March 26, 2013 3 Comments
The Anglican Catholic Chronicle newsletter of the Anglican Catholic Churc
h of Canada is out in two (pdf.) parts:
There is much on the Consecration of the Very Reverend Shane B. Janzen as a Bishop (Metropolitan and Bishop Ordinary of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada – Traditional Anglican Communion).
November 30, 2012 5 Comments
The Anglican Catholic Chronicle newsletter of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada for the month of December is out.
Download it in pdf. here.
After a nice piece on Advent and Christmas, is the announcement:
There is also a list of parishes and missions up.
November 4, 2012 24 Comments
The Anglican Catholic Chronicle newsletter of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada for the month of November is out.
Download it in pdf. here.
October 30, 2012 9 Comments
The bloggers are rehashing the Archbishop John Hepworth situation today:
The official TAC position (lest we forget in all the natter), a Statement from The Traditional Anglican Communion College of Bishops Re: John Hepworth, is here.
The Tribunal of the Traditional Anglican Communion comprising Archbishop Samuel Prakash (India), Bishop Craig Botterill (Canada) and Bishop Brian Marsh (USA) on 6 October 2012 examined the charges brought by eight (8) Bishops against Archbishop John Anthony Hepworth under Section 10 of the Concordat of the Traditional Anglican Communion, and delivered the verdict that Archbishop John Anthony Hepworth was guilty as charged.
The following sanction was imposed:
1. THAT JOHN ANTHONY HEPWORTH, ARCHBISHOP, be, with immediate effect, permanently expelled from the COLLEGE OF BISHOPS OF THE TRADITIONAL ANGLICAN COMMUNION.
2. THAT all licences for any EPISCOPAL or PRIESTLY function within any affiliated church of the TRADITIONAL ANGLICAN COMMUNION, be with immediate effect withdrawn.
Charges under Section 6 of the Concordat are now being considered by the College of Bishops against Archbishop John Anthony Hepworth.
Johannesburg
South Africa
17th October 2012
Bishop Michael Gill
Secretary to the College of Bishops
Traditional Anglican Communion
_______________________________________________
That is where we stand at present. There is nothing new to report as yet.
September 13, 2012 17 Comments
The Anglican Catholic Chronicle newsletter of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada for the month of September is out and has the news and more:
… this month also begins the process leading to the election and consecration of our next Metropolitan and Diocesan Bishop. Nomination forms have now gone out to the clergy of the Diocese who form the electoral college; this will be followed by the actual ballot, and eventually to the ratification (or rejection) of the clergy’s choice by the laity through their respective Parishes…
As we undertake this important process, let us pray the Holy Spirit to lead us in the right way that we may elect a devout and good man to be our chief shepherd.
With a diocese extending from coast to coast, it is sometimes difficult to communicate in a timely manner. Which is why the editor of the Anglican Catholic Chronicle invites clergy and laity from our various parishes to send in news, events, commemorations, and pictures to be included in future editions…
You can read more by downloading the paper in pdf. here.
July 6, 2012 2 Comments
You can download it in pdf. here.
May 1, 2012 8 Comments
The Anglican Catholic Church of Canada newsletter is out in three (pdf.) parts:
It is up-to-date and gives a good idea of where things stand for the TAC in Canada now.
Here is what Bishop Craig Botterill (Acting Metropolitan and Apostolic Administrator) writes:
Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
This is an exciting time for the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada, the Canadian Province of the Traditional Anglican Communion. It is spring, and the theme of rebirth and new life that resound in the Eastertide message shapes the inertia and direction of our pilgrimage together. This is not a time to look back and to rehash decisions or mistakes of the past. This is a time to look forward with our eyes firmly fixed on Jesus, and to boldly proclaim His redeeming love to the broken world in which we live.
