A satirical essay By David W. Virtue, DD www.virtueonline.org October 14, 2026 The Rt. Rev. Wilbert Smitherspoon, Bishop of the Diocese of Lower Wokefield, has ordered his priests to hold a revival at the local arena, a 12,000-seat venue more accustomed to monster-truck rallies and the Shriners' circus. "With all the woke causes we embrace, I thought it would be good to have a little change," the bishop told VOL. "Not too much change, mind you. We're Episcopalians."

COMMENTARY By David W. Virtue DD | www.virtueonline.org | October 8, 2026 She lay strapped to the gurney, awake enough to ask whether her arm was supposed to feel that way. Then came the snoring, and it went on for more than an hour until the chamber microphone was cut. The lethal injection had failed…twice. Christa Pike did not die. Four months earlier, in May, Tennessee had tried to execute Tony Carruthers. His executioners spent more than an hour probing his arms,

A satirical essay By David W. Virtue, DD I www.virtueonline.org I October 7, 2026 The Episcopal Bishop of Las Vegas, the Rt. Rev. Albert Sniffle, says he will offer his body to science as he prepares for voluntary euthanasia. "I suddenly realized I no longer believe in God," he told this reporter. "It's been coming on for some years now. When I realized that Jesus didn't rise from the dead, and that a picnic in the park was more relevant, it was the beginning of the e

The televangelists hid their sins. The Episcopal Church repealed them. And when neither worked, the bishops closed ranks. Jim Bakker's death is a reminder that no one in this story would submit to judgment COMMENTARY By David W. Virtue, DD I www.virtueonline.org I October 6, 2026 One by one they die off. Conmen for the Lord. The latest, Jim Bakker, bowed out on Monday at the age of 86, having disgraced the gospel and the Lord he professed to love and serve. Jimmy Swaggart

Probably the greatest tragedy of the church throughout its long and checkered history has been its constant tendency to conform to the prevailing culture instead of developing a Christian counter-culture. — John Stott "A religion that costs nothing is worth nothing. A cheap Christianity, without a cross, will prove in the end a useless Christianity, without a crown." — J.C. Ryle Christianity does not say that we assemble the proper collection of values, perform sufficient goo

Kris McDaniel says he "spoke too broadly" when he invited people to the Table regardless of sexual conduct; election set for November 7 By David W. Virtue, DD www.virtueonline.org October 2, 2026 The bishop of the Diocese of Churches for the Sake of Others (C4SO) has moved to shore up his nominee for suffragan bishop after audio from a decade-old parish meeting surfaced online, raising questions about the candidate's teaching on Holy Communion and same-sex practice. In a lett

The tumult of the 1960s sparked a literary journey that hasn’t stopped for the prolific social critic. British author and theologian Os Guinness speaks during the National Day of Prayer service in Statuary Hall in Washington, DC, on May 7, 2026. By Jayson Casper I Christianity Today I September 30, 2026 Best-selling British author Os Guinness never planned to be a writer. America helped make him one, with a little help from Switzerland. Since then, hundreds of thousands o

The Archbishop of Canterbury preached humility, dodged every hard question, and left the Anglican Communion exactly where she found it By David Virtue, DD | www.virtueonline.org | October 1, 2026 The Art of Saying Nothing I have always been intrigued by leaders who stand in a pulpit and preach about the issues of the day without ever actually touching them, and then close piously with "pray for me" or "pray for wisdom." Whether "pray for me" amounts to much, or whether

FEDERAL COURT THROWS OUT JAFC LAWSUIT AGAINST THE PROVINCE Two blows in six days end a year-long rebellion, one in the church's court and one in Caesar's By David W. Virtue, DD www.virtueonline.org September 30, 2026 In the space of six days, the rebellion of Derek Jones against the Anglican Church in North America has collapsed on two fronts. On September 23, the ACNA College of Bishops deposed Jones from the Sacred Ministry. Five days later, on September 28, a feder

COMMENTARY By David W. Virtue, DD I www.virtueonline.org I September 29, 2026 There is a word for someone who has no argument to make but blows warm smoke about "unity," "joy," being "overwhelmed by welcome," and "building understanding and friendship." The word is delusion. Another name for it is dodging reality. Dame Sarah Mullally, Archbishop of Canterbury, did exactly that, and with considerable poise, when she turned up at the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops at

