"Spong is a paradox. He is universally acknowledged as a featherweight intellect who is at the same time a heavyweight performer." ---Canon Gary L'Hommedieu

"The consecration of Reverend V. Gene Robinson as the Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire will long be remembered in the history of the church as a craven act of moral rebellion and the rejection of Holy Scripture. November 2, 2003 is a day that will live in biblical infamy." - Albert Mohler, Southern Baptist leader

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
9/14/2007

The most powerful tool that orthodox Episcopal laity have in their armory against the inroads of revisionism is to withhold funds from their local parish. This in turn forces the hand of the priest to tell the bishop that he doesn't have enough money to contribute to the diocese, which causes the diocese to say it cannot support the liberal agenda of the national church.

Call it trickle up.

It is rough justice, and while it will cause some heart-searching at the parish level, it can also have the galvanic effect of making the parish and priest start searching for other options. If the parish has a high mortgage, it will undoubtedly cause apoplectic fits for the bishop, if the parish and priest decide to leave. There is little he can do should the financial well run dry. This is happening in the Diocese of Colorado where two parishes have announced in recent weeks that they are leaving their parish properties and the bishop is welcome to them. Is this the new strategy for fleeing parishes? Is it a model that might be adopted more universally across the country? Time will tell.

*****

The big news of the week was the announcement by two dioceses - PITTSBURGH AND QUINCY that they will probably be out the Episcopal Church door after the meeting of the HOB in NEW ORLEANS next week.

The Episcopal Church's House of Bishops is expected to respond to requests by the Primates of the Anglican Communion not to authorize any rite of blessing for same-gender unions in their dioceses or through General Convention and to "confirm that the passing of Resolution B033 of the 75th General Convention means that a candidate for Episcopal orders living in a same-sex union shall not receive the necessary consent unless some new consensus on these matters emerges across the Communion." The HOB is not expected to change its direction.

The Primates told Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori to respond by September 30 with the bishops' assurances and warned that "the relationship between The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion as a whole remains damaged at best, and this has consequences for the full participation of the Church in the life of the Communion."

The statements from the dioceses of Pittsburgh and Quincy predict that the HOB will not give those assurances. Both dioceses are gearing up to change their constitutions. Bishops Bob Duncan and Keith Ackerman want to "align" their dioceses apart from the Episcopal Church. They will ask their diocesan conventions to consider severing all ties with the Episcopal Church. THE DIOCESE OF QUINCY annual synod meeting is set for October 19-20, while the DIOCESE OF PITTSBURGH'S convention will meet November 2-3.

On Sept. 11, Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan said, in a pre-convention pastoral letter, "a last minute reversal by the House of Bishops ... seems most unlikely."

"In light of these events, with heavy hearts, and for the sake of our mission it appears the time has come to begin the process of realignment within the Anglican Communion," he wrote.

Duncan plans to begin that realignment by asking his diocesan convention to give its first approval to a series of constitutional amendments that would essentially eliminate all references to the diocese's connection with the Episcopal Church. Most significantly, the amendments would remove language stating that the diocese agrees to accede to the Episcopal Church's Constitution and Canons.

Another amendment, proposed by convention participants opposed to the diocese's efforts, would undo changes made in 2004 that limited Pittsburgh's accession to the Episcopal Church's Constitution and Canons.

The other diocesan-proposed changes will allow the diocese to belong to another province of the Anglican Communion, allow parishes from outside of the diocese's geographic boundaries to join it so long as they adhere to the diocesan constitution and canons and commit to "upholding and propagating the historic Faith and Order as set forth in the Book of Common Prayer," and set up a process for electing deputies to meetings of governing bodies outside of the diocese (but not to the Episcopal Church's General Convention).

The DIOCESE OF SAN JOAQUIN is the only other diocese to attempt to remove mention of the Episcopal Church from its constitution and canons. The first reading of those changes passed during the diocese's convention in December 2006. The convention is scheduled to reconvene this December. You can read full stories on all these movements in today's digest.

*****

The bishop of the DIOCESE OF FT. WORTH, the Rt. Rev. Jack Iker, ripped the visit of House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson into his diocese this week. She came to stir up trouble, but stirred up more than she bargained for. Bishop Iker told her that her visit was unwelcome. What she didn't figure is that it will be seen as a counterpoint to the African Bishops "poaching" American Episcopalians. You can read the full story here or in today's digest: http://tinyurl.com/ytam7p

*****

The PROVINCE OF NIGERIA will ordain four new bishops for Convocation of Anglican in North America (CANA) which now has 40 officially sanctioned parishes with 15 more in the pipeline. They expect to hit 60 by November. The consecrations will take place in Nigeria. One of the four is Canon David C. Anderson, president and CEO of the American Anglican Council. This brings to 18 the number of offshore Evangelical bishops consecrated overseas for the emerging North American Anglican Church. Recently, the PROVINCE OF RWANDA announced that it would ordain three new bishops for the Anglican Mission in America (AmiA).

