You must ask in prayer, "Give me faith. Give me the love of Jesus. Give me humility." These things are all gifts. Only God can grant them. Pray. Pray. Pray. ---Gerontissa Makrina (+1995)

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
6/28/2007

It was another tumultuous week in the life of the Anglican Communion.

From Canada, the Anglican Church of Canada elected a new liberal archbishop from Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, one Fred Hiltz. The House of Bishops then narrowly rejected allowing the church to bless same-sex unions by a margin of two votes, thus further isolating the U.S. Episcopal Church. On the other side of the globe the Province of Rwanda announced that their House of Bishops would not be attending Lambeth 2008 because of their conscientious commitment to the apostolic faith once delivered and the fact that some of their U.S. bishops were not invited. Add the Province of Uganda and possibly the Province of Nigeria and you have the makings of a rebellion.

Will the CAPA (African) bishops soon announce en masse that they won't be attending next year's Lambeth?

To add to the growing rejection of Lambeth, news came from down under that the Standing Committee of the Evangelical Diocese of Sydney has urged Archbishop Peter Jensen and his five regional bishops to make a stand protesting the Lambeth Conference guest list that denies orthodox bishops while including heretical ones, and suggesting that a parallel Lambeth be held at the same time in England next year! You can read that exclusive here or in today's digest: http://tinyurl.com/2sl4e5

We now have the makings of a serious rebellion on our hands. One wonders if the Archbishop of Canterbury will come temporarily out of his sabbatical and make some sort of announcement. If he doesn't he could lose by default. Couple this with the upcoming Common Cause meeting of Episcopal faithful and their decision to follow in the footsteps of Rwanda, Uganda and Sydney and Dr. Williams has a wholesale rebellion on his hands that makes all talk of unity and endless conversation, null and void. The next few months are going to prove very interesting indeed.

CANADIAN Anglicans took a hesitant, ambiguous step toward expansion of gay rights on the weekend at their General Synod in Winnipeg. They decided that blessing same-sex unions does not conflict with their core doctrines, but their bishops blocked permission for each diocese to make its own choice about blessing such unions. They separated out core doctrine from doctrine, a real theological sleight of hand that would please any sharp-eyed three-card monte player. Votes at the church's Winnipeg general synod showed the wind was blowing toward greater acceptance of the gay and lesbian lifestyle. The church backed away from blessing same-sex unions, however, largely, one suspects, to preserve the faux unity of a worldwide Anglicanism whose African and Asian branches openly condemn homosexuality. So this move may have been as much political as theological. The vote was a slim two-vote margin. You can be sure that by the next Synod it will be a push over for the liberals. The new archbishop voted for same-sex blessings after hedging his bets when it was first announced he was the next archbishop. Within hours he voted for the same. On one issue, however, he was dogmatic. Hiltz said he would strongly oppose Anglican primates from Africa or anywhere else outside the country "interfering" with the Anglican Church of Canada's ecclesiastical authority and independence. Fittingly the opening hymn for the ACC General Synod was the androgynous hymn, 'She Flies On'.

Meantime the bully bishop of New Westminster Michael Ingham, Canada's only Anglican bishop to authorize the blessing of homosexual unions, used it as an opportunity to blast his fellow bishops saying the failure to approve the rite for the national church is the product of institutional inertia rooted in homophobia. He said homophobia, hiding behind interpretations of scripture, remains an acceptable prejudice in Canadian Anglicanism. The homosexual tide is running in his favor according to Ingham. He's probably right. He did say he won't use local option to get around the decision, but he could just as easily reverse that. The day after bishops blocked an attempt by lay people and clergy to approve same-sex blessings across the country, Ingham said he needs to reflect more fully on what the no vote means. A group of breakaway evangelical Anglicans from Western Canada said the actions of the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) send confused signals to the Global South. The Anglican Coalition in Canada (ACiC) said the ACC now 'walks alone'.

