The indispensable sign of the New Birth. At one of his weekly tea-parties somebody asked Simeon:(1) 'What, Sir, do you consider the principal mark of regeneration?' It was a probing question. With the current popularity of the 'born-again movement', one wonders how the average evangelical believer would reply today. This was Simeon's answer: 'the very first and indispensable sign is self-loathing and abhorrence. Nothing short of this can be admitted as an evidence of a real change ... I want to see more of this humble, contrite, broken spirit amongst us. It is the very spirit that belongs to self-condemned sinners ... This sitting in the dust is most pleasing to God ... give me to be with a broken-hearted Christian, and I prefer his society to that of all the rest ... Were I now addressing to you my dying words, I should say nothing else but what I have just said. Try to live in this spirit of self-abhorrence, and let it habitually mark your life and conduct.'(2) 'Self-loathing', 'self-condemnation', 'self-abhorrence'. The words grate on modem ears. The contemporary craze is for a bigger and better self-image. We are exhorted on all sides to love ourselves, forgive ourselves, respect ourselves, assert ourselves. And to be sure, as in all heresies, there are a few grains of truth in this one. For we should gratefully affirm ourselves as creatures made in the image of God, and as children of God redeemed by Christ and indwelt by his Spirit. In this mercy of God our Creator and Saviour we are to rejoice greatly, and there is much exhortation to such joy in Simeon's sermons. But to rejoice in God is one thing; to rejoice in ourselves is another. Self-congratulation and the worship of God are mutually incompatible. Those who have a high view of themselves always have a correspondingly low view of God--- Charles Simeon (1758-1836) Minister of Holy Trinity Church, Cambridge, 1783-1836.(2). --- Quoted in William Carus (editor), "Memoirs of the Life of the Reverend Charles Simeon"

When Malcolm Muggeridge took over Punch magazine, he worried how he'd find funny stories to print every week. Then he went to the theater one night where Godspell was opening in London. At the end, when the crowd rose in applause, the Archbishop of Canterbury shouted, "Long live God." Muggeridge never worried again.

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
January 5, 2009

In California, the state's high court prohibited three Southern California parishes that have left the U.S. Episcopal Church over its ordination of homosexual ministers from retaining ownership of their church buildings and properties. In a unanimous decision, the California Supreme Court ruled that the property belongs to the Episcopal Church because the parishes agreed to abide by the mother church's rules, which include specific language about property ownership.

It was a bitter blow to St. James Church in Newport Beach, All Saints Church in Long Beach and St. David's Church in North Hollywood all of whom had pulled out of the 2.1 million-member national Episcopal Church in 2004 and had sought to retain property ownership.

Applying the neutral principles of law approach, the court concluded that "the general church, not the local church, owns the property in question. Although the deeds to the property have long been in the name of the local church, that church agreed from the beginning of its existence to be part of the greater church and to be bound by its governing documents. These governing documents make clear that church property is held in trust for the general church and may be controlled by the local church only so long as that local church remains a part of the general church. When it disaffiliated from the general church, the local church did not have the right to take the church property with it."

Bishop Jon Bruno says he will sit down and find out if the parishes want to return to the TEC fold and then act accordingly. He is wasting his time. They won't go back. Not in a million years.

It has been a nail-biter for everyone. Now apparently it is over. "Anglican Curmudgeon" has been covering this saga in detail. VOL will post his insights, both legal and ecclesiastical, to our website.

What this now means is that no lay person in their right mind is going to invest in a parish that the laity have no control over. If the bishop "owns" the church, what's the sense in investing in the property? Tell the bishop to take care of it. When children get hit by cars in the parking lot on Sunday morning, let the bishop get sued instead. There's a lot of responsibility that goes with owning property. These bishops - thinking it's a political action - have no idea what a hornet's nest they are stirring up. So, if the People lose this ruling, The Episcopal Church bishops have far bigger problem on their hands than parishes departing over heretical doctrine. Send all the bills to the bishop - the properties are now his problem, said one blogger. You can read the court's ruling here:

http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/S155094.PDF

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The final decision by a judge for the departing churches in the DIOCESE OF VIRGINIA is scheduled for January 8, 2009 at the Fairfax County Circuit Court. As there will be no jury trial the judge will render a final verdict for the 12 CANA parishes contesting their right to keep their properties.

