No ungifted Christian. The fact that every Christian has a gift and therefore a responsibility, and that no Christian is passed by and left without endowment, is fundamental to the New Testament doctrine of the church. --- John R.W. Stott

One Father, one family. The fundamental spiritual unity of the church is as indestructible as the fundamental unity of the Godhead. You can no more divide the unity of the church than you can divide the unity of the Godhead. The one Father creates the one family; the one Lord Jesus creates the one faith, hope and baptism; and the one Holy Spirit creates the one body. --- John R.W. Stott

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
November 14, 2014

Sometimes you have to wonder just how dumb some of our politicians are as to what they believe. For the most part, I steer clear of politics, because what I write about the Faith is incendiary enough.

So you'll forgive me if I tell you that my mind just went ape, I came unglued, and I started babbling (my wife had to hose me down) when I read that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid -- (D -- NV) is a Mormon who hands out free Books of Mormon when visitors pass through his office in Washington DC. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is also a Mormon. There are other Mormons as well like Orrin Hatch and Mormons even claim former Black activist Eldridge Cleaver as one of their own! I kid you not. He once ran for President on the Peace and Freedom Movement.

This week we learned that Joseph Smith the founder of Mormonism had some 40 wives, one of whom was a 14-year old girl and several were married. So this makes him a pedophile, a serial adulterer, and a polygamist...all in one. I doubt there is a single Episcopal bishop, gay or straight, who can match that! Perhaps J. Smith was taking his cue in part from King Solomon. That truth along with other looney ideas Mormons have about golden tablets, eternal marriage, and the like and you wonder why the nation is coming apart at the seams. How can seemingly intelligent men honestly believe that they can tell Americans how to order their lives (spiritually or financially) when they believe and hold such lunatic ideas about the "Christian" Faith? Oh, yes, they REALLY do believe they are Christians and the rest of us need to catch up to their made-in-America crackpot religious notions.

I suggested to my wife that perhaps I should take up with a couple of extra women who I could make into wives when the Supreme Court finally allows polygamy (after all if gay marriage is going to be okayed, why not polygamy). I could start my own religion!

Needless to say, the second bedroom in our condo got used that night.

*****

The lunacy in The Episcopal Church continued this week when it was learned that the Washington National Cathedral will host its first ever Muslim prayer service today (Friday 12th), a move designed to send shivers down the spines of orthodox Episcopalians still in the Episcopal Church.

Writing in the "Washington Post", Michelle Boorstein said organizers told her that they are seeking to make a statement by having Muslim leaders come and hold their midday service in such a visible Christian house of worship.

IRD writer Jeff Walton noticed that the prayers will be held in the north transept due to its orientation towards Mecca and "limited iconography". Holding this in a sanctuary consecrated to the worship of Christ is wildly inappropriate, but that's nothing new for the Cathedral. They have had Tibetan sand painting and all kinds of pagan stuff in there before, so accommodating another Abrahamic faith is hardly the biggest leap they have taken to date.

"We want the world to see the Christian community is partnering with us and is supporting our religious freedom in the same way we are calling for religious freedom for all minorities in Muslim countries," said Rizwan Jaka, a spokesman with the prominent ADAMS mosque in Sterling, VA, one of the co-sponsors of Friday's service. "Let this be a lesson to the world."

Some lesson. You can read my take on this in todays' digest or click here: http://tinyurl.com/m5j2tve

*****

A theologian and bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church lambasted The Episcopal Church for its "liberalization" and "deviation" from Holy Scripture at a USA forum of Christian leaders which included representatives of the Orthodox Church.

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Department of External Church Relations and a permanent member of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Moscow, said in a speech that by the end of the 20th century, the relationship of the Moscow Patriarchate with many Christian communities in the USA had encountered a serious crisis.

"It was caused by the liberalization of the moral teaching in these communities, their deviation from the ethical norms laid down by Holy Scripture of the New Testament common for us all. In 2003 the Russian Orthodox Church had to suspend contacts with the Episcopal Church in the USA due to the fact that it consecrated an open homosexual as a bishop."

At the same time, the Russian Orthodox Church remains open to contacts with the North American confessions that have stayed faithful to the traditions of our dialogue and which are firmly committed to biblical morality, and cited the Anglican Church in North America which has separated itself from the Episcopal Church because the Episcopal Church consecrated a practicing homosexual.

