Category Archives: Anglican Church of Canada

Council of General synod blows smoke

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From here:

Smudging
The first meeting of the Council of General Synod (CoGS) for the 2019-2022 triennium began with a smudging ceremony. A cultural practice rooted in Indigenous tradition, smudging involves the burning of sacred medicine to create a smoke bath meant to purify a space, cleanse the spirit, bring clarity to the mind and connect people to the Creator.

You may think of this as a harmless nod to Indigenous traditions or as an example of occult New Age chicanery. Or as something in between.

However you see it, it raises the question of why the presence of Christ – surely the clergy believed he was present – was insufficient “to purify a space, cleanse the spirit, bring clarity to the mind and connect people to the Creator”?

Ironically, having just produced some unnecessary carbon dioxide and other more noxious pollutants, CoGs went on to discuss Resolution C004, our climate emergency (used to be called “global warming”, then “climate change”, then “climate emergency”).

Be it resolved that the Council of General Synod:

Encourage Anglicans, individually and corporately, to advocate for action on the climate emergency by all members of the municipal, provincial, and federal governments as a priority.

Encourage dioceses and parishes to initiate, support, and participate in climate justice rallies and other actions as necessary to encourage individual, collective, and governmental action to end the human contribution to climate change.

Note: “climate justice rallies” are now called “extinction rebellion”. No matter how hard it tries, the church just can’t keep up.

New Anglican Primate tries to breathe life into dying church

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And fails.

According to its own prophetic statistical insight, the Anglican Church of Canada will be exanimate by 2040. The new primate understands this, so is consoling faithful clergy whose hearing aids are turned on with these words:

In the face of falling membership and financial challenges, Canadian Anglicans should feel encouraged that there remains a role for their church in the world—and that their God will always be faithful to them, Archbishop Linda Nicholls, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, said Thursday, Nov. 7, in her first address as primate to the Council of General Synod (CoGS).

Solidifying the role of the church in the world by becoming more like the world is what has brought the ACoC to the brink of extinction in the first place, so recommending becoming even more entrenched in temporal fads is not going to help. Yet here we go:

Many of the church’s values, such as its “deep commitment to community” and its gifts of confession and forgiveness also give it a unique voice on societal issues, such as political polarization and justice, she said.

Bishops seem to be embarrassed by transcendent questions like:

Why am I here? What happens when I die, will I still exist? How do I get to heaven? How can my sins be forgiven? Are there such things as miracles?

If all I want is a “deep commitment to community” I can join the local lawn bowling club and, after my octogenarian substitute for exercise, go to the bar to confess to the bartender. After a suitable degree of inebriation, I can expound with a “unique voice on societal issues, such as political polarization and justice”. How can the church compete with that?

Oh yes, by doing this:

Nicholls said one of the tasks she wanted the church to focus on in coming years was fighting racism.

How about doing something unpopular like fighting abortion?

Latest Anglican Church of Canada membership and attendance statistics

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Up until today, the last official statistics from the Anglican Church of Canada that I had seen were published 2001.

A new report has just been presented to the House of Bishops with statistics gathered from 2017.

A few highlights:

  • The average Sunday attendance has dropped to 97,421.
  • A previous report published in 2006 predicted the last Anglican would leave the church in 2061. That number is now 2040.
  • The rate of decline is increasing.
  • New programs adopted by the church have done nothing to reverse the decline.
  • The Anglican Church of Canada is declining faster than any other Province other than TEC, which has an even greater rate of decline.
  • The slowest decline is in the number of priests.

The entire report can be read here and the raw data is here.

Statistics report for House of Bishops

Rev Dr. Neil Elliot PhD

0) Précis

In 2018 General Synod was able to collect a complete and mostly reliable set of data for from the dioceses for the first time since 2001. The data is for the year 2017 and it shows that the decline observed in earlier data has continued.  Projections from our data indicate that there will be no members, attenders or givers in the Anglican Church of Canada by approximately 2040.

This report presents the headline data and includes diocesan decline data based on the statistics from 2001 and 2017. The report goes on to look briefly at a few of the implications of the data.  The report then suggests further work which needs to be done.  The work identified here can be done without substantial additional resources.  If there is hope in these numbers, it is the hope that some data gathering and analysis in the next few years will enable us to plan for the future and not react to it.  Through paying attention to these statistics we may discern God’s call to our beloved church in these challenging times. We believe that this could be a critical part of the work of reviewing of the church’s mission and ministry which the Primate has identified.

