Manitoba parish votes to join Anglican Network in Canada

ACiC News release via Stand Firm:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 16 October 2008

The congregation of St Bede’s Anglican Church in Kinosota, Manitoba voted overwhelmingly yesterday, October 15, to come under the episcopal oversight of Bishops Donald Harvey and Malcolm Harding of the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) and under the Primatial authority of Archbishop Gregory Venables of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone.
St Bede’s is the 22nd parish and the 14th former Anglican Church of Canada parish to join ANiC this year. The official vote was 29 to 1 in favour of aligning with ANiC, with no abstentions. However, three members who arrived too late to vote openly declared their full support for realignment and the church wardens received letters from three other members unable to attend the meeting, expressing their support for the motion.
“It is a great joy to welcome the people of St Bede’s into a faithfully Anglican Church family,” said Bishop Malcolm Harding, ANiC suffragan bishop and acting territorial archdeacon for the Prairie Provinces. “By aligning with the Anglican Network in Canada, they join a growing movement of Anglicans throughout North America seeking to remain in the mainstream of global and historic Anglicanism.”
St Bede’s – a small, close-knit congregation formed in1842 – is located in the proud Metis community of Kinosota, on the shores of Lake Manitoba. It is one of the oldest Anglican parishes in Manitoba.
The people of St Bede’s acted because they are determined to remain biblically faithful, true to historic Christian and current Anglican doctrine. Unfortunately, the Anglican Church of Canada continues to abandon orthodox mainstream Anglican teaching and doctrine, particularly in relation to the authority of the Bible, breaking with the vast majority of global Anglicans. While orthodox Anglicans are in a minority in Canada, they are the overwhelming majority worldwide.
Although Anglican Church of Canada dioceses have been aggressive and hostile toward parishes that have aligned with the Anglican Network in Canada, St. Bede’s is the fourth Anglican congregation to join ANiC in the last month. Other ANiC parishes are engaged in civil court proceedings, seeking to continue worshipping in the buildings the congregations paid for and maintained through the years. These votes, in the face of threats of eviction and other punitive action taken by Anglican Church of Canada bishops, demonstrate the critical importance of the deep and profound theological issues that are dividing the church. In addition they demonstrate the deep faith, conviction and courage of these congregations.
Archbishop Gregory Venables, Primate of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, has responded to the need of biblically faithful Canadian Anglicans for spiritual protection and care on an emergency and interim basis – pending a resolution to the crisis in the worldwide Anglican Communion.
The Anglican Province of the Southern Cone is one of 38 Provinces that make up the global Anglican Communion. It encompasses much of South America and includes Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay and Argentina.
Members of the Anglican Network in Canada are committed to remaining faithful to Holy Scripture and established Anglican doctrine and to ensuring that orthodox Canadian Anglicans are able to remain in full communion with their Anglican brothers and sisters around the world.

Contact:
Marilyn Jacobson
Communications, Anglican Network in Canada
604 788-4222 cell
mjacobson@anglicannetwork.ca
www.anglicannetwork.ca