"They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion" -- Psalm 84:7. This is an encouragement to finish well in life, to keep going and to believe the later years can be more fruitful than the former years --- Pippa Gumbel

These [Canadian] Anglican bishops presiding over the decrepit remnants of old liberalism's assault on their churches appear ready to hammer the last nails into their own coffin of spiritual apostasy and cultural irrelevance. --- Joe Boot

Christianity without Christ is a frame without a picture, a casket without a jewel, a body without breath. --- John R.W.Stott

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

It was one of those moments that if you were not listening carefully you might have missed. But what he said profoundly affected me and probably many more. The Police Chief of Dallas, who is Black, was telling us all about the shootings in his city when he said this. "I am a man of faith. In 2010, my son killed a police officer and was then shot and killed himself in a shoot-out that followed."

In his six years as police chief, David Brown has endured profound tragedy -- in many different ways. This past week, a sniper gunned down four of his Dallas police officers and killed an additional officer.

Then he told us how he lost his own son in a police-related shooting. How else but a sustaining faith could sustain a man in such a time as this. Then he made this heartfelt plea; "We're hurting. Our profession is hurting. Dallas officers are hurting. We are heartbroken," Brown said. "There are no words to describe the atrocity that occurred to our city. All I know is this: This must stop, this divisiveness between our police and our citizens."

I don't suppose I have listened to a more heart rending moment from a police officer as this. I did not see this coming. I expected a bunch of hard-nosed white cops, AR 15s hanging on their arms, staring into the cameras with language about taking out those mofos, and then saddling up, ready for all-out war on the streets of Dallas. It never happened. The Police were decidedly restrained.

Later I watched a tweet where a group of Black Lives Matter came head to head with a gang of counter protest whites, with slogans saying All lives Matter, and I thought 'here we go, the fun (or shooting) is about to start.' And then an extraordinary thing happened, the white brothers, complete with American flags, crossed the street, embraced the Black brothers and a prayer meeting ensued, complete with a cop praying with them. There's hope for America despite what happened in Dallas this past week.

*****

In San Joaquin, California, this week, it was a case of case closed. The Episcopal Church won a massive legal victory worth an estimated $50 million when the California Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from the breakaway Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin.

The court action brings an end to eight years of litigation that pitted Episcopalians against former Episcopalians and cost millions in legal fees. The Anglican diocese will comply with the ruling and vacate the 28 properties involved in the case, said the Rt. Rev. Eric Menees, its bishop since 2011.

"I'm not going to take the Episcopal Church to court," Menees said two days before the ruling, as he considered the prospect of no review by the court. "I'm not going to do anything other than work with them to hand over the properties."

Now the Episcopal Church is poised to reclaim assets across California's Central Valley, from Fresno to Bakersfield, Modesto, and San Rafael. Assets at stake include investments, such as those in endowment portfolios, as well as a crown jewel of real estate: Evergreen Conference Center, Oakhurst, located 12 miles from Yosemite National Park.

Meanwhile, congregations now affiliated with the Anglican Church in North America are gearing up to use backup plans they hoped to never need. They will be moving out, Menees said, and into other facilities that have agreed to take them as tenants.

Ministries will continue, Menees said, but outreach will be hampered, as congregations move further away from the neighbors they have been serving. Among those bracing for the transition is St. James Cathedral in Fresno, where a Spanish-speaking community has swelled almost 20-fold from 50 in 2008 to 950 today.

"It's going to be hard to find a place that's large enough to accommodate them," Menees said.

The untold story is who will now fill these soon to be empty Episcopal churches? Certainly not Episcopalians. There aren't enough to go around. Watch out for a huge sale of empty parishes in the coming weeks. They will be bought by Muslim organizations or other evangelical churches looking to house growing churches.

The New Zealand born bishop, who was parachuted into the diocese to take over after John-David Schofield died and two Episcopal bishops, Jerry A. Lamb ad Chester Talton, were sent in as provisional bishops before its latest provisional bishop, David Rice, was parachuted in.

It's sort of ironic that the only two New Zealanders that have landed on these shores affiliated with the Anglican Communion, have been a liberal in the person of David Rice and the other is Bishop Julian Dobbs of CANA/ACNA!

You can read canon lawyer Allan Haley's brilliant take on all this here: http://tinyurl.com/hlsn7c7

*****

THE other big news in North America this week was what took place in the Anglican Church of Canada. The synod met and voted on same-sex marriage.

On the first vote, the resolution lost by one vote in the clergy ranks. Cries ascended, with homosexuals and lesbians weeping, wailing and gnashing their teeth about a homophobic church, with half a dozen bishops saying they would not honor the vote and go ahead and pronounce their blessing on same-sex "marriages" anyway. It was 'local option' writ large, a lesson clearly learned from the Episcopal Church.

Then "miraculously" (praise the Lord) it was announced out of thin air by the ACoC General Secretary, Michael Thompson, that his vote had been overlooked in the electronic count. Initially, it was thought that it had been miscoded as a lay vote, rather than as a clergy vote. So, suddenly, everything changed, and Archbishop Fred Hiltz breathed a sigh of relief, wiped his brow on a large handkerchief given to him, no doubt, by the Dean of the cathedral in Vancouver, and said the resolution had passed.

Thompson claimed that he was designated (and, therefore, his clicker was designated) in the database as a non-voting member of synod. Any computer program worth anything would immediately flag this as an error as soon as the non-voting member used his secure clicker in an attempt to vote. The marriage canon vote was at the end of the synod. How many times had Thompson already used the clicker before this in other votes? Why was the error not flagged before the marriage canon vote? Either the Data on the Spot programmers have some serious problems with missing error routines in their computer code or..... there is something very fishy going on."

There should be a thorough third party audit of the whole process.

When VOL asked what impact the voting might have on The Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC), a diocese in the Anglican Church in North America and part of the global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans which affirms the Jerusalem Declaration, VOL was told that there did not seem to be any interest in those three dioceses joining the ANiC.

It should be noted that while a number of liberal and revisionist diocese will now go ahead and perform same-sex marriages (which several said they would do regardless of how the Synod voted), canon law won't change until the 2019 vote.

One bishop, considered a conservative, is Michael W. Hawkins, the current Bishop of Saskatchewan. He is on record as saying that the differences on the issue of sexuality should not get in the way of the greater commonalities that unite Anglicans. www.anglicanjournal.com/articles/-we-need-each-other"The bishops of the diocese of Saskatchewan have said that even though they do not support changing the marriage canon to allow for the marriage of same-sex couples, they will work for unity regardless of the vote's outcome. What unites us is our faith and commitment to Jesus Christ. While these disagreements are painful and distressing, we need each other."

Another source told VOL that there seems to be concerted efforts to more tightly tie the (mostly small, northern, poor) conservative dioceses to the ACoC, as many of these dioceses receive significant dollars from the ACoC. See www.anglicanjournal.com/articles/northern-dioceses-enjoying-upsurge-in-partnerships-with-south

"I also believe that the "frog" has been in the "water" too long to jump out even though the water is now nearly boiling," said the source.

One story that did emerge from this, exclusive to VOL, is the story of all the bullying that went on against three orthodox bishops, which you can read in today's digest. You can also read another VOL exclusive story of an Anglican priest from Iran who found the Lord from an Islamic background and then became a priest in the ACoC. He fell foul of his Toronto Bishop, Colin Johnson, and, before that, Terence Finlay, who turns up at Gay Pride Parade days with all the gusto of a bull in heat.

You can read four stories on all this in today's digest.

*****

AND then there was all the sham talk about the "Shared Conversations Process" going on in the Church of England in an attempt to broker same sex marriage into that church.

Members of General Synod met in an informal setting in which they had listened and been heard as they reflected together on scripture and a changing culture in relation to their understanding of human sexuality.

Throughout these conversations, deep convictions were shared and profound differences better understood. The Shared Conversations over the last two years came to a conclusion, with over 1300 members of the church directly involved. "It is our hope that what has been learned through the relationships developed will inform the way the church conducts whatever further formal discussions may be necessary in the future. It is our prayer that the manner in which we express our different views and deep disagreements will bear witness to Jesus who calls us to love as he has loved us."

In comments to members of Synod at the end of the Shared Conversations, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said:

"At the heart of it is to come back to the fact that together we seek to serve the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead and in whom there is never despair, there is never defeat; there is always hope, there is always overcoming; there is always eventual triumph, holiness, goodness and grace."

Theologian Dr. Joe Boot and Andrea Williams of Christian Concern said this, "The outcome of the shared conversations was as many predicted; confusion, frustration, disappointment and division. The paucity of the biblical argument to support anything other than that of the Orthodox and presently held position was ignored. It was replaced by a simple appeal to secular norms. . At a time when what the church needs is clear leadership and biblical clarity we are confronted with the hand-wringing of leading bishops, with head shakes and hand-waving at the Christian Concern booth as though Jesus own words from the New Testament on Christian Concern banners in the lobby were offensive. Traditionally orthodox bishops are now refusing to 'state their position' and the rudder of the ship is being steered in the wrong direction."

REFORM and other orthodox Anglicans did not participate in this charade, as they know full well that feelings now come before Scripture when these kind of gabfests occur, and they were not going to participate in something where the whine of the few would override 2,000 years of church teaching. It'll be interesting to see if they finally make a move to leave the CofE.

The Rev. Dr. Jules Gomes has written a brilliant commentary on this shared charade nonsense in today's digest. You can see it here: http://tinyurl.com/zbz3y9n

*****

The Church of England this week defended its handling of Bishop George Bell abuse case. Bell was accused of being a pedophile 37 years after his death. Despite demands to publish the evidence against him, the Church would not do this because of a "moral duty" to safeguard the victim, it said.

Supporters of Bishop Bell, who achieved international recognition for his opposition to the Nazis and his work on behalf of the Jews during the war, have protested repeatedly at the damage caused to his reputation by allegations that have not been proven in court.

The Chichester diocese paid compensation to the complainant, Carol, in September, 2015. The Bishop of Chichester, Martin Warner, also formally apologized to her.

Bell's condemnation as a pedophile was then challenged by a group of lawyers, academics, politicians and senior Church figures. They wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury earlier this year, and also circulated a document in defence of Bell to members of the General Synod meeting in York last weekend.

Peter Hitchens of the Mail on Sunday, has been among the most vocal defenders of Bell.

In a letter today to those objecting, Bishop Paul Butler, Church of England lead bishop on safeguarding, says the Church was right to settle the claim.

He writes: "I am aware that as a group you have found our decision to settle a civil claim - and publicly say so - very difficult and have articulated your reasons for this both in various statements and other public forums including your website."

The Church of England recently announced a review of lessons learned from how it handled the case, he says.

*****

It's possibly the biggest evangelism opportunity of the millennium. Church leaders are adopting the Pokemon slogan in aid of their own evangelism: "Gotta catch 'em all" as thousands of Pokemon Go players turn up on their doorsteps.

The "augmented reality" gaming phenomenon, which has added up to $9 billion to the value of Nintendo since it was released just days ago in the United States, New Zealand and Australia, has given an unexpected boost to churches.

Churches have not always been the greatest fans of the distinctive pocket monsters, such as Pikachu and the "legendary" Rayquaza. But that is changing as fast as a player can catch a Pidgey on their mobile phone.

The wireless geo-location technology used in the game means many "gyms" and "Pokestops" are church buildings.

And it is the rare millennials, the missing generation in many churches, who are turning up at churches across America and Australia in swarms to catch Pokemon and do battle for control of gyms.

If UK phones are reset to the United States, the game can also be played in Britain, which has led to a Methodist church in Birmingham being identified as one of the UK's first known PokeStops, after players started turning up. The City Road church has now posted new signs advertising its 11am Sunday service: "Pokemon Go Gym, you are welcome - Jesus Cares About Pokemon Gamers".

A Presbyterian church in San Diego organized a free, church lunch with a Pokemon "lure" event. The church wrote on Facebook: "We'll be setting lures tomorrow from 12-1 at our pokestop (church sign). Come by our sidewalk to catch Pokemon, get free lunch and maybe even take control of our Pokemon Gym (Sanctuary)."

One US church put on its sign: "We are a pokestop. Get supplies outside, find Jesus inside."

*****

Evangelicals in the US are backing Donald Trump, while the 'nones' are rallying behind Hillary Clinton, according to the latest Pew Research Center. They find that, despite the professed wariness toward Trump, among many high-profile evangelical Christian leaders, evangelicals are, if anything, even more supportive of Trump than they were of Mitt Romney at a similar point in the 2012 campaign.

Nearly eight in ten white evangelical voters say they would vote for Trump if the election were held today, including a third who "strongly" back his campaign.

Meanwhile, voters who describe their religion as "atheist,""agnostic" or "nothing in particular" are lining up behind Clinton, much as they supported Barack Obama in 2012.

Two-thirds of religiously unaffiliated registered voters say they would vote for Clinton if the election were held today.

"Considering both groups are quite large, the votes of white evangelical Protestants and religious 'nones' could be important to the outcome of the 2016 election," says Pew in its report.

White evangelical Protestants make up one-fifth of all registered voters in the US.

Religious "nones," who have been growing rapidly, make up one-fifth of all registered voters.

The support for Trump among Christians is solid, even though many evangelical leaders have suggested it is incompatible with evangelical principles and beliefs. In the survey, more than half of white evangelical voters say they are dissatisfied with the choice of presidential candidates.

*****

A sliver of light in the Culture Wars. McDonald's will now start blocking porn access over its free WiFi.

If you've been using McDonald's free WiFi to check out the latest porn while eating a McGriddle, we've got some bad news for you. The fast food giant recently adopted a new filtered WiFi policy that prevents guests from viewing pornography on their phones, tablets, and laptops while visiting the company's corporate-owned restaurants, internet safety advocacy group Enough is a Enough announced Wednesday. A spokesperson for McDonald's confirmed the policy change to Consumerist this week.

"McDonald's is committed to providing a safe environment for our customers, and we are pleased to share that Wifi filtering has been activated in the majority of McDonald's nearly 14,000 restaurants nationwide," the spokesperson said.

ON the other side of the Culture Wars, an advertisement pushing transgender "bathroom rights" is set to air during the Republican and Democratic National Conventions.

The 60-second spot features a man pretending to be a woman, attempting to use the woman's restroom before a second individual, presumed to be a store manager, stops him from entering. The manager's actions are quickly usurped by two ladies, who scold him and escort the cross-dressing man into the ladies' room.

The ad concludes with the transgender individual's voiceover, maintaining amendments to the law in favor of transgender "rights" would "help to insure that people like [him] aren't mistreated when we need to do something as basic as using the restroom."

"This ad cuts through the political rhetoric and simply asks people to consider the serious challenges and discrimination faced by transgender people - discrimination that is still legal in most states," argues Ineke Mushovic, the executive director for the Movement Advancement Project, one of several organizations that produced the spot. "Most Americans want to do the right thing, but they have never met a transgender person, so they have misconceptions."

The ad will debut on FOX News July 21, during the network's coverage of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland; the following week, it will appear during MSNBC's broadcast of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

*****

From Chennai, India, comes ongoing news of serious fraud allegations against the Church of South India. There have been complaints of discrepancies.

VOL has written about this before and said that the Anglican Church in India (north and south) is now the most corrupt in the world. That 'honor' was once held by Mexico. No longer. India gets first place.

The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) has begun a probe of alleged financial irregularities at the country's largest Protestant denomination. The fraud investigator got into the picture after individual audits found discrepancies in the books of the Church of South India Trust Association, which manages the Protestant church in the country, and is headquartered in Chennai.

The Registrar of Companies, through an inspection audit last year and a series of income-tax audits since 2010, found the institution was not providing a clear picture of its accounts and not maintaining a list of properties. CSI Trust Association, incorporated as a religious and charitable company under Section 25 of Companies Act, faces various other allegations including making amendments to its rule book without the Centre's approval.

"The order for investigation was received just a week back," said a top official with the Chennai office of SFIO, on condition of anonymity.

The investigation is the culmination of a campaign -- starting in 2007 -- by church members who moved agencies from the local police in Coimbatore to the Prime Minister's Office to probe alleged fraud.

A VOL reader, the Rev. Dr. Joseph G Muthuraj, has written a commentary piece titled Devils Lurking in the Church of South India Books? and says the State is doing the spiritual job of exorcising the devils that seem to lie behind all types of account books and files in the CSI.

"The CSI is engulfed in a systemic corruption well-oiled by persons in power. It seems that for the bishop 'corruption' is probably a semantic issue. It is defined basically as "the abuse of public office for private gain". It means that an official accepts, solicits, or extorts a bribe and also sells church property to obtain secretly personal gain. In corruption, 'a position of trust is being exploited to realize private gains beyond what the position holder is entitled to' and 'even if the gain involved is not illicit under applicable law'. This type of corruption is tolerated and even encouraged in the CSI.

"The motivation for fraud and embezzlement is the pressure for the "need" of money to pay back a personal debt, accumulate wealth for oneself, win elections and to maintain authority and control in all circumstances. The system provides opportunities for fraudsters to have access to assets and also ways to conceal the illicit deals. They rationalize in their minds that 'fraud' is okay and as a result lies are generated to justify the covert actions."

The professor of NT also took a swipe at the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) and said the ACC should not entertain some of the culprits who may seek asylum with the Anglican churches world-wide when the enquiry is going tough for them or when they seek to evade possible punishment. "The ACC seems to be engaging in actions in support of Moderators and bishops (both past and present) without fully appreciating the crisis that the Church of South India has been subjected to. It is my fervent appeal that the ACC authorities do not quench the spirit of reformation that is evident among the rank-and-file Christians of the CSI and that it takes their concerns seriously and also extends moral support, whenever necessary, to those who are fighting against corruption in the church." You can read his take in today's digest.

*****

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David

The Anglican Church of Canada would be a sitcom of comedic errors if it wasn't for the fact that the destiny of souls is at stake.

As you all know the Synod of the ACoC voted last week to change its canons to include same-sex marriage, even though the Old Testament, New Testament, Jesus himself and 2,000 years of church history have never embraced the idea and would not call it marriage by any stretch of the imagination.

No matter, the ACoC is riding the cultural wave all the way to Hell, and taking tens of thousands of Canadians with them.

The "comedy" of errors began with the electronic voting machines failing to pick up Archdeacon Michael Thompson, general secretary of the Anglican Church of Canada's vote, which, when confirmed, overturned the nay voters and swung the vote into the yes camp, (by one) giving heartburn, albeit temporarily, to Archbishop Fred Hiltz, resulting in anger from the handful of orthodox bishops.

No matter, a vote is a vote and the ACoC announced the triumph of queer marriage and the right for persons with homogenital attraction to cohabitate legally and with the church's blessing. That should have been an end to it.

Not so fast.

It turned out that none of the electronic votes cast by National Indigenous Anglican Bishop Mark MacDonald were recorded because he was "erroneously listed" as "non-voting.

The error, which the Anglican Journal and another publication brought to Thompson's attention, came on the heels of a vote miscount which dramatically reversed General Synod's vote on same-sex marriage.

MacDonald, it turned out, was wrongly listed as non-voting in the spreadsheet provided to Data-on-the-Spot, the electronic voting services provider hired to manage the voting by clickers.

But the "good news" is this, Thompson said that even if MacDonald's vote were to have been registered and counted, it would not have changed the outcome of the motion to change the marriage canon to allow the solemnization of same-sex marriages.

"It would have increased the number of opposed in the order of bishops from 12 to 13 total (one-third of bishops present and voting). The number of bishops in favor would still have met the legislative threshold of two-thirds," he said. Twenty-six, or 68.4%, of bishops voted in favor of the resolution.

MacDonald voted 'no' not because he very orthodox. He is not. He did so because his Native American constituency will have nothing to do with sodomite marriage and see it is as another western colonial intrusion on their way of thinking.

The deeper truth is that no matter how the marriage canon vote played out, it made no difference, since liberal bishops were and are determined to plough ahead no matter what anyone votes, says or does, but surely this latest revelation makes a mockery of the whole process and, since this could be the tip of a very ugly iceberg, invalidate every decision that was made.

Anglican columnist David of Samizdat noted that, laughably, some from the ACoC turned up at the El Salvador presidential elections in 2014, to make sure everything was above board. It would be only fair, I think, to invite Salvador Sánchez Ceren, El Salvador's president, to return the favor and scrutinize the results of the 2019 synod. (Laughter please).

All of this led Toronto Bishop Colin Johnson, to grace the church with yet more of his pleonastic rambling on the recent general synod. He came up with a word destined to be overused by Anglican clerics everywhere: "ambiguity". It is the only concrete belief left to the Anglican Church of Canada -- the belief that contradictory beliefs can co-exist in the same belief system.

Here is what he said: "The freedom of conscience in the Anglican experience is not only in superficial matters but even as we approach critical doctrinal issues -- how we have understood baptism, the Eucharist, the scriptures, the outward and the inward expression of our faith. We have a broad and messy tent. Personally I'd like to clean it up, but I have lived long enough and I have been ordained long enough to know that such a house cleaning is more about me making the church to be what I would be comfortable with. It usually has little to do with how God wants it to be. The Anglican Church is an uncomfortable place for those who cannot deal with ambiguity." Hardly in the vein of St. Paul, as old Muggeridge would say.

Nonetheless, bishops are starting to worry about unity after the marriage canon vote. Writes David of Samizdat, "Considering dozens of parishes have left the Anglican Church of Canada since 2008, numerous dioceses and their bishops have sued parishes and individuals over property ownership and hurt feelings, and a number of high profile clergy were inhibited by their bishops, it's about time someone started worrying about unity. Unfortunately, since most of the bishops now wringing their hands are liberals who were - and still are - the cause of the disunity, all this tearful posturing accomplishes is illustrate the contempt bishops have for their flocks who, they must think, will fall for it all - again.

Melissa Skelton, bishop of the Diocese of New Westminster, set the ball rolling in the current Canadian Anglican dystopia, condescendingly implied that those who disagree with same-sex marriage, do so only because they are "not ready", not because they have good reasons for disagreeing. The condescension continues when she asks how the ACoC can "continue to make room for their point of view in a sensitive and caring way". I suppose it will continue as it started: conservatives will be herded into fundamentalist ghettos, out of sight and mind; a few tame residents will occasionally be let out for good behavior and paraded before diocesan synods as a show of exclusivity.

Of course, the vote appeals to Archbishop Fred Hiltz, who had no interest in stopping a bishop from performing same-sex marriages because he is entirely sympathetic to the idea. A plea of impotence is rather convenient for him, since he hopes it will absolve him from any culpability that could result in consequences imposed by the next up the chain in ecclesiastical eunuchs, Justin Welby.

He also stressed that he has no jurisdiction over diocesan bishops to stop them from doing what they want on the issue.

So there you have it, a church with little faith, no over-arching binding morality, no new converts, dictating a new moral order even as it goes over the cliff into extinction. A case of the blind leading the deaf, dumb, stupid and blind into oblivion.

*****

IN IRELAND this week, Archbishop Peter Jensen, the outspoken General Secretary of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), a movement of orthodox Anglicans who have distanced themselves from liberally-driven mostly Western Anglican provinces, says pressure is being exerted within the Church of Ireland to change its teaching on sexual morality - in common with other Provinces in the British Isles - and, as a consequence, weaken her commitment to Biblical authority.

Dr. Peter Jensen, the former Archbishop of Sydney, an evangelical, told the Church of Ireland Gazette newspaper that the GAFCON Primates are deeply concerned about this pressure to change the Church's traditional and biblical stance on sexual morality, but that he was encouraged by orthodox Anglicans on the island of Ireland. These orthodox Anglicans are encouraged that Biblical leadership is being shown by the Primates of GAFCON, and they are delighted to know that there are people willing to stand with them.

"Each party looks forward to a future of Gospel mission, growth, mutual interest and support, under God. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

Last week, the California State Supreme Court did not take up the case involving a property dispute in the diocese of San Joaquin, which meant that the Appellate Court's decision in favor of the Episcopal Church diocese stood. This case involved 28 properties (valued at $50 million) which had been held by the bishop's corporation sole and include the diocesan cathedral, some diocesan funds as well as various parish churches. Three other property disputes involving parish churches which were not held by the corporation sole, remain to be resolved.

In a written statement, Bishop David Rice of the Episcopal Diocese said; "I have suggested in the past that we assume a position of prayerful restraint. There will be an appropriate time and place for celebration. What we do now, which is what we are always called to do, is to give thanks to God that we are called to be...and the ways in which we continue to emerge in this Jesus Movement remains our focus."

In a written statement, the current Anglican (ACNA) Bishop, Eric Menees, has said that the Anglican Diocese will now work to hand over the properties; "In essence, and practically speaking, this is a conclusion to the case involving the Anglican Diocese Holding Corp. properties."

So you would think that Rice would be running up the victory flag, announcing party time and Eucharist for all, with "we won, come fill up the churches, write out checks to the diocese...praise the Lord."

Well apparently not.

In an interview with Episcopal Cafe, Bishop Rice was asked what he realistically was going to be able to do with them. The camp and the cathedral seem like they could be put to quick use, but what about all the various parish churches?

Rice, citing what he called "architectural evangelism", whatever that means, then averred that many were built in places where there was not significant population... So, in some of these cases, we'll really be looking at [options] ranging from hiring them out to selling them.

So there you have it. A public admission that the faux diocese will win very little. They can't win over the hearts and minds of San Joaquin Anglicans, so they will be forced to do the inevitable. Sell what remains. What a sad indictment.

I have written about this at length in today's digest.

*****

In a surprise move, the Board of Trustees for one of the 10 schools educating Episcopal Church seminarians has voted to cease granting degrees at the conclusion of the 2016-2017 school year. It is unclear how Episcopal Divinity School of Cambridge, Massachusetts might continue on, with the board stating that it "will explore options for EDS's future" in the coming year.

Interim Dean Francis Fornaro, who took office in March of 2015 following the departure of former Dean Katharine Ragsdale, will resign in November and stated "I totally disagree with this resolution." Fornaro is a 1996 graduate of the seminary and previously served as adjunct faculty there.

You can read the full story in today's digest

*****

South Carolina pastor, Rev. Mark Burns, took the stage at the RNC and delivered a prayer, breaking with precedent to deliver an explicitly partisan prayer.

He said that Donald Trump "believes in the name of Jesus Christ". Perhaps he misspoke and meant to say, he "believes that Jesus existed just like Buddha and Mohammed, go 'Merica!'" Because it's quite a bold thing to claim that Mr. Trump is truly a Christian, when he hasn't given any indication whatsoever of this being the case, including denying, as he's claiming to be a 'Great Christian', 'The Best Christian', basic tenets of Christian belief such as the need to repent of sin and be forgiven. If Mr. Trump is a Christian, I will jump off the Ben Franklin Bridge (which I can see from my window) without a parachute and trust that Jesus will save me.

Here's the thing, we've tried conflating the gospel with the political process. We've tried the Moral Majority and the Christian Right. We've hoped and prayed that if we concentrated on making people behave properly we wouldn't ever have to whisper the name of Jesus. We've trusted and believed, even in the face of all the evidence, that 'Merica was a Christian nation. And what has it wrought? What has been the fruit of all that work? Other than churches beset by heresy if they are full, and cultural disapprobation if they stick rather closely to historical doctrine and belief. Oh, and the greatest, the Yugest Fruit of all--Mr. Trump believing himself to be a Christian, or being willing to make this claim for political expediency.

*****

Police shootings have become a bad movie on an endless loop. Dallas was the first of three nearly back to back police targeted assassinations in the past week. It describes yet another national nightmare.

Dallas police chief, David Brown, a good and brave man, told the press and the world that he believes officers in his city and nationwide are under too much strain. It deserves more focus of attention.

"We're asking cops to do too much in this country," Brown said at a briefing Monday. "We are. Every societal failure, we put it off on the cops to solve. Not enough mental health funding, let the cops handle it. ... Schools fail, let's give it to the cops. ... That's too much to ask. Policing was never meant to solve all those problems."

Brown said he and other officers were frustrated by what police are being forced to do while lawmakers fail to seek solutions to the country's violence...

He also said that if he were confronted with the same perceived problems that have prompted demonstrations across the country, "I probably wouldn't protest or complain. I'd get involved and do something about it, by becoming part of the solution."

Brown later leveled a direct challenge to demonstrators: "We're hiring. Get off that protest line and put an application in."

The Police chief did say at another point in time that 70% of black families were without fathers. What does that tell you? If the shooter had had a father (and he didn't) he would have found his son's bedroom full of hard weaponry including semi-automatic weapons. That he had been in the military made it just that much easier for him to do what he did.

Another factor, and one that most people don't want to talk about is the easy availability and purchase of semi-automatic weapons, which absolutely no one needs. There are 8.2 million such weapons in the hands of people who will apparently defend themselves against an alien enemy who will never come, or from a government whom they believe is ready to take their weapons from them.

The truth is, if the government wants to screw up your life, they don't need to take away your semi-automatic weapons, all they need to do is turn off the check writing machines that send out monthly social security, disability, WIC and other checks, and then refuse to pay Medicare and Medicaid payments and see what the nation looks like after 90 days! Who ya gonna shoot then?

*****

The Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, has announced that he is to retire next year, after a long and distinguished career at the heart of the Church of England and the British establishment.

Chartres, who has overseen a remarkable renaissance of the London diocese with flourishing churches across all three main traditions of evangelical, liberal and Anglo-Catholic, has written to clergy and parishes announcing that his last public engagement will be Candlemas, at St Paul's Cathedral on 2 February, 2017, a few months before his 70th birthday.

Chartres, who is Dean of the Chapel Royal and has become a close friend of all the senior members of the Royal family, has primarily been a figure of unity in a Church divided over the last two decades by women's ordination and the issue of sexuality.

Although a supporter of women's ministry, his dignified restraint from ordaining women priests himself, possibly in aid of preserving that unity, might have cost him translation to the top job at Canterbury during either of the last two vacancies when many senior church people had hoped to witness his elevation.

He was also a dedicated and expert ambassador for the Eastern Orthodox churches in this country and in Eastern Europe. His familiarity with the eastern rite and love of the ornate flourishing of the best in liturgy and ritual, could easily at times have led him to being mistaken for one of their number.

One wonders if the Anglo-Catholic bishop, whose diocese sports some 30 percent homosexual priests, would have been as nearly successful without the help of Holy Trinity Brompton and the evangelically-driven ALPHA. He consecrated Sandy Miller just to take care of that burgeoning movement. Without the rising tide of evangelicals in the Diocese of London, one wonders just how successful he would have been!

*****

The United Methodist Church went over the cliff this past week and proposed ordaining an open lesbian to be the United Methodist Church's Western Jurisdiction. The partnered lesbian activist, Karen Oliveto (currently being challenged), will now shimmy down the path that the Episcopal Church has trod, with devastating schismatic possibilities.

As pastor of Bethany United Methodist Church in San Francisco, she made headlines last year by officiating at a number of same-sex "marriage" ceremonies, in violation of the United Methodist Book of Discipline she vowed to uphold.

On the opening night, Oliveto preached on Acts 1:6-11, which describes Christ's ascension to heaven. She speculated that Jesus laughed at his disciples for continuing to look up as he was lifted out of their sight, trying to "keep their eyes locked on a past that is no longer," rather than looking down and moving on.

The RMN leader then proceeded to use this as a biblical argument for acceptance of homosexual practice. While our church "remain[s] rooted to ... old traditions" which "may have served us once," being "rooted in the past" will deprive us of enjoying what God is doing here and now, she warned. By not affirming homosexual practice, Oliveto lamented that the United Methodist Church "has kept its face turned to a past that no longer serves the whole family of God."

Mark Tooley of IRD, said this Western jurisdiction has defied church law regarding sexual ethics, by electing as bishop an openly avowed lesbian married to another woman who is an exponent of radical theology and politics. The church's South Central Jurisdiction has asked the church's top court, the Judicial Council, to address the legality of her election.

In United Methodism, jurisdictions elect their own bishops without wider ecclesial approval. In contrast, under the Episcopal Church system, when the Diocese of New Hampshire nominated Gene Robinson as the their denomination's first ever openly homosexual bishop, approval was required and gained from the Episcopal Church's General Convention, setting in motion an ongoing Anglican schism in North America and globally, over the last 13 years. The Episcopal Church's membership decline accelerated, and New Hampshire lost about 20 percent of members under Bishop Robinson, who's since retired and is now a fellow with the politically liberal Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C.

Unlike the Episcopal Church and other declining USA Mainline Protestant bodies, liberals in United Methodism have failed to liberalize the denomination's official teaching on marriage, thanks mostly to their own membership losses while conservative overseas United Methodist churches grow. So United Methodist liberals have, in recent years, touted defiance of church law, which officially teaches monogamy in male-female marriage and celibacy in singleness. Oliveto's election is the latest defiance.

For many liberal United Methodists, LGBTQ affirmation is the primary justice cause of the day demanding church affirmation. Political social justice advocacy has been a theme of liberal Methodism and much of Mainline Protestantism since early in the 20th century, with a presumed univeralism/syncretism that doesn't prioritize evangelism or discipleship. Instead, the church's primary calling is to urge and model egalitarian political social justice. Over the last century there have been many urgent political crusades touted by zealous church activists who claimed their cause of the moment was crucial to God's Kingdom on earth, says Tooley.

*****

The chaplain of the Anglican Church in Nice told BBC radio that the French city is stunned by the recent attack, which left at least 84 people dead and dozens more injured. But, the Rev. Peter Jackson said Nice was resilient and would recover.

Jackson told the Today program that one of his church wardens saw the lorry crush people who had been watching a fireworks display to mark Bastille Day. He said it has been "highly traumatic" for her.

"Other people are just stunned," he went on. "If you go to the site where so many people died, it is extraordinary -- almost surreally quiet."

Jackson explained how the church was providing comfort.

"I have met lots of people, I have been on the phone to them, emailed them. . . We do have our church open every day from eight o'clock in the morning to six o'clock at night. I go in and out of the church a lot during the day and you encounter people there, people coming to pray and also just to find somewhere quiet, a bit of sanctuary."

France marked three days of national mourning for those killed and injured in the attack. French President François Hollande has described it as a terrorist act and has extended the country's state of emergency by three months.

*****

The Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA) will launch a Decade of Intentional Discipleship at its biennial renewal conference, Anglicans Ablaze, later this year. It follows the call from the Anglican Consultative Council, at their meeting in Lusaka in April (ACC-16), for "every province, diocese and parish" in the Anglican Communion to "adopt a clear focus on intentional discipleship" as part of a "season of intentional discipleship" to run for the next nine-or-so years.

The launch of the Decade of Intentional Discipleship will "signal the start of a season of vision sharing and preparation ahead of mobilization," the Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba, said.

In a letter to the archbishops of neighboring provinces, inviting them and their bishops to bring or send young people to the event, Archbishop Thabo said: "The aim in this conference is to involve young people fully, and to expose, inspire, equip, and encourage participants to return to their communities and engage in holistic mission, evangelism, discipleship and service in the power of the Holy Spirit."

Around 1,500 people are expected to attend the conference.

Now you should know that this is the most liberal Anglican province on the continent of Africa, so you have to ask yourself is this going anywhere? One orthodox Anglican from South Africa wrote VOL and said it was a "whole lot of hype"!

"ACSA trots out this "Anglicans Ablaze" stuff to show the rest of the communion that they tolerate evangelicals, while at the same time gay marriages are going on in several liberal dioceses. It's all rather sickening. It's the whole 'unity is more important that truth' nonsense.

*****

Christchurch Ponders Future: New Zealand's Greater Christchurch Regeneration Minister, Gerry Brownlee, has announced a five-member working group that will recommend the best option for the stricken Christ Church Cathedral. Brownlee acknowledged "the strong public interest in what is happening to this iconic building."

The working group is expected to report by Dec. 7. Earlier this month, engineers used a drone device for the latest survey of damage to the building. Markers on the cathedral are in place to measure further movement. Recent drone footage graphically illustrates damage inside the cathedral.

"Back in 2010 and 2011 the Diocese of Christchurch said we would put people and safety first and we have kept our word," said the Rt. Rev. Victoria Matthews, Bishop of Christchurch. "The film from the drone in the Cathedral shows severe damage from many earthquakes, including the February and March quakes this year. I look forward to what the working group recommends for the beloved Cathedral building."

*****

ChristianMingle.com rolled over this week and said they will open its 16 million-member site to gay and lesbian users following an anti-discrimination lawsuit.

According to a settlement approved by a California judge last week, the country's most popular Christian dating site will offer options for same-sex matches, rather than limiting searches to "a man seeking a woman or a woman seeking a man," the Wall Street Journal reported.

The plaintiffs in the case sued ChristianMingle in 2013, for violating a California civil rights law requiring "all business establishments of every kind whatsoever" to offer full accommodations, regardless of a person's sexual orientation (among more than a dozen other protected classes).

A spokesperson for ChristianMingle's parent company, Spark Networks Inc., said in an email to CT, that they recognize "this is a divisive issue and hope that the greater good of our mission is what people appreciate about us."

ChristianMingle, known for its commercials promising to "find God's match for you," is the largest dating site owned by Spark Networks. The company brought in $48 million last year, running niche sites including JDate.com, LDSSingles.com, CatholicMingle.com, and AdventistSinglesConnection.com, as well as sites for black, aging, and deaf daters. The settlement applies to a few other Sparks Networks sites.

ChristianMingle has already changed its homepage to ask users about their own gender and let them select their own search parameters.

So, can they legitimately call themselves ChristianMingle? Not really. Maybe PansexualMingle.com. So, please remove the Christian bit. That's no more.

*****

And for the latest in widget and social media taste comes this. For your liturgical amusement during this politically charged week, an Episcopal priest Fr. Bosco Peters has developed a collect for Pokemon.

Almighty God,
who has gotta 'catch us all',
within the great Pokeball of your love.
Give us the power that's inside,
so that we might not divert our eyes from the game map that you have set,
but instead, with Clefairy, Charmander and that electrocuted yellow rat thing,
come to the great PokeGym in the sky, where prestige points are infinite.
Amen.
And this will fill churches!

*****

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Evangelical Christianity has long been known for its emphasis on theological orthodoxy, a high view of Scripture, and an adherence to sound doctrine. Indeed, one of the defining distinctions between evangelicals and theological liberals over the past few centuries was the fact that evangelicals took the Bible seriously and saw sound doctrine as essential for the Christian life. These were distinguishing features of evangelicalism and unashamedly so. But all that is now being undone. For various reasons many evangelicals are caving in and capitulating to the surrounding culture. That includes buying into relativism, subjectivism, and worldly notions of tolerance, acceptance and the like. Truth is no longer championed. Doctrine has been abandoned and feelings have been put on a pedestal. Personal preference now reigns supreme in many church circles, and those who stand strong on biblical doctrine are dissed as being narrow-minded, judgmental and unloving. -- Bill Muehlenberg

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

SEX, SEX, SEX...it never ends. From Australia to the UK, scandals involving priests seducing young boys continue to haunt the Anglican Communion. It's not just the Roman Catholic Church anymore. This week the scandals broke out big time among Anglicans in Australia and the UK.

The headlines usually scream about cabals of pedophile priests sexually abusing children. Not true. They are ephebophiles, homosexual men preying on vulnerable teenage boys for their own pleasure. These are men who now get a pass in the Church, sodomizing other men roughly their own age or slightly younger.

Distinctions are important. Hebephilia is the strong and persistent adult sexual interest in pubescent (early adolescent) individuals, typically ages 11--14. It differs from ephebophilia, which is the strong and persistent sexual interest in those in later adolescence, approximately 15--19 years old, and from pedophilia, which is the primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children.

This week word came from the Church of England that rose to the second highest cleric in the land -- the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu. The Archbishop, and four serving bishops, have been accused of misconduct by a Church of England priest who claims they failed to act on allegations he was repeatedly raped by another vicar when he was 16.

The priest says none of the five senior clergy properly responded to his disclosures, made verbally and in writing, of the rapes which he alleged took place in 1984.

"Michael" -- whose identity is known to the Guardian, but who wishes to remain anonymous -- filed the complaints under the CofE's clergy disciplinary measure (CDM) against John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York and second highest-ranking figure in the church; Peter Burrows, the Bishop of Doncaster; Steven Croft, a former Bishop of Sheffield, and now Bishop of Oxford; Martyn Snow, the Bishop of Leicester; and Glyn Webster, the Bishop of Beverley.

All five have contested the complaints because they were made after the church's required one-year limit.

Spokespersons for Sentamu and the four bishops said they could not comment on a matter that was the subject of an internal church process and a police investigation.

One real option, if proven true, is that they should all resign, but that probably won't happen because the Church knows better than anyone else how to cover this stuff up and make it all go away with a large check and a quiet reprimand. No one's career is ruined. You can read the full story in today's digest.

THEN came this word of yet another vicar who was embroiled sexually with young men. A young clergymen who claims he was sexually assaulted by a vicar, accused the Church of England of a "massive cover up" in their handling of his original complaint, a court heard.

He said he then felt he was "forced out" of his post in the Church in the months after complaining to the then Bishop of Durham about the activities of Granville Gibson.

The allegations were made as the complainant, now an associate priest, was giving evidence during the trial of retired clergyman, formerly known as the Venerable Granville Gibson. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

Then VOL's trusty researcher and scribe Mary Ann Mueller uncovered a pedophile sex ring scandal ring in the Anglican Church of Australia that recounted how a future Newcastle bishop was not even immune to abuse.

The latest revelation of the Anglican Church of Australia's sexual wrong doing comes from sitting Bishop Greg Thompson (XIII Newcastle). When the current Newcastle bishop was a teenager, during the mid-1970's, and showing interest in the Anglican priesthood, he was, himself, sexually molested by two Anglican clergy, one being his own bishop -- the Rt. Rev. Ian Shevill, then the IX Bishop of Newcastle (circa 1973-1977). Bishop Thompson is not very forth coming right now with details ... it's too personal ... too haunting. He said he will reveal all to the Royal Commission when asked for particulars.

Fed up with the dark secrets, deceptions and cover up by high ranking Anglican officials, Bishop Thompson became one of several whistleblowers to knock the lid off of a culture steeped in deceit, which has kept sexual misconduct secrets and fostered an atmosphere where several well-organized pedophile rings could be developed, grow and flourish. The various clandestine, interconnected pedophile networks reportedly included Catholic and Anglican priests -- including bishops -- politicians, physicians, attorneys, businessmen, community leaders and children's homes management, who interlaced with each other and remained silent to provide harrowing houses of horror, spreading terror in the region including Wallsend and Hunter Valley. Before St. Alban's finally closed in 1986, it had operated in at least four locations in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales (NSW).

