Anglican Journal to be editorless, left wafting hither and thither on a miasma of politically correct religiosity

Posted on December 13, 2012 by David

The current Anglican Journal editor, Kristin Jenkins – whom I met briefly in 2010 and rather liked in spite of our radically different perspectives – is abandoning the Anglican Journal to the tender mercies of Paul Feheley.

In the face of certain cuts for Anglican Journal staff, one can hardly blame her.

As the article below notes, the budget for the Journal will be more conservative; what is left unsaid is that the content will undoubtedly be less conservative – you may think that an impossibility, but with a herculean effort from the stragglers still employed by the paper, I am certain a way will be found.

From here:

Following the resignation of Editor Kristin Jenkins, the Anglican Journal will adopt an interim management structure and not hire a new editor until late 2013 at the earliest. Sam Carriere, director of Communications and Information Resources and Resources for Mission, shared this news with General Synod staff on Dec. 13.

Editor since 2009, Ms. Jenkins will leave the Anglican Journal on Jan. 7, 2013 to become director of advancement at Albert College in Belleville, Ont.

“It is my feeling, supported by advice I have sought and received, that I should not engage in a formal search and hiring process for an editor of the Anglican Journal until next year’s restructuring work is behind us, at the earliest,” said Mr. Carriere in an email to staff.

In November, the Council of General Synod passed a transitional budget for 2013 and agreed to establish a more conservative budget for 2014 in response to declining revenues. Throughout the next year, General Synod leadership will consider ways to restructure the national office, including the Anglican Journal.

The Queen James Bible

Posted on December 13, 2012 by David

Queen James It was first published on November 27, 2012 and ranks #20,842 in Amazon book sales. That is before the ACoC and TEC get wind of it and adopt it as their pew Bible, of course.

Take a look here to see what was expunged, massaged and tinkered with to discourage anti-LGBT interpretations.

Naturally, the Bible has its own Facebook page, adorned with this image:

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From here:

Homosexuality in The Bible
Homosexuality was first mentioned in the Bible in 1946 in the Revised Standard Version. There is no mention of or reference to homosexuality in any Bible prior to this – only interpretations have been made. Anti-LGBT Bible interpretations commonly cite only eight verses in the Bible that they interpret to mean homosexuality is a sin; Eight verses in a book of thousands!

The Queen James Bible seeks to resolve interpretive ambiguity in the Bible as it pertains to homosexuality: We edited those eight verses in a way that makes homophobic interpretations impossible.

Who is Queen James?
The King James Bible is the most popular Bible of all time, and arguably the most important English language document of all time. The brainchild and namesake of King James I, who wanted an English language Bible that all could own and read, it has been in print for over 400 years and has brought more people to Christ than any other Bible translation. Commonly known to biographers but often surprising to most Christians, King James I was a well-known bisexual. Though he did marry a woman, his many gay relationships were so well-known that amongst some of his friends and court, he was known as “Queen James.” It is in his great debt and honor that we name The Queen James Bible so.

A Fabulous Bible
The QJB is a big, fabulous Bible. It is printed and bound in the United States on thick, high-quality paper in a beautiful, readable typeface. It is the perfect Bible for ceremony, study, sermon, gift-giving, or simply to put on display in the home or Church.

You can’t choose your sexuality, but you can choose Jesus. Now you can choose a Bible, too.

h/t: MCJ

Fred Hiltz meets with Justin Welby and warns him about ACNA

Posted on December 13, 2012 by David

Hiltz-Welby One of Fred Hiltz’s recurring nightmares is that Canterbury recognises ANCA and ANiC, making ACNA an official North American Anglican province with ANiC as one of its dioceses. In order to forestall this calamity, Hiltz has taken his “ongoing concern” to Justin Welby.

It’s worth noting that a contributing factor to the judge’s decision to award the ANiC church buildings to the Diocese of New Westminster was that they are held in trust for “Anglican worship”. By the judge’s reasoning, since the ACoC is the only recognised Anglican Church in Canada, Anglican worship and doctrine, no matter how perversely bizarre, is set by it and no-one else.

If ACNA is recognised by Canterbury, it would mean that the beloved nonsense emanating from Hiltz’s beloved church would no longer be the sole official measure of Canadian Anglicanism.

Welby, apparently, is “very appreciative” of ACoC contributions to the Anglican communion. Things like the pioneering work on suing Christians, ejecting them from their buildings, inhibiting world famous theologians such as J. I. Packer, filling the ranks of its clergy with partnered homosexuals and performing the Vagina Monologues in a cathedral.

