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

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

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

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

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

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

By Rev. Dr. Chris Sugden https://anglicanmainstream.org/ Feb 5, 2025   With the resignation of Archbishop Welby and the Archbishop of York being under a cloud due to a failure in safeguarding, the Church of England appears to have lost moral authority. It is also riven with doctrinal differences, chiefly over the desire of many bishops to bless same-sex unions. All is not lost, however. Here Rev Canon Dr Chris Sugden explains how 2025 might pan out and notes developments that could encourage evangelicals   Archbishop Welby’s legacy is a mixture.   He introduced a centralised management process into the Church of England (C of E), with the House of Bishops taking a dominant role in shaping policies and proposals. Parishes have been amalgamated, and more diocesan officials appointed.  In response, a ‘Save the Parish’ movement has started to preserve a parish church and vicar in each community.   Preserving unity   Archbishop Welby also sought to preserve what he called ‘unity’ by making concessions to a small but powerful elite lobby, including some bishops, senior clergy and lay church officials. This lobby has been loudly pressing for over 20 years for concessions to a liberal lifestyle.   They wanted same sex relationships to be blessed and recognised in church services, and for clergy to enter same-sex marriage. However, their wishes do not match those of their parishioners; most parish congregations are by and large orthodox in belief and practice.   Red line   Under Welby, a ‘fudge’ was introduced in an attempt to keep everyone happy. It had the opposite effect and opened up divisions within the Anglican Communion. For most orthodox Anglicans, a red line was crossed in December 2023, when prayers for same sex couples within a regular service of worship were first permitted.   Welby’s reputation on the global stage has plummeted. He forfeited the allegiance of many Anglican Primates (the senior Archbishops in their countries), who represent the majority of Anglicans around the world. These international Archbishops have refused to acknowledge the Archbishop of Canterbury as the senior bishop in the Anglican Communion.   As a result, an international Anglican body has formally recommended that Welby’s successor as leader of the world’s Anglican Archbishops should not be the Archbishop of Canterbury but be chosen from the Primates.   Celibate lives   Meanwhile in England, orthodox clergy and lay leaders came together to form The Alliance, a network that represents the majority of Anglican churchgoers. It comprises the Holy Trinity Brompton (Alpha Course) network, the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC), Church Society, ReNew, New Wine, Forward in Faith (an Anglo-Catholic High Church network) and Living Out (people with same sex attraction who live celibate lives).   The objective of The Alliance is to achieve a parallel province in which orthodox congregations and clergy can be ‘overseen’ by orthodox bishops who stand for the traditional Anglican and biblical teaching on sex and marriage.   Despite the managerial moves in recent years, the Church of England is not a centralised organisation. Each parish is ‘independent’ and receives oversight and fellowship from its diocese.   Separate congregations   Some orthodox C of E clergy and lay people have left the national Church to form separate congregations, but remain Anglicans. They belong to the Anglican Network in Europe (ANIE), formed in 2013, which is part of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON). ANIE has its own bishops, who are recognised by many Anglican Primates around the world.   But the ANIE alternative arrangement cannot be a complete solution for all orthodox Anglicans. ANIE’s departure does indicate significant disagreement with the same-sex blessings that have been allowed to take place, but it is far from certain that the General Synod and House of Bishops would actually agree to recognise them.   Furthermore, many parish congregations are central to their local community life; they are in general orthodox and they would be unhappy about receiving a new ANIE bishop rather than their area or diocesan bishop. So while there may be internal disagreements over same-sex blessings, these parishes will not vote to leave the Church of England.   Bishops’ moves   At the time of writing, the House of Bishops has been working on a series of proposals to allow for same-sex blessings to take place in a separate church service, for same-sex marriages to take place in church and for clergy to be allowed to enter same-sex marriages. The bishops’ plan has been to get the General Synod to vote to accept all their proposals by a simple majority.   The orthodox objection to the House of Bishops’ current proposals is that such changes represent a change in the Church of England’s doctrine of marriage. A change of doctrine requires a two-thirds majority in all three ‘houses’ of the Synod: bishops, clergy and lay people.  The bishops know they will not be able to secure this because more than a third of laity and probably of the clergy members of Synod are against such a change.   Just this last month a press release from the House of Bishops indicated a delay in their process, noting that any proposals will not be ready for presentation in July. It is quite possible that the orthodox bishops in the ‘house’ have stood firm in their objections at the first meeting which will not have been chaired by Archbishop Welby.   Meanwhile speculation has developed about who will be the next Archbishop of Canterbury. The elite gay lobby is understood to be pushing the candidature of Bishop Guli Francis-Deqani, the Iranian-born British Bishop of Chelmsford since 2021, who would be the first woman Archbishop. She is known to be in favour of same-sex marriages.   What matters now is that the members of the Alliance, the orthodox bishops and clergy should remain firm in their stand for biblical teaching and practice.   Some parishes have gone so far as to send to the dioceses only the money they will then receive back from the diocese to cover the cost of their clergy. Normally all parishes contribute a ‘parish share’ to cover the expenses of the diocese as well.   