Anglican Church of Canada
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The Anglican Church of Canada is the sole[1] [2] Canadian representative of the Anglican Communion. The official French equivalent is l'Église Anglicane du Canada[3]. The officially recognized acronym found on internal documents of the Anglican Church of Canada is ACC [4].
The denomination is the third largest in Canada, consisting of 800,000 registered members [5] worshipping in 29 dioceses and one grouping of parishes in the Central Interior of British Columbia. The 2001 Census counted 2,035,500 self-identified Anglicans or 6.9% of the total Canadian population[6]. In the same census, Ontario alone recorded 985,110 self-identified Anglicans.
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[edit] Official Names of the Anglican Church of Canada
The current name of the church was adopted in 1955 — hitherto it had been known as "The Church of England in Canada." The church acquired its current French-language name in 1989. Prior to this, General Synod had adopted "l'Église Episcopale du Canada" in 1977 and amended the canons to reflect this in 1983 [3]. The Anglican Church of Canada is a Province of the Anglican Communion.[1] A matter of some confusion for Anglicans elsewhere in the world is that while the Anglican Church of Canada is a "province" of the Anglican Communion, the Ecclesiastical Province of Canada is merely one of four such ecclesiastical provinces of the Anglican Church of Canada. The confusing issue of nomenclature is further confused by the fact that the Canadian confederation deems its ten constituent elements to be civil provinces.
In recent years, there have been attempts by splinter groups to incorporate under very similar names. Corporations Canada, the agency of the federal government which has jurisdiction over federally incorporated companies, ruled on 12 September 2005 that a group of dissident Anglicans may not use the name "Anglican Communion in Canada", holding that in Canada the term "Anglican Communion" is associated only with the Anglican Church of Canada, being the Canadian denomination which belongs to that international body. The breakaway group now styles itself as the Anglican Coalition in Canada [2]
[edit] History
[edit] Origins of the Anglican Church in British North America
The first clergy of the pre-Reformation English Church arrived in Canada as chaplains on John Cabot's expedition in 1497. The first post-Reformation Anglican Eucharist on what is now Canadian territory was celebrated in 1578 by Robert Wolfall, who was chaplain to Martin Frobisher's expedition to the Arctic. The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in St. John's, Newfoundland is the oldest Anglican parish in Canada, founded in 1699 in response to a petition drafted by the Anglican townsfolk of St. John's and sent to the Bishop of London, the Rt. Rev. Henry Compton.
Members of the Church of England established the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 1701 which provided missionaries to Canada until 1940. Another Anglican mission, the Church Missionary Society was established in 1799, and sent missionaries to try to convert Canada's First Nations until World War I. The Church of England in Canada established numerous residential schools which sought to assimilate native peoples into British concepts of civilization.
[edit] Colonial period
Anglicans were numerous among the United Empire Loyalists who fled to Canada after the American Revolution and the Anglican Church was a dominant feature of the compact governments that presided over the colonies in British North America.
After the conquest of Quebec and the American Revolution, many leading Anglicans argued for the Church of England to become the established church in the Canadian colonies. The Constitutional Act of 1791 was promulgated, and interpreted to mean that the Church was the established Church in the Canadas. The Church of England was established by law in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. In Lower Canada, the presence of a Roman Catholic majority made establishment in that province politically unwise. Bishop John Strachan of Toronto was a particular champion of the prerogatives of the Church of England.
The secular history of Canada depicts Bishop Strachan as an ally of the landed gentry of the so-called Family Compact of Upper Canada, opposed to the political aspirations of farmers and bourgeoisie for responsible government. Nonetheless, Strachan played considerable part in promoting education, as founder of Kings College (now the University of Toronto) and Trinity College. The Clergy reserves, land that had been reserved for use by the Protestant clergy, became a major issue in the mid-19th century. Anglicans argued that the land was meant for their exclusive use, while other Protestant denominations demanded that it be divided among them.
