Adapted from the Anglican Church of Canada
The House of Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of British Columbia and Yukon in the Anglican Church of Canada has registered its objection to the episcopal election of the Rev. Jacob Worley as Bishop of Caledonia.
The bishops cited the province’s Canon 4(b)vi, which regards a bishop who holds “anything contrary to the Doctrine or Discipline of the Anglican Church of Canada.”
“The Bishops met several times as a Provincial House of Bishops since the ecclesiastic election in the Diocese of Caledonia, reviewed the materials before them, and met with the Rev. Jacob Worley,” said the Most Rev. John Privett, Archbishop and Metropolitan for the province. In coming to this conclusion, the bishops reviewed the Rev. Worley’s past actions, what he has written directly to the House, and what he said when meeting with the Provincial House of Bishops.
“The view he held and holds is that it is acceptable and permissible for a priest of one church of the Anglican Communion to exercise priestly ministry in the geographical jurisdiction of a second church of the Anglican Communion without the permission of the Ecclesiastical Authority of that second church.”
The province’s bishops, he added, “ask for your prayers during this extraordinary time, especially for the Worley family, for the Diocese of Caledonia, and all those who worship and minister there.”
The bishops reviewed a time when Worley served in the Anglican Mission in the Americas under license from the Province of Rwanda in the geographical jurisdiction of the Episcopal Church without Episcopal Church leaders’ permission.
Worley will not be consecrated bishop in the Diocese of Caledonia because the canon holds that “the decision of the House of Bishops shall be final.”
The Diocese of Caledonia must now hold a new electoral synod.
Image: The Rev. Jacob Worley, in a photo he provided to Anglican Journal.
Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings. He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America.
