Bishop Ferris joins ANiC, says decision was difficult

The recently-retired bishop of the northern Ontario diocese of Algoma, Ronald Ferris, has left the Anglican Church of Canada to become one of the leaders of the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC), a group of breakaway parishes opposed to such issues as the blessing of same-sex unions.

Bishop Ferris, who now resides in Langley, B.C., relinquished his licence to Archbishop Terrence Buckle, metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province of British Columbia and the Yukon.

“My decision to relinquish the licence I held for so many years within the Anglican Church of Canada was not taken quickly or lightly.”

An opponent of same-sex blessings, Bishop Ferris voted against motions to allow same-sex blessings at the church’s 2004 and 2007 General Synods.