In the world of Christian art it has been said that the farther we move from the Council of Nicea [325 AD] in time, then the more regal Jesus becomes in appearance. The same holds doubly true for His mother, and this glorification shows us quite clearly where the focus of Christianity has rested for so many centuries. In parallel, paintings of the popes, primates and priests depict enormous self-aggrandizement as does modern photography and film of church services ranging from the Easter Parade to a Christian Monarch's state funeral.

Ironically, it was all about 'going to church', and this entrenched and accepted activity was the bread and butter of Christianity, and it paid generously for the comfortable lifestyle of the clerics. There were of course small charitable 'spin-offs': a bake sale here; a flower show there and perhaps some of the money raised filtered through to the poor. Not surprisingly, the bread and butter has become crumbs and margarine; which has produced desperation for hard currency never seen before in the megachurches as they struggle to maintain their position in society and the lifestyle of the clergy.

Not to say, of course, that folk are not generous in a charitable sense, in fact, good old John Q. Public will usually stick his hand into his pocket at the drop of a hat; probably due to all those years of Christian training with thrusting church collection plates. Unfortunately, John Q. Public, while moving his 'giving'away from the Christian Churches in recent years, is notoriously undemanding when it comes to verifying the efficaciousness of his spontaneous generosity. Since the decline in Christianity started we have seen a reciprocal rise in so-called 'charitable institutions' to a point today where these organizations manage some of the world's largest budgets. The ten 'worst charities' topping the 'billboard' charts when it comes to unrealistic administration costs and mega salaries for executives include UNICEF, World Vision, United Way and the American Red Cross, just to mention a few household charitable brand names. It is generally accepted, but not enforced, that sixty percent of charitable receipts go to a charities programs and that's hilarious yet very, very sad, because I suspect that for every dollar that Save Third World Kids International [not an existing charity] collects less than one cent reaches a child dying from general neglect, AIDS or starvation.

At Abba Ministries of Canada we are but a few; however, if we lead by shining example we will become a few more. God needs us now; we must not wait for, or even expect, God to miraculously 'turn the tide'. The future of the Christian church is our responsibility.

Jesus did not ask to be deified and worshiped; however, he did tell us to love God with all our hearts and to love our neighbours as ourselves.

Is there any chance that the world could manage that this Easter?

I wish you and your families a blessed Easter.

In Christ,

Malachy

AN OPEN LETTER FROM BISHOP EMERITUS MALACHY EGAN
CHRISTMAS 2012

Cometh the politically correct 'Holiday Season':

the Santa Claus parade is within acceptable limits, but woe betides Mrs. Claus if she happens to wear a crucifix! The Christmas tree is OK right down to its Pagan roots, but remember that the shimmering being atop its uppermost branch is not an angel seeking poor shepherds to comfort with glad tidings of the birth of Jesus: but rather a fairy granting wishes for presents that nobody really needs or frequently even wants.

Christians have been the subject of persecutions since the inception of the Faith and Jesus Himself was not shy about pointing out the disadvantages his followers would face: crucifixions; stonings; becoming the equivalent of finger food for lions and wild beasts, as well as general gladiator-fodder at the games just for the amusement and pacification of the masses. Under the heel of the the Roman sandal of the first century CE 'a Christian's lot was not a happy one, happy one...' [Apologies to Gilbert and Sullivan.]

Are you aware that there is something rather strange happening here in Canada, and that we are moving relentlessly toward a secular society? For any number of reasons, the answer would appear to be an unequivocal 'yes': shrinking church attendance; an absence of spirituality [particularly noticeable among young people] and rampant consumerism, to mention but a few; and yet - strangely - when polled by StatsCan or Angus Reid many Canadians still claim to be Christian... Maybe there is no 'Atheist/Agnostic/Other/None of the above' box that they can tick? Traditions [even the ones that we do not really understand] die-hard and folk whose antecedents were Christian a couple of generations ago are unlikely to claim to be Islamic/Buddhist/Hindu etcetera.

I ponder too the influence of the press and television. At Canadian Thanksgiving, [which in the Emerald Isle of my youth was known as Harvest Festival and was a very churchy affair] the Globe and Mail was replete with articles centered on the 'festive' turkey; the connotations of Thanksgiving disappearing while the rag's publisher and correspondents regaled us with a surfeit of information upon the right sized bird; the best recipe; how to carve it; what to do with the leftovers, everything, in fact, except a dissertation on bestiality among turkey farmers. The latter, while a bit tacky, [no pun intended] might at least have told us something that we did not already know.

My opinions on the causes relating to Christianity's ruthless demise are well known to those of you who read my scribbling and, in truth, those causes are self-evident. All that said and done, I do not believe for one moment that we can say that Christianity has failed the masses, any more than we can say that Jesus' program does not work. The perfect storm of criticism delivered by millions of detractors is leveled at an establishment and its perpetrators who have, simply put, failed Jesus Christ so totally and utterly, and for so long, that it is a miracle that there are any adherents left to warm the pews at all. Today, there is scant knowledge of Jesus program, and Christianity [as delivered by the megachurches] is deficient in its actions and cloaked in false piety. In contrast, the sincere believer listens to the 'still, small voice of God' and is willingly led by the Holy Spirit, just as his or her forbears have been since they arrived in the Promised Land. That voice spoke from a burning bush; yet the bush was not consumed, proving [to me, at least] that God is love in its purest form and demands no sacrifice, but rather only our love in return.

While my fingers [well, truthfully, two of them] tap away at the aged Remington, in a parallel universe a battery of spin doctors and creative artists, accomplished typists all, are working feverishly like Santa's elves to complete another Christmas address for a another bishop: I challenge you to check it out this year and compare it with mine. The Christmas message I refer too will be delivered from the pulpit of Ottawa cathedral; it will be given the status of the Queen's Festive Speech; contain politically correct and honeyed words, which will drift like a fine white Christmas snow over the heads of the Prime Minister, the Governor General and a host of dignitaries comprising the oligarchy that rules this land. It will lack sincerity; distort the truth; make a subtle [or sometimes, not so subtle] pitch for money; avoid scandal and generally be of little interest to anybody except those with a vested interest, ranging from princes of the church to the ever present victims of its abuse. Some will nod sleepily in agreement; many will be disappointed. It will be delivered by the Primate of Canada, His Grace, Archbishop Fred Hiltz. I hope that you notice that the main difference between Hiltz and I is that my message is low in calories [too many of them around at Christmas anyway!] a fact achieved by leaving out the marzipan and icing coating.

The current financial climate is difficult; yet the degrees of 'difficulty' vary from country to country and continent to continent. What is considered abject poverty in Canada might be seen as an unobtainable level of luxury in parts of Africa or Asia. The real problem is identifiable [although much official government smoke and mirrors is used to obscure it both at home and abroad] and can be simply stated as the widening gap between a vast number of poor people and a small number of rich people: a gap that is widening at an increasing rate. This is worrying those of us who deal with humanity on a day-to-day basis [though apparently not those in government] because historically the wider the gap the more threat there is of social unrest and even war. As unemployment passes twenty-five percent in some first world countries, [here please remember that Canadian 'unemployment' statistics are totally unreliable because they only include those people receiving benefits] the real figure for the youth group is double the published figure: a staggering fifty percent! Again, in the first world an astonishing twenty-plus percent of people are living below the poverty line and life expectancy is trailing the well to do by nearly ten years. It is not poverty alone that generates enough social unease to spark a conflict with bigger consequences, it is the inequality and intrinsic injustice that goes with it that provokes the worst tension.

Sleigh bells evoke the image of past Christmases; however, best to look around because the incessant jingling [if not the bored Santa at the Sally-Ann collection kettle] might just be sabers rattling in the gathering gloom of global conflict. Too late for me to get the recognition that my namesake, a minor biblical prophet achieved, never-the-less I have looked towards the middle of this decade for a quarter of a century with dread and trepidation. Does anyone appreciate exactly what is happening in Greece, provoked by a political class so totally corrupt and inept [newsflash: oligarchy evolves to 'ineptocracy', a retrograde step] that it will soon be forced upon other so called 'Club Med' countries by austerity measures and collapsing economies? Do Canadians think 'them and us' and, of course, it will never happen to us? Has the continuous political exchange of nuclear un-pleasantries between Iran and Israel gone unnoticed: strangely, not to the Harper government it seems, although Obama has withdrawn support for Israel to such a degree that his Islamic roots are going to need touching up unless he wants to alienate America's right of center christians. [Small 'c' intentional]. How about the massacre of innocents in Syria by Dictator 'Basher' Assad supported by his lovely English bride and his sinister Russian puppet-master; the failure of the United Nations [famous for its continuous and sometimes spectacular failures] to drag Afghanistan out of the dark ages of Taliban oppression; the massive build up of US forces in the Persian Gulf and the nuclear pretentiousness of North Korea with its tin-pot dictator and his Freudian dreams? Remember, Canada is still technically at war with NK, although an armistice has held for some fifty years. Finally, was that a nuclear powered, state-of-the-art aircraft carrier that China just launched? Gee whiz, I wonder what they want that for?

For those of you with the intestinal fortitude to read thus far, let us move past the growing specter of wars great and small, domestic and international; the sad and frightening speeches; the turkey and the glow of consumerism, and recognizing that as individuals we are powerless to influence global secular events, ask ourselves just how do we as a True Christians celebrate Christmas?

Your immediate family comes first of course, and in your own home, what you put on the Yuletide tree is entirely up to you; there is no penalty for singing carols; saying Grace; promulgating love and good will; praying together, or for acknowledging the established custom of Jesus' birth in any way that you please. You are not even bound by the dogmas, rituals and traditions of the megachurches, but you should listen to that 'still, small voice'.

The Holy Spirit may show you ways that you can ease the burden of the 'Holiday Season' for others: for many people, there is precious little joy in it. Loneliness abounds; poverty is rife; the suicide rate is high and fellowship and love are markedly absent. Care home and hospital staff do their best, but they are thin on the ground and cannot spend time with everyone, the Canadian government has already cut chaplaincy in prisons to the bare minimum and only the dedicated want to volunteer anywhere on Christmas Day. We live in a difficult world, and so it is not advisable to invite near strangers into the family home, but it is easy enough to prepare an extra plate of Christmas dinner and deliver it to a person who is shut-in or living on the street. Get the kids involved because they need to learn the meaning of neighborly love by following your example. These folk that you minister to do not have to be Anglican or Catholic, or even Christian: I mention this because so many megachurch priests seem to think that the expression 'charity begins at home' means that a word of kindness to a Pagan or a lonely immigrant of a different faith would evoke charges of proselytism from the devil himself.

A kind word; a few moments conversation and a small plate of mince pies have the potential to brighten somebody's day. An inexpensive Christmas present, gift wrapped and delivered to a child in poverty will always be remembered. Do what you can within your means, but make the effort to reach out to a neighbour with unconditional love and compassion this Christmas.

I wish you and your families a peaceful and Holy Christmas and a blessed New Year.

In Christ,

Malachy

LETTER FROM BISHOP EMERITUS MALACHY: FALL 2012

Do you hear the still, small voice of God?

Elijah had to endure a hurricane that destroyed his mountain retreat [Yahweh was not in the hurricane]; then an earthquake [Yahweh was not in the earthquake]; then wildfire [but Yahweh was not in the fire either] before he was rewarded at last by the sound of that still, small voice... [KJV]

That voice, akin perhaps to our conscience, is easy to miss; even easier to ignore because it speaks to us about that which we need [not want] to do. Another prophet - this time Amos - nearly three millennia ago pointed out that we cannot serve God if the cause is not just; we cannot be seen in the temple but not give assistance to the poor, and that we are thieves or worse if we hoard more than we need when others do not have enough.

In the second decade of the twenty-first century, unless we are casting horoscopes for the syndicated press, prophesizing is not a well paid job. Even from the pulpit of the cathedral or the balcony above Saint Peter's square it has little real impact, and when it comes from a rich multi-national charity attached to a pledge form it is probably only a sop to the gullible; who can assuage their conscience with a small donation to infrastructure; not the poor.

That still, small voice is drowned out by pervasive media such as television; the roar of traffic; the hubbub of our daily lives and its message is lost; in its place we absorb the endless propaganda of governments; commercial advertisers; spin doctors and, in fact, anyone with an opinion to peddle and the means to broadcast it. For many, perhaps for the majority, Yahweh has ceased to exist except in dire emergencies where medicine, 911 and the social safety net have failed to rise to the bleak occasion.

Yahweh and our spirituality has become something of a joke, and just like the people of Israel so many years ago we return quite unconsciously to our old ways and worship Bal, now in the form of SUVs; Gucci and Rolex in the comfort of our urban temples with two car garages and two of every modern convenience. [If we have not achieved this status yet, we work two jobs, purchase lottery tickets and become strangers to our children as we struggle toward this perceived nirvana...]

During my lifetime I have been fortunate to have traveled widely upon planet Earth; and - being inquisitive by nature - I have been able to observe half a century of religious evolution. The chain of events has minor variations worldwide whose causative factors are chiefly due to the different levels of poverty which affect many facets of life: access to information; living conditions; human suffering; the desperate need for hope in an obscure, unpredictable future. This being said, the general progression of, in our case, Christianity has followed a direct course.

Briefly, the nineteen-fifties were a lull between the multiple horrors of World War and the sick paranoia of the Cold War. Global conflict continued apace. The megachurches [Catholic; Anglican; Lutheran; Reformed etcetera] were still well attended; however, gaps in the pews marked both those who gave their lives in war and those who returned but either could no longer worship a bloodthirsty and violent God who they blamed for the carnage, or judged, given events recently past, that God simply did not exist.

The sixties heralded strange and far reaching shifts in attitude: the distinct possibility of nuclear war; the war in Vietnam; a social revolution like no other, which 'liberated' many from established cultural norms. The megachurch hierarchies were threatened, and as they had responded to threats to their status and power in the past with success by entrenching and taking a hard line they did so again. The pews, slowly started to empty out.

Communications during the seventh decade of the twentieth century were now liberating middle and working classes as never before. Television; newspapers; magazines; independent radio stations and in a few short years computers and the internet allowed access to information and impacted the decision making processes of the masses. Abuse issues surfaced in the established denominations, and while these actions were always the obscene vocation of a minority of pedophile priests, there were also other much larger skeletons rattling about in the cathedral closet; just for example the Aboriginal Residential Schools Genocide; the Vatican Bank Scandal; the megachurch?s anti Semitic stance regarding the Shoah [Holocaust] and the general repression of women. And, what did the princes of the churches do now?

Entrenched even more, of course; instigated complex cover-ups and insisted that it was, "Their way, or the high way", because that was indeed the way it had been since Emperor Constantine.

By the eighties and nineties the church doors were revolving, nobody except the diocesan bishops and priests could deny the obvious: church attendance was experiencing a major decline. Money became a central issue and the lack of it terrified the church bureaucracies. Adherents 'shopped around' for a while, which benefited the smaller denominations; however, money was the true focus there too, as independent pastors struggled to raise a 'living' by building a church. Megachurch reform would have been the obvious answer, but the arch-ostriches could not get their ecclesiastical heads out of the sand.

The beginning of the twenty-first century would be celebrated from time-to-time with hand-wringing admissions of guilt by senior megachurch officials; even Primates and Popes. Unfortunately, too little and much too late, and only after being besieged by angry victims and worn down by media scrutiny did any response develop, and when it did, cursory evaluation showed that any degree of sincerity was missing.

We watched as Benedict XVI spoke to the years of child abuse within the church, saying that, "These deeds were hushed up and kept secret for decades...which was a declaration of bankruptcy for an institution that has love written on its banner" Sadly, Benedict did not mention that it was he himself who had written the manual on how to hush up these terrible crimes and move pedophile priests from one diocese to another, when he was Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith back when the abuse of innocent children was globally rife.

We tried to follow as Anglican Primate Fred Hiltz did an impressive two-step over the Aboriginal Residential Schools Genocide; apologizing while clawing back settlement funds meant for the victims into the church coffers; presiding pretentiously over 'truth and reconciliation' paid for by the Canadian taxpayer and despite everything dismissing the awful truth as "alleged abuse."

We shook our heads as the United Church of Canada withheld critical information [and allegedly shredded it] and attacked one of their own priests who strove to uncover the truth of their considerable involvement in the Aboriginal Residential Schools Genocide.

Today, in the winter of 2012, a minimum of research will show that the number of adherents claimed by the megachurches is hugely inflated. It will also show that there remains, despite everything, an unholy alliance between megachurch and state in both Canada and the USA. That same research will reveal strong estimates about that revolving door too; for example mid-century predictions [in the third world it will take longer] for the last Anglican to leave and the last Catholic church to be sold: the end of Constantine's dream [not the one at Milvan Bridge - in hoc signe conquer] of world religious domination.

But, and despite this depressing picture, do you hear the still, small voice of God?

God - the God of Abraham, the wanderer from Sumer; Moses, the tongue-tied Egyptian Prince; Joseph, Solomon and David; the prophets both great and small - the God who, despite his people's transgressions, loved them and restored them time and time again to the Promised Land.

The God that Jesus knew as Abba, [daddy or papa] and the God that He told us to love with all our hearts while we love our neighbour as ourselves. If you do, and you are not already an Abba Ministries of Canada priest or chaplain, why don't you join us and help to keep Christianity and Jesus' program alive in these deeply troubled times.

Let Christ reign as the King of your heart and all your soul and your entire mind!

Jesus, when challenged to define the most important 'rule' for the Church, said [quoting from Deuteronomy], "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with your entire mind." [Matthew 22:37] Jesus also strongly recommended that you should love your neighbour as yourself. Recall Matthew 16: 28, often referred to as the parable of the rich young man, and remember that man's quandary when Jesus told him, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." The entire parable in Matthew's Gospel concludes with Jesus saying to his disciples: "But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first." What have you got to lose?

I wish you and your families blessings this fall and a peaceful and holy Advent.

In Christ,

Malachy

OPEN LETTER FROM BISHOP EMERITUS MALACHY
SUMMER 2012

My thoughts often wander back to the Holy Land; not the Holy Land I knew in the seventies, rather I always attempt to cast off the intervening centuries and make an effort to see it through first century eyes. This is not an easy task: the promised land under the Roman boot; for the time-being a temple based form of Judaism [but not for long]; abject poverty: malnutrition and rampant disease ensured that five out of six infants were dead by age six, and an adult lifespan of thirty to forty years was the norm. Women, or the lucky ones that survived it, were worn out by childbirth closer to thirty...

I do not suppose for a minute that Jesus and his contemporaries had the luxury of a summer "silly season" fed by state sponsored spectaculars like the Olympics: soporifics that placate the people and divert their attention from the obvious fact that the politicians and oligarchs are frolicking at the exclusive resorts of the rich and famous and the process of government is at a virtual standstill yet again. The Harper government has made no - government into an art form; hence accusations of dictatorial behavior.

Justice Janice Dillon [Justice?] in British Columbia obviously knew the value of the silly season when she put off the sentencing of RCMP corporal Benjamin [Monty] Robinson until late July 2012. Robinson, you may remember, was the lead RCMP officer in the Vancouver airport killing of Robert Dziekanski [for which he and his three subordinates still face perjury charges] and he then went on to kill Orion Hutchinson in Delta, BC while drunk at the wheel of his vehicle, which also contained his two infant children. Robinson, using his knowledge of how to beat a drunk driving charge avoided prosecution but was finally charged with obstruction of justice.

At the time that Robinson was found guilty, Dillon waxed poetic about the serious nature of his crime, which carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison; however, the eminent justice's feet cooled rapidly in the interim and her best effort was a slap on the wrist without jail time. Dillon justified this by quoting Robinson's aboriginal heritage and his position as a police officer: convoluted thinking to be sure. Robinson, who has been on a $300,000.00 paid holiday [thanks to you, the taxpayer] since the incident saved the RCMP the agonizing decision whether to fire one of their own by resigning from the regiment. The charges in the Dziekanski affair are unlikely to come to anything either: BC department of justice [justice?] has dragged its feet for so long that the next 'tame' judge only has to throw everything out because it took so long to bring the matter to trial. Perhaps the real villains of the piece are the RCMP brass, who despite a series of 'management' changes and propaganda style press conferences remains so entrenched in the culture of RCMP superiority that they feel confident to continue the status quo unchanged, RCMP quote: "The public has no right to know." Reichsfuhrer Himmler would be proud of them.

Janice Dillon, next time you sentence some poor slob to six months in prison for stealing from BC Liquor Commission [the government bootlegger who helps pay your salary], I sincerely hope that whatever conscience you might have keeps you awake for weeks.

My prayers go out to Orion Hutchinson's family and to Robert Dziekanski's mother, all of whom must retain zero faith in the Canadian Justice System or the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

It will not have escaped your notice that the megachurches also recognize the 'silly season' and that the big doors, never thrown open wide that much anymore, are locked tight more than usual.

Certainly the case in the southern states, where Megachurch pastor and televangelist Creflo Dollar [surely not his real name] who has drawn scrutiny for his flashy lifestyle and preaching that prosperity is good, was arrested last month after authorities say he hurt his 15-year-old daughter in a fight at his metro Atlanta home. [She likely wanted to borrow the Dollar private jet to fly to Dallas for a pop concert.] Teenagers!

Meanwhile back at Castel Gandolfo pope Benedict XVI now in his dotage has finally told all to a German journalist. Displaying a masterful grip on the situation in Africa and the AIDS epidemic, Benedict has decided that the use of condoms by male prostitutes is possibly appropriate. I suppose that celibacy and a total lack of understanding regarding human sexuality excuses his ignorance of the situation to some extent, but c'mon...

