Christianity in America is Mixed Bag // ACNA Reports Double Digit Growth // CofE Bishops Rail over Abortion & Euthanasia // Anglican Church of Canada Elects New Primate // Abortion & the Pill //

Cranmer’s Church Then & Now // Trump Drops F-Bomb – Evangelicals Silent //

The Christian community is a community of the cross, for it has been brought into being by the cross. --- John Stott

I consider blasphemy laws to be a needless attack on the fundamental values of a liberal democracy, values that I believe derive in part from the Christian tradition with its claim that love for God must be accompanied by love for one’s neighbor, enemies, and outsiders. To truly love “others,” one must be willing to permit the criticism of yourself by others, whether it is about your politics, ethics, or religion, and even if it is laced with vehemency and umbrage. Michael F. Bird

Last year was the first time that the ACNA topped pre-pandemic levels of Average Sunday Attendance (ASA). This year, numbers have continued to rise, and the province has surpassed its highest average attendance ever.  --- ACNA provincial report.

General Synod comes at a time when many have expressed worries about the future of the church. Parishes are closing and being merged, it’s hard to get clergy to fill vacancies … There’s financial issues and things are closing down. I think people see problems for sure. – Alan Hayes professor emeritus of church history at Wycliffe College

We call the killing of thousands in the war in Gaza ‘genocide’, but the killing of 250,000 human beings every year in the UK through abortion ‘reproductive rights! -- David Robertson

Historically, a clear link exists between the push for women priests and homosexual activism. In 1974, the same year that Louie Crew founded the homosexual activist organization Integrity eleven women, including known lesbians, were ordained in Philadelphia. --- Alice Linsley

“The more humble and obedient to God a man is, the more wise and at peace he will be in all that he does.” -- Thomas à Kempis

Western Culture often seeks to promote sympathy for beliefs and practices that contradict the gospel, for example the homosexual lifestyle and alternative families made up of same-sex partners and their adopted children. – Pope Leo XIV

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

www.virtueonline.org

June 27, 2025

THE overall picture of Christianity in America is very mixed.

On the one hand California evangelist Greg Laurie tells us that America is hungry for spirituality. He writes; “Something’s stirring in America. You can feel it—a growing hunger for truth, hope, and meaning after years of academia, media, and entertainment tirelessly working to dismantle the core values that built our great nation. People are ready for change…I believe we’re going to see it.”

“Specifically, young men are attending church at unprecedented rates when we’re so used to seeing women lead the way in spirituality. Men are exhausted of being told to suppress who God created them to be. They don’t want to be told that their masculinity is “toxic,” or that they’re part of the “patriarchy.” They want to be the men God has called them to be—not the emasculated boys’ culture is telling them they have to be.”

Laurie points to the surge in Bible sales. “People are looking for something other than what culture’s been offering. They want to know truth. They want to know what God has to say about hope, their lives, their identity—all of the truths that have been blurred.”

Of course, in California one can go from crack cocaine and a surf-boarding culture to Christ in an instant without much contradiction… “it’s cool dude” is an overworked refrain.

On the other hand, those pushing for a new anthropology of sexuality are turning churches inside out over gay marriage and the normalization of homosexuality that sees an Episcopalian politician like Pete Buttigieg and a leading pro-gay Jesuit Roman Catholic priest, Fr. James Martin sitting down with Buttigieg talking about the need for the full acceptance of homosexuals in the church. Pope Leo has begun pushing back on this with the added note that his priests must be celibate.

But all is not consistent in the Vatican. The Pope recently promoted a pro-LGBTQ Prelate who permitted a pagan idol in a Cathedral. Dr. Jules Gomes has written extensively about this here: https://anglicanmainstream.org/article/pope-leo-xiv-promotes-pro-lgbtq-prelate-who-permitted-pagan-idol-in-cathedral/

And then there is all the talk about gender issues; trans humanism, artificial intelligence, the uniqueness of Christ, Islam vs Christianity, the encroachment of Islam in the West, the persecution of Christians from Syria to Nigeria and much more.

It all depends on where you live. Starting a church in the south is far easier than planting a church in the north and northeast. While mega churches abound in Dallas, Texas, the only serious church planting model that has worked successfully in the northeast is the ministry of Tim Keller in New York City. Slim pickings indeed. Yes, there are many small vibrant evangelical ministries but they don’t compare with large churches south of the Mason Dixon line.

Then of course a lot of Christianity in the South is cultural. If you were raised Southern Baptist in Texas, you would be walking down the aisle before you were a teenager. But SBC membership has fallen to a 47-year low, even though church involvement is up. The SBC has lost four million “born again” believers which leaves one asking just how real it all is. The SBC is losing about 200,000 members annually and there is no sign of a reversal. 700 SBC pastors have been credibly accused of the sexual abuse of women.

Furthermore, a significant segment of Southern Baptist-associated churches are avoiding outward declaration of their Baptist identity. Data from five cities that recently hosted the SBC annual meeting revealed that around 43.5 percent of associated churches do not include “Baptist” in their name. That percentage becomes a majority in cities including Indianapolis, Indiana and Anaheim, California.

