Bishop refutes ad’s claims

Bishop Fred Hiltz of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island has refuted an advertisement, which appeared in two Halifax newspapers, announcing that the Anglican Church of Canada had been expelled from “the governing council of the Canterbury Communion for departing from biblical standards and tradition.”

The group that placed the advertisement are disgruntled Anglicans who left to form a “Traditional Anglican parish,” which they described as “part of the Anglican Catholic Church, the Canadian Province of the Traditional Anglican Communion.”

“The Anglican Church of Canada has not been expelled from the Anglican Communion,” said Bishop Hiltz in a statement, explaining that together with the Episcopal Church in the United States it has been asked by Anglican primates (national bishops of the Anglican Communion) to “voluntarily withdraw” its representatives to the Anglican Consultative Council following disagreements over the issue of homosexuality. The Council, he added, is not a “governing council” as the ad described it. “It is a consultative body through which laity, clergy and bishops representing each church in the worldwide Communion take counsel together over matters of ministry and mission, relief and development, peace and justice.”

Rev. Craig Botterill, formerly a lay parishioner at St. George’s (Anglican) Round Church, heads the new Traditional Anglican parish called Saint Aidan Anglican Catholic Church. He told the Chronicle Herald newspaper that his parish will not ordain women nor bless same-sex unions.