The Rev. Ed Hird, Communications Director for the ACiC and rector of St. Simon's Church North Vancouver said, "It is a new day for us. We are finally free. The Anglican Church of Canada usurped our buildings and we left in unity with our people and we are free to worship without distraction."

The group of Canadian breakaway priests are meeting here at the 6th annual Anglican Mission in America conference, (the AMIA is itself a breakaway from the American Episcopal Church). The ACiC are now full members of the AMiA with their own AMIA Canadian Network, said Hird.

Hird is one of 11 priests that left the Canadian national church, took nearly all his congregation of 250, leaving behind just one person and a handful of ringers at the parish now funded by the diocese because New Westminster Bishop Michael Ingham refuses to close the doors. Hird's congregation now meets at Lionsgate Christian Academy. "It has been enormously stretching, but we have made the break and the transition and we are growing," he said.

Hird said a storm arose a year ago over the name Anglican Communion in Canada (ACiC) which the group adopted as their own, by the national church and they complained publicly about the name in their national journal, the Anglican Journal.

"The Anglican Church of Canada said they owned 'Anglican' and made an issue of it and started maneuvering for the exclusive use of the name 'Anglican'. They are very threatened by our existence. We had grown to nine churches and several fellowships (missions).

"They filed a petition with Industry Canada (corporations Canada) and got a supporting letter from the then head of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) in England, the Rev. John Peterson, who wrote saying that his organization did not recognize this and sent it out on official ACC letterhead. "We were surprised that the ACC got involved with this, said Hird.

"This was a pure power play by a national church on a small group of Anglicans who obviously threatened the hierarchy."

"Industry Canada made a ruling that they had three months to completely change the name, as they regarded the ACC as the only official organ to claim the name Anglican Communion in Canada. We had 60 days to change or they would give us a number instead of a name."

"Our attorneys said to fight the government would be too costly. We are asked for an extension and gave them five names including Anglican Mission in Canada. The final name they approved was the Anglican Coalition in Canada.

"This was a plus as it give us our name recognition acronym ACiC and it also allowed us to continue to use the word Anglican. For the Anglican Church of Canada to challenge and change this they would have to take on the Federal Government and I don't see that happening."

"For us it was a win win," said Hird. "We lost nothing except the inconvenience of having to make the change with some minimal legal costs." We changed our letterhead but to all intents and purposes nothing effectually has changed. This was a missile strike on an empty building in Vancouver. They thought they had taken us out. They failed."

"The second significant thing is the dropping of the word 'temporary' as in Temporary Anglican Episcopal Oversight. That is really significant because it was being thrown in our face in Canada. Temporary was not a real option for the Anglican Primates as they would have dropped us. It didn't happen. To join us you have to be ready to leave property and possessions including the rectory."

Hird said that had hurt some of his people. "I can forgive them for usurping the church building but some in our church struggled for a while over losing their rectory. We the church gave up $2 million in assets over the last six months."

The significance of the "temporary" being dropped is very big because the Primates (Archbishops) no longer see their coverage as temporary. The word 'temporary' was undermining our attempts to plant churches, said Hird. "With the lifting of the temporary aspect we can now move ahead boldly to plant churches throughout the country.

The newly formed Anglican Coalition in Canada has five primates including The Most Rev. Yong Ping Chung (SE Asia), Bernard Malango (Central Africa), Fidele Dirokpa (Congo), Benjamin Nzimbi (Kenya), and Emmanuel Kolini (Rwanda). The church is licensed solely in Rwanda where the AMIA is also licensed and covered by all five primates. They are called the council of Primates chaired by Archbishop Bernard Malango who replaces the Southeast Asian archbishop's retirement.

The Rev. Barclay Mayo, rector of Christ The Redeemer Anglican Church in Pender Harbour, British Columbia is mission strategy coordinator for the ACiC, said Hird.

"It is really simple to join us, said Hird, somewhat tongue in cheek."All you have to do is be prepared to follow Jesus, but this of course might mean leaving your boat (read church buildings) behind and step out in faith to start again. We tell people that they haven't left the church of Jesus Christ, they have only left the property, but the gospel is about people not steeples."

Belonging as we do primarily to the Province of Rwanda is a powerful message as we are embedded in Rwanda with an Anglican leader who has suffered considerably himself. He is not going to abandon us, said Hird.

"We are ready to return to Canada from this mission conference and continue full fledge missions and increasingly provide hope for a new generation of biblical Anglicans from coast to coast.

Reflecting on the AMIA conference, Hird said he was thrilled by the increasing number of primates, now numbering nine who attended meeting, eight of them from Africa. It shows the Global South primates are coming together and looking past their differences.

The future of the global realignment is closer now than ever. The biggest concern we have is that the Global South primates may be 'divided and conquered' by the Western church, if that happens; the Anglican Church will be paralyzed. It was thrilling to see the Global South Primates beginning to get over their personality differences."

The following is the official News Release from the ACiC Primates made available in Birmingham, Alabama. At the 6th Annual Anglican Mission in America Conference.

THE ANGLICAN COALITION IN CANADA RENAMED MOVES FORWARD

The ACiC (Anglican Coalition in Canada) is pleased to report that the Adequate Episcopal Oversight given by an alliance of five global south Primates is no longer temporary. The ACiC (Anglican Communion in Canada) has been officially renamed the "Anglican Coalition in Canada" because the original name had been challenged by the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC).

The link between the ACiC and the AMiA (Anglican Mission in America) continues with the result that the ACiC is one of the AMiA's networks in North America. Like the Anglican Mission, the ACiC clergy and congregations are licensed directly by Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini as a missionary outreach of the Episcopal Province of Rwanda.

Direct oversight is provided by Bishop Thomas (TJ) Johnston, a missionary bishop of the Province of Rwanda and the Anglican Mission, with the Rev. Paul Carter serving as Network Leader.

A video presentation of the ACiC story is available online at http://acicanada.ca/documents/acic.ram. For information on possible affiliation, please click on http://acicanada.ca/affiliate.

A CD introducing the work of the ACiC is available free of charge and newly released DVD's of talks from Bishop Johnston sharing the vision, passion and DNA of the ACiC are available on request. The ACiC is committed to evangelism, church health and church planting.

For further information about the Anglican Coalition in Canada, please contact the Rev. Paul Carter, ACiC Network Leader at paul@acicanada.ca or (604) 222-4486 or The Rev. Ed Hird, ACiC Communications Leader at ed_hird@telus.net or (604) 929-5350.

END