Having won the court battle for the buildings of St. John’s Shaughnessy, St. Matthias and St. Luke, and St. Matthew’s Abbotsford, the Diocese of New Westminster must decide what to do with them. Since it has no substantial congregations in the buildings, the diocese has concluded that it must “plant three new churches” to “establish Diocese of New Westminster, Anglican Church of Canada worship” in the parishes. The diocese makes no mention of worshipping Jesus.
The money is to come from “the assets of the parishes returned to the diocese by the courts of Canada” along with funding from the diocese.
In any other circumstance the diocese would quietly close non-viable parishes but, in this case, there would be too much loss of face and Bishop Michael Ingham is prepared to spend $4.5 Million to make sure that doesn’t happen. I expect that it will anyway.
The whole document is here.
Note the last sentence: the parishes have a limited time in which to spend $4.5 million to “become vital and sustainable” before they are put on the chopping block.
You should cross post this to Essentials, David.
I’ve spoken to several people about this, both priests and parishioners, both conservative and liberal, and I’ve yet to find anyone who thinks this will work. It makes me wonder how it got through Diocesan Council.