In Australia, "7.30", a hard-hitting current affairs program on the Australian Broadcasting Company, is now shining the spotlight on the Diocese of Newcastle-based Anglican pedophile ring and bringing it to the light of day. Last week in an exclusive report, "7.30" interviewed Bishop Thompson and his two fellow whistle blowers: John Cleary, the Diocese of Newcastle business manager & the CEO of Newcastle Anglican Schools Corporation; and Michael Elliott, the director of Professional Standards for the diocese.

All three men are drawing fire for their public openness, their stance and their determination to root out evil, as well as revealing decades of lies and deceptions which allowed such a scandal to continue.

You can read her full report in today's digest.

So the lesson here is this. If you are 19 or over and have consensual, homogenital sex, the church will fawn all over you, make you a priest if you want to be one, marry you, tell you how wonderful you are, possibly make you a bishop, and then tell the whole wide world what an inclusive church we are, richly diverse and open to all. It's just a matter of age, dear boy. So a year makes a difference? One wonders how soon it will be before the age of consent is lowered to appease sodomists bent on further twisting the church into a permanent sexual pretzel.

*****

Long overdue, but it has finally come to pass, the bully bishop of Los Angeles, Jon Bruno, will face trial for his ecclesiastical crimes. A bitter standoff between a displaced California congregation and the bishop, who evicted them from a $15 million church property last year, is culminating in a rare event: the public trial of an accused bishop, according to The Living Church.

Bruno, will be only the third Episcopal Church bishop known to have faced an ecclesiastical trial since 2000. His trial is believed to be the first under a public hearing process that took effect in 2011, said Mark Duffy, canonical archivist and director of the Episcopal Church Archives. Bruno received his notice in July. The start date and location will be announced soon.

Bruno stands accused of three canonical violations: conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation; conduct unbecoming a bishop; and attempting to dispose of property without the standing committee's consent. When asked to comment on the charges, Bob Williams of the Diocese of Los Angeles, referred to a July 21 statement.

The property in question is St. James, Newport Beach. Now the irony here is so deep you could scrape it off sanctuary walls. The woman and parish suing Bruno, one Cindy Voorhees, is theologically not so far apart from Bruno, but it is not about what they believe or don't believe, it is about a property battle and charges she laid at the feet of Bruno, not unlike charges laid at the feet of Charles Bennison, former Bishop of Pennsylvania.

She is gunning for him, accusing him of dishonesty, deceit, fraud and the standard saw 'conduct unbecoming a bishop'. We saw this in Philadelphia, where Bennison was found guilty and then got off with a statute of limitations find. Later, a resolution was introduced into the House of Bishops which enabled Jefferts Schori to ease Bennison out. If Bruno is found guilty, he could be tossed out of the Church...now that would be a first. So a liberal woman priest is going after a revisionist bishop! But that's not all.

This battle began long before Ms. Voorhees got her clutches on the parish and into Bruno. This parish was once the home of an evangelical parish priest by the name of Richard Crocker when he was senior pastor. He and his people overwhelmingly elected to leave the Episcopal Church in August, 2004, due solely to long-standing theological differences, specifically regarding the authority of Holy Scripture and the Lordship of Christ.

He and his people elected to walk away rather than fight for the property, and they are doing quite nicely, thank you. So now we have a real ecclesiastical donnybrook initiated by a liberal woman priest against a revisionist Bruno. Oh, what delicious irony.

One wonders if a jury of his peers - bishops -- will find him guilty and then, by some ecclesiastical sleight of hand, pardon him. Just ask Bennison.

Just how many dumb, venal Episcopal bishops can you cram into a telephone booth? The answer, of course, is that there aren't enough telephone booths.

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

*****

The Bishop of Western Massachusetts has appointed a Rabbi in Residence for the diocese's Christ Church Cathedral. Rabbi Mark Dov Shapiro will take adult education classes and will also "preach periodically in the Sunday liturgy."

The announcement was made by Bishop Doug Fisher and Canon Tom Callard, the cathedral's Priest-in-Charge. In addition to preaching and teaching, Bishop Fisher said that Rabbi Shapiro would "offer his wisdom on a host of social justice concerns."

Speaking to the same website, Bishop Fisher explained the thinking behind the appointment: "Christians and Jews share so much -- a common father in Abraham, the Hebrew scriptures, belief in a God who is both transcendent and within us, and a common challenge from the Prophets."

Really. Perhaps the bishop needs to be reminded of what St. Paul said of his unbelieving Jewish friends found in 2 Corinthians 3:14-17 (NIV) "But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."

*****

The Anglican mission agency United Society will reclaim USPG, its more familiar identity of 56 years. The agency is not returning to its former full name of United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, but will become United Society Partners in the Gospel.

The agency has played a long and important role in the history of international Christian missionary activity and in the spread of Anglicanism across the globe.

The agency was formed by Royal Charter in 1701, as the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG). In 1965, the agency merged with the Universities' Mission to Central Africa to form the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.

It adopted United Society in 2012 "with a reinvigorated desire to participate in God's global mission." But many people found the abbreviated form of the society's name, Us, confusing on a global stage, where it ran the risk of confusion with the United States.

"During 2015, we undertook some research to discover how our new brand had been received," said the agency's chief executive, Janette O'Neill. "We learned that, while our partners in Britain and Ireland and around the world greatly appreciated the energy, values, and practical work embodied in the Us brand, many remained saddened that we were no longer referring to the gospel in our name.

"As well as reintroducing 'gospel' into our name, the new meaning of USPG emphasizes our focus on working in partnership with the world church, while also encouraging the Anglican Churches of Britain and Ireland to participate more deeply in that partnership."

The agency will renew its USPG name and unveil a new logo at Greenbelt, in August.

*****

By contrast, the Primate of Nigeria, Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, called on Christians in the north of the country to remain faithful despite an onslaught of persecution. Speaking at a service of consecration of three new bishops and the presentation of the new provincial Dean, and the new Archbishop of Lagos, Archbishop Okoh urged Christians to follow the biblical example and defend their faith, even against threats of death.

"It was so in the Bible time. If you read Revelation, you will find out that it is not new," Archbishop Okoh told the Vanguard newspaper. "What we charge them is to be diligent in prayer, monitor their environment and stand firm in the Lord. Those in the volatile areas should pray and wait on the Lord, follow the examples of Christian leaders of old, some of them even died in order to defend their faith. They should not sell out but be strong and defend their faith."

What a contrast, considering that a lot of the murdering being done by these thugs is precisely because the West is promoting sodomy and ISIS, and Boko Haran are killing Christians because they despise this behavior.

One wonders if Archbishop Justin Welby will ever come out and say that, or is he too frightened to offend a small group of homosexual men who are bullying the church into accepting their behavior!

*****

The Diocese of Montreal needs $8 million to repair its cathedral, writes David of Samizdat. The diocese is launching into a fundraising campaign, with all the energy that a church less preoccupied with the temporal, might devote to the saving of souls. No matter, this is the interesting part: "The cathedral had no spire from then until 1940, when a new one of aluminum panels mounted on a steel structure replicated the previous stone spire. That structure lasted through 1987-88, when the whole cathedral was, for a time, on a concrete slab supported by piles during construction of a shopping mall underneath the cathedral."

"The foundations of the cathedral are resting on an altar dedicated to the consumer god of a decaying civilization: a shopping mall. A perfect metaphor for the Diocese and, indeed, the entire Western Anglican edifice."

*****

The British government has announced a £2.4 million fund to help secure places of worship in England and Wales. Churches, mosques and temples have been invited to bid for grants if they can show that they are at risk of attack from religious hate crimes. Synagogues are excluded from the scheme because the government has provided a separate grant to the Community Security Trust, a charity that provides protection services to Britain's Jewish communities.

The scheme was launched today (Tuesday) by Britain's senior home affairs minister, Amber Rudd, as she outlined a Hate Crime Action Plan. This will include a study into how the different police forces in the country understand and respond to hate crimes; and a commitment from the government to "give young people and teachers the tools they need to tackle hatred and prejudice, including through a new program to equip teachers to facilitate conversations around international events and the impact they have on communities here in the UK."

The action plan was launched following a rise in racist incidents since the UK voted to withdraw from the European Union. This has led, in particular, to an increase in anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic incidents.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has frequently spoken out against the rise in racist incidents since the EU referendum. Earlier this month, at the Church of England's General Synod in York, he said: "It is perfectly clear that the result and the referendum campaign had "exposed deep divisions in our society, of which we were aware already" and he called on the Church to "respond with a fresh effort in integration."

"The result [of the referendum] has released a latent racism and xenophobia in all sectors, and challenges the prevailing consensus of tolerance and acceptance, thus threatening other areas of welcome liberalization," he said.

*****

Will Europe finally face up to the threat of Islamism? Maybe, maybe not. Yet another priest, this time an elderly 84-year old Roman Catholic priest, was murdered, his throat cut as he was saying mass in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen. One writer opined that he had pretty well a perfect ending in Christian terms: celebrating the Eucharist and targeted precisely because he was a priest. Two men took him hostage during mass, along with a couple of nuns and a couple of members of the congregation and they slit his throat -- not quite the decapitation favored by Islamic State in its own territory, but not for want of trying. By one account, one of the men shouted Daesh during the attack, which is odd, because this is the euphemistic term used by those who wish to call IS by a pejorative name without any obvious Muslim associations. Anyway, being murdered for your faith counts as martyrdom, so as far as the priest was concerned, he ended his life giving witness to the faith, involuntarily or not.

The reason for the attack seems perfectly clear -- an attack on Christians at mass by Muslim jihadists hardly needs parsing, does it? -- as indeed the French prime minister, Manuel Valls, observed when he said on Twitter that the 'barbaric' attack was a blow to Catholics and the whole of France. 'We will stand together,' he said. How, exactly? Yet most of the reports at this point, led by the French interior minister, Pierre-Henry Brandet, say the motivation for the hostage taking was 'unclear'... but it's all too clear, surely?

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, issued a joint statement with the other five Presidents of the ecumenical group Churches, including the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster.

In their statement, the Church leaders say: "We are deeply saddened to learn of the brutal murder of our brother. . . That a man of peace who had dedicated his life to serving people could be killed during Mass is testimony to the evil that drives the actions of those who commit such a crime.

"We offer our deepest sympathy to his family, friends and parishioners. We pray for the wellbeing of those who were taken hostage, their families and the entire community served by Fr Jacques; indeed we pray for the peace of France, Europe, the Middle East and the world for which Jesus, the Prince of Peace, gave his own life."

You can read a couple of fine commentaries about his murderous attack in today's digest.

IN OTHER NEWS: A terrorist attack in the UK is "highly likely", following attacks in other parts of Europe, a five-judge tribunal has heard, as churches in Britain are told to tighten security after the murder of an 85-year-old priest in Normandy.

The heightened state of security comes as images threatening attacks in London and other major world capitals were reportedly posted on Telegram, a messaging app used by jihadis.

Despite there being no specific intelligence relating to attacks against the Christian community in the UK, the National Police Chiefs' Council is urging the community to be alert, but not alarmed, report concerns and review their security as a precaution.

Neil Basu, Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said: "There is no specific intelligence relating to attacks against the Christian community in the UK.

"However, as we have seen, Daesh and other terrorist groups have targeted Christian as well as Jewish and other faith groups in the West and beyond.

"Following recent events in France, we are reiterating our protective security advice to Christian places of worship and have circulated specific advice today. We are also taking this opportunity to remind them to review their security arrangements as a precaution.

"While the threat from terrorism remains unchanged at severe, we urge the public to be vigilant."

*****

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, announced the appointment, this week, of Sarah Snyder, as his new advisor for reconciliation. She takes over from Canon David Porter, who moved into his new role as chief of staff and strategy to the Archbishop, at the beginning of May.

Snyder will take up the role in September. She will be part of the senior team at Lambeth Palace, while also being based at Coventry Cathedral, where Archbishop Justin's reconciliation ministry has been established since its inception. Her role will have a particular emphasis on supporting the Church in contexts of violent conflict or post-conflict and helping the Church to be an agent of reconciliation and conflict-transformation.

Do you think there's a chance she might be able to reconcile Nigerian Archbishop Nicholas Okoh with U.S. Presiding Bishop Michael Curry over sexuality issues? Don't hold your breath. These 'agents of reconciliation' are largely fictional attempts to find unity where there is none.

*****

The times, they are a changing, writes Archbishop Mark Haverland, primate of the Anglican Catholic Church (ACC) in the latest issue of The Trinitarian. "The older Continuing Churches are getting their act together at last." He reports that that the ACC and the Anglican Province of America (APA) are merging their work in the Philippines and healing old wounds. He is still not very happy with the ACNA, and calls them a "para-church coalition of independent dioceses." He does call for cultivating relationships with members of Forward in Faith who are full members of the ACNA.

*****

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David

"For all who had hoped that attendance at the January, 2016, Primates' Gathering might restore godly order to the Communion, the results were clearly discouraging. Gafcon is fully committed to guarding the unchanging truth of the Gospel, and restoring the Bible to the heart of the Anglican Communion. In due course, the Gafcon Primates will take counsel and together make a decision about the wisdom of attending future meetings," said the release.

The next meeting of the GAFCON Primates' Council is scheduled for April of 2017. "We give thanks for the courage that is being shown by our members across the globe, as they share God's Word both "in season and out of season." Please continue to pray for the continued growth of this reformation movement."

If the past is prologue to the future, the odds of the GAFCON primates is pretty slim.

At about the same time as this announcement was made, the General Secretary of GAFCON, Archbishop Peter Jensen, also issued a statement that seemed to provide the answer.

It is now perfectly clear that the meeting [of the Primates] in January failed in its intention. Far from being rebuked, the leaders of the Episcopal Church said that they intend to continue in their present course and indeed to export their ideas vigorously to the rest of the world.

It seems, from what the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion is communicating, that repentance was never required -- which makes the disciplinary measures rather strange.

He said Michael Curry showed disdain for the leaders of some of the most thriving of the Provinces in the Communion and would, in fact, continue on their present pathway.

"Almost weekly there has been a fresh indication of the power of the cultural forces which are opposed to the faith to capture and determine church outcomes. Episcopal leadership from those who stand for biblical truth is strangely muted, while those who wish to come to terms with the culture are making powerful symbolic gestures of accord with error."

Jensen cited TEC, and the Scottish Episcopal Church for providing for same-sex marriage.

To the outside observer, it seems that the same remorseless path is being pursued in the UK. We are always being assured that the next step will be the last and that, from now on, the church will have peace with all sides happy. It is said that only 'extremists' will utter their usual shrill complaints and leave.

Indeed, a decade further on, the protests seem more muted, and those willing to take action, fewer. It has now become much harder to resist the incursion of the world into the church. The cost has become even higher.

On the surface it would seem that the GAFCON Primates will not attend any meeting called by Welby, based on what Jensen has said.

"GAFCON exists to honor the word of God and to unite those who wish to stand unflinching by its teaching. We know of many in the UK who have the same aim and we encourage them to be faithful to the whole counsel of God as they enter a conflict not of their own making." Perhaps Jensen has offered us the answer as to what the GAFCON Primates will do. Stay tuned.

*****

Effective July 25, Bexley Seabury, one of 10 accredited seminaries of the Episcopal Church, will consolidate under one roof at Chicago Theological Seminary, in Chicago, Illinois, making it the sixth (only Episcopal) seminary in Chicago's historic Hyde Park/Woodlawn district.

The move makes it easier for students of both schools to take advantage of long-standing cross-registration privileges for courses offered by member schools in the Association of Chicago Theological Schools, of which Bexley Seabury and CTS are founding members, and opens the door to the two seminaries collaborating on new course offerings and other initiatives, said a press report.

Bexley Seabury will offer its Doctor of Ministry degree and Anglican Studies and Lifelong Learning programs. Pending state licensing approval, Bexley Seabury also plans to offer its Master of Divinity degree, like its other programs already accredited by the Association of Theological Schools. Bexley Seabury previously operated from two sites, one elsewhere in Chicago and in Columbus, Ohio.

However, it should be noted that the smallest accredited Protestant seminaries in the nation are three Episcopal seminaries: Bexley Hall Seabury-Western Theological Seminary Federation with 17 full-time students enrolled, General Theological Seminary with 34 full-time students, and Episcopal Divinity School with 35 full-time students. IRD's Jeffrey Walton reported Episcopal Divinity School will no longer grant degrees after the coming academic school year. "A menu of recycled 1960s-era liberation theology themes garnished with radical sexuality and gender studies proved unappealing to prospective seminarians," noted Walton.

Figures recently collected by the Association of Theological Schools (ATS), reveal an interesting picture: students seeking training for church ministry in the United States are largely attracted to evangelical Protestant seminaries, a trend that hasn't changed much over the past twenty years.

The evangelical Fuller Theological Seminary ranks largest with 1,542 full-time enrolled students during the 2015-16 academic year. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary follow closely behind with 1,438 and 1,356 full-time enrolled students, respectively.

While all of the ten largest seminaries in the country are evangelical Protestant, it's interesting that half of those schools are Southern Baptist-affiliated. Five of the six theological seminaries associated with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) are among the top ten largest in the country. Meanwhile, the SBC-affiliated Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary barely missed the list with 705 full-time students enrolled.

Since the 1995-96 academic school year, Princeton Theological Seminary has seen 30 percent fewer full-time enrolled students. Reformed Theological Seminary saw a 33 percent decrease to 547 full-time students while Candler School of Theology experienced a 39 percent drop to 414 full-time students.

There were a few positive changes. Since 1995-96, the evangelical Wesleyan-rooted Asbury Theological Seminary experienced a 50 percent increase in full-time student enrollment. "They are drawn to Asbury's distinctives of a high regard for biblical authority and commitment to preparing women and men for evangelistic ministry," wrote Dr. Tom Tumblin, Dean of the Asbury seminary Beeson International Center for Biblical Preaching and Leadership, in an article for the Institute on Religion and Democracy. "Our faculty includes world-class scholars who have rich field experience and embrace God's call to go, disciple, baptize and teach."

Of course, we can't ignore the significant decline in full-time enrollment among Fuller, Southwestern, Trinity Evangelical, and several others that have transpired over the course of twenty years.

Explanations may vary as to the reasons. Perhaps America's slowly-recovering economy after the 2008 recession played a role or society's growing discomfort with Christianity and hostility towards the public role of the Church has made an impact on student's career choices.

It's hard not to notice the smallest Protestant Seminaries in the country while collecting ATS figures.

However, the consistency in seminary choices over the past twenty years corroborates most full-time students called to ministry prefer orthodox Christianity to liberal trend followers.

*****

World-renowned Evangelist Billy Graham, 97, believes every Christian in America should exercise their right to vote this November, even if they don't like either of the candidates of the Republican and Democratic parties.

"The Bible says we should do everything we possibly can to be good citizens and work for the betterment of our society, and one of the ways we can do this is by voting," Graham writes in his column on the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association website. "God tells us to 'seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you' (Jeremiah 29:7)."

The Baptist pastor understands that a lot of Christians are too disillusioned with politics nowadays to even cast a vote. However, Graham says if Christians do not vote, or Christians do not run for office, then America's decline is to be expected.

"In other words, staying away from the voting booth may only perpetuate the problems you see," he explains.

Before Christians think of who to vote for, Graham strongly encourages them to pray. After doing so, they will have a better grasp of the issues that America needs to address and which candidate will be the best one to solve it.

"Beyond that, however, pray for our nation and its leaders--not just the President, but all who've been entrusted with public office," he says. "It's the most important thing you can do."

Graham acknowledges that the world will never be perfect, and problem after problem will continue to hound it. "But in the meantime, God wants to use us to overcome sin and establish a more just world for His glory," he says.

Meanwhile, Graham's son, Franklin, is also echoing his father's statements. During his stop in Washington's Capitol as part of the Decision America Tour, he told the crowd to choose between Republican nominee, Donald Trump, or Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, even if Christians have to "hold their nose" while doing so.

"You're just going to have to ask yourself which of the two do you think we as Christians will at least have a voice with?" Graham said. "You have to make that choice. Now, you might have to hold your nose."

*****

Developed countries motivated by a need for oil and desire for profits are abandoning their principles to allow Islamic Jihadists to destroy Middle Eastern Christianity, the "cradle" of the faith.

So said the patriarch of the Syriac Catholic Church of Antioch, His Beatitude Ignatius Joseph III Younan, to the annual international gathering of Knights of Columbus in Toronto, last week.

"We have to understand that totalitarianism based on Islamic creed is the worst among all systems of government. Yes, my friends, the very survival of Christians in the cradle of Christianity is quite in danger," the patriarch said.

"Why shall we wonder at the rise of the Islamic State or its new 'Caliphate,' when these 'allied rich countries' -- with among the most retrograde systems of government -- continue to channel funding and weapons to terrorists spreading hatred and committing barbaric atrocities in the name of a religion?" (This was an obvious reference to Saudi Arabia, America's chief ally in the Middle East, whose royal family supports radical Islamic believers in return for their endorsement of the Saud family's rulership.)

In a straight-from-the-heart cry for help for the rapidly vanishing but 2,000-year-old Christian presence in Middle East, Patriarch Ignatius Joseph told the Knights that Saudi Arabia was funding Muslim jihadists to act out a new kind of murderous intolerance, and the Western democracies were letting them do it.

*****

Muslims across France attended a Catholic Mass in a gesture of solidarity after the murder of a priest.

Fr Jacques Hamel was killed in his church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray near Rouen, by two men who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group. France's Muslim council, the CFCM, urged Muslims to show "solidarity and compassion" over the murder.

"We are all Catholics of France," said Anouar Kbibech, the head of the CFCM. Services were held in Rouen, as well as in Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral.

*****

The Olympic Games bring people together across nations, faiths and backgrounds. Whether it was ever intended to be or not, the festive competition may just be the largest interfaith gathering in the world.

More than 10,000 athletes from over 200 countries will compete in the Rio 2016 Olympics, which is expected to draw millions of visitors from around the world. During its busiest periods, the Rio 2016 committee expects over 17,000 athletes and officials will be living in the Olympic village.

With such a turnout, the Olympic committee is preparing for a high demand on spiritual resources. To satisfy that need, Olympic and Paralympic Villages feature a multi-faith center with chaplains and prayer spaces representing Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism.

"Our job is to provide athletes with a place where they can find comfort and spiritual peace, whatever their religion," Father Leandro Lenin Tavares, a Rio de Janeiro priest coordinating the center, said in a statement. "We are a symbol of peace, brotherhood and the unity of peoples."

*****

Military chaplains are working across the globe to care for the spiritual wellbeing of armed forces personnel in a bid to prevent suicide -- a significant issue amongst military veterans. And last week, the Anglican Bishop to the Australian Defence Force (ADF), Bishop Ian Lambert, visited his American counterparts at Camp Arifjan, in Kuwait, to pray and to discuss "the challenges and rewards of being a military chaplain."

While in Kuwait, Bishop Lambert met with members of the ADF serving in the Middle East; and held discussions with two chaplains from the US-based Episcopal Church serving members of the US Army, Lieutenant Colonel Dan Knaup and Captain Ian Burgess; and two Australian chaplains, Captain Murray Lund and Lieutenant Colonel Sarah Gibson.

The chaplains agreed that caring for a service member's spiritual wellbeing is an important key to preventing suicide. "The principle that we are spiritual beings must be brought regularly to our commanders," Bishop Lambert said.

Lieutenant Colonel Knaup told Bishop Lambert that spiritual strength was one of the five pillars of the US Army's current resiliency training; and he demonstrated on of the US tool's for suicide prevention: Ace cards. The cards encourage soldiers to "Ask, Care and Escort" battle buddies with suicidal thoughts.

"I was glad to see Chaplain Lambert's concern for service members," Captain Burgess said. "It's great to see that in Australia they're using some of the same programs -- like the ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) program -- and that it's bearing results there."

During their meeting, the chaplains prayed for peace, and for protection and courage for service members of the coalition and partner nations.

On his return to Sydney, Bishop Lambert, who had 20 years of active service in the ADF before ordination, called for Anglican clergy and their spouses, and those considering or training for vocational ministry in Australia, to attend an information day on Thursday (4 August) at Randwick Barracks, which is being held to challenge others to join in ministry as service chaplains.

*****

St Paul's Cathedral of the Diocese of Huron in London, Ontario, has structural problems, which will cost approximately $1 million dollars to fix, according to news reports.

Parishioners are making jam and marmalade, selling pictorial calendars and holding fund-raising concerts in order to raise the money needed to cover the repairs.

However, many are questioning the leadership in the Diocese of Huron, as so much time and energy has gone into discussing homosexual weddings (for which there is little or no demand), and so much time has been put into outreach and social causes, that not enough time was given to the other aspects of the church, such as maintenance and repairs of the church building.

The new Bishop of Huron voted in favor of homosexual weddings at the Synod in 2016, with the retiring Bishop also voting in favor of LGBT3Q2 weddings in the Anglican Church of Canada.

Many are now questioning the quality of the leadership in the Diocese of Huron that has brought the church members to this point where the Cathedral for the Diocese is questioning why it is such poor shape structurally.

*****

The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia has admitted its involvement in forced adoptions in the 20th Century. Archbishop Philip Richardson, who, as one of the church's three primates, has responsibility for the Tikanga Pakeha -- the part of the Church representing the descendants of European settlers -- has welcomed calls for an official inquiry and said that the church is ready to open its record books, says an ACNS report.

In 2013, the Australian government apologized after a Senate investigation found that as many as 250,000 women had their babies removed between the 1950s and 70s. In the same year, the film Philomena, documented the widespread forced removal of babies from unmarried mothers in Ireland.

The scale of forced adoptions in New Zealand, in what became dubbed the "baby-snatch era" from the 1940s to the 1970s, is not known because there has never been an official inquiry. In 1997, the New Zealand parliament dropped its investigation into the "coercive" practices, despite acknowledging that it was carried out by both the state and the church.

Many parents have spent decades trying to trace their children and have demanded a public inquiry. But the country's justice minister, Amy Adams, has ruled this out, saying it was focused on more urgent issues. "This is not to deny or diminish any harm that those affected by past adoption practices may have experienced," she told the Stuff news website. "However, the Government currently has a busy legislative program focused on issues that affect large numbers of New Zealanders, such as family violence, privacy laws and trusts."

Archbishop Richardson told Stuff that the Anglican Church in New Zealand had taken part in the forced adoption process and confirmed that some dioceses had reached legal settlements with parents on a case-by-case basis.

"We should always be open to examining our past," he said. "If later evidence was to show a systemic failure on the part of the church, across all dioceses, of the kind of significance of some of the Australians' experiences, then of course the church would need to cooperate."

*****

Speaking with Polish bishops last week, Pope Francis pulled no punches in rejecting the notion that "everyone can choose their gender."

"This is terrible," he said bluntly. "Today in schools they are teaching this to children--to children!" He said this is part of the "ideological colonization" that "influential countries" are trying to impose on the world.

"We are living in a moment of annihilation of man as image of God," the pope said. "God created man and woman, God created the world this way, this way, this way, and we are doing the opposite." He told the Polish bishops, "We must think about what Pope Benedict said--'It's the epoch of sin against God the Creator.'"

Thus did Pope Francis, not for the first time, reject political correctness in order to speak boldly and truthfully about the destructiveness--to children, to families and to society--of "gender ideology."

*****

Homosexuals who "marry" each other are almost three times more likely to commit suicide than their heterosexual counterparts, even in very gay-friendly Sweden, according to a study published in the May issue of the European Journal of Epidemiology.

The authors of the study noted that social intolerance of homosexual behavior could not so easily be blamed for increased suicide risk, given that Sweden is known for its accepting attitude towards same-sex relationships.

"Even in a country with a comparatively tolerant climate regarding homosexuality such as Sweden, same-sex married individuals evidence a higher risk for suicide than other married individuals," the authors note.

The study, "Suicide in married couples in Sweden: Is the risk greater in same-sex couples?" used the government of Sweden's detailed databases to compare a population of over six thousand homosexual "married" couples to the larger population of heterosexual couples who married during the period between 1996 and 2009, following them until 2011.

The study found that participants in homosexual marriages had an overall 2.7 times greater chance of suicide than participants in heterosexual marriages, with the true value having a 95% probability of falling somewhere between 1.5 and 4.8.

Homosexual men in same-sex "marriages" were found to have a higher elevated risk (2.9) than women (2.5).

The study's results are similar to numerous other studies in recent years that have found a strong relationship between homosexual behavior and a variety of negative psychological outcomes, even in countries that are very accepting of homosexual behavior.

*****

A senior Church of England clergyman has been found guilty of sex offences committed against two young men in the 1970s and 80s, amid claims of a church cover-up.

A jury at Durham crown court found George Granville Gibson, 80, the former archdeacon of Auckland, guilty of two counts of indecent assault against two men, then aged 18 and 26. He was found not guilty of buggery and four other charges of indecent assault. Two charges of indecent assault were dropped.

The court was told that the former bishop of Durham, John Habgood, had been told about Gibson's inappropriate behavior, which occurred when he was a vicar at St Clare's Church in Newton, Aycliffe. A former clergyman told the court he "got the push" from the church after raising concerns about Gibson.

Gibson was found guilty of indecently assaulting that man.

One of those giving evidence against Gibson, accused the C of E of a "massive cover-up". He said: "I didn't make a complaint because no one would believe me, no one would believe that a man of the cloth would do that. I thought and still think no one would believe me. He was a vicar."

The prosecution had set out a case of the senior clergyman's "systematic, deliberate" abuse of vulnerable men. Gibson admitted in court to having had homosexual urges, but said he had only ever been sexually attracted to men, not young boys.

*****

A major Evangelical Free Church in Sweden is preparing to use drones to drop thousands of Bibles into areas of Iraq controlled by Islamic State.

The Livets Ord (Word of Life) church in Uppsala, in the north of Sweden, has said it will use drones flying at high altitude, to release thousands of small, electronic Bibles into Iraq.

"The Bibles are the size of pill boxes and have a display. They require no electricity, but work on their own," the church's mission director, Christian Åkerhielm, told Swedish broadcaster SVT, according to the newspaper, The Local.

"Our ambition is to pass on the hope and love of the Christian gospel to a population living in closed areas where they are being denied human rights," the Livets Ord said on its Swedish homepage.

*****

In Australia, a child abuse inquiry told an Anglican priest that he could face new charges. A former altar boy has testified that he's still being harassed in the New South Wales city of Newcastle, years after he levelled accusations against an Anglican priest.

The man has told the public hearing that the priest molested him in the 1970s, and in the years since he reported the abuse to police, he says locals have tampered with his car, trespassed on his property, and made death threats.

The priest was never convicted, but now, he could be facing fresh charges.

*****

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David

Salvation concerns persons. To call socio-political liberation 'salvation' and to call social activism 'evangelism' - this is to be guilty of a gross theological confusion. It is to mix what Scripture keeps distinct - God the Creator and God the Redeemer, the God of the cosmos and the God of the covenant, the world and the church, common grace and saving grace, justice and justification, the reformation of society and the regeneration of men. For the salvation offered in the gospel of Christ concerns persons rather than structures. It is deliverance from another kind of yoke than political and economic oppression. --- John R.W. Stott

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
August 12, 2016

In the very dark and demonic times we now live in, being an ordinary person, an ordinary citizen, and an ordinary Christian, no longer cuts it. We now must be extraordinary for Christ and the Kingdom. We must dare to do mighty exploits for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And we must be willing to risk all for the sake of God and others.

Over the years I have documented a number of Anglican heroes who have stood out from the crowd, men and women who have not settled for the ordinary, the second best, the routine, but have soared with eagles' wings as they have tackled seemingly insurmountable challenges and obstacles...and triumphed.

These men and women have taken risks that most of us would never dream of taking.

As Bill Muehlenberg writes, "They are champions, heroes and valiant warriors in an age of cowards, spineless wonders, and wilted flowers. They stand out from the crowd because they have had a vision of the One who gave everything for them. They serve a risen Lord and do so by the power of his might."

Let me recall just a few. They are heroes of the faith.

Let's start with Bishop Bob Duncan, who challenged the enormous legal and ecclesiastical power structures of The Episcopal Church and launched out into the deep to form the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) where the odds were seriously against him. Not everyone thought he would be successful. He not only stood up to The Episcopal Church, he drew together a rag tag group of evangelical and Anglo-Catholic clergy and laity and did the seemingly impossible. If you thought that was easy, consider that, in 1977, four bishops formed the Continuum (following the ordination of women by PECUSA) and they still haven't been able to unite under one single Anglo-Catholic umbrella, though there are signs that they might now be doing so.

Robert Duncan is a success story. He first had to navigate the troubled waters of the Anglican Mission in America and Chuck Murphy, (a far from easy task), but he emerged mostly unscathed and brought together a new order of Anglicans committed to the Great Commission announcing God's unswerving love for all people.

His successor, Archbishop Foley Beach, is a different kind of leader, but a humble man who cares deeply for what he has inherited. He has big shoes to fill, but he fills them with grace. He is solidly biblical and faithful, open and warm to the Holy Spirit as he sees the Spirit move among his people. He will work well with a rambunctious Global South. He has earned their respect. In Canterbury, when the Primates were called together and he was the outlier, he acquitted himself with grace. He knows that the Africans own the Communion and he must be a supplicant in the new world order of Anglicanism.

Then there is Archbishop Joseph Adetaloya, the prime mover in the Anglican Church of Nigeria, who set that province on a course to evangelize Nigeria's millions. A brilliant and pragmatic evangelist, he declared a decade of evangelism in the Anglican Communion in 1990; this gave birth to the first set of Missionary Dioceses in the Communion. His legacy was passed on to Peter Akinola and to his successor, Nicholas Okoh. Today that province is the largest, most unswervingly orthodox in the Anglican Communion and the primary bulwark against Western Anglican imperial revisionism and progressivism. From this province, and others, GAFCON was borne.

Another man of God is Gregory Venables, former archbishop of the Southern Cone, who took the risk rescuing North American Anglicans when they most needed it. Other bishops who took risks include Jack Iker, Keith Ackerman, John David Schofield, Donald Davies, Terence Kelshaw, Dave Bena, and Peter Beckwith, to name just a few. They gave their all, risking pensions and a place at the Episcopal table, for the greater call of the gospel.

America longs for heroes, true heroes, not narcissistic celebrities and self-anointed pundits and third rate politicos. The world craves a man or a woman who stands outside themselves, announcing another king and another kingdom for which one can live and die for...an Augustine, a St. Paul, a Cranmer, a Wilberforce, a Mother Teresa; men and women who somehow transcended time and who brought us hope.

*****

The Episcopal bishops of Kansas and Western Kansas recently issued a letter to their respective dioceses saying that they would not permit firearms, openly or concealed, into churches or houses of worship. "These changes reflect the efforts of an active gun manufacturers lobby, and in our judgment they unnecessarily endanger the citizens of our state and members of our parishes.

"However, the chancellors (Canon lawyers) say that this pastoral directive is unenforceable, and that is probably true. But we think this is one way that the Church can say "enough"! wrote the bishops.

The bishops say they will not be installing metal detectors, and worshippers will not be frisked at the front door.

*****

The twists and turns in the Anglican Communion took another turn this week when Fearon, Secretary General of the Anglican Consultative Council, made the startling observation that the African church should not bow before Western revisionism.

This was a dangerous move for him. As a Nigerian, he stands with the Global South; as the head of the ACC, he must be a mouthpiece for the whole Communion, including and especially, the progressive revisionist West, so a statement like this will not go down well with primates like Michael Curry or Fred Hiltz, who view that Instrument of Unity as theirs to do with as they wish. After all, TEC pours over $400,000 a year into the ACC, so biting the hand that feeds him is a risky business. In Poker terms, you had better have a straight flush to beat a full house. Fearon is treading on cut glass. If he whacks Western revisionism, he stands to lose money, if he doesn't stand with the Global South, they will cast him forth if they haven't already done so. The big winner in all this is Justin Welby, who can say, 'look, Fearon said it, I didn't', you can accuse him of homophobia (if you dare) not moi. The spineless Welby can slither along on the coattails of Fearon and the ACC as one of his instruments of unity.

*****

Long standing news that religion in Britain, particularly the Church of England, is in decline might be coming to a halt, a major study recently revealed.

On the surface it looks like the tide might have turned, but a knowledgeable source told VOL that the source of the new numbers appears to be migration rather than conversion.

*****

Rwanda's capital city Kigali was festooned with blue and white decorations on 31 July as the Anglican Church of Rwanda [Province de L'Eglise Anglicane au Rwanda] Mothers' Union (MU) celebrated a 50th jubilee. Joyous singing and dancing poured forth from a ceremony at the Anglican Kibagabaga Parish. Archbishop Onesphore Rwaje, a member of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee, led the congregation in song. Rwaje is also the husband of MU-Rwanda president, Josephine Rwaje.
The first lady of Rwanda, Jeannette Kagame, was the guest of honor. She acknowledged the role mothers have played in rebuilding Rwanda. She urged the men to value their wives, saying even the Bible shows that "he who finds a wife, finds a good thing, he obtains favor from the Lord." (Proverbs 18:19).

In nation building, she said, women and men are necessary and must work together. She drew smiles from the crowd when she likened a good family to a little heaven on earth, and said it is disheartening to see the rate of family breakdown, because this affects the whole nation.

She implored church leaders to do what they can to ensure families are stable, because frustrations at home lead to more instances of sex abuse, drug abuse and crime. She also encouraged church leaders to guide parents on how to talk with their children, especially about sexuality, and to do everything possible to encourage the children to stay in school. "We must work hard to train our children to embrace the real values of hard work, honesty and focus," she said. She promised that she was committed to work with all mothers in Rwanda.

*****

St. Thomas's Fifth Avenue in New York City has finally rolled over. Canon Turner who became XIII Rector of Saint Thomas Church in July, 2014, is allowing a woman to celebrate Holy Communion. Anne "Mother" Mallonee was Trinity Wall Street's first female rector and is now Executive Vice President and Chief Ecclesiastical Officer at the Church Pension Group. A VOL observer wrote to say that it was inevitable. "Fr. Turner had been permitting priestesses as guest preachers over the last couple years, but the dam has finally burst."

*****

Oatlands, Virginia has a new Anglican parish open for business. The Anglican Church of Our Saviour at Oatlands will consecrate its new sanctuary at a special service on Sunday, August 21st, at 9:30 a.m. Their lease expired with the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia and so they built their own new parish down the road. The old parish built in the Nineteenth Century now stands empty. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****
A coalition of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish leaders assembled by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission has released the following statement:

The California Assembly has proposed legislation that is harmful to the free exercise of religion in higher education. In particular, the legislation disadvantages low-income minority students who want an education at private religious colleges. Though it purports to eliminate discrimination, Senate Bill 1146 results in its own form of discrimination by stigmatizing and coercively punishing religious beliefs that disagree on contested matters related to human sexuality. If SB 1146 were to pass, it would deny students' ability to participate in state grant programs--programs that exist to help low-income students, and which are overwhelmingly used by racial minorities--at schools that are found in violation of the bill. Moreover, it would severely restrict the ability of religious education institutions to set expectations of belief and conduct that align with the institution's religious tenets.

While we do not all agree on religious matters, we all agree that the government has no place in discriminating against poor religious minorities or in pitting a religious education institution's faith-based identity against its American identity. This legislation puts into principle that majoritarian beliefs are more deserving of legal protection, and that minority viewpoints are deserving of government harassment. Legislation of this nature threatens the integrity, not only of religious institutions, but of any viewpoint wishing to exercise basic American freedoms, not least of which is the freedom of conscience.

*****

In its World Watch List 2016, Open Doors documented reports of more than 7,000 Christians killed and more than 2,400 churches attacked globally last year.

The killing of Christians in Nigeria rose 62 percent in 2015, mostly perpetrated by Boko Haram, Muslim Fulani herdsman, and Islamist extremism in the government, according to Open Doors. Nigeria is ranked No. 12 on Open Doors' list of the world's most dangerous locations for Christians.

This summer in Nigeria, Muslim youth attacked church members after Friday prayers, stabbed a Christian man for eating during Ramadan, and beat to death a 74-year-old pastor's wife who asked a Muslim youth to do his ablution away from the front of her shop.

Two pastors were also killed.

Joseph Kurah, regional chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the central state of Nasarawa and a pastor of the Evangelical Church Winning All, was murdered on June 30 by suspected Fulani herdsmen on his farm in Obi.

Then, on July 9, Eunice Elisha, 42, an assistant pastor at the Redeemed Church of God in the Kubwa region of the Nigerian capital of Abuja, was killed. She was buried on her birthday--July 23. Local media published photos of her husband, Olowale, and their seven children, all dressed in pale blue, standing next to her grave.

What Open Doors did not say and which has been better documented by Barnabas Aid, is that the vast majority of those killed in Nigeria are Anglicans, who suffer for the faith because Muslim extremists accuse them of embracing Western pansexuality.

*****

Gunmen attack bishop's house in Juba. Last month thousands of people sought sanctuary in All Saints' Cathedral in Juba, as fighting erupted in and around the city. Now the violence has reached the home of the assistant bishop of the diocese, Fraser Yugu, as it came under attack by gunmen.

A group of men fired bullets into the house of the assistant bishop of Juba in South Sudan in the early hours of Sunday, as they tried to force their way into the building. They fled when Bishop Fraser Yugu's pet dog began barking and raised the alarm.

Nobody was injured in the incident. But, as they left, the gunmen shot the dog and destroyed the rear windscreen of the bishop's car that was parked at his compound in Juba's Hai Kuwait residential area.

The motive of the attackers remains unknown. Christians in the Diocese of Juba have questioned why gunmen would want to storm the house of a clergyman who has maintained a neutral position in the recent political unrest. They have appealed to security forces to "take all necessary measures to protect civilians."

Bishop Yugu moved to the residence on his appointment as Assistant Bishop of Juba. Previously, he lived in the cathedral compound when he was Dean of All Saints' Cathedral.

Juba is the capital of South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011. There has been an upsurge of violence in the region in recent weeks, coinciding with the fifth anniversary of independence.

*****

Archbishops Chama and Ntagali elected to head Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa. The Archbishop of Central Africa, Albert Chama, has been elected as the new chair of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA). He will be assisted by the new vice-chair, Archbishop Stanley Ntagali from Uganda. CAPA brings together all 12 Anglican Provinces in Africa as well as the Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa from the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East to "coordinate and articulate issues affecting the Church and communities across the region."

Archbishop Albert Chama, who also serves as Bishop of Northern Zambia, became the Primate of Central Africa in 2011. His Province includes Botswana, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Earlier this year he hosted the Anglican Consultative Council as they met in Lusaka's Cathedral of the Holy Cross. Archbishop Chama chairs the board of the Anglican Alliance.