Benedict also sees the possibility; reality even, of his resignation should he become unfit to rule; even though Roman Catholic canon law states quite emphatically that his only way out is feet first.

The pope continues to champion Pius XII, and fantasizes that 'Hitler's pope' saved "More Jews from the holocaust than anyone else." A claim that runs contrary to established historical fact. Sainthood at any price; howsoever bloody. Finally, he spoke to the years of child abuse within the church, saying that, "These deeds were hushed up and kept secret for decades...which was a declaration of bankruptcy for an institution that has love written on its banner" Sadly, Benedict did not mention that it was he himself who had written the manual on how to hush up these terrible crimes when he was Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith back when the abuse of innocent children was globally rife.

The English Anglicans have once again prevaricated regarding the consecration of female bishops; the Church of England [an enormous ecclesiastical dinosaur, which the meteorite sadly missed] cannot seem to get its collective head around equality for women. Strangely, equality for the third gender does not seem to be a problem; well, for the 'gay' part of it anyway...

Meanwhile, our own all Canadian Anglican has been at a retreat in Cambridge, Mass, one presumes recharging his batteries in the monastic community. Primate Hiltz subsequently declared, "You are my beloved." Although, in fairness, it was not clear what defined his point of reference. At the time of writing, Mrs. Hiltz was not available for comment. Primate Hiltz is a master spin doctor with astonishing powers of obfuscation; a talented individual who could have had the front page of Volkischer Beobachter typeset and printed before Goebbels even rose from his bed. Don't believe me? Talk to the residential school survivors just for a start. My acquaintance with 'Fred' goes back to the time when he was the incumbent bishop in Nova Scotia and PEI: his true love is money, and while he speaks honeyed words and can fake amazing sincerity, Jesus message is lost upon him. Others watch Hiltz and his disciples much closer than I: try the following website http://www.anglicansamizdat.net/ for up to date; 'silly season' news [caution, it does tend to favour the other side of the schism, but it reporting while cynical is truthful, amusing and accurate].

To those of you who are new to Abba I say this: welcome; you have made the right choice; to our veterans: keep the faith and spread the word, and to anybody considering ordination with Abba: talk to any Abba Pastor; pray for guidance from the Holy Spirit or contact Abba Ministries of Canada's National Office.

And now O Lord, for whom do I wait?
My faith is in you.

In Christ,

Malachy

Bishop Emeritus

OPEN LETTER FROM BISHOP EMERITUS MALACHY - EASTER 2012

May the sacrifice of our Jesus Christ strengthen you anew: remember that He died so that we might live. Live your lives well then, and in the service of the risen Lord!

Never in the field of human interest has a tragedy attracted so much attention as that of the RMS Titanic. Everybody knows the story [or at least thinks that they do]; most people have a favourite theory regarding the reason for the sinking: the latest being extra high spring tides in January 1912 refloating a proliferation of icebergs from the Grand Banks of Newfoundland so that they could drift southward in search of imprudent mariners and their ships. Most of these theories, this latest offering no different, are unsupportable. For the record, a few extra centimeters on top of the high spring tides were unlikely to make much difference to the massive bergs that run aground every year on the Grand Banks.

I suppose that I had better precis my qualifications on the subject before going any further: I have over twenty years command experience on a wide variety of vessels worldwide; including many years in the North Atlantic and sailing the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.

Those addicted to television will be anxiously awaiting the latest docu-drama, which will allow Titanic to sink again exactly 100 years after the actual event, this time on British TV. In the words of the producer, Nigel Stafford-Clark, the Titanic is "the whole British class system, literally encased in steel". As usual, the Irish do not count, at least not to the double-barreled English: in County Mayo, Eire where I grew up many families, including mine, lost loved ones in the disaster.

My eldest son, on a visit to the maritime museum in Halifax, Nova Scotia when he was eight years old, was asked by a tourist if he knew why the Titanic sank. His audience was unprepared for the answer: "Yes," he replied, "It sank because Captain Smith was stupid, and the ship's designer did not connect the watertight bulkheads with the uppermost continuous deck." Icebergs? Well yes, but what did they expect at that time of year?

The TV production's director Julian Fellowes points out that third-class women and children were saved ahead of first-class men, that proportionally, second-class men suffered the most fatalities, and that the lack of lifeboats wasn't just down to heartless negligence, but to the fact that nobody expected a ship to sink so quickly that passengers could not be shuttled to rescue vessels. To which I would answer, "Balderdash and baloney!" Fellowes, must have learned to manipulate statistics at Statistics Canada; also I believe that he would benefit from a few years swabbing decks in the North Atlantic, where in 1912 you could sail for five days without seeing or contacting another vessel. For the record, one hundred and five third class women and children survived, while one hundred and nineteen died; twice the number of dead poor people than first class men, numbering fifty-four rich heroes, who ignored the order, "Women and children first!" and saved their own cowardly skins.

During Lent, another little known, film will precede the epic Fellowes/Stafford-Clark offering along with its own documentary, and again on British TV: this film, called simply 'Titanic', was commissioned during WWII by the master of propaganda and spin, German Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbells. The movie is described in the British documentary as a crude attack on British society. Saying that it depicts the sinking as a result of profit-seeking greed by the ship's owner Joseph Bruce Ismay and other wealthy passengers on board the Titanic. Well, personally, I care very little indeed for the Nazis; however, to defend himself against this Great British opinion, Herr Goebbells has the moral high ground and a very defendable position.

Well, as you cling precariously to the edge of your seats, spare a though for another, much larger vessel that in 2012 is sinking rapidly and already abandoned by huge numbers of its faithful crew. No, it is not the Costa Concordia, it is of Christianity itself that I speak.

The reason for our sinking faith can of course be found in Jesus' teachings:

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, "Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven" [King James Bible, Cambridge edition]

Bruce Ismay, [who like Captain Francesco Schettino, of the ill fate Concordia, "fell" into a lifeboat] and the White Star Line's directors built Titanic for the rich and famous. Second class was small and catered to menservants; governesses; nannies and the like who were 'in service' to the wealthy passengers. Third class, known as "steerage" [a contemptuous expression which referred to weight known as ballast, which had no value, in the stern of the vessel; this supposedly helped to keep the rudder in the water and thus the vessel to steer] made cattle class on today's major airlines look spacious and luxurious by comparison.

Emperor Constantine designed Christianity for the rich and famous too. Popes and Primates; Cardinals and Archbishops; Bishops, Monsignors; Deans and Canons comprised the first class. In second class the priests and deacons lived in passable comfort, but in Christianity's Steerage class it was and is a very different picture. Just as Titanic's rich made their way through life on the backs of the poor, so has the hierarchy of the Christian church expected its adherents to pay for their obscenely luxurious standard of living.

In 1912, the Industrial Revolution was in full swing and Titanic would eventually become a thing of the past, although the wealthy and the politicians still travel first class. Back then, the megachurches also brooked no challenge to their power, but following London and Rome's sleazy love affair with fascism, starting with Franco and continuing with Mussolini and Hitler, cracks stared to appear in the hull of Christianity. The difference was the direction of flow: in Titanic the water flowed in and the ship sank in two hours and forty minutes; in Christianity the cracks widened as the sacred hull split and the faithful flowed out, never to return. They continue to leave today.

In terms of lost souls, the damage to Christianity is incalculable. The Church of England has already predicted the time of its sinking to be around 2035; it is hard to see the Vatican as being too far behind them.

What then has caused these tragedies? On board Titanic it was arrogance; ignorance and greed. The men in Belfast who had built the ship were often asked, "What went wrong?" They would answer, "We do not know, it was fine when it left here!" Then, Ismay pressured Smith to go faster, for what nobody knows: Titanic could break no records and there was little point in arriving in the wee small hours of the night when the arrival party was planned for the following day. Smith caved in to management pressure; ignored warnings of ice and icebergs and in ignorance of his ship's actual position steamed at full speed [about twenty-eight miles per hour] into the ice field. Content that he had done his best, he had a nice cup of tea and went to bed. Only our Lord knows what White Star's stalwart Chairman Bruce Ismay was actually thinking, but we can be sure that it was something to do with profits and shareholder's bonuses. Ultimately, despite the pathetic whitewash of Lord Mersey's Board of Trade enquiry, criminal negligence is the only suitable description of Captain Smith's performance.

The good ship Christianity is no different. Arrogance, ignorance and greed; if Jesus were asked, "What went wrong?" He would doubtless answer: "Everything was fine when I went back to the Father!" However, in the interim, there are many more men who bear the burden of guilt; in fact the list is endless and the number of dead is not some 1500 souls but rather countless millions.

Finally, could these tragedies have been averted? Absolutely, there is always an alternative course of action. On board Titanic there were many "Ifs": if only they had not forgotten the binoculars; if only Smith had been a prudent mariner; if only Ismay had stayed home; if only designer Thomas Andrews had not been overruled upon the numbers of lifeboats and had had a better grip upon ship construction generally; if only the ships officers had understood the dynamics of their triple screw ship. The Officer of the Watch tried to turn against the forces of the propellers, and in any case with a collision imminent it would have been better to hit the iceberg head on. [The ship's bow is far stronger and, in fact, the very first bulkhead is known as the "collision bulkhead" and is designed to resist the forces of a head-on collision]; if only... If only...

There have been many alternative choices for Christianity too. And, poignantly there has been much, much more time available to Christian leaders to embrace those alternatives, yet stubbornly those who ought to know better cling to the old corrupt ways, hiding behind dogmas and traditions that have no place in today's world nor in Jesus' simple program. Even now, with the Christian doomsday clock at a couple of minutes to midnight we are still steaming blindly at full speed ahead towards oblivion.

At Abba Ministries of Canada I believe with my whole being that we can offer an alternative that will keep Christianity afloat in the hearts of men and women. It is not complicated: reject mammon and embrace that simple program that Jesus of Nazareth left us with that very first Easter.

Love God with all your heart and love your neighbour as yourself.

Let us Keep the Faith; the True Faith; the Faith of Jesus of Nazareth.

I wish you and your families a blessed Easter.

In Christ,

Malachy

Bishop Emeritus

Abba Ministries of Canada

P.S. If the Holy Spirit is 'calling you out' we would invite you to join us as we strive to do the Lord's work in these difficult times!

OPEN LETTER FROM OPEN LETTER FROM BISHOP EMERITUS MALACHY - SPRING 2012

May God's everlasting love surround you and your families as we start the year anew!

By-and-large I locked my quill pen in the bottom drawer well over a year ago now; in order to attend to my children's education and thus left the burden of just about everything else at Abba Ministries of Canada upon the shoulders of Bishop Josephine.

Looking back over the last decade, opposing a grand system that I still see as corrupt and self-serving had few rewards during my period of tenure as Abba Ministries of Canada's National Pastor; however, that does not mean that progress was not achieved. I passed control of a strong growing church to my successor: a far cry from the situation extant in 2003.

Abba Ministries is today an independent volunteer church and her mission is vibrant and clear: to serve God through the teachings of Jesus Christ free from the taint of Mammon; free from the accusations of abuse and corrupt practice and free from the crippling political hegemony of the church/state alliance. Easy to say; easy to write, but what is involved in achieving that goal? Lots of hard and mostly unpaid work at National Office and the same effort from our local pastors and chaplains across the country; in addition, because we are a self-supporting volunteer organization, money for administrative and legal work is always in short supply. This in turn tends to be a ball and chain attached to our need to expand provincial recognition.

The fine province of Alberta is an excellent example. The legislation there, as it is in a majority of provinces, is archaic and, to tell the absolute truth unconstitutional. Created by the megachurch/provincial alliances of the nineteenth century, it remains a wearisome and doctrinaire process, and although Abba Ministries of Canada now has pastors 'on the ground'; a registered office and a good number of adherents that process grinds on.

Yet we persevere with God's help. We have to. The poor state of the big church's model of service was highlighted at the Church of England's 2010 General Synod where panicked bishops for the first time predicted the end of their church by 2030 and had no better inspiration for survival than to suggest that, "People need to be taught to tithe..." Money, money, money... where is Lisa Minnelli when the Anglican Communion needs her?

Yes, we persevere with God's help because keeping Christianity alive just has to be about more than filthy lucre!

At home in Canada, I notice no visible improvement in megachurch charity; however, the Anglican Church of Canada does have a new website [Google: Truth and Reconciliation - Anglican Church of Canada] which pays thin lip service to its aboriginal victims, while sadly the issues of "cultural genocide" and "ethnocide" within the Indian Residential School system which attempted the destruction of Aboriginal languages, religions, and cultures in Canada remain unsettled. For the record, this initiative is funded by you the taxpayer through the government of Canada and not the ACC who have never faced their actions four square, nor dug into their coffers, which despite the cries of "Poor Me" still contains millions of dollars!

I may have misread the signs; I have certainly been wrong before, but I have also been predicatively right. I believe that the world that we live in is headed for a monumental crisis within the next year or so. There exists an incredible amount of media hype based on 'millennial and apocalyptical thinking' attached to the coming year; this is augmented by real world events of a more tangible nature which are building up a fine head of steam as I write. Let us examine some of the latter first.

The Euro Crisis: Greece, Portugal and Eire have had their bond status reduced to 'junk' by the Egon Ronays and Michelin Good Food Guide equivalents of the financial world and even the USA has lost its AAA rating. And, yes... the USA is part of the problem: America and its alter ego Great Britain both have huge deficits and major financial problems, and both have made great issue of events in the euro zone in order to deflect attention from their own considerable problems.

Lest we forget, 2012 is an election year in the USA, and President Obama, whose sole moment of glory in his first term as president was in Stockholm picking up a Nobel peace prize, while his country continued to be embroiled in bloody wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Obama has demonstrated that he has about the same understanding of foreign affairs as the average grade five student; his domestic policies have to some extent appeased the American people who are happy with 'quantitative easing' (printing even more fiat currency) and cheap petroleum, but cannot see the dark cloud of Ahmadinjad's Iran on the horizon. Obama appeared to be quite happy with Iran's threat to wipe Israel off the map, and with Hilary Clinton's able assistance, left the only stable US ally in the Middle East vulnerable and alone. Iran's recent threat to close the Straits of Hormuz may or may not be a grand bluff, but it has spooked the complacent Obama, and even Stephen Harper, who has dispatched HMCS Charlottetown to the Middle East. [Rumours have the Ayatollahs trembling at the approach of the Royal Canadian Navy.] Meanwhile back at the ranch, Obama knows full well that the United States consumes over 25% of world oil and produces a quarter of the world's carbon emissions; above all he understands that if he is to be re-elected US voters need to continue their unreasonable and greedy consumption of world resources. Or perhaps he is just working on another peace prize?

Great Britain stayed out of the European single currency zone allowing Germany and her 'Germania' allies (Netherlands, Belgium et al) to manipulate a very favourable industrial and economic position from the start. At the start of 2012, Greece, Portugal and Eire are in desperate straights, while Spain and Italy are in the austerity mode fighting 'contagion'. In parallel France, as usual, does not quite know which course of action might be best. Germany holds the key to interim stability but wants her cake as well as eating it, i.e. cheap market goods and resources, and to the devil with Eire and Club Med who can make do with devalued punts, drachmas, escudos, lira, and pesetas.. It would be best for all concerned if Germany was the country to exit the European Union at this time: certainly Club Med would be able to eat Germany's lunch for a few years while recovering from the current financial crisis. Lance the carbuncle and recovery is normally quite rapid.

The majority of financial institutions and financial experts see the euro zone situation deteriorating further this year; with the chance of a euro zone break up in 2012 approaching frightening odds of 50/50. If this happens please understand that Europe will not be the only block affected, nor will the world economy be able to shrug off the repercussions of a euro zone collapse. Experts share a gloomy world view ranging from a Great Stagnation to a second Great Depression which will make 1929 look like a Disneyland picnic. And, by the way, China's massive economic machine has been contracting throughout 2011 and will continue that trend into 2012.

Well, if all that is not worrisome enough there is always Apocalypse 2012; here is just a tiny selection of the not totally bizarre events guaranteed to make nail biting reading or render unpleasant dreams.

The Book of Revelation has long been subject to apocalyptical interpretation; however, until now, the prophets have gloomily trudged down from the mountain top to recalculate their final date.

(Revelation 8:7) And the first sounded, and there followed hail and fire, mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of the earth was burnt up, and the third part of the trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

Is this the Asteroid 433 Eros, the first discovered Near-Earth Asteroid, smashing through our atmosphere? Eros is one of the few NEAs with a maximum diameter greater than 10 km. Impact with Earth would result in an explosion equivalent to 100 million tons of TNT. Eros is believed to be larger than the impactor that created Chicxulub Crater in the Yucatan, which has been linked to the extinction of the dinosaurs.

On January 31, 2012, Eros will be flying closely by, and hopefully it will keep on going, but with gravity causing orbital degeneration, I suppose you just never know...

Millennia before NASA, the Mayans were keen stargazers. The ancient Maya were familiar with the astrological cycle we call the Precession of the Equinoxes. This is close to a 26,000 year cycle in which Earth passes through each of the 12 signs of the zodiac for 2000-2152 years each. Each of these astrological ages represents one month of the Cosmic Year.

The Mayans were known worldwide for their architectural, artistic, mathematical and scientific achievements. With great attention to detail they constructed stone monuments and pyramids with precise computations. Built with purpose, these dates were left to ensure that future generations would be alerted to the end point of this great 26,000 year cycle, a cycle which corresponds also to a 26,000 year relationship of our Sun orbiting the central star of the Seven Sisters Pleiades Constellation. According to the Maya, the "future" which lies beyond this end date (December 21, 2012 AD) is literally a new world age - a new creation - an Apocalypse.

Food for thought is it not? Will we go the way of Tyrannosaurus Rex, or will we simply go broke? Is there still time to avert events and create some world stability? It does not matter, in the end the important thing is that we as God's servants take responsibility for the administration of Jesus of Nazareth's simple program: Love God with all our heart and our neighbour as ourselves.

That should not be too difficult...

Remember, in Christ we are all created anew!

To Abba's pastors I send my love and I know you will fight the good fight; to other visitors to our web site I urge you to 'gird your loins; slap the dust off your sandals' and join us as we walk with the Master.

In Christ,

Malachy

Bishop Emeritus

OPEN LETTER FROM THE NATIONAL PASTOR
- SPRING 2011

It has been a while since I updated these pages and I can offer no excuse beyond the usual claim that as a volunteer many other things call upon my time and attention; not least three children under ten years. Josephine and I have devoted the last decade to Aodhan [5], Cailiosa [nearly 7] and Li Po [10 in August]; with all our other commitments and the need to work and put bread on the table. To say that this has not been easy is no exaggeration. We have no fall back position for support, and Satan and his eager disciples upon this Earth have been relentless in their attacks on our family.

I draw strength from the fact that when these satanic attacks are extant they indicate that our personal efforts on God's behalf are displeasing to the Prince of Hell. I also know that many, many other Christians; in particular Abba Ministries Priests and Chaplains experience the same level of harassment and difficulty; often from quarters where support may rightfully be expected.

With that bleak thought in mind, I am proud to offer a grateful welcome to the following newly or recently ordained Abba Ministers; who fear not the devil and his treachery, but place their faith and hope in God and Jesus Christ.

Rev. Brent Elgie of Full Throttle Ministries in Chatham, Ontario
Rev. Carmen Agius Spearing of Song of Praise Ministries in Simcoe / Lake County, Ontario
Chaplain Maureen Dwyer of Pond Side Ministries in London, Ontario
Rev. Michele Gayle of The Michele Gayle's Ministries in Oshawa, Ontario
Chaplain Melody Hauser of Abba Dawson Creek Christian Ministries in British Columbia
Rev. Bonnie Mullen of Milestone Celebrant Services in Guelph, Ontario
Rev. Yvonne Power of The Ebenezer Stone Ministry in Guelph, Ontario
Rev. Terry Weller of Interfaith Unity Ministries in Aurora, Ontario
Rev. Roger Craig Whitson of Abba Rutven Christian Ministry in Rutven, Ontario
Rev. Gail Zurba and Rev. Paul Zurba of Abba Faith Ministry


While my health is reasonably good, my auto-immune system is somewhat weakened by the buckets of pills that I take and, in truth, I can no longer climb mountains or jump raging creeks! I have been plagued by a series of colds that the kids bring home in abundance and generously pass on: the children have them for the usual three or four days, but it takes me three weeks to recover.

Before you assume that this is an elaborate soliloquy about 'poor me' let me come to the point. The actions of an elite band of satanic sympathizers have impacted my employment situation in a very negative manner and although I am technically retired the pittance from the Canadian government does not feed three children. Josephine has therefore picked up the baton here and I have devoted my time to the education; welfare and upbringing of the children.

Josephine has also devoted much of her free time to Abba Ministries of Canada; and as you all know she does a terrific job! It is with great pleasure and pride that I am announcing that the board of directors has confirmed the decision to consecrate her as bishop and that at the commencement of Holy Week 2011 she will take over the duties of National Pastor.

I will continue as board chair and continue to take an active roll in our church: perhaps like retired Anglican Bishop, Rt. Rev. John Shelby Spong [the one theist that the atheist bloc can actually support] I will continue in my own way to observe; report upon and critique the actions of the megachurches. Unlike Spong, I will not enjoy the luxuries and benefits of a retired Anglican bishop, yet there again, here nobody can point a finger and call me a hypocrite!

