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.
Nothing surprises me with the Anglican Church of Canada. It has fallen so far into the pit of apostasy there is virtually no way of pulling it out. If they would only seriously follow the Book of Common Prayer their situation would help them get out of the pit of apostasy.
If Bishop Andrew isn’t already at his cottage he soon will be – besides, there are some pressing items of work he needs to finish. Maybe pride has peaked – Kevin over at Anglican Unscripted was saying so in a recent episode. But seriously, while there is a church there is hope, as former archbishop George Carey once said (I’ll provide the reference for anyone interested).
With respect Andrew, I cannot find any passage of Scripture where Christ says he will build his Anglican – or Baptist, or Pentecostal, or Presbyterian – church. This is a falsehood inherent in most denominations. He says, ‘I will build my church…’ Matthew 16:18.
Some denominations are doing well while the ACoC fades into the dust. He is building His church.
Meanwhile, God told us repeatedly what would happen to the wicked, they would come to ‘ruin’. For example, Psalm 146:9.
The ‘54,000 people on its parish roles’ is a number that is misleading. The more realistic number for Anglican churches is the ‘Average Sunday Attendance’ (ASA), even though the formula used to derive such is seriously suspect.
In 2022, the Diocese of Toronto had an ASA of 13,810, and even slightly less ‘regular identifiable givers’. This is a far more accurate picture of a dying Diocese.
As an aside, the 54,000 number is only 10,000 less than the ASA (64,774) for the entire ACoC in 2022.
Both believers and non-believers are found in the Christian Church throughout history. To know God and to point people to God remains the challenge for all congregations.