The key to the New Testament'. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God' (2 Cor. 5:21). It is surely one of the most startling statements in the Bible, yet we must not on that account evade it. James Denney was not exaggerating when he wrote of it: 'Mysterious and awful as this thought is, it is the key to the whole of the New Testament.'(1) For our sake God actually made the sinless Christ to be sin with our sins. The God who refused to reckon our sins to us reckoned them to Christ instead. Indeed, his personal sinlessness uniquely qualified him to bear our sins in our place. --- From "The Cross of Christ" John R. W. Stott

God's dilemma. God is not omnipotent in the sense that he can do anything. God can only do those things which are consistent with his nature. He cannot therefore readily pardon the sinner, because he is a God of infinite justice. But neither can he readily punish the sinner, because he is also a God of infinite mercy. Here, then, if we may use human language, was the divine dilemma. How could he pardon the sinner without compromising his justice? How could he judge the sinner without frustrating his love? How in the face of human sin could he be at the same time a God of love and of wrath? How could he both pardon the sinner and punish the sin? How could a righteous God forgive unrighteous men without involving himself in their unrighteousness? --- From "Our Guilty Silence" by John R.W. Stott

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
April 8, 2011

The new Schoria Law kicks in July 1. At that precise moment, Metropolitan Katharine Jefferts Schori will be Queen of the Episcopal Ecclesiastical Roost and be enabled to pass instant judgment on "erring" bishops and "discipline" those who do not toe the official TEC line.

A new level will be reached in the Dantean Inferno that has become The Episcopal Church where truth is being ousted for a post-modern mush of feel good sexualities and bad theology that goes with it. Any lingering doubts that Bishops Bob Duncan, Jack Iker, Keith Ackerman, John-David Schofield, David Anderson and William Wantland et al might have had about staying in TEC will be fully and finally confirmed. Other bishops, like John Rodgers and Chuck Murphy begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting will simply sigh and say, "We told you so."

Globally, TEC's long financial arm is endeavoring to reach into Africa and whoever else who will accept their money and missionaries. It is hoped to eventually emancipate them from homophobia and embrace the baptismal covenant of Same-Sex Blessings that will be the final lynchpin of pansexual acceptance in The Episcopal Church...and Africa.

The new enemy is now officially orthodoxy. If you believe, you are condemned. If you do not believe in TEC's heterodoxy, you will be excoriated. Is it any wonder then that Arkansas Bishop Larry Benfield wrote a letter to Natural State Episcopalians portraying gay ordination and same-sex blessings as a victory for God and a defeat for the devil and all his works?

Truth has been finally turned on its head. In a one, two punch, Bishop Gene Robinson told a crowd at Cornell University this week that the Bible is silent on gays and that mere tolerance is insufficient.

Robinson went on to opine that his favorite bumper sticker is "'Guns don't kill people, religions do.' I would argue that 95 percent of all the pain and prejudice we as LGBT people have experienced can be laid at the feet of religious people."

Never mind that The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that more than one million people are living with HIV in the USA and that more than half a million have died after developing AIDS. Religious people did not give them AIDS. They got that by having multiple partners, visiting bathhouses and practicing promiscuity off the scale. The lies of revisionists like Robinson have many undesirable effects; this one is killing the Episcopal Church.

On the subject of gay statistics, read this: A demographer says there are 4 million adults in the US who identify themselves as gay. That's 4 million out of 307 million or 1.7 percent of the 18-and-over population.

That's a much lower figure than the 3 to 5 percent that has been the conventional wisdom in the last two decades, based on other isolated studies and attempts to discredit Kinsey who argued that 10% of the population might be gay.

Two other studies, conducted by state agencies in California and Massachusetts, yielded what Gary Gates, a demographer at the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation at UCLA, thinks is the first credible estimate of the nation's transgender population. He puts it at about 700,000 adults, or 0.3 percent of the population.

So the Episcopal Church, which has a small, shrill minority of gays as does the Church of England, has a Presiding Bishop and an Archbishop (of Canterbury) doing cartwheels to make sure that a variety of sexualities are incorporated into the church against all history, science and faith. In so doing, they are bringing the Anglican Communion down around their necks. Is it any wonder that Nigerian Archbishop Nicholas Okoh was in London recently telling Dr. Williams that he wants buildings set aside for Nigerians to worship who can't get along with the sterile worship styles, theology and morals of your average boring, pipe-smoking, politically correct Anglican vicar? Williams told Okoh he should write a letter about his needs and he would see what he could do about it. Right.

