Students in Pakistan Madrassa start singing Anglican hymns

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Prayer mats have been removed from a Pakistan Madrassa and co-ed prayer rooms have been set up to cater to its mostly Anglican students.

Daily prayers at the Karachi Islamic Business and Enterprise Madrassa, where 75 per cent of pupils are Anglican, are not based specifically on the Koran, but may make reference to it alongside other religious texts.

None of the meat served at the school, which has over 1,000 pupils aged between 11 and 19, is halal.

Not very plausible, is it?

Yet no-one is particularly surprised that the exact opposite is taking place in a UK Church of England school; you can read all about it here, but I would like to highlight one sentence:

Mr McAteer, who pointed out that the Church of England describes itself as ‘a faith for all faiths’, told the Sunday Times: ‘The values we support are very much Christian values of honesty, integrity, justice.’

I don’t know how McAteer  came up with the laughably incoherent idea that the Church of England is ‘a faith for all faiths’. An institution that claims to be able to encompass “faiths” whose beliefs are logically contradictory (after all, Jesus cannot be both divine as Christianity teaches and not divine as Islam teaches) ends up being a faith with no faith.

Come to think of it, maybe McAteer  is on to something.

Diocese of Niagara: the significance of the Cross according to the Koran

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One can always count on the Niagara Anglican’s Michael Burslem for a spot of bracing balderdash.

This month he informs us that God is not “appeased” by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, that the atonement for the sins of mankind was really quite unnecessary.

Because God just wants a mush of mercy, love and, you guessed it, equality. Because the Koran says so. So does John Lennon.

From here (page 6):

However, God didn’t need appeasement. God allowed the religious sacrificial system, but really wanted them to be merciful, love justice and to walk humbly with God.

[….]

The cross is not an appeasement, but an example of how we all should live. It’s tremendously costly, but God is, as the Koran says, the Lord, the Beneficent, the Merciful. God loves all humanity equally. We need to respond to that love by treating each other as God would treat us, with mercy, justice and humility.

That God loves us, not that we’ll go to heaven when we die, is the Good News we all desperately desire and long for. We need to listen to it, and to proclaim it

I nearly forgot: heaven is irrelevant because God still loves us when we are six feet under being eaten by worms.

I have to admire the Diocese of Niagara’s chutzpah

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A short while after I was served with a statement of claim demanding $400,000 for damaging the bishop’s reputation, I received a letter from him inviting me to contribute to his diocesan fundraiser. It begins with a nice photo of the bishop:

Begging Letter

On the assumption that I will no longer be able to afford my own stamp, it even comes with a pre-paid envelope.

The Father’s Love

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When little problems leap out of life’s precarious vortex to assail us, I often write a song. I have no idea why, but I do know that I haven’t the time now since I have to grope my way through some excruciatingly boring Discovery documents.

So I am appropriating a song I wrote for one of our daughters when she was having a difficult time a few years back:

The Father’s love
The Father’s love is deeper than the deepest ocean floor.
The Father’s love is brighter than the brightest morning star.
Chorus
Love so strong, to give your Son to death; he knew no sin.
To open heaven’s door for us where we are welcomed in.

The Father’s love, it reaches to the distant galaxies.
The Father’s love is always here, it even rescues me.
© 2008 David Jenkins

Prophetic words from Bishop Moses Tay

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Bishop Moses Tay had the notable distinction of horrifying the Diocese of New Westminster in the 1990s: he denounced totem poles as “artefacts of an alien religion”. You can’t get less inclusive than that:

Philip Jenkins notes that when Tay visited Stanley Park in Vancouver in the early 1990s, he was deeply troubled by the totem poles he saw there. He concluded that “as artefacts of an alien religion, these were idols possessed by evil spirits, and they required handling by prayer and exorcism.” Jenkins goes on to suggest that this behavior “horrified the local Anglican church,” which “regarded exorcism as an absurd superstition.”

I had the pleasure of leading the musical part of the worship during an Order of St. Luke conference in the late 1990s where Moses Tay was the main speaker. The bishop said something that has always stuck in my mind. It was this:

“You Canadian Christians have a besetting sin: you become offended too easily.”

How right he was.

