If there are lessons for the Church to be learned from the current political malaise and polarization in American politics, it is that truth will not be subject to endless dialogue, interfaithery talk, inclusivity, diversity and pluralism. We are stuck, we cannot move forward.

Take Roe v Wade. The issues have not gone away. The 1973 landmark abortion decision of the Supreme Court is now on the front burner of American politics 43 years later. The wannabee presidential candidate Chris Christie said it was the No.1 issue for him when asked. He is not the only one. Why, because human life is important and Christians across the country are fighting to bring down Planned Parenthood. It will be the same with gay marriage now legalized by the Supreme Court. I suspect 43 years from now if it is still on the books, Christians will be fighting to have it overturned. If Euthanasia is ever formally legalized we will see the same fight.

When the hue and cry over homophobia and "hate" finally dies down, people will be forced to look at the hard medical facts about sodomy and realize that this sexual behavior has no future and people will wake up. The latest medical facts are undeniable about sexually transmitted diseases, more than 75% are MSM. You can't make this stuff up. Facts are facts.

Americans with strongly held convictions are not going gently into that dark night. We are a polarized nation. My wife and I sat at an airport restaurant last night on our way home from Mexico and a man sitting next to us heard us talking and leaned over and said, "I don't know who to vote for, I don't like any of the candidates. I want someone who is concerned for the poor and downtrodden, 'the least of these', willing to put the country first, not big business or big pharma, at the same time respect marriage between a man and a woman, call Islam for what it is, actually believe what the Bible says about sex, respect life in the womb...but who is out there?" Who indeed.

Is it any wonder that the Church too is polarized? Progressives (formerly liberals) and hard core revisionists have thrown the Bible out the window or deconstructed it to the point that they make texts mean the exact opposite of what they say. I know a lesbian Church of England woman who is desperately trying to rewrite Scripture to make her behavior palatable to the Church and do so with God's blessing. She can't of course and anybody with half a brain knows you cannot lift the Law of Non-Contraction. But she keeps trying. When a lesbian seminary dean in the US says abortion is a blessing then that is a polarizing statement and Christians of real faith will never accept it. So too with gay marriage. People of conviction will never buy it, never.

That is why, at the end of the day, you have TEC and the ACNA. All talk of dialogue, Indaba and professional reconcilers will simply hit a brick wall. Reconciliation is impossible. Somewhere down the line if one side does not win the theological and culture wars then the Anglican Communion must split. Two cannot walk together unless they be agreed and they cannot, it is as simple as that.

Archbishop Justin Welby can send his theologians and professional reconcilers around the world, and Presiding Bishop Michael Curry can pour millions of dollars into Africa to make friends and influence Anglicans, but if the faithful hold fast to the faith "once delivered" then their efforts will fail and he will learn that you cannot kick the ball down the road forever; one or both sides will say enough and walk away. That is the way it must be. Truth cannot be compromised. God will not permit it. He will raise up 'stones' to speak for him if need be, or another Balaam's ass. It is only a matter of time.

*****

I wrote a number of years ago that once the liberals and revisionists had gotten rid of orthodox Episcopalians in the Episcopal Church they would turn on themselves like hungry rats with nothing left to feed on but themselves.

A case in point is the developing saga in the Diocese of Los Angeles. The bishop there, one Jon Bruno faces ecclesiastical and legal charges, that if proven true, could get him tossed out of the Church.

The irony should not be missed. The people who want him gone are fellow progressives. Here's the back story. At one time St. James the Great in Newport Beach was an orthodox evangelical parish under the watchful theological eye of one Fr. Richard Crocker. When the diocese and TEC started going down the revisionist drain over gay marriage he demurred and wanted to leave the diocese but keep the parish. He failed in the courts and moved on. With only a handful of liberals left the bishop allowed them to have a woman priest (of course) and so she set up shop. But then the bishop realized he had a multi-million dollar piece of real estate and immediately, through sleazy legal maneuvers, tried to sell it. He desperately needs the money having spent some $8 million on fighting other parishes. Not so fast said the new liberal dwellers. A secular company, The Griffith Company, who owned the land also came to the defense of the generations-old wishes to maintain the church property. Bruno suddenly found himself in the middle of a dogfight with little hope he can now sell the property. On top of this the liberal priestess he installed filed ecclesiastical charges against him and now he faces a trial that could see him tossed out.

