At the end of the day, when it comes to marriage and biblical ethics, the church is not giving an inch. We laugh at Satan and his attempts to intimidate us. He does not realize that we do not even love our own lives. Should all the world turn against us, we gladly give up all that we have for Christ. No, the church will not give an inch. But know this: God is giving everything, even the overflow of Trinitarian love, to sinners just like you and me. --- Owen Strachan

Christianity is Christ. The word 'Christian' occurs only three times in the Bible. Because of its common misuse we could profitably dispense with it. Jesus Christ and the apostle Paul never used the word, or at least not in their recorded teaching. What distinguishes the true followers of Jesus is neither their creed, nor their code of ethics, nor their ceremonies, nor their culture, but Christ. What is often mistakenly called 'Christianity' is, in essence, neither a religion nor a system, but a person, Jesus of Nazareth. --- John R.W. Stott

"Where religion prevails...a nation cannot be made slaves...without religion we may possibly retain the freedom of savages, bears, and wolves, but not freedom. If our religion were gone, our state of society would perish with it and nothing would be left which would be worth defending." --- Yale President Rev. Timothy Dwight

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
March 27, 2015

The Presiding Bishop's 2015 Easter message, which she delivered this week to the Church, decidedly omits any reference to the bodily resurrection of Jesus, a position consistent with what she has said in the past, now fully made manifest in her address.

In her message on the empty tomb, the focus is decidedly on women (in keeping with TEC's desperate concern to focus on feminism, lesbianism and Mother Jesus). Specifically, Mary appears at the tomb of Jesus. Upon learning he is no longer there, the PB opines and says: "She peers in once more -- who are these, so bold appearing? Fear not, woman... why do you weep? She turns away and meets another, who says the same -- why do you weep, who are you looking for? This gardener has himself been planted and now springs up green and vibrant, still rising into greater life. He challenges her to go and share that rising, great news of green and life, with those who have fled."

So who is the "green one rising"; she wouldn't say. Is the risen one Jesus or a mere product of the order of nature and is this little more than a rendition of spring time in the garden?

When VOL questioned her about her Christmas message on the literal story of Easter and the Resurrection, she replied, "I think Easter is most profoundly about meaning, not mechanism." You can read my take and her message in today's digest or click here: http://tinyurl.com/o4bxv3d

So with her Easter message in mind, one has to ask how is it that she gets an invitation to celebrate Holy Week in Salisbury, England, at the behest of the Very Rev. June Osborne, Dean of the cathedral?

Said Jefferts Schori, "I am looking forward to joining the Holy Week and Triduum liturgies of a cathedral that is both deeply historic and innovative, to meet new and old friends, and to reflect on the partnerships with Sudan and other parts of the Anglican Communion that continue to teach us all about the Paschal mystery." She will then preach at a service of Reconciliation. But reconciliation with whom exactly? Read below.

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By contrast, the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA) met in South Africa recently and publicly upheld marriage between a man and a woman. These orthodox bishops, that TEC has been doing its best to manipulate with money, blasted Western churches for allowing worldly cultures to reshape the message of the Church. They said the Gospel transforms culture; not the other way round. They also said they would accept diversity, but not at the expense of truth. They topped off their message by saying that they would uphold Lambeth Resolution 1:10 in its entirety. (For the record all these bishops believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus and would say with the Apostle Paul, "that if Christ be not raised then we are of all men most miserable.")

By inference, they all said that Indaba talks are dead. They gave the Archbishop of Canterbury a window of time to affirm not only marriage between a man and a woman, but to also eschew any idea of civil partnerships or practicing gay and lesbian priests in the Church of England.

The Anglican Church leaders from across Africa were hosted in Cape Town by Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Cape Town. Ironically, he is the most leading liberal African province on the African continent, so his support of traditional marriage must have come as a bitter blow to Jefferts Schori and TEC who have tirelessly sought to reshape this province in their own image. You can read my full report in today's digest.

In a parting shot, the CAPA bishops said those churches (TEC and the ACofC) should refrain from making unilateral decisions, which would further the divisions between the provinces of the Anglican Communion.

Is anybody listening at 815 2nd Avenue, NY NY?

