Tag Archives: St. Alban’s Ottawa

St. Alban’s Ottawa is too inclusive

Posted on by
4

St. Alban’s Anglican Church in Ottawa used to house a thriving orthodox congregation that left the Anglican Church of Canada to join ANiC in 2008. A small, less than entirely orthodox ACoC congregation now meets in the building. Naturally, they pride themselves on their commitment to inclusion:

It is the policy of the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa that no one be excluded from any ministry or leadership position, including ordination, on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. All are welcome in our Spirit-Led, Christ-Centred, Contemporary Urban Church.

It is, therefore, a source of considerable embarrassment to have to admit that the notorious racist, colonizer and misogynist Sir John A. Macdonald used to attend the church. To make atonement, the parish is displaying a page of self-flagellation, Uriah Heep humility, and faux remorse on behalf of their ancestors’ flagrantly wicked wrong-inclusion.

Read all about it here:

Sir John A. Macdonald and his wife, Agnes Bernard of Jamaica, were early parishioners of St. Albans. While Sir John A. Macdonald is rightly remembered as the first Prime Minister of Canada, he is also remembered by First Nations as an architect of the residential schools, and by Métis for the execution of Louis Riel. Many decisions integral to Canadian nation building undermined the rights and needs of Indigenous peoples, who were the first to make this land their home.

[…..]

St. Albans is the oldest Anglican church building in downtown Ottawa, and we are proud of our Church’s longstanding commitment to inclusion. As Ottawa’s first free church, parishioners of St. Albans did not have to pay for the right to sit in a pew; Sir John A. Macdonald and other government leaders and officials worshipped alongside carpenters and labourers. However, we are not proud of the dispossession, mistreatment and exclusion of Indigenous peoples in Canada, and we acknowledge and repent of our sins in that regard. Through our prayers and our actions, we are working towards reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. We invite you to join us on this journey.

All Saints Sandy Hill Ottawa now a mosque on Fridays

Posted on by
8

When St. Alban’s voted to join ANiC in 2008, one of the consequences, as Justin Welby might call it, was that the Diocese of Ottawa acquired the church building and the congregation had to find a new home.

To fill the empty pews and created the illusion that the diocese had a use for the building, the congregation of All Saints Sandy Hill was imported into St. Alban’s.

This, of course, had the unfortunate consequence of setting All Saints adrift as an Anglican Marie Celeste. I expect the diocese hoped no-one would notice.

Now All Saints is being rented out as “the kind of space that reflects Canada’s fabric today”. That means that on Fridays, it is a mosque.

From here:

On the December day they took possession of a 115-year-old church in Sandy Hill, Leanne Moussa and some others climbed up a spiral staircase and rang the church bells.

Those tolling bells, which at least one person mistook for a call to worship, represented both the joy they felt for saving All Saints church and their excitement about its new life as a multi-use community centre. The former Anglican church is now home to several different religious congregations, a small café, artists’ studios, event space for classes and conferences, and there are plans for future redevelopment that could add offices for NGOs and new housing units.

[….]

The deconsecrated nave will soon serve many functions — mosque on Fridays, synagogue on Saturdays and the spiritual home of two different Christian groups on Sundays. The 300-seat space can also be used for weddings, concerts, book launches and lectures, Moussa said.

Bishop John Chapman says that St. Alban’s, Ottawa is about to become "totally welcoming and inclusive”

Posted on by
4

Obviously, until the Diocese of Ottawa took possession of the building in July 2011, the parish specialised in being unwelcoming and exclusive – which is odd, since the old unwelcoming St. Alban’s has about 100 people [correction: the number is 200] attending its Sunday services and the welcoming New St. Alban’s had absolutely nobody until the diocese moved another parish’s congregation into the building.

What the bishop really means, of course, is that the New St. Alban’s believes that active homosexuality is a Biblically approved lifestyle: the new rector, Rev. Mark Whittall, eager to reinforce the point, marched in the Ottawa Pride parade.

From here (page 13):

As you probably know, the Diocese has returned to St. Alban’s more than three years after the previous clergy resigned from the Anglican Church of Canada to join the breakaway Anglican Network in Canada. It is most regrettable that the parish felt it needed to take this step because they opposed the direction the national church was taking.

However, through mediation and negotiation an agreement was reached for the clergy to leave the church so that we could re-establish the Anglican Church of Canada here.

We should point out that only the clergy were forced to leave – the members of the congregation are most welcome to stay. We also hope to build up membership with the help of former parishioners

who were alienated by the direction taken in recent years.

We are recovering our ancient mission as an Anglican church to be totally welcoming and inclusive. That means that everyone, including the poor and the marginalized, are assured of a warm welcome here.