Submissive humility. Submission to the authority of Scripture is *the way of personal Christian humility*. Nothing is more obnoxious in us who claim to follow Jesus Christ than arrogance, and nothing is more appropriate or attractive than humility. And an essential element in Christian humility is the willingness to hear and receive God's Word. Perhaps the greatest of all our needs is to take our place again humbly, quietly and expectantly at the feet of Jesus Christ, in order to listen attentively to his Word, and to believe and obey it. For we have no liberty to disbelieve or disobey him. --- John R.W. Stott

Still, suffering and death are the Devil's work; they are the Devil's mask hiding the divine face, as Martin Luther put it. When suffering and death befall us or befall those we love, we hover between the rage of rebellion and the somber serenity of surrender. We rage against God as if he were the Devil himself. ('My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!') Or we are drawn closer to God and closer to what truly matters in life. ('Into thy hands I commend my spirit.') Often we do both of these seemingly contradictory things at the same time. Ultimately the challenge is this: to recognize God even 'under the mask of the Devil' and to seek to conquer evil with good by sharing in the suffering love of the redeeming God. Joy will follow as surely as Easter Sunday followed Good Friday. --- Miroslav Volf

"The faith to which we are called will always be folly and scandal to the world, it cannot be in the usual sense of the word popular; it is a supernatural faith and it cannot adapt itself to every passing fashion of human thought. But it will be a faith alert to distinguish what is shaken, and is meant to go, and what is not shaken and is meant to remain." --- Archbishop Michael Ramsey

"During the same years in which progressive-minded and politically correct adults have been excoriating Ozzie and Harriet as artifacts of 1950s-style oppression, millions of American teenagers have enshrined a new generation of music idols whose shared signature in song after song is to rage about what not having had a nuclear family had done to them." --- Mary Eberhardt

The Universal Church is one stretching through all time and eternity. The Globalist Church is one married to one time and political thought. --- Michael Voris
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
November 1, 2019

This digest is overdue. Please accept my apologies. I have been travelling and I alighted briefly in Christchurch, New Zealand where I attended and covered the consecration of yet another GAFCON bishop.

It was a glorious occasion with bishops I know in attendance stepping out in faith believing and taking God at His Word, knowing that nothing can stop the flow of the gospel even and especially when it is not being proclaimed by Anglicans who should know better.

The Rev. Jay Behan is now the Rt. Rev Jay Behan and he will lead 12 parishes who left the Anglican Church of Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia because they insisted on blessing same sex marriages, even though their canons do not allow them to marry two people of the same sex.

It's the thin end of the wedge, and anyone with a functioning cerebral frontal cortex knows where this is going. As in TEC, so it will be in New Zealand. The pansexualists will bide their time and then come out swinging at their next provincial gathering with a resolution legalizing the whole thing. The new GAFCON diocese will feel completely vindicated.

I have written about this at length and you can read my full story here. https://virtueonline.org/christchurch-gafcon-consecrates-new-evangelical-diocesan-bishop

Within a week, there was the inevitable pushback. Progressive Anglican leaders from the Anglican Church in Aotearoa New Zealand said the action of Anglican bishops who supported the consecration of the Rt. Rev. Jay Behan, was "irregular" accusing them of boundary crossing, saying they are not part of nor in relationship with the New Zealand Anglican Church.

This is not a new story. The same charges were brought against the Anglican Church in North America when its leaders broke free from the Episcopal Church over the same besetting sin of legitimizing homosexuality by ordaining a non-celibate homosexual to the episcopacy and later affirming homosexual marriage.

The Anglican Communion might be in turmoil, but orthodox Anglicans are not. They know exactly what they believe, and they are relentlessly moving forward across the globe, making and forming new dioceses and bringing into GAFCON those provinces promising to keep the faith and recognize Scripture as fully binding on them. Archbishop Foley Beach dropped into the Seychelles after leaving the Seventh Trumpet Global South leaders in Cairo and said "Archbishop James Wong is with us." The Lambeth conference grows more irrelevant with each passing day while GAFCON grows stronger. You can read my story on the pushback here: https://virtueonline.org/new-zealand-anglican-leaders-decry-gafcon-consecration

*****

But the news that rocked the Anglican Communion came from across the Tasman Straits when the Archbishop of Sydney, the Rt. Rev. Glenn Davies, went on a theological and moral rampage bluntly telling same-sex supporters to leave the Anglican Church rather than "betray God's word".

In his final address to the 51st Synod of the Diocese of Sydney, Davies delivered a scathing denunciation of progressive elements within the church that they had "entered treacherous waters" and called on those who supported same-sex marriage to leave.

"I fear for the stability of the Anglican Church of Australia. These developments have the potential to fracture our fellowship and impair our communion. I have stated this on numerous occasions at the annual National Bishops' Conference, but sadly to little effect," said Davies, who is the Synod president.

"My own view is that if people wish to change the doctrine of our church, they should start a new church or join a church more aligned to their views - but do not ruin the Anglican Church by abandoning the plain teaching of Scripture. Please leave us."

Davies later walked back his statement saying he was only addressing bishops and clergy. When I posted the story on Facebook, I had no idea the impact his words would have. To date, nearly 147,000 people have read the story with 99% saying they were grateful for his words.

He is the first Western archbishop ever to be so declarative, though a number of African primates have berated Western pan Anglican provinces for approving homosexuality and same sex marriage. What if an orthodox Anglican bishop had said this ten to 15 years ago, we might not be in the mess we are in today. Imagine an episcopal Bishop telling his priests, if you don't stand by scripture on matters of sex and marriage then leave. Only one bishop, William Love of Albany has dared to defy the episcopal powers that be saying he will not obey Resolution 012 and allow homosexual marriages in his diocese. He faces an ecclesiastical court who will duly find him guilty and cast him into outer darkness.

*****

The Anglo-Catholic Bishop of Springfield Daniel Martins, 68, announced his retirement last week. Martins wife is very ill and they have moved to the Chicago area for her continued treatment, a source told VOL. He is returning to Springfield for necessary bishoping on the weekends.

Martins is one of nine Episcopal Church Communion Partner bishops (six are diocesan bishops in domestic dioceses) who say they are committed to traditional faith and practice with respect to marriage and to unity with the wider Anglican Communion, but after the passage of Resolution B012 at the 2018 General Convention, he, along with his fellow Communion Partner bishops, decided to permit same sex marriage within their dioceses for parishes who wanted alternative episcopal oversight. The only CP bishop holdout was the Bishop of Albany, Bill Love, who has resolutely refused to allow such marriages or alternative arrangements. None of the CP bishops have joined him, offering mere verbal support but nothing more.

Martins was enthroned in 2011 and retires in 2021. What has happened to his diocese in those years?

In 2011, Baptized Membership was 5,229, in 2018 it had plunged to 3,777 for a loss of 27%.
In 2011, Communicants numbered 4,062, by 2018 that number had dropped to 2,624 for a loss of 35.4%.
In 2011, ASA was 1,945, by 2018 it had dropped to 1,442, a loss of nearly 26%.
In 2011, Sunday School students numbered 453, by 2018 that number had dropped to 226, a drop of 50%. The only rise was in funerals up 5%. Three congregations closed, bringing the total down to 33.

One wonders if there will be enough money coming in to sustain a future full-time bishop. Will the powers that be step in with an interim bishop or put out the call to merge with another diocese. Unlike the coastal areas and the south, the Midwest is hurting the most with declining church attendance.

IN OTHER NEWS, The Rt. Rev. Peter Beckwith, who served as Bishop of Springfield from 1992 to 2010, passed away October 4, 2019, at the age of 80. Bishop Beckwith was a retired rear admiral in the Navy Reserves, having served as deputy chief of chaplains from 1996 to 1999. He also served as chaplain to Episcopal inmates at Southern Michigan State Prison, Jackson, the Marine Corps Reserve Association, the Illinois State Police, Hillsdale College, and was the National Chaplain for the Navy League of the United States, the diocese said.

During his episcopacy in Springfield, Illinois, Bishop Beckwith served on a committee that led to the formation of the breakaway Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). After retiring in Springfield, he was received into the ACNA College of Bishops in 2014. He was a great friend and encouragement to VOL. He will be sorely missed.

*****

A merger of two dioceses Western Michigan and Eastern Michigan looks to be in the works, though they are not exactly calling it that. The Rt. Rev. Whayne M. Hoagland, diocesan bishop of Western Michigan, was elected bishop provisional of the Diocese of Eastern Michigan on October 19 in Bay City. The action is intended to begin a "3-5 year period of conversation around relationship and sharing of resources."

Both dioceses have seen significant decline in ASA over the years.

In a letter to both dioceses, Hoagland noted that Eastern Michigan's decision had come after two and a half years of ongoing conversation between the two neighboring church bodies. The process began when Todd Ousley, Eastern Michigan's last diocesan bishop, resigned his position to begin work at Episcopal Church headquarters. Retired Indianapolis bishop Catherine Waynick has been serving as Eastern Michigan's provisional bishop since 2017.

At their last diocesan convention in the fall of 2018, Eastern Michigan had voted to invite Hoagland to assume this role, with the consent of the Diocese of Western Michigan. The two dioceses have been sharing staff and resources in various ways.

According to TLC, the model the two dioceses have chosen to employ is closely based on the relationship begun between the Dioceses of Northwestern Pennsylvania and Western New York in 2018, who have been affected by similar rust-belt demographic changes. Bishop Sean Rowe met with leaders from the Diocese of Eastern Michigan early in the process. Rowe, the diocesan bishop of Northwestern Pennsylvania, is currently beginning his second year of a five-year term as provisional bishop of Western New York.

While there is no immediate plan for merger between the two Michigan dioceses, it would seem inevitable. All the stats for both dioceses are down. In Western Michigan, baptized membership is down by nearly 20% from 9,732 to 7,857 in 2018. ASA has dropped 16.5% to 3,228 from 3,864. In 2012, Baptisms were 131, down to 78, a drop of 40.5%.

In Eastern Michigan, the 2006 Baptized Membership was 7,709 by 2017 it was down to 4,603 a loss of 3,106 or 40.3%. ASA in 2006 was 3,029, by 2017 it was 1,857, a loss of 1,173 or 38.7%. The diocese lost 7 congregations dropping from 50 to 43.

There seems little doubt that mergers and junctures are in more diocesan futures as TEC slowly wilts and dies.

*****

BISHOPS COMINGS AND GOINGS. If you had any doubt that Episcopal bishops were jumping off the SS TEC then take a look at the unofficial listing of all of the elections for bishop currently occurring in the Episcopal Church (USA).

Upcoming elections
Georgia, electing 15-16 November 2019
Missouri, electing 22-23 November 2019
Oklahoma, electing 14 December 2019
Minnesota, electing 25 January 2020
Chicago, electing 20 June 2020
Oregon, electing 27 June 2020
Wyoming, electing 18-20 September 2020
South Carolina, date to be determined

Retirements or resignations announced
North Dakota, resignation announced, effective 1 May 2019
Virginia, resignation announced, planned for summer 2019
Alabama, retirement announced for 2020
Milwaukee, November 2020
West Missouri, retirement announced for 2021
Springfield, retirement announced, June 2021 consecration planned
West Virginia, retirement announced, election in June 2021
IOWA, retirement announced, election 2012

Completed elections
Texas, Suffragan -- election 22 February 2019; consents received; 1 June 2019 consecration
El Camino Real -- The Reverend Lucinda Ashby elected; consents received. Scheduled consecration 11 January 2020.
Michigan, The Reverend Bonnie Perry elected, consents received. Scheduled consecration 8 February 2020
South Dakota, election 4 May 2019
Montana, election 26 July 2019; consents received; consecration 7 December 2019
Eastern Michigan, election 19 October 2019
Southern Virginia, election 21 September 2019; consents pending H/T to ENS

This is fully 23% of all TEC's diocesan bishops on the move.

A source told VOL that if a bishop has served a full 38-year career, he/she will retire on $10,000 a month with another three or four thousand in social security and a wife's pension on top of that. Not bad going even if you have shown that you haven't made your diocese grow in all that time. In secular terms, these bishops would get jobs as Walmart greeters.

*****

Bishop W. Michie Klusmyer, the VII Bishop of West Virginia called for the election of a bishop coadjutor in 2020 at the diocesan convention at Saint Matthew's Church in Wheeling on October 19. An election is expected in late, 2020. The coadjutor bishop would succeed Klusmyer after his retirement.

Klusmyer, 64, was consecrated in 2011, and is the longest-serving bishop of a domestic diocese in the Episcopal Church (only Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and Bishop Francisco Duque of Columbia have served longer). He is the chair of the board of directors for Bexley Hall Seabury Western Theological Seminary and serves on the board of trustees of Virginia Theological Seminary and of General Seminary, his alma mater. Before he was elected as bishop, Klusmyer served as a rector and campus minister in Illinois.

So, what has this bishop achieved in his tenure? He was enthroned in 2001 and will leave on or about 2021.
In 2001, Baptized Membership was 10,754, by 2018, Baptized Membership was 7,510 a loss of 3,344 or 30.2%.
In 2000, the ASA was 4,029, by 2018, it was 2,393 a loss of 1,636 or nearly 60%!!!
In 2001, Baptisms were 219, by 2018, Baptisms were 86 a drop of 133 or 60.7%.
In 2001, Confirmations were 116; in 2018, Confirmations dropped to 62 or 46.6%.
Marriages in 2001, Marriages totaled 96, by 2018, Marriages had dropped to 27, a loss of 71.9%.
In 2001, there were 77 congregations, by 2018, Congregation totaled 62 a drop of nearly 20 percent.

And to think bishops like him get fat pensions for destroying their dioceses. In any other occupation, they would have been fired years ago.

*****

What's going on in the Diocese of Virginia? There has been some odd activity in the Diocese of Virginia in the past two years. The Rev. Canon Pat Wingo, Canon to the Ordinary suddenly resigned to be long-term Interim Rector of the Church of the Ascension, Knoxville, in the Diocese of East Tennessee (not an upward move) and of course, Bishop Shannon Johnston later departed, with no adequate explanation as to why. It was all couched in episcobabble.

Recently the Rt. Rev. Susan E. Goff, Bishop Suffragan and Ecclesiastical Authority of the Diocese of Virginia, announced the appointment of the Rt. Rev. Jennifer Brooke-Davidson as Assistant Bishop of the Diocese of Virginia. Bishop Brooke-Davidson had been Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of West Texas since July, 2017.

Locally, John Ohmer from the Falls Church Episcopal will depart next month. He's been around since 2012, so not necessarily a sign of anything wrong, but a source told VOL that Ohmer was not enamored with the diocesan leadership.

Is this just the usual diocesan churning that occurs during a transition period between bishops, or is it a sign of something more serious. Virginia has four times as many members and three times as many attendees as West Texas, so one could see why Brooke-Davidson might make the switch. Suffragan is generally considered to be a higher position than Assistant (elected vs. serving at the Diocesan's discretion). You will recall that lesbian Bishop Mary Glasspool left her Suffragan position in the Diocese of Los Angeles for an Assistant position in New York, and we later learned she was trying to "get the hell out of there" under Bishop Jon Bruno.

Virginia is a mess since Johnston was forced out. They have lost heavily big parishes who have gone to ACNA. Their biggest lost was The Falls Church, now Falls Church Anglican with a new multi-million-dollar structure while the old church lies fallow. God always wins.

*****

The Episcopal Church can't seem to get away from sex scandals. The latest is the Rev. Howard White, a pedophile who pled guilty to multiple counts of child sex abuse. He got 12 years for his sins. But the real kicker in this story is the trail of sex abuse allegations extended back to the Diocese of West Virginia in 1969!

Allegations of sex abuse of minors by White now include an instance 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.

The question is why was he not brought up short and kicked out of the Church back then, inquiring minds would like to know. One victim said that in 1969 White engaged in sexual conduct with him. At the time of the alleged sexual abuse, Albright was approximately eleven years old. Thereafter, at some undetermined point during his adulthood, Albright sought counseling, and ... allegedly recalled the ... sexual abuse during one such therapy session.

Despite the Church apparently having knowledge of White's propensities, the Church failed to alert its parishioners of the potential danger to their children.

*****

The Episcopal Church leadership called for divestment in Israel recently and one has to ask is this just ill-disguised anti-Semitism in the name of Human Rights?

The Episcopal Church's Executive Council at the recommendation of Council's Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility, (CCSR) wants the church to disinvest three companies from the Church's investment portfolio and placement and put on a No Buy List.

They include Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions and the Israel Discount Bank. Further, Council asks CCSR "to pursue continued engagement with Facebook, Booking.com, and TripAdvisor, urging them to address human rights violations through complicity in the occupation of the OPT, and seeking to assure that the companies take all necessary steps to end their complicity in the occupation."

Now this is not the first time Episcopal Church deep thinkers have called for the Church to disinvest from Israel. In July of 2018, The Episcopal House of Bishops shot down Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) over Judea and Samaria. However, the House of Bishops, by a large majority, voted down a measure overwhelmingly favored by the House of Deputies that would have sought to end what they believe is the church's financial complicity in the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, putting to rest for at least another three years one of the church's most divisive issues. You can read the full story here: https://virtueonline.org/episcopal-church-leadership-call-divestment-israel-ill-disguised-anti-semitism-name-human-rights

*****

Some 100 global Anglican leaders met in Cairo recently and delivered themselves of a communique in the form of a New Covenant that stands in direct opposition to the structures of the presently being followed Anglican Communion and the Lambeth Conference.

The Global South leaders "adopted in principle" a "covenantal structure" for their mutual relationships that pretty wall supplants the failed 2009 Anglican covenant of Dr. Rowan Williams.

These bishops have committed themselves to orthodox teaching and common discipline similar in type to the Anglican Communion's instruments of communion. But clearly different. This all stems from the work of the Global South Anglicans' Study Group on Enhancing Ecclesial Responsibility, which was commissioned at the sixth Global South Conference in 2016.

Most of those present, including all seven members of the newly elected Primates' Steering Committee, are involved in GAFCON, who stand opposed to the present Anglican Communion structures. You can read the full document here: https://virtueonline.org/seventh-trumpet-communique-7th-global-south-conference-cairo-2019

Now what is truly amazing is that of the thirty points in the communique, No. 6 says, "We received with thanks greetings from the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd. and Rt. Hon. Justin Welby, and the Most Revd. Dr Josiah Idowu-Fearon, the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, which were conveyed by the Rt. Revd. Dr Graham Kings."

But then No.22 says this: "We continue to uphold Resolution I.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference with regards to human sexuality. We are also happy to see the wider acceptance of the joint-document addressing human sexuality that was issued at the GS Conference in 2016."

This begs the question did Archbishop Justin Welby even read the document? This is the elephant in the room at the upcoming Lambeth Conference next year, and will conflict sharply with the homosexual partners of bishops who will be attending the conference. Welby just stepped into a trap he cannot easily extricate himself from.

The official record of the Cairo gathering, the seventh in the series, is entitled, "The Seventh Trumpet."

****

There is a new dean for Kenya. The Bishop of Meru has been elected Provincial Dean of the Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK). Meeting at All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi on 25-26 Sept 2019, the biennial meeting of the Kenyan synod elected the Rt. Rev. Charles Mwendwa in succession to the Rt. Rev. Joseph Wasonga. Bishop Wasonga retired on 1 Sept 2019, creating a vacancy for the number two spot in the church. According to the provincial website, the Provincial Dean "is a sitting Bishop Elected by the Standing Committee of the Provincial Synod from a list of Bishops recommended by the House of Bishops. He acts as the Archbishop when he is absent from the Church or is Incapacitated by illness or any other cause from carrying out his duties."

*****

My new book, THE SEDUCTION OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH is out and if you would like a copy, I would be happy to send you an autographed copy for a donation of $100.00. The money will not line my pockets, but allow me to send copies to Global South bishops who would not otherwise be able to obtain a copy. My hope is to put this book in the hands of every bishop in the Anglican Communion so they will never again be fooled by anything a sitting Presiding Bishop says about The Episcopal Church. This book represents nearly three decades of reporting. I hope you will buy it.

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

Or you can hit VOL's PayPal link here: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=66yVctdRJfn56ObJTxNqRn37s81ca3TxyKoR_-1iSo1u2jIy86mIBsCow1RhWJMBFAV5KW&country.x=US&locale.x=US

Please don't forget to add your return address.

All blessings,

David

Kenyans Protest UN Pro-Abortion Summit. "Africa is not for sale. African women do not need to sacrifice their children to be empowered. They tell us we are poor because we are many. That is a lie! We are poor because they took and still take our resources." --- David Nussman

God's created norms. There can be no 'liberation' from God's created norms; true liberation is found only in accepting them. --- John R.W. Stott

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
November 15, 2019

The question might fairly be asked is this; do we now have three Anglican communions? The first, of course, is the official Anglican Communion with its four instruments of unity ruled over by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The second is GAFCON ruled over by ACNA archbishop and GAFCON chairman Foley Beach. The third are Global South Anglicans led by a Primates' Council headed up by Archbishop Justin Badi of Southern Sudan. He is the new chair of the GSA Primates' Steering Committee.

Each has its own rule book -- The Anglican Communion has the decennial Lambeth Conference which has passed multiple resolutions from multiple gatherings of the communion over many years; GAFCON has the Jerusalem Declaration and the Global South has a newly formed Covenant.

This proposed covenantal structure for the GSA outlines a series of doctrinal commitments, as requisite for "full communion" between churches, dioceses, and even congregations. It also states that "our churches are out of communion with those churches that allow the blessing of same-sex relationships or purport to solemnize same-sex marriages in their doctrine and practice."

The Jerusalem Declaration specifically says, "We acknowledge God's creation of humankind as male and female and the unchangeable standard of Christian marriage between one man and one woman as the proper place for sexual intimacy and the basis of the family. We repent of our failures to maintain this standard and call for a renewed commitment to lifelong fidelity in marriage and abstinence for those who are not married."

The knotty resolution 1:10 stands at the epicenter of the Anglican Communion hanging like a Damoclean Sword over all three communions.

Both GAFCON and the Global South have ratified Resolution 1:10 as the gold standard for human sexual behavior, that is, between a man and woman no exceptions. While the Lambeth Conference has in theory passed the resolution, Archbishop Welby refuses to reinforce it.

This led one ACNA bishop to make the follow observation from a senior African prelate when asked about going to Lambeth. He said that that the question about sexuality had already been decided by Archbishop Welby with respect to Resolution 1:10. By inviting Bishops in same-sex relationships (and those who consecrated them), Welby has made the conference violate Lambeth 1:10. Additionally Archbishop Welby himself is In violation of Lambeth 1:10. There is no need to discuss resolution 1:10 anymore, Archbishop Welby has unilaterally decided to overturn it for the Communion.

So, there you have it. If Welby has already decided that inviting bishops living in a homoerotic relationship with another person of the same sex to Canterbury next year, then he has effectively undermined that resolution which was adopted on a vote of 526 to 70 with 45 abstentions.

*****

A leading Anglican LGBTI+ activist who is campaigning to make "reparative therapy" a criminal offence was warmly received by Pope Francis at Casa Santa Martha this week after Holy Mass in the pontiff's private chapel. Jayne Ozanne, who led the debate banning reparative therapy in the Church of England's General Synod, told Pope Francis that that she had tried to make herself straight through conversion therapy, and that such treatments had led many young people to consider suicide. The lesbian activist self-identifies as an evangelical Anglican.

So, the bigly question is this? Who are the pope's gatekeepers who let her get this close to the Pope and spew her rubbish in his ear? Well, it turns out that it was Archbishop Justin Welby who opened that door, according to Bishop Gavin Ashenden. The same question might be asked of Catholic pro homosexual activist the Rev. James Martin, who also got an opportunity to bend the Pope's ear. These photo ops do not serve those who are trying to remain faithful to God's word

You can read the full story here: https://virtueonline.org/pope-meets-notorious-anglican-lesbian-activist

****

The following is a list of dioceses within the Anglican Church of Canada that will marry same-sex couples:
Diocese of Ontario
Diocese of Central Newfoundland
Diocese of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador
Diocese of Western Newfoundland
Diocese of New Westminster
Diocese of Toronto
Diocese of Niagara
Diocese of Montreal
Diocese of Ottawa
Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island
Diocese of Rupert's Land
Diocese of Kootenay
Diocese of Edmonton
Diocese of B.C.
Diocese of Huron

Conservative Anglican blogger David of Samizdat observed; "That hits the 45% mark. Soon it will be more economical to list the dioceses that have not authorized same-sex marriage. Again, this raises the question: why did they bother to hold a vote on this at General Synod and why all the subsequent fuss when it failed to pass?" Indeed.

*****

ON THE INTERNATIONAL FRONT, Jerusalem And the Middle East has a new Primate in the person of Michael Augustine Owen Lewis. He will continue to serve as diocesan bishop of Cyprus and the Gulf, a post he has held for the past twelve years. Prior to that he was for eight years Bishop of Middleton in the Province of York in the United Kingdom. He succeeds in the primacy the Most Reverend Suheil Dawani, Bishop of the Diocese of Jerusalem.

The Episcopal Electoral College for the Diocese of Down and Dromore, meeting in St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh, elected Archdeacon David McClay as the new Bishop of Down and Dromore. He succeeds the Rt. Rev. Harold Miller, who retired at the end of September.

The Venerable David McClay is Archdeacon of Down and Rector of Willowfield Parish Church, in East Belfast. He was previously Rector of Kilkeel and has served his whole ordained ministry to date in the Diocese of Down and Dromore.

*****

Ever since Sydney Archbishop Glenn Davies told homosexuals to leave the Church rather than "betray God's Word," he has been taking it in the neck from liberals who wish he would take a flying leap off a cliff. A prominent Australian Anglican author Lashed out at the evangelical archbishop and said the Anglican church must evolve or die.

Nikki Gemmel roared at the archbishop in a column and asked; 'What is the Anglican Church becoming? What does it want to be to the people of Australia? I ask this as a woman who's invested in Anglicanism but is heartbroken at the way this religion is being riven internally.' She said esteemed church leaders made her feel 'vandalized' and accused them of hijacking the church by 'bigotry and intolerance,' calling it a 'travesty of Jesus's teachings.'

She went on a riff saying that The Archbishop of Sydney had a definition of Anglicanism that was not her. She accused him of sexism though he had nothing to say about women at all; he focused solely on sexuality issues.

"The public image: a riven and confused church that doesn't quite know what it stands for but is pushing people away in the process. Not only members of the congregation but non-churchgoing parents with children in Anglican schools," she said.

That's odd. The Diocese of Sydney is the largest and most vibrant diocese in the entire Anglican Church of Australia! It is thriving even as liberal and progressive dioceses are withering on the vine because they cannot declare a definitive gospel message while pushing sexual and abortion limits against Scripture and catholic teaching down through the centuries. Nowhere in her blast at Davies does she cite one Scripture, only her own personal anguish at churches being ripped apart over homosexual marriage. What Scriptures could she quote from pray tell? Not one.

You can read the full story here: https://virtueonline.org/prominent-australian-anglican-author-lashes-out-sydney-archbishop-glenn-davies

*****

Progressive pansexualist "Christians" have declared war on orthodox believers. Their goal is not mere acceptance, but to overthrow the moral order and destroy conservative churches who hold the line on faith and morals

It should be obvious by now that progressive pansexual "Christians" have only one goal - to destroy traditional Christianity and the churches that support it, declare they have won and wave the rainbow flag of victory.

While they have never started or built churches, they have spent decades infiltrating and taking over orthodox parishes and turning them in the name of inclusion. Then they watch as the churches slowly wither and die.

This was the plan all along. Having their sexuality not merely approved but accepted and controlling the sexual agenda of the church was always their objective. Total capitulation and control.

The greatest threat to free speech and the free exercise of religion is the homosexual (and transgender) agenda. Nothing else comes even remotely close, said distinguished legal scholar and political philosopher Robert George of Princeton University. To read the full story click here: https://virtueonline.org/progressive-pansexualist-christians-have-declared-war-orthodox-believers

*****

The ongoing, never-ending legal saga in South Carolina continued this week when the Episcopal Church in South Carolina filed yet another petition on November 11 in Federal Court. This time TEC objected to the Diocese's use of the name The Anglican Diocese of South Carolina, as well as to references found on the diocesan website pertaining to its history.

The Episcopal Diocese requested the enforcement of the Court's Order and Opinion and Permanent Injunction issued on September 19, 2019. The petition cited numerous examples that prove continued violations of the Injunction by the disassociated diocese as it "hold(s) itself out to be the Historic Diocese in many respects," including using a name that is "confusingly similar" to that of the Diocese of South Carolina.

The filing outlines various other violations of the Permanent Injunction, including redirecting the web address of the Diocese of South Carolina to their new web address and that the disassociated diocese's new name, "The Anglican Diocese of South Carolina," is in fact "confusingly similar" to "The Diocese of South Carolina" as Judge Gergel's ruling had issued the Injunction to avoid. As noted in the filing, "The Injunction places a heavy legal burden on the Disassociated Diocese not to choose a confusingly similar name, because the Court has already found that Defendants infringed Plantiff's marks." Yet, the new name contains the entirety of the historic diocese's name, adding only one word, "Anglican," which aptly describes the historic diocese -- a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion as part of The Episcopal Church.

The Anglican diocese's legal team, in conjunction with the Standing Committee is formulating a response. The diocese had not issued a statement at the time of going to press. VOL will bring you their response as soon as it is posted.

*****

While most Episcopal seminaries are shrinking, one recently died, and more are coupling together to stay alive, that is not the case with the Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, PA. President H. Lawrence Thompson III announced this week that In the small town of Ambridge, PA, a renewal is taking place and his seminary is in the forefront of that. Storefronts are being updated, old buildings are being refurbished to house new tenants and new sidewalks have been poured. Trinity School for Ministry has a desire to support this renewal in a way that is helpful to the town and that also helps to build community.

To that end, Trinity School for Ministry has purchased the Presbyterian Church of Ambridge, located just a few blocks from Trinity's campus. "When the pastor from the church approached me to inquire whether we would be interested in buying the church, I knew that I had to explore this option," stated Thompson. "We knew we needed a larger chapel/meeting space and we had been praying that God would help us to discern whether or not to build a brand-new building," Thompson added. "We received our answer-- not surprisingly, this existing church met every one of my criteria that I had identified for a new building. God has given us such a tremendous gift."

The recently purchased building will allow Trinity to move forward into the future as its residential student population continues to grow and its partnerships reach even further globally. Trinity now has the ability to:

• welcome local churches and neighborhood groups who need a larger space for events;
• offer a setting for Christian conferences and education;
• create a better setting in which to train Trinity's students to preach;
• provide additional space for Trinity's students to relax and socialize with each other
• film worship services so that we may send the recordings to students in other countries;
• reach out and serve the wider needs of the Ambridge community.

*****

Well why should all congregations in ACNA use the new ACNA Book of Common Prayer? The Rev. Dr. John H. Rodgers, a retired bishop and former TSM president listed some reasons why we all need to be praying through the one, new BCP.

1. It is biblical. Like its predecessors, it is largely composed of Scriptural content and nowhere leads us astray. This is important given the need for biblical instruction in our congregations and given the impact a repeated liturgy has on our minds and hearts.

2. It is Anglican. The new BCP is rooted in the 1662 tradition which is the most widely recognized BCP among Anglicans globally. At the same time, it also makes available the better parts of the 98 Book.

3. It will strengthen the unity of mind and heart among those who use it regularly. Its use will begin to create a common language and memory among us, increasingly forging in us a deeper union and common sense of identity.

4. Lastly, it will no doubt be improved in minor ways. In the days ahead, regular use will bring the need to light. It is important to have the wisdom of the whole Church involved in that process.

The Lord through the New Testament, time and time again calls us to unity in Christ. This decision which is now before us is central to how we answer that calling. I pray that we will not miss this opportunity the Lord has placed before us.

*****

Only a quarter of evangelicals in the United States believe abortion should be illegal in all cases. According to a new poll, a majority of self-identified Christians in the U.S. identify as "pro-choice" and less than half of evangelicals identify as "pro-life."

Save the Storks, a pro-life organization that partners with pregnancy centers to provide women with free ultrasounds, released a new survey this week that it sponsored through the research firm Magid.

The survey is based on online interviews with 1,000 adults nationwide ages 18 to 69. It was conducted in May to gauge Americans' opinions and attitudes on abortion.

"There's a disconnect in our culture right now," said OB-GYN Dr. Karysse Trandem, a spokesperson for Save the Storks. "The majority of Americans believe that life begins at or before the heartbeat, but the majority of evangelicals and Catholics identify as pro-choice."

While the research breaks down data by religious demographics, it should be noted that religious classification for the survey was done by self-identification. This means that evangelical respondents were self-identified and not determined by belief qualification.

*****

If you think Pope Francis might have gone off the rails or missing a few marbles, a lot of people might just agree with you. Here are the latest headlines.

Pope Compares Conservatives to Nazis. Francis condemns capitalism as criminal at International Association of Penal Law meeting.

The Synod Fathers proposed to define ecological sin as an action or omission against God.

Pope Francis: "[W]hen I hear a speech [by] someone responsible for order or for a government, I think of speeches by Hitler in 1934, 1936."

Say what!

Anglican blogger and VOL columnist Dr. Jules Gomes wrote this story for church Militant an orthodox Catholic blog.

VATICAN CITY --- Pope Francis is attacking politicians who oppose the homosexual agenda as evidence of "Nazism," while launching his strongest attack yet on capitalism and repeating his call for the abolition of the death penalty.

"It is no coincidence that in these times, emblems and actions typical of Nazism reappear, which, with its persecutions against Jews, gypsies and people of homosexual orientation, represents the negative model par excellence of a culture of waste and hatred," he said in his address to the International Association of Penal Law at the Sala Regia in the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican Friday.

"And I must confess to you that when I hear a speech [by] someone responsible for order or for a government, I think of speeches by Hitler in 1934, 1936," he said. "In the last century we saw so many brutalities against the Jewish people, and we were all convinced that this was over. But today the habit of persecuting the Jews, brothers and sisters, is here reborn. This is neither human nor Christian."

Condemning the "punitive demagogy "in several countries, Francis called upon the legal community to prevent such behavior from degenerating "into an incentive to violence or disproportionate use of force."

"They are inadmissible behaviours in the rule of law and generally accompany racist prejudices and contempt for socially marginalized groups."

The pontiff was addressing 600 delegates at the 20th International Congress of Penal Law, the oldest association of specialists in criminal law, which brings together university professors, lawyers, magistrates, researchers, students and criminal law practitioners. The theme of their Nov. 13--16 congress is "Criminal Justice and Corporate Business."

The pope went on to denounce the "idolatry of the market," blaming "global financial capital" for "the origin of serious crimes not only against property but also against people and the environment."

"It is responsible for organized crime, the over-indebtedness of states and the plundering of the natural resources of our planet."

He also raised the specter of "ecological sins," raised at the recent Amazon Synod: "We are thinking of introducing ecological sin into the catechism."

And you thought that all the crazies were Episcopal. Not true, apparently.

*****

If you enjoy satire, then you can ask why the Episcopal Presiding Bishop bewails empty pews when the Episcopal Church embraces what the world believes.

Here's a teaser: At a hastily called press conference, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church Michael Curry, publicly bewailed Americans for not joining his Church when it believes exactly what the surrounding culture believes.

"We have fully embraced the LGBTQII2 community, abortion rights for women, anti-racism training, identity politics, the Jesus Movement and challenged the very definition of sin. We have made every effort to match all of our core doctrines to that of secular American society." You can read it all here: https://virtueonline.org/presiding-bishop-bewails-empty-pews-when-episcopal-church-embraces-what-world-believes

*****

My new book, THE SEDUCTION OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH is out and if you would like a copy, I would be happy to send you an autographed copy for a donation of $100.00. The money will not line my pockets, but will allow me to send copies to Global South bishops who would not otherwise be able to obtain a copy. My hope is to put this book in the hands of every bishop in the Anglican Communion so they will never again be fooled by anything a sitting Presiding Bishop says about The Episcopal Church. This book represents nearly three decades of reporting. I hope you will buy it.

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

Or you can hit VOL's PayPal link here: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=66yVctdRJfn56ObJTxNqRn37s81ca3TxyKoR_-1iSo1u2jIy86mIBsCow1RhWJMBFAV5KW&country.x=US&locale.x=US

Please don't forget to add your return address.

All blessings,

David

The Church of England has a God-given opportunity and responsibility to set the culture of its schools in line with the teaching of God found in the Bible. But instead, it consistently capitulates to the spirit of the age as, for example, expressed in statute by the Equality Act. --- Christian Concern

Chick-fil-A has betrayed its Christian customers, and emboldened the LGBT mob.
Chick-fil-A provoked the ire of the LGBT lobby in 2012 when its CEO Dan Cathy affirmed the Biblical view of marriage. But after seven years of attacks from the LGBT mob, Chick-fil-A announced Nov. 18 that it would cease funding its remaining grantees that oppose same-sex "marriage," including the Salvation Army. --- LifeSite News

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
November 29, 2019

A significant death took place this week when the Episcopal Church's leading lay homosexual, Dr. Louie Clay/Crew died at the age of 82, just nine days shy of his 83rd birthday. No one did more damage to the Church over the course of his lifetime than this one man. He made it his life's work to promote, push and legitimize pansexuality in the name of inclusion and diversity and by any measure, he was brilliantly successful.

As a layman he founded Integrity, a movement to push homosexuality and lesbianism into the Church, with many believing he had become more powerful than the bishops in decision-making. He doggedly chased down every bishop to accept his views and in time his persistence paid off. At one point he married his partner, a black man and took his name. It was said that his influence decided a future Presiding Bishop. He sat in the councils of the Church, influencing and pushing his sexuality with charm and persistence.

Crew/Clay grew up a Baptist, briefly became a minister, but could not stand the strictures and theology of a Church that would not accept his sexuality. He found a home in the Episcopal Church.

His legacy is a Church that is decimated in numbers and is dying. In 20 years, that Church will be hollowed out and irrelevant. The Episcopal Church's foremost homosexual did not live long enough to see the demise of the Church he twisted to his own devices and desires, but when the epitaph of the Episcopal Church is written, his name will surely figure large on its tombstone. You can read my full story of this man's life here:
https://virtueonline.org/seductive-work-louie-crew-architect-episcopal-pansexuality-dead

*****

As if to reinforce the work of Louie Crew/Clay, the Diocese of Missouri elected a black homosexual bishop to lead them into the abyss. The Rev. Deon K. Johnson was elected the 11th diocesan bishop. He brings his same-sex partner and their two children along for the ride.

There is, of course, nothing particularly new about a homosexual being elected to the episcopacy in TEC except that he is from Barbados and is, therefore, a person of color. He gets the (almost) highest score on Presiding Bishop Michael Curry's approval rating, the only exception being that a woman of color and a lesbian would have earned the highest accolade with an A-1 rating. But give it time and all things are possible.

This is going on even as an ecclesiastical noose is being prepared for the Bishop of Albany, William H. Love, because he not only does not approve of these types of consecrations, but he also doesn't approve of homosexual marriage and for his "sin" he will be fed to the lions.

Bishop Johnson will take over from Bishop George Smith who retires in 2020, leaving behind a diocese in free fall. The diocese's average Sunday attendance in 2002 was 5,018, by 2017 it had dropped to 3,444. a loss of over 31%. One can only guess that in 2019 that figure is fast approaching 3,000. You can read my story about this homosexual takeover of the diocese here: https://virtueonline.org/missouri-diocese-elects-homosexual-bishop-lead-them-abyss

*****

Diana Butler Bass is a popular Episcopal writer who actively touts liberal theology and politics. She's written about 10 books and speaks often in churches, especially Methodist, Episcopal and Presbyterian, among others.

As Bass recently recounted on Twitter, she was originally a conservative Christian but then studied religion at Methodist affiliated Duke University, where her traditional faith was shaken. A professor there claimed that the Council of Nicaea, which crafted the great Nicene Creed articulating Christian orthodoxy that we recite in church, was just a political manipulation by the Roman Emperor Constantine.

Bass was so distraught she reports she vomited in the nearby restroom. Sadly, she didn't question this professor's claims. And she didn't explain what parts of the Nicene Creed are bad or manipulated. The Virgin Birth? Christ's resurrection?

Many distinguished people on Twitter, including some liberal clergy and seminarians, responded to her, explaining the bishops at Nicaea had already been persecuted for their faith and were unlikely to bend to Constantine or anybody else. And these bishops were just expressing what the early church had from the start believed about God and the Bible.

Instead of admitting these points, Bass went on a tear against the Institute for Religion and Democracy (IRD), responding to Mark Tooley's blog, which just quoted these thoughtful responses. Bass warned that IRD is "dangerous" and "exceptionally skilled." She warned readers NOT to circulate IRD material because it is so subversive. VOL is proud to circulate this "dangerous" and "exceptionally skilled" material.

*****

In his Advent Letter, ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach announced that GAFCON's Suffering Church Network, is raising awareness of Anglicans around the world who pay a heavy price for their faithfulness, often unknown and in isolation from other Christians. "As we stand in solidarity with them, pray for them, and walk with them we are drawn back to the heart of the gospel and discover that by God's amazing grace, the way of the cross is indeed none other than the way of life and peace."

Beach noted that suffering also comes from within the organized church itself as many of in the Anglican Church in North America, the Anglican Church of Brazil, the Church of Confessing Anglicans Aotearoa, New Zealand, and the Scottish Anglican Network know very well. There is growing hostility to orthodox faith in many other places as well. "Bishops, clergy, and lay persons in various provinces are being ostracized, condemned, and alienated because they cannot and will not go along with attempts to change basic Christian teaching and morality which contradicts the Bible."

