On August 31st, 1955 the Church of England in Canada changed its name to Anglican Church of Canada.
50 years later it didn’t change it to the Marxist Anglican Denomination, but it should have.
Dancing like David before the ark, carried away by their love for God? Or a couple of ageing twerps making asses of themselves in their desperation to appear with-it? You decide:
Susan definitely has one up on Fred in the rhythm – and bumping – department.
The ACoC has aligned itself with Herod in demanding a full Canadian census:
The Divine Right of Statisticians
The long-form Census boosters have hit the bottom of the pressure group totem pole, they have now sought out the mainline churches:
Protecting a harmonious society, care for the poor and vulnerable, and safeguarding religious liberty are at the heart of their complaints. Like Moses’s nemesis the Pharaoh, the federal government has turned a deaf ear.
Church leaders representing 76 per cent of Canadians (according to a 2003 Statistics Canada report) have written eloquent protests, all to no avail. For example, Anglicans said removing the mandatory long-form census would place the government in danger of overlooking the value and complexity of charitable work. Anglican officials reminded Industry Minister Tony Clement how the science of charity works: “In spiritual terms, this loving human response comes by the Grace of God, but in practical terms, it is emboldened and upheld by reliable information and sound methodologies. Statistical information has to help transform thought into action in profound and life-giving ways.
A lobbyist in holy orders is still a lobbyist. The Lord may move in mysterious ways, but Church officials are more obvious in their methods and goals. The Anglican Church of Canada, which once upon a time was referred to as the Conservative Party at prayer, has largely marginalized hum drum activities like preaching Christianity. This has been largely left to the parvenus in the evangelical churches. As aging parishioners grow ever closer to the Lord in the purely practical sense, the mainline churches grow ever more distant in the spiritual sense. Its servants have become, and present themselves, as eccentrically attired social workers. Helping the poor was always part of the Church’s mission, but this was in addition to preparing for the world to come. The article finishes with this humdinger:
So while Christians seem to be at risk of losing the scientific data they need to do their social efforts, teaching about giving information to God will go on. That’s what people do when they pray. An important part of prayer is the practice of letting God have your information. Somehow, conclusions emerge in that mysterious practice, conclusions leading to discovery of self, purpose and meaning. Counted or not, that kind of activity has got to be a good thing for nation building.
“[L]etting God have your information.” Isn’t God omniscient? Maybe the new God isn’t like the old God. Like the new Churches aren’t like the old Churches. In any case we are not filing out the long-form Census for the Almighty, we are filling it out for the Government of Canada. That’s an important distinction. You shall have no other gods before him?
Even the secular press manages to see through the façade that the ACoC likes to present: that it is still a Christian church. The likening of letting God have your information to letting the government have it betrays the sad reality that the god that the ACoC actually prefers to rely on is the nanny state god.
Here is a video of the Anglican contribution to the Vancouver Gay Pride Parade:
Apparently it was “A magnificent demonstration of civility”.
It was also an exercise in Scripture mangling by people carrying signs saying, “no good thing will God withhold from those who walk with integrity” Ps 84:11. The organisation “Integrity” has high-jacked not only the word but the New English Version’s translation of what most others have as “walk uprightly”; since when did homosexual activity become a component of walking uprightly?
Further along we have a few brightly painted blokes sporting tea-shirts declaring themselves, presumably, to be “intrinsically good”, in spite of the general drift of Scripture, experience and common sense that says we are all intrinsically bad – so bad that we need a Saviour.
There is even a Rowan Williams doppelganger in there at 2:14.
From here:
The Primate has appointed Suzanne Lawson consultant to General Synod’s Department of Philanthropy and Philanthropy Committee. Ms. Lawson, a former Executive Director of Program at General Synod, will help assess current philanthropic initiatives and refocus the work of philanthropy at a national level.
Corporate sponsorship didn’t work; Anglicans who tithe are scarcer than bishops who believe; no-one wants their money to be used to pay for the litigation happy ACoC lawyers – so what’s to be done?
Here’s an idea – although convincing Paul Allen that the ACoC won’t die before he does might be tricky:
The co-founder of Microsoft Paul Allen has pledged the majority of his estimated US$13.5bn fortune to philanthropy following his death.
Allen set up his own charitable foundation, the Paul G Allen Family Foundation, 20 years ago.
From Blazing Cat Fur:
The title says it all: to outsiders the Anglican Church of Canada is little more than an extravagant display of buffoonery.
From the National Post:
Just a week after rioting and mass arrests rocked the city’s core, yesterday Toronto was the scene of mass inclusiveness, welcome and friendship as huge crowds welcomed Queen Elizabeth II, just ahead of a welcome for up to a million attending the annual gay and lesbian Pride Day parade.
