Diocese of Toronto posts mandatory vaccine policy

As of this writing, the clergy, employees and volunteers have to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to perform their duties in the Diocese of Toronto:

Effective September 30, 2021, any employee, member of the clergy or volunteer who attends at a workplace must show proof of being vaccinated with two doses of a vaccine or combination of vaccines approved by Health Canada, with the second dose having been administered at least two weeks prior to the in-person attendance.

Wardens will have the unenviable job of demanding that those hapless enough to still volunteer in the diocese show their papers. The wardens are also responsible for snitching on recalcitrant malcontents. Does anyone foresee an impending shortage of people willing to be a warden?

Employees, Volunteers, and Honorary Assistants are only to show their proof to the Churchwardens of the parish. This responsibility cannot be delegated to the Deputy Churchwardens, other Employees or Volunteers.

Churchwardens are to visibly verify the proof of vaccination or negative test in person or via video chat (i.e. Teams, FaceTime, or Zoom) and record on a confidential tracking sheet. Those with proof of exemption are to submit it in writing to the Churchwardens as outlined in section 1.C. COVID-19 Mandatory Vaccination Policy

The Churchwardens are also required to follow up with those who have not submitted proof and implement appropriate next steps for those not in compliance with this policy.

There are those in the diocese who believe that this does not go far enough. They would prefer the unclean to be kept out altogether:

After much discussion, the bishops and diocesan leadership have decided not to require proof of vaccination to attend worship in an Anglican church in this Diocese. I’ve heard that some of you aren’t comfortable returning to in-person worship alongside potentially unvaccinated people, and I know this may disappoint you.

As I was ruminating on all this, a novel I read many years ago came to mind: it is “Erewhon” by Samuel Butler.

In it, Butler tells of an imaginary country where crime is regarded as an illness and disease as a crime. It used to seem a little far-fetched, but less so now. The unvaccinated, the potentially diseased, are to be shunned – have they fallen into the “evil” category yet? – whereas the church now provides a safe injection facility for those taking hard drugs, an activity that used to be illegal.

And male clergy have sex with each other, another activity that used to be illegal. Not all of them, admittedly. Not yet.

Update: The Diocese of Huron has the same vaccine mandatory vaccine rules in place. I expect most if not all other Anglican dioceses do too – or soon will.

Diocese of Niagara church blesses a rainbow crosswalk

In the spirit of blessing everything that has nothing to do with Christianity, The Reverend Jody Balint, rector of St. James and St. Brendan’s Parish, Port Colborne has bestowed her ecclesiastical benediction upon the town’s new rainbow crosswalk; in the hope that all who step on it become a little gayer.

It shines brighter now.

From here:

On September 1, The Reverend Jody Balint had the honour and privilege of blessing Port Colborne’s new rainbow crosswalk, a symbol of diversity and inclusiveness for the area. The painting of the crosswalk was an initiative of the Downtown Port Colborne Business Improvement Association and supported by several partners, including St. James and St. Brendan’s Anglican Church.

Someone should have warned them that to fully consummate your theatrical posturing, you have to wear a mask.

Diocese of Niagara does have faith after all – in the vaccine

Here are two different church posters proclaiming the good news. See if you can spot the difference:

Church one, which will remain anonymous because of the outrageous claims of its message:

And church two, the Diocese of Niagara:

Dostoyevsky, vaccines and Ivan

A passage in the Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov explores the problem of evil. In the passage, Ivan, an atheist puts the problem to his brother Alyosha, a monk. It’s a long, harrowing passage where Ivan describes the death of an 8-year-old boy who has hurt the paw of one of his master’s dogs. The master, on discovering who the culprit is, locks the boy in the outhouse overnight. The boy cries out to God who, seemingly, doesn’t listen. In the morning, the boy is stripped naked, made to run and the hounds tear him to pieces in front of his mother.

Even if at end of history cosmic harmony is somehow achieved in spite of the prevalence of such abhorrent evil, Ivan wants no part of it. He says:

Besides, too high a price is asked for harmony; it’s beyond our means to pay so much to enter on it. And so I hasten to give back my entrance ticket.

My summary hardly does the section justice; if you haven’t read the book, you should do so. I first read it in my late teens when I was an atheist. I found Ivan’s point persuasive.

The passage ends this way:

Tell me yourself, I challenge your answer. Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of making men happy in the end, giving them peace and rest at last, but that it was essential and inevitable to torture to death only one tiny creature—that baby beating its breast with its fist, for instance—and to found that edifice on its unavenged tears, would you consent to be the architect on those conditions? Tell me, and tell the truth.”

