The Episcopal Church of the Sudan hurled an ecclesiastical bomb at the American Episcopal Church this week and announced that they were severing all ties with the US Church because TEC had endorsed gay marriage, changed its canons on marriage and allowed trial liturgies. The Sudanese church argued that such innovations are not in conformity with the Scriptures.

Meeting in Juba, Sudan the Episcopal Church of Sudan’s 43 House of Bishops in a single stroke broke complete ties with US Episcopal Church and then promptly announced that they would formally recognize the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) and its Archbishop Foley Beach.

The House of Bishops said they were encouraged by the 18 TEC Bishops who issued a minority report dissenting with the TEC resolutions: “We encourage these Bishops to stand firm on their position as well as those parishes within the TEC who disagree with TEC resolutions but abide with the Biblical understanding that marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman.”

The bishops said they would make an exception to the dioceses of the 18 TEC bishops who issued the minority letter of objections to TEC Convention resolutions.

This is the first blow at the new Episcopal Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and drives a wedge into the heart of TEC. Curry might have hoped for a honeymoon period with the Global South and an opportunity to do his “don’t worry be happy” song and dance routine in Canterbury next month.

Not going to happen. He just got gob-smacked by the powerful Sudanese Episcopal Church and their fearless leader Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul (aptly named I think). Not to state the obvious, but the Sudanese Primate just ratcheted up the pain on Archbishop Justin Welby, who might have hoped that his Consigliere for Reconciliation, one David Porter (who works part time on the Archbishop's personal staff at Lambeth Palace), might pull a reconciliation rabbit out of the Anglican Communion hat in January.

That now seems less likely. Primate Deng Bul said he will attend the Primates Meeting in January in Canterbury and will probably give Curry if not Welby a piece of his mind Nigerian Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, Kenyan Primate Eliud Wabukala, Uganda Primate Stanley Ntagali and Rwandan Primate Onesphore Rwaje will likely do the same. It doesn’t look good for Welby.

The central and first agenda item when the Primates meet is the disciplining of The Episcopal Church regarding the Dar es Salaam Declaration and Lambeth 1.10. If the vote goes against the GAFCON primates, will that force closure of the event? Will they then leave?

The truth is this. The ABC is pushing “sin management,” not reconciliation. This is a phrase made famous by the late Dallas Willard, and I don’t believe the Global South will buy it. There is talk of a federation of dioceses loosely held together if the idea of a communion is no longer viable. This might include a two tier system. But there is no hint that leaders like Okoh or the GAFCON primates will go for that. Sin is sin, and the ratification of sin by TEC and the Anglican Church of Canada, Wales and Scotland is untenable and irreconcilable.

The African Primates have Islam to consider, and they hate sodomy and anybody associated with sodomy. Why should the GAFCON primates jeopardize their own lives to save Curry’s pride—or Fred Hiltz (ACoC), for that matter?

These two Western prelates have nothing to fear from extremists except the extremism being pushed on the church and the West by a growing Anglican Gaystapo!

The Global South will die for Jesus. They will not lay down their lives for Bishop Gene Robinson or Presiding Bishop Michael Curry.

That’s a totally lost cause, and they know it.

You can read the full story on Sudan’s break with TEC in today’s digest or here. http://tinyurl.com/pg3ksqf

*****

The Episcopal Diocese of Long Island and its Bishop Lawrence C. Provenzano took a hit this week and lost yet more dues paying members. St. Matthew’s Anglican Church, led by the Rev. Juan Moreno and comprised of 120 members, departed from TEC and is now with CANA East / ACNA, which is led by Bishop Julian Dobbs. The congregation left its buildings and finances to TEC walked out the door over TEC’s endorsement of gay marriage and continued theological heresies. The congregation currently worships in the Knights of Columbus Hall in Brentwood, NY.

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What do you do with cathedrals that have lost their mission and way and no longer serve the gospel cause?

In the Diocese of Rhode Island word is out that the former Episcopal cathedral is being turned into a museum of the slave trade. The 200-year-old stone Cathedral of St. John, which up until two years ago served as the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island, will be a museum and reconciliation center dealing with the history of the slave trade. The cathedral closed in 2012 because of dwindling membership.

That history will soon become more prominent as the Episcopal diocese, which was steeped in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, establishes a museum dedicated to telling that story, the first church in the country to do so, according to scholars.

In the Diocese of Delaware the last worship service at the Cathedral Church of St. John in Wilmington was more than a year ago. VOL attended the final service and heard the last sermon delivered by former Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold.

Now it is going to be an elderly housing unit, VOL has learned. The diocese recently hired Colliers International to lead a search for a suitable buyer. Situated at the corner of Market Street and Concord Avenue, the property is key to the neighborhood's future, city leaders said. It has been there for more than 150 years. There is also an office building and parking lot, all for the asking price of $1.5 million.

Nationwide, demographic trends have caused congregations from a variety of religious traditions to move out of churches and synagogues that have become too burdensome to maintain. It can be a painful experience for those who have to say goodbye to familiar traditions, but it can also be an opportunity, experts say, to find a way to ensure treasured community buildings are maintained.

"Part of the solution is recognizing these places are de facto public assets," said Tuomi Forrest, executive vice president of Philadelphia-based Partners for Sacred Places, which assists religious communities with ideas for managing historic properties.

Congregations offer a "halo effect" on the surrounding community, according to a 2010 study by Partners for Sacred Places and the University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Policy and Practice. The report estimated that 12 congregations in Philadelphia infused $52 million into the city. The religious communities serve as "economic catalysts," according to the report.

The Delaware church was designed by John Notman, a Scottish immigrant who was one of the two men from Philadelphia invited to be a founding member of the American Institute of Architects. The cornerstone was laid June 4, 1857. The church was built of Brandywine blue rock "in pure Gothic and in cruciform design," according to "The Churches of Delaware," by Frank R. Zebley.

The church opened November 3, 1858. The last service at the cathedral was in July 2012. The congregation was welcomed at the Episcopal Church of Saints Andrew and Matthew in Center City Philadelphia.

Late last year, the diocese leadership said it would also move. They have occupied a building adjacent to the cathedral for 60 years, but the space "no longer meets current needs," Bishop Wayne Wright wrote in a November edition of the diocesan newspaper. The diocese is moving into the former St. Albans' Episcopal Church, north of the city.

The Episcopal Diocese of Delaware is offering three other properties in Wilmington for $1.5 million. The diocese has hired Colliers International to help find a suitable buyer. The revisionist Episcopal diocese is paying the ultimate price of no gospel—no future.

*****

The Anglican Church of the Diocese of Recife under Bishop Miguel Uchoa lost the last of its four properties save one claimed by the liberal Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil, (IEAB) a clone of The Episcopal Church, this week. A judge sealed their fate.

In August 2013 the largest Anglican congregation in South America, under the leadership of the rector, the Rev. Uchoa, quit the diocese of São Paulo and the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil. This week, now as bishop, Uchoa wrote to VOL to bring the latest news.

“I hold in my hands an order I was to sign requiring us to return some of our church buildings to the Episcopal Church. These buildings, without exception, were built with the resources and great effort of faithful parishioners who have been a part of these same communities for decades.

“I’ve just signed this order, fulfilling what the law required. I accepted God’s call on my life with careful consideration, but never did I imagine I would be involved in this kind of situation.”

Uchoa said the ties that bound his congregation to the Episcopal Church in Brazil do not bind them anymore. “We are completely free now, without any connection any more to the Episcopal Church. Today, following these actions I read a verse in Acts 27:40: ‘Cutting the anchors, they left them in the sea, at the same time untying the ropes that held the rudders. Then, raising the sail head to wind, they made for the beach.’

“You can read that when the anchor was cut, this connection was loosed and they were free to get to the beach. They then came to Malta, established a church there and went on to Rome. This all occurred after these bonds of apparent security were released. Growth and release of the Word of God followed. God defeated that storm and the gospel continued advancing unhindered.”

Bishop Uchoa told VOL, “I do not consider any of this easy. I witnessed our cathedral being built brick by brick. I was there at the groundbreaking. I lived through battles and blessings beyond measure. I was baptized at the age of 23 when I met Christ and was born again. Despite all this I do believe the testimony from the Word and from history: ‘The glory of this new Temple will be greater than the former’ (Haggai 2: 9). It is in our hands to work hard for all of this to become a reality. God is with us and so the Church will continue. As our late Bishop Robinson Cabilcanti loved to sing: ‘it is holy work, nobody can stop it.’”

The evangelical bishop called on his people to stand firm and to make this Church and diocese something no one has yet seen in this country since the arrival of theological liberalism that consumed and is destroying historic Brazilian Anglicanism.

“We are the faithful remnant, the faithful Church, the growing Church. We are the face of a renewed Brazilian Anglicanism and have the support of more than two-thirds of the global Anglican Communion. Our diocese now has 45 congregations and among them, the largest Anglican congregation in all of Latin America. This is who we are. Our work is extremely important.

“Four empty buildings cannot serve the worship of the living God. While we have the Church and all the people came with us, they have empty buildings. From God's perspective, which is better?

“The Anglican world is watching. Let us be united in heart, putting aside differences and shine our light for the world to see. Let us be open to the Holy Spirit that he may do a revival work among us. May many from around the world arrive at our airport eager to see what God is doing in this land through this part of His Church. Let us move out of any comfort zones, and receive the word of Paul to Timothy when he says: ‘Awaken the gift that is in you because God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of love, power and self-control’ (2 Tim 1).

“I love God and I have given my life for His service. I understand that my task is to fight the good fight for this Church. Here I stand. Let us stand together!”

The bishop said the diocese gave back four buildings, including the cathedral, but there is still one building under the court to be decided. “Our people are with us.”

*****

An unauthored article in The Living Church entitled "Primatial Option for the Covenant" argues that the Primates meeting in January 2016 should express a preferential option for the Covenant. This is farcical if not fantastical thinking. It is absolute nonsense to think the Covenant will have any part of the dealings in Canterbury in January.

The Covenant has been DOA for months now. No one talks about it and only a handful of provinces have signed on to it. They are: Mexico – accepted and subscribed; Myanmar – adopted; West Indies – adopted; South East Asia - adopted, together with its own preamble; Ireland – subscribed; Papua New Guinea – adopted; Southern Cone – approved; Aotearoa/New Zealand Polynesia – subscribed sections 1-3, unable to adopt section 4; Scottish Episcopal Church – defeated a resolution to adopt. There is no commitment to the Covenant by General Synod or General Conventions anywhere. The article says the Covenant is still the only game in town. In reality, nobody cares. It was the fictional last ditch effort by Rowan Williams to rescue the Anglican Communion from itself.

*****

Several months ago VOL received word that the Anglo-Catholic Church of the Ascension in Chicagowas in deep turmoil, with two musicians let go and its rector David Cobb coming under fire.

Ascension has always been the standard-bearer for the authentic Anglo-Catholic tradition in the diocese.
Its worship has maintained and exemplified what that tradition looks like, smells like, feels like, and sounds like. It has shone in its subdued, dignified way like no other Episcopal church in the United States. The music has been an essential part of this. Then the two musicians got the pink slip.

At a special meeting of the Vestry back in August, the Junior Warden demanded that the Rector resign.

This action, VOL was told, was the culmination of the past seven months' concerted campaign of Save the Ascension and others to undermine Church of the Ascension's common life and work. The Vestry adopted a resolution censuring the Junior Warden and asking for her resignation.

Also at this meeting, the Rector offered to tender his resignation in an effort to end the discord. The Vestry voted not to accept his offer of resignation.

Now, as a decimated Church of the Ascension emerged from 9 months' warfare with its now-departed Rector, Chicago Bishop Jeffrey Lee introduced his choice for Ascension's interim leader: a retired Minnesota bishop known for his smooth manner in "reforming" traditional Anglo-Catholic churches. His name? Bishop James Jelinek. His job is to turn the Anglo-Catholic parish into an Affirming Catholic parish. He will probably be successful.

The disastrous 18-month tenure of ex-Rector David Cobb was marked by the summary firings of the entire senior staff; a reduction in choral forces at Solemn High Mass; and numerous innovations to the 145-year-old Anglo-Catholic liturgy in which the parish had always prided itself. The ongoing strife and anguish at Ascension has impressed many observers experienced in working with distressed parishes -- including Bishop Lee's spokesman, who called it "the worst I've ever seen."

In September, parishioners were told that Bishop Lee would soon submit a list of candidates for their next Rector. Senior Warden Rod Luery said, "The Vestry feels that it is entirely desirable to host meetings of the parish to begin the process of reconciliation, and information on those meetings will be forthcoming."

No such information was forthcoming. But less than a week later, Bishop Lee convened the Vestry secretly to advise them of his new plan: interim leadership by retired Minnesota Bishop James Jelinek, 73.

Jelinek threw his miter into the ring after hearing of Cobb's departure, according to East Coast sources. As a retiree, he is not canonically qualified to become Rector, but he is the choice of Diocesan officials for an interim contract at Ascension lasting anywhere from 3 to 8 months.

This weekend, Jelinek will be in town for secret meetings with the Ascension Vestry, which is expected to approve his appointment. Jelinek just finished a term as interim Priest-In-Charge of St. Paul's K Street in Washington, D.C. There he fulfilled an agenda to convert the parish from traditional Anglo-Catholicism to "Affirming Catholicism".

Jelinek is no lover of orthodoxy. He finagled a homosexual priest to take over St. Paul’s K Street, even though the priest had a sordid past. He once prevented Kenyan Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi from preaching in his diocese, and he voted to depose The Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan Bishop of Pittsburgh.

One can safely say this is the end for this parish. It will slowly die.

*****

There’s an Interesting little article in the December Montreal Anglican about a renaming service for non-binary transgender people in the Diocese of Ottawa. Being non binary transgender means that a person identifies as neither man nor a woman – presumably then, one is bisexual. The nuttiness continues, this time north of the border. Apparently TEC does not have all the crazies.

*****

Four men were arrested in Luton, England on suspicion of plotting terror attacks this week. Another 14 men and women were killed by Muslim extremists in California.

In light of the Episcopal Church’s newfound love of Islam (they are free to worship in the National Cathedral and other Episcopal watering holes), the new Presiding Bishop Michael Curry should come out now and say: "These arrests only serve to highlight our need for more interfaithery with our Muslim brothers and sisters. When we love the terrorists as Jesus loves us, then the Muslims will love us back and stop doing terror to us. They just want to feel welcomed and included. Through our Abrahamic outreach to them, they will feel the kind of love that will make them meek and mild like we are. That's who they really are, and they are waiting for us to lead them into self-awareness that transcends their terror urges. We can't help them if we fear them. The time is now for love through Jesus instead of prejudice through bigotry."

*****

Can we or can’t we, that is the question. The Vatican’s cardinal in charge of liturgy and the sacraments has strongly defended the Church’s tradition on reception of Communion in the wake of Pope Francis’ comments to a Lutheran woman suggesting she could choose in conscience to receive.

Speaking with Aleteia reporter Diane Montagna, Cardinal Robert Sarah said, “Intercommunion is not permitted between Catholics and non-Catholics. You must confess the Catholic Faith. A non-Catholic cannot receive Communion. That is very, very clear. It’s not a matter of following your conscience.”

In responding to a Lutheran woman seeking to go to communion with her Catholic husband, Pope Francis said, “There are questions that only if one is sincere with oneself and the little theological light one has, must be responded to on one’s own. See for yourself.” The pope, who was speaking to a Lutheran community in Rome November 15, added that both Lutherans and Catholics believe the Lord is present in Holy Communion, and that while there are “explanations and interpretations” that may differ, “life is bigger than explanations and interpretations.”

Pope Francis concluded it was not within his competence to allow a Lutheran woman to receive Holy Communion with her Catholic husband, but to answer her question, she should, “Talk to the Lord and then go forward.”

"A person cannot decide if he is able to receive Communion. He has to have the rule of the Church,” he said.

But Cardinal Sarah, who serves as prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, contradicted this suggestion. “It’s not that I have to talk to the Lord in order to know if I should go to Communion,” he said. “No, I have to know if I’m in accord with the rule of the Church.”

*****

Alfred Kinsey, the godfather of gay rights, was an agenda-driven reformer with a dark background, says a story in Mercator.

During the 20th century, no one individual did more to bring homosexuality into the public forum than Alfred Charles Kinsey (1894 – 1956). A professor at Indiana University, Kinsey was a zoologist by training and spent the early years of his career studying gall wasps, collecting thousands of specimens of the insects. Kinsey then transferred his obsessive and taxonomic approach of research to the study of human sexuality. Kinsey and his colleagues gathered thousands of “interviews” in which he or his researchers asked detailed questions about the sexual backgrounds of research participants.

Kinsey compiled the findings from these interviews into two books, the opening salvos of the sexual revolution that soon swept the United States: Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953). Both works contain many sweeping assertions and often move quickly from tables full of data to moral speculation about the repressed sexual ethics of America.

Kinsey officially began sexual research in 1941 with the help of funds from the Rockefeller Foundation and the assistance of the National Research Council. In 1947 Kinsey founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University, now simply known as The Kinsey Institute. What has become clearer in the years since the publication of the Kinsey reports is that Kinsey was not merely gathering information about other people’s sexual experiences. He was also engaging in assorted sexual practices with various members of the research team.

Instead of the staid atmosphere most people associate with academia, the Institute for Sex Research became a kind of sexual utopia for the gratification of the appetites of Kinsey and his team. According to one biographer, “Kinsey decreed that within the inner circle men could have sex with each other; wives would be swapped freely, and wives too, would be free to embrace whichever sexual partners they liked.”[1] Kinsey himself engaged in various forms of heterosexual and homosexual intercourse with members of the institute staff, including filming various sexual acts in the attic of his home. My purpose here is not to engage in ad hominem attacks on Kinsey, but to emphasize that Kinsey was not a dispassionate scientist seeking truth. He was an agenda-driven reformer bent on changing the sexual ethics of a nation.

You can read the full story at: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/godfather-of-gay-rights/17280#sthash.0gNC4Hn6.dpuf

*****

An impression of a biblical king's seal was found in Jerusalem this week. Alice Linsley, a scholar in these matters, said the find is absolutely amazing!

The discovery raises a big question mark over the modern Jewish narrative which would have us believe that Abraham was the first Jew and his beliefs and religious practices had no connection to his ancestors mentioned in Genesis 4, 5 and 10. You can read her piece in today’s digest.

*****

Tasmania elected a conservative evangelical bishop this week. The Chairman of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (Australia) selected the Ven. Richard Condie to succeed the Rt. Rev. John Harrower, who retired earlier this year after 15 years of service.

Evangelical leaders in Australia said they are pleased with the election of Dr. Condie, as it strengthens the traditionalist witness within the Anglican Church of Australia’s House of Bishops.

Dr. Condie serves as vicar of one of Melbourne’s largest parishes and is also Archdeacon of Melbourne. He previously served as a lecturer in New Testament at Ridley Theological College, Assistant Minister in Murwillumbah, NSW, and a Research Officer with the Queensland Police Department.

*****

Many of you will have received an online appeal for funds to keep VIRTUEONLINE going in 2016 this past week. I hope you will take a few minutes to read it and consider writing out a check or making a PAYPAL contribution to keep us afloat.

We bring you the news locally, nationally and internationally as no one else does. We bring you stories about individual churches, the Episcopal Church, the ACNA and the wider Anglican Communion with an eye on the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Church of England. We bring you the best of the culture wars, theological commentary, archeology, history and much more. Please support us.

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Advent blessings,

David

No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.--Edward R. Murrow, broadcast journalist

A transcendent event. An example of the importance of considering each part of Scripture's teaching on any subject in the light of the whole is the second coming of Christ. It would be easy (and dangerous) to be selective in the texts from which we build up our doctrine. Thus, some passages indicate that Christ's return will be personal and visible, indeed that he will come 'in the same way' as he went (Acts 1:11). But before we press this into meaning that the return will be a kind of ascension in reverse, like a film played backwards, and that Christ will set his feet on the precise spot on the Mount of Olives from which he was taken up, we need to consider something Jesus said to counter those who wanted to localize his return: For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other (Lk. 17:24). The truly biblical Christian, anxious to be faithful to all Scripture, will want to do equal justice to both these strands of teaching. The coming of the Lord will indeed be personal, historical and visible; but it will also be 'in power and great glory', as universal as the lightning, a transcendent event of which the whole human population of both hemispheres will be simultaneously aware. --- John R.W. Stott

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
December 11, 2015

So it has come down to this. Would you invite a friend to join The Episcopal Church if you would be told you must be "evangelized" out of your White Privilege and then must undergo anti-racism training just to make sure that you understand your place in The Episcopal Church? Then once you had understood the ground rules a la Presiding Bishop Curry, you would then have to affirm that gay marriage is approved of by God (who has apparently changed His mind about how humans should sexually behave). You would of course approve liturgical rites for same sex marriage as well as sodomy and a number of other sexualities that the Episcopal Church has now approved of. You would have to confront the possibility that the priest in charge of your parish may have had a sex change operation and he, or is it she, would now be in the pulpit. Somehow you would have to explain that to your children in the name of inclusivity, of course.

If you haven't headed for the hills, then don't blame anyone but yourself when the sexual tsunami sweeps over your friends' heads and seduces them all into the new Episcopal morality and you wake up one morning and discover you will never have any grandchildren.

One last note. The Episcopal Church desperately needs your money because increasingly more parishes are living off their endowments, and that is a recipe for disaster. That still doesn't mean you won't have to undergo anti-racism training, but then it is nice to know that if your homosexual son or daughter marries another gay person and then adopts, the Bishop of Central Florida will baptize the child without a moment's hesitation. You have been warned.

There now, doesn't that make you feel better?

In case you missed it, here is a choice morsel from the President of the House of Deputies, Gay Clark Jennings. In her recent address to the Executive Council she said that while congregations were slowly sinking into the sunset with an 11 percent decline in pledge cards, there was no decline in clergy compensation. Spending a higher proportion of the church's resources on clergy pay than in the past is not sustainable, she warned. She said The Episcopal Church finds itself "crossing some new threshold we had never anticipated."

That threshold is called 'going out of business.' it's just that no one has put up the 'For Sale' sign...yet. So ask yourself what organization or business in America would allow its employees to lose market share without major firings. There is not a single corporation in America that, if it revealed that income was going down, would continue to pay its employees and CEO the same salaries. There would be pay cuts and layoffs immediately, with only the CEO likely to get a golden parachute for going away.

But not the Episcopal Church. It rewards incompetence with the same, if not greater amount of money with COLA clauses and more.

What is even worse, most parish priests don't believe the gospel of God's transcendent grace nor are they committed to deepening people's relationship with Jesus Christ, nor to inviting people into a saving relationship with the living God.

If all you have to talk about is climate change, racism, pansexual acceptance and a nice Jesus who has saved us all without repentance, then why go to church at all! Why indeed....and then get fully paid while your congregation walks out the door!

*****

New numbers on the state of The Episcopal Church rolled in this week, and the details revealed an uneven decline in Average Sunday Attendance.

Jeff Walton of IRD did the homework on this and said that the Episcopal Church continued its membership and attendance decline in 2014. However, dioceses and provinces (regions) of the U.S.-based church varied widely in their rate of decline, with some treading water while others posted sharp declines.

"New statistical summaries and trend reports released by the denomination's Office for Research supplement raw statistics released back in early October, which can be viewed here. http://tinyurl.com/puu836v More than two months following the release of updated statistics, the Episcopal News Service still has not provided coverage of the denomination's changes in the most recent reporting year.

"As IRD reported in October, the church's domestic U.S. membership dropped -2.7 percent from a reported 1,866,758 members in 2013 to 1,817,004 in 2014, a loss of 49,794 persons. Attendance took an even steeper hit, with the average number of Sunday worshipers dropping from 623,691 in 2013 to 600,411 in 2014, a decline of 23,280 persons in the pews, down -3.7 percent.

"The new trend summaries reveal that 53 percent of Episcopal congregations report a 10 percent or greater decline in attendance over the past five years, while only 18 percent show 10 percent or greater attendance growth during the same time period. Seventy percent of Episcopal congregations have fewer than 100 attendees, with the denominational median congregation down to 60 attendees. The denomination reports a 25 percent decline in attendees and a 19 percent decline in membership during the past 10 years. Only 4 percent of Episcopal congregations report an average attendance of greater than 300 persons.

"The decreasing numbers have had an effect upon the ability of smaller congregations to employ full-time clergy. In a first, a plurality of Episcopal congregations in 2014 (34.5%) have only a part-time or unpaid priest, outnumbering those with a lone full-time priest.

"Among the church's regions, Province IV (Southeast, membership -5%, attendance -7.1%) and Province IX (Caribbean/Central America, membership -9%, attendance -5.7%) took the steepest hits, while Province VII (South Central) reported modest membership and attendance losses below 1%. Collectively, non-domestic dioceses posted a modest attendance growth (uniquely in the entire Episcopal Church) although their membership numbers were weighed down by the Diocese of Honduras dropping -19.2%, the second year in a row that the Latin American diocese has dramatically revised its numbers." You can read the full report in today's digest.

Now you may have noticed that the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire suddenly reported a 23 percent attendance jump: how is that possible. Well it seems they are now counting students attending compulsory weekday chapel services at Episcopal prep schools. Why didn't anyone think of this idea sooner? It turns out someone did: VTS Dean Ian Markham in 2013.

*****

This week we learned that Episcopal Presiding Bishop Michael Curry was admitted to hospital, where he was diagnosed with a subdural hematoma--a small collection of blood between his brain and his skull. He was visiting Bruton Parish Church in Colonial Williamsburg and was transferred to a hospital in Richmond for treatment. He later underwent surgery to relieve the condition. A full recovery is expected in a week.

*****

The gathering storm over the Anglican Communion grows closer. We're now barely five weeks away from when some 37 Primates of the Anglican Communion will gather in Canterbury at a special summit called by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Justin Welby.

One commentator, the Rev. Peter Ould, who lives in Canterbury, told Anglican TV this week that it will be a "make or break time" for the Communion. He is right. Canon Phil Ashey, CEO of the American Anglican Council, opined, "What a fascinating 'gift' the Archbishop of Canterbury seems to wish to give us this Christmas season, the thin gruel of institutional unity around himself. Deep, irreconcilable, theological disagreements on Christian essentials will be preserved side-by-side through the Anglican art of practiced ambiguity. Churches in the more secular and developed west will continue to compromise with the culture in ways that offend and even endanger Anglicans in the Global South while simultaneously sending money and Western-trained theologians to the Global South to help in 'mission' and (re)education. And in the end, the Archbishop of Canterbury will be the center of this faux communion."

Ashey goes on to ask, "Can the mind of Christ be 'divided'? Is there not a consensus fidelium, an undivided mind of Christ around such issues as human sexuality? Is not that consensus measured both in time and space by the millions of Christians who have let that mindset of Christ shape their own minds, decisions and actions?

"What would happen if the Anglican Churches of the developed West considered not their autonomy on matters of sexuality and Biblical faithfulness something to be grasped (see Phil 2:6) but rather emptied themselves (maybe even repented) for the sake of communion?"

Does Welby really think he can still lead as the titular head of a divided communion?

*****

Britain is no longer a Christian country, and it should stop acting as if it is.

A major inquiry into the place of religion in modern society has provoked a furious backlash from ministers and the Church of England.

A two-year commission, chaired by the former senior judge Baroness Butler-Sloss and involving leading religious leaders from all faiths, calls for public life in Britain to be systematically de-Christianised.

It says that the decline of churchgoing and the rise of Islam and other faiths mean a "new settlement" is needed for religion in the UK, giving more official influence to non-religious voices and those of non-Christian faiths.

The report provoked a furious row as it was condemned by Cabinet ministers as "seriously misguided" and the Church of England said it appeared to have been "hijacked" by humanists.

*****

Christians are the world's most persecuted group, and Europe can no longer ignore their plight, according to Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament.

Speaking at a meeting to discuss religious discrimination and attacks, Schulz said the persecution of Christians is undervalued and has not been properly addressed.

Vice-President Antonio Tajani, referring to the need to protect Christians from persecution, also warned that Europe sometimes "falls into the temptation of thinking we can ignore this task."

According to the human rights organization Open Doors, 150 million Christians worldwide suffer torture, rape and arbitrary imprisonment. Among those being persecuted most severely at the moment are Christians in Iraq, Pakistan, North Korea and Nigeria. Many of the persecutors are Islamic extremists.

Tajani said: "Each month 200 churches and places of worship in the world are attacked and destroyed. Every day and in every region of the world, there are new cases of persecution against Christians. No religious community is as subject to hatred, violence and systematic aggression as the Christians."

Religion could be the solution as well as the problem, he added. "In the name of religion, we have an obligation to condemn all those who show contempt for life and kill in the name of God. Whoever shoots in the name of God, shoots against God."

*****

A resident of Guelph, Ontario appeals once more to Michael Bird, the bishop of Niagara (Canada) not to sell St. Matthias to property developers.

In spite of claiming to make justice one of the centrepieces of its ministry, the diocese doesn't seem to have convinced those who live in Guelph: it would appear that "the word on the streets of Guelph is 'greed'".

Here is the open letter to Bishop Bird from citizens of the Guelph to the Anglican Diocese of Niagara:

"On behalf of the Citizens for Community and all the residents of Guelph, I would appeal to you not to renew the Anglican Church's conditional purchase agreement with HIP Developments for 171 Kortright Rd. W. Yes, you have the legal right to sell the St. Matthias church property - and to the highest bidder. That's all you have though. You don't have the moral right. The land is community space -- for the people of Guelph.

"You represent the Anglican Church. People expect higher moral standards of churches, not lower. If you sell the property, zoned 'institutional' for a much higher 'residential' or 'high density residential' amount, in the middle of a single home family neighbourhood, the Anglican Church will be held responsible. You will have failed morally.

"You can do better. The Anglican Diocese bought the land in 1981 for $110,000. It was zoned 'institutional' and for a reason. Communities need lands zoned 'institutional' for different faiths, hospices, nursery schools, service clubs, seniors' centres, not-for-profit housing, and a host of other organizations. To buy land zoned for 'institutional,' and then turn around and sell it for 'residential' or 'high density residential,' at a much higher profit, and to not accept fair market offers from other churches, is immoral. The word on the streets of Guelph is greed. People also aren't interested in money reinvested in Guelph that is more than the value of the property as 'institutional.' That would be tainted money. It would be totally unjust for Anglican ministries to be financed at the expense of the McElderry neighbourhood and their families.

"In the future, other organizations will need community space. People need a place to meet and to be community. The church stands for community. Other churches offered fair market value for the St. Matthias property. Why did you not accept their offers or negotiate with them? Why not now accept new offers from the same churches or other community organizations? The Anglican Church benefited from this land zoned 'institutional' for over thirty years! Why would you not give another church or community organization the same opportunity? The United and Presbyterian churches both sold their churches to other churches or institutions.

"I would encourage you to come from Hamilton to Guelph and to listen to the people. I assure you the majority would respond: 'Well, you can do whatever, but it definitely sounds like greed.' You also have caused the neighbours to raise and spend thousands of dollars and work countless hours to fight for their neighbourhood. If you succeed at the OMB with your initial decision to sell to HIP Developments, will you reimburse the local community for their expenses? I would hope so.

"What do you stand for? I believe (for) community and spirituality. How is what you're doing consistent with: 'Do unto others (other churches) as you would have them do unto you.' Other churches made fair market value offers. Reopen the sale process and do the right thing. No one will fault you for getting it wrong at the first. They will if you get it wrong in the end. Churches are human and as history proves don't always get it right. We know that only too well in Canada. We all get it wrong from time to time. Stop the renewal agreement with HIP, and do the right thing. The McElderry neighbourhood and the reputation of the Anglican Church in Guelph, a church that continues to serve Guelph well, are far more important than surplus money. Don't go down in history as the bishop who sold our community land out from underneath us. Go down in history as the bishop, like many bishops, archbishops and other religious leaders, who realized that getting it right in the end is what it's all about.

"Guelph is counting on you getting it right. Choose people over profit. In the words of Martin Luther King Jr: 'In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.' If you are our friend, let us know by your actions. The time is always right to do what is right. Contact HIP Developments and make a 'Good for the People of Guelph' and 'Good for the Anglican Church' decision."

You can read more here:
http://www.anglicansamizdat.net/wordpress/?p=23583

*****

The Anglican and Catholic churches and both former and current MPs are to be investigated by the inquiry into >B>child sexual abuse, the inquiry's chair has said.

Justice Lowell Goddard said councils in Lambeth, Nottinghamshire and Rochdale councils will also be examined as part of 12 separate investigations in England and Wales.

The scale of the inquiry was "unprecedented" in the UK, but she was determined it would succeed.

The inquiry is due to take five years.

*****

History was made in Uruguay on Nov. 22 with the first-ever ordination of women to the Anglican priesthood in the country.

The Rev. Audrey Taylor Gonzalez, the Rev. Cynthia Myers Dickin and the Rev. Susana Lopez Lerena were ordained priests on the Feast of the Reign of Christ at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Montevideo. All three had been deacons since the late '90s, according to an email sent to the Anglican Journal by the Bishop of the Diocese of Uruguay, Michael Pollesel.

*****

The case of the naturist bishop got much attention in the British press this week, but in truth it was bit of a non story. You can read about it in today's digest.

Anyway, a VOL writer sent this along this piece of doggerel by way of amusement.

A naturist bishop named Gorham
Addressed a large clergy forum.
She had to confess
That her state of dress
Reduced attendance to a bare quorum.

Enough said.

*****

Training health workers for the future of South Sudan. South Sudan has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world: almost 1 in 20 women die during childbirth (in the UK this is 1 in 6,900) and 1 in 7 children will die before their 5th birthday.

A 15 year old girl in South Sudan is more likely to die during childbirth than to complete her education.

The National Institute for Health Sciences is working to change this by training health workers to work in Sudan. The NIHS is run by the International Christian Medical and Dental Association (ICMDA).

View video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fluESbebThE

One of the key obstacles to improved healthcare in South Sudan is a lack of trained medical staff. Though the country is larger than France, there are fewer than 200 doctors, and most health workers have only very basic training. AID sees healthcare as a crucial area in which to invest and has been working to develop a solution, along with the Government of South Sudan (GoSS), the local Anglican Church; the Episcopal Church of the Sudan (ECS) and the International Christian Medical and Dental Association (ICMDA). The outcome is the ICMDA National Institute of Health Sciences, Jonglei (NIHSJ), a training centre for clinical officers, nurses and midwives for South Sudan.

How the NIHS works

The NIHS is run by the ICMDA: the International Christian Medical and Dental Association, an organisation that links the work of Christian Medical Fellowships (CMFs) worldwide. It takes on 50 students a year to be trained as clinical officers, nurses or midwives over a period of 3 years. The institute focuses on training this lower cadre of health worker, as often, if doctors are trained, they will travel elsewhere to work where they can be better paid. Clinical officers do many of the same jobs as doctors and also have a managerial role in health cerntres.

Students are taught by leading medics from the ICMDA who have committed to teaching at the NIHS for the duration of the course. The team is led by Dr. Anil Cherian, a consultant pediatrician from India. Alongside him on a teaching front are his wife, Dr. Shalini Cherian, a consultant obstetrician, Jasper Damaris, a nurse from India, Dr Peter Wampaalu from Uganda, Jacqueline Nampijja from Uganda, and Dr. Peter Waitt from the UK. Besides this, there have been many visiting teachers from various countries who have worked at the Institute for a few weeks at a time. There is also a strong administration team. Teachers follow the South Sudanese medical curriculum, making some adaptions and including much practical experience in hospitals and Primary Health Care Centres.

Once qualified, the students will go and work in primary healthcare centres across the country, greatly increasing the percentage of the population that has access to quality healthcare and so reducing child and maternal mortality.

There are now 69 students studying at the Institute, which is made up of two year groups. In the first year group, which began in June 2014, 20 students are training as clinical officers (including 1 girl), 16 as nurses, and 15 as midwifes (all female). There was not enough space at Mengo hospital to take on another 50 students, so 18 more joined in Summer 2015, and all are studying to become clinical officers.

You can make a difference to health in South Sudan!

To enable these students to continue their studies and go back out into South Sudan, we need you to help! The first year's training was funded by the Dutch agency CORDAID. Anglican International Development will meet the costs for the remaining two. We are not there yet, so if you would like to contribute to this project, please do so via this page or contact john.inglis-jones@interanglicanaid.org

Costs

It costs 4,600 GBP to train each student for one year. Thus, the annual cost of training the current cohort of 69 students is just over 317,000 GBP. The first year of the NIHSJ training programme was significantly funded by an international development agency, CORDAID, which was willing to initiate the project. However, in future, the NIHSJ needs to attract funding from other sources. Anglican International Development (AID), based in the UK, is supporting the NIHSJ and has secured significant funds to help to sustain the training programme. However, 400,000 GBP has yet to be raised to ensure that the first year's intake of 51 students will be able to complete the 2nd and 3rd years of their training. Looking further ahead, if the NIHSJ is to achieve its aim of a rolling programme of training with an intake of 50 students per year, much more money will need to be raised.

See more at: http://interanglicanaid.org/our-work/healthcare/institute-of-health-sciences/#sthash.bH8fjDQA.dpuf

http://interanglicanaid.org/donate/

*****

I could not end this digest without this short but beautiful video about a husband and wife who have been married for 50 years. She has Alzheimer's and he looks after her.

Watch the video. It will bring a tear to your eye, but it will also remind you of God's unfailing love for us all and how this love is lived out in this one couple. A truly inspiring story. http://www.mercatornet.com/demography/view/an-example-of-love/17306

Advent blessingsl,

David

UNITED STATES. The empty suit met the man with few brains...and lo and behold, they turned out to be one and the same person: TEC's new fearless, "Don't worry be happy" Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry. The newly anointed PB took his first tentative leadership steps this past week, wading into the cesspool that is called the Episcopal Church. He suspended his COO Bishop Stacy Sauls and two other top officials this week at national headquarters in NYC without saying why. He announced the suspensions just as he emerged from brain surgery and is currently recuperating in North Carolina.

Speculation ran rife that it might have something to do with the bugging devices found under a table at the last Executive Council meeting in Linthicum, Maryland. But no one will say. The PB did say there would be a video conference on Monday, December 14, but none was forthcoming.

When VOL inquired as to why the PB had not issued the promised statement, we were referred to the statement issued by the PB of the previous week which announced the suspensions but nothing more.

It is a baptism by fire for the recovering PB! He is barely a week into the job and heads are rolling. One hopes that White Privilege is not meeting racism so soon on the job. We wait with baited breath for the other shoe to drop. You can read what we know in today's digest.

But this has not stopped the PB from constantly talking about White Privilege and racism (whenever he's awake). But why do we never hear him rail on about Christians today who are under attack from the culture as well as from the ineptness of our own leadership?? ISIS Sharia Law judges recently began ordering the execution of children born with Down Syndrome, and young girls are kidnapped to be used as sex slaves. The silence from leaders like Curry on matters such as these is deafening.

*****

In a development that few Episcopalians of four or five years ago could have imagined, the Episcopal bishopsof the most powerful and financially secure dioceses have begun to turn on their own once-strong but now severely weakened parishes. Having driven out all the dissenters at enormous expense to their coffers, these dioceses are increasingly trying to make up their losses by sacrificing valuable real estate -- even if it means turning out previously loyal congregations from their hard-won property. And -- who could have foreseen it? -- the parishes most harmed by the continuous litigation were precisely those with the most valuable properties.

So writes curmudgeon blogger and Anglican canon lawyer Allan S. Haley.

More than any other lawyer, Haley has catalogued the millions of dollars spent by TEC's lawyers on litigating for properties built and paid for by parishioners. This litigation is a stench that goes right up to the nostrils of God.

He goes on to point the finger at one Bishop J. Jon Bruno (Diocese of Los Angeles) as a prime example who for nine years waged war in the California courts against four dissident congregations to prevent them from keeping title to their own parish properties. Using the notorious Dennis Canon, he was singularly successful in having California courts impose an irrevocable trust on the local parishes' real estate so that when they voted to withdraw from the diocese, they necessarily forfeited all rights to their property.

Haley writes, "But his victories came at a tremendous cost: the Diocese had spent more than eight million dollars as of last year and was still incurring more costs to subsidize two of the remnant congregations in their newly recaptured sanctuaries. Bishop Bruno negotiated sales of two of the properties: the parish of All Saints Long Beach was allowed to purchase their property on a long-term contract, and he sold the church of St. David's in North Hollywood to a private school."

He documents Bruno's venality in the scandal of two parishes -- St. Luke's in the Mountains and St. James the Great in Newport Beach, the latter of which is still ongoing with the present remnants of St. James now suing the bishop for seizing, closing, and attempting to sell the property to a developer. Bruno faces presentment charges as well. He has spent more than nine million to date to wrest the property away from its present parishioners and its redoubtable Canon Cindy Voorhees and sell it. The remnant are not going down without a fight. As Alley notes, "The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles has been given the gift of eternal litigation."

But Bruno is not the only bishop hanging churches out to dry. In the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, one of the diocese's older parishes is the Church of the Ascension, just north of the Magnificent Mile, which began as a mission in 1857 and by 1869 had become one of the Church's leading Anglo-Catholic parishes. It maintained that tradition faithfully, becoming renowned for the extent and beauty of its liturgy and music until the advent of the Rev. David Cobb in 2014. No friend of the Church as it had established itself, the Rev. Cobb promptly sacked Ascension's leading musicians, slashed the budget for the choir, and began reducing the number of paid services.

The moves threw the congregation into turmoil. Bishop Jeffrey Lee was forced to intervene. The Rev. Cobb eventually departed after having been voted a generous six-figure "severance package," and an interim priest was assigned, but the damage to the Church's musical and liturgical infrastructure was by then a fait accompli. The Church found a replacement organist and choir director, but one whose permanent residence is in London.

Now Bishop Lee wants to turn the Anglo-Catholic parish into an Affirming Catholic parish, and to that end he is bringing in retired Bishop James Jelinek of Minnesota, 73, to transition the Church from Anglo-Catholicism into "affirming Catholicism." (Bishop Jelinek, by all reports, managed this same feat during his recent tenure at St. Paul's Church on K Street, in Washington, D.C. "Affirming Catholicism" is to Anglo-Catholicism as anti-matter is to matter: in contrast to the traditions from which Anglo-Catholicism springs, it endorses the liberal agenda of ordinations to the priesthood of all and sundry, regardless of gender, identity, or sexual orientation -- and sees itself as a counter-movement to "biblical fundamentalism.")

You can read Allan Haley's fine piece in today's digest or here: http://tinyurl.com/os2yyev

*****

Numbers crunching in TEC continues, and a VOL reader and subscriber sent in some interesting observations taken from the official numbers coming out of TEC.

All statistics are dated 2014 unless otherwise noted:

AGE AND RACE:

90% of Episcopalians are white.

62.1% of all Americans are white.

31% of Episcopalians are 65 or older.

14.5% of all Americans are 65 or older.

79% of Episcopalians do not have a child under 18. (Think about that. No children, no future.)

CONGREGATIONAL AVERAGE SUNDAY ATTENDANCE (ASA)

60 is the median Episcopal ASA.

70% of Episcopal congregations have an ASA of 100 or fewer.

4% of Episcopal congregations have an ASA of 300 or more.

53% of Episcopal congregations lost 10 percent in ASA (past 5 years).

18% of Episcopal congregations gained 10 percent in ASA (past 5 years).

CONGREGATIONAL MEMBERSHIP

150 is the median Episcopal church membership.

60% of Episcopal congregations have membership of 200 or fewer.

14% of Episcopal congregations have membership of 500 or more.

40% of Episcopal congregations lost 10 percent in membership (past 5 years).

24% of Episcopal congregations gained 10 percent in membership (past 5 years).

47% of Episcopalians say the Bible is not the Word of God.

51% of Episcopalians seldom or never read Scripture.

18% of Episcopalians primarily look to religion for guidance on right and wrong.

79% of Episcopalians think abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

74% of Episcopalians favor same-sex marriage.

