The COVID conformity cult is coming for you

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For those who doubt that we are in the grip of a pseudo-religious COVID cult, take a look at this video of the first people in the UK to receive the Pfizer vaccine. I’ve no wish to make fun of them, they seem like a lovely couple: what I find interesting is, just like the newly water baptised, the newly Pfizer baptised are positively aglow with evangelical fervour in support of their new-found faith.

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Rather than being presented with a new Bible, they sport a “I’ve had my COVID Vaccination” badge as they exhort others to follow suit.

To clarify one thing: I am not an anti-vaccination knuckle-dragger – my father worked at the NHS and, because of that, as a teenager I was one of the first to be vaccinated against a new outbreak of smallpox in 1962. My arm swelled up like a balloon and I was in bed for days. But I didn’t catch smallpox

Remember: Science will win; in Pfizer we trust.

The church of COVID calls for backsliders to repent

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Here is the UK journalist, Peter Hitchens suggesting that “the belief in the whole COVID system of thought” has taken on the form of a religious cult.

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I think he may have a point.

Springs Church in Manitoba has continued to gather in defiance of government restrictions. Here is a letter from Manitoba pastors calling for the church to repent for deviating from received COVID dogma.

There aren’t many things that can unite clergy from multiple denominations in their cries for repentance: certainly not trivial things like the murder by abortion of a hundred thousand unborn Canadian babies per year, for example.

The intoxicating fog of cult indoctrination is a powerful unifying force.

Dear Pastor Leon and the members of Springs Church, 

We are writing to you as clergy also serving faith communities in Manitoba and beyond. 

During the past two weeks, Springs Church has garnered a lot of local media attention and sparked debate in our city and province regarding COVID-19 pandemic restrictions implemented by public health authorities. Springs Church has deliberately violated these restrictions in the name of religious freedom and subsequently lost a court challenge of these restrictions. 

Much of the rhetoric coming from Springs church centres on the right of Christians to worship under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. You have claimed that your drive-in services are safe and your right to gather in-person to worship outweighs the Province of Manitoba’s right to restrict gatherings for the sake of public health. 

Drive-in services may be relatively safe (but not as safe as staying home) and the question of how the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is weighed against these public health orders has not been settled in court. 

However, we are not writing to you regarding the epidemiology or legality of drive-in services. 

We are writing to you as peers and siblings in Christ and as called and ordained ministers of Christ’s Church.

We find that your actions during the past days of encouraging Christians to disobey public health orders in the name of freedom are not an example of following Christ. 

We find that your insistence on the right to worship is not in keeping with Christ’s command to love our neighbour. 

We find that your actions disregard the dangers of COVID-19 in our community and that they only serve to create potential harm for our healthcare system and healthcare workers already pushed beyond capacity. 

We find that your insistence on individual freedoms over collective responsibility are an affront to the many individuals, families, friends, community groups and other faith communities who are refraining from gathering for the sake of our neighbours. 

We find that your focus on your own perceived loss (of not being able to gather for a short time) to be offensive to those 381 Manitoban families (as of December 5th) who have lost loved ones as a result of this pandemic. 

Therefore we call on you to take the following actions:

That you repent of your actions and publicly apologize for putting your individual right to worship ahead of the good of our community. 

That you publicly encourage your church members to remain at home and worship online while public health restrictions remain in place. 

That you cease all legal action against the province and redirect those funds intended for legal costs towards a charity that truly helps Manitobans, such as Harvest Manitoba. 

If and when these actions are undertaken, it would be our hope that they be a first step towards reconciliation between Springs and your sibling communities of faith in Manitoba. 

Finally, knowing that we are not the first people of faith to live through a pandemic, we offer you the following quote from Martin Luther, written in 1527, about how Christians ought to respond to the Black Death:

Therefore I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine, and take it. I shall avoid persons and places where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance infect and pollute others, and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me, and I have done what he has expected of me and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others.