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In the meantime, some dioceses are starting to put the thumb screws to parishes that don't pay their full "fair" share. In today's digest, you can read what one irate rector had to say to the Diocesan Council and Bishop Wendell Gibbs in the DIOCESE OF MICHIGAN. In a letter to the diocese obtained by VOL, he wrote "For Christ's Leave Them Alone." You can read the full story here: http://tinyurl.com/a8nwcr

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LAWSUIT COSTS. It is going to cost a bundle if the National Church wants to keep parishes from fleeing its ecclesiastical clutches. Individual parishes are willing to take on the powers and to give them a run for their money these days. It is not a slam dunk for TEC. A senior cleric in TEC wrote VOL saying that a very close clergy friend of his who is on the General Convention PB&F (program budget and finance) committee tells him that the preliminary budget has a line item of $4.5 million for legal fees for 2009. This is an enormous leap from $800,000. So, if you are anticipating a fight with your diocese and the National Church knows that your parish has very deep pockets, Mrs. Jefferts Schori's attorney David Booth Beers will have no hesitation in conducting a protracted fight with you all the way to whatever state Supreme Court jurisdiction you are in ...and the National Church wishes you a blessed and prosperous New Year. Another way to look at it is: if you want to spend the parish's endowment in lawsuits, at least it means the diocese won't get it.

DID YOU KNOW that in a recent Christian magazine survey...
* 53% of churches said their giving was DOWN,
* 29% said giving was FLAT,
* and only 18% said giving was UP.

A case in point is my own parish. My wife and I attended a special meeting of The Church of the Good Samaritan in Paoli, PA. More than 350 people showed up. While we recently lost our rector, a graph thrown up on the church wall showed that giving to the church had steadily increased in spite of economic downturns for over 25 years. That is over and above a $10 million capital campaign. The budget is now roughly $2 million. The evangelically driven parish has learned that sound teaching and giving go hand in hand and that people keep on giving even when their own financial situation might worry them.

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ANGER at orthodox Episcopalians continues to grow and it has spilled over into the secular media. What was once an in-house battle for the soul of the church has now become fodder for public harangues and lectures. One of the worst occurred this past week when the editor of NEWSWEEK, one Jon Meacham, a favorite son and a graduate of Sewanee: The University of the South, and an Episcopalian, called Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan a fundamentalist and then decried heterosexual marriage while praising homosexual marriage. It was one of the worst such public tirades to date. Here is one choice paragraph from Meacham. "On the campus of Wheaton College in Illinois, in another of the seemingly endless announcements of splintering and schism in the Episcopal Church, the Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan and other leaders of the conservative forces of reaction to the ecclesiastical and cultural acceptance of homosexuality declared that their opposition to the ordination and the marriage of gays was irrevocably rooted in the Bible-which they regard as the 'final authority and unchangeable standard for Christian faith and life'. No matter what one thinks about gay rights-for, against or somewhere in between - this conservative resort to biblical authority is the worst kind of fundamentalism." His personal animus towards Bishop Duncan cannot go unanswered. VOL took apart Mr. Meacham views. You can read what I wrote here or in today's digest. http://tinyurl.com/6urb6w

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If you think the ecclesiastical dogfights going on in Protestant denominations in America are not affecting church attendance, you are wrong. The latest GALLUP POLL reveals that two-thirds of Americans think religion is losing its influence on U.S. life, a sharp jump from just three years ago when Americans were nearly evenly split on the question. Sixty-seven percent of Americans think religious influence is waning, while just 27% say it is increasing. That perspective demonstrates a continuing downward trend, Gallup said. But the 27% figure is still higher than the record low, set in a 1970 poll, when just 14% of Americans thought religion was increasing in influence. Those who regularly attend worship services are more likely to say religion is losing its influence; three out of four weekly attenders (74 percent) said religious influence is falling, compared to 24% who thought its influence was on the rise. The latest poll also finds that the percentage of Americans believing that religion "can answer all or most of today's problems" has reached an all-time low. Slightly more than half of those surveyed - 53% - held that view, while 28% say it is "largely old-fashioned and out of date." The poll results are based on telephone interviews conducted Dec. 4-7 with 1,009 adults; the poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

