Why are the more liberal mainline Protestant denominations seemingly bleeding members? Almost every day conservative Christians are told that if we don't become more enlightened and progressive, we will become irrelevant to society as our numbers continue to decline. In reality, the opposite is true: We will only be relevant to the extent we honor God and hold fast to biblical truth, which is why the more "progressive" and "enlightened churches" are the ones losing members the most rapidly --- Michael Brown

There is little to choose between the ideology of Nazi Germany and the ideology of the caliphate.... but one cannot say so in the UK without fear of prosecution. --- Anonymous

'Jesus is Lord'. The two-word affirmation *Kyrios Iesous* [Jesus is Lord] sounded pretty harmless at first hearing. But it has far- reaching ramifications. Not only does it express our conviction that he is God and Saviour, but it also indicates our radical commitment to him. The dimensions of this commitment are intellectual (bringing our minds under Christ's yoke), moral (accepting his standards and obeying his commands), vocational (spending our lives in his liberating service), social (seeking to penetrate society
with his values), political(refusing to idolize any human institution) and global (being jealous for the honour and glory of his name). --- John R.W. Stott

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
June 29, 2014

It was a triumphant week for the rebirth of Anglicanism in North America. It was also an occasion that saw the passing of the mantle of leadership from one generation to the next as archbishops, bishops, priests and laity, many from the Global Anglican family including provinces like Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Congo, Southeast Asia, Australia, England and the Southern Cone, gathered at a Roman Catholic Archabbey and college in a little known Pennsylvania town – Latrobe, PA – but made famous by the figures of Fred Rogers and Arnold Palmer.

It was a moment of joy and hope as some 900 delegates and attendees, including some 70 archbishops and bishops, said farewell to their beloved Archbishop Robert Duncan and hello to their newly elected Archbishop Foley Beach of Atlanta. The guessing games played by the media about who would get the nod was over. How the conclave played out remains a secret, though it was leaked out that it took three votes to secure Beach’s election. Allegations of contentiousness remain just that – allegations. No white smoke ascended from St. Vincent’s abbey. Bishops remained tight lipped.

The single most contentious issue is, of course, the ordination of women. That was undoubtedly on all the bishops’ minds as they entered the conclave.

Archbishop elect Beach told VOL in an exclusive interview that he is personally against the ordination of women, but he would not short circuit the process set in place by his predecessor on WO. This might have been a major factor in his election as the other possible contender was Bishop John Guernsey who is for it. But the winds of change were blowing against Guernsey. Most delegates have seen what women priests have done (or haven’t done) to the Episcopal Church and the Church of England. The very thought of a lesbian bishop would have been enough to have seen a revolt on the matter. Anglo-Catholics, CANA, the REC, a number of other ACNA dioceses and some evangelicals do not support WO, thus giving Beach the edge and the clear front-runner.

From this reporter’s perspective he is an excellent choice. He is evangelical, open, frank, approachable and not afraid to speak his mind even to the press.

At this Annual Assembly where the focus was “Thy Kingdom Come: Conversion, compassion and courage”, there was no more talk about the church they had left behind – The Episcopal Church – that elephant had long since left the room. The playing out of lawsuits in Ft. Worth and South Carolina were not on the table. Bishop Jack Iker was present, but not a word was spoken about his legal situation.

The words from one speaker after another was “forward, forward, forward,” and “proclaim God’s Word, reprove, rebuke and resort”, spoken and repeated by Archbishop Beach as he ascended the pulpit of the Catholic basilica and urged the nearly 1000 present to go forth and evangelize making disciples of all nations but for the most part focused on North American soil.

When VOL asked Archbishop Beach at a press conference about ACNA’s relationship with Archbishop Justin Welby and the Church of England, Beach roared back that while he respected the Archbishop of Canterbury, “We don’t want (need) to be in communion with the Church of England.” The crowd roared its approval and gave him another standing ovation. “We are in communion with 50 million of the 70 million Anglicans in the world. Our mission is to reach people for Jesus Christ,” he added. More applause.

Tributes were paid to Bob Duncan for his faithfulness and doggedness in keeping and spreading the faith even as he came under bitter attack by The Episcopal Church. He was viewed as a pioneer and general in God’s army paving the way for a new day for Anglicanism in North America.

The imminent demise of the Anglican Church in North America predicted since 2009 is not going to happen, Archbishop Robert Duncan proclaimed.

“Critics said I was the only one who could hold it together. Not true!” the archbishop told reporters.

Archbishop Beach will take over a denomination that since its inauguration in Fort Worth in 2009 has grown to nearly 1000 congregations and 112,000 members.

