Tag Archives: Anglican Church of Canada

North American Anglican bishops conning in Coventry

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An interesting report which I have reproduced in full because it exposes so well the recent attempt to create a bogus aura of harmony between the irreconcilable opposites represented by liberal North American Anglican bishops and conservative African bishops.

By Andrew Symes:

In case we have forgotten, a very unpleasant court case was concluded around three years ago in Canada, when the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster won their battle to evict four parishes from their church buildings.The parishes in question were guilty only of standing firm for historic Christian faith, and refusing to go along with the radical revisionist theology of the Diocesan leadership. Going back further: in 2002 the New Westminster Diocesan Synod  had approved rites for the blessing of same sex relationships. After Gene Robinson was consecrated Bishop of New Hampshire (ECUSA) the following year, the fabric of the worldwide Anglican Communion was irrevocably torn, but despite patient efforts by global Anglican leaders resulting in various communiqués (for example the Windsor Report of 2004 and Dromantine Communique of 2005), the Anglican Church of Canada approved New Westminster’s actions, and continued with their push to fully approve same sex relationships.

Biblically faithful Anglican parishes in Canada who could not accept the  doctrinal and ethical innovations, and who wanted to continue with historic Anglican Christian faith, were left with no option but to seek alternative oversight from outside the Province of Canada. In New Westminster the Bishop began a programme  of aggressively pursuing “dissenting” parishes through the courts, seizing church buildings and bank accounts, and dismissing clergy and church wardens. The Bishop in question believed he was acting “prophetically”, being consistent with his own theological thinking, which also involved repeatedly denying key doctrines of the Christian faith, such as the authority of Scripture and the uniqueness of Christ. His name was Michael Ingham.

Last week the same Michael Ingham, now retired as Diocesan but still actively promoting his creed, was in Coventry with a delegation from the Anglican Church of Canada and the Episcopal Church of the USA. They were here to promote…reconciliation. The thinking behind this is summarized in this report, as follows: The divisions that have occurred in the Anglican Communion have come as a result of pride, of certain people claiming that they are “orthodox” and correct in their understanding of theology and ethics, and that those who hold different views are wrong. In fact, while we may take different views on some interpretations of Scripture, and we may apply the Gospel differently in different contexts, essentially we are all one family; we believe the same things, and we simply need to spend time listening to each other in honest respectful conversation. Reconciliation can occur when as a Eucharistic community, Anglicans come together in commitment to each other and in mission to the world.

This sounds as wonderful as motherhood and apple pie, but there are at least two major problems with it. The first is theological. Treating another human being with respect and honour, a command which applies to all, cannot be confused and conflated with the profound unity that comes within the body of Christ among those who have been reconciled through the cross, by repentance from sin and faith in the crucified and risen Messiah. And humbly learning from a person who has very different philosophical, theological and ethical viewpoints, whether they are non-religious, from another faith or even within the same church, does not necessarily entail having to affirm that person as a fellow believer. A Christian can be committed to reconciliation and bridge-building in local communities and in society, while maintaining that certain theological positions are true and others false. The idea of a completely “inclusive” church is a contradiction in terms, as even the most liberal Christians have boundaries where they would wish to exclude from fellowship certain types of thinking which they consider to be incompatible with Christian faith. So a project of “reconciliation” which seeks to force recognition of those with totally different, even opposite understandings of Christian faith as part of the same body, is theologically and ecclesiologically incoherent.

The second problem is a simple one of history of recent conflict. The leaders of the Anglican Church of Canada and TEC not only split the church in their own land with their heterodox doctrines and aggressive litigation against their fellow Christians, but caused schism in the worldwide communion, costing incalculable time, money and effort and a terrible stain on the church’s witness. Yet it is they who now claim to be the messengers of reconciliation, as if they have done nothing wrong, as if all the conflict in the Anglican Communion comes from the GAFCON side. If they were able to articulate repentance for what they have done there would surely be a case for a new listening. But instead, we see these architects of schism coming to Britain to lecture on how to bridge divides and bring together parties who disagree.

The official report of the conference can be found here.

The liberal Canadian-American axis have brought to this conference delegates from different parts of the world, especially Africa. We know that most African Anglicans are conservative in their theology and would be suspicious of the revisionism of their fellow Anglicans in the West. Why did these participants come? There are three obvious reasons. First, some may have come into office since the days of the most bitter disputes resulting in the first GAFCON of 2008. Things have calmed down since then. The world has moved on; we have got used to gay Bishops and gay marriage. Secondly, money. It must be difficult to resist the offer of a free trip to England and a gift to your Diocese, especially if it is couched in terms of being part of a reconciliation project. But the third most compelling reason for these Africans taking part in this event was the presence of a very special delegate, yes, the Archbishop of Canterbury himself. We are told that Justin Welby spent a day in Coventry in fellowship, worship and consultation about church unity with Michael Ingham and his friends, with their recent history of persecuting the orthodox and breaking the church. What is going on?

