Show Evidence of Your Election by God. Let us never forget that the great thing we have to do, is to repent and believe the Gospel. We have no right to take any comfort from God's election, unless we can show plain evidence of repentance and faith. We are not to stand still, troubling ourselves with anxious speculations whether we are elect or not, when God commands us plainly to repent and believe (Acts 17:30 and 1 John 3:23). Let us cease to do evil. Let us learn to do well. Let us break off from sin. Let us lay hold on Christ. Let us draw near to God in prayer. In so doing, we shall soon know and feel whether we are God's elect. To use the words of an old divine, we must begin at the grammar school of repentance and faith before we go to the university of election. It was when Paul remembered the faith, hope and love of the Thessalonians, that he said, "I know your election of God." (1 Thess. 1:4). --- Bishop J.C. Ryle Spiritual death. Biblical statements about the 'deadness' of non-Christian people raise problems for many because this does not seem to square with the facts of everyday experience. Lots of people who make no Christian profession whatever, who even openly repudiate Jesus Christ, appear to be very much alive. One has the vigorous body of an athlete, another the lively mind of a scholar, a third the vivacious personality of a film star. Are we to say that such people, if Christ has not saved them, are dead? Yes, indeed, we must and do say this very thing. For in the sphere which matters supremely (which is neither the body, nor the mind, nor the personality, but the soul) they have no life. And you can tell it. They are blind to the glory of Jesus Christ, and deaf to the voice of the Holy Spirit. They have no love for God, no sensitive awareness of his personal reality, no leaping of their spirit towards him in the cry, 'Abba, Father', no longing for fellowship with his people. They are as unresponsive to him as a corpse. So we should not hesitate to affirm that a life without God (however physically fit and mentally alert the person may be) is a living death, and that those who live it are dead even while they are living. To affirm this paradox is to become aware of the basic tragedy of fallen human existence. It is that people who were created by God and for God should now be living without God. Indeed, that was our condition until the Good Shepherd found us. --- From "The Message of Ephesians" by John R.W. Stott

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
March 4, 2011

You know the Episcopal Church has a problem when Charlie Sheen sends an e-mail to the bishop of New Hampshire which says simply "Robinson: Dude, get help". One doubts, of course, if the hapless and drug-induced actor would know Robinson if he fell over him, or an Episcopal Church for that matter with its famous if somewhat jaded sign, "The Episcopal Church Welcomes You."

So it will come as no surprise to learn that an Episcopal parish in Long Island, New York - Trinity Episcopal - has gone a step further. They have put a sign outside in a locked display that reads "Anything Goes. The Episcopal Church...A Religion for the 21st Century". E-mail to Charlie from Robinson, "Dude, this church is for you."

The church is trying to be inclusive, a spokesperson in the parish told VOL. The sign was done by a Confirmation class that was given an advertising project to do. The sign is a result of what one child did as a poster. This begs the question: what are they teaching or not teaching confirmands these days.? It would be laughable if it wasn't so serious when the spiritual lives of our children are not at stake.

Ironically, the Bishop of Long Island, The Rt. Rev. Lawrence C. Provenzano was not exercised enough to do anything about it so it will probably stay up as an epitaph to the progressive world of The Episcopal Church. More can be read about it in today's digest.

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In Colorado Springs this week, the Rev. Don Armstrong, an orthodox Anglican priest who broke free from the grip of his former revisionist TEC Colorado Bishop Robert O'Neill over faith and morals and got tossed out of his parish, finally heard some good news from the courts. It brings to an end four years of fighting and litigation. Armstrong entered a plea agreement, which contains a single misdemeanor without content that became the basis of his sentencing. In that sentencing, he is ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $99,247. He will also have to do 400 hours of community service. The liberals were praying for blood and most expected him to get a minimum of ten years in jail. It never happened. VOL got an exclusive interview with Armstrong that can be read in today's digest. We asked the hard questions and, we believe, we got honest answers.

Said Armstrong, "I believe the verdict made good sense and was correct. The judge read thousands of pages of documents, listened astutely to all the testimony, and his presentation to us was clear and concise. The judicial system worked, I believe."