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GENERAL CONVENTION 2009 promises to be a block buster of sexual innovation. Attempts will be made to repeal resolution B033. In case you have forgotten what that is, the 75th (2006) General Convention resolved to receive and embrace The Windsor Report's invitation to engage in a process of healing and reconciliation. To do that, they passed a resolution to exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion. In short, no more Gene Robinson's, please. It was brokered in at the last moment, born out of anxiety to please Rowan Williams and the Primates. It has angered LGBT types ever since. A number of dioceses, including Chicago, Missouri and Los Angeles want it repealed. They will probably be successful. One minor victory is that a resolution to discipline laity (read lawyers and journalists) has been taken off the table. The convention also won't discuss the ever evolving Covenant blessed by the Primates to bring us altogether. Ms. Jefferts Schori thinks it's premature to discuss it. Perhaps it will be time to discuss it by the year 2050 or about the last year the Episcopal Church has any Episcopalians alive to know what it is all about.

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If the CHURCH OF ENGLAND thought it could not catch the theological and ecclesiastical contagion of the American Episcopal Church because things like that don't happen here, (sniff sniff), they are finding out the hard way just how wrong they are and how bad things are becoming. For openers, the church traditionalists have been totally cornered with no way out. The Pope won't recognize their orders, (he doesn't want to offend the Rowan Williams). A Code of Practice will not do to anything to appease Anglo-Catholics who want to find their place in a church that increasingly doesn't want them because of their stand against women's ordination. Female bishops are all but a done deal. Flying bishops will be out because women bishops will demand that they be the final arbiters of what sort of bishop a traditional parish can have. So the last word is still going to be a woman bishop. For those with short memories, the ordination of women in TEC started out as optional, but soon became mandatory thus forcing out the three remaining Anglo-Catholic dioceses in TEC. England is heading in exactly the same direction. Sodomy will be the final line in the sand for CofE Evangelicals. Right now it is the Anglo-Catholics who are watching as their future hopes evaporate in a cloud of less than papal smoke. Will the Church of England ultimately break apart? While Evangelicals are squabbling (Reform vs. Progressive), liberals are rapidly declining. The buzz is now dis-establishment, which Williams thinks is a bit of a yawn.

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What's up at the ANGLICAN CONSULTATIVE COUNCIL in London...our much beloved Fourth Instrument of Unity? Well, it seems the "instrument" is losing a few players. Late last year Canon James Rosenthal, Communications Director was given the heave ho. He is now a parish vicar in London. VOL has now learned that the Rev. Canon Gregory Cameron, Director of Ecumenical Affairs and No. 2 man at the ACC, is leaving to become Bishop of Asaph. Deirdre Martin, General office secretary for 32 years has also has been given her marching orders. If all that is left is Kearon and a few low level office staff, then you can be sure that the Global South can blow off the ACC without so much as a care in the world. Andrew Norman, Communion Affairs Secretary at Lambeth Palace is leaving the Palace to be principal of Ridley Hall, Cambridge. David Peck, International Development Secretary at Lambeth has moved to the U.S. and become rector of St James Episcopal church in Lancaster, PA.

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U.S. evangelicals say they are divided over a new "Green Bible" which embraces environmentalism and a need to protect the Earth. The Green Bible, which has been endorsed by secular groups such as the Humane Society and the Sierra Club, shows people that "God is calling us to care for the world around us," said Rusty Pritchard, editor of "Creation Care Magazine", a publication for evangelicals. Other evangelicals are concerned the Green Bible will mislead Christians because it does not interpret Scripture literally, said James Taylor, a founding elder at Living Water Christian Fellowship in Palmetto, Fla. "These groups don't have a religious focus; they have a desire to spread their environmental message," Taylor said of the essayists who contributed to the Green Bible, which contains a foreword from Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu. An estimated 25,000 copies have been sold by HarperOne since the book's release in October, "The Arizona Republic" reported.

