The Anglican Church of Canada’s Justice Camp is a place where Anglican priests are sent for decontamination and re-education after they have had a close encounter with the Gospel. This Church Gulag is also a place of incarceration for particularly troublesome laity; it was only through the most extreme subterfuge that I managed to avoid it during my sojourn in the Diocese of Niagara.
One of the tortures employed is being forced to sing songs like this one. Some victims have been known to bite off their own tongues during the refrain:
(Tune: My Favorite Things)
Meeting with Linda, with movers & shakers,
Activists, greenies, and health-and peace-makers,
MP’s and editors, right on the ball,
Help us respond to our fai-aithful call.Postcards and letters and online petitions,
Rallies and sit-ins with local musicians,
Scripture reminds us to take care of all-
Working for justice can be such a ball!Refrain:
When our greed strikes,
When our fears roar,
When we’re feeling proud,
We simply remember our fai-aithful call –
And then we can speak out loud!Ruth & Amanda said, “MPs will hear ya,
But missing deadlines and dates won’t endear ya,
Start with small steps and do homework, you-all,
If you’d be faithful to Jesus Christ’s call.Issues of justice and tools to affect them,
Singular voices connect good intentions,
Sacrifice, courage, the zeal of St. Paul,
Help us respond to our God’s faithful callRefrain
Coming from churches both rural and urban,
We’ve heard of problems both dark & disturbin’,
But with the expertise here in this hall,
We’ll start the healing that answers God’s call.
h/t LSP
I had hoped you’d made that song up. Please let it be a parody, I thought. Not so.
It is hardly fair to inflict this upon your readers first thing on a Tuesday morning. For shame, David!
A recurring theme seems to be healing, over and over. Probably when you don’t have enough sense (and have lost your faith) to realize it is terminal, you think things will get better.
Most folks who accept the Gospel have gone over the fence
Is there a song to be sung:
“Whatta ya goin do with a problem like that David”
Oh…this is so cleaver and so funny…constantly poking fun at your former church…hey please make up a song about how you deal with those starving to death in Africa or those sticking needles in their arms in Southern Ontario…oh, right…that is just sinful behaviour which should be mocked in verse.
People are free to express here their opinions, however benighted, remember? I don’t read any concern with famine or drug addiction in the lyrics. I don’t read anything but fatuous self-absorption.