Category Archives: Anglican Church of Canada

Trinity Anglican Church, Aurora joins with local Muslims

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From here:

(Aurora, ON) – A last minute decision was made on Thursday, September 9 by Aurora’s Trinity Anglican Clergy  – The Reverend Canon Dawn Davis, and the Reverends Stephen Kern and Dawn Leger would create a living answer to the threats of burning copies of the Qur’ans made by church members in Florida.

In co-operation with the Trinity Church’s resident Interfaith Minister, Rev. Terry Weller, a theme was decided upon – “The only burning we are interested in is a burning desire for “PEACE, RECONCILIATION AND RESPECT”.

A secondary theme presented was: “OUR GOD CREATED DIVERSITY ON THIS EARTH. WE HOLD THAT THERE IS UNITY IN DIVERSITY”.

While, as Christians, we should live peacefully with our neighbours of other faiths, if the message of the early church to opposing religions had been: “Our god created diversity on this earth. We hold that there is unity in diversity”, there would be no Trinity Anglican Church, Aurora. Perhaps that would not be such a bad thing.

Rev. Canon Douglas Graydon pleads for the excluded

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The Rev. Canon Douglas Graydon considers the great Anglican non event of 2010 – General Synod – and writes:

And yet, gay and lesbian Anglicans continue to stand off to the side, relegated to being less than complete human beings within our community of faith. As long as the learning, discerning

prayerful debates or indaba-like conversations continue, gay and lesbian Anglicans will be denied what every other Anglican enjoys: the full and blessed recognition of our relationships.

Let us keep in mind the human dimension of every church debate that involves the “worthiness” of another to receive the recognition and blessing of “the church.” And recognize the suffering experienced by those who are excluded, year after year, decade after decade.

God help us to learn more quickly from our own history of exclusion and to live more boldly Christ’s radical love of inclusion.

Rev. Graydon is one mixed up Canon.

99% of Canadians who freely choose – indeed, who could not be dragged kicking and screaming into an Anglican Church – to “stand off to the side” of Anglicanism would probably be shocked to learn that, by doing so, they are  “less than complete human beings”. For most of humanity, “blessing” resides in the comforting assurance that “decade after decade” they have been absent from an Anglican Church.

Every other Anglican does not enjoy “the full and blessed recognition” of his relationships. My dog and I have a deep, committed but hitherto unblessed relationship; he is hurt and feels profoundly excluded every Sunday when I set off to church without him, although his grief is considerably assuaged by noting the presence of the Anglican Journal in the cat’s litter box.

A blessing from an average Canadian Anglican Church isn’t worth much, so the “worthiness” of its recipient isn’t particularly relevant. In a real church, though, parishioners are acutely aware that they are unworthy of anything at all: any worthiness that has accrued to them is through Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross and any blessing an unearned favour, not a “right” to be bludgeoned out of the disintegrating Anglican diabolarchy that masquerades as a church.

The Rev. Canon should try and keep up with the times a little more. The “new gay” is polyamory; when is he going to start campaigning for the egregiously excluded polyamorists? – after all, they suffer so.

The Anglican Church of Canada and the census

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The ACoC has aligned itself with Herod in demanding a full Canadian census:

The Divine Right of Statisticians

The long-form Census boosters have hit the bottom of the pressure group totem pole, they have now sought out the mainline churches:

Protecting a harmonious society, care for the poor and vulnerable, and safeguarding religious liberty are at the heart of their complaints. Like Moses’s nemesis the Pharaoh, the federal government has turned a deaf ear.

Church leaders representing 76 per cent of Canadians (according to a 2003 Statistics Canada report) have written eloquent protests, all to no avail. For example, Anglicans said removing the mandatory long-form census would place the government in danger of overlooking the value and complexity of charitable work. Anglican officials reminded Industry Minister Tony Clement how the science of charity works: “In spiritual terms, this loving human response comes by the Grace of God, but in practical terms, it is emboldened and upheld by reliable information and sound methodologies. Statistical information has to help transform thought into action in profound and life-giving ways.

A lobbyist in holy orders is still a lobbyist. The Lord may move in mysterious ways, but Church officials are more obvious in their methods and goals. The Anglican Church of Canada, which once upon a time was referred to as the Conservative Party at prayer, has largely marginalized hum drum activities like preaching Christianity. This has been largely left to the parvenus in the evangelical churches. As aging parishioners grow ever closer to the Lord in the purely practical sense, the mainline churches grow ever more distant in the spiritual sense. Its servants have become, and present themselves, as eccentrically attired social workers. Helping the poor was always part of the Church’s mission, but this was in addition to preparing for the world to come. The article finishes with this humdinger:

So while Christians seem to be at risk of losing the scientific data they need to do their social efforts, teaching about giving information to God will go on. That’s what people do when they pray. An important part of prayer is the practice of letting God have your information. Somehow, conclusions emerge in that mysterious practice, conclusions leading to discovery of self, purpose and meaning. Counted or not, that kind of activity has got to be a good thing for nation building.

