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Washington Anglo-Catholic Parish Calls Gay Rector with Dodgy Past*Irish Evangelical Priests Denounce Anglican Bishops on S-S Marriage*West Texas Bishop Folds on SS Blessings*Canada Dioceses Merge*LA Bishop sells St. James Newport for $15 million

Cultural rejection is a scriptural promise and a longtime historical fact. As Christians in the Middle East and Africa face hideous violence, American Christians shouldn't feel overwhelmed in the face of relatively minimal persecution. Christianity has survived lions. It is surviving beheadings. It can certainly withstand Twitter. --- David French

Male headship. All attempts to get rid of Paul's teaching on [male] headship (on the grounds that it is mistaken, confusing, culture-bound or culture-specific) must be pronounced unsuccessful. It remains stubbornly there. It is rooted in divine revelation, not human opinion, and in divine creation, not human culture. In essence, therefore, it must be preserved as having permanent and universal authority. --- John R.W. Stott

Headship and responsibility. On the one hand, headship must be compatible with equality. For if 'the head of the woman is man' as 'the head of Christ is God', then man and woman must be equal as the Father and the Son are equal. On the other hand, headship implies some degree of leadership, which, however, is expressed not in terms of 'authority' but of 'responsibility'. --- John R.W. Stott

The battle is not between gay rights and religious liberty -- although religious liberty is certainly at stake---but between the sexual revolution and Christianity itself. This means that Christians are faced not with allegedly "minor" or "insignificant" theological changes to gain leftist acceptance, but with wholesale changes to the historical doctrines of the church. --- David French taken from IMPRIMIS

Submission and obedience. In my view the 1662 Prayer Book marriage service was wrong to include the word 'obey' in the bride's vows. The concept of a husband who issues commands and of a wife who gives him obedience is simply not found in the New Testament. The nearest approximation to it is the cited example of Sarah who 'obeyed Abraham, calling him lord'. But even in that passage the apostle Peter's actual instructions to wives is the same as Paul's, namely, 'Be submissive to your husbands' (1 Pet. 3:1-6). And ... a wife's submission is something quite different from obedience. It is a voluntary self-giving to a lover whose responsibility is defined in terms of constructive care; it is love's response to love. --- John R.W. Stott

Religious liberty is under direct threat. Just days ago the Solicitor General of the United States served notice before the Supreme Court that the liberties of religious institutions will be an open and unavoidable question. Already, religious liberty is threatened by a new moral regime that exalts erotic liberty and personal autonomy and openly argues that religious liberties must give way to the new morality, its redefinition of marriage, and its demand for coercive moral, cultural, and legal sovereignty. --- Albert Mohler

Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
May 22, 2015

Which candidate would you vote for to be the next Presiding Bishop? Here is one person's take. "As you know, my ability to discern character is not anything to write home about. Yet there is a place for first impressions and so I will be brief and cut to the chase. Bishop Dabney Smith (Southwest Florida) would be my first choice. Why? I heard humility in his voice. A willingness to delegate responsibility and to listen to others within the leadership of the church (a team player). He spoke of prayer and gratitude. Recounting his visit with an elderly priest at the hospital touched me deeply. There is a certain maturity and a common sense approach about him. No grandiosity.

"The other candidates used liberal buzzwords with abandon. Breidenthal spoke of practicing community in order to follow Jesus. He said we must connect with legislatures, schools and businesses. Curry said we must create organizational structures. Keep our eyes on the prize. Transform the world. Douglas used phrases I have heard before in his speeches... the great co-mission, owning our baptismal vows, etc. He said, 'We must be articulate and clear as to what God is doing around us,' and I thought to myself... Okay, tell me then. What is God doing around us? How do you know it is Him doing it? Then when Ian said, 'The church is the result of OUR faithfulness,' I nearly choked. Elitism poured forth from his pores."

*****

You gotta wonder what goes through the minds of calling committees, standing committees, and vestries when they call someone to be a bishop or rector without asking any hardball questions, like do you have a history of drinking or drug abuse. Have you ever been pulled over for a possible DUI? Well, think Heather Cook.

Now it has happened again. VOL got wind of the Washington flagship Anglo-Catholic parish, St. Paul's K Street, who will install the Rev. Richard David Wall to be its new rector despite allegations that Fr. Wall was allegedly in an active homosexual relationship with James Doolan, a gay pin-up porn star that included shocking pictures of him and his boyfriend in sexual positions posted on the internet.

