Abortion enthusiasts chant “Hail Satan”

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From here:

It doesn’t get any more polarizing than God and the Devil.

As tensions over the abortion debate intensified at the Texas state legislature Tuesday, a religious-themed face-off took place in the form of a handful of hell-raising pro-choicers shouting “hail Satan” as pro-lifers swayed and sang “Amazing Grace.”

Here is the video:

For the Episcopal view, here is Rev. Katherine Ragsdale, Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School, a seminary of the Episcopal Church. She is a lesbian and in 2011 married another woman. In 2009 she declared that abortion is a blessing and abortionists are saints.

It might be less disingenuous if she just chanted “hail Satan”:

Vicar thinks school prize-giving is un-Christian

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My first form mathematics teacher introduced himself to his new class by informing us that a few years ago – in Victorian times, in actuality – a middle class young man who left school without any tangible abilities could always, as a last resort, find employment as a vicar in the Church of England. Clearly he was unimpressed by the prospects of those he saw before him. His name was Mr. Gower; he emitted an aura of cynicism which, even at the tender age of eleven, I found appealing – unless it was aimed in my direction.

Little seemed to give him greater pleasure than mercilessly berating hapless Christians who had the misfortune of being in his class; he used to ask whether they had received “a visitation” – I thought it great fun. Attending Morning Assembly was compulsory, yet I noticed he was never there. If it was good enough for him, it was good enough for me I decided so, as a burgeoning atheist, I demanded to be excused. To no avail: the headmaster informed me that the government compelled him to compel me to attend – there was no Equality Act in those days. It put me off Christianity for the next 20 years.

I digress. Mr. Gower’s view that the Church of England provides last resort employment is still in evidence in the educational theories of the Rev Dr Hugh Rayment-Pickard. He believes that schools should be run without the benefit of competition or rewards, leaving students entirely unprepared for any normal work, and thus fit for little other than jobs as Church of England vicars where all they have to excel at is managing the decline of their denomination.

From here:

Prizegiving ceremonies that recognise the achievements of outstanding pupils should be scrapped from Church schools because they are ‘un-Christian’, a clergyman has said.

The Rev Dr Hugh Rayment-Pickard argued that singling out the brightest pupils for praise left those students not receiving prizes with the ‘gently corrosive sense of being not quite good enough’.

Dr Rayment-Pickard, who co-founded an education charity with the aim of getting young people from disadvantaged backgrounds into university, said prizes cultivate an ‘individualistic and competitive attitude to success’, which he described as being at odds with the ‘servant ethics’ of the Christian kingdom.

 

The designer baptism

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I was recently at the spot on the river Jordan where, supposedly, John the Baptist baptised Jesus. Actually, there are two places that make the claim; at both of them, people were being baptised on the assumption, I suppose, that the efficacy of the washing away of one’s sin would be somehow magnified.

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One of the locations was patrolled by soldiers carrying assault rifles, preventing over-active candidates from immersing themselves in one country and emerging, without sin, in another.

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Perhaps it’s because I am used to the Niagara that the Jordan river seemed much narrower than I expected. And muddier. That didn’t prevent my wife from braving the advances of an aggressive catfish to collect a bottle of the Real Thing. Most of it has been divided up and distributed to friends but I think we may still have a reserve somewhere for a new grandchild, should another arrive unexpectedly.

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For those who want more glitz than the algae infested Jordan can provide, there is always this:

A new style of service – staged in churches decked out with balloons while guests sit at tables laid out for a baptism banquet – is among options being looked at by officials as part of a drive to make people feel more welcome.

The idea is one of the early results of a major “market research” project, backed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and York, examining how the Church could redesign its christening services for the 21st Century.

[….]

As a result some congregations have begun to adapt services to accommodate them, dressing up the doorways with balloons and offering church halls for christening parties.

But a handful have gone further, holding separate christening services combined with family parties.

At one church visited by Dr Millar the entire church had been laid out like a wedding reception with the baptism performed in the centre of the room in front the guests at tables.

Afterwards they were served champagne and a meal while the family cut a christening cake and received presents. The model is expected to form a centrepiece of new christening handbooks for vicars when the projected is completed.

The Anglican and Lutheran Joint Assembly begins

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And it’s all about commonplace leftist preoccupations that have little to do with Christianity – like resource extraction – and diminishing membership; could there be connection?

From here:

Hundreds of members of the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada are converging on Ottawa for an unprecedented joint national gathering of the two churches, where they will tackle issues like resource extraction, homelessness, and how to live out their mission in a time of diminishing church membership.

