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Windsor Ontario parish votes to join Anglican Network in Canada |
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28 September 2008
The congregation of St Aidan’s in Windsor, Ontario voted decisively today to come under the episcopal oversight of Bishop Donald Harvey, Moderator of the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) and under the Primatial authority of Archbishop Gregory Venables of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone.
By a unanimous vote, St Aidan’s became the 19th ANiC parish and the 11th former Anglican Church of Canada parish to vote to join ANiC this year. All 109 votes cast were in favour of aligning with ANiC.
“We are delighted to welcome the people of St Aidan’s into a faithfully Anglican and unabashedly Christian organization,” said the Venerable Charlie Masters, Executive Archdeacon of the Anglican Network in Canada. “They join a growing movement of North American Anglicans seeking to remain in full communion with the global Anglican Church.”
St Aidan’s has about 250 members eligible to vote and an average Sunday attendance of 125. It was established in 1924 and the present church building was completed in 1951. A large church hall was added in 1997, built and paid for by the members.
Parishioners offer a variety of ministries in the community, from youth, children’s and adult programs to refugee and hospitality ministries. In addition, the church finances and staffs a breakfast club program in a local public school, provides pastoral care in hospitals and nursing homes, and provides meeting facilities to various community groups. (See: www.staidans.on.ca)
The people of St Aidan’s acted because they are determined to remain biblically faithful, true to historic Christian orthodoxy and long-standing Anglican teaching. Unfortunately, the Anglican Church of Canada continues to abandon mainstream Anglican teaching and doctrine, particularly in relation to the authority of the Bible, breaking with the vast majority of global Anglicans. While orthodox Anglicans are in a minority in Canada, they are the overwhelming majority worldwide.
What is happening in Canada is part of a much bigger controversy in Anglican churches globally. Since 2003, the Primates of the Anglican Communion have repeatedly asked the Anglican Church of Canada to return to biblically faithful Anglican practice and teaching and to provide adequate episcopal oversight for dissenting parishes, but to no avail. In 2002, the communion-breaking actions of the New Westminster diocese in the Anglican Church of Canada first sparked the current global crisis and realignment now taking place in Anglicanism. Other dioceses have since voted to follow New Westminster’s lead, including the Diocese of Huron, the former diocese of the St Aidan’s congregation.
Archbishop Gregory Venables, Primate of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, has responded to the need of biblically faithful Canadian Anglicans for spiritual protection and care on an emergency and interim basis – pending a resolution to the crises in the worldwide Anglican Communion.
The Anglican Province of the Southern Cone is one of 38 Provinces that make up the global Anglican Communion. It encompasses much of South America and includes Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay and Argentina. Members of the Anglican Network in Canada are committed to remaining faithful to Holy Scripture and established Anglican doctrine and to ensuring that orthodox Canadian Anglicans are able to remain in full communion with their Anglican brothers and sisters around the world.
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