https://4bde65de-445b-47b4-80f2-ab599396f37d.usrfiles.com/archives/4bde65_a9819b12e00c4dd4b7b25adf24d15708.zip

Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said he believes a demonic element is manifesting in U.S. politics during an interview with The Spectator that aired April 17, 2026. | Screenshot/YouTube/The Spectator   By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter April 21, 2026 Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said during a recent interview that he believes a demonic element is manifesting in the political culture of the United States, pinpointing the rhetoric of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth as a prime example. Williams, who served as the ceremonial head of the Church of England from 2002 to 2012, suggested to The Spectator in an April 17 podcast that the recurring political applications of the word "demonic" by figures such as former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., or Tucker Carlson, are potentially misguided, though not necessarily entirely false. "On the surface level, it's another example of the incredibly overheated picture of political argument in the States at the moment," he said of such terminology. "And for nearly 2,000 years, people have been identifying the Antichrist with people they don't like very much; not exactly new." Carlson and Greene, both of whom were once key supporters of President Donald Trump and his political agenda, have since broken with him over the Iran war while accusing him of exhibiting characteristics typically associated with the Antichrist. After Trump's profane Truth Social threatening to annihilate Iranian civilization on Easter, followed by a meme portraying him as a Christ-like figure a week later, Greene said his behavior is "more than blasphemy" and "an Antichrist spirit."ist spirit." During his weekly monologue last Wednesday, Carlson accused Trump of an increasingly sacrilegious attitude toward Christianity, citing his public feud with Pope Leo XIV and social media posts that he said were "a mockery of God." Reading from the description of "the man of lawlessness" in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12 and the prophecy of a boastful king in Daniel 11:36, Carlson claimed Trump has shown the traits described in such passages, though he said it remains "unclear" if Trump is the Antichrist.  Williams observed that accusations of being the Antichrist have been leveled at various figures throughout Christian history, including by many Anglicans against individual popes and the papacy generally, which he dismissed as "nonsense." He noted the Apostle John described "antichrist" as a spirit, which Williams said has manifested in different ways throughout history. "Already, in the New Testament, you have the qualification in the letters of John that Antichrist is all over the place," he said. "It's not going to be one enormous figure with horns on his head taking over the world so you can say, 'Oh yes, that's Antichrist, I'd know him anywhere.'" Williams instead identified the spirit of Antichrist as the "deeply subversive, anti-life, anti-God elements which are creeping around all the time, and there are those in power who enable them." "In that sense, I'll put my neck on the block and say, I think there is something demonic, in the wider sense, in the political culture of the United States at the moment: the permission being given to articulate, in the name of God, views which are, I've thought, completely antithetical to the Gospel," he said. Williams singled out the religious overtones from Hegseth, who has invoked imprecatory psalms against foreign adversaries and used biblical rhetoric to suggest God's favor rests on U.S. military action in Iran and elsewhere. "Pete Hegseth's rhetoric about the violent obliteration of enemies, period. That strikes me as diabolical, in that broad sense, of something which is working against the Gospel," he said. Williams' comments come amid an ongoing fracture among Christians over the war in Iran. Evangelical leaders such as Franklin Graham have stood behind the president and the war effort, while some Anglican and Roman Catholic leaders have raised concerns about its moral justification. Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who leads the Roman Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services, claimed earlier this month that the preemptive nature of the U.S.-Israeli strike against Iran rendered it unjust. He urged Catholic service members in a moral dilemma to "do as little harm as you can." Pope Leo XIV has condemned the violence in strong terms, claiming earlier this month that "God does not bless any conflict" and that "anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs." In a homily during his tour in Cameroon last week, the pope claimed the world is being "ravaged by a handful of tyrants." Williams' successor, present Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally, expressed solidarity with the pope in a statement she issued last week. "I stand with my brother in Christ, his holiness Pope Leo XIV, in his courageous call for a kingdom of peace. As innocent people are killed and displaced, families torn apart and futures destroyed, the human cost of war is incalculable," she said. Williams, who has been giving interviews after publishing a new book last month, recently made headlines for warning that the global Anglican Communion might cease to exist amid tensions over gender and sexuality. END

COMMENTARY   By David W. Virtue, DD www.VirtueOnline.org  April 22, 2026   As the denomination sinks slowly toward its twilight years, carried along by an aging congregation of Baby Boomers with few younger members filling the pews behind them, corruption has risen in near-perfect proportion to the weakening of its institutional safeguards.   The Episcopal Church did not arrive at its present crisis overnight. What is unfolding today — a cascade of financial irregularities, sexual misconduct allegations, institutional opacity, and eroding moral authority — is the product of decades of theological drift, demographic decline, and the quiet collapse of internal accountability.   This is not unique to religion. Across history and across sectors, the pattern is grimly consistent: declining institutions breed the conditions in which corruption flourishes. When oversight weakens, norms erode, enforcement becomes discretionary, and bad actors face fewer consequences. The Episcopal Church, for all its storied history and social prestige, is no exception to this iron law of institutional decay.   The Long Decline: Demography and Theology The rot set in gradually. Beginning in the late 1960s, the Episcopal Church embarked on a series of progressive theological revisions that alienated large segments of its traditional membership. The ordination of women to the priesthood in 1976, while celebrated by reformers, provoked the departure of tens of thousands of traditionalists who formed splinter Anglican bodies. The revision of the Book of Common Prayer that same year — replacing the majestic 1928 prayer book with a modernized text — further fractured the congregation.   The most convulsive rupture came in 2003, when the Episcopal Church consecrated Gene Robinson, an openly gay man in a partnered relationship, as Bishop of New Hampshire. The decision sent shockwaves through the worldwide Anglican Communion and triggered the largest schism in the denomination’s modern history. Entire dioceses — including San Joaquin, Fort Worth, Quincy, and Pittsburgh — voted to leave the Episcopal Church and align with more conservative Anglican provinces in Africa and South America. Protracted and expensive litigation over church property followed, consuming millions of dollars in legal fees and consuming years of leadership attention. The numbers tell the rest of the story. By 2024, active Episcopal membership had fallen below 1.6 million — less than half of its peak. Average Sunday attendance had declined even more sharply, to roughly 450,000 nationally. The median age of an Episcopalian is now estimated to be over 60. In many dioceses, the majority of remaining congregants are retired. New church plants are rare; parish closures are routine.   Into this environment of diminished numbers, reduced financial resources, weakened institutional memory, and distracted leadership, corruption found fertile soil.   Institutional Decay and the Corruption Equation Social scientists who study organizational failure have long identified the relationship between institutional decline and rising misconduct. The causal chain tends to run in a predictable direction: as membership and revenue fall, organizations reduce administrative and oversight staff; as oversight thins, the culture of accountability weakens; as that culture weakens, individuals — whether motivated by greed, lust, or simply the human temptation to take advantage of diminished scrutiny — begin to act on impulses they might otherwise have suppressed.   The Episcopal Church has followed this script almost precisely. Budget cuts at the denominational and diocesan level have reduced compliance and audit functions. Volunteer-driven governance structures — vestries, standing committees, diocesan councils — are composed of well-meaning laypeople who often lack the expertise or bandwidth to detect sophisticated financial misconduct. Clergy, whose authority within their congregations is substantial and whose access to parish funds is often minimally supervised, occupy a position of structural vulnerability to temptation.   The result has been a visible and documented rise in cases of financial misappropriation, sexual misconduct, and abuse of ecclesiastical authority — many of which, as the evidence below demonstrates, have been handled with a degree of institutional opacity that has compounded rather than resolved the damage.   