A hearty appetite. There is perhaps no greater secret of progress in Christian living than in healthy, hearty spiritual appetite. Again and again Scripture addresses its promises to the hungry. God 'satisfied him who is thirsty, and the hungry he fills with good things' (Ps. 107:9). If we are conscious of slow growth, is the reason that we have a jaded appetite? It is not enough to mourn over past sin; we must also hunger for future righteousness. --- From "The Message of the Sermon on the Mount" John R.W. Stott

Abba Zeno said, "If a man wants God to hear his prayer quickly, then before he prays for anything else, even his own soul, when he stands and stretches out his hands towards God, he must pray with all his heart for his enemies. Through this action God will hear everything that he asks."

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
12/16/2008

It was a week that saw two skeletal dioceses endeavor to reconstitute themselves with remnant Episcopalians even as the majority of newly minted Anglicans moved inexorably towards a new North American Anglican Province promising a safe spiritual harbor from the ecclesiastical apostasy raging around them.

The national church claims that the remnant are the true carriers of the Episcopal torch and they are doing everything in their power to retain a serious foothold in the area when the legal briefs begin to fly. 2009 promises to be the Episcopal Year of Litigation with four dioceses feeling the wrath of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and her attorney David Booth Beers, not to mention smaller legal battles waging inside dioceses like Connecticut, Colorado, Pennsylvania to name only a few.

It will be a year of terminal ugliness capped by a General Convention that will undoubtedly push the sexual boundaries to the limit. Same-sex rites already practiced in a number of dioceses will be ratified along with gay marriage in those states that already allow it. Priests of varying sexual proclivities and persuasions (LGBT - take your pick) who feel called to a higher ecclesiastical office will be delighted to know that Mrs. Jefferts Schori will not stand in their way if a higher (or lower) power has given the divine nod. God is, after all, now an equal opportunity blesser of homogenital sex. It is somewhat ironic that this convention should be held in Calipornia, a state that had the recent good sense to pass Prop 8 that argued (gulp) that only those persons who uphold marriage between and a man and a woman.

Not persuaded that all is lost in TEC, the DIOCESE OF DALLAS held their 113th convention and had the nerve to pass a resolution asking the Presiding Bishop to tell the whole church where all the money was coming from to sue dioceses, i.e. what endowment or trust funds are being raided and where is the money coming from in 2009 to continue the litigation? Inquiring minds want to know.

Delegates also passed a resolution requesting that the Episcopal Church and all Dioceses, parishes and bishops adopt a policy of negotiation and/or mediation with regard to disputes over property and, in accordance with the Dar es Salaam Primate's Communiqué, should cease and desist from engaging in lawsuits with fellow Christians.

These resolutions have about as much chance of seeing the light of day as Satan's minions discovering a new brand of refrigeration. Last year, four retired bishops asked the Presiding Bishop where the money was coming from and never got an answer. Why make the Diocese of Dallas think they will get one? The only way to get this information is to bring a civil action to compel disclosure.

Meantime, the Presiding Bishop, fearful perhaps that she might not be able to spring money loose from the church's endowments, wrote a letter to members of the ST. IVES GUILD of the Diocese of New York asking for funds "to litigate and defend and protect Church property against those who wish to secure the property on behalf of a foreign province."

The letter was written by the Rev. Canon Charles Robertson, the Presiding Bishop's canon. He stridently wrote, "The Church takes this action in order to ensure that the heritage of the Church will be preserved for the Church's service to God's mission, both now and for generations to come."

"As someone engaged in the legal profession, you understand that the cost of such litigation can be significant. In an effort to alleviate the pressure such litigation has placed on the Church's financial resources (which are needed for its broader mission work), the Church has recently established the St. Ives Fund, named in honor of the patron saint of lawyers."

All of this begs the question:"What generations ahead is he talking about?" The Episcopal Church is more geriatric than adolescent. Those future generations just might be in his imagination.

