It's ours, my precious, we wants it

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michael-gollumThe Diocese of Niagara wants the church building that the people who attend the parish of St. Hilda’s paid for and maintain – still.

They want the rectory, bought and paid for by the parishioners of St. Hilda’s; they would like to either boot the rector out or make him pay rent, because he not only disagreed with the diocese, he acted on it. He was mean to them.

The diocese froze St. Hilda’s bank account in an attempt to steal their money. This backfired, I gather, since the account is still frozen, so no-one can touch the money.

The rector’s and people’s wardens were mean to the diocese too, so the diocese is suing them to teach them a lesson.

The diocese has taken the Parish Records of St. Hilda’s, including the parish roll for ‘safe keeping’; the current parish roll contains the list of names of everyone who voted – unanimously – to join ANiC.

St. Hilda’s parishioners: bolt your doors at night.

What is the Anglican Church of Canada's position on Abortion?

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The number of abortions per year in Canada is running at about 105,000 or 30 abortions for 100 live births.

You would have to be forgiven for not knowing what the ACoC’s position is on this, because the ACoC has done its best to conceal its official views on abortion. From one perspective, this is strange, since the ACoC spends a considerable amount of time trumpeting its support for a just society –  informing us piously that Jesus himself was on the side of the oppressed – and conducting Justice Camps where backsliding communicants are sent for re-education. It is hard to imagine an act more unjust than the deliberate murder of an unborn child; but where are the clarion calls for justice from the ACoC? Silence.

Strangely enough, the Canadian Armed Forces site has a rare unequivocal statement by the ACoC:

Abortion is always the taking of a human life, in the view of the Church, and should never be done except for serious therapeutic reasons.

This looks promising, but where does it come from?

This site provides a clue:

The official policy of the Anglican Church of Canada is that “abortion is always the taking of a human life and, in our view, should never be done except for serious therapeutic reasons.”[12] It is common for “serious therapeutic reasons” to be interpreted very liberally, on the grounds that “both the rights and needs of women, and the rights and needs of the unborn, require protection.”

Footnote [12] points us to a page on the ACoC’s web site – now we are getting somewhere!

No we’re not:

Sorry! Page not found.

But this was at one time a sub-page of the “resources” page here:

Sadly, the “resources” page has, over time, devolved into Five Marks of Mission, Human Sexuality and New Beginnings. No room for 105,000 dead babies.

In spite of the ACoC’s reluctance to proclaim justice with a prophetic voice – or any voice – it is possible to glean a hint of where the ACoC stands from other sources. This one, for example (my emphasis):

Last October, REAL Women received an urgent request for information from the World-Wide Movement of Mothers, a pro-family organization based in Paris, France, with whom we work at the UN.

That organization had been requested to participate in the World March of Women 2000, which was being organized in Montreal.

We investigated the March at its request, and learned that it was being organized by La Féderation des Femmes du Québec, which advocates abortion on demand and lesbian rights.

We thought nothing more about the matter until early March of this year, when a pamphlet promoting the March 2000 was forwarded to us. We were shocked to read, according to this pamphlet, that the March had been endorsed not only by the usual assortment of radical feminist groups and the Canadian Congress of Labour (the latter spear-headed by pro-abortion / lesbian NDP activist, Nancy Riche), but also by the Anglican, Presbyterian and United Churches in Canada.

This from 1989 is of historical interest, but sheds little light on the church’s view today:

ANGLICAN CHURCH AFFIRMS ITS POSITION ON ABORTION

In the light of the Government’s announcement of a new Abortion Bill, the Anglican Church reaffirms its position that both the rights and needs of women, and the rights and needs of the unborn, require protection.

One would think that Eric Beresford,  the Anglican Church of Canada’s co-ordinator of ethics and interfaith relations, could provide some answers.  He can’t; he admits in this article that he has no idea whether abortion is right or wrong. Anyway, marginalization, poverty, and powerlessness are what matter – except when applied to unborn babies:

At this point it is interesting that the positions adopted by the Anglican Church of Canada have insisted on the moral significance and dignity of fetal life and on the importance of the rights and needs of women who are clearly recognized as the primary decision makers.

How can these be held together? Only by recognizing the social context in which the needs of each are brought into conflict. Abortion is not a private tragedy but, at least in part, a social issue in which women’s experience of marginalization, poverty, and powerlessness are all central factors which need to be addressed in any adequate response to abortion.

All of this goes to show that, in spite of all the breast-beating about justice, standing up for the oppressed and prophetic discernment, the leaders of the Anglican Church of Canada do not have the guts to take a clear stand on one of the most important ethical issues of the 21st Century.

Why is GM really on the verge of bankruptcy?

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Because they spent so much money making this:

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It looks like something out of a James Bond film.

