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http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/ Anglican Communion in Canada (ACiC)
27th March 2005
ACiC News Release: Two ACiC Congregations Decide to Evacuate Their Buildings
Vancouver, BC - Two Congregations of the Anglican Communion in Canada, St. Simon's Church North Vancouver and Christ the Redeemer, Pender Harbour have decided to evacuate their buildings as of May 31st 2005. While the two congregations have had strong support from their five sponsoring Anglican Primates internationally*, the local legal threats from their ex-diocese have made it untenable to continue on worshipping in their buildings. Despite the congregations' strong claim of 'beneficial ownership' and, in St. Simon's case, holding the legal title to the church building, the invocation of Canon 15** by their ex-diocese has effectively displaced the Parish of St. Simon Deep Cove's leadership with the appointees of Bishop Michael Ingham. Subsequent legal demands for possession of the two places of worship, with threatened court action if not obeyed, has necessitated this evacuation decision. Both congregations are committed to faithfulness to historic international Anglican teachings, based on the authority of the Bible. At a time when the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) and ECUSA have been effectively suspended from the highest decision-making level of the Anglican Communion, our congregations are grateful to be a missionary arm of the Anglican/Episcopal Province of Rwanda.
The 9am Traditional BCP service of St. Simon's North Vancouver(ACiC)*** will be meeting as of June 5th 2005 at Lions Gate Christian Academy (420 Seymour River Place, North Vancouver). St. Simon's NV's 10:30am Contemporary Service already moved to LGCA four months ago to make room for growth. Christ the Redeemer Church Pender Harbour will be meeting as of June 5th at the Pender Harbour School of Music, 12952 Madeira Park Road, Madeira Park. All are welcome to join these two growing congregations.
For further information about the Anglican Communion in Canada, please contact the Rev. Paul Carter, ACiC Network Leader at paul@acicanada.ca or (604) 222-4486 or The Rev. Ed Hird, ACiC Communications Leader at ed_hird@telus.net or 604-929-5350. The ACiC is not affiliated with the ACC (Anglican Church of Canada)
Please note our website: http://www.acicanada.ca
*http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1938 Jan 15th 2005 Letter of Support by our Five International Covering Primates "...We are deeply concerned to hear about the recent actions of the Bishop of New Westminster, Michael Ingham. He has deliberately disregarded the recommendations of the Windsor Report, and pre-empted the decisions of our February 2005 Primatial meeting, by his unwarranted attack on our congregations and priests in Canada. We assure you that we will address these issues when we meet in February(...)" The Most Rev. Fidele Dirokpa, Archbishop of Congo The Most Rev. Immanuel Kolini, Archbishop of Rwanda The Most Rev, Bernard Malango, Archbishop of Central Africa The Most Rev. Benjamin Nzimbi, Archbishop of Kenya The Most Rev. Datuk Yong Ping Chung, Archbishop of South East Asia The Rt. Rev. Thomas W. Johnston, Missionary Bishop of Rwanda
** http://www.acinw.org/articles/st%20martins%20vestry.html
*** St. Simon's Church North Vancouver (ACiC) Website: http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/
1b) http://www.virtueonline.org/ VANCOUVER: TWO EVICTED PARISHES WILL VACATE THEIR PROPERTIES Special Report By David W. Virtue
VANCOUVER, BC (3/27/2005)--The end came swiftly during Holy Week. The die had been cast seven years earlier, and the legal wrangling and assaults had taken their toll on the people. The parishioners and their rectors had had enough.
Michael Ingham, the revisionist bishop of New Westminster had nailed notices to the church doors setting an April 1 deadline to vacate their properties or face being dragged into court.
For the Rev. Ed Hird, 50, of St. Simon's in North Vancouver and the Rev. Barclay Mayo, 55, Christ the Redeemer Church in Pender Harbour, it was the end of the legal road.
Both congregations are committed to faithfulness to historic international Anglican teachings, based on the authority of the Bible, said an official statement from the two rectors.
