Anglican Samizdat

The Diocese of New Hampshire has elected a new bishop, Rev. A. Robert Hirschfeld, and he is not a practising homosexual.

Before anyone jumps to the rash conclusion that the people of New Hampshire have ignored the voice of the spirit and stubbornly elected a heterosexual in an act of unrepentant rebellion, let me assure everyone that as Integrity is quick to reassure us,  at least Rev. Rob is a trusted friend of the LGBT movement.

So there is nothing to worry about. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he self-identifies as a woman well before his ordination; that’s almost as good as being gay.

In Brideshead Revisted, one of my favourite novels, the following exchange takes place:

‘Charles,’ said Cordelia, ‘Modern Art is all bosh, isn’t it?’

“‘Great bosh.’

“‘Oh, I’m so glad. I had an argument with one of our nuns and she said we shouldn’t try and criticize what we didn’t understand. Now I shall tell her I have had it straight from a real artist, and snubs to her.’”

Evelyn Waugh, himself an artist, probably would not have predicted the level of bosh to which modern art would eventually sink. Here is an exhibition of invisible art currently on display in London:

It looks like the aftermath of a museum robbery.

But this empty sculpture stand is in fact the main attraction at a leading British gallery – and punters will be charged £8 a head to see it.

The ‘work’ was created as a stunt by Andy Warhol and will form part of an exhibition of ‘invisible art’ at London’s Hayward Gallery.

Visitors will be asked to look beyond ‘material objects’ and ‘set their imaginations on fire’ by looking at the empty gallery spaces.

Also included in the 50 ‘invisible works’ will be an empty piece of paper, an empty canvas and an empty space.

Asinine as it is, it may be preferable to this less than appetising portrait of Stephen Harper:

The NDP, champion of the disadvantaged and those who cannot fend for themselves – well, except for unborn babies – is supporting a publicly funded Ottawa sex exhibition aimed at children; and paedophiles. The theory is, apparently, that the younger a child is told about sex the older he will be before he tries it for himself, a contention so ludicrous that it should be beyond even the NDP’s embrace – but no.

From here:

Controversy over a raunchy sex exhibit at an Ottawa museum erupted in the House of Commons Thursday.

The Museum of Science and Technology is hosting the program, Sex: A Tell-All Exhibit, a show crafted for school trips by the Montreal Science Centre and costing $800,000. It’s on loan to the capital for a year.

An NDP MP accused the ruling Tories, who have criticized the exhibit’s content and cost, for being “prudish.”

The exhibit includes a climax room with a round leather bed, red drapes, and a video showing aroused genitals while audio plays of a man describing an orgasm.

There’s also a naming post asking students for alternative terms for penis and vagina. Words like c— and p—y are used for women’s genitalia, and c–k and d–k are used for men’s. The words are displayed in large text on a screen.

Wooden dildos sporting various condoms include descriptions like “for the chocolate lover” for flavoured ones, and “for those long winter nights” for ones that heat up.

Listening posts offer advice to students on everything from anal sex to getting abortions without parental knowledge. The show was created for those 12 years old and older with input from sexologists.

Here is what Michael Coren thinks about it:

The synod motion is here.

The forward looking Diocese of New Westminster has, in its ceaseless pursuit of relevance, passed a synod motion to “repudiate and renounce” a papal bull issued in 1452. The Doctrine of Discovery was a papal justification for colonising newly discovered non-Christian lands.

The diocese, having writhed with guilt for centuries over occupying native – sorry, Indigenous People’s – land, has made the odd decision to compound the problem by occupying churches in St. John’s Shaughnessy, St. Matthews Abbotsford and St. Matthias and St. Luke’s Vancouver. In fairness to the diocese, though, a further motion to call a special synod to figure out how best to colonise the parishes was defeated.

500 years ago Christians displaced pagans and took what belonged to them. Today pagans displace Christians and take what belongs to them.

Now that I am not exactly young, the old saw I wish I knew now what I thought I knew when I was eighteen, often comes to mind.

The youth coordinator for the Diocese of New Westminster ponders the question of when the “shift from childhood to adulthood takes place” and laments the attempts of “the wiser generations” to “wipe out self expression in our young people”. This all relates to the teen who wore the Jesus tee-shirt, but it raises some more interesting general points.

The question of when children become adults is an existential one: children become adults when they cease behaving as children. For the pampered offspring of western decadence, this may never occur: look at Justin Trudeau. For an impoverished Ugandan family that must struggle merely to survive, it probably occurs around the age of ten.

Bemoaning the suppression of young people’s self-expression, is an odd complaint against a society where anyone, including the youngest of young people, can say just about anything and publish it on the Internet – so long as it doesn’t offend Muslims. Perhaps what the supposedly stifled Mr Colvin means is that no-one listens to what young people have to say. The answer is simple: say something interesting and people will listen. Moaning about a lack of suitable jobs and the evils of consumerism is so predictably trite it doesn’t even elevate itself to the level of dull.

From here:

I’m glad that Colin McComb’s letter [Dress codes a good way to start, anglicanjournal.com, May 10] gets beyond the T-shirt discussion because it exposes a much deeper, more dangerous mindset. The author writes: “The classroom should first and foremost be a place of learning: not a forum in which to exercise one’s freedom of expression. Children need to learn how to think before they learn how to bellow out whatever it is they’re thinking.”

Welcome to the history of childhood for the past century or so. An environment which has been built on the foundation that ‘we, the adults know things and you, the children, do not. Our job is to fill you with information and prepare you for the world when it’s your time.’