The ACNA archbishop noted with joy that the Venerable David McCLay, a leading member of GAFCON Ireland, had been elected as the next Bishop of Down and Dromore. Beach noted the attempt to block his election by a group of clergy who claimed in a letter to the Irish Times that 'the policies of GAFCON are antithetical' to the principles of the Rite of Consecration, which according to them includes the need to recognize 'sexual diversity'. "Surely, it is a sign of the deep-seated spiritual crisis and need for repentance in the Anglican Communion when even the rite of Consecration of a Bishop can be made to mean things that were never intended (just as the English House of Bishops repurposed the rite of Affirmation of Baptismal Faith for those who self-identify as transgender)."

Sadly, we are watching the Church of England slowly come off the rails as the Archbishop of Canterbury does one thing after another to derail the CofE from Scripture.

In a radio interview this week, Archbishop Welby spoke in support of censorship zones. Censorship zones strip pregnant women of the opportunity to receive support or information that would help them keep their baby. Censorship zones also undermine freedom of expression.

The UK's oldest and largest pro-life organization, the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) slammed the comments of Archbishop Welby.

Responding to Archbishop Welby, Michael Robinson, Director of Communications for SPUC said: "It is difficult to comprehend how the Anglican leader can contradict himself so profoundly in his comments about "Censorship Zones". The position adopted by Archbishop Welby is shocking. Justin Welby speaks about love and compassion when he deliberately excludes the most vulnerable members of the human family -- the unborn. Before, voicing an opinion, the Archbishop would be wise to check the facts -- if he had, he would have discovered that the argument that harassment takes place outside clinics is Fake News.

IN OTHER CHURCH OF ENGLAND NEWS, a headline screamed that relationships and sex education is not about the protection of children, but to teach children 'British values' with parental concerns being ignored.

Early adoption of the new Relationships and Sex Education Regulations (RSE), which become mandatory in September 2020, has provoked country-wide protests and safeguarding concerns. SRE was introduced in 1993 to safeguard children against the threat of HIV/AIDs, STIs and to prevent teenage pregnancies. It failed. The expressed aim of the new Regulations is not protection, but to teach children 'British values' -- to prepare them for life in modern Britain. Their introduction has justifiably provoked controversy. The Archbishop of Canterbury's name was notably missing among the signatories who complained about this action.

On decriminalizing abortion: an Open Letter to the Bishops of the Church of England by some 60 plus CofE clergy and laity is embarrassing, bearing in mind that the Church of England's own teaching strongly opposes abortion, that "the fetus is a human life with the potential to develop relationships, think, pray, choose and love", and that the Church "would like to see a drastic reduction in the number of abortions carried out and stricter interpretation of abortion law" (press statement of the Mission and Public Affairs Council for General Synod, 30 August 2011), we write, as members of the Church of England (and a small number of other Anglicans in Wales and Northern Ireland), lay and ordained, female and male, to express our sincere concerns about what is being proposed, and to call on you, as shepherds of the Church, to do all you can to speak out against these proposals and in defense of some of the most vulnerable in our society. Is anybody listening?

But the Archbishop of Canterbury supports pro-abortion buffer zones. Justin Welby's remarks come in the wake of an arrest of a disabled pro-lifer outside an abortion mill. If Welby carries on at this rate, he could be formally employed by Marie Stopes.

Anglican columnist Jules Gomes slammed Welby for backing the buffer zones.

"Do you support buffer zones around abortion clinics?" a listener asked Welby in a live interview on LBC Radio.

"Yes, I do, because people going to a ... uh... abortion clinic, uh... whatever you think of abortion, they're human beings," said the archbishop of Canterbury, caught off guard by the question.

Stuttering through his response, the archbishop argued: "You could say they're doing the wrong thing; you could say they're doing the right thing; you can say it's their right, you can say that the baby has rights ... uh ..." You can read the full story here:
https://virtueonline.org/archbishop-canterbury-supports-pro-abortion-buffer-zones-0

*****

The founder of St. Peter's Anglican Cathedral in Tallahassee, Florida, has been removed from the priesthood after a report revealed new details surrounding allegations of him subjecting men at the church to sexual harassment.

According to a statement on the St. Peter's Anglican Cathedral's website, the church asked for an independent investigation by the Godly Response to Abuse in a Christian Environment (GRACE) after Eric Dudley, the former dean of St. Peter's Anglican Cathedral, resigned in 2018.

GRACE is a non-profit that helps Christian groups confront sexual abuse.

On Tuesday of this week, the results of that investigation were released, revealing that the former rector engaged in sexual misconduct against several young men and abused his authority.

Dudley has since been removed as a priest of the Anglican Church in North America.

*****

On another sad note, the Anglican Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of the Great Lakes, the Rt. Rev. Ronald Jackson has been put on administrative leave following undisclosed reports while a through inquiry and investigation is conducted into these matters.

During this leave, the Standing Committee of the Anglican Diocese of the Great Lakes is the ecclesial authority and in cooperation with the Archbishop's Office is ensuring the ongoing mission and ministry of the diocese. ACNA Archbishop Beach has appointed the Rt. Rev. John Miller to assist the Standing Committee in its work, and to provide temporary pastoral care and ongoing episcopal support to the diocese.

*****

In Orangeburg, S.C., South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Edgar Dickson held a hearing regarding motions related to the ongoing litigation between The Anglican Diocese of South Carolina and The Episcopal Church (TEC). Although the hearing covered all outstanding motions in the case, Judge Dickson focused on the Anglican motion to clarify what the set of 2017 Supreme Court opinions said.

Diocesan attorneys focused on their motion to clarify and argued in detail that no parish expressly agreed to the Dennis Canon, which TEC has asserted creates a trust interest in parish property. Our lawyers also argued persuasively that the Diocese successfully withdrew from TEC with its property interest intact in compliance with South Carolina state law. TEC attorneys addressed the motion to clarify and also their pending motion for enforcement.

After a two-and half-hour hearing, Judge Dickson ordered attorneys from both sides to submit proposed orders resolving the motion to clarify.

*****

In Sheffield, England, the bishop of Sheffield, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Pete Willcox has asked parishes not to participate in a 2020 Franklin Graham Tour of Britain. Wilcox made a statement in relation to the Graham Tour for 2020. Sheffield is one of the eight locations on the tour, and a launch event was held in the city in October 2019.

"I'm afraid I cannot support the Graham Tour mission event at the FlyDSA Arena on 6 June next year, at which Franklin Graham is due to speak, and so will not be encouraging parishes in the Diocese of Sheffield to support it either.

"Mr. Graham's rhetoric is repeatedly and unnecessarily inflammatory and in my opinion represents a risk to the social cohesion of our city."

Willcox, a low churchman said he gladly took part in Billy Graham's Mission England in 1984 as a candidate for ordained ministry, and in his LiveLink Mission in 1989 as a curate. "But to my sadness I detect a tailing off of humility and generosity in the Graham organization since those days."

*****

ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach is on the move. After a successful visit to the Indian Ocean and Seychelles to visit their new archbishop James Wong, who is on board with GAFCON, he recently made a trip to Pakistan and visited the Governor of the Punjab in Lahore to support the return of all missionary educational institutes to the church.

The Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar assured religious leaders of the Christian community that he will use his influence to restore the control of all missionary-founded educational institutes to the church.

The governor gave the assurance during a meeting with the Archbishop Foley Beach and National Council of Churches in Pakistan President Bishop Dr Azad Marshall at the Governor's House.

Governor Sarwar acknowledged the services of the Christian community in promoting education in Pakistan and said he believed that the colleges and schools founded by foreign missionaries would serve the nation better if the community runs the institutes themselves.

He said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government was committed to protecting the rights of religious minorities in Pakistan and the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor for the Sikh pilgrims was a testament of its efforts.

Archbishop Dr Foley and Bishop Azad lauded the government's efforts and said they expected that the State would also recognize the contributions made by the Pakistani Christians and help them in promoting education in the community.

*****

Sadly, politics sometimes overlaps with theology and ecclesiology and this can lead to acrimony and finger pointing.

To stifle any possible distancing of GAFCON from Global South Primates, Canon Phil Ashey President of the American Anglican Council sat down with VOL to iron out some of the differences between the two movements.

Here is a taste of what he said:

VOL: In recent days there has erupted a controversy over the seeming theological overlap between GAFCON and the Global South Primates' communiques; specifically, a Covenant was drafted recently in Cairo (hereafter known as the Cairo Covenant) and the Jerusalem Declaration formulated by the GAFCON primates. Does this indicate a rift between the two movements?

ASHEY: Actually, the Cairo Covenant is the fruit of a process of healing the rift between the two movements. One of the first-fruits of the healing was the joint Statement from the Global South Primates and the GAFCON Primates' Council Concerning Same-sex Unions that came out of the October 2016 Global South gathering in Cairo. Then in July 2017-- when the GAFCON and Global South Primates came together at our ACNA Provincial gathering in Wheaton, IL to help consecrate Andy Lines--they met together to decide how best to address the increasing false teaching, without discipline or consequences, among Anglican Churches in the west. In Wheaton, those GAFCON and Global South leaders appointed a joint Study Group to come up with a Covenant that would address this "ecclesial deficit." The GAFCON Primates who were there appointed Archbishop emeritus Robert Duncan (because of his gift in bringing Anglicans in North America together), Bishop David Onuoha of Nigeria and myself on behalf of GAFCON to work with Bishop Rennis Ponniah and Canon Michael Poon of Singapore, and Bishop Samy Shehati of North Africa on behalf of the Global South.

To read the full interview I invite VOL readers to click here:
https://virtueonline.org/global-south-covenant-or-gafcon-jerusalem-declaration

*****

It looks very much like the United Methodist Church is going to split. The prevailing issue is, of course, sodomy and blessing homosexual marriage. Eight United Methodist bishops have issued statement declaring United Methodism to be "broken" and calling for "multiple expressions of Methodism."

They explained:

It is time to be honest about our current reality. The events transpiring since the adjournment of the Special Session of General Conference illustrate how deep our division is. Sadly, even greater discord, chaos and fighting loom on the horizon at the 2020 General Conference in Minneapolis. The recent call and commitment by some for a moratorium of all complaints related to LGBTQ+ clergy and clergy performing same-gender weddings without a call for a moratorium on actions that violate our current Book of Discipline is yet another example of our brokenness. Even with good intentions, actions like these continue to divide.

And:

This is why we recognize our beloved United Methodist Church no longer can continue in our current form of unity. It is time to quit undermining our mission. It is time for the entire church to come together to figure out how to be the people called Methodists in a new way -- to seek a new form of unity.

The difference between the Episcopal/Anglican split and the United Methodist version is that African Methodists are on even voting and playing field as Western Methodists, so they outvoted their progressive/liberal/revisionist counterparts.

Unlike the Anglican split where conservatives have been vilified and ripped of their churches and their priests and bishops tossed to the wind, it is Methodist progressives who will have to leave the predominantly orthodox Methodist Church because the Africans had the votes to beat out the West. Anglicans have a different ecclesial structure.

But all is not lost. In North America we have the ACNA and ANiC; globally we have GAFCON and the GSA. Truthfully, we know how all this will end. God is not mocked. The progressive churches are reaping what they are sowing and they are sowing to the whirlwind.

*****

My new book, THE SEDUCTION OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH is out and if you would like a copy, I would be happy to send you an autographed copy for a donation of $100.00. The money will not line my pockets but will allow me to send copies to Global South bishops who would not otherwise be able to obtain a copy. My hope is to put this book in the hands of every bishop in the Anglican Communion so they will never again be fooled by anything a sitting Presiding Bishop says about The Episcopal Church. This book represents nearly three decades of reporting. I hope you will buy it.

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

Or you can hit VOL's PayPal link here: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=66yVctdRJfn56ObJTxNqRn37s81ca3TxyKoR_-1iSo1u2jIy86mIBsCow1RhWJMBFAV5KW&country.x=US&locale.x=US

Please don't forget to add your return address.

All blessings,

David

At current rates, an estimated one-fourth of American women will have an abortion by the age of 45. Of all the pregnancies ending in abortion, only 1.5 percent were the result of rape or incest. According to a 2015 report from the U.S Centers for Disease Control (CDC), of all the women in the U.S. who have had an abortion; 44% of women in the U.S. who have an abortion, had at least one prior abortion; 41% of abortions are among women and teens 24 years old and younger. It is estimated that in 2015, approximately 826,199 abortions occurred in the United States. --- Guttmacher Institute

If Christian institutions want to endure, they cannot surrender or capitulate. Indeed, it is not enough to read the Scriptures rightly--we must read the Scriptures obediently. --- Albert Mohler

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
December 13, 2019

THE UNITED STATES is at a tipping point, finely balanced between truth and lies, hope and hate, civility and nastiness. Many vital aspects of American public life are in play -- the Supreme Court, abortion rights, climate policy, wealth inequality, Big Tech and much more. The stakes could hardly be higher.

So it is with the churches in North America. It is estimated that by 2040 all the mainline Protestant denominations will be out of business, a combination of demographics, aging populations and no replacement by millennials or Generations X, Y or Z. But most of all, they will be out of business because of bad morals and the failure to proclaim a clear unalloyed gospel message that calls people to faith and repentance.

Michael Voris of Church Militant, a conservative Roman Catholic blogger says that if you look deep into the numbers, a tsunami can be detected picking up huge force. Young Catholics are jumping ship at a frightening rate, with a huge percentage deciding to leave between the ages of 10 and 18. Older Catholics -- mostly those born before Vatican II -- are the most likely to have stayed, but they are dying off, and within 10 years, there will not be many left.

Even the future of Catholicism in the U.S. looks bleak.

The truth is, the future of the Christian Faith lies outside the U.S. It is in Africa and China. The latest report out of China is that there are now 60 million confirmed Christians, with 9 million being Roman Catholic, and this despite both churches have state-owned branches officially recognized by the state. While churches are being torched and burned, crosses are being torn off buildings and Christians imprisoned for their faith, millions of Chinese are finding Christ. None of this has much to do with the hierarchy of the churches, it is all about lay people evangelizing and discipling next generation Christians.

In Africa there are already more Christians than any other continent, and that's not going to change soon. Africa is set to be the global center of Christianity for the next 50 years. By 2018, Africa had the most Christians: 599 million, vs. 597 million in Latin America and 550 million in Europe. At the same time, Christianity continues to decline in the Middle East, falling from 13.6 percent of the population in 1900 to less than 4 percent today. The big difference is that African Christians actually go to church, whereas in the West it is mostly baptism figures that have little relevance to actual church attendance, faith or discipleship.

By 2060, six of the countries with the top ten largest Christian populations will be in Africa, up from three in 2015, according to a new Pew Research Center report. The projections are in line with the gradual shift that has increasingly seen Christian populations live outside the historical cultural centers of the religion.

The size of the Christian population in Nigeria alone--already the largest on the continent--is projected to double by 2060. In addition, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya are projected to join the list of countries with the top ten largest Christian populations, replacing Russia, Germany and China.

Is it any wonder that the Anglican Province of Nigeria is the largest province in the communion!

In total, the Christian population in the six African countries on the list alone will account for just under a quarter of the projected global Christian population of three billion people.

The upsurge in the African Christian population matches general population growth projections; while around 2.2 billion people could be added to the global population by 2050, more than half of that growth will occur in Africa.

Meanwhile, the decline of Christian populations in Europe is especially notable in Britain where, last year, a survey showed "an unrelenting decline in Church of England and Church of Scotland" numbers. Only 14% of Britons identified as members of the Church of England--a record low. Similarly, Church of Scotland numbers dropped to 18% from 31% in 2002.

The rise of Christianity in Africa is also captured outside the continent. In a reversal from nearly five centuries ago when Christian missionaries first brought the Christian Faith to African communities, African preachers, led by "reverse missionaries," are increasingly taking charge of the gospel in England, as Quartz Africa has reported.

In comparison, while there were three African countries (Nigeria, Egypt, Algeria) among countries with top ten largest Muslim populations in 2015, that number will be reduced to two (Nigeria and Egypt) by 2060.

Nigeria's religious fault lines are also highlighted in the report as, by 2060, it will be home to the third largest Muslim and Christian populations globally and will be the only country on the list on top ten largest populations for both religions.

Christianity will still be the No. 1 religion in the world, but in the West, it is increasingly irrelevant to most people and rapidly dying. Is it any wonder that African Anglicans despise the Archbishop of Canterbury and his wobbly views on homosexuality and a whole host of issues ranging from women bishops to Brexit! He can't get his message straight and so they have moved away from him as their leader and have established GAFCON as the exit strategy from the Lambeth Conference.

*****

By all accounts GAFCON had a good year. During 2019, the world of GAFCON continued to expand and to equip Anglicans around the world to proclaim Christ globally. For example, two new GAFCON branches were formed, in Tanzania and Ghana; two Bishops Training Institute Conferences were held, one in Kenya and one in Brazil, and in New Zealand a new diocese was recognized by GAFCON, the Church of Confessing Anglicans Aotearoa/New Zealand (CCAANZ) which will be vital for the future of faithful Anglican witness in that region. New church plants have risen up in Brazil and in the ACNA.

*****

In allied news, GAFCON chairman Foley Beach said recently that the theological and moral turmoil in the Anglican Communion is coming mainly from within, not just from external sources.

In his Advent Letter to GAFCON readers, Beach opined that the suffering in the communion is coming from within the organized church itself as many in the Anglican Church in North America, the Anglican Church of Brazil, the Church of Confessing Anglicans Aotearoa, New Zealand, and the Scottish Anglican Network know very well.

"We are now seeing growing hostility to orthodox faith in many other places as well. Bishops, clergy, and lay persons in various provinces are being ostracized, condemned, and alienated because they cannot and will not go along with attempts to change basic Christian teaching and morality which contradicts the Bible." You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/gafcon-chairman-says-turmoil-anglican-communion-coming-within

*****

More evidence of the growth of GAFCON can be found in the Anglican Church in Brazil which is seeing remarkable growth. Around five years ago, the Holy Spirit Anglican Church in Recife started a church plant initiative program through cell groups. The city of Cabo, 30km south from Recife, was the first to be included in the program. The cell group was growing to the point that it was decided that a church should be planted.

For a number of years, continuing growth meant that some people had to stand outside the building to worship. There was a need to move on again, so on November 24th, a parade of worshippers from the former building of City Anglican Church in Cabo de Santo Agostinho carried their chairs, banged drums, and sang worship songs through the streets on route to their new building.

Their Archbishop, Miguel Uchoa, preached a special message and the rector, The Rev. Ricardo Melo, recently welcomed new worshippers.

This group broke free from the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil in 2005 when the Diocese of Recife, led by Robinson Cavalcanti, left the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil, because it rejected the official Anglican stance on homosexuality, expressed at the Lambeth Conference. The group has been steadily growing under Uchoa ever since.

*****

Domestically, the priest of Truro Anglican parish in northern Virginia resigned amidst allegations of mistreatment of Truro staff and congregants. The Rev. Tory Baucum will exit the church and head to Rome. None of the allegations are sexual or financial in nature, VOL was told.

Baucum had been rector of the Anglican Church since 2007. Baucom's parish will remain Anglican though the property still belongs to the Diocese of Virginia. The priest followed the Rev. Martyn Minns who built the congregation. Baucum had something of a checkered ecclesiastical journey starting out in Kentucky, journeying through Albany and London and finally alighting on Truro. He and Bishop Shannon Johnston became the darling of the Archbishop of Canterbury ,Justin Welby. For his reconciliation efforts with the liberal Episcopal bishop, Baucum was appointed to the position of preacher at Canterbury Cathedral. Now he is off to Rome. You can read the full story here: https://virtueonline.org/truro-va-anglican-rector-resigns-amidst-allegations-flees-rome

*****

In Philadelphia, the stately American Bible Society got whacked by a progressive Episcopal priest over its stand for upholding traditional views on marriage.

In January of this year, ABS created the Affirmation of Biblical Community, an employee policy that bars individuals in homosexual or unwed heterosexual relationships, among others, from employment at the organization.

"The actions they took in defining marriage indicate they're not able to go in a direction that matches the diversity of all the congregations in the Old City district," said the Rev. Tim Safford, rector of Christ Church. "I believe they think they are doing their best work in not being sectarian, but ultimately their world view will affect what they do."

Not true of course. It is the Episcopal Church that is declining even as it affirms a sectarian world view on homosexuality. The Bible and ABS will long outlast this parish priest, his dying church and people will still be reading the Bible long after TEC has disappeared.

*****

St. Thomas, Fifth Avenue news. This week it was announced in a letter sent to parents of Choir School students that the Reverend Charles Wallace has chosen to resign his post as Headmaster of the Choir School effective January 6, 2020.

The Saint Thomas Choir School has thrived for one hundred years and will continue to do so, said a press blurb. The school has the full support of the Rector, Wardens, Vestry and the Director of Music. An interim Head of School will be named in the coming days.

However, a VOL reader sent in this note; "The demise of this once great and thriving parish is a heartbreaking story. Since Fr. Carl F. Turner's arrival, STC has lost (in chronological order) John Scott, Victor Austin, Michael Spurlock, Joel Daniels, Dan Hyde, and now Charles Wallace... not to mention half the congregation."

*****

Angola became a new Anglican diocese this week. The ACNS reported that Angola was officially inaugurated as a new Anglican Diocese following 16 years as a missionary diocese and after more than 40 years of war.

The Primate of Southern Africa, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba led the special service of inauguration and also installed Bishop Andre Soares as the Bishop of Angola.

Supporters from partner dioceses and organizations joined in the ceremony, which included a blessing of the church land in Luanda, where the new Anglican Cathedral will be built. The Archbishop blessed the boundary, laid the foundation stone and named the Cathedral St Andrew the Apostle on St Andrew's day. Soil from the site will be taken back to Angola's partner Diocese of London.

*****

As we reported last week, Melbourne Archbishop Philip Freier's resigned as Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia after almost six years in the role. This shocked the Anglican community. Dr Freier will remain Archbishop of Melbourne, a post he took up in December 2006. The "shock announcement" comes before his term was due to expire. He will not seek re-election. He would have been eligible to seek a three-year extension as Primate.

No reason was offered for Archbishop Freier's decision.

Dr. Freier wrote to all Australian Anglican bishops on November 25 to say he would not accept a further term, and that he would conclude on 31 March to allow his successor to prepare for the next General Synod (national parliament) of the Church in Maroochydore, Queensland, from May 31 to June 5 next year.

One wonders if the ongoing pressure from Australia's homosexual Anglican community played a part in his premature departure. http://tma.melbourneanglican.org.au/news/freier-to-resign-primacy-251119

*****

An unusual paper stock and "an extremely distinctive, disjointed hand" helped a literature scholar to identify Queen Elizabeth I's handwriting in a 16th century manuscript housed in the Lambeth Palace Library. According to The Guardian, John-Mark Philo of the University of East Anglia reported his discovery of an English translation of Tacitus' Annals in an article published November 29 in the Review of English Studies.

Philo noticed distinctive watermarks in the writing paper, and knew from a contemporary of the queen's, John Clapham, that she took "pleasure in reading of the best and wisest histories, and some part of Tacitus' Annals she herself turned into English for her private exercise." He estimates that the famous Roman history was translated in the 1590's. Several pages survive, and were copied out in the fine hand of a court scribe. But the queen annotated and corrected them herself.

Elizabeth's translation includes an account of an encouraging speech given to a wary Roman army by Agrippina, the wife of the famous general Germanicus. "She a woman of great courage playde the Captaine for that tyme," it reads, "and bestowed on the soldiors as euery man needed or was wounded, bread and clothes ... she stoode at the bridges end to give lawde and praise to the returning legions." Philo suggests that the heroine might have especially appealed to Elizabeth, who had famously addressed her troops at Tilbury in 1588 on the eve of their great battle against the Spanish Armada. [The Living Church]

*****

The Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma will elect a new bishop tomorrow and it has just two candidates in the running. They are two white males, married to two women in heterosexual marriages. Scrape me off the floor. Wot, no women! No daughters of lesbos or a sodomite or two candidate?

The 6th Bishop will either be the Rev. Canon Scott Alan Gunn or the Rev. Poulson C. Reed. Both promise to continue the downward trend of the church, but only one will end up with a pension.

Under Bishop Edward Konieczny (V Oklahoma) who retires in 2021, baptized membership dropped by nearly 1000 between 2007 and 2018 from 16,436 to 15,490.

Average Sunday Attendance in 2007 was 5,937; by 2018, it was 5,065 a drop of nearly 15%.

Overall this diocese is not nearly as bad as some dioceses that have seen drops of over 30% in most areas. However, baptisms in 2007 were 307. By 2018, they had dropped 186, a drop of nearly 40%. In those same years the diocese lost two parishes from 72 to 70.

*****

Catholics and Anglicans in Canada have been working on their relationship ever since Gen. James Wolfe surprised Gen. Louis-Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham in the fall of 1759.

By 1763, King Louis XV had no choice but to cede France's North American possessions entirely to England's King George III. The practicalities of a Protestant king and his Protestant army trying to impose their religion on a majority Catholic population were such that the English made allowances for the Catholic Church while they granted land and paid clergy salaries for the Anglicans.

More than 250 years later, the dialogue between Catholics and Anglicans in Canada carries on, unhindered by royalty and without much reference to the Seven Years' War. The latest round ended Nov. 18 in Toronto after three days with a presentation to theology students at Trinity College of the Toronto School of Theology at the University of Toronto.

At this stage, 54 years after the Second Vatican Council declared a special relationship between Catholics and Anglicans, the two sides have come up with broad agreements on the Eucharist, the place of Mary in the Church, the exercise of authority and defining the Church as communion. But still Catholic and Anglican parishes live separate lives, however much the theologians may agree.

Catholic co-chair of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue in Canada, Bishop Brian Dunn, blames the pressure on Catholic parishes to put out all the fires in their own communities. "It's like we've got too many issues to be concerned with the others," Dunn said.

Until the central issue of Justification by Faith, that Luther rediscovered then, Catholics and Anglicans will still be talking to each other 500 years from now.

*****

Watch social critic and Anglican culture warrior Dr. Os Guinness talking about The Christian Faith and the Coming Century - YLG2016 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnuJgjj16dA Timely stuff.

*****

My new book, THE SEDUCTION OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH is out and if you would like a copy, I would be happy to send you an autographed copy for a donation of $100.00. The money will not line my pockets but will allow me to send copies to Global South bishops who would not otherwise be able to obtain a copy. My hope is to put this book in the hands of every bishop in the Anglican Communion so they will never again be fooled by anything a sitting Presiding Bishop says about The Episcopal Church. This book represents nearly three decades of reporting. I hope you will buy it.

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

Or you can hit VOL's PayPal link here: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=66yVctdRJfn56ObJTxNqRn37s81ca3TxyKoR_-1iSo1u2jIy86mIBsCow1RhWJMBFAV5KW&country.x=US&locale.x=US

Please don't forget to add your return address.

All blessings,

David

White evangelical Protestants made up 60 percent of our sample. Of those white evangelical Protestants, we found that 60 percent believed that atheists would not allow them First Amendment rights and liberties. More specifically, we asked whether they believed atheists would prevent them from being able to "hold rallies, teach, speak freely, and run for public office." Similarly, 58 percent believed "Democrats in Congress" would not allow them to exercise these liberties if they were in power. By contrast, 23 percent think "Republicans in Congress" would not respect their rights; those were primarily the views of a small contingent of white evangelical Democrats in the sample. --- Monkey Cage analysis

A bridge for truth. The expository preacher is a bridge builder, seeking to span the gulf between the Word of God and the mind of man. He must do his utmost to interpret the Scripture so accurately and plainly, and to apply it so forcefully, that the truth crosses the bridge. --- Dr. John R.W. Stott

"Do nothing that you would not like God to see. Say nothing you would not like God to hear. Write nothing you would not like God to read. Go no place where you would not like God to find you. Read no book of which you would not like God to say, "Show it to Me." Never spend your time in such a way that you would not like to have God say, "What are you doing?" --- Bishop J.C. Ryle

The real secret of expository preaching is not mastering certain techniques, but being mastered by certain convictions. --- John R. W. Stott

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
December 27, 2019

WE are on the cusp of a new year and if you think it bodes ill for America, democracy and an election that could go either way resulting in the possibility of civil war, then you might well be right.

Democracies die, political scientists tell us, when the credibility of elections and vital institutions is eroded and the rule of law is destroyed.

So, it is with the Anglican Communion. One half of the communion is dying, some theologians tell us, the credibility of its bishops and institutions like the instruments of the Anglican Communion Office are so seriously compromised as to be rendered useless, and the rule of Scripture is being destroyed.

The new year will not be any better for the Anglican Communion than the last, already torn asunder by 'heresies distressed'.

Two significant events will occur that will mark the deep irreconcilable division that is now firmly in place. The GAFCON primates of orthodox Anglicanism will meet in Rwanda to proclaim 'the faith once for all delivered to the saints' with no compromises on sodomy or homosexual marriage. The other event will be the Lambeth conference, where a totally different set of bishops bent on turning the Anglican communion into a post-Christian, progressive, pansexual organization doing its best to emulate the world through cultural accommodation.

The divisions are as a deep and wide as republican from democrat and Archbishop Foley Beach from Archbishop Justin Welby. At the end of the day, the "ginger" group might well be the Lambeth conference.

One archbishop is a real evangelical, the other is a faux evangelical. One believes that it is only the gospel that can transform and change peoples' lives, the other believes that if we can fudge the edges and talk up reconciliation on pansexuality, yell and scream about climate change, make nice with Islam then the world will be a safer place.

There is profound irony here, as the founder of the Christian religion never promised his followers peace on earth; said suffering would be a part of their lot in life and concluded that to follow him meant carrying a cross, not flying a private jet to your next evangelistic crusade.

*****

As evidence that religion and politics can never be completely divorced from one another, we saw the spectacle this week over the very deep divide among evangelicals regarding President Donald Trump's impeachment and future.

An editorial in the conservative magazine Christianity Today rattled evangelicals as hope and anger stirred America's largest political tribe.

American evangelicals who voted overwhelmingly for Trump at the last election now appear not to be as united as first thought, with many believing the pendulum has now swung in the opposite direction.

The editorial called for the removal of President Trump from the presidency, revealing a deep fissure among evangelicals, creating a firestorm of approval and disapproval the like of which we have not seen since Billy Graham announced his break from fundamentalism and committed himself to cooperative evangelism in 1956.

The rage across the blogosphere is so divisive that lifetime friendships have been severed, families torn apart with the political divide so deep that millions of Christians will go unreconciled to their graves.

The writer of the CT editorial, Mark Galli, is a member of the Anglican Church in North America, a tribe to which I belong. ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach told VOL, "Yes, he attends an ACNA congregation. We are a politically diverse group of people trying to follow Jesus, and stay true to the teaching of the Bible!"

But that was not the only voice calling for President Trump to be removed from office. The Christian Post, the most popular evangelical news website in the United States and the world, felt compelled by its moral responsibility to tell its readers to make clear that Donald Trump does not represent the interests of evangelicals and would be a dangerous leader for our country. They said Trump is a scam and evangelical voters should back away.

They then said this; "Many evangelicals, including our friends, have criticized Trump on our own opinion page and elsewhere, such as Matt Barber, Dr. Michael Brown, Kristi Burton Brown, Susan Stamper Brown, Rev. Mark Creech, Wallace Henley, E.W. Jackson, Max Lucado, Dr. Russell Moore and Rep. Reid Ribble. If Trump were to become president, we fear he would use the levers of government power to silence them and others.

However, nearly 200 faith leaders pushed back against the CT editorial calling for President Trump's removal from office, saying the piece "offensively questioned the spiritual integrity and Christian witness of tens-of-millions of believers who take seriously their civic and moral obligations. It not only targeted our President; it also targeted those of us who support him, and have supported you."

Strong words, but we won't know till the levers are pulled in the voting booths later next year whether he still retains the white House or has lost it.

To read the full story click here: https://virtueonline.org/deep-divide-revealed-among-evangelicals-over-trump-impeachment

you can read the Christian Post story here: https://www.christianpost.com/news/donald-trump-scam-evangelical-voters-back-away-cp-editorial-158813/?fbclid=IwAR0sS6q_xWHohEyUVArkPzE3MV6DOHh2_O-PAqfp2QAnPIV0Hlm0h2KnrgM

The Deepening Crisis in Evangelical Christianity can be seen here: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/evangelical-christians-face-deepening-crisis/593353/

*****

A story that has been simmering in England for some time has once again erupted in full force when victims of a Church of England evangelical vicar revealed allegations of naked beatings, ice baths and massages.

Details emerged of the allegations against the influential Rev. Jonathan Fletcher, 77, who was Minister of Emmanuel Church in Wimbledon, from 1982 to 2012, and one of the Church of England's leading evangelical figures. He could face a criminal investigation, as victims of his abuse spoke out for the first time about being subjected to naked ice baths, beatings and massages.

Fletcher was banned from preaching after it emerged that he had "spiritually abused" vulnerable adults at the London church where he used to minister, the Daily Telegraph revealed in June.

Now, five alleged victims - all men who wish to remain anonymous - have come forwards to detail the spiritual, psychological and physical abuse they claim to have suffered.

To read more of this story click here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/12/26/victims-church-england-preacher-reveal-allegations-naked-beatings/?WT.mc_id=tmgliveapp_iosshare_AtmkpksWYvxF

*****

The Anglican Archbishop of Hong Kong walked himself into a minefield over pro-democracy advocates who are protesting in the streets over the heavy hand of China in Hong Kong's political affairs.

The Most Rev. Paul Kwong invoked outrage when he told a congregation during a sermon on the crucifixion of Christ, that pro-democracy advocates should keep quiet just as "Jesus remained silent" in the face of crucifixion.

The sermon at St. Paul's was posted on the church's website, where reaction was swift, with some branding the sermon as "outrageous" and "sarcastic", accusing Kwong of using "Jesus to fit some personal values".

Kwong also took a sarcastic tone towards the 511 protesters who were arrested during a sit-in at Chater Road, Central, following the annual July 1 rally.

You can read the full story here: https://virtueonline.org/hong-kong-anglican-archbishop-walks-himself-minefield-over-pro-democracy-advocates

*****

The Church of England seems to have a death wish as more vicars resign over homosexuality, with the Rev. Steven Hanna announcing this week that he was leaving because of the CofE's teaching on sexuality which, he said, is being undermined by practice. "Attempts at saying the Church of England's official teaching is not changing are, nonetheless, already undermined by practice and it seems only a matter of time before the charade ceases and official teaching changes too."

He told his bishop, the Rt. Rev. Stephen Cottrell, (soon to be the Archbishop of York) that the liberal trajectory of the Church of England is unacceptable. He further stated that he was "horrified" at the proposal to ordain Jide Macaulay, an openly homosexual vicar living with his partner.

Hanna is one of a growing number of orthodox priests to recently leave the Church of England over its growing liberalism on matters of faith and morals.

Earlier in the year, the Rev. John Parker resigned as governor of a Church of England (CofE) primary school over concerns about a young child being allowed to transition gender in the school and the school inviting transgender lobby group Mermaids to provide training to staff and governors.

The Rev. Dr. Peter Sanlon said he had watched the CofE institutionally push through an agenda of false teaching, from the undermining of marriage to the Koran being read in cathedrals and transgender liturgy. In April, he was ordained into the Free Church of England and is now planting a new church rooted in the Gospel.

More recently, the Rev. Julian Mann left the CofE and was licensed as minister of Emmanuel, Morecambe, in the Free Church of England, a smaller Anglican denomination which formed in the mid-19th century.

*****

The Queen has nominated the Rt. Rev. Stephen Geoffrey Cottrell, MA, the Lord Bishop of Chelmsford, to the See and Archbishopric of York. He will succeed the Most Rev. John Mugabi Sentamu, who retired on June 7, 2019.

Cottrell is an Affirming Catholic and leader in the pro homosexual wing of the Church of England. He has called for thanksgiving services and eucharists for homosexual couples amid controversy on how the Church should move forward.

The newly appointed archbishop is the second most powerful position in the Church of England. He has said the CofE was seen as "immoral" for its refusal to welcome homosexual marriage, stressing it would be "particularly foolish" to ignore the damage done to the Church's mission.

A concerned Anglo-Catholic said of Cottrell; "The man is deluded, grossly over promoted, and a bully. He has managed to publish a vast amount of pulp theology."

https://virtueonline.org/church-england-vicar-resigns-following-appointment-bishop-cottrell-be-next-archbishop-york

*****

The Episcopal Church's house of bishops is incorporating greater diversity with women, blacks, homosexuals increasing in numbers in the HOB, reports Mary Ann Mueller, VOL Special Correspondent for VOL.

"The makeup of the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops (HOB) has taken a decidedly diverse, inclusive, multicultural turn," she writes.

Michael Curry's quest to have a truly diverse and inclusive church is being played out in the House of Bishops, where he is the presiding officer and the first Black to hold that post. He followed Katharine Jefferts Schori, who broke through the stained-glass ceiling as the first female presiding bishop not only in The Episcopal Church, but in all of Anglicanism. Bishop Curry can't make that claim. There are several Black primates scattered throughout the Anglican world, especially in the Global South. In fact, the second ranking bishop in all the Anglican Communion -- the Archbishop of York John Sentamu, who is shortly to retire -- is a person of color.

You can read her excellent summary of the situation here: https://virtueonline.org/episcopal-house-bishops-makeup-changing-incorporate-greater-diversity

*****

He might not be the Archbishop of Canterbury any more, but he still speaks out on issues that concern him. This week Dr. Rowan Williams said climate change is the 'largest challenge ever'. He also said that some people have 'sinister' reasons for denying climate change. The environmental crisis is the "largest challenge ever" to the human race and is "everybody's problem".

Dr Williams said some people do not believe in the crisis because it is "just too uncomfortable to face".

"For others I think there's a rather a more sinister feeling that this must be some kind of conspiracy," Dr Williams said, citing those who might think climate change has been "invented by communists, illuminati or some mysterious group".

Dr Williams added: "So that's something I worry about a bit more, the idea that there are people who genuinely believe climate change is a huge confidence trick."

*****

A former Anglican, Bishop Gavin Ashenden, fled to Rome this week and VOL was able to obtain an interview with the now laicized former bishop.

Mary Ann Mueller, VOL Special Correspondent obtained the interview. The following is a sample question and answer.

VOL: When did the first thought about becoming Roman Catholic come? What was your first reaction?

ASHENDEN: My first thoughts about becoming a Roman Catholic came on the day of my conversion, which was an Evangelical conversion in Bristol Cathedral on the First of March in 1975 when I gave my life to Jesus and asked Him what kind of Christian, He wanted me to be. I asked Him, "Did He want me to be Catholic, Anglican or Pentecostal?" It appeared to me He was asking me to become an Anglican.

But from that point I have always looked at, and understood, Catholicism to be the home from which Anglicanism derived. Anglicanism is only justified if it continues to be a movement of prophetic reform that the Catholic Church hasn't achieved.

You can read the full interview here: https://virtueonline.org/virtueonline-interviews-former-anglican-bishop-gavin-ashenden

*****

I want to wish all VOL readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. There will be much to report on in the coming year and I will need your help to travel and interview bishops and archbishops as they reflect on the state of the Anglican communion.

I hope you can make a tax-deductible donation to help the cause. If you can do so I will send you a copy of my new book THE SEDUCTION OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

The money will not line my pockets but will allow me to send copies to Global South bishops who would not otherwise be able to obtain a copy. My hope is to put this book in the hands of every bishop in the Anglican Communion so they will never again be fooled by anything a sitting Presiding Bishop says about The Episcopal Church. This book represents nearly three decades of reporting. I hope you will buy it.

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

You can also make a payment at this link: https://give.virtueonline.org

Please don't forget to add your return address.

All blessings,

David

By slandering our deeply held Christian beliefs about human sexuality as "hate speech," Facebook violates their own definition of such. --- Robert A. J. Gagnon

More than 42 million abortions took place globally in 2019 according to new figures that found abortion to be the single largest cause of death. --- Right to Life-UK

The Church rather desperately needs news outlets that realize that 'business as usual' is not an option when the corruption is so pervasive. --- Christine Niles for ChurchMilitant

White evangelical Protestants stand noticeably apart from other religious people on how the government should act on two of the most politically divisive issues at play in the 2020 presidential election -- abortion and LGBTQ policy, according to an early December 2019 poll of Americans from various faith backgrounds -- AP-NORC poll

Dear Brothers and sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
January 10, 2020

2020 came in with a whoosh as Archbishop Justin Welby sought to gin up his base by calling for more meetings with Primates in the hope that he could play the reconciliation card to bring every Anglican leader to the table later this year in Canterbury.

From George Carey to Justin Welby, Anglican leaders across the globe have tried and failed. Repeatedly. The most recent attempt was a Westminster Abbey seminar exploring 'conflict and reconciliation' in the Anglican Communion in advance of the 2020 Lambeth conference.

Lectures were offered up by representatives from the Church of the Province of West Africa, the Church of England, The Episcopal Church, and the Anglican Church of Canada -- plus one ecumenical partner. Not a single representative from an orthodox province or diocese was present. The outcome was foreordained.

Of course, the speakers could not ignore the elephant in the Abbey, - Lambeth Resolution 1:10 - namely that "human sexuality remains a divisive topic, though reconciliation may be possible through appreciation for creation, deep listening and following ecumenical examples toward unity."

The Episcopal Church has been "deep listening" since the consecration of homosexualist Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire and 100,000 Episcopalians walked out the door to form the ACNA, never more to return. Did this skip the minds of the deep thinkers at the Abbey, or did they think they could whitewash it away with high sounding talk about the "Christian theology of cultural diversity being based in two fundamental church doctrines: the act of creation and unity of the human race, and the universality of the church." Say what?

