Court sides with Anglican Church against breakaway B.C. parish

Louise Dickson , Canwest News Service

VICTORIA - The Anglican Church of Canada has won, at least temporarily, a legal tug-of-war over a breakaway parish in Metchosin, just west of Victoria.

A B.C. Supreme Court judge has decided it would be unjust to grant exclusive use of St. Mary's of the Incarnation to those parishioners who had elected to split from the national church. That, Madam Justice Marion Allan ruled, would be unfair to the 14 remaining parishioners now relegated to a smaller, heritage church.

The dispute, largely centred on the issue of same-sex marriage, is part of a larger schism rocking the Anglican Church across Canada. Last June, the general synod of the Anglican Church of Canada voted narrowly not to bless same-sex unions. Still, the dioceses of Ottawa, Montreal and Niagara later decided to do so, following the lead of the Lower Mainland. the rest