Here is a letter from Bishop Michael Bird to the Hon. Deb Matthews, June 2008:

Bishop Michael Bird, Anglican Diocese of Niagara

“In the short term, we realize that charity and compassion are essential when people are suffering and we will continue to respond to the needs of our neighbours. But for too long, faith and community groups , individuals, volunteers and social service agencies and ministries have carried a disproportionate load in meeting the needs of individuals at the local community level . . .
We recognize that we all have a role to play to reduce poverty, however, only government can accomplish the structural change to law, programs and policies that are essential for a successful poverty reduction strategy. Only government can re- allocate the resources of society more equitably through its regulatory and taxing powers and increase its funding of social programs.

Please hear our communities call for social justice.”

There you have it: the Diocese of Niagara’s plan to reduce poverty is government enforced wealth redistribution. Hasn’t that been tried before?  Oh yes:

A recent agreement between the Diocese of Niagara and three of the Niagara parishes that chose to leave the diocese and align with the Southern Cone, gives two of the ANiC parishes exclusive use of their buildings for up to two years and the diocese exclusive use of St. George’s for up to two years – or until the property dispute is legally settled.

After one gruesome Sunday when the diocese brought in faux-congregations to each parish, an interim court ruling in February 2008 gave the ANiC parishioners full use of their buildings. Since the parishioners had such a strong disagreement with the diocese, the judge ruled that it was unreasonable to expect the parishes to share the building.

A court ruling in May 2008 overturned the temporary ruling and gave the diocese use of the buildings between 7:00 am and 10:00 am on Sundays and ANiC the use of the buildings for the rest of the day. Taking into consideration the first disastrous attempt at sharing the buildings and the fact that service times overlapped with the diocese, the parishioners who voted to realign – a large majority for each parish – decided to find other accommodations for their Sunday morning worship. In effect, most of the parishioners were ejected from their buildings on Sunday morning.

The diocese quickly discovered that two of the parishes had non-viable congregations; the third, St. George’s had a small congregation. Whether it will be viable in the long run seems doubtful, since the Diocese of BC has concluded that it is not financially feasible to keep parishes with less than 150 people open. There is little reason to suppose Niagara will be different, but the diocese is determined to put on a show, and Rev. Susan Wells is part of that show. Here is her version of events:

Since February 2008, the parishioners of St. George’s, Lowville have felt like they have been in a state of chaos, much like the people of Israel did when they were wandering in the desert. In fact, after a service on February 24, 2008, presided over by our Bishop Michael, the parish was exiled.

We lost all access to our church. For the next several months, we held services first in an old school house with no running water and then, thanks to the generosity of the good people of Lowville United Church, were able to hold our services in their church.

Then, in May of 2008, a court ruling allowed us back into our church but only for 10 hours a week.

Although, it was great to be back, you can probably imagine how difficult it was to do the work of a parish and maintain the building in only ten hours a week. (The other people, who had chosen to leave the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC), had control of the building the rest of the time but, for whatever reason, chose not to use the building.) It was discouraging and disheartening to watch this building, built to the glory of God and for the extension of God’s Kingdom here on earth, sit empty. We often felt like we were betraying our 152 year ancestry of serving Christ in our community. That being said, members of the parish continue to be actively involved in ministry in the prison, nursing homes, the hospital and helping with other projects, including the “Walk to Bethlehem”, sponsored by the Milton Area Christian Churches Working Together (MACCWT).

At several levels, our journey felt like we were wandering in the desert, trying to come to terms with what all this meant. Why did friends choose to leave the church (and us), rather than to continue to seek a place within it? Why were we exiled from the building our ancestors built? These past 2 years have given us a chance to deal with our sense of betrayal, desertion and confusion and have given us a chance to heal, to seek Christ in our new situation and to begin to discern what God’s mission is for us. We are “Striving to Service Christ.”

Finally at an arbitration meeting held on December 7, between the Wardens of those who chose to leave the ACC and the Diocese, an agreement was reached changing the way the time in the parishes was allocated and setting down criteria by which expenses would be shared. For St. George’s, this meant that we were granted, full use of our Church building for two years or until the ownership of the building is ultimately determined, whichever comes first and given the recent ruling in BC, there is a possibility that this will be a permanent situation.

