VANCOUVER, January 16, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The UK Guardian has received top secret documents revealing that Anglicans who value the Bible’s teachings on traditional marriage are set to split with the wayward majority of Anglican dioceses in Canada and the United States.
Written by Geoff Chapman, rector of St Stephen’s church, Sewickley, Pennsylvania, the document says that the conservative churches are seeking oversight of their parishes by bishops who did not support the ordination of the practicing homosexual bishop Gene Robinson, or the blessings of homosexual unions as imposed by Canadian Anglican Bishop Michael Ingham.
The letter says the move seeks to preserve “biblical faith and values”. However, the Guardian notes that the breakaway parishes may lose their church buildings since Anglican canon law suggests ownership by the national church.
The coordinating body of the move, the American Anglican Council (AAC), represents some 260 of the 7,300 Episcopal churches in the U.S. The documents suggest a strategy to overcome the property dispute.
Chapan suggests that during the “season of conflict,” . . . “faithful disobedience of canon law on a widespread basis may be necessary”. He notes that “Recent litigation indicates that the local diocesan authorities hold almost all the cards in property disputes and clergy placement if they want to play ‘hardball’. But we think the political realities are such that American revisionist bishops will be reticent to play hardball for a while. They have just handed the gay lobby a stunning victory but are being forced to pay a fearsome price for it.”
See the coverage from The Guardian.