It was another black eye for the Episcopal Church this week when the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world, conducted another of its famous analyses of church trends in America.

A 2014 Religious Landscape Study conducted by Pew revealed that the Episcopal Church ranked dead last in a 22-denominational count in attendance and membership with only 13% of Episcopalians actively involved in their churches.

By contrast The Anglican Church in North America had double that figure with 26% of those attending being actively involved in their churches.

The church with the largest most active laity were Mormons with a 67% activity rate and Jehovah's Witnesses with 64%.

There is much irony in that two non-Christian, theologically heretical groups (I can't call them churches) ranked at the top of the list while evangelicals of all denominational stripes denominations fell short of the engagement levels found among Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses. Seventh-day Adventists were more successful than any evangelical denomination involving members in the local church, according to the Pew Research Center.

What this tells us is that Episcopal Presiding Bishop Michael Curry has an uphill climb if he wants to reclaim The Episcopal Church in any meaningful sense. With two-thirds of TEC being women over 60 and the other third being old white men and a few families, it is hard to imagine how his three-fold call to evangelize, preach anti-racism and push the Jesus Movement can do anything at this late hour in the game.

First of all his understanding of evangelism is defective as evangelism is traditionally understood and he admits that.

Pushing anti-racism training is not going to work in TEC either. At a press conference following the meeting of the Executive Council in Maryland last week I asked him WHO the racists are in TEC and never got a straight answer. He coupled anti-racism training with evangelism but that's a non-starter.

Who are the racists in TEC and who needs anti-racism training? Women over 60! Men over 70! This would be a better sell with the Police departments in St. Louis and Chicago but it won't fly in TEC. What it looks remarkably like is a kick at White Privilege which bishops like Atlanta Bishop Rob Wright constantly push as a way for white men to be guilty for being well white while at the same time beating the drum for pansexuality. But that could backfire bearing in mind who pays the bills in TEC. Bishop Curry is playing a dangerous game with his elderly White constituency.

Furthermore the presiding bishop keeps talking about two million Episcopalians. That's a fiction. Average Sunday Attendance is the true measure of the Church's health and there are now about 650,000 active Episcopalians and as we have said they are old and dying.

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Desperate for a win, the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina named a new cathedral at their recent diocesan convention. They designated Charleston's historic Grace Episcopal Church as Grace Church Cathedral.

Some 300 Episcopalians from across eastern South Carolina named the new cathedral and adopted resolutions to work for racial reconciliation as they met for the 225th Annual Diocesan Convention of The Episcopal Church in South Carolina at Holy Cross Faith Memorial Episcopal Church in Pawleys Island. This means that Bishop Charles vonRosenberg can puff out his chest, don his miter and strut up and down a near empty "cathedral." Legal challenges still continue for both dioceses.

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Across the pond the Synod of the Church of England met this week with Queen Elizabeth II making a speech on Christian unity and the approaching Primates meeting in Canterbury.

She opened the 10th five-year-term of the Church of E

England's General Synod with an address which spoke of major advances in Christian unity and the need for prayer for January's Primates Meeting.

Earlier, during a sermon at a Eucharist in Westminster Abbey attended by the Queen and other members of the General Synod, the Preacher to the Papal Household, Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, said that disagreements over moral issues should not divide churches.

That little phrase about 'moral issues' not dividing the Anglican Communion caught my attention and was picked up by VOL commentator Gavin Ashenden who did a theological rip on what the RC preacher said.

"This is a beautiful phrase, but a misuse of the concepts it contains. How should we be united? It is exactly the love of Jesus that ought to make us love what he taught and stand in mutual obedience to him together. Jesus was very clear about 'moral issues like sexuality'. There was to be no sex outside marriage and a man and woman were to leave their parents, cleave together and become one flesh. The love of Jesus unites us in obedience. It does not provide a mandate for uniting us to that which stands against Jesus and against obedience to the templates of creation and co-creation that Father has laid down for us." You can read Ashenden's piece here or in today's digest. http://tinyurl.com/nh2uft5

The Queen recognized the divisive nature of the some of the Synod's business, saying that the "last Synod will be particularly remembered for the way in which, after prolonged reflection and conversation, even in the midst of deep disagreements, it was able to approve the legislation to enable women to be consecrated as bishops.

