Mouneer Anis, Barbara Gauthier, and Gerald McDermott The NORTH AMERICAN ANGLICAN i May 22, 2026 Global Anglicans have been congratulating themselves ever since their 2023 Ash Wednesday Statement declaring they would no longer recognize the leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury because of the Church of England’s decision to bless same-sex couples. Their recent Abuja Affirmation gives its leaders a high-five for obeying the Bible’s “plain and canonical sense, respectful of the church’s historic and consensual reading.” It is ironic, then, that global Anglicans who claim to prize the Bible and historic tradition are circumventing both biblical and traditional approaches to ministry and polity (church government). These are not secondary issues. On the long front in the war between secularism and orthodoxy, they are sites of the fiercest battles. For secularism’s god is, arguably, Equality. There is to be no distinction between man and woman in ministry, and laity should join clergy in determining church practice and doctrine. Yet the historic Church has paid careful attention to both Scripture and tradition on these matters. Jesus was a revolutionary in the way he treated women and had plenty of godly and gifted women to choose from, but he restricted the apostolate to men. Paul reserved pastoral and sacramental ministry to men as well: “I do not permit a woman to have authority over a man . . . A bishop must be the husband of one wife . . . . Let deacons be the husbands of one wife” (1 Tim 2:12; 3:1-2; 3:12). Paul made clear that this sexual distinction followed from creation rather than the Fall when in justifying sexual differences in ministry he pointed to God’s order in creation: “Adam was created first, then Eve . . . . For man was not made from woman, but woman from man” (1 Tim 2:12-13; 1 Cor 11:8). The Church did not reserve all ministry for men, only ordained ministry. In the first millennium in the East, deaconesses exercised a variety of ministries under the authority of the rector or bishop, such as pastoral care, counseling, caring for the sick and poor, teaching, spiritual formation, prayer ministry, preparing candidates for baptism and confirmation, assisting at baptisms, leading morning and evening prayer, and conducting other forms of social and educational work. Most of these continue among the ministries of deaconesses in several Anglican provinces. The historic Church also taught an apostolic succession in which Christ rules the church through bishops whom Jesus said are successors to the apostles: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (John 20:21). And as St. Irenaeus taught, “The apostles instituted bishops in the churches . . . leaving [them] behind as their successors, delivering up their own place of government to these men” (Against Heresies 3.3.1). Yet the Canterbury-rejecting Abuja Affirmation has recently formed a new Global Anglican Council that consists of primates, advisors, and guarantors—the latter of whom will be laity. This is a rejection of the historic Anglican commitment to Christ’s rule of the Church through bishops. Laity have always been involved in advising priests and bishops and archbishops, but final decisions for application of apostolic practice and doctrine have been left to the episcopacy. Now, however, global Anglican leaders are inviting laity to join bishops in making final decisions on Christian practice and doctrine. This reverses the 2024 decision of the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans to restrict final church governance to provincial bishops. The new result is presbyterian–not Anglican–polity. This rejection of Holy Tradition and the plain sense of Scripture is exactly what the Abuja leaders condemn as “normalizing hermeneutical pluralism.” What better way to describe “dual integrities”—the incoherent phrase which Anglicans use to describe contradictory views on Holy Orders? These leaders justly criticize Canterbury for “elevating cultural capitulation.” But is not this Abuja statement capitulating to secularism and current feminisms in its bowing before the altar of the new godword “equality,” which denies the sexual difference that is broadcast so loudly in both nature and revelation? And while these Anglican leaders aptly lampoon Canterbury for reframing the rejection of biblical authority as “good disagreement,” what about their own rejection of biblical authority and suggesting we can have good disagreement on Holy Orders and historic polity? Global Anglicans have hereby telegraphed to the world that their new structure and doctrines represent just another liberal Protestant denomination. It is not surprising that the arguments for women’s ordination in those Protestant denominations used the same hermeneutical methods that were later employed for an actively gay priesthood and so-called marriage. After all, if sexual difference is indifferent and the sexes are interchangeable in Holy Order, why not also in marriage? Anglican leaders in recent years have sought unity for the Anglican fight against the LGBT+ juggernaut threatening the Church and society. We commend them for bold leadership on this set of issues. But there is a danger that in seeking unity and numbers under a “big tent” they are embracing a premature and superficial unity that violates biblical and traditional norms. We exhort global Anglican leaders to consider two examples—one ancient and one recent—of recognizing the need for God’s people to turn (the Hebrew word for “repent”) toward deeper unity based on revealed truth. The first example is from Nehemiah 9. The great Jewish reformer has led his flock out of Babylon and realizes they have not broken from pagan ways—even after suffering from exile and condemning their idolatrous overlords. He leads them in one of the Bible’s most majestic prayers of corporate repentance: “We have acted wickedly (v 33), we have not kept your Law (34), we are slaves [of unreformed ways] (36), [but now] we make a firm covenant [to repent and follow Your law]” (38). The Latvian Lutheran Church is about the same size as the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA). The former has 250,000 souls and 300 parishes while the ACNA has 135,000 souls in 1000 parishes. From 1975 to 1993 the Latvian Lutheran Church (LLC) ordained women to the pastorate. But in 1993 Archbishop Janis Vanags led his Church to obedience to the Scriptures and the Great Tradition. The Church formally agreed that ordination to the pastorate should be restricted to men. Ordained women were permitted to keep ministering until retirement. And under the new Church constitution approved in 2016 women were given ministries as lay readers, teaching theologians, and evangelists. The LLC has always maintained the truth of marriage between a man and woman, and the sanctity of human life against abortion and euthanasia. It took humility for Nehemiah and Latvian Lutherans to admit they had gone wrong. It always takes humility for church leaders to “turn.” But just as Jesus taught that true unity must be based on truth (John 17:17, 19), global Anglicanism will have a deeper and stronger unity if its leaders turn toward full biblical obedience in both Holy Order and Church polity. Then it will be able to say in truth that it is obedient to the ancient “church’s historic and consensual reading.” Mouneer Anis is the emeritus Archbishop of Alexandria; Barbara Gauthier is an Anglican theologian and editor of Anglican News Update; Gerald McDermott is a priest in the Reformed Episcopal Church who teaches at Reformed Episcopal Seminary (Philadelphia) and Jerusalem Seminary (Israel).

Special to Virtueonline By David Straw I www.virtueonline.org I May 18, 2026 Listen long enough in Anglican circles and you start hearing the same story. Conservatism means resistance. Tradition means injustice. The quiet suggestion is usually left hanging there. If you care about historic theology and biblical authority, you are probably on the wrong side of history. Real history is messier than that. And much more interesting. Some of the earliest and strongest opponents of slavery and racial exclusion were not progressives in any modern sense. They were Bible believing Anglican Christians. They were Anglicans shaped by Scripture, prayer, and a stubborn loyalty to biblical authority. Their courage did not come from new social theories. It came from Christian conviction. From the abolitionist movement in Great Britain to the early interracial work of the Reformed Episcopal Church in the United States, traditional Anglican Christianity has shown a moral seriousness that modern critics often ignore. None of this denies the failures of the church. Anglican history, like all Christian history, carries the marks of human sin and moral blindness. Christians were at times slow, cautious, and compromised. Some Southern Anglicans and evangelicals twisted Scripture, appealing to household codes or the so-called curse of Ham to defend slavery or delay reform. Those failures deserve honest acknowledgment. They should trouble us. But they do not tell the whole story. And they do not justify rewriting history to fit modern expectations. Evangelical Faith and the Birth of British Abolition One of the strongest evangelical Anglican voices was The Reverend John Newton. He was the former slave ship captain whose conversion gave us “Amazing Grace.” His repentance changed his whole life. His writings and counsel shaped William Wilberforce and the wider Clapham Sect and showed how personal conversion and biblical conviction can fuel real moral reform. The Clapham Sect founded schools, supported missions, and pushed for moral renewal across society. Their activism was not narrow. It was rooted in a Christian vision of human dignity. And it produced results that outlasted any secular political movement of their era. William Wilberforce and the Cost of Obedience William Wilberforce gives us one of the clearest examples. His long fight against the slave trade and then against slavery itself came directly from his evangelical Anglican faith. It did not come from modern ideology. After his conversion in 1785, Wilberforce saw his political work as a divine calling. He described his life’s purpose as the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners. For more than twenty years he battled powerful interests in Parliament. The slave trade was deeply woven into British commerce. He and his friends kept going anyway. In 1807 Parliament abolished the British slave trade. In 1833, just days before Wilberforce died, slavery itself was abolished across most of the British Empire. The cost was enormous. Britain paid about twenty million pounds to compensate slaveholders, roughly forty percent of the government’s annual spending at the time. Few modern nations have ever paid such a price for moral reform. Wilberforce rejoiced that his country was willing to bear it. The biblical truth that every person bears the image of God mattered more than money. Samuel Wilberforce and the Defense of Orthodoxy Wilberforce’s son The Rt. Reverend Samuel became one of the most influential Anglican bishops of the Victorian era. He served as Bishop of Oxford and later Winchester. Samuel defended orthodox Christian belief at a time when secularism and skepticism were gaining ground. He stood for Christian anthropology and biblical revelation even when facing new theories about human origins. Father and son showed the same spirit. Christian faith should not be hidden away. It must speak to the moral and intellectual challenges of its time. The Reformed Episcopal Church and Interracial Anglicanism Across the Atlantic the Reformed Episcopal Church offers another strong example. The REC was founded in 1873 to preserve evangelical doctrine, biblical authority, and classical worship. In the segregated South after the Civil War, the REC welcomed African American congregations when many other doors remained closed. Within a year of its founding, hundreds of Black communicants in South Carolina had joined and formed congregations that lasted for generations. This grew not from political theory but from missionary zeal, pastoral care, and a biblical view of human dignity. Bishop Stevens and Faithful Formation The story of Bishop Peter Fayssoux Stevens shows this commitment in action. His life is one of the more remarkable in American church history, and it deserves to be better known. Stevens was superintendent of the South Carolina Military Academy, the school now known as the Citadel. In January 1861 he commanded a detachment of cadets on Morris Island who were ordered to fire on the Union steamship Star of the West as it attempted to resupply Fort Sumter. Many historians regard that as the first hostile military action of the Civil War. Later that same year he resigned his post to be ordained as a priest in the Protestant Episcopal Church and was subsequently commissioned as a colonel in the Confederate Army. After the war Stevens devoted himself to ministry. He began working among freed Black men and women in South Carolina and saw a genuine church forming among them. When he brought four Black men he had trained for ministry before the examining authorities of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, all