Brentwood Chapel joins ANiC

By Sue Careless

The Reverend Mark Davison, former rector of Brentwood Chapel, along with over half of his congregation including most of his parish council, has left the Anglican Church of Canada. Brentwood Chapel was one of the parishes scheduled for disestablishment by the Diocese of British Columbia in the recently released Diocesan Transformation Team Report. The Chapel is located in Brentwood Bay near Saanich in the south of Vancouver Island.

“With deep anguish, but with great hope, I have resigned as the Rector of Brentwood Chapel,” said Davison in a podcast. “The viability of this congregation had been severely impaired by the recommendations of the DTT Report and by the ongoing theological drift of the Anglican Church of Canada and the Diocese.”

Davison announced on Feb. 28 that he had relinquished his ACC license and has been licensed instead by Bishop Donald Harvey of the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) for mission in the Saanich area.

The priest said he bears Bishop James Cowan “no malice” and that when he and his wife visited Cowan to tell him of his decision they departed “with prayers and blessings and hugs.” 

Davison had been rector of Brentwood Chapel for over 12 years and had seen the congregation grow to an average Sunday attendance of 75. It had not only the youngest congregation in the deanery but also the highest per capita giving in the diocese with exceptional mission contributions, most notably to the King’s Daughters Ministries which helps abused girls in Uganda become self-sufficient. 

“Bishop Cowan had made it clear that individual people can leave but that congregations can’t vote to leave. He said it would be out of place for a vote to take place so we respected that.”

Instead people voted with their feet and 45 people attended the first ANiC service in Brentwood Bay.

According to Davison, Brentwood was the last of the evangelical congregations in the Diocese. Only 20 percent of the congregation were cradle Anglicans but 80 percent were from other denominations or had been unchurched and came to faith in adulthood.

“We had an evangelical proclamation with a rich sacramental life. Our members from Mennonite and Brethren and Pentecostal backgrounds really appreciated experiencing Christ in the Eucharist. Every Sunday is like the road to Emmaus [where Christ is recognized in the breaking of bread],” said Davison who is completing his doctorate on Eucharistic liturgy.

It was hard to leave the actual chapel. “We’re wired to remember a physical space where we have encountered God’s presence,” said Davison. He and his wife Lyn Suderman own their own home so they will not have to leave a rectory.

The new congregation is currently meeting at noon on Sundays at Friendship Community Church –whose Baptist pastor stood in solidarity with Davison at the altar as Davison celebrated Holy Communion that first week. The Rev. Dr. Michael Pountney, former principal of Wycliffe College in Toronto, has offered to assist Davison for the first year of this new church plant, which is known as the Peninsula Project.