The Diocese of Niagara’s web site has a pointer to a petition imploring the government of Canada to reverse its decision to cut funding for KAIROS.
I don’t think online petitions achieve much, but in the spirit of diversity, I put up my own petition applauding the cutting off of funds to KAIROS.
But only one, and it has a capital “S”. Here is Archdeacon Michael Patterson to explain:
The idea that poverty – and little else – is a “Sin” is attractive to liberal Anglicans because one bears no direct personal responsibility for it, and thus its remedy is in the hands of government not the individual.
The Diocese of Niagara and ANiC have come to a new “sharing” agreement for the three ANiC parishes that were taken to court by the diocese in 2008: the diocese gets exclusive use of St. George’s and ANiC gets exclusive use of St. Hilda’s and Good Shepherd until the building ownership is finally settled. And the diocese has to start paying its bills – finally, maybe…. the cheque’s in the mail.
The court ruling of May 2008 stated that ANiC and the Diocese of Niagara had to share the three buildings; each had a timeslot to conduct a service. The diocese advertised healing and rebuilding services:
We are grateful and give thanks that Anglican Church of Canada, Diocese of Niagara, services will resume at the parish churches of St. George’s, Lowville, St. Hilda’s, Oakville, and The Church of the Good Shepherd, St. Catharines.
“These are services of healing and rebuilding and we hope will be attended by returning and continuing parishioners.” We hope that all who wish to worship in an Anglican Church of Canada, Diocese of Niagara service will feel welcome.
There wasn’t much healing or rebuilding since there was no congregation at all at St. Hilda’s, a very small congregation in Good Shepherd – which was non-viable in the opinion of its priest in charge – and a small congregation in St. George’s.
It seems that the diocese has abandoned the fantasy of rebuilding congregations in Oakville and St. Catherines; unfortunately the diocesan leadership has not abandoned its intention of seizing the buildings:
We are now anticipating moving this legal case forward here in Niagara and to have this matter settled so that we may continue in our mission and ministry.
If the diocese eventually wins the battle over the ANiC buildings, the mission and ministry will primarily involve bulldozers, since the properties will be sold to provide cash to bolster a financially troubled diocese, pay the expensive diocesan lawyers and keep the diocesan leadership employed.
Here is the argument for blessing same-sex unions as stated by Charles Stirling in the Niagara Anglican; it is fairly representative of the view espoused by the DoN:
Gay and lesbian people are not mistakes of God, to be loved and honoured by congregations who deny them of the sexual gifts and rights of their creation. Make no mistake, it is a matter of natural desire and not an acquired taste or habit. Sex is the natural expectation of all creatures, who come to develop and find a need for each other. Homosexuality is evident in animals, although it may usually miss our observation, and fortunately we don’t have folk chasing them down to prevent it. Fundamentally it is a matter of human rights, as we seek to improve these rights for all people, as they come to us in faith, as whole people of God.
Unstated in Stirling’s reasoning is the assumption that God’s creation has not been corrupted by Satan and mankind’s fall; thus we find, “Gay and lesbian people are not mistakes of God, to be loved and honoured by congregations who deny them of the sexual gifts and rights of their creation.” By liberal lights, if a human trait exists, God must have made it and all who are endowed with it can indulge the appetites it engenders while the church celebrates and blesses them. Animals do it, it must be natural, God must have made nature that way. It doesn’t seem to phase Stirling that the same argument could be applied to pederasty to equal effect.
Alternatively, if, as the bible tells us, the Fall has infected every aspect of creation so that it is no longer entirely in line with God’s intentions, it should come as no surprise that our sexuality has also become corrupted. Homosexual activity is explicitly forbidden in the bible and the desire to indulge homosexual inclinations is a result of the Fall, not of God’s planning.
To sum up the Stirling point of view: if you feel like doing something strongly enough you must have been made that way by God, so you should be allowed to do it; if animals do it too, that clinches the matter.
In the quest for enlightenment on guiding their flock along the path of moral purity, I suggest the bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada take a trip to the zoo. The last time I was there, I noticed some people admiring a gorilla; the gorilla reciprocated by attempting to urinate on them. As Charles Stirling would note, since this type of behaviour is evident in animals, it must be a fundamental human right.
In C. S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce, a clergyman in Hell wanders in circles muttering banalities to an audience that does not exist. In this life, the Niagara Anglican is a training ground for such a perpetuity of solipsism. The Rev. Ian Dingwall is an acolyte in the peddling of meaningless drivel masquerading as Christianity; the medium is the Niagara Anglican paper, the audience is almost all gone and the message is a swirling feculence making its way down the plug-hole of eternity:
Hospitality is the main business of the Church wherever it is. And that is so because it is the chief work of God. God is the Host of the Universe and God’s family encompasses all of life: human, animal, environment, the whole of Creation.
We are not a factory whose goal is to “Make Christians” and stamp them with the mark of Religion or Church. It is to welcome all people as Guests who deserve the best hospitality we can offer. Inclusive of all: no fences or walls or barriers of separation. All this is because God is the Great Host of the Universe and we are all one in his Home of Hospitality.
