Category Archives: Diocese of Toronto

Hubris month is upon us

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That means it’s time for clergy to adorn their necks with rainbow collars:

Love is love bishops will hoist rainbow flags and prattle about diversity and inclusion, while scolding those who exhibit insufficient enthusiasm.

Here is Toronto Bishop Andrew Asbil doing his best to staunch the stampede of parishioners abandoning the ACoC by encouraging participation in the month long – or is it a season now? – bacchanalia and denouncing those who would rather not as homophobic and transphobic.

Dear Friends,

June is Pride month.

Wonderful celebrations are taking place across our Diocese. Last week, Anglicans from the Nottawasaga Deanery gathered for Barrie Pride. Around the same time, the Rev. Dana Dickson was present with community leaders in Bradford to raise the Pride flag at their city hall. A few days later, parishioners at the Church of the Redeemer on Bloor Street were taping their steps with Pride colours, to remind the people of Toronto that they are a proud, welcoming and inclusive parish. In a few weeks, Anglicans from across the Diocese will gather under the banner of Proud Anglicans at the annual Toronto Pride Parade.
[….]
Homophobic and transphobic voices seem to be getting louder in public discourse, on social media and even in parts of our Church.

Bishop of Toronto calls for Gaza ceasefire

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The Rt. Rev. Andrew Asbil has written a letter to his diocese asking “our leaders” (politicians, presumably) to urge for a ceasefire in the war in Gaza.

What does this really mean, one wonders. It can’t mean that he wants pressure put on Hamas to release the Jewish hostages and surrender. That would produce an immediate ceasefire; if he meant that, he would say so.

The only other possibility is that he wants Israel to stop the war before it is won, leaving Hamas intact, guaranteeing further atrocities against the Jewish people. That, after all, is what Hamas has promised, although Asbil seems to think it would result in everyone joining hands and warbling I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing In Perfect Harmony. Maybe that’s what the Jews at the music festival were singing shortly before they were murdered, raped, beheaded, tortured  and carted off as hostages.

So he doesn’t want a ceasefire at all; he wants Israel to lose its war against Hamas.

If bishops must insist on meddling in politics, I do wish that they would occasionally choose the right side.

Read it all here:

Dear Friends,

For the last 216 days, the first item on our news has been about war in the Land of the Holy One. The scenes of destruction, human suffering and sorrow leave an indelible mark on all of us. In the face of it all, it is tempting to turn away and say, “We can do so little; what can we do?”

The Anglican Church of Canada keeps this Sunday as Jerusalem Sunday. It reminds us that we all have a special relationship with the Land of the Holy One, and we are called to pray for its peace. Canadians have a particular bond of friendship with the Diocese of Jerusalem: the Diocese of Ottawa is its companion diocese, and Archbishop Hosam Naoum is a dear friend of our Church. Many of us have had the privilege of visiting St. George’s College in Jerusalem for a pilgrimage course and have met, learned about and witnessed the experience of Palestinian Christians in the Middle East.

The incessant violence and warfare in Israel and Gaza is overwhelming in its statistics: 1,100 Israelis and 34,000 Palestinians dead since Oct. 7, 2023, and 1.7 million people displaced in a humanitarian crisis, with emergency aid agencies unable to cope with the need and unable to cross the access points.

Enough is enough.

Calls for a ceasefire are increasing internationally, and I join with those who are crying out: the time for a cessation of violence is past due.

Bishop Riscylla, Bishop Kevin and I will be participating in parts of the Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage in Toronto this weekend, organized by KAIROS. This global movement of walking (or rolling) in prayerful solidarity with the people of Gaza will help raise awareness, raise money for humanitarian aid, and hopefully exert pressure on our leaders to urge a ceasefire now.

Toronto Archbishop encourages Anglicans to attend Toronto Pride.

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As I mentioned here, Andrew Asbil, the Anglican bishop of Toronto, extended an invitation to all his parishioners to join him in today’s Pride Parade: “My wife Mary and I hope to be at Toronto’s Pride Parade on June 25 with the other Proud Anglicans, and I invite you to join us.”

Tempting though this might have been, some of us had other engagements and could not attend. Luckily for us, some videos of the event were taken so you can see what you missed and why the bishop was so eager to attend. It was Diverse.

There is more, but you’ll get the general idea.

Toronto bishop is looking forward to Pride Parade

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The bishop of Toronto, Andrew Asbil, will be attending Toronto’s Pride Parade on June 25th.

Not only will it be a celebration of the triune god of the Anglican Church of Confusion (ACoC for short), Diversity Inclusion Acceptance, but it will protest the rise of homophobia and transphobia. After all, our liberal government has only donated a parsimonious $40 million to 2SLGBT+HAVEIGOTTHEMALL causes in the last 4 years; it doesn’t get much more phobic than that.

Asbil goes on to make the required denouncement of the revised Ugandan homosexuality laws while conveniently ignoring the homosexuals routinely thrown off rooftops in Islamic countries. To mention that would be Islamophobic and he can’t risk a battle of the phobias.

The Pride flag will be raised at Queens Park on June 19th. In 2017, I distinctly remember the March for Life flag being taken down from Ottawa’s City Hall. What I don’t remember is any ACoC bishop protesting; not a murmur. Are they all babyphobic?

Asbil ends his missive with an invitation to join him in the June 25th Sunday worship featuring water pistols and homoerotic cavorting. Attendance is mandatory.

Read it all here:

Dear Friends,

This year feels different.

On Sunday, June 25, hundreds of “Proud Anglicans” will come together in downtown Toronto for the annual Pride Parade. This is always a great celebration, complete with sashes, glitter, music and Super Soakers. It’s a party, celebrating the beautiful diversity of the children of God. Pride is also an affirmation of mutual love and respect within the greater human family, for we are all made in God’s loving image. The Toronto Pride Parade began almost 50 years ago as a protest but has become more of a celebration over the years as LGBTQ2s+ people have moved from the margins to the mainstream.

But this year feels different. The rise of homophobia and transphobia both far away and here at home reminds us that the struggle for inclusion, acceptance and dignity is not yet won. It seems the progress we’ve made in the areas of sexuality and gender identity is more tenuous than many of us would care to consider. In Uganda, new laws passed this month continue the criminalization of same-sex relationships but with added harsher penalties, including life in prison for those who identify publicly as LGBTQ+, and the death sentence for “aggravated homosexuality.” South of the border, in the state of Florida, the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” laws prohibit instruction of sexuality and gender identity in all grades, effectively excluding families with two Dads or two Moms from being included in the school curriculum. Here at home, some local school boards have decided they will not fly the Pride flag this year because Pride does not align with their values.

Bishop Kevin Robertson unhappy with Lambeth Call on Human Dignity

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Kevin Robertson is the area bishop of York-Scarborough in the Diocese of Toronto. He is also a homosexual who is married to another man. As a result, he was invited to attend Lambeth 2022 but his sexual partner was not, a decision that make little sense in my opinion, although it is representative of a typical wishy-washy Anglican compromise.

Kevin Robertson was a member of the group the drafted the Lambeth Call on Human Dignity. So far so good. The only problem is that the Call in its current incarnation includes this:

All human beings are made in the image of God. Therefore, Anglicans are committed to respect, protect, and acknowledge the dignity of all. There has been, however, a gap between rhetoric and reality. Historical exploitation, deepening poverty, and prejudice continue to threaten human dignity. Amidst these threats, and our own divisions and discernment, we call for: (i) an Archbishop’s Commission for Redemptive Action; (ii) the establishment of an Anglican Innovation Fund; and (iii) a reaffirmation of Lambeth I.10 that upholds marriage as between a man and a woman and requires deeper work to uphold the dignity and witness of LGBTQ Anglicans.

According to Robertson, including a reaffirmation that marriage can only exist between a man and a woman was not discussed by the group. As you can probably tell from this, he is upset:

Dear Facebook friends,

Like many of you, I have been shocked and dismayed by the Lambeth Call on Human Dignity which, in part, calls upon the bishops to reaffirm Lambeth Resolution I.10 (1998). That 24-year-old resolution, for which there was no consensus even then, limits the definition of marriage to a man and a woman in a lifelong union. I strongly oppose the proposal to reaffirm this resolution at the upcoming Lambeth Conference, and have conveyed this to the Archbishop of Canterbury. I believe it would significantly set back the pursuit of justice and the respect for the dignity of every human person to which we are called in baptism. Moreover, as a gay man married to another man, my understanding and experience of human dignity includes the blessing of two people joined together in holy marriage, regardless of gender.

What is more disturbing is that, as a member of the Human Dignity Call drafting group, I never agreed to this Call in its current form. At no point in our meetings did we discuss the reaffirmation of Lambeth I.10 at the Conference, and it never appeared in any of the early drafts of our work together. I can confidently say that the Human Dignity Call in its current form does not represent the mind of the drafting group, and I distance myself from the reaffirmation of Lambeth I.10 in the strongest possible ways. I also unequivocally reject the phrase within the Call, “It is the mind of the Anglican Communion as a whole that same gender marriage is not permissible.” This statement is simply not true.

