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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*****

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*****

The Church of England's General Synod has backed a report proposing a historic agreement with the Church of Scotland.

The Columba Declaration paves the way for future joint working between the two churches.

It sets out how members and clergy will be allowed to worship and exercise ministry in each other's churches, and will also offer opportunities for congregational partnership, formal and informal, where there are churches close to each other.

Members voted 243 votes to 50 to approve the document at the gathering in London.

Moving the motion, the Right Rev Dr. Peter Forster, Bishop of Chester and co-chairman of the joint study group that prepared the agreement, said: "The dialogue and partnership between the Church of England and the Church of Scotland is shaped by our shared calling as 'national' churches, which have a parish structure covering the nation, and a recognition by the state and wider society.

"As our country has become more secular, we find ourselves drawn together as we face common problems, and opportunities.

"For all the ways in which our recognition and calling as national churches has had very different histories and legal structures, we have found that we have more in common, in our common tasks in mission, than we might have been led to suppose."

The report will now go to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in May for approval.

The motion also notes the Church of England's "valued relationship" with the Scottish Episcopal Church within the Anglican Communion and requests the council ensures it is invited to appoint a representative to attend meetings of group.

*****

Gays and transgendered types are now squabbling among themselves. UK gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has accused a national student LGBT representative of inhabiting "a twisted world of political correctness".

In an exclusive interview with KentOnline, the activist strongly denies endorsing remarks that "a man who lops of his sexual organs does not automatically become a woman".

Tatchell gave a keynote speech this week at a public discussion at Canterbury Christ Church University called Re-Radicalising Queers.

The event hit national headlines after Fran Cowling, the LGBT representative for the National Union of Students, refused to share the stage with Tatchell.

Cowling had branded Tatchell "racist and transphobic" after he signed an open letter to the Observer newspaper last year supporting free speech.

The letter followed controversial comments by renowned feminist Germaine Greer who had said that a man who lops off his sexual organs isn't automatically a woman.

Tatchell maintains that while he didn't agree with Greer's remarks, he had supported her right to make them.

*****

The Rt. Rev. Moises Quezada Mota was installed Feb. 13 as the next bishop coadjutor of the Diocese of the Dominican Republic at the closing Eucharist of the 58th annual diocesan convention in Santo Domingo. US Presiding Bishop Michael Curry presided over the service held in the volleyball stadium at the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center. So why does an orthodox diocese still hang on to TEC? The answer VOL was told is pensions and money. Both are needed for survival and none of the mostly orthodox dioceses of Province IX in Central America could financially separate themselves from TEC.

*****

This week Canadian Archbishop Fred Hiltz met with more than 120 members and friends of the LGBTQ community in Toronto at a celebration of the Holy Eucharist at St. John's, West in Toronto.

It was an opportunity for the Primate to be in dialogue with a local LGBTQ community about their lives and experiences within the Church and about the resolution that will go before the General Synod in July. Archbishop Hiltz remains deeply committed to hearing the diversity of perspectives in our church about this matter as reflected in his ongoing conversations with the Bishops of our Church, Canadian participants at the Anglican Consultative Council, Canadian and African bishops in dialogue, from theological students and faculty, and from members of the Council of the General Synod among others.

"I left the gathering more convinced than ever the need for the Church to take opportunity to hear first-hand the experiences and longings of LGBTQ persons," Hiltz said. "So often we speak about instead of with the LGBTQ community. We all need to be creating these kinds of opportunities to have pastoral conversations."

The group of people that Hiltz has no interest whatsoever in speaking to are Anglicans who experience same-sex attractions yet resist the temptation to act upon them. North American Anglicanism is, after all, predominantly interested in justifying acting on one's urges not in denying them -- other than giving up carbon lust during Lent, of course.

*****

The Diocese of Sydney announced the extension of the term of office of its most senior cleric, Archbishop Glenn Davies, this week. The Standing Committee voted overwhelmingly to extend the term of Archbishop Glenn Davies until 2020.

Without the vote, Dr. Davies would have been due to retire on attaining the age of 68 years on 26 September 2018.

Dr. Robert Tong moved a motion in Standing Committee that the Archbishop's term be extended for another two years. Davies was elected in August, 2013.

Tong told the Standing Committee that the Archbishop has shown leadership in three key areas.

"Clearly by his preaching and modelling servant leadership, he has demonstrated spiritual leadership" he said.

Tong also cited the Archbishop's leadership in Anglican organizations within and outside of the Diocese and his leadership in the 'public square'.

"He is across the issues, he makes a contribution and offers leadership from his own experience and learning" Dr. Tong said.

The motion, seconded by the Principal of Moore College, Dr. Mark Thompson, passed overwhelmingly and was announced to the applause of Standing Committee.

Glenn Davies has been the Archbishop of Sydney since 2013; previously, he was the Bishop of North Sydney.

*****

The Grahams and the Falwells are playing out a political drama unprecedented in American politics. Both men claim the evangelical mantle, yet one, the president of a Christian university his father founded, raised eyebrows and provoked an outcry among some evangelicals when he endorsed Donald J. Trump before the Iowa caucuses.

Another, a son of perhaps the nation's most celebrated evangelist and the successor to his father's ministry, Franklin Graham, has drawn attention for his scathing comments about Muslims and is in the midst of what he describes as a 50-state tour "to challenge Christians to live out their faith at home, in public and at the ballot box."

"He's got to make decisions and do things that he feels God is calling him to do," Mr. Graham, 63, said of Mr. Falwell, 53. "And I have to do things that I feel God is calling me to do." But for both, those decisions play out in the shadows of their fathers.

Jerry Falwell Jr., whose father, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, founded Liberty University and the Moral Majority movement, and the Rev. Franklin Graham, whose father, Billy Graham, is estimated to have preached the Gospel to millions of people, now find themselves forces of their own. Both are trying to balance their own identities, and their father's legacies, at a time when religion is playing a powerful role in American politics.

The stakes are high for Mr. Falwell, who is not a pastor, and Mr. Graham as they ponder the rewards and perils of creating political identities apart from the ones their fathers forged decades ago.

"The Grahams and Falwells across generations have chosen different tactics, but the tactics could be equally influential," said John C. Green, a political scientist at the University of Akron and an author of "The Bully Pulpit: The Politics of Protestant Clergy."

*****

VOL is in need of a copy editor. If you would like the opportunity of reading stories I write and editing them and then turning them around in a reasonable amount of time I would be interested in hearing from you. I would prefer someone in Eastern Standard Time. The pay is modest (per story). Each story I write is reviewed by both my attorney and a copy editor. If you think you might be interested drop me a line at david@virtueonline.org I look forward to hearing from you. A degree in English goes a long way.

*****

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"We must get used to being offended. Without free speech democracy crumbles"----- Andy Walton

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
February 26, 2016

God will never bless what He has not approved.

The Church of England has already liberalized on human sexuality and a split is "almost certain" as a result, according to a damning article from a conservative theologian.

Dr. Joe Boot, Wilberforce Director at Christian Concern, has given a withering assessment of the Archbishop of Canterbury's recent address to the Church's governing body and wrote the "conversation on these terms is already over."

"What the Anglican Church's 'conversation' is engaged in... is the attempted rationalization of sin in order to alleviate the reality of guilt which all those practicing sexual immorality feel."

The Church of England is in an ongoing process of what it calls "shared conversations" to discuss different perspectives on acceptance of homosexuality and "help forge better understanding between different groups over the issue of sexuality", according to Archbishop of York, John Sentamu.

However, Sentamu denied the Church is "poised to rethink its centuries-old doctrine of marriage to accommodate same-sex couples", in a letter to The Telegraph.

But Boot argues the position has already subtly moved and a split is inevitable.

"The truth is that once you have accepted, as the Archbishops clearly do, that "LGBTI" et al. is a real matter of human identity, rather than mere social construction, any denial of the normative character of their actions becomes a denial of 'human rights' and an assault on their dignity and person and consequently is 'homophobic,''transphobic' or any other number of regularly enumerated mental crimes and disorders."

There you have it. And you wonder why the Church of England will be out of business in 30 years or less. http://tinyurl.com/jern55o God will never bless what He has not approved. Never.

Not only is the Church of England withering, so is the Episcopal Church, the Anglican Church of Canada, the Church of Wales, and the Scottish Episcopal Church. God cannot and will not allow them to succeed; it violates his sovereign will for them and all our lives, and all the money in the world won't keep these provinces going forever. By contrast, the Global South is growing by leaps and bounds because they are orthodox in faith and morals; they own the Anglican Communion, Canterbury does not. In fact, it would be true to say that at this point in time, Archbishop Justin Welby is irrelevant and will grow more irrelevant in the coming months and years. His day may well be done.

*****

From Uganda came cries of betrayal from the Ugandan Primate Stanley Ntagali who said the Primates were "betrayed" in Canterbury. He went on to say that the Doctrine of marriage between one man and one woman was a symbolic vote not a substantive vote by the primates and that the Church of Uganda will not participate in the upcoming April meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in Lusaka. He said the GAFCON Primates Council will meet in Chile in April to discuss their future in the Anglican Communion and the nature of true mission.

The Archbishop blasted the outcome of the recent Primates' meeting in Canterbury, saying that it was like being back in 2003 when they were betrayed by their leaders. "The Primates voted to bring discipline to TEC and, yet, we now see that the leadership of the Anglican Communion does not have the will to follow through. This is another deep betrayal," he wrote in a Lenten letter to his people.

"I excused myself from the Meeting before the Primates voted. My sense of the meeting at the time was that the leadership was not serious about restoring godly order in the Communion. Even after the vote was taken, I confess I was not convinced that it would have any impact on the common life of the Anglican Communion and, therefore, would not restore Biblical faith and godly order in the Anglican Communion.

"Unfortunately, this is what we are seeing. A spirit of defiance against Biblical faith and order has infected the structures and leadership of the Anglican Communion. It is a very sad season in the life of our Anglican Communion. You can read his full take in today's digest.

*****

As if to make the point at how corrosive the whole pansexual agenda of the Anglican Communion has become, there is a story I posted on whether the Australian Anglican Church is in the throes of schism.
The Bishop of Newcastle, Greg Thompson, has openly branded the Diocese of Sydney and its Archbishop, Glenn Davies, as "divisive".

The Australian Anglican Church is deeply fractured on the issue of gay clergy, and it is set to boil over at a national meeting of bishops in early March, prompting the Newcastle Anglican Bishop to miss the event, accusing Sydney Diocese of leading a breakaway conservative movement.

Australian Anglican columnist David Ould writes that the emergence of a "para Anglican Communion" is underway and is being led by Newcastle Bishop Greg Thompson, who wrote in a letter to Anglican Primate Archbishop Philip Freier in December, saying he would not attend the annual bishops' conference in South Australia on March 6, because it would give the impression of a united church that conflicted with reality.

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

*****

The mystery of why TEC Presiding Bishop Michael Curry placed three of his top executives, including Bishop Stacy Sauls, on leave deepens. He wrote a memo this week saying that he anticipates that investigators will complete their interviews in the next 3-4 weeks. "I will then consult with the officers of the DFMS and legal counsel regarding appropriate steps forward. Once the course of action is clear and it has been properly shared with those on administrative leave, I will share with you with as much transparency as is appropriate, protecting confidentiality, and the ways we will move forward from that point."

That's about as clear as mud or Episcopal fudge. He writes, "I am deeply committed to our all working together on healing, building trust, and nurturing a culture reflective of the life and teachings of
Jesus of Nazareth as we move forward to help the church to serve the world in his Name."

In short, a whole lot of nothing, till we know the truth, if we will ever get the full story. Is it about a nasty little attempt to bug Executive Counsel, or has someone had their hand in the till? We wait with bated breath, or do we?

*****

Three theologically conservative church bodies released a report championing progress in their latest round of ecumenical dialogue.

Representatives from the Anglican Church in North America, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and the Lutheran Church-Canada have been engaging in an ongoing dialogue for the past six years.

Titled "On Closer Acquaintance", the interim report on ecumenical dialogue charts the progress made thus far on conversations between ACNA, LCMS, and LCC.

"The report is intended as an aid for ACNA folk wishing to get a deeper understanding of their counterparts in LCMS--LCC and vice versa, and as a resource that will help us determine the nature and goals of our relationship in the years ahead," reads the report.

"In the process we hope that both sides will become convinced of the width and depth of the common ground we share in doctrine, liturgy, hymnody, devotional resources, and Christian life. At the same time, we anticipate the development of an informed awareness of the areas in which significant differences still divide us."

In a statement released Tuesday, ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach stressed the theological commonalities of the three confessing bodies.

"In a time when so many churches are departing from the teachings of the Bible, it has been refreshing to see the stand for Scriptural Truth that is being made by The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and Lutheran Church-Canada," stated Archbishop Beach.

"We agree on the essentials of the Faith, and share a common desire to evangelize North America with the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

*****

A top Christian theologian criticized British Prime Minister David Cameron over the Europe referendum.

Dr. NT Wright criticized the British Prime Minister for calling a referendum on Europe. He told Christian Today that he wished David Cameron had not decided on this tactic.

He said: "The Scottish Referendum has settled nothing, but rather stirred up all kinds of feelings and antagonisms, and I fear this one will do the same. We have a Parliamentary democracy and, creaky old system though that is, we ought not to try so readily to bypass it."

Wright, who holds the chair in New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St Andrews in Scotland and is also a former Bishop of Durham, warned against applying apocalyptic Bible texts such the Book of Daniel to the Brexit debate.

Until the late 17th century, the Bible, especially the Old Testament, was taught in seminaries and colleges as the essential guide to all things political.

"The sad truth is that most modern Western Christians have not been taught at all the basic rudiments of a Christian political theology," Wright said.

"Various attempts have been made, but most folk are blissfully unaware that there is anything much to be said."

*****

The Archbishop of Canterbury has appointed a woman who is an expert on government and safeguarding to head his independent inquiry into whether there was any kind of cover-up in the Church of England over sex abuse Bishop Peter Ball.

Justin Welby, who last year disclosed the inquiry was to take place, has announced that Dame Moira Gibb is to chair the investigation into "the way the Church of England responded" to complaints about the disgraced former Bishop of Gloucester, jailed last year for a string of sex offences.

Dame Moira, former chief executive of Camden Council until 2011, and who chaired the serious case review into safeguarding at Southbank International School in the wake of the crimes committed by William Vahey, is expected to report before the end of this year.

The separate Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, chaired by Justice Goddard, will also be looking at the Peter Ball case.

*****

The Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, last May, established the Way Forward Working Group to develop a pathway towards the blessing of same-gender relationships -- while upholding the traditional doctrine of marriage. This week the Working Group released its report.

The Working Group has offered two new liturgies for blessing civil marriages to be considered at the General Synod in May of this year. The report also proposes changes in canon regarding ordination by more clearly defining what a "rightly-ordered relationship" is. Currently, civil marriages have been sufficient to be considered "rightly ordered", but moving forward, ordinands in civil marriages will also need for their marriages to have been blessed by the church, and this true for all candidates, not just those in same-sex relationships.

From the report at Anglican Taonga:

The Way Forward Working Group (WFWG) report makes a precept-upon-precept case for how such civil marriages could be blessed by the church.

The Anglican Church in this province is governed by a set of documents, the most significant of which are the Church of England Empowering Act of 1928, and Te Pouhere, the Constitution of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, which came into force in 1992.

Te Pouhere, in turn, specifies a number of "Formularies" (such as a New Zealand Prayer Book/He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa ) which guide the Church in its worship and practice.

The new constitution also spells out a way in which formularies can be changed (or added to) --providing these changes don't, in the words of the report, "represent any departure from the Doctrine and Sacraments of Christ as defined in Te Pouhere's own Fundamental Provisions."

The rites of blessing being proposed are being presented as "additional formularies", rather than doctrinal changes:

"It is the view of the majority of the group," the report notes, "that the proposed liturgies do not represent a departure from the Doctrine and Sacraments of Christ, and are therefore not prohibited by Te Pouhere, however the group also recognizes that this will be a crucial matter for debate."

In offering the report and a possible way forward on these matters, the Working Group has sought to build on many years of discussion and study across this Church. In particular, they build on the work of the Commission on Doctrine and Theological Questions, which reported to General Synod/Te Hinota Whanui in 2014. That report presented two clearly-argued positions, both with their own biblical and theological integrity. One argued that the blessing of committed, monogamous, life-long same-sex relationships was outside of the doctrinal possibilities the Church can consider, the other that such relationships can and should be able to receive the blessing of the Church.

*****

The dark satanic mills of sexual abuse grind on in The Episcopal Church. It was learned this week that there was a trail of sex abuse allegations extending back to the Diocese of West Virginia in 1969, by the Rev. Howard White before his placement as chaplain at St. George's Episcopal School in Rhode Island.

Karen Lee Ziner of the Providence Journal uncovered a circa 1969 case in the Diocese of West Virginia. White's first placement was in that diocese. After leaving West Virginia he subsequently was chaplain of St. Paul's School in New Hampshire, the first of many moves.

Ziner located a 1998 decision of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia: Richard Albright, Plaintiff Below, Appellant, v. H. Willard White and The Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of West Virginia. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

In the department of 'will it never end', the parish of St. Mary of the Angels in Hollywood, California, a parish of the Anglican Church of America (ACA) famed for actresses and actors passing through its doors in its heyday, has been embroiled in a long running legal dispute over who it wants to belong to. It is now in the news again.

Its rector, Fr. Christopher Kelley, who styled himself as St. Mary's "Chairman of the Board, President, & Rector", said he wanted to take the church into the Ordinariate. Many in the parish demurred.

He explained that St. Mary-Angels was a "free-standing legal corporation under California law." He also noted that "during the entire history of the Anglican Continuum, parishes have been free to come and go as they please, and many have changed jurisdictions, not just St. Mary's."

Bishop Strawn put Canon to the Ordinary, Anthony Morello, in as St. Mary's new rector, and a battle for control of the property was launched by a handful of parishioners who did not want to follow Fr. Kelley's lead into the Church of Rome through the Ordinariate.

Well, it got settled this week with the courts declaring Fr. Kelley the winner. You can read Mary Ann Mueller's excellent historical overview and recent changes story in today's digest.

*****

The world's deadliest terrorist group is not in the Middle East. It's in Nigeria, where the Islamist insurgency of Boko Haram and other forces killed more than 4,000 Christians in 2015. That death toll increased 62 percent from 2014, according to a new report.

In response, Nigeria's largest confederation of Christian churches is, for the first time, jointly endorsing a commitment to revive churches in the West African nation's north before they collapse from a decade of violence that has killed thousands of Christians and driven away more than 1 million.

At the same time, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has jointly published with Open Doors, a detailed study of the violence and its impact. "Crushed but not defeated: The impact of persistent violence on the Church in Northern Nigeria" was released on February 24, in Abuja, Nigeria's capital.
A destroyed church in the northern Nigerian state of Bauchi.

CAN is comprised of councils representing Protestant denominations, indigenous evangelical churches, Pentecostal churches, and the Catholic Church--denominations that together encompass about half of Nigeria's 173 million people. The association has adopted the report as the factual foundation of a joint declaration, which demands that the Nigerian government quell the violence and guarantee religious freedom, and asks the UN to launch an inquiry into atrocities.

VOL spoke with a Nigerian bishop this past week and was told the greatest number of those murdered by Boko Haran were Anglicans.

From 2006 to 2014, religion-based violence killed an estimated 11,500 Christians in Nigeria's north, according to the report. It states that 13,000 churches were destroyed, abandoned, or closed during the period, while 1.3 million Christians fled to safer regions in the country.

*****

After lengthy debate, Georgia's state Senate passed an amended version of a religious freedom bill Friday, sending it back to the House and infuriating critics who slam the revised measure as anti-gay and lesbian.

If the Republican-led House agrees with the Senate version, it will go to Gov. Nathan Deal to sign. If not, it could end up being changed again.

House Bill 757 passed the Senate 38-14 after three hours of debate that was, at times, heated. Last week it passed the House 161-0 -- but the Senate version combined it with another more controversial bill.

Now the bill blends the Pastor Protection Act, which would enable religious leaders to refuse to perform same-sex marriages, and the First Amendment Defense Act, which critics have said would allow tax-funded groups to deny services to gays and lesbians.

The bill's Senate sponsor, Greg Kirk, a Republican, said the revised bill is about equal protection and not discrimination, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

"It only impacts the government's interaction with faith-based organizations or a person who holds faith-based, sincerely held beliefs as it relates to marriage," he said.

*****

Oregon released its 2015 'death with dignity' stats this week. Oregon is the model for assisted suicide legislation throughout the United States, so its annual "Death with Dignity" report for 2015 deserves close scrutiny.

Since the law was passed in 1997, a total of 1,545 people have had prescriptions written under the DWDA, and 991 patients have died from ingesting the medications.

The figures are not as straightforward as they might seem. During 2015, 218 people received prescriptions for lethal medications, but only 132 people died. Why the difference? Many people keep the medication on hand and wait until they are ready to use it -- which could be in the next calendar year. Some die before using it; some disappear from the official statistics. So, of the 218, 125 used the medication and died; 50 died before they used it; 5 died and Oregon does not know whether or not they used it; and for 38 people (17%), there is no information about whether they used it or whether they are alive or dead.

Oregon is not far off the mean, but its population is older, whiter, more likely to live alone, and better educated than the US average. Those who died were even whiter and even better-educated than the Oregon average.

Although uncontrolled pain is often seen as sufficient justification for legalized assisted suicide, relatively few people even mentioned it. The three main reasons were "less able to engage in activities making life enjoyable" (96%); "losing autonomy" (92%); and "loss of dignity" (75%).

"Inadequate pain control or concern about it" was mentioned by 28.7%, but the statistics do not indicate how many actually had actually experienced unrelieved pain. See more here: http://www.mercatornet.com/

*****

There are any number of evangelistic programs out there worthy of your consideration. One that I particularly like is Christianity Explored which comes out of All Souls Langham Place, London the spiritual home of the late John R.W. Stott. The conveners are holding an Evangelism for Our Time and Place, at their annual North American Conference, April 15-17, 2016 at Christ Church Presbyterian in Atlanta. People living in the Atlanta region should consider this opportunity. You can register here:
https://docs.google.com/a/virtueonline.org/forms/d/1mGTy5AZ_HjL5qdK-P44CC6K1AG5hrwnSYVc50cJWVho/viewform

*****

The Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic is holding an Evangelism Training Day: Saturday, March 12, 2016 9:30 am -- 3:00 pm at All Saints' Church, 14851 Gideon Drive. Woodbridge VA.

What Gospel Are You Sharing? By Shawn Hart; Tell Your Story by Tom Tarrants; How to Share the Gospel by Michael Suderman are among featured speakers. For more information, contact the Rev. Mary Amendola at mamendolia@tfcanglican.org . She is Pastoral Associate for Evangelism at The Falls Church Anglican, Falls Church, VA.

*****

The Clergy Care Office with Bishop Thad Barnum has officially opened. For more information you can go to their website at: sepearusa.org

The purpose is to care for the well-being of the souls of clergy; to provide a safe space for:
Confession and Self-Examination
Discipling in Jesus
Relational Health in Marriage, Family, and Broken Relationships
Evaluating for Preventative Care
Caring when Signs of Burnout Appear

Bishop Barnum will offer 10-12 appointments a week by video conferencing.
Clergy can make an appointment by going to the website of Bishop David Bryan's Southeast Network
www.sepearusa.org.

*****

We really need your help. The winter months are lean times for funds to keep us afloat, but the bills still have to be paid.

Thousands of you go daily to VOL's website and thousands more receive VOL's weekly digest of stories, but only a handful ever make a contribution to keep the news coming into your e-mail. Please consider a tax-deductible donation to keep the news flowing. You can send a check to:

VIRTUEONLINE
570 Twin Lakes Rd
P.O. Box 111
Shohola, PA 18458

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

Thank you for your support.

David

"The modern world detests authority but worships relevance. So to bracket these two words in relation to the Bible is to claim for it one quality (authority) which people fear it has but wish it had not, and another (relevance) which they fear it has not but wish it had. Our Christian conviction is that the Bible has both authority and relevance - to a degree quite extraordinary in so ancient a book - and that the secret of both is in Jesus Christ. Indeed, we should never think of Christ and the Bible apart. 'The Scriptures ... bear witness to me,' he said (Jn. 5:39), and in so saying also bore his witness to them. This reciprocal testimony between the living Word and the written Word is the clue to our Christian understanding of the Bible. For his testimony to it assures us of its authority, and its testimony to him of its relevance. The authority and the relevance are his. "--- John R.W. Stott

"University "safe space" censors anything that might upset certain groups. Free speech is sacrosanct until it causes offence. Whereupon it is banned as hate speech. "--- Melanie Phillips

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
March 4, 2016

ANGER. It is fueling and driving America right now. People are angry at Washington, they are angry with President Obama, they are angry over abortion, gay marriage and they are angry that nothing is being done to solve America's glaring problems like infrastructure, inequality and infanticide. Evangelicals are so angry, they are prepared to vote for a man who says he has no need to ask God for forgiveness, which goes against everything we know about the gospel. Everything. The man is a narcissist, appealing to people whose faith declares that pride goes before a fall.

Anger is not primarily a political problem, it is first and foremost a spiritual issue. The Bible is very clear. We are to be angry, but "sin not" (Eph. 4:26)

There are a whole host of verses that deal with anger. Here are a few.

St. Paul writes in Ephesians 4:26-31 "In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice."

James write in 1:19-20, "My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires."

Ecclesiastes 7:9, "Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools."

"A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." Proverbs 15:18

In Colossians 3:8 Paul writes, "But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips."

The Psalmist declares in Psalm 37:8-9, "Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret--it leads only to evil. For those who are evil will be destroyed, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land."

A nation this angry will self-destruct; nothing will be achieved. From anger will flow violence, and, with millions of guns in peoples' possession, Americans will turn on themselves out of deep frustration. Many of us who emigrated to this country 30 to 40 years ago don't like what we are seeing and hearing. It grieves us that violence has become a way of life with almost daily shootings unheard of in most civilized countries of the world. And the root of it all is anger, and the Bible is clear about what we should do about that.

Many of VOL's readers are "old white men", and I am told that we are among the worst offenders. So I ask you, as I ask myself, what is our spiritual responsibility to our God, to ourselves, to our churches, and to our children and grandchildren, as they see the anger we harbor and vent? God forgive us.

I have written a piece about Donald Trump and evangelicals that bears out what I believe. It is sad to watch a nation with so many evangelicals suddenly seeing Trump as their political and earthly savior, while tacitly nodding towards Jesus as their personal Savior.

What does this say about evangelicals, of which I claim to be one? Are we three thousand miles wide and only one inch deep theologically and spiritually? Are evangelicals putting their faith in a man who stands diametrically opposed to the gospel we believe? You can read my piece here, or in today's digest. http://tinyurl.com/ze4w6bo

*****

The Executive Council of the Episcopal Church met this past week in Texas to hammer out building infrastructure for new initiatives for racial justice, reconciliation, and evangelism "aimed at capturing members' imagination."

All this is mostly a smoke screen for issues that by and large do not exist in TEC. No one will identify any racists in the church, as most Episcopalians are women over 60 who have probably never uttered a racist comment in their lives. Linking evangelism (however that is defined) to racism is another dead end street. Who, what, where?

As far as evangelism itself goes, most Episcopalians are in need of the gospel first before they can even proclaim it. Most rectors are liberal and progressive, and not evangelicals, so they won't be encouraging evangelism. Because they have never accepted the "Good News" in their own lives, they are bent on parading made up "doctrines" of diversity and inclusion in which evangelism has no part.
All this would be a bad joke except that it involves real people and real peoples' eternal destiny. If TEC is just now discovering evangelism, what about Jefferts Schori, who in nine years in office, never touched the subject! What is Michael Curry honestly hoping to achieve in this late hour screaming that TEC is about "The Jesus Movement", as TEC slowly sinks into the sunset!

Is it any wonder that the Anglican Church in North America has taken up the task of evangelism with growing success!

Of course, TEC is throwing a ton of money at the whole idea, including $3 million for starting new congregations with an emphasis on assisting populations, including Hispanic communities, $2.8 million for evangelism work, and a major new $2 million initiative on racial justice and reconciliation.

Gay Jennings, the HOD president, said she is figuring out "how we as a church will live out this new manifestation of a corporate vocation." However the truth is plain to see -- no message, no church. No Good News about God's unfailing love and grace, but endless rants about racism will not start or grow a church.

The PB's new canon for evangelism and racial reconciliation, outlined the emerging plans that include an "evangelism summit" that would be the first step in building a network of evangelists across the church. There are planned initiatives in digital evangelism, including finding "ways to create meaningful links with people online [by] listening to their deepest longings and questions" and training Episcopalians in using social media for evangelism. The plans envision an experiment with Episcopal revivals that would, in part, "train local teams to practice relational evangelism and deep listening with their neighbors, schoolmates, friends, co-workers," she said.(who is the "she" here? If it is Jennings, I think you need to include it .

This begs the question, does The Episcopal Church even know what evangelism is to proclaim it?

*****

On a brighter, more realistic note, there was a Matthew 25 Gathering under the banner of Justice & Mercy Contending for Shalom. Members from across the Anglican Church in North America, who serve the poor and marginalized, came together to strengthen their ministries, by supporting and learning from each other.

Hosted by Christ Church in Austin, Texas, The Matthew 25 Gathering brought together 60 practitioners and leaders engaged in ministries of justice and mercy.

Grounded in the scriptures, specifically Matthew 25 and Isaiah 58, these men and women came together in order to build community, to encourage and offer spiritual refreshment for those on the front lines, and to discern the next steps for establishing and furthering the work within the Anglican Church in North America among "the least of these."

There was substantial representation from ministries to the homeless, refugees, people caught in human trafficking, at risk youth, immigrants, special needs youth and adults, those struggling with substance abuse, as well as ministries of racial reconciliation, community development, hunger/urban farming, and parishes consisting of under-resourced populations.

Christine Warner, a coordinator of the Matthew 25 Gathering said, "God's presence was with us in an extraordinary way. People were connecting with fellow Anglicans with the same heart and vision, receiving prayer, offering reports from the field, and thinking through what it means to stand in our rich heritage and dream about the future."

*****

Los Angeles Bishop Jon Bruno is trying to serve two masters, says canon lawyer Allan S. Haley. Writing at his blog http://accurmudgeon.blogspot.com/ Haley says Bruno is at odds with his own Diocese over the disclosure of financial information concerning the corporation sole of which he is the incumbent. In order to avoid a vote on an outside audit of his corp sole at the diocesan convention last December, Bruno promised to disclose its financial statements.

Bruno and his corp sole became embroiled in litigation last summer over the bishop's plans to sell the valuable, near-oceanfront real estate of the congregation of St. James the Great, in Newport Beach, California -- after he won a lawsuit to recover that property from the ACNA congregation that voted to leave his Diocese. The original developer who gave the property to the Episcopal Diocese for the building of a local church had placed a restrictive covenant on it, which specified that if the property ever ceased to be used for church purposes, it would revert to the developer.

Bishop Bruno did not take kindly to that position, and brought suit against the developer (in a fine example of how not to treat a wealthy donor). He claimed that the restriction had been waived when the developer had agreed to allow a portion of the property to be used as a parking lot. The developer pointed out in response that it had specifically not waived the restriction as to the very parcel on which most of the church building proper is located.

While that lawsuit was waging, the parish of St. James and its popular vicar, the Rev. Canon Cindy Voorhees, brought suit themselves against the bishop, after earlier lodging a disciplinary complaint against him for misrepresenting his intentions in his dealings with them. The lawsuit sought to enforce the restrictive covenant against the bishop on behalf of the congregation. Lately, the disciplinary proceedings have bogged down, after Bishop Bruno spurned any effort at conciliation.

Bruno and his corp sole are prosecuting one lawsuit and defending another. His goal is the same in both suits: to be able to move forward with his planned sale of the St. James real estate to a friend who is a developer, and who reportedly has agreed to pay $15 million for the property if it is free and clear. (The parish contends the property is worth even more.)

But now the bishop tells his Diocese that despite his December promise to the convention, his lawyers have advised him that to release the requested financial information could harm his ability to conduct the lawsuits. And, with that announcement, Bruno has all but admitted that he is embroiled in a rank conflict of interest with his own Diocese.

Contends Haley, one would have to go back to the Borgias to find a church prelate who was so enamored of temporal things as to place his own business interests ahead of his religious duties. While the corp sole may be a non-profit, the LLC most certainly is not. And what business does a non-profit corp sole -- the legal holding entity of a religious organization -- have with a corporation organized for commercial profit that is unrelated to any church or charitable purpose? (If there is any such purpose to his investment, Bishop Bruno should have disclosed it to his Diocese by now.)

The proceeds from such an investment are generally characterized under tax law as "unrelated business income", which is taxable at regular corporate rates. A charitable organization that has too much "unrelated business income" in its mix runs the risk of having its charitable status reviewed, or even revoked, by the IRS.

If Bishop Bruno could jeopardize his Diocese's tax-exempt status through his corp sole activities, then he most certainly has a conflict of interest, even if matters have not progressed quite that far. He has a fiduciary obligation to make full and open disclosure of all those activities -- to all beneficiaries who could be affected by them. Both the Standing Committee and the vestry of St. James should see to it that Bishop Bruno does not have the last word in this matter.

*****

An activist Episcopal priest who underwent an abortion to finish Divinity School, later tanked her parish. The Rev. Anne Fowler claims that if she had not had access to an abortion when she accidentally became pregnant after enrolling in Divinity School, she would never have been able to graduate, to serve as a parish rector, or to help the enormous number of people whose lives she has touched.

Her story got punched up in USA Today, where she claims to have doubled her church - St. John's Episcopal Church in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts - but Jeff Walton of IRD did some sleuthing, and found that far from increasing the parish's attendance and monetary wealth, she, in fact, lowered it.

St John Jamaica Plain MA statistics can be seen here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/juicyecumenism/wp-content/uploads/20160303152615/St-John-Jamaica-Plain-MA.pdf

Fowler claimed in the Gazette piece that St. John's doubled in size and more than doubled in budget under her leadership. She said that she is most proud of "fostering a loving, creative, responsible and fun community of faithful people." Sadly, we know this legacy all too well: another decimated parish led by a liberal activist, writes Walton. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

From REFORM Ireland comes word that the clergy there have written an open letter to their bishops saying that a letter put out by their leaders on same sex marriage is a "dangerous departure from confessing Anglicanism."

It is dangerous, they say, because of its appearance of orthodoxy, while undermining the principles of our reformed protestant denomination.

The letter from the bishops proposes to encourage mutual respect and attentiveness, but it communicates something quite different, they say. "They make the Church of Ireland its own primary authority and source of unity, and then assume that the church's teaching on the issue of human sexuality is liable, even certain, to change."

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

*****

The Episcopal Church and Trinity Wall Street need to keep their hands off Africa. Increasingly, TEC is using Trinity Wall Street as a proxy to use its money to move African Anglicans from their "fundamentalism" to the more "enlightened" West on issues like sexuality. But they are meeting resistance, as more and African Anglicans are telling TEC and TWS that they can take their money and float themselves down the East River.

The future of the Anglican Communion belongs to Africa, not to the West anymore. I have written extensively about this in today's digest.

*****

Canadian Anglican Bishops dodged a bullet on Gay Marriage this week, saying that a same-sex marriage motion would "not likely" to pass in order of the House of Bishops.

The Canadian House of Bishops could not muster the 2/3rds majority it needed to pass a motion to change the marriage canon to accommodate same-sex couples.

A resolution before General Synod this summer to change the Anglican Church of Canada's marriage canon to allow same-sex marriage is "not likely" to get the number of votes it needs from bishops, according to a statement sent by the House of Bishops to Council of General Synod (CoGS), and released publicly Monday, February 29.

There was blow back, of course, from a couple of revisionist bishops.

The bishop of Ottawa expressed his mortification at the decision from the recent House of Bishops' meeting not to support same-sex marriage.

He issued a statement in which he rather smugly congratulates himself and his diocese for being consummately inclusive, while at the same time lauding same-sex couples whose "marriage is an exclusive loving commitment". Odd, really: if unrestrained inclusion is good enough for the bishop and his diocese, why isn't it good enough for same-sex couples?

So far, two liberal bishops -- Chapman and Bishop Michael A. Bird of Niagara -- have wailed, gnashed their teeth, and profusely apologized for this decision. Oddly enough, we haven't heard from any conservative bishops?

*****

From the Diocese of Egypt comes this word on this years' Good Friday offering from The Episcopal Church.

Egyptian Archbishop Mouneer Anis wrote, "It has come to our attention that the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church (USA) has recently issued a Lenten appeal asking the churches of TEC to remember the Good Friday offering for Jerusalem and the Middle East. In this appeal he said "this tradition [The Good Friday Offering] is decades old and is an important statement of our solidarity with the members of the four dioceses of the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East.

"I would like to clarify the fact that the Diocese of Egypt with North of Africa and the Horn of Africa, one of the four dioceses of the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East does not receive funds or grants from the Good Friday offering of the Episcopal Church (TEC) in the USA. The decision not to receive these funds came after the 2003 decision by TEC to consecrate as bishop a divorced man living in a homosexual relationship. The decision not to receive money from TEC is one expression of the reality that the Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa was (and still is) in an impaired relationship with The Episcopal Church."

One of our clergy in Ethiopia states our situation in graphic terms: "We rather starve and not receive money from churches whose actions contradict the scriptures."

*****

Atheist scientist Hugh Ross finds God and becomes a Christian. Watch this video: https://youtu.be/tnm4-lzKWVk Pass this along to a young person who might be wrestling with issues of science and faith.

*****

Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo, former head of the Barnabas Fund UK is appealing his conviction to the highest court in England, for sexual assault and witness intimidation. This is a costly and taxing process. Because he is no longer part of Barnabas Fund, he cannot be supported, or viewed as being supported financially by the organization.

An account has been set up to channel support to Patrick and his wife. The details are as shown below.

Account name: Reconciliation Trust
Account number: 9071280902
Sort Code: 20-84-56
Ref: Patrick Sookhdeo

You can see my story about Dr. Sookhdeo - http://www.virtueonline.org/dr-patrick-sookhdeo-story-behind-story-trial-guilty-verdict-and-public-vilification

*****

Egyptian Bishop Ghais Malek died this past week, reports Egyptian Archbishop Mouneer Anis. He was 86. During his last two months, he suffered from pneumonia, a minor stroke and other complications. Bishop Ghais was known for his compassionate pastoral care, servant leadership and love for all. He will always be remembered as a faithful man of God, who revived the Episcopal Anglican Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa, which he led from 1984 to 2000.
He promoted the community development services within the diocese, as well as educational and health services. He worked hard to strengthen our ecumenical relations and initiated our interfaith dialogue with Al-Azhar in 1999, with then Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey.

*****

We really need your help. The winter months are lean times for funds to keep us afloat, but the bills still have to be paid.

Thousands of you go daily to VOL's website and thousands more receive VOL's weekly digest of stories, but only a handful ever make a contribution to keep the news coming into your e-mail. Please consider a tax-deductible donation to keep the news flowing. You can send a check to:

VIRTUEONLINE
570 Twin Lakes Rd
P.O. Box 111
Shohola, PA 18458

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

Thank you for your support.

David

The mantra of the culturally attuned liberalism within Anglicanism is one of celebrating and ensuring 'inclusion'. At first sight this might seem to be fulfil some of the conditions of Jesus' invitation to unity. The difficulty is, as we have seen and known for some while, that inclusion does not mean what it says. Rather it means the reconfiguration of different sets of values. --- Gavin Ashenden

The only hope for this country is God. We have taken God out of the political debate. We've taken Him out of the public space. And I want to put Him back in. --- Franklin Graham

There can be no true walking together with those [TEC] who persistently refuse to walk in accordance with God's Word and the Anglican Church of Kenya will not therefore be participating in the forthcoming meeting of the ACC in Lusaka. -- Archbishop Eliud Wabukala

I suggest that we are now firmly in the final phase of a three-stage devolution of Holy Scripture, common in mainline Protestantism. Every Protestant expression of the Christian faith has in its origins a regard for the Bible as its norm; were we feeling especially confident, we might say it in Latin: the norma normans (the "norming norm"). But somewhere -- perhaps in the second half of the previous century -- that norm quietly became a resource. The norm became a resource because we are not naïve. We understand that there is no simple, unproblematic movement from biblical text to contemporary world, and so we hedged. It may have been a hedge born of courage or honesty, but, nonetheless, Scripture became a resource, a normed norm (norma normata), albeit with no shared norming criterion. --- Garwood Anderson

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
March 11, 2016

DISCONNECT. If there is a single word to describe the political, spiritual and ecclesial malaise in this country, it is the word disconnect. This week the folk in Michigan, good, sensible, mid-western people, said they either wanted Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders for president. Whatever you may think of their choices, there is only one word to describe their behavior and choices -- disconnect.

People feel disconnected economically and politically; from Washington; the president and from America's institutions that supposedly support them. They are fearful, angry, and they hate the other side with a passion. They feel disconnected.

The same is going on in America's churches. For over 50 years, liberals, progressives and revisionists cut and diced the mainline churches over a social gospel that was no gospel, and then went right over the cliff, embracing pansexuality. When people up and leave, their leaders seem bewildered that fewer and fewer are buying what they are selling. It's called disconnect. The decline of Protestantism and the rise of the Nones is another sign of disconnect.

The Episcopal Church's new presiding Bishop, Michael Curry, has come up with the idea of TEC embracing the "Jesus Movement." No one know really knows what it means, where it comes from, or what do with it, except that somehow it is tied to racism. It begs the question what was Jefferts Schori's tenure all about if it wasn't the Jesus Movement. (Her specialty was running up millions on lawsuits). Curry has hauled it out of thin air, and wants everyone to get on board. That's called disconnect.

This week the Anglican Communion Institute, a group of scholarly Episcopalians, produced a paper titled Anguish and Amnesia: The Episcopal Church and Communion and said more or less the same thing. They concluded a long peroration with these words, "Let TEC then be clear about the character of its independent life vis-à-vis a bona fide historical reality called the Anglican Communion. Let it seek to clarify its present self-understanding. Let it speak this out clearly so that the larger Communion can hear and understand who TEC now wants to be, and in just this way, how it wants to differentiate itself vis-à-vis the historical Communion's evolution and present life. There is no need for too much sensitivity, but only clarity about its new self-understanding." Heaven forbid that these talking heads should use such words as heresy or apostasy to apply to TEC.

TEC doesn't seem to get it hence the disconnect between fantasy and reality.

