Tag Archives: Canadian Council of Churches

A global warming Advent

Posted on by
Reply

For those who think that Advent is a time of preparation for the coming of Jesus, the Canadian Council of Churches has news for you: the real Advent is all about global warming.

The CCC has even prepared a climate change sermon for Advent 1.

Read it all here:

A Sermon for Preachers Preparing for the First Sunday of Advent
“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” (Luke 21.25-26)

This prophecy could easily be a description of our times.

You see there was once a time when we had to argue about the reality of climate change.

There was once a time when the interesting debate to be had was whether our actions as human beings could have an impact on the climate.

However, I think, as a global culture, that time has passed.

Climate change is a reality.

In fact it’s so dominant a reality that even the world’s central banks, global investment funds, and military powers are making plans on how to adapt to it.

In other words, we have moved from the place of trying to understand what is happening in the world, to the stage of “fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world”.

Canadian Council of Churches publishes a Federal Election Resource

Posted on by
3

The Canadian Council of Churches, of which the Anglican Church of Canada is a member, has published a resource to gently guide church members to vote for the right party in the forthcoming elections. Make that the left party. Actually, there is no major Canadian party that is far enough to the left to satisfy the nudging of this resource.

For example, to deal with ISIS, what is needed, we are told, is less military intervention and more diplomatic effort; after all, ISIS has responded to diplomacy so positively in the past:

Informed by deeply rooted beliefs in the sanctity of human life and dignity, the need to protect vulnerable people from atrocities, and concerned about the ineffectiveness of international military interventions in the region in the past, church leaders have urged the Prime Minister to strengthen diplomatic efforts, increase further humanitarian assistance, provide robust support for refugees, support civil society organizations, reduce the flow of arms and focus on the protection of the rule of law and respect for human rights.

It goes without saying that the “deeply rooted beliefs in the sanctity of human life” do not run deeply enough to recognise the sanctity of human life in the womb: there is no mention of that anywhere in the document.

Cracking Open White Identity towards Transformation: Canadian Ecumenical Anti-Racism Network Examines White Identity, Power and Privilege

Posted on by
Reply

That’s the catchy little title of a new book published by the Canadian Council of Churches, whose president is – white. When the CCC’s Executive Committee is not busy Cracking Open the White Identity of its leader, it devotes its energies to social justice, climate change, wealth poverty and ecology, and ushering in a new world. Not a brave new world – really.

The contributors to the book have discovered that the church’s real problem is its “failure to address white power and privilege”. The Anglican Church of Canada is a member of the CCC and, funnily enough, all the ACoC’s bishops are – white! Perhaps the CCC is on to something: I’m eagerly awaiting the mass resignation of all ACoC bishops and their replacement by African bishops..

From here:

In his afterword, the United Church of Canada’s Michael Blair, who is of black Jamaican descent, argues that failure to address white power and privilege threatens the very core of the Christian church. “…I would say the very essence of what it means to be church is at stake…The traditional marks of the church—one holy, catholic and apostolic—are challenged,” Blair writes.

The example of Christ must always remain at the heart of the church’s work. “Certainly the model of the ministry of Jesus was the dismantling of systems of power and privilege—particularly within the context of institutionalized religion,” Blair writes.