The Diocese of Niagara invites me to dinner with the bishop

The invitation arrived by email this morning. The question is, to use the popular vernacular, are they just messing with my head?

If I grit my teeth, pay the $225 and show up at the door, will I simply be slapped with another lawsuit claiming attempted bribery for sending $225 to the diocese under the pretence that I had been invited to dinner – as if that were at all likely.

Or would my appearance be an occasion for the matrons of the diocese to have synchronised attacks of the vapours?

Only one way to find out.

Here is the email:

Bishop’s Company Dinner‏

To: mr.toad @ pobox.com
Picture of Niagara Anglican
News in the Diocese of Niagara

Bishop's Company Time us running outTime is running out!

The Annual Bishop’s Company Dinner is on Monday, September 30, 2013 at The Burlington Convention Centre.

WAIT!!!!!!

Don’t ignore this email please

There are lots of good reasons to go to the Dinner – here are just a few:

  • To support the pastoral ministry of Bishop Michael Bird to those in need of care and assistance.
  • To be nourished through the wisdom of a very prophetic speaker – Bishop Michael Ingham
  • To enjoy a wonderful evening of entertainment, good food, inspirational speaking while connecting with Anglicans from across our diocese.

Sign up now

If you have been to the Dinner before – please sign up again!

If you are new – please don’t be shy….it’s a wonderful evening and we promise you’ll love it!

Here’s the catch:

The deadline to register is just two weeks away: Weds September 18th at 5 pm

It’s easy:

Sign up online – click here

…or….Call Nancy Clause at Cathedral Place – 905.527.1316 x 380

13 thoughts on “The Diocese of Niagara invites me to dinner with the bishop

  1. You know they read you posts otherwise you would not be in court, but I find it a case of phenomenal stupidity that you are still on the mailing list. Is this their version of a kick-me sign? Probably contracted out to a distant non-English speaking country.

  2. I think that they may be after your money. But go all the same. Nothing like hearing it from the horse’s mouth!

    And while you’re about it, take along a few copies of my latest book http://www.amazon.ca/Holy-Homosex-Priscilla-D-Turner/dp/1482347865/ref=sr_1_1_bnp_1_pap?ie=UTF8&qid=1378343756&sr=8-1&keywords=holy+homosex , and bestow them on any who look at all educable.

    I get a bit tired of the bellyaching of the likes of you while my sales remain so low.

      • From the back cover: ARE SAME-SEX PHYSICAL RELATIONS conceivably good, beautiful and pleasing to God? Is this an open question? What if anything did Jesus say about such relations? What must the Church of Jesus Christ teach about them? This collection of items written over more than a decade aims to assist with these and other questions.

        Dr. Priscilla D.M. Turner wrote British A-Levels in Latin, Greek and Ancient History in 1956, went on to read with success four parts of the Cambridge Tripos (two Classical, two Theological), and is a Septuagint student with an earned doctorate in a branch of the subject. She has a particular interest in the bearing of Septuagintal Greek on matters of New Testament interpretation. Both her Oxford doctoral dissertation and her 1997 article in Christian Scholar’s Review, the latter reproduced here with additions and emendations, are pioneering works.

        Dr. Turner has been a member of the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada since 1971.

        From James I. Packer: “Your Homosex material is certainly worth publishing as a block. Your scholarship is formidable, & the issue itself is just as grave as it was 15 years ago (or 1500 for that matter), with its radical rejection of the Creator’s ordering of things. By all means include our Open Letter with the rest: I shall be honoured.”

        • I do not judge a book by its cover, Doctor…

          Doubtless, you are ‘well educated’ but what is your experience of the real world outside academia?

          Like most academics, your ego appears to be well developed; however, your vague hypothesizes in the book were not.

          BTW, not everybody has Packer on a pedestal.

          • I see, my anonymous friend, that you are blessed with a keen analytical mind.

            I make almost no royalties on normal sales of this item, which those who have actually read it consider very good, written as it is by an individual qualified both as a scholar and as a Christian person of long, deep and varied experience. I have been among other things deeply involved in the homosex question in public life in Vancouver: “right in the eye of the storm” might be a more accurate way of putting it. I am 75, and have recently, accompanied by my daughters, buried my very distinguished husband of nearly 51 years. See this posting: http://www.standfirminfaith.com/?/sf/page/30743
            I have published as a service to the Church. Those whose biblical languages are getting rusty will find much of it wholly accessible. If in doubt, start with the ‘Dialogue with Hugh’.

            I make no royalties at all if I supply you with copies at my low author’s price in bulk. I am happy to do this for anyone prepared to reimburse me basic costs. You would get these in the mail and yourself cover any tax and duty. Serious people of good will should write to me here: priscilla dot turner at telus dot net

  3. educable? Really, we are talking Dio-Niagara. If they listen to the Bird and his henchman from the province of Bring Cash then they cannot be even slightly educable.

    All in all it's just another brick in the wall
    All in all you're just another brick in the wall
    Just another blunder
    Just another lousy call
    Just another clap of thunder
    And apologies ring hollow
    From the guilty in Whitehall Hayden Street
    And there’s no hint of sorrow
    Just the whitewash on the wall
    Just one man dead
    And nothing is gained
    Nothing at all
    And Jean Charles de Menezes Fred XIII remains
    Just another brick in the wall

  4. This is not the first such appeal that you have received and publicised. Yet we know that the diocesan officials read your blog very carefully. Conclusion: the emails are deliberate. Presumably it is a form of taunting.

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