A priest who works with Anglican Essentials, a high-profile conservative group within the Canadian denomination, was surprised and pleased when he heard the progressive bishop had withdrawn the motion that would have given him a grandfather clause to carry out more same-sex rites. "No kidding? He [Ingham] withdrew the motion? I'm fascinated. I think he realized if he'd lost the vote, he would have had no choice but to stop doing the blessings," said a grinning Rev. Brett Cane, a parish priest in Winnipeg who adamantly opposes giving local dioceses the right to offer same-sex blessings.

Here is the real irony of the situation. According to LifeSiteNews.com only ONE Canadian same-sex couple "married" in Toronto last year. The Anglican Church of Canada was ready to split over one sodomite marriage! According to the Canadian government it was to a FOREIGNER! The city of Toronto, which hosted the claimed "million-strong" annual Gay Pride March on Sunday, has one of the largest homosexual populations in Canada. Despite this fact, the demand for same-sex marriage licenses has drastically declined. Last year, the city issued 107 licenses to Canadian homosexual couples, whereas this year it has so far only issued one.

Present at this Synod was the Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu. His conflicted comments at the Synod made irresistible commentary. Calling himself an Evangelical he fudged the occasion, as he did at the Episcopal Church's General Convention last year. I examined his statements and have written a brief sermon on what he should have said but didn't. You can read it here or in today's digest. http://tinyurl.com/26cq5n

Within the U.S. there is also big news. The CALIFORNIA COURT OF APPEALS reversed a lower court's ruling in three church property cases - St. James, All Saints and St. David's Anglican Churches who all now risk losing their parishes. A three-judge panel of the California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Division Three, reversed the Orange County Superior Court's prior ruling that three former Episcopal churches, which disaffiliated from the national denomination in 2004, did not forfeit their property. This division of the appellate court broke with nearly thirty years of California church property law, and instead ruled that hierarchical church denominations can take over local church property by simply passing an internal rule - even if the local church is separately incorporated, bought and maintained the property.

On a brighter note Forward in Faith North America, the traditionalist wing of The Episcopal Church said they would consecrate their own bishop, one Fr. William Ilgenfritz, adding to the already overcrowded list of new American offshore African bishops.

I spoke with a lawyer who practiced law in California for almost 40 years, before leaving the area. He said this. "The judgment in favor of the three parishes was based on a summary dismissal (granted on a motion as opposed to following trial). The judgment was based on the application of the anti-SLAPP statute, a statute specific to California. The Court of Appeals has held that the trial court improperly applied the statute in granting judgment to the three parishes against the Diocese of Los Angeles. The options open to the parishes at this time are three:

1. Ask the California Supreme Court to grant hearing, which if granted would result in briefings and a hearing before the California Supreme Court. If granted, under the rules of the court, the Court of Appeal opinion becomes of no effect and the matter is heard anew as an appellate matter before the California Supreme Court. Hearings in the Supreme Court of California are discretionary with the court, and the parishes have no right to be heard without the permission of the court. The California Supreme Court has the power, on its own motion and without application from the parties to the appellate decision to order the matter brought up to it for hearing. In this case that seems an extremely remote option.

2. The second alternative is for the parishes not to petition the California Supreme Court for hearing, but rather allow the matter to be remanded to the trial court. If the parishes elect that alternative [or if the California Supreme Court is asked to review the decision and refuses], the parties will pick up in the action just where they were before the anti-SLAPP judgment was rendered. Discovery will be appropriate, motions for summary judgment will be allowed, and if the matter is not resolved by summary judgment, then the matter will proceed to trial in due course unless settled in some manner by the parties.

3. So far as TEC is concerned, in an unpublished opinion dated yesterday, the Court of Appeal reversed the trial court's sustaining of the demurrer without leave to amend, the effect of which had been to end the efforts of TEC to intervene in the cases. This ruling by the Court of Appeal is subject to the same review options as the ruling reversing the judgments in favor of the three parishes. The parishes can ask the California Supreme Court to hear the matter or allow it to be remanded to the trial court where the cases will proceed with TEC as a party in intervention.