Anglicans have talked and listened themselves to death since Lambeth 1998 and they still come up with the same answer, formulated cogently in Lambeth resolution 1:10. Sex only between a man and woman in marriage or celibacy. Those engaged in homosexual activity require pastoral care, not approval. Homosexual behavior is sin.

But here we are 21 years later, and still progressive Anglican leaders think they can square the circle over sodomy and homosexual marriage.

But still Welby keeps trying. He has called for a meeting of the Primates in Jordan in January to see if he can wave his magic wand over the primates on reconciliation, hoping that the 13 new primates can be persuaded to fall in line with this "reconciliation" attempts. Three African primates said they will not attend -- Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda. In fact, you can add Kenya and Tanzania to the list. Now some of their bishops might attend Lambeth, but the primates will not. Together the five provinces account for 70% of the Communion's laity!

But this week, a new spin was put in play. The Church Times reports that the Anglican Communion Office now calls for "co-existence" with conservatives who won't go along to get along.

An ACO official admitted last month that the Communion lacked structure and certainty, and, "instead must live with ambiguity, hoping against hope that opportunities will arise in the course of the various meetings and exchanges and gatherings in a positive and creative way."

That is not going to happen. GAFCON is a reality and they will sound the bell of historic orthodoxy on faith and morals when they meet in Kigali, Rwanda, later this year. There is no way the ACO or Welby can spin or reverse that.

There is no "ambiguity" with GAFCON. None. Archbishop Foley Beach has made that crystal clear. GAFCON now has its own networks which it will not relinquish and Archbishop Beach will never sit down with Welby. Conversely, there is little indication that Welby will be inviting Beach to Lambeth Palace for tea and crumpets any time soon.

The die has been cast. The albatross of Lambeth Resolution 1:10 hangs around Welby's neck and as hard as he might try, he can never shake it off. It will be with him till the day he leaves office, and for many that time should come sooner rather than later.

*****

In the Diocese of Connecticut, an historic Charismatic Episcopal Parish announced it was bringing to an end all litigation with Diocese of CT. St. Paul's, Darien, the home of the famous charismatic Episcopal priest Terry Fullam will now continue as an autonomous non-denominational Christian Church and the new and improved St. Paul's will move to a different location. The original St. Paul's stands empty, with its former rector one Canon George Kovoor occupying a rectory with an empty church. The building is in disrepair. The Bishop of CT. Ian Douglas created the figment of a "Worshipping Community" by appointing Kovoor as St. Paul's, Darien, Priest in Charge.

On October 28, 2018, Bishop Douglas appeared in Darien and changed all of the locks throughout the property and posted an armed guard on the property. The entire congregation left with the Vestry and the so-called "Worshipping Community" never existed. Kovoor is not able to hold services as no one attends. He continues to utilize the rectory. The property is in a bad state of disrepair and neglect and the church building has a mold issue that has existed since August 2018. The diocese has had to carry Kovoor since July 2018 and the property (3 buildings) since October 2018 with no revenues being contributed by parish Tithes & Offerings. You can read the full story here: https://virtueonline.org/connecticut-historic-charismatic-episcopal-parish-announces-end-litigation-diocese-ct

*****

The top clergyman at one of the wealthiest parishes in the U.S.-based Episcopal Church has abruptly stepped down.

The Rev. Dr. William Lupfer, rector of Trinity Wall Street Episcopal Church since 2015, announced his departure in a January 3 brief letter to church staff, first published by The Living Church.

Such an abrupt departure is highly unusual. Stepping down over a holiday break with no announced transition to an interim rector (Lupfer will be succeeded by church vicar Phillip A. Jackson, who will become priest-in-charge) indicates the departure decision was sudden. As of the morning of January 6, Lupfer's name and photo had already been removed from the Trinity staff page.

"I have come to the decision to step away for a time, resign as Rector of Trinity, and enjoy some sabbath rest," Lupfer wrote, noting that it follows "five years of intensive work" with vestry and other stakeholders.

Trinity holds billions of dollars in property and financial assets, dating to an early 18th century grant of Manhattan farmland from Queen Anne. In February 2019, the New York Times reported that the parish portfolio was worth an estimated $6 billion.

*****

The Anglican Church of Canada faces extinction by 2040 if everything goes as planned. Recent attendance statistics from the ACoC say that it will cease to exist by then.

Understandably, this has spread consternation amongst the clergy; no one likes to be unemployed.

The new Primate, Linda Nicholls, sees this as a "wake-up call" and asks, "what might need to be tried" to reverse the decline? I would be tempted to suggest "Christianity" if I thought it would fall on any but deaf ears, writes tongue-in-cheek writer David of Samizdat.

"I don't think they're a surprise to anybody," Nicholls said of the statistics in an interview with the Anglican Journal. "Anybody who's been in the church in the pews, or as a priest, or as a deacon or a bishop has known that this decline has been happening. We see it every Sunday, we see it in lots of ways. "I think it is a wake-up call.... If people are not coming to the church and finding a place of hope and good news, then we have to ask, 'How are we presenting that hope and good news to this current generation and time? And what might need to be tried?"

Nicholls muses that part of the problem is the "general zeitgeist", an observation that might have some merit were it not for the fact that the ACoC has utterly capitulated to the zeitgeist: the two are marching in lockstep. In spite of the church's eagerness to oblige, potential customers have little reason to turn to the church to have their chosen pronouns affirmed, their gender reassignment baptized or their drag attire sprinkled with holy water.

Laughably, Michael Thompson General Secretary of General Synod, put his finger on the problem without noticing he had done so. When the church busied itself with saving souls, ignoring social justice fads, parishes were full to overflowing. "Things are quite different now", he tells us: now we hear nothing but social justice and the pews are empty. This, he tells us is a "change for the better"!

The London, Ont., church in which he started worshipping in 1968, Thompson said, "while not filled to the point of discomfort, was full." On the other hand, he added, "in all of the years that I attended that church...in all of the years I had attended church before then, and in all of the years that I attended church until I was in my 20s, I never once heard a sermon that made reference to God's justice."

Nicholls has decided that the church's main job is to fight racism. To give her credit, by 2040 she will have succeeded in completely expunging racism from the church, writes Samizdat.

On an allied note, the Rev. Mark Nichols is the new climate-care animator in the Diocese of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador. I've no idea what that means, but it conjures up an image of a puppeteer pulling the strings of a Greta doll to entertain those who have lost their faith in everything except contemporary superstitions. Maybe that's just me, though, writes Samizdat.

It's heartening to know that someone finally has the solution to global warming: animate climate care. Why did no one think of that before?

The Diocese of Toronto has decided to proceed with same-sex marriage even though the vote to change the Marriage Canon to permit such marriages was defeated at General Synod.

In a masterstroke of ingenuity, the diocese has found a way to get around this inconvenient obstacle. We don't have to change the marriage canon; all we must do is reinterpret it to mean something other than what is clearly stated in the canon. The diocese has entered the murky realm of post-truth ecclesiology.

*****

2019 was not a good year for evangelicals. By any standard of grossness, greed, venality, sexual infidelity and stupidity, Evangelicals must qualify as the No.1 story in 2019. They have lost so heavily in the court of public opinion, one is forced to ask, can evangelicals and the message of the gospel they proclaim recover in two generations. A civil war among evangelicals is the last thing evangelicals need.

Among the issues was the alliance of Franklin Graham with President Donald Trump. Whether you approve of Trump or not, it was the single biggest disaster for American evangelicalism. Franklin Graham's father would be rolling in his grave. Billy made that mistake only once with President Harry Truman by revealing what they spoke about. It took 17 years to fix that, but his son jumped right into bed with Trump, thus aligning himself and the BGEA with Trump and Republicanism. Then there was Wayne Grudem, a leading Calvinist theologian and prominent complementarian who made the "brilliant" discovery that abuse might be grounds for divorce. Apparently, it took him more than 60 years to discover that in 1 Cor. 7:15, the phrase "in such cases" should be understood to include any cases that similarly destroy a marriage. Therefore, he concluded that abuse is such a case. Evangelicals have known and accepted for decades that the three A's for divorce namely adultery, abandonment and abuse have been grounds for divorce, so now we need a Calvinist theologian getting enlightenment to tell us!

The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant and evangelical denomination in the US, discovered they were entangled in a multifaceted sex-abuse crisis and held a high-profile conference on the topic to address it. They learned that sexual abuse had taken place among their leaders and the denomination had also been losing market share just like liberal Protestant denominations. Their numbers were down, and it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out why.

An editorial in the conservative magazine Christianity Today calling for Trump to be removed from office proved to be an evangelical disaster of Titanic proportions. Whether you agreed with writer Mark Galli or not, the timing could not have been worse, right on the heels of Trump's impeachment by the House and the sure knowledge that the Senate would never go for it. If non evangelicals were cynical about evangelicals, this surely made the case. The Christian Post followed up with an editorial also calling for Trump to go.

Across the pond, a leading evangelical vicar in the Church of England, the debonair, suave and smooth-talking Jonathan Fletcher, apparently liked taking saunas with naked young men while massaging them and then beating their naked bottoms. I think this might be the definition of sadomasochism.

This sexual abuse by well-known evangelicals like Fletcher and John Smythe had been going on for several decades and may well be the reason why evangelicalism in England has not flourished since the death of John R. W. Stott. Anglo-Catholics had their own ball and chain (if you'll pardon the pun) with one Bishop Peter Ball, convicted of sexual offences against 17 teenagers and young men - one of whom took his own life. He was jailed for 32 months, but served only half his sentence.

You can read my full account here: https://virtueonline.org/2019-losers-year-evangelicals

Fletcher's sexual abuse has been well documented here: https://virtueonline.org/jonathan-fletcher-presents-church-england-crisis-integrity

England's famous Private EYE magazine has a good summary of Fletcher's sexual misconduct, titled Silence of the Lambeth.

*****

The United Methodist Church (UMC) announced it will be dealing with ongoing divisions over homosexuality by formally splitting, with the formation of a new denomination for Methodists who hold to a Biblical understanding of sex and marriage.

The church has been divided over the issues of same-sex "marriage" and homosexual clergy, with its General Conference voting in February against compromising its opposition. Tensions have continued since, however, and on Friday, the church announced the formation of a new "traditional Methodist" denomination for more conservative Methodists, the New York Times reports.

The Washington Post adds that the agreement spares the church's left-wing faction from facing sanctions that were originally slated to take effect, including suspension and/or expulsion for clergy who officiate at same-sex "weddings." By default, local churches will be members of the UMC, and would have to conduct votes in order to identify as "traditional Methodist."

The plan, which still needs to be approved by the conference in May, was devised by a 16-person committee of bishops and other officials who deemed separation the "best means to resolve our differences, allowing each part of the Church to remain true to its theological understanding."

"The solution that we received is a welcome relief to the conflict we have been experiencing," said pro-LGBT Rev. Thomas Berlin about the news. "I am very encouraged that the United Methodist Church found a way to offer a resolution to a long conflict."

Observers who maintain a Biblical stance on LGBT issues were less enthused.

"My initial reaction is that [it] should be the other way around: Let the heretics split off since they are the ones denying Jesus and the historic witness not only of the church in general but of Wesley and the denomination in particular," theologian Robert Gagnon wrote. "It is their view that is a cancer on the church. Let the faithful occupy the default position."

"This appears to be a win for the heretics; not a rout but a win nonetheless," Gagnon continued. "It seems like the faithful had the heretics on the rope with greater sanctions on unfaithful pastors performing a faux 'gay marriage' and then they compromised with the heretics to give the latter a better deal. On the other hand, it may be the best deal that the faithful can get."

Jeff Walton writing for Juicy Ecumenism says there is something instructive in evaluating the separation protocol, and he examines the legacy of the litigious and ugly split that occurred in the Episcopal Church.

"That split remains to be fully sorted out: theological revisionists continue their consolidation within the denomination, requiring dioceses to permit same-sex rites that were once optional. Revisionists also aim to revise the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) with those same-sex rites and "expansive" gender neutral language, undeterred by the defeat of a BCP revision proposal at the 2018 General Convention. Costly and time-consuming litigation continues in the cases of the Dioceses of Fort Worth and South Carolina that now affiliate with the Anglican Church in North America.

"In the Episcopal Church, there is presently no accepted canonical way -- short of an act of General Convention -- for a parish or diocese to peaceably depart unchallenged by church authorities. This contrasts with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), which permits congregations to re-affiliate with another Lutheran denomination with two successive votes by two-thirds of church members present. The Presbyterian Church (USA) allows for congregations to seek "gracious dismissal" with property via negotiated agreements that vary widely across presbyteries but always provided some (often costly) route for departure.

"The negotiated United Methodist protocol establishes a 57% vote threshold for annual conference (the regional equivalent of dioceses or presbyteries) re-affiliation. Requiring traditionalists to meet a higher threshold to determine an annual conference's affiliation -- while revisionists only have to obtain 44% to win an annual conference -- is an inconsistent standard, but at least there is a defined standard.

"On the congregational level, local churches can re-affiliate with a simple majority vote. While there are provisions for the funding of pension liabilities, churches can depart with property intact."

*****

And what of Free speech in 2020. Watch out, it might be disappearing. Gavin Ashenden writing on the subject says that the word "phobic" acts as a stranglehold on how we can express thoughts.

"It's been an astonishing year. Some things have moved very fast. Two things in particular have stuck out. One is the dreadful level of plastic pollution in our oceans, and throughout our whole ecological system.

"Of all the crises I would like to do something about, dealing with plastic pollution is at the top of my list. And it can be done, and although we are doing too little too late, new forms of biodegradable plastic are emerging already, and not a moment too soon.

"But as a parallel to the pollution of the oceans is the pollution of our freedom to speak and to think. The 'woke culture' is growing deeper and deeper tentacles. This last year Kanye West was told he was not really black. Douglas Murray was told he was not really gay. Germaine Greer was told she was not a feminist, and JK Rowling was struck off the reading list of the woke because she was a transphobe.

Since Kanye West is, in fact, black; Douglas Murray is, in fact, gay: Germaine Greer is not just a feminist, but arguably the Queen of feminism, woke culture clearly isn't concerned with telling the truth. Worse than that, it doesn't like other people telling the truth, and that's why progressive, PC or woke culture presents such a danger to us.

*****

The ACNA ordained its first Mexican priest recently, further recognizing the growing realignment in the Anglican communion. On Sunday, November 10th, the Anglican Diocese of the Southwest ordained into the priesthood, Deacon Farhid Adabache, pastor of Church of the Great Shepherd church in Fresnillo, Zacatecas, Mexico. Fr. Farhid is the first Mexican national to be ordained in Mexico, in his own church, in the ACNA.

"Farhid has done an outstanding job as the lay pastor of his congregation for the last five years. He and his wife, Monica, along with their congregation have passed through some very trying times and are thriving, praise God!" said the Rev. Roger Griffin, ACNA Dean of Mexico for the diocese of the Southwest.

*****

A nasty little bruhaha has erupted in Uganda, resulting in the Archbishop of that province Stanley Ntagali being forced to intervene and suspend the Venerable Justus Tibesigwa in Kinkiizi Archdeaconry in Kinkiizi Diocese.
Among the many reasons was the wedding of a foreign couple in Queen Elizabeth National Park on July 17, 2019, a place that had not been gazetted for the function as provided for in the law.

Tibesigwa was also accused of starting a nongovernmental organization and running it without the knowledge of the Bishop and holding fundraising drives allegedly to uplift Kihihi Kindergarten School, The construction is already financed by local business Tycoon, James Musinguzi Garuga.

Justus Tibesigwa and his wife Desire Tibesigwa are also being accused of allegedly attempting to eliminate the Bishop of Kinkiizi Diocese, Dan Zoreka, by serving him food laced with poison and witchcraft. The couple reportedly handed the poison to Zoreka's house helps Prudence Kyorikora and Venice Friday to mix with his food.

However, his suspension sparked outrage from his flock, accusing the Bishop of Kinkiizi Diocese, Dan Zoreka and his Diocesan Secretary, Rev. Canon Kenneth Kanyankore of witch-hunting Tibesigwa and washing dirty linen in public.

The dispute drew the attention of the Archbishop Bishop, Stanley Ntagali, who summoned the warring parties to Namirembe Cathedral in Kampala on Tuesday to mediate the conflict. After the meeting, the Provincial Secretary, Rev Canon William Ongeng released a statement calling for calm among Christians of Kinkiizi Diocese. He explained that they had heard all the issues causing the feud and the process of meeting them will commence soon.

*****

In Mozambique, which is one of the territories of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa is allowing women to be priested and attend the altar. What until recently was only an intent speech has come true in the Anglican community of the Libombos: three women have entered the priesthood and will share the altar with men. This is taking place 125 years after its creation.

This is occurring about three decades after a decision wherein Anglicans worldwide opened the door to end an all-male only priesthood. Joana Chilengue, Lina Maria dos Santos and Fatucha Rosemary have become the first Anglican deaconesses

"It is a very big milestone in valuing women, but also in the issue of gender equity that the Bible preaches and we also preach. And, in fact, there was no question of having men and women on an equal footing who could serve God on the altar," said the Bishop of Libombos.

The wave of gender mainstreaming in the Anglican priesthood began four years ago, when the first women were admitted to seminary after long years of reflection on the time to move forward with the implementation of the decision, which had already been taken by the synod.

*****

I want to thank all those who reached out to VOL in 2019 with a donation. You have made it possible to keep us afloat in 2020. I hope you will continue to assist with a tax-deductible donation to help keep the news coming to you. We are the main source for orthodox Anglicans globally. If you can send $100.00, I will send you an autographed copy of my new book THE SEDUCTION OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

The money will not line my pockets but will allow me to send copies to Global South bishops who would not otherwise be able to obtain a copy. My hope is to put this book in the hands of every bishop in the Anglican Communion so they will never again be fooled by anything a sitting Presiding Bishop says about The Episcopal Church. This book represents nearly three decades of reporting. I hope you will buy it.

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It would appear that the term "born again" has evolved somewhat among the American public. What used to be seen as a touchstone experience for many evangelicals who went forward at a revival, youth camp, or especially moving Sunday worship service, now seems to mean something more. In essence, the word seems to have been adopted by people of other faith traditions as a way to indicate that they are a devout believer. The data suggests that individuals take the term to mean that faith plays an important role in their life and their religious activity serves more than a social purpose --- Ryan Burge in Christianity Today

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
January 24, 2020

The Archbishop of Canterbury's attempt to put a positive spin on the primates gathering in Jordan last week got pushback from South American Primate Gregory Venables.

In an exclusive interview for VOL, Venables said the vast majority of the Primates in attendance were in agreement that we should preach Biblical, saving faith and not embrace innovations that go against the Bible such as same-sex marriage or the blessing of same-sex unions. Those are not the only problematic teachings, but they are often the presenting issue from those who do not conform to Biblical authority and the historic teaching of the Church.

That was not what you heard from Justin Welby, who tried to draw a distinction between those who looked "inward", meaning focusing on sexuality issues and those who looked "outward" focusing on climate change.

A GAFCON primate, Venables said he felt a deep conviction that the Lord wanted him to be there. "I pretty much have one priority and one message wherever I go and that is to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Because of theological confusion from some Anglican Provinces pursuing another direction other than the Gospel, I followed the leading I sensed from the Lord to attend and went with the express commitment to speak the Gospel into the meeting."

"As the meeting proceeded, more and more Primates made it clear that they would not go the way of the innovations, that they believed the "faith once for all delivered." I was particularly encouraged that almost all the new Primates (and there were 12 who were new) were very clear that they are orthodox."

Again, this is not what you heard from Welby, who tried to playdown any talk of sexuality and to seek common ground on other issues that many believe are secondary.

Venables also made the startling observation that the provinces where unbiblical practices have been permitted...that there was still a lot of orthodoxy in their regions.

So how is it that the Communique made things sound like everything was OK?

VENABLES: That description was referring to the atmosphere and the honest and mature way with which people dealt with the contentious issues. Everyone was clear that the differences are fundamental and major, that we are in a broken state of communion and that we haven't been able to find a way forward. We talked freely about how all attempts so far haven't been followed through.

"We were all conscious of the awareness of the inevitability of some kind of a split in the Anglican Communion. We have already seen the reality of it in the formation of the ACNA and the new Anglican Province in Brazil."

So. there you have it. Please read the full interview here: https://virtueonline.org/interview-archbishop-greg-venables-after-january-jordan-primates-meeting

For another perspective you can read my take on Welby's spin on the Jordan communique here: https://virtueonline.org/future-anglicanism-fisking-welby

IN OTHER NEWS, Justin Welby briefed members of the Kenyan House of Bishops during a meeting at All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi, even though Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapit says he will not be at the Lambeth Conference over Lambeth 1:10 arguing that "God's plan of marriage is between a man and woman for procreation. Homosexuality is a sin before God."

However, in an odd twist, Archbishop Ole Sapit was elected to serve as one of five primates on the Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council! Even though he is one of five primates including Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Nigeria in boycotting the 2020 conference. Apparently, some of Kenya's bishops plan to attend the 2020 Lambeth conference.

*****

It will come as no surprise that The Episcopal Church lowered the boom on the Bishop of Albany, the Rt. Rev. William H. Love this week and announced that a hearing will be held April 21 in Albany to determine his punishment; his guilt having pretty well been established. There will be no contested facts regarding his actions and neither side will be presenting witnesses. Instead, the attorneys will be making arguments as to what the canon law requires.

The offending status of the Title IV Disciplinary proceedings directed against Bishop Love was that he failed to uphold Resolution B012 and is therefore guilty of disobedience. Put another way, General Convention resolutions trump scripture and Bishop Love should just go along to get along. He won't and he hasn't and for his "sin" he will, in all likelihood get tossed out of the Church. We shall see. If by some miracle he was to be found not guilty. the heavens would rend and the two daughters of lesbos, Bishop Mary Glasspool and the Rev. Susan Russell would scream bloody murder, causing the already cowardly Communion Partner bishops to withdraw from the fray lest they be tainted by Bishop Love's orthodoxy.

The Hearing Panel of five individuals is solidly progressive, they are:

· The Rt. Rev. W. Nicholas Knisely, Convener
· The Rt. Rev. Herman Hollerith
· The Rt. Rev. Jennifer Brooke-Davidson
· The Rev. Erik Larsen
· Ms. Melissa Perrin

You can read my take on Bishop Love's Last Stand here: https://virtueonline.org/bishop-loves-last-stand

*****

The College of Bishops of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) reaffirmed the biblical stand on sexuality, which they said means living under the authority of Scripture, while recognizing the reality that some people experience unwanted same-sex attraction. The bishops remain divided over the thorny question of Women's Ordination.

Meeting in Melbourne, Florida, the bishops assigned a task force chaired by Bishop Stuart Ruch III "to develop a theological and pastoral statement that articulates the hearts of the bishops for many who have various kinds of sexual brokenness."

This echoes Lambeth Resolution 1:10, "which recognized that there are among us persons who experience themselves as having a homosexual orientation. Many of these are members of the Church and are seeking the pastoral care, moral direction of the Church, and God's transforming power for the living of their lives and the ordering of relationships."

With a nod to those who experience same-sex attraction, the ACNA bishops said they engaged in a unified conversation around the opportunity for pastoral care to those within our churches who are same-sex attracted. "We identified the ways in which the church has not always seen and heard the reality of men and women living with strong same-sex attraction, and we discussed the importance of developing greater clarity around this pastoral ministry and providing more theological leadership for our province. Our discussion included the greater debate within the larger evangelical church around the kind of language that should be employed to describe a faithful follower of Jesus."

On the thorny issue of the ordination of women to the priesthood, the bishops remain divided.

"We have discovered again and again that there are layers upon layers of differences in ecclesiology, hermeneutics, theology, and tradition. These layers result in deep differences in our perspectives on the nature of holy orders in general and the role of women in orders in particular. We recognize that there is great pain over these differences both within our working group and throughout the Province. During the week, we spent time in small group discussions on this topic, both formal and informal. The working group continues to encourage the College to lead in both lament and prayer as we seek a way forward."

A resolution of this issue seems unlikely any time soon with some ACNA dioceses allowing it, while others do not. Archbishop Foley Beach is opposed to the ordination of women to the priesthood, but recognizes the ordination of women to the diaconate. The issue of the two integrities will continue into the foreseeable future.

The ACNA's Ecumenical Task Force for ecumenical partners endorsed concordats with the Episcopal Missionary Church and with the Independent Catholic Philippine Church (also known as the Iglesia Catolica Filipina Independiente). These concordats will be presented for approval to the Provincial Council in June.

The ACNA said they would continue dialogue with numerous church bodies with the goal of healing the Church and working towards Christian unity. Archbishop Thomas E. Wallace and Rev. Theron Davis Ham were guest observers at the conference. They are from the New Day Kingdom Assembly Church, which is exploring the "Anglican Way."

You can read my full take on this here: https://virtueonline.org/acna-house-bishops-affirm-biblical-stand-sexuality

*****

The Church of South India has a new Primate in the person of A. Dharmaraj Rasalam. He succeeds Thomas Oommen, the Bishop of Madhya Kerala, who has served as primate since 2017.

The CSI is, without question, the most corrupt province in the Anglican Communion.

According to VOL's Indian correspondent Joseph Muthuraj, his diocese, over the last ten years, is known for drawing huge sums of money as loans from banks by mortgaging many acres of church lands and valuable buildings. The outstanding loans face soaring interest rates and must be repaid.

There have been charges against Bishop Rasalam and his associates that they allegedly collected huge sums of money illegally from students aspiring for admission in Dr. Somervell Memorial CSI Medical College run by the CSITA in Karakkonam, Trivandrum.

Archbishop Justin Welby failed to address the corruption issue when he visited India last year.

*****

The Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), the missionary body of the Church of Nigeria, now has eight bishops for two dioceses in the U.S. with the recent ordination of two more bishops for North America by the Anglican Church of Nigeria.

Now according to the guidelines for the creation of a new province of the Anglican Communion recognized by the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), and the Primates of the Anglican Communion, only four dioceses are necessary to create a new province. So, if CANA decides to form two new dioceses what can stop them applying for membership in the Anglican Communion? Presumably nothing.

*****

The Rt. Rev. Dr. Jo Bailey Wells, Bishop of Dorking in the diocese of Guildford, is in the US to lecture at General Theological Seminary. She has served as Dean of Clare College in Cambridge, Director of the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies at Duke University, and Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Generally speaking, this would not make news except a source told VOL that she is on the conservative end of the Evangelical spectrum, but nevertheless self-evidently committed to WO, and by now almost certainly to the rainbow agenda -- she worked in ECUSA for a while. She is very well qualified academically, a very efficient professional, rather cold to deal with, and may well be the next ABC.
Her husband Sam is Vicar of St. Martin in the Fields in central London and is a loud and committed campaigner for the entire TEC agenda. The title of her address is "Anointed No More? Faithful Living When Leadership & Institutions Fail," which speaks volumes, and may in fact be prescient.

*****

In the never-ending quest for sexual acceptance, the Church of England announced this week that sex must be confined to heterosexual marriage and Christians in gay or straight civil partnerships should be sexually abstinent.

CofE bishops released a new pastoral guidance confirming their stance on marriage and sex outside of marriage after mixed-sex civil partnerships were introduced last year.

The statement from the House of Bishops says the church's teaching on marriage "remains unchanged", claiming sex outside of marriage is "falling short of God's purpose for human beings".

It adds: "For Christians, marriage -- that is the lifelong union between a man and a woman, contracted with the making of vows -- remains the proper context for sexual activity."

However, the church seeks to "uphold that standard" in its approach to civil partnerships and to "affirm the value of committed, sexually abstinent friendships".

Those in mixed- or same-sex civil partnerships can still be ordained -- but only if they abstain from sex, the bishops added.

But members of the clergy are also instructed not to provide a blessing for couples registering a civil partnership.

*****

Bishop Ronald Jackson of the Anglican Diocese of the Great Lakes has resigned citing health reasons. A Joint Statement from the Anglican Church in North America and the Standing Committee of the announced his resignation and said the Rt. Rev. John Miller, had been appointed as temporary bishop for the diocese and will continue advising the Standing Committee and serve as a liaison with the Province.

Bishop Jackson has been on administrative leave since November 2019 concerning information brought to the attention of the Archbishop's Office that called for an impartial investigation to be conducted. At the provincial level, the investigative process has entered its middle stages and remains ongoing. Locally, a pastoral team has been put in place to provide holistic care for Bishop Ron and Patty.

The Most Rev. Dr. Foley Beach, Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America, commented on the transition: "Please keep Bishop Ron and his wife, Patty, in your prayers. This has been a difficult and complicated decision for them. Please also pray for the Standing Committee. I have been impressed with how they have proactively and wisely led the diocese over the last couple months. They will have my prayers and full support as they move forward during this challenging time."

*****

The Living Church reports on a gathering of Anglican and Episcopal leaders bent on seeking communion in the midst of disagreement. Fifteen Anglican and Episcopal bishops and a larger group of church officials, seminary faculty and clergy met January 13 and 14 for a consultation titled "When Churches in Communion Disagree."

The participants, who held a wide diversity of views, respectfully plumbed the depths of Scripture, church history, classic Anglican views on divinity, and contemporary ecumenical theology. The event was sponsored by the Living Church Institute, the House of Bishops' Ecclesiology Committee, the Dioceses of Dallas and Texas, and Virginia Theological Seminary, which hosted the meeting.

Robert Heaney, the director of Virginia Seminary's Center for Anglican Communion Studies and one of the consultation's organizers, described the event as marked by "a spirit of generosity and deep listening." The consultation, he added, "called the church to deeper and more patient and inter-cultural ecclesiological investigation for the future of the Communion. Amidst division there was real hope in the room this week."

Bishop Tim Wambunya of Butere, Kenya, said: "Personally, I think the GAFCON axis has become obsessed with the matter of sexuality. Secondly, I think the Archbishop of Canterbury should try to steer the Communion toward the gospel, rather than simply discussing the issue of sexuality. No more resolutions on sexuality, please."

Katherine Sonderegger, Virginia Seminary's Meade Professor of Christian Doctrine, urged Anglicans to revisit the 2004 Windsor Report, which remains relevant to contemporary conflict. "The truth is," she said, "that the Windsor Report is right -- or so it seems to me -- that the matter of homosexuality is not closed, not behind us, not settled, and most certainly not forgotten in the Communion to which we belong." Advocates for the full inclusion of LGBT people are called, she argued, like advocates for women's ordination in prior generations, to practice a "grace-filled and demanding patience."

That "patience" has long since run out. The birth of the ACNA and GAFCON are living proof that the communion is divided now and the gap is only getting wider, anything else is spin.

Kenyan Bishop Samson Mwaluda, founding bishop of the Diocese of Taita Taveta, got it right when he said, "GAFCON is growing. The liberals are shrinking. Here I can grow the church; here I can stand genuinely. My spirit is at peace. This is the faith I can die for. Your soul and pastoral work will be safe in GAFCON, not Canterbury."

One wonders how many more gabfests on "reconciliation", "deep listening", "mutual love", "more and deeper unity", around sexuality do we have to hear before someone finally says, "enough already, we can never square the circle over homosexuality, you are either for it or against it, there is no third way."

*****

I hope you will assist with a tax-deductible donation to VOL help keep the news coming to you. We are the main source for orthodox Anglicans globally. If you can send $50.00, I will send you an autographed copy of my new book THE SEDUCTION OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

The money will not line my pockets but will allow me to send copies to Global South bishops who would not otherwise be able to obtain a copy. My hope is to put this book in the hands of every bishop in the Anglican Communion so they will never again be fooled by anything a sitting Presiding Bishop says about The Episcopal Church. This book represents nearly three decades of reporting. I hope you will buy it.

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

You can also make a payment at this link: https://give.virtueonline.org

Please don't forget to add your return address.

All blessings,

David

PS. Don't forget you can view my new video broadcasts at VIRTUEONLINE'S Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/virtueonline

It would appear that the term "born again" has evolved somewhat among the American public. What used to be seen as a touchstone experience for many evangelicals who went forward at a revival, youth camp, or especially moving Sunday worship service, now seems to mean something more. In essence, the word seems to have been adopted by people of other faith traditions as a way to indicate that they are a devout believer. The data suggests that individuals take the term to mean that faith plays an important role in their life and their religious activity serves more than a social purpose --- Ryan Burge in Christianity Today

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
January 24, 2020

The Archbishop of Canterbury's attempt to put a positive spin on the primates gathering in Jordan last week got pushback from South American Primate Gregory Venables.

In an exclusive interview for VOL, Venables said the vast majority of the Primates in attendance were in agreement that we should preach Biblical, saving faith and not embrace innovations that go against the Bible such as same-sex marriage or the blessing of same-sex unions. Those are not the only problematic teachings, but they are often the presenting issue from those who do not conform to Biblical authority and the historic teaching of the Church.

That was not what you heard from Justin Welby, who tried to draw a distinction between those who looked "inward", meaning focusing on sexuality issues and those who looked "outward" focusing on climate change.

A GAFCON primate, Venables said he felt a deep conviction that the Lord wanted him to be there. "I pretty much have one priority and one message wherever I go and that is to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Because of theological confusion from some Anglican Provinces pursuing another direction other than the Gospel, I followed the leading I sensed from the Lord to attend and went with the express commitment to speak the Gospel into the meeting."

"As the meeting proceeded, more and more Primates made it clear that they would not go the way of the innovations, that they believed the "faith once for all delivered." I was particularly encouraged that almost all the new Primates (and there were 12 who were new) were very clear that they are orthodox."

Again, this is not what you heard from Welby, who tried to playdown any talk of sexuality and to seek common ground on other issues that many believe are secondary.

Venables also made the startling observation that the provinces where unbiblical practices have been permitted...that there was still a lot of orthodoxy in their regions.

So how is it that the Communique made things sound like everything was OK?

VENABLES: That description was referring to the atmosphere and the honest and mature way with which people dealt with the contentious issues. Everyone was clear that the differences are fundamental and major, that we are in a broken state of communion and that we haven't been able to find a way forward. We talked freely about how all attempts so far haven't been followed through.

"We were all conscious of the awareness of the inevitability of some kind of a split in the Anglican Communion. We have already seen the reality of it in the formation of the ACNA and the new Anglican Province in Brazil."

So. there you have it. Please read the full interview here: https://virtueonline.org/interview-archbishop-greg-venables-after-january-jordan-primates-meeting

For another perspective you can read my take on Welby's spin on the Jordan communique here: https://virtueonline.org/future-anglicanism-fisking-welby

IN OTHER NEWS, Justin Welby briefed members of the Kenyan House of Bishops during a meeting at All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi, even though Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapit says he will not be at the Lambeth Conference over Lambeth 1:10 arguing that "God's plan of marriage is between a man and woman for procreation. Homosexuality is a sin before God."

However, in an odd twist, Archbishop Ole Sapit was elected to serve as one of five primates on the Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council! Even though he is one of five primates including Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Nigeria in boycotting the 2020 conference. Apparently, some of Kenya's bishops plan to attend the 2020 Lambeth conference.

*****

It will come as no surprise that The Episcopal Church lowered the boom on the Bishop of Albany, the Rt. Rev. William H. Love this week and announced that a hearing will be held April 21 in Albany to determine his punishment; his guilt having pretty well been established. There will be no contested facts regarding his actions and neither side will be presenting witnesses. Instead, the attorneys will be making arguments as to what the canon law requires.

The offending status of the Title IV Disciplinary proceedings directed against Bishop Love was that he failed to uphold Resolution B012 and is therefore guilty of disobedience. Put another way, General Convention resolutions trump scripture and Bishop Love should just go along to get along. He won't and he hasn't and for his "sin" he will, in all likelihood get tossed out of the Church. We shall see. If by some miracle he was to be found not guilty. the heavens would rend and the two daughters of lesbos, Bishop Mary Glasspool and the Rev. Susan Russell would scream bloody murder, causing the already cowardly Communion Partner bishops to withdraw from the fray lest they be tainted by Bishop Love's orthodoxy.

The Hearing Panel of five individuals is solidly progressive, they are:

· The Rt. Rev. W. Nicholas Knisely, Convener
· The Rt. Rev. Herman Hollerith
· The Rt. Rev. Jennifer Brooke-Davidson
· The Rev. Erik Larsen
· Ms. Melissa Perrin

You can read my take on Bishop Love's Last Stand here: https://virtueonline.org/bishop-loves-last-stand

*****

The College of Bishops of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) reaffirmed the biblical stand on sexuality, which they said means living under the authority of Scripture, while recognizing the reality that some people experience unwanted same-sex attraction. The bishops remain divided over the thorny question of Women's Ordination.

Meeting in Melbourne, Florida, the bishops assigned a task force chaired by Bishop Stuart Ruch III "to develop a theological and pastoral statement that articulates the hearts of the bishops for many who have various kinds of sexual brokenness."

This echoes Lambeth Resolution 1:10, "which recognized that there are among us persons who experience themselves as having a homosexual orientation. Many of these are members of the Church and are seeking the pastoral care, moral direction of the Church, and God's transforming power for the living of their lives and the ordering of relationships."

With a nod to those who experience same-sex attraction, the ACNA bishops said they engaged in a unified conversation around the opportunity for pastoral care to those within our churches who are same-sex attracted. "We identified the ways in which the church has not always seen and heard the reality of men and women living with strong same-sex attraction, and we discussed the importance of developing greater clarity around this pastoral ministry and providing more theological leadership for our province. Our discussion included the greater debate within the larger evangelical church around the kind of language that should be employed to describe a faithful follower of Jesus."

On the thorny issue of the ordination of women to the priesthood, the bishops remain divided.

"We have discovered again and again that there are layers upon layers of differences in ecclesiology, hermeneutics, theology, and tradition. These layers result in deep differences in our perspectives on the nature of holy orders in general and the role of women in orders in particular. We recognize that there is great pain over these differences both within our working group and throughout the Province. During the week, we spent time in small group discussions on this topic, both formal and informal. The working group continues to encourage the College to lead in both lament and prayer as we seek a way forward."

A resolution of this issue seems unlikely any time soon with some ACNA dioceses allowing it, while others do not. Archbishop Foley Beach is opposed to the ordination of women to the priesthood, but recognizes the ordination of women to the diaconate. The issue of the two integrities will continue into the foreseeable future.

The ACNA's Ecumenical Task Force for ecumenical partners endorsed concordats with the Episcopal Missionary Church and with the Independent Catholic Philippine Church (also known as the Iglesia Catolica Filipina Independiente). These concordats will be presented for approval to the Provincial Council in June.

The ACNA said they would continue dialogue with numerous church bodies with the goal of healing the Church and working towards Christian unity. Archbishop Thomas E. Wallace and Rev. Theron Davis Ham were guest observers at the conference. They are from the New Day Kingdom Assembly Church, which is exploring the "Anglican Way."

You can read my full take on this here: https://virtueonline.org/acna-house-bishops-affirm-biblical-stand-sexuality

*****

The Church of South India has a new Primate in the person of A. Dharmaraj Rasalam. He succeeds Thomas Oommen, the Bishop of Madhya Kerala, who has served as primate since 2017.

The CSI is, without question, the most corrupt province in the Anglican Communion.

According to VOL's Indian correspondent Joseph Muthuraj, his diocese, over the last ten years, is known for drawing huge sums of money as loans from banks by mortgaging many acres of church lands and valuable buildings. The outstanding loans face soaring interest rates and must be repaid.

There have been charges against Bishop Rasalam and his associates that they allegedly collected huge sums of money illegally from students aspiring for admission in Dr. Somervell Memorial CSI Medical College run by the CSITA in Karakkonam, Trivandrum.

Archbishop Justin Welby failed to address the corruption issue when he visited India last year.

*****

The Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), the missionary body of the Church of Nigeria, now has eight bishops for two dioceses in the U.S. with the recent ordination of two more bishops for North America by the Anglican Church of Nigeria.

Now according to the guidelines for the creation of a new province of the Anglican Communion recognized by the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), and the Primates of the Anglican Communion, only four dioceses are necessary to create a new province. So, if CANA decides to form two new dioceses what can stop them applying for membership in the Anglican Communion? Presumably nothing.

*****

The Rt. Rev. Dr. Jo Bailey Wells, Bishop of Dorking in the diocese of Guildford, is in the US to lecture at General Theological Seminary. She has served as Dean of Clare College in Cambridge, Director of the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies at Duke University, and Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Generally speaking, this would not make news except a source told VOL that she is on the conservative end of the Evangelical spectrum, but nevertheless self-evidently committed to WO, and by now almost certainly to the rainbow agenda -- she worked in ECUSA for a while. She is very well qualified academically, a very efficient professional, rather cold to deal with, and may well be the next ABC.
Her husband Sam is Vicar of St. Martin in the Fields in central London and is a loud and committed campaigner for the entire TEC agenda. The title of her address is "Anointed No More? Faithful Living When Leadership & Institutions Fail," which speaks volumes, and may in fact be prescient.

*****

In the never-ending quest for sexual acceptance, the Church of England announced this week that sex must be confined to heterosexual marriage and Christians in gay or straight civil partnerships should be sexually abstinent.

CofE bishops released a new pastoral guidance confirming their stance on marriage and sex outside of marriage after mixed-sex civil partnerships were introduced last year.

The statement from the House of Bishops says the church's teaching on marriage "remains unchanged", claiming sex outside of marriage is "falling short of God's purpose for human beings".

It adds: "For Christians, marriage -- that is the lifelong union between a man and a woman, contracted with the making of vows -- remains the proper context for sexual activity."

