What’s in a name?

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“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

Sometimes a name is so apposite it’s hard not to think that there really is something in it. Yesterday, Mohammed Badie, Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood was arrested.

From here:

The Brotherhood’s spiritual guide, Mohammed Badie, was arrested in an apartment in the Cairo district of Nasr City, close to the site of a sit-in encampment [a better euphemism would be holiday torture resort] that was forcibly cleared by security forces last week, triggering violence that killed hundreds of people.

Badie’s arrest is the latest move in an escalating crackdown by authorities on the Brotherhood, which has seen hundreds of its members taken into custody.

Michael Ingham to speak in the Diocese of Niagara

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Now that he has retired, Bishop Michael Ingham has started on the lecture circuit.

Where better to begin than the diocese which has been attempting to out-liberal the Diocese of New Westminster for about a decade: the Diocese of Niagara. He will be speaking at the Bishop’s Company Dinner – a diocesan club for well-heeled laypeople inclined to senior cleric sycophancy – on September 30, 2013.

IngThose who wish to be regaled with tales of Ingham’s former triumphs – or how to break up a worldwide denomination by being inclusive – may do so for a mere $225. I wonder how much Ingham is being paid.

Ing2

Katharine Jefferts Schori rationalises TEC’s declining membership

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From here:

The head of The Episcopal Church has stated that the declining numbers of her denomination could be the work of the Holy Spirit to create “greater fruitfulness.”

TEC Presiding Bishop the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori made this statement last Thursday in remarks delivered at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s (ELCA) Churchwide Assembly in Pittsburgh. “Some have judged our smaller numbers as faithlessness but it may actually be the Spirit’s way of pruning for greater fruitfulness,” said Jefferts Schori.

“If we see ourselves standing at the foot of the cross, any such judgment will be far less important than our response.”

Between 2010 and 2011, ELCA membership went from about 4.2 million to just over 4 million, representing a loss of more than 212,000 members. During the same time period, The Episcopal Church had a decrease of over 28,000 members, causing the number of members in its domestic dioceses to dip below the 2 million mark.

Jefferts Schori is clearly confused about which part God is throwing out in all this pruning.

Pruning entails targeted removal of “diseased, damaged, dead, non-productive, structurally unsound, or otherwise unwanted tissue”, a fitting description of what’s left of TEC, the ACoC, the ECLA and the ELCIC. These liberal denominations are all in rapid decline; they appear to be hell-bent on holding their current course until they finally vanish in a puff of sulphur scented incense.

Those who have fled these institutions are committed Christians now attending growing, healthy, orthodox churches.

Bishop Cyrus Pitman to retire

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From here:

The bishop of the Anglican diocese of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador, Cyrus Pitman, has announced his retirement effective this November.

In a letter to members of his diocese, Pitman said that he has informed Archbishop Claude Miller, Metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical Province of Canada, that the diocesan synod scheduled this November 15 to 16 will elect a new diocesan bishop.

“My resignation as Bishop will be effective the date we elect a new bishop,” said Pitman.

On June 12,  2004, Pitman was elected co-adjutor bishop of the diocese, with automatic right of succession to the office of diocesan bishop. He became diocesan bishop when then bishop, Donald Harvey, retired in November that same year.

At the height of the controversy over same-sex blessings, which led to the departure of some clergy and laypeople – including the former bishop –  the quiet and soft-spoken Pitman surprised many when he asked clergy in his diocese to declare their loyalty to the Anglican Church of Canada as they renewed their ordination vows and renewed their licences.

“Today, my friends, is a fresh start,” he had said in his sermon at a mandatory gathering held Jan. 21,  2008 at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in St. John’s, Nfld. “It’s not a power grab as has been suggested by some. Whether someone is of a conservative bent or a liberal bent or some other bent, whatever these labels mean, I will support you… But let’s not make any mistake about it. There are boundaries.”

