NEWS DIGEST: Religion in Canada

c. 2004 Religion News Service Studies Show Contrasting Portraits of Canada’s Religiosity OTTAWA (RNS) Two new studies show vastly divergent views of Canadians’ religious faith. A September survey published by the Centre for Research and Information on Canada shows that the nation is among the world’s most secular countries, with only 29 percent of Canadians […]

c. 2004 Religion News Service

Studies Show Contrasting Portraits of Canada’s Religiosity


OTTAWA (RNS) Two new studies show vastly divergent views of Canadians’ religious faith.

A September survey published by the Centre for Research and Information on Canada shows that the nation is among the world’s most secular countries, with only 29 percent of Canadians saying religion is a very important part of their lives, compared to 59 percent of Americans who gave it a high priority.

Another 37 percent said religion is somewhat important _ for a total of 66 percent _ a drop from 20 years ago, when 76 percent of Canadians said it was either very or somewhat important.

As for the question of whether society would be better off if people attended religious services more regularly, 50 percent agreed, but 48 percent disagreed.

However, Canada’s best known surveyor of religious trends says something new is happening in the country’s churches: an increase in attendance.

In “Restless Churches,” his seventh book on the subject, Reg Bibby says “organized religion is making a comeback.”

Attendance has been dropping steadily since the 1950s, but Bibby, a sociologist at the University of Lethbridge, says weekly attendance has crept up to its highest level since 1985.

By 2000, weekly attendance had hit a low of 21 percent of Canadians, but surveys in 2002 and 2003 pegged weekly attendance at levels ranging from 26 percent to 30 percent.

Across Canada, “there has been an increase in attendance by Protestant adults under 35, and the number of teens attending services has bounced back from the low of 18 percent in 1992, to 22 percent in 2000,” he noted. “Things are healthier than people let on.”

The Pew Research Center has conducted a series of studies that found Canadians as a whole are moving away from sincere religious faith, even as they continue in large numbers to call themselves Catholic or Protestant on census forms.


Pope Rebukes Canada Over Gay Marriage

VATICAN CITY _ Pope John Paul II took a swipe at Canada recently, chiding the country for allowing several provinces to bless same-sex marriages.

The pope said such unions create a “false understanding” of marriage.

The pontiff made the remarks upon receiving Canada’s new ambassador to the Holy See, Donald Smith.

“The institution of marriage necessarily entails the complementarity of husbands and wives who participate in God’s creative activity through the raising of children,” said the pope, according to the text of the speech released by the Vatican.

While applauding Canada’s “generous and practical contributions to the building of a world of peace, justice and prosperity,” and its success in the “integration of the multiple ethnic communities,” the pontiff expressed concern regarding homosexual marriage.

“Any attempts to change the meaning of the word `spouse’ contradict right reason,” he said, adding that marriage “cannot be applied to unions between persons of the same sex without creating a false understanding of the nature of marriage.”

Canadian Catholics opposed to gay unions were buoyed by the pope’s comments.

“It’s his job to do that sort of thing,” said Calgary Bishop Fred Henry, a vocal opponent of same-sex marriage. “When the pope says fundamentally the same thing, it is reassuring for us, and I think it strengthens our case.”


Despite the call from the Vatican, Canada will allow same-sex couples to marry if the nation’s high court rules it legal, a Canadian foreign ministry spokeswoman told Agence France-Presse last week.

Traditional Anglicans Distance Themselves From Church

OTTAWA (RNS) More than 700 conservative Canadian Anglicans have formed two new organizations to respond to their national church’s decision to sanctify gay marriage.

The Anglican Federation and the Anglican Network were commissioned during “The Way Forward,” a national conference held Aug. 30-Sept. 1, sponsored by Essentials, a conservative coalition of Anglicans.

“The conference did not create a new denomination,” declared Charlie Masters, national director of the Essentials Council. “It is the Anglican Church of Canada that has moved away from historic Anglicanism and created something new. The Federation and Network are claiming ground the revisionists have deserted. We are establishing ourselves within historic Anglicanism.

“We have not moved; they have.”

Officials predict that Vancouver-area congregations opposed to Bishop Michael Ingham’s authorization of same-sex blessings will join one of the groups.

The groups also hope to avoid censure from the global Anglican Communion by formally distancing themselves from the actions of their national church.