The tragedy in Japan has provoked the usual range of reaction across the Christian leadership spectrum; however it can pretty much be boiled down to an excellent opportunity to take to the pulpit and pontificate. Canadian Primate Archbishop Fred Hiltz can be read in that dubious fundraising rag The Anglican Journal of March 29, 2011 demonstrating his amazing ability to talk the talk while avoiding walking the walk. For Fred this means not parting with money: the ACC, like so many of the megachurches have wasted so many millions of charitable dollars on internal politics [e.g. Gay Blessings] that there is not much left for even Anglican charity. My scribblings on the Primate's World Relief and Development Fund and its voodoo accounting are well known. Archbishop Fred was appointed Primate of the ACC for his fundraising ability and for precious little else: fundraising that is totally engulfed in the last gasp attempt for Anglican Church survival. Sadly, a similar situation prevails in the other first world megachurches.

A distressing analogy for the death throws of megachurchism can be found in the worldwide approach to global warming. The rank and file believe that it will never affect them despite a 0.8 degree Celsius raise in temperature in just a few years. The doomsday merchants [include here the rabid Christian right who are 'forcing the rapture' or predicting the apocalypse] insist that it is too late to reverse the situation, which translates to 'why bother'? The environmental lobby [which exists on a continuum of TV nut bar environmentalist and phony sensation seekers to serious and well qualified dedicated scientists] tends to cancel itself out. The politicians posture and seek advantage while denying responsibility. Rumours have it that Ignatieff recently invited Harper to watch a screening of National Geographic 'docudrama' "Six Degrees" in which Canada fairs much better than most countries as disaster approaches and coast to coast becomes a fertile sub tropical paradise. After the movie, over fine wines and a dinner including chateaubriand and all the trimmings, Harper [presumably working on a mouth full of rare tenderloin] nudges Ignatieff in the ribs and says, "See, I told you we'd be alright!" Meanwhile, global warming refugees roam the other three quarters of the planet in search of clean water and food.

Much closer to home Statistics Canada [that wellspring of fatuous information and nepotistic employment] estimate that over three-quarter of Canadians have yet to change to lower energy light bulbs, while the average Canadian family has the same carbon footprint as a large African village.

Linked to global warming is the tectonic plate activity that we have witnessed: anybody who saw the chilling video footage that came out of Japan can surely not doubt the awesome power of nature. Over the centuries these things have been dubbed 'Acts of God' and the list of terrifying atrocities that have been left at God's door are endless: the Crusades; the evils of the auto de fe; wars, the Great War, WWII; famine; genocides; cruelty and abuse? Please let me tell you again that God had nothing to do with these things. God gave us free will, and if we choose to build our house within the blast zone of an active volcano [Pompeii] or on a floodplain [Richmond, BC] or on reclaimed land [Holland; Singapore] that is our free will, and perhaps stupidity, at work.

If we choose to follow Hitler, Milosevic or Pol Pot that is our free will and perhaps our brutal and violent nature leading us astray, and if we mindlessly donate money to charities [religious or lay] without determining how that money is being spent that is also our free will and irresponsibility, with a bonus that it is a salve to our conscience allowing us to convince ourselves that we are doing the 'right thing', when in fact we are crossing the road with the Pharisees...

God created the perfect ecosystem and He created us with love and hope: sadly - by and large - we have let Him down!

Have a blessed Easter and revisit the thoughts, actions and words of Jesus: His program is as valid today as it was two millennia ago. You have free will: you can choose to be part of the solution.

In Christ,

+Malachy

National Pastor and Bishop
Abba Ministries of Canada

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OPEN LETTER FROM THE NATIONAL PASTOR - SPRING 2010
- TO THE MOST REVEREND ROWAN [TAFFY] WILLIAMS, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY

May Almighty God the Creator bless you all in the Year of our Lord 2010.

I would take a minute to welcome our newest pastor, Reverend Clifford Blake, to the Abba Ministries team: you can read about his calling to ministry on our Ministry page. As always, we are extremely happy to welcome you to the Lord's vineyard and we can promise you the pure joy and satisfaction that a life of dedication to Jesus of Nazareth offers His faithful servants.

CRITICISM: IS IT GOOD OR BAD?

I have been criticized by some for pointing out the errors of the megachurches; in particular the Anglicans and Roman Catholics. Well, I am Irish and I grew up with the Church of Rome and the Anglo-Irish Church and so I really expect them to live up to Jesus' program and continue it. Therefore, to my critics [of my criticism] I say this: firstly, I have an entitlement and, secondly, if nobody speaks out then these churches are entitled to continue merrily on their way happy and content in the assumption that they are doing nothing wrong.

The days of supposition that God speaks to us through Canterbury, the Pope, or Brigham Young [or any of their anointed] are over, and hopefully that means no more Crusades, Inquisition or Mountain Meadows massacres. Yet we live in fluid and difficult times; times when free speech is of critical importance. In these times, it behooves everyone to make their own intelligent; intuitive; researched and accurate; unbiased; cross-referenced and studied decisions, and to these ends you [the reader] may not agree with that which you hear, read or discover, but you have a responsibility to defend the source's unalienable right to disburse the information. Once 'freedom of speech and expression' is eroded, society begins to slide down a slippery slope towards oblivion.

And remember: the truth may not be popular; however, it remains the truth.

ANGLICAN COMMUNION GENERAL SYNOD - HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 2010

Wow, Taffy Williams and all the Anglican Princes and Princesses from around the world will be descending upon our humble coastal city of Halifax, Nova Scotia [Canada] in June of this year. Tourism needs a boost and the gala junket will certainly help. Taffy, if you are reading this, I would really appreciate an opportunity to address the General Synod if you could free up, say, ten minutes perhaps from the Gay Blessings debate, which we both know is a waste of everyone's time.

Here is my agenda, so that everyone can be prepared: let's start with the hot potato.

1] Gay Blessings and the Canadian Schism.

Taffy, remember we talked when you were the Bishop of Monmouth? You had a lot of Gay and Lesbian friends back in those days. You were also firmly of the opinion that there was no resolution to the Gay Church issue despite the fact that about sixty to seventy percent of the Anglican priesthood in Europe and North America are in fact Gay or Lesbian; even if many are still in the closet.

As for the Canadian Schism: it's all over but the church divorce lawyer's feeding frenzy over property and assets.

So what should we do? Simple: no more time-wasting debates, no more charitable money misspent on lost causes [the total must be over half a billion charitable dollars down the drain thus far?]. Back-burner the issue and leave it entirely to the individual pastor's conscience.


2] Charity - What does this mean?

The Oxford Dictionary defines 'charity' as follows: A] an organization set up to help those in need. B] The voluntary giving of money or other help to those in need. C] Help or money given in this way. D] Tolerance in judging others.

Your Anglican bishops know this definition well, they also know that the Anglican Church worldwide is no longer meeting that definition of 'a charity', and dishonestly, they hang on to the old cliche "Charity begins at home..." This means in reality they look after the Anglican Church first, foremost and if there's anything at all left over, maybe a trickle, a few copper pennies, might [just might] get to those wretched souls who need a Good Samaritan and a helping hand.

Ask your pal Financial Fred. Canadian Primate Hiltz inherited the Primate's World Relief and Development Fund [PWRDF] a couple of years ago after gaining much fund-raising experience by bleeding Nova Scotia and PEI dry to, "Pay for the Anglican Churches sins in the First Nation's Residential Schools" [Albeit he spent most of the money elsewhere e.g. cathedral repairs, new robes, priestly perks etcetera]. These days he brays loudly from whatever pulpit will have him of the PWRDF's achievements and this then serves us as an illustration of the reality of this prominent charity.

Yes Taffy, I have been critical of the PWRDF; here is why.

First we have the brag; for a recent example "The Primate's World Relief and Development Fund is sending $50,000.00 to the Episcopal diocese of Haiti, which has been caring for about 23,000 Haitians..." Then we have the actuality: if true that would be about two bucks per Haitian, but how do we know what in point of fact happens with the money?

Go to the PWRDF website and try and find the accounts: these mysterious and highly illusive documents are referred to directly in FAQs but the link "annual report" takes the reader on a wild goose chase to another confusing glossy page with no accounts and no report. [Y'know accounts, Taffy, old pal... Columns of figures that that give clear concise financial information? They are just not available.] However, there is a very clear statement that the PWDRF administrative costs are, "around 7% of total budget".

Most folk do not realize that because the PWRDF is a charitable organization with access to public money their accounts are a matter of public record, if you know exactly where to look. Believe me when I tell you that in 2009 total expenditure was $7.9 million of which only $4.4 million [55%] was spent outside Canada and $2.5 million [31%] was spent on wages and administration. Emphatically not 7% as they claim! The PWRDF also owns property valued at over $5million, which has absolutely no charitable purpose whatsoever. $3 million drops into its coffers from 'other charities' mostly Anglican, while the Federal Government forks over $1.25 million of your hard earned tax dollars and at the same time $1.5 million comes from the Anglican faithful who get a 22% break on their 2009 taxes for donating.

Asked if the PWRDF donates only to Anglicans, Fred Hiltz would wax poetic about this and that while dancing the Dance of the Seven Veils; however, the answer is clearly 'yes' the majority goes to Anglicans. [Remember the truism: Charity begins at home...] Back to our 25,000 Haitians who received two bucks per capita: I suggest that based on the evidence at hand the reality is very, very different.

Interestingly, the PWRDF has an amazing list of some twenty directors who do not apparently receive remuneration; however, junkets here and there do not count in the reckoning and that's the way the money goes; pop goes the weasel!

And what of the Roman Catholic Church and the proselytizing Panzer Pope himself? See for yourselves how the princes of the church live. Critical of Vatican extravagance, Mother Teresa [1910-97], an Albanian-born nun and missionary said, "Charity begins today... Yesterday has gone, tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today."

God bless you, sister in Christ, for that!


3] Clergy Benefits.

The Canadian General Synod has been spending much time on this issue. Now, it is pretty obvious that the Anglican Church did not lose too many priests to the RC Church due to Benedict XVI's recent blatant proselytization campaign. The reason being Anglican Priests get much better pay and benefits than Catholic priests. It might be mentioned that boys living openly with boys and girls living openly with girls is a bit of a no-no too; although much 'goes on' being closed rectory doors.

Isn't it reasonable to expect that in these hard times, Anglican priests should they be happy with what they are getting? Soon, it seems, like their United Church compatriots, they will be joining the Canadian Autoworkers Union.

C'mon Taffy, even to find an Anglican priest these days we have to follow the money. We never see them anywhere that could constitute a freebie like the care homes; the hospitals; the prisons and the morgue. Frankly they are not pulling their weight in the community, but rather ministering to the few fare paying pew warmers that are left within fixed Anglican congregations.

There is a better model of service: designed and demonstrated over two thousand years ago by one Jesus of Nazareth; I know that you have heard of Him! Amazingly, that model of service still works today, but of course there are no benefits, no salary; on the other hand there were no rules, no dogmas and no traditions either in that pre-Constantinian Christian world.

Just wholehearted love for God and love and compassion for all of humanity; so Taffy, old bean, can you give me that ten minute slot? Do you DARE to give me that ten minute slot?

By the way, Rev. Josephine and I would love to see you for dinner if you get fed up with all that pomp and circumstance!

Blessings in Christ,

+Malachy

National Pastor and Bishop
Abba Ministries of Canada

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OPEN LETTER FROM NATIONAL PASTOR - CHRISTMAS 2009

CHRISTMAS: A TIME OF PEACE AND JOY!

At Christmas 1914 during The Great War there took place in one small part of the front line what is still regarded by many as the most remarkable incident of the War: an unofficial truce.

Author Stanley Weintraub, who wrote, Silent Night: The Story of The World War I Christmas Truce concluded his book with a final chapter that speculates 'what might have happened' after a Christmas truce had been both widespread and had lasted, which he believes would have forced the politicians to declare peace.

There are many practical reasons why this was not to happen: the premise involves the French and Belgians accepting the German occupation of parts of their countries, and the Germans giving up some of what they'd fought so hard to capture; etcetera; etcetera.

What is remarkable about this incident is that the 'truce' was initiated by the common front-line soldiers; the canon-fodder; the ordinary men. It was done without the approval of the ruling classes: Queen Victoria, Kaiser Bill and Tsar Nicolas, who would not have been amused had they had the option.

It was a 'truce' unknown to the politicians of the world's 'greatest' nations, who like their kings and queens were safely at home toasting their toes in front of a bright fire and enjoying the pageantry of Christmas; the excellent food and wine; the company of their families, all without a moments thought about the gross insubordination of the poorly equiped troops freezing in the trenches who had stopped the slaughter momentarily to wish each other "Merry Christmas".

Weintraub's speculation about a lasting truce has been dismissed as naive, and understandably so. You see, the people who create wars and make war on others do not dirty their hands with the actual killing; they simply indemnify the rank and file from specific charges of murder and dispatch them into the fray. Canada has a long list of such people and one notable exception: the oft reviled McKenzie King, who refused to enforce conscription during WWII. King's refusal was met by enormous pressure from the British establishment and his fellow commonwealth prime ministers in general and from Lord Louis Mountbatten [formerly Prince Louis of Battenberg] in particular; subsequently, there were many who postulated that the slaughter of Canadians at Dieppe after Mountbatten withdrew air support was in fact his revenge against McKenzie King. Nice people, these Anglo-German royals.

At the other end of the continuum was the young Pierre von Trudeau, who rode gaily around Ottawa on his motorcycle wearing a Nazi 'coal scuttle' helmet giving the Heil-Hitler to all and sundry. Ask yourself which person became a Canadian Icon... And there perhaps we have it; at least in the 'big picture sense'. Men [yes, men much more than women] are aggressive; bellicose; violent; bloody and murderous creatures.

The best conclusions that we can draw from the enigmatic Christmas truce of 1914 might be that in the midst of the horror of trench warfare in the early years of the bloodiest century of human existence near Ypres, Belgium; in a small sector of the front line during The 'Great' War, a group of men were visited by God. There was no manger; no baby; no kings; no gifts; no wise men. There were no angels; no heavenly voices, nothing but bullets; shells; grenades; mustard gas and barbed wire. There was only the Holy Spirit, moving quietly among them, demonstrating that Peace on Earth was possible if only for a few minutes.

Has anyone learned anything from this? Has it changed the modus operandi of Queen Elizabeth II; President Obama; the Chancellor of Germany; those who inherited power from Tsar Nicolas? Remember that these people are role models for our own so-called leaders; and by extension for our young men and women.

What about the Pope, Benedict XVI, Williams the Archbishop of Canterbury and the princes of the megachurches? Surely, we can rely on them to work for peace through significant change as an immediate and desperate necessity?

Sadly, the answer is no, we cannot: nothing has changed. And nothing will change while men seek power and money in obscene proportions.

I beg you all to spend some time this Christmas in thoughtful prayer. Believe it or not, God is still listening.

In Christ,

Malachy

National Pastor and Bishop
Abba Ministries of Canada

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OPEN LETTER FROM NATIONAL PASTOR - FALL 2009

FROM MEDIOCRITY TO HYPOCRISY

It appears that all I need to do is carp and moan about time being a shrinking resource and God, spurred on no doubt by a truly cosmic sense of humour, proceeds to make that time available. I take that to mean that our Creator appreciates my scribbling and is supportive of our direction in ministry.

Since I was elected as the second Bishop and National Pastor of Abba Ministries of Canada and, as such, the leader of the National Church, Abba Ministries of Canada has not been in full communion with the Roman Pontiff or the Anglican Primate or their respective ecclesiastical organizations. Abba, in fact, is very much an independent cross denominational Christian Church.

Over the years, I have been critical of both megachurches; remember that in a Christian sense, we are told to admonish those brothers and sisters who fall to the wayside and allow their faith to lapse in search of Mammon. Au contraire, it must be said that both of those megachurches have been critical of Abba Ministries of Canada in return. Those of you who completed Psychology 101 or have a reasonable understanding of the human condition will be aware of the term "Projection".

Projection is very common: in its commonest form we project our inadequacies onto other people. "You need to get a life..." very frequently translates to: "I need to get a life..." But for one reason or another: denial; anger; fear; insecurity; guilt; failure; selfishness, the list is endless, that life eludes us; it is easier to blame or attack someone else rather than face up to your own faults. Christ once suggested: "You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. [Matthew 7:5] I guess projection has been around for at least two millennia!

I do try not to project Abba Ministries of Canada's faults onto the megachurches, you all know that 'fault' of which I speak: we never seem to be able to volunteer enough time in the service of the Lord; however, the megachurch philosophy on projection is a teeny bit hampered by our modus operandi as a self-supporting, volunteer organization. If they accuse us of going after the money and worshipping Mammon their projection is laughably obvious; likewise accusations of sectism; creedal deficiency; liturgical inadequacy and questioning our devotion and service to God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. So, what criticism or accusation does that leave the demented megachurch projectionist to throw in our direction that might have a vague chance not being immediately and hilariously laughed out of court?


And the answer is: proselytisation [converting people from one denomination to another]. In the absence of anything else the 'P' word has been bandied about a number of times across the country; usually in an attempt to ride roughshod over ecumenical Christianity and discredit our volunteer clergy, who have a knack of showing up the well paid megachurch variety for what they are, which is usually absent and lacking in compassion.

For example, in 2003/4/5 our own local church in Halifax, Saint Mary Magdalene, was providing an eastern shore geriatric facility called The Birches with volunteer clergy who celebrated Mass, visited the chronically ill and the dementia patients, and prayed with those in palliative care. A local RC priest, Fr. Ronald Pete accused our clergy of "proselytizing" and had the temerity to suggest that they were "not representatives of God". I am sure that I speak for one and all when I say that nobody is in the least interested in proselytizing in care homes, acute care and palliative care facilities. The mere thought is so ridiculous that if it were not for the evil spin-off effects of these accusations, it would be hilarious, a joke.

Could no one share a kind word or give hope to the sick, old and dying? What would Jesus do? Anything less would be from the devil himself. Well, Fr. Pete eventually prevailed upon the administration of The Birches which was predominantly Catholic. Our priests were excluded from the facility because we were not Catholic, Anglican, Baptist or United Church [but The Birches conveniently forget we are followers of Jesus and a bona fide Christian denomination]: this despite the fact, clearly indicated by The Birches clergy sign-in book, that other priests, including Pete, were very, very rare to non-existent visitors.

Subsequently, I requested a meeting with Archbishop Prendergast [now in Ottawa] and was finally granted audience more appropriate to my lowly station with his henchman Archdeacon Britain. Basically, we stood accused of masquerading as Roman Catholic priests and proselytising dementia patients and those too weak to curse us as heretics. Strange but true! As I said at the time, it would be hard to mistake Rev. Josephine for a Roman Catholic priest, and furthermore, as we are totally uninterested in money [unlike some!] therefore we had no need to sign up anyone as a regular adherent. Fixed congregations and passing the plate is just so 'not us'. What is more, I explained to the good Archdeacon, unlike you, we are ordained catholic priests; however, we are not, and have no desire to be, in communion with Rome.

Well dear people, as your Bishop and in the light of recent events here in Christendom which some, me included, might see as the absolute epitome of hypocrisy I feel the Holy Spirit urging me to throw my pointy hat into the hotly contested denominational arena. While I will confess to being somewhat awed by the circumstances, let me say that, October 27, 2009, will go down in history as a turning point in Catholic and Abba Ministries of Canada relations. This morning, at 11 A.M. [AST] Halifax time, the Board of Governors of Abba Ministries of Canada announced new procedures through which entire congregations of Catholics can be reunited with Christ through membership within the body of Abba Ministries of Canada.

After careful consideration I have signed my own Apostolic Constitution entitled ABYSSUS ABYSSUM INVOCAT [which like Benedict XVI's has not yet been released] that will allow disaffected Catholics to enter Abba Ministries of Canada as discrete bodies. I have introduced a canonical structure that provides for such corporate reunion by establishing Personal Ordinariates which will allow former Catholics to enter full communion with the Abba Ministries of Canada while preserving elements of the distinctive Catholic spiritual and liturgical patrimony.

These personal ordinariates are, in effect, non-territorial dioceses, provided over by myself as bishop and with their own priests and congregations. While Abba Ministries of Canada does not recognize the validity of Catholic Holy Orders, the new structure will allow Catholic clergy to receive Holy Orders after formal conversion, and thus to serve as Abba priests. This new canonical structure will be open to all in the Catholic Church here in Canada.

How's that for proselytising? As my Irish granny used to say, "You cannot make a sauce for the Gander without breaking eggs!" [Granny had an awful tendency to mix her metaphors on occasion.] I am sure my colleague Pope Benedict XVI will understand, and I hasten to assure him that I will shortly be making similar arrangements for the Anglican Church of Canada because I am well aware that there are dissident elements on the opposite side of the schism from where his Holiness' interest is focussed that can no longer function under the current leadership of Primate Hiltz.

A word of caution before you contact Abba Ministries of Canada's National Office: our priests are like Jesus Christ in so many ways. They are compassionate; they love God with all their heart and their neighbour without thought of discrimination. Our priests are our denomination: unpaid volunteers who do that which they do for the love of the Lord. Our priests receive no salary; no benefits, no manse; no car in fact they receive nothing except God's Grace.

What was it that Jesus said? "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." [Mathew 19:21] Oh, and before you ask: Abyssus abyssum invocat. Translation: literally, "Hell invokes Hell"; more commonly known as, "One misdeed precedes another"; or more colloquially known as, "Two wrongs do not make a right".

In Christ,

Malachy

National Pastor and Bishop
Abba Ministries of Canada

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ABBA MINISTRIES OF CANADA

OPEN LETTER FROM THE NATIONAL PASTOR - SUMMER 2009

THE CHRISTIAN WORLD IS WALLOWING IN MEDIOCRITY

For me it has been a busy year: I have been globe-trotting again as part of my employment in the oil and gas industry, something that I did routinely years ago seems harder now as I approach sixty-five. It also restricts my time as a volunteer for Abba and for Saint Mary Magdalene, our local church. Time now seems to be a shrinking resource.

