The Anglican Network in Canada aims to "remain faithful to established Christian doctrine and Anglican practice"[3] and represent orthodox Anglicanism in Canada. ANiC is a major Canadian constituent of the Anglican realignment movement. The irregular nature of ANiC makes it the geographically largest Anglican diocese in the world, covering the entire territory of Canada and a small pocket in the northeastern United States, in Massachusetts and Vermont.[4] The Anglican Network in Canada is a diocese within the Anglican Church in North America.
Beliefs
The stated mission of the Anglican Network in Canada is to "Build Biblically faithful, Gospel sharing, Anglican Churches". The network desires to build new churches and expand existing churches that it believes will be fully Anglican, biblically faithful, evangelizing and discipling.[5]
The Anglican Network upholds what it believes to be the historical, biblical and traditional Christian beliefs found in the Anglican tradition pertaining to the Holy Trinity, sexuality, and authority of Christian scripture. ANiC also affirms the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral of 1886/1888 and the Jerusalem Declaration of GAFCON 2008.[6] While women can be ordained as deacons or priests they cannot be ordained as bishops. The diocese does not bless same-sex unions or marriages. They also oppose abortion and euthanasia.[7]
Worship style
Most churches within the Anglican Network in Canada now worship based on the liturgy and practices of the Book of Common Prayer 2019, developed by the Anglican Church in North America. Most parishes celebrate the Holy Communion (Eucharist) at least once a week, with many churches holding multiple services.
Within ANiC there exists a wide diversity of worship and music styles. There are some churches in ANiC which identify as High Church and Anglo-Catholic, while there are churches at the other end of the spectrum which identify as low church and evangelical[8] and some which would be described as more charismatic. Music in their services can very from hyms and songs let by organ, piano, guitars, or full orchestras and choirs.
St. Alban's in Ottawa, Ontario, was engaged in mediation with the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa. Eventually, the old congregation was forced to leave the building
ANiC gained a degree of media attention, primarily in two respects. Firstly, the network upholds traditional Christian understandings of morality including what it believes are the orthodox Biblical ideas about family, marriage and discipleship. The network has been criticized by the mainline Anglican Church of Canada, the Canadian media, secular interest groups and other liberal, mainline denominations for taking a stand against same-sex unions and same-sex marriage.[9]
Leadership
Since 2007, the diocesan bishops (previously called "moderator bishops") of ANIC have been:
ANIC's suffragan bishops have included Masters, who served as area bishop for eastern Canada from 2009 until his election as diocesan bishop in 2014; Trevor Walters, who was area bishop for western Canada from 2009 to 2022; Stephen Leung, who since 2009 has been suffragan bishop for Asian and multicultural ministry; and Mike Stewart, who has been area bishop for western Canada since 2024.
One prominent member of the Anglican Network in Canada was J. I. Packer, who was a leading theologian in the Anglican and North American evangelical world. He was a longtime honorary assistant at St. John's Vancouver and a professor of theology at Regent College. During his lifetime, Packer was canon theologian emeritus of ANIC.[11][12]
Parishes
As of 2022, the Anglican Network in Canada had 72 parishes. Notable parishes in the diocese include:
In October 2009, ANiC's leadership reacted to the Roman Catholic Church's proposed creation of personal ordinariates for disaffected traditionalist Anglicans by saying that this provision would probably not have a great impact on its laity and clergy, who are satisfied with the Anglican realignment movement.[13] In June 2013, at least one priest from the ANIC denomination has accepted the offer to become a Catholic priest.[14] Furthermore, Bishop Don Harvey stated that "Apart from being an intrusion at the very highest levels of one major church into the internal affairs of another, under the guise of being ecumenical, this invitation offers very little that is new."[15]
Relations with other churches
ANiC is a member of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. ANiC has established ecumenical contacts with the Lutheran Church-Canada.[16] It is also has been involved in ecumenical dialogue with other Lutheran and Christian church bodies as part of the ACNA.
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