"My own sense is that the three parishes in the present litigation will ultimately prevail on the merits unless the Barker and the St. Luke's cases are ultimately reversed by the courts in California. Under those two cases, two other California Courts of Appeal have ruled favorably to parishes in the same position as the three parishes in this litigation. To the extent that the present ruling by the 4th District Court of Appeal is read or urged as contrary to those precedents, it is my opinion that the precedent of the Barker and St. Luke's cases should and will ultimately prevail allowing the parishes to retain their property."

He concluded by saying: "While the reversal is a setback for the three parishes, and while it looks as though the litigation will continue on for some time, it is far from the end of the day!"

The judges' wrote a 77-page opinion, which is available in today's digest. Or you can click here to read it: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/G036096.PDF

ACKERMAN TO WASHINGTON. On Sunday, June 24, 2007, the Rt. Rev. Keith L. Ackerman, Bishop of the Diocese of Quincy, by invitation of Bishop John Chane, provided the Sacrament of Confirmation at St. Luke's, Bladensburg, Md. This is the first time a true Anglo-Catholic bishop has confirmed since before Ronald Haines was the bishop, a source told VOL.

In the liberal DIOCESE OF ATLANTA, three bishops, Neil Alexander, Atlanta; Mdimi Mhogolo (District of Central Tanganyika) and Don Johnson, Diocese of West Tennessee, all got together during a visit to the Diocese of Central Tanganyika this week. Now I wonder if Tanzania Archbishop Donald Mtelemela, under whose jurisdiction Mhogolo falls, knows that one of his bishops is consorting with the enemy?

The DIOCESE OF SAN DIEGO filed a lawsuit in San Diego County Superior Court to get custody of three churches again - St. Anne's in Oceanside, Holy Trinity in Ocean Beach and St. John's in Fallbrook. In the suit, the diocese argues that the congregations violated canon rules, which say all church property is held "in trust" for the local diocese. An earlier lawsuit filed by the diocese last year against St. John's in Fallbrook was unsuccessful, but a spokesman said this new action argues a different legal point. This brings to nine of approximately 50 congregations that have either left or in the process of leaving the diocese; that's almost 20 percent. In three cases, the breakaway congregations and priests stayed in the buildings, realigning with Anglican provinces in Uganda, Argentina and Bolivia. The San Diego diocese has been particularly hit hard.

STRETCHING THE TRUTH. In his official biography on the Diocese of San Diego website, Bishop James Robert Mathes makes the following claim about his past. He says that during his seven years as rector of St. James the Less Episcopal Church, Northfield, IL "attendance doubled, church schools participation tripled..." VOL received a letter this week with a printout and graphs of 'Participation & Giving Trends' for St. James and it tells a somewhat different story. In 1995 the church's worship attendance was 125 (hardly anything to write home about), and by 2001 when Mathes left the parish, attendance had risen to a mere 160. That's not exactly double. Furthermore there were some 355 baptized members in 1995 (less than a third attended on any given Sunday). By 2001 that figure had risen to 425, (with less than a third attending on any given Sunday).

MORE CONSECRATIONS. The Church of Uganda announced this week that it will consecrate the Rev. John A.M. Guernsey as an American Bishop to serve some 26 parishes in the U.S. Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi in Mbarara together with Rev. George Tibesigwa, Bishop-elect of Ankole Diocese, will consecrate him on Sept. 2. Guernsey will be canonically resident in North Kigezi Diocese, Church of Uganda, as a Bishop in the Church of Uganda. He will also continue to serve as Rector of All Saints Church, Dale City, Virginia.

