Humbling Praying For the Illumination of the Spirit. The corruption of human nature is a universal disease. It affects not only a man's heart, will, and conscience, but his mind, memory, and understanding. The very same person who is quick and clever in worldly things, will often utterly fail to comprehend the simplest truths of Christianity. He will often be unable to grasp the plainest reasonings of the Gospel. He will see no meaning in the clearest statements of evangelical doctrine. They will sound to him either foolish or mysterious. He will listen to them like one listening to a foreign language, catching a word here and there, but not seeing the drift of the whole. "The world by wisdom knows not God" (1 Cor. 1:21). It hears, but does not understand.

A special sort of love. No-one can understand the message of Scripture who does not know the meaning of grace. The God of the Bible is 'the God of all grace' (1 Pet. 5:10). Grace is love, but love of a special sort. It is love which stoops and sacrifices and serves, love which is kind to the unkind, and generous to the ungrateful and undeserving. Grace is God's free and unmerited favor, loving the unlovable, seeking the fugitive, rescuing the hopeless, and lifting the beggar from the dunghill to make him sit among princes.---From "Understanding the Bible" (rev. edn. London: Scripture Union, 1984), p. 127.

Common grace. Christians do certainly believe that God has revealed himself in Jesus Christ, as witnessed to in Scripture, in a unique and final way, so that, in this life, he has nothing more to reveal than he has revealed, although of course we have much more to learn. But we are not suggesting that outside the church we consider God inactive and truth absent. Not at all. God sustains all his creatures, and therefore 'is not far from any of them'. By creation they are his 'offspring', who 'live and move and have (their) being' in him (Acts 17:27-28). Also Jesus Christ, as the *logos* of God and the light of men (Jn. 1:1-5), is himself ceaselessly active in the world. Because he is described as 'the true light that gives light to every man' (Jn. 1:9), we dare to claim that all beauty, truth and goodness, wherever they are found among human beings, derive from him, whether people know it or not. This is an aspect of God's so-called 'common grace', his love shown to all humankind; it is not, however, his 'saving grace', which he extends to those who humbly cry to him for mercy. ---- From "The Contemporary Christian" by John R. W. Stott

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
May 27, 2011

Well, we are all still here. Doomsday prophet Harold Camping's prediction that his particular brand of Christians would be raptured leaving the world a little lighter of the human race with just sinners left behind to face immediate and eternal judgment apparently failed to materialize. The 89-year-old California preacher and radio host prophesied that the Rapture would begin at 6pm May 21st in each of the world's time zones. The non-believers would be wiped out by rolling earthquakes as the saved ascended into heaven.

He refused to schedule a media interview for the following day. Camping's doomsday prediction wasn't his first. He blamed an earlier apocalyptic prediction, which passed quietly in 1994, on a mathematical error, last month saying, "I'm not embarrassed about it. It was just the fact that it was premature." He has, however, scheduled another rapture for October 21, I am told.

The tragic/comedic nonsense of people like Camping, whose theology is built on pre-tribulation rapture theories propounded by the late John Nelson Darby, a former Irish Anglican priest and founder of the Plymouth Brethren movement, is that it brings discredit on Christianity in general and gives momentary celebrity focus on fruit loops like Camping and his Fundamentalist followers in particular. It makes skeptics more skeptical, cynics more cynical, especially as our Lord himself said that no one knows either the time or the hour when the world will end. Only our Father knows and He isn't telling. The next day, one billboard in California proclaimed, "That was awkward" No one knows the day nor the hour Matt 24:36. Indeed. Or, as one wag observed, "You'll know the end is near, when the pubs run out of beer."

*****

Global South Anglicans are on the march. They are not taking it any more from Western Pan Anglican homosexuals and those who would play fast and loose with Holy Scripture. The leaders of the GAFCON movement of Global South Anglican leaders met in Nairobi recently. it was announce that they would open offices in London and Nairobi to rescue evangelicals in the Church of England and anywhere else people are under siege by Western liberals. It was a bold stroke, one that was no doubt noted at Lambeth Palace with some displeasure, if not discomfort. Dr. Rowan Williams, who was helpless against his church's push for women bishops, now finds himself equally helpless against Global South evangelicals who no longer respect his leadership and are invading his turf. The ecclesiastical wars are just heating up.

This led the Chair of the Church of England General Synod's House of Laity, Dr Philip Giddings, to say that the Anglican Communion is "quite close to being dysfunctional", adding that the Communion's instruments "clearly are not working as effectively as they need to".

