Ottawa gets zealous archbishop
Meanwhile, Halifax’s Catholic archbishop, Terrence Prendergast, has been shuffled to Ottawa following the retirement of Ottawa archbishop Marcel Gervais.
Prendergast made headlines in Halifax last year when he decided the Church would deny communion to a parish’s gay choir director.
After the Halifax Chronicle Herald published a wedding photo of Daniel Poirier and Jack Murphy, the two were told by the diocese that until they “repented”, receiving communion was out of the question. They were also told they could not be “leaders” in the church anymore.
According to both sides, it was the publicity that caused the archbishop to act, not the fact that Poirier and Murphy had been involved for years.
At the time, the church released a statement that “those who make public announcements that they are living in a manner completely contrary to the teaching of the Church cannot expect to receive holy communion.”
Prendergast also fought same-sex marriage, urging Nova Scotians to lobby MPs to re-open the gay marriage debates last year.
Tone Cluster’s road trip
One of Ottawa’s queer choirs is set to embark on its first ever multi-city tour of Eastern Ontario, with stops in Cornwall and Kingston.
The Tone Clusters perform in Ottawa 3pm Jun 3 at the First Unitarian Congregation. Led by Jane Perry, Tone Cluster will perform the Ottawa premiere of Watershed Stories I by Canadian compose David L. McIntyre. Transgender support group Gender Mosaic will join them as special guests.
A Taste For Life up 20%
The annual fundraiser benefiting local AIDS groups Bruce House and the Snowy Owl Foundation raised over $60,000 this year compared to $50,000 in 2006.
On April 25, 44 restaurants opened their doors to the community, each donating 25 percent of the bill to A Taste For Life.
The restaurants were even busier than normal, according to Bruce House’s Martha Scott. As well, direct donations throughout the course of the evening were up, she says.
In its eighth year, the event regularly draws crowds, which this year included gay Nova Scotia MP Scott Brison.
Marrying into the foreign service
Reports surfaced May 7 in the Calcutta, India press that Canadians married to Foreign Affairs employees stationed in that country had been denied diplomatic-spousal status.
They were responding to a request from The Canadian high commission to recognize one gay male partner and one lesbian partner, each married to Canadian government employees.
India doesn’t recognize gay marriage and regularly punishes gay men under a law forbidding sex that is “against nature”, the Calcutta Telegraph reported. The Indian Penal Code condemns gay sex with a life sentence.
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