Prince Charles is in Canada and apparently, some Canadians think he is irrelevant:
Prince Charles arrived in Canada on Monday for a 11-day cross-country visit that comes at a time when many Canadians say the royal family is no longer relevant to them.
I’m not against the monarchy, but try as I might to push the thought from my mind, every time I see Charles I am reminded of this:
The word “philanthropy” is derived from Greek, philanthropos, meaning “to love people”.
The word was favoured in the Hellenistic period by pagan moralists and is normally used now to describe the humanitarian act of giving a significant sum of money to a worthy cause by a person who owns an unusually large quantity of it. Thus, Bill Gates qualifies as a philanthropist since he donates some of his personal fortune to good works, whereas Bono does not since he devotes much of his spare time preaching at others in the hope of making philanthropists of them.
In contrast, 2 Cor 9:7, God loves a cheerful giver uses dotēs for giver; the emphasis is as much on the giver as the recipient. Everyone should give, no matter how small the gift. The theme of giving is a ubiquitous one in the Bible: as God has given to us, so we should give back to God and to others. The lesson of the widow’s mite (Mark 12: 41-44) is that the smallest gift given sacrificially is of more significance than largesse born of abundance.
Philanthropy is an entirely different kettle of fish: it originated in the pagan world and has been adopted by modern humanism; what matters is how much is given – the bigger the better. It is not a particularly Christian concept; this is probably seen as an advantage by the Anglican Church of Canada who, no doubt, would find a biblically inspired title such as Director of Tithing cringingly embarrassing. Director of Philanthropy, however, is rather cool in a Bono sort of way:
Holland Lee Hendrix, who has served as chief advancement officer at Hampshire College in Massachusetts and as president of the New York-based Union Theological Seminary, has been named executive director of philanthropy, a new position created by General Synod.
Archdeacon Michael Pollesel, general secretary of the national office in Toronto, said that Mr. Hendrix “brings to the position all the needed gifts and skills to help the Anglican Church of Canada achieve a level of financial stability that will enable it to carry out the vital mission and ministry to which we are called in this new era.”
The WCC has a new General Secretary with a “New Agenda” and – everyone should sit down for this bit – he has noticed that Christians are often in the minority and suffer from persecution:
Tveit said many Christians today are minorities in the communities and countries where they live, or in areas that are suffering from violence or extreme poverty, or both.
After this unusual flash of insight, the WCC GS makes a quick recovery to note that we really must do something about climate change, have dialogue with Islam and see each other as human.
A tiny spark of insight that was quickly extinguished by the familiar deadening blanket of bombastic clichés.
Christopher Grabiec wrote a lead article in the diocesan paper:
Many Anglicans have had heavy hearts during the past year or two, as we watch a number of parishes close and a number of parishes depart from our diocesan family over ideological disagreements. In many ways, it feels like we can put all that in the past. The future is ahead and the future is bright.
For many years now the diocese of Niagara has been in the forefront of the battle for justice in our society. In 1976 in one of the most important moments in the life of our church, John Bothwell, then Bishop of Niagara, ordained the first women to the priesthood. Generations before could never have imagined this happening. It was a great moment in our history and a great moment for the cause of justice in our society and in our church.
First, the disagreements were not ideological, they were theological: does the bible dictate how we are to behave no matter what the culture is telling us, or does the culture determine how we “interpret” the bible to make it fit culture’s demands. Those who left the diocese believe the former.
Second, if the departures are “in the past”, why is the diocese occupying ANiC parish buildings with pretend congregations – oh right, because they want to grab the buildings and sell them.
Third, the future for the diocese of Niagara can hardly be bright since it is losing people, losing money and is saddling itself with the costs of suing ANiC parishes.
Fourth, John Bothwell is a draconian liberal who attempted to purge orthodox priests from his diocese with a vicious enthusiasm that made a mockery of his alleged calling as ‘shepherd’. Justice was the last thing on his mind.
Bishop Michael Bird, not unlike Bishop ‘ Bothwell in 1976 has taken another huge step-in justice. Effective September 14, 2009 he will give permission for the blessing of civilly married persons, regardless of gender. This rite is a means for the church to extend affirmation, support and commitment to those who present themselves seeking a sign of God’s love in response to the love and commitment they express for each other and have already affirmed in a civil ceremony. Obviously, this continues to be a contentions issue in the world-wide communion of Anglicans. We are reminded though that historically, every move toward justice has always been contentious (think back to the ordination of women priests!). Our bishop has courage and conviction in this matter and is exhibiting strong and math needed leadership.