I welcome gladly, and with a heart that rejoices in our increased ability to serve God, the following new priests to the Abba Ministries of Canada fold:

• Reverend Stephen Jones, Guelph, Ontario
• Pastor Fran Morin, Calgary, Alberta
• Reverend Pamela Covert-Slater, Bradford, Ontario
• Reverend Linda Dow, Grand Bend, Ontario
• Reverend Gary O'Dwyer, Christ the Servant Catholic Church, Cold Springs, Ontario
• Reverend Donna Knight, Oshawa, Ontario
• Pastor Gerry Leet, Genesis Crime Prevention, Halifax, Nova Scotia

You can read about their calling to ministry on our MINISTRIES page.

In addition, we continue to process applications from men and women who complete the all important discernment process, and have quite clearly, have been directed to us by the Holy Spirit.

I am sure that we all wish that we could do more for Jesus... No, that's not true; actually, what I mean is we all ought to be doing more for Jesus, but in truth we and the Christian world are wallowing in mediocrity. In Canada, our politicians [federal, provincial and municipal] continue to amaze us with their inability to govern effectively and their focus upon partisan posturing coupled with the consummate ease with which they misappropriate tax dollars and perpetuate the pork barrelling, cronyism of those who went before them.

Martin Brian Mulroney is a case in point: at the outset, Mulroney worried what the public might do with 'Martin', so he dropped it in favour of Brian. Enter Lyin' Brian upon the world stage... Mulroney recently wept big fat crocodile tears about the negative affect upon his family from the Oliphant Commission, an inquiry into his criminal activities with a German war monger. Canada Revenue Agency rewarded him with a big break on his taxes [due on the stolen quarter of a million], conveniently ignoring his thieving ways, and the Canadian Government has not even bothered to ask for the return of 2.6 million dollars that the taxpayer forked out to the former prime minister because he pretended that his feelings were hurt over the Airbus allegations. Good Catholic that he claims to be, Brian [or Martin] is an excellent example of the dull mediocre quality of Canadian politicians.

Mulroney had just been bounced by the federal electorate in 1995 when the G-7 meetings were held in Halifax. A few weeks ago, another pathetic example of political ineptitude [this time provincial] was bounced by the electorate in Nova Scotia: exit Rodney MacDonald who, like so many Nova Scotia politicos, is a teacher. Those who can, do. Those who can't teach; then move with alacrity into politics, which has a well proven and superior record of financial potential. Baby Mac, as MacDonald was known, was replaced by Darrell Dexter, who while he has a cabinet full of teachers, is actually a lawyer: that other systemic caterpillar the metamorphoses into a politician.

Faced with a self perpetuating political system that is corrupt and non-functional; a system which I would argue in effect no longer has even a remotely democratic mandate to govern because approximately 25% of the total available votes [way, way less in municipal politics] will get even the confused and befuddled Elizabeth May and the so-called Green Party into political power, after 50 to 60% of eligible voting citizens have walked away in total disgust. Then, after the new entry settle in; guzzle a trough full of tax dollars; survive a scandal or two involving brown envelopes stuffed with cash or sex with someone other than their spouse and then find government jobs for all their friends and family it is the propensity of the few remaining, disenchanted voters to fall back on the 'bounce them out' routine as the only option left to them short of revolution.

But, what links the G-7 of 1995 and the late summer of 2009? A relatively obscure Canadian called Muriel Duckworth. Muriel, a practicing Quaker, was a former national president of Voice of Women. She helped establish the anti-poverty Canadian Council for International Co-operation, and was one of the first women in Nova Scotia to run for provincial and federal office. With other elderly friends, in a group known as the Raging Grannies, she protested the 1995 G-7 meetings in Halifax. As far as I know, the ruling male chauvinist pig political establishment was so terrified of Muriel that they closed ranks to keep her out, as did the ecclesiastical politicians earlier in her career when she graduated seminary.

Sadly, I note that Muriel died yesterday, having given Jesus one hundred years of service.

Darrell Dexter, Nova Scotia's newest super hero, jumped on the stump with a short, politically correct eulogy; however, I would bet dollars to donuts that until his press office gave him the heads up, Dexter didn't know Muriel from Adam.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Muriel Duckworth was even better than good, and here are her own outspoken words reflected back in tribute: "War is the greatest destroyer of human life, the greatest polluter, the greatest creator of refugees, the greatest cause of starvation and illness. We all have to care - not just for our own little circle, but for the universe".

It is because of the pathetic mediocrity and hypocrisy of our political systems that Muriel Duckworth's influence, just like that of Jesus', was as a protester and a peaceful revolutionary from without, and not a so called 'law-maker' from within the 'circles of power'!

And what of the Primate of Canada, has his amazing grace, Archbishop Fred [Financial Fred] Hiltz, been maintaining the Anglican Church's standards, mediocre or otherwise? Actually, Fred has been on a junket to Africa; leaving at home such contentious issues as the ongoing child abuse, and cover-ups of the same, by Bishop Bruce of Ontario and others; the putrid sore of the Residential Schools, which just will not heal and Fred's own favourite: the habitual, aggressive pan-handling of a small 'c' christian megachurch that worships Mammon and has forgotten Jesus of Nazareth.

As a footnote to Hiltz's peregrinations, we should note that the actual and of course 'hidden' agenda of his junket is to shore up the Anglican Church of Canada's position against the enemy; however, take note that the 'enemy' is not satan but rather the Anglican Network in Canada [ANiC]. Since Archbishop Ingham and his nefarious protege Dean Peter Elliott [these two are sort of an Anglican Batman and Robin] set the Anglican schism in motion, the ANiC has been growing by leaps and bounds. The whole extravaganza has now taken on the shape and form of a nasty high society divorce, and of course it will be heading to court to fight over that which is so tremendously precious to Anglicans in Canada: money!

The mediocrity here is that sadly, so sadly, the issues of individual Christians have been manipulated and obscured by power hungry men like Hiltz, Ingham and Elliott who claim to worship Jesus, but know Him not.

And what about the other megachurches: same, same... Einstein summarized my rant when he said the capacity for human stupidity was infinite, and Gandhi observed, "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."

Between the words of Ghandi and Einstein we can read between the lines. Why did Pierre von Trudeau, the fascist; the Great Abortionist, receive a state funeral officiated by the Catholic Church; why will Chretien, known as 'the Shawinigan Swindler' [and arguably the biggest liar in Canadian politics with his silly 'little red book'] a supporter of abortion and a man who held his fellow Canadians in utter contempt receive similar accolades when his time comes? Why won't Martin Brian Mulroney go to prison, when you or I would have already served fifteen years with no chance of parole? Why have so many people rejected religion in general and Christianity in particular as too narrow, too rigid and too money centric. And why, oh, please tell me why, isn't Canada led by people of the calibre of the late Muriel Duckworth?

People are leaving the church and finding God; some of those people are finding a unique Christian order whose priests serve, just as Jesus served: for love and not for money. A dedicated band of disciples who pool their meagre resources and struggle onward in Jesus of Nazareth's footsteps: this is Abba Ministries of Canada.

Gandhi, you would like our priests because they do indeed strive to be like 'our Christ'.

Jesus needs you! So why don't you join us?

In Christ,

Malachy

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ABBA MINISTRIES OF CANADA

OPEN LETTER FROM THE NATIONAL PASTOR
CHRISTMAS 2008 AND NEW YEAR 2009

May Almighty God the Creator bless you all this Christmas and New Year. I would take a minute to welcome several new pastors to the Abba Ministries team: you can read about their calling to ministry on our MINISTRIES page.

• Reverend Darlene McGregor, Community and Funeral Home Chaplain, ON
• Pastor Abigail Sloan, Genuine Faith Christian Ministries, ON
• Reverend Dawn Tyndall, Divine Life Creation Ministries, BC
• Pastor Pete Olsen, Mosaic Ministries, Guelph Ontario

As always, we are extremely happy to welcome you all to the Lord's vineyard and we can promise you the pure joy and satisfaction that a life of dedication to Jesus of Nazareth offers His faithful servants.

CHRISTIANITY IS DEAD!
[OR, WHAT CALLS ITSELF CHRISTIANITY IS DEAD!]

'Tis an awful thing to say at a time when culturally correct Happy Holiday trees are popping up all over Canada... Yet, technically and unless there is a miraculous reversal in trend, all that will be visible of Christianity in a couple of decades will be a right wing, fundamentalist manifestation of Jesus' program calling itself "christianity" but demonstrating absolutely nothing of the true compassion, acceptance and love of humanity that Jesus established in his ministry two thousand years ago. It is essential to remember that it was upon the words and actions of Jesus [The Christ] that Christianity was established; not upon the subsequent rhetoric, dogmas and traditions laid down by men of church or state.

Hogwash, you say! After all, look at Abba Ministries of Canada: it is certainly not right wing! True, Abba Ministries of Canada clergy are unpaid volunteers who are called to service for the best, and perhaps the only reason: love of the Lord and love and compassion for their neighbour. Perhaps, just perhaps Christianity will survive! However, a small Christian denomination like Abba does not attract sheep that have been programmed for generations to not think outside the sheep pen concerning all matters spiritual. Sheep need a true shepherd, and like Jesus of Nazareth our priests are pastors, shepherds; leaders and strongly independent Christians; our pastors do something very unique in today's not very Christian world: they sally forth and minister to the sheep and, unlike the Sally-Ann and all the other big denominations, our pastors never ask for money. Our priests do not proselytise or evangelize, at least not in the conventional sense of forceful conversion to denominational dependence, a conversion that is followed by a prompt: "Here's your envelopes, and by-the-way, we expect fifteen percent of every penny that you earn..." [Please note: that fifteen percent can be somewhat onerous when is added to the forty-five percent that the Canadian government grabs so that Ottawa can enjoy financial independence from the peasantry.] Au contraire, our priests preach the gospel, pure and simple.

ABBA MINISTRIES OF CANADA PASTORS LEAD BY EXAMPLE.

It might be argued that Abba does not attract thousands of pastors, which is true: we have seen but modest growth in the past four years. Quality, but not quantity. You see, we do not offer a stipend; a manse; a car; a pension plan; extended health care; promotion to princely status and a sycophantic congregation that inflates personal ego on demand as long as the incumbent panders to their insatiable needs and their church shirks involvement anywhere else in Christendom. In fact, Abba pastors pay a minimum of $400.00 each year in tithes and clergy fees just to support their denomination. Our pastors have ordained status in God's church and registered clergy status here in Canada.

Now, four hundred bucks is not a Canadian prime minister's ransom, [not the recent crop, anyway] in fact, compared to the fifteen percent demanded by the mainline churches from the laity, in order to pay their priests, it is just small change: about 0.6% or less of the average Canadian income or the price of four cartons of cigarettes, or the same amount as many individual Canadians gamble on lottery tickets each year. But that money, freely given by our clergy, keeps us afloat administratively, bolstered up by a lot of volunteer time and effort; however, it does not permit us to promote Abba Ministries of Canada, except by word of mouth and our website, which is ably maintained by our volunteer Web Servant.

To put the foregoing into perspective, Abba Ministries succeeds in maintaining over thirty volunteer Christian priests in active ministry across Canada on an annual budget of around $12,000.00. Given the minimum 'trappings of power' demanded by the elite megachurch priests, that figure would give you only one-eighth part of an Anglican or Catholic priest, or a Pentecostal pastor, or a Salvation Army Captain. [Imagine perhaps a frowning, disembodied head, complete with clerical collar.] Or, conversely, given the annual operating budget of the megachurches, Abba Ministries of Canada could hit the streets with hundreds of thousands of volunteer priests all striving to do the will of Jesus and following his program.

Mainline churches have been hemorrhaging adherents since the end of WWII; so much so that today their pulse is so weak that it is barely detectable. Strangely, the mainline church bureaucracies have grown larger during the same period, while their public support fades away. As congregations age and die, the vacuum increases yet in this twenty-first century where Jesus has been widely discarded, the old, hard, wooden pews are not filled by new blood. The focus of these churches has become money [sorry, Money. Money; Mamon is their new God!]: for the older megachurches, this is money to survive; to pay for infrastructure, or maintain it while the church realtors sell it off as fast as they can; to pay for priests and bishops who enjoy a fine standard of living while they minister to their dwindling flock, and for the new generation, right-wing megachurches, it is money to build another church and manse and pay another pastor to rant and rave to the tribe [tribalism is indeed what it is!] using a few sparse verses from Leviticus, Geneses or Paul's letters to condemn some wretch to hell and damnation for the crime of not being a right wing fundamentalist.

Our philosophy at Abba is very different: we reach out to everyone. Our priests treat all people with dignity, respect and compassion across ethnic, social and religious boundaries. If we can help you to cope when crisis strikes we will; if we can provide the Christian Sacraments when another denomination has turned you away, we will; if we can visit you in a long term care facility, a hospital or a prison when you are lonely or in despair, we will. [Abba's priests will discuss religion; hockey; travel; the weather; life in general, or simply just hold your hand fo a while and listen.] Some of our pastors work in specialized fields, for example, addictions counselling; others minister through music or fellowship and yet others are social activists, hated and often censored by the small-c, christian establishment and the political elite alike for speaking the truth where injustice, greed and systemic abuse prevail.

If we can help you in any way, please call one of us, and if you happen to be one of those rare and unique individuals with a calling to serve God as a volunteer pastor please get in touch with our national office because Abba Ministries of Canada needs you on the team, a team that will continue to strive to keep Jesus of Nazareth's simple but elusive goals alive in the twenty-first century AD: love God with all your heart and love your neighbour as yourself!

Finally, while this may well be politically incorrect, again please accept my best wishes for Christmas and a Holy New Year!

Blessings,

Malachy

National Pastor and Bishop
Abba Ministries of Canada

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ABBA MINISTRIES OF CANADA

OPEN LETTER FROM THE NATIONAL PASTOR
JUNE 2008

SEVEN DEADLY SINNERS: WILLIAMS, HILTZ, INGHAM, ELLIOTT, SCHORI, ROBINSON
AND MAYBE YOU?

Anglicans one and all; however, let me state clearly at the outset, this article is only related to Same Sex Blessings in the sense that that issue precipitated current events. Let me also make clear my personal position on 'The Burning Issue' itself: I care less; it is a non issue for me. I believe all of humanity needs to be treated with love, respect and as equal partners. Au contraire, I also believe that no human being should be forced to compromise their personal religious or spiritual principles; however and equally, nobody should attempt to impose their religious or spiritual principles upon others.

The Anglican Church of Canada [ACC] is in active schism as is the Episcopal Church south of the 49th parallel: J.I. Packer, a Canadian who Time magazine called one of the 25 most influential evangelicals in America defines schism thus: "Schism means unwarranted and unjustified separation from the rest of the Church [structure], causing an indefensible breach of unity. Those who are unfaithful to the heritage are the schismatics."

Prof. Packer said the Anglican Church of Canada has been "poisoned" by a liberal theology that, he says, "knows nothing of a God who uses [the Bible] to tell us things and knows nothing of sin in the heart and in the head." Packer represents the view point of the Anglican Network in Canada [ANiC]

I include the definition by Merriam Webster, because the judiciary frequently rely on the 'common definition': [a] formal division in or separation from a church or religious body, or [b] the offence of promoting schism.

Archbishop Michael Ingham, the bishop of the diocese of New Westminster, B.C., which started performing same-sex blessings in 2003, said the ANiC is using "Orwellian double-speak" to get out from under the word schism. To Ingham and his sidekick, the insidious Dean Peter Elliott [who I suspect writes much of Ingham's material], I say this: double-speak, hypocrisy and hidden agendas are your stock-in-trade and you and Elliott are the leading schismatics!

Plainly put, what the ACC is doing here is changing the rules to suit the purposes of left wing pro-gay and lesbian faction. These 'rules' have been in play for 1700 years since the original Constantine Bible and a lot longer with regard to the Old Testament. This accompanied by pathetic statements from Primate Hiltz directed at the naive and gullible suggesting that, "Adequate provision for episcopal oversight has been made for those who disagree..." is exactly that: pathetic and misleading. In reality Hiltz and his gang of ecclesiastical thugs have made no such provision, and their response to dissenting clergy and congregations whose Spiritual position has been severely compromised by the ACC has been court orders, frozen bank accounts, firings and locked church doors.

Since the early nineties, at Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver, BC, Dean Peter Elliott has been diligently set upon a path that ultimately would bring the ACC to schism. Archbishop Ingham has been walking by Elliott's side. The apparent goal, which is seen by many folk as laudable, has been to move the church toward spiritual equality and inclusion within the ACC for gay and lesbian people; there is also, of course, a hidden agenda. The hidden agenda is power and control in the new national church hierarchy: note that Elliot, a homosexual, did not dare venture outside the closet until 2005, by which time the die was cast and his future looked rosy. Ingham and Elliott are not stupid people; both know the politics of the church intimately; both are 'canon lawyers'; both are aware of the make-up of the priesthood by sexual orientation; both have much more than a rudimentary grasp of scripture and both knew, back then and without any doubt, that their personal actions would make schism within the ACC inevitable.

The foregoing having been stated, it becomes a quantum leap for me, or any fair-minded person to endorse the Ingham/Elliott/Hitlz name calling of others.

Those who oppose the gay blessings issue do so based upon the fact that the ACC is forcing them to accept a new scriptural interpretation of the Bible and de facto changes to the ancient cannons of the church. That process of change has been flawed; Ingham and Elliott have acted in a unilateral manner, outside the authority of the General Synod and the Primate, and the Primate himself has offered vacillating, weak leadership as well as active support to the SSB cause.

I am reminded of the gallant colonial response to the Acadian people in Nova Scotia by the British. The Acadians were peaceful farmers who found themselves to be the meat in the political sandwich of colonial French - English power. The Acadians spoke French and were Catholic: sufficient for the British not to trust them and so in 1755 the brave redcoats burned their farms, drove off or slaughtered their cattle and livestock, raped and pillaged their communities, split up families [which were never reunited] and forced the Acadians out of Canada.

Perhaps Governor Charles Lawrence subsequently said something like, "I am jolly surprised that the Acadians just abandoned Canada after we made such adequate provisions for their comfort and wellbeing."

Absolute nonsense obviously, but so are similar statements from the three schismatics: Bishops Ingham and Hiltz and Dean Elliott.

Those Anglicans who cannot in good faith align themselves to the current policies and actions of the ACC are NOT schismatics. Those priests, those individuals and those congregations should be allowed to join the ANiC and their church property and other assets must remain with them and intact! Of course another of the not-so-hidden agendas of the Three Schismatics is the money, investments and property of the ACC, which has been cannibalizing itself to stay alive for some time now in the face of lost adherents and dwindling financial support. Hiltz's misplaced financial focus has been well discussed and it is totally unreasonable to expect disenfranchised congregations to hand over every penny so that Hitltz and the General Synod can squander it. It makes more sense for the ACC to start cutting the fat which would be the House of Bishops and the many hangers on who simply put a burden on the grass roots priests rather than supporting them.

Wow! This is all so christian [sic] in an Anglican sort of way. Why do I keep getting this vision of Jesus shaking his head? Thus inspired below by Gandhi, I bring you the seven deadly sins to accompany those seven deadly sinners:

7 DEADLY ANGLICAN SINS
Living life through Hypocrisy
Worship without Sincerity
Money not Jesus
Starvation without help
Words without truth
Power without Justice
Actions without love

Last word of warning to Archbishop Hiltz: "Beware the Ides of March! Wear a steel back plate under your chasuble Archbishop, because you stand between Ingham and his protege and the coveted primacy: 'Ouch! Et tu Westminster?'"

In Christ,

Malachy

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NEW YEAR 2008

May Almighty God the Creator bless you all during 2008.

I would take a minute to welcome several new pastors to the Abba Ministries team: you can read about their calling to ministry on our MINISTRIES page.

• Reverend Gordon Walden of Huron Shores Ministries, St. Thomas, Ontario

• Reverend Betty-Ann Cox of Abba London Christian Ministries, London, Ontario

• Chaplain Margie O'Connor of Abba London Christian Chaplaincy, London, Ontario

• Pastor Mark Moore of Abba Youth Ministries, Brookfield, Nova Scotia

• Reverend Rudy Heezen of Radixx, Whitby, Ontario

As always, we are extremely happy to welcome you all to the Lord's vineyard and we can promise you the pure joy and satisfaction that a life of dedication to Jesus of Nazareth offers His faithful servants. All Abba Ministries of Canada clergy are unpaid volunteers who are called to service for the best, and perhaps the only reason: love of the Lord and love and compassion for their neighbour.

What did Jesus mean when he said, "Love thy neighbour..."

I had waited patiently for the Spirit to guide me this Christmas season; indeed, this letter started out in early December with the title "Open letter - Christmas 2007" but that was not to be. Writer's block? I discussed this with my wife, Josephine and we decided that perhaps the Holy Spirit was just not ready to inspire. Such tragic events as the assassination of Benazir Bhutto passed; then on New Year's Day, the reason became obvious when I read the web version of the Globe and Mail: and an article by Bill Curry blared, "Mounties to prepare Residential Schools Probe."

All pictures used in this article are dedicated to the 50,000 First Nations' children who simply did not come home . Some died of disease, some of neglect and some from abuse. This is the reality of genocide in Canada.