There aren’t many Anglican Provinces that can make those claims.

From here:

The leader of the Anglican Church of Canada has emerged from his Dec. 6 meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury-elect, Justin Welby, feeling “very optimistic about his leadership.”

Archbishop Fred Hitz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, noted Welby’s “extensive ministry of reconciliation” and told the Journal that, “I get is a sense that he wants to be personally pro-active to build relations.

[….]

During his meeting with Welby, Hiltz said he mentioned ongoing concern about efforts by the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) to be recognized by the Church of England. Composed of Anglicans who have left the Anglican Church of Canada and The Episcopal Church in the U.S., ACNA describes itself as “an emerging Province in the global Anglican Communion.”

Hiltz said he requested that if bodies of the Church of England are to meet with representatives of ACNA, “in fairness, they should also meet with us to get a better picture.” Welby was “very appreciative” of the place of the Anglican Church of Canada in the Communion and the contributions it has been able to make, added Hiltz.

The Diocese of New Westminster is running out of cash

Posted on December 12, 2012 by David

The Dioceses of New Westminster, having alienated and driven out its conservative congregations, is hard pressed financially:

One major reason was that in 2002, when some congregations and clergy walked out of our Synod, our Diocesan budget was reduced by 28%.

Consequently, it has hired fund-raising consultants to help replenish its coffers.

Not all the parishes received the news with unmitigated rejoicing:

• A majority saw the case as a diocesan wish list without a solid business plan and for that and a variety of other reasons they did not support it.
• The proposed revenue split between parishes, diocese and national church was not supported.
• The interviewees had a variety of opinions about why they and others did not support a financial campaign at this time.
• A common view was that the church is no longer the place where churchgoers give first. There is constant competition for donor dollars.
• The church must become more efficient in using donor dollars. Regular reporting on how revenue is used and evaluation of programs and initiatives supported by those dollars must be improved. The church can no longer rest on its laurels and just expect to receive gifts.
• 18 of those interviewed believe there are still wounds from the split that happened ten years ago and it is too soon to start a campaign of this magnitude.

It tears at the hearstrings for me to report that:

It was Compton’s finding that there was not sufficient support to launch a 19 million dollar campaign over 4 or 5 years.

Still, I’m sure the consultants were paid handsomely.

Tolerance and inclusion in the Church of Scotland

Posted on December 12, 2012 by David

The Church of Scotland has succumbed to the spirit of the age and is in the process of deciding to approve the ordination of clergy in same-sex relationships and the blessing of same-sex couples.

Not all agree. Rev. Dr. William Philip doesn’t, so his church is losing its building, Bibles, hymn books and an organ.

What do the liberals want with Bibles?

From here:

The minister of St George’s Tron in Glasgow has preached his last sermon in the building, before the Church of Scotland seizes the premises.

The congregation, which has been meeting in its Buchanan Street venue for more than 70 years, split from the Kirk in June over the ordination of openly homosexual ministers.

Since then St George’s Tron has been embroiled in a legal dispute about its building, which has recently undergone a £2.6 million refurbishment paid for by its members.
Last Wednesday, law officers appeared at the church prayer meeting demanding the return of bibles, hymn books and an organ.

The minister, Rev Dr William Philip, described the Kirk’s actions as “shameful”.

He said: “Having law officers disrupt a church meeting and intimidate a church is something we associate with China or former Soviet dictatorships but is the last thing we expected from the so-called national Church.”

Professor of church history says ANiC really is Anglican

Posted on December 10, 2012 by David

Something that sticks in the craw of the Anglican Church of Canada’s leadership is what the “A” stands for in “ANiC”. Thus, a group of Diocese of Niagara clergy complained when a local paper, the Burlington Post, referred to a new ANiC church building as “Anglican”.

Canon Alan Hayes, a professor of church history at Wycliffe, has defended ANiC’s claim to be Anglican in the Diocese of Niagara’s paper.

I had a chat over coffee with Alan Hayes a few years back; he was an affable fellow who lamented the diminishment of diversity within the ACoC after the departure of the ANiC parishes. While I’m keen to be able to call the church I belong to Christian, I’m not too concerned about whether it is generally recognised as being Anglican or not. Nevertheless, since it causes the opposition such consternation, I will continue to insist that it is, in fact, Anglican.

I don’t think he was fired for consorting with the enemy.

From here (page3):

I’m still digesting the letter you reprinted from some senior Burlington clergy to the Burlington Post differentiating ACC Anglicans from ANC Anglicans.

