Niagara Network churches

celebrate Easter in their buildings

Anglican realignment in Niagara, Ottawa and Toronto 

By Sue Careless

On Maundy Thursday a judge in the Ontario Superior Court in Hamilton, decided to allow three Ontario parishes belonging to the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) to continue worshipping in their buildings for Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday.

On March 20 Madame Justice Jane Milanetti reserved her decision on whether the parishes of St George's Lowville in Milton, St Hilda's in Oakville and Church of the Good Shepherd in St Catharines will retain exclusive use of their church facilities while the bigger legal issues of who owns the buildings are sorted out. The Diocese of Niagara is contesting the property.

The earlier decision of Mr Justice James Ramsay from Feb. 29, in which two of the ANiC parishes were given exclusive use of their properties until this motion was heard, will remain in effect until this decision is issued. The third parish, Good Shepherd in St. Catharines, was not part of the initial litigation but has since been added to the proceedings.

"We are very thankful that we are able to maintain our ministries in the buildings through Easter as there was much uncertainty," said the Rev Canon Charlie Masters, rector of St George's Lowville. “We look forward to continued worship there as long as the courts permit us to do so. He acknowledged the prayers offered from across the country. "We are deeply grateful for the prayer support and trust God no matter the outcome.”

The small minority of parishioners from the three churches who wish to remain with the ACC are currently attending Anglican churches within a six-minute drive of their original churches.  

Madam Justice Milanetti needs to examine the evidence presented by lawyers John Page for the Diocese and Peter Jervis for ANiC. Her ruling could come down as early as the Tuesday after Easter. No exact date was indicted.     

"We deeply regret that it was necessary to defend the right of these congregations to maintain their ministries in the buildings where they have always worshipped," said Cheryl Chang, a director of the Anglican Network in Canada. "It is our hope and prayer that we could resolve all issues through amicable discussions but at this point, we are at the mercy of the courts and we await this decision.”

St Hilda's in Oakville which has an average Sunday attendance (ASA) of 100, voted 86-0 (with 1 abstention) to realign. The church delivers food hampers weekly to the needy and offers a free lunch program for students from a local high school. St. Hilda’s also has a regular prison ministry which the rector, the Rev’d Paul Charbonneau, leads. 

St George's in Lowville, near Milton has an ASA of 200 at three services with 35 children in Sunday school. It voted 128-3 (with 1 abstention) to realign. The church runs a prison ministry at the Maplehurst Detention Centre in Milton as well as a ministry to the elderly in a number of institutional settings. The Rev’ds Charlie Masters & Ray David Glenn minister at the church. The Rev’d Masters, who has been rector of St George’s for 27 years, told the Planet, “It is striking to me through all of this how God meets you everyday in his Word. He has a fresh word every day to keep you going.” 

The Church of the Good Shepherd in St Catharines, Ont. voted 70-4 (with 7 abstentions) to realign. It has an ASA of 120 and over 180 members. It is involved in a breakfast program for the homeless in a city suffering badly from economic stagnation. Good Shepherd runs an Exploring Christianity course along with various fellowship groups. Members built and paid for their church facilities and land. The Rev’d Gerry Brodie is the first to admit, “I’m not one to lead the charge of the light brigade.” However when colleagues urged him to stay in the ACC to “make his voice be heard” he realized that for the past dozen years, “We’ve never had any influence.” As for the Network churches, “We are not many but I take encouragement from the verse, ‘Do not despise the day of small things’” (Zech. 4:10).

St Alban the Martyr's in Ottawa voted 77-1 (with 1 abstention) to realign. It has an ASA of 200 at 3 services with 25 children in the Sunday school. Its outreach program “Yoked” evangelizes and disciples students at the nearby University of Ottawa. Like almost all the Network churches it has run Alpha courses which introduce non-churchgoers to Christianity and acts as a refresher course for churchgoers. The “best ever” says rector George Sinclair was a pub Alpha at the Royal Oak Tavern. St Alban’s contributes to a local food bank and ensures that at least 3 percent of all regular church income goes to local and international mission work. There are two honorary assistants: the Rev’d Desiree Stedman and the Rev’d Patricia Coulombe. Sir John A. McDonald and three other Fathers of Confederation worshipped in the 1867 stone edifice. The rector has told his congregation that they might lose everything physically but “it is congregations that make buildings, not buildings congregations.” The church has withheld its apportionment due the diocese for the past three years “for conscience reasons.” On March 11 Sinclair was accused of abandonment of ministry under Canon 19 of the ACC.

