Ottawa, Canada - As more sections of the Anglican Church of Canada move toward blessing gay marriages, a group of conservative Anglicans has started pulling out of the Canadian organization and putting themselves under the authority of the main Anglican branch in South America.
The first move happened on Friday when retired Bishop Donald Harvey left the Anglican Church of Canada and became a full-time bishop of the more conservative Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of the Americas.
On Thursday, he will now outline plans to enable conservative Anglican congregations in Canada to join the Southern Cone under his episcopal oversight.
"Because of the unabated theological decay in the Anglican Church of Canada, many long-time Anglicans have already left their church and left Anglicanism," Harvey said in a statement.
"We want to provide a fully Anglican option -- a safety net -- for others who feel their church has abandoned them and who are contemplating taking the same action."
It echoes similar moves in the United States, and on both sides of the border such actions have prompted sharp protests from the Anglican Church of Canada and the U.S. Episcopal Church against what they regard as unwelcome intrusions onto North American territory.
"We cannot recognize the legitimacy of recent actions by the (Anglican) Province of the Southern Cone in purporting to extend its jurisdiction beyond its own borders," the Anglican Church of Canada said in a swift reaction on Saturday.
"We call upon the archbishop of Canterbury (the head of the Church of England) to make clear that such actions are not a valid expression of Anglicanism and are in contravention of the ancient and continuing traditions of the church. They aggravate the current tensions in the Anglican Communion."
The archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has his hands full trying to prevent the worldwide Anglican church from splitting over gay marriage and, in the case of the U.S. Episcopal Church, the ordination of a homosexual bishop.
Three U.S. dioceses are actively considering leaving the Episcopal Church. One of them, San Joaquin in California, said in a statement on Friday that it could decide to join the Southern Cone as early as next month.
Already, several U.S. congregations have put themselves under the authority of African archbishops, and four Canadian congregations took similar steps several years ago.
Harvey said on Monday that 18 to 20 Canadian congregations were considering joining the Southern Cone.
The global Anglican church, dominated by its African, Latin American and Asian wings, has demanded that the Canadian and U.S. branches refrain from authorizing the blessing of gay unions, on the grounds that they are unbiblical.
Same-sex blessings have proceeded in the British Columbia diocese of New Westminster, the first diocese to initiate them, and on Saturday the Ontario diocese of Niagara decided to allow them, though it did not set a time when they could start.
Harvey portrays these decisions as walking away from the historical Anglican church rather than him walking away from the Canadian branch.
"They have sort of written themselves out of the Anglican Communion, because by the standards of the Anglican Communion all this cannot happen," declared Harvey.
Gay marriage is legal across Canada, though religious organizations are not required to perform the ceremonies.