Diocese of Quebec, R.I.P.

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The Diocese of Quebec is on the verge of extinction not, you may be surprised to learn, because of global warming but because Anglophones are departing Quebec and those that are left in the churches are ageing. The diocese enjoys focussing on things like greening your parish’s liturgy, so the positive way of looking at this is that, very soon, there will be grass growing where the churches used to be: the ultimate in parish greening.

From here:

Anglophone migration out of Francophone Canada has decimated the Anglican Church with the number of members of the Diocese of Quebec falling almost in half over the past two years, a document released on the diocesan website reports.

“A Thumbnail Sketch of the Diocese” published on 14 Sept 2015 in preparation for the election of the 13th Bishop of Quebec reported: “There are 69 congregations, serving an overall Anglican population of approximately 1800 souls.” Statistics published in a report released in early 2014 by the Task Force on Mission Ministry and Management reported the diocese had 3000 members in 52 parishes with 87 congregations.

[….]

Diocesan leaders have warned Anglicanism was facing extinction in Quebec. An essay posted last year on the diocesan webpage stated 64 per cent of congregations would close or be amalgamated with other parishes in the next five years. The 2014 Task Force on Mission Ministry and Management paper stated “42% of congregations have fewer than 10 regular services a year and 76% have fewer than 25 participants at services. In 31% of the congregations the age range begins at 50 and in 13% at 70.” The report further reported that a “staggering 83%” reported minimal or no activity outside of worship.

A Church that wants to be the State

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One of the favourite activities of mainline churches is not, as one might expect, saving people from hell and judgement but pestering governments on how they should run the country. In practice, this usually amounts to leftist agitating, couched in familiar clichés like speaking truth to power, or advocating for the [choose any of the following, alternating as needed to avoid vain repetition]: poor, marginalised, disadvantaged, refugees, migrants, or make poverty history – a less onerous task than simply helping the poor, since it can’t be done.

Part of the problem seems to be that the church is nursing the fantasy that Jesus spent his time confronting secular authorities. Tom Wright says as much in this article [my emphasis]. The fact is, though, he didn’t; Jesus reserved his harshest criticisms for the religious authorities – in today’s terms, people like….. bishops. Although he called Herod a fox, the Pharisees were likened to snakes and cosmetically disguised coffins.

The gospels are not, then, a compendium of detached moral maxims for individuals. Jesus’ sayings find their meaning within the larger story about new creation struggling to be born. ‘Supposing God was in charge,’ Jesus was asking, ‘might it not look like this?’ – as he healed the sick, fed the hungry, rebuked the arrogant, told sharp-edged stories, wept with distressed friends, and (not least) confronted cynical authorities. ‘God’s rule’ poses its challenge to nations and cultures, not just individuals.

[….]

This brings us to the other key point. Along with the absolute priority of looking after the weakest and poorest, the church has a specific vocation. One of the tasks Jesus bequeathed his followers is to hold earthly rulers to account. This doesn’t mean clever clerical soundbites, still less theologians aping one strand of popular prejudice. It means drawing on the sustained wisdom of the worldwide church, across space and time, to remind rulers (often distracted by the next election or referendum) what they are there for. Back once more to the Psalms, the prophets and Jesus’ vision of God’s Rule. At the climax of the fourth gospel, Jesus confronted Pontius Pilate on the topics of kingdom, truth and power. His followers need to do the same.

Jesus’ point to Pilate was, surely, that his kingdom and Pilate’s occupy a different dimension. The church can advocate until all its bishops turn blue in the face but God’s Rule is not going to be established until Jesus returns. Meanwhile, the church might want to consider getting back to the job of saving sinners from hell and judgement.

Linda Gibbons jailed again

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From here:

At 11:02 Wednesday morning, Linda Gibbons sat uncomfortably, hands cuffed behind her back, in the rear seat of a Toronto Police squad car.

She was taken first to 53 Division, transferred to 55 Division where all women are held overnight pending their first court appearance, and is expected to be paraded for a show-cause hearing Thursday morning.

She is an unrepentant recidivist, a hopeless repeat offender.

She is a serious criminal.

Gibbons doesn’t count her arrests, but probably she’s been in the back seat of squad cars a couple of dozen times in the past two decades — and that’s including the five years she took off to care for her dying father.

She has spent an astonishing total of 10 years and seven months behind bars.

She has spent an astonishing total of 10 years and seven months behind bars.

I’ve written about people convicted of gun offences, serious drug offences, sex assault, drunk driving, child abuse and manslaughter who have done significantly less time.

Gibbons’ crime is worse.

She’s a veteran pro-life protester outside Toronto abortion clinics. She’s on the wrong side (the pro-life side) of the wrong issue (abortion) and yet she persists in trying to make her voice heard.

Before Linda Gibbons arrives at the abortion clinic, she knows she will be arrested yet she keeps doing it. I’m not sure it makes much difference to the blatantly evil absence of abortion restrictions in Canada, but it’s hard not to admire her tenacity.

Why does she keep doing it? Perhaps, to paraphrase Henry David Thoreau’s observation, because under a government which murders any unjustly, the true place for a just man is a prison.

