As the Anglican Journal points out, Primate Fred Hiltz isn’t very happy that the Government of Canada isn’t listening to him; I’m not sure why they would – no-one else does:
In his address, Archbishop Hiltz said the recent cut of $7-million in CIDA funding for KAIROS, the ecumenical church coalition that includes the Anglican Church, “denies hope for millions of people throughout the world and damages our reputation among the nations.”
Archbishop Hiltz said, “This crisis highlights the need for the churches to have a Secretariat for Government Relations here in the nation’s capital.” He added, “Given the multicultural and multi-religious complexion of our country, such a secretariat could reflect a strong partnership in the interest of human rights, among people of a variety of faith traditions.”
If Hiltz were bewailing the fact that the Canadian government is somehow preventing the myriad of good works that the Anglican Church of Canada is eager to perform if only the right-wing government of Stephen Harper would allow it to, his peenging might make at least a modicum of sense. As it is, Fred is pressuring the government to squeeze more money out of Canadian taxpayers – most of whom are not Anglican – to fund the projects that he, Hiltz has deemed worthy of support.
Instead of playing politics, perhaps the ACoC should try being a church, win souls for Christ and his eternal kingdom and do its own good works – quickly before it goes bankrupt.
Anglican Samizdat 