Tag Archives: Anglican Church of Canada

How does the Anglican Church of Canada plan on attracting people?

Posted on by
7

By lowering the standards for membership. Of course, by doing so, everyone will catch on to the obvious fact that by requiring little from its followers, the church has little of value to offer: the lower the cost, the lower the value, the less the desirability of the merchandise, the fewer people interested.

In its ceaseless striving to become worthless, the Anglican Church of Canada is considering offering Communion to those who don’t believe in it. From here:

Should we invite persons who are not baptized to receive Holy Communion? The church is discussing this question today. Anglicans traditionally have believed that the eucharist is a family meal, reserved for members of the church through baptism. Those who are not baptized are not members of the church; therefore, they cannot participate in the family meal.

This exclusive view of the eucharist has a long history. St. Paul warns against eating and drinking in an “unworthy manner” (I Cor. 11:27), though he seems to leave the decision whether to partake in the meal to each person’s conscience (I Cor. 11:28). Closed communion is standard practice in some Christian churches, including the Roman Catholic and Orthodox. However, many Anglican churches throughout the world now practice open communion. There are good reasons, both missional and theological, for doing so.

 

The Fall was really a rejection of stewardship

Posted on by
3

According to the Anglican Church of Canada:

The first crisis of human stewardship came with our first ancestors’ decision to test the sovereignty of God by consuming the only fruit in the garden reserved exclusively to the Creator. Rejecting stewardship and embracing the illusory promise of sovereign possession of the garden, they initiate a continuing pattern of exploitation, entitlement, violence and destruction that plagues human participation in the life of the earth. There is only one essential stewardship question: Will we make use of resources entrusted to us to serve God’s mission, or for purposes that we ourselves devise or that are thrust upon us by an economy that depends absolutely on growing consumption to sustain it?

The ACoC must be really desperate for money if it has resorted to a more literal interpretation of Adam and the apple than the most fervent fundamentalist.

The usual interpretation of the unhappy events in the Garden of Eden is that Adam rebelled against God by disobeying the one thing God asked him not to do: eat the apple from the tree of life. Adam ate because he wanted to become like God and when he did, sin entered the universe, polluting it and us until the end of time.

Not so for the Anglican Church of Canada: for them it’s all about the apple. It’s God’s apple, you see – he really likes apples – and we pinched it from him: thus began the evil of capitalism.

All this reminds me of what my dog must be thinking when he licks yellow snow and I pull him away: “master wants to lick it himself”.

The Anglican Church of Canada is green, soon to be smelly

Posted on by
2

From here:

The Partners in Mission and the Ecojustice of General Synod invites you to become green leaders in the Church through the renewal of spirit, community, and creation, and by taking practical steps to green your church building.

This means that ACoC parishes will be installing low-flow toilets resulting in a physical stink to match the spiritual one. It’s called Ecojustice.

San Francisco’s big push for low-flow toilets has turned into a multimillion-dollar plumbing stink.

Skimping on toilet water has resulted in more sludge backing up inside the sewer pipes, said Tyrone Jue, spokesman for the city Public Utilities Commission. That has created a rotten-egg stench near AT&T Park and elsewhere, especially during the dry summer months.

 

The Rev. Canon Dr. Martin Brokenleg does some more David Kato handwringing

Posted on by
1

From here:

It is not Anglican requiem tradition to eulogize the deceased, although it would be easy to do so in the case of David Kato. He was Anglican, openly gay and worked for human rights for sexual minorities.  Born in Uganda, he lived for some time in South Africa, a safe place for gay and lesbian people.  Then in 1998, the same year that Matthew Shepard, also Anglican, was beaten to death in the United States, David returned to Uganda to work for justice for gay and lesbian people. He founded Sexual Minorities Uganda and was known internationally for his work.

At around 2 pm on Jan. 26, 2011, David was beaten to death with a hammer. He was in his own home in Uganda. No ordained Anglican clergyperson came to bury him. Instead, a lay reader was sent to lead the funeral.  When the lay reader denounced gay persons, some in the crowed cheered. Then a young lesbian named Kasha seized the microphone and spoke about David’s work. Eventually, an Anglican bishop not recognized by the Church of Uganda because of his support for gay folk, spoke a comforting word.

What Brokenleg doesn’t bother to mention is the real reason David Kato was murdered. It wasn’t because someone who hates homosexuals decided to take it out on Kato. Nor was it because Kato was a Christian or a gay Anglican: it was because Kato had promised to pay a criminal to have sex with him and after the deed was done, didn’t pay up.

I can’t help wondering whether the Rev. Canon Dr. Martin Brokenleg has as much sympathy for the thousands of Christians who are being martyred, tortured, arrested and turned out of their homes – usually in Islamic nations – or whether they hold little interest for him since they are being persecuted for their faith not their sexual proclivities. We never hear “requiems” for them, so, presumably not.

The Anglican Church of Canada continues to claim that it isn’t obsessed with deviant sex. Who believes them? Not me.

Man in UK is prohibited from having sex by High Court judge because he isn’t clever enough

Posted on by
Reply

From here:

A man with an IQ of 48 has been ordered to stop having sex by a High Court judge.