four were turned away. Three times the applications were made. Three times they were rejected. That refusal was the breaking point. Stevens resigned from the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1876 and affiliated with the newly formed Reformed Episcopal Church, which was willing to receive these men and their congregations. He became the first bishop of what is now the Diocese of the Southeast, a position he held for thirty years. It would be a mistake to read Stevens as a civil rights champion in any modern sense. He was a product of antebellum South Carolina and fought for the Confederacy. He was a complicated man. But gospel conviction can work in complicated men. Over the following decades he built twenty-seven African American churches, many of which are still in use today. He taught mathematics at two historically Black colleges. He founded what eventually became Cummins Memorial Theological Seminary to train Black clergy in Scripture, theology, preaching, and pastoral care. He worked alongside the Reverend Frank Crawford Ferguson, himself a former slave, as a partner in that ministry. When Bishop Stevens died in 1910, his pallbearers were the Black ministers of his church. That image says a great deal. The REC Today and the Ongoing Witness That legacy continues. The Diocese of the Southeast in the REC is one of the most racially diverse jurisdictions in Anglicanism. Its congregations, clergy, and bishops include both White and African American leaders. Their unity rests on shared faith, sacraments, and gospel mission. The contrast with the Episcopal Church is worth noting directly. Despite decades of resolutions, task forces, diversity offices, studies, and making racial justice a centerpiece of its public identity, the Episcopal Church remains one of the whitest mainline denominations in America. The gap between its institutional apparatus and its actual demographic reality is something TEC’s own leadership has had to acknowledge. The machinery of progressive racial ideology has not produced the fruit it promised. The REC and the Anglican Church in North America more broadly tend to be significantly more racially and ethnically diverse than the Episcopal Church. This includes strong Nigerian congregations and whole dioceses connected to the Church of Nigeria as well as growing Hispanic ministries. These facts challenge the idea that theological conservatism must be abandoned to achieve real inclusion. Orthodoxy, Ideology, and the Modern Debate Some Anglican voices, shaped by mainline seminaries and elite university divinity schools, have argued that historic Christian orthodoxy is mainly an obstacle to racial justice. They seem to believe the church can only address racism by loosening its theological commitments and adopting modern ideologies. History tells a different story. The British abolitionist movement, the influence of John Newton, the perseverance of William Wilberforce, and the early interracial witness of the Reformed Episcopal Church all came from deep fidelity to Scripture and evangelical conviction. Not from theological innovation. Genuine diversity in the Church has historically come not from changing ideologies but from the biblical conviction that all people bear the image of God and that the Gospel unites what sin divides. Conclusion Anglican history gives us both encouragement and caution. Fidelity to Scripture and evangelical conviction has again and again produced moral courage, racial reconciliation, and a more diverse witness to Christ. At the same time it reminds us that sin remains even among sincere believers. Repentance is always needed. Bishop Stevens is a good place to end. He was not a saint in any simple sense. He was a former Confederate officer from a slaveholding society who broke with his own church when it refused to receive men he had trained for ministry. Gospel conviction did that. Not ideology. Not institutional pressure. The biblical vision of human dignity, rooted in creation and redemption, turned a man who fired the first shots of the Civil War into someone whose pallbearers were Black ministers he had spent his life serving. That is not a story modern categories handle well. It is, however, a true one. Postscript A word of clarification, lest anyone misunderstand what I’m saying. I am not arguing that ethnic inclusion is the chief goal of the Church. I also believe that the way this discussion has been framed in recent decades has harmed the Church immensely. My point is that the mainline’s hypocrisy is hard to miss. It talks endlessly about anti-racism and inclusion, yet its churches remain overwhelmingly white and increasingly older. That contradiction is not the main problem. It is a symptom of a much deeper one. Much of mainline Christianity today is built less on historic Christian orthodoxy and more on the shifting sands of modern progressivism. When that ideological foundation starts to crack, whether on race, sexuality, Scripture, or whatever issue comes next, the whole structure begins to wobble. We have been watching that collapse play out for decades in their membership numbers. Now, genuine acceptance of all people without partiality is not merely a good thing. It is a godly thing. It always has been. It flows naturally from the gospel itself: one new humanity in Christ, the Great Commission to all nations, James’ warning against favoritism, and Paul’s great declaration that “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free… for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28, ESV). None of that is new. None of it is a modern DEI add-on. The real strength of the Reformed Episcopal Church and the ACNA is not their racial composition. It is their fidelity to Christ and to the faith once delivered to the saints. Where that fidelity is strong, the gospel does what the gospel has always done. It creates real unity across ethnic lines. Not as a program. Not as a metric to prove anything. As fruit. Orthodoxy first. The rest follows. The Rev. David Straw is Rector of Trinity Anglican Church (REC/ACNA) in Evansville. A church planter who has helped plant three Anglican churches, he was ordained to the diaconate in 2007 and to the priesthood in 2008. He is a graduate of Wesley Seminary. He and his wife have been married for nearly 35 years and have four children.

By John G. Stackhouse Jr. | ThinkBetter Media | $9.99 | 191 pages Reviewed by David W. Virtue, DD | www.virtueonline.org | May 18, 2026 The core question evangelical scholar John Stackhouse addresses is whether love of country is a virtue or a danger. He offers a clear, balanced guide to what Christian nationalism is, what it isn't, and how Christians can faithfully love both God and nation without confusing the two. Stackhouse steers between two extremes: those who insist Christians should embrace nationalist rhetoric, and those who condemn any patriotism as idolatry. Through a study of biblical identity, he demonstrates that earthly loyalties are real, meaningful, and good — but always secondary to one's identity in Christ. The key danger he identifies is when political identity begins competing with Christian identity — which he calls idolatry. The book opens with a personal and theological exploration of flags in churches and the meaning of allegiance. Subsequent chapters provide historical sketches of how religion and empire have interacted — from missionaries to colonial abuses to modern statecraft — and how national "origin myths" (including those of the U.S. and Canada) shape political behavior. A central chapter argues that nationalism is good in principle but becomes dangerous under specific conditions, followed by chapters on what genuinely Christian loyalty must look like in practice. The book closes with a sober warning about the political manipulation of faith. Stackhouse draws on history, theology, and contemporary culture to explore what nationalism really is and how it differs from patriotism, populism, or racism. His tone is deliberately measured — neither a MAGA apologist nor a progressive scold, but a historian and ethicist trying to give Christians analytical tools for a genuinely difficult question. The book is relatively short, aimed at pastors, church leaders, and thoughtful laypeople rather than academics. The framework he offers — distinguishing patriotism from idolatry without dismissing national loyalty altogether — is one Anglicans can readily identify with, though the question is more nuanced than a simple yes or no. There is a legitimate historical connection between Anglicanism and church-state establishment. The Church of England is an established church. Anglicans retain vestiges of historic Christian nationalism in their prayer books — prayers for the sovereign, for civil authorities, and so on. That's real. Some colonial-era Anglican clergy also framed English expansion in explicitly providential terms, which is an uncomfortable part of the tradition's history. Contemporary Anglican voices — across the theological spectrum — largely reject what American commentators mean by "Christian nationalism" today. Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, together with several Anglican bishops, issued a statement condemning the rise of "Christian nationalism" in the UK, denouncing the misuse of Christian symbols to exclude or stigmatize others. Within American Anglicanism — the ACNA and related bodies — there's genuine internal debate. Some traditionalist Anglican voices argue that while they reject "Christo-Americanism," the syncretism of nationalist symbols with Christianity, they distinguish that from the historic Anglican practice of praying for one's nation and its leaders. The term "Christian nationalist" as used in current American political discourse describes something quite specific: the fusion of Christian identity with American national identity, often with ethnonationalist overtones. That doesn't describe Anglicanism as a tradition. The Episcopal Church sits well to the left of that; the ACNA is conservative but not, as an institution, aligned with Christian nationalism; and the Global South Anglican provinces are operating in entirely different political contexts. A recent gathering in Washington, D.C. — Rededicate 250, a mostly conservative Christian prayer event on the National Mall marking the nation's 250th anniversary — drew sharp criticism. Writing in Religion News Service, Steven Waldman, author of Founding Faith and Sacred Liberty, argued bluntly that Christian nationalists have badly misread their own religious DNA. The religious ancestors of today's evangelicals, he notes, were not the architects of Christian America — they were its outcasts. Catholics were barred from voting in five colonies. Dissident Protestants were harassed. And Baptists — the forebears of modern evangelicalism — were routinely jailed for failing to conform to the Anglican establishment. From 1760 to 1778 in Virginia alone, 45 Baptist preachers were imprisoned. If political power in the founding era had been distributed by Christian census, Episcopalians and Congregationalists would have run the country. They were the dominant forms of Christianity then — and together make up roughly 2 percent of the population today. The first 150 years of colonial life can indeed be read as a series of experiments in the Christian nationalist approach. In Jamestown, failure to observe the Sabbath three times was punishable by death. In Massachusetts, Puritan leader John Cotton explained the logic plainly: "Theocracy, or to make the Lord God our governor, is the best form of government in a Christian commonwealth." But this theocratic vision was soundly rejected by the Founding Fathers — and the driving force behind that rejection was 18th-century evangelicals, the very ancestors of today's Christian nationalist movement. Christian nationalists are right about one thing — and many secularists wrong: most of the Founders believed religion was profoundly important. "Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people," John Adams wrote. "It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." George Washington agreed: "Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can exist apart from religious principle." But Christian nationalists take this truism and leap to what Waldman calls the greatest non sequitur in American political history — that the founders therefore wanted the state to promote Christianity. On the contrary: the evangelicals and their Enlightenment allies believed the best way to encourage Christianity was to get government out of it entirely. Madison, were he alive today, would likely say the same — and Stackhouse, writing from a very different vantage point two-and-a-half centuries later, arrives at a strikingly similar conclusion. A NOTE TO NEW VOL READERS We recently integrated our mailing lists and welcomed 1,000 new readers. We apologize for the delay — we experienced some technical issues with our website and lists, which have now been resolved. To read recent exclusive stories, please visit: www.virtueonline.org We have also updated our archives, which now contain more than 21,000 stories available for your exploration. Just click the archives link to get started.

