Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
3/16/2007

A cartoon in a recent issue of the New Yorker might well be viewed as a metaphor for the Episcopal Church (TEC). Two men are sitting on bar stools. Behind them, the window of the bar is smashed. Seen through the broken glass is a partially destroyed city. One bar fly says to the other: "So far, the collapse of civilization hasn't particularly affected my life style."

For most Episcopalians that is probably true. In thousands of hamlets across the country life goes on in small Episcopal parishes. They continue largely unaffected by and even oblivious to the mega crisis facing the church. The crisis includes timelines, covenants, endless talk of "listening" and the latest delay tactic - hermeneutics - the science of interpreting (read manipulating) Scripture, so homosexuals can feel good about what they do in Nigeria or New Zealand.

I was reminded of that this past weekend, when my wife and I traveled to upstate New York, where I had an appointment to interview the new Bishop of Albany, the Rt. Rev. Bill Love. On Sunday morning, we slipped into St. Mary's in Lake Luzerne, the former parish of Bishop Love. We heard the news that, in less than six months since stepping down after a 14-year stint, the Search Committee had found the perfect candidate to fill Fr. Bill's shoes. His name is the Rev. Bruce Mason, an orthodox American priest who had just returned from Wycliffe College, Oxford, where he had taken time out to recoup, spiritually, and to study. He was once the media director for the American Anglican Council. It will be a good fit. When the announcement was made, the church, as one, rose to its feet and cheered the chairman. Then the interim rector asked for a hand for the whole committee. It was a joy-filled moment. This is life on the ground.

Who cares what Mrs. Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Presiding Bishop, thinks, or if the church's shrill sodomites continue to rip and tear at the fabric of the Anglican Communion; life in this small hamlet will go quietly on. Each Sunday the gospel will be preached, new families will join (the parish under Fr. Love doubled during his tenure); the sick will be visited in hospital and hands will be laid on them, birthdays and anniversaries will be acknowledged each Sunday in the church, and nobody will give a damn about a handful of bleating pan sexualists demanding acceptance of their abominable behavior.

AN ACTIVIST LAYMAN lamented to this writer that the sexuality issues in the church have come as a result of a lack of sound teaching on biblical sexuality, marriage, purity, and faithfulness; even the doctrines of the faith are not being heard from the pulpits much anymore. "I'm not sure what it is we really believe. I am tired of hearing about homosexual sex, what does The Episcopal Church really stand for?" He has a point. Of course, the new mantra is Millennium Development Goals (MDG's) but "goals" don't visit prisons or do the every day grunt work that pastors must do to keep the faithful, faithful and coming back for more, to grow in their most holy faith.

If you want to read my interview with Bishop Love, you can do so here or in today's digest: http://tinyurl.com/24br39

THE HOUSE OF BISHOPS meets later this week at Camp Allen, Texas, where they are expected to talk, but not act, on the deadline given them by the Anglican Primates, according to the Rev. Jan Nunley, a spokeswoman for the Episcopal Church. "There will be no definitive statement, although they may have a business session," said Nunley. Maybe not, but you can be sure it will be the 800-pound gorilla in the room that will be hard to ignore. You can also be sure of this - Bishop V. Gene Robinson will be politicking like crazy for an end to Lenten fasting for the blessing of same sex unions and more. Pittsburgh Bishop and Network Moderator Bob Duncan will be there. You can be sure his presence alone will give heartburn to the liberals and revisionist bishops. The ball is no longer in his court; it is firmly with the church's moderate and hard core bishops. It is they, not the eight orthodox bishops, who are accountable for their actions to the Primates. Perhaps, Bishop John-David Schofield (San Joaquin) will be there with the biggest smile on his face. He may yet have the last laugh.

MAKING THE POINT, the Archbishop of Canterbury moved quickly to shore up the consensus reached at the Dar es Salaam Primates' Meeting about the American church by writing to the primates and asking his fellow archbishops to submit nominees to Lambeth Palace for the proposed Pastoral Council that will oversee the traditionalist church within a church in the US. Noted one British newspaper, "Dr. Williams' alacrity comes in marked contrast to the diffidence from Lambeth Palace following the 2005 Communique which created the Archbishop of Canterbury's Panel of Reference. In the two years following Dromantine, the panel has issued only two recommendations. In a letter released on March 5 by Lambeth Palace, Dr Williams observed that the meeting was "was far from being an easy few days" but added it had been a productive gathering with "a great deal of honesty." He noted the Primates held a range of views on the American question, but noted there was a consensus "that the diagnosis of the Windsor Report" constituted a "way ahead" for the Communion by providing a template "for healing and reconciliation within The Episcopal Church and between The Episcopal Church and those Provinces where there remained broken or impaired communion." The 1998 Lambeth Resolution 1.10 remains the standard of teaching on matters of sexual morality for the Communion."

