Category Archives: Anglican Church of Canada

Michael Pollesel to be coadjutor bishop in Diocese of Uruguay after all

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Michael PolleselThe Diocese of Uruguay is a liberal diocese in a conservative province, a misalignment of predispositions that prompted it to ask to be moved to a more simpatico province; the request  was denied.

The diocese of Uruguay says feels “abandoned and unsupported” after the standing committee of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) turned down its request to change provinces.

The diocese, which is part of the province of the Southern Cone, has asked that it be transferred to the province of Brasil, which it says is “more compatible” in terms of theology, mission and philosophy.

Canada’s Archdeacon Michael Pollesel was voted in as coadjutor bishop in the Diocese of Uruguay, but the appointment was rejected twice by the Southern Cone’s house of bishops, possibly because of this:

A source close to the situation told VOL that the issue of women priests and the liberal proclivities of Pollesel and his association with the ultra-liberal Anglican Church of Canada were deciding factors.

Now, the election has been ratified by the house of bishops; perhaps they hope to convert the new bishop:

The Anglican Province of the Southern Cone has reconsidered the Diocese of Uruguay’s appeal and has voted to ratify the election of Archdeacon Michael Pollesel as coadjutor bishop.

The decision came 10 months after the province’s House of Bishops rejected Pollesel’s election. The Uruguayan diocesan synod had appealed the decision, but “for technical canonical reasons the form of the original appeal was not valid” and had to be presented again, said Southern Cone Presiding Bishop Hector Zavala in a press release.

Anglican Church of Canada: good news and bad news

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The good news is that the 2012 budget deficit is not as bad as expected.

The bad news is that the 2012 budget deficit is not as bad as expected: like a temporarily resuscitated zombie, the ACoC will stagger on for a few more years than is decent.

From here:

An early, unaudited draft of General Synod’s financial results for 2012 expects a lower than anticipated budget deficit for 2012, the financial management committee (FMC) has said in its written report submitted to the Council of General Synod (CoGS).

Although final results are not yet certain pending a completed audit, FMC said, “It is reasonable to expect that the deficit will be in the neighbourhood of $100,000.” A deficit of $287,680 had been forecast for that year.

However, “although 2012 will likely end up more favourably than anticipated four months ago, the outlook for 2013 has not changed,” said the report submitted by committee chair, Rob Dickson. The fall meeting of CoGS had approved a “transitional budget” with a deficit of $513,000.

The Anglican Church of Canada is “restructuring”

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Read all about it here.

In what I can only assume was an unguarded moment, Archbishop Colin Johnson let slip the real reason for the reorganisation: not to spread the Gospel more effectively or even to dabble more fervently in a spot of “ecojustice”, but to survive. After all, no church, no clergy stipend.

Archbishop Colin Johnson, diocesan bishop of the diocese of Toronto and metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province of Ontario, said the work of restructuring was “a lot like trying to lose weight.” Even losing a few pounds by giving up on some sweets, cutting down on meat and potatoes, and exercising more means one “will last longer,” said Johnson, who is also a member of the structures working group.

The Anglican Church of Canada and Cheez Whiz

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Dean Southworth invented Cheez Whiz. Not only did he invent it, he liked eating it. Until one day in 2001 when, on sampling a jar, his taste buds recoiled with disgust:

So it was with considerable alarm that he turned to his wife one evening in 2001, having just sampled a jar of Cheez Whiz he’d picked up at the local Winn-Dixie supermarket. “I said, ‘Holy God, it tastes like axle grease.’ I looked at the label and I said, ‘What the hell did they do?’ I called up Kraft, using the 800 number for consumer complaints, and I told them, ‘You are putting out a goddamn axle grease!’ ”

The reason for this less than satisfying culinary experience was revealed on reading the list of ingredients. Kraft has taken the cheese out of Cheez Whiz:

One crucial ingredient was missing, however. From its earliest days, Cheez Whiz always contained real cheese. Real cheese gave it class and legitimacy, Southworth said, not to mention flavor. Now, he discovered, not only was cheese no longer prominently listed as an ingredient, it wasn’t listed at all.

What has this got to do with the Anglican Church of Canada, you may be wondering. Simple: when you remove a vital ingredient from something it tends to become repellent. In the case of Cheez Whiz, the missing ingredient is cheese; for the Anglican Church of Canada, it’s Christianity.

Canadian church and Muslim leaders meet to sort out the Middle East

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From here:

Representatives of Canadian churches and church-based groups met on Feb. 4 with Arab and Muslim leaders who are similarly committed to “peace with justice” in Israel and Palestine.

Both sides have been careful to note that the meeting signalled nothing more than a commitment to meet face to face more regularly in order to consult and share information about issues affecting peace in the Middle East.

Hosted by the Canadian Friends of Sabeel, the meeting in Toronto gathered an ecumenical forum on the Middle East which includes representatives from the Anglican Church of Canada, the United Church of Canada, the Presbyterian Church in Canada, the Roman Catholic Church and church-based groups such as KAIROS. They were joined by six delegates from the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF), which describes itself as “a national, non-partisan, non-profit” umbrella of over 40 member organizations.