Wall, an ordained priest in the Church of England, is currently rector of Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church in State College PA.

VOL received a 2003 newspaper report revealing that Wall, who was 25 at the time, and was a governor at an infant school in England where he lived with porn pin-up James Doolan for eight months. Mr. Doolan has starred in explicit magazines for eight years, including one called Euro Boys, and twice made the cover of Boys Magazine. He has also been filmed for two gay porn videos and a public health film. The pair were regulars at G.A.Y., the well-known club night at London's Astoria, but would avoid going out together closer to home in Essex. James also did not attend church to protect their relationship.

Wall did not return calls or an e-mail sent to him regarding the alleged charges. Bishop James Jelinek who is interim priest at the Anglo-Catholic parish did not respond to an email sent to him about the allegations. Contacted by phone, Jelinek confirmed he got the e-mail but said, "I am not responding" and hung up.

You can read the full story here or in today's digest. http://tinyurl.com/lrb4b22

*****

Having won most of the property battles in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, the TEC diocese made yet another move to consolidate its gains. The TEC diocese will move its diocesan headquarters to Trinity Cathedral in downtown Pittsburgh from Monroeville, PA.

For most of its history, Trinity Cathedral has been a hub of Pittsburgh's religious, social, and political life, the center of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, and the seat of the Bishop. However, during the tumultuous decade from 1999 to 2009, the bishop's offices were relocated to the Oliver Building. The historic suite on the third floor of Cathedral House was left largely vacant except for occasional meetings in the conference room and space for the diocesan archives.

Following the schism of 2009, the Standing Committee set up shop for Bishop Bob Johnson on the fifth floor of the Jonnet Building in Monroeville, from which Bishop Ken Price led the diocese. Beginning in late 2012, Bishop McConnell began keeping office hours at Trinity one day a week; by the summer of 2014, he saw that it was time to make the move permanent.

The TEC diocese has nothing to gloat about. In 2008 the diocese boasted 18,000 baptized members. Following the split with Bishop Bob Duncan, the diocese dropped to just under 9,000 with an ASA of 2,000...hardly worth crowing about. Diocesan finances have also dropped dramatically. Truth be told, most Pennsylvania dioceses are in trouble. The Diocese of Bethlehem, once controlled by the iron hand of Bishop Paul Marshall, is now under the control of Bishop Sean W. Rowe, the Episcopal Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania who is trying to sort out the mess Marshall left behind. The diocese hasn't been audited in seven years! It is unlikely the diocese will get a new bishop. It will be quietly merged with Rowe's diocese. The Diocese of Pennsylvania is still getting over the disastrous reign of Bishop Charles Bennison from which it may never fully recover. It is closing parishes with its fortunes also in decline.

*****

In Ireland some 34 Anglican evangelical clergy denounced the "erroneous teachings" of two of their Bishops on Same Sex Marriage. They called on the bishops to repent of their actions. Unperturbed, Bishop Michael Burrows, Bishop of Cashel, Ferns & Ossory, recently instituted Dean Tom Gordon to a cathedral knowing he was entering into a civil partnership. The action brought into focus the deep divisions within the Church of Ireland.

In a statement to the Church, they said the Church's teaching on marriage is inviolable, "The Church of Ireland affirms, according to our Lord's teaching that marriage is in its purpose a union permanent and lifelong, for better or worse, till death do them part, of one man with one woman, to the exclusion of all others on either side, for the procreation and nurture of children, for the hallowing and right direction of the natural instincts and affections, and for the mutual society, help and comfort which the one ought to have of the other, both in prosperity and adversity.

"As faithful members of the Church of Ireland, we wish to reaffirm the historical, orthodox teaching of the Church concerning marriage and to refute the erroneous teaching espoused in recent days by some senior clergy within our denomination on this issue. The teaching of Holy Scripture is plain, simple and clear on this issue and at General Synod in 2012 the synod overwhelmingly affirmed this teaching."

Four other orthodox Anglican groups within the Church of Ireland also wrote a letter expressing their regret and concern over recent pronouncements by the Bishops of Cork and Cashel on the same-sex marriage referendum.

They said a recent speech by the Bishop of Cashel, at an event on Marriage Equality, did not bear witness to the stated will of the Church to "love our neighbour, and (oppose) all unbiblical and uncharitable actions and attitudes in respect of human sexuality from whatever perspective, including bigotry, hurtful words or actions, and demeaning or damaging language" (General Synod 2012).

