Anglican Church of Canada considers the repercussions of changing the Marriage Canon

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Having already shattered the unity of the Anglican Communion by blessing the union of same-sex couples, the Anglican Church of Canada, in a rare moment of penetrating insight, is considering the remote possibility that pressing ahead with actually marrying same-sex couples will make things even worse.

From here:

The Commission on the Marriage Canon’s final report will incorporate not only the submissions received from Anglicans across Canada, but will also reflect consultations about how changing the church’s law to allow for same-sex marriage might affect relationships within and outside of the Anglican Church of Canada.

“It’s clear that as we engage our conversation around this potential canon, it has implications for our relationships with others — our relationships across the Anglican Communion and our relationships with our ecumenical partners,”

Bishop Linda Nicholls went on to note”

“We also recognize that at some level, this is a no-win proposition,” added Nicholls. “Whatever we put forward, there will be those who are unhappy, in pain, struggling.”

That just about sums up the ACoC: pain, struggling, unhappiness and no Salvation.

Archbishop of Dublin thinks Anglicans need a deeper understating of Islam

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He has a point: for the most part, Anglican bishops have failed dismally to understand Christianity so they might as well have a shot at interpreting another religion. If God smiles on their efforts, perhaps they will do for Muslims what they have done for Christians: make them doubt everything about their faith. It could even be the tipping point for mass conversions of Muslims to Christianity.

From here:

Anglicans need a deeper understanding of Islam and Christian-Muslim relations so they can better pray and respond to interfaith situations.

Chair of the Anglican Network for Inter Faith Concerns (NIFCON) and Archbishop of Dublin the Most Rev. Michael Jackson made the comments in a letter to primates and provincial secretaries of the Anglican Communion.

Writing to promote the latest NIFCON Christian Muslim Digest he said, “As the events in Syria and Iraq, and in other countries where Muslims are in a majority, impact upon increasingly wider areas, we are reminded that within all of the provinces of the Anglican Communion we need to have a deeper knowledge of Islam and Christian-Muslim relations so that we can reach a better understanding of the issues and how they might impact upon us and other Anglicans, and will be able to pray more effectively.”

Anglican cognitive inclusivity

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Anglican clergy love meaningless clichés: their judicious deployment helps prevent sceptical laypeople from pinning down the actual beliefs of their shepherds. Slipperiness is everything. Here is a new one from the Diocese of New Westminster: cognitive inclusivity.

Anglicans with $30 whose inclusion is suffering from depleted cognition can go here to have it recharged:

Plenary speaker Bishop Melissa Skelton, Anglican Diocese of New Westminster, Anglican Church of Canada, will help us explore the liturgical experience of reverence.

Four workshops will explore justice and holy in our music, worship and community organizing, cognitive inclusivity, and hospitality.

Church flies ISIS flag

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Jesus commands us to love our enemies. Our fallen nature is repulsed by such an idea. Fear not, St Columba Uniting Church in Australia has come up with something much easier: love someone else’s enemies.

St Columba Uniting Church is flying an ISIS flag with a quote from Matthew 5:44 on it:

ISIS-Church

It’s very easy for comfortable Western Christians to parade their piety by expressing forgiveness for a remote enemy that has done them no direct harm. It is a little harder for the parents in Iraq or Syria whose children have been murdered. The clergy who erected the flag have not suffered at the hands of ISIS; they have nothing to lose by forgiving ISIS. Moreover, by sycophantically sucking up to non-Christian religions, the denomination could win the coveted Order of the Politically Correct award.

St Columba ‘s exhortation might have been marginally more convincing had it been placed on the corporate logo of an organisation that the church probably does genuinely hate: a carbon spewing oil company, for example.

I wonder if they would have got away something similar involving a swastika during World War 2?

Lift High the Housing

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I’ve always enjoyed singing the hymn “Lift High the Cross”; what more fitting symbol of the Christian Gospel could there be than the Cross?

It has taken the combined theological insights of the Anglican Church of Canada and the Lutheran Evangelical Church in Canada to come up with something better: November 22nd is “Lift up National Housing Day”:

On November 22, Lutherans and Anglicans are called to lift up National Housing Day 2014, learn more about the issues contributing to poverty, homelessness and substandard housing, and advocate for changes.

It goes without saying that neither denomination feels inclined to house the homeless in their increasing number of empty church buildings.

Testing the bonds of affection

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Anglicans are always prattling on about testing the bonds of affection. At first glance it gives the impression that, having tired of homosexuality, Anglican clergy have moved on to bondage.

Not so, apparently – well, it may be so, but no one is talking yet. Testing the bonds of affection refers to the split in the Anglican Communion; as Fred Hiltz notes:

We were invited to speak to the subject of “testing the bonds of affection” and to offer some reflections on the state of relations within and among the churches of the Anglican Communion.
While we acknowledged concerns about tensions over any number of matters and our grief over impaired relations between some churches, we noted the blessings of indaba—that manner of speaking and listening.

