Magic Statistics

Dollars, that is.  (No word yet on an up-to-date count of members.)

The Anglican Church of Canada’s national office spent $486,000 more than it took in during 2006—the fourth consecutive annual deficit.

The revenue shortfall in 2006 was primarily due to the money-losing operations of the Anglican Book Centre, treasurer Peter Blachford told the Journal.

Total church revenue declined to $13.71 million from $14 million in 2005.

When the 2005 deficit was discussed last year, Mr Blachford said that further losses were unaffordable.

Treasurer Peter Blachford told the Council of General Synod (CoGS) that the church cannot afford another deficit, since reserves have been used to bridge the gap, leaving only $200,000 in the coffers.

And yet the church somehow managed to finance a deficit amounting to over twice the cash on hand.  What has happened to the ACC’s debt position?  Is there any money left in the bank?

In related news, it emerged last weekend that a strategic planning document commissioned by the Diocese of Ottawa recommends winding up almost one-third of its parish churches.

Of 131 churches in the diocese, eight should close, mostly seldom-used rural chapels. Another 34 have limited growth potential, or aging congregations, or both, and should be "allowed to live out their natural life cycle, but all support systems be removed" — in other words, no new debt, no budget top-ups from the diocese, and no part-time clergy who end up with a full-time workload.

Most of the churches said to be near the end of their viable life are in rural areas.

The Anglican church commissioned the $80,000 study about six months ago as part of its larger initiative to try to attract modern families back to its pews, approaching Myrlene Boken, head of ABM Research, and a warden at an Anglican church.

As far as I can determine, the diocese has not posted the study online.  There is a page styled “Strategic Planning Task Force” as well as a whole 'nother blog run by the diocese, but neither has the Boken study.

The news story does not indicate whether the study recommended a renewed emphasis on preaching the gospel as a possible approach to filling up half-empty churches.

The front page at the Diocese of Ottawa website features a series of rotating graphics with catchy slogans.  Here’s an example.

Is this supposed to appeal to “modern families”?

h/t: TitusOneNine and Kraalspace.

Previous related posts:

• Anglican Church of Canada: Fewer members, less giving, more bishops
• Anglican Church of Canada finally confronting losses

Is this what I'd look like in South Park?  I dunno, but I had a lot of fun putting it together.  (Don't ask if the gun's registered.)

Make your own South Park character right here.

h/t: Archbishop Cranmer and Daily Referendum.

The Rt Rev Nolbert Kunonga, Anglican bishop of Mugabe Harare, has been peddling Robert Mugabe’s self-serving delusions in the church.  According to the government-controlled Herald newspaper, Bp Kunonga recently delivered some fevered rhetoric.

In his speech during the 61st Synod in the Cathedral of St Mary’s and All Saints in Harare last Friday, Dr Kunonga said God, in the same way He did for the Israelites who were oppressed by the Egyptians, ordains Zimbabwe’s response to the sin and evil of British colonialism and attempted neo-colonialism.

‘‘We clergyman need to show that we are real, legitimate and authentic priests and prophets who do not abandon the divine mission to retrieve the economy from aliens.

‘‘It is our moral right, divine duty and sacred mission and God-given opportunity to help people reject all Western forms, designs, plots, tactics and strategies to drag us back into a state of boyhood and baboonhood.’’

In apparent reference to the ongoing price freeze, Bishop Kunonga said democracy and freedom were meaningless without territorial and economic sovereignty as basic freedoms are only important, realisable and significant when people exercise them in geographical locations they own and control.

So, arbitrary and draconian price controls are a means of gaining “economic sovereignty”?  Perhaps for those who view economic meltdown as a path to sovereignty.

Bp Kunonga’s speech also included thinly veiled attacks on church leaders who stand with oppressed and disadvantaged Zimbabweans.

‘‘Concerning the sin of sanctions, we need an exodus from ourselves. We need to break from ourselves. We shamefully have uncouth and pliant churchmen, clergymen illegitimate products of the seminary who see it as their duty to demonise their country.

‘‘Archbishops, bishops and priests shame on you, you sell Zimbabwe for pieces of silver. Besides the Church, Zimbabwe has a few dull, hopeless pseudo-politicians among its resilient population, who let others use them against their own people including themselves.

This from the man who a few months ago blocked food shipments into his country.  He is hardly in a position to criticise others for allegedly acting against the best interests of the people.

No wonder the ruling ZANU-PF thinks Kunonga a “model Christian”.

Bp Kunonga’s speech is another embarrassment for the Anglican Communion, and particularly for the bishops of the Province of Central Africa, whose pastoral statement of last April was generally interpreted as pro-Mugabe.

Previous related posts:

• New church report documents repression in Zimbabwe
• Church responds to Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown
• Anglican bishops support Mugabe after Catholics call for his departure

The collect for today, the 9th Sunday after Trinity, from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer:

Grant to us, Lord, we beseech thee, the spirit to think and do always such things as be rightful; that we, who cannot do any thing that is good without thee, may by thee be enabled to live according to thy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13
The Gospel: St Luke 16:1-9