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It is not sufficiently understood that our Lord Jesus Christ was at one and the same time a conservative and a radical although in different spheres. There is no question that he was conservative in his attitude to Scripture. "The Scripture cannot be broken," he said, "I did not come to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them.' Again, 'not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished" (Jn. 10:35; Mt. 5:17-18).
One of Jesus' chief complaints against contemporary Jewish leaders concerned their disrespect for Old Testament Scripture and their lack of a true submission to its divine authority. But Jesus may also be truly described as a radical. He was a keen, fearless critic of the Jewish Establishment, not only because of their insufficient loyalty to God's Word, but also because of their exaggerated loyalty to their own human traditions.
Jesus had the temerity to sweep away centuries of inherited traditions ('the traditions of the elders') in order that God's Word might again be seen and obeyed. He was also very daring in his breaches of social convention. He insisted on caring for those sections of the community who were normally despised. He spoke to women in public, which in his day was not done. He invited children to come to him, although in Roman society unwanted children were commonly 'exposed' or dumped, and his own disciples took it for granted that he would not want to be bothered with them. He allowed prostitutes to touch him (Pharisees recoiled from them in horror) and himself actually touched an untouchable leper (Pharisees threw stones at them to make them keep their distance).
In these and other ways Jesus refused to be bound by human custom; his mind and conscience were bound by God's Word alone. Thus Jesus was a unique combination of the conservative and the radical, conservative towards Scripture and radical in his scrutiny (his "biblical" scrutiny) of everything else.--- From "Balanced Christianity" John R. W. Stott
The popular image of Christ as "gentle Jesus, meek and mild" simply will not do. It is a false image. To be sure, he was full of love, compassion and tenderness. But he was also uninhibited in exposing error and denouncing sin, especially hypocrisy... The evangelists portray him as constantly debating with the leaders of contemporary Judaism ... Christ was a controversialist--- From "Christ the Controversialist" by John R. W. Stott
Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
10/12/2007
It was another week of mounting tensions and strong words across the Anglican Communion.
The Archbishop of Sydney, Dr. Peter Jensen, wrote a damning piece saying that the Anglican Communion is irreversibly and irretrievably lost and that it is time for another "Blast of the Trumpet" (from the Global South). We should look steadfastly to a future in which the bonds of Communion have been permanently loosened. The evangelical head of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney believes that the Anglican Communion is so badly compromised that it will never be the same again, and that a new more biblical vision is required to help biblically faithful Anglican churches survive and grow in the contemporary world.
In a signature article to the whole Anglican Communion, the Rt. Rev. Peter Jensen said, that with recent cumulative events in the Anglican Communion especially by the American Episcopal Church, uncertainty is now over. "The decisive moments have passed. Irreversible actions have occurred. The time has come for sustained thought about a different future. The Anglican Communion will never be the same again. The Windsor process has failed, largely because it refused to grapple with the key issue of the truth."
Jensen pointed up what he called "defining moments," "crucial meetings" and "turning points'" only to discover that they simply lead into another period of uncertainty. "Crisis," "schism," "division," "break-up" - this has been the language of the last five years in the Anglican Communion. You can read the full story here or in today's digest: http://tinyurl.com/38c6vl
He was joined by Ugandan Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi who said more or less the same thing. In a letter from his province he said the Episcopal Church had tossed the faith overboard. The evangelical archbishop told parishioners at the Church of the Apostles in Daphne, Alabama that the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops behaved in New Orleans "arrogantly and with no repentance" and had squandered its last chance. "Dr. Williams' efforts to fix the crisis in the communion was like trying to wall paper a cracked wall," he told the former Episcopal congregation. You can read the full story here or in today's digest: http://tinyurl.com/39w35t
In England a senior Church of England conservative intensified the storm over homosexuals in the clergy by warning he will boycott next summer's Lambeth Conference if liberal American bishops are invited. The Bishop of Rochester, the Rt. Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, said he would find it difficult to attend a Church council alongside those who consecrated or approved the appointment of Anglicanism's first openly gay bishop.
