From here:
My boyfriend is an amazing organist who just spent a week at a conference for Anglican musicians. Needless to say, almost everyone there was gay.
Needless to say.
Anglican organist boyfriend angst
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The Diocese of Niagara will keep asking me for money
Obviously the previous fundraising effort cunningly disguised as a $400,000 lawsuit was not enough. I just received this email from the Diocese of Niagara:
THANKS! and….. please help if you can!
A couple of days ago when we asked to “send a kid to camp” we had a wonderful reponse. Not only did people register children, but we were offered money to help children who needed financial assistance. There are many generous people in the Anglican community and we are very thankful. There is still room in the camp if you have a child or know of a child who wants to go to this terrific camp…….
We need $1175.00. We’re hoping that one or more persons can help us with this. If you can help fund these children in any way, please either contact Canterbury Hills or if you prefer, the Diocesan Treasurer – Jody Beck. In advance thank you so much for your generosity!
How should I respond to such a heartfelt plea?
Dear Diocese,
I would love to “send a kid to camp”. Unfortunately, due to circumstances created by someone you know quite well, all my spare cash – and much that isn’t spare – is finding its way into the hands of lawyers.
Jody Beck, if you happen to see this, could you spare a few hundred thousand? In advance thank you so much for your generosity!
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Anglican Journal print edition distortions
The Anglican Journal, in its print edition, is carrying the “Bishop sues Blogger for Defamation” story (page 12), but has made an interesting change to the online article.
The online Journal article correctly says this:
The bishop is seeking $400,000 in damages as well as legal costs. The suit also seeks “an interim and a permanent injunction requiring the defendant and any Internet service provider or host sites to remove or cause to be removed the web site found at www.anglicansamizdat.net and any and all defamatory material that the defendant has posted or caused to be posted anywhere else on the internet; an interim and permanent injunction prohibiting the defendant from publishing or causing to be published any further comment about the plaintiff.”
That is what is in the statement of claim. Since the complained of items comprise about 1% of all posts on Anglican Samizdat, by seeking an injunction to shut down the entire blog, the statement of claim is clearly attempting to stifle my charter guaranteed right of freedom of expression.
The print version conveniently leaves out: [t]he suit also seeks “an interim and a permanent injunction requiring the defendant and any Internet service provider or host sites to remove or cause to be removed the web site found at www.anglicansamizdat.net and, by doing so, erroneously implies that the bishop is merely seeking removal of the 31 posts in dispute:
The bishop is seeking $400,000 in damages as well as legal costs and the removal of all the defamatory material posted.—Leigh Anne Williams.
And, of course, at this point the material is only allegedly defamatory.
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Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee
Cana
The Wedding Church in Cana:
Some people like to renew their wedding vows here:
Everything is recorded on video and people wait their turn on the side:
Where there is a priest, there has to be a sermon:
Only Roman Catholics can participate, but anyone can buy this do-it-yourself kit:
Here is the nun who organises the priest:
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Reaction to resolution C003, changing the marriage canon to include same-sex marriage
The Anglican Journal conducted interviews after the vote.
Predictably, Peter Elliott, a partnered homosexual from the Diocese of New Westminster, was “happy”:
“very happy to see this small step, an important step being taken.” Elliott acknowledged that the resolution could reopen wounds over the issue of same-sex blessings that have daunted the church in the last decade. But, “it is also continuing in the healing process for some of the wounds that have been there for a long time,” said Elliott. “Nobody has the monopoly on pain. Gay and lesbian people in the life of the church have for some decades been second-class citizens…I think it is a word of healing for those of us who are gay.”
As Elliott says, “Nobody has the monopoly on pain’. What he doesn’t say is that Anglicans who are resisting the temptations of same-sex attraction because they believe succumbing to them would be wrong, will be hurt by this resolution. It seems that their pain doesn’t count because, presumably, in Elliot’s world, they don’t count.
Gene Packwood noticed what, to the un-blinkered, was apparent all along: no matter how strenuous the denials, same-sex blessings in the ACoC were always intended to be a prelude to same-sex marriage, making the liberal Anglican hierocracy little better than a coterie of con artists:
Canon Gene Packwood, a clergy delegate from the diocese of Calgary, said same-sex marriage “was the intent all along. I think folks who are in favour of this were using same-sex blessings to try in the interim to gain ground. I’m not accusing them of being devious, but that was what the strategy was.”
Sue Moxley pointed out another obvious inconsistency in the ACoC’s willingness to bless what it is unwilling to do:
Bishop Sue Moxley, diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, expressed support for the motion. “There’s an interesting dynamic: that people can get their head around blessing a couple but not get their head around marriage,” she said. “For me, that doesn’t make sense because for me a blessing is what a wedding in a church is about.”
Gene Packwood went on to point out that changing the marriage canon in this way will further alienate most of the world’s Anglicans, drive yet more people out of the ACoC, decrease the church’s revenues and further hasten its demise – demonstrating once again the old saw: those whom God wishes to destroy, he first makes mad:
Packwood, who believes that same-sex marriage is “manifestly contrary to the teaching of scripture and the liturgy of the church,” also expressed concern about the resolution’s effect on the Anglican Church of Canada’s standing in the Anglican Communion worldwide. “We’re not in communion with the majority of Anglicans…because they think we’ve gone so far and that’s even without making a decision,” he said. “If we go and change the marriage canon, then that’s really going to draw the line and that won’t be helpful to our spiritual health or our finances.”