Archbishop Orombi said, "Rev. Guernsey has a long history with the Church of Uganda, including many short visits to Uganda for teaching and preaching missions. He is highly respected by clergy and Bishops in the Church of Uganda, and has also been a pastoral and strategic leader in the Anglican Communion Network as Dean of the Mid-Atlantic Convocation. He is the ideal candidate to pioneer this new ministry."

At the request of the Rt. Rev. Andrew (Andy) H. Fairfield, retired Bishop of North Dakota, the House of Bishops of the Church of Uganda voted to receive Bishop Fairfield as a member of its House at its 21st June meeting. Bishop Fairfield will assist Bishop-elect John Guernsey in providing episcopal care and oversight to the 26 congregations in America that are part of the Church of Uganda. Bishop Fairfield has written to The Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, and resigned from their House of Bishops.

That brings to four, the number of former or retired bishops who have left The Episcopal Church. Bishop Dan Herzog was received into the Roman Catholic Church. The Rt. Rev. William Cox departed to the Southern Cone, and now Bishop Fairfield to Uganda. The Rt. Rev. David Bena, retired Suffragan Bishop of Albany, was received by the Church of Nigeria and serves as an assistant bishop in the Convocation of Anglicans in North America.

CONFIRMED REPORTS VOL has received say that Fr. Bill Murdoch (convener of the New England chapter of the Anglican Communion Network) will be made a suffragan bishop of Kenya by the end of the summer.

PROVINCE 3 President, Bishop Robert Ihloff says Pittsburgh Diocese may not opt out of Province 3. To make his point the retired Bishop of Maryland and president of Province 3 wrote a letter on June 22 to all the ordained clergy canonically resident in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, which had more than threatening overtones.

He wrote: "A decision to leave the Province 3 regional ministry jurisdiction of The Episcopal Church cannot be made unilaterally. We need you. We need your voices, insights, your convictions, and your Christian fellowship. If the officers or ministry coordinators of Province 3 can assist you, answer questions, or simply be in dialogue with you, we welcome that opportunity. Meanwhile we remain in contact with a number of leaders in the Diocese of Pittsburgh and remember you all daily in prayer."

Last November delegates to Pittsburgh's diocesan convention voted to withdraw from active life in Province 3 ministry. Article VII of the constitution states that "no diocese shall be included in a province without its own consent." But the Rev. Barbara J. Seras, province coordinator, said the provincial leadership has received a definitive ruling from David Booth Beers, the Presiding Bishop's chancellor, that General Convention must approve any changes in provincial membership.

Approximately half of the 100 active ordained clergy in the diocese who received a copy of Bishop Ihloff's letter have signed a response asking the bishop and other members of the Province 3 leadership to respect the results of the diocesan convention vote.

"We were perplexed by your statement 'that we remain in contact with a number of leaders in the Diocese of Pittsburgh," the clergy wrote. "To our knowledge none of the present elected leadership of our diocese (standing committee, board of trustees, diocesan council, 2006 General Convention deputies) have been contacted by you or any of the other officials of Province 3. We are curious to know to which 'leaders' you are referring."

As far as the Province 3 leadership is concerned, Ms. Seras said Pittsburgh remains a member in good standing. It is one of three dioceses, along with Southwestern Virginia and Washington, in which the appointment of a representative to provincial council is pending. The province has never received formal notification about the decision at the Pittsburgh diocesan convention. Provincial ministry initiatives continue within the diocese.

On April 28 the province sponsored "Resurrection Moments," a spiritual retreat conceived and promoted by members of Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh (PEP). Several members of PEP, including the Rev. Harold Lewis, rector of Calvary Church, Pittsburgh, have sued the Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan, Bishop of Pittsburgh, and other diocesan leaders over the decision to withdraw from the province.

Currently the bylaws of the province leave the manner in which delegates to synod and representatives to council are chosen. The provincial leadership is in the process of revising its bylaws.