Her Royal Highness, who wore a blue and white dress, and a robin-blue straw hat with a ribbon, sat in the front row of the Cathedral Church of St. James this morning as Dean Douglas Stoute knit the day’s two themes deftly together with a sermon calling for the Anglican Church to hold a “respectful, inclusive dialogue with all God’s people,” adding, “this is not easy.”
Also in the packed church, which boasts Canada’s largest steeple, were the Queen’s husband, Prince Philip and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and his wife, Terry McGuinty.
“The church is undergoing a rebirth,” the Very Reverend Stoute told the congregation. “It is at times destructive.” He noted that some in the Anglican church have sought to defend traditional biblical ideas of who belongs and who does not, a reference to a schism in the Anglican church over the blessing of same-sex unions.
“A church grounded by inclusiveness and openness is becoming more relevant,” he said.
“Polarization within Anglicanism is not new,” Rev. Stoute added, noting the 16th-century division between Catholicism and Protestantism and the 19th century dispute between high church and low church.“Throughout history Anglicanism has sought to find a middle road,” he added. “It is a recognition that we do not have all the answers. It requires that we let go of pride and reach out to listen with open minds and open hearts.”
I’m tempted the think that the Very Reverend Stoute has been over-imbibing in the drink of his namesake.
“A church grounded by inclusiveness and openness is becoming more relevant”; never in its entire existence has the Anglican Church been less relevant or more ignored. When it isn’t ignored, it is ridiculed for abandoning its own beliefs in favour of galloping as fast as it can on the treadmill of trendiness like a demented hamster in its wheel.
“The church is undergoing a rebirth,”. That must be why the number of people attending church has fallen from 1.2 million in 1960 to 650,000 in 2001 to 325,000 in 2009. This rebirth bears a remarkable resemblance to a death rattle.
““Throughout history Anglicanism has sought to find a middle road,” he added. “It is a recognition that we do not have all the answers. It requires that we let go of pride and reach out to listen with open minds and open hearts.” The new evangelism: we have no idea what to believe; do you? Why not join us on Sunday and we can all wonder what it’s all about together.
The poor Queen – with any luck she had jet lag and fell asleep.
Parishioners of St. Cuthbert’s in Toronto celebrated Earth hour at their second annual Candlelight Meditation. Here they are:
I can’t help noticing that everyone is holding a paraffin wax candle. Paraffin, when ignited is a rich source of numerous toxins:
Paraffin is a derivative of petroleum. When burned they release carcinogenic toxins such as benzene, toluene, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acrolein and soot into the air. The emissions from paraffin candles contain many of the same toxins produced by burning diesel fuel. It is like starting up a diesel engine inside you home!
St. Cuthbert’s, Toronto, polluting for Jesus.
As it loses more and more people, the ACoC is consolidating parishes, selling empty buildings and laying off staff at head office just to stay solvent. Regrettably, this frugality does not extend to negotiating outside the courts with parishes that have left the ACoC. Rather, large sums of money are being paid to lawyers in order to seize buildings for which dioceses have little use – other than to sell – from congregations who are using them for their intended purpose: worship.
The latest salvo is being directed at the Ottawa churches, St. Alban’s and St. George’s; both left the Anglican Church of Canada for ANiC in 2008.
In 2008, the Centertown News published this:
Ross Moulton, executive archdeacon to Bishop John Chapman of the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa, said the break has brought sadness and sorrow to the Anglican community.
Moulton said it’s too early to tell whether St. Alban’s will be able to keep its church building…..
But Moulton said the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa is adamant about the wish to settle this property dispute in the most cordial manner possible.
“I think it is everybody’s hope that some amicable arrangement could be made,” said Moulton. “To get into long court battles, it consumes a lot of resources, time, and money. And at the end of the day, nobody wins.”
In spite of this welcome intrusion of common sense from Moulton in 2008, the lawsuits are now forging ahead, naming volunteer wardens in the suit – a vindictive, take no prisoners strategy that was also used in Niagara and New Westminster.
In Niagara a clumsy disinformation campaign was also launched to convince parishioners still in ACoC parishes that the lawsuits were instigated by the ANiC parishes. An acquaintance in a local Diocese of Niagara parish walked out of a service when a letter claiming this was read from the pulpit.
Now, as the Hairy Eyeball reports, a similar manoeuvre is being attempted in Ottawa:
Well, it seems that there are rumours circulating around the Diocese of Ottawa about the latest rounds of lawsuits between the Anglican Church of Canada and ANiC parishes. Specifically, there’s a rumour circulating that the latest lawsuits involving St. Alban’s Ottawa and St. George’s Ottawa were started by ANiC. This is absolutely untrue. The Diocese of Ottawa sued St. Alban’s, not the other way around.
The cliché of the month for the Anglican Church Of Canada is that it is becoming a “missional” church – the word was to be found in every second sentence at the recent Anglican Synod. The precise meaning of “missional” is unclear, but it must have something to do with trying to appeal to those who do not presently attend a church.
Perhaps “missional” means “join now, be sued later.”