*****

The Archbishop of Nigeria also let it drop this week that the CAPA Primates will meet in Nairobi in April to assess the situation in the worldwide communion and to continue to plan its work of mission and evangelism. There is more to this statement than meets the eye. Can we expect an announcement that they will further disengage from Dr. Williams and the pansexually-driven West?

GAFCON is alive and well, reported Okoh. "There will be leaders meeting this year in New York, which will have an ecumenical character. Church leaders other than Anglicans who share our stand on the contentious issue of human sexuality and same-sex unions will be invited. The full GAFCON Congress will be held almost certainly in Jerusalem again in 2012."

This raises the question: Is it time for a GAFCON Ordinariate for evangelicals in much the same manner Rome has offered an Ordinariate for traditionalists and Anglo-Catholics? It would be timely.

The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA), a brainchild of GAFCON, needs to ramp up its visibility. They should establish a secretariat in the UK to get the ball rolling for independent Anglicans in England and hook up with ACNA in the US and CESA in South Africa to form a phalanx against the liberal hegemony that is sweeping over the communion. How else are they to stop TEC, the ACofC and organizations like Integrity, Changing Attitude, the liberals and neo-evangelicals from sweeping all before them?

On a recent visit to South Africa, Sydney Archbishop Peter Jensen warned Anglicans to defend the true gospel, or liberal forces that preach a false Gospel will prevail within 10 years.

Speaking at a meeting of the FCA in St. Saviour's Anglican Church, Jensen said that the turmoil in the worldwide Anglican Communion, which was triggered by the approval of gay marriages and ordination of gay bishops in North America, highlights an issue that is much broader than homosexuality. It goes to the authority of Scripture and the heart of the Gospel. He said the issue is not just a threat to Anglicans but to the church at large.

He warned that the apparent lack of any decisive action by the liberal leaders within the Anglican Communion is in fact a calculated strategy to stall for time in the confident expectation that the majority of church members will gradually come around to their viewpoint that is shaped by modern culture rather than by the authority of Scripture. The so-called Listening Process is designed not to listen, but to desensitize orthodox Anglicans. Canon Philip Groves and his crowd will win unless they are fully repudiated by Global South leaders.

Evangelical Anglicans need to act and need to act now. The FCA can bring them altogether by ordaining their own bishop in England even as the tide runs in favor of the ordination of women to the episcopacy. If they don't act soon, they will be swept along by the tide of liberalism. Rome's offer to Anglo-Catholics is not what Evangelicals want or need. They are the vast majority in the Anglican Communion and have more power than they know. It will be Dr. Williams' worst nightmare. The slow chipping away of the Church of England along with his power and authority is something he has brought on himself by his indecisiveness. There is no synthesis between the thesis of orthodoxy and the antithesis of heterodoxy.

*****

Britain is no longer a free society, said former Rochester Bishop Michael Nazir Ali. Speaking at the Christian Broadcasting Council's annual conference, the bishop warned that "encroaching totalitarianism" is threatening respect for conscience.

"What we are facing is not a free society, but an ideology that is seeking to impose its views on us. We are making the assumption that conscience will be respected because we are living in a free society. But we are not in that society anymore."

The bigger question is: Why is he saying this instead of the Archbishop of Canterbury?

*****

The Pittsburgh Episcopal diocese and 41 breakaway Anglican parishes scattered throughout western Pennsylvania are ready to discuss their financial differences.

"At this point, negotiations are the way forward," said Bishop William Ilgenfritz, of St. Mary, the Anglican parish in Charleroi, which is waiting for the Episcopal diocese to set a starting date for talks.

Negotiations over property issues are expected to take place on a parish-by-parish basis, church leaders stated, although it's not clear when negotiations will begin.

In February, Episcopal Bishop Kenneth Price Jr. invited the individual Anglican parishes to "contact me to begin a conversation seeking an amicable resolution" of property issues.

For the 24 parishes whose church building titles are held by the Episcopal diocese, the negotiations will revolve around the buildings themselves. The remaining parishes have bank accounts and other property, such as sound systems and office equipment, that could figure in reaching a financial arrangement with the Episcopal diocese.

Price's letter to the parishes cited agreements the diocese reached with St. Philip Church in Moon Township and the Somerset Anglican Fellowship in Somerset.

