A priest of the Diocese of New Westminster currently on leave has announced that four Anglican primates have offered to give “pastoral help” to Canadian parishes and clergy protesting the diocese's 2002 decision to provide a blessing for committed and faithful homosexual couples.

In as much as this involves national churches, the Diocese of New Westminster has referred inquiries to Church House in Toronto.

In a media interview, Acting Primate David Crawley said that the four Primates are among a small group of conservative Anglicans who have been acting unlawfully in the past.

He said he was disappointed that some disaffected Vancouver-area Anglicans continue to seek a “flying bishop” – which is apparently what the primates intend to send to Vancouver. Archbishop Crawley noted that a task force of the Canadian House of Bishops was trying to find a solution to meet the needs of dissident minorities with dioceses, and such an action by the foreign primates did not help.

On February 13, the Rev. Paul Carter, who is currently on leave without permission to officiate as a priest, said that the primates from Central Africa, the Congo, Rwanda, and South East Asia had offered what he termed “temporary adequate episcopal oversight.”

Carter further announced that Thomas W. Johnson would serve as their representative. Johnston, an Anglican priest, was created a missionary bishop in a ceremony by the Archbishops of South East Asia and Rwanda that took place in Denver, Colorado, in 2001. He is part of the Anglican Mission in American (AMiA), a group that has broken with the Episcopal Church, USA. He is rector of a church in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Primates head the 38 “provinces” within the worldwide Anglican Communion. These provinces are either national Anglican churches (such as the Anglican Church of Canada), or churches which function in a number of countries.