Like any former hockey writer, I have a soft spot in my heart for the Canadian national anthem. When you hear a song 80 or 90 times in a year, you either come to love it or hate it, and during the season I covered the NHL (1979-80, first Stanley Cup of the New York Islanders’ Trottier/Bossy Dynasty) I came to prefer the Canadian anthem to our own. (Strictly as a piece of music, you understand.)
Anway, imagine my delight to find Mark Harris leading off his latest entry with news that “O Canada,” had recently been sung in Cree before, what else, a hockey game. He’s even got a link to a recording of the performance.
All that before getting down to matters Anglican, about which he writes:
In all the verbal madness leading up to the Primates Meeting in Dar Es Salaam it is interesting to note the relative quiet about things Canadian. The Episcopal Church, the Anglican Church of Canada and various bishops on the loose were taken to task by the Windsor Report. That was then, this is now.
The focus now is on the Episcopal Church. It is the Episcopal Church Primate whose presence at the upcoming Meeting is being questioned, the Episcopal Church that is being asked to account for its actions, and only Episcopal Church “Windsor Bishops” who are being asked to make special reports. The arrows are all directed at what Bishop Tom Wright calls, “The American Church. (read the Episcopal Church)”
It would seem for the moment that the Anglican Church of Canada gets some relief. That is just fine. I believe the Anglican Church of Canada is a wonderful, struggling, batch of sinners and saints subject to all the foibles of church life, and that they are getting on with the work at hand. They don’t need this sort of bashing and we as friends would not wish it on them. More, I think there may be some hints for us to be found about a way forward from the experiences of the Anglican Church of Canada as it works with its own issues.