Oakville residents unhappy about St. Hilda’s being turned into an EMS station

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From here:

Right idea, wrong location.

That’s the sentiment expressed by more than 70 southwest Oakville residents Wednesday night at a public meeting regarding Halton Region’s plan to build an ambulance station and safe haven at the site of the former St. Hilda’s Anglican Church.

The Region recently purchased the two-acre site at 1258 Rebecca St.

While the meeting at T.A. Blakelock High School was set up as a drop-in information centre, after about 30 minutes, Regional representatives bowed to demand from residents and switched to a town hall format.

In 2005, the Region’s 10-Year Emergency Services Master Plan identified the need for a paramedic station to respond more quickly to emergency medical calls in southwest Oakville.

“We agree with this, but there are more suitable locations within less than two minutes,” said resident Cindy Wagg, pointing to Speers Road and non-residential areas.

Resident Ella Kokotsis says thousands of children and teens in the Rebecca Street area travel to school by bus, bicycle or on foot. The area also has a daycare centre, retirement residence, churches and a library. Kokotsis and others are concerned about pedestrian safety.

It’s nice to be missed.

The Diocese of BC: selling churches

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From here:

Nearly four years ago, the Anglican Diocese of B.C. recommended closing 11 churches across Greater Victoria, and selling the property in a bid to reduce debt and reinvigorate itself in the face of shrinking congregations.

Out of the 11, three have sold and two are leased by other organizations. The remainder are open for business as Anglican churches, and no longer face imminent closure, largely by strokes of luck.

“They were put all on the market at once, the ones people wanted to buy immediately are the only reason (others remain),” said Rev. Chris Parsons, speaking for the diocese. “We only wanted to sell a certain amount and re-evaluate what was needed.”

Properties like St. Saviour in Vic West and St. Martin in the Fields in Saanich sold, the former to a dance company and the latter to an evangelical denomination.

St. Columba in Saanich’s Strawberry Vale and All Saints in View Royal have closed as Anglican churches and the space is leased out (St. Alban’s had sold in 2009, prior to the mass sale).

Others once on the block – St. David by the Sea in Cordova Bay, St. Peter’s in Lakehill, St. Philip and St. Mary in Oak Bay and St. Mary in Metchosin – survived by the grace of not being attractive to other organizations or property developers.

[….]

A steadily declining congregational base, the basis for church closures and sales, and internal debates on issues such as same sex marriage still remain a problems for the Anglican Church.

A report from the diocese estimated that in 2009 barely one per cent of B.C. residents identify as Anglican. St. David sees about 40 parishioners on Saturdays and Sundays, and St. Peter’s sees about 60 people between two Sunday services.

St. Mary in Metchosin which is “not … attractive to other organizations or property developers” once housed a flourishing congregation that left the diocese to join ANiC.

The fact that an evangelical denomination bought one of the buildings as, presumably, part of their growth contains a message that will probably be lost on the Diocese of BC.

The Love of God Fits Everyone

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One of St. Hilda’s parishioners wrote a children’s song over 80 years ago. In 2010 he asked me to set it to music. Two of my grandchildren introduced it to the congregation then and, since they are visiting from Australia, they joined me to sing it again today.

Here is the song’s author, his wife and a few others::

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Here are the words:

The love of God fits everyone,
it comes in every size.
it comes in every colour
And lights a billion eyes.

His miracles are everywhere –
the earth, the air, the sea,
and everything that’s in them,
including you and me.

The time of God is evermore,
a never ending line,
and his hand is everywhere
and here in yours and mine.

The love of God fits everyone,
it comes in every size.
it comes in every colour
and lights a billion eyes.

Today was “Back to Church Sunday”

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Back to Church Sunday is not to be confused with returning to Christ, of course; this is, after all, the Canadian Anglican Church.

In 2009 Toronto bishops dressed up in all their finery and handed out leaflets outside Union Station:

29-09-2013 5-05-55 PM

There hasn’t been a repeat performance by the bishops. As one observer noted:

Well intentioned, but . . well, those of my friends who are not now churchgoers wouldn’t go to church because a scary, robed bishop gave them a leaflet.

He has a point: the Anglican Church of Canada in its desperate quest for relevance, contorts its beliefs to accommodate contemporary culture – from same-sex marriage to there being many ways to God to having no set dogma at all, just community whose commonality is doctrinal incoherence.

The one thing that visibly separates bishops from the common herd is the one thing they won’t give up: dressing up in robes and pointy hats. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Anglican Planet: Bishop charges journalist with libel

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Read the whole article here:

AN ANGLICAN JOURNALIST has been charged with making libelous comments about a bishop in the Anglican Church of Canada. On Feb.19th, David Jenkins was served personally with a statement of claim for defamation of character from the diocesan Bishop of Niagara, Michael Bird.