"Bishop Ihloff's letter is a veiled attempt to bring the Diocese of Pittsburgh on board with The Episcopal Church's agenda of minimizing the importance of doctrinal orthodoxy," said the Rev. David Wilson, rector of St. Paul's, Kittanning, Pa., a member of the Pittsburgh standing committee and the author of the letter signed by 42 members of the Pittsburgh clergy. "He says Province 3 needs us, but in the past 10 years not one conservative delegate from Pittsburgh to Province 3 has been elected or appointed to any provincial post. The only need Province 3 has for us is a need to legitimize their notion that we are one, big, happy family on mission together.

"It's time to break through the denial," he continued. "The Presiding Bishop believes we are minute bunch of dissidents; if that be so, why won't they let us go in peace and with their blessing? If Province 3 wants to amend the provincial by-laws to appoint delegates of their own choosing, let them do it. It just reinforces everything I have just said."

Bishop Ihloff retired as Bishop of Maryland last May. Before he sought re-election to a three-year term as president of the province in March 2006, he consulted widely as to whether his pending retirement would be a bar to holding office, according to Ms. Seras. As the senior bishop holding office in the province, Bishop Ihloff becomes a member of the Presiding Bishop's council of advice and typically the chief consecrator of bishops within the region when the Presiding Bishop delegates that responsibility. Bishop Ihloff was traveling in Africa when contacted. (TLC contributed to this report).

THERE IS A NEW TERM coming to an Episcopal Church near you soon. It's about to become Anglican coinage first. It's called open source worship. The Ven. Scott-Brayant, official to Bishop Jim Cowan of British Columbia coined it. It means just what it implies.

The "I AM A MUSLIM AND A CHRISTIAN" story won't go away. Culture watcher Chuck Colson says that Dr. Redding's "I can be both" isn't about logic or theology, "It's about feelings. She can call herself anything she wants, but she's only truly a Muslim if she denies Christian doctrines such as original sin, the Trinity, or the divinity of Christ. And to deny those truths is to deny the Christian faith."

Which raises an interesting question: Why is she an Episcopal priest, never mind a director of "faith formation?"

Writing at the website Get Religion, Mollie Hemmingway says that Redding's story illustrates that the split in the Episcopal Church isn't about homosexuality, as the media says. The former Episcopal parishes aligning themselves with African bishops aren't leaving a denomination with gay clergy; they are leaving a denomination with non-Christian clergy.

Redding is simply an extreme example in the Episcopal Church. But sadly she represents the widespread, politically correct belief that all religions lead to the same place-a message that is not only dead wrong as a matter of logic, but one which denies Christ. In short, it is the ultimate heresy, Hemmingway writes.

Ultra-liberal writer for the Diocese of Washington Jim Naughton wishes the "I am a Christian and a Muslim" story would go away, but it won't. One thoughtful person made this observation: "If TEC had one minute shred of theological integrity, or any integrity of any kind for that matter, Redding would be inhibited, defrocked and caste out in about two seconds but that won't happen, of course. Inhibition and defrocking are reserved for the faithful who are so 'unenlightened and un-inclusive' as to preach the gospel and to call out the heresy of TEC."

Virtueonline's resident sociologist/theologian Canon Gary L'Hommedieu has expatiated on Ms. Redding's double helix approach to religion in a piece titled, "AN APPLE IS AN ORANGE: The Religion of Ann Holmes Redding" You can read it here or in today's digest http://tinyurl.com/2jwcw9

The ANGLICAN PROVINCE OF CHRIST THE KING is going through turmoil as it faces an aging, retiring archbishop and is about to elect a new man for the top post. A letter posted at VOL's website, "APCK MUST DECIDE ISSUE OF UNITY WITH OTHERS" can be accessed here: http://tinyurl.com/3xgvz6 APCK Bishop Rocco A. Florenza's Pastoral Letter calling for Christian Unity has generated two interesting responses.

