Nestled on a side street in Cambridge is a tiny church with a grand title.
The sign hanging beside its front doors reads St. Matthew's Cathedral.
With its yellow brick walls and cute red doors, the building looks like a quaint country church -- not the seat of an archbishop.
Most Rev. Peter Goodrich puts the contradiction into perspective.
"If you look at the size of our diocese, (the church) is the equivalent of Westminster Abbey," he says with a chuckle.
The vast majority of Anglicans in Waterloo Region belong to the Anglican Church of Canada -- the national church that's riven with debate over blessing the unions of same-sex couples.
But two tiny local Anglican congregations aren't embroiled in the headline-grabbing dust-ups because they don't belong to the Anglican Church of Canada.
St. Matthew's in Cambridge is one of them. The Parish of St. Edmund, King and Martyr, is the other.
The two congregations are members of dozens of movements, and hundreds of parishes around the world, that are not in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury -- Primate of the Church of England and the spiritual head of the 80-million member Anglican Communion.
The worldwide body of Anglican bishops recently (July 16 to Aug 4) held its once-a-decade Lambeth Conference.
Anglican churches that aren't in communion with the Church of England usually try to maintain traditional (conservative) theology.
Goodrich's church doesn't ordain women as priests or bishops. Same-sex relationships, or sex outside of marriage, aren't condoned.
During worship services, the church's parishes use an adaptation of the Book of Common Prayer. But they don't use the Book of Alternative Services which many Anglican Church of Canada congregations use in combination with the Book of Common Prayer.
And although many Anglican clergy don't recognize him as bona fide Anglican bishop, Goodrich maintains he has valid apostolic succession.
Apostolic succession is the pedigree of a bishop. Simply speaking, a candidate for bishop is consecrated a bishop when valid bishops lay their hands upon the candidate. Possessing apostolic succession means that a bishop has been consecrated by bishops who have been consecrated by generations of bishops before him (or her) in an unbroken line going back in time to the apostles.
Given valid apostolic succession, the use of the Book of Common Prayer during worship and establishing worshipping communities, Goodrich asks "who's to say you're not Anglican?"
Despite disagreeing with the Anglican Church of Canada's doctrines, Goodrich doesn't criticize the mainline denomination.
"We're not angry," he said. "We're just being led in different directions."
However, that doesn't mean they can worship side-by-side or take communion together, he said.
"If you're not in agreement, you can't break bread with them."
The Independent Anglican Church has its roots in a Hamilton, Ont., priest who broke with the national church (known at the time as The Church of England in Canada) in 1934.
Currently the church has just 300 people attending seven parishes, all but one -- in Florida -- in southern Ontario. Hence, Goodrich's quip about the relative bigness of his tiny cathedral.
All of the denomination's clergy, including Ven. Richard Ballenthin who serves as parish priest and dean of the cathedral, are volunteers.
Goodrich, 74, is a retired administrator of day-care centres.
The Cambridge church is shared by St. Matthew's Anglican and St. Mark the Evangelist Lutheran congregations. Each Sunday the two groups, about 24 people in all, hold a joint service.
Goodrich knows it's a small group. But no matter.
He quotes the Gospel of Matthew 18:20 in which Jesus is quoted as saying "for where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."
Gary Freeman echoes that sentiment.
"The goal isn't to be larger. The goal is to worship God in the way we think He should be worshipped."
Freeman is a lay member of the Parish of St. Edmund in Waterloo.
The congregation is part of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada, which is a diocese in the Traditional Anglican Communion.
The traditional communion, based in Australia, formed after many Anglicans around the world voted to ordain women to the priesthood in the mid-1970s.
The Canadian diocese includes about 40 parishes and missions across the country, Freeman said.
"Some of them are very, very small," he added.
Freeman said he and Rev. Ted Bowles of Guelph, the congregation's priest, helped form St. Edmund in 1996.
Each Sunday between 15 to 25 parishioners -- from Waterloo Region, Stratford, Guelph, Burlington and London -- meet for mass in the chapel at Luther Village in Waterloo.
The congregation uses the Book of Common Prayer (1962 Canadian version) and incorporates some of the symbols of elaborate liturgies that Anglicans call "high church."
During mass at St. Edmund, clergy wear different coloured vestments according to the church season. Chants are sung and bells are rung.
"We can't use incense in that chapel because it sets off the fire alarms," Freeman quipped.
Although it's a small gathering, Freeman said the congregation has had half-a-dozen new members during the past four years.
And because the congregation holds to traditional Christian theology, Freeman said the congregation received inquiries from about five people after the Anglican Church of Canada's Diocese of Huron synod this spring during which delegates passed a resolution asking the bishop to consider allowing the blessing of same-sex couples who have been legally married.
Freeman said he and fellow adherents would love to be in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury because the roots of Anglicanism go back to the seventh century, when the missionary Augustine -- who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury -- was sent by the Pope to evangelize England. But those who remain in communion with the Church of England today seem to continue to grow more theologically liberal, Freeman said.
"You can't be in communion with someone that doesn't believe the same as you do," he said.
So the Anglican Catholics' future will more likely rest in a union with the Roman Catholic Church.
"We're so close to the Roman Catholic Church it's hard to put a piece of paper between us," Freeman said.
Freeman said the traditional Anglican Catholic communion's aim is to be accepted by the Vatican as a Uniat church, much like the Ukrainian Catholic Church which maintains its own liturgical traditions and administration but counts the Bishop of Rome (Pope) as its spiritual leader.
"To be united with Rome, but not absorbed by them," said Freeman.
mpetricevic@therecord.com
ON THE WEB
Independent Anglican Church (Canada Synod): www.independentanglicanchurch.ca
Parish of St. Edmund, King and Martyr: www.stedmund.ca
Anglican Catholic Church of Canada: http://anglicancatholic.ca
For a list and links of Anglican churches that are not in communion with the Church of England see Anglicans Online: http://anglicansonline.org/communion/nic.html