c. 2004 Religion News Service
Fix System, Not Sanctuary, Church Leaders Urge
TORONTO (RNS) Canadian church leaders have condemned remarks of federal immigration and citizenship minister Judy Sgro, who earlier this summer called on churches to abandon the time-honored practice of providing sanctuary to people under the threat of deportation.
In the wake of several controversial cases in which Christian houses of worship were used as sanctuaries by those dodging the law, a frustrated Sgro told Canadian Press that “frankly, if we start using the churches as the back door to enter Canada, we’re going to have huge problems. … People shouldn’t be allowed to hide anywhere.”
About half a dozen individuals, most of them failed refugee claimants, are currently being sheltered in churches across the country _ a practice that dates either from the Old Testament or from the Middle Ages, depending on which scholar is asked.
At a joint press conference this month, leaders of several Christian denominations said sanctuary is not the issue Canadian immigration officials need to address.
“Sanctuary is not a solution. We want to stop the need for it,” said Mary Corkery, spokesman for Kairos, an evangelical group committed to justice issues.
Kairos joined the Presbyterian, United, Anglican and Christian Reformed churches as well the Canadian Council for Refugees and the Romero House refugee shelter in calling on Ottawa to revamp its appeal process for refugees.
“Some churches have pointed out that as a Canadian you can appeal a parking ticket and yet if someone is at risk of torture, you don’t have a right to say, `I think you got it wrong.’ The process is flawed,” Corkery said.
The Canadian Islamic Congress also weighed in on the issue, saying Sgro’s remarks were “in reality targeting Muslim refugee claimants.”
Province to Probe Polygamous Commune
VANCOUVER, British Columbia _ Mounting public pressure has persuaded the British Columbia government to abandon its hands-off attitude and investigate a polygamous commune known as Bountiful, reports CanadianChristianity.com.
Provincial Attorney General Geoff Plant announced recently that a task force of Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers, a social worker and a prosecutor is being assembled to probe widespread allegations that women and teenage girls in the commune are sexually abused and exploited.
“The ground swell of public concern has reached a point where government and the police, in my view, have an obligation to act,” Plant told the Toronto Star. “It’s a priority to investigate the many allegations being made.”
Founded in the late 1940s, the commune is controlled by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a splinter group from mainstream Mormonism that still practices polygamy. It’s located 430 miles east of Vancouver.
Women who have escaped the commune have alleged rampant sexual abuse, the forced marriages of teenage girls as so-called “celestial wives,” high rates of teen pregnancies, and a birth rate well above the national average.
The provincial government’s hands-off approach to the commune changed when Plant received a firsthand account of the alleged abuses taking place from Debbie Palmer, a woman with eight children from three arranged marriages, who fled Bountiful in 1988.
Palmer has also filed a complaint with the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal alleging that girls in Bountiful aren’t given the same access to education as boys. She claims girls are pulled out of school as early as the seventh grade.
Winston Blackmore, Bountiful’s self-proclaimed bishop, has promised investigators will receive full cooperation.
Breakaway Anglicans Defy Parish Over Homosexuality
NORTH VANCOUVER, British Columbia (RNS) Tired of being caught up in the ongoing conflict over homosexuality in the Anglican Church of Canada, most of the members of a British Columbia parish have walked away from a mortgage-free building and a $600,000 endowment fund to start a new church that meets in a warehouse.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity to be able to stand up and be counted,” says Peter Haigh, speaking for the 80 or so members of St. Timothy’s Anglican Church.
“Property is not an issue. It’s proclaiming the gospel and going forward.”
ChristianWeek reports that the bulk of the members had been part of St. Martin’s, one of several conservative-minded parishes that had broken off from the Anglican diocese of New Westminster two years ago over the latter’s approval of a rite of blessing for same-sex couples.
After declaring that the parish was in turmoil last September, New Westminster Bishop Michael Ingham assumed direct control. He appointed a priest and lay leadership and denied a request from about three-quarters of the members to hold alternative worship services on church property.
Undaunted, they began worshipping Monday evenings at a nearby Presbyterian church.
It was the failure in May of the Anglican Church’s General Synod _ its governing body _ to oppose Ingham that cemented the breakaway group’s decision, Haigh said.
They joined the newly formed Anglican Communion in Canada (ACiC) _ a small group of parishes and priests under the episcopal oversight of five primates in Africa and southeast Asia _ and founded St. Timothy’s.
“These are very brave, godly, often elderly folk who are saying, `Enough is enough. My faith matters more to me than the (physical) plant,”’ said ACiC spokesman Paul Carter, also now St. Timothy’s interim rector. “I find that most encouraging.”
`Explosion’ in Jewish Seniors Seen
TORONTO (RNS) As baby boomers age and people live longer, the number of Jewish seniors in Canada is expected to “explode” by nearly 40 percent over the next 17 years, challenging virtually every aspect of community planning, warns a new report.
The number of Jewish elderly _ those over 65 years old _ is projected to climb to nearly 91,000 by 2021, a dramatic increase from the 61,875 Jewish seniors tallied by the 2001 census, says the report, part three of a series of demographic studies of the Jewish community based on the last national census.
