Author Archives: David

Extreme Earth Day composting

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Yesterday was Earth Day and Canadian Anglicans were encouraged to celebrate it with the usual mélange of sacred circles, unnamed traditions and spiritism all spiced with a dash of Gaia:

Creator God, we acknowledge and give thanks that:
In Jesus we know we belong to a Sacred Circle with the Gospel and Baptismal Covenant in the centre.

In this Sacred Circle:
We are all related;
We live a compassionate and generous life;
We respect all life, traditions, and resources.
We commit ourselves to spiritual growth, discipleship, and consensus.
Amen.

As it happens, I agree with Roger Scruton, that not despoiling our environment is a conservative value; sadly, the Anglican Church of Canada has gone a few steps further and made environmentalism a substitute for the worship of God the Father.  Note the reference to “Creator” rather than “Father” in the above prayer.

The ACoC’s fascination for greening everything had its origins in the actions of Ira Einhorn, one of the founders of Earth Day. Einhorn made a name for himself by murdering his girlfriend and composting her. We cannot accuse him of not living up to his convictions, unlike the Anglican Church of Canada.

I await the day when exanimate Anglican clergy are put to rest by composting.

Bisexual lighting

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For those who are not convinced that homosexuality, bi-sexuality, trans-sexuality, gender fluidity, gray sexuality, demi-sexuality, asexuality and pansexuality have become the predominant obsession of what is left of Western culture, consider this: we now have bisexual lighting casting its eerie glow over our entertainment.

From the BBC:

What is ‘bisexual lighting’?

An early use of the term comes from a 2014 post on the blogging site Trumblr, which discusses a pink-and-blue-washed scene in the BBC’s Sherlock and speculates about the hidden desires of Dr John Watson.

A more recent, and commonly discussed, example of bisexual lighting can be seen in the San Junipero episode of the Netflix show Black Mirror.

The Emmy Award-winning episode follows the development of a relationship between two bisexual female characters.

Many point out that these colours mirror those of the bisexual pride flag, and suggest the lighting design is a direct reference to the symbol.

I’ll give the Anglican church about five years to latch on to this trend, at which point it will declare that its cathedrals are illuminated with holy bisexual lighting from their multicoloured stained glass windows.

Marriage Canon Machinations

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Anglicans wishing to redefine marriage to encompass same-sex couples will, when they get their way, not only take God out of marriage, emptying it of significance, but drive believers out of their churches with an efficiency that would be the envy of the most rabid atheist. That’s not what is bothering the bishops, though; what is bothering them is that the few remaining conservatives in the Anglican Church of Canada will, when they leave, take their offerings with them.

From here:

A resolution to amend the marriage canon to allow for same-sex marriages may itself be amended to include protections for Anglicans who hold to the traditional view of marriage, said Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada.

“There is a possibility” that the resolution, which passed its required first reading at the last General Synod in 2016, may be amended when it is presented for a required second reading in 2019, Hiltz said in an interview Thursday, April 19.

Another possibility is that a separate resolution to amend the canon could be made, one that “would enable the church as a whole, as a General Synod, to say something clearer to conservatives who want to remain in our church” in the event the resolution passes, he said.

Preparing for a potentially divisive second vote on the resolution was an important topic of conversation for the Anglican Church of Canada’s House of Bishops at their spring meeting in Niagara Falls, Ont., April 9-13, Hiltz and other members of the house said.

Larry Robertson, bishop of the diocese of Yukon, said he and some other bishops expressed concern that, if the resolution passes its second reading, those who hold to the idea of marriage as between a man and a woman may lose their status within the Anglican Church of Canada. They fear, he said, they’ll be told, “You are not in communion with the church; you are out of sync with the doctrine of our church.’ ”

Larry Robertson’s concern is rather belated. Conservative clergy in liberal dioceses have been laughed at, given the worst jobs and emotionally harassed for years. Usually this is called “inclusion”; sometimes it’s call “diversity”.

