Christianity isn’t safe.

Early Christians had to look forward to an early unpleasant departure from this vale of tears, a fate that is still in store for many persecuted Christians today. St. Paul was: beaten with rods, stoned, shipwrecked, robbed, imprisoned, hungry, thirsty, betrayed, nearly drowned and five times received forty lashes.

If the early church had concentrated its efforts on becoming safe, I don’t suppose much would have come of it; after all, Aslan is not a tame Lion.

Nevertheless, the Diocese of Niagara is a safe place – for everyone except orthodox Christians.

From here:

Safe Church initiatives within the Diocese of Niagara are dedicated to ensuring that the church is a safe and holy place for all people at all times.

We affirm the dignity and worth of all persons, young or old, male or female, rich or poor.

To that end, our protocols apply to all of the people of the Diocese of Niagara in all of our faith communities, no matter what ministry they partake in, be it volunteer, paid, lay or ordained.

[….]

Truly, the Spirit moves in our midst as we come to terms with what it means to be the Christian Church in the days of #MeToo and #ChurchToo.

“First female bishop seated in Niagara” trumpets the headline. The significance of the event seems to pivot on the “female” aspect of the seating rather than the overall qualifications of the bishop – which could be stellar, of course; we shall see.

Stirring cello melodies, gleeful banter of children, inspired words, reflection and invitation, moving intercessions mingled with familiar hymnody and the loving words shared by Jesus millennia ago were some of the sounds that poignantly filled Christ’s Church Cathedral Hamilton as Bishop Susan Bell was seated as the 12th diocesan bishop of Niagara.

As is so often the case when the church chases cultural fads, it has already been outdone by the inane conceit it seeks to emulate. Were it truly abreast of the latest in non-binary, gender-fluid inclusivity, the headline would read: “First femxle bishop seated in Niagara”.

From here:

In England, ‘womxn’ is in, as activists try to replace word ‘woman’ in the name of inclusiveness.

There have been womon, womyn and even wimmin. Now activists at British universities have settled on womxn as the latest attempt to replace the words woman/women.

Confusingly, King’s College in London, England, has the KCL Women in Physics student society and the Womxn in Physics Society.

The KCL womxn society, says a website, was founded to address “the issue of underrepresentation of women and non-binary people in the physics department at King’s College London.”

It adds, “This society aims to act as a safe space for all minorities in the field of physics.”

That is not the euphemism used in Bishop Susan Bell’s charge to synod, of course; nevertheless, that’s what it is. Or it could be Church Closures, Sales and Demolitions.

From here (my emphasis):

I think I am also beginning to see a general loosening of our love affair with bricks and mortar:  The property we own as a Diocese is a strategic asset, it’s true.  But perhaps not in the ways we used to think about it.  The fact is, churches have life cycles.  They were and are planted according to key demographics, they have a beginning to their life, a middle and an end.  The truth is, very few churches live for a century and fewer still live to see two – unless it is this venerable and beautiful cathedral that we are meeting in today.  Parishes and church buildings are meant to spring up where the mission fields are. And when it is very clear that they have come to the end of their life cycle it is incumbent on us – the stewards of those resources – to redeploy those assets as needed for a new mission field – as intended by their founders: Christians who gave money to the church to be the church.

This is an important thing for us to understand.  It is not good Christian practice for us to hold buildings hostage to our desires to hold on to worldly things.  It is good Christian practice to make disciples and to preach the Gospel to the whole of creation.  So, we are called to go where the mission field is.  We will become a planting church once again.  And what does that look like in this time?  It looks like understanding the needs of new housing surveys; of underserviced inner-city neighbourhoods; strategic small-town locations.  These are some of the contexts that we are learning about and planning to engage.

And to better ascertain how best to deploy our precious building resources I have asked Mr. Terry Charters to lead a new committee that will work with our Secretary of Synod and Treasurer on our property portfolio to best and most strategically maintain, sell, re-purpose, rent or restore property based on the best analysis we have available of demographics.  This will also include a focus on our continuing plans for the revitalization of Cathedral Place – on which he’ll report later in the course of Synod. This group will also have the aim of searching for reliable community partnerships and for income generation plans to support sustainability but also to underwrite future mission and ministry in this diocese. This is the job of tilling the soil and planting seeds for the next season of our beloved church.

And to go with this new committee, I’ve also conferred on Terry the title of Honorary Lay Canon of Christ’s Church Cathedral.  We are greatly indebted to him for his many hours of specialized and valuable ministry among us and look forward to all that he has to share with us in the coming years.  We’ll have a service of installation for him and Canon Jody early in the New Year.