NEW WESTMINSTER: DIOCESE GIVES COOL RECEPTION TO TASK FORCE REPORT

Diocesan News

The report from the Canadian House of Bishops’ Task Force on Adequate/Alternative Episcopal Oversight for Dissenting Minorities—which recommended a form of “flying bishops” for Anglicans opposed to same-sex blessings—received a skeptical response at the Diocesan Council last month.

Archdeacon David Retter of St. James, Vancouver, remarked, “It seems as if they are recommending an alternate church.”

The task force proposed that any parish opposing same-sex blessings could request an alternate bishop by an 80% congregational vote. This arrangement was envisioned as temporary—no longer than six years.

Unlike the Episcopal Visitor appointed in New Westminster (a bishop invited by the diocesan to provide pastoral care), the proposed alternative bishop would be selected independently by one of five Archbishops (a provincial Metropolitan or the Primate) without the diocesan bishop’s involvement.

Bishop Michael Ingham urged the council to consider the report prayerfully. It will be reviewed by the House of Bishops April 15–18 and may go forward—unchanged or amended—to the General Synod at the end of May.

The task force recommended that if General Synod approves diocesan autonomy to authorize same-sex blessings, the alternative oversight model would apply nationwide; otherwise, it would apply only to New Westminster—with the diocese’s consent.

Bishop Ingham voiced concern: “It seems to raise a great many questions which are not worked out… How will the temporary partition of dioceses along theological lines contribute to unity?” He warned of the risk of permanent “segregation” becoming a precedent for future disputes.

The report calls for the “voluntary ceding of jurisdiction” by diocesan bishops—a step he noted goes “much further than the so-called flying bishops in England.” In England, the 1993 Alternative Episcopal Oversight (AEO) scheme—established for parishes opposing women’s ordination—allowed alternative bishops by invitation, without relinquishing the diocesan’s jurisdiction.

Diocesan Chancellor George Cadman questioned the canonical feasibility of ceding jurisdiction: “Voluntary may be nice, but it may not be possible.” He intends to consult chancellors across the country.

Two council members criticized the report as one-sided: alternative oversight was proposed only for conservatives in liberal dioceses, not for liberals in conservative ones.

Archdeacon Andrew Pike of St. Anne’s, Richmond, noted the task force was charged with protecting all “dissenting minorities”—yet focused exclusively on opposition to same-sex blessings.

The Rev. Paula Porter Leggett of St. Faith’s, Vancouver, observed: “It appears that if you are a liberal diocese you have to protect the conservatives, but if you are a conservative diocese you don’t have to protect the liberals.”

Bishop Ingham emphasized that both the House of Bishops and General Synod retain full authority to accept, reject, or amend the report. The Diocesan Council—and possibly Diocesan Synod in mid-May—will assess national decisions and determine their local response.

End