God's self-revelation. It is impossible to distinguish between Jesus and the Christ, the historical and the eternal. They are the same person, who is both God and man. Such an emphasis on the historical revelation of the invisible and intangible is still needed today, not least by the scientist trained in the empirical method, the radical who regards much in the gospels as 'myths' (but you cannot 'demythologize' the incarnation without thereby contradicting it) and the mystic who becomes preoccupied with his subjective religious experience to the neglect of God's objective self-revelation in Christ. --- From "The Letters of John" (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries)

The authentic Jesus. Which Jesus are we talking about? Even Paul in his day recognized the possibility of teachers proclaiming 'another Jesus' than the Jesus he preached (2 Cor. 11:4). And there are many Jesuses abroad today. There is Jesus the Bultmannian myth and Jesus the revolutionary firebrand, Jesus the failed superstar and Jesus the circus clown. It is over against these human reinterpretations that we need urgently to recover and reinstate the authentic Jesus, the Jesus of history who is the Jesus of Scripture. --- From "Christian Mission in the Modern World"

Dear Brothers and sisters
www.virtueonline.org
May 27, 2010

What if? What if the Anglican Communion had woken up to the fact several decades ago that 100 to 140 million women were annually being genitally mutilated because one particular religion demanded it? What if the Archbishop of Canterbury and all his fellow Primates including TEC and the Anglican Church of Canada archbishops had risen up in wrathful indignation to denounce and depose this horrific, life destroying behavior?

What if every Anglican archbishop and bishop had said with one voice, "This is wrong and we demand that it stop. We call upon the UN and every civil rights movement to stand up and be counted against this vile behavior that robs women of the joy of sexual satisfaction. We demand that the world do something. We demand that it become a Millennium Development Goal to rid the world of this accursed vice and we call upon every Imam and Sheikh to join us in denouncing this behavior whether it is committed by Christians or Muslims in Egypt or throughout Africa."?

What if this had been the goal of the Anglican Communion instead of the puffed up need to promote sodomy for a mere handful of pansexualists? What a different world and Anglican Communion it would be today.

To make the point, here are some facts from the WHO:

* Female genital mutilation (FGM) includes procedures that intentionally alter or injure female genital organs for non-medical reasons.
* The procedure has no health benefits for girls and women.
* Procedures can cause severe bleeding and problems urinating, and later, potential childbirth complications and newborn deaths.
* An estimated 100 to 140 million girls and women worldwide are currently living with the consequences of FGM.
* It is mostly carried out on young girls sometime between infancy and the age of 15.
* In Africa an estimated 92 million girls ages 10 years and above have undergone FGM.
* FGM is internationally recognized as a violation of the human rights of girls and women.

Homosexuals number a mere 2,000 in TEC (even less in the CofE though there are so many closeted gay priests, no one has an exact number I am told,), but even if that figure were double that number, so what? Whatever number it is, they are among the smallest, noisiest, loudest, demanding, whiniest most obnoxious people on the planet. Of course if their genitals were under attack, it would be on the nightly news for months on end, on every mindless talk show and every idiot blog with an axe to grind.

This is what it has come to. The Anglican Communion has shattered into a hundred different pieces over the pansexual behavior of a handful of men and women who demand that their behavior (read sin) not only be tolerated but exalted, glorified, sanctified and finally, (if possible) beatified.

One wonders what some future historians and anthropologists will make of it all when they unearth such documents as the Windsor Report or Covenant or John Shelby Spong's 12 Theses and endless communiqués. Will they see all the compromises, hopes and aspirations that lead to a now bankrupt communion awash in prevarications and half-truths?

They will probably head for a saloon, noting with interest that it looks strangely like a church with funny colored windows and an odd seating arrangement (for a saloon that is) with a large dartboard covering a T bar. One of the anthropologists will raise his glass and drink a toast, a sui generis sacramental moment and intone, "To homosexuals and whatever happened to them."