*****

As a sign of the continued disconnectedness and brokenness in the communion, The Anglican Church of Kenya and the Anglican Church in Uganda both announced that they would not participate in the upcoming ACC Meeting in Lusaka, Zambia.

The Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) was pinning its hopes of bringing and keeping everyone at the table, but already two, and possibly more GFACON primates, have bowed out, saying that godly restoration has not occurred in the communion, and they are staying home.

They also say that the Primates' inability to enforce their "consequences" for the Episcopal Church in the United States has made their decision not to attend irreversible.

In their January communique, the Primates required that, for three years, the Episcopal Church, "while participating in the internal bodies of the Anglican Communion . . . , will not take part in decision-making on any issues pertaining to doctrine or polity".

The chairman of the ACC, the Rt. Rev. James Tengatenga, said that the Primates did not have the "power to take the next step". It was the "right and responsibility" of delegates of the Episcopal Church in the US to vote at the ACC meeting.

He was speaking to the Dean of the School of Theology of the University of the South at Sewanee.

All three representatives of the Episcopal Church have confirmed that they will attend and vote at the meeting in Lusaka, from 8 to 19 April.

Bishop Ian Douglas (CT) said the Primates had "spiritual and pastoral significance, and not constitutional authority" and both the President of the House of Deputies, Gay Clark Jennings, and lay representative, Rosalie Simmonds Ballentine, also confirmed their intention to participate fully.

GAFCON Primates blame the Archbishop of Canterbury for not following through; it is just another betrayal, they say.

Uganda Primate Eliud Wabukala condemned what he called "a spirit of defiance against biblical faith and order", which had "infected the structures and leadership of the Anglican Communion".

The President-Bishop of the Province of Jerusalem & the Middle East, Dr Mouneer Anis, and the Area Bishop for the Horn of Africa, Dr Grant LeMarquand, issued a reminder to the Episcopal Church that the diocese of Egypt with North of Africa and the Horn of Africa did not accept money from it. This was "one expression" of the "impaired relationship". The statement ended with words from a priest in Ethiopia: "We [would] rather starve and not receive money from Churches whose actions contradict the scriptures."

That's called disconnect! What about impaired communion does TEC not understand? What about broken communion does TEC not understand? A deeper question is, does the Archbishop of Canterbury see what is going on and can he connect the dots, or is he just as disconnected!

You cannot square the circle. It's called disconnect. You cannot lift the Law of Non-Contradiction. That's called disconnect. In the end, it will be that disconnectedness that will bring down the whole TEC house of cards, perhaps even the communion itself.

You can read a number of stories about the terrible damage done by western pansexual progressivists, including a very fine commentary by the Rev. Dr. Gavin Ashenden, in today's digest.

*****

The General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada (ACoC) will meet in July, 2016, in Toronto. And they will agonize over whether to approve homosexual marriage.

The Synod will consider a motion to amend the marriage canon to explicitly allow for the marriage of same-sex couples. Because this is a matter of doctrine and worship, it is required to have a 2/3rds majority in each of the houses of laity, clergy, and bishops. If it gets this - this is considered "First Reading" - it is then sent off to the ecclesiastical provinces and dioceses for feedback, and it will be considered for Second Reading at the next General Synod in 2019. Only then will it take effect.

The House of Bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada met in Niagara Falls recently. They issued a statement which said "it became clear to us that the draft resolution to change the Marriage Canon to accommodate the marriage of same-sex partners is not likely to pass in the Order of Bishops by the canonical requirement of a 2/3rds majority in each Order."

Apparently it is not a done deal, and, when the General Synod meets, they might just get the 2/3rds majority, according to recent reports.

But here's the kicker. Four ACoC indigenous bishops are against homosexual marriage, not because they believe it to be wrong, but because it is an expression of "colonial oppression".

That leaves the liberals in the unhappy position of having to decide who to oppress: their indigenous members or their LGBTQI members; normally, they take the easy way out and just oppress their conservative members, writes an orthodox Canadian Anglican blogger.

The Bible does offer some advice on all this, of course, but no-one in the ACoC seems particularly interested in reading it. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

The Diocese of Bor in South Sudan ended its 14-year relationship with the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis this week, citing those dreadful same-sex blessings issues that haunt the communion

Bishop Catherine Waynick noted that, in December of 2015, Sudan passed a resolution requiring that no formal partnerships can be sustained with Dioceses where such blessings occur.

"I received a letter from Bishop Ruben Akurdid in mid-February, explaining their position, and thanking me for the partnership we were able to have for these many years. I have responded with a letter expressing my deep disappointment, my hope that in the future such partnerships will again be possible, and assuring him that our hearts and doors are always open to him and our brothers and sisters in Bor."

Won't happen, of course. The Anglican Communion is moving inexorably towards fragmentation, if not open schism, and TEC is going to be the loser. The Diocese of Indianapolis is living in denial.

*****

The Queen does not believe in gay marriage, and doesn't believe it should have been allowed, a source told the Daily Mail this week. The newspaper cites a "friend" as saying she favored civil partnerships, but because of her deep Christian faith, did not support same-sex marriage. This is because she believes the traditional Christian teaching that marriage should be between a man and a woman.

Same-sex marriage legislation was passed in England and Wales in 2013, and came into force in 2014. It was passed in Scotland in 2014. It is still not allowed in Northern Ireland.

The friend said: "I said to her, couldn't she do something about it, and she replied: 'I can't. I can only advise and warn.'" The Queen reportedly told her friend she was frustrated, but powerless to intervene.

Buckingham Palace did not comment because it never comments on what are regarded as private matters.

*****

FORWARD IN FAITH -- UK (FIFUK), which opposes women bishops, announced this week that over 300 parishes have already passed a resolution under the House of Bishops' Declaration, which results in them receiving episcopal oversight from a member of the Council of Bishops of The Society. The majority had been petitioning parishes under the former Act of Synod, but a significant number previously had only Resolutions A and B or had no resolution at all.

Parishes that have not yet passed the new resolution have just over eight months to do so before the existing resolutions and petitions lapse. (Resolutions can, of course, be passed later, but, where resolutions are already in place, the new resolution should be passed before 17 November 2016, to avoid a hiatus.)

In January 2015, Forward in Faith published a booklet containing advice to parish priests and PCCs on passing resolutions under the Declaration. A second edition has now been published and is available on the Advice page of the Forward in Faith website or in print from the office. In addition to some minor adjustments, the second edition includes a new section setting out the steps that need to be taken after a resolution has been passed. This has been drafted in the light of parishes' experience of communication with dioceses about resolutions.

The Advice page also includes
a draft Resolution and Statement as a Word file,
a checklist for chairmen and secretaries of PCCs,
a sheet for calculating dates by which notice must be given before the PCC meeting,
a table for calculating the majority required to pass a resolution, and
a leaflet for PCC members.

See more at: http://www.forwardinfaith.com/news.php#sthash.6LhqoQtk.dpuf

*****

The Archbishop of Canterbury visited a refugee camp in Rwanda on March 6, after a three-day visit to Burundi, to show solidarity with Anglicans and pray for peace and reconciliation. Archbishop Justin Welby toured the Mahama Camp in the Kibungo Diocese of Rwanda, where almost 50,000 refugees -- all from Burundi -- have fled.

The Archbishop, together with Archbishop Onesphore Rwaje, the Archbishop of Rwanda, briefly toured the camp and then participated in a service for the refugees.

Mahama Camp is the UNHCR's newest camp in Rwanda and, in only four months since opening in April 2015, has become the country's largest camp.

*****

For two years, ISIS has been terrorizing Christians and other religious minorities in Syria and Iraq.

In one week, Secretary of State John Kerry will have to tell Congress whether the United States will officially label ISIS' actions a "genocide."

Many Christian groups have been ratcheting up the pressure for such a declaration. Today, the Knights of Columbus released "encyclopedic evidence" for Christian genocide in the Middle East at a press conference in Washington, D.C.

"If Christians are excluded from the classification of genocide, we will be responsible for a greater and more ruthless campaign of persecution against them," said Bishop Angaelos of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom, one of this morning's speakers at the National Press Club. "We cannot declare genocide for Yazidis and not Christians if they are suffering the safe fate at the hands of the same perpetrators at the same time under the same conditions."

"I share just a huge sense of revulsion over these acts, obviously," Kerry told a House Appropriations Subcommittee two weeks ago. "We are currently doing what I have to do, which is review very carefully the legal standards and precedents for whatever judgment is made."

Meanwhile, the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted last week to pass two resolutions: one calling for support of the creation of an international war crimes tribunal to prosecute those involved in Syria, and the other calling the crimes perpetrated by ISIS against Christians and other minorities there "war crimes,""crimes against humanity," and "genocide."

*****

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have called for a "great wave of prayer" for the evangelization of England. In an "unprecedented step", Justin Welby and John Sentamu have written to every parish priest in the Church of England, inviting churches across the country to take part in the focused prayer initiative, in the week leading up to Pentecost Sunday.

They say they want "to see a great wave of prayer across our land, throughout the Church of England and many other Churches" from 8 to 15 May. At the end of the week, a number of "beacon" events will be held -- at St Paul's Cathedral in London, on Saturday 14 May; and at Durham, Coventry, Winchester, and Canterbury Cathedrals and St Michael le Belfrey in York, on Sunday 15 May.

These beacon events, led by renowned worship leaders and preachers, will provide space for people to "pray for the renewal of the Holy Spirit and the confidence to share their faith," a spokesman for Lambeth Palace said.

Archbishop Justin will send a message via live video link to other beacon events taking place at the same time as the Canterbury event.

"At the heart of our prayers will be words that Jesus himself taught us -- 'Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,'" the two archbishops said in their letter to clergy.

*****

Despite what it sounds like on the campaign trail, Americans of all religious backgrounds are opposed to curtailing freedoms for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. While Marco Rubio states that "...faith-based people...are being compelled to sin by government in their business conduct" and Ted Cruz is calling 2016 the "religious liberty election," statistics show a more complicated relationship between American religion and LGBT issues. A majority of Americans - across the religious spectrum - think that people should not be fired from a job, denied housing or evicted from their home simply because they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.

While more than 50% of white evangelical Protestants and Mormons do support Religious Refusal bills, every other American religious group - including Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Muslims - oppose them. Moreover, majorities in every single American religious group - including white evangelical Protestants and Mormons - would support legislation protecting LGBT individuals from discrimination in jobs, public accommodations, and housing.

The Public Religion Research Institute, drawing on 42,000 interviews conducted in 2015, issued a recent report showing that even among religious groups that oppose same-sex marriage, a majority support legal protections for LGBT people and do not believe that small business owners in their states should be able to refuse products or services to gay or lesbian people on religious grounds. Even where their religion has been vocal in opposing same sex marriage, a majority of Americans (53%) support it.

The survey comes in the wake of a slew of anti-LGBT religious refusal bills being proposed at the state level which would allow businesses to refuse services to LGBT people and eliminate the ability of local governments to protect LGBT residents and visitors through non-discrimination ordinances.

On the national scene, the conservative American Principles Project approached all of the presidential hopefuls late last year to endorse the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA), hoping to get their pledge to support legislation during their first 100 days in the White House that would, according to the ACLU, "permit government employees to discriminate against married same-sex couples and their families - federal employees could refuse to process tax returns, visa applications, or Social Security checks for all married same-sex couples, and allow businesses to discriminate by refusing to let gay or lesbian employees care for their sick spouse, in violation of family medical leave laws."

The act goes beyond affecting just LGBT people: it would allow landlords to refuse housing to a single mother on the religious grounds that sexual relations must only occur within the bounds of marriage. Six of the Republican candidates pledged to back the act, and three more have endorsed similar ideas. No Republican candidate has publicly opposed the bill.

But the findings of the Public Religion Research Institute reveal that it is no longer possible to make blanket assumptions that people who affiliate themselves with a religious institution will support legislation that legalizes discrimination against LGBT individuals and families. When 73% of Catholics, 72% of Mormons, and 57% of white, Evangelical Protestants support LGBT nondiscrimination laws, we begin to see a more complex picture of religion in America.

*****

BEST FICTIONAL WRITING OF THE WEEK comes from Victoria Carodine of The Eckerd College Currant in St. Petersburg, FL. "Jefferts Schori pushed through efforts by church officials to undermine her authority and advocated for social issues. She blessed same-sex marriage unions, civil marriages and stood up for abortion rights....Jefferts Schori's leadership rescued the church from institutional demise -- an accomplishment for anyone, much more so a woman leader constantly facing down discrimination.

"As a presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church the United States, she has been a voice for the voiceless and a champion for social justice and equality. She is someone we all can admire and want to emulate in terms of her lived commitments." Ms. Carodine gets a free subscription to VIRTUEONLINE for her commendable, but fictional lines.

*****

New Wineskins for Global Mission Conference 2016 is upcoming April 7-10, at Ridgecrest Conference Center East of Asheville, NC. Speakers and Anglican leaders from around the world, and missionaries from many agencies, are coming to New Wineskins 2016, to inspire and equip clergy, lay leaders, youth ministers, mission mobilizers, potential missionaries, and entire congregations to fulfill our Lord's Great Commission to make disciples of all nations. Participants from 34 states and provinces in the U.S, Canada, and 53 other countries have attended previous New Wineskins conferences, which are still bearing fruit, as churches are mobilizing youth, sending missionaries, and reaching out to Muslims, Hispanics, Jews, refugees and international students in their area. Bring a team from your church to this encouraging, eye-opening, and life-changing conference!

Among primates present, is The Most Rev. Dr. Tito Zavala, Archbishop of the Province of South America and Bishop of Chile, who will be the Celebrant at the Closing Eucharist on Sunday morning. He is also leading a workshop on Making the Great Commission a Reality in the Parish.

You can register here: https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07ebdgudxk5d0661f0&oseq=&c=&ch=&utm_source=Master+List&utm_campaign=a719870dd1-The_Mid-Atlantic_Messenger_March_10%2C_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6ef69f053c-a719870dd1-75219454

*****

TEC TRUST FUNDS. If you ever wondered how much money there is in TEC's Trust Funds and where TEC gets its money for all the lawsuits it files, well, this might help. The Episcopal Church Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer N. Kurt Barnes announced that the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society's (DFMS) trust funds, had $380 million in 2014, citing an "exceptional performance" during the first six months of 2014. The trust funds account for 25% of the annual budget, he said. So spending $40 or $50 million is really no big deal.

*****

We only ask for a working budget to keep VOL coming into your e-mail inbox every week and for stories posted daily to the website.

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Thank you for your support.

David

The Church of Nigeria shall be in full communion with all Anglican Churches, Dioceses and Provinces that hold and maintain the Historic Faith, Doctrine, Sacrament and Discipline of the one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church as the Lord has commanded in His holy word and as the same are received as taught in the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal of 1662 and in the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion. --- Archbishop Nicholas Okoh

"Anyone who calls women 'pigs,''ugly,''fat' and 'pieces of a - -' is not on my side. Anyone who mocks the handicapped is not on my side. Anyone who has argued the merits of a government takeover of banks, student loans, the auto industry and healthcare is not on my side. Anyone who has been on the cover of Playboy and proud of it, who brags of his sexual history with multiple women and who owns strip clubs in his casinos is not on my side. ... Anyone who ignores the separation of powers and boasts of making the executive branch even more imperial is not on my side." -- Oklahoma Wesleyan University President Everett Piper

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
March 18, 2016

It is the most stinging rebuke to date of The Episcopal Church by the leader of another Anglican province. Nigerian Primate Nicholas Okoh lashed out at the Episcopal Church in language we have not seen since he lit into out-going Archbishop Rowan Williams following his disastrous tenure as head of the Anglican Communion. At that time, Okoh ripped the Archbishop of Canterbury, saying his sudden resignation left behind a Communion in tatters: highly polarized, bitterly factionalized, with issues of revisionist interpretation of the Holy Scriptures and human sexuality as stumbling blocks to oneness.

This time he went after The Episcopal Church in language reminiscent of that, and revealing that it is now only a matter of time before a split is inevitable in the Anglican Communion. He said that at Canterbury, he and his fellow African archbishops were denounced, yes denounced as homophobic, making them feel that they were in the wrong place. If that is true, why didn't Archbishop Justin Welby stop the proceedings and denounce the behavior of archbishops like TEC Presiding Bishop Michael Curry or Archbishop Fred Hiltz of Canada. Why?

Okoh went on to accuse TEC's Michael Curry and, by association, Welby, of using "patience" with the ultimate goal of embracing the homosexual doctrine. In other words, delay, delay and delay till everybody is on board. This is just what Philip Groves of the so-called "Listening Process" just loves to hear. His American paymasters will pay him endlessly till all are on board.

But that's not all. Archbishop Okoh went on to say that the Africans were walking into "a well-rehearsed scheme to gradually apply persuasion, subtle blackmail, coercion on any group still standing with the Scriptural Provision as we know it, to join the straight jacket of the revisionists and be politically correct. Somehow, they are succeeding!"

And you thought I was being tough on sodomists, progressives and revisionists all these years. Well you ain't seen nuthin' yet. We need a "Special Status", said Okoh for orthodox Anglicans, but that won't necessarily work either. As long as you are seated anywhere near a so-called "progressive" archbishop, he will use all his coercive powers to persuade you to come on over, even if his own province is dying.

Okoh concluded his blast with these words; "In summary, as long as we are now candidates for whom every opportunity in the Anglican Communion should be explored to gradually teach us to embrace the new sex culture, it will be unwise to deliberately walk into a well-prepared camp of recruitment, blackmail, indoctrination and toxic relationship."

Of course, he won't be attending the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Lusaka, Zambia in April, and neither will his fellow archbishops from Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. The boycott could widen. Okoh wrote that the Anglican Communion's journey is very uncertain for the orthodox. You can read the full story in today's digest or here: http://tinyurl.com/h68kkeo

The ACC (one of four instruments of unity) is now irrelevant. Normally I would attend these ACC events, but I have decided not to; the first time in 15 years.

*****

TEC's House of Bishops met in Camp Allen, Texas this week and hidden among the proposals under consideration was this choice morsel; Consideration of a proposed resolution announcing that bishops "reserve the right" to withhold consent for the consecration of bishops elected in processes that did not include a requisite number of women and persons of color. The matter was deferred until the next meeting of the House.

So what this means is that Dead White Males (DWM) are no longer welcome or wanted if a woman, or a 'person of color', wants the job ahead of White Privileged males. This goes along with Curry's rant against racism and White Privilege, and evangelizing white folk out of their latent, and not so latent, racism. Perhaps someone should have stood up and given a short history of what happened in the Diocese of Maryland where a besotted woman bishop killed a man on a bicycle, and then left the scene. She's doing time for her sins. Political correctness might yet kill TEC.

PS. Curry will still not name the racists in the Episcopal Church! Bearing in mind that two-thirds of the Episcopal Church are women over 60, with most doing altar guild work, one wonders if the blue rinse generation have ever uttered a racist slur in their lives. Curry is beating a dead horse and evangelizing the wrong crowd. And, for God's sake, who would want to join the Episcopal Church if you are white and privileged, and then be told that you are a racist in need of anti-racism training and please bring your check book!

Now the HOB did approve the following Word to the Church...without naming names of course, but I think we know WHO they were talking about.

"We reject the idolatrous notion that we can ensure the safety of some by sacrificing the hopes of others.

"On Good Friday the ruling political forces of the day tortured and executed an innocent man. They sacrificed the weak and the blameless to protect their own status and power. On the third day Jesus was raised from the dead, revealing not only their injustice but also unmasking the lie that might makes right.

In a country still living under the shadow of the lynching tree, we are troubled by the violent forces being released by this season's political rhetoric. Americans are turning against their neighbors, particularly those on the margins of society. They seek to secure their own safety and security at the expense of others. There is legitimate reason to fear where this rhetoric, and the actions arising from it, might take us.

In this moment, we resemble God's children wandering in the wilderness. We, like they, are struggling to find our way. They turned from following God and worshiped a golden calf constructed from their own wealth. The current rhetoric is leading us to construct a modern false idol out of power and privilege. We reject the idolatrous notion that we can ensure the safety of some by sacrificing the hopes of others. No matter where we fall on the political spectrum, we must respect the dignity of every human being and we must seek the common good above all else."

I think the two persons referred to here (but not by name) were Donald and Jesus, and the two should not be confused. In case you were wondering, the reference to one who was "tortured and executed" is Jesus, not Trump. Jesus "had nowhere to lay his head," (Luke 9:58; Mt. 8:20). Donald has many mansions including a plane with many gold fittings.

"We call for prayer for our country that a spirit of reconciliation will prevail and we will not betray our true selves," said the bishops. Who whom?

*****

After eight years of stand-in bishops in the Diocese of Pennsylvania still in recovery from the toxic Charles Bennison, the Diocese of Pennsylvania has finally elected a new bishop. He was a surprise choice -- the Canon to the Ordinary of the Diocese of the Rio Grande, one Daniel G.P. Gutierrez. The former Roman Catholic rides in on the white horse of Liberation theology and, of course, is pro-gay, as is the diocese he is leaving.

But here's the irony. Charles E. Bennison hated and loathed evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics and he once told a couple who wanted to obtain holy orders in his diocese, that if they attended Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in Ambridge to study, he would make sure they would never got parishes in his diocese. They left, never to return.

Bennison himself was later forced out of the diocese by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, through a new General Convention Canon. It was said that Bennison's toxicity in the diocese was so great, that had he been dumped live in the Delaware River, fish would have died.

Irony of ironies, Gutierrez holds a diocesan certificate in Anglican studies from Trinity School for Ministry! God just might have a sense of humor after all. You can read the full story in today's digest. One positive note is that he is married to a woman, which is necessary to say these days, just in case you thought the diocese might be getting another Gene Robinson or Mary Glasspool. Apparently not. We will have to wait to see if he is not really the Second Coming of Bennison. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

A Church of England sex abuse victim was repeatedly snubbed when he attempted to raise the matter with the Archbishop of Canterbury's office, a damning report has found.

The man, who was abused by two senior members of the clergy more than 30-years ago, attempted to alert Justin Welby on at least 18 occasions, both in writing and by telephone, but was persistently ignored, causing further pain and trauma.

An independent review into his case concluded there had been a string of "deeply disturbing" failures by senior Church of England figures to take his concerns seriously.

It revealed that he had repeatedly sought to bring the details to the attention of the Archbishop in 2015, but had been left "angry and frustrated" by the lack of response.

We should have been swifter to listen, to believe and to act. This report is deeply uncomfortable for the Church of England, said the Bishop of Crediton, Sarah Mullally.

The review concluded: "The Archbishop of Canterbury, as head of the Church of England, is not in a position where he could be expected to reply personally to each safeguarding concern that is received by his office, no matter how deserving they may be."

*****

Statistics indicate that in the Anglican Church of Canada there are now fewer donors giving larger sums of money. Declining membership has meant fewer contributors. Many of the church's donors are 65 and older, according to Archbishop Fred Hiltz talking to general Synod this week. "Our focus should be on those near the end of their working lives or about to retire, who have less debt and more to give. Research has consistently shown that those who have potential to make large gifts to the Anglican Church of Canada and its partners such as the Primate's World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF), the Anglican Foundation of Canada, and parishes and dioceses, and who are faithful donors to the church, are far more likely to give large gifts to hospitals, universities and cultural organizations."

So, dear aging Anglican pilgrim, before they lay you out in a pine box, make out a check to keep the dysfunctional province from going under...just a little bit longer...or to pay for the columbarium they will bury your ashes in, or endless Indaba talks that go nowhere.

*****

The Marriage Canon in the Anglican Church of Canada most likely won't pass, so what's to be done? A process as trivial as voting doesn't stop liberals; if liberals don't get their own way through a vote, obviously the rules will have to change to make voting redundant. The important thing is to discern what the spirit is saying to the church - the spirit of theological liberalism, that is.

Here is what the Council of General Synod (CoGS) unanimously agreed March 12 to send to the upcoming General Synod, a draft resolution prepared by the Commission on the Marriage Canon, changing the Anglican Church of Canada's law to pave the way for same-sex marriage.

"At the same time, however, CoGS said that while it is legally obliged by General Synod 2013's Resolution C003 to send the same-sex marriage motion to General Synod 2016, it has also considered "the possibility of other options."

"In a message to the church, CoGS said, "The General Synod may discern a legislative option is not the most helpful, and if so, we faithfully hope that through dialogue at General Synod an alternate way will emerge."

"CoGS did not indicate what these "other options" might be, but the message was clearly a response to an earlier statement it received from the House of Bishops that a vote to allow same-sex marriage was "not likely to pass in the Order of Bishops." In their statement to CoGS, the bishops had also questioned whether "a legislative procedure is the most helpful way" of dealing with the issue of gay marriage.

"In its statement to the church, CoGS also said, "We recommend the greatest pastoral response possible, allowing same-sex couples to be fully included in the life of our church with full and equal access to its liturgies and pastoral offices."

The wording of this last sentence was cause for much debate on the floor of the Council when it was presented to members for approval. The original draft had read, "We must permit the greatest pastoral response possible, allowing same-sex couples to be fully included in the life of our church with full and equal access to its liturgies and pastoral offices," and some CoGS members felt this came too close to telling General Synod how it should vote.

All this got up Archbishop Fred Hiltz's robes, and he brought forth that he is tired of talking about sex. "Hard to believe, I know", said Samizdat blogger David.

Here is what Hiltz said; "I long for a time in our church when there is as much attention and conviction and passion and voice and action from the rooftops about sexual exploitation, about gender-based violence, human trafficking for the sex trade, missing and murdered Indigenous women, pornography, religiously-based violence around the world, our violence against creation itself, and the greed and the reckless consumption that drives it."

The irony in all this is that Hiltz's wants to direct the passions of the Anglican Church of Canada towards things over which it has absolutely no influence, no control and no expertise in, while at the same time being unable to come to a decision on whether to change its own marriage canon -- something that has been a church's specialty for 2000 years.

A fitting parable of ecclesiastical impotence.

*****

The growing realignment in the Anglican Communion saw yet another move this week. The Diocese of South Carolina is considering affiliation with the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). Hail Mark, hail Foley.

The Diocese's Affiliation Task Force recommended the association during the 225th annual Diocesan Convention in Bluffton this weekend. Affiliation would require the Diocese to approve affiliation in two future conventions. More than 350 clergy and delegates representing 53 churches across the southern and coastal part of the state gathered for the convention.

Before affiliation, the Task Force will host meetings throughout the Diocese to brief clergy and church members about the benefits of affiliation, and ask questions about the possible move. You can read more in today's digest.

By contrast, the faux Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina got a visit from PB Curry this weekend, and considered what their options might be. Charles vonRosenberg is about to retire and a committee noted if the diocese (or what's left of it) wants a full-time bishop, it would require a diocesan budget of $800,000-$1,000,000, compared with the current 2016 budget of $471,737. That would mean most congregations would have to significantly increase what they are giving to support the diocese. Here are their options.
· Elect a part-time bishop.
· Continue with a part-time provisional bishop.
· Create a new diocese by re-unification with Upper South Carolina. This would require approval from both dioceses, but not General Convention approval, because historically the two entities were formed out of one diocese.

A little history might help. When the Diocese of Quincy collapsed after the orthodox bailed, the remnant liberals were merged into the Diocese of Chicago by Bishop Jeffrey Lee. One suspects that the fate of South Carolina will be the same.

*****

Rushing to judgement in sex abuse cases can prove both dangerous and destructive if the charges turn out not to be true. This is true in England where there is no statute of limitations, and guilt is presumed the moment a charge is made.

I have written about this in another case I am following, and now the former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey has come out, slamming the Church of England for destroying the reputation of George Bell. An article by Rachel Millard, in the Argus newspaper, outlines Carey's anger at the destruction of the reputation of Bishop Bell, over a settled claim of child sex abuse.
Rachel or the girl was five at the time, and alleges she was abused by Bell.

Lord Carey said he was "appalled" at the way the church had treated the memory of the revered late wartime bishop, and was looking for "ways of re-opening" the case of the former head of the Church of England in Sussex.

Suggesting Bell had been 'crushed' by a 'powerful organization', Lord Carey said he had been denied the right to a fair trial and had questioned the church's approach, but been told to keep things 'low-key'.

Last October, the Church of England announced it had settled the claim, formally lodged in April 2014, after expert reports gave them "no reason to doubt" its veracity.

*****

Divided evangelicals can't agree, but the Lord will tell born-again Christians whom to vote for as they step into the polling booth, the Orlando Sentinel revealed this week. It's troubling how many politicians find religion, or avoid the topic during an election cycle. When Ronald Reagan swept the presidential election with a great evangelical turnout, thanks to the Moral Majority movement, it embedded a strategy in the Republican Party of moral standing right to this day.

Although solidly aligned once again, evangelicals are deeply divided over which candidate to choose in the GOP primaries. They're greatly alarmed that a pontificating, coarse businessman is leading the establishment candidates thus far. Donald Trump thunders at institutions and proven leaders alike. He wants to build gigantic border walls and tear thousands of immigrant families apart, regardless of their contribution to this society. He is an anathema to born-again Christians, who will not vote for him.

Ted Cruz has amassed a great following, but is mistrusted by his fellow Republicans due to his tea-party leanings.

You also see a shift to the center by many evangelicals due to the in-fighting and weaknesses of this current group of candidates. People are really nervous about more politicians freezing the government and accomplishing nothing. We're swiftly losing the identity of a Christian nation and losing sight of the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Ask a born-again Christian whom he's going to vote for, and the answer will always be, "The Lord will tell me."

*****

The Rev. Dr. Albert Mohler on God's design for male and female. You can watch it here. Mohler is a Southern Baptist leader, and one of the sanest voices in American evangelicalism today. You can watch this video with total safety.
http://www.ligonier.org/learn/daily-video/2016/03/11/gods-design-for-male-female/

*****

So you want to know how "Obergefell" really happened. Without a doubt, Obergefell was crammed down our throats, as were all the lower court decisions that overturned 34 state laws and constitutional changes voted upon by citizens.

But, it is hard to see that Obergefell would have ever happened if the ground had not been prepared, if those five Supreme Court justices could not at least delude themselves into thinking that a great societal sea change had occurred.

Homosexuals like to give themselves credit for changing America's mind, that the ground for Obergefell was prepared by their personal interaction with everyday Americans, that they are in fact everywhere and just like us.

They argue that we changed our minds because of our own personal experiences with all the homosexuals we know personally; those we are friends with; our own sons, daughters, cousins, dads, and uncles who are happily, and charmingly, and certainly non-threateningly homosexual.
While it is plausible that Americans changed their minds about homosexuals, we certainly did not change our minds about their agenda, that is, marriage, adoption, and the revocation of religious freedom.

But all this mind-changing did not occur because of our personal interaction with individual homosexuals. According to the most reliable data from the Center for Disease Control, there are a few million--3.7 million to be exact--adult homosexuals in the United States. Each of these 3.7 million would have to be out and proud and, more than that, friends with an average of 63 other adults who are not same-sex attracted. Gays may be social, but they aren't that social.

So, how did all this happen? How did America supposedly become so cozy with the gays? Television, followed by news coverage, relentless, never ending news coverage of their every utterance and hangnail. You can read the full story in today's digest. Television has crippled the minds of millions of Americans. It is making them think in soundbites, and tweeting is only making it worse. We are raising a generation of thoughtless illiterates unable to think rationally or think at all about life and death issues. God help America.

*****

The unveiling of "An Evangelical Manifesto," in 2008, drafted by social critic and author Os Guinness, with the affirmation of a nine-person steering committee, is a document with a clear articulation of the gospel in the Reformation tradition, exhorting evangelicals to more faithfully live out the gospel in the culture as politically engaged followers of Jesus Christ. You can read it here: http://www.anevangelicalmanifesto.com/ or the full document here: http://www.anevangelicalmanifesto.com/docs/Evangelical_Manifesto.pdf
VOL believes it is the best statement on what it means to be an evangelical, especially in today's environment.

*****

We are asking for a working budget to keep VOL coming into your e-mail inbox every week and for stories posted daily to the website.

Thousands of you go daily to VOL's website and thousands more receive VOL's weekly digest of stories, but only a handful ever make a contribution to keep the news coming into your e-mail. Please consider a tax-deductible donation to keep the news flowing. You can send a check to:

VIRTUEONLINE
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P.O. Box 111
Shohola, PA 18458

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

Thank you for your support.

David

And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. -- I Cor. 15: 14 (KJV)

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
March 27, 2016

Slowly but surely the noose is being tightened around the neck of The Episcopal Church and the Archbishop of Canterbury as new revelations pour out from Global South primates who tell a different story about what actually happened in Canterbury earlier this year.

It is becoming clearer by the week that the Anglican Communion was being sold a bill of goods about what went on and it is coming to a head over the upcoming Lusaka meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council where a number of Anglican Primates are publicly boycotting the event.

The most vocal is Nigerian Primate Nicholas Okoh, who said that he and his fellow primates were lambasted in Canterbury for being homophobic, and that the tactic of "patience" was designed solely to keep everyone at the table and to turn gullible primates into pro-gay shills for Western pansexualist archbishops like Michael Curry and Fred Hiltz.

The Nigerian Archbishop blasted the Episcopal Church and those who would "join the straight jacket of the revisionists and be politically correct," arguing that they are succeeding. He then tore the Episcopal Church claiming they were engaging in a campaign to walk orthodox Anglicans into "a well-rehearsed scheme to apply persuasion, subtle blackmail and coercion against those still standing with the Scriptures" on human sexuality.

As a result, he will not attend the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Lusaka next month.

He was soon followed by the archbishops of Kenya and Uganda, who also said they would not attend the Lusaka gabfest largely because they learned that TEC would not be stopped from engaging in talks and discussion on matters of faith and doctrine as they were ordered not to do in Canterbury.

The Archbishop of Kenya, Eliud Wabukala says in a letter to the ABC that he cannot heed his plea for him to attend next month's meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in Lusaka because promises made at the recent Primates' Meeting in Canterbury to restrict the participation of the Episcopal Church in the Anglican Communion because of its liberal stance on homosexuality have not been kept.

The so-called "instruments" of communion are "not being used so much as instruments of unity but as instruments to cajole orthodox Global South provinces of the Communion into acquiescence with the secular sexual culture which has made such inroads into the Anglican Churches of the West," he writes in a letter to his province.

Wabukala acknowledges the Archbishop of Canterbury's recognition of the need for "repentance and confession".

"But there does not seem to be any recognition that homosexual activity is a matter for repentance by those speaking on behalf of the London based Anglican Communion authorities. Instead there are only calls to repent of 'homophobia', a term which is seriously compromised by the way homosexual activists have used it to include any opposition to their agenda."

The inability to recognize that the acceptance of homosexual activity calls for repentance is now "entrenched", he says.

Desperate for a win, Archbishop Justin Welby wrote a private letter (which VOL obtained) urging all the primates to attend Lusaka, saying they will be electing a new Chairman, and such a position should be someone who speaks the truth in love and seeks to unite the Communion in truth-filled service to Jesus Christ, and not to uphold any particular group at the expense of the Common Good, so long as we are within acceptable limits of diversity. He says "any particular group" but which group -- the revisionist archbishops or the GAFCON Primates? And what exactly are "acceptable limits of diversity"? will Welby publicly reject sodomy as evil behavior in the sight of the Lord, or will he complicitly side with Western pan-Anglican revisionists and keep talking about homophobia when he and we know that is notremotely the problem.

Why should the Global South Primates trust him anymore, if what we now know what happened in Canterbury is not the spin he put on it.

I urge you to read two fine commentary pieces on this in today's digest. The first is by Phil Ashey of the American Anglican Council, "FOOL ME ONCE, SHAME ON YOU...." and the other is by Bishop Bill Atwood, "High Noon at Lusaka".

Atwood writes; "We don't yet know what will happen in Lusaka, but I can say that one way or another, it will cast the die for the future of the Anglican Communion. By early in May, we should be able to predict with some degree of accuracy what the Communion will look like. One thing is certain. There will be a huge, robust fellowship around GAFCON (the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans). There will be a wonderful, orthodox future for those who love the Lord and the Scriptures and desire to live under their authority. How big that group will be may well be shaped largely by what happens in Lusaka."

*****

An argument is raging over what authority the primates really do have? Do they have any authority?

Western liberal voices are being raised following the January's Primates' Meeting saying they doubt the authority of the Primates have any in decision making. Some said "[It] is not a decision-making body--it's a body for Primates who come together to pray and discuss and discern and offer some guidance. They don't make resolutions." Others say, "The Primates' meeting has no jurisdiction."

Pro homosexual marriage western revisionist archbishops don't like the idea of authority because it restricts what they want to do and be, and don't want to be held accountable for their actions.

Egyptian Archbishop Mouneer Anis weighed in on the discussion and said that the Primates unequivocally do have authority, and in a brilliant essay which you can read in today's digest, he makes a clear historical case, saying that the Primates' Meeting together with the Archbishop of Canterbury carry an authority and responsibility in preserving the unity of the Communion. It is important for both of these Instruments to deal with the divisive issues at hand and especially the unilateral actions of TEC in regard to their alterations to the Anglican Communion's doctrine of marriage.

Failure to carry out the decision of the January Primates' Meeting will bring back the distrust which was there before the last meeting, the source of our impaired communion, he said.

*****

The growing alienation of the Episcopal Church from the rest of the Christian world continues to grow even as the Anglican Church in North America finds acceptance from leading Christian communities.

This week the Russian Orthodox leader, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, praised and supported the Anglican Church in North America which, he said, remains faithful to Christian ethics, while condemning the Episcopal Church, forcing his church to break off relations with the LGBT-affirming church in America.

"I would like to note once again the role played by the conservative Evangelicals in the United States as their position gives us an opportunity to continue our dialogue with Christians in America," Kirill said in the presence of evangelist Franklin Graham (son of Billy Graham), who met with Russian Orthodox leader Patriarch Kirill of Moscow earlier this week. The two discussed issues pertaining to gay marriage, the secularization in the West, and Christian persecution. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

On the Episcopal Church front, more sexual excitement this week when it was revealed that the Rt. Rev. Douglas Hahn of the Diocese of Lexington was suspended for one year from his duties as bishop after it was learned that he had a sexual relationship with an adult female parishioner and intentionally withheld this information when seeking the position of bishop. Hahn has admitted to these charges against him. He and Presiding Bishop Michael Curry reached an official "Accord" or agreement, providing for terms of the suspension.

Now the irony should not be missed. Adultery is the only sexual sin left (apart from pedophilia and bestiality) that will get you into trouble. If you are a straight white bishop and decide to sodomize a man, first you need to get divorced from your wife and then "marry" the man and then divorce the man and then wear an earring showing your availability, you will be a hero to the Church and the "Integrity" organization who will probably arrange for you to get an honorary doctorate for your sexual honesty. If you are bisexual or a transgendered, they will also make you into a hero for your diversity.

What is so ludicrous is all the committees that are set up to scrutinize wannabee bishops. People are too frightened to ask the obvious questions, like "have you ever had sex with someone who is not your wife when you were a priest, yes or no." Look what happened when no one asked the new Suffragan Bishop of Maryland Heather Cook if she had a drinking problem, even though she was spotted sloshed at an event the former PB attended just weeks before she was anointed the new Suffragan. And what about her relationship with a former TEC priest who paid her bills! For their failure, a man lies dead, his children deprived of a father. Did anyone ask any hard questions of the new bishop of Pennsylvania? The answer is no, of course. In fact the event was so controlled by diocesan handlers so as not to invite tough questions about sexuality. All soft ball stuff about process please. And you wonder why TEC gets the lowest common denominator of bishop to lead flocks of spiritually vacuous Episcopalians. The sheep are being led by unregenerate shepherds over the cliff into christless eternities and they don't even know it.

*****

If you want to get a flavor of what The Episcopal Church will look like say in 2045 then you can read a story in today's digest about the financial crunch that has hit the United Church of Christ.

IRD writer Jeff Walton documented this denomination's demise because the UCC is even more progressive than The Episcopal Church and therefore says a lot about the future of The Episcopal Church. The UCC is making big staff cuts, and there is an internal report forecasting an 80 percent decline in membership by 2045! The average age of an Episcopalian is now in the mid-Sixties. There are no millennials coming along to fill either pulpits or pews. Nearly half of all pulpits now cannot afford a full time priest.

The 60-year-old denomination announced staffing changes during the UCC Board of Directors meeting held March 17-19 in Cleveland. The changes follow the announced resignation of a top staff member in February and an internal report predicting an 80 percent decline in membership by 2045!

National setting staff has decreased from over 300 in 2000 to just over 100 today. The trajectory is just the same for The Episcopal Church.

*****

There was some good news on the Continuing Anglican Church front this week when leaders of four Continuing jurisdictions signed a letter setting a goal of full communion by 2017.

Archbishop Mark Haverland of the Anglican Catholic Church; Presiding Bishop Brian Marsh of the Anglican Church in America; The Most Rev. Walter H. Grundorf, Presiding Bishop of the Anglican Province of America and the Rt. Rev. Paul C. Hewett SSC, of the Diocese of the Holy Cross issued a joint letter agreeing to "work cooperatively , in a spirit of brotherly love and affection, to create a sacramental union and commonality of purpose that is pleasing to God and in accord with godly purpose to our respective jurisdictions". They also said they would endeavor to "hold in concert our national and provincial synods in 2017" with a goal for this meeting "to formalize a relationship of communion in sacris; and during the intervening period to work "in full accord toward that end, [seeking] ways to cooperate with each other, supporting each others' jurisdictions and communicating on a variety of ecclesiastical matters." The bishops also pledge to meet monthly by teleconferencing.

*****

A former Archbishop of Canterbury has attacked the church for destroying the reputation of Bishop George Bell over a settled claim of child sex abuse.

Lord Carey said he was "appalled" at the way the church had treated the memory of the revered late wartime bishop and was looking for "ways of re-opening" the case of the former head of the Church of England in Sussex.

Suggesting Bell had been 'crushed' by a 'powerful organization', Lord Carey said he had been denied the right to a fair trial and had questioned the church's approach but been told to keep things 'low-key'.

Last October, the Church of England announced it had settled the claim formally lodged in April 2014 after expert reports gave them "no reason to doubt" its veracity.

The British have no statute of limitations and there is a presumption of guilt when issues like this come up.

*****

SEWANEE, the University of the South, the Episcopal Church's only university, is now fully in the forefront of gay activism. According to the newspaper, The Messenger, staff writer Leslie Lytle, says that the newly formed Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) club at Franklin County High School (FCHS) attracted national attention when it held its first meeting on Jan. 19 under the direction of faculty advisor Jenny Turrell, FCHS art teacher and a resident of Sewanee.

A firestorm of comments followed on the social media outlet Facebook, both condoning and condemning the club. Said one critic, "the next thing you know they will have F.I.M.A. (Future ISIS Members of America)."