*This letter also applies to any congregation refusing to follow public health orders under the guise of religious persecution including the Church of God Restoration South of Steinbach. *

The letter is signed by churches and spiritual leaders from across Canada:

  • The Rev. Erik Parker, Sherwood Park Lutheran Church, Winnipeg (Letter Author)

  • The Rev. Courtenay Reedman Parker, Messiah Lutheran Church, Winnipeg

  • Bishop Elaine Sauer, St Chad’s Anglican Parish, Winnipeg

  • The Rev. Rick Sauer, St. Mark’s Lutheran, Winnipeg.

  • The Rev. Ken Kuhn, retired (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada)

  • The Rev. Richard D. Schulz Pastor, Gimli Lutheran Church

  • The Rev. Nancy Walker, retired (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada)

  • The Reverend Theo Robinson, BTh, Incumbent St. Michael’s Anglican Church, Victoria Beach & Pastor, Interlake Regional Shared Ministry, MNO Synod

  • The Rev. Don Engel, retired, (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada)

  • The Rev. Father Chad McCharles, Anglican Priest of the Diocese of Brandon, Incumbent of Neepawa United-Anglican Church

  • Jeraldine Bjornson, retired DLM, United Church of Canada

  • The Rev. Barton Coleman, Zion Lutheran Church Beausejour, Manitoba

  • The Rev. Kolleen Karlowsky-Clark, retired (Evangelical Lutheran Church In Canada)

  • Rachel Twigg, Saint Benedict’s Table Anglican, Winnipeg

  • The Rev. Jennifer Marlor, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, Winnipeg

  • Liz Carter-Morgan, St. Paul’s United Church, Virden MB

  • The Rev. Canon Dr. Murray Still, Church of St Stephen and St Bede Anglican-Lutheran, Winnipeg

  • The Rev. Trudy Thorarinson, Grace-St.John’s Anglican-Lutheran, Carman, MB

  • Matthew Brough, Prairie Presbyterian Church, Winnipeg

  • Paul Peters Derry, Ordained Minister, United Church of Canada (Retired), Postulate for Ordination, Anglican Church of Canada (Diocese of Rupert’s Land)

  • Don Schau, Atlantic-Garden City United Church, Winnipeg

  • The Rev. Philip G. Read, St. Mary’s Road United Church, Winnipeg

  • Reverend Barbara Roberts, ordained retired minister United Church of Canada

  • The Rev. John H. Giroux, St. Mary Anglican Church, Winnipeg

  • The Rev. Judith Whitmore Anglican, Belair, Manitoba

  • The Rev. Dr. Kara Mandryk Coordinator, Henry Budd College for Ministry, and Regional Dean, The Pas Deanery, Diocese of Brandon

  • Lynell Bergen, Hope Mennonite Church, Winnipeg

  • The Venerable Gordon Payne, retired, Priest of the Diocese of British Columbia. (But living and serving in Winnipeg)

  • Jamie Arpin-Ricci, Pastoral Leader Little Flowers Community (Mennonite Church Manitoba)

  • Kim Arpin-Ricci, Pastoral Leader, Little Flowers Community (Mennonite Church Manitoba)

  • Tyler Gingrich, Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, Winnipeg

  • Bonita E. Garrett, Retired, United Church of Canada

  • The Rev. Lynn Granke, retired (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada), Winnipeg

  • Michael Pahl, Lead Pastor, Morden Mennonite Church

  • Margrét Kristjansson, Rivers United Church, Rivers, M

  • Donna J. Smalley, Retired [Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada] Winnipeg

  • A.McCartney. Team Minister Oak Bank United Church, Oak Bank, MB

  • The Rev. Thomas J. Lurvey, retired (North American Lutheran Church), Winnipeg

  • Harold Peters-Fransen, Elim Mennonite Church, Grunthal, MB

  • Jim Vickers, retired, (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada) Waldersee, MB

  • The Rev. Matthew Diegel, Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Thunder Bay, ON

  • The Ven. Wilma Woods, St Giles Anglican, Estevan, SK

  • The Rev. Brian Woods, St Giles Anglican, Estevan, SK

  • The Rev. Jerry Borkowsky, Assistant to the Bishop Saskatchewan Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canad