*****

Christopher Ssenyonjo, a bishop from the Anglican Province of Uganda who was excommunicated for fraudulently consecrating another bishop, attended the recent consecration of an avowed lesbian to TEC's episcopacy in Los Angeles at the invitation of Integrity, the Episcopal Church's unofficial pansexual organization, promoting homosexuality in Uganda. He is in the US pushing TEC's gay agenda. VOL learned that not only was he defrocked, he was deposed because he set himself up as an Archbishop and recruited a defrocked Ugandan Bishop as a co-consecrator to consecrate a morally compromised man as a bishop of an independent church. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

The rector of the largest Episcopal parish in the Diocese of West Texas has resigned saying he can no longer serve in The Episcopal Church citing a "crisis of conscience" because TEC has moved away from historic Christianity.

In a letter to the 2,700-member Christ Episcopal Church (CEC) congregation, the Rev. Chuck Collins wrote, "[that TEC] has moved further and further away from the Gospel to which I committed my life and I have concluded that there is no future for me in this spiritual environment." You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

The layoffs continue at Washington National Cathedral and still the silence about what is really going on there is deafening. Despite the fluff "press release," Canon Carol Wade was certainly let go this week. A source has told VOL that her throne has been on the decline, with worship department employees slowly being taken away from her over the past months. They were re-assigned to new endeavors, such as the Cathedral Events Team. She confirmed to a staff member that she is indeed part of the lay offs.

"It's still flummoxing that with all the lay offs, cut backs, proposals to sell off assets, that none of the senior management have announced pay cuts for themselves. The Visitors' Program staff all took 20% cuts, with other staff members informed of pay cuts.

"Why not senior staff? How can a priest who makes $175,000 a year, gets a rent-free home, car allowance, etc., really understand what he's doing to staff who are losing their jobs because of his mismanagement? It's truly amazing. Dean Lloyd did well stacking the board in his favor, especially naming Jim Wind of the St. Alban's Institute chair of the governing board. They are two peas from the same pod."

FYI: VOL's story was picked up by the Washington Times and White House correspondent Les Kinsolving for WorldNetdaily.com

*****

Here are some final thoughts from a source who was present for the occasion on the and the election of the Rev. Michael Vono. "There was no way that Dr. Leander Harding or even Jim Harlan could have been elected, and the Rev. John Nieman would have been catastrophic, backed and lobbied for as he was by the most aggressively revisionist of our clergy (headed by Brian Taylor of St. Michael and all Angels, Albuquerque). If Nieman had won, the radicals would have teamed up with him to drive the remaining Biblically-faithful clergy out of the diocese. (That Taylor's group was thoroughly routed at the election says a lot about our diocese, inasmuch as Nieman was perceived as a way-out revisionist and Vono as a "moderate"). The conservatives felt that Vono would try to be a healer and uniter, and not persecute his traditionalist sheep or force them to do things like bless same-sex unions. We also felt that, unlike PB Jefferts Schori, Vono does sincerely believe that Jesus is who the Nicene Fathers proclaimed him to be." Still...

*****

Tom Butler, the former Bishop of Southwark, speaking on London radio's "Thought for the Day" radio program noted how he and others have changed their minds on a variety of moral issues including homosexual practice and marriage. David Phillips, General Secretary on behalf of the Council of Church Society , says it hasn't.

He wrote, "It ought to be obvious to everyone that at the same time as so many in the churches have 'changed their minds', the Church of England, the US Episcopal Church to which Mr. Butler alluded, and many other western churches have also declined numerically, spiritually and in their wider influence for good. It appears that despite the rhetoric many others have "changed their minds" and no longer see these Churches as offering anything to a broken world.

"Many churches in the west have lost their way precisely because they and their leaders have changed their mind on important matters of morality and truth. Rather than accepting and living by the will of God revealed in the Bible they have preferred instead to be shaped by the whims of the culture around us. The consequences of this for the church, and for society, is dire. The collapse of the family with its particular impact on the lives of children, and the social and financial cost of sexual immorality are just two of the ways in which we are now reaping what we sow."

