{"id":24796,"date":"2017-02-22T22:11:30","date_gmt":"2017-02-23T03:11:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/?p=24796"},"modified":"2017-02-22T22:11:30","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T03:11:30","slug":"diocese-of-niagara-deconsecrates-another-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/diocese-of-niagara-deconsecrates-another-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Diocese of Niagara deconsecrates another church"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This time it is the turn of St. James in Merritton, St Catharines.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-24797\" src=\"https:\/\/anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/stjames-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"165\" height=\"239\" \/>From <a href=\"http:\/\/niagaraanglican.ca\/newspaper\/docs\/2017\/mar.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThis church building has been a home, a refuge and a place filled with great joy in the midst of countless celebrations,\u201d said Bishop Michael Bird during the final service at St. James Merritton (St Catharines). \u201cIt has also been for us a sanctuary in the face of so many difficult and painful moments and tragedies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The building was deconsecrated\u2014returned to common use\u2014at a special afternoon service on Sunday, January 22.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Ironically, it was nine years ago today that diocesan officials marched into St. Hilda\u2019s, and shortly after into Good Shepherd in St. Catharines, to demand the building keys because they wanted to use the churches to continue diocesan services after their congregations had voted to join the Southern Cone and later ANiC.<\/p>\n<p>When the buildings were finally in the hands of the Diocese of Niagara, Bishop Michael Bird <a href=\"http:\/\/www.anglicanjournal.com\/articles\/diocese-of-niagara-reclaims-disputed-churches-10867\" target=\"_blank\">noted<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201dI am very pleased with this outcome,\u201d said Bishop Michael Bird.\u00a0 \u201cIt affirms that these churches belong to all the generations that built them up and not just a particular group of individuals.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Of the churches that <em>\u201cbelong to all the generations that built them up\u201d, <\/em>Good Shepherd in St. Catharine\u2019s now stands empty, cold and desolate and St. Hilda\u2019s, in 2013, was torn down:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/29U4498.jpg\" width=\"1400\" height=\"933\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In 2017, the lot still stands empty:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/29U4708.jpg\" width=\"1400\" height=\"933\" \/><\/p>\n<p>As a fitting finale to the comedic irony, the Diocese of Niagara, having also acquired St. Hilda&#8217;s rectory, sold it to Daniel Freedman, owner of, so I am told, the largest sex toy company in Canada, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pinkcherry.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\">PinkCherry Sex Toys.<\/a> You may not want to click on that link.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This time it is the turn of St. James in Merritton, St Catharines. From here: \u201cThis church building has been a home, a refuge and a place filled with great joy in the midst of countless celebrations,\u201d said Bishop Michael &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/diocese-of-niagara-deconsecrates-another-church\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[110],"tags":[2058,2111,2432],"class_list":["post-24796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diocese-of-niagara","tag-bishop-michael-bird","tag-diocese-of-niagara","tag-st-james-merritton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24796\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}