They further argued that those who disagree with same sex marriage were presented in a pejorative, negative, and demeaning manner, being variously portrayed as holding indefensible views, being opposed to human rights, unintelligent, un-Anglican, likely to be oppressive, racist, sexist, homophobic, and, by extension, evil.

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

*****

So what does The Episcopal Church do when it reclaims a church they know they can't fill with new converts? Sell it, of course.

A case in point is the magnificent St. James Newport Beach Episcopal church which Los Angeles Bishop J. Jon Bruno got back in a hard scrabble legal battle with the Rev. Richard Crocker and his congregation -- 95% of whom left with the rector and left behind a near empty parish.

Bruno announced to the handful of congregants that St. James would be sold to real estate developers for a cool $15 million -- twice the appraised value of the site.

The church at 3209 Via Lido is in an area slated for several large development projects, including an overhaul of the Lido Marina Village, a proposed hotel on the former city hall site, and townhomes in the 3300 block of Via Lido.

Fr. Crocker, who is now affiliated with the Anglican Church in North America, told VOL that as far as St James is concerned, he has been out of the building for nearly two years, has grieved, and moved on. Whatever any of us might think of the Diocese of Los Angeles, we are currently united in focus on a renewed mission to reach people for Jesus, and to share with so many congregations who have lost property the discovery of the Lord's provision and guidance for a new day.

In a "Dear Parish Family Members" letter, Fr. Crocker wrote, "The dissolution of any remnant congregation is disappointing and surprising news, yet it is clear that the Lord released our congregation from the property in September 2013 and He is leading us to a new place of worship and a new future of ministry and outreach. Even though 3209 Via Lido is no longer our property, it is always upsetting when a church building is torn down to make way for another development. It is even more upsetting when a congregation, albeit small, is left without a building or leadership. We would certainly welcome any of those left behind to worship with us. We are now learning that Bishop Bruno's announcement has distressed many in the new reforming Episcopal congregation, and many in the community who don't want to lose an attractive building to more development."

Paul Macartney, who repairs boats at Windward Sailing Club across the street from the church, said bringing in new residences will exacerbate traffic problems and make parking even more difficult to find. "I'd rather have the church," Macartney said. "They keep tearing down shops and building condos. ... I don't get it."

St. James the Great, built in 1945, was an Anglican parish from 2004 to 2013, until an Orange County Superior Court judge ruled the church belonged to the Los Angeles diocese and imposed a $1 million bond if the Anglican congregation elected to stay on the property.

A majority of congregants in 2004 voted to disaffiliate with the Episcopal Church for theological reasons and later aligned with the Anglican Church of North America.

The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles filed a lawsuit to take back its properties in 2004. An Orange County court initially ruled the property belonged to the parish, but a series of appeals and higher court rulings sided with the diocese.

*****

One by one, they roll over. The bishop of West Texas Gary Lillibridge has rolled and now says that his focus on same-sex blessings is something Jesus would do. Really.

It took nearly three years for Bishop Lillibridge (IX West Texas) to do an about face on the issue of Same-Sex Blessings. Just weeks before the first gavel of the 2015 Episcopal General Convention is to fall in Salt Lake City, Utah, the West Texas Episcopal bishop went from voting against A-049 at the 2012 General Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana, to allowing limited provisional use of "The Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant" from the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music's liturgical resource "I Will Bless You and You Will Be a Blessing" in his diocese. So far, three congregations have requested permission, while the Corpus Christi, Texas-based Bishop Elliott Society has taken a stand against the bishop's change of mind, heart, and diocesan policy.

On July 9, 2012, Bishop Lillibridge was one of six Episcopal bishops in the State of Texas who voted against Resolution A-049 to "Authorize Liturgical Resources for Blessing Same-Gender Relationships." Other Texas-based bishops voting against the resolution were: Andrew Doyle (IX Texas); Paul Lambert (Suffragan Dallas); James Stanton (VI Dallas); David M. Reed (Suffragan West Texas -- now Bishop Coadjutor West Texas); and Don Wimberly (VIII Texas-retired). Episcopal bishops serving in Texas who voted for A-049 included: Edwin Gulick (I Provisional Fort Worth); Wallis Ohl (II Provisional Fort Worth); Scott Mayer (V Northwest Texas); and Michael Vono (IX Rio Grande). Rayford High (Suffragan Texas -- now III Provisional Fort Worth) abstained.

