Nashotah House Receives ACNA Prayer Book // Marty E. Martin has died //
We should not ask, ‘What is wrong with the world?’ for that diagnosis has already been given. Rather we should ask, “What has happened to salt and light? – John Stott
Never in the history of its existence has the Church of England been more influenced by the rule of women, and never in the history of its existence has the Church of England been more at risk of collapse. – Aaron Edwards
Ultimately, we have a generation who has not only misrepresented Jesus in His sovereignty but has also robbed him of His masculinity. We have not seen Him as our all-powerful King, nor have we seen Him as a masculine Man. As a result, we have produced a version of Christianity that lives up to the Christ we have created—weak, effeminate, delicate, and soft. However, this is not the Christ of the Bible. – Dale Partridge
The era that we are living in is post-Christian, but not post-religious. The post-Christian world is not ending up in atheistic nihilism, as many had assumed; rather, it is re-paganizing. – James Wood
The Church of England ought to be a shining light to the nation and the world, representing truth, beauty, love, grace, order, joy, and peace. But instead of glorifying God by upholding His Word against the scoffers who hate what that Word says and implies, they have chosen instead to align themselves with their enemies, trading light for darkness, selling their birth-right for a pot of stew, denying the very Word of God in order to warm their hands by the fire with strangers who do not mean well. – Aaron Edwards
The American church today is at a crossroads. While the kingdom of God will go on, its future in this country is not certain. The Great Dechurching could well be the American church’s most crucial moment and greatest opportunity. – Ryan P. Burge
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
March 7, 2025
Is denominationalism dead? For Generation Z it is a timely question. Denominations define doctrine. This is not a sacrosanct issue for generations Y and Z and Nones, so defining beliefs by denominational loyalty might be meaningless.
Furthermore, are the doctrinal disputes of previous generations that so haunted many of us, relevant in today’s techno world of Facebook, TikTok and X. The Pope is trying to modernize the church by downplaying doctrines and scrapping sacred moral positions in order to make the RCC more relevant. But the pushback has been startling, and he may have made a strategic mistake. There is a rise of orthodoxy in Catholicism that might give pause for the next pope to reconsider the pathway his predecessor took.
Do generations of young adults really care that the PCA broke away from the PCUSA or ACNA from TEC? Do they have sleepless nights worrying about the Lord’s return and will they be left behind? Will they be moved by which Prayer Book we should all be using or how to cross oneself? Are they agonizing over whether they are saved by grace or good works? Or if salvation even really matters!
Or are their concerns really about whether they can freely express their views without being cancelled. Will their freedoms be their tomorrow morning when they wake up? Is it more to the point that we are at a civilizational moment with the waning of the West and the War of the Worlds, outlined in Os Guinness’s new book?
Perhaps it is not a simple either/or, but whether we like it or not, the universe has moved under our feet and we are no longer in Kansas.
Do we need new strategies for evangelism and discipleship? Are the old evangelistic paradigms now long gone, and no longer recoverable, perhaps a good thing?
Recently I wrote that only one percent of churches in America are effectively engaged in evangelism. That came as a shock to many readers. If we don’t evangelize, we will die. Liberal and progressive churches are already on life support, but evangelical churches are not far behind. This is not your parents’ church, and kids don’t automatically follow in their parents’ footsteps. There are multitudes of grieving parents who have watched their children abandon the faith they were raised in (think the Campolos); many have drifted away forever; many have inexplicably committed suicide, died of fentanyl and the list goes on. There are more trails of tears than tv shows.
I watched Pastor Rick Warren in a video, who lost a son to suicide, explain why pain was necessary for growth in Christian character. He is a compelling speaker. “You don’t get over it, you get through it.”
Or as James Blunt in his new recording, Monsters sings, “You’re not my father, I’m not your son, we’re just two grown men saying goodbye.”
Or is it as one blogger recently noted; “Something extraordinary is happening in American spiritual life. As traditional religious institutions decline, new forms of meaning-making have emerged, creating what scholars call a New Civil Religion. This contemporary spiritual landscape is characterized by its provision of meaning, purpose, community, and ritual outside traditional religious frameworks.”