Andy Kalbfleisch from the Diocese of Niagara’s mission strategy committee is pretending that buildings aren’t important:
The status quo is no longer good enough. How many times have we heard or read that phrase? Perhaps so often that it is now a snoozer. If it has become that, then it is indeed time to wake up and move out of our comfort zones and look at things with new eyes and hear them with new ears.
Did you know that in September 2009 the Hamilton Meeting Houses had an average attendance of 843 per Sunday— Ancaster with 565 and East Mountain 278? How many of our ‘real’ churches can boast this level of attendance? Wake up folks it’s not about the building. The status quo is no longer good enough.
I’ve got news for you Andy; have a little chat with your bishop, Michael Bird and see how important buildings are to him. Try and convince him to give the 4 ANiC parishes the buildings they paid for, worship in and use for ministry. Good luck.
Some friends were at a meeting in Oakville that included local churches from all denominations. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss how better to help the poor in Oakville – astonishing as it may seem, there are poor people in Oakville. A member of an evangelical church opined that we should not just be feeding people, but sharing the gospel of Christ with them, that he is way, the truth, the life and the only way to the Father. Whereupon the representative of Oakville’s Diocese of Niagara posh Anglican parish stood up and said: “we don’t believe that; we believe there are many ways to God”. I know this is as surprising as saying the sun rises in the east, but the evangelical church representative was a little taken aback.
After my friend identified her church as “St. Hilda’s ANiC”, Rev Cheryl Fricker – the once diocesan priest-in-charge at St. Hilda’s – planted herself firmly in front of my friend displaying a ghastly smile; she didn’t have “we won” written in indelible marker on each of her teeth, but she might as well have.
As the DoN website says:
In Vancouver, the Supreme Court of British Columbia has ruled against four parishes who have broken away from the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster and had filed suit seeking to keep the church buildings. The four are part of a wider radical group, including four parishes in Niagara, who left the Anglican Church of Canada. This is very good news.
We are now anticipating moving this legal case forward here in Niagara and to have this matter settled so that we may continue in our mission and ministry.
I can almost hear Michael Bird purring.
The Diocese of Niagara had its synod on Friday and Saturday; the budget was contentious – so contentious that it was not passed and is no longer on the diocesan web site.
The budget called for a 32% cut to St. Matthews House and a 33% cut to campus ministry. Apparently, “there is no money in the budget beyond salaries. In 6 weeks a third of our total revenue will disappear. We will not be able to pay salaries in 6 weeks.” Note: I have had some clarification of this statement from someone who was at synod and the “salaries” that are being referred to are those of the people working on the university campus, not of people working for the diocese itself; I am cancelling the party and putting the champagne away – for the moment.
The budget was sent back to the budget finance subcommittee and a synod will be held no later than March 31st 2010 to vote on the new budget; assuming the budget finance committee is still employed at that point. I am reassured to see that Michael Bird has not volunteered a cut to his $105k per year salary; after all, you have to pay if you want the best.
As Bishop Michael Bird pointed out, this is called “Living the Vision” (he really did – look near the bottom here).
Contains this:
On September 1st of this year we took one of those important steps on the long road that we have travelled in dealing with issues of human sexuality and I am grateful to all those who have seen that journey through to this important moment in the life of our Diocese. At the same time, I am grateful to those among us who are in disagreement over the issue of same-sex blessings but continue to honour our communion in the Lord Jesus Christ and remain within the diocesan household.
Which would be somewhat more accurate if the last sentence read:
At the same time, I am grateful to those among us who are in disagreement over the issue of same-sex blessings, keep quiet about it and continue to honour our communion in the Lord Jesus Christ and remain within the diocesan household.
As it is, a priest who audibly voices objections to Michael Bird’s schemes for elevating homosexual activity to the status of something that can be blessed in an Anglican Church, is first made to feel persona non grata and is eventually driven out of the diocese.
And then we have:
During my first week in the role as your Bishop, in the midst of court proceedings, media scrums and intense and momentous decisions that needed to be made, my one regret was that I hadn’t had more experience in the job before we were faced with these challenges.
This tears at the heartstrings – or it would if it hadn’t been Bird that instigated the court proceedings by suing ANiC parishes to “share” their buildings so as to house diocesan congregations that don’t exist.
Well, almost. He is organising an event that, according to Rick Jones, will resonate down through the ages – no, he is not playing his bagpipes – and cause our grandchildren to say “where were you when the Diocese of Niagara had its 135th Synod”:
It was 40 years ago this year that Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon, and I was watching on a black and white TV in my parent’s home. The world changed and would never be the same. When I heard about 911 I was on my way to a clericus meeting. One of our clergy had a son who worked right beside the towers, and we waited and prayed together until she got word her son was okay; he had joined the hundreds walking away from the disaster. Many mother’s lives changed forever that day, just as the world changed and will never be the same. Last summer I had the privilege of watching my granddaughter learn to ride her bike at the cottage. Her inner and outer world changed and expanded, and will never be the same. On Saturday November 21, at the Hamilton Convention Centre, I plan to be there, with so many others who love our Church, to see the Spirit change us forever. Will you be there?
I notice that one of the speakers is Gary Nicolosi, chair of the Diocese of BC Parish Termination Squad Diocesan Congregational Development Team, so it really could end up being more interesting than the normal day of unrelenting synod monotony.
