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No wonder Herod the Great sought to kill Jesus at his advent. To say "Jesus is Lord" is a direct challenge to saying "Caesar is lord," it is the nature of the Gospel, and a message needed today more than ever. --- John C. Rankin
A new "fast facts" summary sheet reveals that over 45 percent of Episcopal parishes have either no priest (12.3 percent) or only a part time or unpaid priest (33.2 percent). Just over a third of Episcopal parishes have one full-time priest (34.9 percent) while less than 20 percent have multiple priests (19.7 percent). Median Average Sunday Worship Attendance has dropped from 64 persons in 2012 to 61 persons in 2013. Forty percent of parishes have reported membership declines of 10 percent or greater during the past 10 years, while 52 percent report a decline of 10 percent or greater in attendance over the same period. --- Jeff Walton IRD
Both the Catholic and the Liberal traditions have tended to exalt human intelligence and goodness and therefore to expect human beings to contribute something towards their enlightenment and their salvation. Evangelicals, on the other hand, while strongly affirming the divine image which our humanity bears, have tended to emphasize our human finitude and fallenness and therefore to insist that without revelation we cannot know God and without redemption we cannot reach him. That is why evangelical essentials focus on the Bible and the cross, and on their indispensability, since it is through these that God's word to us has been spoken and God's work for us has been done. Indeed, his grace bears a trinitarian shape. First, in both spheres the Father took the initiative, teaching us what we could not otherwise know, and giving us what we could not otherwise have. Secondly, in both the Son has played a unique role as the one mediator through whom the Father's initiative was taken. He is the Word made flesh, through whom the Father's glory was manifested. He is the sinless one made sin for us that the Father might reconcile us to himself. Moreover, the word God spoke through Christ and the work God did through Christ were both "Japan", completed once and for all. Nothing can be added to either without derogating from the perfection of God's word and work through Christ. Then thirdly, in both revelation and redemption the ministry of the Holy Spirit is essential. It is he who illumines our minds to understand what God has revealed in Christ, and he who moves our hearts to receive what God has achieved through Christ. Thus in both spheres the Father has acted through the Son and acts through the Spirit. --- John R. W. Stott
Christianity is the most widely persecuted faith worldwide and 4/5ths of this persecution is at the hands of Muslim jihadists. Islam in its final, prophetic, 15th century is taking a more confrontational and supremacist attitude to other faiths. --- Chris Sugden
"May God give us such a full, clear vision of Christ, first that we may grow into maturity ourselves, and secondly that, by our faithful proclamation of Christ in his fullness to others, we may present others mature as well." --- John R.W. Stott
Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
December 25, 2014
A new Pew survey shows overwhelming majorities of Americans believe in the historical veracity of the Christmas story, including the Virgin Birth, the angels appearing to shepherds, and the Wise Men following the star to Bethlehem. These majorities include young and old, Catholic and Protestant, black and white, male and female, even large numbers of the religiously unaffiliated.
Some have sardonically noted that the "war on Christmas" has been decisively lost. Meanwhile, manger scenes continue to appear on public spaces (now sometimes accompanied by Satanic displays in a perverse bid for diversity), and shopping malls are filled with piped in Christmas hymns, writes Mark Tooley president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy.
The Christmas Pew poll might surprise many secularists and religious alike, both of whom too often subscribe to the myth, peddled by popular and high culture, that America is more and more secular as part of an arc of historical inevitability. The truth is more complicated. Church attendance has remained roughly the same for 80 years, according to Gallup. Americans were never as wholly pious in the past as often imagined, nor are they forsaking religion whole-scale now.
Chronic attempts to secularize/neutralize Christmas keep failing. The Christmas message is irrepressible, and Christmas is almost certainly celebrated now by more billions globally than at any other time in history. Many celebrants, of course, don't realize fully Whose birthday they're celebrating, but they are unconsciously, providentially perpetuating the remembrance and themes of good will rooted in divine incarnation.
Christmas is the eternal, undefeated counter narrative to tyranny, hatred, poverty, prejudice, chicanery, peevishness, and pessimism. When FDR and Churchill worshipped on Christmas Day 1941 in Washington at Foundry Methodist Church in the gloom of WWII, they robustly sang "O Little Town of Bethlehem," with the affirmation and promise that "Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light; the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight."
In his radio address to America the night before, Churchill foreshadowed this hymn by urging that on Christmas Eve "each home throughout the English-speaking world should be a brightly-lighted island of happiness and peace," in anticipation of "a free and decent world."
