May the 27th is the last Sunday that we, at St. Hilda’s, will worship in our building: we will be moving to rental facilities at the Knights of Columbus, 1494 Wallace Road, Oakville.
I wrote this song to commemorate our last – and first – Sunday:
Robotic buttocks.
Apparently, the point of this is to demonstrate “the innovative use of robotics technology” and “to raise the argument as to what will be manifested in the minds of people who communicate with SHIRI.”
Another giant leap forward towards perfecting the Turing test.
Every year St. Hilda’s Anglican Church, ANiC has a garage sale where all the items are free. It is an outreach to the community to illustrate the love, grace and salvation of God which is offered to us free through Jesus Christ.
This year was a little different because it was our last Garage Sale Giveaway before we have to relinquish our building to the Diocese of Niagara. This was a week of “last times”, since Friday was also the last Freebie Friday, a St. Hilda’s outreach to a local high school which will cease when we move.
This year, in addition to handing out our usual card, the following was distributed:
We are moving!
Years ago when I was ministering at my first church in Quebec I walked over to my office and noticed a “For Sale” sign placed on the lawn of the church. A local prankster thought it would be a good joke. In our newsletter I used that situation as a eye catching title: CHURCH FOR SALE! I then spoke about ministry etc. I never would have thought that years later I would be facing the real thing.
After 53 years on Rebecca Street we are losing our beloved St. Hilda’s Church building.
We live in a world and a culture where many foundational Christian beliefs are currently under attack. This is experienced even within the church itself. The main issue is the blurring and compromise of the good news of Jesus Christ and the elevation of the authority of church leadership over the authority of the Bible. As a consequence, many churches find themselves within a structure that compromises their conscience. This was our case. The result was after a long dispute with our former leadership we find ourselves homeless, but not church-less. We the people are His church.
We remain in communion with the greater part of the worldwide Anglican Church through the auspices of the Anglican Network in Canada. This being said, we will begin a new chapter of our church history when we start using the facility at the Knights of Columbus Rental Hall on Wallace Road near the intersection of Speers Road and Third Line. Our first celebration is on May 27th. And thereafter at 10:30 am on Sunday mornings.
We as a congregation will, with God’s help, continue to show the surpassing worth of Jesus Christ, continuing with all our ministries, preaching and teaching the Gospel and sharing the love of God in our community.
Pastor Paul Charbonneau
St. Hilda’s Church
Here are some photos; for all of them, go here:
But not quite as we had hoped. This is what the paper printed:
St. Hilda’s giving goods away free
For the sixth year, the congregation at St. Hilda’s Anglican Church is truly giving back to the community with its Garage Giveaway.
The sale is Saturday (May 12).
“This year’s Garage Giveaway is extra special because it will be our last at this location,” event co-ordinator Judy Watson stated in a press release. “After 53 years… we have been truly blessed to celebrate our worship, fellowship and community outreach here.”
The last service for St. Hilda’s congregation will take place Sunday, May 27.
Rain or shine, the garage sale will run from 9 a.m.-1 p.m.
Items such as clothes, books, toys, and furniture will be given free of charge to those in need.
While the church does make the sale known to local groups, such as Kerr Street Ministries, Food for Life and the Halton Multicultural Council, no one is turned away from the event.
Members of the congregation also have an opportunity to share conversation over coffee at the event and a prayer tent will also be made available.
And this is what was submitted to the paper. What has been omitted are references to icky things like God, his love and why we do it. Also notable for its absence is: “After 53 years we are being forced to leave our church home.” It must be a coincidence that the Diocese of Niagara pays to advertise in the Oakville Beaver.
ST. HILDA’S GARAGE GIVEAWAY 2012 MAY BE THE LAST
For the sixth consecutive year, the congregational family at St. Hilda’s Anglican Church is reaching out to give back to the community with its “GARAGE GIVEAWAY”. This event has become an annual tradition, eagerly awaited by both the congregation and the people of Oakville. Essentially a garage sale where EVERYTHING IS FREE, this year’s event will happen Saturday, May 12.
“The Lord calls us to freely give, and so we want to share His blessings and love in a tangible way with our community”, explains Pastor Paul Charbonneau. “Members of our congregation are blessed in return by helping to meet the needs of those who come. It is a time to share conversation over coffee and treats, pray with “shoppers” in the prayer tent and watch little ones while parents browse. Others help to load cars and even deliver some larger items to people’s homes.”
