Ordinariate Watch: Anglican Catholic Church of Canada Congregations Opt Out of Anglican Ordinariate

In the TAC's Canadian affiliate, the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada (ACCC), the top leaders of which generally agreed to follow through on the decision to go under Roman Catholic jurisdiction (see TCT, Summer 2010), dissenters have had to take the initiative in opting out of the prospective Anglican Ordinariate approved by Pope Benedict and the Vatican in late 2009.

So far two ACCC congregations in British Columbia (Holy Cross, Nanaimo and St. Columba's, Halfmoon Bay) and five in Ontario (St. Mary's, Chapleau; St. Athanasius', Belleville; St. John's, Parry Sound; Holy Trinity and St. Jude's, Thunder Bay; and Resurrection, Windsor) have done so. In addition, three splinter congregations have been formed to oppose the move (St. Bride's, from St. Patrick's, Pitt Meadows (B.C.); St. Mark's, from St. John's Cathedral, Victoria; and St. Matthew's, from Annunciation Cathedral, Ottawa). All these are small, having less than 50 communicants each, but so are the ACCC's 30 remaining congregations (listed in its February 2011 Diocesan Calendar). And this latter majority group is estimated by our Canadian correspondent to number less than 500 communicants. Each of the dissenting congregations has become affiliated with a U.S. –based Continuing Church jurisdiction - Holy Cross and St. Mark's with the Anglican Province of Christ the King (APCK) and the other eight with the Anglican Catholic Church (ACC), which in turn is in communion with the APCK.

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