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  • Three Archbishops Go Down over failed Safeguarding Revelations * York Archbishop head is on Chopping Block *

    Three Archbishops Go Down over failed Safeguarding Revelations * York Archbishop head is on Chopping Block * Anglican Communion’s Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith, and Order (IASCUFO) Tries to Breach Road Block * Two Notable Anglicans Died this Year * Syrian Christians Face an Uncertain future. Dear Brothers and Sisters, www.virtueonline.org December 27, 2024   THE BATTLE is over for the Western provinces of the Anglican Communion, and for the Church of England in particular. As an Established Church, all the levers of power are tightly controlled by the two Archbishops and the House of Bishops. All the property and assets of the Church are vested in the Church of England as established by law by Henry VIII. No matter how many leave, they will not take any of those assets with them, and all will remain in the hands of the House of Bishops.   The House of Bishops has chosen to defy the Canon Law of the Church of England to impose prayers for the blessing of homosexual unions. No attempt appears to have been made to challenge this in the courts, the only redress available to the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC). They will walk away with nothing.   The CEEC, an association of mainly conservative evangelical Anglican members of the Church of England describes itself as the collective voice of the "vast majority" of evangelicals within the Church of England, aiming "to promote and maintain orthodox evangelical theology and ethics at the heart of the Church of England". It was founded in 1960 by the evangelical Anglican clergyman John Stott, whose theological legacy continues to this day. The CEEC Alliance has declared a “parallel province” supported by more than 2,000 clergy, and they have cautioned the bishops against a departure from the Church of England’s historic and biblical doctrine of sex and marriage. But it has no teeth when it comes to property, purses and pensions.   This is exactly what happened in The Episcopal Church, except the courts did not favor the Episcopal Church in every property case. In some cases deals were cut that allowed the continuance of the newly formed Anglican Church in North America to stay in their properties. There were big wins for the ACNA in Ft. Worth, South Carolina, and Quincy   No orthodox province should continue any longer to maintain any relations with the See of Canterbury. It is firmly set on the trajectory imposed by Justin Welby of embracing the full agenda of The Episcopal Church. It will not change whoever is appointed as ABC in 2025, since there are 41 other diocesan bishops who have committed themselves to this.   The future for orthodox Anglicanism lies beyond English shores. VOL believes the time has come for a new international leader based elsewhere, perhaps in Alexandria and the See of St. Mark or a new bishop of North Africa!   Speaking of which, all bets are on the Iranian-born Bishop of Chelmsford Gulnar "Guli" Francis-Dehqani to replace Justin Welby, the first woman archbishop in the Church of England and the third global archbishop following in the footsteps of TEC Archbishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Linda Nicholls of the Anglican Church of Canada. There have been several women Metropolitan bishops or archbishops in charge of an internal ecclesiastical province but not primates.   But as the Guardian newspaper observed, “The Church of England is beset by financial troubles, heresy, and, worst of all, no particular sense of what the Church is for or why it exists at all.”  The charge is a terrible indictment of a state church by a leading newspaper. If she wins can Francis-Dehqani turn it around? Sadly the House of Bishops looks more like an elder care facility.     The final nail in the Welby coffin ere he leaves, came when a children's charity rejected a Christmas donation from the departing archbishop, saying that accepting it would not be consistent with its work in supporting victims of child sexual abuse. That must have been a real slap in the face as his wife had endorsed the idea.   ***   BUT THE NEWS that captured the headlines was the departure not only of Archbishop Justin Welby but former Archbishop George Carey as well with John Sentamu, former Archbishop of York already out the door, and Stephen Cottrell the present Archbishop of York waiting for the axe to fall. One can only imagine what William Shakespeare would have made of all this.   Welby’s departure may seem shocking, but on several occasions when he found himself in hot water he had asked “should I resign.” His self-answer was no.   This time with conservatives riding his case and liberals finally having had enough of his failure to deliver on the promise of full homosexual marriage recognition, Welby tossed in the towel and said he would go.   It was an ignominious end from a hopeful beginning.   Following the end of the reign of the Hegelian-driven Rowan Williams whose thoughts and pronouncements had the primates of the Global South shaking their heads in bewilderment, Welby seemed like a breath of fresh evangelical air coming out of Lambeth Palace. Sadly it was not to be.   He was brought down by a layman barrister whose sadistic behavior with young men went ignored for four decades, finally caught up with him and he was gone.   Former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey also quit the Church of England after it emerged he 'let a child abuser return to priesthood'. Lord Carey penned a letter announcing his resignation earlier this month amid mounting pressure over a sexual abuse case in relation to ex-priest David Tudor.                       Tudor was banned from the ministry for life this year as he admitted what the church described as serious sexual abuse involving two girls aged 15 and 16.   Now the Archbishop of York faces even more charges, but steadfastly refuses to resign (at this time of publishing). Tudor, who was banned from ministry for life this year, was reinstated during the Archbishop of York's time as Bishop of Chelmsford and remained in post after Stephen Cottrell was first told of concerns about him, the BBC reported.   Cottrell admitted that things 'could have been handled differently' as he faced calls to resign over his handling of the case.   Earlier, The Daily Mail reported that the CofE’s second most senior figure, ‘ignored’ 11 separate complaints, some involving leading figures in the Church, including bishops.   Cottrell opined that the church must “kneel in penitence and adoration” this Christmas and “be changed”, adding that the needs of others, including victims of abuse and exploitation must be put first in a Christmas sermon he delivered.   Victims of the priest branded Cottrell’s response to the case “insulting and upsetting” and suggested his resignation or him being forced out of his leading role in the Church was “inevitable”.   Bishop of Newcastle Helen-Ann Hartley questioned how Cottrell could have any credibility, and Bishop of Gloucester Rachel Treweek declined to publicly back him.   Lord Sentamu, the former Archbishop of York, was forced to step down from his Church of England role in May 2023 after a review into how he handled a child sex abuse allegation found that he failed to act on the claim and should have sought advice. The review also found that Sentamu's response to the findings was unacceptable. Smyth's Sadistic Behavior could claim 30 percent of the evangelical leadership in the CofE.   More and more it appears that Welby has become the fall guy for the presenting situation.   ***   Meanwhile the Church of England squirms as its role as leader of the Communion faces condemnation for its failure to adequately address the concerns of the communion especially over matters of human sexuality.   The Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith, and Order (IASCUFO) a permanent commission that advises the Anglican Communion on matters of doctrine, liturgy, canon law, and ecumenical relations, recently issued a communique following weeklong pro forma meetings in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, earlier in December.   The key phrase in the communique reads: “As we wrestled with our divisions, we sensed that the Communion may be moving from a season of raw and antagonistic division to one of reckoning with what will likely be a long process of resolution. We may now be able to face our theological differences and associated fractures more productively, as we seek responsible and creative ways to remain together, albeit to varying degrees. This will involve recognition of the hurt that has been caused, as well as concerted attempts to find healing for past and present wounds, and to rebuild trust.”   The IASCUFO praised the recent Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) new direction for the Anglican Communion, but will GAFCON Bishops buy it?   The proposals, which were endorsed by the Communion’s Standing Committee, call for a new description of the Anglican Communion that strikes  the phrase “communion with the See of Canterbury”. These proposals also call to elevate a senior primate to serve along with the ABC with responsibility for chairing the other Instruments of Communion."   But will GAFCON primates buy it? No mention was made of the Jerusalem Declaration which states that GAFCON bishops are out of communion with Western liberal Anglicans in the communion who preach and practice another ‘gospel’ that is no gospel at all.   One thing is clear; both GAFCON and the GSFA have demanded that repentance and repudiation of homosexuality and its attendant lifestyle must take place before any rapprochement can take place.  And that, it seems, it still a long way off. You can read more here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/the-city-of-man-against-the-city-of-go   ***   10 notable Christian ministry leaders , influencers who died in 2024 included two Anglicans . Bishop Jack Iker , 75, Anglican Bishop of Ft. Worth. He saw the diocese through its tumultuous transition from Episcopal to Anglican and managed to keep the properties for future generations of Anglicans. Iker is credited with helping to found the ACNA, that became the home for many congregations that left The Episcopal Church over its theologically liberal direction.   The second notable Anglican was Timothy Dudley-Smith , a former bishop in the Church of England and the prolific hymn writer behind such songs as "Lord, Through the Years" and "Tell all, my Soul," died at age 97.   A native of Manchester, England, Dudley-Smith served as bishop of Thetford from 1981-1991, general secretary of the Church Pastoral Aid Society from 1965-1973, and director of the Evangelical Alliance from 1987-1992. He was a close associate of the late John R. W. Stott.   ***   We could not end today’s digest without a mention of the Christians in Syria who now find themselves in a perilous position, having gotten rid of Basha al-Assad now find they must contend with rebel groups who hate them even more. “Better Assad than ISIS” ran the old theme. Now they don’t know where they stand or fall. You can read Giles Fraser, an Anglican priest’s A fearful Christmas in Syria Christianity is threatened by Islamism here: https://unherd.com/2024/12/a-fearful-christmas-in-syria/   ***   We have begun the transition to a new website . It will take a while to place over 35,000 stories in the archives and reconfigure the front page. Please bear with us. A transition like this is time consuming and costly and we could use some financial assistance to make it happen. We need specialists and consultants who can help make the change and transition possible; meanwhile the writing goes on.       Please consider a tax-deductible donation. A PayPal donation link can be found here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support.html   If you are more inclined with old fashioned checks, (as I am), you can send your donation to:   VIRTUEONLINE P.O. Box 111 Shohola, PA 18458   Warmly in Christ,   David   President, VIRTUEONLINE   VOL WISHES ALL ITS READERS A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A BLESSED AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR.

  • New Bishop For North Africa

    https://www.jmeca.org.uk/latest/news/new-bishop-north-africa February 5, 2025   The Episcopal/Anglican Diocese of North Africa is delighted to announce that The Revd Canon Dr Ashley Null has been elected as the next bishop of North Africa.  The Electoral Synod met on 4 February in N'Djamena, Chad, in the context of a Diocesan Synod that will continue until 6 February.    Dr Ashley NullIf the Synod of the Province of Alexandria confirms this election Dr Null will become the second, and first elected, bishop of the Diocese of North Africa, covering five countries (Algeria, Chad, Libya, Mauritania and Tunisia) and including the territory of the see of St Augustine of Hippo.   Dr Null holds research degrees from Yale and the University of Cambridge. He has received numerous awards for his work, including Fulbright, National Endowment for the Humanities and Guggenheim fellowships as well as being elected fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Society of Antiquaries in London. He currently holds a research post funded by the German Research Council at Humboldt University of Berlin and is a visiting fellow at the Divinity Faculty of Cambridge University and St. John’s College, Durham University. His project is editing the private theological notebooks of Thomas Cranmer,   Commenting on the election the current bishop, the Rt Revd Anthony Ball, said "I am delighted that Canon Ashley offered, and has been chosen to share, his varied experience and renowned gifts as a pastor and theologian in the service of this wonderful diocese.  As the Chair of the Board of The Alexandria School of Theology he is already familiar with the Diocese.  He will now have the chance to broaden and enhance the work he has done for many years to promote and encourage Christian witness in this cradle of Christianity. I look forward to working with him and wish him every blessing as he prepares to assume his new role."

