VIRTUEONLINE VIEWPOINTS

At every step of our Christian development and in every sphere of our Christian discipleship, pride is the greatest enemy and humility our greatest friend. — John Stott

AI in some ways brings new challenges. For example, it's going to challenge the very notion of human agency. What is it that makes us human? It's the fact that we have agency. If AI takes away all the things that require human agency, then it will dehumanize us in a way we haven't witnessed before. — Carl Trueman

"All migrants who arrive in Europe are penniless, without work, without dignity... This is what the Church wants? The Church cannot cooperate with this new form of slavery that has become mass migration." — Cardinal Robert Sarah

From the beginning of ACNA, former TEC clergy worried about "losing their medical coverage." I'm sorry, it is a calling. And my advice to new clergy: have a second or third job. This is not for the faint of heart. — Bishop Robert Todd Giffin

"Reviving the denominations institutionally, barring supernatural intervention, is nearly impossible. The progressives who control them, who cannot plant new churches or win new members, depend on these bureaucracies, funded by endowments, for their livelihoods." — Mark Tooley

"What disturbs me most is that civilized, evangelical leaders hold much of the power and control in our nation and in our world. Yet our evangelical leadership is not creative or compassionate enough to deal with the truths that burst in upon us every day — the economic/social truths of race hatred, energy crisis, crime, hunger, and poverty — in light of the healing mandate of the scriptures." — John Perkins, "Stoning the Prophets"

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

www.virtueonline.org | July 3, 2026

A very important conference was held in London this past week titled "The Age of Reconstruction," and its stated goal was to move from the age of deconstruction to a new age of reconstruction. In other words, renewal. In the view of the organizers, Western Civilization is in dire need of a new direction: a move away from the decades-long effort to tear it down and toward a reinvigorated embrace of our inheritance and a new commitment to building an even better society.

A Gathering for a Civilization in Crisis

Some 4,000 conservatives, policymakers, business leaders, and cultural commentators converged on Olympia London June 23-25 for the third Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference, an event that has grown steadily since its founding gathering in 2023 and now bills itself as a movement for "the Age of Reconstruction." The roster read like a who's-who of the international right: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Carl Trueman, Rod Dreher, Os Guinness, Kate Forbes, Danny Kruger, Miriam Cates, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, and Kemi Badenoch among more than two hundred speakers across three days.

ARC does not advertise itself as a religious event. Its program is built around economics, energy policy, education, technology, and demography. But as has been true since its first meeting, the Christian faith kept forcing its way to the center of the conversation — and it was Os Guinness, an Anglican layman, who gave that undercurrent its most forceful and explicit voice, delivering the closing address on June 25 that named what much of the rest of the gathering had circled around all week.

Os Guinness: "A Cut-Flower Civilization"

The 84-year-old author and social critic — a man who has spent decades warning the West that it cannot keep living off borrowed capital it no longer believes in — told the ARC audience plainly that the crisis of the West is, at bottom, a crisis of faith. "There's no way around the fact that at the core of every discussion about the renewal of civilization is the place of religion, faith," he said.

Guinness pressed the point historically. The West's founding conviction that human beings are created equal, he argued, would have struck Plato and Aristotle as self-evidently false — Plato held that some men are gold, some silver, some bronze; Aristotle held that some are born to rule and others to be ruled. Equality is not a self-evident truth of reason alone. It is,

Guinness insisted, a claim with roots exclusively in Jewish and Christian revelation. Strip a civilization of those roots, he warned, and it becomes what he memorably called a "cut-flower civilization" — arranged attractively for a season, admired for its blooms, but severed from the root that gave it life, and dying without knowing it.

He drove the same point home on liberty. "Our Western civilization is essentially a Christian civilization rooted in Judaism," he said — "an inescapable fact" that must not be forgotten however uncomfortable it makes the discussion. Liberty itself, he argued, comes "from the Bible," as does the conviction that every human being bears the image of God.

"Coming Home"

The most striking turn in Guinness's address was theological rather than historical. He took the Hebrew word for repentance, teshuva, and unpacked it for an audience largely unfamiliar with its depth: not merely "turning back," he said, but "coming home, coming back to truth, back to reality, and back to the Author of existence itself." The West, he said, is not simply confused or adrift. It is prodigal. "Our cultures in the West need to come home. They are alienated cultures, they are prodigal cultures, and they need nothing more than coming home."

