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COMMENTARY   By David W. Virtue, DD www.virtueonline.org January 21, 2025   It is time to boldly state the truth.   The Anglican Communion, as it is presently constructed is finished. What we have now is unsustainable.   Attempts to reconfigure, revive, restate, reconstruct and reconstitute the Anglican Communion have simply failed.   The departure of Archbishops Justin Welby, John Sentamu, George Carey, and one hopes Stephen Cottrell, were signposts of failure along the way. The problems were coming on long before John Smyth’s sadistic behavior was uncovered throwing the church into complete turmoil. The Makin Review merely highlighted not just a failed safeguarding system, but a church both morally and theologically bankrupt.   The rot set in with the passage of Lambeth Resolution 1:10 passed at Lambeth ‘98, a withering indictment on western pansexual hopes to engineer a new sexuality into church. It failed. For 27 years 1:10 has hung like a Damoclean sword over the communion defying all attempts to parse it, spin it or ignore it. The resolution and its demands refused to go away. Justin Welby tried to deflect it at the last Lambeth conference by focusing on climate change, but the Global South led by South Sudan Archbishop Justin Badi refused to let the issue die, and Welby found himself blindsided, and when called upon to repent he refused.   The appalling arrogance of Welby in believing he is the center of the Anglican universe was painful to watch. I have observed the decline over four Lambeth conferences. An effort by Rowan Williams to produce the Windsor Report to right the ecclesial deficit, was simply a blip in the road. Nothing changed. Williams was politely told to leave and went. His replacement was the worst appointment ever in the history of Anglicanism.   One very knowledgeable CofE insider said this about Welby; “He is a nasty piece of work. Ruthlessly ambitious and arrogant, always conscious of his upper-class status. But a second-class history graduate and a fourth-rate thinker.”   I doubt one could be more definitive than that. Certainly, his choices and compromises got him the press he deserved. Most British newspaper columnists and commentators over time, both sacred and secular skewered him.   From his knee weakening over homosexuality, to reparations, to immigration, to euthanasia (the only thing I agreed with him about) to climate change and an ebbing of the gospel mandate, Welby kept playing losing hands in a communion poker game. He never once had a full house.   His departure raises serious questions about who should follow in his footsteps. The temporary arrangement sees York Archbishop Stephen Cottrell taking the reins, with many believing he too should have stepped down over his failed safeguarding issues.   Justin Welby’s departure begs the question as to who will fill his shoes.   The plethora of English bishops are all progressive including the most likely successor, Iranian born Bishop of Chelmsford, the Rt. Rev. Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani who is on board with the blessing of same-sex couples. Five Anglican Communion representatives will play a part in selecting his successor. This opens the possibility of a Global South bishop or archbishop being selected. They would, of course all be orthodox in faith and morals, a sticking point for the majority of the House of Bishops.   A GAFCON or GSFA bishop would be a cat among the pigeons in the CofE House of Bishops and give York Archbishop Cottrell heartburn. As GAFCON bishops have already detached themselves from the CofE it is unlikely one would be selected.   It should not come as a surprise that there are proposals afoot by a working body in the communion to decrease the centrality of the Archbishop of Canterbury. This would be a huge nail in the coffin of colonialism that has been the hallmark of the CofE’s power.   By any reckoning the Church of England is finished as a global player. With fewer than 700,000 practicing Anglicans in England, the communion’s largest province (note the colonial ring to that term) now is Nigeria and they continue to grow with new dioceses and bishops added almost annually.   Nigerian Archbishop Henry Ndukuba has made it abundantly clear he wants nothing to do with the Church of England. “We cannot walk with you unless you repent,” he and his fellow African bishops once told Welby. The leader of the Church of England never did, and now he has gone. He will not be missed. Furthermore, there is nothing to suggest his successor will repent.   A new day is dawning. If the Church of England goes ahead with a woman archbishop who is progressive on sexuality issues it will be an easy call to separate completely from the CofE.   Women bishops, while few in number in the Global South are not recognized by the Anglican Church in North America and many other jurisdictions. It remains a sticking point for any talk of unity.   As things now stand, the Global South owns the Anglican Communion just with the sheer weight of numbers. Despite efforts to buy their support by western pansexualists it has not worked. While they have not felt the full weight of post-modernism in their cultures, there is still no evidence that they can be bought or are ready to roll over. They have watched the devastating consequences of compromise with cultural Marxism in the West resulting in empty churches, to know that is a non-starter.   You know it speaks volumes when the head of the Anglican Church of South Sudan whose country is being destroyed by tribalism, poverty, war and genocide cannot be bought and is utterly committed to a Biblical view of sexuality, then it is curtains for Western pansexualists.   Whatever the future holds, Western pan-Anglicanism is dying and the Global South will continue to rise with no signs of it abating now or in the foreseeable future.   As the writer to the Hebrews put it; “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful,” a lesson the West never truly learned.   END

By Jesse Masai THE LIVING CHURCH February 7, 2025   Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapit addresses reporters February 6. | St. Paul’s University, Limuru The Archbishop of Kenya sees some hope in President Donald Trump’s move to shut down the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).   “I partially thank Trump for the disruption,” Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapit said at an event at St. Paul’s University in Limuru on February 6.   “Let us be disrupted so that we think properly and manage our resources properly. Every other economy grew not in easy times but when you are faced by a crisis. They think deeper, and I hope we can think deeper now.”   Ole Sapit declared that it is time African leaders sought home-grown solutions to the continent’s woes, and claimed that foreign aid has often been misappropriated in the East African nation.   “USAID projects have been shut down,” he said. “People have lost jobs. But deficiency in leadership is our main problem. Let that money go so that we know how to save the little we have. Because most of it is stolen before it reaches where it is supposed to go.”   Kenya scored 31 on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean) on Transparency International’s 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index. It tied with El Salvador and Mexico for 126th place.   Ole Sapit said that Africa has all the resources it needs for its people to thrive, but these resources have become drivers of conflicts in parts of the region because of greed.   “We are witnessing what is essentially a struggle over resources in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” he said, referring to recent fallouts between the government in the capital, Kinshasa, and M23 rebels in Goma, on Congo’s eastern border.   Conflicts also continue in the Horn of Africa, including parts of South Sudan, where an estimated 57 percent of food security is dependent on USAID.   The archbishop warned that Africans might no longer be in a position to blame colonialism for underdevelopment.   “We have no excuses, 50 or 70 years after independence,” he said. “Disruption is always an opportunity to grow.”   Still, Ole Sapit called on President Trump to stagger the transition to avoid immediate shocks.   “It should have been done gradually, especially for critical areas like health, until we have the capacity to support ourselves,” he said.   In an exclusive interview with The Living Church, Adieri Bwibo, executive director of Kenya’s Anglican Development Services (ADS), revealed that USAID’s abrupt exit has seriously affected his organization.   “KShs. 200 million per annum [$1.550,387 USD] is gone suddenly. Our income is at its lowest, including that which caters for anti-retroviral drugs for communities ravaged by HIV/AIDS,” he said. “We don’t know how to continue; 150 of our staff members have been affected. We have put them on unpaid leave as we figure a way out.”   Bwibo said health, economic empowerment, HIV prevention, referrals to HIV facilities, smart farming for food security, climate change, orphans, and vulnerable children are some of the development agency’s programs that have been affected.   “We had until January 24 to clear all USAID-related payments.  We are now talking about offices rented, human, and other contractual obligations — human and statutory — that we must meet. We can’t bury our heads in the sand and think all will be well. We are forced to go back and strategize,” he said.   Time, he warned, has come for Kenyans to look at their programs as a nation.   “While churches and charitable institutions will complement the work of the government, revenue from citizens needs to be used well,” he said. “That is something we need to focus on. We have over-relied on the generosity of our brothers and sisters from the West.”   Kenya’s local governments provide a model for the future, he said.   “Devolution has transformed this country. Everywhere you go, there is development, with emerging towns and businesses,” he said.   Writing on Meta, however, literature professor Wandia Njoya warned that “the problem the Trump administration has with USAID is one of style, not substance.”   “The USAID suppressed organic economic growth in Kenya and mopped up generations of graduates and mobilizers through funding, so as to delay social change. Every new generation that would have potentially marshaled change in Kenya was co-opted into international trips, donor funding, workshops, and fellowships,” said Njoya, an associate professor at the evangelical Daystar University in Nairobi.   “I think the lesson here isn’t Trump or insane U.S. liberals. It’s that we must learn,” she said. “Please, Kenyans. We must learn about the world. Only we can develop our own countries. The commitment of the American empire is that we don’t. We have to understand this fundamental truth to understand why the U.S. needed this monster called development aid.”   Jesse Masai is TLC’s East Africa correspondent, a longtime journalist and communications professional who has worked in South East Asia and the U.S., as well as in his native Kenya.

