Another clergy-person bites the dust in the Diocese of New Westminster

Posted on by
2

The Rev. Gertrude (Trudy) Lebans has quit her position as rector of the Parish of St Laurence, Coquitlam; she is retiring. Rev. Trudy climbed the ecclesiastical ladder (or, depending on one’s perspective, slid down the episcopal snake) from the second most liberal diocese in Canada – Niagara – to the most liberal diocese – New Westminster – about eight years ago.

As is only right and proper for a model of liberalism, the Parish of St Laurence has a colourful Integrity logo, a quote from Solomon Ibn Gabirol (although the name is misspelt) and a promise of justice, peace and positive social change.

Rev. Trudy believes that the Resurrection, rather than being anything as crass as an event, let alone historical or, perish the thought, physical, is really a process, an unfolding, a wafting as we ride the wings of the spirit.

Another clarifying point for us is that resurrection is not an event so much as a process, an unfolding experience in which we become more secure riding the wings of the spirit…… Happy Resurrection!

After the struggle, after the doubts and fear that things will never be all right, comes the promise. And we will hear the music and we will feel the wind on our cheeks and one more time we will rise in freedom and joy.

I wish Rev. Trudy all the best on her escape from both the Diocese of Niagara and New Westminster: no wonder she hears music and feels wind on her cheeks.

Incidentally, there is nothing that trivialises an event of cosmic significance quite so effectively as preceding it with “Happy”. Even though they prove my point, I have accommodated to “Happy Easter” and “Happy Christmas; but never, “Happy Resurrection”. “Happy Armageddon” has a pleasant ring to it, though.

R.I.P. Margaret Thatcher

Posted on by
19

I left the UK in the dark days of Harold Wilson’s tenure as Prime Minister: the era when the country was run – more accurately ruined – by trade unions. During my early years in Canada, it was with considerable relish that I followed Thatcher’s battle with the thuggish UK unions.

As Mark Steyn notes:

That’s to say, she understood that the biggest threat to any viable future for Britain was a unionized public sector that had awarded itself a lifestyle it wasn’t willing to earn. So she picked a fight with it, and made sure she won. In the pre-Thatcher era, union leaders were household names, mainly because they were responsible for everything your household lacked. Britain’s system of government was summed up in the unlovely phrase “beer and sandwiches at Number Ten” — which meant union grandees showing up at Downing Street to discuss what it would take to persuade them not to go on strike, and being plied with the aforementioned refreshments by a prime minister reduced to the proprietor of a seedy pub, with the Cabinet as his barmaids.

Living through the Harold Wilson years provided me more than sufficient empirical evidence that Socialism doesn’t work. It is a lazy form of Communism, lacking Communism’s demonic fervour but immersed in the same blinkered utopianism: Communism for dilettantes. Ironically, in Canada, socialism is now the official religion of the Anglican Church; it is enthusiastically embraced by witless Anglican clergy willing to try anything to avoid the embarrassment of reciting Creeds in which they no longer believe.

As expected, the left, ever caring, tolerant and inclusive, is indulging in an orgy of rejoicing:

MP George Galloway led the way with a crass tweet…. ‘Tramp the dirt down.’…… ‘May she burn in the hellfires.’….

Colchester Labour councillor Tina Bourne posted a photo of a bottle of Bollinger on Twitter with the accompanying message: ‘Chin chin everyone.’…..

A Facebook campaign has been launched to take Judy Garland song ‘Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead’ to number one following Margaret Thatcher’s death.

Desmond Tutu given $1.6m for being spiritual

Posted on by
3

More exactly, he was awarded the Templeton Prize for “affirming life’s spiritual dimension”.

Last year the Dalai Lama won it. Someone should tell Richard Dawkins that there is big money to be made in “affirming life’s spiritual dimension”.

From here:

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has won the £1.1m ($1.6m) Templeton Prize for “affirming life’s spiritual dimension”.

Organisers said he was awarded the 2013 prize for his lifelong work advancing spiritual principles such as love and forgiveness that have helped to liberate people around the world.

Anglican-Lutheran Joint Assembly to meet in Ottawa

Posted on by
3

The Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada are now holding joint synods; not unlike a conjoining of the RMS Titanic and MV Doña Paz.

Predictably, the conflab will eschew transcendent trivialities like the saving of souls in favour of “affordable housing and responsible resource extraction”.

From here:

April 04, 2013 – More than 800 Anglicans, Lutherans, and partners will gather at the Ottawa Convention Centre July 3 to 7, 2013, for a historic joint national meeting.

Inspired by the theme “Together for the love of the world,” members of the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada will gather for worship and decision-making on areas of shared work, including mission and development.

Several key events will highlight the churches’ commitment to God’s mission in the world. Anglicans and Lutherans will be invited to make statements on two priority social justice issues: affordable housing and responsible resource extraction. On July 6, Anglican and Lutheran youth from Ottawa are to lead people at the assembly to Parliament Hill where they will participate in an act of public witness and worship.

Bishop Michael Ingham announces his retirement

Posted on by
38

Read it all here:

Bishop Michael Ingham announced today he will be retiring from his position on August 31st, 2013.

“The Diocese of New Westminster has been at the forefront of positive change in the Church for decades” he said. “From the ordination of women, to support for indigenous peoples, to the dignity of gay and lesbian Christians, to inter-faith dialogue – it has been a privilege to serve a Diocese living and growing at some of the leading edges of the Anglican Church of Canada.”

The “positive change in the Church” remark is something of a mystery. Michael Ingham, by being the first Anglican bishop to authorise same-sex blessings, was instrumental in the rupturing of the Anglican Communion, a change about as positive as a magnitude 7 earthquake.

