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African Anglicans Divided*Nashotah House gets new Prexy*Divorced FIF-UK leader to marry* Houston Mayor backs down*Williams: "I was a disaster as ABC"*West Texas gets new bishop*

The challenge of false teachers. Both our Lord and his apostles did not shrink when necessary from the task of exposing and overthrowing false teaching. Distasteful and even dangerous as it is, we cannot conscientiously avoid the same task ourselves. Indeed, in today's church, ravaged by many grievous wolves, there is a great need for good and faithful shepherds, who will not only feed the sheep but rout the wolves. --- John R.W. Stott

"These are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own" --- G.K. Chesterton

The sinner who is sorry for his sins, is closer to God than the just man who boasts of his good works --- San Padre Pio

Liberals celebrate their Pyrrhic victories as they preside over emptying churches, while the orthodox too often forget their position of strength and hope for some escape from further controversy. The recent Catholic Synod on the Family, where liberal Western bishops who also preside over emptying churches tried to circumvent Catholic doctrine, which theoretically doesn't change, illustrates there is no escape. Orthodox Christians, wherever they stand, will face the headwinds of cultural resistance, outside and inside the church. Absent becoming Amish, orthodox Christians have no choice but to contend for the faith, in season and out, no matter the adversity. --- Mark Tooley, President of IRD

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
October 31, 2014

Philip Jenkins, a scholar and Episcopal layman, does the math and finds out that at the Episcopal Church's current rate of decline, there will be no more Episcopalians by the end of this century.

"If we extrapolate that rate into the not-too-distant future, then the number of people attending Episcopal churches on a typical Sunday will be negligible by mid-century, typical of a tiny sect rather than a great church or denomination. It won't reach zero for a while, but in effect, the church will cease to exist. We might need a new vocabulary of religious decline. How about church evaporation? That mid-century date is really not far off. In fact, the baby baptized at my church last Sunday will by that point only be a young adult in her 30s. Non-attending notional members will persist for a few years longer, but by the end of the century, we should be talking total disappearance. In that scenario, America's last Episcopalian walks among us today."

At some point, young people contemplating a clerical career will have to consider just how long there will indeed be a church for them to serve.

The Presbyterian Church USA, another major liberal mainline Protestant church, one almost the same size as TEC, is declining at an even faster rate. Church statistics from 2011 show that the median age of a PCUSA member is 63, and rising. This means half the people in the PCUSA are over 63. This also means that over the next couple of decades, half the PCUSA's current members are going to die. Are they being replaced?

(By the way, TEC is a younger church, but not by much. A 2011 report reveals that the average Episcopalian is 57. Same demographic decline, too. You might recall that the Presiding Bishop of TEC said back in '06 that the failure of Episcopalians to have babies to replace dying members is actually a sign of virtue. "We encourage people to pay attention to the stewardship of the earth and not use more than their portion," she told The New York Times.)

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America is also in freefall -- the sharpest of all the top mainline denominations; 500,000 left the church after its 2009 decision to approve ordination of gay clergy in committed monogamous relationships. In 2008, the average age of an ELCA congregant was 58; that has almost certainly risen.

Without a doubt the percentage of young Americans affiliating with particular churches/denominations is declining across the board (see Pew's big study for more). The trend for almost everybody is bad, though Mormons and Pentecostals, to the contrary, are growing. Catholics are growing, but this is only because of immigration; if not for Latin American Catholics moving to the US, the Catholic Church in the US would be shedding members at the same rate as the Mainline Protestants. It's tempting for Christians in conservative churches to look at the rolling collapse of liberal churches and feel affirmed, but leaving aside the duty to basic Christian charity, the situation is much too serious for Christianity on the whole to warrant conservative Schadenfreude.

That said, some churches are in much worse shape than others. Consider that the average age of a Southern Baptist is 49.

*****

It is now becoming apparent that Western pan Anglican views on homosexuality, reflected in the ordination of openly gay and lesbian priests, bishops, along with the push for gay marriage and rites for same, is beginning to divide Anglicans on the continent of Africa.

For several decades, it was only the Anglican Church of Southern Africa that was in the embrace and thrall of Western Anglicanism, specifically the American Episcopal Church, which has poured millions of dollars into making sure that it remains a Western thinking province. Now the net has widened to embrace other African Anglican provinces.

This was revealed in a communique put out by six Primates representing Burundi, Central Africa, Southern Africa, Tanzania, West Africa, and The Episcopal Church, and four Bishops of The Episcopal Church representing both U.S. dioceses and Haiti. They met recently at the General Theological Seminary in New York City, a seminary now engaged in a bitter battle for its own survival.

