And this week, following a severe reprimand by a group of international Anglican clerics, scholars and leaders, the Episcopal Church pulled the trigger on itself. The promotion of the worship of pagan deities is now enshrined on the Episcopal Church's official website. And not just any new pagan deities: The Episcopal Church USA, though its Office of Women's Ministries, is actually promoting the worship of idols specifically condemned in Scripture. "A Women's Eucharist: A Celebration of the Divine Feminine" is taken almost completely (without attribution) from a rite from Tuatha de Brighid, "a Clan of modern Druids … who believe in the interconnectedness of all faiths." But who cares where it's from? Look at what it says.

The pagan eucharistic rite reads in part: "The chalice of sweet red wine is raised and a woman says, "Blessed are you, Mother God, for you have given us the fruit of the earth. Red as blood, warm as life itself, sweet and intoxicating as love. We thank you for wine. We bless you for the power of this drink to remind us of our own power. We praise you for the strength and beauty of our bodies, and for the menstrual blood of womanhood. We embrace the mystery of life which you have entrusted to us, and we pray for the day when human blood is no longer shed and when woman’s blood is honored as holy and in your image."

The cup is passed hand to hand and all drink from it. Placing both hands on the fabric covering the table, one of the women says,

"Blessed are you, Mother God, for the fertility of this world. We thank you for the sight and scent of flowers, for the way their shape evokes in us the unfolding of our own sexuality, and for their power to remind us of the glory and the impermanence of physical beauty. May our days of blossoming and of fading be days spent in your presence."

The only thing missing is a eucharistic celebration of the Vagina Monologues, but don't count on that not being included within a year or two - it would be the ultimate in political correctness.

When the story of a husband and wife clergy team were discovered practicing these pagan rites in the DIOCESE OF PENNSYLVANIA the uproar on the Internet was so huge it forced the Episcopal Church USA's page for Women's Worship Resources to dump both items - "A Women's Eucharist: A Celebration of the Divine Feminine" and the "Liturgy for Divorce" from the main website and place them on orphan pages, de-linked from within the Episcopal Church website.

But this writer quickly got wind of the story and it is today's lead in the digest. In many ways this is far worse than the acceptance and promotion of sodomy - it takes the Episcopal Church to a whole new level that is sub-Christian, even pre-Christian denying the very Lord who bought them. If the CAPA bishops gathered in Lagos want a case for the total subversion of the 'faith once delivered' they have it in this story. It is a thousand times worse than a two-bit sodomite bishop pushing his horrible sexual activity onto the Communion. Even Spong's heresies look third rate by comparison. What this is saying is that Jesus is not exclusively "the way, the truth and the life", the Christian Faith has competitors, and these priests want to subvert the very souls for whom Christ came to save. Read this story and weep for the church.

When Bishop Charles Bennison was confronted with the evidence of this couple indulging in pagan practices he said he would not engage in a witch hunt (even against witches), but Bennison says that Anglo-Catholic priest Father David Moyer has abandoned the Communion of the Church for preaching the Gospel. Apparently Druids and witches are part of Bennison's "Communion".

In England things aren't much better. The Sunday Times reports the following; "The Church of England certainly needs all the friends it can get, but has the Rev Richard Thomas, communications director for the DIOCESE OF OXFORD, gone too far? He is calling for a better understanding of Satanism. So forget about getting behind me, Satan, when can you do lunch?"

An article in the Church of England newspaper says that more pagan chaplains are on the way in the military and Mr. Thomas says "we have failed to listen to and understand their beliefs." Of course in the Episcopal Church the buzzword "listening" in fact means we listen to the side of allegedly aggrieved lesbitransgays till we agree with them, and now to seems we must listen to the practitioners of the ancient arts of Wiccan - beliefs that would have had the Church Fathers rolling in their graves. Is the dumbing down of the church almost complete?

This might be the best possible example of a slippery slope you can find. From heterosexuality to pansexuality to gay bishops to paganism all in one short year, living proof that once you reject Scripture as normative then you have nothing left. One wag referred to the ECUSA as the Gnostic Episcopal Church USA (GECUSA). Clearly The Episcopal Church has committed itself to going out of business - it is on a suicide watch.

And while Episcopal priests are affirming these Druidic rites at least one seminary allows these pagan rites to be taught and affirmed as part of its womanist studies program.

