The Stepford diocese

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In the latest synod of the Diocese of Niagara, the diocese’s dealings with ANiC parishes – which have taken place mainly in the courts – were enumerated for the benefit of the synod delegates:

  • Litigation with ANC – these comments are on public record
  • Feb 08 – 3 congregations withdrew
  • Preliminary Court hearings took place in Feb and then in March 08
  • She ruled on the sharing the buildings by D of N and ANC – costs to be paid by withdrawing congregations.  Application for appeal was denied and costs were awarded.  The wardens of the withdrawing congregations are the defendants
  • St. Peter’s later passed a motion to withdraw in June of 08
  • Costs have been adjudicated in one case – in favour of the diocese 20,000.  This has been paid.  Our request was for 180,000.  The justice was looking at whether these costs are to be assumed personally by the wardens.  We do not have a decision yet from the judge.
  • There is a provision if there is a difficulty in the interim arrangements – this can go before an arbitrator.  We have given a list of things that need to go before the arbitrator.
  • The network lawyer has an application to move the court case from Hamilton to Milton.  This application is to be heard on Apr 5.  We oppose this.
  • There is a case in the Diocese of New Westminster.  In our case we applied for our right to hold these parishes.  In their case the network are plaintiff and the diocese is the defendant.  That matter is to be heard in May.
  • We continue to work with the people of St. Peter’s to bring them into the main body of the litigation.
  • If we get a decision on costs in a reasonable period of time – there would be a possibility that we will be in court in the fall of 2009 – on the main action.  That is optimistic.
  • Everything in this report is on public record.
  • No questions

There is nothing much new in this; the unnerving part is that there were no questions. After a litany of institutional persecution of Christian brethren at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars, no-one could think of anything to say.

Perhaps there was something in the water.

The Diocese of Niagara Synod: Same-sex blessing timetable

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From the Bishop’s charge to the 134th synod that took place on March 28, 2009:

Following up on the commitment which I made just prior to the first session of Synod in November, and in light of various conversations which have taken place since, especially my meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury in January, I have asked the Dean to facilitate the work of a small group of laity and clergy from across the diocese in bringing to me suggested rites for the Blessing of Civilly Married Same-Sex Couples.  You will recall that Synod in 2007 asked the Bishop to allow clergy, whose conscience permits, to bless the marriages of civilly married same-sex couples, where at least one of the partners is baptized.   I anticipate that these rites will be prepared by later this spring, and that I will be able to present them to the clergy of the diocese at the Annual Clergy and Licensed Layworkers Conference in May.  I will be giving my permission to proceed shortly thereafter.

and a little further down we have:

I invite you all to join with me in lifting up your voices and shouting out for joy because I believe that a light is dawning upon the Diocese of Niagara and that that light is allowing us to see the beginnings and the glimpses of a new and exciting path ahead.

Which brings to mind Matt 6:22-23:

The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

George Pitcher bids a cheery farewell to Bishop Nazir-Ali

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George Pitcher’s pitch:

Dr Nazir-Ali’s departure signals the end of Anglicanism’s damaging schism, says George Pitcher.
Again, it’s important not to read too much in to Dr Nazir-Ali’s resignation itself. He has had the See of Rochester for 15 years; at not yet 60, he has another career in him yet. But can anyone seriously suggest that, had those biblical traditionalists of the southern hemisphere, known collectively as the Global South, prevailed last year in overthrowing the authority of Canterbury in favour of an African-led Communion, he would have abandoned his important foothold in the English Church?

No. Dr Nazir-Ali, scourge of homosexual liberalism and what he sees as the Muslim threat to Christendom, pitched his tent with the African rebels, under the flag of the unfortunately named Gafcon, but now finds that army dispersed and demoralised.

In the upside-down world of liberalism, a rebel and schismatic is someone who holds to 2000 years of established Christian doctrine, while a crumbling colonial edifice entrenched in an old boy network of back-slapping bishops that boast about making up their own rules is the standard-bearer of all that is proper and decent.

In fact, it is the largely decadent western expression of Anglicanism that is rebellious and schismatic; it is the one that has departed from received doctrine.