Archbishop Stanley Ntagali, who is also the Bishop of Kampala, was installed as Primate of Uganda in 2012. In recent years, he oversaw the redevelopment of the Anglican shrine and a museum dedicated to the memory of the Martyrs in Namugongo; and, last year, welcomed Pope Francis to the centre. And he persuaded the country's President, Yoweri Museveni, to declare an annual national holiday on the day that the country's former Archbishop, Janani Luwum, is remembered. Archbishop Luwum was assassinated in 1977.

This week's elections of Archbishops Chama and Ntagali took place this week during a meeting of CAPA in Kigali, Rwanda.

*****

It is clear that Pope Francis might not be the most solid brick in the seminary wall. He is, say his followers and some of his detractors, more heart than head, unlike his predecessor, Pope Benedict, who was clearly more head than heart. In this day and age, people prefer heart over head, which may not be the best thing in the world. This week, Canon Dr. Jules Gomes took on the Pope's latest gaffe, "I am not speaking of a war of religions. Religions don't want war. The others want war," he said, just hours before Fr Jacques Hamel, an elderly priest had been brutally killed in France by Islamic extremists while celebrating Mass. Dr. Gomes takes the Pope on in a piece about this in today's digest.

*****

The wages of battling sin are getting better for men and women of the cloth. Non-Catholic clergy have experienced significant increases in income even as their work weeks declined by more than 15 percent in recent decades, according to a major new study of clergy compensation published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. (While the non-Catholic category was primarily Protestant, it did include a small number of non-Christian clergy, the study said.)

The study is believed to be the first to take into account the benefits clergy receive in the form of housing allowances or living in church-provided residences, which usually cause difficulty in any wage comparison of clergy to the general public.

Overall, in inflation-adjusted wages, non-Catholic clergy made $4.37 more per hour in 2013 than they did in 1983. That figure is more than double the wage increase of the average worker with a college degree.

*****

It should not come as a complete surprise that Muslim representatives in Italy are now demanding the legalization of polygamy.

Responding to a new law allowing same sex couples to enter civil unions, Hamza Piccardo argued that if gay relationships, which Muslims disagree with, are a civil right, then Italians must accept polygamy as a civil right, too. The head of the Muslim Brotherhood-linked body insisted polygamy is a civil right and a matter of "equality of citizens before the law".

The UCOII president wrote: "When it comes to civil rights here, then polygamy is a civil right. Muslims do not agree with homosexual partnerships, and yet they have to accept a system that allows it. There is no reason why Italy should not accept polygamous marriages of consenting persons."

The call for polygamy, from Italy's largest Muslim umbrella group, was met with outrage by a number of politicians. Perhaps, but the logic is inescapable. Now, when will this thinking come to America and make its way to the Supreme Court?

The legal recognition of civil partnerships has been highly controversial in Italy, with its deep Catholic roots. In October, a representative from influential billionaire George Soros' Open Society Foundations attended an LGBT activist event in Rome.

The event, which lobbies the Synod of Bishops, was run by the newly formed Global Network of Rainbow Catholics. The network agitates against all Catholic scripture and Church decisions, language, and doctrine that it deems intolerant to homosexuals.

*****

One of the enduring myths sustained by Islamist scholars and helped along by idiot savants like Paul Vallely and published in The Independent is that Islam is the great innovator and inventor. It's all lies. For the full story on what they did not invent and did not change the world, click here:

https://wikiislam.net/wiki/How_Islamic_Inventors_Did_Not_Change_The_World

*****

Do you ever wonder where the Episcopal Church is headed? Do you ever wonder who will be our next generation of leaders? 'Come and see' on August 24th, when Kyrsha Allen and Matthew Yochum are commissioned as the 2016-17 interns by Georgia Bishop, Scott Benhase, and Columba House Missioners, the Revs. Guillermo and Kelly Steele. Well, look no further: http://www.virtueonline.org/dropbox/images/2016/08-August/next-tec-leader.jpg

*****

Dear friends,
We really must have a working budget. VOL urgently needs your financial support to keep going and to bring the news coming to you. We rely on you, our readers, to keep us going. The vast output of news that we grind out weekly and put into your e-mail does not happen by itself. It depends on a hard-working team of reporters and commentators.
Please help make this possible. You can send a donation to VOL via PAYPAL at the link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/
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Thank you for your support.

David

Legally righteous. When God justifies sinners, he is not declaring bad people to be good, or saying that they are not sinners after all; he is pronouncing them legally righteous, free from any liability to the broken law, because he himself in his Son has borne the penalty of their law-breaking. -- John R.W. Stott

The Left does not want to win the debate, it wants to shut down the debate. And we find this happening time and time again. Consider the issue of homosexuality and homosexual marriage. The left does not want these matters discussed and debated -- they want them force fed on a hapless population whether they like it or not. And their preferred means of "debate" is to simply attack you, call you names, and smear your reputation if you dare to disagree with them. Dare to appeal to facts, to history, to the wellbeing of children, or what have you, and you will be met with all the usual responses: "You are a bigot.""You're homophobic". "You are hateful." --- Mark Steyn

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
August 19, 2016

As evangelical and Anglo-Catholic parishes flee the Episcopal Church over its abundant heresies, liberal dioceses are being forced into the embarrassing position of having to sell now empty churches to groups that stand in deep contrast to what they once fervently believed.

As you may recall, former PB Jefferts Schori testified in court that she would rather sell empty churches for saloons, but that would not appear to be prime buyers.

One group that steadily buys up empty parishes are independent evangelical churches or Baptist groups that believe and proclaim the gospel, and the other group are Imams who buy them, strip them of all Christian images and then turn them into mosques.

If you feel outraged that a former Christian place of worship is now a mosque, don't blame Muslims, they have every right to buy what they can for pennies on the dollar or not at all. Connecticut Bishop Ian Douglas with the Executive Council's support, gave Christ Church, Avon Ct. now an empty parish, to a Muslim group at no cost, but sold Bishop Seabury church, that once housed over 700 Episcopalians, to a fundamentalist Baptist group.

The free exercise of religion means precisely that. If Episcopalians were preaching a clear, unadulterated gospel, their churches would not be emptying and dying, they would be full to overflowing. Proclaiming sodomy over salvation has not proven a winning strategy. As the Muslim population grows and they see an opportunity to buy something that is cheaper than buying land and building a mosque, why not! One can scream and holler at Christian churches being bought up by a religion that is basically foreign to American ears, but perhaps the screamin' and hollerin' is misdirected, perhaps it should be aimed at Episcopal bishops and clergy who no longer believe the gospel, (if they ever did). The call to repentance and faith should not only be aimed at Muslims, but to tens of thousands of Episcopalians who have never heard a clear presentation of the gospel and believe that Jesus is the only way to the Father!

*****

It comes as no real surprise that in the wake of declining attendance in churches that the 11 Episcopal seminaries in the US are struggling to survive. VOL's special correspondent, Mary Ann Mueller, has written a sterling piece on the state of these seminaries and has revealed that at least seventy percent of TEC seminaries have fewer than 100 students. A dying church draws no new converts and, as its pulpits empty and parishes close, the need for new priests grows less and less. Small parishes can get by with retired, filler priests who come at very minimal costs.

The seminary decline follows the bell curve of The Episcopal Church as it experiences loss in members, parish closings and an inability to attract a younger generation of Americans. Many believe that issues like the ordination of women to the priesthood and the episcopacy, the embrace of pansexuality and homosexual marriage now enshrined in canon law, reflect a Church that lacks a distinctive message separate from the prevailing culture. You can read her article here, or in today's digest. http://www.virtueonline.org/episcopal-seminaries-struggle-survive

*****

The Anglican Church of Canada is in free fall. Across the country they are closing parishes in one diocese after another. The Diocese of Algoma is set to close 16 churches in Muskoka out of a total of 35, leaving just 19 open.

According to news reports following years of declining membership and ongoing disagreement among its clergy about how best to adjust to shifting patterns of religious affiliation and church attendance, the bishop and the diocesan executive committee have approved a set of recommendations for reorganization that, if adopted, will lead to the shuttering of 16 of the deanery's 35 churches.

"We have too many churches," former Bishop Stephen Andrews, who left the diocese at the end of July to take up the position of principal of Wycliffe College in Toronto, said in an interview with the Anglican Journal. "Everybody agrees that there have to be fewer churches, but nobody agrees on which churches need to be rationalized--and they are pretty sure that it should be somebody else's church." Muskoka, one of Algoma's five deaneries, has the largest share of church buildings--35 of the diocese's 100 churches and chapels.
The recommendation, released in June, calls for a sweeping reorganization of the diocese into four regions, each of which will have one or two full-time clergy operating out of a handful of parishes.

There are more closures across the country.

*****

MADNESS IN MILWAUKEE. Crowds of "Black Lives Matter" rioters chanted "black power" as they targeted white individuals for violence in Milwaukee late Saturday night and early Sunday morning, according to a video posted online in the aftermath of a police shooting. A video posted by Paul Joseph Watson of Infowars shows rioters asking, "Is they white?" as cars drive slowly by. The nighttime footage appears to show cars being attacked by the mob, even to the point of trying to drag out the drivers.

So a black cop kills a gun-waving black man and Waukesha, Wisconsin, explodes in black rage with rioters attacking whites! Figure that out.

So the question is this; why is the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Michael Curry, totally silent on all this. He rages on about racism and white privilege in the Episcopal Church, but will not identify who the racists are. Perhaps he can't find any because two thirds of TEC are white women over 60 and can't be accused of racism.

Then why is he so silent about black on black violence, which is endemic in our major cities, especially Chicago? Why is he silent on the fact that 70 percent of young black men are growing up without fathers! I didn't make this up. The Police Chief of Dallas (a black man) said it was so. The young man who took down five cops had a bedroom looking like an arsenal. He had no father. Had the father been present, he would have walked into the boy's bedroom and said, "What the hell is this"? If Michael Curry doesn't wake up to the realities of black America and insists on endlessly blaming 'white privilege', then he will fast become irrelevant, if he isn't already.

*****

COLLAPSING CATHEDRALS. Heavy rains caused part of the roof to collapse at Cape Town's Cathedral of St George the Martyr before planned repairs to the structure could be completed, it was reported this week.

Experts are assessing damage to the metropolitical church of the Province of Southern Africa after part of the roof collapsed. Officials at the Cathedral of St. George the Martyr in Cape Town had been concerned about the condition of the roof for some time and had launched an appeal to replace the roof and its 40,000 tiles. But after heavy rains last week, part of the roof gave way.

The collapse was caused by rain water, which had worked its way through broken tiles and softened the ceiling's cement. Nobody was injured in the collapse.

St Paul's Cathedral in London, Ontario cannot face another winter with very little money, very few parishioners and a decaying building. Parishioners are selling jam, Anglican marmalade and pictorial calendars to raise one million dollars to make the repairs, a reader told VOL.

For 170 years, the gothic tower of St. Paul's Cathedral, episcopal seat of the diocese of Huron, has overlooked downtown London, Ont. But an unstable roof and sagging walls now threaten the building's structural integrity, and unless money can be raised in time to repair it before winter sets in, the building could become unsafe, says senior churchwarden Melissa Broadfoot.

"We cannot go through another winter," she told the Anglican Journal. "The danger is that it will become unsafe...so we're really trying to save the building."

The fault, Broadfoot explained, lies with the wooden trusses that hold up the roof. After decades of water damage, the ends of the trusses have rotted away, putting more pressure on the walls and leading to water damage to the brick. The rot, wrote one reader, is also theological and moral. The diocese has embraced pansexuality, which should tell you all you need to know.

In Christchurch, New Zealand, they are still wrangling over whether to replace or rebuild the cathedral after a force 9 earthquake demolished most of the building. Another deadline for progress on the cathedral within central Christchurch was recently missed, with both the government and the Anglican Church saying there is no news on what will happen with the Cathedral.

The Washington National Cathedral is still recovering from an earthquake that hit the East Coast of the US several years ago, and many are asking why this building was worse hit than other Washington structures. The cathedral needs millions of dollars to recover and they recently hired a full time rector/fundraiser with old school ties to boost the cathedral's fortunes.

It should be pointed out that none of the cathedrals are engaged in gospel proclamation; the Washington Cathedral, for example, opens its doors for Muslims to worship in the name of interfaithery.

*****

The Anglican Church in Southern Africa is to consider blessing same-sex civil unions when its provincial synod meets next month. But the motion, proposed by the Diocese of Saldanha Bay, would not permit clergy to solemnize same-sex marriages. The motion says that clergy should be "especially prepared for a ministry of pastoral care for those identifying as LGBTI" but that "any cleric unwilling to engage in such envisioned pastoral care shall not be obliged to do so." This will be pastoral "accommodation" NOT pastoral care. Pastoral care helps the sinner to live a holy lifestyle - pastoral accommodation is in effect an accommodation of a sinful lifestyle. In the terms stated here, it is neither biblical nor truly Anglican. You can read the full story in today's digest

*****

Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is a deeply conflicted man and leader, and this is making for the dis-ease many of us feel, especially Global South Anglicans. On the one hand, he seems to have a genuine concern and commitment to "re-evangelize" England. He wants to keep all of the benefits of an "established" Church, which has a unique public platform for such evangelism of the nation. He has to win back a hostile secular culture in which the majority of a younger generation believes in same-sex marriage and finds the traditional Biblical view of marriage immoral.

On the other hand, writes Phil Ashey of the American Anglican Council, Welby seems willing to write off those people in the Church of England who believe that the Scriptures speak with both clarity and authority to issues of human sexuality--including homosexuality and the blessing of same sex unions. His Executive Officer has admitted their willingness to "write off" 20% of its membership that cannot agree with the projected results of the "Shared conversations" currently taking place in the Church of England--results that will almost certainly include some "pastoral accommodation" of the blessing of civil, same-sex partnerships, in keeping with the recommendations of the Pilling Report. No doubt this is driving the failure of the "Shared Conversations" to engage the Scriptures seriously and with integrity, as we also noted here.

In effect, the Archbishop of Canterbury will be posting a "no trespassing" sign on these matters of human sexuality when it comes to the Bible. For the sake of reaching the nation, he appears willing to "write off" those Scriptures that speak with clarity and authority to matters of human sexuality--Scriptures which are the foundation of Lambeth 1998 Resolution I.10's prohibition of any Anglican blessing of same-sex unions, says Ashey.

"Here's the problem: Once you post a "No-trespassing" sign on one part of human life, and say that God's word is not welcome there, where do you stop? Once you write off one part of God's word, the Scriptures, despite its clarity and authority, where do you stop? If same-sex unions are off limits, why not open-marriage, or polygamy (men with multiple women) or polyandry (women with multiple men), or incest or pedophilia? We may say that "we will draw the line here and go no further," but logically, once you have abandoned the clarity and authority of Scripture one place, you have no grounds to draw the line anywhere, except where the cultural consensus says we should."

*****

Gunmen attacked a bishop's house in Juba this week, as the violence in the Sudan continues unabated. Last month, thousands of people sought sanctuary in All Saints' Cathedral in Juba, as fighting erupted in and around the city. Now the violence has reached the home of the assistant bishop of the diocese, Fraser Yugu, as it came under attack by gunmen.

A group of men fired bullets into the house of the assistant bishop of Juba in South Sudan in the early hours of Sunday, as they tried to force their way into the building. They fled when Bishop Fraser Yugu's pet dog began barking and raised the alarm.

Nobody was injured in the incident. But, as they left, the gunmen shot the dog and destroyed the rear windscreen of the bishop's car that was parked at his compound in Juba's Hai Kuwait residential area.

The motive of the attackers remains unknown. Christians in the Diocese of Juba have questioned why gunmen would want to storm the house of a clergyman who has maintained a neutral position in the recent political unrest. They have appealed to security forces to "take all necessary measures to protect civilians."

Juba is the capital of South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011. There has been an upsurge of violence in the region in recent weeks, coinciding with the fifth anniversary of independence.

*****

Leaked ISIS documents have shown that 70 per cent of recruits have hardly any knowledge of Islam and that some even had to read 'The Koran for Dummies' to learn about the religion.

An analysis of recruitment forms from the terror group has revealed that many of its militants do not even have a basic knowledge of the Koran or hadith - the sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad.

The documents were acquired by the Syrian opposition site. Zaman al-Wasl, and shared with the Associated Press.

Out of 3,000 recruits, they showed that only 24 per cent of recruits had an 'intermediate knowledge' of Islam, with just five per cent considered 'advanced students' of the religion.

Only five recruits overall were listed as having memorized the Koran.

*****

An ecumenical group of churches, including an Anglican archbishop, has renewed its call for Australia's refugee detention center on Nauru to close, after revelations of sustained abuse -- including the alleged cover-up of a rape. The Guardian newspaper last week published a swathe of official documents that detail years of abuse at the centre. The Archbishop of Melbourne, Philip Freier, described the revelations as "shocking" and "saddening".

Now, the country's Churches' Refugee Taskforce has accused the government of completely ignoring the allegations. "They were a horrific red flag to the scale of abuse and the Government did nothing," the taskforce's executive director, Misha Coleman, said.

The Nauru Files, as the documents published by the Guardian have been called, corroborate previous allegations submitted to the Government as far back as 2014, she said. "The Government knew. It then did nothing to prevent the ongoing daily acts of abuse committed on children and women especially.

"The letters detailed a range of abuse cases including a rape and an alleged cover-up of that rape -- it's clear from the files . . . that the situation has sunk to unholy depths."

The Dean of St John's Anglican Cathedral in Brisbane, the Very Rev. Dr. Peter Catt, chairs the taskforce. He said: "We had called for a Royal Commission into the offshore camps after some of the key issues raised in the report were referred back to the Nauruan police, in which we have no confidence whatsoever.

*****

There is no immediate fix to Nigeria's woes, says Anglican Primate Nicholas Okoh, who is touring the U.S., observing and preaching at his four Nigerian dioceses, all of whom are members of the Anglican Church in North America.

He is optimistic that Nigerians would soon begin to leave a normal life again. To this end, the cleric appealed to Federal Government to pay serious attention to the dwindling economy situation in the country.

Okoh, who was speaking in an interview at the Conference of Registrars, Chancellors and Legal Officers of the church, in Abuja, called on judiciary to refuse to be used by disgruntled politicians to scatter the country.

The Primate noted that although Nigeria is in a process of being revived, itneeded more patience and sacrifice to bounce back. "We have been assured by the Present administration, it will take quiet sometime to fixed Nigeria. There is no immediate fixed to Nigeria problem, to fix Nigeria of today requires a lot of patient and sacrifice."

*****

Teachers in Charlotte, North Carolina, have been advised to stop calling the children "boys and girls," according to a training presentation on transgender issues. Instead, the progressives who control Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, want teachers to identify the youngsters as either "students" or "scholars." So what if a teacher has a student who is dumb as a rock? Would the child still be called a scholar? The transgender guidelines, which will go into effect this month, range from the absurd to downright outrageous.

*****

A California lawmaker dropped a controversial proposal to regulate religious colleges in California this week. SB 1146 won't be the religious liberty threat many Christians feared. A day after religious leaders released an open letter calling on California to protect religious liberty in higher education, the lawmaker behind a controversial bill dropped the proposal in question, allowing religious schools to keep exemptions to anti-discrimination laws related to sexuality.

Under state Senator Ricardo Lara's amended bill, schools must "disclose if they have an exemption and report to the state when students are expelled for violating morality codes," the Los Angeles Times reported.

"Sighs of relief and prayers of gratitude that California #SB1146 bill (restricting religious liberty of colleges) has been dropped," tweeted National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) president Leith Anderson.

Earlier versions of Senate Bill 1146 would have prevented colleges that received state funds from enforcing codes of student conduct reflecting a college's religious beliefs about sexual identity, including teaching that marriage is between a man and woman and limiting bathrooms to biological gender. Traditionally, California's religious schools have received a religious exemption from non-discrimination laws. This bill would have limited it to students who were preparing for a religious career, such as ministry.

*****

It pays to protest. This week Target stores caved to a transgender bathroom backlash after the retail giant lost more than $10 billion in stock value.

Target is backtracking on its commitment to transgender bathroom "rights" with a sweeping move to install private bathrooms in stores nationwide.

The $20 million project, which over the next year is expected to install single-stall restrooms in each of its stores, comes after months of financial repercussions owing to the retail giant's decision to allow transgender individuals to use the restroom of their choosing. "Inclusivity is a core belief at Target," the April post reads. "[W]e welcome transgender team members and guests to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identity."

The announcement, and subsequent doubling down, from Target resulted in 1.5 million signing their names to a boycott sponsored by the American Family Association (AFA) and billions lost in stock value, with the retail giant revealing Wednesday its second-quarter earnings fell nearly 10 percent. The corporation blamed "a difficult retail environment" for its financial struggles. Way to go, America.

*****

Meantime, the Obama administration is spreading transgender bathroom regulations to most federally operated facilities. Online news and entertainment website Buzzfeed, is claiming to have obtained a draft notice of the new regulation ahead of its scheduled publication in the Federal Register later this week.

So-called transgender people will be able to access the bathroom conforming to their "gender identity" in over 9,200 federal buildings operated by the General Services Administration (GSA). The GSA manages day-to-day operations in federal buildings across the United States, including courthouses, the Social Security building, post offices,= and prisons.

Regulations, however, don't extend to the White House, the Capitol Building or national parks because they are not under GSA management. In April 2015, it was announced the White House would have under-neutral bathrooms. White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett commented that Obama "hired more openly LGBT Americans to serve in his administration than any other in history."

*****

What, no Episcopalians? According to LifeWay Research, same-sex couples are more likely to ask Presbyterian pastors to marry them. More than 120,000 same-sex couples have tied the knot since the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage nationwide last year. (The number of American weddings in 2014, by comparison, was more than 2.1 million.)

For preachers, requests to officiate at a same-sex wedding remain rare. Just 11 percent of the 1,000 Protestant senior pastors surveyed by LifeWay Research have been asked to perform a same-sex wedding.

Baptist pastors (1%) are the least likely to say they were asked to perform a same-sex wedding. Presbyterian/Reformed pastors (26%) are most likely. Lutherans (19%), Methodists (9%), Christian/Church of Christ (7%), and Pentecostals (6%) fall in between. No mention of Episcopalians in the Lifeway Research!

Overall, pastors who identify as mainline were three times more likely to have been asked than evangelical pastors (18% vs. 6%). Pastors aged 55 and older (14%) are twice as likely to have been asked than those 54 years and younger (7%).

Pastors of majority-African American churches are less likely than those of other majority ethnicities to be asked (4%).

"Most couples, if they want a church wedding, will ask a pastor they know or who they think will support them," said LifeWay executive director Scott McConnell. "For same-sex couples, this appears to be an older Presbyterian pastor."

A previous LifeWay study found most Protestant pastors believe same-sex marriage is morally wrong. So it's no surprise few are asked to perform such ceremonies, McConnell said.

About a third of senior pastors (34%) said that LGBT people are not allowed to serve in any capacity. Thirty percent say they can serve "anywhere." Fifteen percent say LGBT people can serve in at least one role. Twenty-one percent aren't sure or haven't discussed the issue.

*****

Dear friends,

We really must have a working budget. VOL urgently needs your financial support to keep the news coming to you. We rely on you, our readers, to keep us going. The vast output of news that we grind out weekly and put into your e-mail does not happen by itself. It depends on a hard-working team of reporters and commentators.
Please help make this possible. You can send a donation to VOL via PAYPAL at the link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/
Or 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

As the Episcopal Church sinks slowly into the sunset, with millions of dollars in Trust Funds, valuable properties worth millions of dollars strategically located in large cities and a healthy Church Pension Fund, the other side of the coin is that its pulpits will lose several thousand priests and close more than 1500 churches over the next six years.

The Episcopal Church will see a drop of more than 2,000 full time parish priests in the next half dozen years, as retirement numbers increase geometrically, with a likely decrease of ordinands going into the ministry, Church statistics reveal.

This translates into the number of full time priests being reduced by 65% - 75% of total congregations in the denomination. These numbers are from 2014, the last year reported in some cases. Indications are that the situation is probably worse now in 2016. The average age of an Episcopal priest is 59 (or the mean - half older, half younger) there is a tsunami of retirements headed their way in the next 5-10 years with no possible way of filling pulpits with new ordinands.

A researcher looking at the Church's archives after reading Mary Ann Mueller's extensive article on the crisis in American Episcopal seminaries that showed 70% of TEC's 11 seminaries with fewer than 100 students, crunched the numbers, showing that of the 11 approved and accredited seminaries (one apparently closing in 2017) only 9 exist, if one leaves out Yale and Bishop Kemper. Kemper is basically an online diploma mill. Mueller's story can be accessed here. http://tinyurl.com/h7lexzu

For all its efforts to double the Church by 2020 and TREC, an attempt to reimagine the Church, nothing, it seems, is working. The church continues on its Gadarene slide. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

The scandals in TEC prep schools seem never ending. Two more emerged this week. The first was in Boca Raton, Florida, where a prep school teacher was caught in inappropriate contact with students.

A probe blasted the Florida prep school for failing to protect students from the teacher's inappropriate behavior. According to The Palm Beach Post, administrators at St. Andrew's School looked the other way last year as one teacher seemed to have inappropriate relationships with four students despite repeated warnings. You can read the full story in today's digest.

The second school is the ongoing saga being played out at St. Paul's, in Concord, New Hampshire, where attorneys there are pushing back on a Senior Salute civil lawsuit brought by a 15-year old Jane Doe and her parents. The parents are suing St. Paul's School for failure to protect daughter from Owen Labrie's sexual advances. However, the school wants to limit media coverage because the headlines are making it almost impossible for the elite Episcopal preparatory school to shake the consequences from the 2014 impropriate actions of a graduating senior with an underage student.

In August last year, graduating senior, Owen Labrie, was convicted on three counts of misdemeanor Sexual Assault, one misdemeanor count of Endangering the Welfare of a Child and one felony count of Prohibited Use of Computer Equipment. The final count brought with it a one-year jail sentence, five-year probation, and the requirement to register as a sex offender in Vermont.

St. Paul's attorneys want to reveal her name, but victims' right advocates feel that if her identity is made known, it would make it harder for other young assault victims to come forward and reveal a sexual assault.

"Someone as young as she is (Miss X) shouldn't have to choose between getting justice and publishing her name," Colby Bruno, a senior legal counsel at the Boston-based Victim Rights Law Center, told the Concord Monitor. "Not only can she not undo the assault that happened to her, but by publishing her name, she can't put the cat back into the bag. In the days of Internet searches, there is the concern that this will follow her for the rest of her life."

St. Paul's defense attorneys replied: "Look, we'll let you go under a pseudonym, that's OK. You can be 'Jane and John Doe parents of J.D.' but in exchange -- our little quid pro quo -- you've got to stop talking."

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

*****

There is apparently no end to the underhanded ways TEC is pushing its pansexual agenda in Africa. Jeff Walton, writing for Juicy Ecumenism, says funding from western progressives in the Anglican Church of Canada and U.S.-based Episcopal Church, are using the Anglican Alliance, the Anglican Consultative Council's (ACC) development, relief, and advocacy agency which is based out of the Anglican Communion Office in London, to finance and change the churches' teaching on marriage and so-called rights of equality in African provinces.

"I have to confess to you that I am deeply disturbed by some of what is happening in the Communion and its churches today," Anglican Communion Secretary General, Josiah Idowu-Fearon. reported. "I have seen Anglicans who are poor and marginalized in their own societies plead for their right to maintain Anglican orthodoxy in their own churches, only to be swept aside by a campaign to change the churches' teaching on marriage and so-called rights of equality."

There is no lack of money, in pursuing this agenda, he said. You can read Walton's full account in today's digest or here: http://tinyurl.com/gs3yj7y

*****

The secretary general of the Anglican Communion, Dr. Josiah Idowu-Fearon, is urging Anglican leaders in Africa not to "fall in line" with "socially progressive" views and programs "which suggest that the Bible is wrong". Speaking to members of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA) during their meeting in Rwanda, Idowu-Fearon said that the Church "will not crumble or bow the knee to a godless secular culture that despises the Bible and what it teaches" and urged the Churches in Africa to remain focused on serving the people of the continent.

He made his remarks in a wide-ranging address in which he praised the Anglican Communion as "the one organization throughout Africa which is trusted to deliver on projects."

He said that, after a year in his present role, he had come to appreciate the "important and central position" that Anglican churches in the "incredible, diverse, beautiful and challenging continent" of Africa "occupy on the world stage."

He said: "Through our work, we are the source of the gospel, of education, of democracy, of civil society and political parties; and of the reduction of maternal and child mortality on our continent," he said. "These were not imports from outside. These resulted from the work of our African grandfathers and grandmothers in the faith.

"They were the village evangelists, and catechists, and schoolteachers, and nurses and farmers and laborers and parents who brought to our continent the living Word of God, Jesus, through the written word of God, the Bible in the power of the Spirit.

"It was Bible-believing Christians who have transformed the face of Africa in the last 150 years and we can transform it again."

*****

A dozen homosexual clergy in the Church of England are set to defy the Church's official stance on same-sex marriage. They say they will write to church leaders to say they are already in same-sex marriage and want their official position reconsidered.

They are set to reveal that they have married their partners, defying the official line taken by church leaders on same-sex marriage. Half the signatories have already declared themselves to be in these unacceptable marriages, including Andrew Foreshew-Cain, who was one of the first priests to openly defy the ruling.

The letter is likely to reignite the heated debate on the issue, which has divided the church since same-sex marriages were legalized in England and Wales in March 2014.

It will also further alienate the Global South and GAFCON primates, who see this defiance go unstopped by the Archbishop of Canterbury, or even repudiated by him.

*****

Burundi has a new [GAFCON] archbishop. He is the Most Rev. Martin Blaise Nyaboho, who was installed as the fourth Archbishop of Burundi, on Sunday, August 22, in in Bujumbura's Holy Trinity Cathedral. He was elected as the as the fourth primate of the province, in June. He succeeds Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi, who retired after 11 years in the post.

The secretary general of the Anglican Communion, Dr. Josiah Idowu-Fearon, also took part in the service. He said that Archbishop Martin was taking up office at a tough time in Burundi and also within the Anglican Communion.

Referring to the Church as "beautiful but fragile", Dr. Idowu-Fearon presented Archbishop Martin with a glass jug that, if dropped, would easily break. "Don't break the Church," he said, "but keep the focus and unity of the Province".

There were also representatives from the Church Mission Society (CMS), Mothers' Union and the Church of England's Diocese of Winchester, which has a companion link with the Anglican Church of Burundi.

The Anglican presence in Burundi was established through the work of CMS in the 1930's. It grew rapidly as a result of the East African Revival. Today, it has some members from an estimated population of just over nine million people in Burundi.

*****

The Archbishop of Wales, who has spent 14 years at the helm of the Church of Wales, will retire next year. He is the longest serving archbishop in the worldwide Anglican Communion. He will also retire as Bishop of Llandaff after more than 17 years, having previously been Bishop of Bangor for nearly seven years.

Morgan is among the most revisionist of Western archbishops in the Anglican Communion, whose only legacy was changing a law enabling women to be ordained as bishops and then apologizing "unreservedly" to gay couples for prejudice in the church. Under his tutelage, there was no evangelical revival and churches continue to wilt and die.

In Sept, 2014, I wrote about the The Washed up World of the Anglican Church of Wales and noted that Morgan said that he would resist the founding of another province with every fiber of his body. He was, of course, alluding to the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). He made this statement at the 2009 Virginia Annual Council.

Well, his body might need new fibers because his Church might not be around for very much longer at the present rate of decline.

According to the latest statistics (2013), the Anglican Church in Wales shows Average Sunday Attendance (over 18) of just a little over 31,000 and under 18 of just a few over 6,000. That's a drop of some 1,728 persons (over and under age 18) from 2012. The Church is not attracting Millennials.

The trend for the future will be much the same as the past as there are no green shoots of renewal extant in the province, a source told VOL. Wales is the former ecclesiastical home of the less than notable, Dr. Rowan Williams.

*****

Last week, at an LGBT summit held during the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, leaders within the movement laid out their plans to attack religious freedom across American to advance their agenda.

According to reports from The Daily Signal, leaders intend to rewrite the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include "protections" over sexual orientation and "gender identity," strip state Religious Freedom Restorations Act laws and other local so-called "anti-LGBT" legislation, and exploit the Americans With Disability Act to force private businesses to adhere to transgenderism (by using gender dysphoria as a disability).

These leaders' endgame is pretty straightforward: Total destruction of religious liberty surrounding the LGBT movement. Dissent is not an option. You will comply.

The first and foremost goal of the LGBT lobby is to rewrite the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by enacting the Equality Act, under which the Civil Rights Act would be amended to "include sexual orientation and gender identity among prohibited categories of discrimination." According to Evan Wolfson, the former president of Freedom to Marry, the Equality Act is "unfinished business."

Essentially, the re-writing of the legislation from over 50 years ago, would void protection from private businesses under the 1993 RFRA, signed under former President Bill Clinton. For instance, if you're a business owner with deeply-held religious beliefs against participation in gay weddings, you're out of luck (and First Amendment protections): get ready to bake that cake and take those pictures for Sam and John's wedding.

Building on this attack, LGBT leaders plan on voiding all religious protections standing in the way of their totalitarian agenda, since, according to Wolfson, religion is the "excuse" that "people are bigots."

"To defeat their opponents, LGBT groups plan to go state by state to strike down religious freedom measures and, instead, implement their own laws on sexual orientation and gender identity. They said they intend to do this until new federal law or court decisions negate that necessity," reports The Daily Signal.

In other words, even local and state governments will be stripped of religious protections. For example, charities and even adoption agencies which reject same-sex marriage and transgenderism, will be forced to comply with the LGBT agenda if such religious liberties are overturned.

Lastly, the LGBT lobby plans on exploiting the American With Disabilities Act to force private companies to "accommodate" trans people--people diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

Leaders have their eye on a case in Pennsylvania at the moment: Blatt v. Cabela's Retail Inc. A trans "woman" is suing over the lack of accommodation he received as a person diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Such a win would be the "'first of its kind litigation strategy' with the potential of overturning exclusions for transgender individuals under the Americans With Disabilities Act."

LGBT activists plan on teaming up with dominate progressive groups like Black Lives Matter to help advance their agenda. Gun-control advocacy and abortion "rights" are also on the list of causes the LGBT lobby plans on co-opting for gain.

If these leaders execute their plans, religious freedom will be utterly null and void when it comes to deeply held beliefs concerning same-sex marriage and transgenderism. As usual, the culture battle is being brought to conservatives; if they don't fight back, swaths of American religious liberty could disappear before our eyes.

*****

Seven South Carolina University Presidents have written a letter to their Governor Nikki Haley over what they see as a violation of their religious rights.

"As South Carolinians, we are fortunate to have leaders in all areas of government who understand the value of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, specifically its provision for the free exercise of religion. You are among these leaders. We believe religious freedom at our institutions is at serious risk, and we respectfully ask for your help.

It is widely known that America's oldest institutions of higher education began as religious colleges, and that throughout the history of the United States, faith-based colleges and universities have been free to conduct their campuses in ways that are consistent with their religious convictions.

However, in recent weeks, we have grown concerned about developing threats to the free exercise of religion in higher education at both the national and state level, and the potential impact those threats would have on our longstanding ability to set expectations of conduct that align with our institutions' longstanding religious tenets.

One such example, Senate Bill 1146 in the California Assembly, would greatly limit the ability of students, faculty, and staff on our campuses to freely exercise their religious beliefs. As originally introduced, SB 1146 would deny students' ability to participate in state grant programs--programs that exist to help low-income students, many of whom are racial minorities--at schools that are found in violation of the bill.

The Obama Administration has placed mandates on educational institutions that essentially force public school students to use bathrooms with members of the opposite biological sex, even though to do so violates the privacy and modesty of students, who may object on the basis of their deeply held religious values.

Our nation has historically held to the idea that conscience and religious conviction come before the demands of the state. While we and our institutions do not agree on all religious matters, we all agree that the government has no place in discriminating against religious individuals or religious educational institutions by disqualifying them from grant and loan programs because of religious expression guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution.

*****

A remote controlled flying drone, equipped with a video camera, is to be used to identify maintenance requirements of historic churches in Yorkshire, England. The Church of England's dioceses of Sheffield and York are to take part in a pilot program organized by the National Churches Trust. The scheme will be funded by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund -- a grant-making body distributing funds from the UK's National Lottery.

The National Churches Trust (NCT) will use the £90,100 GBP to establish the Yorkshire Maintenance Project, which, they say, will "help keep churches and chapels in Yorkshire in good condition and to prevent the need for expensive repairs."

The project will entail drone surveys of churches, training workshops to help volunteers maintain church buildings and a new Maintenance Booker website where churches of all denominations can organize gutter clearances and other urgent maintenance tasks.

It is not the first time that churches have found a use for drones. Last month, the authorities at ChristChurch Cathedral in New Zealand, released dramatic footage showing the extent of the damage caused by the 2011 earthquake to the city's historic cathedral; and the Church in Wales' Diocese of Llandaff explained that drones were being used to map ancient burial grounds.

*****

The Archbishop of Canterbury's communications team has a cool dozen people to help him get the word out. He seems to have more PR, Media and Communications people around him than the Prime Minister of Britain!!! You can check out the list here:

https://www.churchofengland.org/media-centre/communications-office.aspx

*****

The Diocese of Montreal has an unsustainable deficit and even an unsustainable future. Mainline denominations love to talk about sustainability. Usually, it relates to the church's obsession with anthropogenic global warming, something that may not actually exist and, therefore, something that demands the full attention of pious clergy everywhere, writes David of Samizdat, an orthodox Canadian blogger.

"The Diocese of Montreal faces a real instance of sustainability -- or, rather, unsustainability. Its deficit is unsustainable. Ultimately, that means the diocese itself is unsustainable; the only question is, will debt cause it to evaporate before it melts due to global warming?"

A recent report from the diocese revealed this: Delegates to the annual diocesan synod approved a budget for 2017 with revenue of $2.08 million and expenses of $2.38 million, calling for a $300,856 operating loss, a little less than the $331,975 loss now forecast for this year. The operating losses were $529,482 in 2015 and $400,983 in 2014.

Diocesan treasurer Ron O'Connell told delegates, "Our diocese cannot sustain this rate of loss." He said, "It's very important that these things be addressed sooner than later, so that people understand that it's time for action." A number of parishes as well are facing threats to whether they can sustain themselves, he said, and some of them need assistance from the diocese in finding ways to "re-purpose" church buildings and other properties.

In addition to the operating losses, the diocese is shouldering special costs of establishing a new "church plant" in the former Church of St. James Apostle. The impact of these on diocesan funds is estimated at $200,000 in 2016 and the budget provides for another $200,000 in 2017. Mr. O'Connell said a further $100,000 is expected to be spent in 2018, following which collections from new worshippers at the church plant are forecast to move the plant into the black.

The 2017 budget approved by the synod, includes some spending reductions. With the shift to publishing The Anglican Montreal to four times a year rather than 10, beginning this fall, the newspaper is expected to cost the diocese $40,000 in 2016, instead of the $53,500 in the original 2016 budget, and $32,100 in the 2017 budget.

Also, spending on the French language ministry in Sorel, expected to cost $31,500 this year, is eliminated from the 2017 budget. Audited financial statements presented to the synod showed that the assets of the diocese declined to just under $14.1 million, including $8.7 million in investments at the end of 2015 from $15.1 million, including $11.1 million in investments at the end of 2014. After deducting liabilities, net assets declined to $11.3 million from $12.9 million.

A knowledgeable, former priest of the diocese told VOL that when Reg Hollis retired from being bishop, the evangelicals, charismatics and catholics could not agree on a candidate. Andrew Hutchison, the liberal, won and proceeded to demolish the diocese. It went from 90,000 Anglicans to 19,000 during his tenure. Then they made him Primate of Canada. Re-evangelizing the diocese by the new woman bishop, a charismatic, who, of course, is pro-homosexual marriage, is not promising.

*****

Prince Hassan of Jordan, a Muslim, has teamed up with Dr Ed Kessler, the Jewish interfaith expert, to issue a joint denunciation of the persecution of Christians in the Middle East. Writing in a joint opinion piece in the UK's Daily Telegraph, they denounce as "incredible", claims by Daesh that Christianity is a Western import to the region. "Christianity has been part of the essential fabric of the Middle East for two thousand years", they say, ". . . it was born here and exported as a gift to the rest of the world. Christian communities have been intrinsic to the development of Arab culture and civilization."

*****

In the last VIEWPOINTS we told you about the declining world of the TEC's Episcopal seminaries. So here's the good news about America's largest seminaries? They are all solidly evangelical.

Thanks to figures collected by the Association of Theological Schools (ATS), from the 2015-16 academic year, there appears an interesting picture: students seeking training for church ministry in the United States are largely attracted to evangelical Protestant seminaries, a trend that hasn't changed much over the past twenty years.

The evangelical Fuller Theological Seminary ranks largest, with 1,542 full-time enrolled students during the 2015-16 academic year. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary follow closely behind with 1,438 and 1,356 full-time enrolled students, respectively. All of the ten largest seminaries in the country are evangelical Protestant. Five of the six theological seminaries associated with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) are among the top ten largest in the country. Meanwhile, the SBC-affiliated Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary barely missed the list, with 705 full-time students enrolled. (TEC's combined 11 seminary enrollment is 599).

Do you think there might be a lesson or two to be learned by TEC seminary leaders about what constitutes a good seminary?

*****

In Louisville, KY, a federal judge dismissed all charges against a Kentucky county clerk in light of a new state law. Federal Judge David Bunning -- a George W. Bush appointee -- dismissed three lawsuits against Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, arrested last year for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses.

"In light of these proceedings, and in view of the fact that the marriage licenses continue to be issued without incident," Bunning ruled, "there no longer remains a case or controversy before the Court."

In September 2015, Davis spent five days in jail owing to her refusal to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. A fervent Christian, she declared, "To affix my name or authoritative title on a certificate that authorizes marriage that conflicts with God's definition of marriage as a union between one man and one woman violates my deeply held religious convictions and conscience. For me, this would be an act of disobedience to my God."

*****

The Archbishop of the United Episcopal Church of North America (UECNA) Peter D. Robinson is moving east from Prescott, AZ where he has been pastor of St. Paul's Anglican Church and has accepted an invitation to be Minister-in-Charge of St. David's Anglican Church, Charlottesville, VA. He will maintain his present title and add Bishop Ordinary of a reorganized Eastern Missionary District.

*****

Dear friends,

We really must have a working budget. VOL urgently needs your financial support to keep the news coming to you. We rely on you, our readers, to keep us going. The vast output of news that we grind out weekly and put into your e-mail does not happen by itself. It depends on a hard-working team of reporters and commentators.

Please help make this possible. You can send a donation to VOL via PAYPAL at the link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/

Or you can send a snail mail check to:

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Thank you for your support.