Indeed, Bird is not unlike Bothwell in his pursuit of justice: he is tolerant of all who agree with him. Those who don’t, he either fires or sues – sometimes both. As for his leadership qualities, they were admirably demonstrated during a parish meeting when a parishioner asked him what he believed; his answer was that his beliefs were personal and he wasn’t willing to share them. Bird has all backbone of runny blancmange; the positions he takes are thrust upon him by the likes of Peter Wall and his henchmen.
Michael Bird, the Great Helmsman, is hot in pursuit of excellence and seems to want to use technology in this exploit; however, he is a Bird that doesn’t Tweet yet. It will be a happy day when he does, because I will be able to tweet back.
One of Jean-Paul Sartre’s bon mots was Hell is other people (No Exit); Rowan Williams takes the opposite view:
The Archbishop of Canterbury has described hell as being stuck by himself for ever.
Dr Rowan Williams said that although his vision was not that of the traditional inferno, being alone with his “selfish little ego” for all eternity would be torment enough.
This view fits well with one biblical metaphor for hell: being cast into outer darkness (Matt 22:13).
According to C. S. Lewis, people choose hell for themselves on the principle, better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven (The Great Divorce).
Another type of hell might be having to spend eternity with no-one to talk to except Rowan Williams.
From here:
A 54-year-old carpenter in Wantage, England, accidentally cut off his own penis while working with a saw, his mother says.
“This was an unfortunate accident but these things happen all the time to people in his profession.”
“I have spoken to him and he is quite embarrassed about the whole incident”
And to think I get upset when I accidentally delete a computer file.
It would be more accurate to say I hate team sports; this is probably because, in modern vernacular, I am not a team player. I don’t want to be a team player – I even dislike the term. Of course, to get on in modern business, you have to at least give the appearance of being a team player. However, although still employed by a large company, I am too old, tired and crotchety to maintain any illusions of being one, having long given up any pretensions of getting on.
But I do like tennis. It is the antithesis of a team sport: individuals battle physically and mentally – alone. When I was younger, fitter, thinner and taller I used to play tennis; I stopped when my son started beating me. But I still watch and enjoy Wimbledon; of course, the men’s finals is always on Sunday, so I always miss it.
I suspected Roger Federer would win and beat Pete Sampras’s Grand Slam record; watching Federer ply his trade is like watching grace in motion. He deserved to win and is probably the greatest tennis player ever – until the next one.
St. Hilda’s, ANiC has a lot of artists in its congregegation. A couple of times per year, the artists put on an Art Show as a community outreach and to raise money for World Vision. The latest Artists for Africa was held on St. Hilda’s front law in June; a percentage of the proceeds will go to World Vision:
Some recent comments on this blog started me thinking about this strange medium and why people do it. Damian Thompson writes:
In April, an anonymous police blog written by a detective calling himself “NightJack” won the Orwell Prize for online political writing. And it deserved to, wrote one newspaper, “because it took you inside real life in a way you couldn’t go by yourself”.
But now you can’t go inside real life with NightJack. Visit the site, and you read: “The authors have deleted this blog. The content is no longer available.” Thishas been taken down in its entirety because the Lancashire detective lost a court case to stop his identity being revealed by The Times – the very paper that praised him to the skies when he won the Orwell Prize.
Blogging is an art. The intrinsic messiness and spontaneity of the form make it more, not less, important to write in a disciplined fashion. The unreadable websites of five years ago have largely disappeared: teenagers are bored with keeping online diaries and (except at election times) the only local politicians who can be bothered to blog are Lib Dem bedsit councillors obsessed with dog mess and broken paving stones.
But good blogs are one of the joys of the 21st century. No one set out to create this strange medium: it just evolved. And we’re lucky that it did.
For my part, this blog is the result of my being a member of an Anglican Church for over 30 years. The parish I belong to is orthodox and, until 2008, was in the diocese of Niagara. The only way an orthodox parish can exist within the Diocese of Niagara is by a mutual unspoken agreement that each ignores the other.
This separation arrangement didn’t work particularly well for my parish: we have been subject to 30 years of deranged meanderings by assorted bishops appearing at random intervals every time the diocese suffered financial embarrassment; parish representatives were subject to the pagan cavortings of God-forsaken synods; believing priests were openly derided for being naive enough to adhere to what they had promised when ordained.
And all that time, the average Anglican didn’t have a voice; well, 30 years of pent-up frustration now has an outlet in blogdom. Welcome to the 21st century, Fred Hiltz and Michael Bird – I want to say “up yours” (the Fresh Expressions version of Matt 23:27), but that wouldn’t be polite would it.