Refusal to pay   The refusal to pay this is causing some dioceses significant financial pressure.  Some parishes have taken advantage of the overseers commissioned by the Alliance to provide oversight in place of their own ‘heterodox’ diocesan bishops.   But some evangelical clergy have been hesitant to take a stand as they want to be ‘nice’ to everyone and remain united. However, as Canon John Dunnett, the Executive Officer of the CEEC has written: “The question still remains as to ‘unity in or around what’. The unity that Jesus prayed for was not institutional…[or] based on the status quo.   “And unity in Scripture always goes hand-in-hand with truth. CEEC is absolutely committed to unity across cultures, continents and centuries with all those who hold to the apostolic faith as we have received it.”   Canon Dr Chris Sugden is chair of Anglican Mainstream, an orthodox network and website www.anglicanmainstream.org founded in 2003 to uphold biblical teaching, especially on sex and marriage. He is a Canon in the Anglican churches of both Nigeria and Ghana. He was part of the organising team of the first Global Anglican Future Conference in 2008

Demoralised clergy speak of church in freefall and crisis of trust in run-up to governing body meeting   By Harriet Sherwood THE GUARDIAN 8 Feb 2025   Mutiny may be in the air when the Church of England’s normally staid ruling body, the General Synod, meets for a five-day session next week.   The gathering of the 500-member church parliament follows a series of tumultuous events that have resulted in the unprecedented resignation of the archbishop of Canterbury, repeated calls for the archbishop of York to stand down, and the sudden departure of the bishop of Liverpool. Behind all are cases of abuse, alleged abuse and the church’s failure to deal with abuse.   In recent days, demoralised clergy have spoken of a church in freefall, a crisis of trust between grassroots members and the national leadership, serious reputational damage and a fear of more to come.   As a poll this week shows that only one in four members of the public have a favourable view of the C of E, some are asking if the church can ever again provide moral leadership. Even Stephen Cottrell, the archbishop of York and now de facto leader of the C of E, has acknowledged that people are “disgusted” by the country’s established church.   Amid rumours of a no-confidence motion in Cottrell, some female members of synod have written to the archbishop to say it is inappropriate for him to give the opening address on Monday in the circumstances. In response, Cottrell has promised to “make space for silence and prayer as well as offering reflections on how we can be a church which is more transparent and accountable”.   Behind the scenes, efforts are under way to secure fundamental change. Some church members are calling for parliamentary intervention or a royal commission to examine the C of E’s governance. Supporters of such a move say bishops and archbishops are unaccountable and inherently resistant to reform. “What’s needed is a higher authority to step in, and I don’t mean God,” said one.   Fr Robert Thompson, a London priest and synod member who was among those calling for Justin Welby to quit in November, said next week’s meeting would be very tense. “Synod is usually highly managed and controlled, but a lot of people feel this is part of the problem,” he said.   Some felt Cottrell was not the right person to steer the church through the crisis because there were many questions over his own failure to act against alleged abusers. “But because he has massive support among the bishops, he feels he can ride this out,” Thompson said.   Rev Alex Frost, a vicar in Burnley and another synod member, said there were “two parallel universes” in the C of E. “The hierarchy of the C of E that is in disarray, and the local churches that are going about their day-to-day ministry, doing their best against the backdrop of a church that seems to be in freefall,” he said. There had been a “huge breakdown in trust and honesty and integrity, and unless we regain that, we will lose more and more people”.   The Ven Miranda Threlfall-Holmes, the archdeacon of Liverpool, said there was a “real crisis of trust and a real sense of needing to look at how hierarchies are structured and how accountability and transparency works”.   According to Rev Dr Charlie Bell, another synod member, local parishes were “frustrated and irritated” at waves of bad news coming from the C of E hierarchy. People were fed up that good work at grassroots level, such as running food banks or hosting meals for elderly people, were being “endlessly swamped” by bad news from the top of the church.   Bell said he was not confident of there being honest debate about the way forward at next week’s synod. “The issues are being weaponised in a distasteful and unpleasant way.”   Other synod members claimed the issues of abuse and safeguarding were being used by some people as proxies to attack Cottrell and others who were seen as liberal on issues such as same-sex marriage.   Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.   Bishops were closeted at an away day last week as their colleague John Perumbalath, the bishop of Liverpool, became engulfed in allegations of sexual misconduct. “We were very, very deeply shaken,” Philip North, the bishop of Blackburn, told a briefing hosted by the Religion Media Centre.   “I can’t deny there is huge reputational damage done to the church at a national level, to the standing of bishops and to the perception of the church, and we feel very much on the back foot, very much on the defensive … I think we do now need to get on to the front foot, demonstrate that we can put in place the necessary safeguarding reforms, and start to change the language.”   Synod members will take two important decisions next week. One is about transferring safeguarding staff to an external body free from church influence or control – a recommendation made a year ago by Prof Alexis Jay, the former chair of the national child abuse inquiry, but not yet adopted.   The other concerns long overdue changes to how clergy are disciplined. Under a new measure, the 12-month time limit for claims of serious misconduct will be abolished, bishops will be almost entirely removed from disciplinary processes, and a central team will investigate the most serious cases.   Both measures will be seen as steps towards putting the C of E’s house in order.

