It’s hard to view the determination of Western Anglicanism to impose its obsessive adoration of homosexuality on African churches as anything other than neo-colonialism.

Yet, the enduring talent of liberal clergy to see everything backwards Through the Looking-Glass results in twisting reality such that “colonialism is largely responsible for the negative attitude toward homosexuality”.

Read it all here:

Colonalism’s legacy seen in marriage debate

Raphael Hess is the Bishop of South Africa’s diocese of Saldanha Bay and describes himself as “coloured,” a term used in South Africa which means he has both Black and white ancestry. His diocese is in the minority in South Africa, having come out in favour of same-sex marriage. It’s a stance Hess describes as honouring, respecting and endorsing it while waiting for the rest of the province to do the same.

He says colonialism is largely responsible for the negative attitude toward homosexuality across Africa. “To reduce it to that only would be to simplify the issue. But certainly we inherit our laws from our colonial past because we’ve been taught that that is wrong … In Africa, those laws are still on our statute books. They weren’t invented by us.”

Some years ago I attended what was supposed to be an ecclesiastical pep talk by the then primate, Fred Hiltz. As I listened to him with drooping eyelids, it occurred to me that his delivery, reminiscent of Marvin the Robot, was not amenable to inspiring enthusiasm in others. Eventually, though, the archbishop’s eyes lit up, the voice became almost animated, the arms began gesticulating with excitement. “This is better”, I thought, we are about to hear that revival has broken out against all the odds. Perhaps someone had come back from the dead after prayer.

Alas, no. Someone had donated $160,000 to the church.

Nothing inspires activity and passion in the ACoC so much as the prospect of acquiring or losing money. Hence, with a looming $1.6 million deficit, Archbishop Linda Nicholls has appointed a committee to find radical solutions for accumulating more lovely cash.

From here:

A draft 2022 financial statement initially shared with CoGS, intended to be presented by the financial management committee, shows General Synod with a $1.6-million excess of expenses over revenues. Meanwhile, Nicholls said, statistics show the church’s membership is aging and declining. Cultural shifts in Canadian society and a newly redefined relationship with the Indigenous church, she said, also demand new ideas.

“Every organization needs to ask itself periodically whether the framework for the life of the institution is helping or possibly hindering its professed mission,” she said. The new committee would therefore be tasked with bringing recommendations to CoGS and to General Synod in 2025 to address these needs. Nicholls said it would be composed of theologians, bishops, clergy and laypeople “with a mandate to listen well and offer creative, lifegiving solutions—even radical solutions.”

The problem is the church is running out of money. The solution is a new committee.

During the years I’ve been attending an Anglican church, committees have come and gone leaving little behind them but a disagreeable whiff of empty posturing, very similar to IBM committee meetings that I attended during what passes for my career. The ecclesiastical version will, no doubt, be far more effective in inducing crippling ennui, since it will be populated by a gaggle of theologians, bishops and clergy whose tenuous grip on reality is summed up by this sentence in the article below: “The Communion has not split.”

Archbishop Linda Nicholls is suggesting “finding potentially radical solutions”. Before anyone rashly jumps to the conclusion that the Anglican Church of Canada is about to try Christianity to halt its dramatic decline, I refer you to another article, published at the same time, where Nicholls affirm[s] the dignity of LGBTQ+ people and their place in the church – which, in translation, means she affirms same-sex activity. And there is nothing less radical than that.

From here:

The church may soon have a new commission tasked with finding potentially “radical solutions” to the demographic and financial challenges that now face it, according to a proposal introduced by Archbishop Linda Nicholls, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, in her opening statement to the Council of General Synod (CoGS) March 2.

Nicholls said a new strategy would be needed for the church to go forward into the post-pandemic world. It will need to respond to challenges including financial pressure “as parishes struggle to sustain full-time or part-time stipendiary ministry and dioceses struggle to meet multiple responsibilities at local, regional and national levels.” The national church, on the other hand, is facing the challenge of supporting ministry in regions where donations do not cover expenses, she said. Meanwhile, statistics show the church’s membership is aging and declining. Cultural shifts in Canadian society and a newly redefined relationship with the Indigenous church, she said, also demand new ideas.

[…….]

But in fact, Nicholls said, “the Communion remains committed to walking together—some at a great distance, others working more closely together.

“The Communion has not split.”

The deficits are expected to be: $495,000 in 2024, $1.45 million in 2025, $460,000 in 2026 and $524,000 in 2027.

Income from diocesan contributions is projected to fall from $7.25 million in 2021 to $6.93 million in 2024.

The Anglican Church of Canada likes to think of itself as identifying with the poor. This should help.

Read all about it here:

The Anglican Church of Canada’s national office is forecast to have a balanced budget this year—but substantial deficits and program cuts are likely in the years to follow, documents prepared for the November meeting of Council of Synod (CoGS) state.

The budget for 2023 is expected to have a modest surplus of $43,000, according to a budget document prepared for CoGS and dated Oct. 27. This includes the projected cost of $791,900 for the meeting of General Synod planned for the summer, as well as a gathering of Sacred Circle planned in the spring. To balance its budget, the church will use just over $1 million in funds that were set aside in previous years to cover these expenses, General Synod treasurer Amal Attia told CoGS. The national church was expected to have a similarly modest surplus in 2022, she said.

Prospects for coming years, however, as revenues are expected to fall, are not as rosy. The Oct. 27 document forecasts a deficit of $495,000 in 2024, $1.45 million in 2025, $460,000 in 2026 and $524,000 in 2027, and a budget narrative predicts cuts at Church House.

“Years 2023 to 2027 in the trend indicate that in the absence of increased revenue, program cuts will likely be necessary,” it states.

The budget projection shows expected revenues from diocesan contributions—by far the largest element of the national office’s revenues—falling from 2021’s $7.25 million to $6.93 million in 2024, and then staying at $6.93 million until 2027, the last year covered by the projection.