{"id":780,"date":"2008-10-26T20:07:44","date_gmt":"2008-10-27T00:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anglicansamizdat.wordpress.com\/?p=780"},"modified":"2008-10-26T20:07:44","modified_gmt":"2008-10-27T00:07:44","slug":"the-invasion-of-st-hildas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/the-invasion-of-st-hildas\/","title":{"rendered":"The Invasion of St. Hilda\u2019s."},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest Niagara Anglican has an article on the Niagara diocesan squatters <\/a>. To read it all, go here<\/a> and scroll down to page 9; there is a similar article by Martha Tatarnic on page 1. Here is some of it:<\/p>\n

\n

St. Hilda\u2019s, Oakville: A church that is just a church
\nLUCINDA LANDAU
\nIn the midst of a break-up, something new is being born. A church community without a budget, committees, staff or even an altar guild is beginning to grow at St. Hilda\u2019s in Oakville. \u201cA church that is just a church,\u201d is the approach of the newly appointed Priest-in-charge, Reverend Martha Tatarnic. \u201cAt this moment in time,\u201d said Rev. Martha, \u201cwe have the unique opportunity of gathering simply as Church to worship and to be a community.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When Lucinda tells us that the diocese has not allocated a budget for this political occupation masquerading as a church, she is correct. Poor Rev. Martha has not been given a cent by the diocese; but then, neither have we (the real ANiC St. Hilda\u2019s) even though the court has ordered the diocese to share the cost of running the building. Now, to be fair, the diocese, in a moment of what I can only assume was feeble-minded magnanimity, offered to cover one seventh \u2013 14.29% – of the cost.<\/p>\n

Since the diocese is occupying the building when we would normally have our Sunday service and is there for no particular reason at other times of the week, we said, no, you should pay more. The diocese refused; in the case of such disagreement, the court ruled that an arbitrator should be appointed; the diocese refused. So the diocese is in contempt of court and we are paying all the bills. This is chronicled here<\/a> and here<\/a>. Since that was posted, the furnace that heats the sanctuary broke (we no longer use the sanctuary). Guess who leapt in like a flash to offer to pay and fix it? Correct, not the diocese; we couldn\u2019t let Martha\u2019s poor lambs freeze, so we paid (well, my teeth were gritted somewhat).<\/p>\n

The invitation to attend Sunday worship at St. Hilda\u2019s 8:30 a.m. service is open to everyone, with a particular invitation to those who are members of St. Hilda\u2019s but have not agreed, or felt comfortable, with the decision to split. Right now the service is also supported by parishioners from St. Jude\u2019s, Oakville.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019ll say it again: the vote at St. Hilda\u2019s to join ANiC was unanimous; there was no-one who disagreed with the decision to realign. None; zero; nil; zip; zilch; naught; zippo; n\/infinity. Got it yet?<\/p>\n

This paragraph does clear up one little mystery, though. During the tenure of the adorable Rev. Dr. Brian Ruttan, there were actually no people attending the diocesan service; none; zero; nil\u2026. Well, you get the point. Martha on the other hand pulls in around 15 cars each Sunday. Who are these people? I have always suspected that this massive influx was not a result of the New Evangelism<\/a> . The more likely explanation was that Martha brought people with her from St. Jude\u2019s (her last parish) a few miles away in downtown Oakville. And this, it seems is indeed the case.<\/p>\n

Which leads me to the obvious question: what is it that these stalwart St. Jude\u2019s parishioners do in St. Hilda\u2019s \u2013 by now \u2013 musty, damp, faux-50s, threadbare-orange-carpeted sanctuary that they cannot do in the plush, warm and handsome St. Jude\u2019s? Why, make a political statement, of course! I am sure that, at the next court appearance \u2013 which could be as early as December –\u00a0 the diocese will want to point to something that has the appearance of a viable congregation even though this<\/a> was said by one of their own.<\/p>\n

We are compelled to do the majority of our community building outside the church walls \u2013 ironically,the limitations imposed by the court on our access to the church buildings may turn out to be our finest asset.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have a way of enhancing your finest asset; stop occupying the building and leave it for those who paid for it \u2013 and continue to pay for it.<\/p>\n

We gather in a building that is at the centre of intense legal scrutiny and unchristian argument.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That quote is from Martha\u2019s article. Martha, the ‘unchristian argument’ is taking place in the courts; it is your employer, the Diocese of Niagara who initiated the court proceedings. Moreover, your diocese has repeatedly rejected requests by ANiC to negotiate outside the courts.<\/p>\n

So, if you find the idea of church without bureaucracy appealing, if you are looking for \u201ceckleisa\u201d in its simplest form, come out and experience a fresh approach to worship at St. Hilda\u2019s in Oakville.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is a Diocese of Niagara church, right? The diocese has no bureaucracy? They\u2019ve all been fired? They must be more broke than I thought.<\/p>\n

c\/p Essentials blog<\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest Niagara Anglican has an article on the Niagara diocesan squatters . To read it all, go here and scroll down to page 9; there is a similar article by Martha Tatarnic on page 1. Here is some of … 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":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,16,110],"tags":[2030],"class_list":["post-780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anglican-angst","category-anglican-church-of-canada","category-diocese-of-niagara","tag-anglican"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780","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=780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}