Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
www.virtueonline.org
April 26, 2024

WHICH PRIMATES WILL MEET IN ROME? That is the question, perhaps the only question. With less than a week to go before the 2024 Primates Meeting is hosted by the Anglican Centre in Rome, the Archbishop of Canterbury is bound to be feeling a little nervous, writes Anglican Futures blogger.

This is the first meeting of the leaders of the 42 provinces of the Anglican Communion since the Lambeth Conference and the well documented divisions within the Communion have only deepened over the intervening years. So, despite the concerted efforts of the Anglican Communion Office and the promise of "a meeting with Pope Francis and a conversation with Cardinal Grech", it seems that there may be more than a few empty chairs in the Eternal City.

With the GSFA bishops unable to "recognize" Justin Welby as the leader of the global Anglican Communion and the GAFCON bishops fully disassociating themselves from Welby and the Church of England -- and they represent more than 75% of the Anglican Communion -- one wonders what the advantage is for the Archbishop of Canterbury, except to proclaim his titular headship, or make believe that he is still running the Anglican show.

The Archbishop of South Sudan, Justin Badi, is not fooled, "Our concern is not about who chairs the meeting. Our concern is about those who have intentionally violated the orthodox biblical teaching -- we cannot sit and discuss with them."

If that's not a kick in the backside I don't know what is! Is Welby feeling the pain of rejection? "Honest conversation" or "shared conversations" about homosexuality became the most dishonest, with Church of England minders like manipulator, oops Strategy Consultant, to the Archbishop of Canterbury, David Porter, "facilitating conversations" on how to live with difference over issues of human sexuality.

Well, how did that work out?

The majority of the Anglican Communion are unimpressed by the attempts to impose post-modern ideas of plural truth on them. They are convinced by the undiluted, unpolluted message of Jesus Christ and they know that it is that singular truth that the world needs and yearns for.

You can read my own piece; The Shriveling Anglican Communion here: https://virtueonline.org/shriveling-anglican-communion

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ACNA ENTERS INTO FULL COMMUNION WITH PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENT CATHOLIC CHURCH

On April 24th, 2024, the Anglican Church in North America came into full communion with the Philippine Independent Catholic Church (PICC).

A delegation from the Anglican Church in North America consisting of Archbishop Foley Beach, Bishop Ray Sutton, Dean of Ecumenical Affairs, Bishop Mark Engel, Canon Wes Jagoe, and Deacon Mark Hottel signed an agreement, called a "Concordat," with the Philippine Independent Catholic Church (PICC) at the Cathedral of the Holy Child Jesus, Marikina City, Metro Manila, Philippines.

One of the terms of the Concordat establishes a "joint council" to advance mutual responsibility and participation in furthering the mission of God's kingdom. The PICC's 3 million members were once in Communion with the Episcopal Church and invited by Canterbury to Lambeth but those relationships had dissolved.
You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/acna-enters-full-communion-philippine-independent-catholic-church

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ISRAEL BASHING NOW STANDARD FARE FOR THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. TEC accuses the democratic state of apartheid.

The 81st General Convention is poised to consider 12 resolutions related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, starting with four separate resolutions that would label Israel's disparate treatment of Jewish and Arab citizens a kind of apartheid, according to the Episcopal News Service.

A first hearing on those four resolutions is scheduled with the bishops' and deputies' committees on Social Justice & International Policy. Additional hearings are likely in the coming weeks as the parallel committees deliberate on whether to recommend the resolutions for approval by the House of Bishops and House of Deputies when they meet June 23-28 in Louisville, Kentucky.

Three of the apartheid resolutions were proposed originally for consideration by the 80th General Convention in 2022 but were deferred until this year's meeting. A010, for example, would acknowledge that Israel "has passed laws that discriminate against its non-Jewish citizens, particularly Palestinians." That resolution, along with A011 and A012, would put the church on record for the first time in labeling such a system as "apartheid."

For more click here: https://virtueonline.org/israel-bashing-now-standard-fare-episcopal-church

Clearly angered that not a single woman, homosexual or lesbian was on the short list to be the next PB, DeDe Duncan-Probe, 61, the 11th Bishop of Central New York, was nominated by petition April 16 as the fifth and final candidate to become the next presiding bishop.

Duncan-Probe is married to a man with three kids which may not appease lesbian activist priest Susan Russell, but it does even the stakes with a woman on board as a possible candidate. If she did win, she would be the second woman Presiding Bishop after Katharine Jefferts Schori. Stranger things have happened.

The Rev. Rachel Taber-Hamilton, vice president of the House of Deputies, announced over the weekend that she intends to challenge House of Deputies President Julia Ayala Harris for the office of president, setting up a contested president election seemingly without precedent in recent church history. Clearly all is not peace, love and joy in the House of Bishops & Deputies.

According to an ENS report, Taber-Hamilton, a priest in the Diocese of Olympia, did not refer to Ayala Harris by name in her announcement. Instead, she wrote in general terms that she is running for president because of "unaddressed internal dynamics that in my professional opinion are contributing to an unhealthy corporate culture, jeopardizing our ability for forming the collaborative relationships necessary for effectively moving forward in the crucial work of The General Convention."

Clearly talk of inclusion and diversity has given way to disharmony and power plays. You can read more here: https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2024/04/22/house-of-deputies-vice-president-announces-intention-to-run-for-president-against-incumbent/

Dallas Bishop George Sumner, one of just a very small handful of orthodox Episcopal bishops left in TEC, has called for the election of a coadjutor who will serve alongside him until he retires. Sumner has led the Diocese of Dallas since 2015. Only the Diocese of Central Florida (evangelical) and Springfield (Anglo-Catholic) can remotely be called orthodox. If the Dallas diocese elects a liberal as the Diocese of Albany did recently, then it is all over for any orthodox expression left in TEC. One could not get consents if a wannabe bishop did not affirm B012 on homosexual marriage.

But Sumner faces other problems. Anglican Watch says Bishop Sumner is corrupt and is trying to cover-up his cover-up of sexual abuse in the diocese. He is the subject of a Title IV clergy disciplinary complaint for trying to sandbag a complaint of sexual harassment involving Texarkana rector David Halt. You can read more here: https://www.anglicanwatch.com/tag/bishop-george-sumner/

As dioceses slowly die off with aging Episcopalians heading into columbaria, so too, the money dries up as well. A case in point is the Diocese of New Jerseywhich received a one-year assessment reduction as it deals with financial issues. The diocese has requested a hardship waiver for 2024 while leaders address a "disarray" in the diocese's finances. Increasingly dioceses are merging across the country, as the pools of money dry up.

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Is Justin Welby, a slave to the altar of woke? Kim Rye of Conservative Woman thinks so.

"IT seems that the leader of the Church of England is blissfully unaware of the reason for falling church attendance across this country. Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, recently declared in an interview with the New Statesman that he would 'rather be woke than asleep'. Is this a coincidence? Welby appears to be creating more division and controversy than any of his predecessors.

The latest scheme is a Church of England fund of up to £1billion demanded by a pressure group led by descendants of enslaved Africans. This has caused uproar in churches across the country with His Grace focused primarily on satisfying the demands of what we call 'social justice warriors' rather than descendants of slaves.

So, the Church of England congregation now has to foot the bill for the transgressions of slave owners centuries ago. But which slave owners -- European or African?

You can read more here: https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/

Where was God in the slave trade? A fair question, as the Church of England hunkers down on how much in financial reparations are enough to appease its conscience over a bad period in its history.

Two evangelical theologians, one from India wrote this as a Letter to the Editor of the Church of England newspaper.

Dear Sir,

In the issue of reparations for Britain's involvement in the slave trade, have those considering this asked: Where was God in all of this? The Bible makes clear that God is 'on the side of the poor'; Jesus announced his ministry in Nazareth as: "The Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor'.

While the African victims of slavery were captured and sold as chattels, their humanity and traditional spirituality enabled them to discover in Christ, and from the Christian faith of the slaver, a spiritual resource that not only enabled them to survive but retain and deepen their humanity. Current research is showing the debt that Pentecostal churches owe to the exuberant worship rituals from African Traditional Religion culture combined with their experience of the Holy Spirit. This could only have been possible if God was with them as He is the God of the poor. How much he was with the Slavers is very uncertain.

It has recently been computed that the black churches will be the main element in the expression of the Christian faith in the UK in the years to come.

Yours in Christ

Vinay Samuel and Chris Sugden

And then there's this: Did the Church Commissioners get their sums right on reparations?

Charles Moore asks in his Telegraph column whether the Church Commissioners have got their sums right on reparations ('Is the Church paying reparations on a false premise, 23 April 2024).

He argues that the original historical audit found that Queen Anne's Bounty (the predecessor fund of the Church Commissioners) had invested the rough equivalent of £440 million today in the slave trade, via the South Sea Company for some 20 years (1720-1740).

This has been challenged recently by Professor Richard Dale, who says that the Church Commissioners report is not peer reviewed and conducting his own peer review via Charles Moore, argues that there are some oversights. In 1723 -- three years after the South Sea Bubble had burst, Parliament split the South Sea Company in two. Queen Anne's Bounty hedged their bets and invested in the annuities side of the business, which ring-fenced the fund from trading. Consequently the Bounty invested only about £14,000 (about £2.4 million today) in the chattel slave trade.

At the very least, the Church Commissioners should wrestle with this new information and reflect upon it in a new light. Many parishioners in the C of E continue to have doubts about a fund which seems to be about far more than massive numbers and rather less about the practicalities of how funds, which are specifically intended for the ministry of the Church of England and its clergy, can be spent outside these objectives.

More here: https://archive.ph/2024.04.23-060934/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/23/is-the-church-paying-reparations-on-a-false-premise/

https://archive.ph/2024.04.25-032111/https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/has-the-c-of-e-got-its-reparations-bill-all-wrong/

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The 'cult' of transgender transitioning is finally getting pushback. Those who like JK Rowling now can feel vindicated, and gender ideologues are now having to apologize for their attacks.

Children have attracted the attention of the media recently, with the Cass report and the vindication of a school headmistress's stance on not allowing religious prayers in her school. The work of both these women has been greeted with much relief and gratitude, and will surely have a wide and deep clarifying impact on fractious disagreements.

The British Medical Journal (BMJ) praises Dr. Hilary Cass for her appeal to objective evidence, evidence that satisfies 'hard science'. The Cass review, says the BMJ editorial, is 'an opportunity to unite behind evidence informed care in gender medicine', and concludes: "The Cass review is an opportunity to pause, recalibrate, and place evidence informed care at the heart of gender medicine. It is an opportunity not to be missed for the sake of the health of children and young people." Dr Cass has returned to objective evidence-based medicine and finds that the current practice of gender reassignment is based on shaky foundations.

Offering treatments without an adequate understanding of benefits and harms is unethical. All of this matters even more when the treatments are not trivial; puberty blockers and hormone therapies are major, life altering interventions. Yet this inconclusive and unacceptable evidence base was used to inform influential clinical guidelines, such as those of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), which themselves were cascaded into the development of subsequent guidelines internationally".-- Church of England Newspaper Leader Comment.

Why Was Gender Ideology Allowed to Run Amok for So Long? After the Cass Review, we need to recapture our institutions from this cruel, homophobic cult, writes Tom Slater.

"Just like that, a trickle becomes a flood. After years of gender-critical voices being dismissed or ignored by mainstream media, they can be dismissed and ignored no longer."

"The landmark Cass Review into gender-identity services in England, published today, has laid bare the scandal of the NHS's treatment of 'gender confused' kids. There was never any evidence for subjecting troubled, often gay, often autistic, youngsters to life-altering hormones, drugs and treatments. But clinicians did it anyway, in thrall as they were to gender ideology." You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/why-was-gender-ideology-allowed-run-amok-so-long

Most gender confused kids grow out of it, according to a landmark study. Two-thirds of children experiencing gender confusion in early adolescence grow out of those feelings by their mid-20s, according to a landmark, multi-decade study published in February. Coincidentally, the finding was made by a team of researchers in the Netherlands, home of the so-called Dutch protocol, which since gave rise to the infamous treatment known as "gender-affirming care". You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/most-gender-confused-kids-grow-out-it-according-landmark-study

https://www.christian.org.uk/news/pm-told-pervasive-influence-of-gender-ideology-demands-inquiry/

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CULTURE WARS. A new survey reveals that Evangelicals view immigration, American sovereignty and abortion as the top issues facing the United States heading into the 2024 presidential election.

Coral Ridge Ministries (CRM) released its 2024 Spiritual State of the Nation Survey last week, which is based on 633 responses to a questionnaire sent to "friends and supporters of Coral Ridge Ministries" on an annual basis.

"At a time when the views of pro-family evangelicals are sometimes distorted, even caricatured, this survey provides a much-needed window into what Christian conservatives actually believe," asserted CRM President and CEO Robert Pacienza in a statement.

In addition to asking respondents for their views on hot-button issues dominating political and cultural discussions in the U.S., the questionnaire asked respondents to name "the three most critical issues facing the new Congress and administration."

A majority of those surveyed (56%) cited immigration as one of the three most important issues facing the U.S., while 33% of respondents listed "America's sovereignty." Abortion (32%), federal spending (30%) and religious freedom (24%) rounded out the top five issues most frequently identified as things federal leaders must address.

You can read more her: https://virtueonline.org/evangelicals-list-top-issues-facing-us-survey

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In what can only be described as major capitulation, NT theologian Richard Hays, in consort with his son, Christopher, caved in on same-sex relationships. Conservative Christians just lost their scholarly trump card on the subject. Hays' reversal comes at a bad time for those who oppose accepting LGBTQ Christians.

Nearly 30 years ago, the revered New Testament professor at Duke Divinity School published "The Moral Vision of the New Testament," a sweeping 508-page meditation of Christian ethics in which Hays concluded that the Christian Bible condemns homosexual acts. Hays called homosexuality "one among many tragic signs that we are a broken people" and said that churches should not sanction or bless homosexual unions.

The book made Hays a darling among conservative evangelical Christians who opposed LGBTQ acceptance in their churches and the broader culture and frequently cited Hays' work in debates. Full disclosure. I used and quoted the book from time to time.

But the 75-year-old Hayes, since retired, now admits that his moral vision wasn't exactly 20/20 when it came to this issue in 1996, and he's ready to set the record straight. In a book scheduled to be released in September, "The Widening of God's Mercy: Sexuality Within the Biblical Story," written with his son, the elder Hays makes an about-face that is already causing an uproar in evangelical circles.

Pushing back on this betrayal, the distinguished Theologian Robert Gagnon critiqued Hays over his changed views on homosexuality arguing that this will likely lead to an acceleration of evangelical capitulation on the scripture's (and Jesus') male-female foundation for sexual ethics. It will also likely signal Fuller Seminary's capitulation on sexual ethics.

The two Hays argue that God, who is ever "changing his mind" to "broaden,""widen," and "expand" his "grace" and "mercy" in order to "include more and more people,""has already gone on ahead of our debates and expanded his grace" to embrace "full inclusion of LGBTQ people in Christian communities."

You can read the Hays position here: https://virtueonline.org/conservative-christians-just-lost-their-scholarly-trump-card-same-sex-relationships

You can read Robert Gagnon's retort here: https://virtueonline.org/distinguished-theologian-robert-gagnon-critiques-richard-hays-over-his-changed-views-homosexuality

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RATIONAL SHEEP a new substack by Terry Mattingly can be accessed here: https://tmattingly.substack.com/listen?utm_source=podcast_setup_email

Mattingly is one of just a handful of top flight religion writers in the country. He is a journalist, author, and professor. As columnist for the Scripps Howard News Service, Mattingly has written "On Religion", a nationally syndicated column, since the summer of 1988. Mattingly also ran a well-known religious journalism blog, GetReligion. Mattingly was also Director of The Washington Journalism Center, a program run by the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.

This new substack will keep you informed on the changing culture seen through the lens of his Orthodox faith. I highly recommend it to VOL readers.

***

Are we living in now, in the greatest period of the Church in history?
David Kubal the CEO and President of Intercessors for America, the oldest and largest national prayer organization, thinks we are.

The year 2024 is like no other year in human history; we are experiencing a historic crescendo of global freedom. The upcoming U.S. election is vitally important in light of what God is doing around the globe, he says.

The American system of government is a representative republic. This is the genesis of the global freedoms we see today; the United States was the first representative republic, after ancient Israel, and it is patterned after the Old Testament government.

Sixty-six countries will hold elections this year. Half of the world's population -- that's 4.1 billion people -- will have an opportunity in 2024 to participate in an election in their country thanks to the freedoms established by our Founding Fathers.

This has never happened before in human history.

The rise of evil is not the time to give up! Just the opposite: Now is the time for the good news of His kingdom to go to all nations. In a way, the rise of evil should actually encourage us. The presence of evil makes the goodness of God more evident.

This year darkness has never been darker. Globalists have never been as well positioned to control nations. Yet, the freedom set in motion by our Founding Fathers -- because of their understanding of biblical principles -- is being seen this year in the greatest number of elections ever in the history of mankind. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/now-greatest-period-church-history

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I am slowly recovering from Afib with the help of nurses, a great doctor and cardiologist. God has been good throughout the entire process. I am truly blessed by all that has happened to me. My pastor and church have been very supportive as has my wife and family.

Unfortunately, I have not kept up on the need to fund raise to pay the bills.

VOL could use some financial support to make several upcoming trips possible, including a trip to Cairo to attend the GSFA conference. You can send a tax-deductible donation to the address below:

VIRTUEONLINE
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If you know someone who would like to receive these bi-weekly news reports, they can subscribe here: https://virtueonline.org/ It is free and nothing is behind a paywall. Thank you for your support.

Warmly in Christ,

David

It costs something to be a real Christian, according to the standard of the Bible. There are enemies to be overcome, battles to be fought, sacrifices to be made, an Egypt to be forsaken, a wilderness to be passed through, a cross to be carried, a race to be run. Conversion is not putting a person in an arm-chair and taking them easily to heaven. It is the beginning of a mighty conflict, in which it costs much to win the victory. --- J. C. Ryle

Orthodox religious traditions, Christian and Jewish are the only thing that will survive the blast furnace of ongoing Cultural Revolution. Make sure you're on the right side of the struggle. -- Yoram Hazony is president of the Herzl Institute

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
www.virtueonline.org
May 10, 2024

It has been two weeks of absolute mayhem in the Anglican Communion. First, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby tried to spin that all was well when he met with some of his primates in Rome.

They chatted and prayed and did a Bible study; briefly noted the absence of some of their brethren, wandered the sights of Rome, exchanged cordial relations with the Pope with more talk about "unity" and "synodality," and then issued a 17-point communique; basically, a lot of fluff outlining what wonderful things they said, climaxing with a photo op with his Holiness. You can read their communique here: https://virtueonline.org/rome-primates-meeting-communique

As a reminder to Welby that all is not well in the communion, the chairman of GAFCON, Rwandan Archbishop Laurent Mbanda blasted back shredding the communique with this response; "The truth is that most of those who refused to attend are leaders of Gafcon and the Global South, and our absence was not accidental, but intentional." (For the record they represent more than 70% of the communion).

He said the current divisions within the Anglican Communion are neither minimal nor new. These divisions have arisen from more than 25 years of "repeated departures from the authority of God's Word" that, despite the persistent warnings given by the majority of Anglican Primates, have continued unabated. You can read his response here: https://virtueonline.org/response-primates-meeting-rome

One wonders if the Pope knew this, and if so, why did he say what he said, or did the Roma Curia and other ecclesiastical minders keep this information from him.

You can read my story here. https://virtueonline.org/welby-pope-and-gafcon-primate-three-ring-ecclesiastical-circus-over-gathering-anglican-archbishops

And then a bombshell hit the Vatican. A group of 17 scholars and activists released a lengthy statement calling for Pope Francis to resign or to be formally asked to resign by the College of Cardinals.

Stating that Francis has "caused an unprecedented crisis in the Catholic Church" by his words and actions, the 17 signatories attested that the Pope has "done great harm to the Church and the whole world" since assuming the papal throne in March 2013. (Full statement is below, with a downloadable PDF here). https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u1p7_d3tgspmrFz7ZaVCxCmgo-4Icwc_/view?pli=1

Vatican reporter Jules Gomes weighs in on this crisis here:
https://stream.org/catholic-academics-call-for-pope-francis-to-resign-or-be-removed-citing-unprecedented-crisis/

It should not be lost on VOL readers that the timing was just about perfect. Welby who represents less than 30% of global Anglicans turns up in Rome with only 31 of his primates for a gabfest. Welby has already been asked to resign several times over his failures, but has chosen not to do so. He exchanges bear hugs with Pope Francis. In the middle of all this bonhomie the pope is hit with an ultimatum that his primacy is so bad he should resign. In short, he has been a wrecking ball and should go.

One wonders what Welby was thinking when he heard and read the multi-page condemnation of Francis' reign and legacy on the plane home. Time to pop another depression pill.

***

In the slow but quickening pace in the decline of The Episcopal Church there came news that the three small Episcopal dioceses of Milwaukee, Fond du Lac and Eau Claire are to become a single statewide diocese to be known simply as the Diocese of Wisconsin. It will be the reconstitution of this one state-wide diocese.

Last week the three existing Episcopal dioceses met at a special convention in Baraboo, Wisconsin to vote themselves out of existence; the first step in being united into the Episcopal Diocese of Wisconsin. The next step is for June's upcoming General Convention, in Louisville, Kentucky, to sign off on the deal.

The May 4 vote to pursue this course of action was: Milwaukee 155/4 in the lay order and 58/3 in the clerical order; Fond du Lac 48/15 in the lay order and 38/5 in the clerical order; Eau Claire 36/1 in the lay order and 16/1 in the clerical order. The proposal passed handily. You can read Mary Ann Mueller's excellent analysis of this action here: https://virtueonline.org/big-changes-planned-episcopal-dioceses-wisconsin

Following the steady but continuing decline of the church, a group of dioceses launched a coordinated effort to reduce the assessment they are expected to pay to the Church Center from 15 percent to 10 percent, over a period of years, arguing that the dioceses can make better use of the funds for mission and ministry.

In an online legislative hearing April 30, the joint Committee on Governance and Structure heard testimony for and against the idea, put forth in separate but similarly worded resolutions from the dioceses of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, and Oklahoma. Most of the resolutions call on General Convention to make an immediate reduction from 15 percent to 13.5 percent, and all of them set an eventual 10 percent target, by either 2030 or 2033. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/dioceses-seek-sharp-reduction-assessments-church-center

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In another not so happy state of affairs; VOL correspondent Mary Ann Mueller was denied credentials to cover the next General Convention in Kentucky. She has been a journalist for more than 40 years and has covered multiple conventions either in person or online. You can read her story here: https://virtueonline.org/vol-denied-media-credentials-upcoming-general-convention

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To round off Episcopal news, an article in the Covenant section of The Living Church magazine by Kevin Martin titled "Christianity's Future" raises more questions than it answers, and compels the question as to where the Rev. Martin's mind is with the current state of The Episcopal Church!

The article is titled Christianity's Future, a misnomer as the article is about The Episcopal Church's future, not Christianity's. Christianity will survive the revisionism and pan-sexualism of TEC and western Christianity, but TEC itself will be virtually extinct by 2040 if not sooner, based on the church's most recent demographics. His article can be read here: https://covenant.livingchurch.org/2024/05/02/christianitys-future/

The Rev. Martin laments the decline of The Episcopal Church witnessing the large loss of the Great "GI" Generation which Texas Bishop Andy Doyle called the "tsunami of death." If current trends continue, using Bishop Doyle's sea imagery, the receding tide of Boomers will mean that by 2035, Christianity in North America will drop to 10 percent or less of the population, says Martin. You can read the full story here: https://virtueonline.org/episcopal-churchs-future

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The Anglican Church of Canada got a wakeup call this week when it learned that its numbers were in dramatic decline. There was a sharp drop during the pandemic from which the church has not recovered. The statistics officer opined that the COVID-19 pandemic saw a significant decline in church attendance, marking a "radical discontinuity" even with previous downward trends.

Canon Neil Elliot presented data from 2022 diocesan returns in a January report and said the figures show a decline on almost all fronts from 2019 to 2022, including a 12 per cent decrease in the total number on parish rolls, 26 per cent decrease in average Sunday attendance, and 17 per cent decrease in regular identifiable givers. The biggest drops came in the number of people attending services on major holy days: a 45 per cent decline in Easter attendance, 37 per cent for Pentecost and 47 per cent for Christmas.

Declines were also seen in the number of pastoral services, with 25 per cent fewer baptisms, 13 per cent fewer confirmations and 10 per cent fewer marriages--the only exception being funerals, which saw a very small increase.

"Attendance has been hit," Elliot said. "I think that's a really clear thing

Elliot projected that based on that trajectory, there would be "no members, attenders or givers in the Anglican Church of Canada by approximately 2040." Of course, if you have no Good News to proclaim, only a bunch of woke issues why would not you go out of business! You can read the full story here: https://virtueonline.org/canada-sharp-drop-during-pandemic-stats-officer

To cap off the declining world of Canadian Christianity, the Anglican Church of Canada signed an agreement to share national office space with The United Church of Canada and The Presbyterian Church in Canada at the redeveloped site of Bloor Street United Church at 300 Bloor St. W. in Toronto. The agreement reflects the churches' commitment to nurturing ecumenical relationships and cooperation, reducing costs and lessening their carbon footprint. OR, all three churches are on life support and are propping each other up even as they all sink into the sunset.

***

In the Church of England, the screws are slowly but surely being tightened around the necks of its Anglo-Catholic wing. A submission by the campaign group Women and the Church (WATCH) centered on concerns about how having a bishop who does not ordain women could undermine clergy in the diocese and the diocesan bishop's function as a figure of unity is being heralded as divisive.

The Church Times reports that: "Campaigners had raised concerns about Bishop Philip North's views on the ordination of women, which he has said is an area on which the Church of England should not be at variance with the wider Church (News, 15 September 2017). In line with the Church's Five Guiding Principles, being a traditionalist is not a bar to becoming a diocesan bishop.

"Forward in Faith remains strongly of the view that the Church of England benefits from the breadth of its witness, including the catholic teaching and practice which it holds in common with the universal Church."

"Once again WATCH show themselves in their true colours as a group of feminists using the Church to further their feminist cause regardless of the effect on others."

***

As the Church of England descends into the seemingly bottomless abyss of wokeness it should come as no surprise that its leaders should lead the way. A case in point is the Venerable Doctor Miranda Threlfall-Holmes, the newly appointed Anglican Archdeacon of Liverpool. She recently tweeted: 'Let's have anti-whiteness, and let's smash the patriarchy.' This outburst, resulting from her attending a conference on 'whiteness', prompted a litany of outrage in the media, her comments being described as racist, divisive, and nonsensical. Her views on the patriarchy are certainly odd given that the first words of the Lord's Prayer, taught by Christ, are 'Our Father' which seems very problematical for someone who wants to smash the patriarchy. She has, of course, backtracked and stated that her comments were part of a more nuanced discussion. Yea, yea, but out of the abundance of the heart the fingers tweet (to misquote Christ). You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/anti-white-anti-male-woke-voice-anglican-wilderness

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The Living Church reports that Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Cape Town has released six pages of draft prayers for and about same-sex couples. Remarkably for this genre of prayers, the 15 drafts released by the archbishop reflect not only proposed blessings but also a prayer of opposition and prayers that focus more on the divided nature of Anglican Church of Southern Africa.

Southern Africa’s Provincial Synod will discuss the draft prayers in September. The prayers use sparse punctuation and occasional free-form capitalization, and some push the church toward blessings.

The archbishop himself pushed toward such blessings in his two-page cover letter, issued April 25. “In order to provide ministry to all our people, we must engage this challenge, and I urge you to deliberate on it in your parishes and Dioceses,” Makgoba wrote. You can read more here: https://livingchurch.org/2024/05/09/eclectic-prayers-for-same-sex-south-african-couples/

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The END of the Church of Scotland -- A factual video report

By THEWEEFLEA

As regular readers of this blog will be aware I have been commenting on and predicting the collapse of the Church of Scotland for a couple of decades. This video from Ready to Harvest is accurate and fair -- and not just because it quotes extensively from yours truly -- it shows just how desperate things have become. As we move towards General Assembly season -- we will hear some fanciful scenarios....and talk about how we are 'seizing the opportunity' and 'on the cusp of transformation and revival' (Rev David Cameron -- convenor of the Assembly of Trustees). It's the same nonsense we have heard every year for the past 20 years. The C of S ministers have fiddled while Rome burned.... It is utterly heartbreaking. Whilst I am thankful that there are other churches which are picking up some of the pieces -- I cannot but weep at the demise of the Kirk -- largely destroyed from within...
You can see it here: https://theweeflea.com/2024/05/07/the-end-of-the-church-of-scotland-a-factual-video-report/

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CULTURE WARS

Is the tide turning on the transgender madness at last? You can read more here:
https://virtueonline.org/tide-turning-transgender-madness-last

Evangelicals list their top issues facing the US. A new survey reveals that Evangelicals view immigration, American sovereignty and abortion as the top issues facing the United States heading into the 2024 presidential election. Nothing about money, jobs or the economy. Politicians should take note.
https://virtueonline.org/evangelicals-list-top-issues-facing-us-survey

Why was gender ideology allowed to run amok for so long? The landmark Cass Review into gender-identity services in England, laid bare the scandal of the NHS's treatment of 'gender confused' kids. There was never any evidence for subjecting troubled, often gay, often autistic, youngsters to life-altering hormones, drugs and treatments. But clinicians did it anyway, in thrall as they were to gender ideology. After years of gender-critical voices being dismissed or ignored by mainstream media, they can be dismissed and ignored no longer. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/why-was-gender-ideology-allowed-run-amok-so-long

Ivy League schools are slowly but surely jettisoning their religious (specifically Christian) underpinnings. Columbia leads the pack.