It is worth noting the chronology of early events in the parishes that voted to join ANiC:

The vote occurred on Sunday February 17^th, 2008

Monday was a holiday.

Tuesday, the diocesan representatives appeared on the doorstep of the parishes to collect the building keys. The parish’s bank accounts were frozen. Papers were delivered to the parishes demanding that the corporations appear in court the following Friday – clearly these had been prepared well in advance.

Wednesday. In order buy time to prepare for the legal onslaught, the ANiC parishes agreed to share the buildings on the following Sunday.

Friday February 29^th was the first court appearance when the sharing arrangement was thrown out by the judge (to be re-instated in May).

The Diocese of Niagara acted in a planned, draconian and malicious way; I believe its true intent has always been to destroy the ANiC parishes.

The diocesan administrators have taken Christians to court to gain ownership of buildings for which they have absolutely no use; they have lied in their affidavits, not paid court mandated costs, attempted to seize the personal assets of wardens, tried to seize a rector’s home and lied to their own parishioners by telling them that ANiC instigated the court proceedings.

So Rev. Susan Wells, neither you nor the diocese that employs you is a victim: the panjandrums whose dirty work you carry out are unrepentantly aggressive, rancorous, vindictive and devious.

Like other Anglican Church of Canada dioceses, the Diocese of Niagara is in financial difficulty. Not only are numbers dwindling in its parishes, but whole parishes are departing for ANiC (5 so far), the diocese has to pay close to $400,000 in legal fees for suing departed parishes and now, finally, has to come up with back payments (around $54,000) for its invasion of ANiC parish buildings during the last 2 years.

It isn’t surprising, then, that Bishop Michael Bird is scrounging for cash: he has asked parishes that have not managed to pay their diocesan assessment to take out a line of credit loan – so that the diocese doesn’t have to – to pay their assessment. Since, contrary to common sense, ethical fairness and Christian compassion, Bird has always claimed ownership of the ANiC parishes buildings, he cannot be expecting parishes to use their buildings as security for the lines of credit. In the lawsuits against ANiC, Bird has attempted to lay claim to wardens’ personal assets, so he probably expects corporations to use their personal assets to secure the loans.

Anglican wardens in the Diocese of Niagara are scrambling to transfer all personal property to close relatives and there has been a run on replacement front-door locks.

Rev. Vicky Hedelius and Rev. St. Clair Cleveland of Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Hamilton announced to their congregation last Sunday that they will be leaving the Diocese of Niagara to join ANiC; they will be starting services in St. John’s United (an evangelical church) this coming Sunday. Two thirds of the congregation has gone with them. They turned in their licenses on Monday morning and were immediately received by Bishop Don Harvey.

Thank you both for having the integrity and guts to stand up for the Gospel.

Living the vision in Niagara.

One comes across interesting snippets when browsing old newspapers. The following is taken from the Qu’Appelle Didette, Thursday February 7^th, 1889:

The Ritualistic movement in the neighbouring Anglican diocese of Niagara has led to the formation of an association for adherence to evangelicalism. Hartley, Carmichael and several clergymen waited upon the Bishop of Niagara and declared the introduction of ritualistic practices to be repugnant to the majority of the members of the diocese.

It was a valiant effort by Hartley and Carmichael but it didn’t last: today in the Diocese of Niagara there is little left but “ritualistic practices”. “Adherence to evangelicalism” has all but been stamped out by the concerted efforts of Bothwell, Spence and Bird and the only thing that is repugnant to the diocese is the Gospel.

I came across a youtube curiosity this evening. It is a video of one of the Potemkin congregations that have occupied St. Hilda’s Anglican Church in Oakville over the last couple of years. These particular squatters and their kakistocrat, Martha Tatarnic were imported from St. Jude’s, Oakville. The video was taken in December 2008 shortly before Martha left for Orillia to share a church with some Lutherans. All the interlopers have also returned to their own parish now, along with their dreadful piano. I note the influence of Leni Riefenstahl in the camera work.

