As a defendant in nearly 1,200 lawsuits, the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) is spending so much money on legal fees—$100,000 a month—that it might have to declare bankruptcy by the end of 2001.
The suits have been filed by survivors of abuse at Indian residential schools that were operated, with the government, by the ACC. The 750,000-member church is named directly in 800 lawsuits, and as a third party in the remaining suits, which have been filed against the government.
"We have come to a moment in history in which we may be facing the winding up of General Synod," Archbishop Michael Peers, the primate of the ACC, told delegates to the church's triennial gathering in July. The national body has spent $5 million on legal costs since the beginning of 2000 and has about $3 million in assets left. Only 1 percent of the amount spent has gone toward settlements.
Nine of the ACC's 30 dioceses are in litigation. The Diocese of Cariboo in British Columbia, its assets wiped out by a handful of lawsuits, plans to dissolve by mid-October. The church is appealing a ruling from last year that found the diocese and the national church responsible for 60 percent of damages.
In July, however, in a case involving the United Church of Canada (UCC), a British Columbia court found the federal government responsible for 75 percent of damages awarded to six aboriginals; the UCC must pay the rest. "We're pleased with the indication that the government bears the major responsibility for the schools, which is what we've been stressing for the past year," says Anglican Church spokesman Jim Boyles.
A government negotiating team met several times with the churches during the summer. The denominations are asking the government to cap church liability.
Despite the specter of bankruptcy, the ACC chose to focus on the positive at its July 4-11 General Synod in Waterloo, Ontario, including a new partnership giving aboriginals a self-determining community within the church. Bishop Gordon Beardy, a residential-school abuse survivor and the only aboriginal to head a Canadian Anglican diocese, offered forgiveness.
"From my heart," Beardy said, "I would like to say that I forgive you, and I want to forgive your church, which has become my church. I forgive your people, who have become my people." His statement came eight years after Peers formally apologized to aboriginal people for past abuses. Beardy, 51, resigned two weeks after making his remarks, citing a need to spend more time with his family and community.
Anglicans also celebrated a new partnership with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. Both denominations, meeting simultaneously in the same city, voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Waterloo Declaration. That document provides full communion between the two churches, including membership transfers and the ability of clergy to move from one church to another. Anglicans and Lutherans in the United States entered into a full-communion agreement in 1999.
For continuing coverage of this issue, see the Anglican Journal, the ACC's monthly newspaper (its October 1999 issue provides especially good background information on the abuse allegations and their implications for the church.)
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