The full report can be read in today's digest or here: http://tinyurl.com/mqf2r4q

*****

Nashotah House Theological Seminary's board of trustees has elected the Rev. Steven Peay, dean of academic affairs, as the school's 20th dean and president. The seminary had set October 20 as the deadline for applications.

During the trustees' meeting on October 23, a search committee reported its unanimous recommendation of Fr. Peay. The trustees then approved his election.

"I am completely delighted with the election of Fr. Peay to be our next dean and president," announced the Rt. Rev. Daniel Martins, chairman of the trustees. "He has already shown himself to be an effective leader, pastor, and scholar while a member of the Nashotah House faculty. He is intimately familiar with our operations and will be able to hit the ground running in a seamless transition from the ministry of Bishop Edward Salmon."

"There is no question in my mind that Fr. Peay is uniquely qualified to lead Nashotah House at this critical time," commented Archbishop Robert Duncan, a trustee and a member of the search committee. "Now more than ever the House's rootedness in the person and work of Jesus Christ is needed. Under Fr. Peay's leadership the House will continue to bless, I believe, the whole Church."

*****

A divorced Forward in Faith bishop, Jonathan Baker has announced he will remarry with the approval of the Bishop of London Richard Chartres and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.

In a letter dated 22 Oct 2014, Bishop Baker wrote, "I hope very much that you will understand that I have only reached this decision after a great deal of thought and prayer. I believe honestly that this is the best way of ordering my life and will provide a strong and stable future for me by the grace of God. I want to add just one or two things by way of context. While I have, of course, sought the permission of the Bishop of London as my Diocesan Bishop, I have also had discussions with the bishops of The Society, led by the Bishop of Pontefract, and he and they have been very supportive. I hope that those of you who exercise your right not to conduct further marriages in church can be reassured that that is a position I fully respect and understand, and that I will support you in continuing to adopt such a policy -- and would defend and explain it to anyone who came to me for advice.

Earlier this year, Bishop Baker generated controversy among conservatives by endorsing the majority position in the Pilling Report. He has also come under fire for the shifting editorial stance of the society's magazine, "New Directions", which has come out in support of gay blessings.

However, this and other revelations regarding Bishop Baker, especially his support of the Pilling report, shock leader of Forward in Faith. FIF-US has told VOL that they are weighing their options.

*****

Dr. Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, said this week that he "did not do a very good job" as the Archbishop of Canterbury. Dr. Williams is expected to say that he disappointed both the evangelical and reformist wings of the Church.

"I think there were very strong positive and negative expectations when I started," he observed in an interview to be broadcast on Christian Premier Radio this afternoon.

"I think -- I know I disappointed liberals and I didn't exactly reassure the conservatives either. And, looking back, I realize . . . I didn't make a very good job of it in my own eyes."

His primacy was fraught with tension on issues such as women bishops and his proposals for an Anglican covenant on communion. It was also characterized by an emphasis on keeping all sides involved in dialogue.

Williams claimed responsibility for a "lot of kick marks" on the furniture in Lambeth Palace and admitted to telling his daughter: "You should realize that the reason that I shout at you sometimes is because I can't shout at the Bishop of Nigeria."

This is the truest thing Williams ever spoke in all the years he reined as archbishop. The truth is he was a disaster and he has had the good sense to admit it, something academics rarely, if ever, do. Williams, for all his brilliance, failed to realize that he could not reverse the Law of Non-Contradiction, that is: "A could not be both A and non A at the same time." You can't say you uphold the Church's received teaching on sexuality and then write a book saying the opposite and then argue that these were his private views. There are NO private views as the head of a church. Witness what happened to Pope Francis this past week.

*****

Houston Mayor Annise Parker left Texas this week with her partner, Kathy Hubbard, and headed for Palm Springs, where an openly gay Episcopal priest from San Francisco officiated at their "wedding." Parker, whose 2009 election win made Houston the largest American city with a homosexual executive, expressed her joy over the recent nuptials.

With more and more prominent homosexuals, especially in elected office, using their position to flaunt their sexual proclivity, it becomes obvious that marriage in America is forever changed.

Many leftists -- and some on the right -- allege that social conservatives expend too much energy on wedge issues such as same-sex marriage. While there is certainly no shortage of other pressing matters in today's America, however, it is obvious that a shift in the definition of marriage is ushering in deep changes to our culture.

This week the lesbian mayor announced that she is directing America's fourth-largest city to rescind subpoenas issued to five local pastors.