It wasn't just overseas bishops protesting the belligerency of the Episcopal Church and the sick state of the Anglican Communion. Closer to home, other voices were raised about the sorry state of TEC. In Florida Canon David C. Anderson ripped the Archbishop of Canterbury and said the realignment was the biggest thing since Henry VIII took the Church of England from Rome. He said the future of Anglicanism in the United States was now apart. He openly berated Williams saying that the Anglican Communion's titular head came to New Orleans, not only with a closed mind to the provable facts, but also with a plan to swiftly undercut the orthodox Global South and those orthodox Americans whom they have supported.
Speaking to a group of clergy and laity in Orlando under the banner of the Central Florida American Anglican Council, Anderson, bishop-elect of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), an Anglican missionary effort sponsored by the Church of Nigeria, accused Williams of manipulating the Primates, detailing how, since Dromantine in 2005 if not before, the ABC had participated in presenting the rest of the Communion with "a watered down version of TEC, knowingly misleading," and demonstrating a "routine duplicity, refusing to let yes be yes and no be no."
Anderson went on to say that the Episcopal Church's real intentions are to drive the orthodox out of TEC. "As long as there are orthodox in TEC, the heretics do not feel safe. If they did, they would not be trying to eradicate us through 'non-Anglican' church transfer rules."
Then he proposed this: "The appropriate strategy in response is to stand on the air hose; cut off financial giving to national and diocesan coffers, out of which the fund for the church's present scorched earth policy is derived."
You can read the full story here: http://tinyurl.com/yw6g7j An interview Canon Gary L'Hommedieu conducted with Canon Anderson where he said the fabric of the Anglican was permanently torn can be read here: http://tinyurl.com/yr4d7t
Ironically, Anderson gave his speech to some 35 clergy and 150 laity in an orthodox diocese led by evangelical Bishop John W. Howe, who has made it very clear he is not leaving the Episcopal Church and will not permit parishes to leave the diocese with their properties for another branch of Anglicanism!
The Rev. Lorne Coyle, rector of Trinity Church, Vero Beach, the second largest parish in the Diocese of Central Florida and a local AAC convener, said the results of a survey registrants filled out regarding realignment in the diocese revealed that 111 said they had made a personal decision to realign in the following time frame: 65 within 6 months, 19 within 15 months, and 21 -- within three years.
What Howe does with all this is hard to say. Howe will have Mrs. Jefferts Schori's attorney David Booth Beers breathing down his neck not to cut any slack to those preparing to leave. With as many as 20 parishes on the cusp of breaking from the diocese, this might be harder than one thinks. Massive lawsuits along the lines of what is shaping up in the Diocese of Virginia could come to this diocese. We shall see.
In the coming two months, at least four dioceses will weigh their future in The Episcopal Church. If the majority of laity and clergy in these dioceses decide to leave, you can be sure the minority liberals will be calling Beers and Schori for legal advice as to how they should proceed.
One thing is for sure, none of this is going to be nice, inclusive, respecting theological diversity or anything else. It is going to be down dirty and nasty with things said that cannot be unsaid and lawsuits flying in all directions with the laity and vestries being sued by bishops and the TEC legal heavies. In short, it will be hell on earth. VOL is learning that bishops are getting ulcers; many more can barely function waiting, it seems, for the inevitable axe to fall.
Even if a liberal bishop would like to cut a deal with a fleeing orthodox parish, he will get a phone call from Beers. If a conservative bishop wants to cut a deal with a liberal or conservative parish wanting to go, he gets a call as well. Just ask Bishop Jeffrey Steenson. With lawyers like Beers, who needs John Grisham novels!
