[Buddha-l] Canada cancels non-Christian prison chaplaincies

[Richard Hayes]

On Oct 9, 2012, at 11:12 , Gad Horowitz <horowitz at CHASS.UTORONTO.CA> wrote:

> It's nice to get your facts right.  The Anglican church is not established
> here in Canada.  No church is.

That is my understanding. I think if you will look carefully at what I wrote, there was no suggestion that the Anglican Church is the established church of Canada. It's nice to read what people have written before correcting them.

> Most of the Christian chaplains are
> probably Roman Catholic and United Church of Canada, a merger of
> Presbyterians Methodists and one other (I forget).

The UCC was a merger of some Presbyterians, some Methodists, some Baptists and some Congregationalists. In all of those denominations, there were some churches who wished to remain separate from the merger, so there are still Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist and Congregationalist churches. Those who wished to remain separate were called, etymologically enough, separatists. So Canada has two kinds of separatists: Protestants who did not wish to join the United Church of Canada, and Québecois(e) who do not wish to be part of Canada.

>  You should LOOVE the UCC
> because they just signed on to the boycott of Israeli settlement products.

Good for them. That is just the sort of stand the United Church of Canada is well known for taking. As you perhaps know, I used to be in the Faculty of Religious Studies at McGill University, which trains people for UCC ordination (as well as Anglican and Presbyterian ordination). My UCC friends used to assure me that the United Church of Canada is by far the most liberal religious body in North America. 

> You got other facts wrong, DOCTOR Hayes, but I can't be bothered.

More's the pity. When there are errors to be corrected, laziness is no virtue.

Richard Hayes