Category Archives: Anglican Church of Canada

Whence comes the church’s hope?

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As the psalmist said:

And now, O Lord, for what do I wait?
My hope is in you. Ps 39:7

A number of recent articles in secular papers have chronicled the decline of liberal Christianity. In Canada, the Globe and Mail, hardly a bastion of theological conservatism, explains that the United Church and Anglican Church have largely replaced God with the NDP; the resulting avalanche of fleeing members betokens their imminent demise. Church liberals, ever reluctant to connect cause with effect, are obstinately staying the course: they are convulsed in an orgy of post-theistic openness, inclusiveness, egalitarianism and progressivism.

For example: the Anglican Church of Canada has placed its hope in the advice of Phyllis Strupp, a brain fitness coach. She, in turn, has placed her hope in a better tomorrow with regard to the environmental crisis, a tomorrow where no brain will be left unmolested by Strupp callisthenics; every brain will be a fit brain. Fit for what, I wonder: fit for little other than conformity.

So is there any hope for liberal Christianity? Evidently not.

“Thirty years ago, I thought that with enough good science we would be able to solve the environmental crisis. I was wrong. I used to think that the greatest problems threatening the planet were pollution, bio-diversity loss and climate change. I was wrong there too. I now believe that the greatest problems are pride, apathy and greed. Because that’s what’s keeping us from solving the environmental problem. For that, I now see that we need a cultural and spiritual transformation. And we in the scientific community don’t know how to do that. But you [in the faith community] do. We need your help.”

Is the Episcopal Church nurturing seeds of hope for better tomorrow with regard to the environmental crisis and secular venues where hopelessness persists? Are church-going Christians more hopeful than the fast-growing “spiritual but not religious” crowd? Hope is contagious. Hope is the best yardstick to use for benchmarking the church’s performance and prospects. Hope opens our minds to the things of God—no matter what the current numbers say. All things are possible with God.

The Anglican Church of Canada wants to know what the Marks of Mission look like

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From here:

Calling all Anglican photographers! Pull out your cameras, your fancy lenses, or your smartphones for our new photo contest. Capture an image that depicts one or all of the Marks of Mission and send it in to the General Synod office by January 1, 2013.

Here is my submission:

The Marx of Mission

The Anglican Church of Canada and pacifism

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As a callow youth I was an avid reader of Leo Tolstoy and became convinced that he was on to something in his impassioned support of pacifism.

Time passed and it occurred to me that to be a comfortable pacifist in a society whose order is maintained by the application of force is, at the very least, hypocritical. The Anglican Church of Canada is no stranger to hypocrisy, of course, so it is no surprise that some of its reverend gentlemen support pacifism.

The Rev. R. G. Cross has made his case for pacifism here.

Sadly, he does leave out one of the more interesting comments made by a 19-20C pacifist, Lytton Strachey. His remark is uncanny in its prescient applicability to today’s Anglican clergy. Strachey was a homosexual and when asked, “If a German soldier tried to rape your sister, what would you do”” slyly replied; “I would try to interpose my own body.”

Many would argue that non-violence is not a practical subject to be explored in the church’s life. Since the days of Constantine, the church has supported empire, the concept of the just war and the right of citizens to defend themselves against aggressors.
 Violence appears to be an integral part of the universe, and personal violence necessary, in some instances, to affirm self esteem in the face of continuing injustice and oppression.

[……]

What is the non-violent answer? The rejection of the use of force to achieve social and political goals. It involves refusal to harm another being.

Anglican Church of Canada CoGS is out of ideas

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From here:

Emerging from daylong discussions on May 25 about the future of the Anglican Church of Canada, members of the Council of General Synod (CoGS) appeared to lack ideas about what the next steps should be.

In fact, members expressed feeling “overwhelmed” by the question of how to renew church structures.

Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, said that instead of hearing new ideas, he heard a lot of familiar ones following reports coming out of small group discussion. Further, he said he wasn’t convinced that members were grasping the urgency of our situation.