The pre-evolution colonial-era Ivy League universities have lost their original spiritual moorings. They are now adrift in a sea of hyper secularism, wokeism, and anti-Semitic activism bordering on domestic terrorism, writes special correspondent Mary Ann Mueller.

Currently that is being played out against the backdrop of anti-Israel demonstrations, civil disobedience and campus occupations spearheaded at Columbia University which spread like wildfire throughout the elite collegiate community spilling over into other college settings. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/ivy-league-schools-jettison-religion-underpinnings

And here: https://thecritic.co.uk/the-students-are-revolting/

The Bible does not justify antisemitism: https://virtueonline.org/bible-does-not-justify-anti-semitism

There is a war on reality, writes Dave Doveton of Anglican Mainstream. The contemporary phenomenon of gender ideologies which we see promoted by certain western ruling elites has reached a stage where a particular group who self-identify as transgender have undergone hormone and psychological regimens and even surgery to alter their bodies. This amounts to a reaction to embodied reality that can only be described as a rebellion, a war on reality itself. If my internal feelings about who I am clash with outer reality, then reality is 'wrong'. Expressive individualism has asserted its autonomous right to defy reality. You can read his fine analysis of the situation here: https://virtueonline.org/war-reality

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VIRTUEONLINE IS EXPANDING ITS MINISTRY AND OUTREACH

This week I started YouTube in an interview with Dr. Gerry McDermott on the War in Israel. You can see it here: https://youtu.be/98nNyRRWIz4?si=HEnsrJHU1eRYNjC2

I have also started a SUBSTACK with my scribblings on the Middle East with the war in Israel. You can see them here: https://substack.com/@davidvirtue2?utm_source=user-menu

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In case you missed it, United Methodists have followed the Episcopal Church and redefined marriage, ending its official teaching on homosexuality.

The Religion News Service reported that United Methodist delegates adopted a revised definition of marriage on May 2 at their quadrennial meeting called the General Conference and deleted from their rule book a condemnation of homosexuality that has riven the denomination for 52 years.

The nation's second-largest Protestant group now embraces the full equality of LGBTQ members in every aspect of church life.

While some African and U.S. delegates rallied outside the convention center against the new definition of marriage, which they contended is contrary to Scripture, the vast majority of delegates voted 523-161, or more than 3-to-1, to accept the changes to the rule book, known as the Book of Discipline.

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Dear friends,

Over a year ago I learned that my webmaster James Syrow had been stricken with ALS at the tender age of 41. ALS is among the top 1-to-2 worst neurological diseases a person can get, worse than Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

James and his wife are looking to raise $25,000. If you can 'spare a dime' and help him raise the money so he can receive all of the necessary treatments, and finish his recovery it would be appreciated. James wrote to say he is slowly starting to recover; the money is needed to continue the recovery.

If you can help James then please hit the gofundme button below:
https://gofund.me/157d3d48

All blessings,

David

Pride is more than the first of the seven deadly sins; it is itself the essence of all sin. --- John R.W. Stott

The percentage of Americans who claim no religious affiliation nearly doubled from 2007 (16%) to 2022 (31%), becoming a force in American culture and one of the largest segments of the religious landscape, according to Pew Research. -- Bob Smietana

"Our culture is producing adult-sized boys and infantile men. Absent real challenge or adventure and without an established masculine community handing down the rites and responsibilities of maturity, boys are often bereft." -- Fr. Jay Thomas

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
May 24, 2024

I had the privilege this past week of interviewing the new president of the Ambridge, PA based Trinity School for Ministry, Dr. Bryan C. Hollon. I found him engaging, honest and frank. He did not play the usual political games that often comes with the job. He did not dodge a single question and, while giving a very upbeat view of his own seminary, he was quick to acknowledge that most seminaries around the country, especially in The Episcopal Church are in real trouble with declining enrollment and churches that could not afford a full-time pastor or priest.

He did offer the view that Anglicanism offers an excellent way to be a Mere Christian. He also opined that no other seminary in the U.S. introduces students to the full scope of biblically faithful, orthodox Anglicanism the way that Trinity does.

He admitted that when he arrived at Trinity two years ago, "we were just coming out of the COVID years. The residential student body was reduced significantly during the pandemic, but our online enrollment had risen. Currently, we have around 250 students studying at Trinity in some capacity with just under 100 considered "full-time," according to the criteria recommended by our accrediting agency, the Association of Theological Schools.

"During the last two years, our enrollment has been trending upwards, and in our current, spring recruiting season, applications are up 92% compared to the same period last year. Many of these applications are for full-time, residential MDiv students, so we are very encouraged."

Challenged on the seminary and societal changes Hollon did not back away. "We've just completed a thorough curriculum revision, and we are working hard to serve the church as effectively as possible. A greater emphasis on cultural apologetics along with better training for evangelism and missions are central to our current strategic plan. At Trinity, we have two endowed Institutes: The Robert Webber Center, and the Stanway Institute."

You can read my full interview with him here: https://virtueonline.org/anglicanism-offers-excellent-way-be-mere-christian-dr-bryan-c-hollon

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TEC POWER STRUGGLE. As the SS TEC slowly sinks into the sunset a power struggle is underway for three positions -- the replacement of Michael Curry as Presiding Bishop who, if you read the requirements for the job, one would almost have to be Jesus who not only walked on water but had the miracle of rescuing the church from inevitably sinking at this late date.

A second slot is for president of the House of Deputies, a position currently held by Julia Ayala Harris, who is concluding her first term in office. She has drawn two challengers so far: the Rev. Rachel Taber-Hamilton, a priest in the Diocese of Olympia who is the deputies' sitting vice president, and Zena Link, a lay deputy from the Diocese of Western Massachusetts who previously served seven years on the church's Executive Council, according to ENS.

The other slot is for vice president of the House of Deputies. Three candidates have declared their hand for this position. These include the Rev. Ruth Meyers, a Church Divinity School of the Pacific professor, and a six-time deputy from the Diocese of California. She joins the Rev. Steve Pankey of the Diocese of Kentucky and the Rev. Charles Graves IV of the Diocese of Texas, who declared their candidacies earlier this month.

According to an ENS report, an incumbent House of Deputies president or vice president has faced a challenger only three times since 1970. Taber-Hamilton has said she does not intend to run for vice president if she loses the presidential race, ensuring at least one new leader will be elected in the House of Deputies.

The deeper question is; does any of this really matter? Will any one of the winners from the PB on down change the church's direction or reverse TEC's decline in any appreciable way? Keeping the machinery wheels going and working out which resolutions are worth pursuing and how much money can or should be spent in pursuit of goals that have more to do with the government or the UN than the Gospel, all seems rather pointless. Harping on about racism, climate change, gender dysphoria, abortion, IVF, immigration, diversity, inclusion, and equality will never fill pews. Bleating on about the joys of homosexual marriage has doing nothing for the choir loft. The 81st General Convention will convene scheduled for June 23-28 in Louisville, Kentucky. Don't look for the church to change direction.

Not surprisingly the Episcopal Church's bias in favor of Palestine reveals an anti-Israel hatred, which will manifest itself when General Convention delegates gather in Kentucky in June. They will discuss ten resolutions regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Eight directly support the non-existent state of Palestine; one recognizes the Hamas slaughter of Jews and one "would reject the theology of Christian Zionism that sees a Jewish-led nation of Israel as a prerequisite for Jesus' second coming."

Most of the resolutions would hamper Israel's ability to fight Hamas by demanding that the US stop the flow of arms to Israel until it agrees to stop the war. You can read my analysis here: https://virtueonline.org/episcopal-church-bias-favor-palestine-reveals-anti-israel-hatred

The dioceses of Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan are one step away from merging as the combined Diocese of the Great Lakes after committees voted May 23 to recommend approval of the plan when the 81st General Convention convenes next month in Louisville, Kentucky, according to an ENS report.

TEC SCANDALS PERSISTAnglican Watch reports that an open letter prepared by a member of the Diocese of Easton regarding the Bishop Santosh Marray Title IV clergy disciplinary complaints has been revealed. Anglican Watch unequivocally supports the complainants in this matter and calls on the national church to act with integrity in this matter. They call on Marray to repent of his blasphemous claims to speak on behalf of the Holy Spirit and his evil conduct towards those who disagree with him. You can read more here: https://www.anglicanwatch.com/title-iv-complainants-in-bishop-murray-case-publish-open-letter-to-diocese-and-episcopal-church/?amp=1

Sean Mullen was reportedly fired as rector of St. Mark's Philadelphia, possibly for issues with children. Anglican Watch was told that the underlying reason may have involved children. You can read more here: https://www.anglicanwatch.com/sean-mullen-reportedly-fired-as-rector-of-st-marks-philadelphia-possibly-for-issues-with-children/?amp=1

And just when you think things could not get crazier, read this; An Episcopal priest may lose his credentials in the denomination after observing a "Eucharistic fast" in the name of racial justice. A panel charged with overseeing the case in the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia concluded on May 8 that Cayce Ramey violated his ordination vows and should be "deprived of the right to exercise the gifts and spiritual authority of God's word and sacraments conferred at ordinations to Priesthood and Diaconate," according to a news release.

And then came this. Same-sex Episcopal priests turn to surrogacy for child Mary Ann Mueller writes that Fr. Morris and Fr. Voets became Daddy Kevin and Daddy Keith this week.

The Episcopal priests are: the V. Rev. Kevin Morris, rector of Church of the Ascension in Rockville Center, New York, and the Rev. Keith Voets, at St. Alban the Martyr Episcopal Church Queens New York. Their surrogate son, little Robert David, was born in June 2022.

The secular media has sniffed out the story -- another embarrassment for the Episcopal Church.

Not The Bee ran the news: Gay Episcopal priests pay for surrogate baby boy, say the phrase "protect children from priests" is "harmful" ...

As did Apex News: Two gay Episcopal priests welcomes a baby boy via surrogacy ...

But this -- gay parenting -- is copacetic for the Episcopal Church. Through the years General Convention has worked itself up to accepting and accommodating sexual deviancy. The practice of using surrogacy to produce a child is no different. The LGBTQ revolution -- with its subset of moral deviations -- is in full flower within the Episcopal Church. In 2022 Resolution D049 -- Support of Public Policies for Adequate Surrogacy Protection became law in TEC. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/same-sex-episcopal-priests-turn-surrogacy-child

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ACNA Bishop Todd Atkinson has been deposed from ministry. The former bishop of the Via Apostolica Missionary District, has been removed from ordained ministry following the conclusion of his ecclesiastical trial. On April 3, 2024, it was announced that Atkinson was found guilty upon clear and convincing evidence by the Anglican Church in North America's Court for the Trial of a Bishop on four charges of "conduct giving just cause for scandal or offense, including the abuse of ecclesiastical power" (Canon IV.2.4): You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/acna-bishop-atkinson-deposed-ministry

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A new Anglican Diocese has formed in England continuing the "Anglican realignment" theme that is growing across the Anglican Communion. The global realignment has resulted in two new Provinces - the Anglican Church in Brazil (Igreja Anglicana no Brasil) and the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). These are not without significance. The former is seemingly the largest Anglican jurisdiction in that country and the same is true of the Canadian part of the ACNA.

More recently Gafcon has recognised other smaller structures: the Church of Confessing Anglicans Aotearoa New Zealand (CCAANZ), the Diocese of the Southern Cross in Australia and the Anglican Network in Europe (ANiE).

This week the creation of a third diocese was announced - the Diocese of the Anglican Missionary Congregations (AMC). AMC has grown from a single Nigerian diaspora congregation in Manchester to thirty-five congregations in the UK and in some parts of Europe. They are served by 52 self-supporting ordained clergy. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/new-diocese-england

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Next month the College of Bishops of the Anglican Church in North America will meet at St. Vincents College in Latrobe, PA to hold a Conclave to elect the next Archbishop of the ACNA. Many in the ACNA feel that the election of the next Archbishop will determine the future of the entire church.

It will be an auspicious occasion as Archbishop Foley beach will be stepping down after two terms and his replacement elected. The Venerable Canon Justin Murff, Executive Director, Anglican Office for Government & International Affairs and Canon to the Archbishop for Middle East and North African Affair wrote a piece: THE ACNA: WITHER BOUND? for VOL.

He writes: "Make no mistake, there are several elephants in the room that whoever the bishops elect, the next archbishop will require a unique set of skills and enduring fortitude to meet the challenges head on if the ACNA is to survive and meaningfully join the emerging re-formed global Anglican community."

"The current Archbishop, The Most Rev. Dr. Foley Beach has fought to grow the church in North America through the promotion of evangelism and discipleship across the more than 1200 parishes in the ACNA. Archbishop Beach has also strived to protect and defend the ACNA from hostile encroachments by external Anglican Provinces who continually seek to ignore the role of the ACNA in the Western Hemisphere and by internal "Anglican" movements and organizations that only seek to weaken and hurt the ACNA and often led by disgraced or defrocked former priests." You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/acna-wither-bound

With the upcoming ACNA meeting of bishops in June and published calls to no longer ignore the elephant in the living room involving Women's Ordination (WO), Dr. Bruce Atkinson weighs in on the issue and offers a concise yet thorough summary of the issue... and his own proposed solution. He has studied the issue for decades and valued the 2003 AMiA report led by the late great Bishop John H. Rodgers, Jr. -- A Report of the Study Concerning the Ordination of Women Undertaken by the Anglican Mission in America (PDF), as well as Bishop Rodgers' own efforts to resolve this issue (e.g., https://virtueonline.org/serious-argument-against-ordination-women-priesthood-episcopat)

"I propose here a scripture-based and rational argument that ACNA leaders can provide regarding changing the current situation. In ACNA, some of the leaders have unfortunately called their unresolved stance "dual integrities"-- which has been rightly criticized as an oxymoron. Through the prophet Amos, God underlined this point with logic: "Can two even walk together if they do not agree on the direction"? And we all know that "a house divided against itself cannot stand." You can read his piece here: https://virtueonline.org/womens-ordination-and-anglican-church-north-america-acna

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WELBY AND THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION. Archbishop Justin Welby would have been no match against the late John Stott in debate over hot button issues even though the Archbishop of Canterbury, still owns the Church of England and still holds sway over the majority of the communion's primates, he does not have the allegiance of his orthodox wing -- GAFCON and the GSFA and 70% of all practicing Anglicans.

This week he was awarded an honorary doctorate and a knighthood for services rendered, though many believe his services have been less than sterling and in fact his tenure as archbishop has been a wrecking ball of bad theology and decisions that have gone against the majority of global Anglicans. He has been called on to resign several times.

He has capitulated to the pansexualists, openly embraced women bishops, none of whom show the slightest interest in the gospel, pandered to all manner of woke issues and has, most egregiously alienated his catholic and evangelical wings of the church. You can read more of my analysis here: https://virtueonline.org/welby-and-anglican-communion

The Daily Mail Online on X excoriated "The Archbishop of Airmiles: Justin Welby accusing him of hypocrisy after racking up 48,000 miles on foreign trips to Africa, Gaza and Pakistan since September despite lecturing people about climate change...while seemingly ignoring problems at home."

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On Saturday 10th May 2024, the Church in Wales consecrated their youngest ever bishop. According to his biography, the now-Rt Rev. David Morris is just 38 years old, has a cat called Gordon, and in his spare time enjoys enjoys gardening, travelling and keeping fit. He also enjoys spending time with his fiance, Mr. Marc Penny.

He is not the first bishop in the Church in Wales to be in a same-sex relationship; the Rt Rev. Cherry Vann, the Bishop of Monmouth, has been in a same-sex civil partnership since 2015. David Morris is, however, the first to describe his same-sex partner as his fiance, which would suggest they have plans to marry.

What is most troubling was the appearance of a church of England bishop at the consecration. The Rt. Rev. Jill Duff, Bishop of Lancaster (in the Church of England was one of the bishops' laying hands on David Morris. She was there as a representative of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, which makes this a very significant event. Is this the start of an Episcopal free for all asks an Anglican Futures writer? You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/start-episcopal-free-all

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Church of England attendance saw a slight rise in attendance figures in 2023, but it remains below pre-pandemic levels. According to a report in Christian Today, the Church of England has failed to return to pre-pandemic levels of attendance, the latest figures show.

Average weekly attendance at services rose by nearly 5% to 685,000 in 2023, new data released by the denomination reveals.

It marks a third year of consecutive growth for the Church of England but figures still remain far below the 845,000 -- or around 1.45% of the population -- who were attending in 2019 before the pandemic struck. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/church-england-attendance-remains-below-pre-pandemic-levels-despite-slight-rise-2023

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What price is too high to keep conservatives in the Church of England?Theo Hobson writing for the SPECTATOR says that future historians of the Church of England might look back at this weekend as the beginning of the end. A selection of bishops and members of the General Synod are meeting at a hotel in Leicester to seek a solution to the impasse over homosexuality. They hope to make a plan to take to July's Synod: a deal that keeps conservatives in the Church. That's got to be a good thing, hasn't it? It depends. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/what-price-too-high-keep-conservatives-church-england

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WHY THE CoFE CRIES OUT FOR DIRECT DEMOCRACY. Andrew Cadman writing in the Conservative Woman says that it isn't just in politics that more Direct Democracy is needed. "Anyone who has not been living on Mars for the past few years will know that Wokery has overtaken almost all our institutions. One such is of course the Church of England, which has all but given up on Christianity in its upper echelons. Many will say that in our irreligious age this does not matter, but they are very wrong. The current malign ideologies that are destroying the West moved into the gap that Christianity has vacated, particularly amongst the elites which adopted these new 'High Status Faiths'."

All is not lost, he writes. "Christianity is undergoing an intellectual and moral revival, with a series of high-profile conversions from atheism and agnosticism. Astonishingly, scientific objections to faith are being seriously rethought. Those who yearn to see the end of the malignant ideologies which oppress us often fail to understand that like it or not society must have a faith of some kind, and it seems Christianity, for whatever faults you may think it has, is clearly the one that underpinned Western values and seems the best to preserve and reinvigorate those values going forward." You can read his analysis here: https://virtueonline.org/why-c-e-cries-out-direct-democracy

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Is the tide turning on transgender madness at last? Writing in Christian Today, Lynda Rose writes; "'You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all the time.' So allegedly said Abraham Lincoln, though exactly when and where has never been verified, but whether correctly attributed or not, the opinion is undoubtedly true. And nowhere has this been more strikingly illustrated than in the row over gender identity.

For the last few years, we have had the message hammered home that trans women are women, and must be treated as such. Irrespective of how they look -- and there have been some supposedly 'trans women' still sporting beards -- they have an absolute right, the argument runs, to be treated as women. From which it follows that they can use female-only spaces, compete as females in sports events, and receive health care appropriate to their 'self-identified' sex.

"Predictably, there have been problems. There have been reports, for example, of transgender prisoners transferred to female prisons raping fellow inmates and prison officers. While the NHS had provoked ire by instructing medical staff to stop using terms such as breastfeeding and vaginal birth for mothers-to-be, in favour of 'chestfeeding' and frontal birth. But despite the many and vociferous objections, battle-hardened campaigners for gender ideology have fought on regardless, not just laying claim for trans-women to use female-only spaces, but encouraging everyone, and especially children, to consider whether they too may not have been born in the wrong body. 'Gender is choice, not biology' has become the chosen mantra of the day. You can be whatever you want!" You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/tide-turning-transgender-madness-last

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George Barna, a leading expert in church and worldview trends, has weighed in on some of the biggest issues facing the Church -- including the steady decrease in a biblical worldview and dwindling concern for spiritual formation -- at a time of "Christian invisibility in our culture."

In an interview with The Christian Post, the 69-year-old founder of The Barna Group, a market research firm specializing in studying Americans' religious beliefs and behaviors that he sold in 2009, said that over the last few decades, he's seen certain negative trends increasingly permeate Western Christianity.

"People have become more selfish, churches have become less influential, pastors have become less Bible-centric," Barna, who now serves as the director of research at the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, said.

You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/george-barna-identifies-biggest-threats-facing-church-weve-reached-time-christian-invisibility

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Well, what does it mean to be truly Anglican? Reform theologian Chuck Collins writes in a piece he calls, The Great Betrayal! that so many of our Anglican bishops and leaders do not have confidence in Holy Scripture as it is understood, interpreted, and upheld by the Thirty-nine Articles and 1662 Book of Common Prayer (and the two books of Homilies), so they revert to an amorphous concept they call the "Great Tradition." By this they mean a variety of things - the first millennium teachings of the church and councils - the Vincentian Canon (Christian teaching believed everywhere, always, and by all) - really whatever they want it to mean!

There's nothing "Anglican" about this. Nothing! And it betrays everything Cranmer and the English reformers fought for. It betrays the sure foundation of God's inspired Word (sola Scriptura) what Alister McGrath calls "Christianity's Dangerous Idea." It categorically abandons the recognized formularies that have historically defined what it means to be Anglican. OUCH. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/great-betrayal-0

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Truth and tradition: Mouneer Hanna Anis is the highly respected former Egyptian archbishop based in Cairo. Richard Gauvain Department of Political Science, British University in Egypt, Cairo, has written a piece on Bishop Anis's role in the GSFA. An abstract can be seen here with a link to the full article.

ABSTRACT. This article explores Bishop Mouneer Hanna Anis' role in the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA). Noting how Anis draws legitimacy from his position as the first Anglican Archbishop of the newly created Province of Alexandria, it examines his highlighting of the importance of North Africa, especially Egypt, in addressing contemporary challenges within the Global South. The article reflects on the innovative nature of Anis' strategies in constructing a new narrative of Egyptian Anglican Orthodoxy. It describes Anis' use of Thomas Oden's historical analysis of the importance of early African contexts on the shaping of mature Christian tradition. And it notes the emphasis Anis places on Athanasius of Alexandria in constructing his narrative. By introducing several of Anis' recent publications, the article also draws attention to key discussions (and disagreements) on the nature of the relationship between scripture and tradition within contemporary Global South settings. To Read More Click Here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1474225X.2024.2335124

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David

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

We can take it from the Lord himself, who is our justification objectively, and our justifier experientially, that legalism and undue sacramentalism are a blight upon the Gospel. -- Roger Salter

When an Anglican leader invokes "the great tradition" as their authority, look out! This is code for: "I have put aside sola Scriptura, and any definition of Anglicanism that is grounded in the recognized formularies of our church (the confessional documents we have believed and subscribed to for the entirety of our history!) -- Chuck Collins

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
June 25, 2024

THREE important conferences were held this month that will shape the future direction and destiny of the Anglican Communion. One is underway as I write.
The first convention, and the most serious, with long-term implications for the entire Anglican Communion took place outside Cairo, Egypt (June 11-15) with meetings between the primates of the Global South (GSFA) and orthodox Anglican leaders, in the hope of building bridges between Gafcon and the Global South.

The Global South leaders repeated their statement that the Archbishop of Canterbury and C of E had "forfeited" leadership and vowed to press on with creating new structures for the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Some 200 Global South Anglicans met in Cairo to hear the Archbishop of Sudan, Justin Badi Arama, state that membership of the Communion had shifted "from geography to doctrine".

He added: "Provinces who join the fellowship covenant with each other to stay faithful to the plain and canonical teaching of God's word and to be mutually accountable to each other in matters of faith and order."

UK representatives at the meeting including the former Bishop of Blackburn, Julian Henderson, Canon John Dunnett of the Church of England Evangelical Council and Richard Moy of SOMA. Archbishop Badi described them as the "holy remnant": "They are those who have resisted bowing to the demands of revisionism. They have committed themselves to proclaim and live out the authentic gospel truth."

A Communique from the First Assembly of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) revealed that 11 provinces have become "fully covenanted members of GSFA" through Synodical processes, together with three associate member dioceses and 14 mission partners.

The Assembly included 13 Primates, 44 Bishops, 46 clergy and 36 lay leaders. Bishop Anthony Poggo, General Secretary of the Anglican Communion Office attended the Assembly as an Observer.

The communique stated, "because of our commitment to the authority of holy Scripture in its plain and canonical teaching and with guidance from historical Church councils, GSFA has become a spiritual home for all orthodox Anglicans."

They stated that the Cairo covenant was a "new instrument" for the Anglican Communion "to bring true unity in diversity which honours the supreme authority of Scripture". Archbishop Badi said: "Though Canterbury says 'let us walk together, listen to each other and have a good disagreement', the GSFA Primates and I say to you that 'we cannot walk together in sin... (and that) unless there is repentance by those who have gone astray, we cannot have unity at the expense of God's life-giving truth.'"

The GSFA said that they would not "walk away" from the Anglican Communion. "Indeed," they declared, "the Church of England's departure from that standard has only served to strengthen our resolve to work together to reset the Communion."

The statement revealed that GSFA would collaborate with the GAFCON movement and other orthodox groupings in "practical steps to set up GSFA as a well structured home for orthodox Anglicans worldwide".

It was also an occasion to "re-set" the Anglican Communion by creating covenantal structures to which one must commit in order to be part of this fresh, faithful expression of Anglicanism. Put another way, while checks and balances exist within the structures of Anglicanism (in a congregation through the relationship between a rector and the vestry; in a diocese between a bishop and synod; and in a province between an archbishop/college of bishops and provincial synod). There has never been before that a church had the power to discipline an entire province that becomes heretical.

When the provinces of TEC in the USA and the Church of England began to openly celebrate sexual sin in direct contradiction to the Word of God, the worldwide Anglican Communion had no clear means to call these provinces back to orthodoxy. Many viewed that as a "reformation moment" in the history of the Anglican Communion.

More stories reflecting on this auspicious occasion including the final communique can be found here:

https://virtueonline.org/anglican-global-south-first-assembly-communique-issued
https://virtueonline.org/gsfa-not-running-away
https://virtueonline.org/cairo-eve-great-historic-reset
https://virtueonline.org/ninth-trumpet-communique-first-assembly-global-south-fellowship-anglican-churches
https://virtueonline.org/gsfa-new-wineskin-and-new-instrument
https://virtueonline.org/egypt-ceec-perspective-john-dunnett-national-director

***

The second was a conclave held June 20 - June 23 at St. Vincent College, Latrobe, PA. to elect the next archbishop for the Anglican Church in North America, a growing body of Anglicans that broke away from The Episcopal Church over a range of theological issues that included the ordination of an avowed homosexual to the episcopacy.

The ACNA elected the Rt. Rev. Steve Wood, Bishop of the Diocese of the Carolinas and rector of St. Andrew's Church in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina as the third Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America at its recent conclave at St. Vincent's College in Latrobe, PA.

He follows in the footsteps of Bishop Robert Duncan and more recently Bishop Foley Beach the first and second archbishops of the ACNA.

What separates the three bishops is their views on the ordination of women to the priesthood. ACNA rejects women being ordained to the episcopacy.

Bishop Duncan affirmed the ordination of women priests when he was Bishop of Pittsburgh. Bishop Beach did not. Beach opposed the ordination of women, unlike his predecessor, but subscribed to the right of each diocese to its own decision on the matter. A majority of ACNA bishops do not ordain women.

Bishop Wood's position is more nuanced. The Anglican Diocese of the Carolinas Policy for Women in Order has supported the ordination of women as deacons and priests in the church, with the provision that women may not serve in the
office of rector.

You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/new-acna-archbishops-position-womens-ordination-could-have-repercussions-denomination

***

The third conference, now underway is the triennial gathering of the Episcopal Church's 81st General Convention which is meeting in Louisville, KY June 23 -- 28. While most of the hot (sexual) button issues have been resolved there are a number of issues that bewail delegates including the growing shortage of money, with calls to reduce diocesan pledges to the national church from 15% to 10%.

The 15% assessment on diocesan revenue is The Episcopal Church's largest source of funding in the churchwide budget, more than $30 million a year. Six dioceses asked General Convention to gradually reduce the rate to 10%. The church already has gradually lowered the assessment rate from 21% in 2010. It was shot down. Pay up or else.

If you thought that women running The Episcopal Church would be all sweetness and light; buttercups and roses, allow me to disillusion you. A real harbinger of the inner workings of TEC is a growing fight for who will lead the House of Deputies. Two women want the jobTaber-Hamilton accused incumbent Ayala Harris of bullying and of using her as a shield in conflicts with others.

"I am sharing with you today that, from the fall of 2022 onwards, I've been asked to rescue situations and people from the impact of our current President of the House of Deputies," Taber-Hamilton wrote in a blog post. "I was initially also expected by the President to protect her from those she perceived as threats to her."

Taber-Hamilton noted that she had been excluded from the planning process for the 81st General Convention, and that her concerns about equity issues in hiring the church center's interim chief operating officer and in proposing rules changes for the House of Deputies attracted Ayala Harris' ire.

"We do not have a President who is able to accept responsibility for her actions and role in organizational dysfunction through an ongoing pattern of obfuscation and misdirection, blaming and shaming others who have nothing to do with the accountability of her office. Over the past two years, the President has journeyed to this General Convention on a veritable corduroy road of people that she has thrown under the bus," Taber-Hamilton said.

OUCH. You can read more here: https://livingchurch.org/news/news-episcopal-church/taber-hamilton-accuses-ayala-harris-of-bullying/

BREAKING: President Julia Ayala Harris was re-elected June 25 at the 81st General Convention, winning decisively on the first ballot and fending off challenges from the Rev. Rachel Taber-Hamilton, the deputies’ vice president, and Zena Link, a former Executive Council member.

The Middle East war mostly representing the group of Palestinian Anglicans and Clergy Allies and the Episcopal Peace Fellowship's Palestine Israel Network called for peace in Israel-Palestine.

But The Episcopal Church House of Bishops rejected resolutions which would have 1. labeled Israel an apartheid state and 2) endorsed divestment efforts it. They pivoted and approved measures calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Bishops voted to condemn Christian Zionism, but were not ready to embrace all things Palestinian. The word "genocide" that was being thrown around earlier was removed from all resolutions. Bishops are somewhat divided on whether to label the atrocities of the current conflict a genocide. Really. The bishops also introduced two amendments, the first eliminated language about the "discriminatory nature" of the Israeli government's policies and practices, and the other condemning the political and theological ideology of Christian Zionism.

