“Clergy for Choice” pray to support abortion

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From here:

40 DAYS of PRAYER and CONTEMPLATON

Humboldt County Clergy for Choice invite you to set aside time with your family and community to support women and reproductive justice for 40 days from March 18th through April 27th.

The flyer has a prayer for each day. Here are some of my favourites:

Day 1: Today we pray for women for whom pregnancy is not good news, that they know they have choices. [like killing your unborn baby]

Day 3: Today we pray for our daughters and granddaughters, that they will always know the power of making their own good decisions. [and be grateful that they were not aborted by their parents].

Day 4: Today we give thanks for the doctors who provide quality abortion care, and pray that they may be kept safe. [so they can kill more babies.]

Day 14: Today we pray for Christians everywhere to embrace the loving model of Jesus in the way he refused to shame women. [after all, when he wasn’t busy healing people, Jesus aborted babies as a side-line. I’ve forgotten which Gospel that is in] .

Day 18: Today we pray for all the staff at abortion clinics around the nation. May they be daily confirmed in the sacred care that they offer women. [how to show you care: abort someone – sacredly].

Day 29: Today we pray that all women will know that they are created in the image of God, good and holy, moral and wise. [unlike unborn babies who were not created by God and are a just meaningless clump of cells].

Day 36: Today we pray for the families we’ve chosen. May they know the blessing of choice. [We mustn’t forget that abortion is a blessing]

To whom are these clergy praying? Moloch.

An Easter of contrasts

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Easter, as a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus– and let’s be clear, I mean the historical fact of his bodily resurrection – brings the hope of life everlasting to all who believe in his atoning sacrifice and rising again.

This year was bitter-sweet: not a sour disagreeable bitterness, but a tinge of sadness that, by being starkly opposed to the trite cheerfulness that so often accompanies the celebration of a holiday, made the hope shine more brightly.

Our first Easter service was at Coronation Park at 6:00 a.m. – a time of day that feels like the middle of the night to me. The exquisite  sunrise made it seem a little less like the middle of the night and brightened the sadness of missing an old dear friend who no longer attends the sunrise service because he forgets to come – he has Alzheimer’s disease.

After the sunrise service and a quick trip home to splash cold water on my face, my wife and I set off to church for an Easter breakfast; we left early because my wife, an accomplished organiser, had to be there first to – organise. After eating too many just-baked croissants, I wandered into the sanctuary to tune my guitar and check the sound levels; as I looked around the familiar sanctuary and inhaled the unique aroma of cedar and carpet mould, I remembered that this would be the last celebration of Easter in our building.  The negotiated settlement with the Diocese of Niagara means we will relinquish the building to them in June. In spite – or perhaps because – of this, the worship during the service was particularly moving.

Once the main Easter service was finished, a few of us drove to a local youth prison for a monthly chapel service: I supply the musical part of the worship. We have been conducting this service for over 20 years and, during that time, have had the pleasure of trying to sing above a row of Satanists chanting curses, ducking to avoid hurled projectiles, studied indifference and the occasional intervening of the piercing light of God’s grace. This time it was in the form of a young man who asked us to pray for him after the service. He was clutching a Bible and told us he was getting out soon and was looking forward to the birth of his new baby. I don’t know how old he was – he looked about 15. While we prayed, I tried not to think “he doesn’t stand a chance” – because, with God’s grace, he does. And the one thing in his favour was that, like the tax collector in Luke 18:9-14, he knew he was a sinner.

It’s always a relief to exit the prison and feel the cool air. It’s too hot in there: I keep thinking that it’s because the flames of hell are licking at the foundations. Arriving home, all I really wanted to do was lie on the bed, but the house was filling up with people for Easter dinner. After a few massive hugs from my grandchildren, I revived somewhat, settled down to eat, drink, be merry and regale my son with all that “has been happening at church”. He was especially interested in this photo.

What Anglican bishops do on Good Friday

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Pontificate on oil pipelines:

From here:

Six Anglican bishops from across British Columbia and Yukon came together on Good Friday in a call for the environ-mental review hearings on the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline to remain fair and free from political pressure.

“There’s some concern that the decision’s already been made and that the review process is just a rubber stamp,” said Bishop Michael Ingham, of the Diocese of New West-minster. “I think what we’re trying to do is call upon the panel itself to resist pressure – political pressure, industry pressure – and to come to a fair, balanced and thorough set of recommendations.”

Ingham signed the statement, which he said was prompted by bishops being inundated with concern for the process from members of their dioceses.

Rather than build a pipeline in Canada, I am quite sure that the six bishops would prefer oil revenues continue to flow to Middle Eastern countries who subjugate women, hang homosexuals and persecute Christians – much less environmental damage.