Perhaps this explains why the Church of England is irrelevant to 98% of the British public, or why Christianity in the rest of Europe is in decline (while Islam is on the rise) and why Nones are the fastest growing “religious” group in America today.
Doing things the same old way hoping for a different result is a dead end. Someone should tell Franklin Graham that crusades don’t work anymore. That was his father’s generation. The times they are a changing. Churches can’t rely on methods and techniques that worked in the past. We live in the world of AI, hamstrung only by our imagination.
We do know that people are drawn to a church that appears authentic and real. They won’t be concerned about how the Eucharist is delivered, or even if the right words are said. They probably don’t know them anyway. The church will be color blind, race blind. Our Hispanic pastor was born in Newark, NJ where turning the other cheek could mean a bullet in your face. He still wrestles with what that means even though he is now a safe distance from that world.
From the pulpit he shares his conversion story from the rough and tumble streets of Newark to the safe climes of Drew University, but he never forgets how the Lord of the universe stepped into his life and saved him. That is seared in his mind. It consumes his evangelism and his style as he reaches out to a diverse community. Nothing is cast in stone only the timeless message of the gospel.
*****
In a few short weeks, a group of orthodox, mostly evangelical primates of the Anglican Communion, meeting on the acronym GAFCON (Global Anglican Future Conference) will meet in Plano, Texas to consider their role in the communion. These primates have formally broken with Canterbury.
The next-generation gathering of GAFCON primates have come out with a statement soundly rejecting proposed reforms by the Anglican Communion.
The G25 Mini Conference is at a very crucial time in the life of the movement, as they gather for the first time since the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, to consider how GAFCON will continue to lead the renewal of the Anglican Communion, according to chairman and GAFCON primate Rwanda Archbishop Laurent Mbanda.
“For this reason, we will be convening an extended Primates Council meeting, where our agenda will focus on how to strengthen our fellowship with authentic Anglicans, both those who are contesting the faith in liberal dioceses, as well as those who have found refuge in dioceses established and authenticated by GAFCON,” he said. You can read more here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/gafcon-rejects-anglican-communion-reforms-cites-doctrinal-drift
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In what looks to be a case of Dé·jà vu, a second Episcopal bishop, John Taylor Bishop of Los Angeles, has publicly slammed Donald Trump following a verbally tough exchange between the president and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office of the White House.
The first was Washington Bishop Marianne Budde who rebuked Donald Trump from the pulpit of Washington National Cathedral over his immigration and other policies. Outraged by her comments, Trump asked her to apologize. She refused.
Taylor opined that seeing Putin's boys bully a besieged freedom fighter in the Oval Office was humiliating for every American. “Surely this crosses the line, even for the diehards. Are there really no Republicans out there who have the courage to stand up and say: All Americans should be deeply ashamed of what he has done in our name, and deeply ashamed of how he did it. No?” You can read more here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/los-angeles-episcopal-bishop-slams-president-trump-over-oval-office-debacle
Ironically Taylor is the former director of the Nixon Presidential Library. Nixon was the acolyte of "realpolitik": accepting the world as it is and doing what you can to improve it on the edges.
*****
Has the Sexual Revolution destroyed the mainline churches? On any reading, the sexual revolution, begun in the 60s, has morphed into the most powerful moral force upending 4,000 years of sexual teaching, overturning the ancient binary tradition of male and female.
Os Guinness, an Anglican and social critic notes in his new book, Our Civilizational Moment, the Waning of the West and the War of the Worlds notes, “this smashing of the categories is not the ultimate goal of the sexual revolution. Its spiritual elite have a higher goal in mind: to strive towards ultimate harmony beyond all categories. In aiming for this state, the elite revolutionaries are attempting to return both paganism and sexual androgyny to their primitive pedestal and to license every possible type of sexuality as an expression of freedom---with polyamory now half in the door and pedophilia and zoophilia (or bestiality) well on their way.”
The sexual revolutionaries are out to subvert thousands of years of “patriarchal” societies (including the four thousand years of both the Jewish roots and the Christian flowering), he declares.