The Anglican Church of Canada is claiming “545,000 members”, a grossly inflated number I suspect. After all, my wife and I are still on the membership roll of the Diocese of Niagara even after the bishop sued me. I wonder if that’s a first, a bishop suing one of his own parishioners?

The Anglican Church of Canada (anglican.ca) has been a self-governing member of the worldwide Anglican Communion since 1893 and has 545,000 members in nearly 2,800 congregations across the country.

The ELCIC claims even fewer members – 145,000 – and has joined with the ACoC in the hope, perhaps, of padding its denomination with disaffected Anglicans; another example of resource extraction.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (elcic.ca), established in 1986, has 145,000 members across Canada in nearly 600 congregations and is a member of the Lutheran World Federation.

Membership decline is to be addressed by restructuring rather than examining the reason that people are leaving:

Delegates from both churches will also discuss proposals to restructure the way in which the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada function, since both churches have experienced the same decline in membership as many other mainline Canadian churches.

Not all mainline churches have lost members: the Roman Catholic Church has experienced membership growth while standing resolutely against same-sex marriage, abortion and euthanasia – could there be a connection?

“It doesn’t matter whether you are Buddhists or Christians, Jews or Gentiles, the world needs people who lead Christ’s life”

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That statement was made by Archbishop Paul Kim, Primate of the Province of Korea during a sermon at Christ Church Cathedral in the Diocese of New Westminster.

It fits well with the mushy theology of the diocese, as do Paul Kim’s views on blessing same-sex unions.

The problem is, it does matter: if Christianity is true then the statement is nonsense. A Buddhist would not accept Christ’s Divinity, his freely-chosen atoning death on the cross, his Resurrection, or the gift of eternal life through Christ’s propitiatory sacrifice. A Buddhist is “dead in his sins”, is unreconciled to God and has dubious prospects in the hereafter. Moreover, although the world may need people who lead a Christ-like life, those who attempt to do so will not be saved by their works, since we are saved by grace not works.

This leads me to conclude that Archbishop Paul Kim either: doesn’t believe that Christianity is true; doesn’t know what it is; or is illogical. Take your pick.

“It doesn’t matter whether you are Buddhists or Christians, Jews or Gentiles, the world needs people who lead Christ’s life.”

These were the words spoken by the interpreter, the Reverend Aidan Koh, (Chaplain, St.James Episcopal School, Los Angeles) near the conclusion of Archbishop Paul Kim’s address at a Celebration of the Eucharist at Christ Church Cathedral marking the Birth of John the Baptist, Tuesday, June 25th, 2013.
Archbishop Kim, en route to the Diocese of Peterborough in England (there are 6 Korean clergy in ministry in that diocese) from the Episcopal Asiaamerica Ministries Conference that ran June 20th to June 24th wanted to stop in Vancouver to visit the Diocese of New Westminster and to pay his respects to Bishop Michael Ingham and his legacy of prophetic witness.
Archbishop Kim has been a vocal advocate in the Asian region and across the Anglican Communion for justice, particularly as it relates to sexuality.

 

Church installs vending machine for the easy purchase of religious paraphernalia

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From here:

Holy VendorThe world’s first religious vending machine has been installed in a church to allow worshippers to buy holy accessories before attending a service.

Churchgoers can now buy rosary beads and armbands with religious motifs before taking their seat inside their place of worship.

The machine was the brainchild of pastoral assistant Sebastian Fiebig at the St. Joseph Church, in Hamburg, Germany.

He designed the machine and believes it is a fun idea.

The 39-year-old said: ‘I walked passed a vending machine for umbrellas a long time ago and it was then that I came up with the idea to make one for the church.

‘I purchased an old vending machine on the internet, repaired it, gave it a new coat of paint and then filled it with the rosaries and armbands.’

After putting the money in the slot, a white cardboard box drops into your hands, and the wooden rosary is inside.

A wooden armband with religious motifs will set you back two euros and features images of Jesus, Maria and the Pope.

Maybe it’s just me – and I don’t want to give North American Anglican Churches any ideas – but that looks as if it was once a condom dispenser of the kind one encounters in airport bathrooms.

New Church of England plan to attract people: a Pagan Christian church

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From here:

As part of its drive to retain congregation numbers, the Church of England is training its clergy to create a “pagan church” where Christianity will be “very much in the center,” a British newspaper reports.

