Buckle elected metropolitan of B.C. and the Yukon

Electors in the ecclesiastical (church) province of British Columbia and the Yukon, meeting on Nov. 4 in Richmond, B.C, near Vancouver, chose Bishop Terrence Buckle of the diocese of the Yukon as metropolitan, or provincial archbishop. Three bishops stood for election: Michael Ingham of the Vancouver-based diocese of New Westminster, James Cowan of the Victoria-based diocese of British Columbia and Bishop Buckle, who was elected after three ballots. There were 21 electors: members of the provincial executive council and the province’s bishops. Archbishop Buckle, 64, had been acting metropolitan since the retirement last year of Archbishop David Crawley, formerly bishop of Kootenay. He was installed as metropolitan on Nov. 5 at St. Anne’s church in Richmond. He remains the diocesan bishop of the Yukon. Metropolitans have the power to discipline bishops in their area. In recent years, Archbishop Buckle and Bishop Ingham clashed over the issue of same-sex blessings. After New Westminster voted in 2002 to allow such ceremonies, several dissenting parishes asked Bishop Buckle, a theological conservative, to come into the diocese to perform such episcopal acts as confirmations. Bishop Ingham barred him from visiting parishes in the diocese and Bishop Buckle was threatened with disciplinary action from then-metropolitan Archbishop Crawley. However, subsequently, Bishop Buckle agreed not to intervene in New Westminster and relationships in the province among bishops have improved. The province of British Columbia and the Yukon, one of four in the Canadian church, includes the dioceses of Yukon, New Westminster, British Columbia, Kootenay, Caledonia and the parishes of the Central Interior which were formerly known as the diocese of Cariboo.