"This new Synod too will have to grapple with the difficult issues confronting our Church and our world. On some of these there will be many different views. And I am sure that members of the Synod will pray earnestly that the gathering in January of the Primates of the Anglican Communion will be a time when, together, they may know what is God's will."

We'll see, but those of us who know how the Global South think we should not hold our breath that this will necessarily turn out well.

On this synod's agenda was Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby's program of "Reform and Renewal" program spearheaded by the ABC himself.

Although the program has been given a spiritual makeover, the changes it proposes are simply managerial -- geared towards efficiency and performance, arresting decline and increasing its membership base to keep it in business.

The business model of reform and the economics of renewal are underpinned by one objective: the numerical growth of the church. Many of the mission plans across the church are drawn in such a way as to address the underlying problem of ageing church membership and declining new arrivals.

Instead of making sense of the demographic change of the society, the church leadership has identified issues with leadership as the core area for development. The ambiguous 2014 report by Stephen Green laid the platform to develop chief executive-style leaders who are equipped to turn an ailing business into a growth-oriented business -- in this case a successful church with growing congregations.

There is expected to be a wrangle between modernizers who advocate a redistribution of funding away from failing rural churches and reactionaries who oppose reform.

IN another development the ABC got positively litigious over cinemas deciding not to show an advert featuring the Lord's Prayer before the latest instalment of the Star Wars saga. The Church of England has said it is "bewildered" by the refusal of the country's biggest cinema chains to screen a 60-second advert featuring the Lord's Prayer.

The short film features Christians from all walks of life - including the Archbishop of Canterbury, weightlifters, a police officer, a commuter, refugees, schoolchildren and a festival-goer - praying one line each of the Lord's Prayer.

The clip was cleared by both the Cinema Advertising Authority and the British Board of Film Classification - but the UK's three largest cinema chains have refused to screen it, the Church said.

The Church said Odeon, Cineworld and Vue - which control 80% of cinema screens around the country - have refused to show the ad because they believe it "carries the risk of upsetting, or offending, audiences".

The Church's communications director the Rev. Arun Arora said: "The prospect of a multi-generational cultural event offered by the release of 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' on 18 December - a week before Christmas Day - was too good an opportunity to miss and we are bewildered by the decision of the cinemas.

"The Lord's Prayer is prayed by billions of people across the globe every day and in this country has been part of everyday life for centuries.

The synod unanimously backed a motion calling -- effectively -- for military action in support of the establishment of safe routes for refugees fleeing persecution everywhere.

Archbishop Welby warned delegates on Wednesday that supporting the creation of 'safe and legal' routes for refugees 'essentially commits us to supporting the use of armed force overseas'.

Bishops cheered after the motion, put by the Bishop of Durham Rt. Rev. Paul Butler, was carried.

Welby spelled out clearly that is was likely that establishing 'safe and legal routes to places of safety' might lead to military confrontation.

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There is a question floating around the Internet and it is this; Would Jesus Bomb ISIS? There is little doubt that ISIS needs the Gospel, but should we bomb them back to the Dark Ages. A number of critics are playing the Jesus card declaring us as sinners to be analogous to ISIS jihadists, and compared Jesus to the innocent victims of their attacks.

Here are a couple of examples. "This is so away from Jesus I don't even know where to start. Good thing Jesus didn't take this approach when we put him on the cross. Another commentator said this; Did Jesus keep the legions of angels at bay in the Garden of Gethsemane so that his "followers" could advocate unleashing the modern version 2000 years later?"

The analogy behind these complaints is essentially this: We are like the terrorists. Jesus is like the victims of terrorist violence -- dead Parisians, dead Russians, dead Americans, etc. And since Jesus didn't blow up those who crucified him or let legions of angels go all seraphim on us, our political leaders should not blow up ISIS.

There are at least two glaring problems with this. First, I am not Jesus and neither are our political leaders. Jesus came to earth for the express purpose of sacrificing Himself to provide a means of restoring us to God, "the Just Judge of all men." He permitted Himself to be killed for our salvation because He was God. He knew exactly what good it would do because he had planned it from all eternity.

The second issue is the bigger one that has to do with how shallow our evangelical theology pool has become. Someone is missing from the analogy. God the Father, the Just Judge of all men. He was the one standing in the place of authority at the crucifixion. Our national rulers act with authority ordained by Him as they enforce the law and protect people charged to their care. God the Father did not stand idly by when sinners killed Jesus. He did not engage in self-loathing as the Left demands our leaders do. He presented us with the same option I proposed that we give these jihadists -- change your ways or face the consequences. To put it bluntly, repent or die. Be reconciled through the cross and empty tomb or face your own destruction.

