Mark MacDonald, the National Indigenous Archbishop, has resigned after being accused of and acknowledging sexual misconduct.
The Anglican Church of Canada announced this today here, along with a pastoral letter from the Primate, Linda Nicholls.
All evidence of MacDonald’s clerical existence has been expunged from the ACoC’s website, which until a short time ago said this:
The Most Rev. Mark MacDonald became the Anglican Church of Canada’s first National Indigenous Anglican Bishop in 2007, after serving as bishop of the U.S. Episcopal Diocese of Alaska for 10 years. In 2019 now Bishop MacDonald was elevated to Archbishop.
This was a home-coming of sorts for Archbishop MacDonald, who had attended Wycliffe College in Toronto and served as a priest in Mississauga, Ont.
As Nicholls notes in her pastoral letter:
This is devastating news. The sense of betrayal is deep and profound when leaders fail to live up to the standards we expect and the boundaries we set.
[….]
The ripple effects of this misconduct will be felt throughout the Church both in Canada and internationally, but most especially within the Sacred Circle and Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples.
I suggest that godly people will refrain from any and all additional comment, saving their breath for intercession. “Let him that standeth …”
Yes, indeed. Bruxy Cavey, pastor of The Meeting House which has its base in Oakville resigned last month over similar allegations.
There seems to be something of an epidemic. And it’s afflicting many denominations.
I know Priscilla-too easy-like shooting fish in a barrel-no sport in that-better to let this stew in its own juices
Happy St. Anselm Day . It seems appropriate today , in light of the situation regards former Bishop MacDonald . Atonement , I believe was one of his major offerings , whilst Archbishop . Yes ?
There is no joy in discovering the sins of Christian leaders like Mark Driscoll, Bill Hybels, Bill Gothard, Ravi Zacharias, Jerry Falwell, Jr. and others. Lord have mercy upon us all!
Nor is there any satisfaction for abuser or abused in the tragic history of multiple abuses in the Residential Schools operated by some of the Churches and Federal Government here in Canada, for which renewed ‘apology’, made public, Sunday, May1, 2022, (further to1993, 2019) the Archbishop of Canterbury is in Canada, April 30 to May 3, 2022.
Counterpoint to this, the ACC’s grave mishandling of the complaints of three parties of alleged sexual abuse whose names were made public against their express wishes to remain anonymous: v. #ACCmetoo vs. ACC and Anglican Journal. It seems that when sexual abuses are committed,
the corporate mind$et takes precedence over that of The Gospel of Jesus Christ “if we confess our sins…” + I John
ch.1 But then if the carnal mind decides which sexual sins are sinful, and which are not – the current anti-Scriptural dilemma of the ACC – confession will a parsed exercise.
Sorry to say but you’ve drank the koolaid- I deal with natives on a daily basis- all over Northern Canada-and the consensus is…..residential school saved their lives-took them out of abusive homes-cleaned them up-fed them educated them and if the child didnt survive due to the poor condition they were in when they arrived , bury them since the parents and community couldn’t be bothered, This is the truth right from source, not from self loathing guilt ridden white people. As well …..my maternal side of my family- all RC -had their share of bloody knuckles from the nuns in grade school -it was standard for the time-and produced the “greatest generation”- who are sadly almost all gone now.
Does daily dealings with Indigenous people render null and void the findings of The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and, therefore void its Directives, the most heart-rending among them to identify the unmarked graves of the babies, children and youth of the Residential Schools, yet to
be followed? To liken a just response to this Nation’s guilty record on this 150 year old
racist history to drinking kool-aid smacks of either the same historical denial or revisionism that has taken place, and is, in those Nations who imbrued their Collaborationist hands in the genocide of their Jewish people; some Churches complicit among them.
As for the ACC’s three apologies:1993 fell far short of the mark; 2019 expressed “spiritual and cultural harm”, but no mention of the sexual sins committed or perpetrated within their Schools. Why not?
Does not its anti-Scriptural trajectory to ‘bless’ those same sins in the Communion
offer a dreadful answer.
ugh- the “truth and reconciliation commission”- not biased at all eh? whenever the Gov. is involved what could go wrong?- we are too far apart on this issue….but lets agree on the freedom to state our respective views here-not dreadful-just different
The ultimate freedom to be upheld in this, and in all other situations, is “If The Son shall make you free…” + John 8:36. Amen.
Such freedom has been sacrificed on the ACC altar
of enforced public ‘Apology’ for offences committed, still not acknowledged as sexual sins; and, therefore, The Gospel of Jesus Christ supplanted by the Indigenous or any other spirituality from which our LORD’s Great Commission was sent forth to free us all only by His Cross. + John 3:16. Amen.
We live in a time of wars and the threat of renewed nuclear aggression. Humans are still stewards of a world we did not create. We must not avoid responsibility for the life we have. We cannot run away from reality. Christians must rely on God. The kingdom of God will have no end. Every day, we should confess our sins to God (The Book of Common Prayer, 1962, pp. 4-5).