The Indian Residential Schools issue is one of Canada's most disgraceful secrets, which continues to fester in the dark, dank national closet, and it is an issue that has consumed many, many hours for me as a social activist. Hours with my grip solidly upon the wrist bones of that reluctant skeleton endeavouring without much real success to drag it toward daylight. Why is exposure such a monumental task? Firstly, there remains a prevailing attitude among non-natives that these people somehow 'deserved to be subjugated', that they are inferior and that they should 'just get over it!' In addition, the Canadian government never admits liability for anything until 99% of its victims are dead, and finally, the so-called Christian Churches who were the perpetrators of this genocide have enjoyed immunity from prosecution for all previous genocides and consider themselves above the law. Furthermore, these parsimonious 'christians' fail to heed the warning that it is impossible to worship God and mammon.

Now, in 2008, the RCMP [which can be defined as a para-military task force under the direction of the Federal Government] has lost the public confidence; in addition, the mounties are also well known for their liberal use of whitewash when it comes to political 'investigations'. There are many such investigations; however, good examples would be those into the activities of Brian Mulroney and John Buchanan. That the RCMP is investigating in this case is already a travesty of justice because they were involved in the crime. Like Hitler's SS they broke down doors in the middle of the night and kidnapped innocent children at gunpoint if necessary, all at the government of Canada's behest.

Like the Reverend Kevin Annett, who features deservedly in Bill Curry's article I have vigorously opposed the mega-church attitude towards the genocide of the Residential Schools. Rev. Annett focuses upon the United Church of Canada, while I have fought a lonely duel with the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada. Lonely? Let's call it one-sided: Archbishop Hiltz ignores me of course, out of contempt perhaps, but despite my challenges to open debate on this issue his Grace has no answers and no debating dialogue. There are some 'fine words' in public from the frugal Archbishop, but those words I liken to a rotten egg: while all glistens snow white and appears well on the outside, inside the shell of those fine words all is corruption and the stench is foul!

In the past, my detractors have said that I should not oppose the system: "Don't rock the boat" they have suggested, "As 'christians' we should all stick together..." Well, to them I will quote two men whom I admire greatly who dealt with the same problem:-

The first, Pope John XXIII, faced serious scandals [also involving genocide] surfacing regarding his predecessor Pius XII, the reichskonkordat and the holocaust. An agitated Vatican aide demanded of Pope John: "Your Holiness, what are we going to do about this?" The Saint replied: "My son, what can we do about the truth?"

The second was Pastor Martin Niemoller, a Protestant pastor and head of the anti-Nazi Confessing Church. Arrested for 'malicious attacks against the state', he spent seven years in the Dachau and Sachsenhausen concentration camps before being released in 1945 by the Allies. Niemoller said: "First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me..."

The Indian Residential Schools in Canada

Let us backtrack for a moment and define the Residential Schools of Canada.

Not so many years ago, before the advent of mass communication strategies such as television and the Internet, the providence of 'charity' fell predominantly to the mainline churches and their so-called missionary societies. These mega-churches were still powerful entities even a half-century ago, and hand-in-hand with colonial governments, they set out to help the world's 'savages' conform to the socio-religious norms of the day. A fair and honest example of the churches charitable activities took place right here in Canada. The big players were the federal government's Department of Indian Affairs, the Roman Catholic Church [RCC], the Anglican Church of Canada [ACC], the Presbyterian Church of Canada [PCC] and its schismatic offspring the United Church of Canada [UCC].

These five organizations, one governmental and four mainline churches conspired to take the taxpayers money to run what became known by the deceptively benign title of 'The Indian Residential Schools'. By the way, similar schools were operated in the United States of America [under the name Indian Boarding Schools] and in Australia where the genocide is now known as 'The Lost Generation.'

The Residential Schools in Canada operated under the Indian Act and a governmental oxymoron known as the Gradual Civilization Act and, like Hitler's concentration camps that might well have been [at least in part] modeled upon them, mandated the final solution of a racial problem. Here, it was the First Nations and Metis people of Canada who were the target, not the Jews. This was a government and church sponsored attempt to wipe out the native cultures, which was directed at innocent children and was at least partially successful in many cases. Essentially, these children were kidnapped and relocated in residences on school premises, which were often walled or fortified in some manner, and located deliberately to ensure a "proper distance" from the reserves to eliminate all parental contact. Often students had no contact with their families for years at a time. They were prohibited from speaking their native languages, robbed of their culture, abused sexually and physically, even murdered [50,000 died from disease or acts of violence] and the survivors were left to contemplate their devastated lives through the hopelessly clouded lens of alcohol, street drugs and suicide.

A survivor's statement: I was five years old when I was taken away from mother; I can still remember the fear and loneliness that over took me. I was not allowed to see my two sisters who went to a girl's school operated by the same church and only 400 feet across the road. I froze in the winter from lack of clothing, starved all the time and was forced to the watch whipping of students. I lost my culture and was forced to worship a god whose people were doing this to me. These are just few of my thoughts. I know there are people who don't care about any one else, but if they had been wronged those people also cry the loudest."

Unlike the holocaust's evildoers [Hitler's SS] the perpetrators of this horrendous crime were the Primate of Canada, cardinals, bishops, priests and both religious and lay appointees of the aforementioned mega-churches, operating under the benign eye of the Government of the Dominium of Canada and the Royal House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha [aka Windsor].

Eyewitness account: "I witnessed the murder of Maisie Shaw," testified Harriet Nahanee, Native Elder of the Pacheedaht Nation [1935-2007]. In December 1946, Alfred Caldwell, then Principal of the Alberni Residential School, kicked fourteen-year-old Maisie Shaw down a flight of stairs to her death. The Reverend Kevin Annett reported the Maisie Shaw murder the day he learned about it, in December 1995, but encountered a familiar resistance from the UCC and the RCMP when requesting an investigation. [Rev. Caldwell was never brought to trial. The RCMP still refuses to investigate her death, and have even issued a fake death certificate that claims that Maisie died of "heart failure", even though the RCMP also told her parents that she was "hit by a train"]. Both the United Church and the RCMP continue to cover-up and deny her murder and refuse to reveal where she is buried.

The Anglican Church of Canada and the Indian Residential Schools

Where does his Grace Archbishop Fred Hiltz, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada stand on this issue in January of 2008?

Before we review some extracts from his Grace's New Year [2008] sermon, just released, and compare those fine Christian sentiments with the current reality, I would like to point out that as Bishop Hiltz of Nova Scotia and PEI the Primate and his successor Bishop Susan Moxley have shamelessly used the Residential Schools as a fundraising tool extraordinaire under the guise of their Leap for Faith Capital Campaign.

After the Residential Schools settlement became public knowledge in 2003 Hiltz immediately announced that his, "Parishioners would fund raise $1.25 million that summer to meet the obligations of his diocese." I corresponded with Hiltz at that time, and I also raised the spectre of charitable gouging in my local church newsletter, expressing my concern and disgust that this fundraising would deplete the limited amount of charitable dollars available in Nova Scotia and PEI by such a large amount in order to pay for the sins of the Anglican Church. Needless to say, Bishop Hiltz did not reply; although, he did not mention the matter again publicly. Obviously, the initial fundraising did not go too well, because in 2004 Hiltz announced his Leap for Faith Capital Campaign.

En route to becoming fund-raising celebrities within the ACC, Bishops Hiltz and Moxley felt that while they were at it they might as well fix the cathedral roof and make life generally more comfortable for themselves at diocesan headquarters in Halifax, because they upped the ante to $3.3 million of which they have aggressively raised over ninety percent thus far and on top of bequests, tithes and other givings. It is fair to say that the majority of this windfall will be spent within the Anglican Church itself and to note that other dioceses have followed Hiltz's 'Midas touch' example.

Extracts from the Primate of Canada's 2008 New Year's sermon

The Primate appears to use the 2007 General Synod as a backdrop for this sermon, conveniently ignoring the fact that since then the ACC has been in full blown schism over the Same Sex Blessings issue. It is very obvious from the content that Archbishop Hiltz is politically inept and can only see that which he wants to see, and even then through rose-tinted glasses. Judge for yourself!

Primate Hiltz: "Another exciting moment in the General Synod was the installation of the National Indigenous Anglican Bishop, the Right Rev. Mark MacDonald. A high priority in his ministry is meeting with First Nations' communities, listening to their needs and hopes and working with their bishops to address them."

Reality: For 'communities' read 'Anglican congregations'. This is not about 'meetings' and 'compensation', there has been enough empty rhetoric already and what amount of money can possibly compensate the survivors even if the ACC were to part with it? And how may I ask can there be 'reconciliation' with those small, dead children? In an early 2007 article I speculated that if I could get Hiltz to debate the matter in public, an event which is unlikely to take place this side of Armageddon, Mark MacDonald would be his ace-in-the-hole. The imaginary debate would rage until the ace was played: "Ah," Hiltz might intone, with the air of a man about to repeat the miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus, "The Anglican Church has appointed Mark MacDonald as Bishop to oversee Aboriginal affairs." At this point, the ACC's past affiliation with Indian Affairs would magically disappear, all claims would be dropped and the sun would shine upon the Primate for ever and ever. And, at last, the Great Spirit would be banished for eternity!

Here are more fine words from Primate Fred. "A third moment of note from General Synod was the renewal of A Covenant toward the Constitutional Recognition and Protection of Aboriginal Self Government in Canada. The occasion was National Aboriginal Day, June 21st. It was an incredibly moving moment when my predecessor, Archbishop Andrew Hutchison and the former National Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, Ray Schultz, led a delegation representing nine Canadian churches and religious organizations in renewing commitments made at the initial signing of the Covenant 20 years ago - truly a significant moment in the long road to self-determination."

Reality: these are very fine words indeed, but also empty rhetoric and totally meaningless. To support Self-Determination means to pay reparations, return stolen land and as Reverend Kevin Annett says, he wasn't fired by the UCC for helping to expose the murders of First Nations people. Instead, it was his exposure of the colonial lust for land and resources, which continues to define our society's relationship to its Aboriginal people that provoked such severe censure. As Annett states, "The Achilles heel here is the issue of the land." "In the course of my work with residential school survivors while I was still a Minister in Port Alberni," he explains, "I stumbled over the fact that the church had engaged in the theft and speculation of Aboriginal land in Ahousat, B.C., in order to profit its corporate benefactor, the logging company MacMillan-Bloedel." In October 1994, Annett wrote a letter to church officials expressing concern about the issue of stolen Native land. "A week later," he says, "Presbytery officials began meeting secretly with my church board to arrange my removal as Minister at St. Andrew's."

My guess is that the issue of land is also key when it comes to the Catholics, Anglicans and Presbyterians. Self determination, yes in principal, but do not expect your land back and in any case all the natural resources are long gone along with the bones of your ancestors.

Primate Hiltz continues by trotting out 'The Apology' offered by former Primate Michael Peers to the National Native Convocation in August, 1993.

Concluding the prayer, His Grace then takes solid aim at his own foot and pulls the trigger! Astoundingly; with a political naivety that brings tears to your eyes, Hiltz goes on to say: " In keeping with the terms of the settlement, Church and Government leaders continued negotiations resulting in an Amended Agreement that was ratified by the courts in the fall of 2007. We acknowledge, with grateful thanks, the tremendous effort made by many people to achieve this agreement".

Reality: This is a totally mind-boggling statement illustrating the ACC's true colours and the total lack of sincerity of their so-called 'apology'! Having recited Peer's 1993 apology word for word, in the same breath Primate Hiltz goes on to congratulate the ACC lawyers and its miserly bean counters for their successful efforts to halve the church's financial liability and deny compensation to its surviving victims. Here's what happened: under an agreement with the federal government reached in 2003, the ACC's liability concerning the schools was capped at $25 million. Earlier last year, that accord was revised to reflect a more favourable agreement reached in 2005 between Ottawa and the RCC. The Catholic's fiendishly clever financial manoeuvring made them very difficult to bring to justice; Anglican officials immediately petitioned for their church's liability to be reduced to less than $16 million. Obviously, the kidnapping, murder and subsequent physical, sexual and psychological abuse of our First Nation's children rates as way, way less important to the ACC compared to 'The Money' Here was yet another missed opportunity; a chance to look contrite; to pay up by digging into the coffers or by selling whatever was necessary: in Christian terms it's called a penance! The legislated reduction in financial liability achieved through negotiations neither makes it ethical nor acceptable. It is unethical to deny adequate compensation to those whose have suffered; this is unacceptable. Worse of all, it is inappropriate if not utterly disgraceful to gloat over one's successfully manoeuvering to shrink the church's liability at the expense of damages due to the victims.

Parsimoniously, our Primate continues, "We rejoice that common experience payments are now being issued to former Residential Schools students".

Reality: Rejoice? For whom? Those payments are already pitifully small [$8,000.00 to $20,000.00] and available funds have been reduced by almost half by the Anglican Amending Agreement; as a result of "The Tremendous Effort" made by the ACC to avoid any financial responsibility. Note: the bishops of the ACC pocketed a tidy sum [$3 million plus] during 2007 in salary alone with excellent benefits on top of this figure. I think that it is fair to ask them, in light of the Indian Residential Schools Amending Agreement of 2007, "How in the world do you people manage to sleep at night?"

Finally, our hero affirms the Prime Minister's intention to make an apology on behalf of the Federal Government to all First Nations Peoples in Canada. Everyone knows that here is the oldest trick in the political primer aimed at deflecting responsibility away from you; however, it is also totally irrelevant to the ACC's situation and simply a red herring!

Reality: firstly, Harper, as an election hopeful, proved that he does not even understand the difference between East Indian people and people of First Nations descent. Secondly, due to the liability issues, it will be a frosty Friday in hell when the government of Canada apologizes to anyone, and no such intention by Harper has been announced! But what of the Anglicans and Primate Hiltz, will they apologize and will they return the remains of those that they buried in secret? Well, apart from Peers' speechifying back in 1993, here's how they say sorry in November of 2007 and I quote the Anglican Journal and Ms. Ellie Johnson, director of the Anglican Church's "Tremendous Effort" department, who represented the church in negotiations over the new deal which snatched back nearly half of the First Nations' compensation . "The Anglican church operated 26 of 80 boarding schools attended by aboriginals from the mid-19th century into the 1970s. In recent years, hundreds of natives had sued the church and the federal government, which owned the schools, alleging physical and sexual abuse."

The Anglican Church of Canada dismisses the genocide of out First Nation's children as "allegations". For the record, the federal government will also likely dispute the ACC's suggestions regarding 'ownership' of the schools.

Ironically, and for the record, Primate Peers concluded his apology in 1993 by saying: "I know how often you have heard words which have been empty because they have not been accompanied by actions. I pledge to you my best efforts and the efforts of our church at the national level, to walk with you along the path of God's healing."

Fifteen years later the white man still speaks with a forked tongue and money is indeed the root of all evil, and the Anglican Church of Canada and its money are not easily parted! Empty words it has aplenty and fine ones they are; however Primate Hiltz, your actions speak so much louder than those fine words.

Last word to an Indian Residential Schools survivor from Vancouver: "No one was there for us as children. I STILL PAY FOR IT TODAY! I am tired of paying: you take the nightmares, the flash backs, the sleepless nights, the insecurity and then foist it on your children because of your lack of 'life skills'. You grow up expecting nothing from life because of it! I know many of these people and can appreciate and share what they have experienced. Once you hit the system as a helpless child the system usually hits back, with both fists! I have experienced it and seen the abuse of others with my own eyes. Every day I fight not to give in to crutches of any ilk. I am lucky and stronger than some. I still do not really understand the meaning of family and it has left me with an indescribable ache that will never leave because it is too late. I have seen how real families live and no matter how I try to fit in, in this world, I still feel like a misfit and I still at times am ashamed of my darker coloured skin . Those of you who are crying over taxes do not blame anyone but the system that started this; with a scream."

God gave each of us a conscience and the Holy Spirit speaks to all if one should care to heed Her leading. Listen, do what is ethically right despite the consequences to you or the organization that you represent, make reparations and right wrongs. We are called to proclaim God's way and justice, and through our actions and compassion bring about love, mercy and healing to the broken world. Most of all, we must make sure this: that no one ever preys on the defenceless and 'different' ever again.

Join Abba Ministries of Canada

I am very proud of the work the Abba Ministries of Canada's priests and chaplains do for the Lord. We are another manifestation of 'the Few', a growing band of truly Christian sisters and brothers who serve without begging for money and whose dedication outshines the tawdry performance of the wealthy mega-churches. If the Holy Spirit is 'calling you out' we would invite you to join us as we strive to do the Lord's work in these difficult times!

Blessings, Malachy National Pastor and Bishop Abba Ministries of Canada

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OPEN LETTER FROM NATIONAL PASTOR, SUMMER 2007

Recently, we have welcomed the following new Pastors:

• Rev. Blair Riley and Rev. Wendy Riley in Sydney, Nova Scotia,

• Rev. Allan Jensen in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia,

• Rev. Rob Horst in Kitchener, Ontario.

I wish them every success in their respective ministries.

The way ahead: expand and grow.

Abba Ministries of Canada continues to grow, with interest in Alberta, Newfoundland and Quebec. I believe that it is time to take our national church to 'the next level' and I would ask your support through prayer that this may be achieved in the service of our Master, Jesus of Nazareth. The Holy Spirit continues to 'call people out' with Abba Ministries of Canada finding favour as an attractive option and an effective way to utilize their faith to those Christians who are being called to ordained ministry. Abba's unique model as a volunteer organization breaks down many of the barriers that have been erected by seventeen centuries of patriarchal Christianity; enforced dogmas and traditions and priests who were by and large distant, remote and unapproachable. Much of the secular world today, in the first decade of the twenty-first century, fields a huge void in societal attitude and individual lives where once Spirituality held pride of place. Concurrently, while mainline Christianity is viewed with a large degree of suspicion, Abba pastors are not seen as having a hidden objective because it is not about money, money, money; nor is it about power and control or priestly status, but rather our pastors are perceived as being unpaid servants of Jesus of Nazareth whose only wish is to continue His program here on earth.

Part of this future growth must be the inauguration of Abba Churches and Ministries in other Provinces and Territories. There is absolutely no impediment to establishing Abba Churches: freedom of association; including religious or Spiritual association is absolutely guaranteed under federal law by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Yet, a subtle discrimination is extant under provincial law in some provinces because the provisions of provincial marriage acts are archaic in relation to religious bodies. This relates only to the Sacrament of Marriage which is controlled by law due to the need for civil control over population when it comes to Births, Marriages and Death.

As Abba Ministries of Canada is established in new provinces her clergy cannot be second class citizens; just like priests from other denominations our clergy need to be provincially credentialed under the marriage act. Currently the process to achieve this is just a little tiresome, because the provisions for recognition of a religious body were established decades, or in some cases hundreds of years ago. Ironically, politicians of the big churches; in particular the Anglican Church, worked with their provincial counterparts to establish the 'rules'. [Politicians and bureaucrats just love those rules and regulations: some of them would sit in their cars for hours waiting for a broken stop light to turn green.] It was a turf war of course, with qualifying conditions predicating congregational size and an established presence of the national church: naturally it was aimed at preventing schism over minor disagreement and at discouraging any form of worship outside the 'norms' dictated by the Primates, Metropolitans and Bishops of the big churches. It follows that Provincial Marriage Acts by-and-large no longer reflect the true concept of Christian worship in the twenty-first century.

For those who are considering Abba Ministries of Canada from those provinces where we do not have clergy at this time I say this: Before Josephine and I joined Abba Ministries our denomination was not recognized in Nova Scotia. Josephine and I completed that process quite quickly, in about three months, considering that this is one of the provinces with the oldest legislation. Abba Ministries of Canada is now well established here and growing rapidly.

Benedict XVI's hellfire fails to ignite!

Those of you who are not members of the Roman Catholic Church should not be concerned by the proclamation by Pope Benedict XVI that the only true church in the world is that of Roman Catholicism. While his comments are divisive and even offensive, Christians should not even bother getting upset: the RC Archbishop of Toronto has surprised us by speaking out against his own hierarchy over this issue. What then is it all about? Simply this: in a divided world with Christianity 'in crisis' Benedict XVI finally emerges showing his true colours.

The problems stem from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the central Roman Catholic body for doctrinal issues which until recently was headed up by Kardinal von Ratzinger himself before he was elected to the papacy, this is the same office that brought the world the thrills and excitement of the Inquisition and the Auto de Fe, and it has had a long, bloody history of murders, rapes, tortures and crimes against humanity of the vilest kind.

For the leader of the Roman Catholic Church to even suggest that only the Catholic Church can provide true salvation to believers in Christ shows that he is wholly ignorant of the Scriptures that I have known all my life.

My wife Josephine would tell you this: "I've really only known the Bible for the last 17 of my 37 years. That's because those first 20 years were spent as a die-hard Catholic! Plus another 10 years trying as a woman to serve God within the limited confines of Roman Catholic doctrine." I know exactly what she means: as many of you within Abba Ministries of Canada know, I grew up partly with grandparents in Eire and I too was baptized Catholic, as well as Church of Ireland [Anglican]. Many of my Saturdays and Sundays were spent serving as an altar boy; singing in various choirs; studying the Catechism and constantly reciting the Holy Rosary. However, we were positively discouraged from any study of the Scriptures. The standard practice was for all of us to read the same pamphlets passed out by the church, recite the readings from the New and Old Testaments, listen to the Scripture chosen for us in the Gospel and hear a boring, indoctrinational homily. It was a wasted experience, as there was more identification with the church, and precious little with Christ.

