c. 2004 Religion News Service

Disgruntled United Church of Canada Clergy Unionize

TORONTO (RNS) Ministers of the United Church of Canada have launched an unprecedented drive to unionize, saying they have been victims of harassment and emotional abuse for too long.

Representatives of the church met here this month alongside leaders of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) to sign their union cards and to launch a campaign to sign up the church’s 4,000 clergy.

The step is a first in North America. In Great Britain, about 2,000 clergy and employees of the Church of England have been members of Amicus, a large union, for about a decade.

The Canadian move followed a month of discussions between concerned clergy and the CAW, which normally deals with autoworkers, airline industry personnel and some miners. The union will assign full-time staff and other resources to the new members.

The Revs. David Galston and Jim Evans, who are spearheading the drive, said at a Nov. 5 news conference that low wages, lack of security and ongoing abuse of clergy by congregants, and the failure of officials to address it, compelled them to take the step.

Evans, who left his church following a conflict with his congregation, said he and other ministers have heard many “sad stories” involving bullying and stalking, withholding pay, insults and smear campaigns.

“We’re talking about acts that are really bordering on illegality in Canada and are not being taken seriously or being addressed by the courts or the church,” Evans said.

The United Church, Canada’s largest Protestant denomination, has 4,000 pastors and more than 3,600 congregations. In the 2001 national census, 3 million Canadians said they belonged to the United Church.

Court Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage in Saskatchewan

SASKATOON, Saskatchewan (RNS) Gay couples may now tie the knot in more than half of the provinces and territories in Canada after a Saskatchewan court ruled Nov. 5 that the traditional definition of marriage is unconstitutional.

In a five-page ruling, the Court of Queen’s Bench sided with courts in six other Canadian jurisdictions, saying existing marriage laws discriminate against gay couples.

“The common-law definition of marriage for civil purposes is declared to be `the lawful union of two persons to the exclusion of all others,’ ” the Saskatchewan court found.

Courts in Quebec, British Columbia, Ontario, the Yukon, Manitoba and Nova Scotia have already ruled in the same way.

The Supreme Court of Canada is currently evaluating a draft federal law that could make gay weddings legal from coast to coast. Alberta is the only province that argued for the traditional definition before the high court.

Faith Groups Give Mixed Grades to Ontario Liberals

TORONTO (RNS) Ontario’s religious leaders have given the provincial Liberal government an “F” for failing to create affordable housing and a “B-” for raising taxes in a report card grading its progress on social policy.

“We’re saying you’re not achieving what you promised,” the Rev. Susan Eagle, a London United Church minister and city councillor, told the Toronto Star. “We haven’t given up on you; you have another three years to enact promises, and these are places where you are weak. It’s a wake-up call.”

Eagle is acting chair of the Interfaith Social Assistance Reform Coalition, whose members include about 20 religious communities _ Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim and Hindu.

The report card released at the coalition’s annual forum also noted that the Liberals promised to match federal money to create 20,000 affordable housing units and vowed to provide $100 million for shelter allowances.

“These excellent promises were ignored in their first budget, and we await a positive signal that they will be funded in the next,” the report card says.

The coalition says the Liberals’ campaign promise not to raise taxes was “ill advised,” and that they acted responsibly in raising taxes in the first budget.

More Anglicans Break Away Over Gay Marriage

REGINA, Saskatchewan (RNS) Another group of conservative Canadian Anglicans has broken away from the Anglican Church of Canada over the issue of same-sex marriage, reports Lifesite.net.

The group, calling itself the Anglican Communion in Canada, says homosexual unions are not supported by Scripture. Three Saskatchewan congregations have joined the new group, along with their pastor.

The Rev. Tom Needham of Regina resigned his position as an Anglican priest to pastor the breakaway groups in Regina, Qu’Appelle and Indian Head. “What happens to the church if the morals and the ethics of Christians are decided by a body of men?” he said, as reported by the CBC.

Earlier this summer, more than 700 conservative Canadian Anglicans formed two new splinter groups to protest their national church’s refusal to outlaw gay marriage.

The Anglican Federation and the Anglican Network were commissioned during “The Way Forward,” a national conference sponsored by the conservative Essentials coalition.

The issue of homosexuality and the church was in the news again this month in Saskatoon after an openly gay choir was told it couldn’t perform at St. John’s Anglican Cathedral.

Catholic Bishops Wrap Up Annual Plenary

CORNWALL, Ontario (RNS) The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops ended their 61st annual plenary assembly held here last month with a resolution “to affirm and promote the recognition of marriage as the unique life-generating partnership of a man and a woman.”

