c. 2003 Religion News Service
Peers Announces Resignation
CALGARY, Alberta (RNS) Archbishop Michael Peers, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada since 1986, has announced his resignation effective Feb. 1, 2004.
A letter announcing his intention to step down was read to the church’s governing council meeting here this month.
The mandatory retirement age for Anglican bishops in Canada is 70. Archbishop Peers was born in 1934.
His resignation will clear the way for the election of a new Anglican primate by General Synod at its next meeting in St. Catharines, Ontario, in June 2004.
During his tenure Peers oversaw many developments and controversies, including the flare-up in the diocese of New Westminster over the blessing of same-sex unions.
Conference Explores Trudeau’s Faith
KITCHENER, Ontario (RNS) Academics, journalists, political figures and a former prime minister gathered at the University of Waterloo last weekend (May 10-11) to explore the role faith played in the life of enigmatic former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau.
The Jesuit-trained Trudeau, PM from 1968 to 1979 and 1980 to 1984, played a pivotal role in the liberalization of Canadian society, pushing for legalized therapeutic abortions and decriminalizing homosexuality. For many, he was the embodiment of the secularism of the 1960s and beyond. But conference organizers say less well known was that Trudeau, who died in 2000, was a man of deep faith and a committed Roman Catholic.
Dubbed “The Hidden Pierre Trudeau,” the two-day conference featured talks by Trudeau-era cabinet ministers Otto Lang, Eugene Whelan and Allan MacEachen.
Trudeau’s cabinets included many devout Catholics, said MacEachen, but they kept their faith private, adding he wouldn’t want to see Canadians mimic American politicians’ penchant for overt displays of faith.
Keynote speaker was John Turner, who served as Trudeau’s justice minister in 1969 and succeeded Trudeau briefly as prime minister in 1984.
Bishops, Rabbis Differ on Same-Sex Marriage
OTTAWA (RNS) Canada’s Catholic bishops have decried the latest court ruling upholding same-sex marriage.
British Columbia’s Court of Appeal unanimously ruled May 1 that the current definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman “to the exclusion of all others” is unconstitutional. The court gave the federal government until July 14, 2004 to change the current law.
Ontario’s Court of Appeal is currently hearing the appeal of a lower court ruling that upheld the traditional definition of marriage, while Quebec’s Court of Appeal last year also ruled that prohibiting same-sex couples from marrying is discriminatory.
In a statement, the bishops said they hope Ottawa will appeal the British Columbia decision. Officials say it’s likely all three rulings will be combined and heard by the Supreme Court of Canada.
Meantime, a group of liberal rabbis has backed same-sex marriages. The Canadian Coalition of Liberal Rabbis for Same-Sex Marriage told the Ontario court the continued prohibition of gay and lesbian marriages infringes on religious freedoms and equality rights of both clergy and member congregants, adding that Jewish law in this area is “not immutable.”
University of Toronto to Build Multifaith Center
TORONTO (RNS) Canada’s largest university is getting a multifaith center where students and faculty will be able to engage in diverse religious practices.
The $2 million facility at the University of Toronto, still in its planning stages, hopes to be a gathering place for all faith groups whose followers wish to engage in prayer, worship, meditation, reflection and education.
University officials say renovations to an existing building on campus will create large and small meeting spaces, rooms for meditation and social gatherings, ablution facilities, and offices for chaplains.
The building will also house two kitchens and a large seminar room for lectures.
Announcement of the facility comes as a group of Muslim students in Montreal is suing their engineering school for $1 million over the school’s refusal to grant them space for their prayers.
Organizers Plan Toronto Dalai Lama Visit
TORONTO (RNS) The organizers of a Toronto visit from the Dalai Lama next year are seeking $1 million from the city and the province to support the visit, expected to draw 10,000 people, reports the Toronto Star.
The request was made last month by an official of the Canadian Tibetan Association of Ontario, who appeared before the city’s economic development committee.
If approved _ at a time Toronto is trying to rebound from the economic hit from the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak _ some of the funds would help defray costs for security for the Dalai Lama and for renting the National Trade Centre, where the event is scheduled for April 24-May 6, 2004.
The visit by the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader and spiritual head of millions of Buddhists, is expected to draw Buddhists from Canada and the United States.
The visit is built around a special ritual for peace and nonviolence called Kalachakra, or “wheel of time,” with the Dalai Lama as the initiator.
In addition, the Dalai Lama is expected to hold a public event, possibly at Toronto’s SkyDome. He’s scheduled to be in Vancouver and Ottawa before coming to Toronto.
PC Party, Muslim Group Condemn Remarks
OTTAWA (RNS) The Progressive Conservative Party and a leading Muslim advocacy group have joined to condemn anti-Islamic comments by one of the party’s Ontario officials.
The PC Party and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Canada said the comments by Stephen Leach, a vice president of the Conservatives’ federal riding (electoral district) association in Oshawa, are “absolutely unacceptable and inappropriate.”
In an earlier e-mail to the Muslim group’s Washington office, Leach railed against concerns raised by CAIR that Franklin Graham’s aid agency, Samaritan’s Purse, was planning to proselytize vulnerable Iraqis.
“Your organization has publicly endorsed a HATE CRIME against Christians,” Leach wrote. “North American was NOT founded on Muslim principles, else (sic), we wouldn’t be the strong continent we are today. We would be a bag woods (sic) civilization like many Muslim nations found in the Middle East today.”
CAIR-CAN discovered Leach’s position in the PC party through an Internet search.
Even after his party issued the statement and the matter was reported by the media, Leach refused to apologize, saying CAIR-CAN “were complete (expletive) about it. I will never back down on my comments.”
Christians Ride, Walk for Causes
(RNS) Christians are taking several different messages across Canada, by bicycle and foot, reports canadianchristianity.com.
Abortion opponents who volunteer with the Crisis Pregnancy Center are bicycling across Canada to raise both funds and awareness for two anti-abortion organizations.
Rita Letkeman hopes the 6,072-kilometer journey will raise $125,000 for the center, based in Surrey, British Columbia; her sister, Rhonda Schindel, wants to raise $25,000 for the Real Choices Saskatoon CPC.
Among the goals of the “Tour de Freedom” are to tell women who support abortion rights they don’t need to feel pressured into having abortions. The women left May 1 from White Rock, British Columbia, and hope to arrive in Halifax on July 1.
And George Zondervan is walking across the country to raise support for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, a Christian response to hunger. With his wife, Betty, accompanying him in their van, the Ontario couple left Vancouver on March 29 and hope to arrive in Halifax in October.
Worshipping at the Altar of Yoda
OTTAWA (RNS) May the force be with you.
An astonishing 20,000 Canadians declared themselves followers of the religion of Jedi, the guardians of peace and justice in the “Star Wars” movies, Statistics Canada reported May 13 in its final installment of data culled from the 2001 census.
Observers agree that declaring Jedi as a faith was a way for many Canadians to thumb their nose at what they felt was an intrusive or inappropriate question.
“My religion is my issue, not the government’s,” said Denis Dion, a 44-year-old produce manager from just outside Vancouver who circulated an e-mail urging anyone who wanted to have fun with Canada’s census to identify his or her religion as Jedi.
Canadian Press reports the Jedi gag is the latest in a global census trend that has left some statisticians red-faced as the number of Jedis has eclipsed some centuries-old religions.
In the United Kingdom, for example, there are more Jedis than Jews. Nearly 400,000 people identified themselves as Jedi in the 2001 census. Only 260,000 said they were Jewish.
Just last year, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that more than 70,000 people named Jedi as their faith.
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