Posted on 06/28/2004 9:38:46 PM PDT by ahadams2
Priests to fight 'eviction notices'
By Ethan Baron, Staff Reporter, Vancouver Province Newspaper
Two Anglican priests have vowed to fight "eviction" from their West Coast churches, as the battle over same-sex unions heats up.
Rev. Barclay Mayo and Rev. Ed Hird notified Bishop Michael Ingham in March that they were severing their ties to the New Westminster Diocese and the Anglican Church of Canada.
Now, Ingham has sent the priests letters they call ‘eviction notices’.
“I would invite you to seek out alternative worship space for those whom you lead,” Ingham said in his letters dated June 23.
“He’s invoking Canon 15 on us,” said Mayo of Christ the Redeemer Anglican Church in Pender Harbour, on the Sunshine Coast. “It’s a diocesan regulation that allows a bishop to take over a parish if, in his own opinion, it’s not running properly.”
“This is all vindictiveness. He will probably have to go to court. We’re expecting a fairly significant fight.”
The two priests, who say they have unanimous support from their congregations, broke from the diocese because it approved the blessing of same-sex unions. They put themselves under an Anglican Province in Africa.
“We are now a missionary arm of the Church of Rwanda,: said Hird of St. Simon’s Anglican Church in Deep Cove.
Ingham rejected the priests’ authority to make the move.
“Parishioners may choose to leave the Anglican Church of Canada and worship elsewhere, but a parish may not ‘leave’ a diocese nor declare that it is no longer part of the Anglican Church of Canada,” Ingham wrote.
Mayo contends that although the diocese holds title to his church and land, his congregation paid for the building and property.
“We own it, not them,” Mayo said.
Hird said St. Simon’s holds title to the church and land. “The people of St. Simon’s have no intention of going anywhere,” Hird said.
Ingham was unavailable for comment.
END
Ping.
"Ingham was unavailable for comment."
Dare one hope he was down at the crossroads with a wooden stake driven through his heart?
Hmmmm....but if the whole congregation joins another diocese and that diocese has accepted them and they all agree they're missionaries of the other diocese, wouldn't that make it so? It would seem to me the only thing which would be problematic would be what the diocese would do with a "theoretically" empty building? Could one diocese buy it from the other for "missionary work"?
:-) that kind of optimism will get you nowhere!
the heretical bishop of that ACC (the group they've left) diocese will not cooperate in anything to do with conservatives. As far as I know right now, the conservatives' best bet is to be able to show that they hold the titles to the properties, but even that is not a sure thing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.