By sponsoring a film in which people love paying taxes and business is the villain. The reason for this sponsorship is made no less recondite by the fact that the ACoC is running out of money and is appealing to business to sponsor its forthcoming synod.

The most memorable scene in Poor No More, a documentary that premiered this week in Toronto, takes place on the shop floor of a large truck manufacturer in Sweden.

A female employee, talking while she works, says it’s “okay to pay taxes because our system takes care of all the people.” She explains that if she became sick or had an accident, she would get 80 per cent of her wages. Like all Swedes, she is entitled to subsidized child care, elder care, high-quality health care and 10 days of parental leave a year.

A delegation of Canadian visitors — host Mary Welsh and two Canadian workers trapped in insecure, low-wage jobs — listens in disbelief.

The trio moves outside to a Stockholm street. “I love paying taxes,” a passerby affirms.

It seems as if the Canadians have stepped into fantasyland.

That is what the filmmakers intend. “If we can’t imagine a world without poverty, we probably can’t get there,” says executive producer David Langille.

The documentary, a three-year effort, is Langille’s first foray into the world of filmmaking. He is a part-time university professor with an extensive network of contacts in the social justice movement.

Fifty sponsors — from the Society of Energy Professionals to the Anglican Church of Canada — paid for the $550,000 film.

The goal of the documentary is to break the barriers that prevent Canadians from acting to eliminate poverty.

The first is a belief that only a small minority cares. The second is a belief that the cause is futile. The third is burnout. After 25 years of lobbying, organizing, demonstrating and preaching, the poverty rate has barely changed.

This time, Langille and his colleagues want to send a message of hope: Poverty can be beaten, without bankrupting the national treasury or reducing the country’s standard of living.

The documentary is polished, interesting and well-paced. But it is one-sided. Every commentator in it — professors, authors, union leaders and heads of think-tanks — blames big business and its friends in government for turning Canada into a land of poverty amidst plenty.

Having failed to find the money needed to run its own synod, the ACoC has decided to tackle something easier:

Subject: Toward a World Free of Nuclear Weapons

Moved by: The Rev. Canon Dr. William E. Prentice, Diocese of Ottawa

Seconded by: The Rev. Dr. Linda Privitera, Diocese of Ottawa

Be it resolved that this General Synod:

Expresses its support for a world free of nuclear weapons, and asks the General Secretary to convey our position to the Government of Canada, requesting:

1. from the Government information about Canadian activities to support nuclear disarmament, and
2. from the Prime Minister a public affirmation of Canada’s commitment to a world free of nuclear weapons.

Many are rejoicing as the ACoC does its bit to disarm the West:

Its own health and wealth, that is; it now has a Theology of Philanthropy:

The new way: a theology of philanthropy
While we admit that putting a stop to this is not an easy task, and certainly not something we can do alone, the Department of Philanthropy is working diligently with dioceses, parishes and our partners within the national church to help the church unearth a theology of philanthropy—a theology that is mission-driven and that inspires Canadian Anglicans to give gladly as a faithful expression of their Christian vocation.

If the Biblical injunction to tithe hasn’t persuaded Anglicans to fork over their cash, there’s going have to be a lot of digging before the ACoC unearth(s) a theology of philanthropy that will. Oh, sorry, I forgot: to take tithing seriously requires a literalistic reading of Scripture.