Category Archives: Diocese of New Westminster

Open Letter to Archbishop Melissa Skelton

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From Dr. Priscilla Turner:

 Whitsuntide 2019.

Your Grace,

An Open Letter

Thank you for your recent letter asking me as a member of the Order of the Diocese of New Westminster to support your ministry with money.

Firstly, I commend you for your policy of permitting no same-sex ‘marriages’ to be solemnised in the Diocese of New Westminster until the Marriage Canon is changed to make this legal.

Secondly, we need to be fully aware that if the bizarre notion that people of the same sex can be married becomes embodied in a change to the Marriage Canon in our denomination, the ACoC will have departed not just from reason but from the Church Catholic. The cause will be complex, but will certainly include the fact that a majority both clerical and lay have voted out of a profound philosophical, theological and biblical naivety. People will vote at General Synod this summer, other things being equal, who believe some or all of the following falsehoods: That the Holy Scriptures are ambiguous about same-sex physical intimacy; that we may not know what were the convictions and practice of the Lord Jesus; that the phe­nomenon was different in the ancient world; that the behaviour of those with same-sex leanings is genet­ically pre-determined; that Christian love requires us to ‘bless’ same-sex ‘unions’; that people of the same sex can consummate sexually; and that all love may legitimately find an intimate physical ex­pression. As I wrote in my Brief to the national Commission: “It is important to note that none of these positions is held by serious biblical and theological professionals: for instance, even those very few scholars who hold that the Scriptures are mistaken facknowledge that they are wholly adverse to same-sex practice. For none of these positions has the case ever been made outside advocacy scholarship, for the very sound reason that such a case cannot be made, and the most positive thing that may be said of such views is that they are less than informed. That busy bishops and other leaders unequipped with the tools of the trade have not tested them is venial. What is less excusable is that our Church has not until now asked any of the tiny handful who are so equipped to contribute.” I am one of that tiny handful world­wide who are so equipped.

In the little window of opportunity which remains, all thinking and prayerful Anglicans will I pray avail themselves, both for themselves and for those who vote, of some/all items in this basic information kit:–

  1. https://www.amazon.ca/Bible-Homosexual-Practice-Texts-Hermeneutics-ebook/dp/B0071OSK6O
  2. https://www.amazon.ca/Homosexuality-Bible-Dan-Via/dp/080063618X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
  3. https://www.amazon.ca/Holy-Homosex-Priscilla-D-M-Turner/dp/1482347865
  4. https://www.amazon.ca/Love-How-Deep-Three-Souls/dp/1775106225/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1331946835&sr=8-2
  5. There is at least one highly relevant sermon in this volume: https://www.amazon.ca/We-Believe-Understanding-Nicene-Creed/dp/1775106233/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=we+believe+nicene&qid=1552265227&s=gateway&sr=8-1

And pray.

In the first magisterial book I am quoted; of the other four I am a contributor/editor/part-author/author. I own the copyright of items 3, 4 and 5. David Jenkins has done a lovely job of hosting the text of these three books. You may read and download freely, and print out for yourself from here: https://www.anglicansamizdat.net/wordpress/dr-priscilla-turner/ . One can obtain paper in a 6 x 9 in. size which will work perfectly.

O Love How Deep, the second illustrated edition, exists in several formats now for purchase as follows:–
ISBN: 978-1-7751062-2-7 (sc)
ISBN: 978‐1‐7751062‐0‐3 (sc)
ISBN: 978‐1‐7751062‐1‐0 (hc)
ISBN: 978‐1‐77084‐994‐5 (e)
Apart from having illustrations, some minor slips of fact and presentation are corrected, some notes are added; in addition I no longer see the need for certain of the original fictionalisations, so names of famous schools, Oxbridge colleges, big churches and the like are defictionalised. For a list of the main surviving fictionalisations please apply to me. They are for the protection of a number of people living and dead.

The remaining titles are for sale in one format only.

These files may be distributed freely. I’m not concerned with making money from my writing.

Relevant short papers are:–

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/your-neighbour-yourself-luke-1027-dr-priscilla-turner-1/

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141124013550-135532881-the-sheep-and-the-goats-who-are-they/

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rom-1-dr-priscilla-turner/

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rom-12-dr-priscilla-turner/

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mt-527-32-dr-priscilla-turner/

I have been a member of this Diocese since 1971, serving frequently on Parish Council, and as Synod Delegate or Alternate, as part of Canonical Committees, and I was sent to represent my Parish on suc­cessive Advisory Committees as part of the Canonical process. I trust that in future I may be able to assist your ministry with money; but that will happen only if one of two conditions are fulfilled: if the vote at this summer’s General Synod is adverse to the proposed change to the Marriage Canon, and you will respect that within your own jurisdiction; or if your own vote was adverse to it however it goes. I recogn­ise that the latter choice will mean changing your own thinking. John Henry Newman spoke a wise word when he said “To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.”