I know it’s hard to believe but, during the marriage canon vote at the last synod, the merchants of tolerance, inclusion and homoeroticism were accused of bullying anyone who had the temerity to stand in their way:

General Synod 2016 was marred by complaints of bullying during discussions of the resolution, and a statement released days after the synod by seven bishops contending that the decision endangered their “full communion within the Anglican Church of Canada.”

There are those who are still under the impression that the Anglican Church of Canada can be further “broken and divided” even though the very small piece that remains is homogenously liberal:

“I think everybody is trying to find ways that will enable our church to respect more than one view on marriage,” he said. “Many people, I think, are committed to move in that direction so that we don’t come out of General Synod as a broken and divided church in which people are saying, ‘I’ve had it, I’m gone, and I feel I have no choice but to leave.’ “

There is some good news, though: the Anglican Journal may go out of print and someone is finally questioning whether it should come clean and admit that it is nothing but the mouthpiece of a lost denomination:

Bishops also heard an update from a committee reviewing whether the Anglican Journal should continue to exist in print form and continue its traditional policy of editorial independence.

A gun-control Easter

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Easter isn’t about bunnies, eggs and chocolate: it’s about gun control. According to Bishop Melissa Skelton’s Easter message, at least:

 As I write this, snow is on the ground covering the many crocuses and snowdrops that were just popping up last week to remind us that spring is indeed on the way. Also as I write this, almost two weeks have passed since the deadly shooting at a school in Florida in which young people and teachers lost their lives.
It’s hard to know sometimes how much news from the US affects us here in Canada, and given the fact that I was born in the US, I don’t always trust my instincts on such things. But as the news about the shootings in Florida spread, once again, Canadian after Canadian wanted to talk with me about it, about their perplexity at a society where access to guns, especially assault weapons, is so easy. And they wanted to talk to me about their amazement and awe at the young survivors of the shooting who overnight began speaking up and demanding stricter gun laws.

I don’t pretend to know much about guns nor am I particularly interested in them, but I am reasonably certain that “assault weapon” is a slippery term whose definition varies depending on who is using it: after all, a kitchen knife is an “assault weapon” if it is used to stab someone. Still, we mustn’t be too hard on Skelton because she is an Anglican bishop with years of seminary training in Biblical slipperiness to confuse her thinking.

Here is a list of assault rifles – a more precise term –  and they are not easy to obtain:

The US Army defines an assault rifle as follows:

“Assault rifles are short, compact, selective-fire weapons that fire a cartridge intermediate in power between submachinegun and rifle cartridges. Assault rifles have mild recoil characteristics and, because of this, are capable of delivering effective full-automatic fire at ranges up to 300 meters.”

Small Arms Identification and Operations Guide – Eurasian Communist Countries, pg 100 para 90

Real assault rifles are capable of automatic firing. Therefore, they are regulated by the federal government as machine guns under the Federal Firearms Act of 1934 and the completely misnamed Firearm Owners’ Protection Act of 1986. The Firearm Owners’ Protection Act entirely banned the new manufacture or importation of automatic weapons for civilian use. That left roughly 150,000 registered automatic weapons in private ownership and eligible for transfer between individuals. The transfer of such weapons is handled by the ATF’s NFA branch. Basically, anyone wanting to legally own a fully automatic weapon needs $15,000 to over $40,000 to buy a weapon from an already licensed owner willing to sell one of theirs, plus pay a $200 federal transfer tax, plus pass a background investigation of National Agency Check with 10-point fingerprinting.

Pastoral Anglican euthanising

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I remember a time when for a church to be “prophetic” it had to stand against the tide of the culture, against the immorality of the state, against the prevailing delusions that beguile our impressionable egos. Not so today. Because same-sex marriage is legal, the church has embraced it and has assigned committees loaded with waffling liberal clergy to contort Scripture to their collective will. It is much the same for abortion. And now euthanasia.

On March 27 Mr. and Mrs Brickenden committed suicide together with the help of a doctor:

On March 27, George and Shirley died holding hands in their own bed in a Toronto retirement home.
Their children, who watched from the foot of the bed, say the couple drew their last breaths at almost the same moment.
They had been married for just shy of 73 years.
The Brickendens are one of the few couples in Canada to receive a doctor-assisted death together, and the first to speak about it publicly.