"We have conceded nothing legally. What we have concluded, despite our strong claim of 'beneficial ownership' and, in St. Simon's case, holding the legal title to the church building, the invocation of Canon 15 by the bishop made it untenable to go on any further. That canon replaces the DNA of the church. Our people voted 100 percent to leave. It's done", Hird told VirtueOnline.
"He has gutted the church and will replace the wardens, but he [Ingham] will have no congregation. For media purposes he will rent a crowd while they are watching. Our congregation voted 100 percent to evacuate the premises. Every vote we have taken over the last seven years has been unanimous. It is a pyrrhic victory for Michael," said Hird.
"The two small property buildings you could knock over with a bulldozer in minutes. Had we stayed, we would have demolished them both and spent two million building a whole new church on an acre of land. The old 1949 wood frame structure had no value. Now we won't be able to do that. Yes it's a loss, but it is by no means fatal."
A large contemporary service had already moved its 9am service to Lions Gate Christian Academy by the Second Narrows Bridge, linked to Vancouver's downtown area; now the whole parish will move there. "We were being strangled where we were, now we have classrooms that can seat 350 people," Hird told VirtueOnline. "What happened is a symbol of the injustice in the Anglican system."
"Being thrown out was a justice issue. We had just celebrated our 60th anniversary as a congregation…there was a lot of emotional grief, but the truth is we had outgrown the church; people were standing in the aisles on Sunday morning. Everyone knew we had to move on."
Hird said he had hoped Terry Buckle, Bishop of the Yukon would come to his rescue, but at the end of the day he dropped out of the picture. "He has been neutered. He had his day but the revisionists crushed him. We have been in limbo for 9 months but it still left us under Ingham."
Hird is sad that, at the end, there was no protection from the orthodox Canadian bishops, but he is not bitter. "May God prosper them because the crisis is coming soon to them. They will have to face it sooner or later. They can only stick their heads in the sand for so long, but sooner or later they will have to face up to it all. The Canadian bishops have been suspended from the highest level of the Anglican Communion, but they have still not been pressed far enough by the global primates. The truth is we are dealing with apostasy in both the US and Canadian churches."
Hird said the spiritual cancer won't just stay on the West Coast; it will spread to the whole body. "It has been 7 years since our synod voted to bless same sex (blessings) and the Anglican way has left people in limbo. This is twice as long as Jesus' whole ministry on earth. It is three years since we walked out of synod."
Hird has nothing but gratitude for the five overseas Primates who have taken him and the 11 parishes of the Anglican Communion in Canada (ACIC) under their ecclesiastical protection. "The secular courts in Canada don't care what overseas primates think or conclude. The secular courts in BC are only concerned about property issues. The legal reality was that our lawyers looked at all the options and it would have cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight the cases. We were not prepared to spend that kind of money; it would have been a poor use of our resources. From a psychological standpoint, the diocese could not afford to lose this one. Even if we had won on appeal and got the Supreme Court to on our side, we had outgrown the buildings."
On May 31st they will celebrate their last service in their old buildings. "We have gone through the grief of Good Friday, the indecision of Holy Saturday - between life and death in our congregation, but in the strength of Jesus we have risen with him and we are moving forward as a congregation.
Hird said their will be no remnant for the bishop. The bishop and the diocese had used the property issue to divide the congregation. "It has not worked. They hope the people would love the buildings and stay and claim some victory but the congregation said otherwise. They have sacrificed everything. The way forward is to give it all up. If that is the price that is exacted, so be it." Citing Jesus, Hird said "if you cannot renounce everything, you cannot be my disciples. We have been willing for the last 3 years and now we will throw it away."
Hird's 300 plus regular attendees (average Sunday attendance 165) had been amongst the top givers to the diocese; Ingham will lose that. "We have 15 missionaries to support and we have hired four new pastors," he told VirtueOnline.