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The Episcopal Church would not be The Episcopal Church if Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori did not explain herself and the church's teachings from time to time, especially in public forums. She did just that this week in a worship service for parishioners at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, VA. She had some pointed things to say about the Church. VOL believes she mislead her listeners about what is really happening in her church and the wider world. What follows is her comment along with VOL's response.

KJS: That's the challenge. Episcopalians have not, traditionally, been very good at that. We've relied on evangelism by reproduction.

VOL: And it has failed dramatically. Reproduction is not evangelism. It's what people do in bed to keep the human race going. Reproduction Episcopal style is over and has been over for 20 years or more. TEC numbers have been slipping for a generation or more. ACNA/CANA/AMIA is not relying on "reproduction". They are out there saving souls, making disciples and planting churches. TEC Bishops are busy putting out fires in parishes, as the outgoing Bishop of Atlanta recently noted. He is tired of going into parishes and hearing parishioners complain about the negative stories about TEC that they are reading on the Internet. Bishops are also sick and tired of hearing about internal fights over trivia, and treasurer's who run off with funds and sodomy as the new TEC religion. They are angry, disillusioned and much more. It is probably why a lot of bishops like Gene Robinson are getting out early so they can hit the speaker's circuit or disappear into seminaries where they can write and lecture in relative solitude without the aggravation of angry Episcopalians. Some of them can't wait to hit the golf course and beat up on golf balls instead of their archdeacons...or deal with one more orthodox priest who dares to stand up and yell that the bishop has no [theological] clothes and he is leaving and wants the parish property.

The full story can be read in today's digest.

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Gay weddings will never take place in Church of England buildings, vowed the Archbishop of Canterbury this week. Dr. Rowan Williams told British MPs that he would not bow to pressure to enable his churches to be used for same-sex unions. His intervention comes as the Coalition government consults on plans to allow civil partnerships between gays and lesbians to take place in religious settings for the first time.

While the Church has been bitterly divided over the role of itshomosexual clergy, he said it held a clear position that marriage is between a man and a woman and would not consider changing this stance.

The tough line taken by the archbishop will frustrate liberals in the Church who have become increasingly disillusioned by his support for a conservative approach to controversial issues.

It also disappointed MPs who hoped he would be more sympathetic to proposals from the Government to give greater rights to homosexual couples looking to have their partnership solemnised in Church ceremonies.

Does this mean the ABC has had a radical change of heart about homosexuality? In the past he has declared that men and women in committed same-sex relationships are acceptable to him and the church, though he also says he will uphold Lambeth 1:10 as the standard. He is also aware that such changes would not receive the approval of General Synod at present, which would be required to change the Church of England's marriage law. Attempts will be made however to persuade General Synod to do so, and it is going to be a perilous time for its members - fortunately the newly elected Synod is far more conservative than the last one, a source told VOL, and Archbishop Sentamu is more and more openly conservative and outspoken on all these issues.

"Church House tries to do things without consulting us, under the guise of "legal advice" which is issued and approved by the House of Bishops. If we can hold out for the life of the current Synod on this issue, however, we may be able to hold on long term."

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From the Anglican Province of Southern Africa come two stories that indicate just how bad things are down there and how much this liberal Anglican province follows The Episcopal Church in faith and morals. This province is the only solidly liberal province on African soil although TEC is doing its best to buy loyalty from other African provinces with its money.

An Anglo-Catholic priest, The Rev. Clifford Felix, 55, was defrocked following a tribunal for whistle blowing about decades of homosexual abuse and cover-up at the highest levels of the church. He himself was sexually abused. He was not permitted to give evidence at his own trial.

His bishop, Merwyn Castle of False Bay, says Felix was defrocked on the recommendation of an ecclesiastical tribunal because he brought "the church into scandal and disrepute". He did this by questioning the sexual standards of his church and bringing to light multiple cases of homosexual abuse by priests with young men going back to the 70s.

Felix just wanted the church to come clean and admit its sins. He said Archbishop Thabo Makgoba knew all about the years of abuse and had a report on his desk detailing it all. Instead, they "shot" the messenger and now he has been deposed and thrown out of his parish. The full story can be read here or in today's digest. http://tinyurl.com/4vco7mw

In another equally abusive situation in this southern African Anglican province, an evangelical priest by the name of Dhenis Stafford was told by Raphael Hess, Bishop of Saldanha Bay, an area west of Cape Town, that he could not preach the message of salvation to children. His two youth pastors had their papers pulled by the bishop and have since resigned. Stafford also resigned because he and his staff were unable to resolve anything with the Bishop.