  • Archbishop Welby is out, but who will replace him? * 2024 was a bad year for religious news * Nth. Africa to get new Bishop * TEC embraces trans insanity but confronts US parental reality *

    Archbishop Welby is out, but who will replace him? 2024 was a bad year for religious news Nth. Africa to get new Bishop TEC embraces trans insanity but confronts US parental reality Nearly 50 Churches affected by California Fires The price of abuse My new substack on the Middle East   Placing the term “progressive” in front of “Christian” makes it seem like a “new and improved” version of Christianity. It acts as though it belongs in the same camp as biblical Christianity, but it does not embrace any of its fundamental beliefs. The truth is, progressive Christians not only sharply oppose biblical Christianity, but do not consider themselves to be biblical Christians.  Let me put it bluntly: Progressive Christians are “doctrine deniers.” – Jason Jimenez   The authority by which the Christian leader leads is not power but love, not force but example, not coercion but reasoned persuasion. Leaders have power, but power is safe only in the hands of those who humble themselves to serve. -- John Stott   The mainstream denominations have reduced the once omnipotent and compassionate Lord God Almighty of the Bible to the level of a political activist, moralising self-help guru, or doddering grandfather existing only to approve of whatever his grandchildren get up to. Is it any wonder that people refuse to listen to such churches. – Campbell Campbell-Jack   “Where there is grace, there will be conflict. The believer is a soldier. There is no holiness without a warfare.”  -- J.C. Ryle   The Enlightenment and its commitment to bare rationality which did so much to undermine Christianity is now being undermined by the deconstruction of post-modernism and its successors. As a consequence, the West is adrift without a coherent guiding principle. – Campbell Campbell-Jack   Christianity in the U.S. remains vastly diverse. However, as regular churchgoers’ numbers shrink, so does some of that diversity. And it is shrinking in a decided direction, toward conservative Protestantism.  – Michael Emerson   Dear Brothers and Sisters, www.virtueonline.org January 17, 2025   THE departure of Justin Welby from his role as Archbishop of Canterbury and as titular head of the Anglican Communion brought sighs of relief from across the Anglican world; but none more so than from within the Church of England which has lived under his gross incompetence and tyranny for twelve years.   That a dozen or more global, mainly African archbishops who represent nearly 80 percent of the communion no longer recognize the Archbishop of Canterbury as primus inter pares, or even as their spiritual leader, speaks volumes.   As former Anglican devotee Dr. Gavin Ashenden noted, Welby failed the parishes by demoralizing them, he failed the Anglican Communion by being unable to restrain his progressive partisanship, he failed the organization by 'doing management' badly, and he failed the country by offering it socialism instead of Christianity. He is probably the worst Archbishop of Canterbury in living memory. Only historians are equipped to judge whether he was the worst Archbishop of all time.   I have lived and worked under five archbishops beginning with Donald Coggan. I have spoken and interviewed most of them. I was a theological student in London in the 60s when Geoffrey Fisher was archbishop, but the ministry of John Stott was far more engaging than that of the Archbishop of Canterbury.   The question now is who will replace Welby; but the deeper question is does it really matter?  Whoever it is, you can’t put the evangelical genie back in the bottle. That day is done. No Anglo-Catholic would even be considered. It will either be an Affirming Catholic or an out and out progressive.   Here are a few names, but the one to watch for is the Iranian-born Bishop of Chelmsford, Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, the most likely candidate with her background. Dame Sarah Mullally, Bishop of London; Graham Usher, Bishop of Norwich, Martyn Snow, Bishop of Leicester; Rose Hudson-Wilkin, and Bishop of Dover, Helen-Ann Hartley, Bishop of Newcastle are among others to watch.   For the moment the Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell is in charge, a man whom many believe should also step down for his safeguarding failures, but steadfastly refuses to do so. He believes that Welby took one for the team therefore he doesn’t need too. I wrote about why Archbishop Cottrell must go here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/why-the-archbishop-of-york-must-go   This week there were more calls for heads to roll following the Makin Report revelations of John Smyth’s sadistic sexual activities with young men.   One scholar, Christopher Brittain, dean of divinity and professor of Anglican studies at the University of Toronto’s Trinity College, says members of the Anglican Communion frustrated with the Church of England may feel emboldened in calling for change, and this may sway to some extent the Crown Nominations Commission (CNC), which is responsible for appointing the Archbishop of Canterbury.   “What could be part of the conversation is, ‘Yes, we can see the importance of signalling to the Communion and maybe even to the Church of England that we’re open to change,’” Brittain says. He says this could mean the nomination of someone with ethnic origins outside the U.K. or from outside the U.K. altogether!   Whoever wins will preside over a dying institution that is now almost impossible to revive.   ***   To no one’s surprise there was virtually no good religious news stories this past year. 2024 was mostly bad, even repellent.   Highlighting the year’s top Anglican news was the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby over the cover-up and concealment of an evangelical layman’s sadistic behavior with more than 100 young men across two continents. Welby took responsibility and exited himself from Lambeth Palace.   A former archbishop, George Carey also got caught in the safeguarding net and tossed in his Permission to Officiate (PTO) and exited the pulpit. Another archbishop, John Sentamu of York had already resigned over similar charges and the push is now on for Stephen Cottrell, the present Archbishop of York to step down over failed safeguarding issues.   As the Mother Church fades into the sunset, the good news is that the Global South continues to rise, and its leadership strengthens by the day, inevitably pushing the Church of England to the margins. The CofE is facing death by a thousand cuts, more spiritually devastating than a layman’s cane.   The worldwide persecution of Christians continues apace with no sign of it letting up any time soon. Islam remains the single most persecuting religion in the world, happy to kill Christians while screaming Islamophobia at anyone who dares accuse them of murder. Nigeria remains at the top of the nation's most Christians are murdered. It is also the largest Anglican province in the communion. *** The sun is setting on Western Anglicanism, with the Anglican Church of Canada , by its own admission, roiling in its death throes. The Episcopal Church is watching as dioceses are forced to merge just to stay afloat as congregations shrink, with aging Episcopalians and their checkbooks close as they head to columbariums. https://www.virtueonline.org/post/2024-top-religious-stories-contained-little-good-news   ***   THE DIOCESE OF NORTH AFRICA is seeking a new bishop. There are five candidates in the offing. They are; Emad Basillos, (Egypt) Frank Bernardi, (US) Yasir Kuku, (South Sudan), Ashley Null, (US) and Medhat Sabry (Egypt). The see of North Africa might not be large, but it has historic value and precedent. It also won’t go woke. Who after all could write in their memoir that they stood in the line of St. Augustine and embraced gay marriage!   *** WILDFIRES in southern California have captured national attention. The following is a breakdown of churches that have gone, damaged, threatened or been evacuated.   GONE!   St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Altadena — GONE! Altadena Community Church in Altadena — GONE! Altadena United Methodist Church in Altadena — GONE! Community United Methodist Church in Pacific Palisades — Gone! Pasadena Jewish Temple in Pasadena — GONE! Pacific Crossroads Church in Santa Monica — GONE! Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Pacific Palisades — GONE! Kinneloa Church of Christ in Pasadena — GONE! Altadena Baptist Church in Altadena — GONE! Masjid Al Taqwa Mosque in Altadena — GONE! St. Matthew’s Episcopal School in Pacific Palisades — GONE! Sahag-Mesrob Armenian Christian School in Altadena — GONE! Lifeline Fellowship in Altadena — GONE! Altadena Church of the Nazarene in Altadena — GONE! Pasadena Church of Christ — GONE! Fountain of Life Church in Altadena — GONE! Mater Dolorosa Hermitage in Sierra Madre — GONE! St. Mark's Episcopal School in Altadena — GONE! Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church in Pacific Palisades — GONE! Jewish Chabad Center in Palisades Village — GONE! St. Elizabeth Catholic School in Altadena — Gone! St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church twin rectories in Pacific Palisades — GONE! Theosophical Society Library in Altadena — GONE! Altadena Baptist Church in Altadena — GONE! Scripps Home Gloria Cottage at the MonteCedro Episcopal Retirement Community in Altadena — GONE!   DAMAGED! St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Pacific Palisades — Damaged! Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center in Sierra Madre — Damaged! Calvary Chapel in Pacific Palisades — Damaged! Hillside Tabernacle Church of God in Christ in Altadena — Damaged! Corpus Christi Catholic School in Pacific Palisades — Damaged!   THREATENED! Thomas the Apostle Episcopal Church in  Hollywood — Threatened! St. Stephen’s Episcopal  Church in Hollywood — Threatened! St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Pasadena — Threatened! Ascension Episcopal Church in Sierra Madre — Threatened!  St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Studio City — Threatened! Palisades Lutheran Church in Pacific Palisades — Threatened! Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Altadena — Threatened! St. Linus Catholic Church in Norwalk — Threatened! Ascension Catholic Church in Pasadena — Threatened! St. Andrew’s Catholic Church in Pasadena — Threatened! First Baptist Church in Pasadena — Threatened! Calvary School in Pacific Palisades — Threatened! First Christian Science Church in Altadena — Threatened! St. Monica's Catholic Church in Santa Monica — Threatened!   EVACUATED!   MonteCedro Episcopal Retirement Community in Altadena — Evacuated!   EVACUATION CENTERS!   All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena — Evacuation Center! St. Paul’s Commons Episcopal Retreat Center in Echo Park — Evacuation Center! The Covington Episcopal Retirement Community in Aliso Viejo — Evacuation Center!   No ACNA churches are in the fire zones that has seen 6,528 wildfires burning 1,001,993 acres in California. At least 24 people are believed to be dead in the California fires, with more than a dozen others remaining unaccounted for.   VOL’s own researcher Mary Ann Mueller has written an excellent story which you can read here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/gone-gone-gone-california-wildfires-reduce-churches-to-smoldering-ashes   Niall McCrae believes the devastation symbolizes something much bigger: the fall of Western civilization. California would be a fitting site for such a human tragedy: it is home to the most affluent people in the world, from Hollywood celebrities to Big Tech innovators, who have emphatically supported the Democrat party. You can read more here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/civilisation-collapses-as-la-burns   *** Three in four people in Britain polled support a national inquiry into the prolific and harrowing rape of the nation’s children by insatiate “grooming gangs.” Yet, contrary to public will, the UK Labour Government last week voted against commissioning an investigation into this enduring horror.   Public consciousness of child sexual exploitation in the United Kingdom reached an inflection point this winter after victims shared account after gut-churning account of sexual savagery and careless murder being perpetrated against underage white girls by Pakistani-Muslim men up and down the country. These brave survivors recount how police and social workers were complicit in their abuse, losing evidence, asserting that children could consent, and failing to investigate rapes for fear of being called racist. In one instance, a girl had a morning-after pill forced into her mouth by a police officer.   A senior Church of England official told VOL that he is not aware of any comment by anyone representing the Church of England, not even local clergy. Nobody wants to be seen as “Islamophobic”. These are the dark ages, he said.   ***   While antisemitism rages around the globe, one Anglican archbishop has stepped up to the plate and condemned it in his own backyard.   Sydney Archbishop Kanishka Raffel wrote saying, “I am taking the step of expressing the dismay of many Sydney Anglcians at grotesque acts of antisemites in our city. Syndey Anglican welcome and affirm the presence and contributions of Jewish Australians for whom Sydney is the home we share and whose peace, prosperity and harmony is our common commitment.   Nearly half of all people worldwide hold elevated levels of antisemitic attitudes, according to the latest Global 100 survey conducted by ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) and coordinated with Ipsos and other research partners. The survey found that 46 percent of the world’s adult population – an estimated 2.2 billion people – harbor deeply entrenched antisemitic attitudes, more than double compared to ADL’s first worldwide survey a decade ago and the highest level on record since ADL started tracking these trends globally.   ***   Episcopalians are the most highly educated Protestant denomination, followed by the PCUSA and the ELCA. The only trope that the mainline is filled with the ‘well to do’ is empirically true. Of course, being intellectually smarter than everybody else doesn’t mean such churches make good decisions. If they did, they would not be sinking numerically.   Here is the decline in membership of the Seven Sisters of Mainline Protestant Christianity; American Baptist: -24% Disciples of Christ: -74% Evangelical Lutheran: -45% Presbyterian Church USA: -62% Episcopal: -36% United Church of Christ: - 57% United Methodist: -40%   ***   To reinforce the point that The Episcopal Church has gone out of its mind on sexuality issues, TransEpiscopal, a group that advocates for more inclusive church policies toward transgender people , joined The Episcopal Church’s Department of Gender Justice and Department of Racial Reconciliation, Justice and Creation Care in hosting a Jan. 13 webinar titled “Defending the Dignity of Trans and Non-Binary People in 2025 and Beyond.” Nearly 700 people registered for the Zoom event.   Aaron Scott, the church’s gender justice officer and a trans man, stresses the need for Episcopalians to collectively advocate for transgender and nonbinary rights, not individually.   But a new poll reveals the American public is pushing back on transgender and nonbinary positions. A new survey shows that a vast majority of US parents oppose this wokeism from infecting public schools.   The poll, sponsored by the parental rights advocacy group Parents Defending Education and conducted by CRC Research, is based on responses collected from 1,000 American parents of children 18 years old or younger from Dec. 12-18, 2024.   You would think that ordinary Episcopalians reading this should put trans insanity behind them and join the world of normal and insist on a male-female foundation for sexual ethics. But apparently that is not going to happen.   "Hate speech" nowadays is usually nothing more than speech that the Left hates, particularly any questioning of the "trans" or "gay" agenda. The Left is also great at using hateful speech against faithful Christians, says Robert A. J. Gagnon a sexual ethics theologian.   The Episcopal Church is out of step with the vast majority of Americans and 80 million Anglicans globally. Not even the Church of England has openly embraced transgenderism, though give it time and it probably will.   The church still has a role to play in terms of being salt and light for the culture at large in matters of sexual ethics. Now is the time to speak out if this insanity is to be reversed. TO READ MORE CLICK HERE: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/episcopal-church-swings-with-the-culture-on-transgender-issues   *** One scholar who has single-handedly stripped homosexuality of its hold on the church and society is Robert Gagnon’s 2002 opus magnum The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics . It has been the answer to many who struggled with the issue. The meticulously researched and rigorously argued 500-page tome refutes every possible argument progressive scholars have raised in the last three decades. Its use of the Bible’s original languages and insight into the ancient world is unparalleled, writes Jules Gomes, himself a scholar and journalist.   Gagnon is an evangelical Presbyterian scholar who has devoted his life to almost single-handedly dissecting and debunking every avant-garde argument that raises its hydra-head against the biblical teaching on homosexuality. Unlike most scholars, he does this through his online lectures, website, debates, articles, and Facebook and X accounts. You can read more here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/refuting-woke-evangelicals-who-believe-god-has-belatedly-repented-of-homophobia-1 *** THE PRICE OF ABUSE. Over two decades, Catholic dioceses, eparchies and men’s religious communities spent more than $5 billion on allegations of sexual abuse of minors, according to a new report released by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.   Between 2004 and 2023, three-fourths of the $5.025 billion reported was paid to abuse victims. Seventeen percent went to pay attorneys’ fees, 6% was in support for alleged abusers and 2% went toward other costs. On average, only 16% of the costs related to the allegations was borne by insurance companies.   ***   We have begun the transition to a new website. It will take a while to place over 35,000 stories in the archives and reconfigure the front page. Please bear with us. A transition like this is time consuming and costly and we could use some financial assistance to make it happen. We need specialists and consultants who can help make the change and transition possible; meanwhile the writing goes on.      Please consider a tax-deductible donation. A PayPal donation link can be found here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support.html   If you are more inclined with old fashioned checks, (as I am), you can send your donation to: VIRTUEONLINE P.O. Box 111 Shohola, PA 18458   Warmly in Christ, David   I have begun a substack on the Middle East. In light of so much written on Israel, prophecy and the Bible, I felt constrained, with the help of some scholars, to look at events there and how they are playing out in today’s world in the light of Scripture. You can access my substack here: https://davidvirtue2.substack.com/ IN my latest piece I argue that the deal being cut with Gaza and Hamas is no deal at all. Some 33 Israeli hostages are being bartered for an unknown number of jailed Palestinians. Hamas still stays in power; that apparently is part of the deal, but  non-starter for Netanyahu. This is not what Bibi Netanyahu agreed to, nor has he fought for this for all these months.   He has said repeatedly, no Hamas left in power and all the hostages must be returned. On this he is 100 percent clear. The Prime Minister has nowhere argued that half a loaf is better than none.   What do the negotiators not understand about that? You can read more here: https://substack.com/home/post/p-154948235

