Category Archives: Diocese of Niagara

Archives from the Diocese of Niagara’s LGBT times

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The Diocese of Niagara’s newspaper, the Niagara Anglican, has been published for 64 years. For the last 63 of those years, in keeping with the inclinations of its clerical masters, its interest in Christianity has diminished at the same rate that its obsession with homosexuality has grown.

You can see some photos from the archive here.

I particularly like this one of the hipster cathedral clergy plunking “The Lord’s My Shepherd” to the tune of “The Happy Wanderer”:

Despite such discriminating musical taste it, couldn’t compete in cultural relevance with the competition; even though the glasses were almost the same:

Niagara Diocese, a safe church

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Christianity isn’t safe.

Early Christians had to look forward to an early unpleasant departure from this vale of tears, a fate that is still in store for many persecuted Christians today. St. Paul was: beaten with rods, stoned, shipwrecked, robbed, imprisoned, hungry, thirsty, betrayed, nearly drowned and five times received forty lashes.

If the early church had concentrated its efforts on becoming safe, I don’t suppose much would have come of it; after all, Aslan is not a tame Lion.

Nevertheless, the Diocese of Niagara is a safe place – for everyone except orthodox Christians.

From here:

Safe Church initiatives within the Diocese of Niagara are dedicated to ensuring that the church is a safe and holy place for all people at all times.

We affirm the dignity and worth of all persons, young or old, male or female, rich or poor.

To that end, our protocols apply to all of the people of the Diocese of Niagara in all of our faith communities, no matter what ministry they partake in, be it volunteer, paid, lay or ordained.

[….]

Truly, the Spirit moves in our midst as we come to terms with what it means to be the Christian Church in the days of #MeToo and #ChurchToo.

Diocese of Niagara recites Litany of Reconciliation

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Every Friday at noon, the diocese is reciting a Litany of Reconciliation in the Cathedral forecourt. As you can see, it is a real crowd-puller:

 

The Litany of Reconciliation is prayed at Coventry Cathedral and the Diocese of Niagara has followed suit.

Since the diocese shows no intention of reconciling with those it has most recently injured and actually hates, ANiC churches which left the diocese, the whole charade of reciting this litany is no more than an obscenely hypocritical public display of dishonest, fraudulent virtue, revolting enough to make a rodent vomit.

The Diocese of Niagara has a new bishop

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“First female bishop seated in Niagara” trumpets the headline. The significance of the event seems to pivot on the “female” aspect of the seating rather than the overall qualifications of the bishop – which could be stellar, of course; we shall see.

Stirring cello melodies, gleeful banter of children, inspired words, reflection and invitation, moving intercessions mingled with familiar hymnody and the loving words shared by Jesus millennia ago were some of the sounds that poignantly filled Christ’s Church Cathedral Hamilton as Bishop Susan Bell was seated as the 12th diocesan bishop of Niagara.

As is so often the case when the church chases cultural fads, it has already been outdone by the inane conceit it seeks to emulate. Were it truly abreast of the latest in non-binary, gender-fluid inclusivity, the headline would read: “First femxle bishop seated in Niagara”.

From here:

In England, ‘womxn’ is in, as activists try to replace word ‘woman’ in the name of inclusiveness.

There have been womon, womyn and even wimmin. Now activists at British universities have settled on womxn as the latest attempt to replace the words woman/women.

Confusingly, King’s College in London, England, has the KCL Women in Physics student society and the Womxn in Physics Society.

The KCL womxn society, says a website, was founded to address “the issue of underrepresentation of women and non-binary people in the physics department at King’s College London.”

It adds, “This society aims to act as a safe space for all minorities in the field of physics.”

Diocese of Niagara appoints an Honorary Lay Canon of Church Closures

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That is not the euphemism used in Bishop Susan Bell’s charge to synod, of course; nevertheless, that’s what it is. Or it could be Church Closures, Sales and Demolitions.