One seasoned observer noted that the effort foreign provinces are making to help U.S. faithful is a rush to judgment that might be a bit misplaced. "In the wake of the Kenyan and Ugandan consecrations, CANA's now going to have one bishop for every ten churches it says it has (60, though just a few weeks ago it was 40), and Rwanda is to consecrate three more bishops for AMiA also. This is beginning to smack of rivalry or a power struggle. Everybody needs to STOP, take a breath, and reexamine this whole thing. This is like a runaway train!" True or not, this brings to 18 the number of offshore bishops that have been consecrated in recent months.

*****

This past week the BISHOP OF BOLIVIA, the Rt. Rev. Frank Lyons, ordained four deacons and one priest into the Anglican Diocese of Bolivia. The ordinands are presently active in Trinity Life Anglican Church in Yuba City (Northern California). They are pleased to be able to offer a traditional Anglican presence in the local community.

*****

The California Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments in ST. JAMES ANGLICAN CHURCH'S land dispute with the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles County. The Newport Beach church, which has severed its ties to the Episcopal Church, hopes to have a July Appellate court decision giving control of the property to the diocese overturned. The church filed a petition in July with the state court after the June appellate ruling in favor of the diocese. The court on Wednesday granted St. James' petition to review the case, according to Supreme Court records available online. Both sides said they zre optimistic.

*****

In FLORIDA, British Anglican evangelist Canon Michael Green sizzled at the Good News Initiative for the Anglican Communion Network. The event, put on by the North Florida Alliance of Churches, was a sell out. Green debated with an atheist. 500 Gospels were handed out. Several people professed faith at the evangelistic address the next night. "It is good that such things go on alongside all the chaos of litigation" wrote Green to VOL.

*****

The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church announced that her office will be setting up regional branch headquarters in two major American cities, Los Angeles and Atlanta. The American Anglican Council, based in Atlanta, noted this tightening of TEC's administrative grip on the regions and dioceses of the TEC province with alarm. "It is interesting that Bishop Jefferts Schori's main educational thrust was in marine invertebrates as a biologist-that would be squid and octopuses-and the AAC wonders if she is borrowing from her study of these creatures of many arms on how to grab, hold and pull in tight those that are the intended meal. It does not auger well for the orthodox Episcopal dioceses and bishops who remain in TEC, nor for the hundreds of orthodox parishes scattered across the country in hostile revisionist dioceses," wrote Canon David C. Anderson, AAC president. "The faithful are being squeezed continually, and with every month some leave TEC, some fall victim to TEC and are absorbed into heterodoxy, and some continue to fight to stay independent and faithful."

*****

Thumbing his nose at the Windsor Report, LOS ANGELES BISHOP J. Jon Bruno will demonstrate his willingness to breach compliance with the various primatial protocols regarding the blessing of same-sex unions. The bishop approved a same-sex ceremony, scheduled for Sept. 29, at a liberal 'Anglo-Catholic' parish. Assisting Bishop Sergio Caranza will officiate at this "nuptial pontifical high mass". Another reason why the Global South wants no further dealings with TEC.

*****

LAITY ON THE MARCH. An article in today's digest is must reading. A Survey of "Episcopalian and Anglican Choices" will measure the effects of schism. The Episcopal lay group says that choosing for or against TEC can no longer be delayed. Anglican Laity Fellowship (ALF) formerly known as "Lay Episcopalians for the Anglican Communion" (LEAC), has sent out a survey to all lay wardens of The Episcopal Church, asking them for assistance in assessing the magnitude of the changes being wrought in America's Anglican/Episcopalian landscape. Click here to respond to the survey. http://tinyurl.com/32y5tm

***** The new BISHOP OF OKLAHOMA, the Rt. Rev. Edward J. Konieczny, is from the Diocese of Colorado. A priest who knows him well says he's a team player. "He's a liberal and a former policeman and just like former attorneys and prosecutors continue after their consecrations to act out of that frame of reference--so will this bishop. He is a rigid party man who does what he is told without questioning the rightness or fairness of it." He will be fully qualified in the new TEC terrorist procedures and another reason to join in common cause partnership.

