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By Leigh Anne Williams
The worldwide Anglican Communion has been deeply
divided over issues related to homosexuality. Anglicans from 11 Canadian
and U.S. breakaway groups are aligning to form a new church.
LEADERS of the Common Cause Partnership, a coalition of
conservative Anglicans in the United States and Canada, released a draft
constitution December 3 for a new Anglican province that they propose would
be defined by theology rather than a geographic location.
Gathered in Illinois, leaders of the partnership
– which represents about 100,000 Anglicans who have left the Anglican
Church of Canada and the Episcopal Church in the U.S. largely over blessing
same-sex unions and the ordination of an openly gay bishop – outlined
their vision for the new Anglican Church in North America.
According to Bishop Robert Duncan, who led the Diocese
of Pittsburgh out of the Episcopal Church in the U.S. and is the
provisional leader of the new province, the future of this body may go
further than being a parallel province operating in the same geographic
regions as the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada; it may
become a rival church.
“I think . . . the Lord is displacing the
Episcopal Church,” Duncan said. “The Episcopal Church has been
in extraordinary decline . . . over the last 50 years,” he added.
“What we are focused on is our mission together.
We are a body that is growing, that is planting new congregations,
that’s concerned to be an authentic Christian presence in the U.S.
and Canada.”
The new constitution drew a clear line between
traditional and liberal Anglicans: “We are grieved by the current
state of brokenness within the Anglican Communion prompted by those who
have embraced erroneous teaching and who have rejected a repeated call to
repentance.”
Duncan acknowledged that the Episcopal Church and the
Anglican Church of Canada are the only churches recognized by the
Archbishop of Canterbury and the structures of the Anglican Communion.
Referring to conservative archbishops – who met
in Jerusalem for the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), and asked
the Common Cause Partnership to create a constitution for a new province
– he said:
“It is our anticipation that the archbishops and
the provinces representing far and away the majority of the Anglican
Communion will begin to recognize this province. And they have already
broken their relationship with the other province, so one is an official
reality, and the other is an emerging reality.”
Common Cause leaders were buoyed by a December 6
statement issued at the GAFCON Primates’ Council in
London, declaring:
“We welcome the news of the North American
Anglican Province in formation. We fully support this development with our
prayer and blessing, since it demonstrates the determination of these
faithful Christians to remain authentic Anglicans.”
Anglicans and Episcopalians in North America, they
added, “have been tragically divided since 2003, when activities
condemned by the clear teaching of scripture and the vast majority of the
Anglican Communion were publicly endorsed. This has left many Anglicans
without a proper spiritual home. The steps taken to form the new Province
are a necessary initiative.”
The new body, they added, “will draw together in
unity many of those who wish to remain faithful to the teaching of
God’s word, and also create the highest level of fellowship possible
with the wider Anglican Communion.
“Furthermore, it releases the energy of many
Anglican Christians to be involved in mission, free from the difficulties
of remaining in fellowship with those who have so clearly disregarded the
word of God.”
Duncan said he is in regular contact with Archbishop of
Canterbury Rowan Williams, and the new documents will be sent to him.
“What the Archbishop of Canterbury will do as
this province emerges is for him to say.”
Leaders of the partnership have said they would like to
have the blessing of the archbishop of Canterbury, but they will move
forward even without it.
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But Archbishop Fred Hiltz, Primate of the Anglican
Church of Canada, has said that when a new province is created, it
“has to be in communion with the See of Canterbury and it’s the
Anglican Consultative Council that determines [this], not a group of
primates and bishops, not even the Archbishop of Canterbury.”
Canon Charlie Masters, executive director of the
Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) and general secretary of the Common Cause
Partnership, said ANiC members are very excited about the new province.
“We’re proud of being Anglicans. We love
being Anglicans, and we feel that this province represents Anglicanism at
its best.”
Expressing gratitude to Archbishop Gregory Venables for
offering coverage in the Southern Cone to congregations leaving the
Anglican Church of Canada, Masters said the creation of the new province is
important to ANiC.
“We’ve always known that the offer of care
which came through Archbishop Venables and the Southern Cone was by
definition temporary and emergency, so the need for a more permanent
solution was there, and it is very significant for us.”
Masters noted the constitution won’t be ratified
until it is voted on in a provincial assembly in Texas in the spring. Until
then, ANiC churches will remain under Archbishop Venables’
jurisdiction.
Masters said the preamble of the constitution situates
the Anglican Church of North America “right in line with historic
Anglicanism, and it lists the historic creeds, and included in that would
be the Jerusalem Declaration as the most recent expression or summary of
Christian faith.”
The canons, he said, cover everything from definitions
of a diocese or network, to who can vote, to issues of property and
finance.
– courtesy of The
Anglican Journal
– additional
reporting by David F. Dawes
A significant number of B.C. churches are affiliated
with groups promoting the Anglican Church in North America:
Anglican Network in Canada
Church of the Good Shepherd, Vancouver
Church of the Resurrection, Hope
Church of the Holy Cross, Abbotsford
St. John's (Shaughnessy), Vancouver
St John’s Richmond
St Mary’s Open Gate, Victoria
St Matthew’s, Abbotsford
St Matthias and St. Luke, Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada
All Saints Community Church, White Rock
Immanuel Church, Vancouver
St Simon’s Church, North Vancouver
St. Timothy’s on the North Shore
Church of Our Lord, Comox
The Light of Christ Church, Nanaimo
Christ the Redeemer, Pender Harbour
Reformed Episcopal Church
Church of Our Lord, Victoria
Living Word, Courtenay
Church of the Holy Trinity, Langford
January 2009
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