The Anglican Church of Canada does reconciliation

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From here:

ACC shares reconciliation experience at international Anglican gathering

The Anglican Church of Canada continues the journey of healing and reconciliation with Canada’s Indigenous peoples. This path away from the legacy of colonialism and racism including the Indian residential school system reflects the unfortunate universal experiences of human conflict and resilience against egregious acts.

In spite of all the fanfare about reconciliation, the Anglican Church of Canada has yet to offer any gesture of reconciliation to the ANiC congregations whose buildings it seized and bank accounts it froze. That is because, rather than confess one’s own sins, it is easier to confess those of one’s predecessors.

Still, if it were not for the posturing and hypocrisy, fewer people might be leaving the ACoC, so it’s not a total loss.

The Christian bus driver and the Pride bus

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From here:

A Calgary man says he will quit his job if he’s assigned to drive a bus wrapped in a rainbow flag.

The annual Calgary Pride Festival kicks off Friday and, as a show of support, a Calgary Transit bus has been wrapped in the symbol of inclusiveness.

The rainbow flag bus will operate through Sept. 7, the day of the parade.

Jesse Rau, who has worked for Calgary Transit as a driver for about a year, says he’s a Christian and can’t support homosexuality.

Rau hopes Calgary Transit and the Amalgamated Transit Union will support drivers who don’t want to drive the rainbow bus.

Doug Morgan, director of Calgary Transit, says drivers can only refuse to work based on safety issues.

Here is the bus:

bus1

Although I sympathise with the bus driver’s disinclination to drive the bus, I have an uneasy feeling that he has picked the wrong battle. As Christians in the world, we are constantly surrounded with ideas that are out of step with our beliefs and sometimes they are plastered on the side of a bus. The driver has not been asked to drive a bus in the Pride Parade.

Would Jesse Rau also refuse to drive a bus with these ads?

 

I wonder what would happen to a Muslim bus driver who refused to drive a bus with this on it:

New eligibility criteria for politicians and voters

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From Peter Hitchens:

Nobody under the age of 55 should be able to stand for election, and nobody under the age of 30 should be able to vote in those elections. Nobody under 55 knows anything much about life. Nobody under 30 knows anything.

I would add one: anyone unable to formulate a sentence without using the word “like” is incapable of coherent thought and should be ineligible to vote – that rules out everyone under 40 and many under 60.

Another quotidian baby part vendor lunch

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In this video, StemExpress, baby part merchant, suggests cutting off the hands and feet of the aborted babies so that lab technicians can’t easily identify what they are looking at and have a meltdown.

Even baby part trafficking ghouls know that the “tissue” is really a baby.

Anglican Church of Canada marriage canon report almost complete

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Read the entire article here:

The largest section of the roughly 50-page report will be devoted to biblical and theological reflection on the feasibility of Anglican same-sex marriage. The report will also address other components spelled out in General Synod 2013’s original mandating resolution on the marriage of same-sex couples. These include the wording of any amendment to Canon 21 permitting same-sex marriage, the terms of reference of the Solemn Declaration of 1893, which created the Anglican Church of Canada, and legal aspects of a conscience clause protecting bishops, dioceses, clergy and congregations from being constrained to authorize or participate in such marriages against the dictates of conscience.

[……]

It also set additional criteria contained in amendments introduced by diocese of Algoma Bishop Stephen Andrews and Dean Peter Elliott, diocese of New Westminster. The amendments, approved by a vote, stated that the 2016 motion should include supporting documentation that:

  • “demonstrates broad consultation in its preparation;

  • explains how this motion does not contravene the Solemn Declaration;

  • confirms immunity under civil law and the Human Rights Code for those bishops, dioceses and priests who refuse to participate in or authorize the marriage of same-sex couples on the basis of conscience; and

  • provides a biblical and theological rationale for this change in teaching on the nature of Christian marriage.”

I can’t help noticing that the wording of this article is always on the positive side of changing the marriage canon. For example, considering same-sex marriage has not existed in the church for two millennia, I might expect to see a theological reflection on the infeasibility of Anglican same-sex marriage. Instead, we read that the reflection will be upon the feasibility of Anglican same-sex marriage. Similarly, rather than explain how this motion does contravene the Solemn Declaration, we find the opposite. The bias is obvious, surely.

I wonder how this could possibly work:

confirms immunity under civil law and the Human Rights Code for those bishops, dioceses and priests who refuse to participate in or authorize the marriage of same-sex couples on the basis of conscience

How can a group of clerics expect any pronouncement they make about what may or may not occur under civil law to be taken seriously? Have they all taken a break from their studies of global warming to become civil rights lawyers?

How to be a cool bishop

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Western bishops, having cast off the shackles of musty dogma that have been accumulating around the church for the last couple of millennia, are searching earnestly for something that will make people pay attention to them. Something to make them relevant. Something to show the world that they are cool.

National Lutheran Bishop Susan Johnson has the answer. It doesn’t get much cooler than her jitterbug at the Anglican sacred phlogiston shindig:

dancing bishop