Another Texas bishop to fold his miter on the subject was Texas Bishop Andy Doyle. The Texas bishop who signed the Anaheim Statement, and voted against A-049 at the 2012 General Convention, was the first conservative bishop in Texas to fold and allow Same-Sex Blessing within the borders of his Episcopal Diocese of Texas. Bishop Doyle implemented what he called the "Texas Compromise" where only self-discerning individual congregations would be allowed to perform same-sex blessings.

Ten years later, in his Bishop's Address to the 2013 Diocesan Council, Bishop Lillibridge described Bishop Robinson's affirmation by General Convention as a "tremulous event." Not anymore.

You can read Mary Ann Mueller's fine article on the fall of Lillibridge in today's digest. And I always thought Texas gun-slinging cowboy bishops had cojones. Clearly I was wrong; they are as weak as any left or right coast bishop, they just have bigger Stetsons.

*****

If you want righteousness on the subject of same blessings, you have to turn to the Global South. This week one of Malaysia's Anglican bishops said no to same-sex marriages. The Anglican Church here will not allow same-sex marriages to take place on its premises, proclaimed the newly installed Anglican bishop Melter Jiki.

The 50-year-old bishop, who is the first native Kadazan chosen to lead the 90,000-strong Anglican community in the state, said this when asked about the church's policies and what to expect during his tenure.

"We are totally against the so-called same-sex marriage. We will not allow it in the church," said the father of four who was recently installed as the sixth Anglican bishop in Sabah.

*****

The rapidly disintegrating Anglican Church of Canada took another hit this week when it was announced that Bishop Dennis Drainville wants to unite the dioceses of Quebec and Montreal.

Bishop Drainville, who was elected bishop of Quebec in 2007, believes the time has come for the two dioceses to join together.

The bishop of one of two dioceses that account for the majority of the Anglicans in Quebec is seeking election as bishop of the other diocese as well, because "now would be an opportune time to unite the two dioceses."

Drainville, who for eight years has been bishop of the Diocese of Quebec (with its cathedral in Quebec City), disclosed in a posting on the diocesan website on May 14 that he is a candidate to succeed Bishop Barry Clarke. Clarke will retire in late August, after 10 years as bishop of the geographically smaller but more populous diocese of Montreal.

*****

Atheist militants who silence Christians are as bad as Tudor tyrants, says a top UK judge. Sir Michael Tugendhat spoke out after a series of legal blows to Christians. The judge warned human rights laws do not guarantee protection for religion and compared the situation to suppression of the Catholic faith during the Elizabethan era.

Atheist militants who try to silence Christians are as intolerant as the murderous monarchs of the Tudor dynasty, one of the country's most senior judges said. Sir Michael Tugendhat warned that human rights laws did not guarantee protection for religion and the right of believers to speak up for their faith.

His first major public statement since retiring from the High Court last year comes after a series of legal blows to the rights of Christians over the past decade.

Judges have repeatedly found equality laws trump the views of believers. In a test case in the Appeal Court in 2010, Lord Justice Laws ruled that legal protection for religious views would not only be "irrational" but "also divisive, capricious and arbitrary."

"Those who are hostile to belief in a superhuman being or to religious practices, I am afraid, sometimes exhibit an attitude to freedom of religion and freedom of speech which is as restrictive of that of Elizabeth I or Burghley," he said.

"They seek to limit those freedoms to the private sphere, but that is a denial of the rights that these freedoms enshrine and that is what the Jesuits and the puritans fought against. Their fight was ultimately successful, as we all know, but at enormous personal cost."

Sir Michael added, "The terrible story of the Tudor-Stuart religious divisions should be a reminder that freedom which is confined entirely to the privacy of a person's home is a form of oppression."

*****

You would think the spiritual and cultural battles being waged among mainline Protestant churches with departing and dying parishes would be a wake-up call. Apparently not. The number of congregations belonging to Presbyterian Church (USA) fell below the 10,000 mark during 2014, according to statistics released by the denomination.

PCUSA, earlier this month, reported that it had 9,829 congregations in 2014, which represents a decline from the 10,038 congregations it had in 2013.

110 congregations were listed as dissolved and another 101 were dismissed to other denominations. In contrast, in 2014 PCUSA had 15 new congregations organized.

The mainline denomination also continued to decrease in members. In 2014 PCUSA had approximately 1.667 million members, in contrast to 1.76 million in 2013.

According to the PCUSA's General Assembly Mission Council, in 2000 the denomination had more than 2.5 million members, or nearly one million more people than in 2014.