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Family Values = Cash Values. What's up with the megachurch kingpins? Oral Roberts kicked out Richard Roberts. Herbert Armstrong kicked out Garner Ted Armstrong. Now Robert Schuller, Sr, has kicked out Robert Schuller, Jr., he of glass cathedral fame. Billy Graham had problems with his son until Franklin Graham saw the light. One observer noted that it is about power (hour of power, lifetime of big ego power) and greed, lots of money, religion, politics, greed, control of others by manipulation, using lies, New Age dogma, psychobabble and general baloney. You will recall Robert Schuller, Sr. attacking a flight attendant. It cost the church a bundle of cash.

*****

The evangelical Anglican PROVINCE OF NIGERIA is apparently a lot tougher on their people than Western bishops. In the Diocese of Owerri, The Anglican Bishop on the Lake, The Rt. Rev. Chijioke B.N. Oti, has advised Christians to resist the temptation of seeking power and safety in fetish materials and gods that do not exist. Bishop Oti gave the advice at the end of a three-day outreach program put on by the Directorate of Mission Initiative. The diocese then went on to plant a new church at Umuawo, Ejemekuru, Oguta. The bishop cautioned some Christians who are in the habit of seeking safety, prosperity, cults and power in fetish gods to desist from those act, pointing out that no king can be saved by the size or strength of his army. "It is no use seeking for safety and prosperity in cults and fetish gods. Only God can save, empower and enrich us, if only we believe and trust in Him," the Anglican cleric said.

In a similar development, Bishop Oti also planted another church in Ejemekuru, which he named, The Anglican Church of Advent, housing 41 members. He charged the Church Teacher, Mr. Chukwuemeka Okwaraego, who was also posted to superintend the Church, to ensure that the number of new converts will triple in the next one year. Now you know why churches are growing in the Global South and why Western churches are dying. Would any bishop in TEC or the Church of Canada dare stand up and say that sodomy is wrong, that Open Communion is wrong and that the pursuit of a pansexual agenda will ultimately end in spiritual death?

*****

The Council of FORWARD IN FAITH Australia is taking great exception to Bishop Kay Goldsworthy's statement reported in the "Sydney Morning Herald" that those who oppose the ordination of women "will never accept that God is calling women to leadership in the church".

"This denigrates the great women in the past as well as the present who are leaders in the Church. In her attempt to make this an argument about leadership, she is once again diverting attention from the main issue. We in Forward in Faith do not object to women in leadership roles. We do not doubt that Bishop Goldsworthy has lawfully become a bishop within the Anglican Church in Australia. What we question is whether she is a bishop within the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church and whether in purporting to consecrate her, the Anglican Church in Australia has forfeited its claim to be part of the Catholic Church."

*****

The CHURCH OF ENGLAND'S Church Commissioners have gone green, investing £150 million with former US Vice-President Al Gore's environmentally minded investment firm, Generation Investment Management. On Nov. 18, the First Church Estates Commissioner, Andreas Whittam Smith reported that in late September the Commissioners placed the funds with Gore's boutique management firm which follows an "environmentally sustainable global equities mandate." Funding for the investment came from "cash and Treasury bills", he said, and not from the sale of UK equities, as initially planned. In Oct. 2007, Gore was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in raising awareness of the potential threats from climate change. Generation Investment Management was founded in 2004 by Gore and David Blood, former head of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and had almost £5 billion under management before the market collapse.

