Thoughts into words. The assertion that God has 'spoken' (Heb. 1:1), that he has put his thoughts into words, must be taken with full seriousness. It is impossible for us human beings to read even each other's thoughts if we remain silent. Only if I speak to you can you know what is in my mind; only if you speak to me can I know what is in your mind. If, then, men and women remain strangers to each other until and unless they speak to one another, how much more will God remain a stranger to us unless he speaks or has spoken? His thoughts are not our thoughts, as we have seen. It is impossible for human beings to read the mind of God. If we are ever to know his mind he must speak; he must clothe his thoughts in words. This, we believe, is precisely what he has done. --- From "Life in Christ" John R.W. Stott

Christians or Athenians? 'Revelation' describes the initiative God took to unveil or disclose himself. It is a humbling word. It presupposes that in his infinite perfections God is altogether beyond the reach of our finite minds. Our mind cannot penetrate his mind. We have no ability to read his thoughts. Indeed, his thoughts are as much higher than our thoughts as the heavens are higher than the earth (Is. 55:9). Consequently, we would know nothing about God if he had not chosen to make himself known. Without revelation we would not be Christians at all but Athenians, and all the world's altars would be inscribed 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD' (Acts 17:23). But we believe God has revealed himself, not only in the glory and order of the created universe, but supremely in Jesus Christ his incarnate Word, and in the written Word which bears a comprehensive and variegated witness to him. --- From "The Contemporary Christian" John R.W. Stott

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
October 15, 2010

There was a time when becoming a Christian used to mean CONVERSION. But in Anglicanism (and in most mainstream expressions of church life) it has been twisted into INCLUSION. Not "Repent, and believe the Gospel, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" - but "Come as you are, stay as you are." This is the "gospel" of the Episcopal Church. It is insidious and it is a lie...and it is sending tens of thousands of Episcopalians and not a few Anglicans around the world into a Christless eternity. It is the curse of universalism, which refuses to admit that there is sin, that its wages are death, and that there is a place of such appalling separation from God that we can call it Hell. There can be no Hell, for there is no longer any sin, and therefore there can be no final judgment. It is a shadow gospel: it presents only the outward appearances of life as a born-again Christian. The heart within remains unchallenged and unchanged. The orthodox see things much more clearly. Their prayer is, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Father, have mercy on me, a miserable sinner."

*****

Here in Cape Town, South Africa, the third Lausanne Congress on Evangelism is about to begin. It is about conversion. It is about 4000 men and women from 190 nations telling the Good News about Jesus to the world's six billion inhabitants while respecting their culture, language and history. Among the leaders and speakers are two Anglican primates, Henry Luke Orombi of Uganda and Mouneer Anis of the Middle East.

It is a different world from 1974 when the first Congress erupted on the global stage. Thirty-six years ago world renown evangelist Billy Graham, Anglican preacher/teacher John Stott, evangelical culture guru Francis Schaeffer, curmudgeon journalist Malcolm Muggeridge and an Anglican Bishop from Sydney, Jack Dain, stood up and declared that Jesus is the only Savior and the light of the world.

They urged proclamation and declaration, encouraged intellectual engagement with society's cultured despisers and listened as a world-weary writer catalogued the numerous dead end political and social pathways that promised little hope of human fulfillment.

They met to declare that the Whole Church would take the Whole Gospel to the Whole World.

The world since then has become more complicated. There is increased knowledge, something called globalization, the Internet, pluralism, Wikipedia, iPods, iPads, Kindles and megabytes of this and that. Knowledge has increased, but not necessarily wisdom.

The sad truth is that with all our vaunted knowledge, our nation and our churches are divided now more than ever. Whole denominations are breaking up over pansexuality. Doctrine is being dumbed down. Whole generations are ignorant of what the Bible teaches...our churches have lost Jesus and the gospel he came to proclaim. The nation is filled with angry people.

For the 4,000 gathered here, it will be a time of reflection, thinking and strategizing about how to bring the light of the gospel into the lives of countless millions who have never heard the Good News or who have grown cold and cynical to the claims of Jesus Christ.

They will address atheism, nominalism, globalization, contextualization and examine the theological underpinnings of what it is they believe and so much more. I will report on it daily for you.

