Of Canada’s three purportedly national newspapers, only The (Toronto) Star is covering the latest developments in the Anglican Communion.  The National Post and the Globe and Mail seem to be AWOL; searches of their websites turn up no news stories in today’s editions.  Today’s Star (online edition) brings us two articles.

The Common Cause bishops met in Pittsburgh 25-28 September and issued the statement that Peter posted yesterday at Anglican Essentials Canada Blog.  Faith and ethics reporter Stuart Laidlaw has the story for The Star.

Conservative Anglicans in Canada and the U.S. plan to break away from their increasingly liberal national churches within 15 months, setting up a parallel continental church along orthodox theological lines.

"This is necessary because of drift in the church in the West," Pittsburgh Bishop Bob Duncan said at the close of a four-day meeting of rebel bishops to discuss separation.

"This is a time of reformation. This is a moment in Christian history," said Duncan, who has been a leader in the effort.

If successful, it would be the first time the worldwide Anglican Communion has seen a church, known in Anglicanism as a province, established solely on the basis of shared theology. Currently, provinces are only set up along geographic lines.

Retired Newfoundland bishop Don Harvey, moderator of the conservative Anglican Network in Canada and an organizer of the meeting here, voted in favour of the plan for a new orthodox Anglican church.

"I will be committing the network to that policy," Harvey said. "We're very happy with what's happened here."

A companion article quotes a leader of Integrity Canada, a group of Anglican homosexual activists and their supporters.  He has mixed feelings about the impending separation.

The leader of a Toronto gay Anglican group says he would be sorry to see a split in the church but thinks his own life might be made easier if a conservative wing were to break away.

"I'm getting to the stage where I'm not sure that I want to be perpetually justifying my existence in the church as a gay man," Chris Ambidge of Integrity Canada said yesterday.

No repentant sinner has to justify his or her existence in the church.  What conservatives disagree with is being expected (if not required) to bless behaviour that God in His word calls sinful.  Mr Ambidge’s spin on that is symptomatic of what’s driving the split in the Anglican Communion.

A partial list of the bishops who attended the Pittsburgh meeting is posted at the Anglican Communion Network website.

The Anglican Church of Canada has not yet issued an official comment on these developments.

Cross-posted at Anglican Essentials Canada Blog.

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