CEEC News Release 18 May 2026 In July this year, the Church of England will see the most significant Private Members’ Motion (PMM) on sex and marriage in the last 40 years being brought to General Synod. It has been confirmed by the Business Committee that the July General Synod will debate the PMM proposed by Professor Helen King, which seeks to affirm the compatibility of intimate same sex relationships with Christian discipleship. The controversial motion (in full below) is cleverly worded and designed to secure support for a revision of the Church of England’s sexual ethics, without explicitly asking for a change to Church of England doctrine. Professor Helen King (Oxford) to move: ‘That this Synod affirm that there are no fundamental objections to being in a committed, faithful, intimate same-sex relationship, and that such a relationship can be entirely compatible with Christian discipleship.’ Private Members’ Motions function similarly to those in Parliament: once sufficient support is gathered, the Business Committee may schedule them for debate. While PMMs do not change doctrine or law, they can signal the theological and political ‘view’ of the Synod. The last time General Synod expressed a view on marriage and sexual ethics in this way was in 1987. In that year, the ‘Higton Motion’ was passed by General Synod, which affirmed the Church’s traditional teaching on sexual ethics and marriage. Revd John Dunnett, National Director, Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC), said: “This motion matters. While it might be viewed by some as committing General Synod to ‘nothing in particular’, this motion shows that the revisionists will find new and different ways to continually push their agenda – away from Scripture, away from our Church’s doctrine and towards liberal change – even when the House of Bishops is not doing so. And were the motion to find support it could be seen as paving the way for further change. “The big question is how the bishops and indeed the new Archbishop will respond. Will the Archbishop see it as an opportunity to allow Synod to express its mind, or would she prefer the process to be steered by the House of Bishops, and therefore encourage her colleagues to vote against the motion?” Around the Communion, Dunnett cautions, the overwhelming response would be one of both sadness and despair. “News of this motion will evoke a sad and negative response from across the Communion”, Dunnett concluded. “The Global South Fellowship of Anglicans and GAFCON would undoubtedly be concerned by the motion, and its passing would increase the impaired nature of relationships between the majority Anglican Communion and the Church of England.” The Evangelical Group on General Synod (EGGS) will be working to defeat the motion in as an effective way as possible. The February 2026 General Synod motion has committed the House of Bishops to forming a group which will carry forward the LLF trajectory – an initiative which could be of even greater threat to the apostolic understanding of marriage and sexual ethics upon which the Church of England has always been built. For more click here: https://anglicanmainstream.org/article/report-of-ceec-summits/ END

Bishop Charles (Chip) Edgar | Anglican Diocese of South Carolina By Arlie Coles I THE LIVING CHURCH I May 19, 2026 As the Anglican Church in North America’s yearly governance meeting approaches, the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina has proposed resolutions seeking “justice and transparency” in the denomination, the diocese’s standing committee announced on May 15. The ACNA’s Provincial Council is slated to meet in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 17-19 to conduct annual business and consider comprehensive reform to the church’s Title IV disciplinary canons. The Council’s gathering will be its first since the ecclesiastical acquittal of the Rt. Rev. Stewart Ruch, who had been accused of neglect in handling abusive ministers in his Diocese of the Upper Midwest. Bishop Ruch’s closed and virtual trial fell into difficulties when two provincial prosecutors—one from South Carolina—accused a presiding court member of judicial misconduct and resigned mid-proceedings. South Carolina’s proposed resolutions, whose texts are not yet published, promote the public release of the transcript of the Ruch trial, and of the eventual findings of a third-party review of the trial’s procedural handling. The review was commissioned by the church in March. “We are seeking to build a coalition of other ACNA dioceses who share our concerns about the work of the Court for the Trial of a Bishop and the importance of transparency,” the standing committee wrote of the resolutions in a letter to diocesan clergy. The unicameral Provincial Council is largely composed of diocesan delegations, each including the bishop ordinary, one cleric, and two lay persons. Matters are decided by a majority vote of its 119 members, according to the Council’s rules. ACNA spokeswoman Marion Ahlers confirmed to The Living Church that the church’s Executive Committee, which sets the Council’s agenda, had received South Carolina’s resolutions and would consider them during its May 19 meeting. The ACNA’s canons provide two paths for groups other than its Executive Committee to send an item for the Council’s consideration before it meets. Any ten delegates may add a matter to the agenda, or a diocese may “refer” a matter to the Council, but exercising either path is uncommon. South Carolina’s effort to discuss the release of the Ruch trial transcripts and third-party review findings through the Council marks its second attempt to have the documents published. If the resolutions claim to effect the release of the documents by their enactment, it also could represent a first test of provincial legal interpretation regarding the power of the Council as the church’s constitutionally designated “governing body.” In February, the diocese’s standing committee had asked the ACNA’s Executive Committee to commit to the documents’ release when negotiating the scope of the review, but the Executive Committee replied that it was improper for a single diocese to make the request, and that no entity could order the court to release any documents. Under provincial interpretation, “the canons do not grant the Provincial Council the authority to oversee the Court or its judicial proceedings,” but the Council does have “canonical authority to ‘deliberate upon matters affecting the interests of the Church’ and may consider resolutions accordingly,” Ahlers told TLC. Controversies of constitutional or canonical interpretation have previously been decided by the ACNA’s Provincial Tribunal, a court created for that purpose and without analog in the Episcopal Church. Several individuals sitting on the seven-member court have a connection to the Ruch procedures at the crux of any potential dispute. Of the Tribunal’s judges, the Rt. Rev. Chip Edgar (South Carolina) signed his standing committee’s announcement in support of releasing the trial transcript and review findings; the Rt. Rev. Alex Cameron (Pittsburgh) served as chair of Bishop Ruch’s standing committee during Ruch’s leave of absence pending trial; and the Rt. Rev. Phil Ashey (Western Anglicans) delivered remarks defending the court’s procedural actions in a May 2 lecture on ecclesiastical justice. The Rt. Rev. Alan Hawkins (Christ Our Hope), who sits as an alternate, also led oversight of the provincial investigation into Ruch now being reviewed. The South Carolina standing committee also criticized Bishop Ashey for other comments he made during the lecture that “prognosticat[ed] about the outcome” of the pending case against Archbishop Steve Wood and “promoted falsehood” about its complainants. Ashey is advising Wood as he awaits trial on canonical charges of personal and sexual misconduct. In a lengthy retraction sent to the church’s bishops a week later, Ashey apologized for his speculation that Wood would be exonerated and for his “inaccurate” portrayal of the complainants, some of whom now belong to the Diocese of South Carolina, as “aggrieved” terminated employees. Of the complainants formerly employed under Wood at St. Andrew’s Church, Mount Pleasant, none were terminated, and all resigned, though Wood asked most of them to stay, one complainant told TLC. While the province contends that the Council is without authority to govern the court’s protocols with regard to the Ruch documents, the Council’s main item of business at its June meeting will be a vote on a comprehensive Title IV revision that fully restructures the church’s disciplinary bodies and their procedures. If passed, the new canons will phase out the current seven-member Court for the Trial of a Bishop and replace it with a tribunal from which smaller panels are drawn, and will introduce norms of public trial procedure=—two features also found in Episcopal Church canons. In January, the ACNA’s College of Bishops called for a special meeting of the church’s Provincial Assembly, a second body that typically meets only every five years to ratify canonical changes passed by the Council, to be held a week after this year’s Council meeting “to ensure these disciplinary reforms can be implemented immediately.” The bishops also “voted unanimously” with the Executive Committee to prohibit Council members from amending the reforms from the floor, according to a communiqué from the church’s Governance Task Force. “Meetings of the Provincial Council are not really a good forum for wordsmithing changes on the fly,” ACNA chancellor Bill Nelson said of the prohibition at a February town hall. “And this is particularly true in the case of a highly integrated set of canons … that have been the subject of great study, comment, and revision by the entire province for a full year.” The Council’s current rules provide no mechanism for forbidding floor amendment, but the prohibition would become codified if Council members also vote to adopt a proposed rule that bans floor amendments to any proposed canonical revision, reaching beyond the current Title IV initiative. “Motions to amend the Constitution & Canons shall be subject to an up or down vote,” the proposed rule reads. Some have called for further amendments notwithstanding the potential rule. The Rev. Matthew Wilcoxen and the Rev. Elijah Lovejoy, delegates to the Council and Assembly respectively, published two intended amendments to the Title IV revision in a blog post on May 17. The two priests seek to place an alternate proposal, identical to the original but for their further changes concerning pastoral care and guidance for clergy respondents, before the Council as a separate item of business rather than by revising the proposal during floor debate. “The [Governance Task Force] has proposed for us a much stronger Title IV. While we should have real gratitude for that, the Provincial Council need not simply rubber stamp it as it is,” Wilcoxen and Lovejoy wrote. “They should exercise their canonically given agency to amend it where it clearly needs improving.” Growing bottom-up efforts to govern the ACNA by acts of its Council come amid other pending measures that may further clamp down on individual delegates’ ability to legislate. An amendment passed by last year’s Council, up for potential ratification by this year’s Assembly, will create a Provincial Constitution and Canons Committee that is appointed by the Archbishop and Executive Committee, is not composed of Council members, and will have exclusive authority to regulate how or if future amendments are presented to the Council for a vote. The multidirectional momentum surrounding the coming governance meetings demonstrates the church’s persistently competing visions of who should decide how clergy misconduct issues are handled, even as it prepares to try its primate. The Council and Assembly gatherings in June will fall between the second set of pretrial hearings in the matter of Archbishop Wood, scheduled for May 20, and the beginning of his ecclesiastical trial, scheduled for July 20. Arlie Coles is a lay Anglican from the Diocese of Dallas who writes about modern Episcopal history and polity. She is also a machine-learning researcher serving on General Convention’s Task Force on Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property.