Despite its small size, St. Chad's in Toronto has a remarkable outreach into its predominantly working-class neighbourhood. Monthly community suppers are well attended with up to 50 people. The church runs Alpha programs and conducts a monthly service at a seniors’ residence. St Chad’s also rents space to the Ugandan Martyrs Church. A Rover Scout troop for developmentally challenged young men meets in the church gym as does Narcotics Anonymous. The inner-city church has an ASA of 35 with two adults seeking confirmation. While the smallest and poorest of the ten realigning churches, it is not in debt. St. Chad’s supports a part-time priest, primarily from rental income from a daycare. Both church and priest have been happy with this arrangement.            

The church sits, however, on prime real estate, at St. Clair West and Dufferin and in 2003 a diocesan report recommended closing St Chad’s. It is located in a predominantly Italian and Portuguese neighbourhood where most churchgoers are Roman Catholic, but there are also many West Indian and Kenyan families moving in which have strong Anglican roots. There were some financial irregularities before the Rev’d Barbara Richardson arrived in 1999. She was advised to invoke Canon 24, which removed the old wardens and put St. Chad’s under direct diocesan control. However, even though the financial problems were cleared up, the diocese has kept St Chad’s under direct diocesan control, which allows the diocese to close the church without a vestry vote. 

On Feb. 17 St. Chad’s voted 12-10 (with 2 abstentions) to realign. This was the only close vote of the realigning churches. Rev. Richardson was a strong supporter of realigning but the honorary assistant surprised many when he seemed to argue for remaining with the ACC. On Feb. 20 Colin Johnson, the Bishop of Toronto, inhibited Rev. Richardson; then on Feb. 23 she resigned. The following Sunday Bishop Johnson appeared at the church unannounced with Primate Fred Hiltz’ principal secretary, Canon Paul Feheley. The bishop interrupted the service to announce that it was his church and there would be a meeting on Monday night to discuss matters further. Then both men left. The diocesan meeting was not held because it interrupted the Rover Scout troop. Fearing the building would be taken over by the diocese, Rev. Richardson changed the locks on Feb. 26. The following Thursday night or early Friday morning the diocese had the locks changed again and cancelled the Sunday March 2 service for what it described as a “cooling off period.”

Canon Feheley led the service the following Sunday and has been appointed interim priest at St Chad’s. Those who want to realign are holding their Easter and post-Easter Sunday services at 11am at the Toronto Heritage Adventist Church, 24 Innes Ave. They and all the realigning churches in Ontario are waiting to see what precedent may be set by the Hamilton court decision.  

Anglican realignment began in BC

The largest Chinese Anglican congregation in Canada has voted unanimously to leave the Anglican Church of Canada and come under the spiritual care of a South American archbishop. It was not alone. This past February saw an unprecedented exodus of congregations and clergy from the national church as more dioceses voted to bless same- sex unions.  

The Church of the Good Shepherd in Vancouver, a 119 year-old Cantonese-speaking congregation, attracts 300 people each Sunday with another 100 attending midweek services and fellowship groups. Although many of its members are young, it is the oldest Chinese Anglican church in Canada. It has a remarkable outreach into Vancouver’s substantial Chinese community. And it helped plant a Chinese ministry at St. Luke’s in 1993. Most of the Chinese who take part in home fellowship groups are first-generation immigrants. Once they learn more about Christianity, many begin to attend church and are baptized as adults.

On Feb. 17 this vibrant, thriving church voted unanimously 203-0 with no abstentions to leave the national church and affiliate instead with the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC). “When you have to defend your faith, you grow stronger,” said the Rev’d Stephen Leung, the rector.

A total of ten congregations have voted to leave the ACC yet all hope to retain the church buildings in which they have long worshipped. However, legal battles have begun for some of the ten. Another five congregations, which had roots in the ACC but who now meet in non-ACC buildings, are not expected to be entangled in any court proceedings. 

The Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, Fred Hiltz, warned in a letter dated Feb. 13: “In our Anglican tradition, individuals who choose to leave the Church over contentious issues cannot take property and other assets with them.” 

All fifteen churches also voted to come under the “temporary emergency oversight” of the Most Reverend Gregory Venables of the Southern Cone. This move will ensure that the clergy and congregations, while under a new jurisdiction, are still part of the global Anglican Communion. Archbishop Venables has appointed Bishops Donald Harvey and Malcolm Harding of the ANiC to offer episcopal oversight. Both former ACC bishops came out of retirement in November and have relinquished their ACC licences. All fifteen churches are now under their spiritual care.

In April 2007 the Primates of the global Anglican Communion had recommended a Pastoral Council to oversee Anglicans and Episcopalians in North America in “serious theological dispute” with their bishops, but the scheme was never implemented by the ACC or The Episcopal Church. Leslie Bentley, a spokeswoman for St. John’s Shaughnessy, one of the Anglican Network churches, said that the offer of “temporary emergency oversight” from the Southern Cone “is supported by Primates representing well over half the members of the Anglican Communion.”