In allied news, Archbishop Foley Beach met with Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeye at St. Vladimir's Seminary in Yonkers, New York, where the two continued the ecumenical dialogue between faithful Anglicans in North America and the Orthodox Churches.

Bishop Ray Sutton, Provincial Dean and Dean of Ecumenical Affairs, was also present at the meeting, and was encouraged by the extension of ecumenical continuity. Both men encouraged the strengthening of ties between the Anglican Church in North America and Orthodox churches in this part of the world.

Archbishop Beach commented on the meeting, "Metropolitan Hilarion has spent no small amount of time with Anglicans around the world, and over the years he has been a prophetic voice calling the Anglican Church to remain true to the Christian faith in the face of an increasing propensity for cultural accommodation. The conversation tonight was a pleasure, and I look forward to finding the ways in which we might partner for the cause of the Gospel."

You can read both stories in today's digest.

*****

At their October 10, 2014, meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, the College of Bishops of the Anglican Church in North America received the Rt. Rev. Dr. Peter Beckwith. Bishop Beckwith has served throughout the Midwest, most notably leading the Episcopal Diocese of Springfield from 1992 to 2010. Currently, Bishop Beckwith is a chaplain at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan and will serve the Diocese of the Great Lakes as an assisting Bishop.

*****

An Anglo-Catholic layman in the Diocese of Pennsylvania has written a scathing letter blasting the diocese's online survey to get thoughts from clergy and laity about the state of the Diocese.

The Diocese of Pennsylvania recently sent out an online survey to all clergy and lay leaders in the diocese to express their thoughts about the state of the diocese. The Diocesan Transition Team put out the survey, which was an invitation for any person in the diocese. The survey takes about 20 minutes to complete. It was signed by The Ven. Pamela Nesbit -- co-chair Diocesan Transition Team.

The layman, John C. Manton, sent in this response:

My Dear Ms. Nesbit:

This latest diocesan survey (ploy?) is like polling the Jews in Auschwitz on how they feel about having their lives completely disrupted and destroyed. TEC destroyed the true religion which was based upon Holy Writ, ignored then prevailing canon law to force the issue of admitting women to Holy Orders, rewriting it to their own advantage, crammed "liberal-progressive-Anglicanism" down our throats, sued us in court for our church properties and endowment funds, inhibited our clergy, and drove us all off.

And you want our opinion on how we feel about all of that?!!! The fact of the matter is this .... The Episcopal Church USA is moribund, she will not last another thirty years, she is hemorrhaging members at a very rapid rate, wasting missionary money in frivolous law suits against her own people, is merging entire dioceses and/or parishes as they enter bankruptcy, your average parishioner is aged 65, your Sunday Schools have only a token few students left (your so-called future), and your leadership, which is decidedly far-left and liberal to the core, is leading an ignorant lay remnant down the path to TEC's own destruction.

This is the legacy of Charles Ellsworth Bennison, Jr. and Katharine Jefferts Schori which will not be forgotten until every congregant of the Parish of St. James-the-Less, East Falls and her sister Anglo-Catholic parishes that have suffered the loss of their property, die. I shall remember it to the end of my days. We will never forget what was done to us for resisting the progressive-liberal-agenda in our church. So you can keep your diocesan survey, thank you very much. It amounts to nothing more than mere propaganda.

*****

A priest in the Diocese of Springfield, who lives barely 27 miles from Ferguson, MO, found himself incensed and blasted a number of his fellow Episcopal priests over their rush to judgment on the killing of a black man by a Ferguson policeman. The Rev. Dale Coleman called their actions little more that "lynch mob" violence for prejudging a police officer over the shooting death of this man.

The rector of St. George's Episcopal Church in Belleville, IL, said in a letter to the "St. Louis Post Dispatch" that "for the past two months and more, we have been witnessing community leaders, legislators, federal officials and now clergy leaders in the St. Louis community joining various sizes and makeup of mobs, springing up following the shooting of Michael Brown. Why? Why the immediate prejudice shown by all these folks who would wish to lynch the police officer, and call that justice?

"Where is the civics lesson of stating the constitutional right Officer Darren Wilson enjoys as an American citizen for due process of law? Where is the stand of the governor or mayors claiming the clear probability that this officer was attacked? Why take the word of Brown's buddy, who gave contradictory and confusing statements as to what happened?"

Coleman ripped his fellow Episcopal clergy saying, "Now we have my brother and sister Episcopal clergy and other clergy piling on with everyone else, and sanctimoniously confronting policemen with the word 'to repent.' What gall! What fatuousness. What acquiescence to mobocracy and feeling morally superior about it."