  • The Rev’d Robyn King, St Paul’s Anglican, Leduc, AB

  • Fran Ota, United Church of Canada, Toronto, ON

  • Diaconal Minister Beth Kerr, Trinity and Atwood United Churches, North Perth, ON

  • The Rev. Arleen Berg Leishman, retired (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada) Thunder Bay, ON

  • The Rev. Murray Halvorson, New Hope Lutheran Church, Regina, SK

  • The Rev’d Justin Cheng, All Saints Anglican, Diocese of New Westminster, Burnaby, BC

  • Reg Berg, Prince of Faith Lutheran Church, Calgary, A

  • The Rev. Lindsay Hognestad, Retired (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada) Regina, SK

  • The Rev’d Brandon Witwer, Christ Church Anglican, Calgary, AB

  • The Rev. Lyndon Sayers, Lutheran Church of the Cross, Victoria, BC

  • Bishop Cindy Halmarson, Retired (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada), Cobourg, Ontari

  • The Rev. Joseph McLellan, Bishop, Progressive Catholic Church of Canada

  • Sarah Bruer, Diaconal Minister (in search of call), North Perth Ontario.

  • Melany Cassidy-Wise, Ordained Minister,  Rural United Ministry. Easton’s Corners United Church, North Augusta Pastoral Charge, Bishop’s Oxford Pastoral Charge, Maitland, Ontario

  • Wendy Molnar, Coronado Gibbons United Church, Sturgeon County, AB

  • Linda K. Douglas Grace Lutheran Church, Victoria, BC

  • Dick Kennedy, Palliser Parish, Anglican Diocese of Qu’Appelle.

  • The Reverend Boyd Drake, The United Church of Canada, Gatineau QC

  • Marie-Louise Ternier, priest in the Anglican Church of Canada, serving an Anglican-Lutheran Shared Ministry in Watrous, SK.

  • The Rev. Aneeta Saroop, Spirit of Life Lutheran Church, Vancouver, BC

A list of vaccines that were developed using aborted baby cells

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The Charlotte Lozier Institute has published a chart cataloguing the COVID-19 vaccines that were either developed or tested using cells from aborted babies. Just about all of them, as it turns out:

The question is, are you willing to save your life by taking a vaccine that was developed or tested using parts of a murdered baby?

Canada is due to receive six million doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in the first quarter of 2021. Both vaccines were tested using aborted baby cells for some of the tests.

Dismantling Advent

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Advent is the time in the liturgical calendar when we expectantly wait and prepare for both the celebration of the Nativity of Christ at Christmas and the return of Christ at the Second Coming.

This year, the Anglican Church of Canada has decided to use Advent as an excuse for jumping on the latest faddish secular bandwagon – what a shock, I hear you mutter – and denounce racism and white supremacy.

They are vowing to “dismantle” racism but, instead, have dismantled Advent, an opening skirmish in their battle to dismantle Christianity. If only someone would dismantle the Anglican Church of Canada. Oh, I forgot, they are dismantling themselves. We don’t have too long to wait.

From here:

This Advent, we feel called to name the truth that the sin of racism and white supremacy is ongoing. People continue to be subjected to and oppressed by these systemic evils, even within our own churches and the ecumenical movement.

For the sake of our common mission and witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ, we share a commitment to dismantling racism and combating white supremacy, and we actively seek opportunities to engage more deeply. We bind ourselves together in this work, even as we are bound together by a common history of complicity with evil. We look forward to meeting with members from the Black, Indigenous and other communities of color within and beyond our churches to help us develop specific goals and actions. We know this will not be easy, but it is essential. It happens only by moving beyond the borders of the familiar, encountering the truth, trusting God’s grace and being transformed. We have much to learn from and with each other.

Rev. Anna Greenwood-Lee is the new bishop of the Diocese of British Columbia

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From here:

The Rev. Anna Greenwood-Lee, incumbent at St. Laurence Anglican Church in the diocese of Calgary, was elected bishop of the diocese of British Columbia Sept. 26.

