This, we are told, is not so much a reversal of a general financial downward trend but a saving on travel expenses during the pandemic and shrewd investments in the capitalist system the church is otherwise bent on destroying.

Read all about it here:

The Anglican Church of Canada’s national office recorded two consecutive multi-million-dollar yearly surpluses in 2020 and 2021, for a combined total of just over $8 million, the church’s treasurer and chief financial officer has confirmed.

As reported to the Council of General Synod (CoGS) in March, General Synod netted an excess of revenue over expense of $3.6 million. But the corresponding figure for the previous year was also in the millions—just over $4.5 million, treasurer Amal Attia says.

The two figures added together approach the national office’s total spending in 2021, which was $8.5 million.

A 2020 financial statement was presented to CoGS in May 2021, but was not reported on by the Anglican Journal at the time. The CoGS session took place on the weekend immediately after then-acting editor Tali Folkins departed for a sabbatical leave, and immediately before then-editor Matthew Townsend returned from a two-month parental leave—and shortly before the sudden departure of both Townsend and staff writer Joelle Kidd over the sharing by church management of a draft article on sexual misconduct. (See “Off on the wrong track?” on p. 8 of this issue.)

The church should plan to carefully steward the combined $8 million in revenue surplus and savings it accrued across 2020 and 2021, say two of its financial leaders. General Secretary Archdeacon Alan Perry and Attia caution that the pandemic years have offered a windfall that will not likely be repeated.

There’s no recent precedent for this, says Perry, noting that over the past couple of decades, the revenue for the church has been trending downward as congregations shrink. “Having a surplus of any kind is quite extraordinary. And especially of this size,” he says.

The surplus should not be taken as a reversal of that downward trend, Perry says. Rather, it represents a couple of key factors that set the pandemic years apart. The first is a substantial savings on money the church normally sets aside for travel expenses as clergy and lay leaders travel for ministry and church governance. When the pandemic postponed some of those meetings and moved others online, the church saved money.

The other major component is that the past few years have been unusually successful for the church’s investments, which increased in value by about $6 million over the course of their eight-year maturation period, says Attia. Some of that comes to the church in the form of capital gains, she says, but the majority of it doesn’t come back in cash until and unless the church decides to sell those investments. As a result, much of that $6 million is in the value of the stocks the church holds, not money it has at its disposal.

 

The Anglican Church of Canada has developed a trial liturgy for “Journeys of Gender Affirmation and Transition”, to be used to bless the “gender transition process”.

Here is a sample to whet your appetite should you wish to transition after suddenly realising that your inner lady is not at peace with your beard and testicles:

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, and the plants, the trees, and the creatures of the land, sea, and air, God created a human being in their image and called them very good. What Scripture tells us about this first human’s gender is more poetic than clear cut – this first human embodiment included maleness,
femaleness, and more than these – all of this was affirmed as very good.

So, we know that all bodies are made in God’s image whether we recognize ourselves as female, male, or intersex; whether we are transgender, cisgender, or do not recognize ourselves in any of these labels. We are called by God both to care for and to be co-creators of all of
creation and that includes our bodies. Taking steps physically or spiritually to manifest our gender identity more fully is to participate in God’s commandment to tend and love all that God has made.

You can peruse the entire liturgy here.

If you look up “gender-based violence” in Wikipedia (not the most reliable source admittedly, but it will do for now), you will find that it means:

Violence against women (VAW), also known as gender-based violence and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), are violent acts primarily or exclusively committed against women or girls. Such violence is often considered a form of hate crime, committed against women or girls specifically because they are female, and can take many forms.

The Anglican Church of Canada has a definition that is a little more…. modern. Along with some other denominations, it has published a small volume of “16 devotions inspired by the annual 16 days of activism against gender-based violence”,  all based on the Magnificat. Sort of.

I suspect you are unaware of the fact that if you naïvely refer to members of your Christian fellowship as “brothers and sisters”, you will have committed an act of violence against non-binary individuals. Consider yourself warned. I myself am analogue through and through, so I suppose I fall into that category and am entitled to feel suitably aggrieved. “Same-sex marriage” is also a no-no. I knew it wouldn’t last:

In our efforts to “preserve unity” or “maintain relationships”, we commit an act of violence against the communities who are most vulnerable, who are most trying to find a place of belonging in a system that invalidates their very identities and existence. When we welcome our “brothers and sisters”, we erase nonbinary people such as myself. When we refer to “same-sex marriage”, we ignore the diversity of the queer3 and trans community. When we turn a blind eye to the direct, indirect, and systemic forms of queerphobia and transphobia, we commit violence against God’s beloved children. We are directly responsible for the fact that trans and queer individuals do not consider churches to be a place where they can belong.

And let’s not forget that every-growing alphabetic menagerie, 2SLGBTQQIA:

The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls heard the testimonies of Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people that oppression against them is primarily based on colonialism, racism, and gender, with other factors, such as education, income, and ability, sometimes coming into play. In particular, families and survivors consistently referred to four general ways that maintain colonial violence.

We are informed by Rev. Susan C. Johnson that 2SLGBTQQIA1 stands for: two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual. She is a bishop no less, so this information must be reliable, although I would suggest she add another “S” for people like me who are Skeptical.