I have a new idea for the Anglican Church of Canada: give Christianity a try.

What won’t work is more of the same nonsense as typified by the questions CoGS was asked to ponder:

* How might God be using the current financial situation of General Synod to tell us about our future in carrying out Vision 2019?

* What might the Holy Spirit be telling us about ourselves as we grapple with the complexities of our current governance and structural challenges?

* How might Jesus be leading us on a journey of spiritual renewal through the presence of indigenous peoples among us, and their witness in the Mississauga Declaration.

Some bright spark thought the church should “clearly and proactively articulate its unique mission and ministry”. Leaving aside the obvious thought that anyone who uses the word “proactive” is mentally constipated, it goes without saying that a church that has no “unique mission and ministry”  is wasting its time trying to find ways to articulate it.

It all ended in a sacred circle in which the obstinately blinkered Colin Johnson declared that the church “is not any more broken than it ever was”. He said much the same in 2008 when parishes started leaving the ACoC; then there were 19 ANiC parishes, now there are 47. The ACoC is running out of money. No-one knows what to do. CoGS is “overwhelmed”. The situation, according the primate, Fred Hiltz, is “urgent”. Crisis? What crisis?

Stations of the Cross done as social justice

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From here:

A provocative art piece on display outside a London church is raising eyebrows for depicting a distressed pregnant girl strapped to a bed.

The larger-than-life piece is one of 14 works of The Way, an art installation on the lawn at Bishop Cronyn Memorial Anglican Church in the weeks leading up to Easter.

Collectively, the panels are meant to be a contemporary social commentary about the death and suffering of Jesus based on the stations of the cross — translated into injustice, poverty and alienation seen on the streets of London.

But one piece, facing Queens Ave., startled at least two London women, one of whom interpreted it as depicting a child in bondage.

The painting on wood is intended to illustrate the crucifixion of Christ. It shows a wild-eyed blond girl or young woman, evidently pregnant, strapped to a bed while an unseen person holds her blood-spattered wrist.

“It just made me sick to my stomach. I didn’t like it.” said the woman, who said it appears to sanction violence against children.

Given news stories about child abuse, she said the painting doesn’t make social sense, even if it’s a commentary.

Rev. Raemond Fletcher, who co-curated the show, said London artist Erin Ivy intends to show that young women who become mothers often suffer discrimination, rejection and judgment.

I have no idea where Rev. Fletcher gets the idea that mothers “often suffer discrimination, rejection and judgment”. Does he mean unmarried mothers? These days? Is his message really one that is promoting the evil notion that abortion is to be preferred to motherhood?

I do hope not – but he is a rector in the Anglican Church of Canada.

Rev Fletcher wrote a paper called Theological Dimensions of Human Sexuality. Yes, of course the paper is mostly about homosexuality because that is what really interests Anglican clergy; and there are no messy babies involved. In it, he argues for the blessing of same-sex marriages on the basis that the word “bless” is far more complicated than we think and that, even if homosexuality is a result of the Fall, in a “salutational blessing[:] we are greeting God’s presence visible to us in the relationship, wishing the relationship well, and committing ourselves, as a Christian community, to support it.” If that seems like sophistic claptrap it’s because it is.

Rev. Fletcher is also a part of the Interfaith Declaration on Climate Change , he signed a petition in favour of same-sex marriage, muddles the roles of church and state and held a Widening Circle conference .

In short, he represents almost everything that is loathsome about the Anglican Church of Canada.

The next step for Anglicans: drag queen blessings

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Anglican Church of Canada archdeacon, the Venerable M. Edward Simonton, has been in India and, in his peripatetic meandering, bumped into a number of transvestites: Hijra, some of whom, in their enthusiasm to embrace their inner woman, have had their penis, testicles and scrotum removed. Coming, as he does, from the Diocese of Montreal, the worthy archdeacon understandably felt quite at home in this milieu.

Would we not have “a different church” if we hired transvestites “to give blessings on a Sunday” he muses? Not that much different, surely.