  • This Will Not Preach Everyday 

    by David G. Duggan © Special to Virtueonline www.virtueonline.org January 27, 2025   At the risk of offending some, I'm wading into the controversy surrounding the “sermon on the mount” [St Alban’s-the highest point in the District] which the Episcopal bishop of Washington “preached” at the National Cathedral the day after Trump’s inauguration.   Held since 1933 after FDR’s first inaugural, the liturgy is billed as a “Service of Prayer for the Nation.” Interfaith leaders, rabbis, a Vedanta teacher, an imam, a Muslim cantor, a Native American chief, a Buddhist reverend and a Sikh president joined with Christian ministers to offer prayers and scripture readings. Curiously, no Roman Catholic cleric was robed for the ceremony: a not perhaps well-understood ban prohibits Catholic clergy vesting at any religious facility other than one consecrated to the Roman Catholic faith. Two Roman Catholic clerics gave the book-end prayers at the inauguration: New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan and retired Brooklyn pastor Fr. Frank Mann. Eastern Orthodox priests and bishops seem to have been zilched out of both ceremonies.   But the media have been focusing on the Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde’s “sermon” midway through last Tuesday’s service. I put “sermon” in quotes because it was not in any meaningful sense a sermon, a word which comes from Latin and Greek words meaning “conversation.” Typically, a sermon (or its shorter version, homily) explicates a text of scripture, tries to reconcile different accounts of the same event, exhorts the congregation to examine their own lives. They are neither indictment nor accusation, neither moralizing nor pontificating. By this measure, Budde’s message was a lamentation verging on a diatribe. It was a claim of a moral superiority over the man sworn to uphold the law, nothing more but nothing less. It started out well enough: a paean to “unity that fosters community across diversity,” “[t]hat enables ... communities... to genuinely care for each other.” It alludes to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount where He “exhorts us to love, not only our neighbors but our enemies... [t]o forgive others as God forgives us.” No argument there, but she failed when she proposed three “foundations of unity”: 1) “honoring the inherent dignity of every human being”; “honesty in both private conversation and public discourse”; and 3) “humility.” With a passing reference to Solzhenitsyn’s prison-inspired conclusion that the line between good and evil crosses every human heart, she contended that humility ties the other two into unity: because we are all fallible, we need to see the beam in our own eyes before picking the speck out of our neighbors’. Except she wasn’t that eloquent.   The problem is that you will search scripture in vain for any requirement that we “honor the dignity of every human being.” Whole tribes are slain, Goliath and Holofernes beheaded, Pharaoh’s charioteers drowned in the Red Sea. And while honesty is desirable, scripture is replete with deceptions which accomplish God’s purpose (Jacob and Esau over Isaac’s birthright, Lot’s daughters, Abraham’s passing off Sarah as his sister). And humility: if everyone humbled himself, who would lead? But the message went off the rails when she told the president to “have mercy upon the people in our country. And we’re scared now.” She gave the laundry list of outliers and disadvantaged: “gay, lesbian and transgendered children,” and the office-cleaners, crop-pickers and meat packers as those who fear. With references to “our God” (is there another one?) she begged for mercy for the “stranger for we were all once strangers in this land.” If this was a reference to Deut. 26: 5-11, the prayer of consecration of the first fruits of the earth, then it is devoid of context. But she didn’t tie that plea into an ancient Hebrew message of compassion and welcome.   Some of Ms. Budde’s defenders (and there are many) have described her “sermon” as “telling truth to power” in the mode of John the Baptist’s condemning Herod for marrying his brother’s wife (Mark 6:18). We all know how that turned out. But Ms. Budde is not the “scolder in chief” and her message was scarcely unifying, nor humble: it was defiant. And for a Biblical example of effectively telling truth to power see Nathan’s rebuke of David for stealing Uriah’s wife Bathsheeba at 2 Samuel 12:1-14.   “Be not afraid,” Jesus said (Luke 12:32). Fear is not a Christian virtue; in fact it is its opposite. Ms. Budde forgot this fundamental lesson and for that reason, she rightly deserves the opprobrium which she has received from all quarters for her intemperate remarks.

  • Attacking Antisemitism Among The Reformed

    By Gerald McDermott, Op-ed contributor www.christianpost.com January 27, 2025   PHOTO: People participate in a Jewish solidarity march on January 5, 2020, in New York City. The march was held in response to a recent rise in anti-Semitic crimes in the greater New York metropolitan area. | Jeenah Moon/Getty Images   Since October 7, 2023, the ancient serpent of antisemitism has returned to deceive and kill. After the most barbaric attack on Jews in a century, they are now being blamed for defending themselves. We Christians who follow a Jewish messiah ought to be the first and loudest defenders of the Chosen People when they are on the run again (which ought to remind us of the Church’s failures a century ago), so it is doubly tragic that we are starting to see antisemitism among our own.   Therefore, those of us who have been enlightened by the insights of Reformed theology welcomed November’s Antioch Declaration against antisemitism. We were not surprised that this was written and signed by leading Reformed thinkers, for Calvinist theologians have resisted the Lutheran temptation to pit Gospel against law. Calvin and Edwards saw that God’s Law, first stewarded by the Jewish people, is a gift to the world and Church and is in fact a form of grace.   This Declaration seems to have been spearheaded by the formidable Doug Wilson, author of nearly one hundred books and creator of what might be called a conservative Reformed civilization centered in Moscow, Idaho, with its own college, seminary, denomination, publishing house, and classical Christian school network.   Wilson regularly steps where angels fear to tread. In the last century, his witty jousts with the New Atheists often put them on the back foot, and in this century he dared to challenge the iconic Tim Keller for being political while claiming the opposite.   So, it is not surprising to see that a Wilson-led Declaration recognizes the “carnal desire in fallen man to seek out a scapegoat for sin and social corruption,” resulting in “conspiracy theories” that have often made Jews their “easiest target.” It argues that Jews “are objects of wrath just like the rest of us,” and as a people, they are “an object of God’s providential care.” The Puritans were right to realize that “in God’s good time, multitudes of Jews will come to faith in Christ and be added to the true commonwealth of Israel.”   Apparently, Wilson and his Reformed confreres are addressing new antisemitism within their own ranks coming from writers promoting “Christian nationalism.” The term has caused hysteria among many, but Wilson has rightly argued over the years that secularism has become America’s national religion and that efforts to restore Christian faith to the public square need not be coercive or theocratic.   But the ways that some Reformed writers are promoting Christian nationalism have been either troubling or nasty. Among the troubling has been Stephen Wolfe, whose The Case for Christian Nationalism has been the most impressive book on the subject.  It was published by Wilson’s press and promoted not only by Wilson but also by the founder of the National Conservatism movement, Jewish political philosopher Yoram Hazony.   Wolfe does not say anything that is overtly antisemitic in his book. But there are ambiguities that raise questions. No nation, he writes, “is composed of two or more ethnicities,” and an “ethnicity” emphasizes “particular features that distinguish one people group from another.” Wolfe insists he is not promoting white nationalism, but he also writes of “blood relations” and “community in blood.” He denies the notion “that ethnic majorities today should work to rescind citizenship from ethnic minorities,” but adds that “perhaps in some cases amicable ethnic separation along political lines is mutually desired.”   Perhaps then we should not be surprised that in a January response on X to The Babylon Bee's Jewish CEO who wondered why Christians don’t share Paul’s heart for Israel, Wolfe wrote, “Believing that Israelis are ‘of my own race’ is a mental disorder.”   To be fair, Wolfe was responding to Seth Dillon’s use of an English translation of Romans 9:3 where Paul supposedly refers to “my own race.”   But one still wonders what Wolfe means. When “race” in today’s culture usually denotes skin color, is Wolfe ignoring the fact that 45% of Israelis are Ashkenazi Jews with white skin? Or does he mean that because most Israelis are Jewish they cannot have any connection with Christians, even Jewish Christians like Dillon?   Two things must be said about Wolfe’s suggestion that Jews (“Israelis”) are a race completely disconnected from American Christians. First, Paul never refers to his Jewish people as a “race.” The passage in Roman 9:3 (συγγενῶν μου κατὰ σάρκα) is better rendered as “my kinsmen according to the flesh.” And another Romans 9 phrase often wrongly translated with the word “race” is from Romans 9:5 (ἐξ ὧν ὁ χριστὸς τὸ κατὰ σάρκα) which is actually “from whom is the Christ according to the flesh.” Paul was writing these words when ancient Israel — like today’s Israel — was a “mixed multitude” composed of people with different skin colors which we mistakenly refer to as “races.” Neither the Bible nor science supports the existence of race as anything more than a sociological phenomenon.   Second, Paul said the Jews are God’s Chosen People. He referred to his fellow Jews who did not accept Jesus as still “beloved [by God] because of the Fathers [the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob]. For the gifts and calling [κλῆσις, God’s calling the Jews as his Chosen] of God are irrevocable” (Rom 11:28-29).  “Calling” means invitation to join God’s family, as when Paul tells the Corinthian Christians they should consider their “calling [κλῆσιν] — not many of you were wise by worldly standards” (1 Cor 1:26).   For Paul, then, Jews of his day were still God’s Chosen, even after a majority had rejected Jesus. He wrote, “To them belong [present tense] the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the worship, and the promises” (Rom 9:4). He was not speaking of the eternal destiny of every Jew but of God’s continuing covenant with the descendants of the Patriarchs. Just as Jesus said those called to him could not presume their salvation unless they persevered in faithfulness to him (Matt 24:13), so too Jews were called into God’s family but were required to keep his covenant.  They retained their calling as His Chosen even if many failed to persevere and thereby lost the rewards of the covenant.   If Wolfe is ambiguous, Thomas Achord and Andrew Torba have been downright malicious. Achord, a Calvinist who has been co-host of the Ars Politica podcast with Stephen Wolfe, has written under the alias Tulius Aadland that “a random shooting of Antifa members hit 100% jews [sic] and 100% pedos,” complained of “the Yiddish roots of antifa,” and hoped for “no more Jew wars.”   Torba, co-author of a book on Christian nationalism recommended by Wilson, wrote in November 2022 that the GOP needs to be destroyed before another “Zionist bootlicker” is voted into office. He complained that “the Jews in positions of power” worry that your freedom of speech will give you “the freedom to reach a lot of people and criticize their power and oversized influence in our culture, government, and society.” Torba reposted a charge that Jews are “psychologically and spiritually castrating citizens.”   The Antioch Declaration is to be congratulated for its forthright denunciation of antisemitic conspiracy theories and Holocaust deniers. But it too is a bit disturbing.   Why should we think of Jews as the “easiest target” of conspiracy theories? Why not radical Muslims, who are by all accounts the source of most terrorism today, and by their own admission are trying to take over the world? Readers can be forgiven for wondering if the Antioch authors suggest by “easiest target” that there are legitimate reasons for antisemitic conspiracy theories.   And why regard the Jewish people as simply “an object of God’s providential care”? That is true of Cambodian Buddhists and Indian Hindus. One cannot read the Bible and conclude that Jews are no different from Buddhists and Hindus in God’s providence. This ignores Paul’s declaration that his Jewish brothers, even while denying Jesus as messiah, were still “beloved” of God and their “calling” to be God’s Chosen is “irrevocable.”   This odd language in the Declaration suggests what most supersessionists (those who think God’s new covenant with the Church supersedes and replaces his covenantal love for the Jewish people) have concluded, that God has given up on the Jews. But Paul specifically denied that. “Has God rejected his people? By no means!” The remnant that has seen its Messiah is proof that the “whole lump” of Israel is still “holy” (Rom 11:1, 16). Paul warns the Gentiles in Rome not to be “arrogant” toward the “branches” of Israel that have been broken off: “Remember it is not you who support the root [Jewish Israel], but the root that supports you” (v. 18). The Jews and Gentiles who have seen the Messiah are mysteriously connected to the root of Jewish Israel, even those parts of the root that have not seen Jesus yet.   The Antioch Declaration implies that the “commonwealth of Israel” is the Christian Church. But the phrase refers to Jewish Israel in Ephesians 2:12, from which the gentile Christians in Ephesus had been “alienated” before their conversions, but to which they were now connected because of their oneness with the Jewish Messiah.   Many of the Puritans recognized this. They rejected Calvin’s totalizing transfer of God’s Old Testament promises to the Gentile Church, for they discerned that many OT promises were specific to the Jewish people. Unfortunately, Calvin missed this.  He wrote that because the Jews did not “reciprocate” as willing partners in God’s covenant, “they deserve to be repudiated” (Institutes 4.2.3). He therefore denied that the 1,000 repetitions of the land promise (God’s giving the land of Canaan to Abraham’s descendants as in Gen. 12:7 and 17:8) still applied to the Jewish people.  Or that God’s “everlasting covenant” with “Abraham’s seed throughout their generations” (Gen 17:7) was still in effect.   But Henry Finch (c. 1558–1625) was a Puritan member of Parliament who rejected this hermeneutic. He and many other Puritans followed the Reformation’s plain sense hermeneutic, preferring the literal or plain sense to more spiritual and obscure senses.   Where Israel, Judah, Zion, Jerusalem, etc. are named in this argument, the Holy Ghost meaneth not the spiritual Israel, or church of God collected of the Gentiles, no nor of the Jews and Gentiles both (for each of these have their promises severally and apart), but Israel properly descended out of Jacob’s loins.   Increase Mather was another Puritan who rejected Calvin’s ascription of all OT promises to the Gentile Church.  In his The Mystery of Israel’s Salvation (1669) he asked, “Why should we unnecessarily refuse literal interpretations?” Like Finch, Mather insisted that promises about earthly inheritance should not be spiritualized away. He took seriously the Old Testament’s land promise and predicted that the Jews would regain their ancient land before general renewal falls upon them. It would be only “after the Israelites shall be returned to their own Land again” that the Spirit would be poured out on them.   Jonathan Edwards was a Reformed thinker who believed that God had future plans for both the Jewish people and their land. In his Blank Bible, he wrote that just as the “restoration” of an individual at first involves only his soul but then later his body at the general resurrection, so too “not only shall the spiritual state of the Jews be hereafter restored, but their external state as a nation in their own land ... shall be restored by [Christ].”   The Puritans were Reformed Christians who rejected the supersessionism of their Calvinist brethren. They knew that they were connected spiritually to Jewish Israel, and that to renounce that connection was to ignore the Bible and risk injustice to the Jewish people.   Little did they know, however, how supersessionist assumptions would lead German and other European Christians in the twentieth century to look the other way or actually join the Nazi program to do away with Jews.  After all, these Christians reasoned, if God is done with the Jews, we should be too.   Let me close with this: Supersessionism is problematic but not the same thing as antisemitism. There are many supersessionists who love the Jewish people and do not think through the logic of their replacement theology. And the Reformed are not alone: there is plenty of supersessionism (and antisemitism) in other Christian communions, Protestant, Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox.   We need to heed Paul the Jew’s warning not “to be arrogant toward the [broken off] branches” (Rom 11:18), and to remind ourselves that the Jewish people are “beloved for the sake of their fathers” (Rom 11:28).   Gerald McDermott teaches at Reformed Episcopal Seminary and Jerusalem Seminary. He is the author of Israel Matters: Why Christians Must Think Differently about the People and the Land and A New History of Redemption: The Work of Jesus the Messiah through the Millennia.