In Upper Canada, leading dissenters such as Methodist minister Egerton Ryerson — in due course a minister of education in the government of Ontario — agitated against establishment. Following the Upper Canada Rebellion, the creation of the united Province of Canada, and the implementation of responsible government in the 1840s, the unpopularity of the Anglican-dominated Family Compact made establishment a moot point. The Church was disestablished in Nova Scotia in 1850 and Upper Canada in 1854. By the time of Confederation in 1867, the Church of England was disestablished throughout British North America.
[edit] Autonomy
Until the 1830s, the Anglican church in Canada was synonymous with the Church of England: bishops were appointed and priests supplied by the church in England, and funding for the church came from the British Parliament. The first Canadian synods were established in the 1850s, giving the Canadian church a degree of self-government. As a result of the Privy Council decision of Long v. Gray in 1861, all Anglican churches in colonies of the British Empire became self-governing. Even so, the first General Synod for all of Canada was not held until 1893. In that meeting, Robert Machray was chosen as the Canadian church's first Primate.
[edit] Expansion and division
As the new Canadian nation expanded after confederation in 1867, so too did the Anglican Church. After the establishment of the first ecclesiastical province — that of Canada in 1860 — others followed. The first was the Ecclesiastical Province of Rupert's Land, created in 1875 to encompass Anglican dioceses outside what were then the boundaries of Canada: present-day Northern Ontario and Northern Quebec, the western provinces, and the Territories. In the forty years between self-government in 1861 and 1900, sixteen of the presently existing dioceses were created, as numbers blossomed with accelerating immigration from England, Scotland, and Ireland.
During this time, the Anglican Church assumed de facto administrative responsibility in the far-flung wilderness of Canada and British North America. The church was contracted by colonial officials and the Canadian government to administer residential schools for the indigenous peoples of the First Nations - a decision which would come back to haunt it much later. Such schools removed children from their home communities in an attempt to, amongst other things, assimilate them into the dominant European culture and language. At the same time, Anglican missionaries were involved in advocating for First Nations rights and land claims on behalf of those people to whom they were ministering (for example, the Nisga'a of northern British Columbia).
Despite this growth in both the size and role of the church, progress was undermined by internal conflict over churchmanship. This was manifested in the creation of competing theological schools, a refusal on behalf of bishops of one ecclesiastical party to ordain those of the other, and - in the most extreme cases - schism. This latter phenomenon was particularly virulent in Western Canada, culminating in the high profile defection of Edward Cridge, the Dean of the Diocese of [British] Columbia, to the Reformed Episcopal Church.
[edit] The twentieth century
Expansion evolved into a general complacency as the twentieth century progressed. During the early part of this period, the ACC reinforced its traditional role as the establishment church, although influences from the home-grown Protestant social gospel movement, and the Christian socialism of elements in the Church of England increasingly were felt. This influence would eventually result in the creation of what would come to be known as the Primate's World Relief and Development Fund, in 1958.
By the middle of the century, pressure to reform the structures of the church were being felt. The name of the church was changed in 1955 from "The Church of England in Canada" to the "Anglican Church of Canada," and a major revision of the Book of Common Prayer was undertaken in 1962 - the first in over forty years. Despite these rather tepid changes, the church was still perceived as complacent and disengaged - a view emphasized by the title of Pierre Berton's best-selling analysis of the denomination, The Comfortable Pew, published in 1965.
Change became more rapid towards the close of the 1960s, as mainline churches like the Anglicans began to see the first wave of evaporation from the pews. Ecumenical relationships were intensified, with a view to full communion. While negotiations with the largest Protestant denomination, the United Church of Canada, faltered in the early 1970s, the Anglican Church did achieve full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada as the century drew to a close. New liturgical resources were introduced, which would culminate in the publication of the Book of Alternative Services in 1985. Agitation for the ordination of women led to their inclusion in 1976 as deacons, priests, and - eventually - bishops. And social and cultural change led to the church's decision to marry divorced couples, endorse certain forms of contraception, and moves towards greater inclusion of gay and lesbian people in the life of the church.
