Where Were You In 1977?

An Article by Father Michael Shier
So where were you in 1977, when Bishop Peter Wilkinson, our Father in God, effectively founded the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada, and people laughed at him? No money, no pension, no property, no prospects. Where were you when Father Edward Gale got us going here in the Lower Mainland, when our founders were bearing the burden and heat of the day? I know where I was. I was a „Johnny come lately‟ in a comfortable church where we hoped no one would do a wrecking job and make our position untenable. More fool me! I have taken a long time to fully appreciate the courage and foresight of those who made the first moves way back in 1977. If I am now back in a comfortable church after only a brief period in the wilderness, it is because of those who laid the foundations whilst being jeered at as freaks :- people of the stature of Fr. Gale alone on Maine Island, of Fr. Switzer alone up island on Vancouver Island, of Raymond and Jeannette Mynette alone in mid Saskatchewan, of Canon Zacharias alone in Switzerland, of Fr. Chadwick alone in France, of Stan and Ruth Horrall who can‟t get to the Ottawa church in winter.
For all of us the risks of the Apostolic Constitution are minimal and the benefits are enormous...
Read the rest of Fr. Shier's article in the July 2010 Diocesan Circular of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada. The same issue of the Circular has a short article by Bishop Carl Reid of Ottawa of the ACCC on his trip to Newark, NJ for the annual Anglican Use Conference.