felix hominum

Thursday morning clergy conference

For a few days this week Alan Hayes has joined us for a local clergy conference.  Alan is an historian at Wycliffe College within the University of Toronto.  He has a fascinating array of materials surrounding the missionary movement and its relationship to the first nations in the 1800's, as well as numerous resources on the history of the church in Canada.

One of the most interesting sources is a commission report from 1931 in which the Anglican Church laments the fact that there is low morale, limited response to the changes in culture, lack of adequate finances, and so on and so forth.  And what is one of the recommendations which the report makes?  More power to General Synod and the Primate.

It strikes me that this is a return to the Toryism of the early 1800's.

When I get a chance I want to sift through some more of the historical sources.  Fascinating stuff.

Plus ca change....

the Pyramid scheme - governance & the Anglican Church of Canada

I made my way once through all the various materials sent to me as a delegate to the Anglican Church of Canada's General Synod next month.  There is a line up of the usual suspects - you know, abolish nuclear weapons, have a pesticide free garden (which I have had for years), same sex stuff, the church is broke & your money will fix it.  All of this stuff comes to me on the photocopied 81/2 by 11 stuff which is the foundation of all church committee work.  I swear the gospels were first written down on 3 hole punched paper, ready for a binder.

Of all the materials I and the other delegates received, only one thing came wrapped up as a fancy-schmancy DVD. 

"Governance".

No photocopied white or even green paper for this baby.  Video production.  Nice packaging.  A purer form of Anglicanism:  appealing to as many of the senses as possible.  I'm not one to jump to conclusions, and I have no fondness for conspiracy theories (even though I know you are all out to get me), but it seems to me that this is a fairly high priority for the powers that be.

I have a friend, let's call him Joe, who thinks that what some folks really want is a change in the structure of governance for our church.  More power and authority being moved to the central office;  that is after all, the first option presented in the proposed move.

Or, to put it another way, if you can't get what you want this way, eventually you can get it that way.

Wonder what the disc cost to produce and distribute? 

I will continue to offer baseless speculation as I see fit, as opposed to the thoughtful stuff out there.

Sameo also has a report on the session I missed while I was smoking sheesha on the banks of the Nile leading a Christian Pilgrimage through the Holy Land.

On the other hand, we finished planting the vegetable garden this evening.  I'm trying a new variety of sugar snap peas.

"The American church doesn't produce martyrs...

we produce celebrities."

Rick McKinley:  "This Beautiful Mess" (p. 152)

I finished reading Rick's book earlier today, and will try to put up a review sometime in the next 3-4 days.

In the meantime, the quote comes from a chapter in which he looks at the call to take seriously the suffering of other Christians around the world.

Rick is at Imago Dei in Portland

things you find in the sinai

some sort of church thing hidden away in the Sinai, the name of which has totally eluded me, but I'll post it when I remember

bad parenting tip #87

"Daddy, I feel sick;  I threw up on my pillow"

"Just flip it over.  Besides, the other side of the pillow is nice and cool."

I have an unproven theory

that the more one disparages the institutional form of the church, the more one puts faith in the institutional form of government to help us out.

how alice the camel is doing this week

Just trying to catch up with Alice the Camel for a moment or two...

above the Kidron Valley

Caesarea Maritima

Where Paul was imprisoned before setting sail for Rome...

Roman era and Crusader era ruins.

stepping out in Nazareth

Stepping Out.

One of the Sisters of Nazareth, after morning prayer.

Cairo doors

in Old Cairo, Coptic area

A big bottle of Jack Daniels

and the convening circular for General Synod 2007.

What better way could there be to spend an evening?

Zacchaeus Fellowship writes the Canadian House of Bishops

An open letter to the Canadian House of Bishops from the Zacchaeus Fellowship:
(I'll fix up the links in the document later)



May 14, 2007

To the National House of Bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada:

We write to you out of our painful sense of rejection caused by the statement in the name of  the Bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada issued on April 30. Our response to your statement has taken two weeks as we have needed to recover from our shock and discouragement. One of our members wrote, “When I first read the HOB statement, it felt like someone had just spit in my face! I was not angry; just gravely disappointed and yes, surprised.”

What little comfort we can take is in the knowledge that some of you have encouraged us in the past and continue to assure us of your support. We thank you for standing with us. Sadly, though, it seems we are now the new marginalized minority.

On October 27, 2005, several members of the Zacchaeus Fellowship made a presentation to the House of Bishops (available at www.zacchaeus.ca/hob.html), in which we spoke about our pasts, our struggles, our hopes and our hurts. Every member of the House of Bishops has also received a copy of our booklet Transformed by an Encounter with Christ.