A Disciplinary System Built to Fail At the heart of the accountability problem is Title IV of the Episcopal Church’s canons — the denomination’s clergy discipline framework. Revised substantially in 2011, Title IV was intended to modernize and professionalize the handling of complaints against clergy. In practice, it has created a procedurally dense, discretion-laden system that critics say is designed more to protect the institution and its clergy than to deliver justice to complainants.   The statistics are damning. In a six-month window from August 2023 to February 2024, thirty-four formal complaints were filed against bishops with the Church’s Disciplinary Board for Bishops. Of those, seven were dismissed outright. Eighteen never progressed beyond the initial intake and inquiry stage. Only a handful proceeded to anything resembling a formal hearing — and formal hearings, under Title IV, remain exceptionally rare.   The structural problems are multiple and well-documented: Near-total confidentiality: Historically, almost all Title IV proceedings remained confidential unless a case reached a formal hearing panel — something that almost never occurs. This means that clergy can be the subject of repeated complaints, receive informal discipline or no discipline at all, and move from parish to parish or diocese to diocese without their new employers having any knowledge of their history.   Broad discretionary power: The Presiding Bishop and diocesan bishops hold enormous discretionary authority over whether to release information about disciplinary proceedings. In practice, this discretion has overwhelmingly been exercised in favor of institutional silence.   Complainant barriers: The church’s own documentation acknowledges that its Title IV protocols are overly complex and not user-friendly for complainants, many of whom are already traumatized. The result is a system that systematically disadvantages those it purports to serve.   Clergy mobility loophole: Deposed clergy — those who have been formally removed from ordained ministry — have in numerous documented cases continued to represent themselves as active priests, often in contexts involving vulnerable individuals. This system-wide opacity has allowed misconduct by clergy to go unaddressed or unresolved for years, and in some cases has enabled serial abusers to continue operating within church settings long after initial complaints were filed.   Sexual Misconduct: A Culture of Protection Among the most troubling patterns documented in recent years is the systematic protection of clergy accused of sexual misconduct, sometimes at the highest levels of the denomination’s episcopal leadership.   Multiple bishops have faced credible allegations that they shielded colleagues accused of serious misconduct rather than prioritizing the safety and well-being of victims. The pattern typically involves the suppression or dismissal of initial complaints, informal arrangements that allow accused clergy to quietly resign or transfer rather than face canonical proceedings, and the deployment of institutional resources to discourage or complicate civil legal action by victims.   The problem is not limited to heterosexual abuse. A survey of LGBT Episcopalians — a demographic that the church has gone to extraordinary lengths to welcome and affirm — revealed that a significant percentage of LGB respondents reported experiencing inappropriate behavior within church settings. This finding is particularly striking given the denomination’s strong public commitment to LGBTQ+ inclusion and dignity. It suggests that the culture enabling abuse is structural, not merely ideological, and that progressive theology has not produced progressive safeguarding practice.   The trial of Episcopal priest Richard Losch, who faced allegations of raping a minor, illustrates both the severity of the crisis and the inadequacy of the institutional response. The trial ended in a hung jury — an outcome that raised profound questions about the church’s ability to investigate, document, and refer serious allegations in a manner that supports effective prosecution. Critics noted that the church’s internal handling of the initial complaint, prior to civil law enforcement involvement, may have impaired the evidentiary basis for the criminal case.   Anglican Watch and the Rise of External Accountability In the absence of effective internal accountability, a measure of external scrutiny has emerged. AnglicanWatch.com, an independent watchdog website, has systematically catalogued cases of moral and financial misconduct within the Episcopal Church and broader Anglican structures in North America. Its documentation — covering dozens of cases involving bishops, priests, and deacons — represents the most comprehensive public record of Episcopal Church disciplinary failures currently available.   The site operates as a form of accountability journalism, publishing case narratives, canonical analysis, and in some instances communications from diocesan officials that would otherwise remain confidential. Its existence reflects the degree to which the Episcopal Church’s internal systems have failed to inspire confidence among its own members.   Case Study: The Rev. Roger Haenke The case of the Reverend Roger Haenke offers a representative illustration of how the system’s failures compound themselves over time. Haenke was suspended and ultimately deposed under Title IV clergy discipline after the Diocese of San Diego initiated formal proceedings against him in August 2025. The nature of the underlying misconduct has not been fully disclosed publicly — itself a product of the confidentiality regime that Title IV enforces.   What is documented is what happened after deposition. Rather than withdrawing from ministry, Haenke registered a personal website on which he continued to represent himself as holding priestly status. Anglican Watch, which tracked the case, noted that the site was still active sometime after his deposition and issued a public warning that Haenke should not be engaged in any capacity involving vulnerable populations. The organization encouraged anyone with knowledge of his activities to contact civil law enforcement.   The Haenke case illustrates a recurring pattern: deposition removes a clergy member’s canonical authorization but does not prevent them from continuing to present themselves as a priest in digital or community contexts where their deposed status is unknown. The church has no effective mechanism for notifying the public — or even future employers outside the denomination — of deposition.   Financial Corruption: The Episcopal Church Women Scandal Financial misconduct has proven no less corrosive than sexual misconduct, and in some respects more visible, because it leaves an audit trail. The case currently unfolding around the Episcopal Church Women (ECW) is perhaps the most striking example of financial corruption to emerge from within the denomination in recent years.   The ECW is an organization with a history stretching back to 1871, when it was founded as a vehicle for women’s lay ministry within Episcopal congregations. For well over a century, it has championed women’s participation in church life, supported children’s educational programs, administered community grants, and embodied what its founding charter describes as stewardship in Christ. It has been, by any measure, one of the more admirable expressions of lay vocation within the Episcopal tradition.   That legacy has now been shadowed by a criminal investigation into significant financial irregularities within the organization’s diocesan chapter in Ohio. The investigation was initiated after the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio reported to law enforcement that substantial discrepancies had been identified in the ECW’s financial accounts. The Cleveland Police Department is actively assisting in the investigation. The diocese has worked with ECW leadership to secure the affected accounts and initiate a comprehensive forensic review.   The full scope of the alleged misappropriation has not been publicly disclosed, and the investigation is ongoing. But the case has sent a tremor through ECW chapters nationally, prompting questions about the adequacy of financial controls across the organization’s diocesan structures. For an organization whose identity is rooted in stewardship and charitable purpose, the damage to institutional credibility is considerable regardless of how the investigation ultimately resolves.   Conclusion: A Church at the Crossroads The Episcopal Church stands at a genuinely critical juncture — not merely in the rhetorical sense that the word “critical” has come to imply, but in the precise sense that the choices made in the next several years will determine whether the institution experiences a managed reformation or an unmanaged collapse.   The forces at work are not mysterious. Demographic decline is real and accelerating. Financial resources are contracting. Institutional authority is diminished. The accountability structures that might contain misconduct have been shown, repeatedly, to be inadequate to the task. And the willingness of independent observers — from AnglicanWatch to secular news organizations to civil law enforcement — to scrutinize the church’s internal conduct has increased precisely as the church’s own self-regulatory capacity has weakened.   There are those within the denomination who understand what is at stake and are calling, with increasing urgency, for structural reform: a genuine overhaul of Title IV to eliminate the confidentiality regime that shields serial offenders; mandatory financial audits at the parish and diocesan level with results made available to congregants; a public registry of deposed clergy; and a cultural reckoning with the ways in which institutional loyalty has too often been placed above the protection of victims.   Whether those calls will be heeded — or whether the institution’s remaining leadership has the will and the capacity to undertake reforms of that magnitude — remains, at this writing, an open question. What is no longer open to serious dispute is the nature and extent of the problem.   David W. Virtue, DD, is the founder and editor of VirtueOnline (www.virtueonline.org), an independent Anglican news and commentary website.