Margaret Brown Chairman of the Third Province Movement said she was appalled at the comments made by the former Bishop of Southwark. The bishop concluded Theresa May had changed her mind regarding homosexuality and that he had changed his. It almost implied that the Church of England has altered its stance, but this is not true, she said.

*****

The relatively new bishop of Maryland, The Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton (who attended the Glasspool consecration), recently stated that the communion is in the midst of a fight. It is a fight worth having, he added. "Whenever the church has tried to limit leadership based on a person's biology, in most cases they have had to admit that was a mistake." Bishop Sutton says this as an African American, and thus is in effect equating biology, such as skin color and race, with moral conduct. One cannot change one's skin color to any significant degree, but one certainly can change one's moral or immoral conduct. Yet he equates the two as if they are equally unchangeable.

"I believe the bishop has actually insulted many people by insinuating that their gender, or race or basic physical attributes are on the same level as homosexual conduct. That argument doesn't work for me," said Bishop David Anderson.

*****

In the Diocese of Utah it was a close call this past week. The Rev. Canon Scott Byron Hayashi was elected May 22 as 11th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Utah. Hayashi, 56, canon to the ordinary in the Diocese of Chicago since 2005, was elected on the second ballot out of a field of three nominees. Hayashi received 73 of 128 votes cast in the lay order and 20 of 38 in the clergy order at a special electing convention at St. Mark's Cathedral in Salt Lake City.

The second ballot was openly homosexual "married" priest Canon Michael L. Barlowe. Had he won, it would have been a major victory for the church's pansexualists. One can be sure he will try again...and again...and again. You can read VOL correspondent Mary Ann Mueller's fine article on this election in today's digest.

*****

The Diocese of Springfield is looking for a new bishop. The line up reads like a Who's Who of TEC's remnant orthodox. They include Dr. Leander Harding (again, he ran for the Diocese of the Rio Grande) Trinity School for Ministry, The Rev. Canon F. Brian Cox, Rector, Christ the King, Santa Barbara, CA (Diocese of Los Angeles), The Very Rev. Dr. Robert S. Munday, Dean and President, Nashotah House, and The Rev. Daniel H. Martins, St. Anne's, Warsaw, IN - (Diocese of Northern Indiana) to name but a few. In a field of 15, there are of course a slew of liberals.

The real question is why would anybody want this job? The diocese is almost evenly split between liberals and orthodox, with a definite majority of laity who are orthodox and a minority of priests who are. This is NOT the Diocese of South Carolina, Dallas or Albany. There will be strife from day one for any person who wins. If an orthodox person should win, will that person get consents from the HOB and Standing Committees? That is highly doubtful. If a liberal wins, will there be a mass exodus from the diocese? Is the salary and status worth the punishment? A few of the orthodox candidates might want to have a quiet talk with Mark Lawrence Bishop of South Carolina before they consider going further.

*****

The Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, bishop of Maryland, has appointed The Rt. Rev. Joe Goodwin Burnett, 62, bishop of Nebraska, to serve as assistant bishop of Maryland, effective April 1, 2011. He will serve full time in the Episcopal diocese for two years beginning when Bishop John L. Rabb's announced retirement takes effect Jan. 1, 2011.

*****

The crowd are not in awe of the Anglican Communion Covenant. A statement by the Vestry of Christ Church, "Hudson Policy on the Anglican Communion Covenant", expresses that the Covenant is an improvident instrument. The issue is not how the instrument is expressed, though the Covenant lacks the grandeur of a constitution or the focus of a contract. The issue is the existence of the Covenant.

"The Covenant is about the exercise of group power through bargaining and voting; it is not an instrument that encourages all Anglicans to come together and pray. It threatens to punish unorthodoxy; it does not promote healing.

"Under the Covenant, the Anglican Communion could shun an Anglican church for standing by its views on contemporary social and leadership matters. Four hundred years ago, Queen Elizabeth I declined to inquire into worshipers' religious beliefs. Today the sacraments and the Prayer Book still unite us, and no other document should presume to divide us.

