Canada: Oakville Anglican parish home of profound revolution

By Charles Lewis
June 12, 2010

There is nothing that hints at revolution on this suburban road in Oakville, where St. Hilda’s Anglican parish has sat for more than 50 years. No wild signs of protest, no warnings of hell and damnation, and no list of Luther-like demands nailed to the main door — just a not-so-extraordinary church building in the midst of a neighbourhood easily forgotten by those driving through.

Nevertheless, a religious revolution has taken place here as profound as anything seen in modern Christian history.

“I think it’s true what they say, that about every 500 years you need a reformation,” said Paula Valentine, a long-time member of St. Hilda’s. “You need to start to think about what is man made and what is God’s.”

In February, 2008, St. Hilda’s voted to leave the Mother Church, the Anglican Church of Canada, and make common cause with a few like-minded Anglican rebels across the country.

After the unanimous vote, Rev. Paul Charbonneau, the parish priest for 16 years, was suddenly struck by what they had done and might lose. “As soon as we had the vote and I went home and cried because it was so moving,” he said. “But the very next day the crap hit the fan and it got real.”

Rev. Charbonneau is a tall lanky man, who likes to wear jeans and a Montreal Canadiens hockey sweater. He slouches in his chair when he speaks and often looks up while forming his answers, which suddenly come rushing out. He is polite, diffident but unflinching in the choice he made.

He is also fully aware of his faults, and those of his fellow Christians. the rest