1) Background – Statistical projections of ACC membership previous to the 2017 data

There have been previous reports to the House of Bishops which have been identified the extent of our decline, for example the McKerracher report in 2006.   While  McKerracher predicted the last Anglican would leave in 2061, the current evidence projects that the church will run out of members in around 2040. There is no sign of any stabilisation in our numbers; if anything the decline is increasing. Some had hoped that our decline had bottomed out, or that programs had been effective in reversing the trends.  This is now demonstrably not the case.  The decline will not be a surprise to many congregations who see this happening week by week, but what the data confirms is that this decline is happening consistently across the country from BC to Newfoundland.  International comparisons suggest that the decline in the Anglican Church of Canada is faster than in any other Anglican church, although the 2018 data from the Episcopal church shows an even greater rate of decline on attendance than ours.

There are two main sources of data which show us the past trajectory:

  1. i) Historical ACC statistics from 1961-2001

1962-4 were apogee of Anglican Church of Canada membership

Membership Decline 1961-2001 = 50%  in 40 years

BUT if you compare with overall Canadian population, it’s more alarming!

Membership       1961 = 1,358,459 members / 18 million Canadians = 7% of Canadians

2001 = 641,845 members / 31 million Canadians = 2% of Canadians

(2017 =  357,123 members /35 million Canadians = 1% of Canadians)

  1. ii) Circulation data of Anglican Journal give figures for more recent decline. AJ circulation statistics are available for diocesan and parish levels. They have been collected through a consistent methodology of parochial data collection with the intention of distributing the diocesan newspapers.  The overall numbers are as follows:

June 1991 – 273,000 subscriber households

June 2015 – 135,500 subscriber households

Decline 1991-2015 =  50% in 25 years

Both i) and ii) project that we will run out of members in around 2040. 

Church climate strikes

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Here are some Anglican Church of Canada climate strikes.

Diocese of Niagara:

Diocese of Toronto – bishops galore:

I may be wrong, but it seems to me that this was just a photo op for bishops to show off their new dentures.

Any resemblance to King Canute is purely accidental.

Church seeks female identified person to represent women at the UN

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The Anglican Church of Canada is looking for a “female identified or non-binary” individual to take part in a UN Commission on the status of women. That means men who, in defiance of their genetic underpinnings, claim to be women can apply. They may even be given preferential treatment.

Just when you think the Anglican Church of Canada cannot become more daft – it does just that.

From here:

Delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women – Expression of Interest
The Anglican Church of Canada has been asked to nominate one young woman (female identified or non-binary), age 18-30 years old to take part in the Anglican Communion delegation to the sixty-fourth session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York City, March 9th-20th, 2020.

The main focus of UNCSW64 will be on the review of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action to assess current challenges that affect the implementation of the Platform for Action and the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women.

Ripples of Anglican angst

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The Anglican Church of Canada has placed itself in the odd position of protesting that not everything it does is coloured by obsessive homoerotism while at the same time claiming that the entire province is reeling in shocked disbelief that the marriage canon change failed to pass at synod.

The reality is that dioceses that want to marry same sex couples are doing so regardless of the vote so it makes no practical difference, and the average person in the pew is indifferent to the all the theatrical antics because he is too old and set in his ways to contemplate whether copulating with someone of the same sex is even possible or worth the attempt, let alone whether the church approves of it.

From here:

Marriage vote failure ripples through church

General Synod’s failure to pass a resolution to amend the marriage canon to expressly allow solemnization of same-sex marriage, followed by a communiqué from the House of Bishops effectively commending diocesan-based decisions on the matter, has triggered a wave of responses across the Anglican Church of Canada. Bishops, priests, laity, officers and deacons alike have weighed in with concerns about the decision. Some bishops, including then-Primate-elect Linda Nicholls in her capacity as bishop of Huron, have outlined plans to exercise a “local option” for same sex marriage in their dioceses.

[…..]

The initial announcement of the vote results left many synod members visibly in shock, with some crying. Almost immediately, delegates approached the microphones and asked about the process by which General Synod could reconsider a vote. But Primate Fred Hiltz, acknowledging the “pain in this place,” soon moved to dismiss synod for the night.

The emotional upheaval caused by the results led to official statements from all levels of the church. First to respond on July 15 was the House of Bishops, whose members had played the decisive role in voting against the motion. 

An interview with Archbishop Linda Nicholls

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Here is an interview with the Anglican Church of Canada’s new Primate.

We have a unique opportunity to witness within the Anglican Communion to what it means to live together in faith. In a world of increasing polarization where differences become reasons to hate, we are a Church that gathers first around our call in Jesus Christ. We have differences – language, culture, race, sexual orientation, liturgical preferences, theological preferences – and we could divide on any or all of these. Yet, our beloved Church seeks a unity in God built on respect, dignity of every person, and the humility grounded in our need for each other as we each seek to be faithful to the Gospel and need to hear how God is speaking to each of us and to the whole Church. Despite the sometimes pain of our differences – we are family in Christ.