Bishop Ashley Null at Annaba--photo Vatican News www.jmeca.org.uk April 21, 2026 Pope Leo XIV and the Anglican Bishop of North Africa, Dr Ashley Null, have something important in common, namely a great affection for, and sense of a bond with St Augustine. The Pope, because he belongs to the Augustinian Order; Dr Null, because his sphere of academic expertise is Reformation Theology, which owes much to St Augustine. His writings deeply impacted the development of the formularies of the independent English church under King Edward and Queen Elizabeth. (Both Dr Null and Luther were attracted by a characteristic North African Christian theological tradition that centres on the ideas of grace and gratitude). So it was appropriate that the two should meet in Algeria where Augustine was born and where, at what once was called Hippo, he was himself a Bishop. Algeria was the first stop on Pope Leo’s African trip and though much of the press coverage has centered on the Pope’s words about peace and tyrants, this was also an important moment for the Christian Church in this Muslim country. At the Basilica of our Lady of Africa in Algiers, Bishop Null had a place of honour in the sanctuary where he was presented to the Pope as the representative of non-Roman Christian Churches. Later he went to Hippo (modern day Annaba). He writes: "In Annaba, I was given a massive seat on the first row of the congregation with no one else beside me in the row. Behind me was a French imperial princess and her young son. I was asked to wear my non-eucharistic episcopal robes, so I did, as you can tell from the picture!” He added, “the Anglican Church was shown much honor and respect during the Pope's visit.” The Rector of Holy Trinity Church in Algiers, Rev’d Craig Watson was present at the Basilica in Algiers and was honoured by being invited to sit inside the building. The majority of the crowd were outside (having to brave appalling weather)! He has also reflected on the experience. He writes: “The Pope’s visit to Algeria was historic.. The government showed vision and extended a warm welcome to him as he walked in the footsteps of Saint Augustine. Algerian Christians were delighted that he came to their land for the first time and they hope that this may be a significant moment in the attitude towards the Christian community here in Algeria. "Adel Kader, the Father of the Algerian Nation, was imprisoned and then sent into exile in Syria after his surrender to the French. During his time in exile in Damascus, he defended the Christian community and the Jewish community from those in the wider community who wanted to cause them harm and suppress them, during a time of unrest in that land. Today the Christian community in Algeria continues to be grateful for Kader's founding vision of Christians having a full place in Algerian society. "The Pope reflected on the importance of unity, love and prayer as key tenets of the Christian life and encouraged all those who call themselves Christ's followers to embrace this way of life. Cardinal Vesco, on behalf of the Catholic Church in Algeria, reaffirmed the ecumenical strength that exists in Algeria and the loving partnership that exists between the various Christian denominations, and welcomed the Pope wholeheartedly on behalf of all Christian churches in the land. "The desire of the Christian church to contribute positively to the development of the nation of Algeria was evident in the welcome that the Pope received from all the Christian churches and the Algerian authorities. Going forward Christians are eager to work with the Algerian Government to build on this excellent event to further develop the vision of Adel Kader in practical ways to support Christian ministry, as well as mutual understanding and partnership with Muslims.The wisdom and courage shown by the Algerian government in inviting the Pope and organising an excellent visit is to be commended and we look forward to the positive things that will develop as a result.” Bishop Ashley spoke to Vatican News before the Papal Mass at Annaba. He said, “I think the truth is, the only thing more beautiful than the landscape and the seascape of Algeria is the beauty of the hearts of the people”. He admired how the Algerian people “opened their arms and their hearts” to embrace Pope Leo, “to make him feel welcome”, and “to honor his mission of peace”.