The decision came a day after Parker met with Houston pastors (including Chris Seay, who wrote about the subpoenas for "Leadership Journal"), as well as clergy leaders from across the country, who have defended the subpoenaed pastors' religious freedom.

"It was never our intention to interfere with clergy and their congregants," Parker explained. "I don't want to have a national debate on freedom of religion when my purpose is to defend ... a city ordinan"e."

According to Parker, the subpoenas--once modified to exclude sermons--are "legal, valid, and appropria"e," but unintentionally pushed the city into a broader religious debate that wasn't good for the city or its efforts to defend its new ordinance. "This is not about silencing my critics; this is about doing the right thing," she added.

The Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented the subpoenaed pastors, called the decision a triumph of past'rs' First Amendment rights over government intimidation.

This week Parker backed down on demanding sermons from clergy in her city that might have been critical of homosexuality, a free speech issue that enraged conservative politicians and clergy alike.

1,000 Bibles were sent to the Houston Mayor over the subpoenas to the pastors. The ma'or's office has said they will be distributed to churches

*****

The Rt. Rev. David Mitchell Reed was elected as bishop coadjutor of the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas at a Special Council of the diocese on Oct. 25. Reed, 57, is currently the bishop suffragan of the diocese, and was one of six nominees. Reed is the first Bishop Suffragan of the diocese to be elected Bishop Coadjutor and then to go on to serve as Diocesan Bishop.

So where does this bishop stand on the hot button issues? Surprisingly, he is more orthodox than first thought. At GC2009 he signed the Minority Bishops "Anaheim Statement" in the face of two sexuality resolutions that could undermine The Episcopal Church' place in The Anglican Communion. "We reaffirm our commitment to the three moratoria requested of us by the instruments of Communion," the report said. Score one for Reed.

He was also one of the signer bishops who voted against the "Deposition" of Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh. Score two for Reed.

He also voted no on A049 a resolution to authorize the adoption of the same-sex blessing materials to meet the needs of a handful of members of The Episcopal Church. Score three.

We will see his true colors when General Convention meets next year in Salt Lake City, Utah, when the vote comes up for the formal acceptance of Rites for blessing same sex unions.

*****

From Samizdat in Canada comes the following news about the Anglican Church of Canada.

The Diocese of Niagara is financially hemorrhaging. The Diocese had a surplus of around $1.7M in 2013 thanks, in part, to selling St. Hilda's church building and rectory for around $2.6M (other property sales brought this to around $3.3M). By 2016, the diocese has estimated that, not only will all that money have evaporated, but there will be $62,591 deficit. It looks to me as if the diocese is on the road to extinction.

The Bishop of Toronto reckons Christianity and Islam share "core values". Samizdat readers are familiar with the core values of Judaism and Christianity. It is important to know that Islam shares many of those core values as well.

Let's see, the "core values" of Christianity would include the divinity of Jesus, his resurrection, his virgin birth, his atoning for man's sin though dying on a cross, his being the only way to God Father, his coming again; not to mention the Trinity, the Eucharist and the Church as the Bride of Christ. How many of these core values does Islam share? None.

The core value that provoked Bishop Peter Fenty into making the above silly statement was: Adherents to Judaism, Christianity and Islam believe in the sacredness of life. Regrettably, not even that is a core value for North American Anglicanism: neither the ACoC nor TEC will unequivocally condemn abortion so, clearly, life is not sacred to them at all.

To explain ISIS and what is happening in Iraq, the bishop goes on to quote Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the fellow who, to promote harmony, wanted to build a mosque in the ashes of the World Trade Centre:

We may be decades away from achieving a true Islamic state in Iraq and Syria. The region must heal from more than a century of colonial domination, Cold War conflict, despotic regimes, and economic stagnation that has left so much of the population grasping for anything to assert their power and address political grievances. As you can see, the problem lies anywhere but with Islam.

The Anglican priest at the forefront of the Anglican Church in Australia's push to dump millions of dollars in fossil fuel investments on ethical grounds was also responsible for the most ­notorious act of terrorism on Australian soil.

Evan Pederick was the only man convicted over the 1978 bombing of Sydney's Hilton Hotel, which killed three people. Today, Fr. Pederick heads a parish in the southern Perth suburb of Cannington and has been the driving force of the church's sell-off of holdings in coal, oil and gas companies.

At last month's annual synod of the Anglican Diocese of Perth, Pederick successfully argued for the divestment of fossil fuels.

Fr. Pederick came forward and confessed to the bombing in 1989 and was ultimately jailed for 13 1/2 years (he would serve 8 1/2) after being convicted of three murders and conspiracy to murder. His alleged co-conspirator, Tim Anderson, was in 1990 sentenced to 14 years' jail.

