Rev. Cheryl Fricker is the new ersatz-priest squatter at St. Hilda’s. She is inviting the congregation at St. Hilda’s to a Taize night at St. Aidan’s; she is the rector of St. Aidan’s and “priest in charge” (don’t ask, I have no idea what that means either) at St. Hilda’s.

Taize Night Prayer
St. Hilda, Oakville
The Parish of St. Hilda’s welcomes everyone to the Parish of St Aidan’s the third Friday of each month for a candlelit hour of prayer using the songs and prayers of Taize.

The only problem is, there is no diocesan St. Hilda’s congregation other than the unfortunate miscreants Cheryl drags with her to St. Hilda’s building from St. Aidan’s – and then back to sing Taize at St. Aidan’s. It’s a Niagara Greening extravaganza.

The diocese of Niagara now lists Rev. Sue-Ann Ward as “Diocesan Administrator” at St.Hilda’s, and Rev. Cheryl Fricker as the “Priest in Charge”.

One wonders at the antics that must go on in the diocesan St. Hilda’s service that warrant the restraining might of two clergy to keep it under control. After all, last Sunday, St. Hilda’s parking lot had 7 cars parked in it during the service. Counting 1 for Cheryl, 1 for the music director, 1 for the server (as listed in the bulletin) and 1 for Sue-Anne, that leaves 3 for the congregation. What were they doing?

This must be a new strategy in the Greening of Niagara initiative: drive 4 cars to conduct a service for 5 people in a heated building that can hold 150.

Our Church is aware of our call to be stewards of God’s creation, and to be leaders in this area. We have long expressed a concern for creation that is consistent with the fifth mark of mission of the Anglican Communion: “to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the earth”.

Of course, the diocese doesn’t actually pay to heat the building, St. Hilda’s ANiC does so I expect the diocese will soon be blaming ANiC for being less than pristinely verdant.

Cheryl Fricker is also the rector at St. Aidan’s Oakville, so after driving to St. Hilda’s for the 8:30 diocesan Body Snatcher’s service she will have to drive back to St. Aidan’s for their 10:00 a.m. service. Perhaps she uses a peddle car.

The diocese is running through priest-squatters for St. Hilda’s at an embarrasing rate. First there was Brian Ruttan Parish Terminator, then Martha Tartarnic Dizzy Blonde, and now the latest is Rev. Sue-Ann Ward,  presently vicar at Christ’s Church Cathedral, Hamilton.

The Reverend Sue-Ann Ward has been appointed Diocesan Administrator at St.Hilda’s, Oakville, effective January 1, replacing Rev. Martha Tatarnic.

One wonders why the latest victim was chosen: it is, of course, all about how things appear in court, so perhaps this is the reason:

Sue-Ann’s first project has become the Jamesville Breakfast Club, nurturing children of three local schools. “The principal at St. Mary’s [Elementary School] made us aware of the need, and asked for support. Now we feed sixty plus children and a handful of adults every morning!” A large sign welcomes all, and the local crossing guard even comes early to enable the children to arrive safely.

St. Hilda’s ANiC feeds and evangelises over 100 school children every Friday. I am sure the diocese of Niagara will be quick to point to Sue-Ann’s record in the ensuing court case – with the intent of claiming that she could assume our ministries.

But St. Hilda’s has a congregation that helps run the ministries – a congregation that won’t be there for Sue-Ann. Perhaps she will do a Martha and import a pseudo-congregation. Hubby is Rev. Jeff Ward, rector at St. Luke’s, Palermo; I wonder if he and his wife will be doing the NPS (Niagara Parishioner Shuffle)?

Welcome Sue-Ann, enjoy the orange carpet.

P.S. Do the honourable thing and resign now.

In their attempt to grab the buildings of the Niagara ANiC parishes, the Diocese of Niagara wish to proceed with the next round of court appearances as soon as they can – in December if possible. ANiC is still trying to negotiate with the diocese but, as Michael Bird says in his Christmas message, let’s open our hearts, giving and receiving gifts of love, hope and litigation. For those who wish to see more pious simpering, the whole thing is on the Niagara Diocese site.

Christopher Grabiec is the editor of the Niagara Anglican, the official organ of the Diocese of Niagara. Most of the Niagara Anglican is given to a Seinfeld inspired devotion to obsessing about the irrelevant; but here, Grabiec has something to say about forgiveness:

Have you ever thought about the ministry of forgiveness? We have wanted to assign that one to the clergy because they can forgive sins. It is the ministry of every Christian to forgive unconditionally. It’s possible that a good number of us will walk away from this article at this point. We all have people to forgive and we do not feel like doing it. If forgiveness is a ministry then we don’t necessarily “feel like it”. We are asked to go out and forgive the sins of others and that means all of us. It means that we have to forgive the four parishes that have left the diocese of Niagara.

As a member of one of those parishes, I’m not sure what Christopher feels he has to forgive. We are following our conscience, continuing in communion with 80% of the world’s Anglicans, and paying to heat and maintain the building that we bought but his diocese is occupying.

So what is there to forgive? Perhaps it is the unstated implication that we believe the direction that the diocese of Niagara has taken is sufficiently misguided and sub-Christian that we can no longer be under its authority: so what Christopher is forgiving is the “sin” of our saying, we don’t agree with you and we are prepared to act on it.

OK, Christopher, old chap, forgiveness accepted: when are you stopping the lawsuits?

The Diocese of Niagara’s own discussion board provoked comments that were almost uniformly critical of the diocese. It has been inaccessible since May 2008, I assumed for that reason. But now:

Well, not always: sometimes it’s just a relief all round.

Martha Tatarnic is leaving St. Hilda’s!

The Reverend Martha Tatarnic has submitted her resignation as Administrator of St.Hilda’s, and Curate at St.Jude’s, Oakville, effective December 31.  Martha has accepted a position as Rector of St. David’s and Holy Cross in Orillia, beginning January 1.

The Diocese of Niagara does seem to be running through diocesan priests willing to squat in St. Hilda’s at an alarming rate. Could what’s left of their consciences be pricking them?

First we had the pastorally obtuse Brian Ruttan, Diocesan Terminator with his congregation of zero; his opening gambit at St. Hilda’s was to import a pseudo congregation from other parts of the diocese and sing this little ditty: “Straight and gay, welcome to the city; bi and trans, welcome to the city; lovers all, welcome to the city; twelve gates to the city…” during the Eucharist.

After that, no-one attended his services – not even those he bribed the first time.

So, then, along came Martha Tatarnic, curate at St. Jude’s Church in Oakville. She didn’t have a congregation either, so she imported a rent-a-crowd from her parish at St. Jude’s. Poor Martha wasn’t given a budget by the diocese so, even though St. Hilda’s ANiC continues to pay for building maintenance and utilities, Martha had to convince St. Jude’s to pay to print her bulletins; it tears at the heartstrings.

Martha, I trust you will be leaving the piano and keyboard for your replacement. After all, you did complain when we took our instruments.

The question is, who will replace her? I hear Ralph Spence is between jobs. We could widen the doorways for him; at our expense, of course.