By Chuck Collins www.virtueonline.org February 9, 2025   John Hooper was burned at the stake February 9, 1555, one of 282 Protestants ordered killed by Bloody Mary in her five-year reign as Queen. Hooper is remembered as the "Father of Puritanism."   Puritanism is a nasty thing almost always when it is mentioned. C.S. Lewis’s demon Screwtape declared to his apprentice Woodworm that  “the value we have given to that word [Puritanism] is one of the really solid triumphs of the last hundred years.” The Puritans were profoundly committed Anglicans whom historian Patrick Collinson calls  the “hotter sort of protestants.” Nigel Atkinson points out that their tendency was to out-reform the reformers, and he noted how John Hooper changed from the usual Reformation principle (that anything can be used, provided that it is not contrary to Scripture), to his insistence that anything used in worship must “have the express Word of God to support it.” This came to be called the Regulative Principle (as opposed to the Normative Principle). J. I. Packer loved the Puritans and viewed them as the conscience of the English Reformation: “The great Puritans were men of outstanding intellectual power and spiritual insight, in whom the mental habits fostered by sober scholarship were linked with a flaming zeal for God and a minute acquaintance with the human heart. All their work betrays this unique fusion of gifts and graces. They had a radically God-centered outlook. Their appreciation of God’s sovereign majesty was profound; their reverence in handling His word was deep and sustained. . .they understood the ways of God with men, the glory of Christ the mediator, and the work of the Spirit in the believer and in the church, more richly, fully, and accurately, perhaps, than any since their day.”   John Hooper spent the early 1540s in exile in Zurich with other Protestant exiles, and when he returned home, he was appointed the bishop of Gloucester. But he refused the appointment and chose instead to spend a month in Fleet Prison rather than be vested with the “popish rags redolent of superstition” (Alec Ryrie). He came to believe that the vestments of the clergy were not matters of indifference (adiaphora) when they crudely display the church’s wealth and power, and mislead people into believing that the minister is a mediator who offers propitiatory sacrifices for their salvation. For Hooper, the gaudy Medieval robes communicated a theology that is not consistent with a Protestant understanding of ministers and Holy Communion that mean only to point people to Christ. He was finally persuaded that “vestments” are not a mountain to die on, especially if they kept him from opportunities to minister the gospel. Until his death he served faithfully as bishop in the Church of England.   There is a generosity in historic Anglicanism that distinguishes gospel issues from adiaphora (matters indifferent): essentials from nonessentials. This is the original "via media" of the Church of England. This generosity distinguishes the English Reformation from some other Reformation traditions. Nonconformist Puritans sometimes violated this generosity, prohibiting what was not specifically prohibited in Holy Scripture for fear that Anglicanism would spin into lawlessness. The generosity in Anglicanism is no less needed today than in the 16th century: Oliver O’Donovan stated that “There was nothing particularly ‘middle’ about most of the English Reformers’ theological positions - even if one could decide between what poles the middle way was supposed to lie. Their moderation consisted rather in a determined policy of separating the essentials of faith and order from adiaphora . . . Anglican moderation is the policy of reserving strong statement and conviction for the few things which really deserve them . . . But it is precisely that, and not some supposed ‘middleness’ between Catholic and Protestant, which gives it a critically important role in twentieth century ecumenism.” Anglicanism at its best is thoroughly biblical, theologically orthodox, pastorally generous, and liturgically beautiful. Considering Hooper on the anniversary of his death is a reminder of the “pastorally generous” part, and the unwavering English commitment to the gospel essentials, and generosity in matters for which biblical Christians can and will disagree.   Dean Chuck Collins is a reformed Anglican theologian and historian

COMMENTARY   By David W. Virtue, DD www.virtueonline.org January 21, 2025   It is time to boldly state the truth.   The Anglican Communion, as it is presently constructed is finished. What we have now is unsustainable.   Attempts to reconfigure, revive, restate, reconstruct and reconstitute the Anglican Communion have simply failed.   The departure of Archbishops Justin Welby, John Sentamu, George Carey, and one hopes Stephen Cottrell, were signposts of failure along the way. The problems were coming on long before John Smyth’s sadistic behavior was uncovered throwing the church into complete turmoil. The Makin Review merely highlighted not just a failed safeguarding system, but a church both morally and theologically bankrupt.   The rot set in with the passage of Lambeth Resolution 1:10 passed at Lambeth ‘98, a withering indictment on western pansexual hopes to engineer a new sexuality into church. It failed. For 27 years 1:10 has hung like a Damoclean sword over the communion defying all attempts to parse it, spin it or ignore it. The resolution and its demands refused to go away. Justin Welby tried to deflect it at the last Lambeth conference by focusing on climate change, but the Global South led by South Sudan Archbishop Justin Badi refused to let the issue die, and Welby found himself blindsided, and when called upon to repent he refused.   