Category Archives: Anglican Church of Canada

Synod approves Queer Interfaith Coalition letter

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Shouldn’t that be Interfaith Queer Coalition? Surely it’s the coalition that’s queer not interfaith.

No matter, the letter admonishes us to uphold the “sacred tenets of intersectional equity”, which I’m sure I’d be happy to do if I knew what it meant.

It also denounces “the damaging heresy that some people are more deserving of equality than others”. Now that I can get behind: I deserve to be equal to someone who is younger, taller, thinner, and better looking than me.

From here:

Queer Interfaith Coalition letter endorsed with amendment recognizing diversity of opinion on marriage canon General Synod passed a resolution June 29 endorsing an open letter to the Canadian government from the Queer Interfaith Coalition, an organization which supports LGBTQ+ acceptance across different religious groups.

The letter says it is “reclaiming the religious voice from those who have sought to weaponize faith.” Signatories commit to building religious communities that reflect a number of “sacred tenets of intersectional equity” including the idea that 2SLGBTQIA+ people are created “in the Divine Image,” and to, among other things, dedicating themselves to promoting the human rights and mental health of LGBTQ+ people and ending gender-based violence.

The motion passed after some debate surrounding a clause denouncing “the damaging heresy that some people are more deserving of equality than others,” and the passing of an amendment intended to address concerns about that clause. Many members of General Synod spoke in favour of the letter, including Bishop Kevin Robertson of the diocese of Toronto. He said there was a need for the church to stand up for LGBTQ+ rights at a time of growing backlash and diminishing support.

The amendment to the resolution states that General Synod will not understand the letter to contradict “A Word to the Church,” and that the word “heresy” “must not be interpreted as a condemnation of those Christians who do not believe Scripture permits Holy Matrimony for same-sex couple[s].” “A Word to the Church” is a document written by church leaders and adopted by General Synod in 2019. It affirms that Anglicans may hold a variety of beliefs about same-sex marriages, must stand together despite their differences and that the church must respect the self determination of Indigenous communities in particular.

Bishop of Ottawa Shane Parker elected primate

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In case anyone is under the impression that things are going to change under the new leader, Parker sets us straight by assuring us that “We need to think differently and behave differently.” Newspeak for thinking and behaving as we’ve done for years.

As a friend used to say when I worked at IBM and the management changed: “Same circus, different clowns”.

From here:

In a follow-up interview with the Journal, Parker added that he planned, as primate, to continue down the route of change set up by the listening process that brought forth the transformational commitments and the primate’s commission’s pathways—the set of recommendations calling for dramatic change in the church.

“A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that it is strategic or operational change when in fact it’s cultural change” that’s needed in the church now, he said. “We need to think differently and behave differently.” The rest of this week’s meeting of General Synod (running June 23-June 29) will determine the shape that change takes, he said.

In case you have any doubt:

Parker has spoken out publicly in support of LGBT people before, including as a signatory to the Global Interfaith Commission on LGBT+ Lives 2020 declaration, Declaring the Sanctity of Life and Dignity of All. In a 2023 letter Parker commended the commission and its work to his diocese amid what he described as an alarming increase in hateful words, actions and political posturing against LGBT people. “Not everyone or every parish in our diocese participates in Pride events, but each of us are called to participate in making a safe, loving space for 2SLGBTQI+ people, and to build meaningful connections with one another,” he said.

Does he even know what 2SLGBTQI+ people actually are? Does anyone?

Bishop Michael Curry preaches at the opening of the ACoC Synod

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He pointed out that the disciples, in spite of their humble origins, “changed the world”.

Quite true.

After his sermon the worship service was “characterized by [a] celebration of the cultural diversity within the Anglican Church of Canada”.

A celebration of how the world has changed the church.

And there’s the problem.

From here:

Curry also spoke about the limitations of Jesus’ disciples, noting that four of them—Peter, Andrew, James and John—were fishermen, yet never catch any fish in the Bible and relied upon Jesus to feed the multitude.

“They were not the A-Team of apostolic disciples,” Curry said. “And look what they did. There are followers of Jesus all over the world because of them … They changed the world.”

