UPDATED
If the Church of England can drop “Anglican” from its official name, should the Anglican Church of Canada follow suit?
The Rev. Canon Gordon Baker suggests the province formerly known as the Church of England in Canada should consider yet another name:
Notable is the fact that the word “Anglican” has been dropped altogether. It is now just a straightforward “Church of England,” the argument being that before the change, it was generally confusing for people in England.
Certainly it is understandable that what people in England want to deal with is the Church of England and not some rather vague Anglican entity. One commentator, Simon Sarmiento, is reported to have said that this change “shows that the Church of England is not playing along with the rest of the Anglican Communion.” ….
…
I submit that it is time for us to be fully grown up and give thanks for all we have received from the Church of England, and others, but have a name that more truly expresses who we are. I believe that the name, “The Episcopal Church of Canada,” would do just that.
Many other churches in the Communion use such a designation—Scotland, Jerusalem and the Middle East, the United States, Cuba, Philippines, Sudan. By this change we declare our church’s autonomy with its own form of governance and our readiness to respond wherever the Holy Spirit may lead us. And that includes a readiness to share mutual responsibility and interdependence with all other churches that would share with us. …
Read it in the, um, Anglican Journal.
Update. A member of the Canadian church, Malcolm French+, comments below:
For several years, our name in French was “l’Eglise episcopale.” A few
years ago, we brought the two names into conformity by changing our French
name to “l’Eglise anglicaine.”
I remarked at the time that we had changed the wrong name.
D’oh!