The Diocese of Niagara has competition in Guelph

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The Diocese of Niagara is closing both St. Matthias and St. David and St. Patrick in Guelph. As a counterpoint to the sound of shrivelling, accompanied by revving bulldozers, echoing throughout empty diocesan buildings ANiC is considering opening an Anglican Church in Guelph. Ecclesiastical free enterprise is a wonderful thing.

See below for details:

I met recently with the Reverend Zena Attwood, a minister of the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC). ANiC, she explains, is trying to stem this Anglican hemorrhage by establishing churches that fulfill [sic] the goals I’ve described. Their website (anglicannetwork.ca) shows that in their first five years they have 72 parishes across Canada. ANiC is a member of the conservative Anglican Church in North America, that reckons about a thousand parishes in Canada and the USA and is enthusiastically planting more. Ms Attwood says she’s creating a core group to start such a parish in Guelph. The group meets on Sunday mornings for Bible discussion and eucharist. Ms Attwood invites inquiries at 519 846 0454 or zena.attwood@gmail.com. Mr D’Arcy Luxton is an alternative contact at 519 846 0483 or darcy.luxton@gmail.com.

Highlights from the Council of General Synod

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The Council of General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada met in May to discuss, among other things, anti-racism, repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery, Vision 2019, and how to mangle the Marriage Canon.

The complete highlights can read here, but for those who are reluctant to wade through that ponderous document and would like a summary of how effectively these deliberations will further the Kingdom of Christ in the twenty first century, the following extract will suffice:

Council members took a short coffee break from 10:15 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

Justin Trudeau does Robin Hood imitation

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From here:

Justin Trudeau is gambling that he can get away with a tax hike on wealthy Canadians to fund a middle-class tax cut for those who get “an ever-shrinking piece of the pie.”

The Liberal leader, long criticized for speaking in generalities, revealed the core theme of his election platform — Fairness for the Middle Class — at a folksy event in an Aylmer, Que., diner on Monday.

Specifically, he committed to a $670 tax cut for every Canadian who earns $44,701 or more — a pledge that will cost $3 billion.

It will be paid for by creating a new tax bracket of 33% for those who earn more than $200,000, he said. The Liberals project this change will bring in $3 billion, making the move revenue neutral to the federal government.

How is this really all is going to work, you might wonder. Like this:

The Anglican Church of Canada’s marriage canon report

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In 2014, the Anglican Church of Canada set up a commission to consider whether the marriage canon should be changed to include marrying same sex couples. The chair of the commission announced that “everyone [in the commission] has an open mind”. It’s hard to believe, I know, but some were suspicious of this declaration of openness; after all, in Angli-speak, an “open mind” is code for “we’ve made up our minds but we want to lull the gullible into a false sense of security”. “Open mind” is just so much more succinct.

To bolster the façade, the commission invited Anglicans to submit their opinions and many have done just that.

Now the report is ready for at least internal consumption, it appears that the sceptics were right. Bishop Linda Nicholls has clearly stated that the commission did not try to determine whether there is any Biblical or theological warrant for marrying same-sex couples. Its task, she says, was to squeeze from the Biblical texts a justification for marrying same sex-couples whether one exists there or not: Anglican sophistry at its finest. Apparently, this revelation is “still not being heard”. This can only mean that the level of deceit has reached such proportions that the few remaining members of the ACoC have turned off their hearing aids in disgust.

My emphasis:

Bishop Linda Nicholls, commission member, spoke about the content of the report and initially about the commission’s mandate. “Our task was to provide the support for a change to the marriage canon. It wasn’t a debate whether a change was necessary or right to do, that will be the determination of General Synod,” she said. “It is a fine point but it is one we have to keep telling people because it is still not being heard.”

The report will include a consideration of the Solemn Declaration of 1893 (which established the Anglican Church of Canada), a consideration of the biblical and theological rationale for same-sex marriage, the wording of an amendment to the marriage canon to permit same-sex marriage, including a conscience clause. “We gathered a legal opinion on the conscience clause and how it might be worded so that it could provide the space for all members of the Anglican Church of Canada if it this were too pass,” said Nicholls. “The largest section will be the biblical and theological rationale,” she added.

Despite protestations that there are more important factors in being an Anglican than sex, Fred Hiltz has finally admitted that sex really is the uppermost thing on the minds of pastorally sensitive clergy. We all knew that. Even Michael Coren knows that.

“What’s churning in my gut and rumbling through my soul is that this matter is one of the most critical and crucial matters before our church”

Anglican Journal wins 24 awards

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But none from the Permanent Office of Foreign Media Organization, People’s Republic of China. Maybe next year.

From here:

The Anglican Journal received 24 awards, including eight awards of excellence, at the joint convention of the Canadian Church Press (CCP) and Associated Church Press (ACP) held April 27 to May 1 in Toronto.

Why Michael Coren is no longer a Roman Catholic

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It’s all here, although the nub of it seems to be:

I could not remain in a church that effectively excluded gay people. That’s only one of the reasons, but for someone who had taken the Catholic position on same-sex marriage for so long, I’d never been comfortable with that even though I suppose I was regarded as being a stalwart in that position. But I’d moved on, and I felt a hypocrite. I felt a hypocrite being part of a church that described homosexual relations as being disordered and sinful. I just couldn’t be part of it anymore. I could not do that. I couldn’t look people in the eye and make the argument that is still so central to the Catholic Church, that same-sex attraction is acceptable but to act on it is sinful. I felt that the circle of love had to be broadened, not reduced.

I have a strong suspicion that he won’t be particularly comfortable being an Anglican either; luckily there are about 21,000 other Christian denominations still to try.

Another Diocese of Niagara church on the brink of closing

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The congregation of St. David and St. Patrick in Guelph will be worshipping in a Lutheran Church starting in June. The Anglican Church of Canada and Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada have been combining their office space and holding joint synods for some time now, so it’s not surprising to see consolidation at the parish level; this is almost certainly the first of many. The ACoC and ELCIC, for all their spiritual posturing, are behaving in much the same way as secular businesses. Unlike secular businesses, though, while paying no tax themselves, the ACoC and ELCIC lobby the government to redistribute other people’s wealth by increasing their taxes; this is called prophetic social justice making.

After the public relations debacle with the closing of St. Matthias in Guelph, the diocese is understandably leery about yet another church closure and probable sale of the property to developers. It seems that the parishioners are not “allowed to talk about the issue”. What would happen to them if they do, I wonder? Shipped off to Justice Camp for re-education, I expect.

From here:

GUELPH—As the debate around the sale of the St. Matthias Anglican church heats up, the future of another Anglican place of worship in the Royal City is left uncertain.

The Anglican Diocese of Niagara says the congregation at St. David and St. Patrick, at 520 Speedvale Ave. E., will move to worship at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church this June.

Reverend Bill Mous, director of justice, community and global ministries at the diocese, wrote in an email to the Mercury the Anglican parish has entered into a two-year “partnership agreement” with the nearby Lutheran church.

That leaves the future of the Anglican church building unclear.

[….]

A person who answered the phone at the Anglican church said no one there was allowed to talk about the issue.