Eric C. Bow

A new Chinese Restaurant has just had its grand opening, Delightful Cantonese Cuisine (869 Victoria St. Kitchener, ON N2B 3C3).  I’ve already been twice for lunch.  The first time I had something from its lunch specials menu: fried tofu and beef with black pepper sauce.  Lunch includes choice of wonton soup or hot and sour soup, a spring roll and steamed rice. This restaurant cooks up very good Cantonese style food.  Cantonese style is the style one found most often in high end (like Kwong Chow and Lichee Gardens in Toronto) Chinese restaurants of the 1950s and 1960s.  North American Chinese, the style investigated in the book "Fortune cookie chronicles," is mostly derived from it.  Authentic Cantonese however, is not "greasy" spoon but a fine dining cuisine.  This place does it well and the service is attentive. It definitely brings back memories of my growing up in Toronto's downtown Chinatown.  I just had to go back to try its dim sum. They have all my favourites, deep fried squid tentacles, turnip cake, char sui bao, pot stickers, sticky rice in lotus leaf, har gow, shrimp dumpling, and shrimp shu mai.  They were out of tentacles because of the number ordered at their official opening on Sunday but they fried me up some squid bodies - done perfectly, tender, not a hint of the rubbery texture you get if not done right. The sticky rice with meat in lotus leaf is every bit as good as Chrystal Palace's (which James and I think are the best in the Region.) The shrimp rolls as good as Cameron's; all the dim sum was good. But really outstanding was the radish cake (the correct name for turnip cake); it was served cubed on a bed of lightly fried bean sprouts and onions.  I'm going to come back often just for these wonderful radish cakes.  One thing that really brought back memories was the red hot sauce beside the hot Chinese mustard in a yin yang circle. in the 50s and 60s, all the Chinese restaurants used to put such a red and yellow filled dish on the table.  That hot mustard is wonderful with barbecued pork; it also works with dim sum.

Quotations

While I support my government’s decision to allow same-sex marriages through the civil process, I am not comfortable with fully equating it with an Anglican Church marriage. Civil marriages were initiated by man through the state while church marriages were instituted by God and therefore are sacred, holy and central to the community of the Church.

Marriage was adopted by Christians from Jewish practice. Jesus performed his first miracle at a wedding in Cana where he turned water into wine. He was blessing an existing practice, not initiating something new. This Cana marriage was truly sealed by God and was a sign of the love uniting Christ and his Church.

I have some misgivings about the motion which has been placed on the agenda for this year’s Diocese of Huron synod;

OF SAME GENDER MARRIAGES

Preamble:

The General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada has affirmed the integrity and sanctity of same-gender unions, and has resolved that the blessing of same-gender unions is not in conflict with the core doctrine of the Anglican Church of Canada. With that in mind, we the people of the Diocese of Huron believe that we are being called to move forward in a caring and loving way to include the faithful gay and lesbian couples of our Church by blessing their loving and committed marriages.

Respecting the positions of those within our Church who cannot agree with the blessing of same-gender unions, for theological reasons and as a matter of conscience,

Moved: The Rev'd Greg Little Seconded by: Maureen Campbell

Be it resolved:

That this Synod request the Bishop grant permission to clergy, whose conscience permits, to bless the duly solemnized and registered civil marriages between same-gender couples, where at least one party is baptized; and that the Bishop authorize an appropriate rite and make regulations for its use in supportive parishes.

Not all of "we the people of the Diocese of Huron" believe we are being called to bless same-sex unions. If we were truly being called by God then the issue would not be tearing our church apart. A call is uniting, never divisive. It’s more likely we are being called to come up with a statement of affirmation and reconciliation with the world-wide Anglican Communion.

In the early undivided church, there was no appropriate rite initiated either by God or by man for blessing same-sex unions. The Anglican sacramental rite of Holy Matrimony is not appropriate. Holy Matrimony confers on the heterosexual couple the grace they need for attaining holiness in their married life. It consecrates them for the mission of building the Church family, which includes the responsible acceptance and upbringing of their children. The rite provides grace for accomplishing that mission. Same-sex civil unions, lacking the ability to conceive children, do not have the same mission as a heterosexual marriage. The Canadian civil marriage gives the same-sex marriage all the civil rights and privileges of a heterosexual marriage, but it does not give a mission.

I am not opposed to blessing such civil contracts as a same-sex marriage; but keep them in context and bless all personal contracts and friendships. I am opposed to establishing an "appropriate rite" for blessing same-sex marriages in isolation from the full Canadian Anglican Community. No Synod or Bishop on its own should initiate a new rite, especially if not based either in scripture or in the early church, in isolation from the whole Church.

I feel the motion needs to be amended by removing "authorize an appropriate rite and make regulations for its use in supportive parishes." You don’t need such a rite or regulations to bless a contract or friendship if that is all you are doing – blessing a loving relationship. The blessing should be a simple blessing, part of a regular service welcoming the new couple into the parish, that bestows nothing new and simply blesses a loving couple and their civil union. Don’t make it a back door to full Holy Matrimony status. Replace "that the Bishop authorize an appropriate rite and make regulations for its use in supportive parishes" with "that the Bishop authorize an appropriate prayer or blessing and allow for its use in supportive parishes."

Two articles in today's (April 15, 2008) Waterloo Region Record caught my eye.  Ottawa to pay pork producers to kill off pigs as market collapses announces that Ottawa will pay pig farmers up to $50 million to slaughter their breeding pigs if they agree to wipe out their entire herd and stay out of the hog business for three years. Ottawa hopes to reduce the glut and bring prices back up.  Global food crisis may wipe out seven years of progress  reports on "a rapidly escalating global food crisis..[reaching]..emergency proportions..."  UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is calling for "short-term emergency measures...to meet urgent food needs and avoid starvation and longer-term efforts to significantly increase production..."  I hope I'm not the only one to see a serious problem with Ottawa's hog policy in light of the global food crisis. These are breeding hogs that could be used in areas of the world where people are starving, to help them raise food to lift themselves out of poverty and hunger. Why waste all these hogs?  Why not send them to subsistence farmers in the Third World?  Surely there are philanthropic organizations that would pick up the shipping costs. Our hog farmers might feel better about a solution to Canada's hog glut if they could actually help alleviate the global food crisis.  Much better than slaughtering all those hogs.