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Two Episcopal bishops announced their retirement this week. The first is The Rt. Rev. Edward S. Little II of the Diocese of Nthn. Indiana who plans to retire and leave in 2016. This past Tuesday, he presented a letter to the Standing Committee, announcing his retirement as of June 30, 2016. He will have served as bishop of the diocese for 16 years. His ministry will actually conclude three months earlier -- March 31, 2016 -- when he begins a three month sabbatical to write a long-planned book. He is one of a handful of faithful orthodox Communion Partner bishops.

The second controversial departure is that of Bishop Gladstone Adams of Central New York who announced his resignation as Bishop. The question is: why is he resigning just days before Holy Week (which, of course, is not even mentioned in his letter of resignation)? A former priest who came up against Adams wrote VOL to say that he hoped "the debauchery of this Bishop will be exposed. This fraudulent Bishop Adams has to go and it is long overdue."

In 2006, the now former rector of St. Paul's Church in Owego, Fr. David G. Bollinger, claimed in a lawsuit that Bishop Gladstone Adams retaliated against him for raising allegations against then St. Paul's rector, Ralph E. Johnson.

Adams came to VOL's attention in 2010 when I wrote that the bishop should be investigated following the arrest of Episcopal pedophile priest Johnson who molested a young man. Johnson was charged with multiple counts each of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, and corruption of a minor.

The priest's sexual activities known by (Skip) Adams years earlier begged for double justice. The first justice should be whatever the courts determine Johnson should receive for his vile conduct. The second is what should happen to Bishop Adams who tried to conceal the priest's behavior and, in the process, attempted to depose a godly priest for being a whistleblower.

That story, which got nearly 7,000 hits, said the bishop should be investigated by the national church. He never was of course. Now he has resigned.

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From the Office of Public Affairs comes word that the Joint Nominating Committee for the Election of the Presiding Bishop (JNCPB) will announce its nominations for the next Presiding Bishop on May 1, 2015. The choice will be between a moderate, progressive, or out and out revisionist. The last seems the least likely. After Browning, Griswold, and Jefferts Schori, the next leader will in all likelihood be someone (a surprise come from behind candidate) who wants to lay aside the hostilities that have torn TEC apart for the last nine years with expensive property litigation that is bleeding the church dry. We shall see. The last crop of bishops have been more moderate, who perhaps don't want to continue the fights. They see the hand writing on the wall if there is to be an Episcopal Church a generation from now and who might want to focus on evangelism and church planting. If they have read TEC theologian Philip Turner's address to the clergy of West Texas, there is hope.

Here is one choice paragraph: "The gospel now preached in The Episcopal Church rarely focuses on reconciliation with God. Its more usual focus is a range of moral, social, and political issues about which God is said to have very particular opinions. I do not wish to be misunderstood. I believe there are compelling reasons for Christians to be involved in the moral, social, and political issues of their time. I do not, however, believe that these concerns comprise for Christians the matter of first priority. I do not believe, either, that there are clear Christian answers to most of these problems. Most importantly, I do not believe that the primary reference of being a servant is care for one's neighbors. For Christians, the primary reference for the word servant is Jesus Christ. This is the way Paul describes himself. The Letter to the Romans begins, "Paul, a slave (servant) of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the Gospel of God."

You can read my take on this here or in today's digest. http://tinyurl.com/oqrc62l

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The Anglican Communion Institute came out swinging this week about the "lawless" state of the Episcopal Church and its increasing irrelevancy. They asked the question: "Is this any longer a church one wants to join?" Apparently not. They made a plea to the leaders of the Episcopal Church noting the precipitous decline in Sunday morning attendance. They noted some practices, or likely outcomes, in the very near future of TEC and raised a number of questions. Here is a sample:

• A proposed modification of the Book of Common Prayer Marriage Rite wherein the rubrics are malleable and the Biblical and canonical warrants are ignored or abandoned;
• The BCP definition of marriage is subverted without constitutional procedure;
• Tens of millions of dollars, perhaps over $40 million, have been spent on litigation without any budget line accountability;
• The rewriting of the Title IV canon gives the Presiding Bishop metropolitical authority vis-à-vis fellow Bishops, against the Constitution's plain sense;
• Bishops are declared to have renounced their Orders without ever doing so in the manner called for by canon;
But the real issue is why has the ACI taken so long to come to the conclusion that TEC is pretty well beyond hope when a few of us have been saying this for years! I wrote to a former TEC Dean and theologian; he responded thusly, "I was one academic who said (and blogged) these things for years though it often made me rather unpopular for doing so. I occasionally had some intense exchanges with the ACI leaders on staying in TEC vs. the alternatives. From my point of view, they didn't get it then; and their continued reluctance to acknowledge the ACNA, CANA, GAFCON, etc. shows they don't fully get it yet."