[edit] Structure
The national church is structured on the typical Anglican model of a presiding bishop (the Primate) and Synod. The chief governing body of the church is the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada, which meets triennially and consists of lay people, clergy, and bishops from each of the thirty dioceses. In-between General Synods, the day-to-day affairs of the ACC are administered by a group elected by General Synod, called the Council of General Synod (COGS), which consults with and directs national staff working at the church's headquarters in Toronto.
The Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada is the Most Revd Andrew Hutchison. He will retire in 2007. The church is in full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada under the Waterloo Declaration of 2001.
[edit] Primate
The Primate of the ACC — originally the "Primate of All Canada" in echo of the titles of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York in England and to distinguish the national church from the Ecclesiastical Province of Canada (the former territory of Lower Canada, the Maritimes, and Newfoundland) — is elected by General Synod from among the diocesan bishops. Primates hold the ex officio rank of archbishop; in 1931 the General Synod approved a recommendation that a fixed primatial See (as of the Archbishop of Canterbury) be established[3] and in 1955 it was recommended that "a small See [be created] in the vicinity of Ottawa to which the Dioceses of The Arctic, Moosonee, Keewatin and Yukon would be attached, forming a fifth Province." However, General Synod rejected the proposal in 1959 and in 1969 "the Canon on the Primacy was amended to require the Primate to maintain an office at the national headquarters of the Church, with a pastoral relationship to the whole Church, but no fixed Primatial See"[3] as with Presiding Bishops of the Episcopal Church of the USA and unlike Primates of England, Australia and elsewhere. In consequence, Primates of the Anglican Church of Canada are not diocesan bishops and generally do not carry out ordinary episcopal functions; they originally held office for life but in recent years they have retired by the age of 70.
In recent decades Primates of the ACC have intermittently held a considerable place in public life. In particular, Archbishop Ted Scott, who was a President of the World Council of Churches, was a member of a Commonwealth Eminent Persons committee in respect of the devolution of power from the white-only government of South Africa to a fully democratic government.
Scott's successor, Michael Peers, continued the close association with the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and was thrust into a high profile in Canadian national life when he insisted that the ACC should shoulder its responsibilities for the legacy of the Indian Residential Schools, and when he protested at what he described as the downplaying of Christian witness in the official commemoration of events of national importance.[7]
There have been twelve primates in the history of the church. The current Primate is the Most Rev. Andrew Hutchison.
[edit] General Synod
Each diocese holds annual diocesan synods from which lay and clergy delegates are elected as representatives to General Synod, the national deliberative body, which meets triennially. These delegates join the Primate and the bishops of the church to form three Orders - lay, clergy, and bishops. The next general synod is in 2007 and meets in Winnipeg.
General Synod is entrusted with the doctrine, discipline, and canon law of the national church, in addition to more prosaic matters of administration and policy. At each diocesan synod, the three houses elect representatives to sit on the Council of General Synod, which — with the Primate — acts as the governing authority of the national church in-between synods.
[edit] Provinces and dioceses
The ACC is divided into four ecclesiastical provinces - British Columbia and the Yukon, Canada (encompassing the maritime provinces and Quebec), Ontario, and Rupert's Land (encompassing the prairie provinces, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and portions of Ontario). Within the provinces are 29 dioceses and one grouping of churches in British Columbia that functions equivalently to a diocese.
Each province has its own archbishop, known as the Metropolitan, and each diocese has a bishop, although there are no metropolitical dioceses (or archdioceses) as such; a metropolitan is styled "Archbishop of [his or her own diocese], and Metropolitan of [the ecclesiastical province]." As with other churches in the Anglican tradition, it is the diocese — not the congregation — which is the smallest unit of authority. Both dioceses and provinces hold synods, usually annually, consisting of the active diocesan clergy and lay delegates elected by parish churches. Diocesan synods elect lay and clergy delegates to provincial synod. On the diocesan level, there are effectively two houses instead of three — clergy and laity — with the diocesan bishop required to give assent to motions passed by synod.
