Author Archives: David

Fred Hiltz: Me Too

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#MeToo is an internet placard wielded by those who wish to advertise their disapproval of sexual harassment.

It was on conspicuous display at last night’s Oscars, which is ironic since Hollywood, in its persistent profiting from sexual exploitation, bears an uncanny resemblance to a whorehouse. The Oscars are a yearly self-congratulatory saturnalia of the brothel owners and their accomplices. The producers and directors are the pimps, the actresses – and actors, these days – the prostitutes, and the rest of us the johns, eager to salivate over the latest display of, not Jennifer Lawrence’s talent or intellect since they don’t exist, but the rest of her.

The Anglican Church of Canada in the form of its leader, Fred Hiltz, is embarrassingly eager to demonstrate its relevance by jumping on the latest bandwagon. And, in this case, perhaps it is fitting since the main preoccupation of the church has become sex: homoerotic sex.

Unhappily, #MeToo when brandished by Anglicans has a more poignant ring to it: that of a societal runt, ignored and unchosen, whimpering “me too” as it is left behind, chasing impotently after the cultural fads it can never compete with and for which it is supposed to be a corrective.

From here:

Archbishop Fred Hiltz, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, identified two ways that the church can respond to #MeToo and help combat sexual misconduct.

Firstly, the church must express its solidarity with those who are coming forward and sharing their experiences.

“I think we need to especially support the front-liners who are breaking the silence and instilling in others the courage to come forward and tell their stories,” the Primate said. Noting the “overwhelming” prevalence of predatory behavior on the part of many men, he added, “I think the church needs to be solidly standing beside women who are coming forward to tell their stories and to demand justice and to look for healing.”

Rev. Susan Bell to be new bishop in The Diocese of Niagara

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From here:

The Reverend Canon Susan Bell, a pioneering priest and former school chaplain, has been elected to serve as the next bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Niagara. Born and raised in Hamilton, she will be the first woman to serve as diocesan bishop since the diocese was founded in 1875.

Bell will continue the “progressive ministry” of her predecessor, Michael Bird. Bird’s ministry included progressive lawsuits, the progressive seizing of buildings, progressive building closures, a progressive mass exodus of orthodox believers and progressive financial troubles.

The newly-elected bishop will build on the “prayerful, prophetic and progressive ministry of outgoing Bishop Michael Bird, who served as Bishop of Niagara for the past decade,” the diocese said in a news release.

It will come as no surprise that Bell supports same-sex marriage:

My opinion remains unchanged from what I said on the floor of General Synod 2016:   that I would be voting in favour of a change in the marriage canon. I have taken a long journey which has included much study, prayer, many conversations and a deep investment in relationships until I arrived at a place of peace on this issue.

I would preserve the status quo in the lead up to General Synod 2019 and would be proud to cast my vote in favour of equal marriage in the Anglican Church of Canada.

The Anglican Church of Canada employs a neo-pagan priest

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Rev. Shawn Sanford Beck, an Anglican priest from the Diocese of Saskatoon, calls himself a ‘ChristoPagan’. He practices magic, is a Druid, a Pagan and an Animist.

He doesn’t have a conventional congregation on which to inflict his bizarre and, probably demonically inspired antics, but he does talk to and pray with the “people” inhabiting what the less fanciful among us would regard as inanimate objects.

When he isn’t praying with trees, chatting with the Lady of the Lake or communing with the person embodied in the beef he is masticating, he teaches other Anglican priests to do so in the University of Saskatchewan. This is the future of the Anglican Church of Canada – if it had one.

It goes without saying that Beck supports same-sex marriage.

Ironically, his bishop, David Irving, doesn’t seem particularly bothered by all this: the Anglican Church of Canada is tolerant enough to employ Druids but fires orthodox Christians.

You can listen to an interview with Beck here:

And read a CBC article here:

I am a ‘ChristoPagan’ … I practice magic, study the runes, and talk to trees and fairies; …and I am a member of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids.

AND I’m an ordained priest in the Anglican Church of Canada.  For 15 years I’ve preached and pastored churches in my diocese.  I’m a regional dean, and I train other priests, deacons, and lay ministers.