The 15 churches that are now aligned with the Southern Cone were originally members of or rooted in six ACC dioceses: New Westminster, 7 churches; British Columbia, 1; Niagara, 3; Ottawa, 2; Brandon, 1; and Toronto, 1.

The first congregation to realign was also the largest in the Anglican Church of Canada: St. John’s Shaughnessy in Vancouver. Each Sunday about 760 people worship at St. John’s; of those, about 150 are children. In a secret ballot, the vestry voted 475-11 (with 9 abstentions) to realign. No diocesan money was used to start St John’s. The church was independently incorporated in the Diocese in 1932 and this year the church exceeded its budget by $28,000. It offers pastoral care groups such as “Divorce Care, “Grief Care” and “Living Waters.” These support groups attract many non-churchgoers, some of whom start attending church. And many students attending Regent College, a graduate theological school at the University of British Columbia call St. John’s their home. 

The rector, the Rev’d David Short, and the assistant priest, the Rev’d Dan Gifford, along with world-renowned theologian Dr. James I. Packer, who serves as honorary assistant, have been accused of “abandonment of ministry” by Michael Ingham, Bishop of New Westminster. In fact he has issued similar letters to all the former clergy of his diocese who have realigned with the Anglican Network and the Southern Cone.   

Two other Vancouver-area Anglican churches voted in late February to also realign with the Southern Cone:

St Matthias' and St Luke's in Vancouver has about 190 people worshipping each Sunday and is in part an offshoot from the Church of the Good Shepherd. The multilingual Rev’d Simon Chin serves a multicultural congregation offering an English, a Cantonese/Mandarin, and a Japanese service each Sunday. The church voted 133-1 (with 7 abstentions) to realign. “God has been very good,” said Rev. Chin in 2003. “Through all this I’ve learned that God can be trusted. If we are faithful, he will come through.” The priest hasn’t changed his mind.

St Matthew’s in Abbotsford voted 186-4 (with 5 abstentions) to realign. About 290 people worship each Sunday at St. Matthew’s. The Rev’d Trevor Walters is the rector. The church has the largest Anglican prison ministry in the Fraser Valley. Over 30 inmates from Ferndale, a minimum security prison, have attended Alpha courses at the church while on day leave. The prisoners also volunteer at the church and attend services. One parishioner trained an inmate as a stonemason for six months and then hired him when he was released. He has made two pieces of stonework for St. Matthew's.   

For the past six years there have been no confirmations performed nor new clergy licences issued in the Network parishes in New Westminster as they have waited for more orthodox episcopal oversight. It is expected that Archbishop Gregory Venables will ordain some clergy and confirm some laity during or after a Network conference Apr. 25-26 in Tsawwassen, B.C.

One church in the Diocese of British Columbia, which is based on Vancouver Island, voted to realign: St Mary of the Incarnation, in Metchosin. The Venerable Sharon Hayton and the Reverend Andrew Hewlett were both served with notices of inhibition immediately prior to their congregation’s scheduled vote on Feb. 17. Despite this intimidation, the vestry voted 105-14 (with 3 abstentions) to realign. The two priests eventually reached an amicable agreement with Bishop James Cowan and the Diocese of British Columbia to relinquish their exercise of ordained ministry within the ACC. They will meet with the Metropolitan, Archbishop Terry Buckle, to seek an alternative to litigation over the church property. In the meantime, the priests and the Network parishioners of St Mary’s have been allowed to worship in the church building. Those parishioners who want to remain with the ACC are worshipping in the smaller heritage church two minutes down the road.     

 “It is our desire to work with the bishops and dioceses to effect an amicable transition depending upon local circumstances,” said Cheryl Chang, executive director for the ANiC. She said of the Metchosin arrangement, “We think that is an excellent model of cooperation and amicability and would love to see that across the country.”

St Mary of the Incarnation has an average Sunday attendance of 140, with about 25 children and teens. Set in a rural area west of Victoria, it draws not only from the local community but also surrounding communities. It has run several Alpha courses including Alpha Marriage and Teen Alpha. Canon Hayton describes Alpha as a “good tool for both conversion and renewal.” During its Vacation Bible School, the church bridged with a neighbouring First Nations community. It also supports a chaplain at the local youth detention centre.

St. Mary’s sees itself as a “mission-focused sending church.” With a substantial mission budget, St. Mary’s supports the various missions many of its own parishioners are involved in. One church member runs Street Hope in Victoria, while some others are administrators of a Ugandan mission. Parishioners have helped build three homes for Ugandan orphans. Other church members have worked internationally with Youth with a Mission and Mercy Ship.

Network churches outside the Diocese of Niagara also are awaiting the ruling from the Hamilton courthouse because it could set a precedent for their jurisdictions as well.