However, the church seeks to "uphold that standard" in its approach to civil partnerships and to "affirm the value of committed, sexually abstinent friendships".

Those in mixed- or same-sex civil partnerships can still be ordained -- but only if they abstain from sex, the bishops added.

But members of the clergy are also instructed not to provide a blessing for couples registering a civil partnership.

*****

Bishop Ronald Jackson of the Anglican Diocese of the Great Lakes has resigned citing health reasons. A Joint Statement from the Anglican Church in North America and the Standing Committee of the announced his resignation and said the Rt. Rev. John Miller, had been appointed as temporary bishop for the diocese and will continue advising the Standing Committee and serve as a liaison with the Province.

Bishop Jackson has been on administrative leave since November 2019 concerning information brought to the attention of the Archbishop's Office that called for an impartial investigation to be conducted. At the provincial level, the investigative process has entered its middle stages and remains ongoing. Locally, a pastoral team has been put in place to provide holistic care for Bishop Ron and Patty.

The Most Rev. Dr. Foley Beach, Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America, commented on the transition: "Please keep Bishop Ron and his wife, Patty, in your prayers. This has been a difficult and complicated decision for them. Please also pray for the Standing Committee. I have been impressed with how they have proactively and wisely led the diocese over the last couple months. They will have my prayers and full support as they move forward during this challenging time."

*****

The Living Church reports on a gathering of Anglican and Episcopal leaders bent on seeking communion in the midst of disagreement. Fifteen Anglican and Episcopal bishops and a larger group of church officials, seminary faculty and clergy met January 13 and 14 for a consultation titled "When Churches in Communion Disagree."

The participants, who held a wide diversity of views, respectfully plumbed the depths of Scripture, church history, classic Anglican views on divinity, and contemporary ecumenical theology. The event was sponsored by the Living Church Institute, the House of Bishops' Ecclesiology Committee, the Dioceses of Dallas and Texas, and Virginia Theological Seminary, which hosted the meeting.

Robert Heaney, the director of Virginia Seminary's Center for Anglican Communion Studies and one of the consultation's organizers, described the event as marked by "a spirit of generosity and deep listening." The consultation, he added, "called the church to deeper and more patient and inter-cultural ecclesiological investigation for the future of the Communion. Amidst division there was real hope in the room this week."

Bishop Tim Wambunya of Butere, Kenya, said: "Personally, I think the GAFCON axis has become obsessed with the matter of sexuality. Secondly, I think the Archbishop of Canterbury should try to steer the Communion toward the gospel, rather than simply discussing the issue of sexuality. No more resolutions on sexuality, please."

Katherine Sonderegger, Virginia Seminary's Meade Professor of Christian Doctrine, urged Anglicans to revisit the 2004 Windsor Report, which remains relevant to contemporary conflict. "The truth is," she said, "that the Windsor Report is right -- or so it seems to me -- that the matter of homosexuality is not closed, not behind us, not settled, and most certainly not forgotten in the Communion to which we belong." Advocates for the full inclusion of LGBT people are called, she argued, like advocates for women's ordination in prior generations, to practice a "grace-filled and demanding patience."

That "patience" has long since run out. The birth of the ACNA and GAFCON are living proof that the communion is divided now and the gap is only getting wider, anything else is spin.

Kenyan Bishop Samson Mwaluda, founding bishop of the Diocese of Taita Taveta, got it right when he said, "GAFCON is growing. The liberals are shrinking. Here I can grow the church; here I can stand genuinely. My spirit is at peace. This is the faith I can die for. Your soul and pastoral work will be safe in GAFCON, not Canterbury."

One wonders how many more gabfests on "reconciliation", "deep listening", "mutual love", "more and deeper unity", around sexuality do we have to hear before someone finally says, "enough already, we can never square the circle over homosexuality, you are either for it or against it, there is no third way."

*****

I hope you will assist with a tax-deductible donation to VOL help keep the news coming to you. We are the main source for orthodox Anglicans globally. If you can send $50.00, I will send you an autographed copy of my new book THE SEDUCTION OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

The money will not line my pockets but will allow me to send copies to Global South bishops who would not otherwise be able to obtain a copy. My hope is to put this book in the hands of every bishop in the Anglican Communion so they will never again be fooled by anything a sitting Presiding Bishop says about The Episcopal Church. This book represents nearly three decades of reporting. I hope you will buy it.

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

You can also make a payment at this link: https://give.virtueonline.org

Please don't forget to add your return address.

All blessings,

David

PS. Don't forget you can view my new video broadcasts at VIRTUEONLINE'S Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/virtueonline

I once asked Archbishop [Chaput] why he thought the Catholic Church had so rapidly declined in North America and was surprised (and again instructed) by his answer. He told me that even though his generation was the best-catechized in the Catholic Church's history, nobody had ever told him that he needed to trust in Christ for his salvation. There was no existential urgency or personal imperative attached to the dogmas he was taught. Again, is there not a lesson for all Christians there? The Reformed tradition to which I belong is dogmatic, as is that of the Roman Catholic Church. But, as Kierkegaard might have put it, it is not enough that something is true--it needs to be grasped as true by each and every one of us --- Carl R. Trueman

Today orthodox Christianity is maligned and marginalized. The temptation is to accommodate, to be neither hot nor cold. Too hot puts me in company that makes me uneasy. Too cold denies my faith. Ever wonder how God sees the lukewarm? He will "vomit them out of my mouth." Hmmm. Paul praises the Philippians because they held their faith "without being frightened by your opponents" (1:28). -- Rev. Tad de Bordenave

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
February 7, 2020

The Church of England, having issued a statement saying that sexual activity is only permissible between a married man and woman, has suddenly realized that it has been too decisive. Too binary. Too hurtful. Too divisive. Too Christian.

As a result, a week later, after the inevitable howls of protest, archbishops Welby and Sentamu have issued an apology, dripping with all the right words like "build bridges", "difficult conversations" and "discern the way forward".

Apparently, along with the usual sexual conundrums, the archbishops have "questions of human identity": they still don't know who they are. There must be a pill for that, writes tongue-in-cheek Canadian Anglican blogger David of Samizdat.

"How could any sane organization issue two statements, ostensibly from the same individuals, two weeks apart that completely contradict each other? Unless they are trying to illustrate Mark 3:25. Of course Jesus was talking about Satan in that passage, not archbishops. Although the distinction is diminishing as the years go by."

Here is what the two Anglican archbishops wrote: "We as Archbishops, alongside the bishops of the Church of England, apologize and take responsibility for releasing a statement last week which we acknowledge has jeopardized trust. We are very sorry and recognize the division and hurt this has caused.

"At our meeting of the College of Bishops of the Church of England this week we continued our commitment to the Living in Love and Faith project which is about questions of human identity, sexuality and marriage. This process is intended to help us all to build bridges that will enable the difficult conversations that are necessary as, together, we discern the way forward for the Church of England."

And you wonder why eyes roll up in the ACNA College of bishops and among the GAFCON primates when they read this twaddle.

So, the archbishops can't make up their mind about sex, how original. What is truly "hurtful" is not to tell people that sodomy will keep you out of the Kingdom if you engage in it. What a terrifying word to tell someone. Why can't they say that homosex is not a right or a rite, it is a behavior that Scripture specifically says thou shalt not engage in and if you do, you shall place yourself outside the Kingdom of God. Could one be clearer than that! God forbid that the ABC should be that declarative, he might lose his job or be declared homophobic.

Is it any wonder that John in the Book of the Revelation 3: 16 wrote, "So because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to vomit you out of My mouth!" -- (Berean Bible)

*****

The Episcopal Church ordained its umpteenth woman bishop this week in keeping with the Presiding Bishop's wish that more women and people of color become bishops. Susan B. Haynes was consecrated as the 11th Bishop of Southern Virginia at the Williamsburg Community Chapel in Williamsburg, Virginia, after being tossed out of a Roman Catholic Church by angry parishioners. Haynes becomes the first woman bishop in the diocese's 128-year history. The Rt. Rev. Edward S. Little II, seventh bishop of Northern Indiana, was the preacher.

Here are the most recent statistics on women in the TEC episcopacy.

COMPLETED CONSECRATIONS: All of 2019 - early 2020

#28 Cathleen Bascom (X Kansas) consecrated March 3, 2019

#29 Jennifer Riddall (VI Arizona) consecrated March 9, 2019

#30 Phoebe Roaf (IV West Tennessee) consecrated May 4, 2019

#31 Kymberly Lucas (XI Colorado) consecrated May 18, 2019

#32 Kathryn Ryan (Texas-suffragan) consecrated June 1, 2019

#33 Susan Brown Snook (V San Diego) consecrated September 28, 2019

#34 Megan Traquiar (VIII Northern California) consecrated June 29, 2019

#35 Shannon MacVean Brown (XI Vermont) consecrated September 29, 2019

#36 Marty Stebbins (X Montana) consecrated December 7, 2019

#37 Lucinda Ashby (IV El Camino Real) consecrated January 11, 2020

#38 Susan Haynes (XI Southern Virginia) consecrated February 1, 2020

================

Elected women bishops yet to be consecrated.

#39 Bonnie Perry (XI Michigan). Elected June 1, 2019, consecration date: February 8. 2020

#40 Glenda Curry (XII Alabama - coadjutor). Elected January 18, 2020.
Consecration date: June 27, 2020

*****

ANGLICAN REALITY CHECK LAUNCHING: GAFCON has launched a new website aptly titled Anglican Reality Check. As you know, GAFCON came into being to restore the spiritual health of the Anglican Communion so that it might be a mighty instrument of God in winning men, women and children to Christ around the world.

But recovery depends upon facing facts so that an accurate diagnosis can be made. In the Jerusalem Statement and Declaration of 2008, GAFCON identified the sickness of the Communion as being the result of a false gospel that had been allowed to grow unchecked by the traditional leadership.

Over ten years later, we can see that the struggle for the Anglican future has intensified. While GAFCON has made great strides in promoting and guarding the gospel, the wolves in sheep's clothing are still with us.

The fact that the 2020 Lambeth Conference is being held two years later than expected and is already marked by controversy and confusion is symptomatic of the deep and continuing crisis caused by this rejection of biblical authority in the Communion. Although Lambeth 2020 will no doubt retain a superficial continuity with previous conferences, the history set out here demonstrates that it is very likely to represent a fundamental shift from the Anglicanism of the 1998 Lambeth Conference.

The false teaching overwhelmingly rejected 22 years previously seems set to be institutionalized as an acceptable option. It will become even clearer that the true continuation of the Anglicanism of the 1998 Lambeth Conference is the GAFCON movement, which since 2008, has established itself as the voice of global orthodoxy in the Anglican Communion.

*****

A lawsuit over properties has been settled by the Episcopal Church and the ACNA over the Diocese of Quincy.

The Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago Jeffrey D. Lee announced a settlement with the Diocese of Quincy in the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) in its efforts to recover some of the property, assets and records that were part of the former Episcopal Diocese of Quincy.

"The congregations of St. James, Griggsville; St. James, Lewistown; the Episcopal Church of St. George, Macomb; and All Saints, Rock Island will directly benefit from the settlement. In addition, other funds recovered in the settlement will be held in the Bishop's Funds for the benefit of the entire Peoria Deanery and will be administered by the bishop's office with the assistance of the Congregations Commission," wrote Lee.

Lee wrote that the terms of the settlement are largely confidential, as is often the case when legal proceedings are concluded by agreement.

After 11 years of litigation, the parties have reached a settlement in the largest lawsuit over the property of the former Episcopal Diocese of Quincy. The suit was filed after the Quincy bishop and 18 of the 22 congregations of the small diocese voted to leave the Episcopal Church (TEC) in 2008 and form the Anglican Diocese of Quincy, part of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), The Living
Church, reported. You can more here: https://virtueonline.org/lawsuit-over-properties-settled-episcopal-church-and-acna-over-diocese-quincy

*****

A de facto split has already occurred in the Anglican Communion and the only question now is if and when it becomes de jure.

The Anglican Archbishop of South America, the Most Rev. Gregory Venables said the inescapable truth is that it is bound to happen, with the biggest challenge being how to avoid or accomplish it.

Addressing the future of the communion following the meeting of some 37 Anglican primates in Jordan called together at the request of Archbishop Justin Welby, the titular head of the communion, Venables, an outspoken evangelical, said a number of Anglicans were walking in different directions despite all the talk of "walking together".

"Of course, there is a great desire for those going off in an unbiblical direction to repent and return, but failing that, we cannot walk together. We all desire to walk together, but increasingly we are recognizing that it is simply not going to be possible. We are however walking together in the sense of talking and seeking to find the correct way to deal with the brokenness." You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/split-inevitable-anglican-communion-archbishop-venables

*****

Anglicans should prepare for a post-Roe fallout, writes Jeffrey Walton for the Institute on Religion and Democracy.

Christians engaged in sanctity of human life ministries should prepare for intensified conflict following a potential "correction" of the Roe v Wade court ruling that struck down abortion restrictions across the United States, according to a speaker at a summit of pro-life Anglicans.

"While this is a necessary step to end abortion, it will not in itself do so," stated Tom Glessner of the National Institute on Family and Advocates, who advised that pro-life advocates should speak of "correcting" rather than "reversing" Roe. "Any court changes on Roe will intensify conflict, not resolve it. We should be prepared for a post-Roe reality."

Anglicans gathered January 23-24 at the Falls Church Anglican in Falls Church, Virginia for the annual summit, jointly sponsored by Anglicans for Life and the Anglican Church in North America's Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic.

Timed with the National March for Life on January 24, the summit uniquely draws Anglican clergy, laity and bishops from the United States and Canada to discuss upholding the sanctity of human life from conception until natural death.

Speakers shared of vulnerability and redemption in the most sensitive of subjects, and participants were charged not to sit passively.

*****

Billy Graham's preacher son Franklin Graham has had his tour dates canceled over allegations that he made homophobic and Islamophobic comments.

The fate of Christian evangelist Franklin Graham's eight-date tour through the United Kingdom is currently up in the air after the preacher was dropped by all of his scheduled venues for making homophobic and Islamophobic comments.

Franklin, who is the son of the late prominent Christian evangelist Billy Graham, was expected to tour the U.K. in May, June and October, making stops in Glasgow, Newcastle, Sheffield, Milton Keynes, Liverpool, Cardiff, Birmingham and London, according to his website.

However, this week, all eight venues canceled his upcoming appearances due to previous controversial comments that Franklin, 67, had made, CNN reported.

Some of those remarks included how same-sex marriage was a "sin," that the Islam religion was "behind the violence" around the world, and that conversion therapy is possible through accepting Jesus, as those in the LGBTQ community were "misled."

Following the cancelations, Franklin's team addressed the status of the Graham Tour on his website, telling his followers that his appearances would still take place on their original dates, but that they were considering and "finalizing" new sites.

In part of a statement to PEOPLE, Franklin confirms that his mission to speak in the U.K. will continue onward and that "everyone is absolutely welcome," regardless of their sexual orientation, religious beliefs, or background.

"We're not going to speak against anybody," he says. "We are bringing a message of hope for everybody."

"We've had some opposition and some have worked very hard to cancel our venue contracts but we are not going to cancel the mission," Franklin says of the cancelations. "Other venues are now being considered and will be announced at a later date."

*****

The Anglican Province of Nigeria is getting a new Archbishop and Primate. He is the Most Revd. Henry Ndukuba. He will take over the leadership in March 2020.

Archbishop Ndukuba, 61, was elected at the Episcopal Synod of the Church of NIgeria, Anglican Communion, held in Asaba, Delta State. He brings a wealth of experience to the position. He replaces the Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh. I will write more at length about this new appointment.

*****

The Underground Pewster, a South Carolina blogger asked the question this week; Episcopal Vision 20/20: Does Anyone Remember?

It was back 20 years ago that the Episcopal organization created a task force that laid out a vision for the year 2020. It was called the 20/20 strategy. One of its goals was to double average Sunday attendance (ASA) by the year 2020. That goal was quickly forgotten because by 2002 they were already setting new goals such as, "...envisioning innovative and groundbreaking ways to move the Episcopal Church away from 'business as usual' and into a missional mode that would strike the words 'we've never done it that way before' from the Episcopal vocabulary."
"Their vision had grown beyond data.", they said.

If you look at the data currently available on their research pages you can see the utter failure of the Vision 20/20 Task Force's plan.

Average Sunday Attendance:
In 2001: 850,000
In 2004: 795,765
In 2008: 665,100
In 2018: 533,121
That is a whopping decline of 37%.

If their vision had been fulfilled, ASA should be 1,700,000 by now.

What went wrong?

By electing non-celibate homosexual bishops, by creating blessings for same-sex couples, by continuing to support abortion, and by ignoring the scriptural warnings about such things, the Episcopal organization, the "Church" took the path to cater to people who did not put a lot of faith in the Bible.

People who do not put much stock in the Bible do not find much reason to schlep to church on Sunday mornings.

*****

My hot selling book THE SEDUCTION OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH is available from Amazon, or, if you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to VOL, I will send you an autographed copy.

Your donation will assist me in keeping the news coming to you. We are the main source of news for orthodox Anglicans globally.

The money will not line my pockets, but will allow me to send copies to Global South bishops who would not otherwise be able to obtain a copy. My hope is to put this book in the hands of every bishop in the Anglican Communion so they will never again be fooled by anything a sitting Presiding Bishop says about The Episcopal Church. This book represents nearly three decades of reporting. I hope you will buy it.

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David

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Christians may be free to "retire" from their occupation, but as disciples of Christ we aren't ever free to retire from serving God and others. If we're fortunate enough to be freed from the demands of working for a living, that opens a door of opportunity to do more work for the kingdom using the wisdom, experience, talents, and resources the Holy Spirit has given us through a lifetime of discipleship. -- Chris Cagle

Without a vibrant and vital Christianity, America is doomed, and without America, the West is doomed. --- Rabbi Daniel Lapin

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
February 21, 2020

THE US is experiencing the greatest political and values divide since the Civil War. Anger abounds while openness seems lost in the background, even for those who once championed open debate. In the Church, even evangelicals are trying to find answers to the political divide; reckoning that Jesus taught acceptance and love instead of division and protracted animosity. Thus spoke a conservative blogger on the subject.

Evangelicals are uncomfortable thinking about a Democratic Socialist, a homosexual and an entire cadre of democratic presidential wannabees who are pro LGBTQ and pro-abortion, so they will, in all likelihood, shrug their shoulders and pull the lever for Donald Trump. All very understandable, but they must know the cost. They have made a pact with the devil, and by separating private and public morality, they hope and pray it will all somehow work out with their King Cyrus figure. Materialism it seems is now one of our biggest sins.

A former Canadian academic, and a solid Christian I have known for several decades and who now lives on the continent of Europe high up in the alps wrote this in a newsletter: "The modern mind, enjoying unprecedented quality of life and stability, may consider it reasonable to ask: Why do we need saving? Save us from what? Are we in danger? Yes, we are!

For 70 years unprecedented material prosperity and peace have been the norm and have deadened awareness of the precarious human condition. Black clouds are now on the horizon. Societies are deeply divided nationally and internationally; and the natural world no longer lies passive before our plundering. We are on the road to destroying our own civilization.

My wife and I now belong to a small minority of people who witnessed monstrous evils before the present season of bounty. We have lived through an astonishing period of human history including the Great Depression with stark poverty in our communities, Stalin's deliberate starvation of millions in Ukraine, the 2nd World War with appalling violence and mass terror brought about by the large-scale application of two ideologies: Soviet communism and Hitler's fascism. Those evil events taught us that high quality of life is not the default mode for humanity.
Humanity is fickle and has brought catastrophe upon itself before. Years of plenty can quickly turn into famine. Significant change in socio-economic systems usually proceeds slowly. Incredibly during our lives, we have witnessed regime change three times: communism, fascism and democratic market-economy capitalism. The first two failed at the cost of millions of lives. Then, after 1945 the new form of capitalism emerged and has given peace, prosperity and stability. Is it now also failing?

There is a flaw at the heart of capitalism and democracy. The ideological motor driving capitalism is human self-interest, and it produces unparalleled economic success. Unrestrained, this driver becomes destructive. Self-interest mutates into greed that has no self-imposed boundaries; it is never satisfied. Off the leash, greed divides society, destroys the environment and leads to climate change.

Ruthless self-interest finds ways around just laws while greed lobbies to remove lawful restraints that protect the poor, the disadvantaged, vulnerable workers and the environment. Communism permitted corruption at all levels, fascism promoted a privileged elite, enslaving others. The current form of capitalism now displays both these failings: corruption and creation of new elite groups of rulers whose aim is self-enrichment. Capitalism is the best economic system humanity has designed but, led by unethical leaders, it can become destructive.

This rogue scenario attracts to politics some individuals who are unworthy, undisciplined, ignorant and power-seeking. Using the wealth of a rich minority to gain votes, they channel new wealth to the few. Abusing true democracy, they create fear and discontent among voters and exploit them with tribal slogans about being 'great again' in favor of nationalism and other 'insider' groupings.

'Outsiders' are branded as traitors or unpatriotic. In power they cancel temperate regulations, pass self-serving legislation, see themselves above the law, tell lies and deny facts that challenge their selfish agenda. Governmental authority is flaunted and abused. This scenario is now evident in many countries. From afar, this type of politics seems unbelievable, comic and tragic.

The root problem is not capitalism, but people obsessed by greed for wealth, power and apparently often sex, who hijack the levers of power and push the system without limit. Failure to restrain the early slide to environmental breakdown and climate change will lead to an avalanche. Humanity is ethically weak and often unable to use its moral autonomy in positive ways. We need saving from our worst inclinations. Thank God for the ongoing message of Christmas and the invitation to change from self-interest, to treat others as we wish them to treat us, and to behave as responsible stewards of the natural resources."

HOPEFULLY.

The Church in all its manifest forms keeps chugging along with the main line denominations in North America caving into pansexuality and, for their sins of commission, watch as their churches bleed out and slowly die. Some evangelical leaders who were thought to have a fixed stand on absolute morality have quietly abandoned these claims because homosexual marriage is allegedly better than promiscuity.

The worst-case scenario VOL uncovered this week came when the "evangelical" rector, one Russell Levenson of St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Houston, the largest parish in the TEC, announced that while he would not perform same-sex marriages. When asked by homosexual members who desire one, he would help them to find a priest and a parish who would. "After their marriage, the couple are warmly recognized at our parish -- for who they are, not for who they are not. I now believe that many of the gay couples I have come to know and love have found a life-partner who brings them companionship and intimacy."

It is compromise by any other name, a bridge that Bishop Bill Love of Albany will not cross and will face punishment from the Church's leaders for it. Sexual sin is sexual sin. It cannot be legitimated because homosexual couples look happier and feel content. But there is nothing "wholesome" or biblical in that relationship. These leaders have caved into the false doctrines of inclusion and diversity. The price they will pay, even before the Last Judgment will be ecclesiastical and institutional death.

This week Brigham Young University removed a ban on "homosexual behavior" from its honor code, the Mormon Church announced. The announcement came the same day the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints released its new handbook, but did not specify what displays of affection same-gender couples are allowed to do.

The Boy Scouts of America who turned in their moral compass seven years ago to chase the approval of critics it could never hope to win, filed for bankruptcy. Writes Tony Perkins: This is what comes of throwing up your hands on a century of conviction: irrelevance and, ultimately, insolvency. Waves of LGBT activists kept coming. The pressure built and built until finally, in 2013, under the leadership of Rex Tillerson, headquarters gave in to the lie that compromise would be their salvation. Seven years later, the irony is: there's nothing left to save.

If you're wondering where raising a white flag on core values leads, this is it. The Scouts are a case study in moral compromise -- the story of anyone who exchanges the truth for cowardly conformism. Leaders at the BSA dropped their moral mandate to accommodate what they don't believe. In the current climate, that's called "inclusion." To everyone else, it's considered betrayal.

Right now, too many churches, Christian colleges, even businesses are dangerously close to making the same mistake. They're so desperate or fearful -- or both -- that they're willing to water down who they are to protect the small space they're standing on. There's just one problem: the gospel's truth isn't up for negotiation. And in their rush to soften the blow of its confrontation, some believers are selling out their identity as followers of Jesus. Craving acceptance comes at a high price.

St. Paul himself wrote on this in his letter to the Galatians; "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel -- which is really no gospel at all. Evidently, some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ... Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings or of God? ...If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ."
There you have it in a nutshell.

*****

The Episcopal Church will cease to have Sunday worship attendance in 30 years, a seminary president warns.

"It depicts a church that appears to be dying," said Stache, as reported by Egan Millard of Episcopal News Service, labeling the statistics "very sobering."

At the current rate of decline, according to Stache, the denomination will have no Sunday attendance in 30 years and no baptized members in 47 years.

Stache drew from the most recent parochial report data which found that, from 2008 to 2018, the denomination experienced a 24.9 percent decline in average Sunday attendance and a 17.5 percent decline in baptized members. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/episcopal-church-will-cease-have-sunday-worship-attendance-30-years-seminary-president-warns

*****

THE APOPLECTIC, APOLOGETIC ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. When the official obituary is written on the life of Justin Welby, it won't be about how many souls were saved or how many people were discipled to follow Christ. It will be about how the West was lost to the gospel through the acceptance of pansexuality and how many times Welby apologized for things he had no business apologizing for as well as for lost opportunities.

It began (as far as we can tell) in 2013, when the Archbishop of Canterbury offered his personal apology to a victim over abuse claims. It has continued to the present with the high point of apologies being 2019, but 2020 is only two months in. Since he took the job as ABC of the Anglican Communion, Welby has spent a considerable amount of time apologizing for one thing and another. Most of it was unnecessary, ridiculous with little more than virtue-signaling. You can read my full story here: https://virtueonline.org/apoplectic-apologetic-archbishop-canterbury

*****

By contrast, The Anglican Province of Nigeria elected a new primate and he is top drawer material. The new Anglican Archbishop is The Most Rev. Henry Chukwudum Ndukuba, 59, and he will maintain his province's hard line on homosexuality, continuing the tradition of his two predecessors, Nicholas Okoh and Peter Akinola.

His resume reveals a man who might be the best trained Nigerian Primate ever, having studied both at Durham University (UK) and Princeton University (USA) and is by all accounts a Biblical Scholar, Teacher, Master liturgist, Pastor and an accomplished Evangelist. Those who know him say he loves the Lord Jesus Christ, has a great heart for the Word of God and is a prolific writer. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/new-nigerian-anglican-primate-will-continue-his-provinces-tough-stand-orthodoxy

*****

An Auckland Anglican Dean says New Zealand Anglicans can have sex outside of marriage. She also ripped into the Church of England's decision to restrict sex to heterosexual marriage. She said the Church of England cannot make a decision for the rest of us.

The Rev. Dr. Helen Jacobi, Vicar of St. Mathew in the City of Auckland told The Spinoff, a weekly newsletter, that unmarried Anglicans can still have sex. "Yes, absolutely. Rejoice, all who appreciate a church hymn while also appreciating a bit of hanky panky. You may be falling short of God's purposes for human beings in England but in New Zealand, you're doing just fine."

"I'm sure there'll be some Anglican clergy in the more conservative group who would teach abstinence before marriage," said Jacobi. "But you know [laughs], that's just not reality. That's not what people's lives are like. So good luck to them."

Now you know why GAFCON opened a new diocese in Christchurch with a dozen parishes under a new bishop. You can read my story here: https://virtueonline.org/auckland-anglican-dean-says-nz-anglicans-can-have-sex-outside-marriage

*****

The Episcopal Church moves relentlessly forward in its global effort to press the case for full inclusion of homosexuals and lesbians on the continent of Africa. Applications are out for an Africa Partnership Officer who is willing to travel to Africa with pots of money to persuade Anglican communion partners to compromise Scripture for the one percent of activist homosexuals in their provinces. Money talks, it always does, but you count on the fact that provinces like Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, the DRC and Nigeria won't sell out for money.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry has made it clear that he wants to spread the word for full LGBTQ inclusion in Africa and is prepared to spend money, a lot of money to make it happen.

Along with the $10 million gift from Compass Rose to Lambeth for "the defense of the Anglican Communion" we can expect to see more of this. An archbishop wrote VOL and said, "all we can do is warn our friends, seek to help them to become free from economic slavery, teach and preach the Word of God, and pray - asking God to miraculously intervene."

From VOL's perspective this is blatant manipulation by TEC to get a bigger footprint in Africa, to use TEC's money to push TEC's pansexual agenda.

Ask Dr. Lisa Nolland about how Kenya is refusing money to change their minds. Kenyans won't just take the money she bylined a story. Horrified by the needs, but encouraged by changed lives, she reports on how Kenyans are resisting the pressure to adopt the West's LGBT agenda. "Kenya is publicly standing against the West's financial pressure and propaganda, by refusing to adopt its agenda of sexual minority/'reproductive rights', but this stand has a cost." You can read her story here: https://virtueonline.org/kenyans-wont-just-take-money

*****

The Primates of The Episcopal Church and Anglican Church of Mexico signed a bilateral agreement effectively moving the two churches into a reciprocal relationship. In Chula Vista, CA, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and Archbishop Francisco Moreno, primates representing The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Mexico, signed off on the agreement. The agreement replaces a 25-year covenant between the two churches.

At one point the Mexican church was the most corrupt in the Anglican Communion, with over a million dollars being stolen by a former archbishop and bishop, an "honor" that has since moved to the Church of South India.

A noted Anglican bishop told VOL that as far as the TEC friendly Mexican Church goes, the youth group at All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi is bigger than their entire "Province."

*****

In the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado, they elected a woman bishop. She has since hired a partnered male homosexual to be her canon to the ordinary, and a partnered lesbian to be her canon for churches in transition and clergy deployment. This diocese is fast becoming the poster child of the new feminized and sexualized Episcopal Church.

It is openly being discussed that former Bishop Rob O'Neill saw the departure of many of the successful clergy and with it a precipitous decline in the diocesan budget...and yet here they are embarking on more of the same ideology and results standards requiring a full embrace of what has here-to-fore ruined them.
A reality check revealed that the diocese cannot pay their national church assessment. Go figure.

*****

Evangelist Franklin Graham says the opposition to his United Kingdom tour is due to opposition to the gospel -- and that those who have banned him are "truthophobic."

Graham is scheduled to preach in eight United Kingdom cities between May 30 and Oct. 4 but doesn't have a place to speak due to a series of cancellations. The arenas and convention centers that were set to host Graham dropped him under pressure from LGBT groups and activists.

At issue are Graham's biblical positions on marriage and sexuality. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association says the tour will go on, despite him being banned from specific locations.

"Opposition to the Gospel shouldn't really surprise us," he wrote. "Jesus warned that it would come."

*****

The Anglican Province of Christ the King (APCK) has a new archbishop. He is the Rt. Rev. Dr. John E. Upham. He replaces retiring archbishop, the Most Reverend Frederick G. Morrison.

He was elected unanimously by members of the Council of Bishops and he will be its fourth Archbishop. Upham currently serves as Rector of St. George's Anglican Pro-Cathedral in Raleigh, NC and as Bishop Ordinary of the Diocese of the Atlantic States.

Morrison was elected in 2015, following Anglican Archbishop James Eugene Provence's resignation from the continuing Anglican jurisdiction after revelations by a former parishioner, Kathy Webb, alleging sexual abuse. Provence's resignation came just over a month after Archbishop Robert Morse died.

Upham is a convert from the UMC and has not been a part of the province for the entirety of its history. An observer said this sets him apart from the other possible candidates, and bodes well for a more open, and forward-looking church, and possible engagement with other continuing Anglicans. "For the first time since I'm excited about the new era for the APCK beginning in 2020," he said.

*****

Former Episcopal bishop and latterly ACNA Bishop Andy Fairfield died this week. He was 77. He died peacefully at his home in Shutesbury, Massachusetts on February 16, 2020. He was sitting in his chair reading a book, waiting to go to church.

He was the second son of the Rev. Leslie Lindsey Fairfield and Mary Allerton Parke Fairfield. He spent some of his early years in China, where his parents served as missionaries with the Episcopal Church.

Andy Fairfield was the lone dissenting vote at what became known as the Righter Trial in 1996, declaring that there is a doctrinal basis for denying ordination of an activist homosexual.

The court ruled that, because no canon (church law) specifically forbade ordaining active homosexuals to the ministry of the Episcopal Church, such ordinations are legal.

Stopfel and his lover, Will Leckie, shook their heads disapprovingly as Fairfield read aloud from his lone dissenting opinion, which quoted from C. S. Lewis's novel That Hideous Strength, from Scripture, and from the Episcopal Church's Book of Common Prayer.

Fairfield resigned from the Episcopal Church and joined the Anglican Church in North America.

*****

My hot selling book THE SEDUCTION OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH is available from Amazon, or, if you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to VOL, I will send you an autographed copy.

Your donation will assist me in keeping the news coming to you. We are the main source globally of news for orthodox Anglicans.

The money will not line my pocket, but will allow me to send copies to Global South bishops who would not otherwise be able to obtain a copy. My hope is to put this book in the hands of every bishop in the Anglican Communion so they will never again be fooled by anything a sitting Presiding Bishop says about The Episcopal Church. This book represents nearly three decades of reporting. I hope you will buy it.

You can send a check to:
VIRTUEONLINE
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P.O. Box 111
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You can also make a payment at this link: https://give.virtueonline.org

Please don't forget to add your return address.

All blessings,

David

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And let's be clear, Evangelical Christians have as much at stake in this issue as do Catholic charities and other organizations of a religious convictional nature there in Philadelphia and, of course, all over the nation, because this case in Philadelphia now becomes ground zero for the future of religious liberty in a very real sense everywhere throughout the United States of America. --- Albert Mohler

A common truth and life. The Christian unity for which Christ prayed in John 17:20- 23 was not primarily unity with each other, but unity with the apostles (a common truth) and unity with the Father and the Son (a common life). The visible, structural unity of the church is a proper goal. Yet it will be pleasing to God only if it is the visible expression of something deeper, namely unity in truth and in life. In our ecumenical concern, therefore, nothing is more important than the quest for more apostolic truth and more divine life through the Holy Spirit. As William Temple put it, 'the way to the union of Christendom does not lie through committee-rooms, though there is a task of formulation to be done there. It lies through personal union with the Lord so deep and real as to be comparable with his union with the Father.' --- John R. W. Stott

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
March 6, 2020

Across the globe, the coronavirus is impacting not just businesses and travel, it is profoundly affecting church life as well.

Denominational leaders are calling for caution about how to take holy communion (intinction, please) to how we should pass the peace. We are told that it is something we should not panic about (by President Donald Trump) to the possibility of a pandemic.

The virus has the capability of reaching biblical proportions, so perhaps there is a lesson there for us all to learn.

Our hi-tech lives, electronic toys and fancy lifestyles cannot will away a virus capable of killing tens of thousands. We are going back to basics.

Might this be the judgement of God on our decadent, materialistic lives? Don't laugh, it's happened before. Prophets railed; leaders did not listen. People died.

In the tower of Siloam story, Jesus was a realist; "repent, lest it happen to you." No scientific explanation, no apology, no 'why do bad things happen to good people'. They can and they do. Repent.

*****

Just when Archbishop Justin Welby thought he might win orthodox Global South bishops to the Lambeth Conference in July, along comes a spiritual and ecclesial hurricane to blow his hopes right out the cathedral doors.

In a move designed to incense orthodox Anglican bishops from the Global South, Episcopal lesbian bishop Mary Glasspool, along with Rev. Canon Tutu van Furth who came out as a lesbian in 2016, will conduct an "inclusive eucharist" service ahead of the opening of the Lambeth Conference.

Glasspool explained the need for an inclusive service, saying: "It is an honor and a privilege to be a part of this 'inclusive eucharist', in which we say to all people everywhere: 'You are loved by our Loving God and welcome at Christ's table.'

Welby must be wincing as he reads this. These two daughters of lesbos just destroyed all his best laid plans. The Anglican leftwaffe leader got his head handed to him on a plate.

Global South bishops will see this as a blasphemous act and will have nothing to do with it, with him or the Lambeth Conference. He is English toast.

This act not only embarrasses Welby who has been doing his best to persuade Global South bishops who disapprove of sodomy and homosexual marriage to attend the 2020 Lambeth Conference, it will also confirm to African Anglicans that to attend such a gathering would violate both Holy Scripture and their consciences.

It will also confirm to the mind of GAFCON chairman Foley Beach that it was right to call together a meeting of GAFCON bishops. These bishops, who number more than 300, will meet in Kigali, Rwanda in June. They will affirm the Gospel and uphold Lambeth resolution 1:10 which strictly forbids homosexual behavior, affirming marriage between a man and a woman.

It will further alienate those Global South bishops who still feel loyal to Canterbury and who have one foot in GAFCON and the other with the Lambeth Conference. It will seal the deal with them that Justin Welby is no longer in control of his fellow bishops, and that he himself has gone over to the dark side on pansexuality.

Orthodox and progressive bishops have been at each other's throats over LGBTQI issues for two decades and this will seal the deal that those who are faithful to the teaching of Scripture have no place at the Canterbury table. They say it is "inappropriate" to invite the married spouses of same-sex unions to this year's gathering after Welby issued a ban on those partners from attending. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/global-south-bishops-will-be-rocked-american-lesbian-bishop-will-lead-inclusive-eucharist-service

*****

But this was not the only humiliating moment for the Archbishop of Canterbury this week. Earlier, he found himself sidelined in the consecration of the new Ugandan Archbishop, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Stephen Kaziimba.

Welby and Archbishop Foley Beach, Primate of the ACNA and GAFCON chairman found themselves on the same stage, but Welby found himself eclipsed by Beach who preached and stole the show from his English rival.

It was a humiliating moment for the titular head of 85 million Anglicans who found the enthronement occasion of an African Primate taken from him by an archbishop he does not recognize as authentically Anglican.

Welby had earlier in the year told Beach that he was welcome to the Lambeth Conference as an "observer", as though he were a bishop with leprosy, tolerated if he had taken his daily dose of Dapsone. But Kaziimba is squarely on board with Beach and he and his fellow bishops will boycott the Lambeth Conference precisely because Welby has ignored the mandate of Lambeth resolution 1:10 to discipline errant Western bishops over their adoption of sodomy and homosexual marriage.

Archbishop Kazimba Mugalu started his tenure in a colorful ceremony at the cathedral by making fresh vows never to accept homosexual marriages in the church.

He said the Church in Uganda would continue to emphasize heterosexual marriage as the lifelong, exclusive bond between one man and one woman for procreation as reflected in the Bible.

"...the trend in the Western world and some Anglican churches in those contexts are being pressured into doing this, including our mother church of England. But for us in Uganda, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord," said the prelate shortly after receiving the episcopal authority from his predecessor, Stanley Ntagali, who retired at 65 years.

Guest preacher ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach described Archbishop Kaziimba's enthronement as a historic occasion and commended the Church of Uganda for its faithfulness to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

"You have been a bright light for the world. You said no to disobeying the word of God, you said no to immorality, many wish their leaders would be like you...thank you for your boldness and your example," Archbishop Beach told the congregation.

You can read the full story here: https://virtueonline.org/uganda-archbishop-welby-and-archbishop-beach-clash-titans

*****

The Church of England's Synod might want to think long and hard as they ponder whether they will cave into a minority of pansexualists urging the Church to fully embrace homosexual marriage; more than 15 million Brits oppose same-sex marriage.

After six years of same-sex marriage in the UK and near-saturation in state and corporate propaganda about how normal same-sex families are, it is incredible to think that millions of Britons remain unconvinced.

The startling finding was made in a new YouGov poll commissioned by church same-sex marriage campaigner Jayne Ozanne. The survey showed that almost a quarter (24 per cent) of Brits are actively opposed to same-sex marriage, while a further 16 per cent say they don't know.

These figures, from a sample of over 5,000 people, represent the views of around 15.5 million people opposed and around over 10 million undecided.

*****

First there was the Methodists, then the Moravians and now it is the Presbyterians...will liberal Baptists be in TEC's future? As the mainline denominations slowly sink into the sunset, they are joining together like two drunks supporting each other. If one collapses, they both go down together.

This week, representatives of the Episcopal-Presbyterian Bilateral Dialogue met and considered how the two ecclesial traditions could partner with each other, considering the context of the 21st century Church.

That "context" includes abandoning Scripture on human sexuality, redefining sin and salvation. After that there isn't much left except of course endless angst about climate change and whether or not we all ought to be vegan.

*****

A trial that should shame all Anglicans. Remember that lovely, smiley American bishop who spoke at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle a couple of years ago?

And do you recall how he spoke so inspiringly, in the opinion of many, about love? Yes, how the words of Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the US Episcopal Church, soared with poetry in the chapel at Windsor Castle as he declared: 'When love is the way, there's plenty good room -- plenty good room -- for all of God's children.'

Turns out, however, that Bishop Curry seems to have forgotten his own sermon -- at least if his treatment of a fellow bishop in the US is anything to go by. For in a few weeks' time, the Bishop of Albany, William Love, will go on trial, after Michael Curry restricted his ministry just over a year ago.

You might rightly wonder about Bishop Love's crime. Was he siphoning off diocesan money, for example? Has he had a series of secret affairs? Does he not believe the Bible or deny that Jesus is the Christ? Has he, perish the thought, engaged in repugnant sexual acts with children?

But no. Bishop Love has done none of those things. Bishop Love stands accused of believing what most Christians -- Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Pentecostal, Evangelical, and indeed Anglican -- believe, and have always believed, about sex and marriage. His crime, if one can call it that, is not to permit same-sex marriages in his diocese.

