Bishop Michael Bird is off to the UK to enlighten Rowan Williams on how the Diocese of Niagara has reached the point it has in bulldozing forward its agenda to bless same sex unions. It seems that the Anglican Communion Office believes that the Diocese of Niagara and Michael Bird have addressed this thorny issue with integrity and discernment and, one assumes, could serve as a role model for others. He is there today!

Here he is declaring how he is going to export sweetness and light to the UK:

The examples of integrity and discernment that Michael Bird has displayed so far have been these:

• The day after the first three Niagara parishes voted to join ANiC, representatives from the diocese appeared at the parishes to demand the keys to the buildings. Within the same week, the rectors of the churches were inhibited from ministering and soon after that, fired.
• The bank accounts of the parishes were frozen by the diocese.
• Shortly after this, the diocese took the parishes to court to demand use of the parish buildings even though they had no people to put in them. They lost at the first court appearance; Bird was in the courtroom and when the ruling was handed down, threw a bible on the table in a fit of rage.
• About a month later, the parishes were in court again and this time, the judge ruled that the parishes had to share their buildings with the diocese; Bird’s bible was not abused.
• In order to make a political point, the diocese held services in the parish buildings with people imported from elsewhere in the diocese, although  in one parish no people at all showed up for the first six months.
• In spite of being approached a number of times by Bishop Don Harvey, Michael Bird has stubbornly refused to negotiate outside of the court.

Altogether a fine record of tolerance, staying at the table, conversing, diversity, inclusion and –  let’s not forget – integrity and discernment.

Rowan Williams – look out.