SOURCE: New FACTs on Episcopal Growth and Decline
The Office of the General Convention
Episcopal Domestic Fast Facts Trends 2010-2014

The Diocese of Eastern Oregon elected a new bishop this week. He is Patrick Bell, and he will be the diocese's seventh bishop. Bell said he was raised Episcopalian and attended Whitworth College, a Presbyterian school in Spokane, Washington. As a young adult, his faith turned toward evangelical Christianity. He received a Master of Arts in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California and served as a Pentecostal minister. In time, he said, he returned to the Episcopal Church.
"I realized I wasn't a fundamentalist," Bell said.

Neither Whitworth nor Fuller are "fundamentalist" institutions, but the two Episcopal seminaries he did his Anglican studies work -- Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas and Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois -- are decidedly liberal Episcopal institutions. It appears he turned his back on biblical theology while at these seminaries. Had he gone to either Trinity School for Ministry or Nashotah House that would not have happened!

The diocese he is taking over has a TOTAL ASA of just over 900 people! There are single parishes in the dioceses of Dallas and Texas that are bigger than that. In time the Diocese of Eastern Oregon will be forced to fold its tent into the Diocese of Oregon. In the meantime, Bell will be keeping his day job, as the bishopric of Eastern Oregon is only a half-time position. Bell said he will be in the diocese two weeks per month and maintain his residence in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, where he is presently the rector of St. Luke's Episcopal Church.

One wonders how long the fiction is going to be maintained that dioceses like Eastern Oregon, Northern Michigan, Bethlehem, and Easton have a future. They are all running on fumes.

USA TODAY reported this week that a Detroit gay Catholic couple got the Episcopal Church to do the dirty deed and marry them. Because the Roman Catholic Church forbids same-sex marriage, Bryan Victor and Thomas Molina-Duarte made their wedding vows this summer before a Protestant minister in a Detroit Episcopal church. Those in attendance included many family members, including Victor's uncle, who is a Catholic priest, and a Macomb County pastor. The Rev. Ronald Victor did not officiate but was there because, he told his nephew, the Catholic Church "needs more examples of gay holiness."

So sodomite behavior now qualifies as "holy"! Since when?

*****

CANADA. The Diocese of Niagara and its bishop Michael A. Bird have been accused of caring only about money -- again, according to Anglican blogger Samizdat!

The diocese, still smarting from being denounced as greedy, has decided to give Guelph residents who are upset with the sale of St. Matthias two months to come up with a plan more to their liking. The Diocese made the announcement in a news release this week.

Diocesan spokesman Rev. Bill Mous said that "the diocese cared deeply about Guelph," a piety which has not convinced at least one citizen, who announced in a letter to a local Guelph newspaper that the diocese "cares only about money," that Mous's words "ring hollow," that the community "does not feel cared for," and that the diocese has "cast a dark shadow on the reputation of the Anglican Church everywhere" -- not an easy thing to do considering the completion.

Two contract extensions in spite of the fact that the City councilors unanimously said no to the rezoning application. Two extensions in spite of the feelings of the neighbors who want the church to remain a church, and two extensions in spite of the hopes and prayers of local congregations who are longing for usable worship space. Preserve a church as a church? Why do that when you can reap an extra million dollars by selling to a developer who specializes in high-density construction?

The angry citizen's editorial boils the controversy down to this:

"The words of Bill Mous, spokesperson for the Diocese, ring hollow to anyone who has a stake in the neighborhood surrounding the church property. The Diocese 'cares deeply for Guelph'? This community does not feel cared for. It seems the Diocese cares deeply about turning a huge profit by rezoning institutional land to R-4 specialized. And the Diocese cares deeply about running the community out of money so that citizens lose their right to object at the board.

"It's a sad comment on Anglican officials who lack a social conscience and try to bafflegab their way out of any responsibility for the upcoming demolition of a church that other congregations would be thankful to be able to purchase at fair-market value for institutional land. Diocese decisions have cast a dark shadow on the reputation of the Anglican Church everywhere and the Synod clearly worships the almighty dollar rather than the Almighty."

The Quebec Anglican Church is on the brink of going out of business. It is being challenged by the exodus of parishioners. The Rev. Yves Samson says that without radical change, the Anglican Diocese of Quebec could soon be extinct.

"If we want to keep going on (the old) track we will all die," Samson says in an interview after his French and English sermon to a room full of near-empty pews at St. James Anglican Church.

Several Protestant churches across Quebec have closed rather than turn bilingual.

Samson's church is Anglican in name only. The 10 people who showed up to mass on a recent Sunday included Baptists, Presbyterians, and Unitarians.

The Anglican Diocese of Quebec includes three of the province's main cities --Trois-Rivières, Sherbrooke, and Quebec City.

The Anglican Diocese of Quebec produced a gloomy report in 2014 about the future of its parishes, which span an area larger than France.

Almost half of its churches have fewer than 10 regular services a year, and close to 80 percent of its churches have a regular attendance of fewer than 25 people.

Forty-five percent of its churches ran a deficit in 2012, and a stunning 64 percent of congregations said last year that within five years they would be closed or amalgamated with other churches.

"We see a grim portrait of our future in this diocese," the report concluded. "We need to act quickly on urgent and radical change in our ethos and structures."

"(The church) is no longer here today," Samson said. "Anglophones are dying out."

In his Christmas message, Canadian Archbishop Fred Hiltz tells us that "as I read the Christmas story, I am always taken by the way we portray the innkeeper," an odd fascination for an archbishop, since in the Biblical account of Christmas, there is no mention of an innkeeper. Still, the important thing about Christmas isn't that it is an event of cosmic significance around which all history pivots -- because God himself entered time as a baby -- but that Canada must accept more Syrian migrants.
And for that we need an innkeeper.
The other problem is that Hiltz completely forgets about the little drummer boy.

*****

AUSTRALIA. The Anglican Diocese of Bathurst is liable for a $40 million loan from the Commonwealth Bank and may have to sell property, including schools, churches, and other land and buildings, to meet its outstanding debt.

The diocese covers about a third of NSW and oversees 34 parishes from the central west to the Queensland border.

These parishes may face a levy to help cover the money owed.

The Anglican Development Fund, a corporation under the aegis of the diocese, borrowed $40 million from the bank, which it on-lent to two start-up schools, one in Dubbo and one in Orange.

From May 2008 to December 2011, Macquarie Anglican Grammar School and Orange Anglican Grammar School together were advanced more than $28 million.

However, the development fund defaulted, still owing a large part of the loan to the bank.

This was due in part to enrolments not meeting expectations and staffing problems at the two schools.

In a judgment handed down in the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday, Justice David Hammerschlag said, "The schools were overladen with debt, could not sustain themselves, and were incapable of repaying the borrowed monies ... such was the parlous position of the schools that some of the loans were described as emergency loans."

The only security taken by the bank for the loan was a letter, known as a "letter of comfort" from the bishop undertaking responsibility, on behalf of the diocese, for the loan.

He said there was church trust property available -- both real and personal -- that could be used to pay off the debt. These include churches, cemeteries, rectories, and halls throughout western NSW. Many have belonged to the diocese or its various organizations since the 1800s.

A spokesman for the diocese declined to comment. A spokesman for the bank said, "We acknowledge the Judge's decision today and will be considering the implications of his findings."

*****

CONTINUING CHURCH NEWS

The Trinitarian newspaper reports that the Anglican Catholic Church has amended its marriage canons to define without equivocation that Christian marriage as "in its nature a union permanent and lifelong...of one natural, biological man with one natural, biological woman." In addition, regarding human sexuality, the canonical changes make clear that any attempt to change a person's original, biological sex "also rebels against God by rejecting His image and His design" and that "God intends males to mate with females and females to males and any individual's contrary choice is a violation of God's plan and, therefore, of natural law." The canonical changes make it clear that natural law transcends civil law.

IN OTHER NEWS, the ties between the ACC and the Anglican Church in America and the Anglican Province of America which have drawn closer over the last four years recently took a giant leap forward, reports the Trinitarian. Archbishop Haverland said members of his church could take Holy Communion at an ACA or APA church when an ACC is not nearby. This places the ACC in de facto communion with the two Continuing Churches.

Marianne McCravey Morse, 71, wife of the Rt. Rev. Daniel R. Morse, died in Nashville, Tennessee on Sunday, December 13th. She served beside her husband in his ministry as a pastor in Presbyterian churches in Georgia, Pennsylvania, California, and Tennessee, and as a professor in the Old Testament Department at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi. She was the devoted mother of four children and a grandmother of nine. The funeral service with Holy Communion will be celebrated at 2:00 PM on Saturday, December 19, 2015 at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church with the Most Reverend Royal U. Grote officiating.

*****

ENGLAND. The Equality and Human Rights Commission announced that the issues raised by Digital Cinema Media's (DCM) decision not to show a Church of England advert about the Lord's Prayer in cinemas will be examined as part of a major Commission report.

This report, examining the adequacy of the law protecting freedom of religion or belief, will be published early next year. The DCM decision has generated significant public concern about freedom of speech.

The Commission, the national expert in equality and human rights law, has also offered its legal expertise for the purpose of intervening in the case should the Church take legal proceedings against DCM.

Chief Executive of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Rebecca Hilsenrath said, "We strongly disagree with the decision not to show the adverts on the grounds they might 'offend' people.

"There is no right not to be offended in the UK; what is offensive is very subjective and this is a slippery slope towards increasing censorship."

*****

A former Church of England priest has handed himself in to authorities in India to face claims he abused a boy there in 2011. The Rev. Jonathan Robinson, 73, is accused of abusing the 15-year-old boy in the capital Delhi at a youth hostel. The boy was from an orphanage that Robinson founded in Vallioor in the south of India, which has now been shut down. Robinson denies the charges, and a submission given on his behalf to court has said that the alleged victim was "threatened and forced" into claiming he abused him.

The vicar was on Interpol's wanted list for four years. However, Indian authorities recently took him off in hopes that Robinson would voluntarily come forward. He has been granted bail. A full trial is expected early in 2016.

The Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu, has called for a Christmas mobile phone and tablet switch-off as a new survey showed a quarter of the UK admitted to checking emails on Christmas Day.

Sentamu said Britain must put the heart back into Christmas by putting digital devices to one side for the holiday. This was in response to a survey commissioned by Traidcraft as part of its Show You Care campaign, which revealed that 24 per cent of UK adults check emails on Christmas Day and 66 percent, two-thirds of the population, believe Christmas has lost its true meaning.

Sentamu, who has nearly 60,000 followers on Twitter, said, "Christmas is a day of good news, a day of great joy and a day to give thanks. I would encourage all those not working on Christmas Day to focus on connecting with family and friends, to enjoy this time with loved ones. I love using social media and email because of the instant connection with the world they bring but have a 'phone fast' from work on this day."

Welcoming the climate deal reached in Paris this weekend, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said the global church must be a key partner in tackling climate change. "I warmly welcome the agreement that almost 200 states came to in Paris on Saturday, setting a clear and ambitious path towards tackling global climate change.

"Earlier this year I, alongside many other faith leaders, endorsed the Lambeth Declaration on Climate Change. The Declaration recognized the COP21 negotiations as a pivotal moment in the urgent global challenge to tackle climate change.

"As faith leaders, we urged those participating in the negotiations to apply the best of our world's intellectual, economic and political resources to reach a legally-binding global agreement to limit the global rise in average temperatures to 2 degrees C. The commitment made by world leaders to hold the increase in global temperatures to 'well below' this level is welcome and courageous progress.
Those most affected by climate change are the poor. In our prayers and actions we must demonstrate our love for them through sustainable and generous innovation.

"One of the Anglican Communion's marks of mission says that we are 'to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth.' The global church -- extraordinarily led on the issue of climate change by Pope Francis and the Ecumenical Patriarch -- must be a key partner in tackling climate change. As the Body of Christ, his church is called to be incarnational. Each of us has a role to play, if we are to help achieve what has been agreed in Paris."

*****

NEWS OF THE WEIRD...AND JUST PLAIN STUPID

The New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art is being sued for displaying paintings featuring Christ as blond-haired and white. Justin Renel Joseph, 33, of Manhattan filed a suit with the Manhattan Supreme Court citing four paintings showcased by the museum as being "racist" for depicting Christ as an "Aryan" male.

Joseph, who is representing himself in court, called the famous paintings an "offensive aesthetic whitewashing" of the true appearance of Christ who had "black hair like wool and skin of bronze color."

According to court papers: The implication that someone who possesses physical features like the plaintiff could not be the important historical and public figure of Jesus Christ ... caused the plaintiff to feel, among other things, rejected and unaccepted by society.

*****

A NOTE TO COMMENTATORS AT VOL'S WEBSITE. Increasingly we are finding that people feel they can vent publicly without recourse to the story itself. Please don't waste my time (or yours) with quibbling over terminology or details that do not touch on the main point of the post. Be civil and respectful or don't comment. If you stray off the main point of the story and want to promote either yourself or some minor detail that does not touch on the main thread, we will remove you. We will also not tolerate ad hominum arguments, personal slams, or retorts that do not represent Christian civility. Thank you.

*****

We are heading down to the wire, and we urgently need funds to round out the year. We also need support as we enter the New Year, as I will be traveling in January to both Canterbury, England to cover the Primates' meeting and later to Charleston, SC for the annual Mere Anglican conference and the Global Anglican Leadership Institute, of which I am a member. Thousands of you access VOL's website each day to read stories you don't find anywhere else. Please consider a tax deductible donation to keep us going into the New Year.

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Advent blessings,

David

This man Joseph was the foster father of the Incarnate Word of God - and he loved Jesus with an exemplary and tender love. This same Jesus who learned to work with wood from the hands of Joseph would, during his 33rd year on earth, save the whole world through the wood of the Cross. --- Keith Fournier

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
December 25, 2015

In a recent poll of 1,000 Americans, LifeWay Research found six out of 10 Americans typically attend church at Christmastime.

But among those who don't attend church at Christmastime, a majority (57 percent) say they would likely attend if someone they knew invited them.

"Regular churchgoers may assume the rest of America has already made up their mind not to attend church," said Scott McConnell, vice president of LifeWay Research. "In reality, many would welcome going to a Christmas service with someone they know."

Americans living in the South (66 percent) and Midwest (64 percent) are more likely to attend church at Christmastime than those in the Northeast (57 percent) and West (53 percent). And throughout the U.S., more women than men are likely to attend Christmas church services (66 percent vs. 56 percent).
Those who attend church most frequently throughout the year (once a week or more) are the most likely (91 percent) to say they will attend church at Christmastime.

Younger Americans are less likely to participate in a service or Christmas mass than their elders. Fifty-three percent of those 18 to 24 say they attend church at Christmas, compared to 68 percent of those 65 and older and 67 percent of 35- to 44-year-olds.

*****

UNITED STATES. The recent announcement by the new Presiding Bishop Michael Curry that he was investigating the activities of his three top officials at 815 2nd Ave., NY NY., and had suspended them (without telling us why) and then hiring a law firm in NY and Philadelphia to investigate the charges, has the whole church abuzz if not in turmoil. He did this while heading into brain surgery.

What if the Pope had just been elected then in the same week he fired top Vatican officials or the head of the Vatican Bank for unnamed reasons and then headed off for an operation on his brain! The news would have rocketed around the world. The secular press doesn't seem to be that interested apparently...nor the religious press in Episcopal Presiding Bishop Michael Curry. Does this speak to the growing irrelevance of The Episcopal Church?

When Ellen Cooke a former TEC treasurer absconded with $2 million bucks in the reign of Ed Browning it made all the papers including The New York Times.

What I think it does tell us is this. Episcopal liberals and revisionists have been successful in getting rid of the Church's orthodox evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics and now they are turning on themselves...as VOL predicted they would. They are beginning to cannibalize each other. As the TEC ship of state sinks slowly into the sunset, the passengers and crew are grabbing whatever they can before heading to the life rafts.

It will be interesting to see what happens when the Church Pension Fund can no longer take 18% from every church when nearly half of TEC's parishes no longer have a full time priest. While the CPF is one of the best run pension funds in America and there is plenty of pension money around for the moment, if more parishes increasingly fold, merge or die where will the money come from for future generations presuming of course that there are any.
Just look at how money is being spent in TEC. The National church has spent well over $40 million in fighting for properties, according to canon lawyer Allan Haley. Los Angeles Bishop Jon Bruno is a prime example of a spendthrift bishop. For nine years he has waged war in the California courts against four dissident congregations to prevent them from keeping title to their own parish properties. Using the notorious Dennis Canon, he was singularly successful in having California courts impose an irrevocable trust on the local parishes' real estate, so that when they voted to withdraw from the diocese, they necessarily forfeited all rights to their property.

But his victories have come at a tremendous cost: the Diocese had spent more than $8 million dollars as of last year, and was still incurring more costs to subsidize two of the remnant congregations in their newly recaptured sanctuaries. Bishop Bruno negotiated sales of two of the properties: the parish of All Saints Long Beach was allowed to purchase their property on a long-term contract, and he sold the church of St. David's in North Hollywood to a private school.

Think about that...$8 million! What depth of hatred does Bruno harbor against evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics that he would spend down the diocese's inheritance when he could have made money by selling the properties to the people who wanted to buy them and stay there in the first place!

What does that really tell you about a revisionist bishop like Bruno and bishops like him? All the while pansexualists say that they are the ones who are hated by a handful of orthodox Episcopalians who are still stupid enough to stay in TEC.

So the handful of orthodox Episcopalians get beaten up not once but twice. First they lose their parishes, their priests and bishops deposed, then, as they leave or are being kicked out the door, they are informed that they also hate homosexuals and lesbians and every other kooky sexuality! What person in their right mind would want to be an Episcopalian especially as the new PB will berate you for being White and you need anti-racism training to deal with your White Privilege!

*****

The Presiding Bishop's Christmas message was thin pickin's. Here are the best bits.

Hello. Our original plan was for me to tape a Christmas message in front of the United Nations building in New York as a way of sending a message that this Jesus of Nazareth whom we follow came to show us the way to a different world, a world rounded in God's peace and God's justice, God's love and God's compassion.

It occurs to me that this Jesus of Nazareth really does make a difference. And God coming into the world in the person of Jesus matters profoundly for all of us regardless of our religious tradition.

In the park across from the United Nations, the Ralph Bunche Park, the words of the Prophet Isaiah are quoted,

They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks
Nation will not rise against nation
Neither shall they learn war any more

What's not there is another part of that passage that's in the second chapter of Isaiah, and it says,

Come, let us go to the mountain of God,
That he may show us His ways and teach us His paths

We who follow Jesus believe that the mountain came to us when God came among us in the person of Jesus to show us the way to live, to show us the way to love, to show us the way to transform this world from the nightmare it often is into the dream that God intends for us all.

Then read what SC Bishop Mark Lawrence wrote about Christmas:

"There were such moments of course two thousand years ago when the interplay between God's script and the unscripted response of his people played itself out on the world's stage occurring as it did in a minor country, among a seemingly unimportant tribe; and yet with electrifying purpose (as astonishing as it may seem to the eyes of the skeptical) God through the incarnation and atoning work of Jesus Christ brought salvation for all people (Titus 2:11)."

Or this from ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach who says Christmas is not just about the birth of the savior of the world but that his life death and resurrection is central to the message of the Christmas story. He cites 1 John 4:10, "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."

Curry doesn't even touch the issue of sin and redemption.

*****

The new Presiding Bishop has just hired a black woman to be his Canon for Evangelism and Reconciliation. She is the Rev. Stephanie Spellers. You can watch a couple of episodes of the TV program Black Jesus recommended by Spellers. I'm stunned!

http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2014/09/22/canon-stephanie-spellers-preaches-at-house-of-bishops-meeting/

Her sermon wherein she recommends the TV program is at the above link. Here are several of her remarks:

"Some Thursday night, when you're feeling brave and have half an hour to kill, I hope you check out this new TV show: "Black Jesus." The language is for mature audiences only, so don't say I didn't warn you. But if you keep listening, I promise you it's worth the effort. These brothers are saying something important about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

"With all due respect, I hope the show survives. Because it may be crass and it may be crude, but it's a remarkable vehicle for sharing gospel truth. What's blasphemous about Jesus gathering this young posse, entering their homes, being humble, being truthful, welcoming them into union and transformed life with God their Father? That's not blasphemy. It's a scandal: the scandalous, incarnational way that Jesus rolls. And if we follow him, I think it's how we're supposed to roll, too."

Here are Youtube links for several Black Jesus episodes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Wz5h8bkHdY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWHBjzhgBUc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXjK_6PwIIc

*****

The Case of the Adulterous Virginia Theological Seminary Professor

This news comes from ACNA Bishop Quigg Lawrence.

"I opened the VTS Annual Report this morning and was shocked, honestly outraged to see a scholarship named for Milton Crum and his former mistress, now second wife.

"Professor Crum's first wife was a good and godly woman, of clear mind but was wheelchair bound with significant physical challenges. We all marveled at how Dr. Crum loved his wife and involved her in seminary life. For nearly two decades seminarians would visit her in their home.

"One day in the mid 1980's, for no apparent reason, Dr. Crum puts his wife (who I think was about 60 years old?) in a nursing home and then began proceedings to divorce her. People at VTS were shocked. What happened? Why would this loving husband do that when his wife was of sound mind and her physical condition seemed unchanged. It reminded us of a football player running a kickoff back 95 yards with great speed and talent and then fumbling on the 5 yard line. Only this "fumble" had much more dire implications.

"Turns out that Dr. Crum was having an affair with another VTS employee Käthe Wilcox.

"Even our most theologically liberal professors and students were enraged and several confronted Professor Crum directly.

"Nothing changed his adulterous path. He was not disciplined by the Seminary. He was not brought up on charges or defrocked by the diocese.

"Dr. Crum married his mistress and he retired in 1989 with a sizable pension.

"Now Dr. and the new Mrs. Crum give a large amount of money and VTS names a scholarship in their honor. Are you kidding me? It's blood money. The seminary must return it.

"In the article there was no mention of the wife of his youth that he put away without biblical cause so he could marry his mistress."

VOL reached out to VTS president Dr. Ian Markham for comment and this is what he wrote VOL:

Thank you for being so kind and giving me a chance to respond. This is a statement from the seminary.

"As Dean and President, one does not investigate the lives of all donors, seeking only to accept gifts from those who are faultless. One especially does not take action when those closest to the events (and therefore knew most about them) decided that the actions did not warrant any discipline. Given that every human life is full of complexity, one recognizes that there are seasons when we all make decisions that others will see as totally inappropriate. This gift from Milton and Kathe will enable clergy to grow and develop in their congregational expertise. We are grateful for the impact this gift will have on congregational leadership for the future of the church." --- Dr. Ian Markham

*****

ANGLICAN NEWS IN NORTH AMERICA. The ACNA and AMIA are in Reconciliation Talks. Leaders from the Anglican Church in North America and the Anglican Mission recently met in Atlanta, Georgia, this week to take steps towards personal reconciliation.

During the past six months, leaders from the Anglican Church in North America and the Anglican Mission have met for two days of discussions and talks. It has been a fascinating, enlightening, humbling, and challenging time for those of us involved in these discussions, said ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach

We have found that as we have talked, "old tapes" began to surface of experiences where we had been wronged, hurt, and misunderstood. These old tapes brought forth the need for humility, confession, repentance, and forgiveness before the Lord. It has been difficult, yet SO healing in many ways. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

CHURCH OF ENGLAND NEWS.A "historic" agreement has been reached between the Church of England and the Church of Scotland - marking their first formal working arrangement.

A document - the Columba Declaration - will be debated by the ruling bodies of both Churches next year.

It commits the Churches to "grow together in communion and to strengthen their partnership in mission".

Founded in two different branches of Protestantism, England's Church is Anglican and Scotland's Presbyterian.

The declaration has been authored by Kirk minister the Rev. John McPake, and the Church of England's Bishop of Chester, Peter Forster.

They say the agreement will allow clergy and lay people from each Church to be welcomed into the other when they move across the border.

The pact also recognizes that the two Churches have constitutional responsibilities in separate parts of the UK.

*****

GLOBAL NEWS. As we get closer to Canterbury and the meeting of the world's 38 Anglican Archbishops there is growing concern as to what the agenda should be and who really owns the communion.

Two archbishops, one Canadian and the other Kenyan are at odds over what should take place and what the topics should be. The fur is beginning to fly. Canadian Archbishop Fred Hiltz says the gathering is "not a decision-making body" and he is trying his best to pre-empt Kenyan Archbishop Eliud Wabukala and ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach in a deflection maneuver to focus on poverty, refugees, and global warming. Meanwhile, his African counterpart has made it abundantly clear that the chaos in the Communion is "spiritual and moral."

The two could not be further apart. Hiltz wants to focus on his triumvirate of temporal issues while Wabukala and Beach argue that the issue of human sexuality, much debated for more than 25 years is a salvific issue (I Cor. 6:9) involving eternal life or eternal damnation, something that seems to be lost on the revisionist North American archbishop.

The GAFCON chairman says the Anglican Communion is at a crossroads and it will be up to Archbishop Justin Welby and the mostly liberal West to decide which way they will travel. You can read my full story in today's digest.

*****

The Anglican Communion is at a Crossroads say GAFCON primates. They believe Canterbury meeting will be decisive for the future of the Communion.

At stake is a basic church-defining principle they say: Will Christ rule our life and witness through His word, or will our life and witness be conformed to the global ambitions of a secular culture?

This was the reason GAFCON was formed in 2008: to renew a Communion in crisis, drifting from biblical truth. While the presenting issue was human sexuality, this was really just one symptom of a deeper challenge, the emergence of a false gospel which rejects the core Anglican commitment to the truth and authority of the Bible. You can read more of what they had to say in today's digest.

*****

Return to God, Anglican bishop charges Nigerians. The Rt. Rev. Justus Mogekwu, Bishop, Anglican Diocese of Asaba, Nigeria, has urged Nigerians to return to God in order to attract His mercy.

Mogekwu, who spoke in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Asaba, on the importance of Christmas, said only God would bring back prosperity to the country.

He said that in spite of the political and technological advancement, the world was gradually winding down because they have neglected God.

The clergy urged leaders to show love to the people which he said was the main reason for celebrating Christmas, for "Christ is Love.''

"This season must make us humble enough to come closer to God and ask for His mercy, for we have transgressed.

"Nigeria has been very fortunate that all these years things that would have torn apart this country have happened and we have survived them.

"So the hope we have is to retrace our steps back to God and on how we are running our politics.

"When men who are elected to build up the nation pocket the resources of the land, that is injustice and where there is injustice, there cannot be peace," he said.

The bishop said that no nation could grow when the leaders kill, cheat and maim one another. He, advised the country's leaders, be they Christians or Muslims, to go back to God and retrace their steps.

"When they turn to God and retrace their steps, God will help us and in spite of the fall in oil prices, we can go into agriculture and God will bless the land.''

Mogekwu said that celebrating Christmas was not for just eating and drinking, but to reflect on the reasons for His birth which was to save mankind.

"Therefore, it is illogical for anybody to say that he is celebrating Christmas unless he knows the Christ, who is the reason for the season.

"But when you celebrate Christmas as a true Christian, then it is an occasion to rejoice and thank God for what the coming of Christ has done in human history which is to reconcile man to God.

"Christianity is not just a religion but an experience, a lifestyle developed from an inner encounter with Christ," Mogekwu said.

*****

Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo resigns as International Director and CEO of Barnabas Fund.

It was with great sorrow that the board of trustees of Barnabas Aid International had to announce the resignation of Dr. Sookhdeo as a trustee of Barnabas Aid International and from his positions as International Director and CEO of Barnabas Fund as of 22 November.

They said that Dr Sookhdeo, who founded Barnabas Fund, had led it with zeal, vision and integrity for 22 years. Their press release explained: 'We are immensely grieved that current circumstances oblige him to step down.' On 23 February, Dr Sookhdeo had been found guilty of sexually assaulting a female member of staff. However, close friends have always expressed doubts about the facts of the case.

The Rev. Paul Mursalin will become Acting International Director and Hendrik Storm will become CEO.

Dr. Sookhdeo said: "It has been a privilege to serve the persecuted church for many years. I have always been motivated by the needs of Christians facing suffering. I hope for many years to come I can continue serving those whom the world often doesn't notice. My inspiration has always been Barnabas, the encourager, who stood up for the suffering saints of the early church. Please pray for me, as I pray for others."

IN OTHER NEWS Barnabas Fund announced two new Patrons, Canon Andrew White and Baroness Cox were confirmed in key changes at Barnabas Fund, UK this week. The Marquess of Reading was appointed Chair of Barnabas Aid UK. "We are in the midst of unmentionable terror, suffering and persecution of Christians around the world," said Barnabas Aid's new Patron, Canon Andrew White. "Barnabas Aid has always stood with those most in need. It is an honor to be asked to serve as their Patron."

*****

In 1847, one of the greatest hymns ever written, O Holy Night, in its third verse, sings the same cry of the slave to be human, and thus free. This is the Gospel, and as we celebrate the incarnation of Jesus, we celebrate the One who comes to set all the prisoners free, from personal and political sins alike.

O holy night!
The stars are brightly shining
It is the night of the dear Savior's birth!
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Till he appear'd and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary soul rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!

Led by the light of Faith serenely beaming
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand
So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming
Here come the wise men from Orient land
The King of Kings lay thus in lowly manger
In all our trials born to be our friend

Truly He taught us to love one another
His law is love and His gospel is peace
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother
And in His name all oppression shall cease
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us praise His holy name

As we await the coming of our Messiah and Savior let us remember the words taken from the Handel's Hallelujah Chorus...AND HE SHALL REIGN FOREVER AND EVER AND OF HIS KINGDOM THERE WILL BE NO END.

VOL wishes all its readers in 170 countries around the world a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope to see you all in 2016.

Warmly in Christ,

David

Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) have been rising among gay and bisexual men, with increases in syphilis being seen across the country. In 2013, gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men accounted for 75% of primary and secondary syphilis cases in the United States. Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men often get other STDs, including chlamydia and gonorrhea infections. HPV (Human papillomavirus), the most common STD in the United States, is also a concern for gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men. -- Center for Disease Control in Atlanta

There is a great battle going on for the soul of Anglicanism. The Western industrial nations have pretty well caved to the voice of the times, and it is one of those every 500 year struggles. It is all quickly coming to a head. In January, there will be a gathering of Anglican Primates in Canterbury. There have been many conversations leading up to it. Leaders from GAFCON and the Global South are clear that they know what is at stake. There needs to be clear consensus and commitment to "the faith once delivered" (Jude 1:3) in order for the Communion to survive. --- ACNA Bishop Bill Atwood

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
January 1, 2016

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. The story of the week, and the one that racked up nearly 10,000 hits before it made it into this week's digest, is the story of a rector of a parish in Louisville, KY who was forced to resign because he would not go along with his vestry or his bishop to perform gay marriages. This was despite the fact that General Convention said no priest or bishop had to perform the ceremony if doing so would offend his or her conscience.

The Rev. Jonathan Erdman, Rector of Calvary Church in Louisville, KY, will leave his church January 10, 2016. His organist later announced that he was leaving January 19.

The vestry of his parish had been trying to force him out since the Episcopal Church authorized priests to perform gay weddings, and Fr. Jonathan, a high churchman, said he would not, in conscience, do that. The vestry has the support of Kentucky Episcopal Bishop Terry Allen White, who was complicit in the forced resignation of Erdman from his position as rector of the church.

At last summer's General Convention, The Episcopal Church adopted a resolution allowing gay marriage but also stipulated that it would honor theological diversity and specifically, "that no bishop, priest, deacon or lay person should be coerced or penalized in any manner, nor suffer any canonical disabilities, as a result of his or her theological objection to or support for the 78th General Convention's action contained in this resolution."

It was left to the bishops to enforce this resolution in their respective dioceses. Bishop White not only did not enforce this resolution, he was complicit in forcing the resignation of Fr. Erdman from his position as rector of Calvary Church. He did not have his back. It is a story of the ongoing vilification, hatred, and finally removal of godly priests who won't toe the line on the ordination of women or sodomy. As a result of their objections, they must be removed in the name of inclusivity and theological diversity, which of course is a fiction. One wonders whether there is a difference between suicide bombers who wrap themselves in explosives and priests and bishops who wrap themselves in the sanctity of sodomy and wonder why, when the theological bomb goes off, priests and churches die.

You can read the full story here or in today's digest. http://tinyurl.com/gn5yj6v

*****

In the Diocese of Albany an Episcopal priest in Delmar was accused of video-taping a woman in a changing room. The Rev. Adam Egan, 35, Episcopal priest of St. Stephen Church in Delmar, faces felony charges after Colonie police say he was caught taking video of a woman changing clothes inside a dressing room at the Salvation Army Thrift Store in Latham.

He has been charged with Unlawful Surveillance and Tampering with Physical Evidence arising from the incident.

Albany Episcopal Bishop William H. Love noted the arrest "with great sadness" and said he had met and prayed with Fr. Egan. "Due to the serious nature of the offense with which he has been charged, as the Bishop Diocesan, I have placed Fr. Egan on indefinite Administrative Leave, during which time he is not to function in any capacity as a Member of the Clergy of this Church, nor is he to wear clerical dress." You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

CHURCH OF ENGLAND NEWS. Women clergy will be the death of the Church of England, says Kathy Gyngell in an article in Conservative Woman."The Church of England tests my loyalty sorely. My local church clergy 'team' is almost entirely feminized. In my neck of the woods, there is literally no escaping them, or their dumbed down approach to their 'calling'. To a woman they appear to be laboring under the impression they are running a Sunday school. That is how we are treated.

"With their predictable pudding basin haircuts these female clergy are, in my experience, particularly graceless. 'Sit down', not please be seated, is how we are addressed at the start of the service. Forget any idea of starting with a priestly procession behind a cross or a choir.

"Regard for any aspect of the liturgy and the conduct of the services is scant and bears virtually no relationship at all to the Book of Common Prayer. Sentences from the scriptures, collects, general confessions, or absolutions are rarity between the Christingles and all the other modern service forms. I sometimes wonder if they know the order of service at all. And when we are treated to this rarity, few of these lady priests seem capable of projecting their voices, let alone able to sing. Sacred music has all but disappeared."

Of course we have seen how this has gone in the Episcopal Church. Women priests have not made churches grow. Women bishops have been liberal and revisionist to the core, with many of them participating in annual gay parades. They too have not made churches grow or brought people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. The Church of England will, in time, sadly go the way of the extinct Dodo bird. You can read Gyngell's full account in today's digest.

The Church of England is to fast-track black and ethnic minority clergy into senior positions amid accusations of institutional racism.

A "talent pool" of black, Asian and minority ethnic (Bame) potential leaders will be identified in 2016 for training and mentoring with the aim of increasing representation among bishops, deans, and archdeacons.

The church selected its first talent pool this year, but fewer than 7% of those chosen were from ethnic minorities. A second round is currently being selected. The church is to devote a third group specifically to Bame clergy.

However, only 2.8% of CofE clergy are from ethnic minorities, which limits the numbers available for fast-tracking. At senior levels, the sole Bame bishop is John Sentamu, the archbishop of York; there is one Bame dean and three archdeacons. Only 3% of the members of the last synod -- the church parliament -- were from ethnic minorities; figures are not yet available for the new synod elected in October.

This is all well and good, but if these new minority priests do not have a clear fix on the gospel they will be no better than their white liberal counterparts. Orthodox Anglican African provinces will still keep pushing the AMiE as the alternative to the Church of England. You can read the full story in today's digest.

Anglican priest Fr. Giles Fraser publicly smeared the Virgin Mary and got publicly whipped for it by a Roman Catholic priest (and former Anglican), Fr. Dwight Longenecker.

Longenecker writes, "Just when you thought the Anglicans couldn't stoop much lower, in a disgusting article published, predictably, on Christmas Eve, Anglican priest-journalist Giles Fraser not only publicly denies the Virgin Birth, but he ridicules the idea, proposes that the Blessed Virgin Mary was just another teen fornicator and that it's probably a good thing that Jesus was a bastard conceived when Mary had a romp with a Roman soldier.

"I'm surprised that he didn't title his article, 'That's Why Our Lady is a Tramp.'

"The crass arrogance of Fraser's article in London's The Guardian is only superseded by its ignorance. Fraser writes, 'The earliest polemic against Christianity focused on the circumstances of Jesus's birth. "We have not been born of fornication," says a hostile gathering to Jesus in John's gospel. The implication being: we weren't, but you were. In the second century, the Greek writer Celsus wrote a book about how Jesus was the illegitimate low-birth offspring of a spinner called Mary and a Roman soldier called Panthera. The implication may also have been that she was raped. Various later rabbinic texts refer to him as Jesus ben Pandera. All of which was intended as an insult: Jesus was a bastard. Obviously the son of God couldn't be a bastard. So, the argument goes, Jesus was not the son of God.

"'The idea that Jesus was born of 'pure virgin' could well have been a reaction to these insults.'"

A Church of England priest familiar with Fraser wrote VOL and said Fraser is the best example of a champagne socialist who talks about the poor but craves the hallowed setting of the Oxbridge elite. He is also a very shallow thinker made famous only by his left-wing bluster. You can read the full article in today's digest.

A Church of England report which attacked key policies of Margaret Thatcher's government was denounced as "Marxist" by one of her closest advisers.

The publication of Faith In The City in December 1985 was seen as a landmark event, sparking intense public debate about the role of the Church in society and the impact of Thatcherism at a time of inner-city breakdown and perceived rising inequality.

The report, which had been commissioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, referred to the Government's "dogmatic and inflexible" economic policies and the "unacceptable" effects of high unemployment.

Brian Griffiths, head of the No. 10 Policy Unit, said it showed "a deep hostility to government policy and the philosophy on which it is based" and accused the Church of adopting a "Marxist analysis" of society.

*****

GLOBAL ANGLICAN NEWS. As we get closer to D-Day in Canterbury, it is interesting to watch the spin by liberals over what they THINK will happen among the Primates based on a false reading of what has already taken place.

I face off with a certain Matt Gardner of the Anglican Church of Canada in an article titled Twenty-first Century Brought Family Disagreement at the Primates Meeting.

He argues that the last four Primates Meetings, which took place every two years between 2005 and 2011, saw major discussions break out revolving around issues of human sexuality, particularly concerning the blessing of same-sex unions. Striving for unity amidst open differences, the differing views among Primates took on the character of a family disagreement within the Anglican Communion.

However, it was much more than just that. The "differences" were fundamental. After the Episcopal Church in the United States consecrated an openly gay bishop and the Anglican diocese of New Westminster in Canada allowed the blessing of same-sex relationships, the issue of sexuality came to the fore at the 2005 Primates Meeting in Dromantine, Ireland.

Mr. Gardner seems to think that other issues like climate change and poverty dominated the conversation. Not true. When the orthodox primates were absent, temporal issues certainly took center stage, but pansexuality is the elephant in the sacristy and the last line in the sand. We will see how this all plays out next month in Canterbury. You can read my take on Mr. Gardner's rant in today's digest.

In a startling revelation in the New York Times, it was revealed that U.S. support of gay rights in Africa may have done more harm than good.

Since an anti-gay law went into effect last year, many gay Nigerians say they have been subjected to new levels of harassment, even violence.

They blame the law, the authorities, and broad social intolerance for their troubles. But they also blame an unwavering supporter whose commitment to their cause has been unquestioned and conspicuous across Africa: the United States government.

"The U.S. support is making matters worse," said Mike, 24, a university student studying biology in Minna, a town in central Nigeria. He asked that his full name not be used for his safety. "There's more resistance now. It's triggered people's defense mechanism."

Since 2012, the American government has put more than $700 million into supporting gay rights groups and causes globally. More than half of that money has focused on sub-Saharan Africa -- just one indication of this continent's importance to the new policy.

America's money and public diplomacy have opened conversations and opportunities in societies where the subject was taboo just a few years ago. But people on both sides of the gay rights issue have contended that American intervention has also made gay men and lesbians more visible -- and more vulnerable to harassment and violence. The American campaign has stirred misgivings among many African activists, who say they must rely on the West's support despite disagreeing with its strategies.

"The Nigerian law was blowback," said Chidi Odinkalu, chairman of Nigeria's National Human Rights Commission and the senior legal officer for the Africa Program of the Open Society Justice Initiative, which supports gay rights on the continent. "You now have situations of gay men being molested on the streets or taunted. That was all avoidable."

Fierce opposition has come from African governments and private organizations, which accuse the United States of cultural imperialism. Pressing gay rights on an unwilling continent, they say, is the latest attempt by Western nations to impose their values on Africa.

"In the same way that we don't try to impose our culture on anyone, we also expect that people should respect our culture in return," said Theresa Okafor, a Nigerian active in lobbying against gay rights.

This was the same message delivered to President Obama by the President of Uganda during his visit.

This of course raises the obvious objections by this writer. What right do Obama and America think they have to push their "values" on another nation when they constantly preach about inclusivity and diversity and multi-culturalism among their own people? Liberals constantly rant about the need to "listen" and have "conversation" with those with whom we disagree, but then they turn around and literally bribe a handful of African gay people with millions of dollars that could be better spent on poverty, housing and a zillion other good causes like clean water and better health care.

Perhaps the Obama administration should read the latest statistics from the Center for Disease Control on STDs among gay men. "Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) have been rising among gay and bisexual men, with increases in syphilis being seen across the country. In 2013, gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men accounted for 75% of primary and secondary syphilis cases in the United States. Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men often get other STDs, including chlamydia and gonorrhea infections. HPV (Human papillomavirus), the most common STD in the United States, is also a concern for gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men." In 2015 the figures were worse--and to think millions of tax-payer dollars were spent in finding a cure for HIV/AIDS. Apparently nothing has changed. So now society blesses pansexuality and the churches are rolling over to embrace a handful of men who demand full acceptance of behavior that does nothing but shorten their lives and ultimately kill them.

American conservative and Christian groups have also turned to Africa, where the vast majority of people still share their opposition to same-sex relations and marriage. "There is an intentional effort to coordinate with Africa specifically because we don't want them to make the mistakes we've made here in America," said Larry Jacobs, managing director of the World Congress of Families, an umbrella organization of social conservative and religious groups based in Rockford, Illinois.

*****

ANGLICAN CHURCH OF CANADA. The Diocese of Niagara is in decline, writes Canadian blogger Samizdat. The Anglican Church of Canada is squeamishly shy about publicizing how many people attend its churches. No complete statistics for membership and average Sunday attendance have been published since 2001, although the ACoC did claim a membership of 545,957 in 2007.

The Diocese of Niagara's paper, however, has published some statistics for 2013 and 2014:
Average Sunday attendance fell 7.2 percent in one year. We cannot know, of course, whether this rate of decline will increase or decrease as the years pass but, if it remains the same, in 60 years there will be 91 people left in the diocese or, since there are 89 parishes, around one person per parish -- presumably the priest.

On a less gloomy note, the number of green parishes increased by three, demonstrating, I suppose, that the diocese overestimated the drawing power of its Gaia god.

The historic All Saints Anglican Church in Sandy Hill, Ottawa has been sold and will gradually be developed as a mixed-use building for meetings, weddings, and neighborhood-scale businesses.

The Gothic Revival church on Laurier Avenue between Chapel Street and Blackburn Avenue was listed for sale at $1.7 million. The purchase price hasn't been disclosed.

What makes this interesting is that in 2011, the Diocese of Ottawa moved the congregation of All Saints into St. Alban's, a church that had been vacated by an ANiC congregation as part of a negotiated settlement with the Diocese of Ottawa. The diocese, having ejected the ANiC congregation, was eager to create the impression that they had a use for St. Alban's.

This has left All Saints without a viable congregation. As a result, it has been sold.

The faux-new St. Alban's congregation takes pride in not defining doctrine in a single confession, in encompassing a diversity of views -- other than the diverse view that Christians who set a high value on a diversity of views have lost the thread -- and in Pride itself.

*****

CHURCH OF IRELAND. Church of Ireland bishops issued a report in the form of questions to answers in response to the recent passage of the Marriage Equality Referendum in the Republic of Ireland and the subsequent legislation. It is recognized that in the Church of Ireland there are differing opinions and responses to the outcome of the referendum itself. There will be many new situations of pastoral sensitivity that will arise, the bishops said.