*****

The Rev. Alberto Cutie and Bishop V. Gene Robinson have become the poster boys of the new sexual wisdom of The Episcopal Church. Cutie and Vicky are now TEC's very own celebrities of The New Sexuality. One is so rampantly heterosexual that he had to leave the Roman Catholic priesthood and marry his sweetheart. Pictures of Cutie and his bride to be romping on a Florida beach pretty well guaranteed his end with Rome. He fell in love with the Episcopal Church where he was quickly embraced by Southeast Episcopal Bishop Leo Frade. He has become the darling of Frade.He still maintains his minor celebrity status and is a columnist for the Huffington Post bashing the Roman Catholic Church over celibacy. He is often asked by news stations to comment on religious matters.

That conflict burst into public view in 2009 when paparazzi caught him at a beach with a divorced woman named Ruhama Canellis, whom he later married. The photos led to his exit from the Catholic Church and into the Episcopal Church. Cutie has come out with a book "Dilemma" which reveals the clash of his priestly celibacy with his love for a woman.

Vicky Gene, the Bishop of New Hampshire, is rampantly homosexual and is running around the globe preaching the joys of sodomy, bashing alleged homophobes and continuing to make a name for himself out of his feel-my-pain narcissism. He did this at Cornell University recently and you can read that in today's digest.

Apparently, the two men also have something else in common. They both found their significant others on beaches - one in Florida and the other in the Caribbean. What is it about beaches that bring out the sexiness in people? A Canadian VOL reader wrote this regarding Gene Robinson, "What will Gene Robinson do when the polygamists want access to church marriage and liturgies and blessings? It was said at the time that when the Liberal government in Canada approved of gay marriage, that the floodgates would open and every possible kind of group would want in to marriage. Now polygamy is being practiced in British Columbia and there are hearings in the courts and other places to see if polygamy should be allowed legally. Right now, polygamy cannot be stopped by the police and courts because of the religious freedom words in our liberal Charter of Rights and Freedoms. One could make a case that polygamists have been discriminated against too in the churches."

*****

Christian leaders in Israel have joined in a protest against the Israeli government's refusal to grant a residency permit to an Anglican bishop, and new taxes imposed on church institutions.

The Israeli government has denied a residency permit to Anglican Bishop Suheil Dawani, a native of the West Bank. As a result, the Palestinian prelate is unable to use the Anglican cathedral and diocesan offices in East Jerusalem. The leaders of Christian churches in Israel are protesting that decision, saying that it sets an unfortunate precedent.

The Christian leaders are also protesting new taxes imposed on church properties, calling the government move "an aggressive action." They pointed out that such taxation violates the historical pattern set by the Ottoman Empire and the British mandate, as well as the terms of UN Resolution 247 establishing the Israeli state.

*****

A Methodist-related college is doing a "gender-neutral" dorm (for gay students), claiming the Methodist Church has no problem with it. You can view it here: http://video.foxnews.com/#/v/4614007/arkansas-college-offers-gender-neutral-housing/?playlist_id=87937

At least one Episcopal seminary, the Seminary of the Southwest (there are undoubtedly others), allows cohabitation of gays and lesbians. You can study the Book of Romans by day and shack up performing homogenital acts by night, then get ordained and empty your parish.

*****

Jon Meacham, the ultra liberal Episcopal darling of Sewanee, is not doing so well these days. His NEWSWEEK magazine got deep-sixed for lack of interest and his new role as co-anchor for WNET Need to Know's broadcast is over. He'll still be conducting interviews for the show and keeping up with his popular "In Perspective" essays, but starting in mid-April, Alison Stewart will be its sole anchor. Meacham was named Executive Vice President and Executive Editor at Random House Publishing in January 2011 and is currently editing a book by former Vice President Al Gore, as well as working on two new books of his own.

*****

"The earthquake was not an act of God. Compassion shown afterward was the act of God." That quote appears in the latest newsletter from David and Mary Nelson, native missionaries in New Zealand. It's a paraphrase of something an Anglican priest said in the wake of a 6.3-magnitude earthquake that destroyed much of the city of Christchurch on New Zealand's South Island.

Members of the Otumoetai Church of Christ in Tauranga, New Zealand (on the South Pacific nation's North Island), have helped families displaced by the Feb. 22 quake, which claimed more than 180 lives. The church has received donations for quake victims. Minister Andrew Gearhart is supervising the church's response.

