Anglican church dispute over Bible moves into new territory in Canada

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VANCOUVER — The Bible battle that has been dividing Anglicans in Canada for more than a decade is moving into new territory, with a third court battle looming in a Vancouver court.

The battle over same-sex blessings specifically, and interpretation of the Bible generally, is splitting liberal and conservative Anglicans and the fight over church property ownership has already resulted in two interim court rulings – one in Ontario and one in British Columbia.

Now the Diocese of New Westminster has invoked a church bylaw to essentially fire the clergy at two otherVancouver-area churches and order them to leave the premises.

“We are faced with the situation of clergy in both parishes who have expressly rejected the Anglican Church of Canada as their home and have left the church, yet continue to occupy church buildings that are set aside for use by parishes in the Anglican Church of Canada,” says George Cadman, chancellor, or chief legal officer, for the diocese.

The bylaw, known as Canon 15, was used to dismiss clergy at St. Matthew’s in Abbotsford and at St. Matthias and St. Luke, in Vancouver.

These two churches are among at least 18 parishes in B.C., Ontario, Newfoundland and Manitoba who have left the Anglican Church in Canada and aligned themselves with more conservative Anglican groups in other parts of the world.

Dozens more parishes in the U.S. have left the church in the U.S. over the same issues.

Congregations at St. Matthew’s and St. Matthias and St. Luke voted in February to join the Anglican Network in Canada, which represents the dissidents who have aligned themselves with conservative Anglicans in the southern hemisphere.

In late May, the Diocese of New Westminster asked them to leave their premises, but they refused.

The refusal prompted the diocese in recent days to try force their removal.

Apart from the seemingly irreconcilable differences on theology, the more practical dispute over exactly who owns the property remains to be settled.

Two previous interim court rulings in the Diocese of Niagara in Ontario, and the Diocese of British Columbia, on Vancouver Island, went against the dissidents.

In the Vancouver Island case Anglican parishes in Victoria voted early this year to break away from the Anglican Church of Canada. They went to court to try to ensure that they not be kicked out. They lost.

“The plaintiffs have not, at this stage, established a strong case that they and their fellow parishioners who have elected to join the network are the beneficial owners of church property because they represent true Anglicans and the remaining parishioners do not,” the court ruled.

Cheryl Chang, a lawyer and legal director of the network says the judge “ordered us out at both churches and gave both churches to the diocese until full trial.”

The otherinterim court ruling in Ontario in May concerned three breakaway Anglican parishes in the Diocese of Niagara.

The court ordered them to share the premises but two decided instead to conduct Sunday services at new locations.

If the dispute can’t be resolved without litigation, Chang expects the New Westminstercase to begin in the fall.

But the outcome of a full trial to decide ownership of the churches could go still go either way.

The issues are complex.

“There has been an acknowledgment in Ontario and B.C. that the trust case (who owns the properties) still has to be argued,” says Chang.

She argues that St. Matthew’s, and St. Matthias and St. Luke are independent entities under provincial legislation.

“We don’t recognize (the Diocese of New Westminster) and their authority to simply ignore the constitution and bylaws of the parish corporations,” she says.

The Anglican Church in Canada and the Diocese of New Westminster take the position that all parish property belongs to the church.

In the court case in Victoria, says Chang, the judge sided with the mainstream diocese because the properties were “registered in the name of the diocese.”

But in regards to St. Matthew’s and St. Matthias and St. Luke, she says they are “corporate entitities holding title to the properties.”

Cadman and Chang both suggest they would like to avoid a major court case on the ownership issue.

“We’ve offered to sit down with them and talk about this but at this point we’ve been rebuffed,” says Chang.

New Westminster, says Cadman, also favours another resolution “but on the other hand the current situation can’t be tolerated.”

Pastor is sentenced for rape

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Newcastle Pastor Boy Nkosi, 54, was on Monday jailed for 10 years for raping a 15-year-old girl he had duped into coming to his home.

Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Nic van der Reyden found compelling circumstances allowing him to deviate from the prescribed life sentence for the rape of a minor.

Van der Reyden said the girl was physically fully developed and might have been sexually active before the rape. The girl also said during the trial she had been prepared to let bygones be bygones.

