The Anglican Church of Canada has priests in active homosexual relationships

I know that isn’t exactly a startling revelation – which, in itself speaks volumes on the state of the ACoC.

A letter in the November Anglican Journal illustrates that – at least in the near future – there is little likelihood of slowing the gay agenda juggernaut. Here is the letter (emphasis mine):

It’s hard to know exactly why Harold Munn’s article made us so angry (Let’s talk about sex, Sept, 2009). We share his position on the issue of same-sex blessings. We also share his desire to remain in communion with those who don’t and find his story of unlikely friendship endearing.

Perhaps it is because his “two straight guys talking about same-sex blessings” falls into the same category as “two white guys talking about reconciliation with First Nations people” and “two men talking about the ordination of women.” Perhaps it’s because after a few meetings, Canon Munn and his colleague found there was little left to say. We don’t have that luxury and neither do clergy in same-sex relationships in the diocese of British Columbia (Canon Munn’s home). We long for the day we don’t have to constantly defend our position on the issue of same-sex blessings.

Rev. Andrew Halladay
Rev Davis Taylor.

There are a number of things one can surmise from this letter:

• The Reverend gentleman who wrote the letter are in a same-sex “relationship”;
• There are other priests, possibly many other priests, in same-sex relationships;
• The assumption going in to any debate on this issue is that priests in this kind of relationship are entitled to live out – or indulge – their sexual proclivities;
• Priests who have a same-sex paramour, rather than hide the fact, wish to “come out” and, in doing so need to justify their behaviour in order to keep doing what they are doing while remaining priests in the ACoC;
• Priests who are not homosexual almost certainly know other priests who are and, as a fellow priest, feel an obligation to defend them.

I attended a meeting held by the Diocese of Niagara a few years back when the issue of same-sex blessings had come to a head. One of the speakers was a young homosexual priest whose argument boiled down to, “I’m gay; I want to be in a stable sexual relationship with another man. If that doesn’t happen, I am doomed to a life of frustration. I am entitled to sexual fulfilment”. In the room, there was a lot of sympathy for him.

Abortionist admits he is killing babies

I used to labour under the misapprehension that if one could convince an abortionist that he is murdering babies, the battle would be won and he would stop; apparently not:

Dallas, TX (LifeNews.com) — The late-term abortion practitioner at the new abortion center in Dallas has admitted in a shocking interview that he kills unborn children during abortions. Curtis Boyd is one of the few abortion practitioners to admit what he is doing, but he has no qualms with his job.

Boyd opened the first abortion center in Dallas in 1973 after the Supreme Court handed down the roe v. Wade decision allowing virtually unlimited abortions.

In an interview with WFAA yesterday after news surfaced that he re-opened his late-term abortion center, Southwestern Women’s Surgery Center, in the huge metro area last week after more than a year following the closure of the Aaron’s abortion facility, he makes a startling admission.

“Am I killing?” Boyd said. “Yes, I am. I know that.”

He told WFAA that he is a former Baptist ordained minister who is now a part of the pro-abortion Unitarian Universalist church who says he prays often about the abortions he does.

“I’ll ask that the spirit of this pregnancy be returned to God with love and understanding,” he said.

I really don’t know what that last sentence means, other than a being euphemism for baby returned to sender – like an unwanted parcel.

Morality is more about what you should do than what you actually do

And this is why an evolutionist’s attempts to lay claim to a moral framework – as Dawkins and Hitchens are fond of doing – fail. Atheistic morality does not distinguish “is” from “ought” and without cosmic justice, there is no “ought” and no morality.

This article by Dinesh D’Souza is most illuminating on the subject; the whole thing is well worth a read here:

Cosmic Justice
If evolution cannot explain how humans became moral primates, what can?

By Dinesh D’Souza
All evolutionary attempts to explain morality ultimately miss the point. They seek to explain morality, but even at their best what they explain is not morality at all. Imagine a shopkeeper who routinely increases his profits by cheating his customers. So smoothly does he do this that he is never exposed and his reputation remains unimpeached. Even though the man is successful in the game of survival, if he has a conscience it will be nagging at him from the inside. It may not be strong enough to make him change his ways, but it will at least make him feel bad and perhaps ultimately despise himself. Now where have our evolutionary explanations accounted for morality in this sense?