COMMENTARY By David W. Virtue, DD I www.virtueonline.org I May 20, 2026 It is an old axiom. Pride goeth before a fall. The real sin of ACNA is pride, not just its collective sins. Proud that we are not like TEC. Proud that we have not embraced pansexuality. Proud that ACNA is growing and TEC is not. Proud that we are orthodox and TEC is heterodox. In a nutshell, proud that we are not like them. Of course, ACNA is trying desperately hard not to break up over women’s ordination, and the denomination is trying desperately hard to define itself — are we conciliar or confessional? But pride is a poor foundation for any church, and ACNA is discovering this the hard way. The irony is almost too rich to ignore. ACNA was born out of a righteous rejection of The Episcopal Church’s apostasy — and that origin story, noble as it was, has become something of a golden calf. We tell the story of our founding so often, and with such satisfaction, that we have begun to confuse the act of leaving with the act of arriving. Separation from error is not the same as arrival at truth. It is merely the beginning of the journey. The women’s ordination question is Exhibit A. ACNA has managed to hold together Anglo-Catholics who regard female ordination as an ontological impossibility and evangelicals who regard opposition to it as mere tradition dressed up as theology. That is not a settlement — it is a ceasefire. And ceasefires, as history teaches, have a way of breaking down at the worst possible moment, usually when the combatants are already exhausted from fighting on other fronts. The conciliar versus confessional question cuts even deeper. A conciliar church derives its authority from gathered episcopal consensus. A confessional church derives it from agreed doctrine. These are not merely different polities — they are different ecclesiologies, and they produce different answers to almost every hard question a church will eventually face. ACNA has tried to be both, and in trying to be both, risks being neither. Meanwhile, the Diocese of the Western Gulf Coast reminds us that the structural tensions within ACNA are not theoretical. When an episcopal election becomes contested enough to require referral to the House of Bishops, it reveals something the denomination’s boosters would prefer not to dwell on: that the same politicking, the same factionalism, the same institutional gamesmanship that drove faithful Anglicans out of TEC has not been left behind. It traveled with the luggage. And then there is the wreckage at the top of the house itself. Archbishop Steve Wood — elected to lead ACNA with such fanfare in June 2024 — now stands suspended from ordained ministry, facing an ecclesiastical trial scheduled for July 2026 on charges of violation of ordination vows, conduct giving just cause for scandal, and sexual immorality. The man appointed to manage the crisis, Bishop Julian Dobbs, carries his own shadow: longstanding allegations of financial irregularities involving missing chaplaincy funds, matters previously investigated, “resolved,” and now resurrected with a vengeance in federal court filings. A church that left TEC in large part because of its failure to hold leaders accountable now finds itself struggling to do precisely that — and doing so in the full glare of the Washington Post, Baptist News Global, and the federal judiciary. The litigation involving the Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy is perhaps the most instructive episode of all. Bishop Derek Jones, after being inhibited by the very archbishop now facing trial himself, departed ACNA entirely, launched a rival denomination — the Anglican Reformed Catholic Church — and filed a million-dollar lawsuit against the church alleging trademark infringement and unfair commercial competition. The JAFC’s chaplaincy operation, which gave ACNA a military presence wildly disproportionate to its size — roughly twenty times more per capita than the Southern Baptist Convention — has now become a weapon pointed back at the denomination. One is left with a portrait almost too grim for satire: the man accused of stealing money (Dobbs) disciplining the man accused of sexual misconduct (Wood), while battling the man who accused him of stealing money (Jones), who was himself suspended by the man accused of misconduct. This is not biblical order. It is a Shakespearean tragedy dressed in clerical collars. None of this is to say ACNA is without merit, or that its founding was not necessary. It was. But a church that defines itself primarily by what it is not — not TEC, not pansexual, not heterodox — will eventually have to reckon with what it actually is. That reckoning, long deferred, may now be arriving. Pride goeth before a fall. The cure is not self-flagellation but repentance — genuine, corporate, and costly. ACNA would do well to remember that orthodoxy is not an achievement to be celebrated. It is a gift to be stewarded, humbly, and before God. If you want to read more stories by this writer you can click here: www.virtueonline.org END

Issued by The Oxford Centre for Religion and Public Life (with permission from Dr Sookhdeo’s family) Anglican Mainstream I May 19, 2026 The board of the Oxford Centre for Religion and Public Life heard with great sadness the news of the death (May 18) of Dr Patrick Sookhdeo at the age of 79. Dr Sookhdeo was Executive Director of OCRPL, and Founder of Barnabas Fund, now called Barnabas Aid. Dr Sookhdeo’s family came to the UK in the 1950s from Guyana. He left his Islamic background and became a Christian at the age of about 16 or 17. He studied at London Bible College where he met his wife to be, Rosemary, who had come from New Zealand. Together they founded In Contact Ministries ( later called Servants Fellowship International) in 1975 in St Andrew’s. a redundant church building in Plaistow, East London to promote evangelism and compassionate ministries in multi-cultural urban contexts. In 1989 he created the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity. He and Rosemary also founded the Barnabas Fund to give practical help to persecuted Christians around the world. In 2000 he obtained a doctorate from the London School of Oriental and African Studies. He is the author, co-author or editor of over 40 books. Nic Ng from Olive Aid Malaysia said: “Dr Sookhdeo dedicated much of his life to a cause that the world too often overlooks – the suffering and persecuted Church. His deep compassion for Christians facing hardship, discrimination, and persecution across the globe was the driving force behind the work he helped establish here in South East Asia through Olive Aid Trust. Dr Sookhdeo once said ‘My inspiration has always been Barnabas, the encourager. Who stood up for the suffering saints of the early Church’”. Bishop Yassir Eric, presiding bishop over the Anglican Church’s Global Ekkios diocese for Muslim Background Believers and an OCRPL Board member, said: “I will always remember his love and concern for believers from Muslim backgrounds. He stood with us, encouraged us, strengthened us, and gave dignity and attention to many of us whom many others overlooked… His legacy will endure. His witness will endure. His love for Christ and His Church will continue to bear fruit.” Metropolitan Philoxenus Mattias Nayis, the Patriarchal Vicar of the Archdiocese Germany of the Syrian Orthodox Church wrote: “During some of the most painful years endured by the peoples of Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and the Middle East in general he stood steadfastly beside the poor, the displaced, the persecuted and the needy” In recent years Dr Sookhdeo developed and grew the Oxford Centre for Religion and Public Life which had been founded in Oxford in 2005. It currently runs theological training for people in grassroots ministries in Africa and Asia, as well as graduate programmes at Masters level with the North Eastern Christian University, Nagaland, India and a doctoral programme with Stellenbosch University in South Africa, providing theologically orthodox, biblical leaders for parts of the church ravaged by persecution, war, migration and natural disasters: indeed a fitting legacy for him, providing for the persecuted church into the future! In the midst of this great loss, the Trustees of the OCRPL entrust Rosemary, his family and colleagues into the care and sustaining power of the Lord whom Patrick loved and served with energy, integrity, and self-sacrifice: . ‘Rest eternal grant unto him O Lord and may light perpetual shine upon him.’ Further information can be obtained from Canon Dr Chris Sugden, Secretary and Acting Chair of OCRPL via csugden@ocrpl.org