While the church prays that those who have need will be led to this event, no one is turned away. “We ask only that people enjoy and use the items they take away with them,” says event coordinator Judy Watson. “This year’s Garage Giveaway is extra special because it will be our last at this location, perhaps our last for a long time. After 53 years we are being forced to leave our church home. We have been truly blessed to celebrate our worship, fellowship and community outreach here at 1258 Rebecca St. Our last service is May 27th and then we must vacate the premises. We hope that the Lord will lead us to a new home where we can continue to offer the Garage Giveaway to the community”
Over the years, many in the community have begun to look forward to this annual event. “We get calls from people each spring, asking what the date will be,” says Pastor Paul. “Still others call to offer whatever help they can give. Last year’s article in the Oakville Beaver resulted in a number of people calling to offer items to give away. Everything is greatly appreciated.”
Rain or shine, the members of St. Hilda’s will be ready to greet everyone on Saturday, May 12 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m… Everything, from clothes, to books, to toys, to furniture will be ready and waiting to be taken home for FREE by those who have need.
Liberal churches are keen on promoting social justice. In practice, this means that they attempt to exert pressure on governments to adopt redistributionist policies in order, supposedly, to make poverty history and transform unjust structures of society. This mindless utopianism never works, of course, and, when applied with vigour, results in a cure that is much worse than the disease.
So what does social justice in a Christian context really look like?
Like this:
Thirty years ago, a wealthy Toronto doctor had a revelation: Money, he decided, was his to give away, not to keep.
It was a drastic change in attitude for Dr. Andrew Simone, a Harvard-educated skin care specialist, who was bringing home $100,000 a year in 1975.
“We didn’t have a clue what we were supposed to do,” recalled the now 66-year-old doctor who founded the Canadian Food for Children (CFFC) charity to help feed the world’s hungry.
Before taking on the monumental, Dr. Simone and his wife, Joan, started with the obvious.
They donated their savings and life insurance, worth more than $150,000, to charities like the Salvation Army and Oxfam. They stopped shopping for clothes and sold their fancy cars, furniture and electronics. They welcomed foster children into their home. They told their own kids that life would be simpler from then on, that they would be well cared for, but if they wanted extras they would have to work for them.
“We felt this call to be servants,” said Dr. Simone in a recent interview at the Mississauga warehouse where CFFC donations are stored. He wore a used Toronto Transit Commission jacket that a friend gave him, accessorized with a button that read: “Jesus is the reason for the season.”
Indeed, it is the Simones’ deep Catholic faith that bolsters their spirit and assures them they have found their path.
From here:
The Ontario Provincial Police in northwestern Ontario have laid more charges against a former Anglican priest and boy scout leader for alleged sexual offences.
Ralph Rowe, 72, will appear in court in Kenora, Ont., later this month. He’s charged with five counts of sexual assault and two counts of indecent assault.
The charges relate to incidents that occurred between 1973 and 1986 in the First Nations communities of Fort Severn, Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, Wunnumin Lake and Kingfisher Lake.
The fact that this character was an Anglican priest is appalling – but not surprising.
John Bothwell, when he was bishop of Niagara, as part of the ACPO initiation – more of a hazing, really – used to show gay pornographic movies to the postulants to introduce them to the real world as he saw it. I reckon they were from his own private collection; my wife tells me I shouldn’t say that. Too late.
Those who were not shocked into throwing in the towel and finding employment in a sane institution were subsequently consecrated as priests.
So it is not surprising that an organisation that uses a process designed to screen out those averse to homosexual practice attracts many who enjoy indulging in homosexual practice. Including with little boys.
From here:
A provocative art piece on display outside a London church is raising eyebrows for depicting a distressed pregnant girl strapped to a bed.
The larger-than-life piece is one of 14 works of The Way, an art installation on the lawn at Bishop Cronyn Memorial Anglican Church in the weeks leading up to Easter.
Collectively, the panels are meant to be a contemporary social commentary about the death and suffering of Jesus based on the stations of the cross — translated into injustice, poverty and alienation seen on the streets of London.
But one piece, facing Queens Ave., startled at least two London women, one of whom interpreted it as depicting a child in bondage.
The painting on wood is intended to illustrate the crucifixion of Christ. It shows a wild-eyed blond girl or young woman, evidently pregnant, strapped to a bed while an unseen person holds her blood-spattered wrist.
“It just made me sick to my stomach. I didn’t like it.” said the woman, who said it appears to sanction violence against children.
Given news stories about child abuse, she said the painting doesn’t make social sense, even if it’s a commentary.
Rev. Raemond Fletcher, who co-curated the show, said London artist Erin Ivy intends to show that young women who become mothers often suffer discrimination, rejection and judgment.