*****

NASHOTAH HOUSE announced that it was awarding an honorary DD degree to The Rt. Rev. Donald Harvey, moderator of the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC). Bishop Harvey served as Bishop of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador in the Anglican Church of Canada from 1992 until 2004. In 2006, he was elected moderator of the ANiC and subsequently left the Anglican Church of Canada. The ANiC is one of 10 organizations that comprise the new Anglican Church in North America, which is seeking recognition as an official North American province of the Anglican Communion. Founded in 1842 as a frontier mission and located 30 miles west of Milwaukee, Nashotah House is "a seminary of The Episcopal Church in the Anglican Communion of Churches, providing theological education for prophetic, priestly, pastoral and servant ministries." Bishop Donald Harvey recently welcomed two new ANiC church plants: St Timothy's in Montreal, Quebec and the Church of the Messiah in Delhi, Ontario.

*****

In what is believed to be a first, a FATHER AND SON, both former Anglican clergy, have been ordained as CATHOLIC PRIESTS and are now working for the same archdiocese, Birmingham. Fr. Dominic Cosslett, 36, and his father, Father Ron Cosslett, 70, were both ordained by Archbishop Vincent Nichols. Nichols is the favorite to succeed Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor as Archbishop of Westminster when he steps down, early next year. The latest ordination of Fr. Dominic shows he is continuing in the tradition of true Catholicity to which the British church has so long been witness. Dominic was formerly an Anglican priest at the Church of Christ the King at Lourdes in Coventry. His father, Father Ron Cosslett, also a former Anglican priest, was ordained as a Catholic priest by Nichols on 3 July 2005. He is now priest-in-charge at St Joseph's, Darlaston in the West Midlands. Father and son co-celebrated, celebrating the Eucharist at the older Father's parish, for the first time at Christmas.

****

The ANGLICAN COALITION IN CANADA (ACiC) announced its full participation in the emerging Province of the Anglican Church in North America. The new province was called into existence by the GAFCON Primates, representing the vast majority of the Anglican Church worldwide. The Rev. Barclay Mayo, National ACiC Network Leader, commented, "Who would have believed 10 years ago when we were in the midst of painful challenges that we would see the day when faithful Anglicans would be working together in unity? We were told repeatedly that it couldn't be done, that we were too divided, that our differences were too great. God has shown the impossible to be possible." Peter Turner, a Canadian member of the Provincial ACiNA Council which just met in Chicago, said that "we are excited to be full founding partners with our other Canadian Anglican jurisdictions, including ANiC, CANA, and the Reformed Episcopal Church. We are committed to working together in unity for the sake of blessing Canada and North America."

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The CHURCH OF THE ANNUNCIATION, a Katrina ravaged parish in New Orleans, needs your help. Please consider a donation to this wonderful evangelical parish. You can send a donation by clicking this link. http://www.annunciationbroadmoor.org/donate.html Fr. Jerry Kramer will acknowledge your gift with great gratitude. The parish, which has helped tens of thousands of people hurt by Katrina in NOLA, is running on fumes.

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If you haven't registered for the AMiA Winter Conference 2009, there is still time. It will be held this year at the 1000-room Sheraton Greensboro Hotel and Joseph S. Koury Convention Center in Greensboro, NC.

New. Winter Conference 2009 will kick off with a night of celebration and fun. Under the leadership of Bishop TJ Johnston, the Anglican Mission will host a Film Festival entitled, Spotlight on Local Mission. Click here for more information, guidelines and Film Festival entry form.

Three exciting Pre-Conference Events will also be held: "Discovering the World of Church Planting", "One Church-Two Cultures: Uniting through Sister-to-Sister Partnerships", as well as the "Avoiding the Millstone Training Course." Click here for full descriptions and registration information.

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The current crisis in the Anglican Communion is turning the CHURCH IN SUDAN into an ideological battlefield - a particularly tragic and bizarre turn of events in a country that has already had more than its share of tragedy, says Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan. Liberal Episcopal dioceses like Missouri have ties with specific Sudanese dioceses. That is causing consternation and heartache to orthodox Anglicans. In the U.S., the Sudan Council of Churches, USA, wants to develop strong ties with the members of the Network and other orthodox Anglicans. CANS is working to help local Sudanese congregations in the United States connect with orthodox parishes.

