The Rev. Vosper Again

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She has announced she is co-founder of Oasis. ummmmm who else is involved. and where is the money

coming from. Or doesn't it take money to start an atheist church.

Will they not have to pay taxes.

This kind of boggles me.
 
BetteTheRed said:
Problem is, chansen, that I don't personally know where the edge is between theism, and non-theism or a-theism, and I'm not sure the UCCan knows where the edge is, either, although I suspect they think they do.
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Perhaps we are dulled to hell (η' eL?) with the edge function when we find the eternal sol goes on and on? The story never ends ... as something spewed by a triad of authoritarianisms ... the demos is this laid out ... tis a sigh'n in the dark ...

AS harper dream!
 
Crazyheart certainly raises an interesting question. Is a 'church' without 'god' still eligible for tax exemption, and to issue tax receipts?
 
Any registeed charity can issue tax receipts. So that isnt an issue at all if they be ome a registerd charity. But it is a thing, there are rules about money raid and spent.....

Tax exemptions i guess you mean property taxes. Registered charites are not exempt frim property taxes like churches are. But you only pay property tax if you own property. Groups that rent space just pay rent
 
The Oasis Network does not call itself a church. Rather it talks about establishing secular communities which emphasize reason.

The groups often meet on Sunday mornings for convenience but I don't think this is a given.

Not sure if they would qualify as charities but I imagine they would be considered non-profits at the very least.

West Hill United Church has affiliated with the Oasis Network but as far as I know the new gathering in downtown Toronto will be a separate entity. Gretta Vosper is one of the organizers of the group but there are others assisting her.

I suspect the press would be less interested if the "atheist minister" were not involved.
 
Are churches without gods seekers of something secreted away from them by authorities that say they shouldn't process in a questioning way?

Could such things be secreted from hard places by weeping and gnashing ... nosh it over?

Why does the accepted collection of word say question all things ... when many churches are very choosy about ideals ... it being best to put lesser casts down?

Is it a subtle hint of things we are not cognizant of on certain premises that are isolated? Some people call these thesis on the imaginary organ called sol ... sometimes just humming at mid-day causing some people to faint off ... heat catharsis or Sun Dense?
 
Who would keep us in such state of chaos until we dig our way out and look about? Is this sequetur or just a literary device meant to be humour ... like facetiae?

Some authorities say there is no literary value in the good book, only rules and laws as they can't imagine anything different as a sigh'n to process the bits given ... that harmonis on the winds ... of chance as a quantum device?

In fallacy does one get a dunk'n with the Lady of the Lake? Should one take the diverse road ... and watch from afar side ... a step out of bode an mode? OBI as a rendering of obtuse ... as the gods of desire didn't wish us to see the goings on ... po'noggins ... po' no graphics of the images formed in the reams of sheets! Mysterious myths ...

Should one have appreciation for god song in space ... as the earthy authorities didn't wish the ordinary folk here to know? Thus celestial resonance with inner space? Some don't gather anything from nothing ...

Then I read a book received for Christmas called Do Not Say We Have Nothing (Madeleine Thein). Then some authorities say love is nothing and others say common thought is nothing compared to the beliefs of autocrats. Could one take a medium perspective instead of the polity of passion versus pure static knowledge? That could get the constipated moving ... like a great fear coming out of the Shadow's Tory ... with a twist of literary device ... differing from the advice gotten from world-based accountants ... leaving one to account for actions rising from aspirations without respect to nothing eL's as it flashes by ... just as bait from the other's IDe ...

The fisher man doing bookings? That' be the old salt Peter ... trying to diminish the passions from a point of sentience ... out there! Not a choice of short-versioned persons at present confinements ...
 
I am having real trouble with this whole thing. More now that she is apparently gone

Than when she was here in the church,

What will happen to West Hill? I haven't got that clear. Are they going to

do a needs assessment?

Will they have oversight? By who?

Will Gretta continue to bash the church and the decisions that the moderator

writes about?

How many others in Oasis do not believe in God, Jesus, prayer and the other Christian rituals that

United Church folk hold dear.?

Maybe there are no answers.
 
