ANiC plants new maritime church

By Mags Storey  |  Friday, April 23, 2010

Laural Buckingham, Don Hamilton, Charlie Masters and Alan Reynolds at the opening service of Christ the Redeemer Anglican Church. PHOTO: ANiC

MONCTON, NB—The Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) has planted its first church in New Brunswick. Christ the Redeemer Anglican Church held its first service on Easter Sunday in Moncton. Two satellite sites will launch this spring elsewhere in the province.

The church plant shares a building with the Moncton Wesleyan Church, which also holds their own service, plus a Korean service at the same time. Children and youth from the ANiC congregation are invited to take part in a shared Sunday school.

"They've really opened the doors for us," says Don Hamilton, pastor of Christ the Redeemer. "We share such common values, with our authority rooted in Holy Scripture and our purpose being to reach people with the good news of Jesus Christ."

The new church is also partnering with Harvest House Ministries to run an Alpha Course as part of the centre's addiction recovery program.

New Brunswick is the second maritime province to get an ANiC congregation, following Newfoundland and Labrador.

The ANiC is a network of theologically conservative churches that separated from the Anglican Church in Canada. It includes 36 parishes and eight forming congregations in North America.

The ANiC is one of 28 dioceses in the Anglican Church in North America which has been growing at a rate of three churches per week since its inception. It hopes to plant 1,000 new churches within five years.

"We believe in the authority of Scripture, the inspired unchanging work of God. We love Jesus, and want people to know that same transforming love," Hamilton says. "Right across the country the Anglican Church is facing the same issues. It is very difficult being a local parish around sound biblical principles when the national church is seeming to go a different way."

Respond to Article  |  E-mail Article  |  Print Article