In his letter of resignation, he notes:

In my almost twenty years in episcopal orders I – together with many others in this Diocese – have borne witness in the Anglican Church of Canada to important principles central to the Christian Gospel. Our witness of faith frequently encountered strong religious opposition. Strangely, the secular world has been more supportive.

To congratulate oneself on actions which were opposed by the majority of Anglicans and applauded by most secularists seems an odd boast for a retiring Anglican bishop; isn’t it supposed to be the other way around?

To affirm his standing in Vanity Fair, Michael Ingham has been awarded an honorary degree:

Michael Ingham, Bishop of the Diocese of New Westminster, is the first Bishop in the worldwide Anglican Communion to authorize the blessing of same-sex unions. The degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, will be conferred on The Right Reverend Ingham on Friday, June 14 at the 2:30 pm ceremony.

Justin Welby thinks the church must disagree gracefully

Posted on by
3

From here:

The Church of England must show it can manage disagreement “gracefully” over issues such as women bishops and gay marriage, the Archbishop of Canterbury has warned.

The Most Reverend Justin Welby said the Church faced a “challenge” to show the rest of society that its members can hold different views but still remain “gracefully and deeply committed to each other”.

“We need to understand reconciliation within the Church as the transformation of destructive conflict, not unanimity,” he said.

“It doesn’t mean we all agree, it is that we find ways of disagreeing, perhaps very passionately but loving each other deeply at the same time, gracefully and deeply committed to each other.

That is all very well for those who are adherents of the same faith and, thus, members of the same church. It is not the case for the division created by liberals who reinterpret the Bible to question the physical resurrection of Jesus, his virgin birth, his atoning sacrifice on the cross and, of course,  the accommodation of homosexual activity as something that can be blessed by the church.

Such liberals have established a new – or reanimated an old pagan – religion, one which they call “Christian” to deceive the unwary, but which, with its eco-babble, pre-eschatological utopia aspirations and sexual obsessions, has more in common with the Marxist-Leninist branch of a fertility cult than it does with orthodox Christianity.

With such, there is no disagreeing “gracefully.”

A ray of hope for the Church of England

Posted on by
3

Most people think it is out of touch with society. There is nothing that drives people out of a church quite as effectively as a striving to be in touch with society.

From here:

More than two-thirds (69%) of the population believe that the Church of England is out of touch with society and half (54%) believe that it does a bad job of providing moral leadership. Almost half disagree with its stance on same-sex marriage.

I feel a rare moment of sympathy for atheist bloggers

Posted on by
1

IslamistsIn Bangladesh, at least, where fanatical Islamists are demanding the arrest of atheist bloggers.

A belief system that can sustain itself only by forcibly silencing all opposition is necessarily false. Islamists are not the first to try this, of course, nor will they be the last; it’s just as well that, in the long run, it never works.

From here:

Tens of thousands of Islamic activists prayed on the streets of the Bangladeshi capital today during a rally calling for the introduction of blaspemy laws and the restoration of a caretaker government.

Members of the Islami Andolan Bangladesh are demanding the arrest of ‘atheist bloggers who insulted Islam’ and to pass laws punishing those who ‘insulted Islam in the parliament’.

They have announced plans to ‘lay siege’ to the office of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on April 25 if their demands are not met.

I think I like the new Pope

Posted on by
32

Pope-FeetThere is a knack in doing this kind of thing unpretentiously and the Pope seems to have it:

Pope Francis washed and kissed the feet of dozens of young prisoners in a Holy Thursday ritual in a gesture of ‘love and service’.

He continued a tradition he began as archbishop of Buenoes Aires by holding a Mass in the Casal del Marmo facility in Rome, where 46 young men and women currently are detained.

Two of the 12 were young women, a remarkable choice given that the rite re-enacts Jesus’ washing of the feet of his male disciples.

[….]

‘This is a symbol, it is a sign -washing your feet means I am at your service,’ Francis told the youngsters. ‘Help one another. This is what Jesus teaches us. This is what I do. And I do it with my heart. I do this with my heart because it is my duty, as a priest and bishop I must be at your service.’

Michael Pollesel to be coadjutor bishop in Diocese of Uruguay after all

Posted on by
Reply

Michael PolleselThe Diocese of Uruguay is a liberal diocese in a conservative province, a misalignment of predispositions that prompted it to ask to be moved to a more simpatico province; the request  was denied.

The diocese of Uruguay says feels “abandoned and unsupported” after the standing committee of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) turned down its request to change provinces.

The diocese, which is part of the province of the Southern Cone, has asked that it be transferred to the province of Brasil, which it says is “more compatible” in terms of theology, mission and philosophy.

Canada’s Archdeacon Michael Pollesel was voted in as coadjutor bishop in the Diocese of Uruguay, but the appointment was rejected twice by the Southern Cone’s house of bishops, possibly because of this:

A source close to the situation told VOL that the issue of women priests and the liberal proclivities of Pollesel and his association with the ultra-liberal Anglican Church of Canada were deciding factors.

Now, the election has been ratified by the house of bishops; perhaps they hope to convert the new bishop:

The Anglican Province of the Southern Cone has reconsidered the Diocese of Uruguay’s appeal and has voted to ratify the election of Archdeacon Michael Pollesel as coadjutor bishop.

The decision came 10 months after the province’s House of Bishops rejected Pollesel’s election. The Uruguayan diocesan synod had appealed the decision, but “for technical canonical reasons the form of the original appeal was not valid” and had to be presented again, said Southern Cone Presiding Bishop Hector Zavala in a press release.