Tag Archives: Guelph

New Anglican church in Guelph

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The Diocese of Niagara has managed to alienate a significant segment of Guelph’s inhabitants by selling its buildings to property developers rather than other churches. It isn’t often that the Diocese of Niagara stirs up enough passion to convince anyone to parade around with a sign that has “Anglican” on it. In this case, though, “Anglican” is accompanied by another word: “greed”.

After a couple of church closures by the diocese, the Anglican Network in Canada is starting a new church: it’s Anglican and Christian.

From here:

At this season of renewal, Guelph is also experiencing a renewed expression of Anglicanism. Under the leadership of the Reverend Zena Attwood, “St Jude, Guelph” wants to be a spiritual home for seekers and Christians who value ordered worship combined with serious Biblical and theological scholarship.

St Jude belongs to the Anglican Network in Canada, an alternative Anglican jurisdiction that Ms Attwood says embodies the best of Anglicanism’s catholic, reformed, evangelical, and charismatic traditions. She explains that the impetus to form the St Jude community predates the demise of two of Guelph’s four Anglican congregations, but she hopes that St Jude may help to stanch the hemorrhaging of Guelph’s Anglican community.

The Diocese of Niagara’s continuing mission in Guelph

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Alienating the residents:

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From here:

Protesters seek meeting with Anglican bishop over sale of Guelph property

GUELPH — Passionate but peaceful protesters gathered outside St. George’s Anglican Church in downtown Guelph on Sunday morning to send a message to the church’s bishop.

As parishioners filed into the Woolwich Street church, roughly 25 members of two south end community groups handed out literature and marched on the sidewalk with signs critical of Bishop Michael Bird of the Anglican Diocese of Niagara.

While the protesters made it clear they have no issue with St. George’s Church itself, they felt it was another way to try to pressure Bishop Bird to meet with them and discuss the sale of property on Kortright Road that is the home of the former St. Matthias Anglican Church.

The Bishop was not at Sunday’s service.

And while the behaviour was cordial and polite, the signs and words of the protesters were a little more barbed.

“I think the bishop should meet with the people. Jesus met with everybody, sinners and non-sinners, so why would the bishop not meet with the people,” said Bruce Taylor of Citizens for Community.

The property in question, on the northeast corner of the intersection of Kortright and Edinburgh roads, has been sold to HIP Developments, which has gone to the Ontario Municipal Board to try to get the property rezoned from institutional to specialized residential.

HIP Developments plans to build a six-storey, 81-unit residential complex.

Opponents feel it is the wrong use for the 0.81-hectare site and want to preserve the land and property for community use.

“The church should practise what they preach,” said Filippa Mirotta, who has lived near the property for 30 years.

She and others felt the church was intent only on maximizing its financial return on the property rather than the social implications.

“The church has a moral responsibility,” Mirotta said. “The church is not in the business of making money.”

Linda Davis of the McElderry Community and Friends group said they have asked three times for a meeting and were turned down each time.

“We want to meet with him face to face and he continues to shun us and treat us with disrespect,” Davis said. “It’s a very sad situation.”

Diocese of Niagara developing 8 story condo building in cathedral parking lot

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The synod of the Diocese of Niagara has granted approval for the development which, in spite of bearing a passing resemblance to soviet era flats, will by no means be low cost housing. Here is a conceptual rendering:

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The plans are here with more details on the buildings here.

Ironically, at the same time the diocese is ploughing millions of dollars into its headquarters, the diocesan image is looking a trifle tattered in Guelph, where residents are planning a demonstration over the sale of St. Matthias for – you guessed it, millions of dollars.

GUELPH — Two community groups are planning a peaceful rally outside St. George’s Anglican Church Sunday to request a meeting with Bishop Michael Bird of the Anglican Diocese of Niagara about the tentative sale of St. Matthias Church property to HIP Developments.

Linda Davis, of the McElderry Community and Friends Group, said the group has made “repeated requests” to speak with Bird about the sale of the property, where HIP intends to build a six-storey, 81-unit student-geared residence called Solstice 3.

[…..]

Davis said she believes it comes down to money for the diocese.

“They’ve tied their futures to that plan and they’re not willing to deviate from it regardless of what we say,” she said.

The bishop has defended the sale on the basis that:

our Diocese is in the business of nurturing and building spiritual communities in the Anglican tradition, not in the business of urban planning.

The cathedral development looks suspiciously like urban planning to me.

Selling cathedral land to developers to build apartments appears to be a trend. Here is the Diocese of Ottawa’s cathedral and diocesan offices sandwiching a large apartment block; the dwarfed cathedral is just visible. It seems to be a fitting metaphor for western Anglicanism: the church used to be surrounded by the secular, now the secular has been invited to dwell and flourish within the church:

The Diocese of Niagara has competition in Guelph

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The Diocese of Niagara is closing both St. Matthias and St. David and St. Patrick in Guelph. As a counterpoint to the sound of shrivelling, accompanied by revving bulldozers, echoing throughout empty diocesan buildings ANiC is considering opening an Anglican Church in Guelph. Ecclesiastical free enterprise is a wonderful thing.

See below for details:

I met recently with the Reverend Zena Attwood, a minister of the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC). ANiC, she explains, is trying to stem this Anglican hemorrhage by establishing churches that fulfill [sic] the goals I’ve described. Their website (anglicannetwork.ca) shows that in their first five years they have 72 parishes across Canada. ANiC is a member of the conservative Anglican Church in North America, that reckons about a thousand parishes in Canada and the USA and is enthusiastically planting more. Ms Attwood says she’s creating a core group to start such a parish in Guelph. The group meets on Sunday mornings for Bible discussion and eucharist. Ms Attwood invites inquiries at 519 846 0454 or zena.attwood@gmail.com. Mr D’Arcy Luxton is an alternative contact at 519 846 0483 or darcy.luxton@gmail.com.