How do people come to acknowledge the divine-human person of Jesus? The apostolic testimony is necessary, but it does not compel assent. It is only by the Spirit of God that anybody ever confesses that Jesus is the Christ come in the flesh (1 Jn. 4:2)---From "The Letters of John" New Testament Commentaries by John R. W. Stott

The House of Bishops of TEC can indeed prevent Bishop Schofield from functioning as a Bishop in congregations of The Episcopal Church. However, they cannot invalidate his consecration as a Bishop in the Church of God, nor prevent him from functioning as such in congregations that welcome and affirm his ministry as their Bishop. The Bishop of San Joaquin has my friendship, my support, and my prayers during this time of turmoil in the life of our church. ---The Rt. Rev. Jack Leo Iker, Bishop of Fort Worth

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
1/25/2008

According to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, about 70% of the Anglican Communion's bishops worldwide have registered for the Lambeth conference to take place in Kent this summer.

Speaking at a press conference, yesterday, to launch the 10-yearly gathering of Anglican bishops, Williams acknowledged the "painful controversies" the church faces as the debate about gay priests and the blessing of homosexual relationships intensifies.

Conservative Anglican leaders have threatened to boycott the conference following the consecration of the gay bishop of New Hampshire, Gene Robinson, in the United States in 2003. Churches in Nigeria and Uganda have indicated they will not attend and there is doubt over the presence of some bishops from the Church of England, including the Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali.

You should know that the 30% of the Anglican Communion's bishops who are not planning to attend, but will attend the GAFCON conference in Jerusalem, represent more than 70% of the communion's priests and laity.

In time, the latter will grow and the former will wither and die, because liberalism has no future. It has no theological foundation on which to build the future of Anglicanism worldwide. African, Asian and Latin American growth is presaged on one simple truth - the gospel of Jesus Christ with its pure salvific message grows churches. Anything less than that, which compromises the message, has within it the seeds of death. Western pansexual liberalism can talk and have conversation on a thousand issues, but unless people are brought from darkness into life then, at the end of the day, the message is little more than sociology or pop psychology or good works that fail to meet the deepest spiritual yearnings and needs of people.

An interview VOL did with Canadian theologian J.I. Packer highlights precisely this point. Take a moment and read it here or in today's digest: http://tinyurl.com/2z2k27 The headline "Liberal theology without the gospel has the smell of death" cuts to the chase about the condition of our communion.

Williams said the Lambeth Conference would not shy away from questions of sex and sexuality. "We will look at sexuality and the ministry of bishops. We will be reporting back from the listening process that came out of the previous Lambeth conference. It's also going to be part of conversation informally day by day."

There is much evidence that the pathway liberals are treading is away from orthodox Biblical views on sexual behavior. There is not a scrap of evidence that Dr. Williams will reverse his own thinking. That is the kiss of death for the Global South who no longer believes or trusts him on this serious moral issue, which is at heart a spiritual life and death issue.

The three main topics of Lambeth will be the internal life of the communion, centered on talks about the Anglican Covenant, interfaith relations and international development and environment issues. But the 800-pound elephant in the communion is pansexuality which will not go away, and it will finally destroy the communion.

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This week I have been in Dallas at the ANGLICAN MISSION IN THE AMERICAS (AMiA) annual winter conference. It is their eighth conference and their best to date. More than 1,700 people, including four overseas archbishops, numerous bishops, the entire House of Bishops of the Province of Rwanda, are here for the consecration of three new AMIA bishops. Common Cause bishops and Anglicans have heard speakers exhort them to greater evangelism, discipleship and church planting. I have posted a number of stories from this event and I will post more in the days to come. Please go to the website www.virtueonline.org for the latest word. These are exciting days as we see the rebirth of an authentic Anglicanism on US soil. It is going to be a long, hard journey, but just as Communism rose and died in 70 years, liberal and revisionist Anglicanism, which has been on the march for some 40 years, will see its own end, if not in my life time, then certainly in the next generation. The seeds of death are written into its warp and woof.

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January 28th, 2008, will mark the 30th anniversary of the birth of the CONTINUING ANGLICAN MOVEMENT with the Denver Consecrations. As a way to commemorate this event, the Society of St. Michael will be conducting Prayer without Ceasing with a special intention for unity among Continuing Anglican bodies. Members are being asked to pray before the Blessed Sacrament every hour of the day. The Society of St. Michael (SSM) is a Fraternity of Anglican Clergy, organized as a Society of apostolic life. The SSM's special charism is dedication to the Catholic faith and practice in its Anglican tradition.