But the presidential seal on the side marks this hulking limo out as something not even the superspy will be able to get his hands on.

These are the first pictures of the new armoured limousine which will be used to ferry Barack Obama around.

Nicknamed “The Beast”, the Cadillac will make its debut on 20 January, as part of the inaugural parade.

“Although many of the vehicle’s security enhancements cannot be discussed, it is safe to say that this car’s security and coded communications systems make it the most technologically advanced protection vehicle in the world.”

Naturally, Obama has expressed his appreciation for this anti-green armoured pimp-mobile by firing Rick Wagoner. The rumour is Wagoner knew too much about the “security enhancements”, so they gave him an offer he couldn’t refuse.

Dawkins, Dimness, Aids and the Pope

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Richard Dawkins offers his opinion on an evolutionary dead-end: the condom.

Professor Dawkins, the prominent biologist and atheist, said that Benedict XVI would have blood on his hands if his beliefs were followed by Catholics around the continent.

Speaking at a university in Spain, he said: “I wonder on what basis anyone can say condoms make Aids worse. The Pope is either stupid, ignorant or dim.

That must make Edward C. Green, director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies dim, too. It couldn’t be Dawkins that is dim, could it?

“The pope is correct,” Green told National Review Online Wednesday, “or put it a better way, the best evidence we have supports the pope’s comments. He stresses that “condoms have been proven to not be effective at the ‘level of population.'”

“There is,” Green adds, “a consistent association shown by our best studies, including the U.S.-funded ‘Demographic Health Surveys,’ between greater availability and use of condoms and higher (not lower) HIV-infection rates. This may be due in part to a phenomenon known as risk compensation, meaning that when one uses a risk-reduction ‘technology’ such as condoms, one often loses the benefit (reduction in risk) by ‘compensating’ or taking greater chances than one would take without the risk-reduction technology.”

If Richard Dawkins had the courage of his convictions, he would be advocating as much reproduction as possible between HIV infected people in order for natural selection to develop an Aids resistant strain of humanity. This, after all, is his religion’s view of progress.

It's fun being green when you are the US President

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Canadians urge their PM to follow Obama’s greenness:

Harper urged to follow Obama’s green lead

The Harper government is being urged to follow Barack Obama’s lead and inject billions of dollars into green jobs and green energy.

This sounds like a wonderful opportunity for Harper to beef up a few things. This is how Obama does Green:Add an Image

US President Barack Obama has arrived in London for the G20 summit with a large contingent of the White House staff with him.

Hundreds of security guards, doctors, chefs and others are accompanying President Obama on his visit, and the entourage includes a number of presidential vehicles – including his new armour-plated limousine, The Beast, and aeroplane, Air Force One.

The 4,000 sq ft Boeing 747 is fully equipped for the president to work while he is in the air.

For Obama, to travel green means making the sacrifice of only using enough jet fuel to launch two four bedroom houses five miles into the air.

I expect the armour plated car uses a two cycle lawnmower engine, though.

What does the Resurrection really mean to Fred Hiltz?

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The God-Man, Jesus was nailed to some pieces of wood and left to hang there until he was dead. During that time, he absorbed all the sins of the entire human race – including mine, which on their own are bad enough – and received the just punishment for them from his Father. Including being removed from his Father’s presence, a presence that he had experienced for an eternity before time even existed. He did this because he loves us and he didn’t want us to have to bear the punishment that we deserve, but he didn’t.

He died and was buried. Our sins died with him and he offers us redemption; as proof of this, he rose from death to life 3 days later. This had never happened before; it is evidence that we too will rise from death.

This article from the Anglican Journal by Fred Hiltz, Primate of Canada doesn’t mention sin; this is not particularly surprising, since the Anglican Church of Canada doesn’t much like to acknowledge that man is sinful, much less that real justice would demand that we be punished for our sin. The notion that Jesus was punished for our sin instead of us is complete anathema to the ACoC, since it flies in the face of the central tenet of the new religiosity experientially discerned by the wrinkled shamans of what used to be a Christian Church: All You Need is Love

In the Anglicans in Mission campaign in the early 1980s, we used prayers and messages about mission from partner churches. I shall never forget the message from the Church in Korea. It read, “The church should light the sacred candle of the resurrection, not merely through its preaching within its walls, but also through actions outside the walls of the church.  We should dedicate ourselves to the task of reviving conscience and justice which will bless us with a brighter, more just society.” That was wise counsel then and now.

For Fred, Easter means a more just society. Why do you think your churches are empty, Fred?

St. Hilda's Oakville twinned with St. Francis Zimbabwe

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Symmetry can be found in mathematical proofs, poetry and snowflakes. Occasionally, what at first might appear as a haphazard coincidence, exhibits all the elegance of symmetry. Here we have a surprising example of the symmetrical relationship between St Francis Anglican church, Zimbabwe and St. Hilda’s, Oakville, Canada.

