Category Archives: Canadian Council of Churches

Canadian Council of Churches publishes a Federal Election Resource

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The Canadian Council of Churches, of which the Anglican Church of Canada is a member, has published a resource to gently guide church members to vote for the right party in the forthcoming elections. Make that the left party. Actually, there is no major Canadian party that is far enough to the left to satisfy the nudging of this resource.

For example, to deal with ISIS, what is needed, we are told, is less military intervention and more diplomatic effort; after all, ISIS has responded to diplomacy so positively in the past:

Informed by deeply rooted beliefs in the sanctity of human life and dignity, the need to protect vulnerable people from atrocities, and concerned about the ineffectiveness of international military interventions in the region in the past, church leaders have urged the Prime Minister to strengthen diplomatic efforts, increase further humanitarian assistance, provide robust support for refugees, support civil society organizations, reduce the flow of arms and focus on the protection of the rule of law and respect for human rights.

It goes without saying that the “deeply rooted beliefs in the sanctity of human life” do not run deeply enough to recognise the sanctity of human life in the womb: there is no mention of that anywhere in the document.

Cracking Open White Identity towards Transformation: Canadian Ecumenical Anti-Racism Network Examines White Identity, Power and Privilege

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That’s the catchy little title of a new book published by the Canadian Council of Churches, whose president is – white. When the CCC’s Executive Committee is not busy Cracking Open the White Identity of its leader, it devotes its energies to social justice, climate change, wealth poverty and ecology, and ushering in a new world. Not a brave new world – really.

The contributors to the book have discovered that the church’s real problem is its “failure to address white power and privilege”. The Anglican Church of Canada is a member of the CCC and, funnily enough, all the ACoC’s bishops are – white! Perhaps the CCC is on to something: I’m eagerly awaiting the mass resignation of all ACoC bishops and their replacement by African bishops..

From here:

In his afterword, the United Church of Canada’s Michael Blair, who is of black Jamaican descent, argues that failure to address white power and privilege threatens the very core of the Christian church. “…I would say the very essence of what it means to be church is at stake…The traditional marks of the church—one holy, catholic and apostolic—are challenged,” Blair writes.

The example of Christ must always remain at the heart of the church’s work. “Certainly the model of the ministry of Jesus was the dismantling of systems of power and privilege—particularly within the context of institutionalized religion,” Blair writes.