St. Matthews, Abbotsford presents an extremely large cheque – well, a physically large cheque – to a food bank:
Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Matt 6:1-3
Because it’s just another organization/corporation engaged in public relations? It’s always sad when a church doesn’t heed even the words of its namesake.
Even if this were a way for the Church to draw the public’s attention to the needs of the Food Bank, as publicity this still draws attention primarily to the Church itself in its intentions.
I do my part when I can for the Salvation Army Kettle fund. One evening the kettle at our local Superstore was almost overflowing. Judging from the $10 & $20s going in I would guess that there was close to $1000 that night.
All anonymous, even obviously Muslims contributing.
No big PR splash and $200,000 raised locally.
Visibly big cheque. Small actual amount of cash represented. Elderly parishioners in attendance. I think the new St. M’s just peaked!
“Elderly parishioners in attendance.” I believe the schism has done a particular disservice to older parishioners, who didn’t support the gay-marriage agenda but had too much history with their churches to leave.
Hello Lisa,
It goes back even further. I distinclty remember having a conversation with my Nana (my Dad’s Mom) around her kitchen table in which she quite clearly expressed her dislike for the Book of Alternative Services. Not because it was new or different from what she was used to. She disliked it because it was such a huge watering down of Anglican Liturgy.
But she was what would be called a “good Christain woman” and kept going to Church every Sunday right up to the time she fainted and collapsed (two weeks later she had passed on).
I think the situation is now similar for my parents, and also for me. We see the rot that has infected the ACoC, and still we continue on with our Worship of God.
Yes, gay-marriage simply was the bridge too far. It does make you wonder just what the career clergy who jumped on the ssm bandwagon had been doing for the last 30 years. There used exist the idea Christianity imposed a certain discipline on all its practitioners — homosexualists along with the rest of us, by wooing people away from comfortable self-interest. Now, the church meets people where the are, which may be admirable and correct, but doesn’t attempt to move them on to anything better or nobler. Because it has no vision itself of what better and nobler looks like.