Diocese of Niagara’s Dean Peter Wall declares opposing abortion to be un-Christian

The Cathedral Dean of the Diocese of Niagara thinks those who oppose abortion cannot be Christians:

Here he is reacting to the recently signed Alabama law making aborting unborn babies a felony:

As a Christian myself, it is a shameful embarrassment to see the word Christian attached to those who would support Alabama’s outrageous law. What is Christian about being anti-abortion or maliciously ‘pro-life’?

Here is the tweet:

I am just as much at a loss to understand how being pro-life could be “malicious” as I am to reconcile dismembering babies in the womb with being a follower of the Giver of life. If anything is a “shameful embarrassment”, it is the Dean’s repulsive tweet.

The Canaanites who sacrificed their children to the god Moloch look almost benign in comparison to the contemporary equivalent. At least they thought they were appeasing their god; we sacrifice to appease our sense of convenience.

I agree with Wall about one thing: his Christianity is not mine.

Diocese of Niagara, bow down to your god:

Diocese of Niagara recites Litany of Reconciliation

Every Friday at noon, the diocese is reciting a Litany of Reconciliation in the Cathedral forecourt. As you can see, it is a real crowd-puller:

 

The Litany of Reconciliation is prayed at Coventry Cathedral and the Diocese of Niagara has followed suit.

Since the diocese shows no intention of reconciling with those it has most recently injured and actually hates, ANiC churches which left the diocese, the whole charade of reciting this litany is no more than an obscenely hypocritical public display of dishonest, fraudulent virtue, revolting enough to make a rodent vomit.

The Diocese of Niagara’s cathedral is running out of money

There is a passage in Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited where Charles is short of money and appeals to his father. This is his father’s reply:

“Well, I’m the worst person to come to for advice. I’ve never been ‘short’ as you so painfully call it. And yet what else could you say? Hard up? Penurious? Distressed? Embarrassed? Stony-broke?” (Snuffle.) “On the rocks? In Queer Street? Let us say you are in Queer Street and leave it at that.”

Let’s just say that the Diocese of Niagara is in Queer Street and leave it at that.

Except Peter Wall, the cathedral rector, has a vested interest in keeping the place and his job running a little longer.

It isn’t often I find myself in agreement with Wall, but one thing he said in the article below rings true: “God is not inside that building”. No indeed, he was driven out decades ago.

Wall’s solution to the steady exodus of Christians from the diocese is more innovation, in spite of the fact that innovation – a euphemism for excursions into radical heresy – is what drove the faithful out of the diocese in the first place.

Perhaps this is the real reason Bishop Michael Bird has quit. He wants to leave before all the money is gone.

In Hamilton, the Anglican Church is especially eager to capitalize on capitalist culture. It recently invested in a major renovation at Church of the Ascension, relocating the kitchen, offices and hall to the church proper, so it could sever or lease the rest of the 160-year-old Forest Avenue building. Ten blocks away, at Christ’s Church Cathedral on James North, plans for a new development are also under way.

“We can’t afford to maintain this place forever on the amount of money it’s costing us,” says the Very Rev. Peter Wall, the cathedral rector and dean of the Anglican Diocese of Niagara. “The only way we can do that is to do something that contributes to the sustainability of this place and allows us to have a greater impact on the community.”

Very Rev. Peter Wall, Cathedral Rector, Christ’s Church Cathedral

Since Wall arrived at the Cathedral in 1998, the number of Anglicans in the Hamilton area has declined more than 23 per cent. His church alone has lost about 50 families in the past 30 years.

Though Wall is mum on the details of the development, he says he’s committed to maintaining the integrity of the mid-19th century gothic cathedral — a soaring stone structure with heritage designation inside and out. Still, the church must innovate if it wants to survive.

“God is not inside that building,” he says. “We don’t have to tiptoe in and say, ‘where is he?’ and look under all the pews.

“That’s bad religion, that’s hocus-pocus, that’s nonsense. And that’s what killed the church.”

If you don’t believe in the Resurrection, you are not a Christian

So says Rev Dr Gavin Ashenden; and he is right:

A former chaplain to the Queen has said that the quarter of Christians who say they do not believe in the Resurrection “cannot be Christians”.

The Rev Dr Gavin Ashenden said in a letter to the Times that a survey which found that one in four self-proclaimed Christians do not believe in Jesus’s Resurrection “made the mistake of confusing British culture with Christianity”.

He said: “Those people who neither believe in the Resurrection nor go anywhere near a church cannot be ‘Christians’.

“As with so many things, the key is in the definition of terms. Discovering the evidence for the Resurrection having taken place to be wholly compelling is one of the things that makes you a Christian; ergo, if you haven’t, you are not.”

Of course, sophisticated clergy in the West would usually not be so crass as to straightforwardly deny the Resurrection. Instead, they cast doubt on the meaning of the word.

Here is a master of the technique, Rev Peter Wall, Dean of the Diocese of Niagara, putting his seminary training into practice in 2009. First he applies it to the Virgin Birth:

And then the Resurrection:

So Peter Wall doesn’t know what the Virgin Birth means and doesn’t know what the Resurrection is, but after “struggling”, against all reason claims he believes both.

Dean Peter Wall makes Joke of the Week

He reckons that TEC envies the Anglican Church of Canada its ability to bring churches together. This is after the ACoC was instrumental in causing a rift in the Anglican Communion that will probably be permanent and after driving dozens of ANiC parishes first out of the ACoC and then out of their buildings.

Twit

Of course, TEC has lost some of its lawsuits with dissenting parishes, whereas the ACoC has won all of its lawsuits. Perhaps that is the nimbleness that is really the object of TEC’s envy.

What the Diocese of Niagara wishes for the people of Hamilton

Better sewers – and a few other things. Notably absent is a desire for the people of the city which is home to the diocesan cathedral to come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour; that must be less important than waste disposal.

From here:

  1. That our elected mayor and councillors provide wisdom, insight, and prophetic vision in governing our city.

  2. That Hamilton become, and is known as, the Canadian city which cares and reaches out most effectively to the poor and to those who live on the margins.

  3. That we provide resources to continue to improve our infrastructure – roads, transit, antiquated systems (water, sewers, etc.).  If this means slightly more in property taxes, it is worth it!!!