Known only as Alan, the 41-year-old was in a relationship with a man he lived with and said he wanted it to continue.

However, his local council said his ‘vigorous sex drive’ was inappropriate so started legal proceedings to restrict the relationship.

The authority said that his moderate learning disability and IQ of just 48 – the average is 100 – meant he did not understand what he was doing.

One psychiatrist said that he would be confused if sex education was given to him.

A special convening of the Anglican Church of Canada’s House of Bishops was called to assess the personal implications of the judicial ruling were it to catch on in Canada. Bishop Michael Bird was visibly moved to tears and many bishops’ wives have privately expressed their support for an equivalent Canadian ruling.

The Anglican Church of Canada doesn’t approve of more incarceration for criminals

Posted on by
4

From here:

The Anglican Church of Canada’s long-time partner, the Church Council on Justice and Corrections (CCJC), has criticized a federal plan that would increase prison capacity and rates of incarceration. CCJC has prepared an information packet for churches and is encouraging all Canadians to consider the implications of this plan.

“Proposed new federal laws will ensure that more Canadians are sent to prison for longer periods, a strategy that has been repeatedly proven neither to reduce crime nor to assist victims,” wrote CCJC president Laurent Champagne in a recent letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

“Increasing levels of incarceration by marginalized people is counter-productive and undermines human dignity in our society,” he wrote. He encouraged the government to consider other methods of dealing with offenders, including well-supervised probation or release, bail options, reporting centres, and supportive housing programs.

There are two ways to reduce crime: the first and best option is to bring the criminal into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ; the second is summary execution.

The Anglican Church of Canada is in favour of neither.

Anglican Church of Canada: Vision 2019

Posted on by
1

It seems to be disappearing more rapidly than I anticipated. The main page, which on December 15th yielded:

Now shows:

One can only assume that the Anglican Church of Canada has decided to bury the corpse before it begins to stink.

All is not lost, however: the Vision 2019 report lives on – for now.

Among my favourite sections is the timeline appendix where the plan for promoting the Five Marks of Mission can be found. The ambitious scheme suggests that by 2019:

“Most Anglicans know of the Marks, and half can name three.”

Very much like Moses and the 10 commandments. Moses presents his plan to God:

“In 10 years most Israelites will know of the commandments and half of them will be able to name 6”

The Kairos conspiracy

Posted on by
2

The Anglican Church of Canada is convinced that a mysterious unnamed party put the kibosh on further taxpayer funding for Kairos. The church may well be wrong, of course, but just in case it isn’t, I would like to say “Thank You” to the unknown party: may all your Earth Days be brightly illuminated with incandescent bulbs.

From here:

The ecumenical justice group, Kairos, has questioned the “transparency and accountability” of the Canadian International Development’s granting process after it was recently revealed in the House of Commons that an unknown party had intervened to have its funding cut.

CIDA initially said in November 2009 that Kairos’ grant application of $7.1 million had been rejected because it “no longer fits CIDA priorities.”

But a parliamentary committee was told on Dec. 9 that CIDA  had actually approved the Kairos application. Minister for International Cooperation and CIDA president, Bev Oda, told the Standing Committee for Foreign Affairs and International Development that it was her decision to discontinue Kairos’ funding…..

Minister Oda testified that when she signed the document, it had not contained the word “not.” She said that she did not add the word, “not,” nor did she know who did. Still, Oda said that she stood by the decision to deny funding to Kairos, which lobbies for peace and human rights in Canada and around the world…..

The Anglican Church of Canada, which is a member of Kairos, has been urging the restoration of the organization’s funding.

In Anglican Church of Canada, the Gospel is part of a Sacred Circle

Posted on by
Reply

From here:

The Gospel in the Centre of our Sacred Circle has become an important and dynamic part of the growing spiritual movement among Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island.

The Gathering Prayer
Creator, we give you thanks for all you are and all you bring to us for our visit within your creation. In Jesus, you place the Gospel in the centre of this Sacred Circle through which all of creation is related. You show us the way to live a generous and compassionate life. Give us your strength to live together with respect and commitment as we grow in your Spirit, for you are God, now and forever. Amen.

Why does the Gospel of Jesus Christ need a “Sacred Circle”? There are a sufficient number of unappetising “Sacred Circles” to make any association – even if just in name, although it appears to be more than that – between them and a church a thing to be assiduously avoided.

Here are some examples: The Wiccan Sacred Circle,  The Shamanic Sacred Circle, the Tarot Sacred Circle and, my favourite, the Canada Goose Sacred Circle (also Shamanic).

The Anglican version appears to be based upon the First Nations Sacred Circle which has nothing at all to do with the Gospel and has probably only been adopted by the ACoC out of a misplaced sense of guilt.

Cancun Global warming hypocrisy

Posted on by
Reply

From here:

The climate change summit in Cancun will generate 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide, its Mexican hosts admitted last night.

That means the £43million event will produce as much greenhouse gas as an average-sized African country would over the same two-week period.

The figure includes the carbon generated by flights, transport, hotels and food – and means the conference is polluting at the same rate as Somalia or Mali.

The Anglican Church of Canada is doing its bit to contribute to the farce.