wfn.org | ACNS3754 Primate of Canada laments 'diehard secularism' in last

[Anglican Communion News Service <acnslist@anglicancommunion.org>]

ACNS 3754     |     CANADA     |     26 JANUARY 2004 

Primate of Canada laments 'diehard secularism' in last public address
before retirement

by Marites N Sison

[ACNS source: Anglican Journal] Archbishop Michael Peers has called on
various religious traditions in Canada to rise above their differences
and renew their public role in society saying their contributions are
"particularly crucial" as more and more Canadians are "losing confidence
in the common good". In a speech before the Empire Club of Canada in
Toronto, his last public address before retiring as primate on 1
February, Archbishop Peers also spoke out against "diehard secularism"
citing the recent "dangerous decision" made by the French government to
ban the use in public of Muslim headscarves, Jewish skullcaps, and
Christian crosses of any size, and the absence of religious references
during the Sept 11, 2001, memorial service on Parliament Hill.

Archbishop Peers lamented that through the years he has seen an erosion
of the public role of religion and public discourse concerning
citizenship in Canada. These two trends, he added, have undermined the
quality of life in the country and therefore, it was crucial for
religious communities and leaders to "stand down from the certainties
that bring us into conflict with one another, and to embrace the
conversation by which together we might serve the common good." Failing
to do so, he said, would only push religion and its contributions
further away from public life. "If we cannot assure our fellow citizens
that our discourse is not toxic with the hostility that has too often
characterized it in the past, we will not be granted a hearing for the
deep and holy wisdom entrusted to our care," he said.

The primate cited a number of factors for the absence of religion from
public life. Religion, he said, has been treated as "a dangerous
commodity, likely to lead either to conflict, or to
religiously-motivated repression if allowed too much scope in public
life."

Public discourse on citizenship, on the other hand, "has been degraded
almost to the point of extinction, replaced by the language of 'tax
payers'," he said.

But while he called for a renewal of public discourse on religion and
citizenship, the primate said it "cannot succeed if it is pure
nostalgia; the future we seek will not be served by a return to the old
days, in which a distilled and nominal Christianity influenced and
constrained public life."

Archbishop Peers acknowledged that sharp differences between and within
faiths sometimes impede public discourse. "Though they hear the same
Scriptures, they are often at odds over the meaning of those
Scriptures," he said referring to the experience of the Anglican Church
of Canada, where the debate over same-sex blessings has split some
parishes and dioceses.

"Whatever the public contribution of faith may be, then, it will not be
a matter of delivering a moral or spiritual consensus," the primate
said. "But what if the point is not a conceptual agreement, but a shared
probing of divine and human truth?"

In his speech, attended by more than 80 people including business
executives, religious leaders, and high school students from schools of
various denominations, the primate also expressed concern that the
social agenda has "disappeared" from the government's radar.

He said that the access that religious leaders once had to political
leaders in matters of social advocacy "no longer exists as it once did
in Canada, and there is some question as to whether it was ever
particularly effective even when it did."

Sometimes, co-operation with government comes at a heavy price, he said,
citing the experience of four churches, including the Anglican Church of
Canada, which together with the federal government, faced lawsuits by
hundreds of native Canadians who alleged various forms of abuse in a
boarding school system that it jointly operated nationwide for more than
a century. Such co-operation "has cost the churches deeply - in
credibility as well as in dollars," he said. (An agreement was signed in
March 2003 limiting the Anglican Church of Canada's liability to CAN$25
million with respect to the litigation. The Anglican Church ran 26 of
the 80 schools and was named by more than 2,000 plaintiffs.)

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