c. 2004 Religion News Service
Renegade Anglican Parishes Split
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (RNS) Priests from four western parishes opposed to same-sex marriage rites have quit the Anglican Church of Canada nearly two years after the Diocese of New Westminster approved a rite of blessing for same-sex couples.
The priests _ and the parishes they serve _ say they now belong to a new entity called the Anglican Communion in Canada under the “temporary” pastoral oversight of five primates based in Africa and southeast Asia.
The decision to leave, they said, “is in response to the crisis of faith and order precipitated by the abandonment by the Diocese of New Westminster of the unambiguous teachings of the Anglican Communion with respect to the authority of Scripture and human sexuality.”
The priests of the parishes all submitted to New Westminster Bishop Michael Ingham letters formally resigning their positions.
In a statement accepting the resignations, Ingham said he was “glad that they have finally clarified the situation and made it clear they are leaving the Anglican Church of Canada of their own volition.”
But the breakaway priests’ dealings with the diocese may not be over. Chief legal officer George Cadman says he plans to raise the future of their parish properties, which he contends legally belong to the New Westminster diocese.
Primate Contenders Narrowed to Four
REGINA, Saskatchewan (RNS) Bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada, meeting here in mid-April, selected four nominees for the office of primate, or head of the national church: Victoria Matthews of the diocese of Edmonton, Ronald Ferris of Algoma, Andrew Hutchison of Montreal and Caleb Lawrence of Moosonee. A fifth candidate, Bishop Fred Hiltz of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, declined the nomination.
The Anglican Journal reported the 310 delegates who will attend the General Synod governing convention in St. Catharines, Ontario, from May 28-June 4, are scheduled to elect the new primate on May 31.
The nominees’ biographical information and photographs will be sent to the delegates to General Synod. Bishops do not get another chance to choose the primate at General Synod, unless the synod fails to elect one and appeals to the house of bishops for additional nominees.
The former primate, Archbishop Michael Peers, retired at the end of February. He had served since 1986.
Christian Activists Make Run at Politics
OTTAWA (RNS) Three high-profile religious activists have decided to try their hands at partisan politics by throwing their hats into the ring for the Conservative Party, reports the Globe and Mail.
The moves have led to warnings that the party not advance a moral values agenda as it tries to show a moderate face for the coming election campaign.
“I think Canadians in general like to feel that their politics are secular,” said John Bryden, a Liberal-turned-Conservative MP who lost his party’s nomination to one of the new candidates.
“I think they get very uneasy when religion _ any religion _ becomes a factor in the nomination process or the election process.”
The individuals, all from Ontario, are David Sweet, former president of the Canadian arm of the men’s religious group, Promise Keepers; Peter Stock, former national director of the Canada Family Action Coalition; and Michael Menear, founder of the Christian Legal Fellowship and a well-known family issues lawyer.
University of Waterloo political scientist Peter Woolstencroft said the question of candidates’ religion “causes people concern. They’re afraid that people are going to use their religious precepts as the basis for how they approach matters of public policy.”
The announcement prompted Bruce Clemenger, president of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, to pen a column in the Globe and Mail headlined “There is no evangelical conspiracy.”
Group Decries Bill’s Passage
OTTAWA (RNS) The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) says it is “deeply disturbed” over the possible impact of a new bill that extends hate-crime protection to homosexuals.
Bill C-250, passed by the Senate April 28, now requires only royal assent to become law. It will add gays and lesbians to a list of groups legally protected from incitement of hatred and genocide under the Criminal Code. The old law extended protection only to victims of hatred based on colour, race, religion or ethnic origin.
Opponents of the bill _ most of them religious groups _ had expressed fear the legislation would put a chill on the Bible and other holy texts and teachings _ possibly outlawing them as hate propaganda _ because of their condemnation of homosexuality.
“While opposing the promotion of hatred against anyone, we are deeply concerned about the chilling effect this legislation may have on the legitimate expression of religious belief,” said Bruce Clemenger, president of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada.
“We as a religious community want to ensure that the purpose of prohibiting hate speech does not criminalize the legitimate expression of religious belief, the resulting views of morality nor religious texts.”
