Held in high honor. Even in other religions and ideologies Jesus is held in high honour. Hindus would gladly recognize him as an 'avatar' (descent) of Vishnu, and so assimilate him into Hinduism, if only he would renounce his exclusive claims. Jews who reject Jesus as their Messiah have never lost interest in him. Their scholars write books about him, and their hostility has often been more to Gentile anti-Semitism than to Jesus himself. Muslims acknowledge him as one of the great prophets, whose virgin birth, sinlessness, miracles, inspiration and future return are all affirmed in the Qur'an. Marxists, while fiercely critical of 'religion' as an opium which drugs the oppressed into tolerating the injustices of the *status quo*, nevertheless respect Jesus for his confrontation with the Establishment and his compassionate solidarity with the poor. --- John R.W. Stott

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
October 16, 2015

It was a revelatory week in the life of The Episcopal Church this past week. Latest figures reveal a Church in serious decline with little evidence that the situation can be reversed any time soon. If ever.

When the 2014 stats came out, it was no surprise that The Episcopal Church had again lost membership across the board. However, the newest released figures show that there is a dip in most church growth indicators -- total membership, ASA, congregations, baptisms, communicants, faith formation pupils, confirmations, and receptions from other Christian denominations. There is a slight uptick in marriages and an increase in funerals.

For the first time in 75 years, The Episcopal Church's total membership dipped below the two million member mark. TEC's just-released official 2014 stats show worldwide church membership standing at 1,956,042. The last time Episcopal Church membership was below two million was in 1939 when there were 1,996,434 Episcopalians.

At the close of World War II, the Episcopal Church had a high water mark of 7,894 congregations; following the war, with the glut of baby boomers, The Episcopal Church grew and climbed over the three million mark in 1958 with 3,126,662 members. TEC's membership peaked in 1966 with a 3,429,153 baptized souls.

From 1967 until 2003, when gay Bishop Vicky Gene Robinson (IX New Hampshire) burst upon the scene, the Episcopal Church's membership ebbed and flowed -- up one year and down another. Once Bishop Robinson joined the House of Bishops, TEC's worldwide membership has steadily declined from 2,419,562 (2003) to 1,956,042 (2014), a loss of 463,520 souls in just a little more than a decade.

The 100 domestic dioceses of the Episcopal Church first dropped below two million members in 2010 when a 1,951,907 domestic membership figure was reported. You can read the full report in two stories in today's digest; one by Mary Ann Mueller and another by Jeff Walton of IRD. Taken together, they present a full report on the state of the church today.

The 2014 Table of Statistics is viewable here: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/files/2014_table_of_statistics_english.pdf

The 2013 Table of Statistics is viewable here: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/files/2013_table_of_statistics_0.pdf

Even the few remaining orthodox dioceses, and they are fewer by the year, are hemorrhaging members.

The evangelical catholic Diocese of Albany, under the Rt. Rev. Bill Love, saw a decline in membership. The 2013 membership stood at 15,750 with an Average Sunday Attendance (ASA) of 6,277. In 2014, membership was 15,232 with an ASA of 6,143. Total membership was down 518 (-3.3%) and attendance was down 134 (-2.1%). That's the equivalent of one decent sized parish or two small parishes.

The Anglo-Catholic Diocese of Springfield, under Bishop Daniel Martins, saw a decline in membership. In 2013, it was 4,466 with an ASA of 1,620! In 2014, membership dropped to 4,242 with an ASA of 1,574. Overall membership was down 224 or (-5%) and attendance was down 46 (-2.8%). Springfield is definitely hurting -- a 5 percent membership drop in a single year is an enormous loss. The average Sunday attendance at The Falls Church (Anglican), Virginia is now larger than the entire diocese of Springfield.

The evangelical diocese of Central Florida in 2013 had a membership of 28,917 with an ASA of 13,318. In 2014, membership had dropped to 28,386 and ASA had dropped to 13,085. Overall, membership was down 531 (-1.8%) and ASA was down 233 (-1.8%).

Albany's rate of decline is better than the national church's. Central Florida can absorb these losses quite easily, but Albany and Springfield cannot.

*****

Episcopal participation in Gay Pride parades is not new. Episcopal bishops from New York to San Francisco have been regular habitues at such events, praising, and supporting the LGBTQ community in all its pretentious colorful array and full precocious public acclamation of pansexuality.

