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GS Primates Will Test Communion Boundaries in January*Kenya Condemns Episcopal Church & Demands Exclusion of TEC as Disciplinary Measure*Oregon Bishop's Inadequate Response to mass Shooting*Swedish Lesbian Bishop calls for Cross Removal

Mainline denominations are spiritually themed social clubs and lecture series that apply a patina of the eternal to otherwise worldly communities. --- Brandon McGinley of the Federalist

Where Christ rules. The kingdom itself exists only where Christ rules by bestowing salvation and receiving homage. ---- John R.W. Stott

A spiritual conquest. The kingdom of God in the teaching of Jesus is a spiritual conquest of men and women. It also has material benefits, since the King's subjects are the Father's children. ... John R.W. Stott

Strengthening families is a key; spiritual training is vital. Those who don't believe in anything have nothing to live for. --- Harry M. Covert

The Church of Scotland is dying. Without a major miracle of renewal and reformation, the Church of Scotland is in its death throes within Scotland. It's establishment is rotten to the core, its doctrine has become unbiblical nonsense, it's discipline non-existent in some cases -- tyrannical in others, its membership and congregations are in free-fall and there is little evidence that many in the Kirk are prepared to wake up to the realities of the situation. The ship is sinking and people just want to argue about what uniforms the band is wearing and what tunes they should be playing. --- David Robertson

"One of the greatest threats to the Christian church is not heretics or false teachers, but rather those who have the right theology but are willing to overlook and tolerate gross error for the sake of unity, and castigate those who speak up for truth as being divisive or unChristian." --- Karl Dalhfred

Why can we not wholeheartedly embrace the gift of eternal life given us in the resurrection of Christ? Why are we cowards in the face of illness, aging and the inevitability of death? Why is the prolongation of this life our highest value? Why are our expectations about the length of our lives so unrealistic? A military man has to face the prospect of death in every assignment. Are we not all called to be soldiers of Christ? --- Rev. Ted Schroder

The Gospel of Niceness is not the Gospel of Nicea. --- Dave Robertson

"No man, however truly he loved his betrothed and bride as a young man has lived faithful to her as a wife in mind and body without deliberate conscious exercise of the will, without self-denial." --- J. R. R. Tolkien

"Materialism is idolized, immorality is glamorized, truth is minimized, sin is normalized, divorce is rationalized and abortion is legalized. In TV and movies, crime is sensationalized, drugs are legitimized, comedy is vulgarized and sex is trivialized. In movies, the Bible is fictionalized, churches are satirized, God is marginalized and Christians are demonized. ... The elderly are dehumanized, the sick are euthanized, the poor are victimized, the mentally ill are ostracized, immigrants are stigmatized and children are tranquilized." --- Rick Warren, Pastor of Saddleback Church, California

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
October 9, 2015

On Monday of this week, VOL obtained an exclusive report that the discipline of The Episcopal Church (and presumably the Anglican Church of Canada) will be the first item on the agenda when the Primates of the Anglican Communion meet in Canterbury in January.

If TEC and the ACoC are disciplined for their departure from the faith and do not leave the meeting, the Global South Primates will not be likely to stay, VOL has been told.

If they are disciplined, repent, and do the right thing and leave, the Global South archbishops will stay on, said the source.

A report by the Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Canada, Fred Hiltz, that ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach had only been invited for one day before the formal meeting gets under way -- "as an opportunity for some conversation, in the ultimate hope that we might be able to find a way forward towards reconciliation," is simply inaccurate. Hiltz described this as "a good thing."

But VOL was told that this interpretation by Hiltz about what he thinks will transpire in Canterbury is simply not true and avoids the facts. Archbishop Beach will only come if the Global South archbishops come; they will only appear if Beach is invited and the issue of the North American departure from Scripture is the centerpiece of the discussion.

"The central issue of this meeting will be the theological innovations of The Episcopal Church and not climate change," VOL was told.

As soon as the story was posted, I got word that key players in Canterbury say that there will be no disciplinary action and "that is just not how Archbishop Justin Welby sees the Communion."

It may be that someone has said disciplinary action will be discussed, but that is not the same thing as committing to the principle of discipline. Welby will no doubt be happy for anything to be discussed, but we can sure he will do his utmost to prevent any sort of vote up or down on TEC and ACoC.

In short, this could be an elaborate "bait and switch" as it goes entirely against the policy Welby and his predecessors have followed so far.