You can read David Baker's piece here and then ask yourself why TEC can call itself a Christian denomination. https://virtueonline.org/trial-should-shame-all-anglicans

*****

Some of you may have read an article by a certain Julian Mann titled, Is GAFCON turning into a waffle shop? on the blog of Anglican Ink. It concerns the Bishop of Sheffield, Pete Wilcox, meeting with the Archbishop of South America, Greg Venables. Wilcox is solidly evangelical, but was not entirely supportive of Franklin Graham coming to preach in Sheffield because of Graham's political views, views his father would never have told us about were he still alive. Billy stood above politics, even though his son said he voted from Donald Trump. Billy met with Barack Obama just days before he died, demonstrating his call to be above the political fray. Mann tried to position this as a slam against GAFCON. Not true.

VOL got in touch with Venables and he told VOL, "The person who wrote this is ex (CofE) Sheffield now ex FCE. It is a foolish piece of writing. The Bishop of Sheffield is here for us to get to know each other and see if we want the link to continue. So far I am impressed by his orthodox appearance." The moral of this story is be careful even when people claim to be on your side of the fence, sometimes that turns out not to be the case.

*****

The Anglican Church in North America continues to expand its footprint across North America and recently it solidified its footing in Mexico, announcing they now had nine parishes that country.

Four years ago, the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) began a work to bring the gospel to Mexico, a country that is predominantly (92%) Roman Catholic.

The ACNA started with one congregation in Fresnillo, the second largest city in Zacatecas state in north central Mexico. The church had an average Sunday attendance of 200 plus and two house groups in Aguascalientes with an ASA of 15 and Guadalajara also with an ASA of 15, Bishop Mark Zimmerman, ACNA Bishop of the Diocese of the Southwest, told VOL. You can read the full story here: https://virtueonline.org/anglican-church-north-america-solidifies-footing-mexico

*****

In his February newsletter, GAFCON Primate and ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach said there would be no partnership with false teachers in the Anglican Communion. Some Anglican provinces are filled with those "practicing immorality", said Beach. We dishonor the Body of Christ if we stay in communion with them, he said.

The chairman railed against "false teachers" and those who "practice immorality" and partner with them, in his February newsletter to GAFCON followers.

The ACNA archbishop said Christian discipleship and leadership calls us to make disciples of all nations and requires us to protect the flock from false teachers. "Encountering false teachers is nothing new in the history of the Church. The New Testament is filled with exhortations regarding false teachers." You can read the full story here: https://virtueonline.org/gafcon-primate-says-no-partnership-false-teachers-anglican-communion

*****

Was Sir Edward Heath a closet homosexual? The Lord Bishop of Salisbury asked this; "My Lords, can the Minister explain how we will learn from the sorts of examples that we have had--for instance, the case of Sir Edward Heath in Salisbury--unless there is an independent review? In the past, we have been told that the Home Office cannot do that and that it is the responsibility of the police and crime commissioner. The police and crime commissioner for Wiltshire says that the police force there was acting as a lead authority on behalf of others. We need to accept that more than 40 allegations had to be investigated. How will we learn unless there is a review, and what can the Home Office do that will help to restore the reputation of both Sir Edward and, I have to say, Wiltshire Police?

In 2007, the Guardian ran a piece Out on the Heath? Did Tory prime minister Sir Edward Heath make a habit of cottaging on Hampstead Heath? (Cottaging is a homosexual slang term, referring to anonymous sex between men in a public lavatory (a "cottage", "tea-room"), or cruising for sexual partners with the intention of having sex elsewhere.)

The charge was made by the Conservative London Assembly member Brian Coleman in an online column for the New Statesman. According to the Mirror, Mr. Coleman says it was "common knowledge" that Sir Edward had sex with men in public toilets, and only stopped when he was warned it would affect his political career.

The Mirror, which headlines the story Hampstead Heath, says friends of the former prime minister regard the allegations as "scandalous".

*****

The Anglican Church of Southern Africa spun off two Portuguese speaking dioceses into a new province, it was announced this week. The ACSA celebrated its 150th anniversary as a Province of the Anglican Communion with the news that dioceses in Angola and Mozambique are planning to "multiply", with plans eventually to form a new Province.

Since Portuguese is an official language in both countries, such a development would create the Communion's second Lusophone province, after the Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil. (The Lusitanian Church in Portugal is an extraprovincial diocese under the metropolitical authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury.)

There are at present four dioceses in the two countries: one covering the whole of Angola, and three -- Lebombo, Niassa and Nampula -- in Mozambique.

A communique released after the February session of the Synod of Bishops said that after a comprehensive overview of these "vast" dioceses, "the vision to multiply the number of Dioceses in Angola and Mozambique was motivated with conviction."

The communique added that the plea for expanding the number of dioceses "was enthusiastically received and endorsed by us. In time it is envisaged that growing the number of Dioceses in both areas will enable them to apply to form a united new Province."

ACSA was formed as the Church of the Province of South Africa in 1870.

IN other news, The Ven Joshua Louw, Archdeacon of the Waterfront in Cape Town, has been elected the new Bishop-elect of Table Bay, in the liberal province of Southern Africa.

Bishop-elect Louw was chosen on the third ballot in an Electoral College for the Diocese of Cape Town, held at the Synod of Bishops in Gauteng. The Bishops considered seven candidates for election, four of them women.

*****

In the Diocese of Western Massachusetts, a priest, the Rev. Gregory Lisby, pled guilty to child pornography possession, coupled with an abuse allegation.

Lisby had been living with his husband, then the rector of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Worcester, in the church's rectory with their two children when the FBI found nearly 200 images and videos of child pornography in a Microsoft account Lisby used, according to court records.

The Living Church updated the story this week with questions from a woman who wanted to know how Lisby came in 2019 to teach kindergarten at Morgan Elementary School where her four grandchildren are enrolled.

Lisby stunned the school community six days into the job last September by resigning at 2:30 A.M. with a note explaining: "I've been accused of an awful crime." Federal agents had raided his home, found a cache of illicit material and charged him with child porn possession. In February, Lisby pled guilty. He awaits sentencing, which could bring up to 20 years in prison.

Now DeJesus wants to understand why the Holyoke School District hired him. He'd lost his job as rector of All Saints Episcopal Church in Worcester after a 2018 investigation found he'd violated boundaries and had an inappropriate relationship. To be restored to good standing in the priesthood, he would have needed to petition Western Massachusetts Bishop Douglas Fisher after serving his two-year suspension.

She's also asking why that same Title IV disciplinary investigation didn't uncover more about Lisby's past. "Devastating credible evidence" that Lisby sexually abused a teenager has since come to light, according to the Rt. Rev. Fisher, but that evidence only turned up after the criminal probe began. Lisby's attorney, Timothy Watkins, did not respond to request for comment on the sex abuse allegation.

"Why didn't [the church] just keep on with the investigation and find out what was going on?" DeJesus said as she picked up her grandchildren at school a few days after the sex abuse allegation was announced. "Keep on track, you know? I mean, he comes to work in the public school system after you were already checking him in your church. Why let him keep on with what he was doing?"

At this point, the book on Lisby is far from closed. The Hampden County District Attorney could still bring charges of sexual abuse if a grand jury were to indict him. More accusations could potentially be passed along to law enforcement if any should surface in the current Title IV proceeding, which Fisher launched in February to have Lisby defrocked, or permanently removed from ordained ministry. The Holyoke School District has received no reports of Lisby harming any children during his brief tenure as a teacher, according to Taylor.

*****

The Diocese of Oregon announced a slate of candidates for XI bishop this week and lo and behold a daughter of lesbos is in the running. The "married" lesbian is The Rev. Canon Tanya R. Wallace, Rector, All Saints' Episcopal Church (Hadley, MA). She is one of three females who want the position. There is of course one token straight white male The Rev. Andrew T. O'Connor, Rector, Good Shepherd Episcopal Church (Wichita, KS). The odds of him getting it, well you can guess. The deeper truth is that having a homosexual or lesbian Episcopal bishop is now almost passe, nobody cares.

*****

CANADA NEWS. David of Samizdat, an orthodox Anglican blogger in Canada, writes about an Islamic call to pray in Vancouver's Christ Church Cathedral.

"No doubt about it, the Cathedral clerics are practicing for the year 2040 when, according to recent projections, the Anglican Church of Canada will cease to exist. Something will take its place and it will probably be Islam, so the church might as well get a head start and turn the cathedral into a mosque now."

The event was billed as an attempt to "improve interfaith understanding and constructive engagement".

Here is the Islamic call to prayer which, you will not be surprised to see, makes no mention of Jesus but makes much of Muhammad being the messenger of God, a contention which, if true, makes nonsense of Christianity.

God is Great! God is Great! God is Great! God is Great!
I bear witness that there is no god except the One God.
I bear witness that there is no god except the One God.
I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of God.
I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of God.
Hurry to the prayer. Hurry to the prayer.
Hurry to salvation. Hurry to salvation.
God is Great! God is Great!
There is no god except the One God.

"The Muslims attending the event were there to explain Jesus to the Christians who attended. An odd choice considering that Islam teaches that Jesus did not die on the cross, was not resurrected, was not the Son of God and did not make atonement for the sins of the world."

Trash Wednesday. There is something about Ash Wednesday that brings out the worst in those Canadian Anglican panjandra who are desperate to create a spurious aura of relevance in a culture that has no use for them.

Here we have Ashes to Go from the Diocese of Toronto, brought to you by three McDonald's ex-employees who found their way into the Anglican priesthood to continue their fast food vocation in another form:

Instead of ash, the service used fake oil. "Like ash we are using oil, made from dead matter, as a symbol of mortality and of our struggle to live more compassionate lives."

Finally, this. Christ Church Anglican to conduct same-sex marriages. The rector, one Rev. Yme Woensdregt of Christ Church Anglican in the Diocese of Kootenay, thinks this is "quite wonderful" whereas, in reality for today's Canadian Anglican church, it is rather common-place and mundane. There is no wonder in it at all.

What is interesting about it is that it is billed as same-gender marriage, not same-sex marriage. Sex is, of course, determined by chromosomes but gender, we are told, is a social construct. The church has already moved on -- as I knew it would -- from same-sex marriage to the marriage of a biological man who identifies as a woman and a biological woman who identifies as a man. Or any possible permutation thereof. If you are not confused yet, I expect you soon will be when the ACoC concocts its next yet more inclusive and improved marriage menage.

And you thought that TEC had the corner on theological and moral insanity. Well no, it shares that honor with the Anglican Church of Canada.

*****

My hot selling book THE SEDUCTION OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH is available from Amazon, or, if you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to VOL, I will send you an autographed copy.

Your donation will assist me in keeping the news coming to you. We are the main source globally of news for orthodox Anglicans.

The money will not line my pocket, but will allow me to send copies to Global South bishops who would not otherwise be able to obtain a copy. My hope is to put this book in the hands of every bishop in the Anglican Communion so they will never again be fooled by anything a sitting Presiding Bishop says about The Episcopal Church. This book represents nearly three decades of reporting. I hope you will buy it.

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

You can also make a payment at this link: https://give.virtueonline.org

Please don't forget to add your return address.

All blessings,

David

PS. Don't forget you can view my new video broadcasts at VIRTUEONLINE'S Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/virtueonline

This is a strong and definite judgment because the world has been arrogant in going its own way. We are reaping the consequences of our moral degradation, as well as the environmental damage that we have caused. . . . We are in serious moral trouble because every type of lifestyle is now regarded as legitimate. . . . Our government has been playing the role of God in saying that people are free to act as they want. . . The Sexual Orientation Regulations [which came into force in April 2007] are part of a general scene of permissiveness. We are in a situation where we are liable for God's judgment, which is intended to call us to repentance. --- The Telegraph

I fear anyone who dissents from today's pervasive culture of political correctness will be visited by the Thought Police... so, how long until anyone who writes an article like this is dragged away in handcuffs? --- Peter Hitchens

We moderns think we control Nature, and have beaten death back to the margins. Nature -- and history -- would like to have a word with us --- Rod Dreher

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
March 20, 2020

An old preacher once said to me, ere he departed this life; "Hold onto the things of this world lightly." It is sound advice that I have taken and maintained over many decades albeit not easily. We came into this world with nothing and we will just as surely leave it...with nothing.

Tough words as you watch your 401k's take a nose dive these past weeks. But God never promised us a rose garden or a bountiful bank balance. Jesus was clear, "give us this day our daily bread" and by all accounts, for many, it is coming to that.

Most of you reading this have more than your "daily bread", but you, like me, must admit that we have been thrown for a loop, as shops, restaurants and other haunts we have known for years have suddenly closed.

The streets of Philadelphia, the sixth largest city in America where I live, are eerily empty, as theaters, stores and restaurants once bustling with people are closed and we are forced to pick up "take-out" that was not our first choice...and wait in line for it.

Small businesses are taking the brunt of the coronavirus storm I am told. I spoke with a part time Anglican priest who runs a shop fixing computers and all things technological, but he can't get parts from China because of COVID-19. He has six Christian employees who depend on him for salaries, but now that is in jeopardy. Give us this day our daily bread starts to ring eerily true.

"Be anxious for nothing..." said St. Paul. Easier said than done especially when you have a family of six to feed. Will I be laid off, if so, what happens when the regular pay check is no longer there? Be anxious for nothing...really. Dependency is not something Americans do well at. Americans are raised to be "rugged individualists," the John Wayne, Marlboro Man mentality. You can make it on your own and grow rich if you just try hard enough, work harder and obey all the rules...and then along comes a virus that reshapes all our lives.

We need each other. My wife and I live with our old dog in a condo complex on the Delaware River and our immediate neighbors include a wonderful Jewish couple on one side of us and a homosexual couple on the other side. We are all friends and support each other. I love Anne's Jewish apple cakes and sometimes we sit outside and drink wine together. That's community. I am also on the Vestry of my church and I stay in touch with other members almost daily. Contact is important.

You give up if you want to give up. With all the electronic toys at our disposal, staying in touch now is better and easier than at any time in history. I recently reconnected with an old evangelical Presbyterian minister I knew 40 years ago. He is 105 and lives quietly alone in Florida, having outlived his wife. I send him stories I write, especially my satirical essays. He appreciates getting emails. Perfect? Not in the least, but we could not have done that 25 years ago. He told me the other day that he is circling the airport and expects to land sometime soon. I know what he means.

We are forced, because we are all stay-at-homes right now, to either interact with our neighbors, even if six feet apart, or hunker down and hope we don't go crazy, drink too much and contemplate suicide as a way out of the loneliness. Yes, Christians do take their lives, sad as it maybe. (Please don't rake me over the coals and engage me in the theology of suicide, I am not up for it for right now.)

A priest sent the following video which I think is sound advice. Taking Vitamin D3, based on a metadata analysis, lowers the chance of getting a viral infection by 70%. Western societies are historically lacking in Vitamin D3 which is critical to our immune system. You can produce it by sun exposure (where the weather permits) on as much of your body as the "law allows" or, better, via supplementation. Dr Campbell (a British nurse with a PhD) also put out this helpful video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5yVGmfivAk. Perhaps this will assist someone. It is not a cure. There is none. And please don't buy into the chloroquine talk that it is a cure. The drug has been around since the 1940s and is known for being generally safe and well tolerated in mild to moderate doses, although it can be toxic in high doses. It was used for Malaria and I once took a dose after spending time in Africa. It, too, is not a cure.

*****

I have posted a major article on the shutdown of entire Anglican Communion and how provinces and diocese are coping, which you can see here: https://virtueonline.org/anglican-communion-shuts-down-over-coronavirus-pandemic

But here is what Anglicans are doing in Kenya. From VOL's African correspondent; The Anglican community in Kenya has started praying for 10 minutes daily that almighty God helps them to defeat coronavirus. They pray from home or wherever they are starting at 8:00 AM.

This came into effect after the Anglican Churches in Kenya suspended all physical services for 30 days in line with government's directive to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the country. The church also directed its members to worship from their homes as families, using the Morning Prayer Book, but cautioned the gathering should not attract large groups.

Not bad advice.

*****

Do you sense that something is missing in the churches' response to the coronavirus? No one can fault them for ignoring the dangers of spreading the virus: bishop after bishop has taken the difficult decision to suspend public worship, and offered sensible advice about precautionary measures their flocks can take. And, in many cases, that's about it. Indeed, many church leaders, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, sound more like health and safety officers than the successors to the apostles, writes Damian Thompson.

Dr. Gavin Ashenden, a former Anglican turned Roman Catholic, argues that the [Church of England's] bishop's attitude of 'wash your hands and be nice' reflects the churches' polite surrender to secularization -- but suggests that ordinary believers now have the opportunity to show the public what Christianity really looks like. The coronavirus, dreadful though it is, could mark a turning point -- one that leads to a religious revival in which the old breed of bishop-bureaucrat gives way to more inspiring leadership. One can but hope.
We are seeing reformation in the Anglican communion, but not necessarily revival. One could be a prerequisite for the other. Reformation includes the birth of the ACNA and GAFCON, though one doubts that PB Michael Curry or Archbishop Justin Welby sees it that way. Revival is a spontaneous outpouring of the Holy Spirit when we least expect it. This cannot be manufactured by calling for "revival weekends" or "Holy Spirit weekends". God does not come at our bidding; it is His timing not ours. IF revival comes, it will come from the bottom up, not top down. Few bishops are humble enough to let God work that way, it spoils their orderliness and dress ups.

*****

Nigeria has become a 'killing field of defenseless Christians.' At least 350 Christians have been killed in Nigeria since the start of 2020, according to a new report.

The Nigerian-based International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law - or Intersociety, as it is also known - estimates that around 11,500 Christians have been killed in the country since 2015 "when the present central government of Nigeria came on board".

Out of this figure, it attributes 7,400 deaths to militant Fulani herdsmen and 4,000 to the Boko Haram terrorist group.

The bloodshed by Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen is mainly affecting the north of the country.

Boko Haram splinter group, the Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP), has also been responsible for a string of deadly attacks and the execution of a pastor in recent months.

"Generally, many, if not most of the victims of Boko Haram/ISWAP attacks in Nigeria's Northeast are Christians," it said.

Other Christians, the report said, were falling victim to roadside attacks by bandits and "highway kidnappers".

Last year, Intersociety said that at least 1,000 Christians had been killed by Fulani herdsmen in 2019 and at least 2,400 the previous year.

It estimates that at least 20 clergymen have been murdered and another 50 abducted since 2015, while at least 2,000 churches and Christian worship centers have been targeted in arson attacks, with Fulani herdsmen being responsible for about 1,500 of these, and Boko Haram 500.

"Nigeria has fully become a killing field of defenseless Christians," Intersociety said.

*****

The Church of Ireland has a new Primate. He is the Bishop of Clogher, John McDowell, elected Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland. The Archbishop-elect was chosen by the Church of Ireland's House of Bishops to succeed Archbishop Richard Clarke, who retired in February. The translation will take effect on Tuesday April 28; but the date of his enthronement has not yet been announced. Bishop John will become the 106th in the succession of abbots, bishops and archbishops of Armagh since Saint Patrick. The Church of Ireland is an all-island institution, serving dioceses in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Bishop John grew up in Belfast and pursued a career in business prior to training for ordination. He was ordained in 1996 and initially served as Curate of Antrim from 1996 before becoming Rector of Ballyrashane in 1999. Both parishes are in the Diocese of Connor. In 2002, he moved to the Diocese of Down and Dromore to become Rector of St Mark's, Dundela. While there he also served as Honorary Secretary of the Province's General Synod and became the Church of Ireland's contact person for the Porvoo Communion -- an ecumenical partnership of Anglican and Lutheran Churches in Europe which share a common life in mission and service. He is Chairman of the Church of Ireland's Commission for Christian Unity and Dialogue.

Sources tell VOL that he is a team player and won't rock the ecclesial boat. "He is a good committee man."

The Church of Ireland has two internal provinces. The Archbishop of Dublin, Michael Jackson, is the Primate of Ireland. The Primate of All Ireland is a title held by the Archbishop of Armagh.

*****

The Standing Committee of the Anglican Diocese of the Great Lakes has announced The Rt. Rev. Grant LaMarquand will serve as Temporary Bishop of the Diocese.

Last week, the Diocese announced that the Rt. Rev. John Miller, who had been serving as Temporary Bishop of the Diocese since November, needed to resign for health reasons. The process for selecting the next bishop of the Great Lakes is getting underway, but Bishop LaMarquand will provide support to the Standing Committee and the Diocese in the interim.

*****

Bishop Steve Wood, rector of the prominent St. Andrew's Church, has tested positive for the coronavirus and been admitted to an ICU at East Cooper Medical Center. Wood, who also presides over the Anglican Church in North America's Diocese of the Carolinas, has been placed on a ventilator. Church leaders noted that being on the machine gives Wood, who is 56, "a boost in fighting off the virus."

The Rev. Anthony Kowbeidu, St. Andrew's associate rector for missions, tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this week. He is showing no symptoms, according to the Post and Courier.

Wood's diagnosis comes just days after St. Andrew's, which has more than 2,000 members, hosted six Sunday worship services.

*****

The first woman consecrated a bishop in the Anglican Communion died at the age of 89 this week. Episcopal Bishop Barbara C. Harris served as bishop suffragan in the Diocese of Massachusetts from 1989 to 2002. Harris, an African-American, devoted decades to supporting social justice causes. According to the Episcopal Archives, she was with the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., in one of the 1965 marches on the Edmund Pettus Bridge outside Selma, Alabama, and she served as crucifer at the unauthorized ordination of 11 women in Philadelphia in 1974. She stood in the revisionist camp and hated orthodoxy.

Her most memorable lines, and one that she will be remembered for, is one she delivered at the 1998 Lambeth Conference where she was so miserable about the presence of so many orthodox bishops. She famously said, "If a**holes had wings, this place would be an airport." It was also at Lambeth that she announced that the African bishops had been bought off with "chicken dinners." Had anyone else used such a racial stereotype, Ms. Harris would have howled with outrage. But Black on Black stereotyping was apparently acceptable.

My perspective on her can be found here: https://virtueonline.org/legacy-barbara-harris-if-aholes-had-wings-lambeth-1998

*****

Will Average Sunday Attendance (ASA) in The Episcopal Church take a nose dive with the conoravirus? Yes, but don't worry. Virtual services will count says the Rev. Canon Michael Barlowe, Executive Officer of the General Convention.

Many churches are holding services online, and that practice will grow quickly. Platforms such as Facebook Live, YouTube, Zoom and others all offer different ways to measure viewership. There have been lively discussions on Facebook groups and elsewhere about how churches should keep track of attendance and participation during the pandemic, he said. H/T The Living Church

*****

Seven African Archbishops including Lord Carey are appealing for help to combat a locust plague. Ravenous locust swarms, originating in Oman, have swept across East Africa, with devastating impact. Now it is spreading east to Iran and Pakistan. Thousands of Kenyan Christians facing food shortages in the badly hit Pokot region have just sent out an urgent call. Uganda is also badly hit.

Lord Carey, Archbishops Stanley Ntagali (former APB of Uganda), Stephen Kaziimba (Uganda), Jackson Ole Sapit (Kenya), Masimango Katanda (Congo), Laurent Mbanda, (Rwanda) and Benjamin Kwashi (Jos Nigeria) have issued an appeal for help.

These leaders are pleading for help for thousands of already marginalized and persecuted Anglican Christians who are among those facing severe food shortages as vast swarms of desert locusts caused catastrophic loss to crops. The ravenous swarms are sweeping across East Africa with devastating impact on countries including Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan. Tanzania and Uganda. The UN has warned the region is on the verge of a food crisis.

Anglican Archbishops and bishops from the region and from Pakistan are uniting with Barnabas Fund in our appeal to brothers and sisters worldwide. We urgently need your gifts to save the lives of many thousands.

Please help our brothers and sisters if you can. But, above all, remember them in your prayers. You can help here:

SAVING GOD'S PEOPLE FROM STARVATION

Barnabas Fund Easter Appeal

£8/$10* could provide 15kg of wheat in Ethiopia

£15/$19* could provide 30kg of rice in Pakistan

£6/$8* could provide 20kg of maize in Kenya

*Costs and specific needs can vary between countries and/or regions.

https://barnabasfund.org/en/appeals/save-gods-people-from-starvation-%E2%80%93-plague-of-locusts-devastating-crops-in-africa-and-asia

For another take on this issue click here:
file:///C:/Users/David/Downloads/Easter-Appeal-Letter-2020-Anglican-Mainstream%20(1).pdf

*****

To Lambeth or not to Lambeth, that is the question. A source in England told VOL that the Lambeth Conference will be cancelled owing to the coronavirus. GAFCON chairman Foley Beach said the upcoming conference in Kigali, Rwanda has now been cancelled.

*****

If you have a funny bone and enjoy satire you can read my latest here: https://virtueonline.org/god-says-coronavirus-meant-empty-churches-nominal-christians
GOD SAYS CORONAVIRUS MEANT TO EMPTY CHURCHES OF NOMINAL CHRISTIANS

In a universal press release delivered by the Holy Spirit on the Mount of Olives, God said that He has allowed the Coronavirus as a wakeup call that he hates lukewarm so-called "Christians" and would prefer people to be either hot or cold.

"No, I didn't will it, but I am allowing it, to wake people up that nominalism is the biggest sin in this day and age. If you think generic Mass Eucharists to people who don't really believe in their hearts to what my Son did on the cross, then I am done with them and they can die in their sin."

Click here: https://virtueonline.org/god-says-coronavirus-meant-empty-churches-nominal-christians

*****

My hot selling book THE SEDUCTION OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH is available from Amazon, or, if you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to VOL, I will send you an autographed copy.

Your donation will assist me in keeping the news coming to you. We are the main source globally of news for orthodox Anglicans.

The money will not line my pocket, but will allow me to send copies to Global South bishops who would not otherwise be able to obtain a copy. My hope is to put this book in the hands of every bishop in the Anglican Communion so they will never again be fooled by anything a sitting Presiding Bishop says about The Episcopal Church. This book represents nearly three decades of reporting. I hope you will buy it.

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

You can also make a payment at this link: https://give.virtueonline.org

Please don't forget to add your return address.
If you have paid for a copy and have not received it please drop me a line and let me know.

All blessings,

David

PS. Don't forget you can view my new video broadcasts at VIRTUEONLINE'S Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/virtueonline

There is a demonic side to the sentimentalism of saving lives at any cost. Satan rules a kingdom in which the ultimate power of death is announced morning, noon, and night. But Satan cannot rule directly. God alone has the power of life and death, and thus Satan can only rule indirectly. He must rely on our fear of death. --- R.R. Reno

It may well be that the church is called to be a counter-cultural community in the face of the modern tyranny of management and the almighty dollar, showing people by way of our oddly nonproductive insistence on setting aside time for prayer, Scripture, and Sabbath that what God has already achieved for us in Christ and already given us in creation is of far greater importance than what we can achieve by becoming our most productive and efficient selves. --- Jordan Hylden

Fear of death and causing death is pervasive--stoked by a materialistic view of survival at any price and unchecked by Christian leaders who in all likelihood secretly accept the materialist assumptions of our age. As long as we allow fear to reign, it will cause nearly all believers to fail to do as Christ commands in Matthew 25. It already is. --- R.R. Reno

The State has no right to determine whether religious assemblies constitute an "essential service" in the midst of a pandemic, much less the right to arrest pastors for gathering their flock. The first line of the First Amendment makes that absolutely clear. This is all the more obvious when the State declares abortion an "essential service." The State can issue a strong advisory for churches not to assemble regularly. Churches that assemble can be subject to criticism by the State, the general public, and other churches. But the State cannot order churches to stop assembling, much less arrest pastors for assembling, without violating the First Amendment right to "free exercise" of religion. If you don't know that, then our major problem is not the virus. I'm shocked that so many Evangelical leaders seem not to know this. --- Robert A. J. Gagnon

Up to the present in the UK, there appears to be little by way of answers from our spiritual leaders as to the significance of the tragic events which are unfolding every day. The Episcopal Bench, too, has remained strangely silent just at the time when a strong spiritual lead is needed. -- Archbishop Cranmer Blog

Dear Brothers and sisters.
www.virtueonline.org
April 3, 2020

ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach shared this word with his clergy this week. It was passed along to him by Archbishop Wong of the Province of the Indian Ocean:

In three short months, just like He did with the plagues of Egypt, God has taken away everything we worship. God said, "you want to worship athletes, I will shut down the stadiums. You want to worship musicians, I will shut down Civic Centers. You want to worship actors, I will shut down theaters. You want to worship money, I will shut down the economy and collapse the stock market. You don't want to go to church and worship Me, I will make it where you can't go to church."
"If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7.14

*****

I have no wish to be morbid about this virus, but there are a few things you might consider as you face the possibility of death.

• Confess your sins. Admit your shortcomings and idolatry, how we have placed so many other things before God in our hearts and lives.
• Put your faith in Jesus. Salvation is found nowhere else. Turn to Jesus and accept his gift of forgiveness.
• Repair your relationships. Reconciliation and forgiveness are hallmarks of Jesus' kingdom. Followers of Jesus should display these essential virtues as Our Lord did.
• Pray. Use this as a season to learn to pray more deeply. Use the prayer book (especially Morning, Mid-day, and Evening Prayer). These services are available for free online at www.dailyoffice2019.com. Set aside time every day to be alone and pray. Verbalize your personal prayers from your heart. Pray with your spouse. Pray with your children. Pray with your church family when you call each other. Pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17).
• Worship: Make weekly worship an absolutely essential part of your life.
• Read the Bible: You likely have more time available than you thought you'd have. One man I know who is working from home now said that with the removal of his daily commute, he now has 3 hours more time available each day. Redeem that time by reading and studying God's Word.

*****

THE CORONAVIRUS is affecting all our lives, our churches, our ways of doing business. It has thrown everything up in the air and it is crashing down on us in different ways. The one consistent thing is that we are all being forced to stay at home with few exceptions.

There are mixed results with that. The single biggest issue for single people is loneliness. There is a growing body of evidence that suicide is on the increase. Loneliness for old people is devastating. I am told there is more domestic violence, more drinking and more people (two million) stupidly buying guns, thinking perhaps they might need to shoot their neighbors for toilet paper. The NRA is scaring people into believing the government is coming for their guns. Bearing in mind that the government can't find enough ventilators or face masks for health and medical workers, it demonstrates just how stupid this argument is.

On the Church front, it is mixed results. 93 percent of America's churches have
stopped meeting, American pastors and priests have opted to close their churches and using social media to stay in touch with their flocks. A couple of pastors have defied this and have faced arrest and fines.

Ironically, the Church of England with its close ties to the state has the most outraged number of priests who believe they should be allowed to open their church doors to the faithful.

I have written a piece in which I believe small churches will do better than large or mega churches during this national crisis. Social media through Zoom, Facetime, Skype, email and more is making it possible to stay in touch. My wife and I now do compline online a couple of days a week with families in our church. We never did that before. What will kill off mainline denominations is nominalism. The pray, pay and obey crowd will ask themselves, why bother with church. There's always a silver lining. You can read more about this here: https://virtueonline.org/church-good-news-and-bad-news-about-coronavirus

One serious question that hovers over all our heads, specifically Christian heads, is this: Is the Coronavirus a Divine Judgment? I have posted two stories on this heady topic. Dr. David Kyle Foster of Mastering Life Ministries says that from Exodus to Revelation it is clear that God does indeed send plagues and disasters upon the earth - which begs the question: Is today's coronavirus pandemic one of them? Foster cities numerous biblical texts, including Exodus 9:14, "I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth." Strong stuff. Then he cites this: "You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains." (Matthew 24:6-8)

Birth Pang? Is the current pandemic one of the birth pains that presage the soon return of Our Lord? And is it Jesus who will be the final judge? You can read David's fine piece here: https://virtueonline.org/coronavirus-divine-judgment

Another perspective is that of theologian N. T. Wright who believes that the Virus has nothing to do with judgement or even God. He said, "Christianity Offers No Answers About the Coronavirus. It's Not Supposed To, he said", in an Op-ed piece in TIME magazine.

"No doubt the usual silly suspects will tell us why God is doing this to us. A punishment? A warning? A sign? These are knee-jerk would-be Christian reactions in a culture which, generations back, embraced rationalism: everything must have an explanation. But supposing it doesn't? Supposing real human wisdom doesn't mean being able to string together some dodgy speculations and say, "So that's all right then?" What if, after all, there are moments such as T. S. Eliot recognized in the early 1940s, when the only advice is to wait without hope, because we'd be hoping for the wrong thing?

Wright got taken to task by another theologian Owen Strachan, who wrote a response that "NT Wright Is Wrong: Hope in a Time of Pandemic".

"How striking that Wright speaks against both hope and rationality (in a biblical sense) in his essay. Truly, he ends up with neither; that is, we come away from his article neither gripped with the force of resurrection hope nor struck by the beauty of the true and defensible gospel of grace. Instead, we are left pondering that God laments evil and suffering yet does so without fullness of knowledge or power."

You can read both stories here: https://virtueonline.org/christianity-offers-no-answers-about-coronavirus-its-not-supposed

VOL's resident theologian Roger Salter has come out with a scathing response to Wright's piece. You can read it here: https://virtueonline.org/problem-nt-wright

*****

CORONAVIRUS NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

JERUSALEM -- Israel is working with foreign governments and Orthodox Christian leaders in the Holy Land to make sure that one of their most ancient and mysterious rituals -- the Holy Fire ceremony -- is not extinguished by the coronavirus outbreak, officials said Friday.

Each year, thousands of worshippers' flock to Jerusalem's Old City and pack into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre -- built on the site where Christian tradition holds that Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected -- for the pre-Easter ceremony.

The Church of England is offering a cash package to help dioceses. They said that stipends are 'absolutely not' at risk. About £75 million has been made available in short-term liquidity funding for dioceses and cathedrals struggling with their finances owing to the coronavirus.

The Church Commissioners and Archbishops' Council last week agreed to a package of measures to help parts of the Church of England whose income had collapsed during the pandemic and associated shutdown.

In addition, the National Heritage Lottery Fund announced on Wednesday that it was making an additional £50 million available to support heritage projects jeopardized by the pandemic.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is urging people to follow social distancing rules so they can "have the mother and father of all parties" at the end of the coronavirus crisis. He told anyone who is breaking the rules on social distancing to "get your act together". He added the crisis has caused a surge in attendances to online services with "ten times" as many logging on than those who turned up in person at church.

Here is List of articles updated regularly courtesy of Anglican Mainstream:
What does the Bible teach about quarantine? by Scott Brown, Christian Post
Coronavirus: Easter egg crackdown over essential status 'wrong', BBC News
Christians and Pandemics through the Ages (260, 1347, 1665,...2020), by Matthew Payne, Australian Church Record
When coronavirus comes to persecuted Christians--and how you can pray, from Open Doors
Vicar blasts famous Christian hymn down London street and leads those in lockdown in the Lord's Prayer, by Cara Bentley, Premier
The Judgment of God and the COVID-19 Virus, by Bruce Atkinson, VirtueOnline
Our prayers against coronavirus are being answered in amazing ways but one essential element is still missing by Peter Saunders, Christian Medical Fellowship
Watch: COVID-19 Pride? Dr Frederik Mulder
Being housebound by coronavirus is a price that I am willing to pay by Gavin Ashenden (scroll down)
Anger, boredom, fear -- and their antidote, by Andrew Symes, Anglican Mainstream
Living in the unwelcome land of Covid-19: J John, writing in CEN, seeks comfort from Martin Luther in the alien environment of 'Covidia'.
What South Korean Christians Want You to Know About Coronavirus, by Steve Chang, The Gospel Coalition [the TGC website has a number of excellent articles, too many to reproduce here -- Ed.]
How to Flourish During the Coronavirus Pandemic: Research from the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard by Tyler VanderWeele, Public Discourse
When you can do 'social distancing' and still bring the love of Christ by Canon Phil Ashey, AAC
Coronavirus -- responding like Jesus by Steve Fouch, CMF
Faith in a Time of Crisis by Bill Muehenberg, CultureWatch
A different perspective from Philip Giddings, Anglican Mainstream
Anglican Unscripted 586 -- is God smiting?
Anglican Unscripted 585 -- The Church has Left the Building
Coronavirus and Communion by Marc Lloyd, Church Society
COVID-19 -- What does the Bible say about epidemics? Some uncomfortable truths by Peter Saunders, Christian Medical Fellowship
Prayer guide for coronavirus, Christian Concern
Pandemic panic: Where is God in our current crisis? by Kurt Mahlburg, MercatorNet
9 Ways to Love Your Neighbor in This Pandemic, TGC
Just 5 people allowed at church weddings (including bride and groom) during coronavirus outbreak by Marcus Jones, Premier
Anglican Unscripted 584 -- COVID-19 & The Wine & The Bread
How to view enforced withdrawal from life by Archbishop Cranmer
Call to Fasting and Prayer by Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali
What will the world look like after the coronavirus panic ends? by Jonathon Van Maren, LifeSite
Coronavirus crisis proves we live in a godless society and need Jesus more than ever by John Horvat II, LifeSite
Coronavirus: Archbishops call for national day of prayer and action
The Humbling of Civilization: Praying for the Mercy of God by Albert Mohler
Praying for Britain: the history of national days of prayer, from History Extra
Responding to pandemics: four lessons from church history, by Glen Scrivener, The Gospel Coalition
Coronavirus and the fear of death by Jeremy Marshall, Psephizo
Coronavirus, Christianity, history and faith, by Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
What C.S. Lewis and Martin Luther Would Say About Our Coronavirus Panic by Tre Goins-Phillips, Faithwire
Three Bible passages to replace fear of coronavirus with hope in God by David Robertson, theweeflea
A Letter From Archbishop Beach re COVID-19
Anglican Unscripted 582 -- CoronaVirus Crisis in the Church (video)
Should Christians Be Anxious About the Coronavirus? by Todd Wagner, The Gospel Coalition
Taking Church Online in a Coronavirus Age by Jay Kim, The Gospel Coalition
The FAQs: Coronavirus Explained by an Infectious Disease Expert and Pastor by Miguel Núñez, The Gospel Coalition
How Christians Can Respond To A World Anxious About Wuhan Coronavirus by Daniel Torkelson, The Federalist
Responding faithfully to the Coronavirus, by Ian Paul, Psephizo:
Coping with Coronavirus: How Should Christians Respond? by Tony Perkins, FRC
Coronavirus -- the Bad News and the Good News..Facts and Fears by David Robertson, theweeflea
Anglican Unscripted 581 -- Corona Virus (video with Kevin Kallsen, George Conger and Gavin Ashenden)
Read also: Coronavirus: finding meaning in a global pandemic by Archbishop Cranmer
The Political Effects Of Cataclysm by Rod Dreher, The American Conservative

*****

IN OTHER NEWS, Bishop Steve Wood of the Anglican Diocese of the Carolinas continues to heal. He has gone home. The doctors were pleased with his progress and that he was discharged Friday. People are asked to pray for his continued healing and continuing strength.

*****

The Board of Inquiry of the ACNA has determined that there is probable cause for canonical charges against The Rt. Rev. Ronald Jackson to be brought to an ecclesiastical trial.

In November of 2019, as the Archbishop's Office looked into information that had been brought forward, Jackson, then Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of the Great Lakes, went on administrative leave to ensure the integrity of an investigation and allow for due canonical process.

The Board of Inquiry did not find evidence that any criminal or civil laws had been broken. However, the Board of Inquiry has unanimously determined that there is probable cause for the accused to be brought to ecclesiastical trial regarding:

1. Sexual Immorality (Canon IV.2(6)).
2. Conduct giving just cause for scandal or offense (Canon IV.2(4)).
3. Willful refusal to follow a lawful Godly Admonition (Canon IV.2(12)).
4. Violation of ordination and consecration vows of true and canonical obedience to the Archbishop (Canon IV.2(3)).

*****

The Rt. Rev. Grant LeMarquand has been appointed Interim Bishop of the Diocese of the Great Lakes. At the request of Archbishop Foley Beach and the College of Bishops of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), Dr. LeMarquand, TSM's professor of missions and director of the Stanway Institute for World Mission and Evangelism, has been asked to take on episcopal responsibilities for the Anglican diocese. This is a temporary, part time position until a new bishop for that diocese can be elected in the fall of this year and, God willing, consecrated in early 2021.

The Diocese of the Great Lakes has parishes in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Michigan. Bishop John Miller (a Trinity School for Ministry graduate) had been the temporary bishop for some months but has had to step down also for health reasons.

*****

I heard it on good authority that 78-year old Bishop Richard Lipka was elected Co-Adjutor of the Diocese of All Saints (ACNA) to succeed Bishop William Ilgenfritz. Apparently, a letter was sent to all lay delegates to their Synod and to all clergy of the Diocese.

*****

In response to the continuing health crisis generated by the Coronavirus, the faculty of Trinity School for Ministry announces that it will offer its June
InterTerm 2020 courses in an online format, insofar as that is feasible for individual instructors and courses. All June InterTerm non-credit courses and June InterTerm events have been canceled. However, some of the regular for-credit courses, again, will be offered online. The courses which are still being offered will open for registration on Monday, April 6, 2020. Registration will end on May 22, 2020. The professors of those courses will contact registered students regarding course formats and requirements in due course. In addition, the Ancient Evangelical Future Conference (AEF) that was to be held at Trinity School for Ministry beginning on June 4th has been canceled. Next year's AEF conference will take place June 10-11, 2021.

*****

The Church of England launched first LGBTI chaplaincy service to make Christianity a 'safe space for all'. The chaplaincy service - which volunteers claim provides a 'lifeline' for some congregants - marks the first scheme of its kind
The scheme, backed by the Bishop of Oxford, was launched two months ago and offers special monthly services for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender congregants at Christchurch Cathedral.