COMMENTARY By David W. Virtue, DD www.virtueonline.org April 19, 2026 The Episcopal Diocese of Western New York is fighting for its institutional life. Founded in 1838 — the first diocese ever to be divided from another, and notably the first not to follow state lines — it once stood as a flagship of Anglican witness in the Great Lakes region. St. Paul’s Cathedral graces the heart of downtown Buffalo, a monument to an era when the diocese commanded cultural authority and spiritual vitality. Today, that authority is in question, and that vitality has measurably ebbed. The raw numbers tell the story plainly. In 2015, the diocese reported 9,336 members across its seven-county territory. By 2023, that figure had collapsed to 6,014 — a loss of more than 35 percent in eight years. Average Sunday attendance has fallen to just 1,646 persons across 52 congregations, (average size congregation is now 31), with plate-and-pledge income from the diocese’s 51 filing congregations totaling a fragile $4.48 million. No membership statistics were even reported for 2024 — itself a telling silence. These are not numbers compatible with institutional confidence. This collapse mirrors the wider denomination. The Episcopal Church, which once boasted over three million baptized members, has shed more than half its baptized membership since the 1960s and now reports fewer than 1.5 million adherents nationally. Sunday attendance across the entire church has fallen below 400,000 — less than half of what it was when the current presiding bishop was ordained a priest. The denomination posted its first churchwide budget deficit in recent memory, and average pledge size has dropped more than 15 percent. In Western New York, a regional church that was already thin is becoming thinner still. The Sean Rowe Interregnum and Its Aftermath Until November 2024, the Diocese of Western New York had been sharing a bishop with the Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania under a cost-cutting partnership established in 2019. That bishop was the Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe — now the 28th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, having been elected on the first ballot at the 81st General Convention in Louisville, Kentucky. Rowe was 49 at the time of his election, the youngest presiding bishop in the church’s history. The proposed merger between Western New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania — the logical endpoint of the shared-bishop arrangement — collapsed when Rowe’s elevation to presiding bishop removed the chief architect of the partnership. The diocese was left holding neither a diocesan bishop nor a clear path forward. Rowe’s departure did not merely create a vacancy; it exposed a deeper vacancy of identity that no organizational restructuring had addressed. Rowe is not known for theological orthodoxy. His public statements have signaled alignment with the Episcopal Church’s progressive agenda on sexuality and doctrine. He has described the belief that the denomination is dying as “a lie from the pit of hell,” a rhetorical flourish that drew wide attention but convinced few who have looked honestly at the parochial reports. His vision for institutional survival is structural — mergers, shared staff, organizational “experimentation” — with no corresponding call to return to apostolic doctrine, proclaim sin and salvation, or recover the Great Commission. What is conspicuously absent from his reform agenda, as orthodox observers have noted, is any theology of repentance. The Bishop Search: A Proxy War for the Diocese’s Soul The diocese’s Standing Committee has now initiated a bishop search, and the language it is using is revealing. The diocesan profile “currently under development,” the committee has acknowledged, “is reflecting a deeper truth — that we do not yet have a fully integrated or clearly articulated diocesan identity.” That is a remarkable admission from a diocese that has existed since 1838. Translation: before the diocese can agree on who should lead it, it must first agree on what it believes and where it is going. The committee has also declared that the search is entering “a season of reset,” framing the pause not as institutional paralysis but as “faithfulness to one another and to our mission to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” That phrase — “to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ” — is doing a great deal of work in a denomination where the content of that proclamation has become deeply contested. To orthodox ears, it sounds like a lifeline. To the progressive establishment, it sounds like a placeholder. The diocese has hired a communications consultant to facilitate the listening process and help navigate competing visions. This is worth noting. A diocese of 6,000 members, with an average Sunday attendance barely exceeding 1,600 persons and a combined pledge income of $4.5 million, is spending scarce resources on a communications consultant to manage internal conflict rather than on evangelism, church planting, or pastoral care. The optics reveal the priorities. The Florida Precedent — A Cautionary Tale Those who doubt what awaits an orthodox candidate in Western New York need only study the Diocese of Florida’s recent bishop search. An orthodox priest emerged as a viable candidate. He was not accused of heresy, moral failure, or administrative incompetence. He was accused — implicitly and explicitly — of insufficient enthusiasm for the ordination of openly gay priests and insufficient deference to the church’s pansexual agenda as codified in General Convention Resolution 2012-A049 and its successors. He was excoriated, his reputation shredded in ecclesiastical forums, and he was driven from the process entirely. A second attempt produced the same result. The message was unmistakable: deviation from the progressive line, however modest and however politely expressed, will not be tolerated. The same machinery is operative in Western New York. Any candidate who declines to fully affirm the church’s entrenched sexual progressivism — regardless of his theological depth, pastoral gifts, or administrative competence — will face the same fate. The church’s gay lobby is organized, well-funded, and deeply embedded in the search and consent process. It does not lose these contests. The die, as they say, has been cast. The Laity’s Silent Rebellion There is a persistent and well-documented reality in the Episcopal Church: the laity are, on average, considerably more conservative in faith and morals than the clergy and episcopate who represent them. Surveys consistently show that significant numbers of Episcopalians in the pews hold traditional views on Scripture, marriage, and sexual ethics — views that are not reflected in the policies and pronouncements of the institutional church. Most say nothing. Episcopalians are, by cultural formation and social instinct, conflict-averse. They do not make scenes. They do not organize caucuses or circulate petitions. They simply, quietly, stop coming. That is precisely what the statistics reveal has happened in Western New York. The 35 percent membership loss over eight years is not primarily a demographic story, though demographics play a role. It is a theological story. Faithful Anglicans who sought a church that proclaimed the Gospel without ideological qualification have, over time, found that church elsewhere — in the Anglican Church in North America, in independent Anglican congregations, or not at all. The diocese’s standing committee is correct that a “reset” is needed. The question is whether the institutional church has the will, and the freedom, to actually execute one. The Path Forward: What Faithfulness Actually Requires The Diocese of Western New York has, in its bishop search, a moment that very few Episcopal dioceses have been able to seize in the past two decades: the freedom to ask, openly, what faithfulness to the Gospel actually requires. The handful of dioceses that have maintained orthodox leadership — Central Florida, Dallas, and a small number of southern dioceses among them — are not coincidentally the dioceses showing the most institutional resilience. A faithful path forward for Western New York would require the election of a bishop who can articulate a clear, unapologetic Gospel proclamation; who will hold the line on apostolic doctrine not as a culture-war position but as pastoral necessity; who will speak honestly to the laity about what the numerical decline means and what repentance — institutional and spiritual — actually looks like. It would require the diocese to resist the pressure to merge its identity into the church’s progressive monoculture, and to make the case, congregation by congregation, that orthodox Anglican Christianity offers something the surrounding culture cannot: objective truth, genuine community, and an eternal horizon. Whether that path is still open — given the structural pressures, the entrenched lobby, and the diocese’s financial fragility — is the honest question the Standing Committee must answer before it proceeds any further. The faithful people in those 52 congregations deserve nothing less than that honesty. David W. Virtue, DD is the founder and editor of VirtueOnline, the world’s most widely read orthodox Anglican news service. You can read more here: www.virtueonline.org