"The Covenant would radically accelerate the customarily slow pace of adjustment in the Anglican Communion. The Covenant demands action in a few years, instead of waiting for changes of persons, experience, and accommodation to wear the edge from current disagreements."

However at the upcoming 142nd Diocesan Convention, Bishop William Love is strongly urging both clergy and lay leaders to vote in favor of the Diocesan Convention resolution endorsing the Covenant and is recommending its adoption by the provinces of the Anglican Communion. Love has wisely brought in a heavy-hitter to be this year's keynote speaker in the person of the Most Rev. Drexel Gomez of the Province of the West Indies. He has been a major player in the development of the Covenant and is a long time friend of VOL. He should cement the deal. The Via Media will not win on this one, VOL has been told.

*****

In the Diocese of Ft. Worth Bishop Jack Leo Iker issued a statement saying that their lawyer, Scott Brister, presented their case in a very convincing manner, but the Court is not expected to issue a ruling until three or four months from now. "Our prayer work is not over. Continue to pray daily for the three justices who will decide the issue that is before them: Can those who have sued us do so in the name of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth and the Corporation of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth? Whichever way the court rules, the litigation, after it is remanded to the trial court, will likely continue for the next few years." VOL has been told that the diocese has a wealthy backer for the litigation.

*****

Bishop Andrew Waldo who succeeds Bishop Dorsey Henderson in the Diocese of Upper South Carolina was consecrated recently. Henderson served as one of Waldo's co-consecrators along with Diocese of Los Angeles Bishop Suffragan Diane J. Bruce, Diocese of Haiti Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin, Diocese of Alabama Bishop Henry N. Parsley, Diocese of Minnesota Bishop Brian N. Prior, Diocese of Ohio Bishop Suffragan (retired) Arthur B. Williams Jr. and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America South Carolina bishop the Rev. Dr. Herman R. Yoos III. Other Episcopal Church bishops who participated were John C. Bauerschmidt (Tennessee), Scott A. Benhase (Georgia), John C. Buchanan (Quincy provisional), Philip M. Duncan II (Central Gulf Coast), Charles F. Duvall (Central Gulf Coast retired), William O. Gregg (North Carolina assisting), Edwin F. Gulick (Kentucky), Rogers S. Harris (Southwest Florida retired), Donald M. Hultstrand (Springfield retired), Don E. Johnson (West Tennessee), William Michie Klusmeyer (West Virginia), Henry I. Louttit (Georgia retired), Mary Adelia McLeod (Vermont retired), David Reed (Kentucky retired), G. Porter Taylor (Western North Carolina), Charles G. vonRosenberg (Tennessee) and Keith B. Whitmore (Atlanta assisting). Roman Catholic Bishop Emeritus David Thompson, representing Diocese of Charleston Bishop Robert E. Guglielmone, also attended the service.

Noticeably absent was Mark Lawrence Bishop of South Carolina.

*****

The Archbishop of Canterbury will chair the ninth annual Building Bridges Seminar in Washington D.C. from May 25-27. Since 2002, Williams has chaired the annual seminar, which brings together leading Muslim and Christian scholars from around the world to explore issues at the heart of the two traditions. The ninth annual Building Bridges Seminar is titled "Christian and Muslim Perspectives on Tradition and Modernity."

As in previous Building Bridges seminars, a number of texts from the Christian and Islamic traditions will be used as the basis for discussion in a program that includes public lectures and private sessions. This year's event has been organized in partnership with Georgetown University, which hosted the Building Bridges Seminar in 2004 and 2006. Previous seminars have been held in Istanbul, Doha, Sarajevo and Singapore, details of which can be found here.

*****

The election of Mary Glasspool to the Diocese of Los Angeles episcopacy has riled up a lot of folk, not least of all is one Fr. Edward Tomlinson who called the occasion clear heresy. "The Diocese of Los Angeles has released footage of the ceremony held not in a Cathedral but on a secular stage because the organizers wanted it to coincide with a gay pride festival to boost numbers and reach out to those gathered. What eventually took place has actually taken my breath away. I thought I was beyond shock but I was unprepared for this dark blasphemy.