The resolution, which was approved unanimously, invites “all Catholics and other Canadians … to continue calling on government and society to protect marriage as the unique and stable partnership of a man and a woman and thus rightly deserving of specific and categorical legal recognition by the state.”

More than 80 bishops from across Canada participated in the six-day annual meeting in Cornwall that examined ongoing and future pastoral projects as well as the church’s financial situation.

Marc Cardinal Ouellet, archbishop of Quebec, asked bishops to begin preparations for the International Eucharistic Congress, to take place in Quebec City in 2008.

The bishops also announced new ordinances for Canadian Catholic universities designed to strengthen their Catholic identities.

The bishops also heard from the Vatican’s nuncio to Canada. Archbishop Luigi Ventura said Catholics must fight the temptation to feel ashamed of their faith in a society that marginalizes traditional religion and promotes radical individualism.

Immigration Minister Offered Churches `Secret’ Sanctuary Deal

OTTAWA (RNS) Immigration Minister Judy Sgro has come under fire after it was revealed that she offered Canada’s churches a secret deal to review the plight of refugee claimants who have sought sanctuary in their buildings, reports the Toronto Star.

While publicly rejecting a long-promised refugee appeal process, Sgro quietly tried to make a side deal with religious leaders to enact a special process to give these claimants another shot at staying in Canada, the Star adds.

The churches rejected the proposal, saying they didn’t want to start having to do the Immigration Department’s job and couldn’t handle an onslaught of thousands of cases.

The controversy centers on a bid by Sgro to find a solution to the high-profile problem of refugee claimants who seek sanctuary in churches to avoid being deported.

Last summer, she created a stir after she urged churches to abandon the time-honored practice of providing sanctuary to people under the threat of deportation.

In September, during a meeting with church leaders, Sgro made what she described on Nov. 2 as a “confidential offer” to allow the churches to select a limited number of “extraordinary” cases for reconsideration by the minister on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

Opposition MPs denounced Sgro’s proposal as “morally offensive” and accused her of holding the churches “hostage.”

But this month, there were signs Sgro’s offer was still alive after religious leaders met with the minister, followed by an hourlong meeting with immigration officials.

Muslims Call for Apology Over Televised Remarks

TORONTO (RNS) The Canadian Islamic Congress says “a timely process of forgiveness and healing” between Canada’s Muslims and Jews must start with an apology to the congress and Canadian Muslims from Jewish groups and the media.

The congress seeks the apology for “unfair and unbalanced” treatment of the remarks of the group’s president and those of an official of B’nai Brith Canada.

CIC president Mohamed Elmasry came in for a drubbing across the country for having stated on a local television talk show that all Israeli civilians over the age of 18 are legitimate targets for terrorist attacks because they are part of the country’s military.

Under intense pressure, Elmasry apologized and offered his resignation, which his organization refused.

Two weeks later, the controversy widened when the Canadian Arab Federation pointed out that on the same show, panelist Adam Aptowitzer of B’nai Brith Canada had said that Israel’s use of terror tactics is sometimes justified.

Aptowitzer apologized and resigned his lay position as Ontario chair of B’nai Brith’s Institute for International Affairs.

The Islamic congress noted, however, that Aptowitzer resigned only after the show’s full transcript was reported.

“His resignation was quietly accepted. The media ran no photos of him, no cartoons, no extensive front page coverage, no editorials,” the CIC said in a statement. “He was allowed to be anonymous and his mistakes will soon be forgotten. Elmasry’s far lesser mistake … will be remembered for a long, long time because the media chose him and CIC as a target.”

Toronto Zen Centre Ordains First Priest

TORONTO (RNS) Ian Henderson, a Toronto renovator and longtime practitioner of Zen Buddhism, has become the first priest ordained by the Toronto Zen Centre since its founding in 1968.

Henderson’s teacher, Sensei Sunyana Graef, told the 120 well-wishers at the solemn ordination ceremony on Nov. 7 that it was a day of death for Henderson. He wore white. His thick dark hair was shaved, which said symbolically that he was cutting his attachment to his lay life. “But he is being reborn into his new life as a Buddhist priest.”

Raised an Anglican, the 54-year-old Henderson is now expected to live an exemplary life, though he does not have the usual duties of a clergyman. Rather, he vowed to honour the cardinal Buddhist precepts: to cherish all life; not to lie; not to covet or steal; not to cause others to use alcohol or drugs, nor to use them himself; not to speak of the faults of others; to give spiritual or material aid when needed; not to be angry but exercise control. He promised to avoid evil and do good, and to strive “to liberate all sentient beings” by helping them become free of the cycle of rebirth.

Henderson is up at 5 every day for meditation and chanting at the Zen centre.

He is married, has three children and will continue his work renovating kitchens and bathrooms.

MO/JL MO END RNS