Fred Hiltz calls for justice at the G8; luckily no-one is listening

Not justice for the unborn, of course, he is leaving that to Stephen Harper; the deliberate slaughter of babies seems to be of little interest to Hiltz and his abortion-happy breed of Canadian faux-Anglicans. Instead, Fred is getting together with a like-minded assortment of shamans, misfits and verbally incontinent leftists to badger the G8 nations into adopting the idiotic Millennium Development Goals. The MDGs are quixotic and self-defeating: they can never be achieved; the call to meet them will be endlessly renewed; their failure is always blamed on Western governments and, best of all, they divert attention away from the theological, financial and spiritual bankruptcy of those doing the calling. This all suits Fred to a tee.

Archbishop Hiltz, who has made the MDGs a hallmark of his primacy, has been chosen to lead the Canadian interfaith delegation.

At the Winnipeg summit, leaders from 10 different faith traditions-including Muslim, Christian and Shinto-will listen to and report to one another about important issues in their nations. They will hear several high-profile speakers including Canadian senator Romeo Dallaire; the Rev. Jim Wallis of Sojourners magazine, USA; and H.E. Sheikh Shaban Mubajje, grand mufti of Uganda.

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The Fred Hiltz Corporate Sponsor Letter

Here is the letter from Fred Hiltz asking for corporate sponsors:

Dear Friend,

I am writing to invite you to partner with the Anglican Church of Canada as a corporate sponsor for our national gathering in Halifax, Nova Scotia from June 3rd to 11th, 2010. Nearly five hundred people from coast to coast will gather at St. Mary’s University for General Synod which is held every three years.

The theme for General Synod 2010 is “Feeling the winds of God: Charting a New Course”. A major piece of our work will be to consider Vision 2019, a dynamic plan to renew our commitment to God’s mission and to invigorate our ministries of service in that mission. We will also be engaged by presentations on major global issues such as poverty, human sexuality, the rights of indigenous peoples, and the care of the environment. Among a number of special guests at the Synod will be the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, the Anglican Observer to the United Nations (by appointment of the Archbishop of Canterbury), the Secretary General of the Worldwide Anglican Communion, and two commissioners of Canada’s Truth & Reconciliation Commission.

This event not only presents an opportunity for you to get your message out to delegates from across Canada, and it is also an opportunity for you to support a faithful group of community and not-forprofit leaders from across the country and their guests from around the world. Comprised of bishops, as well as clergy and lay people elected by their own dioceses, delegates to General Synod are some of the most committed, dedicated and tireless volunteers in our country – they are people who do much to sustain our common life and make the world a better place. In addition to the gathered community, Synod-on-demand now attracts an internet audience in excess of 30 thousand international viewers.

It is my hope that you will consider this invitation and the positive impact your corporation’s support will have on the Church’s ability to ensure the sustainability of this national gathering for years to come.

In Christ,

I am,

Sincerely yours,

The Most Rev. Fred J. Hiltz

Primate

Since there is little that excites me more than “major global issues such as poverty, human sexuality, the rights of indigenous peoples, and the care of the environment”, I am currently negotiating the price of having the Anglican Samizdat logo tastefully emblazoned on every clerical collar.

Fred Hiltz and his stories

Primate Fred’s Easter message:

“Christ is Risen, Christ is Risen; Tell it with a joyful voice”

Having made our journey through Holy Week, commemorating the events of the Lord’s passion, death and burial we come now to Easter and the joy of His Glorious Resurrection.

Sunday by Sunday throughout the great festival of Easter, we take delight in hearing those stories of how the risen Lord appeared to so many — greeting and calling them by name, opening the scriptures and teaching them, breaking bread in their midst, bestowing his peace, breathing the Holy Spirit into their hearts and then sending them into all the world.  Alongside these wonderful stories are accounts of the earliest Christian preaching recorded in The Acts of the Apostles.

The important thing about Easter is that these were events not stories: they actually happened,  they have objective reality. At Easter, Christians delight in the fact that Jesus rose physically from the dead, not in hearing those stories. I’m sure Fred realises this – maybe.

