As the sheep multiply in many parts of the world, there is an urgent need for more pastors to feed or teach them. And as the wolves multiply, there is an equally urgent need for more pastors to defeat them by giving their minds to the refutation of error. So the more sheep there are, and the more wolves there are, the more shepherds are needed to feed and protect the flock. --From 'Ideals of Pastoral Ministry', "Bibliotheca Sacra"

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
11/16/2006

With Mrs. Schori's investiture, many believe that The Episcopal Church is now out of apostolic succession. In short anything she does, in that office, is by nature illegitimate. Any ordinations or consecrations are invalid. Shalom indeed.

The most famous Anglican preacher/teacher of the last century John R. W. Stott put it well when he wrote (above) that it is the duty of shepherds to protect the sheep from wolves. But what if the shepherd himself (or herself) is a false shepherd with no discernible gospel and no ability to impart the faith once delivered to the saints?

Last week PA. Bishop Charles E. Bennison was revealed for what he is, a wolf with a miter and shepherd's staff out to destroy the faithful in his diocese. Not only is he an apostate bishop holding views on the Christian Faith that are not remotely apostolic, his views on human sexuality are equally morally bankrupt, and his cover-up of his brother's sexual abuse of a 14-year old would have, had not the statute of limitations run out, brought him up before the courts for his failure to report the abuse. He is complicit in an abuse that Jesus himself said warranted a millstone around his neck.

Bennison is a survivor, at least for the moment. He told the religion editor of the Philadelphia INQUIRER following convention that even if the vote had gone against him and a majority of the delegates wanted him to resign he would not have done so. "I do not have any plans to resign," he said. The hubris, oh the hubris. The diocese did not have the testosterone to throw him out at their convention. They gave him a pass. By doing so they are as complicit in his crimes, as he is; they are 'hirelings'. And for that God will punish them. He must, because God is God, and His word cannot be altered or reversed. The convention was adjourned with unfinished business. The diocese will meet again in 60 days. High on the agenda will a resolution to limit the power of the Diocesan Council who does the bishop's bidding. They are the toadies of the diocese. Secondly, to separate out the trust for medical insurance for clergy so Bennison cannot spend it on his programs. Whatever happens, there is still enormous litigation waiting for Bennison. He will be so absorbed with this that he won't have much time for anything else.

BUT the truly big news of the week was the announcement that the DIOCESE OF SAN JOAQUIN could secede from the National Church at its next convention in December if the clergy and laity vote to do so. Thus spake Bishop John-David Schofield. If so his diocese will be in vanguard of the 39th Anglican North American Province, so he says. If he and the diocese do split they will come under Southern Cone Archbishop Greg Venables. You can read the full story here, or in today's digest. http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=5008

THERE were two Episcopal Church elections for bishop this past week, one for the DIOCESE OF SOUTHERN OHIO, the other for the DIOCESE OF ARKANSAS.

In the case of Southern Ohio they picked the Rev. Thomas Edward Breidenthal, 55, the pro gay dean of religious life at Princeton University. His support of same-sex unions puts the diocese into the thick of the growing feud over pansexual behavior. "I have a fairly settled conviction that any two persons who struggle to live and grow together in fidelity on a lifetime basis have the opportunity to experience God's grace and to use that relationship for holiness," he said. Breidenthal did say he would not perform a same-sex union without the consent of the church. His predecessor Herbert Thompson was a moderately conservative black bishop who came within three votes of beating out Frank Griswold for PB in 1999. Sadly, over time he rolled over into the pansexual agenda. He died on a trip to Italy recently.

In the DIOCESE OF ARKANSAS, they elected, a conservative, reversing the ultra-liberal direction of that diocese under Bishop Larry Maze. The new bishop is the Rev. Larry R. Benfield, 51, a bachelor. He will become its 13th bishop. An orthodox priest in the diocese wrote VOL overjoyed at the diocese's choice. "A true Southern 'Christian Gentleman' has been made a bishop, the real thing, and the first in years, Praise God! There is no pretense, no dishonesty, I am overjoyed! I was one of his nominators...I think he is one of the finest people I have ever known. He will not tolerate heresy...he will protect us folks. Tonight I sleep the sleep of the saved. The clergy voted him in first! They saw the damage done by the libertine direction the church has taken." Maze, 63, will retire at the end of the year. Benfield is scheduled to be consecrated on January 6, 2007.

