Diocese of the Arctic: in the Anglican Church of Canada but not of it

The Diocese of the Arctic is unusual.

First, its bishop, David Parsons, is a member of a species all but extinct in the Anglican Church of Canada: he is a Christian bishop.

Second, the diocese is in communion with ANiC and is open to licensing its priests.

Third, the diocese does not support the recently adopted liturgies for Gender Transition and Affirmation or any of the other LGBT+ claptrap that obsesses other ACoC clergy.

Fourth, the diocese sees itself as the Anglican Church of Canada and the rest of the organisation as – something else. By implication, not a church.

Lastly, Parsons thinks, “that the great and terrible day of the Lord is coming, and many bishops are going to have a stark wake up as they stand before God and are asked why they have not stood against the doctrines of demons and devils. My fear is, that day will not be a day of repentance but just justice and judgment because the day of grace will be over.”

Read more in this interview at VOL:

The majority of our denomination is solid. The Diocese of the Arctic is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. People fail to remember that the revisionists in Canada and the USA are the minority in the Anglican Communion. They just have a loud voice and often use that voice to monopolize, or bully. As an Anglican, I’ve grown up reciting psalm 95 to warn me about not having a hard heart. I’ve read the book of Judges, when the people often turned back to the world, and I’ve read the prophets, who warn us to not follow the gods of this age or past ages.

Two of the saddest parts that I have read in the New Testament are found in John 6:66 (“From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him”) and 2 Timothy 4:10. In John chapter 6 Jesus tells us He is the Bread of life and many of Jesus’ disciples turn back, and no longer follow him after hearing Jesus’ declaration. St. Paul speaks of Demas, who left him because of Demas’ love for the world.

It seems to me that the revisionists do not love the word of God, nor do they receive it as the bread of life, and so rather than living under the authority of Jesus Christ, and His word, they choose to be an authority unto themselves.

Bishop David Parsons is not happy

I’m watching the live stream of GS2019. The discussion is about the change to the Marriage Canon. A motion has just been made to close debate. That means that Bishop David Parsons will not be able to express his views; apparently something similar happened in 2016. I wish I had recorded it, but the gist of it was that, in spite of all the talk about respect for all points of view, not much respect was being shown to the bishop – who, of course, disagrees with the motion.

It went further – almost to the point of unCanadian unpleasantness – as the bishop seemed to throw down a gauntlet: there would be serious consequences if he wasn’t heard. If anyone has a better recollection of exactly what was said, please comment below.

Bishop David: I’m sure ANiC would be delighted if you spoke at any of its synods.

Two Anglican Church of Canada bishops attended GAFCON

Bishop David Parsons and Bishop Darren McCartney from the Diocese of the Arctic attended the recent GAFCON conference. Since it hints at betrayal of the ACoC’s culturally inspired faux-gospel of indiscriminate inclusion and woolly diversity, this has created “a lot of angst and frustration.” If the ACoC’s tacit demotion of Jesus from God Incarnate to Middle Eastern social worker is not recanted, perhaps it is also a harbinger of the future defection of an entire ACoC diocese.

From the December Anglican Journal describing events at the October house of bishops meeting (not online yet):

News that Bishops David Parsons and Darren McCartney of the Diocese of the Arctic attended the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in Nairobi in the hopes of creating partnerships to help with the diocese’s debt crisis and shortage of priests met with some consternation. “As one of our bishops put it, when the stated purpose of GAFCON is evangelistic revival in the life of the church, who could argue with that? But when there’s another kind of agenda going on that says the church in the West or North America preaches a false gospel…. then that creates a lot of angst and frustration,” said Hiltz.