Archbishop of Jerusalem Hosam Naoum was not getting it all his own way. One question posed via a moderator to the archbishop was about divisions within the church concerning the war in Gaza and other related matters. In answer to the question, Naoum turned to the topic of General Convention resolutions.

Dodge and weave. Clearly not all Episcopalians are ready to kick Israel in the gonads over the war with Hamas. One thing the archbishop made clear was that he wants a two-state solution, but that pretty well fell on deaf ears.

***

The House of Bishops approved the next step toward full communion between The Episcopal Church and the United Methodist Church by adopting Resolution A049.

The Episcopal Church currently is in full communion with seven churches: the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada; the Moravian Church-Northern and Southern Provinces; the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar, India; the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht; the Philippine Independent Church; and the Church of Sweden.

As these denominations shrink, the need to stay afloat becomes more urgent. Sooner rather than later they will be small life rafts on the ocean waiting for the final wave to wash over them.

In a sign of growing numerical weakness is that Episcopal Church in Micronesia, a mission within Province VIII of the Episcopal Church with four congregations, three on Guam and one on Saipan is being added to the Diocese of Hawaii.

Perhaps it is beginning to dawn on revisionist bishops that a church bent on pushing liberal and woke causes is not a winning streak to make churches grow.

One bishop at the convention seemed to get it. The Rt. Rev. Michael Hunn of the Rio Grande critiqued a church culture of fruitless meetings and wasteful spending, the disconnect between national church initiatives and the experience of local churches, and the failure to measure the effectiveness of its programs in a sweeping critique during a House of Bishops' legislative session.

Hunn, who serves as vice chair of the Governance & Structure Committee, dismissed the proposed ministry review as a "waste of time and waste of money," saying it wouldn't achieve the kind of churchwide cultural change the Episcopal Church needs.

"I don't think good leaders stop every two years to ask if they're being effective," Hunn said of the resolution. "These days, business doesn't stop to assess its leaders' effectiveness every two years. It's about 90-day goals and clarity of purpose, about constant and consistent gathering of feedback, making course corrections to stay on track."

Targets of his six-minute speech ranged from the culture of rivalry between the House of Deputies and House of Bishops to the Executive Council's penchant for acting like a "parish vestry." At one point, he compared a churchwide lack of resource-sharing to the reality TV show Survivor.

"We need to stop paying for meetings that don't change the world or even our church. We need to stop funding grants that don't move the needle," Hunn said. "We need to stop creating desks at 815 2nd Avenue [the Episcopal Church Center in New York], which then compete with each other for money every three years.

We need to stop measuring our importance by how much money our pet project gets in the budget and start measuring what we're actually doing to grow the church."

What more needs to be said. SS TEC is on its way to the bottom of the ocean. It is only a matter of time.

There you have it. The money pool is slowly drying up. Aging Episcopalians heading to columbaria are no longer dropping checks in the plate and younger generations, what few there are, have mortgages to pay, mouths to feed, and future educational costs to consider. Pledging is dying. The bloom is off the Episcopal rose. To go along with the losses there are fewer full-time clergy. Property sell offs do provide an immediate source of income for bishops but even that pool is limited. Not all church properties sell fast. Inner city cathedrals with air space for sale do much better.

***

The Church of England must ask what price is too high to keep conservatives in the Church of England?

Future historians of the Church of England might look back at this weekend as the beginning of the end, writes Thoe Hobson. A selection of bishops and members of the General Synod are meeting at a hotel in Leicester to seek a solution to the impasse over homosexuality. They hope to make a plan to take to July's Synod: a deal that keeps conservatives in the Church. That's got to be a good thing, hasn't it? It depends.

The story so far is that the Church decided in favour of same-sex blessings last year, and also in favour of new 'pastoral guidance' that is expected to allow gay clergy to marry, therefore officially condoning them for the first time.

Conservatives, the large majority of whom are evangelicals, see this as false teaching, and are demanding their own structures. They don't just want the right to dissent, parish by parish. That would mean being a tolerated minority, at odds with the official Church. They want their dissenting network to constitute a second version of the Church of England, which is seen as no less authentically 'the C of E'.

Well obviously the majority will tell them to get lost, you might think. For why should an institution agree to such bifurcation? You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/what-price-too-high-keep-conservatives-church-england

Other stories include: https://virtueonline.org/why-c-e-cries-out-direct-democracy

https://virtueonline.org/church-england-attendance-remains-below-pre-pandemic-levels-despite-slight-rise-2023

***

If you want to know the trajectory of the LGBTQI circle dance of dispossession, then consider this. From Lord Alfred Douglas's poem "Two Loves" in which he wrote, 'the love that dare not speak its name,' to the present-day situation as it is found in the Presbyterian Church (USA). In Salt Lake City the 226th General Assembly will take up legislation barring ordination of candidates who are not LBBTQ-affirming.

This is reminiscent of The Episcopal Church's passage of Resolution B012 mandating homosexual marriage. When you refuse to go along you get the Bishop Bill Love of Albany treatment and shown the door.

And you wonder why these mainline churches are dying. God is not mocked. These churches will all be gone in a decade or so, victims of their own bad theology and morality.

***

The Diocese for the Sake of Others (DS4O) an ACNA diocese has had something of a checkered relationship with the leadership of the ACNA. Recently a picture was circulated which showed up on X (formerly Twitter) causing something of a stir. A person from Jars of Clay, a Christian band also revealed an Anglican priest, a Fr. Heath McClure, with a T shirt that read, "A Pastor With Pride". He is the rector of a parish with the unlikely name of Luminous Church in the diocese of C4SO. Heath is associated with something called St. Francis Mission, which is a fully LGBTQ-affirming gathering.

A VOL reader got in touch with VOL to say that Heath McClure is not a member of ACNA; and, secondly, Luminous Church has been confronted about all this by its bishop, Todd Hunter and is apparently the parish is on its way out of the ACNA.

***

World renown theologian Jürgen Moltmann died this week aged 98. Moltmann (8 April 1926 -- 3 June 2024) was a German Reformed theologian who was a professor of systematic theology at the University of Tübingen and was known for his books such as the Theology of Hope, The Crucified God, God in Creation and other contributions to systematic theology. His works were translated into many languages.

Moltmann described his theology as an extension of Karl Barth's theological works, especially the Church Dogmatics, and he described his work as Post-Barthian. He developed a form of liberation theology predicated on the view that God suffers with humanity, while also promising humanity a better future through the hope of the Resurrection, which he labelled a 'theology of hope'. Much of Moltmann's work was to develop the implications of these ideas for various areas of theology. Moltmann became known for developing a form of social trinitarianism. He was awarded several international honorary doctorates.

A well-known North Texas pastor Dr. Tony Evans has stepped down from ministry "due to sin." Evans is one of the founding pastors of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Church in Dallas and a former chaplain for both the Dallas Cowboys and the Mavericks.

Mega-church pastor Robert Morris resigned from Gateway Church over furor following allegations he molested a 12-year-old girl in the 1980s. Prominent Christian author and retired pastor Rick Warren didn't mince his words in his condemnation of the reports about Morris. Warren posted to X saying, "I'm angry & disgusted to hear of Robert Morris' sexual abuse of a child & heartbroken for Cindy Clemishire. To sexually use a 12-yr old child, then continue it for years, is not merely an 'inappropriate relationship.' It's a crime. Sexual child abuse is an evil punishable by law. One can't just confess when caught & move on with no consequences."

***

PAKISTAN sadness. From Bishop Azad Marshall comes this tearful appraisal of a Christian falsely accused of burning a Koran being killed by a community of Muslims.

"Today every single Pakistani should be weighed by grief, not only for the atrocities in a foreign land but right here. Yet again, hate has brought us to the place where we must ask questions. The question is not 'Where will this stop?' because beyond the devastation of homes and lives, beyond the brutal killing of a hard working man, beyond the devastation of a community and the grief of a family, we have already come too far! The question is when will those who make change and those who pursue justice, seek truth and cry for a more just and fair world, when will those lives rise up for the sake of Pakistan's own. Us, Pakistan's Christians, are Pakistan's own, the circumstances are pitched even now against millions of Pakistan's own. What hope can we honestly speak for as Pakistan's Own? Being a minority justifies a mob being whipped up and lives being devastated and people being killed? Who whips up these mobs? Who pursues the many crimes that exist in one incident and who promises us that this will never happen again? No one! But today let us look to God for Justice, let us trust in His intervention and His divine hope. Do something, Say Something. May the Lord have mercy on our land."

**

We are living through an intense culture war. The aim of one side is to overwhelm our Christian civilization, upon which so much of our human flourishing depends. The determination of the other is to defend it. The chosen battlefield by the progressives has become sex, and particularly the sexualization of our children, writes Gavin Ashenden.

The strategy behind this slow, careful strategy to corrupt our children is usually to appeal to our pity and compassion for people supposedly marginalized by their erotic preferences.

This worked very well for a while. But as all observers of ideological movements from the Left will know, the process begins with a plea for inclusion, and then turns rapidly into an exercise of power, enforcing compulsion.

Which is where we are now with LGBTQ+ 'rights'. Those who don't subscribe to them currently face a serious range of sanctions from social excommunication to unemployment and de-banking. Who is being bullied now? But perhaps the tide is turning. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/tide-turning-transgender-madness-last

CULTURE WARS

From Fringe Heresy to Dominant Orthodoxy: How the Homosexuality Cult Hijacked Am... https://virtueonline.org/fringe-heresy-dominant-orthodoxy-how-homosexuality-cult-hijacked-america

Hope for Struggling Christians During Pride Month https://virtueonline.org/hope-struggling-christians-during-pride-month

How Americans Said I Do to Gay "Marriage https://virtueonline.org/how-americans-said-i-do-gay-marriage

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO MY EXPANDING MINISTRY AND OUTREACH
I have done a YouTube interview with Dr. Gerry McDermott on the War in Israel. You can see it here: https://youtu.be/98nNyRRWIz4?si=HEnsrJHU1eRYNjC2
I have also started a SUBSTACK with my scribblings on the Middle East with the war in Israel. You can see them here: https://substack.com/@davidvirtue2?utm_source=user-menu
***
Please accept my apologies for this delayed VIEWPOINTS. I have been struggling with Afib, Lyme Disease and rheumatoid arthritis which made writing difficult. Fingers, knuckles and wrists are particularly affected. During this time, my webmaster passed away from ALS leaving a young family. It has not been a good past few weeks.

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The current custodians of some of England's great cathedrals treat them so lightly that they are used for raves, and that agnostics and atheists arguing for something on cultural grounds could look like a preference for 'external form' over 'interior integrity'. --Joseph Shaw, Crisis Magazine

The prosperity gospel is an "insidious disease" that has "very little of the character of the Gospel in it." -- Gordon Fee

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
July 12, 2024

The Episcopal Church elected a new Presiding Bishop this past week, a moderate bishop of all shades of opinion, the Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe, but with a surprising link to an evangelical institution -- Grove City College -- none of his predecessors had anything like an evangelical itch.

In his address to the General Convention in Louisville, Ky., Bishop Rowe invoked the gospel on several occasions but laced it with the woke issues of the day including the full inclusion of homosexuals, anti-racism and more.

By contrast, the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) also got a new leader in the person of Bishop Steve Wood, a man who also invoked the gospel but with a clear take on what it meant. According to a report in the Living Church, ACNA's new archbishop, Steve Wood is, "passionate for evangelism."

"Roughly 130 million people in America do not know Jesus Christ," Wood told a press conference. "That is the most animated aspect of who I am: I want everyone to come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ," he said.

The two men have very different understandings of evangelism and I explore them in this piece I wrote here: https://virtueonline.org/tec-and-acna-tale-two-evangelisms

Moving forward, the evidence is overwhelming that the ACNA will grow as the gospel of God's grace is preached and the Episcopal Church will continue to wither and die because it cannot articulate a clear understanding of the gospel of redemption and grace. What TEC excels in is a parody of the gospel.

A prevailing concern for the ACNA is the ordination of women to the priesthood, an issue that has simmered beneath the surface for the 15 years that ACNA has existed. It has the potential to erupt. Bishop Wood's position is nuanced. The Anglican Diocese of the Carolinas Policy for Women in Order has supported the ordination of women as deacons and priests in the church, with the provision that women may not serve in the office of rector.

You can read more stories about this election here: https://virtueonline.org/general-convention-elects-youngest-episcopal-presiding-bishop-record and here: https://virtueonline.org/new-acna-archbishops-position-womens-ordination-could-have-repercussions-denomination

***

Across the pond, the Church of England found itself in the throes of possible schism over the blessing of same sex marriage.

CofE evangelicals have started a parallel province over the issue which threatens to tear the church apart over Synod's decision to move towards approval of prayers for same-sex blessings in "stand-alone services".

John Dunnett, national director of the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC), said: "It is deeply disappointing that despite hearing repeatedly in speeches of the need to build trust by avoiding bad process ... synod passed the motion, and the prayers of love and faith bus continues to move forward. General Synod's decision will sadly trigger the launch of a de facto parallel province ... and CEEC will work with our partners in the Alliance to make this a reality".

The CEEC has already started a fund in which churches opposed to same-sex blessings can deposit their money, rather than with the CofE. It has also already organized a service at All Souls Church, Langham Place, to create "overseers", who will take over the bishops' role of pastoral oversight and spiritual help to clergy opposed to same sex blessings. But the CEEC says it is not leaving the church: "We are committed to remaining within the Church of England and hope that the bishops will come to the table to negotiate an acceptable settlement."

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby whined and pleaded for an alliance of traditionalists to stay within the church. He told the synod: "I cannot imagine the Church of England without the Alliance network, members and friends ... That they all flourish in this church, including firmly those in the Alliance, is indispensable to the gospel in this land."

Evangelical theologian Ian Paul had this to say; "Nothing has changed. The doctrine of the Church of England has not changed--and because of Canon A5, which roots our doctrine not only in Scripture but also in the Formularies of the Book of Common Prayer and the Thirty-Nine Articles, there really is no way that it can change."

Having said that, Paul went on to say that he could not see any workable way in which a formal separate province will be set up. "What will happen is that there will be growing lack of cooperation and communication between those committed to the doctrine of the Church and teaching of Jesus, and those bishops who reject it. (Again: how do we have bishops leading our Church who do not believe the doctrine they promised to uphold and teach?) We need to be honest, and say we are in impaired communion with those who will not teach the truth."

A source told VOL that there are two key issues for the Alliance to resolve.

1. Do they consider that a degree of separation within the Church of England, but remaining in communion with it, is an appropriate response to the gravity of what the bishops are doing?

A sort of Quantum Province, both in and out at the same time?

2. Or are they prepared to walk away without all of the endowments which currently sustain their ministry -- historic buildings, clergy housing and stipends etc. -- to form a new Free Church? (Clergy, according to English law, retain their pension rights.)

At the moment everything is up for grabs. You can read a number of stories here:

https://virtueonline.org/cofe-evangelicals-start-parallel-province-dispute-over-same-sex-marriage
https://virtueonline.org/church-england-moves-closer-services-blessing-same-sex-couples
https://virtueonline.org/church-society-leader-blasts-bishop-oxford-over-same-sex-marriage-blessings
https://virtueonline.org/llf-decision-point
https://virtueonline.org/alliance-responds-bishop-oxford-attempt-avoid-schism
https://virtueonline.org/anglican-alliance-challenges-church-england-archbishops-over-plans-bless-same-sex-unions
https://virtueonline.org/efac-global-expresses-deep-disappointment-over-llf-milestone
https://virtueonline.org/gsfa-pastoral-letter-following-church-englands-general-synod-july-5-9-2024

A truly disturbing fact in all this is the failure of the Church of England to see what happened in Canada and the US. The result here was full blown schism resulting in the birth of the Anglican Church in North America.

***

A truly terrible blow to evangelicals in the UK was the arrest of the former vicar of Emmanuel Church Wimbledon Jonathan Fletcher. He is charged with historical sex offences dating between 1973 and 1999. Metropolitan Police said Fletcher, 81, appeared at Wimbledon Magistrates' Court on Wednesday. He has been charged with eight counts of indecent assault and one of grievous bodily harm, for offences dating between 1973 and 1999. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/former-vicar-emmanuel-church-wimbledon-jonathan-fletcher-charged-historical-sex-offences
Another abusive evangelical offender John Smyth of Iwerne Camps fame died before he could be charged with similar offenses.

***

CONVERSION THERAPY. As pansexualists tighten their grip on society and the church, the issue of conversion or reparative therapy has once again reared its head. Church leaders in the UK are warning Keir Starmer the new Labor Prime Minister that if conversion therapy becomes law, it could become an anti-Christian charter.

'Conversion therapy' is an elastic term. It is being used to conflate mainstream, traditional Christian teaching on sexuality and gender with abuse.
Church leaders fear two-thousand-year-old Christian beliefs could be criminalized within the first 100 days of the new Government. Activists want a conversion therapy law to target ordinary Christian practice and gender-critical parents are also likely to be caught.

Leading church leaders representing more than 1300 churches have written to the new Prime Minister expressing their "concern at the lack of religious literacy in British public life and the unwarranted hostility this can breed towards those in Bible-believing churches". You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/church-leaders-warn-starmer-conversion-therapy-law-could-become-anti-christian-charter

***

In yet another unfolding scandal it was reported that the IDF had closed the only Episcopal hospital in Gaza.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and Anglican leaders worldwide condemned Israel's forced closure of Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, which is operated by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem.

However, the Israeli Defense Forces rejected an allegation leveled by The Episcopal Church that it ordered the evacuation and closure of the church-run hospital in the Gaza Strip.

The Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem claimed Monday that the IDF "compelled" it to close the Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City and evacuate all the staff and patients from the facility during its ongoing war with the terror group Hamas. There was military activity that took place in the vicinity of the hospital on Sunday.

Responding to the allegation, the IDF told Reuters in a statement that it ordered civilians in certain areas of Gaza City to evacuate so it could reduce potential civilian casualties as it launched new military operations against terrorist groups. The IDF says it told Palestinian health authorities that hospitals could remain in use and there was no need to evacuate. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/idf-denies-episcopal-church-claim-it-ordered-evacuation-gaza-hospital

***

The Episcopal Church dodged a bullet on the Israeli war in Gaza. At its recent General Convention, they pulled back from its suicidal edge by not accusing Israel of genocide and apartheid in its war with Hamas. Peace, however still remains elusive. Antisemitism remains a global problem.

This was in stark contrast to pre-convention resolutions labeling Israel as a genocide state in its destruction of Gaza. Delegates admitted that Hamas might actually be part of the problem (really), and Israel was simply reacting in kind.
Furthermore, there have been lies told that the Israelis have been starving Gazans, a charge they refute.

PM Bibi Netanyahu again vowed that Israel would achieve its goals in its war against Hamas: returning hostages from Gaza, eliminating Hamas' military and governing capabilities, ensuring that Gaza will not constitute a threat against Israel and also returning displaced Israeli residents securely to their homes in both the south and the north. Could one be clearer than that?

You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/episcopal-church-dodges-bullet-israeli-war

***

I had the privilege spending time with one of the Anglican Communion's most erudite and pastoral theologian bishop's -- The Rt. Rev. Dr. C. FitzSimons Allison. I flew to Georgetown, SC to meet this extraordinary former Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of South Carolina.

At 97, Bishop Allison is the oldest living Anglican bishop in North America. He resides with his wife Martha, to whom he has been married for 74 years, on their 900-acre residue of a rice plantation in Georgetown, SC. His son and daughter-in-law live nearby and keep an eye on them both. They are surrounded by a lifetime of family, relatives, friends, and clergy.

Bishop C. (stands for Christopher) FitzSimons Allison is an evangelical theological bishop with a distinctive and remarkable history. He is a rare breed of scholar, leader, pastor, author, and southern gentleman. As a thoroughly orthodox bishop in faith and morals he has held the line on faithfulness to scripture, to the creeds, the 39 Articles of Religion and the historic episcopacy; standing against the steady encroachment of revisionism in his beloved church. You can read my interview; THE LION IN WINTER: Portrait of a Faithful Anglican Bishop here: https://virtueonline.org/lion-winter-portrait-faithful-anglican-bishop

***

CULTURE WARS

John Stonestreet, president of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview was a plenary speaker at the recent ACNA assembly in Latrobe, PA. He gave a particularly good address that will appeal to VOL readers. It is found on youtube. You can see it below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-skl6KizE4M&ab_channel=AnglicanChurchNA

America's All Out Religious War: https://virtueonline.org/americas-all-out-religious-war

***

Next week I celebrate my 80th birthday and I would like readers to throw some support to my favorite missionary organization; LOVE FOR THE LEAST.

The couple running it live most of their lives in Kurdistan traveling throughout the ME and Africa making disciples for Christ; training local leaders to take the gospel to unreached people groups.

They have big needs: REFUGEE WORK. On Dec. 2022 the UN cut off all assistance to the 1mm refugees and displaced persons in N. Iraq. $50 provides a food basket with a month's worth of staples for a refugee widow and her children.

$300 sponsors a month of children's support and trauma care activities. 100% goes to the refugees, zero overhead. "We are allergic to overhead," he writes.

DISCIPLE MAKING: We are presently engaging 35 Unreached People Groups, including 4 Unengaged Unreached People Groups (first Gospel engagement in history) with 2,300+ churches in the Middle East and East Africa. This week the Anglican Church is baptizing 100 Muslims on the once thought impenetrable Swahili Coast.

Our vision is the Highway of Holiness. An unbroken chain of multiplying churches from Tehran, Iran, to Latakia, Syria. 900 miles, 118 million Unreached Muslims, 52 UPGs. Geographically we are two thirds there in two years of work. Turkey, where we have 50+ churches, Tanzania and Kenya are in addition.

Please consider a tax-deductible donation to this vital ministry. You can hit the online link here: https://giving.lovefortheleast.org/give/384996/#!/donation/checkout

***

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO MY EXPANDING MINISTRY AND OUTREACH

I have done a YouTube interview with Dr. Gerry McDermott on the War in Israel. You can see it here: https://youtu.be/98nNyRRWIz4?si=HEnsrJHU1eRYNjC2

I have also started a SUBSTACK with my scribblings on the Middle East with the war in Israel. You can see them here: https://substack.com/@davidvirtue2?utm_source=user-menu

***

VOL is on the move. We will shortly host a new website making it more reader friendly. Our lists will be coordinated and flow faster and more evenly. We could use your support. There are no salaries, but there are bills to pay, travel to be done, correspondents and a webmaster to pay.

If you can help, please send a tax-deductible donation to the address below:

VIRTUEONLINE
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Warmly in Christ,

David

At the Washington National Cathedral, their "labyrinth coordinator" instructs practitioners to pray to God or the Universe while walking the labyrinth, with Christianity left to a matter of personal taste. --- Wyatt Flicker

For what purpose do you suppose we ministers are sent forth? Is it merely to wear a surplice, and read the services, and preach a certain number of sermons? Is it merely to get a comfortable living, and be in a respectable profession? No! indeed! we are sent forth for other ends than these. We are sent to turn men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. We are sent to persuade men to flee from the wrath to come. We are sent to draw men from the service of the world to the service of God, to awaken the sleeping, to arouse the careless, and by all means to save some. --- J.C. Ryle

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
July 26, 2024

ONE might be forgiven if one sees a breakdown in our national politics and a simultaneous breakdown nationwide in the mainline churches with all sides digging in.

It is hard not to feel depressed at what is going on in America today. Pause for Prozac.

Reuters/Ipsos conducted a two-day poll to see just how U.S. citizens are faring with recent tragic events. It appears they're not doing all too well.

The poll surveyed 1,202 U.S. adults across the nation, as well as 992 registered voters this week. According to the results, 80% of these voters, including both Democrats and Republicans, fear "the country is spiraling out of ... control." Additionally, "Some 84% of voters in the poll said they were concerned that extremists will commit acts of violence after the election," which is set to take place November 5.

The more people talk about unity, the faster it seems to flee away. Churchmen and ecumenists argue strenuously for the war to end in Israel and the Ukraine; and for churches to come together over issues that deeply divide them like homosexual marriage and LGBTQ acceptance, transgender rights and much more. The list of rights grows by the day.

Liberals and revisionists keep using language they hope will keep everyone on the same page. Words like "living with difference," the need for inclusion and diversity; but the cultural divisions just seem to grow and grow.

There is widespread anger at diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) talk from ordinary folk who feel left out, marginalized and forgotten. Is it why a certain wannabe president appeals to a base of people who feel left behind.

The same thing is happening in The Episcopal Church. Newly elected Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe gave a closing sermon in which he mentioned the LGBTQ crowd, who probably represent less than 2 percent in the church being

embraced, while those who are uncomfortable embracing a behavior they see as dangerous to life and gospel denying are ignored. The sin of racism is raised up but no one truly knows who these unnamed racists are, especially when you bear in mind that your average Episcopalian is fast approaching 70! With only one per cent of blacks in TEC most churches have never seen a black person in the pews.

Caring for the poor and destitute is hypocritical when you think of the tens of millions of dollars TEC spent litigating for properties which was only partially successful. Was it really worth it?

At the same time The Episcopal Church has continued to shrink, with 'for sale' signs going up across the country, diocesan headquarters being sold, cathedral air space sold off to developers, and the final insult, the merging of whole dioceses to prevent the inevitable collapse of one.

The newly minted TEC Presiding Bishop seems to have understood this in one of his sermons at the church's recent general convention.

He said, when asked about the shrinking Episcopal Church, "So, yes, the church is in decline, in terms of our numbers. Given the hand we're dealt, given the situation as it is, given the state of Christianity, given the demographics of our various regions -- how do we most effectively participate in this mission that we've called ourselves to? I don't know if it's about helping us to decline gracefully, as much as it is to rethink the whole enterprise, particularly the way that we do it."

"Is the church going to be larger or smaller by the time you're done leading the show?

"All trends point to a smaller church, at least in the next decade. I think my particular role is to help us reposition. We think about strategic planning. So we're looking at the external factors that are at play, we're looking at what we're dealing with internally, and we're saying, how do we reposition the organization to best take advantage of that?"

When asked about the future, he said this:
"I think it's going to be leaner. It's going to be smaller, at least in the short term. There's no question about that. The question for me more is, can we get to a level, to a greater level of effectiveness, and can we lay the groundwork in which to grow? But that doesn't happen overnight. We're talking about a multi-decade process here of rethinking, to use an old term, how we prosecute the mission of the church."

The truth is that strategic planning is another way of marketing decline. The deeper truth is that TEC doesn't have decades. Most demographers say that by 2040 TEC as an institution will be gone. A handful of dioceses, some large wealthy churches will remain, but TEC itself will be little more than a sect. The truth is, it is too little too late. There are no new generations coming forward to fill pews.

An Episcopal priest wrote VOL recently about church insurance costs soaring following hurricanes in Florida, at the same time bemoaning that the national church wants its 15 percent pound of parish flesh when realistically it should be ten per cent. Something must give. With soaring costs and declining budgets, part time priests, the end game looks bad. Where will all this be five or ten years from now!

If pews remain empty, and Nones don't return to church, and people generally don't feel the church is relevant to their lives, why bother.

Over the last 25 years over 40 million Americans have left the churches, now officially dechurched, while the Global South is rising with tens of millions hearing and embracing the gospel of Christ. Is it any wonder the Anglican communion is primarily, black, under 30 and female.

All the while the Anglican Church in North America will continue to grow. It is already up 12 percent since the end of Covid and all the signs are good that this growth will continue.

A new archbishop, Steve Wood is committed to old time evangelism and church growth and judging by his own personal success in South Carolina at church planting, all the signs look good that ACNA will surge ahead in the coming years.

It's not necessarily about buildings and budgets. People must believe that the gospel can change their lives for the good; that addictions can be overcome, that one can triumph over sin and evil, that God is good and He loves us in the midst of life's tragedies and darkest moments and that Christ's death can cleanse from all sin. We are not alone in the universe and judging by the number of atheists who are finding faith, there seems to be a bottoming out of unbelief in the West that we have not seen in recent decades.

Writers like C.S. Lewis remain perennially popular. His books still sell in the tens of thousands. Why? Because we cannot escape the Hound of Heaven who chases us down the corridors of time.

One missionary couple I know who are spending their lives in the Middle East and Africa say that renewal are revival are already at hand, even in the US and that a new day is dawning for the church.

They say that Iran is the fastest growing church in the world today, with some 50,000 of the country's 75,000 mosques having closed in recent years with thousands of house churches springing up across the country. And, surprise, surprise Afghanistan is the second fastest church growth nation in the world. Who woulda thunk it. China is leveling off in third place. All the while the west is slowly dying.

God's hand is not shortened by political events and the comings and goings of politicians. One might be forgiven if God has them in derision. Put not your trust in princes said the psalmist, a lesson we might want to remember.

***

And what of the situation in the Church of England and the Living in Love and Faith report that is tormenting evangelicals and Anglo Catholics.

Susie L. of Anglican Futures sums it up well. "The phony War is finally over. General Synod have made their decision. There can no longer be any doubt about the direction of travel. By a large majority in the House of Bishops and by the slimmest of majorities in the Houses of Clergy and Laity, the Church of England has voted to continue its journey away from Scripture -- and therefore, by implication, away from our heavenly King and the establishment of His Kingdom.

The institution is therefore likely to find itself spiritually moribund. This has been proved time and again in recent years by the miserable statistics of continuing decline in congregational numbers, especially among the young, and by the growing numbers of dioceses on the verge of financial collapse.

The crucial question is what the orthodox should do now. They are by no means in a weak position, she writes.

"Many of them have large congregations and healthy finances. They already operate largely independently of their dioceses and could well afford to pay stipends and insurances out of their own resources. The stumbling block is always buildings, upon which many of them, like St. Helen's Bishopsgate and St. Ebbe's Oxford, have already spent vast sums of money to adapt them for outreach and teaching. The assumption is being made, perhaps wrongly, that these buildings would be confiscated by the central Church authorities if the orthodox were to organise themselves with their own bishops and their own confirmations and ordinations and in full communion with GAFCON and the GSFA - in effect a Third Province.

