Gender, Sexuality, Marriage and Divorce. A foundation principle. Since it is mainly on the facts of creation that Paul bases his case for the husband's headship (Eph. 5:22f.), his argument has permanent and universal validity, and is not to be dismissed as culturally limited. The cultural elements of his teaching are to be found in the applications of the principle, in the requirement of 'veiling' certainly, and I think also in the requirement of 'silence'. But the man's (and especially the husband's) 'headship' is not a cultural application of a principle; it is the foundation principle itself. This is not chauvinism, but creationism. The new creation in Christ frees us from the distortion of relations between the sexes caused by the fall (e.g. Gn. 3:16), but it establishes the original intention of the creation. It was to this 'beginning' that Jesus himself went back (e.g. Mt. 19:4-6). He confirmed the teaching of Genesis 1 and 2. So must we. What creation established, no culture is able to destroy. --- From "The Message of Ephesians" John R.W. Stott

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
1/20/2010

The Rev. Dr. Ephraim Radner, an orthodox American theologian teaching in Canada, has an unrealistic proposal for the sake of the gospel. It is this. In the face of the tragedy in Haiti, all Anglicans involved in litigation amongst one another in North America - both in the Episcopal Church and those outside of TEC; in the Anglican Church of Canada, and those outside - herewith cease all court battles over property. After having done this, they need to do two further things:

a. Devote the forecast amount they were planning to spend on such litigation to the rebuilding of the Episcopal Church and its people in Haiti; and

b. sit down with one another, prayerfully and for however long it takes, and with whatever mediating and facilitating presence they accept, and agree to a mutually agreed process for dealing with contested property.

Radner goes on to give published figures revealing that TEC has already spent over $4 million on "Title IV" and litigation matters in the dioceses with over $4 million more budgeted for the next triennium. The other side is spending comparable sums having some $20 million already spent with another $10 million in the pipeline. This is enough to rebuild a cathedral, any number of churches, feed tens of thousands of Haiti's poorest and provide free education for literally thousands of children who will never get it because the lawyers will.

"Isn't this rather crazy? Isn't this in fact unfaithful? Isn't this, indeed, perverse and even blasphemous? And it is certainly so in the face of the needs we have just been witnessing in Port-au-Prince, needs which, it must be said, have been around us all the time these past years, but here have come into a blinding and heart-rending focus," writes Radner.

Of course TEC will respond with the notion that it is has a fiduciary duty to defend and keep the properties for future generations. Which begs the question: What future generations? The average age of an Episcopalian is now in the mid-sixties. The average size congregation numbers about 70 and is sinking. If this doesn't worry the Church Pension Fund, I don't know what will. You can read Radner's full account here or in today's digest. http://tinyurl.com/ybrmny9

Natural evil has only victims and is generally taken to be the result of natural processes. The "evil" thus identified is evil only from the perspective of those affected and who perceive it as an affliction. Examples include cancer, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, and other phenomena which inflict suffering with apparently no accompanying mitigating good. Such phenomena inflict "evil" on victims with no human perpetrator to blame. Moral evil, on the other hand, is what we do to one another. When we kill, rape, steal, inflict HIV/AIDS virus on another human being...this is moral evil.

You can read several fine reflection stories on suffering as it relates to Haiti and the problem of what theologians call natural evil by Craig Uffman and Greg Brewer.

*****

The DIOCESE OF GEORGIA will have a new bishop, The Rev. Scott Benhase. He replaces retiring Bishop Henry I. Louttit. In an essay written during his nomination process, Benhase described what "may be the most important call God is giving us as a church right now: To stand between the virulent fundamentalists (no matter their religious stripe) and the cultured despisers of religion by witnessing to the reconciling love of Jesus.

"My hunch is there are a lot of Georgians who think they have only two choices: adopt the fundamentalist agenda hook, line and sinker or reject Christianity as being irrelevant. Wouldn't it be compelling to show them a different way of following Jesus?"

Benhase does not tell us who these "fundamentalists" are, but, like alleged homophobes in the church, they are easy targets and must be stamped out and replaced with people richly overflowing with diversity, inclusivity and pluriformity. They must also breathe the free air of pansexuality because Benhase says the consecration of Gene Robinson is a good thing that the church approached with "humility and faith."

The real test of his first days is how he will treat litigation surrounding Christ Church, the flagship parish in his diocese. This will be a test of his inclusivity. You can read the full story in today's digest.

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A Dallas, Texas columnist, Lee Cullum, enamored by Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori's allegedly strong leadership skills in these tough Episcopal times, offered some commentary on the recent appearance of the PB in Dallas. VOL examined her take on her appearance and we offered a counterpoint to his commentary. Here is a sample of what shesaid and VOL's response.

