Tag Archives: Diocese of Huron

An interview with Archbishop Linda Nicholls

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Here is an interview with the Anglican Church of Canada’s new Primate.

We have a unique opportunity to witness within the Anglican Communion to what it means to live together in faith. In a world of increasing polarization where differences become reasons to hate, we are a Church that gathers first around our call in Jesus Christ. We have differences – language, culture, race, sexual orientation, liturgical preferences, theological preferences – and we could divide on any or all of these. Yet, our beloved Church seeks a unity in God built on respect, dignity of every person, and the humility grounded in our need for each other as we each seek to be faithful to the Gospel and need to hear how God is speaking to each of us and to the whole Church. Despite the sometimes pain of our differences – we are family in Christ.

As you can see, Nicholls is living in a fantasy world, where a fantasy church is undivided, unified and all live in harmony together. In our world, the Anglican Church of Canada divided in 2008 when parishes left en masse to join the Southern Cone and later ANiC. Those who remain are even less unified than in 2008 and, as we could see from the last General Synod, there was crying, wailing and people rolling on the floor in anguish. Delegates were not getting along with each other.

In fairness to Nicholls, though, she has been striving diligently for unity.

As this report predicts:

the results of a controversial study presented to Anglican bishops five years ago that said that at the present rate of decline – a loss of 13,000 members per year – only one Anglican would be left in Canada by 2061.

In the Diocese of Huron, no one has worked harder to close churches and watch as people flee than Nicholls. Today Huron, tomorrow the rest of the church until, by 2061, only one person will be left. Then we’ll have perfect unity.

St. George’s, Windsor to be demolished

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The Diocese of Huron is demolishing St. George’s in Windsor because the congregation has withered and the diocese doesn’t need the building. Of course, when St. Aidan’s congregation – also in Windsor – joined ANiC, the diocese took them to court because they really needed the property – rather like my dog: if I pick up a stick, he must have it, only to lose interest when I drop it.

From here:

Historic St. George’s Church and Hall, facing likely demolition, will be put up for sale in a last-ditch effort to save it.

But officials at the Anglican Church’s Diocese of Huron — which owns the Walkerville property, with an asking price of $250,000 — aren’t holding their breath.

“We’re going to proceed with demolition but because the city really would like to see if we can sell it first, we’re going to test it on the market for a couple of months,” Paul Rathbone, secretary-treasurer for the Diocese of Huron, said Wednesday. “But we’re not going to hold it on the market long at all.

The Diocese of Huron hates fossil fuels

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Cheap energy produced by fossil fuels has given us better medicines, cleaner water, warmer homes, cheaper and more plentiful food, more leisure time and a longer lifespan. It also provided the means of producing the clothes and glasses the young ladies below are wearing, the sign that they are holding and the dentistry that permits them to display their toothy grins with such aplomb.

The Diocese of Huron wants to divest from fossil fuels; Canon Linda Nixon from that diocese is the one on the left brandishing the sign.

Climate-justice-march-FB-BB

The sign isn’t completely inaccurate: if she had her way it certainly would endanger our grandchildren.

Diocese of Huron Dean quits

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Imam-at-CathedralWhen Kevin Dixon was installed as cathedral Dean in the Diocese of Huron, an imam read from the Koran to celebrate the occasion.

Dixon has now moved on to become vice-president of operations at International Justice Mission Canada (IJM), an organisation dedicated to protecting the poor from violence throughout the developing world.

When he was employed by the Diocese of New Westminster, Dixon was one of the first rectors to offer blessings to same-sex couples during which time, Dixon was critical of J.I. Packer’s understanding of the Bible:

The Rev. Kevin Dixon, priest at St. Mary’s Anglican Church in Kerrisdale, meanwhile believes Packer is adopting a “literalistic” reading of the Bible.

“It’s important for people to understand that the holy scriptures is a very nuanced document. I think we need to allow people room to come to a new understanding,” said Dixon, the local newspaper reported.

