By Jim Coggins

ANGLICANS in the Diocese of New Westminster are scheduled to go to court May 23 in a case that could determine the shape of Canadian Anglicanism.

At stake is the ownership of four church buildings, but the case could set a precedent that would affect the ownership of other church buildings across Canada, Anglican and otherwise.

The two sides in the dispute are currently engaged in a mediation process that is due to conclude at the end of this week. If the mediation effort is unsuccessful, the court case will go ahead as scheduled May 23; it is expected to take two to three weeks, with a decision likely to come before the end of the year.

The court case was launched in September 2008 by leaders of St. John's Shaughnessy parish in Vancouver, who made a "statement of claim" for ownership of the parish building, which is valued at over $10 million. Leaders of three other parishes have also joined the court case: St. Matthew's in Abbotsford, BC; St. Matthias and St. Luke's in Vancouver; and Church of the Good Shepherd in Vancouver.

All four parishes have voted to leave the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) and are now affiliated with the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), along with 23 other Canadian parishes.

George Cadman, chancellor for the Diocese of New Westminster, told CC.com that under the canons of the diocese and the Anglican Church, individuals and groups of individuals may leave a diocese but a parish cannot. Therefore, the four groups are "gatherings of individuals" or perhaps even congregations but are not parishes and therefore have no right to the buildings.

Cadman noted that it was individuals in the congregations who instigated the court case and it was "not litigation the bishop or diocese has chosen to engage in." The only thing the diocese has done is to request that priests in three of the parishes who "voluntarily relinquished" their orders in the Anglican Church of Canada vacate the premises.

However, those priests relinquished their orders only after the parishes voted to join what is now the ACNA and the diocese initiated disciplinary action against the priests.

Lesley Bentley, a spokesperson for St. John's Shaughnessy, said the "individuals" who brought the court case are actually the trustees of the parish.

"The Bible gives a clear imperative not to take your brothers to court," she added, but since the diocese won't negotiate regarding the buildings, the parish decided that court was "inevitable."

She noted that in Ontario and in the Diocese of British Columbia (on Vancouver Island), dioceses have gone to court against smaller parishes and it was only a matter of time before the New Westminster Diocese took St. John's Shaughnessy to court. Therefore, the parish took action to "expedite" the legal case.

Cadman noted that in those earlier cases, the courts ruled that "those who choose to leave dioceses or parishes can't take the properties with them."

However, Bentley said that those cases only involved "temporary use issues," and this has given the dioceses control of the disputed church properties for months or years on a temporary basis without getting to "the crux of the matter."

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Cadman said the properties "are held in the name of incorporated parishes under the jurisdiction of dioceses." Therefore they can't be disposed of without the approval of the diocese and they are set aside for Anglican worship.

That is the central issue the courts need to decide, said Bentley: which Anglican worshippers the buildings are held in trust for.

Bentley argued that that it may be the case that Buildings may remain with the diocese "under normal circumstances," but these are not normal circumstances, said Bentley. It is not a case of individuals leaving the church but of a schism or "divorce" that is affecting the entire worldwide Anglican communion -- and, as in any divorce, there should be an equitable division of assets, she said.

It has been the position of the Anglican Church of Canada that ACNA represents only a "small minority" of the Canadian church. Bentley countered that the 27 Canadian parishes in ACNA have 3500-4000 actual attenders on Sunday mornings. While the ACC claims a membership of hundreds of thousands of members, actual attendance is only a fraction of that, and attendance figures have not been compiled since 2001. Those 27 parishes have greater attendance than 12 of the 31 Canadian dioceses, said Bentley.

In the US, 700 parishes with 100,000 members, including four dioceses, have joined the ACNA.

The worldwide Anglican communion of 70 million members is also divided.

The Primates Council of the Global African Future Conference/Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (GAFCON/FCA) met in London, England in April and recognized the ACNA as part of the worldwide Anglican communion. GAFCON/FCA was created by Anglican bishops from the "global south" who have broken with Anglicans in the West over issues such as homosexuality, biblical authority and the uniqueness of Jesus. That split was precipitated when the Diocese of New Westminster decided to bless same-sex couples in 2002 and the Episcopal Church in the US ordained a gay bishop.

However, even though GAFCON/FCA claims to represent 70 percent of the world's Anglicans, Cadman said it is only "an informal gathering" and "does not have legal standing." The formal leadership bodies of the worldwide Anglican communion are the Anglican Consultative Council and the Lambeth Conference convened every ten years by the Archbishop of Canterbury in England. "The only ecclesial body in Canada the Archbishop of Canterbury recognizes is the Anglican Church of Canada, of which the Diocese of New Westminster is a constituent part," said Cadman.

Bentley stated that it is the ACNA that has maintained traditional Anglican doctrine and that it is the diocese that precipitated the schism by changing its doctrine.

She also argued that the diocese has no right to the St. John's Shaughnessy building since it was paid for entirely by the congregation. Over the years, the parish has contributed $3 million to the diocese, and "never received anything back," other than a temporary $10,000 loan.

"If we are forced to vacate our building, where would we go?" said Bentley, noting that the St. John's Shaughnessy building is filled with between 1,200 and 1,500 worshippers each week, including children and young people.

In contrast, she said, the diocese has no need for the building since it has eight other parishes within a few minutes' drive of St. John's Shaughnessy, some of which will likely close down since the diocese does not have enough people to fill the buildings.

May 14/2009