"During the ceremony we witnessed so many heretical abominations that we can pick and choose where to take deep and lasting offense. Paganism, ancestor worship, prayer to 'spirits' of nature, the summoning of mother earth, all are found here. Don't forget these are the people who have sacked Anglo-Catholic priests for daring to resist change and for standing up for the creed.

This is the Church that our Synod still desires to do business with having refused to show firm allegiance to the breakaway and orthodox factions. How can ANYONE remain in communion with these people if they refuse to publically repent. THIS IS HERESY and we must resist it. Ordinariate here we come....

"I am going to write to the Archbishop of Canterbury. How can HE allow this to pass without public condemnation and serious action? How strange that these aging hippies may prance about inventing faith and sticking two fingers up at conventional Christianity when my own family might soon be homeless simply because we can no longer put up with liberal drift and heretical practice."

Tomlinson should not hold his breath. The entire Anglican Communion is waiting for a response from the ABC to the consecration. All we are hearing is the sounds of silence.

*****

In his final address to his diocesan synod, the Bishop of Durham discussed the boundaries of adiaphora: what the Church has decided is non-essential to Christian faith. The Rt. Rev. N.T. Wright, speaking to the Diocese of Durham's synod May 21, also referred to a new pastoral letter being prepared by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Wright emphasized repeatedly that determining adiaphora is a task for the whole Church, rather than for one province, one diocese or one congregation. He also stressed that determining adiaphora is important work.

"The doctrine that some things are adipahora and some aren't is not itself adiaphora," he said. "The decision as to which things make a difference and which do not is itself a decision which makes a huge difference. Some of the early English Reformers claimed explicitly that they were dying precisely for the principle of adiaphora itself, for the right to disagree on certain points (not on everything). That for which you will give your life is hardly something which doesn't make a difference."

Wright cited two examples of what the Anglican Communion has decided are adiaphora: children receiving Communion and women being consecrated to the episcopate. He then referred to a forthcoming letter from the archbishop and added that the Church has never designated the definition of marriage as adiaphora. "The Archbishop of Canterbury is, I believe, in the process of writing a pastoral letter to all the churches, and I don't want to pre-empt what he will say," Wright said.

"The point is that the Church as a whole has never declared these matters to be adiaphora. This isn't something a bishop, a parish, a diocese, or a province can declare on its own authority. You can't simply say that you have decided that this is something we can all agree to differ on. Nobody can just 'declare' that. The step from mandatory to optional can never itself be a local option, and the Church as a whole has declared that the case for that step has not been made. By all means let us have the debate. But, as before, it must be a proper theological debate, not a postmodern exchange of prejudices."

*****

According to the Diocese of Huron website, this Canadian Anglican diocese has spent $200, 000.00 on litigation costs, but on what and whom? Would this be the St. Aidan's Case, Windsor, Ontario? The Rothesay Report at the Anglican Church of Canada website says that homosexuality and ultra-liberalism will continue. The Diocese of Huron recently got a new Dean, the Rev. Kevin Dixon, from Vancouver, in the ultra-liberal Diocese of New Westminster. Will he bring his views and values to London Ontario?

*****

Embattled Australian Anglican bishop Ross Davies will face a tribunal hearing in September over a dispute within the Murray diocese. The bishop is on sick leave after being served with nine charges under Anglican Church law. They allege disgraceful conduct and violation of church ordinances. Tribunal judge Sir Robert Woods says such tribunals are unusual in Australia. Bishop Davies failed to attend a weekend sitting, but provided a medical certificate. Adelaide Anglican Archbishop Jeffrey Driver, who filed the charges, told the tribunal he was concerned about the time being taken to resolve the dispute and the cost to the diocese. The tribunal judge said Bishop Davies must not be rushed, because of his health.

*****

Jews for Jesus founder Moshe Rosen died at the age of 78 this week after a protracted battle with prostate cancer. His final message was, "Just a little more. Just another push. Just another soul - and we will have reached critical mass where we begin generating that energy that the whole world might know the Lord." What if Episcopalians had such a message.