One orthodox bishop, the Rt. Rev. Bill Love of Albany, who faces dissension in his own diocese, pled this week for a time out. "It is time to call a truce in the current battle, to give us time to rethink the road we are on. I am afraid the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion may very well go down if we are not careful. There is enough guilt, blame, pain and hurt to cover all sides. It is easy to point fingers at one another, blaming the other for the mess that we are in, but the reality is, we are all guilty. We have all contributed to the broken state of affairs in the Church - conservative, liberal, orthodox, revisionist -- whatever classification or label we might have. We are all in need of asking for forgiveness and offering forgiveness." You can read the full story here or in today's digest: http://tinyurl.com/yv4k9g
One can only feel enormous compassion and hope for Bill Love as he is affectionately known. I have known this man for more than 18 years, when he was the rector of a small parish in Lake Luzerne in the Adirondacks. He is loving and compassionate beyond all human measure. He cares so deeply about the Episcopal Church, it makes your heart ache. He prays, offers healing and wouldn't raise his voice in protest to Gene Robinson if the homoerotic bishop was caught with his lover in an open field along a highway in New Hampshire. Love recently attended the Common Cause Partnership in Pittsburgh and had this to say: "I did attend the meeting as an observer. I believe I have a responsibility as your bishop to be as informed as I can be regarding the current situation facing our Church. As I stated at the Diocesan Convention in June, it is my hope and prayer that we never have to decide between the Episcopal Church and the wider Anglican Communion..."
If only.
Another truth I witnessed in New Orleans is the shamelessness of many bishops in the HOB. Their lives are so rancid, their consciences so seared that they would sooner see the Episcopal Church fall apart than repent or make compromises of any sort. You can read my analysis of this here or in today's digest: http://tinyurl.com/2fndp3
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Is it possible for a bishop like Charles Bennison, Bishop of Pennsylvania to actually get any worse? Apparently it is. VOL has uncovered the fact that he (and certainly others must bear some responsibility) has blown some $7 million dollars on a failed land deal known as Camp Wapiti in the State of Maryland! A Maryland legislator, Michael D. Smigiel, said the whole deal by the diocese and Conservancy Fund fell apart because the diocese, in an effort to keep a parcel of land valued at more than $7 million, had tried to develop it at tax-payer expense. He angrily called the whole deal "unconscionable" and "fraudulent". He opposed this flagrant misuse of tax payer money, and told VOL. You can read the story here or in today's digest: http://tinyurl.com/2dhrmw Is it any wonder Bennison now faces presentment charges before the national church for financial mismanagement? If this doesn't push the Title IV Review Committee over the top, what will?
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Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori has added four more "Episcopal Visitors" to the roster of those willing to provide pastoral oversight. This brings the total number of visitors to 12. The four are: Bishop Philip Duncan of the Central Gulf Coast (Fla.), Bishop Duncan Gray of Mississippi, Bishop Suffragan Rayford High of Texas, and assisting Bishop Rodney Michel of Maryland. "I am grateful for the willingness of all these bishops to reach out to their brother bishops in time of distress," said Mrs. Schori. This dog won't hunt. Most of the orthodox bishops are making plans to leave TEC, and are not the slightest bit interested in this arrangement. This plan was dead on arrival in New Orleans. Had there been another surge, it would have washed the idea into Lake Pontchartrain.
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CROSSING BOUNDARIES. In New Orleans the HOB raged against the incursions by foreign bishops and the commissioning of "missionary bishops" by provinces outside TEC. African, Asian and Latin American bishops coming into their dioceses to ordain and perform eucharistically, however will not stop. Mrs. Jefferts Schori said she hates the practice. Dr. Williams opposes what is going on as well. Of course orthodox bishops and archbishops from the Global South are dutifully ignoring this. Not a week goes by when an African or a newly consecrated American bishop, acting as a proxy for an African archbishop, is not ordaining, consecrating or laying hands on orthodox clergy and laity on American soil. It is going to happen next week at St. James, Newport Beach right under Bishop Jon Bruno's nose. He is not going to be happy. A bishop from Uganda and the Rt. Rev. John Guernsey are going to ordain three persons under the watchful eyes of hundreds of Anglicans. And Bruno is still trying to retake this parish...his third attempt in the courts.