Our mission in the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) is to recall Anglicanism to its heritage, to heal divisions caused by departures from the Faith, and to build a vibrant church for the future based on powerful local leadership. The TAC seeks to uphold the Catholic Faith, Apostolic Order, Orthodox Worship and Evangelical Witness of the Anglican tradition within the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ. The Communion holds Holy Scripture and the ancient Creeds of the Undivided Church as authentic and authoritative, and worships according to the traditional liturgies of the Church. Along with the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches, it is one of the three branches of the universal Catholic Church.
An exciting development in TAC was the conference held February 28 – March 1, 2012 in Johannesburg, South Africa by its international College of Bishops (COB). This meeting of the COB, the highest legislative body in the Communion, was the first since its Portsmouth, 2007 petition to Rome for Church unity. The College affirmed by resolution its faithfulness to the Traditional Anglican Communion. The TAC will remain fully Anglican. While the COB received, with thanks, the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus from the Holy See, it voted as a Communion to decline the invitation, concluding that it did not represent a positive response to our petition for Church unity, but rather amounted to a requirement for Anglicans to make individual conversions to Roman Catholicism.
The College of Bishops accepted the resignation of Archbishop John Hepworth and elected a new Primate. Archbishop Samuel Prakash, as the senior active Metropolitan, was elected Acting Primate by acclamation. In so doing, the entire assembly expressed complete confidence in Archbishop Prakash, who was consecrated Bishop in 1984 and currently serves as Metropolitan of the Anglican Church of India. Archbishop Prakash was one of the original founding Bishops of the TAC.!! Bishop Michael Gill of South Africa was appointed Secretary of the College of Bishops.
During its three day meeting, the College of Bishops passed several resolutions relating to the International Anglican Fellowship (our overseas missionary fund), Episcopal Oversight and Ecumenical relations between Continuing Jurisdictions. A concordat of intercommunion with a major American Continuing Church jurisdiction was ratified. Several appointments were made by the new Primate, including my own appointment as Episcopal Visitor to the TAC parishes in the United Kingdom. Finally, and most importantly, the College of Bishops resolved to commit itself to Mission and Evangelism, recognizing that the central purpose of God’s people is to bring others to Christ. Several moving statements were made by members about the need to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a world deeply in need of hearing it. A program of equipping the saints for the work of Evangelism was supported by the College of Bishops with enthusiasm.
These are indeed exciting times for our Church. I am heartened that the majority of parishes of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada have remained faithful to the Traditional Anglican Communion and that together our Canadian Province will play an important role in maintaining the historic Anglican expression of the Christian Faith. As I continue my round of parish visits across the country I look forward to working with each of you to accomplish our shared mission.
The newsletter continues, but going a little south:
To the recent statements that the ‘majority’ of the clergy and laity of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada are proceeding toward reception into the Roman Catholic Church, it needs to be stated that while that may be true in central Canada it is not true in the rest of the country (as the list above confirms). In the West (including British Columbia), the number of laity and clergy going to Rome do not constitute a ‘majority’. The same is true in Atlantic Canada, where in fact very few have decided to be received into the communion of the Roman Catholic Church.
As a result of the relatively small numbers of Anglican being received into the Roman Catholic Church, four “Anglican Use Parishes” (called ‘sodalities’) have been established (Ottawa, Kitchener, Calgary and Victoria) within the respective local Roman Catholic Dioceses under the authority of the local Roman Catholic diocesan bishop. While the new Ordinary for the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter in the United States (Monsignor Jeffrey Steenson) has stated that he envisions a “Canadian Deanery” within which these Canadian Anglican Use parishes or ‘sodalities’ would come together pending the erection of an Ordinariate for Canada, he has also stated that that decision will be determined by the Vatican in consultation with the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. Until then it remains four ‘Anglican Use’ parishes within the Canadian Roman Catholic hierarchy. This is very much the practice provided for in the 1980s for Anglicans wishing to join the Roman Catholic Church, and a far cry from what we were led to believe would be the outcome under Anglicanorum Coetibus.