However, until now we have not seen a bishop so overtly supportive of such events featuring bizarrely dressed men and women as we have when the Rt. Rev. Robert C. Wright, Episcopal Bishop of Atlanta, participated in a Gay Pride parade IN THE PRESENCE OF CHILDREN.

This is not merely the support of a lifestyle condemned by Scripture, the Roman Catholic, and Orthodox Churches, the Southern Baptist Convention, numerous evangelical churches, 2000 years of church history, reason, and revelation. The gay lifestyle is now being eulogized and proclaimed as good and right in the eyes of God--because a revisionist Episcopal bishop says so.

This behavior comes from a diocese that proudly hosts regular Safeguarding our Children programs on child sexual abuse awareness. A blurb on the diocesan website says the program provides participants with information they need to protect the children they know and care for in their personal lives and in their ministries.

You can read the full story here http://tinyurl.com/q7xy77p or in today's digest.

*****

Meeting in Cairo this week are the Global South (GAFCON) Primates and ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach. There they will be joined by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who will fly in from the US to meet with these orthodox Anglicans. They are there to discuss Welby's Invitation to meet in January in Canterbury with all 38 Primates.

An Anglican TV network said it is a secret meeting. It is not. This was on the cards even before the Global South meeting in Tunisia was cancelled. Archbishop Beach was there to preach in the cathedral and to have private talks with Middle East Archbishop Mouneer Anis.

The GAFCON primates attended at the public invitation of Middle East Archbishop Mouneer Anis.

This will be a Kairos moment for Welby in Cairo. He will be quizzed on whether the aim of the meeting in January is to focus on issues like global warming or whether the faith can be maintained in a Communion torn "by heresies distressed."

A communique is expected following the meeting in Cairo. Watch for it.

*****

Virginia Theological Seminary drew more than 1,000 to the reopening of Virginia Theological Seminary's Immanuel chapel which was destroyed by fire in 2010 and rebuilt in 2015. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby was present for the occasion and said in his sermon, "Is it possible? Can such an event ever be seen to the glory of God? Why yes, because in death and resurrection we are drawn back into the presence of the living God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead."

Welby warned during his sermon that church buildings can be both blessings and burdens: "Sometimes they are the servants of the church," he said, and sometimes they are the church's tyrant with their "demands and instructions."

Church buildings are only brick and mortar but, buildings such as the new Immanuel Chapel's "astonishing and wonderful and beautiful space" welcome pilgrims and give them a sense of "exultation and beauty."

People drawn together to worship come with untidy hearts filled with joy, sorrow, worry, undiscerned callings and shame of sin, and emerge transformed and reoriented towards service, he said. "Holiness is not neat and clean, abiding by rules," he said. "It is fire and flame, consuming the dark and the dirt. It is beauty and fear, causing us to fall on our faces, appalled by our sin, drawn by its radiant light and healing heat. But holiness is never tidy."

And, while worship can transform and reorient participants, it should never seek to make people conformists, he said. "Let this never be a place that seeks to tidy people up," Welby said.

The archbishop called for the chapel to "orientate and shape those who will carry the torch of unity." Saying his heart breaks when he contemplates the divisions in the world, Welby prayed, "O God, we needed a united church."

Welby also cited the Anglican Communion's divisions, "in which I am personally, deeply implicated." He called on the congregation to "recognize, contemplate and mourn" the fact that "we too turn from God and lose sight of God's mission."

The church must be built on the rock of obedience to Jesus' word, the archbishop said.

It should be noted that this is a moderately orthodox seminary, but not enough to attract African Anglican seminarians. Global South African leaders will not allow their people to study there. There are known homosexual and lesbians on the staff. President Ian Markham says that sexuality is a "second order issue."

*****

The Underground Pewster reports this from Philadelphia.

All Saints Episcopal Church in Torresdale, near Philadelphia, PA is right across the street from Saint Katherine of Siena Roman Catholic Church and Elementary School This past week, the Episcopal parish posted the above announcement on their roadside message board.

"The 'in Your Face' sign right in front of the neighboring Roman Catholic Church and School is an insult to Roman Catholics.

"This is not what I would call being a good neighbor. For one thing it has not been the church's habit to display wedding congratulations for their heterosexual members. It is clearly an attempt to say, "Hey look at us!" It also sends a message to children being ferried to and from the R.C. elementary school across the street that the R.C.'s teachings on same-sex marriage should be questioned," writes the Pewster.

