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Remember Christ's Resurrection. Let us beware of regarding the Lord Jesus Christ, only as one that is dead. Here, I believe, many greatly err. They think much of His atoning death, and it is right that they should do so. But we ought not to stop short there. We ought to remember that He not only died and went to the grave-but that He rose again, and ascended up on high, leading captivity captive. We ought to remember that He is now sitting on the right hand of God, to do a work as real, as true, as important to our souls, as the work which He did when He shed His blood. Christ lives, and is not dead. He lives as truly as any one of ourselves. Christ sees us, hears us, knows us, and is acting as a Priest in heaven on behalf of His believing people. The thought of His life ought to have as great and important a place in our souls-as the thought of His death upon the cross. --- Bishop J.C. Ryle
Justification - the penalty paid. The only way to be justified from sin is that the wages of sin be paid, either by the sinner or by the God-appointed substitute. There is no way of escape but that the penalty be borne. How can a man be justified who has been convicted of a crime and sentenced to a term of imprisonment? Only by going to prison and paying the penalty of his crime. Once he has served his term, he can leave prison justified. He need have no more fear of police or magistrates, for the demands of the law have been satisfied. He has been justified from his sin. The same principle holds good if the penalty is death. There is no way of justification except by paying the penalty. You may respond that in this case to pay the penalty is no way of escape. And you would be right if we were talking about capital punishment on earth. Once a murderer has been executed (in countries where the death penalty survives), his life on earth is finished. He cannot live again on earth justified, as can a person who has served a prison sentence. But the wonderful thing about our Christian justification is that our death is followed by a resurrection, in which we can live the life of a justified person, having paid the death penalty (in and through Christ) for our sin. For us, then, it is like this. We deserved to die for our sins. And in fact we did die, though not in our own person, but in the person of Jesus Christ our substitute, who died in our place, and with whom we have been united by faith and baptism. And by union with the same Christ we have risen again. So the old life of sin is finished, because we died to it, and the new life of justified sinners has begun. Our death and resurrection with Christ render it inconceivable that we should go back. It is in this sense that our sinful self has been deprived of power and we have been set free. --- From "The Message of Romans" by John R. W. Stott
The True Source of Happiness. The plain truth is that without Christ there is no happiness in the world. He alone can give the Comforter who abides forever. He is the sun; without Him people never feel warm. He is the light; without Him people are always in the dark. He is the bread; without Him people are always starving. He is the living water; without Him people are always thirsty. Give them what you like - place them where you please - surround them with all the comforts you can imagine - it makes no difference. Separate from Christ, the Prince of Peace, a person cannot be happy. --- Bishop J.C. Ryle
Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
April 29, 2011
A cartoon in The New Yorker this week carries the flavor of the state of affairs in the Episcopal Church if not the Anglican Communion. It is a picture of God (with a beard of course) telling an angel who's carrying a bolt of lightning, "No, no, that won't be necessary-they're doing a pretty good job on themselves."
Momentum is building in the Anglican Communion. A group of orthodox Anglican Archbishops from the Global South is meeting in Nairobi this week under the banner of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA), the umbrella organization of GAFCON. They have issued the first of two statements.
The Most Rev. Eliud Wabukala, Primate of the Anglican Church of Kenya and newly elected Chairman of the GAFCON Primates Council, stated that at the heart of GAFCON is the Jerusalem Declaration that gives a theological and historical framework to our faith as Anglican Christians. GAFCON is committed to the work of reforming, reshaping and renewing global Anglicanism. You will notice that no mention was made of Dr. Rowan Williams' Covenant that is circulating the globe and drawing little support. (The Diocese of Michigan just rejected it.)
Among other things, he noted that they would work to recognize and encourage faithful Anglicans in regions of the world where there is no biblical Anglican voice or presence. Of course, they had TEC in mind, but didn't say so explicitly. They have recognized Archbishop Robert Duncan and the ACNA, which says it all.