Your statement has betrayed our witness to the House of Bishops. You bent over backwards to express sympathy for our brothers and sisters who openly espouse the gay lifestyle, yet your statement held not one word of pastoral sensitivity towards us. In the name of pastoral care, you have left us feeling spiritually bulldozed and utterly deserted by our church. We are not at all able to agree with the statement’s claim to consistency with paragraph 143 of the Windsor Report, which affirms “the duty of pastoral care that is laid upon all Christians to respond with love and understanding to people of all sexual orientations.” We point to your lack of so much as an acknowledgment that the Anglican Church of Canada contains a constituency of individuals who are ex-gay, ex-lesbian, or living chastely with same-sex desires.

We remind you that this is not the first time such rejection of this constituency has taken place. At General Synod 2004, Resolution A134 was passed, intentionally involving gay and lesbian persons in the dialogue and study. Yet, a second amendment which was proposed to include “those who identify themselves as ex-gay or ex-lesbian” was defeated.

The Anglican Church of Canada decided at that Synod that we are non-entities, not deserving an equal voice alongside that of gays and lesbians. May we suggest that if a motion of this nature with regard to people of colour had been defeated, the cry of protest would have been loud enough to bring down the house. In any case, when we were rebuffed in 2004, our fellowship decided to turn the other cheek.

We have repeatedly asked that our voice representing this constituency be heard, in particular at this upcoming General Synod. This request has been rejected by the agenda committee. We want to be allowed to sit at the table with our church family in order to share our experiences. We plan to appeal to the Primate for the opportunity to address General Synod from the floor. We ask you to prayerfully consider supporting us in this appeal.

As we have stated before, not all persons with same-sex attractions want these attractions affirmed. We are concerned for those whom we describe as “silent sufferers” in the pews. These are the many individuals who adhere to the traditional Christian teaching on sexuality and wish for the church neither to condemn them as persons nor to encourage them to act on those same-sex attractions. Who shall support them? Such individuals need pastoral care – towards which goal your statement offers empty wind. And on moral direction as called for by Lambeth Resolution 1.10(c) your statement is silent.

We implore you in the strongest possible terms to ensure that all persons experiencing same-sex attraction are offered biblically sound pastoral care.

In the name of Jesus crucified and risen,

The Rev’d C. Dawn McDonald, Chair of the Zacchaeus Fellowship,
    priest in the Diocese of Yukon
The Rev’d Dr. Don Alcock, Vice Chair of the Zacchaeus Fellowship,
    priest in the Diocese of Huron
On behalf of the Zacchaeus Fellowship

point of no return...

St Peter's church, over the house of Caiphas.  Much more snappy sign than those old "The Anglican Church Welcomes You" things I see all the time...

The Mid East Picture Show

will begin later today.  In no particular order.

On the other hand, fresh on the heels of two IDF operations in East Bethlehem, we had a great meal at Abu Shunab restaurant in downtown Bethlehem.  They are a local outfit, owned by a Christian Palestinian family;  and their specialty is lamb dishes.

I may not need to eat again for about a week.

"What a fine Jewish name"

-Joseph!! Joseph!!  What a fine Jewish name.  You must come with us!

Before I knew it I was in the company of three rabbis underneath an excavation on the north side of the western wall.  Insie the room were some security personel, a number of rabbis, and some workers dusting artifacts.

- Now you must have children, what are their names?  And your wife, where is she?  But she cannot come here, this is for the men, you know that.

I'm not sure they caught all the names, but at the mention of Sarah and Adam a series of rabbinnic blessings descended upon my house.  I was then hugged several times by men who were laughing, singing, and I believe if I waited long enough, dancing. 

Next year, in Jerusalem

the upper room...

Off in the fogotten quarters of the Syraic Church is St Mark's Syriac Cathedral.  It houses one of the three contending sites for the "Upper Room" and the last supper.  The last time I was in Jerusalem, I worshipped with them during Holy Week - the footwashing ceremony and the commemoration of the the last supper.  Sister Justina was our guide.  I met her a few years ago and she is a ball of fire.  The language of the chruch is Aramaic - the probable everyday language of Jesus.  She sang the tradional setting of the aramaic Lord's Prayer for us, and took us on a tour of the ruins.  The room beneath the church is a first century BC dwelling which is reputed to have belonged to the family of St Mark.  The site has more marks of authenticity than soem of the other sites claiming to be the room.  Sister told us about the various miracles she has witnessed over the years in this place, and how the "power of the Spirit brings hearts to our Lord Jesus from this place".

