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More serious was the decision ofa Nova Scotian diocesan committee in Halifax to discontinue the stationing ofa resident priest in Alberton, which had become vacant with the move of its rector. the Reverend Michael Ness, to Crapaud, and to place it under the pastoral care of the rector of Port Hill. This would save the Diocese the money it was shelling out each year to subsidise the resident priest in Alberton. Father Tanton was determined that there should be no further "retreat", as he called it, on the part of the Anglican Church in Prince Edward Island. Moreover. he was still as much committed to the rural ministry as he had been in Tangier He felt that it was important to have, and keep, good priests in rural parishes, and that the Diocese could do no better thing with its money than to provide them, and support them. The Diocese, on the other hand, was busy amalgamating rural congregations in order to eliminate, as far as possible, aided parishes, and free up funds for other purposes.

So he decided to fight the decision. He rounded up the entire body of Anglican clergy on the Island, and they went over to Halifax and confronted Archbishop William Davis and his committee with a demand that the priest in Alberton be retained. The committee backed down, and the Reverend Tom Mitchell was appointed, and stayed seven years as "priest-in-charge". The committee saved face by insisting that he not be made rector, so that he could be removed at the discretion of the Bishop, and he was given some vaguely defined responsibility for "youth work" across the Island, as if Alberton parish, with its four churches - two of which were not functioning — did not rate a full— time priest. Tom Mitchell was succeeded by the Reverend John Ferguson, who, when he departed after 10 years to go to the parish of Eastern Passage, left Alberton a self—supporting parish. By his stand Father Tanton won a future for Alberton that certainly would have been lost ifthe diocesan committee had had its way.

He was quite fearless. Perhaps the best example ofthis that I saw was his performance in the United Church's Epworth Hall in Summersidc one Sunday night during the campaign to merge the Anglican and the United Churches in the early 1970s. After visits by the Church Union commissioners, Dr. Craig and Canon Latimer, to Prince Edward Island, a panel was formed to go about and hold regional meetings to raise consciousness about the issue. The Anglican representatives on the Prince Edward Island panel were Archdeacon Tanton and Mr. Bennett Carr. The Summerside meeting was held in Epworth Hall, and nearly every one of the 25 to 30 people who turned out for it were United Church members. Very few Anglicans came because they had had the excitement ofa visit by the Primate, Archbishop Scott, in the morning, and they weren‘t much for Church Union anyway, because they thought it meant that they would be swallowed up by the United Church, which, in Summerside, was much bigger than themselves.