“What was true for them in the first century is true for us, the followers of Jesus, in the 21st century,” he added. “What was true in Jerusalem is true in London, Ontario… The power to be who God dreamed and intended us to be in the first place—when we live that, Anglican Church of Canada, it is no secret what God can do. What he did for Moses and Esther, what he did for ‘[not] the A-Team of apostolic disciples,’ he’ll do for you.”

Audience members interjected with shouts of “Amen” throughout Curry’s sermon, which anchored a worship service characterized by celebration of the cultural diversity within the Anglican Church of Canada.

The service began with the Algonquin “Water Song”, as singers beat their drums and faced the four directions of east, north, south and west, followed by the intertribal Indigenous “Strong Women’s Song.” The St. Paul’s choir led delegates in singing the hymn “Christ is Made the Sure Foundation” with an Indigenous smudging ceremony filling the worship space with the smell of sacred herbs.

The collapse of the Anglican Church of Canada

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There is nothing new about this, it has been happening for years. But, like any background noise that we have been hearing for a long time, we cease to pay it any attention. Such has been the faint gurgling sound at General Synod, as the Anglican Church of Canada flushes itself down the toilet.

Now, however, as the article below says, even the church hierarchy have started to pay attention. Their solution is, as ever, institutional reform rather than a return to the Gospel. As such, it will do little to slow the demise.

Before he joined the RC church Malcolm Muggeridge used to say he had no use for organized religion; I am veering towards agreement, although I would state it as institutional religion. The ACoC is a lost cause but even ACNA is starting to exhibit some cracks in the foundation. Women’s ordination continues to be divisive, Calvin Robinson was treated shabbily by Archbishop Steve Wood, trendy clerics are wobbling on the gay problem.

Here is the article:

(ANALYSIS) In the year of our Lord 1967, the Anglican Church of Canada had 1,218,666 members and 272,400 worshippers on a typical Sunday.

In a recent report, the church found 294,382 members on parish rolls and 58,871 people attending Sunday worship services.

“The religious institution many of us have long known and loved does not look now as it did even 20 years ago, and it will not look the same 20 years from now,” noted the report, “Creating Pathways for the Transformational Change of the General Synod.”

Waves of declining statistics will “evoke grief, fear and longing. … This report does not seek to reverse current trends, but to respond to them to empower a much smaller church to thrive as it proclaims the gospel today and in the future.”

Obviously, the “church is changing,” noted the Rev. Neil Elliot of the province of British Columbia in the report. “But that change is not the same as the end of the church. That change may be uncomfortable, but being uncomfortable is not the same as the end of the church.” Elliot’s X profile says he is the “official stats nurd for the Anglican Church of Canada.”

The “Creating Pathways” text noted that, while pew-level statistics have plunged 75%, the denomination, as of 2023, has 1,474 parishes, compared to 1,849 in 1967. Meanwhile, the number of bishops has increased from 36 to 39.

Anglican Church of Canada attendance decline

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In 2023, Christmas and Easter attendance was down 20 and 26 percent respectively compared to 2017, and up 50 and 41 percent from the 2020 and 2021 COVID panic years.

Average Sunday attendance fell by 9 percent in 2023.

You can read more in this article which attempts to grope for strands of optimism amid the gathering gloom.

The odd thing is that the ACoC is more preoccupied with attendance numbers than it is the number of people who, though its ministry, have become Christians.

Could it have something to do with money, salary and pensions?

According to data available as this issue was being prepared, attendance at Anglican Church of Canada Easter and Christmas services rose by 41 and 50 per cent respectively in 2023, even while average Sunday attendance fell by nine per cent over the same period—substantially faster than the decline of about 2.5 per cent per year before the pandemic, says the church’s statistics officer, Canon Neil Elliot.

Attendance statistics for 2023 are the most recent available as it typically takes dioceses some time to gather, consolidate and report data from all of their parishes. Even so, only 26 of 30 dioceses had reported their 2023 attendance numbers as of early January. Where data were not available, Elliot used 2022 numbers to complete the picture, meaning the numbers may be different in the final tally.