The five-member Pastoral Council, with two members appointed by Presiding Bishop Schori, two appointed by the Primates, and the fifth appointed by Dr Williams, will be an appropriate body through which the work of healing and reconciliation, for which we all look, "may be robustly carried forward," he said. Dr. Williams added that he hoped it "may be brought into being in the very near future."

MRS. SCHORI seems to be in no mood for compromise on her church's position that sodomy is good and right in the eyes of God. At a quiet meeting at St. Peter's, near St. Andrew's Cathedral in Hawaii, she talked about the "noisy exceptions," in the TEC. "It isn't really everywhere, it's a small piece of the denomination that's in such an uproar, a tiny piece," said Mrs. Schori. "They're developing allies in other parts of the communion who think they're in the same place theologically and politically."

If she really believes that bishops like Duncan and Schofield are just a "tiny piece", she should remember that the Anglican puzzle is huge and most of it is orthodox. While the American contingent of orthodox bishops is small, it is The Episcopal Church that is even smaller - 780,000 active members with a whole lot of money, but, numerically, not much bigger than a single Nigerian diocese!

In the DIOCESE OF COLORADO, the liberal bishop Rob O'Neill wants the orthodox priest of the largest parish in his diocese deposed and tossed out of his diocese and, if possible, The Episcopal Church (TEC). You can read my exclusive commentary on that situation here or in today's digest. http://tinyurl.com/329snn

The DIOCESE OF NEVADA is looking for a new bishop now that Mrs. Schori has moved on to higher things. Their Diocesan Vision Statement for a new bishop reads like this: "God is calling the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada to transform our communities through the vitality of our worship and living out our baptismal vows." Interesting. No mention of gospel proclamation, The Great Commission or even the Great Commandment. What exactly is the message to transform communities, if it is not the life-changing message of the gospel? One can be sure that the Province of Nigeria does not have a similar statement. Try this from their website: "Every Church that seeks to find her place in God's scheme and to stay or abide there must have only one priority if it seeks to stay in the centre of God's will and that priority is 'mission, mission and mission."

And in the DIOCESE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, the deadline expired for the Rev. Mark Lawrence without his getting the required 56 consents. He received only 55 of the 56 necessary to be consecrated. Late Thursday we learned that consents for the new Bishop's Election had been ruled insufficient, and the diocese cannot proceed with the consecration of Lawrence. Presiding Bishop Katharine Schori gave notification that she was declaring his election null and void. The response out of 815 read thus: "Several dioceses, both on and off American soil, thought that electronic permission was sufficient as had been their past accepted practice. The canons which apply are III.11.4(b), pp. 101-102 in the newly published 2006 Constitutions and Canons that require the prescribed testimonial to the consent be signed by a majority of each standing committee." The official notification will be coming in a letter to South Carolina later. Its the end of Lawrence. The net result of all this is that it will force more orthodox people to leave The Episcopal Church and it kills the possibility of conservative bishops getting conservative successors as bishops to their dioceses.

SEVERAL questions present themselves. What if the next candidate is just the same as Lawrence? Will they deny that person consents? In that case, will the Diocese ever have a bishop? Why doesn't the diocese go ahead and consecrate him anyway? Mrs. Schori will never be invited to the diocese to consecrate any bishop they choose. The hypocrisy of this rejection should be noted. The homoerotic Gene Robinson (New Hampshire) got elected by his diocese and all the liberals screamed that no one had the right to deny him consent because he was duly elected by his diocese. Why not for South Carolina? Why are they rolling over so easily? Do they think that playing the Episcopal game will get them a meaningful seat at the table and that they can actually change anything? How absurd. What about the BIG TENT theory espoused so vigorously by liberals, that ALL are welcome. This is patently false and is exposed to the world as such.

In the DIOCESE OF WESTERN MICHIGAN, the Kalamazoo Episcopal cathedral is up for sale. VOL wrote more than a year ago that this white elephant, the product of the febrile brain of the late Bishop Charles E. Bennison, would one day face the chopping block. (Who builds cathedrals in the Michigan suburb of Portage for heaven's sake?)

