"The C of E is very pleased and proud of its inter-faith dialogues - largely, I suppose, because when conducting them it always adopts a strategy of total capitulation, much as it does before any and every assault upon its ideology, be it from Islam or from the decadent depredations of modern Britain." --- Columnist Rod Dreher

The peril of isolation. The greatest peril to which any thinker is exposed is the isolation of his ivory tower. --- From 'Tasks Which Await Us', epilogue to "Essays in Evangelical Social Ethics", ed. D. F. Wright

"The simple fact is that in our modern secular age we face a range of assaults and erosions that are unprecedented in church history and the deepest and saddest come from within. Standing firm in faith in this secular age requires integrity, credibility and civility." –-- Dr. Os Guinness at GAFCON in Jerusalem

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
4/17/2009

Is Christianity in America going downhill?

* All Protestant churches, even the Southern Baptist Convention, are shrinking. Among the worst decliners is The Episcopal Church, though they won't admit that fact, blaming demographics and overall disinterest in mainstream Christianity.

* Congress is getting serious about investigating fraudulent preachers with deep collection baskets. They should. Most of them are health-and-wealth con artists. Your wealth supports their health and bank balances.

* Christian Broadcasting has become so dependent on "teaching ministries" that few stations show any depth or integrity in their message.

* The present regime is committed to a "pluralism" that welcomes all "faiths", but excludes Christianity at every turn. We are fast becoming a nation of non- believers rather than unbelievers. We don't know what we stand for; therefore we will die for anything or nothing.

* The arrest and torture of Christians overseas is of no concern to the US State Dept. The Church of England and The Episcopal Church are more concerned with interfaith talks with Islamic leaders rather than dealing with "the faith once for all delivered" that we are supposed to proclaim. When they come for our children we will wake up and it will be too late. Just ask Martin Niemöller.

* The most sacred "right" in America is no longer the right to worship God, but to abort children.

* The Church can no longer expect the slightest support or protection of any kind from the Government. Conversely, the Government can no longer expect the slightest support or protection from God.

What does all this mean?

1. The money base behind the spread of the shallow, warped, and altogether pagan message, which has been set forth as Christianity, is shrinking. This is occurring in The Episcopal Church at a faster rate than most other denominations because its base of support is drying up and its inclusive gospel excludes authentic biblical faith.

2. Government support (tax-free status, etc.) is apt to shrink or disappear.

3. The volume of the pseudo-faith message is likely to diminish, though cults like Mormonism are on the rise. Catholicism is growing with more immigrants than live births.

4. This means a larger percent of Christian proclamation will come from people who have a real experience from which to speak, with God's glory and the hearer's salvation in view, rather than the preacher's glory and the hearer's silver.

5. With Christianity less "cool", the message is likely to return from the present, living-room niceties to a re-examination of the real content of the real Gospel.

As one blogger noted, the Church is going down, down where we belong, on our knees, where our strength was, all along.

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The big news of the week comes from London with the announcement that the GAFCON Primates have recognized the new Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). A Communiqué from the GAFCON/FCA Primates' Council said that great progress has been made in North America towards the creation of a new Province basing itself on the biblical gospel of transformation and hope. "We have also envisioned the future of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans as a movement for defending and promoting the biblical gospel of the risen Christ," said the communique.

The Primates also recognized the fledgling Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA) which is attracting membership by individuals, churches, dioceses, provinces and organizations involving millions of Anglicans. "We are heartened by the large numbers of Anglicans who share a commitment to the theological formularies of true Anglicanism that provide a firm foundation for our faith," said the Primates.

Seven primates: Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi of Kenya, Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini of Rwanda, Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables of the Southern Cone, Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda; along with the Rt. Rev. Peter Jensen, Archbishop of Sydney (Australia) were in attendance. Joining the archbishops at the three-day meeting were the Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan, Bishop of Pittsburgh in the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone and the archbishop-designate of the ACNA; the Rt. Rev. Jack L. Iker, Bishop of Fort Worth in the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone; the Rt. Rev. Charles Murphy; the leader of the Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMiA); the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, Bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America and one of his bishops suffragan, the Rt. Rev. David Anderson; the Rt. Rev. John Guernsey, Provincial Bishop Suffragan for the Anglican Church of Uganda; the Rt. Rev. Bill Atwood, Bishop of All Saints Diocese in the Anglican Church of Kenya; and the Rt. Rev. Don Harvey, leader of the Anglican Network in Canada. You can read the full report in today's digest and a video clip of Bishop Robert Duncan in London at: www.virtueonline.org

