Having already repudiated every theological doctrine it could find in its once ample arsenal, the Anglican Church of Canada is desperately searching for other doctrines to denounce – any will do, even one that is 500 years old and, for all practical purposes, irrelevant outside a small coterie of obsessive leftists. Fred Hiltz is leading by example in his hand-wringing repentance over, not his own failings – that would be too embarrassing – but his ancestors’ complicity in one the few sins still acknowledged as such by the ACoC: the Doctrine of Discovery.

As this news release notes:

In a nutshell, the DoD gives the Christian nations of Europe not just the right, but the God-given duty, to take over any unoccupied lands—the latin phrase is Terra Nullius— they discover and bring to them the “benefits” of a “Christian civilization.” For us white Europeans

The Anglican Church of Canada has been working tirelessly to remove all the benefits of a Christian civilisation from Canada for years; its most celebrated success has been the redefinition of marriage – to the point where the concept of marriage has been almost entirely drained of meaning. No atheist movement has been able to claim such a resounding victory.

Apparently:

We suffer from: a colonizer mentality; an internalized sense of white superiority, racism and stereotypes that separate us from one another; a stratified society where only some are powerful and wealthy and the rest live in a climate of fear and scarcity. Moreover, we can only carry on this injustice by denying reality and blaming those we have victimized.

Who could deny that? How many black bishops are there in the ACoC? How many earning less than $100k? How often have these wealthy white bishops blamed those they have victimised: the ANiC congregations whose buildings they have taken?

Naturally, the Residential Schools fiasco is a repeating theme:

The Anglican Church of Canada is a child of the Doctrine of Discovery. We grew out of our parent Church of England, and we promoted the DoD in almost everything we did, but particularly through our eager, century-long support for the Indian Residential School system. In many ways, our faith and the DoD were mutually inclusive.

Unsurprisingly, the intensity of all this conspicuous contrition has not lead to returning the colonised land on which all ACoC property sits to its Aboriginal owners. That is because, in spite of all the theatre, what the Anglican Church of Canada really cares about is money – and how to hold on to it.

In its ceaseless quest for relevance, the Anglican Church of Canada has repudiated something developed in the 15^th Century to justify colonising the New World.

The ACoC will undoubtedly beat its collective breast over the sins of its ancestors; after all, it’s so  much easier to confess the sins of one’s forebears than to repent of one’s own sin.

What will probably be overlooked in all this is the ACoC’s current version of naked imperialism: taking parish buildings to which they are morally not entitled from congregations who voted to align themselves with another Anglican Province.

From here:

This spring the 17 members of the Primate’s Commission will start considering how to translate General Synod’s 2010 repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery into tangible action. The commission also has mandates to address the practicalities of reconciliation and the persistent injustices in Canada’s indigenous communities.

Its first meeting will likely be in Toronto, possibly in time to report to Council of General Synod in May. “The commission will make recommendations to General Synod in 2016 perhaps in the form of resolutions,” said Ginny Doctor, co-ordinator of indigenous ministries and staff support for the commission. Doctor said the commissioners seem eager and optimistic. “We didn’t have anyone say no. That means there’s a spirit.”