Anglican and Lutheran leaders call for Israel to stop fighting

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Again.

Happily, no one cares what Anglican leaders think about wars being fought in the Middle East. The only thing that stirs less interest in the general populace is what Anglican leaders think about religion.

I can’t bring myself to use the word ceasefire, since a ceasefire is not what Germond and Johnson want. They want Israel to stop fighting, at which point Hamas, Hezbollah and the IDF will join hands around the campfire and sing All You Need is Love.

From here:

Dear Prime Minister:

It has now been more than a year since the horrifying Hamas attack on Israel. Violence has continued with the decimation of Gaza by Israeli bombing and increasing settler attacks on Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank. In recent days, open hostilities in the region have expanded to include Lebanon, Yemen and Iran. Our hearts break at the horrific suffering and rising death toll caused by these armed conflicts.

We continue our call for a full and sustained ceasefire, for the release of all captives, for the immediate flow of life-saving food, water, aid, fuel and humanitarian assistance for the millions of Gazans suffering at this time, for an end to all arms transfers to Israel, and the end of occupation. We continue our call on leaders to lay down weapons and to work for a just and lasting regional peace.

We express our disappointment that Canada abstained from the September 18, 2024 United Nations motion calling on Israel to end its “unlawful presence” in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank. We believe it is only through an end to the occupation and a just, comprehensive and lasting peace settlement that the security of both Palestinians and Israelis can be assured.

We call on the Government of Canada to diligently support all provisions of international law and a rules-based world order. Failure to consistently support international law allows the powerful to act with impunity, causing great suffering to the most vulnerable, marginalized and powerless people globally.

We continue to pray for an end to suffering—remembering in our prayers all who have died on all sides of the conflict, hostages and their families, those maimed and injured, all who have lost their homes and those who have not been able to move to safety—and for the opening of a humanitarian corridor into Gaza and a peaceful solution to this war.

Sincerely,

Rev. Susan Johnson
National Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada

The Most Rev. Anne Germond
Acting Primate, Anglican Church of Canada

The crumbling of the Anglican Church of Canada

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The Anglican Church of Canada is not just crumbling from within, its buildings are also falling apart.

The external decay is a fitting metaphor for the spiritual malaise that afflicts the bishops and clergy whose main preoccupation seems to be to avoid Christianity at all costs. The buildings are empty shells, devoid of purpose, meaning and significance; no wonder they are collapsing.

The Journal articles here and here, lament the loss of historic buildings rather than the loss of the ideas and faith that inspired them.

The destruction by fire of St. Anne’s Anglican Church in Toronto last June underscores risks faced by aging churches across Canada, an architectural historian says—and the country could face significant loss of cultural heritage in the years to come.

Peter Coffman, a Carleton University art and architectural history professor who specializes in Canadian Gothic Revival buildings, says many churches are in danger of being destroyed or collapsing. As their congregations shrink, so does the money to pay for their maintenance and preservation.

Canada’s loss of its historic churches is likely to be a protracted process, he says.

Anglican Church of Canada makes provocative statements

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From the headline you might be tempted to think that one of the statements is: we have decided to start preaching the Gospel.

You would be wrong.

They include things like:

Dismantle the colonial foundations of the Council of the North

And:

Dismantle the racism and colonialism that is built into our governance structures.

There is a survey which you can fill in to throw your support behind dismantling racism, if you feel so inclined, here.

The hope is that by making some of the changes explained in the survey, the decline in ACoC  membership might be reversed.

In case that doesn’t work, one of the suggestions is to end the funding of independent journalism – the Anglican Journal. So if the decline continues, as it surely will, at least no one will know.

From here:

A primate’s commission tasked with rethinking church structures is encouraging Anglicans to provide feedback on its seven intentionally provocative statements or “hypotheses” through an online survey.

The commission, Reimagining the Church—Proclaiming the Gospel in the 21st Century, established by former primate Archbishop Linda Nicholls, first presented the hypotheses in spring to the House of Bishops and Council of General Synod, then distributed them publicly in early June, says commission chair Archdeacon Monique Stone.

The hypotheses include dismantling colonialism in the Council of the North and church governance structures; eliminating either General Synod or the ecclesiastical provinces; returning to a model where the primate is also a diocesan bishop; reducing travel and meeting costs; looking at new ways of running the national office; and ending editorially independent journalism—specifically, the Anglican Journal—funded by General Synod.

