Kings Glory Fellowship Association has lost it’s charitable status with Revenue Canada and it’s combative leader says it’s because the government wants to keep them quiet. Holy Post:
Artur Pawlowski, who is about 37 years old,  has a  history of confrontation, has taken his concerns to media for years.
Mr. Pawlowski and his group have a long and loud history of dealing with Calgary officials. In 2007 he was arrested for obstruction and littering after attempting to preach the Gospel at a alternative theatre festival. The case was thrown out.
Then last year Mr. Pawlowski went to court to argue against being fined for using a microphone at outdoor events to raise awareness about homelessness. A court ruled on Dec. 7 that tickets violated his freedom of speech.
Mr. Pawlowski’s fight against the city was referenced in the CRA documents. Mr. Pawlowski argued he was the victim of a double-standard, issuing a press release that said officials tolerated some special-interest groups but not others.
Canadian churches can spend 10% of their time on political activities. Pawlowski has put up some of his street preaching and arrests on YouTube. Kings Glory Fellowship Association is an independent fundamentalist group.
It appears this revocation occurred in October 2009 and has recently been picked up by religious right sites such as LifeSite and Concerned Christians Canada and Equipping Christians for the Public Square.
Pawloski launched a Revenue Canada appeal and says he intends to take the withdrawal of the tax exempt status to court.
You can see the media coverage Pawlowski has received over the years here. Some of his letters to politicians are here.
He calls himself a pastor, prior to leading Kings Glory Fellowship, he was a contractor. He says he feeds 150 thousand people a year with Street Church Ministries and downplays the financial handling of his groups. Pawloski is free to continue doing what he does, revocation means Kings Glory Fellowship cannot issue tax receipts to donors and can now step up their political activism if they choose.  Pawloski perceives his treatment as persecution.
“The main point is that they don’t like my opinions about different controversial issues, and I speak about them openly on radio, in paper, and on TV,†he said. “So that’s what happens when you express your views as a pastor.â€
“If they take the charity status away from a church, they are hoping that they are going to starve us to death in Canada, and therefore we will not be able to influence anyone,†he continued. “That’s basically what happens. That’s what they want to accomplish. They want to muzzle us up.â€
Update: Hold on here. Someone is getting suckered. According to the website No Apologies (Equipping Christians for the Public Square) Kings Glory Fellowship Association supposedly had charitable status for 30 years.
It was listed with Rev Can Charities as Other Denominations, Congregations or Parishes, (not else classified).
The board of Kings Glory Fellowship Association supposedly hired Pawloski as head pastor.
Meantime he starts a group which is does not appear to be listed with Revenue Canada called Street Church Ministries
.
The board of Kings Glory Fellowship Association doesn’t file it’s tax return and it’s charitable status is revoked.
That has what exactly to do with Street Church Ministries other than having Artur Pawloski in common?
The onus was on the board of Kings Glory Fellowship Association to file it’s return which it appears it had been doing for the 30 years No Apologies states it existed.
Kings Glory Fellowship Association address was 1740 25 A Street S.W. Calgary.
Street Church Ministries address is 1740 – 25A Street SW Calgary.
I’ll be fair. Where is the notice of a name change from Kings Glory Fellowship Association to Street Church Ministries?
Where was the board of Kings Glory Fellowship Association? The board of Street Church Ministries?
Either way a tax return was or wasn’t filed by Kings Glory Fellowship Association because…
Update: From an alert reader – From 1984 to 2005 Don Ross Ministries owned the charity number. In 2005 the name was changed to Kings Glory Fellowship Association (see comments)
Canada Gazette
Alberta Gazette
Something odd here. If I look up the church’s listing on the charities directorate website, I’m told that the revocation was for failing to file a return. Nothing about political activities.
search for kings glory at:
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/chrts/menu-eng.html
the generic revocation warning form letter is
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/ebci/haip/srch/revokedletter-eng.action
Once again one finds one’s self necessarily defending the crazy people in order to safeguard a point of principle. What sort of broken down vision of religious community do these folks at the CRA have wherein a Church can devote 10% of its time and energy to “politics” and where a Church’s “proper life” consists of morning services and pastoral visiting. Is all advocacy “politics” – any act of liberation from hunger, disease or social and economic deprivation “social work”?