By Josep M. Rosselló I May 15, 2026 On Tuesday, April 28, 2026, the Anglican Network in Europe (GAFCON) convened its Annual General Meeting (General Synod), marking a significant milestone in the life of our province-in-formation. With representatives from all three dioceses—the Anglican Convocation in Europe, the Anglican Mission in England, and the Anglican Missionary Congregations Europe—the meeting was characterized by a spirit of profound unity and a shared vision for the re-evangelization of Europe. A key highlight of the Synod was the re-election of three members to the Standing Committee. We are delighted to announce that Keith Robertson, Amaka Ani, and Francis Olaniyi have been elected to serve a three-year term. These individuals bring a wealth of experience and a deep commitment to the Gospel. We invite the whole Church to join us in prayer for them as they take up these vital roles in governing and supporting our shared mission. The Rt. Rev. Andy Lines, our Presiding Bishop, delivered a powerful and encouraging report that resonated deeply with those in attendance. Bishop Andy highlighted the remarkable growth of the Anglican Network in Europe, noting that what began as a small seed is now flourishing into a robust witness across multiple nations. “We are seeing the fruit of our labour under God in the growth of new plants and the revitalization of existing communities,” Bishop Andy remarked. “However, growth brings its own set of challenges. We must remain agile, ready to adapt our structures to meet new opportunities while remaining anchored in the unchanging truth of the Holy Scriptures.” The Financial Report provided further cause for thanksgiving. The Synod heard that the Anglican Network is currently meeting its financial needs, a witness to the generosity of our dioceses, congregations and members. However, the report was not merely about the present; it outlined strategic steps being taken to ensure the Network is financially resilient and “future-ready.” By building a sustainable foundation now, we are ensuring that the next generation of church planters and pastors will have the resources they need to thrive. The meeting also focused on the essential “scaffolding” that supports our mission. Synod received a comprehensive update on the ongoing work regarding our Constitution and Canons, ensuring our legal framework is robust and fit for purpose as we move toward full provincial status. Equally vital was the Safeguarding Report. The Synod reaffirmed that the care and protection of the vulnerable are at the very heart of our Christian witness. The report detailed the standards and training currently in place across the three dioceses, ensuring our churches remain safe spaces for all to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. As the meeting drew to a close, there was a palpable sense that the Anglican Network in Europe is entering a new chapter. So, a time of prayer was taken to pray for the work of the three dioceses. We leave this Synod emboldened by the Lord’s faithfulness and ready to face the challenges of 2026 and beyond, always for the expansion of the Gospel and the glory of God. “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21) Bishop Josep M. Rosselló is the Assistant Bishop of ACE, a diocese of the Anglican Network in Europe

Press Release Anglicans For Life® FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 18, 2026 Are Priests Prepared to Baptize a Clone? Ambridge, PA – May 1, 2026 – As the world of bioethics advances faster than the church is teaching about issues such as artificial wombs, designer babies, surrogacy, and genetic selection, Anglicans For Life (AFL) is launching a new website on June 1. This website is dedicated to providing clear Biblical guidance for clergy when addressing complex bioethical questions. Church members are already wrestling with difficult life-and-death issues, including infertility treatments, the moral status of leftover human embryos, and end-of-life care for aging parents. These decisions are being made in every congregation — whether or not parishioners bring their questions to their priest. “The greatest ethical challenge of our time is not simply what we can do with technology and medicine, but who we are as human beings,” said Emma Waters, bioethics policy analyst and consultant for the new website. “In an age of technological utopianism, the Church must proclaim the good news of Biblical anthropology: that human beings are created in the image of God, with inherent worth, purpose, and dignity.” Canon Georgette Forney, President of Anglicans For Life, added: “The mission of the new website is to apply Biblical principles to life, technology, and medicine, equipping Christians to navigate today’s bioethical challenges with wisdom. We uphold the inherent dignity of every human life and advocate for the responsible stewardship of technology and medical advancements in alignment with God’s design for human flourishing.” Anglicans For Life is developing AnglicanBioethics.org as a stand-alone educational resource for the Anglican Communion. By offering Biblical, technical, and pastoral insights about each topic, the site aims to give clergy greater confidence to teach, preach, and counsel parishioners with godly wisdom, grace, and mercy. Anglicans For Life is celebrating the launch of the new Anglican Bioethics Center website with special reveal events on Tuesday, June 2 and June 9, in co-operation with Trinity Anglican Seminary’s June Term classes. (311 11th Street, Ambridge, PA 15003 in the Commons Hall) In addition to presentations by Emma Waters (June 2) and C. Ben Mitchell (June 9), the event will start at 5:30 pm and conclude by 7:15 pm and include pizza, salads, and fun prizes! The final hour (6:15–7:15 pm) will also be livestreamed on Anglicans For Life’s Facebook page. RSVP here. Anglicans For Life is the only para-church ministry in the Anglican Communion that equips and enables local congregations to provide Life-Affirming outreach and ministry, while educating and offering pastoral resources on the Sanctity of Life, including abortion, assisted suicide, adoption, sexual risk avoidance, and bioethics. For a video on more regarding this topic click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ThkJCEkrgk Media Contact: The Rev. Canon Georgette Forney, President, Anglicans For Life 412-749-0455 Georgette@AnglicansForLife.org (mailto:Georgette@AnglicansForLife.org) AnglicansForLife.org

COMMENTARY By David W. Virtue, DD I www.virtueonline.org I May 18, 2026 A Wisconsin priest has surveyed thousands of Episcopal churches in an effort to pinpoint what fuels growth. The Episcopal News Service, the official publication of The Episcopal Church documents the launching of the Rev. Chris Corbin’s project with backing from Forward Movement called the Growing Episcopal Churches Study. In it, he already has obtained survey responses from hundreds of Episcopal churches, and hopes to potentially hear from thousands more, to help pinpoint what factors makes some “bright spots” churches thrive compared to others. You can read the article here: https://episcopalnewsservice.org/2026/05/13/wisconsin-priests-survey-of-thousands-of-churches-aims-to-pinpoint-what-fuels-growth/ VOL believes the article’s results are severely deficient in a number of areas. What the Article Gets Right (in part). The article does contain one notable nod toward biblical faithfulness. Scott Gunn quotes the Great Commission indirectly, saying Forward Movement has "a mandate from the gospel to make disciples of all nations." He also states that the goal is to "transform lives through encounters with the living and true God." These are encouraging phrases on the surface. Where the Article Falls Short 1. Growth is framed primarily in institutional terms. The central concern of the study is attendance numbers, membership figures, and survey data. The metrics used — average Sunday attendance, bounce-back rates, decline groups — treat church health as something measurable by sociological methods rather than by faithfulness to Scripture and the proclamation of the gospel. 2. The Great Commission is absent as a driving theological framework. While Gunn briefly mentions making disciples, the article never seriously engages with Matthew 28:18-20 as the reason the church exists. There is no discussion of repentance, faith, conversion, baptism into Christ, or obedience to His commands — the actual content of the Great Commission. 3. The gospel itself is undefined. The article mentions "the gospel message" and "advancing the gospel" multiple times, but never defines what that gospel is. In biblical terms, the gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). Without that definition, "gospel" becomes an empty word that can mean anything. 4. Spiritual growth is reduced to felt needs. The 2018 RenewalWorks report cited in the article found that Episcopalians "hunger for spiritual enrichment but don't always find it." The response was to identify catalysts like "engagement with Scripture" and "a deeper prayer life" — which are good things — but framed around consumer satisfaction rather than biblical discipleship and evangelism. 5. No mention of sin, repentance, or salvation. A biblically faithful article about church growth would inevitably grapple with the church's call to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins (Luke 24:47). None of that appears here. The Deeper Problem: Ideology Over Orthodoxy The article reflects a broader issue within The Episcopal Church: the tendency to address decline through organizational strategy rather than theological renewal. If a church is shrinking, the biblical question is whether it is faithfully preaching the Word and making disciples. That question is never seriously asked here. True church growth, as the New Testament presents it, flows from the proclamation of Christ crucified and risen, the work of the Holy Spirit, and obedience to the Great Commission — not from survey methodology alone. The article does reflect a pattern common in mainline Protestant decline — addressing symptoms through data and strategy while sidestepping the deeper theological questions about faithfulness to Scripture and the Great Commission. But there is an even deeper problem that the article studiously avoids — the theological and moral revolution that The Episcopal Church has undergone over the past three decades, and its catastrophic effect on church growth. Pansexuality, Gay Marriage, and Church Decline The Episcopal Church formally approved same-sex marriage rites in 2015. Rather than stemming decline, the years following that decision have seen accelerating membership losses. The denomination has shed roughly 500,000 members in a single decade, dropping to 1.5 million total members in 2023. Average Sunday attendance has collapsed from 600,000 in 2014 to approximately 410,000 today — a loss of nearly one third of its worshipping congregation in less than ten years. The embrace of pansexuality and the normalization of same-sex marriage have not grown The Episcopal Church. They have emptied its pews. This is not a coincidence. When a church abandons the authority of Scripture on matters of human sexuality — clearly addressed in Genesis 1-2, Romans 1, and 1 Corinthians 6 — it sends an unmistakable signal that Scripture is negotiable. And when Scripture is negotiable on sexuality, it becomes negotiable on everything, including the gospel itself. Faithful Anglicans and orthodox Christians did not leave The Episcopal Church because they were indifferent. They left because they could no longer in good conscience remain in a body that had departed from biblical teaching. The Global Anglican Communion, represented by GAFCON and the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), exists largely as a direct response to The Episcopal Church's