The Christian religion, for two thousand years persuaded Western man that he existed as one of a human family whose father was in Heaven. As in a family, each individual was separately and particularly loved. The most sacred, the most inviolable thing on earth was a human soul, any and every one, whether it inhabited the flesh of rich or poor, clever or foolish, well or sick. Thus, to incorporate a man into a herd, and put him under the necessity of following the herd's destiny, was to destroy the purpose of his being. He was himself or he was nothing. Of the herd, the fearful image stands forever -- the Gadarene swine rushing to destruction. --- Malcolm Muggeridge in Things Past

A missionary religion. There are the five parts of the Bible. The God of the Old Testament is a missionary God, calling one family in order to bless all the families of the earth. The Christ of the Gospels is a missionary Christ; he sent the church out to witness. The Spirit of the Acts is a missionary Spirit; he drove the church out from Jerusalem to Rome. The church of the epistles is a missionary church, a worldwide community with a worldwide vocation. The end of the Revelation is a missionary End, a countless throng from every nation. So I think we have to say the religion of the Bible is a missionary religion. The evidence is overwhelming and irrefutable. Mission cannot be regarded as a regrettable lapse from tolerance or decency. Mission cannot be regarded as the hobby of a few fanatical eccentrics in the church. Mission lies at the heart of God and therefore at the very heart of the church. A church without mission is no longer a church. It is contradicting an essential part of its identity. The church is mission. --- John R.W. Stott

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
January 2, 2015

The No. 1 Anglican news story of the year is the Church of England's overwhelmingly vote to allow women bishops. A parish priest from Hale, the Rev. Libby Lane, a 48-year-old mother of two, made history as the first woman to be named as a bishop in the Church of England. She will be the next Bishop of Stockport in Greater Manchester.

It comes more than 20 years after the ordination of the first female priests in the established church and almost a century after the first attempts to open the ministry to women. It was a surprise choice no one saw coming; even the bookies were taken by surprise.

VOL's No.2 Anglican story of the year is the Archbishop of Canterbury's failure to unite the Anglican Communion despite visiting all 38 provinces. He publicly admitted at the end of his travels that the Communion might not hold together. In fact we have a de facto split if not a de jure one. The real question now is: Can he ever bring the Primates of the Communion together again or hold another Lambeth Conference!

VOL's No. 3 news story is revelations that Western Anglicanism is in deep trouble and that the CofE, TEC, and the ACoC might not be around a generation from now. Already both secular and church historians are sounding the alarm that nearly all mainline denominations are in rapid decline and will likely not be in existence by the middle of the Century unless there is a spiritual revival. That appears unlikely as denominations like TEC, PCUSA, the ELCA and Church of Christ (to name a few) are running out of theological steam, running on a progressive ticket that has removed itself from biblical authority. As Fr. George Rutler, a former Episcopal priest and now an RC priest in NYC, observed this past week, "TEC is a tragic example of what happens when you abandon a serious commitment to the teachings of Christ." Ya think!

Fr. Rutler notes that the Episcopal Church has changed significantly. "It is vanishing. A few generations ago, it was the unofficial official church of the United States. It was a visible presence in the national order. It was prosperous and effective in many ways. That's all gone now. It doesn't exist anymore. The remnant you see is post-Christian. Demographically, the Church of England will not exist in 20 years. Other Anglican groups outside England have been ordaining women as priests and bishops in recent years, and the result has not only been theologically chaotic but a demographic catastrophe."

Within The Episcopal Church, there was some notable news, none of it good.

VOL's No. 4 story is the triumph of "Neutral Principles" over the Dennis Canon in legal battles being fought in South Carolina, Ft. Worth and Quincy. Higher courts have been reversing lower court rulings, making it seem almost impossible for TEC to hold on to properties they believe are theirs.

VOL's No. 5 story is the death of two homosexual bishops. Otis Charles died Dec. 2013 and Tom Shaw, Bishop of Massachusetts, died Oct. 2014. Gay activist Bishop Gene Robinson kept making the news with occasional columns in the Huffington Post, thus giving him a continued platform to spout his erroneous views about God and sodomy.