Ryan Burge the doyen of demography reveals much when he shows that while 57 percent of boomers believe in God only 40 percent of Gen Zer’s do and there is no sign that there is any turning around.     

He asks; Is there a religious revival occurring among Generation Z?

“I’ve got two hunches why I am getting asked about the possibility. The first is pretty simple - people of faith want to believe that there’s a revival right around the corner and they want to be a part of it. Every Christian hears about stories of mass conversion events and wants to believe they could witness that type of history. The other is subtler, I think. It’s people who don’t feel strongly about religion one way or the other, but are just tired of hearing more stories about religious decline. Thus, any indication that Gen Z is returning to religion would just bring about a change in the dominant narrative. Trust me when I tell you that I don’t revel in the fact that I’m the ‘prophet of doom’ in this area, but wishing doesn’t make it so.”

The picture is still very mixed.

*****

The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) held its Provincial Council meeting at Trinity Anglican Seminary in Ambridge, Pennsylvania this past week and reported attendance up by double digits for the third consecutive year, according to congregational report data released during the meeting.

The denomination in 2024 reported a net increase of 14 congregations to a total of 1,027, an increase in membership of 1,997 (+1.5 percent) to a total of 130,111 and an increase in attendance of 11,354 (+13.4 percent) to a total of 96,148.

“It is humbling and incredible,” Archbishop Steve Wood said of the numbers in his opening address to the council. “And it makes me eager to see what the Lord is up to next.”

Hassler said leading indicators, including baptisms (+207, or 5.6%), confirmations (+656, or 15.8%), and weddings (+104, or 17.4%) are also up. These metrics are regarded as signaling the direction of future membership and attendance numbers. For the first time, 27 local churches now have an average attendance exceeding 500, up from 16 surpassing that number the year before.

Provincial Council is the annual governance meeting of the ACNA, comprising a bishop, elected clergy, and two elected lay members from each of 28 dioceses, alongside delegates from a half-dozen ministry organizations with an official status.  Among the changes ahead are a complete overhaul of the ACNA’s Title IV (disciplinary) canons.  “There have been structural inefficiencies baked into the system,” the Rev. Andrew Rowell, Governance Task Force chairman, told the council in outlining a case for comprehensive reform. “While the present Title IV system was designed to be flexible and simple, neither accusers nor accused trust the current system, since it lacks sufficient transparency.”

You can read more here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/acna-sees-multi-year-growth

One critic of the ACNA gathering was a Canadian priest Mark Marshall who blasted Archbishop Wood over his handling of Calvin Robinson who blew in from the UK in time to tell us his thoughts about women’s ordination, an issue that has bedeviled ACNA for a dozen years. After a half dozen bishops took him in and then dumped him, he has apparently found a home with a vagante Continuing Anglican crowd – the Anglican Province of America. Maybe now he will get on being a priest rather than a politician.

*****

The Church of England is endlessly embroiled in one issue after another even as it looks for a new Archbishop of Canterbury, a position many asking if it is really necessary bearing in mind that all the hard work is done on the ground by local vicars who get little support from the pontifications from Lambeth Palace.

Two issues reared their ugly head this week; Abortion and euthanasia AKA assisted suicide. The abortion issue revolved around terminating the life of the unborn up till the time of birth; and the other is knocking off people who decide they want to die earlier rather than later, thus saving the NHS thousands of pounds.

VOL’s Judith Sture, a scientist, weighed in all this and you can read her Dark Days in the United Kingdom here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/dark-days-in-the-united-kingdom

Here is a sample: “On Tuesday 17 June 2025, the House of Commons voted on an amendment to the government's crime and policing bill, to allow abortion outside the legal framework without fear of prosecution. It is now possible for a woman to ‘terminate’ her baby (sorry, ‘foetus’ – better still, ‘clump of cells’) up to the day before the due date. Yes, you read that right – a woman in the UK can now choose to ‘abort’ a 9-months gestation baby and not face prosecution. The government won the vote with a majority of 242 votes. You read that right as well.”

On euthanasia she had this to say; “Just days later, on Friday 20 June, the Commons voted on a private member’s bill (brought forward by an MP, rather than the government) - the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. This proposes what is euphemistically known as ‘assisted dying’. For which read ‘death on demand’. MPs voted to support the bill by a majority of 23 votes (314 for, 291 against). Like the abortion amendment, the bill now passes to the House of Lords for further scrutiny and debate.

“As usual, those in favour of euthanasia claim that significant safeguards are in place to prevent misuse of the law – but in every country where such law has been enacted, safeguards arguably melt away and we see numbers of mentally-ill people and other vulnerable individuals who ‘choose’ death this way, rising steadily. In Canada for example, euthanasia accounted for 4.7% of all deaths in 2023, with 15, 343 people dying by this route. This is now the fifth most common cause of death in Canada. Belgium saw a 17% increase in euthanasia cases in 2024, including individuals under 40 and even including children. In the Netherlands, 5.4% of deaths (169,363 people) were by euthanasia in 2023.”