Once Pitcher has established that it is “important not to read too much in to Dr Nazir-Ali’s resignation”, he does just that. I have no idea why Dr Nazir-Ali’s has decided to change careers and neither does Pitcher, I imagine. One thing that Pitcher’s article does reveal, though is that a liberal finds the idea of eschewing ecclesiastical power – which is not much different to secular power – impossible to understand unless it is because the power has failed to achieve its ends. What seems to beyond Pitcher’s grasp is that God may have called Nazir-Ali to do something else and Nazir-Ali is more interested in what God wants than a pointed hat.

As for Gafcon’s army being dispersed and demoralised, there are millions of Gafcon/Foca Anglicans who are completely unaware of that – because it isn’t true.

Long live the Royal gay couple

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Something special for monarchists to ponder:Add an Image

Ben Summerskill, chief executive of gay rights group Stonewall, says the review is an ideal opportunity to end similar discrimination against homosexuals.

He wants measures to let future generations of Royals take part in a same-sex wedding – without losing their right to inherit the throne.

If this happens we could easily end up with a King and – er – Queen.

Stephen Sizer, the Evangelical left and Israel

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Some reverend gentlemen find politics irresistible:

“Why have Britain and America become the focus of so much hatred from the Islamic world?” Sizer further asked. “Why are our countries the target for Islamist terrorism – despite our commitment to the rule of international law, democracy and human rights?” For Sizer the reasons are clear: “The answers to these questions remain inexplicable unless we factor in what is now probably the most influential and destructive movement amongst Christians today – Christian Zionism.”

There are a number of problems with Stephan Sizer’s position on what he calls Christian Zionism:

This first is in the article above: he wilfully resists common sense explanations. Thus, he sees the cause of the hatred directed against the West by Islamists as explainable only by a conspiracy of Christian Zionism; for some reason he cannot see the obvious – and true, in my opinion – reason that Islamists hates a free society simply because it is not Islamist. Such a concept should be easy to grasp for an evangelical Christian, since it is a straightforward application of Jeremiah 17:9.

The second is less obvious: it is the couching of left wing political tendentiousness in biblical language in order to give it the weight of theological authority. Simply put, Sizer is saying God is on the side of his politics:

That is why I believe passionately that we must find peaceful, democratic, non-violent, constructive ways to express their anger and frustration at the appalling suffering in Gaza during the recent attacks and the ongoing military occupation of Palestine which denies millions of people their basic human rights. We must not to seek revenge or retaliation as this will only play into the hands of extremists on both sides. Violence breeds violence. Jesus said “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.”

The above sounds very fine, particularly the last sentence. But the facts are questionable and the implication is that the violence so far has been entirely on the part of Israel, giving Hamas an opportunity to take the high moral ground by not retaliating; once they come out from their hiding places behind babies and civilians.

The alliance between the West and Israel is a political one between democracies that share similar values; it isn’t based on biblical prophesy as Sizer would have us believe:

“Christian Zionism is [essentially] a political movement within Protestant evangelical Christianity that views the modern state of Israel as the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy, [mandated by God] thus deserving our unconditional economic, moral, political, and theological support.”

While there is nothing wrong with Christians having political opinions, a minister whose political message overshadows – and is disseminated under the pretence of being inspired by – the gospel damages the gospel, the credibility of the minister and renders the numinous commonplace.

Anglican Luddites

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Earth day is approaching and we are being urged to turn off our electric lights for an hour and light candles.Add an Image

The Connelly-Miller family light their candles at last year’s KAIROS Earth Hour worship service at the Church of the Holy Trinity in downtown Toronto.

What are you doing on March 28 at 8:30 p.m.? Kairos, an ecumenical social justice organization, is calling for Canadians to observe Earth Hour “as a symbolic pause to reflect on our use of fossil fuels, to think about the impact of our activity on people and ecosystems around the world, and most importantly, to pledge to make a difference – as individuals, communities, and as a nation.”

In 2008, 50 million people in 370 cities and towns, in more than 35 countries worldwide switched off their lights for Earth Hour.

This makes as much sense as most of the Anglican Church’s quixotic justice endeavours.

