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2000-087

Anglican Church of Canada could be bankrupt within a year

by James Solheim
(ENS) In the face of mounting lawsuits for its role in sexual 
abuse cases in Native residential schools, the Anglican 
Church of Canada could be bankrupt within a year, 
according to a report.
The report by the accounting firm of Ernst and Young predicts 
that legal fees and settlements would exhaust the national 
church's assets of about $10 million some time in 2001. 
The church could no longer fund its programs or provide 
about $2.7 million, a third of the annual budget, to support 
hundreds of parishes. "And that would have profound effects 
on many communities in the North where clergy would not 
receive stipends and work in native congregations would not 
be supported," said the Rev. James Boyles, general secretary 
of the church, at a meeting of the national executive council in 
New Brunswick.
Boyles said that the claims continue to emerge with about 
1,600 plaintiffs now involving the church and 7,000 involving 
the government. About 100 of the church-related cases involve 
an abuser who has been convicted in criminal court, he told the 
council.
A court decision last year said that the church's liability was 
40 percent and the government…..for abuse Native children 
say they suffered in residential schools owned by the government 
but run by the churches, especially in Saskatchewan, in the 
decades following the Second World War. An attempt by the 
church to convince the government to assume a larger share 
of the liability has not succeeded, at least so far.
"If churches were to go bankrupt the government would end up 
paying anyway," said Shawn Tupper, director of the residential 
schools unit at the Department of Indian Affairs. "We're trying to 
work out with churches what their capacity to pay is and see if 
we can come to some kind of accommodation."
Church leaders are also expressing fears of a backlash triggered 
by the lawsuits. "There will be a greater risk of a political and 
social backlash against aboriginal peoples, which in turn would 
cause further damage to the fabric of Canadian society," warned 
a working paper prepared by the United, Anglican, Presbyterian 
and Roman Catholic churches. "The relationship between Canada 
and aboriginal peoples will increasingly be characterized by legal 
contests," said the report. It added that the relationship between 
the churches and the government would become "increasingly 
adversarial."
According to an extensive report in the May issue of the Anglican 
Journal, those accepting settlements are sometimes "shrouded in 
shame," suffering taunts from those who suffered abuse themselves 
and are "simply hiding behind catcalls rather than facing their own 
demons."
Public opinion against bankruptcy
A poll, commissioned by three of the churches facing lawsuits, 
revealed that Canadians believe that the churches must find the 
money to pay compensation-as long as those payments don't 
force the churches into bankruptcy.
The Angus Reid survey reveals that 53 percent believe the 
churches should sell property to pay abuse claims but that 
80 percent also believe that the government should rescue the
 churches from bankruptcy after they make serious attempts to
 meet their obligations. "Taken together, these findings suggest a 
real reluctance on the part of Canadians to endorse the bankruptcy, 
or significant dismantling, of the churches in order to pay settlements,"
 the survey concluded.
Archbishop Michael Peers, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada,
told the executive council that "there are those who say this is God's 
judgment, that the church has lost its way. Maybe so, but the people 
being judged are from generations earlier," before the church changed
its relationship with Native people at its General Synod in 1969.
If bankruptcy "becomes inevitable, we really are called to be the 
body of Christ. Dead. Absolutely dead. And just as absolutely 
destined to rise," Peers said. "The story didn't stop" with the death 
of Jesus on Good Friday. "God's purposes will not be thwarted," 
he said.

--James Solheim is director of the Episcopal Church's Office of 
News and Information. This article is based on reports from 
Anglican News Service and the National Post.