Never mind the fact that this parish has lost 38% of its Sunday pewsitters over the past 10 years.

One reason might be that their social activism includes distributing 1,000 packets of information on The Episcopal Church at the Philadelphia Outfest this Sunday.

*****

There are two Newark, New Jersey's with two very different religions posing as Christian. One is the Episcopal Diocese of Newark which has a third of its priests living in openly homogenital relationships. It is the home of layman Dr. Louie Crew and his male partner, founder of Integrity organization and pusher of all things pansexual at numerous general conventions. It is also a diocese that is losing market share and not attracting new converts. In 2014 its ASA was 8,260. In 2012 it was 8,630. Go figure.

Then there is the Roman Catholic story of Newark and its Archbishop John Myers who recently released new guidelines for priests on banning Catholics who support gay marriage from communion and whose marriage is not valid in the eyes of the church.

In a two-page memo, he set out the following. Catholics, "especially ministers and others who represent the Church, should not participate in or be present at religious events or events intended to endorse or support those who reject or ignore Church teaching and Canon Law."

The guidelines could also up the ante for the coming election season when Catholic candidates who support abortion rights or gay rights are sometimes challenged by conservatives over whether they should receive Communion.

A spokesman for Myers said in an email on Tuesday (Oct. 13) that the archbishop saw this as an opportune moment to set out the guidelines for priests in the northern New Jersey archdiocese.

The memo is titled "Principles to Aid in Preserving and Protecting the Catholic Faith in the Midst of an Increasingly Secular Culture." Guess which version of the Faith is growing and which one is dying.

*****

United Methodist and Episcopalian Church Clergy led a prayer rally to "bless" an abortion clinic in Ohio. The Rev. Laura Young says she believes pro-life protesters in front of Planned Parenthood and other abortion facilities have "misguided faith." In fact, she thinks these clinics should be blessed, which is why she went out to an abortion facility called Preterm on October 8th in Cleveland. In 2014, Preterm was involved in the abortion-related death of Lakisha Wilson.

Young explained her acceptance of abortion like this: "Christianity, like most faiths, is founded on love. Watching protesters shouting judgment and hate based on what they call religion is horrible. Is that loving God? Is that loving your neighbor as yourself?"

You will see the full story in today's digest but the photo (at the website) includes Tracey Lind, dean of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, in Cleveland. She is not a bishop. She cried out, "Bless this building. May its walls stand strong against the onslaught of shame thrown at it. May it be a beacon of hope for those who need its services."

Lind is also a partnered lesbian and has been for years, so it is no surprise she is one of the shepherds leading the Episcopal Church away from Christianity.

The Rev. Dr. Robert Munday writes, "One could write a whole essay on why lesbians, such as Tracey Lind, Katherine Ragsdale (former dean of Episcopal Divinity School) and Susan Russell (former head of Integrity) for whom, theoretically, abortion should never be a need, are so adamant in their advocacy of it. For the moment, I will only speculate that once someone defies God's law in one aspect of sexuality and reproduction, one feels sympathy and support for those who defy God's law in other aspects of those same areas--misguidedly viewing rebellion against God as 'freedom.'"

The blessing event outside the Preterm abortion clinic was arranged by Rev. Laura Young, a United Methodist minister who is executive director of RCRC's Ohio chapter, reports the Columbus Dispatch. Young calls herself a "progressive theological thinker and a feminist," and says her goals include urging more clergy members to advocate for organizations that provide abortions and contraception.

At the abortion clinic, clergy members held up signs that read, "Pro-Faith, Pro-Family, Pro-Choice."

*****

Forward in Faith UK bishops of Beverley and Fulham were elected to the General Synod, recently. The Bishop of Beverley, the Rt. Rev. Glyn Webster, and the Bishop of Fulham, the R. Rev. Jonathan Baker were elected by the suffragan bishops of the Provinces of York and Canterbury respectively. Bishop Glyn topped the poll in the Northern Province.

*****

The Anglican Diocese of Sydney defended traditional marriage at their Synod this week. Canon Sandy Grant moved, and Mrs. Tara Sing seconded, the motion "Affirmation of marriage as between a man and a woman."