Archbishop Duncan revealed that each member of the College of Bishops spoke during the conclave. At times there was “intense fellowship,” even “vigorous fellowship” surrounding the discussions. But “at the end, we were clear that Foley Beach was the one to lead us.”

In his first press conference as archbishop, Beach stated he had “never been around such spiritual, godly men” as he had in the conclave.

Archbishop Duncan’s “shoes are pretty big. My feet are not that big,” he observed, adding the outgoing archbishop was a “modern day hero of the faith” who had focused the ACNA on “reaching people for Christ.”

“What needs to be done, what has to be done, is to keep focused on this,” Archbishop-elect Beach averred.

I have posted a number of stories in today’s digest from this historic occasion including an exclusive interview I had with Archbishop Beach and also with the Rev. Dr. J.I. Packer, the patriarch of world evangelical Anglicanism. His presence added gravitas to the proceedings.

*****

The Episcopal Church in South Carolina, the local diocese affiliated with The Episcopal Church, has filed yet another appeal in an effort to add four individuals as parties to an ongoing lawsuit that could determine who ultimately has control of church property and other assets in South Carolina.

It's the latest legal volley between The Episcopal Church in South Carolina and the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, the group that left The Episcopal Church in December 2012 because of theological disagreements, including a dispute over human sexuality and acceptance of gay clergy. The appeal could cause the postponement of the trial, set to start July 7 in Dorchester County.

The Episcopal Church in South Carolina wants Bishop Mark Lawrence, Canon Jim Lewis, Jeffrey Miller and Paul Fuener, all leaders in the organization that claims the right to the name "The Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina," added as parties to the suit in order to establish a true opposition since both groups argue that they are the rightful owners of the corporation called "The Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina."

"We can't get the relief we are entitled to unless they are named as parties" and held accountable, Chancellor Thomas Tisdale wrote in a statement. "We're saying we own the corporation, so a victory in court would mean we win against our own corporation."

But victory is far from certain.

*****

MELBOURNE archbishop Philip Freier was chosen this week to lead the Anglican Church in Australia. He was elected by a special synod of laymen, clergy and bishops from across the country, convened in Adelaide.

He said sustaining a national presence and strengthening the church’s contribution to rural communities are among the most important challenges facing the Anglican Church.

“The church across its parishes, schools and service agencies makes a powerful contribution to Australian society,” Dr Freier added.

He takes over from Brisbane archbishop Phillip Aspinall, who is stepping down after nine years.

It was in Far North Queensland that Dr Freier, profoundly influenced by Aboriginal Christians, underwent what he calls a “conversion of identity”.

Thus began his rise through the Anglican Church: ordained as a deacon in 1983, Dr Freier was made a priest in 1984 and elected a bishop in 1999 for the Northern Territory, where he led many services in indigenous languages.

Dr Freier has been vocal about what he sees as the moral requirement to support asylum seekers. Last year he told the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into the handling of child sex abuse that abusers would not be absolved of their sins by his church until they handed themselves in to police.

He is described as orthodox on morals and opposes gay priests and gay marriage, but is a supporter of women’s ordination. He is married and holds a PhD in history.

*****

The Episcopal Church continued its gadarene slide this week when the Rev. Dr. Cameron Partridge, Episcopal Chaplain at Boston University, became the first person who identified as transgender to guest preach at the Washington National Cathedral on Sunday, June 22.

The Episcopal Church’s embrace of transgenderism is part of God’s “project of revelation”, according to the first transgender person to preach at the Washington National Cathedral.

In a special Sunday service marking Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Pride month, the cathedral hosted visiting Partridge, who was born a woman but now identifies as a Trans-man.

Partridge was joined by retired Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly partnered homosexual bishop in the worldwide Anglican Communion, who presided at the 11 a.m. service of Holy Eucharist.

*****

Hey, Church of England: if you want to become a Christian, you have to renounce the Devil.

"Would you mind awfully considering possibly leaving this body? The CofE asks it politely…"

Truly the Devil’s greatest trick was to convince us that he doesn’t exist – or, at least, that it’s impolite to mention him in public.

The Church of England has been forced to reinstate the word “sin” into baptism services after parishioners complained that its new liturgy was (to use one of the nicer adjectives) too “bland”. The old order of service went something like this:

Q: Do you reject the Devil and all rebellion against God?

A: I reject them.

Q: Do you renounce the deceit and corruption of evil?

A: I renounce them.

Q: Do you repent of the sins that separate us from God and neighbor?

A: I repent of them.

No room for doubt there: it used to be that the Devil was cast out and God welcomed in. But in the new form cooked up by Lambeth Palace, these three crystal clear questions were replaced with one single request to “reject evil” and its “empty promises” (as if the worst aspect of murdering someone is that you might walk away feeling unsatisfied).