David

Spiritually speaking, I believe that Satan is the ultimate deceptive force and mastermind behind not just the marriage aspect of their [homosexual] agenda, but also behind the entire distortion that somehow managed to turn a dysfunctional human sexual behavior into a "civil rights" cause. --- Dean Bailey

There is no evidence that the secular gatekeepers are even willing to hear a minimalist or revisionist Christian argument, much less an argument based in orthodox Christianity that is not accommodated to the current Zeitgeist. --- Albert Mohler

When we look at the biblical commandment to "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations," the natural outflow of that is the planting of new churches. --- Daniel Im

By David W. Virtue DD
www.virtueonline.org
Sept 2, 2016

And so it has begun in the Church of England.

A group of parishes is preparing what could be the first step towards a formal split in the Church of England over issues such as homosexuality, with the creation of a new "shadow synod" vowing to uphold traditional teaching.

Representatives of almost a dozen congregations in the Home Counties are due to gather in a church hall in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, later this week for the first session of what they say could eventually develop into an alternative Anglican church in England.

Organizers, drawn from the conservative evangelical wing of Anglicanism, say they have no immediate plans to break away - but are setting up the "embryonic" structures that could be used to do so if the established church moves further in what they see as a liberal direction.

The new alliance will be viewed as a "church within a church", but founders have not ruled out full separation if, for example, the Church of England offers blessing-style services for same-sex unions - a move expected to be considered by bishops in the next few months.

I have no doubt whatsoever that the Church of England will follow the lead of TEC and the ACoC. Western Anglicanism is in the grip of the dominant principalities and powers of our age and its submission to the rulers of the darkness of this world has been willing, defiant and full of pride -- or should I say Pride. The outcome is inevitable. I have posted several stories from the UK in today's digest, addressing this issue in depth.

When I asked where was the Anglican Mission in England (AMiE), I was told that the AMiE didn't plan or direct this group, but they may come in to offer oversight if some of the folk decide to leave the C of E. There are many people who feel the same way but have not done anything about it yet, VOL was told.

"Archbishop Justin knows that the 'Rubicon' is the blessings of same sex relationships, so he is, I think, trying to find a way to enable that without all the conservatives leaving, and GAFCON/Global South treating the C of E like TEC."

There are three methods he can use:

a) Facts on the ground - more and more clergy in homosexual marriages, etc., with no discipline from the church (i.e. don't change the church's teaching - just let it change on the ground)

b) Public education - lots of articles and news items promoting revisionism, for example, in Church Times, CEN, Christian Today etc.

c) Keep using carrot and stick for conservatives - if you don't make trouble, we might promote you, but if you do make trouble, no-one will speak to you

We are already there.

*****

Keeping the pressure on the Church of England this week was GAFCON Chairman and Nigerian Primate, Nicholas Okoh, who sent out his August letter praising the ACNA, while at the same time noting the "steep decline" in attendance in The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada.

He ripped a good one when he said, "Without bold action and commitment to the ACNA as a new province... a whole continent would have been lost to orthodox witness within the Anglican Communion." That's telling Welby. Okoh then went on to blast the Church of England for exporting its problems to the rest of the Communion.

"GAFCON recognizes that the Church is not ours. It belongs to Jesus and it is Jesus who builds the Church through his word. We are to be his instruments and not presume to be the architects. Schism happens, as it has in North America, when church leaders take the design into their own hands," You can read his full take in today's digest.

Now I had "warned" VOL readers that when Okoh took over as GAFCON chairman, that a new day had dawned for the Global South. His take-no-prisoners approach makes me personally feel that VOL, which has taken the same approach for many years, has been vindicated. I can die happy.

*****

The Episcopal House of Bishops is meeting in the fall in Detroit, and the main agenda item is something called Human Synergistics. So I looked it up and here is what I found. Human Synergistics is all about managerial approaches, behavioral styles, and organizational skills and how to identify strengths and development opportunities, pinpoint barriers to successful performance etc.

In TEC's case it is how not to hire a besotted women bishop or ordain more trannie priests, or how not to hire the wrong people at 815 the church's national headquarters to run the church. Once achieved, throw the Jesus Movement into the mix and stir vigorously with a spoonful of white privilege bashing and anti-racism training, and out will pop invigorated bishops ready to lead the church into a glorious future.

The illustrious HOB will not, apparently, discuss the overwhelming decline going on in TEC, the coming loss of 2000 priests over the next 6 years, closing parishes and the fact that nearly 50% of all parishes now can't afford a full time priest. Not important enough apparently. Above all, no mention of the gospel of God's grace to save sinners (there actually might still be a few left in the HOB). No, it is all about church management engineering. One wonders what goes on in the minds of bishops like Dan Martins (Springfield) -- an Anglo-Catholic and Bill Love (Albany) an evangelical catholic, as they listen to this twaddle at a cost of about $2,000 to attend this useless gabfest.

One former TEC bishop wrote to VOL and said this; "[It] looks like the same old, self-destructive stuff, David. You can't talk about the Gospel if you don't believe Jesus is Lord and Scripture is authoritative!" Nope, you can't.

*****

The Anglican Church of Canada would like you to believe that it has more important things on its mind than sex; homosexual sex, in particular.

David of Samizdat writes; "In Canada, around 0.12% of the population are same-sex couples in a civil marriage. Of those, the number pining for a liturgical Anglican seal of approval on their matrimonial state would be even smaller, to the extent that they would represent an extremely small portion of the Canadian population. So the ACoC should have more important things on its mind.

But it doesn't. Here is the headline of the front page of the Diocese of Niagara's newspaper:

EQUAL MARRIAGE COMING IMMEDIATELY TO NIAGARA

The little idiot bishop who runs this diocese has run most orthodox Anglicans out of the diocese and is attempting to sell properties he took back from them to developers to fill his coffers.

*****

Nigerian Anglican Archbishop Nicholas Okoh was in the US recently and VOL obtained an interview with his North American lead bishop, Julian Dobbs. His primary message was that there be 'no compromise' with either Archbishop Welby or North American Primates Michael curry or Fred Hiltz.

In New York City, the Archbishop and his team worshipped at Christ Church, NYC, a CANA East congregation under the leadership of the Rev. Keith Paulus. This congregation meets in the city on the Upper East Side, and Archbishop Okoh experienced the vitality of this inner city Anglican congregation which impacts the life of New York City with the gospel.

Okoh did not meet with PB Michael Curry, who is just down the road.

When VOL asked if Archbishop Okoh held out any hope of reconciliation between the Episcopal Church and the Global South, he replied, that the only way for there to be any reconciliation is through genuine repentance, and for the Episcopal Church to return to the faith once for all entrusted to the saints.

"This is a church that remains faithful to the Bible, no matter what the cost; a church that is active in discipleship and evangelism on the local, national and global level and a church (that) influences society, serving the poor and needy, while at the same time influencing leadership with gospel principles through which people will come to know Christ personally in their lives. The Anglican Communion has been used by God in the past and it can be used by God again if she remains faithful to Christ and the word of God written."

*****

Just to remind you of how perilous it can be to be a Christian in Africa, consider what nearly happened in Mukono, Uganda, this week when the Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, the Most Rev. Stanley Ntagali and 38 of his bishops, were nearly lynched by a mob while touring a disputed piece of land in Mukono District.

The group that included Uganda Christian University Vice Chancellor, Dr. John Ssenyonyi, had gone to visit a one square mile piece of land that belongs to the Church of Uganda. The land in question is currently being developed by Uganda Christian University, an institution of the church.

The tour nearly ended when a group of people who were meeting at a nearby bar approached the bishops, hurling insults at the priests while threatening to kill them. The mob brought match boxes and dry grass and tried to set the university's bus, which had transported the bishops to the site, on fire. They were saved in the nick of time.

If it's not Boko Haram, then it is someone else ready to take out our African Anglican brothers and sisters. Now think about that as you read the daily whine by Episcopal sodomites looking for acceptance for their reprehensible behavior that has only divided the Anglican Communion.

*****

The Church of England has mastered the art of the non-apology, says Anglican columnist Jules Gomes.

"When is an apology not an apology? An apology is not an apology when a Church of England bishop offers it to a victim of sexual abuse on a silver platter of spin as a tactical cop-out while shedding crocodile tears and mumbling 'Awfully sorry, old chap!' in the mode of a Bertie Wooster facing a snappy Gussie Fink-Nottle.

"The C of E has been caught with its pants down in yet another monumental cock-up with the embarrassing revelation of how bishops were instructed only to give partial apologies--if at all--to victims of sexual abuse to avoid being sued. A survivor of child sexual abuse has issued a damning indictment of the C of E's hierarchy, naming and shaming it for washing its hands 'like Pontius Pilate'.

"The old-fashioned practice of a heartfelt apology, deeply rooted in the Christian theology of repentance and reconciliation, has now been turned into an episcopal Punch and Judy show with lawyers, bureaucrats and managers on fat cat salaries pulling the strings while their purple-clad puppets dance to their dirges, desperately clutching at mitre and crosier." You can read Dr. Gomes' excellent take on this in today's digest.

*****

Vicars in England have been warned not to wear dog collars in public for fear of Islamist attack, writes Archbishop Cranmer at his blog.

Vicars don't need to say, "Hello, I'm the vicar." Their dog collars make voiceless introduction: they are an emblem of office; an indication of vocation and service. They are woven into the Christian fabric of our public life, as commonplace as dog-walkers and chocolate-box village churches. So to read that vicars are being advised not to wear a dog collar in public because it makes them an easy target for Islamists is disheartening, to say the least.

The Mirror reports that "knifemen will target Western church for their next attack", and about half-way down we read:

A vicar, who declined to be named, told Mirror Online they have been warned by church diocese officials not to wear their dog collars in public because it marks them out as a potential target. He claimed they have also been warned to avoid being in churches on their own.

We are not told which officials in which diocese have issued this warning, but it is advice which needs to be ignored. To heed such guidance is to surrender to fanatical Islamists; to conceal one's Christian faith out of fear of the consequences; to hide one's light under a bushel in order not to provoke some hot-headed Muslim extremist to combat.

Easy for someone to say who's not in danger of being a target, you may say. But what have we become if we relinquish the vestments of our national faith out of fear of the adherents of another religion? What is ceded? Who is appeased? Where is the victor and who is the vanquished?

It is wise and helpful for security experts to issue 'Counter Terrorism Advice for Churches'. But vicars don't work 9.00-5.00: it's a 24/7 job (maybe Mondays off, if you're lucky). They are supposed to be identifiable when they are not in church, because they are always at work and forever on duty (even when they're not). By all means install CCTV and "be alert for attackers, who are likely to be armed with knives", but, for God's sake, don't let the Islamic State force you to conceal the marks of your Christian faith. No, you must make every effort to preach truth, in season and out; you must symbolize the blessings of salvation when you can; you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints (Jude 1:3). Defend the truth vigorously. Walk by faith continuously. Guard the treasure. Be bold for Christ.

The diocese which advises otherwise, has already surrendered.

*****

A UK-based children's charity with links to the Church of England reports that more than a quarter of a million girls in Britain are unhappy with their lives and appearance. The study, by the Children's Society, reports that "huge numbers [of girls are] struggling with the way they look." The finding is reported in the latest edition of the Good Childhood Report -- a series of studies into children's lives based on surveys of thousands of young people.

*****

For the first time in modern history, Europe's deaths have exceeded births with the continent in perfect health, free of the diseases and wars that reduced numbers catastrophically during ancient and medieval times.

But that's not all, reports Guilio Meotti, in an article published by the Manhattan-based, conservative-minded Gatestone Institute. Although "during 2015, 5.1 million babies were born in the EU, while 5.2 million persons died, the overall "European population increased overall from 508.3 million to 510.1 million."

As the article's title, "Europe: The Substitution of a Population," foretells, mass immigration from different cultures in Africa and the Middle East accounts for the growth. Meotti prophecies nothing less than the death of Europe.

"Europe's suicidal birth rate, coupled with migrants who multiply faster, will transform European culture. The declining fertility rate of native Europeans coincides, in fact, with the institutionalization of Islam in Europe and the 're-Islamization' of its Muslims."

European leaders, almost all secularists, don't seem to care, Meotti observes. They have already let the civilization that led humanity from pagan darkness fall back into something worse: "a frivolous libertarianism, an ideology under the guise of freedom that wants to deconstruct all the ties that bind man to his family, his parentage, his work, his history, his religion, his language, his nation, his freedom."

*****

The entire 'LGBT' narrative just crumbled, as VOL reported on last week. Here is what Matt Barber of Townhall.Com wrote: If your daughter, sister, mother or friend "identified" as a fat person trapped in a perilously emaciated body -- if she truly believed she was obese, but, in reality, suffered from anorexia -- would you affirm her "fatness" and get her liposuction, or would you go to the ends of the earth to help her bring her subjective (and mistaken) identity into alignment with objective reality? When someone is engaged in demonstrably self-destructive behavior, it is not loving, but hateful, to encourage persistence.

It was, ironically, lesbian activist and writer Dorothy Allison who once wrote, "Things come apart so easily when they have been held together with lies." In validation of this truism, a series of new peer-reviewed studies have just been released that serve to utterly debunk and deconstruct key "progressive" homosexual-activist talking points.

This study, conducted by world renowned Johns Hopkins University scientists, Dr. Lawrence S. Mayer and Dr. Paul R. McHugh, is a meta-analysis of data from over 200 peer-reviewed (and left-leaning) studies regarding "sexual orientation" and "gender identity." It was published in the fall 2016 edition of The New Atlantis journal, and is, far and away, the most objective, exhaustive and comprehensive study on the topic to date.

The research established, among other things:

"The understanding of sexual orientation as an innate, biologically fixed property of human beings -- the idea that people are 'born that way' -- is not supported by scientific evidence."

"Sexual orientation" in adolescents is "fluid over the life course for some people, with one study estimating that as many as 80 percent of male adolescents who report same-sex attractions no longer do so as adults."

"Compared to heterosexuals, non-heterosexuals are about two to three times as likely to have experienced childhood sexual abuse."

"Gay"-identified people are "at an elevated risk for a variety of adverse health and mental health outcomes."

"Gay"-identified people experience "nearly 2.5 times the risk of suicide."

"The hypothesis that gender identity is an innate, fixed property of human beings that is independent of biological sex -- that a person might be 'a man trapped in a woman's body' or 'a woman trapped in a man's body' -- is not supported by scientific evidence."

So the question must be asked, where are the screams of outrage from the homosexual community? Why are episcopal bishops and clergy, who have been endorsing the whole pansexual agenda for more than 30 years, suddenly COMPLETELY SILENT. Where is the push back? When the HOB meets next month in Detroit, will somebody, anybody, have the guts to stand up and say 'the emperor (V. Gene Robinson) has no clothes', that his whole sexual identity, experimentation, 'generous orthodoxy' pitch was all a huge hoax and a lie, that TEC was fooled into believing that sodomy was good and right in the eyes of God when clearly it was not! Is there not one bishop, one clergyman, who bought into the whole pansexual wasteland, prepared to stand up and say "I was wrong?" We wait with bated breath.

*****

Adding more fuel to the lieUniversity of Texas sociologist, Mark Regnerus, whose 2012 "New Family Structures Study," showed different outcomes in the lives of children raised by a parent who has same-sex relationships and those raised by their married, biological parents [IBFs] revealed on criminal outcomes, the children of GFs [gay fathers] showed the greatest propensity to be involved in crime. They were, on average, more frequently arrested and pled guilty to more non-minor offenses than the young-adult children in any other category. The children of LMs [lesbian mothers] reported the second highest frequency of involvement in crimes and arrests, and, in both categories, the young-adult children of intact biological families reported the lowest frequency of involvement in crimes or arrests.

The children raised in lesbian mother households were more often sexually victimized, rather than less, as often claimed: In percentages, 31% of LMs said they had been forced to have sex, compared with 25% of GFs and 8% of IBFs. These results are generally consistent with research on heterosexual families. For instance, a recent federal report showed that children in heterosexual families are least likely to be sexually, physically, or emotionally abused in an intact, biological, married family. So why is Regnerus so hated for his findings? Because such findings as these, however accurate, are simply not culturally acceptable. It is also another nail in the coffin of pansexuality, as the recent findings of two academics, one of whom is the distinguished Professor and psychiatrist, Paul McHugh.

*****

The ongoing saga of sexual abuse at St. Paul's, a prep school in Concord, NH, took another twist this week when the abused girl in question, "Miss X", revealed her name. VOL writer, Mary Ann Mueller, followed up on the story broken by The TODAY Show and how "Miss X" came forward with her parents and older sister to publicly identify herself as the protected victim of the St. Paul's School Senior Salute sex scandal.

Two years ago, Miss Prout, then a fresh-faced 15-year-old freshman, went on a Friday night date in late May with graduating senior, Owen Labrie. Before the evening was over, Miss Prout was sexually assaulted by the older prep school student. This led to Labrie being arrested following his June 1, 2014, graduation and charged with sexual assault. In August, 2015, he went to trial to defend himself, and the jury found guilty of three counts of misdemeanor Sexual Assault, one misdemeanor count of Endangering the Welfare of a Child and one felony count of Prohibited Use of Computer Equipment. You can read the full story in today's digest.

The Boston Globe also reported this week that, after a months-long independent investigation of sexual abuse at St. George's School, a report released Thursday described the elite Rhode Island prep school in the 1970's and 80's as a cauldron of sexual exploitation of students.

Sixty-one alumni gave investigators first-hand accounts of the abuse they say they suffered, with 51 saying the abusers were faculty or staff, and an additional 10 reporting abuse by classmates. We will reveal more news as we get it.

*****

Friends,

We really must have a working budget. VOL urgently needs your financial support to keep the news coming to you. We rely on you, our readers, to keep us going. The vast output of news that we grind out weekly and put into your e-mail does not happen by itself. It depends on a hard-working team of reporters and commentators.
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David

The entire nation has become a culture of sissies, each person taking offense at every little thing they possibly can -- real or imagined (mostly imagined). On college campuses, so-called safe spaces are set up for the truly sissified, where they can go and cry and be protected from big, nasty, conservative meanies calling the bluff on their idiotic culture of self-weaknesses. --- Michael Voris

Finding a church to attend regularly is a good move for your mental health and happiness, two new studies show. People who go to church feel happier both on Sunday and throughout the week, and gain both meaning and good coping skills, University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers found. -- Pew study

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
September 9, 2016

It should come as no surprise that the appointment of a homosexual bishop, Nicholas Chamberlain, as Bishop of Grantham, (albeit celibate) should get pushback by the GAFCON archbishops.

"We believe that this appointment is a major error," they said.

"In 2003, Jeffrey John's candidacy for the post of Bishop of Reading, caused deep divisions within the Diocese of Oxford and beyond, and this news about Nicholas Chamberlain will exacerbate the same divisions within the Church of England and throughout the wider Anglican Communion.

"In this case the element of secrecy in the appointment to the episcopacy of a man in a same sex relationship gives the impression that it has been arranged with the aim of presenting the church with a 'fait accompli', rather than engaging with possible opposition in the spirit of the 'shared conversations'.

"We remain opposed to the guidelines for clergy and Bishops, permitting them to be in same sex relationships as long as they publicly declare that the relationship is not sexual. This creates confusion in terms of the church's teaching on the nature of sex and marriage, and it is not modelling a helpful way to live, given the reality of our humanity, and temptation to sexual sin."

The letter was signed by The Most Rev. Peter Jensen, General Secretary of GAFCON Global, and the Rev Canon Andy Lines, Chairman of the GAFCON UK Task Force.

Of course, we only have the word of Chamberlain that he is celibate and why should we believe him?

My brother-in-law died of AIDS at the age of 42 (his partner died three weeks later) and they had been together for over 12 years. He said it was impossible for homosexuals to be celibate. Even after bath houses were closed down in New York City, men met in bars and had sex, most of it unprotected, he said. I also had a dear friend, a Baptist minister, who died of AIDS in the 80s (he had been married with two daughters) and he likewise confirmed that celibacy was not on anyone's mind.

So if he is celibate, why raise the issue of his being gay then? If sex is not part of the relationship, why not say he is simply sharing a house with another man, why make an issue of his (sexual) identity?

The Rev. Dr. Gavin Ashenden takes it even further and says that in coming out as gay, he is, to some extent, repudiating his faith in Christ. Why so? Because he is choosing a new identity that is nothing to do with Christianity or the Gospels or the lived tradition, but is a social and political construct designed to dilute the Judaeo Christian ethics that underlie Christianized culture.

"To come out as gay is to adopt and promote an anthropology that is pagan and not Christian. It is to repudiate the paradigms of Scripture and overlay them with a model of human self-expression that the Bible tells us heads off in a different one than the one God intends for us. The Bible and the Christian tradition is very clear. We are made men or woman, and we come together in marriage where the gift of sexual attraction and expression is located with the intention of becoming co-creators with God and having children. The Bible knows nothing about sex as recreation, sex as self-fulfillment or sex outside marriage. It understands that these are option (known as temptations) and forbids them.

"This heading off in a different direction is something we all do (we call it 'sin'), and the remedy is simple. Jesus has paid the price, so turn round, come back, stop and start again (we call it repentance.).

"By repudiating his identity in Christ and putting on a secular identity which is defined by erotic attraction outside the boundaries of marriage, a Christian would be repudiating his Christian identity and adopting a romanticized-erotic one instead.

"Why would a Christian repudiate their identity in Christ and adopt a secular erotic identity instead? Well, it might be to justify pursuing sexual intimacy with a person of the same sex."

The bishop of Grantham has told the world three things.

The first is that he is adopting an erotic, sub Christian anthropology as a way of describing his core identity as a human being. No longer primarily 'in Christ', but rather primarily 'gay'.

The second is that he is not pursuing sexual intimacy with another man. That's a good thing, because the House of bishops have passed 'guidelines' saying that is a requirement of bishops. (They could have referred to the Holy Scriptures, but House of Bishops guidelines seem to have more authority in the C of E.)

The third thing he has told the world is that he is 'in a relationship' that has no sexual or erotic expression. I find this very confusing. Many men are in a relationship with another man (though married to a woman) to whom they are deeply committed in an affectionate, and non-erotic way. We call it friendship. We could even call it 'best friends.' But what is its relevance to anyone else?

Unless, of course, the bishop means to tell the world that he is sexually aroused by this (and other men), but claims special virtue for not acting on it.

Dr. Ashenden has it exactly right. You can read his full take here: Gay in Grantham? The eroticizing of the Church of England http://www.virtueonline.org/gay-grantham-eroticising-church-england

Dr. Ashenden's views contrast sharply with those of Dr. Idowu-Fearon, general secretary of the London-based Anglican Communion Office, who said: "It is clear that Bishop Nicholas has abided by the guidelines set down by the Church. In fact, his lifestyle would make him acceptable to serve the church at any time in its history. I reject the suggestion that his appointment is an 'error'.

"I do recognize that this is a sensitive area for many people whatever their convictions. It is also a difficult time for Bishop Nicholas with revelations about his private life being made public in such a dramatic way, against his will, by anonymous sources that seem to be out to make trouble.

"The Anglican Communion is a worldwide family and, like any family, we don't agree on everything," he added. "But we are committed to working together on difficult issues. I want to reassure the Communion of my commitment to what was set out at the Lambeth conference in 1998 -- that human sexuality finds it full expression in marriage between a man and woman."

One can sense the coming battle between Fearon and Okoh is not far hence.

Naturally, after Chamberlain revealed his true sexual identity, a dozen or so married, homosexual clergy wrote an open letter to the Church, demanding "full inclusion of LGBTI people in the Church".

In an extraordinary move, the letter was signed not only by priests and canons who have already been open about their same-sex marriage, but by also some who are revealing their marriage for the first time. The 14 clergy behind the letter include eight revealing their identity and six concealing it, but wishing to signify their support. Another eight married LGBT lay members of the Church have also put their name to the letter.

Guidelines from the College of Bishops -- also known as the House of Bishops, which, as part of the General Synod sets rules within the Church -- currently forbid same-sex marriages among clergy and only allow same-sex relationships if they are sexless. Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said that the nature of Chamberlain's relationship did not contravene Church of England rules.

The letter appeared in The Sunday Times and was sent to the College of Bishops in advance of their three-day meeting about LGBTI issues of September 12. It calls on the bishops to "move forward", "be bold" and "respect that diversity of theology within the Church now exists and that there is more than one understanding of what a faithful Christian may believe".

The letter ends: "We will always want to see the full inclusion of LGBTI people in the Church, and we will continue to work towards it. We look forward to welcoming a first step in that process and a move away from the harm and hurt that has so often been done in the name of the Church."

There is little doubt that Archbishop Justin Welby will cave into these folk, he has at least been consistent on that score. Bit by bit, the pansexualists have whittled away at his authority, the Church and Scripture

It should further come as no surprise that Nigerian Archbishop Nicholas Okoh says that the "greatest cause for concern continues to be the British Isles".

GAFCON UK has recently been reconstituted precisely to meet the challenges that Archbishop Okoh outlines and is committed to grappling with the departure from orthodoxy in the UK. The AMiE is about to launch an ambitious plan for pioneering church-planting in the context of the ReNew Conference in September, where the aim is to encourage regions throughout England that pioneer, establish and secure healthy local Anglican churches.

The sparks are just beginning to fly in England, and, despite the Bishop of Chichester saying that this is nothing new and that the CofE will muddle through as it always has, he is living in self-delusion. The ball game has changed. A new day has dawned for the Church of England. The Episcopal Church (TEC) is no longer the only Anglican player in the US, the ACNA is slowly but surely supplanting it. In time, the same will happen in England, it will just take a little longer. But remember, the biggest Anglican players in England with the largest churches are all Evangelicals, and they pay the bills for liberal dioceses. IF they should coalesce under a single AMIE umbrella, then much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth will be heard throughout the land.

*****

TEC's latest attendance numbers came out this week and, to no one's surprise, the Church continues to plummet.

Even with a new presiding bishop at the helm, The Episcopal Church continues to hemorrhage membership. Apparently all talk of the Jesus Movement is not catching on. What a surprise. Beating people up with charges of racism and white privilege are hardly church growth starters.

Jessica Jones with CMC News, a broadcasting arm of The Christian Post, reported that according to information she recently received from the Office of the General Convention, The Episcopal Church's latest membership tally shows a loss of 60,000 in members, resulting in the closure of 69 parishes.

Each autumn The Episcopal Church releases its general diocesan and parish membership, ASA and Plate & Pledge figures in the form of bar graphs. The 2016 bar graphs, which have now been posted, reflect information gleaned from the 2015 parochial reports. The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society will follow up with the release and posting of the 2015 Table of Statistics later this year.

The 2014 Table of Statistics show that The Episcopal Church had 7,044 parishes or missions. A loss of 69 churches would bring that figure below 7,000 active congregations. Also, The Episcopal Church's 2014 membership figure was 1,956,042. A three per cent loss of 60,000 souls would mean that slightly more than 1,896,000 persons still claim to be Episcopalians.

You can read Mary Ann Mueller's full report in today's digest.

*****

It looks very like Los Angeles Bishop Jon J. Bruno will get his day in court, (but not because he wants it) and if he loses, he will suffer the humiliation of being among just a small number of bishops to be tossed out of the church. He has already announced his retirement.

His undoing is the way he handled, or mishandled, the St. James the Great parish debacle.

Anglican curmudgeon and canon lawyer, Allan Haley, has called Los Angeles Episcopal Bishop Bruno -- the Hypocrite par excellence, accusing him of speaking "with a forkèd tongue.

"Bishop Bruno is the recipient of Title IV disciplinary charges filed against him by various Episcopalian members of St. James the Great, the choice parish in Newport Beach, California, built upon donated property worth millions in today's real estate market. Prior to filing those charges, the same group had filed a civil action against Bishop Bruno in the Superior Court for Orange County.

"Bishop Bruno rejected all efforts at mediation or conciliation under the Title IV disciplinary canons, and simply refused to recognize that he had violated any canons as to the remnant congregation of St. James the Great -- whom he eventually locked out of their church, and forced to hold open-air services in a nearby park. Meanwhile, his attempt to sell the property on which St. James was built met with a roadblock filed by the original donor of the property, who had imposed a condition that the property be used only for church, and not real estate development, purposes. (Unfortunately for the donor, California has a statute that eradicates any such limitation after a stated period of years, unless the donor files a renewal -- so the condition may turn out to be unenforceable, after all.)

"And now that the proceedings have reached the Hearing stage, the Canons provide that all proceedings (except its private deliberations) "shall be open ... to persons from the public." (Canon IV.13.6.) So this blog is not violating any confidentiality of the proceedings by publishing Bishop Bruno's hypocrisy for all to see." You can read Haley's excellent commentary in today's digest.

Another twist in this story is Bruno's response to the Title IV by St. James action. He states:

"6. On May 17, 2015, I visited St. James the Great and met with the congregation to formally announce the sale, and to discuss issues going forward. This was done on this date as a result of breaches of confidence regarding the pending sale by a number of persons, including Suffragan Bishop Mary Glasspool."

Is this why Glasspool was shuffled off to the Diocese of New York as Assistant Bishop to Bishop Andrew M.L. Dietsche? Inquiring minds want to know.

*****

The Task Group set up after the Primates' Gathering and Meeting in January to "maintain conversation" has met for the first time and stressed its determination to work together. But it acknowledged the process would take time and could not be rushed.

The Primates asked the Archbishop of Canterbury to appoint the group to restore relationships, rebuild mutual trust, heal the legacy of hurt and explore deep differences. Archbishop Welby presented the group's mandate to ACC16 in Lusaka in April, where it was received and affirmed. This week, seven members of the group have been meeting in London.

"What we are trying to do here is mirror what we desire for the whole Communion," said the Coadjutor Bishop of Huron in Canada, the Rt. Rev. Linda Nicholls. "We are trying to practice in our engagement with each other here what we long for in the wider Communion."

Archbishop Ian Ernest, from the Province of the Indian Ocean, said exchanges within the group had been frank and open.

"What has come out very clearly is the level of transparency that we have in the group. We have been able to be open and speak openly about our differences," he said. "We also recognize the richness of the Communion. And we all love our Communion -- that is what binds us together."

This group will achieve absolutely nothing that will appease the mostly orthodox Global South primates, who have made it clear they won't be in the same room with US-PB Michael Curry, who is part of this group. These mostly liberal clergy (Ian Ernest is the most orthodox) cannot stop the flow of history which is going against them. Western Anglican provinces are dying, the Global South is growing. They have different gospels and the two cannot ever be reconciled.

*****

Earlier this year, the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh elected James Hobby as its new bishop by a majority of deputies at a Special Convention. He will shortly be officially consecrated. Here is what he wrote, "In the last 30+ years, I have had the opportunity of witnessing the consecration of 5 bishops (and the installation of 1 Archbishop). I can tell you, though my personal liturgical tastes run in the direction of simplicity, the sense of awe and of connection with the Church through time and space at these grand events can shape one's imagination and deepen one's commitment.

"Since you will have very few opportunities to experience the consecration of a bishop, I encourage you to join with the whole Diocese (and with 2 seated archbishops, 1 retired archbishop and the bishops of 17 dioceses, representing 3 continents!) in a grand celebration of what God is doing in our midst and around the world.

"In case you're wondering if I'm aware of how narcissistic it sounds to be inviting everyone to my consecration, I am. But, the consistent word that the Lord has delivered to me over the last several months has been, "This is not about you." So, my invitation is not to come see me consecrated. My invitation is to come and exalt Jesus who has been working steadily over two centuries to fulfill His promise that He would build His Church -- and then use that Church to break down the gates of hell. My invitation is to come and celebrate what God has done and is doing in our midst. My invitation is to come and see, come and sense, the breadth of this diocese and of the Church. I believe it will inspire and encourage you. Registration is NOT necessary.

"I'm looking forward to the many years of Gospel partnership that we will share. Remembering that it's not about any of us, only about Jesus."

The event will take place on Saturday, September 10, 2016, at 10:00AM at St. Paul Roman Catholic Cathedral, 108 N Dithridge Avenue · Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213 (Fronting on Fifth Avenue in Oakland). A celebration lunch will follow on the lawn at the Church of the Ascension,

4729 Ellsworth Ave · Pittsburgh, PA 15213

*****

The Rt. Rev. David Jenkins, former Bishop of Durham, died this week, age of 91. He made headlines during the height of his fame when he questioned the resurrection and the Virgin Birth. And his consecration as a bishop in York Minster was within a few days of a fire in that cathedral!

Jenkins was the inspiration for an American Episcopal, Bishop John Shelby Spong, who went on to write the book on heresies.

One blogger wrote, long before the ordination of women, David Jenkins was one of the reasons why many people decided to abandon the Church of England. As one good man, who had spent decades as a Naval Chaplain, and who was later ordained a priest in the Catholic Church, put it to me: "The Bishop of Durham professes the historic Christian creeds, but he also believes he can interpret them as he pleases. This means that the profession of the Creed is now meaningless, because it can mean whatever we want it to mean." This idea -- the malleability of religious truth -- is what drove Newman out of the Church of England, too.

Jenkins paved the way, using doubt and uncertainty as his guidelines, and only assisted the doubters and, ultimately, many who would renounce and denounce the faith.

Jenkins was the "enfant terrible" of theology and we have all suffered as a result.

*****

The Anglican Church of Canada is taking a prophetic stand on euthanasia, reports David of Samizdat. After a year of studying, conversation, theological reflection and discernment, the ACoC has produced a report on Canada's recent law permitting state sponsored assisted suicide. The report boldly proclaims that it is a reality -- it is actually happening. Really! It is!

The ACoC is neither for nor against euthanasia because it doesn't want to upset anyone; upsetting people is reserved for same-sex marriage.

The report noted; "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. In a statement accompanying its release, Primate Fred Hiltz acknowledged that everyone would like the fact that the argued neither against nor in favor physician-assisted dying. "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 very sensitive and complex issue."

The article goes on to note that the law 'allows assisted dying only to those who are either near death or whose death is "reasonably foreseeable."' The Anglican Church of Canada itself falls into that category and, I understand, will soon request to be put out of its misery.

*****

Christians around the globe are uniting in a World Day of Prayer for Creation, September 1 -- a move which was started by the spiritual leader of the Orthodox churches. The day of prayer -- and the Season of Creation that runs from today to the Feast of St Francis of Assisi (4 October) -- was launched by the Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios, in 1989. Last year, Pope Francis called on Catholics to join in; and the Anglican Consultative Council -- while not specifying any particular period -- has repeatedly called on Anglican Provinces to set aside a liturgical season of prayer for creation and the environment.

Anglican blogger David of Samizdat notes that the size of the earth is 0.000000000000000000019% of that of the entire universe, a fact that goes to show that mainline denominations are not nearly as inclusive as they would have us think. They are only praying for the earth, leaving the rest of Creation to fend for itself.

"No matter; much as I dislike pollution as much as the next man, it seems fairly obvious to me that the church has made an idol out of environmentalism, the catchphrase used to conceal the real agenda of wealth redistribution, an activity near and dear to the hearts of liberals in every denomination.

"No right-thinking liberal believes that God actually answers prayer, of course -- that's why we needed the Paris get-together on climate change last year, when the world's elite flew their private jets across half the world to tell the rest of us we are using too much gas in our cars.

"Entropy is causing the universe to run down. Eventually all activity will end -- even Anglican clergy having conversations, hard to believe, I know -- and the universe will end up motionless and dead in thermodynamic equilibrium at a few degrees above absolute zero. In spite of the combined best efforts of Al Gore, the Pope and Fred Hiltz.

"Meanwhile, to take up the slack left by the negligent environmental department of the World Council of Churches, I suggest we all start praying for the black hole over-population in the vicinity of SAGE0536AGN. It's very worrying.

"To end on a positive note: according to Revelation 21, God will reverse entropy and remake the universe. The only problem is, mainline churches no longer believe the Bible."

*****

Phyllis Schlafly died this week at the age of 92. She will be eulogized extensively by those who knew this formidable, brilliant and complex woman personally. Schlafly was a lioness on the political right; brilliant, focused and a dynamic champion for faith, family and human liberty.

Her effectiveness as a defender of traditional family values is best witnessed by the unending hate and vitriol poured out on her personally, even now in her death.

The matriarch of the radical left feminist movement, Betty Friedan, famously told her in a 1973 debate, "I'd like to burn you at the stake." Such was the impact of this extraordinary woman.

To say that Mrs. Schlafly started a brush fire of grassroots activism that exerted enormous -- pivotal -- and continuing influence on American politics is probably too little credit.

*****

Please consider supporting VOL as we do need a working budget. VOL needs your financial support to keep the news coming to you. We rely on you, our readers, to keep us going. The vast output of news that we grind out weekly and put into your e-mail does not happen by itself. It depends on a hard-working team of reporters and commentators.

Next month I will be heading out the door to Cairo to a meeting of orthodox Anglican archbishops.

Please help make this possible. You can send a donation to VOL via PAYPAL at the link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/

Or you can send a snail mail check to:

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Thank you for your support.

David

God's unfolding purpose. In 2 Timothy 1:9-10 we seem to detect five stages by which God's saving purpose unfolds. The first is the eternal gift to us in Christ of his grace. The second is the historical appearing of Christ to abolish death by his death and resurrection. The third is the personal call of God to sinners through the preaching of the gospel. The fourth is the moral sanctification of believers by the Holy Spirit. And the fifth is the final heavenly perfection in which the holy calling is consummated. --- John R.W. Stott

The dangers to the Faith, and consequently to souls, is so great that people who know must say what they know. Every institution is being dismantled by the diabolical, which is using malleable, weak men to get at your soul. We need this truth brought to our minds constantly to avoid Hell. --- Michael Voris

The whole stream and drift of the Old Testament moves straight to the cross of Christ. The whole New Testament is nothing but the portrait of Christ. Let a man seek the true course of his own life in the Word, and inevitably it will land him at the cross, to seek mercy as a perishing sinner in the Saviour's wounds; and let him, starting afresh from this point of departure, seek his true course still farther, and inevitably what he will see will be, rising upon him in the distance, astonishing and enchaining him, but drawing him ever on, the image of perfection in the man Christ Jesus. --- James Stalke

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
Sept. 16, 2016

The battle for the soul of the Church of England has begun in earnest. By becoming the first openly homosexual bishop of Grantham, Nicholas Chamberlain reveals the depth of that battle and what could prove a turning point leading to a permanent division in the Church of England.

Last year, The Rt. Rev. Libby Lane was consecrated as the Bishop of Stockport, and in so doing, overturned the centuries-old tradition that all bishops in the Church of England must be male. This year, with the public declaration of his sexuality, it is the turn of Chamberlain to overturn another centuries-old tradition in becoming the Church's first openly homosexual bishop.

Even though this does not represent a fundamental change to the Church's position on sexuality and marriage; no official Rubicon has been crossed. However, it does mark an important step forward for the Church of England that could lead to ultimate schism.

Voices like those found in Changing Attitude and a number of bishops came out affirming Chamberlain's choice, while conservative voices made known their disapproval.

The Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), a group of orthodox primates, have stated it as a "major error". Archbishop Justin Welby and the diocesan Bishop of Lincoln (Chamberlain's own senior bishop) stressed the celibate nature of the relationship and said it fit within the current guidelines for clerical relationships.

But it is the archbishop's wish to be conciliatory towards conservative elements within the Church as well. The question is, will it work?

The deeper truth is, this is just another stage in a battle that has raged since 2003, when the Rev. Jeffrey John became the first priest openly in a same-sex relationship, to be nominated as a bishop. This coincided in the Episcopal Church with the appointment of V. Gene Robinson as the first openly homosexual bishop in the Anglican Communion. The Rev. John withdrew his nomination under pressure from Dr. Rowan Williams, but it failed to quell the growing battle in the following years as a war for the Anglican soul.

In such a divided atmosphere, the events surrounding Grantham are having a multitude of effects. On one hand, it is alienating Evangelicals that already view Church authorities with distrust. This could lead to a formal separation from the Church if same-sex marriage blessings are approved.

It is a thin end of the wedge with LGBTQ Christians using the multitude of spaces to push for more compromises down the road.

What is increasingly apparent is that the CofE is going down the same path as the Episcopal Church and we all know how badly that ended.

Just as we're going to press, this news hit VOL's desk.

Church of England bishops have set up a new body to "take forward work on sexuality" which will be chaired by Graham James, the Bishop of Norwich.

The establishment of the 'Bishops' Reflection Group on Sexuality' was announced this afternoon after senior Church of England clergy met in Oxford this week.

The bishops discussed sexuality, as well as a range of other topical issues following on from the 'shared conversations' on sexuality at the Church's July Synod.

A statement from the College of Bishops said: "Following the conclusion of the shared conversations process the Archbishops of Canterbury and York have invited some bishops to take forward work on sexuality to assist the episcopal discernment process. The Bishops' Reflection Group on Sexuality will be chaired by Graham James, the Bishop of Norwich."

The full membership of the group and its terms of reference have yet to be published.

A UK VOL reader who sent it, groaned, "What's new? More fudge. More kicking the ball into the long grass. No spine. No Scripture."

*****

The Church of England's College of Bishops met this week joined in part by bishops from the Scottish Episcopal Church, Church of Ireland and Church in Wales.

They discussed from a wide ranging agenda which included clergywomen in leadership, clergy wellbeing and issues of sexuality. Discussions on issues of sexuality took place as part of a new process of episcopal discernment which will continue during the meetings of the House of Bishops in November and December of this year and in January next year at the next meeting of the College of Bishops. These discussions were undertaken by the College of Bishops alone.

Here's the kicker, the Bishops agreed that the contents of their discussion should not be shared in public during the process so as to enable those discussions to be conducted freely and in a spirit of full collegiality. Consequently, the contents of the conversations will remain private and participants have agreed not to comment on the contents of the discussions beyond their own views.

There you have it, no sex talk please, we're English, which means that both sides will continue to wage the battle over sodomy publicly in the media while the bishops chew their fingernails.

A VOL reader in England was right when he predicted that the House of Bishops wouldn't take a decisive stand on anything. "Welby is the master of fudge and again the lot of them will sit on the fence until the spikes go right through their rectums. Unless, of course, fiercely liberal bishops like Nicolas Holtam, of Salisbury, light the fire to the powder-keg. Then, all hell will break loose, and the conservatives will have to sit-up and take note." That didn't happen, but nothing is going to go away either.

*****

Nigerian Primate Nicholas Okoh warned his clergy against homosexual acts.Okoh handed the warning at the opening ceremony of the All Anglican Clergy Conference holding at the premises of Benue State University (BSU) in Makurdi. He reiterated his stance on homosexuality held by some provinces in the communion and advised members of the clergy, who have gay tendencies, to resign their position honorably or risk being disgraced out of the Church.