The Church of England became embroiled in the abortion and euthanasia issue. More than 200 Church of England clergy, including a number of bishops, signed a letter describing abortion up to birth as “a dangerous change”.

In the letter, which has been seen by The Telegraph, the clergy said that unborn children were “deserving of compassion and… [need] protection under the law”. They also warned that should unrestricted abortion become law then both women and their unborn children will be “at even greater risk of harm than previously”.

On euthanasia, London Bishop Sarah Mullally, former Chief Nursing Officer of the United Kingdom and the Church of England’s lead bishop for health and social care, pleaded with members of Parliament not to usher in new levels of later-term abortions and state-approved suicides, before they did so.

“If enacted, this legislation would come into force amid serious shortfalls in adult social care, a post code lottery in palliative care and well documented pressures on the NHS, multiplying the potential risks to the most vulnerable. It does not prevent terminally ill people who perceive themselves to be a burden to their families and friends from choosing ‘assisted dying. And it would mean that we became a society where the state fully funds a service for terminally ill people to end their own lives but shockingly only funds around one third of palliative care.

“Every person is of immeasurable and irreducible value, and should be able to access the care and support that they need—a principle that I know is shared by those of all faiths and none. We must oppose a law that puts the vulnerable at risk and instead work to improve funding and access to desperately needed palliative care services.”

But they lost the debate in parliament when the numbers were counted. Ditto for assisted suicide AKA euthanasia. You may knock yourself off with greater ease now which apparently pleases the failing national health system (NHS) which is losing money keeping the dying alive.

*****

The Rt. Rev. Shane Parker, Bishop of Ottawa, was elected the 15th Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada on June 26, 2025, at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, Ontario, during the 44th session of the General Synod.

Primate-elect Parker has served as the Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa since 2020. Prior to that, he was dean of the Diocese of Ottawa and rector of Christ Church Cathedral in Ottawa for two decades. Primate-elect Parker will be installed in his new role during a worship service at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, Ontario, on Sunday, June 29, 2025.

Parker is a 24-carat liberal on sexuality issues. Samizdat, an orthodox Canadian blogger noted this about Parker; “the bishop affirms the sanctity of life for 2SLGBTQI+, but conveniently forgets about the unborn. In advance of Ottawa’s Pride March, the bishop of Ottawa urged us all to read his letter “Global Interfaith Commission on LGBT+ Lives”. The heading for the letter is: “Declaring the Sanctity of Life and the Dignity of All”. Not quite all as it turns out. The hand wringing is reserved for 2SLGBTQI+ people because “all sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions are a precious part of creation and are part of the natural order.”

*****

Abortion and the pill. Abortion has become slightly more common despite bans or deep restrictions in most Republican-controlled states, and the legal and political fights over its future are not over yet. It’s now been two and a half years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and opened the door for states to implement bans.

The policies and their impact have been in flux ever since the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The availability of an abortion pill has clearly changed the equation.

President Trump has applauded himself for his role in the ruling, since he nominated three of the Supreme Court Justices who voted to overturn Roe in 2022. He called the ensuing flood of state-level restrictions “a beautiful thing to watch.” But when running for a second term amid polling that shows Americans largely support legal abortion, he attempted to soften his stance and said that he would not push for a national abortion ban as president. Apparently, he has not been quite the savior the right wanted.

*****

Cranmer’s Church Then and Now. A new book on the history and theology of Reformation Anglicanism landed on my desk this week. The Rev. Canon Chuck Collins volume on the history of Reformation Anglicanism is a must read for anyone, young or old who needs a refresher course in Anglican history and how we came to be. The book covers the theological and historical underpinnings of Anglicanism vis a vis Thomas Cranmer and those who declared for the Protestant faith. Collins answers all the hot button issues like Justification, the Eucharist, the primacy of Scripture, Baptism and much more. You can buy this slim volume for $5.99 at Amazon here: Cranmer's Church: Then and Today: Collins, Chuck, Pearson, Andrew: 9780999290484: Amazon.com: Books

*****

Donald Trump dropped the f- bomb this week and there was not a squeak of disapproval from the vast sea of his evangelical supporters. Why? Would Jimmy Carter have ever used language like that before 300 million Americans? Evangelicals had nothing much to say about Trump’s earlier “grab them by the p***y”, and the Access Hollywood tapes. It took a courageous Mike Pence to face down Trump and he paid the political price. Evangelicals who love to bash adulterers and fornicators with good cause are amazingly silent in the face of their president using language like this because he is allegedly slaying the woke dragon.

*****

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My Substack on the Middle East continues to grow. It is drawing a lot of attention from across the globe. You can access my Substack here: https://davidvirtue2.substack.com/  I am a strong supporter of the state of Israel’s right to exist and prosper while confronting her enemies both foreign and domestic. My latest can be seen here: https://davidvirtue2.substack.com/publish/posts/detail/165868897?referrer=%2Fpublish%2Fposts