Under the 1984 Equal Access Act, all federally funded secondary schools must provide equal access to extracurricular clubs.

Citing the law, Director of Schools Amie Lonas said, "If we choose not to allow this club to be established, then we would be required to prohibit all non-curriculum clubs or give up federal funding."

The GSA "is not a recruitment tool or trying to promote an alternate lifestyle," Lonas stressed in response to critics. "It's more about tolerance and trying to treat people equally and with respect."

Right, and if you believe that, then you will believe that cows fly.

School board policy clearly prohibits "any employee or any student to discriminate against or harass a student through disparaging conduct or communication that is sexual, racial, ethnic or religious in nature."

"It's a non-sponsored program driven by students with no outside affiliation. It's important for the club to evolve as the students want it to evolve."

Parents might want to think seriously about sending their kids to Sewanee if they think they will be getting a Christian education or an education that espouses serious Christian morality. Those days are long gone apparently.

*****

Gay bullying is becoming a pastime for homosexual activists. To make their point yet again, a pro-family critic is saying homosexual activists have displayed their intolerance and bigotry towards Christianity in denouncing the raising of a Christian flag outside Newfoundland's Confederation Building in St. Johns.

St. Stephen the Martyr Anglican Network Church asked the government to raise the Christian flag to mark Easter week, where Christians commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The white flag contains a blue box with a red cross inside. The white represents Jesus' purity, the blue the waters of baptism, and the red the blood that Jesus shed to save sinners.

Premier Dwight Ball, who has participated in pride parades and various pride flag raisings, told reporters that when the Christian church first asked permission to fly the flag, no one saw it as a problem.

"The request came in asking to fly the Christian flag during Easter Week, during Holy Week. That request was granted," he said. "This was about being tolerant and open to the views of all people in the province."

But when the flag appeared on the courtesy flag pole beside Confederation Building, homosexual activists and supporters were outraged.

Gerry Rogers, MHA for St. John's Centre, went as far as saying that the flag "represents a very divisive approach to Christianity that it's homophobic, that it's against choice for women."

Homosexual activists and supporters appeared to take special aim at the Anglican church's website which links to some resources about helping homosexuals overcome same-sex attraction.

And you thought pansexualists were all about love, joy, peace and inclusion. The bullying will only get worse.

*****

I am writing these VIEWPOINTS to you from Hoi An, a small city in Vietnam where I am decamped with my family and two Vietnamese born grandchildren who are seeing the country of their birth for the first since they came to the US as small bundles of joy and were adopted by our daughter and son-in-law. Now as 14-year old teenagers, they see people who look more like themselves than us. They love it here, but it is not home. They will be happy to go back to school, friends and church in Maryland next week.

*****

If you have a few moments please watch Bach's Mass in B-Minor Et Resurrexit as my Easter offering to you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8CcMvosBfA

The late Michael Ramsey (former Archbishop of Canterbury) once wrote, "The Gospel without the Resurrection is not merely a Gospel without a final chapter, it is not a Gospel at all."

And what a difference the resurrection makes - the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Jerusalem tomb sets Christianity apart from all other religions. Our Savior, the Savior of the gospels is a risen Savior. His tomb is empty and that makes all the difference in the world (and in the heavens)!

VOL wishes you all a very happy and blessed Easter.

David

Strong-arming smaller countries into accepting LGBT rights is an explicit element in the Obama Administration's foreign policy. The half-dozen gay US ambassadors, including Mr. Brewster, (Dominican Republic) have openly acknowledged that trade agreements are being used to advance "equality" and "tolerance" for gays and lesbians. "We know firsthand that US interests are best served when we pursue policies that also advance our values. That's why trade policy is among our most promising tools," they say on the White House website. --- Michael Cook for www.mercatornet.com

The pastor as theologian was an important model in the church until the early 19th century. Since then, the pastor-theologian has been downplayed and even undermined. The result being, theology has become the domain of academic theologians in universities, while pastors do the practical work of leading churches --- Peter Bush in Presbyterian RECORD

According to the British medical journal, The Lancet, new research shows that global obesity is now a bigger problem than global hunger. --- Marcus Roberts for mercatornet.com

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
April 7, 2016

A fourth Global South archbishop has stepped up to the plate and announced that he will not now be attending the Anglican Consultative Council gabfest in Lusaka. The first three are Archbishops Nicholas Okoh of Nigeria, Archbishop Eliud Wabukala of Kenya and Archbishop Stanley Ntagali of Uganda who have said they will not attend this TEC paid for gabfest.

The Most Rev. Dr. Mouneer Hanna Anis of Egypt has written a letter to his fellow archbishops and said his decision not to go has come after a long period of prayer and conversations. "As many of you know, it is not easy for me to withdraw from meetings, but this time I felt that if I were to attend, I would be betraying my conscience, my people, and the Primates who worked hard last January to reach a temporary solution in order to keep walking together until such time as we can reach a permanent solution." His backing down has sent shockwaves throughout the Anglican Communion, reports Phil Ashey, COO of the American Anglican Council.

"I thought that the decision of the Primates' Meeting in January would be followed through and TEC would not be represented in the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion but sadly this is not the case. I don't mind the participation of TEC in the General Meeting of the ACC, but the decision of the Primates was very clear that they should not be nominated or elected in internal standing committees."

The Egyptian archbishop said he was disturbed by statements made by the chairman of the ACC while he was in the USA. "I had still intended to attend the meeting. However, as it became clear that the decision of the Primates' Meeting about the participation of TEC in the Standing Committee would be disregarded, it was then that I decided not to attend."

You can read the full account in today's digest, and a story by Canon Phil Ashey of the American Anglican Council.

*****

The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Michael Curry, has fired three high level staff members for complaints and allegations of violations of personnel policies of the DFMS, received from multiple members of the staff of the Church to the Church's new leader.

Public Affairs Officer Neva Rae Fox would neither confirm nor deny that it was about sexual harassment.

The time frame points to an unsettling discovery that Executive Council, in Nov. 2015, had been bugged by a hidden audio recorder during sessions relating to compensation for salaries of all officers, agents and employees of the Council and the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society.

The two officers who were fired are Sam McDonald, Deputy Chief Operating Officer and Director of Mission, and Alex Baumgarten, Director of Public Engagement and Mission Communications, who were found "to have violated established workplace policies."

Bishop Stacy Sauls, Chief Operating Officer of the DFMS, was also axed, though the report said he did not violate workplace policy, was unaware of the policy violations of the two staff members reporting to him, and had operated within the scope of his office.

Conversations are underway to implement this decision, said Curry in a news release from the Church's national headquarters in New York City.

*****

In Fresno, California, The Protestant Episcopal Church owns the Central Valley churches and other property that were in place before a dissident group in the San Joaquin Valley voted to leave the church and affiliate with a more traditional Anglican Church, says the California 5th District Court of Appeal.

The appellate court ruling, upholding a lower court's decision, is the latest chapter in a religious and litigious dispute that dates back more than a decade, when the late John-David Schofield, who had been bishop of the San Joaquin Diocese since 1988, led a movement to disaffiliate with the national church.

In 2007, the diocese, which stretched from Kern County in the south to San Joaquin County in the north, declared that it was "a full member of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone of South America."

In 2008, Bishop Schofield filed a document with the California Secretary of State titled "Amendment to Articles of Incorporation Changing Name of The Protestant Episcopal Bishop of San Joaquin (A Corporation Sole) to The Anglican Bishop of San Joaquin (A Corporation Sole)."

"Schofield stated in the document that, as the Bishop of the Diocese of San Joaquin, he was the chief officer of the corporation sole and that the amendment had been duly authorized by the Diocese. However, the annual convention did not consider or authorize any such amendments as is required to amend the articles of incorporation of the corporation sole," the appellate court notes.

"Schofield was attempting to change the title holder of the property in dispute from the corporation sole known as The Protestant Episcopal Bishop of San Joaquin to the corporation sole known as The Anglican Bishop of San Joaquin. However, because the amendment changing the name of the corporation sole to The Anglican Bishop of San Joaquin was invalid, no corporation sole known as The Anglican Bishop of San Joaquin existed when these deeds were executed and recorded," the decision says.

"Out-of-state cases have held that an attempted conveyance of real property to a nonexistent entity is void. This is a logical conclusion and should be adopted here. Title cannot be held by an entity that does not exist. Therefore, these deeds were a nullity. Accordingly, title to the disputed property remained with The Protestant Episcopal Bishop of San Joaquin," the court says.

Canon lawyer Alan Haley said that the opinion was "contorted", the Fifth District Court of Appeals ruled that "the trial court made several errors in its analysis of the case", it would nevertheless affirm that court's decision to turn over all the disputed property of the former Diocese of San Joaquin to the remnant Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin, which was first organized in March 2008 after its predecessor voted to leave the Episcopal Church (USA).

In so deciding, the Court of Appeals first rejected the contention that ECUSA and its remnant group were collaterally bound by the final decision of the Illinois Court of Appeals, rendered last year, which reached the opposite result for the Anglican Diocese of Quincy. It did not consider the Illinois case to be on all fours with this one, because the title to the church property in Illinois was held by an Illinois not-for-profit corporation, while in the San Joaquin case, the title was held by a California corporation sole.

With all due respect, this is a distinction without a difference. A corporation sole is every bit as much a religious organization as a religious not-for-profit corporation. The key question in the California case is: which diocese -- the Anglican one that withdrew from ECUSA in December 2007, or the newbie Episcopal one that started up on March 29, 2008 -- has the legal control of the corporation sole under California law?

The decision by the Court of Appeals does not address this key question. Indeed, it barely mentions the Anglican Diocese, and does not acknowledge its separate existence under California law, let alone its connection to the corporation sole. (The Episcopal plaintiffs made a strategic decision not to name the Anglican Diocese in their lawsuit, and to make the corp sole a plaintiff, as though they already controlled it, because they wanted to pretend that they were the "only" diocese in San Joaquin. It looks as though the strategy confused the civil courts -- as it was doubtlessly intended to do.)

The case is not over yet, writes Allan Haley of Anglican Curmudgeon -- the Anglican parties can ask the Court for a rehearing based on the factual mistakes it made in its opinion, and if the Court refuses to grant that request, they can ask the California Supreme Court to review the decision, which the Court of Appeal ordered be published in the official reports. (The California Supreme Court tends not to review unpublished opinions.) If such a request is filed, the parties will not know the disposition of the case for another 60 to 120 days.

*****

In Georgia, a former Savannah Episcopal priest has been sentenced to three years in federal prison on a guilty plea, to possession of child pornography at his Druid Circle home in Savannah.

Bruce Fehr, a 55-year-old former priest at St. Francis Episcopal Church on Wilmington Island, must also pay a $10,000 fine and serve a 10-year term of supervised release after he completes his incarceration, U.S. District Chief Judge Lisa Godbey Wood ordered Wednesday in Savannah.

Fehr was indicted by a federal grand jury in September, on a four-count indictment for distribution, possession and receipt of child pornography last year, as part of a FBI-led Southeast Georgia Child Exploitation Task Force operation.

*****

BDSM and Kinks: Addressing taboo and sexual preferences at Sewanee University. THESEWANEEPURPLE campus newspaper in a report by Frances Marion Givhan says:

The Wick aims to foster conversations on campus about various issues that students may not discuss on a day-to-day basis. Recently, the Wick hosted a #NoFilter discussion entitled "Don't Shame My Kink," where the residents invited students to join them for an "open, confidential dialogue on what rough sex and kink can mean for empowerment, consent, and communication in bed," according to their Facebook event page. The event, held on Tuesday, March 29, drew a crowd of people who could barely fit into the Wick's living room.

"The thing that surprised me most was the number of students who attended," said Gracie Gibson (C'17), who coordinated the event. Even a prospective student had decided to come and hear what some may view as an uncomfortable topic.

According to Gibson, none of the Wick residents had ever talked about having an event on BDSM or kinks. "We received an anonymous request to host an event covering BDSM and safety, so I decided to present it to the other residents, and everyone was on board," said Gibson.

Ben Sadler (C'17) attended the event because he did not know what the discussion would entail. "I was curious," he says. "I wasn't sure what was in store, so I wanted to see how the Wick would discuss a pretty underdiscussed subject."

Gibson kick-started the event by addressing the fact that BDSM is a sensitive topic, and made a point to remind the people gathered to "respect everyone who's here." To initiate the discussion, Gibson showed a video by Laci Green called "BDSM 101" that addressed the basics of BDSM and kink culture, as well as the accompanying criticisms. The video emphasized the "safe, sane, and consensual" nature of BDSM and argued that people should not judge consenting adults for their sexuality.

You can read the full, very sick, vile report here: http://thesewaneepurple.org/2016/04/05/bdsm-and-kinks-addressing-taboo-and-sexual-preferences/

Question for Vice-Chancellor McCardell. "Will you tell rich donors that their money will help Sewanee students feel safe to experiment with dangerous, disease spreading sex games on campus?"

IN OTHER SEWANEE NEWS, a drug bust took place at a Sewanee fraternity. Last weekend, the Sewanee Police stopped a student for possession of prescription drugs and marijuana in a fraternity parking lot.

The officers arrived after receiving an anonymous tip earlier, so they had probable cause, and stopped to question the student. When the officer approached, he smelled marijuana and saw the student trying to hide a lock box. The officer confiscated the box when the student refused to open it, which contained Xanax, marijuana, a glass pipe, and rolling papers. Since there were prescription drugs in another student's name, the police gave three citations and referred him to the Dean.

Other students witnessed the officer take the box and they, "were convinced we would have to go to jail tomorrow to bail our other friend out." According to the Sewanee Police, the amount of drugs determines whether to arrest or cite a student. In this case, only a small amount of drugs was in the lock box, so the police issued a citation, since the amount implied recreation rather than distribution.

*****

Applications are now open for the 2016 grant cycle for new church starts and Mission Enterprise Zones in The Episcopal Church. Resolution D005 and Resolution A012, approved by General Convention in July, 2015, authorized new and continued funding for church plants and Mission Enterprise Zones throughout the Episcopal Church. Additionally, newly created grants will be awarded to dioceses and already-established ministries exploring possibilities for new initiatives or expansion. General Convention Advisory Group on Church Planting is also conducting a design contest for a new logo to depict church planting for The Episcopal Church. Really!

So the hope is, that with a couple or resolutions, TEC thinks it can jump start the future with new parishes, even as parishes across the country are closing, and nearly 50% can't afford a full time rector. If you don't have a message that reflects the gospel on sin and salvation and the preaching of the great doctrines of the church, what exactly is TEC selling? Does anyone honestly think you can build a church on evangelism involving anti-racism training, bashing white privilege, LGBTQI interests and concerns, diversity and inclusion and parading around in rainbow vestments at gay parades will suddenly bring in the masses!?The delusion continues. For the record, the ACNA is growing precisely because they are preaching a message of God's love tied to Christ's cross and the need for repentance. Go figure.

*****

Anglicans and Mennonites in Canada haven't historically had much to do with each other, but that could change if General Synod--which meets July 7-12--votes to adopt a resolution put forward by the faith, worship and ministry committee to enter into a five-year, bilateral dialogue with Mennonite Church Canada.

Archdeacon Bruce Myers, until recently the Anglican Church of Canada's coordinator for ecumenical and interfaith relations, said this would be the first time the Anglican Church of Canada has engaged in a bilateral dialogue with a denomination from the Anabaptist tradition. In an interview with the Anglican Journal, he explained why he thinks the two groups could learn a lot from each other.

"The Anglican Church of Canada, is increasingly...becoming a church on the margins, a church away from the centers of power, when historically we were a church of empire, establishment and privilege," he said. "Mennonites have [made]...a conscious decision to be very separate from the principalities and powers, and to take a stance that is often in opposition to empire."

Myers said the decision to consider a dialogue has also been spurred by increasing grassroots interaction and co-operation between Mennonites and Anglicans in cities such as Winnipeg and Kitchener-Waterloo, which have large Mennonite populations.

While the Canadian church has often focused on matters of doctrine in its bilateral dialogues, with an aim to finding areas of agreement or common understanding, Myers said that conversations with the Mennonite church would be more about what he called "receptive ecumenism"--an approach to dialogue that works to learn from rather than to resolve differences.

"Doctrinal questions, like baptism--we know the differences and how we practice and understand baptism, that's already been documented and it's not necessarily a theological knot we need to start to untie at this moment," he said. "[But] what is it like for a church like ours to learn to be something [Mennonites] have almost always been, which is outside the center and increasingly marginalized?"

VOL: So this is what happens when traditional Christian denominations break down. When you have little, or no theological depth in your understanding of the faith you grab onto any lifeboat that will keep you afloat. The Episcopal Church has a concordat with the Lutherans (ELCA) and the Moravians for example. Malcolm Muggeridge once said that the definition of the ecumenical movement was like three men coming out of a pub on a Saturday night who are so unsteady that they have to hold onto each other lest they collapse into a heap.

Of course, collapse is inevitable. This only staves off things for a while. The overwhelming evidence is that the ACoC and the United Church of Canada, and what's left of the Presbyterian Church, will be out of business on or before 2050. They are not making new converts largely because they don't believe in what Jesus said they should do. QED

*****

Oxford University will no longer require theology students to study Christianity, dropping an 800-year-old tradition.

Is this a sign of how the academic world is giving less and less value to Christian teachings? The University of Oxford, the oldest such institution in the English-speaking world dating back to 1096, will no longer require its undergraduate theology students to enroll in a course tackling Christianity after their first year.

This development signals the end of a tradition that lasted for over eight centuries. Instead of requiring the study of Christianity, the educational institution located in Oxford, England, will allow students to take courses tackling feminism, Buddhism, Islam and even mysticism. Is this a sign of how the academic world is giving less and less value to Christian teachings? Apparently.

*****

Georgia Governor Nathan Deal announced Monday, that he has vetoed a religious liberty bill passed by the state legislature.

Evangelical Christians strongly supported the legislation, citing its protections for pastors to opt out of performing same-sex weddings. The Washington Post reports that the legislation would have given religious organizations the ability to refuse certain services, including charitable services, if doing so clashed with their religious beliefs.

The legislation sparked objections from major donors and corporations, including AT&T, Bank of America and Delta Airlines, who saw it as discriminatory against persons who identify as gay or transgender.

IRD Evangelical Action Director Chelsen Vicari commented: "When corporate bullies dangling dollar bills is enough to cause a Baptist governor to veto a bill protecting freedom of conscience and speech, a bigger problem exists.

"Gov. Nathan Deal's veto of Georgia's religious freedom bill represents a wider movement among America's Christians to compromise Scripture and morality for the sake of votes and popularity." Unfortunately, many Evangelicals, Mainline Protestants, and Catholics are bowing down at altars of sexual liberation and political correctness, erected by cultural Leftists. You can read more here: http://tinyurl.com/hozuvar

*****

An Indian priest abducted by gunmen in Yemen last month is safe and could be released soon, a Catholic group said on Sunday, quoting the Indian foreign minister. Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil was captured from the southern Yemeni city of Aden by gunmen, who killed at least 15 people at an old people's home, in an attack that was condemned by Pope Francis.

The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI) said a delegation met Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, who said the government was working to secure the priest's safe return.

"She has assured us Father Tom is safe and negotiations are on for his release, which could happen very soon," said Father Joseph Chinnaiyan, deputy secretary of the CBCI.

Media reports last week said the priest was killed by Islamic State militants on Good Friday, although no one has claimed responsibility for last month's attack, in which gunmen killed four Indian nuns, two Yemeni female staff members, eight elderly residents and a guard. Fr. Chinnaiyan said the reports were inaccurate.

*****

Now it's undeniable: Deobandi mosques are radicalizing Britain's Muslims. UK media have revealed that the Islamic Tarbiyah Academy, a private school in the Yorkshire city of Dewsbury, was under investigation by the Department for Education for radical teachings.

The school has 140 primary students, who attend an after-school madrassah for ten hours per week, as well as full-time classes for pupils above age 16 and adults, according to Sky News.

The academy was established by Mufti Zubair Dudha, a representative of the Deobandi sect.

Originating in India in the mid-1800s, Deobandism is the doctrine that inspired the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan, whose imams trained at the school in Uttar Pradesh, northeast of Delhi.

Deobandi clerics, operating out of an anti-imperialist rubric devised to rid India of the British following the suppression of the Indian Mutiny in 1857, have made a serious effort to seize control of British mosques.

They are allied with the puritanical, Saudi-based Wahhabi sect and with other jihadists in South Asia.

These groups allege that they must 'reform' Islam by separating Muslims from other believers, especially in the West.

*****

VOL could use your help. Spring has sprung and we need funds to keep us afloat. Bills still have to be paid.

Thousands of you go daily to VOL's website and thousands more receive VOL's weekly digest of stories, but only a handful ever make a contribution to keep the news coming into your e-mail. Please consider a tax-deductible donation to keep the news flowing. You can send a check to:

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Thank you for your support.

David

It becomes a death spiral for the denomination when the keys to the Church are handed over to revisionist bishops and priests time and time again who ensure that the fundamentals of Christianity are not taught to future generations. Those future generations of blissfully ignorant pewsitters will continue to make poor choices, and as long as there are enough of them to pay the bills, the church will stagger on...to its doom. --- The Underground Pewster

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
April 15, 2016

Who's your daddy? Well, now we know. It turns out that Archbishop Justin Welby's father was not Mr. Gavin Welby, but the late Sir Anthony Montague Browne, the personal private secretary to Winston Churchill, who had a brief affair with Welby's mother when both were stone drunk.

The story is right out of a soap opera Days of our (Anglican) Lives, but it garnered much sympathy and deep understanding from readers across the board, especially when Welby and his mother acknowledged the truth after a DNA test was done.

This comes as a complete surprise, said Welby. The story is his mother (Jane Williams) and father (Gavin Welby) were both alcoholics at the time.

When it comes to headlines in a national newspaper, surely it doesn't come better than this: "Outpouring of respect for Archbishop Justin Welby after DNA paternity 'surprise'." The Archbishop of Canterbury is on the way to becoming a national treasure, one of the few public figures in the land beyond reproach or criticism, rather like our soon to be 90 years old Queen. It is the sort of position that a Catholic prelate can only dream of. And it is not simply the result of good public relations or spin.

Welby responded, appropriately enough, saying that we are who we are because of our relationship with Jesus Christ, the Redeemer. Archbishop Welby's simple pronouncement emerges from the hinterland of Augustinian theology. We become ourselves when we accept the call of God. We find ourselves when we are found by God. This is a wonderful antidote to the contemporary narcissistic search for our supposed true selves.

One or two observers did note that the timing seemed to be interesting in that it occurred at a time designated to gender sympathy for his failing efforts to keep the communion together, with the paternity story coinciding with the 'bad news' story of Lusaka and the ACC rebellion. You can read more in today's digest.

Ironically, the design of the logo of the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Lusaka, Zambia mirrors the shape of the roof of Lusaka Cathedral, a cathedral built on the top of a hill, whose roof can be seen from around the city of Lusaka. The colors used in the image are all the colors in the flags of Botswana, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia - the countries of the dioceses that make up the Province of Central Africa who invited the ACC to Lusaka. Someone observed that, put together, the flags look very much like the LGBTQI flag.

*****

A brouhaha over three Kenyan bishops who attended the Lusaka ACC-16 gabfest heated up when the Archbishop of Kenya Eliud Wabukala denied that he signed or approved a letter released under his signature that appeared to change Kenya's stance on its boycott of the meeting of Anglican leaders in Zambia this week.

The forgery was a ruse to defy his authority and justify the attendance of the Kenyan delegation in Lusaka.

In a letter released to the diocese, the archbishop said he had been in northern Kenya when he realized the Kenya delegation had tickets and reservations to travel to Lusaka. As he could not get there, he sent an aide to attend a meeting with the leader of the delegation to explain the Archbishop's position that was against the delegation traveling to the Anglican Consultative Council meeting.

Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda, the Southern Cone, Jerusalem and the Middle East have all boycotted the meeting, and Archbishop Wabukala had intended that Kenya should do the same.

He said the delegation then decided they would go to Lusaka. They drafted the letter in question, asked him to sign it and read it to him over his cell phone.

Parts of the document were acceptable, the archbishop noted: "the ACK does not approve of TEC. We support the Global South. We support the primates' meeting."

Wabukala said the line on his cell phone had not been clear and he was unable to make out everything in the letter. "I was not comfortable. So I said I will come back and see what it is."

He added: "So when I came back to the office, I found the letter had been released under my signature. This is not what I said. So I was real annoyed. I called the office of communications and said 'please do not put that thing out because it was not what I wrote'."

The letter was signed with a "rubber stamp", a digital signature used for internal church memorandums.

He said it presented a false position to the Kenyan Church and the wider Anglican Communion. "I think it is a bit of a misunderstanding, a very clear misunderstanding. That statement does not bear my position."

The secretary general of the Anglican Consultative Council, Josiah Idowu-Fearon, got in on the act and said the unsubstantiated public allegations of forgery against the members of the Kenyan delegation were scurrilous and untrue, and went on to say that it was a "false impression" that the Episcopal Church delegates were in Lusaka in defiance of the will of the Primates who spelled out "consequences" at their meeting in January over the US decision to back gay marriage.

He said the Archbishop of Canterbury had fulfilled his responsibilities and asked those members of interfaith or ecumenical bodies who are from TEC and whose appointment he controls, to stand down, and they have done so.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said; "As Archbishop of Canterbury, I have acted on the Primates' decision in those areas for which I have responsibility. It is both my and the Primates' desire, hope and prayer that the Anglican Consultative Council should also share in working through the consequences of our impaired relationships."

We may never know who leaked what to whom and in the end it doesn't really matter. The three Kenyan bishops did show up in Lusaka in defiance of their archbishop, and it would appear that the ring leader, the Rt. Rev. Joel Waweru, might have killed his chance to be the next Archbishop of Kenya to replace the retiring Eliud Wabukala. Are there cracks in the Kenyan House of Bishops over gay marriage? Nope.

*****

The Episcopal Church began almost immediately to spin what happened in Lusaka, Zambia, this week. TEC and its individual members earned praise from Anglican Communion Secretary General ,Archbishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon, for working hard to walk together despite differences over same-sex marriage. Really, and that is why five Anglican provinces absented themselves, including Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, The Southern Cone.

The secretary general's remarks came in his report to the Anglican Consultative Council about this work since he took up his post last July.

The 78th General Convention's decided last summer to change canonical language that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman (Resolution A036) and, in Resolution A054, to authorize two new marriage rites with language allowing them to be used by same-sex or opposite-sex couples. Resolution A054 also requires bishops who oppose same-sex marriage to "make provision for all couples asking to be married in this Church to have access to these liturgies."

Idowu-Fearon praised the resolution's provision that "no bishop, priest, deacon or lay person should be coerced or penalized in any manner, nor suffer any canonical disabilities, as a result of his or her theological objection to, or support for, the 78th General Convention's action contained in this resolution." The secretary general also said he was happy to learn about a small group of bishops that will be appointed to continue seeking unity within the House of Bishops and within and between dioceses.

That's not praise, that's compromise, and based on past experience in TEC over women's ordination, there will be a brief window for remaining orthodox Episcopalians to get out before the hammer comes down and same-sex marriage is mandated. We have been down the road before and we know where it ends.

*****

Some priests are likely to marry same-sex couples even if the marriage canon change fails to pass, says an orthodox Anglican priest in the Anglican Church of Canada.

Canadian Archbishop Fred Hiltz has suggested that even if the vote to change the Marriage Canon fails to pass at General Synod, some priests will ignore the fact and go ahead with same-sex marriages anyway. Although Hiltz frames it as "civil disobedience", one is left with the impression that he is dropping a broad hint to liberal dioceses as to how they should proceed.

The same strategy was adopted by the national church in 2010, when at the General Synod, while approval was not given for dioceses to start blessing same-sex unions, it was understood that many dioceses would still do so. And they did. An easy solution for Hiltz, since he was absolved of responsibility and liberal dioceses got what they wanted.

"In 2010, we had the local option for same-sex blessings, along with the assurance that there would be no same-sex marriages," a source told VOL. (For the record 'local option' was a political tactic that TEC effectively used).

"In 2016, the ACoC will have the local option for same-sex marriages, along with the assurance that no priests will be compelled to perform them.

"In 2020 we will have.... well, you get the drift.

"Some bishops have expressed concern about the possibility that some priests may go ahead and marry gay couples in the event that a resolution changing the marriage canon to allow same-gender marriages is rejected at General Synod this summer, said Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada.

"If it's not approved, then, as we sometimes, say...there could be some 'civil disobedience' on the part of clergy and parishes, and the bishops are going to have to handle that, because all of us that are ordained make a solemn promise to conform to the doctrine, discipline and worship of the Anglican Church of Canada," Hiltz told the Anglican Journal April 12. Hiltz made the comments during an interview on the House of Bishops meeting last week, April 4--8.

*****

The Rt. Rev. Emmanuel Kanamani, Bishop of the Anglican Diocese in Maiduguri, Borno state, Nigeria, says "gay marriage is madness of the highest order and is responsible for so many problems in the world." Bishop Kanamani was speaking during the 2016 Synod of the Diocese in Maiduguri on Friday.

Bishop Kanamani regretted that those who reject gay marriage were regarded as primitive people, noting that, "If men marry men and women marry women, who will give birth to the next generation?

"They say it is freedom, but I assure you it will render negative effect to the entire society,'' the Bishop added.

*****

A portent of things to come for the Anglican Church of Canada. Major debt has caused Inuvik's Anglican Church to lose its pastor. The Anglican Church of the Ascension faces a debt of more than $100,000, as well as an uncertain future. After nearly three years of service, pastor Steve Martin left Inuvik when he learned the parish would not be able to pay his stipend.

Last week, after nearly three years of service, Pastor Steve Martin left Inuvik for Ontario, when he learned the parish would not be able to pay his monthly stipend come September. The church usually relies on donations from the local congregation to take care of buildings, the pastor's stipend and residence.

"In times past that works really well," said Martin, "but in economical situations where we struggle financially, there's things that can't always be paid. The donations that were once big on the plate aren't there anymore."

*****

The Anglican Archbishop of Adelaide Jeffrey Driver is to retire after almost 11 years in the pivotal role.

In an unexpected move, Archbishop Driver, 65, advised parishioners of his intention to step down in August.

Archbishop Driver was elected in 2005, at a time when the church was deeply demoralized following the damaging Brandenburg child abuse scandal that cost former Archbishop Ian George his job.

Under his leadership, the diocese has been transformed and revitalized and now leads the world in practices and protocols aimed at both preventing and detecting child abuse and dealing with survivors.

*****

The Episcopal Church in South Sudan's Central Equatoria state said it is going to appoint its own Archbishop to represent the region. Currently, The Episcopal Church of Sudan and South Sudan has an overall Archbishop, Daniel Deng Bul, whose seat is in Juba, Central Equatoria.

However, the Bishop of Yei Diocese, Hillary Adeba, said that the church held a synod which decided to group different dioceses into clusters with their own administrations. Adeba said in the new cluster system, Daniel Deng Bul would not be called an Archbishop, but rather a primate and metropolitan who oversees the province.

He added that there is no special time for appointing an Archbishop for Central Equatoria, but the process would not exceed three years. He added that renovating premises for the establishment of the new cluster would cost two million South Sudanese Pounds.

*****

In Conway, New Hampshire they demolished Christ Episcopal Church rectory and razed it to the ground, making way for an auto parts store. Preservationists decried the razing of the rectory of the Christ Episcopal Church on Pine Street in North Conway. The 1800-built structure was taken down in just under two hours by an excavator. The Rev. Richard Belshaw, the new pastor of Christ Episcopal Church, said the rectory building was deemed by church leaders to be beyond repair.

I suppose we should be grateful that it was not sold to a group of Islamists for a mosque.

*****

If you had any doubts about the loyalties of former Southern Malawi bishop, James Tengatenga, this should put your mind to rest. In Palm Springs, California, last Sunday before heading out the door to Lusaka, he gave the blessing at the 60th birthday party for the Rev. Canon Albert Ogle, an openly gay Episcopal priest who is known around the world for his activism on behalf of LGBT people. This is the same Tengatenga who networked with LGBT leaders and their straight allies at an informal gathering in Palm Springs, and the same Tengatenga who gave an unprecedented two-hour interview with this LGBT media organization -- his first major interview since the controversy erupted last summer.

He's bought and paid for by TEC, which tells you everything.

He was elected chairman of the ACC in 2009 for a six-year term, which will conclude at the 2016 gathering in Zambia. Tengatenga says he will not stand for re-election, and is ready to pass the torch to someone else.

Does this mean he will be a man without a country? Tengatenga says yes and no. "No, in a sense that I can go back [to Malawi] -- but to what?" he said as we lounged in the shade next to one of the five swimming pools at the modestly-priced spa and resort hotel where we all were staying. "I would be a nuisance to my successor as bishop, because I would not be restricted to speaking my mind. At least now, it's not an option." You can be sure that TEC will find him a sinecure, he is the perfect foil (he's African) that they can use against the GAFCON primates and bishops.

*****

Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) based in Alexandria, VA. proudly announced that Immanuel Chapel received from Faith & Form Magazine an award in the category of "Religious Architecture: New Facilities and from Period Homes," and won a 2016 Palladio Design Award from Traditional Building and Period Homes magazines in the "New Design and Construction" category. Robert A.M. Stern Architects (RAMSA) Partners Robert A.M. Stern and Grant Marani led the design of Immanuel Chapel, which was consecrated on October 13, 2015.

"We were very pleased to receive news of the awards from Faith & Form and Traditional Building and Period Homes magazines," said the Rev. James Barney Hawkins IV, Ph.D., vice president for Institutional Advancement at VTS. "Immanuel Chapel deserves such recognition! As we live into the Chapel, we continue to be grateful for the Seminary's creative and satisfying collaboration with Robert A.M. Stern Architects."

The Annual Religious Art and Architecture Design Awards program is co-sponsored by Faith & Form Magazine and the Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture (IFRAA), a knowledge community of the American Institute of Architects. The awards program was founded in 1978, with the goal of honoring the best in architecture, liturgical design and art for religious spaces. The program offers five primary categories for awards: Religious Architecture, Liturgical/Interior Design, Sacred Landscape, Religious Arts, and Unbuilt Work.

The Palladio Awards honor outstanding achievement in traditional design.

*****

The Rt. Rev. Dr. Steven Croft is the new Bishop of Oxford, Downing Street announced this week. Bishop Steven succeeds the Rt. Rev. John Pritchard, who retired in October, 2014, after seven years in the post.

Bishop Steven, who is 58, is currently Bishop of Sheffield, a role he has held since 2009. He serves on the Archbishop's Council and Chairs the Ministry Council of the Church of England. He has been a member of the House of Lords since 2013.

He has a passion for mission and evangelism and for finding creative ways of sharing the Gospel. He is the co-author of the Emmaus and Pilgrim courses, both of which are resources to help people engage with the Christian faith.

A source told VOL that Steven is a former Evangelical, but sadly and to all intents and purposes, a company man. Management has replaced Atonement.

*****

A former Archbishop of Canterbury has warned that Labour will not be ready to govern if Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn does not act to combat antisemitism.

Lord Carey of Clifton said he did not wish to suggest that the Labour Party was riddled with anti-Semitism. However, the problems were real enough that Corbyn had already promised to deal with the issue as a matter of urgency.

"If he does not take effective action, this will demonstrate that the Labour Party is not ready to govern," said Lord Carey in a lecture, Combatting History's Oldest Hate - A Christian Perspective. Antisemitic attitudes stubbornly persist in a few dark corners in Britain."

Lord Carey was speaking in Emmanu-El Synagogue in Manhattan, in the US.

He was delivering the annual Dorothy Gardner Adler State of Anti-Semitism Lecture, endowed by Simon Wiesenthal Centre trustee, Allen Adler.

Lord Carey said there have been worrying signs in recent years. The Community Security Trust, a respected Jewish organization, reported in 2014, that antisemitic incidents in the UK reached their highest level in 30 years.

*****

The Church of Norway voted at its annual conference to allow gay marriage, with the Christian body joining the French Protestant Church, the U.S. Episcopal and Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) denominations, among others, in now supporting same-sex unions.

Of the 115 delegates at the Lutheran denomination's synod, 88 backed embracing gay marriage, while also including a caveat for priests who do not wish to take part in same-sex weddings that allows them to opt out of doing so, Reuters reported.

The denomination itself called the institutional change "a historic decision that marks a shift in the church's teaching on marriage," with the vote reportedly receiving a standing ovation from most of the participants in attendance.

Though the Church of Norway is declining in prevalence, 74 percent of Norwegians are still members, but locals say the churches are for the most part empty.

As TheBlaze has reported, the battle over gay marriage within churches across the world continues to rage. Last June, the Episcopal Church officially joined Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the United Church of Christ, in becoming the third mainline denomination to embrace gay marriage rites -- a move that came just days after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex unions.

The theological debate over gay marriage is likely nowhere near over.

*****

VOL could really use your help. Spring has sprung and we need funds to keep us afloat. Bills have to be paid and debts met.

Thousands of you go daily to VOL's website and thousands more receive VOL's weekly digest of stories, but only a handful ever make a contribution to keep the news coming into your e-mail box. Please consider a tax-deductible donation to keep the news flowing. You can send a check to:

VIRTUEONLINE
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P.O. Box 111
Shohola, PA 18458

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

Thank you for your support.

David

"This hyper-self-consciousness about 'Who am I? Where exactly am I on the gender spectrum?' is mere navel-gazing, while in the Middle East ISIS is beheading people. It is a kind of madness of self-absorption." -- Camille Paglia

"What the Church needs to-day is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use, men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men, men of prayer." --- E.M. Bounds

"Everyone recognizes that Stephen was Spirit-filled when he was performing wonders. Yet, he was just as Spirit-filled when he was being stoned to death." ---- Leonard Ravenhill

"The church that is man-managed instead of God-governed is doomed to failure. A ministry that is college-trained but not Spirit-filled works no miracles." --- Samuel Chadwick

On homosexuality. "There is censorship of discussion about the causes of various gender issues -- for at least 25 years, now, in the case of homosexuality itself. In the 1980s there was talk of finding a gay gene, but when that was not found, silence [became the rule]. To even raise the question of how homosexuality is caused is considered homophobic. But I think it is imperative for everyone to ask questions about matters of development of the personality and sexual orientation. "I'm waiting for some brave young gays to protest against the censorship." --- Camille Paglia

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

Archbishop Justin Welby will shortly face a kairos moment when the GAFCON Primates meet next week in Nairobi.

The ACC-16 Lusaka lovefest is over and all the pleasant sounding words about a diverse communion filled with paradox and "difference" and "intentional discipleship" will be tested when, and if Welby comes face to face with those primates that refused to attend the Lusaka love-in.

The Episcopal Church got a pass thanks to chairman Bishop James Tengatenga and the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, Josiah Idowu-Fearon, who did not even attempt to implement what the Primates agreed upon in Canterbury last January. TEC romped home with all the prizes of inclusivity and diversity, with not a peep of disapproval from anyone, including the Archbishop of Canterbury. They got full rights of admission.

Now all this should make it much easier for the GAFCON primates as they meet in Nairobi. They will have read how Welby did nothing to implement what the primates earlier agreed upon.

So I predict this. Welby, an evangelical, will come to hate the very tribe he belongs too, namely his fellow evangelicals. Rowan Williams was not an evangelical, but he tried to square the circle and couldn't. He got eviscerated by Nigerian Archbishop Nicholas Okoh in language that no one had seen before. And the same will happen to Welby.

The GAFCON primates have too much to lose to compromise with Welby, and they will tell him so. Welby may well rue the day he took the job. They will not let him off the hook because he is an evangelical, and will, in fact, demand that he live to a higher standard than that sought by Williams. They will demand that he live up to the authority of scripture and not the faux authority of the Instruments of the communion, and they will tell him so in no uncertain terms.

Being the child of alcoholic parents will not get him off the hook. He cannot parse this and try and reconcile the irreconcilable. That day is long gone. If he ends up standing with the ACC and TEC and the ACoC, then the Anglican Communion is lost.

The argument that we can all get along is not working. There are two different gospels being advocated by the Anglican Communion. One is right; the other is wrong. One leads to eternal life, the other leads to spiritual death and, possibly, eternal damnation. The two are irreconcilable. One group believes in worldly transformation through the Five Marks of Mission; the other believes in personal transformation through the power of the Holy Spirit with a transcendent gospel of sin and salvation, which may or may not lead to societal transformation.

The notion that God has changed his mind about human sexual behavior is wrong. Dead wrong. He hasn't. The subject of our sexuality is ontologically driven; it is an order of creation. It is "male and female". God closed the sexual matrix in creation and has never opened it again. QED

Welby might well bless his son if he announced to him he was gay, and attend his son's "marriage", but God would not be present and he would not bless what He himself has not approved of.

You can read a number of stories from correspondents attending Lusaka and my own commentaries in today's digest. The bottom line is the issue of two masters and who the Anglican Communion will serve.

*****

The Archbishop of Canterbury's recent revelation that his father was not who he thought he was, but someone else, did not come as a shock, apparently, and Justin Welby treated the revelation with biblical insight, receiving near universal adulation for his stand and his support of his still living mother.

Kudos all round. That all three players, his natural father, his mother and his stepfather all had serious drinking problems with Welby, himself, nursing his ailing father till he died, speaks volumes about who Welby is, his compassion and love in the midst of a less than happy childhood.

A lot of people can identify with Welby's situation. Unnumbered children grow up in alcoholic and abusive homes, with many being scarred for life, while others rise to triumph over their awful upbringings to do great things. Some are strengthened by adversity, and others destroyed.

Clearly there are scars left and behaviors learned that determine how one might function in society at a later date.

Welby's behavior and reconciliation skills, both in the secular and religious realm, reveal much about the man and what an alcoholic environment did to him.

Dr. Charles Zeiders, an Anglo Catholic, clinical psychology expert and author of The Clinical Christ, talks about Welby's attempts at reconciliation in the communion in these terms.