Just a few days before this conference, the House of Bishops released a statement about the forthcoming process of “Facilitated Conversations” in the Church of England, in which the focus shifts away from debating the theology and ethics of same sex relationships according to Scripture and tradition, to accepting both the conservative and revisionist points of view as equally valid (following the same trajectory as the Pilling Report). In other words, the Conversations should now be about building bridges, appreciating difference, creating unity in diversity – ie ‘reconciliation’.

Then, we see that Justin Welby participates in a consultation on “reconciliation” led and funded by those who began the process of splitting the Anglican Church more than 10 years ago, have continued with their beliefs and actions  and have never repented. But the report of the consultation shows a departure from Anglican theology and ecclesiology as traditionally understood. Instead of mission to the world based on the clear witness of the church to the Gospel of Jesus Christ revealed in Scripture, this new theology is about the church talking to itself about living together in peace despite profound differences, because the message of Scripture is apparently either unclear or not authoritative.

This must only strengthen the suspicion in many peoples’ minds that the process of Facilitated Conversations in the Church of England is being set up to reflect the “Indaba” or “Reconciliation” agenda modeled by North American liberal Anglicans. If this is the case, there can only be two possible results: either schism, confusion and further mistrust, or the C of E uniformly embracing a non-confessional stance which uncritically affirms the secular culture.

Anglican Church of Canada: the implosion continues

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Rev. Percy Coffin has been elected metropolitan for the ecclesiastical province of Canada. The province has seven dioceses, most of which are ‘shrinking drastically’.

The aptly named Coffin is to preside over a province which is dying because its members are dying; they are not being replaced by ‘younger generations of Anglicans.’ As a parenthetical note, I can’t help observing the customary emphasis placed on ‘Anglican’ rather than ‘Christian’, as if they were distinct and separate categories; perhaps they are in North America.

Evangelism could be the Answer, although I seem to recall that during the Decade of Evangelism, the Diocese of Niagara, of which I was a part at the time, took the entire ten years attempting, without success, to define what the word ‘Evangelism’ means. The ecclesiastical province of Canada is unlikely to have a less solipsistic view so I expect the decline to continue, apace.

From here:

It is a challenging time for the seven dioceses in the province, in large part because the church is shrinking drastically in most areas, he said. Anglophone Anglicans have migrated away from Quebec and many rural communities are losing population to urban areas. While the Anglican population in the diocese of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador, which includes St. John and the economic activity produced by offshore oil, is holding steady or growing, in the diocese of Western Newfoundland it has shrunk by two-thirds, Coffin says, from 37,000 Anglicans in 1977 when the diocese split into three, to under 13,000 now. That drop, he said, is consistent with figures from the last three Statistics Canada census reports, which have shown drops of 12 to 20 per cent in the population of rural communities.

[…..]

Aside from outmigration, Coffin noted that the church is also challenged by the fact that faithful Anglicans are aging and dying, and in an increasingly secular society, they are not being replaced by younger generations of Anglicans.

Note that the decline in the number of Anglicans is 64%, far higher than the population decrease of 12 to 20%.

Satanists support abortion and gay marriage

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From here:

Whenever the American people try to curtail abortion or maintain marriage laws, the followers of Satan will be there to fight back, promises the national spokesman for the Satanic Temple.

“Lucien Greaves” told Detroit’s Metro Times that he would like to help women avoid complying with pro-life laws by saying abortion restrictions violate their Satanic religious beliefs. He added that gay “marriage” is a Satanic “sacrament.”

That means that on two of the most important social issues of our day, the Anglican Church of Canada and The Episcopal Church have the same perspective as Satanists.

The question is: will Anglicans or Satanists be more upset over this?

On the other hand, the ACoC is already in full communion with the ELCIC; perhaps another opportunity is presenting itself.

The Anglican Church of Canada has found another doctrine to repudiate

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Having already repudiated every theological doctrine it could find in its once ample arsenal, the Anglican Church of Canada is desperately searching for other doctrines to denounce – any will do, even one that is 500 years old and, for all practical purposes, irrelevant outside a small coterie of obsessive leftists. Fred Hiltz is leading by example in his hand-wringing repentance over, not his own failings – that would be too embarrassing – but his ancestors’ complicity in one the few sins still acknowledged as such by the ACoC: the Doctrine of Discovery.

As this news release notes:

In a nutshell, the DoD gives the Christian nations of Europe not just the right, but the God-given duty, to take over any unoccupied lands—the latin phrase is Terra Nullius— they discover and bring to them the “benefits” of a “Christian civilization.” For us white Europeans

The Anglican Church of Canada has been working tirelessly to remove all the benefits of a Christian civilisation from Canada for years; its most celebrated success has been the redefinition of marriage – to the point where the concept of marriage has been almost entirely drained of meaning. No atheist movement has been able to claim such a resounding victory.