I wrote my first story - a reflection on the first Lausanne Congress on Evangelism - a gathering of some 2300 Evangelicals who met in Switzerland in 1974 when men like Billy Graham, Malcolm Muggeridge, Corrie Ten Boom and many others filled the stage with their stories of faith, charging their listeners to go forth and make disciples of all nations.

There are two billion Christians in the world today, most of them in what we call the Global South. Millions are coming to Christ in Africa, China, Asia and Latin America. Regrettably, the news is not so good in the Global North. The forces of post-modernity, religious pluralism, diversity and inclusivity have gutted the Good News. Somewhere in all the talk of justice, rights, and the acceptance of pansexual behaviors, the person of Jesus has quietly slipped away. His message, His Kingdom, His uniqueness have all been lost in the hailstorm of new ideas, a re-emergent atheism, "science destroys religion" and religious pluralism.

Even those who believe soft-peddle their answers by saying they don't want to offend anyone, even though the Gospel was called an "offence" by the Apostle Paul.

As I listen, so I will write. Hopefully, we will once again hear an unalloyed message of love, salvation and hope amidst the growing spiritual darkness that is spreading over the West.

It is ironic that in this week, when 4,000 world-class evangelical leaders meet in Cape Town, the Pope has issued a similar call to re-evangelize the world. Over dinner last night, one speaker said that what we need is a new evangelical renaissance, something more than a simple reformation - a totally new beginning, a new understanding of what freedom means. Perhaps he is onto something. Stay tuned.

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In the department of "never let a crisis go to waste", The Episcopal Integrity agitprop machine always gears up when a public tragedy can be exploited. Now they are doing it in spades. The suicides of four gay teens (hundreds of Americans commit suicide each day who are not gay) has galvanized Integrity leaders to rant and rave, one more time about a church that lacks inclusion.

"Part of my shame comes from the fact that my religion - Christianity - bears a heavy burden of guilt for promoting the fear and hatred of people who are 'different' because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Christianity has played a key role in shaping American culture and attitudes, whether we go to church or not. Many churches under the Episcopal umbrella and beyond still cultivate fear and hatred for people who are different," opined Louise Brooks.

Christians have been made to feel guilty over just about everything from slavery to sodomy, never mind that the very antidote for all this lies at the very heart of the Good News. The deeper question is, if Christianity is to blame for every ill that ails mankind, how come it just won't go away or lie down and die? Stalin tried to exterminate it. He failed. The churches rolled over in Germany to Hitler. Christianity is very much alive in Germany today despite the rise of Islam, according to two Germans, one a Pietist, the other a Lutheran I spoke with on the plane coming down here.

The liberal answer, "come as you are, stay as you are" is not the answer to homosexuals caught in the vortex of a dangerous and ungodly behavior. It is the life-saving message of Jesus who liberates and frees us from the bondage of all our sins. Perhaps, we will hear messages of sexual liberation this week. Who knows?

*****

Canon Kenneth Kearon who heads the Anglican Consultative Council handed out sanction notices this week to Archbishop Gregory Venables over his alleged interventions into other Anglican provinces. Never mind that they never intervened, but were actually invited by orthodox Episcopalians. For the most part, they went reluctantly. Undeterred by the facts, Kearon stated:

"I am therefore proposing that, while these tensions remain unresolved, members of such provinces - provinces that have formally, through their Synod or House of Bishops, adopted policies that breach any of the moratoria requested by the Instruments of Communion and recently reaffirmed by the Standing Committee and the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO) - should not be participants in the ecumenical dialogues in which the Communion is formally engaged. I am further proposing that members of such provinces serving on IASCUFO should for the time being have the status only of consultants rather than full members.

"At that time I wrote to the Primate of the Southern Cone, whose interventions in other provinces are referred to in the Windsor Continuation Group Report asking him for clarification as to the current state of his interventions into other provinces. I have not received a response.

"Consequently, I have written to the person from the Province of the Southern Cone who is a member of the Inter Anglican Standing Commission on Unity Faith and Order (IASCUFO), Bishop Tito Zavala, withdrawing his membership and inviting him to serve as a Consultant to that body."

At this time, neither Zavala nor Venables had responded. Perhaps it hasn't dawned on Kearon that the Anglican Communion is irretrievably broken and that these men are committed to GAFCON, FCA, ACNA and ANiC and really DON'T CARE what the ACC says or does?