*****

To heighten the tension in the Communion, the Provincial Synod of the Anglican Church of Kenyacondemned The Episcopal Church at its annual meeting, held at All Saints' Cathedral, and called for the exclusion of TEC from "all activities in the Communion as a measure of discipline."

Clearly with an eye to the Archbishop of Canterbury's call for all Primates to attend a special meeting in Canterbury in January to decide the future of the Anglican Communion, the Synod said it continues to disassociate with the Episcopal Church of America -- which has now officially sanctioned a liturgy for same sex marriages.

"The Anglican Church of Kenya supports the Global South and the arms of the Anglican Communion to exclude TEC from all activities in the Communion as a measure of discipline and recognizes ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach and calls for the exclusion of TEC from all activities in the Communion," the resolution said.

All this says that whatever charm Welby thinks he can muster to keep the Communion together, he can expect major pushback from the Global South primates.

We have still not heard from Nigerian Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, the biggest player in the Communion, as to whether he will attend or not, but we might have a clue in the recent elevation of 14 Reverends to Archdeacons and Canons in Nigeria.

"The acceptance of homosexuality by the Church of England and some Western dioceses of the Anglican Communion all 14 affirmed they were not members of any secret cult and declared that they had practiced neither homosexuality nor bi-sexuality nor had any plan to do so."

So if Welby tries to schmooze Archbishop Okoh next January in Canterbury, he will be in for a big surprise. It ain't gonna happen. Welby's reconciliation tactics won't work. This is the Anglican Communion, not an oil company and the lives and souls of millions are at stake.

*****

The shooting of nine people at a college in Oregon this week brought out the worst in the Episcopal Bishop of Oregon, one Michael Hanley. It was the most limp-wristed response ever by a sitting Episcopal Bishop over a mass shooting.

"Gun violence has intruded into too many places where people have always felt safe. As people of God we struggle with how to respond. We call for more vigilance, fewer guns, tighter controls, and all the other responses our hearts and our faith call us to. But, in the end, we find ourselves again faced with the blood of innocents. We know this will never end until our faith in the risen Christ has overthrown the voices of violence and fear that seemingly compel us to stock our lives with firearms.

"Let us respond with the transformative power of love and again dedicate our lives to ending all of these expressions of hatred and self-loathing. To the people of Roseburg, Umpqua Community College, and the community as a whole: Know that we are with you in your sorrow, loss and fear and offer healing prayers for your tomorrow [October 2] St. George's Episcopal Church in Roseburg has opened its doors as a place of prayer and healing for all the community."

That's the best the bishop could do? Really?

Overnight, CNN reported the Oregon shooter singled out Christians to murder. Yes, CHRISTIANS.

Liberal news outlets said not a word about the anti-Christian connection and neither did a liberal Episcopal bishop. This was a hate crime pure and simple and the bishop can't even say the words.

The shooter asked each person he killed if they were a Christian or not. When they said "yes," he said, "Good, because you're a Christian, you're going to see God in just about one second." Then he shot them dead.

What if he had said, "Are you a sodomite", or "are you a Muslim" and then said, "Good, because you're a sodomite or a Muslim in about one second you're going straight to hell."

Would the bishop have been so low-keyed in his response? Not likely. You would have heard screams and cries of homophobia and Islamophobia ringing from coast to coast. TEC's unofficial sodomite organization Integrity would have seen lesbian (the Rev.) Susan Russell with her bullhorn weighing in about America's increasing homophobia and blamed it on "institutional homophobia" or African Anglicans for not caving into their world view.

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

*****

If you think that only the Episcopal Church can produce idiot bishops, think again.

The world's first Swedish lesbian Bishop has called for the Church to remove all its crosses and to install Muslim prayer space. The Bishop of Stockholm has proposed a church in her diocese remove all signs of the cross and put down markings showing the direction to Mecca for the benefit of Muslim worshipper

Eva Brunne, who was made the world's first openly lesbian bishop by the Church of Sweden in 2009, and has a young son with her wife and fellow lesbian priest Gunila Linden, made the suggestion to make those of other faiths more welcome.

The church targeted is the Seamen's Mission Church in Stockholm's eastern dockyards. The bishop held a meeting there this year and challenged the priest to explain what he'd do if a ship's crew came into port who weren't Christian, but wanted to pray.

Calling Muslim guests to the church "angels," the Bishop later took to her official blog to explain that removing Christian symbols from the church and preparing the building for Muslim prayer doesn't make a priest any less a defender of the faith. Rather, to do any less would make one "stingy towards people of other faiths."

The bishop insisted this wasn't an issue, after all airports and hospitals already have multi-faith prayer rooms, and converting the dockyard church would only bring it up to speed. Regardless, the announcement did arouse protest.