Hitherto the Church and the State in both jurisdictions have substantially overlapped in their definition of marriage. This is no longer the case in the Republic of Ireland.

Under current legislation, involvement of a member of the clergy of the Church of Ireland as a solemniser (Republic of Ireland) or an officiant (Northern Ireland) in a wedding is an expressly legal function.

In a response to the Pastoral Letter from the Church of Ireland's House of Bishops concerning same-sex marriage, Reform Ireland said that the legislation to allow same-sex marriage was passed in the Republic of Ireland earlier this year. "Northern Ireland, being part of the UK, has to date, praise the Lord, not enacted such legislation - it is a devolved matter - the rest of the UK has such legislation but not here in Northern Ireland. Three times such legislation has come before our legislative assembly and three times it has been defeated. It is now before our high court for a judicial review in light of human rights legislation." You can read the bishops report and Reform's response in today's digest.

CHURCH OF AOTEAROA. From Christchurch, NZ comes word that The Anglican Church has agreed to consider "reinstating" the Christ Church Cathedral at a Dec. 23 conference.

The Anglican Church is resisting a full commitment to reinstating Christ Church Cathedral because of concerns over safety and cost.

Bishop Victoria Matthews partially endorsed a plan to reinstate the quake-damaged church, but did not rule out building a new, contemporary cathedral in its place.

A report by Government-appointed mediator Miriam Dean QC found the cathedral could be either reconstructed to be "indistinguishable" from its pre-quake self or replaced.

Matthews said the Church Property Trust (CPT), which owns the cathedral, would look at safety and cost issues of reinstatement. If they were manageable, a working group would lead an effort to revitalize the stricken building. Further announcements were expected in April.

CULTURE WAR NEWS. A Bible museum is coming to a very secular Washington. The National Mall may be the nation's front lawn, but religious displays are prohibited. Even at holiday time the museums that line it are only lightly decorated with Christmas trees and lights, and nothing religious.

But a new museum is going up just a few blocks away -- the Museum of the Bible -- that wants only to celebrate Christian scripture. The $400 million project, located two blocks south of the National Air and Space Museum, doesn't have to worry about laws or rulings that keep religion and state separate.

The museum is the brainchild of Steve Green, president of Hobby Lobby, the privately owned Oklahoma City-based crafts chain that follows its owners' evangelical beliefs, including closing its 600 stores on Sundays.

In 2014 Hobby Lobby won a Supreme Court decision exempting it from Affordable Care Act requirements regarding birth control coverage, which conflicted with the owners' beliefs.

Green has had a vision of a Bible museum for several years -- it was first intended for Dallas -- to make Scripture more accessible. Construction in Washington began in February on the site of a former refrigeration warehouse and design center. It will be one of the largest museums in the city, with eight floors, 430,000 square feet, and a garden on the roof.

"The Bible has had a huge impact on our world today -- from culture and politics, to social and moral justice, to literature, art and music, and more," Green told a group of civic leaders last year at the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum. "Our family has a passion for the Bible and we are excited to be part of a museum dedicated to sharing its impact, history and narrative with the world."

SPOTLIGHT -- The movie. This week my wife and I saw the movie Spotlight. It's a gripping drama set in 2001. Editor Marty Baron of The Boston Globe assigns a team of journalists to investigate allegations against John Geoghan, a defrocked Roman Catholic priest accused of molesting more than 80 boys. Led by editor Walter "Robby" Robinson, reporters Michael Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), Matt Carroll and Sacha Pfeiffer interview victims and try to unseal sensitive documents. The reporters make it their mission to provide proof of a cover-up of sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church. They trace the cover-up right to the top, reaching Bernard Cardinal Law himself. (He later fled to Rome to escape prosecution. He still resides there.)

As a journalist I found the movie gripping and the interviews with abused boys, many of them now men, sickening. The movie made me very angry. It's a high newsroom drama that reminded me of Watergate, only much better. Celebrities like Robert Redford don't make good reporters. This movie will stick with you for many reasons, chief of which is that this was not just about sexual abuse but spiritual abuse and putting the institution ahead of children. I thought only of the words of Jesus: that it would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. Hundreds of men will never darken the doors of a church again. They will never trust a priest who supposedly speaks for Jesus again. Sadly, they may never trust Jesus, bearing in mind who supposedly spoke for him.

In one scene, a priest is confronted by a reporter and all he could say was to admit he did it but that he got no pleasure from it! The lies go on. Some 269 priests molested over 1000 children in Boston during that period. Most of the priests never went to jail, and those molested were bought off by the Archdiocese. See this movie, but you have been warned. It is not for the faint of heart. You won't come away with nice thoughts about the Roman Catholic Church.

*****

As we face the New Year, I hope you will consider a tax deductible donation to keep VOL going. The story about the priest who was forced out of his parish by the vestry and bishop because he would not go along with gay marriage has had nearly 10,000 hits! You would not know about this priest or what he suffered at the hands of his "friends" if it was not for VOL. So why did this story catch fire? There are many reasons, but one that comes to mind is that it speaks to what many priests suffer. Sadly, they are too afraid to talk about their objections because they want to keep their jobs and pensions in The Episcopal Church. Secretly, they cheer this priest, but they remain silent. VOL breaks down those silent walls and tells you what no one else will say.

Please make a donation. Of the 10,000 people who read this story, less than 20 made a contribution to keep VOL afloat. That's not right. So please help out.

You can send a check to:

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Or you can make a contribution through VOL's PAYPAL link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/

Thank you for your support.

*****

So here's my New Year's gift to Jesus. I'm going to do everything I can to focus on Jesus Christ. I want to get to know him better. I want to introduce others to him better. All the liturgy, all the devotions, all the worship, all the education and catechesis, all the evangelization, all the writing, all the prayer, all the work to help the hungry and homeless, all the work in prison, all the work in school, all that I am and do I want to be focused on him.

A Happy New Year to all VOL's readers in 170 countries.

David

The baptism of the Spirit. The teaching of the Pentecostal churches, and of many people in the charismatic or neo-Pentecostal movement, is that we receive the 'gift' of the Spirit when we first believe, but then need a second and subsequent experience called the 'baptism' of the Spirit, usually evidenced by 'speaking in tongues'. What the New Testament teaches, however, is not a stereotype of two stages, but rather the initial blessing of regeneration by the Spirit, followed by a process of growth into maturity, during which we may indeed be granted many deeper and richer experiences of God. These often bring a fresh experience of the reality of God and a more vivid awareness of his love. But they should not be called 'the baptism of the Spirit'. The expression to be 'baptized with the Spirit' occurs only seven times in the New Testament. Six of them are quotations of John the Baptist's words 'I baptize with water, but he will baptize with the Spirit', a promise which was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. The seventh (1 Cor. 12:13) emphasizes that all of us have been 'baptized' with the Spirit and been made to 'drink' of the Spirit - two graphic pictures of our having received him. --- John R.W. Stott

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
January 8, 2016

A source deep in Lambeth Palace tells VOL that Archbishop Justin Welby is trying to engineer a split between the GAFCON primates. Divide et imperia is an old trick, and the source said that some of the GAFCON primates are likely to be lured by Welby's charm and the desire to remain attached to Canterbury.

If the Archbishop thinks he can pull that off, then Houdini was an Anglican.

The gathering of Primates next week will be a make or break time, and there is little doubt that Welby will do almost anything to keep the GAFCON archbishops at the table. That is easier said than done. Not only does he have a herculean task of keeping them at the table, he has to figure out what to do with ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach, the veritable thorn in the Anglican side of North American Anglicanism.

Can Welby schmooze US Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and Canadian Archbishop Fred Hiltz into accepting Archbishop Beach as primus inter pares? That remains to be seen. Certainly nothing that Hiltz has said to date indicates that. He is willing to let Beach make his pitch at the beginning of the week-long talks, but then he wants him gone. But that's not going to fly.

The GAFCON archbishops have made it very clear that first on the agenda is the disciplining of those errant provinces that have departed from Scripture and have promoted pansexuality and "another gospel." They won't be fobbed off by "agonizing" diatribes over poverty, climate change and racism, which the primates can do little about except to pass resolutions at their synods and conventions.

The Dar es Salaam statement will be rolled out and Welby will have to face the fact head-on that the Primates Meeting in 2007 laid out a plan to bring discipline and restore order and was unanimously supported by all 38 Primates of the Anglican Communion. However, the statement was never implemented and was later unilaterally overruled by former Archbishop Rowan Williams. This further breach of trust only deepened the tear in the fabric of the Anglican Communion. Welby won't be able to get away with it this time.

One observer told VOL that Anglican revisionists of North America and Europe do not aspire to re-write or deny the past. They want to revise the present and future -- and control it. "As with most progressives, they are disinterested in the past." How true, how true.

What Welby should do (and it is doubtful he will) is hold firm to orthodox Christianity as historically presented by Anglicanism. He should side with the majority of the Anglican Communion (even if it is not the majority of Primates) and declare the gospel cannot be changed and that traditional sexuality written in Scripture cannot be rewritten to satisfy a handful of pansexualists. He should declare that all provinces preach the gospel, plant new churches and make disciples of all nations -- no compromises, no finger crossing -- and then say if bishops and archbishops are not willing to do that then they should go find another line of work.

The question is this: Is Welby able to gird up his loins and resist the revisionist pressures? Regrettably there is little to indicate this will happen without a miracle, and the Anglican Communion is short on miracles.

The truth this time, unlike previous occasions, is that GAFCON chairman Eliud Wabukala and the rest of the GAFCON Primates are fully organized in message, procedures, relationships, and rhetoric, to avoid the duplicity foisted upon them in the past decades.

The day of Anglican fudge is over. The revisionists can't pull off any more indaba or diversion on issues like global warming. The Global South have plenty of issues, like people being slaughtered for their faith by ISIS and Boko Haram. Just ask the Archbishop of the Sudan Deng Bul. Canadian Primate Hiltz, who is carrying the ball with TEC's Michael Curry hors de combat, can play that card, but it is a losing hand.

The Archbishop of Uganda Stanley Ntagali announced this week that "godly order" must be restored in Canterbury or else he will walk out. He will not be alone. He and his fellow GAFCON archbishops will never be in communion with TEC.

Furthermore, the post-colonial attitude of many British bloggers that without Canterbury there is no communion is patronizing rubbish.

If it means the result will result in a smash-up with primates flying in all directions, with the GAFCON/Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans departing from the old Anglican Communion, then so be it.

The Global South is quite capable of rebuilding a global structure and breaking communion formally with the heretical, imploding Western provinces while keeping strategic lines open with Canterbury for the longer-run.

Whatever happens, I believe that this meeting will be THE transformative event for modern Anglicanism.

You can read multiple stories on all this in today's digest, including my own take here: http://tinyurl.com/jgo7duo

The next time I write to you all, it will be from Canterbury.

*****

In yet more signs that some Africans can be compromised, VOL learned this week that the daughter of former Southern African Archbishop Desmond Tutu tied the knot with a woman professor in the Netherlands. The Rev. Canon Mpho Tutu wed Professor Marceline van Furth.

According to Netherlands broadcaster Jeanette Chabalala of News24, the couple reportedly "married" in a private ceremony held in Oegstgeest in the Netherlands. The couple is set to celebrate their wedding in Cape Town in May.

Tutu is currently the executive director of the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, while Furth is a professor in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the Vrije University in Amsterdam, and holds the Desmond Tutu Chair in Medicine at the university.

It is the second "marriage" for both. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

Closer to home, we learned this week that scandal has broken out at St. George's School in Middletown, Rhode Island, where some 40 former pupils say they were sexually abused by priests and a chaplain and that a cover up occurred. Two attorneys representing victims said that the more than 40 people contacted them with stories ranging from molestation to rape by staff and students at the Episcopalian prep school in Middletown, R.I. Most of the alleged crimes took place in the 1970s and '80s.

Note this is NOT about pedophilia. It is about homosexual priests seducing and raping young, vulnerable, pubescent men.

The Episcopal bishop of Rhode Island, the Rt. Rev. W. Nicholas Knisely, has called for "disciplinary proceedings" at the school.

He said in a statement that he is in contact with Rhode Island State Police, "and I am following their direction as the investigation is being carried out" into the episodes discussed in a report issued by the school in December and in media coverage.

So far two Episcopal priests and a third person who worked in Episcopal congregations have been named in the report or ensuing media coverage, but we have heard nothing from the principal of the school.

The Boston Globe reported that past St. George's administrators "repeatedly broke Rhode Island's law that requires schools to report credible allegations of sexual abuse of minors"; and that current administrators in 2012 and 2015 "tried to 'gag' victims from talking about'' abuse.

Two former St. George's staff members -- an assistant chaplain and the choir director -- "left the school after they admitted to sexual misconduct with male students. No mandatory abuse report was made by the school. They both went on to work in schools and churches and are still in settings where they are at risk to re-offend."

The only good news is that that there is no statute of limitations in Rhode Island on sex crimes. Watch the lawsuits fly. You can read two stories about this in today's digest.

*****

It is with profound sorrow and deep regrets that we inform you of the death of the Rt. Rev. Donald James Parsons, 93, 6th Bishop of Quincy, former Dean of Nashotah House, and mentor to generations of priests. He died at approximately 9:30 P.M this evening. May he rest in peace and rise in glory. Please pray for the repose of his soul and for his children, Mary, Rebecca, and Brad.

*****

The College of Bishops of the Anglican Church in North America met on January 6, 2016 (the Feast of the Epiphany) and elected the next bishop of the Anglican Diocese of the Great Lakes.

Three candidates, The Rev. Canon Daryl Fenton, The Rev. Allen Kannapell, and The Rev. Dr. Canon Ronald Jackson, had been nominated when the Anglican Diocese of the Great Lakes met in an extraordinary Synod on October 3, 2015.

While at Christ Church in Vero Beach, Florida, the College heard the testimonies of all three candidates and had the opportunity to ask them questions about their faith, ministry, and calling. After a time of prayer, the College elected The Rev Dr. Ronald Jackson.

Archbishop Beach gave thanks for the election saying, "I am very excited about this godly man whom God has raised up to serve His Church."

Rev. Jackson will be the second bishop of the Anglican Diocese of the Great Lakes, taking over the episcopal ministry from diocese's first bishop, The Rt. Rev. Roger Ames. The consecration of bishop-elect Jackson will be in Akron, Ohio on Thursday, April 28th, 2016.

*****

The head of the Anglican Church in Scotland has warned the Church of England against treading on his ecclesiastical territory in an historic agreement with the Presbyterian Church of Scotland.

The bishop of St Andrew's, David Chillingworth, known as the "blogging bishop" who is also primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, said, "The Church of England is not a Scottish Church nor does it have any jurisdiction in Scotland. The Anglican way is to recognize the territorial integrity of each province -- they are autonomous but inter-dependent."

He said the document had already caused damage to long-established relationships and called for its publication to be delayed to allow a fuller consultation to take place.

The Columba Declaration commits the Church of England and the Church of Scotland to growing closer together in communion and mission and to recognizing each other's clergy and laity. The document appears to take little account of the Anglican province in Scotland, the Scottish Episcopal Church, which withdrew from the talks early on but remained present as an observer.

The Church of Scotland and the Church of England published the Columba Declaration on the morning of Christmas Eve, stating they had reached an historic agreement to work more closely together. Both churches will debate it later this year at General Synod in York and the General Assembly in Edinburgh.

*****

An Anglican Seminary in Toronto is now offering Orthodox ministry training. A new Master of Divinity program at Trinity College, Toronto, is helping to prepare students for ordained or lay ministry in the Orthodox Church.

The post-graduate degree -- the only one of its kind in Canada -- is often a requirement for those seeking ordination in the Orthodox Church. Previously, students who wanted the degree had to travel to seminaries in the United States, usually a prohibitively expensive undertaking.

Trinity College's faculty of divinity has been offering courses in Orthodox Christianity for the past 10 years and the new degree, established last year, is an extension of that, says Father Ready. "We decided to take it to the next level," he says.

Three students were enrolled in the program in its first year, and Father Ready is hoping for up to 12 when the next school year begins in September. The degree includes courses in biblical studies from an Orthodox perspective, liturgics and pastoral ministry.

The Revd Canon David Neelands, Dean of Divinity, says the enhanced Orthodox curriculum and the new students it will attract will benefit the college. "I think it's a great development," he says. "It will benefit us and a new population."

Anglican students enrolled in Master of Divinity or Master of Theological Education programs at the college can take the Orthodox courses towards their degrees. "Orthodox historians and theologians have a lot to offer in terms of early church writers and history, and Anglicans have a long tradition of interest in Eastern Christianity -- its icons, its spirituality and its authentic character," says Canon Neelands.

*****

The Anglican Church in Canada continues to decline. In the Diocese of Newfoundland & Labrador it was a significant day in Trinity South. Four Anglican churches along the Trinity Shore -- St. Matthew's of Green's Harbour, St. George the Martyr in Whiteway, The Good Shepherd in Cavendish, and St. Matthew's in Heart's Delight-Islington -- were all deconsecrated this week.

The churches have been combined into a single parish, now located in the old Epiphany Elementary school building in Heart's Delight-Islington, which has been refurbished for the needs of the parish.

*****

An Anglican Bishop of the Province of Nigeria was accused of cultism and chased out of the church.

The Rt. Rev. Michael Adebayo Oluwarohunbi, the Bishop of Yewa Anglican Diocese, has been barred from presiding over church activities over allegations that he belonged to a cult and allegedly cancelled existing religious activities.

The Nigerian Pilot reports that members of the Cathedral Church of Christ, Onala in Ilaro area of Ogun state stormed the church with placards and barred the bishop from presiding over the first service of the year on Sunday, January 3.

It was reported that the intervention of security operatives prevented the case from degenerating into conflict and the religious center was eventually placed under seal.

A member of the church accused the bishop of cancelling a revival and installing in its place a family fun fair. It was reported that Solomon Oluwarotimi Adewunmi, the former provost of the church, refused invitation by the bishop to join his cult.

The bishop's decision to cancel all standing committees in the church led to protests. Nicholas Okoh, the primate of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, called the parties to a meeting in Abuja and ordered the reinstatement of the standing committees.

*****

The Anglican mission agency Mothers' Union is celebrating its 140th anniversary in 2016. Throughout the year it will hold a number of events to mark 14 decades of "faithful outreach to families of all faiths and none."

The Mothers Union was formed in 1876 when Mary Sumner brought together parents in her own Hampshire parish to build their confidence in bringing up their children. Since then it has grown to an organization of over four million women - and men - in over 80 countries of the world, and it continues to encourage parents in looking after children, not only physically and mentally but also spiritually. From the outset, the Mothers' Union recognized that strong relationships and the role of family, however defined, are crucial in building healthy communities.

"Whilst the ways in which we operate to fulfill that need may be different from that of the world of the 19th century, our vision today is still of a world where God's love is shown through loving, respectful, and flourishing relationships. This is the essence of our work," the agency says on its website. "We aim to show our Christian faith by the transformation of communities worldwide. We can do this through the promotion of stable marriage, family life and the protection of children. This is our mission. It is what we aim to achieve."

A special anniversary celebration service will be held on 22 September at Winchester Cathedral, England, where the Mothers' Union was founded. Service resources are being made available to help local churches hold their own Mother Union anniversary services on Mothering Sunday (6 March), Lady Day (4 April), and Mary Sumner Day (9 August).

The Mothers' Union has also set itself a fundraising challenge of £1.4 million to provide practical support for 500,000 people throughout the year.

*****

An evangelical Christian preacher, Pastor James McConnell, has been found not guilty of making "grossly offensive" remarks about Islam. The 78-year-old from Shore Road in Newtownabbey, County Antrim, Ireland denied two charges relating to a sermon he gave in a Belfast church in 2014.

A judge said that while he considered the remarks offensive, he did not consider them "grossly" offensive under the law. Supporters of the pastor applauded when the verdict was given.

Speaking outside court, Mr McConnell said his only regret was the response from the Muslim community that he was "out to hurt them. There was no way I was out to hurt them. I wouldn't hurt a hair on their head, but what I am against is their theology and what they believe in."

*****

Dear friends,

The next time I write to you all it will be from Canterbury, England. Please keep me and all those faithful to the gospel in your prayers as the Communion faces the greatest spiritual and ecclesiastical crisis in its history. Much is at stake. Pray for ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach as he will come under much scrutiny from primates across the communion. Pray for the GAFCON primates and the GAFCON chairman, Kenyan Primate Eliud Wabukala. Pray that Wabukala will be given the grace to stand even as he upholds the authority of Scripture and biblical morality. Above all, pray that God's will, will be done.

In Christ,

David

The Pope has reportedly urged non-Catholics not to convert. In July 2014, he told a group of Evangelicals at a lunch in Rome: "I'm not interested in converting Evangelicals to Catholicism. I want people to find Jesus in their own community." As cardinal, he once reportedly said the Anglican Ordinariate "was quite unnecessary" as the universal Church needs those wishing to convert to stay "as Anglicans." --- Edward Pentin in the NC Register

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
January 22, 2016

To repent or not to repent, that is the question. This week the Episcopal Church through its Presiding Bishop Michael Curry made it very clear he and they would not repent of their sins of endorsing pansexuality, allowing gay marriage and changing the Church's canons and constitution to do so.

In fact, if you read carefully what Curry said, he made it clear the Episcopal Church would not change direction: "We are the Episcopal Church, and we are part of the Jesus Movement, and that Movement goes on, and our work goes on. It may be part of our vocation to help the Communion and to help many others to grow in a direction where we can realize and live the love that God has for all of us, and we can one day be a Church and a Communion where all of God's children are fully welcomed, where this is truly a house of prayer for all people. And maybe it's a part of our vocation to help that to happen."

The subtext is this. TEC is not going to change. They say they will forget repentance, and if possible they will turn the tables over time on the Communion and see the rest of the Anglican world accept their point of view on pansexuality! In other words, they will use their vast financial resources to coerce, cajole and finally win over as many Anglican provinces as they can while Curry is Presiding Bishop. Africa, Asia and Latin America: you have been warned. TEC still thinks it holds the keys to the Anglican kingdom, and this temporary three year setback is nothing. The long term outlook is ours, is the message Curry conveyed. The Culture Wars are in his favor over the universal adoption of gay marriage. Time is on his side, and he has a president who is also on his side, Scripture be damned. However, Curry might heed the words of Sir Thomas More in A Man for all Seasons when he said to Master Richard Rich, "And when we die, and you are sent to heaven for doing your conscience, and I am sent to hell for not doing mine, will you come with me, for fellowship?"

The Rev. Gay Clark Jennings, President of the Episcopal Church's House of Deputies, was even more belligerent and said this: "I want to assure you that nothing about what the primates have said will change the actions of General Convention that have, over the past four decades, moved us toward full inclusion and equal marriage. And regardless of the primates' vote, we Episcopalians will continue working with Anglicans across the globe to feed the hungry, care for the sick, educate children, and heal the world. Nothing that happens at a primates' meeting will change our love for one another or our commitment to serving God together."

Then she blew smoke right up the Primates' robes and said this: "The practical consequences of the primates' action will be that, for three years, Episcopalians will not be invited to serve on certain committees, or will be excluded from voting while they are there. However, the primates do not have authority over the Anglican Consultative Council, the worldwide body of bishops, clergy and lay people that facilitates the cooperative work of the churches of the Anglican Communion."

So now comes the "fun" part. The man in the middle then is no longer the Archbishop of Canterbury, who thinks he has kept the Anglican ship of state afloat for at least the next three years. No, the man who now must face the music is the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion Office, Josiah Idowu-Fearon, a Nigerian archbishop whose boss, Nicholas Okoh, is implacably opposed to sodomy and has his own Anglican branch office in America called CANA -- the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, a diocese of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) under Archbishop Foley Beach!

If Beach ever applied for membership in the Anglican Communion he would have to go through the ACO, where his application would be surely denied. Fearon recognizes that TEC alone is the sole owner of the Anglican franchise in North America. However, such a rejection would ruffle the feathers of Okoh. Furthermore, with the GAFCON primates in impaired and broken communion with TEC one wonders what relevance the ACO has anymore. Fearon is walking on broken glass and he may find a few shards penetrating his feet as he walks alongside TEC and the Anglican Communion over the next three years.

Fearon came out firmly against homosexuality. It is not biblically allowable and his province will not recognize homosexuality as a legitimate sexuality. However, he can't afford to say too much against sodomy or the money he gets from TEC (some $400,000 a year, or $1.2 million over three years) will dry up and he will be out of a job. He dare not bite the hand that feeds him.

He tried to fudge a response at the press conference following the meeting of Primates when he said this: "There are gays and lesbians in Africa. Our cultures do not support the promotion of this kind of lifestyle. They do not propagate it as a way of life. The problem is of strong groups from outside Africa coming to impose what is culturally unacceptable. If the West would leave Africans alone, we know how to live together in our differences. I would not support the word lobby. The primates make clear that the Anglican Church would always make room for pastoral care and concern for those who have different sexual orientation, so let the church make everyone feel at home."

However, it is not pastoral care that homosexuals and lesbians want. They want full and total acceptance of their lifestyle with no strings attached or holds barred. They want an equal playing field with heterosexuals and they will stop at nothing until they get it.

I saw plenty of evidence of this on the grounds of Canterbury Cathedral while the press conference was being held inside. A group of about 30 mostly young Africans led by Peter Tatchell, England's leading queer and human rights campaigner, held up placards and screamed, "Anglicans, repent your homophobia" and "We are African LGBTI Anglicans."

Inside the press room, Archbishop Welby opined, "The group outside of LGBTI people with Peter Tatchell remind us of the pain and suffering of many LGBTI people around the world where they are criminalized. I have deep sadness that people are persecuted for their sexuality. I want to take the opportunity to say how sorry I am for the hurt and pain that the church has caused and the love that we fail to show in many parts of the world. It causes people to doubt they are loved by God. I want to say sorry personally."

In saying this he managed to appease the some 105 bishops and deans who had earlier written to him asking him to formally apologize to the LGBTQ crowd at Canterbury. He kept that promise.

At the press conference Welby put his own spin on what happened. "The week has been complicated and up and down with much to talk about in ways that were quite difficult. As we went through it was clear that everyone had come with a desire to listen. The spirit was good. We were all together. On Wednesday everyone indicated they wanted the churches to walk together. It was a public unanimous vote.

"I am pleased we decided to walk together. It is clear that it is not for us to divide the body of Christ, the church. The unity shown by the primates here is going to be costly and painful; as well as joyful and remarkable. We are a church in 165 countries alone, with 38 provinces, with 2000 languages and 4500 cultures. One thing we do say is that we love and seek to serve Jesus Christ. We also sin and fail and need to seek forgiveness."

He asked rhetorically, "What does it mean to walk together?"

"My primary fear for the majority of Christian communities and Anglican communion churches is the violence they face daily. The risk in the Congo for a woman going to get water of being raped, of [being blown up] going to church in Pakistan." He said the Primates' best couple of hours of the week was when they joyfully committed to proclaim the person and work of Jesus Christ unceasingly and to all. "We decided that we will have a Lambeth Conference in 2020."

Welby also talked about a fixed date for Easter. "After meeting with the Coptic Pope and with Pope Francis and the Ecumenical Patriarch, we wish to join with Pope Tawadros in unifying and fixing the date of Easter celebrated by the global church. Tawadros put forward the idea of the 2nd or 3rd Sunday in April.

"There was a very moving and powerful discussion on refugees -- 1 million in Tanzania alone with far fewer resources to deal with the issue -- it is a huge issue around the communion. We also looked at corruption, tribalism and ethnicity and what church leaders can do to tackle these issues that face hundreds of millions of people."

During question time Welby said the process of TEC was "complicated."

"The issue for the meeting was much more that they (TEC) went ahead with a basic change ahead of the rest and without consultation. We have no power to sanction. But if any province [behaves in such a way] on a major issue on how the church is run or believes there will be consequences."

Welby said several times that the word "sanction" was not the correct word. It was "consequence." But sanction was the word used by Archbishop Foley Beach and most reporters seemed to think that TEC was being sanctioned. Of course by using the softer language, Welby hopes to keep TEC at the table, or conversely bring them back three years from now regardless of whether there is any repentance or not.

Actions have consequences, but the issue will be to what degree they will be enforced three years from now.

Welby made it clear that the Episcopal Church will play a full part on moral issues of refugees, corruption, evangelism, and worship -- but not on issues of doctrine and how we run ourselves for the moment. There would be a similar response to other subjects, he said.

Ironically, the liberal South African archbishop Thabo Makgoba, whose province has been bought and paid for by TEC over the years and is the only serious liberal province on the African continent (though others might be turning), said, "We are a household and we have ways that govern a household. There are consequences if there is divergence on how we operate. TEC has amended its [doctrine] without observing process." So nothing about truth--just process.

When asked how concerned he was about how LGBT people will receive this news, Makgoba said, "We are a church of those who support people in same-sex unions and of those who oppose this. We are all created in the image of God. The decision is not seen as sanctions. We are hoping we are doing it for the good of the church and its impact on of all God's people."

Welby then chimed in saying, "We are all concerned to make the strongest statement on the issue of the criminalizing of LGBTI people."

When asked if there is a desire or attempt by the Church to influence governments in Africa in an effort to reverse criminalization, Welby said the basic answer is yes. "We would love to see a change. A lot of African governments say we have heard quite enough from the former colonial power about how we live. We want our own situation to demonstrate a good example that helps overseas. The CofE was one of the first churches to campaign against the criminalization of gay people under Archbishops Michael Ramsey in 1960s."

Welby said the condemnation of homophobia was not in the joint resolution -- someone leaked it a day early.

The make-up of the press panel consisted of primates from liberal provinces like South Africa and Hong Kong. The ultra-liberal UK reporter Stephen Bates asked, "If you are all walking together, why is no GAFCON Primate on the Press Conference Panel?" Welby replied that the last one left 20 minutes ago.

Questioned on membership for the ACNA in the Anglican Communion, Welby replied that that was a matter for the Anglican Consultative Council but that invitations to the Lambeth Conference are the prerogative of the Archbishop of Canterbury. When asked if he will invite the ACNA to Lambeth 2020, Welby replied, "I do not know."

When I asked the Archbishop of Canterbury what assurances he would give that things would not be swept under the rug if The Episcopal Church does nothing to repent, he replied, "See what happened this week. We spent 2.5 days working on this point. Everyone was listened to with great care. We have no idea what will happen in three years' time. I cannot speak for other primates -- as to what happens in three years' time. This week we were primates of the Anglican Communion, not GAFCON Primates nor anyone else."

When asked what they would do if Canada goes ahead to approve gay marriage, Welby replied, "We will cross that bridge when we come to it."

When asked if the majority reaffirmed traditional teaching of the Church on marriage, Welby replied, "That is private."

However, a source told VOL that the voting was 27 yes, 3 no with 6 abstaining. The three nos were The Episcopal Church, The Anglican Church of Canada and the Scottish Episcopal Church.

When questioned on the traditional doctrine of the church on marriage between a man and a woman, Welby replied, "A number of provinces are examining their futures. There was not a formal vote on that. We seldom take votes."

Panel Primate Paul Kwong, Archbishop of Hong Kong, said the Holy Spirit is not finished with us. "All God's people need to move.""People," he said, "misunderstand...dialogue is not to convince but to understand." He also said the atmosphere was much better than those of previous meetings he had attended (four so far). "The atmosphere could not be better."

Makgoba said, "We washed each other's feet at our closing service. There was a closeness after a hard working week." Welby said the healing impact of Jean Vanier's addresses were enormous. "It was a powerful moment."

When questioned whether it was all worth it, if it is so difficult to be together, Kwong said, "It is worth it to address this issue, but it is not the only issue. The communion is a responsible body. The communion has to be relevant."

Welby described the meeting as "painful," and Makgoba said the critical issue is not a church-dividing matter.

When asked if the communique would free up time for mission, Welby said, "Every ABC comes into the post thinking if I can deal with this, then we will be all right and then other things come. It is always an illusion that there is just one more thing to deal with. This issue concerns the dignity of the human being and the value we attach to them.

"We established this as a way to deal with church-dividing issues in any area. You are entitled to go off on your own -- if you ignore that there will be consequences. That is how it has always worked. There will still be consequences."

When asked why the Primate of Uganda left early, Welby said he didn't know. "He did not speak to me before he left." That is too disingenuous. Archbishop Stanley Ntagali left with a statement that VOL posted. He had even more to say when he returned to Africa. Here is the essence of what he said: "Sadly, after two long days of discussions, I was concerned that the process set up for this meeting would not permit us to address the unfinished business from the 2007 Primates Meeting in Dar es Salaam. In accordance with the resolution of our Provincial Assembly, it was, therefore, necessary for me to withdraw from the meeting, which I did at the end of the second day. It seemed that I was being manipulated into participating in a long meeting with the Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Church of Canada without the necessary discipline being upheld. My conscience is at peace."

However, it should be noted that Ntagali had no option but to leave, unlike the other GAFCON primates who are in impaired communion. His province is in broken communion with TEC and he was not permitted by his province to stay. That the remaining GAFCON primates stayed was attributed to the fact that some 21 archbishops were new, and to bring them up to speed the GAFCON primates needed to stay or else see them sliced and diced by the ABC and his "reconciling" handlers. They feared the new archbishops would be swayed by Philip Groves of the "Listening Process" as well as other Western leftist archbishops who are pushing for full LGBTQI acceptance and inclusion. The decision of the other GAFCON primates to stay was clearly the right strategy.

When asked what his hopes and fears are for the Lambeth Conference 2020, Welby replied that he hoped (somehow) to get the money. "I hope it's a conference that affirms and that does not hurt people and that glorifies God. People to celebrate the love and joy and welcome of Jesus Christ with passion and renewed to serve God which is so dark at the moment."

This is going to be awkward because in times past The Episcopal Church has been the biggest funder of the Lambeth Conferences. If they are not invited because they refuse to repent after their 2018 General Convention and the Task Force set up to deal with the issue has not repented, what will become of TEC's status? (This question would also apply to the Canadian church if it changes its marriage canons.) If TEC gets an invite (and presumably comes up with a check to pay for the conference) this will show the Task Force was nothing but a ruse to keep TEC at the table.

Furthermore, if ACNA Archbishop Foley Bishop, who is de facto an archbishop because he is a GAFCON primate, is not invited will the GAFCON and Global South archbishops show up? Will we have a repeat of 2008?

THE COMMUNIQUE

Predictably Episcopal Church bishops began a long slow whine about how disenfranchised and hurt gays and lesbians would be by the Canterbury communique, and they promised not to heed anything the archbishops decided. Typical of their responses was that of the Rt. Rev. Douglas Fisher, Bishop of Western Massachusetts who wrote, "The Episcopal Church is not backing down on our support for same-sex marriage and for the dignity and equality of LGBTQ persons. But I also, as a Bishop in the Episcopal Church which is part of the Anglican Communion, apologize to LBGTQ persons. This decision by the Primates is hurtful for you -- you who are God's creation and beloved by God as you are. I wish they had never said what they did and I support you."

Such belligerence will be noted three years from now when the next General Convention meets and TEC has still not repented. What will the Task Force set up by the Primates report to the ABC? Who then will show up in 2020 for the next Lambeth Conference? Comment: Changes okay?

British writer Julian Mann put it well when he wrote, "GAFCON needs to make clear soon that it will not participate in Lambeth 2020 if the ACNA bishops are not invited. If it does not publicly lay down this condition, then that would allow the revisionist institutional narrative to gain momentum in the Anglican Communion. As is evident from the statement above, that narrative is that the formation of ACNA constitutes a breach of Anglican order on a par with TEC's running ahead of the Communion on same-sex 'marriage'."

One person, a canon lawyer, said clearly that Primates' ruling was not binding. Professor Norman Doe said the communique issued by the Primates in Canterbury last week does not bind anyone because the Primates' meeting has no jurisdiction. It represented "completely unacceptable interference" with the autonomy of the bodies to whom it had issued requirements.

"I find it utterly extraordinary," the director of the Centre for Law and Religion at Cardiff University, Professor Norman Doe, said on Tuesday. "No instrument exists conferring upon the Primates' meeting the jurisdiction to 'require' these things. . . Whatever they require is unenforceable."

Professor Doe confirmed, "The decision will not bind anyone -- not the Episcopal Church. There is no question of that." It was for the bodies referred to in the communique to determine what, if any, consequences the Episcopal Church should face, he said.

So the communique constituted "completely unacceptable interference with the autonomy of each of these bodies as they transact their own business."

The events of the past week highlighted the consequences of the Communion's failure to adopt the Anglican Covenant, Professor Doe suggested. He spoke as a member of the Lambeth Commission, which had proposed the Covenant and helped to draft it.

"What we have with the Primates' meeting is an assumption of authority which has no basis in law."

Not so fast, said the Rev. Peter Ould, an Anglican commentator. He called such talk "utter nonsense."

Here are two simple things to remember. First, the liberals are absolutely right (the ones who claim the Primates have no statutory power to demand such a sanction/consequence). Comment: Change okay? Secondly, this doesn't matter in the slightest. The sanction/consequence is still going to happen because the force behind them is not one of law but one of love.

This is Ould's response: "You see, what those criticizing this Communique don't understand is, we are now in a process of reconciliation between the Primates, and this is the path (the consequences) that the Primates have agreed is the way forward. TEC isn't instructed to do anything with any legal force, because grace doesn't operate like that. They are simply asked, requested, implored to do this. These requested actions are the one thing that will stop the Communion falling apart and they are requested in a spirit of love.

"It is now entirely in TEC's hands as to whether we stay together as one body. TEC can recognize in the spirit of love and grace that the Communique was written in that they have indeed broken the shared vision of Jesus' ministry that we all have together, that that requires reflection and potentially repentance and that the consequences in the Communique deliver us the path to such reflection, repentance and reconciliation. Or, TEC can operate out of a place of defiance, demand its legal rights and simply answer love and grace with obstinacy.

"But one thing is clear to me - for a liberal church that keeps on repeating the mantra 'Grace, not Law,' there's incredible ability to revert to law the moment that grace isn't working out for them. Funny that."Comment: Quotes correct here?

I have posted some of the best commentary on the Primates meeting from around the Anglican Communion in today's digest. These responses come from Andrew Symes, Chris Sugden, Vinay Samuel, Ephraim Radner, Gavin Ashenden, Julian Mann, Peter Ould, Bill Atwood, and your humble scribe. The British broadsheets are so pro-gay they cannot be trusted to be remotely objective, and some North American Episcopal bloggers did more guessing than anything as they were not present.

*****

I have written a piece about how Presiding Bishop Michael Curry used his being black to manipulate the archbishops. He said, "I stand before you as your brother. I stand before you as a descendant of African slaves, stolen from their native land, enslaved in a bitter bondage, and then even after emancipation, segregated and excluded in church and society. And this conjures that up again, and brings pain." It was a brilliant move by the black US Presiding Bishop to use his color in Canterbury following the vote to discipline the American Episcopal Church by 38 Primates of the Anglican Communion. He shrewdly linked his color and race with his church's adoption of pansexuality. What he said and inferred is that slavery and homosexuality are linked (in his mind) and that what whites did to blacks in the US, blacks (GAFCON primates) are now doing to homosexuals.

It is a huge lie of course, but it makes for a great emotional and personal headline and would probably get him on the Oprah Winfrey show if it was still running. Black leaders of the Global South never bought this argument--and they shouldn't. There is no connection. Slavery and slavery to sexual sin are quite different matters. You can read my take in today's digest or here: http://tinyurl.com/j88uuwm

*****

While Anglicans agreed to disagree in Canterbury over the question of same-sex marriage, John Cunningham and John Johnston were married in the City of London by the Rev. Joost Röselaers, The Guardian reported. Interestingly, the London ceremony wasn't a blessing or a carefully cobbled together service after a civil ceremony. It was a proper marriage, something the current CofE hierarchy has banned its priests from performing. However, the Rev Joost Röselaers, minister of the Dutch church in Austin Friars, is able to conduct the ceremony because of a little-known historical loophole. In 1550, Edward VI granted a charter to Protestant refugees living in London, giving them the same privileges as the CofE. He permitted the Dutch "freely and quietly to practise, enjoy, use and exercise their own rites and ceremonies, and their own ecclesiastical discipline, notwithstanding that they do not conform with the rites and ceremonies used in our Kingdom, without impeachment, disturbance or vexation."

*****

The irony should not be missed. While the Church of England agonizes over homosexuality, the latest figures have been released and showed the CofE in rapid decline. Britain is losing its religion, but nobody seems that bothered, writes Melanie McDonagh in The Spectator.

A new book Why No Religion is the New Religion is based on responses from 1500 respondents and suggests most white Brits have no religion. Among the under 40s of all racial groups, 56 percent are non-religious and 31 percent are Christian. Brits are no longer reflexively CofE but not-religious.

Sunday attendance has slumped by 22,000 to 765,000 as older worshippers die. The Archbishop of Canterbury warns of struggle in "anti-Christian culture." Only 1.4 percent of the population of England now attends Anglican services on a typical Sunday morning.

Even the Church's preferred "weekly" attendance figures, which include those at mid-week or extra services, have slipped below one million for the first time ever.

"Given the age profile of the CofE, the next few years will continue to have downward pressure as people die or become housebound and unable to attend church."

The falling away from faith is the kind of thing that should be keeping Anglican leaders awake at night because it is the biggest cultural shift of the age. The reasons for it are almost too obvious to talk about -- the failure to transmit faith between the generations being the most obvious. If people can't make the minimal effort to attend even an Anglican Evensong, the most perfect liturgy in English, and rub shoulders with the septuagenarians who really are keeping the faith, Anglican leaders don't deserve an Established Church. And when they're down to the last few thousand Christians in Britain, they can reflect that it's all their fault.

It might also have something to do with the fact that no clear certain gospel trumpet is heard in the land and people are dying without Christ.

*****

Forward in Faith North America issued a statement on the Primates meeting. Dr. Michael Howell wrote, "With all Christians who submit to Biblical authority within the historic Church, Forward in Faith North America rejoices in the recent statement by the Primates of the Anglican Communion in support of marriage defined as a covenant between one man and one woman. Our members within The Episcopal Church, often marginalized or treated as a tolerated minority, are encouraged to hear that our position is upheld by the vast majority of our international leaders. Our members within the Anglican Church in North America welcome both the statement itself, as well as the full inclusion at every level at the meeting of Archbishop Foley Beach. All of our members are heartened by the small step taken in Godly discipline towards those who have acted unilaterally in presuming to redefine Biblical marriage."

*****

Orthodox Anglican parishes now number nearly 1,200 in the US. The Fellowship of Concerned Churchman reports that its online directory of orthodox Anglican/Episcopal parishes (anglicanchurches.net) now numbers nearly 1,200.

Current information on the final collection of jurisdictions is available and the earlier sub-total of 969 parishes in the U.S. and Canada has added a further 224 parishes for a total of 1,193. By contrast, the FCC counted 1,141 in its parish database in 2011. This now includes 15 jurisdictions from the Charismatic Episcopal Church with some 66 parishes. Among other jurisdictions were 22 and 18 from the Anglican Orthodox Southern Episcopal Church (formerly the Southern Episcopal Church) and Holy Catholic Church-Anglican Rite, reports the FCC.

*****

I will play catch up with news from North America next week. I am in the process of sending out letters and emails in response to your donations. Please be patient. I am on the road again, this time in Charleston SC covering the annual Mere Anglican conference and attending a Global Anglican Leadership conference of which I am a member.

*****

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David

Consider the following. Over the last two decades the following churches, missions and organizations have emerged as signs of God's love for his faithful Anglican fold. First came the AMiA, then ACNA was formed, CANA came into existence, New Wineskins for global missions, Anglican Frontier Missions, (reaching the unreached for Christ), Mere Anglican, Anglican Relief and Development (ARDF), Anglicans for Life, VOL (the leader in Global Anglican news), and most recently Anglican Leadership Initiative (ALI) a global Anglican effort to educate bishops from the Global South brought to the US for an intensive one month training in the best of Anglican thought and practice.