I have no idea where Rev. Fletcher gets the idea that mothers “often suffer discrimination, rejection and judgment”. Does he mean unmarried mothers? These days? Is his message really one that is promoting the evil notion that abortion is to be preferred to motherhood?
I do hope not – but he is a rector in the Anglican Church of Canada.
Rev Fletcher wrote a paper called Theological Dimensions of Human Sexuality. Yes, of course the paper is mostly about homosexuality because that is what really interests Anglican clergy; and there are no messy babies involved. In it, he argues for the blessing of same-sex marriages on the basis that the word “bless” is far more complicated than we think and that, even if homosexuality is a result of the Fall, in a “salutational blessing[:] we are greeting God’s presence visible to us in the relationship, wishing the relationship well, and committing ourselves, as a Christian community, to support it.” If that seems like sophistic claptrap it’s because it is.
Rev. Fletcher is also a part of the Interfaith Declaration on Climate Change , he signed a petition in favour of same-sex marriage, muddles the roles of church and state and held a Widening Circle conference .
In short, he represents almost everything that is loathsome about the Anglican Church of Canada.
When I was in high school I was an atheist. I confess that it was a bit of an affectation; I hadn’t thought through all the consequences of my belief, but I had read a number of Jean-Paul Sartre’s books – to my mother’s consternation – and discovered that amorality is a logical result of atheism. If I was an atheist, I could do as I pleased; to a hormonally dominated 16-year old, that seemed like a good arrangement.
A few years later in university, my mathematics tutor asked me why I had such dreadful marks and why didn’t I feel guilty using taxpayer money to go to parties, get drunk and chase girls rather than study. “Well”, I said, “I agree with Dostoyevsky: if God does not exist, everything is permitted”. He stared blankly past my head and suggested I see my home tutor for further counselling. I never did.
But back to high school. The teacher I liked was an atheist. He was well-read, interesting and, so I thought at the time, unencumbered by the trivial niceties that prevented lesser teachers from showering blows of withering sarcasm down upon those with whom he disagreed. He introduced me to Sartre, Bertrand Russell, Camus, Joseph Heller, Huxley, Orwell and Dostoyevsky among others – and to the delights of mathematics. The professional Christian on staff, hired to teach Religious Instruction, was unconvincing and timid; consequently, he was teased mercilessly. He was, I thought, an excellent advertisement for the benefits of my newly acquired atheism.
There was a rather disagreeable lad in my class who received what my atheist teacher mockingly called a “visitation”; he became a born-again Christian. Regrettably, that didn’t make him, by my reckoning at least, any less irritating, pompous and noisily self-righteous. I will mention no names but the individual I have in mind had orange hair: you know who you are, Langley.
All this makes me wonder about the kid wearing the Jesus t-shirt. I fully support his right to free speech; I just hope he is not the Langley of Forest Heights.
From here:
“He will not attend this school unless they are having reading, writing and arithmetic — good old-fashioned academics,” he said, waving a New Testament bible. “When they’re having forums, when they’re having other extra-curricular activity, he will not attend that school.”
Students said William Swinimer has been preaching and making them feel uncomfortable, and the shirt was the last straw so they complained.
“He’s told kids they’ll burn in hell if they don’t confess themselves to Jesus,” student Riley Gibb-Smith said.
Katelyn Hiltz, student council vice-president, agreed the controversy didn’t begin with the T-shirt.
“It started with him preaching his religion to kids and then telling them to go to hell. A lot of kids don’t want to deal with this anymore,” she said.
Love Free or Die is the title of a documentary film about Gene Robinson, the first – but not the last – overtly homosexual bishop in The Episcopal Church.
The title of the film seems to imply that Bishop Robinson would prefer death to the fettering of his sexual inclinations. As things turned out, not only is he still with us but he became a bishop, a darling of the Anglican liberal establishment and has had a movie made about him. To add to the collection of “firsts”, Robinson was the first bishop to wear a bullet-proof vest at his ordination, demonstrating a determination to avoid the second option mentioned in the title of the documentary.
Naturally, the bishop is a hero to the Diocese of Westminster, so it is allowing Integrity Vancouver to screen the documentary in one of its churches: St. David’s Anglican Church. In spite of having a title that is an amalgam of Born Free and Die Hard, the film isn’t particularly popular: this is its first appearance in Canada and, in order to entice people to see it, St. David’s showing is free.
Here is the trailer in which, oddly enough, those who oppose same-sex marriage are clearly homophobic bigots and those who are for it are pioneering justice-seekers forging a bright new world full of love, compassion and – gay bishops.