The local vicar was on hand, perhaps to deliver a sermon in hope of hastening the couple’s exit:

Present were Pamela, Saxe and Angela, their spouses, the two doctors and Andrew Asbil, the Dean of Toronto’s St. James Cathedral, who later told me he had “without hesitation” supported the couple’s wish for their funeral to be held at the Anglican church.

March 27 was Maundy Thursday when we remember Jesus’ Last Supper before his excruciating death on Good Friday, an unpleasantness that he would be pastorally encouraged to sidestep by today’s Dying with Dignity Anglicanism.

The Anglican Church of Canada has produced a report in which it comes down firmly on the side of indecision. There is also a study guide to encourage parishes to have indecisive conversations about the church’s indecision.

It is important to remember that In Sure and Certain Hope was not intended as a contribution to the debate about the moral appropriateness of medically-assisted dying. The changed legal landscape has moved us beyond that to a point where many of us are likely to know, love and care for those who will face difficult decisions and may choose to avail themselves of medically-assisted dying or to reject such an option.

How long will it be before General Synod has a motion before it to approve a euthanasia liturgy and consummate its longing to become a death cult. I’d give it 10 years.

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds

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One of the hymns we Anglicans like to sing goes like this:

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer’s ear!
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, and drives away his fear.

It makes the wounded spirit whole, and calms the troubled breast;
‘tis manna to the hungry soul, and to the weary rest.

Dear Name! the rock on which I build, my shield and hiding place,
My never-failing treasury, filled with boundless stores of grace.

Jesus, my Shepherd, Brother, Friend, my Prophet, Priest and King,
My Lord, my Life, my Way, my End, accept the praise I bring.

Weak is the effort of my heart, and cold my warmest thought;
But when I see thee as thou art, I’ll praise thee as I ought.

When John Newton wrote that, he could not have foreseen that 250 years later the sweetness of Jesus’ name would no longer be thought of as manna to the hungry soul, but ice-cream to the greedy stomach. The Sweet Jesus ice-cream company, we are told, was born out of a love for experimentation. Experimenting with shabbily belittling what Christians regard as the most important event in human history: God becoming man.

Christians have so little influence on Canadian society today that not only can an ice-cream merchant name his sticky wares “Sweet Jesus” without fear of losing his profit, but the free advertising generated by gratuitously irritating Christians will probably result in increasing it.

Had the owners been less astute in their assessment of the cultural zeitgeist and named their obesity inducing, artery clogging sugar laden junk confection “Munchable Mohammed”, they would not only have lost their profits but been prosecuted under Bill 59; assuming they hadn’t lost their heads first.

It doesn’t help that the “t” in “Sweet” is an inverted cross and the “s” in “Jesus” is a lightning bolt, both obliquely tied to Satanism.

Adding to the odious miasma that wafts effortlessly like mist from a B grade horror film are these advertisements that feature what some have called “creepy” looking children:

There are some online petitions urging a name change, something that the owner is not willing to do, and there are numerous expressions of outrage on both sides.

None of this surprises me. In Canada, the ridiculing of Christianity and Christians is a national sport; I am surprised that it is not worse than it is. It’s futile to blame the world: it knows no better. If anyone is to blame, we – Christians and our pathetic, impotent mainline churches  – are. If our church doesn’t take Christ seriously, and we continue to support it, why should we expect anyone else to?

From here:

There are few things that feel more care-free than enjoying an ice cream cone, and Toronto-based chain Sweet Jesus serves up gigantic, Instagram-worthy soft serve cones — or blasphemy, depending on who you ask.

The brand, founded in 2015 by Andrew Richmond and Amin Todai, has received attention from some in the Christian community for the religious imagery in their logo and advertising. Richmond told the Star in 2016 that the name stuck after an employee would often declare “sweet Jesus,” after tasting the ice cream and says the brand has nothing to do with religion.

