Yet more Prophetic Social Justice Making

This time from the Diocese of Toronto which is busy “consolidating” churches and wants to turf a daycare out of one of them so it can be sold “tenant-free”.

It sounds like the action of a profiteering capitalist landlord to me. Where are those occupiers when you really need them.

From here:

In its eagerness to combine four south Scarborough churches into one, the Anglican Diocese of Toronto is inconveniencing another local institution, a daycare.

That, at least, is how employees and parents with children at St. Crispin’s in Cliffside see it.

Church services at the red brick building on Craiglee Drive ceased this fall, and in July a letter informed the non-profit, parent-run daycare it would have to leave by Dec. 31.

Its management found a new home for the children at Highway Gospel Church on Midland Avenue, but municipal permits are taking longer than expected.

Several times, board members have asked the diocese for another month.

“They adamantly said no,” daycare supervisor Debbie Humphreys said this week, “because they want to sell this place tenant-free.”

The parents are aware an offer has been made for the property of the former St. Crispin’s.

[….]

“I’m surprised they would rather have it vacant than help us out,” said Julie Leiper, a board member who added parents have been told the daycare, which has seven employees, will temporarily close Jan. 1 and be “kind of homeless for a while.”

7 thoughts on “Yet more Prophetic Social Justice Making

  1. Wait a minute… if it were an ANiC parish you’d be crowing a different line. The nursery was given loads of time to make alternative arrangements. The article is clear, it is city red tape that is slowing the process. The diocese has a legally binding agreement in place with a purchaser. It’s not any different than a landlord selling a property and the new owner asking the tenants to leave so the space can be used for an alternate purpose.

    Besides before you cry crocodile tears, it seems to me that the diocese gave considerable notice to the tenant that the property would be disposed of. Perhaps the daycare should contact the new owners to see if they can stay.

    • Perhaps as an act of Christian charity the diocese of Toronto could offer to help the daycare find an alternative space until a new permement location can be obtained. Or the diocese of Toronto could use its considerable influence with the city of Toronto and exert some pressure to speed up the red tape process.

    • Quite right! Surely the diocese could arrange for the nursery staff to be charged by the police on some grounds or other? Indeed the nursery should consider themselves lucky that the blessed dioceses of Toronto doesn’t sue them for obstruction. That would teach them to get in the way of a quick sale! I’m glad that you showed up here to tell the scumbag writing the blog how it really is!

      For the benefit of anyone else reading, who isn’t both so nasty and brain-dead, it goes like this.

      A church is a voluntary body, and a charitable body. It is ideologically supposed to exist for the benefit of mankind (although the officials of the Canadian Anglican Church would regard this as optional, of course). As a charity it is legally obliged to benefit the community. The buildings which the state agrees it “owns” were all built with money donated by others, out of a goodwill which many have since learned to repent. Those who are in receipt of the generosity of others have a moral duty to behave in a moral, benevolent and charitable way. Those who do not, deserve the criticism they get.

      If we didn’t know that the Anglican Church in Canada was rotten, we could infer it from the language and arguments of those who defend it.

  2. Quite the generalizations you make there Roger! My church is not rotten and I take offense to your statements. You are demonstrating a lack of charity and knowledge of my church that only reflects poorly on ANiC -but then again, I’ve come to expect that from some around this place. The parish in question above – St. Cyprian – gave the tenant 9 months notice that the building was to be sold – this is an act of goodwill.

    The harsh tone of your tome however Roger, suggests that you are guilty of nastiness. Calling me a scumbag is reprehensible and cause for the moderator have have you disciplined.

    You have an interesting way of celebrating the Feast of the Incarnation.

    • How do you know he is part of ANiC? Might be a good idea to avoid generalizations yourself if you are going to accuse others of same.

  3. Hey Kate… it’s a blog for ACC bashing and ANiC apologetics. Seemed rather obvious to me that he wasn’t getting all warm and fuzzy with ACC.

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