To make a candle, paraffin wax is melted to 190C by a man rubbing two sticks together to generate heat – well, actually the heat is generated by electricity. If we assume a 500W heater can heat enough paraffin wax to make 100 candles in 1 hour, each candle has consumed 5 Watt hours to manufacture. To light 20 candles in a church for one hour consumes 100 Watt hours. Not only that, the burning of the candle produces  water vapour and carbon dioxide. So the candles are increasing what latter day hobbits like to call our “carbon footprint”.

Alternatively, you could use the same energy and get more light by turning on five 20W low energy bulbs. But, of course, this is really about an anti-technology zeitgeist, not saving the planet.

Rowan Williams doesn't trust God for Happy Endings

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Rowan Williams wades into environment ideology:

The Archbishop of Canterbury said last night that God cannot be trusted to save the world from the environmental depredations of humanity.

Dr Rowan Williams did not say there was no God. But he said that God is not a “safety net that guarantees a happy ending in this world.”

“There is no way of manipulating our environment that is without cost or consequence … we are inextricably bound up with the destiny of our world,” he said.

He said that any who regarded the powers of nature as “a threat to be overcome” were simply illustrating the fallen nature of humanity.

An unintelligent approach to the environment meant that the extinction of species, the end of fossil fuels and other catastrophes were just some of the consequences that awaited us.

“There is no guarantee that the world we live in will tolerate us indefinitely if we prove ourselves unable to live within its constraints,” he said, warning that God will not intervene to protect us from “the corporate folly of our practices.”

The excerpts above are taken from Rowan’s speech, Renewing the Face of the Earth: Human Responsibility and the Environment and, although isolating them from the context of the whole encourages misinterpretation, nevertheless, there are reasons to be uneasy:

Rowan takes for granted the current environmental dogma in spite of convincing evidence that it is motivated more by ideology than science.

By saying “[the] world we live in will tolerate us indefinitely”, he appears to be at ease with the anthropomorphic idea that the world or nature has intention; he does not go as far as deifying nature, but he seems to approach it.

By saying that, “God is not a safety net that guarantees a happy ending in this world”, he implies a limit to God’s sovereignty in the natural order: it is undoubtedly true that we should not carelessly defile our world on the assumption that God will clean it up for us, but to imply that God will not or cannot seems to me to be a less than Christian view of God. What is more, God does indeed guarantee a happy ending for this world since he has promised to remake it 2 Pet 3:13.

Since science can’t reverse entropy and God can, if we can’t rely on God for a happy ending, ultimately we’re screwed however carefully we treat the environment.

The status quo is not an option

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I have worked for large companies for over 40 years and during that time I have had the pleasure of listening to every cliché ever devised by the fevered imaginations of overpaid motivational consultants. I have participated in vacuous group discussions – run by oily management facilitators – to come up with Mission Statements; I have listened to seminars exhorting me to Pursue Excellence and have been indoctrinated on the techniques of inspiring commitment in others by pop-psychology spouting spalpeens wearing an excess of smelly underarm deodorant.

In the long and dismal succession of attempts to elevate my enthusiasm for making my employer more profitable, the only one that captured 30 seconds of my interest was a seminar by Tom Peters – the Pursuit of Excellence merchant. One of the directors in the company I worked for at the time was booked on a Peters’ seminar and couldn’t go; in desperation, he decided to inflict the unique learning experience on someone else – me. As expected, Tom Peters spent 4 hours expounding the obvious: for a company to do well, the people in charge have to like what they do. After a couple of hours of this, my self-induced somnambulant state was interrupted by the only interesting question I heard that day: if the solution to a successful company is so simple, why do companies not act on Peters’ advice – employ people who are interested in the work? The answer: the question was too hard. That was the only part I enjoyed.

So when I read things like this: The Status Quo is not an Option, Excellence in Ministry, Prophetic Justice Making, Cultures of Innovation, Effective Leadership, Life Changing Worshiping Experiences, Effective Resource Management, I know exactly what is going on.

We are hearing the death rattle of an organisation that no longer has any idea of what its purpose is, why it exists or what to do to extend its miserably short and squalid life. The organisation is the Diocese of Niagara.