The appalling arrogance of Welby in believing he is the center of the Anglican universe was painful to watch. I have observed the decline over four Lambeth conferences. An effort by Rowan Williams to produce the Windsor Report to right the ecclesial deficit, was simply a blip in the road. Nothing changed. Williams was politely told to leave and went. His replacement was the worst appointment ever in the history of Anglicanism.   One very knowledgeable CofE insider said this about Welby; “He is a nasty piece of work. Ruthlessly ambitious and arrogant, always conscious of his upper-class status. But a second-class history graduate and a fourth-rate thinker.”   I doubt one could be more definitive than that. Certainly, his choices and compromises got him the press he deserved. Most British newspaper columnists and commentators over time, both sacred and secular skewered him.   From his knee weakening over homosexuality, to reparations, to immigration, to euthanasia (the only thing I agreed with him about) to climate change and an ebbing of the gospel mandate, Welby kept playing losing hands in a communion poker game. He never once had a full house.   His departure raises serious questions about who should follow in his footsteps. The temporary arrangement sees York Archbishop Stephen Cottrell taking the reins, with many believing he too should have stepped down over his failed safeguarding issues.   Justin Welby’s departure begs the question as to who will fill his shoes.   The plethora of English bishops are all progressive including the most likely successor, Iranian born Bishop of Chelmsford, the Rt. Rev. Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani who is on board with the blessing of same-sex couples. Five Anglican Communion representatives will play a part in selecting his successor. This opens the possibility of a Global South bishop or archbishop being selected. They would, of course all be orthodox in faith and morals, a sticking point for the majority of the House of Bishops.   A GAFCON or GSFA bishop would be a cat among the pigeons in the CofE House of Bishops and give York Archbishop Cottrell heartburn. As GAFCON bishops have already detached themselves from the CofE it is unlikely one would be selected.   It should not come as a surprise that there are proposals afoot by a working body in the communion to decrease the centrality of the Archbishop of Canterbury. This would be a huge nail in the coffin of colonialism that has been the hallmark of the CofE’s power.   By any reckoning the Church of England is finished as a global player. With fewer than 700,000 practicing Anglicans in England, the communion’s largest province (note the colonial ring to that term) now is Nigeria and they continue to grow with new dioceses and bishops added almost annually.   Nigerian Archbishop Henry Ndukuba has made it abundantly clear he wants nothing to do with the Church of England. “We cannot walk with you unless you repent,” he and his fellow African bishops once told Welby. The leader of the Church of England never did, and now he has gone. He will not be missed. Furthermore, there is nothing to suggest his successor will repent.   A new day is dawning. If the Church of England goes ahead with a woman archbishop who is progressive on sexuality issues it will be an easy call to separate completely from the CofE.   Women bishops, while few in number in the Global South are not recognized by the Anglican Church in North America and many other jurisdictions. It remains a sticking point for any talk of unity.   As things now stand, the Global South owns the Anglican Communion just with the sheer weight of numbers. Despite efforts to buy their support by western pansexualists it has not worked. While they have not felt the full weight of post-modernism in their cultures, there is still no evidence that they can be bought or are ready to roll over. They have watched the devastating consequences of compromise with cultural Marxism in the West resulting in empty churches, to know that is a non-starter.   You know it speaks volumes when the head of the Anglican Church of South Sudan whose country is being destroyed by tribalism, poverty, war and genocide cannot be bought and is utterly committed to a Biblical view of sexuality, then it is curtains for Western pansexualists.   Whatever the future holds, Western pan-Anglicanism is dying and the Global South will continue to rise with no signs of it abating now or in the foreseeable future.   As the writer to the Hebrews put it; “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful,” a lesson the West never truly learned.   END

By Jesse Masai THE LIVING CHURCH February 7, 2025   Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapit addresses reporters February 6. | St. Paul’s University, Limuru The Archbishop of Kenya sees some hope in President Donald Trump’s move to shut down the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).   “I partially thank Trump for the disruption,” Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapit said at an event at St. Paul’s University in Limuru on February 6.   “Let us be disrupted so that we think properly and manage our resources properly. Every other economy grew not in easy times but when you are faced by a crisis. They think deeper, and I hope we can think deeper now.”   Ole Sapit declared that it is time African leaders sought home-grown solutions to the continent’s woes, and claimed that foreign aid has often been misappropriated in the East African nation.   “USAID projects have been shut down,” he said. “People have lost jobs. But deficiency in leadership is our main problem. Let that money go so that we know how to save the little we have. Because most of it is stolen before it reaches where it is supposed to go.”   Kenya scored 31 on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean) on Transparency International’s 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index. It tied with El Salvador and Mexico for 126th place.   