‘Lost’ foundation grant a tempest in a teapot

In the end it was, as diocese of New Brunswick communications officer Ana Watts put it, “a tempest in a teapot.”

Last September the New Brunswick-based Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation announced that it was suspending its grants to a list of beneficiaries including “the Anglican Synod,” because of the rising costs of its protracted lawsuits with the province’s Beaverbrook Art Gallery.

The announcement, carried by national media, left diocesan officials scratching their heads and asking, “What grants?”

Upon investigation, Ms. Watts discovered that an official at the Beaverbrook Foundation had inadvertently referred to the Atlantic Synod of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, which received grants for its retired clergy, as “Anglican Synod.”