After objections from parishes, the Church hastily rewrote this one anodyne question into two – asking parents and godparents both to “reject evil” and “turn away from sin”. I suspect that this is “sin” not of the “Garden of Evil”, wholly “Original” kind, but of the failure-to-separate-paper-from-plastic-when-recycling kind. If you think I’m being disingenuous, consider that the passage in which the congregation joins in urging the family to “fight valiantly … against sin, the world and the Devil” has also been replaced with a polite request to “stand bravely” and “oppose the power of evil”. The difference between “fighting” and “standing” is enormous. Fighting is an active method of combating sin; standing is a passive form of resistance. Put “stand” next to the adverb “bravely” and the whole thing smacks of defeatism. Whenever the English say that an enterprise is “brave”, they really mean that it is hopeless.

For all of the CofE’s attempts to cover their backs by reintroducing "sin" to the liturgy, nothing can detract from the terrible mistake of removing Satan. The Church has admitted that several parishes, "regretted the loss of the Devil” – a delightfully English understatement considering that renouncing Lucifer is an absolutely crucial part of the conversion from darkness to light, from sin to redemption. So how does the CofE justify exorcising Old Nick? Apparently, vicars find it "much easier” to ask parents and godparents to make vows which do not mention the Horned One.

As one blogger observed, “Eventually, the Church will have to choose. Does it serve modern society, with its rampant materialism, social liberalism and discomfort with spiritual discipline? Or does is serve God? If the latter, then it’s going to have to ask people to reject the Devil. No one gets into Heaven without making at least one enemy.”

*****

Radical Islam growing in Cardiff, Wales. I grew up in Cardiff during an era when the most radical thing that happened in the city was Baptists raising their arms in Chapel. Now, Richard Llewellyn’s valleys, once black with coal dust, are green, covered in grass and being enjoyed by mentally unstable radical Islamists who might have profited by having to earn a living digging up coal by hand from a Welsh mine.

It’s ironic that as the valleys have become greener, the spiritual health of Cardiff has become blacker. Another symptom of our age and church’s obsession with the material at the expense of the transcendent.

From this news brief:

Cardiff has an ongoing problem with the radicalization of young Muslims, said an academic who has studied the issue.

Two men from the city have been identified as taking part in what appears to be a Jihadist recruiting video, which was posted online last week.

It is thought that Reyaad Khan travelled to Syria with friend Nasser Muthana who also appears in the footage.

Khan lived close to the Cardiff men jailed over the London Stock Exchange bombing plot in 2012.

It is believed the two men, both 20, travelled to Syria in November, while Nasser Muthana's younger brother Aseel, 17, travelled to the country in February.

The men are believed to be among 500 Britons fighting in the conflict in Syria.

I’ll let Richard Llewellyn have the last word:

“It is simple. Men lose their birthrights for a mess of pottage only if they stop using the gifts given them by God for their betterment. By prayer. That is the first and greatest gift. Use the gift of prayer. Ask for strength of mind, and a clear vision. Then sense. Use your sense. Not all of us are born for greatness, but all of us have sense. Make use of it. Think. Think long and well. By prayer and good thought you will conquer all enemies....Behold, the night is coming. Prepare, for the time is at hand.”

*****

The electors of the Anglican Diocese of the Northern Territory have chosen Rev Dr. Greg Anderson to be their next bishop. Greg is currently the Head of the Department of Missions at Moore Theological College in Sydney. Their website describes him: “Greg teaches mission subjects. His research interests include Aboriginal Christian faith, missional/emerging churches, the Christian/Muslim interface, dessert recipes, ways to beat squash opponents fifteen years younger than him and cryptic crossword solutions.”

Greg is a former missionary in the NT with the Church Missionary Society (CMS) and well-respected in the field (in both senses!). Both CMS and the Anglican Board of Mission (ABM) will be very happy with this appointment. His research and publications are heavily weighted towards the particular issues of indigenous people in the region. An excellent appointment!

*****

A Pennsylvania pastor, who broke church law by presiding over his son's same-sex wedding ceremony and then became an outspoken activist for gay rights, can return to the pulpit after a United Methodist Church appeals panel overturned a decision to defrock him.

The nine-person panel ordered the church to restore Frank Schaefer's pastoral credentials saying the jury that convicted him last year erred when fashioning his punishment.

"I've devoted my life to this church, to serving this church, and to be restored and to be able to call myself a reverend again and to speak with this voice means so much to me," an exultant Schaefer told The Associated Press, adding he intends to work for gay rights "with an even stronger voice from within the United Methodist Church."

The church suspended Schaefer of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, for officiating at his son's 2007 wedding; then defrocked him when he refused to promise to uphold the Methodist law book "in its entirety," including its ban on clergy performing same-sex marriages.