by Paddy Benson  Valonia Press, Sevenoaks. 2026 147pp   Review by Rev. Dr. Chris Sugden https://anglicanmainstream.org/article/the-church-and-the-nyayo-state/   Daniel Arap Moi, as president of Kenya from 1978 to 2002, christened his approach “Nyayo” claiming to follow in the ‘footsteps’ of the revered independence leader and first President of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta.   This was eventually a piece of PR to suggest he was continuing the policies of Kenyatta. But he radically changed the centres of power in Kenya, to be lodged in the Kenya African Nationalist Union (KANU) which was the only political party allowed in the ‘new’ one party state.   Arap Moi, who made a Christian profession, was chairman of KANU and President of Kenya. It was nationalist policy and any disagreement was judged to be disloyalty to the nation. By 1982 anxiety was growing that  ‘Nyayoism’ might be another word for a presidential personality cult and dictatorial rule.  But Benson gives a unique analysis of Moi and Nyayoism as an ideology.  Kenyatta had excluded the people from formal political processes. Moi included them but on condition of the loyalty required of all members of the leadership corps to support one another in implementing a single vision for society. The church no less than other institutions was required to follow this as well.   In this situation, Bishop David Gitari of Embu, subsequently Archbishop of Kenya, preached a number of sermons on various occasions, such as the launch of an archdeaconry, confirmation service, and consecration of bishops. He did not enter into the politics of the situation. He based his sermons on careful biblical exposition that called for truth and justice. In doing so the sermons lay out a solid grounding for the church to be concerned for the wellbeing of the whole community, not just of its membership.  He and his colleagues engaged with the realities of political power and did not spend time lamenting the theoretical weakness of the ruling philosophy. He did not offer a theological alternative to Nyayoism.   While the State believed in a doctrine of progress under the guidance of divine providence, the Church was conscious of being in the shadow of God’s impending judgement.  Gitari engaged in prophecy which aims at people as personifications of institutions and situations which perpetuate circumstances contrary to the will of God for the world. And Nyayoism prized loyalty about truth.   His critique was tantamount to treason and he was fiercely criticized in Parliament and the press but the church remained one of the few remaining organisations with licence to dissent.   Archdeacon (in the CofE) Paddy Benson was a close colleague of Bishop Gitari from 1978 – 1989 and his acting Director of Communications. He recorded the whole episode in his MPhil thesis completed within 15 years of the events he described.  His thesis is published more or less as he wrote it 30 years ago. It provides an eyewitness account of the events and an analysis of the different ideologies of the party, local leadership, the nation state and the engagement of the church.   His study is of value to anyone wanting to understand the development of Kenya and to see a model of engagement by senior Anglicans and Presbyterians with issues of justice and truth in national life.    END

Rite to be added to the Church in Wales' Book of Common Prayer By David W. Virtue, DD www.virtueonline.org April 17, 2026 The Church in Wales Governing Body has voted to make permanent provision for church blessings of same-sex civil marriages and civil partnerships. Five years ago, the Governing Body declared it "pastorally unsustainable" to offer no formal recognition to those in committed same-sex relationships, and approved a blessing rite on a five-year experimental basis. That trial period expires in September. At its meeting in Llandudno, the Governing Body debated a motion to make the provision permanent by incorporating the rite into the Book of Common Prayer. The measure required a two-thirds majority across each of the three Orders: Bishops, Clergy, and Laity. All five bishops voted in favor. Clergy approved the measure 32–7, with five abstentions; laity voted 48–8, with two abstentions. The Church in Wales does not yet permit same-sex marriage. However, following several months of listening exercises, the bishops issued a pastoral letter in November 2025 indicating that a majority favored the view that "the time is right to offer equal marriage." Further proposals are expected in April 2027 to change both civil and church law accordingly. Archbishop of Wales, the Most Revd Cherry Vann, said: "I want to thank everyone for the ways in which this debate was conducted — calmly, and with mutual respect. We want everybody to be able to hold their views with integrity whilst not losing sight of the image of God that resides in all of us." Archbishop Vann has been in a relationship with Wendy Diamond, a retired council employee, for 30 years. The two entered a civil partnership in 2015. Vann kept the relationship private until her appointment as Bishop of Monmouth in 2020. Global Anglican Communion Chairman Pushes Back The Most Rev. Dr. Laurent Mbanda, Primate of the Church of Rwanda and Chairman of the Global Anglican Communion, responded sharply to the vote. "Five years ago, the Governing Body of the Church in Wales approved the trial usage of a liturgical rite of blessing for same-sex marriages — and today it has become the first church to make such rites a permanent addition to its Book of Common Prayer," he said. "This decision received unanimous support from the bishops and overwhelming support from both clergy and laity." Mbanda called the vote a departure from Scripture: "The leaders of the Church in Wales have shown their determination to continue to wander from the truth of God's word. For our part, we continue to call upon them to turn back from their error and to 'choose this day' whom they will serve" (Joshua 24:15). He invited disaffected Welsh Anglicans to align with the Global Anglican Communion. "We offer prayers for the faithful in Wales and we invite them — and all biblically faithful Christians throughout the Anglican world — to sign the Jerusalem Declaration and join with us as we seek to proclaim Christ faithfully to the nations."

The Church in Wales runs with gay abandon down the hill into the Abyss, with the Gadarene swine. COMMENTARY By Paul Blackham www.virtueonline.org April 17, 2026 One bishop had to retire recently because of issues with safeguarding, excessive drinking and church members overstepping sexual boundaries at Bangor Cathedral. Just two months ago, in February, a report revealed that a priest who abused a 15-year-old boy rose to the top and became a bishop. The allegations were, of course, covered up by the Church in Wales. There are deep reasons why the Living God with His Church, for long ages, has been so careful to set such clear boundaries around sexuality. Christian marriage has always been modelled on Christ and Church - just as Adam and Eve were. (Ephesians 5:31-32). The celibate single life has always been held up as the higher form of devotion to Christ and Church - as Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 7 and Jesus explains in Matthew 19:12. Jesus teaches us that we do not need to be defined by our desires, but rather we can have a new identity that belongs to our glorious eternal future. We can know a freedom to say "no" to our deceitful desires - a freedom to say "yes" to holy love and fruitful service. "The grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age..." (Titus 2:11-12) With sexual boundaries broken down, integrity compromised and purity defiled, it is no surprise that the "Church in Wales" wishes to call down blessings onto what the Bible calls sexually immoral couplings. At their meeting this week, there were still a handful of prophets of the LORD God of Israel left to speak out. We thank God that there still remained, perhaps not seven thousand, but perhaps 7 or 8, who had not bowed the knee. All five bishops voted for sexually immoral blessings, as did clergy by 32 to 7 (with five abstentions), and laity by 48 to 8 (with two abstentions). Those of us who have been in these kinds of gatherings know that it is very hard to speak out for purity, compassion and faithfulness - faced with a tidal wave of peer pressure to go along with the 400 prophets rather than stand with Elijah and trust in the Living God, the Holy One of Israel. There were those who spoke out with courage and faithfulness... Della Nelson offered a detailed critique of the proposed liturgy - showing that it deeply undermines Biblical teaching on marriage and it is "offering marriage under another name". "Rev Melanie Prince, from the diocese of St Davids, said she had been speaking recently to members of the Anglican Church in Nigeria, about how they could help Christians in that part of the world. "Do not water down the gospel we are dying for," was the response she received. Julia Schulz, a lay member from Bangor diocese, added that the blessing "looks like a marriage service in all but name", and that they should remember Bible teachings about the "blueprint for what a Christian marriage is"." Inevitably, there were those who talk a good talk in private, but said nothing in this public event. Some "orthodox" have long since retreated from the field entirely and gone away to cuddle and huddle in their theological "safe spaces". However, even among those who stay on the field of battle, all too many talk as if they want to stand up for Jesus and speak out on the Bible... but when it comes to the moment... they slink and slither away into the shadows, silently, shamefully. I was just speaking to a faithful saint, who spoke out with great courage and compassion at this gathering... and she noted how so many of those who claim to support the Christian Faith, either voted for spiritual suicide or else had nothing at all to say. We pray for those with the Spirit of Elijah who are still fighting for the Church in Wales. The story of Elijah is of a faithful saint who was very zealous for the LORD God of Israel - who was not as alone as he feared he was. When the institutions of that ancient Church were overrun by fertility cults, yet, it was not the end of the story. There was a day when the Living God answered by fire. He has done that in Wales before. May He do that again.... "Pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly... My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins." - James 5:16-20 The Rev Dr Paul Blackham is a Welsh‑based evangelical theologian, pastor, and church planter, active for decades in both England and Wales. END