In the DIOCESE OF VIRGINIA, two parishes announced they were leaving the diocese and the TEC this week. The news is not entirely unexpected. The vestries of Falls Church and Truro Church announced they were disaffiliating from the diocese and national church after 40 days of discernment. "We are very, very sad that the vestries are going to recommend to the congregations that they sever ties to The Episcopal Church," said Bishop Lee. The two parishes are hoping to leave with their properties, but the Secretary of the Diocese Patrick Getlein noted, "there is no approved protocol" for leaving. Watch for sparks to fly here.

And from the DIOCESE OF DALLAS comes this word from a VOL reader: "So far six churches in the diocese have petitioned for separation, including the largest Episcopal Church in the country-Christ Church Plano. The first three clergy to petition to leave were the only three clergy members of the Standing Committee. One must wonder why so may churches are leaving the Diocese of Dallas seemingly not to trust Bishop Stanton. In a recent meeting with conservative clergy from the Diocese at Trinity Church in Dallas, Bishop Stanton "begged" clergy not to leave as it would not look good for him personally, and other Anglican bishops around the world would wonder what was going on in Dallas. "He has waffled, covered the truth about Delegated Pastoral Oversight, and even insisted on standing with ECUSA. What else could he expect? It's interesting that the largest number of departures within ECUSA come from an ACN-affiliated Diocese. As a rector in this Diocese, I know personally of at least four more churches that are planning to leave in the next few weeks. Stay tuned for an implosion in the Diocese of Dallas..."

From the DIOCESE OF SOUTH CAROLINA comes this. VOL has been told that even if the Very Rev. Mark J. Lawrence, 56, rector, St. Paul's Episcopal Parish, Bakersfield, does not receive consents to be the next bishop of SC by the House of Bishop, the diocese will go ahead and consecrate him anyway. They will present it as a fait accompli to the ABC who, based on past performance would have to accept him. So far the ABC has had photo ops with Mrs. Schori and the new illegitimate Bishop of Recife. Stay tuned.

In Smyrna in the DIOCESE OF TENNESSEE a new parish has been borne, formerly All Saints Episcopal Church, now St. Patrick's Anglican Church is under the Rev. Ray Kasch, former pastor of All Saints. It is the first church in Middle Tennessee to do so. Kasch said the church timed the recent split with the seating of Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori as the new PB.

Kasch told VOL that the diocese is currently letting them meet in their building which they hope to negotiate a lease and or buy. They don't have a new bishop yet, but they are willing to walk away from the property. "I planted this church 9 years ago and we met in a number of facilities before we built so we are willing to do what we have to do. We were in an old Walmart before we built, and were a close church, then so we don't fear leaving the building. When I spoke of the difficulty of those who had been in their buildings many years, where your grandmother was baptized and married and buried, one woman spoke up and said, "Well if they ever hope to see their grandmother again they had better be willing to walk away from the building." This sums up the new St. Patrick's Anglican Church's perspective.

Kasch told VOL that over 86% voted to leave and over the last two Sundays they have had the best attendance since Easter and about $1,000 more in the offering plate than normal. Also at least four people each Sunday have returned whom we previously lost after Mr. Robinson's election to be the bishop of New Hampshire. AMIA Bishop T.J. Johnston of AMiA is giving them emergency oversight.

"Bishop Von Rosenberg is threatening to depose me so I contacted T.J. for covering. A new church in Chattanooga went AMiA and called a priest so I left before being deposed. We are an Anglo-Catholic parish and will take the next few months to discern where we will land. We have also asked Quincy to consider us for their new "companion parish" but they and we are trying to figure out what that is." You can read the full story here or in today's digest. http://tinyurl.com/yhm9ov

In the DIOCESE OF WEST VIRGINIA Bishop W. Michie Klusmeyer told his 129th annual Convention September 15-17 at Pipestem Resort State Park that it was time for the Episcopal Church to move forward. "There are many bishops, as well as many lay people who are tired of the extremes battling it out," he told the Convention. "I believe that new coalitions and new visions for the Church will be forthcoming, and that the various meetings taking place around the Church -- those known, and those unknown -- will help move us forward, together."