Apparently, members of the diocese did not see the cathedral as a diocesan or parish asset, preferring to contribute their resources to support their own individual parishes. The castle-like structure was doomed from day one. The building cost more than $2 million to build in 1969, and now is now valued at $1.2 million, according to an estimate from the Portage city assessor's office. Because of its location, the site would be good for a hotel, said a local official. Bishop Robert Gepert, leader of the diocese's 14,000 members, isn't any more theologically enlightened than Bennison. The diocese is going down hill, financially. It has strapped finances and a dwindling church maintenance fund. Last year, the diocese had to move its administrative offices out of the building. Gepert did say a burial garden, containing the ashes of former priests and members, will remain property of the diocese. We remember the dead, even as the living flee The Episcopal Church.

It's ironic, Charles Bennison is the father of the Rev. John Bennison who recently got tossed out of his parish in California for committing sex offences with a minor and for having sex with other women. His brother Charles E. Bennison, the Bishop of Pennsylvania, faces presentment charges, as well as civil suits. The majority of that diocese wants him gone. Like his father, who had a penchant for spending other peoples money, Bennison (the son) has dropped millions of Diocesan dollars to purchase a property in Maryland even as parishes close, diocesan funds fall off, and he faces possible eviction himself...a real family of losers. How do we pick them!

In the DIOCESE OF NORTHWEST TEXAS, Bishops Wallis Ohl did what was expected and filed suit against Good Shepherd in San Angelo to recover the church assets for the diocese. The congregation voted 52 to 31 in November to withdraw from the Episcopal Church. The resolution of withdrawal became effective Jan. 5. The parish wants to keep the property. "Each parish holds its property and assets in trust for the diocese and the larger Episcopal Church," Bishop Wallis Ohl said. You can read the full story here: http://tinyurl.com/2o9jgz

The PANEL OF REFERENCE has pronounced on the parish of the Church of the Redeemer and the DIOCESE OF FLORIDA. They made the following recommendation. That the authority of the Diocesan bishop, John Howard should not be challenged, the inhibition of the Rector, the Rev. Neil Lebhar should be lifted, and a guarantee given that no further legal action will be taken by the Diocese against Redeemer Church and that it will not be reduced to mission status. They recommended a "neighbour" bishop to have an oversight extended to him or her from the diocesan bishop, and should live in close geographical proximity. To read the full implementation of their recommendations go to the following link: http://www.aco.org/commission/reference/docs/Florida_final.pdf

The DIOCESE OF DALLAS has halted the disassociation process of parishes that want to leave, a source told VOL this week. One parish has already walked away from the church building, which now has no base to support it. There are a number of parishes that want to walk away and some will align with CANA and Bishop Martyn Minns, VOL was told. The environment has become a bit less hostile, but you can be sure that Bishop Jim Stanton is hearing from David Booth Beers if he thinks he will allow another Christ Church, Plano, to exit the diocese and TEC. Plano and its rector, The Rev. Canon David H. Roseberry, got out under the wire before Mrs. Schori's legal Doberman began to bare his teeth.

And in the DIOCESE OF MISSOURI they had a same sex blessing on Sunday March 4 at Christ Church Cathedral in St Louis, seat of the Missouri diocese. What does this say about the request by the Primates to cease and desist?

AT AN EXECUTIVE COUNCIL meeting recently in Oregon, it was revealed that a number of dioceses are in arrears in their support of the national church's budget. Foremost among them is the DIOCESE OF NEWARK. The ultra-liberal diocese is paying a steep price for its endorsement of sexual misbehavior. Now it can't pay its way. This is the Diocese of Jack Spong and it is still the home of the Episcopal Church's First Sodomite, Dr. Louie Crew. While still containing 113 parishes in northern New Jersey, parishes are closing and membership has dwindled from more than 52,000 in 1970 to about 27,600 today. If you can't guess why, start reading your Bible without the liberal spin on sodomy. It is frightening what Scripture reveals. The diocese with the loudest mouth and voice about inclusion and sodomy is losing parishioners and can't pay its way. You know now why they want the orthodox to stay...to pay their bills! Other financially non-supporting dioceses include the DIOCESE OF PENNSYLVANIA. Surprise!

AN OBSERVER at the recent Executive Council In Oregon had some astute observations to make about the council. The Rev. Matt Kennedy, a Binghamton, NY based orthodox priest who was there, said The Executive Council is driven by two primary foci.