COMMENTARY David W. Virtue, DD www.virtueonline.org April 15, 2026 An AI-generated image depicting Donald Trump as Jesus Christ, posted on Truth Social on Sunday night, brought forth sound and fury from a number of quarters. It was later deleted. The image, which was shared without a written comment by the president, showed Trump donning a traditional white robe and red shawl and healing a man while surrounded by four adoring people, including a nurse and a soldier. In the background, an eagle is flying in front of the U.S. flag to the left; soldiers appear to be ascending toward a heaven-like light in the middle; and another eagle is flying next to military jets to the right. Speaking to reporters outside the Oval Office, Trump said that he posted the image but insisted it was meant to depict him as a doctor, dismissing suggestions that it portrayed him as Jesus Christ as a fabrication by “fake news.” “It's supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better," he said. "And I do make people better. I make people a lot better.” Reaction was swift, mostly condemning the president’s depiction of himself as Jesus Christ, bearing in mind that he has made no pretense of being a Christian. MIKE JOHNSON House Speaker Mike Johnson said he contacted Trump “as soon as I saw it” and told him the image wasn’t being received as intended; Trump agreed and deleted it. Johnson reiterated that he had asked Trump to delete it, and that Trump did not think the image was sacrilegious but had misunderstood how it would be interpreted. ROBERT GAGNON Evangelical theologian Robert Gagnon’s position was essentially that the outrage over the image was overblown. He pointed out that a right-wing influencer named Nick Adams was the true originator of the image on Substack, framing it as less of a direct Trump statement and more of a repost of existing content. Snopes confirmed that the image had first been posted on February 4, 2026, by Nick Adams, a conservative commentator with a history of sharing AI-generated, biblically themed Trump content, who captioned it: “America has been sick for a long time. President Trump is healing this nation.” MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE Even former Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, once among Trump's most vocal supporters, wrote: “On Orthodox Easter, President Trump attacked the Pope because the Pope is rightly against Trump's war in Iran, and then he posted this picture of himself as if he is replacing Jesus. I completely denounce this, and I'm praying against it.” VP J.D. VANCE Vice President J.D. Vance, pressed in an interview on Fox News, offered a different explanation: “I think the president was posting a joke, and, of course, he took it down because he recognized that a lot of people weren't understanding his humor.” TIM WHITAKER Tim Whitaker, founder of The New Evangelicals and a critic of Christian nationalism, had this to say: “When Trump posted an AI image of himself depicted as Jesus—healing the sick, surrounded by soldiers and ICE agents and an American flag—my flabbers were genuinely ghasted. Not because I didn't see it coming, but because now it's official. It's out in the open. No more subtext. This is the false gospel of Christian nationalism completing its final form.” Whitaker argued that the image wasn't just blasphemous imagery but represented a deeper theological substitution: “Christian nationalists aren't confused. They're not being manipulated into thinking Trump is like Jesus. They have replaced Jesus with Trump—because the Jesus of the Gospels doesn't give them what they actually want. The Jesus of the Gospels said love your enemies. He said blessed are the meek. He said care for the sick and the poor and the marginalized.” Whitaker also described comparisons between Trump and Jesus—such as those made by Trump's spiritual adviser Paula White at a White House Easter lunch—as “blasphemous,” reflecting concerns that religious language was being distorted for political purposes. Whitaker has been tracking what he calls “Christian nationalism” for over a decade and views this moment as the culmination of a long-term trend in which political loyalty has superseded theological fidelity for some evangelical supporters of Trump. MELANIE PHILLIPS British Jewish journalist Melanie Phillips, writing in The Times, said there had been a “near-hysterical clamour” that Trump “was clearly a sacrilegious megalomaniac and had now lost the Christian vote.” She argued that “the furore over the image detracted from his words about the Pope,” and that “stripping aside Trump's boastful and bombastic ramblings, his core point was justified. The Pope's attitude to the Iran war is shocking.” “This is gross blasphemy,” Brilyn Hollyhand, the former chair of the Republican National Committee’s Youth Advisory Council and a self-described “full-time Christian,” said of the image in a social media post. “Faith is not a prop. You don’t need to portray yourself as a savior when your record should speak for itself.” The AI image may soon be forgotten, like so many online controversies. What will remain is the deeper question it raised about the growing fusion of faith, politics, and personality in American life. A nation already deeply divided does not need political messiahs—it needs leaders who remember the difference. END

By David W. Virtue, DD www.virtueonline.org April 14, 2026 Dame Sarah Mullally used her first Easter Day sermon as Archbishop of Canterbury to renew calls for peace in the Middle East. "Violence, division and insecurity are affecting the lives of billions of people around the world," she said, adding that "many feel that their heart is in pieces." "The bereft, the wounded, the refugee — this week our gaze and our prayers have been turned towards the land where Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead." Noble sentiments. But calling for peace in the Middle East without naming the parties responsible is a gesture that changes nothing. Vague appeals from progressive church leaders carry little weight when the actors driving the conflict — Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran's Revolutionary Guard, Houthi rebels — have no interest in peace on any terms that would be recognizable to the West. Mullally never identified any of them by name. One suspects her remarks were aimed, implicitly, at Israel and its leadership. After all, we are repeatedly told that Palestinians are the victims of Israeli aggression — that the IDF kills civilians indiscriminately, that Israel practices apartheid, and that Benjamin Netanyahu should face trial for war crimes. She also made no mention of Vladimir Putin, who has waged more than four years of aggressive war against Ukraine at a cost of over a million lives and minimal territorial gain. "Today, as we shout with joy that Christ is risen, let us pray and call with renewed urgency for an end to the violence and destruction in the Middle East and the Gulf," she said. Yet she did not call on Hamas to lay down its arms. She did not ask Hezbollah to stand down and spare the Lebanese people further bloodshed. She said nothing to Iran's leadership about ending its missile strikes against Israel and neighboring Arab states. Her call for peace was stripped of any specific demand — which is to say, it was not really a call for peace at all. Peace, peace, when there is no peace, cried the prophet Jeremiah. From a Christian perspective, lasting peace is the work of the Prince of Peace — a reality that appears beyond the scope of Dame Sarah's Easter address. "May our Christian sisters and brothers know and celebrate the hope of the empty tomb — and may all people of the region receive the peace, justice and freedom they long for." Fine words. The Iranian people would know something about longing for freedom, after five decades under clerical tyranny. Israel's military campaign, whatever one thinks of its methods, is the only force currently attempting to break that grip — and receives no credit for it. Mullally drew more theologically interesting ground when she spoke of resurrection and darkness: "God's most essential work of resurrection happens in the depths of the earth, while the world is silent and still dark." She reflected that "darkness is also a place for the movement of the Spirit, knowing Jesus is with me." There is something worth engaging here. Yet there is an irony she didn't acknowledge: the first act of God in Genesis, when the earth was formless and void and darkness covered the deep, was to create light. An Easter sermon might have dwelt on that rather more. In his Easter Urbi et Orbi, Pope Leo appealed to world leaders to choose "not to dominate others, but to encounter them" — a sentiment that Hamas fighters sheltering in tunnels beneath Gaza are unlikely to find persuasive. END