Except, when is it a young person’s time? When they leave school? These days, there are practically no entry level jobs in any industry for someone with a high school diploma. And while a college graduate might be lucky enough to get one the rapidly diminishing entry level jobs, as Colin McComb says, the modern Canadian workplace is no place for self expression. And so the children once again are, figuratively, being told that they are not yet really adults.

Perhaps the shift from childhood to adulthood takes place when a person buys a house or starts a family? But wait: Buying a house generally doesn’t happen without some support and subsidy from family. More waiting for adulthood. And in the meantime, young people become consumers.

The Diocese of Niagara and the three ANiC churches that left the diocese have come to an agreement where the buildings will be handed over to the diocese on June 1^st. The agreement has not yet been signed; I will have more to say about it when it is.

Nevertheless, for all intents and purposes, the final disposition of the buildings has been settled and that, along with a few things that happened recently, has caused me to ruminate on what I think about the situation. Of course, how one feels about what happens is what is in vogue, so when someone made an enquiry of me on Saturday, the invitation was to elucidate how I felt, not what I thought.

It goes without saying that feelings are entirely subjective: that’s why, in an age that likes to pretend that objective reality is, at best, irrelevant and at worst non-existent, feelings are so popular. Feelings do have an existence of their own though, so how do I feel about losing the building that has been my church home for the last 34 years?

Shortly after I joined the church, I was confirmed by Bishop Kent Clark – or was it Clark Kent – whose halitosis left a lasting impression on my first communion. I was there when the mortgage was paid off, experienced charismatic renewal in the early 80’s, saw healing miracles, saw my children confirmed, my grandchildren baptised and many hundreds of people blessed by being part of a loving community. The reality of this cannot be taken away; just the place where it happened. I believe that my dominant feeling on May 27^th, our last Sunday in the building, will be what it is now: sadness at losing the place where most of the significant events of my Christian life have occurred.

Some in the church believe that there is a degree of anger in the congregation at what has happened; I’m not so sure I agree, but I do agree that it would be unproductive if it were present. In the interests of expunging any latent hostility against the church hierarchy, one person suggested that individuals might like to send a letter to Bishop Michael Bird expressing personal forgiveness to him. I briefly considered this but decided that, on seeing my signature, the bishop might succumb to a fit of apoplexy or spend sleepless nights worrying that I was setting an obscure trap for him. So I thought better of it.

Another suggestion was that, as a congregation we leave a note “blessing” those who will be using the building in the future. I think (back to thinking) that this is a less than stellar plan. If we believe that the Diocese of Niagara is actively working against the gospel – and I certainly think it is – the last thing we should be doing is giving assent to their activities by blessing them. Perhaps a note to the effect that we are praying that the diocesan hierarchy will come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ might be more honest and productive.

It goes without saying that I think that, by all that is sensible, moral and intuitive, the congregations are the rightful owners of the buildings, not the diocese. The law didn’t agree but, in the final analysis, your heart is where your treasure is: my treasure is in my community – and ultimately in Christ Jesus; the diocese’s treasure is where moth and rust doth corrupt. That’s not such a bad deal.

May the 27^th is the last Sunday that we, at St. Hilda’s, will worship in our building: we will be moving to rental facilities at the Knights of Columbus, 1494 Wallace Road, Oakville.

I wrote this song to commemorate our last – and first – Sunday:

Robotic buttocks.

Apparently, the point of this is to demonstrate “the innovative use of robotics technology” and “to raise the argument as to what will be manifested in the minds of people who communicate with SHIRI.”

Another giant leap forward towards perfecting the Turing test.

The rainbow saint:

Every year St. Hilda’s Anglican Church, ANiC has a garage sale where all the items are free. It is an outreach to the community to illustrate the love, grace and salvation of God which is offered to us free through Jesus Christ.

This year was a little different because it was our last Garage Sale Giveaway before we have to relinquish our building to the Diocese of Niagara. This was a week of “last times”, since Friday was also the last Freebie Friday, a St. Hilda’s outreach to a local high school which will cease when we move.

This year, in addition to handing out our usual card, the following was distributed:

We are moving!

Years ago when I was ministering at my first church in Quebec I walked over to my office and noticed a “For Sale” sign placed on the lawn of the church. A local prankster thought it would be a good joke. In our newsletter I used that situation as a eye catching title: CHURCH FOR SALE! I then spoke about ministry etc. I never would have thought that years later I would be facing the real thing.

After 53 years on Rebecca Street we are losing our beloved St. Hilda’s Church building.

We live in a world and a culture where many foundational Christian beliefs are currently under attack. This is experienced even within the church itself. The main issue is the blurring and compromise of the good news of Jesus Christ and the elevation of the authority of church leadership over the authority of the Bible. As a consequence, many churches find themselves within a structure that compromises their conscience. This was our case. The result was after a long dispute with our former leadership we find ourselves homeless, but not church-less. We the people are His church.

We remain in communion with the greater part of the worldwide Anglican Church through the auspices of the Anglican Network in Canada. This being said, we will begin a new chapter of our church history when we start using the facility at the Knights of Columbus Rental Hall on Wallace Road near the intersection of Speers Road and Third Line. Our first celebration is on May 27th. And thereafter at 10:30 am on Sunday mornings.

We as a congregation will, with God’s help, continue to show the surpassing worth of Jesus Christ, continuing with all our ministries, preaching and teaching the Gospel and sharing the love of God in our community.

Pastor Paul Charbonneau

St. Hilda’s Church

Here are some photos; for all of them, go here: