Handing Over the Torch. . .

A Message From the Chairman of the Board of St. Peter Publications
Feast of Saint Andrew the Apostle, Nov. 30, A.D. 2006

We regret to announce to our readers that this will be the last issue of the Anglican Free Press. At a recent meeting of the Board of Directors of St. Peter Publications held on November 22, 2006, in Charlottetown, P.E.I., the decision was made to discontinue publishing the AFP. A declining number of subscribers and rising costs of producing the AFP had been a concern for the last few years. Recently when Father Gavin Dunbar, our AFP Editor, decided that the time had come for him to step down as Editor, this gave added impetus to the Board to make a decision.
       We hope that the Anglican Free Press has served a useful purpose for these last twenty-two years, in its witness to traditional Anglicanism, and as a voice for the renewal of the church in the present day. The masthead page reads “A Faithful Watchman, Messenger, and Steward of the Lord for 22 years” and we hope that this has been true. The Anglican Free Press first began publication in 1984, under the editorship of The Rev’d Canon Robert Tuck. We wish to express our gratitude to Canon Tuck for founding the AFP and serving as its first Editor. In 1995, Father Gavin Dunbar took over as Editor. We also express our thanks and appreciation to him.
      St. Peter Publications, the publisher of the Anglican Free Press, continues to be “alive and well”. We continue to publish annually our “Anglican Church Calendar” which is purchased by many parishes across the country in every province. Each year we publish a book containing the proceedings of the annual Atlantic Theological Conference. Our “Common Prayer Commentaries” continue to sell, as well as the “St. George’s Christian Education Curriculum”. Numerous other books, booklets, tracts, and pamphlets that we have published over the years continue to be available.
      In Spring of 2005, St. Peter Publications partnered with the “Anglican Planet Project” to begin a new publication The Anglican Planet. It is appropriate now that St. Peter Publications put its energy and resources into this new publication, instead of the AFP.
      We wish to thank our readers over the years for their encouragement and support.

      The Rev’d Canon Peter W. Harris
      Chairman of the Board of St. Peter Publications

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A Final Note From our Editor
Feast of Saint Andrew the Apostle, Nov. 30, A.D. 2006

Being editor of the Anglican Free Press is something I fell into. Canon Tuck had asked me to be assistant editor, so I was on the spot when a successor was needed; and with the help of Fr Peter Harris as publisher, and the loyal support of our readership, we have trundled along merrily ever since. Perhaps I should say “buzzed” rather than “trundled”: like its namesake, the Winnipeg Free Press under the editorial leadership of John Wesley Dafoe, the AFP’s most characteristic mode has been that of a gadfly or wasp, trying to sting the dozing cow of Canadian Anglicanism into wakefulness. I am not sure the cow has been grateful, but we have persisted, for what now seems like an astonishingly long time.
      In recent years, due to residence in the United States, my knowledge of the Canadian church has become more remote, and it seemed like a good time to move on. At the same time, the astonishing rise and success of The Anglican Planet has suggested a different approach to a journal that serves historic Anglican orthodoxy in Canada. So with gratitude to St. Peter Publications, and all those who have been part of the Anglican Free Press over the years, and with the heartiest of best wishes to the editors of the Planet, I hand over the torch. And may God continue to bless those who hold loyally to the faith of Jesus Christ, as this has been received by historic Anglicanism in Canada.

         The Rev’d Fr. Gavin Dunbar
         Editor of the Anglican Free Press

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