Paul's reasons then for insisting on male spiritual oversight of the family and the church are rooted in the doctrine of creation. God's purpose in creating male and female is that they would be complementary; that this complementarity means that our created natures with different strengths and weaknesses are meant to complement one another, so that together we are stronger. This implies that we are not interchangeable, nor are we independent of one another, nor are we independent of each other's roles. Just as a father and mother co-operate and exercise roles in the bringing up of children, gender specific roles, there are gender specific roles in the church. Each needs both to exercise their role and also respect the role of the other. --- Dave Doveton

Both arguments for women bishops and gay marriage are based on an anthropology which is primarily androgynous -- it not merely blurs the difference between male and female, it denies the polarity, the binary essence of what it means to be male or female (etymologically sex means difference). In one instance this anthropology evacuates the meaning of marriage; in the other it claims to extend the institutional office of bishop yet it both subverts the meaning of the office and makes a counter claim which is an inversion of the truth. --- Dave Doveton

Fears for the future. As we face the end of the second millennium since Christ, the hearts of most people around us are failing them for fear. It is not the lack of natural resources which is the chief problem, however, but the lack of spiritual and moral resources. Thinking people know that the problems facing us -- bewildering in their number, magnitude and complexity -- are beyond us. Only a return to the living God who created us, sustains us and can re-make us through Christ, and a recovery of the authentic Christian faith in its biblical fullness and contemporary relevance, can enable us, with confidence and without fear, to look forward to the Year 2000 AD. --- John R.W. Stott

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
July 31, 2015

Racial Diversity. You will be interested to learn from a recent Pew Research study on the issue of racial diversity in America's churches that the Episcopal Church features very low on the diversity scale.

According to a report in the Huffington Post, the five most racially diverse U.S. religious groups are a diverse group themselves. Seventh-day Adventists, a Protestant denomination, tops the list, followed by Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses, Buddhists, and the religiously unaffiliated.

So where is The Episcopal Church to be found? 24th out of 30th on the diversity scale. Note this, the Anglican Church in North America comes in better at 16th ... way ahead of TEC.

Racial diversity has risen across Christian denominations in recent years, though Pew found that the five least-diverse groups are all Protestant denominations. Two of them, the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the National Baptist Convention, are majority black, while three are majority white.
Though one in five American congregants worships where no single racial or ethnic group predominates, eight of 10 American congregants attend services where a single racial or ethnic group comprises at least 80 percent of the congregation, according to Pew.

A January survey by Christian research group LifeWay found that 67 percent of American churchgoers believe their church has done enough to promote racial diversity. The study found that African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans were more likely than white congregants to say their church needs to be more diverse.

"In a world where our culture is increasingly diverse, and many pastors are talking about diversity, it appears most people are happy where they are -- and with whom they are," Ed Stetzer, executive director of LifeWay Research, said in a statement.

"Yet, it's hard for Christians to say they are united in Christ when they are congregating separately."

Clearly the bleeding hearts in The Episcopal Church are not doing a good enough job to promote diversity when the tide is going out, leaving churches empty and stranded.

*****

General Convention is over and the cry is, what's next?

Theologians associated with the Anglican Communion Institute, the Episcopal Church's loyal opposition, now believe the gig is up. In a statement this week, the three theologians, Dr. Ephraim Radner, Dr. Chris Seitz, and the Rev. Philip Turner wrote that the time ahead is one of stress and uncertainty for Anglicanism in the United States. ACI believes that the following elements, however, must be recognized and acted upon if this time ahead is to prove fruitful rather than simply destructive.

"First, we must acknowledge that TEC as a national body is no longer recognizably 'Anglican' in an Anglican-Communion sense. A broad range of commonly defining features of Anglican Communion churches -- e.g. the Lambeth Quadrilateral, which makes Scripture the 'rule and ultimate standard of faith;' the definition of Anglicanism specified in TEC's own constitution and in 1930 Lambeth Conference Resolution 49 (i.e., 'upholding and propagating the historic Faith and Order as set forth in the Book of Common Prayer'); other Lambeth resolutions including 1998 I.10; the Windsor Report and its moratoria that were subsequently adopted by all the Instruments of Communion; the framework of an Anglican Communion 'Common Law' (as N. Doe and others have identified it), etc. -- no longer exists in TEC.

