Woke Pastor Hates ‘Bull***’ ‘Christ The King Sunday’

MCC Toronto is a “vibrant and progressive church rooted in the Christian tradition and the 2SLGBTQ+ community” that is “open and welcoming to everyone, and a Human Rights Centre that is fiercely committed to social justice,” at least according their website.

Led by “non-binary” impastor Rev. Deana Dudley, “transgendered woman” Rev. Junia Joplin, and a cadre of three-pronouned assistants, they run the joint with the full blessing of Satan, who has most assuredly taken up residence in the hearts in the minds of the congregation.

Here is a portion of the “sermon”…

“I do not like the concept of Christ the King Sunday, and I really don’t want to preach on it. And the reason is, that it has traditionally gotten preached as a kind of a victory over all our enemies, militaristic kind of thing.

And I think A), that has no relationship whatsoever with the notion of unconditional love that I believe is at the heart of the gospel. And B), Jesus would be utterly horrified to be worshiped in that kind of way. And C), that kind of militaristic bullshit has absolutely no place in church.

So it has no place, and I dislike it because it leads to all kinds of evil crap like Christian nationalism, which I declare to be a heresy, which also leads to all kinds of evil divisive crap like racism and colonialism, for which the church at large really needs to repent. Are you all awake now?

You know what happens sometimes? Sometimes a preacher looks at the liturgical texts and thinks, I am not going to go there. And then they keep on reflecting, and it keeps on bugging us. And eventually we go there.

So here I am, and here’s my thought on Christ the King Sunday. I can’t do it.”

Rev. Deana Dudley, Metropolitan Community church Toronto

In November of this last year, the same church during a sermon on ‘Kink Sunday,” preacher JJ Viviers, a Master of Divinity and Master of Pastoral Studies student at Emmanuel College whose pronouns encompass (they/them/he+she), “preached” a message on Luke 22:7-13 while wearing bondage ropes around his wrists.

For Context, here is the Episcopal Church USA definition of “Christ The King” Sunday..

Feast celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church on the last Sunday of the liturgical year. It celebrates Christ’s messianic kingship and sovereign rule over all creation. The feast is unofficially celebrated in some Episcopal parishes, but it is not mentioned in the Episcopal calendar of the church year. Marion Hatchett notes that the Prayer Book collect for Proper 29, the last Sunday of the church year, is a “somewhat free” translation of the collect of the Feast of Christ the King in the Roman Missal. This collect prays that God, “whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords,” will “Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule” (BCP, p. 236). The feast was originally instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925 and celebrated on the last Sunday in Oct. It has been observed on the last Sunday before Advent since 1970.

Feast Day of St. Nicholas

In 323 AD at the Council of Nicea, Saint Nicholas (the inspiration for Santa Claus) smacked the heretic Arius in the face to interrupt a speech denying the divinity of Christ.

“He’s making a list, he’s checking it twice,

He’s going to find out if you deny the divinity of Christ! Santa Claus is coming to town!”

“He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake, he knows if you’re a heretic and he’ll punch you in your face”

Have a blessed St. Nicholas day beloved.

Very little is known about the life of Nicholas. He became Bishop of Myra on the southwest coast of Asia Minor. He may have been imprisoned for his faith in the persecution (303-311) that began under the Emperor Diocletian, and he may have attended the Council of Nicaea in 325. Nicholas is the traditional patron of seafarers and sailors. He is also known as a patron of children, based on his reputation as a bearer of gifts to children. The Dutch brought his name to New York. He is popularly known as Santa Claus. Nicholas is commemorated in the Anglican calendar of the church year on Dec. 6.

Is Anglicanism Growing or Dying? New Data.

IS ANGLICANISM GROWING OR DYING? NEW DATA
The Rev. Dr. David Goodhew  February 22, 2022  Analysis, Church of England

The membership of the Episcopal Church (TEC) has halved since 1970. During the same period, the Anglican Communion’s combined membership has doubled. It is now heading toward 100 million. The result is a massive shift in the center of gravity of the Anglican Communion. Is the Communion growing or dying? It is growing and, in parts, it is dying too.

Members of TEC (and the wider Communion) urgently need to assimilate these patterns of growth and decline, especially as we approach the 2022 Lambeth Conference.

This article draws on the work of the widely respected scholars Todd Johnson and Gina Zurlo and the Center for the Study of Worldwide Christianity based at Gordon Conwell, as well as other materials. Johnson and Zurlo now provide data for the entire Communion up to 2015, which constitutes an updating of their groundbreaking work in the volume Growth and Decline in the Anglican Communion which also appeared in an earlier article on Covenant.

Global Anglicanism, 1970 to 2015[i]

                                                     1970                                        2015
Africa                                    7,718,000                              56,947,000
Asia [ii]                                    358,000                                   891,000
Europe                              29,367,000                             24,922,000
North America                  4,395,000                               2,549,000
Latin America [iii]                 775,000                                   929,000
Oceania                             4,781,000                                4,533,000
Global Total                     47,394,000                              90,771,000

The data for 2015 are the latest figures we have for the whole Communion. Individual provinces have more recent data. Since 2015 the Communion has grown further. Notwithstanding COVID, the Anglican Communion is now at least double the size it was in 1970. Those who would write Anglicanism off, please take note.

Continue reading

John MacArthur’s Church to Receive $800K COVID-19 Settlement

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to authorize a $400,000 payment to settle a legal battle with Grace Community Church over lead pastor John MacArthur’s defiance of COVID-19 restrictions in the early months of the pandemic.

This agreement, county officials said, was reached in the context of the US Supreme Court’s decision in February that told California it couldn’t enforce a ban on indoor worship because of the coronavirus pandemic. LA County modified its health order and lifted the indoor worship ban after the ruling.

Continue reading