His move will have repercussions not only in the Arctic but across the whole Anglican Church of Canada. His theologically conservative voice will be missed in the House of Bishops and General Synod. He was also an active member of the Council of the North and the Ecclesiastical Province of the Northern Lights, as well as Communion Partners Canada, writes Sue Careless of Anglican Planet.

As he exits to Ottawa, Royal smacks down the Anglican Church of Canada and says it is fundamentally "at odds with Scripture and has walked away from the historic Christian faith, and I lament that. I would love to see it seek repentance. It can change, but only by God's grace not human ingenuity."

Royal, along with the Diocese of the Arctic, remained in the Anglican Church of Canada (ACoC) during the Anglican realignment. Like other Arctic bishops, Royal has opposed theologically liberal trends in the denomination. As a bishop, he voted against the proposed 2019 change to the church's Marriage Canon that would have officially permitted same-sex marriages; the measure failed to secure the necessary majority among the church's bishops during the vote at General Synod.

"As a diocese we've been very clear that we're opposed to changing it, and our opposition on this is due simply to our conviction that male-female marriage is divinely given and rooted in creation itself," Royal said in 2019. "That is how I understand Scripture. I am convinced as well that a change to the Marriage Canon will be destructive to community and relationships at the local, national, and international level."

In 2023, alongside his fellow Arctic bishops and others, Royal objected to the ACoC's approval of gender-transition liturgies and said they would not be authorized in the diocese.

While remaining in the ACoC, Royal has also shown openness to those in Anglican realignment churches. Because of the difficulty of finding clergy in the Arctic region, he worked to ensure that the Diocese of the Arctic can continue to license clergy from the Anglican Church in North America, which is not in communion with the ACoC at the provincial level.

In 2023, Royal and Parsons were the only ACoC bishops to attend the Global Anglican Future Conference in Kigali. Royal, has been serving on the Anglican Consultative Council's Inter-Anglican Standing Committee on Unity, Faith, and Order, said he "hold[s] out hope that the Instruments of Communion can be restructured from within, and that sufficient differentiation can be possible across the Anglican world without a total and irreparable rupture happening. And if such can be avoided it will be only because of the mercy of God, and not because of human scheming or ingenuity."

In September, Royal responded to a Primate's Commission proposing several changes to the structures of the ACoC, saying: "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. I expect this latest initiative, like much that comes from Church House, means very little and will have very minimal impact.

"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."

He maintains that "Too often in the Anglican Church of Canada, all sorts of political causes have come before the gospel. We must start with gospel."

And for Royal the gospel is simple: "God loves all people and has made a way through Christ for us to come to him."

What advice does he have for his diocese? "Keep your eyes on Christ. Stay with Christ, the Christ revealed in Scripture. The Holy Spirit, not the spirit of the world, points to Jesus Christ. Don't lose hope. There are lots of temptations to lose hope but look beyond the immediate to eternity."

The Arctic diocesan bishop, David Parsons, is due to retire in December, thus leaving a gaping hole to fill. Let us hope and pray that the liberal political and ecclesiastical machinery in Toronto and Vancouver does not move in to fill it.

Sue Careless of Anglican Planet contributed to this article.