Here is what he wrote to VOL:

"It is well known that children of alcoholic parents are often conflict- averse. In their personal lives they are at higher risk for so-called, codependent relationships, wherein they sacrifice their own welfare to unreasonable and even sick partners and friends. If such a person rises to leadership in a denomination or corporation, they are at risk for a people-pleasing style of leadership. During periods of organizational stability, such leaders do not injure the institution. However, when there is upheaval in matters of doctrine or crisis due to economic change, people-pleasing leaders represent a disaster for institutional survival. In churches, such leaders issue platitudinous, banal encyclicals, while tithing collapses in the face of inevitable ruptures into splinter groups. In corporations, the decisive reorganization from fast hiring and firing fail to occur, and innovation stalls, while the people-pleasing leader frets over keeping VP's and senior managers happy. You can read the full story in today's digest. (Note to David: Where is the end of this quote?It is missing its ")

*****

On another note, The House of Bishops of the Anglican Church of Tanzania voted by a razor thin margin to rejoin GAFCON, and authorized their primate, Archbishop Jacob Chimeledya, to attend this week's meeting of the GAFCON primates' council in Nairobi. VOL was told by an insider, that TEC is going to war to get it back, as they have poured millions into this province to keep it from straying into the arms of GAFCON. Archbishop Valentino Mokiwa, an Anglo-Catholic and former archbishop and primate of Tanzania, was one of the founding GAFCON primates, and gave up his throne in 2008 to the present archbishop. Mokiwa had abandoned GAFCON, and thrown his support to the Bishops in Dialogue and Indaba process. As recently as last month, he hosted a conference funded by the Episcopal Church in Dar es Salaam, designed to foster links between the Episcopal Church and Africa's Anglican bishops. Chimeledya is from the evangelical wing of the church and had attended the first GAFCON meeting in Jerusalem in 2008.

*****

As the GAFCON primates meet this week in Nairobi, many people around the world will be praying for these men and the wider Anglican Communion. They would value your prayers again. Here are some points to guide your prayers as well as your praise to our God, who is rich in mercy and grace.

Give thanks:

• for the Primates' willingness to serve the Anglican Communion through the GAFCON Primates' Council despite the heavy burdens they carry in their own Provinces.

• for the courageous and faithful leadership of Archbishop Wabukala as he stands down as chairman at this meeting.

• for safety in travelling and at the venue, for visa arrangements to go smoothly and for everyone to arrive as scheduled.

• that the Primates will be united and strong in their love for God's Word and their resolve to see the Church of God healed and renewed.

• for wisdom in the decisions that need to be made about GAFCON 2018, and the development of the GAFCON movement.

• for the Advisers, Consultants and Secretariat staff who will be supporting the Primates.

• for this meeting to be an encouragement to the Anglican Church of Kenya

*****

CANADIAN CLOSURES. Anglican churches are closing all across Canada. In Ladysmith, BC, St. John the Evangelist church will shut down this summer, ending 115 years of Anglican presence in the mid-Island community. The Anglican Diocese of British Columbia reported that the church's 35 parishioners have voted to disestablish or close down as a legal entity in the community. Catherine Pate, spokeswoman for the diocese -- comprising the 45 parishes on Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and Kingcome Inlet -- said an aging congregation and the need for a new building forced the decision. "There are not enough of them where they are in a position to feel they can start a new base and a new building." The church building dates to 1901, when a schoolhouse for children of coal miners was moved from what is now Nanaimo to be used for services.

The Diocese of Eastern Newfoundland is steadily closing churches. David of Samizdat writes, "Or, to use voguish Ecclesi-Speak, it is repurposing them. If the bishop does manage to find a purpose for his churches, it will be a first for the ACoC, an organization that has been meandering aimlessly in a theological wilderness of solipsistic ecclesiolatry for decades now."

The diocese will discuss ways to develop greater community partnerships under the possibility of repurposing or divesting themselves of their current inventory of property and buildings.

Four parishes in Trinity South recently closed their churches, choosing instead to amalgamate into the repurposed Epiphany Elementary school in Heart's Delight-Islington. Bishop Peddle says they have seven parish churches in the St. John's area, and they're working with parishes on how to reshape themselves into the future. The bishop says this month's Synod will examine the ongoing process of deciding what they keep with them "on the journey forward."

In London, Ontario, in the Diocese of Huron, Bishop Cronyn Anglican Church has closed. The church had a lengthy history in the city, being the second Anglican church to be built here in London in 1873, after the building of St Paul's Cathedral. It was named after the first Bishop of Huron, Benjamin Cronyn, and became the anchor church in East London, attracting a congregation of 700 people to Sunday service during the Victorian era. Even as recently as the 1970's, the church drew almost 200 people to its Sunday services.

*****

TWO dioceses took another step in the ongoing legal saga of who owns church properties this week.

Canon lawyer, Allan S. Haley, along with attorneys for the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin, filed a petition with the Fifth District Court of Appeals in Fresno to grant a rehearing (and re-briefing) of the case which that Court decided on April 5, as reported in an earlier post. Based on what the Court wrote in its decision, the petition recites a number of grounds for granting a rehearing (Petition, pp. 6-7).

The Diocese of San Joaquin, in California, was the first Episcopal member diocese to vote to withdraw from membership in the Episcopal Church (USA). It did so by passing (with well more than the minimum two-thirds majorities required) certain amendments to its Constitution and canons at two successive annual conventions of the Diocese, in 2006 and again in December 2007.

In 2007, before it made its final vote to withdraw from ECUSA, the Diocese of San Joaquin under its then bishop, the Rt. Rev. John-David Schofield, had several subsidiary trust entities used for holding title to real and personal property. The first was a "corporation sole", which is a special type of religious corporation having only a single officer/director (which is the reason for applying the adjective "sole" to it), called "the incumbent of the corporation sole."

There were forty of the Diocese's member congregations, along with their associated clergy, that voted in convention, in December 2007, to adopt amendments to its Constitution that changed its religious affiliation from ECUSA to the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. (The realignment was on a temporary basis of necessity, until the Anglican Church in North America organized as an independent province in 2009 and the Diocese joined it.)

In opposition to that final vote in 2007, were seven member parishes and their clergy, who wished to remain affiliated with ECUSA. And so they proceeded to withdraw from the Diocese, with Bishop Schofield's blessings, and took their own real and personal property with them. You can read more in today's digest.

FROM the Episcopal Diocese of Ft. Worth comes word that the Second Court of Appeals in Fort Worth heard oral arguments before a three-justice panel from both sides, regarding the appeal of last year's trial court ruling in favor of the Diocese and Corporation.

The appeal was filed by the plaintiffs' Episcopal Church parties after the trial court ruled that, under neutral principles of law, the church and diocesan properties held by its Corporation are held in trust for the Diocese and the Parishes and Missions in union with it -- and not The Episcopal Church. The Texas Supreme Court ruled in 2013, that the trial court should apply neutral principles, rather than deferring to TEC wishes. It also declared that the Dennis Canon has no force or effect in the state.

Attorney Scott Brister answered a very few questions from Justices Lee Gabriel, Bonnie Sudderth, and Gardner during his presentation on behalf of the Diocese and Corporation. The hearing concluded on time. There is no period defined for the court to hand down an opinion and judgment, but a ruling can be expected within a few months' time.

*****

If you have ever wanted a glimpse into how Trinity Church, Wall Street spends its money to influence the Global South towards TEC's worldview, then read this.

RECENT GRANTS include:

Emerging Out of Conflict Seeking Reconciliation ($332,500) to the Diocese of Bo, Sierra Leone, to pay diocesan staff and teacher salaries for three months due to ongoing economic impacts of the Ebola Virus Disease.

Diocese of Freetown, Sierra Leone: To support the diocese's continued response to the impacts of the Ebola Virus Disease and to pay diocesan staff and teacher salaries for three months due to the ongoing economic impacts of the disease.

Diocese of Guinea: To pay diocesan staff and teacher salaries for three months due to ongoing economic impacts of the Ebola Virus Disease.

Episcopal Diocese of Haiti Region du Nord: For Radio Redemption to broadcast information about community development and Episcopal identity.

Province of Congo: To convene a provincial synod.

Strengthening the Anglican Communion ($1,435,619)

Anglican Church of Tanzania: As a renewal over one year to support the construction of a hotel and conferencing facility.

Anglican Diocese of Eastern Zambia: To complete construction of an office complex for rental income and diocesan use.

Diocese of Asante Mampong, Ghana: To construct a student hostel at the Nursing and Midwifery Training College that will generate income for mission and ministry.

Eglise Anglican du Burundi: As a renewal over one year to construct accommodation facilities at the Faith Center Conferencing Facility.

Zambia Anglican Council: As a renewal over one year to support the construction of a twelve-unit block of residential rental apartments.

Emerging Out of Conflict Seeking Reconciliation ($300,000)

Deanery of Nepal: To support the rebuilding efforts of the Anglican Church in Nepal following the 2015 earthquakes

Earthquake Relief in Nepal: To support disaster response following the devastating earthquakes in the Anglican Deanery of Nepal.

Province of the Anglican Church of Burundi: Over one year to respond to the emerging humanitarian crisis as many Burundians flee growing political tensions

Strengthen the Anglican Communion ($284,000)

Diocese of Central Tanganyika: To fund a feasibility study to determine the development which would best suit the four underutilized plots of land owned by the Diocese.

Diocese of Maseno West: Over one year to support an income generating project to construct two floors for business purposes.

Special Opportunity ($36,000): The Reformed Episcopal Church of Spain

To update existing website to a well-designed, bi-lingual site with the ability to telecast services.

Strengthen the Anglican Communion ($57,300)

Anglican Church of Canada: To support African bishops' participation in the Bishops' Dialogue meeting to be held in the Diocese of Virginia in May 2015.

Diocese of Mount Kilimanjaro: Over one year to conduct a feasibility study on diocesan land for potential income generation opportunities.

*****

Nearly 500 Anglicans from around New Zealand, including the Vicars of many larger churches, have met together this week at two conferences in Auckland and Christchurch to launch the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans NZ (FCANZ). FCANZ is a local expression of the GAFCON movement, and a message of support was read out at the conferences from Most Rev Dr. Eliud Wabukala, Chair of the Gafcon Primates. Video greetings were also received from Most Rev Foley Beach (Primate of ACNA) and the Rt Rev Richard Condie (Bishop of Tasmania and Chair of FCA Australia). Rev Canon Vaughan Roberts (St Ebbe's, Oxford) gave 4 talks on True Gospel, True Sex, True Love and True Unity, and was joined by Rev Canon David Short (Vancouver), Dr Peter Adam (Melbourne), Rev Dr. Sarah Harris (Auckland) and others.

The formation of FCANZ has been in response to the passing of Motion 30 in 2014 and the subsequent release of the 'A Way Forward' Report, due to be presented to the General Synod of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia next month. The report proposes the blessing of same-sex civil marriages, thereby rendering them as 'rightly-ordered' relationships opening up the possibility for those in them to be accepted as candidates for ordination.

Rev Jay Behan, Chair of FCANZ, said 'This week has been a hugely significant moment for orthodox Anglicans in New Zealand. FCANZ is committed to promoting faithfulness and providing fellowship, and orthodox Anglicans now know that through the FCANZ there is a place for all orthodox Anglicans in New Zealand, whether they are inside or outside the current Anglican structures. We continue to pray that General Synod will pull back from making a decision which will tear the fabric of the communion, undermining the allegiance to General Synod for many Anglicans in New Zealand.'

Enquiries should be addressed to: hello@fcanz.org

Read also: A review of A Way Forward the report of the Working Group of the Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia by Martin Davie

*****

From Kuala Lumpurcomes word that three of Malaysia's most senior Anglican clergymen want the authorities to act against award-winning Islamic scholar Ayub Abdul Rahman, whom they allege has been speaking in public under the fraudulent guise of a former Christian cleric with their church.

The Most Rev. Datuk Ng Moon Hing, the Anglican Church's archbishop for Southeast Asia; the Rt. Rev. Melter Tais, the bishop of the Sabah diocese and the Rt. Rev. Datuk Bolly Lapok, bishop of the diocese of Kuching, denounced those who have been repeatedly highlighting the preacher's alleged past Christian association without due checks.

"Such actions are mischievous and harmful in a multi-religious society," the trio said in a joint statement to Malay Mail Online. Archbishop Ng said the misrepresentation of Ayub's credentials in promotional posters suggest a 'sinister' motive on the preacher's part. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

ECUADOR was hit by a serious earthquake this week. The Bishop of Ecuador Litoral, the Rt. Rev. Alfredo Morante España, wrote saying the coastal area of his country suffered considerable damage to its infrastructure, loss of life, and a large number of people were injured and missing. Some of the most affected areas by the earthquake are the cities of Manta and Portoviejo and the town of La Pila, where his church has a presence. There are reports that 48 church members' homes were completely or partially destroyed and three churches had considerable damage to their physical structure. Fortunately, there was no loss of life among its members, but there were some with bruises and physical and psychological trauma.

The community is already engaged, because there are basic needs of drinking water, food, medicine, first-aid kits, and basic tools. In general,these are all the elements needed for rescue efforts. There are many victims that require attention. They will seek ways to send help although the roads have been affected. With the help of the National Police or other government agency they will find a way to reach those who need it the most. The bishop called for prayers and support.

*****

VOL could really use your help. Spring has sprung and we need funds to keep us afloat. Bills have to be paid and debts met.

Thousands of you go daily to VOL's website and thousands more receive VOL's weekly digest of stories, but only a handful ever make a contribution to keep the news coming into your e-mail box. Please consider a tax-deductible donation to keep the news flowing. You can send a check to:

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Thank you for your support.

David

Prophecy today. We should certainly reject any claim that there are prophets today comparable to the biblical prophets. For they were the 'mouth' of God, special organs of revelation, whose teaching belongs to the foundation on which the church is built. There may well, however, be a prophetic gift of a secondary kind, as when God gives some people special insight into his Word and his will. But we should not ascribe infallibility to such communications. Instead, we should evaluate both the character and the message of those who claim to speak from God. The principal way in which God speaks to us today is through Scripture, as the church in every generation has recognized. --- John R.W. Stott

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
April 29, 2016

The Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh elected a Georgia pastor Saturday to be its next leader in a landmark election to succeed the retiring Bishop Robert Duncan, who led the diocese's break with the Episcopal Church, eight years ago.

Clergy and lay delegates elected the Rev. James Hobby, who got his start in ministry in Southwestern Pennsylvania a quarter century ago, on the fifth ballot. Six candidates were originally on the ballot at a special convention, held at St. Stephen Anglican Church in Sewickley.

If his election is ratified by other bishops in the Anglican Church in North America at their June meeting, Hobby would be consecrated as bishop in September.

Hobby, currently pastor of Trinity Church in Thomasville, Ga., earned his Master of Divinity at Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge in 1985, and served at two Mon Valley parishes from 1986 to 1990, before moving on to pulpits in other states.

"I look forward to coming home," he said afterward.

Through the early ballots, Hobby polled close to the Rev. Jonathan Millard, rector of the Church of the Ascension in Oakland, who ultimately withdrew his name after the fourth ballot.

In the final ballot, Hobby received 93 votes from clergy delegates and 75 from lay delegates, ahead of the Rev. Jack Lumanog, at 18 and 30, respectively.

Episcopal liberals and progressives (Episcopal Cafe and Mark Harris) tried to trash Millard, a divorcee, whose name was put forward for the process. Little did these pro-sodomite trashers know, that the priest in question was ABANDONED by his wife, who left him with the kids, while she hi-tailed off with a WOMAN. He pled with her to return, she did not. He has faithfully raised his children for 8 years alone. I don't see how that disqualifies him. Of course, the revisionists love to spin this that the ACNA is waking up to the real world. Really. ACNA knows the real world and knows about the real nature of sin and redemption. It is a pity the revisionists don't have a clue about either.

*****

The Anglican Diocese of the Great Lakes opened a new chapter Thursday, six years after its establishment, by consecrating Ronald W. Jackson as its second bishop in a ceremony at St. Bernard Catholic Church in Akron.

The procession was led by Archbishop Foley Beach, head of the Anglican Church in North America. Anglican bishops and other church representatives from across the continent took part in the service, some coming from as far as Texas, Canada and New England.

"I enjoy seeing a new beginning," said Dan Klueg, one of about 250 attendees that filled the pews of the ornate church. "I'm confident [in Jackson] because the concept is steeped in prayer. We're listening to God, which is what I want to be part of."

Episcopal academies across the country have become mired in sexual scandal. The latest has a Tennessee father suing a Kansas military school run by the Episcopal Church, alleging its failure to adequately supervise cadets led to the sexual assault of his 12-year-old son by another student.

*****

The lawsuit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Kansas against St. John's Military School, is the latest in a string of litigation that has dogged the Episcopalian boarding school in Salina.

The lawsuit stems from an accusation that in spring, 2014, a grade-school boy sexually assaulted a fellow student in a dorm room.

The school says it did not learn of the accusation until a month ago, when child welfare officials, who are investigating, contacted them.

The plaintiff's attorney says the boy did not tell anyone about the alleged assault until months later.

No criminal charges have been filed.

*****

Did the Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral Deliberately Mislead C of E Evangelicals? When Dr. David Ison's name was proposed in 2012 to be the next Dean of St. Paul's in London, Church of England evangelicals were heartened that one of their own would ascend to one of the most prestigious pulpits in England.

However, immediately after his appointment was announced, it emerged that his position on homosexuality was less than fully biblical, even unbiblical, causing concern among those who had been his supporters and advocates.

Matthew Holehouse reported in The Telegraph on March 9, 2012, that the Very Rev Dr. David Ison, 57, had performed ceremonies for homosexual couples who had had civil partnerships, as Dean of Bradford, even though the Church still forbids formal blessings. This begs the question, why had his actions not been made public at that point? His views, as an evangelical in a position at Bradford Cathedral, which is appointed by evangelical trustees, would be of some significance in the Church, government and society.

The announcement took evangelicals by surprise and shock. No more so than Alison Ruoff, who had been elected from the Bishop of London's Council to the Appointment panel, to choose the new Dean of St Paul's cathedral. In a memo to friends following The Telegraph report, she described herself as "absolutely devastated."

"I could not believe my eyes, such were the headlines. However there is no doubt that there is ambiguity in the apparent quotes from David as to exactly what he means with regard to 'gay' marriage. You can read the full report here or in today's digest. http://www.virtueonline.org/london-did-dean-st-pauls-cathedral-deliberately-mislead-c-e-evangelicals

*****

Former Sydney Archbishop Peter Jensen and secretary general of the GAFCON primates is visiting North America, and he spoke at a number of venues from Toronto to Philadelphia. This week, he spoke to the CANA East diocesan convention in Wayne, PA, where I was able to interview him.

Here are some of his choice lines:

"I never knew there was an ACC till 1999... who gives a fig. Only 150 turned up and they passed 54 motions that were largely irrelevant."

"The Primates' meeting in Canterbury Meeting was a complete Failure. It was worth attending, as it revealed all the theological weaknesses in the Anglican Communion."

"The Lambeth Conference is out of date. It is a 19th century structure; GAFCON is functioning in the 21st century."

"There is a new Anglicanism boiling up that is real and based on the Word of God, and current tensions are not in this new emerging communion. We are renewing the Anglican Communion for the 21st century and not the 19th century, and it is based on the First Century the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word. We are in for exciting time."

"None of the GAFCON primates could care less about what took place in Lusaka recently. They have a different gospel."

"I understand Archbishop Welby called homosexuality a sin when he visited President Mugabe. I hope he will repeat that in the West and say so, standing on the Word of God -- The Bible."

You can read my full interview with him in today's digest.

*****

The Church of England has issued a prayer in advance of the June 23 vote deciding whether the United Kingdom will remain in the European Union (the proposed "Brexit," or "British exit".)

The New York Times reports concerns that the C of E is taking a political position:

The prayer, urging honesty, openness and generosity, asks God to imbue voters with "discernment" so that "our nation may prosper and that, with all the peoples of Europe, we may work for peace and the common good."

The prayer was seen by some as a sign that the Church of England -- whose supreme governor is Queen Elizabeth II -- was joining with President Obama to side with those who want Britain to remain a member of the European Union.

Peter Bone, a Conservative legislator who is strongly in favor of a British exit, or "Brexit," said it was "outrageous" for the church to seem to take a position.

"This is politics and should be nothing to do with the church," he told The Daily Mail, adding, "I would have thought that God was rather neutral on this issue."

A spokesman for the Church of England said in a telephone interview, that the church was not taking sides in the debate, and that the prayer was not intended to push voters one way or the other.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, last month said that the church would stay neutral. He said that Britons had a "genuine fear" about immigration, and that, "it is really important that that fear is listened to and addressed."

Has the C of E overstepped its bounds, by British standards (given that the American separation of church and state is not reflective of the U.K. governmental structure)? Or is this a tempest in a teapot?

*****

Did the Archbishop of Canterbury tell Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe that gay sex is "morally wrong"?

"You know [homosexuality] is morally wrong, but legally we cannot condemn those who practice it," Welby said.

"As the leaders of the church. we are here to learn how Zimbabwe managed to resolve its conflict; this will be a lesson to the whole Anglican in the world," he reportedly told the Harare Sunday Mail.

When asked about the Anglican position on homosexuality, Welby reportedly said: "You know [homosexuality] is morally wrong, but legally we cannot condemn those who practice it."

Well, this got up the trousers of England's gay community. "Welby's tone on homosexuality appears to differ wildly to when he's speaking in Zimbabwe to when he's speaking in the UK," said a gay newspaper.

Earlier this year, Welby said, for him, it was a "constant source of deep sadness that people are persecuted for their sexuality". And you wonder why the GAFCON primates don't trust him. The real truth is that gays are the bullies in the Anglican tent.

IN OTHER NEWS, Zimbabwe opposition leader, Joice Mujuru, was barred from attending an Anglican church meeting. The former V.P and leader of the opposition party, Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF), she was banned after local media reported security agents suspected the leader could use the event for campaign purposes.

Once a powerful ally of President Robert Mugabe, Mujuru was sacked by the ruling ZANU-PF party in 2014, after accusations emerged that she was plotting to kill the president, a move many described as orchestrated by First Lady Grace Mugabe.

Described as a reformist, Mujuru is now seen as a true contender for leadership in the forthcoming 2018 elections, while commentators have highlighted how her 10-year stint as Mugabe's deputy enabled her to cultivate a strong support base within the party. A spokesman for ZimPF, Rugare Gumbo, on 27 April, said the move was "undemocratic" and "an act of desperation by the Zanu PF regime".

*****

Billy Graham's Daughter says God Is Turning Away From America and leaving us to our sins. Commenting on the moral state of America and God's judgment on sinful nations, evangelist Anne Graham Lotz, the daughter of Evangelist Billy Graham, said America is imploding "morally and spiritually," that God is removing His "blessing and protection" from us, leaving us to our sins, and that this encroaching judgment is evident in the chaos of the political scene, the economy, and even the weather.

"Romans 1 describes the type of judgment where we sin, and we refuse to repent of our sin, then He backs away from us," said Anne Graham Lotz in a recent interview on CBN News with host Mark Martin. "He removes Himself from us and He turns us over to ourselves. That's what I think I see in America. I believe we're entering into that phase of judgment, where God is backing away."

At the start of the interview, Anne Graham Lotz said that she herself and all Christians need to take prayer very seriously and pray for the United States because, she added, the solution to so many problems is not political, but spiritual.

"Our nation, Mark, is in a mess, and you and I know it," she said. "You probably know better than I do because you follow the news very closely. But it's unraveling. We're imploding, and morally and spiritually, first and foremost. And I believe this is the time for God's people to humble themselves, pray, seek His face, turn from our sin, that He would hear our prayer, forgive our sin and bless America."

"I don't think the solution is primarily political or social or racial or economical or military, or some of these other things," said Lotz. "I believe the solution will be found on our knees before God."
*****

Kirsten Powers (contributor to USA Today and a columnist for Newsweek/The Daily Beast. Democratic commentator at Fox News) recently talked about her conversion to Christ.

"Just seven years ago, if someone had told me that I'd be writing for Christianity Today magazine about how I came to believe in God, I would have laughed out loud. If there was one thing in which I was completely secure, it was that I would never adhere to any religion--especially to evangelical Christianity, which I held in particular contempt."

The she said this, "I grew up in the Episcopal Church in Alaska, but my belief was superficial and flimsy...From my early 20s on, I would waver between atheism and agnosticism, never coming close to considering that God could be real." Is this what the Episcopal Church does to and for people? Apparently. Later she visited Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC and came under the ministry of Tim Keller. Big mistake. It wasn't long after that she bowed the knee to Christ and the rest as they say, is history.

*****

At Georgetown University, the oldest Catholic and Jesuit institution of higher learning in the U.S., the official teachings of the church against homosexuality were set aside. Wednesday was the occasion for a "Lavender Graduation" event, described as "a special ceremony for LGBTQ and Ally undergraduate and graduate students," in order to "acknowledge their achievements, contributions, and unique experiences at Georgetown University."

Before this eyebrow-raising event was set to occur, Georgetown University hosted Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, which is responsible for 40 percent of all reported abortions committed in the United States. The student newspaper reported that Richards spoke "by invitation" from the student-sponsored Lecture Fund, which is funded by the university, and that she spoke about "reproductive justice" and "women's reproductive rights."

Meanwhile, messages written in chalk and appearing on campus in support of conservative causes are now being investigated, and disciplinary action against those responsible, could be taken.

*****

On Sunday, April 17, 2016, the Most Reverend George Takeli, former bishop of the Diocese of Temotu, was installed and seated as the sixth Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Melanesia (ACOM). More than 3,000 church members, partners and visitors gathered at the Provincial Cathedral of St. Barnabas, Honiara, Guadalcanal Island. Archbishop Takeli will also serve as Bishop of the Diocese of Central Melanesia.

*****

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he convinced a Church of England vicar to marry him and his wife to be Lucy, saying that it would eliminate the risk of fornication.

Turnbull made the candid announcement, and then revealed how he convinced vicar to marry him and his wife. He confessed that he told the vicar that the union would prevent 'fornication'.

He said the vicar in a small village church just outside Oxford told him to "Get out of here, what are you talking about, you're not part of my flock, go to the registry office", Turnbull said.

'We said 'we really want to get married here'...I said: 'And the Church of England is an established Church in the United Kingdom'. 'Yes' he said. So I said: 'You are kind of like a public servant'.

'He said 'yes'. I said: 'Well, one of your jobs is to prevent fornication in this Parish. And he said 'yeah'.

'I said 'well look', Ms Hughes and I are not making any admissions, but we are young and in excellent health and sorely tempted.'

'If you marry us, you will eliminate the risk of fornication in the cottage where we are living down the road. And he thought that was so funny that he said 'done'. And we got married.'

*****

The Diocesan Bishop of Egba, Ogun State, Church of Nigeria, the Rt. Rev. Emmanuel Adekunle, advised Nigerians to be courageous enough to recall any lawmaker in the National Assembly who do anything contrary to their wishes and aspirations.

According to the bishop, events in the Senate in the past few weeks informed the need for Nigerians to be vigilant, as it appeared that some of the lawmakers were in the legislature for selfish interests and not to make life better for the people.

"It is sad that many of our lawmakers in the National Assembly, most especially in the Senate, were there for selfish interests.

"The recent happenings in the Senate are shameful. I think Nigerians should be courageous enough to recall any of their representatives who are not representing them well, either in the Senate or in the House of Representatives."

The bishop also condemned Nigerian public office holders for wanting to hold on to power at all cost, even when they were on trial for corruption.

The bishop said there was no moral justification for the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, to continue holding on to his position, because of allegations of corruption leveled against him.

Addressing newsmen on the pre-synod programs for the first session of the fourteen synod of the diocese, held at the Bishops Court, ‎Onikolobo, Abeokuta, he advised Saraki to resign from office and face his trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT over false assets declaration.

*****

The Bishops of the Church in Wales issued a 'Pastoral Letter....to all the faithful concerning gay and lesbian Christians', accompanied by two sets of prayers 'that may be said with a couple following the Celebration of a Civil Partnership or Civil Marriage.'

What should we make of this letter from a theological perspective, writes Martin B. Davie?

First, the reasons the bishops give for not changing the teaching of the Church in Wales in relation to marriage or permitting 'the celebration of public liturgies of blessing for same sex unions' are because a process of consultation has shown there is not the necessary support in the Church in Wales to do so and because to do so would be to go against the recent statement from the Primates of the Anglican Communion. These are good reasons, but they do not get to the theological heart of the matter.

The fundamental theological reason why the Church in Wales should not change its teaching and practice is because the Bible makes clear (Genesis 1-2, Mark 10:2-9) that God has created human beings as male and female and has created marriage as a lifelong exclusive relationship between one man and one woman and as the sole legitimate context for entering into sexual union. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

The widely reported death by suffocation of Ding Cuimei, the wife of a pastor in China's Henan province, has shocked Christians worldwide. Ding and her husband were buried as they attempted to prevent their church from being bulldozed by developers, according to a report in Christianity Today.

Ding's husband managed to crawl to safety, but she did not. Their case highlights again the lack of legal protection for China's Christians.

In Beijing, meanwhile, a less noticed but more significant event provides insight into how China's atheistic regime plans to deal with the country's growing Christian population, projected to become the world's largest within the next couple decades.

At a long-awaited national conference on religion, held April 22-23, in Beijing, China's president Xi Jinping called on leaders to take the initiative in reasserting Communist Party of China (CPC) control over religion.

Xi's speech, his first specifically on religion since coming to power in 2012, delineates a clear hierarchy in which religion is subordinate to state interests. According to Xi, uniting all believers under CPC leadership is necessary to preserve internal harmony, while warding off hostile foreign forces that may use religion to destabilize the regime.

X's insistence is not new, nor is it simply a function of China's Communist rule. Since imperial times, state power has been seen as ultimate. It is, and has always been, the prerogative of the Chinese state to define orthodox belief and to set the boundaries for religious groups whose doctrines fall outside official limits.

In an environment in which the CPC is moving aggressively to rein in all expressions of civil society, Xi's message on religion comes as no surprise. His vision for reasserting control over religion--an area the CPC finds particularly difficult due to the diversity and complex history of China's various religious communities--combines legal means with tightened supervision over religious doctrine and organizations.

Under the banner "rule by law," Xi Jinping has overseen the drafting of new legislation and regulations governing nearly every sphere of life, from recreational dancing to national security. Curiously absent has been legislation dealing with religion.

In his recent speech, Xi made several references to regulating religion through law. Now that the first national conference on religion under Xi has been concluded, it is likely that a new law on religion is not far off. For China's Christians, such legislation could be a two-edged sword.

The CPC's control over religion is to be exerted not only through law, but also by reconciling religious doctrine with the party's socialist values. While "religion serving socialism" has been in the CPC lexicon for some time, direct intervention in the beliefs and practices of individual religions--including calls for the "Sinification" of Christian theology--have become more common under Xi.

*****

In Hope Mills, NC, just outside Fayetteville, Christ Episcopal Church and parish hall was donated by the Diocese of East Carolina to the township to establish a history museum.

The town plans to locate a history museum in the parish hall of the former Christ Episcopal Church on Patterson Street in the downtown. Hope Mills Museum will become a reality.

I suppose we should breathe a sigh of relief that it wasn't sold to an Islamic group. A museum seems appropriate, bearing in mind the way TEC is going. Perhaps, as part of the museum, they might show an unused 1662 BCP.

The museum that Hall and other committee members envision, would tell the story of the town with an emphasis on its history as a textile mill village.

*****

The Episcopal Diocese of Easton, on the Eastern shore of Maryland, is looking for a bishop. Whoever is elected will have to figure out what to do with all the time on his hands, especially if he is not an evangelist or church planter, and 98% of Episcopal bishops are not.

Now the diocese has been without a bishop for a couple of years, and there was talk of uniting it with either the Diocese of Maryland or the Diocese of Delaware, which itself is on life support. (They recently sold their cathedral.)

Most of the diocese is run by volunteers, which should come as no surprise. There are 9 parishes in the diocese with Sunday attendance over 100, and 13 more parishes with Sunday attendance exceeding 50 worshipers. The Diocese of Easton has 16 churches, with less than 50 people at worship on any given Sunday. That figure is almost half of all the churches in the diocese. Most of the parishes are facing dwindling numbers and are struggling to continue.

So why does the diocese need a full time bishop? Why, to keep the illusion going that bishops are needed even for dying dioceses. Seventeen churches have one full time clergy and two additional churches employ two full time clergy. The remaining half of the churches get by with a part time or retired clergy person.

One suspects that whoever becomes bishop will spend a lot of time on committees reimagining the church (TREC) or just reimagining. As the diocese has a long coastal line, the bishop might want to take up fishing to fill in the time.

*****

We at VOL are in our spring fund raising appeal time and you might be tempted just to throw out our appeal letter when you get it before reading it. It's only one page so we won't bore you. We don't hit you up monthly as most agencies do, but we at VOL hope you will take a few moments to read it and use the envelope provided to send us a check. Regardless of size every penny helps. You can also send a donation via PAYPAL at the link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/

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Thank you for your support.

David

Doing the truth. Everywhere in the New Testament God's truth is something to be *done*, not something only to be believed. It carries with it demands, duties, obligations. The evangelical faith radically transforms those who believe and embrace it. --- John R. W. Stott

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
May 6, 2016

It would appear that the sexual lunacy taking place almost weekly in the Episcopal Church, indeed in the liberal Protestant churches of America as they move increasingly away from the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ over doctrine and morals, is being matched by the political madness taking place in this country.

Against all conventional wisdom, Donald Trump has become the GOP's presumptive nominee for president.

But the only consistency in this wild political season has been its unpredictability, in both parties. This has been an election cycle far out of the bounds of political models and establishment control and certainly, conventional wisdom. Very different winds have been blowing in America since the early GOP campaigns launched last year, and over a dozen candidates joined the crowded field by early 2016. Who would have thought back then that it would wind up like this, writes Sheila Liaugminas of Mercatornet news.

"That unforeseen force of nature has caught up American Democrats since Hillary Clinton began what was supposed to be an easy stride to the convention podium this summer to accept the Democratic nomination for president, only to be outshone in popularity by longtime Democratic Socialist, Senate veteran Bernie Sanders. She may well be the inevitable candidate, but it's May, and she's not there yet. That's remarkable.

"It has been a bruising, belligerent, demeaning, undignified and uninspiring battle to date. Conventional wisdom had Ohio and/or Florida, as always, pivotal in putting candidates over the top. This time, all the states played a key role, but it was Indiana that handed Donald Trump the decisive win that, suddenly, turned him into the inevitable GOP candidate for presidency. It also knocked Sen. Ted Cruz out of the race all of a sudden."

Essentially, it shows a matchup of two unpopular candidates, another remarkable reality in this year's election. Donald Trump packed stadiums and arenas and picked up momentum on 'the Trump Train' as time went on, but for all those primary victories, he continually polled behind Clinton in a general election matchup. Until the night of the Indiana primary, said The New York Times.

The bigger story is that polls and predictions haven't meant much this year, as people at the grassroots defied them again and again. The Times article had to fill the analysis with something, so it resorted to conventional wisdom. Which makes no sense. People reacted. We have become a reactionary nation, visceral and impulsive and driven by emotion. How voting polls show one thing in people registering to vote for the first time or first time in a long time, longer lines at many polling places, reflecting engaged citizens, while popularity polls show the 'unlikeability' factor rather high for the now presumptive GOP and Democratic candidate, is beyond reason and virtually beyond precedent.

When I talk to folk in other countries where I travel a lot, they marvel that Americans, especially evangelicals who claim to follow Christ, think that Trump is some sort of earthly savior brought about by God to make America great again. It is truly ironic that Warren Buffet, the wealthiest man in America, thinks this country is already great and will only grow greater with time, regardless of who is president, and he is worth far more than Trump!

Christians I talk with in countries like Mexico, Vietnam, England and Canada to name but a few, are fearful, yes fearful, that if Trump wins, they won't be welcome in America anymore, and so they are not making any plans to come. They are worried that he has his finger on the nuclear button. They further ask how so much wealth can be found in the hands of so few and why a recent Atlantic magazine article revealed that 47% of middle class Americans don't have $400 saved for an emergency! (Frankly I was shocked reading this article). They think they know why Bernie Sanders a, democratic Socialist, is so popular.

What is truly devastating is the spiritual and moral insanity in America that mirrors the political craziness. It led this week to evangelist Franklin Graham saying that because of America's decadence and ever-spreading rejection of God, along with the "unrelenting assault" on Christians and their beliefs, this nation "is in deep trouble and on the verge of total moral and spiritual collapse -- unless God intervenes." Franklin Graham is the son of world-renowned evangelist, Billy Graham.

He added that the United States may be in a situation like that of the Babylonian king Belshazzar, who saw the mysterious handwriting on the wall foretelling his doom, but did not change his ways.

King Belshazzar was judged by God and "found wanting" and his kingdom was "handed over to a new world power," said Franklin Graham, in his May 1 commentary in Decision magazine.

"I wonder if the handwriting is now on the wall for America," said the Christian evangelist.

*****

What is certain is that The Episcopal Church is certainly doing its best to lead the way to hell. This week, four North Carolina Episcopal bishops said they opposed their state's ban on transgendered bathrooms over a "bathroom bill" which, they say, prohibits them from fulfilling their own baptismal covenant promise "to strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being," arguing that "The practice of discrimination by a state or institution limits, even prohibits, us from respecting the dignity of another human being."

Somehow, in the twisted minds of these bishops, their baptismal vows demands they support transgendered bathrooms, even though to do so could see children become the victims of sexual predators. Furthermore, how does one "respect the dignity of men and women" forced to watch Caitlyn Jenner (formerly Bruce) taking a pee in a public bathroom, dressed in a Christian Dior gown that looks just like the one you bought your wife. Your sex life might never be the same again!

There are times when one wonders if sexual lunacy in The Episcopal Church can possibly reach new depths. Apparently, the answer is yes. We have gone from two unbiblical sexualities (male and female homosexuality) to full blown bi-sexuality, (sex with both male and female) to transgendered (overruling the sexual identity God gave them) and intersex (whatever that is) with a small handful of Episcopal priests declaring themselves to be of one sex, when they were actually born another.

What wiser political heads in NC said is that biological sex, the physical condition of being male or female, should determine which bathroom you head into on I-95 if you have to make a pit stop to excrete nitrogenous waste, and that what is stated on your birth certificate should determine what bathroom you go to if the tourist bus you're on parks for a few moments at a rest stop.

Now, if you are not quite sure what sex you are, I suppose you could always ask a friendly North Carolina state trooper to help you, presuming of course that in dropping your pants, he does not arrest you for indecent exposure.

No matter, the four horsemen of the sexual apocalypse (the four Episcopal bishops) have decried the "bathroom bill" as a "hasty enactment" that will have ramifications for equality in that state and beyond. (They never said if "beyond" might include eternity.)

So, one's vow to uphold clearly sinful behavior in the name of a "baptismal covenant", trumps Scripture, which recognizes only one form of sexual behavior as legitimate, namely marriage between a man and a woman. All other sexual expression is called sin. You can read my full account of this in today's digest.

*****

Sex abuse scandal erupts at St. George's School-Newport RI. More than 40 former students come forth with their nightmares and stories of horror.

The Boston Globe made headlines in 2002 for uncovering a massive pedophile priest scandal within the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. Uncovering the archdiocese's cover up, eventually brought Bernard Cardinal Law to his knees, shed light on the pedophilia priest problem in the Catholic Church and earned the Massachusetts' newspaper a coveted Pulitzer. The Globe's journalistic achievement was also turned into an Academy Awarding movie -- Spotlight.

Now The Globe is shining its investigative laser on St. George's School, an elite Episcopal boarding-day school in Middletown, Rhode Island. The story, which ferreted out a decades-long abuse by clergy and teachers, broke in December, making St. George's one of a growing list of Episcopal educational institutions to be recently entangled in sex scandals; some alleged abuse dating back decades.

A partial list of prestigious educational institutions with now tarnished reputations with or without Episcopal Church ties includes: St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire; Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire; St. John's Military Academy, Salina, Kansas; Milton Academy, Milton, Massachusetts; Horace Mann School, the Bronx, New York; Deerfield Academy, Deerfield, Massachusetts; Hotchkiss School and the Indian Mountain School both in Lakeville, Connecticut; as well as St. George's.

The first inkling that St. George's was keeping a deep dark secret, slowly started to come to light a year ago. On April 7, 2015, Headmaster Eric F. Peterson and Board of Trustees Chairman Francis S. Branin, Jr. wrote to the members of the St. George's Community: "We write to you today to share a sad and difficult matter with all members of the St. George's community. In response to information provided by alumni who attended the School in the 1970s and 1980s, we have come to believe that at least one former employee of the School may have engaged in sexual misconduct with students in those years. Though the events in question took place many years ago, it is tragic and deeply troubling that anything like this could have occurred in our community."

You can read VOL correspondent Mary Ann Mueller's fine analysis about all this in today's digest or here: http://tinyurl.com/h7ppfu6

*****

A companion link between the US-based Episcopal Church's Diocese of Virginia and the Church of England's Diocese of Liverpool took a step further this week when the Suffragan Bishop of Virginia was commissioned to serve also as the Assisting Bishop of Liverpool.

The Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt. Rev. Paul Bayes, was at the Shrine Mont Retreat Centre in Orkney Springs, Virginia, for the history-making event this week. With the blessing of the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, and the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Michael Curry, Bishop Bayes presented letters commissary to the Bishop of Virginia, the Rt. Rev. Shannon S. Johnston, confirming Bishop Susan Goff's new appointment.

Bishops Bayes and Johnston prayed over Bishop Goff. Bishop Goff will continue to reside and minister in Virginia but will make trips to Liverpool for her new role. Her first responsibilities in Liverpool will include sharing with Bishop Bayes in the ordination of priests in June, and speaking at the diocesan clergy conference in July.

*****

How to get around the marriage canon vote in the Anglican Church of Canada. The motion to change the marriage canon to accommodate same sex couples is unlikely to pass at the Anglican General Synod in July, so liberal Anglicans are looking for ways to circumvent the vote.

Canadian blogger Michael Coren, who may or may not have inside information on the machinations of the post-Christian contingent of the Anglican Church of Canada, has elucidated a hitherto unexplored way of twisting Scripture to justify the unjustifiable:

He writes: "In Canada, the most plausible hope is probably some sort of creative compromise where the canon is amended to allow for a marriage liturgy that would include same-sex couples, based around a theology inspired by Acts 10. This is the passage where the Roman centurion Cornelius is accepted by St. Peter, who says, "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favouritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right." The Kosher laws are no longer required; God's plan extends to all. Applied to sexuality, God's love is for all: Jew and gentile, straight and gay.

"It's far from ideal, but the reality is that equal marriage simply won't be achieved in the short-term. If an amendment satisfies enough people and is purely optional, it might, just might, be acceptable to all sides. As such it could enable the Canadian church to avoid the treatment handed to the Americans."

*****

The Diocese of Montreal has entered a new mission field: Debt Collection. Parishes in the Diocese of Montreal owed the diocese $519,758.72 at the end of 2015. Matthew 6:24 notwithstanding, Mammon is near and dear to the heart of the Anglican Church of Canada, so parishes that have not paid their protection dues will receive a visit from members of the Diocesan Overdue Account Management team, who will encourage them to develop a viable strategic plan. That way, no legs will be broken.