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The announcement last week that the ANGLICAN PROVINCE OF AMERICA (APA) was pulling out of Common Cause Partners (CCP) prompted a VOL reader to write that at least one mission in the APA that is pulling out of the APA to stay with CCP. The parish is All Saints' in G'ville, SC.

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In the DIOCESE OF OLYMPIA, Bishop Greg Rickel accepted the resignation of the Rev. Kevin Allen, rector of St. Paul's, Bellingham, WA. Kevin informed the bishop last week that he was resigning to become the rector of St. Brendan's Anglican Church in Bellingham. The bishop appointed the Rev. Charles Whitmore as Priest in Charge. The Vestry also appointed a new Sr. Warden. The bishop said there was no property at issue in this development.

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In the DIOCESE OF COLORADO, former diocesan priest, the Rev. Don Armstrong, has fought back against Bishop Rob O'Neill and filed a lawsuit against him and the diocese asking the courts to dismiss the diocese and bishop's filings against the Vestry of the parish. The lawsuit also includes a charge of extortion personally against O'Neill and the vestry. Members and clergy of Grace & St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, an orthodox parish, fled the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Colorado over sexuality issues. You can read the full story here or in today's digest: http://tinyurl.com/2khvlo

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In the DIOCESE OF NORTH CAROLINA, they passed the following resolution this week that includes the inclusion of all persons, regardless of sexual orientation, as full and equal participants in the life of Christ's church. The 192nd Annual Convention of the diocese urged the Archbishop of Canterbury to extend to the duly elected and consecrated Bishop of New Hampshire an invitation to full participation in the Lambeth Conference of 2008. They also encouraged General Convention to call for the development of public liturgies for the blessing of same sex unions.

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GAFCON organizers are challenging the Jerusalem bishop's concerns for the planned Holy Land event in June. Two organizers of the Global Anglican Future Conference have held separate meetings with the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem, Suheil Dawani, who has been critical of the event and has urged its planners to reconsider. Bishop Peter Jenson of Sydney, Australia, and Nigeria Archbishop Peter Akinola met January 12 and 15 respectively with Dawani in Jerusalem after he said he was "deeply troubled" that the GAFCON meeting, of which he said he had no prior knowledge, "will import inter-Anglican conflict" into his diocese. GAFCON organizers insist that they will be holding the event in Jerusalem, despite strong protests, arguing that the issues of trust or lack thereof of the Archbishop of Canterbury make it impossible to step back and halt it. GAFCON is due to be held one month prior to the Lambeth Conference when more than 600 of the Anglican Communion's bishops will descend on the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, for more than two weeks of spiritual reflection, learning, sharing and discerning.

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Members of the CHURCH OF ENGLAND'S GENERAL SYNOD said they will discuss the lack of Bibles in their churches at an upcoming meeting in London. Tim Cox, a Synod member from Blackpool, raised the issue after finding that "all too often" the churches he visited had no copies of the holy book available for worshippers to follow along with the readings, The Daily Telegraph reported. This might account for the vast Biblical illiteracy in the CofE, which means parishioners are open to the manipulation of texts by clergy who want to spin such malfunctioning behaviors as sodomy on unsuspecting persons.

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The ANGLICAN CHURCH OF KENYA is calling on its Anglicans friends and partners to hold a day of prayer and fasting against the unprecedented violence and lawlessness characterized by murder, arson, rape, looting and all kinds of threats and intimidation going on in Kenya. About 500 people have so far died and over 250,000 have been displaced. "We are grateful for all who have responded to this call for help both in our congregations and from outside Kenya and appeal to as many as can assist to do so through donations in cash and kind. We are grateful to all our congregations, partners and friends for upholding our nation in prayer during this difficult time and request that this continues. We in ACK and other stakeholders are involved in various mediation forums and peace initiative activities", wrote The Most Rev. Benjamin Nzimbi, Archbishop of Kenya & Bishop of All Saints Cathedral Diocese

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The Archbishop of Canterbury declared he won't sanction priest-poaching in Canada by branches of Anglicanism that disagree with practices of the CANADIAN CHURCH. It's the first time Archbishop Rowan Williams has directly addressed what's happening in Canada despite earlier letters of protest from Canadian Anglican leaders. But the archbishop, writing to the Canadian primate, Archbishop Fred Hiltz, also said he has no authority to prevent what he called "interventions and irregular ordinations" by outside Anglican churches, although he made it clear he doesn't support them.

