Tag Archives: Anglican Church of Canada

There is action in the Anglican Church of Canada. Really

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From here:

The Anglican Church of Canada agreed last week not to take any legislative action in response to differing views on same-sex blessings.

Rather, they chose to have “more conversation,” said Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada.

“That’s an action,” Hiltz insisted, according to the Anglican Journal.

Hiltz also noted other Anglican actions, some quite dramatic:

  • The Archbishop of Canterbury will not trim his eyebrows this year: the indigenous nesting cormorants will not need to find a new home.
  • The Anglican Church will not stop congratulating itself on having discovered the song “Amazing Grace”.
  • Anglicans in the “conversation” will not stop talking even though they ran out of things to say 20 years ago; some will continue to talk after they die.
  • Hiltz will not stop using the phrase “our beloved church” no matter how many people beg him to do so.
  • The church will not stop suing people: it is part of the generous pastoral response to the call for moratoria.
  • Bishop Michael Bird will not stop playing the bagpipes. Not until Rowan Williams trims his eyebrows.

There you have it: a frenzy of activity.

Turning church into a self-help group

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A number of dioceses in the Anglican Church of Canada have jumped on the “Back to Church Sunday” bandwagon in the hope of luring the unwary into one of their parishes.

Back to church for what, though? I’ve always been partial to attending church to worship God: as the Westminster Shorter Catechism notes, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” That seems good enough for me; but it’s not good enough for Michael Harvey, the developer of Back to Church Sunday. According to him, church should be more about discovering the potential within. Worship is merely a small but important – so far – element of what church should really be.

Anglican Church of Canada: The Me Church.

[flv:https://anglicansamizdat.net/wordpress/videos/BackToChurchSunday.flv 600 360]

You can watch the whole thing here.

A comparison of historic Anglican events in Canada

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The Anglican Church of Canada’s synod has sputtered to an end producing little more than a bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Nevertheless, Fred Hiltz has hailed the synod as “historic”. It’s difficult to imagine a less historic event, although I did trim my toenails this morning and I suppose that might just qualify.

General Synod 2010 full of historic and holy moments.

In a media conference following the closing Eucharist service, Archbishop Hiltz spoke of several, “historic and holy moments in the life of the church” that took place throughout General Synod.

Coincidentally, an article appeared in the National Post this morning about an insignificant little parish in Oakville full of a peculiar – if not downright eccentric – people who seem to be in the middle of something that really is historic:

Oakville Anglican parish home of profound revolution

There is nothing that hints at revolution on this suburban road in Oakville, where St. Hilda’s Anglican parish has sat for more than 50 years. No wild signs of protest, no warnings of hell and damnation, and no list of Luther-like demands nailed to the main door — just a not-so-extraordinary church building in the midst of a neighbourhood easily forgotten by those driving through.

Nevertheless, a religious revolution has taken place here as profound as anything seen in modern Christian history.

The fanciful delusions of the Anglican Church of Canada

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From here:

Human sexuality statement produces historic moment in the life of the church

Archbishop Colin Johnson, Diocese of Toronto, presents resolution A115: Affirmation of Sexuality Discernment to General Synod.

Through conversations, “marked by grace, honesty and generosity towards one another,” members of General Synod 2010 affirmed on Thursday, June 10 a resolution (A115: Affirmation of Sexuality Discernment) encapsulating discussions that took place through the work of various commissions and committees over the last triennium and at General Synod 2010 on human sexuality.

The statement acknowledges that there is no one view, perspective or experience within the Anglican Church of Canada. “For some, even this statement represents a risk. For some the statement does not go nearly far enough,” states the document.

“The statement reflects to the best of its ability the work of this Synod,” said Archbishop Fred Hiltz. “It is a statement that has a range of views within it and acknowledges the reality within our church.”

“Historic moment”? How can a moment when absolutely nothing has changed possibly be historic? After 3 years of studies, reports, reflections and theological position papers, the conclusion was that the Anglican Church of Canada can’t agree on whether to bless same-sex unions or not. The final document that was agreed on acknowledges that, calls for more study, by implication permits dioceses that are performing SSBs to continue and talks about how wonderful “conversation” is.

An historic moment where nothing has changed in the ACoC’s monotonous descent into a toxic soup of omnisexual neurosis.

I was so pleased to be present at the historic moment.

Anglican Church of Canada takes another pot shot at Israel

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The Anglican Church of Canada rarely passes over a chance to excoriate Israel. Had the Turkish “relief vessel” not been thug infested, they would have been escorted to shore and the IDF would have assisted in unloading the supplies. As it was, the IDF, unsurprisingly, defended themselves against a bunch of murderous “peace activists”.

It’s just as well that there are few left that give a hoot what the ACoC thinks about Israel – or, indeed, anything else.

The General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada went on record expressing “deep concern” regarding the interception by Israeli Defence Forces of relief ships from Turkey and Ireland. The ships were attempting to disrupt the Israeli blockade of Palestinian ports to deliver relief supplies to Gaza.

Nine people were killed May 31 after the Israelis boarded ships heading toward Gaza. On June 4, an Irish Gaza-bound aid ship was forced to head towards the Israeli port of Ashdod instead.

The synod passed the motion by a show of hands after a short debate. “It’s not for us to declare to the nation of Israel how to defend themselves,” said David Parson from the diocese of the Arctic.

Bishop Dennis Drainville of Quebec argued that the synod was within its rights to object to what he considered an unjustified action. He quoted Martin Luther King as saying that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice anywhere.”

