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From the National Post<\/a>:<\/p>\n Just a week after rioting and mass arrests rocked the city\u2019s core, yesterday Toronto was the scene of mass inclusiveness, welcome and friendship as huge crowds welcomed Queen Elizabeth II, just ahead of a welcome for up to a million attending the annual gay and lesbian Pride Day parade.<\/p>\n Her Royal Highness, who wore a blue and white dress, and a robin-blue straw hat with a ribbon, sat in the front row of the Cathedral Church of St. James this morning as Dean Douglas Stoute knit the day\u2019s two themes deftly together with a sermon calling for the Anglican Church to hold a \u201crespectful, inclusive dialogue with all God\u2019s people,\u201d adding, \u201cthis is not easy.\u201d<\/p>\n Also in the packed church, which boasts Canada\u2019s largest steeple, were the Queen\u2019s husband, Prince Philip and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and his wife, Terry McGuinty.<\/p>\n \u201cThe church is undergoing a rebirth,\u201d the Very Reverend Stoute told the congregation. \u201cIt is at times destructive.\u201d He noted that some in the Anglican church have sought to defend traditional biblical ideas of who belongs and who does not, a reference to a schism in the Anglican church over the blessing of same-sex unions.<\/p>\n \u201cA church grounded by inclusiveness and openness is becoming more relevant,\u201d he said. \u201cThroughout history Anglicanism has sought to find a middle road,\u201d he added. \u201cIt is a recognition that we do not have all the answers. It requires that we let go of pride and reach out to listen with open minds and open hearts.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I\u2019m tempted the think that the Very Reverend Stoute has been over-imbibing in the drink of his namesake.<\/p>\n \u201cA church grounded by inclusiveness and openness is becoming more relevant\u201d;<\/em> never in its entire existence has the Anglican Church been less relevant or more ignored. When it isn\u2019t ignored, it is ridiculed for abandoning its own beliefs in favour of galloping as fast as it can on the treadmill of trendiness like a demented hamster in its wheel.<\/p>\n \u201cThe church is undergoing a rebirth,\u201d. <\/em>That must be why the number of people attending church has fallen from 1.2 million in 1960 to 650,000 in 2001 to 325,000 in 2009. This rebirth<\/em> bears a remarkable resemblance to a death rattle.<\/p>\n \u201c\u201cThroughout history Anglicanism has sought to find a middle road,\u201d he added. \u201cIt is a recognition that we do not have all the answers. It requires that we let go of pride and reach out to listen with open minds and open hearts.\u201d<\/em> The new evangelism: we have no idea what to believe; do you? Why not join us on Sunday and we can all wonder what it\u2019s all about together.<\/p>\n The poor Queen \u2013 with any luck she had jet lag and fell asleep.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the National Post: Just a week after rioting and mass arrests rocked the city\u2019s core, yesterday Toronto was the scene of mass inclusiveness, welcome and friendship as huge crowds welcomed Queen Elizabeth II, just ahead of a welcome for … Continue reading
\n\u201cPolarization within Anglicanism is not new,\u201d Rev. Stoute added, noting the 16th-century division between Catholicism and Protestantism and the 19th century dispute between high church and low church.<\/p>\n