The New Testament of 27 books does not represent the more or less arbitrary selection of some ecclesiastical synod or other which sat around a table with a pile of Christian documents on it, and said: “Now let us decide which of these are to be set apart as having divine authority.” It was not until the 27 books had been generally accepted by Christians throughout the known world that they were first made the subject of decree by an ecclesiastical council – the Synod of Carthage in 397. When at last a church council gave a ruling on the matter, all that it did was to ratify the general consensus of Christians, who (we may well believe) had been guided in this respect by a wisdom higher than their own. --- Professor F.F. Bruce

In The Daily Beast, Gene Robinson lectures us that “being pressed to conform to…a change in majority opinion” is not really a “violation of religious freedom”—even though he acknowledges that the “pressing” is being done by force of law. Oddly, Reverend Robinson is an Episcopal bishop. But I guess that just shows that syncretism isn’t dead, it’s just operating in the opposite direction. The forms and institutions of the old faith, belief in God, are being subsumed by the new faith, belief in society. –--Robert Tracinski, The FEDERALIST

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
April 4, 2014

Global South Primates are becoming more aggressive and outspoken as they watch Western Anglicanism capitulate to pansexuality. With the Internet now widely available, they can respond faster and in kind as they watch from ringside seats the gradual unfolding decline of Western pan Anglicanism.

This week Kenyan Anglican Archbishop Eliud Wabukala blasted Western views on marriage saying that marriage is under attack and the homosexual movement has become an ideology that attacks human identity as male and female created in the image of God. He also said that laws passed in England legalizing same sex marriage are “a profound rejection of the law of God.”

Addressing church members at All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi, Archbishop Eliud Wabukala affirmed his church and the Bible’s stance that marriage is the lifelong union of one man with one woman for the raising of children, joyful companionship and the blessing of society and the nation. “We have no other position than the teaching of the Bible.”

The homosexual movement has become an ideology that attacks human identity as male and female. Same Sex marriage in England is a profound rejection of the law of God, said Wabukala who also condemned a new Kenyan law allowing men to have several wives, a clear rejection of Christian teaching. He said marriage is under attack from outside the nation and within the nation.

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

You can read my own commentary, “Why the Church Can Never Embrace Gay Marriage”, in today’s digest.

*****

The Church of England: Gayer, Grayer, Gone. Damian Thompson of the “Telegraph” writes that legalized gay marriage, which just arrived in England and Wales, could finally be the thing that breaks the weakened Church of England. He cites a suffragan Anglican bishop saying that even though the Church officially does not accept same-sex marriage, that priests can and will “creatively” defy Church order. Excerpt:

How will Archbishop Justin Welby respond? ”I think the church has reacted by fully accepting that it’s the law, and should react on Saturday by continuing to demonstrate in word and action, the love of Christ for every human being,” he told the “Guardian” in best Rev J C Flannel mode. Uh-huh. Oh, and there will be “structured conversations” to help resolve the problem.

Here’s my prediction. As of today, pro-gay clergy will begin to unpick Cameron’s “triple lock” banning parishes from holding gay weddings; during the next Parliament, it will cease to exist. Priests who want to marry same-sex couples, or indeed marry their own gay lovers, will just do it. Anglo-Catholic and Evangelical parishes that reject the whole notion won’t be forced to host such ceremonies, but both these wings of the C of E are moving in a liberal direction. In the long run, demographic change will finish the job.

It’s hard to overestimate the weakening effect this will have on the central structures of the Church, writes Thompson. The General Synod’s deliberations will be rendered irrelevant. The fiction of the “Anglican Communion” will be abandoned. Conservative provinces in Africa will repudiate the C of E; the last Lambeth Conference’s disciplinary action against the anything-goes American Episcopal Church will cease to mean anything.

One C of E bishop Alan Wilson said he believes there are 13 gay bishops in the Church of England. He said he is "delighted" that gay people can marry and implored the public to stop differentiating between same-sex and heterosexual marriage.

But that is not the whole story. Sources in London tell VOL that discipline is on the way by some bishops if same sex partnered priests decide to marry. This story is far from over.