theological drift. Those bodies — committed to biblical orthodoxy — are growing. The Episcopal Church is not. The data speaks for itself. DEI Has Not Made Churches Grow The Episcopal Church has also invested heavily in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) frameworks, embedding them into its institutional culture, its hiring practices, and its theological discourse. Presiding Bishops and church leadership have repeatedly emphasized racial reconciliation, social justice, and institutional equity as central to the church's mission. These are not unimportant concerns. Scripture calls the church to justice and to welcome all peoples into the body of Christ. But DEI as an ideological framework is not the gospel. It does not address sin, it does not proclaim the atoning work of Christ, and it does not call men and women to repentance and faith. When DEI replaces evangelism as the animating mission of a congregation, the result is a church that is more focused on sociological categories than on the salvation of souls. The evidence is clear: DEI has not made Episcopal churches grow. It has given the institution a vocabulary for internal debates while the pews continue to empty. A church that spends its energy on land acknowledgments, pronoun policies, and anti-racism curricula — while neglecting the proclamation of Christ crucified and risen — has substituted the agenda of the culture for the mandate of the gospel. What Actually Grows Churches The New Testament is not silent on what produces genuine church growth. In Acts 2, the early church grew because the apostles preached Christ, called for repentance, and the Holy Spirit moved in power. Three thousand were added in a single day — not because of a survey, not because of a DEI initiative, but because the gospel was proclaimed with clarity and conviction. The churches that are genuinely growing today — whether evangelical, Pentecostal, or orthodox Anglican — share common characteristics: expository preaching of Scripture, a clear articulation of the gospel of sin and salvation, fervent prayer, personal evangelism, and a high view of the authority of the Bible. These are precisely the things The Episcopal Church has systematically marginalized. Conclusion The Growing Episcopal Churches Study may produce interesting sociological data. But no amount of survey methodology will address the root cause of Episcopal decline. That root cause is theological — a departure from the authority of Scripture, the uniqueness of Christ, and the Great Commission as the church's defining mandate. Until The Episcopal Church is willing to ask not just "what makes churches grow?" but "are we faithfully preaching the biblical gospel?" — no study, no strategy, and no institutional initiative will reverse its decline. True church growth, as the New Testament presents it, flows from the proclamation of Christ crucified and risen, the work of the Holy Spirit, and obedience to the Great Commission. It cannot be manufactured by sociological research. It must be received as the fruit of faithfulness to the Word of God. David W. Virtue is the founder and editor of VirtueOnline, the leading orthodox Anglican news and commentary site.

The Ascension means Caesar is not lord. The state is not lord. The market is not lord. Ideology is not lord. Technology is not lord. Nations rise and fall, rulers come and go, civilizations flourish and decay, yet above them all reigns the ascended Christ. — Rev. Dr. Ronald Moore Christianity is in its very essence a resurrection religion. The concept of resurrection lies at its heart. If you remove it, Christianity is destroyed. — John Stott The mainline churches became too much like a country club. With just a little bit of Jesus sprinkled on top. They didn't take Jesus seriously enough, and a lot of people said, "Well, why don't we go to the country club then? We'll have more fun, and I can drink there." Mainline churches catering to things in society, such as same-sex marriage and transgenderism, are also contributing factors. — Ryan Burge There are only two possible ends to human existence: living for oneself alone, or living for the transcendent Other, and through him for all others. — John Doherty, the Witherspoon Institute The Church of England today produces almost no significant theological work that is recognizably orthodox. Its intellectual energy goes into managing diversity, navigating competing truth-claims, and finding language capacious enough to hold together people who disagree on everything fundamental. This is not theology. It is conflict management costume-playing in vestments. — Gavin Ashenden The Gospel has been undermined by occultism. Consider Bishop James Pike's involvement with mediums, Bishop William Swing's syncretism inspired by a Hindu swami, Bishop John Spong's heresies inspired by his involvement with the Theosophical Society, and Gene Robinson's flagrant disregard for the authority of Scripture inspired by "Queer Occultism." — Alice Linsley Denominations that embrace the evangelical/born-again identification and those that don't. Assemblies of God is most likely to ID as evangelical: 92%. The mainline is all below 40%. Episcopalians are the lowest: 13%. — Ryan Burge Protestantism is Christianity stripped of Roman Catholic excess and man-made superstition. It is not megachurches, strobe lights, or smoke machines. True Protestantism is grounded in strict, Bible-centered belief. The Reformers did not invent something new. They returned the Church to what it was always meant to be. Female archbishops, LGBTQ flags, and dancing vicars do not represent Protestantism. — The English Remnant Dear Brothers and Sisters | www.virtueonline.org | May 15, 2026 THE STRANGE MELANCHOLY When Alexis de Tocqueville visited America in the 19th century, he observed that despite our prosperity, there was a "strange melancholy in the midst of abundance." Fast forward to the 1990s. In Fight Club, Tyler Durden captured his generation's growing sense of discontent: We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War is a spiritual war. Our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars, but we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off. Skip ahead to today. Most Americans have luxuries that the prosperous in the 1800s couldn't imagine and the movie gods of the 1990s only dreamed of: supercomputers in our pockets, AI to do our bidding, entertainment always at our fingertips. And yet amid this abundance, Tocqueville's "strange melancholy" persists. Deaths of despair have reached alarmingly high levels. Loneliness has been declared a public health epidemic. Student mental health has never been worse. And, like Durden, many of us are regularly pissed off. Psychologist Richard Beck sums it up: The data is pretty clear. While America is the most affluent nation in the history of the world, our rates of anxiety, depression, suicide, and addiction are all skyrocketing. We're not doing well. We are a deeply unwell society. This raises an urgent question: What's the matter with us? We could blame many culprits — the rise of the smartphone, the media, those "other" people. Yet each of these points to a deeper underlying problem. As Andrew Root argues, something more fundamental is worth a closer look: the way we're pursuing happiness. The Way of Disappointment In a million subtle ways, we're told that personal fulfillment is something we can win. Happiness is something we can achieve — if we just put in the work. Whatever we think will make us happy, we can go after it and get it. The pressure starts early and never lets up in our modern meritocracy. "You can be happy by way of marriage if you just find the perfect spouse." "You can have the family, the career, the body of your dreams, if you just ___." But what happens if you fail? If you can't rise through the ranks? Either you're a loser with no one to blame but yourself for not measuring up, or you find someone, some group, some system to blame as the oppressor. If you can't play the winner, playing the victim at least deals with the guilt. Or what happens when you do achieve your dreams — get the job, find the right spouse, accomplish everything you set out to do — and still have a gnawing sadness that won't go away? Then what? As Westerners, we typically respond to these letdowns in one of two ways. We dig deeper, grind harder. We jump on the achievement treadmill — move faster, work harder, fill up the schedule, get people to like us, prove to everybody that we're somebody. Until we burn out. Or we cope by quitting. We binge on Netflix. We attach our self-worth to a college football team. We shop, scroll, drink, or do whatever we can to escape the burden and boredom of life. Sometimes we do both in the same day and call it "work-life balance." Here's the paradox: you can't find true happiness by aiming for it. You can only discover it by living a life worth living. We live in sad times because we don't know who we are as humans, or how to live worthily. The Psalter offers us another way — a way to attend to life and answer the question "What's the point?" Psalm 8 is a gateway to that answer, inviting everyone to a new and life-giving way to live into our humanity. The Way of Worship Psalm 8 begins: "O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens" (v. 1). The Psalms offer a way of life centered on God. We're called into the worship of the God whose name fills the earth and whose glory towers above the heavens. Theologians describe this dynamic as God's immanence and transcendence. God is wholly different from us. His glory surpasses anything we can compare it to — the most majestic mountains, the most beautiful flower, the most riveting story, the thrill of a first kiss. None of it compares. And yet, as Augustine says, "God is closer to you than you are to yourself." He knows you better than you know yourself. Worshiping God releases us from the trap of self-focus. It frees us to live according to the logic of the universe. When I say worship, I mean the raw and beautiful diversity of worship we see throughout the Psalms: telling God our sadness, confessing our sins, arguing with him, praising him for his goodness and majesty. Instead of navel-gazing our way through life, we're pulled out of ourselves — and begin radiating outward, reflecting our Creator and Father. (H/T TGC) AI: GIFT AND THREAT Barna reports the following: 66 percent of practicing Christians say AI is improving their lives, yet 57 percent also say AI is a threat. Gen Z and Millennials are particularly sensitive to the rise of AI as a high risk. Pastors diverge sharply from the Christians they lead: 72 percent of pastors say AI is a threat, compared to 57 percent of practicing Christians. Seventy-two percent of American teenagers are already turning to AI for companionship. That's not just extreme cases or troubled kids — that's three in four teenagers going to a machine for connection. And it doesn't stop