Archbishop of York Visits and Preaches in Dying Anglican Church of Canada

Now the ACoC is rapidly dying, and his message is unlikely to change anything as the exiting Bishop of the Arctic Joey Royal noted this week when he said; “Isn’t it strange that the more the ACoC faces its own extinction, the more its leadership speaks in increasingly abstract terms? Last General Synod [2023], we approved five ‘transformational aspirations’ with very little understanding of what any of it is supposed to accomplish. The main problem with the ACoC is that for decades it has been ‘reimagining’ itself into the image of the prevailing culture, and not the gospel. More ‘reimagining’ will only make it worse. All of this is a big distraction from the core task our Lord has given the Church in the Great Commission: to evangelize all nations, to baptize new converts, and teach them the Lord’s commandments. That the ACoC’s members are determined to do everything but that is proof that they’ve lost their way.”

The hope, therefore is that Cottrell might, with his amazing “discipling skills” as applied to the failing Church of England, now assist the ACoC in snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

Royal sardonically observed that “too often in the Anglican Church of Canada, all sorts of political causes have come before the gospel. We must start with the Gospel.”

That, of course, would be about as original as Original Sin, a doctrine long out of favor with the church’s liberal deep thinkers.

Canadian leaders hoped Cottrell could jumpstart the church, but, as it turned out he is just as lost as the people he was urging to disciple. The whole idea of sin and salvation is lost because nobody can or will define sin, especially when it comes to sex; one can pretty pick and choose from the smorgasbord of sexualities which you think is sin, which might include adultery, but for goodness (in the name of inclusion and diversity) thou shalt not include sodomy!

Canadian evangelical Anglican blogger David of Samizdat said that notably absent is a plan to lead the unsaved to salvation through Jesus Christ. “I’m quite sure that is missing because the majority of ACoC clergy no longer recognize the categories ‘saved’ and ‘unsaved’.”

“The other notable thing about these aspirations is that there is nothing whatsoever transformational about them. They are the same unimaginative anodyne cliches that have been at work in the church for decades and have brought it to where it is today.”

Of course, transformation in the ACoC bears very little relationship to what the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 12.1 about the transformational renewing of our minds. “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God–this is your true and proper worship.” Transformational as the Canadian church understands it, is to bow down to the LGBTQ lobby, and to marry alternative lifestyle-pursuers in one or several categories.”

Finally, they are scraping the bottom of the barrel by demanding that trans people be allowed to marry and ascend pulpits in the name of the Holy Trinity which is no longer invoked to forgive sin, but to bless it.

DECLINE IN ATTENDANCE

Not surprisingly, the ACoC is in demographic free fall. The average Sunday attendance has dropped to 97,421. A previous report published in 2006, predicted the last Anglican would leave the church in 2061. That date is now 2040. The rate of decline is rapidly increasing.

New programs adopted by the church have done nothing to reverse the decline.

The Anglican Church of Canada is declining faster than any other Province other than the American Episcopal Church, which has an even greater rate of decline. The slowest decline is in the number of priests.

The entire report can be read here: https://www.anglicansamizdat.net/wordpress/latest-anglican-church-of-canada-membership-and-attendance-statistics/ and the raw data is here: https://www.anglicansamizdat.net/wordpress/latest-anglican-church-of-canada-membership-and-attendance-statistics/

That Canadian leaders hauled in the second most powerful figure in the Anglican Communion to give them spiritual Monkey Dust in the hope that they could jump off cathedrals into the arms of Jesus thus proving that miracles still exist. Crowds of unbelievers would surely follow.

The ACoC is history. It’s date of demise is now cast in years not decades.

END

Archbishop of York Visits and Preaches in Dying Anglican Church of Canada

COMMENTARY

By David W. Virtue, DD
www.virtueonline.org
October 12, 2024

The Most Rev. Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York, recently visited people and places in dioceses across the Anglican Church of Canada, with a message on “Becoming a Church of Missionary Disciples.” His two-week visit began in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, and ended in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Cottrell met with clergy and lay leaders and delivered several addresses on spirituality, evangelism, and discipleship as they contribute toward becoming a church of missionary disciples.