Monthly Archives: March 2014

Bishop Colin Johnson disappointed by Earth Hour apathy

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March 29, 8:30-9:30 was Earth Hour; we were all supposed to turn our lights out. To the great disappointment of the Diocese of Toronto’s bishop, most of the lights stayed on. He used his conveniently operational computer, phone or tablet, running on fossil fuel produced electricity, to tweet his anguish:

30-03-2014 9-32-47 PMAs environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg is only too happy to point out, Earth Hour is worse than an empty gesture encouraged by gullible clerics who can find nothing better to believe in; it does the opposite of what it purports to achieve.

As the United Kingdom’s National Grid operators have found, a small decline in electricity consumption does not translate into less energy being pumped into the grid, and therefore will not reduce emissions. Moreover, during Earth Hour, any significant drop in electricity demand will entail a reduction in CO2 emissions during the hour, but it will be offset by the surge from firing up coal or gas stations to restore electricity supplies afterward.

And the cozy candles that many participants will light, which seem so natural and environmentally friendly, are still fossil fuels—and almost 100 times less efficient than incandescent light bulbs. Using one candle for each switched-off bulb cancels out even the theoretical CO2 reduction; using two candles means that you emit more CO2.

 

A prophecy of doom from Rowan Williams, climate expert

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Rowan Williams, in a burst of prescience which had completely deserted him during his tenure as Archbishop of Canterbury, has declared that a weather crisis is upon us and it is all the West’s fault for burning too much fossil fuel.

What seems to have escaped Rowan’s attention is that China is now the largest consumer of fossil fuel in the world. Perhaps it hasn’t though: heaping carbon sin opprobrium on a communist country is not necessary since the global warming crusade is less about science than it is about wealth redistribution – and that is supposed to have already arrived in China’s Marxist paradise.

From here:

Former archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has spoken of his fears for the global climate, saying the winter flooding was a portent of what is to come in the future.

He has blamed the lifestyle of Western countries for climate change, which he said is ‘pushing the environment towards crisis’.

He said the floods in Britain and similar weather-related catastrophes around the world are the clearest indications yet that predictions of ‘accelerated warming of the Earth’ caused by the uncontrolled burning of fossil fuels… ‘are coming true’.

Merry Christmas

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It’s nine months until we celebrate the birth of Jesus and today is the Feast of the Annunciation.

I believe that the moment of conception is the moment a human being, made in God’s image, a person with an immortal soul, is created by God. For a Christian no other view stands up to scrutiny; no other view is logical.

Today, then, we celebrate the moment when God himself became fully Man while remaining fully God. Jesus emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. He emptied himself to the extent that he became a microscopic clump of cells embedded in the womb of one of his creatures.

EmbryoJesus came into the world at the moment of his conception.

Merry Christmas.

World Vision to hire married same-sex couples

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From here:

The prominent Christian relief agency World Vision said Monday it will hire Christians who are in same-sex marriages, a dramatic policy change on one of the most divisive social issues facing religious groups.

Oddly, the same article goes on to say:

“I want to be clear that we have not endorsed same-sex marriage, but we have chosen to defer to the authority of local churches on this issue,” Stearns said.

World Vision requires employees to affirm, through the agency’s statement of faith or the Apostle’s Creed, that they follow Christ. Stearns said the agency will continue to follow that policy, including requiring employees to remain celibate outside of marriage. World Vision says it hires staff from dozens of denominations with different views of gay relationships.

Stearns seems to be contradicting himself: he claims not to be endorsing same-sex marriage yet he is employing people in a same-sex marriage while requiring employees to remain celibate outside of marriage. Surely recognising same sex “marriage” as a true marriage is endorsing it.

Franklin Graham’s view of World Vision’s decision is here:

I was shocked today to hear of World Vision’s decision to hire employees in same-sex marriages. The Bible is clear that marriage is between a man and a woman.

My dear friend, Bob Pierce, the founder of World Vision and Samaritan’s Purse, would be heartbroken. He was an evangelist who believed in the inspired Word of God.

World Vision maintains that their decision is based on unifying the church – which I find offensive – as if supporting sin and sinful behavior can unite the church.

From the Old Testament to the New Testament, the Scriptures consistently teach that marriage is between a man and woman and any other marriage relationship is sin.

I stopped supporting World Vision in 2010 after its ambivalent attitude to abortion became apparent.

Aborted babies used to heat hospitals

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A predictable consequence of treating unborn babies as little more than disposable waste tissue: Soylent Green energy.

From here:

The bodies of thousands of aborted and miscarried babies were incinerated as clinical waste, with some even used to heat hospitals, an investigation has found.

Ten NHS trusts have admitted burning foetal remains alongside other rubbish while two others used the bodies in ‘waste-to-energy’ plants which generate power for heat.

Last night the Department of Health issued an instant ban on the practice which health minister Dr Dan Poulter branded ‘totally unacceptable.’

At least 15,500 foetal remains were incinerated by 27 NHS trusts over the last two years alone, Channel 4’s Dispatches discovered.

Anglican Church of Canada participates in Truth and Reconciliation

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From here:

From March 27 to 30, several thousand Indigenous and non-Indigenous people will gather in Edmonton, Alberta for the seventh and final national Truth and Reconciliation Commission event.

