Tag Archives: Back to Church Sunday

Aliens among us

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From here:

A former Canadian defense minister has declared on Russian TV that not only do aliens already walk amongst us but they are refusing to share their advanced technologies until we change our warring and polluting ways.

According to Paul Hellyer, who was a Liberal defense minister from 1963 to 1967 under prime minister Lester B. Pearson, there are 80 different species of extra-terrestrials.

A few members of one of the 80 alien species that have an obsessive interest in what, in their tongue, they call eco-justice, were recently spotted in Toronto trying to blend  inconspicuously into the crowd:

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Today was “Back to Church Sunday”

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Back to Church Sunday is not to be confused with returning to Christ, of course; this is, after all, the Canadian Anglican Church.

In 2009 Toronto bishops dressed up in all their finery and handed out leaflets outside Union Station:

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There hasn’t been a repeat performance by the bishops. As one observer noted:

Well intentioned, but . . well, those of my friends who are not now churchgoers wouldn’t go to church because a scary, robed bishop gave them a leaflet.

He has a point: the Anglican Church of Canada in its desperate quest for relevance, contorts its beliefs to accommodate contemporary culture – from same-sex marriage to there being many ways to God to having no set dogma at all, just community whose commonality is doctrinal incoherence.

The one thing that visibly separates bishops from the common herd is the one thing they won’t give up: dressing up in robes and pointy hats. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

September the 25th is Back to Church Sunday

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And the Anglican Church is vigorously promoting it, so is the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada:

Back to Church Sunday (B2CS) is the largest single local-church invitational initiative in the world. It is based on the simplest and shortest step in evangelism – that we should invite someone we already know to some-thing we love – inviting a friend to our church.

[….]

In Canada, the Anglican Church of Canada has been part of the B2CS initiative for two years. Last year, hundreds of Anglican congregations in Canada contributed to the more than 80,000 people globally that came back to church for B2CS. This year, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada is joining the initiative, as are congregations from other Christian traditions.

The week after, both churches will hold services of repentance for Back to Christ Sunday.

Actually, they won’t, that was just my fevered imagination working overtime.

 

 

Back to Church Sunday, red light style

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Further to the article below, an Amsterdam church has a new way to get people into the church:

Churches in Amsterdam were hoping to attract such people with a recent open evening.

At the Old Church “in the hottest part of the red light district”, the attractions included “speed-dating”.

As skimpily dressed girls began to appear in red-lit windows in the streets outside, visitors to the church moved from table to table to discuss love with a succession of strangers.

Turning church into a self-help group

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A number of dioceses in the Anglican Church of Canada have jumped on the “Back to Church Sunday” bandwagon in the hope of luring the unwary into one of their parishes.

Back to church for what, though? I’ve always been partial to attending church to worship God: as the Westminster Shorter Catechism notes, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” That seems good enough for me; but it’s not good enough for Michael Harvey, the developer of Back to Church Sunday. According to him, church should be more about discovering the potential within. Worship is merely a small but important – so far – element of what church should really be.

Anglican Church of Canada: The Me Church.

[flv:https://anglicansamizdat.net/wordpress/videos/BackToChurchSunday.flv 600 360]

You can watch the whole thing here.