York Archbishop Fails Safeguarding Test * Calvin Robinson Tossed out of Continuing Anglican Church * US Episcopal Priest Elected Bp of Nth. Africa   "In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?" – John Stott "Praying and sinning will never live together in the same heart. Prayer will consume sin, or sin will choke prayer." – J.C. Ryle There is a deadly and irreconcilable opposition between Western civilisation and Christianity, and one of them must destroy the other. If that’s true, then wielding the Christian faith as a weapon to defend this thing called ‘Western civilisation’ is a lost battle from the start. Our culture may have been nominally Christian five hundred years ago, but for a long time now it has been the culture of the Enlightenment, of modernity, of the Machine, of Mammon. It valorises not God but the world -- John L. McKenzie Christ is not established anywhere; He becomes a stranger, a beggar, and a ‘vagabond,’ to teach us that no ‘institution’ of the present is eternal, that His kingdom is neither of this world nor imposed on this world with worldly weapons. -- John Chrysostom God’s power is not human power. Our petty little attempts to impose our will by dominance, force and violence mean nothing to the Father, who scorns them. Power is wielded through love; power is wielded through sacrifice. There is something vast and oceanic about it. It is what greatness actually looks like. – Paul Kingsnorth   Dear Brothers and Sisters www.virtueonline.org February 7, 2025   In her riff against President Donald Trump in the Washington National Cathedral about his ungodly treatment of immigrants last week, Episcopal Bishop Marianne Budde failed to mention that Episcopal Migrant Ministries received $53 million taxpayer dollars in 2023 to aid its migrant resettlement program. The Trump administration has temporarily paused these programs for evaluation.   Budde lit into the president and went peak Episcopalian. She painted a picture of a dystopian America where people live in dread of the coming administration. ‘In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.’ These people included ‘gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and independent families’ all across the country ‘who fear for their lives’. Illegal immigrants were not left out: ‘I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away.’   Trump fired back calling Budde a ‘Radical Left hardline Trump-hater’ who is ‘not very good at her job’. He said she ‘brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way’ and demanded an apology. The description is accurate: she clearly loathes Donald Trump and was certainly very ungracious.   If you think the task of the preacher is to bring God’s Word to bear on the people, not to express personal thoughts and preferences, she failed.   As one blogger noted; “The pronouncements of liberal Christians like Bishop Budde make that task more difficult. She makes it easier for unbelievers to dismiss Christian intervention in social affairs as ill-thought-out regurgitation of progressive talking points garnished with a few Christian terms. If Christians are to speak out, we must do the serious and hard work of examining our world from a biblical perspective. Only then will we deserve to be heard.   Nonetheless the bishop felt compelled to lecture the president in what was euphemistically called a sermon, but was in fact a lecture about his desire to throw millions out of the country who are here illegally and without papers.   Budde did get some support for her views. Shane Clairborne of Red Letter fame and David Mills of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote puff pieces praising Budde for speaking truth to power.   David Robertson, a Presbyterian minister said this; “On immigration. The situation is not as simplistic as you [Budde] put it. Although it has to be admitted that simple political (progressive) fundamentalism does allow you to engage in fine sentimental rhetoric, immigration is a much more complex issue than your 1-minute soundbite portrayed. Donald Trump and JD Vance both married immigrants – it is clear that they are not opposed to all immigration. The question is what should be done about illegal immigration? If you have any ideas, then engage constructively – don't virtue signal from a pulpit 12 feet above contradiction.”   Here are two stories that you can read on the subject here:   https://www.virtueonline.org/post/speaking-the-truth-to-power-a-letter-to-bishop-budde SURPRISE…NOT. The Predictable Theology of Bishop Marianne Budde   ***   IS THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CRISIS? Yes. With the resignation of Archbishop Welby and the Archbishop of York being under a cloud due to a failure in safeguarding, the Church of England appears to have lost moral authority. It is also riven with doctrinal differences, chiefly over the desire of many bishops to bless same-sex unions.   The Rev. Canon Dr Chris Sugden explains how 2025 might pan out and notes developments that could encourage evangelicals. He says that Archbishop Welby’s legacy is a mixture.   “He introduced a centralised management process into the Church of England (C of E), with the House of Bishops taking a dominant role in shaping policies and proposals. Parishes have been amalgamated, and more diocesan officials appointed.  In response, a ‘Save the Parish’ movement has started to preserve a parish church and vicar in each community.”   “Preserving unity has not worked out so well. Welby sought to preserve what he called ‘unity’ by making concessions to a small but powerful elite lobby, including some bishops, senior clergy and lay church officials. This lobby has been loudly pressing for over 20 years for concessions to a liberal lifestyle.”   “They wanted same sex relationships to be blessed and recognised in church services, and for clergy to enter same-sex marriage. However, their wishes do not match those of their parishioners; most parish congregations are by and large orthodox in belief and practice.”   “Welby’s reputation on the global stage has plummeted. He forfeited the allegiance of many Anglican Primates (the senior Archbishops in their countries), who represent the majority of Anglicans around the world. These international Archbishops have refused to acknowledge the Archbishop of Canterbury as the senior bishop in the Anglican Communion.”   “As a result, an international Anglican body has formally recommended that Welby’s successor as leader of the world’s Anglican Archbishops should not be the Archbishop of Canterbury but be chosen from the Primates.”   “Meanwhile in England, orthodox clergy and lay leaders came together to form The Alliance, a network that represents the majority of Anglican churchgoers. It comprises the Holy Trinity Brompton (Alpha Course) network, the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC), Church Society, ReNew, New Wine, Forward in Faith (an Anglo-Catholic High Church network) and Living Out (people with same sex attraction who live celibate lives).”   The objective of The Alliance is to achieve a parallel province in which orthodox congregations and clergy can be ‘overseen’ by orthodox bishops who stand for the traditional Anglican and biblical teaching on sex and marriage. Whether this succeeds is still to be determined. There are road blocks with the state and much more.   You can read more here: IS THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CRISIS?   Outside the Church of England there are churches people can join and still remain Anglican even if not in the Church of England. They belong to the Anglican Network in Europe (ANIE), formed in 2013, which is part of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON). ANIE has its own bishops, who are recognized by many Anglican Primates around the world including the ACNA.   At the time of writing, the House of Bishops has been working on a series of proposals to allow for same-sex blessings to take place in a separate church service, for same-sex marriages to take place in church and for clergy to be allowed to enter same-sex marriages. The bishops’ plan has been to get the General Synod to vote to accept all their proposals by a simple majority.   The orthodox objection to the House of Bishops’ current proposals is that such changes represent a change in the Church of England’s doctrine of marriage. A change of doctrine requires a two-thirds majority in all three ‘houses’ of the Synod: bishops, clergy and lay people.  The bishops know they will not be able to secure this because more than a third of laity and probably of the clergy members of Synod are against such a change. As of now there is a delay in the process.   Meanwhile speculation has developed about who will be the next Archbishop of Canterbury. The elite gay lobby is understood to be pushing the candidature of Bishop Guli Francis-Deqani, the Iranian-born British Bishop of Chelmsford since 2021, who would be the first woman Archbishop. She is known to be in favor of same-sex marriages.   