If you doubt my words how about some of these titles which you can find at the Episcopal Book/Resource Center the online bookstore of the Episcopal Church, which calls itself a Christian church last time I checked: Absent Mother: Restoring the Goddess of Judaism and Christianity Celtic Goddesses : Warriors, Virgins and Mothers Crucified Woman Dancing Goddess : Principles of a Matriarchal Aesthetic Faces of the Goddess Grandmothers of the Light : A Medicine Woman's Sourcebook Living Goddesses Living in the Lap of the Goddess : The Feminist Spiritual Priestess, Mother, Sacred Sister : Religions Dominated by Women Re-Imagining the Divine : Confronting the Backlash Against Feminist Theology Return of the Goddess.

Or you can try anyone of these: The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image; Descent to the Goddess: A Way of Initiation for Women; Goddesses Who Rule; The Book of the Goddess Past and Present.

No books by J.C. Ryle, Thomas Cranmer, Richard Hooker or C. FitzSimons Allison - no weighty theological tomes that fill the mind, enhance the spirit and reveal the face of God to us; just gay and lesbian, feminist and Wiccan agit-prop.

It is sort of ironic that it was Bishop James Pike (California) who first descended into the labyrinth world of the occult when his son committed suicide, resulting in his own loss of faith, the haunting of the Deanery and his spiritual decline and death in the Judean desert. Now 40 years later some of our priests are once again dabbling in Wiccan. Do we never learn anything from history?

Even the Archbishop of Canterbury is not above dabbling in Druid ceremonies. David Cloud reported this description of the ceremony as reported in the London Times on July 19, 2002:

"As the sun rises over a circle of Pembrokeshire bluestones, the Archbishop of Wales, the Most Rev Dr Rowan Williams, will don a long white cloak while druids chant a prayer to the ancient god and goddess of the land. After a trumpet fanfare and the thrice partial sheathing and unsheathing of a 6ft 6in sword, a citation will be read. Dr Williams will close his hands in prayer while the archdruid, wearing a crown and shield over his bardic robes, will enfold them in his own and utter words of welcome. That will be the moment that Dr Williams, who will adopt a new, bardic name, is accepted into the white druidic order, the highest of three orders of the Gorsedd of Bards, the Welsh body of poets, musicians, writers and artists. The Mistress of the Robes, Sian Aman, will then clothe him in a druidic white headdress, and a steward will lead him to join the other assembled druids inside a sacred circle. The ceremony will take place 'in the face of the sun, in the eye of the light' at the start of the Welsh National Eisteddfod at St David's, Pembrokeshire, in early August."

Even granting that this is little more than a Welsh cultural tradition with minimal spiritual overtones, what sort of a signal does it send our African brothers and sisters who were steeped in paganism for centuries till the light of the gospel was brought to their continent by Church of England missionaries? How does one expect them to interpret this kind of nonsense? It is culturally insensitive, spiritually uninformed and not fitting for the leader of 78 million Anglicans to be indulging in!

THE WINDSOR REPORT beat goes on. Analysis and reviews keep pouring into Virtuosity from around the world. We are posting the best of them as well as an analysis of liberal opinion as well. www.virtueonline.org.

Nobody it seems is really very happy with the Report's conclusions. Clearly the most unhappy are the orthodox, but the liberals and revisionists are not exactly jumping for joy either. There is a sort of muted praise, set in cautionary stone. Those two words "walk apart" are not going down well, but the point remains - who is going to do the pushing or demand that the ECUSA leave? My own argument that no one is going to willingly walk away still stands till someone blinks, as there seems little incentive for The Episcopal Church to make the first move. They have everything to lose and nothing to gain, despite calls for a moratorium on gay consecrations. Griswold says it is business as usual and Rowan Williams is reluctant to bite the hand that feeds his pet projects. So it looks like a stalemate, at least till the Primates meet next February. There the "fun" really could start.

But this week's disclosure of pagan rites being offered in a parish in Malvern, PA in the Diocese of Pennsylvania, Bennison's diocese, ups the ante on what the Primates could additionally challenge Griswold with; namely the abandonment of the Faith altogether. The NETWORK bishops now have clear evidence of the Episcopal Church's direction. Is it now time for them to issue a collective presentment against all those bishops who (a) participated in the consecration of Williams and (b) who rejected resolution B001 at the last General Convention. The Episcopal Church has clearly moved into a new and more dangerous area of unbelief and it should not go unchallenged. One can but hope.

And as if to make the point, the DIOCESE OF PENNSYLVANIA and its bishop Charles E. Bennison got word that Bishop James Tgengatenga of Southern Malawi would not now be coming to lead Eucharist for this year's Diocesan convention. His Archbishop Bernard Malango put the kibosh on that one after the Malawi Bishop addressed the House of Bishops in Oregon. Not on my watch, you're not.

