Tag Archives: Halloween

St. John’s Shaughnessy hosts a Halloween Spooktacular

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St. John’s evicted a thriving congregation in 2011, resulting in a church that resembled a mausoleum and a massive loss of revenue. It’s an expensive church to maintain so, in 2018, the diocese rented the church to a film crew making a TV program called, aptly enough, Imposters.

Now in a further attempt to fill the pews, St. John’s has decided to appeal to the occult by hosting a “Halloween Spooktacular”.

St. John’s belief in the reality of the occult is on much the same level as its belief in Christianity: close to non-existent.

Halloween Organ Spooktacular

When: Oct. 25, 7:30-9 p.m.

Where: St. John’s Shaughnessy Anglican Church

Tickets and info: by donation, vancouver.anglican.ca

As part of its 50th anniversary revitalization campaign, the grand pipe organ of St John’s Shaughnessy has been undergoing a major technological overhaul. To give the instrument a proper workout, the Royal Canadian College of Organists is holding its annual Halloween Spooktacular concert at SJS rather than St Andrew’s-Wesley (which is closed for renovations anyway).  Dressed in Halloween attire, nine organists will perform spooky selections from the Bach Toccata and Fugue in D minor (used in the 1962 movie Phantom of the Opera, for one), Chopin’s Funeral March, Berloiz’ March to the Scaffold, and Grieg’s Death of Ase. Audience members are encouraged to dress up, and there will be treats for the kids.

“Night of the Living Dead” at Anglican Cathedral

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No, it’s not another Indaba meeting, it’s a Halloween service at Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral; it is intended to “engage with people’s fear of death and fascination with the spirit world”.

It seems that the Church of England’s desperation to entice people into a church has sunk to the level of titillating their dangerous fascination for the occult.

More here:

Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral will stage a Halloween service tonight that will “engage with people’s fear of death and fascination with the spirit world”.

Canon Richard White will lead ‘Night of the Living Dead’ at 8pm in the main space of the Cathedral.

The first service like it took place in 2010, with more than 200 people attending.

Canon Richard said: “Halloween is now the second biggest commercial event of the year.

“While lots of churches offer positive alternatives for children, teenagers and young adults can often see the church as irrelevant or condemning at this time of the year.

“Our stunning Gothic cathedral is the perfect place to seize the opportunity to connect with people’s fascination with the ‘spiritual world’.

“It will be creative, fun and will have Christ at its centre.”

 

Double, double toil and trouble in Moose Jaw

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From here:

It was not long after sending out the fall issue of its newsletter announcing a Halloween fundraiser that the Western Development Museum in Moose Jaw started receiving complaints; pastors came to the museum in person, emails and phone calls rolled in and concerns from church groups and community members were expressed to politicians saying the planned séance and ghost walk was “inviting evil” into the community….

“The feeling was expressed that by doing an event like this we were inviting evil to our facility and our community,” said Katherine Fitton, manager of the museum.

“That we would be opening Pandora’s Box, so to speak. These folk felt quite strongly that there was no way to avoid evil when engaging in these things, that there was no such thing as being light-hearted about it; that we’re looking for trouble.”….

Hired to host the event was Jeff Richards, a 25-year-old Regina showman inspired by David Copperfield. He said part of the controversy over the show is that it was scheduled in a place that receives public money; but mostly he put it down to a local church group using it as an “opportunity to grandstand.”

“I knew there would be some push-back from the religious community,” Mr. Richards said yesterday of the Moose Jaw booking. “But I’ve never had a mass outcry like this before.”

“I understand people having this fear of things they don’t understand. People have great concern over evil forces being unleashed but that stems from them not understanding what we were doing,” he said.

In our preposterously value-levelled culture where witches routinely demand equal time, it’s not particularly surprising that when Christian pastors act in a way that is consistent with their beliefs, their stand is met with astonishment and condescension.

The pastors’ resistance to holding a séance – mock or not – is not so much an example of “people having this fear of things they don’t understand” but people refusing to countenance things that they understand only too well: if evil forces exist – I don’t see how anyone who is a Christian could think they don’t – why engage in practices that seek to consult them, even if it’s in “fun”?

It’s Jeff Richards who lacks understanding