The figures for Christmas and Easter, Elliot says, are still 20 and 26 per cent below 2017 levels, suggesting the bounce-back has not reversed the overall trend of decline. Still, they represent more of a recovery than he had expected from the pandemic-era low points of 2020 and 2021. When he released the 2022 statistics, Elliot said he thought it was unlikely the church would see much more of an increase in attendance, as it seemed safe to assume that people who wanted to return to church after COVID-19 shutdowns had done so. But the surprising increase in holy day attendance in 2023, he says, is evidence the church remains in an unpredictable time.

Anglican Church of Canada statement on the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury

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Here it is:

We have seen the news that the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has resigned, having acknowledged personal and institutional responsibility in relation to “the long-maintained conspiracy of silence about the heinous abuses of John Smyth” that had been exposed by the Makin Review. Our hearts break for the children and young people who were abused by Smyth and further victimized by the lack of meaningful action on the part of the church.

In 2022, the Archbishop of Canterbury visited Canada to listen to residential school survivors and to issue apologies for the church’s role in the abuses at residential schools. We mourn that today’s news will add to the pain of survivors, and we hold them in our prayers.

The Anglican Church of Canada is committed to continuing the work needed to make the church a safe place for all, in keeping with our baptismal covenant to respect the dignity of every human being. We pray for the humility, courage and wisdom needed for this all-important work.

It’s difficult to miss the irony that Welby “visited Canada to listen to residential school survivors”, an alleged scandal that he was not tangled up in, yet failed to meet with victims of a scandal he was.

Note this tweet from the Anglican Survivors Group. Note in particular the word “lie”:

Anglican and Lutheran leaders call for Israel to stop fighting

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Again.

Happily, no one cares what Anglican leaders think about wars being fought in the Middle East. The only thing that stirs less interest in the general populace is what Anglican leaders think about religion.

I can’t bring myself to use the word ceasefire, since a ceasefire is not what Germond and Johnson want. They want Israel to stop fighting, at which point Hamas, Hezbollah and the IDF will join hands around the campfire and sing All You Need is Love.

From here:

Dear Prime Minister:

It has now been more than a year since the horrifying Hamas attack on Israel. Violence has continued with the decimation of Gaza by Israeli bombing and increasing settler attacks on Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank. In recent days, open hostilities in the region have expanded to include Lebanon, Yemen and Iran. Our hearts break at the horrific suffering and rising death toll caused by these armed conflicts.

We continue our call for a full and sustained ceasefire, for the release of all captives, for the immediate flow of life-saving food, water, aid, fuel and humanitarian assistance for the millions of Gazans suffering at this time, for an end to all arms transfers to Israel, and the end of occupation. We continue our call on leaders to lay down weapons and to work for a just and lasting regional peace.

We express our disappointment that Canada abstained from the September 18, 2024 United Nations motion calling on Israel to end its “unlawful presence” in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank. We believe it is only through an end to the occupation and a just, comprehensive and lasting peace settlement that the security of both Palestinians and Israelis can be assured.

We call on the Government of Canada to diligently support all provisions of international law and a rules-based world order. Failure to consistently support international law allows the powerful to act with impunity, causing great suffering to the most vulnerable, marginalized and powerless people globally.

We continue to pray for an end to suffering—remembering in our prayers all who have died on all sides of the conflict, hostages and their families, those maimed and injured, all who have lost their homes and those who have not been able to move to safety—and for the opening of a humanitarian corridor into Gaza and a peaceful solution to this war.

Sincerely,

Rev. Susan Johnson
National Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada

The Most Rev. Anne Germond
Acting Primate, Anglican Church of Canada

The crumbling of the Anglican Church of Canada

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The Anglican Church of Canada is not just crumbling from within, its buildings are also falling apart.

The external decay is a fitting metaphor for the spiritual malaise that afflicts the bishops and clergy whose main preoccupation seems to be to avoid Christianity at all costs. The buildings are empty shells, devoid of purpose, meaning and significance; no wonder they are collapsing.

The Journal articles here and here, lament the loss of historic buildings rather than the loss of the ideas and faith that inspired them.

The destruction by fire of St. Anne’s Anglican Church in Toronto last June underscores risks faced by aging churches across Canada, an architectural historian says—and the country could face significant loss of cultural heritage in the years to come.

Peter Coffman, a Carleton University art and architectural history professor who specializes in Canadian Gothic Revival buildings, says many churches are in danger of being destroyed or collapsing. As their congregations shrink, so does the money to pay for their maintenance and preservation.