[edit] Houses of Bishops
The interpretation of doctrine, discipline, and canon law is entrusted to the diocesan bishops, who work collegially as a House of Bishops. There is a national House of Bishops, which meets regularly throughout the year, as well as provincial houses of bishops. These are chaired, respectively, by the Primate and the individual metropolitans.
[edit] Ecumenical relations
The ACC is a member of the World Council of Churches and Archbishop Ted Scott was a president of that body; the ACC has been an active participant in the Canadian Council of Churches from its establishment immediately after the Second World War. Through the 1960s the ACC was involved in talks with the United Church of Canada and the Disciples of Christ with a view to institutional union, in the course of which a comprehensive Plan of Union was formulated and a joint Anglican-United Church hymnal produced in 1971. Ultimately such talks foundered when the Houses of Laity and Clergy voted in favour of union but the House of Bishops vetoed it, largely due to concerns over the maintenance of the Apostolic Succession of the episcopacy.
More recently, in 2001, the ACC established full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. Contrary to the practice in Roman Catholic, Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches, all baptised Christians are welcome to receive Holy Communion in Canadian Anglican churches, in accordance with the resolution in favour of open communion at the 1968 Lambeth Conference.
Through the Anglican Communion, the ACC is also in full communion with the churches of the Old Catholic Utrecht Union (represented by St. John's Cathedral, Toronto), the Mar Thoma Church, and the Philippine Independent Church. Unlike the Anglican Churches of the British Isles, it is not a signatory to the Porvoo Agreement which established full communion between those bodies and a number of European Lutheran churches.
[edit] Liturgy and service books
- See also Book of Common Prayer
In 1918 and 1962 the ACC produced successive authoritative Canadian Prayer Books, substantially based on the 1662 English Book of Common Prayer (BCP); both were conservative revisions consisting largely of minor editorial emendations of archaic diction. In 1985 the Book of Alternative Services (BAS) was issued, officially not designated to supersede but to be used alongside the 1962 Prayer Book. It is a more thoroughgoing modernising of Canadian Anglican liturgies, containing considerable borrowings from Lutheran, Church of England, American Episcopalian and liberal Roman Catholic service books; it was received with general enthusiasm and in practice has largely supplanted the Book of Common Prayer, although the BCP remains the official Liturgy of the Church in Canada. A French translation, Le Recueil des Prières de la Communauté Chrétienne, was published in 1967. The increasing preference for the BAS among parishes and clergy has been countered by the founding of the Prayer Book Society of Canada, which strives to promote the use of the BCP. The tension between adherents of the BCP and advocates of the BAS has contributed to a sense of disaffection within the Church on the part of liturgical traditionalists. At the same time, there have been increasing calls for revision of the prayer books, perhaps involving the production of a single book encompassing elements from both resources. Even those who use the BAS have cited various shortcomings, and as it ages and newer liturgies are produced elsewhere in the Communion, a desire has been expressed for its revision.
Hymnody is an important aspect of worship in Anglicanism, and the ACC is no different. There is no one hymnal required to be used, although the ACC has produced four successive authorised versions since 1908. The most recent, Common Praise, was published in 1998. Anglican plainsong is represented in the new hymnal, as well as in the older Canadian Psalter, published in 1963. Notable Canadian Anglican hymnists include Derek Holman, Gordon Light, Herbert O'Driscoll, and Healey Willan.
Like most churches of the Anglican Communion, the ACC was beset by intense conflict over the ritualism controversies of the latter nineteenth century, leading in some extreme cases to schism. Throughout much of the twentieth century, parishes - and, to a certain extent, dioceses or regions - were more or less divided between high church (Anglo-Catholic), low church (evangelical), and broad church (middle-of-the-road). Many of these designations have become muted with time, as the passions which fired the debate have cooled and most parishes have found a happy medium or accommodation.
[edit] Social issues and theological division
As is the case in churches directly influenced by Anglican ethos and theology, the ACC tends to reflect the dominant social and cultural strains of the nation in which it finds itself. For most of its history, the ACC embodied the conservative, colonial outlook of its mostly British-descended parishioners and of English Canada as a whole. In the post-World War II period, as the character of Canada changed, so too did the attitudes of people in the pews, and by extension, the church.