One commentator noted, "We need to dump this portrayal of Jesus as an effeminate wuss who would never raise a finger to protect the innocent and to crush the evil doer. Scripture paints a vastly different picture of God that is both gentle and forgiving AND just and full of righteous wrath. From Psalm 2 we read, "Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, "Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us."

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The Ambridge-based Trinity School for Ministry announced this week that they received a gift of $1.5 Million from the Hansen Foundation of Sewickley, PA to support the work of the seminary's Robert E. Webber Center for an Ancient Evangelical Future. The gift will go towards building an endowment for the Webber Center to help sustain its work for many years to come.

"Embracing the vision the leaders at Trinity have for the Robert E. Webber Center means more to us than just nodding our heads," remarked Ms. Gretchen Hansen, a representative from the foundation. "Their vision for eternity and providing resources and direction for developing leaders is exciting and rewarding. The Foundation's sharing God's abundance is merely a response to the Holy Spirit and giving what is His in the first, middle and always place."

"The Hansen Foundation's commitment to promote Christian education throughout the Pittsburgh region is an excellent match with the Webber Center's mission to provide high-quality parish resources for Christian formation and discipleship" said the Rev. Dr. Joel Scandrett, Director of the Webber Center.

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IN CANADA, two historic Anglican parishes will close their doors forever, the victim of bad theology and equally bad morals. Their decline mirrors the long steady decline of the Anglican Church of Canada. The Historic Bishop Cronyn Memorial Church will shut its doors forever in London, Ontario and St. George's Anglican Church in the Walkerville, Windsor, Ontario will be demolished. Both parishes have deep roots in Canadian history.

Canadian blogger Samizdat said St. George's, Windsor is being demolished because the congregation has withered and the diocese doesn't need the building. Of course, when St. Aidan's congregation -- also in Windsor - joined ANiC, the diocese took them to court because they really needed the property - rather like my dog: if I pick up a stick, he must have it, only to lose interest when I drop it.

But officials at the Anglican Church's Diocese of Huron -- which owns the Walkerville property, with an asking price of $250,000 -- aren't holding their breath.

"We're going to proceed with demolition but because the city really would like to see if we can sell it first, we're going to test it on the market for a couple of months," Paul Rathbone, secretary-treasurer for the Diocese of Huron, said, "But we're not going to hold it on the market long at all.

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In other Canadian news, the Marriage Canon Report emerged with no secret that the purpose of the marriage canon report was to find a way -- any way -- to justify the marriage of same-sex couples. It was an exercise in using theology to disguise what the Bible clearly teaches; it was a rationalization. Wycliffe College theologian Ephraim Radner put it well when he wrote, "It was not a theological report. It was a report that used some theology, but for a non-theological purpose."

For Radner, the report was compromised from the very beginning due to its starting assumption that committed, adult same-sex relationships are acceptable expressions of human sexuality.

Radner's frustration also stems from the fact that the commission's mandate was not to look into the theological possibility of same-sex marriage, but to provide an argument for why Canon XXI, which governs marriage, could be changed to include same-sex couples.

"I don't think it was set up in order to be methodologically sound with respect to the issue at hand," he says. "It wasn't actually asked to think through an issue in some kind of steady state, even-handed, neutral manner in the Christian tradition."

"What's missing is concern about the survival of Anglicanism in Canada," he says, citing dwindling attendance and sales of property. "I think moving ahead on this very controversial issue is just hammering another nail into the coffin."

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A global warming Advent. For those who think that Advent is a time of preparation for the coming of Jesus, the Canadian Council of Churches has news for you: the real Advent is all about global warming.

The Council of Churches even prepared a sermon for Advent 1. Here is the beginning of that sermon, I won't inflict it all on you.

A Sermon for Preachers Preparing for the First Sunday of Advent:

"There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken." (Luke 21.25-26)

"This prophecy could easily be a description of our times.

"You see there was once a time when we had to argue about the reality of climate change.

"There was once a time when the interesting debate to be had was whether our actions as human beings could have an impact on the climate.

"However, I think, as a global culture, that time has passed.

"Climate change is a reality."

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