  • National Cathedral Trips Over Bishopette's Crozier

    The misstep creates worldwide headlines   By Mary Ann Mueller VOL Special Correspondent www.virtueonline.org January 26, 2025   The Episcopal Church is in the news again for all the wrong reasons. This time it is because Bishopette Mariann Budde (IX Washington, DC) took newly-reinaugurated President Donald Trump to task over his southern border policies designed to stem foreign asylum seekers from flowing across the US/Mexico border without first going through proper immigration channels as my own Norwegian-born mother did 100 years ago when she came through Ellis Island.   My mother, Ragnhild Sather, was one of the 12 million Norwegians, Swedes, Germans, Italians, Irish and others who came seeking a new life in America who, from 1892 through 1954, were legally processed through the Ellis Island immigration portal.   Mother first went to her family in Minnesota. Her Aunt Hannah (Grandma Belinda Sather's sister) settled in Otter Tail County. Then Mother headed to Washington State where she met and married my father, Robert Mueller, in Seattle and where I was born. And it was in Seattle that she also died when I was yet a babe-in-arms.  I have no memory of her, and that has always haunted me.   Getting back to Bishopette Budde. The National Cathedral has historically played a super-sized role in the spiritual life of the nation.  It is there that the country comes to pray as a nation since the Episcopal cathedral is considered a house of prayer for all people; grieve as a nation (state funerals), rejoice as a nation (post-inaugural presidential prayer services); and be spiritually unified as one nation under God invisible (9/11).   Most recently the National Cathedral hosted former President Jimmy Carter's state funeral, drawing together then-sitting President Joe Biden, former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama; and then President-elect Donald Trump under a single vaulted cathedral ceiling regardless of their political persuasion (Democrat or Republican) to show their unified respect to the man who once preceded each of them to the Oval Office and now precedes them in death.   On Tuesday (Jan. 21), less than 24 hours after President Trump took the Presidential Oath of Office, Bishopette Budde used the occasion of a National Cathedral-hosted prayer service to lambaste the new President from her Episcopal pulpit over his immigration policies.  She turned the raised carved stone Canterbury pulpit into a political bully pulpit and the world took notice.   Quickly the Episcopal bishopette was dubbed the “Woke Bishop” by the media.   It's not the first time that an Episcopal bishop – or Presiding Bishop – has held his captive audience slack-jawed.   In May of 2018 the XXVII Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church crossed “The Pond” to preach at Prince Harry's Church of England royal wedding to black American actress Meghan Markle. The black Presiding Bishop Michael Curry decided it was time to school the British Royal Family on 19th century Southern slavery and American civil rights referencing Martin Luther King, Jr.  to emphasize his point.   Members of the Royal Family sat in shock with their mouths agape.   Both Episcopal bishops felt they were “speaking truth to power.” In both instances their messages fell flat but they did manage to garner worldwide headlines.   Another Episcopal bishop, who was not shy about garnering headlines was – and occasionally still is creating press attention – Bishop Vicky Gene Robinson (IX New Hampshire).  Where Bishopette Budde is dubbed the “Woke Bishop” by the press Bishop Robinson's headline moniker is the “Gay Bishop.”   Bishopette Budde, Presiding Bishop Curry, and Bishop Robinson have each, in their turn, twisted their pulpits into bully pulpits to rail against some perceived injustice – immigration (Budde); racism (Curry); or the gay pride agenda (Robinson).  Since the National Cathedral looms large in the American spiritual psyche each of these three bishops have preached from its pulpit.   As bishops Jesus Christ should be the sermon topic from any pulpit a bishop – Episcopal … Roman Catholic … Lutheran … Methodist … et al – preaches.   It is a bishop's responsibility to see to it that the Gospel is powerfully preached, with the Sacraments are being faithfully celebrated and joyfully received thus leading their flock into a closer relationship with God through Jesus Christ, God’s one and only dearly begotten Son.   However, the National Cathedral has intersected with politics for more than a century.   It has hosted five presidential state funerals including: Dwight Eisenhower (1969); Ronald Reagan (2004); Gerald Ford (2007); George H.W. Bush (2018); and most recently Jimmy Carter (2025).   It also conducted six presidential memorial services including: Warren Harding (1923); William Taft (1930); Calvin Coolidge (1933); Harry Truman (1972); and Richard Nixon (1994). And other memorial services were held for civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr. (1968); anti-apartheid activist, Nelson Mandela (2014); and the Queen of England, Elizabeth II (2022).   Then, of course, there are the ten post inaugural Presidential Prayers Services which are designed to help prayerfully launch the new president into his administration.  Those services include: Franklin Roosevelt's second administration (1937); Ronald Reagan’s second administration (1985); George H.W. Bush’s only administration (1989); George W. Bush's first and second administrations (2001 & 2005); Barack Obama's first and second administrations (2009 & 2013); Donald Trump's first administration (2017); Joe Biden's only administration (2021); and Donald Trump's second administration (2025).   Also, several national, political, military and civil figures are also interred at the National Cathedral including: the only Admiral-of-the-Navy George Dewey (1917); President Woodrow Wilson (1924); Secretary of State and Noble Peace Laureate Frank Kellogg (1937); First Lady Edith Wilson (1961); disability advocate Helen Keller (1968); and gay activist Matthew Shephard (2018).   In addition, eight Episcopal bishops and one Episcopal priest are buried within the walls of the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul which is the formal name of the National Cathedral.   Historically the Episcopal bishops of Diocese of Washington are buried within the confines of their Cathedral including: Henry Satterlee (I Washington) 1908; Alfred Harding (II Washington) 1923; James Freeman (III Washington) 1943; Angus Dun (IV Washington) 1971; William Creighton (V Washington) 1987; John Walker (VI Washington) 1989; Ronald Haines (VII Washington) 2008; and Thomas Claggett (I Maryland) 1816.   The Episcopal Diocese of Washington was sliced out of the Diocese of Maryland in 1895. Bishop Claggett is the first Episcopal bishop to be consecrated in America and he also served as Chaplain to the US Senate which earned him the honor of being reinterred in the National Cathedral. He was initially buried in the Claggett Cemetery in Croom, Maryland but moved to Washington, DC in 1898.   The VIII and IX bishops of Washington – John Chane and Mariann Budde, respectively – are still living.   In addition, the V. Rev. Francis Sayre, Jr. is also interred at the National Cathedral. He holds the distinction of being the longest tenured Dean of the National Cathedral, serving from 1951 to 1978.   At this point in time there are no other Episcopal clergy buried within the National Cathedral.   Slowly through the years as the National Cathedral rolled out its Episcopal red carpet of welcome the cathedral's spiritual emphasis has shifted from a purely Anglican Book of Common Prayer Christocentric focus to interdenominational ecumenical ceremonies and eventually intertwining an interfaith spiritual expression which includes active non-Christian participation.   Bishopette Budde has crossed swords with President Trump before.  She was livid in June 2020 when the President ventured across Lafayette Square for an ill-advised photo op at St. John's Episcopal Church during the height of the George Floyd Black Lives Matter protests. The President displayed a Bible in front of the St. John's church sign. “The President just used a Bible, the most sacred text of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and one of the churches of my diocese, without permission, as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus," the Washington bishopette said in 2020. “He took the symbols sacred to our tradition and stood in front of a house of prayer in full expectation that would be a celebratory moment.”   The Washington bishopette's disdain for President Trump stems back to his first administration when she came to consider him inflaming violence through speech and actions and having a divisive and immoral leadership style. She participated in the Black Lives Matters protests.   On January 21, 2017, as the IX Episcopal Bishop of Washington, DC, a post she has held since 2011, Mariann Budde warmly welcomed the newly-inaugurated first term President to her “house of prayer for people to mark this moment of political transition” for an Episcopal interfaith prayer service. There was no scathing sermon, merely unified prayer albeit interdenominational – Episcopal, Evangelical, Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Presbyterian, Baptist, and non-denominational Christian – as well as interfaith –  Mormon, Jewish, Islamic, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist,  Baha’i and Navajo.   Eight years later a similar cast of religious characters showed up for President Trump's second interdenominational and interfaith presidential prayer service on January 21, 2025.   It was the V. Rev. Randy Hollerith, the XI Dean of the National Cathedral, who welcomed the worshippers to the Service of Prayer for the Nation, not Bishopette Budde.  She had something else up her  rochet’s snowy-white sleeve.   This time the cast of pray-ers included: Episcopal, Baptist, Methodist, Mennonite, Presbyterian, Lurheran, Native American, Jewish, Momon, Hindu, Islamic, Buddhist, and Sikh.   Then Bishopette Budde ascended the pulpit and skewered President Trump thus making ongoing worldwide headlines and shifting the focus from what should have been a spiritual emphasis into a political dagger.   Bishopette Budde's sermon sent shockwaves through the Anglican world. Episcopal priests are having to deal with upset parishioners – regardless of their political persuasion – who are hurt and confused and angry that an Episcopal prayer service at the most prominent Episcopal cathedral in the nation was turned into a political event.   Anglicans are the best when it comes to ecclesial pomp and ceremony. The Church of England did a masterful job at conducting Queen Elizabeth II's funeral or hosting Royal weddings.   Most recently (January 9, 2025)  the National Cathedral conducted President Jimmy Carter's State Funeral with aplomb and without missing a step.   The National Cathedral knows how to put its best foot forward and show to the world the majesty and splendor of Anglican worship giving honor and glory to God.   But when it came to last week's Presidential Prayer Service the cathedral tripped over a bishop's crozier.   Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas.  She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline

  • Uk: God Is Working In The LGBT Community

    Staff writer  CHRISTIAN POST 27 January 2025   Christians recently gathered in London to find out how they can better support people struggling with unwanted same-sex attraction. (Photo: Getty/iStock)   They heard from James Parker, an ex-gay Christian from Australia who regularly speaks to churches and faith groups about how they can engage with these issues as a church and in wider society.   Parker told stories of hope about people who have been helped by therapy for unwanted same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria, including people who were formerly drug dependent and caught up in prostitution, and people who have become happily heterosexual or are experiencing greatly diminished same-sex attraction.   Despite these positive experiences of change, several Australian states have introduced draconian conversion therapy bans that threaten to impose huge fines and imprisonment for breaches, which potentially include suggesting chastity or offering prayer. Some supporters of a conversion therapy ban in the UK see the Australian states as a model for what could be introduced here.   "Even if you want therapy and even if it's proven to be beneficial and even if you've got people supporting you and you're saying 'please, please, please', nope, that's criminal," said Parker of the situation in Australia. He called the bans "totalitarian" and said he feared a "slippery slope".   "Will this bring about ultimately ... the eradication of the Lord's Prayer from the state of Victoria? Highly likely, yes," he said.   Meeting church and faith leaders around the world, Parker said that many of them are "scared" to speak up on the issue and that it is up to the grassroots to work for change.   "We are in World War Three, it's just that it's an invisible war and it is literally [trying] to decimate an entire generation in our land," he said.   Despite the challenges across many countries, especially in the West, he said that people continue to be set free.   "The hunger is out there (for help) and the work is happening," he said.   "There are literally hundreds of thousands of stories out there that we need people to start sharing on social media ... We need others to know that change is possible and it's not about even being gay or straight.   "It's about the fact that we all need to move towards a place of holiness and we all need to move away from those layers of maturing sin towards maturing dignity and righteousness as well."   He urged churches to be places of welcome for LGBT people and to speak the truth in love, recognising that it is about a person's soul and that "souls need to understand mercy". Seen in this light, he said it was important not to be "preachy" or "imposing" but to do it in such a way as to open up discussions.   "God is calling people to Himself, God's doing it but we the church for the most part aren't ready to receive them or to understand them or to walk with them," he said.   "I hope there is respect, compassion and sensitivity in the way I speak. There comes a point in all our lives when ultimately the truth needs to be spoken but it's a great injustice to pour truth upon somebody when they have no understanding of mercy and forgiveness."   He continued, "When you give people an environment in which to be able to discuss these things and they feel that they're not going to be judged, then what happens is people are often really quite quick to tell you what some of the hurdles are that they've never got over and need to get over."   He added, "If we're not careful, we still see it as a 'them' and an 'us' ... The more that we see this as a collective of all of us and not an 'us' and 'them', the sooner we will also see an advancement of the Kingdom and the healing power of the Lord able to be at work."   Anglican Mainstream and the MSC recently hosted ex-gay leader, James Parker, live/zoom/recording, on the 6th January 2025, in London.  His journey, from angry gay activist to ex gay heterosexually married father, is very encouraging! You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wajG-KPPz_0 Attachments area An ex-gay on how Christians can engage effectively with the LBGT question   By Lisa Nolland  CHRISTIAN TODAY January 21, 2025   "When it comes to children and sexuality, we're in World War 3." James Parker brought this warning to a hybrid (in person and online) conference based in a London church on Monday January 6.   Gay conversion therapy bans   Himself a former gay activist, James warned that the Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Act passed in Victoria State in Australia in 2021 would be used as a foundation for introducing similar laws around the world.   In a crackdown more akin to a Marxist approach of silencing any dissenting view, the legislation makes it a criminal offence to help anyone move towards heterosexuality or suggest it is 'normal' or affirm their biological sex; to suggest embracing chastity or offer Biblical insight on sexual mores.   James noted that many institutions around the world have been influenced by a very few people with very loud voices arguing that it is a human right to express and practice same-sex orientation and behaviour, and a crime to suppress it.   Loving the lost into the Kingdom   Our self-perceived sexuality is formed through our emotional responses to our environment. To those who have embraced a gay identity, James stresses that the question to pose is 'Do you want/need more loving?', and to lead them thus to Jesus, the Great Lover, and his mercy, grace and forgiveness.   For James, people who have felt unloved need to feel loved. Christians are called to cooperate with God's Spirit here, and realise they cannot walk alongside such individuals unless they realise they too have missed the mark - i.e. sinned - and are broken. Don't we all need a Saviour and on a daily basis?   Local church leaders were encouraged to welcome and care for the LGBTQ while not approving their behaviour. In this context, the excellent work of Living Waters, which equips and resources the church, was promoted.   Bridge-building is key. James presently speaks to (and prays with) lesbian activists, for instance, and partners with Gays Against Groomers to protect children. James appreciates process, sees the person first and appreciates how many are victims of all sorts, including of child sexual abuse (as was he).   Those 'committed SS relationships'   James goes where few will go, and says the unsayable about 'committed SS relationships'. While with his perfect boyfriend, Steve, he had 200 or so other sexual partners. Steve is now dead, as are almost all his other gay mates from his past. Though there are perhaps many happy exceptions, 'faithfulness' is not automatically exclusive (i.e. monogamous), yet most heterosexuals have little idea such is the case.   War on children   James showed the alarming clip from the San Francisco Gay Men's Choir: 'We'll Convert Your Children': think Blitzkrieg. The track goes on to say, 'We'll convert your children, happens bit by bit, quietly and subtly, and you will barely notice it ... We'll make them tolerant and fair'.   Many Christian entities appear blissfully ignorant, apathetic or complacent about the pan sexual revolution impacting youngsters marinated in all things LGBTQ. Sometimes it is a case of DADT (Don't Ask, Don't Tell). Sadly, the church is often loathe to engage in these minefields, and prefers to invest in 'safe', politically-correct topics when not 'preaching the Gospel'.   However, in this case, silence is not golden but culpable.   Aslan on the move   James gave encouraging example after example of ex-LGBTQ groups and networks around the globe. They are comprised of individuals who have changed and are continuing to change for the better. Some are able to marry and have their own children, such as James.   Perhaps the most encouraging thing James said was how God is speaking directly to gay individuals and working in their lives, quite apart from any human involvement. HE is seeking and saving the lost, moving them out of often tragic, dark lifestyles and into far happier, holier, healthier ones. Aslan is on the move!   Wake up call   Parents were urged to examine school sex education programmes, which frequently groom youngsters to engage in high risk sex 'when they feel ready'. Those promoting the gay agenda seek to influence children to believe that all forms of sexual behaviour are equal in value. This is part of an attack on the basic identity of humanity, the image of God in two genders brought together in marriage, in preparation for the marriage supper of the Lamb.   Questions from participants were raised and addressed throughout the four-hour conference which has been recorded. Participants were urged to encourage Christian leaders to recognise the fundamental clash with a biblical view of life posed by the gay activists, but that they also had, in the love and mercy of God in the gospel and the community of the local church, the means to bring healing from the effects of unhealthy factors during people's childhood and adolescence.   Dangerous place   Albert Einstein's insight comes to mind in terms of both the GCT bans and children's welfare: 'The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.'   Dr Lisa Nolland is CEO of the Marriage, Sex and Culture Group, London.

  • Changes In Ethos And Values At Barnabas Aid And Nexcus

    Embracing LGBTQ, Secularism And New Age, Under The Leadership Of Colin Bloom   From: Save Barnabas Aid January 29, 2025   This post is to make you aware of some changes at Barnabas Aid UK and Barnabas Aid International (formerly called Nexcus). Barnabas used to be a Biblically conservative organisation.  But things have changed under the leadership of Colin Bloom, who took charge in April 2024. It has now become an inclusive organisation, whose staff may have any sexual orientation or practice, and follow any religion or none.   Criteria in recruiting staff   The below wording is now appearing in some Barnabas job adverts on the Barnabas Aid website. This quotation comes from the advertisement for a “Projects Administrator – East, Central and Southern Africa”:   “Barnabas Aid is committed to equality of opportunity. It is our policy and practice that entry into employment and progression within employment will be determined only by criteria which are related to the duties of a particular post and its appropriate salary level. No applicant or member of staff will be treated less favourably than another because of their age, disability, ethnicity, marital or civil partnership status, parental status, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation. However, there may be an occupational requirement to be a Christian in order to carry out some of our roles.”   On 28 January 2025, there were 13 vacancies advertised on the Barnabas Aid website. Of these, seven specified that the applicant must be a practising Christian. Three of these seven were Finance roles. The other four were regional coordinators for London, Wales, the South-East (of England), and the South-West (of England); for these four vacancies the applicant had to be “a practicing Christian who is engaged in his/her local church”.   The other six vacancies – those which did not require the applicant to be a practising Christian – were all based in Swindon, UK, and included three vacancies in the Projects department, a Head of Facilities, an Email Campaigns Coordinator, and a Talent Acquisition Lead.   It appears that in Colin Bloom’s Barnabas Aid those who work directly with persecuted Christians, communicating with them about their situation and project requests, do not need to have a personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Nor does the person who will be in charge of emails to Barnabas Aid supporters.  Nor does the person who will fill the newly created role of “Talent Acquisition Lead” i.e. recruiting future staff for Barnabas Aid.    Please note that the board of Barnabas Aid UK has nothing to do with these advertisements and is not kept informed by Barnabas Aid International about vacancies, redundancies, staff leaving, staff discipline, recruitment or any other staff matters.   Spiritual care of staff   On 11 June 2024 Melissa Breukel from Nexcus’s HR department emailed staff (probably all the UK-based staff) announcing: “With immediate effect, we have implemented our new Employee Assistance Program, designed to support your overall well-being both at work and at home.”  Contact details were given so that staff could contact the organisation appointed to give this assistance, which is called Wellbeing Solutions. https://www.wsm-wellbeing.co.uk/   Wellbeing Solutions is not a Christian organisation. A major part of its help with mental wellbeing is to encourage the practice of mindfulness.  Here is a quote from their website:   “In our fast-paced modern world, mindfulness has become an increasingly popular practice for enhancing mental health and overall wellbeing… Mindfulness is about paying attention to the present moment with openness and without judgment. Originating from ancient meditation practices, it has been scientifically proven to offer numerous benefits for mental health.”   Why did Colin Bloom and Nexcus appoint a non-Christian organisation with a New Age ethos to support the wellbeing of Barnabas staff in the UK, when there are many Biblically conservative Christian ministries which could have offered such help?    What do the Nexcus leaders think?   It is curious to see this shift taking place in Barnabas Aid, not only Barnabas Aid International (Nexcus) but also Barnabas Aid UK which is still completely under the control of Colin Bloom, although he was not appointed by the Barnabas Aid board.   It is understandable that Colin Bloom himself would be happy with this shift in ethos and values.  But what about others on the Nexcus board?   Rev. Michael Hewat from New Zealand broke away from the Anglican Church on the issue of LGBTQ and is a leading figure in the conservative Anglican movement GAFCON.  Rev. Ian Clarkson from Australia is very active on pro-life issues yet Crowell and Moring, the law firm Nexcus had appointed, frequently does pro bono work for pro-abortion causes as well as LGBTQ causes. John Marsh in the USA would describe himself as a conservative Christian. Then there is Andrew Carey, not officially linked to Nexcus in any way, yet clearly in a position of favour, influence and constant communication with Colin Bloom and the rest of the Nexcus board, in particular Lord Reading. Andrew Carey edits the Church of England Newspaper, which has the reputation of being a conservative Christian voice. How do these conservative Christians justify supporting a position which contradicts Biblical values?   END

