Tag Archives: Anglican Church of Canada

Anglicans and Lutherans growing negatively together

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The Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada have been in “full communion” now for ten years. During that time, both denominations have been hurtling pell-mell down the road of increasing theological liberalism and both have been suffering equally catastrophic numbers of people fleeing their churches for less “inclusive” pastures.

Considering that the numerical growth has been drastically negative, it is a little odd that the churches are getting together to pool their successes and even more odd that they are planting a tree together to symbolise “continued growth” – which if it continues at the present rate will see the end of both denominations within a few decades.

From here:

Tree planting symbolizes hope for continued growth.

Anglican and Lutheran leaders ended their first joint meeting with a tree planting ceremony on the grounds of the Queen of the Apostles Renewal Centre, a symbol of their hope for the continued growth of their Full Communion.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada’s (ELCIC) National Bishop, Susan Johnson, said the tree is a “reminder of the work that needs to be done” to realize the full potential of Full Communion.

Canadian Anglicans and Lutherans are “standing back with great humility and joy,” as they celebrate a decade of Full Communion this year, said Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada. He described the meeting of members of the Anglican church’s Council of General Synod (CoGS) and the ELCIC’s National Church Council (NCC) as a “watershed moment.”

Bishop Mark MacDonald is convinced that Christ came to reveal the lie of imperialism

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It’s a rare pleasure to see so much nonsense condensed into so few words; of course, the Montreal Anglican has had a lot of practice.

From here (page 5):

CHRISTIANS ARE ON THE CUSP of a revelation that Christ “has not only redeemed the world but revealed the lie of imperialism” that underlies systemic evils like colonialism, resulting in environmental crisis, substance abuse and abuses in residential schools, Bishop Mark MacDonald, national indigenous bishop for the Anglican Church of Canada, said in a special service on Ash Wednesday for students at the three denominational theological colleges at McGill University. He said it has been unhelpful for churches to deal with sin as just a personal problem. Here, the bishop, right, chats over lunch with Rev. Canon Paul Jennings of the Montreal Diocesan Theological College.

 

The Anglican Church of Canada does Gaia theology for Good Friday

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Apparently, the real problem for humanity is not a sinful rebellion against God, but viewing ourselves as higher or more valuable than animals and the earth.

Earth Day falls on Good Friday this year so, according the Anglican Church of Canada, what better way to remember Jesus’ atoning death on the cross than to bewail our conceit in thinking we are the pinnacle of God’s creation.

So it’s time to forget Psalm 8:5: “For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.”

And Hamlet was right out to lunch with:

What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals—and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me— nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.

According to the ACoC:

Yet, for many centuries most people, including most Christians, have thought of humanity as being higher, greater, more valued than or even separate from the rest of Creation. This hierarchical attitude has also infected relationships among humans.

In this way we have broken our Covenant with God. We have broken the Great Commandment because we have not loved God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind and with all our strength. Nor have we loved our neighbour as ourselves…….

One of the results has been our willingness to sacrifice the community of all living things, our Earth community, in order that humans might continue to consume fossil fuels without restraint.

And by drilling for oil, it seems we have put the earth itself – Gaia – on the cross:

And so it is with the Earth. In our indifference, in our callous disregard for the needs of all living beings, we have put the Earth upon the Cross. Today is the day for us to recognize our guilt in perpetuating injustice against our partners in Creation and confess it. In the journey from Good Friday to Easter Sunday we have an opportunity to repent and beg for mercy. True repentance requires a change of heart, a change of mind and new actions that demonstrate our new conviction.

What a revolting perversion of Good Friday.

TEC North

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The Rev. Canon Gordon Baker is suggesting that the Anglican Church of Canada changes its name. He is not proposing to take the obvious and needed step to avoid prosecution under the false advertising act:  remove the word “Church”. Instead he wants to align with the other sinking ship south of the border, The Episcopal Church. In the popular vernacular, I think it means Fred would become Katharine’s bitch – assuming he isn’t already.

From here:

So I raise the question, “Is it time for a name change from The Anglican Church of Canada?” After all, we changed it once before, in 1955, from The Church of England in Canada to The Anglican Church of Canada. This was done to recognize and proclaim our existence and autonomy as something other than a colonial religious outpost. However appropriate the use of the word “Anglican” was at that time, it is now more than 50 years later, and our church has changed in its understanding of itself and its mission in a greatly changed Canadian social context.

Today we are developing new mature relationships with the aboriginal peoples of Canada and they are our sisters and brothers in faith and mission. Our clergy in Quebec are becoming totally bilingual so as to work comfortably within a French culture. The tag in western Canada of being the “English Church” no longer holds true.

I submit that it is time for us to be fully grown up and give thanks for all we have received from the Church of England, and others, but have a name that more truly expresses who we are. I believe that the name, “The Episcopal Church of Canada,” would do just that.

 

Bishop Michael Ingham tells us that all the great religions lead to God

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Christians believe that when Jesus said “no-one comes to the Father except through me”, he meant it. If Jesus was wrong and, as Ingham says, “all the great religions are authentic pathways to God”, Jesus blundered rather badly, didn’t really need to die on the cross for our sins and suffered from delusions of grandeur.

Or perhaps it’s Michael Ingham who suffers the delusions.

It’s very difficult to see how someone can be a Christian and not take one of Jesus’ major claims seriously; it’s even harder to see how that person could be a bishop in a Christian church – but, then, he is a bishop in the Anglican Church of Canada.

Lutherans and Anglicans celebrate 10 years of full communion

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From here:

There will be a special service this spring to celebrate 10 years of full communion between Lutherans and Anglicans in Canada and the United States, the churches have announced.

In 2001, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) and the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) signed the Waterloo Declaration. The same year, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America signed a similar agreement with The Episcopal Church, USA, Called to Common Mission.

As you can see, the two denominations are called to a Common Mission; but what is that mission? To convince the general public to think like them, of course. Early attempts looked something like the following video, although “missional” merchandising has become more radical since it was made.

Lent in the Anglican Church of Canada

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After the Anglican Church of Canada’s 2009 Lenten reflection debacle where it claimed Jesus was a racist, it has decided to let the PWRDF do Lent for 2011.

The PWRDF mentions CIDA funding, Indigenous language recovery, KAIROS, AIDS, HIV, social justice, an Ecumenical Women’s Network, poverty and injustice, Cuba, maternal health care, Girl Power and Natural Disasters –  of which the Anglican Church of Canada is a leading example.

The only lack is a mention of Jesus – after all, what’s Lent got to do with him?

The Anglican Church of Canada hopes to become an abuse-free church

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Does that mean “welcome back ANiC, you can stay in your buildings”? Probably not.

From here:

In June, the second international conference of the Anglican Communion Safe Church Consultation will ask some hard questions about social and religious structures that perpetuate abuse. Partnering for Prevention: Addressing Abuse in Our Communion & in Our Communities, scheduled to take place at the University of Victoria, June 24 to 26, will explore the legacy of church abuse and how to prevent it and foster healing.

“Abuse happens in the church because we perpetuate structures of clericalism that place clergy in unrealistic positions of power and adulation among the faithful,” said Rev. Mary Louise Meadow, past canon pastor of the diocese of British Columbia and a conference co-coordinator.

I must admit, I am well past the stage of adulating clergy. Come to think of it, for most ACoC clergy, I seem to have passed rapidly from indifference to contempt with no intervening period of adulation.