He paired that call with a pointed condemnation of the resurgence of antisemitism across Britain and Europe, calling it "evil" and "profoundly stupid," and reminding the audience bluntly: "Our greatest debt is to the Jewish people."

Guinness closed by framing the moment in stark, almost eschatological terms — not the soft "civilizational renewal" language so much of the conference favored, but a direct challenge. Is the God of the burning bush, he asked, the God of Sinai, the Lord who called Galilee's fishermen — is this simply true, or not? Will secular Enlightenment liberalism actually deliver human flourishing on reason alone — or not? "We're at a showdown moment in Western civilization," he said, and the threat is not only external rivals like China, Russia, or Iran, but powerful movements within our own societies against the freedom of self-government.

Christian, But Not Especially Anglican

For readers of this column, one detail is worth flagging: this was, by any honest reading, a heavily Christian gathering — but not a noticeably Anglican one. The named Christian voices at ARC 2026 span a wide theological map: Trueman is Reformed Presbyterian, Dreher is Eastern Orthodox, Bishop Robert Barron (a veteran of earlier ARC gatherings) is Roman Catholic, and Archbishop Angaelos, also on this year's platform, is the Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of London — not, despite the title, an Anglican bishop at all. Guinness himself, though long associated with evangelical Anglican circles in Britain going back to his L'Abri years and his friendship with John Stott, is a layman, and none of the announced speakers appear to be sitting Church of England or ACNA/GAFCON bishops. No Sarah Mullally, no Global South primate took the ARC stage this year.

That absence speaks volumes. At a moment when GAFCON provinces representing some 80 percent of the world's Anglicans have effectively broken with Canterbury, and when the Church of England's own house is consumed by internal argument over sexuality, safeguarding, and identity, orthodox Anglican voices were simply not in the room where the wider conservative West was gathering to talk about civilizational renewal. One is left to wonder whether that is an oversight — or a signal of just how far institutional Anglicanism has receded from the confidence that once made it, for centuries, the Christian establishment of the English-speaking world.

Guinness gave that room a clear, unflinching answer to its own question: there is no reconstruction without repentance, and no coming home without a home to come home to. Whether the wider conservative movement he addressed — or the Anglican Communion watching from a considerable distance — has the theological seriousness to follow him there remains, very much, an open question.

I have posted a speech delivered by another theologian at ARC, Dr. Carl Trueman, which you can read here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/carl-trueman-on-the-crisis-of-the-west-and-why-nationalism-and-cultural-christianity-are-not-the-ans

THE KING QUIETLY RETIRES "DEFENDER OF THE FAITH"

While King Charles III remains the legal "Defender of the Faith" and Supreme Governor of the Church of England, Buckingham Palace has updated its description of his official duties to emphasize the protection of "the space for faith within the multi-faith nation." The change appeared in the Sovereign Grant report for 2025-26, the Royal Family's annual financial review published this week. Last year's report described the King's role as "Head of the Church of England and Defender of the Faith." All that has gone, and many Christian Brits believe it is a great betrayal by a king who swore at his coronation to be the defender of The Faith, not all faiths.

One American theologian, a Southern Baptist, got quite worked up about it. R. Albert Mohler tore into the king with these words: "Let me just say as an American, what this means is the Defender of the Faith title in terms of any substance is out the window. This is an absolute disaster... we are talking about the abdication of responsibility. We're talking about the fact that Henry VIII created the Church of England and separated from the Church of Rome, particularly to make a theological statement as well as, of course, dealing with his marital challenges. But the fact is that Defender of the Faith is something that's been a part of the coronation titles."

