The Diocese of Montreal is in a state of advanced disintegration. To combat the rot, St. Jax Anglican Church in downtown Montreal has consummated the Anglican Church of Canada’s pilgrimage from Christian denomination to pagan circus by having a troop of acrobats swing from its rafters to the accompaniment of a light show.
The rector, transported from the dark night of penury to a beatific vision of performing elephants (why are Canadian bishops so overweight?), counts it “a fantastic joy to see for the first time, we believe, a circus company permanently installed in an active, consecrated church”.
From here:
An acrobat dangles from the rafters of a 150-year-old church while a lightshow paints the altar in blue, pink and yellow lights.
Call it a leap of faith.
This was the first show of Le Monastère — the monastery, in English — a circus cabaret show held inside a downtown Montreal church.
Le Monastère has partnered with the Anglican church of St. Jax — and it could be the first agreement of its kind.
“It’s been a fantastic joy to see for the first time, we believe, a circus company permanently installed in an active, consecrated church,” said Rev. Graham Singh, incumbent pastor at St. Jax.
With lagging attendance and surging maintenance bills, churches in Quebec and elsewhere have struggled to stay afloat.
Singh’s three-year mission with St. Jax has included not only keeping the old, creaky church standing, but also redefining what it is to be a church in a downtown core.
“The ringmaster has altered, but the circus remains the same.”
Baron Ashdown
And there I was, thinking that “hanging from the rafters” was a metaphorical idiom meaning overcrowded, packed in, standing room only, etc. It now has a literal meaning referring to an attempt to attract attendance to compensate for the diametrically opposite of overcrowded, etc. Seeing as how I cannot keep “bread and circuses” out of my head on this, I look forward to the day when “give us this day our daily bread” is totally literalised and, as that part of the Lord’s Prayer is recited by the congregated gathering, a cart loaded with bagels, together with assorted spreads and an urn of coffee, is wheeled down the centre aisle so that all may take a break in the middle of the service rather than wait until after the end.
(The expression “first as tragedy, then as farce” also keeps popping into my head.)
In a more serious mode, I have to say that language such as “redefining what it is to be [a church] ..” as an exculpatory formula for whatever innovation appears that may violate mere ordinary meaning of words, let alone Christian orthodoxy, disgusts me. We now have attempts to “redefine what it is” to be married, to be a man or to be a woman, and various other targets of identity politics. Were I to be moved to write in a mode of transposition of the Old Testament prophets to these times, I would warn about attempts to “redefine what it is” for something to be empirically evidential, science, mathematical, logical, or just true. Perhaps I am too late.
Love your title- “Anglicans swinging from the rafters”- Clergy take note- this is your only honourable way out-at least you will be committed to something…make sure to use heavy enough rope and an apology note to us
Quote: “Spider monkeys may have given rise to the expression “swinging from the rafters.” Their long arms and gripping tails help them swing gracefully among the high tree branches in the canopy and emergent layer of the forest.” (Source: https://www.kidsdiscover.com/spotlight/the-amazon-for-kids/?wpss-routing=results)
Given the title, I inferred that contemporary Anglicans may have devolved to acting like monkeys. Aren’t at least some Anglican leaders officially referred to as “primates”?
A Bemused Non-Anglican
I am disappointed in Graham Singh. He came from a large evangelical church in Guelph. I met him there. However, shortly before he was recruited by the bishop of Montreal to rejuvenate St Jax he gave an interview in the Guelph Mercury expressing his opinion that the church was going to have to change its position on gay relationships. (I can’t find it now in the paper’s archives, but I did read it some time ago after hearing about it, and hoping it wasn’t so) Another evangelical domino fallen.