Not only do we have a National Coming Out Day, but it has its own beatitudes.
I was unaware of both until the Diocese of Huron – always a reliable source for the most delusional fantasies cherished by the looniest fringes that lurk on the outskirts of what is left of our civilisation – advertised the fact:
For those of you for whom the original Sermon on the Mount is just not out enough, here are the rest of them:
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been looking forward to celebrating this all year. Casting such trivia as chromosomes into the dustbin of useless outdated science, there’s no better icebreaker at an Alpha meeting than to say – as I am now a fully integrated Canadian – “hi, my name’s Cuthbert and I use ey/em pronouns, eh”. It’ll be a riot.
The Diocese of Huron has this helpful guide on when a they is a ney and a him is a nem (page 8):
October 20 is International Pronouns Day. This day seeks to make respecting, sharing, and educating about personal pronouns commonplace. Referring to people by the pronouns they determine for themselves is basic to human dignity – it is about respecting and honouring people for who they are – in fullness. It is about breaking down the gender binary, stereotypes, and assumptions – and hearing people for who they are and the language that feels right for them. It is about celebrating the diversity of God as emulated through God’s diverse children.
The most common pronouns are she/her and he/him. Additionally, the most common gender neutral pronoun is they/them – this has been used as a singular pronoun since as far back as 1375 – so it is certainly not new! For example, rather than saying: “He and I went to the store”, you would say: “They and I went to the store”. It also helps avoid the awkwardness of saying “I can’t wait to meet him or her!” – instead, you can simply say: “I can’t wait to meet them!” There are many pronouns beyond she/her, he/him, and they/them – this includes mixed pronouns (when people use multiple different sets of pronouns, such as “she/her and they/them”), and neopronouns (other sets of gender-neutral pronouns, such as ney/nem, ze/zi, ey/em, etc).
It is legal for a doctor to euthanise a person in Canada. Not just someone whose death is imminent, but also a person with a mental disorder who has decided – or been persuaded – that is it better to die than live. The ACoC is going along with this because it is not interested in “opposing the law”. In the Anglican Church of Canada, we call this being prophetic.
And, after all, abortion up to and during birth, prostitution and smoking marijuana are also all legal and the Anglican Church of Canada doesn’t oppose them either. So at least its consistent. Consistently cowardly, spiritually bankrupt and in thrall to the zeitgeist.
From here:
The Anglican Church of Canada should continue to focus on providing pastoral care to people who are considering medical assistance in dying (MAID), not on opposing the law, says Archbishop Linda Nicholls, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada.
Bill C-7, passed in March 2021, opened up the option for patients whose deaths are not imminent—and, as of next March, those suffering only from mental disorders—to seek MAID, attracting some controversy. As the Journal reported in the first part of this series, some advocates for the rights of people with disabilities have criticized it on the grounds that it offers death as a replacement for adequate care. (See “Justice and the new assisted death”) And at least two authors of In Sure and Certain Hope, a 2016 document offered as a resource for discussions around MAID, believe the bill raises questions which may require a new response from the church.
But any new response by the church is unlikely to involve taking a public stance on the law, Nicholls says.
“It’s been clear for some time that the mood in Canada [is] not … to consider what churches have to say about this,” she says. “It’s been seen as imposing Christian values—which I think is a little unfair, as I don’t think all of the arguments have been based on a faith perspective.” Meanwhile, the shrinking staff of the church’s national office has limited capacity to take on a question of this size, she adds, especially as the law, in her view, is a “fait accompli.”
You can spot Canada’s very own Bishop Kevin Robertson, who is married to another bloke, on the far right.
I admit, they do make a charming group, but what continues to puzzle me is sorting out which is a G, a B or a Q – I think I have the Ls.
And that’s just the beginning of the problem, because we also have 2, S, 2s, P, A, I, and + to deal with. Although I suppose + must include the rest of us, which only makes it even more confusing since the group photo should really have been of all the bishops.
If you think that’s mixed up, it’s about to get worse. Lesbians have gone to war with transgenders, so they will have to be split up in the next Lambeth group photo, or they’ll be hitting each other with their handbags.
The Anglican obsession with homo-eroticism is hardly news of course, nevertheless, here are some Anglicans in the recent Ottawa Pride parade:
What is beginning to change is the further indoctrination of children by initiating them into the whole sordid business. Here, in the same parade, is a drag queen teaching children to imitate the repulsive gyrating contortions that seem to pass for dancing these days. Unless I am missing something, this is the blatant sexualization of children, child abuse, potential grooming for nightmarish paedophilia and unabashedly demonic.
Click on image to play video
The bishop of Ottawa, Shane Parker, seems to have no problem having his clergy participate in this evil fiasco, making him, his organisation and clergy just as repugnantly wicked as the drag queen in the video.
Just Welby really didn’t want to talk about sex at the recent Lambeth gathering; specifically homosexual sex. It was his elephant in the room: everyone knew it was there, the global south bishops wanted to talk about it and Welby wished it would just go away. Instead, he wanted to talk about: Safe Church; Anglican Identity; Reconciliation; Human Dignity; Environment and Sustainable Development; Christian Unity; Inter Faith Relations; Discipleship; Science and Faith and Mission and Evangelism.
I left Mission and Evangelism until last for reasons that will become clear in a moment. As for the rest, they are all empty platitudes; they sound good, but no one is going to take them seriously. No one is interested in what a gathering of bishops thinks about the environment. The Anglican church is powerless to change the environment, or to develop sustainable energy. It can’t bring itself to reconcile with ACNA or ANiC, the average bishop knows as much about climatology or science as my cat and interfaith relations with Islam will end up being about as rosy as it was between Salman Rushdie and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
The one thing that Justine Welby did have the authority to address, he chose not to: the continuing controversy of homosexual clergy and same-sex marriage in the Anglican Church of Canada and The Episcopal Church. That was the small elephant.
