More Canadian defections in gay row
By Judy West, Religious Intelligence
Four more congregations have voted to leave the Anglican Church of Canada and to join the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC). They will fall under the episcopal oversight of Bishop Donald Harvey, moderator of the ANiC, and under the primatial authority of Archbishop Gregory Venables, primate of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone.
The departures of the congregations of St Aidan’s in Windsor, Ontario; St George’s Ottawa; the Church of St Peter, Hamilton, Ontario; and St Bede’s, Kinosota, Manitoba, bring to 14 the number of congregations that have left the Anglican church amid clashing views on the blessing of same-sex unions. (There are about 2,800 congregations in the Canadian church, which is a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion, the ENS news service is reporting.)
A statement from Charlie Masters, executive archdeacon of ANiC, welcomed the congregations. "They join a growing movement of North American Anglicans seeking to remain in full communion with the global Anglican Church."
St Bede’s, a small rural congregation of the South Parkland parish, in the diocese of Brandon, voted to leave October 15. Only one of about 25 who voted opposed the move.
"I am the rector of the parish, and was not consulted about the meeting, which the canons of the diocese require," said the Rev Bob Bettson, adding that he has subsequently dismissed the wardens of St Bede’s. He said that St Bede’s non-stipendiary honorary assistant, Joan Weitzel, has indicated to the diocesan bishop of Brandon, Jim Njegovan, that she was relinquishing her orders.
Bettson added that the ANiC had also tried to initiate a vote at another congregation that Weitzel ministered to — St Michael and All Angels — but that the wardens there had agreed to his order to cancel the meeting.
Bettson said the diocese would use the Manitoba Temporalities Act to assert its ownership of the church building and the cemetery beside it. St Bede’s, which dates back to 1822, is one of the oldest parishes in Manitoba.
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