“[L]etting God have your information.” Isn’t God omniscient? Maybe the new God isn’t like the old God. Like the new Churches aren’t like the old Churches. In any case we are not filing out the long-form Census for the Almighty, we are filling it out for the Government of Canada. That’s an important distinction. You shall have no other gods before him?

Even the secular press manages to see through the façade that the ACoC likes to present: that it is still a Christian church. The likening of letting God have your information to letting the government have it betrays the sad reality that the god that the ACoC actually prefers to rely on is the nanny state god.

Anglicans in the Vancouver Gay Pride Parade

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Here is a video of the Anglican contribution to the Vancouver Gay Pride Parade:

Apparently it was “A magnificent demonstration of civility”.

It was also an exercise in Scripture mangling by people carrying signs saying, “no good thing will God withhold from those who walk with integrity” Ps 84:11. The organisation “Integrity” has high-jacked not only the word but the New English Version’s translation of what most others have as “walk uprightly”; since when did homosexual activity become a component of walking uprightly?

Further along we have a few brightly painted blokes sporting tea-shirts declaring themselves, presumably, to be “intrinsically good”, in spite of the general drift of Scripture, experience and common sense that says we are all intrinsically bad – so bad that we need a Saviour.

There is even a Rowan Williams doppelganger in there at 2:14.

The Anglican Church of Canada has a new consultant for its Department of Philanthropy

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From here:

The Primate has appointed Suzanne Lawson consultant to General Synod’s Department of Philanthropy and Philanthropy Committee. Ms. Lawson, a former Executive Director of Program at General Synod, will help assess current philanthropic initiatives and refocus the work of philanthropy at a national level.

Corporate sponsorship didn’t work; Anglicans who tithe are scarcer than bishops who believe; no-one wants their money to be used to pay for the litigation happy ACoC lawyers – so what’s to be done?

Here’s an idea – although convincing Paul Allen that the ACoC won’t die before he does might be tricky:

The co-founder of Microsoft Paul Allen has pledged the majority of his estimated US$13.5bn fortune to philanthropy following his death.
Allen set up his own charitable foundation, the Paul G Allen Family Foundation, 20 years ago.

The Anglican Church of Canada welcomes the queens

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From the National Post:

Just a week after rioting and mass arrests rocked the city’s core, yesterday Toronto was the scene of mass inclusiveness, welcome and friendship as huge crowds welcomed Queen Elizabeth II, just ahead of a welcome for up to a million attending the annual gay and lesbian Pride Day parade.

Her Royal Highness, who wore a blue and white dress, and a robin-blue straw hat with a ribbon, sat in the front row of the Cathedral Church of St. James this morning as Dean Douglas Stoute knit the day’s two themes deftly together with a sermon calling for the Anglican Church to hold a “respectful, inclusive dialogue with all God’s people,” adding, “this is not easy.”

Also in the packed church, which boasts Canada’s largest steeple, were the Queen’s husband, Prince Philip and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and his wife, Terry McGuinty.

“The church is undergoing a rebirth,” the Very Reverend Stoute told the congregation. “It is at times destructive.” He noted that some in the Anglican church have sought to defend traditional biblical ideas of who belongs and who does not, a reference to a schism in the Anglican church over the blessing of same-sex unions.

“A church grounded by inclusiveness and openness is becoming more relevant,” he said.
“Polarization within Anglicanism is not new,” Rev. Stoute added, noting the 16th-century division between Catholicism and Protestantism and the 19th century dispute between high church and low church.

“Throughout history Anglicanism has sought to find a middle road,” he added. “It is a recognition that we do not have all the answers. It requires that we let go of pride and reach out to listen with open minds and open hearts.”

I’m tempted the think that the Very Reverend Stoute has been over-imbibing in the drink of his namesake.

“A church grounded by inclusiveness and openness is becoming more relevant”; never in its entire existence has the Anglican Church been less relevant or more ignored. When it isn’t ignored, it is ridiculed for abandoning its own beliefs in favour of galloping as fast as it can on the treadmill of trendiness like a demented hamster in its wheel.

“The church is undergoing a rebirth,”. That must be why the number of people attending church has fallen from 1.2 million in 1960 to 650,000 in 2001 to 325,000 in 2009. This rebirth bears a remarkable resemblance to a death rattle.

““Throughout history Anglicanism has sought to find a middle road,” he added. “It is a recognition that we do not have all the answers. It requires that we let go of pride and reach out to listen with open minds and open hearts.” The new evangelism: we have no idea what to believe; do you? Why not join us on Sunday and we can all wonder what it’s all about together.

The poor Queen – with any luck she had jet lag and fell asleep.