“No, I wouldn’t consent,” said Alyosha softly.

You can read the whole passage here.

My 19-year-old atheist self found this most convincing. Later on, once I came to grips with the idea that another innocent being was willing to die to set the universe to rights, I changed my mind, although there is still a part of me that resonates emotionally with Ivan’s protest.

What do vaccines have to do with this, you may be wondering. Read on.

Much of what I have to say applies to many vaccines but the vaccines that are on most people’s minds at the moment are the COVID-19 vaccines which are being injected into all and sundry.

The currently available vaccines in North America and Europe rely on either the HEK-293 or PER.C6 cell lines for their production or testing, both of which were grown from babies aborted in 1973 and 1985, respectively.

Both cell lines have been “immortalised” – a Frankensteinian tribute to the resurrection – so HEK-293’s use in vaccine production required only one murdered baby girl. And she was not murdered, we are told, specifically so her organs could be harvested. But we are not told how she was murdered.

Here is an excerpt from the Canadian Journal of Medical Science dated 1952 that describes ideal conditions for harvesting foetal organs (my emphasis):

Human embryos of two and one-half to five months gestation were obtained from the gynaecological department of the Toronto General Hospital. They were placed in a sterile container and promptly transported to the virus laboratory of the adjacent Hospital for Sick Children. No macerated specimens were used and in many of the embryos the heart was still beating at the time of receipt in the virus laboratory.

Yes, 1952. Many of the babies were vivisected. When lab animals are dissected alive, they are anaesthetised; not these babies.

This procedure is not an exception, it is routine, continues today and is mostly ignored by the secular press and, to our eternal shame, by the church and by Christians.

There are many documented examples: this recent one is from the University of Pittsburgh:

The University states the fetal organs do not undergo ischemia—lose their blood supply—until “after the tissue collection procedure”. This means the organs are still receiving blood supply from the fetal heartbeat during the “tissue collection”.

In 2015 in China, scientists on behalf of the vaccine industry aborted 9 babies “intact” so their organs were alive when removed:

WALVAX  2 is taken from the lung tissue of a 3 month gestation female who was ultimately selected from among 9 aborted babies.  The scientists noted how they followed specific guidelines to mimic WI-38 and MRC-5 in selecting the aborted babies, ranging from 2-4 months gestation.  They further noted how they induced labor using a “water bag” abortion to shorten the delivery time and prevent the death of the fetus to ensure live intact organs which were immediately sent to the labs for cell preparation.

I could go on. The point is, as I said, this process is routinely used by abortion mills and the vaccine industry.

No-one knows how the baby girl who gave us HEK-293 met her end. She most probably would have been removed “intact”. She could have been dissected while still living. What we do know is, for her kidneys to be useful for the vaccine industry, they had to be “fresh”.

For my part, then, I must borrow from Ivan:

To save mankind from a particularly nasty disease, imagine it was essential and inevitable to torture to death only one tiny creature, a baby girl. Would you consent to be the architect on those conditions? Tell me, and tell the truth.

No, I wouldn’t consent.

Too high a price is asked; it’s beyond our means to pay so much to enter on it. And so I hasten to give back my entrance ticket, and if I am an honest man I am bound to give it back as soon as possible. And that I am doing. It’s not the scientists that I don’t accept, only I most respectfully return them the ticket.

Calaveras Presbyterian Church stands against coerced acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines

Calaveras Presbyterian Church based in California is the only church that I know of to take a stand against vaccinations that rely on cells derived from aborted foetuses.

You may agree or disagree, but at least this church is making a clear statement on its view of the use of the HEK-293 and PER.C6 cell lines in the production of COVID-19 vaccines.

Read it all here:

STATEMENT OF CALAVERAS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ITS MEMBERS AND ADHERENTS CONCERNING COERCED ACCEPTANCE OF COVID-19 VACCINES

Calaveras Presbyterian Church hereby sets forth its sincerely held beliefs and proscriptions against the following cited COVID-19 Vaccines:

Bases of the Position:

Calaveras Presbyterian Church holds to the sanctity of human life at all stages from conception and it holds to the absolute inadmissibility of medicines/pharmaceuticals  prepared using fetal therapy.

The Church believes it to be definitely inadmissible to use the methods of so-called fetal therapy, in which the human fetus at various stages of its development is aborted and used in attempts to treat various diseases and to “rejuvenate” an organism. Denouncing abortion as a sin, the Church cannot find any justification for it even if someone may possibly benefit from the destruction of a conceived human life. Contributing inevitably to ever-wider spread and commercialization of abortion, this practice presents an example of glaring immorality and is spiritually criminal as a violation of Divine Law.