In fact, they haven’t accounted for it at all. These explanations all seek to reduce morality to self-interest, but if you think about it, genuine morality cannot be brought down to this level. Morality is not the voice that says, “Be truthful when it benefits you,” or “Be kind to those who are in a position to help you later.” Rather, it operates without regard to such calculations. Far from being an extension of self-interest, the voice of the impartial spectator is typically a restriction of self-interest. Think about it: If morality were simply an extension of selfishness, we wouldn’t need it. We don’t need moral prescriptions to tell people to act for their own benefit; they do that anyway. The whole point of moral prescriptions and injunctions is to get people to subordinate and curb their selfish interests.

[……]

Now let’s make the supposition that there is cosmic justice after death and ask, Does this help to explain the great mystery of human morality? It seems clear that it does. Humans recognize that there is no ultimate goodness and justice in this world, but they continue to uphold those ideals. In their interior conscience, humans judge themselves not by the standard of the shrewd self-aggrandizer but by that of the impartial spectator. We admire the good man, even when he comes to a bad end, and revile the successful scoundrel who got away with it. Evolutionary theories predict the reverse: If morality were merely a product of crafty and successful calculation, we should cherish and aspire to be crafty calculators. But we don’t. Rather, we act as if there is a moral law to which we are accountable.

An ACNA church disturbs the peace

From ABC News:

The fight, pitting religious freedom against the right to be comfortable in one’s own home, started in March 2008 — on Palm Sunday.

After opening in a new location in Phoenix, Ariz., The Cathedral of Christ the King started playing a recording of church bells every half hour — every day — from morning to night.
“To me, it is one of the ways that we express praise and worship to God. And it is also one of the ways that God speaks out and says to the community that there is somebody here that cares,” said Bishop Rick Painter, rector of the Cathedral of Christ the King, a local Charismatic church affiliated with the Anglican Church in North America.

To neighbors like Sam Jensen and Al Brooks, it was a rude shock.

“I didn’t know where it came from. It was six in the morning,” said Brooks. “I had no idea what it was. And then they were playing every half hour, so it woke me up and I came out into the back yard and then I heard them again every half hour all day long — 31 times that day,” said Jensen.

After calling the cops, they had a heated meeting with Painter, who offered to reduce the ringing to once an hour.

“I can’t imagine that God in heaven would look down and say that’s a good thing to do to your neighbors,” said Jensen.

“We all celebrate God, but we don’t disturb our neighbors doing it,” Brooks said.

The neighbors felt the church was inflexible, and inevitably the case landed in court, where the judge sided with the neighbors.

She ordered the bells silenced, except on Sundays and church holidays. For the first time anyone can remember, a religious leader was convicted of disturbing the peace. The bishop was given a 10-day jail sentence, which was suspended, and three years probation — a misdemeanor for ringing church bells.

I’ve always liked the idea that a church should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, but you can’t do that in Phoenix, it seems – at least, not aurally. I grew up hearing church bells ring all day; they were rather restful compared to the ungodly racket that assaults the sensibilities today. The constant roar of traffic, punctuated by the pounding that emanates from the cars of pimply teenagers. The abomination of muzak, ubiquitous and soul-numbing: Pachelbel’s canon, even if I am not hearing it in an elevator or at a wedding, reliably induces a near-coma trance followed by acute nausea. And the full might of the law descends on a bell-ringer.

A 10-day suspended jail sentence and three years probation is a first for an ACNA pastor – and all for ringing a few bells. I expect there is worse to come.

Bankers loving themselves

From Bloomberg:

Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) — Barclays Plc Chief Executive Officer John Varley stood at the wooden lectern in St. Martin-in-the- Fields on London’s Trafalgar Square last night and told the packed pews of the church that “profit is not satanic.”

The 53-year-old head of Britain’s second-biggest bank said banks are the “backbone” of the economy. Rewarding high- performing bankers with more pay doesn’t conflict with Christian values, he said. Varley was paid 1.08 million pounds ($1.77 million) and no bonus in 2008.

“Talent is highly mobile,” Varley, a Catholic, said. “If we fail to pay or are constrained from paying competitive rates then that talent will move to another employer.”

“Is Christianity and banking compatible? Yes,” he said in an interview after the speech in the 283-year-old church. “And is Christianity and fair reward compatible? Yes.”

