Anglican Catholic Church of Canada

Anglican Catholic Church of Canada
Coat of arms of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada.
Classification Continuing Anglican
Orientation Traditional Anglican
Polity Episcopal
Associations Traditional Anglican Communion
Region Canada
Origin 1979
Victoria, British Columbia
Separated from Anglican Catholic Church
Congregations 15

The Anglican Catholic Church of Canada (ACCC) (French: Église Catholique Anglicane du Canada) is a Continuing Anglican church that was founded in 1979 by traditional Anglicans who had separated from the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC). The ACCC has fifteen parishes and missions; with two bishops and 22 clergy.

Affiliation

The Anglican Catholic Church of Canada is one of the churches that trace their origins to the Congress of St. Louis, the assembly that inaugurated the Continuing Anglican Movement and produced the Affirmation of St. Louis. The new church adopted the name, "Anglican Catholic Church." Its Canadian diocese shortly thereafter asked for and received a release from that body in order to become a self-governing Canadian church offering a traditional alternative to the more liberal Anglican Church of Canada.

The Anglican Catholic Church of Canada is a founding member of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), established in 1990.[1] The ACCC is the third-largest of the Anglican churches in Canada, after the ACC and the Anglican Church in North America.

Traditional worship and morality

The founding members of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada were dissatisfied with decisions made by the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) to confer priestly ordination upon women and to make liturgical reforms that would evolve into the Book of Alternative Services. The ACCC continues to maintain an all-male clergy and recently has criticised what it considers to be the parent church's increasing acceptance of homosexuality. The church uses the 1962 Book of Common Prayer exclusively and rejects the possibility of remarriage after divorce.

Structure

The ACCC has parishes and missions throughout Canada. Most ACCC congregations are small, but the church continues to experience growth, particularly in the larger centres. The first bishop of the ACCC was Bishop Carmino de Catanzaro, who served until his death. The successive bishops, in order, were Bishop Alfred Woolcock, Bishop Robert Mercer, and Bishop Peter Wilkinson. In March 2013, the Very Reverend Shane Janzen was consecrated fifth diocesan and metropolitan bishop in Victoria, British Columbia. On November 1, 2014, the ACCC created two dioceses, one for the Western Canada (Diocese of Canada West) and one for the East (Diocese of Canada East), each with its own Bishop Ordinary.

Proposed ordinariate within the Roman Catholic Church

Until 2012, the TAC discussed a form of union with the Roman Catholic Church and stated that it had no doctrinal differences with Rome sufficient to prevent the success of this proposal.[2][3] In October 2009, the ACCC welcomed an initiative from Pope Benedict XVI to create personal ordinariates for disaffected traditionalist Anglicans.[4] On March 12, 2010, the ACCC formally requested the erection of an ordinariate in Canada.[5] Subsequent to the petition, the ACCC suffered some divisions over the apostolic constitution; seven of thirty-five parish groups (one fifth) removed themselves from the ACCC. As a consequence of which, and to provide a means for some clergy and laity to join the Roman Catholic Church, in November 2011 the ACCC divided into two non-geographical dioceses: the original Diocese of Canada (for parishes and individuals not ready or unwilling to enter into an ordinariate) and the Pro-Diocese of Our Lady of Walsingham (for parishes and individuals desiring to move forward into an ordinariate). On April 15, 2012, Bishop Peter Wilkinson and Bishop Carl Reid resigned their episcopal office and orders and were received into the Roman Catholic Church as laymen. Bishop Craig Botterill became apostolic administrator until the election of the new diocesan bishop, the Right Reverend Shane Janzen, in November 2012. The remaining Diocese of Canada explicitly stated that it "will remain an Anglican church"[6] and not enter the Ordinariate.

References

  1. ↑ "Anglican Catholic Church of Canada - Home Page". Anglican Catholic Church of Canada.
  2. ↑ When Anglicans, Catholics switch churches, what happens to dialogue? at the Library of Congress Web Archives (archived 2005-11-17)
  3. ↑ Rome and the TAC
  4. ↑ Anglicans welcome Pope's overture Archived October 25, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ↑ The petition to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Archived August 21, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
  6. ↑ Pastoral letter from Craig Botterill, Suffragan Bishop and Apostolic Administrator, Diocese of Canada, January 11, 2012
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