Bishop affirms sanctity of life for 2SLGBTQI+, conveniently forgets about the unborn

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In advance of Ottawa’s Pride March on August 27th, Shane Parker, the bishop of Ottawa urged us all to read his letter “Global Interfaith Commission on LGBT+ Lives”. The heading for the letter is: “Declaring the Sanctity of Life and the Dignity of All”.

Not quite all as it turns out. The handwringing is reserved for 2SLGBTQI+ people because “all sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions are a precious part of creation and are part of the natural order.”

Around 100,000 abortions per year are performed in Canada. In 2021, 55,073 of them were surgical or aspiration abortions: the baby is sucked out of the uterus with a pump. Or, if you would like to use the euphemism employed by the abortion industry, it uses gentle suction to pull pregnancy tissue out of the uterus. My emphasis.

Some of the 55,073 aspiration abortions, would have been performed by dilation and evacuation (D&E). These are performed for late term abortion and, of course, it is another euphemism. Using normal English, it is a dismemberment abortion. The baby is torn apart in the womb in order to remove it. Oh, and the baby’s skull is crushed. Here is a detailed description:

To prepare for a D&E, the abortionist must first dilate (widen) the woman’s cervix. Generally, this is done by placing laminaria sticks, which are osmotic dilators made from sterilized seaweed, in the cervix 24 hours before the surgery and allowing them to expand. Synthetic osmotic dilators, used to slowly widen the cervix, and misoprostol can also be used for cervical dilation. After the woman’s cervix is dilated, a suction catheter is used to suck out the amniotic fluid. The abortionist then uses metal forceps (sopher clamp) with sharp metal “teeth” to grab and tear away parts of the baby until her whole body is extracted from the womb. Since the baby’s skull has usually hardened to bone at this point (calcified), it is often crushed so that it can be removed.

However, the important thing to remember when considering the sanctity of life of a human, the bearer of God’s image, is affirmation of 2SLGBTQI+ individuals. Let’s not forget that.

From here:

Declaring the Sanctity of Life and the Dignity of All

  • We come together as senior religious leaders, academics, and lay leaders from around the world to affirm the sanctity of life and dignity of all.

  • We affirm that all human beings of all sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions are a precious part of creation and are part of the natural order.

  • We affirm that we are all equal under God, whom many call the Divine, and so we are all equal to one another.

  • We, therefore, call for all to be treated equally under the law.

  • We recognize with sadness that certain religious teachings have often, throughout the ages, caused and continue to cause deep pain and offense to those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex.

  • We acknowledge, with profound regret, that some of our teachings have created, and continue to create, oppressive systems that fuel intolerance, perpetuate injustice and result in violence. This has led, and continues to lead, to the rejection and alienation of many by their families, their religious groups and cultural communities.

Contains tobacco depictions

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I gave up smoking in 1978 when I became a Christian. Or, rather, God gave it up on my behalf. Before that, I smoked cigarettes – Gauloises were my favourite – a pipe and cigars. All inhaled. On numerous occasions I tried to give them up, to no avail.

I started smoking in university in my existentialist phase: life is meaningless, I decided. Smoking was something to do and trying to give it up gave one a purpose, so why not start. I was right to some extent: trying to give it up did give me a purpose; nevertheless, it was an exercise in futility because I couldn’t manage it.

When I became a Christian, one of my first prayers was to give up smoking. The day after, I woke up a non-smoker: I didn’t want to smoke and still don’t.

That preamble is a longwinded way of saying that I think smoking as a pastime is a bad idea. Still, the following is especially silly:

It is the opening screen to the latest Indiana Jones film.

In most films today we are subjected, without notice, to smooching lesbians, actors and actresses frolicking unclothed in bed, blood, gore, random violence, and the imbibing of unspecified drugs though needles, fumes and inhalation. Almost no film is released without a token homosexual, lesbian, bisexual or sadomasochist. But we simply have to be warned about smoking – tobacco, of course, because marijuana smoking, now legal to buy, sell and use in Canada, is completely harmless.

I think I saw just one lit cigarette in the film.

Graffiti on Oakville church being investigated as a hate crime

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St. Aidan’s Anglican church in Oakville has been daubed with graffiti.

Pride month seems to have been the inspiration for the artwork and, since it includes homophobic slurs, it is being investigated as a hate crime.

Although I have little in common with the liberal version of Christianity promoted by St. Aidan’s, I doubt that this is a productive way of protesting it.

Still, if the graffiti had celebrated Pride Month and denounced the traditional view of marriage, while declaring St. Aidan’s a “False Church”, would it be investigated as a hate crime?

Here is the graffiti:


And here is the article:

Halton police are investigating a recent act of vandalism at an Oakville church as a hate crime.

Sometime between the afternoon of Saturday, Aug. 19 and the morning of Sunday, Aug. 20, two signs reading “We Stand In Unity With The Halton Community” were cut in half at St. Aidan’s Anglican Church, 318 Queen Mary Dr., police say.

