"This is simply paperwork at this point," said diocese spokesman Neale Adams.

"What the diocese is trying to do -- and wants to do, eventually -- is to restore Anglican Church of Canada ministry to those two parishes. So this is the first step, and I guess there will be several, to do that."

In March 2004, the clergy at three parishes -- including St. Simon's and St. Andrew's -- resigned from the ACC and were licensed by Rwandan Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini to operate as missionary clergy under a new organization called the Anglican Communion in Canada (ACiC).

At the time, the diocese indicated it would assert its legal ownership of the buildings associated with the two parishes. A third parish, the primarily Chinese-speaking Emmanuel Church in Richmond, worships in rented quarters and was formally "dissolved" by Ingham two weeks ago, though it continues to meet under the auspices of the ACiC.

St. Simon's rector Ed Hird and St. Andrew's rector Barclay Mayo were both out of town, at an Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) conference in in South Carolina, when the diocesan council authorized the replacement of officials at their two churches its meeting January 11.

"It was a remarkable coincidence that we even knew what they were up to," Hird told CC.com. "Most of our leadership was down there in South Carolina, and someone happened to check their website.

The five primates, or national church leaders, who oversee the ACiC responded with a letter dated January 15 that was sharply critical of the diocese's decision.

In it, they accused Ingham of "deliberately disregarding" the recommendations of the Windsor Report, which called on Anglicans from both sides of the sexuality debate to avoid exacerbating tensions any further while the worldwide church tries to resolve the issue.

The five archbishops, who all come from Africa or South East Asia, added that they would raise Ingham's "unwarranted attack on our congregations and priests in Canada" when they meet with other Anglican primates from around the world in Belfast February 21 - 26.

This is not the first time Ingham has invoked Canon 15 and appointed new wardens to a conservative parish. In September 2003, he replaced the elected wardens at St. Martin's in North Vancouver with his own appointees, and a diocesan official tried to change the locks of the building. But that was after the previous rector had left the country altogether.

Hird credited the unity of his parish and the swift response of the ACiC primates with preventing a similar situation at St. Simon's.

"You can never prove this in hindsight," he said, "but my hunch is [officials from the Diocese of New Westminster] very likely would have turned up in both churches if the five primates and our lawyer, Bob Kuhn, hadn't responded so clearly and promptly to it."

As for the "dissolving" of Emmanuel Church in Richmond, Hird said that congregation was thriving despite the diocese's preoccupation with "abstract legal structures". "In fact, they're the fastest-growing congregation in the [ACiC] coalition," he said. "They're booming!"

Hird said Holy Cross mission in Abbotsford, which was formally "terminated" by the diocese in December 2003, was also doing rather well. "There's kind of a legal fiction that Michael can terminate congregations, but actually, we've found we're doing very nicely," he said.

Adams said the diocese was not trying to rush things, and had spent the past several months trying to persuade the ACiC clergy to follow the proper procedures for when clergy officially leave the Anglican church. It was only after the diocese had exhausted these other avenues that the bishop announced he would appoint new parish officials, he said.

"It's taken a while because the diocese was open, and continues to be open now, to a reconsideration on their part," said Adams, "so we didn't want to move in haste. I think it's safe to say we haven't. But the diocese does want the ministry of the Anglican Church of Canada to take place in those parishes."

END