Revelation and responsibility. God has not revealed his truth in such a way as to leave us free at our pleasure to believe or disbelieve it, to obey or disobey it. Revelation carries with it responsibility, and the clearer the revelation, the greater the responsibility to believe and obey it. --- From "The Letters of John" by John R.W. Stott

The Divine Self-Disclosure. Christian assurance. Christian dogmatism has, or should have, a limited field. It is not tantamount to a claim to omniscience. Yet in those things which are clearly revealed in Scripture, Christians should not be doubtful or apologetic. The corridors of the New Testament reverberate with dogmatic affirmations beginning 'We know', 'We are sure', 'We are confident'. If you question this, read the First Epistle of John in which verbs meaning 'to know' occur about forty times. They strike a note of joyful assurance which is sadly missing from many parts of the church today and which needs to be recaptured. -– From 'The Upper Room Discourse', in Christ the Liberator, by John Stott and others.

Stewards of truth. All revealed truth is held in stewardship. It is given to be shared, not monopolized. If men cannot keep their scientific discoveries to themselves, how much less should we keep to ourselves the divine disclosures? --- From "The Message of Ephesians" John R.W. Stott

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
October 8, 2010

The numbers don't lie. The Episcopal Church which has been on a long slow decline for the past quarter century hastened with gadarene speed toward the cliff edge in 2009 by the actions of consecrating an openly homosexual bishop in 2003.

The latest figures gleaned from graphs and charts revealed that Average Sunday Attendance (ASA) in 2009 dropped 2.6% from 705,257 in 2008 to 686,779 - a drop of 18,478.

It's not hard to imagine where they have gone. In one diocese after another, parishioners have quietly slipped away to form orthodox parishes under a half dozen different Anglican jurisdictions, but united in one common understanding - that the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ will not be compromised, that all the doctrines of the faith remain valid and that sex outside of marriage does not meet with God's approval. Some Episcopalians have gone to Rome, a smaller number to one of the Orthodox churches. A handful have gone to Lutheran churches. ACNA is the big winner along with the AMiA.

The loss to TEC is enormous. Plate and pledge plunged 8.3% leaving a number of dioceses teetering on the edge of going out of business, forcing many to think the unthinkable: that down the road they will have to juncture with another diocese. You can read the full report in today's digest.

VOL also took a harder look at the statistics of the four dioceses that have already left TEC: Pittsburgh, Ft. Worth, San Joaquin and Quincy. We found so much misinformation about who belongs to whom that even with all the hard work we did, we still believe the figures we obtained were skewed in favor of The Episcopal Church.

What it did reveal is that the figures show two solid years of across the board decreases in all dioceses and departments.

The picture is not a happy one. With millions being spent on litigation to retain properties, the church's social programs are tanking. The cost to revive the Diocese of Haiti is $10 million so we are told. Dioceses don't have the money to send there as they are struggling to pay the burgeoning medical costs of priests and their families. With aging and declining congregations, the picture is not at all rosy.

*****

One priest has called the game as he sees it declaring that TEC's much vaunted "Vision 20/20" to double the church by 2020 is doomed.

The Very Rev. Kevin Martin, Dean of the flagship cathedral of St. Matthew's, Dallas, said the Episcopal Church is heading off a cliff into oblivion. He believes the 20/20 Vision set by GC2000 to double the church in the next decade is now an impossibility.

Writing in the October 3 issue of The Living Church Martin stated, "I have come to the conclusion that the Episcopal Church is headed toward about 1 million members in 2020, an average Sunday attendance around 400,000 and around 6,000 mainly small congregations.

"The 20/20 initiative was, among all things, a concerted effort to bring revitalization and growth to a long declining mainline church. It failed and we are now faced with an institutional decline that, save a direct intervention and miracle by God, cannot be reversed. There is insufficient leadership, desire, or institutional will to change.

"The failure of the 20/20 initiative, combined with the subsequent controversy around human sexuality, has placed our community in a very precarious position," he wrote. You can read more in today's digest.

*****

If it is at all possible for a diocese to go from bad to worse with leadership so compromised and appalling that it is almost impossible to out mock and satirize, then the "dumb and dumber award" award goes to the Diocese of Pennsylvania and its bishop Charles E. Bennison.

The diocese and bishop have become self-mocking caricatures. Bennison has had little difficulty finding a self-destruct button and pushing it.