This is how to kill off orthodox Anglicans, indeed the church itself. Just cover up sexual crimes (did they learn nothing from the Roman Catholic Church?) and don't allow the gospel to be preached to the next generation, so everyone lives in spiritual darkness.

These priests may have fallen from ecclesiastical grace imposed on them by liberal bishops but in God's eyes they are heroes who will one day here those words, "Well done thou good and faithful servants..."

My interview with this godly priest can be read here http://tinyurl.com/4oxmpub or in today's digest.

*****

On a healthy upbeat note, you can read my interview with Bishop Todd Hunter of the Anglican Mission in the Americas. I interviewed Bishop Hunter at the recent AMiA Winter Conference in Greensboro, NC when he detailed his plans to plant 200 new Anglican parishes in the Western US. This interview is a breath of fresh air.

Hunter is the founding pastor of Holy Trinity Church, an Anglican church in Costa Mesa, California, and the author of several books including his latest, The Accidental Anglican, why liturgy is important for the church and its surprising to young people.

*****

In other Anglican news, The Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem and Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, the Rt. Revd Suheil Dawani has been denied the renewal of his "Temporary Residency Status" in Jerusalem. This action was taken when permits held by him, his wife and youngest daughter were revoked by the government of Israel, effective 24 September 2010. The bishop is taking court action over his visa refusal

Bishop Dawani was elected in 2007 as Bishop of the Diocese and was recognized by the State of Israel as the head of the Episcopal Diocese in accordance with the decision by the State of Israel in 1970 which acknowledged the Diocese as one of the thirteen recognized churches in Israel. All Anglican Bishops of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem were not required to hold Israeli citizenship. But the Ministry of the Interior said their permits would not be renewed because of allegations pending against the Bishop, namely that "Bishop Suheil acted with the Palestinian Authority in transferring lands owned by Jewish people to the Palestinians and also helped to register lands of Jewish people in the name of the Church." There were further allegations that documents were forged by the Bishop. The letter also stated that Bishop Dawani and his family should leave the country immediately.

It's hard to know who is being truthful here. The diocese has a long history of litigation with its former bishop Riah Abu al-Assal going back to 2008 when an Israeli court upheld a magistrate's ruling ordering Bishop Riah and his family to turn custody of an Episcopal school and campus over to the diocese. There is no love lost between these two men. Riah and Dawani hate each other's guts. Riah would no doubt like to see Dawani thrown out of the country. On the other hand, the solid anti-Israel stance by both bishops has invited the kind of reprisal that Dawani now faces. If you insist on bashing the people who own the land, they will eventually toss you out of their country.

This is a very liberal diocese. When GAFCON met in Jerusalem in 2008, Dawani was a no show, but he did get a visit by one of Mrs. Jefferts Schori's politically correct foot soldiers, Colorado Bishop Rob O'Neill, to make sure Dawani's feet were kept to the liberal blaze. The message was clear: if you want the money to keep rolling from TEC's storehouse, make sure you know which loaf of ecclesiastical bread you want to eat from.

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Episcopal Church House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson says the church needs to change how it does business. The fancy word is governance. "Change is in the water, in particular, governance change is in the Episcopal Church's water," she said recently. She said our society is changing demographically and economically, the size and resource base of our church is changing and the world is changing through climate change, population change, technology and a host of other factors. We are swimming in change."

INTERPRETATION. There are fewer Episcopalians giving less and we are going to have to cut back even more. She wants reform, read, we have less to play with and you had better get used to it. She said this: "To achieve reform that will support ministry around the church, we need to look comprehensively at our governance structures. It's tempting to focus our energy on General Convention reform, but General Convention accounts for only 7.6% of our budget and has actually decreased proportionally in the Episcopal Church's budget since the 2000-2003 triennium. In addition to taking a look at General Convention, if we are interested in making our governance more cost-effective across the board, we need to consider how to reform and streamline other structures that cost more and are less transparent. How can we develop reforms that will free up more resources and energy for supporting local ministry?" This sounds a lot like giving less overseas and entrenchment back home.