*****

Meanwhile, diocesan lawsuits continue. In the DIOCESE OF CENTRAL NEW YORK, the Rev. Matt Kennedy and his parish got a stay of execution when a state Supreme Court judge reserved a decision in the legal dispute between the local church and the diocese run by Bishop Skip Adams over who owns the property of the Church of the Good Shepherd after it left TEC to come under the Province of Kenya. Adams wants him out now; the court said it would make up its mind in 60 days. For now, the congregation will focus on Christmas, according to Kennedy.

The young evangelical rector is not hopeful of the outcome, however, and told his people, "If this is our last Christmas, at least we'll celebrate it together." Kennedy said the church's attorney, Raymond Dague of Syracuse, argued before Judge Ferris D. Lebous that the diocese's claim to the property is invalid because the Episcopal Church did not properly enact the national church, or canon, law cited to claim the property.

*****

The RECONSTITUTED DIOCESE OF PITTSBURGH has a new bishop to pull together some 27 parishes that allegedly did not flee to the new province. Ann Rodgers of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote that the diocese has named retired Bishop Robert Hodges Johnson, formerly of the Diocese of Western North Carolina, as their interim spiritual leader. Bishop Johnson, not to be confused with a different Bishop Robert Johnson who also served in North Carolina, will provide part-time pastoral and sacramental duties while a committee of local clergy and laity continues to run the diocese. His contract ends July 31, 2009.

Bishop Johnson did similar work in the Diocese of Southern Virginia in 2006. "We need someone primarily to be a pastor, not to set an agenda," the Rev. Simons said. "Prior to the October 4 secession vote, the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh had 74 churches. Twenty-seven, including one splinter from a Greensburg parish that is part of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh (Anglican), had delegates at the convention. Both dioceses have the same name, but only the diocese currently meeting is recognized by the Episcopal Church."

*****

The unfolding drama of the new NORTH AMERICAN ANGLICAN PROVINCE continues to engage the naysayers and the hopeful. I have written a major update on this ongoing situation. You can read it here or in today's digest. http://tinyurl.com/66guu7

*****

Undeterred by any legal actions the national church might bring down on fleeing dioceses, the DIOCESE OF QUINCY issued a statement this week saying they support the new province. The Standing Committee of the Diocese of Quincy endorsed the plan of the Anglican Communion Network to transition its staff and operations into the newly forming Anglican Church in North America. A delegation from Quincy took part in the in the annual Council of the Network held December 8-9 in Kansas City. "We support the decision of the Network to wrap up its operations over the next several months and transition its staff and operations into the organization of the new province that was launched December 3rd," said Fr. John Spencer, press officer for the diocese and a member of the Standing Committee. "Our diocese, as one of the originating dioceses of the new province in North America, will continue to support those efforts until the province is a reality."

*****

The standing committee of the DIOCESE OF THE RIO GRANDE voted unanimously this week to disaffiliate from the Anglican Communion Network. The standing committee felt increasingly that the work of the Anglican Communion Network no longer served the constructive purposes hoped for in the 2004 resolution. The decision to opt out followed the Network's annual council meeting in Overland Park, KS., Dec. 8-9.

In a statement, the diocese said it looks towards the future and electing its next bishop. "The support of the Anglican Communion Network for the creation of a separate Anglican church in North America, announced on Dec. 3, served as the catalyst for the action of the standing committee at its meeting this week." The withdrawal of the Rio Grande, which did not send any representatives to the annual council meeting, leaves eight of the original 10 dioceses nominally in the organization. Four of the original 10 founding dioceses-Fort Worth, Pittsburgh, Quincy and San Joaquin-have withdrawn from The Episcopal Church.

But one activist parishioner is very angry over the diocese's decision. She wrote to VOL saying, "I deeply resent our Standing Committee committing our diocese to TEC. The question has been raised "Where are the conservatives?" We are being told to wait and wait some more. The Standing Committee blithely acknowledges differences but goes no further. It is the same old story--the majority don't know what is going on in the church and don't care. It is time to leave."