What matters now is that the members of the Alliance, the orthodox bishops and clergy should remain firm in their stand for biblical teaching and practice.   Some evangelical clergy have been hesitant to take a stand as they want to be ‘nice’ to everyone and remain united. However, as Canon John Dunnett, the Executive Officer of the CEEC has written: “The question still remains as to ‘unity in or around what’. The unity that Jesus prayed for was not institutional…[or] based on the status quo.   ***   The Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe, TEC’s new Presiding Bishop knocked three times on the door of Washington National Cathedral and was ceremonially seated as the church’s 28th Presiding Bishop.   He seemed desperately concerned about the marginalized in our society which, coming from the wealthiest church in America, is a bit rich.   In his sermon he uttered a lot of high-sounding words like “what our lives would be like if we realized that Christ is among us.” Well, if Christ is not among us then the question is moot, and where is He?   There is some question about whether Christ has had much to do with the Episcopal Church since Gene Robinson made his debut as an out-of-the-closet homosexual causing the biggest single departure of Episcopalians in its history. The Anglican Church in North America is now firmly planted and growing.   Did TEC’s bishops “see Christ” in all the orthodox priests and bishops they tossed out of the church because they refused to embrace homosexual marriage, because they believed God did not approve of it, and that He had not changed his mind about marriage being solely between a man and a woman?   The truth is faithful orthodox priests were “marginalized”, people who actually saw the face of Christ in Scripture and who suffered for their faith losing their churches and pensions rather than go to Hell believing the latest piece of heresy they were forced to embrace.   And what of the unborn, Mr. Presiding Bishop? There is an inherent contradiction in your statement about seeing the face of Christ if the unborn never get to be born and see the face of Christ for themselves. The dignity of every human being suddenly disappears. You will forgive me saying this but there is an inherent contradiction when you believe in abortion on demand up to birth. That is an astonishingly evil and anti-Christ position to take. What about mercy for the most vulnerable human beings – those still in their mothers' wombs?   The Episcopal Church is on a downward trajectory; it has lost the majority of its members. Over 55% of Episcopal parishes are now in a state of long-term decline, with churches losing more with each passing week with the average age of an Episcopalian approaching 70 they will soon be closing. Dioceses are merging faster than big-box stores in your local mall. You can read more here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/sean-rowe-seated-as-tec-s-28th-presiding-bishop-but-his-sermon-failed-the-smell-test   **   The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell is in hot water over his own safeguarding failures. He has temporarily replaced Welby who, he believes, took one for the team thus allowing him to step in as de facto leader of the CofE..   When you look at this record it is far worse than the not-so-dearly-departed Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. He has been accused of looking the other way over several priests who were caught with underage boys and girls and has steadfastly refused to resign though several bishops say he should.   He has faced questions over his role leading up to the appointment in 2022 and resignation last week of the Rt. Rev. John Perumbalath, Bishop of Liverpool. Perumbalath announced his early retirement over allegations of sexual assault and harassment that were made in 2023. Cottrell once called another priest, a pedophile, David Tudor a “Rolls Royce priest”.   Cottrell also demonstrated his ignorance over the war in Gaza. In a statement Cottrell made veiled accusations that the blame for the war lay at Israel’s feet. There was no mention of the terrorist organization called Hamas, no mention of who started this war, no mention of “from the river to the sea” a not-so-veiled reference to the obliteration of Israel. No mention of Hamas as a proxy of Iran to continue the war once the ceasefire deal is signed off on. No mention that the “destruction, deprivation and displacement” was caused by Hamas who could have surrendered the hostages and themselves to prevent all the blood shed that followed.   You can read more here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/archbishop-of-york-i-won-t-quit-over-abuse-crisis-i-ll-bring-change https://www.virtueonline.org/post/the-archbishop-of-york-s-vacuous-statement-on-the-ceasefire-deal-between-israel-and-hamas   Gavin Drake, a “muckraker” who blogs at Church Street Bureau, has called out Cottrell for his inability to see the damage he is doing by staying on. You can read his pieces here:   https://churchabuse.uk/2025/01/09/an-open-letter-to-te-most-revd-and-right-hon-stephen-cottrell-archbishop-of-york/   https://churchabuse.uk/2025/01/17/shhh-silence-from-the-archbishop-of-york-stephen-cottrell/   https://churchabuse.uk/2025/01/17/safeguarding-second-church-estates-commissioner-holds-church-of-england-feet-to-the-fire/   ***   “I am not a Nazi!” cried the Rev. Calvin Robinson after being unceremoniously tossed out of the Anglican Catholic Church (ACC) where he functioned as a priest for just a few short months, over jokingly mimicking a Nazi salute to a crowd at a pro-life event. He should not have done that. Robinson has gotten himself into a whole heap of trouble in the U.S. when he conflated politics with religion.   Like St. Peter before him, Robinson has a case of Hoof & Mouth disease, writes Mary Ann Mueller, special correspondent for VOL.  “Both Simon Peter and Calvin Robinson have the tendency to open mouth, insert foot and twist. And then act impetuously which has gotten them both in a lot of trouble.”   Long story short Fr. Calvin Robinson crossed the Rubicon of priestly etiquette and his Archbishop Mark Haverland stepped in and removed his faculties – license (permission) – to exercise his priesthood within the Anglican Catholic Church. Robinson is a church-hopper. He has belonged to four different denominations in a space of three years. Not all of the churches are Anglican. He was initially a member of the Church of England (CofE) until he left for the Free Church of England (FCE) in early summer 2022. He then united with the Old Catholic – nonAnglican – Nordic Catholic Church (NCC) in late 2023. Less than a year later he gravitated to the Anglican Catholic Church (ACC).   It is not totally clear if he is still a priest in the AAC – albeit an inhibited priest – or is he a priest without a denomination.  He has burned most of his bridges. You can read the full story here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/fr-calvin-robinson-has-hoof-mouth-disease   *** The Episcopal/Anglican Diocese of North Africa has a new bishop. The Rev. Canon Dr Ashley Null has been elected by the Electoral Synod meeting in N'Djamena, Chad, in the context of a Diocesan Synod. Dr. Null will become the second, and first elected, bishop of the Diocese of North Africa, covering five countries (Algeria, Chad, Libya, Mauritania and Tunisia) and including the territory of the see of St Augustine of Hippo.   He is a world authority on Thomas Cranmer, editing his private theological notebooks. He holds research degrees from Yale and the University of Cambridge. As a pastor and theologian, he is Chair of the Board of The Alexandria School of Theology he is already familiar with the Diocese.  He will now have the chance to broaden and enhance the work he has done for many years to promote and encourage Christian witness in this cradle of Christianity. I count him as a close personal friend and spiritual advisor to me.   ***   The Anglican Communion has two new archbishops. The Most Rev. Enrique Lago Zugadi is the new Primate of Chile, and the Most Rev. Vicente Msosa is the new Primate of Mozambique and Angola. Both are cradled in the bosom of GAFCON.   The Lord is raising up leaders who long to see the Bible at the heart of the Anglican Communion, and who seek to lead their provinces in faithful obedience to God’s word, said The Rt Rev. Paul Donison, GAFCON General Secretary. Archbishops Enrique and Vicente are both graduates of GAFCON Bishop’s Training Institute.  Their appointment will undoubtedly cause pain and anguish to Bishop Anthony Poggo, Secretary General of the Anglican Communion Office, the liberal branch of the Anglican Communion. With Welby gone he has lost the title of adviser on Anglican Communion affairs to the ABC.   