*****

Australia's Anglican hierarchy is apparently divided over marriage equality plebiscite. Five bishops wrote to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, urging him to reconsider the plan just days after the head of the Anglican Church came out in support of the plebiscite

The Anglican Church's senior clergy are split on whether to support the federal government's planned marriage equality plebiscite, with five bishops writing to the prime minister urging him to reconsider the plan.

The correspondence contrasts with the personal view of the head of the Anglican church, Melbourne archbishop, Philip Freier, who wrote in support of the plebiscite last week.

In one letter sent on Thursday, the bishop of Wangaratta, John Parkes, said the plebiscite would be "divisive and cause unnecessary harm to members of the Australian community". You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

Ugandan Archbishop Stanley Ntagali, addressing journalists after the Church of Uganda's Provincial Assembly meeting last month, said The Church of Uganda had adopted a 10-year master strategic plan that includes "making the Church more vibrant and focused on the critical areas of need among the communities," reports the ACNS.

"We are greatly concerned about domestic violence, child sacrifice, drunkenness, drug abuse, sodomy and homosexuality, joblessness, poverty, permissiveness, peer pressure and other evils which target the family directly.

"We must focus our attention on protecting and guiding our families in our communities and entire country."

He said that the COU was opposed to plans by the country's health ministry to legalize abortion. "Abortion which is done by one's choice is against Gods will and the Bible considers it to be murder," he said. "Any life has the right to continue and no one has the mandate to destroy it. . .

The Archbishop also spoke out against "a harmful educational program" that had been introduced in some of the country's schools. "This program promotes homosexuality, and we are concerned about how it was allowed to be taught in some of our schools," he said. "We call for its removal and for the government to ensure that all sexuality education materials promote the biblical values of abstinence before marriage, and faithfulness in lifelong marriage between one man and one woman."

It also gave approval in principle for the creation of a new diocese of Northwest Ankole. When inaugurated in a year's time, this 37th diocese in the province would be carved out of the present Diocese of Ankole and have its headquarters in Ibanda.

*****

Bishop John Shelby Spong, 85, suffered a stroke this week, the Episcopal Diocese of Newark reported on its Facebook page. It occurred on the morning of Sept. 10, before a speaking engagement in Marquette, Michigan.

A calendar posting on Facebook by the Diocese of Northern Michigan, said Spong was in Marquette to speak on two topics: "Can Religion Survive in the 21st Century?" and "Jesus Did Not Die for Your Sins: The Meaning of the Cross." His most recent book is Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy. Spong, served as Bishop of Newark from 1979 to 2000. He is apparently on the mend.

*****

At its regular monthly meeting in the Diocese of Los Angeles at the Cathedral Center of St. Paul, Diocesan Council received, but declined to accept, a report presented by the Task Force to Study Church Properties Held by Corporation Sole.

The task force was formed in response to a resolution instructing the bishop to transfer church properties currently held by Corporation Sole, a California corporation of which the Bishop of Los Angeles is trustee, to the Corporation of the Diocese.

Diocesan Council unanimously adopted a motion that the report be returned to the task force as not acceptable as presented, informing the task force that in order to present a complete report to Diocesan Convention, Council needs the following specific information from the task force:

A careful evaluation of every church property held by Corporation Sole, including the circumstances under which each came to be held by Corporation Sole;

Loosely interpreted, Bishop Jon Bruno can keep his hands on properties like St. James the Great in Newport Beach until either he goes to trial, is forced out of the church, or retires.

*****

The Diocese of Louisiana is offering a Forgiveness Training Weekend. "Are you tired of living in a resentful world, a world that: Places a huge value on revenge Confuses revenge and punishment with justice Doesn't know how to find the freedom of forgiveness Has no idea what Jesus meant when he said: 'Love Your Enemies' If you said yes to any of these then come and join us in our mission to teach the world to how to forgive. We are hosting a Forgiveness Training Weekend."

So why isn't the Louisiana bishop telling TEC how to forgive the White privilege community? Love thine enemies includes inclusive tolerance of White privilege. He won't admit it. There will be no racial reconciliation until bishops like Curry, Wright, and Sutton lead the UBE into publicly forgiving the White privilege community for their colorlessness.

*****

The Diocese of Central Florida is coming up against the big bad ogre of TEC and its episcopal canon on Assessment. (Read 'I want your money.') Resolution C001 (changing the asking to a mandatory commitment) means they can no longer direct their tithe away from the Episcopal Church over TEC's compromising theology and bad morals. So Bishop Greg Brewer wants them to have a "conversation" (a much beloved word in TEC) and rethink that policy because if they don't, it will make the diocese ineligible for church wide grants through the UTO and then, horror of horrors, lose voting privileges at General Convention and, finally, to add insult to injury, Brewer's voice will not be heard in the HOB and executive committees! WOW. Does anyone really believe his or any orthodox voting bishop matters a hill of beans at this late stage of TEC's decline and revisionist take over?

*****

The President and Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo headed a list of dignitaries at the installation of the new Archbishop of the Province de L'Eglise Anglicane Du Congo -- the Anglican Church in the Congo this week. Archbishop Masimango Katanda, the former Bishop of Kindu, was elected in July. He succeeds Archbishop Henri Isingoma, who stood down for a health improvement break and return to theological academia.

In addition to the installation of Archbishop Katanda, the service included the enthronement of the new Bishop of Kinshasa, the diocese's former assistant bishop, Achille-Sebastien Mutshindu Mayamba.

The former Primate of Tanzania, Archbishop Donald Ntetemela, preached a sermon in which he spoke about the need for "faithful leaders" to respond to the social, security and political challenges in the world. The new Archbishop will be a GAFCON primate.

*****

The Archbishop of Wales has argued that taking the Bible seriously can lead to supporting same-sex marriage, as he defended his acceptance of LGBT relationships.

Dr. Barry Morgan, who will retire in January, used his last address to the governing body of the Church in Wales this week, to deliver a parting shot to conservative critics who said he had been "swayed by the liberal culture of our age" and "ignored Holy Scripture".

He argued the Bible had more than one view on LGBT relationships as the authors' stances evolved. He said it was necessary to look at the texts as a whole, and especially at the ministry of Jesus, to understand God's will.

"Taking the Bible as a whole and taking what it says very seriously may lead us into a very different view of same-sex relationships than the one traditionally upheld by the Church," he said.

And you wonder why the Church in Wales is not growing, and is, in fact, sinking! If the Church's voice is no different from the culture, then lying in bed with The Times and a good coffee on a Sunday morning might have more going for it!

*****

Is there a difference between a church leader going to visit a brutal dictator on his turf, and asking him to change (for example Welby visited Mugabe), and giving a warm welcome to similar nasty people on one's own turf (for example Welby receiving the Pakistani imams)?

The Rt. Rev. Michael Nazir-Ali, former Anglican Bishop of Rochester, along with two crossbench peers, Baroness Cox and Lord Hylton, as well as the Rev'd Andrew Ashdown, an Anglican vicar, met recently with Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian dictator. The delegation saw Assad, even as his forces and their Russian allies, were re-imposing a state of siege on rebel-held eastern Aleppo, supported by air strikes that have killed thousands of civilians.

We must engage with Bashar al-Assad if there is to be regime change in Syria, said the bishop.

"Our visit to Syria has been attacked in the Press for giving a "war criminal" (that is, Bashar al-Assad) a photo opportunity and a tool for propaganda. In fact, it was a pastoral visit to the people of Syria, especially Christians, who have suffered so much at the hands of jihadist extremists." You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

More than 200 leaders of faith communities have signed an open letter to Theresa May, calling for urgent changes to the government's refugee policy, particularly to allow families to be reunited.

The signatories are headed by Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, who will give a speech on Monday in front of an audience of faith leaders and refugees to reiterate the letter's demands.

Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, the former Lord Justice of Appeal, has added her name to the letter, which is also signed by leaders and representatives of the Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist communities.

"As people of faith, we call on your government to urgently revise its policy towards refugees," the letter says.

"The best of this country is represented by the generosity, kindness, solidarity and decency that Britain has at many times shown those fleeing persecution, even at times of far greater deprivation and difficulty than the present day. We rejoice in the mosaic of different faiths and British communities that we now represent."

It adds: "In the face of the unfolding human catastrophe, there are immediate and viable steps that the government can take to offer sanctuary to more refugees. We call on you to create safe, legal routes of travel, for example by adopting fair and humane family reunion policies for refugees."

*****

The British Guardian reported recently on an American study revealing--to the surprise of everyone involved--that millennials are having less sex than previous generations.

The study found that "the percentage of young adults aged between 20 and 24 who reported having no sexual partner after the age of 18 increased from 6% among those born in the 1960s, to 15% of young adults born in the 1990s." The Guardian reports that in Britain, data is hinting at similar changes. According to Cath Mercer of University College, London, "In Britain we have seen a decline in the age at first sex between those born in the 1950s and 1990s but around one in five 16-24 year olds don't report a sexual partner, challenging the stereotype that all young people are sexually active and from a young age."

And given new research out of Sweden, this is good news for more reasons than one. (Source: Nocola Davis, "Less Sex Please, We're Millennials"--BBC, July 29, 2016)

*****

This comes from a moderate/liberal woman priest from an east coast diocese. It is heartbreaking.

"It is over for TEC. E.g., The Eucharist at our election of a new bishop was completely unrecognizable. Not from BCP or EOW. It was the creation of a rector who I think should serve the Unitarian, UCC what's happenin' now church. The offertory song was "All Are Welcome at the Table" by Marty Haugen, and the bulletin, both before and after the fraction anthem, said all are welcome to the table. Canons be damned. Eucharistic theology be damned. Most of the churches in this diocese explicitly invite the non-baptized. All of which means it is unlikely I will even be able to find a church to serve in TEC when this interim is over. Never thought I would pine for Bert Herlong to be alive, I would go to his diocese in a NY second. TEC is the MCC on Unitarian steroids."

What this says, of course, is that thoughtful liberals are starting to realize the jig is up for TEC, Curry's vaunted Jesus Movement is going nowhere apparently. Lots of charisma and hype, short on substance.

*****

The Episcopal Diocese of New York has launched the Harlem Valley Ministry. Two churches and a mission in Putnam and Dutchess counties will collaborate and share a single priest.

The three parishes are St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Brewster, Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Pawling, and MESA in Dover Plains. MESA stands for Misión Episcopal Santiago Apóstol /St. James's Episcopal Mission. The Rev. Jose Martinez is joining the Harlem Valley Ministry to serve as Priest-in-Charge and will lead services at all three churches.

What the news release failed to report, is that the three parishes combined, have an ASA of 75! ASA for the three yoking congregations are: Holy Trinity: 40, St. Andrew: 25, MESA: 10

*****

Anti-Christian hostility is on the minds of many American Christians these days. Each new legal challenge to religious liberty at the state and federal levels raises the issue afresh. It seems that today, Christians must think through their cultural position more carefully than at any other point in US history.

Still, given the terrible persecution of Christians overseas, I wonder whether it's accurate to say that American Christians are "under persecution." When I discuss the rise in anti-Christian hostility in the States, I avoid the "p word," and I don't make comparisons to other parts of the world.

But listen to a Middle Eastern underground house church leader: "Persecution is easier to understand when it's physical: torture, death, imprisonment....American persecution is like an advanced stage of cancer; it eats away at you, yet you cannot feel it. This is the worst kind of persecution."

A Syrian remaining in the region to assist Christians and Muslims, cautions, "It wasn't only ISIS who laid waste to the church; our cultural compromises with the government and our divisions against each other brewed for a long time. We are Damascus, the seat of Christianity; what happened to us can happen to you. Be careful."

When persecuted Christian leaders overseas warn about how seriously US Christians are marginalized, it's time to listen.

You can read the rest of the story here: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2016/september/are-us-christians-really-persecuted.html?utm_source=ctdirect-html&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_term=11419395&utm_content=464281627&utm_campaign=email

*****

The Church in Wales is investing in new safeguarding strategy. A new safeguarding strategy to protect children, young people and vulnerable adults will be launched by the Church in Wales. The Church has strengthened its team of safeguarding officers, and now has a head of safeguarding, Elaine Cloke, as well as two provincial safeguarding officers for north and south Wales, who will respond to safeguarding concerns and allegations. In addition, there are additional safeguarding support officers based in each of the province's six dioceses.

*****

Divorced and remarried Catholics can, in "some cases", receive Holy Communion without living as "brother and sister" and without getting an annulment, Pope Francis himself has confirmed.

Ruth Gledhill, writing in Christian Today, said a leaked letter to Argentine bishops, Pope Francis gave his own interpretation for the first time of Amoris Laetitia, his exhortation that followed the recent synods on the family dominated by controversy over the Church's strict rules on divorced and remarried Catholics.

Many believe the rules excluding such couples from communion, even where they were the innocent party in a marriage breakdown, are cruel. Traditionalists, however, stand by what they say is biblical teaching that marriage is between one man and one woman for life and that there can be no flexibility.

*****

The Very Rev. Jo Kelly-Moore, Dean of Auckland's Holy Trinity Cathedral, is moving to England to become the next Archdeacon of Canterbury.

She will work with the Bishop of Dover, Trevor Willmott, to oversee the archdeaconry, and her role will also include becoming Vice-Dean of Canterbury Cathedral, the spiritual home of the Anglican Communion.

Jo Kelly-Moore has been Dean of Auckland since August 2010, during which time she successfully drove 'Selwyn's Vision ', a $14.9million project to complete the cathedral.

*****

Christ Church Anglican on the Main Line (Wayne, PA) is seeking a bi-vocational rector to fill a vacancy. The position is presently part-time, but it is anticipated that it will be full time within a year or so.

Christ Church Anglican was founded in 2012, to reach southeastern Pennsylvania with the transforming love of Jesus Christ. We are a parish in the Diocese of CANA East under Bishop Julian Dobbs and part of the Anglican Church in North America. We have an active and growing congregation (ASA 40) of diverse ages and backgrounds (median age 33.1) and are strategically located near multiple college campuses. We have a part-time deacon and a part-time organist.

If you are interested you can contact Peter Edman, Bishop's Warden, pledman@gmail.com

Supporting Documents:

Parish Profile: http://bit.ly/CCAProfile
Profile Appendix: http://bit.ly/CCA_ProfileAppendix
Parish website: http://www.christ-church-anglican.org/
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MainLineAnglican
Diocesan website: http://canaeast.com/

*****

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When I asked if the Archbishop of Canterbury had been invited, I was told he had declined because he will be in Rome that week with the Pope. A full week! One doubts the pope gives anybody that kind of time with his busy schedule, and what would it hurt if Justin Welby jumped on a plane in Rome and four hours later arrived in Cairo to meet with his people, leaders of the largest, most vibrant provinces and dioceses of the Anglican Communion!

Among the speakers is Ian Ernest, Primate of the Indian Ocean and General Secretary of the Global South Primates Steering Committee, Dr. Ashley Null, Dr. Michael Glerup, Archbishop Tito Savala, Bishop Rennis Pooniah, Bishop John Chew, Michael Nazir-Ali and Archbishop Stanley to name but a few.

I will be there to cover this major global event for VOL's readers.

*****

In the spin surrounding the appointment of the homosexual Bishop, Nicholas Chamberlain as the Bishop of Grantham, one statement stood out that requires further enumeration. As I wrote earlier, this appointment was done while "shared conversations" were bring pushed as "good disagreement" to move the Church of England forward towards what CofE Evangelicals believe is a push ultimately for the full acceptance of homosexuality, inviting a backlash that could spell schism.

The bishop claimed to live in a celibate relationship with his partner, which apparently was enough for Justin Welby to give him the green light.

The Archbishop of Canterbury later clashed with two GAFCON archbishops and a theologian over his appointment.

The statement Welby made about Chamberlain was this; "In fact, his lifestyle would make him acceptable to serve the church at any time in its history."

VOL believes this is patently false.

Why? Because the only qualification Scripture reveals to us about a bishop is found in 1 Timothy 3: 1-7 and it reads thusly: "Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. 2 Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full[a] respect. 5 (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God's church?) 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. 7 He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil's trap." (NIV)

What is clear first of all, is that a bishop should be married to a woman, which Chamberlain clearly is not. Chamberlain's appointment meets no NT standard. It is false to say otherwise. If single, he should live alone or perhaps in the company of priests, but any hint of his sexual preferences should not even be raised. You cannot claim to be "in Christ" and a "new creation" and espouse the notion that you are a homosexual living with a man he clearly "loves" whatever that means, and then tell us nothing sexual is going on. My brother-in-law who died of AIDS at the age of 42, said celibacy was totally impossible. It is not surprising then that the Archbishop of Wales, Barry Morgan, recently endorsed homosexual marriages and said that homosexuals should not have to live celibately, a clear invitation for Chamberlain to act out.

*****

The Episcopal Church's House of Bishops met in Detroit this week and they spent a lot of time talking about tightening their grip on who and who should not be made a bishop.

It should come as no surprise that women and people of color should get top billing and white males should, well, go away or not apply.

Of course there is no evidence that they will make churches grow or inspire revival or renewal. The bishops also said that the national church should get in on the act, causing one female bishop to bemoan about continuing "white male leadership."

The idea rattled the ecclesiastical miter of theologically conservative Episcopal bishop, Bill Love, of Albany, who saw it as an intrusion into how bishops are elected locally and viewed it as the heavy hand of the national church interfering in local elections in the name of diversity and inclusion.

Here is what he said: "I am somewhat nervous about the wider church trying to become more involved in the elections within dioceses. No doubt there a lot of folks that would like to see Albany move in a different direction," Love said, urging caution about whether theological diversity also becomes an issue in elections.

He should be worried. If and when he retires, the national church will do its best to make sure that no orthodox bishop in faith and morals will follow in his footsteps, regardless of what local parish priests and parishioners think...or vote.

Big Episcopal brother will be watching...and, if need be, interfering.

*****

The Episcopal Church continued its uninterrupted decline with new figures revealing that, short of a miracle, and they seem to be in short supply, TEC will continue in free fall.

Jeff Walton of IRD revealed that declines in Episcopal Church membership continue a downward spiral that began in the early 2000s.

Updated statistics made available this week by the Episcopal Church Office of Research show a denomination continuing a gradual, uninterrupted decline in 2015. The U.S.-based denomination shed 37,669 members in 2015, a decline of -2.1 percent, while attendance declined -20,631, down -3.4 percent. A net 43 parishes closed, bringing the denominational total to 6,510 congregations.

The pattern is consistent with past years, in which dioceses in New England, the Rust Belt and predominantly rural areas post sharp declines, while dioceses in the South either retain their numbers or decline at a more gradual rate.

Episcopal Church officials, including former Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori -- who completed a nine-year term in office in late 2015 -- have predicted that decline would level off after years of internal dispute and the departure of dioceses, congregations and individual members. While there were no major congregational departures in 2015, the denomination still exceeded its baseline rate of decline of approximately 28,000 members a year by a substantial margin. Presiding Bishop Michael Curry has struck an optimistic tone, encouraging the church to embrace its role in "the Jesus Movement", even as he seeks to address a workplace culture marked by "fear, mistrust and resentment" at the church's national headquarters.

Curry's own Diocese of North Carolina, which had mostly escaped membership decline in the past 15 years, aided by a booming state population, experienced a -0.9 percent drop in membership and a -4.8 percent drop in attendance in 2015. The diocese has seen its average attendance drop -14.7 percent since 2005.

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

*****

Los Angeles Episcopal Bishop Jon Bruno remains on the hot seat as he awaits ecclesiastical trial, and got another round fired at him this week. He has found a formidable foe in Episcopal Church Attorney, Raymond "Jerry" Coughlan, who is joining the Save St. James the Great (SSJG) petition to allow the displaced Episcopal congregation to use St. James the Great's church edifice until the Title IV case against the Los Angeles bishop is decided.

The Episcopal Church attorney joins the parish in its bid to reopen St. James the Great, even as the Newport Beach church sits empty and unused.

The St. James the Great's pleading continues to explain that after Bishop Bruno locked the growing Episcopal congregation out on June 29, 2015, the church has remained shuttered. Since then, church doors have been opened for use only twice, once for a funeral and once for a wedding. There is no reason for the continued lockout.

Goughlan fully agrees. "The continued lockout of over 100 loyal parishioners and clergy of the St. James Church building makes no sense," he writes in his joiner.

"There is a vibrant Episcopal congregation in exile because Bishop Bruno has locked them out of their Episcopal church," the SSJG motion explains.

VOL Special Correspondent Mary Ann Mueller has documented this in two stories you can find in today's digest.

*****

Christians are now the most persecuted group world-wide. But they are not alone. It often appears there is more legal protection for sexual orientation than for moral conscious and religious beliefs. The situation is worsening, says the peripatetic retired Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali.

In an address, Freedom of Belief and the Persecution of Christians and Others, each of the world's major religions, Christianity, Islam and Hinduism, has a history of freedom and tolerance, but this is now all but abandoned. The Roman Empire in 313AD, issued the Edict of Milan, which granted tolerance and religious freedom to Christians. The Constitution of Medina in 622AD, guaranteed that non-Muslims living in Islamic communities would be afforded the same rights and protections as Muslims.

A native of Pakistan, Bishop Nazir-Ali, who is the director of OXTRAD (Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy and Dialogue), told a standing room only crowd in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, this week that this abandonment had emerged due to three reasons. First, there is tyranny; the cruelty and oppression of government. Secondly, are the ideological clashes as exemplified in China and Vietnam where governments are concerned over Roman Catholics being influenced by the authority of the Pope. Thirdly, Islam has been resurgent over the last fifty years in its attempt to engage the modern world. It is doing so by looking back to the 7th Century as the model for its political and economic system. It is hostile to the West in general, and Israel and Christianity in particular. Christians are not just persecuted, but regularly tortured, and even burned alive. You can read the full story by Ladson F. Mills III in today's digest.

*****

In Canada, in the Diocese of Toronto, three new suffragan bishops were elected, one of whom is the Rev. Canon Kevin Robertson, "the first openly gay, partnered bishop-elect in the diocese and perhaps in the Canadian church", said a diocesan press release.

Robertson was elected on the fourth ballot of the second election. He is 45 and the incumbent of Christ Church, Deer Park, in Toronto. After earning his Master of Divinity from Trinity College in 1997, he was ordained deacon the same year and priest in 1998. He and his partner Mohan have two children.

"I realize this is an historic day in the life of our church. It's no secret that I'm the first openly gay, partnered bishop-elect in the diocese and perhaps in the Canadian church as well, and I know that for some people that's a real challenge and for others it's the fulfillment of what they've been hoping and praying for a very long time."

Robertson said his election is a turning point for the church in accepting and supporting LGBTQ people. "I think General Synod (in July) was a turning point for the national church and my election today is a turning point for our diocese, and I'm honored to be a part of that. I'm really encouraged by the developments over the past couple of months -- both General Synod and today bode really well for the full inclusion of LGBTQ people in the life of our church."

Before the first election began, the Rev. Dr. Catherine Sider Hamilton issued an official protest against the inclusion of "one candidate whose lifestyle is, to the best of my knowledge, irregular according to the teaching of the church regarding chastity and marriage. It is a teaching that still stands formally, and I believe that the inclusion of this candidate by the nominations committee is premature." Archbishop Johnson replied that all the nominees were clergy under license in the diocese and in good standing. Synod proceeded with all the nominees on the ballot.

Considering the state of the Anglican Church of Canada, it was inevitable, as it is not really a Christian denomination any more. What it will do is add more fuel to the fire for Global South Primates to contemplate when they meet in Cairo next month. It will also be another historic moment Welby will have to deal with as he sinks beneath the pansexual tsunami overwhelming the Western Church.

*****

The Church of England is seeking to increase the number of candidates selected for ordained ministry from around 500 each year to 750. And they are targeting a "substantial increase" in the number of both young, and black and minority ethnic (Bame) ordinands. They say that the increase is both "necessary and achievable."

The Province's General Synod called on the Church to work towards a 50 per cent increase in candidates for ordination by 2020 at its meeting in February, 2015. The C of E says that the increase "is needed to stabilize and increase the numbers ministering in parishes, chaplaincies and new forms of church."

"The aspiration to increase the number of new clergy by 50 per cent is part of a wider vision to release and develop the gifts of the whole people of God," the Bishop of Guildford, the Rt. Rev. Andrew Watson, chair of the C of E's Ordained Vocations Working Group, said. "It's encouraging to see most of the dioceses really rising to this challenge, as they reshape their vocations teams and put new and more proactive vocations strategies in place.

"We are picking up a fresh commitment to 'pray to the Lord of the Harvest', along with early reports of an increase in the number of enquiries from potential candidates."

The same cannot be said for the Episcopal Church, which released barely 200 ordinands into a Church that is losing some 460 priests a year to retirement.

*****

Participation in abortion or attempted suicide is a bar to ordination as a Catholic priest, even if the act was done when the person was not yet a Catholic, according to a new Vatican ruling.

On Sept. 15, the Vatican published a statement saying Pope Francis had approved the interpretation of a church law during a meeting in May with the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts. Canon 1041 of the Code of Canon Law states that a person who has voluntarily committed homicide or attempted suicide falls under the definition of "irregular for receiving (holy) orders, Crux magazine relays.

When asked if the same law applies to non-Catholics who later became a Catholic and sought ordination as a priest, the council answered, "Affirmative."

Although the sin can be forgiven if a person repents, there is still a "warning sign" that remains, the council's secretary, Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta, told the press. He also said a bishop's intervention is needed before the ordination can go through.

Arrieta explained that the process is meant to "protect the dignity of the sacrament" of holy orders and the Christian community that the priest would later serve. The bishop admitted that these cases are not common but are on the rise, especially among former Anglican priests in English countries.

In July, Pope Francis reiterated the sanctity of human life during his five-day visit to Poland. The pontiff said "life must always be welcomed and protected," and that the two things should always go hand-in-hand starting from conception up to natural death, Zenit reported.

*****

At the request of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop Albert Chama has written to the UN Secretary General ahead of the UN summit on refugees and migrants today.

The Anglican Archbishop of Central Africa, the Most Rev. Albert Chama, has written to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon ahead of the Global Summit Addressing Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants, being held this week at the UN General Assembly in New York.

Writing on the request of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop Albert -- who is Chair of the Anglican Alliance -- said the "global tragedy" of the forced displacement of millions of people "is now a crisis that calls us to work together in new and creative ways in response to such suffering and disruption."

The trauma experienced by the world's 60 million refugees - fleeing conflict and violence, as well as the effects of poverty and climate change - demands a much more intentional and robust collective response, he said, adding that churches and other faith communities "are more than ready to take their place."

"In today's world hospitality, reconciliation and love are our most formidable weapons against hatred and extremism," he added.

Archbishop Albert said the Anglican Communion is consistently at the forefront of humanitarian response, conflict prevention -- above all currently in the Great Lakes of Africa and in South Sudan -- and in rebuilding communities and lives.

In his letter he expressed the Anglican Alliance's warm appreciation for colleagues at the UNHCR and other UN partners. He also commended to Ban Ki-moon the Anglican Communion representatives attending the summit, the Right Rev. David Hamid and Canon Andrew Khoo, who, he said "will bring to the Summit the experience and the witness of the churches responding to the crisis in Europe and in South East Asia."

*****

It is with sadness that VOL notes the passing of businessman, ardent conservationist, political activist, philanthropist, and Anglo-Catholic supporter of VOL, Mr. Terry Kohler, 82, who died at his home this week. He was a VOL board member for many years. He and his wife Mary were deeply involved in the life and work of Nashotah House and he was active in his parish Grace Episcopal Church, 1011 No. 7th Street, Sheboygan, WI 53081. The wake will be Monday, Sept. 26, 3 to 7 PM. Funeral will be 11:00, Tuesday, Sept. 27. Terry was also active at the Episcopal Church in Rice Lake, WI, where they had a summer home and at St. Luke's Episcopal in Ft. Myers, Florida. He will be missed by many, especially his wife Mary, three daughters from his first marriage, Leslie, Michelle and Danielle Kohler; four step-children, Charlie, Doug and Chris Ferrell, and Joseph Simpson; 12 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

*****

The craziness about who can use what toilet just gets crazier. A VOL reader sent this. "I went to use the men's washroom on the second floor of the Hilton DoubleTree Hotel downtown, but there was a sign saying that the washroom had been changed to a Gender Neutral washroom. On the sign was 6 categories of individuals who could use the washroom, including men, women, children, LGBT, transgendered etc. I did not know what to do when I saw the sign, but I did go in. Thank God no one else was in there at the time."

*****

We are coming into the fall season and we could really use your support to keep VOL coming into your e-mail box. Our work is encouraged by your giving. Your donation is tax deductible donation. It helps us believe that all we do is worthwhile. Our hard-working team of reporters and commentators feel the encouragement when you give.

Please help make this possible. You can send a donation to VOL via PAYPAL at the link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/

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VIRTUEONLINE
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Thank you for your support.

David

We no longer have the luxury of just sitting on the fence. Such 'neutrality' is impossible for the true Christian. "Whoever is not with me is against me" said Jesus. It is time in these dark days to take a stand and make a choice. Who will it be: the Lord Jesus, or the lord self? It cannot be both. It is one or the other. We either make him Lord of all, or he is not Lord at all. Your call. Choose wisely. Time is running out. --- Bill Muehlenberg

"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."--George Orwell

Look to the Bible: has there ever been an unrepentant nation whom God ultimately spared from judgment? So why ever should He except the United States, so long as it remains committed to defying Him? -- Allan S. Haley

What is a Christian? The New Testament definition of a Christian is a person 'in Christ'. It is necessary to insist, therefore, that according to Jesus and his apostles to be a Christian is not just to have been baptized, to belong to the church, to receive holy communion, to believe in the doctrines of the creed or to try to follow the standards of the Sermon on the Mount. Baptism and holy communion, church membership, creed and conduct are all part and parcel of living as a Christian, but they can form and sometimes have formed an empty casket from which the jewel has disappeared. The jewel is Jesus Christ himself. To be a Christian is primarily to live in union with Jesus Christ, as a result of which baptism, belief and behaviour slot naturally into place. --- John R. W. Stott

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
Sept. 30, 2016

It's started. And the Archbishop of Canterbury is not amused. The Anglican Mission in England has a pioneering plan to plant 25 churches in England by 2025, and 250 by 2050.

Behind this are the deep thinkers in GAFCON, who have longed to re-evangelize England since most of the Western Anglican Communion has fallen off the cliff over pansexuality. They have launched out into the deep. This must deeply annoy Justin Welby, who thinks he has a plan as well, but clearly the GAFCON folk are not buying his model, it being riddled with moral uncertainty and theological doubt.

Anglican Church League outlines the new network of Anglican churches - 25 gospel-focused churches and then 250 more to rival the Church of England as a home for worshippers with conservative views on issues such as homosexuality.

The project, launched by a group called the Anglican Mission in England (AMiE), aims to plant hundreds of Anglican churches outside the control of the Church of England and has the backing of a group of Global South Anglican archbishops from around the world.

There has been strong opposition from evangelical members of the Church of England against liberal views towards homosexuality.

****

That the Episcopal Church is in decline is not big news any more. It's been going on for at least two decades. But then the Underground Pewster, a conservative blogger, asked why the Episcopal Church Is not worried about a declining membership, an aging clergy and few replacements.

"The denomination continues to see church size shrink, with the average Episcopal parish attracting 58 worshipers on a Sunday, down from an average of 65 in 2011. Similarly, 71 percent of the denomination's churches have an attendance of fewer than 100 persons, while less than 4 percent attract 300 or more. The trend lines do not bode well for the future, with 55 percent of congregations experiencing decline of 10% or greater in the past five years. In contrast, only 18 percent of congregations grew their attendance by 10 percent in the same time span. As a whole, the denomination has experienced a 26 percent drop in attendance since 2005."

"Episcopalians don't seem to be particularly worried about the decline, and do not appear to have a plan to increase their numbers. Any other organization would be scrambling to create a new strategic plan, retraining of the employees in new ways of growing the church would be next, the board of directors would be calling for the CEO's head, and the stockholders would be demanding a new board of directors."

So what is it with Episcopalians that they don't seem to care? Here is a list of possible explanations:

1) Because they believe that they are right about same sex marriage, gender neutral language, etc. This attitude leads to an air of superiority and a belief that the rest of the world will eventually come around and endorse all of the Episcopal innovations.

2) Because they have enough money in trust funds, some $355,969,542.

3) Because the clergy have enough money in their pension funds. (As of September 30, 2014, those assets stood at $11.8 billion (unaudited)). See page 6 of this General Convention report.

4) Because fewer seminary graduates will suffice for the fewer churches and all those older retired priests will have plenty of work filling in the gaps.

5) Because it is the troublemakers who are leaving and the old conservatives who are dying off and this leads to a safer club for those who want to push the progressive agenda.

6) Because many clergy are going to retire soon and it won't be their problem anymore.

When last I checked, "the typical (median) rector, vicar or priest-in-charge is 59 years of age and was called to his or her congregation in 2009 (note: survey was completed in mid-2014)" (Episcopal organization publication p.4).

7) Most Episcopalians never were taught that they are supposed to go out and make disciples. Of course when you are given a false gospel to spread you are going to have a hard time building a following.

8) Most Episcopalians are blissfully unaware of the trouble they are in.

*****

If you ever wondered what passes for a parish or a diocese and the sheer absurdity of the numbers in TEC, then consider this.

Since its founding in 1952, St. Martin's Episcopal Church in the diocese of Texas, has grown to become the largest Episcopal Church in North America, with more than 9,100 members.

Compare and contrast this with, say the Diocese of Navajoland, which has a total of 664 members. The Diocese of Northern Michigan has 1393, Western Kansas has 1397, Eau Claire has 1880, San Joaquin (TEC) has 1984. Eastern Oregon has 2026.

Combined, these SIX dioceses have just 244 more members than St. Martin's in Houston.

How can a diocese even call itself a diocese with 664 members? It is simply not sustainable.

ALL of TEC's rump dioceses have fewer than 9,000 baptized members and, in 2013, the Diocese of Quincy was folded back into the diocese of Chicago.

The real irony is that the largest diocese in the Episcopal Church is HAITI with 84,562 baptized members.

The Five offshore dioceses of MICRONESIA: 249, VENEZUELA: 1080, TAIWAN: 1129, CENTRAL ECUADOR: 1502, EUROPE: 2788 and COLOMBIA: 3019 combined, are only 667 more than St. Martin's.

*****

In Nigeria this week, the Standing Committee and Anglican Archbishop, Nicholas Okoh, flexed their provincial muscles over marriage definition and roared that homosexuality and same sex relationships are not acceptable alternative or lifestyle. They also said that apostasy is the new orthodoxy in the Anglican Communion.

The Archbishop of Nigeria, the Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, and the Standing Committee of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, confirmed the Primate as chairman of GAFCON, and his place in the Anglican Communion at a recent meeting of church leaders in Awka, at the Cathedral of St. Faith.

The Standing Committee, which is the governing body in the church of Nigeria, blasted those parts of the Anglican Communion "which continue to pursue a revisionist theological agenda and negate the place of God's Word written."

"The Church of Nigeria restates its position that Christian marriage is a lifelong union between a man and a woman. Homosexuality and same sex relationships are not acceptable alternative or lifestyle, as our Church is a Bible believing Church."

Nigeria is taking its leadership role within the Anglican Communion with African leaders, declaring that in many parts of the Anglican world, apostasy is the new orthodoxy. "The Standing Committee believes now is the right time to ask the Anglican world, 'who is on the LORD'S side?'" You can read the full report in today's digest.

*****

In Canada this week, three Indigenous bishops blasted the same-sex marriage vote.

The Anglican Church of Canada's three Indigenous bishops ripped their Church's decision to approve, if only provisionally, changes to the marriage canon, which would allow same-sex marriages. Most believe the ACoC will rubber stamp that decision at their next General Synod in 2019.

Following the July vote on same-sex marriages at General Synod, which was confusing and got passed by just one vote, National Indigenous Bishop Mark MacDonald; Bishop Lydia Mamakwa, of the Indigenous Spiritual Ministry of Mishamikoweesh; and Bishop Adam Halkett, of Missinipi, released a joint statement they say was requested by an Indigenous circle that met after the results of July's vote were revealed.

The bishops did say that, while they did not speak for all Indigenous peoples, they said they consulted "broadly and deeply" with many who voiced displeasure both with the decision and the process it was made, and expressed desire for a more self-determined Indigenous Anglican community in Canada.

"We do not agree with the decision and believe that it puts our communities in a difficult place in regards to our relation and community with the Anglican Church of Canada," the bishops said.

The irony should not be missed. The Anglican Church is full of double speak. On the one hand, the church is pushing for Truth and Reconciliation policies with the Aboriginal peoples, then the Church votes in a policy approving same sex weddings, changing its very canons, opposed by the Aboriginal peoples. Fred Hiltz, Archbishop of the Church, wants his cake and eat it. Of course he approves of same sex marriage, but it would seem he would prefer to insult aboriginal peoples than men and women who engage in a sexual behavior proscribed by Scripture and 4,000 years of history! You are what you believe, and Hiltz has told us by his actions what he believes.

One must conclude that the imposition of same sex weddings on the Anglican Church by members of Synod 2016, can only be considered cultural genocide against the Aboriginal citizens of Canada!

*****

A humorous, but sadly true reflection on the state of the Anglican Church of Canada, David of Samizdat headlines his story "Rethinking Christianity in the context of postmodern Pacific coastal culture."

"I have no idea what that means but the clergy of St. Bridget's in the Diocese of New Westminster must, because they are doing it.

"The church claims to be "an emerging, LGBTQ-affirming Christian community rooted in the Anglican tradition". I don't really know what that means either, but perhaps the "resident community developer" -- although I don't know what that means -- can help. He was recently seen at the Vancouver Pride Parade, sporting a placard designed to entice alcoholics off the wagon: "Free wine on Sundays," said the placard.

"No, that didn't help.

"Had I seen all this before becoming a Christian, it might have put me off forever! God, in his mercy, spared me all this emerging, postmodern Pacific coastal culture, alphabet-sexuality affirming hideousness until I'd built up an immunity.

"I am going to my safe space to recuperate now."

*****

Prayer is urgently requested for the Anglican Church in Libya. Egyptian Archbishop Mouneer Anis said he wants to keep the Church of Christ the King in Tripoli "alive and more vibrant".

Writing for the ACNS, Gavin Drake reports that The Primate of Jerusalem and the Middle East, has said that the Anglican Church in Tripoli is struggling to survive. In a message on the website of the Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa, the Archbishop explained that the Church of Christ the King in Tripoli was "struggling to manage and run with the income we receive during divine services."

The country descended into chaos after the 42-year leadership of Col Muammar Gaddafi came to an end in 2011. He was killed in a civil war where opposition forces were supported by Western-military. Despite the formation of a National Transitional Council which gave way to a newly elected parliament, the General National Congress, a power-vacuum followed.

Rival forces battled for control of the country and, despite the formation of a UN-backed unity government this year, the country remains riven with divisions and factions. Many areas are under the control of militants, including Daesh.

*****

Last week, Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, told the Mothers' Union that the idea of a Victorian golden age of traditional family values was a "myth." The "myth" of stable Victorian values was "just that--mythology." At the 140th anniversary of the Mothers' Union, the spiritual leader of 85 million Anglicans told an international gathering of women that they had to face up to modern day society, where divorce and same-sex couples are the norm.

When the shepherd speaks well of the wolf, the sheep are in serious trouble. What do the sheep need to know to debunk Welby's fatally flawed sermon? wrote British Anglican columnist Jules Gomes.

"Welby fails to distinguish between facts and values. No one makes this distinction more succinctly than former President of the British Academy and secular philosopher, Sir Anthony Kenny: 'In order to judge Victorian values, the question each of us should ask ourselves is not would I like to be the kind of person the Victorians were; but would I like to be the kind of person the Victorians admired. In my case, the answer to the first question would be a definite no, the answer to the second question would be a qualified yes.'

"Welby could well have been urging the Mothers' Union to abandon the biblical myth of the traditional family since there is no perfect family in the Bible. Even Jesus's father suddenly disappears in the middle of the story! Most families in the Bible are dysfunctional--as Welby admits his family also was when he was growing up. But is there a family value to which both Jews and Christians aspire in spite of the social pressures of the cultures around them? Jews and Christians believe that this norm is to be found in the creation story in Genesis 2 with its ideal of a man leaving his father and his mother and cleaving to his wife and the two becoming one flesh. For Christians, this becomes normative because it is reiterated by the Lord Jesus Christ in the gospels of Mark and Matthew.

"The image of the Victorian family--husband, wife and children--gathered around the hearth was meant to represent an ideal to which the Victorians aspired. For John Ruskin, the role of the wife and mother was central, for "where a true wife comes, this home is always around her." Ruskin's understanding of the Victorian wife is similar to the role of the wife in Proverbs 31--a "myth"--if one understands the term "myth" as an idealized conception of a person or thing to which we aspire and which is the foundational narrative of society's norms. You can read Dr. Gomes full account in today's digest.

*****

Wycliffe Hall is getting a new Academic Dean in the person of The Very Revd. Dr. Justyn Terry. He will give strategic oversight to all their teaching programs, both academic and ministerial, and driving for co-ordination and quality.

The Principal of Wycliffe Hall, Michael Lloyd, writes: "Justyn has, for the past eight years, been Dean and President of Trinity School for Ministry, in the wonderfully named Ambridge, USA, so he brings an extraordinary wealth of experience to this new job. I am thrilled at this appointment, and am looking forward with great excitement to working with Justyn. His outstanding gifts will help Wycliffe provide women and men with the best possible training for a lifetime's service of God."

Justyn is the author of several books, including The Justifying Judgment of God: a Reassessment of the place of Judgment in the Saving Work of Christ, The Gospel according to Galatians: The Good News of Jesus Christ for a Secular Age, and The Five Phases of Leadership: An Overview for Christian Leaders. He is currently Emeritus Professor of Systematic Theology at Trinity School for Ministry.

*****

A new collection of resources to strengthen and support the use of the Bible in the life of the Churchhas been published by the Anglican Communion. Described as a tool-kit, the Deeper Engagement collection of educational resources has been prepared by the Communion's Bible in the Life of the Church (Bilc) project "to encourage us, as churches, to engage more deeply with the Bible," the coordinator, Stephen Lyon, said in a letter to Primates.

Deeper Engagement is a collection of around 120 different educational resources from different parts of the Communion. They have been gathered "to help us in our engagement with Scripture," Mr. Lyon said. "Most have been used to great effect already and those responsible for creating them are enthusiastic about sharing them with others in the Communion."

In the foreword, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, says "I see this project as utterly foundational for our life together. I can hardly stress that enough."