A press release said the chaplaincy service, based in the Diocese of Oxford, features eight voluntary chaplains offering support to members of the LGBTI community in the form of a cup of coffee, a walk, or just someone to confide in so as to " serve people who have not been well-served by the church".

*****

Two homosexual Anglican priests got married in South Africa this week. According to Instinct magazine, Paul Mwaura, a South African pastor of an Anglican Church, got married to John Maierepi, a Kenyan Anglican priest. The wedding ceremony was held in South Africa with Mwaura's church members in attendance. Mwaura's and Maierepi's wedding was covered by several anti-LGBTQ religious news sources such as Reformation Charlotte and Benin Web News TV.

The Anglican Church of Southern Africa is the most liberal province on the African continent. It has been vigorously supported by the American Episcopal church for many years. The full onslaught of modernity has yet to hit Africa; this is just the beginning.

*****

As you all know, GAFCON in Kigali and the Lambeth Conference have both been cancelled owing the spread of COVID-19. Both will hold their gatherings sometime in 2021.

One can't but imagine that Archbishop Welby is not breathing a sigh of relief. He won't have to explain to whatever orthodox bishops show up why he did not pressure those involved to shut down the Queer eucharist planned just before the opening bell.

*****

Christians across the United States gathered outside hospitals this week to pray for medical staff and their patients during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Many gathered outside hospitals in Albany, Georgia; Kissimmee, Florida; and Alexander City, Alabama, among other cities. "The concept is that sometimes we feel helpless in the community. We know what's going on and want to help, but there's only so much you can do. This is an opportunity for us. We can all do this," said Jaime Gaudet, who is one of the event's organizers.

"The people that are patients or providers in the hospital, they get tired and they're missing their family."

*****

A little light humor. This made my day, perhaps it will make yours: https://youtu.be/fRsOq-SBosg

*****

I would like to close with this as more and more people seem to hate MSM (Mainstream Media) and it is this; there's a difference between news and opinion content. The problem is that the line often becomes much grayer than it should be. A factual story can be told by far left or far right media and both will get it right if it is just the facts, ma'am. Opinion on those facts differ from one news organization to the next. VOL writes from a position of theological orthodoxy. I am, therefore, loathed and loved by two different sets of people. Very well. It is hard when those on my side of the fence disagree on some minor issue with little thought of the impact it might have on me. I ask you all to stick to the BIG picture and not get caught up in minutiae. Please read the entire story before making a comment. Thanks.

Lenten blessings to you all,

David

The Episcopal Church, unlike Samaritan's Purse, is the leading mainline denomination supporting LGBTQ people, the first in the United States to ordain an openly homosexual bishop and one of the leaders in special liturgies to marry LGBTQ people. --- Associated Press

The current pandemic is a judgement on the dominance of Mammon not only in the UK and the western world but increasingly across the whole world. There is also the arrogance of Western Humanity which thinks that science/technology can and should solve all our problems. There are plenty of precedents in the Old Testament and especially the Psalms of plagues coming as judgements on human action. Of course, it is a tragedy for those who lose their lives and perhaps even more for those who suffer agonizing deaths and those who are bereft in consequence. All of which is a very unfashionable view in our society and also, sadly, within the Christian community. --- Philip Giddings

Lots of people (even Christians) claim they're not that bad. That's because they're measuring themselves against others, and not God. Therefore, they never really appreciate the depths of God's love for them. With respect, if you're not that bad, why the agony of the Son of God on your behalf? Couldn't he have just given you a slap on the wrist? --- Archbishop Cranmer

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
April 17, 2020

AROUND the world, Anglicans are engaged in both spiritual warfare and the healing of bodies, as a virus rages across the globe threatening tens of millions, taking countless lives, with no apparent end in sight.

It has tested peoples' faith as lives have been challenged and rocked by financial concerns, health issues, unemployment and the ever-abiding question, "Where is God when it hurts."

People are dying, unattended by family and relatives, often alone without benefit of priest or pastor.

It is now emerging that loneliness is the No.1 issue for Americans, not money or health concerns. A recent survey of 20,000 U.S. adults found that nearly half of people suffer from feelings of loneliness. The spirit of 'rugged individualism' isn't working out too well when you are on your back and all you see in front of you is a nurse covered from head to toe in clothes designed to keep her from catching what you're dying of.

An American Psychological Association study concluded that lonely people are at a greater risk for premature death. These findings build on previous research that showed loneliness is on the rise among younger people, too. It is a bigger issue than smoking or obesity.

Sadly, persons most affected by the virus are the poor, black and Hispanic communities with the occasional celebrity and political leader. This is the dark side of inequality that made Bernie Sanders so popular in his brief bid for the White House. (This not a plug for the Democratic Party).

Coronavirus is a hydra-headed monster. It is medical/spiritual/financial and political. None of us can escape the drama unfolding before us. One way or another we are all affected if not infected.

In her address, 92-year old Queen Elizabeth II said that many religions have festivals which celebrate light overcoming darkness. Such occasions are often accompanied by the lighting of candles. They seem to speak to every culture, and appeal to people of all faiths, and of none. They are lit on birthday cakes and to mark family anniversaries, when we gather happily around a source of light. It unites us.

As darkness falls on the Saturday before Easter Day, many Christians would normally light candles together. In church, one light would pass to another, spreading slowly and then more rapidly as more candles are lit. It's a way of showing how the good news of Christ's resurrection has been passed on from the first Easter by every generation until now.

This year, Easter will be different for many of us, but by keeping apart we keep others safe. But Easter isn't cancelled; indeed, we need Easter as much as ever. The discovery of the risen Christ on the first Easter Day gave his followers new hope and fresh purpose, and we can all take heart from this. We know that Coronavirus will not overcome us. As dark as death can be -- particularly for those suffering with grief -- light and life are greater. May the living flame of the Easter hope be a steady guide as we face the future.

A couple of Church of England leaders told VOL that what she said was better than Archbishop Justin Welby or what most of her bishops said. She bowled them all over with her affirmation of the faith. "She whacked all of them."

*****

This did not prevent the Archbishop of Canterbury from putting his foot in his mouth when he warned clergy that they cannot enter churches for solo prayer nor to film a service - despite provisions for this in the government's lockdown rules.

Those who breach the rules claim they have been threatened with disciplinary action. However, rebellious vicars vowed to defy the edict, it was reported in The Telegraph.

"Now is the time to revolt," one vicar told The Telegraph. "Ever since the lockdown, I have been going into my church, and I will be doing it again at 10.30AM on Easter Sunday," another added.

Warnings of a revolt come after the Welby issued a stern warning to members of the clergy and laity in a YouTube message earlier in the week.

He echoed the slogan repeated during the daily ministerial press conferences on coronavirus, saying it was vital that the church "set an example" in following the government guidance to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives.

"By closing the churches, we make a powerful symbol of the need to listen to that message," he said.

But then a number of vicars vowed to rebel and defy church edict and stream Easter services from churches.

The Rev. James Paice, Rector at St Luke's Wimbledon Park, in southwest London, described the ban as "nonsense" and vowed to continue streaming Easter services inside his church building. "I do know a number of clergy who are going against the advice of going into the church building to livestream services," he said. "I have been doing that, and I have various colleagues doing that. They think the advice is nonsense.

"If people can go to Lidl and get food and stand less than two metres apart from others who are in a queue parallel to them, then why can't clergy go into an empty building on their own?

"The advice that clergy should get shopping but not going into their buildings alone to minister online has elevated the humanistic and practical above the spiritual." The vicar also accused the Archbishops of "going beyond their authority", being very heavy handed" resulting in clergy deeming them not just "laughable" but also accusing them of "fast eroding their own authority".

"I've been going every Sunday to my church, in a separate room which is part of the main church: it's on a different WiFi network from my family, so I can upload at the same time as they watch," he added. "There are other clergy doing it from the main body of the church. Ever since the lockdown, I have been doing it, and I will be doing it at 10.30AM on Easter Sunday."

The Rev. Will Pearson-Gee, Rector of the Grade I-listed Buckingham Parish Church said that his revolt this Easter is somewhat tamer than that of Rev. Paice. "I haven't quite rebelled," he said, "although I have been into my building."

He revealed that he returned to church, recorded a video and took a picture of the altar which he is now using as a backdrop for his live-streamed services, thanks to the green screen he happens to have in his garden shed.

"I'm allowed inside my church as a janitor to make infrequent maintenance checks, but I'm not allowed in as a priest," he said.

"So, I went in, took my dog collar off, and recorded a video update from inside the church. I just wanted to show people that the church was still standing, and express my unhappiness at the fact that as a priest I'm not allowed into my building.

"We have tens-of-thousands-of-pounds of tech for live-streaming, so what has really, really pissed me off is that I can't use any of the tech, I have to livestream from home."
Another vicar, Melvin Tinker, of St John Newland in Hull, issued a call to arms for his fellow members of the clergy.

"Now is the time to revolt," he said. "Hospitals are asking for help in caring for the sick spiritually.

"Out of good conscience over and against the craven fear of the Muppet Bishops, clergy are to carry out their duties under God and blow a proverbial raspberry in the direction of Lambeth and Chelmsford."

The Rev. Tinker described the fact that clergy are banned from entering their churches to stream services or minister congregants who are gathered at a social distance as "monstrous".

"One of the main reasons Christianity eventually triumphed over the paganism of Rome was that they stayed behind to care for the sick when a city was struck by a plague, while the pagans cleared off," he added.

"The Church of England leadership are now demanding their clergy act like pagans."

In a very odd interview with Andrew Marr, Welby claims the closing of churches was not his fault but a committee's; that it was only guidance anyway, not instruction; and that the Church's primary duty was to set a civic example. Draw your own conclusion about both accuracy & integrity.

*****

ACNA Archbishop Challenges Neo-Paganism in the Anglican Communion. Dr. Gerald McDermott, theologian and Chair of Divinity and Director of The Institute of Anglican Studies at Beeson Divinity School sat down with ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach and discussed a hard-hitting chapter he wrote in a new book titled, "The Future of Orthodox Anglicanism." The chapter is titled, "Neo-pagan Anglicanism."

Here is a teaser:

McDermott: Archbishop can you tell us this thing you call "neo-pagan Anglicanism?" arise?

Beach: It's been happening for a while. I began to notice that a lot of the practices in modern Anglicanism and teaching of modern Anglicanism, and actually, we could say more of Western Christianity as well, seemed to be getting more in common with what was known as pagan religion than what the Bible calls the faith.

In North America it's been going 40, 50, 60 years. It started in the seminaries with a gradual withdrawal from the authority of the Word of God, the holy Bible, the scriptures. And because of that, there began an acceptance of all kinds of things that I would say are non-Christian but are now treated as Christian.

I define as a modern form of Anglicanism which practices and performs the historic forms of worship within the ecclesial structures of Anglicanism, but at the same time it embraces theological beliefs and practices which Christians once considered pagan, non-Christian. Its modern emphasis is on reinterpreting non-Christian beliefs and practices into forms that Christians find acceptable. Theological beliefs once considered unbiblical and even heretical are taught as Christian doctrine. And just to take it one step further, moral practices that were once believed to be sin and an offense to God are now really taught and embraced as Christian in the name of love, compassion, unbridled acceptance, on and on we go.

To read the full interview which has had more than 10,000 reads on Facebook, click here: https://virtueonline.org/acna-archbishop-challenges-neo-paganism-anglican-communion

*****

Coronavirus Searches Lead Millions to Hear About Jesus. Tens of thousands have clicked to pray for salvation since the outbreak. Is the increase temporary or a harbinger of greater gospel witness online?

Millions of worried people who have turned to Google with their anxiety over COVID-19 have ended up connecting with Christian evangelists in their search results--leading to a spike in online conversions in March, according to an article in Christianity Today. You can read more here:
https://virtueonline.org/coronavirus-searches-lead-millions-hear-about-jesus

The following posts are gathered from the best available global Anglican sources on the coronavirus pandemic.

These particular articles from the American Anglican Council are generating the most feedback:

CLARITY IN CRISIS: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIpcuuspjstGNJ5Vfqt5lbQSQ2q-H7VYnA7

Holy Communion During Social Spacing: https://americananglican.org/aac-toolbox/covid19/holy-communion-during-social-spacing/

Gratitude in Times of Crisis: https://americananglican.org/news/gratitude-in-times-of-crisis/

Finding Serenity through Prayer: https://americananglican.org/news/finding-serenity-through-the-power-of-prayer/

Expanding our Outreach Online: https://americananglican.org/featured/the-voice-of-the-heart-an-online-experience

Biblically Orthodox in an Online World: https://americananglican.org/news/biblically-orthodox-in-an-online-world/
Bringing Hope for Healing: https://americananglican.org/news/bringing-hope-for-healing/

Pushing Back the Darkness (on past pandemics and how the Church has responded): https://americananglican.org/featured/pushing-back-the-darkness/

COVID19 News: Vital Moments: Thriving, not just Surviving
https://americananglican.org/category/aac-toolbox/covid19/

OTHER STORIES AND LINKS:

Churches in Africa and South Asia respond to the Coronavirus pandemic: https://virtueonline.org/churches-africa-and-south-asia-respond-coronavirus-pandemic

South Sudan Anglican Archbishop says not first unique Easter: https://virtueonline.org/south-sudan-anglican-archbishop-says-not-first-unique-easter

Church of South India accused of offering fake help in coronavirus pandemic:
https://virtueonline.org/historian-blasts-church-south-india-leaders-offering-fake-help-face-coronavirus-pandemic

Will the lockdown turn us back to the truth?:
https://christianconcern.com/comment/will-the-lockdown-turn-us-back-to-the-truth/

Covid-19: how a virus is turning the world upside down:
https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1336

BAHAMAS: Anglican Diocese lays off 66 staffers across central administration and schools: https://ewnews.com/author/ava-turnquest
UK: Church leaders address theological issues on crisis: https://www.churchnewspaper.com/81528/archives

What an Early Anglican Can Teach Us about Sickness Today:
https://livingchurch.org/covenant/2020/04/16/what-an-early-anglican-can-teach-us-about-sickness-today/

Evangelical Pastors Seize Political Opportunity in Coronavirus Crisis:
https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/church-exemption-coronavirus-193105687.html

Virus concern grows around the world:
https://www.churchnewspaper.com/81531/archives

INDEPENDENT COLUMNISTS:

The good, bad and citizens' arrest: Reflections by Ladson F. Mills III
https://virtueonline.org/good-bad-and-citizens-arrest-reflections-questions-and-answers

Is Coronavirus God's Judgment? -- Fr. Dwight Longenecker:
https://dwightlongenecker.com/is-coronavirus-gods-judgment/

St. John the Divine and Samaritans Purse Clash over Coronavirus Pandemic Help
https://virtueonline.org/st-john-divine-and-samaritans-purse-clash-over-coronavirus-pandemic-help

More than an idle threat: Real Assaults on religious Liberty in the Pandemic -- Albert Mohler
https://albertmohler.com/2020/04/13/more-than-an-idle-threat-real-assaults-on-religious-liberty-emerge-in-the-pandemic

Panic and Pandemic: Fear is the Greater Enemy --- Dr. Bruce Atkinson
https://virtueonline.org/panic-and-pandemic-fear-greater-enemy

An Historic Holy Week and Easter --- Archbishop Foley Beach
http://www.anglicanchurch.net/?/main/page/2019

*****

For a limited time (until 30 June) Christianity Explored has made available all of their course films on their YouTube channel for free to make them easier to share during times of social distancing:

* Christianity Explored (https://ngo.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=73b7f54c1d6e718e32fabd62c&id=787e25bf9e&e=344787f59b)
* Life Explored (https://ngo.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=73b7f54c1d6e718e32fabd62c&id=f2417bea09&e=344787f59b)
* Discipleship Explored (https://ngo.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=73b7f54c1d6e718e32fabd62c&id=33679b59d8&e=344787f59b)
* SOUL (https://ngo.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=73b7f54c1d6e718e32fabd62c&id=84d9f915e6&e=344787f59b)

*****

HATE. It has become the word de jure of the moment. Both the left and the right are using it to great effect. When pansexualists on the left want to shut down orthodox Christians who oppose homosexual behavior and homosexual marriage, they accuse them of hate. Of course, it is not about hate all, it is a way to say that those who oppose the behavior do so because the Bible does. But they have said it often enough that it has become accepted by progressives everywhere. If you oppose sodomy you are automatically homophobic and hate-filled. It was and is a lie, that has been repeated over and over by folk like Jayne Ozanne until even archbishops have bought into the lie.

On the other side of the fence, if you are conservative and Republican but choose not to agree with something President Donald Trump says, you are automatically hate-filled. All democrats are automatically hate-filled, but so is a republican who says he voted for Trump but disagreed that Trump can decide when to re-open the country. It violated the 10th Amendment, he said. The poor fellow got hammered for being hate-filled.

*****

In NIGERIA this week we learned that the Anglican province is under pressure to recognize homosexual priests, according to its primate Nicholas Okoh. He says he will expose those pushing to recognize any homosexuals who come out of the closet.

The Primate has raised alarm over alleged pressure being mounted on the hierarchy of the Church to start recognizing and ordaining gay priests. However, he has said the church would not hesitate to show any gay priest the way out of the church if he is found.

He frowned at "the subtle compromises by some priests in the church, warning them to retrace their steps or risk being exposed.

"People are lobbying us to abandon our faith and theology, to embrace their false teaching. Unfortunately, some of our priests are already bowing to the pressure.

"If your priest is practicing evil or keeping an evil alliance, and you know, raise your hand, be a whistle-blower so they won't undermine our church. If they do, it will be difficult to rescue.

*****

BISHOP LOVE HEARING. The Bishop of Albany, the Rt. Rev. William Love has been notified that the Hearing Panel will not meet on Tuesday, April 21, as originally planned. They are looking into the logistics and legality of holding the Hearing as a virtual online meeting. Once a new date for the Hearing has been set, it will be posted.

*****

ANGLICAN-TV saw the departure of its best commentator Dr. Gavin Ashenden over allegations of a public fight with the Rev. George Conger and Kevin Kallsen on air, (it was quickly pulled). Dr. Ashenden wrote VOL and said this; "I had to withdraw after Conger became personally abusive in a way that I would've hoped no Christian would have been, let alone someone I would've counted as a friend, let alone a priest. His emotional and theological incontinence destroyed the prospect of engaging in the kind of trust required for the kind of conversations we were having in public. I was unwilling to condone abuse and continue. I didn't expect him to own up to it in public, but the sanitizing of it was the surprise."

Viewers told VOL they were beginning to become increasingly vexed by Conger's intemperate and unprovoked attacks on Ashenden. They allege that over the past few weeks, Conger had begun to argue with Ashenden for the sake of arguing," an evangelical Anglican cleric said. "I got so put off by this that I began to fast forward the video and watch only the bits with Ashenden speaking," he added.

Earlier in the week, the Rev. Melvin Tinker, a respected conservative evangelical Anglican vicar wrote a comment in response to a news article on the Bishop of London forbidding clergy going into their churches and Archbishop Welby's weak attempts to justify this clamp down nationwide.

Conger lifted the comment and turned it into an article, titling it as a "Letter to the Editor," which it wasn't. After a protest, Tinker's piece was quickly taken down and commenters wondered where it had gone.

The link to Conger's website was also pulled last year from the The Rebel Priest run by Dr. Jules Gomes. Dr. Gomes reportedly pulled the Anglican Unscripted link from his website after he found that his articles were being reposted on Anglican Unscripted with headlines changed by the editor of AU.at https://www.julesgomes.com/

Viewers also told VOL that it was un-Christian that Kevin Kallsen, host of Anglican Unscripted had not let Dr. Ashenden come one final time and tell viewers why he was leaving. "That wouldn't be possible, of course, because Ashenden wasn't leaving, he was pushed out," a source close to Dr. Ashenden said.

"When Ashenden became Catholic in December, he generously offered to step down. However, it was Kallsen who insisted he continue on the show," the source added.

"What is shocking is the spin both Kallsen and Conger put on the turn of events. They painted it as if Ashenden was responsible and he'd quit because of his Catholicism," the source said, adding: "I would urge both Kevin and George to heed the commandment: Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor."

Ashenden's presence on the program brought in the viewers by the hundreds. A number of viewers have said on the YouTube site that with Ashenden's departure they will no longer be watching the show.

Many new Catholic subscribers had also joined the growing number of viewers following Ashenden's conversion to Catholicism. Ashenden's departure has left a number of viewers unhappy with the apparent anti-Catholic bigotry displayed by Conger.

*****

HOW YOU CAN HELP: The Society of Anglican Missionaries and Senders (SAMS):
In this difficult season evangelical Anglicans are invited to support missionaries working on the frontlines. VOL supports this missionary endeavor. Go here:

*****

5 Good Things Coming Out of the Coronavirus Pandemic

While the world is essentially shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, God is up to something good. Our minds naturally gravitate towards the negative news out there, but it's not all bad. While not discounting the obvious seriousness of what we're walking through as a society, it's important to find the hidden gems within the crisis. On my Facebook Group, I asked the members to share something good God has done in their life during the coronavirus pandemic. Here are some of their responses:
1. More focus on what's important. One Christian wrote, "I feel like I've been more observant, it has forced me to slow down and see things that I wouldn't normally see or appreciate." Another wrote, "Less distractions. More time to focus on our creator." This pandemic is forcing us to prioritize and remember what's truly important in life.
2. God is speaking louder. Because of the removal of distractions, Christians are able to hear God speaking to them louder than ever. One Christian wrote, "God has brought His Word out loud and clear, spoken in song and on social media. His people, the Church, have risen and are staying connected and meeting needs."
3. Reconnecting with family. This was one of the most popular responses I received. Being forced to stay at home, people are able to reconnect with family in meaningful ways. One wrote, "Very much enjoy working at home with my lovely wife." Another shared, "The gift of extra time and conversation with my adult children that I didn't expect to have." A third wrote, "Given us sweet family time."
4. Great interactions with neighbors. A famous command by Jesus is to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:39). But since most of us live life on the go, we don't have much meaningful time to interact with our neighbors. These stay-at-home orders that many of us are experiencing is changing all that. One Christian shared, "love seeing all my neighbors out in the pretty spring weather playing with their kids and pets." Another wrote, "more opportunities to encourage others and talk about my hope in the Lord."
5. Rest in God. Whether by choice or not, people are seeing the benefits of slowing down and finding the rest that only comes in God. One Christian wrote that through this crisis, she's been able to "rest in God and depend more on Him." Another shared, "I got closer to Jesus." -- By Josh Daffern -- Patheos.com

*****

I feel it is appropriate to post this Psalm which has become the Psalm de jure of Christians these days in the Time of Coronavirus.

Psalm 91

1 Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.[a]
2 I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust."

3 Surely he will save you
from the fowler's snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
5 You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
8 You will only observe with your eyes
and see the punishment of the wicked.
9 If you say, "The Lord is my refuge,"
and you make the Most High your dwelling,
10 no harm will overtake you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
12 they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
14 "Because he[b] loves me," says the Lord, "I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
15 He will call on me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation."

VOL wishes all its readers a blessed Eastertide. Stay home, stay well, read through the Daily Prayer, Facetime and Zoom friends. Pray.

Porn is by far the greatest cancer ever to the church...the problem is particularly relevant given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. --- Josh McDowell

Change is painful to us all, especially when it affects our cherished buildings and customs, and we should not seek to change merely for the sake of change. Yet true Christian radicalism is open to change. It knows that God has bound himself to his church (promising that he will never leave it) and to this Word (promising that it will never pass away). But God's church means people not buildings, and God's Word means Scripture not traditions. So long as these essentials are preserved, the buildings and the traditions can if necessary, go. We must not allow them to imprison the living God or to impede his mission in the world. --- John R. W. Stott

If Trinity Wall Street liquidated one third of its portfolio, it could support salaries for two church planters at $100k per planter for five years for 18 plants in EVERY DIOCESE IN THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. --- Chris Corbin

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
May 1, 2020

Some Anglicans asked me the other day; what is there left to report on about The Episcopal Church. It is a fair question. Here are a few thoughts.

Homosexual and lesbian bishops are (yawn) a done deal.

There will be more and more pansexual priests in the pulpit, some black, most will be white.

Albany Bishop William Love will be found guilty of violating B012 and will be punished with banishment in the name of inclusion and diversity.

There will be a transgendered bishop elected in the not too distant future (in the name of inclusion and diversity, of course.) With Bishop Love gone, nobody will object because they fear the Episcopal Gaystapo.

The Communion Partner bishops will disappear in the next few years and no one will miss them. They rolled over a long time ago.

TEC will go from a black male PB to a black female PB and then, inevitably a black (or white) homosexual PB. At some point, the House of Bishops will nominate a transgendered PB and cries of MISSION ACCOMPLISHED will be heard across the land. The latter will make brief, but spectacular news. It will probably not shock GAFCON bishops, but it will give heartburn to Archbishop Justin Welby, who is desperate to pull a rabbit out of the hat to keep the communion together.

TEC's ASA will continue to sink, and with the Coronavirus upon us no one knows what the numbers will be when TEC is back up and running. It stands at around 500,000. Many nominal Episcopalians (and they are the majority) may now be asking, why bother. SURPRISE; many parishes now report diminished income. Committed Episcopalians will continue of course, but they are a dwindling minority.

The Anglican Church of Canada's ASA has now dropped below 100,000 and is fast approaching life support time. (The figure is closer to 97,000.) The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) now has over 135,000 members, which makes it larger than the ACoC and is growing!

Will there be an accounting of the millions of dollars spent on litigation for properties that, at the end of the day, will lie fallow or sold to upstart evangelical churches and to Muslim groups? One thinks not.

It would come as a surprise if the ACNA lost five per cent of its parishioners during this Coronavirus pandemic.

Small churches (as I earlier predicted) are doing better with the shutdown than larger churches. There is a new intimacy via ZOOM and other social platforms that is keeping them together. In our small (25-member) parish we pray more for one another than we have ever done. (I will even admit to praying more for at least 5 of our number who work on the frontline in the medical field).

Large churches with sub specialty groups like Christian bikers and hikers, et al and other social subset groups will grow and survive, perhaps even grow the church.

But the pray, pay and obey crowd could rapidly disappear, having learned that paying for a preacher who does little more than preach a sermon, keep the doors open and perhaps make an odd pastoral visit, is simply not worth it.

MONEY: The elixir that keeps churches up and running, might run out or simply not be forthcoming in the quantities needed to keep the doors open.

According to an article in TLC, collections are down as much as 70 percent. Tenants are struggling to pay church landlords. There are steep drops in investment income that's needed to pay monthly bills.

Across the Episcopal Church, congregations are weathering effects of a financial storm that shows no signs of abating anytime soon. As states have banned public gatherings in attempts to slow the fast-spreading coronavirus, congregations unable to pass offering plates are getting squeezed between shrinking revenues and rising costs.

"Needs are up. Income is down. It's is the same with everybody," said the Rev. John David van Dooren, rector of the Church of the Transfiguration, a Manhattan parish that depends on income from rental property and finds its tenants now struggling to make rent. Parishioners, meanwhile, face their own money woes and hope the church can help them.

A Catholic archbishop observed that the twin issues of COVID-19 and the persecution of orthodox priests and bishops by revisionist and so-called progressive archbishops and bishops could drive the churches into a new First Century style catacombs church. It worked then; it could work again now.

Think about this. Very little money is needed to run this type of church. People meet in their homes, with little cost. No fancy buildings to maintain. Clergy would have to be tentmakers. In the catacombs the church flourished and by the Third century (under Constantine) the Church became religio licita. Do the princes of the church need palaces? No. You work till you die. No free lunch.

George Barna, director of research at the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University and founder of the Barna Group, writes: "Tens of millions of Americans consider themselves to be Christian but do not believe that God is really in control or cares what happens to them." You can put that down to bad or inadequate teaching by pastors and priests, so why pay them if the pulpit rings with an uncertain sound. Fire them.

Meanwhile, 51 percent of pastors on Barna's Church Panel said church attendance, in terms of virtual attendance, is up compared to typical Sunday in-person worship. Could that uptick change the worldview inventory trend -- if more people are in church and gaining a more biblical, traditional perspective of God?

Six-hundred Protestant senior pastors in America serve on Barna's Church Panel. According to the survey, more than 51 percent of pastors answered that virtual attendance has actually been greater than the typical physical Sunday gathering.

So, if virtual attendance is on the uptick, what will do this for parish buildings and the money needed to keep church doors open? Will pastors and priests, many of whom already have second incomes now find that being a "tentmaker" as the Apostle Paul was, is the new norm?

Whatever happens and whichever way it goes, nothing will be the same after this virus is spent. Who knows, perhaps it will weed out the wheat from the chaff, and leave a small but vibrant church that God can finally work with.

*****

Canon Phil Ashey of the American Anglican Council makes some astute observations in his weekly column about the Coronavirus pandemic. He says the number one question among pastors is this: How do we prepare our churches now for the day when we can re-open?

That question was followed by many others in the same vein: When? What will that look like? How will we "deep clean" and sanitize our churches in real time? What do we do about coffee hour/meet-and-greet, especially if social distancing remains a cautionary "new normal" for all of us? How do we walk in faith in regards to giving and church finances, while planning for shortfalls? For now, many such questions may remain unanswered, but they should all be asked and contemplated as we head towards weeks of gradual re-openings across the country. He mentions a helpful article that contains 24 such questions we should be asking now. You can find this list here: https://kenbraddy.com/2020/04/18/20-questions-your-church-should-answer-before-people-return/

Questions like these are expected to emerge. Churches in this country are in a moment of intense change and uncertain transition.

"We are in this John the Baptist moment to repent and ready ourselves for the coming of the LORD. Will it be a new great awakening and revival of the church in our land? Will it be an acceleration of our culture's secularization and anti-Christian hostility? Will it be both? Regardless, this can be a great awakening in our individual hearts, a revival in our own souls, if we allow it to be."

*****

Pulitzer Prize--winning author and Episcopalian Jon Meacham denies a basic Christian tenet and says that Jesus is not the only route to salvation.

In his new book "Hope of Glory: Reflections on the Last Words of Jesus from the Cross", Meacham, a renowned Episcopal layman and scholar of American history writes; "I am in no sense an evangelical, for I do not share the view that faith in Jesus is the only route to salvation, nor am I determined to convert others to my point of view. It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god," Thomas Jefferson remarked. "It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."

Meacham cited the Roman writer Symmachus, arguing against Christians who wanted to remove an altar to the pagan deity Victory, saying, "We cannot attain to so great a mystery by one way: I agree."

"I adhere to the broad outlines of the Christian faith as it has come down through the Anglican tradition," he writes in his book. It apparently does not include Article 18 of the 39 Articles of Religion which reads, "Of Obtaining Eternal Salvation Only by the Name of Christ."

This is not Meacham's first run in with orthodox Christianity. In 2009, he slammed the then Bishop of Pittsburgh, Robert Duncan over heterosexual marriage, accusing the bishop of fundamentalism.

Meacham was editor of NEWSWEEK at the time, a favorite son and a graduate of Sewanee. He revealed a real and personal animus towards the Pittsburgh bishop. You can read the full story here: https://virtueonline.org/jon-meacham-says-jesus-not-only-route-salvation

*****

From the Anglican Diocese in New England, we learned this week that the Venerable Alex Kasirye-Musoke is in hospital with coronavirus. The Archdeacon is in charge of the Ugandan Churches in the Anglican Diocese in New England and former rector of St Peter's Anglican Church (Belmont, MA).

*****

On March 27, 2020, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York wrote to the clergy of the Church of England. The letter included these words: "We are in a time of great fearfulness. The numbers of those becoming seriously ill and dying is increasing. It therefore remains very important that our churches remain closed for public worship and private prayer."

This instruction seeks to prohibit the clergy from entering their own churches for private prayer, at a time when the law of the land specifically exempts ministers of religion travelling to their place of worship from the restrictions on free movement brought about to fight the coronavirus. The instruction is something for which the archbishops will have to answer on the Day of Judgment, and it would be imprudent to comment further here.

This did not sit well with at least one priest in central London. There was quiet defiance from a certain Fr. Marcus Walker, when he stood alone near the altar of St. Bartholomew the Great -- London's oldest surviving church -- on the first Sunday after Easter and said, "I speak in the name of the Living God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. And so, we're back."

There was no response from his Facebook Live flock, but the priest stressed that he had been listening to his people. The bottom line: There had to be some way to proceed that stressed public safety, while addressing people's spiritual needs.

"Their voices have been loud, insistent and -- so far -- unanimous," he said, in his sermon. "I have received scores of letters and emails, calling on services to be restored here in their church: the church they have upheld and kept up, where they were married, where they buried a partner, saw a child christened, found God, were confirmed."

Peter Selby, former Bishop of Worcester penned a stinging rebuke of the current lockdown policy of the House of Bishops -- and in the Roman Catholic magazine The Tablet he writes that "many in the C of E feel let down by the official response." There is deep discontent with the church at the moment, and even with the House of Bishops itself.

But when a priest lives right next door to the church, or when their vicarage is even physically attached to the church and connected by an internal door, even then the priest is not allowed in to pray or to record worship on behalf of the community.

As Selby argues: foremost among the reasons given why clergy could not enter their churches was the need to "set an example" of clergy as law-abiding citizens staying at home. The case was never made that clergy are key workers, exercising an essential public function, one rooted in the architecture and layout of their churches and the liturgical function they carry out within them, especially in Passiontide and Eastertide.

*****
In the Church of England this week, another woman was put up for bishop at the same time as one new orthodox Anglo-Catholic bishop. This is the first orthodox appointment since c. 2014. A source told VOL that it is far too little, far too late to be meaningful. The CofE is now TEC, crafted by Welby.

The Society under the patronage of Saint Wilfrid and Saint Hilda learned of the appointments of Fr. Will Hazlewood SSC to be the next Bishop of Lewes and of the Rev. Ruth Bushyager to be the next Bishop of Horsham. This is especially welcome news, as it is five and a half years since the last announcement of a traditional Catholic priest to be appointed to a Church of England bishopric; at that time it was the appointment of Fr Philip North to be the Bishop of Burnley.

So why was the Anglo-Catholic Society so eager to acknowledge the appointment of a woman bishop? A source told VOL that this pair of appointments somehow marks the "mutual flourishing" which were promised when the Women Bishops Measure was passed in 2014. "There has been no mutual flourishing and Anglo-Catholics have been excluded from ALL senior appointments since 2014 until now. It has only happened in this instance because the Bishop of Chichester, who makes these appointments as Diocesan Bishop, is the only surviving Anglo-Catholic diocesan bishop in the Church of England, and almost certainly the last."

*****

The former Anglican Dean of Newcastle, Graeme Lawrence, once Australia's most senior Anglican clergyman is going to be locked up for child sex offences. Lawrence, aged 77 years, is now defrocked and a convicted pedophile. He's been sentenced to eight years in prison. He'll serve at least four and a half years behind bars before having any hope of parole.

The unmarried and likeable Lawrence was the Anglican Dean of Newcastle for 25 years. He ruled over Christ Church Cathedral. Every bishop that came to Newcastle knew that Lawrence was not to be crossed. He was the real master conductor of the Diocese. In fact, one bishop who refused to conform told the Royal Commission, "I am the bishop who is not welcome in his own cathedral".

Lawrence was well-connected within the church, with lawyers and with business people. He had lots of friends at the Newcastle Club, an old private club adjacent to the Cathedral where Lawrence was a regular and an Honorary Member. But his 'good old days' are over. You can read the full story here: https://virtueonline.org/australia-graeme-lawrence-paedophile-offender

*****

There was a time when the Mexican Episcopal Church, now The Anglican Church of Mexico was the most corrupt province in the Anglican Communion with a bishop and archbishop running off with over $1 million never to be heard from again. Now that "honor" has passed along to the Church of South India (CSI), where its former primate has served jail time for corruption and its present primate seems headed to jail for massive misuse of monies. VOL's Indian correspondent, the Rev. Dr. Joseph Muthuraj, has documented the decline of this once thriving church. The CSI is engulfed in escalating and endemic corruption, he writes.

A Commission Report has levelled charges of bribery and corruption against the Anglican Moderator of the Church of South India, the Most Rev. Dharmaraj Rasalam.

Following an interrogation of 24 complainants, it was revealed they had given substantial sums of money as bribes totaling three crore rupees ($400,000) to Bishop Rasalam and two other men to secure admission to the Medical College run by the South Kerala diocese. The admissions were denied and the money was not returned. You can read his full report here: https://virtueonline.org/church-south-india-primate-faces-corruption-charges

*****

I was delighted this week to do an interview one of the Anglican Communion's most widely respected and brilliant theologian/historian's, the Rev. Dr. Gerald McDermott following the publication of his latest book; THE FUTURE OF ORTHODOX ANGLICANISM. The renowned theologian weighs the future of orthodox Anglicanism and says that progressives who embrace gay marriage worship another Jesus, a different gospel, and proclaim another Spirit. These are not two ways of being Christian; they are two religions worshipping different gods. The book is a collection of essays.

David W. Virtue interviewed the Rev. Dr. Gerald McDermott on the occasion of his new book on THE FUTURE OF ORTHODOX ANGLICANISM. The book grew out of an Anglican theology conference at Beeson in 2018, to which Anglican leaders and theologians from around the world were tasked to answer two questions. First, what is the deep character of Anglicanism? Second, what is its future?

"We were careful to invite only leaders and thinkers who have resisted the great creation heresy of our age on marriage and sexuality. We also decided to meet after the two telling events of the summer of 2018, TEC's General Convention and GAFCON's meeting in Jerusalem. The talks became essays, to which we invited responses from two bishops and an ACNA theologian."

I believe this is one of the most insightful interviews that I have done and I urge VOL readers to read it in full. https://virtueonline.org/renowned-anglican-theologian-historian-weighs-future-orthodox-anglicanism

*****

Is revival in the air? Possibly. Some 132,000 recently responded to Jesus during a 'Quarantine Revival' virtual evangelistic event. Individuals around the world made the decision to come to Christ during a Good Friday virtual evangelistic event that was hosted by Pulse and featured well-known Christian leaders and singers, according to new data.

Since the virtual revival was hosted, tens of thousands of people have reached out to Pulse to share their decision to follow Jesus through phone call centers, emails, websites and text messages. Pulse founder Nick Hall said in a Saturday tweet that a total of 132,000 people "responded to Jesus" due to the Good Friday broadcast and more than 100 million people tuned in. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/quarantine-revival-132000-respond-jesus-during-virtual-evangelistic-event

*****

VOL urges all its readers to stand firm in the faith. Reach out virtually to church, family and friends. Don't let loneliness cripple you. Tweet, twitter, phone, email, skype, zoom...do whatever it takes to stay in touch with the outside world, and as your state or country slowly gets back to normal and restrictions are lifted on public gatherings, do so with care and attention. Read (the Scriptures), pray, love, and remember don't listen to the doomsayers or end of world nutters. Only God knows the when the End is and He is not saying. Meantime get on with the business of the kingdom and work till your time is up.

David

"The Church does not make the Eucharist but the Eucharist makes the Church" --- Rev. Dr. Joseph Muthuraj

A third of American adults today will never marry. This is "a new kind of milestone in American life, and it's unfortunate because marriage obviously gives meaning purpose happiness and solidarity to most of the men and women who marry in America." -- A. Bradford Willcox

"Ahmaud Arbery, may your soul, with all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen. My heart breaks for his family, & I am more than outraged that this has happened again. When will this STOP? Will we see justice?" --- ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach

If we want the church to thrive, we should protect liberty, and that means progressive governments should be held accountable under law for their illiberal attacks on free exercise. But absent our own faithfulness, every legal or political victory will be for naught. We'll continue to bleed members, lose our witness, and close our doors. Our true challenge lies not with the drag queens without but rather with the adulterers and abusers within. --- David French

"Under communism, the Gospel shone a light through the darkness. Now, that light only strikes fog." -- Slovak Catholic Priest

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
May 15, 2020

Once upon a time when the progressives thought they would take over the Anglican Communion and destroy the last vestiges of "fundamentalism" in the communion, Rowan Williams, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, and the enabler of "progressives" told the then Archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola, "We shall see who blinks first!" Since that day, it is clear that neither Akinola nor his colleagues have blinked. Indeed, through the formation of GAFCON (Global Anglican Future Conference) and union with biblically faithful Anglicans in the Global North, they are pressing their cause with an eye toward the next decennial assembly of bishops at Lambeth.

Today GAFCON "owns" 80% of the Anglican Communion and William's prognostication is dead on arrival.

William's successor, Justin Welby, has proven to be weak, wobbly and meta referential both as leader of the Communion and in the spread of the gospel.

Instead of supporting orthodox Anglicans who make up GAFCON (and who could have been his spear carriers), he has derided them as little more than a "ginger group". He has made his bed with the progressives especially and, including Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, permanently alienating orthodox (evangelical and Anglo-Catholics) and dissing orthodox Anglicans who make up the Anglican Church in North America. Is it any wonder that ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach returned the favor, calling most of Western Anglicanism "neo-pagan?"

You can pick up a copy of Akinola's book "Who Blinks First: Biblical Fidelity Against the Gay Agenda in the Global Anglican Communion? here: https://www.amazon.com/Peter-Akinola-Biblical-Fidelity-Communion/dp/1725264633/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=akinola+book&qid=1589560099&s=books&sr=1-2

*****

If you want to hear a conversation with Archbishop Foley Beach, you can see and hear it here: https://americananglican.org/aac-toolbox/covid19/a-conversation-with-foley-beach/ It comes courtesy of the American Anglican Council. You can sign up for their newsletter here: www.americananglican.org

****

US believers see message of change from God in virus, according to a new Associated Press report. The coronavirus has prompted almost two-thirds of American believers to feel that God is telling humanity to change how it lives, a new poll finds.