The symmetry is as follows:

Bishop Sebastian Bakare Leftrightarrow !, Bishop Don Harvey

Reverend Vincent Fenga Leftrightarrow !, Pastor Paul

St Francis parishioners Leftrightarrow !, St. Hilda’s parishioners

Nolbert Kunonga Leftrightarrow !, Michael Bird

five people  in St Francis with the Kunonga-affiliated priest and his wife Leftrightarrow !, Cheryl Fricker, Sue-Ann Ward, piano player and lay reader

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A GLEN Norah resident was shot and injured in the arm when police fought running battles with parishioners at St Francis Anglican church, arresting two priests, a church warden, one youth member and another church member.

All those arrested belong to the main Anglican church that is led by Harare Bishop Sebastian Bakare.

Buoyed by their brave Bishop Bakare, who a few weeks ago ignored the riot policeman at the altar trying to disrupt his Sunday service, and carried on with worship at the main cathedral in the city, Glen Norah parishioners decided Sunday time had come to reclaim their church.

So they left a local hall they had been renting after being thrown out by the police at the behest of Nolbert Kunonga, a zealot of Robert Mugabe’s repressive regime.

“Since we were thrown out of the church by the police, we have been attending church service at a parishioners house in Glen View 7 but since the onset of the rainy season, we have been renting a hall in Glen Norah A,” Reverend Vincent Fenga said from his cell at the Glen Norah Police Station.

“So yesterday the church agreed that since our colleagues elsewhere had gone back, we should also do the same and start to use the church at the time we were given by the courts, which is 11 AM but lo and behold, the police were not having any of that so problems erupted as church members started to tussle with the police.”

The angry parishioners wanted to know why the police were protecting Kunonga, especially when only five people were holding service, the Kunonga-affiliated priest and his wife included, were the only ones using the church for service in the morning.

Some started throwing stones at the police as the police used force to try and force the parishioners out of the church yard and building. Teargas and gunshots were subsequently fired as police tried to disperse the parishioners who had now been joined by residents who live around their church.

A local man who was relaxing at his home was shot and injured in the arm. His name has not been released.

At least four people were arrested and they have been identified as Mr Mutyamaenza, assistand parish priest Mr Musariri and one youth, Jussy Chingunduru. Two of them who are diabetic, including the church warden, have since paid guilt of admission fines and have been released.

The police, however, refused to allow Reverend Fenga and the youth leader, Chigunduru, to leave the cells. They will be arraigned at the Mbare Magistrates Court Tuesday.

Members of the parish’s Mother’s Union converged at the police station and spent the whole day singing church hymns outside the station in protest at the arrest of their priest which they say is unfair.

“Since the unity government came into being, the police officers, who were no longer guarding the church, came back and we have not been able to use our church, a church we built with our own money simply because of Kunonga,” a senior Mother’s Union leader said.

“We are not going to stop, we will continue until we reclaim our church. We have a court order that says we should use the church from 11am so what is the police trying to do, they almost killed an innocent man, all in the quest of protecting one man so he can control the church and its money. Like they say my son, everything that flies will one day have to land and so will Kunonga and Robert Mugabe. We wonder what the unity government says to all this.”

The injured man, whose name was not immediately available, is said to be in a stable condition. Police refused to comment but a spokesperson said investigations were underway into yesterday’s incident.

Since September 2007 the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe has been controlled by Nolbert Kunonga, the former Bishop of Harare.

The controversial former Harare Bishop broke away from the Lambeth Palace-affiliated Harare diocese, and defied a high court ruling last year ordering him him to share churches with his Anglican rivals.

About a month ago the Church secured an affidavit from Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri, in which denied knowing anything about a police operation to force Anglicans away from their churches.

It was read to parishioners by Anglican priests wherever they met, and they were urged to return to their churches on Sunday.

Emboldened by the formation of the new power-sharing Government, the church’s flock is now beginning to return in force and many hope Kunonga will soon be a creature of the past.

Parishioners of St. Francis, thank you for the inspiration.

Rowan offers advice to the BBC: the pot calling the kettle black

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Rowan on ignoring Christians:

Dr Rowan Williams had a meeting at Lambeth Palace with director general Mark Thompson in which he said the corporation should not ignore its Christian audience.

The talks came at a time when some senior figures are worried about signs that the BBC is more interested in promoting minority faiths than in broadcasting Christian programming or teachings.

Rowan is an expert in this area: he himself is well versed in ignoring his Christian audience, preferring, instead, to pontificate on the virtues of sharia law, the evils of global warming and who to blame for the financial crisis.

Clearly what is needed at the BBC is a series of Indaba groups to continue the conversation and listening. As they discern their way forward. Rowan could lead it.