Bishop Sue Moxley to retire

Posted on by
2

moxleyIn what appears to be an epidemic of resigning bishops, first Michael Ingham announced his retirement, then James Cowan and now Sue Moxley, bishop of the diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

These three bishops have all presided over the instigation of same-sex blessings in their respective dioceses and now, having accomplished their mission and set the cat among the pigeons, are bidding us adieu and leaving their successors to cope with the fallout.

From here:

Bishop Susan “Sue” Moxley, known to many Anglicans in Canada and overseas for her passion for social justice and church renewal, has announced she will retire in March 2014.

By then, Moxley will have served in an episcopal role for 10 years—three years as suffragan (assistant) bishop and seven as diocesan bishop for the diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. She also will have served as an active priest in the Anglican Church of Canada for 29 years. In 2007 Moxley, then 61, made history by becoming the first female bishop elected in her diocese, and the second female bishop to lead a diocese across the Canadian Anglican church.

Diocese of Niagara allows entropy to have its way with St. Hilda’s

Posted on by
2

When St. Hilda’s congregation left the Diocese of Niagara in 2008, bishops Spence and Bird sent the congregation a letter saying, among other things: “be assured that we are prepared to keep the doors of this beautiful church open and will offer every support and pastoral care to those who choose to stay.”

Five years later, not only are the doors not open, but the church has been barricaded with concrete blocks large enough to serve as tank traps.

Yesterday morning after a friend passed the building, she phoned me to let me know that there were three police cars in the driveway along with another car containing someone bearing a strong resemblance to Dean Peter Wall. I suspect that either someone had broken in and was squatting – in which case the diocese would have nothing to complain of since it is so keen on Occupy – or there had been an act of vandalism.

The back door does have some new decoration:

_29U3837

I can’t decide whether the symbol represents something satanic or is a new diocesan emblem.

In other parts of the property weeds have taken over what used to be attractive gardens:

_29U3838

It’s just as well the church sign is still announcing who is responsible for the empty, disintegrating, graffiti besmirched shell:

_29U3841

Here are the inviting concrete blocks in all their inclusive splendour:

_29U3839

Happiness gurus commit suicide

Posted on by
3

From here:

Suicide notes were found with the bodies of a couple who took their own lives last week, police sources said.

Lynne Rosen, 46, and John Littig, 48, who worked as ‘happiness gurus’ and motivational speakers, allegedly left two notes at their home in Brooklyn, New York.

[…..]

They hosted a monthly radio show together called ‘The Pursuit of Happiness’ on WBAI-FM.

A sad but fitting metaphor for the land that has enshrined the pursuit of happiness in its Declaration of Independence. There is nothing that makes happiness more elusive than pursuing it.

As William Blake observed:

He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity’s sun rise.

Church of England gives up fight against gay marriage

Posted on by
Reply

The truth is, there never was much of a fight. Western Anglicanism is dominated by comfortably tenured bishops whose interests lie in swimming with the cultural tide while indulging in leftist dabblings from the safely of their ecclesiastical plousiocracy. It is more fun to criticise banks than to stand up for traditional marriage. In Anglican Newspeak this is known as prophetic social justice making.

From here:

In a short statement, the established Church said that the scale of the majorities in both the Commons and Lords made clear that it is the will of Parliament that same sex couples “should” be allowed to marry.

The Bishop of Leicester, who leads the bishops in the House of Lords, said they would now concentrate their efforts on “improving” rather than halting an historic redefinition of marriage.

More Anglican Church of Canada statistics

Posted on by
Reply

A reader has kindly spent some time putting the ACoC statistics found here into a spreadsheet and has come up with some interesting results. Since the ACoC stopped publishing membership numbers after 2001, the graphs end there.

The spreadsheet is here and below are some of the graphs generated.

Total membership and confirmed members; remember this is the number on the parish roles not the number attending each Sunday:

members vs confirmed

The number of active bishops; this number has increased slightly in spite of a decrease in membership, a sign that the ACoC is becoming a top-heavy organisation:

Active bishops

Members per bishop:

members per bishop

Number of active clergy including bishops:

Active clergy

Members per clergy:

members per clergy

The editorial independence of the Anglican Journal

Posted on by
10

When the principal secretary to Fred Hiltz, Paul Feheley, was appointed editor of the Anglican Journal, some questioned whether this would compromise the paper’s editorial independence.

The Journal gets a $596,627 subsidy from Canadian Heritage – from our taxes – but only if it maintains editorial independence; since it involves money, this is an important issue for the church.

Doubts I may have harboured about the Journal’s editorial independence were allayed somewhat when the article about my little spat with Michael Bird appeared.

However, the doubts – which I am doing my best to embrace – were reinvigorated when, the day after the article appeared, five paragraphs mysteriously vanished; ENS also carried the article and the same thing happened there.

Presumably, somebody contacted the Journal and ENS to ask for the removal of the now expunged material. I have no idea who.

St. John’s Shaughnessy embracing doubt

Posted on by
1

St. John’s Shaughnessy has a new website whose first page trumpets that one belief is as good as any other, doubt should be “embraced”, diversity celebrated and – in what is probably a subconscious dig at J.I. Packer – Knowing God is presumptuous. Unsurprisingly, their road is one “less travelled” – particularly by Christians:

St. John’s Shaughnessy is a small but flourishing congregation,
living our calling as Christians by faithfully walking the Anglican path.
Our road is less travelled.

We do not claim absolute knowledge of the Divine.

We really welcome everyone and are enriched by the dynamic tension of differing beliefs.
We embrace doubt. Pray hopefully. And celebrate diversity.

Anglicanism is not dead in Canada

Posted on by
1

Just when I had reached a nadir of despair at the plight of Anglicanism in Canada, I stumbled across this and was electrified by a frisson of excitement; the Canadian Anglican Church is alive and well:

Anglican tea and plant sale
Jean Comstock, right, identifies a couple of plants at the Anglican/Lutheran annual tea, bake sale and plant sale May 25 at the church hall. Audrey Egger, left, was manning the plant tables, and Georgie Anderson, centre, is trying to choose some plants. Plants for the sale came from local gardens.
Lynne Maynard reports that the annual Anglican/Lutheran tea, bake sale and plant sale was a huge success, with almost $1,000 raised.

Shirley Hawk won the cake raffle, which she donated for re-selling, and Nana Joumblat purchased it for promotion for Sweet Queen.

Ed Maynard’s cream puffs were in high demand.