Canada’s loss of its historic churches is likely to be a protracted process, he says.

Anglican Church of Canada makes provocative statements

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From the headline you might be tempted to think that one of the statements is: we have decided to start preaching the Gospel.

You would be wrong.

They include things like:

Dismantle the colonial foundations of the Council of the North

And:

Dismantle the racism and colonialism that is built into our governance structures.

There is a survey which you can fill in to throw your support behind dismantling racism, if you feel so inclined, here.

The hope is that by making some of the changes explained in the survey, the decline in ACoC  membership might be reversed.

In case that doesn’t work, one of the suggestions is to end the funding of independent journalism – the Anglican Journal. So if the decline continues, as it surely will, at least no one will know.

From here:

A primate’s commission tasked with rethinking church structures is encouraging Anglicans to provide feedback on its seven intentionally provocative statements or “hypotheses” through an online survey.

The commission, Reimagining the Church—Proclaiming the Gospel in the 21st Century, established by former primate Archbishop Linda Nicholls, first presented the hypotheses in spring to the House of Bishops and Council of General Synod, then distributed them publicly in early June, says commission chair Archdeacon Monique Stone.

The hypotheses include dismantling colonialism in the Council of the North and church governance structures; eliminating either General Synod or the ecclesiastical provinces; returning to a model where the primate is also a diocesan bishop; reducing travel and meeting costs; looking at new ways of running the national office; and ending editorially independent journalism—specifically, the Anglican Journal—funded by General Synod.

Dean Peter Elliott, a member of the commission, says the hypotheses inviting Anglicans to respond to these hypotheses appeared on the Anglican Church of Canada website in late August.

The liberal delusion

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In the early 20th Century Malcolm Muggeridge declared that “the fundamental error of liberalism is its false gospel of automatic and ineluctable progress”. I usually agree with Muggeridge, but I think he had this wrong. That isn’t the fundamental error of liberalism. The fundamental error is the assumption that man is innately good.

From this springs the idea that we can progress through our own efforts, that we can build our own utopia, that all our ills spring from things like a poor upbringing, a hostile environment or by class oppression. Once those are sorted out, the earth will be suffused with peace and harmony.

As it turns out, the opposite is the case. The notion that we are good, or at least self-perfectible, leads to tyranny, bloodshed, death and misery. Just look at Stalin’s Soviet Union, Hitler’s Germany, Mao’s China and Pol Pot’s Cambodia. Millions of dead and endless suffering all because of one simple delusion.

I’m pretty sure many mainline churches have fallen for the same lie. And it is a satanic lie. If we are innately good, we don’t need a Savior. If we don’t need a Savior, Jesus was not who He claimed to be: he couldn’t have died for our sins because He didn’t need to.

Ten seconds of self-reflection will easily dispel this nonsense and confirm that the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.

Yet the delusion persists, particularly in the Anglican Church of Canada. I remember overhearing a lady vicar murmur in a break during a TV program Michael Coren used to host before he lost his marbles that “after all, we are all basically good people, aren’t we?”

And here we go again in an article published by the Anglican Journal, a mouthpiece of the ACoC, even though it likes to pretend otherwise (my emphasis):

What to do? How do we change paths? It’s a tall order, but not an impossibility if we can finally dispense with that perversely erroneous, discredited tenet of Enlightenment philosophy that defines humanity as irredeemably wicked, and instead remember that we are innately good. Born that way. It’s a truth that’s available to each of us through common sense and reflection. It is acknowledged and celebrated in classical Greek philosophy and all the great monotheistic religions. In my careers as a journalist and academic I’ve watched for decades as that ancient moral insight has gained the reinforcement of social-scientific researchers, reluctant though they may be to involve themselves with metaphysics.

With that truth firmly in mind we might see that nothing less than a new social contract is what’s necessary and appropriate to our post-modern condition: stronger market regulation to reduce the economic and political influence of industrial and commercial monopolies and oligopolies; a new ethic of corporate social responsibility that replaces hypocrisy with genuine commitment; more equitable distribution of wealth to replace the current winner-take-all ethic; and an improved and expanded social safety net perhaps founded on a guaranteed annual income, for starters.