Author Archives: David

Rev. Laurel Dykstra and Lini Hutchings imprisoned for chaining themselves to a tree

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Then the chief captain came near, and took him [Paul], and commanded him to be bound with two chains; and demanded who he was, and what he had done. Acts 21:33

In the early church, the civil authorities were inclined to bind Christians with chains for spreading the Gospel.

Today Anglican clergy bind themselves with chains because they don’t like the civil authorities spreading oil through a pipe.

We can thank the Anglican church for this deeply profound new understanding of Christian chain hermeneutics.

From here:

The only two protesters arrested at the Trans Mountain pipeline project to be found guilty of civil contempt of court have been sentenced to seven days in jail and ordered to pay $2,000 of the company’s legal costs.

Anglican priest Rev. Laurel Dykstra and Lini Hutchings, one of her parishioners, were taken into custody May 25 after tearing down a fence and chaining themselves to a tree at the company’s tank facility in Burnaby.

Like dozens of other protesters who were arrested, they were charged with criminal contempt of court.

But in August, Dykstra, a 52-year-old mother of two, and Hutchings, a 48-year-old mother of two, saw those charges dropped by the Crown.

The Crown set aside charges against 15 other protesters, but proceeded with criminal contempt charges against more than 200 others.

Among the protesters who had their charges dropped, Trans Mountain elected to proceed with civil contempt of court charges only against Dykstra and Hutchings, according to their lawyer.

Financial problems in the Anglican Church of Canada

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Here is a recent twitter feed generated by the Council of General Synod meeting:

Someone had the temerity to ask a pertinent question:

These are the items [along with helpful editorial comments in brackets like these] preoccupying the luminaries in the meeting; could there be a connection between this and falling revenues?

  • intentional discipleship; [as opposed to the unintentional discipleship practiced hitherto]

  • becoming a post-colonial church; [the real worry should be becoming a post-existing church]

  • honouring the emergence of Indigenous churches;

  • imagining the church God is calling us to be; [or imagining the church we wish God was calling us to be]

  • learnings from the Consultation of Anglican Bishops in Dialogue; [learnings?]

  • supporting the witness of the church in Holy Land; [shrivelling to extinction – at least, the Anglican variety]

  • sustainable development goals; [advice from an organisation unable to sustain itself]

  • migration and human trafficking; [about time: the bishops are planning on taking migrants into their own homes]

  • gender-based violence; [we like non-gender-based violence]

  • state-sponsored or sanctioned violence; and [except for socialist state sponsored violence. And Islamic state sponsored violence. And communist state sponsored violence. And…. so on]

  • interfaith dialogue and collaboration [we really prefer other religions to Christianity]

The pressing problem of orcophobia

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The Anglican Church of Canada is fretting about racism again, along with a few other isms:

The words of Archbishop Dawani also came to mind for the Primate in relation to the 70th anniversary of the founding of the World Council of Churches (WCC), which takes place in 2018. This year also marks the 35th anniversary of the sixth assembly of the WCC, which took place in Vancouver and saw then-Primate Ted Scott serve as moderator. At that assembly in 1983, members of Christian churches joined together against social ills including racism, sexism, militarism, and violation of human rights.

“We confess these threats are as great today as they were more than three decades ago,” Archbishop Hiltz said. In March 2018, the WCC held its Conference on World Mission and Evangelism in Arusha, Tanzania, out of which had come a “powerful statement” to Christ’s church throughout the world, The Arusha Call to Discipleship, which also drew inspiration from African spiritual traditions.

As is often the case with the Anglican Church of Canada, the root of the problem has not been unearthed. The ACoC is toying with superficial peccadilloes: it’s really all Tolkien’s fault, the underlying problem is orcophobia. Does anyone seriously think this fellow would stand a chance when applying for a bishop’s job? A clear case of racial prejudice; also, he doesn’t look gay enough.

From here:

Is Lord of the Rings Prejudiced Against Orcs?

The story, which appears in Duncan’s new collection An Agent of Utopia, was also inspired by Michael Moorcock, who has criticized Tolkien for depicting creatures such as orcs, trolls, and goblins as intrinsically evil.

“It’s hard to miss the repeated notion in Tolkien that some races are just worse than others, or that some peoples are just worse than others,” Duncan says. “And this seems to me—in the long term, if you embrace this too much—it has dire consequences for yourself and for society.”

Toronto Bishops acknowledge Trans Day of Remembrance

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From here:

On this Trans Day of Remembrance, as Bishops of the Diocese of Toronto, we wish to acknowledge the dignity and inherent worth of all people, including every transgender person, and our opposition to all prejudice, discrimination, or actions that deny the full personhood of any individual based on their gender identity.

