SEVENTEEN clergy and former lay leaders of three parishes in New Westminster under the jurisdiction of the Province of the Southern Cone are suing the diocese and its Bishop, the Rt Revd Michel Ingham, for attempting to remove them from church properties and dismiss trustees.
They come from the parishes of St Matthew’s, Abbotsford; St Matthias and St Luke, Vancouver; and St John’s Shaughnessy, Vancouver, all members of the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC), the coalition that formed after the diocese voted in 2002 to allow same-sex blessings. In August, the diocese invoked a provision that returned control of the breakaway parishes to itself (News, 29 August).
The ANiC is led by Bishop Donald Harvey, who is a bishop in the Southern Cone. He wrote an open letter of protest to the Archbishop of Canterbury earlier this month, describing New Westminster’s attempts to regain control of its properties as “hostile actions” (News, 12 September).
Eight diocesan clergy relinquished their licences for ministry in the diocese and in the Anglican Church of Canada on 21 April. Three of them are among those bringing the action. The Chancellor of New Westminster, George Cadman, said in a statement last week that the diocese would respect the outcome of the court process, and that he hoped the others would do the same.
The Presiding Bishop of the Southern Cone, the Most Revd Greg Venables, is reported to have rebuffed as “serving no new purpose” a request by the Primate of Canada, the Most Revd Fred Hiltz, that the two should meet to discuss cross-border interventions. Archbishop Hiltz told Bishop Venables to “stop interfering in the life of this province”, after he flew to Canada to attend the ANiC conference in Vancouver in April (News, 25 April).
Archbishop Hiltz has written to the Archbishop of Canterbury asking him to convene a meeting with Bishop Venables.
He and Canada’s Metropolitan Archbishops continue to make clear — in what Archbishop Hiltz told the Church Times at the Lambeth Conference must now “sound like a broken record” — that adequate and appropriate provision has been made for the pastoral care and support of all members of the Anglican Church of Canada, including those in conscientious disagreement with their bishop and synod over same-sex blessings.
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