"Second, dioceses, bishops, priests, and laity who are currently members of TEC, but who do continue to hold their identity within the common Anglican elements noted above, need to set about, corporately and in a coordinated way, to work with the larger Anglican Communion for a way forward. That kind of work has, in the past, been subverted by a range of local and larger factors, including personal ones. Something different has to happen at this point, and both the American and Communion leadership concerned with this must work with a new consultative forthrightness and clarity.

"Third, we believe that American Communion-minded Anglicans must formally call on Canterbury, and the Primates to respond to the need expressed above expeditiously and constructively. Past reticence, foot-dragging, deference to local politics, and simple failures to follow through are no longer viable ways forward.

"Fourth, we urge friends and ecumenical partners to play a consultative, constructive and creative role in this process."

Insofar as TEC has claimed it has a life in the Anglican Communion it cares about, just to that degree is it necessary for the Anglican Communion to clarify what that might be, in the light of General Convention actions and the new self-understanding in TEC? General Convention has acted and declared its mind. What will the response of the Anglican Communion be?

VOL believes that two responses have emerged: one is the birth of the Anglican Church in North America as a very clear alternative to The Episcopal Church (it is now larger than the Anglican Church of Canada), and the other is the recognition of the ACNA by the GAFCON archbishops and bishops of the Anglican Communion who make up more than 70% of the whole Anglican Communion. If the ACI would throw in their lot with the ACNA, a new day would dawn for them and for North American Anglicanism.

*****

Los Angeles Bishop J. Jon Bruno is on the hot seat. The Bishop for the Episcopal Office for Pastoral Development at the national church offices in New York, Clay Matthews, has written to the attorney representing the complainants in the Bruno affair stating that the charges presented against the Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno on their face constitute a cause for action under the Title IV Disciplinary Canons.

Matthews, in a letter on July 23, stated that the charges leveled against Bishop Bruno, if proven to be true, were actionable.

The matter will now be passed to a panel for investigation and review. The determination by Bishop Matthews that a prima facie case had been made is not a finding of guilty under canon law, but the first step in adjudicating the issue.

*****

A decision by the Boy Scouts of America to allow gay leaders has been met with indignation by the largest U.S. Protestant group and with criticism from a leading gay rights group that the move did not go far enough.

Religious institutions sponsor about 70 percent of the roughly 100,000 U.S. Boy Scout. Many said the decision to allow openly gay leaders runs counter to the moral standards set by the 105-year-old youth organization.

"We express consummate sadness that this once vibrant organization continues to cave to social pressure, compromising its long-held, constitutionally protected tenets," said Roger "Sing" Oldham, a spokesman for the Nashville-based Southern Baptist Convention.

Even though the decision permits religious organizations to exclude gay adults in keeping with their beliefs, other major conservative church groups also criticized the change, which took effect with the vote Monday by the National Executive Board.

The largest sponsor of Boy Scout units, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has said it was "deeply troubled" by the move, adding the Mormons' "century-long association with Scouting will need to be examined."

The Catholic Church, another leading sponsor of troops, said in a statement it was concerned with the "practical implications" of allowing gay leaders, but remains committed to its relationship with the Irving, Texas-based Scouts.

The policy, backed by 79 percent of board members, removes a prohibition on gay adult leaders, but allows religious groups to bar them.

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil rights organization, called for the Scouts to drop the opt-out religious exemption and become fully non-discriminatory.

"Including an exemption for troops sponsored by religious organizations undermines and diminishes the historic nature of (the) decision," said Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign.

The Boy Scouts' president, former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, called for the change in May, saying continuation of the blanket ban on gay Scout leaders was "unsustainable."

Gates helped end the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that barred openly gay individuals from serving.

Earlier, corporate sponsors, such as Lockheed Martin and Intel, dropped funding for the organization to protest policies considered discriminatory.

Membership in the Boy Scouts has been steadily declining over the past decade, but the 2013 decision to allow gay youth contributed to a steeper drop of 7.4 percent from 2013 to 2014, according to organization figures.

