Tag Archives: Diocese of Niagara

Diocese of Niagara: gospels not historical

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It would appear that for the last 2000 years the gospels have suffered from the misunderstanding that they actually happened. Now at last, thanks to Spong, Borg et al – and a diocesan vision of distributive justice – the truth has come to light: Jesus’ teachings are mystical proclamations of faith completely uncontaminated by historical reality.

From the Niagara Anglican (page 11):

Jesus and his teachings have finally come back to light after being buried under layers of misinterpretation of the gospels as historical fact, rather than as “proclamations of faith” as their Jewish writers intended.

The transformation of Lent

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This is what Lent used to be:

The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer—through prayer, penance, repentance, almsgiving, and self-denial. Its institutional purpose is heightened in the annual commemoration of Holy Week, marking the death and resurrection of Jesus, which recalls the events of the Passion of Christ on Good Friday, which then culminates in the celebration on Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

During Lent, many of the faithful commit to fasting or giving up certain types of luxuries as a form of penitence.

Now, it can be anything from a windmill tilting extravaganza of combating anthropogenic global warming to the Diocese of Niagara’s invitation to have another shot at building a collectivist utopia :

Diocese of Niagara - Lent–

Diocese of Niagara: 2013 budgetary woes

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bird-speakIn September 2012 there was some fanfare when St. Luke’s Palermo broke ground for a new church-community centre amalgam.  The mayor and Halton regional chairman were there, along with various and sundry clergy; the bishop spoke and the project’s financial partner, the CEO of Diversicare, pronounced his secular blessing on the enterprise. The plan was:

to build a retirement residence (in partnership with FRAM/Diversicare) on land to the west of the church.

Alas, it seems that the financial arrangements with Diversicare have fallen through, leaving the diocese to foot the bill.

St. Luke’s, Palermo support – there are a lot of numbers that pertain to Palermo. The joint proposal with Versa Care [I am relatively certain that this should say Diversicare] is no longer financially viable, St. Luke’s will continue with the project without partnership and the Diocese is assisting financially to complete the Parish Centre.

A few other budgetary highlights:

There has been a 60% reduction in staff at the Synod Office since Bishop Bird was elected….

If some churches don’t have the money to pay the DM&M then how can the Diocese spend when they won’t be getting all they budget for?

If incomes increase so will the DM&M and how can we manage this with an aging congregation and declining attendance?

Parishes are delving into line of credits and investments, it’s a cascading affect that maybe we can’t afford to do

And my favourite – mainly because it is prime Anglican bafflegab:

We need to balance scarcity with abundance.

The Diocese of Niagara has an altar dedicated to HIV/AIDS

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Apparently there are only two such altars in Canada, one in Montreal “in the heart of the gay village” and the other in Hamilton. While I don’t think Hamilton’s residents regard their home as a “gay village”, Christ’s Church Cathedral is undoubtedly a gay cathedral in the heart of a gay diocese – and proud to be so. An interesting inference in this article is the tacit acknowledgement that HIV/AIDS is predominantly a gay disease, in spite of decades of liberal propaganda to convince us that it isn’t.

When will the lady priests get their own altar dedicated to vaginas?

From here (page 2):

It is noteworthy that this Cathedral continues to bear witness to the hundreds of lives lost from AIDS in this community. Its special altar dedicated to HIV/AIDS is, to my knowledge, one of only two that exist in Canada. The other, called the Chapel of Hope, is at the Catholic Church of St. Pierre L’Apotre Montreal in the heart of the gay village.

Within North America, there are two more Chapels in San Francisco and New York, and both are housed within Anglican churches. Think of it, New York, San Francisco, Montreal and Hamilton.

Praising Krishna in the Diocese of Niagara

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“My Sweet Lord” by George Harrison was –

written in praise of the Hindu god Krishna, while at the same time serving as a call to abandon religious sectarianism, through its deliberate blending of Christian “hallelujah”s with chants of “Hare Krishna” and Vedic prayer.

Here is St. Simon’s Anglican Church Oakville, a Diocese of Niagara parish, in the throes of Krishna adoration one Sunday morning:

An atheist delusion

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When a person dies, there is little that is more fatuously stupid than saying that the person will live on in the memory of those who loved him. A few months ago when I attended a funeral at a Diocese of Niagara church, that is more or less what the priest told the mourners: no mention of the Christian hope of resurrection at all. If it were not for the inconvenience of having to recite the liturgy, I suspect he would not even have mentioned God.

The priest in question, while appearing to enjoy the pomp and pageantry his office affords, gave a passable impression of a functional atheist who hasn’t yet come out; after all, he wants to continue to collect his salary. For an evangelical atheist who has to try and make sense of mortality, it’s even worse: the memory that lives on is nothing more than the mechanistically meaningless firing of a collection of synapses. Nevertheless, that is how atheists – the champions of reason – choose to comfort themselves and their children when faced with death.

From here:

For Julie Drizin, being an atheist parent means being deliberate. She rewrote the words to “Silent Night” when her daughters were babies to remove words like “holy,” found a secular Sunday school where the children light candles “of understanding,” and selects gifts carefully to promote science, art and wonder at nature.

So when she pulled her 9- and 13-year-olds together this week in their Takoma Park home to tell them about the slaughter of 20 elementary school students in Newtown, Conn., her words were plain: Something horrible happened, and we feel sad about it, and you are safe.