The church had set up the signs during Pride Month and left them up afterwards.

The church and attached daycare were also vandalized with graffiti in five areas, according to police.

“They include homophobic slurs and are being investigated as a hate-motivated crime,” said Halton Police Media Officer Const. Ryan Anderson.

No arrests have been made and no suspect descriptions are available.

When reached for comment Reverend Fran Wallace said that as a community of faith St. Aidan’s wished to acknowledge the sadness of this act.

Bishop William Cliff’s inhibition lifted

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Cliff was inhibited after an allegation of misconduct surfaced shortly after he was elected.

An investigation into the allegation tells us that it was “thoroughly and professionally investigated by members of the Safe Church Resource Team (SCRT) of the Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario” “with a definitive finding that the allegation against Bishop Cliff is not supported by the evidence.” “The findings were clear and unambiguous.”

You can read the two letters from bishops Anne Germon and Michael Oulton here (my bold).

The allegations against Bishop Cliff have been thoroughly and professionally investigated by members of the Safe Church Resource Team (SCRT) of the Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario over the last three months. The members of the SCRT in Ontario were trained and resourced to conduct the investigation which was undertaken in a manner which is consistent with best practices and with the principles of Natural Justice. The investigation was overseen by the Chancellor of the Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario. There was no other involvement by leadership.
The investigators concluded that the evidence did not support the allegation.

In a Journal article Archbishop Anne Germond said, “The report of the investigators is confidential and will not be released”.

In summary, William Cliff has been exonerated but we don’t know what the allegation was, we don’t know who made it, we don’t know the details of the investigation and we are being asked to take on trust that the findings of Safe Church Resource Team (SCRT) of the Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario were independent and unbiased.

That sounds transparent.

Anglican Church of Canada has $1.55 million deficit for 2022

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The deficit is due to market losses.

The Anglican Church used to be known as the conservative party at prayer, now it is the communist party at smudging.

The ACoC likes to waft an aroma of socialist egalitarianism heavenward in clouds of smudging fumes, but it still loves money and, even though it pretends to emulate the homeless man/God who had nowhere to lay his head, it just can’t stop loving money and the means of making more of it.

To that end, in 2021 it had $27,790,616 invested in Cash, Equities, Alternative Investments and Real Estate.

To paper a veneer of pious poverty over this, the Diocese of Toronto displays a statue of homeless Panhandler Jesus outside one of its churches. It makes Toronto’s homeless population feel so much better.

But back to the thing the ACoC isn’t interested in: money.

Last year’s global market decline left the church’s national office with a budget deficit of $1.55 million at the end of 2022. The treasurer explains more here. Do I see a tear in her eye?

Investment losses from last year’s global market decline left the church’s national office with a budget deficit of $1.55 million at the end of 2022, a financial statement released to General Synod shows.

The deficit occurred despite an operational surplus of $346,000. Total revenue for General Synod in 2022 was $9.75 million, down by more than $37,900 from the previous year. Expenses were $9.40 million, or $882,000 higher than last year.

In the financial management committee’s report to General Synod June 30, treasurer and CFO Amal Attia said investment losses, however, made “that surplus a deficit and that is as a result of the nosedive that the entire investment portfolio [took] for everybody.” Investment losses of $1.77 million and a $250,000 provision for potential legal settlements left the budget awash in red ink, despite more than $123,000 in undesignated legacies. Market losses from unrealized investments, Attia added, were “not anything in our control.”

Stock and other investment markets around the world experienced declines in 2022 due to a number of factors going back to the economic recession that followed the COVID-19 pandemic, which later resulted in soaring inflation and global supply chain problems. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 also cause.

Anglican Church of Canada advertises its new liturgies

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Perhaps “incantations” would be a better word.

The Anglican Church of Canada has added some new incantations to its website:

The Pastoral Liturgies for Journeys of Gender Affirmation and Transition is now there.

And, for all of you who like to announce your pronouns, there is the Inclusive Language Liturgical Psalter, where God has been robbed of his.

I have little doubt that there will be almost no demand for the above, but I expect this one to be in constant use: The Deconsecration of a Sacred Space.

Anglican Church of Canada attendance dropping 10% per year

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The decline was 10% per year for 2020 and 2021. 2022 may not be much better since the two dioceses (Kootenay and Fredericton) that have produced data show an attendance decline of 32% and 37% from 2019 to 2022.

Christmas and Easter attendance for those two dioceses was down almost 50%.

It’s just as well the bishops are concentrating all their efforts on reversing this trend by authorising transgender liturgies.

The report is here and the Journal article is here.

