Author Archives: David

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.

Trinity Anglican Church, St. Thomas is now an Islamic Centre

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Trinity Anglican Church in St. Thomas was founded in 1877 to replace an older church which worshippers had outgrown.

Alas, the church’s website is no more, just like the church. The parish’s last gasp of life can be found in its Facebook page. Unlike their owners who dwell in a realm where moth and rust doth corrupt, Facebook pages are beneficiaries of cyberspace immortality. There the parish optimistically proclaims that it is a “vibrant, engaging, faith community with a fully accessible building.”

In a sense that is still true, it’s just not a Christian faith community. For all we know it never was, at least within living memory.

From this:

to this in one short year of the plague:

Anglican Church of Canada’s position on COVID-19 vaccines

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The ACoC does not yet ban the unvaccinated from worship services, although all dioceses as far as I know do require vaccine passports from employees and volunteers and universally for non-worship events. Some are more flexible (Edmonton, for instance) than others.

Nevertheless, the dioceses of Toronto, New Westminster, British Columbia, Edmonton and Fredericton are all exerting pressure on their members to become vaccinated and even encourage those who are not to stay away with statements like this:

I strongly encourage all people who are eligible to receive the vaccine be vaccinated.  If you have not been vaccinated you may want to consider worshipping online.

Notably absent in any statement from any Anglican leader – including ACNA/ANiC – is any concern over the fact that all currently available vaccines are dependent, to varying degrees, on organs harvested from aborted babies. I have explained my views on this here and here. I don’t expect the church to agree with me – almost no one does – but I do expect the church, particularly ACNA/ANiC which boasts that it is pro-life, to say something about it.

Correction: As a reader points out below, the US branch of Anglicans for Life has made a statement about abortion derived vaccines. You can read it here.

Naturally, everyone who attends a worship service has to wear a mask. You can even buy an Anglican mask:

It is cotton so it is next to useless at preventing the COVID-19 virus spreading, but at least it offers an instructive metaphor for Anglican Church of Canada clergy: completely ineffective, unfit for its alleged purpose and an empty symbol of posturing theatrical holiness. So the masks are not all bad

Period poverty is now a thing

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The church has an uncanny knack for tenaciously latching on to strange obsessions. We used to be able to content ourselves with the knowledge that clerics spent most of their time searching for ways to make sodomy holy.

But things have moved on since the simplicity of those halcyon times: today our clergy are more interested in how to turn men into women – an updating of turning water into wine, one presumes.

And now, in order to spread the good news of salvation through Jesus by faith, the church is distributing menstrual products. I am still struggling to see the connection, but I suppose there must be one.

From here:

A small-town Manitoba parish is making menstrual products available to women in need by means of a special mailbox affixed to the outside of the church—and at least two other churches are following its example.

Since last spring, staff at Christ Church The Pas have been placing tampons, pantiliners and pads in a red mailbox hanging from the church wall, and inviting community members who need them to help themselves. The Rev. Jann Brooks says the service is being used to the point where she has to refill the mailbox every second day.

Where was the Anglican Church of Canada when we all ran out of toilet paper I’d like to know.

Diocese of Toronto posts mandatory vaccine policy

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As of this writing, the clergy, employees and volunteers have to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to perform their duties in the Diocese of Toronto:

Effective September 30, 2021, any employee, member of the clergy or volunteer who attends at a workplace must show proof of being vaccinated with two doses of a vaccine or combination of vaccines approved by Health Canada, with the second dose having been administered at least two weeks prior to the in-person attendance.

Wardens will have the unenviable job of demanding that those hapless enough to still volunteer in the diocese show their papers. The wardens are also responsible for snitching on recalcitrant malcontents. Does anyone foresee an impending shortage of people willing to be a warden?

Employees, Volunteers, and Honorary Assistants are only to show their proof to the Churchwardens of the parish. This responsibility cannot be delegated to the Deputy Churchwardens, other Employees or Volunteers.

Churchwardens are to visibly verify the proof of vaccination or negative test in person or via video chat (i.e. Teams, FaceTime, or Zoom) and record on a confidential tracking sheet. Those with proof of exemption are to submit it in writing to the Churchwardens as outlined in section 1.C. COVID-19 Mandatory Vaccination Policy

The Churchwardens are also required to follow up with those who have not submitted proof and implement appropriate next steps for those not in compliance with this policy.

There are those in the diocese who believe that this does not go far enough. They would prefer the unclean to be kept out altogether:

After much discussion, the bishops and diocesan leadership have decided not to require proof of vaccination to attend worship in an Anglican church in this Diocese. I’ve heard that some of you aren’t comfortable returning to in-person worship alongside potentially unvaccinated people, and I know this may disappoint you.

As I was ruminating on all this, a novel I read many years ago came to mind: it is “Erewhon” by Samuel Butler.

In it, Butler tells of an imaginary country where crime is regarded as an illness and disease as a crime. It used to seem a little far-fetched, but less so now. The unvaccinated, the potentially diseased, are to be shunned – have they fallen into the “evil” category yet? – whereas the church now provides a safe injection facility for those taking hard drugs, an activity that used to be illegal.

And male clergy have sex with each other, another activity that used to be illegal. Not all of them, admittedly. Not yet.

Update: The Diocese of Huron has the same vaccine mandatory vaccine rules in place. I expect most if not all other Anglican dioceses do too – or soon will.

Diocese of Niagara church blesses a rainbow crosswalk

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In the spirit of blessing everything that has nothing to do with Christianity, The Reverend Jody Balint, rector of St. James and St. Brendan’s Parish, Port Colborne has bestowed her ecclesiastical benediction upon the town’s new rainbow crosswalk; in the hope that all who step on it become a little gayer.

It shines brighter now.

From here:

On September 1, The Reverend Jody Balint had the honour and privilege of blessing Port Colborne’s new rainbow crosswalk, a symbol of diversity and inclusiveness for the area. The painting of the crosswalk was an initiative of the Downtown Port Colborne Business Improvement Association and supported by several partners, including St. James and St. Brendan’s Anglican Church.

Someone should have warned them that to fully consummate your theatrical posturing, you have to wear a mask.

Diocese of Niagara does have faith after all – in the vaccine

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Here are two different church posters proclaiming the good news. See if you can spot the difference:

Church one, which will remain anonymous because of the outrageous claims of its message:

And church two, the Diocese of Niagara: