You knew it was coming. Here it is. It does go on a bit.

If you want to see the tears, go here.

Read it all here:

As your Bishop, I apologize for the times and ways that we have failed to honour and cherish you, beloved children of God, made in the image of our Creator, redeemed by the love of our Saviour and embraced by the Holy Spirit.

I apologize for the teachings, words and actions that indicated that you are unwelcome, that you stand outside the grace and love of God in Jesus Christ and that you are unworthy to serve fully as members of the Body of Christ because of your sexual identity and orientation.

I apologize for the teachings, words and actions that have diminished your humanity, sexuality and identity and perpetuated the sins of homophobia and transphobia in the Church.

I apologize for the teachings, words and actions that marginalised queer members, many of whom have left the Anglican Church. I am sorry for the hurt inflicted on you and your families and friends who have also suffered. Deeper still, I am sorry for queer people who fell into despair and depression or chose to end their lives by suicide because we failed to support them with love and acceptance.

I apologize for the times that we have been silent in the face of homophobic/transphobic comments, slurs and whispers that created a culture of aggression and oppression further injuring you……

And so on – and on and on.

A footnote contains an explanation of “queer”. It’s supposed to encompass anyone who doesn’t think LGBTQ2S+ is inclusive enough.

While LGBTQ2S+ specifically identifies lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning and two spirit, the term “queer” is far broader. It includes but is not limited to all of those who identify with the letters in the acronym above, but also includes those who identify as non-binary, pansexual, allies and more. It is in the spirit of inclusion that I use both terms.

What about necrophiliacs, zoophiles, libidoist asexuals, polyamorists, sadists, masochists and the plain libidinous (I know, that is so yesterday), you may be wondering. There’s always next year.

Apologies are the in thing, so the Diocese of Toronto is going to issue another one. This time to the “LGBTQ2S+ community”. I’m not sure what the diocese has to apologise for: they have a homosexual bishop, the clergy regularly cavort in the Toronto Pride Parade and rainbow stoles are ubiquitous.

We’ll find out Friday. I can hardly wait.

From here:

On Friday, June 25 at 10 a.m., Bishop Andrew Asbil will issue an apology to the Diocese’s LGBTQ2S+ community. This comes after months of prayerful reflection, intentional consultation and conversation with various members of our Diocese, and for Bishop Andrew personally, decades of walking alongside this community. He has invited those who have helped to shape the apology to be present with him and the College of Bishops at St. James Cathedral. Only those who have been invited will be admitted.

We hope you will watch the live stream on the diocesan YouTube channel and join Bishop Andrew in this significant moment in our life together as a Diocese.

And listening sessions, we mustn’t forget the listening sessions.

Apparently, bias and racism are the barriers that are preventing the diocese from “reaching all people with the good news of Jesus Christ.” I suppose there is some truth in that: the Anglican Church of Canada has been biased against orthodox Christians for years. I don’t think that’s what the bishops have in mind, though.

From here:

The Diocese of Toronto is embarking on a comprehensive plan to address racism and bias in the Church. The plan, which will be launched in January, will include listening sessions, antiracism and anti-bias training, the formation of a strategy group, and the raising up of volunteers to lead training workshops. Bishop Jenny Andison, the diocese’s Diversity Officer, says the plan will build up capacity in the Church so that it can begin to dismantle the barriers that are preventing it from reaching all people with the good news of Jesus Christ.

[……]

Starting in January and February, groups from across the diocese will take part in listening sessions. Participants will come from different cultural backgrounds and will include members of the LGBTQ2 community. They will be asked to share their experiences of race, racism and bias in the Church.

I almost feel sorry for them, poor dears. They’ve done their best to keep up with the latest fashions in wokeness, but developing theologies of the impossible – men can become women, two men can marry, a man who has become a woman can marry a woman who has become a man – was not enough. Not even incessant self-flagellation for the Anglican replacement for Original Sin – Original Racism – has been enough.

Bishop Jenny Andison is sending them to re-education camp because, well, she is infected with the sin of racism, so you must be too.

When you come out, you will be a better person for it. If you come out.

From here:

As a white woman of privilege, while I am aware that the sin of racism infects my own heart, I also acknowledge that I cannot fully under-stand the impact and effects of racism on my racialized brothers and sisters. This summer, as part of my own education, I am reading The Cross and the Lynching Tree by the late James H. Cone. If you haven’t read this seminal work, do.

