SIX ORTHODOX CLERGY LEAVE DIOCESE OF NEW WESTMINSTER

Special Report

By David W. Virtue

Five orthodox priests and a deacon in the Diocese of New Westminster resigned from the Diocese late last week over Bishop Michael Ingham's approval of same-sex unions and his support of the consecration of gay American Episcopal bishop V. Gene Robinson.

Yesterday the five parish priests woke up and got on with their collective ministry despite the fact that the revisionist bishop now regards the priests as having left his diocese and the Anglican Church of Canada and says their properties belong to the diocese.

The priests involved are the Rev. Barclay Mayo, rector of St. Andrews, Pender Harbour, the Rev. Silas Ng, rector of the Church of Emmanuel, Richmond, the Rev. Ed Hird, rector of St. Simon's, North Vancouver, and the Rev. Paul Carter, a priest on leave from the diocese.

Four of the priests stated in letters to Bishop Ingham that they have left the Anglican Church of Canada, and now consider themselves missionaries in North America under the ecclesiastical authority of the Archbishop of Rwanda, Emmanuel Kolini.

"We have not joined the Anglican Mission in America, despite what Ingham has written," said spokesperson Paul Carter. "We have formed the Anglican Communion in Canada (ACiC)," said Carter.

"We have accepted the offer from the Primates of the Provinces of Congo, Central Africa, Rwanda and South East Asia of temporary Adequate Episcopal Oversight made available to the clergy and congregations of New Westminster, and to other Canadian clergy and congregations who seek such covering," said Carter. This included temporary Adequate Episcopal Oversight, as contemplated by the Primates Meeting of October 2003 offered in consultation with the Primates and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

"Our administrative head is missionary Bishop T. J. Johnson of the Diocese of Rwanda who is also a bishop with the Anglican Mission in America," Said Carter.

The bishop no longer considers the priests in good standing, but the wardens and the vast majority of the parishioners are solidly behind their priests, Virtuosity was told by phone late last night.

In a letter to the Bishop the Rev. Ed Hird said, "I am writing to inform you that I have accepted the offer of Temporary Adequate Episcopal Oversight from the Primates of SE Asia; Congo; Rwanda; Central Africa and Kenya. I am now canonically resident in the Province of Rwanda. The Primates have invited Bishop TJ Johnston from Little Rock Arkansas to act on their behalf as my Bishop. I have now come under his authority."

"As I have left the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) terminating all my benefits, I would be most grateful if you could instruct your Diocesan Officers to close my file and return any documents to the address above."

Hird then blasted the bishop saying, "your leadership and the decisions and actions of the Synod of the Diocese of New Westminster in relation to the issue of the blessing of same-sex unions, coupled with your own open support of and participation in the Consecration of a practising homosexual for the office of Bishop in the Anglican Communion, have regrettably brought the congregation of the Anglican Parish of St. Simon's Deep Cove to the place where a very difficult decision has become necessary."

Bishop Ingham said that the parishes served by three of the priests remain parishes of the Anglican Church in the Lower Mainland, and those parishioners who wish to remain Anglicans in the Canadian Church will be provided with pastoral care, he said in an official diocesan statement.

"While a parting of the ways is always sad, I am glad that they have finally clarified the situation and made it clear they are leaving the Anglican Church of Canada of their own volition," said the bishop.

"I have been trying unsuccessfully to obtain clarification for the last two years," he added.

The orthodox rectors maintain that the Bishop and Diocesan leadership have willfully and unrepentantly disobeyed Article 1 of the Constitution of the Synod of the Diocese of New Westminster, in that they no longer hold and maintain the Doctrine of Christ as the Lord has commanded and the Anglican Church has received them, and have changed, without the authority or approval of the Anglican Church of Canada and the formularies of the church.

"Bishop Michael Ingham has not guarded the faith of the church, and has therefore set aside his ordination and consecration vows," said Carter.

The four parishes have hired the lawyer who won the Trinity Western University case involving the accreditation of their four year teachers.

END