Dissident parish pays back dues

Departing members of the parish of Holy Cross, a Japanese-Canadian parish in East Vancouver, paid the parish’s back assessment of $30,290 to the diocese of New Westminster before they left the church in late 2005. The parish had withheld its annual contributions following a 2002 diocesan council decision to allow the blessing of same-sex unions in the diocese. After the parish’s elected wardens, treasurer and several members of the parish council announced their departure from the parish late last year, diocesan bishop Michael Ingham invoked diocesan Canon 15 and appointed new bishop’s wardens. Most members of the parish council left the parish after their rector, Rev. Dawn McDonald, decided to take charge of a parish in the diocese of Yukon.