“I have not always held the view that same-sex relationships are consistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ, but now I do.”

More recently, Dixon has been occupying himself by observing the elections in El Salvador to verify the free exercise of the right to vote.

I’m not sure whether IJM is active in the Middle East or not, but if it is, perhaps Dixon could take his imam along to observe the violence – forgive me for being literalistic – inflicted on the poor by Islamic State.

Diocese of Huron can’t demolish St. Barnabas

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As I mentioned here, St. Barnabas’s congregation was moved to St. Aidan’s because the Diocese of Huron won St. Aidan’s property from the congregation in a lawsuit, ousted the congregation and now needs create the illusion that it needed the building for its own congregation.

The diocese’s plan, since it couldn’t sell St. Aidan’s without appearing ridiculously hypocritical, was to demolish the now vacated St. Barnabas. Unfortunately for the diocese, St. Barnabas is in the process of being designated a heritage property, so it can’t be demolished. Such a pity.

From here:

The city’s heritage committee voted Monday to deny the Anglican Diocese’s application to demolish the main church, at 2115 Chilver Road, which was built in 1955. Instead, the committee wants the city to designate the structure a heritage building — which would prevent demolition in the future.

The Diocese of Huron wants to demolish St. Barnabas, Windsor

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From here:

A discussion on the potential destruction of a landmark 1950s church in Windsor has been postponed until next month.

St. Barnabas Church at 2115 Chilver Rd. is the subject of a demolition request by the Anglican Church of Canada’s Diocese of Huron, who own the property.

The stated intent of the demolition is to make way for construction of a drugstore.

There is nothing particularly surprising about that, since it follows the received ACoC survival strategy of Deconsecrate, Demolish and Trade (DDT). What makes this a little different is what happened to the congregation:

The church’s congregation relocated and merged with the congregation of St. Aidan’s last year, forming the new congregation of St. Augustine of Canterbury at 5145 Wyandotte St. East.

The building situated at 5145 Wyandotte St. East used to belong to St. Aidan’s congregation, a congregation that voted to join ANiC in 2008. The congregation was sued by the diocese of Huron for possession of the building; the diocese won and promptly locked the congregation out of the building. 165 people left and about 12 remained, so to claim that St. Barnabas and St. Aidan’s “merged” is misleading: the diocesan version of St. Aidan’s was taken over – replaced – with the congregation of St. Barnabas, leaving St. Barnabas empty.

Why would the diocese do this? For the diocese to maintain the fiction that it needed St. Aidan’s building, it could not sell it shortly after winning a thoroughly nasty court battle. Instead, the diocese moved another congregation into St. Aidan’s and sold the building that belonged to the moved congregation.

This is what, in church parlance, is called being missional; or is it incarnational – I forget.

Diocese of Huron focussing on what really matters

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Dog poop.

From here:

I am writing this letter to express the concern we, at St. James Anglican Church feel about the abuse of our facilities by dog owners. In particular, dog owners seem to presume that the gardens and parkland on the south side of St. James are public property, owned by the City of Stratford. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The lands on the south side of St. James stretching down to Huron Street are the property of The Anglican Church of Canada, Diocese of Huron. A large portion of the property is a Registered Cemetery that is very much in use.

In fact, we will have four internments there during the month of June.

At the direction of the Wardens of St. James, a large garbage can is placed out on the south side lawn of the Church for those that may have paper refuse, coffee cups or pop cans. We do this to encourage people to be responsible citizens while visiting our property. This garbage can is not for the collection of hundreds of pounds of dog droppings.

We acknowledge and thank dog owners for cleaning up after their dogs. However, it is their responsibility to carry their dog’s droppings back to their home for disposal.

On behalf of the Clergy, Staff, Wardens and Parishioners of St. James Anglican Church, please accept my sincere thanks for your cooperation.

I’m still trying to train my dog to poop on the immaculate lawn of the Diocese of Niagara’s St. Jude’s; he’s very particular about where he deposits his offering, though, so I’ve had little success.