Giddings, who gave the interview in Armagh during the Church of Ireland General Synod at which he was an official visitor, was referring to the ongoing difficulties in inter-Anglican relations centering on the issue of same-sex relationships, which became critical following the consecration in 2003 of homosexual Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire.

"The crisis deepened further last year, when the lesbian Bishop Mary Glasspool was consecrated as an assistant bishop in Los Angeles. Explaining the current position in the Church of England regarding the reception of the proposed Anglican Covenant, which aims to make Anglican provinces more accountable to one another, Dr Giddings explained that it had been sent to all the dioceses for approval and would only return to the English General Synod if a majority of the diocesan synods accepted it."

Just to confirm how divided the Church of England's leadership is over homosexuality, a story has appeared in The Guardian this week stating that Archbishops John Sentamu and Rowan Williams "behaved very badly" at a meeting to select a new bishop of Southwark. In an anguished and devastating memo left by the late Colin Slee, Dean of the cathedral, he laid bare the divisions over who would be the next bishop in the Diocese of Southwark.

Dr Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, and John Sentamu, the archbishop of York, vetoed candidates from becoming bishops of the south London diocese.

The document reveals shouting matches and arm-twisting by the archbishops to keep out the diocese's preferred choices as bishop: Jeffrey John, the homosexual dean of St Albans, and Nicholas Holtam, rector of St Martin-in-the-Fields in central London, whose wife divorced him many years ago. Eventually, Christopher Chessun, then an assistant bishop, was chosen. Slee described Williams shouting and losing his temper in last year's Southwark meeting, which left several members of the crown nomination committee, responsible for the selection of bishops, in tears.

Slee also charged the church with hypocrisy, stating that there are several gay bishops "who have been less than candid about their domestic arrangements and who, in a conspiracy of silence, have been appointed to senior positions". The memo warns, "This situation cannot endure. Exposure of the reality would be nuclear."

You can read the full story in today's digest. If you don't think sodomy will eventually kill the Church of England, you are reading the wrong pack of cards. Look what it has done to the Episcopal Church. Doesn't anybody read anything except the spin from Anglican publications and liberal Anglican blogs?

*****

As the Episcopal Church slowly disintegrates, there are new signs of Anglican life appearing all across the US. The Anglican Diocese in New England, a constituent member of the Anglican Church in North America, ordained three new priests last Saturday at All Saints' Anglican Church and Cathedral in Amesbury, MA. The Rev. Jordan Easley, the Rev. Brian Morelli and the Rev. John Wagner were ordained to the priesthood and blessed for their ministry. In addition, three Kenyan Pastors, Archdeacon Peter Gachathi, the Rev. Fredrick Thanji and the Rev. Justus Munyasa met with Archdeacon Don Roberts to discuss developing ongoing relationships with the Kenyan churches in the diocese. Clearly God is pouring out His Spirit on the new Anglican province and He is pouring new wine into new wineskins.

In Albuquerque, NM, the first meeting of the newly elected Standing Committee of the Anglican Fellowship of the Southwest (AFSW) took place Thursday, May 26. Nine Anglican churches in New Mexico and West Texas agreed by votes of their respective Vestries to apply to the Anglican Church in North America's Provincial Council to become a Diocese-in-Formation (DIF). The DIF's proposed name is the Anglican Diocese of the Southwest.

At the first Synod meeting of the Anglican Fellowship of the Southwest, held at Christ the King Anglican Church, Albuquerque, NM, on May 13-14, a constitution was adopted for the DIF. Along with the election of a Standing Committee, Bishop Win Mott was unanimously nominated by the Synod to serve as Vicar General, subject to the approval of Archbishop Duncan and the Provincial Council. These are exciting times for Anglicans in the American Southwest.

The Rev. Canon Dr. Felix Orji, St. Francis on the Hill Anglican Church, El Paso, TX, is rector & Bishop-elect. On March 5 the Church of Nigeria announced the election of Dr. Orji as a suffragan bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA). They just keep on growing and growing.

*****

As a further sign of disintegration, The Episcopal Church, desperate for new members, has a policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" over no baptism before Communion. It is unofficial of course. No one is supposed to know it is going on and it is certainly not approved by the canons of The Episcopal Church - but it is happening around the country. Communion is being offered to people who are not baptized. It is known as Communion Without Baptism (CWOB). You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

The predominantly homosexual Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) featured a homosexual, Asian, Episcopal theologian, who touts an "Erotic Christ", at its seventh annual People of African Descent Conference in Washington, D.C., recently.