RR. If there isn’t a 10%-rule (or something similar), a powerful incentive will be created for every advocacy and lobbying group to call itself a church and thereby gain the tax-advantages that this brings.
Hey there RR:
But who is defending the crazy people? I went looking today, you’d think known groups would speak up for Mr. Pawloksi if the issue was advocacy.
Anyone? I’m talking other churches in Calgary, faith groups; not Concerned Christians Canada. (a social consverative political group)
If you read the ‘church’ site it’s a lot about the attention they get.
Yes, feeding the homeless is the hook, but there seems to be plenty of money to take overseas trips, and there is a lot of noise about how oppressive government is and how righteous and wronged the group is.
That’s classic fundamentalist thinking and the behavior tends to be performance based and anti-authoritarian. I’d like to keep trying to give Pawlowski the benefit of the doubt (I’ve blogged about him before) but his self focus makes it difficult to determine what and who he cares about.
If half of what his being wronged about is more than perception, we’d have Calgarians in this comment thread singing his praises.
When I went over to the charities directorate to see what financial rule this group failed to follow, it was basic stuff. Mundane. Since only a piece of the revocation letter is on the Kings Glory website and it is about the directorates rules about political activity – I have to ask myself why Mr. Pawlaski glossed over finances.
Not filing a return isn’t sexy, or failure to file one properly doesn’t get media attention, feed a persecution complex, solve social problems or get donations.
Stranger:
Thanks.
Revocation for failure to file.
This reminds me of the Hamilton Dominion Centre revocation somewhat.
I may have to correct the post.
According to No Apologies the church Kings Glory Fellowship supposedly had tax exempt status for 30 years.
This church Kings Glory Fellowship hires Artur Pawlowski as head pastor.
The church doesn’t have a website I can find.
Artur Pawlowski has a website for his Street Church.
That group identifies itself as Street Church Ministries.
Artur Pawlowski runs Street Church Ministries also, one would assume there are two separate boards.
I haven’t found a name change.
The church Kings Glory Fellowship doesn’t file it’s return and Artur Pawlowski, Kings Glory Fellowship head pastor blames the government.
Where is the board?
Artur Pawlowski is from Eastern Europe, judging by his name and accent. He may have an understandable sensitivity about government oppression. However, I don’t see Jesus or the apostles challenging the truly oppressive governments of their time and place. As Christians, we are instructed to obey the governing authorities and accept persecution as part of the territory. I’ve seen this man on television a couple of times and have wondered why he chose to feed and preach to the homeless right in front of government buildings – as though he wanted to force a confrontation. Maybe he wants to draw awareness to systemic injustice in government, and I agree that there is room for improvement there, but as a believer I wish he would obey the by-laws, and just concentrate on ministering to the people without deliberately, as it seems to me, getting in the face of the authorities all the time. I have to say though, and maybe I’m just getting cynical and I wish someone would prove me wrong, but I have really grown skeptical of the motives of people who want their ministries televised…scripturally i can’t see any need to – we are not to do our good works to be seen by men, and we are to trust in God’s provision, as well as His power – the early church managed to turn the world upside down (in a good way) without mass media.
Kings Glory used to to be Don Ross Ministries??
http://www.qp.alberta.ca/documents/gazette/2005/text/0815_i.cfm
DON ROSS MINISTRIES, ASSOC. Alberta Society Incorporated 1984 JUL 30. New Name: THE KINGS GLORY FELLOWSHIP ASSOCIATION Effective Date: 2005 JUN 29. No: 503153363
So the tax return would have been filed for 21 years by Don Ross Ministries.
Kings Glory Fellowship Association started in 2005, Street Church Ministries started in 2007.
Wow.
http://www.angelfire.com/ab3/donaldbsanders/6-ChristianMentors.html/
Pastor Don Ross of Don Ross Ministries in Calgary (Charismatic/ un-denominational). He taught me much about ‘moving in the unction and power of the Holy Ghost’. I wept openly at his funeral a few years ago. As a matter of interest – Don Ross had been a plumber and an alcoholic before God got hold of him, changed his life, and empowered him. But his increasingly powerful ‘lay ministry’ had been rejected at the Pentecostal Church where he had been attending; so he established his own successful ministry – a ministry of Holy Ghost teaching, divine healing, and charismatic worship – with no Bible schooling – his training and gifting came directly from the Holy Ghost.