And that's why Pope Benedict XVI's proclamation is meaningless, along with his decision to re-state the primacy of the Catholic Church. This week, the pope released a document correcting interpretations of the Second Vatican Council, which some say modernized the church. Vatican II could have been amazing if that walking Saint, Angelo Roncelli [John XXIII], had survived beyond the opening session: Roncelli was a reformer and his death was 'timely' and to say the least 'very convenient' for the likes of Josef Ratzinger and Karol Woltja. Even so, for hardliners like Pope Benedict XVI, whatever few minor liberal declarations survived John XXIII's untimely demise were still too much for the former Panzer Kardinal to accept. [He was so called in Vatican circles by the moderates because he swore an oath of allegiance twice to Adolf Hitler: once in the Hitler Youth and again in the Wermacht!]

But what caused the ruckus was Benedict's assertion in the 16-page document by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that the only denominations that can call themselves true churches are ones that can trace their roots back to Jesus Christ's original apostles. He even suggested they suffer from defects.

The Council of Nicea, 325 CE is claimed by the Roman Catholic Church as the first ecumenical conference of the Church, a brag which is totally unsupported by a single fact or a shed of proof. We would be, in fact, very well advised to remember that when this evil man Constantine I made his grab for Christianity the then leaders of the emerging Christian Church were ordered to Nicea and herded into the Emperor's presence at sword point through a narrow tunnel of heavily armed legionnaires. The message was plain: 'You are here to do the Emperor's bidding, or to die.' There is no head count of Epicopa and Epicopo [yes, bishops were men and women] arriving and leaving; however, it is reasonable to assume that any brave enough to disagree with Constantine's vision of Christianity as it morphed into 'Constantianity' were either put to the sword or crucified without delay.

The actual beginnings of the Roman Catholic Church are purely speculative and most of their so-called history, the true vine, Petrine doctrine et al is a tissue of lies that has been cunningly back-loaded and made to fit. The Donatio Constantini is an excellent example of the lengths to which church fathers would go to consolidate their power base and bamboozle the faithful.

The Donation of Constantine [Donatio Constantini] is a well-known fraud used by the papacy for more than 10 centuries to strengthen its position and power. Though it claims to have been granted by Constantine to Sylvester, bishop of Rome [314 - 335] it is believed to have actually been written between 750 and 800 A.D., at which time Stephen II [or III], bishop of Rome, sought the help of Frankish king Pepin III [the Short] against the Lombards, who were threatening to overrun all Italy. To enlist Pepin's help, Stephen crossed the Alps to Gaul, where he anointed Pepin and his sons, Charlemagne and Carloman, as kings. Pepin came to his aid and subdued the Lombards, taking from them what had previously been Byzantine territory. He then granted Stephen rule over this territory in a document known as the Donation of Pepin. This freed Rome from Byzantine control, and was the beginning of what became known as the Papal States. This rule was granted to Stephen by Pepin, and confirmed by his son Charlemagne, on the basis of the forgery known as the Donation of Constantine. The Donatio also granted to Rome "supremacy... over the four chief seats Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople and Jerusalem, as also over all the churches of God in the whole world."

Philip Schaff describes the Donation in this way: "The Donation of Constantine... is an older forgery... It affirms that Constantine, when he was baptized by pope Sylvester, a.d. 324 [he was not actually baptized utill 337, by the Arian bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia], presented him with the Lateran palace and all imperial insignia, together with the Roman and Italian territory. The object of this forgery was to antedate by five centuries the temporal power of the papacy, which rests on the donations of Pepin and Charlemagne. The only foundation in fact is the donation of the Lateran palace, which was originally the palace of the Lateran family, then of the emperors, and last of the popes. The wife of Constantine, Fausta, resided in it, and on the transfer of the seat of empire to Constantinople, he left it to Sylvester, as the chief of the Roman clergy and nobility. Hence it contains to this day the pontifical throne with the inscription: "Haec est papalis sedes et pontificalis." There the pope takes possession of the see of Rome. But the whole history of Constantine and his successors shows conclusively that they had no idea of transferring any part of their temporal sovereignty to the Roman pontiff." History of the Christian Church, [1910 edition] Volume IV, Chapter IV, p 60, by Philip Schaff.

For centuries the Donation of Constantine was assumed by all to be genuine, and was used by the bishops of Rome to support their papal claims. It was proven false in 1440 by Lorenzo Valla in his Declamatio. Nevertheless, on the basis of the forged document, the papacy maintained a spiritual dictatorship over most of the Church until the Reformation, and a temporal control of the Papal States until, finally, in 1870, the last of the territory was taken over by Italy. Only in 1929 did the Vatican formally relinquish their temporal claims in the Lateran Treaty, wherein they were granted sovereignty over 44 hectares [109 acres], now known as Vatican City, a miniscule amount of their former domain. They have yet to relinquish their spiritual claims.

Many people today wrongly assume that the New Testament as we know it was also established as a closed canon by Constantine. In 332 CE the "Constantine Christian Bible" by Bishop Eusebius first appeared, consisting of 18 books selected by Emperor Constantine with 50 copies duly inscribed. The NT has twenty-seven books today, but the truth about its origins is extremely complex because the Catholic Church centered in Rome never had any extensive control over the Eastern churches, which were in turn divided even among themselves, with Ethiopian and Coptic and Syrian and Byzantine and Armenian canons all riding side-by-side with each other and with the Western Catholic canon, which itself was never perfectly settled until the 15th century at the earliest, although it was essentially established by the middle of the 4th century. Indeed, the current Catholic Bible is largely accepted as canonical from fatigue: the details are so ancient and convoluted that it is easier to simply accept an ancient and enduring tradition than to bother actually questioning its merit. This is further secured by the fact that the long habit of time has dictated the status of the texts: favoured books have been more scrupulously preserved and survive in more copies than less favoured books, such that even if some of the less favoured books should happen to be earlier and more authoritative, in many cases we are no longer able to reconstruct them with any accuracy. To make matters worse, we know of some very early books that simply did not survive at all [the most astonishing example is Paul's earlier Epistle to the Colossians, Col. 4:16], and have recently discovered the very ancient fragments of others that we never knew existed, because no one had even mentioned them. Interestingly, instead of embracing this rediscovered material the princes of the church promptly declared them to be heretical!

So, if Benedict is wrong, who is right? Jesus of Nazareth that is who! Remember the Great Commission? Matthew 28:16 tells us that Jesus called his 11 disciples [the other, Judas, hanged himself after betraying Jesus] to Mount Galilee and decreed, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." [NIV]

It doesn't matter what Pope Benedict XVI has to say, or for that matter, any other religious leader. A Christian believes in Jesus Christ and what He had to say, not what a man of God has to say. This is not an attempt to completely dismiss religious leaders, but is further evidence of what happens when ego is more important than the work of Christ. John 14:6 says, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Nowhere does it say that Peter, Pope Benedict XVI or anyone else can supplant Jesus as the leader of the church.

Keep the Faith; the true Faith; the Faith of Jesus of Nazareth.

In Christ, Malachy

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OPEN LETTER FROM THE NATIONAL PASTOR, SPRING 2007

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few." [Matthew 9:37]

I would take a minute to welcome several new pastors to the Abba Ministries team: you can read about their calling to ministry on our MINISTRIES page.

• Reverend David Lewis of Mathew 7 in Mississauga, Ontario

• Reverend Derek Rymarchuk of Calvary Chapel, Niagara falls, Ontario

• Reverend Thomas Secord of Progression Ministries, Halifax, Nova Scotia

We are extremely happy to welcome you all to the Lord's vineyard and we can promise you the pure joy and satisfaction that a life of dedication to Jesus of Nazareth offers His faithful servants. All Abba Ministries of Canada clergy are unpaid volunteers who are called to service for the best, and perhaps the only reason: love of the Lord and love and compassion for their neighbour.

Not a sparrow falls to Earth...

Well, in Canada's megachurches there is good news and there is bad news: the good news is that at least we now know the reason for the labour shortage in the Lord's vineyard, but the bad news is very bad indeed! The view from the bishop's office window is a church square littered with the feathered corpses of heaven's earthbound angels; Jesus' frontline workers: the parish pastors and priests.

The Anglican Journal [which sprinkles it's aggressive fund-raising campaign with the occasional article] claimed in December that priests in the megachurches are lonely and unfulfilled, exhausted from working long hours and are suffering a 'critical crisis of identity'. Many are 'burned out and sometimes suicidal.'

Generous clergy contracts allow pastors to take two days off each week, but it seems that most do not utilize it; however, the average work week is only 50 hours. This begs the question: "What's the problem here?" Firstly, why are they 'exhausted and burned out'? It's reasonable to assume that they get at least one paid day off: this means they work six eight hour days, which really is not that taxing. In fact, perhaps these clerics need to wake up and smell the coffee: most families work significantly longer hours to survive and raise the kids and, by-and-by, to kick tithes onto the megachurch collection plate in order to pay clergy salaries!

Secondly, where is so much stress and a declared level of depression among clergy that is double the rate found in the general population coming from? From two sources it seems. The first will be no surprise: the Anglican Journal claims that the job deals with death, illness and crisis among parishioners [happiness, love and fulfillment are not mentioned anywhere in the report]. Furthermore, it is my own observation that clergy work is first and foremost a 'people orientated' job ministering to the Spiritual and emotional needs of fellow human beings.

The second source of angst is far more worrisome and is summed up by these beleaguered megachurch clergymen and clergywomen as follows [please note that I quote directly from the survey results]:

• Feelings of indispensability or the sense that the church would fail without their presence.
• High levels of competition among clergy and the feeling that to take time off may risk giving an edge to the competitor.
• Most clergy identified two or fewer friends: a majority of their relationships were 'work-based not social'.
• There appeared to be considerable levels of distrust and jealousy between ministers and their colleagues in ministry.
• Grief and dissatisfaction because 'the calling of ministry' had become the task of administration, i.e. budgets, buildings, fundraising, membership size and growth, all of which are the measures of success imposed by the culture of the megachurch.

Do you get a mental picture of a group of yuppie business types fighting their way up some slimy corporate ladder, stabbing each other in the back and clawing their way over each other in order to meet the goals of the organization? You do? Well you are probably correct: it's about money, money, money and who the boss's favourite is, and on a personal level it's about 'me' and 'my needs' and precious little else. Of course, the boss's favourite is the priest who raises the most money because that makes the bishop look good to his boss the Primate. It is no wonder the 'job' is stressful; no wonder UCC priests defied their moderator and joined the Canadian Autoworkers Union!

Hello? Are we running a Christian organization here? How much of this 'punishing' fifty hour work week is spent ministering to souls and how much is spent, complaining, carping, scheming, politicking, back-stabbing and using obsequious compliments en route to a distant bishop's mitre; how much is simply feeling sorry for oneself?

Don't let us lose sight of the fact that these priests receive a very adequate stipend, health plan, pension plan, and usually a car and a manse [or in the absence of the last two significant allowances and tax breaks]. I believe that it would behove all of them to sit down and work out exactly how much of that fifty hour average work week is actually spent being a priest, a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth? How much is spent doing God's work and how much is spent serving mammon?

We should also remember that some of these distressed folk first set their feet on the path to the priesthood with high ideals and a calling to ministry, but after a blistering process of indoctrination lasting perhaps six years even the ones who started with potential to do the Lord's work have been turned into a herd of sycophantic drones, pre-programmed to follow the goals of the organization like priestly robots. Gone is the spark, the fire, the wish to serve Jesus above all else and the desire to make a difference in peoples lives; replaced with a narrow subjective view of Christianity, a spiteful indifference to the needs of others and in the Anglican Church, the United Church and the Roman Catholic Church a narrow outlook based on how much money individual parishioners contribute and a constant need, like all professional fundraisers [because that is what they are] to fundraise their own salary first and meet the imposed financial targets of the diocese second.

Harsh words; however, I am bold enough to suggest that if these paid priests were doing Jesus' bidding they would be joyful United Church ministers; happy Presbyterians, carefree Catholics and gay Anglicans? Would not their step be light, their hearts full of joy and their days shining with God's pure love?

Disaster in Christendom: a case study

Mother Tracey [name changed to protect the burned out and depressed] joined the Megachurch of Canada in 1999 as a deacon after graduating from the Atlantic School of Theology close to the top of her group. She was ordained to the priesthood a year later and assigned to a sprawling rural parish with several decrepit old churches on the Western shore of Nova Scotia. The average age of her congregation was around sixty-five, and she realised immediately that there was no chance of meeting the diocese's mandate to consolidate the parish into one church to save money, because the adherents all adhered to the buildings themselves more so than to the Church. In addition, the bishop's fundraising targets were impossible because her declining congregation of retired country folk and been sold the maximum number of annuities, bequests and donations by her predecessor. The laity were demanding, difficult and set in their ways; families were scarce and children non-existent, driven out by glares and 'tsk-tsks' of the wardens and the aging organists and discordant choirs. There were ecumenical meetings at care homes that were pure politics: no one even 'cared' about the residents; then the bishop instigated yet another fundraising campaign ostensibly to pay for the Residential Schools abuse claims, but in reality most of the money was going elsewhere. Tracey was co-opted onto various committees and was caught up in the rat-race of organizational achievement.

It was not long before the Reverend Tracey had had enough! She started eating junk food again [her weight had always been a problem] and her affiliation with white wine became more than occasional. Then the last straw: Reverend Jennifer, an AST classmate whom Tracey considered a low achiever landed a plum job on the cathedral staff; an insider who had the bishop's ear confided that, "Tracey just did not look the part?" Diet pills followed, then one night driving back to her lonely manse on the Western shore Tracey was stopped by the police because she was driving erratically. A three month suspension and reassignment as assistant priest at a big city church simply deepened the spiral dive, then one night Tracey had a vivid dream.

"What are you doing for me Tracey," Jesus asked gently, "And, perhaps more importantly, what are you doing for yourself?" In the morning she could not remember her answer, but Tracey remembered the Lord's parting words. "Get your life back on track, and then follow me!"

IS THE HOLY SPIRIT CALLING YOU OUT?

Abba Ministries of Canada pastors, priests and chaplains work with individuals and small groups, demonstrating a strong focus toward outreach and a very solid commitment to Jesus' program, regardless of whether our pastors witness through music, counseling, compassionate service at hospitals and care homes, youth and children's programs, fellowship or any other form of Christian ministry. Our pastors see no sectarian boundaries, only a burning need to serve all people regardless of colour, creed and affiliation. Ultimately, people find Christ within themselves, they discover the pure love of God in their hearts and let it shine forth, and this may be why Abba Ministries of Canada is Canada's fastest growing Christian group. We are certainly absolutely unique because our ordained ministers do what they do for the love of the Lord and not for money. Yes, we are a one hundred percent volunteer organization that is supported in its work by the love and generosity of its members.

Currently, Abba Ministries of Canada is an established religious denomination in three provinces: Nova Scotia, Ontario and British Columbia [by population this represents perhaps one third of Canada]; however, she is poised to expand into all provinces and territories in the near future. If you reside in Alberta or Newfoundland, for example, our national office staff will work with you as you establish your ministry to ensure that you can also obtain provincial credentialing under the Alberta or Newfoundland Marriage Act; this process usually takes two to three months and is already underway in several new provinces. It is Abba Ministries of Canada's mandate to operate as an umbrella organization, which provides support to local clergy; for example, with federal charitable status, provincial credentialing, liturgical support, resources and fellowship, while, at the same time, allowing the local pastor and the local church group to control their own affairs and focus on the Lord's work.

If the Holy Spirit is 'calling you out' we would invite you to join us as we strive to do the Lord's work in these difficult times!

Blessings, Malachy National Pastor and Bishop Abba Ministries of Canada

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OPEN LETTER FROM THE NATIONAL PASTOR, JANUARY 2007

Warning. This message contains explicit content. It may upset the complacent, shatter dreams, cause hypertension or inflammation of the gastric mucosa; in extreme cases it could provoke an in depth review of an adherent's personal commitment to Christianity, which in its turn might lead to a renewed devotion to Jesus of Nazareth and His program. The writer offers no apologies for any discomfort that might be experienced.

I want to open this two thousandth and seventh year of our Lord by continuing to examine the role of Abba Ministries of Canada and her priests and chaplains at a time when few people doubt that Christianity is in crisis.

Crisis! What do we mean when we use such terminology? To understand fully I believe that you, the reader, needs to either embark upon, or continue with, your studies of the three great monotheistic religions: Islam, Judaism and Christianity. You may wish to utilize the New Testament; in particular the Book of Revelations, which quite clearly holds the key to events between the crucifixion of Jesus and His return in Glory. Many Christians feel intuitively that we are in the 'last of times' and there is much to support this supposition; in particular perhaps the level of technological achievement reached by humanity. Humanity has developed a comprehensive working knowledge of nuclear science and can duplicate the workings of the solar system: there is not a great deal beyond this, every star in the night sky is, or was, a functional nuclear furnace. Nuclear power is the keystone of God's creation and it is the driving force behind the Universe.

It had at first been my intention to review some of the more recent writings of Christian scholars with reference to John's vision and its indisputable links to the prophet Daniel who preceded John by some seven centuries; however, I have come to see the inherent danger that any review of Revelations and its accompanying perspective of Armageddon holds. I believe that interpretation is a very personal thing, but I will say this: firstly, since Daniel wrote almost six hundred years before the birth of Jesus and what followed: the crucifixion, the construction of the Dome of the Rock, the foundation of modern Israel and the date Israel regained control of Jerusalem have all been significant events. Secondly, remember the caveat that sometimes things just seem to fit rather nicely or with a nudge, and by blurring your eyes you can often join unconnected events, for example, numerology might connect six hundred, six score and six with George W. Bush, and then again it may not! Those who have ears let them hear. It has always amused me to watch the dance of the seven veils completed in only six when theologians; in particular the type who insist on the title 'Reverend Doctor' are asked to explain Revelations Chapter 11, which quite plainly discusses the destruction of the visible church. One such learned and apoplectic gentleman spluttered, "Well, I don't know what it means, but I know it doesn't mean what it says!" Things are not always as they appear, but the word of God is something that you can take to the bank with perfect confidence.

Priests to Popes, curates to Canterbury, plus every fundamentalist cleric in the world: each and every one of them are delivering religion to your subjective conscience. Subjective, get it? If your conscience tells you something different from their dogmas, traditions and teachings then your conscience is a totally false. Your own personal integrity counts for nothing and you are thus, by extension, drenched in heresy and sin.

Fundamentalism has, over the centuries, developed its own traditions and dogmas and these have become entrenched as the belief system of the various denominations encompassing fundamentalist/absolutist Christianity. Miracles are claimed in the name of men and women, holy relics and plaster saints, and with an arrogance that takes our breath away Jesus is co-opted as de facto Head of each organization. It seems that we forget that it was Jesus who framed the eternal question about allegiance: "Anyone who is not against us is for us." [Mark 9: 40]

In addition, we all need to understand what religious fundamentalism and absolutism is, and how it affects the mindset of its adherents. This is a post Constantinian phenomenon within Christianity and it has been present throughout Islam and Judaism. All religious fundamentalists and absolutists are extremists; however, only perhaps fifteen percent [15% is a figure that is often quoted] are militant extremists. The problem is, let's say for argument's sake half of Roman Catholics are fundamentalist/absolutist, that's about 900 million people and if only fifteen percent of them are militant extremists that equals 135 million potential crusaders. The same logic holds good for Islam, Judaism and any other religious group. Scary isn't it? Now try to imagine those crusaders without horses and lances but with tactical nuclear weapons instead. I am sure that you get the picture.

As 2007 starts we offer the traditional greeting: "Happy New Year!" but what does that mean? Of course, we wish that our lives as Christians would be prosperous, peaceful and free from trials; albeit that this was not true for the saints of the last six millennia and it isn't going to be true for us either. Read the terrible history of God's chosen people, Jesus' people, the Jews, through the Old Testament until today, and then visit our own Christian history and count how many were tortured and murdered for their faith in Jesus of Nazareth since Calvary. It seems that much of Christianity has forgotten, and sadly this includes the big Christian megachurches, that being a Christian is not some powerful amulet that we wear to keep us all from going to hell. It is a lifetime commitment to Almighty God and to our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, even unto torture and death.

Many people believe that the Christian era is drawing to a close. National boundaries are collapsing and a one-world super economy is emerging that is controlled by a very few powerful men and multi-national financially motivated institutions and committees. As more and more people turn away from the Christian Churches a strange global ecumenism embracing many faiths, creeds and beliefs is appearing, but that ecumenism is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Nostradamus sells well at Chapters' book store, and similar prophecies fill the tabloid newspapers if you can get past the spectacle of Hilary Clinton's latest tawdry affair with sundry visitors from outer space. Literally millions of apparently sane people read this garbage, and substantial numbers believe it. Joel Osteen, Benedictus Tofik Hinn et al preach God's prosperity in their so-called 'prosperity ministries' and all of these obviously false prophets grow richer by the millions as the christian [note the small 'c'] equivalent of the lottery ticket and gambling addicts send them disposable income that might be better spent feeding the family or helping a poor neighbour.

Of course, this is part and parcel of terrifying prophecies in the Book of Revelations; however, like Christianity itself, the Bible is 'old news' and nobody is interested any more. In the past I have talked at length about what I call: 'The Great Bailout'. The emptying out of church pews that, despite the denials of the establishment, has been underway since the end of World War II: first it was a trickle, then a steady stream then a flood, deny it if you will, but the reality is that now three human generations have passed and there are many young people who have no knowledge of God or Jesus of Nazareth despite the fact that we live in what, at least until very recently, was considered a Christianized country.