You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

A debate erupted over a Christian couple in Pakistan who were burned for blasphemy following accusations that the wife--five months pregnant--had burned the Qur'an, erupted in the media when VOL found two conflicting views on the reasons for their deaths.

It was reported in Christianity Today and other media outlets that the couple, who left behind four children were thrown into a kiln where they died for alleged blasphemy. The Masih's sister-in-law told news outlets that the incident arose following a neighbor's overreaction to Bibi disposing of her late father-in-law's black magic amulets. "Shama never meant any disrespect to Islam as she was totally illiterate and had no idea what the amulets contained," said Parveen Bibi. "A few people recognized partially burned pages in the ash and raised a cry that Shama had burned the Qur'an."

After a mob threw them into the same kiln, protests erupted in the provincial capital, Lahore, and the nation's capital, Islamabad.

Both World Watch Monitor (WWM) and Morning Star News (MSN) reported the details of the attack, which drew attention from The New York Times, Reuters, NBC, and other media.

The Muslim nation's prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, quickly condemned the mob action as "an unacceptable crime." He authorized the government of Punjab, Pakistan's largest province and home to most of its blasphemy cases, to prosecute the couple's killers.

"A responsible state cannot tolerate mob rule and public lynching with impunity," stated Sharif, according to The Express Tribune. "The Pakistani state has to act proactively to protect its minorities from violence and injustice. We must promote religious and ethnic diversity in our society as a virtue."

However another interpretation of the event came when the Anglican Communion News Service reported that The Church of Pakistan said the Christian couple were beaten and burned as a revenge for unpaid bills, not because they had damaged a Qur'an.

A member of the united church, which comprises several Christian denominations including Anglicans, this week sent a message to supporters to clarify media reports about the murders.

The statement, from Raheel Sharoon, development officer of the Diocese of Raiwind, clarified that the crime was motivated by revenge after a disagreement over a debt rather than any blasphemy against Islam on the part of these young parents.

This latest episode of "vigilante justice" comes five months after Pakistan's Supreme Court in June ordered the creation of a police task force to "eradicate" what one member of parliament described as a "social evil that has taken root in our society in recent years." A national Council for Minorities Rights was also mandated to "monitor the practical realization of the rights and safeguards provided to minorities under the law."

In September 2013, more than 80 Christians lost their lives after bombs went off following a church service at All Saints Church in Peshawar. The incident joined past high-profile attacks in Lahore's Joseph Colony in March 2013 and the city of Gojra in 2009 that prompted hopes that outrage would lead to blasphemy reform.

Instead, blasphemy accusations remain common. In August, three Christians were charged with blasphemy in separate incidents, reports WWM. In one case, Christians seeking land to bury their dead attempted to work with a local politician to secure property only to have Muslims argue that their own dead were already buried there. The plight of Christians finding burial sites was also chronicled last month by the Washington Post.

Christianity Today reported last month's high court decision to uphold Asia Bibi's death sentence. Last year, four Christians were acquitted of blasphemy charges.

Christians are not the only victims of blasphemy. Since 1990 more than 50 people have been murdered on charges of blasphemy, over half of them Muslims or other religious minorities. In 2013, French journalist Anne Isabelle Tollet and author of Blasphemy : A Memoir : Sentenced to Death over a Cup of Water told CT she had little hope that Pakistan would repeal its blasphemy law.

"With the new group (Sharif's administration) it is impossible. I don't have any hope," she said. "The blasphemy law fits the definition of terrorism. It's a terror law. It's a way to instill terror. Everybody is scared of this law."

Earlier this year, Open Doors moved Pakistan up to number eight (from 14) on a list ranking the worst countries in the world for Christians

*****

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby preached Nov. 5 at a special service for fallen journalists held at St. Bride's Church, Fleet Street, London -- the first time an Archbishop of Canterbury has preached at the annual service.

The Archbishop says foreign correspondents are "the ones who witness the full horror of what is going on and dare to speak it.

"We live in a world at the moment in which in many areas it feels as though the darkness is falling ever more severely on whole swathes and regions of the world, and in which the light of news very often seems to go out. Whole areas where there is fighting that is forgotten because there is simply so much of it. Whole areas which depend only on the likes of James Foley and Steven Sotloff to show some light on what is happening.

