The Anglican Network in Canada: Protest, Providence, and Promise in Global Anglican Realignment

George Egerton, Kyle MacKenney, David Short, Trevor Walters, Eds. Anglican House Publishers, 2021.

Reviewed by Brett Cane

AS A REVIEWER of this epic volume on the history and development of the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) I have had the privilege of knowing many of the contributors and of being personally involved in much of what is written here. Although I did not join my brothers and sisters in forming ANiC, I have been able to take my stand for orthodoxy and against revisionism in the Anglican Church of Canada (ACoC) in a different way through coming under the oversight of the Diocese of Egypt (due to my post-retirement involvement teaching ordinands in Ethiopia) and as such have been given permission to officiate in both the ACoC and ANiC. Thus, I have a unique perspective from which to review this book.

At first glance, the wide variety of authors and topics listed in the Contents seems bewildering and even overwhelming. However, in the Introduction, George Egerton masterfully lays out the scheme of the book enabling us to grasp its overall intent and see how each element fits together into the whole. You will be greatly impoverished if you skip the Introduction!

Egerton, an historian, makes a helpful cautioning comment about the book: “We are mindful that we are writing memoir, with all its advantages but also the frailties of fading memories and incomplete perspective…This is a transformation that will attract major historical study in the near future.” It is good to remember this caveat as there is a great deal of repetition throughout the book; this is frustrating at times, but rewarding in other ways.

The book’s fourteen chapters, each contributed by different authors (ten clergy, five lay), are divided into four sections: Foundations; Anglican Essentials; Crisis, Rescue and Realignment; Growth and Fruit. (There are also four appendices: a detailed timeline, the Solemn Declaration of 1893, and the Montreal and Jerusalem Declarations.) Egerton describes the flow of the book as follows: “…moving logically from the general theological principles foundational to ANiC, through the presenting issue of sexuality, to the larger national historical developments in Canada, focusing next on the explosive events in the Diocese of New Westminster, which led eventually to the realigning of the Anglican Communion. A final section reviews particulars of ANiC’s contemporary innovative programs and planning.” I shall review the contents by section.

 

Part I: Foundations

In his chapter on “Church and Schism”, J. I. Packer brilliantly describes the biblical emphasis on the church as the key to God’s plan for salvation and defends realignment as having been forced on the faithful, and that it should not be seen as schism.

Bishop Ron Ferris then brings an historical perspective through his personal experience of the 1998 Lambeth Conference (of all bishops in the Anglican Communion) where the crucial motion 1.10 (in the composition of which Bp Ferris played a significant role) upholding traditional teaching on sexual relationships and marriage was passed by the vast majority (88 percent). His personal reminiscences are most helpful in dispelling claims disputing the validity of the proceedings.

Biblical scholar Dr. Edith Humphrey completes this section with an amalgam of three papers given during initial debates in the Diocese of New Westminster in 1998 presenting the conservative view on biblical sexuality, including same-sex unions. The material is excellent but seems somewhat repetitive and in need of being updated. I wondered why such an outstanding scholar had not been invited to submit a more concise and recent revision of such valuable teaching. However, her contribution ends with “Memoir 2021” which looks back at the whole somewhat manipulative process of being involved in a presentation with two others of different positions. In this way, her amalgamated papers offer not just a biblical defence of the conservative position but allow us to set such teaching in its historical setting, which is helpful to the flow of the book.

 

Part II: Anglican Essentials

The four chapters of the next section begin with the story of the coming together of three Anglican movements within the ACoC representing the evangelical (Barnabas Anglican Ministries), charismatic (Anglican Renewal Ministries) and traditionalist/catholic (The Prayer Book Society of Canada) streams in a coalition to call the ACoC back to its historic biblical heritage – a movement that became known as “Anglican Essentials Canada” following the remarkable 1994 Essentials Conference of 700 Canadian Anglicans, held in Montreal. Suitable tribute is given to a key figure in all of this, Canon Tom Robinson, who, against great odds, forged the coalition which is probably unique in the Anglican Communion and which still remains, despite its subsequent divergence into two jurisdictions.

