Anglicans and Lutherans join forces:
The Rev. Brad Mittleholtz has been officially appointed as priest for a newly combined Anglican-Lutheran parish in the Bruce Peninsula. This new expression of the Full Communion relationship between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and Anglican Church of Canada was celebrated at a service at Trinity Anglican Church in Wiarton, Ont. on April 26.
Seven Anglican churches, which make up the Anglican Parish of the Bruce Peninsula, and St. Peter’s Lutheran church, will share in a ministry but will maintain their own buildings and identities. At the service in Wiarton, members of the parish proclaimed:
We believe God is calling Lutherans and Anglicans
to witness, and the Holy Spirit will enable us to join
in Ministry on the Bruce Peninsula by
sharing, celebrating, and rejoicing in God’s gifts to us.
We believe that in sharing equal partnership, no congregation
will lose its autonomy, identity, integrity, history or traditions.
We believe in working together as disciples
For the spiritual well-being of the people of the Bruce.
We believe in witnessing to God’s message
By sharing both ordained and lay leadership in ministry.
What does this really mean?
[flv:https://anglicansamizdat.net/wordpress/videos/Lemmings4.flv 480 385]
Doomed from the start. In order to “sell” this the powers that be, drove out many from the most viable of these churches (Wiarton) and with them the money, the youth and the energy which has sought shelter in a rented old church nearby. Here they hold services with a small remnant including the young former warden of Wiarton and where the average age is about twenty as compared to this new disaster which caters to a bunch of lost seniors.
From what I have been told about this “joining” it sounds like it was forced through. Some of those who were opposed to this “joining” were told that they were “not eligable” to vote on the motion that made this possible.
Additionally, the Lutherans have a “tradition” in which where several congregations “share” a Priest each Parish has a veto on who shall be the Priest. So in this “joining” each Lutheran congregation has a veto but not the Anglicans.
Our Congregation, which meets at what is now a community hall in Hepworth (formerly an Anglican Church building) is continuing on quite nicely.
Go to the article in the Anglican Journal here:
http://www.anglicanjournal.com/100/article/new-anglican-lutheran-ministry-celebrated/?cHash=8d297ba8c5
Click on the picture. This will open a new window with a slightly larger image of the picture. Now click on the picture in this new window, and you get:
“And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.”
— Amos 8:12 (KJV)
Strangely appropriate.
I wonder when will they start selling real estate it keep this all going? 2 years tops.