*****

A good friend and faithful minister of the gospel, John Richardson, died this week in England of a brain tumor. He was 63. John, AKA “The Ugley Vicar”, was a member of Church Society Council and one of the founders of JAEC (the Junior Anglican Evangelical Conference). Many had the wonderful privilege of being taught briefly by John at Cornhill in London. He was a great teacher and a faithful servant of our Master. The Rev. Canon David Banting, Vicar of St Peter’s, Harold, wrote about him, “I can think of few people I have come to respect more than John. He was described as ‘a visionary and a thinker’. John’s earlier years were shaped in part by Anglo-Catholic traditions, and he never lost his love and passion for the Church’s health and calling. But his theological grounding was evangelical.”

Bishop Stephen Cottrell of Chelmsford commended him as “such a faithful servant of the Gospel”. Bishop Pete Broadbent of Willesden wrote that John had “a fine mind and a gift for articulating the Gospel in his blog’ and was “one of those rare conservative evangelicals in the CofE who actually appears to have grasped strategic action and foresight”.

In 2011 he set up an annual conference to train a new generation of younger clergy who would be evangelical and Anglican by conviction (JAEC – Junior Anglican Evangelical Clergy, known affectionately simply as ‘Jake’). He had a goal of reaching England for Christ. His most visionary and strategic writing was A Strategy that changes the Denomination – Anglican Evangelicals, and The Conversion of England, and the Transformation of the Anglican Church. He will be sorely missed.

*****

Dr. Rowan Williams became a climate expert and prophesied doom this week. In a burst of prescience, which has completely deserted him during his tenure as Archbishop of Canterbury, he declared that a weather crisis is upon us that is all the West's fault for burning too much fossil fuel.

What seems to have escaped the former archbishop’s attention is that China is now the largest consumer of fossil fuel in the world. Perhaps it hasn’t though: heaping carbon sin opprobrium on a communist country is not necessary since the global warming crusade is less about science than it is about wealth redistribution – and that has already arrived in China’s Marxist paradise.

Williams has spoken of his fears for the global climate, saying the winter flooding was a portent of what is to come in the future. He has blamed the lifestyle of Western countries for climate change, which he said is “pushing the environment towards crisis”.

He said the floods in Britain and similar weather-related catastrophes around the world are the clearest indications yet that predictions of “accelerated warming of the Earth” caused by the uncontrolled burning of fossil fuels... “are coming true”.

His comments coincide with the release of the latest UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, which warns that no nation will be left untouched by the effects of a warming Earth. Williams describes the report as putting our “local problems into a deeply disturbing global context”.

*****

The Bible is being translated into Egyptian Sign Language. The Deaf team have almost completed the translation of the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark. This is the first translation of the Bible into sign language in the Middle East, reports President Bishop Mouneer Anis.

In 2008, the Church for the Deaf began meeting at Jesus Light of the World Church in Old Cairo. The church is a place where deaf can feel free to worship God in their own language (Egyptian Sign Language) and culture. The congregation soon started to ask their priest, Rev Faraj Hanna, for the Bible in their own language. They wanted to receive the good news in their own language.

A group of the Deaf is now working full time in a fully equipped studio to record the Bible using video camera in Egyptian sign language.

*****

The Episcopal Church’s Diocese of Fort Worth has signaled its intention to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. In an emergency motion filed March 25, the diocese has asked the Texas Supreme Court to stay an earlier mandate.

In a supporting document for the motion, the diocese’s attorneys write that the U.S. Supreme Court may take an interest in the case because it “has consistently denied petitions where the Episcopal Church prevailed (four times since 2009, including the recent Falls Church case).”

The attorneys add: “The present case will be the first to arrive at the U.S. Supreme Court where the prevailing party was the breakaway faction taking property that it repeatedly swore to protect for The Episcopal Church.”

The Rt. Rev. Jack L. Iker, Bishop of the Diocese of Fort Worth affiliated with the Anglican Church in North America, had encouraged the Episcopal Church’s diocese to drop the case when the Texas Supreme Court ruled against it on March 21.

“We are greatly relieved by the finality of the Court’s ruling,” he said. “TEC’s rehearing strategy has delayed us from moving on with this case by more than six months and at the cost of several thousands of dollars to oppose it. My advice is that TEC cut its losses and get on with their life without the Diocese of Fort Worth. Their litigation strategy has failed.”