*****

In ten to thirty years, the survivors will speak out. The New York Times reported this week that the American Boy Scouts are ending a nationwide ban on gay leaders. According to the Times, the organization was seeking to resolve an issue that threatened to tear apart the organization and expose it to crippling lawsuits. Discrimination based on sexual orientation will also be barred in all Boy Scout offices and for all paid jobs. The step, the paper says, is aimed at heading off lawsuits in New York, Colorado, and other states that prohibit such discrimination in employment.

It's a pity, however, that the Times missed a shocking story that emerged at the same time as its jubilation over the new policy. If they had the stomach for it, it might make readers think twice about the wisdom of allowing the Boy Scouts to have gay leaders.

It is the story of Moira Greyland, a woman who has made a career for herself as a harpist of Celtic music and the founder of two opera companies in the United States. She is the daughter of two American writers. Her mother, Marion Zimmer Bradley, who died in 1999, was a revered author of science fiction and fantasy novels. Her best-known book is the Mists of Avalon, a feminist reimagining of the Arthurian legend. Her second husband, and Moira's father, Walter Breen, wrote books on numismatics. But her parents had other interests, too.

The story emerged last year when a blogger published two searing autobiographical poems written by Greyland. It was already a matter of public record that Breen was a convicted child abuser who died in jail in 1993. But no one had known how Moira's own mother treated her. "She was cruel and violent, as well as completely out of her mind, sexually," she wrote in an accompanying email. The news was so convincing that other science fiction writers were horrified and speechless. Some of her fans burned her books.

This week, Greyland gave more details about her childhood on another blog.

http://deirdre.net/marion-zimmer-bradley-its-worse-than-i-knew/

*****

The Rt. Rev. Roger Ames, the Bishop of the Anglican Church in North America's Diocese of the Great Lakes, is stepping out into retirement and has issued a call for the appointment of a coadjutor bishop for the diocese.

The Diocese of the Great Lakes adopted the second method for the selection of a bishop in the Anglican Church in North America. The canons of the Anglican Church in North America commend this method to the founding entities of the denomination and prescribe it for new dioceses and networks affiliating with the denomination.

The ACNA diocese covers Ohio, the Upper Mid-West, and Western New York. A special meeting of diocesan synod will take place from October 1-3 at St Luke's Church in Copley, Ohio. Delegates to the synod will select three names for consideration. In January 2016 at a meeting of the ACNA College of Bishops, they will select a new diocesan bishop. The chairman of the diocesan standing committee, Bishop Ames reported that the Rev. Allen Kanapell will serve as chairman of the search committee overseeing the electoral process,

*****

THE THREE STAGES OF ERROR AND ITS ACCEPTANCE

Hat tip to Allan S. Haley of the Anglican Curmudgeon

When error is admitted into the Church, it will be found that the stages of its progress are always three. It begins with toleration. Its friends say to the majority: You need not be afraid of us; we are few, and weak; only let us alone; we shall not disturb the faith of others. The Church has her standards of doctrine; of course we shall never interfere with them; we only ask for ourselves to be spared interference with our private opinions.

Indulged in this for a time, error goes on to assert equal rights. Truth and error are two balancing forces. The Church shall do nothing which looks like deciding between them; that would be partiality. It is bigotry to assert any superior right for the truth. We agree to differ, and favoring of the truth, because it is truth, is partisanship. What the friends of truth and error hold in common is fundamental. Anything on which they differ is ipso facto non-essential. Anybody who makes account of such a thing is a disturber of the peace of the church. Truth and error are two co-ordinate powers, and the great secret of church-statesmanship is to preserve the balance between them.

From this point of view error soon goes on to its natural end, which is to assert supremacy. Truth started with tolerating; it comes to be merely tolerated, and that only for a time. Error claims a preference for its judgments on all disputed points. It puts men into positions, not as at first in spite of their departures from the Church's faith but in consequence of it. Their recommendation is that they repudiate the faith, and position is given them to teach others to repudiate it, and to make them skillful in combating it. Taken from The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology by Charles Porterfield Krauth, 1875

*****

An Episcopal priest shocked his Queens (aptly titled) Long Island, NY congregation recently when he left his wife and married someone else -- a much younger man. The Rev. Juan Andres Quevedo-Bosch, 59, the archdeacon of Queens and rector of the Church of the Redeemer in Astoria (Diocese of Long Island - ed.), announced over Facebook last week that he got married in a Los Angeles church. The Cuban-born prelate was pictured on a beach with the caption: "I'm in Miami Beach with my new husband. God is good."

