c. 2003 Religion News Service
Churches Support Chretien’s Stand on War
OTTAWA (RNS) The Canadian Council of Churches has written Prime Minister Jean Chretien supporting his refusal to participate in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The March 26 letter commends Chretien and his government “for remaining firm on your stand, as repeated March 17 in the House of Commons, that while Canada insists that Iraq should fully abide by the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, Canada will not participate in a war on Iraq led by the United States.
“Now that the war has started, we cannot but deplore the fact that the United States did not abide by international law and acted in spite of the United Nations’ opposition to war. Canada’s commitment to uphold international law is well reputed and we are proud of the fact that you have maintained a coherent position under such circumstances,” the letter said.
The letter is signed by officials of the council, Project Ploughshares and KAIROS, the Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiative.
Meanwhile, while stopping short of endorsing Canada’s refusal to send troops to Iraq, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said it supports Chretien “in every undertaking toward international solidarity and enduring peace in our time.”
Study: Immigrants Worship More Often
OTTAWA (RNS) Immigrants worship more often than those born in Canada, Statistics Canada reported last month.
Nationally, monthly religious attendance rates of Canadian-born adults dropped from 35 percent in the period 1989-1993 to 28 percent for 1999-2001, the study showed. For those born outside Canada, the rates increased from 42 percent to 45 percent.
In Toronto and Vancouver, the monthly religious attendance rates of adults born outside Canada increased, while the Canadian-born rate decreased or showed no significant change, the study found.
In Toronto, half of all immigrants attended services at least once a month in 2001, up from 44 percent in 1989. Only 28 percent of Canadian-born attended services in Toronto, a drop of 3 percentage points over the same period.
In Montreal, attendance rates declined among both adults born outside Canada and the native-born, but the drop was smaller for immigrants.
According to the General Social Survey, overall monthly religious attendance rates have fallen to 31 percent in 2001, from 43 percent in 1986.
More extensive figures on Canadians’ religion will be made public May 13, when the results of the 2001 census are released.
Military Chaplains Weigh Same-Sex Ceremonies
OTTAWA (RNS) Military chaplains are considering offering same-sex marriage ceremonies as a gesture to help homosexuals in the military feel more at ease in the Canadian Armed Forces, reports the National Post.
Anglican ministers within the forces are discussing making themselves available for “blessings” of gay and lesbian couples, the paper reports.
It quotes a Defense Department official as saying there is nothing stopping a chaplain from officiating at the union of gay or lesbian soldiers.
Maj. John Fletcher, a senior Anglican chaplain, said he would “dearly love to be free to celebrate such ministry if requested by a couple to do so,” but conceded his church forbids same-sex marriage ceremonies.
The Defense Department would not stand in the way of a same-sex ceremony involving its personnel, said Lt. Col. Dave Kettle, a spokesman for the chaplain-general’s office.
Popular Montreal Bishop Dies
MONTREAL (RNS) Bishop Leonard Crowley, an auxiliary Roman Catholic bishop of Montreal and a beloved cleric here for 56 years, died March 14 of pneumonia at the age of 81.
Described in the Montreal Gazette as a dynamic and progressive theologian with a social conscience, Crowley championed Montreal’s English-speaking Catholic community after the election of the first Parti Quebecois government in 1976.
He was also one of the first clergymen in the diocese to promote the participation of lay persons in the liturgical duties of the church, and was an early proponent of interfaith dialogue.
Ordained a priest in 1947, Crowley served as a curate, parochial administrator and finally as the 10th pastor of St. Patrick’s Basilica in Montreal.
Crowley served as Montreal’s auxiliary bishop from 1971 until 1997. In 1976, he started the Catholic Times newspaper to reassure English-speaking parishioners they had a place in Quebec. A decade later, he ruffled feathers when he became the first bishop in Canada to celebrate Mass for a homosexual congregation at a conference in Montreal.
Update: Panel Rejects Iranian Convert’s Pleas
MONTREAL (RNS) An immigration panel has ordered an Iranian convert to Christianity deported, rejecting the woman’s pleas to stay in Canada.
The panel ruled March 20 that “Nancy,” as she’s come to be known in the media, must leave Canada by April 24. The panel rejected her claim based on humanitarian/compassion grounds and turned down her final appeal, known as Pre-Removal Risk Assessment.
Nancy had applied for refugee status, arguing she faces a possible prison term, torture and execution if forced to return to Iran. Last fall the Immigration and Refugee Board denied Nancy’s request. The panel was unfamiliar with the denomination to which she belongs, the Ascension Lutheran Church in Montreal, and did not believe she had been properly converted by another local church.
In the latest ruling, officials said that if Nancy is indeed a Christian, she faces only a “slight” possibility of persecution.
“There are no serious reasons to believe that her life would be in danger or that she would be a victim of torture or of cruel and unusual punishment and/or treatment,” ruled immigration official Sylvie Duval.
Mennonite Church Slashes Budget, Jobs
WATERLOO, Ontario (RNS) Faced with a fiscal crisis, the Mennonite Church Canada has reduced its $7.5 million projected gross income by $2 million and cut 21 staff, reports Canadian Mennonite magazine.
“We have less money than we thought we did for doing what we hoped to do. Now we know different,” said MC Canada moderator Henry Krause.
In order to balance its 2003-04 budget, the church has cut many programs, including Mennonite Voluntary Service.
The moves were triggered by a budget deficit of just over $600,000 and the overestimation of the 2003 budget.
Aboriginal Anglicans Oppose Settlement
OTTAWA (RNS) The organization representing aboriginal Anglicans is opposing the recent agreement to compensate victims of church-run residential schools.
Prior to last month’s signing of the deal between officials of the church and federal government, the Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples said that when the primate of the church signs the settlement, “he will not be doing so in our name.”
The resolution calls for each of the 30 Anglican dioceses to proportionately pay into a $25 million settlement fund to settle the church’s share of compensation to former students, most of them natives, who were physically or sexually abused at the schools.
The council said it opposed the requirement of survivors to waive all future claims for loss of language and culture.
DEA END CSILLAG
