From the St. Hilda’s website:
NEWS!
The court ruling is that St. Hilda’s
congregation has exclusive use
of the building at least until
March 20th.
Thank you Jesus!
Not the Lambeth blog has more here.
And, here’s the Bible Gateway verse of the day:
I call on the LORD in my distress, and he answers me. – Psalm 120:1
Wow.
Superb news!
Hi folks:
I see no reason to praise God here. Instead, this whole episode is a very sad and tragic thing. Why? While I agree with the Network that the Anglican Church of Canada has become too “liberal” and I fully understand and agree with the reasons why these congregations have chosen to leave, I believe that no one wins when you start arguing over facilities and who owns what. I understand the Network has something like $1 million to help with legal costs. What a sad waste of resources. That $1 million can be much better spent doing the work that Jesus really calls us to do – feeding the poor, healing the sick, and reaching out to others with the Gospel.
I have many friends at St. Hilda’s, and if any of you ever read this, I appeal to all of you to do the right thing. Would Jesus have us fight over property and possessions? No. Instead, I recommend that you leave the property and allow Niagara diocese to use the property. Work with the Network in doing a “church plant” in east Oakville.
In closing, I am reminded of Gamaliel’s words in Acts about the Christians. If all this is of people, it will die out. But if it is of God – no one will be able to stop it.
I believe that this Network is of God, and that He will guide this along the right path. But fighting over property and possessions is not of God, nor is it the right path.
May God bless you all
Greg Brown
Hamilton, Ontario
This is great news but we must continue to pray fervently for St. Hilda’s, St. Georges, and all the others. This is a temporary ruling but for now shows some compassion by the Courts.
Praise God for this temp. ruling.
Greg Brown ~ I agree wholeheartedly with your comments here except for the fact that we must remember that if a ruling comes down in favor of the ANiC Churches, a great deal of funding will be saved by being allowed to keep and have ownership of the properties, MUCH more than the 1M that is put aside for now, which by the way I thought was for St. John’s Shaugnessey itself by one of their parishioners. Perhaps I am totally out to lunch on that.
Regardless, St. Hilda’s and St. Georges DID NOT take the Diocese to Court on this, the exact opposite is what happened.
This is truly all so sad, but most wonderful at the same time. The faithful must stand up for Truth and for The Truth.
Blessings, Brother.
Greg Brown – I agreee with you, though as Gerry noted ANiC did not taking the Diocese to court over this, rather the other way around.
As far as what the right thing to do is in this circumstance, I don’t think it is so easy to say. There are a number of different opinions on this. Personally I’m more of a ‘leave the buildings behind’ kind of guy, but I do see the other point of view. The best course is an amicable settlement, but that does require good faith, something somewhat lacking here.
I think at the end of the day we should support the individual congregations in their decisions regarding the property, and may God give us all wisdom!
Greg Brown: For the record, I too am a “leave the buildings behind and let the Church move on”.
The one thing we must remember though is this:
If ONE ruling comes down right at the start in favor of One of the Churches and not in favor of the Diocese, it will set a Precedent for other Courts to bear in mind, (it’s called Case Law).
The first ruling in each province of the country is going to be very important.
Greg Brown: You make some interesting points.
However, I suggest that what is motivating the Diocese is a desire to own the property because it is valuable. The congregation want to own the property because we use it for ministry. Here is a brief list of the ministries that would cease without the building:
Food Drive
Food for Life Canada, together with Kerr Street Market and St. Hilda’s Church, run an outreach program for people in need in the Hopedale area.
“Cloz for Moz” Project
An outreach to Mozambique which delivered crates of nearly new clothes and blankets to this area of need in Africa
Garage Sale “Giveaway”
We have a community Garage Sale, but the items are Free! An illustration of God’s love for us.
Free Car Wash
We offer free car washes to passers by as an illustration of the love of Jesus.
Power and Light
A junior youth group where kids from the church and community meet Friday evenings for Fun and Games!
Freebie Friday
Freebie Friday is a drop-in for the students of Blakelock High School, which is located just a few doors away. Each Friday during the school year, St. Hilda’s Parish Hall is open from 11:00 am – 1:30 pm for the students to drop by during their lunch hour to have lunch, play games, talk to a volunteer or to go into the church to pray. We usually get more than 100 kids.
Artists for Africa
A fund raiser by St. Hilda’s artists to help alleviate poverty in Africa.
Alpha
Members of the community are invited to find out more about Christianity
Marriage Alpha
A marriage course open to members of the community.
Hi all
I’m a member of St.John’s Shaughnessy and am interested in this discussion re. the property.
I must say first that I too would, in the abstract, be more inclined to favour the “walk away from the buildings” approach, but have been persuaded otherwise over the years we’ve been dealing with this issue.
I’m not a lawyer and I hesitate to get into legal arguments, but consider:
In BC, the Diocese of the Cariboo, when taken to court over financial settlements owed to survivors of residential schools, lost all its assets and ceased to exist. Parish property and buildings, however, were not included in this ruling because they were deemed to belong, not to the diocese, but to the members of each parish.
And I do think it’s important that it’s the dioceses that are intiating these court cases, not ANiC churches. Does being a Christian mean never defending yourself from injustice? I don’t think so, as long as that defence is carried out honestly, graciously and with dignity.
I can’t tell you how proud I am of our leaders, who have been unjustly harrassd and picked at for years now but who, on the evening of our vote, were gracious and kind when parishioners expressed frustration with the Bishop of New Westminster. They focused on the issues and on our Gospel minstry. It’s not about one person, they said.
If a court case for us were conducted with the same restraint and grace, I would have no problem with that.
Thanks Diana: The Diocese of the Cariboo will loom large in the outcome of the legal wranglings over the churches I’d say. Thanks for bringing it to people’s attention. If the three churches in Niagara win this all sorts of other churches will start leaving too. They are out there but don’t have the funds and the strength to make the break right now. A win for the Network will pull the plug on the revisionist hierarchy. It will be a new beginning.
The following statement from #8 above (Diane Tucker) is very important and will be a part of what happens in future cases against Parishes. Thank You Diane for this input.
“I’m not a lawyer and I hesitate to get into legal arguments, but consider:
In BC, the Diocese of the Cariboo, when taken to court over financial settlements owed to survivors of residential schools, lost all its assets and ceased to exist. Parish property and buildings, however, were not included in this ruling because they were deemed to belong, not to the diocese, but to the members of each parish.”
For now, our prayers are with Your Parish also and especially with Dr. J.I. Packer……How Bsp. Ingham can be this evil and destructive I cannot fathom….but there it is, we have the servants of the enemy in our midst, they snuck in under cover of being good guys while all the time they were “Wolves in Sheeps clothing”.