Said another blogger, "Sadly, I don't see the Communion Partner bishops doing anything to oppose the direction of TEC that the ACI laments in this article. And the ACI or Communion Partner clergy just seem to be circling the wagons while they wait to collect their pensions."

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The Church of England will shortly have three women bishops. The Church of England's first female Bishop, Libby Lane, was consecrated as the first woman bishop in the Church's history in January, after General Synod voted last year to allow female bishops.

This week it was announced that the Church of England will have its first husband and wife bishops after nominating Alison White to be the next Bishop of Hull. White will become the Church of England's second female bishop at a ceremony on July 3 in York, the diocese which includes Hull.

Her husband, Frank White, is a deputy bishop in Newcastle in northern England although, in effect, he has the same status as a bishop.

Then came word that the Queen has approved the nomination of Venerable Rachel Treweek for election as Bishop of Gloucester in succession to the Rt. Rev. Michael Francis Perham, whose resignation took effect on November 21, 2014.

The Venerable Rachel Treweek (nee Montgomery), aged 52, is an evangelical. She studied at Reading University and trained for the ordained ministry at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. She served her first curacy at Saint George and All Saints, Tufnell Park, in the Diocese of London from 1994 to 1997 and was Associate Vicar from 1997 to 1999.

From 1999 to 2006 she was Vicar at Saint James the Less, Bethnal Green, and Continuing Ministerial Education Officer for the Stepney Episcopal Area. From 2006 to 2011, she was Archdeacon of Northolt in the Diocese of London. Since 201 she has been Archdeacon of Hackney. She is married to Guy, Priest-in-Charge of two parishes in the City of London.

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Interestingly, the Bishop Libby Lane won't say if she wants to marry gay couples. The new Bishop of Stockport -- who was previously a vicar in Cheshire -- declined to talk about same-sex marriage during an interview with the Guardian.

When asked whether she would be willing to marry gay couples if the Church opts to lift its ban, she replied, "I want to play my part in the church continuing to struggle with what we do."

When pushed on the answer, she "politely refused" to say more, adding, "When I was ordained, and at every time I am licensed to a new role, I under oath say that I will be obedient to the disciplines of the church and I will only use the orders and rites of the church that are permitted by law. I serve under obedience and you are not going to get me to say anything else."

However, she continued, "I unequivocally want to be understood as saying that whatever my or the church's limitations are, I don't want them to be read by people who are gay to understand that that means that Christ is not for them. I repent of the times that my church has made those people feel less than others, and to feel they don't belong within the church."

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The number of unchurched Americans has doubled. In the early 1990s, two out of ten Americans did not attend church. "Today the churchless make up nearly half of the adult population" (49%) reports the Barna Group, a polling company. This is sobering news a week before Easter.

It is also a disturbing trend. For decades, Gallup reported that nearly two-thirds of Americans were members of a church or synagogue and 40% or more attended weekly. Barna is reporting that only 49% attend once a month or more!

You can read Mike McManus's report on this in today's digest.

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The number of people who enslave adults and children for profit across the world is multiplying. Traffickers cumulatively make more money than the oil industry.

That's the assessment of Archbishop David Moxon, the Archbishop of Canterbury's representative to the Holy See and director of the Anglican Centre in Rome, who spoke during a recent forum at The Episcopal Church Center in New York.

Traffickers treat those they enslave "as sub-human, as cattle, as economic units for whom human dignity, human freedom, human opportunity, human potential do not exist because you can make a lot of money quickly," he reported.

The forum on sexual violence and human trafficking was sponsored by the Anglican Communion Office at the United Nations as a side event to the 59th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW), which met March 9-20. A crowd filled the church center's Chapel of Christ the Lord for Moxon's March 12 presentation, the first part of which was devoted to participants describing their efforts against human trafficking.

It is hard to determine the number of people ensnared in this market, he said, because, "How do you quantify something that's hidden?"

