Michael Bird, having resigned as Bishop of the Diocese of Niagara, has just completed his final bishop’s charge.
In the charge, he laments the anxieties thrust upon him by dissenting Anglicans immediately following his consecration – during which he processed to the strains of the Beatles’ “All You Need is Love”, an inverse harbinger of things to come – and congratulates himself and the diocese on “having stood our ground”, including ejecting the dissenters from their buildings, seizing, and in some cases selling the buildings and successfully prosecuting a string of lawsuits. And no one in the diocese had to pay any legal fees!
Where did the money come from? Selling St. Hilda’s property and rectory for $2,650,000 probably helped.
From here:
In the days preceding this celebration, local and national newspapers and media spoke of the conflict and division in the life of the Anglican Church. The Toronto Star had a running commentary on the status of three breakaway parishes in our diocese. On February 20, the headlines read as follows: “Breakaway Anglicans asked to hand over keys.” On February 28, it was announced that “Talks with dissident Anglican parishes end,” and then on March 3, the day after my installation, a picture appeared in newspapers across the country with the caption reading: “A House of worship divided.”
The Toronto Star article went on to say that: “For Niagara Bishop Michael Bird, the court case opened on his first official day in office – he spent the day in court and talking to reporters outside – [this issue] threatens to dominate his entire time in office.”
If this were not enough, 2008 was the year that the economy crashed or at the very least took a dramatic down turn. With this loss of investment money, mounting court and legal fees and a multi-million-dollar debt we had some major and painful financial decisions to make. One of the things that I am most grateful for, as we gather here today, is that we find ourselves in a sound financial position and that having stood our ground and brought our legal proceedings to a successful conclusion, not one cent of those court costs was paid for out of the collection plates of our parishes.
The deception of so-called bishops like Michael Bird know full well that using the civil courts to evict orthodox Christians was and is completely unethical particularly when the properties seized were totally paid for by orthodox Christians. They know the courts have no interest whatever in theology or the vows these apostates have made both at their ordination and consecration. Further there is no doubt that what might be “legally correct” is indeed morally reprehensible. The truth is that apostate bishops including Michael Bird should have been excommunicated with no allowance for pensions or anything else. Both his and other so-called bishops taking action against orthodox Christians clearly proves they are nothing less than apostate.
I fear that the whole bad situation we are in is and always has been all about money. it’s about drawing a church salary and enjoying power over people in the pew while believing and living as one pleases, in sex-ethics as in all other spheres.
This is the same church that warmly refers to Jewish persons as “our brothers and sisters”. Fellow-anglicans, Baptists, etc. — not so much.
Rather smug, isn’t he? Hell waits for such a villain.
This post reminds me to pray for our dear brothers and sisters in South Carolina
Niagara, whether applying to a certain anti-Scriptural Bishop, or to the more than frequent meetings of the anti-Scriptural House of Bishops in that notorious place of chance, seems to have induced a bad habit of gambling: for the Robe/buildings of Christ’s ACC.
The good news is: He keeps the Keys + Matthew 16:13 -19; as well as those to the other place + The Revelation of Jesus Christ 1:18.