The upshot of all of this is that what was petitioned for by the Traditional Anglican Communion College of Bishops at Portsmouth in 2007, and subsequently believed would be the case by the clergy and laity of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada, namely corporate reception into full communion with the Catholic Church (See of Peter) as an entire and whole ecclesial body comprising clergy and laity, without the requirement for conversion to Roman Catholicism did NOT come about. Rather, Anglicanorum Coetibus requires and entails individual conversion to the Roman Catholic Church through the Rite of Reception and administration of the Sacrament of Confirmation by and at the hands of the local Roman Catholic bishop. On the part of clergy, it also entails the resignation of one’s Orders and jurisdiction, with only the possibility of absolute ordination (not conditional ordination) as a Roman Catholic priest and incardination in either the local Roman Catholic diocese or in the Personal Ordinariate (if and when one is established).
Anglicanorum Coetibus does not result in an “Anglican Rite” within the Catholic Church; it does not result in a “church within a church”; it does not result in a parallel ‘Anglican’ ecclesial body alongside of but not part of the Roman Catholic Church. Nor does it result in a person remaining an ‘Anglican’ or ‘Anglican Catholic’ in communion with the Catholic Church. Once received and confirmed, or ordained, as the case may be, that person becomes a “Roman Catholic coming from the Anglican tradition” – “a former Anglican” (as stated in the documents coming from Rome). In other words, it does not result in ‘unity without absorption’ but rather the exact opposite.
The divisions, the hurt, the acrimony, the disappointments, and misleading information which has accompanied the Vatican’s invitation for Anglicans to enter into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church is regrettable. Instead of greater unity among Christians there is now further disunity and further division. What has transpired is more than the actions of “arrogant, sinful people not accepting the generous offer of Rome” (as some of our former brethren have tried to characterize it), but it is the outcome of a flawed process requiring full and complete submission and obedience to the doctrines, authority and liturgical practices of the Roman Catholic Church; and, for us in particular, the splintering and division of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada and that of the world-wide Traditional Anglican Communion.
One can only continue to hope and pray for genuine Christian unity ‘without absorption’…
Click the above links for more.
UPDATE: Deborah Gyapong comments on the newsletter:
I wish these folks well and to tell the truth, the process has been flawed. These past two years were extremely painful and the way it rolled out did contribute to division and disintegration.
Yes, we did hope for more recognition of the importance of our ecclesial bonds, to be brought in more as families rather than as individual converts. In a way, how it has worked out in Canada is that we have been received as families and as individuals—there has been a corporate nature to our reception. And we’ve been noticing that once we “surrendered all” is the old hymn “I surrender all,” goes, and stopped making any conditions about ensuring our priests were ordained etc., the Roman Catholic authorities have been rushing in to be generous to us in every way possible.
In retrospect, though, had we been brought in “as we were” then all our underlying divisions would have come in with us, making perhaps for a weaker beginning to the Ordinariate. I don’t know. We would have been no less divided, perhaps, than the average Roman Catholic parish down the street but that’s not saying much.
My hope is that the little seedling “sodalities” will grow; that they will be attractive preserves of Anglican patrimony; and that we can unpack our treasures and feel right at home.
The big internal wrestling match I had to go through spiritual was this: I choose to trust Jesus and to surrender my will to Him. Is that the same thing as trusting the Catholic Church, the institutional Catholic Church, the one with the Pope exercising the Ministry of Peter? Especially when I see the sinners who make it up? (Now including me, horror of horrors!)
I asked the Lord for three signs, because it was not clear at all that trusting the Catholic Church was the same as trusting Jesus. He gave me more than three. Here I am. I am overjoyed now that we made it across and survived as a parish family. But it was extraordinarily difficult.
I too hope for genuine Christian unity without absorption, a flourishing diversity, but a common Catholic faith, under the Ministry of Peter.
It’s that Ministry of Peter which seems to be one of the main sticking points. I see now the wisdom in the name of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. I had originally found it a name that might be off-putting to Anglicans looking for a new home.
But now I see that if you do not “get” the Chair of St. Peter, you have not grasped what it means to be Catholic. This is not about absorption, but about unity. Peter is a sign of unity for the universal Church.