VOL's No. 6 story is the continuing decline of The Episcopal Church. Jeff Walton of IRD noted that the denomination's Office of Research compiled the self-reported statistical tables for provinces and dioceses for the last reporting year (2013) and noted that in U.S. dioceses, baptisms are down five percent from 27,140 in 2012 to 25,822 in 2013. Similarly, marriages are down four percent from 10,366 to 9,933 (the denomination has seen a 40 percent decline in children baptized since 2003 and a 46 percent decline in marriages over the same period). The losses are not evenly distributed, with some dioceses performing worse than others: in the Diocese of Northern Michigan, where an ordained Buddhist was elected (and later failed to gain consent from other dioceses) to be bishop in 2009, zero children were confirmed in 2013.

Overall TEC is numerically down more than 5% in ASA with The Episcopal Church taking a huge hit in numbers in the Diocese of South Carolina, where TEC Bishop Charles vonRosenberg reigns.

VOL's No. 7 story is the Episcopal Church's attempts to reinvent itself with something called TREC. Findings from a study revealed that the Church must change or face a serious financial crisis. So the committee recommended a unicameral House of Bishops and Deputies, more power for the Presiding Bishop, reduced General Convention time, fewer resolutions.

VOL's NO. 8 story is the news that Bishop vonRosenberg sued his own Church Insurance Company of Vermont for money to continue suing Bishop Mark Lawrence of the Diocese of South Carolina (Anglican), now under the ecclesiastical authority of Global South Primates.

That was not the only act of a particularly nasty bishop against one of his own. VonRosenberg later wrote a letter to the former Bishop Suffragan of South Carolina, William J. Skilton, telling him in no uncertain terms that because of the "confusion" and ecclesiastical breakdown of the diocese, he can no longer function sacramentally as a bishop in the diocese, even though Skilton has been around the diocese for more than 40 years! He has not left and joined either Bishop Lawrence or the ACNA!

So much for all that wonderful talk of inclusion and bridge-building and, oh God, lest we forget, "reconciliation" that everyone talks so much about from Justin Welby to Jefferts Schori. Nothing ever changes. Everyone is becoming more entrenched with little hope for change.

VOL's NO. 9 story came as the year ended with a real bang when the Suffragan Bishop of Maryland, Heather Cook, hit and killed a cyclist, then left the scene of the accident, only returning to the scene when a cyclist followed her to her gated community. They found an empty whiskey bottle in her car. The Bishop of the Diocese, Eugene Taylor Sutton, immediately went into spin mode and suspended her. More on that next.

*****

Leaders in the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, who this spring made Heather Elizabeth Cook a bishop -- the diocese's first female bishop -- knew the ugly details of her 2010 drunk-driving arrest, but determined "that this one mistake should not bar her for consideration as a leader." The diocese admitted this in a statement Tuesday.

Now the diocese finds itself under fire after Cook acknowledged that she was involved in a crash on Saturday that killed bicyclist Thomas Palermo, the father of two small children. Cook left the scene but returned later, Bishop Eugene Taylor Sutton noted in a statement Monday.

Baltimore police revealed they have questioned her, but no charges have been filed. They will consult with the state's attorney.

It was Saturday 2:37pm when officers were called to the 5700 block of Roland Avenue for a report of a car accident. When police arrived, avid cyclist, Thomas Palermo, 41, was lying on the side of the road still alive and barely breathing. He was immediately rushed to Sinai Hospital where he later died from his injuries. He leaves behind a wife and two young children.

Cyclists who knew the victim were so outraged they are asking that Baltimore's first female bishop be charged in the death of a bicyclist she struck with her car on Saturday.

Rachel Beck, an avid biker, who lives close to the scene of the accident, saw Cook return Saturday to the crash site Saturday. "She looked disoriented at the moment," Beck said. "More than half of her window was completed crushed, just completely crushed."

One group has started a social media campaign "Justice For Tom Palermo" on Facebook, in which they are asking that Cook be charged with homicide.

It bears careful watching to see if the Diocese of Maryland and TEC apply Title IV fairly to her. Of course, if a godly bishop like Bill Love had been caught in a hit and run accident while under the influence, we know exactly what would happen. Will the Presiding Bishop do to Cook what they would do to an orthodox bishop? We wait with baited breath.

One shrewd observer believed the tactic of TEC would be to plead "forgiveness", temporarily inhibit her, and then slide her back when no one is looking.

This is not Bishop Cook's first run-in with Maryland law enforcement. In 2010 she racked up an impressive list of infractions: Police said Heather Elizabeth Cook, 53, of Cabin Creek Road, was charged with marijuana and drug paraphernalia possession, driving while under the influence of alcohol, reckless driving, negligent driving and other traffic offenses.

Police said Cook's car was stopped on state Route 318, near Greenfield Court, and deputies found that the front passenger tire of her car had shredded and fallen off the rim.

Cook performed poorly on field sobriety tests, police noted. Her blood alcohol level registered at .27, more than three times the legal limit in Maryland, in a breath test.

According to Baltimore Police spokesman Det. Jeremy Silbert, a bottle of wine and a nearly empty bottle of whiskey along with a metal smoking device were found in her car. The woman was clearly well over the limit.

One hopes that the wife of Mr. Palermo sues the diocese, including Sutton, for everything it has. One canon lawyer has told VOL that lawyers could go after Sutton for "failure to supervise" and get big bucks from the diocese.

All this begs the question: just what sort of background check was or was not done in her case and why had she never told anyone about her previous arrest (even if her record was expunged) before having hands laid on her to become Maryland's first woman bishop.

Michelle Boorstein of the Washington Post dug out that. According to spokeswoman Sharon Tillman, diocesan officials, including "the co-chairs of the selection committee and the diocese's chancellor, knew of the incident, but she couldn't confirm who else knew. Several people, who were part of the bigger convention that voted for Cook this spring, said they were not told about the arrest. So now we learn that the laity was kept in the dark; only the poohbahs knew what was going on. So typical of TEC. Keep the laity in the dark as if the purple shirts are wiser than they, and the diocese gets po' white trash for a bishop.

She is not the first drunken, besotted bishop of course. During his reign as Bishop of New Hampshire, sodomite Bishop Gene Robinson checked himself into rehab declaring he was one. Carolyn Tanner Irish Bishop of Utah was another divorcee and alcoholic. There have been others who have concealed their alcoholism. I briefly worked for the Bishop of Virginia, Robert Bruce Hall, a raging alcoholic who could barely get through a Eucharist service before hitting the bottle. None of them got caught in a hit and run accident as this woman did.

At a deeper level, one has to ask how and why Episcopalians elect bishops from the bottom of the ecclesiastical barrel. Part of it, of course, is political correctness. The laity have been so dumbed down from the pulpit and made to feel their guilt as middle class white folk, that they elect blacks, gays and lesbians, married, divorced or whatever in the name of a false compassion and a false inclusion. (They elected Jefferts Schori who revealed she had had minimal theological education, but she did have a Ph.D. in science and was a woman). Whoever said they were the right qualifications? She has since proven that her theological credentials meant nothing with pronouncements about the resurrection and Jesus that are less than orthodox.

I have posted a number of stories from this horrendous accident and the subsequent behavior of this bishop in today's digest.

The big question now is will the Presiding Bishop invoke Title IV to get rid of her.

*****

Pope Francis intensifying his efforts on climate change in 2015 issued an encyclical to the faithful in March, highlighting the threat of global warming to the Earth. He addressed the U.N. General Assembly in September and, finally, and pushed for a global compact on climate change in Paris in December.

*****

Secularism is killing Ghanaians, said an Anglican priest this week. The Very Rev. Emmanuel Entsi- Williams, Dean of Christ Church Anglican Cathedral, Cape Coast, observed that secularism, which he explained as the inclination to worldly things, was rife and killing Ghanaians.

He said many people have conformed to the standards of the world instead of depending on God, thinking the world can save them, but they were still in their woes adding, "no one can save us except God".

Very Rev. Entsi- Williams made the observation in his Christmas message in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA).

He urged Ghanaians especially leaders to rely on the power and wisdom of God for direction and also play their individual roles very well for 2015 to be a year of blessings.

Rev. Entsi-Williams also noted that the simplicity of the birth of Jesus is an indication that he was a humble, gentle, modest and simple person, and therefore advised Christians to take cues from His exemplary life as well as exhibit love to each other. He also advised Christians to make Christ the focus of the Christmas and New Year celebrations instead of engaging in indecent activities which did not reflect the personality of the " Lord and Savior" being celebrated.

The Dean, urged Ghanaians to stop unhealthy partisan politics with its attendant polarization, unite, live peacefully and work towards the development of the nation.

Just image an Episcopal bishop talking like that! His archdeacon would have a heart attack.

*****

The first Church of England vicar to undergo a sex change operation died at age 60 this week after a battle with pancreatic cancer. The Rev Carol Stone was ordained 36 years ago as male vicar -- the Rev. Peter Stone. She returned to the pulpit after undergoing a sex change in 2000.