Patrick Cheng of the Episcopal Divinity School outside Boston led one afternoon session called "The 'S' Word- Liberating Sin and Sex" that challenged traditional understandings of Jesus and scripture to embrace a self-crafted deity unfamiliar to most Christians. The jocular professor, who writes for "The Huffington Post" and has authored a new book, Radical Love: An Introduction to Queer Theology, cited the Bible even as he denied its authority.

Founded over 40 years ago to promote gay liberation, the mostly white MCC is striving for a larger black membership, realizing that historic black churches are traditionally conservative on homosexuality. The MCC claims members in 40 countries.

*****

As a further sign of the Episcopal Church's creeping love affair with Islam, a Methodist Bishop has helped an Episcopal cathedral combat "Islamophobia." A Muslim prayer observance took place not in a mosque, but in the sanctuary of St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle.

Gathered for a conference entitled "I Am My Brother's Keeper: Confronting Islamophobia," hundreds came to hear the imam give a keynote address, as did local television crews and about a dozen protesters across the street. What they heard was a warning that irrational fear of Islam was sweeping the United States, and a plea that the alleged purveyors of such fear - fundamentalist Christians, Tea Party members, Republican candidates, the Israel lobby, and "Jewish neo-cons" - needed to be silenced.

Which reminds me of a story told by author and journalist Malcolm Muggeridge when he was editor of PUNCH magazine. He said he and his fellow scribblers sat down one day to figure out a story on what would happen if a CofE leader were to announce that the Kingdom of Heaven had appeared in the form of the Soviet Union. As they were pondering the matter, the Very Reverend Hewlett Johnson, Dean of Manchester and later Dean of Canterbury (aka The Red Dean) for his unyielding support for the Soviet Union and its allies, announced that the kingdom had come in Russia, thus putting an end to further speculation. Needless to say the idea was taken off the table as truth is stranger than fiction. *****

Effective on Pentecost, June 12, 2011, clergy in the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin may perform blessings of same gender civil marriages, domestic partnerships, and relationships which are lifelong committed relationships characterized by "fidelity, monogamy, mutual affection and respect, careful, honest communication, and the holy love which enables those in such relationships to see in each other the image of God." Said relationships shall be called "Sacred Unions" for purposes of the blessing and recognition of these relationships. A liturgy authorized for use within the Diocese will be published separately.

*****

Pope Benedict XVI ousted a group of "loose living" monks at Rome's Santa Croce monastery this past week. The Vatican acted after reports of monks staging concerts featuring a former lap dancer and running a hotel service. He evicted 20 or more Cistercian monks, alleged to have amassed large debts at Santa Croce. As part of Benedict XVI's crackdown on "loose living" within the Catholic Church, he evicted a group of monks from the monastery at the basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, which hosts some of the church's holiest relics. You can read the story here:http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/25/pope-ousts-loose-monks-rome?INTCMP=SRCH

Perhaps, as one VOL reader observed, Benedict has something to teach the Anglican Communion.

*****

The evangelical Diocese of Recife celebrated its 35th anniversary this week. Under it is maxim "Fidelity to Truth - Obedience to Mission" the Diocese of Recife commemorated the services of Thanksgiving celebrated by 5,000 members and 60 ministers in 48 congregations and diverse social projects in 9 Brazilian States. The juridical actions (litigations) moved against the diocese by the liberal Brazilian province (IEAB) have not shipwrecked its missionary spirit.

This starts a three-year transition period until Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti must retire in 2014 at the canonically mandated age of 70. At that time, two Missionary Ecclesiastical Regions will be created to energize the four arch deaneries. The election of two Suffragan Bishops this year and a Coadjutor Bishop in 2013 will mean an orderly transition without prejudice to the normal activities of the diocese. The diocese looks forward to the support of orthodox Anglicans throughout the world.

*****

The Diocese of Tohoku in Japan under Bishop John Hiromichi Kato has said in a pastoral letter that Japan was "simply not prepared for problems on this scale" in the aftermath of the March 11 magnitude-9 earthquake. In a pastoral letter, the bishop noted that his people lack food, gasoline, electricity, water and heat. The Tohoku bishop says the Sendai-based diocese is suffering with the rest of Japan.

He wrote in a letter, "What we are experiencing in our city does not compare to what we have seen in the media, particularly those areas directly impacted by the tsunami."

The bishop included in his letter a summary of reported damage to diocesan churches and other institutions, as well as a list of church members who are dead or missing. He noted that diocesan staff has still not been able to visit all areas. There are 29 churches, chapels and missionary stations in the diocese.