Hotly debated estimates range between 25 million and 40 million people. Moxon cites the Global Slavery Index's estimate of 35.8 million, but adds that whatever the number "It's huge, and it has to be stopped."

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Sir Miles Warren's design for the Christ Church, NZ, cathedral may break a four-year deadlock over its future. Anglican leaders are considering restoration options for the earthquake-damaged Christ Church Cathedral to break the legal deadlock over the historic building.

A plan by one of New Zealand's most celebrated architects, Sir Miles Warren, is back on the table while church engineers are talking with restoration campaigners about practical ways to repair the cathedral.

The moves are the first sign of a thaw in relations between campaigners and the church in the four-year legal battle over the cathedral.

Anglican leaders favor demolishing the stricken church and building a modern replacement.

Anglican leaders want to canvas public opinion on the Warren plan as a possible compromise, church spokesman Jayson Rhodes reported.

"The trustees want to know what Christchurch thinks of this scheme. The city wants to rebuild and the cathedral is a road block for moving forward. Sir Miles has a way forward here and we could get out of this road block."

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Tens of thousands of people in Leicester -- England's most religiously diverse city -- are getting ready to honor the memory of a long-despised English king with a ceremony that testifies to the already warm relationship between the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church.

The bones of King Richard III -- who was slain in battle in 1485 and vilified in the writings of William Shakespeare, who described him as a "poisonous bunch-back'd toad" -- will be interred at Leicester Cathedral on Thursday (March 26) at a ceremony led by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and attended by leading Catholics, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs and Jews, as well as members of England's royal family.

Richard was the last king of England to die in battle while attempting to defend his throne from Henry VII. The latter went on to establish the Tudor dynasty, whose most memorable monarch was Henry VIII.

After the battle, Richard's remains were hastily buried by Franciscan monks. In 2012, archaeologists digging in a parking lot found his remains and had the DNA checked with a known survivor of the king's family.

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The Joint Standing Committee on Program, Budget and Finance has issued a Draft Budget. They are calling for feedback.

The Committee, it says, will be diligent in reading comments but will be unable to respond to them. Please know that we will take all into consideration. The following paragraph stood out to VOL: "In commenting please consider that the budget presented to General Convention must be balanced, so if you are offering a suggestion to increase or add an expense, perhaps you might consider offering a cut in another expense or an increase in revenue, and vice versa."

VOL suggests that the Joint Standing Committee immediately send a generous donation to Integrity, the unofficial gay and lesbian organization promoting pansexuality in the TEC which it says is going out of business for lack of funds. To balance that, we suggest a cut in using funds to pressure poor African dioceses into buying into TEC's pansexual worldview and agenda. I am thinking here of Kenya and Uganda into which a missionary in Africa tells me TEC is pouring tens of thousands of dollars. Now I think that's fair, don't you?

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Canon Dr. Chris Sugden of the Oxford Centre for Religion and Public Life reports a disturbing trend in India. He sent VOL a report documenting the violence against minorities in India since Narendra Modi took power as Prime Minister. It has so far been almost totally ignored by the English language media in India. Here it is:

The rape of a 70 year old Nun in West Bengal in an attack on a convent and school in February 2015 sent shockwaves throughout India, and the world. "Protect not just Cows, but human beings also," said Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, President of the Catholic Bishops Conference. At least 43 deaths in over 600 cases of violence, 149 targeting Christians and the rest Muslims, have taken place in 2014 in India till March this year, marking 300 days of the National Development Alliance government of Mr. Narendra Modi. The number of dead is other than the 108 killed in Assam in attacks by armed tribal political groups on Muslims. Desecration and destruction of churches, assault on pastors, illegal police detention of church workers, and denial of Constitutional rights of Freedom of Faith aggravate the coercion and terror unleashed in campaigns of Ghar Wapsi and cries of Love Jihad. Since May 2014, there has been a marked shift in public discourse. There has been a relentless foregrounding of communal identities, a ceaseless attempt to create a divide between 'us' and 'them'. The BJP leaders guaranteed to abuse, ridicule, and threaten minorities. Hate statements by Union and state ministers, threats by Members of Parliament, state politicians, and cadres in saffron caps or Khaki shorts resonate through the landscape. But most cases go unreported, unrecorded by police.

