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Anglican Mainstreams leadership have given a fulsome welcome to the announcement that Canon Stephen Cottrell is to be the next Bishop of Reading, but is it not odd that they are welcoming the appointment of a man who is reported as holding a completely contrary view to theirs on the very issue which led to the formation of Anglican Mainstream, namely his support for the attempt to appoint Jeffrey John? It is true that the new bishop designate has a high profile commitment to evangelism and accepts the practical boundaries laid down by the House of Bishops Report Issues in Human Sexuality, but he has not committed himself to maintaining orthodox and biblical teaching on homosexuality. Indeed, his reported comments make it clear that he regards this as provisional: We need to listen to what God is saying, what the scriptures are saying. We need to listen to gay and lesbian people in our church - we need to listen to what the world says.   The substantive theological differences between Stephen Cottrell and Jeffrey John? both of whom are members of the liberal Affirming Catholicism group, do not seem to be of any great significance, yet the one is warmly welcomed while the other triggers the formation of an unprecedented international coalition.   Why should this be? Perhaps the reason why evangelicals managed to came together over the Jeffrey John episode was that it was a remarkably unsubtle appointment? the attempt to prefer a man with a track record as proponent of the gay/lesbian cause in a diocese with a strong evangelical presence. Stephen Cottrell represents a much more institutionally savvy way of doing things because he is theologically of a similar mold to Jeffrey John, but sails under an orthodox flag of convenience which has misled some into thinking he is actually an evangelical.   Anglican Mainstream has therefore got itself into an incoherent position. It claims to be upholding biblical truth, but in practice has shown that what really matters is the appearance of orthodoxy rather than the substance. It does not seem to matter what a bishop teaches, or fails to teach, so long as he observes the current institutional rules.   This is a view of Christian leadership which is clearly at variance with the New Testament requirement that those who exercise oversight should have the personal integrity of holding on to faith and a good conscience (1 Tim 1:19). In fact, this failure to follow through the biblical logic of their opposition to Jeffrey Johns appointment has left Anglican Mainstream vulnerable to the revisionist accusation of homophobia. Much has been made of the fact that Stephen Cottrell is a family man so it would seem that what you teach does not matter very much, but who you chose to share your bed with does.     That Anglican Mainstream has come? intentionally or not - to split off biblical teaching from biblical practice should not be a total surprise. There seems never to have been a recognition on their part that the Archbishop of Canterbury is himself a significant part of the problem because this is exactly what he has done sought to separate his ecclesiological practice from his personal (yet well publicised) views.   The bitter consequence for him was that he had to publicly abandon Jeffery John, a longstanding friend, for the sake of institutional unity; the bitter consequence for Anglican Mainstream will be that it loses its way in a marshland of ecclesiastical compromise unless it can quickly put its house in order.   The church I now lead, Christ Church Kidderminster, came into being as the outcome of a principled decision to disassociate from the spiritual authority of the current Bishop of Worcester, albeit a family man, who actively and openly supported the gay lesbian agenda and therefore rejected the authority of God’s Word which is the basis of his office.   Despite pressure to compromise from certain senior evangelicals, I have never regretted taking that stand and I am convinced that it is only when we take action on issues of belief and are willing to put issues of   faith before order that the Church of England will see the deep change it so urgently needs.     The Rev Charles Raven is the former vicar of St John the Baptist, Kidderminster, Worcestershire. He is now the vicar of Christ Church, Kidderminster.   *****

By FRANK MORRISS THE WANDERER   Anglicanism, that is, the religion of an English established church whose head on earth is the British monarch, began based on one of those monarchs   self-serving judgment that he could marry as many times as necessary to produce a male heir. Henry VIII at first veiled that seizure of authority from its legitimate possessor, the Bishop of Rome, in scruples about the validity of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.   He made a private interpretation of Scripture to argue his vows with the Spanish princess were invalid because she had been once married to his deceased brother, Arthur.  Rome rejected his petition for an annulment from Catherine on the grounds a dispensation had been granted from whatever impediment might be involved, and later, Catherine, defending her marriage to Henry, insisted the marriage to 16-year-old Arthur (even then sickly) had never been consummated. Her confessor, Bishop John Fisher, argued in her favor, and he above all others would have known if in fact the marriage to Henry’s brother was complete ( ratum et consummatum ).  For his several other marriages, Henry could find no other argument other than that he by his own declaration, approved by a supine Parliament, was head of the Church in England, and could do as he wished.   