From the diocese comes this: "Outstanding accounts receivables owed by congregations to the Diocese for diocesan-paid parish stipends, assessments, insurance, and benefits stood at $519,758.72 at year end of 2015 with an outstanding balance remaining for 2015 of $338,898.76 as of March 31, 2016.

This is in addition to the year-end diocesan deficit and other categories of outstanding diocesan receivables. Often, the same four or five parishes account for the majority of these repeated unpaid invoices over several years, indicating that strategic planning assistance is required in these cases.

Therefore, as a further measurement of when diocesan intervention is required, the Diocesan Council also adopted a new policy for Diocesan Overdue Account Management.

This policy essentially requires a congregation, in consultation with Diocesan leadership, to develop a plan for repayment of its outstanding accounts, including a strategy for future mission and sustainability.

Source: David of Samizdat

*****

Anglican-Catholic dialogue is coming to Toronto. ARCIC talks have been going on for nearly half a century and have gone nowhere. But hope springs eternal, and Saskatoon Bishop Donald Bolen and Anglican Bishop Linda Nicholls, will be among those speaking on Anglican-Catholic dialogue in Toronto on May 11.

ARCIC is the official ecumenical dialogue between the world's 85 million Anglicans and 1.3 billion Catholics set up by the Vatican and the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1969.

The two churches have been trying to square the circle over ethical questions for five decades to little or no avail. They have discussed such contentious issues as the importance of the Pope's role as guarantor of Christian unity, Mary's role in the life and the devotion of the Church, the centrality of the Eucharist and the Church's self-understanding that it is first and foremost a communion in Christ.

ARCIC documents include: The Gift of Authority, Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ, Life in Christ, Morals, Communion and the Church, The Church as Communion and Salvation and the Church. While the theologians continue to talk, there have been sharp, public disagreements over women and homosexuality.

When Episcopalians, the American branch of the Anglican Communion, ordained an openly gay bishop living with his partner, Pope John Paul II shut down the dialogue in 2003. Ordination of women, particularly as bishops, prompted Cardinal Walter Kasper to accuse the Anglicans of forsaking apostolic tradition. Then the move by Pope Benedict XVI to create a means for entire Anglican congregations to be received into the Catholic Church while retaining elements of Anglican liturgy, gave offence to many Anglicans.

It is time to close this whole farce down. The two churches are actually growing further apart with each new declaration and each new departure by Anglicans from 'the faith once for all delivered to the saints.'

*****

A sharp-eyed Episcopal priest was doing his sermon preparation this past week and he had to make another one of those curious lectionary decisions that usually go completely unnoticed by Episcopal pewsitters.

Here is a reminder about last week's reading for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, which was Revelation 21:1-6,

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more;

And the one who was seated on the throne said, 'See, I am making all things new.' Also he said, 'Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.' Then he said to me, 'It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Rev 21:1-6

This week's reading for the Sixth Sunday of Easter is Revelation 21:10, 22:1-5

And in the spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.

I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Its gates will never be shut by day--and there will be no night there. People will bring into it the glory and the honour of the nations. But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Nothing accursed will be found there anymore. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign for ever and ever. Revelation 21:10, 22:1-5

Notice that between the two Sundays by jumping to Rev 21:10 on May 1, a few verses get passed over, presumably not to offend TEC's pansexualists that like to soft peddle chapters of the Bible that mention sin, damnation, or things that are particularly imprecatory in nature. These omissions eliminate a lot of things that would otherwise cause unpleasantness for Sunday preachers and church visitors, but the long-term spiritual effects of being fed a diet lacking in essential Bible verses is not healthy for shepherds or for their flocks.

Revelation 21:7-9: Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.' Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, 'Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.' Revelation 21:7-9

In all my 25 plus years in the Episcopal church, listening to thousands of sermons, not once was Hell fire and brimstone discussed in a sermon except in a negative sense, nor for that matter did I ever hear a sermon on the spiritual and medical dangers of homosexual behavior, and these were either evangelical or Anglo-Catholic parishes!

Seems to me that any Church that follows the Revised Common Lectionary may be in peril of being sliced, diced, and roasted if they treat their pewsitters to a Gospel that has been sliced, diced, revised, and sanitized.

*****

More than 4,000 people packed into St Barnabas' Provincial Cathedral in Honiara, on Guadalcanal, one of the Solomon Islands last month, for the enthronement of the Most Rev. George Takeli as the sixth Archbishop of Melanesia.

The Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands, Manasseh Sogavare, and the Island's Governor General, Sir Frank Kabui and his wife, Lady Kabui, joined a large number of national and international guests who had travelled to the Pacific to welcome the new Primate of the Anglican Church of Melanesia (ACoM).

The Archbishops of New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, the Most Revd Philip Richardson and the Most Revd Clyde Igara, headed a list of Anglican guests which included bishops, clergy and laity from Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand and the USA, as well as members of the Melanesian Mission Trust Board and Melanesian Mission, UK.

*****

Brian Stiller is global ambassador for the World Evangelical Alliance. His newly released book, Evangelicals Around the World: A Global Handbook for the 21st Century (Thomas Nelson), is an important read for those concerned with accuracy in global religious trends.

Here is some of his distilled thoughts in an interview he had with missiologist Ed Stetzer.

Stetzer: So how many Evangelicals are there?

Stiller: About 600 million.

Stetzer: Where do Evangelicals actually fit in the broader Christian tradition?

Stiller: There are three basic categories: Roman Catholics are 1.2 billion. The World Council of Churches (which includes the Eastern Rite and Orthodox) are 500 million and the World Evangelical Alliance represents 600 million.

Stetzer: Where do Pentecostals fit, since they "spill over" into other traditions?

Stiller: There is a debate as to where they fit, as members of the Evangelical clan, but most scholars see them as part of the Evangelical family. Although, with their influence in other Christian communions and the wider Charismatic groupings both within the Protestant and Roman Catholic communities, as a group, it is estimated to be around 300 million.

Stetzer: How did you go about the project?

Stiller: I assembled three outstanding scholars and writers: Todd Johnson, Director for the Center for the Study of Global Christianity as Associate Editor; Mark Hutchinson, scholar and writer from Australia, as Area Editor; and Karen Stiller, editor of "Faith Today" magazine in Canada, as Managing Editor.

Then we scoured the earth, looking for writers who knew about their region or about a topic we saw as being critical. That wasn't easy as so often they are busy, but in the end we were so pleased with the quality of research and writing.

*****

More global responsibilities for the primate of Nigeria this week. The Most Rev. Nicholas D. Okoh will take up his new role as chairman of the GAFCON council of Primates, succeeding the Most Rev. Eliud Wabukala, the Primate of the Anglican Church of Kenya.

The leadership of GAFCON in the context of the present doctrinal and liturgical challenges in the Anglican Communion calls for fervent prayers. The election of Archbishop Okoh to lead the GAFCON Primates' Council is an eloquent testimony of his exemplary leadership in ensuring that the Anglican Church remains faithful to Jesus Christ and the Bible in her teachings and practices. Archbishop Nicholas D. Okoh had earlier served as the Chairman, Theological Resource Group of GAFCON, said a news report from Nigeria.

*****

We are in the midst of our spring fund appeal drive and I hope you will take a few moments to put a check in the mail to support VOL's vital ministry. Regardless of size every penny helps. You can also send a donation via PAYPAL at the link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/

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Thank you for your support.

David

The rise of science was not an extension of classical learning. It was the natural outgrowth of Christian doctrine. --- Rodney Stark

The reason Jesus is a stumbling stone to people in this old world is because he shows us the way of the cross, not the way of glory. We don't expect our heroes, our gods, our messiahs to die! We expect them to be victorious and to crush their enemies under their feet. But the one true Christ has done the opposite. In the brokenness of his death, new life sprang forth. Only after loss and death did resurrection come. --- Rebecca Florence Miller

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
May 13, 2016

A little known fact about John Kasich, who recently stepped out of the presidential limelight, is that he is a member of the Anglican Church in North America, which broke from the Episcopal Church over biblical authority and the sacrament of marriage, among other issues. Kasich has belonged to a small group of men that have met every week for more than 20 years, which is the subject of his 2010 book, Every Other Monday. He also contributed a short chapter to a book celebrating the life and ideas of Dallas Willard.

While there have been several notable Episcopalians including names like Claiborne Pell and William Samuel Johnson in public life, Kasich is the first Anglican governor of a state in modern times.

We can skip movie star Tallulah Bankhead, who self-identified as a "high Episcopalian agnostic"; she too much resembles a couple of presiding bishops who shall not be named.

So the question is, why did evangelical Republicans not vote for him and allow the other two candidates, one a Tea Party republican, and the other with no political experience whose specialty is personally vilifying anyone who came across his pathway, further claiming he didn't need to repent of his sins! Clearly there is a huge disconnect here that requires some explanation.

According to an article in Christianity Today magazine, Kasich claims his faith leads him to positions that fall outside of party doctrine. In a room full of donors convened by the Koch brothers, Kasich was asked by one woman why he agreed to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, extending health insurance to more low-income people. Many conservatives disapproved of the decision because they believe it undermined congressional efforts to repeal Obamacare. Kasich responded, in front of an audience of wealthy, libertarian-leaning donors: "I don't know about you, lady, but when I get to the pearly gates, I'm going to have an answer for what I've done for the poor."

That's an answer Bernie Sanders (a secular Jew) or a Hilary Clinton (liberal Methodist) might have offered up, but no, it was a Republican. Not a kosher answer. Kasich is, sadly, political history and Republicans might have lost their one best chance to still have a Republican Party and not the Party of Donald Trump.

Our nation is currently beset by a candidacy that is based around one fundamental principle: winning. All that matters is winning, dominating, and conquering. It doesn't matter how one does this or who gets trodden underfoot. Winning is the one true value and virtue of the Trump campaign, under which everything and everyone else is subsumed. That is a tragedy of the first order.

*****

A task group has been appointed to "maintain conversation" among the primates of the Anglican Communion, as requested during the gathering of primates at Canterbury Cathedral in January.

The primates asked the Archbishop of Canterbury to establish the group as part of their commitment to "walk together" despite "deep differences."

The primates requested the group "with the intention of restoration of relationship, the rebuilding of mutual trust, healing the legacy of hurt, recognizing the extent of our commonality and exploring our deep differences, ensuring they are held between us in the love and grace of Christ," they said in a communique issued at the end of the gathering.

Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, Josiah Idowu-Fearon, confirmed during the recent Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Lusaka, Zambia, that the group had been established. On May 10, the Anglican Communion Office confirmed the membership of the group.

It includes seven primates, a bishop suffragan, a provincial secretary and the former vice chair of the Anglican Consultative Council.

VOL did an analysis of this group and we found only three, yes, three primates that are orthodox in faith and morals out of the 11-member task force. They are Archbishop Ian Ernest, Church of the Province of the Indian Ocean, Archbishop Philip Freier, Anglican Church of Australia and Archbishop Ng Moon Hing, Province of South East Asia. The deck is stacked against any disciplinary measures ever being taken against TEC. This is how Welby planned this all along. Stack the deck and, if you can, marginalize the Anglican Province of Kenya by inviting a woman theologian who opposes GAFCON onto this Task Force.

Canon Rosemary Mbogo, provincial secretary of the Anglican Church of Kenya, is definitely not a supporter of GAFCON. While she is considered personally orthodox and able, she has close links with the Anglican Communion Office and showed little interest in GAFCON 2013 when it was hosted by the Anglican Church of Kenya. It was noted that when she controversially allowed her name to go forward in the election for the Bishop of Embu in 2014 (the ACK Constitution only refers to male bishops), the Anglican Communion News Service highlighted her in a very supportive way.

So you know where all this is going. No wonder the General Secretary of GAFCON, Archbishop Peter Jensen, said Lusaka was irrelevant, so, apparently, was the meeting of the Primates in Canterbury. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

A Harvard law professor has called for liberals to begin treating like Nazis, those who subscribe to Christian or conservative beliefs.

In a Friday blog post at Balkinization, Mark Tushnet said conservatives and Christians have lost the culture wars, and now the question is "how to deal with the losers."

"My own judgment is that taking a hard line ('You lost, live with it') is better than trying to accommodate the losers," he wrote.

"Trying to be nice to the losers didn't work well after the Civil War, nor after Brown," Mr. Tushnet wrote, citing the Supreme Court case on segregation. "And taking a hard line seemed to work reasonably well in Germany and Japan after 1945."

Mr. Tushnet said liberals should stop being so hesitant to advance their agenda through the judiciary, saying a majority of federal judges have been appointed by Democratic presidents, and they need not worry "reversal by the Supreme Court", now that former Associate Justice Antonin Scalia is dead.

But Heritage Foundation senior research fellow, Ryan T. Anderson, argued that liberals have already used the judiciary unrelentingly to advance their prerogatives when the democratic process fails.

You can read Albert Mohler's commentary on this in today's digest.

*****

Church of England advertising booboo. This week two new roles were advertised on the Church of England website. The adverts for the posts of National Young Vocations Adviser and National Minority Ethnic Vocations Office included rubric which read: "This role does not have an occupational requirement to be a Christian."

This was a mistake said the Rev Arun Arora -- Director of Communications, Archbishops' Council. The adverts for the role were taken down and re-posted. These new roles will carry (to use the legal term) a "Genuine Occupational Requirement" for the post-holder to be a Christian. The adverts that went out slipped through unchecked, apparently.

Part of the reason for this, a subsequent statement said, is that there are various roles working for the Church that do not require the post-holder to have a Christian faith. "Working for the Church can take many forms - from data inputters to school teachers, accountants to graphic designers, project managers to investment analysts there are jobs and roles for people of all faiths and none.

"Alongside those roles there are some jobs which require the post-holder to have a Christian faith, with some (like mine) requiring the post-holders to be a practicing Anglican." That clears that up.

*****

The realignment of the Anglican Communion continues apace, even as talks of reconciliation and Indaba go nowhere.

This week in Birmingham, Alabama, The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) approved Samford University's Beeson Divinity School's Certificate of Anglican Studies (CAS) to be officially recognized by the denomination as only one of two non-Anglican seminaries in the United States to train Anglican clergy.

The announcement came from ACNA's Archbishop Foley Beach while he was in Nairobi, Kenya, at the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) Primates' Meeting in April.

"We are excited that one of the most rigorous seminary programs in the United States has a well-developed track for training clergy and laypeople in the Anglican way," Beach said. "We look forward to a strong partnership with Beeson in the future."

Beeson Divnity's founding dean, Timothy George, hopes that this is a partnership that will deepen and flourish for years to come.

"In past years Beeson has attracted a growing number of Anglican students," George said. "Our interdenominational divinity school is delighted to be able to train men and women for ministry in the growing worldwide Anglican Communion."

Beeson established an Anglican Institute and the CAS in 2014, to foster biblical Anglicanism and to help students deepen their knowledge and practice of Anglican belief, worship and spirituality. This certificate is awarded with the successful completion of the M.Div. degree through Beeson. Four Anglican churches in the Birmingham area offer opportunities for Anglican internships that meet the certificate requirements.

"Our interdenominational faculty provides students with differing but orthodox perspectives. And with seven Anglican professors, we are able to give abundant personal attention to Anglican ordinands," said Anglican Chair of Divinity Gerald McDermott, who also oversees the Anglican Institute. "Beeson aims to be the premier center for orthodox Anglican training in the South."

For more information, please contact Kristen Padilla, Marketing and Communications Coordinator at Beeson Divinity School, at kpadilla@samford.edu or 205-726-2398 or The Rev. Canon Andrew Gross, Director of Communications and Media Relations at the Anglican Church in North America at andrew.gross@anglicanchurch.net or 269-214-2979.

Beeson Divinity School of Samford University is an evangelical, interdenominational, theological school, whose mission is to train ministers of the gospel. For more information about Beeson Divinity, visit www.beesondivinity.com

It should not be missed that Trinity School for Ministry has an alliance with orthodox Lutherans (North American Lutheran Seminary) and TSM is also training ministers for the ACNA. While all this is going on, Episcopal seminaries are slowly wilting and dying. Most are barely staying alive, with one or two like Virginia Theological Seminary, still financially viable. The biggest problem is attracting young seminarians who are debt free and can then be guaranteed a church that will pay them a full salary when they leave. TEC has fewer and fewer of those.

The very big difference, even for small ACNA parishes that still cannot afford a full time pastor, is that ACNA parishes are committed to vigorous programs of evangelism, discipleship and church growth. In time, they will be able to afford full time rectors because they are going in the opposite direction from TEC with a very clear fix on the gospel.

*****

Every time I turn around, the Diocese of South Carolina (Anglican) seems to be on the move. They announced this week that The Rt. Rev. Mark Joseph Lawrence will ordain seven new deacons. They are James Anthony Cato, Daniel Paul Farley, Roger Marion Griffin, Joyce Cameron Harder, Barbara Lynne Holliman, Gerald Lee McCord and Samuel Tracy Turbeville, Jr. The Episcopal Church in that area doesn't seem to have the same drive. Go figure.

*****

Someone is really spinning the truth or playing fast and loose with what the communique issued in Canterbury and the consequences for TEC, if it did not repent of its ways.

Two Anglican Communion leaders and some outgoing members of the Anglican Consultative Council are at odds about what exactly happened on the last full day of last month's ACC-16 meeting in Lusaka, Zambia.

Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has said that the council passed a resolution accepting the so-called "consequences" called for in January, by a majority of the primates -- leaders of the Anglican Communion's 38 provinces -- for the Episcopal Church's decision to allow same-sex marriage. However, some ACC members dispute that interpretation.

Anglican Communion Office Secretary General rejects criticism over Walking Together resolution. The "criticism" Archbishop Idowu-Fearon "rejects", came in a statement from the outgoing Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council.

In their statement, the standing committee clarified its understanding of the resolution which "received" the Archbishop of Canterbury's (ABC) report to the ACC on the primates' communique which laid out "consequences" for the Episcopal Church. In its clarification, the six members of the standing committee wrote,

"In receiving the Archbishop of Canterbury's formal report of the Primates' Gathering and Meeting, ACC16 neither endorsed nor affirmed the consequences contained in the Primates' Communique.... No consequences were imposed by the ACC and neither was the ACC asked to do so."

The "clarification" is at odds with the ABC's interpretation of the resolution. Prior to the issuance of the standing committee's clarification the ABC wrote, "By receiving my report, which incorporated the Primates' Communique, the ACC accepted these consequences entirely, neither adding to nor subtracting from them. There was no attempt during the Meeting to increase the consequences or to diminish them...." So much for that issue, which has been much distorted in comments since the end of the ACC.

Over a week earlier at the conclusion of ACC-Lusaka, the ABC spoke with ACNS and said, "The actions of the ACC demonstrate that it is working in close collaboration with the Primates, as has been the aim since both started and is set out especially in Resolution 52 of the Lambeth Conference 1988."

"Given that my report, referred to in the resolution, incorporated the Communique and was very explicit on consequences; the resolution clearly supports and accepts all the Primates' Meeting conclusions.

"No member of the Episcopal Church stood for office in the ACC or Standing Committee. The consequences of the Primates' meeting have been fully implemented."

The GAFCON primates did not take the ACC's resolution as acceptance of the consequences. In their post-ACC communique, they took the position that consequences were not enforced and the ACC was damaged as an instrument of unity.

The members of Episcopal Church attending ACC-Lusaka stated, as the meeting wrapped up, that ACC members seemed to have little energy for answering the primates' call for consequences, for discussing disagreements over human sexuality, or for taking up the call of Anglican Communion Secretary-General Josiah Idowu-Fearon to pursue the Anglican Covenant. A resolution that sought to pursue further consequences against The Episcopal Church was withdrawn just before it was scheduled for debate.

The ping pong between principals over the interpretation of the Walking Together resolution passed at the recent Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) in Lusaka continues.

As far as the GAFCON primates are concerned, this just goes to show how irrelevant the January and later Lusaka meetings were. They know that nothing will change. The Global North will hurry on its way to sexual self-destruction, and they want no part of it. Fiat Lux.

*****

The Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia has decided to table its 'A Way Forward' report on blessings of same-sex couples until General Synod 2018, "with a firm expectation that a decision to move forward will be made" at that time.

Archbishop Brown Turei, Archbishop Philip Richardson and Archbishop Winston Halapua will appoint a working group to establish a structure that allows both those who can and those who cannot support the blessing of same-sex relationships, to remain within the church with integrity.

The three archbishops made this statement today:

"We are aware of the considerable pain that this decision will cause to those most affected.

"But we are confident that our determination to work together across our differences will bring us to a place of dignity and justice for everyone."

IN OTHER NEWS The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, decided to press for equal gender representation in its highest decision-making bodies.

Just back from the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) in New York, Archdeacon Mere Wallace (Te Waipounamu) moved a General Synod motion that sets the church on track to meet the UNCSW goal of 50:50 gender representation.

Archdeacon Mere praised the Diocese of Polynesia, which last year set a goal of equal numbers of women and men in decision-making bodies across the diocese.

She also drew synod's attention to the motion's appendix of research from the province's Anglican Women's Studies Centre, which reveals continuing low participation of women in provincial decision-making bodies.

Nine speakers rose to support the motion, including Bishop Helen-Ann Hartley (Waikato), who called on synod to remember that women also need support, once in leadership roles.

Even today, women leaders are called to answer questions for no other reason than that they are women.

Bishop Kelvin Wright (Dunedin) offered a message for Anglican men.

"There is still a culture of male privilege in our society. It is demeaning, dangerous and not acceptable," he told synod. "This happens because we men have let women fight this issue on their own. It is time for men to make it our struggle, too. Otherwise, we miss out on the contribution of too many talented, capable women."

The Anglican Church of Aotearoa is to establish a "clear resilience strategy" to strengthen its response to future natural disasters in the Pacific islands. The move, adopted at the Province's General Synod, came as researchers announced that five pacific islands have completely disappeared, and a further six are experiencing "severe shoreline recession" as a result of rising sea levels.

Writing in the online Environmental Research Letters journal, scientists say that aerial and satellite photos taken between 1947 and 2014 of 33 Pacific islands show that "five vegetated reef islands . . . have vanished over this time period and a further six islands experiencing severe shoreline recession."

*****

A civil rights watchdog group called the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) is demanding that the Marine Corps University in Virginia cancel the National Day of Prayer event, saying it's a violation of the Establishment Clause.

"This absurdly named organization has nothing to do with religious freedom in the military, and is actually on a campaign to remove religious freedom from the military," Matthew Clark of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) told CBN News.

The ACLJ sent a letter to Brig. Gen. Helen Pratt, university president, requesting her to reject the group's demands.

It said that the MRFF is also threatening to file complaints against Pratt for allowing a military chaplain to invite soldiers in training to an optional prayer service.

*****

I was privileged this week to be interviewed for an hour by radio broadcaster Rick Wiles of TruNews, Flowering Streams, based in Vero Beach, Florida. The hour long interview can be found at PRAZOR.COM You can download the audio in mp3 format and listen to the interview here: http://www.virtueonline.org/dropbox/images/2016/05-May/trunews_virtue_interview.mp3
TRUNews is heard by more than half a million readers weekly across the U.S.

*****

We are in the midst of our spring fund appeal drive and I hope you will take a few moments to put a check in the mail to support VOL's vital ministry. Regardless of size every penny helps. You can also send a donation via PAYPAL at the link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/

You can send a snail mail check to:

VIRTUEONLINE
570 Twin Lakes Rd
P.O. Box 111
Shohola, PA 18458

Thank you for your support.

David

In case you haven't noticed, the Church in the West is in a decline, and in the United States, it's about to hit a steep decline. The rise of Nones, the shrinkage of Protestantism, and, according to one report, the number of voters who identify themselves as Catholic in polling research, has taken a dip -- from 22.6 percent in 2012 to just 20.3 percent in 2016.

People of no faith tend to be liberal in faith (if they have any) and considerably more liberal in morals, which have steadily evolved into LGBTQI+. None of this bodes well for faith voters, many of whom now see Donald Trump as America's savior, never mind that his personal life (three wives and the latest is a trophy wife) defies any kind of Biblical understanding of marital faithfulness.

It is clear we are being tested as a nation on a whole host of issues, with no one candidate seemingly the voice for millions of America's Christians, who may well feel that staying at home and not voting is the answer.

I don't know if that is the right answer, but the polarization in the nation is frightening and most people I talk to say they have never seen anything like it. Never. These are older generation folk I ask, and they all shake their heads and feel that the nation is being tested as never before,; and they feel helpless, angry, alone and frightened.

Columnist Terry Mattingly captures it well when he writes: The nightmare vision focuses on a stark, painful moral choice.

"It's Election Day, and a Catholic voter who embraces her church's Catechism, or an evangelical committed to ancient doctrines on a spectrum of right-to-life issues, steps into a voting booth. This voter is concerned about the social impact of gambling, attempts at immigration reform, a culture fractured by divorce, battles over religious liberty and the future of the Supreme Court.

"In this booth the choice is between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Period.

"That's the scenario people I know are talking about and arguing about," said Stephen P. White of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., author of the book "Red, White, Blue and Catholic."

Many religious conservatives believe they "face a choice between two morally repugnant candidates," he added. "The reality of that choice is starting to drive some people into despair. ... I understand that, but I think it would be wrong for people to think that they need to abandon politics simply because they are disgusted with this election."

This nightmare for religious conservatives is especially important since, in recent decades, successful Republican presidential candidates have depended on heavy turnouts among white evangelical Protestant voters and, on winning, at the very least, a majority of "swing votes" among Catholics who frequently attend Mass.

While this year's election is, in some ways, unique, traditional Catholics and other moral conservatives need to realize that they are engaged in a debate that has been going on for centuries, said White. The big question: "Can Christians be good citizens?"

In an interview with the journal National Review, he explained: "The author of the second century 'Letter to Diognetus' addressed this question. Three centuries later, St. Augustine wrote City of God largely in response to the same question. ... The question is about the nature and scope of the political good: Is the good of the political community compatible with Christian claims about the nature and destiny of the human person?"

At the moment, the choice is especially painful because religious believers are living, and voting, in an age in which up appears to be down, and black appears to be white, said White, in a telephone interview. Suddenly it's controversial to argue that marriage is the union of a man and a woman, that children need mothers and fathers and that human beings are created, by God, as males and females.

So what about that voting-booth nightmare?

In one online essay, evangelical author, Tony Reinke, of the "Desiring God" website, rounded up a list of 12 proposed voting options in 2016. There were, for example, five motivations for not voting -- including a conviction that voting is not a "Christian priority." Others may abstain to "send a message" of some kind.

It is sobering to try to think about the current state of American politics "from the viewpoint of 30 years from now. ... You look at the options we have right now and you have to wonder if our grandchildren will be asking us, 'Why didn't anyone have the courage to do something, to try to offer people some other choices?'"

German pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, had an answer to the political turmoil of his time: Preach! The German theologian's words about fear ring remarkably true today.

"Let's say there is a ship on the high sea, having a fierce struggle with the waves. The storm wind is blowing harder by the minute. The boat is small, tossed about like a toy; the sky is dark; the sailors' strength is failing. Then one of them is gripped by . . . whom? what? . . . he cannot tell himself. But someone is there in the boat who wasn't there before. . . . Suddenly he can no longer see or hear anything, can no longer row, a wave overwhelms him, and in final desperation he shrieks: Stranger in this boat, who are you? And the other answers, I am Fear. . . . All hope is lost, Fear is in the boat."

On January 15, 1933, in a Berlin church, Dietrich Bonhoeffer delivered this haunting allegory in a sermon entitled "Overcoming Fear."

Germany was in the midst of fearful and turbulent times, indeed. The devastation of defeat from World War I, just 14 years earlier, was fresh on the people's minds and hearts. The Stock Market Crash of 1929 compounded further pressures on the struggling German economy, driving the number of unemployed to more than six million. The new Weimar Republic lacked political stability and leadership, and fears of communism and extremism loomed large. As these dark waves battered them from all sides, many Germans--including German Christians--feared what the future would hold.

"Fear is in the boat, in Germany, in our own lives and in the nave of this church--naked fear of an hour from now, of tomorrow and the day after. Fear Has Conquered Us"

Another rising leader took interest in this dire situation, but he offered a quite different solution. Rather than help people overcome their fears, he sought to exploit them for power. With a commanding sense of authority and a persuasive tongue, he offered them a savior: himself.

Just 15 days after Bonhoeffer's sermon, the country made this man, Adolf Hitler, their Chancellor. As Bonhoeffer warned, but could've never foreseen, fear drove Germany--and millions of others--into deeper pain, division, and despair.

"That is the final triumph of Fear over us; that we are afraid to run away from it, and just let it enslave us. Fear has conquered us."

Many today remember Bonhoeffer for his radical Christian discipleship and sacrificial involvement in the German resistance movement against Hitler. However, few know him for what he believed was most central to his life and ministry: nourishing the body of Christ through the proclamation of the Word. Bonhoeffer cared deeply for the spiritual life and health of the local church, serving in various pastoral roles in Germany, Spain, England, and America. He even wrote his doctoral thesis--Sanctorum Communio--on the church as a holy community.

As we enter a political time of fear, we should remember whose we are and who we really belong too.

*****

A group of 60 Episcopal bishops is urging Episcopalians to wear orange on June 2. Bishops United Against Gun Violence is backing a movement for common sense gun legislation.

The Episcopal bishops' advocate for background checks on all gun purchases and other violence prevention measures, is urging all Episcopalians to consider wearing orange on June 2, as a sign of their commitment to reducing gun violence in their communities.

"Poll after poll demonstrates that some 85 percent of Americans, including large majorities of gun owners and members of the National Rifle Association, favor background checks on all gun purchases, yet Congress won't act," said the Rev. Mark Beckwith of the Diocese of Newark, who convenes Bishops United in collaboration with Bishop Ian T. Douglas of Connecticut and Eugene T. Sutton of Maryland. "We need to take every opportunity to illustrate just how widespread the support for this simple legislation really is."

The Wear Orange movement began in 2013, after Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old high school student, was shot to death on the south side of Chicago, just a week after marching in President Obama's second inaugural parade. Her friends asked people to honor Pendleton by wearing orange--the color hunters choose for safety--on her birthday, June 2. Their cause was taken up by gun violence prevention groups around the country, who last year promoted the first National Gun Violence Awareness Day.

This year, more than 85 partner organizations, including Bishops United, are urging their members and friends to wear orange to commemorate Pendleton's life and to help pass common sense gun legislation.

In a piece for VOL by Sarah Frances Ives, she writes that the bishops, including Budde, thinks that the orange stoles will stop gun violence. "No, they are not bulletproof stoles and they will not stop gun violence that way. The garish stoles still stop it by provoking great thought. You see, this color is symbolic representation of no gun violence. My read on the situation is that if they don't stop gun violence, at least they will provide entertainment at seeing how many Episcopal bishops and priests can be hoodwinked into spending discretionary money to look like clowns and magicians. You know, maybe they can all moonlight at Barnum and Bailey when the circus makes its annual visit. Because money here is tight and getting tighter."

IN OTHER NEWS from the Diocese of Washington, Ives writes that Bishop Budde has asked that all of the Diocese of Washington participate in the annual Capitol Pride Parade that begins in the Dupont Circle area of Washington, DC, on June 11. But if you can't make the parade, maybe you could make the other events which include: Sunday Funday Pride Drag Brunch, advertised as "A cocktail or two is always civilized, but toss in some legendary drag hosts..." (You get the picture), Sunday, June 5., or Drag Ball, that includes "DC's loveliest drag queens," another Sunday, June 5 event. (But when are they going to church? Maybe we should ask.) Then there's this choice morsel, Gay Men Seated Speed Dating on Tuesday, June 7. "All gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer men are invited for a night of speed dating. Guests will participate in a classic seated dating event, with the opportunity to meet several new people in an intimate and romantic setting!" Intimate groups of speed dating: sounds like Christian married monogamy to me! They are seeking true and faithful life-long love with one person, I'm sure. Same event for women only is the next night.

So Bishop Budde's vision for the Episcopal Church is becoming clear. On Sunday Funday we all show with our orange stoles, have some civilized vodka, leer at the drag queens, and get ready for a group of intimate speed dating. Who needs church services and those pesky buildings?

On another note that oddly connects with the diocese's pursuit of decadence, is word that the Washington National Cathedral is selling properties to keep the doors open. David J. Kautter, Chair of the Cathedral Chapter, announced that the Cathedral is selling its last two remaining properties off the Close. These were the homes for the dean of the cathedral and the head of school, at 3525 and 3511 Woodley Road, DC. The costs are $5,995,000 and $1,957,895 respectively (source Zillow). Kautter says they are cutting back and streamlining everything. In other words, the Cathedral needs money! Quick!

Ives writes that the human part of this sorrow cannot be ignored. "I frequently meet former employees of the Cathedral who tell stories of losing jobs, financial security and ruined retirement dreams. Some cry and others tell about tearful and brutal layoffs that still occur.

"Maybe Budde should have had her former employees who still suffer financially make these orange stoles. But probably they will be making the gin and tonics on Sunday morning for the drag queen brunch."

*****

This week two of the four pending court cases involving realigning dioceses had further developments.

In Illinois, the Episcopal Church's protracted efforts to punish the Anglican Diocese of Quincy by freezing its bank accounts and suing for possession of its real property, met with a resounding rebuff from the Fourth District Court of Appeals -- for the second time in two years. In California, the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin filed a petition with the California Supreme Court to review the inexplicably obtuse decision by the Court of Appeal in Fresno, to stand by its clearly erroneous reading of California corporate law.

The Episcopal Church (USA) and its Potemkin shell of a plaintiff diocese, sued the Anglican Diocese for everything it owned, based on their claims of "hierarchy" and the permanent, irrevocable trust supposedly embodied in the Dennis Canon. They lost their case in the Adams County Circuit Court in Quincy, Illinois. They appealed to the Fourth District in Peoria, which affirmed Judge Ortbal's thorough and thoughtful decision. Then they asked the Illinois Supreme Court for leave to appeal the case to that tribunal. In November 2014, it refused, so the decision by the Court of Appeals became final.

Anglican Canon lawyer Allan Haley said, "Final", that is, for any litigant but the David-Booth-Beers-led and trust-fund-financed Episcopal warriors: they promptly filed a new action in Peoria (not Quincy). In this complaint, they now claimed that 18% of the $3.8 million in diocesan funds, which they had managed to freeze in the previous action (by threatening the bank with a lawsuit), actually was held by the Anglican Diocese in trust for some of its member parishes -- and that, under the infernal Dennis Canon, again, the Episcopal Church had the right to apply those funds for the benefit of its parishioners, who had now joined the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago.

One parish, St. John's Anglican Parish, believes the court ruling means it is one step closer to keeping its properties and assets. "This is a major decision," said Quincy attorney Tad Brenner, who has served as legal counsel for the Diocese of Quincy.

The recent court rulings tied to the Diocese of Quincy, have no connection with theology or ethics. They are dealing with brick-and-mortar issues and which entity is entitled to property and other assets.

The Diocese of Quincy is considered a constituent member of the Anglican Church in North America.

The most recent court ruling can be appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court, but that must be done by mid-June. There are also U.S. Episcopal Church cases against 23 individual churches in the diocese that are pending, including St. John's Anglican Parish in Quincy. Brenner also represents 21 of the 23 individual churches in question, including St. John's.

"The Illinois Supreme Court normally only accepts about 4 percent of appeals," Brenner said.

*****

The number of Episcopal run schools that have run into sexual difficulty is fast approaching double digits.

One continuing saga is the case of Owen Labrie, who first made headlines in the summer of 2014, when the St. Paul's School Senior Salute sex scandal broke. Now he's back in the news because the judge who put him behind bars two months ago, has released him, reinstating his $15,000 bail, thus allowing him freedom as he continues to appeal his felony conviction.

Judge Smukler took the Supreme Court's advice to heart. He held a new bond hearing and reinstated bail with the added provision that Labrie wear an ankle monitor with a GPS tracker, which will be paid for by Labrie.

Judge Smukler revoked Labrie's bail because the St. Paul's School graduate frequently violated his curfew hours, even travelling from Vermont to Boston to do educational research, meet with his attorneys, and socialize with his girlfriend.

On March 14, Labrie was hauled into court by the Merrimack County Attorney's Office, outlining Labrie's acts of omission and commission, and Judge Smukler revoked his bail on the spot. The prep school grad was lead out of court in handcuffs.

You can read the full story by Mary Ann Mueller in today's digest.

*****

ON THE INTERNATIONAL FRONT, a group of angry Indian laymen from the Church of South India (CSI) has written a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, saying that its moderator and bishop, Govada Dyvasirvadam, is not fit to be on the Archbishop of Canterbury's task force to reconcile differences in the Anglican Communion, and should be removed immediately, because they say he is corrupt, a polarizing figure, a man who has accepted bribes and much more.

Major Joseph Victor, General Secretary, Laity Association of CSI-Madras diocese, says that Bishop Dyvasirvadam has made himself unfit for this grand mission, as his life and episcopal ministry are clear witnesses to actions done in contrast to the noble aim of the Task Force. "How can a bishop who spent all his time with little or no pastoral qualities, running the church machinery like a corporate company chairman, a politician and a CEO, be expected to do the ministry of restoration, rebuilding and healing tasks in other parts of the world?

Victor said that not only has he led the CSI into more troubled days, placing it in the path of decay and destruction, his office as the Moderator of the CSI came to an end almost four months ago, and his position as Bishop of Krishna-Godavari diocese was also vacated as he reached the retirement age of 65 years, on 28 March 2016.

Other leaders weighed in on the bishop. The Rev. Dr. Gnana Robinson, a man who holds several titles in the church, publicly accused the Anglican Moderator of having a Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

"I am indeed shocked and ashamed to hear through friends that "the world Anglican conference was planning to include Bishop Dyvasirvadam on their task force, which is expected to sort out differences in the churches. I wonder how ecumenical the Anglican Episcopate has been, that it has been ignorant of what has been going on in the Church of South India with around 4.5 million members during the last 16 years, ever since the question of corruption in churches has been brought to the attention of the global church, especially during the tenure of Rev. Dyvasirvadam as secretary, bishop and moderator of the CSI Synod.

The Rev. Dr. Joseph G. Muthuraj, Professor in New Testament at United Theological College in Bangalore, also weighed in on the Moderator, and said this, "The CSI is reeling over the effects of not just bribery and embezzlement, but dishonest, illegal, anti-people and unconstitutional practices that fester through all the ranks of authority."

So this begs the question: why has the Secretary General of the Anglican Consultative Council Josiah Idowu-Fearon not moved to have him removed from this task force. Inquiring minds want to know. Such blatant hypocrisy cannot be allowed to stand and go unchallenged.

You can read a number of stories on all this in today's digest.

*****

Two interesting items regarding the Church of England this week.

The first is that the Church Commissioners of the Church of England's investment arm announced that it had almost trebled the value of its investment fund over a 20-year period. The value of the Commissioners' investment fund has grown from £2.4 billion at the start of 1995, to £7 billion at the end of 2015; producing a return of 8.2 percent last year.

The second item is Archbishop Welby's call for "great further step" to end AIDS by 2030. He gave his strong support to the work of community-based responses to the global Aids epidemic, ahead of next month's UN High Level Meeting on Ending Aids, in New York.

In a video message released in ahead of the 8 -- 10 June meeting, Archbishop Justin Welby celebrates the great progress that has been made to eliminate AIDS as a threatening global disease by 2030, and calls for a "great further step", the mobilization of "political, financial, technical and clinical resources through communities" to make this a reality.

He praises the role of communities, and, particularly, faith-based communities, in providing treatment for the poor and marginalized. In particular, the Archbishop highlights the role that the Anglican Communion has played for many years in offering community-based treatment, "enabling communities to . . . support the victims of Aids, their families and others affected directly and indirectly."

One thing the Archbishop didn't say, or perhaps deliberately overlooked, was a call for men, mostly men, to STOP HAVING ANAL SEX. Of course to say that, would make him immensely unpopular, and cries of homophobia would ascend unto the highest steeple in the land, perhaps even to heaven itself where presumably St. Peter sits, and would immediately start throwing thunderbolts at Justin to remind him that God frowns on homophobia.

Taxpayer dollars will go on funding AIDS drugs however, and sodomites will go on doing what sodomites do and the tax payer be damned.

*****

The primate of Australia, Archbishop Philip Freier, has increased the pressure on Pakistan over their continued detention of Asia Bibi, under the country's much criticized blasphemy laws, by writing to Pakistan's High Commissioner to Australia, Naela Chohan, and Australia's Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, about the case.

Last month, members of the Anglican Consultative Council, meeting in Lusaka, called for a fresh investigation into her case, leading to her "honorable acquittal." Asia Bibi was sentenced to death for blasphemy in 2010, after being accused of insulting the Muslim prophet Mohammed, after she shared a drinking vessel with her Islamic colleagues.

"It is clear that a disgraceful application of Pakistan's blasphemy law, 295c, has brought tragedy and shame upon [Asia Bibi] and indeed the beautiful nation of Pakistan," Freier later wrote on his blog, in an article republished by ACNS.

In his letter to Australia's Foreign Minister, he asks Bishop to pursue justice and mercy for Asia Bibi and for the protection of the Christian minority in Pakistan. In his letter to the High Commissioner for Pakistan to Australia, he has asked that Pakistan re-open Asia Bibi's case and acquit her, and also work to protect Christians in Pakistan, who go constantly in fear of their lives and property.

*****

DOMESTICALLY, the Rt. Rev Amos Fagbamiye, Missionary Diocese of Trinity (MDT), announces that it has growing parishes in Canada. One is the Anglican Church of the Redeemer in Regina, SK. The Fellowship continues, even across the world. The bishop reports strong bonds of fellowship and relationship between the two partnering dioceses -- Diocese of Lagos West, Nigeria and MDT (North America). Some of his MDT clergy will represent and participate in the 2nd session of the 6th synod of the Diocese of Lagos west, (May 19 -- 21, 2016) scheduled to be held at the Archbishop Vining Memorial Cathedral Church (AVMCC), GRA, Ikeja, Lagos.

The bishop also announced a new mission in Minnesota (Mid-West Archdeaconry): The canon missioner of the mid-West Archdeaconry -- Rev Canon Alfred Oluwatuyi, recently led a team to explore the viability of a new mission center under the missionary Archdeaconry of the Midwest in Minnesota.

A new parish was inaugurated (North East Archdeaconry), USA - the Anglican Church of the Epiphany, Cambridge, Massachusetts, was formally inaugurated, April 24, by Bishop Fagbamiye with the induction of the Rector (Rev Ogunseye). Six candidates were confirmed and five women were accepted into the Mothers Union (MU)/Women Guild (WG).