The Christmas story is the promise of ongoing and ultimate redemption for the whole world from all tragedy and evil. That promise is winsomely irresistible and will be celebrated forever, long after the skeptics, scoffers and scolds are long forgotten.
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If you ever wonder if the tide will turn for orthodoxy against the cultured despisers and religious revisionists who have twisted the gospel into a sexual pretzel, take heart. We are nearing the bottom of the moral cesspool in western culture along with the churches that have participated in it.
Without orthodox churches for liberal and revisionists to turn to, they would have nothing. Nothing. They needed our churches because they could not build and grow their own. Now they are running out of steam. The orthodox parishes have departed and joined the ACNA. Many of the 120,000 former Episcopalians have fled in a number of different ecclesiastical directions seeking spiritual safety. Liberals and their revisionist camp followers can't plant new churches because they don't have a message. Gay and transgendered sex does not make churches grow, it empties them. Gene Robinson is proof of that.
So the good news this week is what VOL learned in Vancouver, BC. The Anglican Church of Canada's largest and fastest growing church, St. John's Shaughnessy, got beaten up by the former Bishop of New Westminster Michael Ingham and were forced to leave their $20 million property because the gospel is too much to compromise with changing views on human sexuality.
VOL spoke with Rev. David Short about what has happened since he and his congregation left their property and moved down the road to a Seventh-day Adventist church. They have planted three new parishes and started a new work, St. Michael's Fireside in downtown Vancouver with some 200 mostly young people. God is blessing them even as the diocese slowly withers and dies. In short, what the bishop meant for evil, God meant for good.
You can read the full story in today's digest.
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The top 10 news stories by members of the Religion Newswriters Association featured as their No. 9 story the Church of England's vote to allow women bishops. For the first time, women lead three of America's major mainline Protestant churches (TIE) India elects Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi as prime minister, creating tensions with the land's religious minorities. (TIE) Movie critics proclaim 2014 as "The Year of the Bible" after the latest wave of films centering on religious themes.
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An inter-Anglican commission on faith, order and unity has advised the Anglican Church in Canada not to change their canons to allow for same sex marriage.
The Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO) has urged the Anglican Church of Canada not to amend its marriage canon (church law) to allow the marriage of same-sex couples, saying such a move would "cause great distress for the Communion as a whole, and for its ecumenical relationships."
The 2013 General Synod enacted Resolution C003, asking the Council of General Synod (CoGS)--the governing body between General Synods (equivalent to our Executive Council)--to prepare and present couples in the same way as opposite-sex couples." This motion would also include "a conscience clause so that no member of the clergy, bishop, congregation or diocese should be constrained to participate in or authorize such marriages against the dictates of their conscience." The marriage commission has been inviting comment on the proposal during this time.
According to the Anglican Journal, "If the 2016 General Synod decides to approve a motion to change the marriage canon, the Anglican Church of Canada will become the first province in the Anglican Communion to allow same-sex marriage. The Episcopal Church, which in 2012 authorized 'for trial use' a liturgy for blessing same-sex relationships, has no provision for same-sex marriage."
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A source in England told VOL that he has it on good authority that the newly appointed Rev. Libby Lane, the first woman to be made a bishop in the Church of England and who will be the next Suffragan Bishop of Stockport, is pro-gay. Lane said words to the effect of "a door has been opened for other previously excluded people, not just women".
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The Archbishop of Canterbury this week recalled a "grim" childhood Christmas when he was shunned by his alcoholic father and forced to "scrounge" around in the fridge for food.
In a candid and emotional interview on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs with presenter Kirsty Young, Justin Welby revealed how he was forced to wander the streets alone while his father was in bed.
"I think I went out once or twice but, you know, everything was closed. I didn't know really what to do with myself. I suspect I watched telly a bit and sort of scrounged around the fridge for something to eat. A sandwich? I can't remember. But it was a grim day."
During the interview, the Archbishop contrasted the happy summers he spent with his mother and her family in Norfolk with the "rather more complicated times" with his businessman father who had custody of him in London.
"As I grew up, he was always unpredictable. Sometimes very full of rage and anger and expressing that very loudly. It [childhood] felt very painful at times. But I didn't know anything else. So it felt that that's what happens in life. It's one of the bad bits."
