Tag Archives: Bishop Barry Clarke

Bishop of Montreal, having noted an objection to the ordination of an actively homosexual candidate, proceeds anyway

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The Bishop of Montreal, Barry Clarke, recently ordained Alain Brosseau, a candidate  who is in a same-sex relationship with Peter Wessel. A number of clergy and laity objected to the ordination, an objection that, predictably, was ignored by the bishop. In Anglican jargon, what the bishop did is known as listening.

The objectors must have known that their statement would have no effect because they have tried it before with the same result; perhaps the time has come for more radical action.

From here (page 7):

As has happened at several recent previous ordinations of candidates with same-sex partners, Bishop Barry Clarke noted briefly at the March30 ordination that he had received an objection to the ordination of one of the candidates but was proceeding in the light of his own reflections and decisions of the diocesan synod.

The announcement was greeted by applause from a number of those at the well attended ordination service.

The objection was to the ordination of Rev. Alain Brosseau (whose partner, Peter Wessel, read the lesson,Peter 5:1-4, at the ordination service).

The objection, not read out at the service, was also similar to ones filed on earlier occasions. It was signed by Rev. Nick Brotherwood on behalf of three other clergy and seven lay people.(Previous objections were signed by six clergy.)

It says in part: “We, the undersigned laity and clergy, understand that one of the candidates for ordination to the presbyterate on March30th is in a sexually-active, same-gender relationship. We believe such relationships to be incompatible with scripture, and, when they are also Civil Marriages, with our Marriage Canon, which defines marriage as being between a man and a woman. We believe such relationships are also inconsistent with the received tradition of the Church Catholic, as well as resolution 1.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference. Proceeding with such ordinations would not respect the previous Archbishop of Canterbury’s request for gracious restraint in these matters for the sake of the unity of the whole Church.

“For these reasons we believe the manner of life of the candidate so described to be unsuitable for the exercise of this ministry, and respectfully ask you not to proceed with his ordination.”

The letter was signed by Nick Brotherwood on behalf of Linda Faith Chalk, John and Diane Degrace,Bruce Glencross, Marilyn Miles, Stan and Joan Pepler, Roger Spack, Susan Wallet and Tim Wiebe.

Diocese of Montreal ordains two men, both married to other men

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Rev. Robert Camara and Donald Boisvert were ordained by Bishop Barry Clarke in June, Camara as a priest and Boisvert as a deacon; both Camara and Boisvert  are married – to men.

Anyone still labouring under the misapprehension that the Anglican Church of Canada is not being consumed by an obsession with homoerotic sex, need look no further for illumination than to the preoccupations of those whom it is ordaining. Here is an extract from “Holy Sex” by Deacon Boisvert:

Anyone who has ever publicly cruised other men, or participated in some of the more arcane rituals associated with S/M sex, for example, will understand the powerful, almost overwhelming pull of the masculine and the unspoken codes with which we surround and protect it. Masculinity represents many things for gay men: potency, dominion, authority, abandonment, protection. As the dominant masculine symbol, the phallus acquires many characteristics of the holy. This is not a particularly modern interpretation. Phallic worship is as old as human civilization, and perhaps as controversial today as it was in the past. It has always been transgressive, associated with disorder and excess, with rioutous freedom and wanton sex. …. I call gay sex “holy sex” because it is centred on one of the primal symbols of the natural world, that of male regenerative power. The rites of gay sex call forth and celebrate this power, particularly in its unknown and unknowable anonymity. Gay men are the worshippers paying homage to the god who stands erect and omnific, ever silent and distant.

Just what the doctor ordered for ailing Canadian Anglicanism: phallic worship.

Here, in his book “Sacred Space”, Boisvert describes his life’s most “spiritual moments” in – where else – gay bars and bath-houses:

Because I am a gay man, my first time in a gay bar, my first visit to the baths, and most poignantly, the first time I stepped into the Stonewall Inn in New York City have also been uplifting, spiritual moments in my life.

I am looking forward to the gradual transformation of Christ Church Cathedral into a “Sacred Space”; my bet is that it will be a gay bathhouse – once the baptismal font has been enlarged.

Boisvert used to be a Roman Catholic, an affiliation that proved unsympathetic to his yearning to worship penises. Unsurprisingly, he has received a warm welcome in the Anglican Church of Canada as it sinks inexorably into Boisvert’s murky world of cruising other men looking for a spot of “Holy Sex”.

