Vancouver-area parishes’ case to be heard on May 25

Posted on January 9, 2009 
Filed under News

Anglican Network in CanadaPress release from the Anglican Network in Canada: 7 January 2009

The trial involving four Vancouver-area Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) churches and the Anglican Church of Canada’s (ACoC) Diocese of New Westminster will begin on May 25 in British Columbia Supreme Court. Three weeks have been set aside to hear the case.

The four parishes – St. Matthew’s (Abbotsford), St Matthias and St Luke’s (Vancouver), St John’s Shaughnessy (Vancouver) and Church of the Good Shepherd (Vancouver) – had asked the courts in early September 2008 to clarify their trustees’ responsibilities in light of hostile action taken by the ACoC diocese. 

In a move designed to take control of the parish properties, Bishop Michael Ingham, of the Diocese of New Westminster, had informed the elected wardens and trustees of two parishes in late August that they had been summarily dismissed and replaced by officials appointed by the bishop. Bank accounts for the churches were frozen causing administration difficulties for the congregations that had raised the funds in those accounts. The other two parishes expected similar actions to be taken against them as well.

All four parishes voted overwhelmingly in February 2008 to disaffiliate with the Anglican Church of Canada and realign with the Anglican Network in Canada as a result of a growing doctrinal disagreement.

“All churches in the Anglican Church of Canada are held “in trust”, and the fundamental question for the courts to decide is, ‘Who are the beneficiaries of that trust and the rightful owners of the property – the diocese or the congregation?’ says Cheryl Chang, ANiC Chancellor.

The parish trustees believe the parish properties are held in trust for the benefit of the current congregations who have paid for and maintained these properties, and who are continuing to practice and maintain traditional Anglican ministry in accordance with the founding principles of the Anglican Church of Canada (contained in the Solemn Declaration 1893), and the current doctrine of the global Anglican Communion. The Diocese of New Westminster, which has acted unilaterally and contrary to those principles, asserts the property is held in trust for the diocese. Various actions are currently in the Canadian courts to determine who is the rightful beneficiary of such trusts in light of the growing divisions in the global Anglican Communion.

“The trustees of all four parishes decided act together in this matter since the issues in dispute are the same with respect to the trusts surrounding the church properties and assets, as well as the duties of the Trustees,” says Mrs Chang.

As part of the Anglican Network in Canada, the four congregations are under the Episcopal authority of Bishop Donald Harvey and the jurisdiction of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone – one of the 38 Provinces in the global Anglican Communion. The Anglican Church of Canada is also one of these 38 Provinces.

The four congregations have been in “serious theological dispute” with the Diocese of New Westminster since June 2002, when the diocese unilaterally proceeded with same sex blessings in clear defiance of leaders of the global Anglican Communion and the beliefs of the vast majority of Anglicans worldwide that such action is contrary to Scripture.

Since 2003, the Primates of the Anglican Communion have repeatedly asked the Anglican Church of Canada and the Diocese of New Westminster to return to Biblically-faithful Anglican practice and teaching and to provide adequate episcopal oversight for dissenting parishes, but to no avail. In fact, the communion-breaking actions of the Diocese of New Westminster sparked the current crisis and the global realignment which is now taking place in the Anglican Communion.

Members of the Anglican Network in Canada are committed to remaining faithful to Holy Scripture and established Anglican doctrine and to ensuring that orthodox Canadian Anglicans are able to remain in full communion with their Anglican brothers and sisters around the world.

Since it launched its ecclesial structure in November 2008, ANiC has received 26 parishes and 67 clergy, including two bishops – Donald Harvey and Malcolm Harding.

– From the Anglican Network in Canada.