Ole Sapit said that Africa has all the resources it needs for its people to thrive, but these resources have become drivers of conflicts in parts of the region because of greed.   “We are witnessing what is essentially a struggle over resources in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” he said, referring to recent fallouts between the government in the capital, Kinshasa, and M23 rebels in Goma, on Congo’s eastern border.   Conflicts also continue in the Horn of Africa, including parts of South Sudan, where an estimated 57 percent of food security is dependent on USAID.   The archbishop warned that Africans might no longer be in a position to blame colonialism for underdevelopment.   “We have no excuses, 50 or 70 years after independence,” he said. “Disruption is always an opportunity to grow.”   Still, Ole Sapit called on President Trump to stagger the transition to avoid immediate shocks.   “It should have been done gradually, especially for critical areas like health, until we have the capacity to support ourselves,” he said.   In an exclusive interview with The Living Church, Adieri Bwibo, executive director of Kenya’s Anglican Development Services (ADS), revealed that USAID’s abrupt exit has seriously affected his organization.   “KShs. 200 million per annum [$1.550,387 USD] is gone suddenly. Our income is at its lowest, including that which caters for anti-retroviral drugs for communities ravaged by HIV/AIDS,” he said. “We don’t know how to continue; 150 of our staff members have been affected. We have put them on unpaid leave as we figure a way out.”   Bwibo said health, economic empowerment, HIV prevention, referrals to HIV facilities, smart farming for food security, climate change, orphans, and vulnerable children are some of the development agency’s programs that have been affected.   “We had until January 24 to clear all USAID-related payments.  We are now talking about offices rented, human, and other contractual obligations — human and statutory — that we must meet. We can’t bury our heads in the sand and think all will be well. We are forced to go back and strategize,” he said.   Time, he warned, has come for Kenyans to look at their programs as a nation.   “While churches and charitable institutions will complement the work of the government, revenue from citizens needs to be used well,” he said. “That is something we need to focus on. We have over-relied on the generosity of our brothers and sisters from the West.”   Kenya’s local governments provide a model for the future, he said.   “Devolution has transformed this country. Everywhere you go, there is development, with emerging towns and businesses,” he said.   Writing on Meta, however, literature professor Wandia Njoya warned that “the problem the Trump administration has with USAID is one of style, not substance.”   “The USAID suppressed organic economic growth in Kenya and mopped up generations of graduates and mobilizers through funding, so as to delay social change. Every new generation that would have potentially marshaled change in Kenya was co-opted into international trips, donor funding, workshops, and fellowships,” said Njoya, an associate professor at the evangelical Daystar University in Nairobi.   “I think the lesson here isn’t Trump or insane U.S. liberals. It’s that we must learn,” she said. “Please, Kenyans. We must learn about the world. Only we can develop our own countries. The commitment of the American empire is that we don’t. We have to understand this fundamental truth to understand why the U.S. needed this monster called development aid.”   Jesse Masai is TLC’s East Africa correspondent, a longtime journalist and communications professional who has worked in South East Asia and the U.S., as well as in his native Kenya.

York Archbishop Fails Safeguarding Test * Calvin Robinson Tossed out of Continuing Anglican Church * US Episcopal Priest Elected Bp of Nth. Africa   "In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?" – John Stott "Praying and sinning will never live together in the same heart. Prayer will consume sin, or sin will choke prayer." – J.C. Ryle There is a deadly and irreconcilable opposition between Western civilisation and Christianity, and one of them must destroy the other. If that’s true, then wielding the Christian faith as a weapon to defend this thing called ‘Western civilisation’ is a lost battle from the start. Our culture may have been nominally Christian five hundred years ago, but for a long time now it has been the culture of the Enlightenment, of modernity, of the Machine, of Mammon. It valorises not God but the world -- John L. McKenzie Christ is not established anywhere; He becomes a stranger, a beggar, and a ‘vagabond,’ to teach us that no ‘institution’ of the present is eternal, that His kingdom is neither of this world nor imposed on this world with worldly weapons. -- John Chrysostom God’s power is not human power. Our petty little attempts to impose our will by dominance, force and violence mean nothing to the Father, who scorns them. Power is wielded through love; power is wielded through sacrifice. There is something vast and oceanic about it. It is what greatness actually looks like. – Paul Kingsnorth   Dear Brothers and Sisters www.virtueonline.org February 7, 2025   In her riff against President Donald Trump in the Washington National Cathedral about his ungodly treatment of immigrants last week, Episcopal Bishop Marianne Budde failed to mention that Episcopal Migrant Ministries received $53 million taxpayer dollars in 2023 to aid its migrant resettlement program. The Trump administration has temporarily paused these programs for evaluation.   