Author Archives: David

Pro LGBT Vicar appointed to lead Holy Trinity Brompton

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From here:

Holy Trinity Brompton (known as HTB), the largest church in the Church of England, is to have a new Vicar lead its 4,000-strong congregation.

The former curate who pioneered its first ‘plant’ outside of London – the Revd Canon Archie Coates, 51, currently Vicar of St Peter’s Brighton, has been chosen as HTB’s Vicar Designate.  It is expected that Canon Coates will become Vicar in September 2022, taking over from the Revd Nicky Gumbel, 66, who has announced his intention to resign his post from July 2022. Mr Gumbel has been Vicar of HTB since 2005 and has overseen considerable growth in that time. His books, which include Why Jesus? and Questions of Life, have been international best-sellers.

In 2016, while at St. Peter’s in Brighton, the Revd Canon Archie Coates lent his support to the UK’s largest gay pride parade, saying many in his congregation would take part.

Is this the beginning of the end for Holy Trinity Brompton and Alpha? I hope not but fear it might be.

From the 2016 Christianity Today article:

Churches are preparing for the UK’s largest gay pride march this weekend in Brighton.

Tens of thousands are expected to turn out on the seafront in Brighton and Hove for the annual “pride parade” through the town to the festival on Saturday morning.

A number of churches are dotted along the march’s route. While the issue of homosexuality and same-sex marriage is highly controversial in many of Britain’s churches – including the Church of England – the local Anglican Diocese of Chichester has said its churches have “created a range of inclusive events to celebrate” the festival. Some churches are putting theological questions to one side in an effort to be open and welcoming.

A key landmark on the route is the evangelical Anglican church St Peter’s, known as the “cathedral of Brighton”. Vicar Archie Coates told Christian Today he was “very supportive” of the parade and a lot of people in his congregation would be taking part.

“It’s great because it celebrates diversity as much as it celebrates LGBT people,” he said. “In our congregation we have a lot of diversity and a lot of LGBT people and we are very supportive.”

The church was planted by the charismatic London church Holy Trinity Brompton in 2009 and around 1,000 people attend every Sunday.

Bishop Anna Greenwood-Lee explains Advent

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Advent is the apocalypse, the apocalypse is climate change, it’s not the end but the unveiling. Pride is the problem (true), the Creation is the underlying power (Pantheism), the answer is interconnectedness.

No God, no Jesus, no sense. Other than that, I quite enjoyed it.

play-sharp-fill

Rev. Michael Coren laments possible overturn of Roe v. Wade

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When I was much younger than I am now, bringing up young children, I made the mistake of attending a parenting class. Although I was not a Christian at the time, I still had managed to acquire strong opinions on many things. Abortion was one. It seemed to me then, as it does now, that to abort a foetus was to kill an innocent baby in the early stages of its life. I knew with considerable certainty that it was murder; I didn’t need God to tell me that (although, in retrospect, I presume the certainly did come from him), I just knew.

When the teacher of the course decided she would like to probe the “values” of her students, one of the exercises she asked us to do was to place ourselves on one side of the room if we agreed with abortion and the other if we did not. Of the 30 or so people in the room, my wife and I were the only two people on the anti-abortion side. I was a little startled since I was in a room full of people who supposedly wanted to care for their children, not get rid of them before they arrived. Welcome to Canada, I thought – I was a fairly recent immigrant.

Maybe I imagined it, but the instructor seemed a little chilly towards my wife and I after that.

I’ve grown used to both the Canadian enthusiasm for killing unborn babies and the chill emanating from such enthusiasts when I voice my disagreement.

Even so, surely a church which claims to champion the underdog, to stand for justice, to defend the most vulnerable members of our society, to preach love, love, love would want to defend the unborn. Alas not. The Anglican Church of Canada is dismally silent about the yearly murder 100,000 unborn babies in Canada. It has nothing recent to say about this unregulated industrial (yes, it is an industry) death machine.

And it gets worse. Michael Coren, now Rev Michael Coren, a newly minted ACoC cleric, having shed the last vestiges of common sense that still desperately clung to him, has penned this article lamenting the possible overturn of Roe v. Wade in the US, an outcome which, he says, would be “disastrous”.

God have mercy on us and him:

Taking achievements for granted is one of the greatest errors in the political handbook. Always be on guard, be ever vigilant. Yet activists and elected representatives are constant culprits in this regard, and that partly explains how in the U.S. there is a genuine possibility that abortion rights, women’s reproductive autonomy, could soon be harshly restricted or even curtailed.

The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments about abortion around the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. This particular conflict concerns a Mississippi law that bans abortion at 15 weeks. Under the iconic Roe v. Wade and the subsequent Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey cases, this law is unconstitutional. But while we won’t know the Dobbs decision for several months, it seems highly likely that the conservative-dominated court is willing to make a ruling that will reverse Roe.

That would have been impossible until recently, but now six of the nine Supreme Court justices are conservative, three of them appointed by Donald Trump. They’ve already heard a Texas case that bans abortion after six weeks, and they allowed it to stand for three months. If the court does reverse Roe, it would be historic. And disastrous. For half-a-century Roe has guided the U.S. on abortion rights and if that changes, the entire template of the discussion will be transformed. It will unleash and empower the anti-abortion movement, which is large, militant, and extremely well-funded.

Bishop Anna Greenwood-Lee rejoices over conversion therapy ban

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After the passing of our liberal government’s motion to ban conversion therapy, Anna Greenwood-Lee, bishop of the Diocese of B.C. tweeted her approval:

I find this very confusing because the Anglican Church of Canada has just published a liturgy to bless “gender transition”, surely the ultimate in conversion therapy. Since our clerical tweeter has lent her support to November 20th’s Transgender Day of Remembrance, she must approve of this conversion therapy.

