Another Canadian Anglican decides to swim the Tiber (from Holy Post):
When I’m finished writing the following, it will no doubt end up in my “damned if I do, damned if I don’t file;” a file that is steadily growing in width since I began to take issue with what I regard as the implosion of the Anglican Church of Canada in its total embrace and elevation of the politically correct as it replaces the gospels with loftier notions of “social justice” and the Church Street doctrine of “diversity and inclusiveness.”
This coming Sunday is the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, and I will be attending the Patronal Festival in her honour at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Toronto. I have been a member of this parish since 1981. My first daughter was baptized there and my second daughter, born in Slovakia and baptized in Prague, has Mary Magdalene as her baptismal names. In short, I love the place, and have served on the Server’s Guild as well as sung in both the Gallery and Ritual Choirs before moving to Eastern Europe 14 years ago. One of my proudest moments was to be asked to chant as Cantor for The Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet at Tennebrae during the parish’s observance of Holy Week.
I rejoined The Ritual Choir after returning from Prague this past Easter Vigil. I returned home after 14 years for a number of reasons, one of the happiest being that there was an opportunity to produce in Canada a play I had written and produced while in Prague. It is a two-act comedy which deals with among other things the blessings of same sex unions that the Anglican Church has been ripping itself apart over for more than a decade. Though the play is a comedy, it doesn’t toe the politically correct line. I was warned by a friend in the choir there was a same-sex couple in the choir and was told to try not to give offence.
I never discussed the issue of their civil partnership (I will not call it a marriage) nor did I mention my play.
As for Sundays during Mass, we always exchanged the handshake of peace and knelt together around the altar when receiving the sacrament. I wasn’t aware of any problem.
I noticed in the following weeks that the couple was not showing up for choir rehearsal and when I inquired as to where they were I was told by the Cantor of the Ritual Choir that both had decided to take the summer off in order to re-evaluate their commitment to the choir. When pressed further as to why this was, the Cantor replied that they no longer felt that they had a “safe environment” in which to sing. Asking further as to why this was, I was told in low tones from the Cantor of St. Mary Magdalene that, “Frankly, John, it’s because of you.”
I neither said or did anything to make either gentlemen feel uncomfortable or unsafe while singing with me, I can only assume that it was because of something they had heard about me or what I had written.
I could go on and on about subsequent e-mailings twixt myself and said Cantor since that fateful evening, suffice it to say that none of it was particularly edifying or Christian. But I was told in one e-mail that “our world views are so obviously opposite that it might lead to conflict in the future, which would get in the way of our aspirations as an ensemble.”
Be that as it may, my daughter and I will be in a pew alongside friends this coming Sunday at St. Mary Magdalene to say our goodbyes to some very wonderful people and the building that has been our spiritual home, off and on, for more than 30 years.
I have now made the decision to become a Roman Catholic. As the late Anthony Burgess once put it, “Every dogma has its day” and I live in hope that one day the Anglican Church will wake up from its present torpor and laziness and regain the heritage and culture it could once boast about.
I no longer feel the Anglican Church of Canada is a safe environment in which to think.
I can’t say I blame him. However, from one perspective, thinking is never safe. There’s no telling where it will lead…
I am so saddened to find that St. Mary Magdalene, a Church I used to love attending for the Easter Vigil when in Toronto, is following the ACoC walk into the Abyss. I applaud this gentleman and his family in their decision to continue in the Christian Faith rather than trying to swallow deeply and tolerate the intolerance of anything but sin that characterizes the ACoC these days.
What exactly is a “safe enviromnent”? Life isn’t safe, and I don’t think we should aspire to the kind of “safety” that the couple seems to mean. That kind of safety requires a grandfather god, who indulges and spoils us. I’d rather be safe in the hands of a father God, who loves me and keeps me safe but also challenges and disciplines me.
“Safety” is a code word among revisionists. Those who desire a “safe” environment are really saying that they want everyone to think exactly as they do, and dissenting points of view are unacceptable. The word “safe” also implies a fear of violence, real or figurative, which has the bonus effect of demonizing dissenters.
What’s really odd is that the notion of an environment “safe” from dissent is a complete contradiction of another revisionist ideal, the metaphorical “big tent” that offers “inclusion” to everyone regardless of differences. You can’t have a “diverse” church that is “safe” for everyone.
Kate; I truly wish that I didn’t seem to take acception to your comments but unfortunately your #3 is a prime example.