The big question is will the ultra-liberal Disciplinary Board of the HOB led by The Rt. Rev. Catherine Waynick, President of the Board pronounce him guilty. Think Charles Bennison the former Bishop of PA. He was found guilty of conduct unbecoming a clergy but then they said the statute of limitations had run out and Bennison the Venal took a walk. A later change in the canons allowed then PB Jefferts Schori to arm twist the revisionist bishop out of his see. Perhaps it takes an extreme case like Bishop Heather Cook, who actually killed someone for the Church to be declarative, but then the media was all over her and TEC had no option. Let's hope the secular press gives their full attention to Bruno the bully.

A jury trial is set to begin August 1st.

*****

The Diocese of Northern Indiana has a new bishop. He is the Rev. Dr. Douglas Sparks, rector, St. Luke's Church, Rochester, MN. He replaces the Rt. Rev. Ed Little II an evangelical and Communion Partner Bishop. During the debate on liturgical forms Little said, "As a matter of Christian conviction, I must vote no. I do not believe that we have the authority to alter the sacrament of holy matrimony. That sacrament is rooted in creation and redemption, and is a sign of God's good provision for humankind. But I am well aware that many in the Diocese of Northern Indiana will be distressed that I could support neither the canonical re-definition of marriage nor the liturgies for same-sex marriage." Sparks will have no difficulty going along long with the Episcopal Church's canonical changes on gay marriage which marks the end of this diocese as truly orthodox. My reading is that the only orthodox dioceses left in TEC are Dallas, Springfield, Albany and Central Florida. Communion Partners is all but dead.

*****

Although homosexuals, or men who have sex with men (MSM), make up about 2% of the U.S. population, they account for 67% of "all new HIV diagnoses," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In addition, there are about 1.2 million people in the United States with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and an estimated 647,700 (54%) of those people are homosexuals, or MSM.

The 67% of all new HIV cases is for 2013 and the 54% living with HIV is for 2011, the latest years, according to the CDC, for that particular data.

Among some of the other facts about HIV/AIDS, reported by the CDC, are:

-- About 50,000 people become newly infected each year in the United States.

-- "More than 14,000 people with AIDS in the United States die each year."

-- "More than 650,000 people with AIDS in the United States have died" since the epidemic started in the early 1980s.

-- "Men who have sex with men (MSM) remain the group most heavily affected by HIV in the United States."

-- "White MSM continue to represent the largest number of new HIV infections among MSM (11,200), followed closely by black MSM (10,600)and Hispanic MSM (6,700)."

-- "Transgender individuals are also heavily affected by HIV. A 2008 review of HIV studies among transgender women found that, on average, 28 percent tested positive for HIV."

As for reducing the risk of being infected with HIV, the CDC states: "Sexual risk behaviors account for most HIV infections in gay and bisexual men. Most gay and bisexual men acquire HIV through anal sex, which is the riskiest type of sex for getting or transmitting HIV.

And you wonder why orthodox Anglicans can never buy into this behavior. It is simple, death both literal and spiritual haunts the beds of gay men and no amount of spin can or will change that.

*****

The Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop Michael Curry is putting the best spin on what happened in Canterbury, and now says this that the Anglican Communion's recent censure of his denomination was a "very specific, almost surgical approach" to their disagreements over LGBT issues.

You will recall that the Anglican primates voted last month in Canterbury, England, to remove the Episcopal Church from votes on doctrine and to ban it from representing the communion in interfaith and ecumenical relationships for three years.

In an appearance at the National Press Club on Monday (Feb. 8), Curry said the decision was a "very specific, almost surgical approach" that allowed both sides to express their differences and yet find a way to remain together. FOR THE MOMENT.

"There was clarity on our part, both about who we are as a church and about our love and commitment to the communion and there was clarity on their part that they disagreed with us," he said. "But they didn't vote us off the island." He said he could understand why the majority of Anglican leaders voted for the censure.

"Because we differ on the core doctrine, it would not be seen as appropriate for us to represent the Anglican Communion in ecumenical, interfaith leadership," he said. "That's fair." The Episcopal position would not be reviewed to avoid a renewal of the three-year censure. "We're not changing."
I wonder if he he'll be saying that three years from now when, as the Archbishop of Nigeria, Nicholas Okoh said recently "nothing has changed". A minority of the largest provinces are impaired or broken communion with TEC. If the Episcopal Church continues down its present course then either the Global South will withdraw from the Communion and take the majority of Anglicans with them or TEC will feel it has no place in the Communion and she, along with Scotland, Wales, The Church of England, Southern Africa and a few other provinces will withdraw. Either way it is over, it is only a matter of time.