*****

Traditional marriage is under fire in America as President Obama is prepared to abandon DOMA - the law passed to protect marriage between a man and a woman exclusively.

Mike McManus, a leading American authority on marriage who heads Marriage Savers, an organization dedicated to saving marriages, testified against same sex marriages in Maryland, recently. He appeared before the Maryland Assembly's Judiciary Committee and testified on two factual points that had not been raised by anyone else. He commented: "Traditional marriage is exclusive; gay unions are not. Traditional marriage is exclusive. Four out of five men have never cheated on their wives, and 86% of women. By contrast, according to Dr. John Diggs, Jr, two-thirds of gay couples report sex outside their relationship in their first year. In fact, only 15% of gay men and 17% of lesbian women had relationships that lasted more than three years.

"Secondly, gays are not particularly interested in marrying, despite what gay activists assert. (After I said that, the gay activists behind me snickered.) Massachusetts was the first state to adopt same-sex unions in 2004. After five years, there were only 5,000 "gay marriages" in the state. If 3% of the state's 3.3 million males are gay, there are 100,000 gay men in the state. Only a tenth have "married." (With that evidence, the gays fell silent.)

McManus said that if the Maryland House votes for same-sex marriage (the Senate did), it will trigger a drive to put the issue on the ballot where it will be defeated in 2012. "As I noted in my testimony, a poll reports even liberal Maryland opposes gay marriage by 54% - 37%." And those legislators who voted wrong will be remembered, just as they were in Maine, where 23 were defeated in 2010.

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A decision to bar a Christian couple in the UK from fostering children because of their views on homosexuality has been backed at the High Court. Eunice and Owen Johns, 62 and 65, of Derby, said the city council did not want them to become foster carers because of their traditional views. The couple said they were "doomed not to be approved" because of their views. The Pentecostal Christian couple had applied to Derby City Council to be respite carers. The court heard the couple withdrew their application after a social worker expressed concerns when they said they could not tell a child a homosexual lifestyle was acceptable. Lord Justice Munby and Mr Justice Beatson ruled that laws protecting people from discrimination because of their sexual orientation "should take precedence" over the right not to be discriminated against on religious grounds.

"We have been excluded because we have moral opinions based on our faith and we feel sidelined because we are Christians with normal, mainstream, Christian views on sexual ethics," they said. Now if you had any doubt that Christianity is slowly being expunged in merry ol' England this is it. From BA flight attendants who can't wear crosses so as not to offend Muslims on planes to this, shows how far and fast England is descending into a new spiritual darkness.

The judgment "sends out the clear message that orthodox Christian ethical beliefs are potentially harmful to children and that Christian parents with mainstream Christian views are not suitable to be considered as potential foster parents", said a concerned legal group.

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Islam was the most frequent topic of religion news coverage in 2010 as the media doubled the amount of time and space devoted to religion compared to 2009. An analysis by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that more than 40 percent of religion coverage centered on three issues: plans to build an Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero, a Florida pastor's threat to burn the Quran, and commemorations of the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The study, in conjunction with the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, marked the first time since 2007 that neither the Catholic Church nor religion and politics ranked as the No. 1 news story. The Catholic abuse scandal ranked as the No. 2 religion story in 2010 after the controversy over the Park51 Islamic center.

The analysis considered more than 50,000 stories from newspaper front pages, home pages of major news websites and the first half hour of television and radio news programs. Researchers found that religion tended to get more coverage in the blogosphere than in traditional media; religion ranked among the top five stories covered on the Web for 12 of the 48 weeks studied.

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For the first time in recent history, three Episcopal women's groups have come together to ask the church to participate in 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence. In 2010, the 16 days begin on November 25, International Day against Violence Against Women, and end on December 10, International Human Rights Day.

These three groups - the Episcopal Church Women (ECW), the Episcopal Women's Caucus (EWC) and Anglican Women's Empowerment (AWE) - have partnered to develop an Episcopal Church campaign of activism and awareness to coincide with the international campaign established by the Center for Women's Global Leadership at Rutgers University (http://16dayscwgl.rutgers.edu).

Since 1991, more than 2,000 organizations have participated in the campaign. The focus includes raising awareness about gender-based violence as a human rights issue, strengthening local work around violence against women, providing a forum in which organizers can develop and share new strategies, and help create tools to pressure governments to implement promises made to eliminate violence against women.