[…..]

Another Anglican bishop, Grant LeMarquand, the Bishop for the Horn of Africa, who, like Bird, has also been criticized on Samizdat, commented in an online discussion on the Anglican Journal website: “I have been criticized on the same blog site but it never crossed my mind that a lawsuit was an option. In fact, that the Bishop of Niagara would even consider such an action as this attempt to silence criticism and dissent should make us all cringe. Should the bishop win his case, the principle of free speech will be diminished and all Canadians will all [sic] be lessened as a result.”

Jenkins said that “the pleadings are now closed and we will commence the discovery process on Oct. 17th.”

As the article notes, the next step in my little adventure is the Examination for Discovery which will occur on October 17th. For those who feel inclined to pray, I would value your prayers for wisdom on that date.

Anglicans in Ottawa Pride parade dress more modestly than other participants

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Here is the standard of modesty that Ottawa Anglicans had to beat:

Less than modest

It wasn’t easy, but the six participating Anglican parishes put their heads together and came up with the innovative but, I must say, less than entirely inclusive idea of putting clothes on. Notwithstanding their modest attire, they still managed to stay “in touch with the theme of this year’s Capital Pride Festival” and that, after all, is what Christianity is really all about:

modest Anglicans

More here:

Among the hundreds of parade participants were scores of Anglicans from at least six parishes: St. Alban’s, Church of the Ascension, St. John the Evangelist, St. Michaels and All Angels, St. Marks, and St. James the Apostle. Marching as a group under the banner of Integrity Ottawa, they formed largest Christian group in the parade.

“We have found this to be a wonderful opportunity to make clear that there are parishes in our diocese who are intentional in their welcome to the GLBT community,” wrote Ron Chaplin of Integrity Ottawa, on the diocesan email list. Although Anglican marchers dressed more modestly than many of the participants, many seemed in touch with the theme of this year’s Capital Pride Festival – “Be Loud, Be Proud.”

Coming soon to a church near you: Erotic Justice

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The Anglican Church of Canada tirelessly proclaims its gospel of social justice. In reality, however, the Canadian Anglican Church is rapidly progressing – or regressing, depending on one’s perspective – from social justice to erotic justice. The term has not been adopted by any Anglican dioceses yet but – it’s coming. I expect the Diocese of New Westminster will be the first with its lapdog, Niagara, eagerly following.

Marvin M. Ellison, a gay Professor of Christian Ethics at Bangor Theological Seminary, has written a number of books on the subject, one of which is entitled Erotic Justice. In the book, he argues that sexual expression should be liberated from “frameworks of control” like marriage: eroticism is a good in and of itself. Sexuality, he says, has become intertwined with ableism (yes there is such a thing), racism, sexism and heterosexism. It’s all Christianity’s fault, of course, so because of its “sex-negativity and moralistic, controlling bent with respect to sexual expression, traditional Christian teachings must be critiqued”

Well, you get the picture: sex with anyone or anything in any combination is intrinsically good. When I was growing up in the 60s I remember this concept well; except it wasn’t tarted up with bogus theological justifications. We called it screwing around.

Atheism to be taught to Irish schoolchildren

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So says the headline of an article in the Guardian. Rather than base the curriculum on the premise that something doesn’t exist, an endeavour that is patently absurd – like, to borrow a well-worn saw from atheism, running a school whose founding principle is that fairies don’t exist – the course is actually an outlet for the silly books of atheism’s evangelists.

The question is, once the children have been introduced to the idea that there is no God and that they live in a universe where, as Richard Dawkins puts it, “there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference”, what is to prevent them growing from self-absorbed little stinkers into solipsitic adults who trample on anyone who is weaker because they care for nothing and no-one but themselves? The answer is: nothing; and that is what will bring on the howling wilderness.

In a historic move that will cheer Richard Dawkins, atheists in Ireland have secured the right to teach the republic’s primary schoolchildren that God doesn’t exist.

The first ever atheist curriculum for thousands of primary-school pupils in Ireland has been drawn up by Atheist Ireland in an education system that the Catholic church hierarchy has traditionally dominated.

The class of September 2014 will be reading texts such as Dawkins’ The Magic of Reality, his book aimed at children, as well as other material at four different primary levels, according to Atheist Ireland.

Up to 16,000 primary schoolchildren who attend the fast-growing multi-denominational Irish school sector will receive direct tuition on atheism as part of their basic introduction course to ethics and belief systems.