THE CRAWLEY DOCTRINE: GET OUT

Fidelity BC Web

The Crawley doctrine: Those who disagree with the Liberal theology should find another church. Archbishop Crawley made this statement a few years ago in a seminar at VST and again on the CBC's radio program The Afternoon Show four days after the vote at the Diocese of New Westminster Synod in June of 2002. A month prior to that Archbishop Crawley had met with a delegation of the ACiNW churches and suggested that they join the AMIA (Anglican Mission in America) - in short, leave the Anglican Church of Canada.

The Crawley doctrine will lead to nothing short of a Liberal-only church and those people who dissent should leave and go elsewhere. Bishop Ingham would add to that: Leave your buildings and your bank accounts behind. Archbishop Crawley has said that the buildings and parish assets belong to the people of the parishes whose direct donations paid for them and paid for their maintenance and upkeep. Ingham, on the other hand has long threatened to remove the "dissidents" from their property. What is he going to do with empty church buildings? The same thing he is likely to do with other empty or under-utilized church property: liquidate the assets to pay for expenses like salaries (including his) and benefits which are currently squeezed due to revenue shortfalls.

It is the Liberals who are demanding radical changes to the discipline and doctrine of the church, changes which are incompatible with both the very "essentials" of the Christian faith and our Anglican tradition. What the people of the ACiNW have said is simply "No. Such actions put Bishop Ingham and his Synod beyond the pale of Orthodoxy and hence out of communion with us."

Due to the constant threats and intimidation by Bishop Ingham the ACiNW has appealed for protection by the Canadian House of Bishops (HOB) and the International Primates.

END