Paul Feheley is principal secretary to the primate, Fred Hiltz. This casts doubt on the editorial independence of the Journal.

All the comments on the announcement here express the same concern: with Feheley at the helm the Journal will not have editorial independence from the Anglican Church of Canada. What they fail to mention, though, is that the Journal gets a $596,627 subsidy from Canadian Heritage – from our taxes – but only provided it maintains its editorial independence.

For those concerned that I have suffered a lapse into gullibility – perhaps induced by an excess of Christmas cheer – never fear: I am well aware that the Journal’s editorial independence has always been a fiction. But with the primate’s principal secretary in charge, it may be a fiction that is impossible to maintain – at the cost of $596,627 per year.

The paper could not survive without the subsidy. I, for one, would be unhappy to see the demise of the Anglican Journal and satellite diocesan papers: it would be the end of rich vein of material begging to be mocked.