*****

The Institute for Religion and Democracy is doing a very fine series of blog posts refuting the myth that traditional Christian teachings – namely on sexuality – repel Millennials from the church. VOL has posted all three pieces for your edification in today’s digest. You can read IRD stories at this link. http://juicyecumenism.com/2014/03/31/symposium-what-does-liberal-christianity-offer-millennials/

*****

In the ‘well whaddya know’ category, VOL learned this week that the Rev. Tory Baucum of Truro Anglican Church has managed to get another two year extension on his lease to keep his people who are with the ACNA, in the church building. The diocese still holds title deeds to the building. Maybe the Rev. John Yates should have cut a similar deal with the Falls Church, but then he doesn’t think he can work with apostate bishops like VA Bishop Shannon Johnston. The Rev. Baucum thinks he can. A phone call to the parish got this response: "Yes there is two year extension. The congregation has been informed.” Clearly Bishop Johnston would lose his new found standing with the Archbishop of Canterbury if he tossed them onto the street. It’s not costing him anything to let them stay and Baucum is a hero to his people. The art of the deal is not just on Wall Street.

*****

Canadian Anglican blogger David Jenkins apologized to Niagara Bishop Michael Bird ending a lawsuit brought by the bishop for suffering he experienced as a result of blogging satirical postings made by Jenkins on his blog Anglican Samizdat.

In February 2013, Bird sued him for defamation of character. Jenkins was served on February 19th, five years to the day that his church, St. Hilda’s was served with papers to take possession of the church building and the freezing of their bank account.

The bishop sought $400,000 in damages plus court costs and his legal costs. To end what could have been a long drawn out lawsuit, Jenkins paid Bird $18,000 for legal expenses with an apology. It comes as no surprise that the bishop is as liberal as the day is long and Jenkins is orthodox in faith and morals.
At one point Jenkins, offered to remove the complained of posts with each paying their own legal fees and Jenkins would donate $5000 to World Vision in Michael Bird’s name. There was no response to his offer.

*****

Bishop Godfrey Mdimi Mhogolo of Tanzania died suddenly this week while hospitalized in South Africa with a lung infection. He got a resounding send off by the Anglican Communion News Service as an “able theologian with a remarkable intellect.”

The unofficial version of Mhogolo is a whole lot different. The Episcopal Church has for years tried to infiltrate this diocese and swing elections so it can plant its pansexual flag on more African soil.

A missionary who knows Tanzania and the bishop well said that while the policy of the Anglican Church of Tanzania is that it is not in communion with TEC, his diocese was and acted in violation of Provincial policy.

“He was the absolute worst. He was TEC's quarterback. He's the one who bought the last election that got the moderate Archbishop Jacob Chimeledya elected. He succeeded. TEC bought and won the election with $75,000 walk around money. Mhogolo was the bag man. Chimeledya was bought and paid for. He was a moderate but won the election thanks to TEC’s money. He owes them. He won by one vote and there were three more votes than eligible electors. TEC wanted Tanzania pulled out of GAFCON and he faithfully went along. As proof neither of the last two primates were present at GAFCON in Nairobi. His theological push was revisionist theology and pro homosexual all sponsored by TEC. Utterly corrupt in every sense. ”

*****

The sale of churches to become Mosques looks to become a trend. First, there was the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Binghamton, NY, in the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York that was sold to an Islamic Awareness Center after its priest the Rev. Matt Kennedy took his congregation out of the Episcopal Church. He offered TEC more than the Islamic group wanted to pay, but his offer was rejected.

This week we learn that the Diocese of New Westminster has sold a church to make way for a mosque. The diocese sold St. Richard's Anglican Church to the North Vancouver Islamic Association for $3.05 million as a site for the Ar-Rahman mosque.

Anglican Samizdat writes, “After selling a church to a competing religion, the next obvious step for members of the diocese is to start attending the mosque. After all, all religions are equally valid; there are many ways to God; we don’t want to exclude anyone; Michael Ingham's book should have been titled ‘Mosques of the Spirit’.”

On Sunday March 30th, forty-five Anglicans and Lutherans were guests at Masjid Ar-Rahman, the mosque in the former St. Richard's building in North Vancouver as part of a North Vancouver Lenten Visiting Program, "Who is my neighbour?"

In Syracuse, NY, a former Roman Catholic Church will become an Islamic mosque. Syracuse's Holy Trinity has a new owner, and some major changes are coming for the former Roman Catholic Church.