Asked about his response to what Ingham had done to him and his people, Hird said, "Our response is that of Jesus: "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." Citing the martyr Stephen, Hird said, "Hold not this sin against them. We will not pick up the root of bitterness; we press on with faith in our hearts and the gospel on our lips. We have been stripped of all our assets but we have won the victory."
The Rev. Barclay Mayo, 55 said his congregation will not suffer much. "We have been able to secure a place to worship at a performance center, called Pender Harbour Music School. I feel relief. Of course we are sad and we are grieving but I have been here six years and the congregation has been here 26 years. We just decided the anger, rancor and fighting needed to stop. We needed to get focused."
His 120 member congregation will all stay with him. "A handful that left before we started this war with Ingham may come back, but we don't know for sure. We shall see. Everything is all sorted out. We incorporated a year ago. This is really just about the properties, and in the end the gospel is much more important than that." Mayo says he owns his own house.
"We are saddened by it, of course. My lawyer, who is also a Christian said he could not recommend that we go down the road of endless litigation. It would cost a lot of money that people have given for mission and ministry.
Before the church renamed itself Christ the Redeemer, it was St. Andrews. This is the corporate name Ingham will take back.
Mayo said that parish growth had stifled because of the continued uncertainty of what was going on. "The fight was polarizing the community, and to stop the polarization and get on with the ministry and do Christ's mission we walked away. The church has a paid youth worker and deacon.
Before he went to see his lawyer last week, Mayo prayed and he believed he heard the Lord says "you are done with this", and when we got to his lawyer and was told of the impossibility of winning or, if they did, the enormous cost involved, he said he was done.
The Rev. Paul Carter, ACiC network leader said it was a privilege to stand among faithful Anglicans who have come to realize that their unity as the people of God is more important than buildings that they have loved and cherished. Fortunately they no longer stand alone, and the international community has both acknowledged their faithfulness, come to their rescue, and authenticated their validity as members of the Anglican Communion. It is a privilege to have a seat with the Common Cause people. I believe Bishop Bob Duncan is the man of the hour."
The 11 ACiC congregations are under the Anglican Mission in America bishop, the Rt. Rev. T. J. Johnson at the request of five Global South Primates. Hird said the ACiC had grown from five congregations to 11 and he expects that figure to double to 22 in a short period of time.
2a) http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2271 http://www.canadianchristianity.com/ BC Christian News, April Edition 2005, p. 10 Anglican Schism 'not inevitable' Bishop T.J. Johnston with Ed Hird (left) and Paul Carter of the ACiC (photo) By Frank Stirk Based in Arkansas and licensed under the Anglican Mission in America(AMiA),Bishop T.J. Johnston oversees the 11 member-churches of the Anglican Communion in Canada (ACiC). He spoke with BCCN during a recent pastoral visit to British Columbia.
BCCN: Do you have any sense that especially because of the latest statement from the primates (see http://www.canadianchristianity.com/cgi-bin/na.cgi?nationalupdates/050323snubbed that many more churches will see fit to leave the Anglican Church of Canada and join the ACiC?
T.J. Johnston: With the Ireland communiqué, it's clear to many who are still within the Anglican Church of Canada that that church has taken a position that is contrary to classical Anglicanism. Some churches will see fit for a variety of reasons to continue to try to maneuver and work through the process set out by the communiqué...and so at that level, I think many will stay in.
At another level, I anticipate significant movement out. There'll be others that just say, "Okay, this is the end for us. We hung in here, we waited, we want to remain Anglican, but we cannot remain under these coercive and unfaithful structures." They will be stepping out. We see some evidence of that.
BCCN: Can a complete schism right now be avoided?
TJJ: Although the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada may answer that question in the affirmative, I think that after having spoken with at least four or five archbishops since Ireland, that they would say no.
Schism is not inevitable, but the only way it can be avoided at this moment is not by more dialogue, but by both of those churches...coming back under the orthodox, generally accepted teachings of the Anglican Communion. If they don't, there really is not room for conversation...We will find evidence pretty quickly, starting in the June meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council. In the Episcopal Church, next summer they're going to have their convention. If significant moves toward repentance and realignment have not taken place, I believe that you could see the separation.