By Samuel Pascoe ORANGE PARK, FL — When you're 124 years old, giving birth keeps you young. No one knows the exact date, but sometime in 1880 Grace Episcopal Church was planted as a mission church. Today the church has grown to 1,400 members. This year marks our 124th birthday as a church. Far from slip sliding into old age, we are being made young again by a new birth. September 4 was the 20th anniversary of my ordination. There can be no greater way for me to celebrate that anniversary than to give birth to a daughter ... a daughter church. The fellowship that began several years ago as the outreach-oriented "On Ramp" service is going to become a new Anglican Church in Clay County, coming under the ecclesiastical authority of the Province of Rwanda and its Primate Emmanuel Kolini. It will be called Emmaus Road Church (ERC). Its new rector will be the Rev. David Freels. David, the vestry, and the people of On Ramp service had been talking about a new church plant for some time. Over time it became clear that God was leading David Freels to plant an Anglican church under the direct authority of his bishop, Thomas Johnston, a bishop in the Anglican Province of Rwanda. Till now, David had been exercising his priestly ministry under my authority as Rector of Grace Church and as part of a joint venture of cooperation between Bp. Johnston of Rwanda and Bp. Stephen Jecko, who was until January of 2004 the ECUSA bishop of Florida. That joint effort in mutual ministry came to an end when the new bishop of Florida, Johnson Howard, refused to relicense David to perform priestly functions in this diocese. This reversal of Bp. Jecko's policy of reconciliation and mutual ministry has caused great pain for all of us. On August 9, 2004, the vestry of Grace Church unanimously passed a resolution celebrating this new venture and approving David's move from full-time to part-time status here at Grace, thus freeing him up to resume his priestly calling at ERC. Taking the On Ramp to a New Road On Sunday, September 5, ERC moved out of our home and took on her new identity as an Anglican Church on mission to America. Bp. Johnston had planned to join David and the people of Emmaus Road Church but Hurricane Frances prevented his travel to Jacksonville. In fact, even though David cancelled services, 30 people showed up anyway in the midst of the storm and he and new flock celebrated their first communion together as a new church. Symbolically, they were the still point in the midst of the storm that raged around them. Bp. Johnston will join the people of ERC as soon as his schedule permits. It was a time of excitement and opportunity. The goal of this new work is to reach out to the thousands of unchurched and non-Christian people in our area. This new work is not about 'sheep-stealing' (trying to lure others from existing churches). Emmaus Road Church will offer a way for the 30%+ people in Clay County who have no church home to connect with Jesus and the Anglican Communion. Why Now? I believe this is a crucial and timely mission for the following reasons: It will clearly put the "Go" in Gospel as we show we are serious about mission, not only globally (thru the ministry of the McHughs, Starnes, and others) but also locally. It will be good for our own collective soul and our health as a congregation to take a risk and give our very best to the cause of the Kingdom. Because ERC will be under the authority of the Province of Rwanda (through the agency of the Anglican Mission in America), it will allow David to fulfill the calling for which he has worked so long and so faithfully and for which he was ordained into the Anglican Communion. It will open new ministries to our neighbors as those who embark on this adventure offer their special approach to doing church in this area. What David, his team, and those who join him will build together will not be "just like Grace" nor will it be "just like On Ramp." It will be a new thing, a whole new church worshiping and serving the Lord in the strong Anglican tradition and in full fellowship with Anglicans around the world. Why Is ERC an AMiA Church? The word "church" only appears twice on the lips of Jesus. The first is in Matthew 16 when Jesus tells Peter that He will build His Church. The second is in Matthew 18 when Jesus lays out a plan for Church discipline. That plan involves progressively taking concerns to more and more people at higher and higher levels of authority within the church. The context for the Matthew 18 passage is one believer having a problem with another believer. But, what if the problem is with the church (or denomination) itself? That is the issue that continues to face orthodox Episcopalians. I count myself in that group, so I will use the word "we." Over the course of 15 years, we (a group of laity, deacons, priests, and bishops) took our concerns "up the ladder" of authority and accountability. In 2000, we took our concerns to what, in Anglican polity, is the final court of appeals: the 38 primates of the Anglican Communion. Their response was to issue several strong rebukes to the Episcopal Church in the United States (ECUSA) and call for repentance. When ECUSA did not repent, but instead continued to act in defiance of Anglican tradition, the clear teaching of Scripture, and the expressed will of the Anglican communion, members of the world-wide Anglican Communion decided to intervene. The desperate need for their help, wisdom, guidance and courage became crystal clear last summer when almost exactly a year ago the Episcopal Church openly defied the Anglican Community and, indeed, 98% of global Christianity, when it approved the consecration of Vicki Gene Robinson — a defiant homosexual activist — as the Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire. The Anglican world recoiled in horror and sadness at this act of American heresy and hubris. They determined to send missionaries to America. There is a fitting symmetry here. Just as in the 18th and 19th centuries America had sent missionaries to Africa and Asia (uninvited but much needed), so now these men and women are sending missionaries back to the U.S. In their arrogance and cultural hubris, some in ECUSA do not understand. They fail to remember that now; as then, in some cases these missionaries are uninvited but much needed. As one African Archbishop said in frustration, "You (Americans) sent us the Bible and now you are mad at us because we believe it." Two archbishops and their provinces stepped up. They consecrated two bishops (Chuck Murphy and John Rodgers) and later four more (among them Tom Johnston) to serve as missionary bishops in America. A new mission agency, the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) was born. AMiA is a mission agency under the authority of Anglican bishops and primates. One of the sponsoring provinces was Southeast Asia (Singapore, Thailand, etc.) and the other was Rwanda. Why Rwanda? Two reasons: First, the Rwandan genocide of ten years ago taught the people of Rwanda that all it takes for evil to prosper is for good people to do nothing. The world literally stood aside and let tens of thousands of people die. In some cases, the international community literally watched it happen but did not want to get involved. Those who survived the holocaust pledged that they would never stand by while others suffered if they had it in their power to intervene. Second, the Anglicans in Rwanda believe the Gospel. They really believe that spiritual warfare is just as real as earthly warfare. They believe that spiritual death is even more horrific than physical genocide. Earlier this year, my friend Neil Lebhar took a trip to Israel with a Ugandan bishop. Just before going on the trip, 200 people in his diocese had been massacred in religious warfare. Neil felt certain that this Ugandan bishop would see the spiritual problems in America as very minor compared to what he was dealing with in Africa. But, the Ugandan bishop shocked Neil when he said, "No! Your struggle and ours is the same. It is all spiritual warfare, darkness against light. Do not think your struggle (for the soul of the church in America) is any less important to God." The people of Rwanda and Uganda have seen the ugly face of sin, unmitigated by western media and the supposed wisdom of western intelligentsia. They know the fight is real. Why Now? Earlier this year, the new bishop of Florida, Johnson Howard, refused to relicense David Freels for the priestly ministry for which he had trained for so many years, for which he was ordained by the Province of Rwanda, and for which he was previously licensed by Bp. Jecko. Howard's refusal to recognize the legitimacy of David's orders (his ordination) and his continuing refusal to address the issue has left us with few options. The issue is not the legitimacy of David's ordination. David's bishop, Thomas Johnston, was consecrated by two sitting primates of the Anglican Communion — only one is normally present at such an event. Ironically, and instructively, no primates were present at the consecration of the new bishop of Florida, Johnson Howard. On September 5, Emmaus Road Church took its rightful place as a new Anglican Church, part of the Anglican Mission in America, part of the World-Wide Anglican Communion, and not only a daughter, but also a partner with Grace Church in reaching our world for Jesus Christ. The Rev. Sam Pascoe is the rector of Grace Church in Orange Park, Florida. END

