By David F. Dawes

THE DIVISION in the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) continues to widen, as reported on page one of the main section of this paper.

One battleground in the conflict was St. Matthias Church in Victoria. In February, 2009, rector Ron Corcoran resigned from the ACC over the issue of same-sex blessings. He is now pastor of Victoria’s Christ the King Anglican Church, which is a member of the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC).

Corcoran has written a book about the ACC struggle, titled The Bishop or the King (Essence, 2009).

The book has received endorsements from key figures.

Theologian J.I. Packer calls it an “honest, restrained, sombre narrative” addressing an “unspeakably sad” situation, extolling the author’s willingness to challenge “relativistic liberal theology, idolatrous institutional defensiveness, and manipulative episcopal autocracy.”

ANiC moderator Donald Harvey writes that Corcoran “faces this catastrophe head-on and confronts the situations and personalities that have brought about this destruction from within, and exposes the sad apathy that hastened this descent.”

Corcoran’s colleague Trevor Walters, who was ordained as an ANiC bishop last month, provides a foreword which commends Corcoran for “refocusing us on the purpose of the church, in the light of the present temptation to turn away from scripture.”

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The author, he adds, “has clearly ground his axe in private hours of agonizing devotion, so that his message is not contaminated by his past woundedness.”

While Corcoran focuses mainly on the ACC situation, he has words of caution for evangelicals in general, declaring: “This crisis is spreading like a cancer, and I take no joy in saying it will eventually strike all churches and all denominations . . . I urge others to prepare for the conflict that will surely come.

The battle, he contends, is over “irreconcilable differences relating to doctrine, liturgy and scriptural authority.”

The ACC, he maintains, is an “institution made up of bishops, synods and councils who for the most part seem to have left ‘the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.’”

The only option, he insists, is clear: “Many of us have made a deliberate choice not to bow to the caesars or the current gods of this culture, but to bow our knees and to give our full allegiance to the King of kings and the Lord of lords.”

The book is accompanied by a DVD featuring interviews with Anglican clergy and lay leaders. Proceeds from the work, Corcoran notes, “will be devoted to the fight against AIDS in Africa.”

For more info: essencebookstore.com.

December 2010