The diocese also announced a new mission in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. After weeks of intensive search, strategic planning and dedicated prayers, the Anglican Mission of the Missionary Archdeaconry of Canada within the Missionary Diocese of Trinity (MDT), will open its doors to members for its inaugural worship service 1PM, Sunday, July 3, 2016, at the University College Chapel, Halifax, Nova Scotia. The ministry and dedication of the effort is from the Rev Christian Okeke.

Three New Anglican Mission Centers are also set to begin in Canada. The Rev Canon Silas Odumegwu (Montreal, QC) -- Ogbaaru diocese to MDT, Rev Canon Chikeka Obioma (Edmonton, AB) -- Egbu Diocese to MDT and Rev Canon Udoamaka Nehemiah (Northern Saskatchewan) -- Niger Delta North diocese to MDT.

The Missionary Diocese of Trinity is a diocese & mission of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) and the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). You can see more here: www.mdtrinity.org

*****

The Trinity School for Ministry Board of Trustees announced that they have appointed the Rev. Dr. Henry "Laurie" Thompson III as Interim Dean/President. He will take office on July 1, 2016. The Dean/President is the senior administrator and chief academic officer of the seminary and is responsible for all of the daily operations and fundraising efforts. He replaces Dr. Justyn Terry, who is returning to the UK.

Mr. Douglas Wicker, Chairman of Trinity's Board of Trustees, said, "Laurie Thompson is a superb leader and pastor and he has been an important senior administrator at Trinity for many years. He is intimately familiar with all aspects of the operation of the school and he will be able to take the reins without missing a beat." He added, "We have received many excellent applications for the position of Dean/ President, but we haven't found the right leader yet. We feel confident that this is God's will for us at this time. Appointing Laurie as Interim Dean/President will allow us the time we need to carefully discern God's will. We continue to trust that God will bring us the right candidate at the right time."

Laurie Thompson first came to Trinity in 1997, after spending 19 years in parish ministry. He has led the Doctor of Ministry program since 2001, and has also served as the Dean of Administration and, most recently, as the Dean of Advancement, where he played an important role in the "Reach for the Harvest" campaign, which raised $15.4 million for various strategic initiatives. He is married to Mary Thompson and they have three adult children and 9 grandchildren.

*****

We are in the midst of our spring fund appeal drive and I hope you will take a few moments to put a check in the mail to support VOL's vital ministry. Regardless of size every penny helps. You can also send a donation via PAYPAL at the link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/

You can send a snail mail check to:

VIRTUEONLINE
570 Twin Lakes Rd
P.O. Box 111
Shohola, PA 18458

Thank you for your support.

David

In Genesis 2:15 God says; The Lord God put humans in the Garden of Eden to work the soil and take care of the garden. This was God's first commandment to humankind; "Look after my earth" But what have we done? We have polluted this earth, 60% of the eco-systems on which we depend for life are now degraded beyond the point of repair. The Lord God says; I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce. But you came and defiled my land and made my inheritance detestable. Jer 2:7 Creation is in agony; We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Romans 8:22 Meanwhile Creation is waiting for us...... For creation waits with eager longing for the children of God to be revealed. Romans 8:19. Gus Speth speaking of scientists has this to say; "We scientists do not know how to do that. I used to think the top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change. I thought that with 30 years of good science we could address those problems. But I was wrong. The top environmental problems re selfishness, greed, and apathy...and to deal with those we need a spiritual and cultural transformation and we scientists do not know how to do that". The World is Our Host We then ask ourselves; HOW CAN THE CHURCH RESPOND? --- Ellinah Wamukoya president, Anglican Environmental Network.

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
May 27, 2016

Have you ever asked which nationalities consider religion most important?

Generally speaking, religion is more important to people in poorer countries than in richer ones - but the US, where 53 per cent of people feel strongly about their religion, bucks the trend, with the highest-ranking entry out of all advanced economy nations.

Data from the Pew Research Center's 2015 Global Attitudes survey has measured how people around the world feel about religion in their lives.

Ethiopia, in the Horn of Africa, topped the list of nationalities which consider religion most important, with 98 per cent of respondents who said that the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is a very important part of who they are.

Senegal and Indonesia, which are both predominantly Muslim, come in at number two (97 per cent) and three (95 per cent) respectively, but many countries with religious plurality, such as Nigeria (a mix of Islam and Christianity) and India (mainly Hindu), are still near the top of the list with 88 per cent and 80 per cent respectively.

Uganda ranked fourth with a large portion of their population being Anglicans.

The US ranked 21st, slightly behind Turkey and just ahead of Venezuela, with 53%. This means, of course, that 47% of Americans claim no religion at all or say religion is not important to their lives.

My wife and I recently left the comfort of suburbia where most people would claim to be Christian or at least nod to religion as important, even if they only attend a few times a year. Now ensconced in Philadelphia, in a condo with some 250 folk from all regions of America and the world, we can find only two or three Catholic couples who attend church on a regular basis. Most people simply don't care and why would anyone attend an Episcopal church where one would never hear anything about Jesus and the salvation he offers...just a whole lot of talk about social justice, racism and white privilege.

One piece of very good news is that, by 2050, there will still be more Christians than any other religious group.

The global Christian population will remain stable over the next 35 years, despite Muslims being the fastest-growing religious group. Islam is forecast to be the world's largest religion by 2070, if current trends continue.

*****

The newly elected Anglican Archbishop of Kenya, the Most Rev. Jackson Ole Sapit has promised to unite citizens in the country. He has also promised to stay in GAFCON.

Ole Sapit said he looks forward to a united Kenya, one which is free of corruption and anchored on societal morals.

The archbishop exuded confidence in his quest to unite the country, adding that he will strive to build a strong nation that is not divided along ethnic lines, political alignments and religious beliefs.

"My main concern is to unite the country in order to achieve societal development and transformation, by living peacefully and cohesively," said Ole Sapit.

The archbishop will have to wait till 3 July, when he will undergo consecration and enthronement as per the norms of the Anglican church, to assume his new position.

Bishop Ole Sapit will succeed Bishop Eliud Wabukhala as the sixth archbishop of the ACK, after trouncing five other bishops in the race.

VOL wrote to the new archbishop about where he stood with GAFCON and got back this reply, "I am fully committed to the proclamation of the gospel of Christ in truth as is presented to us in the Holy bible to which I affirm is the authority under which I will serve the Church of Christ." Amen to that.

*****

The daughter of Nobel laureate Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu of South Africa has given up her clergy credentials after marrying a Dutch woman. The Rev. Mpho Tutu told the local media that since her church did not recognize her wedding, she could no longer serve in the country.

Mpho Tutu said the church had instructed a bishop to revoke her license, which granted her the authority to preside at Communion, officiate at weddings, baptisms and funerals.

"I decided I would give it up to him rather than have him take it, a slightly more dignified option with the same effect," the City Press quoted her as saying in an online news story.

Desmond Tutu and his wife, Leah, attended their daughter's wedding to academic atheist Marceline Van Furth in Franschoek, near Cape Town. The two first married in the Netherlands, Van Furth's home country, in December.

Although South Africa legalized same-sex marriage in 2006, the Anglican Church maintains that marriage is a lifelong union between one man and one woman.

The sickness in Anglicanism continues, and you wonder why we are fast losing credibility as a denomination with no message.

*****

Needing to raise tens of millions of dollars, the Washington National Cathedral picked a fundraiser for its new dean. The Rev. Randy Hollerith, 52, who leads St. James's Episcopal Church in Richmond, will step into the breach after the disastrous tenure of Gary Hall, a gregarious, Hollywood-bred activist, who brought the Gothic cathedral into the news by hosting same-sex weddings, gun control events and Muslim prayer, among other things.

Hollerith will be responsible for stabilizing the cathedral in a different way.

Hollerith isn't as widely known and describes himself as not driven by issues; he was picked out of a field of 32 candidates, in good part because of his experience as a strategic fundraiser and manager. That's considered essential at a time when the cathedral needs to raise tens of millions of dollars to get on stable financial footing because of a damaging earthquake and a culture that is largely deserting its commitment to religious institutions.

So, no gospel hope, it's all about money, money, money. If Hall's background as a former comedy writer, whose parents were non-practicing Christians, represents Americans' drifting relationship with organized religion, Hollerith's background represent the flip side. His family was involved in the cathedral since its founding, his great-grandmother was there when the foundation stone was laid in 1907, and his brother and wife are both Episcopal priests. (His brother Herman is the bishop of the Diocese of Southern Virginia and his wife, Melissa, is chaplain at an Episcopal boys' prep school, St. Christopher's.)

Hollerith grew up in Alexandria and, as rector of St. James church in Richmond, raised nearly $8 million to expand the building.

One layman who resides in the diocese and has been an active Episcopalian for more than 40 years, wrote to say that the Washington Diocese has virtually ignored their Architectural Commission for 20 years or more, and now the Diocese apparently no longer sees a need for the volunteer organization, composed of architects, engineers, builders and lawyers. "Their church buildings deteriorate around them for lack of leadership, vision, stewardship and complete lack of expertise in care of historical properties.

"There are literally hundreds of buildings uncared for and unattended for lack of funds and expertise. And when they are cared for in instance after instance they are cared for wrongly for lack of expertise.

"It's interesting that TEC sues the hell out of congregations to acquire others property and then cannot afford to maintain them."

*****

From the Diocese of Albany comes this. The Rev. Adam Egan, a priest in The Episcopal Diocese of Albany, has pled guilty in the Town of Colonie Justice Court to a misdemeanor charge of attempted unlawful surveillance. The charge and subsequent guilty plea are a result of Fr. Egan's arrest by Colonie Police on December 23, 2015, for allegedly attempting to videotape a woman in a local Salvation Army dressing room. Fr. Egan submitted his letter of resignation to St. Stephen's Episcopal Church after six years of ministry, and it was accepted by the Vestry (the governing body of the church) on May 17th, 2016. It was effective May 22nd, 2016. He has been on Administrative Leave since his arrest, meaning he is prohibited from functioning in any capacity as an ordained person and from wearing clerical dress. With the civil proceeding against Fr. Egan concluding, he will now face Title IV Ecclesiastical Discipline in accordance with the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church. Fr. Egan remains on Administrative Leave with the restrictions on his ordained ministry still in effect. The future of his ordained ministry will be dependent on the outcome of the Title IV Ecclesiastical Disciplinary proceedings.

"Fr. Egan recognizes and is deeply sorry for the tremendous hurt and damage his actions have caused. He has taken responsibility for his actions and is working very hard to get the help that he needs to insure that such inappropriate behavior never happens again. As painful as this entire situation has been for so many, God has a wonderful way of redeeming even the most difficult and painful situations, making good come from bad. I trust that will be true in this situation as well," said The Rt. Rev. William Love, Ninth Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany.

*****

The Archbishop of Uganda Stanley Ntagali, has warned against syncretism -- the practice of merging different religious beliefs. The warning came after a prominent Christian politician made a public visit to her ancestral shrine to give thanks for her re-election -- a practice in line with the country's traditional religions.

"We value our ancestors because we are connected to them by the relationship we have," Ntagali said. "But, we must always trust only in God. We no longer need to go through the spirits of the dead because Jesus is our hope and protector. He alone is the way, the truth and the life, as Jesus says in John 14:6.

"The Church of Uganda condemns syncretism," he said, as he urged bishops and clergy to "use this opportunity to proclaim the sufficiency of Christ crucified to meet all our needs, and to work pastorally with Christians to apply this glorious truth practically in their lives.

"As we approach the commemoration of the Ugandan Martyrs on 3 June, we are challenged by the faithfulness, commitment, and witness of these youth. Their willingness to renounce the 'world, the flesh, and the devil' and to joyfully embrace the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ, even unto death, is a model for how we should all understand living a life with a single-minded focus on Jesus as the only Saviour and only Lord.

"There is a cost to discipleship and a great reward in following Christ."

*****

Bishop Greg Brewer of the Diocese of Central Florida has invited the general secretary of the Anglican Communion to visit his diocese to "address sensitive topics that have caused division within the denomination." Really. Archbishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon is billed as second-in-command to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Anglican Communion.

Central Florida church leaders hope Idowu-Fearon's visit will bring clarity and close some of these rifts, says a press release.

So, let me tell you how this will go.

Brewer bills himself as a charismatic evangelical who was supposed to take a stand against homosexual practice, but folded his tent when two homosexual men stepped forward and wanted their kid baptized. Following this debacle, (and getting pulled off the board of TSM), Brewer said he would not deny openly homosexual persons from taking communion, but drew the line at allowing non-celibate homosexuals to be ordained in his diocese. But I don't know if that has changed since then. It might have.

So imagine the following exchange:

BREWER: What is your stand on homosexuality as the head of the Anglican Consultative Council archbishop?

FEARON: As you know I have stated my position that I don't believe that homosexuality is right, and the province of Nigeria, (my province) is dead against any kind of homosexual expression, and has taken the toughest stand in the Anglican Communion on that subject, even to the point of having no further dealings with the Episcopal Church. In fact they have their own Anglican diocese here I'm told -- CANA -- which is a diocese of ACNA.

BREWER: So is that your position?

FEARON: Well, not exactly. In Lusaka recently, there were supposed to be "consequences" if TEC went forward with more ordinations of openly homosexual persons. But a motion was withdrawn at the last moment, so there were no consequences at all and, as you know, my salary is paid by the Episcopal Church, and I have no intention of upsetting my paymasters.

BREWER: So, are you saying you are for or against sodomy?

FEARON: That all depends on who I'm talking too. When I talk to you and your people, I will be against it, but with one eye on Presiding Bishop Michael Curry who says he is not taking TEC backwards on pansexuality, so I will have to hedge my bets a bit. One has to be diplomatic here you know.

As you know, I rejected criticism from six former members of the Anglican Consultative Council's Standing Committee of statements made during and after ACC-16. The comments centered on Resolution 16.24 -- "Walking Together" -- which deals with how the ACC responded to the Primates' Gathering and Meeting in January.

The critics issued their own statement which they said was to clarify their understanding of that response. In it they say that, in receiving a report on the gathering by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the ACC "neither endorsed nor affirmed the consequences contained in the Primates' communique".

I took a different view. I simply do not agree with their interpretation here. The response of the ACC was clear, and its support for the Primates was clearly expressed.

BREWER: So that means you stand by disciplining TEC for its open opposition and hostility to the biblical prohibition on homosexual behavior.

FEARON: Well, not exactly. We are communion rich in pluriformity and diversity, and we have to learn to "walk together" if we are to stay together in any meaningful way.

BREWER: Thank you for your enlightening position, archbishop. Your return business class ticket awaits you, and a generous donation from my diocese to the wonderful contribution you are making in keeping the Anglican Communion together.

FEARON: I am delighted to bring clarity to the situation for you, Greg, and don't forget to look me up next time you come to London. Dinner is on me...or TEC.

*****

The Anglican Diocese of Toronto, Canada is in major decline. VOL has been receiving weekly reports of closing parishes from a number of sources in the area. Last week, the Bishop of Toronto, Colin Johnson, revealed a dire prediction and said, "The demographic projections for the Diocese project that in 15 years we will have 50-70 fewer parishes (and clergy?), although there may be more non-traditional forms of ministry and gathered missional communities."

The reasons behind the decline of the Anglican Church of Canada have been speculated about by columnist and author Ian Hunter, but don't look to the bishop to admit that progressive policies and revisionist teachings have anything to do with it. Instead, he will change the subject. Here is his take, "The visioning, coaching and pastoral care involved in amalgamations and closures requires substantial resources, direction and leadership if done well (and even more if it is done poorly!)."

"The same is true for establishing new forms of ministry. We are learning about that from other dioceses and from our own experiences," he writes.

I guess that means the diocese has to get more top-heavy for these new forms of ministry. What new forms of ministry he is talking about? I always thought that if you go out and preach it, teach it, and live it, they will come.

Then he blandly says this, "We are leaders in this area and other dioceses, including English and American dioceses, look to us for advice, though the learning is usually mutual." REALLY!

Can he cite one example?

Leaders in the area of establishing new forms of ministry shouldn't result in the closure of churches. Any advice these folks can give to the declining American or English dioceses can only contribute to the death spiral we have been witnessed, wrote a blogger in Toronto.

"Maybe he is boasting about being a leader in downsizing. I am at a total loss for words..."

*****

Justin Welby wants to wipe out AIDS by 2030. You can read and watch it here. http://tinyurl.com/jus6d3x

There is nothing particularly surprising about this, since the Anglican Church seems to have an obsessive interest in making broad declarations about things over which it has no control or influence. When Anglican leaders are not parading their impotence by Making Poverty History or demanding justice on behalf of the climate, they are, with no medical knowledge whatsoever and a diminished confidence in the efficacy of prayer to heal, trumpeting that AIDS is to be banished by 2030. But why AIDS?

But a chart on the 10 leading causes of death, heart disease kills five times the number of people as AIDS. Even diarrhea kills as many people as AIDS. Why isn't the Archbishop of Canterbury telling us what a great privilege it is to be invited to give a message on the fight against diarrhea?

The reason, I suspect, is that, in a similar vein to Romans 1:18-32, as the church's interest in eternity has waned, so its interest in sex -- homosexual sex in particular -- has increased, attracting a disproportionate number of homosexual clergy.

Although AIDS can be spread through heterosexual contact, the preferred way to contract it is still through homosexual activity. As has been pointed out many times, homosexual men are "more severely affected by HIV than any other group in the United States."

So for Anglican leaders, combating AIDS is a species of group self-interest.

*****

President Barack Obama has named a transgender woman to the President's Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

The White House announced earlier this month, that Barbara Satin, the assistant faith work director for the National LGBTQ Task Force, was named as a member of the President's Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, which advises the president on how to improve partnerships to serve Americans in need.

Satin, a member of the United Church of Christ, is the first openly transgender member of the United Church of Christ's executive council.

"I am both honored and humbled to be selected to serve on the President's advisory council," Satin, an Air Force veteran, said in a statement released through the United Church of Christ. "Given the current political climate, I believe it's important that a voice of faith representing the transgender and gender non-conforming community -- as well as a person of my years, nearly 82 -- be present and heard in these vital conversations."

Has the president totally lost his mind? Don't answer that.

*****

Does religion help you live longer? A Harvard study confirms perceptions of a link between going to church and good health.

Women who attended religious services more than once per week are more than 30 percent less likely to die during a 16-year-follow-up than women who never attended, according to a study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Frequent attendees also had significantly lower risk both from cardiovascular- and cancer-related mortality. A link with substantially lower breast cancer mortality was particularly striking.

The study was published earlier this month in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

"Our results suggest that there may be something important about religious service attendance beyond solitary spirituality," said Tyler VanderWeele, professor of epidemiology at Harvard Chan School and senior author of the study. "Part of the benefit seems to be that attending religious services increases social support, discourages smoking, decreases depression, and helps people develop a more optimistic or hopeful outlook on life."

Nearly 40 percent of Americans report attending religious services once per week or more. Previous studies have suggested a link between attendance and reduced mortality risk, but many were criticized for major limitations, including the possibility of "reverse causation"--that only those who are healthy can attend services, so that attendance isn't necessarily influencing health.

The new study addressed these criticisms by using rigorous methodology that controlled for common causes of attendance and mortality, used a larger sample size, and had repeated measurements over time of both attendance and health.

The researchers looked at data from 1992-2012 from 74,534 women who participated in the Nurses' Health Study. The women answered questionnaires about their diet, lifestyle, and health every two years, and about their religious service attendance every four years. The researchers adjusted for a variety of factors, including diet, physical activity, alcohol consumption, smoking status, body mass index, social integration, depression, race and ethnicity.

Compared with women who never attended religious services, women who attended more than once per week had 33 percent lower mortality risk during the study period and lived an average of five months longer, the study found. Those who attended weekly had 26 percent lower risk and those who attended less than once a week had 13 percent lower risk.

The study also found that women who attended religious services once per week or more had a decreased risk of both cardiovascular mortality (27 percent) and cancer mortality (21 percent).

*****

Tom Lin, who has dedicated his entire career to campus ministries in the United States and overseas, has been named the new president of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. In August, the Taiwanese American will become the organization's first non-white president. Over its 75-year history, InterVarsity has made diversity a priority through multiethnic ministry initiatives--including the Urbana conference that Lin directed for the past five years--and internal programs designed to develop minority leaders.

"We've got so many men and women, ethnic minorities, who serve in leadership at InterVarsity. We've worked at it, and we've continued to learn and grow. We never say we've arrived, but this is a significant moment for InterVarsity," the 43-year-old told CT. "It is significant ... for any large, North American evangelical organization to have a non-white president."

*****

We are in the midst of our spring fund appeal drive and I hope you will take a few moments to put a check in the mail to support VOL's vital ministry. Regardless of amount every penny helps. You can also send a donation via PAYPAL at the link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/

You can send a snail mail check to:

VIRTUEONLINE
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P.O. Box 111
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Thank you for your support.

David

Moral responsibility. Scripture invariably treats us as morally responsible agents. It lays upon us the necessity of choice ... Why is it that people do not come to Christ? Is it that they cannot, or is it that they will not? Jesus taught both. And in this 'cannot' and 'will not' lies the ultimate antinomy between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. But however we state it, we must not eliminate either part. Our responsibility before God is an inalienable aspect of our human dignity. Its final expression will be on the Day of Judgment. --- John R.W. Stott

God gives us more than we can handle "to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead." -- John Piper

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
June 3, 2016

The progressive Episcopal Bishop of Connecticut, Ian Douglas, says we are experiencing the realities of the end of Christendom and we must embrace the changes that post-Christendom is bringing forth, including the fact that people are no longer flocking to church anymore and no matter how attractive our worship and programs are, business as usual is not working.

Writing for a paper on Intentional Discipleship and Disciple-Making, an Anglican Guide for Christian Life and Formation, Douglas says that Christendom with its all-encompassing social, political, cultural, and economic system that presupposes that the Church is central to the life of a people and nation is over. "The U.S. is becoming both increasingly secular and multi-religious. We cannot pretend that the age that placed the Church at the center of our public and private lives is alive and well."

The bishop as at the epicenter of decline in his diocese that is a microcosm of what is going on across the country in one Episcopal diocese after another. Multiple Episcopal parishes in New Haven, CT, face closure and their future is uncertain, as congregations shrink and costs grow.

The diocese faces multiple parish closures, including eight just in New Haven. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

Canadian Primate Fred Hiltz suspects there might be stress at General Synod over same-sex marriage. Really. David of Samizdat blog writes that Hiltz, as perceptive as ever, has realized that, whichever way the vote over same-sex marriage goes in July, some people will leave, aggravated. A vote for will upset the few remaining conservatives, and a vote against will upset the disproportionately high number of homosexual clergy. This is all a repeat performance of the lamentations and appeals for unity that accompanied the voting over same-sex blessings in prior synods. Then, as now, the so-called unity is bogus. Also bogus were the assurances that same-sex blessings would not lead to same sex marriage. Does anyone truly believe that priests will not be compelled to perform same-sex marriages if the vote goes that way?

Hiltz has as much as admitted that the whole synod exercise will be a vacuous farce since, even if the same-sex marriage motion is voted down -- as it probably will be -- dioceses will go ahead with it anyway.

Still, at least the synod will be green, that's the main thing.

From the Anglican Journal comes this:

"No doubt in this synod there will be some stress and some strain, but I hope and pray that in the grace of the waters of baptism in which we have been made one with Christ, that we will be able to continue to do our work in synod and that we'll know that in the midst of it all, we are, in fact, members one of another."

This General Synod, the 41st in the history of the Anglican Church of Canada, is expected to be momentous, involving as it does a vote to change the church's canon (law) on marriage.

"That's a fairly huge issue for our church, so I think people who come to this General Synod will rightly have some anxiety about that," says General Synod Deputy Prolocutor Cynthia Haines-Turner, in another video released by the office of General Synod.

It also seems likely that, whichever way the estimated 269 delegates assembling in Thornhill, Ont., July 7--12 vote, the impact will be felt in Anglican churches across Canada. In an April 12 interview, Hiltz told the Anglican Journal that bishops are concerned that clergy and parishes may decide to leave the church if the vote is not acceptable to them. (Avowals to this effect have also been made by followers of the Journal's Facebook page.) Hiltz also said he believed some clergy, if faced with a "no" vote, might decide to marry same-sex couples anyway.

As a fitting summary of the mess, Hiltz utters two tautologies followed by an appeal from the Beatles:

Hiltz said that, as he reflected recently on the upcoming General Synod, the words from an Anglican night prayer came repeatedly to mind: "What has been done has been done. What has not been done has not been done. Now let it be."

IN OTHER NEWS FROM CANADA, The Anglican Journal showed its bias when it reported with breathless reverence on some 200 people on Parliament Hill indulging in a blanket exercise "to help people understand Canada's history from an Indigenous perspective" while completely ignoring 22,000 people meeting on Parliament Hill for the March for Life.

THE COVENANT...NOT. In its never ceasing quest to appear relevant, dynamic, progressive and forward looking, the Anglican Church of Canada has decided not to decide on whether to support a Frankenstinian creation whose death throes twitching ceased five years ago: The Anglican Covenant.

From the Anglican Journal comes this: No Anglican Covenant decision in 2016. General Synod 2016 will not be asked to vote for or against adopting the proposed Anglican Covenant when it meets this July. Instead, a draft motion directs Council of General Synod (CoGS) to "continue to monitor developments related to the Anglican Covenant." Like ARCIC talks this will go on and on till it dies a natural (or unnatural) death.

And finally from Canada comes this. The Anglican Church of Canada is finally hitting its stride by becoming a tango school, reports David of Samizdat.

"I admit I have not quite decided which prospect I find most appealing: ACoC churches that are bankrupt, ACoC churches that are empty or ACoC churches that have become tango schools. The last I think; so long as they have same-sex partners, of course.

From CTV News:

Churches convert into tango schools and daycares to stay financially stable. The idea of turning her local Ottawa church into a community hub was at the forefront of Leanne Moussa's mind when the building went up for sale two years ago.

With a group of other residents, Moussa paid $1.52 million for All Saints Anglican Church, once the site of the state funeral for Prime Minister Robert Borden.

"We had a real interest in preserving what we see as an important place of Canadian history, and preserving that as a public space in some way," she said. "We think this building and this property has served some important functions, not just for the congregation but for the larger community."

Once the renovations and repairs are complete, the church will be home to a coffee shop, a wedding event space and meeting rooms for book launches, art shows and activist groups. Eventually, the church's lower hall will be turned into a permanent restaurant.

Moussa, who is not religious, notes that All Saints is still a home of worship for smaller faith-based groups. It's used as a mosque on Friday, a synagogue on Saturday and a church to two Christian groups on Sunday. It's also is a destination for tango and yoga classes nearly every night of the week.

*****

There was a time when the most corrupt province in the Anglican Communion was Mexico. In 2002, VOL reported on a festering crisis in the Iglesia Anglicana de Mexico. The church's House of Bishops released a statement saying that it had "discovered a shameful mismanagement of funds in the Dioceses of Northern Mexico and Western Mexico, which has led us to a grave crisis as an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion."

Their archbishop and a local bishop ran off with more than $1.5 million, never to be heard from again. Of course, all the money came from TEC, who asked for little accountability and basically walked away from it all. TEC decided to withdraw recognition of Bishop Samuel Espinoza as Primate of this church, and to withdraw and suspend the episcopal authority and privileges of Bishops German Martinez Marquez and Samuel Espinoza.

Now the "honor" of the most corrupt province in the Anglican Communion goes to the Church of South India, where there is a battle over the Moderator's inordinate use of power to control everything, making himself almost a pope, taking funds and using them for his own personal use. It's a nightmare story that goes on and on. There was even a call from concerned laity and clergy in India to have him withdrawn from the Archbishop of Canterbury's task force to oversee the Episcopal Church on its stand on homosexual marriage.

VOL has run several stories on the emerging corruption in the CSI.

The Anglican Church of India (ACI) is a union of independent Anglican churches in India. When India became independent in 1947, the Church of South India (CSI) was formed as a united church of Anglicans, Baptists, Basel Mission, Lutherans and Presbyterians. The United Church of South India accepted an order of uniformity in worship and practice, which was at odds with some aspects of Anglican tradition. Traditional Anglicans in the CSI did not accept this, and there was a provision for separation within a period of 30 years from the CSI. Therefore, in 1964, some Anglicans decided to withdraw from the CSI and re-established the Anglican Church of India on 24 August, 1964.

Then there is the Church of North India (CNI), which is wealthy and corrupt, with one of its bishops recently given the heave-ho. But it is the CSI where corruption is most rampant, with its Moderator being accused of multiple charges of corruption ranging from extending his stay beyond retirement age, selling properties for personal gain and much more.

You can read the latest story by Dr. Joseph G. Muthuraj, a theologian from Bangalore, who argues that the office of the Church of South India Moderator has turned "Pontifical" and that Amendments to their constitution make the Moderator the sole care-taker of the Church. "The Church should bring the deadly phenomena of corruption into its main focus with the sole intention to uproot it." You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

There's a growing shortage of vicars in the Church of England. BBC Radio 4 news said this week that the Church of England is running out of vicars. The Church of England says it's failing to recruit enough new clergy to replace a large number of priests who are expected to retire in the next ten years. The Rev. Peter Ould, a Church of England priest based in Canterbury, said 25% of the clergy are going to be retiring shortly, and upwards of 40% of the clergy are not coming in at bottom end. The CofE has gone from 8,000 full-time to 7,000 full time clergy. The real problem in running the church on a day to day basis. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

As you know, Western Anglican primates have repeatedly accused Africans of not being socially conscious. Repeatedly, this is shown to not be true.

This week, Malawi President, Arthur Peter Mutharika, presented the congregation at St. Mark's Anglican Church in Mzuzu, Malawi, with 1 million Kwacha (approx. $1,400) and 100 bags of cement. The president arrived for the service, bringing these gifts, and announced the gift was for the construction of a new church building.

The Bishop of Northern Malawi, the Rt. Rev. Fanuel Magangani, was informed of the president's coming, but the gift was unexpected. "This offering is coming at the right time and it will push them further to the finishing of the project. When it is completed we shall indeed worship the Lord in the beauty of Holiness."

The project at St Mark's began some five years ago and the congregation have been fund raising at the same time as continuing to construct the building, which is now nearing completion.

*****

The LGBT community will eventually self-destruct, writes Rachel Lu for The Federalist. Whether the memory of this period evokes mild derision or deep shame, will likely depend on these next few years. It's still possible that the madness might recede and leave gays, lesbians, and religious conservatives all free to live peaceful and productive lives, knowing their fundamental rights will be respected even where their beliefs and lifestyle choices aren't. Less optimistically, the early twenty-first century could be remembered as a time when any or all of those groups were harshly persecuted, potentially leaving deep scars in our social memory.

Either way, the movement will die. How do we know? Predicting the demise of the LGBT movement may seem rash in the present moment, as North Carolina prepares to battle the U.S. Department of Justice and Washington issues edicts demanding submission from every public school in America. But gender ideology is too incoherent and too inimical to real human good. It cannot outlast the moral indignation of the present hour.

On some level, even its most ardent advocates may intuit this. Their desperation to push the boundaries as far as possible, as quickly as possible, may evidence the zeal of the terminally ill. Everything must be done today, because there is no tomorrow.

This is not an invitation to relax. Foolish ideas do eventually self-destruct, but they can do a lot of damage along the way. We also should not assume that the eventual collapse will precipitate a widespread resurgence of common sense. The evil fruits of the Sexual Revolution will likely plague us for the foreseeable future, potentially assuming a whole range of dystopian forms.

Caught in the downdraft will be the Episcopal Church, one of the great supporters and admirers of the LGBTQ movement. It is sliding into irrelevancy, even as its churches empty and die. They will learn the lesson that he who marries the spirit of the age, will soon find himself a widower. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

The BBC's head of religion has said although it is 'uncomfortable' to accept, the ideology behind ISIS is based on Islamic doctrine.

Aaqil Ahmed, the first Muslim to hold the post, said it was untrue to suggest that ISIS had nothing to do with Islam, despite the fact that the majority of Muslims do not agree with the extremist group.

He was speaking at an event at Huddersfield University, when he was asked to explain the BBC's controversial policy on referring to the group as 'so-called Islamic State'.

Prime Minister David Cameron has been among those who have called for the corporation not to use the phrase when referring to the terror group operating in Iraq and Syria, saying Muslims would 'recoil' at the phrase being used to justify the 'perversion of a great religion'.

Mr. Ahmed was asked at the event organized by Lapido, the centre for religious literacy in journalism, to defend the term by barrister, Neil Addison, on the grounds that he wouldn't have said 'so-called Huddersfield University'.

According to a report by Lapido, he responded by saying: 'I hear so many people say ISIS has nothing to do with Islam -- of course it has.

'They are not preaching Judaism. It might be wrong but what they are saying is an ideology based on some form of Islamic doctrine. They are Muslims.

'That is a fact and we have to get our head around some very uncomfortable things. That is where the difficulty comes in for many journalists because the vast majority of Muslims won't agree with them [ISIS].'

*****

From the Diocese of Egypt comes this word on the latest news from Bishop Grant LeMarquand of Gambella, in Western Ethiopia.

After Nuer refugee children were killed in a road accident, mobs of 'highlanders' [the Gambellan term for those from central Ethiopia] bent on revenge against Nuer refugees for the murder of numerous highlanders were turned back by the Ethiopia army -- this is significant because the vast majority of soldiers are themselves highlanders.

-- There has been no gun fire and no killing in a couple of weeks. Some roads are still dangerous, some violence is still happening, some refugee camps are still on lock down, though.

-- Churches, individuals, town councils and community groups are beginning to talk about peace. Heart-felt reconciliation will be a long, uphill battle, but every step in the right direction is important.

-- Our Nuer staff who are from the 'other side of town' are returning to work. We will need to shuttle them in by car for the next few weeks or months -- both because they are afraid and because they probably have reason to be worried. Those from different ethnic groups on our compound have been very welcoming of each other. Classes at our theological college have just ended -- sadly we had to hold most of this term in separate locations for Anuak and Nuer.

-- Church leaders have been busy compiling lists of people in their parishes whose houses were burned, who were looted, who were injured or who have lost family members so that we can begin to respond in an organized way to the real pastoral and practical needs in front of us.

-- One of the men ordained at the Area Assembly in November, Simon Taidor (who was also at the last Synod) lost a sister in the Murle carte raids. Her child was also abducted, but that child is one of 53 of the more than 100 abducted children who has been returned to Gambella through the mediation of a Murle chief and the action of the Ethiopian armed forces.

-- The rain has come (which is good), but it came suddenly and hard after a long and unusually hot dry season -- the result has been flooding in a number of places. Thankfully the road to our compound, which was washed out a couple of weeks ago, was fixed the night before we got home from the USA and Canada last week (so we didn't have to wade through knee deep mud to get home).

Please pray for continued peace, that those in authority will have wisdom, that the police and army act in a calm and professional manner, that food, clothes, building materials, -- and comfort get to those who need it. Pray for gentle rain.

*****

The York Minster Dean has been told that his support for Pride and Zen Buddhism runs contrary to biblical teaching and he should stop it.

The Rev. Julian Mann, a frequent contributor to VOL wrote a "Dear Dean Vivienne Faull letter" and said, "This is respectfully to express serious concern about York Minster's continuing support for the city's Pride Festival. This annual civic event supported last year by York Minster celebrates what God's infallible Word written, the Bible, describes as wrongful sexual relationships. Such relationships must be regarded by Christians as wrong in God's eyes and to be humbly repented of where necessary because they take place outside of heterosexual marriage, contrary to our Lord Jesus Christ's teaching for the good of the whole of humanity, as summarized so clearly in Canon B30 - Of Holy Matrimony.

"This Canon states that one man-one woman, faithful marriage for life is the God-given context for the 'hallowing and right direction of the natural instincts and affections'.

"Though I minister in Sheffield Diocese as a parish incumbent, the Minister has a vocation to be the mother church of our Northern Province, giving us a positive spiritual lead.

"There are as you know from national media coverage grave concerns about the Zen Buddhist meditations within the Minster precincts though not in the Minster itself, promoted by the Minster's Canon Chancellor. Such spiritual activity and the religious presuppositions that underlie it run contrary to Article 18 of the Church of England's 39 Articles of Religion, which states clearly the teaching of Holy Scripture that eternal salvation is to be found only in our Lord Jesus Christ and not in man-made religion."

*****

Dear friends of VOL. Funds to keep VOL going funds are trickling in at a very slow rate. We are pressed down on every side but we not cast down but we truly need your help to keep going. I hope you will take a few moments to put a check in the mail to support VOL's vital ministry. Regardless of the amount every penny helps. You can also send a donation via PAYPAL at the link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/

You can send a snail mail check to:

VIRTUEONLINE
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Thank you for your support.

David

How can people with stained consciences draw near to God? It's relevant because there's one thing that modern life and scientific progress and psychological therapies and medical discoveries have not made the slightest advance in solving. And that is, what is God's work in this "time of reformation" and this text all about? (Heb. 9: 1-14). It is all about how people with stained consciences can draw near to God. -- John Piper

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
June 10, 2016

The Africans are coming, the Africans are coming, and if the message is not getting through, THE AFRICANS ARE COMING...this time to England. Archbishop Welby, beware. Dumb and dumber things are happening in your church and the Africans have finally had enough.

The spotlight is now squarely on the Church of England and the man who is pointing the high beam right at Lambeth Palace is Nigerian Archbishop, the Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, the new chairman of GAFCON.

This week he let loose a thunderbolt and said the Church of England had recently crossed a "line" with a series of decisions seen as endorsing a more liberal stance on homosexuality and this behavior is intolerable.

Okoh said many orthodox Anglicans now view the British branch of Anglicanism in a similar light to The Episcopal Church (TEC), which has been accused of "heresy" for ordaining openly gay bishops and endorsing homosexual marriage and had already torn the fabric of the communion, possibly never to be fixed.

In whacking the CofE, he also gave his full backing to a new breakaway network of churches in England, the AMiE set up outside the control of the Church of England and the Anglican Church in North America.

His intervention is the clearest sign yet of a renewed threat of schism within Anglicanism, writes John Bingham in The Telegraph.

This came about when a single Nigerian diocese last week broke off ties with the Church of England Diocese of Liverpool because of the appointment of an American bishop who supports homosexual marriage to a special role in the area. They were angered by the appointment of the Rt. Rev. Susan Goff as an assistant bishop in Liverpool as part of a twinning arrangement with her diocese in the US.

The Diocese of Akure in Nigeria responded by cutting its own long-standing ties with Liverpool.

This was a bridge too far for orthodox Anglicans and Okoh said so in no uncertain terms.

Last month there was also anger among traditionalists, after a cleric from the Church of England's Oxford diocese took part in a celebration of Desmond Tutu's daughter's homosexual wedding in South Africa.

A line has been crossed in the Church of England itself ... The false teaching of the American Episcopal Church has been normalized in England, said Archbishop Nicholas Okoh.

The worldwide Anglican Communion has been in turmoil for the last 13 years since TEC ordained its first, openly homogenital bishop, Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, overturning 2,000 years of church teaching on marriage. The Episcopal Church went further and changed its canons at its most recent General Convention to allow homosexual marriages.

Orthodox Anglicans said this was an abandonment of Biblical teaching and accused the Americans of heresy, alongside the Anglican Church of Canada, which also takes a liberal line on sexuality.

While it was thought that a make-or-break summit in Canterbury in January, involving the primate, has brokered a deal by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, they agreed to "walk together" despite their differences, but imposed sanctions on TEC, including barring it from key bodies for the next three years.

Within weeks, GAFCON leaders claim this had been reneged on at a meeting of Anglican leaders in Lusaka, in April.

In his pastoral letter this week, Archbishop Okoh said the original "focus of concern" for GAFCON leaders had been the churches in North America, but switched gears to say that "our concern is increasingly with the British Isles."

"A line has been crossed in the Church of England itself with the appointment of Bishop Susan Goff, of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, as an Assisting Bishop of Liverpool.

"The false teaching of the American Episcopal Church has been normalized in England."

He added that GAFCON was standing in "solidarity" with the leaders of the Anglican Mission in England -- a network of traditionalist churches outside the Church of England - at "this testing time".

A source close to GAFCON added: "All of these things together are like a tidal wave.

"The fragile trust that enabled the last Primates' Meeting to take place in January hangs in the balance.

"The relationship between Akure and Liverpool is clearly broken and a lot now depends on how the Church of England responds to what has been done by one of their own dioceses.

"The GAFCON primates as a whole are paying careful attention. There is a high level of awareness about what is going on in England and there could be global repercussions, both for things done and left undone."

The Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt. Rev Paul Bayes, said the decision by the Diocese of Akure to cut its ties was a source of "regret".

"I would prefer to walk together with Akure as well as with Virginia, within the one Communion whose life we share," he said.

"Despite the tensions that beset us, the Anglican Communion still testifies to the love of the God who brings us together. In Liverpool I want us to play our part in this testimony of love."

But this squishy view of love won't play in the global South. They have been betrayed too often by talk of "inclusivity,""diversity" and false views of "love" and they aren't buying it any more.

You can be sure in the coming months, African leaders will be visiting England to jump start the Anglican Mission in England (AMiE), just as they did the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) and, before long, Welby will have a rebellion on his front door step.

In today's digest you can read a story by Julian Mann, who says that it should be easier for Local Churches to Join the Anglican Mission in England.

"GFCA chairman and Archbishop of Nigeria, Dr. Nicholas Okoh, reaffirmed solidarity with the Anglican Mission in England (https://anglicanmissioninengland.org/) so this now raises the question: how can it be made easier for established local churches to join AMiE?

"It is of course entirely proper and biblical that AMiE should exercise due diligence over the churches and ministers they are being asked to accredit. There may be thorny issues in certain cases that the AMiE selectors need to investigate thoroughly.

"But as a general principle, if a minister has already been serving a local church for some time and his church family is with him in wanting to join AMiE, should not the process be made as straightforward as possible? Surely long interviews and lengthy deliberations are going to put local churches off and drive them to look elsewhere for their wider accountability?" You can read more about all this in today's digest.

*****

Two months after Presiding Bishop Michael Curry fired two senior administrators for misconduct, the church's governing board has a new mandate: find out why the misconduct remained hidden and strive to prevent a recurrence.

That's according to several nonprofit governance experts, who say a board must take swift action to review and, if necessary, strengthen policies and procedures after receiving a misconduct report, writes Jeffrey MacDonald in The Living Church.