Yours respectfully,

Priscilla Turner

Dr. P.D.M. Turner [B.A., M.A. Cantab., M.A., D.Phil. Oxon., O.D.N.W.]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-priscilla-turner-46948139

http://PriscillaTurner.imagekind.com

Cc:   His Grace the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury
Members of the Canadian House of Bishops
The Anglican Communion Alliance
The Anglican Church in North America
The Global Anglican Future Conference
The Revd. Dr. J.I. Packer
The Revd. Mr. George Eves
The Revd. Mr. Craig Tanksley
The Rector and Wardens, Holy Trinity Vancouver
The Revd. Mr. David Kellett

Church sign vandalised

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In the Diocese of New Westminster, vandals changed St. Alban’s church sign to read “BE GAY AND HORNY”.

There isn’t anything particularly surprising or shocking about this: by today’s standards of ubiquitous scatological, profane and four-letter obscenities that pepper much of what passes for speech today, it is positively benign.

St. Alban’s blesses same sex marriage and has had a lesbian priest, so the sign is not out of character for the church. Indeed, it qualifies as a suitable epitaph to be inscribed on the tombstone of the Anglican Church of Canada once it has fully expired.

The diocesan communications officer, Randy Murry, seems to approve of the sentiment; he expressed admiration for the sign’s “pithiness”.

I’ll leave to your imagination the reaction we would have seen if the scrabble addict had added another word and the sign had read: “DON’T BE GAY AND HORNY”. No I won’t. At the urging of the bishop, the diocesan communications officer would be lamenting the presence of a homophobic bully in the neighbourhood and report the incident as a hate crime.

From here:

A church sign in Richmond that read “be gay and horny” last weekend got community members laughing after someone broke in and rearranged the letters.

The sign, at St. Alban Anglican Church near Granville Ave. and No. 3 Road, was broken into sometime on Friday night and the cheeky message was there for all to see on Saturday morning.

“Oh my god, it was so funny,” said Dina Morgan, who drove by the sign while dropping her kids off at the SkyTrain station.

“The minute my little one, who is gay, said it, (they) started squealing in the back seat.”

Morgan’s kids made her stop and take a picture on the way home, and the image made rounds on social media over the weekend.

Randy Murray, communications officer with the Diocese of New Westminster, said the sign casing was locked, but someone was able to break in.

The prankster switched the letters around, and took out the extra ones. The missing letters have not been returned.

“You’ve got to admire its pithiness,” Murray said of the message.

St. Alban’s previously had an openly gay female minister, and blesses marriage ceremonies between same-sex couples. It’s now changed its sign back to display the regular Holy Week message.

Anglican priest jailed for pipeline protest

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The Diocese of New Westminster’s Rev. Emilie Smith was sentenced to seven days in jail for blocking the road to Trans Mountain’s Westridge Marine Terminal.

In contrast, Linda Gibbons was arrested not for blocking access to an abortion clinic but for standing on the sidewalk, a crime for which she has spent over seven years in jail. I know where my sympathies lie.

From here:

A New Westminster priest is one of the latest anti-pipeline protesters to be sentenced to seven days in jail for violating a court injunction banning protesters from blocking access to Trans Mountain facilities.

Emilie Smith, a parish priest at St. Barnabas Anglican Church, is headed to the Alouette Women’s Correctional Centre in Maple Ridge for seven consecutive days after being sentenced in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver Wednesday morning.

She and former Mennonite pastor Steve Heinrichs, originally from Burnaby, were arrested at Trans Mountain’s Westridge Marine Terminal on April 20 after blocking the road into the facility and refusing to leave when asked by police.

“This is a way we are called to live out the reconciliation, is in standing with the Tsleil-Waututh and others to defend this holy land,” she told the Record before her arrest. “I think our faith teaches us that we’re not supposed to just say nice things to each other, we’re supposed to live out our faith in our bodies … we believe in taking action.”

Smith’s other major contribution in the fight for justice, equality, diversity, nightmare utopianism, and hallucinogenic alphabet soup rainbow inclusion comes in the shape of a sign telling people not to litter on church property. More specifically, not to drop their crap there. It must be legitimate because it is signed by God.

Anglican Queerest and Dearest Family Camp

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No, I didn’t make that up, it’s a Diocese of New Westminster family camp for sexual minorities where the chapel services will have a strong focus on queer and trans theologies and our lives as queer and trans Christians. 

Enrol now before it fills up.

More here:

Queerest and Dearest is being sponsored by the Diocesan Youth Movement in the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster and specifically being organized by a diverse group of volunteers, which includes queer parents, straight parents of queer kids, queer adults without children, trans and cisgender parents, trans youth, cisgender queer youth, people of colour and white people, settlers and indigenous folks. We are mostly Anglicans, with one Lutheran amongst us. A number of us are involved in children, youth and family ministry, and a number of us have experience leading queer- and trans-focused camps as well as camps without this focus.