God is clearly at work, he has not left his Anglican fold without faithful witnesses. We also have some serious Anglican intellectuals like Os Guinness, Ashley Null, Justin Terry, John Yates Jr., Robert Munday, Phil Ashey, Sam Ferguson, the staff of Trinity School for Ministry and Nashotah House to name just a handful who know the faith, can articulate and defend the faith against its cultured despizers.

God is raising up a new generation of Anglicans out of the ashes and dung heap of Episcopal pansexuality and apostasy and He will not be thwarted or stopped. The seeds have been sown and they have fallen on fertile ground. They are already bearing fruit.

On the person of Dr. Guinness you may not have spotted it but he was mentioned in the recent Republican debate. Here is what Rand Paul said; "On the topic of abortion, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul argued that government doesn't work without a "virtuous people," quoting English theologian Os Guinness."

Well he is not exactly a theologian he is a biblically informed social critic, no matter that he got mentioned at all shows his stature in America.

*****

At Mere Anglican conference this past week in Charleston, SC where I was ensconced, we heard multiple speakers address the issue of Islam and Christianity, under the banner The Cross and the Crescent: The Gospel and the challenge of Islam.

Dr. William Lane Craig, research professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology author of 40 books and one of America's pre-eminent Christian apologists who defeated Antony flew, John Dominic Croissant, Marcus Borg and others in debate and who has been interacting with the religion of Islam for over 30 years, said the concept of God in in Islam and Christianity is not one of comparative religion.

"Religious relativism is not true, it is logically incoherent and cannot be true. They have different doctrines and teachings. We believe in a tri-personal God, they do not. Both cannot be right. The Christian concept of God is rationally objectionable to Muslims." Craig said the major objection Muslims have to becoming Christian is the doctrine of the Trinity. "The God of the Koran is not the living God revealed by Jesus. The Koran says God does not love, the Bible says God sent his Son to die. Muslims say God's love is only for those who earn it. The Koran assures Muslims of God's love for the god fearers but He has no love for sinners. The Islamic conception of God is not all loving it is partial and has to be earned."

Craig said one way not to convince Muslims of God's love is to talk to them with a lot of schmoozy, interfaithery dialogue.

"The word Islam does not mean peace as many people now say. Islam is a word for submission, surrender everything to God. The 9th chapter of the Koran is clear that Islamists must kill whoever does not submit to Allah. Islam is not a church that is crucial, Islam is a total way of life, and everything is to be submitted to God. Islam is all consuming. The Western idea of the separation of church and state is meaningless to Muslims." Craig said that Egypt and Turkey have adopted a separation of mosque and state.

"Asking what Muslims teach is like asking an Episcopalian what Christianity teaches." Craig said the God of Islam is a defamation of Jesus. "The Muslim concept of God is rationally objectionable. Thank God for God."

Rev. Dr. Ken Boa, based in Atlanta, asked is Islam militant and is it peaceful? "Islam means peace says Obama, it is a peaceful religion. He is lost in contradiction. Islam is not a monolithic religion. Sunni and Shia and Sufi all demonstrate that. The Quran is open to abrogation. Mohammed can abolish, repeal and annul as well as change his mind.

"Is Islam a religion of peace? Most Muslims are peaceful but the majority are not consistent with their holy books, prophets and it is spread between two houses. Islam equals peace but it does not mean peace but surrender or submission. To be a Muslim means to submit to the will of Allah.

"Islam is going to grow and build, it is a power and it is not going to go away. Allah and Yahweh is not the same. Allah does not equal God. Islam is the second largest religion in the world, Christianity is still the first. Sixty percent are not Arabs at all."

Cairo-based Anglican Archbishop Mouneer Anis is in the forefront of the battle with Islam and expressed a profound, but sensitive approach to the Islamic world in which he lives. He says that both Islam and Christianity are missionary religions but many have converted to Christ reading the Sermon on the Mount and then come to the cross of Christ. "Many are finding Jesus in dreams and they come to us to find out what the dreams mean. This gives me the opportunity of telling them about Jesus. He said what attracts Muslims is the lifestyle of Christians. We share with them the Biblical teaching of the unconditional love of God for all people. We see healings and answers to prayer. Muslims believe in the healing power of prayer. They visit our churches to receive prayer for healing."

The archbishop condemned what he called unwise strategies to transform lives and convert people to Christ. "The Holy Spirit alone transforms human life. God uses visions and dreams and uses tirelessly. It is wrong to think we can witness to Christ using deceitful ways."

Dr. Anis praised the local church which has a vision to reach Muslims. "We need the local church to help in the conversion of Muslims to Jesus Christ. We should not attack their faith and traditions. The Holy Spirit is the great transformer. An Imam once asked me would I still love him if I did not convert. Is it genuine or is it not genuine love? Jesus said love is the best witness to all." The archbishop condemned the social gospel as an inadequate response to Islam.

I will write more about this in due time.

*****

We still have not heard anything from Presiding Bishop Michael Curry about the status of the three suspended executives at Episcopal Church headquarters in New York. Many are asking. Is it about bugging and blacked out salaries, or what? Inquiring minds want to know. We wait with bated breath. The question is who is running the Episcopal show meantime?

*****

The Diocese of Pennsylvania has yielded a slate of five candidates to be the next bishop of this declining diocese that was torn apart by the former Bishop Charles E. Bennison.

Two candidates stand out. One (that VOL predicted) is the Rev. Frank Allen, priest of the prestigious mainline parish of St. David's, Radnor, where he has been rector since 1997, is up for the job. He is moderately orthodox but recently hired a gay associate priest The Rev. Matthew Welch as Associate Rector who most recently served at Christ Church in Short Hills, NJ. A blurb on the website says he and his fiance Paul enjoy walking the St. David's grounds with their dog, Barnabas. Allen did speak up and called on Bennison to resign during the worst of Bennison's reign. He is the home boy favorite. But a ringer has stepped in to spoil his shoe in. He is Bishop Dean Wolfe of Kansas who must clearly be sick of the Midwest and wants a change. The Diocese of Kansas is going nowhere and he had hoped to rope in Western Kansas another flailing diocese, but that was not to be. By throwing his hat in the ring he will give Allen a run for his money. The other candidates are irrelevant.

Whoever gets the job might want to consider this. The diocese is rapidly losing membership. From 2003 to 2013 there was a 20% drop in baptisms from 55,445 to 44,384. ASA has declined by 26%. In 2003 ASA was 18,609 by 2013 it had dropped to 13,726. In 2014 the latest figures reveal that the baptized had dropped to 43,451 and ASA was now 13,188. The diocese has 157 priests of which 104 are male and 53 are female. The diocese is closing parishes faster than tides on the Delaware River. Here is the most recent list.

Parishes closed after Twelves' History (1969)

All Saints, Crescentville 2007
Atonement, Morton 2007
Atonement, West Philadelphia 1974?
Calvary St. Paul's (in 1973 St. Paul's, 15th and Porter linked with Calvary Presbyterian Church) 2003
Church without Walls
Christ Church, Eddington 2011
Emmanuel and Good Shepherd (Emmanuel and Good Shepherd merged in 1994) 2006
Epiphany, Germantown (after a fire in 1975 merged with Grace, Mt. Airy)
Epiphany, Sherwood 1974
Messiah, Oxford Circle 1978
St. Aidan's, Cheltenham 2006
Resurrection, Mayfair (merged with Emmanuel, Holmesburg) 2009
St. Alban's, Olney 2005
St. Augustine of the Covenant (merged with Calvary Northern Liberties) 2009
St. Barnabas, Kensington 2990
St. Bartholomew, Wissomissing 1986?
St. Elisabeth's 1994
St. Giles, Upper Darby 1996
St, James the Less closed 2006 but not secularized
St. John the Evangelist, Lansdowne 2009
St. Luke, Eddystone 1997
St. Luke, Kensington 1987
St. Martin's, Boothwyn 2006
St. Martin's Korean Congregation 2007
St. Martin's, Oaklane 1981
St. Matthew, Francisville 1974
St. Matthias, 19th and Wallace 1992
St. Nathanael, Kensington
St. Paul's, 15th and Porter (linked with Calvary Presbyterian Church) 1976
St., Paul's, Aramingo (after a fire in 1990 merged in 1993 with Holy Innocents, Tacony)
St. Paul's, Overbrook 1991
St. Philip's Memorial 2009
St. Peter's, Broomall 2004
St. Peter's, Germantown 2005
St. Simeon 1976
Trinity, Collingdale closed 2009, moved to site of St. Martin's, Boothwyn as Trinity, Boothwyn
Transfiguration, Westtown
Zion Church, Broad and Wyoming Streets, Logan 1980
Church of the Saviour became the Cathedral in 1992
St. Barnabas, Haddington, and St. George's, West End merged in 1993 to become St. George/St. Barnabas
This list is not complete. We do not as yet have the latest closures from 2012-2016.

*****

Diocese of Los Angeles bishop Jon Bruno faces presentment charges over his handling of St. James the Great, Newport Beach as the saga of this parish drags on and on. The legal bill is well over $8 million, according to Canon lawyer Allen Haley. Bishop Catherine Waynick who sits on the Disciplinary Committee promises timely action.

The complaint alleges that Bruno, in his dealings with the St. James the Great property and congregation, has violated various canons of the Episcopal Church, including those that prohibit the sale of consecrated property without appropriate approval, those that prohibit "dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation," and those that prohibit "conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy."

The Rev. Canon Cindy Evans Voorhees who was assigned to the re-established mission church of St. James the Great after The Rev. Richard Crocker who left with most of the congregation, was charged with rebuilding the congregation. Now she charges that Bruno wants the church to sell and tear down by developers. Some local officials criticized Bishop Bruno as "despicable" and his actions as "deplorable."

You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

Scandal continues to haunt the Episcopal Church. Nary a week goes by and some sex or other scandal doesn't erupt in one diocese or another. In the Diocese of San Diego members of St. Paul's Episcopal and Anglican Cathedral on Fifth Avenue learned this week that the congregation's former dean has been removed from the Episcopal Church's clergy as discipline for at least one undisclosed offense.

Parishioners received a letter from San Diego Bishop James R. Mathes informing them of the disciplinary actions against Scott Richardson, 60, who left the cathedral in 2012 to serve as rector at St. Mary the Virgin in San Francisco. He resigned from his position late last month.

Richardson's wife, Mary Moreno Richardson, who is also a member of the Episcopal Church's clergy, remains a priest in good standing, according to the church.

Mathes' letter invited parishioners to attend a "community conversation" this coming Tuesday at the cathedral, but no one is saying who, what and why. All a closely held secret apparently.

In the Diocese of Rhode Island allegations of sexual abuse have broken out at St. George's Prep School in Middletown R.I. with charges going back to 2004. The Boston Globe reports that three boys came to administrators with disturbing allegations: their dorm master had touched them inappropriately. Timothy Richards, then dean of students at the Episcopal school in Middletown, said he and the headmaster, Eric Peterson, interviewed the students.

The accused staffer left the school abruptly, and students were told he had taken a personal leave of absence. But a former school official says the school never reported the allegations to child welfare officials, as is required for credible accusations of abuse.

This week, with St. George's embroiled in a growing sexual abuse scandal, Richards said he would have reported the 2004 incident. "If the decision was up to him, he would have reported it to the appropriate agency in Rhode Island," said Richards's spokesperson, Karen Schwartzman. "In the situation at St. George's School, he's relying on the judgment of his boss, who is head of school and also an attorney."

You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

The former Bishop of Rochester, the Rt. Rev. Michael Nazi Ali told a group of global Anglican leaders that he supported the call for a common date for Easter for the Eastern and Western churches, but said that it should not be a fixed date, but tied to the celebration of Passover.

"A fixed date "further distance the celebration from the Jewish Passover, with which of course it is intrinsically linked because Jesus suffered at the time of the Passover, [and] he's understood as the Passover lamb sacrificed for us."

"If governments and local authorities want to have school holidays for a fixed period then that's up to them, but I would not want Christians to be further distanced from their Jewish roots and Easter's connection with Passover."

"For the Christian Church, to retain the link with the Jewish Passover overrides these considerations," Bishop Nazir Ali said.

*****

A new poll show that more members of the Church of England are in favor of homosexual marriage than are against it. Among Anglicans overall, more women and adults under 55 years of age support same-sex marriage, while the demographic from which most of the church's leadership is drawn, males 55 years old or older, is most opposed.

A poll conducted in the aftermath of the Canterbury meeting found 45% of people who define themselves as Church of England approve of same-sex marriage, compared with 37% who believe it is wrong. A similar survey three years ago found almost the reverse: 38% of Anglicans in favor and 47% opposed.

The lowest levels of support for same-sex marriage -- 24% -- were found among Anglican men over the age of 55, a group that dominates the church leadership. The survey found a clear generational difference among Church of England members, with almost three-quarters (72%) of under-35s in favor. There was a majority supporting same-sex marriage in all age groups under 55, but the figure dropped to fewer than one in three older Anglicans. More women than men believe same-sex marriage is right.

*****

Church of England clergy may be allowed to wear casual clothes during services so long as they are "seemly", in a move which would sweep away centuries of tradition. Members of the church's synod, or ruling body, are being consulted by bishops on a change to church law which requires clergy to wear certain robes at specific services, including Holy Communion, weddings and funerals.

Among the proposals being considered is making traditional vestments optional, as long as such a move "would benefit the mission of the church". For weddings and funerals, the agreement of the bride and

A consultation paper being circulated to synod members said: "Where the minister departed from the normal requirements as to vesture, the dress adopted by the minister should be seemly."

*****

A landmark Report which proposes that the Church of Scotland and the Church of England enter into an historic ecumenical partnership agreement has been published. The Columba Declaration, which lays the groundwork for future relationships and was prepared by a Joint Study Group, is presented within the Report: "Growth in Communion, Partnership in Mission" and is scheduled for debate at the Church of England's General Synod next month.

The proposed partnership agreement has led to a rare invitation to the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland to address the General Synod in London on February 16 and speak to the Joint Report.

The 20-page document, which represents a "significant step" between the two denominations and will open up new future possibilities, will be debated at the Church of Scotland's General Assembly in May.

Under the terms of the proposed declaration, which is closely modelled on existing ecumenical agreements between other churches, both denominations would welcome one another's members into congregations and ordained ministers would be allowed to exercise ministry within the existing discipline of each church only within England and continental Europe.

Rev Alison McDonald, Convener of the Church of Scotland's Ecumenical Relations Committee, said: "The Joint Report sets out clearly the shared foundations of faith of the Church of England and the Church of Scotland, which enable us to recognize one another formally for the first time. "This provides a sound basis for our ongoing cooperation and for exploring future partnership."

*****

Religion in America: An Interview with Greg Smith of the Pew Research Center by Ed Stetzer. Question: What's going on with Americans and their religious belief and practice?

Greg Smith: I think there's a lot of really interesting changes that are underway in the American religious landscape. I think the number one thing to point out is that the United States remains a highly religious country. Nine in ten Americans say they believe in God. Most Americans say religion is very important in their lives. Most say that they pray every day.

The United States is certainly much more religious than much of the rest of the industrialized world. So I think that's the number one thing to note.

In terms of trends, however, the data suggests that the United States may be becoming gradually a little bit less religious. We see that in a few ways.

When we ask people about their religious identity--what religion they consider themselves to be a part--we see a rapid increase in the number of people who say they have no religion: those who describe themselves as atheists or as agnostics, or as just having no religion in particular. That group is growing quite rapidly and now makes up almost a quarter of all U.S. adults.

At the same time we're also seeing modest declines, not as dramatic as the growth of the religiously unaffiliated. But modest declines in the share of Americans who say they believe in God, who say they pray every day, who say religion is very important in their lives, and who say they attend religious services regularly.

All of those numbers have ticked down at a rate of about three percentage points over the last seven years or so.

The number of highly observant American adults really has not changed very much in recent years.

At the same time, the data also show very clearly that even though the religiously unaffiliated are growing, the vast majority of American adults continue to identify with a religion, primarily Christianity.

What has changed is that there's been very rapid growth in the number of adults who are not particularly religious. And it's their growth that's helping to change the proportions when you look at the country as a whole.

*****

Gambia has a new bishop. He is the Rev. James Yaw Odico, dean of the St Mary's Cathedral. He was consecrated and enthroned, the Bishop of the Diocese of Gambia, formerly the Diocese of Gambia and the Rio Pongas.

A solemn five-hour enthronement service was officiated by the Most Rev Dr. Daniel Yinka Sarfo, primate and metropolitan of the Church of the Province of West African (CPWA) on Sunday January 24, 2016, and witnessed by parishioners, family, friends and invited dignitaries from all walks of life, prominent among whom was His Lordship the Mayor of Banjul, Abdoulie Bah.

*****

The primates of the Orthodox Churches meeting in Chambesy, Switzerland have agreed to hold the church's first Orthodox Holy and Great Council in almost 1000 years this June in Crete.

According to a report printed by the Athens News Agency-Macedonian Press Agency the primates agreed to meet during Pentecost. The eleven primates present also agreed on a tentative agenda, setting down eight of ten topics for discussion that had been identified by preconcilar meetings.

Eight topics have been also been approved for discussion: The Orthodox Diaspora; The way in which autonomy is granted to semi-independent churches within autocephalous churches; The Church calendar; Canonical impediments to marriage; Fasting rules; Relationships with the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion; The ecumenical movement; and The contribution of Orthodoxy to affirming peace, fraternity, and freedom. The topics of the Diptychs -- the order of precedence of churches -- and autocephaly of churches in the Ukraine and Eastern Europe has yet to be approved for debate. In his opening address the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople told the primates "the great responsibility belongs to us now, without further delay, to convert this vision into a reality."

*****

Mindfulness is far from harmless. Despite claims that the practice of mindfulness, which involves being still and focusing on one's breathing and thoughts, can help to tackle stress and depression, critics have attested to its negative effects, suggesting that it is not a harmless way to unwind. Dr. Peter Jones of Truthxchange has spoken of the Buddhist roots of mindfulness, explaining that the process of meditation, which effectively silences the conscience, creates a mindset "very opposite to the Christian faith". You have been warned.

*****

Word has reached VOL that violence has broken out in Gambella, Ethiopia.Bishop Grant LeMarquand reports that several days ago a Nuer woman was beaten. "She has now died. This seems to have inflamed a tense situation. A bomb has gone off in a local college (not ours). We have heard gun shots. Everyone here on our compound is tense and near panic. Internet is intermittent. Please pray. Later the bishop wrote, “Things have become worse in the last few days. Troops are now restoring calm. Wendy and I will send a newsletter giving more details in a couple of days.More information will be sent when I can." LeMarquand is assistant bishop in the Anglican Diocese of Egypt, serving as bishop in the Horn of Africa (Djibouti, under Archbishop Mouneer Anis.

*****

I have posted some final stories on what took place in Canterbury, England with the Primates, including a response by Archbishop Mouneer Anis of the Middle East. You can find a full link of all the stories I and others wrote about this historic occasion here: http://www.virtueonline.org/content/2016-primates-meeting-canterbury-uk

*****

Thank you again for your kind support of VOL this past year. As we go into 2016 we do need your support to carry on our mission to bring you all the Anglican news that's fit to print. Please consider a tax deductible donation to help defray the costs.

You can send a check to:
VIRTUEONLINE
570 Twin Lakes Rd
P.O. Box 111
Shohola, PA 18458

Or you can make a contribution through VOL's PAYPAL link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/

Thank you for your support.

David

It was an assumption made first by Canon John L. Peterson, then Canon Kenneth Kearon who succeeded him and now Dr. Josiah Idowu-Fearon, the former Anglican Archbishop of the Province of Kaduna the present Secretary General of the ACC.

One of the reasons then ACNA Archbishop Robert Duncan never applied for membership in the Anglican Communion is because he knew he would be turned down by Secretary General Kearon an Irish liberal, who would never have recognized two Anglican integrities on North American soil and because TEC gives some $400,000 a year to support the Anglican Communion office.

At the recent gathering of Primates in Canterbury the new Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church Michael Curry made the following observation that the Primates are one body and not as important as the ACC which he said had the real power to say yes or no as to who was in or out.

The Presiding Bishop emphasized the autonomy of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), in the wake of the Primates' decision to censure his Church.

At their meeting in Canterbury, the Primates' said the US Episcopal Church could no longer represent them on ecumenical and interfaith bodies, nor serve on the Primates or ACC standing committees, and not vote on matters of polity and doctrine at the ACC for a period of three years, because of its support for same-sex marriage.

However, a close examination of the constitution of the Anglican Communion office reveals that the ACC has no such power, that it has been an assumed and derived power and that, in truth, it has no authority to enforce such exclusion.

First, the ACC Constitution does NOT give the ACC jurisdiction over the application process. It only gives them jurisdiction to add to the Schedule of Provinces. Up to this point, the application process has been through the Primates who bring recognition first to their churches and then by resolution of 2/3 of the Primates to the ACC for confirmation.

You can read the full story in today's digest or here: http://tinyurl.com/hl47ak6

*****

The Anglican Pittsburgh of Diocese is on the hunt for a new bishop to replace the retiring Robert Duncan who served first as its Episcopal bishop, then its first Anglican bishop, then the first ACNA Archbishop.

There are some excellent candidates. (VOL was sent a list of aspirants) and we believe that any of the following would make a good replacement for Bishop Duncan. Bishop Frank Lyons, Anglican Diocese of the South in the Diocese of Atlanta; Canon Phil Ashey, CEO American Anglican Council, Atlanta, GA; The Ven. Canon Jack, Lumanog, COO, Anglican Church in North America; The Rev Canon John Macdonald, Associate Professor, Trinity School for Ministry, Ambridge, PA; The Very Rev Charles "Chip" Edgar, Dean Church of the Apostles, Columbia, SC (PEARUSA); The Rev. Laurie Thompson, Dean of Advancement, Trinity School for Ministry, Ambridge, PA.

While not a full list of contenders, any one of these would carry forward the flag of orthodoxy in that diocese. Prayers are requested.

*****

The Archbishop of Nigeria, the Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh has written a letter to his people saying that "for whatever it was worth" nothing has changed and that "some of our provinces are [still] in impaired relationship with The Episcopal Church (TEC) and The Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) in particular and other churches that are following in their footsteps." He wrote that this week following the meeting of 36 Primates of the Anglican Communion who met in Canterbury

The evangelical Anglican archbishop of the largest province in the Anglican Communion said that it had been the collective resolution of the GAFCON Group for several years that it would not participate in any gathering in the Anglican Communion to which TEC and The Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) were invited, until they repented of their erroneous doctrinal and theological postures and practices.

He and his fellow GAFCON primates and the Global South primates decided to accept the invitation anyway, following the almost unanimous resolution.

"The Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) was not focused on because it claims they have not altered its Marriage Canon. However, we know that the Anglican Church of Canada. Scotland, Wales, Brazil and New Zealand are on the way to toeing the same line as The Episcopal Church. We are yet to be convinced that the restrictions imposed on TEC will be implemented. The bottom line, therefore, is that nothing has changed. You can read my full take on this in today's digest.

*****

Anglicans confronted the challenge of Islam in a series of addresses at this year's Mere Anglican conference in Charleston SC. While I have written about this, I believe that Jeff Walton of the Institute for Religion and Democracy captured the essence of the conference in a piece posted in today's digest.

Christianity and Islam together comprise the world's two largest faiths, each monotheistic and centered upon the importance of proselytization -- and in many parts of the world, they are on a collision course.

"The prospects for religious war in the next decade are extremely high unless groups like Boko Haram and ISIS are uprooted," warned Baylor University History Professor Philip Jenkins.

Dr. William Lane Craig of Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, California, opened the conference speaking about the concept of God in Islam and Christianity. Noting that the question "do Muslims and Christians worship the same God?" had recently been in the news, Craig instead sought to examine what each faith understood about who God is. The God of Islam, Craig determined, was deficient in the Christian view because he lacked the ability to love those who did not love him in return. Effectively, a God who loves sinners and a God incapable of loving sinners -- indeed, even declared their enemy in verses of the Qur'an -- were at their core sharply different.

Speakers encouraged participants to be relational in their interactions with Muslims, seeing them not as adversaries in an argument, but as people who might consider Christ by witnessing genuine love in the church.

"We have our own opportunities but we stay in our own clubs," observed Lebanese-born pastor Fouad Masri about how few Muslims in the U.S. are invited into Christian homes. "Our job is to share -- God makes people Christians, not us."

*****

The AAC and GAFCON. Most people are not aware that the AAC has supported and worked with GAFCON's leaders since the movement began in 2008. Their Board of Trustees has reaffirmed its support for the GAFCON movement. "We see in its leaders the hope for a future Anglican Communion that finds its identity in Jesus Christ and Biblical faithfulness rather than institutional loyalty. Regretfully, we do not believe the next three years of sanctions on The Episcopal Church (TEC) (or "relational consequences," as the Archbishop of Canterbury defines it) will produce the results for which most of the Primates hoped and prayed. Will the flood of false teaching from North America (TEC and the Anglican Church of Canada) continue to sweep into other Churches and regions of the Anglican Communion? Whatever the future may hold, we believe we have three years to build an ark," writes CEO Phil Ashey of the AAC.

"Our vision supports that commitment. We reaffirmed the vision of the American Anglican Council:

Locally: to help Anglican Churches in North America become transformed by the Holy Spirit, with leaders and congregations who are Biblically inspired, united, confessing, and passionately committed to fulfilling Christ's Great Commission

"Globally: to help Anglican leaders and national churches return Anglicanism to its biblical and apostolic roots, to prevail over all false gospels, to unite with other biblical and apostolic Christians and, together, to fulfill Christ's Great Commission (Matt. 28:16-20) in the world.

We do this by Developing Faithful leaders, Equipping the Church for Mission, and Renewing Biblically faithful Anglicanism worldwide. That's our mission."

*****

February 7, 2016 is WORLD MISSION SUNDAY. In Mark 16:15 Jesus told his disciples to "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation."

Each year, the last Sunday after Epiphany is designated as World Mission Sunday across the Anglican Church in North America, writes Archbishop Foley Beach Primate of the ACNA.

"I invite you to make a special effort to highlight those mission projects that your congregation supports, and take up a special offering on their behalf. If you are currently looking for more ministry opportunities, you will find a variety of excellent projects being led by the Anglican Global Mission Partners (AGMP)."

AGMP is a network of 33 non-profit Anglican global mission-committed entities. Their vision is to see an Anglican Church in North America that is passionately committed to preach the Gospel and to make disciples of all nations in the name of Christ. A listing of those agencies can be found at agmp-na.org.

*****

The number of young evangelical leaders who start well and then fall from grace after a few years in the ministry seems to grow and grow. I think of names like Jim Bakker, Billy James Hargis, Robert Tilton, Kent Hovind, Peter Popoff...the list goes on and on. Then there are those like Frankie Schaeffer and more recently Bart Campolo, son of the famous evangelist Tony Campolo who fell right over the cliff edge into atheism.

The latest (in England) is The Rev. Mark Bailey, the national leader of New Wine, a thriving, charismatic evangelical network of churches with a dynamic and lively ministry around the country and a Team Rector of the hugely successful evangelical church, Trinity Cheltenham.

This week he resigned as leader of New Wine and CofE pastor resigns from all posts, but no reasons were cited. His resignation came after a meeting with the CofE Bishop of Gloucester Rachel Treweek.

The announcement by the trustees of New Wine that they had accepted his resignation, made with "the greatest sadness and regret", stunned the close-knit evangelical community in the UK and some prominent members of New Wine and the Church of England sought prayers for Bailey on social media networks such as Facebook.

The details of the case are not being disclosed but he is now subject to proceedings under the Clergy Discipline Measure. Neither the police nor any other statutory agencies are involved.

Bailey has been pastor at the church in Cheltenham for more than 20 years and involved in ministry for more than 27 years. He was previously a university chaplain and before that served his curacy. He has also worked in the secular world, in finance.

A British Anglican commentator wrote to VOL and said that if it is sex, (and we don't know) at least he has the decency to resign before it becomes public, unlike a number of vicars who openly live with their same sex partners, and in some cases have married them, and think they have done nothing wrong.

*****

The Archbishop of Canterbury is heading the biggest evangelism project in the UK so far this millennium. Every cathedral, church and clergyman and woman in the land is being urged to share their faith and win new converts to Christianity.

Cathedrals and churches are being urged to set aside the week before Pentecost as a week of prayer for evangelism.

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York, Justin Welby and Dr. John Sentamu, are calling cathedrals and other churches to use the week running up to Pentecost Sunday on May 15 to pray for new followers to Christ.

The entire Church is being urged to pray throughout the week for "all Christians to deepen their relationship with Jesus" in order to have "confidence" to share the faith. The aim is for "all to respond to the call of Jesus Christ to follow him."

The two Archbishops are currently writing to all 11,300 Church of England clergy inviting them to "engage" with the project. They are being asked to organize round-the-clock prayer marathons, one-off events and other meetings and gatherings to help towards the evangelization effort.

Project leader Emma Buchan said: "The hope is that in many places, Christians across denominations and streams can pray together, as the unity of the whole Body of Christ is a powerful reality and symbol to the world."

*****

Pope Francis will meet Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in Cuba next week in a historic first meeting between the heads of the two largest Christian churches, the Vatican announced Friday.

The gathering will be the first of its kind since a schism in the 11th Century split Christianity into Western and Eastern branches.

The two wings have been estranged ever since with each maintaining for centuries that they are the true heritors of the early Christian church established by the apostles of Jesus Christ.

Relations have warmed of late between Rome and other branches of the Orthodox tradition, but the Russian one, the most influential in the Eastern family, has maintained its distance, until now.

With Pope Francis having adopted an "any time, any place" approach since his 2013 election, the once-in-a-millennium sit-down has been set for Havana's Jose Marti International Airport on February 12.

Francis will stop over on his way to a scheduled visit to Mexico while Kirill is due on the communist island for the first leg of a February 11-22 trip to Latin America which will also take in Paraguay, Chile and Brazil.

A spokesman for the Russian church said the meeting would be principally focused on the persecution of Christians around the world and that a joint declaration would be issued after a private conversation between the two leaders.

*****

FACTOID. The worst case of Islamic persecution of Christians is not in the Middle East as is so often portrayed by the media. It is the slaughter of Christians by Boko Haran in Northern Nigeria. And who has suffered most from this kind of persecution and killing? They are Anglicans. An African bishop I met on Sullivan's Island, SC at an Anglican Leadership conference recently told me that the DIOCESE OF DAMATURU has bene virtually wiped out, its bishop, priests and parishioners either killed or forced to leave the area.

So next time you hear a whine from some Episcopal pansexualist telling you how hate filled and homophobic you are for not endorsing their behavior, tell them this and then tell them what the real face of hate looks like.

*****

The Upcoming Sony film RISEN promotes belief in the resurrection of Christ, say knowledgeable sources. Set to open on 2,700 screens across North America on February 19, Risen, starring Joseph Fiennes of Shakespeare in Love fame, begins where Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ concluded: the crucifixion. Seen through the eyes of Clavius, an ambitious Roman tribune (Fiennes) charged with guarding the body of the crucified Jesus of Nazareth, the story is told from the vantage point of an unbeliever on a desperate mission to crush the "rumor" of the Messiah's resurrection.

The Sony Pictures film is reminiscent of the 1985 film The Fourth Wise Man, starring Martin Sheen in that the ever so familiar events are retold from a fresh perspective, making the narrative all the more convincing. Rich Peluso, senior vice president of AFFIRM Films, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, spoke of it as the "intersection of Scripture and historical fiction," which allows for a "refreshing and exciting way to relive this story that I know and love so well with different eyes."

Peluso, who after working 15 years in Christian music joined Sony to "utilize corporate worldly resources to tell stories that point to Jesus," told LifeSiteNews in an interview last week that Clavius is a composite character of many who must have taken the news of the resurrection back to Rome.

How is it, said Peluso, that the "dominant empire in the world, focused on crushing Christianity, gets flipped in a number of generations into a Christian empire?" Obviously, the truth of Christ's resurrection witnessed by the Jews and Romans had a transformative effect.

Peluso said that Risen has had incredibly positive feedback from the Christian leaders who screened the film.

*****

There seems to be no end to the outrage of Episcopal sodomists to open its doors to promote pansexuality to whomever.

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, a devout Catholic, went to St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral to marry his husband, Michael Shiosaki, in a deeply traditional ceremony.

Of course Mayor Murray is described as a "devout" Catholic; that adjective always comes into play when a reporter is applauding a public figure for dissenting from Church teaching. That dissent explains why a "devout" Catholic would want to be married in an episcopal church. But feast your eyes on the final phrase of that sentence: "a deeply traditional ceremony."

No doubt it was "deeply" traditional in the same sense in which Murray is a "devout" Catholic. (I wonder if he's "deeply" devout) But tell me: just how traditional can a wedding ceremony be, if the couple are of the same sex?

In a spectacularly lopsided article for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Joel Connelly is determined to show that it is unreasonable for a Catholic high school to refuse to publish a notice of a graduate's same-sex wedding. Connelly blames the refusal on the "chilly, hardline stand" taken by Archbishop J. Peter Sartain, who has been "raining down prohibitions on same-sex marriage."

Other Catholics are apparently more willing to accept the homosexual alliances, Connelly reports.

******

New divorce statistics reveal some terrifying trends. Women are more likely than men to utter the words, "I want a divorce". Michael Rosenfeld, an associate professor of sociology at Stanford University, examined data from Stanford's 2009-2015 How Couples Meet and Stay Together project, and looked at 2,262 adults, ages 19 to 94, who had opposite sex partners in 2009. By 2015, when it came to divorce, Rosenfeld found that wives initiated 69 percent of splits, compared to 31 percent of men! Another poll revealed that women are prepared to dump their husbands after 30 or more years of marriage even when they are 60 and older!

*****

AMERICA is "in trouble" and the solution is not in the Democratic Party or the Republican Party, said the Rev. Franklin Graham, who added that "the only hope for this nation is God," and if people "turn from their sins" and turn back to God, He "will help us fix the problems that we face."

Franklin Graham, son of world-renowned evangelist Billy Graham, made his remarks on CNN's New Day, where he was asked by host Chris Cuomo on Wednesday about the 2016 presidential race.

"Our country is in trouble and I can tell you right now, I have zero hope in the Democratic Party and I have zero hope in the Republican Party," said Rev. Graham. "The only hope for this nation is God."

"And if we'll turn our attention back to God, I believe God will help us fix the problems that we face," he said. "But Chris, we have no individual that can turn this thing around. Only God can do it."

As for the various political candidates, the Rev. Graham said, "There are some good guys out there that have some great ideas for this country, to move this country forward. But those good ideas aren't going to go anywhere without the hand of Almighty God."

"And yes, I do believe in the Divine Hand," said the reverend, who oversees the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. "I believe that God has blessed this nation that His hand has been on this nation."

"But we have taken God out of our country," he said. "We have taken him out of politics, we have taken him out of schools, out of the education system and we are a broken nation."

America's many problems are "not going to get fixed by politics," he said. "It's only going to be fixed if the American people turn from their sins and put their faith and trust in almighty God."

*****

"It is no longer easy to be a faithful Christian, a good Catholic, an authentic witness to the truths of the Gospel," said Princeton Professor Robert George to a large crowd at the Legatus Summit in Orlando, Florida last weekend. Professor George added that people can still safely identify as "Catholic" as long as they don't believe, or will at least be completely silent about, "what the Church teaches on issues such as marriage and sexual morality and the sanctity of human life."

He said "the guardians of those norms of cultural orthodoxy that we have come to call 'political correctness,'" will still grant a comfort to a Catholic ashamed of the Gospel, "or who is willing to act publicly as if he or she were ashamed."

The Princeton professor, who has been a leader in the fight for life and marriage, reminded his audience of Christ's words: "If anyone wants to be my disciple, let him take up his cross and follow me.""We American Catholics, having become comfortable, had forgotten, or ignored, that timeless Gospel truth. There will be no ignoring it now," he remarked.

*****

Please consider a tax deductible donation to keep these digests coming to you each week. We put a lot of time and research into the preparation of these digests. We write, collect and scour the world to bring you the most up-to-date news of the Anglican Communion in all its vast array and disarray.

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Or you can make a contribution through VOL's PAYPAL link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/

Thank you for your support.

David

If there are lessons for the Church to be learned from the current political malaise and polarization in American politics, it is that truth will not be subject to endless dialogue, interfaithery talk, inclusivity, diversity and pluralism. We are stuck, we cannot move forward.

Take Roe v Wade. The issues have not gone away. The 1973 landmark abortion decision of the Supreme Court is now on the front burner of American politics 43 years later. The wannabee presidential candidate Chris Christie said it was the No.1 issue for him when asked. He is not the only one. Why, because human life is important and Christians across the country are fighting to bring down Planned Parenthood. It will be the same with gay marriage now legalized by the Supreme Court. I suspect 43 years from now if it is still on the books, Christians will be fighting to have it overturned. If Euthanasia is ever formally legalized we will see the same fight.

When the hue and cry over homophobia and "hate" finally dies down, people will be forced to look at the hard medical facts about sodomy and realize that this sexual behavior has no future and people will wake up. The latest medical facts are undeniable about sexually transmitted diseases, more than 75% are MSM. You can't make this stuff up. Facts are facts.

Americans with strongly held convictions are not going gently into that dark night. We are a polarized nation. My wife and I sat at an airport restaurant last night on our way home from Mexico and a man sitting next to us heard us talking and leaned over and said, "I don't know who to vote for, I don't like any of the candidates. I want someone who is concerned for the poor and downtrodden, 'the least of these', willing to put the country first, not big business or big pharma, at the same time respect marriage between a man and a woman, call Islam for what it is, actually believe what the Bible says about sex, respect life in the womb...but who is out there?" Who indeed.

Is it any wonder that the Church too is polarized? Progressives (formerly liberals) and hard core revisionists have thrown the Bible out the window or deconstructed it to the point that they make texts mean the exact opposite of what they say. I know a lesbian Church of England woman who is desperately trying to rewrite Scripture to make her behavior palatable to the Church and do so with God's blessing. She can't of course and anybody with half a brain knows you cannot lift the Law of Non-Contraction. But she keeps trying. When a lesbian seminary dean in the US says abortion is a blessing then that is a polarizing statement and Christians of real faith will never accept it. So too with gay marriage. People of conviction will never buy it, never.

That is why, at the end of the day, you have TEC and the ACNA. All talk of dialogue, Indaba and professional reconcilers will simply hit a brick wall. Reconciliation is impossible. Somewhere down the line if one side does not win the theological and culture wars then the Anglican Communion must split. Two cannot walk together unless they be agreed and they cannot, it is as simple as that.

Archbishop Justin Welby can send his theologians and professional reconcilers around the world, and Presiding Bishop Michael Curry can pour millions of dollars into Africa to make friends and influence Anglicans, but if the faithful hold fast to the faith "once delivered" then their efforts will fail and he will learn that you cannot kick the ball down the road forever; one or both sides will say enough and walk away. That is the way it must be. Truth cannot be compromised. God will not permit it. He will raise up 'stones' to speak for him if need be, or another Balaam's ass. It is only a matter of time.

*****

I wrote a number of years ago that once the liberals and revisionists had gotten rid of orthodox Episcopalians in the Episcopal Church they would turn on themselves like hungry rats with nothing left to feed on but themselves.

A case in point is the developing saga in the Diocese of Los Angeles. The bishop there, one Jon Bruno faces ecclesiastical and legal charges, that if proven true, could get him tossed out of the Church.

The irony should not be missed. The people who want him gone are fellow progressives. Here's the back story. At one time St. James the Great in Newport Beach was an orthodox evangelical parish under the watchful theological eye of one Fr. Richard Crocker. When the diocese and TEC started going down the revisionist drain over gay marriage he demurred and wanted to leave the diocese but keep the parish. He failed in the courts and moved on. With only a handful of liberals left the bishop allowed them to have a woman priest (of course) and so she set up shop. But then the bishop realized he had a multi-million dollar piece of real estate and immediately, through sleazy legal maneuvers, tried to sell it. He desperately needs the money having spent some $8 million on fighting other parishes. Not so fast said the new liberal dwellers. A secular company, The Griffith Company, who owned the land also came to the defense of the generations-old wishes to maintain the church property. Bruno suddenly found himself in the middle of a dogfight with little hope he can now sell the property. On top of this the liberal priestess he installed filed ecclesiastical charges against him and now he faces a trial that could see him tossed out.

The big question is will the ultra-liberal Disciplinary Board of the HOB led by The Rt. Rev. Catherine Waynick, President of the Board pronounce him guilty. Think Charles Bennison the former Bishop of PA. He was found guilty of conduct unbecoming a clergy but then they said the statute of limitations had run out and Bennison the Venal took a walk. A later change in the canons allowed then PB Jefferts Schori to arm twist the revisionist bishop out of his see. Perhaps it takes an extreme case like Bishop Heather Cook, who actually killed someone for the Church to be declarative, but then the media was all over her and TEC had no option. Let's hope the secular press gives their full attention to Bruno the bully.

A jury trial is set to begin August 1st.

*****

The Diocese of Northern Indiana has a new bishop. He is the Rev. Dr. Douglas Sparks, rector, St. Luke's Church, Rochester, MN. He replaces the Rt. Rev. Ed Little II an evangelical and Communion Partner Bishop. During the debate on liturgical forms Little said, "As a matter of Christian conviction, I must vote no. I do not believe that we have the authority to alter the sacrament of holy matrimony. That sacrament is rooted in creation and redemption, and is a sign of God's good provision for humankind. But I am well aware that many in the Diocese of Northern Indiana will be distressed that I could support neither the canonical re-definition of marriage nor the liturgies for same-sex marriage." Sparks will have no difficulty going along long with the Episcopal Church's canonical changes on gay marriage which marks the end of this diocese as truly orthodox. My reading is that the only orthodox dioceses left in TEC are Dallas, Springfield, Albany and Central Florida. Communion Partners is all but dead.

*****

Although homosexuals, or men who have sex with men (MSM), make up about 2% of the U.S. population, they account for 67% of "all new HIV diagnoses," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In addition, there are about 1.2 million people in the United States with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and an estimated 647,700 (54%) of those people are homosexuals, or MSM.

The 67% of all new HIV cases is for 2013 and the 54% living with HIV is for 2011, the latest years, according to the CDC, for that particular data.

Among some of the other facts about HIV/AIDS, reported by the CDC, are:

-- About 50,000 people become newly infected each year in the United States.

-- "More than 14,000 people with AIDS in the United States die each year."

-- "More than 650,000 people with AIDS in the United States have died" since the epidemic started in the early 1980s.

-- "Men who have sex with men (MSM) remain the group most heavily affected by HIV in the United States."

-- "White MSM continue to represent the largest number of new HIV infections among MSM (11,200), followed closely by black MSM (10,600)and Hispanic MSM (6,700)."

-- "Transgender individuals are also heavily affected by HIV. A 2008 review of HIV studies among transgender women found that, on average, 28 percent tested positive for HIV."

As for reducing the risk of being infected with HIV, the CDC states: "Sexual risk behaviors account for most HIV infections in gay and bisexual men. Most gay and bisexual men acquire HIV through anal sex, which is the riskiest type of sex for getting or transmitting HIV.

And you wonder why orthodox Anglicans can never buy into this behavior. It is simple, death both literal and spiritual haunts the beds of gay men and no amount of spin can or will change that.

*****

The Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop Michael Curry is putting the best spin on what happened in Canterbury, and now says this that the Anglican Communion's recent censure of his denomination was a "very specific, almost surgical approach" to their disagreements over LGBT issues.

You will recall that the Anglican primates voted last month in Canterbury, England, to remove the Episcopal Church from votes on doctrine and to ban it from representing the communion in interfaith and ecumenical relationships for three years.

In an appearance at the National Press Club on Monday (Feb. 8), Curry said the decision was a "very specific, almost surgical approach" that allowed both sides to express their differences and yet find a way to remain together. FOR THE MOMENT.

"There was clarity on our part, both about who we are as a church and about our love and commitment to the communion and there was clarity on their part that they disagreed with us," he said. "But they didn't vote us off the island." He said he could understand why the majority of Anglican leaders voted for the censure.