Data for 2021 confirm attendance in the Anglican Church of Canada declined by about 10 per cent that year, after a similar drop in 2020, the church’s statistics officer says, while preliminary findings from 2022 suggest it continued in a steep decline into the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

In 2019, statistics officer Canon Neil Elliot released a report that described a downward trend of 2.5 per cent per year—a rate that would see the church’s membership depleted entirely by 2040 if it continued. An update with data from 2020 showed the downward trend had accelerated to about 10 per cent that year, with data that was preliminary at the time suggesting a similar rate of decline for 2021. The latest numbers confirm the latter, Elliot says. 

The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund exporting LGBTQIA+ and abortion propaganda

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The Anglican Church of Canada’s PWRDF’s is evangelising El Salvador.

Conversion in this case is not so much to salvation through Jesus Christ but to salaciousness through homoeroticism.

Not only that, it is promoting ”sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR)” which, stripped of euphemisms, by the government of Canada’s own definition, includes murdering unborn babies by aborting them.

And you still think the ACoC is a Christian Church?

From here:

All around the world, members of the LGBTIQA+ community face discrimination, threats, harassment, and violence, just because of their identity. In many areas, hateful views and attitudes are on the rise. Many things are to blame for this, but one of the major contributing factors is a lack of education and awareness of LGBTQIA+ identities and experiences. UNESCO suggests the inclusion of sexual diversity in educational programming as one method to prevent hateful attitudes and attacks on LGBTQIA+ people.

To combat discrimination and attempt to secure safer futures for LGBTQIA+ communities, PWRDF has partnered with long-time partner, Association CoCoSI, on a project to promote education and awareness surrounding sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in El Salvador. PWRDF will support this year-long project with $30,000. It will seek to reduce violence, harassment and prejudice against LGBTQIA+ people in six rural communities within three El Salvadorian municipalities.

Anglican Trans-Porting to Uganda

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Rev. Theo Robinson, a transgender priest in the Diocese of Rupert’s Land, is one of the people responsible for producing the newly adopted liturgies for gender transition and affirmation.

Robinson is delighted that it reaffirms we are an inclusive church.

The bishop of Rupert’s Land, Geoff Woodcroft, is also excited by the prospect of using the liturgy for what, undoubtedly, will be a flood of candidates eager to fill his church’s deserted pews to partake of the new offering.

Woodcroft is so enamoured of his progressive openminded omnierudite pieties (poop™ for short), he is bent on exporting them to those whom he regards as less enlightened than himself, specifically Ugandans.

From here:

At the same time Woodcroft commended the new liturgy for use by churches in the Diocese, he sent a letter to Stephen Kaziimba, Primate of Uganda, condemning his recent decision to champion that government’s new law criminalizing homosexuality.

“We are outraged that a member church of the Anglican communion could recklessly betray Christ’s teaching to love, and blatantly violate The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” Woodcroft wrote in the letter, which was also sent to Justin Welby, archbishop of Canterbury and head of the worldwide Anglican Church.

“We are deeply saddened and disturbed to know that Ugandan LGBTTQ+ people, their families and allies must live in prisons of isolation formed by fear,” he said, adding “the disciples of the Diocese of Rupert’s Land hear God’s call to care for God’s children in every time and place.”

Diocese of the Arctic: in the Anglican Church of Canada but not of it

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The Diocese of the Arctic is unusual.

First, its bishop, David Parsons, is a member of a species all but extinct in the Anglican Church of Canada: he is a Christian bishop.

Second, the diocese is in communion with ANiC and is open to licensing its priests.

Third, the diocese does not support the recently adopted liturgies for Gender Transition and Affirmation or any of the other LGBT+ claptrap that obsesses other ACoC clergy.

Fourth, the diocese sees itself as the Anglican Church of Canada and the rest of the organisation as – something else. By implication, not a church.

Lastly, Parsons thinks, “that the great and terrible day of the Lord is coming, and many bishops are going to have a stark wake up as they stand before God and are asked why they have not stood against the doctrines of demons and devils. My fear is, that day will not be a day of repentance but just justice and judgment because the day of grace will be over.”

Read more in this interview at VOL:

The majority of our denomination is solid. The Diocese of the Arctic is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. People fail to remember that the revisionists in Canada and the USA are the minority in the Anglican Communion. They just have a loud voice and often use that voice to monopolize, or bully. As an Anglican, I’ve grown up reciting psalm 95 to warn me about not having a hard heart. I’ve read the book of Judges, when the people often turned back to the world, and I’ve read the prophets, who warn us to not follow the gods of this age or past ages.

Two of the saddest parts that I have read in the New Testament are found in John 6:66 (“From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him”) and 2 Timothy 4:10. In John chapter 6 Jesus tells us He is the Bread of life and many of Jesus’ disciples turn back, and no longer follow him after hearing Jesus’ declaration. St. Paul speaks of Demas, who left him because of Demas’ love for the world.

It seems to me that the revisionists do not love the word of God, nor do they receive it as the bread of life, and so rather than living under the authority of Jesus Christ, and His word, they choose to be an authority unto themselves.