Budde lit into the president and went peak Episcopalian. She painted a picture of a dystopian America where people live in dread of the coming administration. ‘In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.’ These people included ‘gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and independent families’ all across the country ‘who fear for their lives’. Illegal immigrants were not left out: ‘I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away.’   Trump fired back calling Budde a ‘Radical Left hardline Trump-hater’ who is ‘not very good at her job’. He said she ‘brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way’ and demanded an apology. The description is accurate: she clearly loathes Donald Trump and was certainly very ungracious.   If you think the task of the preacher is to bring God’s Word to bear on the people, not to express personal thoughts and preferences, she failed.   As one blogger noted; “The pronouncements of liberal Christians like Bishop Budde make that task more difficult. She makes it easier for unbelievers to dismiss Christian intervention in social affairs as ill-thought-out regurgitation of progressive talking points garnished with a few Christian terms. If Christians are to speak out, we must do the serious and hard work of examining our world from a biblical perspective. Only then will we deserve to be heard.   Nonetheless the bishop felt compelled to lecture the president in what was euphemistically called a sermon, but was in fact a lecture about his desire to throw millions out of the country who are here illegally and without papers.   Budde did get some support for her views. Shane Clairborne of Red Letter fame and David Mills of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote puff pieces praising Budde for speaking truth to power.   David Robertson, a Presbyterian minister said this; “On immigration. The situation is not as simplistic as you [Budde] put it. Although it has to be admitted that simple political (progressive) fundamentalism does allow you to engage in fine sentimental rhetoric, immigration is a much more complex issue than your 1-minute soundbite portrayed. Donald Trump and JD Vance both married immigrants – it is clear that they are not opposed to all immigration. The question is what should be done about illegal immigration? If you have any ideas, then engage constructively – don't virtue signal from a pulpit 12 feet above contradiction.”   Here are two stories that you can read on the subject here:   https://www.virtueonline.org/post/speaking-the-truth-to-power-a-letter-to-bishop-budde SURPRISE…NOT. The Predictable Theology of Bishop Marianne Budde   ***   IS THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CRISIS? Yes. With the resignation of Archbishop Welby and the Archbishop of York being under a cloud due to a failure in safeguarding, the Church of England appears to have lost moral authority. It is also riven with doctrinal differences, chiefly over the desire of many bishops to bless same-sex unions.   The Rev. Canon Dr Chris Sugden explains how 2025 might pan out and notes developments that could encourage evangelicals. He says that Archbishop Welby’s legacy is a mixture.   “He introduced a centralised management process into the Church of England (C of E), with the House of Bishops taking a dominant role in shaping policies and proposals. Parishes have been amalgamated, and more diocesan officials appointed.  In response, a ‘Save the Parish’ movement has started to preserve a parish church and vicar in each community.”   “Preserving unity has not worked out so well. Welby sought to preserve what he called ‘unity’ by making concessions to a small but powerful elite lobby, including some bishops, senior clergy and lay church officials. This lobby has been loudly pressing for over 20 years for concessions to a liberal lifestyle.”   “They wanted same sex relationships to be blessed and recognised in church services, and for clergy to enter same-sex marriage. However, their wishes do not match those of their parishioners; most parish congregations are by and large orthodox in belief and practice.”   “Welby’s reputation on the global stage has plummeted. He forfeited the allegiance of many Anglican Primates (the senior Archbishops in their countries), who represent the majority of Anglicans around the world. These international Archbishops have refused to acknowledge the Archbishop of Canterbury as the senior bishop in the Anglican Communion.”   “As a result, an international Anglican body has formally recommended that Welby’s successor as leader of the world’s Anglican Archbishops should not be the Archbishop of Canterbury but be chosen from the Primates.”   “Meanwhile in England, orthodox clergy and lay leaders came together to form The Alliance, a network that represents the majority of Anglican churchgoers. It comprises the Holy Trinity Brompton (Alpha Course) network, the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC), Church Society, ReNew, New Wine, Forward in Faith (an Anglo-Catholic High Church network) and Living Out (people with same sex attraction who live celibate lives).”   The objective of The Alliance is to achieve a parallel province in which orthodox congregations and clergy can be ‘overseen’ by orthodox bishops who stand for the traditional Anglican and biblical teaching on sex and marriage. Whether this succeeds is still to be determined. There are road blocks with the state and much more.   You can read more here: IS THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN CRISIS?   Outside the Church of England there are churches people can join and still remain Anglican even if not in the Church of England. They belong to the Anglican Network in Europe (ANIE), formed in 2013, which is part of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON). ANIE has its own bishops, who are recognized by many Anglican Primates around the world including the ACNA.   