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Vancouver Anglicans seek $100,000-plus in court costs. The Vancouver-area Anglican diocese is trying to recoup more than $100,000 in court costs from a bitter dispute with conservative Anglicans over four church properties.

The diocese, led by Bishop Michael Ingham, recently applied to the B.C. Appeal Court to retrieve a portion of the soaring court costs in a case rooted in a battle over same-sex blessings and how to interpret the Bible.

The diocese has been saying for months that the three-year-old legal dispute has bled away financial assets. B.C. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Kelleher awarded court costs to the diocese on June 29, 2010, when he upheld the diocese's right to the four parish properties, including 1,000-member St. John's Shaughnessy which has become home to evangelical Anglicans.

However, the dissident parishes argued in B.C. Appeal Court against having to pay the court costs to the more liberal diocese, even though the diocese ended up winning in both B.C. Supreme Court and in a unanimous decision of the B.C. Appeal Court. The dissidents argued that they shouldn't have to pay the court costs because they have been fulfilling the role of loyal trustees of the diocese.

The breakaway Anglican Network in Canada has so far streamed more than $1.3 million into mounting their case for the B.C. church properties.

*****

The quality of debate about the ordinariate is bringing out the worst in a lot of people, writes an Anglo-catholic deeply involved in the debate. It's being treated as a political contest. "Many of us who do not wish to join under the terms of the Apostolic Constitution are not 'against union with Rome', but we have an inherent ethical problem with the terms expressed in the document: as Archbishop Collins of Toronto has stated: "For those who disagree with recent trends in Anglicanism, but who do not want to become Catholics, in communion with the Pope and accepting the whole faith presented in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, there are various other options; they clearly would not want to join an ordinariate established according to Anglicanorum Coetibus.' For those of us who cannot accept these terms, there is no option open than to refuse the terms in the hope, as I have written to the Archbishop, that 'in time, ...that we may see a renewal and fulfillment of the promise of unity...in the ARCIC discussions."

*****

The Anglican District of Virginia (ADV) has announced its candidate nominations for bishop in anticipation of applying to be a new diocese within the Anglican Church in North America. The two candidates are Archdeacon Julian Dobbs of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, and Bishop John Guernsey of the Diocese of the Holy Spirit, part of the Anglican Church in North America. If passed, the vote on whether to petition the Anglican Church to become a diocese will be followed by the election of a bishop. Both votes will take place at ADV's Constitutional Convention on May 20-21.

"These are both godly, highly qualified men. We would be honored to be led by either one if it is the Lord's will that we become a Diocese within the Anglican Church in North America. There is no question that our future path will continue to be built on reaching the lost for Christ, planting new churches and serving others," said ADV Chairman Jim Oakes.

The fact that this is being done under the nose of the second largest Episcopal diocese in TEC (the first is Haiti), is galling to Diocese of Virginia's bishops. The truth is they could have settled the property disputes when Bishop Peter Lee ran the diocese, but PB Jefferts Schori intervened and the rest is, as they say, history.

In 2009, the ADV Synod proposed that a task force be created to address the future name, composition, mission, structure, funding and affiliation of the Anglican District of Virginia. In 2010, the Synod approved and created the task force. The Anglican District of Virginia comprises 32 member congregations and nine mission fellowships.

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MEA CULPA. VOL recently reported on the death of Fr. Chip Valentine in the Diocese of Lexington. Contrary to reports that his death was a suicide, it has been determined that Fr. Chip's death was deemed accidental. The nature of his death is a private matter, his daughter wrote. We deeply regret any harm this has caused the family and we offer a full and unqualified apology for this misinformation. He was a good man, charismatic in personality and evangelical in persuasion. He will be missed. If you wish to help the Valentine family, a fund has been set up through the Episcopal Diocese of Lexington. He labored as an orthodox priest for 38 years in a very liberal diocese.

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If you wish to subscribe to VOL'S weekly news digest that includes commentary, exclusive stories, news and more then go here www.virtueonline.org and subscribe. Or drop me a line at david@virtueonline.org and we will subscribe you. Tell a friend, sign up someone you know who would benefit by this one of a kind news service.

All blessings,

David