One churchgoer said many parishioners severed ties to the church after Quevedo-Bosch came out as gay at the pulpit a month ago. So what was Bishop Lawrence Provenzano's response to this outrage? He said he supports the priest's actions. He said nothing about the grieving jilted wife who must feel shame and abandonment, but no matter the bishop has it in hand...a real class act. TEC is now the church of anything goes.

Yes, the priest made the announcement over Facebook! How about that for class? It won't surprise you to learn that the church has shrunk from 280 (2003) to 130 (2014) and dropping fast. Watch for the For Sale sign in coming months.

You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

Another Episcopal bishop has come out against the Church's official sanction of same sex marriage.

North Dakota Bishop Michael G. Smith says he will not go along with it, "God did not intend to do something new."

The Bishop said he plans to resist his Church's new policy on allowing marriages of two men or two women in its churches.

Rewriting the liturgy to allow such nuptials, changing the phrase "husband and wife" to "the couple," for example, is unacceptable to the bishop. Smith was one of only a few bishops who voted against the change, citing the catechism, which says: "Holy Matrimony is Christian Marriage in which the woman and man enter into a life-long union."

The bishop wrote in a church newsletter Monday that he remains "unconvinced that God is doing something new by altering the order established in creation.

"Therefore, I cannot in good conscience authorize the use of these trial liturgies for the Diocese of North Dakota" when the policy takes effect Nov. 29, the beginning of the season of Advent.

You can read more in today's digest of stories.

*****

When is enough, enough? Not any time soon, apparently. A year ago, the Church of England consecrated its first woman bishop. Last week the Church consecrated its SEVENTH. Meet Bishop Rachel, the new Bishop of Gloucester who's making history as the Rt. Rev. Rachel Treweek, Bishop of Gloucester. She will become the first woman to be consecrated as a Diocesan Bishop.

Perhaps the Archbishop of Canterbury should take a refresher course on who should or should not be a bishop in God's Church. He could start by reading Professor Alice Linsley's brilliant analytical, historical and theological reflection at the recent ICCA meeting in Ft. Worth. If you haven't read it click here:
http://www.virtueonline.org/ft-worth-texas-former-episcopal-woman-priest-now-opposes-womens-ordination

*****

The Rev. Joyce Bennett, who died at age 91, made history in December 1971 when she became the first Englishwoman to be ordained to the priesthood of the Anglican Church.

This took place in Hong Kong where she was the founder-principal of the large St Catharine's Girls' School and also played a prominent part in the civic life of the colony.

Twenty-seven years earlier, during the dark days of the wartime Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, the Bishop, the courageous Ronald Hall, had in desperation ordained a Chinese woman, Florence Li Tim-Oi, to minister to the sacramental needs of congregations bereft of male clergy.

It was not until the 1960s that the issue of women priests returned to the Church's agenda where it continued to be sharply divisive.

Early in 1971, however, the international Anglican Consultative Council declared there to be no theological objection to the ordination of women to the priesthood and that it would not look askance at any province that chose to move in this direction.

*****

Why I abominate the Prosperity Gospel. Desiring God Ministries by John Piper issues this timely warning against the purveyors of a health and wealth gospel this is not only rampant in North America but is now being "sold" to Africans who buy into this unbiblical message that God wants everyone to be fully healthy and totally wealthy while ignoring the demands of the cross and those who suffer pain and loss. It is a message that needs to be heard in a rampantly materialistic society. You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLRue4nwJaA

*****

The State of Kentucky is forbidding pastors from calling homosexuality "sinful." They have set religious tests for volunteer counselors for juvenile offenders, according to Bob Unruh writing for World News Daily.

The state has begun imposing a religious test on volunteer pastor counselors in its youth division, insisting that they refrain from calling homosexuality "sinful" and dismissing those who cannot bend their religious faith to accommodate the state requirements.

The policy was uncovered by Liberty Counsel, which has sent a letter to Bob Hayter, commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice, demanding that the state religious test be dropped and that a dismissed counselor be reinstated.

