Canada: Anglican leader seeks to 'fire up' people of God

Graeme Morton, Calgary Herald
November 09, 2008

For someone with one of the most daunting jobs in the Canadian Christian world, Archbishop Fred Hiltz seems quietly, calmly rooted in optimism.

"We'll see a new dawn," said Hiltz during a visit to Calgary-area clergy and lay leaders earlier this week.

"We're on the edge of something new. The sun hasn't risen yet, but a new day is dawning."

Since then, Hiltz has travelled the length and breadth of the country, meeting with his sometimes fractious flock. Canadian Anglicans, part of an 80-million-member global communion, are the nation's third-largest Christian denomination behind the Roman Catholic and United churches.

However, both the national church and Anglicans around the world are locked in a divisive battle over the blessing of same-sex unions. Some observers have suggested the liberal and conservative wings of the church have gone beyond the point of reconciliation and that a split is inevitable. the rest