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13 February 2011
Ottawa, ON – After months of negotiation, two Ottawa parishes of the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) – St Alban’s the Martyr and St George’s – have reached a negotiated settlement with the Anglican Church of Canada’s Diocese of Ottawa.
The settlement will be effective 1 July 2011 and will entail:
• both congregations changing their church names
• the people of St George’s retaining their church building in the heart of Ottawa
• the people of St Alban’s relinquishing their building
• a further undisclosed division of assets between the parishes and the diocese.
“We are deeply grateful to God for this settlement,” said the Rev George Sinclair, long-time rector of St Alban’s. “When the Diocese of Ottawa sued our two parishes and personally sued the rectors and elected leaders of the parishes, it seemed the matter would inevitably be decided by the courts. We are looking forward to not having to deal with this issue any longer. We see ourselves as giving up the building for the cause of Christ.”
By agreement, precise details of the division of assets between the parishes and diocese are to remain confidential. However, as part of the overall division, St Alban’s will relinquish their building while St George’s will keep theirs. The end result of this agreed division of assets is that the Anglican Church of Canada diocese relinquishes any further claims to funds or church properties. The Diocese of Ottawa is the first Anglican Church of Canada diocese to agree to negotiate a settlement.
“While each party had to compromise, we are grateful to have reached an agreed upon division of assets in order to avoid the further cost and acrimony of litigation,” said the Rev David Crawley, 17-year rector of St George’s. “We are particularly thankful for the wholehearted support of parishioners throughout this arduous process.”
By July 1, the ANiC St George’s congregation will have changed its name to ‘St Peter & St Paul’s Anglican Church’, while the ANiC St Alban’s congregation has chosen the new name ‘Church of the Messiah’. The St Alban’s congregation plans to begin meeting in the Ottawa Little Theatre building which is located almost next door to their current building, while the church offices will be housed in the St George’s building.
About the parishes
In 2008, the parishes of both St Alban's and St George's voted overwhelmingly to separate from the Anglican Church of Canada and realign with the Anglican Communion through the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC). The votes were precipitated by the fact the Anglican Church of Canada no longer adhered to the clear teaching of Scripture and were promoting a church practice which was contrary to the direction of the international Anglican community, including the Archbishop of Canterbury. The people of St Alban’s voted to join ANiC on February 16, 2008 by a margin of 77 to one, with one abstention. On October 5, 2008, the parish of St George’s voted by a margin of 130 to 27 to align with ANiC.
St Alban’s the Martyr was founded 146 years ago, before the Anglican Church of Canada existed. It is the second oldest Anglican parish in Ottawa, and meets in the oldest Anglican church building in the city. A number of notable Canadian politicians have made St Alban’s their church home, including Sir John A Macdonald. St Alban’s average Sunday attendance is 187. More information is available at www.stalban.ca.
St George’s celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2010. The church building was originally built by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1880 and sold to be used as an Anglican church in 1885. The burgeoning Anglican congregation renovated and expanded the building over the years. On an average Sunday, about 240 parishioners can be found worshiping in St George’s. More information is available at www.stgeorgesottawa.ca.
About the Anglican Network in Canada
The Anglican Network in Canada now numbers 43 parishes with more than 3900 parishioners in church on an average Sunday. Members of the Anglican Network in Canada are committed to remaining faithful to the established teaching of Holy Scripture and historic Anglican doctrine and to ensuring that orthodox Canadian Anglicans are able to remain in full fellowship with their Anglican brothers and sisters around the world.
ANiC is under the Episcopal authority of Bishop Donald Harvey and is one of 20 dioceses in the Anglican Church in North America which unites over 600 churches across the continent. The Anglican Church in North America has been growing at a rate of three churches per week since its inception and has set itself the goal of planting 1000 new churches within five years – primarily through reaching unchurched North Americans with the life-transforming good news of Jesus Christ. ANiC is also affiliated with South America’s Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, one of the 38 Anglican Churches officially in the worldwide Anglican Communion.
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