Anglican Journal

Dear friends of the Anglican Communion, One of my all-time favourite Christmas stories is Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. It would be a mistake, however, to see the story as only about Scrooge learning to give. It is also about him learning to receive....

Mississauga, Ont. Despite ending 1997 with a deficit of $122,000, the national church plans a balanced budget for 1998. At last month's meeting, the Council of General Synod approved the proposed $15-million budget with no changes. The deficit is largely...

STAFF WRITER Calgary Archbishop Barry Curtis said he knew full well that some Anglican churches received money from government gambling profits when he signed an ecumenical pastoral letter condemning gambling. Shortly after Anglican, Lutheran...

Mississauga, Ont. Canada's bishops have voted against a motion that would have allowed a so-called local option for dioceses that want their bishops to bless same-sex unions or ordain non-celibate homosexuals. Two-thirds of the House of Bishops voted...

DAVID HARRIS IT WAS A LOVING "NO", but a no nevertheless. Canada's bishops produced a new statement on homosexuality, ordination of homosexuals and blessings of same-sex unions. If this document is any indication, Anglicans will proceed cautiously...

STAFF WRITER Toronto Canada's Anglican bishops have adopted new guidelines concerning the ordination and pastoral care of homosexuals. It's the first time in 18 years that the bishops have revised their views and the first time they have made...

Many Anglicans - including bishops themselves-are uncertain about the scope, role and responsibility of the House of Bishops, says the author of a report to a group looking at the role and function of General Synod. Rev. Kim Murray of Parksville....

AS THE SEASON draws near, a chill may fill the air and cause us to shiver. But traditions, those time-honoured rituals, will always warm our hearts. In houses all over the world, trees are trimmed, couples nestle close under mistletoe, gifts are exchanged,...

Mississauga, Ont. The Anglican Church of Canada will join churches around the world in the Call for Jubilee, an international ecumenical initiative to celebrate the millennium, in part by forgiving the international debt of several of the world's poorest...

Parishes across Britain are being asked to participate in a trial of new liturgies for marriages and funerals. These draft rites will be tested prior to a vote on them at a next year's general synod. The proposed new marriage service is restructured...

Toronto Is religion a spent force in North America? That's not the typical question one expects at a conference honouring the life and work of an urban planner. But it was one of the topics raised at a recent Jane Jacobs: Ideas the Matter conference...

Writer/Director/Producer: Thom Fitzgerald Starring Chris Leavins *** (out of five) Warning: language, nudity, explicit sexuality TWO RECENTLY released films tell personal and private stories of Canadians as a repressed and passionate people....

Newly elected leader shocks some with theological viewpoint Toronto The United Church of Canada is embroiled in internal controversy following comments made by moderator, Rt. Rev. Bill Phipps, to the effect that Jesus was not divine and did not...

SHE COMES THROUGH the door, plunks herself down in a chair, takes one look at my long hair and says, "You look like Janis Joplin (a rock singer who died in 1970). I was just listening to her on the front porch." Lighting up a small cigar, she adds: "Hope...

AS THE SEASON draws near, a chill may fill the air and cause us to shiver. But traditions, those time-honoured rituals, will always warm our hearts. In houses all over the world, trees are trimmed, couples nestle close under mistletoe, gifts are exchanged,...

Participants in the national church's pension plan are getting a Christmas present from the pension committee. Strong stockmarket performance helped produce a $35.4-million surplus in the plan. As a result, the committee has boosted pensions for...

Columbia / Sony Music IT JUST FIGURES. Now that Bob Dylan has been dismissed by most of the western world as a long-past-hisprime musical figure - in a year when he was laid low with a near-fatal viral infection - when his convoluted, endless world...