The schism in the Anglican Church of Canada over same-sex marriage and create a new Anglican body in Canada was front and center in St. john's this weekend as breakaway parishes in this province come together in St. John's to discuss the momentum the movement is encountering across Canada.
Former Anglican Church of Canada Bishop Donald Harvey is leading the charge. He says the movement has grown from two parishes to 23 and over 60 clergy. Bishop Donald Harvey came out of retirement and was received into the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone and assumed a full-time episcopal ministry after he relinquished his license to exercise ministry under the Anglican Church of Canada.
Harvey's successor in Eastern Newfoundland, Bishop Cyrus Pitman, demanded this past spring that clergy form the 333 different parishes in the diocese to declare their allegiance to the Anglican Church of Canada or to the group affiliated with Harvey.
The issue of the presence of gays and lesbians in the church, particularly involving marriage, has sparked a furious debate worldwide.
To get a flavour of just how nasty this split is becoming check out the harsh exchange of words from the recent Brandon Diocesan Synod held in October. The present Anglican Church of Canada's Bishop of Brandon, openly attacked his predecessor, Bishop Malcolm Harding who relinquished his license to exercise ministry under the Anglican Church of Canada last year and joined the Anglican Network in Canada and became a full member of the House of Bishops of the Province of the Southern Cone.
The Bishop of Brandon appears to be forgetting the worldwide Anglican Communion which means Bishop Harvey and the nearly 60 other former Anglican Church of Canada clergy are duly ordained by the Province of the Southern Cone through the Orders and Offices accepted world wide by the worlds 40 million practicing Anglicans.
Tis a tangle.
1 comments:
I wouldn't exactly call it an 'exchange' since Jim the bishop rants and seldom allows any response.
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