I don’t normally pick on individual Anglican parishes however severe the temptation, but in the case of St. Aidan’s, Oakville I am going to make an exception because its rector, Cheryl Fricker, was one of four rectors who attempted to set up a Potemkin parish at St. Hilda’s by staging weekly sit-ins with some of her congregation – well, also because I feel like it.

St. Aidan’s newsletter, the Messenger is a wonderful example of the church as Social Club, a place where the petite bourgeoisie of one of the wealthiest towns in Canada can play-act at embracing those in need (in the nicest possible way), being a community hub and partnering with others. As the Messenger reveals, at St. Aidan’s one can find everything from the aesthetic in the grant-funded Arthouse, to the environmental in pious green sustainability advice, to pop psychology in the Self-Esteem Support Group.

One article in particular caught my attention: Reaching Out by Ann Wood. In the article, Anne extols the virtues of a welcoming church:

Then we added a picture. It shows the congregation heading into the church as the bell rings for the morning service. There we are, walking up the path and shortcutting across the lawn, families, couples, singles, older, teens, and small kids tossing the fall leaves. The Minister is holding the door open. “That’s us,” the picture says, “We’re going into our church, come on in!”

It sounds all very cosy and would by an entirely unremarkable description were it not for the fact that Ann Wood – whom I affectionately think of as Nora Batty – is the notorious Diocese of Niagara Bouncer who marched me out of St. Hilda’s on Easter Day in 2009. I think I might have to join the Self-Esteem Support Group.

As a peon in numerous large companies over the years, I have collected little sayings that served as comforting aphorisms while I drifted from one hegemony to the next. One referred to senior managers and it was, “same circus, different clowns” and another was to consider oneself a mushroom: we were kept in the dark and copious quantities of manure descended from above.

For the Diocese of Niagara, the parishioners are its mushrooms. The fact that diocesan leaders have largely abandoned Christianity for a concoction of Gaia worship, Unitarianism and pantheism is disguised by the well practised waffling evasion of its priests and bishop.

Almost as bad, is the fact that the average parishioner has no idea that diocesan assets accumulated through offerings are being used to pay lawyers to throw fellow Christians out of the buildings they paid for.

In this vein, the latest diocesan budget intones:

We have not projected any investment return for 2010 as we anticipate these funds will be required to finance our ongoing cashflow needs as well as having offset operating losses for 2007 and 2008, in addition to funding the expenses related to the breakaway parishes.

The only real expenses that relate to the “breakaway parishes” are the considerable sums charged by the diocese’s lawyer – over $320,000 so far. The actual amount is absent from the budget as is any explanation of where it is really coming from: Niagara parishioners, it is coming from your pockets. It’s time the mushrooms woke up.

For the most part, the Diocese of Niagara no longer believes the gospel: its priests don’t believe the creeds, that the bible is the inspired word of God, in the virgin birth, the substitutionary atonement of Christ or his physical resurrection. Unsurprisingly, Christians are fleeing the diocese.

The editor of the Niagara Anglican, Christopher Grabiec, ever intent on keeping a firm grip on his blinkers, does not see the obvious connection between a benighted theology and mass exodus. Instead, it is a time of testing, even a dark night of the soul.

The corrective action suggested by Mr. Grabiec is to more thoroughly abandon historic creeds and orthodox Christian beliefs (page 1):

It’s time to hang up our past prejudices and our insistence on things being the way they were. Christ, born among us, entered a world that was smug and sure of itself and its religious systems. He turned over their tables. Who is to say that our systems, our creeds, our beliefs as we understand them, are for all time? Our chosen bishop and spiritual leader has asked us to look at everything and to grow in Christ, pursing excellence as a community and as ministers of Christ in the world.

As the 4 Niagara ANiC parishes brace themselves for the next legal onslaught from a diocesan administration bent on exacting revenge for the affront of being told they have abandoned the Christian religion, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the predicament of Christopher Grabiec and his master is a contemporary exposition of Exodus 4:21.