"I mention all the suffering we are experiencing but there are many heart-warming stories too," Kato wrote. "For example, right after the quake traffic lights were not working but I did not observe any traffic chaos because people were driving very cautiously, taking particular care of the elderly."

The diocese has established a relief center according to the bishop.

The bishop reported that inquiries and offers of help have from across the Anglican Communion, including from the Archbishop of Canterbury and churches in the dioceses of Louisiana, Western Louisiana, and Daejeon (South Korea) with which Tohoku has companion relationships.

*****

New York Episcopal Bishop Mark Sisk expanded on his recent letter to the "New York Times" on Same-Sex Civil Unions. Sisk expressed his support for equal rights for all before the law, and applauded the fact that at the Diocesan Convention in Nov 2008 the Episcopal Diocese of New York as a whole had voted in support of legislation to enable such unions in New York State.

"When expressing views in this format, however, it is not always possible to be as nuanced as one would like," he said, expanding on the letter. "I want to make it clear that I do not mean to suggest that every Episcopalian, either elsewhere in the country or here in the Diocese of New York, agrees with me on this - I speak only for myself and for the majority of the Diocese who voted in favor of the legislation. A sizable minority - although I do believe it is a minority - disagrees, in some cases strongly. Those people's views are honestly and prayerfully held, and deserve to be listened to with respect."

Bishop Sisk also drew an important distinction between the support of people of faith for equal rights for all before the law - and hence their right to be legally married - and the far more complex and difficult issue of the sacramental character of gay and lesbian unions. "Opinions within the Episcopal Church are far more widely varied on whether or not such unions should be recognized within the Church, and if recognized, what the nature of that recognition should be," he said.

"At The Episcopal Church's General Convention in 2009, legislation was passed calling for a renewed pastoral response from the church in light of changing circumstances in civil legislation regarding marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships for gay and lesbian persons. It also provided for an open process for the consideration of theological and liturgical resources for the blessing of same gender relationships and urged the honoring of the theological diversity of our church in regard to matters of human sexuality. That process is still continuing."

*****

A secluded Italian monastery in Bose, Northern Italy, is the site for the current (third) round of ARCIC Talks taking place between Rome and Canterbury. Anglicans are "not afraid of sharing...that there are lively and divisive questions among us," said Canon Alyson Barnett-Cowan. Really. What about a gay and a lesbian bishop does she think Rome is going to recognize...ever. Two teams of Catholic and Anglican experts are focusing until May 27 on the theme "Church as Communion--local and universal." The discussions will review the achievements of the previous two ARCIC dialogues, particularly in ethics and ecclesiology, and explore pressing issues challenging the teachings of both denominations, such as human sexuality.

Canon Barnett-Cowan is serving as secretary of the meeting along with Msgr. Mark Lanham of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity. The current theme arose out of the discussions at a meeting in Rome between Pope Benedict XVI and Archbishop Rowan Williams. The Letter to the Ephesians is providing a biblical framework for daily discussions.

Why money is poured into this thoroughly useless 40-year exercise in ARCIC III talks boggles the mind. Everybody knows this is going nowhere, so why doesn't someone call time out for everyone to go out for pasta and a bottle of Chianti. Isn't it time to bring this ecumenical farce to an end?

The forthcoming discussions will be an expensive freebie that achieves nothing.

In the wake of the recent collapse of Muslim-Catholic dialogue, you have to ask what the word "dialogue" has come to mean these days. Two groups of irreconcilables churning out, yet again, their own point of view in case their interlocutors weren't already perfectly well aware of what they think about absolutely everything?

The trouble with ARCIC always was (as a former Catholic member of it once explained to me) that on the Catholic side of the table you have a body of men (mostly bishops) who represent a more or less coherent view, being members of a Church which has established means of knowing and declaring what it believes. On the Anglican side of the table, you have a body of men (and it was only men, on both sides, in those days) whose divisions between them are just fundamental as, and sometimes a lot more fundamental than, those between any one of them and the Catholic representatives they faced. They all represented only themselves. All of them, Catholics and Anglicans alike, quite simply belong to very different kinds of institutions.

It isn't just that Catholics and Anglicans believe different doctrines: it's that there is between them a fundamental difference over their attitude to the entire doctrinal enterprise.

In the end, that fundamental disqualification of ARCIC remains: it is an endless time-consuming discussion between representatives of the Catholic Church on one side, and a varying group of individuals who represent only themselves on the other. And so it will be at the next ARCIC meeting.