I hope that this doesn’t start a pattern where ELCIC Lutherans will write in to distinguish themselves from Missouri Synod Lutherans, PAOC Pentecostals from Four-Square Pentecostals, BCOQ Baptists from Fellowship Baptists, CCC Congregationalists from unaffiliated Congregationalists, Free Methodists from Wesleyan Methodists, Roman Catholics from Old Catholics, MCC Mennonites from Old Order Mennonites, OCA Orthodox from ethnic Orthodox, PCC Presbyterians from RPCNA Presbyterians, CRC Reformed from RCA Reformed —the permutations are almost endless.

Come on, Burlington Post! Pay attention to our schisms! Can it have escaped you how important they are?

But, wait. Is it such good strategy for Christians to stomp into the public forum shouting at the top of their lungs, “WE’RE not the same as THEM!”? Have we thought what this sounds like to the world?

Or, more scripturally, can we find spiritual health in rushing to draw lines of separation between ourselves and “the other”? Jesus used the parable of the righteous pharisee to answer that one, and Paul taught that we’re all one in Christ Jesus.

They say that one reason the early Church grew so explosively was that outsiders looked in with awe and said, “See how the Christians love each other!” Now we’re prompting the public to declare, “See how the Christians really, really don’t get along!”

How’s that working for us?

Canon Alan L. Hayes, Oakville

Advent 2. J. S. Bach, Cantata BWV 70

Posted on December 9, 2012 by David

The first part of Cantata BWV 70, “Watch! Pray! Pray! Watch!” for Advent 2.

Occupy the garden shed

Posted on December 8, 2012 by David

If you do, make sure you don’t pay anyone for the privilege because, if you do, he will be fined and you will be kicked out.

From here:

A B.C. woman has been fined $500 for renting out a garden shed to a homeless couple and their three dogs.

A power cord that ran from the woman’s house in Kelowna, B.C., supplied electricity to the small metal building, for which she was charging rent of $200 per month.

It’s not clear how long the people and pets had been living in the shed. Bylaw officers warned the owner two weeks ago it was not suitable accommodation, but the advice was ignored, said city spokesman Stephen Fleming.

The mistake the homeless couple and their dogs made was they weren’t making a political statement. Had they been occupying the shed illegally and put up a sign to the effect that they were the 99%, no-one would have touched them, Anglican clergy would have preached sermons about them and celebrities would have paid them a visit for a photo-op.

Lacking that foresight, they are now not only homeless but shedless – although the Kelowna Gospel Mission has generously offered them a place at its shelter.

Abortion in Canada

Posted on December 8, 2012 by David

Here are Canada’s 2009 abortion statistics published by the National Post in graph form – click on it for a full sized image.

As Peter Hitches noted:

Those who wonder what they would have done if they had lived at the time of some terrible injustice now know the answer. We do live in such a time. And we do nothing.

Nowhere does this apply more than Canada. Canada has no law limiting abortion no matter how well developed the baby or how flimsy the excuse. Abortion is used as birth control, girls are aborted because they are not boys, a twin is aborted because two babies are too many; babies are aborted because they cost money to bring up, because they interfere with careers and because they just get in the way.

All political parties are afraid to discuss abortion; other than the Roman Catholic church, mainline denominations are too dominated by feminists and their wimpish male sympathisers to protest and, apart from a few stalwart exceptions, Canada’s citizens follow the zeitgeist like mindless, bleating sheep.

Dean Peter Elliot appointed to TEC special task force for church structural reform

Posted on December 7, 2012 by David

It seems that The Episcopal Church, in the name of diversity, wants to “include some persons with critical distance from the Church’s institutional leadership” on its task force. Other than Michael Ingham, I can’t think of anyone less distanced from TEC’s leadership. Peter Elliot is extremely liberal, a partnered homosexual and at the forefront of the Anglican Church of Canada’s rush to become an exclusive church for the alphabet soup community.

From here:

In addition, two partners from other Anglican Communion provinces have been appointed: the Very Rev. Peter Elliott of the Anglican Church of Canada, dean of the Diocese of New Westminster and rector of Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver; and the Rev. Sathianathan Clarke, Th.D., of the Church of South India, who is the Bishop Sundo Kim Chair in World Christianity and professor of theology, culture and mission at Wesley Theological Seminary.
Resolution C095
According to resolution C095, “The membership of the Task Force shall reflect the diversity of the Church, and shall include some persons with critical distance from the Church’s institutional leadership.”