And Bennison is getting into deeper trouble by the day. A story in today's digest scores the inept running of the diocese by an audit firm and two outgoing Standing Committee members. Bennison is in so much hot water it's a wonder the scalding pain doesn't have him resign. He won't of course, and as more than half of the Standing Committee is made up of rectos from aided parishes they won't bite the hand that feeds them.

IN LAGOS, the African Anglican bishops ratcheted up the pain on the Episcopal Church.
They rejected the Windsor Report and its failure to condemn the ECUSA for consecrating an openly homoerotic bishop. Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola reiterated that "the Western world is embroiled in a new religion, which we cannot associate ourselves with." He says the African Anglican church leaders will discuss building their own seminaries to train priests in a biblical theology that is consistent with African culture. Akinola says he plans to ignore the report, "we're unhappy with it" he said.

A statement by the Primates said, "We believe that the Windsor Report correctly points out that the Episcopal Church USA and the Diocese of New Westminster have pushed the Anglican Communion to the breaking point. The report rightly states that they did not listen to the clear voices of the Communion, rejected the Counsel of the four Instruments of Unity and ignored the plea of the Primates of the Global South in their statements issued on October 16th and November 2nd, 2003. We call on the Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Church of Canada to take seriously the need for “repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation enjoined on us by Christ” (Windsor Report [134]) and move beyond informal expressions of regret for the effect of their actions to a genuine change of heart and mind. Failure to do so would indicate that they have chosen to “walk alone” and follow another religion. You can read the official communiqué from Lagos in today's digest.

Virtuosity's Nigerian columnist came up with two "exclusive" stories. One was that Rowan William's did not attend the Lagos gathering and the other is that the Primate of the Congo will take money from the ECUSA because his people are dying of starvation. The African bishops said they will come through with funds to prevent that from happening.

TRINITY WALL STREET, the world's richest church was present at the CAPA meeting and the head of Trinity’s grants program has told partner churches in Africa that they will not be penalized for expressing views opposed to the policies of the Episcopal Church on the issue of human sexuality. Really. “You don't have to agree with us to be eligible for a Trinity grant,” said the Rev. James G. Callaway, Jr., deputy for Grants and Outreach. “This has been our policy in the past, it is our policy now, and it will remain our policy.” Now that's a switch. In the past they have made it clear that anyone who was critical of ECUSA's General Convention passed resolutions would not be subject to their largess. Does this change of attitude indicate a certain distancing and coldness between the world's richest church and one of the world's richest church's in Trust Funds and Endowments - Dead Men's Money? I wouldn't trust anything those bastards offered, it is tainted money anyway you cut it...and it will come with a catch in it, mark my words.

GRISWOLD AND KERRY. Federal Election Commission records show that the wife of Presiding Bishop Frank T Griswold contributed $1,000 to the Kerry campaign and while Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire publicly endorsed Senator Kerry for election he has done so with muted praise. The choice between President Bush and Senator Kerry is “the most important election of our lifetimes,” said Robinson. The president has made "serious mistakes and disastrous decisions" that have hurt people domestically and abroad. Among traditionalist Episcopal leaders support for Bush is near universal, with several leading clergy holding that a vote for Kerry is “un-Christian”.

FOLLOW THE MONEY - AS ECUSA TURNS

The DIOCESE OF SE FLORIDA, the ecclesiastical home of one Bishop Leopold Frade, formerly of Honduras who returned to the Episcopal Church to guarantee a better pension for himself, comes word that the diocese is running way behind in assessments for the first 8 months of 2004. They are already down over $200,000, or 11.6% of their budgeted goal. To make matters worse, the budgeted amount has been adjusted down 13% from the original budget. If one calculates the actual loss of revenue based on the original budget, they are over 23% in the hole.

In the DIOCESE OF MINNESOTA comes this report from a priest at their recent diocesan convention. "The preacher Howard R. Anderson from St. Paul's in Duluth said that the embracing of homosexuals in the diocese was 'in our DNA.' He also made the rather astounding claim that the Episcopal "Church" was the only true "catholic" church left since anyone could grow up to be a bishop. "Diocesan Bishop James Jelinek and all his like-minded sycophants were nodding and smiling at all this", said the source.

"The slate of delegates elected to the GC in 2006 were all those who endorsed the election of Robinson. There may have been one or two alternates who didn't express explicit endorsement of him. They all touted the ability to "listen" and would try and heal the wounds from the last GC. They absolutely have no idea how to even comprehend the basis of what the rest of Catholic Christendom is telling them. They can "listen" all they want, but they will never understand," he said.