As you can see, Nicholls is living in a fantasy world, where a fantasy church is undivided, unified and all live in harmony together. In our world, the Anglican Church of Canada divided in 2008 when parishes left en masse to join the Southern Cone and later ANiC. Those who remain are even less unified than in 2008 and, as we could see from the last General Synod, there was crying, wailing and people rolling on the floor in anguish. Delegates were not getting along with each other.

In fairness to Nicholls, though, she has been striving diligently for unity.

As this report predicts:

the results of a controversial study presented to Anglican bishops five years ago that said that at the present rate of decline – a loss of 13,000 members per year – only one Anglican would be left in Canada by 2061.

In the Diocese of Huron, no one has worked harder to close churches and watch as people flee than Nicholls. Today Huron, tomorrow the rest of the church until, by 2061, only one person will be left. Then we’ll have perfect unity.

New Anglican Church of Canada Primate marches in Pride Parade

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Here is Archbishop Linda Nicholls along with other Anglicans from the Diocese of Huron getting ready to walk in the 2019 London Ontario Pride Parade.

I don’t recall seeing her predecessor, Fred Hiltz, in a Pride Parade. Such is the march of progress.

That’s a nice TiIley hat she’s wearing.

The State of Biblical Orthodoxy in the Anglican Church of Canada

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A perceptive article by Rev. George Sinclair:

The Anglican Church of Canada (ACoC) was in the news last week. Most reports missed the big story. That the forces of biblical orthodoxy narrowly won a battle was correctly reported. What was missed was that those same forces lost the war. How they lost the war is significant for those of us in orthodox denominations.

For a church to remain orthodox, it needs to change and develop. Keeping the status quo does not work. This sounds counter-intuitive but is true. Orthodox, biblical doctrine has to develop to meet new challenges that come against it. Most key developments in doctrine took place in the first few centuries of the Christian faith. New developments were required with the Reformation and its aftermath.

The last 50 years have seen new challenges to the Christian faith in the wake of massive cultural and intellectual changes connected to abortion, the sexual revolution, the LGBTQ+ movement, and very recently, the transgender juggernaut. At some point in time, a church, to remain orthodox, will have to clarify and/or add to its doctrinal statements to be clear about what the Gospel and the whole counsel of God clearly teach as being of first importance.

What would the FEB do?

I do not know what the specific doctrines of the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches (FEB) are, but let’s use them as an example. Imagine that over the next year several FEB churches and Pastors started to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies. I am sure that there would be calls to discipline those pastors and churches.

However, suppose the offending churches want to remain FEB, so they defend themselves against calls to be removed. The orthodox within FEB point out that the liberals have violated the doctrine of FEB. In their defence, the liberals say that to affirm something does not imply that something else is condemned or forbidden. They point out that the FEB rules/doctrines affirm monogamous heterosexual marriage, but the rules do not forbid other types of marriage.

The leadership of FEB replies that the exclusivity of heterosexual marriage has always been understood. The progressives reply to the effect, well, we now know things that people did not know before; now that same-sex marriage is legal in Canada, it is not the case that anyone reading the rules will assume that the rules forbid same-sex marriage; and, if you read the rules, they do not forbid same-sex marriage.

Now, let us be clear. This is not devious liberals finding a loophole. This is how thinking works, especially when there is a large, broad, powerful intellectual and cultural movement which now thinks differently than people did 50 years ago.

What could the FEB do? One thing is very clear, keeping the status quo will not work. If the FEB does nothing, then everyone can validly say that the FEB now allows same-sex marriages. In fact, if they do nothing, it will mean that they now accept the notion that different beliefs about marriage are valid, and are in fact just second or third-order issues, matters true Christians can disagree with each other over, like whether to sing hymns or praise songs.

We know that if this hypothetical situation ever developed, the FEB will deal with it as quickly as they can given their by-laws. Because they see themselves as being a biblically faithful, orthodox church, they will develop new denominational rules. They will amend their rules to make clear what the Bible and the Gospel teach and require, and it will clearly forbid what needed to be forbidden.

The FEB would view this as a first-order issue. After they had changed their rules/doctrine, they would go to those who dissent and call them to repentance and amendment of life, and if this, tragically, is refused, then I am sure the FEB would remove those churches and pastors who do not affirm the central, biblical, orthodox teaching on marriage and sexuality.

