St. John’s Vancouver leaves 100-year historic location

VANCOUVER, BC – September 22, 2011 – St. John’s Vancouver Anglican Church, the largest Anglican congregation in Canada, will begin Sunday services at a new location after moving from its historic location on Granville Street and Nanton Avenue. The congregation, through a lengthy legal action, chose to leave their buildings rather than compromise their beliefs.
 
St. John's Vancouver, which had been meeting at the Granville Street location for almost 100 years, will begin Sunday services on September 25 at Oakridge Adventist Church, at West 37th Avenue and Baillie Street in Vancouver.
 
Disagreement over basic Christian beliefs has separated Anglican congregations around the world into two camps, usually labeled orthodox and liberal, with those holding to historic, Bible-based values and beliefs in the vast majority. The St. John’s Vancouver Anglican congregation has aligned itself with the mainstream global Anglican Church, rather than continue as part of the local, more liberal Diocese of New Westminster.
 
“It is remarkable to be part of a Christian community which is putting faith into action in a way that seems inexplicable to those who love the world,” explained Canon David Short, Rector of St. John’s Vancouver. “We are doing something countercultural and counterintuitive for the truth of God’s word, losing something very valuable for the surpassing worth of Jesus Christ, holding the unity of faith by acting together as one, and joyfully accepting the confiscation of our property.”
 
The underlying, central issues of belief are: the authority of God’s Word in the Bible, the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, and the need to be saved by Him. St. John’s, along with the majority of Anglicans worldwide, joyfully upholds the historic biblical faith, expressed in the founding Anglican affirmations.
 
The move was the result of a court action to determine whether the Diocese of New Westminster or the St. John’s Vancouver congregation was conducting the ministry for which the buildings were intended, and is a result of an on-going world-wide upheaval in the Anglican Communion, the 80 million member Christian Protestant denomination formed 500 years ago.
 
St. John’s Vancouver’s final Sunday services at the Granville Street location on September 18, attended by over 1,100 congregants, included prayers to bless the Diocese of New Westminster and those that would occupy the buildings after the congregation had left. Congregation members both wept and smiled as they left the church to travel the short distance to the new location. There, they joyfully sung hymns and prayed together.
 
“It is inexpressibly sad that we are forced to choose between God’s final word and these wonderful buildings,” said Canon Short, “but we feel relief and much joy in God’s faithfulness and provision for us.”
 
St. John's Vancouver will continue to be led by its present clergy, Canon David Short, Rector, Venerable Daniel Gifford, Associate Minister, Rev. James Wagner, and Rev. Aaron Roberts, assisted by Canon Dr. J.I. Packer, Honourary Assistant Minister and a world-renowned published theologian, a staff of 15, and by the Trustees of St. John’s Vancouver Anglican Church. 
 
The new location secured by St. John’s Vancouver is at West 37th Avenue and Baillie Street and belongs to Oakridge Adventist Church, which has graciously offered to share its building. St. John’s Sunday services will start in Oakridge on September 25, 2011 and all other mid-week activities are planned to continue as normal in the new location.
 
All those who visited St. John’s Granville Street location in the past, new neighbours in the Oakridge location, and all visitors and residents in Vancouver are welcome at the services, prayer times and church events. Special events are planned during the transition period and special welcoming services will be held.
 

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About St. John’s Vancouver (Anglican) Church:

St. John's Vancouver Anglican Church is a community of Christians dedicated to loving God by spreading the name of Jesus Christ. The Church continues in the Anglican way, by preaching, believing and seeking to obey God’s Word in all aspects of life. Church services are held on Sundays at 8 a.m., 10 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Evensong is on Tuesdays at 5:30 pm, a range of programs for adults and youth take place during the week, and many small home group Bible studies meet weekly throughout the Vancouver Lower Mainland. St. John’s supports over 20 local and international missions and help organizations. St. John’s is a member of the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) and the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA).

For more information please visit our website at: www.stjohnsvancouver.org or phone 604.558.4400

Media Contact:

Lesley Bentley
St. John’s Vancouver, People’s Warden
604.261.9495
lesleybentley@mac.com


St John’s Vancouver backgrounder

On Sunday September 25, 2011 St. John's Vancouver (Anglican) Church, the largest Anglican congregation in Canada, will begin services and ministry at a new location at 5350 Baillie Street, Vancouver, about 2 km from its existing location at Granville and Nanton Avenue.
 