While the virus rattles the globe, causing economic hardship for millions and killing more than 80,000 Americans, the findings of the poll by the University of Chicago Divinity School and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research indicate that people may also be searching for deeper meaning in the devastating outbreak.

Even some who don't affiliate with organized religion, such as Lance Dejesus of Dallastown, Pa., saw a possible bigger message in the virus.

"It could be a sign, like 'hey, get your act together' -- I don't know," said Dejesus, 52, who said he believes in God, but doesn't consider himself religious. "It just seems like everything was going in an OK direction and all of a sudden you get this coronavirus thing that happens, pops out of nowhere."

The poll found that 31% of Americans who believe in God feel strongly that the virus is a sign of God telling humanity to change, with the same number feeling that somewhat. Evangelical Protestants are more likely than others to believe that strongly, at 43%, compared with 28% of Catholics and mainline Protestants.

In addition, black Americans were more likely than those of other racial backgrounds to say they feel the virus is a sign God wants humanity to change, regardless of education, income or gender. Forty-seven percent say they feel that strongly, compared with 37% of Latino and 27% of white Americans.

The COVID-19 virus has disproportionately walloped black Americans, exposing societal inequality that has left minorities more vulnerable and heightening concern that the risks they face are getting ignored by a push to reopen the U.S. economy. Amid that stark reality, the poll found black Americans who believe in God are more likely than others to say they have felt doubt about God's existence as a result of the virus -- 27% said that, compared with 13% of Latinos and 11% of white Americans.

But the virus has prompted negligible change in Americans' overall belief in God, with 2% saying they believe in God today, but did not before. Fewer than 1% say they do not believe in God today, but did before.

Most houses of worship stopped in-person services to help protect public health as the virus began spreading, but that didn't stop religious Americans from turning to online and drive-in gatherings to express their faiths. Americans with a religious affiliation are regularly engaging in private prayer during the pandemic, with 57% saying they do so at least weekly since March -- about the same share that say they prayed as regularly last year.

Overall, 82% of Americans say they believe in God, and 26% of Americans say their sense of faith or spirituality has grown stronger as a result of the outbreak. Just 1% say it has weakened.

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The revisionist Episcopal Bishop of New York, the Rt. Rev. Andrew M.L. Dietsche, failed the national church's inclusion test it was revealed this week when he kicked out the evangelical ministry Samaritan's Purse from his cathedral, St. John The Divine, because Samaritan's Purse failed to bow down to the Moloch god of sodomy and homosexual marriage. Graham And Samaritan's Purse hold to traditional views on marriage.

You see all Samaritan's Purse wanted to do was use the mostly unused cathedral as a place to help all COVID-19 patients recover from their affliction, and to do it in the name of Jesus. But the bishop has a different Jesus he worships and told Franklin Graham that his understanding of marriage was too narrow. He and his diocese were clearly more enlightened on such matters and booted Samaritan's Purse out of the cathedral, causing the ministry to decamp into Central Park.

They did, of course, and they helped cure 191 patients before heading off to Alaska to continue their ministry of healing there.

Dietsche only proved that in the parable of the Good Samaritan he stands with the Levite and the Jew. It is Graham that stands with the Good Samaritan!

The mantra of hate, aimed so frequently at evangelicals, is in fact the mantra of the LGBTQ left, who will brook no resistance from people of faith. The New York City Council naturally went along with the hate mantra, but not everybody agreed. You can read the full story here: https://virtueonline.org/new-york-episcopal-bishop-fails-inclusion-test-over-samaritans-purse

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The Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America, the Rt. Rev. Foley Beach expressed outrage at the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a young black male cut down in the prime of life.

"May your soul, with all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen. My heart breaks for his family, and I am more than outraged that this has happened again. When will this STOP? Will we see justice?" tweeted Beach.

Canon Phil Ashey of the American Anglican Council echoed Archbishop Beach's words and said there are many other voices in the Church who have expressed a will to advocate for the racially marginalized in whatever segment of America they find themselves in. "Many pastors voiced anger, frustration, and a desire to contribute to the solution to racism and the continued confrontation and killing of individuals based on race." You can read my full story here: https://virtueonline.org/anglican-archbishop-outraged-over-georgia-shooting

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Surveys show that about a quarter of Protestant congregations and more than a third of Catholic parishes successfully pursued loans under the first round of the SBA's Paycheck Protection Program.

Religious leaders in America who have had qualms in the past about taking money from the government, may be relenting under financial stress. Surveys suggest that between a quarter and a half of all Christian churches in the country have applied for emergency loans under the Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), with most of their applications approved for funding.

Of the approximately 17,000 Catholic parishes in the country, about 10,000 applied for PPP loans in the first round of lending, according to Pat Markey, executive director of the Diocesan Fiscal Management Conference. Of those, 6,000 had their applications approved. About 3,000 additional parishes have been notified that their applications were accepted in the second round, Markey says.

A survey of Protestant pastors by LifeWay Research found that a somewhat smaller share of those congregations, about 40 percent, applied for PPP loans in the first round. More than half of them reported that they were approved for assistance, according to Scott McConnell, LifeWay's executive director. No data is available for the second round. (NPR)

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Nigeria continues to be at the epicenter of the storm for the persecution of Anglicans. No other Anglican province comes close to what Nigerian christians isare experiencing. This week I obtained an exclusive interview with Nigerian Archbishop Ben Kwashi, who talked with me at length about genocide, GAFON and the way forward for the Anglican communion.

Archbishop Kwashi also holds the title of General Secretary of GAFCON -- the Global Anglican Future Conference -- a title and office he took over in 2019 when he succeeded Archbishop Peter Jensen, former Archbishop of Sydney. Here is my opening question to the archbishop.

VOL: Archbishop, Nigeria is Africa's largest nation, it is an important economic hub, but it is a nation under extreme danger from within with violence and terror intensifying almost daily. What is your take on this?

KWASHI: The war on terror seems to me to have multi-dimensional international interests. Firstly: the sophisticated chain supply of weapons available to the terrorists should concern the world community. Secondly: the number of troops recruited by the terrorists for them to be able to resist the nations of Chad, Cameroon, Mali and Nigeria, and to hold their grounds for up to ten years, cannot by any stretch of the imagination be a small venture of a band of terrorists. Thirdly: that this "band of terrorists", especially Boko Haram, has a single objective of Islamicizing Nigeria and has kept to that objective for ten years, should be a cause of concern not only to the Nigerian government, but also to the international community. You can read the full interview here or on FACEBOOK: https://virtueonline.org/nigerian-archbishop-talks-about-genocide-gafcon-and-way-forward-anglican-communion

To make the point, Canon Bayo and his family were attacked in their compound by militant Fulani tribesmen in the state of Plateau, Nigeria. Stefanos Foundation visited the scene, providing photos and reporting that the attack could have been worse. Stefanos reports, "...at about 8:40PM, yesterday, while the family was having their evening devotion, 3 armed Fulani young men stormed the house with AK 47, machetes and other weapons. Stefanos gathered that the attackers forced their way into the room where the reverend and his family were having devotion and demanded that the reverend should give them money. When he replied that there was no money in the house, one of the attackers holding a gun immediately shot the reverend in the head and also in the leg and left him in the pool of his blood. The attackers, thinking that the reverend was dead, left for the other room where the other family members went into hiding. The family at that time was struggling to send text massages to friends and neighbors for help when suddenly they heard gun shots on the door. The gunmen found their way into the room and shot two of the reverend's sons in their legs and also shot his wife in her back. They then immediately took to their heels when they learned that the security men were on their way to the house. After the gunmen left, the reverend, his wife Naomi and his sons who miraculously were all alive but with bullet wounds, were immediately rushed to Barkin Ladi General Hospital. However, due to the magnitude of her injuries, Naomi was later taken to Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTh)." Canon Bayo, is on the Diocese staff of GAFCON General Secretary, Archbishop Ben Kwashi. He is serving in pioneering missions and is the founding leader of the CAPRO Nigerian indigenous missionary organization.

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It is deeply ironic that while African Anglicans suffer for their faith, they continue to grow. By contrast, Western Anglicanism sinks more deeply each day into the slough of sexual sloth. Their churches are dying.

The ongoing moral sickness in the Church of England with the emergence of details about the abuse by John Smyth and Jonathan Fletcher has caused evangelicals in England to reflect deeply on its current culture and the historic influences upon it. Although the culture of the camps that the Titus Trust ran today has changed significantly from the Scripture Union camps of the late 70s and early 80s, it revealed a degeneracy that may have set back the evangelical witness in England for decades. Bishop Ball may have done untold damage to the Anglo-Catholic witness in the church of England, but evangelicals will have to answer for what they have done.

The Trustees of The Titus Trust settled with three men who had suffered for many years because of the appalling abuse of John Smyth. "We are devastated that lives have been blighted by a man who abused a position of trust and influence to inflict appalling behaviour on others, and we have written to those concerned to express our profound regret at what happened and also to apologise for any additional distress that has been caused by the way The Titus Trust has responded to this matter." Welby responded at one point and said this was not a CofE issue! Really. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/titus-trust-issues-statement-settlement-case-john-smyth

An irate CofE priest wrote to VOL and said this: "Welby has an amazing political capacity to dodge truth bullets fired his way. These orgs are all Anglican affiliated but whether the CofE is liable I don't know. Smyth was a sadist and that he got away for it for so long speaks volumes. How was that possible? That he fled to Africa and mercifully died there leaves only his wife to mourn him. I don't know under British law who pays the piper but whatever I am glad Welby has been caught out for lying. I think he will be viewed as the last worst ABC the CofE has ever known."

IN OTHER NEWS, The Archbishop of Canterbury has been secretly volunteering as a chaplain at St Thomas' Hospital during the coronavirus lockdown, the Telegraph has learned.

Welby, 64, has been making regular visits to comfort the diseased and the dying at the London hospital from his nearby flat at Lambeth Palace.

Like other chaplains working on Covid-hit wards across the UK, the head of the Anglican church has undergone special training in infection control and wears personal protective equipment (PPE) over his black clerical shirt and dog collar.

It is ironic that while he has told his churches to close down, he has been making hospital visits! He has said no one over 60 should be doing this kind of ministry and he is 64. Go figure.

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Welby took it in the neck this week when The Times blasted Welby over Church shutdowns. 800 Priests rebelled against these closures.

The Archbishop of Canterbury found himself being ripped apart by both the secular media and some 800 of his priests for closing churches. This was a decision described by a Times editorial as "bizarre", castigating Welby's Easter message as "underwhelming", declaring the performance of his duties as "poor" and said just when people needed the Church most, it and he was AWOL.

There are some, of course, who insist the churches never needed to lock their doors (at least to their own priests and vicars, who were, after all, classed as 'keyworkers'): the damage to the Church of England's mission and perceptions of its ministry has been immense. Instead of boldly witnessing to the nation and defiantly proclaiming the light of salvation from its parish pulpits (via the Internet), every church was darkened; every liturgical service banned. If you were equipped technologically to give remote succor to your flock, you had to do it from your kitchen or conservatory. 'Ready, Steady, God' (or 'Easter Bakeoff') will become the abiding image of Justin Welby's period as Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote Martin Sewell of Archbishop Cranmer blog.

You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/times-blasts-archbishop-justin-welby-over-church-shutdown

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UGANDA. The annual Anglican Church Martyrs Day celebrations have been called off due to Coronavirus.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this is the first time in over 45 years that Anglicans from Uganda and the rest of the world will not celebrate the Uganda Martyrs Day. because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Each year on June 3rd, one of the biggest events for Anglicans in the world is held at Namugongo Shrine in central Uganda where 23 Anglican martyrs were brutally killed in 1888 alongside 22 Catholic martyrs. This killing was done by a local brutal king called Kabaka Mwanga over fears that the christians had become more loyal to their new religions than to him.

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EGYPT. The Rt. Rev. Samy Fawzy Shehata, Area Bishop of North Africa, has been elected Coadjutor Bishop of Egypt, and will succeed Bishop Mouneer Anis upon his coming retirement. Anis reached the province's mandatory retirement age of 70 in early April. Shehata was elected on April 22 in Cairo, receiving 73 percent of the vote. The Diocese of Egypt has been a strategic leader among Anglicans in the Global South. Shehata will play a central role in the establishment of the Anglican Communion's newest province, the Province of Alexandria, which will include the Diocese of Egypt and three dioceses in North Africa and the Horn of Africa created through its mission work. (TLC)

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I would like to commend a four-part series -- a critique of British theologian N.T. Wright by VOL's resident theologian, the Rev. Roger Salter. The four-part series on Luther vs Wright by Salter is a must read for those who wish to maintain the right views on Justification by faith. https://virtueonline.org/choice-pastors-nt-wright-or-martin-luther-part-2 Other parts can be accessed at www.virtueonline.org

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Bishop Steve Wood was recently released from the hospital following 10 days on a ventilator amidst treatment for COVID-19. Wood is the rector of St. Andrew's Church in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina and bishop for the Anglican Diocese of the Carolinas.

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On the alarming news front, a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found some troubling statistics.

In the area of patriotism, Boomers/Silent Generation (55-91) rated 80% but only 40% for Millennials and Gen Z. Belief in God was 70% for Boomers but only 30% for Millennials. Only hard work got high ratios for both groups. -- 90% vs 80%. ONLY self-fulfillment rated higher for Millennials close to 80%, but only 60% for Boomers.

So, to sum up: we have an angry, young, rootless generation with little love for their country, no adherence to any higher moral authority, and little interest in investing in future generations. Yep, bright days ahead for the American republic!

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A poem for these stressful times

SERENITY

In order to settle down
in the quiet of our own being,
we must learn to be detached
from the results of our own activities.
We must be content:
to live without watching ourselves live,
to work without expecting immediate results,
to love without instantaneous satisfaction, and
to exist without any special recognition;

For it is only when we are detached from our selves
that we can be at peace with ourselves.
-- Thomas Merton

Warmly in Our Lord,

David

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
May 29, 2020

Historian Tom Holland has written a new book, Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World, which has come as something of a surprise for several reasons. First, Holland is not a Christian. Second, Holland’s book is one of the most ambitious historical defenses of Christianity in a very long time.

While studying the ancient world he realized something. Simply, the ancients were cruel, and their values utterly foreign to him. The Spartans routinely murdered “imperfect” children. The bodies of slaves were treated like outlets for the physical pleasure of those with power. Infanticide was common. The poor and the weak had no rights.

How did we get from there to here? It was Christianity, Holland writes. Christianity revolutionized sex and marriage, demanding that men control themselves and prohibiting all forms of rape. Christianity confined sexuality within monogamy. (It is ironic, Holland notes, that these are now the very standards for which Christianity is derided.) Christianity elevated women. In short, Christianity utterly transformed the world.

In fact, Holland points out that without Christianity, the Western world would not exist. Even the claims of the social justice warriors who despise the faith of their ancestors’ rest on a foundation of Judeo-Christian values. Those who make arguments based on love, tolerance, and compassion are borrowing fundamentally Christian arguments. If the West had not become Christian, Holland writes, “no one would have gotten woke.”

It is ironic therefore that mainline Protestants especially and including The Episcopal Church have jettisoned the very beliefs that not only made Christianity what it is and has become. But in adopting so-called progressive ideals, they are killing off historic Christianity, buying into abortion, homosexual marriage and down playing absolute doctrinal standards. Then they sit back and wonder why no one wants to darken the doors of their churches!

As Holland writes, “In fact, the very critiques of those who condemn Christianity for various perceived injustices are rooted in Christian precepts.”

It may well be that COVID-19 is the judgement of God on faithless churches that no longer preach the gospel. The Episcopal Church can barely muster 500,000 ASA and that figure will be considerably lower once the coronavirus ceases to exist (and that could be a long way off). The Anglican Church of Canada barely musters 97,000 ASA and the Church of England, the Mother Church, can barely muster 756,000 in a population of 56 million. Combined, they are not as big as one or two dioceses in the Anglican Church in Nigeria. And you wonder the African Anglican provinces have no respect for Canterbury and Justin Welby. Why should they?

Welby agonizes (literally) over whether he should embrace homosexuality. African Anglicans in Nigeria are dying because Boko Haran despises such weakness, loathes sodomy and slaughters Christians!

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If there was any doubt in your mind about how things are doing in the Church of England, then you can read my latest here: https://virtueonline.org/church-england-faces-massive-shrinkage-owing-covid-19-pandemic In short, the church of England is massively shrinking, according to an article in The Times.

As a result, The Church of England is beginning the process of rethinking its role owing to a "massive shrinkage" in the number of dioceses and parish churches that it runs -- and could even mean that it had dozens fewer bishops.

The incoming Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, 61, has been appointed to chair a review of the future of its 42 dioceses, (42 cathedrals and 16,000 churches). This review comes two months after every church closed its doors and services went online.

He will outline a vision and lead a strategy committee which will look at the size and number of dioceses in future. Sources say he has privately signaled that he is prepared to contemplate dramatic cuts and the mothballing of historic buildings.

A 2018 survey of The Church of England revealed that 2.9% or 756,000 weekly attend a parish, down from 895,000 a year earlier. The population of England is 56 million. The Church has 108 bishops.

The rise of online services has prompted a rethink of how the Church of England pays for its 42 cathedrals and 16,000 churches -- of which 12,500 are listed by Historic England -- with dioceses under pressure to merge their functions in education, theological training and administration to save money, said The Times.

"The crisis is going to lead to a massive shrinkage in the number of cathedrals, dioceses and parish churches," said a source familiar with his thinking.

"This has vastly accelerated a dramatic change in the way the Church of England will do its stuff because of declining attendance and declining revenues."

Separately, senior Anglican figures said that rather than cut clergy in response to the church's financial woes, there must be a cull of bishops, whose numbers have "grown like Topsy" to 108, more than double the figure in the late Victorian era.

And you wonder why ACNA exists in the US and GAFCON exists as a global Anglican alternative to the Lambeth conference! No brainer really.

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The truly big news of the week was the FT. Worth legal decision that saw the Episcopal diocese of Ft. Worth delivered a body blow over who owns the properties in that diocese.

The Supreme Court of Texas told the Episcopal Diocese of Ft. Worth that they had no right to the properties they alleged were theirs, (and for which they had fought over for 12 years in the courts) and said they could go pound sand.

It was basically about neutral principles.

In THE EPISCOPAL DIOCESE OF FORT WORTH v. THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH, Justice Eva M. Guzman writing for the court, finds that the withdrawing (Anglican) faction of the splintered Episcopal diocese is the rightful Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth:
"Applying neutral principles to the undisputed facts, we hold that (1) resolution of this property dispute does not require consideration of an ecclesiastical question, (2) under the governing documents, the withdrawing faction is the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, and (3) the trial court properly granted summary judgment in the withdrawing faction's favor. We therefore reverse the court of appeals' contrary judgment".

The 30-page unanimous opinion from Texas' top judicial body reinstates a trial ruling that had been earlier overturned by an appeals court. The ruling winds down litigation between the departing diocese and the Episcopal Church that was set in motion more than a decade ago after the national church filed suit against departing Anglicans. Lawyers for the Episcopal Church maintained that elected officers of the diocesan leadership were no longer the Episcopal diocese and that dioceses hold property in trust for the national church under the denomination's 1970s-era Dennis Canon, wrote Jeff Walton of IRD.

Distinguished canon lawyer Allan S. Haley wrote of the opinion that it makes short shrift of ECUSA's remaining arguments. "It demolishes ECUSA's Dennis Canon, first by holding that a beneficiary like ECUSA cannot declare a trust in its favor in Texas on property that it does not own, and second by holding that even if the Dennis Canon could be said to create a trust in ECUSA's favor, the Canon does not, as Texas law specifies, make the trust "expressly irrevocable". Thus, it was well within the power of Bishop Iker's Fort Worth Diocese to revoke any such trust, which it did by a diocesan canon adopted in 1989 -- to which ECUSA never objected in the twenty years following that act."

The Supreme Court decision puts the ACNA-affiliated group in control of the diocese's $100 million worth of property. TEC spent over $60 million in legal fees to fight for these properties. This is a huge loss to TEC.

Katie Sherrod, the angry Episcopal diocese's director of communications blasted the court's decision and said the diocesan leadership is, "deeply disappointed and actually shocked by this decision" and will now consider whether to appeal to the United States Supreme Court.

That might not go down so well. "We never say never, but SCOTUS has not taken a church property case since Jones v. Wolfe (1979)," said Suzanne Gill, speaking on behalf of the (Anglican) Episcopal diocese.

GAFCON and Global South primates and bishops will undoubtedly see this as the Hand of God in the liberation of these parishes from the clutches of an apostate, neo-pagan denomination. Even though "God dwells in temples not made with hands," (Acts 7:48) it will be seen as a vindication of ACNA's necessary existence in the face of a post Christian Episcopal church that preaches "another gospel" (Gal. 1: 8-9) The ruling can be seen here: http://www.txcourts.gov/media/1446580/180438.pdf

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To tickle your funny bone, I wrote a satirical essay in which Presiding Bishop Michael Curry admits that COVID-19 could kill off TEC. You can read it here:
https://virtueonline.org/episcopal-presiding-bishop-admits-covid-19-could-kill-church

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Religious freedom issues are coming very much to the fore in America and no more so than when and where it is acceptable or not acceptable to preach the Gospel in an increasingly secular world. Political correctness, the nastiness of the pansexual movement, AKA LGBTQ is making it harder to preach the Gospel, which is now deemed uninclusive because of the particularity of the Gospel’s claims.

Anglican Chaplains is a ministry you may never have heard of, but one Christianity can't live without. Evangelism's "Tip of the Spear" perfectly describes the ministry of Anglican Chaplains.

Defending and advancing the Gospel far outside the comfort of church pews and into the hostile secular forces of our society today is no easy battle. Anglican chaplains are specially educated, trained, equipped, and deployed to serve in a variety of governmental and non-governmental settings. This may sound like the mantra of chaplaincy, but this stealthy ministry goes far beyond the view of the general public for a faith mission that is life changing.

The chaplaincy began thirteen years ago as a member of the Convocations of Anglicans in North America (CANA), directly connected to the Church of Nigeria. Today, the Rt. Rev. Derek L.S. Jones, has oversight on almost 200 active chaplains. "We provide ministry around the world, on Naval war ships with Sailors and Marines, with U.S. Special Forces in Africa, at US Air Force Bases in Europe and Asia, and in-between the margins of chaplaincy at rodeos, with bikers, with
Civil Air Patrol cadets, and even in cities within refuse dumps in Latin America."

The organization even publishes a quarterly professional Journal for Chaplains.

Bishop Jones holds a pivotal position for his organization to make real change. Aside from being a retired combat veteran fighter pilot with numerous "Top Gun" awards, he was elected by his peers to serve on the Executive Committee for the National Conference on Ministry to the Armed Forces (NCMAF) and will become Chairman in 2021. He is also a charter member and serves as Secretary on the Executive Board of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty.

Most recently, Bishop Jones was instrumental in writing for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit-Little Sisters of the Poor lawsuit, an Amicus Brief to the United States 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals for Freedom of Religion.

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OUT OF AFRICA the news is not good.

FROM UGANDA we learn that Archbishop Stephen Samuel Kaziimba is rallying Ugandans against the pandemic violence and says wife beating and gender-based violence is increasing during the Covid-19 lockdown.

"We have witnessed an increase of cases of GBV during the lockdown. As religious leaders, we appeal and encourage people to work together to prevent it in our homes and communities. We should also provide psycho-social support to the victims during this pandemic," Dr. Kaziimba said.

Uganda police registered 328 cases of GBV between March and April. Archbishop Kaziimba attributed the cases of GBV across the country to lack of money and food.

"When there is no food in the house, men tend to get mad and resort to beating their wives. But there are also women who are busy abusing their husbands because their husbands do not have money and this has further intensified anger among the couples. I ask all men to desist from beating their wives, but women should also respect their husbands," he said.

The Archbishop also asked the national Covid-19 task force to prioritize food distribution to HIV/Aids patients, many of whom have not been able to access their anti-retroviral treatment due to the lockdown.

FROM NIGERIA, the head of the Anglican Church in Nigeria, Primate Henry C. Ndukuba has appealed to the Federal Government of Nigeria to allow religious organizations to resume normal functions, in accordance with the guidelines of the Federal government and the hygienic rules of medical practitioners.

This he said was in reaction to calls for the re-opening of Churches and religious centers that were closed in a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
He said that it was necessary for the battle against COVID-19 to also be tackled spiritually. "The secret things belong to God and He will surely show His people what to do, no matter the situation."

While he commended the Nigerian government on the actions taken so far, he urged leaders to learn from these happenings and ensure that the lives of the people and the welfare of the society remains above personal and political interests, not just now, but even after the pandemic.

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While Church of England leaders have been told to shut down their churches and chaplains are not to perform their regular chaplaincy duties, we learned this week that the Archbishop of Canterbury has been secretly volunteering in lockdown -- as chaplain at St Thomas' Hospital.

Justin Welby is known for his virtue-signaling with public displays of groveling over the church’s ancient sins. Apparently, he has been making regular visits to comfort the diseased and the dying at the London hospital near his flat at Lambeth Palace.

Like other chaplains working on Covid-hit wards across the UK, the head of the Anglican church has undergone special training in infection control and wears personal protective equipment (PPE) over his black clerical shirt and dog collar.

A source close to Bishop Welby, 64, said: "Justin has been a volunteer chaplain at St Thomas' Hospital since lockdown, working alongside other chaplains praying for the sick and dying.”

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The beleaguered Titus Trust, which runs Iwerne Camp, said it is closing down the Iwerne Camp and will no longer use the name Iwerne for their camps. This follows "an extensive year-long review", resulting in a "reorganization focused on extending and strengthening its ministry to independent schools into the future".

It said the review had been informed by "detailed feedback from school teachers and other stakeholders" and had "paved the way for an agile and more regionally focused approach to organizing its popular summer activity holidays".

The Christian camp was associated with John Smyth who abused boys with vicious beatings among other acts of moral depravity. Smyth fled England and died at his home in Cape Town after a years-long abuse scandal involving the late evangelical leader.

Commenting on the changes, a spokesman for the Trust said: "We remain committed to supporting Christian teachers and pupils in their faith and witness in both the day and boarding independent schools of England and Wales."

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Andrew Symes of Anglican Mainstream Challenges for the Church of England asks the seemingly obvious question, “Should churches reopen, and what are they for?

Symes writes the day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a 'lockdown' on March 23rd, the Archbishops and Bishops of the Church of England ordered that all churches should immediately close and not be used even for private prayer by clergy.

The main reason given was to set an example in taking seriously the danger of the virus and slowing down its spread: just as sports venues, theatres, restaurants and garden centers were closing, and many people were no longer able to work or having to work from home, so the church should not be an exception. Anglicans should suffer the deprivations of the lockdown along with the rest of the population; they should also show that they are obedient to the authorities. Clergy were encouraged to use technology to broadcast worship, prayer and teaching from their homes, and to find creative ways, within government guidelines, to continue to support the most vulnerable.

It will be interesting to see the effects of this as researchers investigate what has happened. Anecdotal evidence suggests that churches with existing programs to support the vulnerable, such as running foodbanks, have been able to continue with this, though with restricted opportunities for the personal contact that is so essential. Churches with tech-savvy clergy and/or motivated laity, with less focus on the building as an essential aid to worship and whose congregations are more used to interacting through screens, have adapted best. More traditional churches, especially smaller and rural congregations have probably struggled. While some parishioners in these churches may have been listening to occasional services on the radio, new material on phonelines or even through the internet, there must be many who have had no contact with church since late March. As the habit of regular worship has been broken, people may be difficult to win back.

In other words, the churches with already most potential for growth and mission -- generally more evangelical and with younger congregations -- are surviving and even thriving through this lockdown, while those already in decline: multi-parish benefices with small, elderly congregations, for whom the practice of faith is inseparable from being in a building with others, are in danger of losing even the small amount that they have. Given the inevitable serious economic impact of the lockdown, the Dioceses of the Church of England will find sustaining regular ministry in these declining parishes even more of a challenge.

You can read his full essay here: https://virtueonline.org/challenges-church-england

*****

A “hero” of the Christian faith and apologist Ravi Zacharias died this past week. He was duly applauded by Christianity Today, The New York Times and other secular and sacred media outlets that saw him as a defender of the faith. He spoke last year to a gathering of Anglicans in Dallas, Texas which this writer attended.

But there was a dark side to the man that an attorney in California, one Steve Baughman exposed in a book, Cover-Up in the Kingdom: Phone Sex, Lies, And God's Great Apologist, Ravi Zacharias. “The great evangelist, Ravi Zacharias, had been a pretender for decades. The influential apostle to the Academy had built a self-named empire by claiming for himself academic credentials that he did not have. He told fans and donors that he was "a professor at Oxford" and a "visiting scholar at Cambridge." He told them that he had been "educated in Cambridge," where he had studied quantum physics under the renowned John Polkinghorne. He told them he had chaired a department that never existed. But then Zacharias had an online affair with a married woman. On October 29, 2016, she informed him that she would confess the affair to her husband. The evangelist responded by threatening suicide. And he did so in writing.”

The evangelical press and his denomination passed it all off as the musings of a single woman out to get him, hating that one of their own could be so seriously flawed.

But then comes along a Canadian scholar, one John Stackhouse, who critiqued Zacharias’s apologetic methodology saying it was seriously flawed.

Here is what he wrote. “I am troubled by the report of his relationship with Lori Anne Thompson. I am dismayed by his career-long habit of inflating or simply fabricating academic credentials in a job regarding which academic credentials are key.

These problems notwithstanding, however, in general I have always thought RZ was a poor thinker and an often off-putting communicator, and by "always" I mean since I heard a recording of his first Veritas Lectures at Harvard almost thirty years ago.

“Strangely, most people who are professional apologists I find to be of the same sort: not very well educated, not very informed, and not very helpful. Sorry about that, but I've been observing apologetics, at least in North America, for decades, and the pattern remains the same. A keener with a master's degree or perhaps a doctorate from a non-elite school offers not-very-good arguments to audiences of mostly Christians who don't know enough to know how good is the stuff they're getting. If the apologist has sufficient stagecraft and moxie, he can make a living at it. Meanwhile, real scholars stay away. (Notice who doesn't endorse books by such people, as well as who does.)”

Another Canadian theologian, Prof. Randal Rauser, also took issue with Zacharias on a number of issues. You can watch both men at the following links below:

For Prof. Randal Rauser's critique of this video, please click HERE. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPYRXop7aPA
For an explanation of why I sometimes criticize public Christians in public, please click here:
http://www.johnstackhouse.com/why-i-criticize-in-public/

*****

The Planned Parenthood abortion business improperly applied for and received $80 million in federal funds meant to support small businesses as they battle the economic fallout from the coronavirus. America’s biggest abortion company came under fire for the fraudulent actions and pro-life advocates are calling on the Trump administration to make the abortion giant repay the money.

Some 37 Planned Parenthood affiliates received the funds from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), despite the abortion corporation being explicitly blocked from doing so. Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties in California received the largest loan of $7.5 million, and that affiliate was caught selling the body parts of aborted babies.

Senator Ben Sasse, the author of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act and a Nebraska Republican, was disgusted by the news. You can read more here:
https://www.lifenews.com/2020/05/20/planned-parenthood-abortion-biz-improperly-applied-for-and-received-80-million-in-coronavirus-funds/

*****

Another theologian who is being given a pass because of his popularity, but who is coming under increasing scrutiny for his theological views especially on Justification is Dr. N. T. Wright, the evangelical Anglican bishop and author of numerous volumes. He is the darling of evangelicals and Catholic alike.

But should he be given a pass just because he is famous? No, says theologian and pastor the Rev. Roger Salter. He has looked at Wright’s writings and in a five-part series compares Wright with Martin Luther and says that Wright comes up short, and we should stick to Luther on this absolutely central doctrine. He says Wright radically dismantles the gospel with profound consequences for himself and the wider church universe.

Writes Salter; “Theologians can never be cavalier in their communication of ideas. Nor should they be ambitious in the quest for originality and notoriety. In our time rigorous revision is proposed for everything that has constituted trusted tradition - doctrine, interpretation of ecclesiastical history, and the comprehension of eminent Christian lives; their significance and worth to subsequent generations.”

You can read his five part series here: https://virtueonline.org/choice-pastors-nt-wright-or-martin-luther-part-5

*****

Is Salvation by Grace and Faith...or is it by Ritual and Works? Or ... how do all these factors come together? You can read Dr. Bruce Atkinson’s fine exposition here: https://virtueonline.org/salvation-grace-and-faithor-it-ritual-and-works

*****

COVID-19. As we exit Easter and the Ascension period, we need to pay attention to our surroundings and what the future holds.

Many of you from different states will have different openings of your churches. Some have already defied the message of masks and safe distancing and as a result, some pastors have died. Please listen to the experts and not to the number crunchers; the virologists know the truth and we need to heed them as to if and when we can open church doors again.

My parish, along with thousands of others, uses Zoom and while not perfect, it works. We should also remember that the vast majority of Americans who attend churches are in their 60s and are therefore more vulnerable to COVID-19. They will not soon rush back to church any time soon. We need to be sensitive to them and their concerns.

God bless you all as we struggle together to discern God’s will as we prayerfully hope that COVID-19 recedes into memory.

David

"Trump is a mainline Protestant. That's what is in his bones -- not evangelicalism. It's clear that he's not at home with evangelicals. That's not his culture, unless he's talking about politics" --- Thomas S. Kidd of Baylor University

There is no nuance to apprehend; (Churchill, Queen Victoria), no weighing of their moral good relative to the bad; no space for ethical debate of their virtues and violations. Their greatness (should there be any) must be viewed through the diffracting lens of contemporary offence. As Shakespeare observed, 'The evil that men do lives after them; /The good is oft interred with their bones.' So let it be with all those of whom the mob or Sadiq Khan disapprove. --- Archbishop Cranmer Blog

Instead of repentance, what I hear over and over ad nauseam are messages about God's grace and God's "unconditional" love. It is almost as though our ministers today think that the primary problem in the world is a lack of self-esteem. Apparently, they seem to be oblivious to the fact that God's unconditional love for some folks registers as a license to sin. They could go ahead and sin whenever they want because God will always forgive them--after all, He loves them "unconditionally." --- B. J. Oropeza --- Patheos Blog

"Reliance on the Bible has produced spectacular liberation alongside spectacular oppression." --- Mark Noll in his book "God and Race in American Politics"

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
June 12, 2020

The official hearing, (open to the public and lasting three hours) into charges that Albany Bishop William Love violated Resolution B012 was held virtually on Friday.

Initially we were told that the whole process would be open to the public and would last all day. Clearly that was not correct. Bishop Love told VOL that that was very "frustrating." The meeting was suddenly adjourned at midday by convenor Bishop Nicholas Knisely of Rhode Island.

In a low keyed, but clearly partisan hearing, Bishop Love faced his accusers. Bishop Love is charged with violating Canon B012 by forbidding homosexual marriages in his diocese.

His (diocesan) attorney, The Rev. Chip Strickland, defended Bishop Love, saying his actions did not conflict with existing church canon law. "Bishop Love upheld the worship set out in the marriage rites in the Book of Common Prayer," said Strickland. Church attorney lawyer Paul Cooney demurred, saying that Bishop Love had violated church law.

The facts of the case were not in dispute or the theological validity of homosexual marriage as TEC sees it. "The core issue is the church issuing a pastoral resolution that Bishop love has failed to obey the discipline of the church," said Cooney.

Cooney noted that B012 contains a provision for bishops who are theologically opposed to same-sex marriage to have other bishops provide pastoral support to the couple and celebrant, but Love refused to do this.

In his defense, Bishop Love made it clear that homosexual behavior was at issue, not people living together in (celibate) relationships. "I've tried to be pastorally sensitive to that. I have consistently met with same-sex couples and spoken to them personally. ... I do know how difficult this is for all of us and my heart is breaking for all of us. It's breaking for the church."

The hearing was conducted under the Church's Title IV disciplinary process, was originally to have taken place on April 21 in Colonie, New York, but was moved to a Zoom meeting due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The Hearing Panel will now confer among themselves and come up with their verdict, which won't be made public for several weeks. Once they decide on a verdict, they will have to write a written argument supporting their decision," Bishop Love told VOL.

I believe that this is one more nail in the coffin of The Episcopal Church, that is determined to rewrite the moral law in keeping with the zeitgeist. TEC has opted for sin rather than salvation. To read more, click here: https://virtueonline.org/albany-bishop-william-love-faces-his-accusers

Mary Ann Mueller has written a fine analysis of this hearing which you can read here: https://virtueonline.org/deck-stacked-against-bishop-love-disciplinary-hearing

*****

COVID-19 and Economic Recession is decimating the ranks of Western Anglican Churches. The process has accelerated since Gene Robinson, an openly homosexual priest was consecrated bishop of New Hampshire.

Episcopal Presiding Bishop Michael Curry told a virtual meeting of the Church's Executive Council this week that the financial situation of the church was "uncertain" and budget cuts are in the wind.

Treasurer Kurt Barnes made a budget presentation to the Council which showed that while COVID-19 had no significant effect on income -- including diocesan commitments -- in the first quarter of 2020, payments from dioceses fell significantly in April, with several dioceses deferring their April and May payments and three requesting partial assessment waivers. Stock market declines associated with COVID-19 also have taken a toll on the church's investment portfolio. June will no doubt prove to be worse.

Economists predict that the United States is in for the longest and deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression, Barnes said, and the church should be prepared for economic weakness lasting five to 10 years. Because the effects of declining income may be delayed, the church must identify potential budget cuts now, Barnes and other officers said.

These potential cuts to an already lean budget could be "difficult and painful," said Curry and Gay Jennings, HOD president. It would include staff reductions, but done in the Presiding Bishop's Way of Love notions. The "staged reductions" are on the way.

The only upside is that General Convention has been cancelled in 2021 owing to COVID-19 and pushed forward to 2022. The cost of these gabfests involving some 10,000 persons runs between $21 million and $23 million! The deeper question is do these conventions now have any real value? How many more sexualities can TEC embrace before looking like a fully paid-up member of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest national gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender advocacy organization in America! Will General Convention finally convince the powers that be that a resolution to sell 815 2nd Ave. must be enacted upon? And why spend $20 million or more convincing the Church to take climate change seriously? Of course, with recent events, it would give Curry a platform to raise up holy hands and preach loudly about racism and inequality in America. But does it take an expensive convention to tell Episcopalians what they already know? His popularity would undoubtedly soar, riding on the wave of a royal marriage, but it comes at great cost. Can the Episcopal Church afford it?

*****

One revealing statistic is that the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) has shot past the Anglican Church of Canada (ACoC) in Average Sunday Attendance. The Canadians can barely muster 97,000, while the North American Church claims 134,000, but that figure will be revised upwards in a couple of weeks. No gospel, no Good News = spiritual death. Good News, hope of eternal life = growth. No brainer, really.

*****

Domestically, President Donald Trump came in for a hammering from top Washington bishops, who slammed him over two photo op visits, first to an Episcopal church and then to a Roman Catholic shrine. One was a white progressive female Episcopal bishop, (Mariann Budde) the other was a black male (pro-homosexual) Catholic Archbishop - Wilton Gregory. Trump unified them in scorn.

The President's church visits were surrounded by protests, civil unrest and riots stemming from the death of George Floyd on Memorial Day (May 25) in Minneapolis. George Floyd died under the knee of a police officer who had him penned to the ground during an attempted arrest. Mr. Floyd is black; the police officer is white. And now the Black Lives Matter movement is again in full force with protests spreading not only though every state, but also around the world.

Peaceful assembly and protest have turned violent with civilian protestors and police injured or killed. The night sky turns orange with burning buildings, while looters break into stores and wipe them clean of merchandise.

You can read Mary Ann Mueller's very fine analysis of the events here: https://virtueonline.org/top-washington-bishops-agree-slamming-trumps-church-visits-was-right

*****

Overseas, the present and former Archbishops of Canterbury also condemned Trump's actions. Trump brandishing a Bible is 'an act of idolatry,' said Rowan Williams. Archbishop Justin Welby called out the "ongoing evil" of white supremacy, while the National Association of Evangelicals called out "racial injustice". Conversely, evangelist Franklin Graham said they should be thanking Trump, rather than criticizing him! They are nitpicking his gesture, he said.

"Objectively this was an act of idolatry -- standing somewhere else than in the truth, using the text that witnesses to God's disruptive majesty as a prop in a personal drama. In a context where racial privilege itself has long been an idolatry, where long-unchallenged institutional violence has been a routine means for the self-defense of that privilege, the image of the president clinging to the Scriptures as if to an amulet is bizarre even by the standards of recent years."

You can read my full story here: https://virtueonline.org/present-and-former-archbishops-canterbury-condemn-president-donald-trumps-actions

*****

SELECTIVE OUTRAGE. America's Episcopal bishops, while condemning the killing of a black man, failed to condemn looters responsible for billions of dollars' worth of damage, left in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest for allegedly using a counterfeit bill.

Ultra-liberal, progressive bishops in The Episcopal Church were silent in the face of Antifa and others who burned properties and businesses looting and destroying stores across the nation over the death of one black man.

In Santa Monica, for example, a number of business owners lost everything in 10 minutes, with an estimated damage of up to $6 million! There was no public outrage from local Episcopal bishops over this.