From here (my emphasis):

I think I am also beginning to see a general loosening of our love affair with bricks and mortar:  The property we own as a Diocese is a strategic asset, it’s true.  But perhaps not in the ways we used to think about it.  The fact is, churches have life cycles.  They were and are planted according to key demographics, they have a beginning to their life, a middle and an end.  The truth is, very few churches live for a century and fewer still live to see two – unless it is this venerable and beautiful cathedral that we are meeting in today.  Parishes and church buildings are meant to spring up where the mission fields are. And when it is very clear that they have come to the end of their life cycle it is incumbent on us – the stewards of those resources – to redeploy those assets as needed for a new mission field – as intended by their founders: Christians who gave money to the church to be the church.

This is an important thing for us to understand.  It is not good Christian practice for us to hold buildings hostage to our desires to hold on to worldly things.  It is good Christian practice to make disciples and to preach the Gospel to the whole of creation.  So, we are called to go where the mission field is.  We will become a planting church once again.  And what does that look like in this time?  It looks like understanding the needs of new housing surveys; of underserviced inner-city neighbourhoods; strategic small-town locations.  These are some of the contexts that we are learning about and planning to engage.

And to better ascertain how best to deploy our precious building resources I have asked Mr. Terry Charters to lead a new committee that will work with our Secretary of Synod and Treasurer on our property portfolio to best and most strategically maintain, sell, re-purpose, rent or restore property based on the best analysis we have available of demographics.  This will also include a focus on our continuing plans for the revitalization of Cathedral Place – on which he’ll report later in the course of Synod. This group will also have the aim of searching for reliable community partnerships and for income generation plans to support sustainability but also to underwrite future mission and ministry in this diocese. This is the job of tilling the soil and planting seeds for the next season of our beloved church.

And to go with this new committee, I’ve also conferred on Terry the title of Honorary Lay Canon of Christ’s Church Cathedral.  We are greatly indebted to him for his many hours of specialized and valuable ministry among us and look forward to all that he has to share with us in the coming years.  We’ll have a service of installation for him and Canon Jody early in the New Year.

Michael Coren starts work at the Church of the Incarnation, Oakville

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In an odd twist of events, Michael Coren has been assigned to work at the Church of the Incarnation in Oakville as part of his M.Div studies.

This parish is part of the Diocese of Niagara, the diocese my parish fled in 2008 over  theological differences. Michael Coren has managed what few who have left their teenage years behind can claim: he has reversed his opinions on just about everything. For example, in 2008 he was a great supporter of St. Hilda’s and the stand we had taken against the Diocese of Niagara. When we were on speaking terms (he has blocked me on twitter), I occasionally fed him tidbits of information on the antics of the diocese as they attempted (successfully in the end) to liberate our building from us. Here is one of his email responses to me about the diocesan leaders:

Unbelievable! They are such self-caricatures. I’ll use it on TV and perhaps radio. Stay strong man – just like Owen Glendower.

Now he has chosen to work for the self-caricatures.

The rector at the Church of the Incarnation is Rev Michael Patterson who used to work for the diocese as the Director of Evangelism and then as the Diocesan Executive Officer.

A few encounters I had with him stick in my mind:

The first was when I was leading worship at a servers’ festival. I had chosen a song about God the Father, a description which, Patterson confided to me in the break, many in his congregation found offensive because of its blatant patriarchy.

The second was when he came to speak at St. Hilda’s during his stint as Director of Evangelism. It was year 10 in the diocese’s Decade of Evangelism: apparently, the diocese was still struggling to define “evangelism”.

The last encounter was a veiled threat of a lawsuit over what I thought were some rather amusing remarks I made in this blog. His boss, who few would accuse of being much given to original thought, picked up the idea and did sue me.

Michael Coren is at the Church of the Incarnation to learn. Learn what? How to define “evangelism”?

Bishop Michael Bird to be rector of Ottawa area parish

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Michael Bird starts his new job on June 1st. He will no longer be a bishop but incumbent of an area parish – a group of churches that are too small to employ their own rector, so they share one.

I am unable to dispel the feeling that there is more to this odd move than meets the eye.

