August 15 1994

ARTICLE TOOLS

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The Reverend Harry Robinson of Vancouver feels like a stranger in his own church. As an evangelical Christian in the liberalized Anglican Church of Canada (ACC), Robinson told a nearly standing-room-only crowd gathered at Montreal's historic Saint George's Church that "we do not belong; we are aliens in an alien land."

Many of the nearly 700 Anglicans who gathered in Montreal for the Essentials '94 conference in June shared Robinson's sense of displacement. Their worry and discouragement stems both from their denomination's theological drift and its numerical decline.

According to Peter Mason, bishop of Kingston, active Anglican Church membership declined 35 percent in the 20 years between 1970 and 1990. "In the same period," Mason noted, "we have tried to maintain the same ecclesiastical superstructure." Curiously, while recent giving is up at the parish level, the church has been hard hit financially at national and diocesan levels.

At the same time, Mason told CT, "We as a church have become increasingly issue-driven, have lost our sense of worship and Christian community, and have found ourselves drained of energy to maintain our ongoing church life."

Several facts about Essentials '94 gave courage to the melancholy faithful. The number of registrants was nearly double the number expected. Timothy Ernst, English ministries director for Christian Direction in Montreal, told CT the meeting had achieved "critical mass." "People here who come from a really isolated situation feel that they have stumbled onto something like Wheaton in your country."

The critical mass was also evident in the thunderous singing. Led by a worship band from a renewal-oriented Montreal parish, the music ranged from charismatic renewal songs to traditional ...