Apparently:

We suffer from: a colonizer mentality; an internalized sense of white superiority, racism and stereotypes that separate us from one another; a stratified society where only some are powerful and wealthy and the rest live in a climate of fear and scarcity. Moreover, we can only carry on this injustice by denying reality and blaming those we have victimized.

Who could deny that? How many black bishops are there in the ACoC? How many earning less than $100k? How often have these wealthy white bishops blamed those they have victimised: the ANiC congregations whose buildings they have taken?

Naturally, the Residential Schools fiasco is a repeating theme:

The Anglican Church of Canada is a child of the Doctrine of Discovery. We grew out of our parent Church of England, and we promoted the DoD in almost everything we did, but particularly through our eager, century-long support for the Indian Residential School system. In many ways, our faith and the DoD were mutually inclusive.

Unsurprisingly, the intensity of all this conspicuous contrition has not lead to returning the colonised land on which all ACoC property sits to its Aboriginal owners. That is because, in spite of all the theatre, what the Anglican Church of Canada really cares about is money – and how to hold on to it.

Bishops for reconciliation meeting ends in Coventry

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From here:

Beginning in 2010, a group of approximately two-dozen bishops from Canada, the United States, and a number of African countries, have met annually in England, Tanzania, Canada, and South Africa. Their gatherings facilitate learning about each other’s contexts and finding pathways for healing and reconciliation. Their time together in Coventry focused specifically on approaches to reconciliation and becoming a reconciling community.

[.…]

At the close of this fifth Consultation, the bishops committed themselves to support the Archbishop of Canterbury’s priority of reconciliation in the Anglican Communion. In response to Archbishop Justin’s appeal, the bishops will “pray for wisdom to know what to do, and for the patience to know when to do it, and the courage to act.”

The Canadian reconciliation contingent is listed below; the choice seems a little odd since it includes bishops who have sued fellow Christians and yet haven’t expended  much energy to reconcile with them. No-one from ACNA was invited, probably because the ACoC and TEC are unwilling to reconcile with ACNA, all of which leads me to suspect that the exercise has more to do with propaganda than reconciliation:

The Most Rev. Colin Johnson – Diocese of Toronto (Metropolitan of Ontario)
The Rt. Rev. John Chapman – Diocese of Ottawa
The Rt. Rev. Mark MacDonald – National Indigenous Anglican Bishop
The Rt. Rev. Jane Alexander – Diocese of Edmonton
The Rt. Rev. Michael Bird – Diocese of Niagara
The Rt. Rev. Michael Oulton – Diocese of Ontario
The Rt. Rev. Michael Ingham – (Retired) Diocese of New Westminster
The Rt. Rev. Robert O’Neill – Diocese of Colorado
The Rt. Rev. Stacy Sauls – The Episcopal Church Chielf [sic] Operating Officer

Marriage Canon submissions now online

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The Anglican Church of Canada’s proposal to change the marriage canon to permit same sex couples to marry is supposed to be preceded by a “broad consultation” among those who are still its members. I think the whole exercise is a smoke screen to conceal the fact that the decision has already been made, but if it isn’t, what will the commission do with the submissions? Tally the for and against and go with the winner: theology through democracy, the next step in secularising the church?

You can read the submissions here.

Anglican Church of Canada wants to know what you think about a proposed change to the marriage canon

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The Anglican Church of Canada’s recently formed Commission on the Marriage Canon wants to know what you think about changing canon law to permit same-sex couples to marry in the church. To make submissions, you have to be member of the ACoC (I feel so excluded) so, if you are, let them know what you think. Apparently, they are obligated to publish all submissions as long as they don’t contain anything “objectionable”; I’m sure no one reading this would say anything objectionable.

I am reasonably certain of two things: 1) it’s going to happen no matter what anyone says; 2) thousands of words will be penned in an effort to obscure the truth of 1).

If I were of a cynical disposition, I might make the point that by submitting opinions that run contrary to the inevitable, you will merely be granting the commission the smug satisfaction of employing the well rehearsed strategy of declaring that they listened to diverse opinions – before ignoring those they didn’t like.

Submissions are made by filling out the form here.

From here:

Input from members of the Anglican Church of Canada is vital as the church enters this time of discernment. Commission chair, Canon Robert Falby, encourages broad participation in this process. “Commission members are aware of the strong feelings that many Anglicans have on the issues which it is looking at and we hope that we will receive input which reflects that spectrum.”

Submissions are welcome in both written and video form and must include the author’s name, parish or institution, diocese, and contact details. All of the commissioners will read or view each submission as they prepare their report.

