Retired Sydney bishop Ken Short said the strength of last month’s vote to break with the Anglican Church in Canada by the high-profile Vancouver congregation led by his son, the Rev David Short, is encouraging other congregations to consider a similar move.

“I understand from David that there are other parishes in Canada who are poised to take this position at their vestry meetings and the fact that 98 per cent have voted so strongly at St John’s, is a very strong encouragement for them,” says Bishop Short.

Sydney’s Standing Committee expressed its support for St John’s, Shaughnessy “in their difficult decision to leave the Church of Canada.”

Other parishes in Ottawa, Toronto, Ontario and British Columbia held votes in the days after St John’s. All voted to place themselves under Bishop Don Harvey, who is overseeing Canadian churches who are realigning with the Southern Cone, under Archbishop Gregory Venables.

As SC went to press, a total of seven parishes across Canada had voted to accept the leadership of the South American Archbishop, with more expected to follow.
Congregations were told before they voted that the church buildings belonged to the Anglican Church of Canada and not the congregation, and that they may be locked out.
The ministers of one parish in Victoria, British Columbia, were notified that they would face disciplinary action for allowing the vote to proceed.

At St John’s, Shaughnessy, the largest Anglican church in Canada, 495 votes were cast with only 11 opposing and nine abstaining. Anglican theologian and congregation member Jim Packer said the church had‘a fair consensus on the issue’.