First, we have learned that the Anglican Catholic Church (ACC), another continuing church jurisdiction, has expressed interest in restarting unity talks with the APCK and the Anglican Church in America (ACA). Over the past few years, negotiations have been held among all three on several occasions. Each time agreements were nearly reached, but each time Archbishop Robert Sherwood Morse of the APCK declined to move forward. Now with Archbishop Morse's impending retirement, the hope for unity may have new life, as he will no longer be the major impediment. Or will he?

The Bishops of the APCK are meeting tomorrow - June 29th - The Feast of the Apostle Peter - the day on which the APCK began some 30 years ago- at St. Peter's Pro-Cathedral Oakland California to elect a new Archbishop. What is not publicly known is that Archbishop Morse has barred Bishop Florenza of the Diocese of the Eastern States from attending the meeting and from voting in the election. There are five bishops in the APCK and some 20% of them have been silenced. The Diocese of the Eastern States contains 25% of the parishes in the APCK so it follows that they will have no voice in the choice of a new Archbishop. The reason sited for Morse's action is the charge that Bishop Florenza allegedly made comments critical of his fellow bishops at a recent clerical conference. Bishop Florenza has denied the charge, as have many priests who attended the meeting. The four APCK bishops left are expected to elect Bishop James Provence of the Western States to be the new Archbishop.

No matter who is elected, it is very clear that Morse intends to continue to run the APCK with an iron grip even while in "retirement". Within the Continuing Church movement, the nickname for the Province of Christ the King is the Province of Morse the King and so it seems it will continue. Which leaves two questions? Is there really any hope for Unity between the APCK and any other jurisdiction with Morse still in control? What will happen to Bishop Florenza and his call for unity?

FROM DOWN UNDER, author Gary Bouma has written a book Australian Soul: Religion and Spirituality in the Twenty-first Century (Cambridge University Press, 2006). Professor Bouma, an ordained Anglican priest, is head of the School of Political and Social Inquiry at Monash University. He's one of Australia's leading sociologists of religion, and excellently equipped to survey the Australian religious scene. He wrote. "There are now more Australian Buddhists than Baptists, more Muslims than Lutherans, more Hindus than Jews and more than twice as many Sikhs as Quakers" (pp. 55-6). "In the 2001 census [there was] a dramatic rise in the number of Australians who wrote something down that related more to spirituality than to particular organized religious groups" (p. 61)... "Only otiose religion is an opiate; the rest is dynamite" (p. 197)

Between 1996 and 2001 the following Christian groups were among those suffering from numerical decline (Source: ABS census data): Brethren (down 12.28%), Churches of Christ (- 18.25%), Presbyterian/Reformed (- 5.57%), Salvation Army (- 3.67%), Uniting Church (- 6.46%). Baptists grew by 4.75%, Catholics 4.22%, Pentecostals 11.37%, 'Other Christian' 27.95%. The Christian groups emanating from Britain in the 1800s - Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Congregationalists etc. - 'are moving from asking, "Will our children have faith?" to "Will our faith have children? ...They have effectively lost two generations and are in the process of losing a third' (p. 67)

AMONG the exclusive VOL stories in today's digest you will read why the DIOCESE OF SYDNEY thinks a Parallel Lambeth is a good idea. "How To Destroy An Episcopal Parish" will be the story of hundreds of Episcopal churches in the future. It is must reading if you want to see what it will all look like 10 years from now, perhaps even earlier than that. You can read that here http://tinyurl.com/3cynx3

As we get closer to the beginning of something new for the Anglican Communion, more and more people ask where they can find the news. Point them to VirtueOnline, the world's leading and largest independent source for Anglican news - www.virtueonline.org and please sign people up to receive this FREE weekly digest of stories. Send a name and e-mail address, we will do the rest. Don't let friends stay in the dark. Let the light shine, give them VOL.

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BREAKING NEWS...From Ruth Gledhill's Blog we learn that the Archbishop of Canterbury is exploring inviting Bishop V. Gene Robinson to the Lambeth conference in another status.