The backlash has followed Sweet Jesus’ expansion south of the border, where they have opened up shop in Baltimore and the Mall of America. Petitions began popping up in January, after right-wing blog Activist Mommy posted an article analyzing the “blasphemous” use of religious imagery in the brand’s logo.

A petition hosted on CitizenGO, a site that bills itself as a conservative advocacy group, calls Sweet Jesus “offensive and revolting,” and accuses the ice cream parlour of hate speech towards Christians. The petition calls for a public apology for “openly (attacking) the Christian community,” and God. The petition further asks for a name change to “eliminate mockery toward our Lord Jesus.”

Clergy alcohol abuse in The Episcopal Church

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The Episcopal Church in the US is “mired in a ‘system of denial and helplessness’ over alcohol abuse” according to this report.

I must admit, I have considerable sympathy for the clerical alcoholics in TEC. After all, to be employed to believe something while secretly disbelieving it, to have to keep your fingers crossed behind your back while reciting the creed every week, to maintain the farcical illusion that your career is a vocation is going take its toll eventually. It’s enough to drive anyone to drink.

The Anglican Church in the US remains mired in a ‘system of denial and helplessness’ over alcohol abuse among its senior clergy, a damning commission has concluded.

It found the Church had done little to tackle the issue after a Baltimore cyclist was killed in a hit-and-run incident by the former bishop in the Maryland diocese, Heather Cook, who was drunk-driving.

Cook was jailed for 10 years in 2015 after she pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Tom Palermo, 41. She was found to have three times the legal blood-alcohol limit.

But a report, commissioned by The Episcopal Church’s bishops, examined a number of case studies and in almost every case found ‘the ecclesial structure and polity of our church proved to contribute negatively to the situation’.

‘Clericalism, a misunderstanding of hierarchy, the canonical autonomy of parishes and dioceses, and a polity that hinders the enforcement of expectations all contributed to inactivity by responsible persons and bodies,’ the report, published this week, said.

‘The commission has discovered that in many instances, church polity has impeded the ability of the church to intervene, assess and treat impaired people and care for the injured community.’

he commission exposed a fear of exposure to liability, friendships between church officials, the autonomy of dioceses and a ‘culture of forgiveness’ as reasons for why there was a failure to address alcohol abuse among clergy.

The Cook case rocked TEC to the core after it emerged she had previously been arrested for drunk driving and the bishop of Maryland, Eugene Taylor Sutton, admitted he thought Cook was drunk at a dinner two days before her consecration as bishop.

Following the case the Church’s House of Bishops condemned its ‘longstanding tolerance for the use of alcohol’ that, it said, ‘contributed to its misuse and has undermined a climate of wholeness and holiness for all’.

The report criticised the Church’s failure to hold a central database to record the employment history and disciplinary profiles of clergy saying it has ‘no capacity for verification’.

It said: ‘There is no clarity about who should see background checks or read the self-report questionnaires. Once again, people who are not qualified to analyze the data are often in a position of making process and outcome determinations.’

However it added systems would not create ‘the great culture shift’ needed in the Church.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry does evangelism

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There are two ways to be incoherent: say something that means nothing; say something that can mean anything. The latter technique is preferred by Anglican clergy because it gives the illusion of Deep Thinking while providing an escape route when someone tries to pin them down.

Thus, when the Diocese of Niagara embarked upon the Decade of Evangelism many years ago, it spent nine and a half of those years attempting to define “evangelism” and six months producing reports that concluded “evangelism” was just another word for “inclusion” because, obviously, God would not exclude anyone or their behaviour, sexual proclivities or path to salvation no matter how perverse or arcane. Shortly after that most Christians left the diocese.

Now it’s Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s turn.

Curry, eager to be on the trailing edge of secular trends has been influenced by the twittering success of Donald Trump. He is tweeting his enthusiasm for evangelism; and making it mean anything – or nothing – at all:

I suspect the problem is that what motivates Curry et al is not saving souls from the fires of hell but filling emptying buildings and coffers. Such is his level of desperation, he is even willing to use the trappings of loathed fundamentalism to achieve his ends.