Some African Anglican leaders and the head of the Argentine-based Church of the Province of the Southern Cone have embraced Canadian priests and laity who believe the Canadian Anglican Church has violated Biblical admonitions against homosexuality.

VOL interviewed the Rt. Rev. Donald Harvey, former bishop of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador, who was here in Dallas at the AMiA conference. He spoke with VOL about his departure from the Anglican Church of Canada. He revealed a whole lot more in a wide-ranging interview.

Recently Harvey's successor, the Rt. Rev. Cyrus Pitman, exacted a loyalty pledge from his diocesan priests gathered in St. John's Anglican Cathedral. Bishop Pitman had them repeat their priestly vows and issued them with new licenses, signed by himself rather than Bishop Harvey.

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WYCLIFFE WOES. The now much inflamed news about Wycliffe College, which is part of Oxford University, about the departure of several faculty and charges that the Rev. Dr. Richard Turnbull, its new principal, is a narrow fundamentalist, is apparently more media hype than substance. The story is being inflamed by charges that there are two theological schools of thought about evangelism in the UK and that a woman professor, Dr. Elaine Storkey, was threatened with disciplinary action. A source in Oxford told VOL that this whole business is not remotely about theology, but about a new management style brought in by Turnbull and about a woman scorned. "It is not about theology at all," said the source. Storkey has never held a full faculty position, and the institution is being mocked in the media for its solid evangelical stand on Scripture, at a time when theological liberalism has swamped the CofE. Storkey got a $40,000 payoff, but is still suing the Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt. Rev. James Jones, charging him with religious discrimination. The college's council, however, unanimously reiterated its support for the principal. It is recruiting record numbers of candidates for this year and the next academic year according to the source.

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LOS ANGELES EPISCOPALIANS held an Indian Rite Mass with Hindus while the bishop of LA J Jon Bruno apologized for past religious discrimination during this ecumenical love fest. An article in Sunday's California section about a joint religious service involving Hindus and Episcopalians said that all those attending the service at St. John's Cathedral were invited to Holy Communion. Although attendees walked toward the Communion table, only Christians were encouraged to partake of Communion. Out of respect for Hindu beliefs, the Hindus were invited to take a flower. Also, the article described Hindus consuming bread during Communion, but some of those worshipers were Christians wearing traditional Indian dress. During the service, the Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, issued a statement of apology to the Hindu religious community for centuries-old acts of religious discrimination by Christians, including attempts to convert them.

Ironically, as Bruno was apologizing to Hindus, this past week Hindu gangs in India slaughtered some 9 Christians, torched 90 churches and 600 homes during a violent flare up against Christians. Canon Gary L'Hommedieu has written a brilliant commentary piece on Bruno's gospel of appeasement. You can read it here or in today's digest: http://tinyurl.com/2fbp8m

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According to a member of the Standing Committee of the DIOCESE OF PENNSYLVANIA, the trial of Charles Bennison on the current presentment charges against him will take place in Philadelphia sometime next fall. It will be an "open trial" meaning that anyone can attend. The only portion of the trial that may be "closed" is if the now grown 14 year old victim testifies herself. According to the source, depositions have been taken, and according to Judith Beck the "witnesses" are availing themselves of a TEC attorney. When asked about the financial charges brought against Bennison by the Standing Committee, the Standing Committee person indicated that the disposition of those charges had not yet been determined. He also said that it was possible that Bennison could face both cases, one immediately following the other since the judicial trying body would be already convened. From all current information, it appears Charles Bennison will dispute the charges. According to the source, the trial of Fr. David L. Moyer is still scheduled to take place within the next two months.

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CORRECTION. In my last "Viewpoints Column" I mentioned that the Dean of St. John's Cathedral, Denver (Peter Eaton) is one of four nominees for the Baltimore Bishop's position and that "he is a bachelor". This is incorrect. He was a bachelor when he came to the Cathedral, but married in 2001.

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