Church of England Newspaper: Cana­dian Bishop takes ac­tion against a trou­ble­some blog­ger

From this Sunday’s Church of England Newspaper. It’s subscription only, so I can’t post a link. I have removed a paragraph containing a description of a couple of the items in dispute:

The Church of England Newspaper
12 May, 2013

Cana­dian Bishop takes ac­tion against a trou­ble­some blog­ger

THE BISHOP of the Dio­cese of Ni­a­gara in the Angli­can Church of Canada has filed a law­suit against con­ser­va­tive blog­ger claim­ing “defama­tion of char­ac­ter”.

On 19 Fe­bru­ary David Jenk­ins, au­thor of the Angli­can Samiz­dat blog re­ceived no­tice that Bishop Bird had asked a court to shut down his blog, ban him from mak­ing fur­ther com­ments about him and to pay him $400,000 in dam­ages.

Mr Jenk­ins stated that he had been sur­prised by the law­suit. “Con­trary to what one might ex­pect in such cir­cum­stances, I did not re­ceive a cease and de­sist let­ter in ad­vance of the suit.”

The State­ment of Claim filed with the On­tario Su­pe­rior Court Jus­tice al­leged Mr Jenk­ins ma­li­ciously and falsely stated Bishop Bird was a “weak and in­ef­fec­tual leader and that his ac­tions were mo­ti­vated by avarice or fi­nan­cial gain”. He also claimed that the bishop was a “thief” and had a “sex­ual fetish”, and that he was an “athe­ist and heretic bent upon the de­struc­tion of Chris­tian­ity.”

[….]

The 31 posts cited in the com­plaint were sub­se­quently re­moved from his web­site. At the bishop’s re­quest other posts were also tak­ing down, Mr Jenk­ins noted, “as a ges­ture of good faith.”

“I have made of­fers to set­tle and meet/talk, but they have been re­jected,” he added.

8 thoughts on “Church of England Newspaper: Cana­dian Bishop takes ac­tion against a trou­ble­some blog­ger

  1. Should read, “Canadian Blogger Takes Action Against Troublesome Bishop.” Maybe their proofreader was off sick.

  2. I was immediately reminded of Henry II’s alleged comment about St. Thomas a Becket: “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?”

    • Good line. Perhaps David should start wearing — and blogging about wearing, to be sure!! — a hairshirt to emphasize the resemblance (and to get the good Bishop to leave his wallet alone)?

  3. Like Gordon, I too thought of the martyrdom of St. Thomas a Becket. Killed in front of the altar, if I recall.

    I did not realise the venerable bishop had been extended offers for negotiation. Apparently reconciliation and dialog is only for people he likes.

  4. Anglicans don’t often practice what they preach. I am also always hearing from then about dialoging and reconciliation. It’s their mantra. That’s just so that the punters admire them. It has nothing to do with the way they really behave.

  5. Dear Mr. Jenkins:

    As the former hateful target of Official Anglican Rage™, I must say “Well Done, Then”. These thin-skinned radicals are cheerful wreckers of the church (clergy, laypeople, property) entrusted to them, but incapable of being subjects of scrutiny, fact-checking, or criticism.

    Tell the truth, be cheerful and persistent, and submit all you do to the Spirit of God, so that good might be done, cynicism avoided, and pride kept low.

    Cheers,

    Binks
    Formerly of Prayerbook.ca, CaNN, Fr. Crouse Web, &c.

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