The move will be made as a result of a Canadian court decision that determined the Nanton building is to be used for the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster, of which we were part.
 
The move is an external sign of what may be the greatest upheaval in Christianity since the Reformation, as foundational Christian beliefs are currently under attack within the church itself. Just as with the Reformation, the foundational issue is the blurring and compromise of the good news of Jesus Christ and the elevation of the authority of church leadership over the authority of the Bible.  
 
For the latter half of the twentieth century the Anglican Church in the global west, along with some other denominations, has drifted away from traditional Christian orthodoxy and into liberalism and relativism.  This drift has been seen in the teachings and leadership around many core tenets of the faith.  The authority of God’s Word given in the Bible, the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, our individual need to be saved from sin – and even the definition of sin – have been denied, altered or completely rewritten by liberal branches of the church who have sought to keep up with the contemporary viewpoints of the age. As a consequence, the Anglican Church world wide is essentially dividing, and the Anglican Church of Canada has experienced a decades long downward spiral in attendance and finances.
 
A number of Canadian Anglican congregations and many individuals in other congregations across Canada have resisted this shift, believing instead that their faith should inform their thinking about the changes in society, and not have  society's norms of today redefine their faith. But orthodox and evangelical Anglicans in the Diocese of New Westminster and in the Anglican Church of Canada found very little space and respect for these views.
 
In 2002 the Diocese of New Westminster unilaterally, and without national or international support from the Anglican Communion, passed a motion which was endorsed by their bishop to allow the blessing of same-sex unions.  This action brought clarity to the foundational differences in belief between ourselves and the local Anglican Diocese. Despite pleadings from orthodox members no mutually acceptable Canadian solution was offered and international Anglicans stepped in to offer support and oversight.  
 
The Global South bishops of the Anglican Communion encouraged and endorsed the Rev. Gregory Venables, the Archbishop of a South American Province of the worldwide Communion, to offer temporary, emergency episcopal oversight to the orthodox congregations in Canada. This oversight was gratefully accepted and Archbishop Venables and many other leaders of the Global South group have visited the orthodox Canadian church, including St. John's, offering both pastoral and episcopal oversight from within the Anglican Communion.
 
The actions in the Diocese of New Westminster by its synod and bishop, and similar actions across Canada and in the United States, have caused the Anglican Communion world wide to fracture. There are now two distinct forms of Anglicanism operating in the world.
 
This upheaval led to the creation of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA).  ACNA is a nascent and fast-growing orthodox Anglican province in North America.  It allows its member congregations and individuals to be fully orthodox in their Anglicanism and to remain connected to the worldwide Communion. While not yet officially recognized by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the province is recognized and endorsed by the majority of Anglican Provinces around the world and by the vast majority of worshipping Anglicans.
 
At the time that St. John's and three other Lower Mainland churches joined the ACNA, the Diocese of New Westminster caused banks to freeze the bank accounts of two of the parishes and dismiss their democratically elected trustees. The four churches responded by asking the Supreme Court of British Columbia two main questions: does the diocese have the authority to fire duly elected trustees of a parish, and who is upholding the ministry for which the church property was intended?
 
The judgment came back in November 2009 stating that the diocese did not have the right to fire duly elected trustees but that the buildings' use had to be in accordance with the Anglican Church of Canada.
 
St. John's along with the three other churches, after prayer and discernment, decided to appeal the decision on the building’s use.  The diocese did not counter-appeal on the trustee issue.  In November 2010 the British Columbia Court of Appeal, after correcting many individual points of law in the initial judgment, still agreed on how the buildings had to be used.  Once again the four churches exercised their democratic rights and sought leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.  In May 2011 the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal and the legal proceedings ended.
 
St. John's Vancouver (Anglican) Church will now vacate the Nanton Avenue property entrusting it to God and the Diocese of New Westminster with prayers that the Gospel will be taught and flourish under their stewardship.
 