The Diocese of Central Florida withdrew its Network affiliation about six months ago in favor of affiliation with the Anglican Communion Institute. Leaders from the remaining four Network dioceses-Albany, Dallas, South Carolina and Springfield-expressed varying degrees of support for the formation of another organization, but all four said there are no plans at present to discuss withdrawal or disaffiliation.

*****

Never mind that orthodox Episcopalians believe that the Episcopal Church has been hijacked by the Left, TEC is now on record saying that it is unhappy with PIRATES operating off the West Coast of Africa. Indeed. The Episcopal Church-related Seamen's Church Institute (SCI) has become involved in efforts to block the operations of Somali pirates. Recent attacks on shipping by the pirates have attracted worldwide attention. There are currently 280 merchant mariners from 14 ships being held hostage by pirates in Somalia, according to a news release from SCI. Between January and September of this year, 581 merchant mariners have been taken hostage and nine were killed by pirates worldwide. Seaman's Church Institute, a New York City-based ecumenical mariners' agency affiliated with the Episcopal Church, has worked on issues of piracy for over two decades -- recording cases, providing assistance to victims of these cases, and advocating to international organizations for tough standards to reduce instances of hijacking.

*****

The Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has sent out her 2008 Christmas message. She quoted John 1:5, "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it."

Here is what she says: The world settles into winter, at least in the northern hemisphere, and life to many seems increasingly bleak. Foreclosures, layoffs, government bailouts and financial failures, continuing war on two fronts, terrorist attacks, murders of some identified only by their faith -- this world is in abundant need of light. We know light that is not overcome by darkness, for God has come among us in human flesh. Born in poverty to a homeless couple, to a people long under occupation, Jesus is human and divine evidence that God is with us in the midst of the world's darkness. Emmanuel, Prince of Peace, Divine Counselor is come among us to re-mind, re-member, and re-create. A new mind and heart is birthed in us as we turn to follow Jesus on the way. The body of God's creation is re-membered and put back together in ways intended from the beginning. And a new creation becomes reality through Jesus' healing work. Christians tell the story again each Christmastide, and the telling and remembering invites us once again into being made whole. Our task in every year is to hear the story with new ears, and seeing light in the darkness of this season's woes, then to tell it abroad with gladsome hearts to those who wait in darkness. Where will you share the joyous tale of light in the darkness?

*****

If you want a sample of what it is like now and going to look like increasingly into the future in Episcopal parishes across the country, then read this. From the Church of St. Luke and St Simon of Cyrene, a LIBERAL PARISH in Rochester, NY comes this:.

Annual income
$257,000 ($90,000 from endowment)
Annual expenses $361,000

ENDOWMENT FUNDS: Opening Balance:
1/1/2007 - $1,063,613.15
Closing Balance 12/31/07 - $955,494.02
After this year's losses on the stock market, the 2008 budget needs to draw down another $90,000 from the endowment.
"This parish is going to blow their endowment in a few short years," said a parishioner.

*****

Leaders of the EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AMERICA (ELCA) in the state of Michigan have issued a pastoral letter calling on the U.S. Congress to consider the parable of the Good Samaritan as it consider a financial bailout of the Michigan-based auto industry. Noting that the state's 9.5 percent unemployment rate is the highest in the U.S., the church leaders told Congress that "now is not the time for our country to continue walking on the other side of the road, ignoring the plight of our economically -battered workers.

This is the time to reach out as the Good Samaritan did to care for another, even at our own expense," they wrote. Bishops from three of the state's four Episcopal Church dioceses and the three ELCA synods covering Michigan and parts of northern Wisconsin signed the letter along with the president of the Diocese of Northern Michigan's standing committee.

That diocese has been without a bishop since the June 2007 death of Bishop Jim Kelsey. "There are hard decisions to be made, but we hope that any assistance given to the automakers will attempt to balance the immediate needs of workers with the long term viability of our economy by concentrating on long term stability through restructuring and on the strength of the company as a whole," the letter stated.