All of this defied the clear evidence in Scripture that putting ones wife away and taking another is adultery, as well as the fact that Christ made Peter, who became Bishop of Rome, as His Vicar on earth, and that the Church had recognized the Bishop of Rome and no other as having that title and authority to teach, govern, and bind and loose. In breaking with that authority, Henry and all who accepted his schism which rapidly evolved into full-blown heresy, reduced religion to being simply what its constituents, whether citizens, monarchs, or clerics or those pretending to be clerics, want it to be.     All of that must be kept in mind in considering the decision of the Episcopal Church, an offshoot or sprout of Anglicanism, that a man living in a feigned state of spousal relationship with another man, having split from his wife and children to do so, is fit to be a bishop.   Indeed, spokesmen for the majority that voted approval of this promotion of an Episcopal cleric to hierarchical status have proclaimed him more than fit for the job they have praised him as deeply spiritual, exemplary in his ministry, a paragon of priesthood deserving the rank to which they have lifted him by his invisible halo, as it were.   That this is a step toward recognizing marriage of homosexuals is admitted by supporters of this decision, one of whom (the bishop of the Episcopal seminary) said it is just a matter of bringing along reluctant Episcopalians to accepting such a step. Approval for blessing such marriages awaits the community’s arrival at the point the homosexual activists and their supporters have planned? the debauching of the marriage of man and woman by putting homosexual acts on its level.   The New Hampshire bishop-elect at the center of this parody of religion said Episcopalians are on a learning curve that will lead them to accept gays in every position of authority, which of course minimizes the real intention, that it will be an acceptance not only of their sexual appetites, but of their indulgence in those appetites by sodomy and other unmentionable sexual acts, none of which is in keeping with the decent and natural purpose of the sexual faculties given us by our Creator. The only learning curve Christians should be on is toward obeying, serving, and following Christ as closely and perfectly as possible, which includes being chaste.   Therefore, any genuine learning curve to be followed by Christians leads to Christs teaching, rather than away from it. And one of those teachings is that lust is forbidden to the Masters followers, and that sex is to be used to make man and woman one flesh. The Church has always accepted that Christ made this nuptial union analogous to His own union  with His Church. It is therefore blasphemous to even consider equating the lustful acts of homosexual sex with marriage, and it is sacrilegious to attempt to dignify such unions with a blessing or liturgy, which the Episcopal Church is on it way toward doing.     Make no mistake, two major evils are involved here? lust and pride, the claim of autonomy in the matter of sexual use and the claim of righteousness in asserting lust is virtue rather than vice.   There is little chance the Anglican Church, the schismatic root of Episcopalianism, will intervene effectively in what its brash American offspring is doing. For one thing, there is no effective authority at hand to do it. Just as the formal head of that Church? the British monarch? is a figurehead, her primate-designate, the archbishop of Canterbury, is as well. Even if he had effective power, the present holder of that office is an earth, fire, and wind worshiper. It is not likely he would be overly shocked at the desire of some within the church he heads to appear costumed as fauns, frolicking after one another piping the music of the Lupercal.   After all, the Anglican Church has surrendered traditional opposition to contraception, abortion, female clergy, divorce. It would be naive to think it will now take a stand against its shepherds engaging in objectionable activities of all sorts, and even being admired for doing so. The argument that God loves everyone is attractive in an egalitarian age that insists what one does would never be counted against the good God’s desire to have all saved. Further, the revolt against the nature and meaning of human acts in favor of fides sola or even good intentions suggests that Heaven is guaranteed.     Indeed, the truth that God loves everyone is now taken as that very guarantee. That overlooks that the crucial question for God’s creatures is? do they love God?   It’s easy to answer that question with ? of course! But then, what did Jesus mean when He said, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven; but he who does the will of my Father in Heaven shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And what is the meaning of the parable that tells of seven foolish virgins denied entry to the wedding feast because they let the oil of their lanterns burn out?   There is not a hint of scriptural teaching, including that of Christ, that sexual satisfaction alone can provide the substance of marriage.   But there is direct testimony aplenty that the use of sex to bring new lives into being is such substance. God makes woman to be man’s companion; the command to Adam is to increase and multiply. Jesus reminds His listeners that at the beginning the creation was of man and woman who can become one flesh, and for that reason any putting away of one’s wife and remarriage involves adultery. The only nuptial blessing given by Christ was at Cana. St. Paul condemns the desire of man for man, woman for woman in no uncertain terms. And thus for those who believe in the inerrancy of scriptural teaching, in the protection of the valid episcopal college from error, must surely accept that sodomy is a major departure from that teaching, and therefore a grave sin which, if not sincerely repented and resisted, would disqualify any candidate for that college.   