He has been back barely six weeks and has already begun a rampage through the diocese spending money like water, trying to nullify the Camp Wapiti sale and a host of other actions. The usually reclusive and secretive Standing Committee has written a letter to the diocese blasting Bennison's actions and cataloging his sins in the hope that perhaps he might be shamed into resigning.

Not a chance. He's back with a vengeance, undoing the good of the last three years and wielding his authority like a club throughout the diocese. At one point, he offered up the view that the witnesses at his trial perjured themselves. Say what?

VOL has written a story saying that it is possible to file new charges against Bennison. It would require a concerted effort by some lay and clergy to file the charges and put up a resolution before the next Diocesan Convention, declare the See of Pennsylvania vacant and ask the Standing Committee to be the ecclesiastical authority until a new bishop can be found.

Here is another resolution Pennsylvania Episcopalians might want to consider:

A Resolution in Response to Charles Bennison's Address to Convention: On Conduct Unbecoming a Clergyman

Whereas: The Court of Appeal of the Trial of a Bishop acquitted Charles Benison of conduct unbecoming a clergyman on the technical grounds of the expiration of the relevant statute of limitations;

Whereas: the Court of Appeal of the Trial of a Bishop nonetheless believed him to be guilty as charged, on the basis of sworn testimony, of the offense of conduct unbecoming a clergyman, specifically his condoning his brother's nonconsensual sexual intercourse with a minor child under Charles Bennison's pastoral care;

Whereas: it is alleged by the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Pennsylvania that Charles Bennison has stated before a meeting of the Diocesan Council of the Diocese of Pennsylvania that he believes all the witnesses against him intentionally perjured themselves;

Whereas: such slanderous, defamatory, and retaliatory remarks, if substantiated, make a mockery of this Church's intention to be a safe place for children, and inflict continued emotional abuse on the victim and witnesses. If left undisciplined, these remarks intimidate future victims of child abuse and their supporters from testifying in church tribunals;

Whereas: these remarks represent a continuation of Charles Bennison's demonstrated pattern of past child sexual abuse;

Whereas: these allegations are widely known in the Church, are a cause of present scandal, represent on the face of it conduct unbecoming a clergyman, and have not been sufficiently rebutted in Charles Bennison's Address to convention;

Therefore be it resolved: this Convention of the Diocese of Pennsylvania request the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Pennsylvania to make known to the whole Diocese the evidence for the suspect remarks of the Bishop before Council;

Be it further resolved: This Convention of the Diocese of Pennsylvania request the Standing Committee prepare a presentment against Charles Bennison on the basis of that evidence, if it has not already done so, and forward the same to the Presiding Bishop;

Be it resolved: This Convention of the Diocese of Pennsylvania request the Standing Committee initiate action against Charles Bennison under the current Diocesan Sexual and Child Sexual Abuse policies, requesting of the Presiding Bishop his immediate inhibition;

Be it finally resolved: This Convention of the Diocese of Pennsylvania request the Standing Committee of the Diocese assure the trial witnesses of continued support and prayers, and forward to them copy of this resolution, and a copy of the presentment as well.

Discussion: This resolution is in order because it is in response to Charles's Bennison's address to Convention. The resolves are in accord with National and Diocesan Canons and policies. The honor of the Church and concern for the victims and trial witnesses require that this issue be addressed immediately.

*****

Mount Calvary Church, a small Episcopal congregation in Baltimore is discerning the possibility of entering the Roman Catholic Church was reported recently by VOL. They may not have such an easy run of it.

There are fresh reports that the Diocese of Maryland may not let them keep the parish, after all, as was first reported by VOL. The diocese made it clear through their communications office that all parishes are held in trust for the diocese and national church. This is not a slam dunk.

A second unnoticed item comes from Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl, the Pope's delegate for overseeing the possible creation of an Anglican-use ordinariate in the United States, who said he had received several requests from Episcopal parishes seeking entry into the Catholic Church as Anglican-use parishes.

The Mount Calvary's nine-member vestry, or parish council, voted unanimously to separate from the Episcopal community and become an Anglican-use parish within the Roman Catholic Church. Mount Calvary parishioners will vote Oct. 24 on two resolutions - one to leave the Episcopal Church and another to seek entry into the Catholic Church as an Anglican-use parish.

