Anglicans worldwide are taking steps to separate themselves from more liberal churches and finding new approaches that would allow them to live the biblically faithful lives that they want to.
In the latest move by conservatives in the 77-million-member Anglican Communion, an orthodox group in Ottawa, Canada, proposed the formation of a new branch of the Anglican Church of Canada. The proposal was made Sunday in an effort to create a church that is more "biblically faithful" than the current church.
The Anglican Network – an arm of the Anglican Essentials Ottawa (AEO), which describes itself as a safe haven for all those who profess traditional Anglican beliefs – called a meeting a week after a second diocese in the Anglican Church of Canada voted in favor of blessing same-sex "marriages." Both the Montreal and Ottawa Dioceses approved resolutions earlier this month that would urge their respective bishops to allow clergy to bless same-sex unions.
"I'm very dissatisfied with the direction the Anglican Church of Canada is going," said Peter Scotchmer, who attended the Anglican Network meeting, according to The Ottawa Citizen. "I'm certainly not happy to see the liberal drift of the church. It's an erosion of what the church has always stood for."
Attendees of the meeting discussed the impact of the recent votes and what should be done to remain true to tradition.
The proposal: a separate Anglican church.
"We don't want to stop being Anglican, but we don't want to be part of a church that is not biblically faithful," said Karen Bergenstein, who is seeking to become a priest in the Anglican Diocese in Ottawa, as reported by the local newspaper. "The question is where do we go from here?"
Concrete details of the new branch and its ecclesiastical structure and relationship with the wider church are to be further discussed at a meeting in late November.
Anglican Essentials Ottawa president Tony Copple is hopeful for the future of dissatisfied Anglicans.
"We're working on something tangible for the future," he said. "We sense there is potential for three new churches in the Ottawa area. We want to give people a place where they feel comfortable."
The proposal follows a similar plan in the United States that has already begun to take shape. Breakaway Anglicans and others discontent in The Episcopal Church – the U.S. branch of Anglicanism – took their first step last month in forming a separate ecclesiastical structure in North America and are strengthening their Common Cause Partnership.
The orthodox bunch has little hope that The Episcopal Church will get back in line with Anglican tradition and Scripture years after the U.S.-based denomination heightened controversy in 2003 with the consecration of its first openly gay bishop.
Although the new North American body is only in its initial stages, the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, missionary bishop of the Anglican breakaway CANA (Convocation of Anglicans in North America), said the orthodox partners are working together "far more deliberately."
Meanwhile, parishes discontent with the Church of England are forming their own "English solution" as they feel a "liberal threat" in the church. As a last resort, dissidents part of the traditionalist network Reform may look to orthodox bishops overseas for irregular ordinations in the future.