From here:

Bishop John is pleased to announce that a new Area Parish (comprised of Ascension, Killaloe; All Saint, Petawawa; Epiphany, Barry’s Bay; Holy Trinity, Madawaska; Holy Trinity, Pembroke; St. Anthony, Whitney; St. Augustine, Beachburg; St. George’s, Alice; St. John’s, Eganville; St. John’s, Tramore; St. Patrick’s, Stafford; St. Paul’s, Cobden; St. Stephen’s, Micksburg; and St. Thomas, Rankin) will come into being on June 01, 2018. The following clergy have been appointed to serve in this new ministry:

  • The Rt. Rev. Michael Bird, to be Incumbent; effective June 01, 2018
  • The Rev. Matthew Brown, to be Associate Incumbent, effective June 01, 2018
  • The Rev. Susan Clifford, to be Associate Incumbent, effective June 01, 2018
  • The Rev. Gillian Hoyer, to be Associate Incumbent, effective June 01, 2018

Bishop elect Susan Bell and #MeToo

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Noel Edison is the choir director at the Diocese of Niagara’s St. John the Evangelist church in Elora:

Under Noel Edison, its conductor for the past twenty years, the choir leads the congregation in Choral Mattins twice monthly, in the occasional Evensong and in the Choral Eucharist on other Sundays.

I should have said “was the choir director”, because Edison was relieved of his position after allegations of sexual misconduct came to light. St. John’s website still has him listed in the position, but a local paper has this to say:

ELORA — One of the few professional church choirs in the country is facing a pressing question — what happens now that their star conductor is gone?

That’s the dilemma facing the parish choir at St. John the Evangelist Church in Elora, after the departure of longtime music director Noel Edison amid sexual misconduct allegations.

[…..]

Edison has also voluntarily stepped down from his role as the music director at St. John’s, a role he’s had since the 1980s.

There is more here, here, here, and here.

As often seems to be the case with this type of allegation, there are claims that Edison’s sexual indiscretions were not a particularly well kept secret: everyone knew but no one said anything:

I find a lot of the comments from choristers and TMC/EFS disingenuous. EVERYONE knows that, at best, he has been ethically and sexually inappropriate for years. At worst, criminal. His house parties are famous. Comparing notes about “inappropriate Noel moments” is something many southwestern/GTA singers do. He is a likeable man and a great conductor, but that doesn’t make him a saint.

Interestingly, the newly elected bishop in the Diocese of Niagara, Rev, Susan Bell,  sang in the Elora choir during the period that Edison was philandering. Did she know and not tell? After all, the #MeToo movement was not the cultural hit it is today and the diocese, keenly sensitive to the caprice of the zeitgeist, might have been blissfully indifferent to Edison’s sexual antics; why should its paid choristers be any different?

The Reverend Canon Susan Jennifer Anne Bell:
In addition to academic work, another area of interest is in vocal performance. After studying for two years in England – in London and then Oxford, on my return I was a professional member of the parish choir at St. John’s Elora for 2 and a half years from 1992-94 before proceeding to theological college in Toronto.

Rev. Susan Bell to be new bishop in The Diocese of Niagara

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From here:

The Reverend Canon Susan Bell, a pioneering priest and former school chaplain, has been elected to serve as the next bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Niagara. Born and raised in Hamilton, she will be the first woman to serve as diocesan bishop since the diocese was founded in 1875.

Bell will continue the “progressive ministry” of her predecessor, Michael Bird. Bird’s ministry included progressive lawsuits, the progressive seizing of buildings, progressive building closures, a progressive mass exodus of orthodox believers and progressive financial troubles.

The newly-elected bishop will build on the “prayerful, prophetic and progressive ministry of outgoing Bishop Michael Bird, who served as Bishop of Niagara for the past decade,” the diocese said in a news release.

It will come as no surprise that Bell supports same-sex marriage:

My opinion remains unchanged from what I said on the floor of General Synod 2016:   that I would be voting in favour of a change in the marriage canon. I have taken a long journey which has included much study, prayer, many conversations and a deep investment in relationships until I arrived at a place of peace on this issue.

I would preserve the status quo in the lead up to General Synod 2019 and would be proud to cast my vote in favour of equal marriage in the Anglican Church of Canada.