Friday, September 3, 2010

The Traditional Anglican Church of Canada

A new Anglican body is on the horizon in Canada. Special vestries in a few parishes of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada have opted out of the terms of Anglicanorum coetibus. To meet the needs of those who wish to continue as Traditional Anglicans (but not too traditional) a new community of churches is in formation. The Traditional Anglican Church of Canada, newly shed of the "Catholic" moniker, is receiving temporary episcopal oversight from the Anglican Catholic Church (Original Province) and the Anglican Province of Christ the King. Dissension centred at the diocesan cathedral in Victoria, British Columbia, where members who do not intend to submit have formed the parish of St Mark the Evangelist. Also remaining are the Thunder Bay, Parry Sound, and suburban Vancouver parishes. The house church in Windsor, Ontario, has already joined the Original Province and one parish in Nova Scotia went over early in TAC's Romeward orientation to the Anglican Orthodox Church, of all things, founded a decade ahead of the first Continuum bodies as an expression of Southern discontent at racial integration and high-churchery. A vote at the Vancouver parish was inconclusive and will be repeated.

7 comments:

Fr. Aaron Orear said...

In further news, every individual Anglican on earth will now have his or her own splinter denomination, of which he or she will be Primate. (Anglicans suffering from multiple personality disorder will be granted two or more primacies, providing the multiple personalities are in communion with one another.) Please select a theological hair to split; it will become your personal Alpha and Omega, since Christ is clearly no longer serving in that capacity.

highchurchman said...

Where I live in the UK, there are four Church groups all calling themselves Roman Catholic. I have just read on the internet that there are several popes 30, was the quoted number. Anther search said that there were only four not including the 'Roman,' one'!

This doesn't excuse the Anglican Hair splitters but it makes you wonder about aaronorear's sense of propriety.
To cap it all, there are two One, Holy Catholic and Apostolic Churches, neither of whom are in communion with the other!
I'll stay as an Anglican Continuer, thanks!

Barnabas said...

Amazing. Thanks for keeping all this straight for us!

Bb said...

My initial reaction upon reading the thread title and first line was, 'Another one? They're as bad as us and the Old Calendarists!' Then I read the entire post and my reaction was, 'Another one? They're as bad as us and the Old Calendarists!'

There is nothing new under the sun.

G said...

To be fair, Canadian continuing Anglicanism wasn't nearly as fractured as its American counterparts. The ACCC was pretty much the only show in town, and when they go home to Rome, it's understandable that those not so called would need an outfit to continue in. In the US, where there is the ACC, APCK, UECNA, EMC, DHC, etc etc, figuring out where to go would be less of a problem for those in the ACA unable to follow its direction.

Frequent Communicant said...

It is a myth that ``continuing Anglicanism`in Canada is a less fractured movement than its American counterpart. A quick search of the `Not in communion`page of Anglicans on Line will reveal at least six bodies with Canadian parishes, and this does not include the two organisations with which the former ACCC parishes have recently allied themselves. Total numbers, of course, are probably fewer than a thousand.

G said...

While AO is one of the best sites around, the Internet is not always the best guide in these matters, and by their own admission the NIC page is largely just a web directory. Apart from a couple of parishes in an outfit calling themselves the Christian Episcopal Church, it is indeed the case that the ACCC was the only St Louis body active in Canada - that is precisely why a new body was needed for those not going over to Rome. Other groups listed on AO either exist only on the web or are "Not in Communion" churches whose origins are distinct from the Continuum's basis in the St Louis conference - perhaps the most notable of these (in terms of real live congregations) is the Independent Anglican Church, Canada Synod, which broke some 40 years before the Continuing movement began, when the ordination of women was but a gleam in Dearmer's eye