Massive turnout for Diocese of New Westminster’s reconciliation walk

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The Anglican Church of Canada, having largely abandoned the idea that Jesus was the propitiation for our sins by taking the punishment we deserve on himself, has no way to shed its liberal Anglo-Saxon guilt other than by participating in vacuous gestures, preferably befogged by clouds of smudging fumes.

Hence, to rid itself of its ancestors’ sins, the diocese is Walking in the Spirit of Reconciliation:Oops, wrong photo, that was the March for Life.

Here is the Walk in the Spirit of Reconciliation:

Anglican clergywoman chains herself to a tree

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It’s all part of protecting the planet from the Kinder Morgan pipeline, which, for Anglicans these days, supposedly signifies a deep Christian faith.

If only Anglican clergy could bring themselves to expend as much energy protecting the future inhabitants of the planet they feel is in such dire peril: unborn babies, 100,000 of whom will be killed in 2018.

From here:

A priest and her parishioner were arrested on Burnaby mountain after they chained themselves to a tree outside the Trans Mountain terminal Friday morning, according to Burnaby RCMP.

The two women began their protest around 7:30 a.m. They were identified by a friend as Rev. Laurel Dykstra and Lini Hutchings, both members of Salal and Cedar, an Anglican church part of the Diocese of New Westminster. Around the same time, a group of protesters from Protect the Inlet began blocking trucks from leaving Kinder Morgan’s Westridge marine terminal in North Burnaby. Some thirty people had gathered on site that morning. Burnaby RCMP arrived at both locations around 8:30 a.m.

[….]

Rev. Emelie Smith, the parish priest at St. Barnabas Anglican Church in New Westminster, said the two women were protesting because of their religious beliefs.

“I think it’s an act of faith. I think people should know they are doing this out of their deep Christian faith and need to protect the planet,” she said.

Rev Dykstra is bisexual, participates in the Vancouver Pride parade, thinks drag queens should be invited to speak to school children, and enjoys chaining herself to trees in her spare time.

St. John’s Shaughnessy, Imposters

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When the Diocese of New Westminster ejected the thriving congregation of St. John’s Shaughnessy, it lost a source of income.

Consequently, St. John’s Shaughnessy has been costing the diocese of New Westminster around $20,000 per month to stay afloat. It’s so empty that its own staff have declared that it resembles a mausoleum.

As a result, it has had to resort to unusual measures to fill its coffers.

Since the building was hijacked by the diocese, populated with a pretend congregation and the whole enterprise belongs to the Anglican Church of Canada, an organisation devoted to imitating a Christian denomination, what more fitting way to raise some cash than rent the church to a TV production crew making a TV series called “Imposters”?

Here is a clip where one of the villains is marching through the church for “the money grab”. Just like the offering at a Sunday service:

 

And here is a clip with the church van being used as a getaway vehicle:

 

I thought the rector was very realistic.

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.

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.

Killing me softly at St. John’s Shaughnessy

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Unlike ACNA, the Anglican Church of Canada has not taken a position on euthanasia, preferring instead to waffle extensively on the subject.

To that end, St. John’s Shaughnessy sponsored a meeting with two doctors who euthanise their patients – only upon request, we are assured –  to further their indecision about whether it is better to kill the aged or take care of them.

The choice of venue holds some irony, since St. John’s is the parish that, having kicked out an active ANiC congregation, was likened by the imported congregation to a mausoleum and is itself crying out to be euthanised – if only someone would listen.

It still amazes me that euthanasia doctors constantly assure us that the process is dignified, painless, and relatively inexpensive, yet, when it comes to executing convicted murderers, we have nothing but problems and disturbing signs of distress. Hasn’t it occurred to prison authorities that the medical profession is awash with doctors with all the experience needed to kill people with dignity?

From here:

Death With Dignity – British Columbia & Oregon

Two medical doctors shared with about 80 people gathered at the Synod Office conference room adjacent to St. John’s, Shaughnessy (SJS) February 27 their experiences of how they help people die in British Columbia and Oregon. The forum on Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) was sponsored by SJS, along with St. Philip’s, Dunbar and Christ Church Cathedral. A Death with Dignity program has been operating in Oregon for 19 years following a 1994 referendum. Court injunctions delayed implementation till 1997, at which point Oregon became the first state to let patients determine the time of their own death.
In British Columbia, the Medical Assistance in Dying program followed a 2015 decision of the Supreme Court of Canada, and has been in effect for the past eight months after federal legislation (Bill C-14) received Royal Assent on June 17 last year.Dr. Charles Blanke, a professor of medicine at the Knight Cancer Institute in Portland, talked about the similarities and differences between the Oregon and the British Columbia programs.

[….]
Dr. Blanke said people sometimes bring up the Hippocratic Oath because it specifically prohibited the administration of fatal poisons. He noted the ancient Greek oath also forbids abortions which are legal and accepted by many in both the US and Canada.