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Pitman’s “boundaries” had little to do with maintaining the integrity of the Christian faith in the Anglican Church of Canada and, notwithstanding his protestation to the contrary, a lot to do with the exercise of power. As Malcolm Muggeridge observed: “you can choose love or you can choose power; you can’t have both”. Pitman chose power.

On January 10 2008, Pitman wrote to his clergy demanding their allegiance:

In what could be the start of real schism in the Anglican Church, a Newfoundland bishop is demanding clergy come to the provincial capital to declare whether their loyalties lie with him or his predecessor, the leader of a breakaway conservative movement.

“Attendance at these gatherings is mandatory,” Cyrus Pitman, bishop of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador warns in a Dec. 18 letter to clergy obtained by the Star.

Clergy from Eastern Newfoundland’s 33 parishes are to be in St. John’s on Jan. 21 to restate their ordination vows and to get new licences, with a date for those from the six Labrador parishes yet to be set.

Clergy need a licence from the church to minister to a parish or perform marriages.

On April 10 2008, Pitman fired one of his priests for upholding Biblical standards:

The Rev. Darrel Critch, Rector at St. Mary the Virgin on Craigmillar Avenue, St John’s, Newfoundland has been removed from his position by Bp. Pitman and Archdeacon Peddle.

This happened on the evening of Thursday the 10th of April at an emergency Vestry Meeting called by Bishop Pitman. Archdeacon Peddle showed up at the meeting and shortly thereafter Rev. Critch was relieved from his duties. Archdeacon Peddle has now been appointed administrator of St. Mary’s.

Why? Well what I have heard is that Rev. Critch made a stand on the Scriptures and removed a couple from choir who were living together in an immoral relationship.

In July 2008, Pitman, in a fit of ecclesiastical McCarthyism, made an attempt to compile a register of lay people who had left the Anglican Church of Canada to make sure that none of them exercise any ministry in an ACoC diocese:

LAY RELINQUISHMENTS
Lay people who have also left the Anglican Church of Canada are asked to indicate their intentions to the Bishop who will maintain a register for future information.
It seems clear to us that lay people who leave also relinquish their privilege to be part of any Ministry that they have been allowed to perform.

After an illustrious career devoted to erecting boundaries designed to discourage undesirables – once ejected – from obstinately straying back into the Anglican Church of Canada, the bishop has decided to take a rest and retire.

Wrestler shocks interviewer by announcing he’s gay

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From here:

A WWE wrestler shocked his interviewer by casually declaring that he’s gay – and then added, ‘to be honest, I don’t think it matters.’

Darren Young, real name Fred Rosser, is thought to be the first major professional wrestler to come out while still active in the ring.

I’m shocked, too. I thought all WWE wrestlers were gay; I was waiting for one of them to come out as straight. Sweaty men grappling with sweaty men, the posturing, playacting and overdone bravura – it seemed fairly obvious.

The evolution of Darwin’s descendant

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From here:

According to the commonly held view about her great-great-great-grandfather, Charles Darwin, Laura Keynes has apparently broken all the rules in developing a passionate Catholic faith.

Apart from her family lineage, which includes her great-great-uncle, economist John Maynard Keynes, Laura also holds a doctorate from Oxford University in philosophy.

[…..]

The reason for her return to the faith of her baptism is quite surprising and something of an “own goal” for Britain’s shrill “new atheists.” She explains that, in her 20s, while she was working on her doctorate at Oxford, the “God Debate” took off, after a flurry of publication from the likes of Richard Dawkins.

Keynes continues, “I expected to be moved from agnosticism to atheism by their arguments, but after reading on both sides of the debate, I couldn’t dismiss a compelling intellectual case for faith. As for being good without God, I’d tried and didn’t get very far. At some point, life will bring you to your knees, and no act of will is enough in that situation. Surrendering and asking for grace is the logical human response.”

I find it rather satisfying that our strident anti-theists have helped to drive the great-great-great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin into the arms of the Catholic Church.

It poses something of a conundrum to the new anti-theists : if naturalistic evolution is true then Laura Keynes has involuntarily evolved to the point of denying naturalistic evolution – which casts considerable doubt on whether naturalistic evolution is true.