"Liberty Counsel writes regarding the blatantly unconstitutional revocation of volunteer prison minister status of ordained Christian minister David Wells, who has provided voluntary spiritual counseling and mentorship to juvenile inmates under the control of the Department of Juvenile Justice. ... This revocation was issued by Warren County Regional Juvenile Detention Center on the basis of the April 4, 2014, DJJ Policy 912, which mandates full DJJ support of homosexuality and transvestism.

"With no evidence of any violation of DJJ policy on Mr. Wells' part, his volunteer status was revoked by the Warren RJDC superintendent because he could not sign a state-mandated statement that homosexuality was not 'sinful,' among other things," the letter said.

The policy states that DJJ staff, volunteers and others "shall not imply or tell LGBTQI juveniles that they are abnormal, deviant, sinful, or that they can or should change their sexual orientation or gender identity."

WND requested a comment from the state agency, but there was no immediate response.

*****

Send a letter to the African leaders who SHUT DOWN Obama's LGBT imperialism!

The Presidents of Kenya and Nigeria rebuffed President Obama's attempt to impose acceptance of the LGBT lifestyle and "gay marriage" on Africans. Christians are being asked to stand in solidarity with these African leaders and their rejection of cultural imperialism. Sign their letter of support!

During his visit, Obama urged the African nations to promote the homosexual agenda and permit "gay marriage." In nations where so many do not even have access to adequate nutrition or clean drinking water, promoting the LGBT lifestyle is the least of people's worries!

It takes a special kind of arrogance to go to another country and lecture them about "gay marriage" when Obama didn't even "evolve" on the issue himself until 2012. The most recent polls show that not even a majority of Americans support the recent Supreme Court decision. Obama doesn't speak on behalf of most Americans, he speaks for himself and a small, but vocal band of activists.

President Kenyatta had the courage to tell Obama what everyone was thinking...

"The fact of the matter is Kenya and the U.S. share so many values: common love for democracy, entrepreneurship, value for families -- these are some things that we share," President Kenyatta said. "But there are some things that we must admit we don't share. Our culture, our societies don't accept.

"It is very difficult for us to be able to impose on people that which they themselves do not accept," Kenyatta continued. "This is why I repeatedly say for Kenyans today the issue of gay rights is generally a non-issue. We want to focus on other areas that are day-to-day living for us. The fact remains that this issue is not an issue that is on the foremost mind of Kenyans."

Obama's cultural imperialism received a similar icy response from Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari. Speaking at the joint session of U.S. Senate and House Committees on Foreign Affairs Wednesday, Mr. Buhari said sodomy is abhorrent to Nigerian culture, giving the administration a "point blank no" when it comes to the issue of celebrating homosexual marriages.

The Presidents of Nigeria and Kenya have staked their offices on the line to oppose Obama's cultural imperialism. Sign our letter to them to show that we stand with their people against the Western export of sexual immorality!

http://citizengo.org/en/27413-send-letter-african-leaders-who-shut-down-obamas-imperialism

YOU TUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUbb2QHKngM

*****

GUN VIOLENCE in the UNITED STATES
Some Indicative Data:

Gun Ownership
• The US has an estimated 283 million guns in civilian hands
• Each year about 4.5 million firearms, including approximately 2 million handguns, are sold in the United States
• An estimated 2 million second hand firearms are sold each year
• The percentage of American households with a gun has been steadily declining (high of 54% in 1977 to 33% in 2009)
• The average number of guns per owner has increased from 4.1 in 1994 to 6.9 in 2004.

Sources: Injury Prevention (2007); ATF (2000); National Opinion Research Center (2008); Pew Research Center (2009)

Gun Deaths:

More than 30,000 people are killed by firearms each year in this country
More than 30 people are shot and murdered each day
1/2 of them are between the ages of 18 and 35
1/3 of them are under the age of 20
Homicide is the second leading cause of death among 15-24 year-olds
And the primary cause of death among African Americans of that age group.

Gun Homicides (average annually):

Less than 50: Japan
Less than 150: Germany, Italy, France, etc.
Less than 200: Canada
More than 10,000: USA
Source: IANSA (International Action Network on Small Arms of the United Nations)

*****
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In Christ,

David