You can read Mohler's take here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/king-charles-discards-role-as-defender-of-the-faith

ACNA PROVINCIAL COUNCIL: REPORTS OF THE PROVINCE'S DEATH GREATLY EXAGGERATED

The Anglican Church in North America wrapped up its 17th Provincial Council at Cornerstone Anglican Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 17-19, a gathering that convened under a cloud of foreboding. With an archbishop under inhibition and awaiting trial, a province still nursing the wounds of the Stewart Ruch affair, and the women's ordination question simmering in the Western Gulf Coast, the prophets of doom had already written the ACNA's obituary. They were wrong. What emerged from Tulsa was a province that, for all its troubles, showed itself very much alive, transacting serious business with a spirit delegates described as one of concord, collegiality, and perseverance.

You can read my take here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/acna-provincial-council-reveals-divided-church

A New Diocese and a Missional Reckoning

The Council voted to admit the Anglican Diocese of the Mid-South into the province, a new jurisdiction carved from the Mid-South Missionary District of the Anglican Diocese of the South, spanning Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, western Tennessee, and parts of eastern Texas, with its first bishop expected to be consecrated in 2027. The province's inaugural Mission Index, released ahead of Council, told a more sobering story alongside the celebration: attendance is up 38 percent since 2022, but nearly half of all ACNA congregations still average fewer than 50 people on a Sunday. Growth, yes — but the mission field remains vast and the laborers few.

Transparency Deferred, Not Denied

The most consequential work in Tulsa was canonical. The long-awaited revision of the Title IV disciplinary canons — three years in the drafting under the Governance Task Force chaired by Canon Andrew Rowell, and refined by a year of robust public comment from every corner of the province — passed the Council unanimously. That unanimity is remarkable given how badly the old machinery creaked under the weight of the Ruch trial. The Council also approved amendments to Title I addressing a gap the province discovered the hard way: what happens when an archbishop cannot fulfill his duties.

The transparency question itself was deferred rather than buried. Resolutions from the Anglican Dioceses of South Carolina and the Mid-Atlantic demanding release of the Ruch trial transcript and the Lathrop Review were withdrawn in favor of a chancellor-mediated dialogue with the Court, with a report promised to every diocesan Standing Committee — and the resolutions may yet return to a future Council if the dialogue disappoints.

You can read Arlie Coles of TLC's take here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/acna-approves-title-iv-overhaul

The Wood Trial Slips to October

On the Council's final day, the Court for the Trial of a Bishop issued a Notice of Trial Reset in the matter of Archbishop Steve Wood, pushing the start of his trial to October 26, 2026. The Court said the delay would better ensure "a full and fair adjudication" of the allegations. Whether the province's newly reformed disciplinary canons will restore confidence in a process badly bruised by the Ruch affair remains the question hanging over Tulsa's genuine accomplishments. The structures, as delegates were reminded repeatedly, exist to serve the mission. In October we will learn whether they can also serve justice.

DOGS RETURNING TO VOMIT: WHY THE MAINLINE "RECONQUISTA" WILL FAIL

There is a movement afoot — earnest, energetic, and ultimately doomed — to reconquer the mainline Protestant denominations for the gospel they long ago abandoned. Its advocates speak of renewal, revival, and reclamation. They invoke the memory of better days. They organize conferences, publish manifestos, and recruit orthodox clergy willing to remain inside dying institutions as a remnant witness.

Scripture has a word for this. It is not an encouraging one.

"As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly." — Proverbs 26:11

The Apostle Peter, never one for diplomatic understatement, reaches for this same image when describing false teachers who have known the truth and turned from it: "A dog returns to its own vomit, and a sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire" (2 Peter 2:22). Peter is not speaking of pagans who never knew better. He is speaking of those who escaped the world's corruption, tasted the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ — and went back.

That is the precise spiritual condition of the mainline denominations. And it renders the Reconquista project not merely difficult, but theologically misconceived.

You can read my take here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/dogs-returning-to-vomit-why-the-mainline-reconquista-will-fail

C OF E BISHOPS SET TO WAVE THROUGH A CONVERSION THERAPY BAN

The 26 Church of England bishops who sit in the House of Lords can be expected to fall in lockstep behind the Bishop of Manchester, David Walker, a prominent supporter of the LGBT agenda in Parliament, in support of Labour's conversion practices bill.

Orthodox Christians opposed to the bill cannot expect any support from the Lords Spiritual, despite the fact that it is a denial of free speech and free choice. These are the real casualties of this bill.