The congregation of St. John's has always known that losing the building was a strong possibility. It is a testament to the faith and love of the congregation that they were willing to take the risk. The unity of the congregation through the process has been remarkable.  At no point was a decision made that passed by a vote of less than 90% support.
 
So it is with admitted sadness that the congregation will depart the building which they have paid for and maintained all these years, where countless baptisms, confirmations, weddings, and funerals have been celebrated and where many loved ones' ashes are interred in the memorial garden.
 
However, it is with faith, confidence in God, and a certain degree of excitement to see what God has in store for us, that we move on to this new chapter in our lives together at a new, interim location.
 
Moving is always a big deal. Moving the largest Anglican congregation in Canada is a challenge. However, we are deeply grateful for the support of many other Christian groups and denominations that have helped us and prayed for and with us through these transitions.  We are extremely grateful to God that we will be able to maintain our full complement of services, Bible studies, children's and youth programs, counseling programs and other activities.
 
As well as the regular services and activities of St. John’s Vancouver (Anglican) Church, many special events have been planned around the transition, especially in October.  For specifics on events, dates and times please go to www.stjohnsvancouver.org/in-transition.php

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It was a historic moment in Ottawa as a subdued crowd of about 300 filed out of St. Alban’s Anglican Church on King Edward Avenue on Sunday, leaving behind a place where some have roots going back to Confederation.

Founded in 1865, the church where Sir John A. Macdonald worshipped has been in the spotlight ever since a showdown over same-sex marriage and other issues led the congregation of St. Alban’s to leave the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa, and, after a bitter battle, the building they have called home for 146 years.

“This is kind of historic. We’re in a new era,” said Sheila Lang, 79, as her grandchildren — the seventh generation of her family to attend the church — played in the reception hall of the Ottawa Little Theatre, where the congregation, now called the Church of the Messiah [image, right, from their site], will meet until it finds a permanent home. Meanwhile, the diocese will establish a new congregation at St. Alban’s, with a relaunch planned for Friday.

Read here

David Short, Rector of St. John’s Shaughnessy:

“the way we respond is a God-given opportunity to bear witness to Christ. As those who are disciples of Jesus Christ, this is not just about ‘what’ we do but also ‘how’ we do it. In some ways nothing will change with the decision on Thursday. We are still God’s family, and he has placed us in Vancouver to spread his glory.”

Read here

Canadian Anglican parishes and individuals who would like to learn more about the proposed Anglican Covenant will soon have a study guide at their fingertips.

The Anglican Church of Canada’s Anglican Covenant Working Group will release the study guide on the national church’s website in time for Pentecost, June 12.

“We’re encouraging people to look at the [details of the Covenant] and to reflect on what its implications are,” diocese of Ontario Bishop George Bruce, chair of the working group, said in an interview.

Bishop Bruce described it as a “historic” and “unique” opportunity for people in the pews “to say what's on their mind, think and reflect on what it means to be church, what it means to do what God is calling us to do.”

Read here

The news is out. The dissident Churches in the Anglican Church in Canada have all lost their court cases. The mainstream liberal Anglican Church of Canada has asserted their rights and won the case to occupy the properties of the conservative churches. It all started back in 2002 when the gay Bishop issues a rite to all in the Anglican Church to perform same-sex marriages and ordination of gay clergy. Bishop Michael Ingham argues that the new gay practices is in line with Jesus' teachings on 'love and welcoming the stranger.' Trouble is, is performing same-sex practices the 'only' way to love and welcome strangers?

As expected, not all agreed. Such a practice was actively debated within the Church, and after much talk internally, some Churches decided that they could not conscientiously follow the leadership of Ingham. Thus they left the Anglican Church (ACC) to join the Anglican Network in Canada (ANIC).

This is a landmark case that garner media coverage from the Vancouver Sun, National Post, as well as the CTV. From a legal standpoint, there is indeed not much that the judges can do, as the documents clearly support the primary owner of such properties, being the ACC. They claim that the dissidents left the Church, and not the other way round. ANIC on the other hand, believed in the spirit of the faith, not the law of ownership. They would rather, in the words of their spokesman, that they will:

Read here

GUIDELINES for clergy considering requests by same-sex couples for blessings have been issued for the An­glican diocese of Toronto.