"Because we differ on the core doctrine, it would not be seen as appropriate for us to represent the Anglican Communion in ecumenical, interfaith leadership," he said. "That's fair." The Episcopal position would not be reviewed to avoid a renewal of the three-year censure. "We're not changing."
I wonder if he he'll be saying that three years from now when, as the Archbishop of Nigeria, Nicholas Okoh said recently "nothing has changed". A minority of the largest provinces are impaired or broken communion with TEC. If the Episcopal Church continues down its present course then either the Global South will withdraw from the Communion and take the majority of Anglicans with them or TEC will feel it has no place in the Communion and she, along with Scotland, Wales, The Church of England, Southern Africa and a few other provinces will withdraw. Either way it is over, it is only a matter of time.

****

SEXUAL SCANDAL continues to break out in The Episcopal Church. St. George's School, an elite Episcopal prep school in Middletown, Rhode Island is under investigation for the alleged sexual abuse of dozens of former students.

Three boys came to administrators at the prestigious Rhode Island prep school St. George's in 2004 with disturbing allegations: their dorm master had touched them inappropriately. Timothy Richards, then dean of students at the Episcopal school in Middletown, said he and the headmaster, Eric Peterson, interviewed the students.

The accused staffer left the school abruptly, and students were told he had taken a personal leave of absence. But a former school official says the school never reported the allegations to child welfare officials, as is required for credible accusations of abuse.

This week, with St. George's embroiled in a growing sexual abuse scandal, Richards said he would have reported the 2004 incident. "If the decision was up to him, he would have reported it to the appropriate agency in Rhode Island," said Richards's spokesperson, Karen Schwartzman. "In the situation at St. George's School, he's relying on the judgment of his boss, who is head of school and also an attorney."

The incident intensifies the spotlight on Peterson, who is still St. George's headmaster and was already facing calls for his resignation for what victims say is his failure to respond appropriately to numerous allegations of unreported past abuse. On Dec. 23, the school released a report on its own investigation into sexual abuse there, mostly in the 1970s and '80s, describing six staff and three student perpetrators. But it did not include the 2004 incident, even though the father of one alleged victim says he described the case in detail to the investigator.

Then news came this week that the scandal was beginning to spread across the country. The Rev. Howard White, former rector of Grace Episcopal Church in the Mountains has been accused of sexual misconduct that allegedly occurred during his time in Waynesville, NC.

The allegation came to light following the news that White was involved in sexual misconduct at St. George's School in Rhode Island.

In the report, White is identified only as Employee Perpetrator #2, but was later named by the attorney for the victims, Eric MacLeish, by matching victim statements with the account published.

It'll be interesting to see how much further this scandal unfolds and what heads will roll and lawsuits filed.

*****

IN CANADA the Anglican Church there might well soon be on suicide watch. The Diocese of Toronto's St. John's holds a monthly Queer Eucharist where those still smarting from "the church's historic condemnation of homosexuality" can reassure themselves that what St. Paul and 2,000 years of church history have been saying about homosexual acts have been wrong all along.

Rev. Samantha Caravan points out that a lot of "people have left the church" over this. Now, because of the Queer Eucharist, it seems they have returned; all 12 of them.

On a January evening in Toronto, a dozen or so congregants filter in from the cold into the surprising mauve, green and yellow interior of a stately old church in a leafy west-end neighborhood.

They stand to sing Marty Haugen's "Here in this Place New Light is Streaming," and listen as the Rev. Samantha Caravan, clad in rainbow vestments, asks for inspiration "to speak a new word, to shout another praise." Caravan reads a passage from St. Peter's letter, in which he addresses the persecuted early church: "Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."

A sermon is preached on the need for a faith of inclusion, after which the congregation affirms that it will not "patronize, exclude or ignore the gifts of any person."

The group stands in a circle around the altar and takes the bread and wine. Together, they offer themselves to be leaders of liberation and proclaimers of divine love. To the much-beloved Thaxted tune, they sing, "Let streams of living justice flow down upon the earth," before gathering for refreshments and chat.

So for a handful of queers, the Anglican province wants to change its canons on marriage to suit the unsuitable.

*****

The Aleppo Codex, the oldest surviving copy of the Hebrew Bible that some experts believe all versions of the Old Testament stem from, has been recognized by UNESCO as an important world treasure.

I24News reported that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization added the millennium-old Codex earlier this week to its International Memory of the World Register, which honors some of the most important discoveries relating to human history. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

Despite famine, religious wars, worldwide conflict and the spread of civilization, the heads of the Roman Catholic and the Russian Orthodox churches haven't spoken since the Great Schism of 1054 shattered Christendom, so they had a lot of catching up to do when they sat down for their historic meeting Friday afternoon in Cuba.

Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill embraced and kissed one another three times on the cheek as they met in the wood-paneled VIP room at Havana's Jose Martí International Airport.

After another round of handshakes for the cameras and greetings with members of their entourages, the two men sat and began talking. Clasping their hands in their laps, both occasionally gestured and nodded as they spoke. They held a two-hour "personal conversation" and then signed a joint declaration.

"We are brothers," Francis said as he embraced Kirill in the small, wood-paneled VIP room of Havana's airport, where the three-hour encounter took place.

"Now things are easier," Kirill agreed as he and the pope exchanged three kisses on the cheek. "This is the will of God," the pope said.

In the 30-point statement, the two leaders declared themselves ready to take all necessary measures to overcome their historical differences, saying "we are not competitors, but brothers."

Francis and Kirill also called for political leaders to act on the single most important issue of shared concern between the Catholic and Orthodox churches today: the plight of Christians in Iraq and Syria who are being killed and driven from their homes by the Islamic State group.

"In many countries of the Middle East and North Africa, entire families of our brothers and sisters in Christ are being exterminated, entire villages and cities," the declaration said.

The split between the two churches nearly 1,000 years ago has festered over issues such as the primacy of the pope and accusations by the Russian Orthodox Church that the Catholic Church tries to poach converts in Russia.

No pope has ever visited Russia. En route to the historic visit Friday, journalists asked Francis if a visit to the nation is on his papal bucket list. "China and Russia, I have them here," Francis said, pointing to his heart. "Pray."

Few people expect Friday's meeting -- which took two years of secret planning to pull off -- will wipe away centuries of distrust and suspicion in a few hours, but it will be a groundbreaking step toward Catholic-Orthodox relations.

*****

Practicing Christians are now a minority in Britain much like the persecuted Roman Catholic minority after the reformation, two senior clerics said this week.

The Anglican Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, and the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Cardinal Nichols, said their respective Churches must put aside their differences and recognize their "common agenda" as society becomes increasingly secularized.

The clerics were speaking after a historic meeting at Hampton Court Palace, home of Henry VIII, where the Chapel Royal celebrated Catholic Vespers for the first time in more than 450 years.

According to The Telegraph, Cardinal Nichols, who is de facto leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, said that after being severely persecuted in previous centuries, Catholics now contribute to British life as a "significant minority", to which Bishop Chartres replied: "We are all minorities now."

Cardinal Nichols continued, adding that traditional Christian values that people "used to take for granted" are now widely questioned.

Last month, Breitbart London reported how attendance at Church of England services had dropped below one million per week for the first time ever, with only 1.4 per cent of the population now attending England's established church.

The figures mark a two-thirds decrease since the 1960s, with Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby warning that Britain is becoming increasingly anti-Christian:

"The culture [is] becoming anti-Christian, whether it is on matters of sexual morality, or the care for people at the beginning or the end of life. It is easy to paint a very gloomy picture."

*****

The Anglican Church of Melanesia has a new Archbishop and Primate. He is the Rt. Rev. George Takeli, the current Bishop of Temotu. He will be enthroned on April 17 April at the Saint Barnabas Provincial Cathedral. He will also become Bishop of the Diocese of Central Melanesia. He succeeds Archbishop David Vunagi who retired September 2015.

Born in Suholo village on Ulawa Island in the province of Makira Ulawa, 56-year-old George Takeli was ordained to the priesthood in 1995 and has served as a priest in the Anglican Church for 16 years before being made the fourth Bishop of Temotu in August 2009.

Bishop Takeli said that his main priorities as Archbishop of Melanesia will be to establish an active missionary church alongside a strong and effective administration system and a strong investment division for the Anglican Church of Melanesia.

*****

Bishop David Zac Niringiye, a Langham Scholar who retired four years ago as the bishop of Uganda's Anglican church to promote peace and speak out against corruption in his nation, is asking for prayers for Uganda which, he writes, "is on the edge...there is widespread fear that violence could escalate in the run up to and after the February 18, 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections."

Bishop Zac, who is uniting with the youth across the country to advocate for peaceful elections through the "I Pledge Peace 2016" campaign, said in a recent interview with BBC Radio 4 that "it is important that we ensure that the elections are free. . . The amount of suffering that the misuse and abuse of power has created for my country, it is a right thing for a religious person to say enough is enough."

The bishop is calling for prayer for Uganda.

*****

CORRECTION. In my last VIEWPOINTS I inferred that the ACNA had a retirement age similar to that of The Episcopal Church. I was wrong. There is no retirement age limit in ACNA. My apologies for the error.

*****

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David

Liberals and revisionists are saying that The Episcopal Church was kicked out of the Communion by the Primates in Canterbury and they won't have any part of that. Not true.

Orthodox Anglicans are saying that nothing has changed and that they are still in impaired or broken communion with TEC. That is indeed true.

The Archbishop of Canterbury this week made his feelings known about what went on in Canterbury with the primates and it makes for interesting reading.

First of all he bewailed a certain journalist about cell phones being removed from Primates which he said was untrue. I wrote about this and said it was nonsense. In fact the primates were given I-pads. Then he went on to say how wonderful it was for Fred Hiltz (Canada) and Michael Curry (US) to show up because Archbishop Foley Beach had been invited. Really.

If Beach had not been invited the GAFCON archbishops would have been no shows. The ABC had no option but to invite him regardless of what the North American primates thought.

His paean of praise to himself and his genius at holding the communion together got a stunning rebuttal from British commentator Andrea Williams who blasted the ABC saying he put unity at the expense of truth. She went head to head with the ABC's Presidential Address to the CofE Synod and said that his attempt to reach a compromise between two diametrically opposed groups: those who hold to the Bible's teaching on marriage and sexuality -- and those who do not -- was a fiction.

"That meeting was not a success, and it is disingenuous to suggest that it was. It did not tackle the fundamental issue and instead it tries to keep us on a path that can never secure true unity. It failed to challenge an overarching relativism which allows human ideas and current cultural trends to override God's unchanging Word.

"The Archbishop's analysis reflects an approach that prizes the appearance of institutional, formal unity over true, organic unity. But without organic unity, institutional unity will crumble and collapse as we have already seen.

"Real unity can only grow in the soil of truth. No amount of institutional scaffolding can substitute for healthy soil. God's pattern for marriage and His teaching on sexuality is not peripheral. Our approach to it tests our understanding of the authority of Scripture and the Gospel itself.

"An approach to unity which, as long as the institution is upheld, allows an 'agreement to disagree' on Scripture's authority, is counter-productive and doomed to failure." You can read both statements in today's digest.

GAFCON chairman Eliud Wabukala had words to say about the Canterbury gathering. He said that Jerusalem not Canterbury is the future for orthodox Anglicans in the Communion and the "false gospel" of many in the communion will not go unchallenged.

The Primate of Kenya said that for the GAFCON Primates in Canterbury last month, "it was the light shining from Jerusalem that enabled us to give a lead in the steps taken to sanction the Episcopal Church of the United States (TEC) as a step towards restoring godly faith and order. Sadly, the meeting had hardly finished before it was made very clear that there would be no repentance or change of direction on the part of TEC and their delegation to the Anglican Consultative Council Meeting in April expect it to be business as usual."

Nigerian Primate Nicholas Okoh also weighed in and told delegates to his synod this past week that the Primates' gathering in Canterbury had changed nothing and that Nigeria was still in "broken communion" with TEC and Canada and that Nigeria would still take the lead in calling the Anglican Communion to return to the authority of the Bible.

He then went on to bemoan the spin that he did not represent his own province because a handful of Western pansexualists said he didn't. Absolutely not true. When this was raised with some 370 delegates, they gave him a resounding vote of approval and standing ovations.

In North America the spin got even worse. One of Canada's leading Anglican sodomists, Dean Peter Elliott of Vancouver, BC put such a bad spin on it all that I was forced to fisk him. You can read what he said and my response in today's digest.

Finally you can read here a recorded a conversation at Sewanee University between Bishop James Tengatenga and Bishop J. Neil Alexander in front of a seminary audience in which the African chairman of the Anglican Consultative Council said The Episcopal Church had not been kicked out of the Anglican Communion. Alexander resigned as Bishop of Atlanta to take the position as dean of the School of Theology at the University of the South in Sewanee.

"The Episcopal Church cannot be kicked out of the Anglican Communion and will never be kicked out of the Anglican Communion," the chairman of the Anglican Consultative Council said. Now you should know he was conveniently left out of the Canterbury Communique leaders, his place usurped by Josiah Atkins Idowu-Fearon Secretary General of the ACC. Tengatenga was nowhere to be found. Fearon is from Nigeria, Tengatenga is from southern Malawi.

In their public conversation Tengatenga said the legal and ecclesial structures of the Anglican Communion did not permit the primates, or any other "instrument of communion", to discipline a member church.

Tengatenga said that in his view, the impression that the primates could take decisive action arose from a confusion of roles. In most provinces, bishops were tasked with preserving the doctrine and teaching of the church. When bishops gathered in mass in gatherings such as the Lambeth Conference, or when the leaders of provinces met at the primates meeting, the participants were often under the impression that their deliberations had the same standing as they would have in their home churches.

The primates could speak, he noted. But, "Where does it go? How is it implemented?" Action could only arise if a local church gave legal authority to a pan-Anglican agreement. The recent primates gathering in Canterbury offered an example of this problem.

"So the Episcopalians have been given three years," he asked. "What does it mean? Nobody knows what it means," Tengatenga said. The primates believe they have said "something that is definitive, but it is not." They do not have the "power to take the next step."

He observed the "primates think they are more important than anyone else. When they attempt to bottle up the fizziness [of the development of doctrine within the Communion] that is when things explode."

The "bottom line is that the Episcopal Church cannot be kicked out of the Anglican Communion and will never be kicked out of the Anglican Communion," Dr. Tengatenga said, adding the next meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council will be held in two months' time in Lusaka.

"Are the Americans going there? Yes. Are they going there to be rude?"

They were not, he said "because it is their right and responsibility" to attend the meeting.

"Are they going to vote? Yes, they are going to vote as it is their right and responsibility," the ACC chairman said.

Tengatenga really doesn't get it. His nose is out of joint and he has no power or authority to decide anything. The future of the Anglican Communion rests solely in the hands of the Global South, specifically with the GAFCON primates who hold most of the cards because they are the largest of all the provinces. The Western provinces are slowly dying. The ABC as much as acknowledged that when he asked the question, do you want to stay together. For the moment yes, for the long term that is another matter entirely. This show is not over, not by a long shot and everybody knows it.

*****

Just to make the point that while the Anglican Communion grows in the Global South, in England the predictions are that there will be no growth for the church for 30 years. Turnaround in fortunes could be a generation away as demographic time-bomb explodes, Church's own calculations reveal.

Even if it sees an influx of young people to services, the sheer numbers of older worshippers dying in the next few decades mean it is unlikely to see any overall growth in attendances until the middle of this century, officials now believe.

The stark calculations were revealed during discussions at the Church's decision-making General Synod, which has been meeting in London, about ambitious plans to tackle declining numbers.

TEC and the ACofC are on much the same trajectory so why should the Global South take any notice of what they have to say over homosexuality or anything for that matter when they can see the end of the road for these provinces.

To hammer home the point another report to Synod said church life is fading fast in poorer communities, with the Church of England's general assembly being told that urban housing estates, the young and ethnic minorities have been ignored

The Church of England is too focused on the middle class and middle-aged and needs take the "battle for the Christian soul of this nation" to urban housing estates, the young and ethnic minorities. Many vicars preached only to the converted rather than actively seeking new recruits by "sharing the news of the beautiful shepherd", the synod heard.

The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who chairs the church's evangelical taskforce and has made mission work central to his leadership, said evangelism was "not a survival technique out of concern at the latest figures on church attendance", but a "commitment to renew the church".

*****

The Church of England's General Synod has backed a report proposing a historic agreement with the Church of Scotland.

The Columba Declaration paves the way for future joint working between the two churches.

It sets out how members and clergy will be allowed to worship and exercise ministry in each other's churches, and will also offer opportunities for congregational partnership, formal and informal, where there are churches close to each other.

Members voted 243 votes to 50 to approve the document at the gathering in London.

Moving the motion, the Right Rev Dr. Peter Forster, Bishop of Chester and co-chairman of the joint study group that prepared the agreement, said: "The dialogue and partnership between the Church of England and the Church of Scotland is shaped by our shared calling as 'national' churches, which have a parish structure covering the nation, and a recognition by the state and wider society.

"As our country has become more secular, we find ourselves drawn together as we face common problems, and opportunities.

"For all the ways in which our recognition and calling as national churches has had very different histories and legal structures, we have found that we have more in common, in our common tasks in mission, than we might have been led to suppose."

The report will now go to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in May for approval.

The motion also notes the Church of England's "valued relationship" with the Scottish Episcopal Church within the Anglican Communion and requests the council ensures it is invited to appoint a representative to attend meetings of group.

*****

Gays and transgendered types are now squabbling among themselves. UK gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has accused a national student LGBT representative of inhabiting "a twisted world of political correctness".

In an exclusive interview with KentOnline, the activist strongly denies endorsing remarks that "a man who lops of his sexual organs does not automatically become a woman".

Tatchell gave a keynote speech this week at a public discussion at Canterbury Christ Church University called Re-Radicalising Queers.

The event hit national headlines after Fran Cowling, the LGBT representative for the National Union of Students, refused to share the stage with Tatchell.

Cowling had branded Tatchell "racist and transphobic" after he signed an open letter to the Observer newspaper last year supporting free speech.

The letter followed controversial comments by renowned feminist Germaine Greer who had said that a man who lops off his sexual organs isn't automatically a woman.

Tatchell maintains that while he didn't agree with Greer's remarks, he had supported her right to make them.

*****

The Rt. Rev. Moises Quezada Mota was installed Feb. 13 as the next bishop coadjutor of the Diocese of the Dominican Republic at the closing Eucharist of the 58th annual diocesan convention in Santo Domingo. US Presiding Bishop Michael Curry presided over the service held in the volleyball stadium at the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center. So why does an orthodox diocese still hang on to TEC? The answer VOL was told is pensions and money. Both are needed for survival and none of the mostly orthodox dioceses of Province IX in Central America could financially separate themselves from TEC.

*****

This week Canadian Archbishop Fred Hiltz met with more than 120 members and friends of the LGBTQ community in Toronto at a celebration of the Holy Eucharist at St. John's, West in Toronto.

It was an opportunity for the Primate to be in dialogue with a local LGBTQ community about their lives and experiences within the Church and about the resolution that will go before the General Synod in July. Archbishop Hiltz remains deeply committed to hearing the diversity of perspectives in our church about this matter as reflected in his ongoing conversations with the Bishops of our Church, Canadian participants at the Anglican Consultative Council, Canadian and African bishops in dialogue, from theological students and faculty, and from members of the Council of the General Synod among others.

"I left the gathering more convinced than ever the need for the Church to take opportunity to hear first-hand the experiences and longings of LGBTQ persons," Hiltz said. "So often we speak about instead of with the LGBTQ community. We all need to be creating these kinds of opportunities to have pastoral conversations."

The group of people that Hiltz has no interest whatsoever in speaking to are Anglicans who experience same-sex attractions yet resist the temptation to act upon them. North American Anglicanism is, after all, predominantly interested in justifying acting on one's urges not in denying them -- other than giving up carbon lust during Lent, of course.

*****

The Diocese of Sydney announced the extension of the term of office of its most senior cleric, Archbishop Glenn Davies, this week. The Standing Committee voted overwhelmingly to extend the term of Archbishop Glenn Davies until 2020.

Without the vote, Dr. Davies would have been due to retire on attaining the age of 68 years on 26 September 2018.

Dr. Robert Tong moved a motion in Standing Committee that the Archbishop's term be extended for another two years. Davies was elected in August, 2013.

Tong told the Standing Committee that the Archbishop has shown leadership in three key areas.

"Clearly by his preaching and modelling servant leadership, he has demonstrated spiritual leadership" he said.

Tong also cited the Archbishop's leadership in Anglican organizations within and outside of the Diocese and his leadership in the 'public square'.

"He is across the issues, he makes a contribution and offers leadership from his own experience and learning" Dr. Tong said.

The motion, seconded by the Principal of Moore College, Dr. Mark Thompson, passed overwhelmingly and was announced to the applause of Standing Committee.

Glenn Davies has been the Archbishop of Sydney since 2013; previously, he was the Bishop of North Sydney.

*****

The Grahams and the Falwells are playing out a political drama unprecedented in American politics. Both men claim the evangelical mantle, yet one, the president of a Christian university his father founded, raised eyebrows and provoked an outcry among some evangelicals when he endorsed Donald J. Trump before the Iowa caucuses.

Another, a son of perhaps the nation's most celebrated evangelist and the successor to his father's ministry, Franklin Graham, has drawn attention for his scathing comments about Muslims and is in the midst of what he describes as a 50-state tour "to challenge Christians to live out their faith at home, in public and at the ballot box."

"He's got to make decisions and do things that he feels God is calling him to do," Mr. Graham, 63, said of Mr. Falwell, 53. "And I have to do things that I feel God is calling me to do." But for both, those decisions play out in the shadows of their fathers.

Jerry Falwell Jr., whose father, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, founded Liberty University and the Moral Majority movement, and the Rev. Franklin Graham, whose father, Billy Graham, is estimated to have preached the Gospel to millions of people, now find themselves forces of their own. Both are trying to balance their own identities, and their father's legacies, at a time when religion is playing a powerful role in American politics.

The stakes are high for Mr. Falwell, who is not a pastor, and Mr. Graham as they ponder the rewards and perils of creating political identities apart from the ones their fathers forged decades ago.

"The Grahams and Falwells across generations have chosen different tactics, but the tactics could be equally influential," said John C. Green, a political scientist at the University of Akron and an author of "The Bully Pulpit: The Politics of Protestant Clergy."

*****

VOL is in need of a copy editor. If you would like the opportunity of reading stories I write and editing them and then turning them around in a reasonable amount of time I would be interested in hearing from you. I would prefer someone in Eastern Standard Time. The pay is modest (per story). Each story I write is reviewed by both my attorney and a copy editor. If you think you might be interested drop me a line at david@virtueonline.org I look forward to hearing from you. A degree in English goes a long way.

*****

Thousands of you go daily to VOL's website and thousands more receive VOL's weekly digest of stories but only a handful ever make a contribution to keep the news coming into your e-mail. Please consider a tax deductible donation to keep the news flowing. You can send a check to:

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Or you can make a contribution through VOL's PAYPAL link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/

Thank you for your support.

David

"We must get used to being offended. Without free speech democracy crumbles"----- Andy Walton

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
February 26, 2016

God will never bless what He has not approved.

The Church of England has already liberalized on human sexuality and a split is "almost certain" as a result, according to a damning article from a conservative theologian.

Dr. Joe Boot, Wilberforce Director at Christian Concern, has given a withering assessment of the Archbishop of Canterbury's recent address to the Church's governing body and wrote the "conversation on these terms is already over."

"What the Anglican Church's 'conversation' is engaged in... is the attempted rationalization of sin in order to alleviate the reality of guilt which all those practicing sexual immorality feel."

The Church of England is in an ongoing process of what it calls "shared conversations" to discuss different perspectives on acceptance of homosexuality and "help forge better understanding between different groups over the issue of sexuality", according to Archbishop of York, John Sentamu.

However, Sentamu denied the Church is "poised to rethink its centuries-old doctrine of marriage to accommodate same-sex couples", in a letter to The Telegraph.

But Boot argues the position has already subtly moved and a split is inevitable.

"The truth is that once you have accepted, as the Archbishops clearly do, that "LGBTI" et al. is a real matter of human identity, rather than mere social construction, any denial of the normative character of their actions becomes a denial of 'human rights' and an assault on their dignity and person and consequently is 'homophobic,''transphobic' or any other number of regularly enumerated mental crimes and disorders."

There you have it. And you wonder why the Church of England will be out of business in 30 years or less. http://tinyurl.com/jern55o God will never bless what He has not approved. Never.

Not only is the Church of England withering, so is the Episcopal Church, the Anglican Church of Canada, the Church of Wales, and the Scottish Episcopal Church. God cannot and will not allow them to succeed; it violates his sovereign will for them and all our lives, and all the money in the world won't keep these provinces going forever. By contrast, the Global South is growing by leaps and bounds because they are orthodox in faith and morals; they own the Anglican Communion, Canterbury does not. In fact, it would be true to say that at this point in time, Archbishop Justin Welby is irrelevant and will grow more irrelevant in the coming months and years. His day may well be done.

*****

From Uganda came cries of betrayal from the Ugandan Primate Stanley Ntagali who said the Primates were "betrayed" in Canterbury. He went on to say that the Doctrine of marriage between one man and one woman was a symbolic vote not a substantive vote by the primates and that the Church of Uganda will not participate in the upcoming April meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in Lusaka. He said the GAFCON Primates Council will meet in Chile in April to discuss their future in the Anglican Communion and the nature of true mission.

The Archbishop blasted the outcome of the recent Primates' meeting in Canterbury, saying that it was like being back in 2003 when they were betrayed by their leaders. "The Primates voted to bring discipline to TEC and, yet, we now see that the leadership of the Anglican Communion does not have the will to follow through. This is another deep betrayal," he wrote in a Lenten letter to his people.

"I excused myself from the Meeting before the Primates voted. My sense of the meeting at the time was that the leadership was not serious about restoring godly order in the Communion. Even after the vote was taken, I confess I was not convinced that it would have any impact on the common life of the Anglican Communion and, therefore, would not restore Biblical faith and godly order in the Anglican Communion.

"Unfortunately, this is what we are seeing. A spirit of defiance against Biblical faith and order has infected the structures and leadership of the Anglican Communion. It is a very sad season in the life of our Anglican Communion. You can read his full take in today's digest.

*****

As if to make the point at how corrosive the whole pansexual agenda of the Anglican Communion has become, there is a story I posted on whether the Australian Anglican Church is in the throes of schism.
The Bishop of Newcastle, Greg Thompson, has openly branded the Diocese of Sydney and its Archbishop, Glenn Davies, as "divisive".

The Australian Anglican Church is deeply fractured on the issue of gay clergy, and it is set to boil over at a national meeting of bishops in early March, prompting the Newcastle Anglican Bishop to miss the event, accusing Sydney Diocese of leading a breakaway conservative movement.

Australian Anglican columnist David Ould writes that the emergence of a "para Anglican Communion" is underway and is being led by Newcastle Bishop Greg Thompson, who wrote in a letter to Anglican Primate Archbishop Philip Freier in December, saying he would not attend the annual bishops' conference in South Australia on March 6, because it would give the impression of a united church that conflicted with reality.

You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

The mystery of why TEC Presiding Bishop Michael Curry placed three of his top executives, including Bishop Stacy Sauls, on leave deepens. He wrote a memo this week saying that he anticipates that investigators will complete their interviews in the next 3-4 weeks. "I will then consult with the officers of the DFMS and legal counsel regarding appropriate steps forward. Once the course of action is clear and it has been properly shared with those on administrative leave, I will share with you with as much transparency as is appropriate, protecting confidentiality, and the ways we will move forward from that point."

That's about as clear as mud or Episcopal fudge. He writes, "I am deeply committed to our all working together on healing, building trust, and nurturing a culture reflective of the life and teachings of
Jesus of Nazareth as we move forward to help the church to serve the world in his Name."

In short, a whole lot of nothing, till we know the truth, if we will ever get the full story. Is it about a nasty little attempt to bug Executive Counsel, or has someone had their hand in the till? We wait with bated breath, or do we?

*****

Three theologically conservative church bodies released a report championing progress in their latest round of ecumenical dialogue.

Representatives from the Anglican Church in North America, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and the Lutheran Church-Canada have been engaging in an ongoing dialogue for the past six years.

Titled "On Closer Acquaintance", the interim report on ecumenical dialogue charts the progress made thus far on conversations between ACNA, LCMS, and LCC.

"The report is intended as an aid for ACNA folk wishing to get a deeper understanding of their counterparts in LCMS--LCC and vice versa, and as a resource that will help us determine the nature and goals of our relationship in the years ahead," reads the report.

"In the process we hope that both sides will become convinced of the width and depth of the common ground we share in doctrine, liturgy, hymnody, devotional resources, and Christian life. At the same time, we anticipate the development of an informed awareness of the areas in which significant differences still divide us."

In a statement released Tuesday, ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach stressed the theological commonalities of the three confessing bodies.

"In a time when so many churches are departing from the teachings of the Bible, it has been refreshing to see the stand for Scriptural Truth that is being made by The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and Lutheran Church-Canada," stated Archbishop Beach.

"We agree on the essentials of the Faith, and share a common desire to evangelize North America with the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

*****

A top Christian theologian criticized British Prime Minister David Cameron over the Europe referendum.

Dr. NT Wright criticized the British Prime Minister for calling a referendum on Europe. He told Christian Today that he wished David Cameron had not decided on this tactic.

He said: "The Scottish Referendum has settled nothing, but rather stirred up all kinds of feelings and antagonisms, and I fear this one will do the same. We have a Parliamentary democracy and, creaky old system though that is, we ought not to try so readily to bypass it."

Wright, who holds the chair in New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St Andrews in Scotland and is also a former Bishop of Durham, warned against applying apocalyptic Bible texts such the Book of Daniel to the Brexit debate.

Until the late 17th century, the Bible, especially the Old Testament, was taught in seminaries and colleges as the essential guide to all things political.

"The sad truth is that most modern Western Christians have not been taught at all the basic rudiments of a Christian political theology," Wright said.

"Various attempts have been made, but most folk are blissfully unaware that there is anything much to be said."

*****

The Archbishop of Canterbury has appointed a woman who is an expert on government and safeguarding to head his independent inquiry into whether there was any kind of cover-up in the Church of England over sex abuse Bishop Peter Ball.

Justin Welby, who last year disclosed the inquiry was to take place, has announced that Dame Moira Gibb is to chair the investigation into "the way the Church of England responded" to complaints about the disgraced former Bishop of Gloucester, jailed last year for a string of sex offences.

Dame Moira, former chief executive of Camden Council until 2011, and who chaired the serious case review into safeguarding at Southbank International School in the wake of the crimes committed by William Vahey, is expected to report before the end of this year.

The separate Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, chaired by Justice Goddard, will also be looking at the Peter Ball case.

*****

The Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, last May, established the Way Forward Working Group to develop a pathway towards the blessing of same-gender relationships -- while upholding the traditional doctrine of marriage. This week the Working Group released its report.

The Working Group has offered two new liturgies for blessing civil marriages to be considered at the General Synod in May of this year. The report also proposes changes in canon regarding ordination by more clearly defining what a "rightly-ordered relationship" is. Currently, civil marriages have been sufficient to be considered "rightly ordered", but moving forward, ordinands in civil marriages will also need for their marriages to have been blessed by the church, and this true for all candidates, not just those in same-sex relationships.

From the report at Anglican Taonga:

The Way Forward Working Group (WFWG) report makes a precept-upon-precept case for how such civil marriages could be blessed by the church.

The Anglican Church in this province is governed by a set of documents, the most significant of which are the Church of England Empowering Act of 1928, and Te Pouhere, the Constitution of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, which came into force in 1992.

Te Pouhere, in turn, specifies a number of "Formularies" (such as a New Zealand Prayer Book/He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa ) which guide the Church in its worship and practice.

The new constitution also spells out a way in which formularies can be changed (or added to) --providing these changes don't, in the words of the report, "represent any departure from the Doctrine and Sacraments of Christ as defined in Te Pouhere's own Fundamental Provisions."

The rites of blessing being proposed are being presented as "additional formularies", rather than doctrinal changes:

"It is the view of the majority of the group," the report notes, "that the proposed liturgies do not represent a departure from the Doctrine and Sacraments of Christ, and are therefore not prohibited by Te Pouhere, however the group also recognizes that this will be a crucial matter for debate."

In offering the report and a possible way forward on these matters, the Working Group has sought to build on many years of discussion and study across this Church. In particular, they build on the work of the Commission on Doctrine and Theological Questions, which reported to General Synod/Te Hinota Whanui in 2014. That report presented two clearly-argued positions, both with their own biblical and theological integrity. One argued that the blessing of committed, monogamous, life-long same-sex relationships was outside of the doctrinal possibilities the Church can consider, the other that such relationships can and should be able to receive the blessing of the Church.

*****

The dark satanic mills of sexual abuse grind on in The Episcopal Church. It was learned this week that there was a trail of sex abuse allegations extending back to the Diocese of West Virginia in 1969, by the Rev. Howard White before his placement as chaplain at St. George's Episcopal School in Rhode Island.

Karen Lee Ziner of the Providence Journal uncovered a circa 1969 case in the Diocese of West Virginia. White's first placement was in that diocese. After leaving West Virginia he subsequently was chaplain of St. Paul's School in New Hampshire, the first of many moves.

Ziner located a 1998 decision of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia: Richard Albright, Plaintiff Below, Appellant, v. H. Willard White and The Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of West Virginia. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

In the department of 'will it never end', the parish of St. Mary of the Angels in Hollywood, California, a parish of the Anglican Church of America (ACA) famed for actresses and actors passing through its doors in its heyday, has been embroiled in a long running legal dispute over who it wants to belong to. It is now in the news again.

Its rector, Fr. Christopher Kelley, who styled himself as St. Mary's "Chairman of the Board, President, & Rector", said he wanted to take the church into the Ordinariate. Many in the parish demurred.

He explained that St. Mary-Angels was a "free-standing legal corporation under California law." He also noted that "during the entire history of the Anglican Continuum, parishes have been free to come and go as they please, and many have changed jurisdictions, not just St. Mary's."

Bishop Strawn put Canon to the Ordinary, Anthony Morello, in as St. Mary's new rector, and a battle for control of the property was launched by a handful of parishioners who did not want to follow Fr. Kelley's lead into the Church of Rome through the Ordinariate.

Well, it got settled this week with the courts declaring Fr. Kelley the winner. You can read Mary Ann Mueller's excellent historical overview and recent changes story in today's digest.

*****

The world's deadliest terrorist group is not in the Middle East. It's in Nigeria, where the Islamist insurgency of Boko Haram and other forces killed more than 4,000 Christians in 2015. That death toll increased 62 percent from 2014, according to a new report.

In response, Nigeria's largest confederation of Christian churches is, for the first time, jointly endorsing a commitment to revive churches in the West African nation's north before they collapse from a decade of violence that has killed thousands of Christians and driven away more than 1 million.

At the same time, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has jointly published with Open Doors, a detailed study of the violence and its impact. "Crushed but not defeated: The impact of persistent violence on the Church in Northern Nigeria" was released on February 24, in Abuja, Nigeria's capital.
A destroyed church in the northern Nigerian state of Bauchi.

CAN is comprised of councils representing Protestant denominations, indigenous evangelical churches, Pentecostal churches, and the Catholic Church--denominations that together encompass about half of Nigeria's 173 million people. The association has adopted the report as the factual foundation of a joint declaration, which demands that the Nigerian government quell the violence and guarantee religious freedom, and asks the UN to launch an inquiry into atrocities.

VOL spoke with a Nigerian bishop this past week and was told the greatest number of those murdered by Boko Haran were Anglicans.

From 2006 to 2014, religion-based violence killed an estimated 11,500 Christians in Nigeria's north, according to the report. It states that 13,000 churches were destroyed, abandoned, or closed during the period, while 1.3 million Christians fled to safer regions in the country.

*****

After lengthy debate, Georgia's state Senate passed an amended version of a religious freedom bill Friday, sending it back to the House and infuriating critics who slam the revised measure as anti-gay and lesbian.

If the Republican-led House agrees with the Senate version, it will go to Gov. Nathan Deal to sign. If not, it could end up being changed again.

House Bill 757 passed the Senate 38-14 after three hours of debate that was, at times, heated. Last week it passed the House 161-0 -- but the Senate version combined it with another more controversial bill.

Now the bill blends the Pastor Protection Act, which would enable religious leaders to refuse to perform same-sex marriages, and the First Amendment Defense Act, which critics have said would allow tax-funded groups to deny services to gays and lesbians.

The bill's Senate sponsor, Greg Kirk, a Republican, said the revised bill is about equal protection and not discrimination, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

"It only impacts the government's interaction with faith-based organizations or a person who holds faith-based, sincerely held beliefs as it relates to marriage," he said.

*****

Oregon released its 2015 'death with dignity' stats this week. Oregon is the model for assisted suicide legislation throughout the United States, so its annual "Death with Dignity" report for 2015 deserves close scrutiny.

Since the law was passed in 1997, a total of 1,545 people have had prescriptions written under the DWDA, and 991 patients have died from ingesting the medications.

The figures are not as straightforward as they might seem. During 2015, 218 people received prescriptions for lethal medications, but only 132 people died. Why the difference? Many people keep the medication on hand and wait until they are ready to use it -- which could be in the next calendar year. Some die before using it; some disappear from the official statistics. So, of the 218, 125 used the medication and died; 50 died before they used it; 5 died and Oregon does not know whether or not they used it; and for 38 people (17%), there is no information about whether they used it or whether they are alive or dead.

Oregon is not far off the mean, but its population is older, whiter, more likely to live alone, and better educated than the US average. Those who died were even whiter and even better-educated than the Oregon average.

Although uncontrolled pain is often seen as sufficient justification for legalized assisted suicide, relatively few people even mentioned it. The three main reasons were "less able to engage in activities making life enjoyable" (96%); "losing autonomy" (92%); and "loss of dignity" (75%).

"Inadequate pain control or concern about it" was mentioned by 28.7%, but the statistics do not indicate how many actually had actually experienced unrelieved pain. See more here: http://www.mercatornet.com/

*****

There are any number of evangelistic programs out there worthy of your consideration. One that I particularly like is Christianity Explored which comes out of All Souls Langham Place, London the spiritual home of the late John R.W. Stott. The conveners are holding an Evangelism for Our Time and Place, at their annual North American Conference, April 15-17, 2016 at Christ Church Presbyterian in Atlanta. People living in the Atlanta region should consider this opportunity. You can register here:
https://docs.google.com/a/virtueonline.org/forms/d/1mGTy5AZ_HjL5qdK-P44CC6K1AG5hrwnSYVc50cJWVho/viewform

*****

The Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic is holding an Evangelism Training Day: Saturday, March 12, 2016 9:30 am -- 3:00 pm at All Saints' Church, 14851 Gideon Drive. Woodbridge VA.

What Gospel Are You Sharing? By Shawn Hart; Tell Your Story by Tom Tarrants; How to Share the Gospel by Michael Suderman are among featured speakers. For more information, contact the Rev. Mary Amendola at mamendolia@tfcanglican.org . She is Pastoral Associate for Evangelism at The Falls Church Anglican, Falls Church, VA.

*****

The Clergy Care Office with Bishop Thad Barnum has officially opened. For more information you can go to their website at: sepearusa.org

The purpose is to care for the well-being of the souls of clergy; to provide a safe space for:
Confession and Self-Examination
Discipling in Jesus
Relational Health in Marriage, Family, and Broken Relationships
Evaluating for Preventative Care
Caring when Signs of Burnout Appear

Bishop Barnum will offer 10-12 appointments a week by video conferencing.
Clergy can make an appointment by going to the website of Bishop David Bryan's Southeast Network
www.sepearusa.org.

*****

We really need your help. The winter months are lean times for funds to keep us afloat, but the bills still have to be paid.

Thousands of you go daily to VOL's website and thousands more receive VOL's weekly digest of stories, but only a handful ever make a contribution to keep the news coming into your e-mail. Please consider a tax-deductible donation to keep the news flowing. You can send a check to:

VIRTUEONLINE
570 Twin Lakes Rd
P.O. Box 111
Shohola, PA 18458

Or you can make a contribution through VOL's PAYPAL link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/

Thank you for your support.

David

"The modern world detests authority but worships relevance. So to bracket these two words in relation to the Bible is to claim for it one quality (authority) which people fear it has but wish it had not, and another (relevance) which they fear it has not but wish it had. Our Christian conviction is that the Bible has both authority and relevance - to a degree quite extraordinary in so ancient a book - and that the secret of both is in Jesus Christ. Indeed, we should never think of Christ and the Bible apart. 'The Scriptures ... bear witness to me,' he said (Jn. 5:39), and in so saying also bore his witness to them. This reciprocal testimony between the living Word and the written Word is the clue to our Christian understanding of the Bible. For his testimony to it assures us of its authority, and its testimony to him of its relevance. The authority and the relevance are his. "--- John R.W. Stott

"University "safe space" censors anything that might upset certain groups. Free speech is sacrosanct until it causes offence. Whereupon it is banned as hate speech. "--- Melanie Phillips

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
March 4, 2016

ANGER. It is fueling and driving America right now. People are angry at Washington, they are angry with President Obama, they are angry over abortion, gay marriage and they are angry that nothing is being done to solve America's glaring problems like infrastructure, inequality and infanticide. Evangelicals are so angry, they are prepared to vote for a man who says he has no need to ask God for forgiveness, which goes against everything we know about the gospel. Everything. The man is a narcissist, appealing to people whose faith declares that pride goes before a fall.

Anger is not primarily a political problem, it is first and foremost a spiritual issue. The Bible is very clear. We are to be angry, but "sin not" (Eph. 4:26)

There are a whole host of verses that deal with anger. Here are a few.

St. Paul writes in Ephesians 4:26-31 "In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice."

James write in 1:19-20, "My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires."

Ecclesiastes 7:9, "Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools."

"A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." Proverbs 15:18

In Colossians 3:8 Paul writes, "But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips."

The Psalmist declares in Psalm 37:8-9, "Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret--it leads only to evil. For those who are evil will be destroyed, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land."

A nation this angry will self-destruct; nothing will be achieved. From anger will flow violence, and, with millions of guns in peoples' possession, Americans will turn on themselves out of deep frustration. Many of us who emigrated to this country 30 to 40 years ago don't like what we are seeing and hearing. It grieves us that violence has become a way of life with almost daily shootings unheard of in most civilized countries of the world. And the root of it all is anger, and the Bible is clear about what we should do about that.

Many of VOL's readers are "old white men", and I am told that we are among the worst offenders. So I ask you, as I ask myself, what is our spiritual responsibility to our God, to ourselves, to our churches, and to our children and grandchildren, as they see the anger we harbor and vent? God forgive us.

I have written a piece about Donald Trump and evangelicals that bears out what I believe. It is sad to watch a nation with so many evangelicals suddenly seeing Trump as their political and earthly savior, while tacitly nodding towards Jesus as their personal Savior.

What does this say about evangelicals, of which I claim to be one? Are we three thousand miles wide and only one inch deep theologically and spiritually? Are evangelicals putting their faith in a man who stands diametrically opposed to the gospel we believe? You can read my piece here, or in today's digest. http://tinyurl.com/ze4w6bo

*****

The Executive Council of the Episcopal Church met this past week in Texas to hammer out building infrastructure for new initiatives for racial justice, reconciliation, and evangelism "aimed at capturing members' imagination."

All this is mostly a smoke screen for issues that by and large do not exist in TEC. No one will identify any racists in the church, as most Episcopalians are women over 60 who have probably never uttered a racist comment in their lives. Linking evangelism (however that is defined) to racism is another dead end street. Who, what, where?

As far as evangelism itself goes, most Episcopalians are in need of the gospel first before they can even proclaim it. Most rectors are liberal and progressive, and not evangelicals, so they won't be encouraging evangelism. Because they have never accepted the "Good News" in their own lives, they are bent on parading made up "doctrines" of diversity and inclusion in which evangelism has no part.
All this would be a bad joke except that it involves real people and real peoples' eternal destiny. If TEC is just now discovering evangelism, what about Jefferts Schori, who in nine years in office, never touched the subject! What is Michael Curry honestly hoping to achieve in this late hour screaming that TEC is about "The Jesus Movement", as TEC slowly sinks into the sunset!