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In Seattle, the defrocked Episcopal priest and now Muslim convert ANN HOLMES REDDING was given the green light from the two bishops of Olympia, Greg Rickel and Neva Rivera, to assist in the vesting of a deacon at St. Mark's Cathedral. even though her bishop, Geralyn Wolf of Rhode Island, said Redding is not permitted to do that. Both the bishops of Olympia say she can assist in the vesting, more proof that discipline of any sort has broken down in TEC, unless of course you are orthodox and desire to uphold the faith. Now that can get you into REAL trouble. You could end up being ignored like Bishop David Bane, deposed like Bishop Robert Duncan, or sued like Bishop Jack Iker. You can read the full story in today's digest or here: http://tinyurl.com/d57dsb

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For what you can expect at GC2009 and what could be the final gelding of The Episcopal Church, you can read my exclusive story that explores what will be the final sexual frontiers for Episcopal Church leaders to cross this summer in Anaheim. Whatever is passed will make a mockery of any Covenant the Anglican Communion might some day develop. On that score, you can read the third (Ridley Cambridge) Draft of the Covenant. Will it fly? So far, liberal provinces like TEC and Wales don't like it. Orthodox provinces also remain skeptical.

The third draft COVENANT does highlight something that should please liberals. It emphasizes autonomy. Its biggest innovation is a completely new fourth section, "Our Covenanted Life Together", which focuses respect for the autonomy of individual national Churches, and gives assurances that the Covenant cannot override the Constitution and Canons of any province. There you have it. This means TEC can go its merry way ordaining more sodomites to the episcopacy with complete impunity. The third draft of the proposed Anglican Covenant will be put before the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) at its meeting in Jamaica next month. The Covenant Design Group (CDG), chaired by the Archbishop of the West Indies, the Most Rev. Drexel Gomez, has wrestled throughout the process with particular concerns over who should resolve disputes in the Anglican Communion. The first version, the Nassau Draft, was felt to be too punitive in directing provisions towards the possible exclusion of churches. Other sticking points have been fears of a central jurisdiction with over-importance being given to the Primates as final arbiters on the one hand, and the ACC, with its limitations, on the other. So don't look for any disciplinary action because there won't be any if TEC passes same sex rites this summer in Anaheim. It is why the GAFCON archbishops and bishops in London expressed caution about the possibility of a Covenant resolving the "torn fabric" of the communion.

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Just when you thought that the Presiding Bishop could not possibly sink to new depths, the former Bishop of Southern Virginia, David C. Bane received a "Dear John" letter from the PB saying in essence that she and TEC have no place for his skills in the ministry now that he is no longer a diocesan bishop. Of course, Mrs. Jefferts Schori has plenty of work for liberal and revisionist bishops like Ted Gulick and Rodney Michel in other dioceses like the faux diocese of Ft. Worth and the Diocese of Pennsylvania. So, have a nice future Bishop Bane. He did. He joined the ACNA and is now under Bishop Robert Duncan. Mrs. Jefferts Schori will depose him because he has renounced his orders, which of course he denies. You can read the full story here or in today's digest. http://tinyurl.com/dne7am

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Anglican writer and news analyst Robin G. Jordan notes this about the new NORTH AMERICAN ANGLICAN PROVINCE. "The formation of the second Anglican diocese in the Pacific Northwest consists of only eight churches which means it can only be accepted as an ACNA diocese in formation and will have the next five years to grow those eight churches to twelve with an ASA of at least 50 people. The Diocese of Cascadia will also have to grow its total ASA to 1000 people. Unless the ACNA alters its canons, if the Diocese of Cascadia does not meet these requirements by the end of that five year period, it cannot ask the Provincial Council for an extension of the period of formation. Sources in the ACNA say the waiver of the admission requirements is only during the period of formation. The ACNA is not interested in small dioceses. On the other hand, the Diocese of Cascadia meets the admission requirements of The Episcopal Church and a number of other North American Anglican church bodies."

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A fire destroyed one of the historic buildings on the Nashotah House Seminary campus in Wisconsin on April 2. Cole Cottage, which was completed in 1887, was originally built for the widow of a Nashotah House Seminary dean. In recent years, the two-story, wood frame house has been used for faculty housing, but it has been vacant since last summer when the previous occupant retired and relocated. There were no injuries, according to the Rev. William Easterling, associate dean for administration.