The Secretary General writes: "Many of you will have read the Archbishop of Canterbury's letter to the Anglican Communion issued at Pentecost last May. Part of that letter addresses the current and ongoing tensions in the Anglican Communion - these tensions cluster around the three moratoria referred to in the Windsor Report."

Phil Ashey CEO of the American Anglican Council said this: This makes no sense whatsoever, for the following reasons: "There is no moral equivalence between emergency pastoral interventions to preserve apostolic faith and order, and violations of Anglican doctrine and discipline through the consecration of non-celibate homosexual bishops and the promotion of same-sex blessings."

Presumably then Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori is getting the same treatment for allowing and participating in the consecration of Mary Glasspool an avowed lesbian? Let's see how long that lasts.

*****

England's "'Jesus Who'? Christianity a 'Faded Memory' for Most Young Britons," screamed a British newspaper headline this week.

Most young people in Britain consider Christianity irrelevant to their lives, but they are not as hostile towards religion as their parents' generation, researchers in the Church of England have found.

The researchers surveyed 300 young people from Generation Y - those born after 1982 - who had attended a Christian youth or community project. The five-year study looked at their faith in relation to Christianity and the impact of Christian youth and community work on their faith development.

It found that young people were more likely to put their faith in friends, their family or themselves than in God.

*****

Louie Crew, the Episcopal Church's perennial and still activist homosexual, found himself on the receiving end this week when Dallas Dean Kevin Martin outed and charged Crew with sabotaging the 20/20 initiative to double the church by 2020. He denied the charges. A third party weighed in and confirmed the fact that Crew got the funding nixed for the whole initiative. Is it any wonder the church has gone numerically and financially (a loss of over $110 million in plate and pledge) backwards and continues to do so? You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

In the will they or won't they game, a handful of Anglo-Catholics are praying in the UK over whether they intend to stay in the CofE or migrate to Rome with the Pope's offer of a personal ordinariate. The show dropped for one bishop this week. The Bishop of Fulham, John Broadhurst gave notice that he is out the door to Rome this week. In a "Dear Father" letter he said,"I am just sending a brief email to let you know that I will be publicly saying tomorrow that I intend to resign at the end of the year. This is to enable +Richard [Chartres] to appoint my successor. My expectation is that I will join the Ordinariate when it is established. I will be writing a pastoral letter for you and your people later." This will be a great shock to some and no surprise to others.

A source told VOL that it comes as no shock at all. Broadhurst has been an Episcopal visitor to Rome on numerous occasions and loses nothing by going to Rome. He was retiring anyway. He will collect a full CofE pension and has no palace to give up. I doubt Lambeth Palace is weeping any tears at his departure. From what I am told, Chartres and he never hit it off. I doubt the Bishop of London will lose any sleep over Broadhurst's departure.

*****

Bishop Thomas E. Breidenthal of Southern Ohio has been invited to deliver the prestigious DuBose Lectures at the School of Theology at Sewanee: The University of the South, an Episcopal seminary in Tennessee this year.

The DuBose Lectures are held annually as part of an alumni gathering for continuing education at Sewanee, with people from all over the country coming to hear and discuss the content of the lectures. This year's gathering is Oct. 28-29.

Breidenthal will deliver three lectures, guided by the theme, "A Better Word: Witness and Communion for the Mission of God." The first lecture, "The Blood of Abel: Atonement and the Neighbor," will explore Christ's death.

"I think there are a lot of people who don't understand why it is that Christ had to die for us ... they're troubled by the language and not really sure what the cross is about," said Breidenthal. "I thought it was very important for me to do some thinking about that, especially as these were some of the concerns I raised about the consent process in Northern Michigan." Last year, Breidenthal did not give his consent to the consecration of the Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester as bishop of Northern Michigan because of concerns about Thew Forrester's theological positions on issues such as atonement.

Breidenthal doesn't like the theological leanings of Forrester, but he did vote for the consecration of Gene Robinson and Mary Glasspool, as well as for resolutions D025 and C056. How does he explain Christ's death for a man who believes in religious pluralism, but not for homosexual fornication?