In 2011, PCUSA membership dipped below the 2 million mark, with the denomination experiencing a loss of 63,804 members and 96 congregations in that same year.

One factor in the decline has been the theological direction of PCUSA, as votes at the General Assembly level regarding the acceptance of homosexuality have led many congregations to seek dismissal.

Delegates at the 2010 General Assembly approved Amendment 10a, which allowed for local bodies, or presbyteries, to ordain non-celibate homosexuals.

In January 2012, a group of conservative Presbyterians founded the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians, which presently boasts nearly 200 member congregations.

*****

A notable Christian philanthropist died this week in Philadelphia. Jack M. Templeton, Jr., billionaire philanthropist died after a long struggle with cancer. He was 75.

Known as Jack, he helped to found the Templeton Honors College at Eastern University in 1999. A graduate of Yale University and Harvard Medical School, Dr. Templeton went on to a vocation in pediatric surgery at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), where he trained under C. Everett Koop, who would later become the U.S. Surgeon General. His time at CHOP was interrupted for two years while he served his country as a physician in the U.S. Navy. He later became director of the trauma program at CHOP as well as a professor of pediatric surgery at the University of Pennsylvania.

In 1995 Dr. Templeton retired from medicine to take up the leadership of the John Templeton Foundation, named after his father Sir John Marks Templeton. The Foundation has been on the vanguard of research touching on the deepest, most abiding human questions, what Dr. Templeton often called "The Big Questions." These include fundamental scientific notions such as "complexity, emergence, evolution, infinity, and time" as well as phenomena in the moral and spiritual sphere such as "altruism, creativity, free will, generosity, gratitude, intellect, love, prayer, and purpose."

*****

Washington National Cathedral announced that it has appointed Kevin Eckstrom as its new chief communications officer. Eckstrom will oversee all aspects of the cathedral's public profile including the award-winning Cathedral Age magazine. He will also help find ways to introduce the cathedral's mission and programming to new audiences. Eckstrom joins Washington National Cathedral from Religion News Service (RNS), where he has served as editor-in-chief since 2006. Eckstrom will start in his new role at the cathedral on Monday, June 1.

During his tenure, RNS has been named Best Wire Service by the Associated Church Press for six of the past nine years. Eckstrom is also currently a news consultant for PBS' Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly and a regular analyst for Interfaith Voices, which airs on public radio stations nationwide. Eckstrom is a committed Episcopalian and member of Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Bethesda, Maryland.

*****

The U.S. State Department may have sent a signal to an Anglican bishop in Iraq that despite persecution and harassment from the terror group known as ISIS, Christians in that country will not find any support from the United States government.

According to Faith J.H. McDonnell of Philos Project, the Rt. Rev. Julian M. Dobbs, Bishop of the Diocese of CANA East (Convocation of Anglicans in North America), revealed that element of U.S. foreign policy during an interaction with the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM). Dobbs made his case to the State Department on behalf of a group of Assyrian Christians who are desperate to leave northern Iraq.

"There is no way that Christians will be supported because of their religious affiliation," the State Department said.

McDonnell reported that the Assyrian Christians received both the permission and blessing from their own bishop to leave Iraq. Until recently, church leaders in the region have urged Christians to stay in the Middle East; now they have concluded that their chances of survival are much better if they leave.

"Christianity in Iraq is going through one of its worst and hardest stages of its long history, which dates back to the first century," Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil said. "Throughout all these long centuries, we have experienced many hardships and persecutions, offering caravans of martyrs. Yet 2014 brought the worst acts of genocide against us in our history."

Warda added that "Christianity as a religion and as a culture from Mesopotamia [ancient Iraq]" now faced "extinction" due to the ongoing threat posed by ISIS.

*****

We at VOL are very gratified by the recent response to our spring mailing. You, our readers, came through at a critical time. While we are not overflowing with riches, we can pay our bills and work the hours to bring you the unvarnished news you won't read anywhere else.

Late next month, Team VOL will head out the door to Salt Lake City and General Convention. I will have two other reporters and my trusty Texas-based researcher on hand to keep you informed. Later in July, I will be attending the International Catholic Conference of Anglicans in Ft. Worth, Texas.

We really do appreciate your support. If you can please consider a donation. You can write us a tax-deductible check and send it to:

VIRTUEONLINE
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Or you can make a contribution through VOL's PAYPAL link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/

Thank you for your support.

In Christ,

David

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