Large Vancouver Church Votes to Join Southern Cone

One of the largest congregations in the Anglican Church of Canada voted overwhelmingly to leave the Diocese of New Westminster and affiliate with the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone at a parish meeting Feb. 13.
 
More than 97 percent of members at St. John’s Church, which claims more than 2,000 members in Vancouver’s Shaughnessy neighborhood, voted to leave, according to the National Post of Canada. St. John’s has an assessed value of $12.5 million, according to the Post, which noted that the parish also owns adjacent property worth $1.1 million and two rectories worth a combined $2.6 million.
 
St. John’s has had a contentious relationship with the Diocese of New Westminster since 2002 when the diocesan synod approved a resolution asking Bishop Michael Ingham of New Westminster to approve a rite of blessing for same-sex unions. After Bishop Ingham consented, St. John’s and several other congregations began withholding payment to the diocese. St. John’s contributed $220,559 to the diocese in 2000, according to the Post.
 
In an interview with the Post, the Rev. David Short, rector of St. John’s, said parishioners had asked to be placed under the jurisdiction of a Canadian bishop who shared their traditional views, but they were offered an unsatisfactory compromise.
 
“Within the diocese we are called the dissidents, but looking at the global Communion, the diocese and the Anglican Church of Canada are the dissidents,” he said as reported by the Post. “One of the key disappointments for orthodox Anglicans right across the country has been the failure of the [national Church] to address this properly.”
 
Bishop Ingham, the Anglican Church of Canada’s liaison to the Executive Council of The Episcopal Church, was attending the council meeting in Quito, Ecuador, when the vote was taken. The week before the vote, Bishop Ingham said that any congregation that attempted to retain its property after leaving the Anglican Church of Canada would face legal action.

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