"Property is not an issue. It’s proclaiming the gospel and going forward."

The bulk of the members had been part of St. Martin’s, one ofseveral conservative-minded parishes that had broken with the Anglican diocese of New Westminster two years ago over its approval of a rite of blessing for same-sex couples.

Last September, New Westminster bishop Michael Ingham declared that the parish-now without a rector-was in turmoil and assumed direct control. He appointed a priest and lay leadership of his choosing and denied a request from about three-quarters of the members to hold alternative worship services on church property.

They began worshipping Monday evenings at a nearby Presbyterian church under the leadership of orthodox priests.

It was the failure of the General Synod in May to oppose Ingham that finally forced them to abandon any hope of achieving a made-in-Canada solution, says Haigh. "There are bishops that disagree with him, but basically they’re all in each other’s pocket."

Instead, they joined the newly formed Anglican Communion in Canada (ACiC)-a small group of parishes and priests under the epsicopal oversight of five Primates in Africa and southeast Asia-and founded St. Timothy’s.

"They could see no future within the Anglican Church of Canada," says ACiC spokesman Paul Carter, "and that’s when some of them said, ‘We want to stay Anglican, but we we’re going to go the circuitous route to Canterbury via the ACiC and licensed priests from the Province of Rwanda.’"

Carter, who is one of those priests, is also now St. Timothy’s interim rector.

"These are very brave, godly, often elderly folk who are saying, ‘Enough is enough. My faith matters more to me than the [physical] plant,’" he says. "I find that most encouraging."

Even so, for many longtime members, the decision to quit St. Martin’s was wrenching.

For Haigh, it meant leaving behind a stained-glass rose window that his family had put in less than a year ago in memory of his mother.

"Her ashes are in the memorial garden at the church, so yes, it was very difficult, very emotional to leave," he says.

Yet they also left behind what one ex-St. Martin’s member who requested anonymity calls its "poisonous atmosphere."

"What I love about [St. Timothy’s]," says Carter, "is not only the refreshment that it’s brought to their personal faith, but the vitality with which they are embracing this-the sheer hard work and dedication and the growing sense of commitment to Christ and His Word-that is just so evident."

In fact, the church has already outgrown its existing rented facility and is in search of somewhere else to meet.

It has also begun attracting Anglicans from parishes in North and West Vancouver that have remained loyal to Ingham.

Yet to Archbishop David Crawley, Ingham’s immediate superior, the whole notion of Anglicans looking outside their dioceses for episcopal oversight is "illegal and improper."

As he told ChristianWeek in February, "They fondly think that this keeps them part of [the Anglican Communion], but it doesn’t."

But Haigh says what matters to them is that they finally have a new bishop-T. J. Johnston-appointed for them by the Primates who share their theological convictions-even if he does live in Little Rock, Arkansas.

"At St. Martin’s, we never saw the local bishop-well, very rarely-and so that [Johnston] happens to be a few further miles away is neither here nor there. At least he is a godly man and we are biblically-based, and that’s really where we wanted to get to."

END