Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
8/8/2008

THE LAMBETH Conference of 2008 ended not with a bang but a whimper.

Compromise was in the air. A compromise, it was hoped, that everyone can live with, presuming that everyone is obedient to the Moratoria that called for no further ordinations or consecrations of openly homosexual non-celibate persons, no more same-sex rites and a clamp-down on "cross-border interventions" where orthodox bishops from Africa and Latin America have consecrated bishops to pastor congregations in the United States under siege by liberal and revisionists Episcopal bishops.

The Archbishop of Canterbury set up new a Pastoral Forum to bring to heel rebel provinces in the Anglican Communion who might want to flout the mind of the Lambeth Conference.

The document says the forum is needed because repeated requests for moratoria on gay consecrations, same-sex blessings and cross-border interventions have not been heeded. The document proposes the forum as a "key mechanism to achieve reconciliation".

The Archbishop of Canterbury is crossing his fingers and hoping it will all work out and that he will still have a job two years from now, when it is discovered that Anglicans, especially in North America, have no intention of obeying anything he has asked for.

Remember that the Archbishop of Canterbury has no legal authority to enforce anything. He only has the persuasive power of his office which, while considerable, cannot enforce the Moratoria he desperately needs to hold it altogether.

The 650 bishops meeting at the Lambeth Conference in Kent debated and agreed on the three moratoria before they departed. This was reinforced in the 4th public document that came out of Lambeth ere the bishops departed.

It says: "The failure to respond presents us with a situation where, if the three moratoria are not observed, the [Anglican] Communion is likely to fracture."

A number of Network bishops attended the Lambeth Conference. Writing after the conference concluded, the evangelical catholic Bishop of South Carolina Mark Lawrence stated, "I had come to speak a word of hope and perhaps to intervene on behalf of our beloved, but in the last resolve, the family refused the long needed measures."

He is not alone in his opinion.

A significant coalition of Global South bishops and archbishops who attended Lambeth spoke with more clarity than the conference as a whole. Their statement, which was signed by 11 primates, said in part, "We are consciously mindful of the absence of our fellow episcopal colleagues from Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, and elsewhere, who, for principled reasons could not be present at this Lambeth Conference. We thank God for their costly faithfulness and vigilance. We acknowledge the issuing of the Jerusalem Declaration, which deserves careful study and consideration. At the same time, we also stand in solidarity with all the faithful Bishops, Clergy and Laity in the United States and Canada and elsewhere who are suffering recrimination and hostility perpetrated upon them by their dioceses and/or national churches."

The GAFCON primates' council will be offering its response to the Lambeth Conference when they gather for the first time in August.

I have written a comparative study on LAMBETH and GAFCON revealing that at the end of the day GAFCON doesn't need LAMBETH., LAMBETH needs GAFCON.

GAFCON has the people, some 40 million church-going Anglicans, while Lambeth has only 15 million. GAFCON represents some 75% or more of the Anglican Communion, Lambeth represents less than 25%, so Lambeth is the tail wagging the dog. You can read the full story here or in todays digest *http://tinyurl.com/6m5qml*

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More fuel was added to the fire when two letters, Rowan Williams wrote to an evangelical psychiatrist in Wales when he was archbishop there ,were revealed by the London Times saying that homosexual relationships were "comparable to marriage". This aroused the fury of Southern Cone Primate Gregory Venables who, when he read the story predicted the end of the communion, saying: "This is more evidence of the unraveling of Anglicanism. Without a clearly agreed biblical foundation, all the goodwill in the world cannot stop the inevitable break-up. Unity without truth is disunity."

Such public fury would not have been heard of years ago. Private letters would have been sent back and forth with some sort of back room agreement being reached. Not anymore. The Internet now makes that impossible.

Archbishop Venables, has made himself highly unpopular with leaders of both The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church in Canada by taking orthodox parishes and dioceses into his Latin American province, including the entire Diocese of San JoaquÍn in central California. Other dioceses are also ready to come under his ecclesiastical authority.

Archbishop Henry Orombi, of Uganda, and Dr Peter Akinola, of Nigeria will be at the meeting of the Global Anglican primates in London this month, where Anglican bishops who boycotted Lambeth will discuss Dr Williams' views.

All in all the future does not look good for the Anglican Communion.

Here are some quotes by various Anglican leaders:

"We have not resolved the differences among us, but have seen the deep need to maintain relationships, even in the face of significant disagreement and discomfort." - Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, the presiding bishop of the U.S. Episcopal Church,

"We had frank, honest, realist conversations" that deepened relationships. - Bishop Rob O'Neill of Colorado

"I regret a lack of "concrete action" to deal with the sexuality issues. The Hong Kong Anglican Church ordained a woman in the 1940s, but later revoked the ordination when it became clear it was not acceptable to other churches. Sacrifice is what Hong Kong is asking for. We are not talking about rights. For the sake of the communion, we are asking for sacrifice." - Hong Kong Primate Paul Kwong

"Proposals for a halt to same-sex blessings would be received with "fear and trembling" in my diocese. For people who think that this is going to lead us to disenfranchise any gay or lesbian person, they are sadly mistaken." - Bishop Jon Bruno of Los Angeles

"I was not planning to attend the Lambeth Conference because I did not think the results would justify the cost of time and money. Although, on that basis alone, it may not have been worth it, I now believe it was important that I participated because: I was able to register what I understand to be important for the preservation of the Communion's ministry; and I discovered there are many more orthodox bishops than I thought -- even a solid majority." - Peter Beckwith, Episcopal Bishop of Springfield, Illinois

"I think this is not the last Anglican conference, but I do think it will be the last Lambeth Conference," - the Rev. Todd Wetzel of Anglicans United

Some individuals expressed doubts that the archbishop's plan for a covenant, a pastoral forum and a new round of talks with primates will heal the wounds caused by Bishop Gene Robinson's consecration.