The decline of sexual morality in the West, and even within what citadels of Christianity as remain, is the evil fruit of a totally personalist, subjective moral jurisdiction by each individual. The privacy claimed in matters of sex? even extending to reproduction? is simply an assertion of autonomy of the individual in that area of life. It makes no matter if that is the case what any other authority says, even when it is the authority of Christs Church, headed by His Vicar on earth, or the recorded authority of God’s word.     Sexual sins amount to Adam's choosing to eat of the fruit that God ordered him to forgo in Eden. Not all sexual sins are of equal malice, and there may be subjective mitigation of guilt in their regard. But if sodomy and other deviant sexual use are not seriously immoral, then surely no other sexual use can be condemned, either in or outside of marriage. Give in regarding homosexual sex, and every city becomes Sodom, every person becomes a potential citizen of Gomorrah.   None of the above is meant to insult or denigrate or even discourage sincere Anglicans or Episcopalians. And undoubtedly some may be ignorant of the issues involved in the origins and directions of their denominations. But most educated persons of those churches must recognize some facts of history. They must recognize how the Church of England drifted into a state of indifference to the meaning of apostolicity, entering a state of quasi-Protestantism and surrendered the full sacramentalism (most disastrously the Mass) that it kept at its very beginning (though for only a matter of months).   If they know anything about the revolt of the Non-Jurors against the acceptance of Protestant royal houses by the Church of England, and of the later Oxford Movement that attempted to revive Anglicanism’s historic link to the Church before Henrys schism and Elizabeth’s heresy, then they will know the direction of their church has been toward doctrinal and moral dissolution from the beginning.   The last serious chance for Anglicanism to choose either the substance of Catholic faith or the path to irrelevance was the issuance of John Henry Cardinal Newmans Tract 90 of the Oxford Movement. That attempted to establish a compatibility of Anglicanism’s 39 Articles of Faith with the ancient Creeds and interpretations of Catholicism. The Anglican authorities of the early 19th century used Newmans tract as an excuse to silence the Oxford Movement. Many Anglicans, especially Oxfordians, went to Rome with Newman; many, many more remained with an Anglicanism now revealed as determined to resist any challenge to its presumptions to be genuinely linked to the Church Christ founded.   That has led to the present moment, when it is clear the congregational idea of being whatever members of the community want it to be puts the Anglican and Episcopalian Churches on the edge of total religious irrelevance. Gradually, if those churches do not step back from that possibility, they will merge with the prevailing culture no matter how pagan, indecent, perverted, or diabolic that culture might become.   Other Protestant churches have already become pale shadows of Christianity, even the Christianity of their Reformation founders. A few islands of resistance to that fate remain, but it is unlikely these can remain long above the tides of secular morality (more properly, immorality).   In attempting to be relevant to such culture, Christian churches become more and more irrelevant. That is proving itself true even within some areas of the Catholic Church. Modernist theology and thought are becoming more and more unattractive, more and more like a senile nonagenarian who has lost his memory along with his recognizability as something meaningful to the following of Christ. What is prospering is traditional Catholicism faithful to the Church’s beginnings and the ongoing stream of Tradition as a parallel Revelation to Scripture.   That will be a bulwark for the Catholic Church as it rejects such enormities as gay unions, women clergy, trial marriage, legalized adultery, vice converted to virtue, sin mutated into sanctity. And reject it will, for the promise was made to the Church built upon the Rock who was Peter and now is each of his Successors, . . . and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.   It should be clear to all who have the purity of heart that enables them to have a true religious vision that such protection was not given any other church, as those gates prevail more and more over the purely human claim to hold divine credentials.     END

By Juliet Williams Associated Press     MILWAUKEE - A Roman Catholic bishop who waded into politics with a decree that lawmakers who support abortion rights can no longer receive Holy Communion has ignited a debate over the separation of church and state.     Bishop Raymond Burke of La Crosse cited Vatican doctrine, canon law and teachings by the U.S. bishops in an announcement telling diocesan priests to withhold communion from such lawmakers until they publicly renounce their support of abortion rights. This is about as stark a decree to come down against Catholic politicians as we’ve seen in recent history, said Barry W. Lynn, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.   The problem with it is that elected officials have to represent people of all faiths and none, and not adhere to one religious demand like the bishops, he said.     