April 11, 2012 12 Comments
Opportunistic, but Continuing Anglicanism doing what it always seems to do, I suppose. Peter Karl T. Perkins brings us:
… a real shock
And more:
There now appears to be a four-way split, not counting those who may have simply slipped off to independent congregations (if any, or if many). In B.C., Canon Sinclair (now called ‘Fr. Stan’) in Victoria and Fr. Peter Sandercock at Nanaimo, both on Vancouver Island, are part of the Anglican Province of Christ the King, under Abp. Provence. The group at Victoria celebrates its services at St. Mark Church, which happens to be the Orangemen’s Hall. The Orangemen are sort of Freemasons who prefer violence, no?
Former TAC groups in Ontario and the Mainland of B.C. are now part of the Anglican-Catholic Church, Original Province, under Abp. Haverland. Fr. David Marriott is their priest for Halfmoon Bay and Pitt Meadows, B.C. In Ontario, they have groups at Belleville, Chapleau (former TAC group before its priest died), Ottawa, Parry Sound and Thunder Bay. The priests are Frs. James Gibbons, Peter Jardine, Robert Mansfield, Frank Moore, and James Chantler. Some or all of these were once TAC priests. The names are all familiar to me.
There is confusion even on the local level. For instance, Holy Cross Parish at Nanaimo is already renamed St. Athanasius on its own website.
It would appear that the two Provinces are about to merge…
It would appear that Haverland and Provence have scooped up the TAC in Ontario. In the Vancouver area and the Victoria area, there are now groups staying in the TAC, going to Haverland-Provence and going with the Ordinariate. I joke about Anglicans worshipping in callboxes but you should see their ‘chapel’ at Halfmoon Bay. It does indeed appear to be about thrice the size of a telephone booth. It is a potent symbol of the future of the TAC, as is worship in fuernal homes.
With Bishop Peter Wilkinson and Bishop Carl Reid leading their flock to the safe home that is the Ordinariate this Sunday coming, I believe that leaves only Bishop Craig Botterill for the ACCC (TAC), with the ACC and APCK picking off of the remnant, seemingly at will.
Some may go as far as calling it: Good old fashion sheep-stealing.
Archbishop Mark Haverland (ACC) and Archbishop James Provence (APCK)
March 23, 2012 Leave a comment
This is his last communication to the TTAC. He has been replaced by Bishop Craig Botterill.
Dear Fathers and good people of the TTAC,
I learned officially today from Archbishop Samuel Peter Prakash, who has assumed the role of Acting Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion, that my time has ended as your Episcopal Visitor; and that Bishop Craig Botterill has been appointed by Archbishop Prakash as my replacement.
I will not comment on how I perceive what has happened because nearly everything I say or write is posted on the internet in ways that do not advance the Gospel and my intent to be a servant of the Lord. I do not want in any way to further division, but pray that, in God’s time, we “all be one.”
I ask that you, who choose to remain in the TTAC, give your full support and affection to Bishop Botterill. If he experiences a small dose of the support and affection you gave to me, he will be blessed.
Please know that I view my time in serving you as a great privilege, and as a time when my understanding of the Church and the priests who serve her so well was enlarged. I will hold in my bank of memories our times together in Synod and when I visited with you and your people, experiencing such gracious hospitality and acceptance. I so enjoyed my times staying with Vicar General Father Ian Gray and his dear wife, Christine, at Reasby Manor, and what they provided for me in so many ways.
I need to also say that no words are adequate to express the depth of love and respect I have for Robert Mercer, CR. I am so pleased for his upcoming ordinations to the diaconate and priesthood of the Catholic Church. As I tongue-in-cheek referred to him as my “Curate,” I will say that he was much more than that, and that I have profited immensely from his spiritual depth and wisdom.
I pledge my daily prayers for you, and humbly ask that you will afford me the same.
With fraternal love,
+David L. Moyer
You can download it in pdf. here.