Dr. Yusuf Soule, who heads up North Side Learning Center, confirms that his not for profit program has bought the campus and will lease the former church to a new Islamic society, which will name it 'Mosque of Jesus, the Son of Mary' (Masjit Isa Ibn Maryam). The group is already working in the sanctuary, which Soule says has leaks in the walls and flooring after being vacant almost four years. Pews and benches, as well as the Christian symbols inside, have already been removed.

The diocese closed Holy Trinity in 2010. The parish merged with St. John the Baptist. Parishioners fought against plans to sell stained glass windows and the building's hand-crafted interiors. In 2012, the Landmark Preservation Board denied the request to remove the windows.

*****

Actor Russell Crowe of NOAH movie fame got to meet the Archbishop of Canterbury this week. They met to discuss religious issues ahead of the release of the biblical epic Noah in UK cinemas.

The New Zealand-born actor held a short private meeting with Justin Welby at Lambeth Palace. He was in London for the UK premiere of Darren Aronofksy's controversial film in Leicester Square on Monday night. The two men reportedly discussed issues of "faith and spirituality”. Noah has just opened at No 1 at the US box office despite facing a mixed reaction from religious audiences for its fast and loose interpretation of the story of the antediluvian patriarch.

Crowe's meeting with Welby follows a similar encounter with the Pope at the Vatican last month. The Oscar-winner earlier courted the pontiff with a series of friendly tweets extolling the virtues of Noah and inviting him to view it. Aronofksy was also in attendance in Rome, despite having labelled his own movie "the least biblical film ever made". On US TV earlier this week, the Black Swan director defended his version of Noah against "environmental wacko" accusations, telling CNN's Christiane Amanpour: "It was very clear to us that there was an environmental message [in the Bible]. To pull that message out of it, we think, would have been more of an editing job than just sort of representing what's there."

For a more accurate rendering of this forgettable movie, Southern Baptist leader Albert Mohler says that producer Aronofsky, who has described himself as a “not-too-religious Jew,” is a skilled storyteller. The problem is not that Aronofsky added to the Bible’s account; it is that they distort it to the uttermost, perhaps without even intending to do so. Since they knew that they had to “turn it into a two-hour feature movie,” they knew they had to invent a lot of material not found in the Bible. They may not have intended to distort the story as they did. Furthermore, Paramount Pictures had a big say in the final form of the film, much to Aronofsky’s frustration. The director and the corporation share responsibility for this movie.

As A. O. Scott, film reviewer for The New York Times commented, “The information supplied about Noah in the Book of Genesis is scant – barely enough for a Hollywood pitch meeting, much less a feature film.”

Aronofsky told Rolling Stone magazine: “The film completely accepts the text, the four chapters in Genesis, as truth – just like if I was to adapt any book, I’d try to be as truthful to the original material as possible. It’s just that there’s only four chapters, as we had to turn it into a two-hour long narrative film. In the Bible, Noah doesn’t even speak. So of course we’ve got to dramatize the story.” Boy, did he dramatize it.

His oddest characterization, by the way, may well be the “fallen angels” called the “watchers,” based rather loosely on the Nephilim found in Genesis 6:4. They appear in the film as giant figures made of something like rock and asphalt. They first appear as enemies of humankind, but one, speaking with the voice of Nick Nolte, protects Noah and convinces others to do likewise. They appear as mighty cartoon figures in the movie, but they really belong in a science fiction film.

You can read Mohler’s full review in today’s digest.

*****

The retired Bishop of Lewes and Bishop of Gloucester is to be prosecuted for alleged sex offences dating back to the 1970s. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it was in the public interest to prosecute the Rt. Rev Peter Ball, who served as Bishop of Gloucester and Bishop of Lewes in East Sussex.

It is alleged that Bishop Ball, 82, indecently assaulted a boy aged 12 or 13 and a man aged 19 or 20. He is due to appear before Brighton magistrates on 10 April.

*****

Catholic abuse scandal’s total cost: $2.62 billion since 2004. In 2012 the clerical abuse scandal cost American Catholic dioceses nearly $113 million, according to a report released by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

Only 56% of those funds were allotted to settlements ($50.4 million) and therapy for abuse victims ($7.2 million). The remaining funds were spent on attorneys’ fees ($35.3 million), support for offenders ($11.8 million), and other costs ($2.6 million), according to the 2012 “Report on the Implementation of the Charter for Protection of Children and Young People.”

During the 2012 audit period, 34 minors alleged they were abused by a priest or deacon. The report found that six allegations “were considered credible.”