What all this says about events taking place in England and the apparent silence of the Archbishop of Canterbury is very suggestive. He is losing his Anglo-Catholic wing to the Roman Catholic Church while his evangelicals are becoming more restive. I am told that some 30 CofE evangelical bishops now meet regularly to discuss the state of affairs in the Mother Church, so who knows where all that will go.
The wagons have been drawn around Lambeth Palace, VOL has learned. Dr. Williams has decided to adopt the Frank Griswold (former TEC PB) tactic of just letting things happen and play out however they do. Ya wanna Covenant, you don't wanna Covenant. Whatever.
An Iron Curtain is descending between the liberal West and the orthodox Global South with the Church of England facing the wrath of its own liberals behind that Curtain. It's not just a North American war any more. We have intentionally exported our Culture Wars to the Mother Church. Now she must face the consequences of capitulating before the Gay Moloch god.
Opposition to women bishops is building and will be voted on next summer. There is a sorting out now of who is supportive of it and who isn't. There is opposition from evangelicals (the Catholic wing is gone). What ultimately happens and how the vote goes could ultimately determine how much of the Church of England will be left when the dust settles.
Evangelicals hold the power in a number of dioceses and by withholding their money they could effectively bankrupt their diocese. That might be considered a nasty tactic, but is it any worse than what homosexuals have done in screaming for their behavior to be accepted and demanding that non celibate dabblers in homogenital sex be permitted to all orders of ministry in the church?
REFORM and Church Society have said they oppose women bishops. The neo-conservative FULCRUM crowd has decided they want to be bishops and for women to be bishops. All they are doing is equivocating and engaging in theology.
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A SUICIDE PACT? Anglican, Episcopal and Lutheran leaders in the United States and Canada have issued a joint pastoral letter to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the churches' full-communion relationships saying that they "look forward to the development of fuller relationships that will lead to a common mission, ministry, and witness in the world."
"Called to Common Mission," the full-communion agreement between the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and "The Waterloo Declaration," between the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, both took effect in 2001. No formal agreements exist between the different denominations across the border, a situation the leaders hope to change.
On May 1, Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson, Anglican Church in Canada Archbishop Fred Hiltz and Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada National Bishop Susan Johnson will participate in unique simultaneous liturgies on either side of the U.S.-Canadian border.
Of course both denominations are in serious decline, which once led satirist, author and commentator Malcolm Muggeridge to opine that ecumenism is like two drunks walking down Oxford Circus each holding onto the other for dear life. If one fell, they both would go down together. That's what is happening in TEC. Behind all the theological hand-wringing about the "historic episcopacy", the nature of the Eucharist, talks about law and grace, is the one single truth that the more one attempts to artificially unite denominations, the more you do so at the expense of truth. If you don't, something eventually will happen and you won't have a church. I have written about this in a story about the state of affairs in the Diocese of Eastern Oregon, which faces the prospect of juncturing with another diocese or simply die out. The whole diocese has just a little over 1,000 ASA in 25 parishes, the size of one mega parish in Dallas.
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The Standing Committee of the Diocese of Eastern Oregon voted to give the former Holy Trinity church building in Vale, vacant and unused since its last service in December, 2007, to the Bully Creek Baptist Church.
When acting Bishop Nedi Rivera called Pastor Darrell Hansen to tell him about Standing Committee's March 11 decision, she said there was silence followed by, "You're kidding." No, Rivera said, she wasn't kidding. "We want ministry to continue in Vale and this is a way for ministry to continue."
The Baptist congregation offered $5,000 for the small wood-shingle building, to be paid over five years, with a minimum monthly payment of $83.33. Hansen wrote, "We are excited about the possibility once again hearing the hymns ringing out of the old church building."
Perhaps. But a shrewd observer of Episcopal politics said this is an excellent example of why bishops hate to close small rural churches. They lose a church and gain a building that is a liability with no sales value. This is a big part of the answer to the fact that TEC is closing a much smaller percentage of churches than it is losing in ASA. Often these small churches are the only TEC church in the area so merging is not possible. I have written a story in today's digest on the state of affairs in that diocese that doesn't make for pleasant reading.