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God has no borders, and the 20-foot-tall wall between Arizona and Mexico is not in line with God's intentions for humanity, said the Rev. Seth Polley, vicar of Episcopal parishes in Bisbee and Douglas, Ariz. To call attention to border and immigration issues, Polley, 46, has organized a border procession that will begin at 1 p.m. Saturday at St. Michael Catholic Church, in Naco, Ariz., about five miles west of Bisbee. This is the fourth such march since 2005. The event sometimes has drawn more than 100 people. "Those who take part are standing up for decent, humane treatment of migrants who come to the United States from Mexico," Polley says. "We want to show the citizens of Mexico who try to cross the border that not all Americans view them with hostility. We want to treat them like neighbors." When the event first started, Polley said, marchers on each side of the wall would walk parallel to one another for about a mile, then meet and have a meal together where the wall ended. Now, the wall is too long to do so. Instead, U.S. marchers cross the border at Naco and have a meal with residents of Naco, Sonora. The Rt. Rev. Kirk Smith, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona, will take part and will speak on the Mexican side of the border. In a ceremony on the Mexican side, a mock wall made of chicken wire and wood will be laid down peacefully as a symbol of the hope that the wall between the U.S. and Mexico someday will fall.

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Most American Christians do not believe that Satan or the Holy Spirit exist, according to the Barna Institute. Their latest report is based on interviews conducted with a representative national sample of 1,871 adults who described themselves as Christians. The study examined people's beliefs about spiritual beings, the influence of faith on their life, views of the Bible, and reactions to faiths other than their own. The findings reveal that Christians have a diverse set of beliefs - but many of those beliefs are contradictory or, at least, inconsistent with other beliefs they possess or with the Bible's teachings. To find out what people in the American Church believe, you can read the full report in today's digest.

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Most people believe in life after death, a UK study found. The Daily Telegraph reports that according to a survey of 2,060 people, 53 per cent believe in life after death, 55 per cent believe in heaven and 70 per cent believe in the human soul. The poll conducted by ComRes, on behalf of the public theology think tank Theos, shows nearly four in 10, or 39 per cent, believe in ghosts and more than a quarter (27 per cent) believe in reincarnation. A further 22 per cent believe in astrology or horoscopes and 15 per cent believe in fortune telling or Tarot.

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The Episcopal Church's General Convention 2009 will be the topic of a live webcast on Wednesday, May 13 at 8 am Pacific (9 am Mountain, 10 am Central, 11 am Eastern). GC 2009 will be held July 8 - 17 at the Anaheim Convention Center in California. The webcast will originate from Anaheim, the site of this year's General Convention. Participants in the live webcast will be the Presiding Bishop, Bonnie Anderson of the HOD; Executive Officer and Secretary of the General Convention, the Rev. Gregory Straub; and Bishop J. Jon Bruno of the Diocese of Los Angeles, the host diocese.

*****

The Obama family attended Easter services Sunday at St. John's Episcopal Church across from the White House -- but still has not picked a new spiritual home. In what was probably the most painful episode of President Obama's quest for the White House, the Obama family quit Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ at the end of May 2008. Obama dropped his membership in the church where he was married and his children were baptized because of swelling controversies involving the Rev. Jeremiah Wright peaking as Obama was closing in on the Democratic primary nomination over Hillary Clinton. The Obama family has been without a home church since. According to the pool report, Obama, first lady Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia all took communion, standing in line and smiling while waiting their turn while congregants sneaked peeks. It appears they dipped the wafer in the chalice of wine and did not drink from the communal goblet. A White House spokesman said that as baptized Christians, the Obamas could take communion in an Episcopal Church whether or not they were Episcopalians. No word if they put money in the plate. Parishioners attending Easter services at St. John's Episcopal Church in Lafayette Square, Washington DC, were a bit surprised when they were told that they had to go through one of two magnetometers set up at the entryway at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Easter services. The Rev. Luis Leon, rector, who was leading the 15th Easter service of his career, included in his sermon a reference to his hatred for the New York Yankees.