What holds us together as Anglicans?

The Diocese of BC is holding its 93^rd synod and Fred Hiltz in his Primatial address answered the question. I’m not sure why he chose this question, since his main area of expertise is Experientially Discerning™ that which divides Anglicans. Nevertheless, here it is:

“What holds us together as Anglicans?” He then listed the usual marks of unity that are commonly cited as maintaining unity within the Anglican Communion – our common faith and tradition, the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference, the Primates’ Meetings, the Anglican Consultative Counsel. He suggested that beyond these we are also united in the Eucharist, in our use of the Worldwide Cycle of Prayer and in our Companion Diocese Program.

At least he’s clear that it’s not the Bible or Jesus that unites Anglicans.

Anglican Church of Canada. General Synod 2010: doing the Indaba?

The Journal reports:

Issues of sexuality: At its last meeting, CoGS appointed a working group to recommend a process to discuss issues of sexuality. “I think…people feel the process should be driven more by conversation and discernment than by resolution and debate,” Archbishop Hiltz said.

These conversations will begin, he added, with updates from a Faith, Worship and Ministry committee as  well as the Primate’s Theological Commission and the House of Bishops.

This probably means that Hiltz will use some kind of Indaba-style diversionary tactic to prevent attendees addressing the same-sex blessing problem directly: more conversation, more discernment, more listening, more slipperiness. Since a number of dioceses are already blessing same-sex unions, they will continue and others will probably follow; and Hiltz will be able to claim he has not actually given them permission. This is known as leadership in the ACoC.

One might hope that the few conservatives still in the ACoC will see through the ploy and force the issue; a vain hope, I fear.

Primate Fred Hiltz wants to lobby parliament

It’s reasonably clear that Canadian Primate, Fred Hiltz, marches in lock step with TEC Presiding Bishop, Katherine Jefferts-Schori on same-sex blessings and leftist social justice obsessions.

Here he goes again. Hiltz, in his new-year’s day sermon, said he wants to lobby the Canadian government through a church Secretariat for Government Relations:

Churches need lobby office here.
The government’s recent whack at the social justice group KAIROS has made churches realize that they’re no different than anyone else when it comes to lobbying in Ottawa. If you are not here, you are not heard. Fred Hiltz, head of the Anglican Church in Canada, floated this idea in  his New Year’s sermon at Christ Church Cathedral, a stone’s throw from Parliament Hill: “We believe the cut of … funding for KAIROS denies hope for millions of people throughout the world and damages our reputation among the nations. … This crisis highlights the need for the Churches to have a Secretariat for Government Relations here in the nation’s capital. 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. I believe that a secretariat of this kind would enhance our capacity to have a stronger voice in influencing the shaping of public policy, both domestic and international.”

Funnily enough, TEC has allocated $6.6M in its budget for a government Advocacy Centre:

If you had 6.6 million dollars and wanted to do something good, what would you do?

If your answer is “hire lobbyists to get the government to solve problems for you,” then you might be an Episcopalian.

What in the world does the Episcopal church want to communicate to our elected officials? Those silly resolutions passed by General Conventions of course, and it takes money to get these important messages across.

Another example of imaginative leadership from Fred Hiltz; Fred, apparently, is going to show the world the way out of the same-sex blessings mess. Stop sniggering:

If Canadian Anglicans can find a way to break through the impasse over sexuality “it could well become a vibrant model of the kind of renewed Christian community that has much to teach the wider church,”

The reason for the decline in the Anglican Church of Canada is finally revealed

In a report from the Anglican Journal

[T]he primate, Archbishop Fred Hiltz, is one of the church’s “greatest assets.” The visitors said they were “amazed” at the similarities between Archbishop Hiltz and Archbishop Williams, noting that the primate presided over the bishops’ meeting “with humility, sensitivity and passion.”

If Hiltz is one of the ACoC’s greatest assets, I’m surprised that there are any people left in it. I think he’ll have to work on his eyebrows a little if the similarity to Rowan is going to be convincing.