I have written on this here: https://virtueonline.org/church-england-goes-through-sexual-contortions-permit-impermissible

Andrew Goddard has written an article comparing the current state of the Church of England to a "game of episcopal Jenga." He sees what is already, "a rather precarious tower of Jenga bricks" due to "falling attendance, giving, and vocations, a massive trust deficit, multiple safeguarding failures" as further imperiled by "the [Living in Love and Faith (LLF)] story" in which bishops are "pushing with varying degrees of force at eight Jenga bricks, essential structural elements within the Church of England's identity and crucial for its cohesion, stability, and unity."

The "eight bricks" are "standalone services", departure from the "doctrine" of marriage, "the church's understanding of holy orders", if clergy can enter into same-sex marriages, a reduction in "episcopal collegiality", "pastoral reassurance", disregard of "due process", "the lack of a strong consensus" and "Scripture's authority". You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/episcopal-jenga

You can also read a story from Anglican Futures on the same issue: Why stay (at least for now)? https://virtueonline.org/why-stay-least-now

For sheer hubris, an interim report from General Synod House of Bishops Transparency Group regarding safeguarding, has undertaken to increase transparency. The House will do so by continuing to meet without public attendance. So don't ask, they won't tell and things will creep along as they have always done with little accountability.

The new British Labour Party wants to make it a crime to question someone's sexuality or gender identity.

The threat to ban so-called LGBT conversion therapy is rearing its ugly head yet again in the UK. During the state opening of parliament this week, the King's Speech included a fresh promise to make it a crime for anyone -- be it a therapist, teacher, parent or religious leader -- to 'change, "cure" or suppress' a person's sexuality or gender identity.

Labour is rushing to repeat the last government's mistakes. The Conservatives, egged on by Stonewall and fellow travellers in the LGBT movement, tried to legislate against conversion practices several times. Ultimately, they realised that a workable ban would be incredibly difficult to implement without major unintended consequences and declined to support one in their 2024 manifesto.
Make no mistake, introducing this ban would be a grave error. The campaign to ban conversion therapy in the UK is not about protecting LGBT people from psychological abuse or torture. After all, abusive and violent treatments are already illegal. An impartial look at the evidence shows that few LGBT people have actually undergone conversion therapy of any kind.

Whatever happened to free speech for people who voluntarily want to address their same-sex attractions and be free of them? I have personally attended such public meetings and I can assure you that there is no coercion. Men, mostly men, were present in a church basement in London from across Europe and they wanted to know how to be free. A therapist and a psychiatrist were there to assist them.

***

The Primate of Nigeria, the Most. Rev. Henry Ndukuba has accused the CofE Bishops of jettisoning the faith over same-sex blessings. In a statement from the largest province in the communion, he wrote that it "shows the true state of a Church whose Bishops have abandoned the truth of God's Word and have sacrificed the authority of the Scripture for a postmodern Cultural trapping."

"They have finally revealed the choice of the Church of England to walk away from our cherished Biblical truth and teaching on marriage between man and woman; male and female which the Scripture affirms in Genesis 2:18-24 and Matthew 19:4-6...these Bishops have flagrantly jettisoned the fundamentals which they had publicly affirmed, and have certainly abandoned the faith once delivered to the Saints (Jude verse 3). You can read more here:
https://virtueonline.org/nigerian-primate-accuses-cofe-bishops-jettisoning-faith-over-same-sex-blessings

IN OTHER NEWS, Archbishop Ndukuba gave a lecture on persecution in Nigeria in which he argues that the Christian response is that we have examples of the early church and insights gained from the missionaries that brought Christianity to Africa who came with their coffins. The idea of martyrdom to many Christians is nauseating; it resonates with a feeling of abhorrence. Nevertheless, God uses persecution to refine His bride. The Church has grown in number and faith under the heat of persecution. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/response-church-persecution-nigeria

***

The Archbishop of Sydney, Kanishka Raffel came out swinging against the CofE's decision to bless SS unions and said the decision was contrary to Scripture and to Anglican expressions of the teaching of Scripture in our formularies, including the BCP, Lambeth Resolution 1.10. He went on to say that the diocese supported the coalition known as The Alliance.

***

The recent meeting of the ACNA in LaTrobe, PA there were NEW CANONS FOR THE ACNA. The Very Rev. Cn. Andrew Rowell writes; "In some ways, it's like a whole new province. The election of our third archbishop, The Rt. Rev. Steve Wood, coupled with the ratification of substantive amendments to our canons (the ecclesiastical laws by which the ACNA operates) work together to usher in a new and unique season for the ACNA. While the Archbishop-elect will carry forward the godly leadership of our first two Archbishops, our newly ratified canons will, in many ways, reshape the way the province operates. You can read more here:
https://americananglican.org/new-canons-for-the-acna/

Reports of a new agreement between the Church of Nigeria (CoN) and the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) formally receiving the Anglican Diocese of the West (CANA) into the ACNA are inaccurate and is symptomatic of the ongoing discord between the two Provinces, VOL learned.

Nigerian Archbishop Henry Ndukuba and the ACNA have been at odds over the continuation of the Church of Nigeria North American Mission (CONNAM) dioceses in North America for more than a decade. Last year, the ACNA College of Bishops sent a letter to Archbishop Ndukuba stating that they expected him to turn over all CoN dioceses and parishes in North America in accordance with Anglican polity and the CoN's recognition of the ACNA as the only orthodox geographic Province in North America.

Instead of turning them over, the CoN created a new entity to govern Nigerian parishes and dioceses in North America. In response, ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach wrote a stinging letter of rebuke to the Nigerian Archbishop in May accusing him of "disrespect and showing a lack of regard for a fellow GAFCON Province." He called the Nigerian Archbishop's actions "disturbing."

Archbishop Beach argued that the actions of the CoN violated the 2008 Jerusalem Declaration, especially Article 11 which states: "We are committed to the unity of all those who know and love Christ and to building authentic ecumenical relationships. We recognize the orders and jurisdiction of those Anglicans who uphold orthodox faith and practice, and we encourage them to join us in this mission."

Perhaps it is time to look beyond racial and ethnic lines in the church. You can read my full report here: https://virtueonline.org/time-look-beyond-racial-and-ethnic-lines-church

But all is not well in the ACNA. Dean Chuck Collins asks a number of questions; is Bishop Stewart Ruch guilty? Now after almost five years, the ACNA doesn't seem closer to answering them! Did the bishop and other clergy fail to believe and report sexual abuse of 9-year-old girl (and 13 others) in the Anglican Diocese of the Upper Midwest?

Did the chancellor of the diocese advise the clergy to not report - hiding it under the cover of "Well, most of the abuse didn't happen on church property"? Is the bishop and leaders of Upper Midwest complicit in re-victimizing the victims by supporting the abuser in every way (money from discretionary funds to support his legal defense and personal needs, by extending pastoral care and support for him and his family, attending his court indictment in his support, etc.) and failing miserably to support the victims and their families (not reaching out to them and providing pastoral care, pushing them away from church ministries, not providing counseling, etc.)? You can read more at Chuck Collins' Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/chuck.collins.sa

***

The Texas based ACNA International Diocese folded its tent July 1, and its 14 churches dispersed to mostly two dioceses. The Texas parishes have been received into a Deanery belonging to the Anglican Diocese of the South and the Oklahoma and Colorado Parishes have been received into the Anglican Diocese of the Southwest. Bishop Bill Atwood has reached retirement age.

***

The Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop has once again lashed out against Israel. In a new statement he has called for a ceasefire. He says Israel must be held accountable for human rights abuses, violence and illegal land seizures.

Not a single mention was made of Hamas and its terrorist activities in the slaughter of 1200 Israelis and hostages they still hold.

"We have expressed our horror at the loss of civilian life, Israeli and Palestinian, and have urged the U.S. government to use all the leverage it can to call for a permanent ceasefire, humanitarian access, the release of hostages, and an end to the death and suffering of innocent civilians, including children," Curry wrote in a letter to President Joe Biden.

Addressing a joint meeting of Congress, Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu said this; "Clarity begins by knowing the difference between good and evil, yet incredibly many anti-Israel protesters, many choose to stand with evil. They stand with Hamas. They stand with rapists and murderers...they should be ashamed of themselves."

Netanyahu declared that US support for his nation's war with Hamas terrorists was ultimately "a clash between barbarism and civilizations" and said he would see the war out to the end -- the complete destruction of Hamas.

"The war in Gaza could end tomorrow if Hamas surrendered, disarmed and returned all the hostages," he also claimed. "We're not only protecting ourselves; we're protecting you" he added. "Our enemies are your enemies; our fight is your fight; and our victory will be your victory." Apparently that message did not get through to Curry.

***

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO MY EXPANDING MINISTRY AND OUTREACH

I have done a YouTube interview with Dr. Gerry McDermott on the War in Israel. You can see it here: https://youtu.be/98nNyRRWIz4?si=HEnsrJHU1eRYNjC2

I have also started a SUBSTACK with my scribblings on the Middle East with the war in Israel. You can see them here: https://substack.com/@davidvirtue2?utm_source=user-menu

***

VOL is on the move. We will shortly host a new website making it more reader friendly. Our lists will be coordinated and flow faster and more evenly. But we need your support. The move is costly and I don't have the funds to make the switch. There are no salaries, but there are bills to pay, travel to be done, correspondents and a webmaster to pay.

If you can help, please send a tax-deductible donation to the address below:

VIRTUEONLINE
P.O. Box 111
Shohola, PA 18458

A PayPal donation link can be found here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support.html

If you know someone who would like to receive these bi-weekly news reports, they can subscribe here: https://virtueonline.org/ It is free, nothing is behind a paywall. Thank you for your support.

Warmly in Christ,

David

History demonstrates time and again that freedom is a binary choice. You either believe in a transcendent, unchangeable moral order or subscribe to manufactured, human-made disorder, well-meaning though some may be. --Michael Giere

Nobody of whom I am aware ever came to faith in Christ because of the rantings of the online unhinged. Many have been transformed through the random Christian kindness of strangers. --- Carl Trueman

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
August 9, 2024

On average, approximately 4,500 U.S. churches close every year, and only 1,000 new ones open. And every year, 2.7 million church members become inactive, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

There are many reasons offered as to why people have left and continue to leave
churches. Many blame the pandemic, but the truth is the rot started long before then and was only hastened by the outbreak of Covid.

People were dropping out like flies. Forty million Americans have stopped attending church in the past 25 years. That's something like 12 percent of the population, and it represents the largest concentrated change in church attendance in American history.

The question is why. Many demographers blame our busy lifestyles. The need to work on Sunday, shopping, kids need entertaining, not enough time to get up and get ready for church. We can now do church in front of an iPad or laptop in our pajamas, so why bother getting dressed to go to church. Our lives are hectic and we need Sunday morning to sleep in. The list goes on and on.

But I would like to suggest another reason. It is the failure of sound teaching from the pulpit; the failure to preach 'the faith once for all delivered to the saints.' Preachers who send out mixed messages, preachers who compromise God's Word for 'itching ears' theology. Issues of one stripe or another become more important than teaching about justification or sanctification.

Intuitively people know when they are being hoodwinked. They may not say much, they won't stand up and protest the garbage from the pulpit, they just quietly walk away. Who can blame them.

America's preachers dropped the ball and the churches emptied out. I blame the pulpit not the pews. The people look up and are not fed. Why come back when you can get it all from the New York Times. Coffee and doughnuts replaced bread, wine, and the Bible.

A case in point was the news that Ryan Burge known for his analysis of church trends was also the pastor of a Baptist church in Illinois that closed its doors recently...going out of business for lack of people. You can read his own personal journey here: https://www.deseret.com/faith/2024/07/25/ryan-burge-church-closing-the-nones/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
You can read more here:
https://virtueonline.org/why-they-left-church-its-failure-sound-doctrine-pulpit

***

VOL has written at length about diocesan mergers over the past two years as The Episcopal Church shrinks. https://virtueonline.org/indianapolis-and-northern-indiana-talks-discuss-merger-dioceses and here: https://virtueonline.org/3-episcopal-church-dioceses-wisconsin-one-step-closer-merger
The euphemism is collaboration. The truth is; merge or die.

It is not a pretty picture and the humiliating aspect on all this is that the new Presiding Bishop-elect Sean Rowe is bishop of a partnership between the dioceses of Northwestern Pennsylvania and Western New York, which may eventually have to merge. We shall see. But merger talks are going on in several Mid-Western dioceses and the Northeast.

The authorization of a series of diocesan mergers was one of the big stories at the 81st General Convention in June, when bishops and deputies celebrated the reunion of the three Wisconsin dioceses and the juncture of two dioceses in Michigan, as well as the combination of the church's Micronesia area mission with the Diocese of Hawaii, according to ENS. You can read the full story here:
https://episcopalnewsservice.org/2024/08/01/central-pennsylvania-bethlehem-eye-vote-on-diocesan-merger-indiana-dioceses-talks-advance/

***

The Anglican Church of Canada (ACoC) has collapsed, reports The Living Church.
New numbers for ACoC are out, and they show that Canada is the first major province of the Anglican Communion to have collapsed. This is highly significant, both for Canada and for other Western provinces following its trajectory.

Here are the data for average Sunday attendance:

2001 - 162,000
2017 - 87,000
2022 - 65,000
(2023 figures will not be out till later this year, but it is thought to be under 50,000 ASA with even lower figures for 2024.)

These are truly remarkable numbers. A church already in steep decline saw that decline speed up during COVID. Attendance in 2022 was 40 percent of attendance in 2001. And between 2017 and 2022, the ACoC lost a quarter of its Sunday attendance. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/collapse-anglican-church-canada

***

Rioting in England is testing the limits of immigration and what the real issue is. Millions are labeled far right, a gigantic slur it has turned out to be. Regrettably the Archbishop of Canterbury and four other religious leaders do not 'get it.' They wrote a letter saying so and sent it to the Times.

They do not see that a civil war is raging in England and the MSM, politicians and Justin Welby are ignoring the real facts on the ground.

They all want to blame right wing extremists for the violence going on, and this was highlighted in a letter signed by five religious leaders in England.

Their position was reinforced by the Bishop of Oxford Steven Croft and Imam Monawar Hussain who urged coming together to support one another and continue to build a resilient, inclusive society.

But a response to the recent riots from Peter Whittle of the New Culture Forum had a different take on the riots shaking up towns and cities across England:

"Let me outline a scenario for you and let's call it how to make a people angry. First you take a people known for their tolerance and fair-mindedness, a people who are amongst the least racist people in the world and you open up their country to unprecedented levels of migration within the space of a decade. You tell those people that this is good for them and that any concerns they might have are simply a product of their own bigotry. You then tell them that it was forever thus, and that their country is in fact a nation of immigrants."

"Furthermore, you then tell them that their history is one of unmitigated evil. You stand by while their monuments and traditions are undermined. You go one further and tell them that they have white privilege, and that this is the root of the world's problems. At the same time you allow thousands of young men from myriad cultures to enter the country illegally and then you get the people to pay for it. You tell them that diversity is their greatest strength and that to even question this is akin to fascism. You tell them that they would effectively be nothing without unceasing migration."

"As the people become more frustrated, more angry, you disable their concerns by changing the terminology. You start calling them far right, you then make sure to police them in different ways, you accommodate some demonstrations, you come down hard on others. You arrest some but not others. All the while you tell them that this is for their own good. If you disagree there is no place for you in this new nirvana."

You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/riots-england-test-limits-immigration-and-what-real-issue

Dr. Martin Davie has written on the issue of Welby, Israel and the ICJ and you can read it here:
https://www.christiantoday.com/article/why.the.archbishop.of.canterbury.needs.to.think.again.on.israel.and.the.international.court.of.justice/142016.htm#google_vignette

Democracy in decay: The system is no longer believed in by the people:
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/intersex-the-new-kid-on-the-pride-block-2/

White rage is bubbling up in the suburbs. The UK has not been at all civil of late. Indeed, to the outside world, our great country has looked such a violent mess that certain overseas governments are warning their citizens against travelling to the UK. You can see it here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2024/08/06/riots-are-cry-of-rage-and-despair-from-wretched-communities/

***

The Archbishop of Canterbury continues to dig in revealing his biases. He says the occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel is unlawful and they must exit, but is he right?

Justin Welby launched a broadside against Israel this week arguing that the besieged state must exit the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. The Advisory Opinion by the International Court of Justice (19 July 2024) makes definitively clear that Israel's presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is unlawful and needs to end as rapidly as possible.

The archbishop said the State of Israel has been "denying the Palestinian people dignity, freedom and hope" -- and that ending its occupation of Palestinian territory is "a legal and moral necessity". Welby urged governments around the world to reverse the "deeply damaging trend" of upholding international law "in a selective manner". You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/archbishop-canterbury-says-occupation-palestinian-territories-israel-unlawful-and-they-must-exit-he

Not to be outdone the Patriarch and heads of churches in Jerusalem say they want dialogue for peace, but when you read the fine print, it is at the expense of Israel. Who doesn't want peace, justice and reconciliation? Noble thoughts and aspirations indeed.

The pastoral solidarity visit takes place against the backdrop of a situation of prolonged war and dire humanitarian need, with an aim to "amplify calls from the Holy Land to engage in meaningful dialogue aimed at restoring peace and stability" -- not least in view of the evident risk of war escalating and spreading through the region and beyond.

So, who is prolonging the war? Who poses the real danger? Israel or Iran? It is certainly not Israel and PM Netanyahu has said that once the hostages are released and Hamas surrenders, peace is indeed possible. Hamas has no intention of doing so. Apparently that word "peace" has not reached the tunnel where the new Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is hiding. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/patriarch-heads-churches-jerusalem-want-dialogue-peace-expense-israel

I then segue into WHY THE WORLD STILL HATES JEWS. It's not just the UN or the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and a host of religious and political figures who hate Jews. The truth is antisemitism infects more than one billion of the world's adult population of four billion, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Global 100 Index of Antisemitism. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/why-world-still-hates-jews

***

The Church of England is facing an existential crisis about its own survival. The push for blessing same sex marriages has finally gotten evangelicals to take a stand. At St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, London, a flagship evangelical parish along with All Souls Langham Place kicked into high gear. The Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches (CEEC) commissioned its first set of overseers to deliver its provision of alternative spiritual oversight.

This did not sit well with the Diocese of London and its female bishop who issued a statement regarding this commissioning service.

"We are conscious of questions raised regarding the recent commissioning services that have taken place at All Souls Langham Place and St Helen's Bishopsgate. Incumbents have been reminded before and following these services of their responsibilities to ensure that the law of the Church of England as expressed in canon and liturgy is observed, and that all safeguarding requirements are fully met.

"In terms of the ongoing LLF process, we recognize that some will feel the need for structural provision in the light of what has been passed by General Synod. The London College of Bishops represents a breadth of traditions, and together is committed to ensuring the necessary support is available to all equally in our Diocese.

But this is a minefield through which evangelicals must carefully tread. Neither the state nor the church will allow a third province to emerge. A third province and a church within a church undercuts the very essence of Anglican ecclesiology and represents a red line we cannot cross, says Martin Davie, an orthodox theologian. But the first step has been taken and we will now see how it all plays out.

You can read a number of stories here:
https://virtueonline.org/what-ecclesiological-problem-third-province
https://virtueonline.org/why-stay-least-now
https://virtueonline.org/episcopal-jenga

Here is a slam dunk article against wokeness that is killing the Church of England: https://virtueonline.org/wokeness-will-kill-church-england

***

Over three hundred Christian clergy, leaders, and religious liberty advocates have signed an open letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging diplomatic action to condemn the persecution of Christians in India.

Mainline Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, Pentecostal, and independent clergy and lay leaders were among the signatories alongside leaders of ecumenical organizations, theological institutions, universities, and Christian advocacy groups. They collectively spoke out against the dramatic rise in Christian persecution in India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"The ecumenical Delhi-based United Christian Forum reports 720 attacks in 2023 against Christians, a stark increase from 127 in 2014 when Modi first came to power" the statement reads. You can read more here: https://juicyecumenism.com/2024/08/08/india-christian-persecution/

***

The moderator of the Church of Bangladesh and bishop of Dhaka, the Most Rev. Samuel Sunil Mankhin, wants prayer for Bangladesh in light of the recent unrest in the country, where hundreds of lives have been lost, reports the ACNS.

In the letter, which was written on Aug. 4, a day before Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country, Mankhin highlighted key points for prayer: peace and stability; government decisions that lead to reconciliation and healing; protection of all citizens -- especially the vulnerable, restoration of communication, comfort and strength for families who are grieving; and unity among the church and other faiths.

***

CULTURE WARS

• Britain's Oldest Evangelical Gathering Blacklists Pro-life Display https://virtueonline.org/britains-oldest-evangelical-gathering-blacklists-pro-life-display

• When the fruit of LGBT hits you in the face https://virtueonline.org/when-fruit-lgbt-hits-you-face

• THE PLOT TO QUEER EVANGELICAL CHURCHES: https://virtueonline.org/plot-queer-evangelical-churches

• These African Christians Are Already Living in the Millennium
• https://virtueonline.org/these-african-christians-are-already-living-millennium

• Believe it or not, there is a silver lining to the Paris Olympics parody of the Eucharist. It has caused a worldwide multifaceted conversation. You can read it here: https://virtueonline.org/olympic-parodys-silver-lining

AS EYE SEE IT

 An anti-culture of nothingness - Carl Trueman:
https://virtueonline.org/anti-culture-nothingness-carl-trueman

 PARODYING OF THE LORD'S SUPPER :
https://virtueonline.org/parodying-lords-supper

 Why I Did Not Celebrate "LGBTQ+ Pride Month" But Mourned It:
https://virtueonline.org/why-i-did-not-celebrate-lgbtq-pride-month-mourned-it

 Elite sports chaplain Ashley Null: 'The gospel is the antidote to...
https://virtueonline.org/elite-sports-chaplain-ashley-null-gospel-antidote-performance-based-identity

 THE RESPONSE OF THE CHURCH TO PERSECUTION IN NIGERIA
https://virtueonline.org/response-church-persecution-nigeria

THEOLOGY

The filioque clause is back in play with the Orthodox Church and Lutherans reaching an agreement on the thorny issue. I have also posted an Anglican response. You can read both stories below.

https://virtueonline.org/lutherans-orthodox-church-reach-agreement-1000-year-debate-over-nicene-creed

https://virtueonline.org/anglican-reflection-filioque

***

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO MY EXPANDING MINISTRY AND OUTREACH
I have done a YouTube interview with Dr. Gerry McDermott on the War in Israel. You can see it here: https://youtu.be/98nNyRRWIz4?si=HEnsrJHU1eRYNjC2

I have also started a SUBSTACK with my scribblings on the Middle East with the war in Israel. You can see them here: https://substack.com/@davidvirtue2?utm_source=user-menu

***

VOL is on the move. We will shortly host a new website making it more reader friendly. Our lists will be coordinated and flow faster and more evenly. But we need your support. The move is costly and I don't have the funds to make the switch. There are no salaries, but there are bills to pay, travel to be done, correspondents and a webmaster to pay.

If you can help, please send a tax-deductible donation to the address below:

VIRTUEONLINE
P.O. Box 111
Shohola, PA 18458

A PayPal donation link can be found here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support.html

If you know someone who would like to receive these bi-weekly news reports, they can subscribe here: https://virtueonline.org/ It is free, nothing is behind a paywall. Thank you for your support.

Warmly in Christ,

David

There must be a recovery of the church, the institution which shaped our culture. If we are ever to recover our country and our culture it is imperative that we first recover our church. This is a task for all biblical Christians whether by prayer, encouragement, or action. The recovery begins with us. --- Campbell Campbell-Jack

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
August 23, 2024

WE are not in an age of change, but a change of age, writes Dr. John Seel, an Anglican cultural renewal entrepreneur and social impact consultant. America and the West stand at a civilizational inflection point.

We are amid a 500-year historical geo-political inflection point. The world as we have known it is changing, so profoundly that our histories going forward are going to be altered, he says.

"We are not talking here about the accumulation of incremental changes, but the wholesale changes of assumptions, global actors, and personal experiences. We are facing a paradigm shift--the likes of the fall of Rome (475 AD), the collapse of Constantinople (1453 AD), and Luther at the Diet of Worms (1521 AD).

"The issues facing the church are significantly deeper and longer lasting than the shift from a Neutral to a Negative World. We are shifting from a Negative World to an outright hostile world.

"This hostility is not conscious or explicit but implicit, not personal but foundational, and not political but cultural. It is an invisible hostility that makes it even more dangerous. This makes the new social reality the church is facing far more significant than we have previously imagined.

"The first step is to wake up to the depth of the situation facing the church and to get our diagnosis aligned to reality. In this process of diagnosis, you cannot trust the mainstream media or the normal purveyors of academic insight as the elite culture is complicit and sometimes even the source of the disease.

"The American evangelical church is ill-prepared for adapting to these shifts. The likelihood is that under sustained cultural pressure, it will resort to doubling-down on past approaches, wearing an anti-intellectual, anti-elitist, populist-fundamentalist resistance as a badge of honor. This is the equivalent of being in a foreign country and talking louder and slower. This will only serve to further marginalize the American evangelical church's impact in the ongoing cultural conversation. By spiritualizing their resistance and demonizing the other, they will further the degree of polarization and potential for any meaningful impact.

"We are as a Western Christian church at an historic inflection point. We are at a point of decision. To meet our moment, we will need the courage to face these realities, the humility to seek God's leading, and the discernment to balance innovation with historic orthodoxy."
You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/change-age

Another piece along the same lines is by Dr. Os Guinness. It is titled: OUR CIVILIZATIONAL MOMENT. The waning of the West, the war of the worlds, and the role of the faiths that will be critical to the outcome. You can read it here:
https://virtueonline.org/our-civilizational-moment-os-guinness

He writes: "The world is fast approaching one of the great turning points in history. After half a millennium of unprecedented dominance, Western civilization is on the wane and the shadows it casts are lengthening. Many parts of the West are living off memories, and outbreaks of weakness, folly, madness, and decadence are all too evident. But any image of sunset and twilight is too benign. Bitter ideological and cultural conflicts throughout the West now cap the story of the massive and destructive conflicts over the last few centuries, many of them set off by the great quartet of Western cataclysms: the Renaissance and the Reformation in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and the Enlightenment and the French revolution in the eighteenth. It is plain that the West has lost faith and lost confidence in itself. It no longer knows how to tell its own story, and it is gambling the civilization on which it rests. The present moment is moving towards a decisive phase of the showdown. Too many people are in denial and too few realize the gravity of the stakes."

These pieces are not for the intellectual faint of heart. They are tour de forcesof intellectual thought and rigor. You will learn much, reflect more and reconsider how you can re-orient your life around Christ and His message.

***

Church Decline equals loss of income. As the church attendance declines in America and every year, 2.7 million church members become inactive, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, coffers also dry up. Inflation in America: Churches Report Decrease in Giving. From the grocery checkout line to the gas pump and now the church pew, Americans are closely watching what they spend and it's putting some churches in a bind.

"Churches are in some instances struggling," Robert Blair with Ministry Brands told CBN News. "They're not keeping up with inflation. Donations are down. In some instances, attendance is down." You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/inflation-america-churches-report-decrease-giving

***

The ACNA Diocese of Western Anglicans will have a new bishop and the two finalists are Canon Phil Ashey and the Very Rev. Eric Zolner. Their next bishop will be elected at their diocesan synod on Saturday October 19. Whomever is elected will then have to be approved by the ACNA College of Bishops at their meeting in January 2025. A date in March 2025 was reserved for the consecration of the bishop-elect in California. My money is on Ashey. He has done a lot for the ACNA on Canons and Constitutions and this is his reward. The deeper question is why ACNA needs so many bishops; some 100 and seven former bishops for about 128,000 Anglicans! But that's another story.

***

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH cannot seem to face its own destiny of why, when you embrace sexual immorality, (homosexual behavior), that this, in time brings the whole house down.

Almost weekly another story emerges of failed safeguarding, of dodging and weaving around in flagrante delicto priests and bishops misbehaving and getting a pass.

An Episcopal Church bishop based in California has been accused of not properly enforcing disciplinary action, 'safe church', measures against a pastor who allegedly failed to properly vet a sex offender.

Last December, the ex-wife and two adult sons of former Bishop Prince Singh filed a complaint against Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and Episcopal Bishop Todd Ousley over their alleged mishandling of abuse accusations against Singh.

The family members argued that Curry and Ousley, the latter of whom had served as an intake officer for complaints against bishops, failed to properly follow the Title IV process.

In February, the Episcopal Church Office of Public Affairs announced the launching of a new "three-part protocol" to better explain and promote the disciplinary process for bishops.

The three aspects included a newly created webpage for reporting alleged misconduct, a separate webpage that gives updates for ongoing disciplinary cases and "an annual statistical report on complaints involving bishops and their outcomes."

You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/episcopal-bishop-accused-not-enforcing-safe-church-measures-against-pastor

Anglican Watch the unofficial watchdog of The Episcopal Church and others is prodigious in its exposure of TEC's crimes and misadventures by its clergy and bishops. Little escapes their eagle eye.

You can read this piece here: https://www.anglicanwatch.com/the-episcopal-church-needs-to-take-criminal-conduct-by-clergy-seriously/

***

Belshazzar could not read the hand writing on the wall and neither can Episcopal Presiding Bishop-elect Sean Rowe. By any measure The Episcopal Church has ceased to be a Christian denomination.

From the moment avowed homosexual V. Gene Robinson was "consecrated" to the episcopacy, to the ordaining of multiple gay and lesbian priests to the priesthood; to its rolling over to multiple LGBTQI+ sexualities, embracing homosexual marriage, openly promoting gay pride parades, demanding reparations from people who had never enslaved a soul, to its pushing anti-racism training on people who are clearly not racists ending with faux revivals, the church has been on a downward trajectory. The tens of millions of dollars spent on lawyers to recover properties that will one day lie fallow cannot be overlooked.