"Individuals and businesses in town dropped off items to our church building and recently the church hosted a lunch for 10 families and provided them with food, clothing and furniture," Mary Nelson wrote, "Two households were furnished and many new friends were made."

*****

The Right Reverend Datuk Bolly Lapok, chairman of the Association of Churches in Sarawak and Anglican Bishop of Sarawak and Brunei, describes the 10- point solution in the Bible issue as "surprisingly exuding in generosity and sensitivity that characterizes the Sarawakian culture.

"We are also grateful to the media especially The Borneo Post for assisting us in highlighting the matter and getting the message through to the government," added Redas.

He said it has been a challenging time for the Gideon community in Sarawak as they are very uncertain about the fate of the 30,000 Bible that they imported from Indonesia.

"It has been sleepless nights for us and finally we are able to collect the Bibles for our work among the local people who need them most," he said.

They were commenting on the government's 10-point solution which was released by Idris on Saturday and published by major newspapers yesterday.

With the 10-point solution, Bibles in all languages can be imported into the country, including Bahasa Malaysia. Bibles can also be printed locally in Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak and Sabah.

Gideon, the importer, can collect all the 30,000 bibles free of charge.

*****

Jobs, social justice, and support for 'life' are the center piece of the Scottish churches pre-election manifesto launched last week in Edinburgh.

On Mar 22, the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Bishop David Chillingworth, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, the Rt. Rev. John Christie, and other church leaders launched the "Churches Vote" initiative at a meeting held at the Holyrood Hotel. The manifesto calls for Scottish Christians to vote according to the dictates of their faith when they go to the polls on May 5 to elect a new Scottish parliament.

"A fair and just society must place the value of every human life at the centre of its thinking," they said. "This is only possible in a society which respects human life at every stage and supports the family in which life is born and nurtured."

*****

The Archbishop of Uganda has laid the foundation stone for a new Anglican cathedral at a groundbreaking ceremony on Jan 27 in Kampala. The first phase of the building of All Saints Cathedral will cost over $10.5 million and is scheduled to be completed by Christmas 2012, in time for the cathedral's centenary.

In his address to the congregation, Archbishop Henry Orombi said God had "appointed this generation to build for him a house of worship because the spirit of construction of houses is ripe in this country."

The 4000-seat cathedral will be funded by Ugandans for Ugandans, the archbishop indicated. "People have money to give towards the building and most of the materials will come from Uganda."

However, there has been some international criticism about the cost of this construction. Upon further review, however, VOL can offer the following explanation. The current Cathedral is patched together from an old colonial chapel that is also a response to the second largest mosque in Africa (largest in sub-Saharan Africa) that is just opposite All Saints' Cathedral on the next hill.

An observer told VOL, "Local theology says that the bigger, nicer building belongs to the bigger and more powerful God. It's not good theology, but it is popular and rampant. So, a need for larger space, plus another war we are in provides "some" justification for the new cathedral. And there's the kicker, the mosque was built by Libyan money. Its name is officially the "Gadaffi National Mosque."

*****

A Lamp in the Dark: The Untold History of the Bible (2010). Read it here. http://www.amazon.com/Lamp-Dark-Untold-History-Bible/dp/B002XAZ87K/ref=pd_hqp_sim_d_2?pf_rd_p=1280040082&pf_rd_s=hero-quick-promo&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B004K6FS5W&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=14JEQE2S1F05E42H0P9A

*****

The abortion provider strategy -- From the "40 Days for Life" London Blog.

1. You get the girl in the door for an abortion-driven "consultation". However, as abortionists and those who work with them don't really care, a "consultation" can be done over the phone. ARCH Trust, Silent No More, and the testimonies of women on MumsNet forums, to name a few, clearly prove that these consultations are a mere formality: a tick-box approach that is focused on securing an abortion - money

2. During the consultation, they do a screening for STIs. This is a good way to get young people in the door, too, make the abortuary familiar to them, so if they do get pregnant, they'll know where to come. - more money

3. Perhaps do an ultrasound, but whatever happens, don't show the mum, she might see her baby's body, head, hands and feet, which could change her mind. Also, ultrasound helps determine the gestational weeks of the child: older baby = more money for abortionists. Remember, they want to murder the child, not let him or her live. Charge NHS for ultrasound, too. - even more money

3. Get the girl back for the medical or surgical abortion. - main money spinner

4. Get the girl back afterwards, give contraception provided by the abortionists. The significant and clearly evidenced failure rates for contraception make it more likely that the girl will be back for another abortion when her contraception fails. - more money and future business.