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Former New Jersey Governor James McGreevey, has been denied ordination by the Diocese of Newark to the Episcopal Church. McGreevey, you will remember, famously declared himself a "gay American" at a 2004 press conference, then resigned in disgrace after a male staffer alleged sexual harassment, subsequently went through the second of two divorces, and then sought ordination to the priesthood in the highly inclusive Episcopal Church. They cited his acrimonious divorce(s), not his homosexuality. Clearly McGreevey was too messy even for liberals.
McGreevey renounced his lifelong Roman Catholicism to join the more accommodating TEC, but it would seem that even New Jersey Episcopalians still have some ordination standards. No one would comment, but a source in the diocese indicated, "It was not being gay but for being a jackass -- [McGreevey] didn't come out of the whole divorce looking good." The New York POST broke the story. Jeff Walton of IRD wrote an excellent analysis of the news story.
After leaving office, McGreevey and his new male partner began attending Saint Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in New York, in addition to All Saints' Episcopal Parish in Hoboken, where he began serving on staff. Almost immediately after being received into the Episcopal Church, McGreevey was accepted into General Theological Seminary (GTS) in 2007, where he graduated last spring with a Master of Divinity degree, a requirement to become an Episcopal priest.
One can almost hear the gnashing of teeth among Integrity (TEC's unofficial gay) organization aficionados who will undoubtedly keep pressure on the diocese to admit McGreevey when the dust has settled.
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Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schoriapparently thinks that only a handful of African Anglican archbishops don't like her and that she still has significant pull among the African Anglican dioceses and local bishops with whom she occasionally hobnobs. She said this in answer to questions put to her by a reporter in Pittsburgh where she was preaching recently.
VOL believes she is not facing reality. Her actions are splitting the Anglican Communion. It is a fiction to believe that the actions of ordaining non-celibate homosexuals to the priesthood are behind us. It is not and it will never be over. Consider these words by Nigerian Anglican Archbishop Nicholas Okoh. He described "homosexualism" as "unbiblical, ungodly, unnatural, unacceptable," and said that its acceptance signifies the "end time"..."We are in a kind of free moral fall."
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The University of the South's School of Theologywill increase the basic scholarship available to every student by $1,000 for the 2011-12 school year. Tuition will be frozen at this year's level. The initiative is effective throughout the university.
"This bold step is a response to the concern any student has when considering seminary," said the Very Rev. William Stafford, dean of the seminary. "No one wants to begin their ministry with a large debt; such debt is a drag on the church's mission. The cost of seminary has pushed some students into unwelcome alternatives. This action opens Sewanee's doors even wider to those who want first-rate formation for ministry."
But a Sewanee insider told VOL that they are shamefully missing an opportunity to give $2000 scholarships to the beloved and vibrant communities of color - victims of segregation and our enriching undocumented workers for Christ. To treat all students equally, which just compounds the white privilege problem at Sewanee might be an injustice to those minorities who deserve more because of historical injustices.
"Secondly, donors funded those scholarships which is scary because they assume that Sewanee seminarians might actually be good priests in their home parishes. Episcopalians are blind donors of the worst sort. They never look close enough at who benefits from their money. They never visit the seminary and listen in on classes. The fact that Sewanee has this money to give away proves the point. If Christians looked, they wouldn't ever give to Sewanee, and those who did give, would be asking for their money back..."
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The Episcopal Church is accepting applications for Officer for Interreligious Relations (and perpetual tolerance) based at the Episcopal Church Center offices in New York City. Here's the blurb. [This person] "will work closely with the Officer for Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations on implementing a comprehensive program of engagement in interreligious relations." The job posting states that the Officer for Interreligious Relations will design "a strategy for mapping and maintaining a database of interreligious projects undertaken by dioceses, parishes, and other interreligious agencies."
The posting continues that the incumbent will serve "as the Episcopal Church representative to Interfaith Relations Commission of National Council of Churches and developing materials in interreligious relations to resource clergy, lay leaders, congregations, and other organizations."
Regrettably, this will not save TEC, mush gods rarely do.