Selling a kidney to buy an iPad

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Not a joke: a teenager in China actually did it. The siren call of technological toys is hard to resist; it’s a shame that it didn’t occur to the teenager that his kidney has more advanced and useful technology than even an iPad.

Five people have been arrested in southern China after a teenager sold his kidney so he could buy an iPhone and iPad, state media have reported.

Those detained include the surgeon who removed the kidney from the boy in April last year.

State-run Xinhua news agency says the group received around $35,000 (£22,000) for the transplant.

The student is said to be suffering renal failure, according to prosecutors in Hunan province quoted by Xinhua.

Only identified by his surname Wang, he is said to have received about $3,000 for his kidney.

 

 

 

Church of England vicar suggests celebrating Easter with sex and chocolate

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To celebrate Easter, Father Phil Ritchie recommends staying in bed, eating chocolate and copulating – because going to church isn’t “cool and funky”; whether this has to be done simultaneously is unclear.

I must have missed something: that’s what I used to do before I was a Christian. I am completely indifferent to the “funkiness” of Christianity and its institutions: what I care about is whether it is true or not. If it is, no other reason for attending church is needed; if it isn’t, no amount of “funkiness” could persuade me to attend.

To be fair to Father Phil, this does have one redeeming feature: if at some point I need a self-caricaturing vicar to illustrate how the Church of England submersed itself beneath a morass of trendy irrelevance, I need look no further.

From here:

This could be one religious commandment that a congregation might find very easy to follow.

Father Phil Ritchie from All Saints Church in Hove, East Sussex, has said Easter Sunday is the perfect time for staying in bed, eating chocolate and having sex.

The vicar gave the alternative suggestion for a way to celebrate the resurrection of Christ after admitting that church just isn’t ‘cool and funky’.

Father Ritchie said: ‘The problem with the church is that we stay inside our building and occasionally come out and say “Why don’t you come to our church, it’s cool and funky”.

‘To be honest, it’s not.

‘I would love more people to come at 10am on Sunday and I would welcome them to All Saints.

‘For Christians this is the most important day of the year.All life and all hope flows from it.

‘But there are plenty of ways to celebrate without coming to a draughty Victorian building. So why not stay at home, have a lie in, have sex and eat some chocolate.’

St. Paul’s Cathedral, London to hold U2charist

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St. Paul’s Cathedral will hold its fourth U2charist on May the 4th.

A U2charist is “a communion service, or Eucharist, accompanied by U2 songs” designed to encourage people “to rally around the Millennium Development Goals”.

It appears to make no pretence to having much to do with Christ’s body and blood and, since I think the Millennium Development Goals are a thoroughly odious substitute, I will probably not attend.

Add to this the fact that Bono sees no hypocrisy in tirelessly championing the taxpayer funded Millennium Development Goals while having just made $1 billion from his Facebook shares on which he will, no doubt, pay no tax and I can’t see why anyone would want to attend.

Nevertheless, a prior effort managed to fill the cathedral; it adheres to the received Anglican dogma that it doesn’t matter what you do with people who attend church, as long as you get them there.

Bono does allow churches to use his songs without paying a copyright fee, though: very sacrificial.

Here you will see one of my biggest fans, Rev. Keith Nethery interviewing the organiser:

Rowan Williams on how to assert yourself

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Wear a veil!

In preparation for his new job as Master of Magdalene College Cambridge, Rowan Williams continues to hone his prodigious talent for saying daft things by declaring that wearing a veil helps Muslim women assert themselves. As everyone knows, Muslim men delight in having assertive wives; that’s why they force them to wear a veil.

From here:

THE OUTGOING Archbishop of Canterbury has shown he will not leave quietly after he reopened the debate over the veil by insisting that the controversial garment can help Muslim women “assert themselves”.

Dr Rowan Williams has questioned the view that women hide behind their veils and warned against “what we sometimes think of wrongly as stereotypes”.

 

Lawyers awarded the Order of the Diocese of New Westminster

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The lawyers who conducted the litigation for the Diocese of New Westminster against the ANiC parishes which left the diocese, received an honorary Order of the Diocese of New Westminster.

Otherwise known as DOOM: Diabolic Order Of Mephistopheles.

From here:

In a ceremony on October 21, 2011, the Order of the Diocese of New Westminster (honorary) was conferred upon each of George Macintosh, Q.C., Ludmila Herbst and Tim Dickson in recognition of their work in defending the Anglican Diocese and the Bishop of New Westminster in property-related claims brought against those parties by the Anglican Network in Canada.  The Diocese and the Bishop were successful at trial in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, on appeal in the British Columbia Court of Appeal, and in opposing an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.