Developments (warts and all!) within the Essentials movement are well-traced in detail by both Robin Guinness and George Sinclair through various meetings and conferences and parallel doctrinal and moral decisions taken within the ACoC, especially in the Diocese of New Westminster and at General Synod in 2004. This culminated in the division of Essentials into two streams in 2005: the Essentials Federation (those called to remain within the ACoC to continue their witness to orthodoxy there) and the Anglican Network in Canada (those called to prepare a “lifeboat” to leave the ACoC should this become necessary).

Much of what is written here I can confirm through personal involvement in the various events described where I witnessed first-hand the emotional turmoil and pain of those who felt betrayed by the ACoC. I was deeply moved by the pew of grieving traditionalist seniors attending an Essentials event having been locked out of their church building by their bishop that very morning. And I remember the anguish of a brother priest at General Synod 2004 on the passing of the motion affirming “the integrity and sanctity of committed adult same-sex relationships.” This was the “line in the sand” for him.

Bishop Don Harvey’s chapter describes the story of his journey to become first Moderator of ANiC. He provides fascinating insight through both his own personal experience of broadening views of Anglicanism and also his account of the complexities of the international Anglican scene throughout the initial period of transition. Bishop Charlie Masters’ contribution likewise reflects his own personal journey along with an overarching but less detailed account of the entire process. (This chapter will be appreciated by those who might have felt overwhelmed by the detail of the first two in this section!) He concludes by tracing ANiC’s launching as a separate jurisdiction in 2007 and alignment as a diocese within the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) in 2009.

 

Part III: Crisis, Rescue and Realignment

The four chapters in the third section return to the beginning of the journey, only this time from the specific perspective of the ANiC parishes in the Diocese of New Westminster with all the legal and other challenges that they had to face. There is a lot of duplication, of course, with the previous section and also within the section, but the description of the impact on parishes and individuals (including the authors) of this arduous and complex journey is deeply moving and a dramatic illustration of Christ’s words, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34). New Westminster was, after all, at the epicentre of the ecclesiastical and theological turbulence and in spite of the narrower diocesan focus, there is a lot of illuminating material regarding events and debates at both the national and global levels of Anglicanism during this period.

 

Part IV: Growth and Fruit

This final section looks first at the inspiring story of the development of Asian and Multicultural Ministries by Stephen Leung followed by equally encouraging examples of other church plants in an extremely valuable and thoughtful chapter by church planter Alastair Sterne. It concludes with “The Fruits of Realignment” by Becky Pruitt MacKenney, composed largely of testimonies of gratitude for ANiC, mainly by clergy, which reveal that “the path (has been) more meandering and circuitous, a mixture of joy and difficulty, breakthroughs and unresolved longings” – a fitting description of the ANiC story.

 

Concluding Comments

The creation of the Essentials movement and subsequent development of ANiC has been a major turning point in Canadian Anglicanism and it is commendable that this volume has been compiled to document this. The story has not ended, of course, and the ongoing impact of the creation of ANiC in terms of the growth of the Kingdom of God has yet to be seen. I believe that ANiC attendance has somewhat “plateaued” in recent years and not increased as hoped (yet is still admirable compared to other Anglican jurisdictions in the West whose numbers have diminished). I think this could be due to far wider challenges than the initial presenting problems of doctrine and practice ANiC was formed to address. Common to much of Anglicanism in the western world, most ANiC priests and parishes have inherited unbiblical and co-dependent “clergy-centred” “chaplaincy” models of life and ministry and these militate against growth. All of us, laity and clergy, in whichever jurisdiction we minister and fellowship, need to address and reform these models.

Let us hope and pray that ANiC will be able to fully embrace the Reformation principle of Ecclesia semper reformanda est (the Church must always be reformed) and address these challenges in order to thrive and grow and continue to bring glory to God as a vibrant branch of orthodox Anglicanism. TAP

The Rev. Dr. Brett Cane, now retired, lives in Saanichton, BC and assists in ministries both within the Anglican Church of Canada and those associated with the Anglican Network in Canada. He served as a chair of Barnabas Anglican Ministries and later of the Anglican Essentials Federation (now Anglican Communion Alliance).