WHAT IS SEX FOR? A Pastoral Theology of Our Sexed Bodies, By Ian Paul, an orthodox English theologian is an excellent booklet for clergy and laity alike. Here is a sample paragraph: “The debates about sex in church and culture are often framed in doctrinal or ideological terms. But in this booklet I want to address the pastoral issues. This demands not mere care or therapy (important as these are) but clear pastoral teaching. When Jesus saw the crowds and had compassion on them, his first response was to teach (Mark 6.34), since good teaching creates the context for effective pastoral care.” Ian Paul is Associate Minister, St Nic’s, Nottingham, Managing Editor, Grove Books and writer and host at psephizo.com   ***   VOL has a new website. There are still some issues, but we now have all the sections open for your reading. We not only commend the news but the commentary as well and the sound theological pieces we post for deepening your faith. Life is more than a soundbite, and the news, while mostly bad is not all bad. There are glimmers of hope in the Anglican Communion coming from the Global South.   Please consider a tax-deductible donation to keep these news and commentary pieces coming into your email. A PayPal donation link can be found here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support.html   If you are more inclined with old fashioned checks, (as I am), you can send your donation to: VIRTUEONLINE P.O. Box 111 Shohola, PA 18458   I have started a substack on the Middle East, some of which reflects on our Anglican presence in Jerusalem and other ME countries. You can access it here:   https://davidvirtue2.substack.com/publish/posts   Warmly in Christ,   David

Sexuality and gender are two completely different things. So credit to Donald Trump for this return to common sense Michael Deacon , Columnist THE TELEGRAPH 04 February 2025 No one under the age of 30 will believe me. But when I was a student, all the way back in the late 1990s, my university had an LGB Society.   No, there wasn’t a letter missing. That, in full, was the society’s name. Because in those days, everyone used to say “LGB”. There was no such thing as “LGBT”.   So, if you’d knocked on the society’s door and asked, “Where’s the T?”, its members would probably have pointed you down the corridor to the cafe.   And if you’d said, “No, T as in ‘transgender’. Why does your sign only say ‘LGB’?”, they’d probably have replied: “Because LGB stands for ‘lesbian, gay and bisexual’ – which are all forms of sexuality. Transgenderism, by contrast, has nothing to do with sexuality. It’s to do with gender identity, which is something completely different and unrelated. Having a society for ‘lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trans people’, therefore, makes no more sense than having a society for ‘lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trainspotters’. Obviously we’ve got nothing against trainspotters. We’re just saying that there’s no logical reason for them to be added to the name of our society.”   Still, as I say, this was all a terribly long time ago. At some point, in the years since, things changed. Suddenly it was no longer acceptable, anywhere in the English-speaking world, to say “LGB”. A “T” had to be added, at all times, to make “LGBT”.   Why? The reason is simple. Radical activists forcibly combined the two in a cynical attempt to manufacture public support for gender ideology. Most people already supported gay rights. Now they felt obliged to support both. After all, “LGBT” meant that you couldn’t support one and not the other, didn’t it?   Activists reinforced this impression by using the mantra “No LGB without the T”, which falsely implied that gay rights were only secured in the first place thanks to the efforts of trans people. In gratitude, gay people were supposed to repay trans people by supporting all of the latter’s demands, from the right to undress in women’s changing rooms to the right to compete in the women’s Olympic weightlifting.   At long last, though, it looks as if “LGBT” is on its way out. Under  Donald Trump , the US federal government has formally ceased using the term. The Department of State’s website, for example, now provides gay Americans with travel advice under the heading “LGB travellers”. Not “LGBT”, or “LGBTQIA+”. Just “LGB”. Since the advice refers specifically to countries where homosexuality is illegal, saying “LGB” is only common sense.   We may have to wait, however, for Britain’s elites to move with the times. In our schools, pupils are currently being made to celebrate an event known as “LGBT History Month”. A film about the alleged benefits of cross-sex hormones and chest binders (to help female teenagers look male by strapping down their breasts) will be shown to children as young as 11.   Meanwhile, I suspect it will be quite some time yet before our national broadcaster accepts defeat, and reverts to “LGB”. Last month, in a news story on its website about the jailing of a rapist who identifies as “non-binary”, the BBC thoughtfully respected the rapist’s preferred pronouns, which are “they/them”. Apparently, “they” threatened “their” victim, a girl aged 14, with a knife.   The day the BBC stops worrying about hurting the feelings of violent men who rape underage girls, we’ll know that sanity has finally been restored. END

Gerald McDermott for Ecumenical Zionism: Jews, Christians, and  the Land of Israel conference JTS in NYC 5 Feb 2025   For 1700 years Christian preachers and scholars have been saying that the Hebrew Bible is Zionist but the NT is not. It cannot be, they reasoned without looking too closely, because everyone knows that according to the NT God put to an end his covenant with the Jewish people after Jesus came to the world.    The Holocaust was a wake-up call that started Christians rethinking what they had been repeating for 1700 years.  The Roman Catholic Church was the first major Christian church to repent of this false teaching in its Vatican 2 document Nostra Aetate in 1965.  The bishops quoted the apostle Paul saying of his Jewish brothers who did not accept Jesus that they are (present tense) beloved of God because of the patriarchs and that God’s calling them to be His Chosen People is “irrevocable.”   Since the mid-19th century Protestant dispensationalists had agreed that God’s eternal covenant with the Jewish people is still in place.  But there were three big problems: 1) they did not capture any major Christian church body, 2) they invented a bizarre teaching called the Rapture that would have the Jewish people left behind after Christians are zapped off the planet, and 3) they held to date-setting and an elaborate eschatology that seems more fanciful than biblical.   But in recent decades there has arisen a scholarly movement called the New Christian Zionism that is comprised of both catholic and Protestant scholars.  It is new because it has nothing to do with dispensationalism and because it is recognizing things on the surface of the NT text that have gone unnoticed for centuries.   How could that be?  On the surface of the text but unnoticed for centuries?   In his Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1961) Thomas Kuhn showed that at the beginning of every scientific revolution (think of Galileo, Newton, Einstein) elite scientists had evidence for the new theory right in front of their eyes.  But they could not see the evidence because the existing scientific paradigm had cast a veil over their eyes.  The evidence was right in front of them but they could not see it.   I remember the day when I realized this might have happened to biblical scholars and theologians for centuries.  They were not able to see the land promise in the NT because they had been trained not to see it.   They had been told, as I was in my NT studies at the U of Chicago Div School and in my PhD program in religious studies at the U of Iowa, that the Heb Bible is all about the particular and the NT is all about the universal, so it only makes sense that the God of the NT would no longer be interested in one particular land instead of all the lands of the world.   But funny thing is, when your eyes are open to the actual text instead of what you have been told about the text, you start seeing remarkable things.   Such as, for example, that five times in the NT Jerusalem is called the holy city.  The devil took Jesus to the holy city to tempt him to jump off the top of the temple (Matt 4:5).  After the death of Jesus many bodies of the saints were raised and walked around the holy city and appeared to many (Matt 27:53).  John says in revelation that the gentiles will trample the holy city for 42 months (Rev 11: 2), and God will bring down from heaven the holy city Jerusalem (both in Rev 21:2 and10).     Many times the NT refers to the land promise, and at least five times explicitly.  The author of Hebrews says God led Abraham to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance (11.8), and that by faith he went to live in the land of promise (11.9a), and that Isaac and Jacob were heirs with him of the same promise (Heb 11:9b).  Before his martyrdom deacon Stephen said God promised to give Abraham this land as a possession and to his offspring after him (Acts 7:4-5). Paul told the synagogue at Antioch of Pisidia that the God of this people Israel chose our fathers, and after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance (Acts 13.17-19).   