This just in from ENS…

Alaska bishop named Canadian National Indigenous Bishop

MacDonald will remain assisting bishop in Navajoland

. . .

Mark L. MacDonald, the seventh Episcopal bishop of the Diocese of Alaska, hopes that his new ministry as the Anglican Church of Canada’s first National Indigenous Bishop will both transform the way people think about the church and move Anglicans into deeper communion with each other.

Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, announced his appointment of MacDonald at a news conference in the Church’s headquarters in Toronto January 4.

. . .

As well as crossing Canadian diocesan jurisdictions, MacDonald, in his new position, will straddle national and ecclesiastical boundaries as well. Although he has resigned as Bishop of Alaska, he is due to remain assisting bishop of Navajoland Area Mission with the Episcopal Church.

"It’s important to remember that we elect bishops for the church," Hutchison said at the news conference. "We don’t elect bishops for national jurisdictions."

I’m really confused now… An Episcopal bishop serving the Canadian Anglican Church? In my eyes this is a move by TEC to *legitimize* the odd bishoping practices of AMiA, CANA, TAC et al. If this is the way we are going to play the game, then what reason can we offer why Frs. Minns and Moyer shouldn’t be bishops in American dioceses? The only difference that I see is that the heads of both provinces are ok with this jurisdiction-straddling—but over all it doesn’t help the polity debates.