Rev. George Ferris deposed for paedophilia

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The Anglican Church of Canada has deposed Rev. George Ferris for sexually molesting a number of teenage boys. As this article notes, deposition is “the most severe penalty for ecclesiastical offenses”.

As I recall, the last ecclesiastical offence that provoked sufficient wrath from the Anglican Church of Canada for it to invoke the most severe penalty at its disposal was when a number of priests  – J. I. Packer among them – defied the ACoC to align themselves with another Anglican Province. It would appear that in the eyes of the Anglican Church of Canada, standing up for the Gospel and following one’s conscience is as reprehensible as paedophilia. What a thoroughly twisted denomination the ACoC has become.

The bishop of the Anglican diocese of Huron, Robert Bennett, has deposed the Rev. George Ferris, a retired Anglican priest who faces up to five-and-a-half years in prison for five counts of sexual offences dating back to the 1980s.

Deposition, which is the most severe penalty for ecclesiastical offenses as stated in the Anglican Church of Canada’s Handbook, means Ferris can no longer exercise ordained ministry. It has “the same effect as if the person had relinquished the exercise of the ordained ministry pursuant to Canon XIX,” said the handbook. Deposition also includes all the consequences of “deprivation,” including the severing of connections between the person deprived and his or her parish and diocese.

At his retirement, the diocesan paper published an article entitled: “A Fond Farewell for Father George!” Along with the article is this, in retrospect, ironic and frightening  photograph, captioned:

Father George delights both adults and children in his “Children’s focus”.
31-01-2014 6-39-17 PM

St. Aidan’s Windsor to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada

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In the ANiC Newsletter, received via email:

St Aidan’s (Windsor, ON) has decided, after much prayer and thought, to appeal the loss of their church building and funds to the Supreme Court of Canada. Please remember the congregation, leadership, legal counsel, and judges in your prayers.

St. Aidan’s appealing the loss of its building to the Ontario Court of Appeal was not only unsuccessful but resulted in the reversal of an earlier ruling that each side should pay its own legal fees: St. Aidan’s was ordered to pay $100,000 of the Diocese of Huron’s legal costs, in addition to their own costs.

The Supreme Court of Canada may choose, like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear, not to hear the appeal; that was the case in the New Westminster appeal. Even if it does, in human terms, a reversal seems unlikely. Still, God has more influence than even the Supreme Court of Canada, so we should pray.

More on St. Aidan’s Windsor appeal

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A legal magazine has an article on the recent court case between the Diocese of Huron and St. Aidan’s, Windsor. The whole article is worth reading but a few points stand out to me:

The costs judge in Delicata adopted the minority view from the litigation in Bentley and made a no-costs to promote harmony and because the litigants were moved by their conscience. The congregation of St. Aidan’s appealed the trial judge’s decision, and the Synod cross-appealed the decision over costs.

The Diocese of Huron had originally demanded over $400,000 in legal costs from St. Aidan’s. Not only did St. Aidan’s lose their appeal, but the judge overturned the original ruling that each side pay their own costs and ruled that St. Aidan’s pay $100,000 of the diocese’s legal costs – in addition to their own costs, of course. So it was a double loss for St. Aidan’s.

I’m sure those ruling in courts of appeal are largely devoid of a sense of humour, so the reasoning behind awarding $100k in costs to the diocese because there is “no evidentiary basis for the need to preserve harmony within the church” could not have been stated in jest. In the eyes of the courts, the Anglican Church of Canada has clearly sunk to such a state of irrelevance to the rest of society, that there is little reason to discourage its self-destruction through internal strife:

The Court of Appeal did reverse the decision on costs in finding that the justice system should not provide a safe harbour for spiritual or religious convictions, and there was no evidentiary basis for the need to preserve harmony within the church.

Also, the idea that “the justice system should not provide a safe harbour for spiritual or religious convictions” has an ominous ring for those with religious beliefs that are out of step with secular mores.