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Another diocese, the first was Los Angeles, has responded to the Anglican Covenant. The Deputies and Alternates to the 77th General Convention of the Diocese of Michigan met on March 10 to consider the Anglican Covenant and, for seven reasons, concluded that they could not endorse it. Basically, they argue that they are already in "fellowship and communion" so an Anglican Covenant is "redundant." They also questioned the appropriateness of "Covenant" as a model for ecclesial relations. "A Covenant implies a superior who offers the covenant and a subordinate who accepts it."
It also creates an unnecessary international bureaucratic superstructure whose existence is at odds with the longstanding autonomy of national churches. The real kicker is that it would undermine the full inclusion of all members (read pansexualists) to all orders of ministry and the full access of all its members to its sacramental rites. There's the rub. It all goes back to sodomy.
I guess Dr. Williams didn't figure all this out when he ordered up the Covenant. One can only imagine what other dioceses in TEC will not go for it. Before next General Convention we may know the answer. It's all about the numbers.
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Heard on the grapevine. The Bishop of Montreal, the Left Rev. Barry Bryan Clarke has apparently told the new Dean of the Cathedral, Paul Kennington, that he and his gay partner may not live together in the rectory until they are formally married. The diocese has been working on new same-sex marriage liturgies which I am sure they are anxious to use in that Diocese. Maybe they will have a grand Cathedral wedding. Then they can move in together. Then they may have to employ bouncers to keep all the people wanting to rush into the cathedral and worship on a Sunday morning just like they do in the Diocese of New Hampshire.
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On a more positive note, a new ministry has emerged for Anglicans in North America. Dr. Val Finnell has organized the Anglican Health Ministries www.anglicanhealth.com . You can read the full story in today's digest. They will be holding a West Coast Health Missions and Ministry Conference August 18-20, 2011 at Fuller Theological Seminary. This three day conference is geared to meeting the educational and networking needs of Christian physicians, dentists, nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists, pharmacists, physical therapists, public health workers, mission pastors, para-church workers.
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The Archdiocese of Milwaukee ordained its first married priest this past week. In a traditional ordination at St. Jerome Parish, Deacon Russell Arnett, now Fr. Arnett, who was first ordained in the Episcopal Church, has become the first priest to enter the Archdiocese of Milwaukee through what is called the "Pastoral Provision."
The Pastoral Provision is a Vatican rule started in 1980 that makes it easier for Anglican clergy to convert to Catholicism. Fr. Arnett is a reflection of about 100 married priests in the U.S. who have all converted from other Christian denominations. Arnett's wife, who has also converted with him, says people are generally receptive to the idea of a married priest.
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Proclaiming the traditional 'Christos Voskrese.' (Christ has risen) and the response of the faithful 'Voistinu voskrese' (Truly he has risen), Patriarch Kirill invited Russian Orthodox attending Easter ceremonies in the Cathedral Christ the Savior in Moscow to change their lives "in agreement with this great hope" that is the resurrection, "rejecting what belongs to darkness, what does not belong to Christianity: evil, hatred, envy". Orthodox Easter this year coincided with the Catholic Easter and on the eve of the festival, the Patriarch sent a message to the Pope and Protestant leaders calling for "common witness to the truth of God ... to profess peace, justice and love." Only one Russian in ten attends religious services.
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ROYAL WATCHERS may have noticed the following at THE wedding this week. A VOL reader observed this: 1. The Service was the 1928 proposed English BCP service complete with Elizabethan language. 2. All the clergy were vested in cassock, surplice and stole ... no albs & stoles ... with copes. 3. The Bishop of London was vested in rochet and chimere with preaching scarf. 4. The Abbey clergy all wore preaching bands with cassock, surplice, stole and cope. 5. No one genuflected or reverenced the altar when passing in front of it...not even the Dean or the Archbishop of Canterbury. 6. No one made the sign of the Cross; 7. No incense; 8. The Dean of the Abbey, not the Archbishop of Canterbury, gave the final blessing because the Abbey is a Royal Peculiar, and bishops participate only by invitation of the Dean. 9. Magnificent music. Very Anglican ... fairly low church.
All Blessings
David