  • Bishop Of Liverpool Denies Sex Assault Allegations

    By Stewart Whittingham & Tom Mullen THE TELEGRAPH January 29, 2025   The Bishop of Liverpool has denied allegations of sexual assault outlined in a Channel 4 News investigation.   The Right Reverend Dr John Perumbalath has been accused of assaulting two women, the programme said.   It said one woman was allegedly assaulted in the diocese of Chelmsford in Essex, where he was Bishop of Bradwell, on separate occasions between 2019 and 2023. A female bishop also told Channel 4 News she was sexually harassed by him.   In a statement, Bishop Perumbalath said he had "consistently denied" the allegations, adding police had investigated them but taken no further action.   Channel 4 News said Bishop Perumbalath, who was enthroned Bishop of Liverpool in 2023, was interviewed voluntarily under caution by police in March last year.   Bishop Perumbalath said: "The allegations set out in this programme are in relation to encounters that took place in public settings, with other people present.   "I have consistently denied the allegations made against me by both complainants.   "I have complied with any investigation from the National Safeguarding Team.   "The allegations raised in Essex were also investigated by the police who took no further action.   "Whilst I don't believe I have done anything wrong, I have taken seriously the lessons learnt through this process addressing how my actions can be perceived by others.   "I will comply with any investigation deemed necessary.   "I take safeguarding very seriously and work hard to provide proper leadership in this area".   'Learning outcome'   The Church of England said it had also investigated the complaints, with a complaint of alleged misconduct first made in early in 2023.   A spokesperson said the investigation "concluded that there were no ongoing safeguarding concerns, but a learning outcome was identified with which the bishop fully engaged".   "The complaint was also investigated by the police which resulted in no further action."   The statement continued: "Shortly after the start of this process a further disclosure was made by another woman.   "The information brought by the second complainant was explored and assessed not to be a safeguarding matter but a matter of alleged misconduct.   "Pastoral support has been provided throughout for the second complainant and is ongoing."   Originally from Kerala in South India, Bishop Perumbalath was ordained into the Church of North India in 1994.   He moved to the UK in 2001, first taking up positions in the Diocese of Rochester.   The BBC reports here: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg4dw5nnvxo   The Times reports here that: One of the women claimed that Perumbalath sexually assaulted her on separate occasions between 2019 and 2023 in the Chelmsford diocese. Her detailed allegations include instances of non-consensual kissing, groping and other inappropriate behaviour, which she reported to senior Church figures, including the Archbishop of York, the Most Rev Stephen Cottrell, in 2023.   The Archbishop of York is himself facing calls to resign over claims he allowed the Rev Canon David Tudor, a sexual abuser, to continue working   The allegations are likely to place further pressure on Cottrell, who is facing calls to resign himself over claims he allowed a sexual abuser to continue working in the church. Allegations of sexual misconduct against the Rev Canon David Tudor were allegedly passed to Cottrell during his time as Bishop of Chelmsford between 2010 and 2020, but Tudor was able to continue serving as a priest in Cottrell’s area. Cottrell has said he did not have the legal power to sack Tudor, who was banned for life from serving as a priest by a church tribunal last year, adding that he suspended him as soon as a new victim came forward to police in 2019.   END

  • Liverpool Bishop Resigns Amid Sexual Accusations

    LIVERPOOL BISHOP RESIGNS AMID SEXUAL ACCUSATIONS   By Mark Michael THE LIVING CHURCH January 29, 2025   Archbishop Stephen Cottrell with Bishop John Perumbalath | Anglican Taonga - photo John Perumbalath, Bishop of Liverpool, has resigned after being accused of sexually harassing two female clerics, including one of the Church of England’s bishops, according to a Channel 4 News report released January 28.   Perumbalath announced his retirement from active ministry on January 30. He denies all wrongdoing, but says that “this rush to judgment and my trial by media (be that social or broadcast) has made my position untenable.”   Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York and the Church of England’s acting primate, is accused by his critics of a coverup, because he reportedly knew of allegations against Perumbalath, a former protégé, before he was enthroned in Liverpool.   Last month, Cottrell faced calls for his resignation after a BBC Radio 4 report criticized him for failing to remove serial abuser David Tudor from ministry. Cottrell served as Bishop of Chelmsford from 2010 to 2020, before his translation to York.   “It could well be another example of a church coverup,” the Rev. Robert Thompson said to Channel 4 host Cathy Newman.   “I think one of the difficulties at the heart at the top of our church is that there is a protectionist culture between bishops in relation to bishops’ behavior,” Thompson said. “And lots of us know that this happens all the time. If this was an ordinary clergyperson, they would be treated in a very different way, I think.”   Thompson, a London vicar and a member of General Synod, was one of the authors of a petition signed by tens of thousands that played a major role in bringing down Justin Welby in November.   Andrew Graystone, a religion journalist, told Newman that both women came to him separately in the summer of 2024 with allegations against Perumbalath that they believed the church had mishandled.   Graystone is a well-known safeguarding watchdog in the Church of England, and his book and television reporting expoded John Smyth’s abuses — a scandal that eventually led to Archbishop Justin Welby’s resignation.   The bishop, who remains anonymous, complained of sexual harassment by Perumbalath to Cottrell and other senior leaders in 2023. She made a formal complaint under the Clergy Discipline Measure in 2024 with Cottrell’s support, but an independent judge rejected it because more than a year had passed since the alleged incident.   The program also included written testimony from an anonymous married female cleric of the Diocese of Chelmsford interviewed by Channel 4. She alleges that Perumbalath assaulted her on three separate occasions between 2019 and 2023, while he was serving as Bishop of Bradwell, a suffragan see of Chelmsford.   She alleges that in March 2019, at a diocesan retreat, the bishop held her and “kissed me forcefully on my mouth, which I did not like and I did not want. I tried to move away, but he was holding my mouth too tightly.”   At the end of a meeting in May 2022, she claims that he “ran his hands past the side of my breasts on both sides, with a medium pressure, until he reached the edge of the areola.”   In January 2023, she said that he approached her at a music evening and whispered “I love you” in her ear, and then “moved his mouth to just below my ear, on the pulse point on my neck. He opened his mouth, took a piece of my skin between his lips, and let go.”   The cleric says that after the final incident, she filed a report with a local priest, and was put in touch with the Church of England’s safeguarding team. According to a church representative, the team “concluded there were no ongoing safeguarding concerns, but a learning outcome was identified with which the bishop fully engaged.”   Meanwhile, Perumbalath, whose election to the See of Liverpool had been announced several months before the alleged incident, was formally confirmed in his new role.   Cottrell acknowledged in a March 2023 email to the alleged victim that he had known about the allegations some time before, but he did not intervene to halt Perumbalath’s enthronement as bishop a month later, a service in which he played a prominent role as leader of the province.   “In most areas of life — if he were the head teacher of a secondary school or a consultant in a hospital — there is no doubt that the person against whom these allegations had been made would be stood down in a neutral way while they were investigated and dealt with,” Graystone said.   “The church may say that they have investigated these allegations — they think it’s all fine — but at no point in that process did they choose to step John Perumbalath back from his responsibilities,” he added.   In November 2023, the Chelmsford diocesan cleric filed a police report about the incidents. Perumbalath agreed to be questioned by police in March 2024 “under caution” (as a potential suspect in a crime). The police took no action due to insufficient evidence.   The Church of England has reportedly paid for therapy for the accuser and Cottrell offered to write her an apology, but one has not yet been received.   Members of the Crown Nominations Commission for Liverpool, who selected Perumbalath for his role in 2023, also told Channel 4 News that the bishop had initially failed to secure the necessary two-thirds majority for election after failing a required safeguarding competency test.   They say that Cottrell and another senior bishop put pressure on them to disregard the test and give Perumbalath their full support. Crown Nominations Commission records show that Cottrell served on the panel along with the Rt. Rev. Stephen Croft of Oxford. Church of England officials dispute these allegations.   Newman also interviewed the Rt. Rev. Rose Hudson-Wilkin, Bishop of Dover, on the program. Hudson-Wilkin, who told a podcast last week that she believed Justin Welby had been mistreated by the church, said Cottrell had asked a barrister to look into the ways the church had handled the allegations against Perumbalath “in order to see if anything has been missed and also to suggest further possible ways forward.”   “We live in a world where we have proper processes,” Hudson-Wilkin told Newman. “We don’t just sack someone when there is an allegation. … We cannot just behave like a sort of lynch mob.”   In a January 28 statement, Perumbalath said, “The allegations set out in this program are in relation to encounters that took place in public settings, with other people present. I have consistently denied the allegations made against me by both complainants. I have complied with any investigation from the National Safeguarding Team. The allegations raised in Essex were also investigated by the police, who took no further action.   “Whilst I don’t believe I have done anything wrong, I have taken seriously the lessons learnt through this process addressing how my actions can be perceived by others. I will comply with any investigation deemed necessary. I take safeguarding very seriously and work hard to provide proper leadership in this area.”   A native of Kerala State in Southern India, Perumbalath began his ministry in the Church of North India before moving to England in 2001. He is the chair of the council of the College of the Resurrection, Mirfield, an Anglo-Catholic seminary, and serves on the Clergy Discipline Commission of the Church of England. He and his wife have one child, a daughter.   The Rev. Mark Michael is editor-in-chief of The Living Church. An Episcopal priest, he has reported widely on global Anglicanism, and also writes about church history, liturgy, and pastoral ministry.