CULLUM: The Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori came to Dallas this month to spend a weekend at St. Michael and All Angels where I am a member. During her three years as presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church of America, she has ridden a whirlwind of acrimony with a steady, determined drive to bring calm to chaos and to dispatch those who would rather be elsewhere, anyway, or so they say.

VOL: This "whirlwind of acrimony" has come about first by the canonically illegal action of deposing Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh and a number of other orthodox bishops in The Episcopal Church. It has been going downhill from there. What calm? Jefferts Schori has brought nothing but chaos to TEC ever since she took over from Frank Griswold, who hated acrimony and confrontation. She has spent millions on lawsuits and deposed more bishops than any other Presiding Bishop.

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The Diocese of Los Angeles has begun a 120-day process by which bishops and standing committees of the 110 dioceses of the Episcopal Church are asked to provide formal consent to the December 2009 elections of two bishops suffragan in the Diocese of Los Angeles. One of the bishops-elect is an avowed lesbian, Mary Douglas Glasspool. The Presiding Bishop's Office has confirmed that the 120-day consent processes will conclude in early May for both bishops. Their ordination to the episcopate is scheduled for May 15 at the Long Beach Arena, pending receipt of necessary consent.

Now what are the odds that Glasspool does not get consents? Almost none. This is not a Thew Forrester situation. No one is tracing how dioceses will vote. It is a forgone conclusion. A handful of bishops, mostly Communion Partner bishops, will withhold consent and perhaps a few moderates arguing they don't want to offend Rowan Williams hoping TEC will still have a seat at the Primatial table if Glasspool gets consent.

There are four other consecrations for diocesan bishops, some still pending successful completion of the canonical consent processes that are slated during the first four months of 2010. They are: The Rev. Scott A. Benhase, Diocese of Georgia; the Rev. Brian N. Prior, Diocese of Minnesota; the Rev. Dr. Michael Joseph Hanley, Diocese of Oregon, and the Rev. Dr. Ian Douglas, Diocese of Connecticut. None of them pose a threat to the liberal hegemony of The Episcopal Church. They will all fall in line.

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The Episcopal Church is "out of tune with members on immigration" according to a survey conducted on behalf of the non-partisan Washington think tank, the Center for Immigrations Studies (CIS). The official stance of the Episcopal Church on immigration does not represent the views of people in its pews. The survey of over 42,000 Roman Catholics, mainline Protestants, evangelical or born-again Protestants, and Jewish voters found a sharp disconnect between the official stance of their religious communities and the beliefs of individual members.

"Because religious communities often do not represent the public policy views of their members, if there is a full-blown immigration debate next year, it will be all more contentious," Steven Camarota of the CIS said.

While religious leaders have pressed the government to relax the country's immigration laws, permitting more immigration and providing opportunities for existing illegal immigrants to gain citizenship, an overwhelming majority of American religious voters believe the current level of immigration is too high and favor stricter enforcement of current laws.

One out of eight US residents, or 38 million people are immigrants. Over the past decade, 1.5 million legal and illegal immigrants have settled in the US each year.

A supporter of the Interfaith Statement in Support of Comprehensive Immigration Reform, the Episcopal Church has backed "comprehensive immigration reform," which calls for a significant increase in the number of legal immigrants to the United States.

*****

The Archbishop of Canterbury caught some heavy flak this week when he appeared in New York to give a lecture on orthodoxy and to receive an honorary doctorate at St. Vladimir's Seminary. TOUCHSTONE Editor and Orthodox priest, The Very Reverend Patrick Henry Reardon took the seminary and Beatitude Jonah to task when he wrote to complain that despite Dr. Williams scholarly publications, outside of academic circles, he is chiefly known for his public support for sexual perversion within the Anglican Communion.

"I write on behalf of two groups of people: First, I speak for the simple faithful who worship in our Orthodox parishes, those friends of the St. Vladimir's who feel betrayed by the seminary's decision with respect to Dr. Williams.

"Second, I speak for thousands of loyal and believing Anglicans, in this country and around the world, for whom the public policies of Dr. Williams have been a source of pain and distress during the past seven years of his unfortunate tenure as Archbishop of Canterbury.

"Some of these Anglicans, in fact, have been pursuing a path toward membership in the Orthodox Church. The seminary's resolve to honor Rowan Williams is causing them to reconsider their hope to join the Orthodox Church." You can read Reardon's full letter in today's digest.

*****

The Archbishop of Sudan, the Most Rev. Daniel Deng accused China this week of pursuing a damaging policy of economic gain in his country and urged Beijing to use its influence to help ease rising tension ahead of elections.

Archbishop Deng said Beijing, which imported $6.3 billion (3.9 billion pounds) of Sudanese crude oil in 2008, should try to help bring together parties at loggerheads over the full implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, including the delivery of credible elections. "China is looking only for minerals, they are looking for economic benefit. That is all. That is damaging the country. They are not even making peace," the Anglican archbishop said during a visit to Lambeth Palace in London.

