News

How Relevant is C.S. Lewis’ 'Mere Christianity' for the church and the world today?

A series of structured discussions examining the significance of Lewis’ popular exposition of Christianity during the crisis of the 1940’s for our own situation.

Conducted by Terry Barker, former secretary of the Oxford University C.S. Lewis Society and currently instructor in Canadian Studies and Ethics in a Market Economy at Humber College, Toronto

Tuesday evenings 6:30 p.m.

Text: C.S. Lewis, 'Mere Christianity', HarperCollins, 2001 (or any edition)

Length of programme: 10 weeks

Beginning Date: Tuesday, September 20

For further information, please call 416-889-8248.

Location: 155 Wychwood Avenue (upstairs), northeast corner of Wychwood and St. Clair

Sponsored by St. Chad’s Anglican Church, Toronto

The Good Food Box programme brings fresh vegetable and fruit boxes to St. Chad’s every other Tuesday afternoon for those who have ordered a box. A variety of box sizes are available. This community programme is part of Foodshare Toronto, which is set up to provide affordable food and to support local farmers. If you are interested in finding out more about the Good Food Box, please phone St. Chad’s at 416-889-8248, or visit the Foodshare website at www.foodshare.net.

"A Life Worth Living" -- practical and encouraging insights for living the Christian life. Based on Paul's letter to the Philippians, this course looks at some of the new things Jesus Christ can do for us today. Things that make A Life Worth Living!
This course will begin on Tuesday, February 1 at 6:30 p.m. with a light supper in the lower hall. Please enter the church through the door on 155 Wychwood Ave. and proceed down the stairs. We welcome those who have already completed the Alpha course to join this group!
For further information, please phone 416-889-8248 or email: info@stchads.ca.

November 2010

Recently St. Chad's Communication Committee met to discuss the latest Diocese of Toronto (ACoC) "Pastoral Guidelines for the Blessing of Same Gender Commitments," and two responses by clergy of that diocese. Here is our observation:

We have observed with interest the debate about ‘same gender blessings’ in the Anglican Church in Canada generated by the ‘Pastoral Guidelines for the Blessing of Same Gender Commitments.’ The Guidelines note, throughout, the ‘diversity’ of opinion within the Toronto Diocese concerning the matter of the blessing of ‘same gender commitments.’ They are clear that this diversity is of a ‘theological’ as well as a ‘cultural’ nature. The clergy and people of the Toronto Diocese (Anglican Church of Canada) are divided on this matter, an assessment affirmed by the response of two of its clergy, Catherine Sider-Hamilton and F. Dean Mercer. This is also affirmed by the Rev. Dr. Ephraim Radner of the Anglican Communion Institute. Indeed, both of their documents present learned arguments that the acceptance of ‘same gender blessings’ within the Toronto Diocese through the Guidelines issued by its College of Bishops represents a departure from the historical (i.e. scripturally and traditionally based) teaching of the Anglican Church on this matter.

We believe that no fair-minded person would disagree with this assessment. However, we think that the Rev. Catherine Sider-Hamilton, the Rev. Dean Mercer and the Rev. Dr. Ephraim Radner have missed the essential problem of the Guidelines for the ecclesiastical polity of the Diocese of Toronto (or, perhaps, for the practical life of any conceivable ecclesial body). We find that essentially the Guidelines are intellectually incoherent and repugnant to reason.

The key passage in the preamble to the Guidelines that illustrates this is the following:

...the diversity of our diocesan community (on the question of the propriety of ‘same gender commitments’ being blessed) demonstrates that we are called to witness to the faith in a variety of ways, and though such witness is rooted in differing interpretations and understanding of holy scripture and the tradition, they are recognizably Anglican. (p.1, Guidelines)

While this would, possibly, be an apt description of the material basis for guidelines for social action in a contemporary liberal democracy (where the ‘faith’ in question is liberal/social democracy itself), it is not sensible policy for an Anglican diocese, as the doctrine of ‘same gender blessings’ is not (pace the College of Bishops) ‘recognizably Anglican.’ This is not to say that there are not bodies identifying themselves as Christian that have accepted these blessings for years, or that there are not Anglican bodies that accept these blessings. But all commentators would concur, we believe, that Anglican bodies have not accepted ‘same gender blessings’ until recently. Following the lead of the Archbishop of Canterbury on these matters, we believe that it is incumbent upon doctrinal innovators, such as those Anglicans advocating ‘same gender blessings’, to prove their legitimacy, using what Richard Hooker calls the canons of the ‘Law of Reason’ in the context of established Anglican practice. This has not been done.

Failure to follow this approach, we think, is what has led the College of Bishops of the Anglican Diocese of Toronto to issue these Guidelines, which furthers ongoing schism in their midst. The continuing desire for unity in the face of obvious basic doctrinal differences is thus not a ‘witness to the faith’ (or even any particular faith), but a statement of confusion. Perhaps this embarrassing truth is the reason why (as Sider-Hamilton, Mercer, and Radner note) there is a tendency in the Guidelines to shift the focus from doctrine to pastoral concerns. This is the trend in thought that has been evident in the Diocese of Toronto statements dealing with the issue of ‘same gender blessings’ for a decade. As a result, this muddle-headed directive is hardly a surprise.

The Alpha Course begins its 10 week session on Tuesday, September 28th at St. Chad's. We meet in the lower hall of 155 Wychwood Avenue (please use the Wychwood Ave. entrance). Alpha begins each week with a meal at 6:30 p.m., followed by a movie and discussion about some aspect of the Christian faith. For further information about the Alpha Course, please go to Alphacanada.org.

St. Chad Toronto West welcomes the four new congregations that have joined the Anglican Network in Canada (bringing now a total of twenty-three churches). We know how difficult it has been for these brothers and sisters in Christ to see the Anglican Church of Canada walking a different path from the global Anglican community. We welcome the bravery they have displayed in remaining steadfast to traditional Anglican teaching. We welcome all who have taken this step, and encourage all those who have similar doubts to join with us.

Thousands of people from across Canada have joined the Anglican Network in Canada as the Anglican Church of Canada drifts away in its liberalization, leaving not only orthodox Canadian Anglicans who recognize the authority of Scripture, but also the global Anglican community.

The Archbishop of Canterbury at the 2008 Lambeth Conference upheld Resolution 1.10, which had been approved 526 to 70 at the previous Lambeth of 1998. This scripturally based resolution articulates the traditional teaching of the Anglican Church on sexual behaviour. The liberalization of sexual mores of the Anglican Church of Canada is a departure from orthodox biblical teaching, and is but a symptom of a church which is caving in to today’s permissive society.

We, like many other traditional Anglicans, have chosen to walk with the majority of Anglicans worldwide.

St. Chad Toronto West Communications Committee