The 40-member Executive Council will have its first crack at the situation when it meets June 8-10 in Chaska, Minnesota. Among the pressing items: confront how long the misconduct went unaddressed and why.

"As part of the board's obligation to be informed, they're going to have to understand what that duration was and why the system failed," said Kevin LaCroix, an Ohio-based attorney and longtime insurance industry consultant on director and officer liability issues. Council members will then need to assure "not only that there are appropriate procedures, but also that they are followed."

The meeting will be the council's first since the Philadelphia-based law firm of Curley, Hessinger & Johnsrud delivered results of its independent, three-month investigation. The report led to the April firings of Sam McDonald, deputy chief operating officer, and Alex Baumgarten, director of community engagement.

*****

In Concord, New Hampshire, this week, the second shoe dropped on St. Paul's School, the prestigious Episcopal prep school, when the parents of the then freshman girl, who was caught up in the school's secret sex society's Senior Salute, filed suit in the US District Court in New Hampshire, charging that the elite boarding school failed to protect their daughter from sexual objectification, harassment, abuse and dehumanization. The girl's parents also charge that the school did not protect their daughter's well-being and safety while she was a residential student in its care, resulting in "ruinous harm" to her and the family.

The parents of Miss X, who are listed in the lawsuit as "John Doe" and "Jane Doe" -- using pseudonyms to protect their minor daughter's privacy and identity -- are demanding a full jury trial as they seek to hold St. Paul's School (SPS) accountable for its malfeasance and misfeasance in allowing an atmosphere to develop which led to graduating senior Owen Labrie's sexual conquest of their daughter, Miss X, who is referred to as "J.D." in the law suit. The true identity of the plaintiffs and their address, is known to and protected by the court.

The young St. Paul's freshman was allegedly "sexually slayed" by Labrie, on Friday, May 30, 2014 who then had graduated with top honors on June 1, and was arrested by the Concord Police six weeks later for his part in the Senior Salute sex games. As a result, Labrie's plans to attend Harvard, followed by divinity school, were dashed, and he found himself enmeshed in, and convicted through a criminal trial.

The lawsuit all alleges that Labrie "was far from a lone bad apple who failed to accustom himself to SPS culture and abide by school norms. Rather, Labrie embodied the warped culture of sexual conduct and deviant moral norms at SPS."

Naturally, the elite Episcopal school says the lawsuit is without merit. You can read Mary Ann Mueller's fine reporting on this in today's digest.

*****

Grace Episcopal Church in Alexandria, VA, has been accused of misusing memorial donations., according to a source who wrote VOL. Specifically, parishioners assert that, in pursuit of a personal vendetta, rector Robert H. Malm allegedly directed staff to misappropriate three separate memorial donations, totaling $450. While the parish has said it will refund the money, there remain other, unresolved allegations of financial mismanagement, including assertions that the departure of a previous parish administrator resulted in the discovery of more than $1,200 in loose cash in her office, as well as numerous stale checks. In addition, the parish has discovered major discrepancies in its financial statements. To date, neither the parish, nor the rector, nor the diocese, have made any public statement about these issues.

*****

The Executive Council of the Episcopal Church is meeting in Chaska, MN, this week, and, not surprisingly, Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry opined that there's energy, life and vitality in the Episcopal Church. "I really believe that we're on the right track," Curry said in his opening remarks.

He told council that his repeated call for the Episcopal Church to embody the Jesus Movement is not "a 21st century invention or a Michael Curry rhetorical concoction." The presiding bishop said, instead, that New Testament scholars refer to the beginnings of Christianity as the Jesus Movement.

However, TEC Treasurer Kurt Barnes reiterated a warning he gave council at its last meeting in February about drawing too much money from the church's investment income. Recent budgets have been based in part in taking more from the church's investment income than what had been its normal annual 5 percent. The 2016-2018 budget is based in part on an effective 5.75 percent investment income draw. The church has nearly $356 million in investments, including about $110 million invested for other Episcopal Church entities and about $180 million in long-term assets available to support the budget, according to Barnes' report. While the church's investments have outperformed other investing and index funds, Barnes said there is a "but." The high dividend draw "is eroding the future purchasing power of the trusts," he said. Investment models show that going forward, the portfolio is likely to earn 7.4 percent, a half-percent lower than historically expected. However, the portfolio would have to earn 8.4 percent annually to sustain the principal, a rate that would require riskier investments. "The arithmetic makes it harder for us to produce a return that keeps the portfolio whole," Barnes said. The council's own investment committee, which is an advisory body, passed a resolution on May 20, recommending reducing the annual investment income draw in the 2019-2012 budget to 4.5 percent by 2021, with no exceptions for special requests."

That might sober up how much it costs for "transformational" initiatives, and endless talk about inclusivity and diversity and what the whole liberal agenda is costing the Church, even as it continues to shrink in ASA. Will the EC heed Barnes warning? One doubts it.

There was also a warning about the lack of accountability of monies going to Haiti. Projects include ones in Haiti that exceed $22 million, multiple ones in Navajoland Area Mission a new building for the Archives of the Episcopal Church, plus a number of programs and projects related to reconciliation and the Jesus Movement. Curry has pushed "the pause button" on Haiti fundraising "for a few weeks" in order to be able to assure donors the level of accountability they expect.

Now we've heard this before when monies went to Mexico and India, and millions were lost when local Anglicans embezzled the funds, and no one at 815 did anything about it. Now, apparently, the brakes are being applied in Haiti. The bottomless pit of TEC money is apparently, no longer bottomless.

*****

The Church of England boat is still heading for the demographic rapids, writes Peter Mullen in London.

Official figures just announced say that between 25% and 40% of full time stipendiary clergy are aged over 60. Only 3.4% of all clergy are from black or ethnic minorities. In his commentary, the Church of England Director of Ministry, Julian Hubbard, writes: "While the number of stipendiary ordinations showed a welcome increase between 2012 and 2015, this is not sufficient to redress the gathering effect of clergy retirements predicted over the next ten years."

He added, "The statistics on the age and ethnicity of clergy show that we still have some way to go to ensure that the whole cohort fully reflects the demographics of the wider community."

Mike Eastwood, Director of Renewal and Reform, the Church of England's main response to falling church attendance, said: "These figures support what we have been saying about the need for renewal and reform in the Church of England. Renewal and Reform is about a message of hope, through changed lives and transformed communities, as people discover their vocation to love God and serve others. Renewal and Reform is not a top-down project to fix the church, but a narrative of local hope in God shared throughout the church. As part of Renewal and Reform, we are currently consulting on how we better release the gifts of all Christian leaders in church and wider society, whether ordained or not."

"As a priest with 46 years service, let me try to interpret the ecclesiastical spin for you."

"In a word, Mr. Hubbard has looked in the cupboard and found it to be bare. These numbers mean that the Church of England is very shortly going to be desperately short of full time, decently educated and properly trained priests." You can read Mr. Mullen's piece on all this in today's digest. He does conclude with this line; "Under all the spin, smoke and mirrors, the truth is that congregations will continue their precipitous fall and increasingly be taught and ministered to by people who are hardly qualified for the task."

*****

A new study published by the Benedict XVI Centre for Religion and Society at St. Mary's University, Twickenham, has found that 48.5% of adults in England and Wales identify themselves as having no religion.19.8% identify themselves as Anglicans, 8.3% as Catholics, 4.4% as Muslims, and 3.3% as members of another non-Christian religion.

In 1983, 44.5% identified themselves as Anglicans, and 8.2% identified themselves as Catholics.

Among the other key findings of the study:

"The age profile of Catholics is notably younger than that for Christians as a whole."

"Among the main Christian denominations, Catholics have the strongest retention rate: 55.8% of cradle Catholics still identify as Catholic in adulthood. But Catholics also have the weakest conversion rate: only 7.7% of current Catholics were not brought up Catholic."

"For every one Catholic convert, there are 10 cradle Catholics who no longer regard themselves to be Catholic."

28.5% of Catholics say they attend Mass weekly, while nearly 60% of cradle Catholics say they rarely or never attend Mass.

"There are clear positive correlations between regular church attendance and being female, older, and/or non-White. Two-thirds of all weekly-or-more Mass goers are women. Almost a quarter of all weekly-or-more Mass goers are women over 65."

*****

Did Jesus heal the centurion's alleged homosexual lover? If you listen to the Dean of St Alban's, Jeffrey John, an avowed sodomist married to his partner, you might believe he did. He preached a sermon in which he declared that the centurion had a homosexual relationship with his servant because that was sort of the norm in those days.

But, no, he didn't, says Dr. Ian Paul of PSEPHIZO blog and a renowned NT scholar who said that John's sermon on the healing of the centurion's servant in Luke 7 was speculative at best and theological nonsense.

"The Marriage of Roman Soldiers ... in the period of Roman history this passage occurs, it would have been inconceivable that a Roman soldier would have been permitted to have had a sexual relationship with either another soldier, any freeman, or even a male slave. There is however evidence that some Roman soldiers bought slave boys in order to have sex with them, but the documentation of this phenomenon is scarce. In some parts of the Empire at this time (i.e. Egypt) it was already unheard of for a free Roman to enter into pederasty with a junior. By the middle to end of the third century it was almost eliminated from the life of the army across the Empire."

Of course, the reason the Dean wants to make this happen and make us believe it is true, is because he has to justify his own behavior, and, what better way to do it, than to take Scripture and distort it for his own sexual proclivities.

So I checked some commentaries just in case I may have missed something. I looked at the following commentaries on Luke 7: Matthew Henry, Jeannine K. Brown, David Guzik, Adam Clark, Haydick's Catholic Bible commentary, The Disciplers Commentary and some most ancient manuscripts containing this chapter:
Papyrus 75 (AD 175-225)
Papyrus 45 (ca. AD 250).
Codex Vaticanus (AD 325-350)
Codex Sinaiticus (AD 330-360)
Codex Bezae (ca. AD 400)
Codex Washingtonianus (ca. AD 400)
Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (ca. AD 450; lacunae: verse 17 to end)
Papyrus 2 (~550 M; extant: verses 22-26 and 50 in Coptic language)
Papyrus 3 (6th/7th century; extant: verses 36-45)

Lo and behold, not a single one even mentioned the possibility that the centurion might have been buggering his servant. And to think this Jeffrey John fellow is dean of an English cathedral!!!

Just before going to press, a professor from Sri Lanka wrote VOL with his take on the Jeffrey John sermon and ripped it apart. He sent a copy of his letter to Archbishop Welby and got a polite "thank you" from the ABC, who I'm sure, tossed it in the garbage. Who, after all is going to upset Jeffrey John, the poster boy for sodomite marriage in the Church of England. You can read his letter in today's digest.

*****

The life of an ordinary Church of England vicar doesn't usually include kicking police, drinking binges, bomb hoaxes, cannabis, fraud and criminal damage. But, in the case of Rev. Gareth Jones, it does.

Rev. Jones is the vicar (still, according to the website!) at St. Mary's in Ilford, a parish that claims to be "A place of prayer, dialogue and hospitality" - unless you are a policeman. The parish is Anglo-Catholic, employing the usual trappings of incense, candles and an eastward facing priest at the altar - while he is able to stand, of course. No mention is made of the concentration of cannabis used in the thurible.

If Rev. Jones finds himself without a job - as surely he soon must - he could move to Canada and seek employment with the Anglican Church of Canada; if he pretends to be gay, he is almost guaranteed a position.

From the BBC comes this word: "The Reverend Gareth Jones swore at officers and claimed he had diplomatic immunity from the Vatican when he was arrested two weeks ago. A paramedic found him passed out on a street in central London. Jones, who later said he was "deeply ashamed" about what happened, had drunk three bottles of wine, several pints of beer, gin and tonics and vodka.

"As police intervened, the priest from St Mary's Church in Ilford, East London, kicked an officer in the face, the court was told.

"When asked which embassy would grant him diplomatic immunity, the priest said "the Vatican" and swore at officers.

"Jones, who has previous convictions for a bomb hoax, affray, possession of cannabis, fraud, and criminal damage, now faces formal church disciplinary proceedings."

Here's hoping they kick the drunk out of the CofE.

*****

The Rev. Hilda Kabia recently became the first woman to head Msalato Theological College, located just outside Dodoma, Tanzania, in the Diocese of Central Tanganyika. "She's a trailblazer," said the Rev. Ranjit K. Mathews, the Episcopal Church's Africa partnerships officer, who, along with his wife, served two years at Msalato, through the Episcopal Church's Young Adult Service Corps program.

Prior to leading the theological college, Kabia served nine years as dean of students and an assistant lecturer at both Msalato and St. John's University of Tanzania, an Anglican institution in Dodoma.

When VOL inquired from a local source if the college was orthodox, back came the answer, "God no! That's a TEC Epicenter, they own it."

*****

In Kampala, Uganda, Christians should emulate the Uganda martyrs by staying faithful to God and being ready to die for their faith, but not worship other gods, Catholic Bishop Joseph Anthony Zziwa of the Kiyinda-Mityana Diocese has cautioned.

Bishop Zziwa was preaching as the main celebrant at the Uganda Martyrs Day celebrations at the Namugongo Roman Catholic shrine on Friday. He rebuked Christians who go to traditional shrines to praise other spirits besides God.

"It is wrong for Christians to live a double life. Being a Christian during day and a pagan during night. Being a Christian while in a place where you stay and you are known and then behaving like a pagan in places where you are not known," he reiterated.

Bishop Zziwa told the pilgrims to "be faithful" and "be renewed by the pilgrimage to Namugongo"

"Let us resolve to take this message and avoid the social evil of visiting shrines," he said.

*****

We do need your support to keep VOL going. Funds from our spring fund appeal drive are light and I hope you will take a few moments to put a check in the mail to support VOL's vital ministry. You can also send a donation via PAYPAL at the link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/

You can send a snail mail check to:

VIRTUEONLINE
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Thank you for your support.

David

Five aspects of sin. The New Testament uses five main Greek words for sin, which together portray its various aspects, both passive and active. The commonest is *hamartia*, which depicts sin as a missing of the target, the failure to attain a goal. *Adikia* is 'unrighteousness' or 'iniquity', and *poneria* is evil of a vicious or degenerate kind. Both these terms seem to speak of an inward corruption or perversion of character. The more active words are *parabasis* (with which we may associate the similar *paraptoma*), a 'trespass' or 'transgression', the stepping over a known boundary, and *anomia*, 'lawlessness', the disregard or violation of a known law. In each case an objective criterion is implied, either a standard we fail to reach or a line we deliberately cross. --- John R. W. Stott

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
June 17, 2016

Theologian John Rankin takes a hard look at what happened in Orlando this week and offers some thoughts to help frame a biblical perspective on the massacre that took place there:

"We need to define the power of the level playing field defined by Moses, fulfilled in Jesus, but opposed by Muhammad.

"We need to define how both Islam and homosexual idolatry are one-way religions -- you are allowed to enter (by persuasion or force), but you may not exit.

"Then we need to step back and seek to understand how certain political positions affirm both Islam and the homosexual movement at the same time, thus living an internal contradiction in pursuit of a deeper political idolatry. And all the while, as people get crushed in the process.

"Thus, how do we live, speak and show the truth of the mercy that trumps judgment? (See James 2:8-13)."

Some 70 Episcopal bishops jumped in and opined on the shootings, all of them focused on the LGBTQI aspect of it, completely ignoring the Islamic dimension. Three of the bishops sided with what they call "moderate Muslims" and affirmed their support of Islam. All in all, it was an emotional out pouring of concern and love, berating homophobia and Islamophobia, but failing to deal with the deeper underlying theological and moral issues. You can read what they all wrote in today's digest.

Central Florida Episcopal Bishop, Greg Brewer, opining on the events in Florida, basically told us about his felt pain, (seven times in three pars), but offered up nothing more... "I had to work to take it in...That's how I feel...I will leave it to others to look for someone to blame...all I want to do is to stand beside, pray, and love as best I can...I categorically condemn what has happened. Better solutions must be found. I do believe that love is stronger than death."

Nothing on how America has reached this political and moral moment, nothing on the fact that this shooting occurred during Ramadan. (This year Ramadan runs from the 6th of June until the 5th of July.) The Islamic holy month is thought by clueless Westerners to be just a time of peace, with fasting in the daytime and feasting at night. But nothing could be further from the truth. The belief is that Ramadan is a time when no jihad or fighting should take place; it is the exact opposite. This month is, in fact, the time where Allah grants military victories to his followers through jihad. It is known in Islamic history as a key period for jihad. It goes back to year one in fact.

Also, nothing on the easy purchase of semi-automatic weapons by just about anyone with enough money in their pockets to buy one; nothing on the moral moment that America has come to that brought about this massacre. Also .nothing on why Islam hates democracy, praises Sharia Law, hates homosexuality and the cost to Anglicans in Nigeria who face Boko Haran every day and have seen HUNDREDS of Anglicans slaughtered because Boko Haran sees homosexuality as the enemy of the family and so-called Western Christians doing their bidding. including the Episcopal Church. Nothing about the protracted Gaystapo tactics of American sodomists. who have brainwashed an entire generation of Americans into believing that homosexuality is good and right in the eyes of God. We just get to feel the bishop's pain and solidarity!

The modernized world of the West is coldly impersonal and anonymous. And, because it has been emancipated from the divine, it is a world in which dark human impulses have no restraints. Most of the homosexual lifestyle is precisely that...cold, impersonal and anonymous. My brother-in-law told me that as he embraced men in bath houses in NYC. Then he died of AIDS. His brother blamed the Church's homophobia. What a crock. So, along with the solidarity of the bishops comes self-righteousness.

For those who think this was a simple hate crime against homosexuals, consider this:

Mateen traveled to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- before the FBI interviewed him in 2013

• A former co-worker reported Mateen's extremism to their employer, but no one took action... because Mateen was Muslim

• Last year, the FBI investigated Mateen's connection to "the first American suicide bomber in Syria"

• According to Fox, Mateen was enrolled in online courses from a notorious terrorist recruiter

• Mateen took two trips to Saudi Arabia

• Mateen's wife knew he was planning an attack; she told law enforcement one potential target was Disney World.

Of course, most of the Episcopal Church's bishops immediately saw this as a hate crime. Take Washington Bishop, Mariann Budde's, fawning comments, "To our friends of the LGBT community, know that we love you and walk alongside you in your grief and pain, which is all the more searing following an attack in a presumed safe space during LGBT Pride month. Your tears are our tears. You will find shelter in our churches." She then went on to say how wonderful Islam is, and that "our support for you remains strong. We know that the hatred that fuels such violence is a perversion of the Muslim faith, and we remain your friends and interfaith partners."

Why has she never shown any outrage against Boko Haran attacks on our Anglican brothers and sisters in Northern Nigeria? She wouldn't, of course, because they are all "fundamentalists" in her mind and probably deserve what they get. Well, honey bunch, your diocese is withering and dying. Your cathedral is mostly empty and needs millions of dollars to stay open following an earthquake, and you wouldn't know Jesus if he strolled down K Street, Washington, on a donkey with a saddle marked "The Jesus Movement".

You can read what the bishops and other world leaders, including the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, had to say about this horrendous shooting in today's digest.

*****

The Episcopal Diocese of Missouri has appointed a deputy for gun violence prevention. "People of faith must challenge the tragedy of gun violence and I lend my voice to that challenge," said the Rt. Rev. Wayne Smith, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri, announcing the appointment of the Rev. Marc D. Smith, as deputy for gun violence prevention, less than a week after a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando claimed the lives of 49 people.

So I checked the diocese's website, and, lo and behold, they have ministries ranging from dismantling racism, though as far as I can make out there are no recorded racists in the diocese, to caring for creation and promoting a green environment. But there was nothing on evangelism, discipleship or church planting. Go figure.

*****

The Bishop of Quebec, Dennis Drainville, reluctant to allow an atrocity go to waste, has issued a pastoral letter on the Orlando murders in which he makes the grotesque comparison between the injustice of murdering someone and the "injustice" of not marrying them in a church:

Here is what he said: "The atrocities perpetrated by the lone gunman in Orlando are not just a grievous act of violence against the LBGTQ community but an attack on every citizen in the world community. As such, it is imperative that we speak out directly and forcefully against this monstrous act.

[.....]

The discussions that we in the Anglican Communion have had over the last 30 years regarding the ordination of Gay persons, the blessing of same gender partners and the current debate regarding the nature of marriage are in actuality our own attempt finally to bring about justice for the members of the LGBTQ community. God's gift of human liberty cannot be made hostage to any philosophy, religion or sectarian attitudes. I call on all people who believe in peace and justice to encourage friends, family, neighbors and co-workers to take a united stand with the LGBTQ community. Let us work together to ensure Love, Hope and Faith are shared freely among all of God's precious children."

*****

The Washington National Cathedral is apparently going to keep its Confederate stained glass windows.

For the past six months, a Windows Task Force appointed by the Cathedral Chapter has been examining a range of issues relating to stained glass windows in the Cathedral that pay tribute to Confederate Generals Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee.

After detailed research, careful deliberation, and prayerful discernment, the five--member Task Force submitted its report and recommendations to the Chapter. Following lengthy and substantive conversation, the Chapter unanimously concluded that the windows can serve as a catalyst for the difficult and uncomfortable conversations about race that we need to have on the road to racial justice. In addition, they also serve as a visual reminder that Lee and Jackson fought to preserve a way of life that kept African Americans enslaved. Keeping the windows in place, for now, provides us a chance to tell more truthful and additional stories of the lives oppressed by the institution of slavery in the nation and in the church.

No final decision on the future of the Lee--Jackson windows will be made until the conclusion of this deliberative process. Yet, as the Task Force points out, "Whatever the Chapter's ultimate decision, the windows will not live in the Cathedral in the same way they have in the past."

*****

Safeguarding Children is a big deal in the newsletter of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana. Changes to the Safeguarding Policy, Training, Background Checks is now part of the diocese's position, but what if a homosexual touches a child in a Gay Pride March, marches which TEC unofficially supports? Will that person be prosecuted? Or what about exposing children to these decadent parades as the Bishop of Atlanta Robert C. Wright did recently, high fiving children. Is this not a form of abuse?

*****

South African Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu says Marwan Barghouti - jailed for masterminding suicide attacks - is a 'defender of human rights', and he has nominated the Palestinian mass-murderer for the Nobel Prize.

The prominent anti-Israel campaigner, Tutu, has joined other activists in nominating imprisoned the Palestinian arch-terrorist, and he tabled the nomination in a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee on Monday - cited by Al Arabiya - in which he hailed the Fatah-Tanzim commander as a symbol of the "struggle for freedom, [which] constitutes a clear signal of support for the realization of the Palestinian people's inalienable rights, including to self-determination."

Desmond Tutu is a longtime anti-Israel activist, and is a member of the "International High Level Committee of the Campaign for the freedom of Barghouti and all Palestinian prisoners."

Barghouti was jailed for five life terms in 2002, for masterminding scores of deadly suicide bombing attacks on Israeli civilian targets during the Second Intifada. But many anti-Israel activists still tout him as a symbol of "nonviolent resistance," and label him a "political prisoner."

The victims of Barghouti's attacks and the countless grieving relatives he left behind, would likely beg to differ.

*****

The Episcopal Bishop of Mississippi, the Rt. Rev. Brian R. Seage, has given official permission to the congregations and clergy of his diocese who are canonically resident or licensed to serve, to conduct homosexual marriages without his permission. He is the first Episcopal bishop to do so.

In a letter to the diocese, Seage says liturgies included are, I Will Bless You and You Will Be A Blessing, Revised and Expanded 2015, with The Book of Common Prayer (1979), for homosexual couples, legally entitled to marry.

Seage did say that any priest was free to decline to marry a same-sex couple and would not face disciplinary hearings. "My only request is that you refer, to me, any same sex couple seeking marriage, so arrangements can be made to offer these services of the church."

*****

The Anglican Church of Canada vacillates on euthanasia. In much the same way that it has submitted to cultural trends on same-sex marriage, the Anglican Church of Canada, rather than taking a stand either way, has decided to recognize euthanasia in Canada as a "reality". In church terms, this is known as being prophetic; or is it missional -- I don't know, this jargon is so confusing.

In contrast, the Anglican Church in North America states in its constitution:

God, and not man, is the creator of human life. The unjustified taking of life is sinful. Therefore, all members and clergy are called to promote and respect the sanctity of every human life from conception to natural death.

This would be a difficult idea for ACoC theologians to grasp since they are still divided on whether the concept of sin is a reality, let alone whether its only remedy is Jesus Christ - after all, we don't want "to alienate people over a very sensitive and complex issue".

From the Anglican Journal comes this:

In a nod to changing times, the Anglican Church of Canada's latest report on physician-assisted dying, rather than opposing the practice, recognizes it as a reality. The report offers reflections and resources around assisted dying and related issues, such as palliative care.

The Supreme Court of Canada struck down last year a ban on physician-assisted death for the "grievously and irremediably ill" as unconstitutional, notes the paper, entitled In Sure and Certain Hope: Resources to Assist Pastoral and Theological Approaches to Physician Assisted Dying, released June 9.

In the wake of this decision, the paper states, "public debate concerning the legal ban on physician assisted dying is in some ways over."

As a result, the authors continue, "our energy is best spent at this time ensuring that this practice is governed in ways that reflect insofar as possible a just expression of care for the dignity of every human being, whatever the circumstances."

"A report like this is not going to please everybody because it doesn't give a direct answer, and that will frustrate some people," Hiltz said. "But...to give a direct answer is, in fact, to alienate people over a very sensitive and complex issue." Waffle to the end.

*****

GAFCON leaders, through their new leader, Nigerian Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, have stepped up the pace of the realignment in the communion following the Scottish Episcopal Church's decision this week to allow homosexual marriage.

No one should really be surprised. Archbishop Okoh is the toughest, sternest voice on the orthodox wing of the communion and he has a take no prisoners approach. Archbishop Welby, beware. Okoh and his predecessor Peter Akinola, gave Rowan Williams such a headache over their refusal to go along with sodomy, that Williams was forced eventually to resign to academia.

Furthermore, switching the game from issues about Human Sexuality to talk about Anglican polity and governance, is little more than rearranging the seating plan in the dining room of the Hindenburg. GAFCON primates will have none of it.

In time, the Global South will win. Only a totally blind man cannot see the numbers written on the subway walls and tenement halls. The West is withering and dying from age and bad morals with no clear gospel to proclaim to stop it. Presiding Bishop Michael Curry's "Jesus Movement" cry is little more than a three-card monte game, betting the church will grow without a clear salvific message. Screaming at little old ladies and a few families about racism and white privilege will get old. GAFCON and the rest of the Global South have the numbers, and they are tirelessly and relentlessly faithful to scripture in proclaiming the gospel of God's redeeming grace. The chess game is moving rapidly in their favor. The Western (white) king is in a corner surrounded by black bishops, rooks and knights. The game is almost over. Checkmate awaits.

*****

According to British Anglican commentator Julian Mann, Church of England bishops are not powerless against the present spiritual disorder.

"With scandals over Zen Buddhist meditations promoted by promoted by the Canon Chancellor of York Minster, the Church of Nigeria severing links with Liverpool Diocese over the appointment of an uber-liberal American bishop, and an Oxford cleric appearing to bless the same-sex 'marriage' of Desmond Tutu's daughter in South Africa this has been a lousy summer so far for the Church of England.

"But dare one respectfully suggest that Bishops disturbed by these developments should not despair? They are not powerless in the face of such gross spiritual disorder.

"Certainly, the Clergy Discipline Measure (CDM) is difficult to deploy against errant clerics on doctrinal issues. The CDM's main focus tends to be on 'conduct unbecoming'. However, Bishops can stand up for the Lord Jesus by arguing against doctrinal violations and they have the historic biblical teachings of the Church of England as their armory."

In fact, says Mann, bishops should speak out because the Book of Common Prayer's Ordinal - the historic Reformed Anglican liturgy for the consecration of Bishops - says they should. The Archbishop asks the Bishop elect: 'Be you ready, with all faithful diligence, to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrine contrary to God's Word; and both privately and openly to call upon and encourage others to the same.'

The Bishop replies: 'I am ready, the Lord being my helper.'

Don't hold your breath. Church of England bishops are reluctant to rock the boat even if their dioceses are sinking, and your average Brit no longer cares about their nation's historic church.

*****

With less than two weeks to go before Britain votes on whether to remain in the European Union, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York have indicated their support for the "remain" case.

Writing in The Mail, Justin Welby said while there can be no official Christian line on the vote, he wants to create a "vision of peace and reconciliation." He said a vote to remain on June 23 would avert economic damage that could harm the poorest.

Writing in The Telegraph on June 9, the Archbishop of York said political institutions need regular pruning, but "Europe is bigger than European institutions."

On another matter, Archbishop Welby has said it is impossible to understand the world today without understanding religion.

Speaking at the annual Sanford St. Martin awards for religious broadcasting on June 9, the Archbishop said religion needs to be covered not simply to keep some strange people happy "but because religion is a prime motivator of behavior for both individuals and communities."

*****

Two prominent bishops have called for evangelicals in the Church of England to cease their fighting over homosexuality and accept other evangelicals as such, even when they take a pro-gay stance.

Bishop of Liverpool, Paul Bayes and Bishop of Dorchester, Colin Fletcher, are among contributors to a new book edited by Jayne Ozanne, a lay member of the General Synod and former member of the Archbishops' Council, who counts herself as evangelical and last year came out as gay.

Bishop Fletcher criticizes the "immense" damage to "far too many good Christian people" by the Church's attitude to gay people. Bishop Bayes says: "We need to change the Church -- to make room and to extend the table."

In the book, Journeys in Grace and Truth -- Revisiting Scripture and Sexuality, the contributors explain why they have moved towards an "affirming view" of same-sex relationships.

Copies have been posted to all 460 members of the General Synod, who will meet behind closed doors in York next month to discuss the results of the "shared conversations" that have been taking place on sexuality and the Church. You can read the full story here: http://www.christiantoday.com/article/leading.evangelical.bishops.call.for.church.to.change.on.gays/88533.htm

*****

At a recent luncheon of Christian attorneys and judges in San Diego, a prominent Federal District Judge stated that the next big civil rights movement in the United States will be over religious freedom. As an illustration of what lies ahead, this respected jurist quoted an article in which a Harvard law professor has publicly stated that Christians in this country should now be treated like Nazis. In the face of these increasing secularist attacks, the dedicated attorneys and staff of the Freedom of Conscience and Defense Fund (FCDF) are even more committed to the preservation of our nation's long tradition of support for religious liberty--the first freedom in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

*****

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Over 50% of gay men's relationships are sexually non-exclusive, while lesbian women are more typically wedded to serial monogamy. A Ministry of Justice response to my Freedom of Information request for same-sex divorce statistics provides an early indication of a probable trend. For every gay male couple that filed a divorce petition, 3.2 female couples did so! Over recent years, civil partnership dissolutions of lesbian couples have held steady at roughly twice the level of gay men's civil partnership dissolutions. ---- BBC Magazine

Dear Brothers and Sisters
ww.virtueonline.org
June 24, 2016

Once again a Christian columnist tried to nail down Donald Trump on the extent of his Christian Faith and once again got ambiguous non answers.

Columnist Cal Thomas asked the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, "You have confessed that you are a Christian." Trump responded: "And I have also won much evangelical support."

"Yes, I know that," said Thomas. "You have said you never felt the need to ask for God's forgiveness, and yet repentance for one's sins is a precondition to salvation. I ask you the question Jesus asked of Peter: Who do you say He is?"

Trump responded: "I will be asking for forgiveness, but hopefully I won't have to be asking for much forgiveness. As you know, I am Presbyterian and Protestant. ... We have tremendous support from

the clergy. I think I will be doing very well during the election with evangelicals and with Christians. ... I'm going to treat my religion, which is Christian, with great respect and care."

Thomas repeated the question: "Who do you say Jesus is?"

Trump tried again: "Jesus to me is somebody I can think about for security and confidence. Somebody I can revere in terms of bravery and in terms of courage and, because I consider the Christian religion so important, somebody I can totally rely on in my own mind."

For the record, here is St. Peter's response: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Later in the week Trump met with more than 1,000 evangelicals, but when eight prominent organizers spoke at a press conference afterward, they were asked who was ready to endorse the winner of the Republican presidential primaries. None raised their hand.

Not Franklin Graham, Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, nor Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, Ralph Reed of the Faith and Freedom Coalition. Penny Nance, president of Concerned Women for America, said she felt the meeting was "positive. But the question still is whether I can feel confident in asking people to join me."

Trump's speech also earned scorn. Southern Baptist Convention policy head, Russell Moore, arguably Trump's loudest evangelical critic, did not attend, and he tweeted in disgust at the standing ovation Trump got.

Trump also asserted, "The evangelical vote was mostly gotten by me." Not really. Sen. Ted Cruz won in 12 states with a high percentage of evangelicals, such as Texas, Iowa, Kansas and Oklahoma. Trump did win much of the evangelical south, but in Missouri he squeaked out by 40.9% percent to 40.7%, but he lost those who attend church weekly by 20%.

You can read stories on the new Trump initiatives to win over evangelicals in today's digest.

*****

Among the ongoing blasphemies over the alleged sainthood of the 49 Latinos who died in a gay nightclub in Orlando, came this discovery in the Diocese of Sodor and Man where the Dean of the local cathedral draped an LGBTI Flag over the high altar and a Jesus icon.

An overwhelming number of residents in the Church of England's smallest diocese expressed outrage and revulsion at the 'desecration' of the altar in St German's Cathedral, Peel ,on the Isle of Man.

Earlier, during in the week, the mother church of the diocese flew the Rainbow flag at half-mast in the Cathedral grounds.

A special candlelit vigil service was organized by the Dean, the Very Rev. Nigel Godfrey, in memory of the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting with the Cathedral and the Manx Rainbow Association.

One wonders if the dean ever held a service and draped the flags of murdered Christians in the Middle East. Did he ever have a nice word to say to Nigerian Anglicans who are being constantly singled out and slaughtered by Boko Haran? Not likely. The triumph of sodomy in the Diocese of Sodom. How fitting. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

Pressure is mounting in the Anglican Church of Canada to affirm homosexual marriage, but resistance is being met by a handful, about 10, with 11 bishops unknown, with 19 for the sinful act.

There are a total of 40 Canadian bishops, with 27 needed to pass out of 40 (67.5%). The number of Unknowns needed to pass: 8/12 (67%).

VOL put together a list of yes, no's and maybes, but we make no claim to perfection, as most of it was obtained from FACEBOOK.

There are hints that if the marriage canon fails, a small number of dioceses will adopt 'local option', an idea from The Episcopal Church playbook, and proceed with marrying same-sex couples. If this happens, Archbishop Fred Hiltz will throw up his hands and I say 'I told you so' and then proceed to do nothing. It is guaranteed they will not be disciplined for their actions any more than Episcopal bishops were disciplined for doing the same thing in TEC.

It is a forgone conclusion that, sooner or later, the Anglican Church of Canada will allow same sex marriage, knowing that they will not be disciplined by the weak-willed Archbishop of Canterbury, who will not bar either TEC or the ACoC from attending the next Lambeth Conference.

*****

The Church of England is trying to thread the needle over homosexuality and the latest news is that when Synod meets next month, they aim to agree to disagree over sodomy.

Synod will try a new approach to avoid a disastrous formal schism over homosexuality. After two days of discussing legislative matters in open session and once all outsiders have left, the 550 representatives from around the world will break into groups of 20 for three days of intensive and personal discussions about sexuality.

The idea is not to reach agreement -- 30 years of wrangling have established that this is quite impossible -- but to try to bring people on both sides of the debate to see their opponents as fellow Christians. Naturally, conservative evangelicals have denounced the scheme as an attempt to manipulate opinion, which, of course, it is. The question is whether it will work. Probably. This was a favorite tactic of Frank Griswold when he ran the Episcopal Church. The idea of small groups was to put Gene Robinson next to someone like Jack Iker or Bill Love and break down the hostility, then doctrine and happiness would reign. In the end it didn't work. The ACNA was born and the rest is history.

What's new about this approach is that the manipulation that Justin Welby's strategists have in mind is not to be carried out from the top down. It is hoped that the process of facilitated conversations will allow the church's activists gathered in the synod to take note of the social changes that are happening in their own congregations and their own families, where acceptance of gay people is becoming much more common.

None of this will soften the hardcore conservative evangelical resistance to change, and it may indeed harden it. But Welby's strategy is becoming clear: he may not be able to change the church's official doctrine, but he can hope to minimize the threatened formal split by softening and dividing the evangelical vote.

Two men who seem to have a strong handle on all this are the Rev. Chris Sugden and the Rev. Vinay Samuel. Here is a couple of paragraphs from their very excellent paper on pastoral accommodation (or Anglican fudge) which you can read in today's digest.

"The orthodox are committed to ensure that the Bible is never seen to be wrong on anything it teaches, whether on evolution or sexuality. Once one part of biblical truth is unpicked, where does the unravelling stop? Orthodox Anglicans seek to build on biblical truth as foundations, rather than dismiss some of it as errors of previous generations. If the position is taken to have 'diverse' views in one church, that is agreeing to truth and error abiding together, biblically revealed truth is reduced to a matter of opinion.

"There is enough evidence to suggest that evolution is generally true but Creation is also true for the Christian who is both scientifically knowledgeable and biblically faithful. He/she negotiates both realities and can live with them in even though such a combination raises some serious questions like the historicity of Adam and Eve."

"The same may well be true with sexuality. We know what the Bible teaches and are not willing to accept that the Bible is mistaken. But we also know that same sex reality in many cases is more complex than people deliberately breaking traditional sexual norms. So we take a pastoral approach that for us as pastors keeps our conviction of the truth of biblical teaching intact while enabling us to respond pastorally with people in same sex attraction and relationships." You can read their paper in today's digest.

*****

Then there was the outrage over a controversial poem by England's Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, claiming that "God is Gay" is like the writings of the Apostle Paul, an outspoken Church of England bishop has argued.

The Bishop of Buckingham, the Rt. Rev Alan Wilson, said the outraged reaction in some quarters to Duffy's poem "After Orlando: Gay Love", is similar to the response some of the New Testament epistles would have attracted when first written.

Duffy's 19-line verse, written in tribute to the victims of the Orlando massacre in which 49 people died in a gay club in Florida, highlights how the LGBT community includes people from all walks of life.

The poem lists priests, politicians, scientists, farmers and doctors as gay, closing with the lines: "The butcher, the baker, the candlestick-maker; our children, are gay. And God is gay."

It was mocked by some commentators on the internet and angered traditionalist Christians. You can read more in today's digest.

*****

Forward in Faith has produced a map of society parishes nationwide in the UK. So if you are visiting England, you can click on the following link to find a parish near you. http://www.forwardinfaith.com/fullposts.php?id=231

The Society's bishops encourage the parishes under their oversight to affiliate to The Society.

The churches of those parishes that have affiliated so far - 200 churches - are now plotted on a new interactive map: www.sswsh.com/map.php. This will help people to find their nearest Society church both when at home and when travelling. Further churches will be added to the map as more parishes affiliate.

*****

The Conference of European Churches (CEC) has launched a consultation on the future shape of the continent and the role played in it by the churches. The CEC brings together 114 Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican, and Old Catholic churches from across the European Continent, including the Church of England, Church of Ireland, Church in Wales and the Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church.

In an open letter to Europe's churches ahead of the UK's referendum on continuing membership of the European Union (EU) on Thursday, the CEC's governing board set out its view of the current situation in Europe.

Explaining the thinking behind the letter, they say that Thursday's EU referendum in the UK "is just one sign of the difficulties facing the continent. Developments in Europe toward more unity and cooperation, so much appreciated some decades ago, are now increasingly put into doubt.

"Churches in many parts of the continent have been contributing to the European project at different stages by raising their voice, highlighting the role of churches in society, emphasizing the role of churches and ethics and values, reaching beyond economic wellbeing."

*****

A man who threatened to shoot a priest and hold a congregation hostage was thwarted on Sunday by police who were lying in wait at the Ancient Spanish Monastery in North Miami Beach, Florida.

The attacker, 33-year-old Jorge Arizamendoza, was known to the congregation and leaders of the St Bernard de Clairvaux Episcopal Church, which is based at the monastery, because he has previously received assistance from the church's homeless ministry.

The monastery dates back to AD 1133 when construction began in Sacramenia, near Segovia in northern Spain. In the 1920s it was dismantled, brick-by-brick, and transported to the United States where it eventually ended up as an Episcopal church in North Miami Beach.

Police were lying in wait for Arizamendoza at the church on Sunday, following a number of incidents during the week. In one, he caused damage estimated at $2,000 USD (approximately £1,360 GBP) when he threw a stone at an electronic sign. He returned the following day and smashed a video camera before decapitating an 800-year-old stone statue of Alphonsus VII, one of the artifacts from the original Spanish monastery that was shipped to the US.

Police say that Arizamendoza forced his way into the church during Sunday's Eucharist and threatened to shoot the priest in the face. He shouted at the congregation, warning them not to attend Mass at the church.

*****

The former Bishop of the Church of England's Diocese of Guildford, the Rt. Rev. Christopher Hill, has condemned an assassination attempt on Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II Karim of the Syriac Orthodox Church.

Three members of the security forces were killed and another five injured when a suicide bomber detonated his bomb outside St Gabriel's Church in the al-Wusta district of Qamishli in north-east Syria. The bomber, disguised as a priest, had tried to enter the church as the congregation commemorated the Assyrian genocide on the Orthodox Pentecost Sunday at the weekend; but he was stopped by the security personnel when he detonated his bomb. It was the fourth attack against Assyrian Christians in the city in the past six months.

"I am shocked and horrified to learn of the assassination attempt," Bishop Hill, President of the Conference of European Churches (CEC) said. "CEC grieves the loss of life and prays for the recovery of the wounded. We extend our prayers and support for the church and all Christians in threatened positions in the Middle East."

The CEC general secretary, Father Heikki Huttunen, commented: "Despite killing other people, the assassin could not achieve their goal. We thank God that the patriarch is able to continue in his apostolic and pastoral mission. May he be guided, strengthened, and consoled by the Spirit of Pentecost."

*****

The Anglican Communion's "significant influence" in more than half of the countries that criminalize same-sex behavior ought to be put to use to repeal those laws, a new report says.

Anglicans and Sexuality: A Way Forward?, research done in conjunction with the Institute of Public Affairs based at the London School of Economics and Political Science in London between January and May of this year, studied "the narrative arc of Christianity and Anglicanism's troubled history around human sexuality." Researchers also considered both the historic and current role of the Anglican Communion and its individual provinces and churches in decriminalization efforts.