*****

In Herndon, Virginia, the CONVOCATION OF ANGLICANS IN NORTH AMERICA (CANA) has appointed the Rev. Canon Julian Dobbs to the position of Canon Missioner. Dobbs will work to establish a CANA Clergy Deployment Office, help Anglicans in North America to understand and engage with the challenges posed by the rise of Islam, and develop a mission partnership with West Africa for the development of Anglican clergy and lay leaders.

"Julian is well suited to assist CANA and the recently announced Anglican Church of North America," said CANA Missionary Bishop Martyn Minns. An ordained Anglican priest, Mr. Dobbs was most recently the U.S. executive director for the Barnabas Fund where he developed awareness for the persecuted church and its growing ministry across the U.S. The Convocation of Anglicans in North America (www.canaconvocation.org) currently consists of more than 70 congregations with 150 clergy in 21 states. CANA is part of the Common Cause Partnership that includes representatives of more than 250 Anglican congregations.

*****

Jeffrey Steenson, the former Episcopal Bishop of the DIOCESE OF THE RIO GRANDE, was ordained to the Diaconate by Bernard Cardinal Law at Santa Maria Maggiore, Italy, on Saturday Dec 13. His priesting will be in Albuquerque on Feb 21." He will be teaching in an RC seminary in Denver, VOL was told.

*****

Christian leaders of the tiny minority CHURCH OF PAKISTAN, a union of four denominations: Anglican, Methodist, Lutheran and Presbyterian (Church of Scotland), are at the forefront of the war in the North Western Frontier Province of Pakistan. They find themselves in the midst of a complex conflict involving regional and global powers. "We deem it a privilege that we as a church are present in perhaps the world's most hostile and vulnerable areas at the moment," said Bishop Munawar K. Rumalshah of the Church of Pakistan, who heads the Diocese of Peshawar, the capital of the North-West Frontier Province.

"God has allowed us to be there, in his name. To serve humanity, especially people who despise and hate us by cleaning their wounds and nurturing the children," Rumalshah told a team from the Geneva-based World Council of Churches visiting Pakistan from November 24 to December. Of the 173 million in Pakistan, 95 percent are Muslims., Christians and Hindus make up less than 5 percent.

*****

The Most Rev. Sir Ellison Pogo of the CHURCH OF MELANESIA retired December 9 after serving as primate of the southwestern Pacific province for 14 years, making him the longest-serving archbishop of the Anglican Communion, according to the Episcopal News Service.

Consecrated as bishop of the Diocese of Isabel in the Melanesian church in 1981, Pogo was honored in 2000 with a Knighthood of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II for his dedicated service to the church and people of the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and the French Territory of New Caledonia. Pogo was awarded the Cross of St. Augustine in October by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams in recognition for his service to the Anglican Communion. He has served as chair of the Lambeth Conference Design Group and chair of the Pacific Theological College. The Church of Melanesia includes eight dioceses, more than 400 islands and 250,000 parishioners. Anglicanism was brought to Melanesia in 1849 by the first bishop of New Zealand, George Augustus Selwyn. It remained part of the Church of the Province of New Zealand until it became an ecclesiastical province in its own right in 1975. It is now a fully indigenous and autonomous province of the Anglican Communion.

*****

The people of northern UGANDA should not seek revenge against the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels when they return home, says the Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, Henry Luke Orombi. He is encouraging people to forgive the rebels for the atrocities and havoc they committed during the 22 years of terror in the north. He cautioned them against committing crimes and putting the blame on Joseph Kony's group. He delivered his message in a sermon at the end of his six-day pastoral visit to the north at Christ Church Urban Archdeaconry in Gulu, recently.

*****

If you want to know which TEC dioceses allow SAME SEX UNIONS, here they are: Los Angeles, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, El Camino Real, Long Island, Nevada, New. Hampshire, North Carolina, Utah, Vermont and Washington, D.C.

