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By Jim Coggins
 THE WARDENS at two Anglican churches have taken the Diocese of New Westminster to court, after Bishop Michael Ingham moved to take control of the buildings and assets of those churches as part of the ongoing dispute within the Anglican church over the blessing of same-sex unions.
The Diocese moved to take control of the buildings and assets of St. Matthew's parish in Abbotsford and St. Matthias and St. Luke's parish in Vancouver on August 26. Ingham, with the approval of the diocesan council, also appointed new wardens and trustees to assume responsibility for the buildings and other assets.
However, the existing wardens have refused to hand over the buildings. Seventeen ministers and trustees from these two parishes, along with the St. John's Shaughnessy parish in Vancouver, took the diocese to the BC Supreme Court on September 9.
The issue at question is who owns the buildings.
The three parishes are among four that voted last February to cut their ties to the diocese and join the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC). The four parishes have been in "serious theological dispute" with the diocese since 2002, when the diocese voted to offer blessings for same-sex unions.
Under Canadian law, the assets of any church or charity are not owned by the current members, since they did not contribute all of them, but are held in trust for the purposes for which the church or charity was established.
The diocese argues that the buildings are held in trust for worship by the Anglican Church of Canada. The parishes argue that the buildings are held in trust for orthodox Anglicans who still hold to the Solemn Declaration of 1893, and that the diocese is no longer entitled to the buildings since it has abandoned the orthodox theology embodied by that statement.
Joyce Lee, a lawyer and a director of the ANiC, said this admittedly puts the court in the position of making a theological judgment. However, she said, the court is not being asked to determine whose theology is correct. It is only being asked to determine whose theology is closest to the founding doctrine of the Anglican Church of Canada.
There are precedents in Canadian case law for such judgments, said Cheryl Chang, chancellor for the ANiC. Those arguments were summarized in a similar case in Ontario.
Because the issues are complex, the issue would require about two weeks of court time and such a case could not likely be scheduled for at least two years, said Chang. The ANiC brought the matter before the courts at this time so that the parishes can apply for an interim declaration to solve the immediate possession issue.
The parishes are not asking the court to decide who ultimately owns the buildings now, said Chang, but only "to clarify the trustees' responsibilities until this larger question can be settled." Since the trustees "were elected by the people of the parish to safeguard the ministries and assets of the parish," they might not have the right to hand over the assets to the Diocese.
George Cadman, chancellor for the Diocese of New Westminster, told CC.com the diocese has not taken action to change the locks on the two buildings, as has been done in some other dioceses, and will file its defence to the parishes' legal action in a couple of weeks.
The diocese also wrote to the banks where the two parishes have their bank accounts, asking the banks to pass control of those accounts to the new trustees. In response, the banks have frozen the accounts so that they can be accessed by neither the parishes nor the diocese until the ownership questions are sorted out. The parishes are now operating through new bank accounts set up through the ANiC.
Chang said she hopes the court will issue the interim declaration by the end of the year and that the court will leave the parishes in control of the buildings for now. This would be in contrast to an Ontario court decision in May which required breakaway parishes to share their buildings with the Anglican Diocese of Niagara.
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The four Vancouver-area parishes use their buildings seven days a week, and it would be difficult to find alternative locations in such an expensive real estate market, said Chang. She also said the diocese has dozens of under-used buildings that it can use for its services, and it would be "ludicrous" for a court to rule that the diocese is entitled to share the buildings under dispute given that the diocese has not used them for six years now.
St. John's Shaughnessy is participating in the lawsuit because the trustees there expect that their church, as well as the Church of the Good Shepherd in Vancouver, will also be asked to hand over their buildings and assets.
Peter Elliot, dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver, said action had not yet been taken against the other two parishes because it is "a time-consuming process."
Cadman said no action was taken against the other two simply because Bishop Ingham chose not to.
However, Chang charged that the Diocese had acted only against "the two smaller parishes." St. Matthias and St. Luke has average Sunday attendance of between 160 and 190, and St. Matthew's has average Sunday attendance of just over 200.
Church of the Good Shepherd is the largest Chinese Anglican congregation in Canada with Sunday attendance of over 300. The parish outgrew its building several years ago and is now leasing its building to 19th Avenue Fellowship (formerly Metropolitan Tabernacle) while leasing the larger 19th Avenue Fellowship building.
Good Shepherd also has a $2 million building fund, much of which came from a parishioner's bequest several years ago. That could also be claimed by the diocese.
St. John's Shaughnessy is the largest Anglican parish in Canada with average Sunday attendance of between 780 and 1,000.
Cadman told CC.com the diocese did not have to ask the Good Shepherd ministers and wardens to hand over their building because they are not occupying it. He noted that the lease for the Good Shepherd building, which was negotiated by the parish without the approval of the Diocese, expires in January 2009.
The diocese has appointed new ministers for the St. Matthew parish and the St. Mathias and St. Luke parish and wants to use those congregations' buildings to re-establish ACC parishes, said Cadman. He also said the diocese is not asking any parishioners to leave but only the ministers, who have "abandoned" their ministry in the ACC by joining the ANiC.