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, said that he hoped that the resources would help to develop "a wider and fuller biblical literacy" within the Anglican Communion.

*****

An armed police patrolled Canterbury Cathedral amid terrorist fears, this week. Security was increased, following the murder of Fr Jacques Hamel. Police with guns are patrolling Canterbury Cathedral amid fears about terror attacks.

The extra security comes after a series of jihadist attacks across Europe, including the murder of Fr Jacques Hamel in Rouen. Essex and Kent Police have ordered armed officers to guard potential terrorist targets, including the cathedral, major shopping centers, the port of Dover and London Southend Airport.

Photos have emerged of police officers carrying Heckler and Koch G36 assault rifles, Glock 17 semi-auto 9mm pistols and Tasers outside the cathedral.

A spokesman for Canterbury Cathedral said: "Having grown used to armed police patrols in our rail stations, airports and in the capital cities we should not be surprised that Kent Police has judged the same provision for the security of people needs to be made at significant sites in their own area.

"It is a sadness to us all that such a response is necessary but the police has made this decision with the safety of the public in mind."

In July, the Home Office also announced £2.4 million of funding to bolster security in places of worship, and churches were advised to review their security measures.

Canterbury Cathedral, consecrated in the 11th century, is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It receives a million visitors a year.

*****

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry was in North Dakota, Sept. 24-25, to declare, in person, that he, the Episcopal Church and, most importantly, God, stands with the Standing Rock Sioux Nation in its struggle against the Dakota Access Pipeline that will run under their water supply, over its treaty lands and through some of its burial places.

Curry also called for racial reconciliation in the midst of opposition that has, at times, surfaced the area's historical tensions between Indians and non-Indians. He engaged Episcopalians, leaders of other churches, Bismarck residents and its mayor in conversations about racism and environmental justice. He urged people to continue talking with each other after he left.

The Rev. John Floberg told Curry that action against the pipeline is a "kairos moment," a Greek word meaning God's appointed time to act. The moment, said Floberg, supervising priest of the Episcopal churches on the North Dakota side of Standing Rock, is filled with hope because "God is doing something here" beyond the actual protest.

That something has brought together Standing Rock Indians with members and leaders of at least 250 of the recognized tribes in the United States in an unprecedented show of unity. Many non-Native people have come to join the protests, as well, including Episcopalians from other parts of the country.

And many people are re-exploring how they have traditionally related to each other in the context of the protest that some say is damaging the part of the state's economy that is dependent on natural-resource extraction, particularly oil and gas, and the jobs the pipeline will provide.

*****

We are into the fall season and we could really use your support to keep VOL coming into your e-mail box. Our work is encouraged by your giving. Your donation is tax deductible donation. It helps us believe that all we do is worthwhile. Our hard-working team of reporters and commentators feel the encouragement when you give.

In a few days I will be heading to Cairo, Egypt, to be with 36 Primates of the Anglican Communion as they explore how they can work together in an increasingly fragmented communion. It will be no small task.

Please help make this possible. You can send a donation to VOL via PAYPAL at the link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/

Or 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

From the first GAFCON Communique of 2006, to the Canterbury Primates' Communique in 2016, to the latest Cairo Communique, orthodox primates of the Global South ratcheted up the pain and demands for purity of life and holiness on Welby and the whole Anglican Communion. They said no to homosexual behavior and no to homosexual marriage.

Ironically, even as this group of high level primates was meeting in Cairo, Justin Welby took a team of primates to Rome to talk up unity with the Pontiff of a billion souls.

ENS reported (which VOL first exposed) that Presiding Bishop Michael Curry (and more than half of the Anglican Communion primates) travelled to Rome to celebrate 50 years since Pope Paul VI met with Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey in Rome in 1966.

It appears that the visit to Rome was set for the same time as GS6 in Cairo, after the Global South announced it was meeting in Cairo. Perhaps there was a desire to have a competing agenda to try to make it appear that all is well in the Anglican Communion, when, in fact, it is not. When VOL first enquired if Welby would be attending the GS conference, we were told he had begged off, saying he was going to be in Rome seeing the pope.

The deeper question is why Michael Curry was invited when he had been told back in January in Canterbury that he had been prohibited for a period of three years from attending an ecumenical gathering of any kind because of TEC's stand on human sexuality!

When Nigerian Archbishop Nicholas Okoh heard this, he was furious at Welby's betrayal and told me so. We have made it clear, over and over again that we will not tolerate homosexuality, and this goes against all of us, he said.

Welby, the perfect manager and manipulator managed to "steal" Ian Ernest, Indian Ocean Primate and vice chairman of the Global South, to join him in Rome. In another move aimed at declawing the Global South is his recent appointment of the Rt. Rev. Anthony Poggo, currently bishop of the Diocese of Kajo-Keji in South Sudan, as his new adviser for Anglican Communion affairs. He does this even though Poggo's boss is Sudan Archbishop Deng Bull, a GAFCON primate! Oh, the duplicity.

Clearly, Welby is using all his management skills and techniques to drain off GAFCON and the Global South by placing them in strategic positions based on the old adage of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer.

He is doing everything Rowan Williams could not do and is, by any reckoning, doing a better job than Rowan. The former archbishop was not a manager, but a head banger but that still got him nowhere. He retired eight years before he had too because the pressure was too much and he could reconcile the irreconcilable.

But can Welby ultimately keep it altogether? The answer to that is a resounding no if the trajectory of the Anglican Communion continues along its present path.

Each communique repeats the need for theological integrity, sexual purity, evangelism, discipleship, church planting and much more.

Western provinces don't seem to be listening.

Egyptian Archbishop Mouneer Anis called for new structures through which Global South Provinces could cooperate for undiluted Gospel ministry. This would not require a break from Canterbury, but it would allow for ministry without having Western Liberals dominate the agenda with their "progressive" views and plans.

Bishop Bill Atwood (GAFCON Ambassador) said, "It is likely that the implications from Bishop Mouneer's comments tonight will reverberate for two hundred years. I expect to see great strength going forward with both fellowship and theological agreement uniting practically all of the Global South with all of GAFCON."

The communique's theme was "Found Faithful" and covers the usual ground of evangelism mission and discipleship, clarity in the gospel to be proclaimed, and then they said this, "The Communion exposes the Communion's ecclesial deficit, which was highlighted in the Windsor Continuation Group Report (2008) and concluded by saying this, "The Global South Primates will therefore form a task force to recommend how these needs can be effectively addressed."

Thems are fighting words. This is a direct attack on the leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and he has been served notice by these orthodox primates that this is a game changer. These 16 provinces represent the vast majority of the Anglican Communion.

VOL will have more commentary on this communique in the coming days.

I have posted more than a dozen stories from my time here in Cairo and we left no stone unturned in getting you the fullest coverage of this historic event.

*****

South African Anglican Archbishop, Desmond Tutu, said this week that when his time comes, he wants the option of an assisted death.

"Throughout my life, I have been fortunate to have spent my time working for dignity for the living. I have campaigned passionately for people in my country and the world over to have their God-given rights.

"Now, as I turn 85, with my life closer to its end than its beginning, I wish to help give people dignity in dying. Just as I have argued firmly for compassion and fairness in life, I believe that terminally ill people should be treated with the same compassion and fairness when it comes to their deaths. Dying people should have the right to choose how and when they leave Mother Earth. I believe that, alongside the wonderful palliative care that exists, their choices should include a dignified assisted death," he told the Washington Post.

*****

The situation in the Anglican Church of Canada goes from bad to worse. It's hard to imagine any other scenario than its ultimate demise.

Seven bishops 'publicly dissented' from same-sex marriage vote and now say General Synod "erred grievously" in its approval of a resolution allowing same-sex marriages.

The statement, a copy of which was sent to the Anglican Journal, also called on the primate, Archbishop Fred Hiltz, and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, "to seek ways to guarantee our place within the Anglican Church of Canada and the Anglican Communion."

The statement was signed by Bishop Stephen Andrews, of the diocese of Algoma; Bishop David Parsons, of the diocese of the Arctic, and Suffragan Bishop Darren McCartney, also of the diocese of the Arctic; Bishop Fraser Lawton, of the diocese of Athabasca; Bishop William Anderson, of the diocese of Caledonia; Bishop Michael Hawkins, of the diocese of Saskatchewan; and Bishop Larry Robertson, of the diocese of Yukon.

Twenty-six bishops, or 68.4%, voted in favor of the motion to change the church's marriage canon to allow for same-sex marriages, and 12 voted against.

Archbishop Fred Hiltz finally responded back and pushed back. saying that while he affirmed the bishops' commitment to offer "pastoral care and loving service to all irrespective of sexual orientation," he noted that for many LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning) Anglicans, "pastoral care" would include the solemnization of their marriages--which the bishops have expressly said they will not do. "For me, my brothers, the question you ask is really a question for all members of the church. To what extent can we and will we make room for one another? To what extent will we pastorally accommodate one another?" Hiltz said in his letter.

Hiltz's response is dated August 5, but it became public following its distribution to the House of Bishops in advance of its September 22-27 meeting in Winnipeg. The Anglican Journal obtained a copy of the letter after a request was made to the primate's office.

Hiltz also challenged their claim that the resolution, which contains a conscience clause, "does not provide adequate protection for the consciences of dioceses, clergy and congregations." He asked the bishops to explain what such protection would look like, and how it would apply for those in their dioceses who are in favor of same-sex marriage.

He defended the process leading up to the same-sex marriage vote, July 11, which narrowly passed the first of two readings (the second will take place in 2019) and took issue with the bishops' claim that the "entire process" leading up to the vote was "flawed," and had "inflicted terrible hurt and damage on all involved."

The ACoC is following the playbook of TEC in its approach to homosexual marriage, and the same thing will happen to those remaining orthodox dioceses in Canada that happened to TEC's dwindling orthodox dioceses (now down to six). They will slowly be run out of town. As bishops retire, their places will be taken by liberal bishops (think Nthn. Indiana) and the whole church will slowly disintegrate. It is only a matter of time.

Some tidbits from my source in Canada: The number of Anglican churches in London, Ontario, may go down to four. Since the same sex weddings were voted in by one vote in July, 2016, attendance on Sunday mornings has really declined. The vast majority of the parishioners in the pews do not want same sex weddings.

Then there's this from blogger David of Samizdat. The Anglican Church of Canada wants to end poverty (Bishop Jane Alexander is co-chair of the End Poverty Edmonton Task Force), an ambition that we might be tempted to think a trifle arrogant since the Church's founder said it couldn't be done.

No one seriously thinks the ACoC can actually do it, of course; it can't even deliver Biblical sustenance to its own flock. That means it's up to the government. or, to put it more plainly, taxpayers, most of whom don't attend an Anglican church, anyway, so that's a good plan.

And this...Whatever you do, though, don't mention abortion. Sorry, I know I just mentioned it. That is because killing the unborn is the biggest injustice that will be visited on the defenseless, but the ACoC hasn't the guts to stand up for murdered unborn babies. So I won't mention abortion. Oops, there I go again.

And there's David's reflection on Archbishop Fred Hiltz, with this headline, Roman Catholics and Anglicans continue their ecumenical dance. Justin Welby met with Pope Francis for more ecumenical dialogue recently. The conclusion was that the denominations are still divided.

A great deal of expense and carbon emissions could have been avoided by a close inspection of the invitation list. It included Fred Hiltz from Canada who, not only has no influence over healing divisions between Catholics and Anglicans, but has spent most of the time during his tenure in his own denomination promoting division in it. Justin Welby, seemingly eager to learn from the colonies, is about to follow suit.

What a waste of time, energy and resources.

Here is what came out of the Rome lovefest with the Pope; "While the decision by some provinces in the Anglican Communion to accept the ordination of women and same-sex marriage have posed new obstacles to formal unity between Anglicans and Roman Catholics, a common declaration issued by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Pope Francis October 5 reaffirmed their commitment to ecumenical work.

"While...we ourselves do not see solutions to the obstacles before us, we are undeterred," the declaration says. "We are confident that dialogue and engagement with one another will deepen our understanding and help us to discern the mind of Christ for his church."

Nonsense, nothing will change. TEC and the ACoC will continue on their Gadarene slide into oblivion and nobody will care.

*****

The Diocese of Niagara's, Rev. Wayne Fraser, wants to ditch the Nicene Creed because it promotes "old science" and says the world is flat, writes David of Samizdat.

"The Creeds, of course, make no scientific claims at all. What probably disturbs Rev. Wayne's sensibilities is the Creed's insistence on the miraculous, such as the Virgin Birth and Resurrection.

"Miracles are only a problem for materialists who believe the universe is a closed system; for those of us who think God is free to act as an agent in his own creation -- that may well not include the Rev. Wayne - miracles are no less scientific than the free act of any human agent.

"Rev. Wayne also thinks the Creed engages in modern dance with scientific knowledge, so I don't think we should pay much attention to anything he says.

"Here is the word from the diocese: There's so much old science reflected in the Creed that does not jive [he means "jibe"] with what we know today about the universe. The ancient concept of a three-tiered world, to begin with. And a flat earth.

"The Nicene Creed teaches us to believe in "one holy, catholic and apostolic Church." Is that in the Bible? No. What good does it do? It does not make much difference to most people's lives. If we are still considering the role of the Nicene Creed in the Christian church after 1,700 years, still fretting about ideologies, we have missed the point."

And then there's David's take on Fred Hiltz and the recent same sex marriage vote.

"Archbishop Hiltz responds to dissenting bishops. Once the vote to change the marriage canon to permit same-sex marriage passed at General Synod, a number of bishops released a statement expressing their disagreement with both the process and the outcome. They also reaffirmed their commitment to stick with the Anglican Church of Canada come what may, a resolve that does little to fortify any influence they may think they have.

"Now Hiltz has responded to the statement. He makes his support for same-sex marriage quite clear and, reading between the lines, in spite of protestations to the contrary, I can't believe there will be much tolerance for dissent.

"While he affirmed the bishops' commitment to offer "pastoral care and loving service to all irrespective of sexual orientation," he noted that for many LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning) Anglicans, "pastoral care" would include the solemnization of their marriages--which the bishops have expressly said they will not do. "For me, my brothers, the question you ask is really a question for all members of the church. To what extent can we and will we make room for one another? To what extent will we pastorally accommodate one another?" Hiltz said in his letter.

"The bishops are, rightly, worried about the conscience clause:

"Hiltz also challenged their claim that the resolution, which contains a conscience clause, "does not provide adequate protection for the consciences of dioceses, clergy and congregations." He asked the bishops to explain what such protection would look like, and how it would apply for those in their dioceses who are in favor of same-sex marriage.

"One answer to Hiltz might be this: when a bishop or clergyman refusing to marry a same-sex couple is either hauled before the Human Rights Commission or is civilly sued, the ACoC must pay for his legal defense. Of course, that won't stop liberal bishops refusing to hire orthodox clergy or making their lives so disagreeable that they quit for a saner environment - but some things are too much to hope for."

*****

What comes around goes around. The Jesus with breasts stature is back in the news again and only in The Episcopal Church would it allow such blasphemy to exist.

The nude female "Christa", Back at New York's Episcopal Cathedral, writes Jeff Walton of IRD. A controversial sculpture depicting a nude female Christ on the cross is displayed on a chapel altar.

"Christa", the bronze sculpture by artist Edwina Sandys, will appear alongside the work of 21 other contemporary artists, according to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine web site: "all exploring the language, symbolism, art, and ritual associated with the historic concept of the Christ image and the divine as manifested in every person--across all genders, races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and abilities."

Sandys' work was previously exhibited in the cathedral in 1984. as part of an exhibition on the feminine divine, but was removed after significant backlash. Then-Suffragan Bishop of New York, Walter Dennis, criticized the sculpture as "theologically and historically indefensible", leading to its removal from the 124-year-old gothic revival church in Manhattan's Morningside Heights neighborhood.

The current dean of the cathedral, the Very Rev. James A. Kowalski, saw the return of the statue as "an opportunity to reframe the conversation and, frankly, do a better job than the first time."

The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, Andrew M. L. Dietsche, wrote an article for the cathedral's booklet -- an approving article. "In an evolving, growing, learning church," he wrote, "we may be ready to see 'Christa' not only as a work of art but as an object of devotion, over our altar, with all of the challenges that may come with that for many visitors to the cathedral, or indeed, perhaps for all of us."

So once again, it is important for The Episcopal Church to go with the flow of the culture; God forbid that it should stand up and say NO. Won't happen.

Looking back, Dean Kowalski noted that the statue's first appearance at the cathedral was long before national debates over such topics as transgender people's right to use the bathroom of their choice, which TEC also endorses.

Readers of this blog may recall Kowalski as the previous chair of the Board of Trustees for Episcopal Divinity School, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based progressive Episcopal Church seminary which recently voted to cease issuing academic degrees. The school sold much of its property in the past decade and is burning through six million dollars a year from its endowment, an unsustainable level of spending.

Episcopalians in New York State have been hard-hit by membership and attendance decline, with the Diocese of New York reporting significant losses in the past decade, writes Walton.

Between 2005 and 2015, the Episcopal Diocese of New York declined from 64,027 members to 53,353 members, a loss of 10,674 members (-17%). During the same time period, average Sunday attendance dropped from 21,723 in 2005 to 16,878 in 2015, a loss of 4,845 attendees (-22%). Baptisms in the diocese declined from 1,612 in 2005 to 904 in 2015 (-56%) and marriages performed decreased from 579 in 2005 to 290 in 2015 (-50%).

The exhibit will run from October 6 to March 12.

So not only is this going with the flow of the culture just plain idiocy, it won't make churches grow. It should be pointed out that this diocese also has a lesbian assistant bishop, which might tell you enough about this diocese's future.

*****

Then there's this choice morsel from a bishop who shall go unnamed. He told me that people in a certain cathedral did not want to have Bible studies for fear that the Episcopal Church might become fundamentalist if they studied the Bible. I kid you not. Needless to say, the parish has deep-sixed on same sex marriage, so you know where such ignorance is going.

*****

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David

"...It's a crisis of declining trust and stability, lost solidarity and permanence...A deep sadness comes when we realize, finally that we're on our own, which is where secular individualism brings us in the end. Many now live without a Father in heaven. Political correctness denies them the patrimony of a workable cultural inheritance. For an increasing number of young people, there's not even a father at home. A nation of orphans, literal or metaphorical, will not long endure.

"...Will we seek to live in accord with the idea of a Christian society, or will we accept the tutelage of a pagan society?...By my reckoning, a false view of freedom as unimpeded choice and self-definition has led to a deregulation of culture more consequential than market deregulation... Today's progressivism is waging war on the weak. Putting an end to that war is the most important social justice issue of our time.

"We need to say, out loud and with confidence, that we're best off when we live under the authority of the permanence of marriage, accept the duties of patriotism, and affirm the supernatural claims the church makes upon our souls."

*****

Nearly a hundred evangelical leaders have written to Church of England bishops warning that any change in teaching or practice over same-sex relationships would cause "fundamental disunity".

The letter was sent to every bishop, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, on Tuesday as they consider whether to introduce some form of acceptance or blessing for gay couples. It warns the smallest change would "trigger a process of division and fragmentation among faithful Anglicans".

Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has to try and hold the Anglican churches around the world together amid deep divisions over sexuality.

The signatories include major church leaders, as well as heads of Anglican networks and some of the Church's largest theological colleges. Any shift in teaching that sex should only be within marriage between one man and one woman, would "cause a break not only with the majority of the Anglican Communion, but with the consistent mind of the worldwide Church down many centuries," they warn.

"Responses would vary, but the consequences for the life and mission of the Church will be far-reaching, both nationally and globally."

Beneath the question of same-sex relationships were deeper "tectonic issues" including the authority of the Bible, the Church's "apostolic inheritance" and how it relates to wider culture, the letter said.

"Any change in the Church's teaching or practice -- such as the introduction of provisions that celebrate or bless sexual relationships outside of a marriage between one man and one woman -- would represent a significant departure from our apostolic inheritance and the authority of the Bible in matters of faith and doctrine," the letter read.

"It would also, inevitably, be a further step on a trajectory towards the full acceptance of same-sex sexual partnerships as equivalent to male-female marriage."

The 88 signatories include representatives from four major Anglican theological colleges, which train new vicars for the Church. Although signing in a "purely personal capacity", the figures cover Wycliffe Hall, St Mellitus College, St John's School of Mission and Oak Hill College.

Also among the signatories are members of the Living Out group, who describe themselves as "same-sex attracted", but follow the Church's demand of abstinence. Ed Shaw, a trustee of the charity, said that any change would leave him "and thousands of other same-sex attracted Christians high and dry".

He told Christian Today: "It [the Church] has told us for thousands of years we should remain celibate.

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

*****

Theologian Ian Paul writes, The Church of England is at a crossroads in her calling to bring hope and transformation to our nation. The presenting issue is that of human sexuality, in particular whether or not the Church is able to affirm sexual relationships beyond opposite sex marriage. But the tectonic issues beneath, and driving, this specific question include what it means to be faithful to our apostolic inheritance, the Church's relationship with wider culture, and the nature of the biblical call to holiness in the 21st Century.

As culture and attitudes continue to change, the Church faces a range of new social realities. These include the rise in cohabitation and the wide scale acceptance of divorce with its negative impact on children, the explosion of diverse types of family relationships, the emergence of gender fluidity and bisexuality, and the recognition of same-sex unions. These far-reaching social changes raise questions and -- in some quarters -- undermine confidence in our inherited teaching.

The Church has not always navigated these social realities well. We recognize the damage caused by judgmental attitudes. We have sometimes failed to recognize acts of great kindness and humanity. We have elevated some sins above others. We have ignored the plank in our own eye. There is much work ahead, not least in ensuring that our communities offer sacrificial hospitality and service to all, regardless of background, family structure or sexuality.

At the same time, we remain convinced of the essential goodness of the Christian moral vision. The Bible is clear that God has given the marriage of one man with one woman as the only context in which physical expression is to be given to our sexuality. We believe that we flourish, whether single or married, as our lives are brought into harmony with God's intended design.

Any change in the Church's teaching or practice -- such as the introduction of provisions that celebrate or bless sexual relationships outside of a marriage between one man and one woman -- would represent a significant departure from our apostolic inheritance and the authority of the Bible in matters of faith and doctrine. It would also, inevitably, be a further step on a trajectory towards the full acceptance of same-sex sexual partnerships as equivalent to male-female marriage.

There are substantive issues at stake here, he writes.

*****

Clergy protest election of homosexual bishop in Toronto. A number of clergy have written to Justin Welby and the Ontario College of Bishops to protest the election of Rev. Canon Kevin Robertson to the position of suffragan bishop. Robertson is married to a man and sees his election as another step towards, in his words, "the full inclusion of LGBTQ people in the life of our church".

The protest is a valiant, if futile, effort to stem the tide of the inevitable. The protesters in the letters below have been saying much the same thing for at least 10 years, probably longer. At each stage, from same-sex blessings to homosexual clergy to homosexual activity not being contrary to the church's core doctrine -- what's left of it -- to, finally, same-sex marriage and homosexual bishops, the protests were as heartfelt as they were impotent. The steady drip, drip of liberal heresy has been accumulating volume and momentum for decades; there will be no stopping it.

The small satisfaction one might take from all this is that the most severe judgement God visits on his people is to remove the restraints that contain the evil in our midst and let us have what we think we want. The Anglican Church of Canada is getting what it wants, and therein lies its doom.

VOL has learned that the newly anointed homosexual bishop, Kevin Robertson, is to be assigned to the episcopal area of York-Scarborough, where his current parish is situated. That means that the flagship evangelical and decidedly non-affirming parishes of St Paul's, Bloor Street (where Jenny Andison hails from) and Little Trinity will have an out and partnered area bishop. For her part, Jenny will replace Bishop Poole in York-Credit Valley, which will make for interesting times at St Thomas's, Huron Street, where women still do not function in a priestly capacity. Riscylla Walsh Shaw will be the second woman in a row to be the bishop of Trent-Durham.

*****

The Anglican Archbishop of Perth, Roger Herft, is standing aside to, in his words "focus" on the sex abuse royal commission.

In a letter to parishioners, Archbishop Herft said he would stand aside with immediate effect, to "focus my attention on the royal commission's ongoing inquiry into the Diocese of Newcastle".

The Archbishop gave evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in August, and said he would stand aside from all duties, including ordinations, pastoral visits, public functions, correspondence and related engagements.

"I have taken this decision after much prayer, thought and consultation with my advisors to allow for the mission and ministry of the Diocese of Perth to flourish," he wrote.

*****

The 6th Trumpet Global South Conference in Cairo bringing together 150 Primates, bishops and laity is over, but the repercussions of what they wrote are now beginning to ripple around the world. These godly men and women made it perfectly clear that they would stand by the teachings of scripture and the Church on human sexuality and they would not be moved by culture and the siren call of sodomites demanding acceptance of their behavior. The whole western Anglican Church might go to Hell, but they will not follow them. Not now, not ever.

The Anglican Communion News Service was basically dismissive of the communique, viewing it as yet another attempt by conservatives not to face the "inevitability" or "reality" of homosexual marriage. The truth is Welby is fiddling while the Communion burns. His refusal to stand by scripture as final and authoritative on sexuality is turning into a tragedy for all sides and for the integrity of the gospel.

The communique was definitive and compelling. Canon Phil Ashey of the American Anglican Council, has written a brilliant analysis of this and has written on seven takeaways from that historic communication.

In brief, here they are:

1. The Anglican Church in North America is fully recognized and in communion with the largest ecclesial body of Anglicans within the Anglican Communion

2. Our mission as Anglicans is to extend the Kingdom of God to all corners of the world, and the Kingdom of God is nothing less or other than the righteous, just and compassionate rule of God through Jesus Christ.

3. Mission is rooted in and shaped by Biblical and historic Christian doctrine. Therefore Anglican Churches that depart from Biblical and historic Christian doctrine sever themselves from their roots and compromise their witness and mission.

4. Global South and GAFCON proclaim publicly their intent to work together

5. The current Communion Instruments are "broken cisterns" (Jer. 2:13) that are unable to sustain the life and mission of Anglican Churches worldwide

6. A warning to the Church of England: any pastoral provision for blessing same-sex unions will result in serious consequences

7. The lesson from Carthage: "enhanced ecclesial responsibility" for Bishops

So what's the punchline? It's in these two paragraphs:

The present and potentially escalating crisis poses challenges to the Global South in the shepherding of her people. We recognize the need for our enhanced ecclesial responsibility. We need to strengthen our doctrinal teaching, our ecclesiastical ordering of our collective life as a global fellowship and the flourishing of our gifts in the one another-ness of our mission.

The Global South Primates will therefore form a task force to recommend how these needs can be effectively addressed.

"Enhanced ecclesial responsibility" should be read carefully in light of the lessons learned from the Church in Carthage, whose bishops "were confident of their authority to order the Church." (para. 19). "Enhanced ecclesial responsibility" should also be read carefully in the context of both the ordering and shepherding of the churches of the Global South, and "our ecclesiastical ordering of our collective life as a global fellowship." (para. 32, emphasis added) Is this "global fellowship" simply the Anglican Churches of the Global South? Or is it beyond that?

You can read his full take in today's digest.

These VIEWPOINTS are brief owing to limited Internet access and because my wife and I are endeavoring to take a vacation. I hope you will understand.

In Christ,

David

After spending nearly two weeks in North Africa and Europe, writing stories and posting other stories that my trusty associate could find, I have come away with some observations that I would like to share with you.

The first is that North Africa is very religious, while Europe is very secular. That is hardly surprising given the state of things in, say, Egypt and France.

In Egypt, one cannot escape the call of the Minaret (five times a day) and in France, you cannot escape the need for fine dining, equally fine wines and the call of good truffles. In France, the churches, though beautiful to look at, are empty just like most churches in England. By contrast, everybody has a religion in Egypt, with few if any declaring themselves agnostic or atheist. You are either a Muslim (90% of the nation,) Coptic, Armenian Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican or one of the handful of Protestant sects. One can practice one's faith openly in the big cities but there are occasional flare-ups in villages where Christians are often harassed and occasionally killed. But it is not the norm.

I had dinner one evening in Heliopolis, Cairo with the president of the Protestant Council of Churches of Egypt and he said that the churches (he is Presbyterian) can flourish, but conversions across lines are rare. For the vast sea of Egyptians, life is about making a living, looking after their families, and just plain getting along. My own take on the Egyptian character is that they are a gentle people, useless at making war with Israel, and do much better keeping the peace with their Israeli neighbors and doing business with them, which they have done for more than 50 years. They like Americans, but do not like President Obama. They will not be sorry to see him go and they absolutely and totally fear a Trump presidency. They marvel at how this man rose without trace to become the Republican nominee. (More on that later). They see Clinton as basically sane on international affairs and think she would keep the status quo even if the Middle East remains a bubbling cauldron of uncertainty, violence and war. A steady hand is better than a Trump hand that could start a Third World War, they tell me.

This was much the same message in France. The French are quite liberal and people I talked to wonder what the world will become if Trump is elected President. They wonder if America is losing its collective mind, even contemplating such a man for president whose sole obsession seems to be about other peoples' sex lives. The French are used to their presidents having mistresses and think nothing of it if the current president has a mistress while living happily with his wife. Live and let live is their response. Most of the French never could understand why Bill Clinton was hounded for his sexual indiscretions when he was otherwise a good president in political and economic affairs.

In both nations, people fear a Trump presidency. They told me over and over that their lives would be changed irrevocably, perhaps even fatally. People want security and they don't see it in Donald Trump. Your average citizen does not want war; they want peace and security to raise their families. They fear the world will go mad if Trump is elected president. They say he is loyal to no one and nothing except himself and winning, and even their worst politicians are better than that.

They wonder who these evangelicals are who vote for him. Most Egyptians and French people don't know who or what an evangelical is, and they marvel about a group of people who claim such belief in the Bible and yet believe and vote for a man who believes or knows so little about what the Bible really says.

More liberal Muslims I spoke with ask what the difference is between ISIS who interpret the Koran to condone mass killings of even their own people, and American Christian fundamentalists who interpret the Bible to kill Muslims and their own people who don't see the universe their way! Do they have the same God, they ask? They ask what the meaning of tolerance is to ordinary people, both Christian and Muslim who want to live at peace. Many told me that they admired Mr. Kahn for standing up to Trump. "He is our kind of Muslim," they told me.

Whenever I had occasion to walk the streets of Cairo looking for a restaurant, I would ask the hotel concierge, "Is it safe", and the answer was always the same, "Yes it is, no one will harm you. Yes they will know you are probably American, but they will not molest you. You will be treated with kindness. Yes, we have some pickpockets, but that is the extent of what you will experience. Carry your wallet carefully." And it was true. I found the Egyptians to be endlessly polite and helpful and always they would say "welcome" which had a deeper meaning for them than us. They would place their hand over their hearts and their "welcome" meant you are welcome into their homes, 'come and drink tea with us'. The gentleness of the Egyptian was most exemplified in Anglican Archbishop, Mouneer Anis, a gentle soul if ever there was one. The Brotherhood are being kept firmly in their place; they were too radical for the average Egyptian and we should not forget that. No one picked my pocket.

In France, the issue was people saw the statements of Trump that were anti migrant, anti-Muslim, anti-Mexican, even anti-women as divisive and troubling. Their view of America is a place of opportunity for all and hearing these comments and seeing the police violence has made them see beneath the covers of the American Dream and they are both horrified and disappointed that an uncouth man like Donald Trump could be a candidate for president.

It is ironic, that France, which is a secular society, wants homosexual marriage outlawed. Despite France legalizing same-sex marriage in 2013, more than 20,000 people protested against the law in Paris, just as I was leaving France. The demo comes just weeks before the conservative primary ahead of the 2017 presidential election.

After two years out of the spotlight, anti-gay marriage movement "Manif Pour Tous" (Protest for Everyone) was reactivated on Sunday. According to police figures, between 23,000 and 24,000 people gathered at the Trocadero Plaza in western Paris, to protest against France's same-sex marriage laws. Organizers, however, put the turnout at approximately 200,000.

Protesters marched through the streets waving French flags and the movement's blue and pink colors. Some held signs declaring "All together for the family" and "In 2017, I'll vote for the family."

"Even if the gay marriage law has been adopted, we will continue the protest to show that it is not good and we want it to be repealed. We want to influence the political debate that will take place in the coming months," said one protester.

A 29-year-old man told news agency AFP that he was protesting because he wanted a "return to the principles of Christian civilization in terms of family, institutions and work."

France's Socialist government legalized same-sex marriage, which it called "Marriage for All," in 2013. Now, with the conservative primary less than a month away, protesters hope to pressure politicians into agreeing to repeal the law if they are elected president.

The French are not always predictable, but on one issue they remain firm if not bewildered, "Who is this Donald Trump and how is it he got so far to possibly become president, when even many of his fellow Republicans will not vote for him?"

*****

While Archbishop Justin Welby toddles off to Rome to talk with the Pope about unity (which could be another 2,000 years down the line) and later rage on about the environment, creation and global warming, the chairman of the Anglican Consultative Council set out his vision for the Communion and he described it as "being proactive, building links and bringing peace to a world in turmoil -- those are the main tasks ahead for the Anglican Communion and its leaders," he said.

Archbishop Paul Kwong -- the Primate of Hong Kong -- in celebrating his first six months in the post, told the Anglican Communion News Service that it was vital for the Communion to be relevant.

No, actually that is not the case. Being relevant is not remotely why the Communion is a communion -- members of the Body of Christ. The Communion is called to be faithful to the gospel of Christ and to proclaim the Good News of the Cross and Resurrection. Being relevant has cost The Episcopal Church millions of parishioners. Being "proactive" whatever that means and "building links", but with whom is not stated, and "bringing peace to the world", is something that world powers and the UN tries to do, not the Anglican Communion. If it is, no one is listening to us, and 1.3 billion Chinese are certainly not listening to the Anglican consultative Council or Kwong about bringing peace on earth and goodwill to men. They are more concerned with trade deals with the US. But such noble high sounding sentiments make good press copy, accompanied by much hubris. The failure to bring peace within the Anglican family that has been decidedly elusive for the last three decades and growing more hopeless with each passing year, seems not to concern Archbishop Kwong. It is vital that the communion be found faithful to the gospel in its witness to the world. Bringing peace to the world is mockingly absurd when the Anglican Communion is torn by 'heresies distressed' and can't find 'peace' in its own house of disorder. I have written about this at length in today's digest and have taken apart Archbishop Kwong's thesis that he hopes will bring a fractured Communion together.

*****

Bishop Gene Robinson worked for Podesta group targeting Catholics. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants from the Arcus Foundation to "reclaim" religious freedom as a progressive value that 'includes LGBT equality and women's reproductive health and rights.' The Center for American Progress also hosts Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson as a senior fellow. The first openly gay bishop's 2003 election as Bishop of New Hampshire caused massive rifts within the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. You Can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

A document written by Sydney Bishop Michael Stead, says that gay marriage may collapse like Communism.

Stead, who is the chairman of the Archbishop's Plebiscite taskforce on gay marriage described same-sex marriage as "a long way from the good picture of marriage given to us by Jesus and the Bible."

The arguments are put forward in draft booklet that suggests ways churchgoers can put forward winning arguments against same-sex marriage and was distributed to the church's nearly 1000 Synod members.

The Sydney Synod released the document, citing polling saying only 8 per cent of Anglicans supported gay marriages in churches. You can read the full document in today's digest.

*****

The Very Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith will be inducted as Eleventh Dean of the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Washington National Cathedral, on Sunday, by The Most Reverend Michael Bruce Curry, Presiding Bishop and Primate of The Episcopal Church, who will preach. Washington Bishop, Mariann Edgar Budde, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, will preside.

Don't look for any real changes to occur at the Cathedral. Hollerith is Virginia blue blood with financial connections, who has been hired to restore the financial fortunes of the cathedral. One will not hear the ringing sounds of gospel proclamation or biblical exegesis flowing forth from the pulpit, just more of the same old inclusive nonsense that has being played out there for years. Still and all, no one has explained why the hardest hit building in secular Washington, DC, was the cathedral, when an earthquake hit in 2011 and racked up millions of dollars needed for repairs. Perhaps God was sending a message to the cathedral and its then dean to clean up its spiritual and moral act. Apparently, no one is listening.

*****

The York Minster bell ringing band was sacked because of a row about "safeguarding" concerns over a local ringer's conduct, the Archbishop of York has revealed.

The Most Rev Dr. John Sentamu defended the decision to sack 30 volunteers. He said the move followed a row with the band over an investigation into the conduct of a bell ringer who, it is understood, was banned from the cathedral's bell tower in July.

Dr. Sentamu said: "It was necessary for the chapter to take action regarding a member of the bell ringing community on safeguarding grounds. You can read the full story and some commentary in today's digest.

*****

The Aleppo hospital bombing constitutes war crime, says the Church in Wales. The Anglican body, which is rapidly going out of business, has joined five other UK Christian churches in calling for an end to the fighting in the Syrian city of Aleppo. They have called for those responsible for "the targeting and killing of civilians" to be held to account for war crimes. They say that the targeting of civilians "can never be passed off merely as a consequence of war" and say that "aerial strikes on homes, hospitals and aid convoys are never acceptable, under any circumstances." One suspects Aleppo will still be around long after the last Welsh Anglican has died and there is no eye to pity or arm to save.

*****

The role of Lord Carey of Clifton in the case of Peter Ball will be scrutinized by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. The former Archbishop of Canterbury could face "explicit criticism" over how he dealt with a pedophile bishop, the head of the child abuse inquiry has warned.

The role of Lord Carey in the case of Peter Ball, a former Bishop of Gloucester, who was jailed last year for sex offences and misconduct in public office, will be scrutinized by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), reports the Times.

There have been allegations of a cover-up in the case of Ball, who resigned his ministry in 1993 after accepting a police caution, rather than being charged for indecent assault.

*****

The Anglican Church in Thailand offered its condolences to the Royal Family and prayers for the people of the Southeast Asian nation following the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej. A Buddhist, King Bhumibol supported the rights of Christian churches.

On its website, Christ Church Bangkok, one of four Anglican congregations in Thailand, offered a prayer, commending the king's soul to the mercy of God.

Almighty God, we thank you for the life of His Majesty, King Bhumibol Adulyadej -- for his devotion to duty and his love for his people. We pray that he may be at peace and commend him to Your mercy. We pray for his family and for all the people of Thailand; Grant them your peace and the certain knowledge of Your love. Give wisdom to those with responsibility for making decisions which affect the life of the nation. And may we prepare ourselves for the coming of Your Kingdom, and live as servants of our Living Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen

*****

A disturbing video on child sex education in Kenya which you can see here http://www.comprehensivesexualityeducation.org/ advocates masturbation and oral sex, among other sexual activities for school children.

The Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) has come out in opposition to the introduction of sex education classes in primary schools, saying introducing the subject to children without input from the church would harm their moral character. The Most Rev. Jackson Ole Sapit, ACK Primate, in an address given at the graduation ceremony at St Paul's University in Limeru, said sex education was best handled in consultation with the family, church and other education "stakeholders" and not imposed by government fiat. The archbishop urged young people to be faithful to the church's teachings and avoid fornication and sexual immorality.

"Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) is one of the greatest assaults on the health and innocence of children. This is because unlike traditional sex education, comprehensive sexuality education is highly explicit and promotes promiscuity and high-risk sexual behaviors to children as healthy and normal. CSE programs have an almost obsessive focus on teaching children how to obtain sexual pleasure in various ways. Yet, ironically, comprehensive sexuality education programs are anything but comprehensive as they fail to teach children about all of the emotional, psychological and physical health risks of promiscuous sexual activity. The ultimate goal of CSE is to change the sexual and gender norms of society, which is why CSE could be more accurately called "abortion, promiscuity, and LGBT rights education." CSE is a "rights-based" approach to sex education and promotes sexual rights to children at the expense of their sexual health."

*****

We are into the fall season and we could really use your support to keep VOL coming into your e-mail box. Our work is encouraged by your giving. Your donation is tax deductible. It helps us believe that all we do is worthwhile. Our hard-working team of reporters and commentators feel the encouragement when you give.

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Thank you for your support.

David

The lie that toppled him is that he had confessed to being sexually involved with a former parishioner, and then lied, in 2012, to the Diocese of Lexington Standing Committee in the vetting process for the election of the VII Bishop of Lexington. The bishop's moral failure came to light earlier this year, at which time the Lexington bishop had to own up to his faults and failing, not only to Presiding Bishop Curry and his wife, Kaye, but also to the people of the Diocese of Lexington, which turned to him for spiritual and moral leadership.

He was inhibited and now, apparently, he will be deposed. He admitted his sin, confessed it; his wife apparently accepts his repentance, but he is toast.

In most churches, this is pretty straight forward stuff. Adultery is serious business and it can cost you your job. But in the case of the Episcopal Church, this is sheer hypocrisy, bearing in mind that the Church has, through various and sundry resolutions, allowed bishops to marry, divorce their spouses, then "marry" someone of the same sex, get divorced and, in the case of V. Gene Robinson, you can throw in alcoholism as a bonus.

Hahn is not the first bishop to have committed adultery, and probably won't be the last. But at least one bishop, Richard Grein, did the same thing when he was Bishop of New York and Frank Griswold, then Presiding Bishop, gave him a pass.

There have been other bishops with far more colorful sexual pasts, like Paul Moore, Horace W. Donegan, James Pike, Heather Cook, to name but a few whose sexual behavior should have cost them their jobs but did not. Only Heather Cook, who is serving 7 years in the slammer for killing a cyclist while drunk, is paying the price.

But Hahn's sin is so egregious that he is gone. You can read my full take on all this in today's digest.

*****

The upcoming national election is causing much heartbreak across the country, tearing apart friendships, alienating families from one another and causing more anxiety than some aging uncle who has just died of Alzheimer's.

One serious authority who is being challenged on how Christians should vote is Princeton jurisprudence scholar and ardent Roman Catholic, Robert P. George, who made his own convictions clear.

Writing for Get Religion, journalist Terry Mattingly, says George's Facebook has been packed with cries for help.

Is picking the "lesser of two evils" still evil? Was it morally wrong to refuse to choose?

Here is what George said: "If you truth bomb Trump but go silent on Clinton, shame on you. If you truth bomb Clinton but go silent on Trump, shame on you. Whole truth!" In another salvo he added: "A ghastly choice for Catholics & others: One will taint and bring disgrace on our moral values. The other will wage unrelenting war on them."

With Election Day drawing near, George finally republished a note from June, pleading for charity in these arguments.

"Friends, we are in a terrible fix here. And it is putting some of us at each other's throats. It must not be permitted to do that. Donald Trump is dreadful. Hillary Clinton is horrible. One called for the killing of the innocent family members of terrorists. The other promises to protect the killing of unborn babies up to the point of birth," he wrote.