With others, I am seeking to amend the Human Dignity Call over the coming hours and days. I am hopeful that this is possible. There are many things in the document that do reflect the good work of the drafting group and would be tremendously positive for the Church and the world, especially the call to protect human dignity with particular attention to sexuality and gender. So, I very much hope that the Human Dignity Call can be amended rather than rejected. Please pray for a positive outcome to this work.

To my siblings in the LGBTQ2S+ community: remember that you are deeply loved and cherished. Our place in this beloved Church is not dependent on any resolution or call. By virtue of the fact that we are fearfully and wonderfully made by our loving Creator, and redeemed through Christ, this is our Church. And we belong – fully.

Anglicans applauding banning conversion therapy

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“Ensuring a safe space for all” trumpets the headline in the Diocese of Toronto’s newspaper. “All” in this case are people who are lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, queer, two spirited, and yet to be identified and, we must presume, more murky areas of our contemporary sexual wilderness.

The main concern of a recent meeting between Bishop Kevin Robinson and “150 other religious leaders, academics and lay leaders from 30 countries and a wide range of faith backgrounds” was the banning of conversion therapy. Other than for transgender individuals for whom conversion therapy and bodily mutilation is encouraged; this brand of conversion therapy has even acquired its own liturgy. Such is the nature of ecclesiastical consistency.

Read all about it here:

Empowerment: A key concern of our gathering was the harm done through the practice of conversion therapy. Conversion therapy consists of “any practice or sustained effort that has the effect of denying, repressing, discouraging or changing a person’s non-heterosexual sexual orientation, non-cisgender gender identity or gender expression.”

[….]

We believe all individuals are made in the image of God, whom many call Divine, and should be free to live a life of dignity, consistent with their sexuality and gender identity, within their faith communities without fear or judgement.

Except for empowering those who freely choose to try to resist or change same-sex attractions and who would like prayer, counselling, or non-coercive therapy to help them. No one in that category is afforded any dignity whatsoever; in order to be a certified Anglican, such a person must repress and discourage his wariness of such urges, submit to them even if he would prefer not to and wave a rainbow flag to signify his acquiescence to Anglican doublethink. All because God has made him this way, even the temptations he would rather do without.

I can’t help wondering whether Bishop Kevin Robinson, who is a homosexual married to another man, is more interested in confirming the rightness of his own actions by compelling others to do likewise than in “Ensuring a safe space for all”.

Diocese of Toronto misgenders the Holy Spirit

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The Diocese of Toronto has taken a sad step backwards from full inclusion. In a recent tweet, the diocese – and I’m sorry if this triggers someone, those of a sensitive disposition should avert their gaze now – rashly assumed that the Holy Spirit’s preferred pronoun is “her”. For all we know, it could be “zir”.

Antediluvian throwbacks like me who have always thought of the Holy Spirit as “He” had no idea that the third person of the Trinity had undergone a gender transition.

Diocese of Toronto institutes vaccinated only services

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In the interests of inclusion (or, depending on one’s perspective, to illustrate the meaning of doublethink) the Diocese of Toronto is permitting parishes to hold worship services where proof of vaccination is required for attendance.

I can foresee some problems with this. Suppose an unvaccinated individual who identifies as non-binary shows up; should ze be turned away? The conflict of competing wokery in denying entrance to a 2SLGBTQQIA1+ unvaccinated individual could, at the very least, induce clergy heart failure and, at worst provoke the onset of the apocalypse.

Read it all here:

But it has been pointed out to us that, due to our welcome of the unvaccinated, some other people have now been unintentionally excluded because they are immuno-compromised. These are individuals who cannot attend church or any public place where the unvaccinated may be present, as they are especially vulnerable, despite being themselves vaccinated. Their exclusion was never our intention.

To that end, we have heard the request from some parishes to offer services with a vaccine mandate, requiring proof of vaccination for entry.

After much discussion, consultation and prayer, the College of Bishops has consented to permit parishes to institute a new worship service – outside of their existing and continuing schedule of services – that requires proof of vaccination to attend. It is the College’s expectation that these restricted-entry services will be the exception to our worship offerings, and not the norm.

Singing now allowed in the Diocese of Toronto

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Provided you:

  • are a member of the choir
  • present your vaccine papers
  • stay 2 metres away from other choristers
  • stay 4 metres away from anyone not allowed to sing
  • wear a mask
  • don’t have so many masked, vaccine papered, gasping for breath choristers they overcrowd the place

As you can tell, the Diocese of Toronto has fully embraced (or is “taken on board” the in expression, I forget) “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

From here:

Bearing all of this in mind, and after due consideration and consultation, we are commencing a gradual expansion of our practices around singing. Effective immediately, we are permitting choral singing by fully vaccinated choristers, masked and distanced 2–3 metres from each other, and a minimum of four metres from the congregation.