…But it has been a very interesting journey for me, almost thirty years of intense reflection and “internal inter-faith dialogue”, culminating finally in a fully blended path.

Am I alone in this?  Are there others out there who are living bi-spiritual lives?

[…..]

“I do identify myself as primarily Christian – heavily influenced and really spiritually transformed by neo-paganism. Specifically it’s about bringing in the feminine face of the divine. Bringing in the pagan valuing of nature as sacred. And the pagan sense of the world as alive and magical.”

He believes both can work together.

“It’s about recognizing that that tree that I’ve been praying beside, is actually alive and conscious and praying with me. It’s about recognizing that if I’m having beef for supper I know who I’m eating, not what I’m eating.” he says. “I’m what you call a Christian animist…and the basic premise of animism is that the world is filled with a myriad of neighbours…After you do that for a few years, for me anyway, something crystallizes about where I find my place in the universe.”

Fred Hiltz denounces gun violence

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Fred Hiltz has taken his cue from protesting teenagers and denounced USA gun culture. It’s no surprise, since Anglican clergy seem to have difficulty digging up an original thought of their own and the higher one ascends the ecclesiastical totem pole the deeper one must excavate before hitting coherent thought.

Hiltz has grave concern over gun violence, leaving the impression that he is unwilling to fritter his limited reserve of concern on less conspicuous forms of violence: violence against the unborn, for example which claims the lives of almost 1 million babies per year in the USA.

Predictably, Hiltz offers a political solution – the church is, after all, more interested in politics than religion – rather than a Christian solution, namely modification and, I’m sure, eventual scrapping of the Second Amendment. Western Anglicanism, for the most part has given up on heaven or hell in the afterlife and is focussing what little energy it has left in cheering on socialist utopianism with carefree disregard of the resulting nastiness when the goal is attained.

Clerical distaste for guns can quickly dissipate when personal safety is in jeopardy: TEC’s first homosexual bishop, Gene Robison, was protected by armed guards during his consecration. Anglican gun culture at its finest; perhaps the guns were blessed beforehand.

From here:

What is remarkably notable in the aftermath of this recent shooting in Florida is the tremendous resilience of the young people in standing up and speaking out with grave concern for the gun violence that is tearing apart families and communities. While some people note that many of the shooters have serious mental health issues or have links with terrorist groups, and that needs to be acknowledged, many others are asking deeper questions about “the gun culture” across the United States. Some question an all-or-nothing approach to the Second Amendment in an age of automatic weapons. Some question why many Americans so vehemently defend that right. Some question the measures around gun control and the extent to which they can be enforced. Some question access to semi-automatic weapons that can fire dozens of rounds within seconds.

One young man reminded a rally in Florida, that addressing these issues was not about being Republican or Democrat, but about being human. These students are speaking out with a courage and conviction that cannot go unnoticed. Their cry for reform will not pass soon as some might expect and others might hope. Many Americans are joining them and crowding the roads to places where legislation is considered, including those to Capitol Hill in Washington.

The Diocese of Niagara’s cathedral is running out of money

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There is a passage in Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited where Charles is short of money and appeals to his father. This is his father’s reply:

“Well, I’m the worst person to come to for advice. I’ve never been ‘short’ as you so painfully call it. And yet what else could you say? Hard up? Penurious? Distressed? Embarrassed? Stony-broke?” (Snuffle.) “On the rocks? In Queer Street? Let us say you are in Queer Street and leave it at that.”

Let’s just say that the Diocese of Niagara is in Queer Street and leave it at that.

Except Peter Wall, the cathedral rector, has a vested interest in keeping the place and his job running a little longer.

It isn’t often I find myself in agreement with Wall, but one thing he said in the article below rings true: “God is not inside that building”. No indeed, he was driven out decades ago.

Wall’s solution to the steady exodus of Christians from the diocese is more innovation, in spite of the fact that innovation – a euphemism for excursions into radical heresy – is what drove the faithful out of the diocese in the first place.