Guinness blasts both the Episcopal Church and the Church of England. “Much of the Christian church did not need to be overcome. Significant branches, such as the Episcopal Church, now closely followed by a large wing of the Church of England led by their progressive bishops and archbishops, rushed forward to embrace the sexual revolution, and enlist on “the right side of history.” Simultaneously, they cut themselves off from their own tradition and from the majority of their fellow believers around the world, and they suicidally emptied their own pews. You can read more here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/how-the-sexual-revolution-destroyed-the-mainline-churches
*****
Nashotah House Dean Lauren Whitnah hosted some 61 bishops, priests, deacons, professors, and seminarians from across the country for a ceremony honoring the addition of ACNA’s 2019 edition of the Book of Common Prayer to the Underwood Prayer Book Collection. It joins rare and historic prayer books dating back to the 16th century that are available for research purposes.
Three current and former archbishops of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) gathered February 25 at Nashotah House in honor of their denomination’s prayer book. You can read more here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/acna-s-2019-prayer-book-joins-nashotah-collection
*****
The Diocese of Dallas has announced the call for a new bishop coadjutor to replace retiring Bishop George Sumner. A slate of three candidates for the diocese’s bishop coadjutor has emerged: They are:
The Rev. William Carroll, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Longview, Texas;
The Rt. Rev. Fraser Lawton, bishop assistant in the Diocese of Dallas and rector of the Church of St. Dunstan in Mineola, Texas;
The Very Rev. Rob Price, dean of St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Dallas, Texas.
By all accounts they are orthodox, but the kicker will be if the evangelically driven diocese will be able to elect a bishop who won’t go along with Resolution B012, and if they do not, will that bishop obtain consents from the HOD and HOB or will it be another debacle like the Diocese of Florida that is still without a permanent bishop? We shall see.
*****
A former archbishop of Canterbury is among a number of clergy facing possible disciplinary action over safeguarding failures after an abuse report which prompted Justin Welby's resignation, the Church of England has announced.
Lord George Carey, who still sits in the upper chamber, was named in the Makin review, which concluded abuse carried out for decades by Christian camp leader John Smyth was known about and not acted upon by various people within the Church.
Lord Carey resigned as a priest in December following an investigation into the Church of England's handling of a separate sexual abuse case. He is one of 10 clergy named by the Church's national safeguarding team (NST) on Tuesday as people they are seeking to bring disciplinary proceedings against over potential failures in safeguarding.
Ironically, the archbishop who should have resigned over multiple charges of failed safeguarding, the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, has steadfastly refused to go, and now presides as a lame duck leader over the Church of England, temporarily replacing Archbishop Justin Welby.
*****
The Church of England continues to cultivate the seeds of its own demise with such unerring success that sometimes you wonder if it is deliberate, writes Dr. Aaron Edwards, a theology lecturer at Cliff College, who was dismissed for “misconduct” after posting a tweet defending Christian sexual ethics.
He wrote; At a recent Anglican Synod, the Bishop of London, Sarah Mullally, broke down in tears. Why was the Bishop of London moved to tears? Was it because of the utter lack of faith in so many modern churches? Was it because of the catastrophic decline of the Church of England in our time? Or was it due to the hundreds of thousands of aborted babies every year in the very nation to which that Church is called? None of the above. She was moved to tears because of “micro-aggressions” and “institutional barriers” against women within the Church of England.
“It’s difficult to describe just what those culturally Marxist terms of the Zeitgeist communicate at such a time as this. This is, after all, a time in which women are “permitted” to teach and exercise authority over men in the church as preachers, vicars, and even as bishops, with many even calling for a first female archbishop.”
He writes; “Never in the history of its existence has the Church of England been more influenced by the rule of women, and never in the history of its existence has the Church of England been more at risk of collapse. Yet it is the apparent ongoing raft of subjective “micro-aggressions” against women deemed to be the greatest cause of ecclesial harm.”
You can read his brilliant take down, A Lament for the Church of England here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/a-lament-for-the-church-of-england
*****
On the CULTURE WARS front, a new poll shows most Americans oppose transgender participation in women's sports and gender care for kids.