  • Speaking The Truth To Power – A Letter To Bishop Budde

    By David Robertson  CHRISTIAN TODAY 24 January 2025   The Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde speaks to "The View" co-host Joy Behar on Jan. 22, 2025. (Photo: ABC)   Dear Bishop Budde,   That was some sermon you preached this week! Philip Pullman, the noted atheist author, loved it and suggested you should be the next Archbishop of Canterbury. Alastair Campbell, he of 'we don't do God' fame, declared that you should be made person of the year. He cited you as a prime example of someone 'speaking truth to power'. Does it not make you feel a little uncomfortable that those who don't believe in God think that your sermon was the best thing since the Communist Manifesto?   As a fellow preacher I thought your delivery was perfect. Clear, well enunciated and with the right tone – like an angel of light. I loved the theme of unity and indeed much of how you expanded that in the 15 minutes you had. But perhaps you will allow me, a poor Presbyterian minister who doesn't have the kind of pulpit to the powerful that you have, to also speak truth to your power?   You are in a powerful position. You belong to what has long been one of the most elitist denominations in the USA – the ultimate WASP church. You are a bishop in a prestigious cathedral, and you get to preach to presidents. (You preach to presidents about the poor, I preach to the poor about presidents). I would hope that both of us would preach Christ, and not our own politics – after all that is what we are paid to do.   I found it more than a little ironic that for 12 minutes and 30 seconds you spoke about unity and then, turning to the newly installed President, you addressed him in such partisan and political terms, that you contradicted and negated what went before.   Perhaps there is a role for such political comment (some might call it prophetic) but I suspect not at a service which is supposed to be about national unity, and at the end of a sermon which warned us about doing precisely that. I think you knew what you were doing. Every word of your sermon was carefully crafted. It is more than a little disingenuous to make a plea for unity and then issue what amounted to a personal political attack on the President. The result was - as you must have seen on X and in the rest of the media – that you again polarised the country you said you were seeking to unify. As you stated, "there isn't much to be said for our prayers (or sermons may I add) if we act in ways which deepen the divisions amongst us".   However, I agreed completely with your comments about the culture of contempt which seeks to demonise and threatens to destroy us - what is known as the outrage industrial complex. I assume you will also apply this to those who demonise people like President Trump – and that you will demand that people do not use your sermon to further stir up hatred and division?   In that regard it was less than helpful to scold the President about LGBT children who you said were scared – some for their lives. Even if this were true (and what is your evidence for this somewhat scary statement?), it is not your job to feed such false fears. Because false they are. President Trump has nowhere threatened the lives of LGBT children (incidentally as a bishop are you not more than a little concerned about the labelling of children in this way?). For you to imply that these fears were legitimate was either dishonest or ignorant. Stoking fear to make a political or even a theological point is something that no preacher should do. We should speak the truth in love. As you stated in your sermon, honesty is foundational to unity. At this point you were less than honest. Practice what you preach!   The same can be said about your remarks on immigration. The situation is not as simplistic as you put it. Although it has to be admitted that simple political (progressive) fundamentalism does allow you to engage in fine sentimental rhetoric, immigration is a much more complex issue than your 1-minute soundbite portrayed. Donald Trump and JD Vance both married immigrants – it is clear that they are not opposed to all immigration. The question is what should be done about illegal immigration? If you have any ideas, then engage constructively – don't virtue signal from a pulpit 12 feet above contradiction.   You will forgive me saying this but there was also an inherent contradiction in your statement about the dignity of every human being. Your denomination doesn't believe that. The Episcopal Church in the USA supports abortion on demand up to birth. That is an astonishingly evil and anti-Christ position to take. You cannot possibly take the high moral ground on humanity when you teach such anti-human doctrines. Your plea for mercy when you support such cruel policies is, to say the least, somewhat hypocritical. What about mercy for the most vulnerable human beings – those still in their mothers' wombs?   I loved what you had to say about humility: "We are most dangerous when we are persuaded without a doubt that we are absolutely right and someone else is absolutely wrong. We are just a few steps from labelling ourselves the good people and others the bad people." Amen and amen. But then you taught your political doctrines as though they were self-evidently right – and anyone who disagreed with them must be absolutely wrong. You think that men can become women, that mothers have the right to kill their babies, and that those who want a more limited immigration are evil.   You certainly gave those who agree with you a loud and clear dog whistle. The trouble is that not only are you absolute in your political dogmas, but you preached them from a pulpit, by implication, stating that these were not just your opinions but God's! It's hard to be more absolutist than that!   Perhaps the one thing that bothered me most about your sermon was how little of Christ and his Word it contained. He was kind of a bit player – an illustration who supported your political ideology. But he was certainly not the centre.   Even when you quoted him, you misinformed. For example, you stated that Jesus said unity was the solid rock on which to build the nation. He said nothing of the sort. He did say that He is the rock. I would be really encouraged to hear you say that the nation of the US should be built on the rock that is Jesus – but would you say that? To your Muslim, Hindu and atheist friends? It's what should be said by a Christian minister, but I suspect it is not your position.   Finally let me end on a note of agreement (kind of). Your prayer at the end: "May God give us the strength and courage to honour the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love and walk humbly with each other and our God for the good of all people in this nation and the world."   We do need to honour the dignity of every human being – including the child in the womb. We do need to speak the truth – God's truth as given to us in his word. If we are to seek the good of all the people in the world, then we must make sure that we proclaim the Good News of the Gospel, not the politics of this world. We won't get the plaudits from the world if we do so, but we will get the commendation of Christ – "well done, good and faithful servant". And in proclaiming His word we will do some good and bring that true unity – the unity of Christ – rather than the false unity of a partisan political ideology. Preach that, sister!   Yours,   David Robertson, Minister in Scots Kirk, Newcastle, Australia