In January, as the study was beginning, a majority of the leaders of the communion's 38 provinces -- known as primates -- said, after a gathering in Canterbury, England, that they recognized that "the Christian church and within it the Anglican Communion have often acted in a way towards people on the basis of their sexual orientation that has caused deep hurt." A majority of the primates at that same meeting also called for three years of "consequences" for the Episcopal Church in response to its 2015 decision to authorize marriages between same-sex couples.

Bishop Josiah Atkins Idowu-Fearon, Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, said after the primates' gathering, that as much as Episcopalians are scandalized by the criminalization of homosexuality in some parts of the world, other Anglicans are scandalized by the Episcopal Church's decision to allow same-sex couples to be married in the church. He said that decision "puts many of us at risk" in parts of the world "where the cultural sensibilities about human sexuality are so very different."

The researchers said that "the retention of penal sanctions against same-sex intimacy across the globe in the 21st century is the result of a toxic mix of political expediency, religious fervor and notions of nationalist purity masquerading as popular opinion."

Not mentioned is that, for most of Africa, homosexuality is not part of their culture and they view it as an intrusion on their culture by Western pansexualists. Furthermore, Africa is not seeing the same rates of HIV/AIDS infection precisely because homosexuality is not an approved behavior.

HIV/AIDS infection rates among men who have sex with men are significantly higher in jurisdictions which criminalize that activity than in those which don't, according to research the report cites. Studies cited show that adverse mental health, family breakdown and poverty can also be attributed in part to criminalization. Nonsense.

Since the left is now engaged in an all-out effort to blame Christianity for the Orlando massacre, actually committed by a homosexual, muslim, ISIS, jihadi, then a decent respect for the truth is in order. Christians have not created a climate of danger for homosexuals. If anything, the following CDC data clearly indicates where the single-largest threat to homosexual life comes from: other homosexuals (though under ISIS, that's about to change).

Thirty-five years into the AIDS pandemic, some 311,000 men who have sex with men (MSM) have died of the disease here in the U.S., and MSM are responsible for almost 30,000 new HIV infections per year.

*****

The Chairman and fellow Primates of the GAFCON Council are pleased to announce that the third GAFCON conference will be held in Jerusalem in 2018.

Jerusalem has a special place in the hearts of the GAFCON movement as it was the location of the first conference in 2008. Moreover, Jerusalem stands as a constant reminder of the birth of the Gospel and the movement's determination to remain true to the teachings of our Lord and his Holy Word.

GAFCON was greatly blessed by both the initial conference and the second meeting in Nairobi in 2013. When Anglicans from across the Communion come together in unity it is a tremendous blessing, and we are excited to see the Church built up in the land where it was given its foundation.

Dates and further details will be announced in due course.

*****

The Episcopal News Service announced with a great flourish that both the interior and exterior of Christ Church Anglican Cathedral in Zanzibarhas undergone a massive restoration. "The Cathedral stands here as a symbol of remembrance to the men, women and children taken from East Africa and sold into slavery. A massive stone structure just outside the historic city's narrow streets and corridors, the cathedral also serves as a reminder of the Anglican Church's role in abolishing the slave trade, and its contribution to the spread of Christianity in Africa.

"Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000, Stone Town receives more than 100,000 visitors annually, with many of them visiting the cathedral, where guides offer tours of the property built on a former slave market."

In the fall of 2013, the Anglican Diocese of Zanzibar -- part of the Anglican Church in Tanzania -- in partnership with the World Monuments Fund-Britain began a project to preserve the cathedral and to create a heritage center to commemorate the abolition of slavery and to educate people about slavery in its modern forms.

"The project will preserve a highly significant monument, and promote access to one of the most important heritage places in East Africa," said Bishop of Zanzibar Michael Hafidh, in an email message. "Telling the story of this dark chapter in the region's history in an open and factual way will help bridge social and ethnic divides and promote tolerance, reconciliation and an inclusive society."

But the kicker is that TEC did not put one dollar into the restoration. It was an ACNA priest, the Rev. Jerry Kramer, who was overall in charge of the project and raised the bulk of the money.

The major givers were the EU, and the US Embassy, followed by some 30 ACNA parishes and members, he wrote to VOL.

*****

Bishop of Makamba, Martin Blaise Nyaboho, has been elected as the fourth archbishop and primate of the Anglican Church of Burundi. When he is installed on Aug. 21, Nyaboho will succeed Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi, who has led the church since 2005.

The 61-year-old bishop, a former member of the Anglican Consultative Council (2005 to 2009), was baptized in 1965 and confirmed in July 1969. He was ordained a deacon in 1985 and a priest four years later. He was consecrated in 1997, becoming the first bishop of Makamba.

His theological education began at the Mweya Bible Institute and Matana Theological School in Burundi and continued at the Kenya Highlands Bible College (now known as the Kenya Highlands Evangelical University) and the Asbury University College in Wilmore, Kentucky, in the U.S. He has also studied at the Haggai Institute Leadership Training in Singapore and the Panzi Development Training Centre in what was Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo).

Before becoming a bishop, Nyaboho served in a variety of roles, including as a teacher at Matana Bible School, and as a Christian literature and Bible translator for Scripture Union and the Bible Society.

He has participated in a number of local and international conferences on social transformation, leadership, peace-building and reconciliation, and on sustainability of the Anglican Church.

*****

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Envy, vanity and pride. Envy is the reverse side of a coin called vanity. Nobody is ever envious of others who is not first proud of himself. --- John R.W. Stott

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

For decades, the Sexual Revolution was supposed to be about freedom. Today, it is about coercion. Once, it sought to free our sexual choices from restrictive laws and unwanted consequences. Now, it seeks to free our sexual choices from other people's disapproval.

That's a sharp turn--but it was inevitable, writes Sherif Girgis in the latest issue of FIRST THINGS magazine.

"The ideals of the Sexual Revolution call for it: That is one lesson of the year that has passed since the Supreme Court imposed same-sex marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges. Most of Obergefell's lay supporters were simply moved by concern for our LGBT neighbors. But the Court's ruling itself depended on a broader sexual progressivism; and its cultural fallout has made clearer that sexual progressivism is illiberal. Absorb its vision of the human person wholesale, and you will soon conclude that social justice requires getting others to subscribe to that vision.

"In short, the ideas that Obergefell imposed on our government could hardly stop there; as with an evangelical creed, the legal system could not embrace them without feeling bound to spread them. Obergefell is thus best seen as a religious bull from our national Magisterium, the Supreme Court, by the pen of its high priest, Justice Kennedy. With all the solemnity of a Chalcedon or Trent, it formalized new doctrines for our nation's civil religion--Gnostic ideas about the human person. Ideas that, by their very nature, create an obligation to recruit new adherents.

"Obergefell has thus inspired fidelity and stigmatized heresy, on pain of the (civic) mortal sins of bigotry and injustice. One year later, we can take the measure of its consequences--and prepare for future ones--only if we spell out the ideas it embraced, and why they demand to be enforced.

"Fittingly, then, has this new doctrine been called a New Gnosticism.

"Beyond marriage, this doctrine entails that sex doesn't matter, or that it matters only as an inner reality. Since I am not my body, I might have been born in the wrong one. Because the real me is internal, my sexual identity is just what I sense it to be. The same goes for other valuable aspects of my identity. My essence is what I say and feel that it is."

The tragedy is, that by embracing both the decision of the SCOTUS on same-sex marriage and, more recently, criticizing the North Carolina Transgender Bill by the Presiding Bishop of TEC and by Gay Jennings, President of the House of Deputies (in keeping with Executive Council's resolution,) they have fallen into the Gnostic trap.

*****

The following is excerpts of the letter to the Episcopal Church from the Presiding Bishop and President of the House of Deputies

Dear People of God in the Episcopal Church:

We all know that some things in holy Scripture can be confusing, hard to understand, or open to various ways of understanding. But some essential teachings are clear and incontrovertible. Jesus tells us to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves, and he tells us over and over again not to be afraid (Matthew 10:31, Mark 5:36, Luke 8:50, John 14:27).

This age-old cycle of fear and hatred plays out again and again in our broken world, in sickening and shocking events like the massacre targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Orlando, but also in the rules we make and the laws we pass. Most recently, we've seen fear at work in North Carolina, a state dear to both of our hearts, where a law called the "Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act" has decimated the civil rights and God-given dignity of transgender people and, by extension, drastically curtailed protections against discrimination for women, people of color, and many others. We are thankful for the prayerful and pastoral public leadership of the North Carolina bishops on this law, which is known as House Bill 2.

This is not the first time that the segregation of bathrooms and public facilities has been used to discriminate unjustly against minority groups. And just as in our painful racial past, it is even being claimed that the "bathroom bills," as they are sometimes called, ensure the safety of women and children--the same reason so often given to justify Jim Crow racial segregation.

On June 10, the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church stood against fear and for God's love by passing a resolution that reaffirms the Episcopal Church's support of local, state and federal laws that prevent discrimination based on gender identity or gender expression and voices our opposition to all legislation that seeks to deny the God-given dignity, the legal equality, and the civil rights of transgender people.

In keeping with Executive Council's resolution, we are sending a letter to the governor and members of the North Carolina General Assembly calling on them to repeal the "Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act." When legislation that discriminates against transgender people arises in other places, we will also voice our opposition and ask Episcopalians to join us. We will also support legislation, like a bill recently passed in the Massachusetts state legislature, that prevents discrimination of all kinds based on gender identity or gender expression.

*****

The Episcopal Bishop of West Missouri, Martin Field, and the President of the Standing Committee, the Very Reverend Peter J. DeVeau, along with the diocese are having unexplained difficulties getting along together, and the bishop says Canon III.12.10 of the Episcopal Church has been invoked, seeking assistance, specifically requesting the Presiding Bishop to intervene according to the new canon passed in 2015 and which hitherto has not been invoked, according to Bishop Field.

In a phone call to the bishop, he told VOL that this had nothing to do with "conduct unbecoming a bishop", nothing to do with sex or financial hanky panky, no charges have been invoked and he has not been temporarily inhibited. "This is not a disciplinary procedure, it is strictly pastoral in nature," said Field. "It is about pastoral relationships between myself, the Standing Committee and the diocese, nothing more, and it is the first time this canon has been invoked by a diocese in TEC." Field refused to be more specific about the nature of the charges. "I have no obligation to reveal what they are," he told VOL. He said the term "pastoral relationship" was designed give the diocese and himself a way through whatever differences they are experiencing.

At the end of May, The Rt. Rev. F. Clayton Matthews, Bishop of the Office of Pastoral Development appointed Mary Kostel, Special Counsel, to visit West Missouri to listen to the bishop, clergy, and lay persons of the Diocese. Her appointment was in response to a letter written by the Standing Committee of the Diocese of West Missouri to Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry, requesting mediation of the pastoral relationship between the bishop and diocese.

Ms. Kostel completed a visit to the diocese, spoke to the bishop as well as to several key leaders from both the Diocesan Council and the Standing Committee, and received open and honest cooperation from all parties. She will now consult with Bishops Matthews and Curry, and we await our Presiding Bishop's desires and recommendations for next steps.

The Standing Committee wrote its letter having been made aware of concerns among members of the diocese and having decided to seek help as laid out in the aforementioned canon. This is a new canon and a new process in the Episcopal Church, the aim of which is to restore pastoral relationships in a diocese where such might be imperiled. The process provides for a time of mutual and careful listening; It is not about finding or assigning blame.

A source told VOL that this is about the outlying parishes not sending their plate/pledges to Kansas City to sustain a dying cathedral church that is "inclusive". The country folk don't like it and they voted with their pocketbooks not to support it. However, Bishop Field denied this and said all parishes are playing a part in the covenantal life of the diocese.

VOL was told that the second oldest parish in the state, Christ Church Episcopal in Boonville, is in dire straits and can barely make the electricity/water bill, and Kansas City (Diocesan HQ) wants more of their money sent to them.

From its founding in 1889, the Diocese of West Missouri has been a diverse mix of urban, town and rural Episcopal churches. The diocese comprises 48 churches composed of 10,000 baptized parishioners which span the western half of the state in communities as distinct as Kansas City, Joplin and Warrensburg. Actual communicants are 8,289, with Average Sunday Attendance (ASA) 3,340. (It was 4,460 in 2004). Baptisms totaled 137, Confirmations totaled 83, but burials 171 and marriages 62.

Of the 49 congregations, 27 have 50 or less parishioners.

Mary Kostel operates out of Goodwin Proctor in Washington, DC, along with David Booth Beers.

*****

Theologian Rollin Grams has written a critical appraisal of the Church of England's understanding of Pastoral Care and he has determined that it is a disordered Understanding of Pastoral Care.

In light of the present crisis brought on by revisionist theologians and ministers in mainline denominations--and now some confused ministers in supposedly 'Evangelical' churches,[1]a contrast needs to be made. The alternative perspective strangling the Church's pastoral mission involves:

(1) denying that certain behaviors are sin at all;

(2) returning to a world of 'chaos' regarding the distinction between male and female in creation;

(3) denying God's commandments that distinguish sin from righteousness (and denying Biblical authority in matters of faith and practice);

(4) affirming sinful behaviors as acceptable, even (blasphemously) as desirable;

(5) denying a need for God's grace, His redemption, and Jesus Christ's death on the cross for our sins; and, therefore,

(6) seeing pastoral care as a matter of helping people affirm their own inclinations by celebrating inclusiveness and diversity so that unity, love, and community can be achieved;

(7) ignoring the clear teaching of the Church through the centuries.

As a result, under the guise of affirming diversity, humanity--applauded by false teachers in the Church (Romans 1.32)--returns to primeval chaos that cannot distinguish male from female. As a result, under the guise of inclusiveness and diversity, the Fall and sin are denied. As a result, under the guise of unity, 'separation unto God'--holiness--is turned into a 'no fault' embrace of sinners' sins by God. As a result, under the guise of love, the narrative of redemption through Christ's blood shed on the cross becomes irrelevant, if not embarrassing ('would a loving God send His Son to the cross?,' such people ask). As a result, under the guise of community, Christ-centered fellowship is considered exclusionary. As a result, peace with God is seen as embracing every diversity rather than as justification of the sinner by faith in God.

Thus, the Church is well-instructed in its pastoral care of sinners by God the Father's mission in and to a sinful world. We all know this care--those of us who live under the cross of Jesus Christ--just as Israel knew this care. The crisis facing the Church of England and many Anglicans in the West is a pastoral accommodation of sin, rather than a pastoral care of sinners.

*****

An elderly ACNA Anglican priest tried to shield his wife from flames that devoured more than 46,000 acres in California and destroyed more than 200 buildings. They both died in the massive brush fire.

Gladys McKaig, 90, was in failing health, but her 81-year-old husband, Byron -- a retired Anglican Church in North America priest -- was her constant companion and protector.

And it remained so even as they lay dying. The couple perished in the massive Erskine Fire.

Their bodies were found outside the smoldering remains of their home, sprawled against a corner of their fence, according to KERO-TV.

"He was like on top of her, and they were together, like he was blocking her from the fire," neighbor Bill Johnson told the Los Angeles Times. "It made me sick because immediately I saw and knew exactly what had happened -- that they were alive and ran out of this burning inferno and got stuck, and that was where they ended.

"I thought it was terrible for those people to go like that. Just horrible. They didn't deserve it," he said.

He was an Anglican priest who married the church organist in July, 1984. He had come to the Lake Isabella area in the early 1980s after a divorce.

Gladys was a deeply religious woman with a fierce love of music, as was her husband. They were a "perfect match," daughter Susan McKaig told the Bakersfield Californian.

"They were each other's half," she said. "They loved each other very much and the family [is] taking comfort from the fact that they passed together."

The couple had two other grown daughters.

He had retired from his pastoral duties eight years ago, but was still active in the church.

"It was beautiful, his devotion to her," said Bishop Eric Menees of the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin.

"He cared for her up until their very last seconds."

*****

Church of England leaders have criticized the rise in racist abuse and attacks in the UK following last week's historic referendum decision to withdraw from the European Union. Members of ethnic minority communities and immigrants from across the EU have reported being told to "go home -- we voted to leave" and other forms of abuse.

Last night the Archbishop of Canterbury hosted a multi-faith Iftar meal for 100 young people from across London's faith communities at Lambeth Palace. It was attended by the UK's Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis and London Mayor, Sadiq Khan.

The Mayor, a Muslim, took a "selfie" with Archbishop Welby and Chief Rabbi Mirvis in front of the young people. It has been been widely shared on social media and praised for showing the real face of the UK.

"This is London!", the Mayor Tweeted. "Breaking my fast tonight with the Chief Rabbi, Archbishop Justin Welby & young Londoners of many faiths in the beautiful surroundings of Lambeth Palace."

Archbishop Welby said it was "a huge privilege and joy" to host the Iftar, and added: "Britain is a country divided in many ways at the moment -- and we've seen a rise in intolerance, discrimination and hatred.

"But last night was a powerful reminder that faith communities in this country can work together in friendship and solidarity for the common good.

"These friendships will be absolutely crucial as we build a new vision of what it means to be an outward-looking, generous and hospitable country in the world."

Earlier, as the British Parliament discussed the result of the referendum, the Bishop of Chelmsford, Stephen Cottrell, said that a head teacher in his diocese told him that "the children were frightened when they went to school on Friday and that she had seen an increase in race hatred and intolerance."

He asked the government: "What plans are there to address the lack of unity in our nation and to counter the fear and race hatred that is on the rise? Can we ensure that those who lost this vote, as well as those who won, can be part of the planning going forward?"

Speaking on Friday, Chief Rabbi Mirvis said: "The respective campaigns that led us to this point have sharply divided our country. But the time for disagreement and division is now over. It is more essential than ever before that we unite so that the ensuing political upheaval does not adversely affect the most vulnerable in our society and that our moral leadership role in the world remains undiminished."

The Church of England has published prayers for reconciliation, including a brief litany which can be used in services on Sunday or in small groups.

The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, has arrived in Brussels this afternoon, for talks with the leaders of the 27 other EU member states. Many are pushing for the UK to invoke Article 50 of the EU Treaty -- the legal mechanism for starting two-years of exit negotiations -- swiftly; but Mr. Cameron has insisted that the decision to begin the formal legal process will be for his successor to make. Mr. Cameron will resign as Prime Minister as soon as the Conservative Party has elected a new leader, which is expected to take place by early September.

*****

The Rev. Canon Jose A. McLoughlin was elected as the seventh bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Western North Carolina, earlier this week. The election was held during a special Electing Convention June 25, at Trinity Episcopal Church, in Asheville, North Carolina.

In his nomination profile, McLoughlin wrote, "I think the church today longs for a new type of bishop. A bishop who is truly engaged in the ministry and lives of people within the diocese; engaged in mission and evangelism; a bishop willing to sit with the people of the diocese and explore new ways to be disciples of Christ." We shall see.

*****

The arguments for a third way between conservative and liberal approaches on sexuality do not work, and Evangelicals in the Church of England should resist pressure to go down this route, Dr. Martin Davie, a leading Anglican theologian, writes.

Nowhere in the New Testament is sexual ethics seen as a matter on which there is liberty for Christians to take different approaches. In the New Testament, the Old Testament laws regarding sexual conduct are seen as still in place and applicable to all Christians (see Matthew 5:27-30, Acts 15:29, 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8). Transgression of them is seen as a matter which needs to entail the transgressor being subject to disciplinary exclusion from membership of God's people in this life (1 Corinthians 5) and which carries with it the danger of eternal separation from the life of God's kingdom in the world to come (1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Galatians 5:18-21, Revelation 21:8).

The New Testament thus firmly closes the door on any idea that sexual ethics is a matter on which Christians are free to have different beliefs and observe different practices. There is a basic pattern of sexual conduct involving fidelity within (heterosexual) marriage and abstinence outside it that all Christians, without exception, are expected to observe. In historically forbidding same-sex activity the Christian Church has simply remained faithful to this pattern.

You can read more about this and a very fine article by Charles Raven in today's digest.

*****

The faux Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina is getting a new part-time Provisional Bishop in the person of the retiring Bishop of Central New York, Bishop Gladstone "Skip" Adams, following the retirement of Charles vonRosenberg.

Back in February 18, 2010, VOL blew the whistle on Skippy, when a former Episcopal priest, Fr. Ralph Elwood Johnson, was charged with multiple counts each of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, and corruption of a minor.

The arrest of the former 82-year old Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Central New York, and the possible cover-up of the priest's sexual activities by Episcopal Bishop Gladstone (Skip) Adams years earlier, begged for double justice.

The first justice was what the courts handed down to Johnson for his vile conduct. The second is what should have happened to Bishop Adams, who tried to conceal the priest's behavior, and, in the process, attempted to depose a godly priest for being a whistleblower.

The truth is the bishop should have been investigated by the national church. He should have faced the same charges brought against the now inhibited and deposed former Bishop of Pennsylvania, Charles E. Bennison, who was forced to step down following a trial and conviction on charges that he covered up his brother's sexual abuse of a female minor.

None of this happened, of course. This is, after all, the Blessed Church of Holy Avoidance. You can read the full story here: http://tinyurl.com/hr9edcn It got nearly 7,500 hits at that time.

*****

Bishop Salmon dies. The Rt. Rev. Edward L. Salmon, Jr., the 19th Dean and President of Nashotah House Theological Seminary, died on Wednesday, June 29th, 2016, following a battle with cancer.

"Edward Salmon loved Christ and His Church, and gave himself completely to service. He lived hospitality, welcoming all as Christ. He was a man of deep prayer and spiritual insight, and it showed in the way he lived," said The Very Reverend Steven A. Peay, Dean and President of Nashotah House. "My fondest memory of him is his love of the intellectual life. He delighted in conversations with the faculty. He was quick to say that he was not a scholar, but that never kept him from thinking, reading and asking questions."

Bishop Salmon was born in Natchez, Mississippi. He received his BA from the University of the South; his BD from Virginia Theological Seminary; DD degrees from Nashotah House, the University of the South and Virginia Theological Seminary. He was ordained Deacon in June, 1960 and Priest in March, 1961 in the Dioceses of Arkansas.

He served as the 13th Bishop of the Diocese of South Carolina, 1990-2008. In addition, he served numerous churches, including: All Saints, Chevy Chase, MD, 2010-2012; St. Michael and St. George, St. Louis, MO, 1978-2000; St. Paul's, Fayatteville, AR, 1967-1978; St. Andrew's, Rogers, AR, 1960-1963; St. James, Eureka Springs, AR, 1960-1963; St. Thomas, Springdale, AR, 1960-1963.

Bishop Salmon was a Trustee of Nashotah House for 22 years, which included 13 years as Chairman. He also served on the boards of the University of the South, Voorhees College, Porter-Gaud School, Bishop Gadsen Community, York Place, and Canterbury House.

He had been the President of the Anglican Digest and was a recipient of the Order of the Palmetto, South Carolina's highest civilian honor in 2007.

The requiem for the Rt. Rev. Edward L. Salmon Jr., will be held at 7 PM, Thursday, July 7, 2016 at The Church of St. Michael and St. George in Clayton, Missouri.

*****

Christianity Explored Ministries has produced "Life Explored" (LE), a beautiful new series which helps people discover that there is indeed more to life. Over seven sessions, they explore the idea that we have been made for something - and someone - infinitely better than money, career, sex, family, or the million other things to which we give our lives.

It is our hope and prayer that this rich combination of Bible interaction, provocative discussion, and stunning short films will introduce people to the One who made us to be restless until we find our rest in Him, writes Rico Tice.

Life Explored has been designed to speak powerfully to those who don't consider themselves to be religious and have never read the Bible. But it will also provoke good discussions among followers of Christ, too.

The Leader's Kit contains:
- a leader's handbook that's concise and user friendly
- a freshly-designed guest handbook
- a beautifully filmed DVD
- a code so that you can download the episodes to your laptop, tablet, or phone.

Life Explored is as flexible as you are. It's been designed to be used one-to-one, or with larger groups meeting in a bigger space together.

You can pre-order your kit from here: http://www.thegoodbook.co.uk/life-explored-leaders-kit- Materials will be shipped 3 days prior to the global launch on 1 September, 2016.

"It is our hope and prayer that this rich combination of Bible interaction, provocative discussion, and stunning short films will introduce people to the One who made us to be restless until we find our rest in Him," writes Tice.

*****

We do need your financial support. To make sure we keep the news coming to you we must have a budget in keeping with the vast output of news that weekly we put out to you.

Please help by making this possible. You can also send a donation to VOL via PAYPAL at the link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/

You can send a snail mail check to:

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Thank you for your support.

David

Many of the faithful are now unfaithful: they do not come to the liturgy at all. To use the words of St John Paul II: many Christians are living in a state of "silent apostasy;" they "live as if God does not exist". Where is the unity the Council hoped to achieve? We have not yet reached it. Have we made real progress in calling the whole of mankind into the household of the Church? I do not think so. And yet we have done very much to the liturgy! --- Cardinal Robert Sarah

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

THE polls are in and the news is bad for the Church in America. Christianity is on the decline, Americans have given up on God, and the "Nones"--those who have no religious ties--are on the rise. It is indeed true that parts of the Christian Church in America are struggling, while a growing number of Americans are far from God, says Ed Stetzer, a renowned church missiologist.

"As head of a research firm that studies the church and culture, I often tell pastors and other Christian leaders that "facts are our friends." Surveys and other polls are a bit like running a series of tests during an annual physical. The scale, stethoscope, and blood tests don't lie. There is no positive spin on your increased weight, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. Research data gives us a realistic picture of our health--rather than the overly optimistic view we'd prefer.

"So what do the numbers tell us about the Church in America?

"Overall, the Church's influence on Americans is beginning to fade. A growing number of Americans have given up on God--or at least on organized religion. They have become "Nones," a term popularized by Pew Research. And their numbers are growing.

"Pew's 2007 Religious Landscape study, which surveyed 35,000 respondents, found that about 16% of Americans claimed no religious affiliation. By 2015, that number had grown to 23%, almost one in four Americans.

"Gallup, another well-respected national firm, gives a wider view of the rise of the Nones. In 1967, Gallup found that about 2% of Americans--or 1 out of every 50--claimed no religious preference. By 2014, that number had grown to 16%, or about 1 in 7.

"Pew has also tracked the decline in the percentage of Americans who claim to be Christians. In 2007, Pew found that about 8 in 10 Americans identified as Christians. That number dropped to 7 in 10 in 2014--a statistically significant change in a relatively short time. Pew also found that less than half of Americans (46.5%) now identify as Protestants for the first time in American history.

"Pew's findings have led some to forecast the complete collapse of Christianity in the United States. The data, however, implies a more complex reality. Frankly, there is no credible research showing that Christianity is dying in America despite the flashy headlines we often see.

"Instead, American religion is simultaneously growing and in decline. Fewer people claim to be Christians, but churchgoers--those who regularly attend services--are holding steady in some segments, and thriving in others."

I think it would be fair to say that church plants and new denominational churches like the Anglican Church in North America, though numerically small, have the kind of "thriving" that Stetzer is talking about. When my own Bishop, Julian Dobbs, says that in just a few short years CANA/ACNA now has 35 parishes with two bishops, and that his Nigerian Archbishop, Nicholas Okoh, will come to the US and preach in a growing New York City parish, then you know that all is not lost, even if, a few blocks away, Episcopal parishes with all their vaunted wealth are slowly, but surely dying.

*****

An Episcopal Church's largest congregation in Washington DC is host to 300 Muslims who meet for Friday prayers. The Church of the Epiphany has been welcoming Muslims into their sanctuary for Friday prayers for eight years, and the men who meet there now outnumber the church's congregation.

The Rev. Elizabeth Gardner of the Church of the Epiphany said the congregation felt called to open the church to the Muslim community because they were in need of a place to worship.

"It's our job to be the hands and feet of peace in the world, and how do we do that is by loving one another," she told CBS News in an interview posted on Thursday. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

The Church of England is engaged in a desperate program to reconcile factions so opposed, that one side often does not recognize the other as real Christians.

Shared Conversations are a series of facilitated, private talks at all levels of the Church to allow the different views to be heard. The discussions feature a mixture of small group sessions and larger group exercises. It is hoped that through this process of listening, the Church will be available to avoid another painful split that has dogged Protestant Christianity's turbulent history.

The Church's governing general synod will meet between 8-10 July and. for three days afterwards, will take part in these secret talks. This comes after two years where each local region of the CofE has held local versions so all members have the opportunity to discuss their views.

Christian Today has revealed the conclusion of the plans could be a form of "pastoral accommodation" such as an authorized service of welcome for LGBT couples.

LGBT activist Jayne Ozanne recently edited the book 'Journeys in Grace and Truth' where two evangelical bishops announced they had changed their view of gay relationships.

But long before any decision has been reached, even the manner of the approach has caused arguments. One said the conversations "confirmed all my worst fears" and the "entire process is biased" against evangelicals. Another said it was immensely helpful and said the sharing of stories in the conversations allowed people to "become fully human with each other".

Andrew Symes is the executive secretary of Anglican Mainstream, an evangelical group that is opposed to same-sex marriage within the Church. Jayne Ozanne is a leading member of the Church's general synod and an LGBT activist. She described her regional talks as a "very personal" experience where "bridges of trust and understanding" were built.

"Inevitably when one understands another Christian we all start to revaluate our own thoughts and to refine each other," she told Christian Today.

But Symes is not so sure. "The positions are entrenched," he told Christian Today.

The pair both attended the same local talks in the diocese of Oxford, but their different reflections highlight the polarities in the CofE. They both discussed their mutual experience separately with Christian Today. Symes said: "What I wanted to do is step back and observe what I was expected to do or say. Am I really expected to say, 'I used to think this but actually this person is such a nice person I am actually going to change my views on it'? If that is what I am expected to do then I am afraid the thing has not worked."

Symes and Ozanne framed the debate differently. For Ozanne, the Church's struggle over gay marriage is focused on the understanding of "desire and love". She said the debate had been "hijacked" because some people have hang ups about sex.

"Some guys are really focused on sex and don't see the bigger picture which is about love and intimacy and the desire to have a unique relationship. It is the desire to have someone I can love and cherish whom God has chosen for me and is natural to me."

For Symes, the debate is really about the authority of scripture and how the church engages with culture.

"For centuries the Church has been at the heart of the nation. While there has always been a gap between confessing Christianity and cultural Christianity, a lot of the values from Christianity have embedded themselves in the nation and in the culture.

"What has happened recently is there has been a disconnect." He said the Church was at a crossroads in how it related to the culture around it.

You can read a number of stories about this issue which begins in the Church of England Synod tomorrow.

*****

The question has been raised by many and it is this; Is there a biblical view of BREXIT and the European Union?

The answer of course is that the Bible says nothing specific about Brexit or the EU any more than you can make statements about when you think the Lord will return because you happen to feel that we are living in the last of the Last Days and things look pretty grim globally.

Dispensationalists tried to fit God in to some predetermined time frame for Christ's return and got mud on their faces when nothing happened and the days slipped by with no sign of His appearing.

The Bible does speak about a range of issues, including a number of prophecies relating to the nations in general and God's general judgment on those nations that treat their populations without justice and equity.

For almost a thousand years, Europe was the center of Christendom. They promoted Christian virtues in law and society. Only a few still profess to do so. It was united around the language of its former colonial power, Latin. The European Economic Community was established by the Treaty of Rome, 1957, and so, some at the time attempted to identify the EU as the revived Roman Empire and thus relate it to the Biblical prophecies about Rome. Nevertheless, this appears a bit of a stretch of the imagination - especially since the EU has had little since then to do with Rome and included many countries outside the Roman Empire, while excluding many that were part of the Roman Empire.

To look at issues through a biblical lens we have to embrace two principles apparently in tension, writes Philip Rosenthal, a South African Anglican Christian:

The first principle is that God has given us a set of commands and we can judge human government by those commands. For example, we can judge laws relating to abortion, euthanasia, sexual immorality, economics and religious freedom. Any wise political union must include checks and balances to restrain the inherent sinfulness of human nature (Genesis 3) and tendency to rebel against those commands.

The second principle is that God has made certain promises in the Bible which include centrally: the gospel being preached to every ethnic group on earth and some of those of each tribe believing; the restoration of the nation of Israel to the land of Israel between the Euphrates and Wadi of Egypt (Genesis 12) -- and, finally, the spiritual restoration of Israel (Romans 12). To do that, he has promised to 'shake all nations' (Haggai 2), which includes ruthlessly disrupting human authority structures in multiple ways to achieve his purposes. This includes wars, political ethnic conflicts, false prophets, earthquakes and persecutions (Matthew 24). Before the return of Christ, we can expect the rise of multiple evil authorities climaxing in the anti-Christ (2 Thessalonians). All of the latter is bad news in human terms, but it is good news from an eternal perspective.

This leaves us with the tension that we need to live one way in obedience to God, but we know from the Bible that most will not do so - and so there is going to be conflict and God will use that for good. In viewing world events we must not confuse these two realities, but pray that God's will be done.

Contrary to most peoples' interpretation, the prosperity and peace of Britain, Europe and America is not central to the Bible's set of priorities. Geographically, Israel is at the center of Bible prophecy and economic peace and prosperity is a side effect (blessing) of obedience to God rather than a
primary object.

*****

Here's a chilling report. The Episcopal Diocese of Georgia (a Sewanee diocese) is promoting analfecaleroticism to all parishes in the guise of "teen issues"! Why does the Bishop of Georgia, the Rt. Rev. Scott Anson Benhase, want homosexual men and women thinking about teens? Will parents of heteronormative teens be invited to give impact statements? Will there be a subtle or not so subtle attempt at persuading vulnerable teens into thinking they might have same-sex attractions and therefore be open to manipulation by older homosexual men ready to exploit them?

Here's the news blip: "National Integrity President Bruce Garner will facilitate Integrity Georgia's Fall Retreat. During the retreat, participants will explore our visibility as LGBTQ people and how that impacts our personal spirituality, those around us, and ultimately our church and communities. Transgender and teen issues will be discussed in a concurrent session."

QUESTION: When heteronormal teens are molested at TEC, is it a hate crime for the parents to call the police? Will the bishop form a task force to absolve the molesters of sex crimes because gays were only "holy men sharing unique gifts of love with teens in nontraditional ways"?

*****

The Archbishop of Canterbury applauded Kenya's role in promoting peace and stability in the region during a visit to that country to participate in the enthronement of the Most Rev. Jackson Nasoore Ole Sapit, the 4th new Archbishop of All Saints Cathedral and the 6th archbishop of the Anglican Church of Kenya. He is taking over from Eliud Wabukala.

The President met the Archbishop of Canterbury on the margins of the enthronement service of the new Anglican Church of Kenya Archbishop. President Kenyatta said Kenyans are hardworking people committed to developing their country.

*****

Archaeologists recently dug up a Christian grave marker that pinpoints the site of the first Lindisfarne monastery. A crowd-funded archaeology dig uncovered evidence of the lost medieval monastery where the Lindisfarne Gospels were written.

The exact location of the Anglo-Saxon monastery on Lindisfarne has remained a mystery ever since it was destroyed by the Vikings, according to DigVentures, who raised £25,000 ($32,200) through crowdfunding to finance the dig.

A rare grave marker dug up in "Trench 2" in "Sanctuary Close" of the dig has turned up an Anglo-Saxon burial marker, commonly known as a name stone and dating from the mid seventh to eighth century, the period of Lindisfarne's first monastery.

The first monastery on Lindisfarne, a tidal island off the north-east coast of England, was ransacked by the Vikings just a century after it was founded by King Oswald in 635 CE. It was rebuilt, but the original site has never been uncovered.

*****

The Church of England's spiritual leader, Archbishop Justin Welby, is to house a family of Syrian refugees in a cottage at his official London residence, Lambeth Palace, from next month, according to a local councilor.

The archbishop pledged last September to personally take in refugees from Syria, with the gesture following a similar move by the Pope.

More than 250,000 people have been killed in Syria's five-year war, with half of the population forced from their homes, leaving 6.6 million displaced inside the country and another 4.8 million fleeing, many seeking refuge in Europe.

Lambeth Council's deputy leader, Paul McGlone, said the family is due to arrive at Lambeth Palace on the banks of the River Thames next month.

A spokesman for Lambeth Palace declined to confirm details of the family's move, but said they were "working with Lambeth Council and the Home Office towards a family moving in soon".

The welcoming of a refugee family onto the Archbishop's estate comes 11 months after Prime Minister David Cameron pledged to offer asylum to 20,000 Syrians, a figure openly criticized by Welby.

*****

The Archbishop of Canterbury has wished Muslims "Eid Mubarak" as the Islamic fast in Ramadan comes to an end and the celebrations begin.

Justin Welby said his prayer for Muslims was that they were "filled afresh with being able to share with and support one another". The greeting means "a blessed Eid" or "happy Eid" and is used to mark the beginning of the Eid al-Fitr celebrations at the end of the fast.

In a video statement, Welby spoke of the "great confusion" and "uncertain times" in the UK, and assured Muslims they were "very much part of our community".

*****

A Royal Commission released details about a hearing intochild sexual abuse in the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle, Australia.

The hearing, starting on August 2, will look at the past and present systems, policies and practices within the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle for responding to allegations of child sexual abuse.

In particular, it will look at the response by the diocese to allegations made against a number of clergy and lay people, including Graeme Lawrence, Gregory Goyette, Andrew Duncan, Bruce Hoare, Graeme Sturt, Peter Rushton, Ian Barrack, James Michael Brown and another Anglican priest.

In 2012, then Bishop Brian Farran defrocked the former Dean of Newcastle, Graeme Lawrence, along with Reverends Bruce Hoare and Andrew Duncan over what he described as "disturbing" allegations of abuse that allegedly occurred in the 70s and 80s. He also banned Reverend Graeme Sturt from the Ministry for five years.

*****

Three Anglican Church of Kenya priests accused of being homosexuals want the High Court to establish if Mount Kenya West Diocese Bishop, Joseph Kagunda, caused them to suffer loss of their dignity and integrity.

Through their lawyers, Archdeacon John Njogu Gachau, the Rev. James Maina Maigua and the Rev. Paul Mwangi Warui want the court to find that Bishop Kagunda made false, slanderous and defamatory statements against them.

The three have sued Bishop Kagunda and the registered trustees of the ACK for defamation.

"Whether the quoted statements used are a vehicle for character assassination and destruction without decency, fairness, without any regard to the plaintiff's rights," said lawyer Moraa Onsare.

Archdeacon Gachau, who served as the head of the diocese and ministered at St Andrew's Kangogo Parish, said his dismissal letter, as read to the congregation at a Sunday service, was understood to mean that he was not worthy of the good reputation he possessed.

He said the letter portrayed him as a morally corrupt man who was not fit to hold any office.

*****

The Rev. Ellen Bruce, of Old Crow, Yukon, a widely respected spiritual leader among the Gwich'in people of northwest Canada and Alaska, will be recognized--along with other Indigenous trailblazers in the church--at a display booth at General Synod.

The Yukon woman, who died in 2010, has been confirmed as the first Indigenous woman to have been ordained as a priest in the Anglican Church of Canada. She was ordained a deacon in 1985 and a priest in 1987, when she was in her late 70s. She had already served as a spiritual leader at St. Luke's Anglican Church in Old Crow, Yukon, where she made her home, for several decades. In 1990, she was named a Member of the Order of Canada; according to the Order of Canada website, Bruce was "the North's first native woman to be ordained an Anglican minister."

*****

Writing on Canadian issues, David of Samizdat says that General Synod 2016 has begun, and a vote to change the marriage canon is scheduled for Monday. In the unlikely event it passes, the few remaining conservatives will have yet more incentive to leave. If it fails to pass, many dioceses are determined to proceed with same-sex marriages without the approval of synod. For the national church this would be ideal, since it accomplishes what their leaders want, while allowing them to protest that no official approval has been granted. Either result signals further division, resulting in more people leaving and less revenue for clergy salaries; a tragedy of biblical proportions. That which the bishops fear most is about to come upon them...losing their stipend.

*****

The Rev. Jules Gomes, who had a run in with his former Church of England Bishop on the Isle of Man and then left the CofE to form his own new parish -- St. Augustine -- under another Anglican jurisdiction, still finds himself legally entangled with the diocese, even though he is no longer in the CofE. Citing 'bullying and harassment' and subsequent ill health, Canon Gomes resigned his post as vicar of Arbory and Castletown and Canon Theologian. Separately, Dr. Gomes' wife launched a Clergy Discipline Measure against the Bishop, specifying sustained bullying and harassment of her husband. The Archbishop of York has allowed this CDM against the Bishop to proceed.

You can watch an interview Dr. Gomes gave to a local television station here: http://www.manx.net/tv/mt-tv/watch/79878/pastor-jules-gomes-update

*****

Donald Trump is fodder for much criticism and adulation these days. VOL's concern about him is not his political positions, but his use and misuse of the Bible and his endorsement by a number of evangelicals that we find troubling. Very troubling. One article that appeared in the New York Times titled The Theology of Donald Trump by Peter Wehner is one of the best we have seen to date. Now, lest you think that Mr. Wehner is some left wing op-ed writer, you would be wrong. He is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative think tank in Washington, DC. He also served in the last three Republican administrations. For the record, there are a number of conservative writers on the Grey Lady. David Brooks, a former secular Jew, is now a Christian I am told and appears as a Republican counterpoint on PBS-TV to Mark Shields, a Democrat. Furthermore, Ross Douthat, an op-ed writer, is a solid conservative Roman Catholic writer whom I know personally and he is VERY sympathetic to evangelical Anglicans.

*****

After months of deliberation and discussion, the ETF Board of Directors at its Annual Meeting in May approved a change in name from Episcopalians for Traditional Faith (ETF) to 1928 Prayer Book Alliance. The name re-emphasizes its purpose: to maintain and increase use of the classic 1928 Book of Common Prayer (BCP).

The word "Alliance" defines its intention to work with other traditionalist Anglican churches, organizations, and individuals who share our ideals. Our purpose, centered on the scripture-based 1928 BCP, remains as it has been since ETF's founding in 2002.

Some Episcopalians stay in a church they believe has become antithetical to scripture. They remain in their disintegrating home parishes, clinging to the wreckage, bearing witness to the faith that surely will survive despite all efforts to abolish it. Those fortunate enough to live within driving distance of a 1928 Episcopal parish, choose to worship there, practicing religion based on the Word of God.

Others have left The Episcopal Church as a matter of conscience, and now attend Anglican churches that worship with the 1928 BCP, as all Episcopal parishes once did. Millions have left the church they say "left us," to join an Anglican continuing church, the Roman Catholic Church, or another denomination. Still others have become unchurched, a terribly sad state that goes against everything Christ demanded of his followers - to spread the gospel throughout all nations.

It is their goal to make the 1928 BCP available to all who wish to worship as they believe, in the beauty of holiness.

*****

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