Tag Archives: Rev. Wayne Fraser

No Resurrection in the Diocese of Niagara

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Rev. Wayne Fraser thinks the resurrection of Jesus never happened.

Apparently, if we disbelieve in the central tenet of Christianity, “our eyes are opened to see so much more”. We can see that Christianity is essentially political, we can recite tired cliché’s such as speaking truth to power, instead of confronting and repenting of our own sin we can do something much easier: “confront injustice where we find it”, we can stop believing in Jesus’ atoning sacrifice, and we can tell each other things we don’t actually believe like “Alleluia! Christ is Risen”.

And people wonder why we fled the Diocese of Niagara.

From here (page 6):

When I became an adult, I realized the Sunday School teacher had been right. A physical resuscitation of a human body is impossible. The heart will not accept what the brain rejects. What do we celebrate on Easter morning? Without insistence on physical resuscitation, our eyes are opened to see so much more. Understanding the political and religious contexts of the execution of Jesus by Rome, we see the injustice of the state and the courage of the Anointed One to speak Truth to Power. “What is Truth?” Pilate asked, unable or unwilling to see it plainly standing before him. Freed from a literal reading of the gospel accounts of a physical Resurrection, we see the growing enlightenment of the disciples and experience the deep symbolism of the Easter story. We become Resurrection people, enabled to confront injustice where we find it, to love our neighbours as ourselves, to clothe the naked, feed the hungry and befriend the stranger. No longer having to believe the Crucifixion as a propitiation for the sins of the whole world, we can rejoice in the Original Blessings of this life and the At-one-ment of the Indwelling Spirit. Love over and around us lies and we can tap into that source of strength as Jesus did to forgive seventy times seven, to begin anew when we err and to nourish abundant life for all creation. On Easter we can sing together, “Praise with elation, praise every morning, God’s recreation of the new day.” And we can greet one another, “Alleluia! Christ is Risen

The Reverend Dr. Wayne Fraser is Interim Pastor at St.Paul’s (you remember, St. Paul the fellow who said “if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” That puts Reverend Dr. Wayne Fraser’s preaching into perspective, at least) Dunnville and can be reached at fraserwayne@gmail.com.

A new era of Christianity dawns in the Diocese of Niagara

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The diocesan rag (page 6) lays before the Niagara faithful the path of progress and enlightenment.

Original sin is out, as is propitiatory sacrifice and substitutionary atonement – what is there to atone for, after all? Gone is the Fall, the uniqueness of Christ and, it seems, theism itself. What is left, you might be wondering – evolution.

Change, of course, is difficult so for those feeling a little queasy about tossing out every major tenet of our belief system, the authors of this recipe for interfaith advancement, Rev Wayne Fraser and ACoC Partnership in Mission Officer, Dr Eleanor Johnson, offer the comfort of Missa Gaia. If that doesn’t do it for you, try listening to John Lennon’s Imagine: its emetic properties will induce the inevitable and help quell the waves of theological nausea.

The concept of Original Sin is the key to obsolete beliefs including propitiatory sacrifice and substitutionary atonement.

Likewise, to blame afflicted people for their personal torments is presumptuous in the extreme. God did not create us evil and prone to diseases as punishment for our fallen state.

Humanity is not fallen. Original Sin is not a concept even mentioned in the Bible. Original Blessing, its opposite, is, yet we allow ourselves to be “guilted” about Jesus dying for our sins. Instead, we see the Bible’s claim that God created the human race, all other species, our habitats and “saw that they were very good.”

The God we worship and serve is not an old man living above the clouds. We can call ourselves “a-theists,” people who do not worship a human-like, a human-made God. Many who have left church have done so because of the traditional image of God. Non-theism for most of us still attending church is uncharted territory, a new theological creation. Who or what do we worship?

We must start with a humble reading of the New Testament, with the brilliant hope, peace, joy and love put before us by Jesus. We experience God as an evolving Ground of Being, and the key word is evolution. Here’s where the most radical concept comes in: God is Love, is giving and receiving. God plunges into the breakdown of humanity’s connection to creation as Love in our loving.

We seek the wisdom and faith to explore our human understandings of God, for kindred spirits of other world religions and for this fragile earth, our island home. We see the destruction of the ecosystems and the mass extinctions of fellow creatures as crimes against God and all creation. We believe in caring for all species of creatures and their habitats. We welcome interfaith peace and inclusive justice for all.

A new era of Christianity is here and now but many are afraid to acknowledge it. It is here in our ecumenical and interfaith worship. We must give up our fantasy that Christianity is superior to other religions.

People of all faiths have in common an evolving experience of the Divine. True worship does not care a whit for the forms of our rituals. God gives no one the right to be militant. Jesus commands us to love God, our neighbours and ourselves. Change is difficult, in anything we do. It seems especially challenging in matters of faith.

We must, however, change or atrophy. Instead of condoning all the fears, threats and guilt induced in the past, let us rejoice in the complexity, beauty and mystery of all creation. All people come from God, we are imitators of Emmanuel and we are co-workers with the Holy Spirit.

For the beauty of the Earth,
sing oh sing today.
Of the sky and of our birth,
sing oh sing today.
Nature human and divine,
all around us lies.
Lord of all, to thee we raise
grateful hymns of praise.

—Paul Winter, Missa Gaia

Diocese Of Niagara rector thinks the Nicene Creed is outdated

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The Diocese of Niagara’s Rev. Wayne Fraser wants to ditch the Nicene Creed because it promotes “old science” and says the world is flat.

The Creeds, of course, make no scientific claims at all. What probably disturbs Rev. Wayne’s sensibilities is the Creed’s insistence on the miraculous, such as the Virgin Birth and Resurrection.

Miracles are only a problem for materialists who believe the universe is a closed system; for those of us who think God is free to act as an agent in his own creation – that may well not include the Rev. Wayne –  miracles are no less scientific than the free act of any human agent.

Rev. Wayne also thinks the Creed should engage in modern dance with scientific knowledge, so I don’t think we should pay much attention to anything he says.

From here (page 9):

There’s so much old science reflected in the Creed that does not jive [he means “jibe”] with what we know today about the universe. The ancient concept of a three-tiered world, to begin with. And a flat earth.

The Nicene Creed teaches us to believe in “one holy, catholic and apostolic Church.” Is that in the Bible? No. What good does it do? It does not make much difference to most people’s lives. If we are still considering the role of the Nicene Creed in the Christian church after 1,700 years, still fretting about ideologies, we have missed the point.