*****

The Knights of Malta-decorated a missionary ordained to the Diaconate in the Anglican Mission in the Americas. In Little Rock, Arkansas, Sami Jo Magoffin was ordained to the sacred order of deacons by the Rt. Rev. Philip Jones on August 23, 2010. The ordination took place at St. Andrew's Church in Little Rock, Arkansas. A Hot Springs Village, Arkansas resident, Deacon Magoffin is assigned as a bi-vocational deacon to All Saints Anglican Church in the Village.

A physical therapist in private practice, Sami Jo is a 2010 graduate of Anglican School of Ministry (www.anglicanschoolofministry.org), holding the school's Certificate in Diaconal Studies. She studied at L'Abri in the 70's under the renown Christian philosopher and writer, the late Rev. Francis Schaeffer. In addition to her degree in physical therapy, she earned a Master of Public Health in International Health from the University of Texas School of Public Health.

*****

The charge by Pennsylvania Bishop Charles Bennison that witnesses at his trial perjured themselves met with a stern letter from those he falsely charged as well as Margo Maris, pastor, advocate and editor, Episcopal Diocese of Oregon. They wrote:

To the Members of the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Pennsylvania:

"When we testified at the ecclesiastical trial of Bishop Charles E. Bennison, we each placed our hand on the Bible and swore "to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God." Under this oath, we testified with utmost seriousness, painful honesty, and fervent prayer. We spoke our truth.

"Bishop Bennison now claims "it is known that all of the witnesses at my trial intentionally perjured themselves." Such a grave accusation against the integrity of the witnesses and the ecclesiastical court process leads to the observation that Bishop Bennison continues to exhibit conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy."

In faith,

Julia Alexis, Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real
Martha Alexis, Western Diocese, Anglican Church in North America
Andy Alexis, Catholic Diocese of Sacramento
Maggie Thompson, Episcopal Diocese of Vermont
Rev. Margo Maris, our pastor, advocate and editor, Episcopal Diocese of Oregon

cc: Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori
Bonnie Anderson, President of the House of Deputies

The Diocese of Pennsylvania will be meeting in November. There are new resolutions on the floor to dump Bennison. Will they succeed? Stay tuned.

*****

Ruth Gledhill begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting, the "London Times" intrepid religious correspondent, interviewed Terry Waite on the Chile Miners incarceration. You can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZuQouIEKd8

*****

The Diocese of South Carolina is meeting. VOL can report the latest news though more will follow. Bishop Mark Lawrence brought updates since the last convention.

* At convention 2009, the vision was put forth that we should be Making Biblical Anglicans in a Global Age. Told how the new Vice Chancellor of the University of the South included many points in his inaugural address that reflected that vision.

* Bishop Lawrence was included in the meeting of the Global South as the leader of a body with which they are in communion.

* Bishop Nazir Ali - former bishop of Rochester UK has agreed to be visiting Bishop for Anglican Development in the Diocese of South Carolina. "He gives legs to our vision", said Lawrence. The bishop announced that Nazir Ali would be the new Assisting Bishop in South Carolina as Assisting Bishop for Global Anglican Relations.

*Bishop Mounier Anis of the Middle East has now entered into a new relationship with Bishop Lawrence and his churches.

These were among the highlight issues that show where the diocese is headed. It doesn't take brain surgery to show that the diocese is cementing its orthodoxy with overseas primates and bishops just in case the deep thinkers at 815 decide to mount an ecclesiastical attack on the diocese come July 2, 2011.

Lawrence said that a request made by the Diocese of SC to the Presiding Bishop to recall her attorney was met with "stony silence." In July 2011, the title IX canon will take effect and dramatically increase the ability of the Presiding Bishop to intrude in the work of this diocese and supersede the work and ministry of her bishops and clergy. People ask why the Bishop and the Diocese don't just leave. Lawrence feels that the Diocese of SC has a vocation within the national church and within the Anglican Communion. He believes that the resolutions up for vote are appropriate and what is needed at this time. He said at the end of his talk this week that the Presiding Bishop has encouraged five bishops to talk to Lawrence to tell him that his current "status" does not "bode" well for his future as a Bishop in TEC. More to follow.

*****

VOL has added a BOOKS section to the website as increasingly we are receiving books to review and requests by readers for books to read. We invite readers with book suggestions and with serious reviews of said books to send them to VOL. We will not promise to run everything, but we will look at everything that crosses our path. If something fits with our missions, we will post it.

*****

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All blessings,

David in Cape Town, South Africa