Just how many communicants does the Diocese of Athabasca have? IS is viable in the long term?

If it is, then this is great news. Otherwise, it could prove to be problematic.

Where is this diocese?  I confess to a profound ignorance of Canadian geography; provinces I know, but other regions are mysteries to me.

The diocese’s website is here.

It proclaims itself as “the Anglican Church in Northern Alberta.”

I was reading some Russian Orthodox history, and it’s noteworthy that one of the Metropolitans of Moscow (Innocent) started out as a missionary to then-Russian Alaska, and then became the Bishop of Kamchatka and Kuril Islands.  Pretty remote, cold places.

Besides, didn’t Jesus start out with only 12?

Way Kewl! Does anyone have a link to “the Solemn Declaration of 1893 (the founding declaration of the Anglican Church of Canada)?” It sounds like a great document!
The Rabbit.

I’m not quite sure what the comment about Alaska has to do with N. Alberta…but anyway…please do not assume that the passing of this motion means very much other than “we want to keep getting along with everyone.” The Bishop of Athabasca has been quite critical of the essentials movement in Canada and there is certainly no strong move in that diocese to realign. The Bishop is, however, a good friend of one of the new ANiC Bishops.
Grant LeMarquand

Hi Grant #5, I guess though that in this day and age, with the Bp of Athabasca not threatening to sue, this is a very positive development.  Also #3, thank you for clarifying the geography.  I too was confused, even having traveled in Alaska, the Yukon, BC and Alberta.  The Alaskan natives are Athabaskan people (or so I was told on my trip there).

The diocese has got a link to David Virtue’s site on the “new website” front page, that sort of was - a shocker.

#4, here is a link to the “Solemn Declaration” which is at the front of the Book of Common Prayer in Canada.
http://www.prayerbook.ca/bcp/solemn_declaration.html
By the way, this web site has a lot of good papers.
Nuj

#8, this is a powerful statement, and should be a model for a realigned Anglicanism everywhere.  Thank you for sharing this.

This is a significant moment in the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC), and I believe will add force to legal battles in Canada.  Our Solemn Declaration (http://www2.anglican.ca/faith/identity/solemn-declaration-1893.htm), makes clear that the ACC intends to be in communion with the Church of England throughout the world.  The fact that the ACC is in a process of walking apart from the C of E worldwide, and specifically so in New Westminster, is one of the arguments I suspect ANiC will use in court.  Further, our church canons (http://www2.anglican.ca/about/handbook/204_canon_IV.pdf) automatically recognize the Southern Cone and her clergy as a constituent members of the C of E worldwide, and are thus “in communion” with her.  The fact that a diocese (and hopefully many more) has taken steps to recognize this fact only buttresses the legitimacy of ANiC and her clergy here in Canada (in my humble opinion).

The argument of some bishops is that there is “only one Anglican Church in Canada”.  I think the question is becoming, “and will the real Anglican Church please stand up.”

++ Clarke is my metropolitan.  Athabasca is in oil country.

#10
And that being the question, to whom does the property belong?
This is what is so frightening to those in Canada who still hold the balance of ‘power’. The will not truly enter into ‘dialogue’ or mediated settlement with ANiC over property because at the edge of the discussion would be just that; “and will the real Anglican Church please stand up.”

Nuj

Thanks for the link, Nuj, I sent it on to my bishop. Good stuff.
The Rabbit.

I guess we will see to whom the property belongs when all this makes its way through the courts. 

Many bishops are confident that their dioceses own the properties - but I suspect they have not figured the secular courts into the equation, courts which do not stand in awe of pointy hats, and which will take many factors into account, and which will not want to look as though they are on the verge of breaching the religious rights of the people in parishes who have actually financed, maintained and worshipped in these various churches, sometimes for more than a century.

If the courts side with parishes, I think we will see more ANiC parishes materialize very quickly.