The Anglican Church of Canada: a political special interest group

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.

A New Year’s Day address from Fred Hiltz

In his New Year’s Day address, Primate Fred Hiltz brings up the Anglican Covenant and the little difficulty that it might create for the Anglican Church of Canada:

The Covenant also speaks about procedures for addressing controversial issues and actions by provinces that could be deemed “incompatible” with the spirit of the Covenant, and of “relational consequences” for that province and its place in the Communion. For some, the language of relational consequences is deeply disturbing, given that our relationships within the Anglican Communion are and should never be dependent or fixed on one issue only.

I maintain that in the midst of our differences over issues of sexuality we are called to model a capacity to live with difference and to do so with grace. It is precisely a lack of graciousness that has fired tempers and sparked words of condemnation and dismissal that have been so destructive to relationships within the Communion. I pray that our attitudes and conversations with one another be more and more centered in Him in whom, beyond our understanding, we are forever one.

Hiltz’s reasoning seems to be along the lines of:

• The ACoC is going ahead with the ”full inclusion” of homosexual Anglicans by blessing same sex marriages and ordaining practising homosexual clergy.
• Those that disagree with us on this have to live with it and do so with grace.
• Anyone who doesn’t do so with grace is destroying the Communion.
• If the Communion is destroyed it will be the fault of those who lack the grace to go along with the homosexual agenda of the ACoC.
• If the attitudes of those who disagree with the direction of the ACoC were more centred in Christ, we wouldn’t be having these problems.

He goes on to say:

As we prepare for conversations about sexuality at General Synod it is very clear that people favour conversation and discernment over resolution and debate. Many hope that our discussions will be marked by a capacity to hear one another’s perspective and to appreciate the diversity of settings in which the pastoral and sacramental ministry of the Church is desired. My own hope is that we will emerge from the Synod with an honest statement of where we are in our continuing discernment.

Endless talk without resolution = Good. Disagreeing with each other = Bad. I hate modern pseudo-psychological catchphrases, but I can’t help noticing that this is a perfect description of “dysfunctional”: no-one says what he really thinks in order to maintain the pretence that everyone is getting along just fine.

And to follow:

Personally I am both challenged and heartened by a comment made by the Pastoral Visitors in their report to the Archbishop of Canterbury, “General Synod will, indeed, be a watershed, both for the Anglican Church in Canada, and for its wider relations within the Anglican Communion. At its worst it could lead to internal anarchy. At its best it could help us all to appreciate and practise a properly Christian style of inclusiveness. … Our distinct impression was that if the Anglican Church of Canada could find a way through this current impasse, it could well become a vibrant model of the kind of renewed Christian community that has much to teach the wider Church.”

To put it another way: “Rowan hasn’t managed it, but if you find a way to convince Christians to get along with Unitarian Gnostic New-Age Pantheists, we’ll give it try, too. Hint: try smaller Indaba groups; good luck, Fred.”

Anglican Church of Canada: what excites Fred Hiltz?

Other than gay sex, of course. Fred discusses his beloved five Marks of Mission. There are actually six: the sixth is “undisclosed”, “unnamed” and is the most exciting: money.

What does the Resurrection really mean to Fred Hiltz?

The God-Man, Jesus was nailed to some pieces of wood and left to hang there until he was dead. During that time, he absorbed all the sins of the entire human race – including mine, which on their own are bad enough – and received the just punishment for them from his Father. Including being removed from his Father’s presence, a presence that he had experienced for an eternity before time even existed. He did this because he loves us and he didn’t want us to have to bear the punishment that we deserve, but he didn’t.

He died and was buried. Our sins died with him and he offers us redemption; as proof of this, he rose from death to life 3 days later. This had never happened before; it is evidence that we too will rise from death.