*****

Concerned that homosexuals might continue to make their way into Roman Catholic parishes, the Vatican will now test for 'stable masculinity' in ordinands. Candidates for the priesthood will undergo psychological screening that will identify "deep-seated homo­sexual tendencies", the Vatican has announced. Gay men thus identified will be deemed unsuitable as seminarians, even if they have no difficulty in re­maining celibate, says the document from the Congregation for Catholic Education, Guidelines for the Use of Psychology in the Admission and Formation of Candidates for the Priesthood.

Such screening, it says, would help avoid what the report calls "tragic situations" caused by psychological defects, an undoubted reference to the damaging and costly number of sexual-abuse cases exposed in recent years. Along with moral and theological virtues and a solid spiritual life, a potential priest should have "a positive and stable sense of his own masculine identity and the capacity to form mature relationships with other people or groups of people; a solid sense of belonging, base of the future communion with the presbyterate and of a responsible collabor­ation with the bishop's ministry," the document says. Those for whom celibacy is "lived as a burden so heavy that it compro­mises his affective and relational equilibrium" would not be con­sidered. Other "immaturities" that might be a bar to service include "strong emotional dependence, not­able lack of frankness in relation­ships, excessive rigidity of character, lack of loyalty, uncertain sexual identity." Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, who presented the report, is reported to have described homosexuality as "a deviation, an irregu­larity, a wound" even for celibate gay men.

New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson would clearly not pass muster.

*****

ZIMBABWE President Robert Mugabe is the "21st century Hitler", says a South African bishop. In a statement calling for churches to pray for Mugabe's forced removal, the Anglican Bishop of Pretoria Joe Seoka said, "Mugabe must be viewed as the 21st Century Hitler, a person seemingly without conscience or remorse, and a murderer." Seoka blamed Zimbabwe's neighbors for protecting their "comrade in dictatorship." "I believe it is now an opportune moment for all the church leaders to follow the retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, to call on God to cause the removal of Mugabe from the office of the President of Zimbabwe," he said. "The church in South Africa has done this before with the apartheid regime and there is no doubt that God will hear our prayers even today."

*****

A Church of England priest who visited the West Bank recently said his English congregation will not sing "O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM" this Christmas. The Rev. Stephen Coulter, vicar in Blandford Forum in Dorset, said that Bethlehem now has security guards tracking the population, not shepherds watching their flocks, The Daily Telegraph reported. He also described the words "how still we see thee lie" as having little to do with life in Bethlehem. The carol was written by the Rev. Phillips Brooks, an Episcopal priest from the United States who was inspired by a visit to Bethlehem in 1865. Coulter showed his congregation a nativity scene carved by one of his guides. A security fence like the one now surrounding Bethlehem separates the three wise men from the infant Jesus. "My parishioners know why we will not be singing 'O Little Town' in church this year," Coulter said at a civic carol service sponsored by the North Dorset District Council.

*****

The Church of England has warmly welcomed the Royal Mail's decision this year to issue CHRISTMAS STAMPS with a Christian theme in parallel to their "Pantomime" series. The Royal Mail has printed tens of millions of both sets of stamps. Customers have been able to buy some stamps depicting two classic, iconic paintings - the Madonna of Humility by Lippo di Dalmasio, and Madonna and Child by William Dyce. The Madonna of Humility is featured on the 1st Class stamp while Madonna and Child is on the 2nd Class.

*****

If the METHODIST CHURCH IN ENGLAND continues to decline at the same rate in the coming decades as it has in the last, by 2040 Methodists in Britain would go the same way as Mohicans in North America, according to Stephen Plant a Methodist minister and a lecturer in theology at the University of Durham.

*****

LAMBETH PALACE Library website are now more readily available to the public. The collections of Lambeth Palace Library, the historic library and record office of the archbishops of Canterbury and the principal repository of the history of the Church of England, have been made more accessible with the launch of a newly redesigned website at www.lambethpalacelibrary.org. As well as practical details on accessing the library's collections and other services, the website allows potential users to view the full scope of its research resources via its electronic catalogues and outlines of its holdings.

*****

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Advent Blessings

David