Starting a church from scratch
Jan 19, 2008
Stuart Laidlaw
Faith and Ethics Reporter

WATERFORD, Ont.–An altar from a nearby decommissioned church, the pulpit borrowed from a Baptist congregation in Owen Sound, a lectern and kneelers made by a parishioner, the minister's own piano and a box of prayer books salvaged from curbside in Brantford and destined for the landfill.

With these gathered things, conservative Anglicans in this southwestern Ontario town are striking out on their own.

"We left everything behind when we left our former churches," says Jim Blumer, a parishioner and spokesperson for St. Barnabas Anglican Church, part of the conservative breakaway group Anglican Coalition in Canada. the rest