That brings us to Mission and Evangelism, which is, according to Lambeth:
Each diocese and every church should commit to prayer and listening guided by the Holy Spirit to discern how to bear faithful witness to Christ and authentically proclaim the gospel. Each Christian should strive through their witness for at least one person each year to come to faith and grow as a disciple. The Secretary General should support and monitor progress and report back to the Anglican Consultative Council.
What is missing is that nowhere does anyone say what “the gospel” is. Is it caring for the environment? Apologising for our ancestors who owned slaves? Presenting an appearance of unity? Planting trees? Promoting socialism? Violating the laws of logic by holding two proposition which cannot both be true as equally valid; after all, what is truth – hang on didn’t someone else say that?
As far as I know no bishop came within hailing distance of declaring that we are all sinners; our sin separates us from God the Father; if there is justice in this universe, we deserve the judgement of a holy God; we can do nothing ourselves to remedy this; in spite of this, God still loves us; Jesus paid the price for our sin, receiving our punishment upon himself; all who trust Jesus are given the free gift of forgiveness and eternal life. That is the Good News, the Gospel. Did any of the 600 or so bishops mention this? Did they forget? Does it embarrass them?
My suspicion is that most of them (we’ll exclude the global south bishops) don’t believe that this is the Gospel – and that is the real problem, the bigger elephant in the room.
Proud Anglicans from the Diocese of Huron have reacted to discussions at Lambeth on the 1998 Lambeth resolution I.10: “Holy Matrimony is, by intention and divine purpose, to be a life-long, monogamous and unconditional commitment between a woman and a man”.
Bizarrely, the Proud Anglicans statement is blaming a lack of enthusiasm for same-sex marriage on Western colonialism, in spite of the fact that Western churches are exercising colonialism by attempting to impose Western sexual ethics (or lack thereof) on the rest of the world that contains 80% of practising Anglicans.
Here is the statement (click on it for a more readable view):
Meanwhile, the Diocese of Huron deconsecrated St. Jude’s, Mount Brydges on August 9th and will be deconsecrating All Saints, Waterloo on September 26th. Bishop Todd Townshend couldn’t attend the first deconsecrating because he was busy at Lambeth affirming and celebrating LGBT+ people.
Update: a reader pointed out that, although All Saints is being deconsecrated, it is moving to a new building.
Read it all here:
We will be returning to our dioceses with a renewed commitment to the Lambeth Calls for Mission and Evangelism, Safe Church, Reconciliation, Human Dignity and Climate Justice as well as those Calls that will be discussed on Hospitality (Christian Unity and Interfaith relationships), and Discipleship.
The Bishops have spent a significant amount of time discussing and sharing these calls in light of our contexts. They have been at the core of the Bible studies as well as the discussions at our table groups. There has been much written in media with regard to the discussion on human dignity in particular.
We were moved by the speech of the Archbishop of Canterbury who spoke directly to the Bishops. While there is deep difference on matters of sexuality, there is a serious commitment to listening and walking together in spite of the differences to the maximum possible degree.
While in some provinces of the Communion same sex blessings/marriages have been the product of careful theological reflection and a process of reception, other provinces of the communion (and within Canada, some dioceses) maintain the traditional definition of marriage, also with careful theological reflection. The Archbishop noted that both hold to Jesus Christ and both take Scripture seriously.
The Archbishop of Canterbury made it clear that he does not have and will not seek the power to exclude or sanction provinces of the Communion who have made changes and the Lambeth I.10 resolution does not require such sanctions.
What puzzles me somewhat is the fact that Justin Welby has made it abundantly clear that the 1998 Lambeth 1.10 resolution declaring same-sex activity to be unbiblical, while still valid, is free to be completely ignored if you don’t like it.
Yet, at the same time, other Calls on Climate Justice, Christian Unity, Interfaith relationships, Reconciliation, Safe Church and so on he expects to be taken seriously. Why can’t we ignore them, too – well, to be honest I shall be expressing my defiance by turning up my air-conditioning tonight.
What exactly is the point of this conference: hundreds of bishops travelling thousands of miles in fossil fuel burning aeroplanes, spending millions of dollars to lament together about climate change and poverty.
Here it is. You can read the whole PDF here:
STATEMENT FROM ANGLICAN BISHOPS AND PRIMATES WHO ARE KEEN TO AFFIRM AND CELEBRATE LGBT+ PEOPLE
August 2nd 2022
“So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God.” – Ephesians 2:19
“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” – John 13:34
God is Love! This love revealed by Jesus, described in the Scriptures and proclaimed by the Church, is Good News for all – without exception. That is why we believe that LGBT+ people are a precious part of God’s creation – for each of us is ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ (Psalm 139:14), and all are equally loved.
We recognise that many LGBT+ people have historically been wounded by the Church and particularly hurt by the events of the last few weeks. We wish to affirm the holiness of their love wherever it is found in committed relationships.
We therefore commit to working with our siblings across the Communion to listen to their stories and understand their contexts, which vary greatly. However, we will never shy away from tackling discrimination and prejudice against those of differing sexualities and gender identities.
Together, we will speak healing and hope to our broken world and look forward to the day when all may feel truly welcomed, valued and affirmed.
Signed by bishops from across the Anglican Communion including:
Most Revd Mark Strange, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church
Most Revd Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States
Most Revd Naudal Alves Gomes, Archbishop of Brazil
Most Revd Linda Nicholls, Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Canada
Most Revd Andy Johns, Archbishop of Wales
and, as of 1640 BST on August 4th 2022, these additional 170 bishops/archbishops
Most Canadian bishops signed it:
