Saturday, May 07, 2011

Diocese wants to evict former parishioners


A battle over scripture has become a war over bricks and mortar at St. Aidan's Anglican Church.

The Diocese of Huron is taking its former parishioners at the Windsor church to court to evict them from the property at the corner of Wyandotte Street East and Westminster Boulevard.

Monday is the first day of trial in a dispute that dates back to 2008 when the majority of St. Aidan's members voted to break away from the Anglican Church of Canada and join the more conservative Anglican Network in Canada.

The rift in the Anglican church began in 2002 when a church in B.C. agreed to perform same-sex marriages and widened to include arguments over scripture interpretation of other issues as well.

Since the split at St. Aidan's, the two factions have been sharing the building. The orthodox majority who voted to break away from the Diocese of Huron kept their existing priest, Rev. Tom Carman.

The diocese appointed a retired priest to minister to the parishioners who remained loyal to the Anglican Church of Canada.

The ANiC service attracts about 120 parishioners on a given Sunday. The Anglican Church of Canada service might have six or eight.

To read more, click here.

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