****

SEXUAL SCANDAL continues to break out in The Episcopal Church. St. George's School, an elite Episcopal prep school in Middletown, Rhode Island is under investigation for the alleged sexual abuse of dozens of former students.

Three boys came to administrators at the prestigious Rhode Island prep school St. George's in 2004 with disturbing allegations: their dorm master had touched them inappropriately. Timothy Richards, then dean of students at the Episcopal school in Middletown, said he and the headmaster, Eric Peterson, interviewed the students.

The accused staffer left the school abruptly, and students were told he had taken a personal leave of absence. But a former school official says the school never reported the allegations to child welfare officials, as is required for credible accusations of abuse.

This week, with St. George's embroiled in a growing sexual abuse scandal, Richards said he would have reported the 2004 incident. "If the decision was up to him, he would have reported it to the appropriate agency in Rhode Island," said Richards's spokesperson, Karen Schwartzman. "In the situation at St. George's School, he's relying on the judgment of his boss, who is head of school and also an attorney."

The incident intensifies the spotlight on Peterson, who is still St. George's headmaster and was already facing calls for his resignation for what victims say is his failure to respond appropriately to numerous allegations of unreported past abuse. On Dec. 23, the school released a report on its own investigation into sexual abuse there, mostly in the 1970s and '80s, describing six staff and three student perpetrators. But it did not include the 2004 incident, even though the father of one alleged victim says he described the case in detail to the investigator.

Then news came this week that the scandal was beginning to spread across the country. The Rev. Howard White, former rector of Grace Episcopal Church in the Mountains has been accused of sexual misconduct that allegedly occurred during his time in Waynesville, NC.

The allegation came to light following the news that White was involved in sexual misconduct at St. George's School in Rhode Island.

In the report, White is identified only as Employee Perpetrator #2, but was later named by the attorney for the victims, Eric MacLeish, by matching victim statements with the account published.

It'll be interesting to see how much further this scandal unfolds and what heads will roll and lawsuits filed.

*****

IN CANADA the Anglican Church there might well soon be on suicide watch. The Diocese of Toronto's St. John's holds a monthly Queer Eucharist where those still smarting from "the church's historic condemnation of homosexuality" can reassure themselves that what St. Paul and 2,000 years of church history have been saying about homosexual acts have been wrong all along.

Rev. Samantha Caravan points out that a lot of "people have left the church" over this. Now, because of the Queer Eucharist, it seems they have returned; all 12 of them.

On a January evening in Toronto, a dozen or so congregants filter in from the cold into the surprising mauve, green and yellow interior of a stately old church in a leafy west-end neighborhood.

They stand to sing Marty Haugen's "Here in this Place New Light is Streaming," and listen as the Rev. Samantha Caravan, clad in rainbow vestments, asks for inspiration "to speak a new word, to shout another praise." Caravan reads a passage from St. Peter's letter, in which he addresses the persecuted early church: "Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."

A sermon is preached on the need for a faith of inclusion, after which the congregation affirms that it will not "patronize, exclude or ignore the gifts of any person."

The group stands in a circle around the altar and takes the bread and wine. Together, they offer themselves to be leaders of liberation and proclaimers of divine love. To the much-beloved Thaxted tune, they sing, "Let streams of living justice flow down upon the earth," before gathering for refreshments and chat.

So for a handful of queers, the Anglican province wants to change its canons on marriage to suit the unsuitable.

*****

The Aleppo Codex, the oldest surviving copy of the Hebrew Bible that some experts believe all versions of the Old Testament stem from, has been recognized by UNESCO as an important world treasure.

I24News reported that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization added the millennium-old Codex earlier this week to its International Memory of the World Register, which honors some of the most important discoveries relating to human history. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

Despite famine, religious wars, worldwide conflict and the spread of civilization, the heads of the Roman Catholic and the Russian Orthodox churches haven't spoken since the Great Schism of 1054 shattered Christendom, so they had a lot of catching up to do when they sat down for their historic meeting Friday afternoon in Cuba.

Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill embraced and kissed one another three times on the cheek as they met in the wood-paneled VIP room at Havana's Jose Martí International Airport.