*****

In news that will not inspire the pansexualists at Changing Attitude No. 10 Downing Street announced this week that Bishop Christopher Chessun, Bishop of Woolwich, is to be the next Anglican Bishop of Southwark. He succeeds the ultra-liberal Rt. Rev. Tom Butler who retired earlier this year. The gays had wanted Jeffrey John. They lost. A VOL cleric in London told VOL that "Chris is a conservative Catholic - which must have come as quite a shock to the TEC diocese of Southwark." One hopes.

*****

If you think the gay agenda is not infiltrating the Anglican Church of Canada, consider this from a VOL reader in Quebec: "The Cathedral in Montreal is getting a new Dean from England who will be arriving soon with his 'partner'. The September-October issue of the parish newsletter, Dialogue, for St. Matthias Church in Westmount, announces the addition of Don Boisvert to their staff. He is completing his "In Ministry" requirement for graduation from the Montreal Diocesan College. Mr. Boisvert has published two books- Sanctity and Male Desire: A Gay Reading Of Saints, and Out On Holy Ground: Meditations On Gay Men's Spirituality. He is married to Gaston Lamontagne, his partner of 34 years. There is also a photo of parishioner, Brian Davies visiting the Land of Anne (PEI) sporting a set of girl's braids and straw hat.

"The Diocese of Quebec is having their synod this month. They are having serious problems with declining congregations but seem to have about 12 million in the bank so they should be able to support a pro-gay Bishop long after all the people have gone. They have recently completed the sale of the church camp, Quebec lodge, retaining a small portion of the property for future use but they will have to raise a considerable amount of cash to get something up and running. I hear that the cash reserves of the Diocese of Montreal come in at 9 million and change. The Diocese of Quebec has just had a visit from a Bishop Pie from a companion Diocese in Burundi. The parish of St. Stephen's in Lachine had a same sex wedding/blessing or whatever it is called in July."

And you wonder why there is an alternative orthodox Anglican province (ANiC) in the making in Canada. If there weren't one, the very stones would cry out.

To make the point that all is not well in Canada, the ACoC announced further restructuring at General Synod offices. Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, met with General Synod and announced 14 staff positions have been affected, 10 positions have been eliminated, six people received lay-off notices, while others have been offered different or new jobs. Every General Synod department has been affected to some degree.

The cuts are in keeping with a 2009 decision that deficit budgeting be eliminated by 2012. While cost-cutting measures over the past two years have included staff layoffs, the biggest reduction remained to be articulated in 2011, with an estimated CAN$1.1 million (US$1.085 million) to be cut from the General Synod operating budget.

*****

He may not be loved by the Episcopal honchos at 815 in New York, but Bishop Mark Lawrence of the Diocese of South Carolina is clearly loved in the Middle East. He was in Egypt recently as guest speaker and preacher at Diocesan Council and leader of a retreat for all Anglican clergy across Egypt, North Africa and Horn of Africa at the invitation of Presiding Bishop Mouneer Anis. Clearly, he is not letting the situation in South Carolina get him down. As we say, life goes on.

*****

The Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan is back in play looking for a bishop after the disastrous interlude with Thew Forrester, the wannabe bishop with strong Buddhist tendencies who got clobbered for his views that made him even less of a Christian than Charles Bennison, though I must confess that is hard to beat. Anyways, the bishop's search committee has nominated four priests to stand for election as the diocese's next bishop.

The nominees are:

* The Rev. Dr. Susanna E. Metz, 60, executive director of the Center for Ministry in Small Churches at Sewanee: University of the South in Tennessee, and rector of St. John the Baptist Church, Battle Creek Tennessee (Diocese of East Tennessee);
* The Rev. Rayford Ray, 54, a member of the Episcopal Ministry Support Team in the Diocese of Northern Michigan;
* The Rev. Nigel Taber-Hamilton, 57, rector of St. Augustine's-in-the-Woods Episcopal Church, Freeland, Washington (Diocese of Olympia); and
* The Rev. Jos Tharakan, 46, rector of All Saints Episcopal Church in Russellville, Arkansas (Diocese of Arkansas).

The four might want to consider that the diocese is running on empty with 24 clustered parishes, most with mission status, three full time rectors and virtually no money. Is a purple shirt worth that?

