The Traditional Anglican Church of Canada Take on the Situation in Canada

In Virtue Online:

The Traditional Anglican Church of Canada, formed and incorporated in 2010 after the Ordinariate controversy divided the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada, has linked itself as a “missionary district” with the Anglican Catholic Church Original Province worldwide, while maintaining links as well with the Anglican Province of Christ the King. The Rev. Father Robert Mansfield of St John’s, Parry Sound, Ontario, convener of the synod, will serve as Vicar- General.

The province was taken at the young church’s initial synod, held October 23-25 at Queen of Apostles Renewal Centre in Mississauga near Toronto, Canada, ironically the location where an attempt was made earlier to form an Ordinariate in Canada.

A highlight of this gathering was the ordination of The Reverend George Betsos to the Sacred Order of Deacons by Archbishop James Provence of the APCK, to serve as Assistant Curate in Saint Mark’s Parish, Victoria, British Columbia. Betsos holds the Master of Divinity degree from the University of Toronto and a degree in psychotherapy. He will join the Victoria congregation later this year.

Archbishop Mark Haverland gave the address and charge to the ordinand. This was the third ordination to the diaconate this year for Canadian traditionalists: the others were of The Rev. Steven Beyer of Holy Trinity & St Jude, Thunder Bay, and The Rev. Jonathan Carrothers of St Mark’s, Victoria.

Archbishop Mark Haverland (ACCOP) presided at the meeting, which approved the “missionary” status of the Traditional Anglican Church of Canada unanimously. Thus the original eight parishes will be affiliated with 250 ACCOP parishes in the U.S., U.K., India, Africa, and Asia. The connection between St Mark’s in Victoria and the APCK, formed before the other parishes existed or had withdrawn from the ACCC, has the approval of Archbishop Haverland, who strongly supported the parish’s wish to continue this connection whilst maintaining full participation in the Canada-wide organisation. The two archbishops presented a united front and spoke movingly to the assembled clergy and lay leaders.

The theme of the synod was “Pastoral Availability and Organisational Stability,” and speakers from each of the parish described the efforts being made to implement the aims of the Traditional Anglican Church. A series of addresses on the theme given by The Rev. Father Stanley Sinclair of Victoria will be published.

Mrs. Marie Tetlow was chosen as secretary by acclamation. The five-member elected executive council of the TACC will remain in place, but a treasurer and a chancellor must be found. Dr Millo Shaw of Thunder Bay, who drafted the Constitution, asked to be relieved as Chancellor because of the pressure of work.

The Anglican Catholic Church in the U.S. was formed in 1978 as the aftermath of the Congress of St Louis a year before, which brought together thousands of disaffected traditional Anglicans, who wanted to maintain their tradition unimpaired by the changes made in the American and Canadian churches, replacing the Prayer Book with contemporary rites that diminished orthodoxy, and approving the ordination of women; although other issues were also involved. ACCOP and ACPK were created as the outcome of the “Affirmation of St Louis.”

The Anglican Catholic Church of Canada began under Archbishop Robert Morse of APCK, who had taken the Victoria congregation founded by former bishop Peter Wilkinson [St Athanasius, later St John the Evangelist] under its wing prior to the formation of the Canadian body. At a 2010 synod near Vancouver the ACCC voted to join in an Ordinariate, but subsequently the parishes in Victoria and Halifax withdrew, and other parishes had a long period of uncertainty. Some have still not made a decision about their future affiliation. The Church of the Resurrection, Walkerville [Windsor], ON, under The Rev. Fr. James Chantler, voted to join the ACCOP prior to this development.

The Traditional Anglican Communion was formed as an international body in 1991, under Archbishop Hepworth, who after much controversy intervening is now a Roman Catholic layman. He gave the impression on a swing round the international TAC circuit that the church was seeking uniate status.

The appeal to the Vatican had actually been made by Evangelical bishops in the Church of England to the Vatican. Given the very cordial interaction through the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission, it was thought that a way might be found to establish a “uniate” relationship. In 2005 the proposed terms were presented to the English bishops as well as to TAC bishops at a meeting in Washington, DC, with Cardinal Wuerl.

At that time unknown to the rank and file membership, most of the bishops of the Traditional Anglican Communion had signed the Catechism of the Catholic Church at a meeting in Portsmouth, England in 2007. [This was a tacit approval of papal infallibility, transubstantiation, and Marian dogmas adopted by Rome in the 19th and 20th centuries, along with the Catholic faith of the "undivided church" prior to the Great Schism.]

The publication of Anglicanorum Coetibus in 2009 made Anglican Catholics in Canada aware that under its terms the eligible clergy must be re-ordained and re-trained, and laity would undergo some rite, either Confirmation or Chrismation, at the hands of a Roman bishop.

When the Vatican document was released the now former Archbishop John Hepworth and other bishops denied that it meant the necessity of becoming Roman Catholic ["we will be united, not absorbed"], although subsequent events showed that this was indeed expected. In Canada two out of three ACCC bishops have now been laicised, although they are seeking Roman Catholic ordination, along with several ACCC clergy. Bishop Craig Botterill of Halifax, Nova Scotia, is the remaining ordinary of the ACCC.

So far there is no Ordinariate in Canada, but “fellowships” in Ottawa and Victoria, related to the “Anglican Use” and Ordinariate parishes in the U.S. One lone Anglican parish, historic St John the Evangelist, Calgary, has joined the “Anglican Use” group. At the moment these congregations have no clergy of their own but rely on regular R.C. clergy for ministrations. This of course reflects the very limited interest expressed in the Ordinariate proposal by Anglicans in the U.K., Australia, India and Africa.

Squabbling half-truths. A poor, yet typical, Virtue post.

 

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