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Parishes and individuals are invited to join with the hundreds who personally subscribed to the Global Anglican Future Conference's (GAFCON) JERUSALEM DECLARATION and affirmed the GAFCON Statement on the Global Anglican Future at the Wheaton celebration and worship service on December 3. Parishes may download a pdf copy of the signature collection sheets to be used to collect signatures here. All completed signature sheets may be sent to the Network's regional office in Jacksonville (P.O. Box 57983, Jacksonville, FL 32241).

The Network would like to collect all signature sheets by January 12. All signatures collected will be kept in a memory book for the Anglican Church in North America's historical records.

You can sign here:

http://www.acn-us.org/archive/2008/12/individuals-jerusalem-declaration.html

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The CHURCH OF ENGLAND "could survive split with state" says the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds who is playing down the significance of the Church of England being disestablished. The Rt. Rev John Packer, whose sprawling diocese includes Leeds, Harrogate, Ripon and Richmond, in backing the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, contends that a separation would not be such a major step. The bishops' comments come after it was recently reported that the Labor Party is pressing for a state split from the church. Bishop Packer said he would welcome a move in which the church would not have to take its legislation to Parliament for ratification. The Leeds-based bishop believes the church should have full control of its own life.

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The Anglican Bishop in JERUSALEM has expressed his dismay at the latest conflict to hit the Holy Land. The Rt.. Rev. Suheil S. Dawani said in a statement that his diocese was "stunned and saddened" as well as "grieved by the severity" of the ongoing military operations in Gaza. As Israel has indicated, the conflict could run on for weeks, Bishop Dawani reaffirmed the "unbroken commitment" of the Diocese of Jerusalem to the wellbeing and peace of people in Gaza, particularly through its Al Ahli Arab Hospital. Dawani called on both sides to halt the violence.

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President George Bush signed a gay rights bill recently prompting a VOL reader to write that it was another nail in the coffin of traditional marriage. "Now retirement benefits continue to flow, even after the 'single' beneficiary has died. We might as well throw in the towel on the marriage front. With duplicitous legislation like this, how could a California Supreme Court not strike down the people's will in this regard? Our 'Christian' lame duck president has accomplished same with a mere stroke of the pen." http://minnesotaindependent.com/21528/bush-signs-gay-rights-bill

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More changes in the CONTINUING ANGLICAN CHURCH paradise. Louis Falk, the first Archbishop of the Anglican Church in the America, who helped convene and create the Traditional Anglican Communion, (TAC) made up of several Anglican provinces from across the world, is back in the harness again after stepping down as Primate of the TAC in 2003 to let John Hepworth replace him. At that time, Bishop George Langberg replaced Falk as Archbishop of the ACA. Beginning January 1st, Falk is back assuming the office of The President, while Langberg as Vice-President, steps down to return to university to study for a Master's Degree in Ecumenical Relations. He will retire as Ordinary of the Diocese of the North East (DNE) on February 14th when, at that time, Bishop Brian Marsh, currently Coadjutor, will become the Ordinary. Bishop Louis Campese, Diocese of the Northeast is apparently under siege and is stepping down. Said one observer, "Falk's return is amazing. It's like Germany's recovery after WWI."

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The MERE ANGLICAN conference is less than two weeks away. If you haven't signed up, now is the time to do so, go to: http://www.mereanglicanism.com/events.htm Among the featured speakers are Dr. Albert Mohler, Bishop Nazir Ali, Dr. Stephen Noll, Bishop Robert Duncan, et al. It is a line -up of the brightest and the best. VOL will be there to record it all, but you should come, if you can. It will reinforce your faith at a crucial time in the church's history.

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If you have not made a tax- deductible contribution to VOL for 2008, it is still not too late to do so. We urgently need funds to cover vital conferences in 2009 that no one else will cover, if VOL does not. Please consider a donation today.

You can make a snail mail gift to:

VIRTUEONLINE
1236 Waterford Rd.,
West Chester, PA 19380

If you prefer to make a PAYPAL contribution to VOL, you may do so by going to VOL's website and hitting on the PAYPAL link. You can reach it here: www.virtueonline.org

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT

David