So – they are a charity and don’t file a tax return.
What part of illegal do they not get?
What are they hiding?
I attended Don Ross Ministries from 1986 – 2005 when it closed down. The tax returns were done every year. Mr Pawlowski was given the tax number when Don Ross Ministries officially closed in 2005 from 1933 – 10 ave sw. At that time the name change to ‘ Kings Glory Fellowship ‘ was voted on by the board before the hand over. It was decided after that to give the tax number to artur Palowski as our group was steadly skrinking and we decided to close the doors. I was a board member at that time. Everything that ‘Bene D’ said was true of Don Ross. We as christians do need to obey the law of the land, and since filing taxes does not conflict with the Word of God, Mr Palowski needs to do the same. We are commanded to obey the authorities that God has placed over us (Romans ch. 13).
Trevor, thanks for stopping by and confirming, Stranger gets the credit for looking in the right direction.
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 happenedâ€, 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…………..to continue clic here:
http://streetchurch.ca/index.php/20100201548/News/Journals/I-will-respond-to-your-questions-and-concerns.html
Hi Artur.
I hear you saying Street Church became a provincial legal entity in 2005.
I hear saying you had the Kings Glory federal charity licence (a priviledge, not a right) since 2002 and returns were filed.
I hear you saying you didn’t file on time in 2008 and lost your status.
I also hear you saying you haven’t drawn a ministry salary since 2002, and you are supported by donations from friends.
I’m confused; how is this adding up to 26 years?
1984 -2005 is 21 years.
1984 – 2002 is 18 years.
1984 – 2008 is 24 years.
1984 – 2010 is 26 years.
Are you saying you had two ministries – Kings Glory (federally recognized) and Street Church (provincial) since 2005?
Was Street Church incorporated provincially and federally under Kings Glory?
Are you saying Street Church was free to issue federal tax receipts since 2005?
Okay, that’s your choice, what we feel has no bearing on regulations.
You say that you, your board and accountant agree with the CRA that in 2008 the Kings Glory return was filed late.
The Kings Glory licence was revoked in 2009.
Street Church doesn’t have (and never had) a federal charity licence, and federal status has nothing to do with a muncipality or your grievances with one. (Calgary)
You say you believe the loss of Kings Glory charity status is political because of your municipal issues and your religious beliefs. You say you believe the loss of Kings Glory charity status is also due to late filing.
(A portion of the CRA letter is available on your website for interested readers)
Christians who criticise and question your behavior are attacking you and are headed for hell.
Is that a fair summary of what you are trying to say?
As a Christian, it has amazed me for quite a few years why churches have fallen into the tax exempt status trap!..sure I know givers can donate and get tax break on their donations, but that encourages giving for the wrong reasons!..But the over riding issue is when you have tax exempt status, then the government can dictate what you can preach and cannot preach..and that is exactly what they are doing in the Kings Glory case..speak out about the evils of abortion and homosexuality and the government will close down your exemption..for sure..try refusing to marry homosexual couples. not only will your tax exemption be gone, you will probably end up in court, because the homos consider that a hate crime..All churches should get away from tax exempt receipts immediately, and they will find out in a hurry who the givers with a happy heart are..and also they can then take stands on these moral issues.
The homos?
There are many many straight evangelicals would take offensive to that level of juvenile verbal sloppiness.
It isn’t about what, it’s how.
I’m Polish- Canadian, I’m slave living in free country Canada. I have nothing against governments, lawyers, notaries. I trusted all of them. Now, crooked director from land title office is keeping me in a vicious circle. He did erased joint tenancy two months after my husband passed away. All notaries, lawyers whom I trusted keep blind eye on my yellow paper land title where clearly is joint tenancy, they do not answer me why is also joint tenancy on our Form 17. They lie that there is no joint tenancy, even clearly is. Clerk in land title office recognized all my papers and was ready to finish correctly my electronic title.
In case if there is no joint tenancy, the spouse has no rights to her/his property. They erased and keep me in vicious circle. This is the way our law knowing people are doing! I met more victims…there is much more….stolen documents by notaries, fake last wills…. Media do not want print my story, I wrote 100 letters to them. 30 millions people in Canada are kept in silence what really happened to old single people. We are slaves!!!!!! Honest lawyers do not want help, out of fear.
Widow 56 years old