Varley joins Goldman Sachs International adviser Brian Griffiths and Lazard International Chairman Ken Costa as London bankers who’ve gone into London churches in recent weeks and invoked Christianity to defend a banking system that critics say has created wealth and inequality in the U.K.

“The injunction of Jesus to love others as ourselves is an endorsement of self-interest,” Goldman’s Griffiths said Oct. 20, his voice echoing around the gold-mosaic walls of St. Paul’s Cathedral, whose 365-feet-high dome towers over the City, London’s financial district. “We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieving greater prosperity and opportunity for all.”

While I agree with this maybe-I-have-an-axe-to-grind banker that making a profit is not Satanic, it isn’t particularly virtuous either. I have nothing against capitalism, but once it loses its ethical footing – and just like most other things in the West, I think it has – its power is just like any other power: subject to corruption.

This piece of pop-psychology enlightenment alone is an ample demonstration of why bankers should stick to banking and leave the pulpit to priests (who, admittedly, tend to use the pulpit to decry the evils of banking):

“The injunction of Jesus to love others as ourselves is an endorsement of self-interest,”

When Jesus told us to love others as we love our selves, it was hardly an endorsement of self-interest or loving ourselves; it was simply recognition of the fact that we do love ourselves. Even people who are miserable and consumed with apparent self-loathing are only in that state because they feel hard-done-by and wish for better things – because they love themselves. A person does not become suicidal through a lack of self-love, but by an over-indulgence in it; he loves himself enough to do anything to escape from his misery.

Let’s hope that John Varley takes some other sayings of Jesus to heart, too. Like:

“And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God”

and

“For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?

Transsexual Jesus sparks protests

From the BBC:

About 300 protesters held a candlelit protest outside a Glasgow theatre over the staging of a play which portrays Jesus as a transsexual.

The protest was held outside the Tron Theatre, where Jesus Queen of Heaven, in which Christ is a man who wants to become a woman, is being staged.

It is part of the Glasgay! arts festival, a celebration of Scotland’s gay, bi-sexual and transsexual culture.

Festival organisers said it had not intended to incite or offend anyone.

The Christian protesters gathered outside the theatre ahead of the opening night of the production on Tuesday.

Jesus Queen of Heaven, which runs until Saturday, is written and performed by transsexual playwright Jo Clifford.

The demonstrators sang hymns and waved placards.

One read: “Jesus, King of Kings, Not Queen of Heaven.”

Another said: “God: My Son Is Not A Pervert.”

Festival organisers described the banners as “fairly provocative” and said they could be viewed as inciting homophobia.

Glasgay! producer Steven Thomson said: “Jesus Queen of Heaven is a literary work of fiction exploring the artists own personal journey of faith as a transgendered person.

“Glasgay! supports the right to freedom of expression and offers audiences a diverse view of LGBT life.

Let me see if I have this right: the festival organisers object to demonstrators exercising freedom of expression, calling it homophobia, while at the same time proclaiming their right to portray the person whom 2 billion people believe to be God incarnate as a sexual pervert – in the name of freedom of expression.

More on this here.

Rowan Williams’ Ginger Biscuits

Or as we used to call them, Ginger Nuts; a particularly appropriate epithet in this case.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has revealed his recipe for ginger biscuits which forms part of a new cookbook bringing together dishes from a range of Christian groups.

Dr Rowan Williams’s tasty treats are the Church of England’s contribution to Loaves, Fishes and More – a 70-recipe collection which aims to raise funds for Christian Aid.

For those who are tired of waiting: how to get an H1N1 vaccination

Commit a terrorist act and get shipped to Guantanamo Bay; the living quarters may be cramped, but at least you won’t catch the flu:

Pentagon: Gitmo Detainees to Receive H1N1 Vaccine, Despite White House Claim

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman says the vaccine should be at the naval base by the end of November, though White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs dismissed questions on the subject.

Guantanamo Bay detainees will be receiving the H1N1 vaccine, the Pentagon confirmed Tuesday, even though White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said minutes earlier that the vaccine is not “on the way.”

The Church of England: payback time

Rowan Williams doesn’t have much use for capitalism and he is less than enamoured of the banking system that supports it.

That hasn’t stopped the Church of England from trying to amass profits from the system they enjoy excoriating; I think that is called hypocrisy. Now it has all gone horribly wrong:

The Church of England was accused today of squandering its clergy pensions through reckless betting on the stock market.