September 8, 2004 (Ventura, CA) — The Barna Group Recent legislation, lawsuits and public demonstrations over the legality of gay marriage are just one battlefront regarding the institution of marriage. A new study released by The Barna Group, of Ventura, California, shows that the likelihood of married adults getting divorced is identical among born again Christians and those who are not born again. The study also cited attitudinal data showing that most Americans reject the notion that divorce is a sin. Based on interviews with a nationally representative sample of 3614 adults, the Barna survey focused on the three-quarters of adults 18 years of age or older who have been married at least once. The study identified those who had been divorced; the age at which they were divorced; how many divorces they have experienced; and the age at which the born again Christians had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Comparing the ages when divorced adults had accepted Christ and when they underwent their divorce, the researchers were able to determine both the impact of one's faith commitment on the resilience of the marriage and whether the divorce occurred before or after their born again commitment. The survey also examined whether people believe that divorce is a sin in situations where adultery is not involved. More Than One-Third Call It Quits Among all adults 18 and older, three out of four (73%) have been married and half (51%) are currently married. (That does not include the 3% who are presently separated from their marriage partner.) Among those who have been married, more than one out of every three (35%) have also been divorced. One out of every five adults (18%) who has ever been divorced has been divorced multiple times. That represents 7% of all Americans who have been married. The average age at which people first dissolve their initial marriage tends to be in the early thirties. Among people in their mid-fifties or older, the median age of their first divorce was 34. Among Baby Boomers, millions more of whom are expected to get a divorce within the coming decade, the median age of the first divorce is currently 31. The Barna Group expects the average age of a first divorce among Boomers to be similar to that of the preceding generations by 2015, as the aging members of that generation sustain divorces later in life. The research revealed that Boomers continue to push the limits regarding the prevalence of divorce. Whereas just one-third (33%) of the married adults from the preceding two generations had experienced a divorce, almost half of all married Boomers (46%) have already undergone a marital split. This means Boomers are virtually certain to become the first generation for which a majority experienced a divorce. It appears that the generation following the Boomers will reach similar heights, since more than one-quarter of the married Baby Busters (27%) have already undergone a divorce, despite the fact that the youngest one-fifth of that generation has not even reached the average age of a first marriage. Christians Have Same Incidence of Divorce Although many Christian churches attempt to dissuade congregants from getting a divorce, the research confirmed a finding identified by Barna a decade ago (and further confirmed through tracking studies conducted each year since): born again Christians have the same likelihood of divorce as do non-Christians. Among married born again Christians, 35% have experienced a divorce. That figure is identical to the outcome among married adults who are not born again: 35%. George Barna noted that one reason why the divorce statistic among non-born again adults is not higher is that a larger proportion of that group cohabits, effectively side-stepping marriage — and divorce — altogether. "Among born again adults, 80% have been married, compared to just 69% among the non-born again segment. If the non-born again population were to marry at the same rate as the born again group, it is likely that their divorce statistic would be roughly 38% - marginally higher than that among the born again group, but still surprisingly similar in magnitude." Barna also noted that he analyzed the data according to the ages at which survey respondents were divorced and the age at which those who were Christian accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. "The data suggest that relatively few divorced Christians experienced their divorce before accepting Christ as their savior," he explained. "If we eliminate those who became Christians after their divorce, the divorce figure among born again adults drops to 34% - statistically identical to the figure among non-Christians." The researcher also indicated that a surprising number of Christians experienced divorces both before and after their conversion. Multiple divorces are also unexpectedly common among born again Christians. Barna's figures show that nearly one-quarter of the married born agains (23%) get divorced two or more times. The survey showed that divorce varied somewhat by a person's denominational affiliation. Catholics were substantially less likely than Protestants to get divorced (25% versus 39%, respectively). Among the largest Protestant groups, those most likely to get divorced were Pentecostals (44%) while Presbyterians had the fewest divorces (28%). Is Divorce A Sin? Although Bible scholars and teachers point out that Jesus taught that divorce was a sin unless adultery was involved, few Americans buy that notion. Only one out of every seven adults (15%) strongly agreed with the statement "when a couple gets divorced without one of them having committed adultery, they are committing a sin." A similar percentage (16%) moderately agreed with the statement. The vast majority — 66% — disagreed with the statement, most of them strongly dismissing the notion. Faith perspectives made a difference in people's views on this matter — but not as much as might have expected. Born again adults were twice as likely as non-born agains (24% vs. 10%) to strongly affirm this statement. However, a majority of the born again group (52%) disagreed that divorce without adultery is sin. Three-quarters of all non-born again adults (74%) disagreed with the statement. A majority of both Protestants (58%) and Catholics (69%) disagreed that divorce without adultery involved in the commission of sin. There was no difference in point-of-view on this matter across the generational groups. The largest difference among subgroups of the population was between blacks and whites. Just half of the black segment (49%) disagreed with the survey statement compared to seven out of ten white adults (70%). Hispanics were in-between those extremes (64% disagreed.) No End In Sight Barna stated that there is no end in sight regarding divorce. "You can understand why atheists and agnostics might have a high rate of divorce, since they are less likely to believe in concepts such as sin, absolute moral truth and judgment. Yet the survey found that the percentage of atheists and agnostics who have been married and divorced is 37% - very similar to the numbers for the born again population. Given the current growth in the number of atheists and agnostics, and that the younger two generations are predisposed to divorce, we do not anticipate a reversal of the present pattern within the next decade." Research Methods The data described in this report are based on nationwide telephone interviews conducted by The Barna Group with a random sample of 3614 adults, age 18 or older, between January and August 2004. The maximum margin of sampling error associated with the aggregate sample of adults is ±1.9 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. "Born again Christians" were defined in these surveys as people who said they have made "a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today" and who also indicated they believe that when they die they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Respondents were not asked to describe themselves as "born again." Being classified as "born again" is not dependent upon church or denominational affiliation or involvement. The Barna Group, Ltd., is an independent cultural analysis and strategic consulting firm located in Ventura, California. Since 1984, it has been conducting and analyzing primary research to understand cultural trends related to values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. END