"The front-line reporter is the one who sees first-hand what is going on. They are the look-outs, who stand on the watchtower, day after day and all night long, in the watches of the night."

*****

A challenge to UK discrimination against "ex-gay" minorities has emerged in England. Mike Davidson, who campaigns for freedom of choice for people who self-identify as ex-gay, has called on European states to challenge the UK government's "failure to protect the 'ex-gay' minority".

He has made a submission to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) accusing the UK Government of "viewpoint discrimination" and "political indoctrination".

"My purpose is to expose the UK Government's determination to suppress the legitimate view that sexual preference is not inborn. There is no scientific evidence to support such a claim but in the UK public bodies permit only one side to express its discredited view," he said.

*****

The Archbishop of Dublin thinks Anglicans need a deeper understanding of Islam so they can better pray and respond to interfaith situations.

Chair of the Anglican Network for Inter Faith Concerns (NIFCON) and Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Rev. Michael Jackson made the comments in a letter to primates and provincial secretaries of the Anglican Communion.

Writing to promote the latest NIFCON Christian Muslim Digest, he said, "As the events in Syria and Iraq, and in other countries where Muslims are in a majority, impact upon increasingly wider areas, we are reminded that within all of the provinces of the Anglican Communion we need to have a deeper knowledge of Islam and Christian-Muslim relations so that we can reach a better understanding of the issues and how they might impact upon us and other Anglicans, and will be able to pray more effectively."

He has a point: for the most part, Anglican bishops have failed dismally to understand Christianity so they might as well have a shot at interpreting another religion. If God smiles on their efforts, perhaps they will do for Muslims what they have done for Christians: make them doubt everything about their faith. It could even be the tipping point for mass conversions of Muslims to Christianity. [Source SAMIZDAT]

*****

The Archbishop of Canterbury this week launched his plan to take on and outdo pay day lenders. The To Your Credit initiative will use all the resources of the Church and of Christian organizations to help people deal with finance "as a servant, not as a really cruel master."

Speaking in a video on the project's website he said, "All of us from time to time need access to some financial flexibility. But in recent years, it's been quite hard to get that at reasonable cost. The To Your Credit initiative is seeking over time to make good finance, both to save and on occasion to borrow, available to everyone at a reasonable cost. It's to get away from people who seek to take advantage of other people's needs."

The Archbishop's project has already led to hundreds of indebted and poverty-stricken people signing up for cheaper lending with credit unions, along with dozens of members of the middle classes.

Welby spoke out against the payday lenders last year and committed the Church to supporting credit unions as an alternative to the "very, very costly forms of finance" that payday lending services represent.

Sir Hector Sants, former chief executive of the Financial Services Authority, who heads the Archbishop's task group on the issue, said the project has the ability to "galvanize and energize" large parts of the community, not just churchgoers.

There has been a "loss of trust" in banks which caused a lot of disruption to the overall efficiency of the financial system.

*****

An article in Mohabat News, a news agency which reports on Christianity in Iran, quotes Ali Younesi, Iranian President Rouhani's Adviser on Ethnic and Religious Minorities' Affairs, as saying, "Everyone is free to practice his/her own faith, but no one has the right to promote his/her faith."

Mohabat News reported that Mr. Younesi said in an interview with Revolutionary Guards-backed Fars News Agency, "We do not allow any individual or group to invite people to sects or religions other than Islam. We consider this dangerous for people and therefore illegal. They can be busy with their own business. However, it is not acceptable, for instance, if a Christian invites a Muslim to Christianity."

In October 2014, a senior advisor to President Rouhani stated publicly that Iran has a zero-tolerance policy toward evangelism.

"We, in the Islamic Republic of Iran, do not allow any individual or group to invite people to other sects or religions," said Ali Younesi, Rouhani's advisor on Ethnic and Religious Minorities' Affairs in an interview with the hard-line Iranian news service, Fars.

Iran's stance on evangelism has been known for a while, but this is the most clear and direct recent public statement on the subject. The policy is a clear violation of article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Iran is a party, and which guarantees the right to adopt one's religion of choice and manifest one's faith publicly, including evangelism.

Younesi continued, "No one is allowed to deceive others. No one has the right to proselytize or carry out evangelistic activities. We will prevent them."

The way Iran prevents them is through intimidation, harassment, physical assault, denial of education or employment, arrest, torture, imprisonment and many other means of compulsion. Iranian Christians still bravely share the good news of Jesus with others. They know well the dangers, but they are willing to take the risk for the sake of seeing the good news of Jesus extend among their friends and neighbors.