Schaefer appealed, arguing the decision was wrong because it was based on an assumption he would break church law in the future.

Recently the CofE, faced with a similar situation, withdrew the license of a priest who married his partner. “There is no mechanism to overturn it. The bishop is the final authority where Permission to Officiate is concerned. No right of appeal,” a source told VOL.

*****

The Diocese of New Westminster is reaping what Bishop Michael Ingham has sown. The new Bishop Melissa Skilton seems bent on continuing the liberalization of her predecessor. She recently appointed as an administrative assistant to herself one Bill Siksay who will also serve as Administrative Assistant to the Executive Archdeacon.

Siskay was the Member of Parliament (NDP) for Burnaby-Douglas from 2004 - 2011 following more than eighteen years as constituency assistant in the same riding. His partner is the Rev. Brian Burke, the United Church minister at Trinity United, Port Coquitlam; the Church which shares its building with St Catherine of Alexandria, Port Coquitlam.

In other news from the diocese, word comes that maintaining almost empty church buildings is proving costly. In 2011 the 500 member congregation of St. Matthew’s Abbotsford was ejected from its building by the diocese.

In 2012, the rector of the diocese of New Westminster’s version of the parish, Rev Allen Doerksen, declared that one day the church will become self-sustaining. That day has not yet arrived: the parish is still being funded by the diocese and is now going through a bumpy patch.

What’s more, the church’s furnaces need replacing so, to avoid a bumpy cold patch, the parish is asking the Diocese of New Westminster for $150,000 to fix them.

Both St. Matthew’s Abbotsford and St. John’s Shaughnessy – which is bleeding $20,000 per month – were kept on artificial life-support by Bishop Michael Ingham to demonstrate to the world that the diocese’s ersatz Christianity works. It doesn’t. The new bishop will have some difficult decisions to make soon -- before the diocese starts going through a bumpy patch.

*****

The Anglican Church of Canada has found another doctrine to repudiate. Having already repudiated every theological doctrine it could find in its once ample arsenal, the Anglican Church of Canada is desperately searching for other doctrines to denounce – any will do, even one that is 500 years old and, for all practical purposes, irrelevant outside a small coterie of obsessive leftists. Archbishop Fred Hiltz is leading by example in his hand-wringing repentance over, not his own failings – that would be too embarrassing – but his ancestors’ complicity in one of the few sins still acknowledged as such by the ACoC: the Doctrine of Discovery.

As this news release notes, in a nutshell: The DoD gives the Christian nations of Europe not just the right, but the God-given duty, to take over any unoccupied lands—the Latin phrase is Terra Nullius— they discover and bring to them the “benefits” of a “Christian civilization.”

For us white Europeans, The Anglican Church of Canada has been working tirelessly to remove all the benefits of a Christian civilization from Canada for years; its most celebrated success has been the redefinition of marriage – to the point where the concept of marriage has been almost entirely drained of meaning. No atheist movement has been able to claim such a resounding victory.

Apparently:

We suffer from: a colonizer mentality; an internalized sense of white superiority, racism and stereotypes that separate us from one another; a stratified society where only some are powerful and wealthy and the rest live in a climate of fear and scarcity. Moreover, we can only carry on this injustice by denying reality and blaming those we have victimized.

Who could deny that? How many black bishops are there in the ACoC? How many earning less than $100k? How often have these wealthy white bishops blamed those they have victimized: the ANiC congregations whose buildings they have taken?

Naturally, the Residential Schools fiasco is a repeating theme:

The Anglican Church of Canada is a child of the Doctrine of Discovery. We grew out of our parent Church of England, and we promoted the DoD in almost everything we did, but particularly through our eager, century-long support for the Indian Residential School system. In many ways, our faith and the DoD were mutually inclusive.

Unsurprisingly, the intensity of all this conspicuous contrition has not lead to returning the colonized land on which all ACoC property sits to its Aboriginal owners. That is because, in spite of all the theatre, what the Anglican Church of Canada really cares about is money – and how to hold on to it. [Source Samizdat]

*****

If you want to see a really first class kick back at a so-called moderate Muslim trying to defend Islam, watch the following video. It is a Heritage Foundation Panelist on Radical Islam. It will blow your mind. The unusual answer from a panelist receives a standing ovation at Benghazi Coalition meeting. A non-radical Muslim posed a question to the panel and got blown out of the water.

http://www.mrctv.org/videos/heritage-foundation-panelist-radical-islam

*****

VOL readers will see a new website. This is the product of months of hard work. It is a complete makeover. There will undoubtedly be some bumps in the road, but we believe it will be easier to navigate and more user friendly, as well as being much bolder, in keeping with other serious news outlets. Please don’t hesitate to send us your comments. We value your input.

*****

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