*****

EPISCOPAL CHURCH MISSIONARIES are a vanishing breed. In 1933, close to 500 Episcopal missionaries were serving outside the United States. By the late '70s, however, there were fewer than 70. And the trend continues to decline, or to show unstable improvement. In comparison, by 1999 the Evangelical Lutheran Church, which is roughly three and a half times larger than the Episcopal Church, had seven times as many long-term missionaries stationed overseas and six times TEC missions' budget. Better still, in the same time period, the Presbyterian Church (USA), which is approximately one and a half times the size of the Episcopal Church, had 12 times as many long-term missionaries and six times the overall budget. Perhaps it might have something to do with the fact that Episcopal Church missionaries have nothing to proclaim! Go figure.

*****

Homosexual New Hampshire Bishop GENE ROBINSON said he heard God's voice in Scripture and that he's been talking with members of the Archbishop of Canterbury's staff and will attend next year's Lambeth Conference in whatever capacity he is permitted as long as he is given a voice. Robinson delivered an address at the General Theological Seminary on reconciliation efforts on human sexuality within the Anglican Communion as part of the "Reconciliation at the Roundtable" at the seminary. So he plans to crash the party even though he has no official invitation. Perhaps Recife Bishop Robinson Cavilcanti should crash Lambeth 2008 saying that he's heard the voice of God and God told him that Robinson's sexual behavior is unacceptable. Robinson said that more than anything he wanted to be in the same room with Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola so "he could hear from my own lips how God has transformed me through scripture." He may wait a long time. Akinola won't be seen in the same room with a man whose behavior not even animals engage in.

*****

Madeleine L'Engle, a lay Episcopalian who wrote more than 60 books ranging from children's stories to theological reflection, died September 6 in Litchfield, Connecticut. She was 88. L'Engle was best known for her children's classic, "A Wrinkle in Time," which won the John Newbery Award as the best children's book of 1963. By 2004, it had sold more than 6 million copies, was in its 67th printing and was still selling 15,000 copies a year, the New York Times reported. She had been the writer-in-residence and librarian at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City.

*****

The Anglican Church must start an American EX-GAY SUPPORT group. If you need a view of what it may look like, click here: http://www.oneby1.org/ The Presbyterian Church has an ex-gay fellowship, but people caught in the bondage of homosexuality in the Episcopal Church get only one message. To date not even conservative Anglicans have started a ministry for people wanting out of this life! The only way to counter the gay lobby in the Anglican movement is to test how tolerant Anglicans really are! Ex-gays will test the church like never before! InterVarsity Press will publish a longitudinal study on Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation. Conducted by Professor's Stanton Jones and Mark Yarhouse, this study will set the standard for all future work in this field and demands a serious reading from social scientists and will likely influence the discussion of this topic for years to come. In Nashville, the American Association of Christian Counselors World Conference, the Exodus Regional Conference will examine the whole subject. In a joint statement, Jones and Yarhouse explain the reasoning for their research: "We are evangelical Christians committed to the truth-seeking activity of science. In conducting and reporting this study, we took seriously the words of one of our heroes, C. S. Lewis, who said that science produced by Christian persons would have to be 'perfectly honest. Science twisted in the interests of apologetics would be sin and folly.'"

*****

HIGH COURT JUDGE QUASHES HOMOSEXUAL HARASSMENT LAW. A judge in the Belfast High Court has quashed laws which threatened the religious freedom of Christians. Mr. Justice Weatherup struck down the 'harassment' provisions of the Northern Ireland sexual orientation regulations. This means Christians cannot be sued for expressing their opposition to homosexual practice. The judge also ruled that religious liberty may be significantly affected by the regulations in individual cases which may come before the courts. The judge added that in such cases County Courts in Northern Ireland should consider the principles of the Brocki case from Canada. In that case, a court ruled that a Christian printer should not be forced to print material which goes against his core religious beliefs, but that a Christian printer must be willing to print other material, such as letterhead, for homosexual customers.

*****

The Preservation Press of the PRAYER BOOK SOCIETY of the USA is pleased to announce the publication of an important and much quoted/cited Tractate of the famous Anglican divine, Richard Hooker. Single copies can be ordered on line from www.anglicanmarketplace.com Hooker is among the most important of Anglican theologians. His fame rests particularly with his book, Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, which is a massive defense of the Church of England and its Reformed Catholic Faith, writes the Rev. Dr. Peter Toon, Prayer Book society president. In the present crisis of Anglicanism there is much to be said for consulting Hooker as to certain basic features of the Anglican Way!