Calaveras Presbyterian Church firmly holds that Scripture defines appropriate Christian behavior. Because of this, it would be a violation of our faith to receive the following coronavirus vaccines…… [go to the link to see the full list etc.]

Rev. Kate Bottley stripping for the Gospel

Rev. Kate Bottley is a Church of England vicar who felt called to take her clothes off and pose outdoors for a life-drawing masterclass. The event is to be televised and pumped into the parlours of those among the British public who happen turn on their TV’s at the wrong time.

I’m not sure why she is doing this. Perhaps it is to identify more fully with other average middle-aged ladies who also like to take their clothes off in public – and if we are honest, what respectable matron doesn’t like to expose herself in public once in a while – thereby assuring them that there is nothing strange, quirky or abnormal about the Christian Gospel.

The Rev. declared that after removing her attire, she felt “empowered” and “safe”, and that, after all, is what Christianity is all about.

But do the rest of us feel safe knowing that while innocently strolling in one of Britain’s serene, lush, verdant parks our eyes might be unexpectedly assaulted by a sizable expanse of pink, naked clerical buttock?

Read all about it, if you must, here.

The University of Western Ontario, the place where irony goes to die

Dr. Julie Ponesse, professor of ethics at the University of Western Ontario discusses why she believes compulsory vaccination is wrong.

She is now an ex-professor since the University of Western Ontario fired her for taking, you guessed it, an ethical stand.

How to endorse a political party while maintaining plausible deniability

The old cliché “The Anglican Church is the Conservative Party at prayer” has devolved into “The Anglican Church is the Communist Party at a smudging session”.

The Anglican Church of Canada doesn’t want to appear to endorse any particular party in the forthcoming election since it doesn’t want to be exposed for what it is: an impotent purveyor of socialist agitprop.

Thus, the inevitable “letter from Anglican, Lutheran leaders about the 2021 federal election” doesn’t mention any political party by name. Instead, it provides links to sites promoting causes beloved by the outer fringes of the lunatic left.

So as a faithful Anglican, the ACoC won’t tell you who to vote for, but you’ll know anyway. Nudge nudge, wink wink.

Read it all here:

A letter from Anglican, Lutheran leaders about the 2021 federal election

BY GENERAL SYNOD COMMUNICATIONS ON SEPTEMBER 7, 2021

On September 20, Canadians will vote in a federal election, electing Members of Parliament who will help shape the life of our country for the next four years. We give thanks for each candidate and their willingness to offer their vision, gifts and service for consideration for leadership in public life.

Over the last two years, many events have pushed for deeper reflection on the kind of Canada we desire.

Finding the remains of more than 1,300 Indigenous children who were buried in unmarked graves at the sites of several former residential schools is traumatic, heart-wrenching and profound. Many more sites have yet to be investigated. The call for healing, reconciliation and renewed relationships among Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples is a fundamental element of work for social and ecological justice in the Canadian context today.

The murder of George Floyd in particular, along with many other incidents in Canada and beyond, have called attention to anti-Black racism and other expressions of systemic racism. In March 2020, the Anglican Church of Canada’s Council of General Synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada’s National Church Council participated together in a session of anti-racism training. This was one step on a multi-faceted journey of working to dismantle racism and to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in all areas of life.

The recent report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)  highlights the need to address the climate crisis. This election takes place during the Season of Creation, when we are invited to reflect on our relationships with Creation and our impact on our shared home. Indigenous wisdom and relationships with the land need to inform individual, community and societal choices for healthy relationship with the Earth.

Anglican churches begin to demand proof of vaccination

From August 29th, worshippers at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco will have to produce proof of vaccination before they are permitted to enter the building to attend a service.

From here:

Following the guidance of local public health officials and our Bishop, we will be requiring that everyone 12 years and above will need to show proof of vaccination before entry into Grace Cathedral. Starting Aug 24 for Events and will expand to include all Services starting Aug 29. We have implemented an advanced proof of vaccination form for you to complete and upload an image of your vaccination card.

The Diocese of Long Island is demanding all its clergy be vaccinated. Or else.

Meanwhile, both dioceses are working diligently to expunge Matthew 8:3 (“And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed”) from all the Bibles in its parish churches – the few that still have Bibles, that is. After all, Jesus’ reckless act might encourage others to welcome or even touch the unvaccinated.