A letter to the Windsor Star in response to this article.

Published: Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Re: Legal fight brews over St. Aidan’s, Nov. 19.

It was not a group of people who left St. Aidan’s Anglican Church, but rather it was a unanimous vote of the vestry. The vestry is the corporation vested by both the provincial and church law to conduct the matters of the congregation. The vote was to leave the Anglican Church of Canada and realign with the newly formed Anglican Network in Canada.

The article mentioned that St. Aidan’s was the 11th church to join nationally — what is more important is that there are 23 churches across Canada who have joined, and many more are considering it.

The article states that 50 people are without a church — there were 50 people attending the two meetings called by the bishop, but only 10 of those 50 were previous members of St. Aidan’s. The rest were interested people who attend other churches.

The issue precipitating the split was the blessing of same-sex unions.

While this issue is indeed important, it is only the tip of the iceberg. Below the waterline is the greater matter of the authority of the Bible and the historic formularies of the Anglican Church.

The Anglican Church of Canada has drifted so far from its roots that the worldwide Anglican Church has broken fellowship with both the Canadian and U.S. churches, and have been given stern warnings that they need to repent of many recent decisions in order to restore that relationship.

There have been no final court decisions made in Canada.

Patti Patstone

St. Aidan’s Church member

Belle River