From a transgender dean in Milwaukee to a "transitioned" Jesus in Manhattan: what happens when a church sheds Scripture's boundary on sex COMMENTARY By David W. Virtue, DD | www.virtueonline.org | September 28, 2026 G.K. Chesterton warned against tearing down a fence before you know why it was put up. The Episcopal Church tore down its fences decades ago. It is now discovering what they were keeping out. Two stories in the space of three weeks tell the tale. In Milw

A satirical essay By David Virtue I www.virtueonline.org I September 27, 2026 NEWS ITEM: St Mary le Moor, Cadmore End, has been sanctioned by the Consistory Court of the Diocese of Oxford for deliberate disregard of the faculty jurisdiction when it removed two pews from the church and installed them in the porch. "I collapsed when I heard the news," said Fr. Codpiece Filmore III. "This is the very end of the Church of England as I knew it. I was drinking tea with the

By David W. Virtue, DD www.virtueonline.org September 25, 2026 Sarah Mullally has chosen her stage with care. When the primates of the Anglican Communion gather in Johannesburg from 28 February to 5 March next year, it will be her first Primates' Meeting as Archbishop of Canterbury. She has taken it to the one African province whose archbishop shares her mind on sexuality, whose leadership welcomed her appointment, and whose ties to the Episcopal Church run back decades a

ACNA bishops strip Derek Jones of holy orders and confess their own silence. The new ARCC archbishop answers with a charge of “defamation in the public square.” By David W. Virtue, DD | www.virtueonline.org | September 24, 2026 The verdict was never in doubt. Only the sentence remained. This week, meeting in special session in Plano, Texas, the College of Bishops of the Anglican Church in North America deposed Bishop Derek Jones from the sacred ministry, determining that

A Satirical Essay By David W. Virtue, DD I www.virtueonline.org I September 23, 2026 A bill passed through Parliament the other day rejecting the notion that assisted suicide is a good thing. A couple of backbenchers, it seems, still fear the judgment of God. But a great many politicians — and no small number of the Lords Spiritual — were quietly in favor, having long since run out of spiritual steam and finding little value in their own continued existence. There is, aft

AFP via Getty Images/Ben Stansall By Ryan Foley, i Christian Post Reporter I September 21, 2026 A petition calling for Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally’s resignation has received thousands of backers after the Anglican leader gave an award to a Muslim cleric who praised 9/11 terror mastermind Osama bin Laden on the anniversary of the world-changing event. A Change.org petition calling for the Church of England leader’s resignation gained traction over the weekend a

Anglican missionary Jerry Kramer says Iran is now the world’s fastest-growing Church — “the Church always does better under a squeeze” An exclusive interview with Anglican priest Jerry Kramer, Christian missionary to the Islamic world. He and his wife Tracy have spent nearly a quarter of a century ministering in the Middle East and Africa, bringing the gospel to the most intransigent religion in the world today. VOL spoke with the Rev. Kramer about the present political situa

COMMENTARY by David Virtue I www.virtueonline.org I September 20, 2026 It is 1950. The church is full. The rector smiles out at hundreds of happy faces. Marriages are solid. Everybody in town goes to church, and it doesn't much matter which one — as long as they attend, fill the plates, and cover the building costs. The priest gets his paycheck. The bells ring. The car lot is full of new Fords that even a factory worker can afford. The GI Bill puts a house and a college

A Church of Pakistan perspective on interfaith responsibility in public life By Michelle Samuel 19 September 2026 The withdrawal of Tahir Ashrafi's Lambeth Award exposes a serious failure of due diligence, but it also reveals a deeper Western misunderstanding. The suffering of religious communities, religious freedom, and interfaith harmony overlap, but they are not interchangeable. In Pakistan, interfaith harmony is the difficult daily work of remaining in relationship w

September 19, 2026 This transcript captures an interview with Bishop Azad Marshall of the Church of Pakistan regarding the withdrawal of an award from Maulana Tahir Ashrafi. Bishop Marshall explained that the Church of Pakistan was not aware of Ashrafi’s previous remarks praising Osama bin Laden and defending the blasphemy laws, noting that he has since worked closely with Christian communities and supported minority rights. The bishop expressed disappointment that proper due