with teens. More and more people are turning to AI than to clubs, churches, or other social spaces. There's a married man in your church who's said more to a chatbot in six months than to his wife. And to him, it's not a problem. He's just processing. Right? Besides, his marriage went flat years ago. CHURCH OF ENGLAND: ON LIFE SUPPORT Private Eye reports that the Church of England is a very unhealthy organization. Their account: "When the new Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally glances around the House of Bishops at its next meeting, she may be forgiven for wondering where everyone has gone. Of the 42 dioceses in the Church of England, seven have no bishop in post, two more are suspended, one is on long-term sick leave, and a further five bishops have set a retirement date. For more than a third of dioceses to be effectively vacant is unprecedented in modern times. "The Crown Nominations Commission, which appoints diocesan bishops, is used to appointing three or at most four each year. No doubt they will find 16 ambitious clergy willing to step up to the top jobs. But finding so many at once may require scraping of the talent barrel." With a population close to 62 million and only one million regular worshipping Anglicans — average weekly attendance just over 702,000 — the Church of England has nothing to boast about. There are some 3.1 million practicing Muslims in England today with an average age of 24. You might be forgiven for thinking Christianity is dead on arrival. King Charles has made it clear he is the king of all faiths, not the Faith. If someone quietly padlocked Lambeth Palace, would anybody notice? Would anybody really care? One doubts it. ACNA: WAGONS IN A CIRCLE Are the wheels coming off the ACNA? It certainly appears that way. The bishops are circling the wagons before Archbishop Steve Wood's trial has even begun. Bishop Phil Ashey of the Diocese of Western Anglicans put his foot none too gently in his mouth when he delivered a statement wrapped in canonical legalese, declaring that Wood might be exonerated of the sexual charges. When confronted by acting Dean Julian Dobbs, Ashey immediately backtracked and issued an apology. But the damage had been done — revealing just how close-knit the ACNA House of Bishops is, and what they will do to keep that club together no matter what. They succeeded with Bishop Stewart Ruch. Will they succeed with Wood? Time will tell. Read more: Wagons in a Circle: The Architect Defends the Archbishop ACNA Bishop Issues Apology for Saying Archbishop Wood Should Be Exonerated Hearings to Begin in ACNA Primate's Trial What Bishop Ashey Withdrew — and What He Did Not At the same time, ACNA faces a deeper crisis of identity: Who and what is the ACNA? I invited a theologian and a canon lawyer to address the question directly — Is the ACNA a confessional body or a body governed by conciliarism? Canon theologian Chuck Collins and canon lawyer Phil Ashey duke it out for the soul of the church here: Confessional or Conciliar: The Battle for ACNA's Soul THE ABUJA CONTRADICTION: THREE VIEWS Global Anglicanism came in for serious attention this week when Jay Thomas, an Anglican priest in the Diocese of The South, published a scathing piece in First Things titled "Anglicans and the Abuja Contradiction." Thomas argues that the Abuja Affirmation marks a decisive rupture in Anglicanism, with GAFCON bishops effectively creating a second communion centered on the Jerusalem Declaration rather than the See of Canterbury. Though framed as a restoration of scriptural authority, the gathering produced not a reformed Anglicanism but a new institution with a Protestant confessional polity — one that claims to resolve the communion's fifty-year authority crisis while actually deepening it. His central charge: GAFCON condemns Canterbury's "hermeneutical pluralism" on sexuality while quietly tolerating the same disagreement within its own ranks on women's ordination. By enshrining this double standard, GAFCON has reproduced the very ecclesiological dysfunction it set out to cure. George Conger at Anglican Ink pushed back. Thomas's charge, Conger argues, collapses on inspection. Classical Anglicanism has always recognized hierarchies of doctrine — the Thirty-Nine Articles themselves distinguish between matters necessary to salvation and things indifferent — and GAFCON's position that sexuality touches core doctrines of creation and the moral law in ways that ministerial ordering does not is a recognizable exercise in Anglican theological triage, not incoherence. Thomas doesn't refute this distinction; he simply ignores it. More damaging still, his appeal to natural law and magisterial tradition as co-equal authorities with Scripture isn't classical Anglicanism at all — it's Anglo-Catholicism's rehabilitation of a dual-source theory of revelation that the English Reformers explicitly rejected in Articles VI and XX. And Thomas offers no workable alternative. "Reject the Abuja affirmations" — and then what? Submit to a Canterbury that has spent decades dismantling biblical teaching on sexuality? GAFCON didn't dissolve the Communion; Canterbury did — through the consecration of Gene Robinson, the blessing of same-sex unions, and the steady marginalization of orthodox voices. A Concerned Anglican responding at VOL goes further still. Conger's central counter-argument — that GAFCON's position mirrors the logic of the Elizabethan Settlement — is his most revealing error. The Elizabethan Settlement was not a principled theological achievement but a political accommodation that deliberately left the most contested questions unresolved. Comprehensiveness as a governing principle does not stay bounded by the intentions of those who first deployed it; it licenses progressive expansion of the tolerable. The broad churchmen of the 19th century and the revisionists of the 20th are not aberrations from the Settlement's logic — they are its eventual destination. GAFCON's designation of women's ordination as a second-order question is institutional arithmetic, not theological wisdom. Every province that proceeded from women's ordination to blessing same-sex unions did so with internal logical coherence. Canterbury did not abandon orthodoxy on sexuality despite accepting women's ordination; it did so because women's ordination had already installed the hermeneutical framework that made the next steps inevitable. The instrument that resolves this impasse, the Concerned Anglican argues, already exists within the Anglican tradition: the Vincentian Canon — quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus (what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all) — deployed by the Caroline Divines who gave Anglican theology its most durable intellectual architecture. Applied with rigor, it confirms sexual ethics as first-order: grounded in creation, confirmed by universal patristic consensus across East and West, never seriously contested in the undivided Church. Women's ordination fails the same test decisively. This is not a Roman position — Lancelot Andrewes deployed precisely this methodology against Bellarmine without being on his way to Rome. It is more authentically Anglican than either the Jerusalem Declaration's confessionalism or the Elizabethan Settlement's comprehensiveness. Read all three pieces: Anglicans and the Abuja Contradiction — Jay Thomas, First Things The Abuja Contradiction That Isn't — George Conger, Anglican Ink The Contradiction That Actually Isn't — A Concerned Anglican, VirtueOnline MISSIONS: THE NEW PARADIGM There is a new paradigm for missions sweeping over the Global South, especially in regions hard hit by Islamic fundamentalism. The old order of "come and hear" is over. "Go and tell" is the order of the day — but this begs the question of who is actually doing it. It is not bishops and most clergy, who prefer to see the rewards of other people's efforts, ending in performative behaviors that have very little to do with the gospel. Western Christian leaders have a 1950s approach to mission and it is not working. In a piece titled ACNA: Imagination Forfeited, I argue that ACNA's identity was essentially negative — not the Episcopal Church — and no movement has ever been catalyzed by negation. Ask ten ACNA clergy what Anglicanism is and receive ten answers: Anglo-Catholic, Reformed, Charismatic, Prayer Book conservative. Each coherent on its own terms, none of them the same thing. That is not a communion. It is a coalition, and coalitions held together by a common enemy dissolve the moment the enemy recedes. Every tradition requires a commonly owned confession — a shared understanding of its particular grace and calling. Without it, disintegration is not a risk. It is a destiny. We also assumed we would prevail because we were orthodox. But right beliefs held in the wrong spirit produce exactly what we have — a church confident in its legitimacy and uncertain of its purpose. We needed apostolic bishops freed from administration and devoted to catalyzing movement. Instead, we built a supervisory superstructure that consumed the resources mission required. Meanwhile the Spirit has been moving at remarkable scale — through Iran, China, and along the Swahili Coast, where High Church Anglicans with full liturgical inheritance and evangelical fire are multiplying communities of remarkable depth. They didn't choose between Anglican and apostolic. They refused the choice. We have mule churches. We need rabbit churches. Rabbits multiply; mules do not. The difference isn't resources or liturgy or episcopal order — it is apostolic imagination. Jesus never said make church members; he said make disciples. Disciples multiply movements. Church members maintain institutions. We have spent fifteen years doing the latter and wondering why nothing multiplies. What we need is not another summit or reorganization, but a network of networks: institutionally lean, missiologically alive, held together by a shared rule of life and apostolic imagination rather than diocesan machinery. The tradition is sufficient. The moment is still — barely — available. But not by doing what has never worked with greater enthusiasm. SAM ALLBERRY: WHAT THE CHURCH MUST LEARN Sam Allberry's fall from grace continues to reverberate around the Christian world, particularly in the Anglican Communion and the ACNA. An excellent take comes from Elizabeth Woning, writing for The Christian Post: Sam Allberry's recent moral failure has prompted reflection on a foundational question: how did activist pressure — rather than scientific research — come to reshape medical and cultural understanding of same-sex attraction? In the 1970s, LGBT activists successfully pressured the American Psychiatric Association to reclassify homosexuality, silencing dissenting clinicians in the process. That ideological victory established the framework we still operate within today — one that treats same-sex attraction as a fixed identity