A recent survey reveals that nearly half of Americans believe the U.S. has overstepped in permitting male, trans-identified athletes to compete in women's sports, alongside substantial opposition to medical interventions for children facing gender dysphoria.
Conducted by The New York Times/Ipsos, the poll gathered responses from 2,128 American adults between January 2 and January 10.
When respondents were asked if they felt that “Society has gone too far in accommodating transgender people,” 49% responded positively. In contrast, 21% agreed with the statement that “Society has not gone far enough in accommodating transgender people,” while 28% thought that “Society has achieved a reasonable balance in accommodating transgender people.”
You can read more here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/poll-shows-most-americans-oppose-transgender-participation-in-women-s-sports-and-gender-care-for-kid
*****
U.S. Christianity’s downturn is leveling off, but the Roman Catholic Church faces precipitous decline, according to a comprehensive Pew Research Center survey published in late February.
Catholicism loses 8.4 members for every convert it gains through ‘religious switching’, writes Jule Gomes, a Vatican-based reporter.
The decades-long decline in Christianity across the U.S. has stalled, yet Catholics are still leaving in significant numbers, according to Pew.
The religiously unaffiliated population — who have also come to be known as “nones” — has leveled off; the Christian share of the population after years of downturn has been relatively stable since 2019, the Religious Landscape Study (RLS) reported.
The study, which is the largest single survey of its kind and was conducted over seven months in 2023-24, found that 62% of U.S. adults identify as Christians (40% of whom identify as Protestants and 19% as Catholics). You can read more here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/u-s-christianity-s-downturn-levels-off-but-catholic-church-faces-precipitous-decline
*****
Who are evangelicals? There are about 78 million evangelicals in America, according to Pew Research Center’s massive new survey of the religious landscape released on Wednesday. Most are white, Republican, and say religion is very important to them.
But not all.
The study—considered the most comprehensive look at religion in the United States, with more than 36,000 people filling out a 116-question survey in all 50 states—shows significant evangelical variety. Evangelicals are diverse: racially, politically, economically, and even in terms of religious practice. You can read more here: https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/02/who-are-evangelicals-pew-study/
*****
On a personal note, VOL recognizes the 98th birthday of the former Episcopal Bishop of South Carolina, the Rt. Rev. Dr. C. FitzSimons Allison. The evangelical bishop has authored six books and resides with his wife Martha to whom he has been married for 75 years, in Georgetown, SC. He is known for his role in the Anglican realignment, which led to his participation in the controversial consecration in 2000 of two bishops opposed to the blessing of same-sex unions by the Episcopal Church, that took place in Singapore. He serves as a retired bishop of the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina in the Anglican Church in North America since 2022.
*****
A notable death took place this past week. Martin E. Marty was 97, and his death could be interpreted as the end of an era. For roughly six decades, Marty was recognized as the leading authority on religion in America. He wrote 60 books and thousands of articles and reviews. Marty was president of various academic societies, and held administrative posts and memberships on boards. At the height of his career, Marty was often cited in national media and advised presidents Carter and Clinton.
He was a leading proponent of liberal Christianity. “The noise of conflict” was a frequent Marty topic. He led a research project on fundamentalism and lectured on “hardline” religion. His attention to Christian tradition was sobered by analysis of institutional fractures because of “culture wars.” Marty, who published some 60 books in all, served for a half-century as an editor and columnist for the Christian Century.
*****
“The truth about the Enneagram turned my blood cold,” writes Christina Lynn Wallace at her substack. The Enneagram takes our eyes off of the God in whose image we are made and gets us contemplating how we experience that image through tools which do not point us to Him in the first but rather the last instance. You can read her take here: https://christinalynnwallace.substack.com/p/the-truth-about-the-enneagram-that?utm_source=multiple-personal-recommendations-email&utm_medium=email&triedRedirect=true
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VOL’s website is fully up and running. Over the next few weeks, we will place over 35,000 stories in the archives. Please bear with us. A transition like this is time consuming and costly and we could use some financial assistance to place the archives. We have specialists and consultants who must be paid who are making the transition possible.
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Warmly in Christ,
David
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