And that was it.

“I’ve explained to them [in the past] that some people believe God is waiting for them, but I don’t believe that. I believe when you die, it’s over and you live on in the memory of people you love and who love you,” she said this week. “I can’t offer them the comfort of a better place. Despite all the evils and problems in the world, this is the heaven — we’re living in the heaven and it’s the one we work to make. It’s not a paradise.”

This is what facing death and suffering looks like in an atheist home.

 

Diocese of Niagara sells St. Hilda's rectory

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The Diocese of Niagara took possession of St. Hilda’s rectory as part of the negotiated settlement between St. Hilda’s and the diocese. The settlement boiled down to the congregation of St. Hilda’s giving the diocese of Niagara the church building and rectory; in exchange the diocese would stop suing the congregation.

In the last few weeks, the diocese sold the rectory for $650,000, $50,000 over its minimum price.

Professor of church history says ANiC really is Anglican

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Something that sticks in the craw of the Anglican Church of Canada’s leadership is what the “A” stands for in “ANiC”. Thus, a group of Diocese of Niagara clergy complained when a local paper, the Burlington Post, referred to a new ANiC church building as “Anglican”.

Canon Alan Hayes, a professor of church history at Wycliffe, has defended ANiC’s claim to be Anglican in the Diocese of Niagara’s paper.

I had a chat over coffee with Alan Hayes a few years back; he was an affable fellow who lamented the diminishment of diversity within the ACoC after the departure of the ANiC parishes. While I’m keen to be able to call the church I belong to Christian, I’m not too concerned about whether it is generally recognised as being Anglican or not. Nevertheless, since it causes the opposition such consternation, I will continue to insist that it is, in fact, Anglican.

I don’t think he was fired for consorting with the enemy.

From here (page3):

I’m still digesting the letter you reprinted from some senior Burlington clergy to the Burlington Post differentiating ACC Anglicans from ANC Anglicans.

I hope that this doesn’t start a pattern where ELCIC Lutherans will write in to distinguish themselves from Missouri Synod Lutherans, PAOC Pentecostals from Four-Square Pentecostals, BCOQ Baptists from Fellowship Baptists, CCC Congregationalists from unaffiliated Congregationalists, Free Methodists from Wesleyan Methodists, Roman Catholics from Old Catholics, MCC Mennonites from Old Order Mennonites, OCA Orthodox from ethnic Orthodox, PCC Presbyterians from RPCNA Presbyterians, CRC Reformed from RCA Reformed —the permutations are almost endless.

Come on, Burlington Post! Pay attention to our schisms! Can it have escaped you how important they are?

But, wait. Is it such good strategy for Christians to stomp into the public forum shouting at the top of their lungs, “WE’RE not the same as THEM!”? Have we thought what this sounds like to the world?

Or, more scripturally, can we find spiritual health in rushing to draw lines of separation between ourselves and “the other”? Jesus used the parable of the righteous pharisee to answer that one, and Paul taught that we’re all one in Christ Jesus.

They say that one reason the early Church grew so explosively was that outsiders looked in with awe and said, “See how the Christians love each other!” Now we’re prompting the public to declare, “See how the Christians really, really don’t get along!”

How’s that working for us?

Canon Alan L. Hayes, Oakville

The term “Anglican” is not a registered trademark

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The Anglican Network in Canada church, St. George’s, is planning on a new building in Burlington.

From the Burlington Post:

The city’s planning and building department recommended that a 0.6 hectare piece of employment land at 4691 Palladium Way be rezoned to allow the construction of a place of worship.

The Post has learned it will be an Anglican church.

The site is located just west of Appleby Line, bordering Hwy. 407, in Alton.

Community development committee approved the recommendation.

It will go before council on Sept. 4.

Permission for the rezoning was granted at the September 4th meeting.

Notice that the Burlington Post reported that the new building will be for an Anglican Church. This does not sit well with the Diocese of Niagara, a self-proclaimed inclusive and affirming diocese. A number of its clergy lament that the word Anglican is not a registered trademark, so, much as they would like to, they don’t have exclusive – and I do apologise for my blatant and unfeeling use of the “e” word –  use of it in the Niagara region.

From here:

We want to clarify the new church is being proposed by the Anglican Network in Canada, a group that broke away from the Anglican Church of Canada in 2009 to protest our actions in favour of the full inclusion of homosexual persons and the affirmation of their committed relationships.

The six existing Anglican churches serving Burlington are all part of the Anglican Church of Canada. We are diverse, vibrant faith communities focused on welcoming all and making a positive difference in Burlington.

We know some of our parishioners were confused by the article.

The term “Anglican” is not a registered trademark and its usage is not restricted. Nonetheless, we hope future reporting of this story can make a distinction  between the two groups.

Stephen Hopkins, St. Christopher’s Anglican Church

Stuart Pike, St. Luke’s Anglican Church (Ontario Street)

Derek Anderson, St. Matthew’s Anglican Church

Bahman Kalantari, St. John’s Anglican Church

Jeff and Sue Ann Ward, St. Luke’s Anglican Church (Dundas Street/Bronte Road)

Jean Archbell, St. Elizabeth’s Anglican Church