Posted on 12/28/2005 8:23:00 AM PST by sionnsar
VANCOUVER, BC (12/27/2005)--A congregation made up of Japanese Anglican believers has left their 'Holy Cross Japanese Church building' after its rector, the Rev. Dawn McDonald, 47, an Evangelical and former lesbian, departed to take a parish in Fort Nelson in the Diocese of the Yukon under Bishop Terry Buckle.
Speaking from the Yukon, McDonald told VirtueOnline that most of the Holy Cross members left the church building after she moved on, with only five parishioners staying behind. "All but one parish council member left. One stayed because he wanted to oversee the memorial garden, and because he is a third generation member of Holy Cross, attached to the building and tradition," she said.
The revisionist Bishop of New Westminster, Michael Ingham immediately made a grab for Holy Cross Japanese Church, putting in two part time preachers following the departure of McDonald whose parish was a constituent member of the Anglican Communion in New Westminster (ACiNW), a coalition of 11 parishes who declared themselves out of communion with the Bishop and Synod of New Westminster after the bishop promoted and allowed same-sex blessings in his diocese.
"In my mind, the parish dissolved itself. Most of the members scattered in different directions. About 20 of them are now worshipping at St. Matthias and St. Luke. Some liberal members who earlier left the parish because of my conservative views returned, and Ingham is simply trying to rebuild from nothing. I heard that two Sundays ago, there were 17 worshipping in the building, but they are different people from those who were there when I was there," she told VirtueOnline.
The 20 who have joined St. Matthias and St. Luke are working hard to start their new Japanese ministry under the Rev. Simon Chin. Simon and his congregation have graciously welcomed them and they are working so hard to start their new Japanese Ministry under Simon's loving and caring guidance, she said.
"The church was an ACiNW parish; we never did 'leave' the Diocese of New Westminster, or the Anglican Church in Canada. The Diocese is what left the Anglican Way."
Ironically, when this Japanese Anglican congregation was sent into internment camp during World War II, the diocese sold their Japanese church building and never gave them any of the funds. So the diocese has now taken their buildings over twice. The Japanese in Canada are such a crushed people that they are afraid to say anything when bullies take them out, a source told VirtueOnline.
McDonald, who had been rector for the church for 10 years with about 60 worshippers, said she lost half of her parishioners over the diocese's approval of same sex blessings. "The liberals left because of my stance. This is the only Japanese congregation on the West coast of Canada."
Asked what motivated her to leave her parish and still remain in the Anglican Church, McDonald said, "I am the chair of the Zacchaeus Fellowship (a ministry for ex-gays) and I am not ready to abandon the Anglican Church of Canada yet. There are many silent sufferers because they don't want the church to condemn or affirm them, we, the Zacchaeus Fellowship are the voice of hope for gays and lesbians in the church who have left the lifestyle and it is essential we stay."
With the obliteration of Holy Cross Vancouver, the ACiNW went from eleven to four parishes that are still in the Diocese of New Westminster, and one that has officially been obliterated. They include St. Matthew's Abbotsford, St John's Shaughnessy, Church of the Good Shepherd Chinese Church, St. Matthias and St Luke Church, whose rector the Rev. Simon Chin is very near retirement, said a coalition leader.
Holy Cross Abbotsford (which joined the ACiNW the same time as Holy Cross Vancouver) was officially wiped off the map by Ingham two Christmases ago. However Holy Cross Abbotsford is still functioning and its rector the Rev. James Wagner is still licensed, ironically, by Michael Ingham in the Diocese of New Westminster.
From the fall of 2003 the Vancouver revisionist Bishop has stepped up the pressure on the orthodox in his diocese -- changing the locks and firing the Vestry at St. Martin's, North Vancouver, the traditionalist prayer book parish in Anglican Communion in New Westminster (ACiNW), the coalition of parishes that have declared themselves out of communion with the Bishop and Synod of New Westminster. Ingham did this at the cost of enraging the congregation, and stiffening their resistance. Meanwhile, the ACiNW has grown from eight parishes to eleven, with others expected to join them.