Trans people are valued and beloved members of our Church, as clergy and lay leaders, as members of our congregations, as people we serve and by whom we are served.

Now if the bishops would only acknowledge “the dignity and inherent worth of all people” including those still in the womb, their statement might be worth something. As it is, all the bishops are doing is sailing effortlessly along on the tide of our cultural foibles and expecting to be congratulated for it.

Looking on the bright side, since God is no longer Father and, hence, must be transgender, fae must finally feel at home as a “valued and beloved member[s] of our Church.”

God is the only person not allowed to choose his gender

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From here:

God should not be referred to using a gender because ‘our father’ was not male or female, according to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Most Rev Justin Welby has warned human language is inadequate to describe the Christian deity and that despite the use of words such as ‘king’ and ‘lord’ – he is not male in the human sense.

[…..]

God is not a father in exactly the same way as a human being is a father. God is not male or female. God is not definable.

‘It is extraordinarily important as Christians that we remember that the definitive revelation of who God is was not in words, but in the word of God who we call Jesus Christ. We can’t pin God down.’

Justin Welby says he believes Jesus is God incarnate. God incarnate tells us to address Him in this manner: “Our Father, who art in heaven”. Not having the benefit of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s insight, Jesus omits mentioning how inadequate the language of His prayer is. Someone must have it wrong: I wonder who?

Could the Archbishop of Canterbury’s vision be clouded by contemporary gender befuddlement, viewing divine revelation through a faers darkly?

How to do Anglican Interfaith

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From here:

The largest and oldest interfaith gathering in the world, this year’s parliament took place from Nov. 1-7 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The Toronto-based event brought together an estimated 10,000 people from 80 countries, spanning more than 200 different religions, faiths, and belief systems, for a week of programs, discussions, and interactive experiences.

The Anglican Church of Canada had an official booth in the exhibit hall, where clergy and volunteers were on hand to speak to attendees, and share information about the church national.

The Rev. Dr. Scott Sharman, Animator for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations in the Anglican Church of Canada was one of the official representatives on site.

Sharman described Canadian Anglican attendance at PoWR as a “ministry of presence” and a valuable opportunity to converse with people about “where Anglican expressions of Christianity fit within the wider world of inter-religious dialogue, and ways that we can find common ground.”

“Within our history, [there has] always been a tradition that has been able to find ways to live in dialogue across different approaches and different perspectives on theological issues,” Sharman said.

“That’s kind of been hardwired into Anglican DNA within the Anglican family. […] Certainly it’s important just because so many of the economic and political and social and ecological issues of our time deeply involve how people think about the world, and how people structure their communities and think about the meaning of life and make decisions. Religion is part of how that happens.”

Overheard later in the Anglican booth: “whatever you do, don’t mention Jesus. I did once, but I think I got away with it.”

Diocese of Toronto Marriage Canon Dialogue conversations

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Yes, I know ‘dialogue’ and ‘conversation’ mean much the same thing, so one of the words is redundant, but that’s how the diocese has described their latest tête-à-tête on the issue that is eventually going to result in the diocese becoming redundant. When you see ‘dialogue’ and ‘conversation’ not just in the same sentence but contiguously in the same sentence, rest assured, the judgment of Babel has already been visited on the perpetrators.

What succulent fruit has sprung from the dialogue conversations? Weariness, fear, anxiety, pain and polarisation.

The only question left to ask is: this is so wonderful, why has the Anglican church waited so long?

Bishops report on Marriage Canon Dialogue conversations

  • A feeling of weariness
  • Fear of what the vote at General Synod 2019 will mean, both in the diocese and in the rest of the Communion
  • In spite of the fear, we want to stay together.
  • Need to include the insights of youth and children
  • Need to care for those who are feeling left out
  • There is a deep longing and need to talk about scripture and theology
  • There is a need to have resources, and to have pastoral care that is contextualized
  • People feel polarized but they do so within the Big Tent
  • Concerns about our international relationships
  • There is a degree of pain avoidance
  • Anxiety about being labelled
  • We’re already living with diversity and we need to hold up that we’re unified in Jesus Christ
  • While there is weariness and fear, there is a need to move on with courage and hope and faith

Diocese of Huron faces civil lawsuit over sex abuse

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The victims were all boys.

From here:

Disgraced ex-cleric David Norton’s legal troubles appear to go way beyond the criminal courts.

The former Anglican priest who was convicted Tuesday of four counts of indecent assault and one count of sexual assault of boys from Chippewas of the Thames First Nation already is facing civil action from another victim in London and a counter-claim from the Diocese of Huron.