This clarifies things nicely: obviously, participants in Indabas and listening would have to be tied down – presumably with bonds of affection – to prevent them from running out screaming.

Elsewhere, Hiltz reveals that a select group of Manchurian Candidate African Primates have been persuaded (perhaps they were threatened with bonds of affection) to adopt Western eco-worship and sustainability. One can hardly blame them for caving: imagine the torment of sustained Indabas.

They framed their conversation in the context of human dignity, the sustainability of ministry and the care for the earth, and discussed a wide range of subjects that provide opportunities for fruitful collaboration and sharing of one another’s gifts.

Anglican priest blesses the burqa

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Rev. Rod Bower from the Anglican Parish of Gosford, as part of the unceasing Anglican striving after inclusion, relevance and trendiness, likes to put irritating signs up outside his church. This time he is blessing burqas; at least it makes a change from blessing same sex marriages.

It’s easy to see why Bower wants to bless burqas: he dresses in one himself – he was considerate enough to remove the headpiece for this photo:

3010_bower1_spFrom here:

A Central Coast man of God is continuing his crusade as a man of the people, calling on parishioners to “bless the burqa” as a campaign to ban facial coverings comes once more before Parliament.

Archdeacon Rod Bower of the Anglican Parish of Gosford has gained a measure of online fame with his pithy, popular church signs, which are always a hit on social media.

The latest offering shows Fr Bower standing in full ceremonial religious dress by the sign, which reads “Bless The Burqa”.

“I’m all for the religious (and non religious) freedom to wear what you like in public,” Fr Bower wrote on Facebook.

What eludes the Rev Bower is that if many of the women who do wear a burqa had the freedom of choice he thinks he is championing, they wouldn’t be seen dead in one.

As a reward for his innovative work in using church signs to explore hitherto untapped veins of clerical folly, he has been made an archdeacon.

Diocese of Montreal marches to preserve the climate

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Other than dressing up in long robes and aspiring to the elevated career apex where the wearing of comical hats is permitted, there is nothing that interests Anglican clergy more than climate change.

It isn’t much of a testimony to the persuasive powers of Diocese of Montreal clerics, then, that only 15 congregants could be convinced to march to “Preserve the Climate”. Only one priest seems to be present; it was raining, of course, and high humidity does make one’s robes cling so.

St. Anselm’s and the Future of Environmentalism

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The Diocese of New Westminster’s St. Anselm’s is hosting the talk by the CEO of the David Suzuki foundation. A discussion more pertinent to the church would have been one that probed the future of Canterbury approved Canadian Anglicanism. The answer might have proved too unsettling; as it is, the David Suzuki representative should feel right at home since Suzuki, in his autobiography (pp. 391), notes: “I have been an atheist all my adult life”Peter Robinson Talk 8.5 x 11

Canon Andrew White leaves Iraq

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A report from the National Post tells us than Canon White has “has quit Iraq after death threats and the beheading of children attached to his church by Islamic terrorists.” Although Andrew White is travelling in the US at the moment, his Facebook page doesn’t mention anything about quitting – suggesting a permanent departure – Iraq.

Nevertheless, the article is interesting in that it has Andrew White placing blame for the present mayhem not on the initial invasion – something he supported – but on Obama’s premature withdrawal of troops:

Asked whether ISIS could be reasoned with, Canon White said, “No.” He added, “ISIS is driven by that passion that Iraq has gone very, very wrong. Among terrorists, often they have lost something big. And the Sunnis have lost ultimately their power, their responsibility and their significance. Under the Saddam Hussein regime they had essence; now they have nothing.

“We can kill a few ISIS people from the clouds; we can kill some of our innocent civilians; but we can’t really bring about change” until the ground troops enter the fray. “American ground troops,” he said.

Canon White said U.S. President Barack Obama made the mistake of pulling out of Iraq before the country could guarantee the safety of the people.

“ISIS are going around causing their chaos with American weapons, in American tanks, in American armored vehicles and their Humvees because that man Obama left us. And we are seeing our people killed because of that mistake,” he said.

In a Facebook post from October 16th Andrew White also reiterates that Saddam had chemical weapons; now ISIS has and is using them:

Chemical Weapons Did Exist
For years I had been saying that Chemical Weapons did exist. Even before the war in 2003 I was saying that Saddam had the weapons and was removing them to Syria. Now ISIS have done what the coalition could never do. They have found the weapons but they are using them. The battle has just begun, but there is know body fighting the evil. What do we do. Praying is half the battle but we have to keep the people of G-d strong and able to keep eating and coping and surviving with G-d’s help we can.