BCCN: I read that there were some who questioned why the primates settled for a 'voluntary' withdrawal, instead of just kicking them out. Do you share that concern?
TJJ: I have to be honest. When I first read the communiqué, and I saw the phrase 'voluntary withdraw', I said...speaking from an American perspective, it's probably going to take a two-by-four up the side of someone's head to catch their attention at this point. But after talking to the primates, here's where I think we are: They were polite, they wanted to give the Primate of the Church of Canada and the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church some grace, still leaving room for repentance rather than a forced withdrawal. But the reality is: "You will voluntarily withdraw, or if you don't, it will be imposed upon you immediately"...
There is a serious fracture in the Communion along the fault line of biblical orthodoxy at the moment...Even the Archbishop of Canterbury said: "We've finished this communiqué; now let's all come to the (communion) table together," a number of them clearly signaled, "No. Without repentance, we cannot return to communion. That's how serious it is.
BCCN: And yet what I hear you saying is that despite all the trauma...of the past few years, God is actually using all of that for something quite extraordinary.
TJJ: We're in relationship with a God who redeems and restores that which is broken...Does that mean there's going to be a season for some churches to walk through pain and grief and hurt before they can really engage that? Absolutely. People are going to move at different speeds through this process. Are there going to be perhaps years of litigation over property?....Absolutely. But those of us who, by God's grace, have gotten out a little bit earlier need to begin to go ahead and pave the way, for mission and renewal and fruitfulness - and all the things that Jesus would desire of his church.
2b) http://www.anglicanmissioninamerica.org/index.cfm?id=F3BB9E5F-B40F-4DE7-B90A065719B60470 Bishop Johnston in Canada The Anglican Communion in Canada made history recently by confirming 102 into the Anglican Communion, under the auspices of an alliance of five Anglican primates. Bishop TJ Johnston of the Anglican Mission in America is serving as the representative of that alliance. He visited Vancouver to carry out the confirmations and to share his heart for mission.
2c) http://www.anglicanmissioninamerica.org/index.cfm?id=9D623FCE-92A7-47AA-BB7B990FAE4E441A History Made in Canada by First ACiC Services of Confirmation March 20, 2005 History was made recently when 102 people were confirmed by the Rt Revd TJ Johnston during the 450 strong Anglican Communion in Canada (ACiC) celebration at Richmond Emmanuel Church, British Columbia, Canada(...)
BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH Lives in the Balance Chuck Colson, BreakPoint, March 25, 2005 On Good Friday Jesus died as a substitutionary atonement for the sins of mankind. This is what Christians commemorate. In dying, Jesus established, as a defining mark of a Christian society, the principle of human dignity and the sacredness of life. Fallen sinners-all made in the image of God-are so precious in God's sight that He would sacrifice His only begotten Son for them. What an irony this presents this year. Jesus died so that we could be free and saved. It was a noble death, if there ever was one. But another death occupies the headlines today, one that mocks the death of Jesus. It is Terri Schiavo who is being killed by judicial fiat. For what reason?(...)
WALTER SCHOEN: We Treat Terrorists Better Than Schiavo America's judicial system, with the help of the ACLU, appears to have ended the life of 41-year-old Terri Schiavo.
All the tears, all the vigils, all the prayers were to no avail, and Mrs. Schiavo has begun sliding into the last abyss, "the undiscover'd country from whose bourn no traveler returns," according to Shakespeare(...) Mrs. Schiavo has not been suffering. She is not in pain, and breathes on her own but requires assistance in being fed, as do many other patients with debilitating illnesses. Should we deny nourishment, for example, to cerebral palsy victims?(...) 3c) http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=44811 Christian Medical Association Doctor: Terri Schiavo Can Swallow, Making It Murder to Withhold Nutrition
3/24/2005 11:13:00 AM
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To: National Desk
Contact: Margie Shealy of the Christian Medical Association, 888-231-2637 or 423-341-4254, margie@cmdahome.org, Web: http://www.cmdahome.org
WASHINGTON, March 24 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Executive Director of the 17,000-member Christian Medical Association today said that because Terry Schiavo is able to take food and fluids by swallowing, withholding nutrition from her amounts to murder.