The motion asks the General Secretary to communicate to the Prime Minister and government of Canada its concern and view that a full international inquiry into the incidents is necessary.

Also sprach Zarathustra – and Peter Elliot

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The remarkably fitting theme music for Peter Elliot’s musing is the tone poem by Richard Strauss, inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophical novel about the death of God.

It is more widely known, of course, as the music in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey; it introduces a bunch of monkeys banging bones on the ground in front of a large black obelisk. Symbolic of a contemporary Anglican synod, perhaps.

I’m not sure which of these ideas is supposed to be the backdrop for Dean Peter’s exhortations, but I suppose either would work.

The Anglican Church of Canada’s resolution on the Covenant

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This will be discussed at the General Synod in Halifax next week:

A137: Anglican Communion Covenant

Be it resolved that this General Synod:

  1. receive the final text of The Covenant for the Anglican Communion;
  2. request that materials be prepared under the auspices of the Anglican Communion Working Group, for parishes and dioceses in order that study and consultation be undertaken on The Covenant for the Anglican Communion;
  3. direct the Council of General Synod, after this period of consultation and study, to bring a recommendation regarding adoption of the Covenant for the Anglican Communion to the General Synod of 2013.

What does the Anglican Church of Canada do when someone tries to pin it down with a wet noodle?

Receive the wet noodle; circulate the wet noodle to parishes for close inspection; shelve the wet noodle for 3 years in the hope that it might become more flaccid. Repeat as necessary.

ACoC Director of Philanthropy “resigns”

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From here:

The executive director of the department of philanthropy for the Anglican Church of Canada has resigned, effectively immediately.

Dr. Holland Hendrix was appointed executive director of General Synod’s new philanthropy department in October 2008.

“…this morning the Primate (Archbishop Fred Hiltz) and I accepted the resignation of Dr. Holland Hendrix as executive director of philanthropy. …,” said Sam Carriere, acting general secretary of General Synod, in a statement. “We wish him well in future endeavours.”

Anyone who has worked in a large organisation knows what the above coded message really means: he was fired. Perhaps it was this less than stellar idea that brought about his premature demise.

Fred Hiltz is to be a missional primate

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From the ACoC:

A missional Primate?
What is the Primate’s role in the Anglican Church of Canada? Over the past three years, the Primatial Role Task Force explored this question through historical research and consultation with active Anglicans.

What does “missional primate” mean? It’s hard to tell, but the ever helpful Wikipedia advises us that:

“Missional living” is a Christian term that describes a missionary lifestyle; adopting the posture, thinking, behaviors, and practices of a missionary in order to engage others with the gospel message. The use of the term missional has gained popularity at the end of the 20th Century due to Tim Keller, Ed Stetzer, Alan Hirsch, the Gospel and Our Culture Network, Allelon, and the Emerging church movement, as well as others to contrast the concept of a select group of “professional” missionaries with the understanding that all Christians should be involved in the Great Commission/mission of Jesus Christ.

This seems to imply that to be a “missional primate”, Fred Hiltz would have to cease being a professional clergyman, give up his salary and become a normal Christian – good news indeed.

Christianity Today, thinks that:

A missional theology is not content with mission being a church-based work. Rather, it applies to the whole life of every believer. Every disciple is to be an agent of the kingdom of God, and every disciple is to carry the mission of God into every sphere of life. We are all missionaries sent into a non-Christian culture.

Missional represents a significant shift in the way we think about the church. As the people of a missionary God, we ought to engage the world the same way he does—by going out rather than just reaching out. To obstruct this movement is to block God’s purposes in and through his  people. When the church is in mission, it is the true church.

This is written by Alan Hirsch, who goes by the nails-on-a-blackboard title of “missional activist”. Here we are told to go out, not just reach out – although I am unsure of the distinction.

It is instructive to enter “what is missional” into google; from the results, it seems that the term is sufficiently slippery to appeal to just about anyone who is not allergic to trendy words.

In spite of the fact that I am all for taking the Gospel – the real Gospel – outside the church walls, my unease with what appears to be yet another fruitless attempt to build the Kingdom of God on earth before God is ready to participate is not assuaged by things like this:

More and more evangelical and missional leaders have begun to characterize the gospel of justification by faith alone, penal substitution, and the salvation of souls as a “small gospel.”

Why is that a “small gospel”? What could be larger than the salvation of even a single soul, over which the angels of heaven rejoice?

An Anglican-Lutheran joining

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Anglicans and Lutherans join forces:

The Rev. Brad Mittleholtz has been officially appointed as priest for a newly combined Anglican-Lutheran parish in the Bruce Peninsula. This new expression of the Full Communion relationship between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and Anglican Church of Canada was celebrated at a service at Trinity Anglican Church in Wiarton, Ont. on April 26.

Seven Anglican churches, which make up the Anglican Parish of the Bruce Peninsula, and St. Peter’s Lutheran church, will share in a ministry but will maintain their own buildings and identities. At the service in Wiarton, members of the parish proclaimed:

We believe God is calling Lutherans and Anglicans
to witness, and the Holy Spirit will enable us to join
in Ministry on the Bruce Peninsula by
sharing, celebrating, and rejoicing in God’s gifts to us.
We believe that in sharing equal partnership, no congregation
will lose its autonomy, identity, integrity, history or traditions.
We believe in working together as disciples
For the spiritual well-being of the people of the Bruce.
We believe in witnessing to God’s message
By sharing both ordained and lay leadership in ministry.

What does this really mean?

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