This article from the Anglican Journal by Fred Hiltz, Primate of Canada doesn’t mention sin; this is not particularly surprising, since the Anglican Church of Canada doesn’t much like to acknowledge that man is sinful, much less that real justice would demand that we be punished for our sin. The notion that Jesus was punished for our sin instead of us is complete anathema to the ACoC, since it flies in the face of the central tenet of the new religiosity experientially discerned by the wrinkled shamans of what used to be a Christian Church: All You Need is Love

In the Anglicans in Mission campaign in the early 1980s, we used prayers and messages about mission from partner churches. I shall never forget the message from the Church in Korea. It read, “The church should light the sacred candle of the resurrection, not merely through its preaching within its walls, but also through actions outside the walls of the church.  We should dedicate ourselves to the task of reviving conscience and justice which will bless us with a brighter, more just society.” That was wise counsel then and now.

For Fred, Easter means a more just society. Why do you think your churches are empty, Fred?

Canadian Primate, Fred Hiltz, immanentising the eschaton

There are a couple of significant things about this clip from Fred Hiltz:

First, he tells us that mission for Anglicans is not just about personal salvation. Having been a Canadian Anglican for over 30 years, were it not for the fact that I am a member of an evangelical parish, I could easily have missed the point that the Anglican mission is about personal salvation in any way whatsoever.

Second, Fred goes on to tell us that the Anglican mission is about much more than personal salvation and a relationship with Jesus: it is about transforming society to come under the just reign of God – a similar kind of theocratic utopianism to which Islam aspires.

I think Fred has neatly summed up one of the quintessential errors of the Anglican Church of Canada: for years the church has been focussing most of its energy on the “much more than that” rather than the apparently lesser issue of a person’s salvation. The perfect, just reign of God is going to come when Jesus returns but not before; it is a Christian’s duty to try to do what is right and to work justly in society, but placing this above salvation means setting the temporal above the eternal and making an idol of it.

As C. S. Lewis said in his wonderful essay, The Weight of Glory:

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization-these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit-immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.

There isn’t much more than that.

Anglicans win Demented Priest Award

The informative Muslims Against Sharia site has a variety of awards it bestows upon deserving contenders. One is the Demented Priest Award; Anglicans will be proud to know that two of their own are the latest recipients of this prestigious accolade.

Rowan Williams for his groundbreaking work on explaining to Britons why Sharia law is inevitable in the land of the Crusaders and Katherine Jefferts-Schori for her tireless support of Islamofascism.

The only disappointment here is the sad lack of recognition for the efforts of Canadian Fred Hiltz;  never mind Fred, with a bit of work and a lot of concentration, I’m sure you will do better next time.

Fred is up to the Hiltz in mendaciloquence

The Canadian House of Bishops has issued a statement that said this:

“A continued commitment to the greatest extent possible to the three moratoria — on the blessing of same-sex unions, on the ordination to the episcopate of people in same-sex relationships and on cross-border interventions — until General Synod 2010. Members of this House, while recognizing the difficulty that this commitment represents for dioceses that in conscience have made decisions on these matters, commit themselves to continue walking together and to hold each other in prayer.”

A casual reading makes it appear that Canadian bishops are indeed willing to stop conducting same sex blessings; but then there is that surreptitiously inserted phrase “to the greatest extent possible”.

Later in an interview with the Anglican Journal, Fred:

acknowledged that this stance allows dioceses such as Montreal and Ottawa some wiggle room to continue what their bishops have recently described as “incremental” and “experiential” steps toward same-sex blessings.

“Experiential”? Doesn’t that mean “doing it”? “Incremental” is presumably intended as a condescending pat on the head to the recalcitrant fundamentalists who, given enough time, will become enlightened like Fred; just thinking about that gives me the willies.

So what is really going on, other than the usual emissions from Freddie’s Industrial Strength Fog Machine?

It seems clear that the official HoB statement is designed as a pacifier for Rowan Williams to suck on: through it Fred is whining: “listen Rowan, I’m a good boy, I’m saying what you told me to say, please, please don’t cut me off from Lambeth.”

As usual, Fred wants to hold on prestige and power at all costs, won’t discipline his wayward bishops because he secretly agrees with them and is waffling at full throttle in an attempt to conceal what is really going on.