[edit] Ordination of women and remarriage of divorced persons
In recent years the ACC has been a leading force for reform within the Anglican Communion. In the 1970s, Primate Ted Scott argued at the Lambeth Conference in favour of women's ordination. The ACC ordained its first female priest in 1976, and its first female bishop in 1993. Many parishes, particularly in the west and even more particularly on aboriginal reserves, were already served by women deacons and allowing them to be ordained priests simply regularized a situation which had long pertained and permitted the full sacerdotal ministry to be brought to parishes they served. Nonetheless, this reform — in concert with such moves as allowing the remarriage of divorced persons — caused strains among more conservative parishes, both Anglo-Catholic and evangelical. In the early 1970s, some members of the ACC left to join dissident Anglican groups such as the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada.
[edit] Inclusion of gays and lesbians
More recently, in 2002, the Diocese of New Westminster (located in the southwest corner of British Columbia) voted to permit the blessing of same-sex unions by parishes requesting authorization to do so[8]. This action was condemned by some Canadian Anglicans and some provinces of the Communion. Several conservative national Anglican churches, notably the Churches of Uganda and Nigeria, have declared themselves out of communion with the ACC as a result of their disquiet with the ACC's perceived excessive inclusivity with respect to female and gay clergy and laity and in particular over the blessing of same-sex unions in New Westminster. Following the submission of the Windsor Report's recommendations, Bishop Michael Ingham of New Westminster agreed "neither to encourage nor to initiate" same-sex blessings in additional parishes, but stopped short of declaring a moratorium on those occurring in parishes already licensed to perform them[9].
In 1992 an Anglican priest, James Ferry, was brought before a Bishops' Court for being in a same-sex relationship. Ferry was stripped of his licence to preach and "inhibited" from practising other Anglican clerical functions. Ferry left the church and joined the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto; in 1998, Ferry was partially reinstated. (In 2006 Archbishop Terence Finlay, who had presided over the proceedings against Ferry, was himself disciplined by his successor as bishop of Toronto for assisting in a same-sex wedding in a Toronto United Church, saying, "I think our church has waited a long time and has discussed this issue over and over and in this particular situation, time just run out for me." [10])
To date, the ACC has resolved neither the question of ordaining non-celibate gay and lesbian clergy nor the question of blessing same-sex unions. Thus far blessing of same-sex unions has been permitted only in seven parishes in the Diocese of New Westminster.
Primate's Theological Commission produced a report examining whether or not such blessings were a matter of doctrine (St. Michael Report). The issue will again come before General Synod in 2007.
[edit] Indian residential schools
During the 19th century the federal Crown delegated the operation of Indian residential schools to the ACC and Roman Catholic religious orders (with some minimal involvement by the Methodist and Presbyterian Churches of Canada as well). In the 1980s numerous tort claims were brought by former students of such schools against both the Crown and church organizations in respect of abuse by sexually disordered church personnel in such institutions and to a lesser extent in respect of a perception that such schools had been insensitive to issues of preservation of aboriginal culture and identity.
The claims were ultimately comprehensively settled but the damage to the morale of the ACC has yet to be entirely resolved: the Diocese of Cariboo was obliged to declare bankruptcy and was liquidated — its current manifestation is as "the Anglican parishes of the central interior," with episcopal oversight by an assistant bishop to the metropolitan Archbishop of the Province of British Columbia and the Yukon. (Its now-unofficial cathedral of St Paul in Kamloops continues to be deemed a cathedral, its rector being styled "very reverend," as a dean. [11] ). The Diocese of Qu'Appelle and the General Synod of the ACC were in considerable danger of the same fate until settlement of the claims was reached on a national basis. Archbishop Michael Peers took a major role on behalf of the ACC with respect to reaching a settlement with the federal Crown, which was the defendant of the first instance and which counter-claimed against the ACC and Roman Catholic religious orders. He offered the ACC's apology to aboriginal people and delayed his retirement until 2004 when his successor could come to the primacy with the issue also retired.