The sharp rise in the projected number of Jewish seniors “points to a fundamental change in the demographic structure of the Jewish population in this country and has important ramifications for service planning and resource allocation for Jewish communities across Canada.”
“It is clear,” the study concluded, “that by 2021, the number of Jewish elderly will increase significantly in almost every region of the country.”
The most dramatic rise is projected for Ontario, where the Jewish elderly are expected to jump from 31,895 in 2001 to 54,535 in 2021 _ a startling 70 percent increase over 20 years.
In Toronto, the Jewish senior population is expected to climb from 27,495 in 2001 to 45,517 in 20 years. “This latter increase is staggering,” the study said, “and has profound implications for the demographic makeup of the Toronto Jewish community and for the challenges it represents (for) community-based resources and services.”
Jesuits, Wal-Mart Tangle Over Store Site
GUELPH, Ontario (RNS) The world’s largest retailer is taking on one of the Catholic Church’s most respected religious orders, reports the London Free Press.
In a hearing that started earlier this month, a two-member Ontario Municipal Board panel will decide whether a 12,541-square-meter Wal-Mart store is compatible with the adjacent Ignatius Jesuit Center.
The Jesuits say the Wal-Mart store would ruin the spiritual nature of the center, which is about 200 times the size of the proposed store and located in a rural setting.
“This is sacred ground, a sanctuary for people, a sanctuary for wildlife,” said the Rev. James Profit, the center’s director, as he looked out over wetlands, an organic farm and forested spaces the Jesuits have occupied for a century.
There are three cemeteries nearby but the center is in view of several modern amenities. There’s a Canadian Tire store in a nearby plaza, and a persistent hum from the ventilators of an Imperial Tobacco plant.
Canadian Southern Baptists Ponder Name Change
TORONTO (RNS) After being known for close to 20 years as the Canadian Convention of Southern Baptists, messengers (delegates) to the annual meeting here last month voted to take the first step toward finding a new name that would better reflect the geographic realities of Canada.
Roughly two-thirds of messengers supported a motion instructing the national leadership to name a committee that would study “the possibility of a name change … that will better reflect our mission in our nation and our world.” The committee would present its recommendation at next year’s annual meeting in Calgary.
Ian Buntain, who introduced the motion, said having “Southern” in the title has proven counterproductive.
“When Canadians think `south,’ they think `America.’ And so we’re called `the American denomination.’ That’s not helping us reach Canadians,” said Buntain, who teaches at the Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary in Cochrane, Alberta.
He points out that Canadian Baptist denominations have opted for new names, and for the same reason.
“Most people would not know, for instance, that North American Baptists are actually German Baptists. But they had the sense to know that Germans are in Germany, and so they changed their name.”
Hijab Allowed on ID Cards, PM Assures
OTTAWA (RNS) Canadian Muslims have welcomed a letter from Prime Minister Paul Martin reiterating his support for the right of Muslim women to wear the hijab in photographs taken for Permanent Resident Cards.
Martin’s letter to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN) said that wearing the Islamic head scarf is a religious right that should be respected and protected, CAIR-CAN noted in an Aug. 13 press release.
“Please be assured that your concerns regarding Permanent Resident Card photographs have been given careful and appropriate considerations. … CIC (Citizenship and Immigration Canada) policy is that allowances be made for practitioners of religious faiths that prohibit the removal of head coverings,” Martin wrote in his July 23 letter.
“CIC does not require the head covering to be completely removed, but for security purposes, all facial features must be visible for the photographs,” he added.
Martin’s letter was prompted by complaints from several Muslim women who were told to remove their hijab for their PR Card photograph by Canadian immigration officials at Pierre Trudeau airport in Montreal.
Size Matters: Canada Getting a Bigger Buddha
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (RNS) Bigger is better, according to a Buddhist sect that is planning to build a massive new Buddha at a temple in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond.
“The size of the Buddha and the building reflect his importance. You’re supposed to be awestruck when you look at the Buddha. Hence, the substantial size,” project developer Kabel Atwall told AFP, the French news agency.
The huge statue is part of a seven-year project to build a $35 million worship and education center, expanding an existing Lingyen Mountain Buddhist temple fourfold. Included will be a scripture hall and library, conference rooms and dormitories for visiting monks and other faithful. Outside, an apple and pear orchard and a vegetable garden will spread across most of the property.
The shiny gold-leaf Buddha sitting on a lotus leaf will be shorter than the tallest Buddha in the world, the Leshan Buddha in China, but at 10 stories, it will be the largest tribute in North America to the founder of Buddhism.
“Of course, there will be economic and tourism benefits for the city too” Atwall pointed out. “This is going to put Richmond on the map, without a doubt.”
So far, the project has proceeded with minimal opposition. Last fall, the Buddhists won the backing of Richmond council to have the land removed from an agricultural reserve. The group is now in the process of having the land rezoned for institutional use.
The Taiwan-based Lingyen Mountain Buddhists are part of the Pureland Buddhist movement and claim 10,000 followers in B.C.’s Lower Mainland.
DEA/PH END CSILLAG