1. facilitating the international embrace of the Millennium Development Goals (this is called "mission" and those who engage in this project internationally, "missionaries") and

2. ensuring that non-celibate homosexual people are given access to every office and benefit in both Church and state, internationally and nationally.

"Returning from Executive Council is something like emerging from Plato's cave. The Council's jaundiced view of Christian truth and, not to mention, reality itself serves, depressingly, an explanatory role. " The problem is that the gospel, as apparently understood and certainly articulated by the primary legislative body of the Episcopal Church between General Conventions, is reduced almost exclusively to the Good News of the Episcopal Church as revealed in the Millennium Development Goals. The evangelistic urgency to fulfill the Great Commission that characterizes the New Testament and drives every true Church was utterly and depressingly absent. At one point, during a session of the International Concerns committee, a missionary working in El Salvador was asked to describe her mission. "My mission is to spread the good news of the work of the Episcopal Church and the Church in El Salvador to the world."

"The most powerful leaders in the Episcopal Church underemphasized the soteriological aspects of the Person and Work of Christ, in favor of his material acts of mercy; healing, feeding the poor, etc. A truly robust, and fully orthodox faith, embraces both," he said. "What a waste liberal Protestantism turns out to be. The fight in Executive Council is not whether to embrace same sex blessings and non-celibate homosexual behavior, but how best to promote it."

The DIOCESE OF CONNECTICUT elected, to no one's surprise, the pro-homosexual liberal, Laura Ahrens, as the next bishop suffragan for the diocese. She is the first woman elected bishop in that diocese. The Rev. Dr. Ahrens, 44, is rector of St. James' Episcopal Church in Danbury, which has a sign outside saying it is an "inclusive" church. Seems she had a run for her money though. Ahrens was elected on the fifth ballot from a slate of seven candidates.The conservative favorite, Tom Furrer, lead the first four ballots.

In the DIOCESE OF NEW WESTMINSTER, Canada, this past week, Bishop Michael Ingham shot his mouth off about sexuality making headline news across the nation, saying the church demanded a "better theology" of sex. Really. The Christian church has a deeply flawed understanding of sex that has led to morally groundless objections to masturbation, birth control, abortion and homosexuality, according to the leading liberal Canadian Anglican bishop. Bishop Ingham's call for a new theology of sex sent shockwaves throughout the 77-million member Anglican Communion, but VOL was told that this could backfire on him, even in his own diocese! A source wrote VOL that some folks in his Diocese are really ticked off with Ingham's shooting his face off in the press recently. "Where their language used to be cautious and guarded on the matter, they now feel deeply frustrated with what they see as a bishop who seems intent on antagonizing many who in the past, might not have opposed him, but now see him as a trouble maker. Expect to see some more defections in the Diocese of New Westminster in the near future. I've never heard folks here speak such harsh language and in such an unguarded way. It surprised even me."

THE NATION'S top military officer, a decorated veteran, had the gall to speak up and say that homosexual acts were immoral this past week. Naturally, he got an earful from America's homosexual community. How dare one of the top leaders of our land have a moral belief and share it when questioned! That's exactly what happened this week when the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff-the first Marine general ever to hold that position-General Peter Pace, commented, in a wide-ranging interview with the Chicago Tribune, "My upbringing is such that I believe that there are certain things, certain types of conduct that are immoral. I believe that military members who sleep with other military members' wives are immoral in their conduct, and that we should not tolerate that."

After watching the grilling of General Pace and follow-up intimidation by Integrity types, an irate orthodox Episcopalian sent a letter to the White House.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Mr. President,

Many of us are concerned about the propaganda campaign of the homosexual community that is now intimidating General Pace and the Marine Corps. Common sense would indicate that endorsement of alternate lifestyles will disintegrate military discipline.

My family has already witnessed the schism in the Episcopal Church caused by a small group of advocates who have taken over the leadership and policies of the church. These advocates seek to sanctify such lifestyles, and are not satisfied with tolerance. They now control the selection of ministers entering seminaries and their calls to various churches. The 10 Commandments were instrumental in the establishment of the American culture. These are a Code of Ethics for constructive lives, or Code of the Hills -- more than Church dogma. "Progressives" consider these principles to be outdated and contrary to their goals.

This agenda is most likely to be continually expanded and enforced on the Marine Corps and other military organizations. There is already much enforcement of their propaganda written in to TV programs and movies. I believe that this onslaught on our culture is beyond destructiveness.

Your support is urgent. Charges of homophobia and the lack of inclusiveness need to be ignored or dealt with in a constructive manner. If we allow Mobocracy to rule, the United States will disintegrate.