Mrs. Sing stated, "As we approach this discussion, I want to recognize that this is a deeply personal issue. Our world has intertwined sexuality and identity, so as we discuss LGBTI issues, we need to keep in mind that at the heart of these issues are two core questions, who am I, and am I worthy of love?

"As Christians, in light of the gospel, we can answer these questions. We are all people lovingly created by God to live in the world he has designed. And because of who we are, the second question then changes from 'am I worthy of love' to 'how do I live, and how do I love, knowing who I am?' It is to Jesus we must always turn, because at the cross we find fully the answers to these questions. Through his glorious death and resurrection, we see all things in their rightful place, including sexuality. We see sexuality in its true context, as an expression of our relationship to Christ and our dependency on him.

"But we have not always communicated this well and so we need to resolve to address this discussion with sensitivity and grace, grounded in the gospel. The solution is not to shy away from speaking up, or to stray from the integrity of the gospel. As pressure mounts to turn from God's word, we must cling to the cross as we engage with the world.

"We must never condone violence against or mistreatment of those who identify as gay or lesbian, but must always act in love towards them.

"We must always share God's word with them, therefore we need to call on all Australian Christians to engage respectfully in the debate over marriage and to pray for the members of the Federal Parliament in their consideration of this matter. If we do not, what will our silence say?

"In a world where definitions are fluid, we need to affirm the biblical definition of marriage that marriage is, as a gift from God who made us male and female, is the Union of a man and woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life.

"And we need to affirm this in both our churches and our communities. One way we can do this is to urge the Federal Parliament to uphold the classical understanding of marriage as being between a man and a woman, in accordance with current provisions of the Marriage Act of 1961.

The world is at odds with God. The preaching and teaching of God's word may and has caused offence in the past. So we must always aim to conduct ourselves in a way that shows grace and compassion to all. But if and when people are offended, may it be only because of the message we preach and not the manner in which we speak it. Because when we don't speak out of fear of causing offence, what are we really saying to the world about God and the integrity of his word?"

*****

At the Synod in Rome there are tumult and public clashes between traditionalist orthodox Catholics and progressive/liberal Catholics over homosexuality and more. Many commentators are saying it as the worst they have ever seen. Many blame Pope Francis.

One video I watched seemed to bear that out when a Vatican spokesman said that issues like homosexuality must be decided in a "local" context and not by a Vatican theologian or the Magisterium. Naturally it was a Western cleric who said this. But if this happens, then all bets are off that the Church can maintain a unified stance on sexuality and each archbishop, cardinal, and bishop can decide how they choose to engage the hot button issue. If this turns out to be the case, it will put "local option" -- an idea right out of the playbook of The Episcopal Church -- on center stage.

But the West won't easily get away with this. Read what one Global South cardinal had to say:

The headline screamed: African Cardinal says liberals and Islamists are 'Beasts of Apocalypse'

A top African cardinal described the threat posed by Islamic extremism and western liberal culture as the twin "Beasts of the Apocalypse" comparable to Nazism and communism.

In an intervention at an ongoing synod of bishops on the future of Catholic teaching on the family, Guinean cardinal Robert Sarah reportedly described Islamist militants and western thinking on abortion and homosexuality as sharing "the same demonic origin".

"Theological discernment allows to see in our times two unexpected threats -- almost like the Beasts of the Apocalypse -- from two opposite positions: on one side the idolatry of western freedom, on the other religious fanaticism," said the cardinal, who is one of the leaders of the Church's conservative wing.

"What Nazism-fascism and communism were to the 20th century, western ideologies on homosexuality and abortion and Islamic fanaticism are to today," the cardinal said in comments made last week in the closed-doors synod and published Tuesday by several Italian media outlets.

Sarah reportedly said the secular western world's way of thinking threatened to destroy the family through "quickie divorces, abortion, homosexual unions: look at gender theory, Femen (a feminist group known for topless protests), the LBGT lobby.

"On the other side, there is the pseudo-family of an ideological Islam which legitimizes polygamy, sexual slavery, child marriage: look at Al-Qaeda, IS, Boko Haram.

"Certain keys allow us to discern the same demonic origin of these two movements: they both advocate a universal and totalitarian law, they're both violently intolerant, destroyers of families and the Church, and openly anti-Christian."