*****

With fewer than 100 days to go before southerners in Sudan vote on whether to remain a unified country or to separate from the north, Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul of the Episcopal Church of Sudan is making every effort to ensure that the Jan. 9 referendum goes ahead as planned and that peace holds in the war-torn country.

Deng and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who are appealing to the international community to support the people of Sudan, briefed media at Lambeth Palace on Oct. 7 ahead of a series of meetings with officials in the U.K. Government's foreign office. The meetings are intended to provide updates on the situation on the ground in Sudan and to ensure that the U.K. Government plays a crucial role in supporting the peace and stability of Africa's largest nation.

The archbishops explained that the critical issues related to the referendum include delays in voter registration, tensions in the border regions, and the future for some 4 million refugees from the south who are currently living in the north.

*****

BRITAIN has recognized druidry as an official religion for the first time, thousands of years after the Celtic pagan faith emerged in Europe.

The Druid Network, an organization representing the religion in Britain, was granted charitable status in a decision that not only gives it tax breaks, but also lets the religion take its place alongside more mainstream beliefs.

There had already been some official recognition, it added, including a provision by Britain's Prison Service for the practice of druidry and the attendance of a pagan chaplain at services.

IN other oddball news, Archbishop Rowan Williams paid a call on Britain's small Zoroastrian community at their place of worship in South Harrow in a historic first for the Anglican clergyman. He was greeted at the door by female Zoroastrians wearing "garas", or traditional expensive saris, who slipped a garland over his head and offered him "mithai", or sweet meats.

When I wrote to a London cleric about this, he wrote back saying, "I was surprised to know that England had any Zoroastrians - trust Lambeth Palace to find them." ***** The Anglican Church of Southern Africa voted recently to adopt "The Anglican Covenant", the document setting out a statement of common "affirmations and commitments" by churches of the worldwide Anglican Communion which has been drawn up in response to disagreements over issues around human sexuality.

A resolution adopting the Covenant was proposed at the triennial meeting of the church's Provincial Synod by the Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Rev. Thabo Makgoba, and seconded by the Dean of the Province, the Right Rev. Paddy Glover, Bishop of the Free State. The decision will need to be ratified by the next session of the Synod in three years time.

Motivating the resolution, Archbishop Makgoba said he believes the church in southern Africa needs to try to "play a reconciling role" amid the current disputes over human sexuality in the Communion. He said the Covenant "is not a guarantee of an easy solution to the problems we face in the Communion" but hopes it would be a way of "healing and moving the Communion forward..." It is a document that, although not a complete statement on the nature of the Anglican Communion, seeks to "describe our common identity in the Anglican Church... What is at stake here is to try to articulate our relationship in words."

In other news, bishops, clergy and lay Anglicans from Southern Africa say they want more women priests to be ordained. The call came at the triennial provincial synod of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa.

The three-day conference also focused on several contentious issues, including the continuing psychological damage to both white and black South Africans by the "dehumanising" effects of the struggle against apartheid.

Participants came from Namibia, Swaziland, Lesotho, Mozambique and Angola.

The conference resolved that the election of women as bishops needs to be addressed with dioceses that had yet to ordain women as priests being encouraged to do so.

*****

An orthodox Canadian Anglican made a good point to VOL this past week. He wrote: "Why is so much attention paid to the gays and lesbians, what about the disabled? What about seniors who make up a large part of congregations across the country. Where I attend, the senior population must be 85% or more of the crowd, and many of them are really senior, like 80 years and up. "In the church that I attend there are two men's bathrooms, they are both located either up or down two flights of stairs. How can disabled men get down or up there to the bathroom with no elevator? Why is there nothing for the seniors, the disabled, for men? - there's no men's club or men's breakfast. The Bible Study is held in the afternoon, so what about working people, how do they get to Bible Study?"

Point taken.

*****

Out of adversity, a fledgling flock is born. For those of you who have been following the recent plight of The Rev. Neil Moquin http://tinyurl.com/3y27yxx here is the first report, received via email, of his new Anglo-catholic congregation, St. Augustine of Canterbury, meeting for the time being in Vista, California. Fr. Moquin said he has been received into the Anglican Church in America.

