{"id":6189,"date":"2009-11-04T17:37:08","date_gmt":"2009-11-04T22:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anglicansamizdat.wordpress.com\/?p=6189"},"modified":"2009-11-04T17:37:08","modified_gmt":"2009-11-04T22:37:08","slug":"an-acna-church-disturbs-the-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/an-acna-church-disturbs-the-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"An ACNA church disturbs the peace"},"content":{"rendered":"

From ABC News<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The fight, pitting religious freedom against the right to be comfortable in one’s own home, started in March 2008 — on Palm Sunday.<\/p>\n

After opening in a new location in Phoenix, Ariz., The Cathedral of Christ the King started playing a recording of church bells every half hour — every day — from morning to night.
\n“To me, it is one of the ways that we express praise and worship to God. And it is also one of the ways that God speaks out and says to the community that there is somebody here that cares,” said Bishop Rick Painter, rector of the Cathedral of Christ the King, a local Charismatic church affiliated with the Anglican Church in North America.<\/p>\n

To neighbors like Sam Jensen and Al Brooks, it was a rude shock.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t know where it came from. It was six in the morning,” said Brooks. “I had no idea what it was. And then they were playing every half hour, so it woke me up and I came out into the back yard and then I heard them again every half hour all day long — 31 times that day,” said Jensen.<\/p>\n

After calling the cops, they had a heated meeting with Painter, who offered to reduce the ringing to once an hour.<\/p>\n

“I can’t imagine that God in heaven would look down and say that’s a good thing to do to your neighbors,” said Jensen.<\/p>\n

“We all celebrate God, but we don’t disturb our neighbors doing it,” Brooks said.<\/p>\n

The neighbors felt the church was inflexible, and inevitably the case landed in court, where the judge sided with the neighbors.<\/p>\n

She ordered the bells silenced, except on Sundays and church holidays. For the first time anyone can remember, a religious leader was convicted of disturbing the peace. The bishop was given a 10-day jail sentence, which was suspended, and three years probation — a misdemeanor for ringing church bells.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019ve always liked the idea that a church should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, but you can\u2019t do that in Phoenix, it seems \u2013 at least, not aurally. I grew up hearing church bells ring all day; they were rather restful compared to the ungodly racket that assaults the sensibilities today. The constant roar of traffic, punctuated by the pounding that emanates from the cars of pimply teenagers. The abomination of muzak, ubiquitous and soul-numbing: Pachelbel\u2019s canon, even if I am not hearing it in an elevator or at a wedding, reliably induces a near-coma trance followed by acute nausea. And the full might of the law descends on a bell-ringer.<\/p>\n

A 10-day suspended jail sentence and three years probation is a first for an ACNA pastor \u2013 and all for ringing a few bells. I expect there is worse to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From ABC News: The fight, pitting religious freedom against the right to be comfortable in one’s own home, started in March 2008 — on Palm Sunday. After opening in a new location in Phoenix, Ariz., The Cathedral of Christ the … Continue reading →<\/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":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2023],"class_list":["post-6189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-acna","tag-acna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6189","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=6189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6189\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}