*****

Whenever she speaks PB Katharine Jefferts Schori who was elected Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in June 2006, usually begins her talks by saying that she is Primate of the Episcopal Church and its 110 dioceses in 16 countries. Her predecessor, Frank Griswold never did this. In Kingston, Jamaica at the 14th Meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council held in May 2009, she went a step further and named them all. So why and what is the point? Perhaps if she is asked by the ABC to step down from attending certain primatial gatherings following the Glasspool election, she can gather up the crumbs from the Anglican Communion's liberal table and start a communion of her own.

*****

BBC television's religious coverage is in the hands of "secular and sceptical" executives, who view religious programs as a "rather tiresome obligation", according to one of the corporation's senior presenters. Roger Bolton, who presents Radio 4's "Feedback", told an awards ceremony in London that the religious perspective was often "bafflingly absent" both on air and behind the scenes in editorial discussions. He also said that BBC News should appoint a religion editor - of similar seniority and prominence to business editor Robert Peston - to appear prominently on its radio and TV bulletins.

Bolton's speech comes after the Church of England General Synod earlier this year voted to express "deep concern" about a reduction in religious broadcasting across British television - but drew back from singling out the BBC for criticism. "We have consistently called for the corporation to devote appropriate resources to ensuring high-quality provision of content reflecting and exploring religion across the breadth of its output, including news and current affairs. "Developing sufficient in-house knowledge in a topic as important to society as religion and ethics is critical to meeting this demand, which is shared by people of all faiths and none."

*****

Nicolaus Copernicus, the "heretical" 16th-century astronomer who was buried in an unmarked grave nearly 500 years ago, was rehabilitated by the Roman Catholic Church this weekend as his remains were reburied in the Polish cathedral where he had once been a canon.

The ceremonial reburial of Copernicus in a tomb in the medieval cathedral at Frombork on Poland's Baltic coast is seen as a final sign of the Church's repentance for its treatment of the scientist over his theory that the Earth revolves around the Sun, declared heretical by the Vatican in 1616.

Copernicus, who lived from 1473 to 1543, died a little-known astronomer at the age of 70 and was buried in an unmarked grave beneath the floor of the cathedral at Frombork. DNA tests five years ago identified his bones and skull by comparing them with hair found in his books kept at the University of Uppsala in Sweden.

*****

Homosexual Assault in the Military. A Family Research Council analysis of publicly available documents-the Pentagon's own report on sexual assault in the military for Fiscal Year 2009, and published decisions from military courts of appeals over the last decade and a half-have shown that there is already a significant problem of homosexual misconduct in the military. This problem could only become worse if the current law is repealed and homosexuals are openly welcomed (and even granted special protections) within the military, as homosexual activists are demanding. Homosexual activist groups themselves have admitted that less than three percent of Americans are homosexual or bisexual.

FRC has reviewed the "case synopses" of all 1,643 reports of sexual assault reported by all four branches of the military for Fiscal Year 2009 (October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2009). The startling finding was that over eight percent (8.2%) of all military sexual assault cases were homosexual in nature. This suggests that homosexuals in the military are about three times more likely to commit sexual assaults than heterosexuals are, relative to their numbers.

*****

Forward In Faith NA Assembly 2010 meets June 16-18, 2010 at The Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville, IL. Theme: "Renewing the Spirit of the Oxford Movement". Presentations will be made by The Rt. Rev. Keith L. Ackerman & The Rev. Kevin Donlon among others. The Rt. Rev. Donald Parsons will address Ascetical Theology and Practice in the Light of the Oxford Movement. Coverage will be by Anglican TV.

*****

The Executive Committee Meeting of the Anglican Church in North America meets June 7, 2010 in Amesbury, MA. Their Provincial Council meets June 8 - June 9 followed by the College of Bishops June 10-11. Archbishop Robert Duncan will be their keynote speaker.

*****

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In Christ,

David