On Monday November 15th, the legal wrangling between the Diocese of New Westminster and parishes that have left the diocese because of theological disagreements reached another milestone.
The highest court in British Columbia ruled not to overturn an earlier court decision that said the parishes could not continue to use their buildings for non-diocesan purposes: the buildings remain with the diocese and the departing congregations must vacate them. No decision has yet been made to pursue one more possible appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Ostensibly, this Anglican squabble began with the Diocese of New Westminster’s decision to proceed with the blessing of same-sex civil marriages in selected parishes. The disagreements run far deeper than that, though. Liberal Anglican dioceses – New Westminster is one of the most liberal – have been slowly eroding the basic Christian faith for decades. Bishop Michael Ingham, in interviews and his book “Mansions of the Spirit”, has questioned the bodily Resurrection of Jesus, his Virgin birth, his divinity and his uniqueness. What, as a bishop, he should defend, he has undermined.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, sought to calm the storm created by the vehemence of such disagreements by trying to find an Hegelian middle ground between the diametrically opposed positions taken by Anglican liberals and conservatives. At the Lambeth conference he used indaba groups – small groups where everyone has a chance to speak – to accomplish this. Although his technique made everyone moderately unhappy, it at least held things together, so it was hailed as a success and adopted by the Anglican Church of Canada at its recent synod.
The result was a statement on human sexuality which declares that the Canadian national church has not officially approved the blessing of same-sex civil marriages, but dioceses are free to make their own decision. It’s an Anglican version of “don’t ask, don’t tell”. Dioceses are proceeding apace with same-sex blessings while the national church quietly averts its gaze: the dioceses that are performing same-sex blessings are doing so in the closet.
Although the Anglican Church delights in trying to find doctrinal middle ground, when it comes to who owns church property, the quest for compromise is strangely absent. As one of the trial judges noted: “I could not help but feel that counsel’s respective submissions were like two ships passing in the night, as were the legal authorities on which they relied.” There were no courtroom indaba groups; when it comes to buildings, winner takes all.
The judges perceptively noted that: “[p]resumably the Bishop and the Synod have chosen to take the risk that the policy allowing same-sex blessings will indeed prove to be ‘schismatic’; or that clergy in the Diocese will for the foreseeable future find themselves ministering to vastly reduced or non-existent congregations.” As the number of people attending an Anglican Church declines, many dioceses, including New Westminster, are busy merging parishes and closing unused buildings. If there is a final legal victory for the diocese, it will be a pyrrhic victory won at the cost of taking fellow Christians to court to obtain possession of buildings for which they have no real use – other than to sell to the highest bidder.
In former times, a sustained decline in church attendance would have been cause for self examination, a time to ask the question “are we doing something wrong?” – particularly when evangelical churches who have a less fluid view of what constitutes Christian doctrine are growing. Not so here. In a move that in business would be seen as a sign of mental instability, the strategy appears to be to win the hearts of potential parishioners by suing the largest congregation in Canada, evicting them from the building for which they have a legitimate use and proceeding full steam ahead with the agenda that caused the rift in the first place.
There are numerous similar court cases in progress with other dioceses. This decision by the BC court of appeal does not bode well for parishes that have left their diocese. The consolation that these parishes have, though, is that a church is a community of people whose allegiance cannot be dictated by a court. A church building can change hands but, when standing empty, it will be nothing more than a rather sad reminder of the folly of a church hierarchy that has lost its way.
One angle on this that I have not seen noted yet is that the various Anglican parishes/diocese are likely Canadian registered charities. As such, they will have been registered ubnder advancement of religion. Their objects of incorpration should say as much. If they cease to comply with these objects, they will run into trouble, all the way up to the possibility of being revoked by the Minister of National Revenue. If they cease to be able to operate as a valid registered charity, the dissolution clause under the Income Tax Act states that they must turn over all of their assets to another (any other) registered charity in Canada; they can no longer keep anything. Don’t take my word for it….this is public information, available through the Canada Revenue Agency website. It amazes me how few Canadians are aware of these regulations, including many registered charities themselves. So, do what you were registered to do, or you may have to turn over the entire holdings….kind of like U.S. organized crime being brought down at long last by IRS regulations they have failed to abide by.