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November 23, 2007
Bishop Ingham says Church is now in ‘full-blown schism’
The Anglican Church in Canada is in ‘full-blown schism’, the Bishop
of New Westminster, the Rt Rev Michael Ingham, has claimed.
Church of England Newspaper
WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2007 No: 226
Bishop Ingham says Church is now in ‘full-blown schism’
THE ANGLICAN Church in Canada is in ‘full-blown schism’, the Bishop
of New Westminster, the Rt Rev Michael Ingham, has claimed.
His comments, reported in a Canadian newspaper, Anglican Journal Canada come as a retired bishop announced plans to ordain two men in conservative dioceses who are linking with the Province of the Southern Cone.
Bishop Ingham has declared that only he (or another bishop to whom he
has delegated authority) can ordain priests in the diocese. He warned that if the Rt Rev Don Harvey goes ahead with the service, the
ordinations will be ‘irregular’ and he will take steps to discipline
those concerned.
The former Bishop of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador, the Rt Rev
Don Harvey, announced last weekend that he was coming out of retirement to look after conservative Canadian Anglicans who are
opposed to the national Church’s liberal direction.
Bishop Ingham told his Diocesan Council that he had issued a warning
about the service of ordination planned for December 2 ‘not to restrain freedom, but to preserve freedom’. He said that he believes the diocese is one in which people can hold differing theological positions in an atmosphere of “generosity and tolerance and a spirit of charity.”
He said that he had written to Bishop Harvey explicitly prohibiting the planned service, and if it goes ahead he will take disciplinary
action.
The row has erupted over divisions on homosexuality, and Bishop Ingham has been at the centre of the dispute. Although the American
Church is at the top of conservatives’ concerns, because of their consecration of an openly gay man, the conservatives are also unhappy at moves in the Diocese of New Westminster to authorise gay blessings, which they say are against Christian doctrine.
Last week it was reported that the conservative Archbishop of the Southern Cone, the Rt Rev Gregory Venables, was preparing to
offer pastoral care to other dioceses in north America who felt they could no longer remain within official Anglican structures.
But last weekend the Canadian Church’s Council ruled that it would
not recognise the actions by the Southern Cone ‘purporting to extend its jurisdiction beyond its own borders.’
The Archbishop of Canterbury has been asked that he ‘make clear that such actions are not a valid expression of Anglicanism.’
Posted by latimer at November 23, 2007 12:15 PM