"Both extremes of our Church, the extreme liberals and the extreme conservatives (I'm sorry for these labels, but they are the easiest ways to describe them) have used inaccurate reports to spur emotions, and to further divide the Communion and our Church. Both sides are guilty," he said.

"The people in the pews are, for the most part, tired of hearing of our internal fights and struggles. They want to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ. They want to be fed. They want to know why Jesus should be an important part of their lives," Klusmeyer said. "If they are fed, they stay. If they are not, they leave, and with good reason."

TALK, TALK, TALK BUT NO CONSENSUS, this quaint fiction floating around the Episcopal Church that if we just keep talking long enough, and keep everyone at the table, we shall finally arrive at consensus. This was expressed again by one of its liberal defenders recently when the bishop of Northwest Texas C. Wallis Ohl said to delegates to his convention that to require that all everywhere adhere to a single understanding [of Scripture] is simply not Anglican. I have analyzed what this means in some depth in today's digest.

THE ARCHBISHOP OF YORK John Sentamu condemned what he called the systematic erosion of Christianity from public life. He told lay readers illiberal atheists were undermining Britain's religious heritage. Earlier this week Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and Catholic leader Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor launched a joint attack on what they called intolerant public atheism. In their foreword to Doing God: A Future for Faith in the Public Square, a report by new religious think tank Theos, they argued against limiting religion to the private sphere. Campaigners against religion in public life had an "intolerant faith position", they said.

LEAC CONFERENCE RESCHEDULED. Death or hospitalization of three prime speakers and developing events within the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion have resulted in rescheduling an educational conference on remedying the churches' schismatic challenges. We regret that the Lay Episcopalians for the Anglican Communion (LEAC) conference that was to be held in Orlando this coming weekend had to be canceled wrote Jim Ince, coordinator. It is being rescheduled in Orlando Feb. 28-Mar. 1, 2006. The theme, "One Christian Question for Episcopalians," will have greater resonance after two critical ecclesial parleys scheduled before Feb. 28, he writes.

FEELING THE FINANCIAL PINCH the Executive Council recently trimmed its meetings' length from four days to three to accommodate budget reductions. More will be done electronically. Perhaps the withdrawal of funds by orthodox dioceses is beginning to have affect after all. The 75th General Convention cut the Executive Council budget for the 2007-2009 triennium by one-third.

THE Anglican Mission in America (AMIA) Winter Conference 2007 to be held January 17-20, 2007 in Jacksonville, Florida will draw some big name speakers. Among them Rebecca Pippert, author of the evangelism classic "Out of the Saltshaker", The Rev. Canon Dr. Michael Green will return to Winter Conference to challenge and encourage our hearts to renewed evangelism. Jack Deere is an equipper and trainer for the body of Christ. He has planted three churches, was a seminary professor, traveled the world speaking in conferences, authored best selling books, and is currently the senior pastor of Wellspring Church in Ft. Worth. Dr. J.I. Packer, Dean of Anglican Theologians, will serve as their Bible Study teacher. Author of the classic "Knowing God", this British-born Anglican theologian is Professor of Theology at Regent College in Vancouver. One of the leading Christian thinkers of the last 30 years, Dr. Packer met CS Lewis while he was studying at Oxford, and committed his life to Christian service at a meeting of the Oxford Christian Union.

Winter Conference 07 will be held at the Hyatt Regency Riverfront in Jacksonville, Florida. You can book a hotel room through their website, or call 904.588.1234 and ask for the special Anglican Mission rate until December 15th. If you have questions, please call 843-237-0318. You can register online at www.theamia.org/register

AMONG TOP EXCLUSIVE stories by your scribe in today's digest are the successful breakaway of a parish in the DIOCESE OF SAN DIEGO. St. John's Anglican Church, in Fallbrook, California was vindicated in its fight to prevent a small group of former members and the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego, led by Episcopal Bishop James Mathes, from interfering with its corporate governance and taking over its property. The parish won on neutral principles of law. "We are delighted that this is the final ruling and that the courts found in our favor," Rick Crossley, senior warden of the parish told VOL. "This fits with what happened in the Diocese of Los Angeles where three parishes who fought and won their properties from Bishop J Jon Bruno." The liberals are not winning them all despite national chancellor David Booth Beers saying they are, or will, prevail. It ain't over till it's over, and the fighting over properties is barely in the first round. An entire diocese is ready to blow the TEC. Watch for major league fireworks. You can read that story in today's digest or click here: http://tinyurl.com/yxtc2s

In the DIOCESE OF LOS ANGELES the court ruled again in favor of All Saints' Parish. More than a year after its highly publicized split from the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and the national church in favor of Ugandan leadership, a judge ruled this week that All Saints' Church is entitled to keep its Belmont Heights property. Ah the smell of victory. Bishop Bruno and national chancellor David Booth Beers must be grinding their teeth in frustration. You can read that story in today's digest.