Bishop Michael Bird is suing me

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On February 19th 2008, the Diocese of Niagara served St. Hilda’s with legal papers with the intention of taking possession of St. Hilda’s building and freezing our bank account.

On February 19th 2013, exactly five years later, I was served personally with a statement of claim for defamation of character from the Diocese of Niagara’s Bishop Michael Bird.

The claim is seeking:

  • $400,000 in damages plus court costs and their legal costs.
  • An interim and permanent injunction to shut down Anglican Samizdat.
  • An interim and permanent injunction prohibiting me from publishing further comments about Michael Bird.

The claim quotes – with sporadic accuracy – 31 blog postings that are alleged to be libellous. On the advice of my lawyer, the posts were removed the day after receiving the statement of claim.

Contrary to what one might expect in such circumstances, I did not receive a cease and desist letter in advance of the suit.

Initial negotiations for an early settlement have been unsuccessful.

I have filed a statement of defence, the pleadings are now closed and we have commenced the Discovery process.

Stay tuned.

Fred Hiltz on interpreting the Bible

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From here:

All of the bishops received a copy of The Bible in the Life of the Church, a compilation of resources produced by the Anglican Communion. It was created following the meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in Jamaica in 2009. Anglicans around the world say ‘we are formed by scripture,’ said Hiltz. “That’s true, but Anglicans also recognize that there are a variety of ways to read and interpret scripture, and it is that very point that has been so close to the centre of the debates on sexuality,” Hiltz acknowledged. He held up the new Bible study as a gift from the Anglican Communion. “It really is about how Anglicans read the Bible.” The bishops enthusiastically received the document, and Hiltz suggested that not only could individual parishes use it, but it could also be recommended to theological colleges for their curriculums. Bishop Stephen Andrews of the diocese of Algoma is anchoring a House of Bishops working group examining the study.

There are actually only two ways to read the Bible:

  1. The first is to acknowledge that it states objective truth propositionally; our job is to read it and determine what truth it is conveying however uncomfortable it might make us feel.
  2. The second is to impose subjective preconceptions on the text in the hope of making it conform to contemporary prejudice.

The Anglican Church of Canada favours the latter approach; all variations in interpretation are to be accepted equally other than the one that results from adhering to point one.

Justin Welby to meet Peter Tatchell

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From here:

The new archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, will hold talks with gay rights leader Peter Tatchell on Thursday (April 18), less than a month after the Australian-born activist called Welby “homophobic” for his opposition to same-sex marriage.

“I applaud the archbishop’s willingness to engage in dialogue, all the more because he comes from the conservative wing of the Church of England,” Tatchell said in an interview. “I hope our meeting is not mere window dressing and good PR for the church. I’m expecting more than tea and sympathy.”

Tatchell, 61, said that his aim would be to persuade the new archbishop — who is also head of the world’s 77 million-member Anglican Communion — to embrace “a new historic compromise with the gay community.”

“Discrimination is not a Christian value,” he said. “The archbishop should therefore oppose all discrimination against gay people, including the ban on same-sex civil marriage.”

There is so much wrong with this, it’s hard to know where to begin; still, here goes:

Tatchell, the non-Christian has taken it upon himself to instruct Welby, the Christian, on what Christian values are:  “Discrimination is not a Christian value.” This is reported unquestioningly, as if it’s to be expected.

Tatchell, arbiter of contemporary virtues, magnanimously congratulates Welby on his willingness to engage in dialogue while giving an indelible impression that it is he, Tatchell, who is granting Welby an audience, not vice versa.

Rather than Welby, the Christian, evangelising Tatchell the homosexual activist, Tatchell is evangelising Welby: Tatchell, 61, said that his aim would be to persuade the new archbishop …. to embrace “a new historic compromise with the gay community.”

It’s transparently obvious that when it comes to claiming even a vestige of moral authority, the Church of England has thrown in the towel, preferring, instead, to seek approval and guidance from a homosexual activist who claims to be suffering from brain damage.

The Primate of the Southern Cone preaches in Burlington

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I’m just home from the opening service of the ANiC regional assembly where the Primate of the Southern Cone, Archbishop Tito Zavala, delivered an interesting sermon.

He believes that postmodernity has infected the church, specifically, the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada which, he says, are teaching a false gospel.

How tactless. How direct.

How refreshing.