*****

In Little Rock, Arkansas Anglican School of Ministry (ASM) is pleased to announce that Dr Henry Baldwin will be joining the staff and faculty of the school as Vice President and Associate Dean and as Associate Professor of Biblical Studies. Dr Henry Baldwin is a former missionary with the Evangelical Free Church of America. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and served a total of 28 years, retiring as a navy captain. He holds an MAR in Biblical Studies from Westminster Theological Seminary and a PhD in New Testament from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He and his wife Shirley began their ministry by serving nearly a decade with The Navigators of Colorado Springs. Later, he was a lecturer in New Testament at Singapore Bible College.

Before coming to ASM, Henry served as Vice President and Professor of New Testament at Tyndale Theological Seminary in the Netherlands. It was under Dr. Baldwin's leadership that Tyndale received accreditation as a university by Dutch Ministry of Education. He is the author of numerous articles and a contributor to several publications, including a book on the issue of women's ordination. He is currently a candidate for orders with the Anglican Mission in the Americas. He and his wife have been Anglicans for many years, working in lay ministries in the Province of South East Asia in Singapore and with the Church of England in the Netherlands where he was involved in planting an evangelical mission, serving there as the Senior Warden.

More information about Anglican School of Ministry may be found at www.anglicanschoolofministry.org.

*****

The Rev. J. P. Heath, an Anglican Priest from Johannesburg, South Africa, who tested HIV positive 11 years ago, said religious leaders living with HIV face double the discrimination. "I have faced much stigma", says the priest who has founded INERELA+, an international network of religious leaders -- lay and ordained, women and men -- living with, or personally affected, by HIV.

The stigma always arises with the association that HIV comes from "immoral sex". Many forget that people can contract diseases through blood transfusions, during surgery through infected syringes or coming in contact with infected blood.

"I have always been asked how I contracted HIV", says the priest, with those posing the questions always raising doubts over his integrity and character.

*****

Nine Church of England bishops recently formed a new society for Anglicans who oppose women bishops, but still want to remain in the church and are unwilling to join the Roman Catholic Ordinariate under Pope Benedict XVI.

The Society of St. Wilfrid and St. Hilda was formed to "provide a place within the Church of England where Catholics can worship and minister with integrity without accepting innovations that further distance the Church of England from the greater Churches of the East and West," Rev. John Ford, Bishop of Plymouth, told the Church Times.

According to the Church Times, the Society materialized during a "sacred synod" meeting in Westminster attended by 460 deacons, priests and bishops to discuss their disquiet with pending women-bishops legislation, and their frustration that the General Synod could not make a provision for their theological position.

*****

In New Zealand, The Diocese of Canterbury Anglicans are being asked to give at least $100,000 for quake relief in Haiti. In a pastoral letter read in all parishes on Sunday, Bishop Victoria Matthews calls on her diocese to find the money - as an expression of thanks and praise - by the time it gathers in synod on October 30.

"The Canterbury earthquake (on Sept 4) was equal in strength to the devastating earthquake that killed and tore asunder Haiti in January 2010," she says. "Relatively little recovery work has been done in response."

The Haiti quake was centered 15 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince and killed an estimated 200,000 to 250,000 people. Eight months after the quake, only two percent of the resulting rubble has been cleared away.

*****

Michelle Obama will attend Maria Shriver's The Women's Conference in Long Beach, Calif., later this month in her first appearance at the event as first lady. The conference is aimed at "pairing the world's most fascinating people together regardless of political affiliation in a non-partisan discussion about the issues that matter most to women," according to co-hosts Maria Shriver and her husband, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Among the guests will bePB Katharine Jefferts Schori.

*****

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: US Primate Katharine Jefferts Schori said faith "is not the result of whiz-bang encounters with the holy. It's much more like the production of coal, through the long, slow accumulation of dead organisms, slowly covered with rock, and then the millennia of pressure. Faith comes through the accumulation of life's challenges."

Many of us are waiting for the moment when Mrs. Jefferts Schori has a "whiz-bang" encounter with the Holy Spirit. It might just change the course and direction of The Episcopal Church.

*****

Next week, I fly to Cape Town, South Africa, to cover the Lausanne Congress on Evangelism where some 4,000 world church leaders, many of them Anglicans, will meet to discuss how to evangelize the world for Jesus Christ. Chairing this event is the Anglican Archbishop of Uganda, Henry Luke Orombi. Among the speakers is the brilliant Anglican sociologist Dr. Os Guinness. I will be reporting directly from the Cape Town International Convention Center and posting stories to VOL's website www.virtueonline.org

*****

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In Christ,

David