Breakaway Anglicans to form own body
Proposals for new North American Province in a matter of weeks

by Charles Lewis
National Post
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=947756
November 10, 2008

Dissident Anglican churches in Canada and the United States say they will form a new conservative jurisdiction in the next year, adding that the Archbishop of Canterbury has lost the moral authority to have any real say in blocking the radical move.

Parishes that have left their national churches over the issue of same-sex marriage and a general trend toward liberalism want to create a single "province" that would report to a conservative North American bishop who shares their values.

"I believe the next year will be critical," said Rev. Peter Frank, a spokesman for the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, which voted last month to leave the U.S. Episcopal Church. "The first proposals will be formed in the very near term, in a matter of weeks, frankly."

Mr. Frank said that any opposition from Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, will be moot because the spiritual head of Anglicanism has lost his moral authority.

"Frankly, [he] is not in a position to do anything. At this point, the leaders of a majority of the world's Anglicans are going to recognize us when we [separate]."

But he added it would make it more difficult if Mr. Williams did not give his blessing.

Dissident Canadian and U.S. churches are now under the oversight of Archbishop Gregory Venables, head of the Province of the Southern Cone in South America. The move has always been considered temporary until a more permanent, indigenous structure could be formed.

The number of breakaway parishes is still a small percentage of the total number of churches in Canada and the United States. However, conservatives believe their views are more in line with the majority of the world's 80 million Anglicans and that the Canadian and American national churches have fallen out of faith with the global communion.

They say that true Anglicanism is more prominent in the Third World, especially Africa, where churches generally hold much more conservative Christian views. Rwanda, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda, for example, now have more than one-third of the world's 80 million Anglicans and the Church is growing far faster there than any other place on the planet.

Last summer, the African churches, along with other orthodox provinces, met in Jerusalem. A statement from that meeting said, "While acknowledging the nature of Canterbury as an historic see, we do not accept that Anglican identity is determined necessarily through recognition by the Archbishop of Canterbury."

It went on to say, "In particular, we believe the time is now ripe for the formation of a province in North America."

Archdeacon Paul Feheley, the principal secretary to Fred Hiltz, the Archbishop of Canada, said he does not believe the Anglican Communion would approve a new province. He said if it did, there would be no end to splinter groups, each with their own particular gripe, demanding a new jurisdiction.

"Where do you start and stop? A group could oppose the ordination of women. Do we create a new province for that group? We are not in favour of them creating a new province," Mr. Feheley said.

In February, Mr. Williams stated that the Anglican Church of Canada is indivisible.

"[I] am quite content to repeat that I do not endorse any cross-provincial transfers of allegiance," he wrote in February, "and that this office and that of the Anglican Communion recognize one ecclesial body in Canada as a constitutive member of the Communion, the Anglican Church of Canada."

Last November, a parallel national church was launched in Canada under the Anglican Network in Canada. The group is meeting again this week in Burlington, Ont., to discuss the future of the orthodox cause.

Cheryl Chang, the director of the Canadian group, agreed that it does matter to Anglicans what Mr. Williams thinks, but a new province would go ahead without him.

"The churches in North America don't have any option. They have been systematically kicked out, persecuted in their own church ... while the Archbishop of Canterbury has done nothing to support our cause. In order to remain part of the global fellowship, we have to form a province to be more structurally connected. The only other choice is to shrink or die. It's either die or get on with it."

END