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If you want to read what the impact of homosexuality is doing in the Global South among Anglicans then read this story in today's digest by an American missionary in Tanzania. It will break your heart. http://tinyurl.com/5naawm

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As a side bar to what was hoped for at Lambeth, a fictional report went out that the Archbishop of the Sudan, who had taken a major swing at The Episcopal Church's push for homosexual marriage and more pansexual priests as well as Gene Robinson's consecration, would issue a joint communiqué saying that TEC and the Sudanese had patched up their differences. It never happened. The Sudanese had no intention of ever backing down. This story was put out by Bishop Paul Marshall of Bethlehem, but we have seen no repudiation of it to date.

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If you want to know the direction of VIRGINIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, then know that the new president has a term to apply for where he wants to take it. The Very Rev. Ian Markham has the lingo down. He wants the seminary to be a center of "generous orthodoxy". Interpretation. Whatever TEC wants for its future leaders, it will get. There will be no stopping "generous pansexuality" becoming the litmus test for "generous orthodoxy." This leaves only TSM and Nashotah House as two safe seminaries to send future ordinands.

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There is no Gay Gene. One of the untouchable dogmas of the homosexualist movement is the assertion of the existence of a "gay gene", or a genetic marker that causes same-sex attraction. The assertion of a genetic factor in homosexual preference has never been demonstrated by scientists, and now at least one prominent campaigner in the British homosexualist movement has admitted this fact.

Peter Tatchell, an Australian-born British homosexual activist who founded the "direct action" group OutRage! that specialises in media stunts such as disrupting Christian religious services, wrote on Spiked Online that he agrees with the scientific consensus that there is no such thing as a "gay gene."

Contrary to the findings of some researchers who have tried to posit a purely genetic origin for same-sex attractions, Tatchell wrote, "Genes and hormones may predispose a person to one sexuality rather than another. But that's all. Predisposition and determination are two different things."

This is very interesting. Just days before, he and I exchanged words on BBC-radio where he said just the opposite. You can hear it here. http://tinyurl.com/5luxyd

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ON the plus side of the ledger, more than 1,200 Anglicans will meet in Ohio this October.

They will be participating in a national movement called Anglican Awakening, said the Rev. David Doc Loomis, rector emeritus of Hudson Anglican Church and Canon Missioner for the Anglican Mission in the Americas. The event, which will be held at St. Luke's in Akron October 21–23, will bring together the leaders and congregations of the Great Lakes Anglican Network, a group of 50 congregations from eight different Anglican jurisdictions.

Bishop Bill Murdoch, dean of the Anglican Communion Network's New England Convocation, and All Saints Anglican Church and Ministry Center Amesbury, Massachusetts, will host an Anglican Awakening event for the Northeast November 13–15.

Anglican Awakening events aim to prepare people to work together to share the gospel. They focus on helping local congregations understand how they can do mission together and celebrate their new relationships with one another.

"We're going from Common Cause to common ground...It is [asking] how do we work together in mission. We will reach more lost people if we join hands," said the Rev. William Beasley of the Anglican Mission in the Americas.

Anglican Awakening is also helping orthodox Anglicans accept responsibility for their own weakness and divisions and to ask forgiveness of God and of each other. "What some are seeing as a very depressing time in the church, with a lot of brokenness and division, we are seeing as a very encouraging time... We found ourselves in a wonderful place, which is broken and on our knees," said Loomis.

The Anglican Awakening movement began in the Chicago area. Beasley and Chief Jimmy Gboyeja Delano, who serves as treasurer for the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, were two early organizers.

According to both Beasley and Delano, the Awakening movement initially brings conservative Anglicans together, but it won't stop there. These two, and other supporters of the movement, have a truly global and trans-denominational vision of helping Christians come together in one body to share the good news of Jesus Christ. "We see them all coming together under Christ, that is what I am spending the rest of my life for," said Delano.

"We have incredible opportunities to partner in mission right now," said Beasley.

To sign up click here: http://www.honanetwork.com/glan/08invite.html

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Bishop Charles E. Bennison of the DIOCESE OF PENNSYLVANIA, who was found guilty of covering up his brother's sexual abuse of a minor, is still fighting to get his job back. Final sentence has not been handed down, but it looks more and more likely that he is finished as Bishop of Pennsylvania. One newspaper reported that Mrs. Jefferts Schori said that "In light of the nature and seriousness of the charges involving Bishop Bennison and the court's finding of his responsibility, Bishop Bennison should not be permitted to resume his episcopate in the Diocese of Pennsylvania under any circumstances." It is still up to the court to pronounce sentence. Bennison has 30 days to appeal, but the Standing Committee has written a letter saying they don't want him back and so has the trial's star witness. Bennison's persistent denial of wrongdoing was pivotal in reaching the decision to remove him from service in the clergy. By all accounts, Bennison is toast.

Bennison faces a civil trial on charges of fraud that has been listed for the October list which begins Monday September 29.

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TODAY'S digest contains the last of the stories about the Lambeth Conference and will be the final one to deal in such detail with what happened there. I was delighted to be assisted in the writing of some 140 plus stories by Mr. Hans Zeiger. You can read them all here: http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/lambeth2008.php

I do hope to be taking a few days off, but a digest will go out next week, albeit a little shorter. You will forgive me if I say that after GAFCON and Lambeth, I am somewhat exhausted and need to take a break with my wife who I "abandoned" for both events.

The bills still come in however and people need to be paid. I do hope you might consider a tax-deductible donation to help defray the cost for all the hard work that has gone into the both GAFCON and Lambeth.

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Warmly in Christ,

David