David Stevens, M.D., who holds a masters degree in ethics, explained, "In a murder mystery, the case often turns on a small piece of evidence initially overlooked. Experts viewing the videos of Terri Schiavo have focused on signs such as her recognizing her family. It is easy to actually overlook the most important evidence: Terri Schiavo is not drooling. She is able to swallow her own secretions. And that is a crucial distinction with immense ethical implications.
"Feeding tubes are put in patients for many reasons, but in patients like Terri, they are often put in solely for the sake of convenience. That's because giving fluids and food a spoonful at a time in a patient like Terri could take up to an hour or two, whereas a bag of liquid food and fluids can be hung and gets the job done automatically.
"That means that prohibiting her family and nursing staff from trying to feed her, which Terri Schiavo's husband and the courts have prohibited, amounts to murder. Refusing to offer food and liquid to a patient who can eat or drink is passive euthanasia. Sustenance critical to the maintenance of life has been withheld.
"To not offer Terri Schiavo food and water by mouth, when it is obvious that she can swallow, morally is murder.
"Some ethicists will argue for removing a feeding tube from a patient in certain situations. But when that route is chosen, medical personnel always offer the patient food and water. Why? Because if it is not offered, then the medical personnel--not the disease--have killed the patient. Ethicists would say that it is no different than refusing to feed a totally dependent three-year- old or chaining up a dog and starving it to death.
"When a doctor removes a respirator from a dying patient, the doctor's goal is to take away a burdensome therapy that is just prolonging the dying process. The doctor would be delighted if the patient began breathing on her own and improved.
"But if along with removing the respirator, medical personnel were to also remove the oxygen from the air in the room, the patient would have no chance at all to survive. The intent in such a case would be clear--to make sure the patient died.
"Many people remain deeply disturbed by the Terri Schiavo case because they know something isn't right; yet they have had difficulty articulating why. Simply put, the intent of those involved in removing her tube is not to removed a burdensome therapy. It is to remove a burdensome patient."
4a) http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/news05032401.asp Scotland - Anglican Mainstream Response 24th March 2005 Anglican Mainstream has issued this response to the recent announcement by the Bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church
(1) If the statement really does represent the considered view of the Scottish Episcopal Church, then it has forfeited the right to claim that it stands in the tradition of orthodox Anglicanism and the Universal church
(2) The extent of the 'tear in the fabric of the Communion' is made even clearer, since, presumably, the Scottish bishops are by their statement aligning themselves with ECUSA and Canada as intending if necessary to 'walk apart' from the rest of the Communion
(3) The Scottish bishops' statement exacerbates the potential fracture within other Anglican churches in the British Isles, particularly the CoE - and that makes the Archbishop of Canterbury's task in holding the Communion and the CofE together more difficult
(4) As with the statement from the Salisbury six, the Scottish bishop's pronouncement raises the question whether they speak for their clergy and lay people as well as for themselves. Was it significant that the Scottish Synod did not discuss the statement at its recent meeting?(...)
4b) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/03/24/nscot24.xml Scottish bishops declare support for gay priests By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent, Telegraph Newspaper UK (Filed: 24/03/2005) Scottish Anglican leaders intensified the crisis in the worldwide Church over homosexuality yesterday by becoming the first in the UK to declare that active gays can become priests.
In a move that dismayed conservatives, the College of Bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church also said it was happy for clergy privately to bless gay relationships.
The declaration will be seen as a clear signal that they are siding with the liberal Americans and Canadians who were rebuked last month for bringing the worldwide Church to the brink of schism(...)
Anglican Mainstream, a conservative evangelical group, said there was now a question mark over whether the Scottish Church could still regard itself as part of the "tradition of orthodox Anglicanism". The statement "exacerbates the potential fracture within the Anglican Church in the British Isles"(...)