Now there are many other implicit references to the land promise.  But we might ask why there are only these five explicit mentions of the land promise.  Two answers are likely.  First, the land promise was assumed because for the NT authors their Bible (the Tanach, which was Jesus’ Bible) already repeated the land promise one thousand times (I have counted them and tabulate these references in two books, the New Christian Zionism and Israel Matters ).  Second, the NT authors lived in the land. It was acknowledged over and over in the NT as Judea --the land of the Jews--and so there seemed no need to repeat or defend the promise.   Jesus referred to the future of the land of Israel many times.  I will provide five.  In Acts the disciples asked him if he would restore the kingdom to Israel (Acts 1:6).  He did not dismiss this as a silly or unspiritual question (as scholars with their blinders on have often claimed) but said the Father has set times and seasons for that, and they were not to know them yet.  Isaac Oliver, a Jewish NT scholar, argues in his new Luke’s Jewish Eschatology (Oxford University Press) that Jesus had an earthly—if eschatological—kingdom in mind. So yes, the kingdom would be restored in the future to Israel.   In Luke 13, Jesus said that one day the residents of Jerusalem will welcome him (v. 35), and in chapter 21 prophesies that Jerusalem will be trampled upon by gentiles until the times of the gentiles are completed (v 24).       The cessation of gentile trampling on Jerusalem means the beginning of Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem.  This means that Jesus predicted a time when Jews would have political control over their capital.  It would not be too much of a stretch to say that the beginning of Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem—in 1967, two thousand years after Jews lost it in 63 BC to Pompey--could be seen as a fulfillment of prophecy by the NT Jesus.     This is not the same as saying that the Jewish state is a direct fulfillment of prophecy (but of course the massive return of Jews from all over the world to the land since the 18th century is clearly a fulfillment of biblical prophecy).  It is also not the same as saying that the current Jewish state is beyond criticism.  Or that this is the last Jewish state before the eschaton.   But it is not beyond imagining that on the basis of this remarkable prophecy by the NT Jesus that we can say that the rise of Jewish sovereignty over its capital after two millennia could be a “sign of the times,” the sort that Jesus rebuked some religious leaders for not recognizing (Matt 16:3).   Matthew has Jesus saying that in the paliggenesia or renewal of all things (19.28) his apostles would rule over the twelve tribes of Israel, suggesting not only a distinct future for the land of Israel but also the restoration of the ten northern tribes.     The Jesus of the NT also refers to the land in a verse that it almost universally mistranslated: Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the land [usually translated “earth” following the universalist presupposition of supersessionists] (Matt 5:5).  More and more scholars are recognizing that Jesus is quoting word-for-word Ps 37:11. Five times this psalm uses the phrase inherit the land , and each time the Hebrew word eretz refers unmistakably to the land of Israel, not the whole earth.   Jesus might have been referring to Isaiah’s prophecy that when the earth is renewed all the gentiles shall flow to the mountain of the house of the LORD . . . that he might teach [them] his ways (Is 2:2-3).   Many supersessionists object that John’s gospel overrules these expectations of a future for the land because John’s Jesus says his body is the new temple, and true worship would no longer be restricted to Jerusalem but would be wherever there is worship in spirit and in truth (John 2:21; 4:21).     The eminent NT scholar Richard Hays does not think John is supersessionist on the land promise, but that we should think of the gospels as speaking on different levels.  For, he points out, Mark’s Jesus declares of the temple, My house shall be a house of prayer for all the nations (Mark 11:17), affirming Isaiah’s vision of an eschatologically restored Jerusalem and temple.  In Matthew Jesus surprises Christians (most have never seen this) by saying that God still dwells in the temple of his day (Matt 23:21).  So the NT composite picture of Jesus on the temple is that it is both God’s house and the symbol of Jesus’ body as God’s house.  True worship, for Jesus, will be everywhere in spirit and in truth and centered in Jerusalem in the eschaton.   If Jesus clearly referred to the future of the land of Israel, so did Peter.  In his second speech in Jerusalem, delivered after Jesus’ resurrection, Peter says there is still to come a future apokatastasis , using the Greek word in the Septuagint for the return of Jews to the land from the four corners of the earth (Acts 3:21).  So for Peter, the return from exile in Babylon did not fulfill the Tanach’s prophecies of return.  Nor did Jesus’ resurrection.  There was a future return to come.  And we know this did not happen for another eighteen hundred years.   We have already seen from Acts that Paul made clear that he held to the land promise.  In Romans there is further evidence.  Paul says the gifts of God are irrevocable (Rom 11:29). There is little doubt that for Paul the land was one of these gifts, for in the writings of prominent first-century Jews—Philo, Josephus, and Ezekiel the Tragedian—the land was God’s principal gift to the Jewish people.   The early church saw it this way.  According to Robert Wilken in his The Land Called Holy, early Christians interpreted the angel’s promise to Mary that her baby would be given the throne of David and that he would reign over the house of Jacob forever (Luke 1:32-33) as indications of “the restoration and establishment of the kingdom in Jerusalem.”    The book of Revelation is replete with references to the future of the land of Israel.  The two witnesses will be killed in Jerusalem (11:8), the battle of Armageddon will take place in a valley in northern Israel (16:16), the gates of the New Jerusalem (which, notably, is not the New Rome or New Constantinople) are inscribed with the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel (21:12), the 144,000 with the names of the Lamb and the Father on their foreheads stand on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem (14:1), Gog and Magog will march over the broad plain of the land of Israel and surround the saints and the beloved city of Jerusalem before they are consumed by heavenly fire (20:9).  The renewed earth will be centered in Jerusalem (11:2; 21:10).   For the author of Revelation, then, the land of Israel was holy not simply because the people of Israel and Jesus lived there but also because it would be the scene of crucial future events in the history of redemption.   In sum, there is an abundance of evidence in the gospels, Acts, the epistles, and Revelation for the 1) land promise, 2) the holiness of Jerusalem, and 3) the theological significance of the land of Israel in the future and in the eschaton.     Does this matter?  Yes, it does, for three reasons.   First, if the land promise was ended with the coming of Jesus, then God is not trustworthy.  For he promised to Abraham and his seed that the land would be theirs for an everlasting possession (Gen 17:8) and that as long as the sun, moon, and stars are in the sky, the Jewish people would be God’s people and he would do them good (Jer 31 & 32).    Second, if the land promise to Israel is broken, then so might be God’s promise to renew and restore the heavens and the earth.  The land promise’s partial fulfillment—by bringing Jews from the four corners of the earth back to the land starting in the eighteenth century--is downpayment on the promise of a new heaven and a new earth.   Third, it is a deep theological reason why we should support Israel in this war against the new Nazism.  Jews have more title to the land than any other people.  God called them to share the land in justice, and they have shown time and again that they are willing.  Today two million Arabs are full citizens in Israel enjoying political freedoms and world-class education and health care— far more than Arabs enjoy anywhere else in the Arab world.    Like Hitler’s Nazis, Iran and its proxies are conducting genocide, the attempted elimination of a whole people, the Jews.  If we Christians thought it was right to destroy Nazism in Word War 2, then we should support Israel’s efforts to destroy this new Nazism.      Gerald McDermott is an Anglican theologian who teaches at Reformed Episcopal Seminary and Jerusalem Seminary.  He is the author of Israel Matters: Why Christians Must Think Differently about the People and the Land (Brazos).