I don't know about tax exemptions. No other clubs except churches get them. Even clubs who do some charity work.
 
Gretta is not gone from the United Church @crazyheart. She continues to serve the congregation at West Hill and will be allowed to do so until the hearing in September 2017.

At that time a decision is to be made about placing her on the DSL list. It is anyone's guess what will happen to the existing congregation if she is DSL'ed. . . I would imagine that many will follow her to Oasis if she is removed from West Hill but I don't believe the entire place will clear out.

The usual course of action in this denomination would be to appoint an interim minister to help the congregation (what is left of it) discern its future.

If Gretta is removed, another unknown is whether any of the former members will choose to return to the congregation at West Hill.

But this is still many months down the road. Some are speculating Gretta might be planning to leave congregational ministry voluntarily or to negotiate a settlement of some sort. No one knows at this point.
 
crazyheart said:
How many others in Oasis do not believe in God, Jesus, prayer and the other Christian rituals that

United Church folk hold dear.?

Maybe there are no answers.
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Oasis is a secular community so your question is moot, I would say.

Oasis groups gather to form communities which provide some of the benefits churches historically offer. Belonging, ethical considerations, fellowship, searching for meaning etc. But they are not churches and don't claim to be.
 
paradox3 said:
Oasis is a secular community so your question is moot, I would say.

Oasis groups gather to form communities which provide some of the benefits churches historically offer. Belonging, ethical considerations, fellowship, searching for meaning etc. But they are not churches and don't claim to be.
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Ante religious collectives? People trying to do good without institutional confinement! The institutions would likely isolate them as islands in the san (without)! What are they without ... imagination streams?

Without imaginary streams ... would the reality become a buzz, or just fuzzy ...
 
I don't find it scary. This is a group of spiritually "progressive" people who would like to remain in the UCCan. The UCCan is making it pretty clear they're not wanted. They can't take the church, so the UCCan will reduce by some 50-75 people, really a drop in the bucket of its continual bleed of membership.

What's 'scary' to me is the sort of "circle the wagons" feel that I get, as if "people like me" are less welcome.
 
BetteTheRed said:
Crazyheart certainly raises an interesting question. Is a 'church' without 'god' still eligible for tax exemption, and to issue tax receipts?
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Consider Scientology - yes, they are tax exempt despite their 'theology'. Not to derail - but perhaps of interest to some - I stumbled across a documentary series last night on A&E - "Leah Remini - Scientology & the Aftermath" - wow - I had no idea of its shockingly abusive nature - but it's still a "church" by definition, at least in the US, not sure about Canada.
 
BetteTheRed said:
I don't find it scary. This is a group of spiritually "progressive" people who would like to remain in the UCCan. The UCCan is making it pretty clear they're not wanted. They can't take the church, so the UCCan will reduce by some 50-75 people, really a drop in the bucket of its continual bleed of membership.

What's 'scary' to me is the sort of "circle the wagons" feel that I get, as if "people like me" are less welcome.
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I dont thnk people who are "less believers" are not welcome or wanted.

You mistake the issue of a minister who has a job with a member who attends services


The minister has job obligations with in the denomination. And as the various ministers here have reported some of those job obligations include baptism, communion, sacraments. As a member you can choose to not partake. As a minister within the denomination you dont have that choice. I dont find that unusual. I cant think of another job that has duties as a requirement, that would leave it up to the employee whether they chose to do the assigned duties
 
crazyheart said:
@paradox3 This is scary. Why wouldn't they join UU. It seems that Gretta and the co- people

want to pull the strings.
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Many of us have been wondering for years why Gretta didn't simply move over to the UU's.

But I have come to believe that she seeks to reform mainstream religion . . . the United Church and even beyond it. The UU's on the other hand are happy to present an alternative to other denominations and world faiths. They don't even seem to market themselves to any great extent.

Some have been wondering why we need Oasis in this city when we already have Unitarianism well-established here. The Oasis website suggests to me that they focus more on finding meaning through reason and less on spirituality. There must be a degree of overlap, I am thinking, but I can understand the difference in focus.
 
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