Dean Peter Elliott, a member of the commission, says the hypotheses inviting Anglicans to respond to these hypotheses appeared on the Anglican Church of Canada website in late August.

Drag queens jump off Liverpool Cathedral in stilettos

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Liverpool Cathedral is:

first and foremost a place of prayer and worship. It is a place where we hope you can come to know a God who knows and loves you. I hope people will do this in many different ways whether you are visiting as a tourist, a pilgrim, a worshipper.

It is a place where, according to its website, you can Create your own journey.

Drag queens, Ketona Madrave and Debbie Darling, are indeed creating their own journey: they are going to abseil down the cathedral in lady’s clothes in order to raise money for an LGBTQetc charity.

The cathedral Dean, the Very Revd Dr Sue Jones, is presumably not ony aware of this but has given it her approval, since it is advertised in the local paper:

Drag queens to ‘jump off’ Anglican Cathedral ‘in stilettos’

The performers said it comes at a time when ‘far too many young souls have been lost’

Pride Quarter drag queens are set to swap their standard Saturday shift in the city’s queer venues for something unusual. Debbie Darling and Ketona Madrave can typically be found in the likes of Stanley Street’s Superstar Boudoir or Eberle Street’s Gbar entertaining crowds till all hours in the morning.

However, this weekend looks a little different for the pair as they plan to abseil down the city’s Anglican Cathedral in full drag for a good cause. The Saturday, September 21 challenge is to raise funds for Liverpool’s oldest LGBTQ+ charity Sahir House.

In 2018 Revd Dr Sue Jones

was one of the speakers, praying for justice and peace for people with minority gender identities and sexual orientations around the world, and especially for respectful dialogue in the Church of England’s Living In Love And Faith conversations on Identity, Sexuality, Relationships and Marriage.

It’s understandable then that, as a next step,  she would want men dressed up as women jumping off the top of her cathedral. What next, I wonder.

Down with the Olympics

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My opinion of sport is much the same as Malcolm Muggeridge’s: nothing brings out unsportsmanlike behaviour as much as sport.

My disinterest in sport is so intense that I probably would not have noticed that the Olympic games were taking place were it not for the satanic opening ceremony and the celebration of a genetic man beating up a woman in a boxing competition.

I didn’t expect much outrage over this from the Anglican Church of Canada and I wasn’t disappointed. We do have this article in the Journal, though, which conveniently ignores the capering of the opening ceremony demons and the gender-based violence against women. Instead, the writer complains that the whole thing cost too much.

She has a point, any amount would have been too much.

From here:

It’s hard to argue with my daughter. When she takes the time to be critical of something, she comes loaded with information and well-reasoned, clearly-articulated arguments.

She thinks the Olympics are scandalous. Her viewpoint on this is bolstered by her experience in our church, where every day we open our doors to feed a staggering number of people in our small city as a means of filling the gaps for the food insecure and unhoused of St. Catharines. It runs entirely on the generosity of donors, who give it time, money and groceries; not one tax dollar funds this essential 365-days-a-year feeding program. It is impossible to see the need in our community, represented in the hundred-plus people coming every day for breakfast, and not conclude that our richly-resourced nation, in not seeing this desperate level of poverty and hunger as the first order of business in the allocation of money and resources, has a huge priority problem. And then it’s not a huge jump to hear numbers like $11 billion bandied about as the cost of the Paris Olympics and conclude that this extravagant outpouring of resources from host countries for events that are so elite and rarified is downright sinful.

Iona oddities

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I’ve just returned from spending a couple of weeks in Scotland. One of the places I visited was the Isle of Iona, home of Iona Abbey, originally built in 563.

Here are some of the photos I took:

There is still a Christian Community – of sorts – in Iona. These notices were on the notice board:

This descent into lunacy isn’t particularly surprising. If we are to believe the legend of the Abbey’s origins, St. Columba was, himself, a gibbering nutcase.

In 563 St. Columba had a “vision”. In the vision he was told that the Abbey would only thrive if it was built upon the site of a human sacrifice.

So he buried his friend Oran alive before starting on the Abbey. Oran volunteered for the job. We don’t know how long it took Oran to regret his rash decision, but after three days, Columba uncovered his face in order to say a final farewell only to find Oran uttering blasphemies. Who could blame him? To Columba, blasphemy must have been more disturbing than being buried alive, so he hastily reburied Oran’s face.

This may all  be fantasy but, if true, it makes Columba a good advertisement for Christopher Hitchens’ book God is Not Great, Religion Poisons Everything.