The victim had not suffered permanent physical injuries or long-term trauma. Her family had tried to negotiate compensation for the rape, but Nkosi had denied that he had raped her.

Newcastle regional Magistrate T C L Colditz earlier found Nkosi had duped the girl, whose father had died and whose mother was in Durban, to come to his home to fetch things which belonged to her mother. He raped her in a bedroom.

Colditz referred the case to the High Court for sentence.

Van der Reyden said there might be “an uproar” that he had not imposed a life sentence but, he added, each case had to be judged on its own merits. – Sapa

Pastor charged over threesome assault

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A church minister from Stockholm has been charged with assaulting his wife after an amorous threesome spiralled out of control, Metro reports.

The Church of Sweden pastor, his wife and a male acquaintance came together one evening in June to share a meal and a few friendly drinks. After the meal, the trio retired to the sauna and soon became engaged in a series of sex games.

But as the evening began to heat up, the minister is alleged to have become increasingly jealous. Tensions flared and the couple’s guest fled the house as the pastor started to beat his wife.

The churchman has admitted to a degree of assault but denies kicking his wife in the genitals and slamming her head against the floor.

News of the alleged crime has also reached the church authorities. If found guilty, the pastor is likely to lose both his job and his clerical collar.

Priest stands down amid sexual misconduct probe

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Catholic priest John Fleming is standing down from his duties and pledging full cooperation as the church and police investigate alleged sexual misconduct.

In a written statement, he denied ever engaging in sexual behaviour with a minor.

Father Fleming said he was shocked and sickened by claims made by three people in weekend newspapers.

The Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide asked the priest to return from Sydney to deal with the allegations dating back three decades.

The church has hired a high-profile lawyer for its inquiry.

Father Fleming has been one of the most recognisable faces in church circles for years; a keen debater on subjects from ethics to the monarchy.

He quit as an Anglican in the 1980s to join the Catholic Church, becoming one of only a few married Catholic priests.

For the past three years he has been head of Campion College, a Catholic learning centre in Sydney’s west.

Adelaide’s Catholic Archbishop Philip Wilson has sought his return to Adelaide.

“I am aware of the serious allegations that have been made,” he said.

Police probe first

The reported claims are of sexual misconduct with an underage girl dating back to the 1970s.

An investigation by the Anglican Church is on hold, pending the result of police inquires.

The Catholic Church has hired a senior QC Michael Abbott to conduct its own inquiry into how the church has dealt with the claims.

“We will place no limits on the extent of his investigations,” a statement said.

A spokesman for Cardinal George Pell in Sydney has confirmed he wrote to the claimant and told her to contact police.

He also referred the matter back to the Catholic Church in South Australia.

Jesus Christ’s image bleeds in Mumbai church?

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Christians thronged the Saint Michael’s Church in Central Mumbai’s Mahim area on August 27, to view the miraculous bleeding of the sacred image of Jesus Christ. However, the Roman Catholic Church has dismissed it as fictitious..

MUMBAI, THE financial capital city of India, witnessed a miracle on (Wednesday) July 27, a holy day. The Roman Catholic Church rejected the claims made by the devotees after they said that the framed image of Jesus Christ began bleeding on the holy day of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour.

Worshippers in large numbers flocked to the Saint Michael’s Church in Mahim district, located in central Mumbai, after it was thought that the image of Jesus Christ had started bleeding.

Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the Archbishop of Mumbai, ordered a scientific analysis of the painting after he visited the Church and saw the painting, which showed blood running down the image.

In his weekly newsletter that was released on Sunday (August 31), he said that a number of tests were conducted and it was established that there were no traces of blood in the red rays emanating from the heart of Jesus in the image of Divine Mercy.

Gracias leads around 500,000 Catholics in Mumbai. He said that he did not have proper and enough words to explain the whole phenomenon that took place on that day. But, he suggested that large crowds at the Church along with monsoon humidity might have contributed such a miracle.

A lot many people feel that it had nothing to do with the large crowds and humidity, but it was indeed a miracle that took place in the Church on the Holy Day.

Was it just an illusion? Was it fake? Was it because of humidity, as mentioned by Gracious or was it indeed a miracle? The mystery remains unsolved.