IN the DIOCESE OF MILWAUKEE a group of 16 clergy and laity have filed a complaint with the national church against the Bishop of Milwaukee, the Rt. Rev. Steven A. Miller over allegations that he persecuted a liberal woman priest at Grace Episcopal Church in Madison, Wisconsin who faces expulsion for violating her priestly vows. The charges, which they hope will lead to presentment, alleges abuse of power in the way he handled her discipline for an alleged breach of confidentiality. She has been barred from serving as a priest since May.

This is an interesting turnabout. On the one hand the moderately conservative bishop has inhibited a woman priest he will probably depose, and in the middle of the trial, 16 clergy and laity go after him! Is this a great church or what? And mostly liberal bishops like Ohl and Klusmeyer want to lower the temperature in the TEC and the more they talk about it the more things just heat up!

THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY Dr. Rowan Williams and Pope Benedict XVI will have their first official meeting later this month. The two met briefly following the Pope's Inauguration Mass in 2005. The private Papal Audience on Thursday, November 23, will be the centerpiece of Williams' visit to Rome, which runs November 21-26. An observer close to the scene said it will be interesting to see what comes of this. "I feel very sorry for Rowan. I am sure he personally very much wants reconciliation between Anglicans and the RC Church, but he will have to defend his liberal provinces knowing that they are the great barrier to Christian unity. The Romans are determined to press ahead with eastward facing ecumenism, now that the great Anglican game is drawing to a close. Another thing he will have to explain to His Holiness is the growing number of "married" homosexual clergy." Oh to be a fly on the wall.

BUT a truly ecclesiastically bankrupt priest, the former Secretary General of the Anglican Consultative Council John L. Peterson reared his revisionist head over the ramparts this past week and blasted the Internet for destroying the unity of the Anglican Communion, while lauding Millennium Development Goals as the way forward to promote church unity and alleviate world hunger. Peterson, an egregious little man, was a toady of Frank Griswold's when he was Presiding Bishop. His specialty was manipulating gatherings of Primates to enhance his paymaster's standing, while isolating and confusing Global South Primates, denying them phone access among themselves and to the outside world at various primatial gatherings. I have taken to task his words. You can read it in today's digest or here: http://tinyurl.com/y6ysu6

AND just before going to press, the Episcopal Church's Executive Council met November 15 and proposed an "Anglican regional convocation of the Americas" to better equip churches for "mutuality and interdependence in God's mission." Is this the beginning of what we saw at GC2006 where some 16 flags representing the embrace of the TEC were flown for all to see? Are we beginning to see the formation of a liberal province drawing into its embrace that includes the Anglican Church of Canada, the Anglican Council of Latin America (Concilio Anglicano Latino Americano or CALA), and the Province of the West Indies? The other major convocation of Anglican provinces consists of churches in the Global South. Could or would such a province include liberals from the Church of England, Brazil, Southern Africa.

As the Rev. Jack Estes wrote in the latest issue of the TLC, "the great divide in the Anglican stream of Christianity is upon us. The division, which is already a reality beneath the surface, is becoming visible and tangible to all. Common language does not make the English into Americans nor Americans into English. Neither will it make liberal Episcopalians into conservative Episcopalians, nor conservative Anglicans into liberal Episcopalians. The time for denial is over. The day is at hand when all must choose to stand on one side of the divide or the other. Reformation is already underway. The only question remaining is how will it be accomplished? Will we reform with civility and respect for one another, or with bloody conflict and court battles?

As of now it is very clear that the battles are being fought in priest to bishop combat and in parish to diocese combat, and diocese to national church combat. Presentments and inhibitions, ecclesiastical and court battles have only just begun, we shall see a lot more before it is all over.

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