Rowan Williams thinks British Christians are cry-babies

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From here:

Lord Williams said religious believers should be wary of complaining about their treatment in the Western world, with those claiming they are “persecuted” making him “very uneasy”.

He added the level of “not being taken very seriously” or “being made fun of” in Britain and the United States is not comparable to the “murderous hostility” faced by others in different parts of the world.

Speaking at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, he urged those who complain of ill-treatment for their beliefs in Britain to “grow up”.

No-one cared much what Rowan Williams thought when he was Archbishop of Canterbury – actually, due to his tortuous, eyebrow-matching tangled communication abilities, most people didn’t know what he thought – so I doubt that anyone cares now that he isn’t.

Nevertheless, he will keep spouting pious aphorisms as if we do – care, that is.

Christians in Britain are being persecuted: they are losing their jobs, losing their businesses and losing their right to freedom of expression; because he was seen to represent Christendom, Lee Rigby lost his life. Sadly, the only thing that would make Rowan Williams side with British Christians is if he discovered that greedy bankers were, somehow, selectively making obscene profits from them – that would still be about the bankers rather than the Christians, of course.

Rowan also believes that Muslim women “assert themselves” by wearing a veil, that sharia law is a good idea and that playing at being a druid is a routine component of being an Anglican archbishop.

When I “grow up”, perhaps I will agree with him.

The Diocese of New Westminster at the Vancouver Pride Parade

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More than 500,000 people attended the Vancouver Pride parade on Sunday.

130 of them attended the Diocese of New Westminster’s special Pride Day service in the Cathedral; 60 of them may have been there for the free brunch.

So go the diocesan plans to fill the 600-seat cathedral.

proud anglicans

Jerusalem

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Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Luke 13:34

More here.Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Sanctuary of Gethsemane:
Church of the Visitation:
Yet another Church:The Wailing Wall:Along the Via Dolorosa:

The Diocese of BC conducts its first same-sex blessing

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Bishop James Cowan performed the first same-sex blessing in the Diocese of BC on June 1. As the article below notes, everyone processed into the church immediately following the civil wedding: the distinction between marrying and blessing that dioceses who perform same-sex blessings were so keen to make has, for all practical purposes, already vanished.

I notice that “Draw the circle wide, Draw it wider still” has made a comeback –”a step in drawing wider a circle of welcoming inclusiveness which needs to be drawn wider still.” Or to put it another way: you can’t hide; no matter how fast you run, we are coming for you and, when we find you, you will be included.

SS-blessingIt was a wonderful, exciting, joyous and emotional service which took place in the Church of St. John the Divine, Victoria, on Saturday June 1.

To the magnificent sounds of Sigfrid Karg-Elert’s Marche Triomphale from St. John’s Casavant organ, the large community of parishioners, family and friends processed into the church immediately following the civil wedding of Paul Gillan and Michael King in the church garden.

In a grace-filled landmark service of praise and thanksgiving, Bishop James Cowan conducted the first Blessing of a Same Sex Union to occur in the Diocese of British Columbia.

In his brief homily, the bishop noted the significance of this event in the Anglican church. Referring to the words “Draw the circle wide, Draw it wider still.” from the just-sung hymn “Draw the Circle Wide” (CP 418), Bishop James acknowledged that this service marked but a step in drawing wider a circle of welcoming inclusiveness which needs to be drawn wider still. He paid tribute to the long struggle for equality advanced at many Synods over the years by the parishioners of St. John’s and other churches in the diocese. In this service which included choral Eucharist, Bishop James spoke of God’s covenant with us.

As we gathered together to witness and bless the public commitment of Paul and Michael to each other, the bishop reminded us that all our covenants with family and friends are signs of God’s faithfulness and love, living expressions of God’s promises to us and sources of hope to others.

With joy in our hearts, we celebrated the covenant between Paul and Michael, praying that the life they share will reflect the love of God for the whole world. We also pray that this is just a beginning.