Perhaps this is the real reason Bishop Michael Bird has quit. He wants to leave before all the money is gone.

In Hamilton, the Anglican Church is especially eager to capitalize on capitalist culture. It recently invested in a major renovation at Church of the Ascension, relocating the kitchen, offices and hall to the church proper, so it could sever or lease the rest of the 160-year-old Forest Avenue building. Ten blocks away, at Christ’s Church Cathedral on James North, plans for a new development are also under way.

“We can’t afford to maintain this place forever on the amount of money it’s costing us,” says the Very Rev. Peter Wall, the cathedral rector and dean of the Anglican Diocese of Niagara. “The only way we can do that is to do something that contributes to the sustainability of this place and allows us to have a greater impact on the community.”

Very Rev. Peter Wall, Cathedral Rector, Christ’s Church Cathedral

Since Wall arrived at the Cathedral in 1998, the number of Anglicans in the Hamilton area has declined more than 23 per cent. His church alone has lost about 50 families in the past 30 years.

Though Wall is mum on the details of the development, he says he’s committed to maintaining the integrity of the mid-19th century gothic cathedral — a soaring stone structure with heritage designation inside and out. Still, the church must innovate if it wants to survive.

“God is not inside that building,” he says. “We don’t have to tiptoe in and say, ‘where is he?’ and look under all the pews.

“That’s bad religion, that’s hocus-pocus, that’s nonsense. And that’s what killed the church.”

Damning Billy Graham with faint praise

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In an age when Christianity and Christians are a preferred object of ridicule, it is almost unprecedented for the secular press to have nothing but good things to say about an evangelical Christian. That seems to be the case for Billy Graham, though, who died yesterday.

Criticism, as is so often the case, has come instead from an Anglican in the form of Michael Coren, an – in chronological order –  ex-Roman Catholic/ex-Evangelical/ex-Roman Catholic who has come to view the cosmos through pink tinted Anglican lenses. His main complaints about Billy Graham are that he regarded homosexual activity as sinful, his theology was not nebulous and flaccid, he held to 2000 years of tradition, he tempered experience with the Bible and was what Coren used to be: conservative.

In other words, he was too Christian.

From here:

Billy Graham brought countless people to a deep Christian faith, and to better lives; and unlike so many other high-profile evangelists, he was not financially corrupt or vainglorious. But his theology was rigid and conservative, and he was unable or unwilling to allow experience to temper his fierce resistance to the new and non-traditional. On issues of sexuality in particular, there are too many broken relationships, too much pain and suffering, too many suicide attempts, and children thrown out of parental Christian homes, for the complete man not to be exposed. He had so much influence, and knew so many world leaders, and could have done so much better. Rest in Peace sir, but let us pray that in the afterlife you think again.

Candidates jostling for the bishop’s job in the Diocese of Niagara

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Since Michael Bird will resign in June this year, the diocese has to choose a new bishop.

The candidates are:

David Anderson
Susan Bell
David Burrows
Robert Fead
Robert Hurkmans
Stuart Pike
Martha Tatarnic

Are they all theologically liberal, you might be wondering?
Are there any Christians hiding amongst them?
Far be it from me to pass judgement but here are their answers to the question:

What is your view with regards to equal marriage and will you, as Niagara’s bishop, continue to authorize the current permissive pastoral practice in the lead up to General Synod 2019?

To save you time, their answers to the question of whether they will marry same-sex couples are:

David Anderson:    Yes
Susan Bell:               Yes
David Burrows:      Yes
Robert Fead:           Yes
Robert Hurkmans: Yes
Stuart Pike:              Yes
Martha Tatarnic:    Yes

If you had any doubts about the diocese’s dedication to diversity and inclusion, the conformity of these answers should settle them.

Interestingly, when St. Hilda’s congregation was ejected from its building and the diocese installed a Potemkin congregation to demonstrate to the courts how much it needed the place, Martha Tatarnic was the “priest in charge” – of the phony congregation; once firmly in diocesan clutches, the building was sold and demolished. Valuable experience for the new bishop’s job.