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If you have any doubts about where TEC's liberal seminaries are headed, read a thoughtful piece by the Rev. Theron Walker, titled "The Re-Invention of Virginia Theological Seminary." It's an eye-opener. Here is the opening paragraph: "A few weeks ago I came home from a day of making the world safe for the episcopacy, to find a letter from the new dean of my seminary, Virginia Theological Seminary. The new dean, Ian Markham wrote, 'The Seminary is deeply committed to the centrality of the Bible and affirms as true the orthodox Christian tradition.' Double take- 'The Seminary is deeply committed to the centrality of the Bible and affirms as true the orthodox Christian tradition.' According to whom? Reading the new dean's letter, one would never suspect the radical re-invention of VTS in the last eleven years." The 1996 cum laude graduate of Virginia blasted the new Dean. "The Virginia Seminary I attended and the one Mr. Markham serves are very different institutions." You can read his take here or in today's digest: http://tinyurl.com/259ea9
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Who's minding the Episcopal diocesan store? The DIOCESE OF SOUTH CAROLINA faces yet another sex scandal. The Rev. George Francis Weld, 61, was charged by Charleston County sheriff's deputies this week with assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature and two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. The former Charleston Episcopal Church rector was arrested last month on a child molestation charge and now faces additional charges, authorities said.
There is some history in this diocese of sex scandal. The Rev. Eddie Fisher of Porter Gaud Episcopal School was involved in a scandal with at least 35 known victims, resulting in a huge civil litigation settlement. The Rev. Mack Swafford of Holy Trinity was convicted of child sex abuse which ended with his conviction in 2005. The Rev. Jim Bills, a former Charleston rector of St. Stephens, was arrested in a sting operation in Ohio about two years ago. He was charged with criminal solicitation of sex with a minor. And now George Weld, former rector of St. John's Episcopal Church, Johns Island, has just been arrested for criminal sexual misconduct with a minor.
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And from SEWANEE, the University of the South comes this word: CELEBRATE RAMADHAN TONIGHT. You are invited to an "IFTAR" party at the BC Hearth Room to celebrate Ramadhan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, when Muslims all over the world fast every day of the month from dawn to dusk. The Muslim Student Association (MSA) is hosting the Iftar party, with ethnic South Asian food. See Yasmeen Mohiuddin Faculty Advisor, MSA. One wonders why the only Episcopal university in the U.S. allows this. If it was being held in a secular university that is one thing, but why is an ostensibly Christian institution not pushing say evangelism to Islamic students, or debating the ontological and theological differences between the two religions!
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AUTHENTIC ANGLICANISM REIGNS. A start up parish in Paradise Valley, Phoenix, Arizona that broke away from the revisionist diocese found itself with more parishioners than they thought when they opened the doors last Sunday. The majority of the members of Christ Church, (Senator Barry Goldwater's Church) left the parish to form a Biblically orthodox Anglican Church in the Phoenix area recently. On this first Sunday some 200 attended the service. A VOL reader wrote to say that many who had left Episcopal churches in the Phoenix area and were worshiping in Bible believing churches hoping the Episcopal Church and bishop Smith would repent couldn't wait for the new Anglican parish doors to open. "They literally came out of the woodwork to join Christ Church's orthodox members. The empty church building was filled to capacity".
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IN CANTERBURY priests and pastors in Britain have been warned not to wear clerical collars when they are not working because of the danger of being attacked. "We're not alarmists but we're telling the clergy not to risk attack by motivated offenders by wearing their [clerical] collars when they're off duty, visiting friends, shopping at the local supermarket, unless they have someone who would help them in an emergency," said Nick Tolson, director of National Churchwatch, an independent group advising clergy about security. The advice has resulted in a mixed reaction from various Christian groups in England. The Church of England's response was muted; although it welcomed the advice, it believes that a clergy would be torn between maintaining his identity and personal safety. A member of the clergy at St. Paul's Cathedral was more critical, calling it "silly, fashionable idea," AP reports.