The plaintiff in a $4.9-million lawsuit against Norton and the Diocese of Huron is the victim in Norton’s sexual interference conviction registered earlier this year. He was abused by the priest at St. Mark’s parish in the 1990s.

Norton, 72, pleaded guilty in March and was sentenced in August to four years in prison.

Just like the rest of the Anglican Church of Canada, the Diocese of Huron likes to trumpet its virtue by participating in Truth and Reconciliation blanket exercises, walks, bicycle rides or, as the Diocese of Niagara so charmingly puts it by: “live[ing] into the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 calls to action and confront the ways in which it has embodied colonial attitudes.”

Of course, extirpating colonial attitudes is a lot cheaper than $4.9-million, so the Diocese of Huron has decided not to live into taking any responsibility for the abuse, let alone reconciling with the victims. Instead, we have a litany of denials:

In a statement of defence, the diocese denied “each and every allegation in the statement of claim.”

They deny Norton was an employee and they deny they knew about his activities. They also deny the boy was injured.

The diocese has issued a cross-claim against Norton, holding him solely responsible for any liability.

Tanya Phibbs, Archdeacon of the Diocese of Huron, told Global News that the Diocese was “deeply saddened” by the allegations. Not $4.9 million worth of saddened, though.

Diocese of Niagara appoints an Honorary Lay Canon of Church Closures

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That is not the euphemism used in Bishop Susan Bell’s charge to synod, of course; nevertheless, that’s what it is. Or it could be Church Closures, Sales and Demolitions.

From here (my emphasis):

I think I am also beginning to see a general loosening of our love affair with bricks and mortar:  The property we own as a Diocese is a strategic asset, it’s true.  But perhaps not in the ways we used to think about it.  The fact is, churches have life cycles.  They were and are planted according to key demographics, they have a beginning to their life, a middle and an end.  The truth is, very few churches live for a century and fewer still live to see two – unless it is this venerable and beautiful cathedral that we are meeting in today.  Parishes and church buildings are meant to spring up where the mission fields are. And when it is very clear that they have come to the end of their life cycle it is incumbent on us – the stewards of those resources – to redeploy those assets as needed for a new mission field – as intended by their founders: Christians who gave money to the church to be the church.

This is an important thing for us to understand.  It is not good Christian practice for us to hold buildings hostage to our desires to hold on to worldly things.  It is good Christian practice to make disciples and to preach the Gospel to the whole of creation.  So, we are called to go where the mission field is.  We will become a planting church once again.  And what does that look like in this time?  It looks like understanding the needs of new housing surveys; of underserviced inner-city neighbourhoods; strategic small-town locations.  These are some of the contexts that we are learning about and planning to engage.

And to better ascertain how best to deploy our precious building resources I have asked Mr. Terry Charters to lead a new committee that will work with our Secretary of Synod and Treasurer on our property portfolio to best and most strategically maintain, sell, re-purpose, rent or restore property based on the best analysis we have available of demographics.  This will also include a focus on our continuing plans for the revitalization of Cathedral Place – on which he’ll report later in the course of Synod. This group will also have the aim of searching for reliable community partnerships and for income generation plans to support sustainability but also to underwrite future mission and ministry in this diocese. This is the job of tilling the soil and planting seeds for the next season of our beloved church.

And to go with this new committee, I’ve also conferred on Terry the title of Honorary Lay Canon of Christ’s Church Cathedral.  We are greatly indebted to him for his many hours of specialized and valuable ministry among us and look forward to all that he has to share with us in the coming years.  We’ll have a service of installation for him and Canon Jody early in the New Year.

The problem of AR-15 sentience

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The Anglican Journal has an article on the Pittsburgh synagogue murders that contains this odd sentence:

The AR-15 and its non-patented variants have been behind most of the mass-shootings in the U.S. in recent history.

A church that has ceased to believe that “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” still has to pin the blame for evil on something, so what could be better than a semi-automatic rifle – “in sin did my gunsmith conceive me.”

In 2018 a secret cabal of AR-15s became self-aware, precipitating judgment day: it could be the theme of a movie.

In fairness to the article, other comments made by clergy do recognise that “Human beings have moral agency”, a sentiment not strengthened further down by Bishops Against Gun Violence who, we can only assume, are entirely comfortable with knife violence.

Nor are the calls to end anti-Semitism made more convincing by the repeated Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions motions – none of which have yet passed – presented in TEC synods.

The article ends with:

Most of all, we offer ourselves, our ministry, and our own prayerful witness to those who have endured the horror of gun violence in all of our communities so that together, we can drive away the spectre of hate with light and life.”

It sounds good but the problem isn’t hate, it’s sin and that is something Anglican clergy don’t like to talk about.