The article goes on to note that “[t]he meeting signals a new beginning of intentional conversation”. Churches pontificating on how to achieve peace in the Middle East is hardly new: presumably prior efforts to establish Elysium were thwarted by the conversations being unintentional.

The only tangible action being suggested is a divesting of church interests in companies that do business in Israel; predictably one-sided and hardly new – however intentional.

Anglican Church of Canada does the Stations of the Cross

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Here is the production for Station 1, Jesus is Condemned, in which the Rev. Scott McLeod sees a homeless man and overhears another passer-by say: “They should just gas them all”.

The worthy McLeod, having rashly jumped to the conclusion that the remark was directed at homeless people rather than ACoC clergy, was filled with self-righteous anger and moved, not so much to help the homeless man but to congratulate himself on not being as other men: a sinner.

Droning on sanctimoniously about the sins of others is an odd way to begin the church season in which one should be pondering one’s own sins and how they resulted in the sacrificial death of God Incarnate.

At least the video is true to its liberal, social justice roots: monotonous and boring.

In the Anglican Church of Canada, hope is a boat

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St. Paul hoped for eternal life (Titus 3:7); Job’s hope was in God (Job 13:15); King David placed his hope in God’s steadfast love (Ps 33:18).

Thrusting aside these passé, fevered deleria of Middle Eastern primitives in favour of something relevant to today’s Anglican sophisticates, the Anglican Church of Canada has decided that hope is a boat; and they have a song to prove it.

The song, “Hope” is the winner of the ACoC’s Marks of Mission song contest.

Apparently, it’s “catchy and deep” and Fred Hiltz is a fan.

Although it is a pretty enough tune, well sung and produced, I can’t for the life of me see what it has to do with Christianity. But, then, the same could be said about the Five Marks of Mission. Or the Anglican Church of Canada.

Anglicans and Lutherans join forces to produce a report

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From here:

For this purpose, the report identifies a number of recommendations for concrete diaconal action at local, regional or global level. These include ways in which the churches could do more together at all levels for disaster relief, in advocating on issues relating to climate change, illegitimate debt, HIV and AIDS and other pressing social concerns.

The articles fails to make any mention of God, Jesus, evangelism or the Christian hope in the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.

Although I’m sure the actual report is full of profound insights into things transcendent, the ACNS prefers to concentrate on the temporal: disaster relief – a noble campaign to resuscitate Western Anglicanism; illegitimate debt – the Anglican Church of Canada’s 2013 budget; climate change – the fear that the terrestrial dwelling of North American clerics could become as hot as their eternal resting place; and HIV/AIDS, – an attempt to protract the earthly sojourn of Canadian Anglican clergy, who are now almost all gay.

Archdeacon Paul Feheley to edit Anglican Journal

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Paul Feheley is principal secretary to the primate, Fred Hiltz. This casts doubt on the editorial independence of the Journal.

All the comments on the announcement here express the same concern: with Feheley at the helm the Journal will not have editorial independence from the Anglican Church of Canada. What they fail to mention, though, is that the Journal gets a $596,627 subsidy from Canadian Heritage – from our taxes – but only provided it maintains its editorial independence.

For those concerned that I have suffered a lapse into gullibility – perhaps induced by an excess of Christmas cheer – never fear: I am well aware that the Journal’s editorial independence has always been a fiction. But with the primate’s principal secretary in charge, it may be a fiction that is impossible to maintain – at the cost of $596,627 per year.

The paper could not survive without the subsidy. I, for one, would be unhappy to see the demise of the Anglican Journal and satellite diocesan papers: it would be the end of rich vein of material begging to be mocked.

Anglican Journal to be editorless, left wafting hither and thither on a miasma of politically correct religiosity

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The current Anglican Journal editor, Kristin Jenkins – whom I met briefly in 2010 and rather liked in spite of our radically different perspectives – is abandoning the Anglican Journal to the tender mercies of Paul Feheley.

In the face of certain cuts for Anglican Journal staff, one can hardly blame her.

As the article below notes, the budget for the Journal will be more conservative; what is left unsaid is that the content will undoubtedly be less conservative – you may think that an impossibility, but with a herculean effort from the stragglers still employed by the paper, I am certain a way will be found.

From here:

Following the resignation of Editor Kristin Jenkins, the Anglican Journal will adopt an interim management structure and not hire a new editor until late 2013 at the earliest. Sam Carriere, director of Communications and Information Resources and Resources for Mission, shared this news with General Synod staff on Dec. 13.

Editor since 2009, Ms. Jenkins will leave the Anglican Journal on Jan. 7, 2013 to become director of advancement at Albert College in Belleville, Ont.

“It is my feeling, supported by advice I have sought and received, that I should not engage in a formal search and hiring process for an editor of the Anglican Journal until next year’s restructuring work is behind us, at the earliest,” said Mr. Carriere in an email to staff.

In November, the Council of General Synod passed a transitional budget for 2013 and agreed to establish a more conservative budget for 2014 in response to declining revenues. Throughout the next year, General Synod leadership will consider ways to restructure the national office, including the Anglican Journal.