Almost at a loss for words, the Archbishop recalled the death of his seven-month-old daughter Johanna in a car crash in France in 1983, revealing he and his wife Caroline always celebrate key moments, including the anniversary of her death, her birthday and Christmas.
He observed, "Whether there is a faith or not is irrelevant. I think the most helpful thing is to celebrate the person to remember them with love, to remember what they gave, what you gave them. Attack the day so it doesn't attack you."
Examining his Christian beliefs took root during his second year at Cambridge University, the Archbishop said: "I prayed and something changed. There was a presence and Christ came into my life."
Welby revealed he sometimes wondered if he was up to the job of Archbishop of Canterbury and admitted he often worried about the future of the Anglican Communion. He stated, "I still do [have doubts] most of the time. Imposter syndrome is a constant companion."
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The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams will be installed as prebend at St. Endellion parish church. He will join four other prebends at the parish. A prebend is a senior member of the church clergy. The post will see Dr. Williams help with church activities such as the Endelienta arts festival. In 2012 Williams nominated the church in north Cornwall as his favorite church in the UK.
He was invited to take up the role by the Bishop of Truro, the Right Reverend Tim Thornton. David Cameron's daughter born in 2010 was named Florence Rose Endellion after the village, which is a favorite of the prime minister.
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Watch Bishop Michael Nazir Ali delivering his lecture to the Humanum congress on the Family in Rome recently.
Here is Bishop Nazir-Ali's presentation to that Congress.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT09QI0KkoQ&feature=youtu.be
Nazir-Ali quote: "The news is mixed, more people are getting married, more marriages are breaking up and more and more people are simply not getting married..." watch, listen and learn. Dr. Nazir-Ali is the former Bishop of Rochester, England and one of the brightest and most educated bishops in all the Anglican Communion.
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Anglican Church of Canada reacts to U.S Cuba diplomatic ties. Upon hearing the news that the U.S. and Cuba would re-establish diplomatic ties, Bishop Michael Bird of the diocese of Niagara said in a statement that the diocese "rejoices at the transformational opportunities that this announcement holds for the Cuban people and the ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Cuba." The diocese of Niagara and the Episcopal diocese of Cuba maintain a companion relationship.
When asked how changes in diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba might affect the position of the ECC, Archdeacon Michael Thompson, general secretary of the Anglican Church of Canada, stressed that there is still much that is unknown.
Writes Samizdat, an orthodox Canadian Anglican blogger, "Does anyone believe that the thawing of relations between the U.S. and Cuba will result in transformational opportunities? Will the transformation include Cuba ceasing to be a totalitarian state where political dissent is brutally suppressed, or relief for the grinding poverty in which most Cubans live, including those working at luxury resorts that cater to vacationing Canadians and soon Americans?
"Cuba is insisting that the U.S. 'respect Cuba's communist rule', a demand that will not perturb Western Anglican bishops in the least:
"Cuban President Raul Castro on Saturday demanded that the United States respect Cuba's communist rule as the two countries work toward normalizing diplomatic ties.
"The main transformation may be that Obama will be able to obtain Cuban cigars legally."
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BOYCOTT UNICEF. Recently, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) released an official Position Paper "Eliminating discrimination against children and parents based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity." Instead of promoting real rights and interests of children, UNICEF clearly overstepped its international mandate by:
Promoting disputable concepts like "sexual orientation" that are not agreed language in binding global international treaties; officially supporting legal recognition of same-sex couples (also as parents) without any grounds for this in binding international norms; demanding that nations change "social norms" related to morally sensitive areas of sexual behavior.
According to universally recognized human rights norms, children have a right to a family, created through the marriage of a man and a women that is "the natural and fundamental group unit of society" (Art 16.3 of UDHR). This provides children with the best possible environment for their personal development.
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Pope Francis issued a blistering critique Monday of the Vatican bureaucracy that serves him, denouncing how some people lust for power at all costs, live hypocritical double lives and suffer from "spiritual Alzheimer's" that has made them forget they're supposed to be joyful men of God.
Francis' Christmas greeting to the cardinals, bishops and priests who run the Holy See was no joyful exchange of holiday good wishes. Rather, it was a sobering catalog of 15 sins of the Curia that Francis said he hoped would be atoned for and cured in the New Year.
He had some zingers: How the "terrorism of gossip" can "kill the reputation of our colleagues and brothers in cold blood." How cliques can "enslave their members and become a cancer that threatens the harmony of the body" and eventually kill it by "friendly fire." About how those living hypocritical double lives are "typical of mediocre and progressive spiritual emptiness that no academic degree can fill."
