Anglican-Mennonite dialogue will yield positive outcome
This is a good news story for sure (Canadian Anglicans, Mennonites meet for first-ever formal dialogue, anglicanjournal. com, Feb. 14, 2018). It is uplifting to read about projects that are actually interested in building up relationships among people of faith. Advancing issues of peace and justice is just one possible outcome of this project.
Rod Gillis
A church’s fate
A church’s fate I read your editorial What happens when a church closes? (March 2018, p. 4) with great interest. Our church will close progressively during the last week of March, then a new amalgamated church should be inaugurated on a different side during Easter Sunday, April 1. It seemed to me that your story touched on four aspects, all of which we are wrestling with as we go through the shutdown phase: what happens to the hardware that was part of the church building and provides something of a means to maintain memories? What happens to the building itself as it impacts the local community? What happened to the individuals who comprised the church that met at that place? How did Christ’s mission continue in that locale as “church” once the building there closed? As we are still in the midst of this, we are perhaps a bit too early for your challenge (to send photographs, reflections or anecdotes). But if I have understood it correctly, I’ll ask colleagues to keep a lookout and make a point of “memorializing” such happenings so that we might be able to contribute something in the future.
Simon Hartropp
Church of the Resurrection, Valois, Que.
Scripture says
It was somewhat surprising to read that the primate of Canada would wonder how St. Paul might view the issue of same-sex marriage, considering that Paul’s letters seem rather clear on the matter. I believe that Paul’s advice to the church would be, “Do not be deceived.” The apostle’s views are recorded in Rom. 1:26–7 and 1 Cor. 6:9–10. Also in his letters are Paul’s opinions on whether divorced people are to remarry (1 Cor. 7:10–11), as well as on the ordination of women (1 Tim. 2:12), praying for the conversion of the Jews (Rom. 10:1) and the taking of communion by unbaptized people (1 Cor. 11:28–9). Even the “controversy” over the Rev. Jacob Worley’s dismissal (Caledonia fires priest ‘without cause,’ Jan. 2018, p. 1) might be addressed by 1 Cor. 3:7–8. As Paul writes in Eph. 6:17, the word of God is the sword of the Spirit, and the helmet of salvation. People fought and died so we might be able to read it in the common tongue. I’d like to ask that more people open up their Bibles and read it for themselves. And I’d be pleased if the Anglican Journal might direct more attention to Scripture as well.
Ian Poole
Nanaimo, B.C.
Unfair situation
I wish to register my support for Bishop Mark MacDonald’s plea for salaries for Indigenous ministers (Urgent discipleship, March, p. 5). Ever since I heard of this glaring unfairness, I have been horrified and have done my bit to support them. How can we expect them to [address] all the problems of their parishioners while trying to provide for their own families?
Mabel Haourt
Airdrie, Alta.
Show us same respect
After reading a decade and more of Anglican Journal articles on truth and reconciliation, I believe it is important to point out the disrespect paid by educated Anglicans towards Inuit and Métis who are in fact Indigenous, Native, Aboriginal, and yes, First Peoples. In future, please show me and any other Elders from my culture the same respect you show to Status First Nations people. Be aware that you must mention us, the Inuit and the Métis, when you refer to First Nations, if you are elaborating on matters that affect all three of our cultures. We Métis and Inuit are also Native, Aboriginal, First Peoples and Indigenous; not to put too fine a point on a definition that appears most often to be used only for First Nations. Not only am I a contemporary of Fraser Valley, B.C., Elders—Terry Prest, Eddie Gardner, Dr. Sonny McAlsie and Shirley Hardman, and others—I am a world Indigenous Elder, and teacher of my culture, of North American history, and am a seventh-generation Métis. My ancestors were ministers of faith and also governors of peoples in the territories before, and that were left after, two smallpox epidemics that decimated most of my First Nations relatives, and that led to formation of the (White) country you and I call home today.
Rene Inkster
Retired University of the Fraser Valley Métis Elder