The Anglican delegation will include Archbishop Fred Hiltz, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, National Indigenous Anglican Bishop Mark MacDonald, the Venerable Michael Thompson, General Secretary, and Archbishop Terry Finlay, Primate’s Envoy on Residential Schools.

Bishops, clergy, and parishioners from the dioceses of Edmonton, Athabasca, and Calgary will also be present for TRC events including the lighting of the sacred fire, statement giving by residential school survivors, church listening circles, and a public Anglican expression of reconciliation.

The purpose of the Sacred Fire is:

The Lighting of the Sacred Fire happens before we begin each National Event to ensure that the Spirits and the Teachings guide and protect us while the Commission does its work.

And:

The fire is generally started during the first part of opening ceremony after sacred space has been set. The Fire Keeper quietly calls in the powers of the directions as well as the fire powers when the Sacred Fire is first lit.

The most curious thing that strikes me about the Church’s attempts to atone for thrusting Western religion and cultural values on Indigenous North Americans is its eagerness to now do the opposite: displace Christianity with Indigenous Animist practices. The Church seems to be saying: “we were wrong all along and to prove it we will adopt your religious beliefs in favour of our own.”

I have a suspicion that this would not be happening if the church did not secretly think that any belief system is just about as good as any other. If Anglican Church of Canada clergy truly wanted to provide compensation for those their predecessors abused, they could sell their church buildings – many of which are almost empty – and donate the proceeds to the ex-inmates of the much loathed Residential Schools. A lot more practical than a “full-colour historical timeline of evolving relations between Indigenous peoples and the Anglican Church of Canada.”

Average Sunday attendance in the Church of England

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From here:

The Church of England attracts fewer than 800,000 worshippers to its churches on a typical Sunday, according to new estimates yesterday.

Numbers in the pews have fallen to less than half the levels of the 1960s, the count showed.

The signs of continuing decline in support for the CofE follow census evidence of a widespread fall in allegiance to Christianity, with numbers calling themselves Christian dropping by more than four million in a decade.

The Church’s figure for ‘usual Sunday attendance’, the method used since the 1930s to measure congregations, found CofE churches had 795,800 worshippers on Sundays in 2012. The numbers were 9,000 down on the previous year.

They indicate that repeated efforts by the Church to modernise its services and its image – through a series of modern language rewrites of its prayer book, attempts by its leaders to appeal to supposed public concern with poverty, and efforts to make its government more efficient – have not succeeded in drawing young people.

The statistics upon which this article is based can be found here. Here is the graph of “usual Sunday attendance”:

CofE ASA

I must admit, the decline is not as precipitous as I had expected; not nearly as severe as in North American Anglicanism. The Anglican Church of Canada, presumably to save itself the embarrassment, has not published detailed attendance figures since 2001.

Earth Day condoms

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Apparently, Earth Day is getting back to its roots: fertility management. Humanity is a blight on the face of the earth, so environmentalists are coming to the rescue with 44,000 free condoms. Naturally, they are environmentally friendly, Fair Trade condoms: you will be pleased to learn that eco condoms are made entirely from fair trade and FSC certified rubber.

From here:

In honor of Earth Day this year, groups are giving out 44,000 “Endangered Species Condoms.”

The environmentally friendly condoms will be distributed in an effort to refocus the green holiday back to why it was started: to campaign against “runaway human population growth and overconsumption.”

“April 22 is the 44th Earth Day, and this year we want to bring the holiday’s focus back to its origins: runaway human population growth and overconsumption, the root causes of our most pressing environmental crises,” the Center for Biological Diversity wrote in a pitch to its supporters.

None of this deters the Anglican Church of Canada from celebrating Earth Day, of course. Perhaps a packet of Fair Trade Condoms will be served along with a cup of the Primate’s Blend Fair Trade Coffee.

Bishop Melissa Skelton: it’s a thing called discernment

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Skelton was recently interviewed by the CBC (listen here, March 18 starting at 2:17:00). Her appointment as bishop, she tells us, was the result of “a thing called discernment”; nothing to do with a thing called career advancement ambition. Well, she didn’t actually make the latter remark.

In the interview, she states once again that she is fully supportive of the blessing of same-sex unions and that there is no longer much of a wedge between those who support same-sex unions and those who don’t. She has reached this conclusion by listening; to whom, I wonder? Obviously not to those who left the diocese over the issue.

Losing the majority of those with whom one disagrees and calling it “healing” would, in the secular realm, be a thing called spin. In the Diocese of New Westminster where selective listening is such a refined art, it’s a thing called discernment.

Anglican climate bishops

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Faster than a speeding mark of mission, more powerful than Al Gore, able to leap foul smoke stacks in a single bound – he’s Eco-Bishop.

From here:

Anglican Communion’s Eco-bishops’ intiative [sic] begins to take shape.

The Primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, the Most Revd Dr Thabo Makgoba has invited 20 bishops from around the Anglican Communion to join him in a process of discussion and discernment concerning the Communion’s witness and mission in the face of climate change and environmental degradation.

“I have asked a number of sister and brother bishops in dioceses already experiencing the impacts of climate change to join me in a process of dialogue”, said Archbishop Makgoba.

[….]

The invitation is to participate in a process of dialogue leading to, and following on, a face-to-face meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, in February 2015.

The bishops will, of course, be flying, not walking, to their Cape Town meeting.

Eco Bishop2