Is it any wonder that the Anglican Church in North America has taken up the task of evangelism with growing success!

Of course, TEC is throwing a ton of money at the whole idea, including $3 million for starting new congregations with an emphasis on assisting populations, including Hispanic communities, $2.8 million for evangelism work, and a major new $2 million initiative on racial justice and reconciliation.

Gay Jennings, the HOD president, said she is figuring out "how we as a church will live out this new manifestation of a corporate vocation." However the truth is plain to see -- no message, no church. No Good News about God's unfailing love and grace, but endless rants about racism will not start or grow a church.

The PB's new canon for evangelism and racial reconciliation, outlined the emerging plans that include an "evangelism summit" that would be the first step in building a network of evangelists across the church. There are planned initiatives in digital evangelism, including finding "ways to create meaningful links with people online [by] listening to their deepest longings and questions" and training Episcopalians in using social media for evangelism. The plans envision an experiment with Episcopal revivals that would, in part, "train local teams to practice relational evangelism and deep listening with their neighbors, schoolmates, friends, co-workers," she said.(who is the "she" here? If it is Jennings, I think you need to include it .

This begs the question, does The Episcopal Church even know what evangelism is to proclaim it?

*****

On a brighter, more realistic note, there was a Matthew 25 Gathering under the banner of Justice & Mercy Contending for Shalom. Members from across the Anglican Church in North America, who serve the poor and marginalized, came together to strengthen their ministries, by supporting and learning from each other.

Hosted by Christ Church in Austin, Texas, The Matthew 25 Gathering brought together 60 practitioners and leaders engaged in ministries of justice and mercy.

Grounded in the scriptures, specifically Matthew 25 and Isaiah 58, these men and women came together in order to build community, to encourage and offer spiritual refreshment for those on the front lines, and to discern the next steps for establishing and furthering the work within the Anglican Church in North America among "the least of these."

There was substantial representation from ministries to the homeless, refugees, people caught in human trafficking, at risk youth, immigrants, special needs youth and adults, those struggling with substance abuse, as well as ministries of racial reconciliation, community development, hunger/urban farming, and parishes consisting of under-resourced populations.

Christine Warner, a coordinator of the Matthew 25 Gathering said, "God's presence was with us in an extraordinary way. People were connecting with fellow Anglicans with the same heart and vision, receiving prayer, offering reports from the field, and thinking through what it means to stand in our rich heritage and dream about the future."

*****

Los Angeles Bishop Jon Bruno is trying to serve two masters, says canon lawyer Allan S. Haley. Writing at his blog http://accurmudgeon.blogspot.com/ Haley says Bruno is at odds with his own Diocese over the disclosure of financial information concerning the corporation sole of which he is the incumbent. In order to avoid a vote on an outside audit of his corp sole at the diocesan convention last December, Bruno promised to disclose its financial statements.

Bruno and his corp sole became embroiled in litigation last summer over the bishop's plans to sell the valuable, near-oceanfront real estate of the congregation of St. James the Great, in Newport Beach, California -- after he won a lawsuit to recover that property from the ACNA congregation that voted to leave his Diocese. The original developer who gave the property to the Episcopal Diocese for the building of a local church had placed a restrictive covenant on it, which specified that if the property ever ceased to be used for church purposes, it would revert to the developer.

Bishop Bruno did not take kindly to that position, and brought suit against the developer (in a fine example of how not to treat a wealthy donor). He claimed that the restriction had been waived when the developer had agreed to allow a portion of the property to be used as a parking lot. The developer pointed out in response that it had specifically not waived the restriction as to the very parcel on which most of the church building proper is located.

While that lawsuit was waging, the parish of St. James and its popular vicar, the Rev. Canon Cindy Voorhees, brought suit themselves against the bishop, after earlier lodging a disciplinary complaint against him for misrepresenting his intentions in his dealings with them. The lawsuit sought to enforce the restrictive covenant against the bishop on behalf of the congregation. Lately, the disciplinary proceedings have bogged down, after Bishop Bruno spurned any effort at conciliation.

Bruno and his corp sole are prosecuting one lawsuit and defending another. His goal is the same in both suits: to be able to move forward with his planned sale of the St. James real estate to a friend who is a developer, and who reportedly has agreed to pay $15 million for the property if it is free and clear. (The parish contends the property is worth even more.)

But now the bishop tells his Diocese that despite his December promise to the convention, his lawyers have advised him that to release the requested financial information could harm his ability to conduct the lawsuits. And, with that announcement, Bruno has all but admitted that he is embroiled in a rank conflict of interest with his own Diocese.

Contends Haley, one would have to go back to the Borgias to find a church prelate who was so enamored of temporal things as to place his own business interests ahead of his religious duties. While the corp sole may be a non-profit, the LLC most certainly is not. And what business does a non-profit corp sole -- the legal holding entity of a religious organization -- have with a corporation organized for commercial profit that is unrelated to any church or charitable purpose? (If there is any such purpose to his investment, Bishop Bruno should have disclosed it to his Diocese by now.)

The proceeds from such an investment are generally characterized under tax law as "unrelated business income", which is taxable at regular corporate rates. A charitable organization that has too much "unrelated business income" in its mix runs the risk of having its charitable status reviewed, or even revoked, by the IRS.

If Bishop Bruno could jeopardize his Diocese's tax-exempt status through his corp sole activities, then he most certainly has a conflict of interest, even if matters have not progressed quite that far. He has a fiduciary obligation to make full and open disclosure of all those activities -- to all beneficiaries who could be affected by them. Both the Standing Committee and the vestry of St. James should see to it that Bishop Bruno does not have the last word in this matter.

*****

An activist Episcopal priest who underwent an abortion to finish Divinity School, later tanked her parish. The Rev. Anne Fowler claims that if she had not had access to an abortion when she accidentally became pregnant after enrolling in Divinity School, she would never have been able to graduate, to serve as a parish rector, or to help the enormous number of people whose lives she has touched.

Her story got punched up in USA Today, where she claims to have doubled her church - St. John's Episcopal Church in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts - but Jeff Walton of IRD did some sleuthing, and found that far from increasing the parish's attendance and monetary wealth, she, in fact, lowered it.

St John Jamaica Plain MA statistics can be seen here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/juicyecumenism/wp-content/uploads/20160303152615/St-John-Jamaica-Plain-MA.pdf

Fowler claimed in the Gazette piece that St. John's doubled in size and more than doubled in budget under her leadership. She said that she is most proud of "fostering a loving, creative, responsible and fun community of faithful people." Sadly, we know this legacy all too well: another decimated parish led by a liberal activist, writes Walton. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

From REFORM Ireland comes word that the clergy there have written an open letter to their bishops saying that a letter put out by their leaders on same sex marriage is a "dangerous departure from confessing Anglicanism."

It is dangerous, they say, because of its appearance of orthodoxy, while undermining the principles of our reformed protestant denomination.

The letter from the bishops proposes to encourage mutual respect and attentiveness, but it communicates something quite different, they say. "They make the Church of Ireland its own primary authority and source of unity, and then assume that the church's teaching on the issue of human sexuality is liable, even certain, to change."

You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

The Episcopal Church and Trinity Wall Street need to keep their hands off Africa. Increasingly, TEC is using Trinity Wall Street as a proxy to use its money to move African Anglicans from their "fundamentalism" to the more "enlightened" West on issues like sexuality. But they are meeting resistance, as more and African Anglicans are telling TEC and TWS that they can take their money and float themselves down the East River.

The future of the Anglican Communion belongs to Africa, not to the West anymore. I have written extensively about this in today's digest.

*****

Canadian Anglican Bishops dodged a bullet on Gay Marriage this week, saying that a same-sex marriage motion would "not likely" to pass in order of the House of Bishops.

The Canadian House of Bishops could not muster the 2/3rds majority it needed to pass a motion to change the marriage canon to accommodate same-sex couples.

A resolution before General Synod this summer to change the Anglican Church of Canada's marriage canon to allow same-sex marriage is "not likely" to get the number of votes it needs from bishops, according to a statement sent by the House of Bishops to Council of General Synod (CoGS), and released publicly Monday, February 29.

There was blow back, of course, from a couple of revisionist bishops.

The bishop of Ottawa expressed his mortification at the decision from the recent House of Bishops' meeting not to support same-sex marriage.

He issued a statement in which he rather smugly congratulates himself and his diocese for being consummately inclusive, while at the same time lauding same-sex couples whose "marriage is an exclusive loving commitment". Odd, really: if unrestrained inclusion is good enough for the bishop and his diocese, why isn't it good enough for same-sex couples?

So far, two liberal bishops -- Chapman and Bishop Michael A. Bird of Niagara -- have wailed, gnashed their teeth, and profusely apologized for this decision. Oddly enough, we haven't heard from any conservative bishops?

*****

From the Diocese of Egypt comes this word on this years' Good Friday offering from The Episcopal Church.

Egyptian Archbishop Mouneer Anis wrote, "It has come to our attention that the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church (USA) has recently issued a Lenten appeal asking the churches of TEC to remember the Good Friday offering for Jerusalem and the Middle East. In this appeal he said "this tradition [The Good Friday Offering] is decades old and is an important statement of our solidarity with the members of the four dioceses of the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East.

"I would like to clarify the fact that the Diocese of Egypt with North of Africa and the Horn of Africa, one of the four dioceses of the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East does not receive funds or grants from the Good Friday offering of the Episcopal Church (TEC) in the USA. The decision not to receive these funds came after the 2003 decision by TEC to consecrate as bishop a divorced man living in a homosexual relationship. The decision not to receive money from TEC is one expression of the reality that the Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa was (and still is) in an impaired relationship with The Episcopal Church."

One of our clergy in Ethiopia states our situation in graphic terms: "We rather starve and not receive money from churches whose actions contradict the scriptures."

*****

Atheist scientist Hugh Ross finds God and becomes a Christian. Watch this video: https://youtu.be/tnm4-lzKWVk Pass this along to a young person who might be wrestling with issues of science and faith.

*****

Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo, former head of the Barnabas Fund UK is appealing his conviction to the highest court in England, for sexual assault and witness intimidation. This is a costly and taxing process. Because he is no longer part of Barnabas Fund, he cannot be supported, or viewed as being supported financially by the organization.

An account has been set up to channel support to Patrick and his wife. The details are as shown below.

Account name: Reconciliation Trust
Account number: 9071280902
Sort Code: 20-84-56
Ref: Patrick Sookhdeo

You can see my story about Dr. Sookhdeo - http://www.virtueonline.org/dr-patrick-sookhdeo-story-behind-story-trial-guilty-verdict-and-public-vilification

*****

Egyptian Bishop Ghais Malek died this past week, reports Egyptian Archbishop Mouneer Anis. He was 86. During his last two months, he suffered from pneumonia, a minor stroke and other complications. Bishop Ghais was known for his compassionate pastoral care, servant leadership and love for all. He will always be remembered as a faithful man of God, who revived the Episcopal Anglican Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa, which he led from 1984 to 2000.
He promoted the community development services within the diocese, as well as educational and health services. He worked hard to strengthen our ecumenical relations and initiated our interfaith dialogue with Al-Azhar in 1999, with then Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey.

*****

We really need your help. The winter months are lean times for funds to keep us afloat, but the bills still have to be paid.

Thousands of you go daily to VOL's website and thousands more receive VOL's weekly digest of stories, but only a handful ever make a contribution to keep the news coming into your e-mail. Please consider a tax-deductible donation to keep the news flowing. You can send a check to:

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Thank you for your support.

David

The mantra of the culturally attuned liberalism within Anglicanism is one of celebrating and ensuring 'inclusion'. At first sight this might seem to be fulfil some of the conditions of Jesus' invitation to unity. The difficulty is, as we have seen and known for some while, that inclusion does not mean what it says. Rather it means the reconfiguration of different sets of values. --- Gavin Ashenden

The only hope for this country is God. We have taken God out of the political debate. We've taken Him out of the public space. And I want to put Him back in. --- Franklin Graham

There can be no true walking together with those [TEC] who persistently refuse to walk in accordance with God's Word and the Anglican Church of Kenya will not therefore be participating in the forthcoming meeting of the ACC in Lusaka. -- Archbishop Eliud Wabukala

I suggest that we are now firmly in the final phase of a three-stage devolution of Holy Scripture, common in mainline Protestantism. Every Protestant expression of the Christian faith has in its origins a regard for the Bible as its norm; were we feeling especially confident, we might say it in Latin: the norma normans (the "norming norm"). But somewhere -- perhaps in the second half of the previous century -- that norm quietly became a resource. The norm became a resource because we are not naïve. We understand that there is no simple, unproblematic movement from biblical text to contemporary world, and so we hedged. It may have been a hedge born of courage or honesty, but, nonetheless, Scripture became a resource, a normed norm (norma normata), albeit with no shared norming criterion. --- Garwood Anderson

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
March 11, 2016

DISCONNECT. If there is a single word to describe the political, spiritual and ecclesial malaise in this country, it is the word disconnect. This week the folk in Michigan, good, sensible, mid-western people, said they either wanted Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders for president. Whatever you may think of their choices, there is only one word to describe their behavior and choices -- disconnect.

People feel disconnected economically and politically; from Washington; the president and from America's institutions that supposedly support them. They are fearful, angry, and they hate the other side with a passion. They feel disconnected.

The same is going on in America's churches. For over 50 years, liberals, progressives and revisionists cut and diced the mainline churches over a social gospel that was no gospel, and then went right over the cliff, embracing pansexuality. When people up and leave, their leaders seem bewildered that fewer and fewer are buying what they are selling. It's called disconnect. The decline of Protestantism and the rise of the Nones is another sign of disconnect.

The Episcopal Church's new presiding Bishop, Michael Curry, has come up with the idea of TEC embracing the "Jesus Movement." No one know really knows what it means, where it comes from, or what do with it, except that somehow it is tied to racism. It begs the question what was Jefferts Schori's tenure all about if it wasn't the Jesus Movement. (Her specialty was running up millions on lawsuits). Curry has hauled it out of thin air, and wants everyone to get on board. That's called disconnect.

This week the Anglican Communion Institute, a group of scholarly Episcopalians, produced a paper titled Anguish and Amnesia: The Episcopal Church and Communion and said more or less the same thing. They concluded a long peroration with these words, "Let TEC then be clear about the character of its independent life vis-à-vis a bona fide historical reality called the Anglican Communion. Let it seek to clarify its present self-understanding. Let it speak this out clearly so that the larger Communion can hear and understand who TEC now wants to be, and in just this way, how it wants to differentiate itself vis-à-vis the historical Communion's evolution and present life. There is no need for too much sensitivity, but only clarity about its new self-understanding." Heaven forbid that these talking heads should use such words as heresy or apostasy to apply to TEC.

TEC doesn't seem to get it hence the disconnect between fantasy and reality.

*****

As a sign of the continued disconnectedness and brokenness in the communion, The Anglican Church of Kenya and the Anglican Church in Uganda both announced that they would not participate in the upcoming ACC Meeting in Lusaka, Zambia.

The Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) was pinning its hopes of bringing and keeping everyone at the table, but already two, and possibly more GFACON primates, have bowed out, saying that godly restoration has not occurred in the communion, and they are staying home.

They also say that the Primates' inability to enforce their "consequences" for the Episcopal Church in the United States has made their decision not to attend irreversible.

In their January communique, the Primates required that, for three years, the Episcopal Church, "while participating in the internal bodies of the Anglican Communion . . . , will not take part in decision-making on any issues pertaining to doctrine or polity".

The chairman of the ACC, the Rt. Rev. James Tengatenga, said that the Primates did not have the "power to take the next step". It was the "right and responsibility" of delegates of the Episcopal Church in the US to vote at the ACC meeting.

He was speaking to the Dean of the School of Theology of the University of the South at Sewanee.

All three representatives of the Episcopal Church have confirmed that they will attend and vote at the meeting in Lusaka, from 8 to 19 April.

Bishop Ian Douglas (CT) said the Primates had "spiritual and pastoral significance, and not constitutional authority" and both the President of the House of Deputies, Gay Clark Jennings, and lay representative, Rosalie Simmonds Ballentine, also confirmed their intention to participate fully.

GAFCON Primates blame the Archbishop of Canterbury for not following through; it is just another betrayal, they say.

Uganda Primate Eliud Wabukala condemned what he called "a spirit of defiance against biblical faith and order", which had "infected the structures and leadership of the Anglican Communion".

The President-Bishop of the Province of Jerusalem & the Middle East, Dr Mouneer Anis, and the Area Bishop for the Horn of Africa, Dr Grant LeMarquand, issued a reminder to the Episcopal Church that the diocese of Egypt with North of Africa and the Horn of Africa did not accept money from it. This was "one expression" of the "impaired relationship". The statement ended with words from a priest in Ethiopia: "We [would] rather starve and not receive money from Churches whose actions contradict the scriptures."

That's called disconnect! What about impaired communion does TEC not understand? What about broken communion does TEC not understand? A deeper question is, does the Archbishop of Canterbury see what is going on and can he connect the dots, or is he just as disconnected!

You cannot square the circle. It's called disconnect. You cannot lift the Law of Non-Contradiction. That's called disconnect. In the end, it will be that disconnectedness that will bring down the whole TEC house of cards, perhaps even the communion itself.

You can read a number of stories about the terrible damage done by western pansexual progressivists, including a very fine commentary by the Rev. Dr. Gavin Ashenden, in today's digest.

*****

The General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada (ACoC) will meet in July, 2016, in Toronto. And they will agonize over whether to approve homosexual marriage.

The Synod will consider a motion to amend the marriage canon to explicitly allow for the marriage of same-sex couples. Because this is a matter of doctrine and worship, it is required to have a 2/3rds majority in each of the houses of laity, clergy, and bishops. If it gets this - this is considered "First Reading" - it is then sent off to the ecclesiastical provinces and dioceses for feedback, and it will be considered for Second Reading at the next General Synod in 2019. Only then will it take effect.

The House of Bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada met in Niagara Falls recently. They issued a statement which said "it became clear to us that the draft resolution to change the Marriage Canon to accommodate the marriage of same-sex partners is not likely to pass in the Order of Bishops by the canonical requirement of a 2/3rds majority in each Order."

Apparently it is not a done deal, and, when the General Synod meets, they might just get the 2/3rds majority, according to recent reports.

But here's the kicker. Four ACoC indigenous bishops are against homosexual marriage, not because they believe it to be wrong, but because it is an expression of "colonial oppression".

That leaves the liberals in the unhappy position of having to decide who to oppress: their indigenous members or their LGBTQI members; normally, they take the easy way out and just oppress their conservative members, writes an orthodox Canadian Anglican blogger.

The Bible does offer some advice on all this, of course, but no-one in the ACoC seems particularly interested in reading it. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

The Diocese of Bor in South Sudan ended its 14-year relationship with the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis this week, citing those dreadful same-sex blessings issues that haunt the communion

Bishop Catherine Waynick noted that, in December of 2015, Sudan passed a resolution requiring that no formal partnerships can be sustained with Dioceses where such blessings occur.

"I received a letter from Bishop Ruben Akurdid in mid-February, explaining their position, and thanking me for the partnership we were able to have for these many years. I have responded with a letter expressing my deep disappointment, my hope that in the future such partnerships will again be possible, and assuring him that our hearts and doors are always open to him and our brothers and sisters in Bor."

Won't happen, of course. The Anglican Communion is moving inexorably towards fragmentation, if not open schism, and TEC is going to be the loser. The Diocese of Indianapolis is living in denial.

*****

The Queen does not believe in gay marriage, and doesn't believe it should have been allowed, a source told the Daily Mail this week. The newspaper cites a "friend" as saying she favored civil partnerships, but because of her deep Christian faith, did not support same-sex marriage. This is because she believes the traditional Christian teaching that marriage should be between a man and a woman.

Same-sex marriage legislation was passed in England and Wales in 2013, and came into force in 2014. It was passed in Scotland in 2014. It is still not allowed in Northern Ireland.

The friend said: "I said to her, couldn't she do something about it, and she replied: 'I can't. I can only advise and warn.'" The Queen reportedly told her friend she was frustrated, but powerless to intervene.

Buckingham Palace did not comment because it never comments on what are regarded as private matters.

*****

FORWARD IN FAITH -- UK (FIFUK), which opposes women bishops, announced this week that over 300 parishes have already passed a resolution under the House of Bishops' Declaration, which results in them receiving episcopal oversight from a member of the Council of Bishops of The Society. The majority had been petitioning parishes under the former Act of Synod, but a significant number previously had only Resolutions A and B or had no resolution at all.

Parishes that have not yet passed the new resolution have just over eight months to do so before the existing resolutions and petitions lapse. (Resolutions can, of course, be passed later, but, where resolutions are already in place, the new resolution should be passed before 17 November 2016, to avoid a hiatus.)

In January 2015, Forward in Faith published a booklet containing advice to parish priests and PCCs on passing resolutions under the Declaration. A second edition has now been published and is available on the Advice page of the Forward in Faith website or in print from the office. In addition to some minor adjustments, the second edition includes a new section setting out the steps that need to be taken after a resolution has been passed. This has been drafted in the light of parishes' experience of communication with dioceses about resolutions.

The Advice page also includes
a draft Resolution and Statement as a Word file,
a checklist for chairmen and secretaries of PCCs,
a sheet for calculating dates by which notice must be given before the PCC meeting,
a table for calculating the majority required to pass a resolution, and
a leaflet for PCC members.

See more at: http://www.forwardinfaith.com/news.php#sthash.6LhqoQtk.dpuf

*****

The Archbishop of Canterbury visited a refugee camp in Rwanda on March 6, after a three-day visit to Burundi, to show solidarity with Anglicans and pray for peace and reconciliation. Archbishop Justin Welby toured the Mahama Camp in the Kibungo Diocese of Rwanda, where almost 50,000 refugees -- all from Burundi -- have fled.

The Archbishop, together with Archbishop Onesphore Rwaje, the Archbishop of Rwanda, briefly toured the camp and then participated in a service for the refugees.

Mahama Camp is the UNHCR's newest camp in Rwanda and, in only four months since opening in April 2015, has become the country's largest camp.

*****

For two years, ISIS has been terrorizing Christians and other religious minorities in Syria and Iraq.

In one week, Secretary of State John Kerry will have to tell Congress whether the United States will officially label ISIS' actions a "genocide."

Many Christian groups have been ratcheting up the pressure for such a declaration. Today, the Knights of Columbus released "encyclopedic evidence" for Christian genocide in the Middle East at a press conference in Washington, D.C.

"If Christians are excluded from the classification of genocide, we will be responsible for a greater and more ruthless campaign of persecution against them," said Bishop Angaelos of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom, one of this morning's speakers at the National Press Club. "We cannot declare genocide for Yazidis and not Christians if they are suffering the safe fate at the hands of the same perpetrators at the same time under the same conditions."

"I share just a huge sense of revulsion over these acts, obviously," Kerry told a House Appropriations Subcommittee two weeks ago. "We are currently doing what I have to do, which is review very carefully the legal standards and precedents for whatever judgment is made."

Meanwhile, the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted last week to pass two resolutions: one calling for support of the creation of an international war crimes tribunal to prosecute those involved in Syria, and the other calling the crimes perpetrated by ISIS against Christians and other minorities there "war crimes,""crimes against humanity," and "genocide."

*****

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have called for a "great wave of prayer" for the evangelization of England. In an "unprecedented step", Justin Welby and John Sentamu have written to every parish priest in the Church of England, inviting churches across the country to take part in the focused prayer initiative, in the week leading up to Pentecost Sunday.

They say they want "to see a great wave of prayer across our land, throughout the Church of England and many other Churches" from 8 to 15 May. At the end of the week, a number of "beacon" events will be held -- at St Paul's Cathedral in London, on Saturday 14 May; and at Durham, Coventry, Winchester, and Canterbury Cathedrals and St Michael le Belfrey in York, on Sunday 15 May.

These beacon events, led by renowned worship leaders and preachers, will provide space for people to "pray for the renewal of the Holy Spirit and the confidence to share their faith," a spokesman for Lambeth Palace said.

Archbishop Justin will send a message via live video link to other beacon events taking place at the same time as the Canterbury event.

"At the heart of our prayers will be words that Jesus himself taught us -- 'Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,'" the two archbishops said in their letter to clergy.

*****

Despite what it sounds like on the campaign trail, Americans of all religious backgrounds are opposed to curtailing freedoms for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. While Marco Rubio states that "...faith-based people...are being compelled to sin by government in their business conduct" and Ted Cruz is calling 2016 the "religious liberty election," statistics show a more complicated relationship between American religion and LGBT issues. A majority of Americans - across the religious spectrum - think that people should not be fired from a job, denied housing or evicted from their home simply because they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.

While more than 50% of white evangelical Protestants and Mormons do support Religious Refusal bills, every other American religious group - including Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Muslims - oppose them. Moreover, majorities in every single American religious group - including white evangelical Protestants and Mormons - would support legislation protecting LGBT individuals from discrimination in jobs, public accommodations, and housing.

The Public Religion Research Institute, drawing on 42,000 interviews conducted in 2015, issued a recent report showing that even among religious groups that oppose same-sex marriage, a majority support legal protections for LGBT people and do not believe that small business owners in their states should be able to refuse products or services to gay or lesbian people on religious grounds. Even where their religion has been vocal in opposing same sex marriage, a majority of Americans (53%) support it.

The survey comes in the wake of a slew of anti-LGBT religious refusal bills being proposed at the state level which would allow businesses to refuse services to LGBT people and eliminate the ability of local governments to protect LGBT residents and visitors through non-discrimination ordinances.

On the national scene, the conservative American Principles Project approached all of the presidential hopefuls late last year to endorse the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA), hoping to get their pledge to support legislation during their first 100 days in the White House that would, according to the ACLU, "permit government employees to discriminate against married same-sex couples and their families - federal employees could refuse to process tax returns, visa applications, or Social Security checks for all married same-sex couples, and allow businesses to discriminate by refusing to let gay or lesbian employees care for their sick spouse, in violation of family medical leave laws."

The act goes beyond affecting just LGBT people: it would allow landlords to refuse housing to a single mother on the religious grounds that sexual relations must only occur within the bounds of marriage. Six of the Republican candidates pledged to back the act, and three more have endorsed similar ideas. No Republican candidate has publicly opposed the bill.

But the findings of the Public Religion Research Institute reveal that it is no longer possible to make blanket assumptions that people who affiliate themselves with a religious institution will support legislation that legalizes discrimination against LGBT individuals and families. When 73% of Catholics, 72% of Mormons, and 57% of white, Evangelical Protestants support LGBT nondiscrimination laws, we begin to see a more complex picture of religion in America.

*****

BEST FICTIONAL WRITING OF THE WEEK comes from Victoria Carodine of The Eckerd College Currant in St. Petersburg, FL. "Jefferts Schori pushed through efforts by church officials to undermine her authority and advocated for social issues. She blessed same-sex marriage unions, civil marriages and stood up for abortion rights....Jefferts Schori's leadership rescued the church from institutional demise -- an accomplishment for anyone, much more so a woman leader constantly facing down discrimination.

"As a presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church the United States, she has been a voice for the voiceless and a champion for social justice and equality. She is someone we all can admire and want to emulate in terms of her lived commitments." Ms. Carodine gets a free subscription to VIRTUEONLINE for her commendable, but fictional lines.

*****

New Wineskins for Global Mission Conference 2016 is upcoming April 7-10, at Ridgecrest Conference Center East of Asheville, NC. Speakers and Anglican leaders from around the world, and missionaries from many agencies, are coming to New Wineskins 2016, to inspire and equip clergy, lay leaders, youth ministers, mission mobilizers, potential missionaries, and entire congregations to fulfill our Lord's Great Commission to make disciples of all nations. Participants from 34 states and provinces in the U.S, Canada, and 53 other countries have attended previous New Wineskins conferences, which are still bearing fruit, as churches are mobilizing youth, sending missionaries, and reaching out to Muslims, Hispanics, Jews, refugees and international students in their area. Bring a team from your church to this encouraging, eye-opening, and life-changing conference!

Among primates present, is The Most Rev. Dr. Tito Zavala, Archbishop of the Province of South America and Bishop of Chile, who will be the Celebrant at the Closing Eucharist on Sunday morning. He is also leading a workshop on Making the Great Commission a Reality in the Parish.

You can register here: https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07ebdgudxk5d0661f0&oseq=&c=&ch=&utm_source=Master+List&utm_campaign=a719870dd1-The_Mid-Atlantic_Messenger_March_10%2C_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6ef69f053c-a719870dd1-75219454

*****

TEC TRUST FUNDS. If you ever wondered how much money there is in TEC's Trust Funds and where TEC gets its money for all the lawsuits it files, well, this might help. The Episcopal Church Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer N. Kurt Barnes announced that the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society's (DFMS) trust funds, had $380 million in 2014, citing an "exceptional performance" during the first six months of 2014. The trust funds account for 25% of the annual budget, he said. So spending $40 or $50 million is really no big deal.

*****

We only ask for a working budget to keep VOL coming into your e-mail inbox every week and for stories posted daily to the website.

Thousands of you go daily to VOL's website and thousands more receive VOL's weekly digest of stories, but only a handful ever make a contribution to keep the news coming into your e-mail. Please consider a tax-deductible donation to keep the news flowing. You can send a check to:

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Thank you for your support.

David

The Church of Nigeria shall be in full communion with all Anglican Churches, Dioceses and Provinces that hold and maintain the Historic Faith, Doctrine, Sacrament and Discipline of the one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church as the Lord has commanded in His holy word and as the same are received as taught in the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal of 1662 and in the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion. --- Archbishop Nicholas Okoh

"Anyone who calls women 'pigs,''ugly,''fat' and 'pieces of a - -' is not on my side. Anyone who mocks the handicapped is not on my side. Anyone who has argued the merits of a government takeover of banks, student loans, the auto industry and healthcare is not on my side. Anyone who has been on the cover of Playboy and proud of it, who brags of his sexual history with multiple women and who owns strip clubs in his casinos is not on my side. ... Anyone who ignores the separation of powers and boasts of making the executive branch even more imperial is not on my side." -- Oklahoma Wesleyan University President Everett Piper

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
March 18, 2016

It is the most stinging rebuke to date of The Episcopal Church by the leader of another Anglican province. Nigerian Primate Nicholas Okoh lashed out at the Episcopal Church in language we have not seen since he lit into out-going Archbishop Rowan Williams following his disastrous tenure as head of the Anglican Communion. At that time, Okoh ripped the Archbishop of Canterbury, saying his sudden resignation left behind a Communion in tatters: highly polarized, bitterly factionalized, with issues of revisionist interpretation of the Holy Scriptures and human sexuality as stumbling blocks to oneness.

This time he went after The Episcopal Church in language reminiscent of that, and revealing that it is now only a matter of time before a split is inevitable in the Anglican Communion. He said that at Canterbury, he and his fellow African archbishops were denounced, yes denounced as homophobic, making them feel that they were in the wrong place. If that is true, why didn't Archbishop Justin Welby stop the proceedings and denounce the behavior of archbishops like TEC Presiding Bishop Michael Curry or Archbishop Fred Hiltz of Canada. Why?

Okoh went on to accuse TEC's Michael Curry and, by association, Welby, of using "patience" with the ultimate goal of embracing the homosexual doctrine. In other words, delay, delay and delay till everybody is on board. This is just what Philip Groves of the so-called "Listening Process" just loves to hear. His American paymasters will pay him endlessly till all are on board.

But that's not all. Archbishop Okoh went on to say that the Africans were walking into "a well-rehearsed scheme to gradually apply persuasion, subtle blackmail, coercion on any group still standing with the Scriptural Provision as we know it, to join the straight jacket of the revisionists and be politically correct. Somehow, they are succeeding!"

And you thought I was being tough on sodomists, progressives and revisionists all these years. Well you ain't seen nuthin' yet. We need a "Special Status", said Okoh for orthodox Anglicans, but that won't necessarily work either. As long as you are seated anywhere near a so-called "progressive" archbishop, he will use all his coercive powers to persuade you to come on over, even if his own province is dying.

Okoh concluded his blast with these words; "In summary, as long as we are now candidates for whom every opportunity in the Anglican Communion should be explored to gradually teach us to embrace the new sex culture, it will be unwise to deliberately walk into a well-prepared camp of recruitment, blackmail, indoctrination and toxic relationship."

Of course, he won't be attending the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Lusaka, Zambia in April, and neither will his fellow archbishops from Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. The boycott could widen. Okoh wrote that the Anglican Communion's journey is very uncertain for the orthodox. You can read the full story in today's digest or here: http://tinyurl.com/h68kkeo

The ACC (one of four instruments of unity) is now irrelevant. Normally I would attend these ACC events, but I have decided not to; the first time in 15 years.

*****

TEC's House of Bishops met in Camp Allen, Texas this week and hidden among the proposals under consideration was this choice morsel; Consideration of a proposed resolution announcing that bishops "reserve the right" to withhold consent for the consecration of bishops elected in processes that did not include a requisite number of women and persons of color. The matter was deferred until the next meeting of the House.

So what this means is that Dead White Males (DWM) are no longer welcome or wanted if a woman, or a 'person of color', wants the job ahead of White Privileged males. This goes along with Curry's rant against racism and White Privilege, and evangelizing white folk out of their latent, and not so latent, racism. Perhaps someone should have stood up and given a short history of what happened in the Diocese of Maryland where a besotted woman bishop killed a man on a bicycle, and then left the scene. She's doing time for her sins. Political correctness might yet kill TEC.

PS. Curry will still not name the racists in the Episcopal Church! Bearing in mind that two-thirds of the Episcopal Church are women over 60, with most doing altar guild work, one wonders if the blue rinse generation have ever uttered a racist slur in their lives. Curry is beating a dead horse and evangelizing the wrong crowd. And, for God's sake, who would want to join the Episcopal Church if you are white and privileged, and then be told that you are a racist in need of anti-racism training and please bring your check book!

Now the HOB did approve the following Word to the Church...without naming names of course, but I think we know WHO they were talking about.

"We reject the idolatrous notion that we can ensure the safety of some by sacrificing the hopes of others.

"On Good Friday the ruling political forces of the day tortured and executed an innocent man. They sacrificed the weak and the blameless to protect their own status and power. On the third day Jesus was raised from the dead, revealing not only their injustice but also unmasking the lie that might makes right.

In a country still living under the shadow of the lynching tree, we are troubled by the violent forces being released by this season's political rhetoric. Americans are turning against their neighbors, particularly those on the margins of society. They seek to secure their own safety and security at the expense of others. There is legitimate reason to fear where this rhetoric, and the actions arising from it, might take us.

In this moment, we resemble God's children wandering in the wilderness. We, like they, are struggling to find our way. They turned from following God and worshiped a golden calf constructed from their own wealth. The current rhetoric is leading us to construct a modern false idol out of power and privilege. We reject the idolatrous notion that we can ensure the safety of some by sacrificing the hopes of others. No matter where we fall on the political spectrum, we must respect the dignity of every human being and we must seek the common good above all else."

I think the two persons referred to here (but not by name) were Donald and Jesus, and the two should not be confused. In case you were wondering, the reference to one who was "tortured and executed" is Jesus, not Trump. Jesus "had nowhere to lay his head," (Luke 9:58; Mt. 8:20). Donald has many mansions including a plane with many gold fittings.

"We call for prayer for our country that a spirit of reconciliation will prevail and we will not betray our true selves," said the bishops. Who whom?

*****

After eight years of stand-in bishops in the Diocese of Pennsylvania still in recovery from the toxic Charles Bennison, the Diocese of Pennsylvania has finally elected a new bishop. He was a surprise choice -- the Canon to the Ordinary of the Diocese of the Rio Grande, one Daniel G.P. Gutierrez. The former Roman Catholic rides in on the white horse of Liberation theology and, of course, is pro-gay, as is the diocese he is leaving.

But here's the irony. Charles E. Bennison hated and loathed evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics and he once told a couple who wanted to obtain holy orders in his diocese, that if they attended Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in Ambridge to study, he would make sure they would never got parishes in his diocese. They left, never to return.

Bennison himself was later forced out of the diocese by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, through a new General Convention Canon. It was said that Bennison's toxicity in the diocese was so great, that had he been dumped live in the Delaware River, fish would have died.

Irony of ironies, Gutierrez holds a diocesan certificate in Anglican studies from Trinity School for Ministry! God just might have a sense of humor after all. You can read the full story in today's digest. One positive note is that he is married to a woman, which is necessary to say these days, just in case you thought the diocese might be getting another Gene Robinson or Mary Glasspool. Apparently not. We will have to wait to see if he is not really the Second Coming of Bennison. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

A Church of England sex abuse victim was repeatedly snubbed when he attempted to raise the matter with the Archbishop of Canterbury's office, a damning report has found.

The man, who was abused by two senior members of the clergy more than 30-years ago, attempted to alert Justin Welby on at least 18 occasions, both in writing and by telephone, but was persistently ignored, causing further pain and trauma.

An independent review into his case concluded there had been a string of "deeply disturbing" failures by senior Church of England figures to take his concerns seriously.

It revealed that he had repeatedly sought to bring the details to the attention of the Archbishop in 2015, but had been left "angry and frustrated" by the lack of response.

We should have been swifter to listen, to believe and to act. This report is deeply uncomfortable for the Church of England, said the Bishop of Crediton, Sarah Mullally.

The review concluded: "The Archbishop of Canterbury, as head of the Church of England, is not in a position where he could be expected to reply personally to each safeguarding concern that is received by his office, no matter how deserving they may be."

*****

Statistics indicate that in the Anglican Church of Canada there are now fewer donors giving larger sums of money. Declining membership has meant fewer contributors. Many of the church's donors are 65 and older, according to Archbishop Fred Hiltz talking to general Synod this week. "Our focus should be on those near the end of their working lives or about to retire, who have less debt and more to give. Research has consistently shown that those who have potential to make large gifts to the Anglican Church of Canada and its partners such as the Primate's World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF), the Anglican Foundation of Canada, and parishes and dioceses, and who are faithful donors to the church, are far more likely to give large gifts to hospitals, universities and cultural organizations."

So, dear aging Anglican pilgrim, before they lay you out in a pine box, make out a check to keep the dysfunctional province from going under...just a little bit longer...or to pay for the columbarium they will bury your ashes in, or endless Indaba talks that go nowhere.

*****

The Marriage Canon in the Anglican Church of Canada most likely won't pass, so what's to be done? A process as trivial as voting doesn't stop liberals; if liberals don't get their own way through a vote, obviously the rules will have to change to make voting redundant. The important thing is to discern what the spirit is saying to the church - the spirit of theological liberalism, that is.

Here is what the Council of General Synod (CoGS) unanimously agreed March 12 to send to the upcoming General Synod, a draft resolution prepared by the Commission on the Marriage Canon, changing the Anglican Church of Canada's law to pave the way for same-sex marriage.

"At the same time, however, CoGS said that while it is legally obliged by General Synod 2013's Resolution C003 to send the same-sex marriage motion to General Synod 2016, it has also considered "the possibility of other options."

"In a message to the church, CoGS said, "The General Synod may discern a legislative option is not the most helpful, and if so, we faithfully hope that through dialogue at General Synod an alternate way will emerge."

"CoGS did not indicate what these "other options" might be, but the message was clearly a response to an earlier statement it received from the House of Bishops that a vote to allow same-sex marriage was "not likely to pass in the Order of Bishops." In their statement to CoGS, the bishops had also questioned whether "a legislative procedure is the most helpful way" of dealing with the issue of gay marriage.

"In its statement to the church, CoGS also said, "We recommend the greatest pastoral response possible, allowing same-sex couples to be fully included in the life of our church with full and equal access to its liturgies and pastoral offices."

The wording of this last sentence was cause for much debate on the floor of the Council when it was presented to members for approval. The original draft had read, "We must permit the greatest pastoral response possible, allowing same-sex couples to be fully included in the life of our church with full and equal access to its liturgies and pastoral offices," and some CoGS members felt this came too close to telling General Synod how it should vote.

All this got up Archbishop Fred Hiltz's robes, and he brought forth that he is tired of talking about sex. "Hard to believe, I know", said Samizdat blogger David.

Here is what Hiltz said; "I long for a time in our church when there is as much attention and conviction and passion and voice and action from the rooftops about sexual exploitation, about gender-based violence, human trafficking for the sex trade, missing and murdered Indigenous women, pornography, religiously-based violence around the world, our violence against creation itself, and the greed and the reckless consumption that drives it."

The irony in all this is that Hiltz's wants to direct the passions of the Anglican Church of Canada towards things over which it has absolutely no influence, no control and no expertise in, while at the same time being unable to come to a decision on whether to change its own marriage canon -- something that has been a church's specialty for 2000 years.

A fitting parable of ecclesiastical impotence.

*****

The growing realignment in the Anglican Communion saw yet another move this week. The Diocese of South Carolina is considering affiliation with the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). Hail Mark, hail Foley.

The Diocese's Affiliation Task Force recommended the association during the 225th annual Diocesan Convention in Bluffton this weekend. Affiliation would require the Diocese to approve affiliation in two future conventions. More than 350 clergy and delegates representing 53 churches across the southern and coastal part of the state gathered for the convention.

Before affiliation, the Task Force will host meetings throughout the Diocese to brief clergy and church members about the benefits of affiliation, and ask questions about the possible move. You can read more in today's digest.

By contrast, the faux Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina got a visit from PB Curry this weekend, and considered what their options might be. Charles vonRosenberg is about to retire and a committee noted if the diocese (or what's left of it) wants a full-time bishop, it would require a diocesan budget of $800,000-$1,000,000, compared with the current 2016 budget of $471,737. That would mean most congregations would have to significantly increase what they are giving to support the diocese. Here are their options.
· Elect a part-time bishop.
· Continue with a part-time provisional bishop.
· Create a new diocese by re-unification with Upper South Carolina. This would require approval from both dioceses, but not General Convention approval, because historically the two entities were formed out of one diocese.

A little history might help. When the Diocese of Quincy collapsed after the orthodox bailed, the remnant liberals were merged into the Diocese of Chicago by Bishop Jeffrey Lee. One suspects that the fate of South Carolina will be the same.

*****

Rushing to judgement in sex abuse cases can prove both dangerous and destructive if the charges turn out not to be true. This is true in England where there is no statute of limitations, and guilt is presumed the moment a charge is made.

I have written about this in another case I am following, and now the former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey has come out, slamming the Church of England for destroying the reputation of George Bell. An article by Rachel Millard, in the Argus newspaper, outlines Carey's anger at the destruction of the reputation of Bishop Bell, over a settled claim of child sex abuse.
Rachel or the girl was five at the time, and alleges she was abused by Bell.

Lord Carey said he was "appalled" at the way the church had treated the memory of the revered late wartime bishop, and was looking for "ways of re-opening" the case of the former head of the Church of England in Sussex.

Suggesting Bell had been 'crushed' by a 'powerful organization', Lord Carey said he had been denied the right to a fair trial and had questioned the church's approach, but been told to keep things 'low-key'.

Last October, the Church of England announced it had settled the claim, formally lodged in April 2014, after expert reports gave them "no reason to doubt" its veracity.

*****

Divided evangelicals can't agree, but the Lord will tell born-again Christians whom to vote for as they step into the polling booth, the Orlando Sentinel revealed this week. It's troubling how many politicians find religion, or avoid the topic during an election cycle. When Ronald Reagan swept the presidential election with a great evangelical turnout, thanks to the Moral Majority movement, it embedded a strategy in the Republican Party of moral standing right to this day.

Although solidly aligned once again, evangelicals are deeply divided over which candidate to choose in the GOP primaries. They're greatly alarmed that a pontificating, coarse businessman is leading the establishment candidates thus far. Donald Trump thunders at institutions and proven leaders alike. He wants to build gigantic border walls and tear thousands of immigrant families apart, regardless of their contribution to this society. He is an anathema to born-again Christians, who will not vote for him.

Ted Cruz has amassed a great following, but is mistrusted by his fellow Republicans due to his tea-party leanings.

You also see a shift to the center by many evangelicals due to the in-fighting and weaknesses of this current group of candidates. People are really nervous about more politicians freezing the government and accomplishing nothing. We're swiftly losing the identity of a Christian nation and losing sight of the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Ask a born-again Christian whom he's going to vote for, and the answer will always be, "The Lord will tell me."

