Tag Archives: ecclesiastical province of Canada

Anglican Church of Canada: the implosion continues

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Rev. Percy Coffin has been elected metropolitan for the ecclesiastical province of Canada. The province has seven dioceses, most of which are ‘shrinking drastically’.

The aptly named Coffin is to preside over a province which is dying because its members are dying; they are not being replaced by ‘younger generations of Anglicans.’ As a parenthetical note, I can’t help observing the customary emphasis placed on ‘Anglican’ rather than ‘Christian’, as if they were distinct and separate categories; perhaps they are in North America.

Evangelism could be the Answer, although I seem to recall that during the Decade of Evangelism, the Diocese of Niagara, of which I was a part at the time, took the entire ten years attempting, without success, to define what the word ‘Evangelism’ means. The ecclesiastical province of Canada is unlikely to have a less solipsistic view so I expect the decline to continue, apace.

From here:

It is a challenging time for the seven dioceses in the province, in large part because the church is shrinking drastically in most areas, he said. Anglophone Anglicans have migrated away from Quebec and many rural communities are losing population to urban areas. While the Anglican population in the diocese of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador, which includes St. John and the economic activity produced by offshore oil, is holding steady or growing, in the diocese of Western Newfoundland it has shrunk by two-thirds, Coffin says, from 37,000 Anglicans in 1977 when the diocese split into three, to under 13,000 now. That drop, he said, is consistent with figures from the last three Statistics Canada census reports, which have shown drops of 12 to 20 per cent in the population of rural communities.

[…..]

Aside from outmigration, Coffin noted that the church is also challenged by the fact that faithful Anglicans are aging and dying, and in an increasingly secular society, they are not being replaced by younger generations of Anglicans.

Note that the decline in the number of Anglicans is 64%, far higher than the population decrease of 12 to 20%.

Anglican Church of Canada’s 7 eastern dioceses may be condensed to 3

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In order to save costs, the dioceses of Montreal, Quebec, Fredericton, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, Western Newfoundland, Central Newfoundland, and Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador may be reduced to just three dioceses, the synod of the ecclesiastical province of Canada has announced.

Such is the desperation of the ecclesiastical province of Canada, that its metropolitan, Archbishop Claude Miller, sees no point in denying the inevitable comparison to deckchairs aboard the Titanic. Rather, he is portraying the Titanic’s maiden voyage as one of promise and opportunity because a remnant was saved. I expect the Titanic’s passengers would have derived considerable consolation from that thought had it been shared with them as they boarded. Small wonder things are falling apart in the Anglican Church of Canada, considering the tenuous grip on reality of those at the helm.

From here:

Archbishop Miller admitted that some critics compare the church’s discussions about change to “just re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.” However, in his presidential address to synod members, the metropolitan noted that the doomed ship’s story isn’t entirely about unredeemed loss.

The Titanic’s maiden voyage was “a journey with a promise and opportunity for a new life for most of the passengers on board,” the archbishop said. “Not all died in that tragedy. Sometimes we forget that a remnant was saved and realized that hope. Amid the tragedies and tests of this life there is much hope and reason to give thanks.”