She was elected on the seventh ballot during a virtual synod.

Greenwood-Lee says the diocese’s vision of transformation spoke to her. “It felt like my gifts and what they were looking for in terms of their vision lined up.”

Greenwood-Lee points to her interest in social justice, particularly in the creation of the Wisdom Centre, an online network that connects people with events and resources. She also has experience with and teaches courses on congregational development, and teaches courses on the topic. In 2006, when she became the incumbent at St. Laurence, she was given three years to “either turn the place around or close it,” she says. “It’s still here!”

If you would care to plumb the Solomonic depths of Wisdom Centre, you will discover that the new bishop is all for shutting down churches, staying in your house, wearing a mask and not showing outward signs of piety – like wearing a mask.

She goes on to tell us that those attending church during the pandemic are “trampling the Sabbath day”: after all, Jesus did not tell us to go to church.

Here she is in full-blown earnest:

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Those who care about the Diocese of BC should start praying now.

The Diocese of Montreal is dismantling anti-black racism

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The diocesan dismantler-in-chief, Rev Christopher Belle seems to think that the diocese is a veritable hotbed of racism, although he did have to reach back to the 1840s in order to find something to dismantle. This, of course, is how the church strives to be relevant.

As an aside, how do you dismantle racism? You can dismantle an electric kettle because it has parts. Islamists like to dismantle humans by removing their heads. But how do you dismantle an idea?

Rev Belle seems to be under the impression that if we all stop singing “Jimmy Crack Corn”, that will be a good start. I know it will be hard, you are probably humming it as you read this, but now you will have to stop. I have and I know I feel better for it.

From here:

Dismantling Anti-Black Racism in the Diocese of Montreal

Our television screens have been inundated with images of racial discord as thousands upon thousands band together to speak out against police brutality aimed at people of colour. There have been cries for justice, racial equality, defunding the police, ‘Enough is enough!’, and so on. For a while, it felt like there was a new instance of racial discrimination, perpetrated in a violent and, all too often, fatal manner, every other week. The rallying cry “BLACK LIVES MATTER” has been heard loud and clear for years now, as people all over the world stand in solidarity with Black people who have had to suffer life-threatening injustice for way too long. Enough is enough, indeed.

[….]

Sooo…why do we need to worry ourselves with dismantling racism in the Diocese of Montreal? We’re a bunch of God-fearing people, who love the Lord, and love each other. So many of us would insist that we don’t have a racist bone in our bodies. Surely there’s no anti-Black racism to dismantle here. Hang on. The lyrics printed at the beginning of this article come from a little ditty called ‘The Blue-Tail Fly’, a song performed during those delightful minstrel shows from the mid-Nineteenth century.

[….]
When it was time, I took my song sheet. I looked it over. I heard somebody say, “Let’s sing Jimmy Crack Corn”. I was on board. I knew this one. I did not know it was a full song. I scanned the page until I found the lyrics. I started to sing. And then I stopped.

God and the Internet

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The December Anglican Journal has an article all about the joys of online worship. My church has had online worship (even though I take part in it, I’m not yet convinced that that term is not an oxymoron) since March, so I have experienced first hand much of what the article explains.

One thing I didn’t know, though, is revealed in this helpful diagram: God is plugged directly into the Internet. I had no idea. I wonder if He is on Facebook?

Church mourns Bishop Geoffrey Peddle

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From here:

The church is mourning the loss of Geoffrey Peddle, bishop of the diocese of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador, who died Oct. 8. “It is with a very heavy heart that I share with you the sad news that our beloved Bishop, The Rt. Rev. Dr. Geoffrey Curtis Ralph Peddle, passed away suddenly today,” diocesan administrator Archdeacon Sam Rose said in an Oct. 8 note posted to the Cathedral Messenger Online, an electronic newsletter from the diocese’s Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. “While this is very painful for us to process at this moment, we are comforted by the grace of God which truly passes all understanding.

