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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*****

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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