It appears the public is being suckered by Calgarian street preacher Artur Pawlowski. And it appears a group called Kings Glory Fellowship Association may also have been suckered. And it appears Street Church Ministries may have been suckered too.
Pawlowski is identified as head pastor of Kings Glory Fellowship Association, which, according to Equipping Christians for the Public Square, faithfully filed a tax return as a charity for the last 30 years.
Kings Glory Fellowship Association was listed at Revenue Canada Charity Directorate under Other Denominations, Congregations or Parishes, (not else classified). As a charity it would have had a board or trustees. They would have hired their head pastor. The current head pastor is Artur Pawlowski.
Kings Glory Fellowship Association got it’s charitable status revoked by Revenue Canada in October.
Meantime back in Calgary, head pastor Artur Pawlowski gets himself known as a combative street preacher and head of a group called he calls Street Church Ministries. He’s got religious right sites believing his new minis is being persecuted.
Street Church Ministries is not listed with Revenue Canada, but it takes donations and has the same address as Kings Glory Fellowship Association.
One is not the other in the eyes of the government and rightfully so. One gets it’s charity licence yanked for not filing, one isn’t listed as a charity but takes donations on it’s website.
Street Church Ministries is saying it is going to take the case of Kings Glory Fellowship Association charity licence being yanked to court. It is run by Artur Pawlowski who is the one yelling persecution.
The board of Kings Glory Fellowship Association is responsible for filing it’s tax return, responsible for who it hires as head pastor. Holy Post:
Artur Pawlowski, the head of the Kings Glory Fellowship, said his group “has nothing to do with politics and we do not advertise for a party or a candidate. The only political activity you can connect us to is defending our right to speak.”
Mr. Pawlowski said the primary mission of his church is to feed homeless people. He said this group supplies food for about 150,000 a year, mainly to people “that no one else wants to deal with.”
“When we feed people we don’t care whether they are homosexuals or have had abortions or been divorced but we preach what the Bible says about those issues.”
Maybe Kings Glory Fellowship Association does feed homeless people. So apparently does Street Church Ministries.
Street Church Ministries is involved in political activism and as such cannot cross the 10% threshold of involvement required by law.
Where is the persecution?
If Kings Glory Fellowship Association board filed for a name change to Street Church Ministries, where is it listed? Since when can a group be politically active (Street Church Ministries) and misuse the charitable status of another group (Kings Glory Fellowship Association)?
Small but important detail wouldn’t you think?
I’ll update and correct this post if someone can show me what’s in a name.
Update: Alberta Gazette DON ROSS MINISTRIES, ASSOC. Alberta Society Incorporated 1984 JUL 30. New Name: THE KINGS GLORY FELLOWSHIP ASSOCIATION Effective Date: 2005 JUN 29. No: 503153363
Canada Gazette THE KINGS GLORY FELLOWSHIP ASSOCIATION, CALGARY, ALTA 118887280RR0001
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118887280RR0001 |
I get the fact that you think that this is about charitable status and a discrepancy between two connected ministries. But this does NOT address the CRA’s own words, which specifically mention the Church’s pro-life stand, and its critique of homosexuality as being “political” reasons for the loss of charitable status.
If this be proven in the court of law, it is clearly a misuse of CRA’s authority. Period.
David:
If the CRA got political on this and that opinion caused the loss of charitable status, there is re-dress and that will come out in a court of law.
A former board member of the ministry which this number was purchased from says it was transfered in 2005. If you go over to one of the three sites which support Mr. Palwoski, (No Apologies) you’ll see even someone concerned about political interference acknowledges the CRA attempted to help The Street Church set up it’s status. There is currently no indication this group has filed in the couple of years it has had the priviledge of charitable status.
The court can and will sort out the facts and if the CRA misused it’s authority. If and when this goes to court I’ll update accordingly.
The biggest problem I see, is that there is a lot of speculation, assumptions, judgements, different conclusions being drawn, and people saying, “I know what happened”, when they don’t. Many of the comments are just, either foolish, or are pure evil, and I will tell you why. When did you take the courage and courtesy to call me personally? I have had the same phone number and address for many years, for over a decade in fact. It’s so simple, when you have questions, just pick up the phone and call 403-607-4434, which is clearly displayed on the contact page of our website.
When you choose to attack a believer, for whatever reason, and at the end of the day it doesn’t matter what the issue is, without talking to them and finding out the truth, it is an act of cowardice and it comes from the pit of hell. I was reading some comments on some of the blogs and websites, regarding this issue, and also on our fight with the City and Province relating to our rights. Let me be clear, at first, I just wanted to ignore the spits and hatred, especially comments coming via e-mail, from the homosexual community against my stand on the issue of homosexuality as an abomination and clearly a sin unto the Lord. But after seeing some brothers and sisters in Christ, beginning to voice concerns, I decided to answer questions for their sake.
As for the others, I have a rebuke for you. One day, the Holy of Holies, the creator of the heavens and the earth, Jesus, will respond to you, himself, and as my wife always reminds me, you will have all of eternity to think about your foolishness in opposing His standards.
Now to the sincere believers of Jesus Christ and those who are seeking the truth out of earnest, I will respond to your questions and concerns.
For 26 years, the ministry in question, Kings Glory Fellowship, was operating under the guidelines of CRA, without any problems. When I received this organization….the rest is here:
http://streetchurch.ca/index.php/20100201548/News/Journals/I-will-respond-to-your-questions-and-concerns.html
The fundamental facts from your tirade boil down to the following:
(1) King’s Glory failed to file required documentation with the CRA on time
(2) King’s Glory had asked for, but did not receive an extension on its filing deadlines from CRA.
(3) CRA pulled King’s Glory charitable status as a matter of standard procedure.
(4) There is a dispute with CRA that is secondary to the failure to file. This dispute appears to be related to the activities of King’s Glory’s leadership (and likely by extrapolation, King’s Glory itself)
Mr. Pawlowski,
Are you denying your involvement in any of the politically charged discussions? I’ve heard the story time and time again that because you are (not you specifically) doing God’s work, you should be allowed to engage. I believe you are engaged but from what I understand, the law clearly dictates that no more than 10% of the organizations time can be dedicated to engaging in political action.
I believe that if the CRA denied your status, it was done with good reason. I don’t believe they just wandered to your website and said, “Oh, it’s the same guy.”
I do believe that you do good things for the community (domestic and international) but you must know that making a decision to constantly involve yourself in politically charged discussions would have ramifications and this is one of them.
I personally would hope that you choose to un-involve yourself in politics and stick to administering social programs and helping those in need, to me, that is the churches role not condemning people for the churches misinterpretation of 1 line of gospel.