*****

The Rev. Dr. Albert Mohler on God's design for male and female. You can watch it here. Mohler is a Southern Baptist leader, and one of the sanest voices in American evangelicalism today. You can watch this video with total safety.
http://www.ligonier.org/learn/daily-video/2016/03/11/gods-design-for-male-female/

*****

So you want to know how "Obergefell" really happened. Without a doubt, Obergefell was crammed down our throats, as were all the lower court decisions that overturned 34 state laws and constitutional changes voted upon by citizens.

But, it is hard to see that Obergefell would have ever happened if the ground had not been prepared, if those five Supreme Court justices could not at least delude themselves into thinking that a great societal sea change had occurred.

Homosexuals like to give themselves credit for changing America's mind, that the ground for Obergefell was prepared by their personal interaction with everyday Americans, that they are in fact everywhere and just like us.

They argue that we changed our minds because of our own personal experiences with all the homosexuals we know personally; those we are friends with; our own sons, daughters, cousins, dads, and uncles who are happily, and charmingly, and certainly non-threateningly homosexual.
While it is plausible that Americans changed their minds about homosexuals, we certainly did not change our minds about their agenda, that is, marriage, adoption, and the revocation of religious freedom.

But all this mind-changing did not occur because of our personal interaction with individual homosexuals. According to the most reliable data from the Center for Disease Control, there are a few million--3.7 million to be exact--adult homosexuals in the United States. Each of these 3.7 million would have to be out and proud and, more than that, friends with an average of 63 other adults who are not same-sex attracted. Gays may be social, but they aren't that social.

So, how did all this happen? How did America supposedly become so cozy with the gays? Television, followed by news coverage, relentless, never ending news coverage of their every utterance and hangnail. You can read the full story in today's digest. Television has crippled the minds of millions of Americans. It is making them think in soundbites, and tweeting is only making it worse. We are raising a generation of thoughtless illiterates unable to think rationally or think at all about life and death issues. God help America.

*****

The unveiling of "An Evangelical Manifesto," in 2008, drafted by social critic and author Os Guinness, with the affirmation of a nine-person steering committee, is a document with a clear articulation of the gospel in the Reformation tradition, exhorting evangelicals to more faithfully live out the gospel in the culture as politically engaged followers of Jesus Christ. You can read it here: http://www.anevangelicalmanifesto.com/ or the full document here: http://www.anevangelicalmanifesto.com/docs/Evangelical_Manifesto.pdf
VOL believes it is the best statement on what it means to be an evangelical, especially in today's environment.

*****

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And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. -- I Cor. 15: 14 (KJV)

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March 27, 2016

Slowly but surely the noose is being tightened around the neck of The Episcopal Church and the Archbishop of Canterbury as new revelations pour out from Global South primates who tell a different story about what actually happened in Canterbury earlier this year.

It is becoming clearer by the week that the Anglican Communion was being sold a bill of goods about what went on and it is coming to a head over the upcoming Lusaka meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council where a number of Anglican Primates are publicly boycotting the event.

The most vocal is Nigerian Primate Nicholas Okoh, who said that he and his fellow primates were lambasted in Canterbury for being homophobic, and that the tactic of "patience" was designed solely to keep everyone at the table and to turn gullible primates into pro-gay shills for Western pansexualist archbishops like Michael Curry and Fred Hiltz.

The Nigerian Archbishop blasted the Episcopal Church and those who would "join the straight jacket of the revisionists and be politically correct," arguing that they are succeeding. He then tore the Episcopal Church claiming they were engaging in a campaign to walk orthodox Anglicans into "a well-rehearsed scheme to apply persuasion, subtle blackmail and coercion against those still standing with the Scriptures" on human sexuality.

As a result, he will not attend the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Lusaka next month.

He was soon followed by the archbishops of Kenya and Uganda, who also said they would not attend the Lusaka gabfest largely because they learned that TEC would not be stopped from engaging in talks and discussion on matters of faith and doctrine as they were ordered not to do in Canterbury.

The Archbishop of Kenya, Eliud Wabukala says in a letter to the ABC that he cannot heed his plea for him to attend next month's meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in Lusaka because promises made at the recent Primates' Meeting in Canterbury to restrict the participation of the Episcopal Church in the Anglican Communion because of its liberal stance on homosexuality have not been kept.

The so-called "instruments" of communion are "not being used so much as instruments of unity but as instruments to cajole orthodox Global South provinces of the Communion into acquiescence with the secular sexual culture which has made such inroads into the Anglican Churches of the West," he writes in a letter to his province.

Wabukala acknowledges the Archbishop of Canterbury's recognition of the need for "repentance and confession".

"But there does not seem to be any recognition that homosexual activity is a matter for repentance by those speaking on behalf of the London based Anglican Communion authorities. Instead there are only calls to repent of 'homophobia', a term which is seriously compromised by the way homosexual activists have used it to include any opposition to their agenda."

The inability to recognize that the acceptance of homosexual activity calls for repentance is now "entrenched", he says.

Desperate for a win, Archbishop Justin Welby wrote a private letter (which VOL obtained) urging all the primates to attend Lusaka, saying they will be electing a new Chairman, and such a position should be someone who speaks the truth in love and seeks to unite the Communion in truth-filled service to Jesus Christ, and not to uphold any particular group at the expense of the Common Good, so long as we are within acceptable limits of diversity. He says "any particular group" but which group -- the revisionist archbishops or the GAFCON Primates? And what exactly are "acceptable limits of diversity"? will Welby publicly reject sodomy as evil behavior in the sight of the Lord, or will he complicitly side with Western pan-Anglican revisionists and keep talking about homophobia when he and we know that is notremotely the problem.

Why should the Global South Primates trust him anymore, if what we now know what happened in Canterbury is not the spin he put on it.

I urge you to read two fine commentary pieces on this in today's digest. The first is by Phil Ashey of the American Anglican Council, "FOOL ME ONCE, SHAME ON YOU...." and the other is by Bishop Bill Atwood, "High Noon at Lusaka".

Atwood writes; "We don't yet know what will happen in Lusaka, but I can say that one way or another, it will cast the die for the future of the Anglican Communion. By early in May, we should be able to predict with some degree of accuracy what the Communion will look like. One thing is certain. There will be a huge, robust fellowship around GAFCON (the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans). There will be a wonderful, orthodox future for those who love the Lord and the Scriptures and desire to live under their authority. How big that group will be may well be shaped largely by what happens in Lusaka."

*****

An argument is raging over what authority the primates really do have? Do they have any authority?

Western liberal voices are being raised following the January's Primates' Meeting saying they doubt the authority of the Primates have any in decision making. Some said "[It] is not a decision-making body--it's a body for Primates who come together to pray and discuss and discern and offer some guidance. They don't make resolutions." Others say, "The Primates' meeting has no jurisdiction."

Pro homosexual marriage western revisionist archbishops don't like the idea of authority because it restricts what they want to do and be, and don't want to be held accountable for their actions.

Egyptian Archbishop Mouneer Anis weighed in on the discussion and said that the Primates unequivocally do have authority, and in a brilliant essay which you can read in today's digest, he makes a clear historical case, saying that the Primates' Meeting together with the Archbishop of Canterbury carry an authority and responsibility in preserving the unity of the Communion. It is important for both of these Instruments to deal with the divisive issues at hand and especially the unilateral actions of TEC in regard to their alterations to the Anglican Communion's doctrine of marriage.

Failure to carry out the decision of the January Primates' Meeting will bring back the distrust which was there before the last meeting, the source of our impaired communion, he said.

*****

The growing alienation of the Episcopal Church from the rest of the Christian world continues to grow even as the Anglican Church in North America finds acceptance from leading Christian communities.

This week the Russian Orthodox leader, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, praised and supported the Anglican Church in North America which, he said, remains faithful to Christian ethics, while condemning the Episcopal Church, forcing his church to break off relations with the LGBT-affirming church in America.

"I would like to note once again the role played by the conservative Evangelicals in the United States as their position gives us an opportunity to continue our dialogue with Christians in America," Kirill said in the presence of evangelist Franklin Graham (son of Billy Graham), who met with Russian Orthodox leader Patriarch Kirill of Moscow earlier this week. The two discussed issues pertaining to gay marriage, the secularization in the West, and Christian persecution. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

On the Episcopal Church front, more sexual excitement this week when it was revealed that the Rt. Rev. Douglas Hahn of the Diocese of Lexington was suspended for one year from his duties as bishop after it was learned that he had a sexual relationship with an adult female parishioner and intentionally withheld this information when seeking the position of bishop. Hahn has admitted to these charges against him. He and Presiding Bishop Michael Curry reached an official "Accord" or agreement, providing for terms of the suspension.

Now the irony should not be missed. Adultery is the only sexual sin left (apart from pedophilia and bestiality) that will get you into trouble. If you are a straight white bishop and decide to sodomize a man, first you need to get divorced from your wife and then "marry" the man and then divorce the man and then wear an earring showing your availability, you will be a hero to the Church and the "Integrity" organization who will probably arrange for you to get an honorary doctorate for your sexual honesty. If you are bisexual or a transgendered, they will also make you into a hero for your diversity.

What is so ludicrous is all the committees that are set up to scrutinize wannabee bishops. People are too frightened to ask the obvious questions, like "have you ever had sex with someone who is not your wife when you were a priest, yes or no." Look what happened when no one asked the new Suffragan Bishop of Maryland Heather Cook if she had a drinking problem, even though she was spotted sloshed at an event the former PB attended just weeks before she was anointed the new Suffragan. And what about her relationship with a former TEC priest who paid her bills! For their failure, a man lies dead, his children deprived of a father. Did anyone ask any hard questions of the new bishop of Pennsylvania? The answer is no, of course. In fact the event was so controlled by diocesan handlers so as not to invite tough questions about sexuality. All soft ball stuff about process please. And you wonder why TEC gets the lowest common denominator of bishop to lead flocks of spiritually vacuous Episcopalians. The sheep are being led by unregenerate shepherds over the cliff into christless eternities and they don't even know it.

*****

If you want to get a flavor of what The Episcopal Church will look like say in 2045 then you can read a story in today's digest about the financial crunch that has hit the United Church of Christ.

IRD writer Jeff Walton documented this denomination's demise because the UCC is even more progressive than The Episcopal Church and therefore says a lot about the future of The Episcopal Church. The UCC is making big staff cuts, and there is an internal report forecasting an 80 percent decline in membership by 2045! The average age of an Episcopalian is now in the mid-Sixties. There are no millennials coming along to fill either pulpits or pews. Nearly half of all pulpits now cannot afford a full time priest.

The 60-year-old denomination announced staffing changes during the UCC Board of Directors meeting held March 17-19 in Cleveland. The changes follow the announced resignation of a top staff member in February and an internal report predicting an 80 percent decline in membership by 2045!

National setting staff has decreased from over 300 in 2000 to just over 100 today. The trajectory is just the same for The Episcopal Church.

*****

There was some good news on the Continuing Anglican Church front this week when leaders of four Continuing jurisdictions signed a letter setting a goal of full communion by 2017.

Archbishop Mark Haverland of the Anglican Catholic Church; Presiding Bishop Brian Marsh of the Anglican Church in America; The Most Rev. Walter H. Grundorf, Presiding Bishop of the Anglican Province of America and the Rt. Rev. Paul C. Hewett SSC, of the Diocese of the Holy Cross issued a joint letter agreeing to "work cooperatively , in a spirit of brotherly love and affection, to create a sacramental union and commonality of purpose that is pleasing to God and in accord with godly purpose to our respective jurisdictions". They also said they would endeavor to "hold in concert our national and provincial synods in 2017" with a goal for this meeting "to formalize a relationship of communion in sacris; and during the intervening period to work "in full accord toward that end, [seeking] ways to cooperate with each other, supporting each others' jurisdictions and communicating on a variety of ecclesiastical matters." The bishops also pledge to meet monthly by teleconferencing.

*****

A former Archbishop of Canterbury has attacked the church for destroying the reputation of Bishop George Bell over a settled claim of child sex abuse.

Lord Carey said he was "appalled" at the way the church had treated the memory of the revered late wartime bishop and was looking for "ways of re-opening" the case of the former head of the Church of England in Sussex.

Suggesting Bell had been 'crushed' by a 'powerful organization', Lord Carey said he had been denied the right to a fair trial and had questioned the church's approach but been told to keep things 'low-key'.

Last October, the Church of England announced it had settled the claim formally lodged in April 2014 after expert reports gave them "no reason to doubt" its veracity.

The British have no statute of limitations and there is a presumption of guilt when issues like this come up.

*****

SEWANEE, the University of the South, the Episcopal Church's only university, is now fully in the forefront of gay activism. According to the newspaper, The Messenger, staff writer Leslie Lytle, says that the newly formed Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) club at Franklin County High School (FCHS) attracted national attention when it held its first meeting on Jan. 19 under the direction of faculty advisor Jenny Turrell, FCHS art teacher and a resident of Sewanee.

A firestorm of comments followed on the social media outlet Facebook, both condoning and condemning the club. Said one critic, "the next thing you know they will have F.I.M.A. (Future ISIS Members of America)."

Under the 1984 Equal Access Act, all federally funded secondary schools must provide equal access to extracurricular clubs.

Citing the law, Director of Schools Amie Lonas said, "If we choose not to allow this club to be established, then we would be required to prohibit all non-curriculum clubs or give up federal funding."

The GSA "is not a recruitment tool or trying to promote an alternate lifestyle," Lonas stressed in response to critics. "It's more about tolerance and trying to treat people equally and with respect."

Right, and if you believe that, then you will believe that cows fly.

School board policy clearly prohibits "any employee or any student to discriminate against or harass a student through disparaging conduct or communication that is sexual, racial, ethnic or religious in nature."

"It's a non-sponsored program driven by students with no outside affiliation. It's important for the club to evolve as the students want it to evolve."

Parents might want to think seriously about sending their kids to Sewanee if they think they will be getting a Christian education or an education that espouses serious Christian morality. Those days are long gone apparently.

*****

Gay bullying is becoming a pastime for homosexual activists. To make their point yet again, a pro-family critic is saying homosexual activists have displayed their intolerance and bigotry towards Christianity in denouncing the raising of a Christian flag outside Newfoundland's Confederation Building in St. Johns.

St. Stephen the Martyr Anglican Network Church asked the government to raise the Christian flag to mark Easter week, where Christians commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The white flag contains a blue box with a red cross inside. The white represents Jesus' purity, the blue the waters of baptism, and the red the blood that Jesus shed to save sinners.

Premier Dwight Ball, who has participated in pride parades and various pride flag raisings, told reporters that when the Christian church first asked permission to fly the flag, no one saw it as a problem.

"The request came in asking to fly the Christian flag during Easter Week, during Holy Week. That request was granted," he said. "This was about being tolerant and open to the views of all people in the province."

But when the flag appeared on the courtesy flag pole beside Confederation Building, homosexual activists and supporters were outraged.

Gerry Rogers, MHA for St. John's Centre, went as far as saying that the flag "represents a very divisive approach to Christianity that it's homophobic, that it's against choice for women."

Homosexual activists and supporters appeared to take special aim at the Anglican church's website which links to some resources about helping homosexuals overcome same-sex attraction.

And you thought pansexualists were all about love, joy, peace and inclusion. The bullying will only get worse.

*****

I am writing these VIEWPOINTS to you from Hoi An, a small city in Vietnam where I am decamped with my family and two Vietnamese born grandchildren who are seeing the country of their birth for the first since they came to the US as small bundles of joy and were adopted by our daughter and son-in-law. Now as 14-year old teenagers, they see people who look more like themselves than us. They love it here, but it is not home. They will be happy to go back to school, friends and church in Maryland next week.

*****

If you have a few moments please watch Bach's Mass in B-Minor Et Resurrexit as my Easter offering to you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8CcMvosBfA

The late Michael Ramsey (former Archbishop of Canterbury) once wrote, "The Gospel without the Resurrection is not merely a Gospel without a final chapter, it is not a Gospel at all."

And what a difference the resurrection makes - the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Jerusalem tomb sets Christianity apart from all other religions. Our Savior, the Savior of the gospels is a risen Savior. His tomb is empty and that makes all the difference in the world (and in the heavens)!

VOL wishes you all a very happy and blessed Easter.

David

Strong-arming smaller countries into accepting LGBT rights is an explicit element in the Obama Administration's foreign policy. The half-dozen gay US ambassadors, including Mr. Brewster, (Dominican Republic) have openly acknowledged that trade agreements are being used to advance "equality" and "tolerance" for gays and lesbians. "We know firsthand that US interests are best served when we pursue policies that also advance our values. That's why trade policy is among our most promising tools," they say on the White House website. --- Michael Cook for www.mercatornet.com

The pastor as theologian was an important model in the church until the early 19th century. Since then, the pastor-theologian has been downplayed and even undermined. The result being, theology has become the domain of academic theologians in universities, while pastors do the practical work of leading churches --- Peter Bush in Presbyterian RECORD

According to the British medical journal, The Lancet, new research shows that global obesity is now a bigger problem than global hunger. --- Marcus Roberts for mercatornet.com

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
April 7, 2016

A fourth Global South archbishop has stepped up to the plate and announced that he will not now be attending the Anglican Consultative Council gabfest in Lusaka. The first three are Archbishops Nicholas Okoh of Nigeria, Archbishop Eliud Wabukala of Kenya and Archbishop Stanley Ntagali of Uganda who have said they will not attend this TEC paid for gabfest.

The Most Rev. Dr. Mouneer Hanna Anis of Egypt has written a letter to his fellow archbishops and said his decision not to go has come after a long period of prayer and conversations. "As many of you know, it is not easy for me to withdraw from meetings, but this time I felt that if I were to attend, I would be betraying my conscience, my people, and the Primates who worked hard last January to reach a temporary solution in order to keep walking together until such time as we can reach a permanent solution." His backing down has sent shockwaves throughout the Anglican Communion, reports Phil Ashey, COO of the American Anglican Council.

"I thought that the decision of the Primates' Meeting in January would be followed through and TEC would not be represented in the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion but sadly this is not the case. I don't mind the participation of TEC in the General Meeting of the ACC, but the decision of the Primates was very clear that they should not be nominated or elected in internal standing committees."

The Egyptian archbishop said he was disturbed by statements made by the chairman of the ACC while he was in the USA. "I had still intended to attend the meeting. However, as it became clear that the decision of the Primates' Meeting about the participation of TEC in the Standing Committee would be disregarded, it was then that I decided not to attend."

You can read the full account in today's digest, and a story by Canon Phil Ashey of the American Anglican Council.

*****

The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Michael Curry, has fired three high level staff members for complaints and allegations of violations of personnel policies of the DFMS, received from multiple members of the staff of the Church to the Church's new leader.

Public Affairs Officer Neva Rae Fox would neither confirm nor deny that it was about sexual harassment.

The time frame points to an unsettling discovery that Executive Council, in Nov. 2015, had been bugged by a hidden audio recorder during sessions relating to compensation for salaries of all officers, agents and employees of the Council and the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society.

The two officers who were fired are Sam McDonald, Deputy Chief Operating Officer and Director of Mission, and Alex Baumgarten, Director of Public Engagement and Mission Communications, who were found "to have violated established workplace policies."

Bishop Stacy Sauls, Chief Operating Officer of the DFMS, was also axed, though the report said he did not violate workplace policy, was unaware of the policy violations of the two staff members reporting to him, and had operated within the scope of his office.

Conversations are underway to implement this decision, said Curry in a news release from the Church's national headquarters in New York City.

*****

In Fresno, California, The Protestant Episcopal Church owns the Central Valley churches and other property that were in place before a dissident group in the San Joaquin Valley voted to leave the church and affiliate with a more traditional Anglican Church, says the California 5th District Court of Appeal.

The appellate court ruling, upholding a lower court's decision, is the latest chapter in a religious and litigious dispute that dates back more than a decade, when the late John-David Schofield, who had been bishop of the San Joaquin Diocese since 1988, led a movement to disaffiliate with the national church.

In 2007, the diocese, which stretched from Kern County in the south to San Joaquin County in the north, declared that it was "a full member of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone of South America."

In 2008, Bishop Schofield filed a document with the California Secretary of State titled "Amendment to Articles of Incorporation Changing Name of The Protestant Episcopal Bishop of San Joaquin (A Corporation Sole) to The Anglican Bishop of San Joaquin (A Corporation Sole)."

"Schofield stated in the document that, as the Bishop of the Diocese of San Joaquin, he was the chief officer of the corporation sole and that the amendment had been duly authorized by the Diocese. However, the annual convention did not consider or authorize any such amendments as is required to amend the articles of incorporation of the corporation sole," the appellate court notes.

"Schofield was attempting to change the title holder of the property in dispute from the corporation sole known as The Protestant Episcopal Bishop of San Joaquin to the corporation sole known as The Anglican Bishop of San Joaquin. However, because the amendment changing the name of the corporation sole to The Anglican Bishop of San Joaquin was invalid, no corporation sole known as The Anglican Bishop of San Joaquin existed when these deeds were executed and recorded," the decision says.

"Out-of-state cases have held that an attempted conveyance of real property to a nonexistent entity is void. This is a logical conclusion and should be adopted here. Title cannot be held by an entity that does not exist. Therefore, these deeds were a nullity. Accordingly, title to the disputed property remained with The Protestant Episcopal Bishop of San Joaquin," the court says.

Canon lawyer Alan Haley said that the opinion was "contorted", the Fifth District Court of Appeals ruled that "the trial court made several errors in its analysis of the case", it would nevertheless affirm that court's decision to turn over all the disputed property of the former Diocese of San Joaquin to the remnant Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin, which was first organized in March 2008 after its predecessor voted to leave the Episcopal Church (USA).

In so deciding, the Court of Appeals first rejected the contention that ECUSA and its remnant group were collaterally bound by the final decision of the Illinois Court of Appeals, rendered last year, which reached the opposite result for the Anglican Diocese of Quincy. It did not consider the Illinois case to be on all fours with this one, because the title to the church property in Illinois was held by an Illinois not-for-profit corporation, while in the San Joaquin case, the title was held by a California corporation sole.

With all due respect, this is a distinction without a difference. A corporation sole is every bit as much a religious organization as a religious not-for-profit corporation. The key question in the California case is: which diocese -- the Anglican one that withdrew from ECUSA in December 2007, or the newbie Episcopal one that started up on March 29, 2008 -- has the legal control of the corporation sole under California law?

The decision by the Court of Appeals does not address this key question. Indeed, it barely mentions the Anglican Diocese, and does not acknowledge its separate existence under California law, let alone its connection to the corporation sole. (The Episcopal plaintiffs made a strategic decision not to name the Anglican Diocese in their lawsuit, and to make the corp sole a plaintiff, as though they already controlled it, because they wanted to pretend that they were the "only" diocese in San Joaquin. It looks as though the strategy confused the civil courts -- as it was doubtlessly intended to do.)

The case is not over yet, writes Allan Haley of Anglican Curmudgeon -- the Anglican parties can ask the Court for a rehearing based on the factual mistakes it made in its opinion, and if the Court refuses to grant that request, they can ask the California Supreme Court to review the decision, which the Court of Appeal ordered be published in the official reports. (The California Supreme Court tends not to review unpublished opinions.) If such a request is filed, the parties will not know the disposition of the case for another 60 to 120 days.

*****

In Georgia, a former Savannah Episcopal priest has been sentenced to three years in federal prison on a guilty plea, to possession of child pornography at his Druid Circle home in Savannah.

Bruce Fehr, a 55-year-old former priest at St. Francis Episcopal Church on Wilmington Island, must also pay a $10,000 fine and serve a 10-year term of supervised release after he completes his incarceration, U.S. District Chief Judge Lisa Godbey Wood ordered Wednesday in Savannah.

Fehr was indicted by a federal grand jury in September, on a four-count indictment for distribution, possession and receipt of child pornography last year, as part of a FBI-led Southeast Georgia Child Exploitation Task Force operation.

*****

BDSM and Kinks: Addressing taboo and sexual preferences at Sewanee University. THESEWANEEPURPLE campus newspaper in a report by Frances Marion Givhan says:

The Wick aims to foster conversations on campus about various issues that students may not discuss on a day-to-day basis. Recently, the Wick hosted a #NoFilter discussion entitled "Don't Shame My Kink," where the residents invited students to join them for an "open, confidential dialogue on what rough sex and kink can mean for empowerment, consent, and communication in bed," according to their Facebook event page. The event, held on Tuesday, March 29, drew a crowd of people who could barely fit into the Wick's living room.

"The thing that surprised me most was the number of students who attended," said Gracie Gibson (C'17), who coordinated the event. Even a prospective student had decided to come and hear what some may view as an uncomfortable topic.

According to Gibson, none of the Wick residents had ever talked about having an event on BDSM or kinks. "We received an anonymous request to host an event covering BDSM and safety, so I decided to present it to the other residents, and everyone was on board," said Gibson.

Ben Sadler (C'17) attended the event because he did not know what the discussion would entail. "I was curious," he says. "I wasn't sure what was in store, so I wanted to see how the Wick would discuss a pretty underdiscussed subject."

Gibson kick-started the event by addressing the fact that BDSM is a sensitive topic, and made a point to remind the people gathered to "respect everyone who's here." To initiate the discussion, Gibson showed a video by Laci Green called "BDSM 101" that addressed the basics of BDSM and kink culture, as well as the accompanying criticisms. The video emphasized the "safe, sane, and consensual" nature of BDSM and argued that people should not judge consenting adults for their sexuality.

You can read the full, very sick, vile report here: http://thesewaneepurple.org/2016/04/05/bdsm-and-kinks-addressing-taboo-and-sexual-preferences/

Question for Vice-Chancellor McCardell. "Will you tell rich donors that their money will help Sewanee students feel safe to experiment with dangerous, disease spreading sex games on campus?"

IN OTHER SEWANEE NEWS, a drug bust took place at a Sewanee fraternity. Last weekend, the Sewanee Police stopped a student for possession of prescription drugs and marijuana in a fraternity parking lot.

The officers arrived after receiving an anonymous tip earlier, so they had probable cause, and stopped to question the student. When the officer approached, he smelled marijuana and saw the student trying to hide a lock box. The officer confiscated the box when the student refused to open it, which contained Xanax, marijuana, a glass pipe, and rolling papers. Since there were prescription drugs in another student's name, the police gave three citations and referred him to the Dean.

Other students witnessed the officer take the box and they, "were convinced we would have to go to jail tomorrow to bail our other friend out." According to the Sewanee Police, the amount of drugs determines whether to arrest or cite a student. In this case, only a small amount of drugs was in the lock box, so the police issued a citation, since the amount implied recreation rather than distribution.

*****

Applications are now open for the 2016 grant cycle for new church starts and Mission Enterprise Zones in The Episcopal Church. Resolution D005 and Resolution A012, approved by General Convention in July, 2015, authorized new and continued funding for church plants and Mission Enterprise Zones throughout the Episcopal Church. Additionally, newly created grants will be awarded to dioceses and already-established ministries exploring possibilities for new initiatives or expansion. General Convention Advisory Group on Church Planting is also conducting a design contest for a new logo to depict church planting for The Episcopal Church. Really!

So the hope is, that with a couple or resolutions, TEC thinks it can jump start the future with new parishes, even as parishes across the country are closing, and nearly 50% can't afford a full time rector. If you don't have a message that reflects the gospel on sin and salvation and the preaching of the great doctrines of the church, what exactly is TEC selling? Does anyone honestly think you can build a church on evangelism involving anti-racism training, bashing white privilege, LGBTQI interests and concerns, diversity and inclusion and parading around in rainbow vestments at gay parades will suddenly bring in the masses!?The delusion continues. For the record, the ACNA is growing precisely because they are preaching a message of God's love tied to Christ's cross and the need for repentance. Go figure.

*****

Anglicans and Mennonites in Canada haven't historically had much to do with each other, but that could change if General Synod--which meets July 7-12--votes to adopt a resolution put forward by the faith, worship and ministry committee to enter into a five-year, bilateral dialogue with Mennonite Church Canada.

Archdeacon Bruce Myers, until recently the Anglican Church of Canada's coordinator for ecumenical and interfaith relations, said this would be the first time the Anglican Church of Canada has engaged in a bilateral dialogue with a denomination from the Anabaptist tradition. In an interview with the Anglican Journal, he explained why he thinks the two groups could learn a lot from each other.

"The Anglican Church of Canada, is increasingly...becoming a church on the margins, a church away from the centers of power, when historically we were a church of empire, establishment and privilege," he said. "Mennonites have [made]...a conscious decision to be very separate from the principalities and powers, and to take a stance that is often in opposition to empire."

Myers said the decision to consider a dialogue has also been spurred by increasing grassroots interaction and co-operation between Mennonites and Anglicans in cities such as Winnipeg and Kitchener-Waterloo, which have large Mennonite populations.

While the Canadian church has often focused on matters of doctrine in its bilateral dialogues, with an aim to finding areas of agreement or common understanding, Myers said that conversations with the Mennonite church would be more about what he called "receptive ecumenism"--an approach to dialogue that works to learn from rather than to resolve differences.

"Doctrinal questions, like baptism--we know the differences and how we practice and understand baptism, that's already been documented and it's not necessarily a theological knot we need to start to untie at this moment," he said. "[But] what is it like for a church like ours to learn to be something [Mennonites] have almost always been, which is outside the center and increasingly marginalized?"

VOL: So this is what happens when traditional Christian denominations break down. When you have little, or no theological depth in your understanding of the faith you grab onto any lifeboat that will keep you afloat. The Episcopal Church has a concordat with the Lutherans (ELCA) and the Moravians for example. Malcolm Muggeridge once said that the definition of the ecumenical movement was like three men coming out of a pub on a Saturday night who are so unsteady that they have to hold onto each other lest they collapse into a heap.

Of course, collapse is inevitable. This only staves off things for a while. The overwhelming evidence is that the ACoC and the United Church of Canada, and what's left of the Presbyterian Church, will be out of business on or before 2050. They are not making new converts largely because they don't believe in what Jesus said they should do. QED

*****

Oxford University will no longer require theology students to study Christianity, dropping an 800-year-old tradition.

Is this a sign of how the academic world is giving less and less value to Christian teachings? The University of Oxford, the oldest such institution in the English-speaking world dating back to 1096, will no longer require its undergraduate theology students to enroll in a course tackling Christianity after their first year.

This development signals the end of a tradition that lasted for over eight centuries. Instead of requiring the study of Christianity, the educational institution located in Oxford, England, will allow students to take courses tackling feminism, Buddhism, Islam and even mysticism. Is this a sign of how the academic world is giving less and less value to Christian teachings? Apparently.

*****

Georgia Governor Nathan Deal announced Monday, that he has vetoed a religious liberty bill passed by the state legislature.

Evangelical Christians strongly supported the legislation, citing its protections for pastors to opt out of performing same-sex weddings. The Washington Post reports that the legislation would have given religious organizations the ability to refuse certain services, including charitable services, if doing so clashed with their religious beliefs.

The legislation sparked objections from major donors and corporations, including AT&T, Bank of America and Delta Airlines, who saw it as discriminatory against persons who identify as gay or transgender.

IRD Evangelical Action Director Chelsen Vicari commented: "When corporate bullies dangling dollar bills is enough to cause a Baptist governor to veto a bill protecting freedom of conscience and speech, a bigger problem exists.

"Gov. Nathan Deal's veto of Georgia's religious freedom bill represents a wider movement among America's Christians to compromise Scripture and morality for the sake of votes and popularity." Unfortunately, many Evangelicals, Mainline Protestants, and Catholics are bowing down at altars of sexual liberation and political correctness, erected by cultural Leftists. You can read more here: http://tinyurl.com/hozuvar

*****

An Indian priest abducted by gunmen in Yemen last month is safe and could be released soon, a Catholic group said on Sunday, quoting the Indian foreign minister. Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil was captured from the southern Yemeni city of Aden by gunmen, who killed at least 15 people at an old people's home, in an attack that was condemned by Pope Francis.

The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI) said a delegation met Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, who said the government was working to secure the priest's safe return.

"She has assured us Father Tom is safe and negotiations are on for his release, which could happen very soon," said Father Joseph Chinnaiyan, deputy secretary of the CBCI.

Media reports last week said the priest was killed by Islamic State militants on Good Friday, although no one has claimed responsibility for last month's attack, in which gunmen killed four Indian nuns, two Yemeni female staff members, eight elderly residents and a guard. Fr. Chinnaiyan said the reports were inaccurate.

*****

Now it's undeniable: Deobandi mosques are radicalizing Britain's Muslims. UK media have revealed that the Islamic Tarbiyah Academy, a private school in the Yorkshire city of Dewsbury, was under investigation by the Department for Education for radical teachings.

The school has 140 primary students, who attend an after-school madrassah for ten hours per week, as well as full-time classes for pupils above age 16 and adults, according to Sky News.

The academy was established by Mufti Zubair Dudha, a representative of the Deobandi sect.

Originating in India in the mid-1800s, Deobandism is the doctrine that inspired the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan, whose imams trained at the school in Uttar Pradesh, northeast of Delhi.

Deobandi clerics, operating out of an anti-imperialist rubric devised to rid India of the British following the suppression of the Indian Mutiny in 1857, have made a serious effort to seize control of British mosques.

They are allied with the puritanical, Saudi-based Wahhabi sect and with other jihadists in South Asia.

These groups allege that they must 'reform' Islam by separating Muslims from other believers, especially in the West.

*****

VOL could use your help. Spring has sprung and we need funds to keep us afloat. Bills still have to be paid.

Thousands of you go daily to VOL's website and thousands more receive VOL's weekly digest of stories, but only a handful ever make a contribution to keep the news coming into your e-mail. Please consider a tax-deductible donation to keep the news flowing. You can send a check to:

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Thank you for your support.

David

It becomes a death spiral for the denomination when the keys to the Church are handed over to revisionist bishops and priests time and time again who ensure that the fundamentals of Christianity are not taught to future generations. Those future generations of blissfully ignorant pewsitters will continue to make poor choices, and as long as there are enough of them to pay the bills, the church will stagger on...to its doom. --- The Underground Pewster

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
April 15, 2016

Who's your daddy? Well, now we know. It turns out that Archbishop Justin Welby's father was not Mr. Gavin Welby, but the late Sir Anthony Montague Browne, the personal private secretary to Winston Churchill, who had a brief affair with Welby's mother when both were stone drunk.

The story is right out of a soap opera Days of our (Anglican) Lives, but it garnered much sympathy and deep understanding from readers across the board, especially when Welby and his mother acknowledged the truth after a DNA test was done.

This comes as a complete surprise, said Welby. The story is his mother (Jane Williams) and father (Gavin Welby) were both alcoholics at the time.

When it comes to headlines in a national newspaper, surely it doesn't come better than this: "Outpouring of respect for Archbishop Justin Welby after DNA paternity 'surprise'." The Archbishop of Canterbury is on the way to becoming a national treasure, one of the few public figures in the land beyond reproach or criticism, rather like our soon to be 90 years old Queen. It is the sort of position that a Catholic prelate can only dream of. And it is not simply the result of good public relations or spin.

Welby responded, appropriately enough, saying that we are who we are because of our relationship with Jesus Christ, the Redeemer. Archbishop Welby's simple pronouncement emerges from the hinterland of Augustinian theology. We become ourselves when we accept the call of God. We find ourselves when we are found by God. This is a wonderful antidote to the contemporary narcissistic search for our supposed true selves.

One or two observers did note that the timing seemed to be interesting in that it occurred at a time designated to gender sympathy for his failing efforts to keep the communion together, with the paternity story coinciding with the 'bad news' story of Lusaka and the ACC rebellion. You can read more in today's digest.

Ironically, the design of the logo of the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Lusaka, Zambia mirrors the shape of the roof of Lusaka Cathedral, a cathedral built on the top of a hill, whose roof can be seen from around the city of Lusaka. The colors used in the image are all the colors in the flags of Botswana, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia - the countries of the dioceses that make up the Province of Central Africa who invited the ACC to Lusaka. Someone observed that, put together, the flags look very much like the LGBTQI flag.

*****

A brouhaha over three Kenyan bishops who attended the Lusaka ACC-16 gabfest heated up when the Archbishop of Kenya Eliud Wabukala denied that he signed or approved a letter released under his signature that appeared to change Kenya's stance on its boycott of the meeting of Anglican leaders in Zambia this week.

The forgery was a ruse to defy his authority and justify the attendance of the Kenyan delegation in Lusaka.

In a letter released to the diocese, the archbishop said he had been in northern Kenya when he realized the Kenya delegation had tickets and reservations to travel to Lusaka. As he could not get there, he sent an aide to attend a meeting with the leader of the delegation to explain the Archbishop's position that was against the delegation traveling to the Anglican Consultative Council meeting.

Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda, the Southern Cone, Jerusalem and the Middle East have all boycotted the meeting, and Archbishop Wabukala had intended that Kenya should do the same.

He said the delegation then decided they would go to Lusaka. They drafted the letter in question, asked him to sign it and read it to him over his cell phone.

Parts of the document were acceptable, the archbishop noted: "the ACK does not approve of TEC. We support the Global South. We support the primates' meeting."

Wabukala said the line on his cell phone had not been clear and he was unable to make out everything in the letter. "I was not comfortable. So I said I will come back and see what it is."

He added: "So when I came back to the office, I found the letter had been released under my signature. This is not what I said. So I was real annoyed. I called the office of communications and said 'please do not put that thing out because it was not what I wrote'."

The letter was signed with a "rubber stamp", a digital signature used for internal church memorandums.

He said it presented a false position to the Kenyan Church and the wider Anglican Communion. "I think it is a bit of a misunderstanding, a very clear misunderstanding. That statement does not bear my position."

The secretary general of the Anglican Consultative Council, Josiah Idowu-Fearon, got in on the act and said the unsubstantiated public allegations of forgery against the members of the Kenyan delegation were scurrilous and untrue, and went on to say that it was a "false impression" that the Episcopal Church delegates were in Lusaka in defiance of the will of the Primates who spelled out "consequences" at their meeting in January over the US decision to back gay marriage.

He said the Archbishop of Canterbury had fulfilled his responsibilities and asked those members of interfaith or ecumenical bodies who are from TEC and whose appointment he controls, to stand down, and they have done so.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said; "As Archbishop of Canterbury, I have acted on the Primates' decision in those areas for which I have responsibility. It is both my and the Primates' desire, hope and prayer that the Anglican Consultative Council should also share in working through the consequences of our impaired relationships."

We may never know who leaked what to whom and in the end it doesn't really matter. The three Kenyan bishops did show up in Lusaka in defiance of their archbishop, and it would appear that the ring leader, the Rt. Rev. Joel Waweru, might have killed his chance to be the next Archbishop of Kenya to replace the retiring Eliud Wabukala. Are there cracks in the Kenyan House of Bishops over gay marriage? Nope.

*****

The Episcopal Church began almost immediately to spin what happened in Lusaka, Zambia, this week. TEC and its individual members earned praise from Anglican Communion Secretary General ,Archbishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon, for working hard to walk together despite differences over same-sex marriage. Really, and that is why five Anglican provinces absented themselves, including Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, The Southern Cone.

The secretary general's remarks came in his report to the Anglican Consultative Council about this work since he took up his post last July.

The 78th General Convention's decided last summer to change canonical language that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman (Resolution A036) and, in Resolution A054, to authorize two new marriage rites with language allowing them to be used by same-sex or opposite-sex couples. Resolution A054 also requires bishops who oppose same-sex marriage to "make provision for all couples asking to be married in this Church to have access to these liturgies."

Idowu-Fearon praised the resolution's provision that "no bishop, priest, deacon or lay person should be coerced or penalized in any manner, nor suffer any canonical disabilities, as a result of his or her theological objection to, or support for, the 78th General Convention's action contained in this resolution." The secretary general also said he was happy to learn about a small group of bishops that will be appointed to continue seeking unity within the House of Bishops and within and between dioceses.

That's not praise, that's compromise, and based on past experience in TEC over women's ordination, there will be a brief window for remaining orthodox Episcopalians to get out before the hammer comes down and same-sex marriage is mandated. We have been down the road before and we know where it ends.

*****

Some priests are likely to marry same-sex couples even if the marriage canon change fails to pass, says an orthodox Anglican priest in the Anglican Church of Canada.

Canadian Archbishop Fred Hiltz has suggested that even if the vote to change the Marriage Canon fails to pass at General Synod, some priests will ignore the fact and go ahead with same-sex marriages anyway. Although Hiltz frames it as "civil disobedience", one is left with the impression that he is dropping a broad hint to liberal dioceses as to how they should proceed.

The same strategy was adopted by the national church in 2010, when at the General Synod, while approval was not given for dioceses to start blessing same-sex unions, it was understood that many dioceses would still do so. And they did. An easy solution for Hiltz, since he was absolved of responsibility and liberal dioceses got what they wanted.

"In 2010, we had the local option for same-sex blessings, along with the assurance that there would be no same-sex marriages," a source told VOL. (For the record 'local option' was a political tactic that TEC effectively used).

"In 2016, the ACoC will have the local option for same-sex marriages, along with the assurance that no priests will be compelled to perform them.

"In 2020 we will have.... well, you get the drift.

"Some bishops have expressed concern about the possibility that some priests may go ahead and marry gay couples in the event that a resolution changing the marriage canon to allow same-gender marriages is rejected at General Synod this summer, said Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada.

"If it's not approved, then, as we sometimes, say...there could be some 'civil disobedience' on the part of clergy and parishes, and the bishops are going to have to handle that, because all of us that are ordained make a solemn promise to conform to the doctrine, discipline and worship of the Anglican Church of Canada," Hiltz told the Anglican Journal April 12. Hiltz made the comments during an interview on the House of Bishops meeting last week, April 4--8.

*****

The Rt. Rev. Emmanuel Kanamani, Bishop of the Anglican Diocese in Maiduguri, Borno state, Nigeria, says "gay marriage is madness of the highest order and is responsible for so many problems in the world." Bishop Kanamani was speaking during the 2016 Synod of the Diocese in Maiduguri on Friday.

Bishop Kanamani regretted that those who reject gay marriage were regarded as primitive people, noting that, "If men marry men and women marry women, who will give birth to the next generation?

"They say it is freedom, but I assure you it will render negative effect to the entire society,'' the Bishop added.

*****

A portent of things to come for the Anglican Church of Canada. Major debt has caused Inuvik's Anglican Church to lose its pastor. The Anglican Church of the Ascension faces a debt of more than $100,000, as well as an uncertain future. After nearly three years of service, pastor Steve Martin left Inuvik when he learned the parish would not be able to pay his stipend.

Last week, after nearly three years of service, Pastor Steve Martin left Inuvik for Ontario, when he learned the parish would not be able to pay his monthly stipend come September. The church usually relies on donations from the local congregation to take care of buildings, the pastor's stipend and residence.

"In times past that works really well," said Martin, "but in economical situations where we struggle financially, there's things that can't always be paid. The donations that were once big on the plate aren't there anymore."

*****

The Anglican Archbishop of Adelaide Jeffrey Driver is to retire after almost 11 years in the pivotal role.

In an unexpected move, Archbishop Driver, 65, advised parishioners of his intention to step down in August.

Archbishop Driver was elected in 2005, at a time when the church was deeply demoralized following the damaging Brandenburg child abuse scandal that cost former Archbishop Ian George his job.

Under his leadership, the diocese has been transformed and revitalized and now leads the world in practices and protocols aimed at both preventing and detecting child abuse and dealing with survivors.

*****

The Episcopal Church in South Sudan's Central Equatoria state said it is going to appoint its own Archbishop to represent the region. Currently, The Episcopal Church of Sudan and South Sudan has an overall Archbishop, Daniel Deng Bul, whose seat is in Juba, Central Equatoria.

However, the Bishop of Yei Diocese, Hillary Adeba, said that the church held a synod which decided to group different dioceses into clusters with their own administrations. Adeba said in the new cluster system, Daniel Deng Bul would not be called an Archbishop, but rather a primate and metropolitan who oversees the province.