rather than an experience rooted in emotional and developmental history. The consequences of that framework are measurable and troubling. Despite decades of growing legal and social acceptance, LGBT-identifying populations continue to show disproportionately high rates of depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and suicidality — even in nations like the Netherlands with stronger civil protections than the U.S. A 2019 genome-wide study of nearly 500,000 individuals found no "gay gene," but did find genetic correlations between same-sex behavior and conditions like depression, anxiety, ADHD, and addiction — suggesting the distress is not simply a product of social stigma. What's missing is a more honest clinical approach — one that explores the formative and emotional dimensions of same-sex attraction the way a therapist would explore chronic depression, rather than simply affirming it as immutable identity. The CHANGED Movement exists because many people have found healing through exactly that kind of honest interior work, supported by faith. Sam Allberry's situation, like others before him, points not to inevitable failure but to the cost of a cultural narrative that forecloses deeper questions before they can even be asked. Read more at VirtueOnline SUPPORT VOL If you value what VOL provides, please consider a tax-deductible donation. This is a labor of love — but bills must be paid. There are no salaries, yet daily writing continues, and a webmaster, researcher, and overseas journalists must be supported. VOL has brought on new writers in 2026 with clear insights into Scripture and culture. We have no mega-donors and no grants — only faithful readers who believe in what we do. Tens of thousands trust us to cover the most pressing issues facing Anglicanism today; only a small percentage contribute financially. We have been at this for more than 35 years. Online: virtueonline.org/donate By check (tax-deductible): VIRTUEONLINE, P.O. Box 111, Shohola, PA 18458 Thank you for your faithful support. David

By Arlie Coles THE LIVING CHURCH May 6, 2026 The Anglican Church in North America’s Court for the Trial of a Bishop will hold hearings this week on the first pretrial motions filed in the disciplinary matter of the Most Rev. Steve Wood, according to a court announcement. Archbishop Wood, the denomination’s primate, was indicted on ecclesiastical charges of personal and sexual misconduct last December. His trial is scheduled to begin July 20. Four priests and seven laypeople filed a complaint against Wood last October, alleging that as bishop of the Diocese of the Carolinas and rector of St. Andrew’s Church in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, Wood plagiarized sermons, bullied staff, and made continual sexual advances toward a children’s ministry director. Wood has denied the allegations. The ACNA’s disciplinary system sets a denominational prosecutor against an accused bishop, who is tried by a neutral court of three bishops, two priests, and two adult confirmed church members. Before trial, both sides may make requests of the court by motion. Four motions—two from the defense and two from the prosecution—will be considered at a hearing on May 7, the court announced last week. The court plans to continue the hearing on May 20 if needed. The court will first consider a motion to dismiss the case entirely, filed by Wood’s defense in March. The court did not publish the text of the motion, but its rules say that defenses of this type may be made on the basis on poor service of papers, expiration of a statute of limitations, or failure by the prosecution to state specific accusations that would constitute a canonical violation. (ACNA canons set a statute of limitations at ten years preceding a complaint against a priest or deacon, with extension possible. There is no statute of limitations for complaints against bishops). If the court does not grant Wood’s motion to dismiss, it will also consider a second motion to close his trial to the public—potentially continuing the controversial practice from its previous trial of the Rt. Rev. Stewart Ruch. The private nature of that trial had prompted the bishop and standing committee of the ACNA’s Diocese of South Carolina to question the province’s interpretation of “open court,” a term used in the court’s rules. “‘Open court’ is a legal term of art generally understood to mean in public or non-confidential proceedings,” they wrote in a February letter to the province’s Executive Committee. “American jurisprudence for court and administrative hearings generally favor open proceedings with confidentiality and closed proceedings being applied only where necessary to protect identities of victims.” ACNA chancellor Bill Nelson, who is also chancellor of Wood’s Diocese of the Carolinas, expressed disagreement with the Diocese of South Carolina when asked about the term at a provincial Q&A on April 17. “In the secular law context, ‘open court’ often refers to proceedings open to the public, but can also refer to proceedings in which the full court is convened and all parties are represented and present, even when the public is not invited,” Nelson said. “We shouldn’t assume an ecclesiastical trial is going to be conducted in the same manner or follow the same norms as American secular courts.” The court will also consider two motions filed by provincial prosecutor Elizabeth Medley: a motion for the court to “Re-Establish Fairness,” which the province described as a request for the court to “take certain procedural actions to ensure a fair trial,” and a motion to disqualify the Rev. Canon Jeff Weber from serving as Wood’s defense counsel. While the basis of that motion has not been published, a connection between Weber and the procedural tumult of the Ruch trial has been publicly alleged. Weber, a North Carolina lawyer and priest in the Diocese of Christ Our Hope, was serving as the Presiding Officer of the court when the longtime provincial prosecutor, Alan Runyan, unexpectedly resigned mid-trial. Runyan accused Weber of bringing in evidence a previous court order had labeled off-limits, then using the evidence to improperly question a prosecution witness for an hour. Assistant prosecutor Rachel Thebeau also resigned a week later, alleging that Weber had colluded with the provincial office to access the evidence in her files. The Rt. Rev. Phil Ashey, who is acting as a canonical adviser to Archbishop Wood, defended the court’s actions under Weber at May 2 lecture on ecclesiastical justice. “The province did not forward all of the evidence, including exculpatory evidence, to the court,” Ashey said, “and the court decided … to exercise what courts frequently do in fact-finding, which is to subpoena the records.” As news broke in The Washington Post of the allegations against Archbishop Wood during the Ruch court’s deliberations, Weber published two blog posts decrying “trial by publicity” and “our age’s reluctance to swear under oath.” The posts coincided with a public swearing dispute between the provincial office and the complainants in the Wood case, and both themes appeared in the court’s acquittal of Ruch. The Ruch decision might be seen as precedent in the Wood case, though it is not clear whether Weber had already decided to represent Wood as the court deliberated. Weber stepped down from the court on January 21. Before the Ruch trial, Weber served with the Rt. Rev. Alan Hawkins (Diocese of Christ Our Hope) in leadership at Anglican 1000, the ACNA’s original church-planting arm. The state bar of North Carolina reprimanded him in 2019 for failing to communicate with a client whose settlement money he held as he closed his office, and for disclosing confidential information about the matter to the client’s husband against her wishes. In deciding the motion to disqualify Weber, the court will consider accused bishops’ rights under the church’s current Title IV disciplinary canons to be represented by counsel, which has typically meant counsel of their choice. Pending revisions to Title IV, which will be voted on by the ACNA’s legislative body this summer but which will not be in effect for the Wood matter, forbid former court members from serving as counsel for either side in new cases for three years. Given the numerous pretrial motions, Bishop Ashey expressed uncertainty that Wood’s trial would be concluded by the year’s end and said “a good chance” existed that Wood will be exonerated, characterizing the allegations as coming from church staff who “felt aggrieved by the manner in which they were terminated as employees.” The Post reported in October that Wood’s clergy complainants accused Wood of habitually “demean[ing] them or others” without reference to termination, and that the former children’s minister resigned after Wood allegedly attempted to kiss her in his office. Sources speaking contemporaneously to The Living Church described a known culture of clergy and employee turnover under Wood. Wood remains unofficially active in the diocese while his case pends, though he remains formally inhibited from ministry. “I’ve been receiving telephone calls from him on almost a weekly basis,” Ashey said, “and it almost always has to do with a question of compliance with the inhibition.” “It is a specific question, like ‘This person is my friend, but they’re also a leader in the church. I’ve been called to a dinner at their house. Can I go and actually have dinner with this longtime friend, as long as I say I can’t say anything about the trial?’ ‘I have a friend, you know, who is trying to provide economic relief and development to the poorest country in Africa, and he wants me to be an adviser and a fundraiser for him. I’m not wearing my collar. Can I do that?’” “Sometimes his attorneys will pass questions along to me about how the canons of the church currently operate,” Ashey said. As the denomination reviews the turbulent Ruch trial, prepares to try its archbishop, and plans to adopt comprehensive revisions to Title IV all at once, attention to navigating episcopal discipline is split between current and future canons. The Diocese of South Carolina, stressing that Wood’s trial “will come before this same court and follow these same procedures,” wrote that the ACNA should “learn as much as possible, and quickly, from what has already occurred so future proceedings may be received as just and credible.” “Some people have said, ‘Well, this shows that the whole system is rotten, and that we’re going to die, we’re going to fracture,’” Ashey added at his lecture. “Others have said, ‘Well, actually, the system is working because we have new legislation in front of us.’ You’ll have to decide for yourselves.” Arlie Coles is a lay Anglican from the Diocese of Dallas who writes about modern Episcopal history and polity. She is also a machine-learning researcher serving on General Convention’s Task Force on Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property.