Tag Archives: Bishop Andrew Asbil

Hubris month is upon us

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That means it’s time for clergy to adorn their necks with rainbow collars:

Love is love bishops will hoist rainbow flags and prattle about diversity and inclusion, while scolding those who exhibit insufficient enthusiasm.

Here is Toronto Bishop Andrew Asbil doing his best to staunch the stampede of parishioners abandoning the ACoC by encouraging participation in the month long – or is it a season now? – bacchanalia and denouncing those who would rather not as homophobic and transphobic.

Dear Friends,

June is Pride month.

Wonderful celebrations are taking place across our Diocese. Last week, Anglicans from the Nottawasaga Deanery gathered for Barrie Pride. Around the same time, the Rev. Dana Dickson was present with community leaders in Bradford to raise the Pride flag at their city hall. A few days later, parishioners at the Church of the Redeemer on Bloor Street were taping their steps with Pride colours, to remind the people of Toronto that they are a proud, welcoming and inclusive parish. In a few weeks, Anglicans from across the Diocese will gather under the banner of Proud Anglicans at the annual Toronto Pride Parade.
[….]
Homophobic and transphobic voices seem to be getting louder in public discourse, on social media and even in parts of our Church.

Bishop of Toronto calls for Gaza ceasefire

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The Rt. Rev. Andrew Asbil has written a letter to his diocese asking “our leaders” (politicians, presumably) to urge for a ceasefire in the war in Gaza.

What does this really mean, one wonders. It can’t mean that he wants pressure put on Hamas to release the Jewish hostages and surrender. That would produce an immediate ceasefire; if he meant that, he would say so.

The only other possibility is that he wants Israel to stop the war before it is won, leaving Hamas intact, guaranteeing further atrocities against the Jewish people. That, after all, is what Hamas has promised, although Asbil seems to think it would result in everyone joining hands and warbling I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing In Perfect Harmony. Maybe that’s what the Jews at the music festival were singing shortly before they were murdered, raped, beheaded, tortured  and carted off as hostages.

So he doesn’t want a ceasefire at all; he wants Israel to lose its war against Hamas.

If bishops must insist on meddling in politics, I do wish that they would occasionally choose the right side.

Read it all here:

Dear Friends,

For the last 216 days, the first item on our news has been about war in the Land of the Holy One. The scenes of destruction, human suffering and sorrow leave an indelible mark on all of us. In the face of it all, it is tempting to turn away and say, “We can do so little; what can we do?”

The Anglican Church of Canada keeps this Sunday as Jerusalem Sunday. It reminds us that we all have a special relationship with the Land of the Holy One, and we are called to pray for its peace. Canadians have a particular bond of friendship with the Diocese of Jerusalem: the Diocese of Ottawa is its companion diocese, and Archbishop Hosam Naoum is a dear friend of our Church. Many of us have had the privilege of visiting St. George’s College in Jerusalem for a pilgrimage course and have met, learned about and witnessed the experience of Palestinian Christians in the Middle East.

The incessant violence and warfare in Israel and Gaza is overwhelming in its statistics: 1,100 Israelis and 34,000 Palestinians dead since Oct. 7, 2023, and 1.7 million people displaced in a humanitarian crisis, with emergency aid agencies unable to cope with the need and unable to cross the access points.

Enough is enough.

Calls for a ceasefire are increasing internationally, and I join with those who are crying out: the time for a cessation of violence is past due.

Bishop Riscylla, Bishop Kevin and I will be participating in parts of the Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage in Toronto this weekend, organized by KAIROS. This global movement of walking (or rolling) in prayerful solidarity with the people of Gaza will help raise awareness, raise money for humanitarian aid, and hopefully exert pressure on our leaders to urge a ceasefire now.

Bishop of Toronto pontificates on same sex marriage

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Since General Synod failed to pass a motion approving same-sex marriage, Bishop Andrew Asbil is advocating taking a pastoral rather than legislative approach to marrying same-sex couples. In other words, full steam ahead with same-sex marriage, legislation be damned. Had the reverse been the case, I doubt that he would be advising a pastoral approach to prohibiting same-sex marriages.

Naturally, he takes great pains to reassure recalcitrants who stubbornly cling to a Biblical version of marriage that they will still be welcome in the Anglican organisation. But does anyone with a functioning prefrontal cortex believe him? Do you really think that when Harry and Jim show up on a conservative priest’s doorstep, demand that he marry them, and sue him because he refuses that the Diocese of Toronto will pay his punitive legal fees? No, me neither.

Is that an earring in Asbil’s lower left auricle?

Bishop Andrew Asbil has a globally warmed Easter

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As I started to read the bishop’s Easter musing in the diocesan paper, I found my heresy antennae being soothed by the gentle balm of that most remarkable unguent: an Anglican bishop who believes in the resurrection. Or, at the very least, a bishop who does a passable imitation of one.

It all turned to dust and ashes as I approached the end of the article. What really interests the bishop isn’t a man coming bodily back to life who claims to be God, claims to take our sin away, claims to reconcile us to his Father and claims that through him we, too, will come back to life and live in eternity with no more pain, tears or woe. No, what really interests the bishop is global warming.

From here (page 4):

And now, it is the very garden that is under threat. Our over-reaching and grasping ways, our neglect and cavalier attitudes have put such a strain upon creation. As temperatures continue to rise, weather patterns shift, species once named so long ago slowly disappear. Some make predictions, some deny and some believe, some downplay while others wring their hands. And what about us? How do we as a people of faith respond?

The last question that is put to us in the Baptismal Covenant in the Book of Alternative Services is: Will you strive to safeguard the integrity of God’s creation, and respect, sustain and renew the life of the Earth? We respond by saying, I will, with God’s help. It’s time to find our gardening tools, to take instructions from scientists and climatologists, mystics and children, farmers and monastics, Indigenous elders and theologians. It’s time to tend the garden with all our might, to avoid the moment when, try as we might, we cannot reattach the stem to the root. After all, when we confess that God is our helper, anything is possible. Christ is Risen!