"For some of us, it just isn't obvious which of these two scoundrels would do greater harm in the long run," he argued. Whatever happens, those "who believe in limited government, constitutional fidelity and the Rule of law, flourishing institutions of civil society, traditional principles of morality, and the like are going to have profoundly important work to do. And we will need to do it together."

Yes, Republicans face what many are predicting will be a "civil war" between Trump insurgents and the party establishment, said George, to Mattingly. It's also hard to know what will happen to the religious right after some of its elders backed the New York billionaire to the bitter end, no matter how lurid the evidence of his wild past.

What really matters is what happens to people in traditional faiths, including activists who never fit into old organizations led, in most cases, by evangelical Protestants, he said. Do the math. It will be hard for the Washington, D.C., establishment to completely ignore conservative Catholics, Orthodox Jews, Southern Baptists, Eastern Orthodox Christians, traditional Muslims, Pentecostal Christians and others if they form coalitions on key issues.

According to George, it's not too late to make a "serious effort to combine religious groups into some kind of effort to defend religious liberty." The faithful in these faiths are "not going to flee to monasteries and abandon public life. ... If the Republican Party falls apart, then they will look for some other vehicle in the future, perhaps another political party that emerges out of the wreckage of this election. It has happened before."

*****

The Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu, has been called on to explain the mass dismissal of 30 volunteer bellringers. He has been challenged by a lawyer for David Potter, banned from ringing for life, who says the move is 'breach of natural justice'.

Sentamu, has been challenged to explain the dismissal of the bellringers from York Minster, amid claims the controversial move followed a long-running feud with the lead campanologist.

The lawyer for David Potter, who has been banned for life from ringing the famous bells, claimed the move by church officials amounted to a "breach of natural justice" and called on Sentamu to explain his claim that there was an ongoing inquiry into "safeguarding" issues at the cathedral.

Colin Byrne, of the law firm Howard & Byrne, said Sentamu's assertion contradicted a letter he received in September from a minster canon saying: "The matter is closed." The row comes after Potter and his 30-strong bellringing team were dismissed at short notice over safeguarding concerns, causing an outcry in York, where the bells will be silent until the New Year.

The mass dismissal has brought to the surface a 17-year-old saga that centers on Potter, a leading figure in the bellringing team, who was the subject of two police investigations following allegations made in 1999 and 2015. On neither occasion were charges brought. You can stories about this in today's digest.

*****

The head of the Russian Orthodox Churchattacked the Church of England's "liberalization" at a meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury recently.

Patriarch Kirill raised "serious concerns" with Justin Welby over the Anglican Church's decision to ordain women and its increasingly modernist stance on sexuality and family values.

In a report after the meeting, Patriarch Kirill's press service said: "The patriarch drew the Archbishop of Canterbury's attention to the fact the Russian Orthodox Church is seriously concerned by the liberalization of the Church of England's teachings, particularly on the ordination of women as priests and bishops and on morals and family issues."

"His Holiness Kirill expressed hope that the Church of England will oppose challenges of the modern world and seek to preserve the Gospel's teaching," it added.

The Church of England did not mention the patriarch's comments in its own report of the meeting, although it did say the two men discussed "the challenge of proclaiming the Gospel of Christ in a secular culture". VOL has posted the official spin from Lambeth Palace in today's digest.

*****

The coming winter and changing attitudes on the part of some Dakota Access Pipeline project opponents and law enforcement officials near the Standing Rock Sioux Nation, are changing the US-based Episcopal Church's ministry in that part of North Dakota, writes Mary Frances Schjonberg.

Episcopalians have been driving church vans around the state, picking up protestors who had been arrested over the weekend. A planned camp move will put a winter protest camp close to an Episcopal church that will be able to bring even more services to campers.

Last weekend was a heated one near the proposed pipeline route. The Morton County Sheriff Department said that 126 people were arrested two days earlier for "illegal protest activities" during a day of often-violent encounters with those protesting the pipeline that will run under the Standing Rock Sioux' water supply, over its treaty lands and through some of its burial places. One person was arrested on Sunday, the department said, bringing the total number of arrests to 269 since the protest started on 10 August.

****

St. Paul's Church in Darien, Connecticut, a well-known charismatic Episcopal Church that once was the spiritual home of the late Terry Fullam, has a new rector following the retirement of the Rev. Christopher P. Leighton who was rector there from 1998.

He is The Rev. Canon Professor George Iype Kovoor, who started his term on October 1, 2016. He is an Indian missionary, pastor-teacher, a college president of two British universities at Birmingham and Bristol. He is an academic fellow of Berkeley College at Yale University. He is Chaplain to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Kovoor comes from the ancient orthodox church, established by the apostle Thomas 52 AD in India. He is from a distinguished family of Christian priests, educationalists, medical doctors and serving officers in the military. He is the son of an air force fighter pilot. He studied Politics, Philosophy and economics at the University of Delhi. He later studied theology and was ordained in Delhi as a minister of the Church of North India.

*****

Anglicans, Methodists and Baptists, Oh My! The American Anglican Council has taken and continues to take bold steps to "to build up and defend Great Commission Anglicans," writes Phil Ashey of the AAC. "The majority of our work is done with Anglicans. However, we occasionally branch out to work with brothers and sisters from other denominations," he writes

"In Washington DC, I met with leaders of the Common Ground Christian Network. The AAC helped launch this coalition of biblically faithful Anglicans, Methodists, Lutherans and Presbyterians several years ago both to stand together in the face of increasing secularism in North America, and to partner in Great Commission ministries. You can find our original theological manifesto, "Jesus Christ: Our Common Ground" here.

"In a few weeks the Common Ground Christian Network will send a "Pastoral Letter" to all of its members--including Anglicans--telling about a recent report by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The report claims that faith groups are using religious freedom as a pretext for "discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, Christian supremacy or any other form of intolerance." Translated: if the government decides Christians are not being "politically correct" in their public speech and actions, our sincerely and freely held Biblically based beliefs can be deemed mere discrimination and punished accordingly. This represents a dangerous step in the aggressive secularization of North America. The goal of the CGCN's letter will be to make our constituents more aware of growing threats to religious freedom and to encourage them to stand up for religious freedom for all. Know that the American Anglican Council, through its work in the Common Ground Christian Network, is leading this group and please pray for our efforts."

*****

AT SEWANEE, The University's School of Theology recently welcomed former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, as a speaker for the annual DuBose Lecture Series. Williams's discussions focused on the topic of Bonhoeffer Revisited: From Christology to Politics. He gave three talks: Modern Christology and the Reformation Legacy, Bonhoeffer's Christology--Christ for Me, and Bonhoeffer's Ethics: Representing Humanity in Christ. Later, Williams received an honorary Doctor of Divinity (D.D.) and he signed copies of his books.

How ironic. Williams gives lectures on Bonhoeffer, who, virtually alone, stood up to Hitler and for his defense of the faith was brutally murdered by the Nazi leader. By contrast, Williams showed zero courage in standing up for the faith against its homosexual despizers when he was the Anglican Communion's leader, instead retired eight years early to go into academia and got ripped for the way he ran the communion by the Archbishop of Nigeria, Nicholas Okoh, who accused him of running the Communion into the ground.

*****

Rwanda elects new bishop. The Province of the Anglican Church of Rwanda (PEAR) has elected the Rev. Samuel Mugisha Mugiraneza as Coadjutor Bishop of the Diocese of Shyira. His consecration will take place on March 5, 2017, at St John's Cathedral of Shyira in the Diocese in Musanze.

Mugiraneza, 45, was ordained a Deacon on 30th April 2000, and priest on 23rd December 2001. He served in the St Etienne Cathedral as Subdean until 2014; he is currently Pastor in-charge of Development in Shyira Diocese. He holds an M.A in Management from Maastricht School of Management in Netherlands, he also holds a Diploma in Theology from Uganda Christian University. He is currently a Doctor of Ministry Candidate (D.Min Candidate) in the Beeson Divinity School, Samford University. He is married to Jackie Mugisha and they have three children.

*****

Australia's faith communities should be allowed to help settle and provide care for those asylum seekers still being held in offshore detention centers on Nauru and Manus Island, the National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA) has said.

The Bishop of Oodthenong in the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne, Philip Huggins, is the president of the NCCA. In a joint statement with NCCA general secretary, Sister Elizabeth Delaney, he said this week: "Hospitality and compassion are shared core values of the major world religions, notwithstanding our many mistakes and failures.

"We are writing to the Prime Minister and Minister of Immigration and Border Protection, asking that they meet us so we can clarify how together we can co- operate to settle and care for these people."

*****

Pope Francis will travel to Lund, Sweden, next week to assist in the launch of a yearlong commemoration of the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's nailing of his 95 theses to the door of the castle church of Wittenberg, on October 31, 1517, reports John-Henry Weston of Lifesite News.

In a lead-up event at the Vatican on October 13, the Pope received a group of 1,000 Lutherans and Catholics from Germany in the Vatican's Paul VI hall and addressed them from the stage, where a statue of Luther was erected. The sight came as a shock to many Catholics because Luther was excommunicated, and his theses rejected by Pope Leo X in 1520. The split he caused in Christianity remains as one of the most damaging in the Church's 2,000-year history.

At the meeting, Francis reinforced his admonition from earlier this month against converting people. Weeks after saying it is a "very grave sin against ecumenism" for Catholics to try to convert Orthodox Christians, Pope Francis told the pilgrims "it is not licit" to "convince [non-Christians] of your faith." In that meeting, the pope also offered a novel definition of "lukewarm," which, according to Pope Francis, is when Christians "are keen to defend Christianity in the West on the one hand but on the other are averse to refugees and other religions."

The word 'lukewarm' has significant meaning to Christians because of the words of Christ revealed in St. John's Revelation (3:15-16): "I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. But because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth." The common interpretation of the verses was to condemn the practice of picking and choosing among the Christ's teachings, rather than holding to all of them. As the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops says, "Half-hearted commitment to the faith is nauseating to Christ."

***

Along with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, Fred Hiltz, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, met the Pope recently to discuss unity between Anglicans and Catholics.

It's odd, writes Canadian orthodox blogger Samizdat, that Hiltz felt he needed to travel 7000kms to talk about a "united witness to the gospel" when he could have taken the GO train 30kms to talk about the same thing with Anglican Network in Canada leaders.

From the Anglican Journal, the official voice of the ACoC we learn this:

But there is a growing desire in both churches to see unity as more than an end in itself, said Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, reflecting on his recent trip to Rome.

"The unity of the church is not for the church itself, and if it is, we might as well stop talking," Hiltz said in an interview. "The unity of the church has to be in the interest of a common and faithful and united witness to the gospel, and the gospel is clearly for the world."

For further confirmation that the whole exercise was little more than a posturing sham, we need look no further than the fact that the latest divisive antics of the ACoC were not even discussed:

For example, the Anglican Church of Canada's move toward solemnizing the marriages of same-sex couples puts it at odds with Roman Catholic teachings on marriage. However, Hiltz said it was not an issue that came up for him or for any of the leaders of provinces that have made similar decisions.

"There was no kind of public calling into question the integrity of the Canadian church, or The Episcopal Church, or the Scottish Episcopal Church," he said. "The focus was elsewhere."

*****

On another note, The Anglican Church of Canada has produced a report on The Theology of Money, in which it denounces capitalism, a system that, apparently, is mired in "structural sin". In its place, the report seems to be proposing Marxism branded with the stamp of ecclesiastical imprimatur.

"This would all be a little less risible if the senior ACoC clergy eager to impose economic strictures on the rest of us, earned less than six figures annually themselves. But, then, as a group of literary pigs have noted: all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others," writes David of Samizdat.

"I remember a number of years ago attending a meeting where Fred Hiltz, speaking in his usual soporific monotone, became almost animated when announcing some wonderful news: not that revival had visited the ACoC, but that a major donation was on the horizon, a bequest from a dead -- even more dead than usual -- Anglican, as I recall.

"Of course, Western civilization is obsessed with money and its acquisition but it's not the system that's at fault, it's the people living in the system: us. That includes (I do like to be inclusive) clergy and a church that is forever begging for financial support."

*****

The Bishop of Gloucester, Rachel Treweek, has launched a social media campaign promoting self-esteem for young people.

Pupils from All Saint's Academy in Cheltenham helped to launch the #liedentity campaign.

As part of the campaign, students were asked if there was anything they did not like about their bodies, and those body parts were digitally removed from photographs.

However, Lora Park, Ph.D., a self-esteem researcher and associate professor of psychology at the University of Buffalo. says the more concerned we are with raising our self-esteem, the greater the risk that we may become consumed by securing proof of our lovability, attractiveness, professional or academic prowess, or any other quality upon which we might base our status. That's all fine and good, so long as we're getting positive feedback in these arenas. "But when you base your self-worth on external things, you'll likely perceive 'failure' in those things as an indictment of your value as a person," she says.

*****

A Church of England disciplinary tribunal has strongly criticized the behavior of a Manx Anglican priest. The hearing in Douglas has concluded Dr. Jules Gomes had an over-inflated view of his self-importance, lost his temper and displayed anger - even with those who supported him.

The tribunal, held over three days in the Island last week, found that Dr. Gomes had caused serious harm to people, making them leave their offices or his church.

Of course Gomes, does not accept the church's jurisdiction over him since resigning earlier this year, and wasn't present for the short announcement at St. Ninian's Church, where a summary of the tribunal's findings was read out by its chairman, Geoffrey Tattersall QC.

So, no sex outside of marriage, (straight or gay); no money scandal, no "safeguarding" (sex with a minor), no violation of any canon, no doctrinal violation! Dr. Gomes resigns and leaves his parish and takes 90% of the parish with him to form a new independent Anglican church and leaves behind 15 old people with an average age of 70! Makes you wonder what the CofE is coming too. For the record I hardly know a priest who doesn't have an "over-inflated view of themselves."

*****

A church in Israel built where Christians believe the transfiguration of Jesus took place, has been vandalized, with chalices stolen, icons damaged and a donation box robbed, an official said.

Church officials believe the motive for Monday's incident was robbery and not Jewish extremism, which has been blamed for previous vandalism at Christian sites in Israel, said Wadie Abunassar, a spokesman for bishops in the Holy Land.

Abunassar could not say how many chalices were stolen from the Basilica of the Transfiguration or how much money from the donation box had been taken. Communion bread had also been thrown on the ground.

No graffiti was painted on the church as usually occurs with vandalism by extremists, Abunassar said. A report has been made with police.

The church is located on Mount Tabor in the Galilee region of northern Israel, where Christians believe Jesus became radiant and spoke with Moses and Elijah.

*****

We urgently need a budget for 2017 as we go into the last two months of the year. I have travelled extensively this past year and we have had some extraordinary expenses. Would you partner with VOL to give us a working budget for 2017? We sure could use it to keep VOL coming into your e-mail box. Our work is encouraged by your giving. Your donation is tax deductible. It helps us believe that all we do is worthwhile. Our hard-working team of reporters and commentators feel the encouragement when you give.

Please help make this possible. You can send a donation to VOL via PAYPAL at the link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/
Or you can send a snail mail check to:

VIRTUEONLINE
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Thank you for your support.

David

"For it is time for judgement to begin with God's household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?" -- 1 Peter 4:17.

A lot of what has driven me over the years in my writings is this verse found in Peter's epistle. God's initial judgement is first and foremost aimed at the Church, His Church, and when I think of how and what the Episcopal Church has abandoned, abused, distorted and done in driving away the faithful, I shudder and shake. The same could be said now for all the mainline denominations.

Before Him, at the Last Judgement, there will be no excuses, no second chances. God will read out what they have done and not done in His name and the words, "depart from me I never knew you" will be heard and they will be final and absolute.

I get scared when I think of this. It drives me to my knees and to my keyboard each day. I try not to worry about what people think (and I do), but still I press on because by not exposing the lies, the heresies, the half-truths, the sleights of language like "pluriform truths"...all designed to placate Christians and give them a sense of peace, albeit false, I am gripped by fear that I, too, might somehow compromise, come up short, be found wanting and find myself as lost as those I expose in my writings.

But then Peter goes on to say this in v. 18; "And, If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?"

You can't evade, avoid or minimize this. If you read this and feel a bit afraid, then maybe you should. This is scary stuff and it should be a wakeup call to every person reading it.

Yes, God is merciful and loving, but He is a God who will also judge the "living and the dead" and that should be a wakeup call to all of us, most especially those who preach to us, because they will be held to a higher standard. "Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly." James 3:1

*****

The future of the world is at stake, and more importantly, the future of countless millions of souls, writes Catholic writer, Michael Voris. "These are indeed surreal almost unbelievable times. If you are feeling disquieted, you should. There is a great ferocious spiritual battle being fought right now; the election is the flashpoint, but it is not the real battle."

The battle is spiritual, it is going on in the heavenlies, and it is playing out as the nation faces the consequences of its actions over a score of years. All the forces of evil have collected around this moment, as they have at various other times in the history. For America, this is a Kairos moment; there has never been an election like this with two candidates more disliked than they are liked by vast swathes of the population.

It is not only two deeply flawed candidates that bothers people, it is rampant greed, lust, sexual license, the vast inequality in a country that could feed the world's poor and won't, and, yes, the cowardice of Christians in the face of a growing secularism, and the abandonment of the gospel by mainline denominations and our refusal to speak up for our Savior (and I am just as guilty).

Please don't misunderstand; this isn't a loss of hope. It is a dread, a deeply frightening dread, for what the damned will experience and how so many will reject the great mercy and grace of our Lord that flows like an ocean the moment a soul repents. Only God knows at this moment how this will all play out. The collapse of virtually all morality, the cries to Heaven for justice from 60 million-plus murdered children. Could anyone doubt that the evil which would befall the nation and the Church will not have been completely deserved and just?

Still, there is hope that the arm of God, ready to drop on this nation for its universe of evil -- and most especially on the Church and its leaders for our cowardice and responsibility for the societal collapse -- may still be stayed. Consider the fate of the world if God -- who is not mocked forever -- allows mankind to be engulfed in the demonic flood of hate directed toward us by the powers of Hell.

Our shepherds have downplayed damnation, ignored the precepts of God, allowed hundreds of millions of souls to walk away from the One True Faith, stoking the notion that all religions are worthy of belief and lead to God. They do not. We surely deserve the divine judgement of God that will befall many of us, just as it did in the days of Noah.

When the Apostles were unsuccessful at driving out a particularly onerous demon, our Lord told them that "these kind can only be driven out with prayer and fasting."

The future of the world is at stake, and more importantly, the future of countless millions of souls. We are at a time of prayer and fasting.

*****

Nigerian Archbishop Nicholas Okoh signaled that there would be no compromise with Western Anglicans, promoting 'Another Gospel'. In his monthly GAFCON address, Okoh, said the Western church is engaged in 'ideological slavery' promoting teachings to overturn Bible and offer a false gospel.

He specifically called out the Archbishop of Canterbury for inviting US Presiding Bishop Michael Curry to be part of a delegation to meet the pope, when he was told specifically that Curry should not be involved in representing the Anglican Communion in ecumenical or interfaith relations.

"This incident is just the most recent of many failures which the Cairo Communique describes as 'the inability of the existing Communion instruments to discern truth from error and take binding ecclesiastical action'. We need alternatives. GAFCON already has its five yearly conference and its Primates' Council which provide ways for the Communion to relate on the solid basis of the shared doctrinal commitments of the Jerusalem Statement and Declaration, and I was greatly encouraged by the willingness of those of us gathered in Cairo to work together and not be divided by culture, personality clashes or secondary issues," said Okoh in his monthly pastoral letter.

The evangelical African Primate of the largest province in the Anglican Communion, said it is increasingly clear that the Church of England is becoming the place where pressure for compromise has become most intense and he is encouraged that 88 evangelical Anglicans leaders from varied backgrounds have come together this month to sign an open letter to the English House of Bishops, calling on them 'not to depart from the apostolic inheritance with which they have been entrusted'.

*****

The Bishop of Los Angeles, J. Jon Bruno, may yet get his comeuppance. A hearing panel of the national Episcopal Church in Chicago on Friday, denied a motion filed by the Episcopal Bishop of Los Angeles, J. Jon Bruno, to dismiss misconduct charges filed against him by a Newport Beach congregation that has been left without a home after the bishop sold the church building to a developer and locked out members.

The five-member panel consisting of three bishops, a priest and a layperson, also set March 28-30 as dates for a disciplinary hearing to be held against Bruno in Los Angeles.

Robert Williams, spokesman for the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, declined to comment "since both civil litigation and canonical proceedings continue in these matters."

The congregation of St. James the Great church in Newport Beach, has been locked out since 2015. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

A Chicago priest has become the first black woman to be elected as a diocesan bishop in the US-based Episcopal Church (TEC). Bishops Barbara Harris and Gayle Harris were the first black women to serve as suffragan bishops within TEC; but after Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows receives the necessary consents from the wider church, she will become the first black woman diocesan bishop when she is consecrated in April. The bishop-elect will be consecrated in Indiana's Butler University in April, 2017.

Baskerville-Burrows was elected bishop of the Diocese of Indianapolis on the second ballot, in a five-candidate election. She received 67 clergy votes and 82 lay votes. The election came at the end of a two-year discernment process to find a successor to Bishop Catherine Waynick, who will retire in Spring 2017.

*****

After quietly removing panes bearing the Confederate flag from its stained-glass windows, leaders of the Washington National Cathedral are now wondering what to do about remaining images of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.

"How can you justify having those windows in a house of God?" challenged Riley Temple, a former board member of the Washington National Cathedral's foundation.

Temple was one of several audience members who spoke on Wednesday (Oct. 26) during a series of discussions the cathedral is holding on racial justice. Also present was a scholar of Civil War history and an expert from the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

The stained-glass window debate comes at a time of soul-searching in America over the legacy of slavery and renewed calls to purge public places of the Confederate flag that is, for many, a symbol of oppression.

*****

The Church in Wales has elected its first female bishop, a little over three years since the Province passed legislation opening the episcopacy to women. The Rev. Canon Joanna Penberthy, currently the Rector of Glan Ithon in Llandrindod Wells, in the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon, was elected as the next Bishop of St Davids on the second day of an Electoral College that was locked inside the diocese's historic cathedral. Wales joins a growing list of Anglican provinces to have appointed female clergy to the Episcopate. Archbishop Barry Morgan made the announcement to a huge crowd of NINE people and a baby, who clapped and cheered the announcement. You can watch it here and laugh...or cry. http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2016/11/02/announcement-wales-first-female-bishop-attracted-quite-crowd/

*****

In the decade 2005-2015, the general population of England increased from 60,210,000 to 64,716,000, however the number of Church of England funerals plummeted by almost 30 per cent over the same period? Is it because of increased religious pluralism? The free market in faith diversity, asks blogger Archbishop Cranmer. Or, perhaps, because there is more unbelief? Does it stand to reason that if church attendance has declined 14 per cent over a decade, the Anglican manner of dispatching the dead to the happy hunting ground will tumble at twice the rate? Why should that be, when it is mainly the elderly who are snuffing it? You'd think they'd want a standard BCP affair -- '..man that is born of woman.. ashes to ashes, dust to dust..' etc,. etc., and a couple of well-known hymns, of course. The Lord's my shepherd... or don't their children and grand-children know these hymns?

The Church of England's Statistics for Mission 2015 paint a curious picture. Yes, the decline in attendance continues, but CofE funerals have been hit particularly hard, seemingly to the benefit of civil celebrants. Is this at the recommendation of funeral directors? Do they suggest that church funerals are only for 'religious' people? Is it because the bereaved now tend to prefer balloons and cuddly toys to 'In Loving Memory' wreaths and po-faced vicars? Is it because the local vicar doesn't want to bury non-believers? Why would a grieving family want to hear that their loved one might be languishing for all eternity in hell? What CofE vicar would preach that? What pastor of any church anywhere would not seek to grieve and weep with those who grieve and weep, living their faith in a feeling community? Do secular celebrants empathize better than Anglican clergy? Is it that vicars are cold, aloof, austere and don't return phone calls, while civil celebrants are all a bit like Bruce Forsyth or Mary Berry?

The Church of England is there for everyone. When you lose a loved one, the church pledges to be with you every step of the way, "giving support before, during and after the service, for as long as it's needed". That's quite a good deal for £178.

*****

A rallying cry for clergy opposed to same-sex relationships to "stand up and be counted" has been issued by the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC).

Guarding the deposit argues all gay relationships are a "disorder" and will "attract the eternal judgement of God". The 19-page discussion document was sent to all CofE bishops and evangelical leaders earlier in October and published last week.

The forthright statement comes as CofE bishops meet to discuss whether to offer some form of welcome or acceptance to gay couples in official liturgy.

But the document denies this compromise between full acceptance of gay marriage and the Church's current position would work. It would be a "recipe for continuing conflict" the CEEC said and insists allowing "the blessing of same-sex relationships would be a de facto change of Church of England doctrine".

Rt Rev Julian Henderson, Bishop of Blackburn, is president of the influential council, and other bishops, including Rt Rev Donald Allister, Bishop of Peterborough, and Rt Rev Tim Dakin, Bishop of Winchester, are members.

Together with all senior bishops in the CofE, they will bring forward a recommendation to the ruling general synod at its next meeting in February.

"The best way forward" would be to restate the Church's position that any sex outside heterosexual marriage is sinful, the document says. "Effective sanctions" also need to be taken against clergy who go against this teaching, it argues, slamming "years of drifting" where several gay vicars have married without consequences.

*****

The new homosexual bishop of Toronto will be consecrated in St. Paul's, Bloor Street in Toronto, an evangelical church stronghold and one of the few remaining in Canada.

The Rev. Canon Kevin Robertson, an active homosexual, was one of three clergy elected to the position of bishop in the Diocese of Toronto in September. The other two were women. The diocesan paper notes: The bishops-elect will officially begin their duties on Jan. 1, 2017. They will be consecrated on Jan. 7 at St. Paul, Bloor Street.

St. Paul's, Bloor Street, is one of the largest Anglican Church of Canada parishes in Canada and it is evangelical. If any conservatives remaining in the ACoC think they can quietly continue without the church's gay agenda being thrust in their faces, think again. St. Paul's is being compelled to host the consecration of a bishop whose domestic arrangements are flagrantly contrary to the convictions of the congregation, of Scripture and history.

VOL wrote to the Rev. Dr. Barry Parker to ask him about this, and he said, "The service was booked by the Diocese of Toronto months ago, long before any list of nominees was booked. In our polity (at least for the Diocese of Toronto), the archbishop holds title and hence ownership of the Church proper. As there are three consecrations happening in one service, and as St. Paul`s is the largest Church in the Diocese by a large amount--I was told it would be held here. Otherwise it would have certainly been at the Cathedral. The Diocese has been very clear that it is their service--not St. Paul's.

*****

British Columbia's top court has upheld the right of Trinity Western University to operate a law school, setting the stage for the Supreme Court of Canada to weigh the religious freedom of a small, private university with the rights of LGBTQ people.

The school's community covenant, which opponents say is discriminatory because it forbids sex outside heterosexual marriage, has also prompted legal challenges in two other provinces -- including one in Ontario that is already the focus of a potential hearing at the country's Supreme Court.

In BC, the province's law society initially accredited the university's law school, but reversed that decision after facing backlash from its members. In a unanimous decision released Tuesday, five BC Court of Appeal judges said the law society was wrong to reverse its original decision.

"A society that does not admit of and accommodate differences cannot be a free and democratic society -- one in which its citizens are free to think, to disagree, to debate and to challenge the accepted view without fear of reprisal," wrote the judges, as they upheld a lower court decision that also sided with the university.

"This case demonstrates that a well-intentioned majority acting in the name of tolerance and liberalism, can, if unchecked, impose its views on the minority in a manner that is in fact intolerant and illiberal."

The university quickly applauded the ruling.

*****

The BBC has been accused of acting recklessly after targeting children as young as six with a program about a schoolboy who takes sex-change drugs.

Parents are angry that the show, available on the CBBC website, features a transgender storyline inappropriate for their children.

And concerned campaigners said it could 'sow the seeds of confusion' in young minds. The program, Just A Girl, depicts an 11-year-old's struggle to get hormones that stunt puberty, making it easier to have sex-change surgery in the future.

One mother, writing on the Mumsnet website, said her daughter had become worried after seeing the video. She said her girl, who likes wearing boys' clothes and playing football, had 'asked me, anxiously, if that means she was a boy'.

Tory MP Peter Bone said: 'It beggars belief that the BBC is making this program freely available to children as young as six. I entirely share the anger of parents who just want to let children be children.

'It is completely inappropriate for such material to be on the CBBC website and I shall be writing to BBC bosses to demand they take it down as soon as possible.'

*****

The Rt. Rev. Daniel G. P. Gutierrez, the new XVI Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania, sent out a missive offering grand hope for reviving a moribund diocese laid waste by Charles Bennison and his successors. One memorable line is this, "I believe a Shepherd should smell like the sheep", which makes one wonder if he grew up on a farm. He talked a lot about "transformation" and "the Kingdom", but failed to mention PB Michael Curry's, Jesus Movement stuff. The real corker though was this, "It was disheartening for me to learn that some of our congregations have not had a visit from the Diocesan Bishop in over six years." Wow. Then what were three former bishops doing on weekends, hanging out in bars on Penn's Landing? Clearly this bishop has his work cut out for him. He did do the honors this week at the funeral of a dear Episcopal priest friend of mine, the Rev. Brewster Hastings, who died suddenly at the age of 55 while undergoing heart surgery. Brewster was a VOL board member, and a very, very dear friend. At the funeral, I met Pamela, his wife, who hugged me and said, "Brewster loved you. I know, I loved him. I have no words."

*****

The Smithsonian now has its first religion curator since the 1890's. The WASHINGTON POST reports that Peter Manseau, the son of a priest and a nun, is the Smithsonian's first curator of religion in more than a century. He will remind Americans of their nation's religious history, in all its diversity, messiness, import and splendor. "You can't tell the story of America," he said, "without the role of religion in it."

The Smithsonian, the nation's museum, hired Manseau to curate new exhibits on American religious history and to collect important religious objects to add to the museum's expansive holdings. In this new position, underwritten by a $5 million grant from the nonprofit Lilly Endowment, he'll lead a five-year series of events and exhibitions. The position was last held by someone in the 1890's, Manseau said.

"It's the first time in generations that we look at religion in a holistic, comprehensive way," Manseau said about the new exhibit, and he prides himself on the wide range of faiths he'll be highlighting. "It's taking a very broad view of religion in America, including and welcoming to all, without any obstacles."

*****

A Christian nursing home in Geneva, Switzerland, may lose its tax status if it doesn't allow assisted suicide. Over the last few years, Christian leaders have grown increasingly alarmed at the push within euthanasia circles not just to legalize assisted suicide, but also to force dissenting doctors and medical institutions to be complicit in the killing, a phenomenon I have branded "medical martyrdom."

We see that now in Switzerland, where a Christian nursing home has been threatened with loss of charitable tax status if administrators refuse to permit assisted suicide on premises.

From the CP World story comes this: A Christian nursing home run by the Salvation Army in Switzerland has been told that it must either allow assisted suicide despite its religious beliefs, or lose its charitable status.

The nursing home mounted a legal challenge against the country's new assisted suicide rules which require charities taking care of the sick or elderly to offer assisted suicide when a patient asks for it, Catholic Herald reports.

But a Swiss court ruled against the nursing home earlier this month. Other Christian charities across Europe, including a separate case in Diest, Belgium, have also been fined and punished for refusing to allow euthanasia on their grounds.

*****

Several readers have pointed out to me my bias against Donald Trump in this upcoming presidential election in various stories I have posted. In fact, we have posted three stories about both candidates, none of which are very favorable to either of them. The most recent concerned Clinton's delving into the occult world, which should be scary enough. VOL takes no position on who you should vote for.

*****

We are fast approaching the end of the year when funds are needed to help us jump start the New Year. We urgently need a budget for 2017 as we go into the last two months of the year. I have travelled extensively this past year and we have had some extraordinary expenses. Would you partner with VOL to give us a working budget for 2017? We sure could use it to keep VOL coming into your e-mail box. Our work is encouraged by your giving. Your donation is tax deductible. It helps us believe that all we do is worthwhile. Our hard-working team of reporters and commentators feel the encouragement when you give.

Please help make this possible. You can send a donation to VOL via PAYPAL at the link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/

Or 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

Births outside of marriage are declining in the United States, driven by a decline in births outside marriage among immigrant women and a flattening out of births outside marriage among American-born women. The trend may represent the end of an era of increase in unmarried mothers. The abortion rate has also been decreasing. --- Shannon Roberts for Mercatornet.com

Elections are in fact a tug-of-war for the soul of America. --- Marie Whitaker

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

The nastiest election in modern American history is over. The winners are jubilant; the losers are in tears. But the political fallout has deeper moral and theological implications that could change the direction America is going in; and many believe that could be for the good. Issues like religious freedom, Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court, Obamacare, lower interest rates, better business opportunities and much more. On the other hand, deporting 11 million Mexicans, building a wall, dumping on China, rescinding an Iranian deal and the character of Donald Trump are viewed negatively if you happen not to be white and middle class. How it all works out remains to be seen.

It was America's evangelicals who gave Donald Trump an overwhelming mandate -- 81% of them gave Trump their vote. One blogger summed it up by saying, "Too many white evangelicals want an angry, vengeful, violent Caesar not a loving, peaceful non-violent Messiah. They want Trump not Jesus. The Kingdom of God will not arrive on Air Force One. The Kingdom of God has already arrived -- on a donkey, at a table & on a cross."

Trump turned American politics upside down and Evangelicals made Trump's candidacy; now they need to help remake his presidency.

This week, maps were redrawn. Political realities were upended. America was redirected--and, for good or for ill, Evangelicals were a big part of that reality. White Evangelicals voted overwhelmingly for Trump in the general election, after propelling his campaign in the primaries.

Many Evangelicals didn't follow the leaders that warned them away from Trump. These Evangelicals, and many Americans, were angry enough to vote for a stunningly unpopular candidate who promised change. It turns out that that basket was a lot bigger than many people expected.

We knew that half of America would be outraged, but the surprise is which half, writes missiologist Ed Stetzer.

"Now the world is outraged. And much anger is being directed at Evangelical Trump voters. Yet we need to remember that Trump voters are not Trump.

"I (Ed) shared this in an article, "Lord, I Thank Thee That I Am Not like Those Evangelical Trump Supporters," back during the primaries.

"Trump's supporters--like many Americans--are complicated.

"I don't know them all, but I know some--including some members of my church.

"The ones I do know don't hate immigrants (though they think illegal immigration is an economic and criminal problem), think a multicultural society is a good thing (while they are quite tired of politically correct speech codes), and they really do want what's best for the country (though we might differ on what that is).

"Still they support Trump.

"I may not agree with that decision, but I do care about them. In part because, for some Trump supporters, I am their pastor.

"So it's easy to say that Americans voted for Trump because they hate women or minorities, but that's the lazy analysis, unfair to many. Most don't. They are not a basket of deplorables. Many are people who are voting because of what they believe, and they've elected Donald Trump as America's next president.

"So, as the dust settles, we ask ourselves, what do we do next? Here are five thoughts to consider after this election:

1. Accept the outcome and what it means. The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly. One thing we saw is that the ideological chasm between rural and urban America is wider than we ever realized. For a long time the cities were the cultural centers, but there are people all over this nation and they have used their voices. Those who had a different view should hear and seek to understand.

Casting our votes doesn't mean our job is done.

2. Stay in the game. Don't cast off issues that came to the surface in this election. Stand up for the unborn, raise voices for religious liberty, care for refugees, pursue racial reconciliation, and more. Share the love of Jesus in an angry moment in our culture.

3. Avoid the temptation of further division. In fact, work proactively to mend fences and unite. This isn't the time to point fingers and say "I told you so," or to assign blame. We need each other more than ever, and the lines that divided us over these last few months cannot be allowed to grow deeper. It is time to heal, and remember that we are called to forgive even the deepest slights. No matter what side of the aisle we were on--or even if we were sitting on the sidelines or in the middle--we all wanted something better for our country these past 18 months. But we seek a different and better place altogether, and we stand united in that.

The Huffington Post has decided to end its unprecedented editor's note that appeared at the end of every story about Trump, calling him a racist, misogynist, and more. They explained, "[H]e's now president and we're going to start with a clean slate... If he governs in a racist, misogynistic way, we reserve the right to add it back on. This would be giving respect to the office of the presidency which Trump and his backers never did."

If the Huffington Post can speak of a clean slate, should Evangelicals not try the same?

I know that's not what many want to think or say. But that's what we seek to do as Americans. And it's even more appropriate for us as Christians, writes Stetzer.

President Trump will be president for all of us; just as President Obama was. We need to pray for him to be a good leader.

We can be prophetic and still seek to pull this divided country together.

4. Don't give up on character. Now that Donald Trump is President-Elect, we need to demand greater character. Donald Trump's actions, comments, and attitudes were shocking, and it's shocking that Evangelicals have so drastically changed their views about character. Now, this does not necessarily mean everyone who voted for Donald Trump changed their views about character. But statistically there was a sharp swing in the willingness to accept and defend behavior that was egregious. I (Ed) recently shared data showing that the people of God, who are called to hold to the highest standard of morals and ethics, now rank as the highest group percentage-wise of those who say that these things don't necessarily matter.

There are many Evangelicals who voted for Trump, and many Evangelicals who advised him. It's time to advise him now that immigrants are made in the image of God, women are not tools and toys, racial and religious prejudice must be confronted, and so much more. The answer is not for us to change our views on character, it's to help a flawed candidate become a President of character.

Evangelicals elected Trump. Now they need to call him to a better way.

Evangelicals made Trump's candidacy; now they owe it to the world to help remake his presidency.

5. Repent and forgive where needed. This election has held up a mirror to our nation, and what we saw wasn't pretty. It brought out the worst in us, but remember, the worst was already there--out of the mouth the heart speaks. We saw the ugliest versions of our collective self, and if we don't admit it we will never be better than we were at our lowest point. It's time for us to repent. We may need to repent of things we have said. We may need to repent of things we have not said. We may need to repent of anxiety that has gripped us because we were worried about temporal things. We will all be tempted to look at each other warily after this, but it's time for grace. Our ultimate enemy is not Donald Trump, or Hillary Clinton, or each other. Our enemy is Satan and he has been defeated. Nothing can change that.

6. Hope. Is it too much to ask to hope that Donald Trump will be a better president than he has been a person? Perhaps it is, but at this point, that's what we can hope and pray.

This prayer from the Anglican world is beautiful. (John Wesley died an Anglican, we like to remember.)

Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage: We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of thy favor and glad to do thy will. Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to thy law, we may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth. In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail; all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

*****

The Church of England continues in free fall writes Mary Ann Mueller, VOL's associate writer and researcher. In a major article on the state of the CofE she writes, "There are 63.7 million people living in England, 25 million of them claim to be members of the Church of England, yet according to the recently released CofE Statistics For Mission (SFM) report, fewer than one million Anglicans show up to church on Sunday.

In fact, in 2007, the British media reported that more English Roman Catholics attend Mass than Church of England Anglicans. Then it was noted that 861,800 Catholics go to weekly Mass, compared to 852,500 Anglicans. The latest 2015 SFM stats show that attendance at Sunday services has dropped to 752,000, or a dismal 2.3% of all Anglicans and just a little more than 1.4 % of the entire population of England, of which 32,757,000 claim to be Christian -- Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Methodists, Calvinists, Baptists, Orthodoxy, Salvation Army members ...,

The Church of England's motto is: A Christian presence in every community. England boasts about 1,200 incorporated towns, of which 50 are cities. To help meet its goal of having "a Christian presence in every community", the Church of England has 15,685 churches -- including 42 cathedrals -- scattered throughout the country in 40 domestic dioceses. These churches are the local parishes for at least 55 million people of which 32 million are Christians. Not all small burgs and unincorporated villages have an "official" Church of England presence in town. But, since the Church of England is the established state religion, all Britons have an automatic access to the Church of England for life events -- baptisms, weddings, and funerals -- regardless of their religious affiliation. You can read her full account in today's digest.

*****

Egyptian Anglicans are in a complex battle over its status with the Evangelical Churches Association, AKA the Protestant churches of Egypt. The question is, are Anglicans Protestants or something else?

Dr. Mouneer Anis, the Anglican Archbishop, says his church is not and should not be under the Protestant Council and has protested in the courts. He says he feels "under heavy attack".

At the heart of the dilemma for Dr. Anis is whether the Episcopal Anglican Church in Egypt is Protestant or should remain independent. On the number of occasions I have been in Egypt with Dr. Anis, those present with him have included leaders of the Coptic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Armenian Orthodox Church and a sprinkling of Muslim leaders and scholars. There has never been a Protestant Church leader invited to these ecumenical occasions. This does speak to the heart of the Anglican Archbishop and his perceived place in the religious life of Egypt.

You can read my full and extensive coverage of this issue in today's digest.

*****

South African democracy is failing the people, says Anglican Archbishop Makgoba Thabo. He has called for prayer and "drastic action" for the future of South Africa.

The ACNS reports Makgoba, as saying that the people of South Africa are being failed by the country's two-decade-old democracy. "After 22 years of democracy, too many people still experience living and working conditions that deliver neither human dignity nor economic justice," he said. "We are challenged by a high rate of poverty, inequality of opportunity and unemployment. This is why we need good research and comprehensive policy initiatives like the National Development Plan, and the Church must lend its support to all who strive to bring about the 'abundant life' that Jesus promised to every child of God."

Archbishop Thabo made his comments in a sermon at the Cathedral of St Andrew and St Michael in Bloemfontein, in a service marking its 150th anniversary. "The congregations which have gathered in this place for faithful worship for 15 decades have seen war and civil strife, promoted peace and reconciliation, and observed and participated in history in the making. . ." he said. "Here God has, again and again, met people and sent them out to proclaim his truth, with clarity and courage, through difficult and challenging times. And God knows that we have difficult and challenging times in South Africa today."

He criticized the South African government which, he said, "appears set on spending huge amounts of money on a nuclear procurement programme which threatens to become an albatross of debt around the necks not only of our children but our grandchildren and great-grandchildren too. Moreover, they are doing this at a time when renewable energy is becoming ever cheaper and easier to produce."

And he also criticized the government's plans to leave the International Criminal Court. The ICC, he said, is "a pioneering initiative in international justice which leading figures in fighting for our democracy played an instrumental role in setting up. The framework under which the court was established, and its prosecutors, are not beyond criticism, but it seems strange to suggest that because the justice it dispenses is not perfect, there should be no justice at all."

He said that rather than leaving the court, the government should "act with the confidence and determination of its predecessors, and boldly engage the international community with a view to improving the court."