Respectfully yours,

Curtis Nordan Jr.,
Montgomery, Alabama

ZIMBABWE'S ANGLICAN CHURCH was encouraged to develop an "'independent voice"' on human rights this week. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and Archbishop Bernard Malango, Archbishop of Central Africa, held a meeting with Bishop Nolbert Kunonga, Anglican Bishop of Harare. The two Primates issued a joint statement at its conclusion: "We are grateful for the chance to meet face to face and discuss the role of the church in Zimbabwe and the wider region in working towards the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals. We shared our deep concerns with the Bishop of Harare about the situation in Zimbabwe, affirming those places where Anglican ministries are bearing fruit and the church is growing, but also expressing the widespread concerns in the global church and in the international community about the deteriorating economic life of Zimbabwe and issues of human rights and peaceful non-partisan protest. We encouraged the development of an independent voice for the church in response to these challenges. All ministers of the gospel must be free to serve and to speak for the needs of those most deprived and disadvantaged. We want to find new channels of communication and to facilitate regional conversations about issues of development and justice, including the impact of sanctions, so that Anglicans may work together more effectively with and for the poor whom they serve in Christ's name." Source ACNS News.

In the DIOCESE OF NEW WESTMINSTER the ancient practice of Confession is being revived but with a twist: This Lent consider using the Sacrament of Reconciliation, an ancient and Anglican practice, says The Rev. Mark Greenaway-Robbins of St. James, Vancouver, one of the diocese's Anglo-Catholic parishes. Among the prayers of confession can be found 'Do I respect, love and conserve nature - all living creatures, flowers, trees and plants', 'Do I unnecessarily pollute the atmosphere', 'Do I try to recycle waste!' This lead one wag to observe, "it is no longer sola fide but solar field day.'

ON A BETTER NOTE, the AMiA Bishop T.J. Johnston will dedicate a new church building, which crossed the Georgia Straight to Pender Harbour from Campbell River, BC. It will be the dedication of 'Noah's Ark' in Pender Harbour, on the Sunshine Coast, of BC, Canada. Nearly two years ago, the Rev. Barclay Mayo hit the front page of many newspapers as his Christ the Redeemer congregation was evicted from their church building over their stand for the traditional definition of marriage. While their older 2,400 square building only seated ninety people, their new 4,800 square facility seats 140 people. The congregation of Christ the Redeemer is living in the midst of this promise being fulfilled. So far over $300,000 in donations, grants and low interest loans has been given. The Pender Harbour people are moving ahead in faith that the Lord will indeed keep his promises to "give us a hope and a future." God really does own 'the cattle on a thousand hills', said Mayo. The Rev. Barclay Mayo and Christ the Redeemer congregation are part of the Anglican Coalition in Canada, a pioneering movement in Canada. A video presentation of the ACiC story is available online at http://acicanada.ca/documents/acic.ram . For information on possible affiliation, please click on http://acicanada.ca/affiliate .

AN ANGLICAN MISSION & MINISTRY Conference, sponsored by the Anglican Mission in America Northeast Network, will be held April 25-27, 2007 at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, MA. Plenary Speakers include The Rev. Dr. John H. Armstrong, founder and president of ACT 3, a ministry for the Advancement of the Christian Tradition in the Third Millennium (http://www.act3online.org/) and The Rt. Rev. Thaddeus Rockwell Barnum, Missionary Bishop of the Anglican Province of Rwanda, and pastor of the Church of the Apostles in Fairfield, CT. (http://www.apostlesct.org/). If you are interested contact Miriam Clement at the Church of the Resurrection, Washington, DC. (mclement@rezchurch.org or 202-349-2158)

CONCERNED ABOUT SAME-SEX ATTRACTIONS? Zacchaeus Fellowship - men and women who hold to the church's historic view on sexuality in the face of former or present struggles with same-sex attraction. Transformed by an Encounter with Christ presents an essay and four powerful testimonies, with a foreword by the Most Rev. Andrew Hutchison and preface by the Most Rev. Terrence Buckle. Send for your copy. A suggested donation of $5 or more. Make checks or money orders payable to: St. Thomas the Apostle Anglican Church, noting the Zacchaeus Fellowship in the memo line. Visit www.zacchaeus.ca or write to The Zacchaeus Fellowship, 250 Dundas Street S., Suite #242 Cambridge, ON N1R 8A8 CANADA. This book comes with the hearty endorsement of world class Anglican theologian Dr. J. I. Packer.

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