By contrast The Episcopal Church has spent close to $40 million on lawyers in legal battles for properties. It is not known how much the other side has spent, but by the time this reaches SCOTUS, it could reach well over $100 million. What a great way to spend money when the needs out there are enormous and TEC continues to shrivel

*****

San Francisco Catholic Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said those dissenting from Church teachings shouldn’t receive Communion.

Speaking with LifeSiteNews about the matter of worthiness to receive Holy Communion last week, the Archbishop said that Church teaching on the matter “has been very clear and consistent from literally the very beginning."

The Church's teaching goes "all the way back to St. Paul who writes in 1 Corinthians that anyone who does not receive the Eucharist worthily, that is if they are in a state of sin, blasphemes the body and blood of the Lord," the Archbishop explained.

The leader of San Francisco’s 444,000 Catholics noted that those who would dissent “from a defined Church teaching” and those who would violate the moral teaching of the Church in a serious way, “are not properly disposed to receive Holy Communion.”

PS. When did you last hear of an Episcopal bishop speaking with such authority? Would love to hear from you if your bishop has ever done so. Of course you would have to believe in the authority of Scripture and few Episcopal bishops do. They believe God is doing a “new thing.”

*****

In Baden-Württemberg and Cologne Germany, Christian parents and their children organized a peaceful gathering to protest the overt "pro-homosexual" curriculum in their schools this week. Over 1,000 Christians came together. In a region that is decidedly conservative, they gathered to protest the movement that aims to destroy traditional values for good.

"Protesters were physically attacked and it was felt that the police failed to protect the parents’ basic right of assembly," said a statement from the Observatory describing incidents at recent rallies in Baden-Württemberg and Cologne.

Parents were protesting a new pro-homosexual “sexual diversity” curriculum in their schools. Homosexual activists attacked them by hurling feces and destroying their property, according to the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians, which documents anti-Christian incidents in Europe.

Sound familiar? This could be a story on any news site in America. Militant homosexual activists are primed and ready to undercut Christianity, to gut it, and destroy it. Now is the time for Christians to get ready for an all out war, one that will surely be bloody.

Peacefully assembling is an established right in America, as well as in Germany, but when militant homosexual activists descend on Christians like lecherous vampires, that right quickly evaporates. The group that was assembling is suddenly on the defensive, just trying to protect themselves from serious bodily harm.

*****

In Sheridan, Wyoming, a Gothic Revival architecture and an array of stained glass windows depicting the history of Christianity and of the church in America and Wyoming have helped St. Peter's Episcopal Church earn a place in the National Register. The church is Sheridan's newest historic place, receiving the designation on May 21, 2013.

St. Peter's member Dr. Margaret Pilch initiated the application for the listing. The church at 1 South Tschirgi Street was designed in 1911, built in 1912, and formally dedicated in 1916. Dr. Pilch said the delay was because of a belief by Episcopalians that you cannot dedicate something that isn't yours. The dedication had to be deferred until the debt incurred in construction was paid off.

The first Episcopal Church service in Sheridan was in April 1891, and a church was built on Tschirgi Street in 1894. Plans began in 1911 for a larger church to serve a growing congregation. The finished church, occupying one-half of a city block, hosted its first service in September 1912. Creation of stained glass windows to complement the church's English Gothic design began in the 1950s. The first windows were installed in 1958, the last in 1972. All windows were financed by gifts from individuals, memorials and donations from members and friends of St. Peter's Parish.

*****

More Jewish people in the USA today believe that you can be Jewish and believe in Jesus than ever before. This is only one of the startling findings of the recent and historic study done by Pew Research Center titled “A Portrait of Jewish Americans.” The study was published October 1, 2013.

“It is the first independent study of American Jews that has ever been done.” Writes Dr. Theresa Newell, founder of CMJ-USA, the Church´s Ministry among Jewish People, based in Ambridge, Pennsylvania. Dr. Newell is on the Ecumenical Relations Task Force of the Anglican Church in North America to bring work among Messianic Jews to the fore. The Director of CMJ-USA is the Rev. Canon Daryl Fenton. He writes in The Heart´s Cry, “As almost every believer knows, we live in a world increasingly hostile to the gospel. What a wonderful thing then that Jewish people are more willing to hear and talk about Jesus than they have been for many, many years.”

A history of CMJ can be seen at their website, www.cmj-usa.org

*****

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