When Presiding Bishop Michael Curry railed against President Donald Trump clasping a Bible using St. John's Episcopal church as a backdrop, declaring himself "the president of law and order", threatening to deploy the United States military to American cities to quell a rise of violent protests, Curry said only that the bible teaches us that "God is love" and Jesus of Nazareth taught, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Curry mentioned George Floyd, but he had nothing to say about tens of thousands of big and small businesses (many of them black owned) hurt by the rioting and looting in some 140 cities across the nation. Nothing.

The same goes for some 13 bishops (to date) who have failed to condemn looters, but were happy to rail against racism, white supremacy and Trump's actions at St. John's Episcopal Church. Below is the list. You can read my full story here:
https://virtueonline.org/episcopal-bishops-condemn-killing-black-man-fail-condemn-looters

*****

Across the pond, Evangelical Anglican journalist Andrew Symes asks, what should good Anglicans do: stay at home, or join a crowd?

I confess I don't understand what is going on here. Perhaps that marks me out straight away as too cerebral, too linear in my thinking, too wedded to an outdated 'modernist' mentality. To me, it seems like a contradiction that doesn't make sense, but no doubt I can be educated as to my straitjacket thinking.

Up until now, the Church of England leadership has been extremely cautious about permitting any action which might potentially contribute to the spread of Covid-19. The regulations (later downgraded to "guidance") made it clear that church buildings initially should not be used at all, for gatherings of any kind, or even for the private prayer or recording of services by clergy. This was to ensure that churches could in no way incubate the virus, and a way to show solidarity with the rest of the population who were having to stay away from all but essential work.

As the lockdown has begun to be eased, other sectors in society, and indeed some church groups have lobbied the government to allow churches to open for funerals, weddings and carefully controlled worship services, but the Church of England has been reticent, preferring to listen more to the voices of those concerned that any unnecessary face-to-face meeting of people could risk the lives of the vulnerable.

A letter to clergy from the Archbishop of York on 7th May gives detail on how individuals can enter churches for cleaning and essential maintenance, urging clergy to always remember that "safety is paramount". Then, as recently as June 3rd a document was released from Church House, for "planning purposes", on how churches might be reopened "when circumstances allow" -- now thought to be 15th June.

You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/uk-what-should-good-anglicans-do-stay-home-or-join-crowd

*****

LAMBETH, ENGLAND --- Despite being mocked for "self-flagellation" by a distinguished Indian parliamentarian after he apologized for Britain's colonial past, the Archbishop of Canterbury is now apologizing for his "white privilege" in the wake of Black Lives Matter (BLM) riots.

"I acknowledge that I come from privilege and a place of power as a white person in this country," Anglican archbishop Justin Welby announced Tuesday in a video posted on Twitter. "But I feel within me, again today, that great call of Jesus that we are as a Church to be those who set our own house in order and who acknowledge our own historic errors and failings."

"I come back to the fact that, in the New Testament, Jesus says be angry about injustice, repent of injustice -- that means go the other way, take action against injustice," Welby said, beginning his brief apology by reflecting on the parable of the Good Samaritan.

According to apologist and journalist Dr. Jules Gomes, the Archapologizer of Canterbury is very selective about what he will apologize for. "Most ordinary people couldn't care less for what he has to say anyway, the Archbishop of Canterbury grovels over White Privilege, when real repentance and true courage would entail confronting the greatest, most hidden, most accepted injustice of our day -- the industrial-scale slaughter of babies in the womb. You can read Dr. Gomes' superb piece here: https://virtueonline.org/archbishop-canterbury-grovels-over-white-privilege

*****

In Uganda, 23 Anglican Martyrs were commemorated by its Primate

Every year, for the past 30 years, thousands of Anglicans from across the world have converged at Namugongo shrine in Uganda to commemorate the killing of 23 martyrs. The shrine is located where the Anglican young men were killed.

They were killed in 1887 by a traditional king called Kabaka Mwanga of Buganda kingdom, located in central Uganda. The king accused the young men refused to perform homosexual acts and were more loyal to their recently introduced Anglican Church than to him.

Every late May, Anglicans from within Uganda and neighboring countries like South Sudan, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo have been walking on foot to Namugongo, as a symbol of solidarity with the martyrs. The celebrations were presided over by the Anglican Archbishop of Uganda, the Most Rev. Stephen Kazimba Mugalu, where only 60 people including priests, politicians and prominent Anglicans were invited for the ceremony.

*****

The ACNA College of Bishops sentenced Bishop Ron Jackson, formerly bishop of the Diocese of the Great Lakes to full excommunication following a Board of Inquiry, a panel required by the Anglican Church in North America's Constitution and Canons, which found cause for ecclesiastical charges to be brought against The Rt. Rev. Ron Jackson. These charges were brought forward after private, earlier efforts by the Archbishop and fellow bishops to facilitate restoration proved unfruitful.

Bishop Jackson admitted to the use of pornography over many years and pleaded guilty to the charges of sexual immorality (Canon IV.2(6)) and conduct giving just cause for scandal or offense (Canon IV.2(4)). The College voted to impose the sentence of deposition from the sacred ministry on Bishop Jackson. His holy orders have been removed, and he is no longer permitted to engage in ordained ministry in the Anglican Church in North America.

*****

Well, how should we look at race, now a major and recurring issue in American life and culture? The Rev. Dr. Gerald McDermott believes he has an answer in his column, Race and Redemption.

He writes: The death of George Floyd has shaken our nation's foundations. Our churches are rightly trying to respond with compassion. But in pursuing that admirable goal, many church leaders and parishioners are adopting a race narrative that is empirically and theologically suspect.

Protestants and Catholics alike are affirming the mainstream media's explanation for Floyd's brutal killing: systemic racism in police departments and society as a whole. Some Anglican pastors have written that since America is "structurally" and "systemically" racist. Catechesis, preaching, and evangelism must now focus on race and racism. J. D. Greear, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, and Jamie Dew, president of New Orleans Baptist Seminary, decried the tragedy as evidence of "racial inequity in the distribution of justice in our country." The Catholic bishop of Bridgeport, Connecticut, said Floyd's death is evidence of "systemic racism, bigotry, and discrimination in our country." White Christians, many influenced by Critical Race Theory, are eager to demonstrate their virtue by confessing their "white privilege."

There are empirical reasons to question the mainstream media's account. For instance, see reports on police bias by black Harvard economist Roland Fryer and by Heather MacDonald. In addition, for the last half-century, affirmative action policies have advanced people of color in education, corporations, the military, government, the courts, media and entertainment, and most American denominations.

According to Carol Swain, retired professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University, this dubious narrative will hurt those it aims to help. It will strip from young people of color something essential for success in life: hope. Swain, an African American who grew up in dire poverty, explains, "I was convinced that I was born into a land of opportunity. Despite being born black and poor, I learned that one's attitude toward life was far more important than your race or social class in determining what you will accomplish" (from Race and Covenant, forthcoming).

But there are even better theological reasons to reject the mainstream narrative. We urge VOL readers to read Dr. McDermott's essay here. McDermott is editor of the forthcoming Race and Covenant: Retrieving the Religious Roots for American Reconciliation. You can read the full story here: https://virtueonline.org/race-and-redemption

*****

An alumnus of Sewanee, the University of the South dropped a note to VOL saying that the university is still governed under Old South Bishop Supremacist Charter that was written by a slave owner who fought as a Confederate general against Lincoln's emancipation of slaves. You can read more here:
https://www.splcenter.org/presscenter/splc-urges-all-branches-military-take-action-and-remove-confederate-symbols-its

*****

Here is a look at what a leading Anglican cleric thinks about how England and European Christians see Christianity in America and England. It is a timely warning.

"Many greatly detest hearing the truth about the USA's imaginary self- identification as God's chosen (exceptional) people -- like the gun lobby, incapable of any rational analysis of what is responsible for making America anything but great, over the past thirty years, to scandal after scandal, Pass The Loot Ministries etc., -- moral corruption among preachers and leaders of the mainstream denominations -- the pedophile culture in Catholic seminaries and dioceses by its leaders. There are some godly people remaining, thank the Lord, but godliness does not characterize the Church either in America or in any of the decadent, wealthy and increasingly depraved western nations. The Church of England is merely a satellite of TEC. Institutional religion is in its death throes here, bought and sold by corrupt, ambitious and immoral church leaders who cozy up to the Zeitgeist in the hope that some of its magic might rub off on them."

*****

Dear VOL Supporters,

Despite COVID-19, the news goes on, and in fact, it has only increased. This coronavirus has changed the dynamic about news gathering, what constitutes news, how we communicate the news, even how we worship, and how we plan to evangelize the next generation for Christ. What has not changed is the gospel, who Jesus is, what he has done for us, the cost of our salvation and eternal life.

VOL is watching as the Anglican Communion re-forms itself both in North America and globally. The Communion's theological and demographic base has shifted from west to east and south.

The Communion's left-wing media elites believe they can keep on doing and reporting things the same old way. They are progressively moving the church further and further away from the gospel as the church embraces more and more leftist views on a whole list of issues including controversial climate change theories, while ignoring the central tenet of our faith, that Christ died for our sins and rose again for our justification.

We at VOL need to keep the news coming to you. We are the most widely read news outlet for orthodox Anglican readers globally. Overseas orthodox Anglican leaders rely heavily on VOL. VOL's Facebook page gets tens of thousands of African readers.

We need your support. We have staff to pay (though I receive no salary), correspondents, communication bills, website maintenance, video outreach, travel and more. Please consider a tax-deductible donation at the link below. You are our only lifeline to keeping the news coming. https://give.virtueonline.org

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Thank you for your support.

David

We all now find ourselves in the Orwellian world of Cultural Marxism. --- Melvin Tinker

"At the root of all racism is a heretical anthropology that devalues the imago dei in us all. The gospel reveals that all are equally created, sinful and equally in need of the saving work of Christ. The racism we lament is not just interpersonal. It exists in the implicit and explicit customs and attitudes that do disproportionate harm to ethnic minorities in our country. In other words, too often racial bias has been combined with political power to create inequalities that still need to be eradicated." --- ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach

Our contemporary America is far, far too individualist. We have little sense of community, of responsibility for one another's well-being. We talk a good talk, sometimes, but our actions show how little we really care. -- Rev. Roger Olson

It is easy to die for Christ,
It is hard to live for him,
Dying takes only an Hour or Two,
But to Live for Christ, Means to Die Daily.
Only during the years of this life, are we given the privilege of serving
each other and Christ...
We shall have Heaven Forever -- Sadhu Sundar Singh

'If you have no Bible, you have no way to live.' --Rosa Parks

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
June 26, 2020

It has been an incredible two weeks in the Anglican blogsphere and the culture generally. Here are the highlights:

In the Diocese of Ft. Worth, the Anglicans there won their case to keep their properties valued at $100 million, roundly defeating the Episcopal diocese who believed the properties belonged to them. Not so, said the Supreme Court of Texas. They have the right to the properties based on neutral principles. So, a ten-year struggle comes to an end. The Episcopalians can take it to the SCOTUS, but it is unlikely they will hear it as they haven't heard a religious case since 1939. Another indication that Episcopalians are not getting it all their own way.

*****

In South Carolina, the Anglicans there won another round in the ongoing legal battle with the Episcopal Diocese over 38 parishes with a judge ruling that "neutral principles" triumphed over TEC 's claim. "This is a property case. A decision on property ownership is usually governed by the title to real estate--the deed. In this case, all the Plaintiff Parishes hold title to their property in fee simple absolute," wrote Canon lawyer Allan S. Haley. TEC will appeal, of course. You can read Jeff Walton and Canon lawyer Alan Haley's fine analysis here: https://virtueonline.org/south-carolina-anglicans-welcome-court-order-episcopal-property-dispute

https://virtueonline.org/sc-court-remand-vindicates-bishop-lawrence-and-his-parishes

*****

This week the "conservative" Supreme Court ruled in a majority 6-3 opinion by Justice Neil Gorsuch, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and the four leftists, that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 suddenly includes "sexual orientation" and "gender identity."

In practice, The US Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia means that sexual inclinations and any corresponding behaviors trump biology and all constitutional rights, such as speech, assembly, property and economic liberty. The scope of this hijacking of civil rights law in the Bostock case is breathtaking. It puts a bull's-eye on every institution and sane person and will lead to more Maoist-style coerced speech.

It's one thing for a man to claim he's a woman; it's another to penalize people who won't go along with his delusion. So much for "science." This will pose huge problems for churches and freedom in the coming years

*****

The new Archbishop of Nigeria said there would be no truck with revisionists in the Anglican communion. The Most Rev. Henry Chukwudum Ndukuba says he will resist the revisionist agenda in the Anglican Communion and says that the Lord has made it clear that if care is not taken, even some of the elect can be deceived. (A reference to Mt. 24:24).

In a clear reference to leaders of the American Episcopal Church, The Anglican Church of Canada and the Church of England, the evangelical Primate of the world's largest attended Anglican province, said the best way to tackle any false teaching is by teaching the truth and preaching the wholesome Word of God, applying our lives to the same and making sure that we walk the narrow way, the archbishop told a Guardian reporter. You can read the full story here: https://virtueonline.org/nigerian-primate-not-surprised-revisionist-agenda-anglican-communion

*****

The Anglican Church in North America released its figures this week. In 2019, overall, the Province saw fairly significant decline due to the withdrawal of two dioceses, CANA West and Trinity. The number of congregations decreased by a net of 94, from 1,066 to 972. Membership decreased from 133,279 in 2018 to 127,624 in 2019, a net loss of 5,655. Attendance declined by 3,009 persons, from 87,319 to 84,310. Adjusting for this factor, the Province, while declining in number of congregations, grew slightly in Membership and Attendance. The number of congregations declined by a net of 20, but membership grew by 202 and Attendance by 559. Still and all, the ACNA is bigger in average Sunday attendance than the Anglican Church of Canada, which boasts about 97,000.

ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach offered a candid appraisal of his denomination's challenges and admits there are problems, but the long term looks promising. You can read more here:
https://virtueonline.org/acna-archbishop-offers-candid-appraisal-anglican-provinces-challenges

*****

On the plus side of the ledge the Anglican Church of Canada now has two evangelical metropolitans, upping the number by 100 percent. The Rt. Rev. David Edwards, Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Fredericton, was elected Metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical Province of Canada. Archbishop Greg Kerr-Wilson (Calgary) is the Archbishop of the Diocese of Calgary and the Metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical Province of Rupert's Land. He is a Nashotah House graduate.

*****

However, St. Aidan's in London, Ontario, in the Diocese of Huron displayed a Black Lives Matter sign by its rector the Rev. Kevin George. The organization, Black Lives Matter, which Kevin George was keen to advertise, declared on its website that it is dedicated to overturning the nuclear family, dismantling cisgender privilege, dismantling the patriarchy, fostering a queer‐affirming network and uplifting Black trans folk. Among other things. The founders of BLM, Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Alicia Garza were accused recently of not having an ideological framework. They have hastened to assure us that they do: they are Marxists. They want to overturn capitalism and Western civilization. "As you can see, this fits in nicely with the agenda of the Anglican Church of Canada. To leave no doubt about his political bias, the rector of St. Aidans has a twitter feed on which he displays things like this: "JESUS KNOWS DONALD TRUMP IS FULL OF SH*T SO DO DECENT CHRISTIANS." h/t. David of Samizdat.

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Bishop William Love of Albany got his hearing, but that was it. No decision was rendered. We await the rending of the temple. A verdict of guilty for disobeying resolution B012 is pretty well assured, but you never know. The panel could get struck by lightning or have an attack of conscience and declare the Bible supersedes General Convention resolutions, but don't count on it.

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The National Cathedral in Washington is running out of money and had to lay off staff and cut salaries. For the record, when an earthquake hit Washington DC, the cathedral was the worst hit building in DC. They will still be doing repairs for years to come. You don't think God was trying to send the leaders a message, do ya?

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Episcopal dioceses are showing up with empty check books, with many unable to pay their assessment to the national church. However, there are different pots of money in TEC and Curry and Co., okayed $400,000 to fight racism in two dioceses, Minnesota and Kentucky. One should never let money go to waste. According to an ENS story, the church has $12 million to spend on stuff if it wants too...I see reparations in the air. Of course, what TEC cannot do is come up with more people. We don't know what the long-term fallout will be from COVID-19, but one cannot imagine it coming down on the plus side of history for TEC.

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The Bishop of Springfield, Dan Martins was told not so politely, that when his contract runs out, it runs out, and he cannot stay longer. He said he would stay longer owing to COVID-19. The Standing Committee said no and kicked him to the curb. The bigger question is why? The bishop has had to migrate to Chicago for his wife's health. Apparently, she has dementia, according to a source. As his churches are closed, why could he not be allowed to zoom from Chicago? There is clearly something going on here and he and the Standing Committee won't say. For the record, the bishop got kicked off the board of Nashotah House, an action he described at the time as "shocking." The ASA for the whole diocese is a mere 1344.

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The Church of England is in the process of banning reparative therapy. This led me to write a satirical essay in which US Presiding Bishop Michael Curry will officially ban all conversions. You can read that here. https://virtueonline.org/cofe-bans-conversion-therapy-homosexuals-episcopal-pb-says-he-will-ban-all-conversions

IN OTHER NEWS, The Church of England is facing a financial meltdown as a result of CV-19. A source told VOL that it could emerge 30% smaller as a result of the failure of its leadership. "That's 30% so far. They will try to keep our churches closed for a year. No Carol Services in 2020! But the bishops' stipends and jobs are ultra-safe, all funded by law by the Church Commissioners. The bishops are not accountable to anyone, and will blame everyone else," he said.

The UK Government says church buildings will be able to reopen for public worship from July 4, providing physical distancing remains in place, Bishop of London Sarah Mullally, who leads the Church of England's Recovery Group, said she welcomed the PM's announcement. The last three months have been an extraordinary time -- the first period without public worship and the sacraments in England in more than 800 years.

THE STATUE OF LIMITATIONS. As the West slowly tears down all its statues that speak of its history (both good and bad), one wonders how long it will be before certain Christians are notably included. Take John Newton, the famous hymnwriter of the iconic hymn "Amazing Grace." He is buried in Olney, Buckinghamshire. He was a slave trader. We await the desecration of history.

Justin Welby recently said monuments would be looked at 'very carefully' to see if they all 'should be there'. In a wide-ranging interview, he also urged the West to reconsider its prevailing mindset that Jesus was white, and pointed to different portrayals of Christ as Black, Middle Eastern and Chinese in different countries.

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The Episcopal Church kicked out another adulterous bishop this week. The Bishop of Eastern and Western Michigan, the Rt. Rev. Whayne M. Hougland, Jr., got a year's suspension as part of a Title IV disciplinary action after admitting an affair with a woman. (If he had had sex with a man, announced he was getting a divorce, unmarried his wife at an altar, married the man, then divorced the man, he could have kept his job). Another bishop, the Rt. Rev W. Douglas Hahn, Bishop of Lexington was also found out to have had affair a year ago, before he became a bishop, but failed to disclose it. He got a year's suspension, but then the Standing Committee told him he was not welcome back. Hougland will probably get the same treatment. Adultery is the last unforgiveable sin in TEC, but sodomy is not, apparently.

*****

The soon-to-be Archbishop of York, the Most Rev. Stephen Cottrell will be Archbishop Welby's biggest headache, a source told VOL. He has the cojones to lead the CofE down the paths of unrighteousness at a faster pace than Welby is now doing. Behind his back they say; "would you buy a used car from this salesman?"

The new library at Lambeth Palace, which looks like something from a former German concentration camp, was in fact built like a Belgian power station, VOL was told. Apparently, Church Commissioners were not given any say about its design.

*****

SEWANEE, THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH is back in the news again. The Sewanee Purple News magazine revealed that police had arrested Sewanee alumnus Charles "Chuck" Nabit (C'77) on federal sex-trafficking charges. Nabit and his wife Mary Kay are the namesakes of the University's Nabit Art Building on Georgia Avenue, erected in 2005. If he is found guilty, he could get five years.
A separate statement said that "the University will not take any action with regard to the Nabit Art Building at this time. The Board of Regents will assess what steps are appropriate at a later date, pending the resolution of the case.

The federal government accuses Nabit of paying over $90,000 to a sex trafficking ring allegedly led by Deangelo Johnson in Baltimore. Beginning in March 2019, the investigation numbered 52 alleged interactions between Nabit and victims, including some at the financier's downtown Baltimore office. Nabit has pled not guilty.

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China's Communists Aim to Rewrite the Bible to 'Create a New Version of Christianity'. As the Chinese coronavirus distracts the world, the Chinese Communist Party has ratcheted up its crackdown on religious freedom, and sources say President Xi Jinping is working on rewriting the Bible itself to "create a new version of Christianity shorn of its transcendent visions and values." Xi Lian, a professor at Duke University Divinity School, told The Wall Street Journal's Matthew Taylor King that Beijing doesn't just want to repress religion -- the Chinese Communist Party wants to transform it. Lian said Beijing wants to "drain Christianity of its spirit." China's state-run Xinhua News Agency reported last year that Politburo Standing Committee member Wang Yang had presided over a meeting of so-called scholars and "religious people from the grassroots level" to discuss "making accurate and authoritative interpretations of classical doctrines to keep pace with the times."

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The MULTIPLY 2020 church plant conference recently revealed that in a 2017 study of 1,000 evangelical churches, only 7% were considered "effective evangelistic churches. On average, these churches saw just one person accept Christ each year for every seventeen people in the congregation. The remaining 93% of churches saw even fewer.

While the success of evangelism is not based solely on the number of conversions, we think this study shows an urgent need for evangelism training and confidence in a large majority of churches. Our vision is to address this problem, leaders said.

*****

New Testament scholar N.T. Wright has written a new book; "The New Testament in its World" and says he is clear on female preachers. He was interviewed on what he thinks about women preachers and said this; "The usual idea that women were kept down in the ancient world and it's only recently that feminism has brought them back up is quite wrong. He said women who had some authority in the church and society were not anathema in the ancient world. "There were lots of independent women in Paul's world and that was something Paul worked with." But, says John G. Stackhouse Jr. "[This is] probably among the weakest answers I've heard on the subject, and embarrassing for Tom, alas. It cherry-picks a few verses and leaves intact the main objections of the patriarchists/complementarians, leaving the impression to the unaware that it's as simple as that, when he knows better: it isn't."

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St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., was vandalized again, after President Trump did a photo op in front of the church recently. ENS reports that protesters stood with their hands up on Black Lives Matter Plaza in front of St. John's where "BHAZ" (Black House Autonomous Zone,) was spray-painted on the 204-year-old church's columns, an apparent take on the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle, Washington. That area, also called the Capitol Hill Organized Protest, is comprised of several blocks that were taken over by protesters and abandoned by police on June 8. One person was killed and two were injured in shootings there this past weekend. In a series of tweets, President Trump lashed out at the spray-painted messages outside the White House and threatened police action. "There will never be an "Autonomous Zone" in Washington, D.C., as long as I'm your President. If they try, they will be met with serious force!"

*****

What has Marx to do with Minneapolis? Melvin Tinker, a British writer and vicar thinks he knows; he night be right. "The seismic effects of the disturbing death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in June 2020 are being acutely felt, particularly in the West.

"What is designated as mass protests in major cities in the USA, UK and Europe involving tens of thousands of people under the banner of 'Black Life Matters' has taken many by surprise for their magnitude and stridency. In Britain, such mass gatherings are considered of greater virtue than that of 'saving lives' from the Covid-19 menace through social distancing and observing strict societal lockdown."

The former Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, applauded these illegal gatherings in a tweet, as 'fantabulous'. The Bishop of Dover, the Rev. Rose Hudson-Wilkin, who is the Church of England's first female black bishop, told BBC Breakfast that racism was killing people. Accordingly, in her mind, they were necessary as "sadly the world pays no attention when we do not stand up,"

Any situation is usually more complex and messier than it appears at first sight and we must be careful not to simplify what has been happening in a reductionist way. However, it is not that difficult to detect in the rhetoric being used concerning 'white privilege', the call, even from the Archbishop of Canterbury, for white Christians to 'repent of their racism'. There are pictures posted of white men and women on their knees before people of colour begging for forgiveness. The narrative which is framing these events is largely a cultural Marxist one. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/what-has-marx-do-minneapolis

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Can the Anglican Communion Be Saved? Two eminent Anglican doctors of the Church, one a Brit and the other living in India have come up with the theory, (idea if you will) that the Anglican Communion could be salvaged. COVID-19 signals a way forward for conflicting groups to stay in the Anglican Communion, remaining as one Communion in keeping with Christ's prayer for unity found in John Ch. 17, they write.

Canon Dr. Vinay Samuel and Canon Dr. Chris Sugden believe that the three groups - The Lambeth group, GAFCON and the Global South group of Primates hold in their hands an opportunity to show the world. Their belief is based on how the British Empire became the Commonwealth of Nations, maintaining fellowship with one another based on historic and cultural ties embodied in the person of the British monarch.

They believe that COVID-19 is a fresh start and clean slate which could apply to the Anglican Communion as a whole? But is this realistic? I think not. You can read my reasoning here. https://virtueonline.org/can-anglican-communion-be-saved

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I hope you have enjoyed this new, punchier, shorter approach to the news with links if you want to read more.

We could use some financial support to keep the engines of news coming to you. I have a staff to support, as well as a website and Internet costs to maintain. You can send a tax-deductible donation to:

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You are our only lifeline to keeping the news coming. VOL turned down a 30-year $10,000 government loan because of the obligation to pay it back that could well extend beyond my lifetime and leave my board obligated. I felt that was unethical.

God bless you all and please stay safe.

David

In the age of Trump, prosperity theology and religious nationalism have gained at Christian orthodoxy's expense, the official religious right is a client of a heathen president, and the evangelical-Catholic alliance is rived into countless warring cliques. --- Ross Douthat

"Beware of manufacturing a God of your own: a God who is all mercy, but not just; a God who is all love, but not holy; a God who as a heaven for everybody, but a hell for none; a God who can allow good and bad to be side by side in time, but will make no distinction between good and broad in eternity. Such a God is an idol of your own, as truly an idol as any snake or crocodile in an Egyptian temple. The hands of your own fancy and sentimentality have made him. He is not the God of the Bible, and beside the God of the Bible there is no God at all." --- J.C. Ryle

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
July 10, 2020

As we all continue to experience "house arrest" (we can now sympathize with the apostle Paul), it helps us focus on what really matters -- pray, more time with the Lord, deepen your relationship not only with Jesus but with family and friends, perhaps less opportunities for sin, loving those closer to us, staying in touch with friends if only by Facebook, phone, Zoom, Skype and e-mail and taking more time to smell the roses. For myself, it has meant less time on FACEBOOK, where my blood pressure rose dangerously high over comments made, but it was a lesson I needed to learn. We can also be more creative when we are free of distraction and noise. We have time to think and imagine. You actually can remain calm, caring, and considerate -- and be a more tolerable human being. All of us can.

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The Archbishop of Canterbury announced this week that the Lambeth Conference will now take place in 2022. It should have taken place in 2018, ten years after the last one, then it was pushed back to 2020, then 2021, now it is 2022. Welby encouraged then 1,100 bishops and spouses to "walk together and be good news". He also said this, "As we look around the world, we see how important it is that the Anglican Communion walks together as we seek to be good news." Sadly, the communion is not walking together. It will be interesting to see what GAFCON leaders will do now. Will they postpone their Kigali meeting next year or will they go ahead? Nothing has been decided, a source told VOL.

It's official. The Rt Rev. Stephen Cottrell was confirmed as the next Archbishop of York and received the "spiritualities" of his new see. An hour-long Zoom service incorporating the legal proceedings was led by the Archbishop of Canterbury in the virtual presence of the Bishops of London, Durham, Carlisle, Manchester, Blackburn, and Winchester.

Here is what one source told VOL about Cottrell's elevation; "Cottrell has no theological education to speak of, but has kissed the Blarney Stone and has a frightening gift of demagoguery, utilized in favor of all the wrong things, including his own advancement, it is now full speed ahead for the CofE to become a province of TEC."

For an excellent read on why Cottrell does not understand Christianity, click here:
https://virtueonline.org/cofes-second-command-who-doesnt-understand-christianity

Judi Sture, a frequent VOL contributor, says Cottrell is the gift that keeps on giving. Here is what she says about what his vision will be as Archbishop; "I've been listening to Bach's Goldberg Variations and they're really interesting because you start with a basic musical line, and then it's almost like endless variation, and I suspect that's all I'm going to do. I will play new variations on the basic theme."

Question for Archbishop Cottrell: What exactly are the 'new variations' on the basic theme? Wouldn't happen to involve changing the teachings of the Church, would they? Sture thinks Cottrell knows exactly what he will do, but he ain't saying anything yet. Given time; all will be revealed. You can read her piece here: https://virtueonline.org/archbishop-cottrell-gift-keeps-giving

IN OTHER NEWS, the Church of England is axing Christmas carol concerts that normally draw 5.5 million people, according to an announcement prepared by Church of England bishops.

Church leaders are to warn that because of social distancing restrictions, services during Advent in December and at Christmas 'are inevitably going to look very different.'

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TO OPEN OR NOT TO OPEN, that is the question. Shuttered churches have become a condensed symbol in the political controversies of the coronavirus pandemic, perhaps second only to masks.

Closing houses of worship in the name of containing the spread of COVID-19 is a shameless ploy by the godless Left to skirt the Constitution and functionally ban religion in America, voices charge from one extreme. From the other come accusatory tales of science-denying fundamentalists whose privileged demands for special treatment during an unprecedented crisis are literally killing people.

The New York Times published a case in point. "Churches were eager to reopen," the headline announced. "Now they are a major source of coronavirus cases." A shocking claim! Let's see the evidence:

Weeks after President Trump demanded that America's shuttered houses of worship be allowed to reopen, new outbreaks of the coronavirus are surging through churches across the country where services have resumed. [...] More than 650 coronavirus cases have been linked to nearly 40 churches and religious events across the United States since the beginning of the pandemic, with many of them erupting over the last month as Americans resumed their pre-pandemic activities, according to a New York Times database. [The New York Times]

Wait, that's it? The contrast is stark between the headline's branding of churches as a "major source" of contagion and the story's citation of 650 church-linked cases out of 3 million nationwide. It was a contrast promptly noted.

"The not-so-subtle subtext," observed Reason's Jacob Sullum, is that "[r]eopening churches was reckless, because they are more likely than other venues to be the sites of superspreading events, regardless of the precautions they take. But the evidence presented by the Times does not support that thesis." The Billy Graham Center's Ed Stetzer raised the same objection, deeming this "a headline looking for a story" and arguing the "real story" is that "churches are gathering and remarkably few infections are taking place."

The total number of church-linked infections is almost certainly not a mere 650. The Times doesn't tell us the size of its database, but it presumably does not account for all 3 million confirmed COVID-19 infections. That means 650 is a subset of some smaller number of tracked cases, how many, we don't know. We do know tens of thousands of cases have been tied to other locations -- 24,000 to meatpacking plants and 57,000 to prisons -- which suggests the story is much closer to Stetzer's characterization than its headline. h/t THE WEEK

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The evangelical Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America says the Church in North America is becoming like the Church in Germany when Hitler took control and coopted it for his own political ends.

The Most Rev. Foley Beach said the German Christian Movement abandoned the idea that one must seek the Will of God from the Bible -- the Word of God -- in the name of what they called "Positive Christianity." Instead, they promoted the idea that one finds the Will of God in the voice of culture, the tides of history, and most importantly, the Third Reich. They preached unity. Most of the churches fell for it, he said.

Here is a taste of what the archbishop said:

• The culture says it's OK to kill over 50 million unborn babies.
• The culture says it's OK to live together whether you're married or not.
• The culture says it's OK to change the God-given definition of marriage.
• The culture says it's OK to be consumed by alcohol or drugs.
• The culture says it's OK for the government to be in debt to the tune of over $50 trillion.
• The culture says it's OK to ignore the plight of the poor and the needy while feasting on self-indulgent materialism.
• The culture says it's OK to condemn our elderly to homes where they live in isolation and loneliness away from their families.

"Has the Church been so enamored and enticed by the blessings of materialism and capitalism that it has lost its ability to speak to the culture about the issues vital to our day?"

It was a verbal explosion the like of which this writer has not seen from an Anglican leader in recent memory. I invite you to read Beach's blast here: https://virtueonline.org/wake-america-acna-archbishop-says-church-america-has-been-co-opted-culture

He later roared, Will you Stand in the Gap? You can read what he wrote here: https://virtueonline.org/will-you-stand-gap

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Two pieces of news out of South Carolina this week. Bishop Mark Lawrence is calling for a Bishop Coadjutor. Lawrence, who has been bishop of The Anglican Diocese of South Carolina since January 2008, announced his plans to call for a Bishop Coadjutor who will step into the role of Bishop of the Diocese at some time in the next 18 to 24 months. In a letter to the Diocese, he stressed he is not yet retiring or resigning. "I have many tasks, duties and commitments here before this can take place," he said. Yet it is essential for me to take this step of calling for a bishop coadjutor in a timely fashion."

In another move by orthodox Anglicans, the Anglican Diocese of the Carolinas is reorganizing its episcopal areas for what it calls "more fruitful mission and ministry." Bishop Steve Wood would remain the central authority with two "Area Bishops" in North and South Carolina. Bishop David Bryan will be the Area Bishop for South Carolina and Bishop Terrell Glenn will move to Raleigh, NC and be the Area Bishop for North Carolina. Churches will still have the freedom to continue with their current bishop and the dioceses will attempt to honor any preferences and requests for visitations. For the failing Episcopal Diocese of SC this must be a cause for ecclesiastical heartburn. The Anglicans grow even as they wilt and die. In the last round of legal battles, the Anglican diocese retained all the rights to its properties, causing even more heartburn.

***

Houston-area Episcopal churches received millions in federal forgivable loans, with some 233 Houston-area churches receiving forgivable federal loans of $150,000 or more. Hundreds of Houston-area churches received tens of millions of dollars in forgivable government loans during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an analysis of federal records. Many of them were Episcopal churches. Rt. Rev. C. Andrew Doyle, IX Bishop of Texas, said the loss has been huge across his 160 congregations in the state. "We are looking at a $25 million loss for the year," he said.

Whatever happened to the separation of church and state? Well, apparently that doesn't apply when you can't attend church in person. So, the state now props up churches.

"Not everybody enjoys online worship. Not everybody finds that refreshing, and not everybody wants to give to that if they can't go in person, so it created a real crisis," Doyle said.

A local radio station found the 233 Houston-area churches received forgivable federal loans of $150,000 or more. The collective total is at least $67 million! Records show another 918 religious organizations in Greater Houston received loans smaller than $150,000. For that data set, the SBA data did not name the church, but did provide an exact dollar amount. The collective total of those loans was $40.9 million.

Doyle said the federal funds were primarily used to pay personnel, from pastors and ministers to administrative and custodial staff. For St. Martin's Episcopal in the Galleria area, records show it received between $2 million and $5 million in PPP loans. The church reported 174 jobs retained from the funding.

So why not let churches die like businesses? Are we all socialists now, feeding at the big teat of government? VOL was offered $10,000 from the government and turned it down. We are not socialists.

He e is a U-Tube on why churches should not accept the Govt. PPP money: YOU TUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NhKH91nvJg

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The Anglican Provincial Council voted recently to establish Via Apostolica as a special missionary district in The ACNA under bishop Todd Atkinson. This is a church planting movement entering ACNA in Canada.

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Nigerian Anglican Archbishop, the Most Rev. Henry Chukwudum Ndukuba recently announced the Decade of the Reign of God and said this: "I have realized that as I engage in church mission, church planting, training of pastors and nurturing the believers, the church grows and there will be the need for us to expand. As of now, I cannot tell you the number of dioceses that will be created." By contrast, Western Anglican churches are engaged in a decade of decline marked by the inability of the Anglican churches in Canada, the US or England to grow. The result is that there are two centers and two trajectories going on simultaneously in the Anglican communion. One trajectory is centered in the Global South, the other is centered in the Global North and West. I have written about this at length here: https://virtueonline.org/decade-reign-god-vs-decade-rate-decline

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On July 9th, South Sudan Day, the country celebrated nine years of formal independence from Sudan. Following a civil war from 1983, and a subsequent truce period, the people of South Sudan voted overwhelmingly in January 2011 for independence from Sudan. This was enacted on July 9, 2011.

The newly formed Episcopal Church of Southern Sudan under Archbishop Moses Deng Bul refused to take aid from the Episcopal Church of North America and similar Anglican agencies and provinces because of their ordination of active homosexuals as senior clergy.

Anglicans meeting at the first GAFCON Conference in Jerusalem in June 2008 took the view that they could not stand inactively by while orthodox Anglicans were facing such an uncertain future without support. 90% of the 8 million population were living on less than a dollar a day, and fifty percent were Anglican Christians. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/south-sudan-celebrates-nine-years-independence

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As woke young people wander the country tearing down statues and monuments of the past that reflect their history, one particular statue caught my attention that I found particularly egregious. Pennsylvania University will remove the statue of George Whitefield, the Anglican preacher who advocated for the education of slaves throughout his life.

The University of Pennsylvania announced plans to remove its statue of Whitefield -- a highly influential 18th-century minister -- due to his slave ownership. The statue of Whitefield is not even in public view: it is tucked away in the courtyard of a residence hall. Whitefield was an English-Anglican itinerant preacher who was a figurehead of the First Great Awakening movement. Whitefield regularly admonished slave owners for mistreating their slaves and failing to educate them in Christianity. Whitefield preached to mixed crowds and addressed African Americans specifically; when he visited a city, slaves rushed to finish their work so that they could hear his sermons. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/penn-will-remove-statue-george-whitefield

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That loud flushing sound you hear is the Diocese of Huron, Canada loosening its ecclesiastical bowels with a new ruling on same-sex weddings.

Bishop Todd Townshend says he expects blowback as he took another step in making the diocese more accepting and inclusive by allowing priests to perform marriages for same-sex couples without special permission.

This diocese, like most Anglican dioceses, will be OOB in little more than decade. This will only make it go a little faster...all in the name of inclusion of course; what higher doctrine can be found, pray tell!

***

The Archbishop of Canterbury seems anxious to revisit the collective sins of the past and abase himself before contemporary statues that must now be torn down in the name of political correctness.

Nick Timothy, a columnist at The Telegraph, argues that there is no biblical justification for making the forgiveness of one generation conditional on the actions of another.

"Whether you are a Christian or not, this departure from scripture is profoundly worrying. Christianity's promise of redemption, and the idea that we are each accountable for our own sins, has shaped our civilisation," Timothy wrote. "We are members of families and communities large and small, but we are more than just featureless components of some greater group identity. This is one reason why we have equal political and civil rights, and stand equal before the law."

The columnist added Britain's Christian heritage and its associated history of bloody religious conflict inspired an important Western principle. "The realisation that clashes between different values, beliefs and interests are inevitable gave rise to the essential liberal idea of pluralism. We should accept and tolerate difference, while agreeing (that) laws and processes to mediate clashes, guaranteeing rights for minorities, and protecting the norms, traditions and institutions that foster a common, unifying identity to build trust and reciprocity."

On BBC Radio 4, Welby also said the Church should reconsider portraying Jesus as white. "You go into churches [around the world] and you don't see a white Jesus. You see a black Jesus, a Chinese Jesus, a Middle Eastern Jesus -- which is, of course, the most accurate," he said.

Timothy suggested that Welby could have said that "the significance of Jesus is spiritual, not political or racial, that Jesus was God made flesh, and that we are all made in God's own image." Instead, Timothy continued, "he agreed that the depiction of Christ in Western countries should change." Welby said Jesus was "Middle Eastern, not white."

The archbishop "studiously" avoided "the more accurate description that Jesus was a Jew. But then Middle Eastern Jews, or Israelis as we also call them, are these days an unfashionable minority to defend," the columnist wrote.

***

Concerns have been raised over the free speech of Christians in Scotland as the Scottish Parliament considers broadening hate crime laws. The existing law covers race, but the Justice Committee is considering extending the law to include religion, sexual orientation and transgender identity. Nigel Kenny, the Christian Institute's Scotland Officer, fears that the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill as it currently stands will have "profound consequences for free speech and religious liberty". "These new offences could very easily restrict our freedom to proclaim Christ as the only way of salvation or to call people to repent of sin -- even in church," he said. He went on to warn that the Bill, if passed, could lead to people "unwittingly" committing offences even "in the privacy of your own home".

***

In a historic verdict, Turkey's top court has returned the world's greatest Byzantine basilica to its previous status as a mosque after it abolished President Atatürk's 1934 decision to turn Hagia Sophia into a museum.

Turkey's highest administrative court, the Council of State, reached a unanimous verdict declaring that president Kemal Atatürk's cabinet had no right to turn Hagia Sophia into a museum as part of his secularist reforms and has rendered the decision unlawful. Numan Kurtulmuş, deputy chairman of Turkey's governing Justice and Development Party (AKP), told Turkish media that on July 15, or even earlier, Hagia Sophia will be opened as a mosque "for prayer."

The ruling was also confirmed by the popular Turkish history Twitter channel Ottoman Records. Built 1,500 years ago as an Orthodox Christian cathedral, Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest in 1453. In 1934, it became a museum and is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. Defending the move, a Turkish official stressed that tourists could still visit the site after it once more became a mosque. You can read Jules Gomes' breaking story here: https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/court-declares-hagia-sophia-a-mosque

***

I close VIEWPOINTS with these words from Archbishop Foley Beach; "We will not survive as a nation unless the people of God stand up before God and plead for the survival of America. Spiritual laws are like the laws of physics -- they are absolute unless another force intervenes. Therefore, as America increases its violation of God's laws at an increasing rate, we will face both the implicit and explicit consequences of violating God's laws unless He intervenes -- we must pray for God's intervention!" Amen.

In Christ,

David