I remember a similar exchange at Lambeth 2008 when an attempt was made by an African bishop to cast out the demon of homosexuality from a Western gay man.

Now we are watching as the Anglican Communion looks like it might dissolve before our very eyes over unrepentant homosexuality in the next few months. Will the RCC be able to hold out against this pansexual onslaught?

*****

Historic village churches across England could be closed down except on holy days such as Christmas and Easter under radical plans being considered by the Church of England to cope with decline.

A major report on the future of the 16,000 Anglican places of worship in England acknowledges that parts of the centuries-old parish system may soon no longer be "sustainable" as existing congregations age and overall numbers dwindle.

It discloses that one in four rural parishes -- or about 2,000 churches -- now have fewer than 10 regular worshippers and half would be unable to muster even 20 on a Sunday.

At the same time, parishes collectively spend about £160 million a year on maintaining their buildings, which include almost half of all the grade one listed buildings in the country.
Rural churches have been hit not only by a general decline in religious observation but long-standing population shifts leaving some once-thriving parishes effectively marooned in the midst of fields.

A committee of senior clerics and laity is recommending a change in ecclesiastical law to allow some with dwindling congregations to be designated as "festival churches," a new category of parish used only for important celebrations or occasional weddings and funerals.

The idea, already piloted in a handful of dioceses, offers an alternative to the current choice between maintaining a church with almost no congregation and closing it completely.

The group's Social Attitudes survey found that 40 percent of the British population identified as Anglicans in 1983, but that number is down to only 17 percent in 2014. Presently only 8.5 million Britons identify as Anglicans, the survey said.

People of no religious faith now make up close to half of the population in Britain, or 49 percent, which is up from their 31 percent count in 1983.

With the steady rise of immigration, the rise of non-Christian faiths has also been well documented, with Islam making up close to 5 percent of all Britons in 2014, up from 0.5 percent in 1983.

*****

A 17th-century work in progress: Earliest draft of the King James Bible has been discovered. The notebook pages were scribbled somewhere between 1604 and 1608, the deadline year for six teams of collaborative translators tasked with translated the King James Bible, which was first published in 1611. The New York Times reports on the discovery and what it illuminates about the creation of the King James:

David Norton, an emeritus professor at the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand and the author of several books about the King James Bible, called it "a major discovery" -- if not quite equal to finding a draft of one of Shakespeare's plays, "getting on up there."

The discovery brings to four the number of known drafts:

While some records of the committee that supervised the overall translation survive, only three manuscripts of the text itself have been known to exist until now. The Bodleian Library at Oxford owns nearly complete drafts of the Old Testament and the Gospels, in the form of corrected pages of the Bishops' Bible, a 16th-century translation that the King James teams used as a base text. Lambeth Palace Library in London has a partial draft of the New Testament epistles.

Jeffrey Alan Miller, an assistant professor of English at New Jersey's Montclair State University, was in Cambridge researching Samuel Ward, one of the King James translators and a master of Sidney Sussex School there, when he found the draft.

The notebook had been cataloged in the 1980s as a "verse-by-verse biblical commentary" with "Greek word studies, and some Hebrew notes." But as Professor Miller tried to puzzle out which passages of the Bible it concerned, he realized what it was: a draft of parts of the King James Version of the Apocrypha, a disputed section of the Bible that is left out of many editions, particularly in the United States.

*****

It's Official: Terrorists Are Now the Persecuted Church's Greatest Threat. Secretary of State John Kerry released the latest religious freedom report. During the past two years, reports of terrorist attacks against Christians have steadily emerged from the Muslim world: 7 Egyptian Christians executed on a Benghazi beach, 165 Christian girls kidnapped from school by Boko Haram, and 21 Coptic Christians beheaded near the Mediterranean Sea, among other incidents.

The US State Department's latest International Religious Freedom (IRF) report, released Wednesday, confirms that the biggest threat to minority Christian communities and other religious minorities worldwide is now the "new phenomenon" of non-state terrorism, particularly in the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia.

"[N]on-state actors, including rebel and terrorist organizations, ... committed by far some of the most egregious human rights abuses and caused significant damage to the global status of respect for religious freedom," according to the 2014 IRF report. This echoes the concerns of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which identified non-state actors as a "major challenge to freedom of religion or belief" in its 2015 report earlier this year.

You can read the full story here: http://tinyurl.com/q36pva4

*****

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