The mother church of the worldwide Anglican Communion is seeking to create new forms of Anglicanism with which people of alternative beliefs should feel comfortable, according to The Telegraph.

“I would be looking to formulate an exploration of the Christian faith that would be at home in their culture,” the daily quotes the Rev. Steve Hollinghurst, who is advising the denomination in its new endeavor, as telling the BBC.

What the church is looking at is “almost to create a pagan church where Christianity was very much in the centre,” he adds.

I have bad news for Rev. Hollinghurst: the Anglican Church of Canada has been telling people they can believe whatever they like while concealing Christianity in a centre that no-one ever seems to find for decades. The result has been that potential congregants choose a belief that tells them that it is better to stay in bed late on Sunday morning than attend a church that can’t confidently convey a coherent Christian message.

Anglican Church of Canada Resolution C003: change the marriage canon to allow the marriage of same-sex couples

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The Anglican Church of Canada holds its general synod every three years.

Resolution C003 is a motion for the 2016 synod requesting a change to the marriage canon to include the marrying of same-sex couples. Eleven dioceses – New Westminster, Ottawa, Huron, Niagara, Toronto, Montreal, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, Edmonton, Rupert’s Land, Quebec and British Columbia – already offer the blessing of same-sex unions. All offer liturgies for this blessing and all are careful to point out that the liturgies are for the purpose of blessing not marriage itself.

The cynical among us might question whether there is any significant difference between the two and wonder at the depths of hypocrisy to which these dioceses are prepared to stoop in order to deceive gullible congregants: after all, if a church is willing to bless a same sex-marriage why would it refuse to conduct the marriage? The answer lies in how Anglicans effect change: gradually. A rector who wishes to move a piano from one side of the church to the other does it an inch at a time; it may take a year but no one notices.

There can be little doubt that the Anglican Anglican Church of Canada will end up marrying same sex couples. I for one will welcome it; at least it will be a forthright and undeniable capitulation to the Zeitgeist – stupid and flagitious, perhaps, but with less circuitous guile.

Take note, conservative Anglican frogs determined to remain in the Anglican Church of Canada come what may: the water is almost boiling.

From here:

Resolution C003

Subject: Preparation of motion to change Canon XXI on Marriage; Direction to COGS

Moved by: Ms. Michelle Bull, Diocese of Nova Scotia and PEI

Seconded by: Ms. Jennifer Warren, Diocese of Nova Scotia and PEI

Be it resolved that this General Synod

direct the Council of General Synod to prepare and present a motion at General Synod 2016 to change Canon XXI on Marriage to allow the marriage of same sex couples in the same way as opposite sex couples, and that this motion should include a conscience clause so that no member of the clergy, bishop, congregation or diocese should be constrained to participate in such marriages against the dictates of their conscience.

Source: Member

Submitted by: Ms. Michelle Bull, Diocese of Nova Scotia and PEI

Does this motion contain within it any financial implications? Yes No X

If yes, has the General Synod Expenditures Committee considered the implications? Yes No

EXPLANATORY NOTE/BACKGROUND

It has been 6 years since General synod last debated this issue. Since then, some dioceses have proceeded in a manner they deemed necessary to meet the local pastoral and other needs with respect to the blessing of same sex civil marriages. It has been over 10 years since such civil marriages were legal in Canada. The general public has become much more accepting of same sex unions since we last discussed it. This is also true of the church, though not, of course, universally so.

It seems like a good idea to ask COGS to draft this motion, so that it will be done correctly and with the benefit of appropriate legal and theological advice as to wording, so that the motion will do all and only what we wish it to.

We believe that it is necessary that there be a conscience clause so that anyone who is not in favour of same sex marriages will not be constrained to participate in them. It is not our intention to force everyone to conform in this matter, but only to allow those who wish to allow same sex marriage in the church to go ahead.

PROCEDURE FOR ADOPTION (G)

In the normal course, an ordinary motion must be passed by a majority of the Order of Bishops, and by a majority of the Orders of Clergy and Laity voting together.

Six members of General Synod may, prior to the question being put, require a vote by Orders, with a majority of each Order being necessary to pass.

If a question passes on a Vote by Orders, any six members (two from each of three different dioceses) may require a vote to be taken by dioceses. A motion passes if a majority of dioceses (or a tie) vote in favour.

Source: Section 5 of the Declaration of Principles and sections 18, 19 and 20 of the Rules of Order and Procedure

Note: If Resolution A030 is given second reading, the required majority will be all Orders voting together.