*****

The Rev. Canon Andrew White, widely known as the 'Vicar of Baghdad', has long suffered with multiple sclerosis. His ministry vocation involves a lot of travel and even more speaking, often close to tears, and yet, sadly, it is his mobility and speech which are most affected by his illness. But two decades of MS haven't stopped him being "hijacked, kidnapped, locked up in rooms with bits of finger and toe and things". He has been held at gunpoint, physically attacked, and seen many members of his staff kidnapped or killed. He has lived in Iraq's holocaust, and seen hell with his own eyes. Glory in tribulations? We don't grasp the half of it.

He recently posted a health update on his Facebook page saying; "There are good angels and evil angels: the Devil is the enemy, bringing nothing but dark nights and disruption. But note the move from despair -- "I am finished" -- to victory: "...on the winning side.. see great things." It could almost be a psalm, moving from desolation to consolation. One moment God seems to have callously abandoned; another, He is there, with His warmth, peace, joy and encouragement.

Please remember and pray for Andrew White. He desires and works for heavenly things: he serves God and seeks to make Jesus known. He radiates faith, hope and love, even when the Holy Spirit feels absent in a world of gloom, discouragement and pain. The tempter, seducer and destroyer may be corroding Andrew White's brain, but he will never sever the mystical union or silence the prophetic inspiration. He can evict a mind, but he cannot blind the sons of God to the vision of divine light and beauty. Our ecstasy awaits; our joy is in heaven. 'I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me..'

*****

The oldest church in the City of London has taken a leap into the future with the technology of the 21st century, writes Ruth Gledhill of Christian Today.

Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, who is one of the most traditionalist of the Church of England's serving bishops, led a live-streamed Eucharist at the seventh-century church of All Hallows by the Tower, which pre-dates the Tower of London by 300 years.

Jessie Morgan, who is over 100 years old and who had been a Brownies' leader at All Hallows from the late 1920's, said she was "amazed" at the new technological developments available to churches.

She said she hoped it would allow more people to connect with a place which had been central to her Christian formation and her life.

All Hallows was founded by the Abbey of Barking in 675AD. The live stream service is part of Capital 2020 -- the diocesan strategy for developing new and effective ways to serve the people of London.

*****

The arrival of the Church Mission Society's Thomas Norton and other missionaries in the southern Indian town of Alleppey, Kerala, 200 years ago, is being marked with a major celebration in the state's Nehru sports stadium in Kottayam. More than 50,000 people are expected to attend the celebration, which will include a presentation from the surviving grandchildren of the original missionaries.

Norton was the first of a number of CMS missionaries who arrived in Alleppey -- a town now called Alappuzha, and known as the Venice of the East. He was followed by Bishop Speechly, Henry Baker and Benjamin Bailey. They set about establishing formal education for all, including women; and founded a number of schools and colleges.

The anniversary will be marked with a large procession and gathering of bishops ahead of the celebration in the sports stadium on Saturday (12 November). "Throughout the celebrations organizers have sought to continue the vision of the original missionaries who recognized the importance of education and economic development to secure the future of the region," a CMS spokesman said. "Therefore, the bicentenary celebrations have incorporated a number of community development and educational programs, including one project to build new homes to house the homeless, another to provide scholarships to poor students, and others aimed at agriculture, rural areas and church planting.

The CMS College in Kerala is the oldest college in India. Earlier this year the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, visited the college and laid the foundation stone of a new bicentenary block.

*****

An all-girl choir is to sing for the first time in Gloucester Cathedral Choir's 475-year history.
The 21 girls, aged seven to 12, will have separate duties from the boys, but will combine with them for important occasions like Christmas services.

Conductor Nia Llewelyn Jones, said: "They're not that different to the boys - cheeky, sassy, but they're a great bunch of girls."

The cathedral's choir was founded in 1541 by King Henry VIII.

Since 1999, girls have been able to sing with the boys in the Cathedral Youth Choir for 12 to 18 year olds. Then in 2014, the Cathedral Junior Choir was set up for both boys and girls - aged six to 12.
Canon Celia Thomson said: "I hope that lots of people will come to hear them and experience the worship with them singing."

*****

From Canada comes this on the American election.

David of Samizdat, a conservative blogger writes on the mental anguish of liberal New Westminster Bishop Melissa Skelton at Trump's victory. For the record, Skelton is a US citizen who lived in Seattle before becoming Bishop of New Westminster.

Samizdat writes: "Although I am not an avid fan of Donald Trump, I am very much enjoying the reaction of elitist liberals whose disdain for and aloofness from the common herd helped propel Trump to victory.

Such is the "in shock, grief and confusion" of Bishop Melissa Skelton, that she felt moved to write a pastoral letter to calm the disquiet of her flock over the results of democracy in action in her homeland:

I awoke this morning, as many of you did, in shock, grief and confusion as the elections in the US concluded. While, as a person born in the US, I could offer my own analysis of what happened, I'm more interested in saying just a few things to you in the face of these events in the life of our neighbour to the south, a neighbour who deeply influences us and the rest of the world.

Stay a while with your uncomfortable feelings and the things you may now be curious about.
One piece I read this morning talked about our own urge to get past the uncomfortable feelings that many of us may be feeling today. I encourage you to stay in touch with both the feelings and the questions that are coming up for you out of what has occurred over these many months. It may be that God is working in you as you experience your own response and as you discern how you may wish to respond.

*****

We are fast approaching the end of the year when funds are needed to help us jump start the New Year. We urgently need a budget for 2017 as we go into the last two months of the year. I have travelled extensively this past year and we have had some extraordinary expenses. Would you partner with VOL to give us a working budget for 2017? We sure could use it to keep VOL coming into your e-mail box. Our work is encouraged by your giving. Your donation is tax deductible. It helps us believe that all we do is worthwhile. Our hard-working team of reporters and commentators feel the encouragement when you give.

Please help make this possible. You can send a donation to VOL via PAYPAL at the link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/

Or 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

Evidence of new birth. If you know as a fact that God is righteous, John says, then you will perceive as a logical consequence "that everyone who does what is right has been born of him" (1 Jn. 2:29). The child exhibits the parent's character because he shares the parent's nature. A person's righteousness is thus the evidence of his new birth, not the cause or condition of it. --- John R.W. Stott

Rejection of political correctness is essentially rejection of mind control and thought control. That's the major reason its aim is to squash logical and well-reasoned speech; kill the speech, kill the presentation of ideas that might wake people up, or else people might in fact wake up and catch on. --- Michael Voris

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

Bishops in The Episcopal Church are treading warily these days following the unexpected election of Donald Trump to be the next president of the U.S. Being liberals they were blown away at Clinton losing because her progressive views on a number of issues especially sexuality and their progressive theology on issues of sexuality happen to coincide.

Now they are in a quandary. At least 50 percent of the Episcopal Church's laity are old mainline blue blood Episcopalians who undoubtedly did vote for Trump and any criticism by the bishops of Mr. Trump will see the check books of the Old Guard close and they can't have that happening, especially as churches are closing and congregations are shrinking.

One has to be careful not to tell the ladies of the altar guild that sodomy is good and right in the eyes of God especially if she is yearning desperately for grandchildren. Clearly Mr. Trump is robustly heterosexual judging by his three marriages and other sexual conquests over the years to qualify as someone more in keeping with their worldview, if it is about sex, the economy and the future of Western Civilization.

So what are they to do now? Well follow me dear reader through the pluriform land beyond good and evil and benevolent dictatorships (because that is what most revisionist bishops have become, having torn, shredded and cowed their orthodox remnant into groveling acquiescence).

One bishop, Greg Rickel of Olympia said, "We woke up Wednesday morning either elated, or deeply troubled and sad. There seemed to be little in between. That disparity only further reflects the deep division in our land. Perhaps blood is not being spilled as gratuitously as it was during our Civil War, but civil war, in this generation's country, is still very real."

Yes, bishop you are right, and furthermore you and most of the HOB are on the wrong side of the divide.

Quoth Michael Curry, "As a Church, seeking to follow the way of Jesus, who taught us, "you shall love your neighbor as yourself," (Mt. 22:39) and to "do to others as you would have them do to you" (Mt. 7:12), we maintain our longstanding commitment to support and welcome refugees and immigrants, and to stand with those who live in our midst without documentation. We reaffirm that like all people LGBT persons are entitled to full civil rights and protection under the law. We reaffirm and renew the principles of inclusion and the protection of the civil rights of all persons with disabilities. We commit to the honor and dignity of women and speak out against sexual or gender-based violence. We express solidarity with and honor the Indigenous Peoples of the world. We affirm the right to freedom of religious expression and vibrant presence of different religious communities, especially our Muslim sisters and brothers. We acknowledge our responsibility in stewardship of creation and all that God has given into our hands. We do so because God is the Creator. We are all God's children, created equally in God's image. And if we are God's children we are all brothers and sisters."

Orthodox Episcopalians and Anglicans will start believing the presiding bishop when he stops calling people who disagree with him about pansexuality hatemongers and homophobes. In fact, some secular and religious writers are suggesting that Christians might experience more freedom now, not less, under a Trump administration and won't be forced to bake queer wedding cakes and when they refuse to do so pay a fine or go to jail. Furthermore, if you keep allying the Jesus Movement with racism then it will go nowhere until you identify who the racists are in TEC. (We know plenty in the wider world). And where is the "religious freedom" clause in TEC itself these days? Are orthodox Episcopalians free to say that sodomy is wrong, the behavior has the possibility of passing along some 30 sexually transmitted diseases, without being yelled at for being homophobic! Clearly consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.

Chicago Bishop Jeffrey Lee did sound a more realistic note when he wrote, "We do know that many people are fearful and many others feel that they have been truly heard for the first time in years. The divisions in our country are on full display." That's a smart statement to make especially if you are resident in the Midwest that went solidly for Trump. East and West coast bishops were far more denunciatory of Trump's behavior and policies (without actually mentioning his name of course).

The buzzword by most of the bishops now and in the future, will be talk of reconciliation, but with who and whom? Curry will play up the Jesus Movement and TEC will march on into God knows where.

*****

The Episcopal Church's seminaries are in desperate financial straits. If they are not merging to stay alive they are running out of cash.

Consider the latest debacle -The Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass. - is on the brink of closure and is shuttering its doors because it is burning too much cash. Trustees from the EDS released a letter this week that revealed staggering financial losses at the troubled progressive seminary.

According to Board of Trustees Chair Gary Hall and Vice-Chair Canon Bonnie Anderson, the October 27-29 trustees meeting on the seminary's Cambridge, Massachusetts campus "accepted the 2016 audit report which contained the sobering news that EDS's net assets decreased by $7.9 million (11%) in the last fiscal year." The deficit is nearly a third larger than EDS Board Treasurer Dennis Stark revealed in July, an amount that was already 30 percent "above a reasonable amount" according to the official.

This follows a decrease of nearly $6.5 million (8.5%) in 2015.

"As the fiduciary stewards of EDS's assets and mission, we are obviously dismayed at the size of EDS's losses, but the news has redoubled our commitment to finding a more sustainable and prudent future for the seminary by the end of fiscal year 2017," Hall and Anderson wrote.

Now the last seminary leader was a certain lesbian by the name of Kathleen Ragsdale who proudly proclaimed that "abortion is a blessing and our work is not done." Hardly a starter to bring in new students for the ministry. The school will cease to grant degrees at the end of the upcoming academic year.

"The school that has taken on racism, sexism, heterosexism, and multiple interlocking oppressions is now called to rethink its delivery of theological education in a new and changing world," said the Very Rev. Gary Hall '76, chairman of the board, in introducing the resolution. "Ending unsustainable spending is a matter of social justice."

Social justice! That's a new twist on an old theme. Translation: "Having abandoned anything to do with orthodox Christianity, we find that we have made ourselves completely irrelevant. If we spin our theological and financial bankruptcy as a sign of our virtue, maybe we won't look so bad," wrote Rod Dreher at that time.

You wonder why Hall, who was pretty well a disaster as Dean at the National Cathedral in Washington, doesn't make a phone call to Dr. Laurie Thompson, president pro tem at Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, PA and ask him why his seminary is so successful, it being totally full of students and where the institution recently raised $12 million for ongoing building and faculty. The conversation might go something like this:

Hall: Why are you so successful Laurie?
Thompson: We believe in the Bible, that it is God's word written. We believe in the authority of scripture and marriage between a man and a woman. We do not believe abortion is a right and we believe the gospel should be preached to the ends of the earth and converts made and churches planted.
Hall: Good God man you still believe all THAT?
Thompson: Actually yes...and that is why we are growing and you are going out of business.

*****

The train has definitely left Kansas and happily on board is the Bishop of Kansas Dean E. Wolfe who announced this week that he had a call to become rector of St. Bart's, New York City. This bishop also felt he had a call to be Bishop of Pennsylvania not so long ago but clearly the Lord felt he would be better suited for the Big Apple.

This upmarket well-heeled liberal church will fit him to a tee and he will feel right at home railing about social justice to Episcopalians who prefer their social justice laced with gin and tonics, filet mignon and bottles of chateau Neuf de Pap rather than talk of substitutionary atonement and the resurrection. He'll be in good company with the ultra-liberal New York Bishop Andrew M. L. Dietsche and lesbian Bishop Mary Glasspool. But if you want to hear an authentic understanding of the gospel then you might want to pop over to hear Tim Keller. Much better stuff.

A recent graph of the membership of St. Bart's shows that it dropped from about 5500 in 2014 to about 2100 in 2015 a loss of 3400 souls! Someone finally had the good sense to eliminate those from the rolls those who were now in graves, columbarium's, urns or just disappeared. It's pledge and plate has also dropped from a high of $3.75 million in 2006 to $2.5 million in 2015.

*****

Is Presiding Bishop Michael Curry cleaning house at 815, the Church's national headquarters? You might think so. I suspect for the Jesus Movement to make headway he must clear out the old guard and bring in new Jesus Movement true believers.

Curry, recently suspended and then let go his right hand man, COO Bishop Stacey Sauls, and placed him on administrative leave along with two other senior church officers over what is being described as "misconduct in carrying out their duties as members of senior management of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society." The other two suspended officers are Deputy Chief Operating Officer and Director of Mission Samuel McDonald, and Director of Public Engagement Alex Baumgarten.

No one was prepared to give information about the exact nature of the incident. However, VOL and IRD writer Jeff Walton believed it might have had something to do with the security tapes that were found by General Convention Executive Officer and Executive Council Secretary Canon Michael Barlowe at the Conference Center at the Maritime Institute in Linthicum Heights, Maryland, where the Executive Council was meeting last month.

A confidential source told VOL this week that it was Baumgarten who planted the device.

More recently Curry has announced other "retirements" which includes Peter Ng, Episcopal Church partnership officer for Asia and the Pacific; Angela Ifill, Episcopal Church missioner for office of black ministries and Kirk Hadaway, Episcopal Church officer for congregational research. It'll be interesting to see who if anyone replaces these folk.

*****

This week GAFCON UK produced "The Church of England and Lambeth 1:10", a catalogue of breaches of the agreed approach on the vexed question of sexual ethics in the Anglican Communion. In particular the document stresses the culpability of leadership in their reluctance or refusal to act.

There has been a fair amount of discussion amongst evangelicals (of various stripes) over this so-called "name and shame list". The reality, at least according to GAFCON, is somewhat different.

The failure to uphold Lambeth 1.10 and properly discipline those who had violated it contributed to an atmosphere that legitimized these actions, spread their influence, and contributed to the later change in provincial liturgies and canons. This causation was well understood by clergy promoting the violation of Lambeth 1.10, and employed strategically.

Following its distribution amongst more conservative parishes in the CofE it found its way to Christian Today by opponents of orthodoxy and spun them as a "name and shame" list. The never-publicity-shy leaders in the Anglican LGBT movement have fed this deliberate misrepresentation in the Christian Today article, writes David Ould.

But a number of LGBT clergy raised fears the list could lead to targeting and abuse.

Rev Andrew Foreshew-Cain, a married gay vicar in London who regularly receives hate mail, said the list served "no other purpose other than to make us targets in some way".

Canon Jeremy Pemberton, another married gay priest named on the list, said it was "disgusting to try and target people like this".

Almost immediately Foreshew-Cain, Pemberton and many others made a point of publicizing their names on a list of "Proud Violators of Lambeth 1.10" and the LGCM (of which Pemberton is a trustee) announcing they were seeking names for a "Rainbow List" in response. Rather than fleeing from such lists of names they consider them a catalogue of proud defiance.

The report concluded with this, "To restore order and a credible Christian witness, the upcoming meetings of the House of Bishops and General Synod would need to not merely avoid going further in violating Lambeth 1.10, but it would need to take constructive steps to rectify the numerous public (and presumably private) breaches that have been strategically taken by some to undermine the teaching of the Communion."

That's the real issue here and the rainbow elephant in the room. The GAFCON report makes clear the inaction and therefore (no doubt unintentional) complicity by conservative leadership. The Bible and our ordination/consecration vows are more than clear on what should be done in the face of false teaching and openly sinful behavior in the church, says Ould.

One awaits with baited breath a response from Lambeth Palace.

*****

When is a no, just a temporary no and then becomes a maybe and then becomes a full throated yes. Why in the Diocese of Upper SC of course where Bishop Andrew Waldo presides. He recently appointed a Task Force to examine General Convention's vote in favor of a provisional liturgy for the blessing of same-sex unions. Waldo voted "no" on resolution (A049) with a process to articulate the boundaries "within which we can live in unity within this Diocese, even in our disagreements on this issue." Well a no is now a maybe and will undoubtedly, in time, be a yes. He set up a task force of mostly liberals to examine A049, so you know where this is going. No brain surgery needed. A no now becomes a yes, the Law of Non-Contradiction has now been lifted for the umpteenth time in TEC.

*****

An academic survey study of 2,225 churchgoers in Ontario, Canada, conducted over five years by Wilfred Laurier University scholars revealed that people who interpret the Bible literally "helps increase church attendance."

The study finds conservative theology mixed with innovative worship approaches helps Protestant churches grow congregations.

"If we are talking solely about what belief system is more likely to lead to numerical growth among Protestant churches, the evidence suggests conservative Protestant theology is the clear winner," said David Haskell, the Canadian study's lead researcher.

The findings contradict earlier studies undertaken in the US and the UK, which attempted to discover the underlying causes of a steep decline in church attendance in recent decades but concluded that theology was not a significant factor. You can read my full report in today's digest.

*****

Two people have been killed and many more injured following a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck the New Zealand town of Kaikoura this week. There have been almost 2,000 after-shocks since the main quake, which struck at two minutes past midnight on Monday (14 November) NZDT (11.02am, Sunday 13 November, GMT). A number of church buildings have been affected. And an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 landslides since Monday is combining with heavy rain to worsen the effects of the initial quake.

The Anglican Taonga website reports that the church bell tower at Waiau, in the diocese of Christchurch, has sheared off from the body of the church. And in Wellington, St Paul's cathedral was evacuated over fears that a nearby building may collapse. The cathedral itself survived intact; but its pipe organ has been severely damaged with pipework thrown over the choir area.

The diocese of Nelson has not been able to make contact with anybody in the parish of Kaikoura -- which bore the brunt of the quake. Phone lines to the region are down and road access destroyed.

The New Zealand Navy and Air Force have evacuated hundreds of people from the town using helicopters and the warship HMNZS Canterbury. Naval warships from Australia, the US and Canada, heading to New Zealand to take part in celebrations for the 75th anniversary of the New Zealand Navy, have diverted to Kaikoura to deliver aid and assistance to the remaining population.

"It is wonderful to hear from you and to know our friends are with us," Canon Robert Kereopa, the chief executive of Anglican Missions in New Zealand said in a conversation with the Anglican Alliance. "Thankfully reports thus far from Christchurch, Nelson, and Wellington dioceses all say everyone is OK.

"We are in good heart, and poised to give support where it is needed, but it will take some time to assess the damage, which is substantial."

The Anglican Alliance is calling on people to pray for the people of New Zealand.

*****

The people of Madagascar, Malawi and Zimbabwe are facing the risk of death as erratic weather, drought and crop failures have resulted in chronic food shortages. Hundreds of people have already died from malnutrition and that figure is set to rise substantially. One young person being confirmed in the diocese of Toliara in Madagascar collapsed in the arms of Bishop Tod McGregor as a result of dehydration.

The Anglican mission agency USPG has launched an emergency appeal to support Anglican Churches in the region, reports Gavin drake of the ACNS.

"People are weak and listless and sleeping every day without eating," Toliara diocese's development co-ordinator, Gasthe Alphonse, said. "Children have started to drop out of school through weakness or because they've got to walk further to collect water.

"People have been selling their animals to buy food they would normally grow themselves. Once they've sold their livestock, they have no other resources to buy food. Even those with little resources are struggling to feed their families as food and water prices are too high. People are eating cactus like animals to survive."

Earlier this month, the diocese reported that 230 people in the region had died and 15,000 children were suffering from severe malnutrition. They have set up an emergency response team to oversee relief efforts in the worst affected regions of Astimo-Andrefana, Anosy and Androy.

"Working through a network of 70 rural churches, food aid will be distributed to 7,000 people, with a particular focus on children and pregnant women," a USPG spokesman said. "In addition, 4,000 villagers will be trained in disaster preparedness, learning such skills as how to establish food storage centres and how to develop income generation projects. It is hoped the training will also give confidence so communities needn't feel like victims in their situation."

Like other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Malawi has had two consecutive bad harvests. Officials estimate that some 8.6 million people in the country will require food aid from December for more than six months as a result of the combination of flooding and drought.

There is a critical hunger situation and the government has declared an emergency. "In such times of hunger, food prices go up complicating the situation," USPG said. "As a result, people develop coping mechanisms that are risky and even counterproductive. In many communities, people are having one meal a day and children are dropping out of school due to hunger.

*****

Eliminating discrimination in Canada one anus at a time. Canada's liberal government is introducing legislation to lower the age of consent for anal sex from 18 to 16, reports Anglican blogger David of Samizdat.

Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, apparently oblivious to evolution's mandate to reproduce, believes the change is dictated by evolution. It would be funny if she didn't take herself so seriously: "Our society has evolved over the past few decades and our criminal justice system needs to evolve as well."

I expect all this makes you as proud to be Canadian as I.

Here is what she said: "The Liberal government is moving to repeal a law that courts and critics have long said unfairly criminalizes the sexual activity of gay and bisexual men.

"Canadians expect their government and their laws to reflect their values," Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould said Tuesday after tabling legislation to repeal a provision of the Criminal Code on anal intercourse.

"Our society has evolved over the past few decades and our criminal justice system needs to evolve as well."

The law currently bans the sexual act, but there is an exception for heterosexual married couples and consenting adults of either sex over age 18, as long as it does not involve more than two people and is done without anyone watching.

Courts have found the provision to infringe on equality guarantees under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, since 16- and 17-year-olds can consent to all other forms of sexual activity.

The proposed legislation known as Bill C-32 would repeal section 159 of the Criminal Code and prevent charges being laid against those 16 and older who engage in consensual anal intercourse.

The legislation came as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau named Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault his special adviser on LGBTQ2 issues.

The MP for Edmonton Centre will work with advocacy groups to promote equality for lesbians, gays, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning and two-spirited people -- a term used broadly to describe indigenous people who identify as part of the community.

Boissonnault, who is openly gay, will also explore the possibility of an apology to LGBTQ2 people whose lives and careers were disrupted by government policies over the decades, or even formal pardons for those convicted under laws now considered discriminatory.

*****

The revenge of the deplorables. The ever-perceptive Sir Roger Scruton on why Trump won can be heard here.
http://www.anglicansamizdat.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/APointOfView-20161111-TheTrumpCard.mp3

APointOfView-20161111-TheTrumpCard.mp3

Sir Roger FBA, FRSL is an English philosopher who specializes in aesthetics. He has written over forty books, including Art and Imagination, The Meaning of Conservatism, Sexual Desire etc.

*****

Humanists in America are attempting to ban the practice of getting school children to fill shoeboxes with gifts to send to children in deprived parts of the world, writes Ruth Gledhill for Christian Today.

The American Humanist Association wants to stop Operation Christmas Child, run by Franklin Graham's organization Samaritan's Purse, from promoting the shoebox program.

The goals of the program include evangelism and discipleship.

The court case came in the official collection week for the shoeboxes, packed by children throughout the world with pens, coloring pencils, paper, small toys and other gifts for sending to countries in Africa and elsewhere.

The American Humanist Association filed the original lawsuit in 2014 and then appealed in February this Year saying that it violates First Amendment in the separation of church and state.

*****

We are fast approaching the end of the year when funds are needed to help us jump start the New Year. We urgently need a budget for 2017 as we go into the last two months of the year. I have travelled extensively this past year and we have had some extraordinary expenses. Would you partner with VOL to give us a working budget for 2017? We sure could use it to keep these digests coming into your e-mail box each week. Our work is encouraged by your giving. It helps us believe that all we do is worthwhile. Our hard-working team of reporters and commentators feel the encouragement when you give. Your donation is tax-deductible.

Please help make this possible. You can send a donation to VOL via PAYPAL at the link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/

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Thank you for your support.

David

"Here is the reason why we have such a host of stillborn, sinewless, ricketty, powerless spiritual children. They are born of half-dead parents, a sort of sentimental religion which does not take hold of the soul, which has no depth of earth, no grasp, no power in it, and the result is a sickly crop of sentimental converts. Oh! the Lord give us a real, robust, living, hardy, Christianity, full of zeal and faith, which shall bring into the kingdom of God lively, well-developed children, full of life and energy, instead of these poor sentimental ghosts that are hopping around us." ---- Catherine Booth

"Lord, what is your Kingdom assignment for me today?" I am reminded that this is the first priority that Jesus set for you and me, his disciples, in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Jesus promises that everything else flows from this, including good government, racial reconciliation, material prosperity for all, clothing, food and other essentials of life... Seek first the Kingdom and ALL these things will be given to you as well." --- Canon Phil Ashey

"God does not always punish a nation by sending it adversity. More often He gives the oppressors their hearts' desire, and sends leanness withal into their souls." --- William Ralph Inge, Dean of St. Paul's

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
November 25, 2016

We have long known what should be fairly obvious: those churches which trash the gospel, disbelieve Scripture, and grieve the Holy Spirit are in decline, while those churches which believe and proclaim the gospel, have a high view of Scripture, and allow God to work in their midst are growing.

And there have been plenty of studies done over the years to prove this very point. Let me mention just three books dealing with the Protestant scene, which clearly document what I have just said. The first volume is Why Conservative Churches are Growing, written back in 1972 by Dean Kelley.

Another volume came out in 1996: The Empty Church: The Suicide of Liberal Christianity by Thomas Reeves. And in 2006, Exodus: Why Americans Are Fleeing Liberal Churches for Conservative Christianity appeared, written by Dave Shiflett.

All three of these book-length studies made it plain that liberal theology and a rejection of the Bible and biblical values are a recipe for disaster, and not many people are all that thrilled with staying at such churches. Of course satanic deception does mean that many folks get sucked into cults and liberal churches -- they have their ears easily tickled.

But those looking for the real deal will give these liberal churches short shrift. If people are seeking after truth, the pale imitations hold little or no attraction. As C. S. Lewis wrote long ago, "By the way, did you ever meet, or hear of, anyone who was converted from skepticism to a 'liberal' or 'demythologized' Christianity?"

And the research continues to affirm this. Biblical Christianity which remains faithful to God and His Word continues to attract and keep people, while liberal churches and those commandeered by SJWs do not. A new study, from the Canadian province of Ontario, makes all this pretty clear.

Here is how it has been described:

The long disputed question of just what role adherence to core Christian orthodoxy plays in a church's numerical success--that is, whether it is growing or declining--has received a compelling and convincing answer in a major new peer-reviewed study by two Canadian academics. You can read it here: http://tinyurl.com/j6m27pa

In "Theology Matters"--its title a succinct summation of its conclusion--to be published in the December issue of the Review of Religious Research, Wilfrid Laurier University sociologist David Haskell and Kevin Flatt, professor of church history at Hamilton's Redeemer University College, reveal the statistical commonalities among nine growing and 13 declining congregations in southern Ontario.

The churches--located in the most church-rich part of English Canada--come from four mainline Protestant denominations: Anglican, United Church, Presbyterian, and Evangelical Lutheran. Decline was defined as an average annual loss of two per cent of attendees between 2003-13; growth by the opposite--although the truly expanding left that rate in the dust.

Parker, whose St. Paul's is a "destination" church, drawing attendees from as far afield as Barrie, 100 km north, thinks five per cent "is about normal" for a year's growth. Sherbina's flock has increased almost 80 per cent in nine years, while Allison has seen his St. Paul's go from 35 Sunday attendees when he arrived 21 years ago to 400 now. Those numbers are far from usual. Scholars have tracked shrinking mainline membership for decades, and declining churches are easy to find. Identifying the growing ones, though, was a "challenge," Haskell says.

Eventually, through word-of-mouth--which often turned out to be more hopeful than accurate, adds co-author Flatt--the researchers found their examples. They surveyed clergy and--a step ignored by earlier studies--2,255 lay attendees.

Answers in accord with traditional Christian orthodoxy--basic articles of faith (the ancient Creeds), the authority of Scripture, God's visible working in the world today, the exclusivity of Christianity (Jesus as the door to eternal life), the importance of daily prayer--were tightly bound to growing life in individual churches. As well, conservative churches had a lower mean age among attendees (53 to 63), emphasis on youth groups, the presence of young families, wide participation by congregants (not only on Sunday mornings) and a commitment to evangelism.

The piece concludes:

Nowhere do clergy matter more than in their most deeply held attitudes. Sociologists who study religion debate whether the decline in church attendance is a matter of demand--fewer moderns want it--or a matter of supply, with would-be Christians not finding the faith they want. "When we asked clergy why they thought churches grew or declined, those in the shrinking churches replied decline was because of socio-economic factors, the influence of secular society. Clergy in expanding churches said growth was because of what they and their members did." And what they preached, adds Haskell: "Ideas have consequences."

*****

Just a few years ago, St. Paul's K Street in Washington DC installed a homosexual rector, as previously reported (http://www.virtueonline.org/washington-dc-st-pauls-k-street-install-rector-alleged-sexual-past-gay-model). Well, it probably won't come as a major surprise that the parish and its priest will now celebrate its first civil marriage.

This parish was once a bastion of Anglo-Catholicism in the Washington area and had great respect by all who attended. Now it is sadly in decline, led by a homoerotic priest.

Here is what you can read from the church's website:
"Flowers on the High Altar this Sunday are given by James Moxness and Harry "Max" Hazell to the greater glory of Almighty God and in thanksgiving for the Blessing of their Civil Marriage which will be celebrated in this parish church on Tuesday, November 22, at 4:00 p.m., and to which all members of the parish are invited."
http://www.stpauls-kst.com/parish-life/news-and-notices

And a screenshot of the bulletin was posted on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10208927091666805&set=ecnf.100013594812856&type=3&theater

Of course, the pro-gay woman Bishop of Washington, Mariann Budde, has no problem with any of this. It is all being done in the name of inclusion and diversity, for which TEC is renown.

*****

The Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is inviting his followers, including clergy and leaders of the ACNA, to meet for their annual assembly in Chicago (Wheaton), Illinois, from June 28-30, 2017.

"I am calling this Assembly to gather the whole Church in the United States, Canada and Mexico to celebrate God's goodness to us as a Province and to call us to our theme: "Mission on Our Doorsteps" based on Revelation 7:9.

"As the nations come to our doorsteps throughout our North American Province, the mission field is truly all around us. As the Archbishop of this Church, I want us all to be equipped and empowered by the Holy Spirit for this missional opportunity that we are being given by God!"

He's also offering a deal to make it possible for everyone to attend. "In addition to our corporate worship and teaching, we are working on tracks for Youth, Caminemos Juntos! (Hispanic ministry), Church Planting, Multiethnic Ministries, Worship Arts, Prayer Ministry and much, much more!"

*****

The folk in the Diocese of North Carolina are looking for a new bishop and they have three candidates -- all men, no women. But one of the candidates is The Rev. Charles Dupree, rector, Trinity Episcopal Church, Bloomington, Indiana, and, according to his bio, he has been married to Matthew Cole since 2011; prior to that they were partners for sixteen years!

The whole thing has not created even the mildest stirs online, but the GAFCON bishops and Global South archbishops now know so they will be watching in earnest to see if he wins. If he does, it will be yet another nail in the coffin of TEC and continued distancing of the Global South from the West.

*****

The Church of England's House of Bishops met this week, but there are no signs at all that they were prepared to move in a liberal direction on sexuality issues. A source told VOL the HOB has worked out just what a tiny group the revisionists are; and how many others would be "alienated" if they give way to the revisionists. "There are plenty of alternatives for the revisionists. It's good to hear that they are leaving the Church of England."

It comes amid a long and drawn out process and will certainly not be the last key moment. Arguments have raged for decades over the Church's teaching and practice on gay relationships. Things reached a head when several conservative Anglican leaders formed a splinter group ahead of the 2008 Lambeth Conference of senior bishops from across the world. Global Anglican Futures Conference (GAFCON) was set up in protest that the US Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church in Canada had been welcomed despite promoting a "false gospel" over same-sex relationships.

Here is what the House of Bishops of the Church of England, which met at Lambeth Palace, said:

The formal meeting was preceded by a Eucharist where the Bishops remembered St Clement. Prayers were said for those across the globe who are persecuted for their faith, victims of religious violence and those with responsibility for Government.

The meeting received an update on the work of the Bishops' Reflection Group on Sexuality by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York in September 2016 to assist the process of consideration.

As with the meeting of the College of Bishops in September, the considerations of the House of Bishops took place in private, with reflections due to be shared with the wider College of Bishops next month.

It is envisaged the House will prepare material to bring to the General Synod for initial consideration in February 2017. I think this is called kicking the can down the road. As one wag wrote VOL, "There will be no change" -- "but we feel the pain of our LGBTQIXYZtutu sisters and brothers and stand in admiration of their great witness to the gospel."

*****

The Primates of Kenya, Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapit and Archbishop Justin Welby, met at Lambeth Palace in London for fellowship and prayer this week. During their meeting on Wednesday, the two leaders spoke about how the Anglican Communion can serve wider society.

"In our sharing we realized that as the Anglican Communion, and as Churches and as Provinces, we have a lot to be able to contribute to society if we get structured and organized and do things that will benefit the larger society," Dr. Sapit said. "What we are focusing on is engaging in mission and evangelism and focusing on prayer and worship, that we can be able to heal the church internally and heal our society externally.

"Because when the church is healed it has the opportunity to heal society."

Archbishop Justin described the meeting as "a wonderful time of fellowship and prayer", and said, "We spoke about unity and about the issues and challenges of the Communion, with a deep commitment to worship and witness and to holy living."

It should not be overlooked that Dr. Sapit is a GAFCON archbishop, so one wonders what other GAFCON primates thought of his visit with the ABC.

*****

A major plus for African nations now that President Obama is leaving office and Donald Trump is coming in, is that they will not have to suffer Obama's demands that they go along with the West's homosexual agenda and abortion. They will be free to have their own rules of moral behavior without being told that they have to imbibe sodomy. The U.S. government's insistence that the new Kenyan Constitution include provisions for abortion will be no more. Government voices insisted that a great deal of funding was linked by the US administration to including abortion in the Constitution, writes Bishop Bill Atwood.

Then, when President Obama visited Kenya, he also pressed for same sex marriage. In my visits just after President Obama had been there, everyone was talking about it. They were hugely offended and were delighted at the courage Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta, exhibited to stand next to President Obama and tell him, "The fact of the matter is Kenya and the U.S. share so many values: common love for democracy, entrepreneurship, value for families - these are some things that we share," Kenyatta said. "But there are some things that we must admit we don't share. Our culture, our societies don't accept. It is very difficult for us to be able to impose on people that which they themselves do not accept," Kenyatta continued. "This is why I repeatedly say for Kenyans today the (gay rights issue) is generally a non-issue."

*****

ANGLICAN NEWS FROM CANADA...

On November 20, Council of General Synod (CoGS) of the Anglican Church of Canada passed four resolutions related to how it will deal with the resolution to change the marriage canon to allow same-sex marriage in the triennium before General Synod 2019.

CoGS resolved to translate the materials related to the motion to change the marriage canon into Indigenous languages, to have its members encourage consideration of the motion in the synods of their home dioceses and ecclesiastical provinces, and to have the primate, Archbishop Fred Hiltz, appoint a task group from the members of CoGS to facilitate consideration of the motion.

It also voted to have its members invite their dioceses to share resources they found helpful in learning about the proposed change to the marriage canon with the office of the general secretary, and to indicate if further resources are needed.

The resolutions came out of sessions on November 18 and 19, in which CoGS members discussed the best way for the council to encourage the dioceses and ecclesiastical provinces to continue the discussion on same-sex marriage in advance of the second and final vote on the matter at General Synod 2019.

The council had originally planned to act on the resolutions during a legislative session on November 19, but passionate debate about the appropriate wording caused the vote to be pushed to the next day to ensure the wording of the resolutions reflected CoGS' intent.

The resolution calling CoGS members to encourage their dioceses and provinces to continue to consider the marriage canon, had originally asked CoGS members to serve as "ambassadors," but some members expressed concern that this would put them in the role of advocating for a change to the marriage canon.

"Are you going to make me go out and promote this resolution to move forward? Are you expecting me as a member of CoGS to give copies to other people?" asked the Rev. Vincent Solomon, of the ecclesiastical province of Rupert's Land, before adding that he would prefer not to.

A similar concern was raised by John Rye, also of Rupert's Land.

"Where a number of us have been publicly identified as advocates who clearly will be doing advocacy during this process, are we really the right people to be saying, 'We come from CoGS, and we want you to consider this'?" he asked.

General Synod prolocutor, Cynthia Haines-Turner, said members are not being ordered to do anything, but are being "invited" to encourage a discussion to happen.

"We are in a position where the dioceses and provinces are bound by the constitution to consider a motion that has passed first reading in preparation for its second reading," she said.

***

The Diocese of New Westminster won't perform same-sex marriages until 2019, says its bishop the Left Rev. Melissa Skelton, a refugee from Seattle, Washington, and successor to Michael Ingham the pioneer of sodomy in the diocese and the worldwide Anglican Communion.

That means that the Diocese of Niagara has usurped New West's position as the most liberal diocese in Canada, says blogger David of Samizdat.

Here's what the bishop had to say:

First, during this three-year period we will strengthen what we offer all couples who seek marriage or the blessing of their marriage in the church. I will convene a group to create standards and develop or refine materials to assist all couples in preparing for their making monogamous, lifelong commitments of fidelity to each other.

Second, we will abide by what General Synod decided, that is, during this three-year period we will hold off on our clergy officiating at the marriage of same-sex couples, preserving this period as a time to study, reflect, discern and pray for General Synod 2019 and its decisions. I, myself, did vote for the change in the Marriage Canon and do believe that offering marriage to same-sex couples within the Church is an expression of the Gospel. At the same time, as your bishop, I feel I should respect and abide by the full resolution as passed at General Synod 2016.

Third, building on the work already done in this diocese, I will authorize new liturgies for the blessing of marriages that enhance and maximize what we as church do and keep to a minimum what marriage commissioners do. These liturgies will be available for the use of clergy and parishes who would find them helpful and for all couples who are duly qualified to enter into civil marriage.

Of course we know what the outcome will be, everything is predictable about revisionism, everything.

***

Bogus unity in the ACoC is worse than honest disunity, writes blogger David of Samizdat.

"Now that same-sex marriage is settled, the Anglican Church of Canada is concentrating on presenting a united front "as a form of witness to the world", in contrast to this "time of political division", a snide reference, I presume, to the US elections.

"Here is a tweet showing Michael Thompson exhorting the church to indulge in a little faux-unity hypocrisy for the sake of its witness.... or should that be coffers? He writes, "We should see church unity as a form of witness to the world." Really!

"The only problem is, there is no unity in the ACoC: a number of bishops walked out of the last general synod after the same-sex marriage vote, registered their dissent and aboriginal Anglicans want to distance themselves from same-sex marriage. I know it falls somewhat short of rioting and property destruction but, in the Anglican world, this is disunity.

"As an aside, I do hope Thompson has noticed that voting in the US elections - a slightly more ambitious exercise than the ACoC general synod - went much more smoothly than the GS2016 voting debacle run by.... you guessed it, Michael Thompson."

***

St. Paul's Anglican Cathedral, Diocese of Huron, London, Ontario, has closed its doors and the small number of parishioners are meeting in an adjacent hall. The dean of the cathedral ordered it closed over structural concerns. Services will be held in a chapel and hall until further notice.

Church officials said the nave of the central church of the Anglican Huron Diocese and 170-year-old London landmark was closed after "some alarming results" were found by engineers during an ongoing $1-million restoration. Bishop Barry Clarke concurs.

Many believe that spiritual dry rot had set into the cathedral a long time ago; this is just a physical manifestation of an internal dry rot. Recently, two homosexual men celebrated their nuptials in the church, a fitting end. Parishioners were informed of the closing in an email Saturday.

IN other news, several Anglican parishes in the Diocese of Huron, are not going to use Samaritan's Purse charity any more to distribute boxes. It all has to do with LGBT concerns and its approval by the Anglican Church of Canada.

What happened was a woman who was working for Samaritan's Purse packing shoe boxes was let go after she refused to sign a revised belief statement saying Samaritan's Purse does not support same sex marriage.

Churches are not going to pack "shoeboxes" for the Operation Christmas Child charity which gives gift-filled boxes to struggling children in the Global South developing nations.

The Anglican Church of Canada promotes abortion on demand and same-sex "weddings", while the Samaritan's Purse organization does not support either and so needy kids will now suffer.

*****

Now if you thought that The Episcopal Church had all the crazies, well apparently not. A senior Catholic Archbishop recently said, that "Christ did not die for the sins of the people" According to the chairman of the Catholic bishops' conference of Germany, the death of Jesus Christ was not a redemptive act of God to liberate human beings from the bondage of sin and open the gates of heaven. The Archbishop of Freiburg, Robert Zollitsch, known for his liberal views, publicly denied the fundamental Christian dogma of the sacrificial nature of Christ's death in a recent interview with a German television station. Zollitsch said that Christ "did not die for the sins of the people as if God had provided a sacrificial offering, like a scapegoat." Instead, Jesus had offered only "solidarity" with the poor and suffering. Zollitsch said "that is this great perspective, this tremendous solidarity."

When I mentioned to a good Catholic friend that this guy was channeling John Shelby Spong, he shot back, "But Spong et al had no one to rein them in--I think Francis and his group will take care of this guy pretty soon." One hopes.

*****

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