Clearly, all is not well within the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC).
In
what could be termed a reverse protestant reformation, Calgary's St.
John the Evangelist Anglican Church voted overwhelmingly (90 per cent)
to leave the ACC and align itself with Pope Benedict and the Roman
Catholic Church.
As such, it becomes the first Anglican congregation in
Canada to take the Pope up on his October 2009 offer to welcome
disillusioned Anglican congregations into the Catholic Church.
But
that's where the 'new' news ends because St. John the Evangelist is
not, by far, the first church to leave the ACC.
In fact, it's only the
most recent departure in a decade-long struggle between conservative
Anglican parishes and their increasingly liberal leaders.
Since
2007, more than 40 Anglican parishes (including Vancouver's St. John's
Shaughnessy -- the largest Anglican congregation in Canada) have left
the ACC and joined a parallel governing structure called the Anglican
Network in Canada.
Globally, they've joined with like-minded churches
in the United States to form a wing that functions under the auspices
of the worldwide Anglican Church. It comprises some 600 parishes and
100,000 parishioners.
The reason for the split is to separate
from a national church that has increasingly rejected biblical
teachings and Anglican doctrine in favour of popularizing the Anglican
faith so that it fits in with today's cultural mores.
Many church
leaders have denied the authority of scripture and one bishop publicly
denied the bodily resurrection of Christ at an Easter Service.
As
such, the real story isn't that parishioners are leaving the Anglican
Church -- it's that leaders of the Anglican Church in Canada and the
U.S. have left the basic tenets of their faith and, in doing so,
abandoned their parishioners.
When such trust is broken, it's no wonder
that people are leaving and that there is such widespread discontent.
In
the words of one longtime Anglican member, who has watched this
developing story with great interest, "It seems to me to be such a
mistake to water down our core principles so greatly that we are not
actually required to believe anything."
The real schism that truly broke apart the ACC -- occurred in 2002; everything that has happened since then is just fallout.
That's
when the Diocese of New Westminster in Vancouver (under the authority
of Bishop Michael Ingham) voted to bless same-sex couples.
Global
church leaders immediately met to draft a letter requesting that the
diocese (and Ingham in particular) refrain from the practice until
further study and debate was carried out.
But church leaders were
still flying home (literally) when Ingham used his bishop card to
deliberately defy church authorities and allow the first official
blessing of a same-sex couple.
In response, the Archbishop of
Canterbury, head of the worldwide Anglican Church, declared the act was
done without the consensus of the denomination and outside of church
doctrine.
Since then, the worldwide Anglican Church has commissioned reports and held countless discussions. The majority view continues to be that the national churches of Canada and the U.S. (where the same debate is occurring) have moved away from core beliefs of Anglicanism and are now out of communion with the worldwide church.
As such, it has repeatedly called upon these two national churches to repent and return to the fold. They have yet to do so.
The decision by St. John the Evangelist will have a steep cost as it will likely lose its property.
Two weeks ago, a B.C. Court of Appeal ruled that the land and buildings of dissident Anglican churches belonged to the ACC and must be surrendered once they leave the church.
But most parishioners seem quite willing to sacrifice a building for the sake of staying true to their beliefs. Consequently, the biggest loss will be suffered by the ACC in terms of memberships and donations.
Even the judge in the church property court case warned that the ACC's own decisions may further alienate members, saying, "Presumably [the ACC] has chosen to take the risk that the policy allowing same-sex blessings will indeed prove to be 'schismatic,' or that clergy in the diocese will for the foreseeable future find themselves ministering to vastly reduced or nonexistent congregations."
SIC: CH/INT'L
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