Saddle up, Muchachos!

The congregation of St John's, Shaughnessy in the Diocese of New Westminster has voted to secede from the Anglican Church of Canada and join Greg Venables and the Province of the Southern Cone. The article from this morning's Vancouver Sun can be found here. Vancouverites are just getting up now - lazy sods - so you're hearing it here first!

Any article about St John's Shaughnessy will inevitably include the word 'wealthy' somewhere in its opening sentences. The 'Discover Vancouver' website slots it in nicely to its list of desirable 'Protestant Churches' along with a list of the various notables (like the mayor) who worship there or have worshipped there at some time. Those waving the flag for a 'yea vote' over the last few days have been quick to remind the infidel that St J-S is both/either a) the wealthiest church in the Anglican Church of Canada or b) the largest congregation in the ACC. Evidently this is an important datum.

Maybe they are maybe they aren't.

It's really no surprise. It's the penny that everybody was waiting to see drop. The Rector of the parish is a Moore College man from the Diocese of Sydney - SydneyAnglicans caught up with him in 2004 and asked him how things were going in Vancouver. The interview can be found here.

The congregation had stopped paying Diocesan assessments. Of late it's become the flagship for the discontented (J.I. Packer is a member there) and members of such congregations generally group together pretty uniformly.

Interesting article, though, about a one time president of Vancouver's branch of Integrity who is (or was?) a member of that congregation. The article is a few year's old so there's no telling what's become of him.

It's not a congregation that I've had any dealings with since I began to eat solid food although I was baptised there back in 1958. Women would have worn hats and gloves. My opinion on its future was not asked and I suppose that separation from the Anglican Church of Canada was not something in the cards in those days.

Michael Ingham was away from his desk at the time of the vote. Both Bishops Ingham (Diocese of New Westminster) and Cowan (Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands only - called, confusingly, the Diocese of British Columbia - where I was ordained) have written to their clergy saying that any betrayal of their duty to safeguard the place of their parishes with the Anglican Church of Canada would result in the termination of their licences. Bishop Cowan's letter is somewhat blunter:

If a person is employed by the Diocese or the parish and is found to be acquiescing in or to be actively promoting such separation, this is a ground for immediate termination of employment without notice or severance.

Having seen a number of bishops of the Diocese of B.C. over the years regularly wearied and excoriated by the evangelical/charismatic mid-Island mafia, it's a wonder their patience hasn't reached the fraying point until now.

Watch this space.

A view from the inside.

And, an exclusive photo taken from inside the closed meeting which proves that people's minds were pretty well about joining the Southern Cone in spite of some furious last minute lobbying.