeth Palace, Ingham said he asked the ABC for help. Williams said that he would. When he bid Bishop Michael farewell, he told him "thoughts were forming."
(The Compass Rose Society is an assembly of primarily Americans and Canadians who annually give money to be used as a discretionary fund for the Archbishop of Canterbury and to support the work of the Anglican Communion.)
Ingham said he had two conversations with Archbishop Rowan who, he said, was well aware of the diocese's situation regarding recent court decisions.
Ingham was the first bishop in 2000 to create a formal liturgy for the blessing of homosexual unions, making his the first Anglican diocese in the world outside the United States to produce such a rite.
This blatant interference into local diocesan affairs completely belies the ABC's non-interference in times past when orthodox parishes and dioceses in The Episcopal Church called on him for ecclesiastical help when they were being persecuted by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.
Will Dr. Williams come to the rescue of South Carolina Bishop Mark Lawrence when the ecclesiastical wheels move into high gear and the business of inhibiting and deposing him becomes an inevitable reality or will Mrs. Jefferts Schori call on the ABC to help find Bishop Lawrence's replacement when she ousts (or tries to oust) him?
In taking sides with Bishop Ingham, the Archbishop of Canterbury has officially declared that he has aligned himself with the worst of revisionist bishops in North America and that he stands in opposition to the orthodox evangelical wings of the Anglican Church of Canada, some of which are still in the Canadian Anglican province. Two alternative orthodox Anglican jurisdictions have formed in Canada. One is the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) and the other is the Anglican Coalition in Canada (ACiC). St. John's is a member of the former.
St. John's, Shaughnessy in Vancouver, the largest Anglican congregation in Canada, chose to leave their buildings rather than compromise their beliefs following a lengthy legal battle.
St. John's had been meeting at the Granville Street location for almost 100 years. Recently, they began Sunday services at Oakridge Adventist Church located at West 37th Avenue and Baillie Street in Vancouver.
The underlying, central issues of belief in the authority of God's revealed Word in Scripture, the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, the need to be saved by Him and the rejection of a variety of pansexual behaviors brought about the rift.
"It is remarkable to be part of a Christian community which is putting faith into action in a way that seems inexplicable to those who love the world," explained Canon David Short, Rector of St. John's Vancouver. "We are doing something countercultural and counterintuitive for the truth of God's word, losing something very valuable for the surpassing worth of Jesus Christ, holding the unity of faith by acting together as one, and joyfully accepting the confiscation of our property.
"It is inexpressibly sad that we are forced to choose between God's final word and these wonderful buildings," said Canon Short, "but we feel relief and much joy in God's faithfulness and provision for us."
St. John's Shaughnessy was one of a number of parishes that chose to leave the Anglican Church in Canada over the revisionist views of Bishop Ingham.
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