"The Curia is called on to always improve itself and grow in communion, holiness and knowledge to fulfill its mission," Francis said. "But even it, as any human body, can suffer from ailments, dysfunctions, illnesses."
Perhaps the next Presiding Bishop of TEC will do the same house cleaning and get some bureaucrats in who actually believe the gospel of changed lives. Don't bet on it. Power has been entrenched for too long at 815 2nd Ave, NY, NY in TEC and the new TREC document just released gives even more power to the Presiding Bishop. The dysfunction continues. I have written a satirical essay on should say to the House of Bishops
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Bible Gateway finds patterns in how the world searched and read the Bible this past year. 150 Million Bible Readers Were Searching for Love Most in 2014. John 3:16 was not among the Bible verses most widely shared or remembered in 2014, based on worldwide YouVersion users. But it still tops the list of verses the world seeks out, according to a report released by Bible Gateway based on 1.5 billion pageviews by 150 million unique visitors.
Here are the top 10 most popular Bible verses searched on Bible Gateway, the "world's most visited Christian website," in 2014:
John 3:16
Jeremiah 29:11
Philippians 4:13
Romans 8:28
Psalm 23:4
Philippians 4:6
1 Corinthians 13:4
Proverbs 3:5
1 Corinthians 13:7
Romans 12:2
Of these verses, only Philippians 4:6, Jeremiah 29:11, and Proverbs 3:5 also appeared on YouVersion's list, suggesting a discrepancy in what Bible readers seek for themselves versus what they think others should read.
Bible Gateway's Year in Review report, which also covers top searches in Spanish and in four countries, confirms the New Testament is "read much more than" the Old Testament, even though the older testament is three times longer. It also concludes that "people really do read the Bible throughout the year," and "major world events do affect what people look for in the Bible."
"Our biggest takeaway is the dominance of people who read through the Bible in a year," said Rachel Barach, Bible Gateway's general manager. "Even though we know it's common for people to commit to reading through the Bible starting on January 1 but stop reading it by February, clearly enough people continue through the year to impact our statistics."
The report also shows that readers searched for love more than any other term. The word never fell out of the top 10 searches, and was the top searched word more than 200 days of the year.
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Soon after his elevation to the Chair of St. Peter, Pope Francis warned that the world was entering a time when Satan would increasingly show his power, especially in lands in which believers were being crushed.
Looking towards a rising storm in the Middle East, he warned that the persecution of religious minorities is a sign of the end times.
"It will be like the triumph of the prince of this world: the defeat of God. It seems that in that final moment of calamity, he will take possession of this world, that he will be the master of this world," cautioned Pope Francis. "Religion cannot be spoken of, it is something private, no?"
A year later, the Pope was even more specific in a letter to churches in the ancient lands of the Bible.
"I write to you just before Christmas, knowing that for many of you the music of your Christmas hymns will also be accompanied by tears and sighs. Nonetheless, the birth of the Son of God in our human flesh is an indescribable mystery of consolation," wrote Pope Francis.
"Sadly, afflictions and tribulations have not been lacking, even more recently, in the Middle East. They have been aggravated in the past months because of the continuing hostilities in the region, but especially because of the work of a newer and disturbing terrorist organization, of previously unimaginable dimensions, which has perpetrated all kinds of abuses and inhuman acts. It has particularly affected a number of you, who have been brutally driven out of your native lands, where Christians have been present since apostolic times."
Not surprisingly, the Religion Newswriters Association once again selected Pope Francis as Religion Newsmaker of the Year.
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While things look hopeless as we look at the world at large, it probably looked bad for Mary and Joseph as their Son was being born in the heart of a great civilization that was on the threshold of dying. Jesus was born amidst violence and moral decay. He did not waver in doing His Father's will. We at VOL will fight on for another year. We will not waver. The mainline Protestant denominations are in decline and within a generation of disappearing completely led by The Episcopal Church. So be it. God is doing a new thing and green shoots of renewal and reformation are all around for those who have eyes to see. We will stand for truth against Pelagianism, homosexualism, Gnosticism, Arianism, liberalism and revisionism. We will stand for the gospel as the only means to transform a lost world and we will promote those Prayer Books and Creeds that speak to the heart and soul of our faith.
VIRTUEONLINE wishes all its readers in 170 countries around the world a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
David