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IN THE UK there is pending legislation to prosecute and incarcerate (for up to 7 years) clergy who dare to condemn homosexual behavior from their pulpits. If this succeeds, it will seal the fate of the Anglican Church in the U.K. The great tragedy is that such subversion of the gospel need not come from without, for the Church itself is infested with such thinking up to and including our own Rowan Williams! http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2613685.ece
Of course the elephant in the room is Muslims. They will not put up with such legislation, which will only fan the flames of terrorism perpetrated by those who are convinced that the West is decadent and not worthy of respect. I think it ironic that faithful orthodox Christians of every stripe will rally against Labor's outrageous legislation and that civil disobedience (both violent and non-violent) will result. The U.K. government is sowing the seeds of its own destruction. And for what? To placate a small minority of pathetic, dysfunctional unrepentant sinners?
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IN THE PROVINCE OF CENTRAL AFRICA news of the plan of the Diocese of Manicaland to withdraw from the Province of Central Africa is very sad, writes Canon Dr. Stephen Fagbemi. "Unfortunately, this is where the crisis in the Anglican Communion precipitated by the Episcopal Church is now leading us. It is not a surprise that the Bishop of Botswana, the Rt Revd. Trevor Mwamba, has been fingered as a particular advocate of homosexuality that the Church in this region can no longer live with. It is now clear who is in touch with the African people, as highlighted in my article in response to his lecture published in February. Unfortunately, my article was not published by the Church Times. (You can read it here http://tinyurl.com/ywdtrb). Instead of quitting the Province, it is the Bishop of Botswana that should be prevailed upon to leave the Province for the faithful Anglicans in that province to remain true to their belief and integrity, which Bishop Mwanba does not seem to share."
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The Episcopal Church is not the only mainline Protestant group in the U.S. that has been shaken by open conflict between theological liberals and conservatives.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is facing similar trials, with traditionalist congregations planning to bolt and a conservative denomination preparing to take them in. About 30 of the nearly 11,000 Presbyterian congregations have voted to leave the national church since the denomination's national assembly session in 2006, according to The Layman, a conservative Presbyterian publication that has been tracking the breakaways. Denominational leaders say they could lose an additional 20 congregations as a result of this latest rupture.
The Evangelical Presbyterian Church, a conservative group separate from PCUSA, has voted to accept any of the departing congregations. Presbyterian conservatives are meanwhile organizing themselves through groups such as the Presbyterian Global Fellowship and the New Wineskins Association of Churches. Source: Associated Press
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IN OSLO six of the 11 bishops of the (Lutheran) Church of Norway have supported proposals going before the denomination's general synod in November to allow people in same-sex registered partnerships to serve as bishops, priests, deacons or catechists. The moderator of the Church of Norway bishops' conference, Bishop Olav Skjevesland of Agder and Telemark, and four other bishops have said that they are opposed to the proposal, which was discussed at a meeting of the bishops' conference in early October. Current Church of Norway policy is that people in same-sex partnerships should not hold these consecrated offices. Source ENI.
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IN CANADA A new survey has found that believers are more likely than atheists to place a higher value on love, patience and friendship, in findings the researcher says could be a warning that Canadians need a religious basis to retain civility in society.
The survey of 1,600 Canadian adults, led by University of Lethbridge professor Reginald Bibby, gave a list of 12 values -- from honesty to family life to politeness to generosity -- and asked the participants if they found each "very important." In each case, theists ranked the values as more important than atheists.
The reason for this, suggests Prof. Bibby, a prominent sociologist, is that those who are involved with religious groups are being exposed to a whole range of values that are not being propagated well by any other major source. "To the extent that people are not involved in religious groups ? they're not being exposed to those interpersonal values and they're simply not holding them as strongly," Prof. Bibby said in an interview.
The study says: "To the extent that Canadians are saying good-bye to God, we may find that we pay a significant social price."
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