Muslim Arts Leaders Banned from Canada
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (RNS) Four Muslim arts leaders from Bangladesh, Islamabad and Bombay have been denied entry visas to Canada for a UNESCO-sponsored youth symposium.
The action has raised concern as to whether Canada is following the U.S. lead in closing the borders on culture based on faith.
Breaking New Ground, a five-day symposium to be held in Vancouver this week (April 28-May 2), marks the launch of the International EARTH Project, a four-year global arts initiative aimed at animating issues of environmental sustainability and social justice through the eyes of the world’s youth.
Judith Marcuse, a spokesperson for the initiative, told the Globe and Mail she finds it strange that of the hundreds of delegates who applied for visas, only the four Muslim men, plus one professor of literature from Nairobi, were turned down.
Marcuse was told that three of the men were refused entrance based on the belief that they would not go home again. She says the Canadian Department of Citizenship and Immigration will not tell her anything more.
Town Girds for Former Nun’s Arrival
EMERSON, Manitoba (RNS) Word that a former nun convicted of assaulting children in her care is packing up her commune in Prince Edward Island and heading to a small Manitoba town “scares the hell” out of some local residents.
A cafe owner promises not to even let Lucille Poulin walk through the door. “We are bringing people in that, quite frankly, scare the hell out of us,” Joyce Dayton told the Charlottetown Guardian.
Dayton said she was shocked to learn about Poulin’s criminal history once word spread the self-proclaimed prophet of God and two followers had purchased a three-bedroom bungalow in the town of 675 an hour south of Winnipeg.
Poulin, now 79, was convicted in November, 2002 of assaulting five children who lived in her care at a religious commune by beating them with a wooden paddle in the belief it would save them from hell. She was sentenced to eight months in jail and was released on three years’ probation last April.
Dayton felt so strongly about Poulin’s pending arrival that she gathered about 65 residents together this month for a town meeting to discuss the issue.
She’s urged other business operators not to serve Poulin or any of her followers.
“We don’t want them,” said Dayton. “We want them to know that they will be very uncomfortable.”
Born Again in the Arctic
IQALUIT, Nunavut (RNS) Hundreds of born-again Inuit from across the Arctic wrapped up a week of raucous, joyful worship here this month, with many hopeful that an increasingly influential Christian revival in Canada’s North is beginning to spread internationally.
Inuit religious leaders told Canadian Press they are working on the legal framework to bring northern charismatic assemblies together, uniting thousands of believers in a new Canadian church.
The 20th annual Bible conference may have been the largest gathering Iqaluit has seen since the day Nunavut separated from the Northwest Territories in 1999.
Conference organizers said 20 planes were chartered to bring people in at a cost of about $300,000 _ all of it paid for by the attendees.
Crowds of up to 800 filled Iqaluit’s curling rink for all-day sessions of prayer and preaching. Highly emotional nightly worship services were filled with song, tears, laughter and dancing.
The level of organization in the crowded rink was a long way from the first such conference, held in 1985 in the tiny community of Arctic Bay on the northern tip of Baffin Island with just a few dozen in attendance.
Muslims Focus of Time Cover Story
TORONTO (RNS) The growing numbers and clout of Muslims in Canada is the subject of a cover story in this week’s Canadian edition of TIME Magazine.
Between the last two censuses, in 1991 and 2001, the number of Canadians who identify themselves as Muslim doubled to 580,000 _ a number expected to double again by 2011, the article says. Muslims have long eclipsed Jews as the country’s largest non-Christian minority, it adds.
“The past few years have seen unprecedented growth and prosperity in the Canadian Muslim community, and also the rumblings of a political awakening,” the story states.
But it also warns that “extreme” forms of Islam have “penetrated” Canada, quoting one expert as saying that between 10 percent and 20 percent of the nation’s Muslims adhere to Wahhabism, a strictly orthodox Sunni sect in Saudi Arabia.
The article also identifies issues and disputes over how the community is integrating into Canadian society while maintaining its Muslim identity.
Muslims have also become politically engaged. In last fall’s provincial elections in Ontario, 11 Muslims were on the ballot and two were elected.
RNS END CSILLAG