According to a leaked report in the London Times, the Lambeth Commission, which is due to deliver its study on homosexuality to the archbishop of Canterbury in October, is likely to discipline the Diocese of New Westminster for authorizing same-sex blessings at its diocesan synod two years ago, reports CanadianChristianity.com.

Shariah Tribunals Working, Muslims Say

TORONTO (RNS) While the debate over tribunals based on Shariah law has polarized the Muslim community, a Muslim group says a survey shows faith-based arbitration is already under way and working well in Canada, reports the Globe and Mail.

Many Muslims turn to mediators in their communities for help in resolving marital disputes, child custody and inheritance issues, according to the survey of six Muslim community leaders and scholars in Nova Scotia, Ontario and Manitoba.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations Canada (CAIR-CAN), which conducted the survey, recommends building safeguards into Ontario’s faith-based arbitration system to ensure that participation is voluntary and informed, and that arbitrators are qualified.

“The reality is that on the ground, faith-based arbitration is already going on in an informal way,” noted Riad Saloojee of CAIR-CAN. “Pure pragmatism suggests that the best way is to regulate it and ensure it is transparent rather than to outlaw it. Let’s bring it out into the light.”

CAIR-CAN submitted its recommendations to Marion Boyd, a former Ontario attorney general, who is reviewing the use of private and religious-based arbitration at the request of the Ontario government. Her report is due Sept. 30.


Sikhs Celebrate Holy Text With Large Toronto Gathering

TORONTO (RNS) More than 2,000 people, mostly Sikhs, gathered last weekend at the Toronto convention center to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the compilation of the holy Sikh scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib.

For first-generation Sikhs in Canada, it was an opportunity to learn more about their religion and to hear English translations by Sikh scholars of the holy teachings, which in the temples are often recited in Punjabi and written in Gurmukhi script.

Amritpal Singh, an 18-year-old economics student, told the Toronto Star he attended the celebration because he doesn’t understand Punjabi enough to comprehend the scripture. “This is a lot easier to understand and I came basically to learn more.”

Sunday’s event coincided with celebrations in India and followed an earlier event marking the 400th anniversary: the arrival in Toronto this past spring of 149 volumes of scripture. The books were flown to Toronto with great ceremony from the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the only place in the world where the scriptures are officially published.

Each volume of the Guru Granth Sahib occupied an individual’s seat on the flight. Sikhs believe the scriptures are the last living embodiment of their founding gurus, or teachers.

The books were distributed to local temples and individual homes.

High Court Convicts Christian Activist Opposing Gay Marriage

TORONTO (RNS) A lengthy trip through the Ontario court system left a controversial Christian activist charged with assault after her outburst protesting gay marriage.


Late last month, the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned two lower court decisions that had acquitted Erika Kubassek, 59, of assault and disrupting a church service. She was charged after a Jan. 14, 2001 altercation with the Rev. Brent Hawkes at Toronto’s Metropolitan Community Church.

Hawkes was scheduled to perform Canada’s first two same-sex marriages at the predominantly gay church later that day.

Kubassek interrupted the morning service at the church, quoting Scripture and denouncing homosexuality as a sin.

When Hawkes asked her to leave, Kubassek pushed him and he stumbled backward, almost tripping over a pew. Witnesses say Kubassek was escorted from the building, shouting and throwing biblical pamphlets.

Although two lower courts found she intended to push Hawkes, they dismissed the charge as trivial.

Ontario’s attorney general appealed to the province’s highest court, which found her guilty but gave her an absolute discharge, meaning she is deemed to have never been convicted.


Kubassek, a minister’s wife, has crusaded against marijuana, alcohol and scantily clad waitresses and been described in newspapers as using a bullhorn to protest “anti-Christian” behavior.

Animal Rights Group Loses in Canada

TORONTO (RNS) Ontario officials refused to allow the controversial animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to open a photo exhibit in Toronto that used grisly images of Holocaust victims.

Canadian Jewish Congress persuaded municipal and provincial officials to remove PETA’s “Holocaust on Your Plate” exhibit from a downtown Toronto public square after the CJC pointed out that the images, from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, violated the museum’s Photograph Use Agreement.

As well, “both the city of Toronto and Queen’s Park (the provincial legislature) felt that the display violates community norms reasonably expected by the public,” said Bernie Farber, executive director of the Ontario region of the Congress, which received assistance from both the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the American Jewish Committee.

MO/PH END CSILLAG

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