In January of 2007 the Church announced the appointment of the Rt. Rev. Mark MacDonald, an aboriginal American with principal episcopal responsiblities in Alaska, as National Indigenous Bishop with pastoral oversight over all indigenous members of the Anglican Church of Canada [12].
[edit] Cathedrals and notable parishes of the Anglican Church of Canada
[edit] Cathedrals
Most Anglican cathedrals in Canada are modest parish churches and it is only the cathedrals of Toronto, Halifax, St. John's, and Victoria which have significant dimensions or imposing designs, though even they are modest by European or even Australian standards. Diocesan services are often held in Roman Catholic or United churches because of the limited seating in most Anglican cathedrals. Christ Church Cathedral, Ottawa, while not having any official national status either secularly or ecclesially like that of Washington National Cathedral, is the usual venue for state occasions requiring an ecclesiastical setting, such as state funerals for non-Roman Catholics.
[edit] Notable parishes
The Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Toronto was the home parish of the organist and composer Healey Willan, who composed much of his liturgical music for its choirs. It is the inspiration for the parish of St Aiden in Robertson Davies's novel The Cunning Man. St. Thomas', Toronto, was at one time the parish church of the English accompanist Gerald Moore, who was an assistant organist there. The hymn tune "Bellwoods" by James Hopkirk, sung world-wide to the hymn "O day of God draw nigh," by the Canadian theologian Robert B.Y. Scott, was named for St. Matthias Bellwoods, in Toronto, where Hopkirk was organist.
St Anne's, Toronto, is a notable tourist attraction, being "a scale model of Saint Sophia in Istanbul that was decorated in the 1920s by members of the Group of Seven and associates."[13] St John's, Elora, is a concert venue of the Elora Music Festival; its choir, also known as the Elora Festival Singers, is the professional core of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and its CDs are available around the world. St Bartholomew's, Ottawa, located near to Rideau Hall and also known as the Guards Chapel has been the place of worship for Governors General of the Canadas and then Canada since 1866, before the wider confederation of the British North American colonies. The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Quebec City, is by far the oldest Anglican cathedral in Canada, having been "built from 1800 to 1804; it was constructed according to drawings done by Captain William Hall and Major William Robe, officers of the military engineering corps of the British Army, stationed in Quebec City."[14] Christ's Church Cathedral, Hamilton is the oldest cathedral of Upper Canada, its present building having originally been constructed in 1842, though its curious, evolutionary, construction history has left none of the original fabric extant.[15]
[edit] Sources
- ^ a b http://www.anglicancommunion.org/tour/index.cfm Anglican Communion Provinces]
- ^ a b Anglican Journal article "Group drops name"(01 May 2006)Retrieved 23 Jan 2007
- ^ a b c d Anglican Church of Canada Handbook
- ^ ACC Glossary of terms and acronyms Retrieved 23 Jan 2007
- ^ Anglican Church of Canada official website
- ^ Stats Canada official website
- ^ "Response to Primate's New Year's Sermon," in Anglican Journal Retrieved 23 Jan 2007
- ^ Information on Same Sex Blessings in the Diocese of New Westminster
- ^ Bishop Michael comments on House of Bishops statement
- ^ Archbishop disciplined for performing same-sex marriage
- ^ "Spirit lives on in erstwhile BC diocese," Anglican Journal.
- ^ Primate presents Bishop of Alaska as new National Indigenous Bishop
- ^ St Anne's, Toronto website
- ^ Website of Holy Trinity Cathedral, Quebec City
- ^ Marion MacRae and Anthony Adamson, Hallowed Walls: Church Architecture of Upper Canada (Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, 1975), pp. 87-88.
[edit] See also
- List of dioceses of the Anglican Church of Canada
- Calendar of saints (Anglican Church of Canada)
- Anglican Planet
[edit] External links
- Anglican Church of Canada official site
- Historical documents on Anglicanism in Canada
- Anglicans in Canada — historical resources
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