5) http://www.steynonline.com/index2.cfm?edit_id=69 Topical Take - The Passion Of The Christ March 25, 2005 Easter Movie Extra Mark Steyn - The Passion of the Christ Mel Gibson's movie is back on the big screen this Easter, and many readers asked if I'd re-post my original review(...)
6a) Subject: Letter to the North Shore News Editor: unpublished at this point Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2005 13:28:30 -0800 From: Dr. Don Faris <mfaris@shaw.ca>
March 12, 2005 North Shore News North Vancouver, B.C.
Dear Editor:
I was quite amazed by the letter* responding to Trevor Lauten's article "United Church in Canada Anything But", North Shore News, Feb.25/05 http://www.nsnews.com/issues05/w022005/024305/opinion/024305op1.html.
Apparently the letter writers want to claim that it was "liberalizing" elements that brought about the ordination of women and the abolition of slavery. The United Church ordained women in 1935. But the biblically conservative evangelical Salvation Army ordained women in 1865 and there were evangelical Holiness churches ordaining women in 1884. And it is well known that it was not the liberal, "broad church" Anglicans who led the fight to abolish slavery, it was evangelical, biblically based Anglicans such as William Wilberforce and John Wesley.
But most amazing of all is that these "liberalizing" letter writers should quote Augustine and Karl Barth. Both of these great theologians fought against the syncretistic (taking elements from many religions) watering down of the Christian faith. Augustine opposed the "inclusive" Manichean religion that combined Gnosticism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and the Mother Goddess with some watered-down elements of Christianity.
Karl Barth, (on whom I wrote a thesis), spent his life battling the "liberalizing" of the Christian faith and would be appalled by a "new statement" which is woefully unbiblical and refuses to confess Jesus as Lord. Without this confession the church is open to being taken over and betrayed by the ideologies of the surrounding culture. For example, Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the other serious, biblical Christians led the German opposition to the Nazis while "liberalizing" German theologians welcomed the Nazis as "the wave of the future", pushing the boundaries to include an evil ideology in the name of "openness".
The United Church has lost over 450,000 members since 1965. It now has fewer members than when it began in 1925 although the population of Canada has tripled. This is very sad. It is not the sign of a faithful, lively and dynamic church.
The Rev. Dr. Don Faris North Vancouver Ph: 604-986-3418
6b) http://www.nsnews.com/issues05/w030605/032205/opinion/032205le1.html Church united in keeping faith alive
Dear Editor:
Clergy serving United Churches on the North Shore wish to respond to Trevor Lautens' column, United Church in Canada Anything But (North Shore News, Feb. 25).
The United Church of Canada is a progressive denomination of an ancient tradition. To suggest, as the article does, that the denomination is shattered is an opinion we strongly reject(...)
0) http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Michael_Coren/2005/03/26/972530.html EASTER MESSAGE IS EQUALLY ABOUT PAIN, JOY Michael Coren, Sun Media Saturday, March 26, 2005 Last week my mother had her most serious stroke yet. She now drags one of her legs as she walks. She's had numerous smaller attacks in the past but these have affected her mind and not her body. They resulted in pronounced dementia, to the point where she doesn't really know her children any longer. My sister and I have fed her, put her to bed, played the role of parent that mum played so beautifully to us. It's humbling and, in some ways, gorgeous. But also extraordinarily painful. More so because to a large extent we lost our parents simultaneously(...) Bad things happen. We all die, and many in acute discomfort. Jesus died not in discomfort but in absolute agony. Then rose again in absolute perfection. The same is offered us, and we commemorate Him and His sacrifice this weekend(...) The pain is not pointless. It has purpose, meaning and substance. Nor is it without end. Mum and dad, and so many others, will be complete in the glory of heaven, where we shall celebrate the rising of Jesus in a diamond-like and never-ending Easter Sunday. I pray the same for you.(...)
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