Twice-divorced with a daughter, she stunned parishioners at St Philip's in Upper Stratton, near Swindon in Wiltshire, when she announced she was changing from man to woman.

She said she never dreamed she would be allowed to return to her post, but Church of England bosses said there was nothing to stop her.

A local police officer attended her return service and one pensioner was escorted for an outburst during her sermon, but it ended with a standing ovation from her congregation.

Twice-divorced with a daughter, she stunned parishioners at St Philip's in Upper Stratton, near Swindon in Wiltshire when she announced she was changing from man to woman.

The Rt. Rev. Lee Rayfield, the Bishop of Swindon, paid tribute to her saying, "She and her colleagues really worked hard and overcame one setback after another."

You thought this sort of thing only happened in The Episcopal Church? Nope. The disease has spread across the pond much like Ebola. The only difference is that in this case, the consequences are eternal. Most Ebola victims are true Christians.

*****

UNBROKEN: The Movie. Angeline Jolie should never be allowed to make a "Christian" movie, or at least a movie about a Christian man.

She is working on ground that she has little or no knowledge of and has the gaul to think she can make a movie about a man's life that is light years from her own. She neither understands the problem of evil, except in a lot of gory scenes without understanding that the story is not what she thinks it's about.

I had the misfortune to see the movie and it made me realize how far off base Hollywood "stars" are in their attempt to talk about The Faith, my faith, and then proceed to make a movie about it. Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ was excellent though the blood and gore could have been cut to a level to make it at least believable that Jesus actually made it to the cross BEFORE he died. Gibson is a committed Roman Catholic.

In UNBROKEN Jolie who has no religious convictions, gives us two hours of unstoppable gore on two fronts; afloat on a sea and a concentration camp. But that is only half the story. Perhaps not even half.

Louis Zamperini, the hero of the story became a Christian after the war was over.

We only know about the man's conversion at the end when the credits roll and we see he was converted at a Billy Graham Crusade and went on to work for the Lord. Why no crusade scenes, why no coming forward, why no grappling with his own pain and the problem of evil, why no scenes in his attempt to offer forgiveness to The Bird. These would have made great cinematographical possibilities, but she showed nothing of this, perhaps aware that it deeply conflicts with her own world view which amounts to very little, mainly Brad Pitt and a pair of artificial breasts. Better to stick to the blood and gore of sea and camps. That's what audiences like, or think they do.

The Wall Street Journal noted more about what the movie missed. "In 1949 Zamperini's wife implored him to go with her to Billy Graham's tent revival in downtown Los Angeles. The second night, Zamperini "walked the sawdust trail"--and publicly professed his newfound faith. He tossed out booze and cigarettes and embraced a lifetime of selfless Christian service, including a trip to Japan to forgive his tormentors.

Though Ms. Hillenbrand recounts Zamperini's conversion, she doesn't say much about how it influenced the rest of his life. In the movie "Unbroken," Billy Graham goes unmentioned, and Zamperini's redemption narrative is largely reduced to a few title cards flashed before the closing credits. Yet Zamperini himself believed that the religious event was the pivotal moment of his long journey. In his 2003 memoir--titled, like one he published in 1956, "Devil at My Heels"--Zamperini recounts the tent-revival experience in detail and thanks Billy Graham in the acknowledgments "for his message that caused me to turn my life around."

None of this was shown in the movie.

*****

Years ago before I started Virtuosity which became VIRTUEONLINE I was warned that I would quickly self-destruct if I didn't tone it down a bit. Really. I was told that I was too strident and if I told the truth about The Episcopal Church, two things would happen. No one would believe me and then no one read what I wrote because they would tune me out.

It didn't happen. Back then, first in 1979 and then later in the late 80s and 90s, things began to go seriously wrong and TEC began to unravel. Now we all know it has gotten so much worse than even I could have imagined. Numerous in the closet and openly gay and lesbian bishops and priests living in sexual sin; priests who have had sex change operations and priests and bishops who no longer even believe the gospel, discarding doctrines like so much toilet paper. (See John Shelby Spong). And no one called them to account. They got away with it.

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VIRTUONLINE WISHES ALL ITS READERS IN 170 COUNTRIES A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR and may God prosper you in your ministries wherever you are and in whatever community you are serving.

In Christ,

David