DIOCESAN BUDGET WOES. From a $2.5 million dollar budget, the diocese is short about $170,000 for the year. "A lot of parishes are strapped and haven't been paying into the diocesan bucket as they'd like. It isn't a protest. The clergy are too afraid to try anything or are generally supportive of the ultra-liberal stance. Bishop Jelinek had boasted that last year's GC was going to cause people to flock to the Episcopal Church owing to the great publicity it got. Fat lot of good it did him. He doesn't seem to get it.

A Rev. Ward Bauman from the Episcopal House of Prayer gave meditations on the cosmic and how God was learning to birth himself and bonging his Buddhist prayer bowl to start each business session. "The inmates are clearly running the asylum," said the priest. Indeed.

The DIOCESE OF LOS ANGELES checked in and its budget has been released and it ain't pretty. It seems that they are expecting parishes to give almost $300,000 less than they initially budgeted in 2004. There are also some very interesting line items in the receipts column. The "Corporation Sole Contribution" is apparently an endowment that has been used to prop up the diocese for sometime. This year, they plan to dip in to it for over $1 million. But it doesn't seem to be enough to make the numbers balance so how do they make things work? Like other dioceses they resort to wishful thinking. They include a line item titled "Income-TBD" for $250,000.

In the DIOCESE OF LONG ISLAND a whole lot of Wishful Thinking is going on. The Diocese of Long Island finally provides some insight into the matter. The diocese terms it a "stewardship challenge." They know the money won't be there but they go ahead and put it in the budget because it makes the numbers balance. What do they do if they don't make the budget? Amend the budget, of course! That way at next year's convention, all the numbers will line up just beautifully and you don't have to explain why revenues were so low. As it stands now, it seems that the diocese is $293,000 short of their 2004 budget.

And the bill collector comes a knock'n in the DIOCESE OF WESTERN MICHIGAN.
It seems the diocese is having trouble paying its bills. They are behind $90,000 with their bills and can't pay their $120,000 pledge to the National Church. The drumbeat of "It's the economy stupid" continues as the reason for the shortfall. Just how does Bishop Robert R. Gepert intend solving this problem? Quite simply really; demand the people and the parishes cough up more cash!

"I See Nothing! Nothing" Well it seems our friends in the DIOCESE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE are having the same reaction regarding their finances. According to their budget they are expecting severe shortfalls in revenues from churches. What on earth could be the reason? Could it be the fact that they consecrated a homoerotic bishop thus alienating a large percentage of their congregants? Nooo! To quote an old campaign slogan, "It's the economy stupid!" One must applaud their optimism though. They are actually budgeting an increase in giving for the upcoming year. An interesting item in the budget is a line item for Parishes, Emergencies and Contingencies. For 2005, the amount is expected to be almost $190,000. Please don't try and make sense of the documents. You can't.

The DIOCESE OF ATLANTA is down over 6%. The diocesan receipts from parish giving are down 6.1% at the half way point of 2004. This amount reflects the amount committed to by each parish.

And in the DIOCESE OF SW FLORIDA'S proposed Budget for 2005 budget (see pg. 46) it would seem at first glance to be on stable ground. Closer inspection, however, reveals some disturbing trends. Although parish apportionments are budgeted to increase by over $101,000 the uncollectible apportionments are expected to be over $93,000. The reason? Parishes are withholding funds. The diocese is also planning to tap into over $105,000 in restricted funds to help make ends meet. Thank God for dead men's money where would be without it.

VirtueOnline is grateful to Robert at ECUSA Dollars for much of this information. http://www.ecusadollars.blogspot.com.

In the DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK, Bishop Michael Garrison has been served papers by the attorney of Rev. Simon Howson that include complaints of sexual harassment and retaliation and violation of New York's Human Rights law and intentional infliction of emotional distress and defamation. The claim of defamation is against the bishop personally.

In a letter the bishop put out to the diocese he said that Howson had been deposed by the United Anglican Church. That is inaccurate, said his attorney, Mr. Andrew Fleming. Howson resigned his position and was never served any papers or charges or letters of admonition.

CORRECTION: It was reported in an earlier digest that Nigerian Primate Peter Akinola had a brother who was an REC priest. That is not correct. The person who sent the information meant to say he had a "brother-in-Christ" who is an REC priest. VirtueOnline regrets the error.

NAME CHANGE IS NOW OFFICIAL

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