It has become apparent that TEC has ceased to be a meaningfully Christian church. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/belshazzar-could-not-read-hand-writing-wall-and-neither-can-episcopal-presiding-bishop-elect-sean

***

The Diocese of Georgia is planning to sell its diocesan offices and move into the building of a shuttered church, said an ENS headline. The TEC Ship of State is slowly sinking into the sunset. This is by no means the first diocese to do this and it clearly will not be the last. You can read it here: https://episcopalnewsservice.org/2024/08/21/diocese-of-georgia-to-sell-diocesan-offices-move-into-building-of-shuttered-church/

The short term is that these buildings because of their location are worth big bucks. In the case of Georgia proceeds from the sale of the old diocesan office building will allow the diocese to pay off all of its outstanding debt, with $1 million left over to invest and support the diocesan budget. This of course is short term, because the diocese will go on shrinking with something called people. As I have said before the Episcopal Church will die the richest Church in the world, which, if the Church Pension Fund is not exhausted, and it appears unlikely as it has $15 billion in hand; it can continue long after the Second Coming.

If you want to know how bad things are read this:

https://episcopalnewsservice.org/2024/07/25/amid-talk-of-a-churchwide-clergy-shortage-dioceses-experiment-with-local-leadership-models/

One blogger pulled together the essential facts here:

"...The Episcopal Church still has nearly 7,000 congregations. The number of active Episcopal priests, on the other hand, has fallen over the past 20 years to fewer than 6,000.
...congregations of 50 or fewer worshipers make up most of the church's congregations (55%)
...in 2022, 12% of Episcopal congregations were served by a priest who is retired. That same year, 54% of priests were listed as part time, more than double the 26% from 2010.
...Active priests, or those whose employers are actively contributing to the church's clergy pension fund, peaked in 2004 at 7,886 and have since declined to the current 5,614. During that time, the number of retirees has increased. Retirees first surpassed the number of active priests in 2011 and now total 8,320."

The once mighty ship is going down as VOL predicted.

Presiding Bishop-elect Sean Rowe's plan to boost church growth had better kick in soon or he won't have a church worth saving.

***

Just how bad are things in the Church of England? This writer believes that Justin Welby the Archbishop of Canterbury has gone off the CofE reservation with little hope of return.

What started out as promising leadership for the Church of England and, by extension, the Anglican Communion, has devolved into a state of permanent dysfunction and dystopian nightmare.

The Archbishop of Canterbury's evangelical credentials, earned through his association with Holy Trinity Brompton and Alpha have completely disappeared in a flurry of woke issues which have decimated the Church of England bringing it to the brink of schism.

Six issues have haunted him, costing him and the church deeply, resulting in a near total breakdown of the institution, making it even more irrelevant than it has overwhelmingly become to the British public. You can read the full story here: https://virtueonline.org/justin-welby-has-gone-church-england-reservation-little-hope-return

Welby himself got rebuked this past week over actions in the case of a chaplain deemed terror threat for questioning LGBT ideology.

He got criticized for his handling of a case involving Bernard Randall, a chaplain blacklisted for a sermon questioning LGBT teachings at a Christian school. A leading legal figure within the Church of England described Welby's refusal to address the concerns as "plainly wrong."

Randall, 52, previously a chaplain at Trent College in Nottingham, was barred from preaching for five years following a 2019 sermon in which he encouraged students to debate LGBT teachings after they asked for his guidance on the issue. Despite being cleared by multiple secular bodies, Randall's license to preach was withheld by the Bishop of Derby, Libby Lane, citing safeguarding concerns. Why this bishop was not brought up on charges and fired is beyond me. She took an oath to defend the doctrine of the church and she dumps a priest for doing precisely that. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/justin-welby-rebuked-over-actions-case-chaplain-deemed-terror-threat-questioning-lgbt-ideology

Another writer, Campbell Campbell-Jack weighed in on a piece about Welby titled, POLITICAL NOT SPIRITUAL.

"In his interventions in the recent riots in the UK, particularly in England, the leader of the Church of England gives no indication that he understands why the riots have happened or has any compassion for England's increasingly resentful white working class. His leadership has been political and not spiritual and has only served to deepen the gulf between the church and the working-class people of England and the underclass who inhabit the poorest areas of our cities. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/poitical-not-spiritual

And just to let you know how the abortion and homosexual steamrollers are slowly rolling over evangelicals in the CofE, Britain's oldest evangelical gathering got blacklisted for a pro-life display."

Britain's longest-running and most prestigious evangelical convention has sparked controversy after blacklisting pro-lifers for displaying the intact image of a nine-week-old baby a few hundred yards away from the conference site.

***

The Church of England is increasingly dropping the word "church in favor of "relevant and modern-sounding" descriptions such as "community," a new study suggests.

However, the Church of England described the report as "nonsense" and had no plan to drop the word 'church.'

It was responding to an independent report by the Centre for Church Planting Theology and Research at Cranmer Hall, Durham entitled 'New Things: A Theological Investigation into the Work of Starting New Churches Across 11 Dioceses in the Church of England'.

The report found that around 900 "new things" have been started in the past decade, with none of the eleven dioceses using "church" as the primary descriptor. You can read more here: https://premierchristian.news/en/news/article/cofe-says-reports-its-dropping-the-word-church-are-complete-nonsense

Pro-lifers slammed the organizers of the Keswick Convention, which has been held in the town of Keswick in the Lake District of Cumbria since 1875, for promoting a secular "non-directive approach" to women who are faced with the question of whether to murder the babies in their wombs. Jule Gomes has written brilliantly about it here: https://virtueonline.org/britains-oldest-evangelical-gathering-blacklists-pro-life-display

***

If you had any doubt about Muslim intentions in the Middle Eastwatch this video: Palestinian Muslims say they plan to kill all the Christians in the entire Holy Land after they finish the genocide of Jews in Israel. As you can see in this documentary film, the Palestinian Muslims advise their Christian neighbors to convert to Islam before it is too late because all non-Muslims will have to be executed as human sacrifices for the sake of Allah (God of Islam).
Christian leaders tried to appeal to the global media to get the international community involved in safeguarding and protecting the Christian minority and their holy places. Sadly the media do not care when Christians are murdered and persecuted. Too many "journalists" in the West try to preserve the image of Islam as a "religion of peace" therefore they ignore the persecution of minorities all over the Arab-Muslim world.

No one in the media seems to care about the brutal persecution of Christians in the Arab-Muslim world. This documentary is very hard to watch, please take this into account before visiting the following link!

Link to the documentary: https://rumble.com/v56d7yi-the-sunday-people.html

If you want to better understand the conflict in the Middle East, I highly recommend following filmmaker Pierre Rehov here on X (formerly Twitter): @rehoov

***

The spiritual decline in American society reveals the limitations of Christian evangelicalism. Barna research revealed that evangelicals are far fewer in number than typically reported, often less biblical in their thinking.

America's cultural decline is a direct result of the spiritual collapse of Christianity in the nation, according to veteran researcher Dr. George Barna, Director of Research at the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University.

The research shows that much of this steep cultural decline flows from the dramatic transformation in the evangelical community of the United States in the past 30 years.

In reality, evangelicals are far fewer in number than typically reported, often are far less biblical in their thinking than one might think, and tend to vote in far fewer numbers than expected. Although more conservative on moral issues, as a whole evangelicals reflect fewer lifestyle differences from the culture than often thought. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/spiritual-decline-american-society-reveals-limitations-christian-evangelicalism

***

I reviewed two books this past fortnight. DEEP ANGLICANISM: A Brief Guide by Gerald R. McDermott.

This book introduces the reader to the Anglican tradition at a deeper level of the tradition. By "deep" I mean an approach that transcends the usual divisions of "high church,""broad church," and "low church."

In short it means plumbing the depths of orthodoxy, liturgy, and sacraments, while travelling on the pilgrim road and living a life of adoration in pursuit of the Beatific Vision.

McDermott is an orthodox Anglican theologian, priest author of 25 books and hundreds of articles on Jonathan Edwards. He is one of the finest, most fully qualified writers with the requisite Ph.D., seminary trained and a former university professor. His book can be read by the learned and the pew sitter. He writes in clear, plain English, something academics are often not prone to. Here is a sample:

"While Roman Catholics say the Eucharist is the source and summit of worship, Anglicans say that preaching and Eucharist are both important and Eucharist without preaching might lack something."https://virtueonline.org/deep-anglicanism-brief-guide

Another volume is BE TO THE FLOCK A SHEPHERD, by Bishop John W. Howe. In the pulpit the pastor is king. He can say anything uninterrupted; with many parishioners believing he can say no wrong. He enjoys unbridled support. He experiences little or no contradiction.

John Howe, a former Episcopal bishop is a preacher in the finest tradition of evangelical Anglicanism. It is not surprising that he has enjoyed unbridled support for his Bible-based ministry. He has the added advantage of a commanding presence in the pulpit.

He has been an Episcopal priest and bishop for most of his life, most of it in central Florida.

For young wannabe priests and pastors who see the pulpit in their future, this volume will inspire and encourage, perhaps even cajole you into seeing God's call on your life. And God only knows America needs biblical preachers as never before with millions of Americans walking away from the church, many because they did not hear the bread of life from the pulpit. During his years in the ministry, he joined Sharing of Ministries Abroad (SOMA) which opened his eyes to the global church situation.
You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/be-flock-shepherd

***

A couple of issues emerged from the recent DNC this past week in Chicago that you won't find anywhere else. THE WRONG BISHOP SHOWED UP AT THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION, writes VOL correspondent Mary Ann Mueller. Roman Catholic Cardinal Cupich failed the intersectionality inclusivity test. He's Caucasian and he was born a boy. Convention planners mistakenly choose the wrong religious figure to pray for their political convention.

Cardinal Cupich does not seem to check any of the Democrats' favorite intersectionality boxes. He is a Roman Catholic, albeit he's liberal -- way left of center -- and he is a white male. You can read more here:
https://virtueonline.org/wrong-bishop-showed-democratic-national-convention

Evangelical Christians rally for Kamala Harris ahead of DNC, screamed a headline. 'Voting Kamala ... (is) a vote against another four years of faith leaders justifying the actions of a man (Donald Trump) who destroys the message Jesus came to spread,' said Jerushah Duford, granddaughter of the Rev. Billy Graham.

A diverse group of Christians is throwing support behind Vice President Kamala Harris' White House bid, organizing fundraisers and Zoom calls in hopes of helping catapult the Democrat to victory in November -- and, they say, reclaiming their faith from Republicans in the process. You can read more here:
https://virtueonline.org/christians-evangelicals-rally-kamala-harris-ahead-dnc

Touching the Third Rail: Religion and politics."This election presents the sum of all fears. Do we have the faith to face them believing that God is in control? Or do we turn aside and hope that God will save us from ourselves? writes David Duggan a Chicago attorney. You can read his take here: https://virtueonline.org/touching-third-rail-religion-and-politics

***

The Middle East is never far from our thinking as the pain of war ratchets up world opinion. Israel is taking the brunt of the world's anger with charges that she should mandate a ceasefire in exchange for hostages. Some are going even further saying that the US should defund the war by withholding military aid and money to Israel so the war stops. That is not going to happen. PM Bibi Netanyahu says he will wipe the Palestinian militant group Hamas "off the face of the earth" and they won't stop the war for a faux peace.

This begs the deeper question; Is Christian Zionism Evil? No, says Dr. Gerald McDermott.

Some evangelical leaders in the Middle East suggested as much in their August 5 "Collective Call to the Global Church from Middle East Evangelical Leaders," he says.

Here is their key statement:
We unequivocally reject all forms of violence against civilians to achieve justice (Jeremiah 22:3; Romans 3:15-18), and strongly condemn all religious, political, and social ideologies that hinder a lasting peace including antisemitism, islamophobia, and Christian Zionism. [my emphases]

Let me first say that I agree that "violence against civilians" is evil. I presume these evangelical leaders mean violence that targets civilians, for most Christians agree with Christian just war theory that distinguishes between intentional targeting of enemies in a just war and unintentional killing of civilians. Even God did things, like miraculously springing Peter from prison, that resulted (unintentionally?) in violence against innocents (Herod putting Peter's guards to death) in Acts 12.

I will assume that these evangelicals agree that the vicious attacks on Jewish civilians on October 7 were evil because Hamas terrorists (and those who accompanied the soldiers) targeted civilians -- men, women, and children. Even the elderly. They raped women and decapitated babies. It doesn't get any more evil than that. You can read his full take here: https://virtueonline.org/christian-zionism-evil

***

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO MY EXPANDING MINISTRY AND OUTREACH
I have done a YouTube interview with Dr. Gerry McDermott on the War in Israel. You can see it here: https://youtu.be/98nNyRRWIz4?si=HEnsrJHU1eRYNjC2

I have also started a SUBSTACK with my scribblings on the Middle East with the war in Israel. You can see them here: https://substack.com/@davidvirtue2?utm_source=user-menu

***

VOL is on the move. We will shortly host a new website making it more reader friendly. Our lists will be coordinated and flow faster and more evenly. But we need your support. The move is costly and I don't have the funds to make the switch. There are no salaries, but there are bills to pay, travel to be done, correspondents and a webmaster to pay.

If you can help, please send a tax-deductible donation to the address below:

VIRTUEONLINE
P.O. Box 111
Shohola, PA 18458

A PayPal donation link can be found here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support.html

If you know someone who would like to receive these bi-weekly news reports, they can subscribe here: https://virtueonline.org/ It is free, nothing is behind a paywall. Thank you for your support.

Warmly in Christ,

David

"There is evidence for the deity of Jesus -- good, strong, historical, cumulative evidence; evidence to which an honest person can subscribe without committing intellectual suicide."― John Stott

Vocation is "where our greatest passion meets the world's greatest need." -- Frederick Buechner

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
September 6, 2024

Archbishop Justin Welby has been a huge disappointment to both the Church of England and the global Anglican communion. What started out as promising leadership for the Church of England and global Anglicanism has devolved into a state of permanent dysfunction and dystopian nightmare. It might well be said that Justin Welby stands for nothing and has fallen for everything.

The Archbishop of Canterbury's evangelical credentials, earned through his association with Holy Trinity Brompton and Alpha have completely disappeared in a flurry of woke issues which have decimated the Church of England bringing it to the brink of schism.

Six issues -- evangelicalism, LLF, (luridness and faggotry), Israel, Safeguarding, Reparations, and the Global South have haunted him, costing him and the church dearly, resulting in a near total breakdown of the institution, making it even more irrelevant than it has overwhelmingly become to the British public. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/justin-welby-has-gone-church-england-reservation-little-hope-return

***

As further proof that Welby has lost the plot, the Chief Rabbi of South Africa Warren Goldstein blasted the Archbishop of Canterbury (and Pope Francis) over Middle East history and the current war in Gaza.

The Rabbi accused Welby of biblical ignorance and rejecting the Bible's clear teaching on the land of Israel. If Israel falls to Jihadi forces so will Europe. Europe's future hangs in the balance, said the rabbi.

The head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis and the head of the Church of England, Justin Welby have abandoned their most sacred duty to protect and defend the values of the Bible, said Goldstein.

"The world is locked in a civilizational battle of values threatened by terrorism and violent Jihad. Now is the time for religious leaders to come to the defense of society; to speak up for western values and freedom. Instead, Pope Francis and Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby are silent, indifferent to the murder of Christians in Africa and to the threat of terrorism in Europe and outright hostile to Israel's attempt to battle Jihadi forces led by Iran."

The Rabbi said the latest example of Welby coming out in support of the recent ICJ ruling against Israel puts him in direct opposition to the Bible. The International Court of Justice declared Israel to be an illegal occupier of Palestinian land in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Archbishop Welby gave his full backing to the ruling. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/south-africa%E2%80%99s-chief-rabbi-blasts-pope-francis-and-archbishop-canterbury-over-middle-east-history

He has made so many blunders as the head of the Church of England one wonders how he sleeps at night. Certainly, one can understand why he is depressed, despite racking up 40,000 business-class air miles (thereby contributing to climate change) and telling other religious leaders how important net zero is and why homophobia is next to godlessness, and why reparations are a good thing for aging Anglicans who have enslaved nobody and nothing. Groveling before a few ancient sins makes a great photo op, but it bewilders the locals.

***

In one of Welby's more egregious acts, he allowed the forcible exit of a godly priest and teacher, one Bernard Randall out of his position as the chaplain at Trent College. Randall was wrongfully blacklisted and barred from all ministry for preaching the Church's own doctrine about marriage in a CofE school chapel service. The Rev. Dr Bernard Randall shares about being 'in limbo' for nearly five years now. Justin Welby was rebuked over his actions in the case of the chaplain who was deemed a terror threat for questioning LGBT ideology. You can see his video story here:
https://christianconcern.com/resource/how-the-cofe-forced-bernard-out-of-ministry-watch/

***

For an excellent summary of what evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics could do in the Church of England now that the institution has embraced homosexually active priests in the ministry, you can read this fine article from Anglican Futures: Schismatic, Unnecessary, Unwise and Unfaithful - or Free to Leave? https://virtueonline.org/schismatic-unnecessary-unwise-and-unfaithful-or-free-leave
This is the fifth in a series of personal responses to the Prayers of Love and Faith which seeks to address the issue of why the arguments against leaving the Church of England are not strong enough to bind the consciences of those seeking to leave.

***
ON THE HOMEFRONT a Wall of Silence,' podcast about abuse in the ACNA, was silenced. Now, it's back. A spokesperson said no one from ACNA's national office had knowledge of Archbishop Beach or his staff asking for the podcast to stop.
In April, the Rev. Chris Marchand, an Anglican priest in Peoria, Illinois, launched "Wall of Silence," a podcast about church abuse and cover-up in the Anglican Church in North America. Two months later -- at his bishop's request -- the podcast was abruptly suspended. "Yes, the Wall of Silence is being silenced," Marchand wrote on Twitter.
The news came at a busy time for the denomination, which in June elected its next archbishop and voted on changes to its abuse protocols. For years, the young denomination has faced controversy for perceived shortcomings in its protocols on safeguarding for congregations and clergy and lay leader misconduct. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/wall-silence-podcast-about-abuse-acna-was-silenced-now-its-back
The Episcopal Church roils from one crisis to the next trying to dodge its own canons on sexual abuse. The latest is the Diocese of El Camino Real where Bishop Lucinda Ashby and the ECR Director of Communications Carole Bartolini rein. According to Anglican Watch their behavior is so bad they should tender their resignations. The truth matters: A letter received by Anglican Watch, redacted in order to afford privacy for the complainant and others, reveals that the diocese's claims, which attempt to throw shade at the complainant and gaslight church members, are, to be blunt, lies. You can read more here: https://www.anglicanwatch.com/the-truth-matters-letter-disproves-bishop-lucinda-ashbys-claims-about-registered-sex-offender/
And here: https://virtueonline.org/episcopal-bishop-accused-not-enforcing-safe-church-measures-against-pastor
***
Just how far down the queer toilet will The Episcopal Church go? The Episcopal News Service reports that the Diocese of Spokane's Camp Cross in Coeur d'Alene, northern Idaho, is hosting its inaugural Queer Camp as an opportunity for LGBTQ+ youth and their families to connect and support each other in a safe and affirming environment.
"This is our committed way of showing what The Episcopal Church is, and camp is a place where people can show up and be seen and witnessed and affirmed," Alex Flannagan, the diocese's canon for camp, youth and family ministries, told Episcopal News Service. The Diocese of Spokane encompasses eastern Washington and northern Idaho.
At Queer Camp, the 20 campers will participate in typical summer camp activities, including games, crafts, campfires and water activities. Flannagan said, however, that worship will include liturgies specifically chosen for LGBTQ+ people and will include "careful use of pronouns." Additionally, campers will be able to swim in swimwear that best suits their gender identities without judgment. Pastoral care will also be available for the families, including parents as they privately share their feelings and experiences with supporting their LGBTQ+ children among each other.
***
On a brighter note, IRD Anglican journalist Jeff Walton asked and answered, What are the Largest Anglican Seminaries? He noted that three Anglican seminaries prepare students for ministry in the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA): Trinity Anglican Seminary (formerly Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry), Nashotah House, and Reformed Episcopal Seminary. The tables below show them ranked by Headcount (HC) and Full-Time Equivalent Enrollment (FTE).
Largest Anglican (ACNA) Seminaries HC FTE
Trinity School for Ministry 143 and 90 respectfully.
Nashotah House 112 and 76 respectfully.
Reformed Episcopal Seminary 12 and 8 respectfully.
To read more click here: https://virtueonline.org/what-are-largest-anglican-seminaries
These are all hopeful signs for North American Anglicanism especially as Episcopal seminaries are nearly all in decline.
***
Alarming trends about church attendance in America is not new, but the situation worsens by the week with fewer attendees and drying up coffers. A new report out from CBN News reveals that inflation in America is resulting in churches reporting a decrease in giving.
"From the grocery checkout line to the gas pump and now the church pew, Americans are closely watching what they spend and it's putting some churches in a bind.
"Churches are in some instances struggling," Robert Blair with Ministry Brands told CBN News. "They're not keeping up with inflation. Donations are down. In some instances, attendance is down."
Ministry Brands' latest study shows charitable giving in 2023 failed to keep up with inflation, with 55 percent of churches seeing a decrease in giving. This hit smallest churches the hardest, with only 36 percent reporting an increase. On top of that, cash and check donations dropped for 33 percent of all churches included in the study.
This begs the question about how to "do church" in the future. As Americans age, and the generation of Boomers are the biggest groups of donors to philanthropy, it makes the average donor age 75! They won't be around much longer. Nobody is taking their place. More and more churches will rely on part time priests and pastors and retirees to fill pews. But these are not energetic evangelists and disciplers. Holding down the fort till the last person dies or leaves town is not a recipe for survival or growth. https://www.christianpost.com/news/fewer-churchgoers-giving-more-to-cover-church-expenses-study.html
***
JEWS AND CHRISTIANS FACE ANNIHILATION IF ISLAM WINS IN MIDDLE EAST WAR. Palestinian Muslims say they plan to kill all the Christians in the entire Holy Land after they finish the genocide of Jews in Israel. Even as I write the Middle East hangs by a thread at the possibility of an expanded war.

Are you surprised at this declaration? I'm not. The Christian population in the ME has gone from approximately 5% of the Middle Eastern population, down from 13% in the early 20th century.

The percentage of Christians in the Middle East has been declining in recent history. However, some say that the decline is not in Christianity itself, but rather in the number of Christians living in the region due to emigration. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/south-africa%E2%80%99s-chief-rabbi-blasts-pope-francis-and-archbishop-canterbury-over-middle-east-history

***
Power Struggle at Barnabas Aid Leads to Charges and Counter Charges. It is with profound sadness that I wrote this story as I have known the leaders for more than half a century, and know them to be good and godly people.
A power struggle within one of Britain's biggest Christian charities supporting persecuted believers around the world, saw its founder and leadership summarily stood down and a new leadership put in place without the united consent of the trustees.
The founder of Barnabas Aid Patrick Sookhdeo was ousted, with new leaders seeking outside accountability for monies spent, with an alleged toxic work environment, and gates at the national headquarters in Pewsey locked.
The drama began when Barnabas Aid founder Patrick Sookhdeo, his wife Rosemary and two trustees, Caroline Kerslake and Dr. Prasad Phillips were suspended after complaints were made by whistleblowers. A power struggle for the organization began. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/power-struggle-barnabas-aid-leads-charges-and-counter-charges
***
Increasingly I find myself angry at the growing scandals by allegedly evangelical and mega church pastors passing themselves off as God's gift to the world, when in fact they are little more then conmen for the Lord.
My anger overflowed this week and I wrote CONMEN FOR THE LORD which you can read here: https://virtueonline.org/conmen-lord
The church has always suffered from a few bad apples. The apostle Paul faced down conmen in his time, and throughout history the Church has had to face and expel men who claimed the name of Christ, but were Christians in name only.
History is replete with them. Phygelus and Hermogenes betrayed Paul and followed untrue doctrines. The Ebionites rejected Paul as an apostate from the law, using only a version of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, known as the Gospel of the Ebionites. Alexander the coppersmith did significant harm to Paul's ministry.
Today it is no different, except perhaps the shamelessness with which preachers operate and the tens of millions of dollars they con from their followers. It is not just bad doctrine that is being preached by the likes of Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons, or the heresies of a John Shelby Spong or Katharine Jefferts Schori; it is so called evangelical preachers masquerading as teachers of the word. https://virtueonline.org/conmen-lord
***
Mariology and the New Testament: A Factual List. Mary the mother of Jesus is largely a silent figure for Protestants. You rarely, if ever hear her preached about except as a passing reminder that she is the mother of Jesus. Joseph, her husband, is even more elusive. By entrusting Mary to the "beloved disciple" (commonly understood to be John), at the foot of the cross, Jesus was showing love and concern for his mother, ensuring that she would be safe and cared for after his death. The Roman Catholic Church has always seen this as a defining moment in the role of Mary in the Church. But are they right to do so? This sterling piece by Dr. Robert Gagnon on Mary puts her in biblical perspective. Here is an excerpt:
3 The numbers of times that Mary is depicted in the NT as not grasping Jesus' mission after Jesus' infancy (Mark 3:21; Luke 2:48-50 [but note v. 51]; John 2:3-4 [but note v. 5])
2 The number of independent Jesus' sayings in the NT discouraging his followers from giving special significance to his mother qua mother (Mark 3:31-35, with parallels in Matthew and Luke; Luke 11:27-28)
2 The number of times in the NT that Jesus addresses Mary as "woman," as though she had no more significance to his identify as the Man from Heaven than any other woman (John 2:4; 19:26)
1 The number of times Jesus rebukes his mother directly in the NT (John 2:4; but indirectly twice more: Luke 2:49; Mark 3:33-34)
The Apostle Paul never talks about Mary, never names Mary in person, but he does mention her as mother on one occasion, that Jesus "was born of a woman."
To read more click here: https://virtueonline.org/mariology-and-new-testament-factual-list

***

Well, what does it mean to be Protestant? Truth Points Toward Protestantism.
Review: 'What It Means to Be Protestant' by Gavin Ortlund is a good start.

He writes: "I read such Christian apologetics as C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity (which was intriguing), Tim Keller's The Reason for God (more powerful), and N. T. Wright's majestic The Resurrection of the Son of God (most powerful of all). Ultimately, my conversion moment came overnight--literally, as I was stuck in the Amsterdam airport, with a copy of the Gospels to keep me company, on my way home from an academic conference. That moment also didn't feel intellectual at all; it felt like an out-of-body experience--which, I suppose, it was.

Considering in retrospect how thoroughly Protestant my approach was, I was surprised to read in Gavin Ortlund's book What It Means to Be Protestant: The Case for an Always-Reforming Church that "on the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox side (especially Catholic), there is a huge body of literature, social media presence, and apologetics ministries that are unmatched on the Protestant side" (xv). In this book, he sets out to balance out the field.

To read more click here: https://virtueonline.org/truth-points-toward-protestantism

***

One of the saddest betrayals of the faith over homosexuality was revealed recently when a father and son team Christopher and Richard Hays thinks God has changed His mind about same-sex sex. Is He Right?

For decades, Christians seeking to uphold the Bible's "no" to same-sex sexual relationships have quoted Richard Hays's treatment of this topic in his Moral Vision of the New Testament. But Hays (emeritus professor of New Testament at Duke Divinity School) has coauthored a new book, The Widening of God's Mercy: Sexuality Within the Biblical Story, arguing for "the full inclusion of LGBT+ people in Christian communities."

Readers might expect to find that Hays has changed his mind about the meaning of the verses that apparently prohibit same-sex sex. But he hasn't. Instead, he and his son, Christopher (an Old Testament professor at Fuller Theological Seminary), suggest God has changed his mind. If we read the Bible carefully, they argue, we'll find that "God repeatedly changes his mind in ways that expand the sphere of his love" (2). In light of this, the Hayses "conclude that many religious conservatives, however well-intentioned, are wrong about the most essential point of theology: the character of God" (2).

What's at stake is our understanding of who God is and how we can discern his will. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/richard-hays-thinks-god-changed-his-mind-about-same-sex-sex-he-right

Dr. Robert Gagnon, a world authority on homosexuality had this to say: "Sadly, Richard Hays has backslid into heresy, reneging on his decades-old published rejection of homosexual practice as immoral. He used to be the main go-to person on the issue until his work was eclipsed by my own more extensive work in 2001."

The two Hays argue that God, who is ever "changing his mind" to "broaden,""widen," and "expand" his "grace" and "mercy" in order to "include more and more people,""has already gone on ahead of our debates and expanded his grace" to embrace "full inclusion of LGBTQ people in Christian communities."

They contend that the arguments about the so-called "handful of specific passages" dealing with homosexual practice and transgenderism (it is really the entire matrix of biblical texts dealing with human sexuality) "have reached an impasse" and are "missing the forest for the trees."

This is a nonsense claim. There is no exegetical (or hermeneutical) impasse. The texts that speak directly to the issue of homosexual practice and transgenderism, understood in their ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman contexts and taking into consideration the flaws of "new knowledge" arguments, decisively demonstrate a strong biblical witness against these behaviors from ancient Israel through early Christianity.

***

Terry Mattingly is one of the sanest writers on religion and culture in North America today. He has been at it for four decades. He is thoroughly orthodox in faith and morals and his writings draw readers from across the religious spectrum.

Mattingly is a journalist, author, and professor of note. He is currently syndicated by Universal, also called the Andrews McMeel Syndicate. Mattingly has written "On Religion", a nationally syndicated column, since the summer of 1988. Mattingly also ran a well-known religious journalism blog, GetReligion. He recently closed it down and started a Substack newsletter on faith and mass media that he calls Rational Sheep.