Next innovation includes gay priest marrying his dog by a transsexual bishop in a multi-racial church with the Dalai Lama offering up prayers of inclusion. Watch for it.

*****

The Diocese of Niagara announced this week that it will have a Justice Camp in Cuba. That's the Anglican equivalent of Saudi Arabia heading a UN human rights panel, locating a Justice Camp in one of the least just countries in the world outside of North Korea: Cuba. Perhaps the incentive was a promise of free cigars.

This was found at the Diocese's website (on page 10): The first-ever international Justice Camp will bring together a diverse group of Anglicans in Cuba from May 1-6, 2016, to explore the concept of the common good with an eye towards furthering God's justice and loving purposes.

It's a pity that the bishop couldn't use his vast "justice" skills in working with orthodox Anglicans in his diocese instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars suing for their properties when they disagreed with him over sodomy and gay marriage.

*****

The Anglican Church of Nigeria elevated 14 Reverends to Archdeacons and Canons at the Archbishop Vining Memorial Church Cathedral, Ikeja, in Lagos, during the 2015 Institution of Canons and Collation of Archdeacons Ceremony of the Diocese of Lagos West.

The clergymen, four of whom were collated as Archdeacons and 10 instituted as Canons, were installed by The Rt. Revd. James Olusola Odedeji, the Bishop, Diocese of Lagos West.

You have to understand that when a Nigerian cleric is elevated or made a deacon, priest, archdeacon, or bishop, that a part from the Submission to Synod of the Oath of Canonical Obedience and Oath of Allegiance to God, a key part of the declarations, involves affirmations concerning human sexuality and occultism.

The acceptance of homosexuality by the Church of England and some Western dioceses of the Anglican Communion nonetheless, all 14 affirmed they were not members of any secret cult and declared that they had neither practiced homosexuality or bi-sexuality nor had any plan to do so.

*****
So what's wrong with Presiding Bishop-elect Michael Curry's understanding of Evangelism?

In an interview with the Charlotte Observer, Episcopal Presiding Bishop-elect Michael Curry offered up his agenda on how he plans to run the Episcopal Church after Jefferts Schori steps down.

He offered up his definition of evangelism. It is: [He plans] to promote a form of evangelism that calls on members to listen to others' faith stories and then share their own.

Such evangelism, Curry said, isn't about converting people -- "that's God's job, not ours" -- but is about helping them "find their way to God."

He also wants to stress the love of Jesus, foster social justice, work for reconciliation -- racial and otherwise -- and preside over a church that's open to all, including both supporters and opponents of same-sex marriage.

Sharing stories is fine, but that is not evangelism. No one will dispute hearing how people come to faith in Christ, if that indeed is what the Presiding Bishop-elect means, is a good thing. Testimonies of faith, "once I was blind but now I see" and similar stories are indeed welcome.

But Curry has stated he has a different understanding of evangelism.

Winning people for Christ is at the heart of the gospel. Evangelism might be a dirty word to some people. In some quarters, it is clearly an embarrassing word especially for liberals and revisionists who prefer words like "inclusivity," "diversity," and interfaithery.

The truth is evangelism is the good word about Jesus. It is about proclaiming the Good News about Jesus, his life, death, and resurrection straight at the heart of its cultured despisers. It is telling people, graciously, that they are lost without Jesus. It is saying the hard word that we are all sinners, not merely by our acts, but we are born in sin - it is in our genes and DNA, and only through Christ's shed blood can we be released from the penalty of sin and made right with a loving God.

You can read my full take on this in today's digest.

*****

The Anglican Church in Sydney fears Christian photographers, bakers, and florists could be forced against their will to participate in gay marriage celebrations should such unions be legalized in Australia.

Ahead of the synod of the diocese next month, a report by one of the church's senior clergy says individual ministers should be able to choose to opt out of acting as marriage celebrants altogether if same-sex nuptials are legalized.

The Bishop of South Sydney, Robert Forsyth, has recommended those who believe participation in a revised Marriage Act make them "unacceptably complicit with the change and the ideology" could cease their legal role in marriages if they wish.

"That question is, in the end, a matter for the individual conscience of each minister in consultation with their parish," he wrote.

This is already a problem in the US and will likely get worse. While churches are not being forced to marry gay couples, bakers that won't bake a queer cake can be sued, fined, and put out of business.

*****

Victims outraged at sentence for sex abuse Bishop in UK. Campaigners have called for church leaders, the police and the Crown Prosecution Service to "hang their heads in shame" after the former Bishop of Lewes was poised to spend less than a month in prison for each of his victims.