The animated GIF says “You’re amazing just the way you are”, an odd statement from a Christian, let alone a bishop since, according to the articles of her own church, “just the way we are” is along the lines of:

“man is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the spirit; and therefore in every person born into this world, it deserveth God’s wrath and damnation.”

Perhaps bishops should just stay off twitter. Come to think of it, maybe they should stay away from churches, too.

And God said, Let us make female, male, intersex, transgender, cisgender and non-binary in our image

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The Anglican Church of Canada has developed a trial liturgy for “Journeys of Gender Affirmation and Transition”, to be used to bless the “gender transition process”.

Here is a sample to whet your appetite should you wish to transition after suddenly realising that your inner lady is not at peace with your beard and testicles:

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, and the plants, the trees, and the creatures of the land, sea, and air, God created a human being in their image and called them very good. What Scripture tells us about this first human’s gender is more poetic than clear cut – this first human embodiment included maleness,
femaleness, and more than these – all of this was affirmed as very good.

So, we know that all bodies are made in God’s image whether we recognize ourselves as female, male, or intersex; whether we are transgender, cisgender, or do not recognize ourselves in any of these labels. We are called by God both to care for and to be co-creators of all of
creation and that includes our bodies. Taking steps physically or spiritually to manifest our gender identity more fully is to participate in God’s commandment to tend and love all that God has made.

You can peruse the entire liturgy here.

Diocese of Toronto institutes vaccinated only services

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In the interests of inclusion (or, depending on one’s perspective, to illustrate the meaning of doublethink) the Diocese of Toronto is permitting parishes to hold worship services where proof of vaccination is required for attendance.

I can foresee some problems with this. Suppose an unvaccinated individual who identifies as non-binary shows up; should ze be turned away? The conflict of competing wokery in denying entrance to a 2SLGBTQQIA1+ unvaccinated individual could, at the very least, induce clergy heart failure and, at worst provoke the onset of the apocalypse.

Read it all here:

But it has been pointed out to us that, due to our welcome of the unvaccinated, some other people have now been unintentionally excluded because they are immuno-compromised. These are individuals who cannot attend church or any public place where the unvaccinated may be present, as they are especially vulnerable, despite being themselves vaccinated. Their exclusion was never our intention.

To that end, we have heard the request from some parishes to offer services with a vaccine mandate, requiring proof of vaccination for entry.

After much discussion, consultation and prayer, the College of Bishops has consented to permit parishes to institute a new worship service – outside of their existing and continuing schedule of services – that requires proof of vaccination to attend. It is the College’s expectation that these restricted-entry services will be the exception to our worship offerings, and not the norm.

Anglican devotions against gender-based violence

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If you look up “gender-based violence” in Wikipedia (not the most reliable source admittedly, but it will do for now), you will find that it means:

Violence against women (VAW), also known as gender-based violence and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), are violent acts primarily or exclusively committed against women or girls. Such violence is often considered a form of hate crime, committed against women or girls specifically because they are female, and can take many forms.

The Anglican Church of Canada has a definition that is a little more…. modern. Along with some other denominations, it has published a small volume of “16 devotions inspired by the annual 16 days of activism against gender-based violence”,  all based on the Magnificat. Sort of.

I suspect you are unaware of the fact that if you naïvely refer to members of your Christian fellowship as “brothers and sisters”, you will have committed an act of violence against non-binary individuals. Consider yourself warned. I myself am analogue through and through, so I suppose I fall into that category and am entitled to feel suitably aggrieved. “Same-sex marriage” is also a no-no. I knew it wouldn’t last:

In our efforts to “preserve unity” or “maintain relationships”, we commit an act of violence against the communities who are most vulnerable, who are most trying to find a place of belonging in a system that invalidates their very identities and existence. When we welcome our “brothers and sisters”, we erase nonbinary people such as myself. When we refer to “same-sex marriage”, we ignore the diversity of the queer3 and trans community. When we turn a blind eye to the direct, indirect, and systemic forms of queerphobia and transphobia, we commit violence against God’s beloved children. We are directly responsible for the fact that trans and queer individuals do not consider churches to be a place where they can belong.

And let’s not forget that every-growing alphabetic menagerie, 2SLGBTQQIA:

The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls heard the testimonies of Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people that oppression against them is primarily based on colonialism, racism, and gender, with other factors, such as education, income, and ability, sometimes coming into play. In particular, families and survivors consistently referred to four general ways that maintain colonial violence.

We are informed by Rev. Susan C. Johnson that 2SLGBTQQIA1 stands for: two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual. She is a bishop no less, so this information must be reliable, although I would suggest she add another “S” for people like me who are Skeptical.

 

Singing now allowed in the Diocese of Toronto

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Provided you:

  • are a member of the choir
  • present your vaccine papers
  • stay 2 metres away from other choristers
  • stay 4 metres away from anyone not allowed to sing
  • wear a mask
  • don’t have so many masked, vaccine papered, gasping for breath choristers they overcrowd the place

As you can tell, the Diocese of Toronto has fully embraced (or is “taken on board” the in expression, I forget) “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

From here:

Bearing all of this in mind, and after due consideration and consultation, we are commencing a gradual expansion of our practices around singing. Effective immediately, we are permitting choral singing by fully vaccinated choristers, masked and distanced 2–3 metres from each other, and a minimum of four metres from the congregation.