Compared to the old testament believers we are infact indulged and spoiled by our Father God. His Son provided a blueprint for community living that had it been followed in obedience would have provided under His Leadership a “safe enviornment” in which to learn grow and fellowship with Him. I admit that should there be such a community in existance today they would experience the distress of the slings and arrows of this world. The difference would be in their ability to properly handle the stress and the level of faith they would enjoy, which is the shield. – Eph 6:16.
I pray for this family for I am not sure they will find what they are looking for on the eastern shore.
PS Ellie your post was not present – I doubt very much that this Man is a revisionist.
I’m sorry Stuck, I really have no idea what you mean.
stuck,
I think Kate is referring to the same-sex couple who stopped attending choir because the presence of the man who wrote the article made them feel “unsafe”.
By the by, John McKillop wrote the article. Unfortunately, I neglected to include his full name in the post.
#8 Scott
So Kate, and I guess Ellie, are referring to the singers no longer having a safe enviornment to sing and I was referring to the writer’s no longer having a safe enviornment to think.
I took to presume the latter because of the obvious sensitivities of the singers, and their proclivity surrounding their so-called sexual preference would NATURALLY produce such fear. Sin has a way of doing that. The frustration of the writer in light of his apparent live and let live attitude being ostricized by his peer speaks volumes of the brokeness of his community to which I addressed in my second paragraph to which I stand.
Kate you will just have to be a wee more specific, if indeed you are at all interested, unless you were confused by my last paragraph in which case I refer you to the by-line in the heading of the Blog story.
Stuck,
I think the last sentence;
was not a sincere expression of fear on the part of the author. Rather it was a sarcastic criticism of the ACoC, or at least, that particular parish.
Keep your eyes on God, Scott and your heart will heal.
Stuck, Kate and I were referring to the choir couple who first used the word “safe”, not to the orthodox writer of the article who only used it ironically.
Kate; unless you have edited your #3 (and I don’t believe you would without saying so) it would appear on reflection that I read your #3 carelessly without seeing your,
“and I don’t think we should aspire to the kind of “safety” that the couple seems to mean”.
In truth, this could have happened as a result of certain prejudices that I developed in my growing years lets say the first 50. with the last 15 being called my (praise God) maturing years (to which I am still prayfully experiencing. I ask your forgiveness for the ensuing confusion.
Ellie; Whatever the purpose of the writer in His final paragraph and only he can clarify, the term “safe enviornment” was used by two separate entities for two very different reasons. I contend that one was valid the other was not. If this is not understood I mean that the two singers had no reason according to the article to feel unsafe. The action they took therefore was political in nature and perhaps was an emotional response supported by other members of (in my opinion) a dysfunctional (supposedly) Christian community.
Consequently the action of the writer was based on his orthodox opinions which parallel my own.
I apologize to you, et al, for the confusion that started this thread in the first place.
Maybe I need a break from this “blogging” but it is a comfort to my human loneliness.
“I mean that the two singers had no reason according to the article to feel unsafe.”
Yes, that’s exactly what I meant, too.
And when you think about it, their use of the word “safe” is insulting to the orthodox gentleman (and to traditionalists in general) since it implies a threat of violence on the part of those who simply disagree with the revisionist world view. It stems from the same mindset that has created hyperbolic terms like “spiritual violence” in order to put itself in the right and others in the wrong.
Considering how violent we Orthodox Christians are it must be terrifying to be a revisionist. No wonder they refuse to sell their empty churches to us but instead choose a financial loss and sell to our Moslem friends.
I merely shake my head over such whininess. These are so-called adults behaving like children whining, “…it’s not fair.” As an employer, I can say that such attitudes are just plain toxic in any group dynamic.
Went to Church with my Mom this past Sunday. During the service we sang “Stand up, stand up for Jesus”.
Perhaps I am being a bit too confrontational, but I would like to suggest to the writer of this letter that he do more than say his goodbye’s to his friends. That he also make a point of proclaiming the Word of Lord and pointing out in a loud voice that everyone willo hear that God has said it nine times in His Holy Bible that homosexual behaviour is a sin, and any who are indulging in this sinful behaviour must be encouraged to repent. And if the preist confronts him about this and how it is creating an “unsafe” place, that he point out to the preist that the same Holy Scriptures also warn more than 20 times about false prophets.
It occurs to me that a so-called Christian church that promulgates false doctrine, who assures its followers that wrong is right, that what God calls sin is not sin, and encourages its members in it, from an eternal perspective, is perhaps the most dangerous, least safe place of all. The leaders of such a church will surely be called to account at the day of judgment.