The three and half year Anglican waiting game (of being neither fish nor fowl) has been going on since June 2002 when the ACiNW walked out of the New Westminster Synod. Only very large congregations like St John's Shaughnessy with multiple priests on staff and many lawyers in their midst are able to make a go of it. The smaller congregations have, one by one, been picked off, as they have no way of replacing rectors when they leave, no confirmations, no ordinations, no Alternative Episcopal Oversight, a source told VirtueOnline.
"This is a terrible tragedy to see happen in slow motion. It is Anglican cruelty at its worst, hanging lives and congregations out to dry, making the Communist Mainland Chinese look like amateurs," said the source.
According to Ingham Holy Cross, Vancouver, is being "reorganized" so a ministry to Japanese-speaking Anglicans continues. Ingham has appointed Basil Izumi and Gwen Lamacraft, members of the parish, as Bishop's Wardens after the parish's elected wardens, its treasurer, and several members of its parish council left. The parish had been refusing to pay its diocesan assessment since July, 2003, to protest the decision a year earlier by Diocesan Synod to ask the bishop for a rite of same-sex blessing.
But the Rev. McDonald's, opposition to the church's homosexual agenda and her redemption from the lifestyle she indulged in for 13 years, stuck in the craw of Ingham who has viciously opposed her views, and has foisted opposing views on the Diocese of New Westminster.
Speaking of her former life, McDonald said she experienced God's unconditional love in a supernatural way that a profound healing in her inner life and she was freed of the same-sex attractions. Ms. McDonald has now been married for 8 years and says she is still on a journey towards wholeness.
McDonald described the darkest day of her life was when the Diocese of New Westminster embraced the blessings of the same-sex unions. "For me, it meant that the Church was no longer in the position to support us in seeking an alternative, nor was it walking with us in our journey towards wholeness in Christ. Hope has been robbed from us," she told church leaders in Toronto recently.
Said McDonald; "The Kingdom of God and God's ways are not always logical. I have taken great comfort in knowing that in the book of Acts, the early Christians dispersed after the stoning of Stephen, and through what seemed to a total disaster to the Church in Jerusalem, the Kingdom of God benefited beyond measure: the Gospel was proclaimed in other parts of the world, and eventually, throughout the world through one young Soul who was a witness to the stoning. I know that my people who left the congregation are going to touch lives, and their stories, wherever they go, are going to encourage others to make a stance for the Gospel. If we as Orthodox should really be doing something meaningful for the Kingdom, I think we should be uniting in prayer for Michael Ingham that his heart of stone would be made soft, and that he would really see the errors of his ways."
A long time priest in the Diocese of New Westminster, told VirtueOnline that this is a story that needs to be told if only for posterity. "The world needs to hold that this is how Ingham and company treat their ethnic minorities who still hold to traditional family values - so much for so called liberal inclusiveness. [The Diocese of] New Westminster has shown in its take over of the buildings of four former ACiNW congregations that at the end of the day, it is all about buildings, not about people. In all four buildings, Ingham has done the same trick, putting in pseudo-wardens, changing the locks, and often importing 'ringers' from other liberal Anglican congregations, going through the show of it for media purposes. The implied message is 'all is well' and 'carrying on as normal, thank you very much'. The truth is that the vast majority of members of these four former ACiNW parishes' have moved on and are now worshipping in Anglican settings completely free from the oppressive hand of the Diocese of New Westminster."
St. Martin's North Vancouver out of which was birthed St. Timothy North Shore (ACiC), St. Andrew's Pender Harbour (out of which was birthed Christ the Redeemer Pender Harbour (ACiC), The Parish of St. Simon's Deep Cove (out of which virtually all the congregation moved on and reincorporated as St. Simon's Church North Vancouver (ACiC), and now Holy Cross Japanese Anglican Parish.
"There are two additional parishes that Ingham and his Diocesan Council 'officially' closed, but they didn't have buildings to usurp, so it didn't have quite the same effect. These ironically are the last two church plants ever done by the Diocese of New Westminster since 1958:"Holy Cross Abbotsford which reincorporated is still functioning as mentioned (but without an actual bishop and affiliation, though Bishop Donald Harvey visits them, and the Anglican Network In Canada is in their corporation papers), and Emmanuel Church, Richmond (the Chinese Anglican Church renamed and incorporated as Richmond Emmanuel Church (ACiC).
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. …and ultimately stop?
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