The homosexual cleric Rev. Brent Hawkes delivered the sermon, Steven Page sang Leonard Cohen’s “Halleluia”, Steven Lewis couldn’t resist being political and First Nations National Chief, Shawn Atleo presented a feather in a mawkish neo-pagan send-off of the persona of Jack Layton.
Let’s hope that the person is enjoying eternity in the presence of the Triune God.
I think Lewis’ eulogy was appropriate. Layton’s whole life was politics and the NDP movement – what else could he talk about, really?
That universalist pastor, on the other hand, gave me the creeps. Not wearing his robes out of respect for other traditions? What about his respect for Jesus, and his own tradition? He was wearing a medal (I hope it wasn’t an order of Canada!) but I didn’t notice him wearing a cross. He name dropped at every opportunity (I guess he wanted the world to know that he and Jack were “like that”). He had no words for those who “grieve without hope”.
Also, did you notice that the person who read from the Koran was a woman, and that she read? As far as I know, only men are permitted to recite from the Koran at a prayer service, and it must be recited from memory. (That could be only the more traditionalist Muslims, though…)