Its deepening crisis over how to pay the pensions for retired vicars is ‘largely self-inflicted’, a leading analyst said.

The criticism is an embarrassing new blow to the CofE at a time when it faces divisions over women bishops and homosexuality, a campaign by Roman Catholics to recruit disaffected Anglicans, and the need to ask churchgoers to put more into collection plates to ease its financial worries.

Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has been strongly critical of bankers and financiers over their behaviour during the recession.

 

 

I knew it: belief in Climate Change is a religion

And in the UK, belief in anthropomorphic climate change has been legally given the status of a religion:

An executive has won the right to sue his employer on the basis that he was unfairly dismissed for his green views after a judge ruled that environmentalism had the same weight in law as religious and philosophical beliefs.

In a landmark ruling, Mr Justice Michael Burton said that “a belief in man-made climate change … is capable, if genuinely held, of being a philosophical belief for the purpose of the 2003 Religion and Belief Regulations”.

The good news is that we can look forward with anticipation to Dawkins and his cronies mocking this as they do every other religion. Maybe not.

Crucifixes banned in Italian schools

From the BBC:

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled against the use of crucifixes in classrooms in Italy.

It said the practice violated the right of parents to educate their children as they saw fit, and ran counter to the child’s right to freedom of religion.

The case was brought by an Italian mother, Soile Lautsi, who wants to give her children a secular education.

If Soile Lautsi is so averse to her children seeing a crucifix in school, perhaps she should home-school them to ensure the expunging from their education of all vestiges of Christianity, even though it underpins the human rights to which she believes she is entitled.

Or she could move to an explicitly secular state like North Korea.

What atheists need is a sense of humour

The disorder of the Diocese of New Westminster

The Diocese of New Westminster has launched its Order of the Diocese of New Westminster.

The Inaugural Investiture Eucharist of The Order of the Diocese of New Westminster was celebrated in Christ Church Cathedral at 4:30pm on November 1st, 2009.

53 individuals representing 41 different parishes accepted nomination to be the first recipients of the order and 49 of those were present at the worship service to receive the medallion from the Venerable Ronald Harrison, personal congratulations from the Right Reverend Michael Ingham and the official certificate from the Very Reverend Peter Elliott while Judge Robert Watt, Warden of the Order read the citations.

The Right Reverend Ralph Spence retired Bishop of Niagara was the guest preacher and Bishop Michael presided at the Eucharist.

The Diocese of Niagara has been awarding The Order of Niagara for some years now; it was started by John Bothwell – as indeed were many other things that now trouble the diocese. A number of parishioners in St. Hilda’s, ANiC were awarded the Order of Niagara; they don’t wear them much, though.

There is significance in the fact that Ralph Spence preached at the New West inauguration, since he sought inspiration from Michael Ingham for much of his tenure. Spence preceded Michael Bird in Niagara both in chronology and heresy; Michael Bird was left to deal with the legacy of his predecessor’s excursions into apostasy, and from this:

Certainly the four departing churches and the attending legal costs have brought forth courage and caused stress at the top level of the diocese.

it is clear that recent events have taken their toll on Bird.

I suspect Spence had no idea of the storm he was unwittingly unleashing when he encouraged the gay agenda in Niagara. While he was still bishop, my wife was unfortunate enough to hear a snippet of an address he gave to a group of Anglican ladies. The question of same-sex-blessings was raised and Spence pooh-poohed any idea that trouble would follow a decision to go ahead. “The fuss will blow over” he said; for him it did, since he retired, leaving Bird to summon the courage to continue the direction set by Spence and pioneered by Ingham. Of course, this does not exonerate Bird since he is forging ahead along the course set by Spence with maniacal enthusiasm; still, he can’t be happy that Ralph did not warn him about the troublemakers just waiting to cause[d] stress at the top level of the diocese.

Perhaps that’s why Spence is pontificating in Vancouver and not Niagara.

Autumn in Oakville

Most of the leaves have fallen, but the ground is colourful:

More here.

Anglican Church of Canada is selling rare artefacts to raise cash

On ebay:

Anglican Church Of Canada” Past & Future Video VHS. Starting bid: $4.99.

The description reassures us that with:

“This Canadian Import Video You Get PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE Of The ANGLICAN CHURCH”

That’s right, the entire history of the Anglican Church of Canada on one VHS tape; I understand that the “future” section is fairly brief.