*****

Pope Benedict XVI defended his decision this week to invite disaffected Anglicans to join the Catholic Church en masse, saying it was the "ultimate aim" of ecumenism. Benedict told members of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that the invitation wasn't an attack on the church's reunification efforts with other Christians but was rather designed to help them by bringing about "full and visible communion."

The Vatican in October announced it was making it easier for traditional Anglicans upset over women priests and gay bishops to join the Catholic Church while retaining many of their Anglican traditions, including married priests. The move roiled the 77-million Anglican Communion, already on the verge of schism over woman and gay clergy, particularly since its spiritual leader, Archbishop Rowan Williams, wasn't consulted and was only informed at the last minute.

The latest figures for Roman Catholic attendance in the U.S. do not bode well.

* Only 33 percent of U.S. Catholics attend Mass on a weekly basis. That means approximately 42.7 million U.S. Catholics are not practicing Catholics.

* The number of Americans identifying themselves as non-religious/secular increased 110 percent from 1990 to 2000. It is now 13.2 percent of the total population. Comparing this statistic with the previous one, non-religious, secular individuals outnumber active, Mass-attending Catholics by 58 percent.

* As many as 100,000 baptized Catholics in the U.S. drift away from church each year. One can't imagine Roman Catholic attendance will be seriously bolstered by adding disaffected Anglicans.

*****

Traditional Anglican Communion statistics. Ninety per cent of the membership of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) resides in India and Africa, according to the London-based "Church Times". TAC was formed in 1990, and now includes former Anglicans on six continents. Its current Primate, Archbishop John Hepworth, is based in South Australia. Dialogue between TAC and the Vatican, after a formal petition made by the TAC in October 2007, was cited as a significant factor in the decision by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to issue the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus.

The secretary to the College of Bishops of TAC, Cheryl Woodman, supplied the figures. She said that they were "based on about 60 per cent of our communicant membership attending every Sunday", and that "this would easily bring the [membership] figure to around the 400,000 that is regularly quoted."

In India, TAC is represented by the Anglican Church of India (ACI). The ACI was formed in 1964 by Anglicans who withdrew from the Churches of North and South India. It now has 15 dioceses. The Traditional Anglican Church in Britain lists about 20 parishes on its website. The UK and Europe, Canada and the US represent only 2.5 percent of the grand total of 240, 800.

*****

The Church of England is poised to give greater recognition to homosexual clergy in relationships, "The Sunday Telegraph" has revealed. A proposal to give the partners of gay priests some of the same rights that are awarded to priests' spouses is likely to spark a new row over homosexuality.

Bishops and senior clergy will debate at next month's General Synod whether the Church should provide same-sex couples with the same financial benefits as are awarded to married couples. Traditionalists have expressed strong opposition to the move, which they claim would give official recognition to homosexual relationships. They warn that affording equal treatment to heterosexual and homosexual couples would undermine the Church's teaching on marriage.

*****

A key debate on women bishops has been delayed until the summer after the Church of England received an "avalanche" of submissions about the subject. The Church said more than 100 submissions had been received by a legislative drafting group working on the issue of women bishops.

It had been hoped that the General Synod, the church's ruling body, at their meeting in London next month, could debate legislation, but this will not take place until it meets at York in July.

*****

The Canadian House of Bishops has approved a resolution recommending that the final text of the proposed Anglican Communion Covenant be presented for consideration to the General Synod meeting in June. It stopped short, however, of recommending the adoption of the Covenant, after some members expressed the view that it was up to General Synod to make that determination.

Provinces of the Anglican Communion are being asked to consider adopting the Covenant, which has been recommended as a way of healing divisions triggered by debates over the issue of sexuality.

The final draft now makes it "absolutely clear" that it is the "family of national churches and provinces, not dioceses" that can sign on to the Covenant, said the diocesan bishop of Ontario, George Bruce.

*****

Criticism on Islam is verboten on Google. While Google reflects users' derisive queries about every other religion, but when it comes to Islam, it's mute. When you start typing a query, the search engine tries to complete your sentence, popping up suggestions as you type. It draws them from what other people have searched for in the past, ranking them by a secret-sauce combination of popularity and longevity. (It will also take your own search history into account.)

When you punch in the words "why does my," for instance, Google Suggest pops up options such as "Why does my cat bite me?" and "Why does my belly button smell?" When you punch in "all I want to do is," we learn that others have been searching for "All I want to do is eat your brains."

The trouble started when the trick was tried on world's religions. It was soon discovered that typing in leading questions about different faiths turns up a series of uniformly disgruntled suggestions: "Christianity is a lie," "Judaism is a cult," "Buddhism is not what you think," "Hinduism is wrong" and so on.