Raised a Southern Baptist who then spent a decade as an evangelical Anglican before swimming the Bosphorus. He "graduated" to becoming a convert and practicing Orthodox Christian as a member of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America.

He is also Senior Fellow on Communications and Culture at Saint Constantine College in Houston. I can't speak too highly of Terry's skills as a writer, his analysis of faith and culture. You might not agree with him on everything, but his insights are worth reading and I urge VOL readers to check out his new Substack.

His new Substack Rational Faith can be viewed here: https://tmattingly.substack.com/

***

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We must give up the vain idea of trying to please everybody. That is impossible, and the attempt is a mere waste of time. We must be content to walk in Christ's steps, and let the world say what it likes. -- J. C. Ryle

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
September 23, 2024

RECONCILIATION -- ANGLICAN STYLE. Saul David Alinsky an American community activist and political theorist once said, reconciliation means just one thing: "when one side gets enough power, then the other side gets reconciled to it."

If there is one thing, I have learned watching Anglican Church politics over nearly four decades it is this; reconciliation became the buzzword for pansexual acceptance. Reconciliation meant reconciling the unreconcilable, in order to achieve an end that allowed one side to claim victory.

Homosexuals and lesbians knew how to play the game. Once a forced reconciliation was achieved that homosexual practice was acceptable, and Resolution B012 was passed, then it was time to move on. Nothing to see here.

The push for reconciliation was not primarily about reconciling positions on an unbiblical sexual behavior; it was about the demand by a small minority of aggrieved pansexualists that their abominable lifestyle be accepted in the name of God of course, who Himself is clearly evolving on the issue, if the Hays theological father and son team now believe He has. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/reconciliation-anglican-style

For the record evangelical theologian Richard Hays thinks God has changed his mind about same-sex sex. A new book 'The Widening of God's Mercy' by Christopher and Richard Hays (father and son) tries to make the case that God has in fact evolved over sexuality issues as He has on other issues and we should all now change our minds and fall in line with him.

The original book made Hays a darling among conservative evangelical Christians who opposed LGBTQ acceptance in their churches and the broader culture and frequently cited Hays' work in debates.

For decades, Christians seeking to uphold the Bible's "no" to same-sex sexual relationships have quoted Richard Hays's treatment of this topic in his Moral Vision of the New Testament. This writer has certainly used the book on multiple occasions. But Hays (emeritus professor of New Testament at Duke Divinity School) has coauthored a new book, The Widening of God's Mercy: Sexuality Within the Biblical Story, arguing for "the full inclusion of LGBT+ people in Christian communities." You can read a full critique here: https://virtueonline.org/richard-hays-thinks-god-changed-his-mind-about-same-sex-sex-he-right

If we read the Bible carefully, they argue, we'll find that "God repeatedly changes his mind in ways that expand the sphere of his love" (2). In light of this, the Hayses "conclude that many religious conservatives, however well-intentioned, are wrong about the most essential point of theology: the character of God".

Naturally, evangelical theologian Robert A. J. Gagnon professor of New Testament at Houston Baptist University, shredded the Hays book. Gagnon penned a nearly 1,500-word thread on X attacking Hays' new book: "God hasn't changed his mind. Hays and son have changed their minds. They are now swimming in the sea of heresy, rejecting the clear and overwhelming witness of Scripture ... ." OUCH. Of course, Gagnon is right. He has written the definitive book on homosexuality that no one has seriously refuted. Titled; 'The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics', the book has not been seriously challenged by scholars and few will go into public debate against Gagnon.

You can read another critique here: https://www.ncronline.org/opinion/guest-voices/conservative-christians-just-lost-their-scholarly-trump-card-same-sex

In 2009, evangelical missiologist Ed Stetzer said that conservative Christians who were pro-LGBTQ could all fit into a minivan. No exaggeration at the time, but in the years since, the minivan has become a caravan.

In their book "After the Ball," psychologist Marshall Kirk and ad man Hunter Madsen painted a picture of what the gay rights movement should do to normalize and advance their agenda in America. The book came out in 1990. Kirk and Madsen treated their book as a manifesto and we have witnessed their vision.

The propaganda effort the authors set out included inserting gay men and women into Hollywood to start writing shows with gay positive characters, then make gay characters normal characters on shows. They would get friends in the media to positively cover the gay rights movement. Advertisers would feature gay men and women in advertisements as an ideal. Gay celebrities would be championed. Churches, too, would be involved, with liberal churches rejecting Christian orthodoxy championed and those that kept the faith vilified. They won. Now sadly evangelicals are falling all over themselves to accommodate the new sexual order.

***

If you are thinking of crossing the Tiber because you are fed up with the heresies of The Episcopal Church and the uncertainty over the ordination of women in the ACNA and the Continuers are not in your line of vision, then you might want to think long and hard before you do.

This week the pope made statements that have floored the faithful and raises serious questions as to what he and the RCC really believe!

On his recent visit to Singapore, Pope Francis sacked the Savior of the world, confidently declaring that Jesus's self-proclaimed job description as "the way, the truth, and the life" was redundant since, in the pontiff's view "all religions are paths to God," wrote Jules Gomes for The Stream.

The pope's words, delivered last Friday at an inter-religious meeting with young people, has triggered a tsunami of confusion and a volcano of outrage. The Vatican quickly issued a new translation of the pontiff's words, which proved to be a distinction without a difference.

In Singapore talking to young people from various religious traditions the pope revealed his soft-headed theology with a broadside of ecumenical nonsense that must have his predecessors rolling in their graves.

Francis told a group of young people from various religions that we should not say that one god is "more important" than another. The Pope compared religions to different languages that all say the same thing, the clear implication of which is that all religions are equal. "Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, Christian -- they are different paths," he said.

"If God is the god of all, then we are all sons and daughters of God," Francis said. We are all children of our heavenly Father, the Creator, but we are only sons and daughters of God by way of the new birth.

The pope said enough cringeworthy stuff as to make the last five Episcopal presiding bishops look like saints upon the earth. Even his pro-gay American cardinals and bishops must be asking themselves, what the hell is going on with Francis. Has he completely lost his mind?

What Francis said was straight up Christian heresy and universalist nonsense. It is certainly possible to see good in non-Christian religions, but we are only saved through the work of Christ and no other, for there is no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved. (acts 4:12) You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/pope-still-catholic

Is the pope still catholic?

***

Pope Francis and Archbishop Justin Welby seem to be working off the same playbook, and it's not the Bible.

Following a disastrous remake of his Catholic faith in Singapore talking to young people about all religions having the same god and not to worry about the exclusive claims of Christ, the upcoming Synod on Synodality continued his woke themes.

The Vatican's press office released details of the upcoming Synod later this month, which includes a "penitential vigil" that will see the "confession" of sins against "synodality,""migrants" and "participation of all," among other things.

Sins particularly being "confessed" include:
Sin against peace ...
Sin against creation, against indigenous populations, against migrants ...
Sin of abuse ...
Sin against women, family, youth ...
Sin of using doctrine as stones to be hurled ...
Sin against poverty ...
Sin against synodality/lack of listening, communion, and participation of all ...

Of course, Archbishop Justin Welby has done a lot of virtue signaling of his own.

His prostrating of himself before various shrines and the Church of England's ancient sins now finds that he has all but run out of steam with the only hope that he retires in two years still in one emotional and spiritual piece.

He has been a wrecking ball. The safeguarding issue is in shambles; his blind support of Palestinians while ignoring the real threat of Hamas has not gone unnoticed. The emergence of the Anglican Alliance's de facto parallel province allowing priests to bless same-sex civil marriages in church; The Church of England Evangelical Council's (CEEC) commissioning of its first set of overseers not approved by the CofE; is a sure slap in the face at Welby. Their action caused a major upset in some women CofE priests, https://virtueonline.org/church-must-not-be-politely-silent-over-cofe-breakaway-says-rector all the while the church is quietly losing more people with surveys showing the institution only has about 20 years to go before the last doors close. Less than half of the population-- 46.2% --now identify as Christian, a steep decline from 59.3% in 2011. Even fewer worship in CofE parishes. Meantime evangelical and Pentecostal churches keep growing because they have a clear fix on sin and salvation.

There will always be an England, even one diminished by royal scandals, but not necessarily a Church of England to prop it up. Fiat Lux.

In a send up of the Church of England, Blogger Anglican Futures wrote this piece:
The HoB, the CNC and a very British democracy. Those who are of a certain age and follow the politics of the Church of England often feel trapped in a re-run of the 1980's satirical sitcoms "Yes, Minister" and "Yes, Prime Minister".

Sir Humphrey: "Bernard, if the right people don't have power do you know what happens the wrong people get it -- politicians, counsellors, ordinary voters."
Bernard: "But aren't they supposed to in a democracy "
Sir Humphrey: "This is a British democracy.."
Bernard: But how do you mean?
Sir Humphrey: British democracy recognizes that you need a system to protect the important things of life and keep them out of the hands of the barbarians. Things like the things like the Opera, Radio 3, the countryside, the Law, the universities - both of them."

Taken from BBC Comedy Greats https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzfNEF0e-y4

The Church of England would appear to be a very British democracy. Yesterday the House of Bishops held an emergency meeting because there was a fear that their 'system' was breaking down because it had been infiltrated by barbarians.

The events that have precipitated this crisis are centered on the Crown Nominations Commission (CNC), the process by which new diocesan bishops are appointed. On two of the last eight occasions that they have met, they have 'failed' to make an appointment.

After the second 'failure' the Archbishop of Canterbury put out a press statement which said, "Together with the Archbishop of York and others, there will also need to be a period of reflection on the implications of this decision on the Church of England more generally."

The use of the word 'failure' is surely indicative of the bishops' sense of entitlement. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/hob-cnc-and-very-british-democracy

The Times reports a 33% Failure rate to appoint bishops attributed to disagreements over gay blessings. From 1997 to 2022, the Crown Nomination Commission was tasked with appointing 55 bishops and failed to reach agreement on a candidate only twice -- a 3.6 per cent failure rate. In the nineteen months from the start of 2023, the committee had to appoint six bishops and failed to select a candidate twice, a failure rate of 33.3 per cent. ... Twice in the past year, in Ely and Carlisle, the committee failed to reach the two thirds majority to agree on a candidate. It is thought that disagreements between factions -- supporters and opponents of last year's move to start offering blessings to gay couples -- have led to deadlocks between those who want to appoint a bishop from their own "camp"'

Andrew Carey writes in the CEN Newsletter:

"It is encouraging to see the House of Bishops open up. This will counter the lack of trust and open the way to greater transparency in the Church of England. Secondly, the proposals will have the opposite effect. They will stoke further distrust. The proposals are being presented as 'simplifying', procedural and minor changes, but in reality they increase the power of the Bishops and the Archbishops -- which are already too great. The proposals, if supported by General Synod will give the Archbishops a casting vote and will water-down the confidentiality of the process."

***

The evangelical Diocese of Sydney diocese report warns of 'impaired communion' with Church of England, screamed a recent headline.

The Anglican Church of Australia (ACA) would "automatically" cease to be in communion with the Church of England if the Appellate Tribunal determined that the C of E was "inconsistent" with the Australian Church's "Fundamental Declarations", a report to the Sydney synod by the diocese's doctrine commission suggests.

The Appellate Tribunal is the church's highest court, and the Archbishop of Sydney, the Most Rev. Kanishka Raffel, is a tribunal member. The report says that the Church of England could be ruled "inconsistent" if it "rejected the scriptures as 'the ultimate rule and standard of faith' or if they ceased to 'obey the commands of Christ and teach his doctrine'".

The ACA, the report continues, "has no legal power to declare whether it is in or out of communion with any other Church in the [Anglican] Communion, other than the Church of England. Nevertheless, serious breaches of gospel communion do exist within the Anglican Communion, and 'impaired communion' or 'broken communion' accurately describes this doctrinal reality." You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/sydney-diocese-report-warns-impaired-communion-church-england

***

In the evolving world of Anglican church politics, an ACNA priest was elected Bishop in Madagascar. The Ven. Darrell Critch, a priest of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), was elected Bishop of Mahajanga, Madagascar, a diocese of the Church in the Province of the Indian Ocean. Critch's new diocese is part of an Anglican church in communion with the See of Canterbury, unlike the ACNA. This will likely make his ministry the first of its kind amid deep division across the Communion.

Critch, who will make his first visit to Madagascar this month, described the call to serve as a bishop on the other side of the world as "totally out of left field," though he has been involved in mission work in Guatemala through the Anglican Church of the Good Samaritan, the parish he has served in Saint Johns, Newfoundland, for over two decades. He also served as a delegate from the ACNA to last summer's Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) Assembly in Egypt. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/acna-priest-elected-bishop-madagascar

***

The Episcopal Diocese of Nicaragua, along with 92 other churches and religious groups, was formally dissolved by the Nicaraguan government on August 29, and its assets are subject to confiscation.

The action came just weeks after the repressive government of President Daniel Ortega revoked the legal status of 1,500 other churches, most of them evangelical and Pentecostal. Since 2018, 5,552 organizations -- about 70 percent of the non-governmental organizations that existed at that time -- have arbitrarily lost their legal status in the country. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/nicaraguan-diocese-dissolved-repressive-government

***

The Free Church of England (FCE) has dismissed the Rev. Brett Murphy as it ruled that videos he posted online had brought it 'into disrepute'.

The breakaway FCE Anglican denomination's bishop, one John Fenwick, dismissed the Rev. Murphy last month after ruling that the "nature and tone" of videos he posted online had brought the church "into disrepute".

The FCE took issue with the vicar using the term "witch" to refer to female priests.

The vicar, who opposes the ordination of women, has claimed the comments were "tongue in cheek and sarcastic" and that he has a right to free speech.

But the real issue the MSM in England is missing, is the dogfight going on between the bishop, one John Fenwick and the priest over his ordination, the property and much more. The congregation is fully on the side of the Rev. Brett and they are fighting to keep him. This has become a legal matter and may well have to be resolved in the courts. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/uk-free-speech-storm-embroils-church-after-vicar-sacked-over-anti-woke-youtube-channel

***

'Seven Hypotheses' Stir Debate in Canadian Church. The Anglican Church of Canada has seen precipitous decline in recent decades, and a church commission says it needs to change its structures "to enable a greater capacity within the church to proclaim the Gospel."

"Reimagining the Church," a report from the Primates' Commission on Proclaiming the Gospel in the Twenty-First Century released in August, lays out seven "hypotheses" that mostly focus on colonialism, structure, and expenses, and commends them for churchwide discussion.

Though the report claims that "many of these hypotheses have been talked about informally for years," those focused on structure and colonialism are proving controversial. You can read Sue Careless's report here: https://virtueonline.org/seven-hypotheses-stir-debate-canadian-church

***

The Most Rev. Dr. Justin Badi Arama, Archbishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan and Chair of the GSFA Steering Committee delivered a broadside at Archbishop Justin Welby. Writing in his September chairman's letter Badi said; "We live in a time of historic transition. Tragically, the See of Augustine founded has departed from the faith Augustine taught and I see lessons of hope for us in the life of Gregory as we continue the great task of resetting the Communion." You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/gsfa-chairmans-letter-september-2024

***

The controversial Anglo-Catholic/FCE/Nordic Catholic Church priest Calvin Robinson, who describes himself as Evangelical Catholic says he is fleeing England for the US because his life there is unsafe with extremist Muslims wanting to kill him. He says England is "on the cusp of a civil war."

He joins St. Paul's Anglican Catholic Church, a flourishing Anglo-Catholic congregation located on Lake Michigan Drive on the West Side of Grand Rapids. It is affiliated with the Anglican Catholic church, a Continuing (Anglican) Church denomination. He will be rector starting Sept. 20.

The parish was founded in the nineteenth century as part of the Episcopal Church, but in 1980 the members found themselves obliged to secede from the Episcopal Church, unable in conscience to accept innovations in faith and order which were without warrant in scripture or tradition.

The Anglican Catholic Church (ACC), also known as the Anglican Catholic Church (Original Province), is a body of Christians in the continuing Anglican movement, which is separate from the Anglican Communion. This denomination is separate from the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia and the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada.

You can read more here: https://www.christianpost.com/news/expatriate-uk-cleric-calvin-robinson-issues-warning-to-americans.html

***

200 Christian leaders call democracy a ‘test of faith’

A letter describing democracy as a “moral affirmation” urges Christians to repudiate “anti-democratic sentiment” — namely, ideologies such as Christian nationalism and racism.

A diverse group of influential Christian leaders is calling on their fellow faithful to protect democracy, arguing that American Christians are compelled to defend voting freedoms as a “test of faith,” reports the Religion News Service.

“We write in a moment of fierce urgency, as the people of God animated by faith, hope, and love,” said the statement. “It is in this spirit that we reaffirm Christian support for democracy and invite all Christians and people of moral conscience to do the same.” You can read more here: https://religionnews.com/2024/09/19/christian-leaders-call-defendign-democracy-a-test-of-faith/

***

CUTURE WARS

Stories worthy of your time to read.

'My heart breaks': Former trans child shares how she healed from traum...
https://virtueonline.org/my-heart-breaks-former-trans-child-shares-how-she-healed-trauma-gender-dysphoria

Christians Are Being Hounded From Their Jobs by the Perpetually Offended
https://virtueonline.org/christians-are-being-hounded-their-jobs-perpetually-offended

https://virtueonline.org/historical-evolution-anglican-church-nigeria

https://virtueonline.org/what-apostles-creed-denies

https://virtueonline.org/lose-gospel-return-childishness

VIRTUEONLINE. In the next 8 weeks we will roll out VOL's new website. The designers say it promises to be a game changer. Our lists will be coordinated and flow faster and more evenly. But we need your support. The move is costly and I don't have the funds necessary to make the change. There are no salaries, but there are bills to pay, travel to be done, correspondents and a webmaster to pay.

If you can help, please send a tax-deductible donation to the address below:

VIRTUEONLINE
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A PayPal donation link can be found here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support.html

If you know someone who would like to receive these bi-weekly news reports, they can subscribe here: https://virtueonline.org/ It is free, nothing is behind a paywall. Thank you for your support.

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO MY EXPANDING MINISTRY AND OUTREACH
I have started a SUBSTACK with my scribblings on the Middle East with the war in Israel. You can see them here: https://substack.com/@davidvirtue2?utm_source=user-menu

Warmly in Christ,

David

"Perhaps the transformation of the disciples of Jesus is the greatest evidence of all for the resurrection."― John R.W. Stott

Sicknesses, losses, crosses, anxieties and disappointments seem absolutely needful to keep us humble, watchful and spiritual-minded. They are as needful as the pruning knife to the vine and the refiner's furnace to the gold. --- J. C. Ryle

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
October 4, 2024

A NEW STUDY OUT on church attendance reveals that the unchurched don't attend mainly because of indifference and not because of busyness or antagonism.

Is this why 40 million Americans have walked away from churches and other religious institutions in America in the last 25 years?

For some, the decision is rooted in deep pain. But for the majority, their reasons for leaving are a lot more mundane than you'd expect. Most people have left for really pedestrian reasons. Like, I moved; attendance was inconvenient; or, say, "family change," Michael Graham, co-author of "The Great Dechurching" says.

That's something like 12 percent of the population, and it represents the largest concentrated change in church attendance in American history.

So, what does that say about the importance of faith in America? A lot actually.

As many as 100,000 church-owned buildings are expected to be sold or repurposed by 2030, according to an analysis in a new book, "Gone for Good? Negotiating the Coming Wave of Church Property Transition." Though Sunday attendance has recovered in part from COVID-19 restrictions, a decades-long decline has continued to take its toll, and the squeeze on churches has only gotten tighter in the post-pandemic economy, according to fall 2023 data from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research.

As a result, congregations face hard choices about what to do with large sacred structures that are underutilized, costly to keep up and suffering from deferred maintenance, reports the Religion News Service.

"Everything keeps getting more expensive, but we have fewer people in the congregation to pay for it," said Jainine Gambaro, a member of Franklin Reformed Church in Nutley, New Jersey. "We keep going by the grace of God, but it's an issue."

Gambaro was one of some 100 church leaders and congregants who gathered online and in person Sept. 20-21 to hear from a lineup of real estate experts about how to reimagine a new future for church buildings.

The Future of Church Property conference, organized by Princeton Theological Seminary, focused on turning community needs into grants, partnerships with developers and new business-driven income streams.

New leaders in The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada are using the language of business to deal with the crisis both denominations face.

The operative words are "structural realignment,""enacting organizational change in The Episcopal Church to support the church's priorities."

Presiding Bishop elect Sean Rowe embraced the church's call for a "structural realignment," and he indicated that he intends to move fast.

"The realignment will be underway soon," Rowe said, adding that he expects potentially substantial changes to churchwide operations in the first quarter of 2025.

This is code for managed decline.

Rowe is partly responding to a line in the 2025-27 budget plan, approved in June by the 81st General Convention, that called on the new presiding bishop to develop a plan to save $3.5 million on staff over three years, or about 5% of the church's total personnel costs. The budget gives no recommendation for the shape or scope of that realignment, though Rowe outlined a preliminary process for considering such changes. It will include conversations and meetings this fall with the more than 140 churchwide employees who carry out the mission and ministry of The Episcopal Church at the denominational level.

A "structural realignment" won't change the church's top priorities, identified by General Convention as including racial healing, evangelism and creation care, though "the way we put those priorities into practice is bound to change significantly," he said.

Racism is not a problem in the Episcopal Church. Less than 2 percent are Black and there have been no reports of racism having broken out in the Church. The vast majority of parishes have never seen a black person and never will. Their parishes will be dead and sold off long before a person of color passes through the red doors.

Evangelism, Episcopal style goes like this; "Through the spiritual practice of evangelism, we seek, name and celebrate Jesus' loving presence in the stories of all people -- then invite everyone to more." That is not biblical evangelism which proclaims the Good News of God's redemptive grace through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Calling people out of darkness into light; proclaiming salvation to sinners...this is evangelism. That is not a message Episcopalians proclaim which is that God loves absolutely everybody and you don't need to change. Come as you are, stay as you are.

Creation Care. Building birdhouses as part of the church's creation care ministry in places like Mannheim, PA won't stop the hemorrhaging of people leaving TEC.

Rowe begins his nine-year term as presiding bishop on Nov. 1.

An Anglican Church of Canada primate's commission tasked with rethinking church structures is encouraging Anglicans to provide feedback on its seven intentionally provocative statements or "hypotheses" through an online survey.

The commission, Reimagining the Church--Proclaiming the Gospel in the 21st Century, established by former primate Archbishop Linda Nicholls, first presented the hypotheses in spring to the House of Bishops and Council of General Synod, then distributed them publicly in early June, says commission chair Archdeacon Monique Stone.

The hypotheses include dismantling colonialism in the Council of the North and church governance structures; eliminating either General Synod or the ecclesiastical provinces; returning to a model where the primate is also a diocesan bishop; reducing travel and meeting costs; looking at new ways of running the national office; and ending editorially independent journalism--specifically, the Anglican Journal--funded by General Synod.

A story appearing in the Anglican Journal in August revealed new numbers for the ACoC, and they show that Canada is the first major province of the Anglican Communion to have collapsed.

Data for average Sunday attendance: had dropped from 162,000 in 2001 to 65,000 in 2022. It continues to drop year over year.

These are truly remarkable numbers. A church already in steep decline saw that decline speed up during COVID. Attendance in 2022 was 40 percent of attendance in 2001. And between 2019 and 2022, the ACoC lost a quarter of its Sunday attendance.

This is all about managed decline.

The only difference between TEC and the ACoC is that TEC has money, lots of money and the ACoC while not bankrupt, has faced financial challenges in the past which have depleted its resources.

In 2000, the ACoC faced bankruptcy due to lawsuits from former students of residential schools who alleged sexual abuse. The church cut costs by laying off employees and slashing its budget by 11%.

In 2017, the Anglican Church of Canada had 357,123 members, which was 1% of the Canadian population.

The Episcopal Church has assets held in trust worth over $400 million; Clergy retirement funds of $11 billion; endowments worth $4.5 billion and 14 acres of real estate in lower Manhattan next to Trinity Church, which is estimated to be worth $6 billion.

With its average weekly attendance plummeting, The Episcopal Church will die the richest denomination in church history.

***

The evangelical Diocese of Sydney has eased it chastity rule, rejecting an attempt to prescribe the marital status and sexual ethic of workers in its committees, schools, and aid agencies.

The surprising veto was made at the synod's long September sessions, in a discussion over a new governance policy for the diocese. The mammoth policy sets out the management expected of an Anglican parish or organization and the people who serve in Australia's largest and most conservative Anglican diocese. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/sydney-eases-chastity-rule

***

In a surprising move The Anglican Church of Southern Africa's recent Provincial Synod had on the agenda a motion to approve a set of prayers for the 'blessing' of same sex couples. The motion was defeated!

There have been repeated attempts by a fringe group of gay rights activists, encouraged and supported by several diocesan bishops -- mainly from the dioceses which make up the greater urban region of Cape Town and environs -- to broker in the approval of homosexual relationships by the church. This attempt has over the past several years been resisted both in the House of Bishops and the Province.

Dioceses such as the Diocese of Port Elizabeth, a firmly evangelical diocese have been firm in their rejection of any moves to sanction prayers of blessings or any change of doctrine which would allow gay marriage (legal in South Africa since 2006). Bishop Eddie Daniels initiated a process this year to get the mind of the diocese on the matter and the verdict was unanimous in support of classical biblical teaching on the matter. In contrast, some Bishops in the Cape Town region have actively campaigned to have gay blessings approved.

Dave Doveton, Anglican Mainstream editor has written an excellent analysis about this that you can read here: https://virtueonline.org/southern-africa-rejection-gay-blessings

The Southern African province has been in the back pocket of TEC for decades and for their devotion have been given hundreds of thousands of dollars to push the Western church's pansexual agenda. This is a major smackdown of Archbishop Thabo Makgoba who has been pressing for gay marriage rites to please his American paymasters. The Southern African province is the only province on the sub-continent of Africa to want this; no other province has and most of the African provinces, as a result belong to GSFA and or GAFCON; both of which movements reject both homosexuality and homosexual marriage.

***

The Archbishop of Canterbury can't seem to stay out of trouble. He seems to wallow in it.

The CofE has become an ungodly church and its archbishop is silent in the face of evil. This, in reference to the war being waged against Israel on four fronts -- Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, and Iran. The Church of England is built on venomous and ignorant bigotry, says British Journalist, Melania Phillips. The CofE has once again defamed its Jews, screamed Phillips a British public commentator.

In all my career spanning nearly 50 years of writing about the Anglican Communion, going back to my first interview with then Archbishop Donald Coggan in 1974, I have not seen an archbishop and his church so eviscerated, bludgeoned, historically disemboweled, and publicly vilified as Justin Welby and the Church of England.

It is without parallel. It never happened when Lord Robert Runcie or Lord George Carey were archbishops, nor Rowan Williams, however theologically defective you might have deemed him to be. But Justin Welby takes the cake. He has been whacked around by Global South leaders to the point that many of them no longer recognize him as their leader. The press has had a field day over reparations, safeguarding, an LLF report that has virtually started World War III among evangelicals and much more. And now a statement on the Middle East that defies all human reasoning has erupted that makes you wonder if the archbishop has ever studied the Old Testament and the history of Israel in any serious manner.

Hezbollah attacked northern Israel with long range missiles, one of which hit Nazareth. Since Christians believe that Nazareth is where Jesus spent his childhood it is an important, even sacred town for them. One might therefore expect that the Church of England's clergy would voice horrified condemnation of Hezbollah, wrote Phillips.

"You think? I haven't been able to find a single such utterance. From the Archbishop of Canterbury: nothing. From the bishops of Gloucester, Chelmsford, Norwich and Southwark: nothing. Instead, they have expressed horrified condemnation of ... how did you guess? And as ever from the Church of England hierarchy, this condemnation is based on venomous and ignorant bigotry," said Phillips. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/ungodly-church-and-silent-archbishop-face-evil

***

A Church of England evangelical preacher, Mike Pilavachi, abused his power as a 'spiritual celebrity', an independent report has found.

In examining the misconduct of Pilavachi, the report is critical not just of leaders of the Soul Survivor movement in Watford, Hertfordshire, that he founded, for failing to act, but of the Church of England centrally.

It says many victims had been left struggling to come to terms with what had happened to them.

But some of those survivors say the report by barrister Fiona Scolding KC, commissioned by trustees of Soul Survivor, leaves unanswered questions, particularly on the full nature and extent of the failings of the Church of England.
Pilavachi was widely regarded as one of the country's most influential charismatic preachers. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/preacher-abused-his-power-spiritual-celebrity

***

A Virginia Anglican who was wrongly fired over pronouns was vindicated in a settlement in a religious liberty and free speech claim in Virginia.

In 2018, teacher Peter Vlaming was fired from his job for declining, as a matter of personal policy, to use pronouns for a student who identifies as transgender. Vlaming has successfully resolved his case in a settlement announced Monday.

In exchange for ending his lawsuit against the West Point, Virginia school board, Vlaming will receive $575,000 in damages and legal fees and a change of school district policies according to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) the Christian legal organization representing Vlaming after he was wrongly fired for declining to use inaccurate pronouns. His termination will be removed from his record.

You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/virginia-anglican-wrongly-fired-over-pronouns-vindicated-settlement

***

(RNS) --Leaders of the General Theological Seminary in New York City hope they have a plan in place to save the troubled school and its historic buildings.

The seminary announced that it had signed an agreement with Vanderbilt University to lease the Close, the seminary's historic campus in Manhattan. Under the terms of the lease, Vanderbilt will pay for needed improvements to the campus while allowing GTS to retain offices and space for its hybrid in-person and online master of divinity program. This will allow some 44 students to finish their degrees.

"GTS is now set to serve the Church for another century in New York," said Ian S. Markham, GTS' president.

