Parting congregation shoulders church debt
MONTREAL, ON—When some 100 congregants split off from St. Stephen's Anglican Church over the diocesan stance on same-sex marriage, they voluntarily took 75 per cent of the current operating deficit with them.
"Because we were all together from January to May, when the deficit was created, we considered it a responsibility to repay it," says Dean Brady, pastor of Emmaus Church.
Emmaus was formed in June 2009 as a congregation under the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC). Emmaus left behind a congregation of less than 20 at St. Stephens, including salaried staff employed by the Anglican Church of Canada. St. Stephens has not yet found a pastor to replace Brady, but Emmaus sends St. Stephen's a monthly check to help cover the deficit and salaries. Emmaus also donates $1,000 each month to St. Stephen's Open Doors ministry.
"Open Doors is a very effective homeless ministry," Brady says. "We were all committed to protecting it through the process.
"The fact we've been able to part ways graciously instead of angrily and with recriminations means a great deal to us, and we hope it will provide a model for others to differ with grace.
"There is a sense of energy and excitement at Emmaus, because we've taken action that declares God has spoken with clarity and authority to us concerning His purposes for wholeness and holiness.
"The Montreal diocese has a very strong pro-gay rights lobby. They see it as prophetic. It has become an environment in which someone with convictions like mine feels increasingly alienated and inhibited because what we believe is seen at best as unsupportive, and at worst as hostile."
One of the stimuli for the split, Brady explains, was the congregation's desire to continue running Living Waters Canada, a ministry designed to help Christians find healing, especially in the area of human sexuality. He says that some in the diocese considered it a "hurtful" program.
"About a half of our members have been through Living Waters," Brady says. "We at Emmaus really have a sense of our own brokenness and a sense that homosexual Christians are just a subset of the rest of us. We are all less than what God has called us to be. We are all sexually broken people who invite you to journey with us towards wholeness."
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