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The Anglican/Lutheran Joint Assembly draws to a close
The Anglican Church of Canada’s Joint Assembly ended today.
Bishops, clergy and delegates have finally talked themselves out – hope springs eternal – and all are headed home on aeroplanes fuelled by burning the carbon spewing fossil remains resulting from the extraction processes that were roundly condemned at the Assembly.
Since it is the most important meeting that occurs in the ACoC and it only takes place once every three years, it is only to be expected that Anglicans nationwide will have been avidly devouring the reasonably comprehensive coverage provided by the Anglican Journal, making those posts rank highest in popularity.
Or maybe not:
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Joint Assembly: Resolution to vote on same-sex in marriage 2016 passed
Resolution C003 proposes to introduce a resolution in 2016 to the Synod/Joint Assembly – or whatever it is called by 2016 – to change “Canon XXI on Marriage to allow the marriage of same sex couples in the same way as opposite sex couples”.
The 2013 resolution passed by a substantial majority. Is there any doubt that the resolution to change the canon will pass in 2016?
From here:
General Synod on July 6 approved a resolution that will bring the issue of same-sex marriage to a vote at the meeting of the Anglican Church of Canada’s governing body in 2016.
At its triennial meeting here, General Synod passed Resolution C003, asking the Council of General Synod to prepare and present a motion to change the church’s Canon 21 on marriage “to allow the marriage of same-sex couples in the same way as opposite sex couples.”
Moved by the diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island members Michelle Bull and Jennifer Warren, the motion was approved by a two-thirds majority of the orders of bishop, clergy and laity. Using clickers—a handheld electronic device—25 bishops, 72 clergy and 101 laity voted in favour of the resolution; 11 bishops, 30 clergy and 27 laity were opposed.
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Diocese of New Westminster to hold Pride Day service in Cathedral
As the invitation notes: the diocese “welcomes and affirms people of all gender identifications and sexual orientations.”
The distinction between affirming people and affirming anything and everything they feel inclined to do is one that appears to be lost on the Diocese of New Westminster.
I take that back. Anyone who succumbs to the temptation of building an oil pipeline or who indulges in “resource extraction” will definitely not be invited to a service at the cathedral to celebrate his achievement. Unless he is gay and a Buddhist.
From here:
Celebrate God’s gift of diversity by marching with your Anglican sisters and brothers in the 2013 Vancouver Pride Parade!
All are welcome — GLBTQ people, friends, family and allies — to join us in the continuing work of creating an Anglican faith community that welcomes and affirms people of all gender identifications and sexual orientations.
Our Pride festivities (which you may join at any time during the day) will include:
8am: Worship at Christ Church Cathedral’s 5th Annual Pride Day Service.
9am: Post-worship brunch at the Cathedral with your fellow marchers.
10 to 11:30: Making our way from Christ Church to the start of the parade. (Location details to follow.)
12noon: MARCHINGALL AGES: Ours is a family-friendly group… bring kids, strollers, wagons, scooters, bikes and trikes. Decorate them if you have time! And, child or adult, be sure to dress your bright, festive best!
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Justin Welby and the sexual revolution
In his presidential address at General Synod, Justin Welby spent some time ruminating on the idea that Western society is in the middle of a sexual revolution. It’s amazing what the clergy notice when they put their minds to it.
Society has been in the middle of a sexual revolution since I was a teenager in the 60’s. Then it was all about having as much sex as possible with the opposite sex; later it was about having sex with members of the same sex; we are now at the point where it’s about having sex with many people of any sex, preferably simultaneously. The clergy are just catching up to the second point.
What is strange about Justin Welby’s address is his apparent surprise at the sexual degeneration rampant in what are probably the dying embers of Western Civilisation, the implication that the church is under some obligation to recognise it as wholesome, the idea that the church should be swayed by cultural norms and, perhaps most odd of all, the hint that one cannot be simultaneously opposed to same-sex marriage and the hanging of homosexuals in Iran.
Altogether, a rather outré performance:
The social context is changing radically. There is a revolution. It may be, it was, that 59% of the population called themselves Christian at the last census, with 25% saying they had no faith. But the YouGov poll a couple of weeks back was the reverse, almost exactly, for those under 25. If we are not shaken by that, we are not listening.
The cultural and political ground is changing. There is a revolution. Anyone who listened, as I did, to much of the Same Sex Marriage Bill Second Reading Debate in the House of Lords could not fail to be struck by the overwhelming change of cultural hinterland. Predictable attitudes were no longer there. The opposition to the Bill, which included me and many other bishops, was utterly overwhelmed, with amongst the largest attendance in the House and participation in the debate, and majority, since 1945. There was noticeable hostility to the view of the churches. I am not proposing new policy, but what I felt then and feel now is that some of what was said by those supporting the bill was uncomfortably close to the bone. Lord Alli said that 97% of gay teenagers in this country report homophobic bullying. In the USA suicide as a result of such bullying is the principle cause of death of gay adolescents. One cannot sit and listen to that sort of reality without being appalled. We may or may not like it, but we must accept that there is a revolution in the area of sexuality, and we have not fully heard it.
The majority of the population rightly detests homophobic behaviour or anything that looks like it. And sometimes they look at us and see what they don’t like. I don’t like saying that. I’ve resisted that thought. But in that debate I heard it, and I could not walk away from it. We all know that it is utterly horrifying to hear, as we did this week, of gay people executed in Iran for being gay, or equivalents elsewhere.