By Chuck Collins www.virtueonline.org February 4, 2025   Erasmus caused the 16th century Reformation. Desiderius Erasmus, Erasmus of Rotterdam (1469-1553), was almost as important as Luther, Calvin and Cranmer for laying the groundwork for the biggest shakeup the church has ever seen. Virtually every character who played a political or religious part in the English Reformation was profoundly influenced by the New Learning of Humanism. But unlike the others who became well known Protestant reformers, Erasmus was a Humanist academic and an ordained Catholic priest who never embraced the evangelical faith. So how is it that someone causes a reformation that he doesn't come to believe?   The "ad fontes" (back to the original sources) cry of the Renaissance and 16th century Humanism drove Erasmus like a wild obsession to write and publish the first edition of the Greek New Testament from ancient sources, Novum Testamentum. He wisely dedicated this to the pope February 1, 1516, and in the following two decades it was celebrated around the world with five additional published editions. This was the text used by the 16th century Reformers (including Tyndale and Luther) to translate the Holy Bible into the languages of their people. A shock wave went throughout Europe when the Bible was released from ecclesiastical captivity! "Erasmus laid the egg that Luther hatched" was the motto of his Franciscan detractors.   When Erasmus studied the New Testament and traveled to various libraries to take notes from the best Greek manuscripts, he quickly found that Jerome’s Latin Vulgate, the only Bible available for one thousand years, was replete with mistakes in translation. For example, Matthew 3:2 and 4:17 quotes John the Baptist and Jesus as saying, “Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is close to hand.” The Catholic Church latched on to this and used it to say: “find a priest, confess your sins, and carry out any acts of penance the priest requires of you.”   But the original Greek suggests nothing that would support the Medieval system of penance or an ex opere operato understanding of absolution in auricular confession. Erasmus translated this: “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand,” thus taking repentance off the shelf of actions we willfully do for God, to a change of heart and will that positions us once again towards God. Another glaring error of the Latin Vulgate is in Luke 1:28 that was translated: “Hail, O one that is full of grace! The Lord is with you!” The clear implication, and the one that fueled the mariolatry of the Middle Ages (and today!), is that Mary is a reservoir full of God’s grace ready to dispense it to anyone in need. But the actual Greek text doesn’t say that! The clear reading says that Mary had found God’s favor, not that she could bestow that favor on others: “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” Erasmus corrected more than 600 such errors in Jerome’s Vulgate Bible. Erasmus was as much admired as he was despised: a true provocateur. Lutherans turned against him because he wouldn't join them. Catholics threatened his life and banned his books because they blamed him for starting the Reformation and for satirically poking fun of the blatant abuses of monasticism and the church of his day (In Praise of Folly). But as lines began to be drawn in the sand, Erasmus chose to be a spectator rather than an actor. "Let others court martyrdom," he said, "I don't consider myself worthy of this distinction.” Parallel to his Greek New Testament, Erasmus also wrote his own Latin version. He also wrote paraphrases of every book in the New Testament (pictured below). Katherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII who was a devout evangelical, arranged for Erasmus's Paraphrases to be translated into English. In 1547 King Edward VI issued a royal proclamation requiring the Pharaphrases, along with a copy of the English Bible, to be publicly available in every parish in the Church of England for all to read. Ashley Null postulates that one of the three books depicted in Gerlach Flicke’s famous portrait of Thomas Cranmer was likely Erasmus’s New Testament because of the Archbishop’s admiration for the “Dutch reformer.” Erasmus, like Cranmer and the other Protestant reformers, wanted people to know the Bible, not an interpretation of the Bible that was covered with 1,500 years of dust and spin. Erasmus famously wrote, “Would that the farmer might sing snatches of Scripture at his plough and that the weaver might hum phrases of Scripture to the tune of his shuttle, that the traveler might lighten with stories from Scripture the weariness of his journey.”   He had confidence that God's word that goes out will not return empty, but it will accomplish all that God purposes. When people begin to read the Bible for themselves they recognize the importance of the primacy of Holy Scripture over all other authorities, they discover the freedom and hope of a righteousness that is more than their failed attempts at self-righteousness, and they experience a relationship with Christ who is the only true and sufficient mediator between God and his people.   END

By Chuck Collins www.virtueonline.org February 4, 2025   John Rogers was the first of nearly 300 Protestants killed by Mary Tudor in her five-year reign as Queen of England. Other monarchs killed because of treason; Bloody Mary killed to destroy Protestantism in England. Rogers was burned alive at Smithfield February 4, 1555.   His crime was that he brought the English Bible to the English people, and he refused to apologize for it at the end. Rogers was a Church of England minister, Vicar of St. Sepulchre’s in London, before he moved to Antwerp Belgium where he met William Tyndale. There he became a committed "evangelical" (Protestant). The two of them became fast friends and when Tyndale was captured and killed, John Rogers picked up and completed the project that Tyndale started.   He used Tyndale's New Testament English translation and what Tyndale finished of the Old Testament (and the rest of the Old Testament completed by Myles Coverdale), and published the first English translation of the whole Bible. He did this under the pseudonym Thomas Matthew, thus it was call the "Matthew Bible." Rogers sent a copy of the Matthew Bible to Lord Chancellor Thomas Cromwell who, in turn, showed it to King Henry VIII. Five years after Henry broke with Rome to start the Church of England and two years after the publication of the Matthew Bible, Henry surprised everyone by authorizing the Great Bible in 1539. The Great Bible was the Matthew Bible without the Protestant notes and commentary. To everyone's surprise, Henry, the dyed-in-the-wool Catholic monarch, mandated that a copy of an English translation of the Bible be placed in every church, and that it be read at every church service. Translating the Bible into English was a very important factor that moved the new Church of England towards Reformation and Protestantism. For the first time in 1,500 years the written word of God was available for common people to read! It wouldn't be long before they learned the Bible’s central teaching: justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. An immense crowd lined the roads in Smithfield, just within eyesight of St. Sepulchre’s Church. There were reports that Rogers went “steadily and unflinchingly into a fiery grave.” Even the French Ambassador who was present that day wrote in a letter that Rogers went to death “as if he was walking to his wedding.” Five English Reformers, J.C. Ryle

By Kaya Burgess, Religious Affairs Correspondent THE TIMES February 1, 2025   The Most Rev Stephen Cottrell is facing pressure to step down as the Charity Commission steps in to demand answers from bishops   The Archbishop of York’s comments came as the Charity Commission made an unprecedented intervention in the church’s internal ­affairs   The Archbishop of York has rejected calls to resign over the Church of ­England’s abuse crisis, insisting he is ­“determined to play [his] part in making change happen” after a bishop quit over sexual assault allegations.   His comments came as the Charity Commission made an unprecedented intervention in the church’s internal ­affairs. The Times understands the watchdog is writing to all bishops demanding to know whether church rules are preventing them from fulfilling their legal duty to protect people from abuse.   The move was dubbed a “wake-up call” by the Most Rev Stephen ­Cottrell, who conceded that the church needs outside help. Cottrell has temporarily assumed most of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s duties after the Right Rev Justin Welby stepped down over his handling of the safeguarding issue.   Cottrell has himself faced calls to quit over how he dealt with abuse allegations. He has faced questions over his role leading up to the appointment in 2022 and resignation last week of the Right Rev John Perumbalath as Bishop of Liverpool.   Perumbalath announced his early retirement over allegations of sexual assault and harassment that were made in 2023. He has strongly denied the claims, noting that a church ­investigation found “no ongoing safeguarding concerns” and a police inquiry took no further action over the assault complaint.   The Times understands that some members of the Crown Nominations Commission felt Cottrell used his status as an archbishop to pressure fellow commission members into appointing Perumbulath in 2022.   Cottrell said he was “very aware of the power dynamics” of being an archbishop on the committee but said his role as its chairman was “to enable other voices to be heard”.   The Right Rev John Perumbalath resigned as Bishop of Liverpool over allegations of sexual assault and harassment that were made in 2023   He said: “I really do strongly refute the suggestion that anything inappropriate happened.” Cottrell said no allegations of wrongdoing had been made by that point in time and that Perumbalath passed a safeguarding assessment ­during the recruitment process.   