This morning we visited the western wall again, the temple steps from Jesus' time, and teh city of David - where we saw the archelogical discoveries relating to his palace and throne room. 

We just got back from Yad vaShem - "a place and a name" - the Holocaust museum.  It is truly one of the most powerful places in this city.

soon there will be none left...

I spent part of this morning visiting the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, and hanging out with some of the local Christian Palestinian Bethlehemites.  One refrain which I've heard over and over here is that at some point there will be no Christians left in the Holy Land.  For starters, some of the Christians in Bethlehem have found themselves at the wrong end of various "court proceedings" which have attempted to swindle them out of their land.  I'm sure you can google it in BBC.

The Christians who have called the Holy Land home for generations have found themselves as a minority within a minority.  Many are emigrating to the West.  One shopkeeper told me that the Christian population of Bethlehem is now in peril, having sunk below 20 % for the first time in memory.

After lunch at St George's restaurant off Manger Square, it was over to Shepherd's Fields on the outskirts of town.  This area is also the likely area of the setting for the story of Ruth and the gleaning of the fields.

For those who like that sort of thing, there is also a team of "Ecumenical Accompaniers" sponsored by the World Council of Churches.  They are supposed to be observing the Israeli security checkpoints for violations, and then reporting back to the World Council of Churches.  However, this pilgrim has twice observed the team in Nafoura's Bar and Armenian Grill.  Your tithe at work...

Tomorrow it's up to the Mount of Olives and then some walking around the gates of the Old City

Jerusalem the Golden

We arrived in Jerusalem by way of Armageddon a few days ago.  After staying at the Sea of Galillee for two days, we took the group to see the ancient site of Megiddo: the ancient plain and hilltop fortess which was the site of Canaanite power and religion almost 3500 years ago.

We also took folks to the town of Cana, where you can shop at the "First Miracle Wine Store" for your favourite red or white.  The closer one gets to Jerusalem, the more the mix of commercial and religious becomes apparent.  On our way into the city we prayed the "Psalms of Ascent".  These are the psalms which pilgrims for generations would sing as they approached the Temple.  Our hotel is the Knights' Palace (a bit of a misnomer) just inside the New Gate in the Old City.  From my room I can walk three paces and touch the walls of the Old City.

Jerusalem is a bustling city, full of tension (there was a rocket attack to the east last night).  We gave everyone an introduction to the four quarters of the Old City:  Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Armenian.  As it was sundown at Sabbath, we went to visit the Western Wall, where there were Jews of every variety of piety praying, studying, reading and singing.  The Wall at the beginning of Sabbath is something to behold.

Yesterday evening after the shops openined up again I headed off to Ben Yehuda Street for the post Sabbath festivities.  17 shekels for a Swiss chocolate milk shake.... mmmm.   Tomorrow we are off to Masada, the Dead Sea and Qumran.

into the promised land

We made our exit from Petra, and traveled north along the Jordanian side of the Jordan River, crossing over at the Hussein bridge, and arrived at the town of Tiberias 2 nights ago.  The sea of Gallilee is the site of so many episodes in the Gospels that it is hard to narrow down our visits.  We began with a renewal of our baptismal vows at the Yardenit baptismal site on the Jordan river.   The site itself is now run by a kibbutz and has installed several 'secure' pilgrimage spots.  This was the result of seeing overly enthusiastic pilgrims getting swept away by the currents in years past.

After Yardenit, we went for a cruise on the sea with a local boat, whose skipper showed us some of the techniques and equipment used in the time of Jesus and the disciples.  In the afternoon we went to the mount of the beatitudes, the "church of Peter's Primacy" on the shore of the sea, and then to the ruins of the ancient town of Capherneum.  Just south of the ruins is an ancient house believed to be the house of Peter, where the healing of his mother in law took place.

The shift from Egypt and Jordan to Israel is remarkable in many ways.  The first thing people notice is the immense security structure upon arrival:  customs and border crossings are extremely well controlled.  Another major shift is that Israel is very much a first world country, for the first time in two weeks I told people that they can drink the tap water without fear of "Pharoah's revenge".

This morning we are taking everyone up to the top of Mount Tabor - the mount of transfiguration - and then if all goes according to plan, we will take them to Armegedon before heading in to stay with the Sisters of Nazareth for the night.  The Sisters have had a long presence in Nazareth, and are know for their work among disabled children.  After spending tonight in Nazareth, we will have a leisurely time at Caeserea Maritima.  Caeserea is the site of the only known inscription mentioning Pilate, and besides, it has a great beach, which will be much appreciated after the desert and inland heat.