  • Fr. Calvin Robinson Has Hoof & Mouth Disease

    “I am not a Nazi!”   By Mary Ann Mueller VOL Special Correspondent www.virtueonline.org February 5, 2025   Like St. Peter before him, the Rev. Calvin Robinson has a case of Hoof & Mouth disease.   Both Simon Peter and Calvin Robinson have the tendency to open mouth, insert foot and twist. And then act impetuously which has gotten them both in a lot of trouble.   Peter challenges Jesus over His upcoming Passion and Death. (Matt. 16:21-23)   Peter won't let Jesus wash his feet at the Last Supper. (John 13:6-10) Peter cuts off Malchus’ ear. (John 18:3-11)   Peter denies knowing Jesus three times. (Matt. 26:69-75; Mark 14:66-72; Luke 22:54-62; and John 18:15-27)   Peter argues with Paul over the place of the Gentiles in the Church. (Galatians 2:11-21) Such is the case now in the United States when Robinson conflates politics with religion.   Long story short Fr. Calvin Robinson crossed the rubicon of priestly etiquette and his Archbishop Mark Haverland stepped in and removed his faculties – license (permission) – to exercise his priesthood within the Anglican Catholic Church.   Now to the rest of the story …   First of all, Robinson is a British citizen. He was born in Mansfield, England 39 years ago. He immigrated to the United States in September 2024 to become the priest-in-charge at St. Paul's Anglican Catholic Church (ACC) a small congregation in Grand Rapids, Michigan.   VISA ISSUES   Robinson is a British immigrant, not an illegal border crossing migrant. Basically, he followed immigration law.   He did not fly to Canada – a British Commonwealth nation – and sneak across the Canadian southern border into the United States. He came to the United States with passport, documents and paperwork in hand.   However, the question has been raised whether Robinson followed American immigration law to the letter when it comes to the status of immigrating clergy. US Immigration law outlines the qualifications needed to apply for a US Religious Work Visa: “To qualify as an immigrant religious worker, for at least two years before a petition may be filed on your behalf, you must: (1) Have been a member of the religious denomination having a bona fide nonprofit, religious organization in the United States for which you are coming to work; and (2) Have been continuously carrying out the religious vocation or occupation that you intend to carry out in the United States.”   The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) also states that to qualify for an immigrant visa as a “Minister of Religion” the cleric “must be entering the United States to work solely as a minister of your religious denomination.”   CHURCH HOPPING   Therein lies the problem. Robinson is a church-hopper. He has belonged to four different denominations in a space of three years. Not all of the churches are Anglican. He was initially a member of the Church of England (CofE) until he left for the Free Church of England (FCE) in early summer 2022. He then united with the Old Catholic – nonAnglican – Nordic Catholic Church (NCC) in late 2023. Less than a year later he gravitated to the Anglican Catholic Church (ACC).   It is not totally clear if he is still a priest in the AAC – albeit an inhibited priest – or is he a priest without a denomination.   VirtueOnline has reached out to Metropolitan Archbishop Mark Haverland (VIII ACC) for a clarification concerning Robinson's status with the Anglican Catholic Church. At the time of posting Archbishop Haverland has not responded to VOL’s query.   Like a man without a country Calvin Robinson is a priest without a parish. Former Church of England priest Gavin Ashenden feels that Robinson is indeed without a denomination.   However, as a result of Robinson's priestly ordination in the Nordic Catholic Church, which is not a part of the Anglican Continuum, he is “a priest forever after the Order of Melchizedek.” (Psalms 110:4)   Ashenden, himself, left the CofE after the Koran was read in Arabic at a 2017 Epiphany service at St. Mary's Cathedral in Glasgow, Scotland. The passage denied that Jesus is the Son of God.   This infuriated Ashenden. Giving up his royal chaplaincy to the Queen he eventually swam the Tiber in 2019 and is now a Roman Catholic layman.   “You (an ordained priest) belong to a denomination,” the former Queen's Chaplain explained on his recent YouTube program Catholic Unscripted. “The ACC message saying that Calvin had been released by removal of his license said in fact he's not part of the ACC. So they are not just deparishing him, they are dechurching him.”   For all practical purposes Calvin Robinson is a “Catholic” priest, albeit not a Roman Catholic priest but an Old Catholic priest, for he was ordained into the priesthood through the Nordic Catholic Church. He is not an ordained Anglican priest. Although he was ordained as an Anglican deacon in the Free Church of England he sought his priesthood elsewhere.   The Old Catholic tradition separated from the Roman Catholic Church during Vatican I (circa 1870) over certain doctrines such as papal authority and papal infallibility. Old Catholics are not in communion with Rome however the Nordic Catholic Church (NCC) is in ecumenical dialogue – not intercommunion – with the Free Church of England (FCE) and the Anglican Catholic Church (ACC).   The NCC was the bridge Robinson used to go from the FCE to the ACC picking up Old Catholic priestly ordination along the way.   Robinson initially started out seeking ordination in the Church of England (CofE). That failed.   The young Robinson got a degree in computer games design and programming from the University of Westminster. He then went on to teach computer science at St. Mary's & St. John's Church of England School in Hendon where he became head of the school's IT department before pursuing a path in religion.   He undertook seminary studies at St. Stephen's House, an Anglo-Catholic theological college at the University of Oxford.   But Robinson was at cross swords with the Bishopette of London — Sarah Mullally, who couldn't find a "suitable curacy" for him due, in part, to his strong political views.   He is a noted and popular conservative British political commentator with a large social media following who rails against homosexuality, same-sex marriage, the LGBTQ ideology, critical race theory, the ordination of women, the cancel culture, and abortion. Finding the CofE path to ordination blocked, Robinson turned to the Free Church of England as a gateway to ordination. The FCE accommodated him and ordained him a transitional deacon on June 25, 2022 and appointed him Minister-in-Charge at Christ Church in Harlesden. A position he held for nearly three years even though he became an Old Catholic priest midway through his tenure. His final service at Christ Church was celebrated on Trinity Sunday (May 26, 2024).   But, alas, Robinson didn't stay long in the FCE. He was seeking the priesthood on his own terms and found through the Nordic Catholic Church (NCC), an Old Catholic denomination of Scandinavian Lutheran patrimony. He was priested on Nov. 4, 2023 as an Old Catholic priest.   Next the new British priest set his sights on moving to the United States as a clergyman. But he had to find a continuing Anglican denomination which would accept his hopscotch patchwork of ordinations, provide him a High Church altar and pulpit, and grease the skids to a US religious minister's work visa. He found that in the Anglican Catholic Church (ACC).   The ACC is an outgrowth of the 1977 Congress of St. Louis which met following the 1976 Episcopal General Convention that approved women's ordination; set the stage for the adoption of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer; and provided equal rights to the LGBT movement including the love, acceptance, and pastoral concern and care of the Episcopal Church and equal protection under the law.   Robinson's honeymoon with his Michigan parish lasted a mere four months. His religious denomination has booted him out and he is barred from seeking another ACC pulpit.   However, a foreign clergyman is to “work solely as a minister of your religious denomination” to keep the US green card.   With the drop in priestly vocations, particularly in the Church of Rome, many bishops turn to foreign dioceses to find priests to fill their pulpits. Many Catholic priests now serving in the United States hail from Africa, India and Asia. Calvin Robinson is considered a “foreign priest” in the American Anglican world.   The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), too, has close ties to Anglican churches in the Global South such as in various African Anglican provinces – Kenya, Rwanda, Nigeria – through GAFCON.   MERE ANGLICANISM KERFUFFLE   Robinson has danced with ACNA before and ACNA was stung. He was invited to be a presenter to a sellout crowd at the January 2024 Mere Anglicanism Conference hosted by St. Philip’s Church in Charleston, South Carolina.   The conservative high church Anglo-Catholic priest hit the hot button issue of Women's Ordination in a gathering that was being held in an ACNA diocese which allows females in the priesthood and women clergy were in the audience.   Fr. Robinson’s presence at the conference was a mismatch from the beginning. The young priest is a passionate Anglo-Catholic with a strong commitment to traditional biblical values concerning the priesthood, marriage and the family, along with same-sex and transgender issues. However, the Mere Anglicanism Conference is a low church evangelical event based in the ACNA Diocese of South Carolina which supports ideology that Robinson strongly opposes, particularly that of women in the priesthood.   The match up was disastrous. As a result, Robinson’s wings were clipped and he was asked to stand down from the concluding panel discussion.   However, the young-not-yet-40 priest failed to humbly accept his chastisement silently, turning to prayer and keeping mum. He immediately started posting on social media and hit the YouTube circuit defending himself while being critical of his Mere Anglicanism hosts.   Robinson is passionate. He is controversial. He is committed. He is provocative. He is outspoken. He is conservative. He is opinionated. He is polemical. He is basically a High Church Anglo-Catholic with an Old Catholic priesthood.   ACC SACKS ROBINSON   Robinson started dancing with ACC in October of 2023 when he first visited the ACC’s Provincial Synod in Orlando, Florida and subsequently expressed an interest in serving a parish in the US.   “After undergoing the necessary procedures, he was received in orders and licensed to serve at the parish of St. Paul’s, Grand Rapids, Michigan,” the ACC fleshed out on its website Monday (February 3). “As of January 29th, 2025, he had served in the ACC a little over four months.”   Taking all things into consideration apparently the ACC attempted to rein in their newly-immigrated priest Calvin Robinson.   Last week (January 29) the ACC initially posted: “Mr. Robinson had been warned that online trolling and other such actions (whether in service of the left or right) are incompatible with a priestly vocation and was told to desist.” Then the AAC referred to their priest as “Mr. Robinson” rather than “Fr. Robinson,” or even “Rev. Robinson.”   This week even the “Mr.” designation has been dropped. The ACC is clearly fed up with Calvin Robinson.   “He (Robinson) was not hired by the ACC to be an official spokesman, social media influencer, or to provoke the ‘hysterical liberals’ (his words) in online culture wars,” the ACC explained. “He was licensed by an ACC bishop to serve as a parish priest.”   It seems that the ACC's strong admonition fell on deaf ears. As a result, Robinson was canned … fired, or as the British say, “sacked.”   “Clearly, he has not (listened), and as such, his license in this Church has been revoked,” posted the ACC in a statement about Robinson's situation. “He is no longer serving as a priest in the ACC.”   Monday the ACC fleshed out: “He was repeatedly warned not to engage in the sort of behavior that he displayed at the National Right to Life Conference, and he did not comply. As such, his license to serve in the ACC was revoked. In doing so, the bishops acted in accordance with ACC canons.” “I have not been defrocked. My licence was revoked. This means I cannot minister in ~250 ACC churches,” Robinson explains in an email missive defending himself which he sent on Monday (Feb. 3). “I am still a priest.”   ROBINSON’S MANY CANCELLATIONS   The ACC priest seems to be taking the cancellation of his priestly license to minister in stride.   “Not wanting to labour the point. I made a silly joke, I will accept the consequences for it. I have been cancelled before,” he emailed. “I am a man; I can take it.”   Yes, Robinson has been cancelled before. Several times before.   Wikipedia says that until 2021 Robinson was a frequent contributor to The Telegraph, the Daily Mail and Sp!ked with no explanation why he no longer writes for those British publications.   In October 2023 GB News axed him, as well as TALK RADIO.   Then in March 2023 he was also booted from the Royal Academy of Dance’s subcommittee on education for opposing a children's “Drag Queen Story Hour” at a London library.   Mere Anglicanism clipped his wings in January 2024 and he was cancelled from the concluding roundtable panel. Finally last week Robinson was cancelled by his own video game and news website staff.   PCGamer, a British website that monitors the gaming world, reports that the editorial staff of “God is a Geek” website walked out last week following Robinson's behavior at the pro-life summit event.   “Calvin Robinson is a far-right political commentator and former games journalist who founded and still owns the gaming website God is a Geek,” PC Gamer posted. “On Thursday (January 30) the entire editorial staff of God is a Geek resigned.”   However, the British priest is clearly upset that Archbishop Haverland has not been in direct contact with him.   “Bishop Chandler Jones broke the news, but he is not my bishop, and he is not responsible,” Robinson wrote in his email. “Archbishop Mark Haverland revoked my licence. He is yet to have a conversation with me about any of this …” PRIESTLY DISOBEDIENCE   “As a direct response to the cancel culture bandwagon, the Archbishop of the Anglican Catholic Church, where I serve, removed my licence without so much as a conversation,” he emailed. “I will not go into that further, as I believe in being obedient to one’s bishop and would like to give him the benefit of the doubt.”   But as an ACC priest Father Robinson has not been obedient to his bishop as he proclaims.   Repeatedly he has been admonished by his ecclesial authorities about his political leanings, engagement and rhetoric. He was asked to be a simple parish priest – to attend the Altar, celebrate the Sacraments, preach the Word and be a pastor to his flock.   “When Robinson was received into the ACC, he was told that there was a distinction of offices between political activist and parish priest. His bishops made it clear to him that he had been received into the Church to minister to a parish, and as such, he would have to eschew the provocative political behavior that characterized his prior career as a TV presenter, blogger, and social media influencer,” the ACC posted. “He has not done so, and what happened at the National Right to Life Summit was not an isolated incident.”   The ACC is a part of the G3 Synod which is a grouping of Continuing Anglican bodies which are a full Communion ecumenical partnership with each other. The current membership of the G3 consists of the Anglican Catholic Church (ACC); the Anglican Church in America (ACA); and the Anglican Province of America (APA). These three Anglican bodies are working towards full unification in much the same way that the member organizations of the Common Cause Partnership joined forces in 2009 to form the Anglican Church in North America.   Bishop Chandler Jones is the II Presiding Bishop of the Anglican Province of America. He is in full communion with Archbishop Haverland.   The Episcopal Visitor for Robinson's ACC Diocese of the Midwest – which encompasses Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana – is Bishop Patrick Fodor who is the III Bishop of the ACA Diocese of the Missouri River Valley. He, too, is in full communion with Archbishop Haverland. Robinson's ACC diocese has been sede vacante since August 21, 2023 when the VI Bishop of the Midwest Rommie Starks died.   The British priest first approached the ACC in early October 2023, six weeks after Bishop Starks died.   THE PRO-LIFE SUMMIT SALUTE   The event which pushed the Anglican Catholic Church over the edge came as the result of a very questionable and ill-advised hand motion at the close of Robinson's address at the National Pro-Life Summit in Washington, DC, on January 25, the day after the 52nd Annual March for Life.   Even before Robinson moved to the USA, he had endeared himself to the religious and political right. He has hobnobbed with then Presidential Candidate Donald Trump, former Catholic Bishop of Tyler Joseph Strickland, and laicized Priests for Life national director Frank Pavone.   Last week (Jan. 25) he was with some pro-life heavy weights at the National Pro-Life Summit including: Matt Walsh from the Daily Wire, Dr. Ben Carson former Secretary of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Shane Winnings of Promise Keepers, and Abby Johnson formerly with Planned Parenthood.   This was the political backdrop that Robinson was stepping into. He appeared in a floor length black Roman cassock topped with a mozzetta sartorial cape. He is always stylishly dressed.   Through the years his diaconal/priestly demeanor has changed. As a man of color – his mother is a British gentlewoman and his father’s folks come from Jamaica making him a light-skinned mixed-race child – he initially wore a full Afro hairdo. Then following his ordination as a Old Catholic priest his hair became closely cropped. Then after coming to the United States, he has started wearing a beard with a few tell tail grey hairs beginning to show.   At the pro-life summit the then-ACC priest encouraged his American audience to stay the course in defending preborn life. A fight he feels has already been lost in England.   “Every country in Europe is embracing death. America, as I can see, is the only country fighting for life,” he said. “God bless all of you for what you are doing.”   Then, using very poor judgement, he added a controversial hand motion. “Please keep doing it. I hope I can encourage you …” he continued. “and my heart goes out to you …” he said as he placed his hand on his heart and then reached out to the crowd. “God bless.”   As he left the podium he was met with laughter, applause and cheers.   What the crowd was responding to was the questionable hand motion. The stiff-armed 45⁰ salute was seen only days before when Elon Musk forcibly gave a similar stiff-armed salute during Trump's Inauguration Day festivities. It was his way of thanking American voters for returning Trump to the Oval Office.   Robinson was apparently trying to imitate Musk. Whereas Musk’s salute was forcefully done three times while grimacing. Robinson's hand-to-heart one time salute was more natural in an attempt to convey heartfelt emotion rather than political rhetoric.   “At the end of an encouraging pro-life speech, I gave a cheeky nod to Elon Musk, mocking the ludicrous response he received to sending his heart out to the crowd in his excitement at the inauguration,” Robinson explained in Monday's email missive. “I sent my heart out to the wonderful audience at the pro-life summit. It was well received at the time and immediately afterwards. That is, until the hard-Left caught hold of it and decided to label me a nazi.”   Yet the similarity between Musk's and Robinson's salutes and the WWII Nazi salute are striking and can easily be misconstrued, landing the priest in hot water making him lose his parish and possibly jeopardizing his American immigration status as well.   19th CENTURY FLAG SALUTE   Historically the Nazi Salute is a corruption of what is called the “Bellamy Salute” that American school children initially used when reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.   The Rev. Francis Bellamy, a Baptist pastor, penned the first publicly recited version of the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag in 1892 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ sailing the ocean blue and landing on San Salvador in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492.   A Presidential Proclamation called for the special national holiday honoring Christopher Columbus to take place on Friday, October 21 rather than October 12. This is when Bellamy's Pledge was first recited as a part of an initiative to bolster the Schoolhouse Flag Movement to get Old Glory into all American schools. Bellamy's Pledge of Allegiance was coupled with Bellamy's straight – not 45⁰ – stiff-armed flag salute.   The change in date was to account for the switch between the Julian and Gregorian calendars.   Bellamy's original words were: ‘I pledge Allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one Nation indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.”   Wikipedia explains: “The recital was accompanied with a salute to the flag known as the Bellamy salute.”   This flag salute was created by James B. Upham as the gesture that was to accompany the Pledge of Allegiance of the United States of America, but the salute was named after Francis Bellamy who wrote the text.   The Bellamy flag salute was inherently used by school children until late 1942 the year after the United States entered World War II.   The straight stiff-armed flag salute was officially replaced by the now familiar hand-over-heart gesture of respect when the 77th Congress amended the Flag Code on December 22,1942 when Public Law 77-829 was enacted.   The joint Flag Code resolution was passed to codify and emphasize existing rules and customs pertaining to the display and use of the United States flag. It was enacted because the familiar Bellamy flag salute was usurped by the Nazis in the 1920s and 1930s in the run up to World War II.   The Nazi salute shows allegiance to a single person – Adolph Hitler – not a country, nor a flag. And it has remained associated with him ever since.   ROBINSON'S MISSTEP   Musk's 45⁰ stiff-armed gesture is not as furious as portrayed. But for Robinson, an “Anglican” priest, it was very bad optics. Such as in 2020 when President Trump went to St. John Episcopal Church on Lafayette Square for a photo op holding up a Bible during the height of the George Floyd/Black Lives Matter protests.   Robinson's bishops saw the gesture as a “pro-Nazi salute” which was the straw that broke the camel's back in dealing with their new politicized priest.   “At approximately 3:00 pm today (1/29) members of the College of Bishops of the ACC were made aware of a post made on X showing the end of a speech made by Calvin Robinson at the National Pro-Life Summit in Washington, DC,” the ACC posted last week. “In it, he closed his comments with a gesture that many have interpreted as a pro-Nazi salute.”   Robinson is young, not yet 40, and he is an inexperienced priest. The oils of ordination haven't fully dried from his palms and the Character of the Priesthood hasn't fully formed him. He has yet to learn prudence, humility, charity and obedience to his superiors. He has an ego perhaps from his strong Internet presence as a religious and political influencer.   Nor did the Anglican Catholic Church fully understand Robinson when it took him under its wings. And apparently it wasn't understood that the British priest would be that political, provocative and problematic coupled with polemical rhetoric as well as hard to leash and tether to his parish.   In today's hyper politicized world any stiff-armed salute naturally draws references to the Nazi regime especially since the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz would occur in two days (January 27).   The ACC initial statement had strong words to say about the optics Robinson presented.   “We condemn Nazi ideology and anti-Semitism in all its forms. And we believe that those who mimic the Nazi salute, even as a joke or an attempt to troll their opponents, trivialize the horror of the Holocaust and diminish the sacrifice of those who fought against its perpetrators.” the ACC posted. “Such actions are harmful, divisive, and contrary to the tenets of Christian charity.”   Robinson went on Facebook to defend himself chalking it up to British dry wit. “For the record, in case it needs saying: I am not a Nazi,” he posted. “My attempt at dry wit, in that typical British way, was not a joke at the expense of WWII, nor an admission of my membership in the Nationalist Socialist Party.”   The English priest has his detractors, but he also has his passionate supporters. But the optics he created has reflected negatively on his denomination, the wider Church and Christianity. The Gospel failed to be faithfully represented.   LIMITED OPTIONS The ACC is emphatic about Robinson's future with them. He has burned his bridges behind him. His options are very limited.   “He may seek a new Church to affiliate with, or continue an independent online ministry,” the ACC explains. “What he may not do is serve in the ACC or with its ecumenical partners.”   This means he cannot approach the Anglican Church in America; or the Anglican Province of America seeking an altar, pulpit and rectory.   Calvin Robinson is a priest and not a politician. His place is behind a pulpit and not a podium. On Candlemas Sunday (Feb. 2) he did not have a parish family to celebrate the Eucharist with and his stay in America may be precarious due to the dictates of his religious work visa.   Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline.

Image by Sebastien LE DEROUT

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