An earlier plan to partner with a music school with ties to a conservative Catholic donor fell through when it was learned that the Catholic donor was averse to the openly pansexual agenda of TEC and a group of Episcopal bishops pulled the plug on the deal.

Last fall, the school admitted it had a cash flow crisis. "In fiscal year 2023, GTS' operating expenses were $7.8 million, against an annual income of $4.3 million," the school said in announcing an earlier plan to address the school's financial woes by leasing the campus.

But the bigger question is what sort of jobs will be available for the ordinands once they graduate. Full time church positions are shrinking, and most parishes cannot afford a fulltime priest unless the parish is heavily endowed. It is wishful thinking to believe the church and the seminary will be around "for another century in New York."

***

The ongoing saga in the Free Church of England (FCE) between Bishop John Fenwick and the Rev. Brett Murphy has heated up and VOL columnist Judith Sture too a long hard look at the situation. She blames both sides. It is not pleasant reading. You can read her take here:
https://virtueonline.org/murphy-fenwick-and-fce-gloves-come

***

In Nigeria, a State Governor praised Anglican Bishop Ben Kwashi as a 'role model and mentor' at a recent celebration of the bishop's birthday. This is well deserved. I have known this godly bishop for decades and he has been a real inspiration to Anglicans in both the Global South and the West.

In a congratulatory message, Governor Mutfwang described Bishop Kwashi as a remarkable role model and mentor to countless individuals within and beyond Nigeria who revere God. He noted that the Bishop's life has been one of profound inspiration and transformation, marked by his deep commitment to service to God and humanity.

You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/nigeria-state-governor-praises-bishop-ben-kwashi-role-model-and-mentor

***

VIRTUEONLINE. We will shortly be rolling out VOL's new website. The designers say it promises to be a game changer. Our lists will be coordinated and flow faster and more evenly. But we need your support. The move is costly and I don't have the funds necessary to make the change. There are no salaries, but there are bills to pay, travel to be done, correspondents and a webmaster to pay.
If you can help, please send a tax-deductible donation to the address below:

VIRTUEONLINE
P.O. Box 111
Shohola, PA 18458

A PayPal donation link can be found here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support.html

If you know someone who would like to receive these bi-weekly news reports, they can subscribe here: https://virtueonline.org/ It is free, nothing is behind a paywall. Thank you for your support.

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO MY EXPANDING MINISTRY AND OUTREACH

I have started a SUBSTACK with scribblings on the Middle East over the war in Israel. You can see them here: https://substack.com/@davidvirtue2

Warmly in Christ,

David

21% of Americans said they attend religious services weekly, while 9% said they go nearly every week. However, 11% of respondents said they attend about once a month, 25% reported attending "seldom," while 31% said they "never" go to worship. -- Gallup Poll

The Commission of Inquiry into Discrimination Against Christians (CIDAC), which is tasked with investigating impartially the nature, context and scale of discrimination faced by Christians in the UK, has released its interim report. This shows Christians are subjected to loss of employment and livelihood, baseless criminal investigations, the closing of bank accounts, humiliation, bullying and even physical attack. -- C.I.D.A.C.

There are people (a great many of them) who are slowly ceasing to be Christians but who still call themselves by that name: some of them are clergymen. -- C.S. Lewis

We should not ask, 'What is wrong with the world?' for that diagnosis has already been given. Rather we should ask, "What has happened to salt and light? -- John Stott

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
October 18, 2024

ON VOTING. Upwards of 104 million people of faith -- including some 32 million self-identified Christians who regularly attend church services -- are expected to sit out of the 2024 presidential election.

They are likely to hold back from the Nov. 5 contest due to a lack of interest, according to new data from Arizona Christian University's Cultural Research Center, operated by evangelical pollster George Barna.

Voter enthusiasm, the study found, decreased significantly from 2020 to 2024.

"The research asked people who indicated they were not likely to vote to explain the reasons for that choice," wrote the researchers. "The most common reason, offered by two-thirds of the non-voters (68%), was a lack of interest in politics and elections."

More than half of survey respondents -- 57% -- said they dislike both leading candidates, Vice President Kamala Harris and President Donald Trump. And 55% said they don't feel either candidate reflects their values.

But should Christians not vote. Do we not have a civic duty in a free and open society to do nothing?

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing, said Edmund Burke.

Jesus called his followers "the light of the world" (Matthew 5:14). But what happens when 41 million points of light hide under a bushel?

That's the alarming reality we face this election season, as millions of self-described born-again Christians consider skipping one of our most critical civic duties, said one Anglican blogger.

"Many Christians today are ambivalent about the culture. Some hate the culture, some are hopeful, and many are jaundiced by the juggernaut of progressivism. As a result, there are millions of Christians planning to sit this election out."

The deeper truth is we are exiles; we have always been exiles and strangers. That does not mean we sit on our hands. We may not change much in the world anymore. We've lost presence in nearly every public sphere. We are being humbled and humiliated in the world. So be it.

So, should Christians vote? The answer is an unequivocal yes. Moreover, every Christian should vote. This imperative extends even to those whose conscience might be troubled by the available candidates.

You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/32-million-self-identified-christians-who-regularly-attend-church-might-sit-out-2024-presidential

Distinguished Christian sociologist and evangelical commentator, Dr. Os Guinness had this to say: 'The Whole of the West Is in Crisis' and for Christians to Disengage Is 'Absolutely Appalling', he said.

Americans may not agree on much, but they agree on this: we're at a pivotal moment. Exactly how pivotal depends on who you ask. After all, our country's had its share of challenges in its relatively young existence. We've survived a civil war, segregation, the Great Depression, two World Wars, presidential assassinations, natural disasters, national tragedies, terror attacks, a global pandemic, and so much more. Maybe that's why so many people underestimate the gravity of this moment, Os Guinness says. But they shouldn't.

"I wish people understood [this] moment," the beloved intellectual told Joseph Backholm on the latest episode of "Outstanding.""The whole of the West [is] in crisis," he warned, calling it a "civilizational moment" for both the church and the American Republic. It's different than what the divided nation faced under Abraham Lincoln, Guinness insisted. If radical Marxism prevails, "that's as much a secession from the Republic as the South and its division from the North. We're on the verge of America becoming unrecognizable," and if we don't address something as simple as the border crisis, the best-selling author wanted people to know, the country as we know it is "finished.""President Biden's policies are literally ... suicidal," he said somberly.

You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/whole-west-crisis-and-christians-disengage-absolutely-appalling-os-guinness

**

Is the Archbishop of Canterbury misleading everyone about the Prayers of Love and Faith (PLF)?

Evangelical theologian Andrew Goddard thinks he is, and he is right.

Goddard writes: A recent statement about PLF by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, is significantly misleading in relation to what the bishops have decided, what the church teaches on sexual ethics, who PLF is for, and what PLF offers. This development, contradicting and undermining past theological and legal advice as well as statements to General Synod, raises serious questions as to how and why such misrepresentations of the facts have been made and can only further damage trust in the PLF process and the archbishop's leadership.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has revealed why the Prayers of Love and Faith introduced under his leadership are causing so much damage to the Church of England.

Faced with a question alluding back to another interview seven years ago then Archbishop Welby said he could not offer a "straight answer" about "Is gay sex sinful?" as "I know I haven't got a good answer" and so he said in November 2017, "Yes. I am copping out because I am struggling with the issue". Asked now if he had a better answer he replied "Yes I do" before joking that this was the sort of question Alastair Campbell would have been signaling to Tony Blair to cut out of answering.

Welby goes on to claim that he and a "majority" of bishops have "put forward a proposal" whereby people "who have been through a civil partnership or a same-sex marriage" ceremony "should be able to come along to... a church, and have a service of prayer and blessing for them in their lives together".

You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/archbishop-canterbury-misleading-everyone-about-prayers-love-and-faith-plf

**

The Most Rev. Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York, recently visited people and places in dioceses across the Anglican Church of Canada, with a message on "Becoming a Church of Missionary Disciples." His two-week visit began in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, and ended in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Cottrell met with clergy and lay leaders and delivered several addresses on spirituality, evangelism, and discipleship as they contribute toward becoming a church of missionary disciples.

Now the ACoC is rapidly dying, and his message is unlikely to change anything as the exiting Bishop of the Arctic Joey Royal noted this week when he said; "Isn't it strange that the more the ACoC faces its own extinction, the more its leadership speaks in increasingly abstract terms? Last General Synod [2023], we approved five 'transformational aspirations' with very little understanding of what any of it is supposed to accomplish. The main problem with the ACoC is that for decades it has been 'reimagining' itself into the image of the prevailing culture, and not the gospel. More 'reimagining' will only make it worse. All of this is a big distraction from the core task our Lord has given the Church in the Great Commission: to evangelize all nations, to baptize new converts, and teach them the Lord's commandments. That the ACoC's members are determined to do everything but that is proof that they've lost their way."

You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/archbishop-york-visits-and-preaches-dying-anglican-church-canada

**

The Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) wants you to imagine a de facto parallel province as a reality. They want you to know why it's needed and what they hope will be achieved by it.

What is a de facto parallel province? The obvious point to make is that it is not an actual or real province. At the same time, it can in practice be a very real and positive reality. Imagine between 500 and 1,000 churches working together 'as if' they were an orthodox province within the Church of England. Imagine them using their money to support orthodox mission, ministry, and evangelism.

Imagine them receiving spiritual oversight from orthodox men and women of recognized national leadership stature. Imagine their ordinands being trained for ministry in institutions committed to orthodoxy, and curates being ordained by bishops upholding the apostolic faith as we have received it and being placed with orthodox training incumbents. And imagine all this being served by a leadership of bishops, clergy and lay people whose biblical teaching and personal integrity is entirely consistent with the historic doctrine and teaching of the Church of England. This would describe what a 'de facto parallel province' looks like on the ground.

The second question that people are asking is, 'Why do we need a de facto parallel province?' In part, this is in order to enable the House of Bishops, and Church of England more widely, to appreciate just how widespread and deep is the concern caused by the ongoing LLF project.

It has been suggested that the challenge of the autumn could be summed up as one of engaging in 'principled protest', in order that 2025 can see the emergence of 'permanent provision' through structural rearrangement within the Church of England.

BUT IS SUCH A PROVINCE REALISTIC? I asked a few informed persons in the UK and here is what they said: "This is the first real admission from CEEC that the bishops are not even interested in talking to them about the kind of provision they claim to need - let alone a third province. In fact there is a danger that by creating their Spiritual overseers they have undermined the argument for anything more than delegated oversight.

In better news - the third diocese of the Anglican Network in England (ANiE) has been inaugurated - and that means there will be a real province very soon in Europe.

Here is what another well-informed senior clergyman who knows the ins and outs as well as the political forces in play had to say; "I tried very hard to persuade CEEC that a third province was a hopeless ambition. I was a member until 2022.

"Welby and the bishops -- who are vastly unrepresentative of the Church of England -- have complete control of the levers of power, and they will not concede one inch of ground or one penny of the endowments. It is a game of Winner Takes All."

"Nor will they permit unofficial jurisdictions to operate. They have all the legal power to prevent it apart from one minor amendment to canon law which can be swiftly made by General Synod. Synod members are all too enthusiastic to please the bishops."

"Orthodox people in the Church of England now face the existential choice which was made by St John's Shaughnessy in Vancouver: not to participate any longer in a denomination which has far exceeded the legitimate bounds of debate and has opted for the immorality of the spirit of the age. St John's was the largest parish church in Canada. It walked away from its significant assets and buildings to ensure its adherence to the word of God rather than that of a corrupt and decaying denomination."

"It will be bitterly painful to give up the heritage of 1,400 years and the labours of many lifetimes in building and growing the Church of England. But the reality is that it is no longer the Church of England. The Archmanager has taken care of that."

VOL will keep you informed as this movement takes shape, if it does.

**

Driving home just how bad things are in the Anglican Church of Canada, Arctic evangelical Suffragan Bishop Joey Royal has resigned his bishopric to take up a new position with an organization that ministers to diplomats and politicians in Ottawa, according to reports out of Canada.

Royal, an evangelical and a major thorn in the flesh to the liberal Canadian Church's House of Bishops, stunned Anglicans across Canada by his sudden departure, leaving gaps in all three of his diocesan roles: suffragan bishop, director of the Arctic's theological college and parish rector. His resignation takes effect October 20.

As he exits to Ottawa, Royal smacks down the Anglican Church of Canada and says it is fundamentally "at odds with Scripture and has walked away from the historic Christian faith, and I lament that. I would love to see it seek repentance. It can change, but only by God's grace not human ingenuity."

"The main problem with the ACoC is that for decades it has been 'reimagining' itself into the image of the prevailing culture, and not the gospel. More 'reimagining' will only make it worse. All of this is a big distraction from the core task our Lord has given the Church in the Great Commission: to evangelize all nations, to baptize new converts, and teach them the Lord's commandments. That the ACoC's members are determined to do everything but that is proof that they've lost their way." You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/exiting-arctic-evangelical-bishop-blasts-anglican-church-canada-searing-condemnation-liberalism

It should be noted that the Suffragan Bishop of the Arctic, David Parsons has just announced his retirement, which leaves the diocese bereft of leadership, and this at a time when the whole province is in free fall.

**

Diocesan officials announced this week that former Diocese of California Bishop Marc Andrus has been suspended from ministry as a result of allegations of an inappropriate relationship with an adult while serving as bishop diocesan. The move illustrates the denomination's dated approach to ethics and clergy discipline.

The suspension was issued by the presiding bishop's delegate, the Rt. Rev. Mary Gray-Reeves, as part of a Title IV proceeding, which established that the underlying claims were credible. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/bishop-marc-andrus-suspended-move-illustrates-tecs-dated-approach-ethics-and-clergy-discipline

**

Retired Bishop Jack Iker (III Fort Worth) died on October 5. To date the Episcopal Church has yet to make mention of a godly man who for 34 years labored in the Episcopal Church vineyard -- 19 years as an Episcopal priest followed by 15 years (1993-2008) as a sitting Episcopal bishop. Nor have I seen any member of the Episcopal House of Bishops pay their respects to a brother bishop at his passing.

However, several former parishioners from Sarasota's Episcopal Church of the Redeemer flooded the Florida church's Facebook with messages, memories, and sentiments for their beloved former rector -- Fr. Jack Iker even as Hurricane Milton was taking a bead on the Florida Gulf Coast. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/former-episcopal-bishop-jack-iker-ignored-episcopal-church-death

You can more here: https://virtueonline.org/titan-american-anglicanism-has-died

**

New Diocese of Susquehanna could see two more Dioceses Re-Unite in 2024.

On October 19, 2024, representatives and clergy of the Diocese of Bethlehem, and the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania, will gather at State College, PA in an agreed upon joint convention of both dioceses. On the agenda is a proposal that the two dioceses re-unite and become one after 100 years of separation.

Subsequently, both groups will vote separately to unite, or remain as one. If the vote is passed by both bodies an agreement will be drawn up for the birth of a new diocese -- The Diocese of the Susquehanna. There will then be a year of transition during which time both bishops, Audrey Scanlon and Kevin Nichols, will remain in place in their respective dioceses.

In 2026, the two dioceses will then become "The Diocese of Susquehanna". At this stage, both bishops will continue to serve, one as bishop diocesan, and the other as assistant. Also, during the transition nine committees will be at work dealing with Constitutions, Finances, Diocesan Staff, Commissions on ministry, Convocations, and other departments. For more click here: https://virtueonline.org/new-diocese-susquehanna-could-see-two-more-dioceses-re-unite-2024

**

The Scottish Episcopal Church has decided not to pursue allegations of bullying made against Scotland's first female bishop, the Rt. Rev. Anne Dyer.

The Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney was suspended in August 2022 and was due to face a disciplinary tribunal after three complaints were made against her.

Following a review, the church's independent procurator said it was not in the public interest to pursue a tribunal - but there was enough evidence to provide "a realistic prospect of conviction" under the church's canon law.

Bishop Dyer always denied the allegations of bullying and previously claimed she had faced "significant bullying and harassment" since taking up the role in 2018. To read more click here: https://virtueonline.org/scotland-church-will-not-pursue-bullying-claims-against-bishop

**

The Church of England is having a hard time finding new bishops. The Church of England has worked itself into a new position, Nemo episcopari nobody will be bishoped. In the past year, the process for appointing new bishops to Ely and Carlisle fell apart as the Crown Nominations Commission (CNC) decided not to appoint any of the shortlisted candidates.

This has created a sense of crisis in the Church, and an emergency meeting of the House of Bishops was held after a report was hastily drafted by the Bishop of London. The problem is that it doesn't ask the basic question at the heart of all this: are the right people being considered in the right way?

There is another reason for the new Nemo episcopari: that the Church is very split, especially about sexuality. It is heavily implied that when none of the candidates for Carlisle and Ely could get to the necessary two-thirds majority in the CNC it was because of their views on gay blessings (too pro in one case, too anti in the other). There you have it. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/why-c-e-bishops-are-so-bland

**

Muslim militants slaughtered 16,769 Christians in Nigeria in just the four years between 2019 and 2023. That comes out to 4,192 Christians killed on average per year--or one Christian murdered for his/her faith every two hours. Most of these Christians are Catholics and Anglicans but you don't see this reported on by ENS or the ACNS. This report comes from the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa. It should also be noted that the Anglican Church in Nigeria is the largest province in the Anglican Communion. Persecution is clearly not stopping the growth of the church.

**

EIGHTH DAYS OF PRAYERS: Daily Hope for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany. Devotional books are not new, but in this slim volume, Sally Breedlove, Willa Kane, Madison Perry and Alysia Yates have compiled an excellent number of scripture-based devotionals as an invitation to a new way of keeping time, one rooted in the rhythm of creation that nonetheless draws us on toward new creation. I highly recommend this book to VOL readers. You can purchase this book at www.eighthdayprayer.org

**
VIRTUEONLINE. We will shortly be rolling out VOL's new website. The designers say it promises to be a game changer. Our lists will be coordinated and flow faster and more evenly. But we need your support. The move is costly and I don't have the funds necessary to make the change. There are no salaries, but there are bills to pay, travel to be done, correspondents and a webmaster to pay.
If you can help, please send a tax-deductible donation to the address below:

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I have started a SUBSTACK with scribblings on the Middle East over the war in Israel. You can see them here: https://substack.com/@davidvirtue2

Warmly in Christ,

David

BREAKING: An open letter to Episcopal Presiding Bishop-Elect Sean Rowe: https://virtueonline.org/open-letter-episcopal-presiding-bishop-elect-sean-rowe

Knowing what Jesus has done for us is enough; we think it's unnecessary for us to do anything after that. In fact, pastors are often hesitant to preach the plain meaning of the passages denoting our obligations as followers of Christ, for fear of being accused of preaching justification by "works." As a result, many Christians become anemic on biblical teachings about morality and our responsibility. --- Chenyuan Snider

Researchers spent five years analyzing data from workers across the United States and found that people from minority faiths -- such as Hindus, Jews, Buddhists and Muslims -- were far more likely to say they felt pressured to hide their faith at work. --- Molly Jackson

If you're a conservative, and you want to engage in Critical Theory stuff, then you're engaged in a raw power struggle where truth doesn't count. You have chosen the game that you are playing at this point. Circling back to the Christian dimension of this, I don't think that's an option for a Christian. --- Carl Trueman

The Episcopal Church cannot affirm "ethical non-monogamy," including polyamory. If we were to do so, it would violate the teaching of Scripture, especially that of Jesus, the tradition that is grounded upon and flows from the scriptural revelation, and the recent work we have done. Moreover, these nonmarital arrangements are fraught with failure, potentially even more devastating than marriages that die. Those of us who have publicly affirmed that we conform to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Church must conform to this doctrine as well, in our preaching, teaching, and pastoral practice, as well as in our personal lives. -- Rt. Rev. Pierre Whalon

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
November 1, 2024

What Happens to Churches When Population Falls? This isn't just a hypothetical scenario. Many countries around the world are losing population. Others are projected to. Even in the United States, which will likely keep growing, in two thirds of counties more people are dying than being born. Over 1,200 counties are already losing population. Our falling birth rates mean that at a minimum we will be seeing demographic weakness going forward, observes blogger Aaron M. Renn.

How will this affect the country and churches? One general rule is: decline produces concentration.

As the population declines people and activity pool into a limited number of successful places. When a country starts losing population, it doesn't lose it evenly. Instead, peripheral, or other areas with some sort of challenge are affected first and worst. As their populations age and opportunity declines, young people actively leave and move to places that are still vibrant, typically a big city and often the capital, says Renn.

The same phenomenon is going to hit churches as demographics weaken and adherence to Christianity continues to decline. As churches shrink, get older in average age, and struggle to reinvent themselves, some congregants will stay until the end but many others, especially younger people, will leave for more vibrant congregations.

It has already started. The Episcopal Church is seeing an unprecedented number of diocesan merges from the Midwest to the North East with more undoubtedly on the way.

Young people are not coming in to fill the pews, neither indeed are the much beloved LGBTQ and adored queer community. Hardest hit will be rust belt areas and the Midwest.

But it is not just the US, The Church in Wales, a progressive Anglican province is switching from parishes to ministry and mission areas. People from across Wales will meet Nov. 4-5 to pool their experience of the new form of church structures called Ministry or Mission Areas. The first Diocesan Learning Community took place in 2023.

All parishes have now been amalgamated into larger areas that are served by a team of lay and ordained ministers, offering both traditional and pioneering ministry and sharing resources. The term Mission Areas has been adopted in the Diocese of St. Asaph, covering North-East Wales, with the rest of Wales using the term Ministry Areas.

This is the fate of most Western churches. It is why mega churches are successful, at least for a while. When their leaders fail; more often than not these churches crash and burn.

There is a lesson here for the growing Anglican Church in North America. Go where the pickins' are good; where young people congregate; and make the gospel relevant to the population you are dealing with.

***

THE BIG story of the week is the frightening capitulation of Archbishop Justin Welby to the zeitgeist on human sexuality. His words might well spell his own end hastening his departure, perhaps even bringing about the end the Anglican Communion as we know it.

What he said has shocked the whole Anglican Communion, including his own Church of England.

Welby stated in a recent podcast interview that sexual intimacy is morally acceptable in "stable, committed and faithful" relationships, regardless of gender, sparking backlash from Evangelicals within the Church of England who accused him of openly disregarding Church doctrine. In other words, homosexual and heterosexual relationships are now on an equal footing and homosexuals should get the church's blessing. Welby revealed that where he and the other bishops "have come to is to say that all sexual activity should be within a committed relationship." He has now consolidated his earlier views of, "I don't know where I stand," to I know where I stand and it is okay to bless, what was formally unblessable.

He describes his position as having "evolved" and he believes that God might also have evolved on the position though no Scripture supports such an evolution in the Godhead.

An outcry went up immediately with Christians across the United Kingdom calling for the Archbishop of Canterbury to resign following his comments. They argue that his statements represent a fundamental departure from the Church of England's doctrine on marriage and sexual ethics. It is a departure from 2,000 years of sexual ethics and a complete capitulation to the culture at a time when his church is fast sinking into oblivion.

Orthodox Anglican primates meeting in Charleston at the investiture of ACNA Archbishop Steve Woods rebuked Welby saying; "Archbishop Welby's recent explicit repudiation of Christian doctrine in his interview on Britain's podcast, 'The Rest is Politics,' has brought us to repeat our serious call for his personal repentance." You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/gafcon-rebukes-archbishop-welby-and-affirms-orthodox-anglican-england

I have posted a number of stories on this issue which can be found here:
https://virtueonline.org/archbishop-canterbury-breaks-2000-year-teaching-marriage
https://virtueonline.org/christians-demand-justin-welbys-resignation-after-gay-sex-comment
https://virtueonline.org/what-now-after-those-welby-comments

***

A new page was turned Wednesday evening (Oct. 30) in the unfolding history of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) when Bishop Steve Woods (I The Carolinas) was enthroned as the third archbishop of the authentic Anglican expression in the United States and Canada.

The joyous event was held at Seacoast Church in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina which has a seating capacity of 2,500. It drew clergy, religious and laity from around the United States and Canada and bishops spanning the globe with a strong representation from GAFCON Anglican provinces.

The various GAFCON provinces which were personally represented included: Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Egypt, Chile, the Indian Ocean, Pakistan, and Europe particularly Germany.

GAFCON Chairman Archbishop Laurent Mbanda pledged to partner with and be supportive of Archbishop Wood as he takes the helm of the ACNA and his rightful place among the GAFCON primates.

Archbishop Wood's sermon focused on a single topic Jesus and how to stay focused on Him. "It's all about Jesus," the new archbishop preached. "Everything we do is about him." He said to maintain a singular missional focus there had to be a holding fast to sound doctrine; committing to a life of prayer and pursuing personal holiness.

Following the enthronement Archbishop Wood was feted at a reception in his honor.

The best inside report on the investiture can be read here: https://virtueonline.org/ancient-anglican-enthronement-unfolds-south-carolina

***

Bishop Chip Edgar has called Bishop David Bryan, who serves as a Suffragan Bishop for the Diocese of the Carolinas, to serve as the Assisting Bishop for the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina (ADOSC), beginning January 1, 2025. Bishop Bryan will continue in his role with the Diocese of the Carolinas, working part-time for the ADOSC.

Bishop Bryan will assist with parish visitations for the 50+ congregations in the diocese.

In the Diocese of the Carolinas, he will work closely with diocesan church planting efforts and the credentialing process, along with leading retreats, ordinations and confirmations. He is Area Bishop for South Carolina and churches in Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky.

***

To no one's surprise, Canon Phil Ashey was elected Bishop of the Diocese of Western Anglicans. He earned it. The Synod of the Anglican Diocese of Western Anglicans has elected Ashey to be the third bishop of the diocese.

The Diocese of Western Anglicans includes Southern California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming--including all the major metropolitan cities in those Western states that are shaping a post-Christian culture. The election took place on Saturday, October 19, 2024. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/canon-phil-ashey-elected-bishop-diocese-western-anglicans

***

There were several Episcopal bishops who died these past two weeks. They were more notorious than notable.

Richard Grein, the 14th Bishop of New York was 92, but his legacy was not good. I wrote about him back in 2013 when he dumped his wife Joan and ran off with Ann Richards. He finagled a position for Richards in Grace Church, after levering Broderick Kraft, sister to the actor Matthew Broderick, from that parish. She sued and won significant monetary damages against the bishop. Some 39 charges were brought against Grein, but then Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold made them disappear in a puff of ecclesiastical smoke. Richards was cited as "the other woman" in Grein's divorce proceedings. He later married her. It was her third marriage and his second. Grein managed to walk away from all the charges through the efforts of an attorney brought in by Griswold. Grein also walked away from a presentment against him.

Paul Marshall, the retired Bishop of Bethlehem died. A priest who suffered at his hands told me the story of how he got rid of priests he didn't like. He would send them to a psychiatrist, and then tell the priest that he was not up for the job and fire or disallow him from functioning in the diocese. They never saw the psychiatrist's report. He was retired from ministry. He was replaced by Sean Rowe, the new Presiding Bishop. Marshall was 77.

A third bishop, the Rt. Rev. Dabney Smith, fifth bishop of the Diocese of Southwest Florida, died suddenly on Oct. 26, after a brief hospitalization. He was 70. In 2010, Dabney swooped in evicting Fr. Ed Sellers, other clergy, and parishioners at St. Dunstan's in Largo, FL for not going along with TEC's pansexual agenda.

"It came as a shock and surprise. We had been talking with the Diocese through ours and their attorneys and we kept asking 'will you negotiate'? The diocese said it would. But they reneged on a promise to let us stay even if they took over the offices. They promised to give us a key so we could worship in the sanctuary but they reneged on that promise. We've been effectively locked out and removed the 'Anglican Church' signs," Fr. Seller said at that time.

***

The situation in the Anglican Church of Rwanda has reached a point of crisis that compromises the integrity of the GAFCON movement under the continued chairmanship of Archbishop Laurent Mbanda. Over 90% of the churches in Rwanda are now closed -- including Anglican churches. It has hardly raised a ripple in the news, which certifies the success of its architects.

Beginning in the last weekend of July, the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) issued an order late Saturday July 27 to begin closing churches that failed to meet a list of requirements. These ranged from the reasonable -- having oversight by educated clergy, no dirt floors, plastered and painted walls -- to the ridiculous and sometimes impossible -- parking areas, sinks, and security systems even in areas where the government has provided no roads, water supply, or electricity.

For the sake of GAFCON, Archbishop Mbanda needs to resign as GAFCON Chair. You can read the full story here: https://virtueonline.org/rwanda-archbishop-laurent-mbanda-needs-resign-gafcon-chair

***

There is a reawakening of the gospel in the Anglican Diocese in New England (ADNE). The Rev. Ian Montgomery shared his story of 200 plus energetic, young, multiethnic Anglicans who shared a deep commitment to Jesus Christ. The ADNE witness has included the Kenyan Anglican community since its inception. "They brought with them an intensity and fervor of devotion that is a beautiful contrast to some of our more sedate, if not stodgy, traditional Western ways. It was a conference filled with young people whose choice to follow Jesus was a perfect challenge to those whose faith is more inherited than the result of a decision to follow Jesus. It was life-giving." You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/reawakening-2024-anglican-diocese-new-england-adne

**

SCOTLAND: Four bishops in the Scottish Episcopal Church (SEC) have asked the Rt. Rev. Anne Dyer not to return to her role as the Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney.

The Church's Procurator, Paul Reid KC, decided to drop a number of bullying charges against her, despite finding that there was enough evidence to provide a "realistic prospect" of conviction under church law. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/scotland-bishop-accused-bullying-urged-not-return-role

***

The United Methodist Church's highest court has ruled that congregations seeking to leave the denomination over theological differences cannot do so via a church closure provision.

Recently, many congregations have left the UMC via a Book of Discipline measure known as Paragraph 2549, which is centered on how to officially close down a church property.

The United Methodist Judicial Council released a ruling last Saturday, known as Decision Number 1512, which stated that congregations cannot use Paragraph 2549 to exit the UMC.