The Prime Minister refuses to reprimand his Cabinet colleagues, restrain the members of his party members, or silence the Sangh Parivar which claims to have propelled him to power in New Delhi.

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THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND EVANGELICAL COUNCIL CEEC has a new website. It can be found here: http://www.ceec.info/council-members.html

Here is CEEC's vision:

In order for mission and evangelism to flourish CEEC should encourage and equip evangelicals in the Church of England to keep mission and evangelism as a permanent priority. To enable this, CEEC will plan:

To facilitate national conferences/gatherings on mission / evangelism in order to share good practice and celebrate success,

To promote church planting,

To provide a forum for discussion of 'thorny' issues relating to matters such as church planting,

To defend and advocate an apologetic for conversionism,

To cooperate with EA and other national networks wherever possible,

To participate in public square debate and the challenge of culture(s),

To challenge the evangelical constituency to retain a focus on mission and evangelism as a 'permanent priority',

To help evangelicals pursue evangelism as part of a commitment to the church,

To help evangelicals keep an international/ global perspective on mission/evangelism

One gets the impression that evangelicals who have been slumbering through the Church of England's ecclesiastical and culture wars are waking up to the fact that their church is being stolen from them and, if they don't do something soon, they will be left high and dry. Recent rumblings in the Diocese of Southwark and the formation of an AMiE congregation in the Diocese of Salisbury might indicate a wider revolt is underway.

If the GAFCON Primates were to consecrate two or three English Anglican ministers, not currently licensed in any Church of England diocese (or in a position to hand in their licences if they have them), the question of a conflict of interest in confessing Anglican church planting would no longer arise.

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There is a new primate for Central America. The Bishop of Nicaragua, the Rt. Rev. Sturdie Downs, has been elected the fifth primate of the Anglican Church in Central America (IARCA) in succession to the Bishop of Guatemala, the Most. Rev. Armando Guerra Soria. Following his election at a meeting of the provincial synod in El Salvador on 31 Jan 2015, Bishop Downs was installed as presiding bishop of the province at a ceremony at St Mark's Cathedral in Bluefields, Nicaragua on 21 Feb 2015. Born on Corn Island on Nicaragua's Caribbean coast, Bishop Downs was educated at Anglican church schools in Bluefields and trained for the ministry at San Andreas Seminary in Mexico City. Ordained deacon in 1976 and priest in 1978, in 1984 he was elected Bishop of Nicaragua -- the first native born Nicaragua to hold that post, and is presently the senior bishop in the Anglican Communion.

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Are there serious signs of unity among Continuing Anglicans? Bishops from four Continuing Anglican jurisdictions met in Athens late last year to discuss clergy education. They included Bishop Chad Jones (APA), Archbishop Mark Haverland (ACC), Archbishop Brian Marsh (ACA), Bishop James Hiles (ACA) and Bishop Craig Botterill (TAC-C).

Called by Archbishop Brian Marsh of the Anglican Church in America, the meeting included representatives from the Anglican Catholic Church, the Anglican Province in America, and the Diocese of the Holy Cross. Additional meetings were held the same day on the west coast and included the Anglican Province of Christ the King.

Discussions in Athens began with a summary of how each jurisdiction was training clergy and if a unified standard could be achieved. It was generally agreed that postulants should have an AB from an accredited university and be engaged in studies for a Masters in Theology, Religion, or a related field. A major issue of concern was ensuring that those being trained in secular universities had a thorough grounding in the history, ethos, and spirituality of classical Anglicanism.

One method of addressing this issue, which received general support, was the establishment of Anglican "houses of study" at select institutions. There, postulants would live under the supervision of a resident priest, praying the office and receiving instruction on the Anglican way, but also take university courses in pursuit of a degree. It was generally agreed that these houses of study should be associated with a local continuing church, so postulants could gain experience and assist in in parish life.

Though no immediate action on houses of study was taken, the bishops did agree to work towards regularization of standards across jurisdictions. A committee, under the direction of Bishop Craig Botterill of the TAC in Canada, was established and charged with comparing standards from each jurisdiction and creating a report which would lay the foundation for establishing a common house of studies. It was agreed that the bishops would meet again to discuss the report later in 2015.

For more information on this story, and others like it, see the next issue of The Trinitarian.

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In Christ,

David