At the time of writing, the House of Bishops has been working on a series of proposals to allow for same-sex blessings to take place in a separate church service, for same-sex marriages to take place in church and for clergy to be allowed to enter same-sex marriages. The bishops’ plan has been to get the General Synod to vote to accept all their proposals by a simple majority.   The orthodox objection to the House of Bishops’ current proposals is that such changes represent a change in the Church of England’s doctrine of marriage. A change of doctrine requires a two-thirds majority in all three ‘houses’ of the Synod: bishops, clergy and lay people.  The bishops know they will not be able to secure this because more than a third of laity and probably of the clergy members of Synod are against such a change. As of now there is a delay in the process.   Meanwhile speculation has developed about who will be the next Archbishop of Canterbury. The elite gay lobby is understood to be pushing the candidature of Bishop Guli Francis-Deqani, the Iranian-born British Bishop of Chelmsford since 2021, who would be the first woman Archbishop. She is known to be in favor of same-sex marriages.   What matters now is that the members of the Alliance, the orthodox bishops and clergy should remain firm in their stand for biblical teaching and practice.   Some evangelical clergy have been hesitant to take a stand as they want to be ‘nice’ to everyone and remain united. However, as Canon John Dunnett, the Executive Officer of the CEEC has written: “The question still remains as to ‘unity in or around what’. The unity that Jesus prayed for was not institutional…[or] based on the status quo.   ***   The Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe, TEC’s new Presiding Bishop knocked three times on the door of Washington National Cathedral and was ceremonially seated as the church’s 28th Presiding Bishop.   He seemed desperately concerned about the marginalized in our society which, coming from the wealthiest church in America, is a bit rich.   In his sermon he uttered a lot of high-sounding words like “what our lives would be like if we realized that Christ is among us.” Well, if Christ is not among us then the question is moot, and where is He?   There is some question about whether Christ has had much to do with the Episcopal Church since Gene Robinson made his debut as an out-of-the-closet homosexual causing the biggest single departure of Episcopalians in its history. The Anglican Church in North America is now firmly planted and growing.   Did TEC’s bishops “see Christ” in all the orthodox priests and bishops they tossed out of the church because they refused to embrace homosexual marriage, because they believed God did not approve of it, and that He had not changed his mind about marriage being solely between a man and a woman?   The truth is faithful orthodox priests were “marginalized”, people who actually saw the face of Christ in Scripture and who suffered for their faith losing their churches and pensions rather than go to Hell believing the latest piece of heresy they were forced to embrace.   And what of the unborn, Mr. Presiding Bishop? There is an inherent contradiction in your statement about seeing the face of Christ if the unborn never get to be born and see the face of Christ for themselves. The dignity of every human being suddenly disappears. You will forgive me saying this but there is an inherent contradiction when you believe in abortion on demand up to birth. That is an astonishingly evil and anti-Christ position to take. What about mercy for the most vulnerable human beings – those still in their mothers' wombs?   The Episcopal Church is on a downward trajectory; it has lost the majority of its members. Over 55% of Episcopal parishes are now in a state of long-term decline, with churches losing more with each passing week with the average age of an Episcopalian approaching 70 they will soon be closing. Dioceses are merging faster than big-box stores in your local mall. You can read more here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/sean-rowe-seated-as-tec-s-28th-presiding-bishop-but-his-sermon-failed-the-smell-test   **   The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell is in hot water over his own safeguarding failures. He has temporarily replaced Welby who, he believes, took one for the team thus allowing him to step in as de facto leader of the CofE..   When you look at this record it is far worse than the not-so-dearly-departed Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. He has been accused of looking the other way over several priests who were caught with underage boys and girls and has steadfastly refused to resign though several bishops say he should.   He has faced questions over his role leading up to the appointment in 2022 and resignation last week of the Rt. Rev. John Perumbalath, Bishop of Liverpool. Perumbalath announced his early retirement over allegations of sexual assault and harassment that were made in 2023. Cottrell once called another priest, a pedophile, David Tudor a “Rolls Royce priest”.   Cottrell also demonstrated his ignorance over the war in Gaza. In a statement Cottrell made veiled accusations that the blame for the war lay at Israel’s feet. There was no mention of the terrorist organization called Hamas, no mention of who started this war, no mention of “from the river to the sea” a not-so-veiled reference to the obliteration of Israel. No mention of Hamas as a proxy of Iran to continue the war once the ceasefire deal is signed off on. No mention that the “destruction, deprivation and displacement” was caused by Hamas who could have surrendered the hostages and themselves to prevent all the blood shed that followed.   