According to the decision, the UMC's Trust Clause, which holds that all church properties are held for the benefit of the whole denomination, cannot be disregarded as it would be by using Paragraph 2549 to disaffiliate.

The UMC will go down the same rocky road TEC did. The only winners will be lawyers.

***

An Evangelical advocacy group has reached out to a record number of voters ahead of the presidential election as its leader remains confident that faith-based voters will turn out in "historic numbers" this year.

The Faith & Freedom Coalition (FFC) announced Monday that it had knocked on a record 8 million doors in the battleground states expected to determine the outcome of the upcoming election. The advocacy organization added that it expects to interact with 17 million to 18 million voters across the seven swing states by Election Day.

**

Anglican Missionary Congregations become the Third Diocese of the Anglican Network in Europe.

Archbishop Laurent Mbanda, Chair of the Gafcon Primates' Council, inaugurated the diocese and then consecrated Dr Gideon Illechukwu before Presiding Bishop Andy Lines installed him as their first bishop. In a service with a vibrant Nigerian flavor, people from all over the Network celebrated their unity in the global Anglican family of Gafcon for gospel mission under the clear authority of scripture. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/presiding-bishops-statement-accession-anglican-missionary-congregations-europe-anglican-network

The CEEC might want to think seriously about joining this growing movement as they watch the CofE go down the drain over theological and moral apostasy.

***

Archbishop of Perth Approves Changes to Faithfulness in Service. The Archbishop of Perth, Kay Goldsworthy, has written to members of the diocesan synod to confirm that she has assented to the motion passed earlier this month to approve changes Faithfulness in Service that effectively approve of extra-marital sexual activity.

In her letter, she sets out her argument which is essentially;
Other dioceses have made similar changes
The majority of synod voted for the change
Therefore, I will. H/T David Ould

***

After a crackdown on sexuality, two dozen Christian Reformed churches of the CRC North America headed for the exits. At its 2024 synod the Christian Reformed Church instructed LGBTQ-affirming congregations to repent and comply with the denomination's beliefs on sexuality. Some are now choosing to leave, the RNS reports.

Four Michigan churches have already sent resolutions of disaffiliation to a regional geographic body called the Classis Grand Rapids East, stating that they intend to leave. Leaders of an additional five Michigan churches, also in the regional body, said they were drafting their letters, which should be received by the classis's next business meeting. Outside of Michigan, 15 more churches are also planning to exit the denomination, which comprises some 1,000 churches in the U.S. and Canada.

**

The Rev. Chris Pooniah, an evangelical Anglican minister who has served in pastoral roles across Singapore, New Zealand, and Hong Kong, attended Lausanne 4 in Seoul, South Korea recently and wrote a compelling account of his time there.

"My experience at Lausanne was incredibly positive, allowing me to witness the beauty of the global body of Christ as we worshipped, and engaged with one another despite our differences and imperfections. What united us was our shared desire to declare and display Christ together."

Two pivotal documents emerged from Lausanne 4 - The State of the Great Commission Report and the Seoul Statement. The State of the Great Commission Report posed ten critical questions for the global Church to consider as it looks toward 2050.

Lausanne 4 reignited a fresh passion within him to play his part in the fulfilment of the Great Commission and see the Body of Christ actively proclaiming and displaying Christ to the world. "Two key aspects stood out to me and have inspired me to keep the mission fire alive within me: the power of collaboration in fulfilling the Great Commission and the complexities of the global Church." You can read his full take here: https://virtueonline.org/my-experience-lausanne-4-seoul-22nd-28th-september-2024

THEOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS

"Anglicans are not Arminian" -- Jacobus Arminius by Chuck Collins. https://virtueonline.org/anglicans-are-not-arminian-jacobus-arminius

A Christian Response to Polygamy, Incest, and Pedophilia: https://virtueonline.org/christian-response-polygamy-incest-and-pedophilia

REFORMATION SUNDAY: https://virtueonline.org/reformation-sunday-0

***

VIRTUEONLINE. We apologize for the breakdown of our website this past week. We were offline for several days but have now been fully restored. We will shortly be rolling out VOL's new website. The designers say it promises to be a game changer. Our lists will be coordinated and flow faster and more evenly. But we need your support. The move is costly and I don't have the funds necessary to make the change. There are no salaries, but there are bills to pay, travel to be done, correspondents and a webmaster to pay.

If you can help, please send a tax-deductible donation to the address below:

VIRTUEONLINE
P.O. Box 111
Shohola, PA 18458

A PayPal donation link can be found here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support.html

If you know someone who would like to receive these bi-weekly news reports, they can subscribe here: https://virtueonline.org/ It is free, nothing is behind a paywall. Thank you for your support.

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO MY EXPANDING MINISTRY AND OUTREACH

I have started a SUBSTACK with scribblings on the Middle East over the war in Israel. You can see them here: https://substack.com/@davidvirtue2

Warmly in Christ,

David

A review of the Church's handling of allegations of abuse by Keith Makin had said Welby, the spiritual leader of 85 million Anglicans worldwide, was "insufficiently curious" about allegations of abuse by John Smyth, a barrister who ran camps in the 1970s and 80s.

The Makin Review accused the Church of England of a "cover-up" and said the abuse "could and should have been reported to the police in 2013".

The abuse involved more than 130 boys on two continents. Some were caned hundreds of times and bled, one died. It was done to beat the hell out of them and holiness into them. God was not impressed, I'm told. This makes even the worst sort of fundamentalist interpretations of Scripture look plausible.

But don't think one head rolling solves the problem. Other heads, as many as 30, may well roll before this ecclesiastical train wreck is over.

Survivors have said that other senior clergy who failed to take effective action when told of Smyth's abuse should also resign.

Mark Stibbe, a former vicar and survivor of abuse, said senior church figures should step down. Survivors wanted "more resignations because that means more accountability, people taking responsibility for having been silent when they should have spoken," he told Channel 4 News.

Andrew Morse, another victim of Smyth, said Welby was "just the leader and there are countless other Anglican churchmen who equally bear responsibility".

The review of the Smyth case names several serving and retired bishops as people who were told of allegations. They include Stephen Conway, the bishop of Lincoln, and formerly the bishop of Ely.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Conway said he was "deeply sorry" for not "rigorously pursuing" the matter with the Archbishop of Canterbury.

He insisted that he did all he could within his authority by making a detailed disclosure to Lambeth Palace, and contacting the diocese in South Africa to which Smith had moved.

"I am clear that I did all within my authority as a bishop of the Church of England, bearing in mind that I had no authority over an entirely independent province on another continent.

"I acknowledge fully that my fault was in not rigorously pursuing Lambeth about that province-to-province communication, and for this I am deeply sorry."

The independent report said Conway and others had been complacent and that "serious abuse and crimes [were] being covered up at the time".

"There are deep and fundamental issues of practice and culture on safeguarding that need to be taken seriously ... The culture of cover-up has been part of the problem on serious abuse allegations for far too long," he told the BBC.

WELBY'S SINS

But Welby's sins are not just confined to this episode of his 12-year reign.

He has been a disaster at multiple levels. This was just the tipping point.

He refused to take Lambeth Resolution 1:10 (Human sexuality is intended by God to find its rightful and full expression between a man and a woman in the covenant of marriage) seriously, at the last Lambeth Conference, 'just ignore it ol' chap perhaps it will go away.' He infuriated Global South leaders over his church's embrace of same sex unions resulting in those same leaders sending him a divorce notice.

Two global Anglican movements, GAFCON (Global Anglican Future Conference) and GSFA, (Global South Fellowship of Anglicans) told him that he would be doing the communion a favor if he resigned. Welby steadfastly refused.

A cover up finally got him, not from outside his church but inside. The irony should not be missed. One might argue that God has got a weird sense of humor. He got stabbed in the back by one of his own. Et tu Makin.

Names for his replacement are already being floated, but none show any promise that the Church of England will return to its historic, biblical and reform roots. The Elizabethan settlement is dead. Long live Progressivism.

With King Charles' health failing, and the atheist Prime Minister Keir Starmer officially signing off on Welby's replacement, would anybody be surprised if they chose a Rhesus monkey to run the church? Trust me they could do much worse.

On any evaluation, the Church of England is a bad joke. Its evangelical wing wants a parallel province as they will have nothing to do with same-sex marriage; Anglo Catholics are sniffing the air looking for a way out, or not. Progressives are hunkering down waiting for the clown show to continue so they can empty the church just in time for their pensions.

If you thought the American Episcopal Church was a failing sewer pit, the Mother Church will exceed it all beyond your wildest imaginings. They have already put in place a married queer to run the world's most iconic cathedral. Apparently, the late previous Dean of Canterbury Cathedrals had a male partner that few knew about. Can you imagine the Archbishop of Nigeria darkening the doors of Canterbury cathedral with the choir singing "blest be the tie that bind..." Or any GAFCON or GSFA Archbishop for that matter? More women bishops and queers are on the way.

The Mother Church's siblings; TEC, the Church in Wales, the Scottish Episcopal Church, all Vichy Anglican republics will creed their way to hell, with Satan whispering as they enter, "I told you in the Garden how all this would play out."

Welby's other memorable sins include millions for reparations for sins no one in a hundred years has committed. He frequently criticized Israel over its policies in Gaza and the West Bank while declaring that antisemitism was unacceptable.

Welby argued in the House of Lords against the flagship legislation aimed at ensuring people who arrive in the UK in small boats would be detained and promptly removed. But government ministers hit back at the archbishop with immigration minister Robert Jenrick saying he was "wrong on both counts".

Topping all this off was a failed managerial style that future generations can read about in libraries like the Wharton School of Business about how not to run a church or business.

The Church of England has spent millions of pounds on church structures in recent years, including: Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Funding (SMMI); Buildings for Mission. In 2023, the Church of England awarded £9 million to dioceses for repairs and specialist advice to parishes. Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme (LPWGS) provided grants for qualifying work to churches. In 2023, the government gave £42 million to help restore UK churches through the LPWGS. Finally, carbon emissions in which the Church of England has invested tens of millions of pounds to reduce its carbon emissions by 90% by 2030.

None of this has or will put bums on pews.

The church is not an oil company. Welby was a bag carrier for Enterprise Oil, something the deep thinkers thought would be a plus in a new archbishop. The Church of England forgot that the Holy Spirit might have something to do with the church; but it is precisely the absence of the Holy Spirit in all these projects that rankles the church's orthodox believers who could have used those millions to evangelize neo-pagan Brits.

No, the Church of England will not miss Justin Welby. He was a disaster, a moderate man of all shades of opinion. Easily forgettable.

You can read multiple stories in today's digest that will give you a fuller picture of the train wreck that occurred this week.

David W. Virtue, DD
President
VIRTUEONLINE

***

"We need to recognize that when you look at the Church of England, you are increasingly looking at a parable of theological compromise, and you're looking at a metaphor for theological surrender. I want to be clear that is not true for all of the clerics in the Church of England. It is not true for all of the members of the Church of England. Of course, thanks be to God, it is not true that they have all departed the faith" -- Albert Mohler, The Briefing

**

ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY HAS RESIGNED: LONG OVERDUE The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby who has faced increasing criticism for his tenure as the Anglican Communion's lackluster leader, has resigned following criticism of his failure to prevent child abuse.

Welby announced that he would stand down following a damning report which found he had not passed on information to the police about John Smyth, a Queen's Council (QC) solicitor and evangelical Christian -- the Church of England's most prolific serial child abuser.

In a statement, Welby said that it had become clear that he "must take personal and institutional responsibility" for the "long and retraumatising" period after he was informed of allegations in 2013, during which Smyth was not brought to justice and survivors were repeatedly failed by the Church. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/archbishop-canterbury-has-resigned-long-overdue

The Makin Review: The Church of England in all its glory The Makin Review, Independent Learning Lessons Review: John Smyth QC, was finally published on 18 October 2024. It makes grim reading, on every level. The experiences of the victims; the abject failure of various Church figures to act appropriately once the problems were raised; and the failures of the Archbishop of Canterbury, among others, since 2013, to respond to any moral and ethical imperatives raised, beggar belief.

John Smyth QC (those two little letters explain a lot of what follows), '...is, arguably, the most prolific serial abuser to be associated with the Church of England.' (Makin Review, p. 226).

John Smyth is, arguably, the most prolific serial abuser to be FACILITATED BY the Church of England. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/makin-review-church-england-all-its-glory

THE DISASTROUS REIGN OF ARCHBISHOP JUSTIN WELBY History will not be kind to Justin Welby, the former Archbishop of Canterbury. His 12-year tenure as the Archbishop of Canterbury and the titular head of the Anglican Communion has been nothing short of disastrous.

He came in as an Alpha evangelical and departed a theologically compromised leader, alienating not only evangelicals in the Church of England, but millions of evangelicals in the Global South who looked to him for leadership, but found only weakness, prevarication, cunning, duplicity and subterfuge. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/disastrous-reign-archbishop-justin-welby

More than 30 Church officials face the sack after Archbishop of Canterbury quits Several bishops among clergy accused of failing to stop child abuser whose crimes led to Justin Welby's resignation. Thirty members of the Church of England clergy face being sacked over their failure to stop the most prolific child abuser in the institution's history.

The Church's national safeguarding team is examining the actions of at least 30 officials named in a report as having prior knowledge of allegations against John Smyth.
You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/more-30-church-officials-face-sack-after-archbishop-canterbury-quits

Four bishops under pressure to follow Welby and resign Senior Church leaders, who are still in post, are accused in Makin review of being aware of allegations against John Smyth before 2017
The Archbishop of Canterbury's resignation has intensified demands for accountability as a child sex abuse scandal engulfs senior clergy. Victims of John Smyth, who abused up to 130 boys and young men across four decades and three continents, have since called for two bishops and an associate minister to resign.
You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/four-bishops-under-pressure-follow-welby-and-resign

Global South statement following the resignation of Justin Welby
The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches recognizes the observations, findings and recommendations of the Makin Report, including the danger of a church culture in which what is expedient takes priority over the values for which the Church stands. As we proceed with the Cairo Covenant, our fellowship will hold fast to paramount biblical and spiritual principles, including those of fostering a safe church, implementing oversight over best safeguarding procedures in the interests of all groups, parishioners, stakeholders and vulnerable persons who operate within the Anglican Communion. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/global-south-statement-following-resignation-justin-welby

Runners and riders: Who will be the next Archbishop of Canterbury?
Potential candidates to replace the Most Rev Justin Welby include an Iranian refugee and an expert in epidemiology. The Bishop of Bath and Wells, the Bishop of Norwich, the Bishop of Leicester, and the Bishop of Chelmsford are all possible candidates to replace Welby. The Crown Nominations Commission is now in charge of selecting who will step into his shoes. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/runners-and-riders-who-will-be-next-archbishop-canterbury

After Welby - What Next for Makin?

The Makin Report into the abuse of John Smyth QC was published last week contained 250 pages of harrowing evidence and damning analysis, and that is without the appendices.

There is a danger that after the initial shock of both the Makin Report and Justin Welby's resignation, the church, both institutionally and personally, will go back to business as usual. If there is to be real change, it will require a change of culture and for that to happen everyone has to play their part. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/after-welby-what-next-makin

British public say Welby was right to resign as Archbishop of Canterbury
Most Britons support Justin Welby's decision to resign as Archbishop of Canterbury over the John Smyth abuse scandal.

In a poll of over 4,500 British adults by YouGov conducted the day after Welby's resignation, 62% thought it was right that he resign, with only 4% saying he should have remained in post. To read more click here: https://www.christiantoday.com/article/british.public.say.welby.was.right.to.resign.as.archbishop.of.canterbury/142369.htm

What now for the Anglican Communion? The first step will be the convening of the Crown Nominations Commission, which will recommend names for Welby's successor. It will be made up of Cottrell and another senior bishop, as well as six members of the General Synod, three representatives from the Diocese of Canterbury and five from the Anglican Communion who reflect the Archbishop of Canterbury's role as leader of the Anglican Communion. The fact that the Church of England is an established (state) church is reflected in British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's role: He will appoint a voting chair; the CNC will make its recommendation to the prime minister, who in turn will convey it to King Charles III, who will make the appointment.

The person chosen will have an enormous role to fill: bishop for the Diocese of Canterbury, primate of all England, a member of Parliament's House of Lords and the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/what-now-anglican-communion

***

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Warmly in Christ,

David

Men fall in private long before they fall in public. --- J. C. Ryle

For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God [Gen. 3:1-7], while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man [2 Cor. 5:21]. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. -- John Stott

The Church of England is beset by financial troubles, heresy, and, worst of all, no particular sense of what the Church is for or why it exists at all --- The Guardian

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
December 6, 2024

The great unraveling has begun.

L'AFFAIR SMYTH, the sadistic behavior of a smooth-talking barrister is causing Vesuvius like eruptions in the Church England. John Smyth abused up to 130 boys across three countries and two continents.

There has not been anything like it in memory. Many are now saying it is the worst abuse case in the history of the church which to date, has seen not only the Archbishop of Canterbury resigning but the first serving bishop step back over the child abuse case.

The Rt. Rev. Dr. Jo Bailey Wells, the Archbishop of Canterbury's former chaplain has become the first serving bishop to step back from her role after a report into the Church's handling of a child sexual abuse scandal. She was found by review to have failed to act sufficiently on concerns about Smyth. Wells is the eighth church official to step away from ministry.

The national safeguarding team is reviewing a list of clergy named in the report to decide whether they pose an ongoing risk and if they ought to be disciplined.

The retired Bishop of Durham, Paul Butler, has been asked to step back while the Church investigates what he knew about Smyth's abuses in 2015.

As the Archbishop's personal chaplain at Lambeth Palace in 2013, the review found that Bishop Dr Bailey Wells failed to act sufficiently on concerns about Smyth. Wells currently also serves as Deputy Secretary General at the Anglican Communion Office in London.

The Anglican Communion confirmed Bishop Bailey Wells will not be travelling in relation to her role while the risk assessment is completed.

A further four priests have had their permission to officiate suspended over their handling of concerns about Smyth, including the Rev. Sue Colman, Rev. Hugh Palmer, Rev. Rico Tice and Rev. Nick Stott, while Rev John Woolmer has been asked to step back temporarily.

The most demoralizing aspect is the loss of confidence in the Mother Church by Global South primates a dozen of whom have already declared themselves divorced from Archbishop Welby and the Church of England over his embrace of the LLF report and his embrace of same-sex civil unions.

It is profoundly ironic that a layman brought down the whole ecclesiastical house of cards.

One knowledgeable UK blogger noted that a petition, which reached almost 15,000 signatures blew up in Welby's face before he quit. It was set up by three very prominent C of E priests, who have almost nothing in common except a mutual loathing of Welby. Robert Thompson is a liberal, gay vicar in North London, who is probably the most outspoken maverick pro-LGBT voice on the General Synod. He called for Welby to resign pretty much every week via his prolific Twitter account. Marcus Walker is the vicar of an ancient City of London parish, a leading High Tory Anglo-Catholic and most famous as the figurehead of the Save The Parish movement. And, lastly, Ian Paul is a vocal evangelical, widely-read blogger and prominent conservative synod member. All three already had deep-seated reasons to want Welby gone.

There you have it. It was not an evangelical conspiracy to see Welby gone, there were a lot of fingers in the pie.

There was no smoking gun. The Makin Report did not find evidence Welby had known about Smyth's abuse prior to entering Lambeth Palace, and nor did it find he had tried to cover it up after receiving the first reports in 2013. The criticisms were over a lack of curiosity, failing to check up on assurances given him by his staff, not looking over the shoulder of church officials to make sure they had actually done what he thought they had.

But the ferocity of the attacks was enough. Welby fell on his sword. Smyth was never brought to justice. He died in South Africa, which is busy now investigating his time there.

You can read several stories here: https://virtueonline.org/smyths-sadistic-behavior-could-claim-30-percent-cofes-evangelicals

https://virtueonline.org/rico-tices-statement-removal-his-pto-following-makin-review

https://virtueonline.org/devastating-toll-abuse-john-smyths-own-son

What now for the Anglican Communion? https://virtueonline.org/what-now-anglican-communion

IN YET ANOTHER BLOW to Welby ere he exits Lambeth Palace, the archbishop let a convicted sex offender work at Liverpool Cathedral. The Archbishop of Canterbury allowed Canon John Roberts to continue officiating even after he was accused of further crimes. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/justin-welby-let-convicted-sex-offender-work-cathedral

THE CofE WHITHER BOUND? There is little doubt that the progressive mindset will win the day. The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell is a temporary stand in and he is totally progressive. He is president of Affirming Catholicism which is all you need to know. The Church of England is irrelevant to the majority of the English population and to the broader orthodox Anglican Communion. Whoever leads it will not get the approval of the Global South, which pretty well guarantees that a kiss and make-up will never be achieved. There is little hope that a new Archbishop of Canterbury will turn things around for the Church of England.

***
ENGLAND has bigger problems than the departure of Justin Welby, however. Britain is sliding into spiritual darkness.

As a nation, the UK seems to have been on a downward trajectory of moral decline for at least the last half century but we have, without any shadow of doubt, hit a new low with MPs' decision to support assisted suicide. A Rubicon has been crossed, in fact, because up to now the primary duty of the state has been to protect the lives of its citizens, reports Christian Today.

A vote this week, will give the state power to determine when and how its citizens will die. It will give the state authority to kill.

Does this matter? Advocates of assisted suicide would say no, because personal autonomy means that we all have the right to decide when and how we shall die, and that, in the avoidance of suffering, a 'caring' society must not just support, but help, that decision. It's the compassionate thing to do, they argue -- and the word 'compassion' has been bandied around a lot here, along with the implication that those who disagree are heartless and uncaring bigots.

Despite what advocates of Kim Leadbeater's bill say about iron-clad safeguards, the reality is that if this bill becomes law there is every danger that state-sanctioned death -- including euthanasia -- will become the default position for treatment of all those deemed to have a low quality of life - a life judged by doctors to be 'not worth living', which will include not just the elderly, but the vulnerable of all ages, as well as the disabled and -- on the evidence of other jurisdictions where assisted dying is already legal -- all those regarded as 'incurable', including those suffering from Alzheimer's disease, mental illness, and depression.

They are wrong. No one wishes to deny or downplay the reality of suffering, and there is nothing more heart-breaking than watching someone you love when they are in pain, but there is a world of difference between doing all you can to alleviate that pain, and designedly giving 'treatment' to bring about death. If we shift from an attitude of care to deliberate killing, we are inviting a chaos monster, hostile to God, to take up residence in our land. A monster that, given half a chance, will swallow up everything in its bloodied path. We will be proclaiming our allegiance to a spirit of death.

What is being put forward in this dangerous bill not just denies, but rejects, that understanding. It makes of life, in fact, a commodity; something to be valued only while it remains wanted and of use. Which is fine perhaps -- even sensible -- if there really is no God. But the trouble is, there is ... and for all the glib denials of secularists, God remains intimately involved with His creation, and He cares. He cares about every man, woman or child that does, ever has, or ever will exist, and He cares about the Earth. In the battle for control with Satan which started in Eden and is still being fought, He will not allow evil to triumph.

So how does this square with Christian belief? Well, the Bible teaches that life is the gift of God, which begins at conception, and that we are made in His image -- because of which all, alike and equally, deserve respect and care.

You can read more stories here with fine critiques of the decision to end life. https://virtueonline.org/uk-dark-day-mps-vote-favour-assisted-suicide-bill

***

The Anglican Church of Canada, like the Episcopal Church believes that if it markets "structural change" then all will be well and all manner of things will be well. But structural change is a secular notion. The Church of Jesus Christ is not a corporation that you can tweak with higher sales, fewer executives hoping for better outcomes.

Jesus himself said the way was narrow and few there be that would find it. The Church has never been about numbers. It is the solid discipleship of the few not the many that is called for. Of course, the problem with both churches is that neither knows, understands or is capable of communicating a faith it does not have. That is why those who split off from these failed branches know what the gospel is and can communicate it. Bandying around a lot of woke issues saves no one and nothing.

The Apostle Paul lying in prison never agonized over his failed pension plan or who would inherit his Jerusalem country club golf subscription, presuming of course that he had one. He named names of those who would carry on the faith once for all delivered after he had gone. "To Timothy, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching."

Have you ever heard an Episcopal bishop or Canadian Anglican bishop charge his priests and say this?

You can read more here: https://livingchurch.org/covenant/structural-change-in-the-anglican-church-of-canada/

Safeguarding in the Canadian body also seems to be an issue. Anglican Watch reports a case of corruption in the Church of Canada: A "Dear Acting Primate" letter has yet to be responded too. It's about sexual abuse by a priest of another priest and how the priest was moved on to another diocese, an all too familiar story. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/corruption-church-canada-anglican-dear-acting-primate

***

Two notable deaths took place last week that marked much of what Twentieth Century evangelicalism looked like. The first was the passing of Tony Campolo, 89, an evangelical social activist responsible for making the social dimension of the gospel front and center of his public ministry. He attributed his vision to John Wesley.

Campolo deplored the identification of the gospel with right-wing politics and the excesses of capitalism and believed God is more concerned for the poor and downtrodden. From his crusades and rallies, Campolo expected new converts to hook up with church ministries that reached out into the community and to the "least of these."

Campolo, was a champion of 'Red Letter' Christianity, highlighting the words of Jesus in the gospels. The Baptist pastor and sociologist argued that caring for the poor was an integral part of proclaiming the gospel.

The second was Hal Lindsey an end-of-the world apologist who sought to scare people with the imminent return of Christ that could leave them behind if they were unsaved. He was 95. Despite his prognostications, Jesus has not returned and is apparently not immediately doing so even though so called American apocalyptic "prophets" still predict his return based on the theologically ill-informed exegesis of texts that have nothing to do with history, the Book of Daniel or America. His school of thought became known as Dispensationalism.

God might just be interested in making sure his gospel is heard in emerging Islamic nations like Iran, with millions in North Korea, China, Mongolia, and Tibet who have yet to hear the Good News.

Lindsey rose to fame peddling end times theories, writing a popular book The Late Great Planet Earth, that compared end-time prophecies in the Bible with then-current events in an attempt to predict future scenarios resulting in the rapture of believers before the Great Tribulation and Second Coming of Jesus to establish his thousand-year (i.e. millennial) kingdom on Earth. Emphasizing various passages in the books of Daniel, Ezekiel and Revelation, Lindsey originally suggested the possibility that these climactic events might occur during the 1980s, which he interpreted as one generation from the foundation of modern Israel during 1948, a major event according to some conservative evangelical schools of eschatological thought. It never happened.

In his Requiem for a False Prophet, the Rev. James Gibson writes; "Hal Lindsey never failed to make failed prognostications. I am happy if you did not have to endure the repeated prognostications about the "rapture" and "the end of the world" that he propagated ad nauseum for nearly half a century. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/two-notable-deaths-touched-20th-century-evangelicalism

***

Homosexual Bishop Gene Robinson loves being heard. He can't stay away from a pulpit proclaiming his sexual preferences and just how homophobic everyone is who doesn't fall in line with his thinking,

The retired IX Bishop of New Hampshire took to the National Cathedral's bully pulpit to rail against Congress's desire to protect women's restroom facilities. This came up because Delaware's newly-elected Democratic Congressman Sarah McBride as a transgendered woman (biological male -- Tim McBride) is expecting to use women's restroom facilities in the Capitol.

Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace (SC-1) stood up and basically said: Not so fast. Women's spaces need to be protected from male intrusion. "Biological men do not belong in private women's spaces. Period. Full stop. End of story."

Robinson came to the defense of McBride, wholeheartedly disagreeing. Robinson railed on that God's primary concern for you and for me is how we treat the most vulnerable in our midst.

Not true. God's primary concern is for our salvation, something that has yet to dawn on Robinson. You can read Mary Ann Mueller's devastating critique here: https://virtueonline.org/i-am-woman-vicky-gene-not

***

The Transgender movement has overplayed its hand and the world is finally getting wise to it. Gender-confused males competing against females in athletics has made the average person realize that there are biological differences that can't be ignored, writes Jonathon Van Maren for LifeSiteNews. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/transgender-movement-has-overplayed-its-hand-and-world-finally-getting-wise-it

***

On a brighter note, here is a story about the ever-present Dr. J. I. Packer though dead, his light shines more brightly now than ever.

You can read this fine story about the Puritan author, preacher, and faithful servant of Jesus Christ here: https://virtueonline.org/six-beautiful-truths-about-dr-ji-packer

***

Dear VOL reader,

CHAOS AND TUMULT. The Anglican communion never fails to surprise. Just when you think that all is well or at least calming down, lightning strikes.

It is Advent and the leader of the Church of England resigns over his failure to report the psychological, spiritual, and sexual abuse of more than 100 young boys by a barrister who used his position to entice and exercise his power over them. In the twinkling of an eye, Archbishop Justin Welby is implicated and is gone.

Just a few weeks earlier, the Church of England's restless evangelicals, fed up with the push for full inclusion of same sex marriage, started a revolt with the call for a "parallel province," that undoubtedly infuriated the archbishop.

The situation is no better in The Episcopal Church. Incoming PB Sean Rowe, like Welby, is a manager. Managers might be good in the secular world but the Church of Jesus Christ is not ordained to be managed. It is a spiritual body which teaches, inspires, and feels pain. It is hurt right now.

For nearly 40 years VOL has documented the ups and downs of the Anglican Communion. From the decline of Western Anglicanism to the rise of the Global South and the emergence of GAFCON and the GSFA it has been a long journey. It is not over.

Events are playing out that will see massive changes in the coming months. Archbishop Welby's replacement will undoubtedly see more of the same, possibly worse. Will the Global South Primates further distance themselves from the Mother Church? We await the outcome. VOL will document it all.

VOL NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT FOR THE JOURNEY. Please consider a tax-deductible donation. A PayPal donation link can be found here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support.html

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Warmly in Christ,

David

President,
VIRTUEONLINE