The Charity Commission will ask all bishops if there are any “structural, ­procedural or constitutional arrangements under ecclesiastical law that … conflict with, or prevent you and your co-trustees from fulfilling, your safeguarding duties as charity trustees”.   It will ask them to respond after a General Synod meeting next week, which will debate policy reforms.   Cottrell said: “That’s a bit of a wake-up call, but … I welcome the scrutiny from the Charity Commission.”   The watchdog has also met Cottrell. “They were very robust,” he said. “And I was personally very clear in the ­meeting to say, ‘Would you please help us? You’ve got experience from other bodies’. Often, someone from ­outside sees things you don’t see ­yourself.”   Asked if he would resign, either now or after the appointment of a new Archbishop of Canterbury, expected this autumn, he conceded that “I have made mistakes” but said: “I’ve had to live with the constraints and inadequacies of our systems.” He said he planned to continue as Archbishop of York until the retirement age of 70 in 2028. Cottrell said of potential reform: “I’m determined to play my part in making this change happen … We need it for the victims and survivors, but it’s in all our best interests.   “Because I’ve lived with the constraints, because I have been part of the good changes that have been made and frustrated by the failures to make the changes I wanted to make, and because God has put me into this position as well as the church, then I believe I have an opportunity this year.”   Cottrell and the church became aware of allegations about Perumbalath’s behaviour a month after he ­legally became Bishop of Liverpool in January 2023 but two months before his enthronement in April. Asked if the enthronement should have gone ahead, Cottrell said there were “serious concerns” but said a safeguarding ­investigation was completed before the ceremony and found “no ongoing safeguarding concerns”.   Cottrell said he was “really distressed” by leaked reports from within the Crown Nominations Commission, noting: “We are all bound by an oath of confidentiality. So I’m troubled somebody would break that oath.”   Asked if he played a role in asking one of Perumbalath’s accusers, the Bishop of Warrington, the Right Rev Bev Mason, to take a leave of ­absence, Cottrell said: “Nobody asked or required the Bishop of Warrington, [and] ­certainly not me … to take some extended sabbatical leave”, adding that she said “what she needed was space”.   He said he supported her effort to bring a complaint outside the usual one-year time limit and had “expected it to be allowed” but that an independent judge ruled it could not be heard.   END

COMMENTARY   By David W. Virtue, DD www.virtueonline.org February 3, 2025   The Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe, TEC’s new Presiding Bishop knocked three times on the door of Washington National Cathedral and was ceremonially seated as the church’s 28th Presiding Bishop.   In his sermon he uttered a lot of high-sounding words like “what our lives would be like if we realized that Christ is among us.” Well, if Christ is not among us then the question is moot, and where is He?   “What if we saw Christ in each other? What if we understood what it meant — for real — that Christ is among us? In one of us, all of us, in this kingdom, inverted, turned upside down, and made for the healing, and wholeness of the world,” said Rowe.   Seeing Christ in each other is an old Episcopal saw. It is part and parcel of the Antiracism Training Manual of the Episcopal Church and is trotted out at every anti-racism event TEC puts on. Just 4 percent of Episcopalians are black. The vast majority of parishes have never seen a black person.   Did TEC’s bishops “see Christ” in all the orthodox priests and bishops they tossed out of the church because they refused to embrace homosexual marriage, because they believed God did not approve of it, and that He had not changed his mind about marriage being solely between a man and a woman?   “We need to find the face of Christ in the faces of the marginalized,” Rowe said, adding that in Christ’s kingdom, “the people at the edge are in the center.”   Well, I have news for you, faithful orthodox priests were “marginalized”, people who actually saw the face of Christ in Scripture and who suffered for their faith losing their churches and pensions rather than go to Hell believing the latest piece of heresy they were forced to embrace.   And what of the unborn, Mr. Presiding Bishop? There is an inherent contradiction in your statement about seeing the face of Christ if the unborn never get to be born and see the face of Christ for themselves. The dignity of every human being suddenly disappears. You will forgive me saying this but there is an inherent contradiction when you believe in abortion on demand up to birth. That is an astonishingly evil and anti-Christ position to take. What about mercy for the most vulnerable human beings – those still in their mothers' wombs?   You said the nation (and by definition the churches) are deeply divided. True enough, but who divided it? those who uphold the sanctity of life? Being orthodox in faith and morals? Those who oppose homosexual marriage and transgender surgeries? The dozens who went to jail because they stood outside abortion clinics protesting abortions and who had to obtain a presidential pardon to get out of jail!   The Book of Common Prayer provides us with bedrock Christian morality. The Prayer Book does not hedge on the moral absolutes of the Judeo-Christian tradition. They are chiseled in stone. Their uncompromising standards remain a clearly-defined alternative to the morality-is-what-you-make-it-out-to-be of many modern churches.   You said; “We live in a world in which the enemy is bound and determined to sow division among us. God did not come to us as a strong man. God came first as a child.” Well, many of us believe that the enemy got his nose in under the TEC tent and sowed so much division that thousands were forced to leave and start over.   “We need to greet with peace those who voted for the candidate we can’t stand; to be in the Communion line alongside people who don’t look like us, live like us, or even love like us,” you said.   Well, the prophet Jeremiah had something to say about that. He cried, “They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.”   The Episcopal Church is on a downward trajectory; it has lost the majority of its members. Over 55% of Episcopal parishes are now in a state of long-term decline, with churches losing more with each passing week with the average age of an Episcopalian approaching 70 they will soon be closing. Dioceses are merging faster than big-box stores in your local mall.   You cite Simeon and Anna as your models for the church. They waited with steadfast hope for the fulfillment of God’s promises. Based on what has been going on for the last 40 years the “fulfillment” will see the end of TEC and with the birth of the ACNA, God’s promises will be fulfilled in them, not you and The Episcopal Church.   You said; “In this world order, falling comes before rising,” drawing on a prophecy pronounced by Simeon. “In God’s kingdom, the immigrants and refugees, transgender people, the poor and the marginalized, are at the edges, fearful and alone. They are at the center of the gospel story.”   Perhaps, but immigrants and refugees are not filling the pews of Episcopal parishes because TEC has no message, only the phony talk of inclusion and diversity. Homosexuals also never filled church pews even though TEC and many other Anglican provinces affirmed this behavior. Immigrants and refugees are more likely to fill Pentecostal churches where an unalloyed gospel can be heard because you sure won’t hear it coming from an Episcopal pulpit.   END

By Peter Aitken NEWSWEEK January 30, 2025   The Anglican Catholic Church has punished the Michigan priest who mimicked Elon Musk's controversial gesture by revoking his license, meaning he can no longer serve in any of the church's dioceses.   The Context   British conservative Calvin Robinson, who briefly held the role of priest-in-charge at St. Paul's Anglican Catholic Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, attended the National Pro-Life Summit in Washington, D.C., on January 25.   Following his speech, he made the same straight-armed gesture used by Musk during his Inauguration Day speech, even repeating, "my heart goes out to you." He pinned a video of the moment to his profile on X, formerly Twitter.   Musk smacked his chest and forcefully extended his right arm during a speech on January 20 during a rally after President Donald Trump was sworn in for his second term. Musk then turned and repeated the gesture, saying, "My heart goes out to you."   Many had accused Musk of making a Nazi salute, citing his support of far-right political leaders in Europe—particularly the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party—as reasons to suspect the gesture was not innocent. But supporters have insisted that Musk has no Nazi link, and that the motion was an innocent gesture to send his "heart" to the crowd.   The Tesla and SpaceX CEO tapped to lead Trump's Department of Government Efficiency has Asperger's syndrome, a developmental disorder falling under the autism spectrum that could hinder social interactions and the ability to decipher body language.   What To Know   While Robinson made the gesture on Saturday, it was not until Wednesday when video of it showed up on social media. The College of Bishops of Anglican Catholic Church in the United States issued a statement on Thursday condemning the action and announcing that Robinson had been defrocked, hinting that the act was possibly the latest in a series of actions he had taken.   "While we cannot say what was in Mr. Robinson's heart when he did this, his action appears to have been an attempt to curry favor with certain elements of the American political right by provoking its opposition," the statement posted on the church's website said.   "Mr. Robinson had been warned that online trolling and other such actions (whether in service of the left or right) are incompatible with a priestly vocation and was told to desist," the statement continued. "Clearly, he has not, and as such, his license in this Church has been revoked. He is no longer serving as a priest in the ACC."   What Did the Anglican Catholic Church Say? In an email response to a Newsweek request for comment, the Right Reverend Dr. Damien Mead, bishop ordinary of the Diocese of the United Kingdom, said that the decision to revoke Robinson's license was taken as "a local diocesan decision for the Archbishop and bishops involved in the United States."   “Similarly, the decision to relicense him in the future rests with them, although the revocation is unlikely to be reversed,” Mead wrote. “It was not taken lightly nor simply in response to the alleged connotation of the hand gesture he made.”   “Mr Robinson was briefly the Priest in Charge of the ACC Church of St Paul’s, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA,” Mead explained. “He moved to the USA in 2024 to take up this position, in doing so he resigned from the Nordic Catholic Church which had only recently priested him.”   “As Bishop Ordinary of the Anglican Catholic Church’s Diocese of the United Kingdom I fully endorse the decision taken by the American ACC in this matter and agree fully with the statement issued by the ACC in the USA,” he added.   What People Are Saying   Calvin Robinson on Wednesday wrote on X: "Today I received hundreds of nasty calls, texts, voicemails and emails today from very bitter, angry, vile leftists. They are often the very thing they accuse you of. I am not a Nazi. But I forgive you of your ignorance. My heart goes out to you!"   The College of Bishops of the Anglican Catholic Church said in their statement: "We understand that this is not just an administrative matter. The Holocaust was an episode of unspeakable horror, enacted by a regime of evil men. We condemn Nazi ideology and anti-Semitism in all its forms. And we believe that those who mimic the Nazi salute, even as a joke or an attempt to troll their opponents, trivialize the horror of the Holocaust and diminish the sacrifice of those who fought against its perpetrators. Such actions are harmful, divisive, and contrary to the tenets of Christian charity."   What Happens Next   Mead said that as Robinson is no longer a priest in the Anglican Catholic Church, "any further action that may be taken will be a decision within or outside the Church for those in the USA."   Robinson became lead spokesman for the right-wing U.K. Independence Party (UKIP) in summer 2024, where he will likely return and resume his political activities. He had run as a member of the Conservative Party in a by-election in 2016 and in a council election 2018, both times defeated by Labour Party candidates.   END

By Christianity Daily January 24, 2025 Photo Credit: Unsplash/ Ben Mater   A recent survey reveals that nearly half of Americans believe the U.S. has overstepped in permitting male, trans-identified athletes to compete in women's sports, alongside substantial opposition to medical interventions for children facing gender dysphoria.   Conducted by The New York Times/Ipsos, the poll gathered responses from 2,128 American adults between January 2 and January 10.   When respondents were asked if they felt that “Society has gone too far in accommodating transgender people,” 49% responded positively. In contrast, 21% agreed with the statement that “Society has not gone far enough in accommodating transgender people,” while 28% thought that “Society has achieved a reasonable balance in accommodating transgender people.”   Seventy-seven percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning Americans believe that efforts to accommodate trans-identified individuals have gone too far, compared to 31% of independents and minor party affiliates. Thirty percent of independents and minor party affiliates feel that accommodations for the trans-identified community are adequate, along with 16% of Republicans.   A much smaller percentage of independents (14%) and Republicans (5%) believe that the U.S. should take additional steps to accommodate trans-identified individuals. A plurality of Democrats and Democrat-leaning Americans (39%) considered the current accommodations for trans-identified individuals to be appropriate, while 37% felt that more should be done and 23% believed such efforts have gone too far.   The survey also asked if trans-identified male athletes should compete in women's sports, with 79% responding negatively. This opposition was pronounced across political affiliations, where a staggering 94% of Republicans opposed the participation of trans-identified male athletes in women's sports, compared to 67% of Democrats and 64% of independents.   Less than a third of Democrats (31%) supported the idea of trans-identified male athletes competing on women's teams, with only 10% of independents and 5% of Republicans in favor.   When asked about physicians prescribing puberty-blocking drugs or cross-sex hormones to minors, 71% of respondents agreed that children should not have access to drugs that might halt their natural growth and alter their bodies. Among this group, the strongest opposition came from Republicans (90%), followed by independents (61%) and Democrats (54%).   Support for allowing youth aged 15 to 18 access to these treatments was minimal, with only 7% of Republicans, 10% of independents, and 24% of Democrats in favor. Similarly, support for providing these drugs to children as young as 10 was low, at 2% among Republicans and independents and 19% among Democrats.   Recent legislation in the U.S. has imposed restrictions on the participation of trans-identified athletes in sports and on access to medical treatments for youth suffering from gender dysphoria.   Twenty-seven states have enacted laws requiring trans-identified athletes to compete on teams that match their biological sex rather than their self-declared gender identity. These states include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.   Meanwhile, Twenty-four states have enacted regulations banning trans-identified youth from accessing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. This group includes Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

By Jeffrey Walton JUICY ECUMENISM January 24, 2025   Jesus’ humanness confirms and restores the dignity of all persons, according to an Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) bishop preaching at a prayer service preceding the annual National March for Life.   Missionary Diocese of All Saints Bishop Darryl Fitzwater spoke at the event sponsored by Anglicans for Life and the ACNA Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic held at The Falls Church Anglican outside of Washington, D.C.   Participants at the January 24 prayer service heard testimony from Deacon Georgette Forney as part of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign.   “Abortion aftercare programs helped me to grieve for the child that I had aborted,” Forney shared, highlighting the importance of local church ministry among post-abortive women and their families.   “All I did was make myself available and give my sin back to God,” Forney recounted, describing God as taking human brokenness, healing it, and using it to build his Kingdom.   Pro-Life ministry, Forney explained, has expanded to address euthanasia and assisted suicide.   “Everything in God’s Word upholds the sanctity of life,” Forney insisted. “Once life is regarded as a burden or inconvenience, that life begins being treated differently.”   Forney shared her own story of admitting her elderly father to a hospital, with a doctor strongly and repeatedly pressuring him to sign a “Do Not Resuscitate” order in the early hours of the morning. Her father declined to sign the order, but Forney saw it as a sign of how the medical community is changing and that churches need to prepare their congregants for such external pressures.   “If we are going to be change agents for our culture and communities, it will require us to say ‘yes’ to God,” the Anglicans for Life Director charged.   In his sermon, Fitzwater sought to emphasize the unchanging nature of God and his Word.   “If it was ever a sin, it still is. If it was ever his character, it still is,” Fitzwater preached. The West Virginia bishop shared about the spiritual nature of Christ and about his humanity.   “Spiritual does not mean to be ghostly: to be a spiritual people does not mean we are fixed on disembodied things,” Fitzwater noted. “Jesus is so spiritual, he goes around healing physical bodies. Spiritual means the Word became flesh and dwelled among us.”   The Anglican bishop insisted that “Christ is sanctifying the entire family structure.”   “In the cases of life, there are times when the circumstances and scenarios by which a woman becomes pregnant are not ideal, but that life is always sacred. It is always blessed. It is always given dignity,” Fitzwater stated. “The response of the Church must always be: how do we step in to not snuff out a smoldering wick? To not break a bruised reed, but to rightly and truly set bones so that they heal and grow into the fullness of the grace that God has already amply poured out through Jesus Christ.”   Following the service, participants loaded onto buses that took them to the National March for Life beginning at the National Mall in Washington and concluding on Capitol Hill.   “When we go out into this march today, we aren’t just walking with the people next to us, we are enveloped, immersed by a cloud of witnesses whose lives and legacies are pleading to God,” Fitzwater exhorted. “Let us not forget that the chief responsibility, the chief end in those moments, is to join with the prayers of all of God’s people.”   END