*****

Kingsley H. Gallup, 70, wife of distinguished pollster George Gallup died peacefully at her home in Princeton, NJ on Saturday, September 8 from complications related to breast cancer. She is survived by her husband, George, children Alison and George of Knoxville, TN, and Kingsley and granddaughter, Daisy, from Durango, CO. She is also survived by her mother, Kingsley K. Hubby, of Old Black Point, CT, brothers Nicholas Hubby of Ogunquit, ME, Frank B. Hubby of Savannah, GA., and sister, Alison Hoversten of Vail and Denver, CO.

Kingsley, also called "Kinny", over the last 20 years with her husband, George, facilitated small Bible study groups at their home and spoke at numerous churches around the country on this form of ministry. Kinny was a board member of the VirtueOnline. To read the full story as well as time and place of her funeral click here: http://tinyurl.com/2gvmnx

*****

BISHOP WILLIAM GODFREY of Peru was admitted to the hospital for emergency abdominal surgery. This past Monday, they did a barium scan and on Tuesday he underwent another surgery. Some 70% of his intestines have been removed. He is in intensive care, said a source in Peru. Please pray for the bishop.

A recent earthquake saw no damage in Lima but the cathedral had some minimal cracks, nothing structural. Earthquake relief continues under the auspices of the diocese. The NGO (non-governmental organization) Comunión-Perú, which is the diocese's social arm, has set up 8 soup kitchens in the outlying earthquake areas around Ica, where the church is feeding about 1600 people twice a day. SOURCE John Park: johnpark@sams-usa.org

*****

SOME PEOPLE HAVE LAID DOWN THEIR LIVES FOR THE GOSPEL. Would you lay down your life for The Episcopal Church's innovations? Watch this video and ask yourself that question: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8322459169002003004&hl=en-CA

*****

A 104-page document condemning the Covenant being proposed for the Anglican Communion, written by six lawyer bishops can be seen at the website. This is being presented to the HOB in New Orleans next week. Click here to read. http://tinyurl.com/2tpuqe

*****

ON 9/11 ANNIVERSARY. "The dignity of every person is non-negotiable," the Archbishop of Canterbury told an audience at Cambridge University in a recent lecture. "This remains true whether we are speaking of a gravely disabled person - when we might be tempted to think that they would be better off removed from human society - or of a suspected terrorist, when we might be tempted to think that torture could be justified in extracting information." Williams was making his first public address since a period of leave for study and prayer that began in June.

*****

Is the Episcopal Church in a divide and conquer mode? BONNIE ANDERSON House of Deputies President has set up a separate listserv just for Deputies, only allowing Alternates to kibitz. The irregular HOB/D listserv suddenly has a lot of angry bloggers who feel (sniff) excluded.

*****

In an effort to continue providing our readers with weekly news directly to your Inbox, VOL has upgraded our digest mail service to a new hosting provider. Information regarding subscriptions and other details can be found on our website: http://www.virtueonline.org/subscribe.html

If you have any problems receiving it please let us know. Write to webmaster@virtueonline.org

*****

IN TODAY'S STORIES I have interviewed the outgoing Archbishop of Central Africa, the Most Rev. Bernard Malango. There has been an enormous amount of misinformation and spin on both conservative and liberal Anglican blogs in the US and UK about what has been going on in this province. VOL decided to go to the source for the truth. This interview will put it all in perspective. The HOB will wrestle with its future in The Episcopal Church next week and I have written a review of the options they have, and a New York seminary president ripped "aggressive misogyny" in the presence of Mrs. Schori. I have also written a piece on Crossing Jurisdictions (boundaries) that I think you will find interesting. It appears two can play that game.

*****

VIRTUEONLINE, the world's largest orthodox Anglican Online News Service, believes that primary sources are more accurate and powerful than blog information. We urge extreme caution when reading any blog. The most embarrassing story this past week was a story out of Nigeria wherein a number of conservative and liberal Anglican bloggers, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, The Anglican Consultative Council, Kendall Harmon and members of Standfirm all jumped on a Nigerian bishop for allegedly making homophobic remarks. The story hinged on remarks allegedly made by the Bishop of Uyo which turned out to be false. He did not say that [gays and lesbians] are to be hated, or that they are insane or unfit to live. The Bishop denied making the insulting statements about homosexuals. The Church of Nigeria Archdeacon Akintunde Popoola weighed in as well with more denials. The News Agency of Nigeria reporter has "apologized for the misrepresentation and promised a retraction." A number of conservative bloggers, not wanting to appear homophobic, jumped all over the bishop. They now have mud on their faces. Look before you leap into blogs and read them warily and with large grains of salt.

*****

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