The terms of reference for the Commission on the Marriage Canon require that all submissions to the Commission be posted on the national church’s website (www.anglican.ca). They will be reviewed prior to posting on the national church’s website. Submissions failing to conform to the Anglican Church of Canada’s existing code of conduct for online contributions will not be posted. Those making such submissions will be contacted and invited to revise their content accordingly.

Welby and Hiltz discuss sexuality and reconciliation

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Read it all here:

When Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby met with the primate, Archbishop Fred Hiltz, he was “very interested” in the work of the Anglican Church of Canada’s commission on the marriage canon because of the reality that the Church of England will have to wrestle with the issue of same-sex marriage following its legislation in the U.K.

“Notwithstanding the declared position of the Church of England at this moment, he [Welby] is very conscious, of course, that there’s going to be a fair amount of pressure from within the Church of England to at least have some discussion around that [same-sex marriage],” said Hiltz in an interview with the Anglican Journal. “He hoped that we would stay in touch over the work of the commission, [because] inside the Church of England, they will need to have the same conversation.”

Here we have a rare example of a clear statement by an Archbishop of Canterbury. The Church of England will be following in the Anglican Church of Canada’s footsteps: conversations about same-sex blessings; decline in attendance; dioceses performing same-sex blessings; further decline in attendance; conversations about same-sex marriage; full steam ahead to extinction:

During their two-hour meeting April 8, Hiltz said Welby was interested in how the church has dealt with the conflict over human sexuality, in particular, how the 2010 General Synod in Halifax dealt with the issue in a non-parliamentary manner and how there has been “continuing conversation” about the matter. Hiltz quoted Welby as having said, “You’re actually on the frontline of where we’re going to be eventually. You’ve been on a journey; it hasn’t been an easy [one]— it has been conflicted at times, but you stuck with it.”

The Anglican Church of Canada has indeed been on the frontline of dealing with “the conflict over human sexuality”: it sues those who refuse to go along with it. I suppose this is “interesting”; the fact that Welby believes that that is where the CofE is “going to be eventually” should make orthodox CofE clergy very nervous.

Hiltz said he informed Welby about the Canadian church’s long history of “bending over backwards to hold people in dialogue, to create provisions for everybody to stay in the fold…”

Considering the number of defections from the ACoC to ANiC, these provisions have been spectacularly ineffective.

Overall, Hiltz described Welby’s visit as “good,” saying that he thought it provided the Archbishop of Canterbury “a sense of the commitment of the Canadian church to the Communion.”

Not sufficiently committed to pay any attention whatsoever to Provinces that are opposed to same-sex blessings.

Hiltz said that the dinner he hosted for Welby was an opportunity for him to meet “a host of people from Canada who are so deeply committed to the various works of the Anglican Communion…to get a sense [that they] have a broad, global view of the church.”

To invite ANiC church leaders would have been a diversity too far, of course.

 “One of the blessings of the visit is that he has heard things about all of us and says we’re very diverse, even within our church…,” said Hiltz. “He was leaving us knowing of our deep commitment to preserving the unity of the church as best we can, being prophetic as best we can, being committed to the life and witness of the Communion.”

To put it more plainly: the Anglican Church of Canada continues on a course of theological liberalism; it has no inclination to change direction but is willing to offer the  concession of a dense smoke screen designed to lure the unwary into believing that it cares about what those who disagree think.

Anglican Church of Canada marriage canon commission commences “listening”

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Not necessarily hearing, though.

From here:

marriagecanoncommissionIn a few weeks, the Anglican Church of Canada’s commission on the marriage canon will invite Anglicans in Canada and across the Communion, as well church ecumenical partners, to offer their views about changing the marriage canon (church law) to allow same-sex marriage.

“…One of the things the commission wants to make clear is that everyone [in the commission] has an open mind,” said its chair, Canon Robert Falby, in an interview.

What this really means, of course, is that the commission will be working hard – very hard; it is their main task – to present the illusion of having open minds. After all the talking, alleged listening, indabas and theological papers that we have already been subjected to, any member of the clergy who has not yet made up and closed his mind on the issue has been living in a cave in Afghanistan.

Asked whether the commission reflects the “theological diversity” that the primate, Archbishop Fred Hiltz, had promised, Nicholls said, “I think the group reflects the ability to hear the theological diversity of the church.” She added that each member has demonstrated “an ability to hear, to listen, to reflect from all perspectives.”

To confirm my suspicion that the outcome is a forgone conclusion, Bishop William Anderson had this to say in a comment:

How reassuring that the promise of theological diversity has been replaced by the “ability to hear the theological diversity of the Church”. What this really means is that they will go through the motions of listening, and then present their own already expressed beliefs as representing a ‘fair’ outcome.
The Primate and the members of this panel should be ashamed for having so blatantly perverted a process that was intended to be balanced. All should be ashamed for being involved in this travesty.