Something else is happening 'in parallel' with that bailout that I believe is both crucial to the Lord's work and part of God's plan. The Holy Spirit is nurturing the true Church by 'calling out' honest disciples of Jesus of Nazareth and tasking them to serve the Lord with compassion for humanity, with love for all people and to expect nothing more than God's unending Grace in return. Indeed, I can share my own 'calling out' experience: week after week, year after year I could see no observable charity except that funded and given by the laity [and even that, pitifully small as it was, often came with 'strings' attached by the establishment clerics who demanded the credit in their process of self-aggrandizement]; there was an elitism among the priesthood that was bad at grass roots and sickening at the levels of higher authority; a focus on taking but not giving; judgmental and discriminatory actions and serious abuse issues, often followed by denial and cover-up. I could go on and on. Eventually, I tired of confronting the priests and I soon learned that writing to a bishop or cardinal would only generate a reply chiding me for my [obviously erroneous] viewpoint at best or hinting at excommunication and eternal damnation at worst.

In my thoughtful moments I would return to the Gospel and comb it for words from Jesus that might validate the establishment's position, but to no avail, those words simply were not there. All I could find was The Word. Words of love and acceptance, instructions in parables telling me how I ought to be living my life, instructions to love, to accept; not to judge others and, above all, to love God, our Abba, with all my heart. I felt alienated by the Church and I didn't want to go back: one more pompous, bigoted sermon was more than I could take. I did not realize it back then, but I know for certain now, the Holy Sprit was leading me out.

Is this what your church is like? Do you go to services two or three times a week, seeking a little Spiritual reality in your life: something that has not happened to you yet? If you do not relate to the liturgical presentation, to the dogmas and traditions, to the voice from the pulpit in your church, or to any feeling of sanctuary, sooner or later the Holy Spirit will lead you out too! With a heavy heart, many sound, Bible-believing Christians are now leaving established churches and attending no formal church at all. Some Christians are still falling away [these folk are the last of the 'big bailout'], but a core group of survivors, the true Church, are forming small home groups. They are meeting in living rooms, cellars or garages, in any place large enough to hold a dozen brethren or so, rather like they did before the Emperor Constantine got his clutches on Christianity around 325 AD. Five times in the New Testament we read about where the Church was located. In every case, the Church was in the home of an individual believer, and nowhere in the New Testament are we told that we should meet anywhere else. In the first three centuries the Christians were unsung little groups of believers, meeting in homes where they were hidden by the Lord from the swords and circuses of their persecutors.

For some of us it is frightening to be on our own with just Jesus of Nazareth to sustain us. Fear not, Jesus can handle it. He planned this whole scenario long ago, and you are part of His plan. As Saint Paul said so often, "We are all equal in Christ," and this Christ has been with us, and within us, from the beginning of time, and so he will be with us until the end of time as we know it. If the Spirit is calling you, you are one of Jesus' chosen twenty-first century disciples: your task is to take His simple plan to the nations: "Love God with all your heart and love your neighbour as yourself, love with acceptance, love with compassion and love without judgment or censure." This way and by example only, in these critical days, months or years you can spread The Word, and lead one, or perhaps more, of those who have fallen away back to the Lord.

This, I believe is our urgent task. This is also the purpose of Abba Ministries of Canada: many of us have been programmed to believe that we cannot worship the Lord, serve the communal meal, baptize, or bury the dead unless some obscure sectarian seminary sends an ordained pastor to do the job in the approved manner. Naturally we will need a church building complete with steeple, pipe organ, stained glass windows, a choir, a music minister, and a hefty ten percent tithe. Well, dear people, this just is not the case. In fact, it is so far from reality to be laughable! Many Christians are already meeting and working outside the pre-conceived structure of the megachurches, a few still attend church because of a strong affinity to centuries of tradition, but work outside the structured bureaucracy; however, the majority has cut the apron strings of dependence.

Abba Ministries of Canada pastors, priests and chaplains work with individuals and small groups, demonstrating a strong focus on outreach and a very solid commitment to Jesus' program, regardless of whether our pastors witness through music, counseling, compassionate service at hospitals and care homes, youth and children's programs, fellowship or any other form of Christian ministry. Our pastors see no sectarian boundaries, only a burning need to serve all people regardless of colour, creed and affiliation. Ultimately, people find Christ within themselves, they discover the pure love of God in their hearts and let it shine forth, and this may be why Abba Ministries of Canada is Canada's fastest growing Christian group. We are certainly absolutely unique because our ordained ministers do what they do for the love of the Lord and not for money. Yes, we are a one hundred percent volunteer organization that is supported in its work by the love and generosity of its members.

Currently, Abba Ministries of Canada is an established religious denomination in three provinces: Nova Scotia, Ontario and British Columbia [by population this represents perhaps one third of Canada]; however, she is poised to expand into all provinces and territories in the near future. If you reside in Alberta or Newfoundland, for example, our national office staff will work with you as you establish your ministry to ensure that you can also obtain provincial credentialing under the Alberta or Newfoundland Marriage Act; this process usually takes two to three months. It is Abba Ministries of Canada's mandate to operate as an umbrella organization, which provides support to local clergy; for example, with federal charitable status, provincial credentialing, liturgical support, resources and fellowship, while, at the same time, allowing the local pastor and the local church group to control their own affairs and focus on the Lord's work.

If the Holy Spirit is 'calling you out' we would invite you to join us as we strive to do the Lord's work in these difficult times!

In Christ, Malachy

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CHRISTMAS MESSAGE 2006 FROM NATIONAL PASTOR

THE AYATOLLAH'S LEGACY

AN APPEAL TO WOMEN AND MEN OF EVERY FAITH GROUP AS THE ISLAMIC AND CHRISTIAN YEAR DRAWS TO A CLOSE

I have oft complained that many North Americans have little knowledge or interest in History. As Christmas of 2006 and the Hajj of 1427 approaches, history is repeating itself in the Middle East as events surrounding Iran and her nuclear intentions ride the monorail that encompasses her fundamentalist Islamic leadership; their thought processes and their clearly stated agenda.

"Israeli girls' message to Islam"

Let me state quite clearly that Christianity is not without an awful responsibility for unfolding events: sins for which the Christian Churches will undoubtedly pay the price. This is not an essay that pits Islam against Christianity. Nor do I intend to examine the rights and wrongs of the current situation; point 'the finger of blame'; review the historical perspective and its accompanying 'justifications', or to make predictions of Armageddon. Rather, it is my intention to lay out a few incontrovertible facts relating to the geopolitical situation which is running 'real-time', now and as we speak, and then to add some of the global 'wild cards' that may or may not come into play as events unfold. It is my hope and prayer that as intelligent, sane readers review this simple precis of events they will see clearly the real and present danger that exists in the Middle East. Once that danger is identified it is my further hope that these folk will contact their MPs, congressmen, Prime Minister or President and tell them that the time for shuttle diplomacy is over.

The only action that has any hope of halting that Islamic monorail must be taken by the United Nations [without veto or the slightest disagreement between China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America] on behalf of the Earth's nations. The message must unequivocally state that Iran and North Korea will cease the manufacture of weapons grade plutonium forthwith, hand over any weapons grade plutonium already in their possession and dismantle all nuclear facilities under strict and impartial UN supervision. The consequences for non-compliance within a short but reasonable period must be so grave to those two nations than their leaders see compliance as the only conceivable option. If you feel that achieving the foregoing is impossible, do not read on: there is little to be gained by gratuitously subjecting yourself to nightmares. This is not a Hollywood movie plot.

IRAN AND ISLAMIC INTENTIONS

There is no doubt that most Muslims are not Islamic extremists, but all Islamic extremist are Muslims. As soon as we start having the courage to examine Islam with objectivity, as well as looking at the Islamic politics back to Mohammed himself, we will come to see matters as the Islamists see them, namely that there exists an aggressive war of Islam against Christianity. Right now, in 2006 [or 1427 if you are Islamic] the front line is Israel.

There is a radical difference between the Islamic Republic of Iran and other governments with nuclear weapons except, perhaps, Pakistan. This difference is expressed in what can only be described as the apocalyptic worldview of Iran's present rulers. This worldview and expectation, vividly expressed in speeches, articles and even schoolbooks, clearly shapes the perception and therefore the policies of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his disciples.

Even in the past it was clear that terrorists claiming to act in the name of Islam had no compunction in slaughtering large numbers of fellow Muslims. The phrase 'Allah will know his own' is usually used to explain such apparently callous unconcern; it means that while infidel, non-Muslim, victims will go to a well-deserved punishment in hell, Muslims will be sent straight to heaven. According to this view, the bombers are in fact doing their Muslim victims a favor by giving them a quick pass to heaven and its delights - the rewards without the struggles of martyrdom. School textbooks tell young Iranians to be ready for a final global struggle [once Israel is 'wiped of the map'] against an evil enemy, named as the United States and other so-called Christianized nations and to prepare themselves for the privileges of martyrdom.

For Canadians who think that the bloodbath will miraculously stop at the forty-ninth parallel, it is time to wake up. North America is viewed by Islam as one entity, and while the Canadian Navy probably does not strike fear in anybody's heart, the logistics of any attack place all facilities and infrastructure of military importance high on the target list. In case you still do not get it, it usually takes a matter of hours for an east coast storm to travel from New York to Halifax, so why should radioactive fall out take significantly longer?



This then is the legacy of Ayatollah Khomeini who once stated flatly. "I am decisively announcing to the whole world that if the world - devourers [the infidel powers] wish to stand against our religion, we will stand against their whole world and will not cease until the annihilation of all them. Either we all become free, or we will go to the greater freedom which is martyrdom. Either we shake one another's hands in joy at the victory of Islam in the world, or all of us will turn to eternal life and martyrdom. In both cases, victory and success are ours."

So much for mutual assured destruction [MAD], the deterrent that worked so well during the Cold War, Armageddon will produce massive general destruction anyway. The only matter of concern will be the final destination of the dead - hell for the infidels and heaven for the believers. For people with this mindset, MAD is not a constraint, it is an inducement.

How then can one confront such an enemy, with such a view of life and death? The answer appears to be: 'one does not'. Anybody who can tear themselves away from life's trivia to analyze such world news as is currently available to the layman will have come to the conclusion that Condoleezza Rice might have enough frequent flyer points to simply retire and travel; however, her efforts to achieve a diplomatic solution are as efficacious as those of Neville Chamberlain who naively helped Adolf Hitler bring the world the horrors of WWII.

Shuttle diplomacy and an ineffective 'paper tiger' known as the United Nations have achieved absolutely nothing!

ISRAEL STANDS ALONE

This is not about Israel's right to exist [she exists] or anti Semitism [it's a fact of life] or whether Israel is right or wrong [we are way past that] but rather what will Israel do and when.

Israeli military analysts believe that Iran will reach a critical stage in its pursuit of nuclear capability sometime within the next few months. This is a terrifying new development, far more worrisome than the wars and uprisings that have plagued the Middle East to date. It seems likely that Israel will strike before these facilities go 'hot' in order to minimize civilian casualties. This gives Israel at most a sixty to ninety day window of opportunity.

The alternate has already been discussed and is a matter of public knowledge throughout Israel: Israelis can go like a lamb to the slaughter, just as the Jews went in their millions to Hitler's death camps, or Israelis can abandon Judea/Palestine in large numbers causing the economic collapse of the country before the nuclear holocaust is unleashed; finally, Israelis can stand and fight using all options at their disposal.

It has been stated by many that the first option will never happen again. The government of Israel is well aware that option two is unavoidable if no action is taken, which leaves option three as the only course available.

Israel may be coy about its status as a nuclear power; however, there is zero doubt that she has thermonuclear warheads in her arsenal in sufficient quantities to hold the balance of power in the Middle East. Israel has three submarines, probably armed with nuclear weapons: one on station in the Mediterranean and one in the Persian Gulf. The third rotates on standby. Israel has an effective intelligence and special operations service [Mossad], combat hardened troops and pilots, super computers and technology, state of the art battle tanks and aircraft, and access to ordinance, including missiles, [Israel took delivery of 500 US bunker buster bombs this year] from one of her allies.

Early this year, Israel [on what appeared to be a flimsy pretext] moved to significantly neutralized Hezbollah positions in Lebanon reducing or eliminating the risk of a flanking attack from Syria or Syrian supported Islamic extremists; the precedent for a pre-emptive strike against a nuclear facility was set in the early eighties when Israel attacked Iraq's Osirak nuclear complex near Baghdad; we can speculate that on November 13, 2006 Prime Minister Olmert received the tacit approval and an 'amber light' for a second pre-emptive attack from President Bush, this time against Iran.

According to a recent report, Israel has built replicas of Iran's nuclear facilities in the Negev Desert, where their fighter-bombers have been practicing test runs for months. The decision of which type of armament to be used remains to be seen. Military analysts point out that such an attack using conventional weapons will simply set the Iranian nuclear program back around two years. This would provide breathing space for more shuttle diplomacy, the end result of which would simply leave Ms. Rice et al with air miles that they could not live long enough to use. To penetrate and destroy centrifuges hidden seventy-five feet under ground will require the use of tactical thermonuclear warheads of the type declared 'strategic' and 'safe' for the civilian population. If this option is employed it will usher in the first nuclear war of the twenty-first century.

All that remains is to determine the date and here, of course, I am guessing. Id al Adha is Islam's Feast of Sacrifice or the Day of Sacrifice, it occurs during the twelfth month of the Islamic year following the Hajj or Pilgrimage to Mecca. It recalls the day when Abraham intended to follow the instructions of God, and sacrifice his son Ishmael. [NB: Muslims believe that Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his elder son Ishmael; Judeo-Christians believe that it was Isaac who was involved in the near sacrifice]. December 31, 2006, the New Year and Id al Adha: a time of global celebration when fireworks are traditional and people [Islamic and Christian] are preoccupied with other distractions.

THE GLOBAL WILD CARDS

Rumour places Osama bin Laden [OSB] under the protection of the mullahs in Iran. Now, OSB might not seem a likely candidate for recognition as the 'Hidden Inman' and a messianic place in Islam's end of times, but I for one would not rule him out.

Russia [a wild card if ever there was one] has been a teeny bit careless with its inventory of SS20 ICBMs and suitcase bombs since the crash of the iron curtain. It is certain that Putin and his government will prostitute themselves at any time to meet their need for hard currency, which oil rich Gulf States have a-plenty: they have sold the plutonium, the heavy water, the technology, the missiles, the defense systems and only God knows what else. Russia's two-faced double dealing is a major causative factor in the current crisis, and remember the Russian military machine has not been idling away its days in the interim.

China may have turned communism into capitalism, but she too has been frantically re-arming and, like Russia, is a nuclear power to be reckoned with.

The United States of America is heavily involved in the Middle East and may be drawn into conflict if Israel uses US controlled Iraqi airspace to attack Iran or if troops on the ground in Iraq are attacked by Islamic coalition forces.

Christian extremists. While on the subject of the USA, not all the extremists are Islamic: there is any number of fundamentalist Christians who are trying to force the rapture and the return of Christ. Brace yourselves! The belief in a rapture stems from the false interpretation of several biblical passages and modern interpretation. The strange part about this particular cultish belief, is the fact that the US government is very much involved in nourishing this belief throughout the world; you might remember the misguided statement recently made by none other than Condoleezza Rice: "The Lord is going to come on time - if we just wait."

The rapture doctrine, as it is taught and believed today, vaguely details the bodily removal of Christians from the earth, but only after certain world events have come to pass. It is these events that some believe the Bush Administration are actively trying to orchestrate. In other words, they are trying to force the rapture and the return of Christ by deliberately engaging in actions toward their prophetic 'fulfillment'. The contradiction and impossibility of this lunatic behavior is unconscionable: if it is true, it means, simply stated, that the Bush Administration, with the support of the fundamentalist churches worldwide are seeking to deliberately force WW III on the world, which will include the destruction of most of the Middle East [notably Iran and Syria among others] and the United States. This war will be between Israel, Russia, China and the United States and will even include a civil war within the borders of the USA; it will employ the exchange of nuclear weapons, with tens of millions of innocent deaths.

On the subject of religious extremists, Benedict XVI, bizarrely no stranger to World Wars chose 'just now' to inflame the world of Islam. Popes, Presidents and Prime Ministers seldom, if ever, make speeches or pronouncements off the cuff, so what is this latest Papal Bull all about?

It has been mentioned that with the serious decline in adherents and the associated crises within the catholic priesthood and at the Vatican Bank that major strife between Islam and Christianity could have a welcome polarizing effect, which would drive the fickle [un]faithful back into the cold empty pews. Is it possible that Herr Ratzinger is forcing the rapture himself? Personally, I would be very careful about that: some WWIII scenarios depict Rome and the Italian peninsular as the recipients of any number of unwanted kilotons.

Then there is Pakistan. If Israel [with or without America's tacit approval] bombs Iran, Iran will attack Israel and the US troops in Iraq. At best Pakistan will probably threaten to bomb American cities if the US delivers a nuclear reply strategic or otherwise to Iran. And on it goes. For those of you who have no imagination and want the appalling scenario in black and white try a web search for Four Day War, The Iran/Israel conflagration, a history by Claude Salhani.

A final word based on very hard facts, and not speculation or wild cards. It occurs to this writer that Israel has only limited choices because her back is firmly against the Wailing Wall.

She can do nothing and wait for the incoming ballistic missiles to show up on her radar and then respond in kind.

She can launch a pre-emptive attack against Iran with conventional weapons and buy a few months breathing space for more diplomacy, or she can use nuclear weapons and put Iran out of the arms race.

I do not think I have ever seen a more depressing scenario; I will leave the last words to two people who knew Adolf Hitler very well: British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, upon his return from Munich in 1938, stated,

"I have spoken to Mr. Hitler, and we shall have peace in our time."

Walter L Shirer, a journalist and historian, and a wiser man by far than his political contemporaries, pointed out in 1959 that,

"In our new age of terrifying, lethal gadgets [an age that followed WWII] the first aggressive war if it should come, will be launched by suicidal little madmen pressing an electronic button. Such a war will not last long and none will ever follow it. There will be no conquerors and no conquests, but only the charred bones of the dead on an uninhabited planet."

The writer acknowledges numerous sources on the worldwide web to which all credit is due and thanks is most gratefully extended.

Author: Rev. Malachy Egan Article Date: 10 December 2006

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OPEN LETTER FROM NATIONAL PASTOR, OCTOBER 2006

Back in April of this year I started my summary of church activity thus: "I believe that today Abba Ministries of Canada is poised on the threshold of an exciting new beginning." Today, six months later I can say with confidence that that statement has become a reality! God is good and the spirit of our Lord moves among us!

I welcome gladly, and with a heart that rejoices in our increased ability to serve God, the following new priests to the Abba Ministries of Canada fold:

• Reverend John G. Anderson - Chatham Christian Ministry;
  

• Pastors Wayne and Sandra Gardner - Connections Christian Fellowship Ministries;
  

• Reverend Bernadette Phillips - Abba North bay Pastoral Care Ministry;
  

• Pastor Arthur McCord - Abba West Nipissing Christian Ministry;
  

• Reverend Connie Howes - Church of the Northern Light;
  

• Pastors Dave and Marlene Evangelista - Angels of Mercy Network International.
  

In addition, we continue to process applications from men and women who, quite clearly, have been directed to us by the Holy Spirit. In fact, a current candidate for ordination struck a chord with me in a description of his call to Ministry, he stated: "I had heard the knocking at my door over the years, but chose to ignore it. Recently it came again, only this time it might be better described as a pounding..." Yes, Jesus is pounding on doors these days; there is absolutely no doubt in my mind about that, so please bear with me while I explore the reason why.

During my sixty-one years I have been saddened near to death by the spectacle of the 'abandonment' of the Christian churches by the laity. It started as a trickle in the post WWII years, became a stream in the seventies; by the eighties a river; in the nineties Christianity rivalled the decline and fall of communism as a fading ideology. Now as the new millennium gets under way even Christian leaders are acknowledging that the end is nigh: "The last Anglican in Canada will turn out the lights in 2063..." I quote from that dubious Anglican fundraiser The Anglican Journal. Carried along by this torrent; in desperation Josephine and I grabbed at a slender reed back in 2002. At first that little reed seemed in danger of tearing loose from the bank and allowing us to be swept away with the other lost souls, but we held on! Little did we know of course what amazing roots that Reed possessed deep beneath still fertile soil at the edge of the swollen flood plain of that river of Christian grief!

Despite a personal pedigree that goes deep into the Mass tradition [I am Irish you must remember] I have been called 'post-modern', 'charismatic', 'liberal' and a number of things somewhat less complimentary by a few of the priests and bishops ordained within those two mega-churches that featured so prominently in my past. The reasons for the latter, negative feedback are complex, and seated deeply inside the human psyche of those who delivered it; they also represent a modern version of the "establishment's" position faced with my theological stance, while left frustratingly without the power to burn me as a heretic: a fate that was unjustly meted out to so many who dared to question the dogmas and traditions of the Church in past centuries. Regardless of this preamble, rest assured that my position today is directly attributable to my personal relationship with God and my response on this Earth to His direction through the power of the Holy Spirit; however, it can be 'boiled down' to this simple statement:

"I believe that Christianity is in crisis. I believe that this crisis has been caused by those individuals, mostly men, who control [controlled] the various Christian churches. I believe that these Christian leaders have erred in many ways over two millennia and that the sheep now fear these Earthly shepherds, or at the very least hold them in contempt."