Supreme Court judge Michael Grove said Mr. Anderson had been "brainwashed" by the Ananda Marga cult when he instigated the bombing. Seven months later, he was acquitted.

What strikes me about this isn't so much that Evan Pederick was a terrorist -- in the article he acknowledges that he is "a sinful human being" and presumably has repented of his sin -- but that he appears unduly susceptible to brainwashing. First by the Ananda Marga cult, a pile of nonsense so transparently bogus that it is astonishing that anyone could fall for it, and secondly by the Fossil Fuel Divestment cult, a pile of nonsense so transparently bogus that... well, you know the rest.

From the Diocese of Brandon, Manitoba comes word that Archdeacon Noah Njegovan, 32, is being sued by the Anglican Church of Canada and the Diocese of Brandon, where he has worked since 2009 after he racked up more than $202,286.42 in fraudulent expenses on a church Visa card between January 2010 and September 2012.

Trips to Las Vegas, massages, clothing and a Netflix subscription are some of the purchases that he made and charged to a church credit card.

Court documents claim that he would charge the credit card and then redirect funds from the church's bank account to pay for the fraudulent purchases, which included:

Cash advances: $94,229.
Meals/Bars: $46,660.
Hotels: $13,277.
Travel/Fuel: $8,107.
Three trips to Las Vegas: $6,791.
Other transactions that included massages, clothing and a Netflix subscription: $31,488.
The credit card had a limit of just $2,500, but court documents claim he would withdraw money from the church's deposit account and pay off the card many times during the month, so the fraud went undetected.

The diocese is seeking damages of $250,000 for breach of trust and fraudulent misspending, plus $100,000 in punitive damages, and it wants Njegovan to cover all court costs.

In court in Brandon, the diocese was successful in obtaining a court-ordered freeze of all of Njegovan's assets. This prevents him from liquidating anything that may have been traced to this misspending.

*****

Pope Benedict XVI has welcomed the progress of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham saying he is "glad" that its church has been established on the site of the historic Bavarian embassy chapel in London.

Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory's in Warwick Street is situated where the Bavarian embassy chapel, which was pillaged during the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots in 1780, once stood.

The Pope Emeritus made his comments in a letter to the Friends of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in reply to Nicolas Ollivant, chairman of the Friends of the Ordinariate, who had written to the retired Pope to express his gratitude for the gift of the ordinariate. He also sent Benedict a brief history of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory's.

"Naturally, I am particularly glad that the former Bavarian Chapel has now become your ordinariate's church, and serves such an important role in the whole Church of God. It has been a long time since I have heard news of this holy place, and it was therefore with all the more interest and gratitude that I read the description with which you accompanied your letter."

*****

Is there trouble in TREC paradise? Will or can TEC reimagine itself? There are new concerns that TREC does not understand Executive Council. The Executive Council, meeting in Linthicum Heights, Maryland, recently discussed how to respond to a report of the Task Force for Reimagining the Episcopal Church. According to the report in the Episcopal News Service, Steve Hutchinson, chair of Council's Joint Standing Committee on Governance and Administration for Mission, the Committee and the Executive Council discussed if and how it might respond to the anticipated report of the Task Force for Reimagining The Episcopal Church.

The discussion happened around a proposed resolution to form a working group to prepare a council response to TREC's report, which is due to be released to the church in December. That report will include the recommendations TREC wants to make to the next meeting of General Convention in the summer of 2015.

Steve Hutchinson, chair of council's Joint Standing Committee on Governance and Administration for Mission which had proposed the resolution, said it was prompted by concern on the part of some over what TREC has said thus far, "I know this sounds judgmental but it ... does not reflect a really comprehensive understanding of what Executive Council does and how we operate, the scope and breadth and depth of our responsibility."

The Rev. Brian Baker, GAM member, said part of the intent of the proposed resolution was a sense that council should "have a voice in the conversation" about TREC's work. The Rev. Nathaniel Pierce, another council member, said he was prompted to suggest the resolution because of a "very specific proposal that is on the table now" from TREC to reduce the size of council and the way provincial representatives are elected.

In the end, council referred the resolution to its executive committee to consider a process to use at the January 2015 meeting and possibly beyond for council to consider any response it might want to make to the TREC report.

So as I understand it, it is about STRUCTURE vs. REIMAGINE. I wonder who will win the day?

*****

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To learn more go to http://jacobswellhope.org/

*****

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In Christ,

David

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