The guidelines state that they are a pastoral response to committed gay and lesbian couples, and “not an authorized rite of the Anglican dio­cese of Toronto”. This distinction is important, since the introduction of a rite would invite censure from the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Anglican Communion Office.

The College of Bishops acknow­ledges that the guidelines might strain the “gracious restraint” called for in the 2004 Windsor report, which included moratoria on ap­point­ing someone in a same-sex relationship as a bishop, authorising same-sex blessings, and intervening in another province.

Breaching these moratoria has earned sanctions for both the Epis­copal Church in the US, in which a lesbian bishop was con­secrated in Los Angeles, and the Province of the Southern Cone, which has extended its oversight to conservative dioceses and parishes in the US and Canada.

Toronto’s guidelines, however, aim to walk the tightrope between “gracious restraint” and “pastoral generosity” to same-sex couples, as called for by the Canadian House of Bishops in a pastoral statement in 2007.

Read here

The Diocese of Toronto’s same-sex blessings guidelines published last week will not violate the Anglican Communion’s moratorium on same-sex blessings, a letter from the diocese’s five bishops to their clergy claims. While the ceremony will acknowledge God’s blessings upon the couple, the Toronto rite will impart no legal or ecclesial recognition of the same-sex couple’s relationship.

The four page document, dated Oct 28 and mailed to the diocesan clergy last week, states that Toronto Archbishop Colin Johnson will licence a small number of parishes to perform the “Blessing of Same Gender Commitments” rite.

The bishops said they sought to find a way to honour the communion’s ban on public rites for same-sex blessings as well as the Canadian Church’s desire to extend pastoral generosity to same-sex couples. The new rites seek to accommodate those in “stable committed same gender relationships” seeking the church’s support for their relationship and those in the diocese who view such a relationship as sinful.

“The diversity of our diocesan community demonstrates that we are called to witness to the faith in a variety of ways, and though such witness is rooted in differing interpretations and understanding of holy scripture and the tradition, they are recognizably Anglican,” the guidelines state.

Read here

Pastoral discipline exercised toward those spreading false teaching has been banned in the Diocese of Toronto:

3. Same Gender Blessings This pastoral response is extended to couples in our midst who seek to live in mutual love and faithfulness in a stable, long-term committed relationship. A blessing may be made available to couples who are not civilly married as the blessing is not considered to reflect, or to be understood as, marriage.

a. The blessing of any same gender relationship is expected to be part of an existing pastoral relationship with a priest and local congregation.
b. At least one of the couple should be baptized.

4. Same Gender Couples in Parishes not Designated

a. It is expected that no one will be excluded from receiving the eucharist or baptism in any parish on the basis of their sexual orientation or their views on the issue of same gender blessings, whether in favour or opposed.

b. Same gender couples in a parish not designated to perform blessings may approach their Area Bishop to seek an alternative. It is expected that the couple and the priest designated will first seek to develop a pastoral relationship before a blessing is offered.

Read here

On September 14, 2010, Archbishop Colin Johnson ordained priest in the Diocese of Toronto a woman married (by civil law) to another woman. On November 3, the College of Bishops issued “Pastoral Guidelines” for the formal and liturgical blessing of same gender commitments in the Diocese of Toronto.

These actions are problematic both in their content and in their form.

The first action contradicts the doctrine, discipline and worship of the church and disregards its marriage canon. The second does one of two things. In one case, it gives the church’s formal blessing to a civilly married same-sex couple. In the other, it blesses a sexual relationship that is not a marriage. In either case it departs from the historic teaching of the church and its moral vision, both as to the nature of marriage and as to the role and limits of sex.

The bishops have described both actions as pastoral. But in fact they affect the doctrine of the church. The ordination of a person in a same-sex marriage hallows that marriage and names it the ideal, a worthy example for all to follow, properly belonging within the Christian definition of marriage. This is to challenge the marriage canon of the Anglican Church of Canada. This is an act, that is, with concrete legal and doctrinal implications.