Still, the RC Church canonized Columba, so it must be OK.

And Oran has his own chapel:

Anglicans at the Toronto Pride unravelling

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Here are some Anglicans from the Diocese of Toronto at the 2024 Toronto Pride parade.

They include the usual members of clergy, but I don’t see any bishops present this year. Perhaps they were hiding.

More interesting, is the fact that the Diocese of Toronto has 54,000 people on its parish rolls all of whom Bishop Andrew Asbil exhorted to fling themselves exuberantly into the month of bacchanalian cavorting. Most of them sensibly ignored him. Athrough it’s probably not unusual for his missives to be ignored.

To my considerable satisfaction, the parade was halted by the Coalition Against Pinkwashing, a group of queer and trans activists from Palestinian solidarity groups, affectionately known as Chickens for KFC. Organisers then cancelled the rest of the parade.

When you add the squabbles between the transgender mob and straight queers, it seems the whole enterprise is starting to unravel.

Anglican Church signs resolution to support the queer interfaith coalition

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I had no idea that a queer interfaith coalition existed until my state of blissful ignorance was by punctured by the article below. Apparently, it includes Muslims, which is odd, since countries in which Muslims have unfettered control enjoy throwing members of the alphabet community from the top of tall buildings.

So far, eighteen people from the Anglican Church of Canada, a bastion of inclusion in spite of having been deserted by those it purports to include, have signed the resolution. They include the Primate Linda Nicholls, Bishop Lynne McNaughton from the Diocese of Kootenay, and a further assortment of gentlemen and lady reverends, many of whom have come out as queer. Not that they have an axe to grind.

As of today, there are 182 signatories: the entire religious gay population of Canada. Not quite all are clergy. No Muslims have signed it; they probably all suffer from vertigo.

You can find the signatories here, in case you need a list of churches to avoid.

I didn’t dredge up the photo from a sleazy gay website, it accompanies the article.

Read it all here:

In celebration of June as Pride Month, I would like to share a resolution that unanimously passed on May 25 at the annual meeting of the Anglican Church of the Diocese of the Kootenays.

Resolution to Support the Queer Interfaith Coalition

The Queer Interfaith Coalition was formed in late 2023 in response to an increase in homophobic and anti-trans* rhetoric. The Queer Interfaith Coalition is a group of religious leaders and laypeople from Jewish, Muslim, Christian and other backgrounds. The QIC seeks to reclaim the word “religious” to mean a word of faith, of safety, of inclusion and especially of love. As well, they seek to acknowledge that every human being is born in the image of God and that God’s love has always been and will always be inclusive.

On the 14th of March, the Queer Interfaith Coalition launched an open letter to the Canadian government demanding action in response to the rise in homophobic and anti-trans rhetoric. In this open letter they write: “We affirm that the shared understanding of our religious duty is to dedicate ourselves to advocating for the full and comprehensive human rights of all members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community; promoting mental health, realizing the rights of 2SLGBTQIA+ children and youth, and ending gender-based violence.”

Lies, damned lies, statistics, and vaccines

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From the beginning I was suspicious of the MRNA vaccines being peddled by Pfizer and other drug manufacturers. As I mentioned here:

“I have worked on technology most of my life”, I told the nurse. “For new technology, we operated on the principle that ‘if it can go wrong, it will’. Messenger RNA vaccines are new technology”.

That, and the fact that all the available COVID vaccines were developed or tested using cell lines grown from HEK293 or PERC6 cells extracted from aborted babies, convinced me not to take them.

The state of Kansas is now suing Pfizer for lying about the “safe and effective” mantra, the fact that, contrary to their claims, a vaccinated person can still infect someone else, for censoring criticism, for concealing the number of miscarriages their vaccine induced, for known adverse reactions and deaths, for invalidating the “blind testing” and for refusing to release its test data.

Still, Pfizer made around $100 billion dollars for its lies, so that’s something.

If you have the even the vaguest interest in the truth about this, watch this:

And here is the attorney general of Kansas:

This is merely anecdotal but, for what it’s worth, most of my friends did take a full course of one of the vaccines and almost all of them caught COVID. Many of them multiple times. A surprising number of them have also had blood clots, strokes and heart problems since taking the vaccine. Neither my wife or I had the vaccine (she did have one shot), we didn’t take any special precautions and neither of us caught COVID. We also haven’t had a blood clot, stroke or heart problems. As I said, merely anecdotal.