However, if you type "Islam is," Google Suggest suggests - nothing. Google Suggest happily reflects users' derisive queries about every other religion, but when it comes to Islam, it's mute. It gives the appearance that Google is self-censoring to avoid trouble with a religion whose extremists are increasingly militant about slights.

The discovery caused a minor sensation online. "Google, now serving cowardliness," read a missive that went to the top of the charts at Digg, the influential portal. News outlets left and right picked up the story. Was Google - that bastion of honesty - fudging its own results for political expediency?

Google says that the Islam omission is "a bug." This explanation has been greeted with more than a little skepticism. The flap over its "Islam" non-suggestion will come and go. But the controversy illustrates the bind that Google finds itself in, again and again, as it tries to play the role of reality's honest broker. Real life is a dirty, tarry thing to have on your hands. As Google inserts itself into every corner of our information-consuming lives, it has to play an ever-bendier game of Twister to satisfy competing demands.

*****

Archbishop Thomas Cranmer's words of worship will resonate Sunday in Episcopal churches that value scripture and tradition. In St. Mary's, Carle Place, NY, Episcopalians for Traditional Faith (ETF) will celebrate the anniversary of Cranmer's first Book of Common Prayer (BCP) at a service of Holy Communion and afterward at a celebratory luncheon.

Cranmer's Prayer Book was proclaimed the official liturgy of England by Parliament on January 21, 1549. The Act of Uniformity, as the measure was called, addressed "The Book of the Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church after the use of the Church of England."

Several minor changes have been made over the centuries, but the towering language -- great language for great things -- and, more important, the faith expressed by that language, remain the same in the 1928 BCP. This magnificent book is the keystone of our faith today in the Episcopal Church as well as other churches that have adopted it or portions of it.

*****

The Cathedral of St John the Divine in Antigua has been shuttered by the Diocese of North Eastern Caribbean and Aruba for repairs, a locally-based US priest told VOL. Last month, portions of the floor collapsed while school children were touring the 161-year-old cathedral. One teacher was injured when the flagstones gave way. An engineering survey found the building to be unsafe. An appeal has been launched to restore the landmark structure.

Originally built in 1681 on a hill in the centre of the island's capital, St John's, the first cathedral, was destroyed by an earthquake in 1745. The cathedral was rebuilt, but destroyed a second time by an earthquake in 1843. The third incarnation of St John the Divine was built in 1845 in the neo-Baroque style and has withstood hurricanes and earthquakes due to its unique construction. The interior of the building is encased in pitch pine to support the stonework and keep it watertight. The exterior of the building remains in good repair.

*****

The AMIA Winter Conference 2010 is only 9 days away, and preparing to welcome over 1,190 participants in Greensboro, North Carolina. This writer will be there. If you are unable to "join the journey" on location, look for Winter Conference 2010 articles and updates on the AMIA's website and in future editions of Currents. http://www.theamia.org/

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A loyal VOL reader pointed out that the Spamassassin spam filter ranks the weekly VOL digest very high on its scale of suspected spam messages. Given the news reporting that VOL does and the nature of the content that we distribute, this is largely unavoidable. Our best recommendation to VOL readers is to add our digest email address to your list of allowed senders that never send you junk mail. The address is virtueonline-request@listserv.virtueonline.org

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You are receiving this digest earlier in the week because I am heading out the door to the annual MERE ANGLICAN conference in Charleston, SC on Thursday. This promises to be the most interesting conference held to date by conveners. This year's conference "Human Identity, Gender, and Sexuality: Speculation or Revelation?" will focus on this seemingly ubiquitous challenge in both the contemporary culture and the Church of the understanding of marriage and human sexuality. Some of the major scholars, spokespersons, and authorities on these matters in Anglicanism today will be presenting lectures and responding in a variety of forums to the some of the most pressing issues we face in our world, church and ministries today. Some of the speakers include Dr. Robert Gagnon, the world authority on the Bible and Homosexuality as well as Marriage Savers leaders Mike and Harriet McManus among others. The conference is fully endorsed by the Bishop of South Carolina, Mark Lawrence.

*****

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In Christ,

David

A PRAYER FOR HAITI

In Time of Great Sickness and Mortality

O MOST mighty and merciful God, to whom alone belong the issues of life and death; In this time of grievous hurt and harm, with great death and destruction in Haiti, we flee unto thee for relief. Deliver them, we beseech thee, from their peril; give strength and skill to thy ministers of healing and aid; bless the means of cure; and grant, that, perceiving how frail is our earthly life, we may apply our hearts unto that heavenly wisdom which leadeth to eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Adapted from the Reformed Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, page 65
by Canon Ron Moock