What the Anglican Church of Canada did

My FEB example makes clear what has really happened with the Anglican Church of Canada. The forces of orthodoxy in the ACoC won a battle, but the most important thing about that Synod is that it is now very clear that the “war” is over, they are no longer orthodox and cannot become orthodox.

First some background. The ACoC had its triennial General Synod July 10-16 in Vancouver. Let me translate this for non-Anglicans. A “Synod” is a duly called authoritative meeting of Bishops, clergy and laity that can make authoritative decisions. A “General Synod” is the national synod that can make decisions affecting the whole church. It happens every three years.

To change the national “Canons” (think by-laws on steroids), requires that the proposed change gets approved by a minimum two-thirds majority in each “house” in two successive synods. In other words, two thirds or more of all Bishops, clergy, and laity vote in favour of the change.

At their meeting in 2016, the General Synod of the ACoC passed changes to the Canons that removed the heterosexual language of the Marriage Canon. In 2019, an overwhelming majority of the laity and clergy voted for the changes. But in the house of Bishops, they came two votes shy of passing the two-thirds mark. So the change failed. By the way, the courage of those who argued for the biblical teaching on marriage should be noted and applauded.

In 2016 the Chancellor of the ACoC made clear that just because something is affirmed does not mean that alternatives are rejected. He pointed out that there is nothing in the current Canons that forbids same-sex marriage. He said the same thing this year.

The General Synod then overwhelmingly passed a series of affirmations which made clear that it agrees with the Chancellor’s ruling. Listen to this, “We affirm that, while there are different understandings of the existing Marriage Canon, those bishops and synods who have authorized liturgies for the blessing of a marriage between two people of the same sex understand that the existing Canon does not prohibit same-sex marriage.” The House of Bishops made a similar statement.

It gets worse. The Synod overwhelmingly passed “Affirmations” that say that both views on marriage are held “with prayerful integrity;” that all sides on this issue hold their convictions “in good faith” and that “we hold dear their continued presence in this church;” and that “we affirm our commitment to walk together and preserve communion.” In other words, different views on marriage are at best a third-order issue.

This means that biblical orthodoxy has lost the war. To make the Canons clearly biblical, the ACoC will have to change the Canons to add something to the effect that they reject same-sex marriage as biblical and that this is a first-order issue. This is not possible.

It is a little known fact that 85% of Canada lives in a Diocese (Anglican speak for “region”) that is in favour of same-sex marriage – and actively supports Gay Pride parades. Only 2.5% of Canadians live in a Diocese that has both affirmed that the Bible teaches monogamous heterosexual marriage and that it rejects same-sex marriage. There is no way for the 2.5% to get over two-thirds of the votes in each house for two consecutive synods.

What is more, if you go online and read the different resolutions that were passed, you will not see an orthodox church in action. They deleted a prayer from their official Prayer Book which involved praying for the conversion of Jewish people and replaced it with a prayer that could have been written by a Unitarian. They affirmed and encouraged the programmatic use of The Arusha Call to discipleship from the World Council of Churches. They expressed gratitude for the Muslim document “A Common Word Between Us and You; ”directed that it become a signatory to the document; and encouraged Christian-Muslim engagement to be based on the document.

I was not at this General Synod, but if it was at all like the ones I have attended as an observer, you would have also heard the Holy Spirit regularly referred to as “she,” and a very careful removal of all male pronouns for God. I could go on. For over 22 years I was an ordained minister in the ACoC. I could truly say that while their practice was often not orthodox, at the official level of doctrine they were orthodox, and I could affirm its doctrine in good conscience, and so remain. This option is clearly not available any longer for 97.5% of the ACoC, and maybe for all 100%.

The Bible is very clear. Jesus is very clear. All sexual knowing and stimulation are reserved for those in the holy estate of the matrimony between one man and one woman. All people outside of marriage are to live a celibate life. Sexual knowing and stimulation outside of the covenant of heterosexual marriage is sin. This is so deeply and clearly taught in the Bible, and so clearly taught that it is important on many levels, that it is a first-order issue. A church which says otherwise is not a biblically faithful, orthodox church.

The local chandelier option

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From here:

A British woman says she has several love interests, but none of them can hold a candle to Lumiere — a 91-year-old chandelier she plans to marry, according to a report.

Normally this would not be of much interest on an Anglican blog but, since the passing of resolution A101 at General Synod, our bishops have made it reasonably clear that if the canons do not explicitly prohibit a particular form of marriage, then a diocesan bishop is at liberty to concoct “authorized liturgies for the solemnization of”  said marriage.

Emigrate to Canada Amanda Liberty, I’m sure you will be able to find a bishop to have you matrimonially swinging from your chandelier in no time.