From here (page 4):

To say that Donald Boisvert has come out as a gay man would be an understatement. You could almost say he wrote the book (or books).
His ordination as an Anglican deacon by Bishop Barry Clarke June 3 is another event in his distinguished and public career as a scholar and activist concerned particularly with sexuality and the relation between sexuality and religion.
In a note for The Montreal Anglican in 2009, on the occasion of his being received into the Anglican Church by Bishop Barry Clarke, he wrote:
“I was raised a Roman Catholic; I studied for the Catholic priesthood; and I am a scholar of Catholic religious culture. I have a great deal of affection for the Catholic Church, in large part because it marks my cultural heritage and it guided me through my youth, but also because it still has a great deal to offer. But I am gay, and I have more and more difficulty with the Vatican’s archaic teachings on human sexuality, including its position on women and their place within Catholicism.
More broadly, however, the Catholic Church remains a deeply entrenched patriarchal institution, with an authoritarian and rigid governing structure.

It is difficult to refrain from speculating on why Bishop Barry Clarke would ordain someone whose chief interests lie in the exploration of the ritualistic aspects of sadomasochism and the holiness of male genitals. Is the bishop a witless lunatic, a closet adorer of phalluses, a neophyte practitioner of wanton sex looking for instruction?

Who can say – perhaps he just picked up Boisvert in a bathhouse.

Note: I’ve updated this article since Robert Camara and Donald Boisvert, while married to other men, are not married to each other as I had previously stated.

The Diocese of Montreal is on a mission

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This particular mission has nothing at all to do with the Gospel and a lot to do with the anti-gospel: it is a dogged determination to repopulate diocesan clergy with homosexual priests who are “married” to someone of the same-sex.

The diocese has recently imported three such married priests from other dioceses and provinces and has now ordained another.

The latest ordination was protested by six existing priests in the diocese – not, as Bishop Barry Clarke made abundantly clear, that that will make a whit of difference.

This article (page 5) repeatedly refers to the six priests who have such an obstinate determination to cling to Biblical principles as “dissidents”, the currently approved term of opprobrium reserved for such obdurate Biblical obsessives:

The dissidents presented him with a letter, also signed by two absent colleagues, describing Mr. Camara’s marriage as incompatible with scripture and the definition of marriage under Anglican church law.

The preacher at the event – let’s not all it an “ordination” – made this pungent observation:

Walter Asbil (retired bishop of Niagara), often commented that we clergy ordained in the late fifties and early sixties had witnessed a major transition called the end of Christendom. We just hope we hadn’t caused it!

Such an inflated view of the influence of Anglican clergy is clearly preposterous: they have merely caused the end of Christianity in the Anglican Church – a far more modest achievement.

 

 

Anglican Diocese of Montreal supports the burka

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A Canadian Muslim, Tarek Fatah, agrees with the banning of burkas in Quebec government offices, schools, and other publicly funded institutions. He cites numerous reasons; this is among them:

I have no reservation in stating categorically that the burka is not just a piece of clothing, but is a symbol of Islamofacism and a rejection of the West as well as our cherished value of gender equality. The cruel reality is the burka castigates women as a source of evil (A’wra), condemning them to a life of isolation away from the gaze of men. Once veiled, they are marginalized, denied equality and made subservient to men. This leads to economic dependency, intimidation, violence and emotional abuse. Under the veil, the woman has no civic or secular identity. Her rights to make civic and political decisions are controlled and usurped by men, and by extension the hierarchy of the organized groups.

None of this deters Anglican Bishop of Montreal Barry Clarke though, who, after plumbing the depths of his Islamic savoir-faire, announced support for the burka:

MONTREAL – A bill that would bar a woman wearing a face veil from receiving government services is an attack on women’s rights in the guise of defending equality of the sexes, say the Anglican diocese of Montreal and the Simone de Beauvoir Institute.

In a statement approved Monday night by local clergy and Bishop Barry Clarke, the diocese said the bill erodes freedom of religion guaranteed under the Quebec and Canadian human-rights charters.

The local church body added that Bill 94 also unfairly targets women, since there are no men who wear the niqab, a veil with slits for the eyes worn by a small minority of Muslim women in Quebec.

“Obliging women to choose between the free exercise of their Charter right to freedom of religion, and the exercise of their rights to participate in society is odious,” the diocese said.

Also undeterred was the Simone de Beauvoir institute which has as its mission:

The Institute strives to stimulate the investigation, understanding and communication of the historical and contemporary roles of women in society, and to encourage women to develop their full creative potential.

There’s nothing that develops a woman’s creative potential quite as effectively as wearing a burka.