Territory of the People


The Territory of the People is a "recognized territory the status of a diocese" formed in 2002 out of the former Anglican Diocese of Cariboo, part of the Ecclesiastical Province of British Columbia and the Yukon of the Anglican Church of Canada.
The Diocese of Cariboo was formed in 1914 and ceased operations on December 31, 2001 after being forced into bankruptcy when the financial strain of legal costs associated with damage suits brought by former students of the Anglican-run St George’s Indian Residential School in Lytton, B.C., exhausted the diocese financially.
The parishes that make up the Territory are overseen by a Suffragan Bishop to the Metropolitan. Barbara Andrews, formerly Director of the Sorrento Retreat and Conference Centre in British Columbia, was elected Suffragan Bishop for the APCI on 30 June 2009 in succession to Gordon Light, who served from 2004 to 2008. Andrews was consecrated at St Paul's Cathedral, Kamloops, on October 18, 2009.
The future organisational arrangements for the Anglican Parishes of the Central Interior are under investigation by the new bishop, who has identified a clear desire for autonomy on the part of the constituent parishes while appreciating the controversial nature of the re-establishment of a diocesan model. On November 14, 2015, the Council of the Anglican Church of Canada's General Synod gave final approval to recognition of the APCI as a "recognized territory the status of a diocese" and the former territory of the former Cariboo diocese. In 2016, the APCI decided to adopt a new name — the Territory of the People; and this took full effect during the same year.