From here:

Anyway, it just goes to show how different the world can be. A transvestite in Western culture would never be treated with religious awe let alone respect. I need not mention the history of persecution by western religions. I will also not get into Jungian concepts of the Sacred Hermaphrodite in pagan and classical religion but simple point out that the concept of a third gender is common to most cultures. Just not ours.

Still wouldn’t it be a different church if instead of persecuting transvestites we hired them to give blessings on a Sunday? And, hey, no jokes about men already dressing up in coloured ‘dresses’ every week to do just this! I know that transvestites are not the same as drag queens (the later are entertainers) but my mind immediately jumps to finale of Pricilla Queen of the Desert (the depictions are of indigenous Australian animals and the Sydney opera house). There are few church services I have been to that could not have benefitted immensely from a drag queen blessing thrown in at some point.

Downsizing the Anglican Church of Canada

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“Downsizing” in business is a euphemism for laying people off; it is a deliberate exercise to cut expenses by paying fewer workers; it is usually a survival tactic. In the Anglican church of Canada, “downsizing” seems to be taking the form of consolidating dioceses – and, presumably, laying off employees – because the church has lost many of its customers. As in business, the ACoC is downsizing in order to survive. Whether it should survive is probably a more interesting question than how to make it survive but we’ll get to that in a moment.

Another euphemism adored by business is “global resourcing”. This is code for sending jobs overseas to places where labour is cheap, places like India, Argentina, Brazil, China and so on, and laying off workers where labour is expensive – like North America – in order to make cheaper goods and increase profits. It’s a shame that the Anglican Church of Canada isn’t considering global resourcing – to Africa, for example – instead of downsizing. There would be two benefits:

African Anglicans know how to make churches grow; this is mainly because – to use a business illustration again – unlike their North American counterparts, they actually believe in what they are selling.

African Anglicans would turn the ACoC into something that might be worth saving rather than what we have now: a weekly pantomime of largely effeminate priests in fancy dress engaging in an aesthetic posturing whose underlying meaning was abandoned around the turn of the 20th century. They would turn it into something that should be saved, something that God would bless.

From here:

The lean-and-mean sort of downsizing that has marked corporate Canada of late may be poised to affect the ecclesiastical province of Canada—reducing the number of its dioceses so it can carry out God’s mission more efficiently.

Delegates to the September 2012 provincial synod will consider this possibility as one of several motions from the province’s governance task force aimed at reforming church structures to enhance mission.

According to a background note to the notice of motion, the proposal “recognizes the changing demographic of the Anglican Church within the ecclesiastical province of Canada in terms of both decreasing numbers and the increased cost of providing ecclesiastical services within our seven existing dioceses.”

The province comprises the country’s seven easternmost dioceses: Montreal, Quebec, Fredericton, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island; and Western Newfoundland, Central Newfoundland and Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador.

A new configuration might see these dioceses merged into three: Montreal with Quebec; Fredericton with Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island; and all three dioceses of Newfoundland and Labrador: Western, Central and Eastern.

African bishops coming to Canada to “to engage in building better relationships”

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From here:

This June, close to 20 bishops from Africa, the United States and Canada will converge on Toronto to engage in building better relationships between national churches.

They are part of a gathering called the Consultation of Anglican Bishops in Dialogue, a rather fluid group that had its origins in the 2008 Lambeth Conference.

At the time, there were tensions between the churches over same-sex relationships, and Archbishop Colin Johnson hosted a fringe event for some African and Canadian bishops that focused on mission in a post-colonial world.

In addition to Archbishop Johnson, the Canadian contingent will comprise Bishop Michael Bird of Niagara, Bishop Michael Ingham of New Westminster, Bishop Terry Dance, suffragan bishop of Huron, and Bishop Janet Alexander of Edmonton.

Meanwhile, Bishops Bird and Ingham are striving to build their very own better relationships with former parishioners who fled to ANiC, by taking over their buildings through litigation. I don’t suppose that will be something they will hold up to the African bishops as a sterling example of  “how to mend relations”, though.