Walker welcomed what he called the government's long overdue move to protect a community he alleges has suffered physical and psychological abuse. Any episcopal doubter will now think twice before saying so out loud.

VOL believes this is wrong-headed policy. It violates the sincere, voluntary wish of many men and women to be free of unwanted same-sex attraction.

Many now believe "conversion therapy" has been defined so broadly as to be rendered meaningless. In its place, a new and more precise term has emerged: SAFE-T — Sexual Attraction Fluidity Exploration in Therapy. Readers can find more here: https://learning.iftcc.org/sexual-attraction-fluidity-exploration-in-therapy-safe-t/

You can read my full take here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/c-of-e-bishops-set-to-wave-through-a-conversion-therapy-ban-that-tramples-free-speech-and-free-choic

LLF IS DEAD; LONG LIVE LLF

The Church of England can't let it go. In February, the General Synod agreed to form a new group when it voted to bring the controversial Living in Love and Faith (LLF) process to an end. This was a sop to the gay crowd. Church of England bishops have now been appointed to lead groups to establish how clergy could legitimately enter same-sex "marriages."

Tricia Hillas, Bishop of Sodor and Man, will chair the Relationships, Sexuality and Gender Working Group, which will consider CofE rules and processes to establish quasi-wedding services for same-sex couples and legitimize clergy same-sex relationships. It will report back to the General Synod within two years. A parallel Pastoral Consultative Group, chaired by the Bishop of Winchester, Philip Mounstephen, will advise on individual cases.

One of the stated aims of the Working Group is to define "appropriate legislative changes and further work required to enable clergy to enter same sex marriages." The destination, in other words, has already been chosen; only the route remains to be mapped.

You can read more here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/cofe-rebrands-llf-with-new-same-sex-marriage-working-groups

KINGDOM OUTPOSTS GIFTED TO ANGLICANS

An increasing number of Anglican Church in North America congregations are expressing gratitude to congregations of other Christian traditions that have entrusted buildings they long stewarded to Anglicans. These Baptist, Lutheran, Presbyterian and other churches, prepared to conclude ministry or merge into other congregations, wished to facilitate continued Christian ministry in those places for the benefit of future generations. As a result, ACNA has become the beneficiary of these turnovers. Anglican congregations continue to benefit from newly gifted church buildings, writes Jeff Walton of Juicy Ecumenism.

You can read his take here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/kingdom-outposts-gifted-to-anglicans

A LION IN HIS 100TH YEAR: BISHOP C. FITZSIMONS ALLISON

Recently I had the high honor and privilege of interviewing the Episcopal Church and ACNA's oldest living bishop, C. FitzSimons Allison. He is 99 and in his 100th year. I sat in his home for five days, talking with him, his wife Martha, who is 98, his wonderful caregivers, and other members of his family, including his children and grandchildren.

His mind, though not as lucid as when I interviewed him in 2022 — "The Lion in Winter," when Allison was 95 — remains profoundly alert to the times in which we live. He is a living witness to nearly the entire arc of the modern Anglican crisis, from the pre-revisionist Episcopal Church through the Singapore consecrations to the founding of the ACNA. Very few people alive can speak to that history from personal experience.

Here is a sample question and answer demonstrating the man's great humility:

VOL: Is there anything you wish you had said publicly that you held back?

ALLISON: Yes. I was a little late in proclaiming the historic faith.

VOL: What do you want your epitaph to be — as a bishop, a theologian, a churchman?

ALLISON: I am afraid I cannot look back without regret at our failure to maintain the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

You can read the full interview, THE LIFE, TIMES, AND WITNESS OF BISHOP C. FITZSIMONS ALLISON, here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/the-life-times-and-witness-of-the-rt-rev-c-fitzsimons-allison

LOVE SHOWS UP

Love Shows Up (AKA Love for the Least) has just announced its latest figures. The numbers are extraordinary for a two-person Anglican team operating in the Middle East and Africa. Over the years they have planted 15,000 churches in 12 countries among 49 unreached people groups. They have reached all 31 provinces in Iran with the gospel; all house churches led by a discipled laity in one-on-one evangelism. No clergy are involved. Iran is the fastest growing church in the world today.

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