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TRINITY SCHOOL FOR MINISTRY (TSM) will host The Ancient Wisdom - Anglican Futures Conference June 4 -6 in Ambridge, PA. How do we receive and pass on the Anglican inheritance in a way that, to borrow a phrase from C.S. Lewis, moves us "further up and further in" to a deeper understanding of living the Great Tradition? This enormous, multi-directional question will be the focus of this conference. Participants will consider how Anglicans can welcome young evangelicals, "post-evangelicals" and "emergents" who are drawn to the Great Tradition. They will also listen to "outsiders" to the Anglican way (from traditions as diverse as the Assemblies of God and Eastern Orthodoxy) as they provide their own perspectives on what God is doing in Anglicanism. Three main topics will be tackled at the conference: Worshiping in the Great Tradition, Community in the Great Tradition and Mission in the Great Tradition. The keynote speakers include D.H. Williams (Baylor University), Edith Humphrey (Pittsburgh Theological Seminary), Simon Chan (Trinity Theological College, Singapore), George Sumner (Wycliffe College, Toronto), Andrew Walker (King's College, London), David Neff (Christianity Today), Samuel Wells (Dean of Duke University Chapel) and others. The conference planning committee maintains an online blog at ancientwisdomanglicanfutures.blogspot.com Registration can be done online at www.tsm.edu. For more information, contact Trinity's Office of Extension Ministries at 724-266-3838 or teem@tsm.edu.

*****

At least 500 people crowded into NEW HAMPSHIRE'S STATEHOUSE this week for an emotional and boisterous Senate committee hearing on allowing gay marriage. Supporters argued gay marriage is a civil rights issue and that excluding gays would be discriminatory. "This is not a time to tiptoe. Be bold," urged Beth Campbell, of Concord. Opponents countered that marriage is a sacred religious institution that would be cheapened by allowing gays to marry. They also said gay marriage defies nature and could harm children. Ronald Goodwin, of Alexandria, called the legislation "morally corrupt."

The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, the U.S. Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop, urged the committee not to base its recommendation to the full Senate on fear of losing the next election. "I am praying you will find courage," he said. Robinson called for "courage to rise above your political considerations, courage to lead. If full marriage equality will be right some day, it is right today."

*****

GOODBYE, GOOD BISHOP NAZIR-ALI. Columnist Rod Dreher writes that Anglican bishop Michael Nazir-Ali has guts, and more than that, he's a man of faith. That he felt he could serve more effectively by resigning his bishopric (he's going to work for the sake of the persecuted church), says a very great deal about the Church of England today, none of it good. As Rod Liddle writes in the Spectator: It is remarkable that he should be forced to leave his current position in order to fight for the human rights of persecuted Christians; you might have assumed that being a Church of England bishop was a pretty good platform from which to undertake such work. As it is, he will not have the full force of the Church of England behind him; he will be, so far as Lambeth Palace is concerned, an ex-parrot. We do not hear very much from the Church of England about the plight of Christians, and particularly Anglicans, in hostile foreign environments. Under the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, the church does not like to make too much of a fuss about murdered priests in the Sudan, the constant fears of samizdat believers in Riyadh, the continued state persecution in Turkey, the perpetual discrimination in Indonesia and Malaysia and Bangladesh, or about the Punjabi Christian dragged before a court in Pakistan accused of having sent a blasphemous message on his mobile phone, the Muslim hordes screaming for the death sentence outside the court. The thousands of Christians in Bauchi, Nigeria, watching their homes burned to the ground and their leaders attacked by, again, Muslim mobs. The beatings and murders in liberated - yea, praise the lord The C of E is very pleased and proud of its inter-faith dialogues - largely, I suppose, because when conducting them it always adopts a strategy of total capitulation, much as it does before any and every assault upon its ideology, be it from Islam or from the decadent depredations of modern Britain.

*****

The DIOCESE OF NIAGARA is employing bouncers who threatened a Canadian Anglican blogger, Anglican Samizdat, with a law suit over a blog entry about his entering St. Hilda's to photograph people who was there following a split in the church. He found eleven persons. A woman strong-armed the photographer out the door, but not before he took a couple of shots. VOL picked up the story. It appears the Diocese of Niagara, has absolutely no sense of humor and wants to shut him up. The blogger said he was pushed and frog marched out of the church. "I have visited churches and cathedrals throughout much of Europe and I have never before been asked to leave, let alone been physically ejected," he wrote. You can see the Blog entry here: http://tinyurl.com/dgl9jv

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A noted world evangelical Anglican leader died this week. Sydney Anglicans Network reports that the former Archbishop of Sydney, Sir Marcus Loane died at age 97, after a short illness. Hailed a "rock" of the church in Sydney and Australia when he celebrated the 50th anniversary of his consecration as bishop last year, Sir Marcus was the first Australian-born Archbishop of Sydney. He served in this role from 1966 to 1982, and was Primate of Australia from 1978 to 1982. He was knighted in 1976. Archbishop Peter Jensen paid tribute to "a remarkable leader who served both church and nation." He was a prolific author with an international influence and ministry.

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