Churches for sale in the Diocese of New Westminster

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The Diocese of New Westminster real-estate company is selling some more of its properties. The most expensive is St. Mark’s in Kitilano which they are hoping will fetch almost $12M. The one-time Christian denomination claims the money will be used for Anglican ministry, code for the panting hot pursuit of the latest cultural fad to assail the fevered imagination of its trendy clerics.

According to the diocese, the congregations are physically “moving elsewhere”, in much the same way as the diocese has, in relation to Christianity, theologically moved elsewhere.

At the last General Synod that I was unfortunate enough to attend, I remember one aggrieved soul bewailing the fact that the synod was being held on land stolen from its original Indigenous residents. The diocese makes much of its efforts to reconcile with the First People. I see no mention of giving back the land occupied by these churches, though; $12M is a lot of money, after all.

From here:

St. Mark’s Anglican Church, a 100-year-old facility in Kitsilano, one of B.C.’s most upscale areas, is up for sale at the steep price of $11,998,000.

Rev. Richard Leggett said Anglican churches in the Vancouver area are moving elsewhere due to, in part, the steep cost of housing.

Other Anglican properties up for sale include St. Margaret of Scotland in Burnaby and St. Monica’s in Horseshoe Bay.

“Housing prices in Vancouver have grown so rapidly and so high that the grandchildren of the grandparents who built the church are no longer living nearby,” said Leggett.

Diocese of Huron continues its Marriage Canon Newspeak

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The diocesan paper reports:

Conversations on the Marriage Canon
The Diocese of Huron is in the midst of a consultation about the proposed changes to the Marriage Canon. The first of these consultations have taken place and several more are planned throughout the diocese.
As the diocesan Marriage Canon Task Force reports in this HCN edition, a question raised at some of the first deanery gatherings was, “Does our input matter?”, and related to that question there were comments such as, “It feels like the decision has already been made.”

For those who question the impartiality of the decision makers in the diocese, this image, accompanying the article, of diocesan leaders conspicuously marching across a rainbow crossing brandishing crosses and an umbrella should leave little doubt in any mind whose neurons are still firing:

Of course your input matters. As long as it supports same-sex marriage.

Of course the decision to marry same-sex couples hasn’t already been made. Yes, we may already be doing it but that doesn’t mean we have decided anything.

A bishop in a pussy hat

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Here is the Diocese of New Westminster’s Bishop Melissa Skelton decked out in her pussy hat in preparation for the Women’s March, 2018.

Pussy hats are supposed to be pink but, in order, against all the odds, to maintain her dignity as a bishop, Skelton’s hat is purple.

For those who might be a little hazy of the purpose, meaning and etymology of pussy hats – sometimes referred to as pussyhats – we have, I’m afraid, to return to a regrettable remark made by Donald Trump during his presidential campaign, to wit:

You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful—I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.

A bishop wearing such a hat does so not just to protest Trump’s outrageous rise to power but, also, should she be unfortunate enough to encounter the reprobate, to lure him into reaching for the hat rather than the part of the anatomy that was the subject of Monologues performed in the Diocese of Niagara’s cathedral by the lady clergy of the diocese. Here they are brazenly appearing without their pussy hats:

Vagina Monologues performed by Diocese of Niagara clergy

What does any of this have to do with the Gospel, you may be wondering. The Project of Pussyhat explains it:

There have been critiques about Pussyhat Project and whether Pussyhats should be included in some of the 2018 women’s marches. Some feel that the pink color of the hat excludes people of color from the project. Some feel that the hat is a literal symbol of female anatomy, promoting Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminism (TERF). Thank you for speaking up with your criticisms. We hear you.

The founding principles of Pussyhat Project are inclusivity, compassion, creativity, personal connection, and open dialogue, all to further women’s rights and human rights. It is an exciting and ongoing process, and these criticisms are part of it.

We can all agree that the last thing any self-respecting Anglican bishop would promote would be “Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminism” and the first, “inclusivity, compassion, creativity, personal connection, and open dialogue”. That, more or less, is what the Western Anglican gospel has degenerated into.

I’m waiting for the first pussy hat mitre to make an appearance.