Meantime Western liberal Christians continue to play footsie with Islam. TEC is selling empty Episcopal parishes to Islamic groups (see Diocese of CT) and the Washington National Cathedral will play host to an Islamic group this week for worship.

*****

The Rt. Rev. James Michael Mark Dyer, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem from 1982 to 1995, died Nov. 11 after battling multiple myeloma for several years. He was 84.

He was an advisor to several Archbishops of Canterbury, chief pastor to his diocese, mentor to countless priests and seminarians, and advocate for the poor.

"He was a master teacher. Bishop Mark drew on the joy and tragedy of the human condition, including his own, to bring to life the ministry of Jesus and the narrative of God's work in the world in ways that made for real and lasting transformation. Those of us who had the privilege of sitting at his feet as students caught a glimpse of what it must have been like to sit at the feet of Jesus," said Interim Bethlehem Bishop Sean Rowe.

The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, dean and president of Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS), said: "The sense of loss is palpable. I was among many who found tears in my eyes as I learned the news ... Mark Dyer was a giant of this seminary. He was a profound gift to the church and to this seminary."

Dyer joined the VTS faculty in 1996 as professor of systematic theology and director of spiritual formation. He also served as professor of theology and mission. While at VTS, he was a senior consultant for the Center for Anglican Communion Studies. After his retirement from VTS, Dyer maintained a presence within the VTS community as an adjunct professor until his death.

A widely respected leader in the worldwide Anglican Communion, Dyer was called upon frequently by Robert Runcie, George Carey and Rowan Williams for significant assignments during their tenures as archbishop of Canterbury.

In 2004, Williams named Dyer to the Lambeth Commission on Communion, which attempted to restore unity in the communion during the ongoing controversy over the place of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Christians in the life of the church.

Dyer was also a committed and respected ecumenist; his was an important voice in dialogues between the Episcopal Church and Lutheran and Orthodox churches in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s. He served as co-chair of the Anglican-Orthodox Theological Dialogue, which produced an agreed statement on the theology of the Church in 2006, published as The Church of the Triune God.

He also taught theology at Queen of Peace Mission Seminary in New Hampshire and was an adjunct professor at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts. He entered the Anglican Church of Canada in 1969 and was received as a priest in the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Massachusetts in 1971.

Dyer's first wife, the Rev. Marie Elizabeth Dyer, died in 1999. She was an Episcopal priest; they were married 29 years.

*****

Green shoots of renewal and church planting are sprouting up everywhere. Bill and Carolyn Chapin wrote me this week saying they have a vision for creating a new organization of Christian fellowship on the northeast side of Milwaukee, a group that will eventually grow into a new church.

"The purpose of my writing is to see if we have some folks out there who will help us organize this mission. We feel that if you are most likely happy with your current church, we don't want to disturb that at all. We are hopeful, however, that each one of you may have friends and acquaintances who are currently unchurched for various reasons and are looking for a new home where they can practice their Christian beliefs in a warm and friendly environment.

"We welcome all those interested in this new fellowship which will be supported pastorally with priests from St. Michael's Anglican Church in Nashotah.

"In the Great Commission, Jesus told His disciples to "go into the world and make disciples of all nations". (Mathew 28, 17-20). Can we do less?"

If you are interested, contact Carolyn or Bill at 414-352-4586 or at their email address, bchapin2@wi.rr.com The first meetings will be at their home at 2430 W. Cedar Lane in Milwaukee and will be led by support priests from St. Michaels.

*****

I want to challenge ALL of VOLs readers. We've come to a point where it is clear that the people who read VOL on a daily basis are committed. Committed not only to the stands we take but to our Anglican faith and tradition but also to the issues we keep front and center on a daily basis and to the changing and evolving Anglican Communion. But we need funds to keep these and so many other stories coming to you. We are asking you, our readers, to stand with VIRTUEONLINE and throw some support our way. We are a lean ministry with minimal overhead. We are stripped down for survival. We do not receive corporate money. Still we are falling short on our Fall fundraising drive. If you are not an active donor, and you believe in what we do, please get behind VOL with a tax deductible contribution.

VIRTUEONLINE
570 Twin Lakes Rd
P.O. Box 111
Shohola, PA 18458

Or you can make a contribution through VOL's PAYPAL link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/

Thanks for your support,

In Christ,

David