[….]

Lament is not simply the shedding of tears but is crying out to our Heavenly Fa-ther in pain. It is prayer, at the invitation of God, to renew our confidence that in Jesus Christ all things are being made new and the Spirit of God is being poured out on all flesh. As the current Diversity Officer for the Diocese of Toronto, I am working closely with the Intercultural Committee to bring anti-racism and anti-bias training to our diocese this fall. This training will be man-datory for all clergy and leaders of diocesan committees.

The recently published attendance statistics of the Anglican Church of Canada paint a gloomy picture of a dying denomination. The proposed solution is to do more of what is killing the church but do it with more enthusiasm.

Five conservative clergy in the Diocese of Toronto have noticed the flaw in this strategy and are proposing, not a divorce exactly, but at least a separation. They optimistically reckon that a third of the clergy in the diocese would go along with this.

This is nonsense for two reasons:

First, clergy willing to risk their reputation, friendships, buildings and pension for the sake of the Gospel have already done so: they have joined ANiC.

Second, it assumes that liberals in the church are willing to live alongside those who disagree with them. They aren’t. If you want evidence of this, look back at the recent General Synod after the failure of the marriage canon vote. Those who lost the vote were literally rolling on the floor wailing in anguish because their views were not affirmed. Uniformity of thought is the only balm that will ease their suffering.

Some may see this letter from the Anglican Communion Alliance as encouraging. I don’t. Conservative clergy who remain in the ACoC have been in desperate retreat for decades, occasionally throwing up a rearguard action as a squid squirts ink to aid in its getaway. If they really meant what they said, they would no longer be ACoC clergy.

From here:

An Open Letter to the House of Bishops November 14, 2019

A simple question:

If the clergy of Toronto were asked, “How many of you wish to be part of a region where your ministry will be conducted within the boundaries of the doctrine, discipline, liturgy and canons of the church?,” how many would say “yes’? Likely a third. Probably more.

The question is asked because a clear choice now exists. If Toronto’s 2019 Diocesan Synod is the example, the ruling ethos of the diocese, led by a very talented and likable bishop, is demonstrably outside those boundaries.

Using experimental liturgies and hymns that abandon the “common prayer” of the church,

. . . living by the open sexual ethic of the local option,

. . . in public defiance of the church’s canons

. . . according to a faith that is unrecognizable by the received standards of the Christian faith and indistinguishable from the secular mores of Canada’s cultural elite.

And, not insignificantly, having failed completely regarding one of its most cherished dreams – diversity! In the time that membership in the ACC fell from 1.3 million to 350,000, down to less than 100,000 in average Sunday attendance, Canada’s population doubled. Where the ACC once represented 7% of the population, that number has now dropped to 1%. There are two ways forward. The first is the status quo. If you choose 1960 as the starting point, it has 60 years of decline behind it. It was a time when that which was held in common – doctrine, discipline, canons and liturgy – shrank dramatically, and the outer boundaries grew apart, to the extent that they are no longer recognizable to each other.

The second is to recognize that the outer limits cannot, at present, be contained in the same body because the resulting tension is both destructive and fatal. It is to declare a 20-year ceasefire and to give what has become two distinct realms the freedom to conduct their ministries according to their truest lights and to show the fruit of their ministry. Call it the Gamaliel experiment. Keep it simple. For the sake of the unity of the church, limit the division to bishops and clergy. Parishes would retain a certain independence and remain able, as they now are, to seek and request a change in direction when a successor is appointed.

Let the experimental party be guided by their self-declared bishops.

And let that party seeking to live within the boundaries of the received doctrine, discipline, liturgy and canons of the church fall under the oversight of bishops publicly committed to upholding the received teaching of the Church. Communion Partners and Communion Partner bishops is one example ready to hand. They are a body already active in Canada, recognized communion wide and capable of maintaining order and oversight according to the received faith of the church.

Why 20 years? Because the best prediction says 2040 is when we close up shop, anyway. If this is the last leg of the journey, would it not be better to have the two realms in a state of peaceful co-existence, serving at full strength, to be judged by the fruit of their ministry for the sake of Christ and his Church?

We place this proposal — our own — before the whole House of Bishops to consider.

Ajit John+, Murray Henderson+, Dean Mercer+, Ephraim Radner+, Catherine Sider-Hamilton+