*****

"Evangelical students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, working with Campus Crusade for Christ, have set up a website answering attacks against the New Testament by the university's famous liberal NT professor, Bart Ehrman. He is publishing a new book, Forged: Writing in the Name of God - Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are. The website answers many of the attacks Ehrman makes against the NT." http://www.ehrmanproject.com/

*****

Wales is running out of space to bury its dead and needs a coordinated policy to tackle the issue seriously. That's one of the stark facts the Church in Wales is highlighting in a series of briefing notes about its work to candidates standing for the Welsh Assembly election.

It estimates that two-thirds of the Church's 1,000 burial grounds will be full in 10 years' time and calls for a Government Commission to look into provision across Wales.

In other news from Wales, historic churches are at risk, Church warns Assembly candidates. Historic churches could be lost to the nation within a generation without more state support.

That's just one of the stark facts the Church in Wales is highlighting in a series of briefing notes about its work to candidates standing for the National Assembly for Wales election.

It estimates that £70m ($114 million) is needed over the next five years to repair and maintain nearly 1,000 churches which are listed as having historic value and attract more than two million visitors each year.

What Wales needs is a spiritual revival which it clearly will not see under its present liberal leader, Archbishop Barry Morgan.

*****

The Diocese of West Texas believes the Anglican Covenant deserves our support and the support of the Episcopal Church. They will urge the General Convention to adopt the Anglican Covenant in 2012. Members of their ninety congregations said they deeply value their joint "citizenship" as Anglicans and as Episcopalians. "Being part of both bodies is very important to us as a diocesan family. Historically, we have been blessed in these relationships in countless ways, not least in our understanding and practice of Christian identity, apostolic tradition and mission. We have worked, and will continue to work, toward a strong and vibrant Communion through our membership in and relationship with both the Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church."

*****

A Church of Norway two-fer. The Church of Norway has established the office of Presiding Bishop. The first person to hold that position is a woman. She is Bishop Helga Haugland Byfuglien. Her appointment means that for the first time, the Porvoo Communion will have a primate who is a woman. Meanwhile another member of the Porvoo Communion, the Church of England, has not decided whether women may be bishops although the handwriting is on the wall. Meanwhile, if one visits, she cannot wear her mitre. In the Anglican Communion, some male primates have refused to have communion with that communion's only female primate, or even to be in the same room with her.

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The Titus Institute for Church Planting in the Anglican Church in North America is sponsoring the prayer room at this year's Exponential Conference on Church Planting during Easter Week - Tuesday April 26th thru the 29th. A large group of planters, coaches, worship leaders and many others will gather in Orlando, Florida, for this large conference on all aspects of church planting. This is a major goal and directive of ACNA Archbishop, Robert Duncan.

This year, a special prayer room with intercessors praying for the conference, its speakers, workshop leaders and participants will be in place. Edwina Thomas, former director of SOMA USA will be conducting the training for the intercessors and directing the activities in the prayer room. For questions about being a Prayer Intercessor, please contact Pastor Kathleen Adams at mkadams@cox.net

*****

CORRECTION: In a recent "VOL Viewpoints" subsection regarding the meeting of the House of Bishops with the Seminary Deans, I commented that, "Seminaries do not seem to teach "pedagogy" - they do not teach seminarians to teach." A spokesman for Trinity School for Ministry, Christopher Klukas wrote VOL that while this statement may be true of some seminaries, "I would like to offer that it is not true of Trinity School for Ministry. All of our MDiv students are required to take a class called 'Formation and Catechesis,' which teaches the future leaders of the Church how to pass on the faith to those in their congregations. I would also like to note that we are hosting a major conference this June (The Ancient Wisdom Anglican Futures Conference) whose theme is 'Making Disciples in the Christian Catechumenate.' All this is to say that we have a strong commitment to the teaching of pedagogy."

To see more stories visit www.virtueonline.org. To learn more about VOL's Global Anglican Theological Institute (GATI) visit here: http://www.globalanglican.org/
To support your coffee habit and help and bless Anglican Rwandans visit here: http://www.drinkcoffeedogood.com/

All blessings,

David