Let me state very clearly that I am not sitting in judgement of any individual priest [I gladly leave all judgement to a higher authority]; rather I am speaking out against a system that has become corrupt and has lost its way. However, I have to note that only an incredibly small number of priests who have been ordained within mainline Christianity have displayed the intestinal fortitude to speak out from a position of absolute independence: Joseph Carroll author of Constantine's Sword springs to mind as a shining example. How many times have I heard: "I prefer to work for change from within"? This really means "I prefer my comfortable manse, my stipend, benefits and allowance, and I know just how far I can go before the diocese loses patience and my laicization becomes a reality." Anglican Bishop John Shelby Spong turned the foregoing into a lucrative art form. Please do not misunderstand me: Spong had some very sensible things to say, but the message becomes totally hypocritical when considered in the light of his extremely comfortable existence as a bishop [now on an extremely comfortable pension, with extremely comfortable sinecures] within the Anglican Communion. We could continue to discuss the Pope's extravagant lifestyle; the sins of the Roman Catholic Church [just read Constantine's Sword! And if the hair doesn't stand up on the back of your neck let me know. You can find a precis at http://www.jesusofnazareth.ca/jews.html]; the Archbishop of Canterbury slumming it in Lambeth Palace and betraying his old friends on a scale unprecedented in ecclesiastical politics, and on down to local pastors demanding ten percent of family income as tithe and the so-called Knights of Columbus rivalling Las Vegas as a gambling den when gambling impacts families as badly as alcohol, street drugs and leads to divorce. Bingo! [no pun intended]

The question still begs: what exactly is it that has happened within Christianity that has driven so many away? I will endeavour to frame an answer, although I am certain that the points I make are not exhaustive.

The Priestly Classes

• Frequently are obsessed with power and control, personal status, their position in society and with money;

• Insert themselves between the laity and God and then demand the recognition given to witchdoctors in the past, having negatively meddled with their congregation's innate ability to communicate directly with our Creator;

• Often undergo a process of indoctrination rather than education, and thus display an inability to communicate with the laity at any functional level;

• Deal with 'crises of faith' just as others deal with burnout, i.e. with drugs [legal or otherwise], full use of the medical plan, sabbaticals, counselling from a higher authority within the church; yet with the blinkers firmly in place and the underling issue unaddressed. It's called denial;

• Consider a kind word/hospital visit/prayers with one who has fallen away from their denomination as proselytizing, even if that person has been away from Christianity for forty years;

• Adopt the 'Ostrich syndrome' and refuse to acknowledge that a problem exists;

• View community or congregation as a source of revenue first and a flock last or never at all;

• Become spiteful and punitive when opposed e.g. Sacraments are withheld, uncalled for judgements are passed or people are ostracized;

• Are resistant to change at any level; thus 'slamming the door' upon any initiative that might bring reform to the incumbent bureaucracy, and

• Are all too often seen as hypocritical and dishonest.

When challenged to define the most important 'rule' for the Church, Jesus [quoting from Deuteronomy] said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with your entire mind." [Matthew 22:37] He also strongly recommended that you should love your neighbour as yourself. Call to mind also Matthew 16: 28, often referred to as the parable of the rich young man, and remember that man's quandary when Jesus told him, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." Today's paid priests; in particular those who live in extravagant, luxury regardless of their denomination or sect within Christianity, might have some trouble with the foregoing. Frankly, it might be good counsel to suggest that they reread the entire parable in Matthew's Gospel and take heed to Jesus' stinging conclusion to his disciples: "But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first."

When I look back over six decades as a Christian, if I was asked to frame just one saying from the Master that encapsulates the outward behaviour of most Christian priests it would be this from Luke 6:46: "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?" When all is said and done my opponents can wriggle and squirm, twist and reinterpret scripture until the next blue moon yet the bottom line remains patently the same: examine closely the life and deeds of Jesus of Nazareth and compare it with your own. Ask yourself how do I compare? I will leave my detractors to sit in judgement of themselves.

Abba Ministries of Canada is, to my knowledge, the only Christian denomination in North America [and possibly upon planet Earth] whose priests are volunteers and which is entirely self supporting. Our priests reach out into various communities across this country from coast to coast, and internationally, through the word, through music, through deeds, always following the simple teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. We are non-judgemental, we spread the good news of our Saviour and we ask nothing in return. During my time, Abba has never solicited money from the public, although spontaneous donations [with no strings attached, because we are well aware of the current range of scams] are always gratefully received and directed to our charitable programming. [Yes, we are a CCRA registered charity.]

So much for the 'shepherds', what about the 'sheep'?

The Laity [born before 1939]

• Are the last remaining worshippers in the conventional Christian pews, and

• If not adherents to a recognized religion are either atheists or agnostics, and they can actually define both alternatives and know the difference.

The Laity [born between 1939 and 1980]

• Have lost faith, but not in God;

• Have abandoned Christ, but not Jesus, because the name given subsequently to His movement 'Christians' has been contaminated by two millennia of bloodshed, internecine strife, greed and evil deeds;

• Have tried to rediscover their Spirituality, and some have succeeded;

• Need honest answers to their questions,

• Need priests who lead by example, and

• Often still seek Spiritual guidance, particularly in times of crisis. They are deserving of our love, our compassion and our help. This is our Christian duty: to facilitate a face to face meeting with Jesus of Nazareth for any human being who wants it, and having forged that one-on-one contact, step back and let the Holy Spirit do the rest!

The Laity [born after 1980]

• Like many young people are not in touch with their mortality;

• Have often never been exposed to Spirituality or religion because they are the children of a generation in crisis;

• Have been 'turned off' by the horror stories, by man's inhumanity to man, and by the actions of a church which they see as unwelcoming, uncaring and unnecessary

• Need priests who lead by example, who help without judging, who offer compassion, sincerity and love and yet expect nothing in return;

• Strangely, this group occasionally seek the church for the Sacraments of Marriage or Baptism, or a funeral for a parent or loved one, only to be turned away for obscure reasons by the priestly class. [Beware the wrath of a priest rejected and spurned!] Note ye well that a bad experience here may close the door for many years at best and forever at worst.

So there it is, and not a pretty picture. I stand prepared to defend my thesis in any forum: sometimes the truth is not very palatable, but the alternative is unthinkable. To the humble, holy man or woman, who lives simply and selflessly, striving to do God's work without fear or favour and mindless of criticism or reward I say this: my sharp words are not directed at you. As for the rest who hold positions within the Church, I care little for your resentment: you will reap what you sow.

Look around you dear people, because the devil and his disciples are super active at this time. Little girls slaughtered like animals in an Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania; babies lives snuffed out in Barrie, Ontario to spite a partner in a failed marriage; another dictator, this time with nuclear weapons, leading the global community around by the nose, exactly as Adolf Hitler did in the nineteen-thirties; national leaders in South Africa and Israel raping women with supreme patriarchal contempt; need I continue?

It's a grim picture, yet I have hope now. If Jesus of Nazareth keeps pounding on those doors, and if a little church like ours can continue to attract the calibre of people who have been ordained with us this year, and if that stalwart core of priests who have kept Abba Ministries of Canada's flame nurtured during our final metamorphosis into an active national and international Christ-like Church maintain the momentum, then nothing - not even the devil and all his works - can stop us now!

Alleluia! To Almighty God be all the praise that we can muster! Go Abba, go! Together we can ring in a new era for Christianity.

In Christ, Malachy

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OPEN LETTER FROM NATIONAL PASTOR, APRIL 2006

I believe that today Abba Ministries of Canada is poised on the threshold of an exciting new beginning. Organizationally, we have been in existence as a national church for nearly thirty years; however, 2005 and early 2006 heralded many changes; all of them for the better. Recently, we have welcomed Pastors Blair and Brenda Crawford and Pastor Donna Ryan in Nova Scotia and I wish them every success in their respective ministries. We have appointed a Regional Governor for the Maritimes and Newfoundland, the Reverend Josephine Egan: a willing suffragan who is no stranger to the yoke of servitude. I continue to pester God with prayers for someone to take the upper hand in Upper Canada; a feisty, francophone friar to take the lead Quebec; a practical prairie priest to saddle up for the roundup on the Canadian Shield and a Blessed Christ-like Christian to bring folk out of the rain and under the Abba umbrella in BC.

Wisdom gained through suffering only comes in hindsight. Last year it seemed like the quicksand of a fallen world was perpetually dragging us down. Now, with the magic of hindsight I realise that having exorcised the devil in our midst the aftershocks could have been avoided, if only I had used the pruning hook judiciously and thoroughly the first time, but sometimes, like all of us, I forget the inspired words of Shakespeare: "Diseases desperate grown, by desperate appliances are relieved..." As national pastor I made the mistake of forgetting that negative organizational cultures, once established and entrenched, are notoriously difficult to change. I am happy to say that that situation has been resolved: the pruning blade has removed one Regional Governor and five pastors who were stunting the growth of the vine, and a sixth, the Reverend Steve Yeo has left us to join another denomination. We wish Steve well. It is truly wonderful that the unseen hand of Jesus steadies us every time that we stumble; we vow that we will remember the battle fought, and now it really feels as if the time of testing came and went. However, it must not be forgotten - at least that is my heartfelt promise as Abba Ministries of Canada moves relentlessly forward, determined to field active, passionate disciples of the Lord.

You have probably observed that some people [and many organizations] seem to cruise through life with the kind of problems that are resolved in the timeliness and manner usually reserved for pulp fiction novellas or television soap operas. These folk and these institutions of course, are the chosen ones: chosen and marked by the devil as either unworthy of attention from the power of evil or alternately designated for reward for deeds done in hell's service. Au contraire, others find life to be relentless in its harsh messages, seemingly random disasters, and outright sadistic tricks. Sometimes, their eyes grow dim waiting for God. However, those of us familiar with the yoke of service usually learn that the devil's constant attention is only focussed upon those people who are actively doing God's work. True disciples know only too well that satanic attack is a bellwether of the quality of their efforts in ministry, and if life is easy we probably are not pulling our weight.

Humanity is firmly rooted in happy endings. However, Christians know that happy endings come to those in Jesus who complete the race, but that the race itself can be cruel; it kills everyone who runs it. Our willingness to keep running despite the mire is what separates us from the despairing. Our knowledge of the finish line - and who waits for us there - is what gives us hope. It is my dedicated purpose that Abba Ministries of Canada be numbered among those Christian happy endings, and to achieve this goal we must now labour together and move forward in unity and hope.

CHARITABLE WORK

At our 2006 AGM, a motion was adopted that wherever possible the focal points of Abba Ministries' regional and national efforts be upon children and youth. I believe that poor and marginalized young people here in Canada are a worthy target for our charitable work, primarily based upon experience, which has shown me that responding to the needs of children and young people below the age of sixteen is the most effective way of making a difference both in terms of time and money spent. The federal definition of youth [up to twenty-nine years old] is patent nonsense, although there is still hope for most teenagers and those in their early twenties. For an example, let's talk about street drugs and define the impact of influence that can be applied to reduce involvement. Up to sixteen, and especially pre puberty, we can offer alternatives to drugs: the creative and imaginative, art, music, dance, sport and all manner of hands-on activities. These types of program boost independent thinking and action, teach teamwork and mature social skills, encourage investigation of the esoteric and assist children and young folk to develop healthy habits, common sense - which we all know is relatively uncommon - and a sound, grounded intellect. Juvenal, a Roman contemporary of the four Gospel writers said: "Mens sana in corpore sano." A healthy mind in a healthy body: this is our goal.

After sixteen years of age, sadly, we are more often offering rehabilitation with a plummeting success rate, while at the same time we are scrabbling for expensive community resources that are just not readily available. Let me state quite clearly that there are grey areas, and nothing should ever be written in stone, nor should we stereotype or judge individuals or groups.

If we focus our efforts upon Canada's poor, who are relatively very much less poor than the six million children who will starve to death in Africa this year, are we doing the right thing? I will speak to that, because I believe that Abba Ministries of Canada's efforts should, at least for the time being, be focused at home here in Canada. We are a small national church and charity, staffed entirely by volunteers, and while it is incumbent upon us to do the Lord's work, we must also recognize our own administrative limitations.

We must also recognize that the Pan African situation is horrendous. Behold! The forgotten grave of the Good Samaritan, obscured by stark images of the third world's refugees, the disfigured bodies of war casualties, AIDS victims and planet Earth's starving children. That there is some shred of compassionate humanity left in the human race is illustrated by the admirable response the public shows to such despicable scenes in the form of assistance for the victims. But there is a problem, a major problem: a problem that most generous givers never see because quite reasonably the act of giving leaves the donor thinking that they have performed the Samaritan act. The problem is that shrewd [or frequently dishonest] fundraisers make use of such human misery to make jobs for themselves, and to siphon big bucks into their bank accounts and to make political contributions. Politically motivated organizations like the CIA form corrupt and evil alliances with charities to further their global agendas in the third world. Writers and photographers become famous and win prizes. Charity becomes business that relies on human suffering as its vital resource for existence.

Recently, one far-sighted Christian relief worker summed things up thus: "Due to our preoccupation with the two ends of human nature, the inhuman brute and the compassionate donor, we lose sight of one essential part of humanity. We often victimize the victim further even as we try to help. The victim becomes object of our generosity instead of a human being with dignity. The donor is elevated to sainthood even as the victim is hopelessly fixed in destitution and stored away in our memory not to be heard of or from again. The writer, the photographer and the fundraiser became heroes who saved the victim while in fact they only saved themselves from professional mediocrity. No one knows what really happens to the person in that awful picture or the miserable character of that horrendous story. Our heroes rush to the next hot spot in search of another picture, another story, and another topic, for yet another chance of a heroic visibility even as the original victim lies there dying. With the victim out of sight and out of mind, the generous public follows the busy hero until it too becomes victim, a syndrome known as donor apathy or compassion fatigue."

My own personal experience taught me this lesson, and in war, civil strife or so-called peace it is the hardest lesson that I have ever learned: in African families children are frequently disposable and a low priority for food or sustenance. Drive a rusty truck loaded with food into a village in the real Africa, where the agents of virtue from the first world charities in their white SUV's never dare to go for fear of rebels armed with AK 47's, and you will see the local men sitting listlessly under the shade trees bemoaning their lot; the women cooking thin watery porridge over a smoky fire; or grubbing in the dirt to raise genetically modified maize, stilted by drought, that will yield neither food nor seed. The children lacking the energy to play lie in the stifling huts covered in sores and at the mercy of the ever-present flies or mosquitoes. Unload your offering in the middle of this tragic village and stand back and watch. Of course the men eat first, then the women, then older adults and only then and if any food remains, the children.

Welcome to the real Africa, where perhaps less than ten cents of every charitable dollar actually arrives, and then only to be stolen by some corrupt politician or crazy potentate rather than be used as the original first world donor was led to expect. Note that perhaps ninety percent of this money has evaporated before reaching the charitable goal, and ask yourself about those nice white SUV's, the charitable bureaucracies and ivory towers from Halifax to Houston and those agents of virtues who flit from meeting to meeting in what passes for five star hotels in Kinshasa or Harare.

So, for now Abba Ministries of Canada will concentrate her efforts upon Canada's poor children. I pray that our efforts will be successful and that, as we grow from strength to strength in Christ, we may one day - in the not too distant future - be able to raise our sights and reach out to some of those tragically disadvantaged children in Africa. Personally, I never want to see Abba Ministries of Canada don the mantle of today's wealthy charities or churches, with huge bureaucracies and phoney, out of touch Executive Directors or bishops; not to mention cathedrals, ivory towers, fat salaries and air-conditioned SUV's. Yet, in the future if we can make a difference, a real difference, even for just one African child, then I will be content that we have a basis upon which to build a credible third world charitable initiative.

In Christ, Malachy

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Open Letter by Abba's National Pastor & Bishop, November 2005

Hello Sisters and Brothers in Christ:

I am pleased to announce that phase one of restructuring of Abba Ministries of Canada that began early this year is now complete.

Abba Ministries of Canada has completed a successful audit with Canada Customs and Revenue Agency [CCRA] Charities Directorate. CCRA have expressed full confidence in the board of directors to operate our federal charity in a professional manner and within federal guidelines.

Industry Canada, Corporations Directorate and Abba Ministries of Canada have also established a good working relationship at board level. They have been extremely supportive in a number of areas, in particular, their Compliance Department was motivated to contact every provincial and territorial vital statistics department across Canada with confirmation of the legal composition of Abba Ministries of Canada's Board of Directors.

Our new internal security measures, the spirit of cooperation and support from Federal Government Agencies and new working relationships with Provincial and territorial Registrar General's Departments heralds a new dawn with regard to the administration of our national church as we move boldly into the twenty-first century.

The foregoing, and other security measures that have been implemented since February of 2005 have all served to place our national church and charity onto a firm professional footing.

Our organization can now move forward in confidence that the foundation of our church is sound. As of the year of our Lord 2005, Abba Ministries of Canada is secured to bedrock, and that bedrock is called Jesus of Nazareth!

Effectively, this is a completely new beginning. From our past we retain only our beautiful name: 'Abba', which is Aramaic for 'Papa' or 'Daddy' a term that Joachim Jeramais, singled out for the ultimate status, Jeramais said: "The most unique expression, perhaps the only thing that is truly unique in all His sayings and teachings, is Jesus' use of the Aramaic word Abba to refer to God."

As National Pastor and Bishop, I am going to challenge everybody to move forward and to embrace this new beginning. Never again will such an opportunity as this come your way. Phase two of Abba Ministries of Canada's redevelopment requires a bold and innovative plan.

Mainline Christianity is basically unchanged since its inception two thousand years ago; however, in the last thirty years it has experienced an unprecedented loss of adherents on all continents except Africa. As with most major secular charities, mainline Christianity now utilizes an unacceptably large percentage of all monies received to maintain infrastructure and pay salaries. There is constant conflict within the Christian organization itself, with polarization around issues, dogmas, traditions and creeds; so much so, that that deceptively simple program started by Jesus of Nazareth: to love God with all our hearts and to love neighbour as ourselves is forgotten and lost.

I believe that within Abba Ministries of Canada we have a unique opportunity to blaze the trail that will eventually become a super-highway leading to God through Jesus Christ in the twenty-first century. Our national church can become the ecumenical umbrella under which internecine strife is forgotten and individual churches and ministries flourish regardless of their place upon the spectrum of Christianity or their denominational origins. Specifically: rather than Catholic against Presbyterian [as in Northern Ireland] or synod against synod [the Lutherans, Anglicans] or church against church [more than I care to name] our churches and ministries can continue to grow together respecting the viewpoint and position of the other and embracing the tension between fundamental and liberal Christianity.

The point is this: energy is precious and we need every bit that we can muster to do God's work, so don't waste it fighting for lost causes. The definition of a lost cause is something that Jesus of Nazareth would not embrace!

Beware, false prophets and mass hysteria. [President Bush's crusade against Islam, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map."] Think rather of Lincoln's comments during the American Civil War: "The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time."

Our priorities for stage two of Abba Ministries of Canada's will be as follows:

[1] WORSHIP AND OUTREACH

To honestly follow the program started by Jesus of Nazareth: to love God with all our hearts and to love neighbour as ourselves.

[2] ACTIVE RECRUITMENT OF NEW PASTORS

To actively seek like-minded individuals who will work for Christ without pay or reward, digging deep into their own resources in order to spread His Word. [We can, as a politician once said, offer nothing but blood, sweat and tears...] Husband and wife teams are great; those who have been rejected are welcome; we ordain both men and women; even rich people who are dedicated Christians can apply. We need people with a sound practical grounding in theology.

Education and training are both viable processes, but down to earth ministry experience is even better. Did you ever walk the streets of Vancouver's downtown east side? We may well be interested in you.

Do you understand the bible, and are you at least in passing in touch with modern cross-denominational Christian scholarship? Perfect!

Are you familiar-first hand-with the mind-numbing poverty of Africa? Let's talk.

Prison ministry, shelters, outreach, missions? the possibilities are endless.

Or do you simply love Jesus, understand His program and want to get to work? Black, Caucasian, First Nations, Chinese, it doesn't matter: Abba even ordained an Irishman! [That would be me.] By the way, Abba Ministries does not seek to bring good folk from other churches; rather, we are looking for those people who perhaps do not relate directly to what is currently out there, but have the vision to develop a truly Christian Church as Disciples of our Lord.

Application forms for those who seek ordination are available, please contact me directly via the Abba website or at info@abbacanada.org. If you seek ordination with Abba Ministries of Canada your must be motivated to join a non-elite group of servants, who seek only to follow the Lord. You must also be prepared to satisfy the ordination committee beyond doubt of your good character and good standing within the community. This will involve C-PIC and vulnerable sector police checks for all applicants, and Family Services and Children's Aid Society 'Fast track' checks where available.

[3] DEVELOPING A PLAN AND IMPLEMENTING PHASE TWO OF ABBA MININISTRIES OF CANADA'S RESTRUCTING PLAN

Abba Ministries of Canada needs to develop the equivalent of a new strategic plan. This will include, but not be limited to the following operational areas:

• Mission statement
• Statement of Faith
• Administration and structure of the national church and charity
• Administration and structure of local churches and ministries
• Financial plan
• Fundraising
• Charitable disbursements
• National by-laws

As at the beginning of stage one, I recognize that this is NOT an easy road, nor is it for the faint of heart. For existing Abba pastors, and those of you who will join us in the months and years to come, your decision to become actively involved in Abba Ministries of Canada may quite literally be the most important decision of your life!

I believe Abba Ministries of Canada can now begin to grow, and serve the Lord, but only if we accept the yoke of servitude gladly and willingly and fulfill which is required for us to be full time, committed disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessings in Christ our Lord,

Malachy

Rev. Malachy (Mike) Egan Bishop Emeritus Abba Ministries of Canada - Ministere Abba du Canada 2 Auburn Avenue Halifax Nova Scotia B3R 1K4 Canada tel: (902) 428 3343 fax:(902) 477 1375

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