However, many parishioners might leave if the churches returned to the ACC, since a large majority in each parish voted to leave the diocese and join the ANiC. The vote at Good Shepherd was unanimous, according to the ANiC, so the diocese would be left with an empty building.
The ANiC has offered several times to seek "a negotiated or mediated settlement" regarding the parishes' assets rather than going to court.
However, the diocese has categorically refused that offer. Cadman insisted the ministers and their supporters are "trespassing" and that the only thing the diocese is willing to discuss is "the timing" of the ANiC's departure from those buildings.
Related stories:
Anglican church dispute over Bible moves into new territory in Canada
The Bible battle that has been dividing Anglicans in Canada for more than a decade is moving into new territory, with a third court battle looming in a Vancouver court. The battle over same-sex blessings specifically, and interpretation of the Bible generally, is splitting liberal and conservative Anglicans and the fight over church property ownership has already resulted in two interim court rulings - one in Ontario and one in British Columbia.
Canadian Press, August 31
September 25/2007
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Would he throw out the sinners or welcome them?
Plainly put, what the ACC is doing here is changing the rules to suit the purposes of left wing pro-gay and lesbian faction. These 'rules' have been in play for 1700 years since the original Constantine Bible and a lot longer with regard to the Old Testament. This accompanied by pathetic statements from Primate Hiltz directed at the naive and gullible suggesting that, "Adequate provision for episcopal oversight has been made for those who disagree..." is exactly that: pathetic and misleading. In reality Hiltz and his gang of ecclesiastical thugs have made no such provision, and their response to dissenting clergy and congregations whose Spiritual position has been severely compromised by the ACC has been court orders, frozen bank accounts, firings and locked church doors.
Since the early nineties, at Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver, BC, Dean Peter Elliott has been diligently set upon a path that ultimately would bring the ACC to schism. Archbishop Ingham has been walking by Elliott's side. The apparent goal, which is seen by many folk as laudable, has been to move the church toward spiritual equality and inclusion within the ACC for gay and lesbian people; there is also, of course, a hidden agenda. The hidden agenda is power and control in the new national church hierarchy.
Ingham and Elliott are not stupid people; both know the politics of the church intimately; both are 'canon lawyers'; both are aware of the make-up of the priesthood by sexual orientation; both have much more than a rudimentary grasp of scripture and both knew, back then and without any doubt, that their personal actions would make schism within the ACC inevitable.
The foregoing having been stated, it becomes a quantum leap for me, or any fair-minded person to endorse the Ingham/Elliott/Hiltz name calling of others.
Those who oppose the gay blessings issue do so based upon the fact that the ACC is forcing them to accept a new scriptural interpretation of the Bible and de facto changes to the ancient canons of the church. That process of change has been flawed; Ingham and Elliott have acted in a unilateral manner, outside the authority of the General Synod and the Primate, and the Primate himself has offered vacillating, weak leadership as well as active support to the SSB cause.
I am reminded of the gallant colonial response to the Acadian people in Nova Scotia by the British. The Acadians were peaceful farmers who found themselves to be the meat in the political sandwich of colonial French - English power. The Acadians spoke French and were Catholic: sufficient for the British not to trust them and so in 1755 the brave redcoats burned their farms, drove off or slaughtered their cattle and livestock, raped and pillaged their communities, split up families [which were never reunited] and forced the Acadians out of Canada.
Perhaps Governor Charles Lawrence subsequently said something like, "I am jolly surprised that the Acadians just abandoned Canada after we made such adequate provisions for their comfort and wellbeing."
Absolute nonsense obviously, but so are similar statements from the three schismatics: Bishops Ingham and Hiltz and Dean Elliott.
Those Anglicans who cannot in good faith align themselves to the current policies and actions of the ACC are NOT schismatics. Those priests, those individuals and those congregations should be allowed to join the ANiC and their church property and other assets must remain with them and intact! Of course another of the not-so-hidden agendas of the Three Schismatics is the money, investments and property of the ACC, which has been cannibalizing itself to stay alive for some time now in the face of lost adherents and dwindling financial support. Hiltz's misplaced financial focus has been well discussed and it is totally unreasonable to expect disenfranchised congregations to hand over every penny so that Hiltz and the General Synod can squander it. It makes more sense for the ACC to start cutting the fat which would be the House of Bishops and the many hangers on who simply put a burden on the grass roots priests rather than supporting them.
I say good luck and God speed to those brave wardens! Ingham, Elliott and Hiltz are a disgrace to Christianity.
PS. Wardens, ANiC, I do not agree with your position regarding Gays and Lesbians; however, I support your position of independence 100%!
1 When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?
2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases?
3 Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!
4 So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church?
5 I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers,
6 but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers?
7 To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?
I pray that the Anglican church would turn back to biblical Christianity.
God's glory is defamed , Christ supremacy ignored, Holy Scriptures trampled and an unbelieving world is inoculated against the Glorious gospel of Christ. What are properties? What is money? What are "rights?"
The gospel is the power of God unto Salvation, let us be faithful and God who raises the dead will vindicate His righteous people.