[……]

Peddle was provost and vice-chancellor of Queen’s College when he was elected. As bishop, he became known for voicing support for a number of social causes, including same-sex marriage and the rights of prison inmates.

What is not mentioned in the article is that Bishop Geoffrey Peddle committed suicide. Surely it would be better for the church to be honest and open about such things rather than pretend they haven’t happened.

Finally, some good news

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In 2020, the year of COVID, we all need a little cheering up so take heart, Christmas is almost upon us, and not only will you not have to put up with your relatives visiting, we have this heartwarming news from the US Episcopal church: by 2050 the entire denomination will be gone.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s All You Need is Love theology, although a resounding hit at royal weddings, doesn’t seem to work as well in more mundane settings. A smattering of truth might help but The Episcopal Church has worked hard for decades to rid themselves of such a nuisance. Now we see the result:

The Episcopal Church might soon cease to exist, according to those who describe the denomination’s future as bleak based on plummeting membership numbers.

Attendance and membership numbers at churches within the mainline Protestant denomination have dropped significantly over the last decade, having lost one-quarter of worship attendees.

In 1966, when the church was said to be at its peak in the United States, approximately 3.6 million Americans identified as Episcopalian.  The Episcopal Church’s Office of the General Convention reported that in 2018, membership in the denomination had dropped to 1.676 million.

Regular worship attendance in Episcopal churches in 2009 was approximately 724,000. By 2019, the figure was 579,000 on an average Sunday, a nearly 25% drop over a decade.

“The overall picture is dire,” the Rev. Dwight Zscheile, an Episcopal priest and professor, according to ChurchLeaders. “Not one of decline as much as demise within the next generation unless trends change significantly.”

He said that at this rate, “there will be no one in worship by around 2050 in the entire denomination.” Although offering pledges have risen, “the fact that fewer people are giving more money is not a sustainable trend over the long term,” he added.

Anglican Primate Linda Nicholls urges Government of Canada to ban conversion therapy

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Primate Linda Nicholls has written to Canada’s Minister of Justice to voice her support for Bill C-6, a bill which would criminalise conversion therapy.

If passed, a counsellor who agrees to help someone resist or be free of unwanted same-sex attraction would be committing a criminal act. A person who experiences same-sex attraction should have no choice but to accept his unwanted inclinations. Let me repeat: no choice. The reason for this, the Primate tells us, is because to allow the person a choice would be an affront to his dignity, even abusive.

At the same time, the Primate has, in her multi-letter rainbow spectrum, a letter “T” secreted between the letters “B” and “Q”. “T” stands for “Transgender”, a person who chooses to assert that his sex differs from the category imposed on him by his chromosomes. We are all expected to go along with this choice, this fantasy: to do otherwise would be an affront to his dignity and possibly a criminal act. The Primate fully supports, welcomes, applauds and embraces this choice.

Do you see the problem?

From here:

The Honourable David Lametti
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
David.Lametti@parl.gc.ca

Dear Minister Lametti:

I am writing on behalf of the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) to express support for Bill C-6 to ban conversion therapy in Canada.

Our faith tradition affirms the dignity of all persons, including those persons across the LGBTQ2SIA+ spectrum. We recognize that members of the LGBTQ2SIA+ communities continue to disproportionately experience marginalization, family estrangement, and exclusion in a predominantly heterosexual and gender-binary culture, negating this dignity which we know God to have given to all. Conversion therapy seeks to change core elements of individuals by attempting to change their sexual orientation or gender identity. The ACC does not support this dangerous and abusive practice.

In 2010 the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada passed a resolution calling on the church at all levels to “embrace the outcast and stand against the abuse and torment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons.” It is in the spirit of this resolution that today we stand against the harmful practice of conversion therapy for LGBTQ2SIA+ persons in Canada. Such practices are hostile to a person’s identity and an affront to their dignity.

I recognize the proposed Bill C-6 as an important step in protecting Canadians from the damaging effects of conversion therapy and strongly encourage the passing of this important legislation.

Yours in Christ,

The Most Rev. Linda Nicholls
Primate, The Anglican Church of Canada