After another round of handshakes for the cameras and greetings with members of their entourages, the two men sat and began talking. Clasping their hands in their laps, both occasionally gestured and nodded as they spoke. They held a two-hour "personal conversation" and then signed a joint declaration.

"We are brothers," Francis said as he embraced Kirill in the small, wood-paneled VIP room of Havana's airport, where the three-hour encounter took place.

"Now things are easier," Kirill agreed as he and the pope exchanged three kisses on the cheek. "This is the will of God," the pope said.

In the 30-point statement, the two leaders declared themselves ready to take all necessary measures to overcome their historical differences, saying "we are not competitors, but brothers."

Francis and Kirill also called for political leaders to act on the single most important issue of shared concern between the Catholic and Orthodox churches today: the plight of Christians in Iraq and Syria who are being killed and driven from their homes by the Islamic State group.

"In many countries of the Middle East and North Africa, entire families of our brothers and sisters in Christ are being exterminated, entire villages and cities," the declaration said.

The split between the two churches nearly 1,000 years ago has festered over issues such as the primacy of the pope and accusations by the Russian Orthodox Church that the Catholic Church tries to poach converts in Russia.

No pope has ever visited Russia. En route to the historic visit Friday, journalists asked Francis if a visit to the nation is on his papal bucket list. "China and Russia, I have them here," Francis said, pointing to his heart. "Pray."

Few people expect Friday's meeting -- which took two years of secret planning to pull off -- will wipe away centuries of distrust and suspicion in a few hours, but it will be a groundbreaking step toward Catholic-Orthodox relations.

*****

Practicing Christians are now a minority in Britain much like the persecuted Roman Catholic minority after the reformation, two senior clerics said this week.

The Anglican Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, and the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Cardinal Nichols, said their respective Churches must put aside their differences and recognize their "common agenda" as society becomes increasingly secularized.

The clerics were speaking after a historic meeting at Hampton Court Palace, home of Henry VIII, where the Chapel Royal celebrated Catholic Vespers for the first time in more than 450 years.

According to The Telegraph, Cardinal Nichols, who is de facto leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, said that after being severely persecuted in previous centuries, Catholics now contribute to British life as a "significant minority", to which Bishop Chartres replied: "We are all minorities now."

Cardinal Nichols continued, adding that traditional Christian values that people "used to take for granted" are now widely questioned.

Last month, Breitbart London reported how attendance at Church of England services had dropped below one million per week for the first time ever, with only 1.4 per cent of the population now attending England's established church.

The figures mark a two-thirds decrease since the 1960s, with Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby warning that Britain is becoming increasingly anti-Christian:

"The culture [is] becoming anti-Christian, whether it is on matters of sexual morality, or the care for people at the beginning or the end of life. It is easy to paint a very gloomy picture."

*****

The Anglican Church of Melanesia has a new Archbishop and Primate. He is the Rt. Rev. George Takeli, the current Bishop of Temotu. He will be enthroned on April 17 April at the Saint Barnabas Provincial Cathedral. He will also become Bishop of the Diocese of Central Melanesia. He succeeds Archbishop David Vunagi who retired September 2015.

Born in Suholo village on Ulawa Island in the province of Makira Ulawa, 56-year-old George Takeli was ordained to the priesthood in 1995 and has served as a priest in the Anglican Church for 16 years before being made the fourth Bishop of Temotu in August 2009.

Bishop Takeli said that his main priorities as Archbishop of Melanesia will be to establish an active missionary church alongside a strong and effective administration system and a strong investment division for the Anglican Church of Melanesia.

*****

Bishop David Zac Niringiye, a Langham Scholar who retired four years ago as the bishop of Uganda's Anglican church to promote peace and speak out against corruption in his nation, is asking for prayers for Uganda which, he writes, "is on the edge...there is widespread fear that violence could escalate in the run up to and after the February 18, 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections."

Bishop Zac, who is uniting with the youth across the country to advocate for peaceful elections through the "I Pledge Peace 2016" campaign, said in a recent interview with BBC Radio 4 that "it is important that we ensure that the elections are free. . . The amount of suffering that the misuse and abuse of power has created for my country, it is a right thing for a religious person to say enough is enough."

The bishop is calling for prayer for Uganda.

*****

CORRECTION. In my last VIEWPOINTS I inferred that the ACNA had a retirement age similar to that of The Episcopal Church. I was wrong. There is no retirement age limit in ACNA. My apologies for the error.

*****

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