You can read more here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/archbishop-of-york-i-won-t-quit-over-abuse-crisis-i-ll-bring-change https://www.virtueonline.org/post/the-archbishop-of-york-s-vacuous-statement-on-the-ceasefire-deal-between-israel-and-hamas   Gavin Drake, a “muckraker” who blogs at Church Street Bureau, has called out Cottrell for his inability to see the damage he is doing by staying on. You can read his pieces here:   https://churchabuse.uk/2025/01/09/an-open-letter-to-te-most-revd-and-right-hon-stephen-cottrell-archbishop-of-york/   https://churchabuse.uk/2025/01/17/shhh-silence-from-the-archbishop-of-york-stephen-cottrell/   https://churchabuse.uk/2025/01/17/safeguarding-second-church-estates-commissioner-holds-church-of-england-feet-to-the-fire/   ***   “I am not a Nazi!” cried the Rev. Calvin Robinson after being unceremoniously tossed out of the Anglican Catholic Church (ACC) where he functioned as a priest for just a few short months, over jokingly mimicking a Nazi salute to a crowd at a pro-life event. He should not have done that. Robinson has gotten himself into a whole heap of trouble in the U.S. when he conflated politics with religion.   Like St. Peter before him, Robinson has a case of Hoof & Mouth disease, writes Mary Ann Mueller, special correspondent for VOL.  “Both Simon Peter and Calvin Robinson have the tendency to open mouth, insert foot and twist. And then act impetuously which has gotten them both in a lot of trouble.”   Long story short Fr. Calvin Robinson crossed the Rubicon of priestly etiquette and his Archbishop Mark Haverland stepped in and removed his faculties – license (permission) – to exercise his priesthood within the Anglican Catholic Church. Robinson is a church-hopper. He has belonged to four different denominations in a space of three years. Not all of the churches are Anglican. He was initially a member of the Church of England (CofE) until he left for the Free Church of England (FCE) in early summer 2022. He then united with the Old Catholic – nonAnglican – Nordic Catholic Church (NCC) in late 2023. Less than a year later he gravitated to the Anglican Catholic Church (ACC).   It is not totally clear if he is still a priest in the AAC – albeit an inhibited priest – or is he a priest without a denomination.  He has burned most of his bridges. You can read the full story here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/fr-calvin-robinson-has-hoof-mouth-disease   *** The Episcopal/Anglican Diocese of North Africa has a new bishop. The Rev. Canon Dr Ashley Null has been elected by the Electoral Synod meeting in N'Djamena, Chad, in the context of a Diocesan Synod. Dr. Null will become the second, and first elected, bishop of the Diocese of North Africa, covering five countries (Algeria, Chad, Libya, Mauritania and Tunisia) and including the territory of the see of St Augustine of Hippo.   He is a world authority on Thomas Cranmer, editing his private theological notebooks. He holds research degrees from Yale and the University of Cambridge. As a pastor and theologian, he is Chair of the Board of The Alexandria School of Theology he is already familiar with the Diocese.  He will now have the chance to broaden and enhance the work he has done for many years to promote and encourage Christian witness in this cradle of Christianity. I count him as a close personal friend and spiritual advisor to me.   ***   The Anglican Communion has two new archbishops. The Most Rev. Enrique Lago Zugadi is the new Primate of Chile, and the Most Rev. Vicente Msosa is the new Primate of Mozambique and Angola. Both are cradled in the bosom of GAFCON.   The Lord is raising up leaders who long to see the Bible at the heart of the Anglican Communion, and who seek to lead their provinces in faithful obedience to God’s word, said The Rt Rev. Paul Donison, GAFCON General Secretary. Archbishops Enrique and Vicente are both graduates of GAFCON Bishop’s Training Institute.  Their appointment will undoubtedly cause pain and anguish to Bishop Anthony Poggo, Secretary General of the Anglican Communion Office, the liberal branch of the Anglican Communion. With Welby gone he has lost the title of adviser on Anglican Communion affairs to the ABC.   WHAT IS SEX FOR? A Pastoral Theology of Our Sexed Bodies, By Ian Paul, an orthodox English theologian is an excellent booklet for clergy and laity alike. Here is a sample paragraph: “The debates about sex in church and culture are often framed in doctrinal or ideological terms. But in this booklet I want to address the pastoral issues. This demands not mere care or therapy (important as these are) but clear pastoral teaching. When Jesus saw the crowds and had compassion on them, his first response was to teach (Mark 6.34), since good teaching creates the context for effective pastoral care.” Ian Paul is Associate Minister, St Nic’s, Nottingham, Managing Editor, Grove Books and writer and host at psephizo.com   ***   VOL has a new website. There are still some issues, but we now have all the sections open for your reading. We not only commend the news but the commentary as well and the sound theological pieces we post for deepening your faith. Life is more than a soundbite, and the news, while mostly bad is not all bad. There are glimmers of hope in the Anglican Communion coming from the Global South.   Please consider a tax-deductible donation to keep these news and commentary pieces coming into your email. A PayPal donation link can be found here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support.html   If you are more inclined with old fashioned checks, (as I am), you can send your donation to: VIRTUEONLINE P.O. Box 111 Shohola, PA 18458   I have started a substack on the Middle East, some of which reflects on our Anglican presence in Jerusalem and other ME countries. You can access it here:   https://davidvirtue2.substack.com/publish/posts   Warmly in Christ,   David