Read here

Aging congregations and falling attendance may force the mergers of the dioceses of Montreal and Quebec, the Montreal Anglican reports. The diocesan newspaper said the bishops, clergy and lay leaders of the two dioceses were considering proposals that would begin a “process of discernment toward a fuller partnership as diocesan institutional churches.”

In November 2009 Bishop Barry Clarke of Montreal, Bishop Dennis Drainville of Quebec, Archdeacon Janet Griffith Johnson of Montreal, and Archdeacon Garth Bulmer of Quebec met to craft a two year “discernment process.” An agreement between the two dioceses dated Dec 17 proposed a joint committee to look into “opportunities and obstacles to partnership” between the two dioceses.

Last year Bishop Drainville told the Canadian House of Bishops his diocese was “teetering on the verge of extinction.” Of the diocese’s 82 congregations, 50 were childless and 35 congregations had an average age of 75. These graying congregations often had no more than 10 people in church on Sundays, he said. “The critical mass isn’t there, there’s no money anymore,” he said.

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Ever suffered from dropped calls? Maybe your answer is the blessing of the cell phones.

A Canadian Anglican minister is asking church members to bring their cellphones and other electronic gadgets to church to receive a special blessing. Reverend Lisa Vaughn serves in the St. Timothy parish near Halifax, Nova Scotia, believes this blessing to be a means of attracting attendance to the church.

"It's not just about please don't let my cellphone drop calls today," Vaughn said. "It's about, you know, help me to be the best Christian, the best person I can be in my conversations, in my communication."

Read here

I am republishing a recent (12 04 09) article from George Conger and the CEN which describes the state of the ACC now in Quebec.  Note what its own bishop admits, and that in fact, 'many other diocese' will be sharing the same fate.     

'The Diocese of Quebec is all but dead, its bishop told the Canadian House of Bishop at their fall meeting in Niagara Falls, the Anglican Journal of Canada reports.

The Rt. Rev. Dennis Drainville said his diocese was “teetering on the verge of extinction” according to an account given by the church’s official newspaper.

Of the diocese’s 82 congregations, 50 were childless and 35 congregations had an average age of 75. These graying congregations often had no more than 10 people in church on Sundays, he said. “The critical mass isn’t there, there’s no money anymore,” he said. 

Falling attendance is not solely confined to the Anglican Church, however. Until the 1960’s Catholic Church attendance stood at more than 90 per cent. However, According to a 2008 Léger Marketing poll, the proportion of Quebec’s nearly six million Catholics who attend mass weekly now stands at 6 per cent, the lowest of any Western society.

To combat the decline, Bishop Drainville, who told his colleagues it was very possible he would be the “last bishop of Quebec,” urged the House of Bishops to re-imagine how the church could engage society.

A church should provide a “a compassionate, caring community, a transformational relationship with God, and life-changing liturgy,” the bishop said. Anglicans had all three, but seemed unable to “present this to society.”

In 1901 ‘mainline’ Protestants, predominantly Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists made up 56 per cent of the Canadian population. By 2001 this had fallen to 29 per cent. However, within the Protestant totals a dramatic shift away from the mainline churches has taken place, Dr. Bruce Guenther, associate professor of church history and Mennonite studies at Associated Canadian Theological Seminaries has noted.

Guenther found that total Protestant attendance had not declined in real numbers over the last quarter-century but there has been a massive shift within Protestantism. The mainline churches attendance declined by 33 per cent between 1981 and 2001, while evangelical church attendance rose by 50 per cent and was now 25 per cent larger than the old ‘mainline’.

Between 1961 and 2001 the Anglican Church of Canada lost 53 per cent of its members, with numbers declining from 1.36 million to just 642,000. The rate of decline has increased in recent years, according to an independent report given to the Canadian House of Bishops in 2006 by retired marketing expert Keith McKerracher.

After the report’s release, McKerracher said, “My point to the bishops was: Hey listen, guys, we’re declining much faster than any other church. We’re losing 12,836 Anglicans a year. That’s 2 percent a year. If you draw a line on the graph, there’ll only be one person left in the Canadian Anglican church by 2061.”

In his comments to the House of Bishops last month, Bishop Drainville said Quebec would not be the only diocese to go under. “There will be many other dioceses that will fail.”

Read here