He added that there is no special time for appointing an Archbishop for Central Equatoria, but the process would not exceed three years. He added that renovating premises for the establishment of the new cluster would cost two million South Sudanese Pounds.

*****

In Conway, New Hampshire they demolished Christ Episcopal Church rectory and razed it to the ground, making way for an auto parts store. Preservationists decried the razing of the rectory of the Christ Episcopal Church on Pine Street in North Conway. The 1800-built structure was taken down in just under two hours by an excavator. The Rev. Richard Belshaw, the new pastor of Christ Episcopal Church, said the rectory building was deemed by church leaders to be beyond repair.

I suppose we should be grateful that it was not sold to a group of Islamists for a mosque.

*****

If you had any doubts about the loyalties of former Southern Malawi bishop, James Tengatenga, this should put your mind to rest. In Palm Springs, California, last Sunday before heading out the door to Lusaka, he gave the blessing at the 60th birthday party for the Rev. Canon Albert Ogle, an openly gay Episcopal priest who is known around the world for his activism on behalf of LGBT people. This is the same Tengatenga who networked with LGBT leaders and their straight allies at an informal gathering in Palm Springs, and the same Tengatenga who gave an unprecedented two-hour interview with this LGBT media organization -- his first major interview since the controversy erupted last summer.

He's bought and paid for by TEC, which tells you everything.

He was elected chairman of the ACC in 2009 for a six-year term, which will conclude at the 2016 gathering in Zambia. Tengatenga says he will not stand for re-election, and is ready to pass the torch to someone else.

Does this mean he will be a man without a country? Tengatenga says yes and no. "No, in a sense that I can go back [to Malawi] -- but to what?" he said as we lounged in the shade next to one of the five swimming pools at the modestly-priced spa and resort hotel where we all were staying. "I would be a nuisance to my successor as bishop, because I would not be restricted to speaking my mind. At least now, it's not an option." You can be sure that TEC will find him a sinecure, he is the perfect foil (he's African) that they can use against the GAFCON primates and bishops.

*****

Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) based in Alexandria, VA. proudly announced that Immanuel Chapel received from Faith & Form Magazine an award in the category of "Religious Architecture: New Facilities and from Period Homes," and won a 2016 Palladio Design Award from Traditional Building and Period Homes magazines in the "New Design and Construction" category. Robert A.M. Stern Architects (RAMSA) Partners Robert A.M. Stern and Grant Marani led the design of Immanuel Chapel, which was consecrated on October 13, 2015.

"We were very pleased to receive news of the awards from Faith & Form and Traditional Building and Period Homes magazines," said the Rev. James Barney Hawkins IV, Ph.D., vice president for Institutional Advancement at VTS. "Immanuel Chapel deserves such recognition! As we live into the Chapel, we continue to be grateful for the Seminary's creative and satisfying collaboration with Robert A.M. Stern Architects."

The Annual Religious Art and Architecture Design Awards program is co-sponsored by Faith & Form Magazine and the Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture (IFRAA), a knowledge community of the American Institute of Architects. The awards program was founded in 1978, with the goal of honoring the best in architecture, liturgical design and art for religious spaces. The program offers five primary categories for awards: Religious Architecture, Liturgical/Interior Design, Sacred Landscape, Religious Arts, and Unbuilt Work.

The Palladio Awards honor outstanding achievement in traditional design.

*****

The Rt. Rev. Dr. Steven Croft is the new Bishop of Oxford, Downing Street announced this week. Bishop Steven succeeds the Rt. Rev. John Pritchard, who retired in October, 2014, after seven years in the post.

Bishop Steven, who is 58, is currently Bishop of Sheffield, a role he has held since 2009. He serves on the Archbishop's Council and Chairs the Ministry Council of the Church of England. He has been a member of the House of Lords since 2013.

He has a passion for mission and evangelism and for finding creative ways of sharing the Gospel. He is the co-author of the Emmaus and Pilgrim courses, both of which are resources to help people engage with the Christian faith.

A source told VOL that Steven is a former Evangelical, but sadly and to all intents and purposes, a company man. Management has replaced Atonement.

*****

A former Archbishop of Canterbury has warned that Labour will not be ready to govern if Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn does not act to combat antisemitism.

Lord Carey of Clifton said he did not wish to suggest that the Labour Party was riddled with anti-Semitism. However, the problems were real enough that Corbyn had already promised to deal with the issue as a matter of urgency.

"If he does not take effective action, this will demonstrate that the Labour Party is not ready to govern," said Lord Carey in a lecture, Combatting History's Oldest Hate - A Christian Perspective. Antisemitic attitudes stubbornly persist in a few dark corners in Britain."

Lord Carey was speaking in Emmanu-El Synagogue in Manhattan, in the US.

He was delivering the annual Dorothy Gardner Adler State of Anti-Semitism Lecture, endowed by Simon Wiesenthal Centre trustee, Allen Adler.

Lord Carey said there have been worrying signs in recent years. The Community Security Trust, a respected Jewish organization, reported in 2014, that antisemitic incidents in the UK reached their highest level in 30 years.

*****

The Church of Norway voted at its annual conference to allow gay marriage, with the Christian body joining the French Protestant Church, the U.S. Episcopal and Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) denominations, among others, in now supporting same-sex unions.

Of the 115 delegates at the Lutheran denomination's synod, 88 backed embracing gay marriage, while also including a caveat for priests who do not wish to take part in same-sex weddings that allows them to opt out of doing so, Reuters reported.

The denomination itself called the institutional change "a historic decision that marks a shift in the church's teaching on marriage," with the vote reportedly receiving a standing ovation from most of the participants in attendance.

Though the Church of Norway is declining in prevalence, 74 percent of Norwegians are still members, but locals say the churches are for the most part empty.

As TheBlaze has reported, the battle over gay marriage within churches across the world continues to rage. Last June, the Episcopal Church officially joined Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the United Church of Christ, in becoming the third mainline denomination to embrace gay marriage rites -- a move that came just days after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex unions.

The theological debate over gay marriage is likely nowhere near over.

*****

VOL could really use your help. Spring has sprung and we need funds to keep us afloat. Bills have to be paid and debts met.

Thousands of you go daily to VOL's website and thousands more receive VOL's weekly digest of stories, but only a handful ever make a contribution to keep the news coming into your e-mail box. Please consider a tax-deductible donation to keep the news flowing. You can send a check to:

VIRTUEONLINE
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Or you can make a contribution through VOL's PAYPAL link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/

Thank you for your support.

David

"This hyper-self-consciousness about 'Who am I? Where exactly am I on the gender spectrum?' is mere navel-gazing, while in the Middle East ISIS is beheading people. It is a kind of madness of self-absorption." -- Camille Paglia

"What the Church needs to-day is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use, men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men, men of prayer." --- E.M. Bounds

"Everyone recognizes that Stephen was Spirit-filled when he was performing wonders. Yet, he was just as Spirit-filled when he was being stoned to death." ---- Leonard Ravenhill

"The church that is man-managed instead of God-governed is doomed to failure. A ministry that is college-trained but not Spirit-filled works no miracles." --- Samuel Chadwick

On homosexuality. "There is censorship of discussion about the causes of various gender issues -- for at least 25 years, now, in the case of homosexuality itself. In the 1980s there was talk of finding a gay gene, but when that was not found, silence [became the rule]. To even raise the question of how homosexuality is caused is considered homophobic. But I think it is imperative for everyone to ask questions about matters of development of the personality and sexual orientation. "I'm waiting for some brave young gays to protest against the censorship." --- Camille Paglia

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
April 22, 2016

Archbishop Justin Welby will shortly face a kairos moment when the GAFCON Primates meet next week in Nairobi.

The ACC-16 Lusaka lovefest is over and all the pleasant sounding words about a diverse communion filled with paradox and "difference" and "intentional discipleship" will be tested when, and if Welby comes face to face with those primates that refused to attend the Lusaka love-in.

The Episcopal Church got a pass thanks to chairman Bishop James Tengatenga and the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, Josiah Idowu-Fearon, who did not even attempt to implement what the Primates agreed upon in Canterbury last January. TEC romped home with all the prizes of inclusivity and diversity, with not a peep of disapproval from anyone, including the Archbishop of Canterbury. They got full rights of admission.

Now all this should make it much easier for the GAFCON primates as they meet in Nairobi. They will have read how Welby did nothing to implement what the primates earlier agreed upon.

So I predict this. Welby, an evangelical, will come to hate the very tribe he belongs too, namely his fellow evangelicals. Rowan Williams was not an evangelical, but he tried to square the circle and couldn't. He got eviscerated by Nigerian Archbishop Nicholas Okoh in language that no one had seen before. And the same will happen to Welby.

The GAFCON primates have too much to lose to compromise with Welby, and they will tell him so. Welby may well rue the day he took the job. They will not let him off the hook because he is an evangelical, and will, in fact, demand that he live to a higher standard than that sought by Williams. They will demand that he live up to the authority of scripture and not the faux authority of the Instruments of the communion, and they will tell him so in no uncertain terms.

Being the child of alcoholic parents will not get him off the hook. He cannot parse this and try and reconcile the irreconcilable. That day is long gone. If he ends up standing with the ACC and TEC and the ACoC, then the Anglican Communion is lost.

The argument that we can all get along is not working. There are two different gospels being advocated by the Anglican Communion. One is right; the other is wrong. One leads to eternal life, the other leads to spiritual death and, possibly, eternal damnation. The two are irreconcilable. One group believes in worldly transformation through the Five Marks of Mission; the other believes in personal transformation through the power of the Holy Spirit with a transcendent gospel of sin and salvation, which may or may not lead to societal transformation.

The notion that God has changed his mind about human sexual behavior is wrong. Dead wrong. He hasn't. The subject of our sexuality is ontologically driven; it is an order of creation. It is "male and female". God closed the sexual matrix in creation and has never opened it again. QED

Welby might well bless his son if he announced to him he was gay, and attend his son's "marriage", but God would not be present and he would not bless what He himself has not approved of.

You can read a number of stories from correspondents attending Lusaka and my own commentaries in today's digest. The bottom line is the issue of two masters and who the Anglican Communion will serve.

*****

The Archbishop of Canterbury's recent revelation that his father was not who he thought he was, but someone else, did not come as a shock, apparently, and Justin Welby treated the revelation with biblical insight, receiving near universal adulation for his stand and his support of his still living mother.

Kudos all round. That all three players, his natural father, his mother and his stepfather all had serious drinking problems with Welby, himself, nursing his ailing father till he died, speaks volumes about who Welby is, his compassion and love in the midst of a less than happy childhood.

A lot of people can identify with Welby's situation. Unnumbered children grow up in alcoholic and abusive homes, with many being scarred for life, while others rise to triumph over their awful upbringings to do great things. Some are strengthened by adversity, and others destroyed.

Clearly there are scars left and behaviors learned that determine how one might function in society at a later date.

Welby's behavior and reconciliation skills, both in the secular and religious realm, reveal much about the man and what an alcoholic environment did to him.

Dr. Charles Zeiders, an Anglo Catholic, clinical psychology expert and author of The Clinical Christ, talks about Welby's attempts at reconciliation in the communion in these terms.

Here is what he wrote to VOL:

"It is well known that children of alcoholic parents are often conflict- averse. In their personal lives they are at higher risk for so-called, codependent relationships, wherein they sacrifice their own welfare to unreasonable and even sick partners and friends. If such a person rises to leadership in a denomination or corporation, they are at risk for a people-pleasing style of leadership. During periods of organizational stability, such leaders do not injure the institution. However, when there is upheaval in matters of doctrine or crisis due to economic change, people-pleasing leaders represent a disaster for institutional survival. In churches, such leaders issue platitudinous, banal encyclicals, while tithing collapses in the face of inevitable ruptures into splinter groups. In corporations, the decisive reorganization from fast hiring and firing fail to occur, and innovation stalls, while the people-pleasing leader frets over keeping VP's and senior managers happy. You can read the full story in today's digest. (Note to David: Where is the end of this quote?It is missing its ")

*****

On another note, The House of Bishops of the Anglican Church of Tanzania voted by a razor thin margin to rejoin GAFCON, and authorized their primate, Archbishop Jacob Chimeledya, to attend this week's meeting of the GAFCON primates' council in Nairobi. VOL was told by an insider, that TEC is going to war to get it back, as they have poured millions into this province to keep it from straying into the arms of GAFCON. Archbishop Valentino Mokiwa, an Anglo-Catholic and former archbishop and primate of Tanzania, was one of the founding GAFCON primates, and gave up his throne in 2008 to the present archbishop. Mokiwa had abandoned GAFCON, and thrown his support to the Bishops in Dialogue and Indaba process. As recently as last month, he hosted a conference funded by the Episcopal Church in Dar es Salaam, designed to foster links between the Episcopal Church and Africa's Anglican bishops. Chimeledya is from the evangelical wing of the church and had attended the first GAFCON meeting in Jerusalem in 2008.

*****

As the GAFCON primates meet this week in Nairobi, many people around the world will be praying for these men and the wider Anglican Communion. They would value your prayers again. Here are some points to guide your prayers as well as your praise to our God, who is rich in mercy and grace.

Give thanks:

• for the Primates' willingness to serve the Anglican Communion through the GAFCON Primates' Council despite the heavy burdens they carry in their own Provinces.

• for the courageous and faithful leadership of Archbishop Wabukala as he stands down as chairman at this meeting.

• for safety in travelling and at the venue, for visa arrangements to go smoothly and for everyone to arrive as scheduled.

• that the Primates will be united and strong in their love for God's Word and their resolve to see the Church of God healed and renewed.

• for wisdom in the decisions that need to be made about GAFCON 2018, and the development of the GAFCON movement.

• for the Advisers, Consultants and Secretariat staff who will be supporting the Primates.

• for this meeting to be an encouragement to the Anglican Church of Kenya

*****

CANADIAN CLOSURES. Anglican churches are closing all across Canada. In Ladysmith, BC, St. John the Evangelist church will shut down this summer, ending 115 years of Anglican presence in the mid-Island community. The Anglican Diocese of British Columbia reported that the church's 35 parishioners have voted to disestablish or close down as a legal entity in the community. Catherine Pate, spokeswoman for the diocese -- comprising the 45 parishes on Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and Kingcome Inlet -- said an aging congregation and the need for a new building forced the decision. "There are not enough of them where they are in a position to feel they can start a new base and a new building." The church building dates to 1901, when a schoolhouse for children of coal miners was moved from what is now Nanaimo to be used for services.

The Diocese of Eastern Newfoundland is steadily closing churches. David of Samizdat writes, "Or, to use voguish Ecclesi-Speak, it is repurposing them. If the bishop does manage to find a purpose for his churches, it will be a first for the ACoC, an organization that has been meandering aimlessly in a theological wilderness of solipsistic ecclesiolatry for decades now."

The diocese will discuss ways to develop greater community partnerships under the possibility of repurposing or divesting themselves of their current inventory of property and buildings.

Four parishes in Trinity South recently closed their churches, choosing instead to amalgamate into the repurposed Epiphany Elementary school in Heart's Delight-Islington. Bishop Peddle says they have seven parish churches in the St. John's area, and they're working with parishes on how to reshape themselves into the future. The bishop says this month's Synod will examine the ongoing process of deciding what they keep with them "on the journey forward."

In London, Ontario, in the Diocese of Huron, Bishop Cronyn Anglican Church has closed. The church had a lengthy history in the city, being the second Anglican church to be built here in London in 1873, after the building of St Paul's Cathedral. It was named after the first Bishop of Huron, Benjamin Cronyn, and became the anchor church in East London, attracting a congregation of 700 people to Sunday service during the Victorian era. Even as recently as the 1970's, the church drew almost 200 people to its Sunday services.

*****

TWO dioceses took another step in the ongoing legal saga of who owns church properties this week.

Canon lawyer, Allan S. Haley, along with attorneys for the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin, filed a petition with the Fifth District Court of Appeals in Fresno to grant a rehearing (and re-briefing) of the case which that Court decided on April 5, as reported in an earlier post. Based on what the Court wrote in its decision, the petition recites a number of grounds for granting a rehearing (Petition, pp. 6-7).

The Diocese of San Joaquin, in California, was the first Episcopal member diocese to vote to withdraw from membership in the Episcopal Church (USA). It did so by passing (with well more than the minimum two-thirds majorities required) certain amendments to its Constitution and canons at two successive annual conventions of the Diocese, in 2006 and again in December 2007.

In 2007, before it made its final vote to withdraw from ECUSA, the Diocese of San Joaquin under its then bishop, the Rt. Rev. John-David Schofield, had several subsidiary trust entities used for holding title to real and personal property. The first was a "corporation sole", which is a special type of religious corporation having only a single officer/director (which is the reason for applying the adjective "sole" to it), called "the incumbent of the corporation sole."

There were forty of the Diocese's member congregations, along with their associated clergy, that voted in convention, in December 2007, to adopt amendments to its Constitution that changed its religious affiliation from ECUSA to the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. (The realignment was on a temporary basis of necessity, until the Anglican Church in North America organized as an independent province in 2009 and the Diocese joined it.)

In opposition to that final vote in 2007, were seven member parishes and their clergy, who wished to remain affiliated with ECUSA. And so they proceeded to withdraw from the Diocese, with Bishop Schofield's blessings, and took their own real and personal property with them. You can read more in today's digest.

FROM the Episcopal Diocese of Ft. Worth comes word that the Second Court of Appeals in Fort Worth heard oral arguments before a three-justice panel from both sides, regarding the appeal of last year's trial court ruling in favor of the Diocese and Corporation.

The appeal was filed by the plaintiffs' Episcopal Church parties after the trial court ruled that, under neutral principles of law, the church and diocesan properties held by its Corporation are held in trust for the Diocese and the Parishes and Missions in union with it -- and not The Episcopal Church. The Texas Supreme Court ruled in 2013, that the trial court should apply neutral principles, rather than deferring to TEC wishes. It also declared that the Dennis Canon has no force or effect in the state.

Attorney Scott Brister answered a very few questions from Justices Lee Gabriel, Bonnie Sudderth, and Gardner during his presentation on behalf of the Diocese and Corporation. The hearing concluded on time. There is no period defined for the court to hand down an opinion and judgment, but a ruling can be expected within a few months' time.

*****

If you have ever wanted a glimpse into how Trinity Church, Wall Street spends its money to influence the Global South towards TEC's worldview, then read this.

RECENT GRANTS include:

Emerging Out of Conflict Seeking Reconciliation ($332,500) to the Diocese of Bo, Sierra Leone, to pay diocesan staff and teacher salaries for three months due to ongoing economic impacts of the Ebola Virus Disease.

Diocese of Freetown, Sierra Leone: To support the diocese's continued response to the impacts of the Ebola Virus Disease and to pay diocesan staff and teacher salaries for three months due to the ongoing economic impacts of the disease.

Diocese of Guinea: To pay diocesan staff and teacher salaries for three months due to ongoing economic impacts of the Ebola Virus Disease.

Episcopal Diocese of Haiti Region du Nord: For Radio Redemption to broadcast information about community development and Episcopal identity.

Province of Congo: To convene a provincial synod.

Strengthening the Anglican Communion ($1,435,619)

Anglican Church of Tanzania: As a renewal over one year to support the construction of a hotel and conferencing facility.

Anglican Diocese of Eastern Zambia: To complete construction of an office complex for rental income and diocesan use.

Diocese of Asante Mampong, Ghana: To construct a student hostel at the Nursing and Midwifery Training College that will generate income for mission and ministry.

Eglise Anglican du Burundi: As a renewal over one year to construct accommodation facilities at the Faith Center Conferencing Facility.

Zambia Anglican Council: As a renewal over one year to support the construction of a twelve-unit block of residential rental apartments.

Emerging Out of Conflict Seeking Reconciliation ($300,000)

Deanery of Nepal: To support the rebuilding efforts of the Anglican Church in Nepal following the 2015 earthquakes

Earthquake Relief in Nepal: To support disaster response following the devastating earthquakes in the Anglican Deanery of Nepal.

Province of the Anglican Church of Burundi: Over one year to respond to the emerging humanitarian crisis as many Burundians flee growing political tensions

Strengthen the Anglican Communion ($284,000)

Diocese of Central Tanganyika: To fund a feasibility study to determine the development which would best suit the four underutilized plots of land owned by the Diocese.

Diocese of Maseno West: Over one year to support an income generating project to construct two floors for business purposes.

Special Opportunity ($36,000): The Reformed Episcopal Church of Spain

To update existing website to a well-designed, bi-lingual site with the ability to telecast services.

Strengthen the Anglican Communion ($57,300)

Anglican Church of Canada: To support African bishops' participation in the Bishops' Dialogue meeting to be held in the Diocese of Virginia in May 2015.

Diocese of Mount Kilimanjaro: Over one year to conduct a feasibility study on diocesan land for potential income generation opportunities.

*****

Nearly 500 Anglicans from around New Zealand, including the Vicars of many larger churches, have met together this week at two conferences in Auckland and Christchurch to launch the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans NZ (FCANZ). FCANZ is a local expression of the GAFCON movement, and a message of support was read out at the conferences from Most Rev Dr. Eliud Wabukala, Chair of the Gafcon Primates. Video greetings were also received from Most Rev Foley Beach (Primate of ACNA) and the Rt Rev Richard Condie (Bishop of Tasmania and Chair of FCA Australia). Rev Canon Vaughan Roberts (St Ebbe's, Oxford) gave 4 talks on True Gospel, True Sex, True Love and True Unity, and was joined by Rev Canon David Short (Vancouver), Dr Peter Adam (Melbourne), Rev Dr. Sarah Harris (Auckland) and others.

The formation of FCANZ has been in response to the passing of Motion 30 in 2014 and the subsequent release of the 'A Way Forward' Report, due to be presented to the General Synod of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia next month. The report proposes the blessing of same-sex civil marriages, thereby rendering them as 'rightly-ordered' relationships opening up the possibility for those in them to be accepted as candidates for ordination.

Rev Jay Behan, Chair of FCANZ, said 'This week has been a hugely significant moment for orthodox Anglicans in New Zealand. FCANZ is committed to promoting faithfulness and providing fellowship, and orthodox Anglicans now know that through the FCANZ there is a place for all orthodox Anglicans in New Zealand, whether they are inside or outside the current Anglican structures. We continue to pray that General Synod will pull back from making a decision which will tear the fabric of the communion, undermining the allegiance to General Synod for many Anglicans in New Zealand.'

Enquiries should be addressed to: hello@fcanz.org

Read also: A review of A Way Forward the report of the Working Group of the Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia by Martin Davie

*****

From Kuala Lumpurcomes word that three of Malaysia's most senior Anglican clergymen want the authorities to act against award-winning Islamic scholar Ayub Abdul Rahman, whom they allege has been speaking in public under the fraudulent guise of a former Christian cleric with their church.

The Most Rev. Datuk Ng Moon Hing, the Anglican Church's archbishop for Southeast Asia; the Rt. Rev. Melter Tais, the bishop of the Sabah diocese and the Rt. Rev. Datuk Bolly Lapok, bishop of the diocese of Kuching, denounced those who have been repeatedly highlighting the preacher's alleged past Christian association without due checks.

"Such actions are mischievous and harmful in a multi-religious society," the trio said in a joint statement to Malay Mail Online. Archbishop Ng said the misrepresentation of Ayub's credentials in promotional posters suggest a 'sinister' motive on the preacher's part. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

ECUADOR was hit by a serious earthquake this week. The Bishop of Ecuador Litoral, the Rt. Rev. Alfredo Morante España, wrote saying the coastal area of his country suffered considerable damage to its infrastructure, loss of life, and a large number of people were injured and missing. Some of the most affected areas by the earthquake are the cities of Manta and Portoviejo and the town of La Pila, where his church has a presence. There are reports that 48 church members' homes were completely or partially destroyed and three churches had considerable damage to their physical structure. Fortunately, there was no loss of life among its members, but there were some with bruises and physical and psychological trauma.

The community is already engaged, because there are basic needs of drinking water, food, medicine, first-aid kits, and basic tools. In general,these are all the elements needed for rescue efforts. There are many victims that require attention. They will seek ways to send help although the roads have been affected. With the help of the National Police or other government agency they will find a way to reach those who need it the most. The bishop called for prayers and support.

*****

VOL could really use your help. Spring has sprung and we need funds to keep us afloat. Bills have to be paid and debts met.

Thousands of you go daily to VOL's website and thousands more receive VOL's weekly digest of stories, but only a handful ever make a contribution to keep the news coming into your e-mail box. Please consider a tax-deductible donation to keep the news flowing. You can send a check to:

VIRTUEONLINE
570 Twin Lakes Rd
P.O. Box 111
Shohola, PA 18458

Or you can make a contribution through VOL's PAYPAL link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/

Thank you for your support.

David

Prophecy today. We should certainly reject any claim that there are prophets today comparable to the biblical prophets. For they were the 'mouth' of God, special organs of revelation, whose teaching belongs to the foundation on which the church is built. There may well, however, be a prophetic gift of a secondary kind, as when God gives some people special insight into his Word and his will. But we should not ascribe infallibility to such communications. Instead, we should evaluate both the character and the message of those who claim to speak from God. The principal way in which God speaks to us today is through Scripture, as the church in every generation has recognized. --- John R.W. Stott

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
April 29, 2016

The Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh elected a Georgia pastor Saturday to be its next leader in a landmark election to succeed the retiring Bishop Robert Duncan, who led the diocese's break with the Episcopal Church, eight years ago.

Clergy and lay delegates elected the Rev. James Hobby, who got his start in ministry in Southwestern Pennsylvania a quarter century ago, on the fifth ballot. Six candidates were originally on the ballot at a special convention, held at St. Stephen Anglican Church in Sewickley.

If his election is ratified by other bishops in the Anglican Church in North America at their June meeting, Hobby would be consecrated as bishop in September.

Hobby, currently pastor of Trinity Church in Thomasville, Ga., earned his Master of Divinity at Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge in 1985, and served at two Mon Valley parishes from 1986 to 1990, before moving on to pulpits in other states.

"I look forward to coming home," he said afterward.

Through the early ballots, Hobby polled close to the Rev. Jonathan Millard, rector of the Church of the Ascension in Oakland, who ultimately withdrew his name after the fourth ballot.

In the final ballot, Hobby received 93 votes from clergy delegates and 75 from lay delegates, ahead of the Rev. Jack Lumanog, at 18 and 30, respectively.

Episcopal liberals and progressives (Episcopal Cafe and Mark Harris) tried to trash Millard, a divorcee, whose name was put forward for the process. Little did these pro-sodomite trashers know, that the priest in question was ABANDONED by his wife, who left him with the kids, while she hi-tailed off with a WOMAN. He pled with her to return, she did not. He has faithfully raised his children for 8 years alone. I don't see how that disqualifies him. Of course, the revisionists love to spin this that the ACNA is waking up to the real world. Really. ACNA knows the real world and knows about the real nature of sin and redemption. It is a pity the revisionists don't have a clue about either.

*****

The Anglican Diocese of the Great Lakes opened a new chapter Thursday, six years after its establishment, by consecrating Ronald W. Jackson as its second bishop in a ceremony at St. Bernard Catholic Church in Akron.

The procession was led by Archbishop Foley Beach, head of the Anglican Church in North America. Anglican bishops and other church representatives from across the continent took part in the service, some coming from as far as Texas, Canada and New England.

"I enjoy seeing a new beginning," said Dan Klueg, one of about 250 attendees that filled the pews of the ornate church. "I'm confident [in Jackson] because the concept is steeped in prayer. We're listening to God, which is what I want to be part of."

Episcopal academies across the country have become mired in sexual scandal. The latest has a Tennessee father suing a Kansas military school run by the Episcopal Church, alleging its failure to adequately supervise cadets led to the sexual assault of his 12-year-old son by another student.

*****

The lawsuit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Kansas against St. John's Military School, is the latest in a string of litigation that has dogged the Episcopalian boarding school in Salina.

The lawsuit stems from an accusation that in spring, 2014, a grade-school boy sexually assaulted a fellow student in a dorm room.

The school says it did not learn of the accusation until a month ago, when child welfare officials, who are investigating, contacted them.

The plaintiff's attorney says the boy did not tell anyone about the alleged assault until months later.

No criminal charges have been filed.

*****

Did the Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral Deliberately Mislead C of E Evangelicals? When Dr. David Ison's name was proposed in 2012 to be the next Dean of St. Paul's in London, Church of England evangelicals were heartened that one of their own would ascend to one of the most prestigious pulpits in England.

However, immediately after his appointment was announced, it emerged that his position on homosexuality was less than fully biblical, even unbiblical, causing concern among those who had been his supporters and advocates.

Matthew Holehouse reported in The Telegraph on March 9, 2012, that the Very Rev Dr. David Ison, 57, had performed ceremonies for homosexual couples who had had civil partnerships, as Dean of Bradford, even though the Church still forbids formal blessings. This begs the question, why had his actions not been made public at that point? His views, as an evangelical in a position at Bradford Cathedral, which is appointed by evangelical trustees, would be of some significance in the Church, government and society.

The announcement took evangelicals by surprise and shock. No more so than Alison Ruoff, who had been elected from the Bishop of London's Council to the Appointment panel, to choose the new Dean of St Paul's cathedral. In a memo to friends following The Telegraph report, she described herself as "absolutely devastated."

"I could not believe my eyes, such were the headlines. However there is no doubt that there is ambiguity in the apparent quotes from David as to exactly what he means with regard to 'gay' marriage. You can read the full report here or in today's digest. http://www.virtueonline.org/london-did-dean-st-pauls-cathedral-deliberately-mislead-c-e-evangelicals

*****

Former Sydney Archbishop Peter Jensen and secretary general of the GAFCON primates is visiting North America, and he spoke at a number of venues from Toronto to Philadelphia. This week, he spoke to the CANA East diocesan convention in Wayne, PA, where I was able to interview him.

Here are some of his choice lines:

"I never knew there was an ACC till 1999... who gives a fig. Only 150 turned up and they passed 54 motions that were largely irrelevant."

"The Primates' meeting in Canterbury Meeting was a complete Failure. It was worth attending, as it revealed all the theological weaknesses in the Anglican Communion."

"The Lambeth Conference is out of date. It is a 19th century structure; GAFCON is functioning in the 21st century."

"There is a new Anglicanism boiling up that is real and based on the Word of God, and current tensions are not in this new emerging communion. We are renewing the Anglican Communion for the 21st century and not the 19th century, and it is based on the First Century the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word. We are in for exciting time."

"None of the GAFCON primates could care less about what took place in Lusaka recently. They have a different gospel."

"I understand Archbishop Welby called homosexuality a sin when he visited President Mugabe. I hope he will repeat that in the West and say so, standing on the Word of God -- The Bible."

You can read my full interview with him in today's digest.

*****

The Church of England has issued a prayer in advance of the June 23 vote deciding whether the United Kingdom will remain in the European Union (the proposed "Brexit," or "British exit".)

The New York Times reports concerns that the C of E is taking a political position:

The prayer, urging honesty, openness and generosity, asks God to imbue voters with "discernment" so that "our nation may prosper and that, with all the peoples of Europe, we may work for peace and the common good."

The prayer was seen by some as a sign that the Church of England -- whose supreme governor is Queen Elizabeth II -- was joining with President Obama to side with those who want Britain to remain a member of the European Union.

Peter Bone, a Conservative legislator who is strongly in favor of a British exit, or "Brexit," said it was "outrageous" for the church to seem to take a position.

"This is politics and should be nothing to do with the church," he told The Daily Mail, adding, "I would have thought that God was rather neutral on this issue."

A spokesman for the Church of England said in a telephone interview, that the church was not taking sides in the debate, and that the prayer was not intended to push voters one way or the other.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, last month said that the church would stay neutral. He said that Britons had a "genuine fear" about immigration, and that, "it is really important that that fear is listened to and addressed."

Has the C of E overstepped its bounds, by British standards (given that the American separation of church and state is not reflective of the U.K. governmental structure)? Or is this a tempest in a teapot?

*****

Did the Archbishop of Canterbury tell Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe that gay sex is "morally wrong"?

"You know [homosexuality] is morally wrong, but legally we cannot condemn those who practice it," Welby said.

"As the leaders of the church. we are here to learn how Zimbabwe managed to resolve its conflict; this will be a lesson to the whole Anglican in the world," he reportedly told the Harare Sunday Mail.

When asked about the Anglican position on homosexuality, Welby reportedly said: "You know [homosexuality] is morally wrong, but legally we cannot condemn those who practice it."

Well, this got up the trousers of England's gay community. "Welby's tone on homosexuality appears to differ wildly to when he's speaking in Zimbabwe to when he's speaking in the UK," said a gay newspaper.

Earlier this year, Welby said, for him, it was a "constant source of deep sadness that people are persecuted for their sexuality". And you wonder why the GAFCON primates don't trust him. The real truth is that gays are the bullies in the Anglican tent.

IN OTHER NEWS, Zimbabwe opposition leader, Joice Mujuru, was barred from attending an Anglican church meeting. The former V.P and leader of the opposition party, Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF), she was banned after local media reported security agents suspected the leader could use the event for campaign purposes.

Once a powerful ally of President Robert Mugabe, Mujuru was sacked by the ruling ZANU-PF party in 2014, after accusations emerged that she was plotting to kill the president, a move many described as orchestrated by First Lady Grace Mugabe.

Described as a reformist, Mujuru is now seen as a true contender for leadership in the forthcoming 2018 elections, while commentators have highlighted how her 10-year stint as Mugabe's deputy enabled her to cultivate a strong support base within the party. A spokesman for ZimPF, Rugare Gumbo, on 27 April, said the move was "undemocratic" and "an act of desperation by the Zanu PF regime".

*****

Billy Graham's Daughter says God Is Turning Away From America and leaving us to our sins. Commenting on the moral state of America and God's judgment on sinful nations, evangelist Anne Graham Lotz, the daughter of Evangelist Billy Graham, said America is imploding "morally and spiritually," that God is removing His "blessing and protection" from us, leaving us to our sins, and that this encroaching judgment is evident in the chaos of the political scene, the economy, and even the weather.

"Romans 1 describes the type of judgment where we sin, and we refuse to repent of our sin, then He backs away from us," said Anne Graham Lotz in a recent interview on CBN News with host Mark Martin. "He removes Himself from us and He turns us over to ourselves. That's what I think I see in America. I believe we're entering into that phase of judgment, where God is backing away."

At the start of the interview, Anne Graham Lotz said that she herself and all Christians need to take prayer very seriously and pray for the United States because, she added, the solution to so many problems is not political, but spiritual.

"Our nation, Mark, is in a mess, and you and I know it," she said. "You probably know better than I do because you follow the news very closely. But it's unraveling. We're imploding, and morally and spiritually, first and foremost. And I believe this is the time for God's people to humble themselves, pray, seek His face, turn from our sin, that He would hear our prayer, forgive our sin and bless America."

"I don't think the solution is primarily political or social or racial or economical or military, or some of these other things," said Lotz. "I believe the solution will be found on our knees before God."
*****

Kirsten Powers (contributor to USA Today and a columnist for Newsweek/The Daily Beast. Democratic commentator at Fox News) recently talked about her conversion to Christ.

"Just seven years ago, if someone had told me that I'd be writing for Christianity Today magazine about how I came to believe in God, I would have laughed out loud. If there was one thing in which I was completely secure, it was that I would never adhere to any religion--especially to evangelical Christianity, which I held in particular contempt."

The she said this, "I grew up in the Episcopal Church in Alaska, but my belief was superficial and flimsy...From my early 20s on, I would waver between atheism and agnosticism, never coming close to considering that God could be real." Is this what the Episcopal Church does to and for people? Apparently. Later she visited Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC and came under the ministry of Tim Keller. Big mistake. It wasn't long after that she bowed the knee to Christ and the rest as they say, is history.

*****

At Georgetown University, the oldest Catholic and Jesuit institution of higher learning in the U.S., the official teachings of the church against homosexuality were set aside. Wednesday was the occasion for a "Lavender Graduation" event, described as "a special ceremony for LGBTQ and Ally undergraduate and graduate students," in order to "acknowledge their achievements, contributions, and unique experiences at Georgetown University."

Before this eyebrow-raising event was set to occur, Georgetown University hosted Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, which is responsible for 40 percent of all reported abortions committed in the United States. The student newspaper reported that Richards spoke "by invitation" from the student-sponsored Lecture Fund, which is funded by the university, and that she spoke about "reproductive justice" and "women's reproductive rights."

Meanwhile, messages written in chalk and appearing on campus in support of conservative causes are now being investigated, and disciplinary action against those responsible, could be taken.

*****

On Sunday, April 17, 2016, the Most Reverend George Takeli, former bishop of the Diocese of Temotu, was installed and seated as the sixth Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Melanesia (ACOM). More than 3,000 church members, partners and visitors gathered at the Provincial Cathedral of St. Barnabas, Honiara, Guadalcanal Island. Archbishop Takeli will also serve as Bishop of the Diocese of Central Melanesia.

*****

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he convinced a Church of England vicar to marry him and his wife to be Lucy, saying that it would eliminate the risk of fornication.

Turnbull made the candid announcement, and then revealed how he convinced vicar to marry him and his wife. He confessed that he told the vicar that the union would prevent 'fornication'.

He said the vicar in a small village church just outside Oxford told him to "Get out of here, what are you talking about, you're not part of my flock, go to the registry office", Turnbull said.

'We said 'we really want to get married here'...I said: 'And the Church of England is an established Church in the United Kingdom'. 'Yes' he said. So I said: 'You are kind of like a public servant'.

'He said 'yes'. I said: 'Well, one of your jobs is to prevent fornication in this Parish. And he said 'yeah'.

'I said 'well look', Ms Hughes and I are not making any admissions, but we are young and in excellent health and sorely tempted.'

'If you marry us, you will eliminate the risk of fornication in the cottage where we are living down the road. And he thought that was so funny that he said 'done'. And we got married.'

*****

The Diocesan Bishop of Egba, Ogun State, Church of Nigeria, the Rt. Rev. Emmanuel Adekunle, advised Nigerians to be courageous enough to recall any lawmaker in the National Assembly who do anything contrary to their wishes and aspirations.

According to the bishop, events in the Senate in the past few weeks informed the need for Nigerians to be vigilant, as it appeared that some of the lawmakers were in the legislature for selfish interests and not to make life better for the people.

"It is sad that many of our lawmakers in the National Assembly, most especially in the Senate, were there for selfish interests.

"The recent happenings in the Senate are shameful. I think Nigerians should be courageous enough to recall any of their representatives who are not representing them well, either in the Senate or in the House of Representatives."

The bishop also condemned Nigerian public office holders for wanting to hold on to power at all cost, even when they were on trial for corruption.

The bishop said there was no moral justification for the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, to continue holding on to his position, because of allegations of corruption leveled against him.

Addressing newsmen on the pre-synod programs for the first session of the fourteen synod of the diocese, held at the Bishops Court, ‎Onikolobo, Abeokuta, he advised Saraki to resign from office and face his trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT over false assets declaration.

*****

The Bishops of the Church in Wales issued a 'Pastoral Letter....to all the faithful concerning gay and lesbian Christians', accompanied by two sets of prayers 'that may be said with a couple following the Celebration of a Civil Partnership or Civil Marriage.'

What should we make of this letter from a theological perspective, writes Martin B. Davie?

First, the reasons the bishops give for not changing the teaching of the Church in Wales in relation to marriage or permitting 'the celebration of public liturgies of blessing for same sex unions' are because a process of consultation has shown there is not the necessary support in the Church in Wales to do so and because to do so would be to go against the recent statement from the Primates of the Anglican Communion. These are good reasons, but they do not get to the theological heart of the matter.

The fundamental theological reason why the Church in Wales should not change its teaching and practice is because the Bible makes clear (Genesis 1-2, Mark 10:2-9) that God has created human beings as male and female and has created marriage as a lifelong exclusive relationship between one man and one woman and as the sole legitimate context for entering into sexual union. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

The widely reported death by suffocation of Ding Cuimei, the wife of a pastor in China's Henan province, has shocked Christians worldwide. Ding and her husband were buried as they attempted to prevent their church from being bulldozed by developers, according to a report in Christianity Today.

Ding's husband managed to crawl to safety, but she did not. Their case highlights again the lack of legal protection for China's Christians.

In Beijing, meanwhile, a less noticed but more significant event provides insight into how China's atheistic regime plans to deal with the country's growing Christian population, projected to become the world's largest within the next couple decades.

At a long-awaited national conference on religion, held April 22-23, in Beijing, China's president Xi Jinping called on leaders to take the initiative in reasserting Communist Party of China (CPC) control over religion.

Xi's speech, his first specifically on religion since coming to power in 2012, delineates a clear hierarchy in which religion is subordinate to state interests. According to Xi, uniting all believers under CPC leadership is necessary to preserve internal harmony, while warding off hostile foreign forces that may use religion to destabilize the regime.

X's insistence is not new, nor is it simply a function of China's Communist rule. Since imperial times, state power has been seen as ultimate. It is, and has always been, the prerogative of the Chinese state to define orthodox belief and to set the boundaries for religious groups whose doctrines fall outside official limits.

In an environment in which the CPC is moving aggressively to rein in all expressions of civil society, Xi's message on religion comes as no surprise. His vision for reasserting control over religion--an area the CPC finds particularly difficult due to the diversity and complex history of China's various religious communities--combines legal means with tightened supervision over religious doctrine and organizations.

Under the banner "rule by law," Xi Jinping has overseen the drafting of new legislation and regulations governing nearly every sphere of life, from recreational dancing to national security. Curiously absent has been legislation dealing with religion.

In his recent speech, Xi made several references to regulating religion through law. Now that the first national conference on religion under Xi has been concluded, it is likely that a new law on religion is not far off. For China's Christians, such legislation could be a two-edged sword.

The CPC's control over religion is to be exerted not only through law, but also by reconciling religious doctrine with the party's socialist values. While "religion serving socialism" has been in the CPC lexicon for some time, direct intervention in the beliefs and practices of individual religions--including calls for the "Sinification" of Christian theology--have become more common under Xi.

*****

In Hope Mills, NC, just outside Fayetteville, Christ Episcopal Church and parish hall was donated by the Diocese of East Carolina to the township to establish a history museum.

The town plans to locate a history museum in the parish hall of the former Christ Episcopal Church on Patterson Street in the downtown. Hope Mills Museum will become a reality.

I suppose we should breathe a sigh of relief that it wasn't sold to an Islamic group. A museum seems appropriate, bearing in mind the way TEC is going. Perhaps, as part of the museum, they might show an unused 1662 BCP.

The museum that Hall and other committee members envision, would tell the story of the town with an emphasis on its history as a textile mill village.

*****

The Episcopal Diocese of Easton, on the Eastern shore of Maryland, is looking for a bishop. Whoever is elected will have to figure out what to do with all the time on his hands, especially if he is not an evangelist or church planter, and 98% of Episcopal bishops are not.

Now the diocese has been without a bishop for a couple of years, and there was talk of uniting it with either the Diocese of Maryland or the Diocese of Delaware, which itself is on life support. (They recently sold their cathedral.)

Most of the diocese is run by volunteers, which should come as no surprise. There are 9 parishes in the diocese with Sunday attendance over 100, and 13 more parishes with Sunday attendance exceeding 50 worshipers. The Diocese of Easton has 16 churches, with less than 50 people at worship on any given Sunday. That figure is almost half of all the churches in the diocese. Most of the parishes are facing dwindling numbers and are struggling to continue.

So why does the diocese need a full time bishop? Why, to keep the illusion going that bishops are needed even for dying dioceses. Seventeen churches have one full time clergy and two additional churches employ two full time clergy. The remaining half of the churches get by with a part time or retired clergy person.

One suspects that whoever becomes bishop will spend a lot of time on committees reimagining the church (TREC) or just reimagining. As the diocese has a long coastal line, the bishop might want to take up fishing to fill in the time.

*****

We at VOL are in our spring fund raising appeal time and you might be tempted just to throw out our appeal letter when you get it before reading it. It's only one page so we won't bore you. We don't hit you up monthly as most agencies do, but we at VOL hope you will take a few moments to read it and use the envelope provided to send us a check. Regardless of size every penny helps. You can also send a donation via PAYPAL at the link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/

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