The 32 month sentence handed down by a judge to Peter Ball was branded "a failure to do justice" as the 83-year-old is expected to serve half of that.

Ball was sentenced for two individual counts of indecent assaults, and one count of misconduct in a public office which encompassed acts of "debasement" perpetrated on sixteen young men who had come to his home seeking spiritual enlightenment.

After the sentencing a former Archbishop of Canterbury was forced to deny that his involvement in the case in the 1990s amounted to a "cover-up".

Victims are threatening to sue the church for over a quarter of a million pounds over the case, which was first brought to light in 1992.

The current Archbishop of Canterbury has opened an internal investigation into the Church's handling of the case.

*****

The Bishop of London Richard Chartres says we in a post denominational phase and the only division that matters is whether a church is dead or alive.

Chartres was delivering a Lambeth lecture entitled "London's Burning" focusing on the growth of the Church in the Diocese of London.

He said the Church must be "vision-led, not problem-led" in the "post-denominational phase" we are now entering, seeking "street-level cooperation" between the Anglican Church and the wider Church body.

The key to growth, according to Chartres, is whether a church is dead or alive, not whether it is Anglican or not.

He said we must refuse "to see the many divisions in Church life, between High Church and Low Church between Catholic and Protestant tradition. There is only one division that truly matters in a diocese like ours, and that is the division between dead church and live church.

"And that can embrace almost any expression of Christian faith." Strong ecclesial identity is something of history, according to Chartres.

Of course the evangelicals in his diocese are the ones who have led growth in the Diocese of London, not the broad church or Anglo-Catholics. The ALPHA driven parish of Holy Trinity Brompton has seen phenomenal growth over the years and sees no signs of things abating.

*****

If you think the Church of England is up against the ropes with little chance of its long term survival, consider this piece of welcome news.

Over 450 clergy and lay leaders came together for what is believed to be one of the largest gatherings of conservative Anglican evangelicals in recent years. The 2015 ReNew Conferencewas held at Chesford Grange in Warwickshire.

The centrepiece of "ReNew 2015" was the rallying together of conservative evangelicals through the chairmanship of Rev. William Taylor who provided a stirring Chairman's Address outlining the history, necessity, and strategy of ReNew as he called for churches to work "shoulder to shoulder" for the evangelization of England.

One of the highlights of ReNew was the presence and video message of Revd Rod Thomas, Bishop-designate of Maidstone, who promised to uphold the cause of Anglicans who held to a complementarian position on the issue of women in leadership. Bishop Rod noted the situation of evangelicals as "feeling rather on the back foot in the Church of England and being aghast at some of the changes that are taking place. By having a place in the episcopacy we can make sure that our voice is heard," he said. "Time will tell whether it can be done," he added. "We believe very firmly in the confessional basis of the Church of England," he emphatically stated. He went on to discuss how churches could opt into his oversight.

The delegates rejoiced at the good news of churches that had been planted or revitalised across England, and healthy churches that were being established in different contexts and communities. However, there was also the sad news of clergy who were facing obstacles and impediments placed before them, sometimes by bishops and archdeacons. In one case a cleric talked of how he had applied for 36 incumbencies and had never been appointed, sometimes explicitly told because he held to a complementarian understanding of ministry.

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

*****

I am on the eve of leaving for the city of Carthage in Tunisia, North Africa. I will be there to cover the SIXTH TRUMPET, the Global South to South Encounter where Anglican archbishops and bishops will engage challenges facing the future.

Among the speakers will be Archbishops Mouneer Anis (hosting the event), Ian Ernest, Tito Zavala, Eliud Wabukala, Onesphore Rwaje, Daniel Deng Bul, and a number of lay theologians and thinkers including Ashley Null, Michael Glerup, and noted sociologist Os Guinness.

Please consider a donation to help make this possible. VOL depends on its readers to keep us afloat. VOL has no corporate backers. We depend solely on you our readers to keep us afloat. Less than one per cent of you make a donation. Why? I have a small staff to pay along with web and communications bills. Yet the attraction of getting a "free service" seems overwhelming. Thousands go daily to www.virtueonline.org It is my responsibility to change that. We must have new donors to keep us going. If you have not contributed in the last year or so, please jump in and do so.

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Thank you for your support.

In Christ,

David

BREAKING NEWS. My trip to Tunisia has just been cancelled. An outbreak of violence this morning forced the Tunisian Government to cancel the Global South meeting.

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