January 30, 2012 4 Comments
The letter is measured and well sums up matters as they currently stand. It also makes my point: Reconciliation above all must be the goal and there is no (and should not be) any animosity towards those leaving the Traditional Anglican Communion in order to become Roman Catholics.
_____________________________________
Diocese of Canada
Anglican Catholic Church of Canada
January 11, 2012
Dear Faithful in Christ:
As you approach your decision on whether or not to leave the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada to become Roman Catholics, I pray that God the Holy Spirit will guide and direct you. In this regard I wish to set certain facts before you. The Anglican Catholic Church of Canada, as the Canadian Province of the Traditional Anglican Communion is and will remain an Anglican Church. The Constitution of the Traditional Anglican Communion, known as the “Victoria Concordat” enshrines the Affirmation of Saint Louis as the foundational statement of doctrine and belief of the T.A.C. and its Provinces.
The Affirmation of St. Louis provides “We declare our intention to seek and achieve full sacramental communion and visible unity with other Christians who ‘worship the Trinity in Unity, and Unity in Trinity’, and who hold the Catholic and Apostolic Faith in accordance with the foregoing principles . . .”.
This declaration has been interpreted by some to mean that we seek “unity” with the Roman Catholic Church alone – but that is clearly not what the Affirmation says. We seek unity with other denominations and jurisdictions – other Continuing Anglican Churches, the various churches of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Polish National Catholic Church, the Nordic Catholic Church, and with the various churches that are in communion with the Roman Catholic Church.
You are aware that in pursuit of such unity the Bishops of the Traditional Anglican Communion petitioned the Pope in 2007 to find ways to “permit us to remain Anglican Catholics” while returning to full communion with the rest of the Catholic Church. Rome’s response, “Anglicanorum Coetibus”, promised the “corporate reception” of Anglican groups, such as the various Provinces of the Traditional Anglican Communion. On that basis the Synod of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada asked to be corporately received (as an intact entity) into communion with the Pope as an Ordinariate. Our request was rejected, and in its place we were invited to each make an individual conversion and become Roman Catholics.
That is not our idea of “unity”. This idea has been rejected by the majority of bishops of the Traditional Anglican Communion, including those of the United States, South Africa, and India. We are, and will remain Anglican. Perhaps one day in the future the Roman Catholic Church will respect us enough to grant us the visible, sacramental, unity between our churches that we sought, without demanding that we abandon being Anglican to become Roman Catholics. Nevertheless, some clergy and laity in the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada have made a personal decision to accept this invitation to convert and become Roman Catholic. To honour their decision and to permit their graceful and orderly departure from the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada we have created a “Pro-Diocese” of Our Lady of Walsingham for those parishes that wish to leave the A.C.C.C. and convert to Roman Catholicism.
That is an option open to your parish. The other option is to remain in the Diocese of Canada (the original Diocese of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada), and thus to remain Anglican and remain members of the Traditional Anglican Communion. Some have interpreted the declaration to seek unity set out in the Affirmation of Saint Louis as meaning that the parishes of the “Pro-Diocese” will become Roman Catholics in the near future, while parishes of the original Diocese will join the Roman Catholic Church at a later date. This is not what the Affirmation says or provides for, as you can clearly read for yourselves. No amount of political persuasion can make this so. While we will strive to achieve visible, sacramental unity with other denominations and jurisdictions, we will not do so at the expense of no longer being Anglican.
So in summary the choice before you is simple:
1. Join the Pro-Diocese of Our Lady of Walsingham in order to leave the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada to become Roman Catholics, or;
2. Remain in the (original) Diocese of Canada, and thus remain Anglicans who are and will remain members of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada and of the Traditional Anglican Communion.
With every blessing to you and your parish as you approach this decision, I have the honour to remain,
Your Obedient Servant in Christ,
[signed]
The Rt. Rev. Craig Botterill, Q.C. Provincial Chancellor, Anglican Catholic Church of Canada Suffragan Bishop and Apostolic Administrator, Diocese of Canada
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