*****

The Covenant, designed to bring us together as an Anglican family, is taking a real beating on the unofficial but ultra liberal Episcopal HOB/D listserv. It has variously been described as "sexist," "racist," "homophobic," "misogynist" and "uninclusive" and much more. One liberal rector after another is ripping it to shreds invoking Hooker, Via Media, a lame Archbishop of Canterbury, and domineering Global South Anglicans. There is no doubt in this writer's mind that the Covenant is dead on arrival at General Convention 2012 in Sin-sin-atti. San Joaquin Attorney Allan Haley calls it right in a very timely piece which you can read in today's digest.

*****

If you want to know how Episcopal pansexualists have been so successful twisting the church inside out, consider their strategy: According to one strategist, the way to build movement power is to (1) organize and wage campaigns, (2) build an infrastructure and (3) develop, promote and disseminate a worldview, (4) to build a new movement using new language and find new ways to talk about equality. They have three strategic tasks (a) reframing the worldview (b) reframing collective identity and (c) base building.

*****

If you want to know why people are quietly exiting The Episcopal Church, read this from a former warden in an Episcopal parish in Connecticut, "I am the Warden of a parish in CT. I have been increasingly alarmed by most of what has happened in 'my church' such as ordination of homosexuals, collective salvation, the partition of Jerusalem, and just this last Sunday, heresy from the pulpit. My priest in charge stated that John 14:1-10 was flawed. He said that the part which reads 'no one comes to the Father except through me...' was not operable because 'it was added 50 years later due to declining church membership.' I am in the process of writing a formal letter advising him of his responsibilities under the articles of faith. Frankly, I have had enough. The Bible is clear about adding or subtracting from Scripture and equally clear about leading people astray. I do not envision change, and I am ready to leave the Episcopal Diocese of CT and the national church as well."

There is nothing more to say.

*****

When a new state law goes into effect June 1 that grants legal recognition to same-sex couples, clergy in the Diocese of Chicago are permitted to use a rite called "The Witnessing and Blessing of a Holy Union" [PDF].

The rite also has its roots in General Convention's Resolution C056 in 2009, which said that bishops, "particularly those in dioceses within civil jurisdictions where same-gender marriage, civil unions, or domestic partnerships are legal, may provide generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of this Church."

The diocese has sent its clergy a 29-page document consisting of a theological reflection by the Rt. Rev. Jeffrey D. Lee, Bishop of Chicago; guidelines for solemnizing holy matrimony and holy unions; a question-and-answer discussion; and the rite itself.

In his introduction, Bishop Lee cites an essay by the Archbishop of Canterbury that appeared in A Ray of Darkness (Cowley 1995):

In his essay, "Is There a Christian Sexual Ethic?" Archbishop Rowan Williams answers the question of his title by saying, "Yes. Several." He writes that Christians too often conduct the conversation around this topic at the level of asking simply whether a given behavior or way of life is permissible or not. ... "Our main question ... should be neither 'Am I keeping the rules?' nor 'Am I being sincere and non-hurtful?' but 'How much am I prepared for this to signify?'"

*****

The public policy arm of the United Methodist Church has once again voted to introduce legislation to the 2012 General Conference that would remove disapproval of homosexual practices and effectively liberalize the church's teachings on sex. In a lopsided vote, directors of the General Board of Church and Society (GBCS) adopted a resolution at the agency's spring meeting February 9-13 that would swap the current text of the church's "Social Principles" in the denomination's Book of Discipline with neutral language that was termed more conciliatory. Of the 63-member board, only two directors opposed the resolution, while one abstained. An undetermined number were not present for the vote. The two "no" votes were Mark Parris from North Alabama Conference and Steve Furr of the Alabama-West Florida Conference. GBCS has had a long-time tradition of asking General Conference to liberalize the church's sexual teachings. Every General Conference, until now, has rejected these appeals.

*****

If you want to see a good overview on the timelines of the tragic breakdown of The Episcopal Church, watch these videos: http://www.anglican.tv/content/3-bishops-timeline http://www.facebook.com/l/7eb58Si_Mq3F4cPnW7tM_wiFCaQ/www.anglican.tv/content/3-bishops-timeline

*****

The North American Anglican, The Orthodox Journal for Anglicans in North America, edited by Joseph Gleason, is out and you can pick up a copy here: http://www.39articles.com/

This is a mine of excellent information on the 39 Articles and much more on authentic Anglicanism. Buy a copy you won't lose by owning this timeless third edition of The North American Anglican.

*****

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