Pope John Paul II appointed Burke, 55, archbishop of St. Louis in December. Burke signed the decree in November, when he still had the authority to do so, but it was not made public until Thursday.     Burke is to be installed in St. Louis on Jan. 26. The Vatican and U.S. bishops have for years urged Catholic legislators to consider their faith when they vote, and a task force of bishops is weighing whether to recommend sanctions for Catholic politicians who support policies contrary to church teachings.   In November, Burke wrote letters to at least three Catholic lawmakers, telling them they risked being forbidden from taking the sacrament by continuing to vote for measures he termed anti-life, including abortion and euthanasia.   Democratic U.S. Rep. David Obey, who received a letter from Burke, said Friday that he respects the sacred oath he took to uphold the U.S. Constitution.   Obey said Burke can instruct him on faith and morals in his private life, but should use persuasion, not dictation to affect his political votes.   State Senate Minority Leader Jon Erpenbach, a Democrat who was raised Catholic, expressed a similar view.   Dictating public policy for people of all faiths by holding sacraments hostage from those who believe does not sound right, Erpenbach said.   Dan Maguire, a professor of theology at the Jesuit Marquette University in Milwaukee, called Burke a fanatic who has embarrassed the Catholic Church by using bullying tactics.     He is not a theologian and he is making terrible mistakes that have been addressed in theology in the past, Maguire said. He’s making a fool of himself. And the politicians are absolutely within their Catholic rights to ignore him.     END

By Cara Eastwood Wyoming Tribune-Eagle   CHEYENNE - Episcopalians seeking a more conservative church might find refuge in a new, as of yet unaffiliated group founded by a veteran in the Episcopal denomination.   The Church of St. Peter, Apostle and Confessor will begin meeting Jan. 18, and the Rev. H. W. Skip Reeves is eager to plow new ground with his congregation. Initial attendance, estimated between 75 and 150 people, will be comprised mainly of Episcopalians who stopped going to church after last years controversial appointment of a gay bishop.     I’m the last person on Earth that many people would think to do this, Reeves said. I’ve always been what you would call a company man.     Reeves served as rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church for over 10 years And retired last year. His problems are not with St. Marks or any of the parishioners there, he insists, but instead with the national church.     After the General Convention, when church leaders decided to confirm openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson and recognized that bishops are allowing blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples, Reeves said he began to feel the church moving away from his beliefs.   I strongly feel that I am not leaving the Episcopal Church, it has left me, he said in a recent letter to the Tribune-Eagle.   Reeves departure from his 34-year connection to the Episcopal Church comes after weathering several major storms like the altering of the prayerbook and the ordination of women.   But the confirmation of Robinson, however, was the last straw for Reeves and many other conservative Anglicans.     The perception of conservatives is that this is a gross violation of interpretation of scripture, Reeves said.   The Episcopal Church’s lack of official doctrine or statement of faith is part of the problem, Reeves said.   The Church of St. Peter, Apostle and Confessor, however, will be what Reeves calls a confessing church: meaning that the congregation will be guided by a statement of faith and will not hesitate to state what it believes.     St. Marks lost 40 percent of attendance after Bishop Robinsons confirmation, Reeves said.     Although he made a point to not stir up dissention because of his personal view of the issue, Reeves said many dissatisfied parishioners came to him for help and advice on where to go. He waited until he officially retired before founding a new church.     Episcopalians generally don’t change denominations, he said. They just stop going to church.   Reeves said the new church would welcome homosexual people into the congregation, so long as they are celibate or have the desire to try and convert to heterosexuality.   It’s the behavior that contradicts scripture, Reeves said. Not the individuals.   END

By: RICHARD N. OSTLING Jan 14. 2004)     The number of conservative Episcopalians opposed to an openly gay bishop is a replacement for the Episcopal Church that will be aligned with like-minded Anglican churches in other nations, according to a detailed memo from a key strategist. News of the memo, first reported in Wednesdays Washington Post, comes as conservatives prepare for a crucial closed-door meeting next week in Plano, Texas, to establish a national group called the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes.     In recent weeks, conservative leaders have said this will not be a formal breakaway from the Episcopal Church. But the memo indicates the Plano meeting may face a division between those favoring a conciliatory strategy and militants prepared to defy the church.     Our ultimate goal is a realignment of Anglicanism on North American soil committed to biblical faith and values, says the memo by the Rev. Geoffrey Chapman. We believe in the end this should be a replacement jurisdiction ... closely aligned with the majority of world Anglicanism.     Daniel England, communications director at Episcopal Church headquarters, said many rank-and-file Episcopalians will likely be disappointed by a strategy that seems to contemplate disobeying canons in church law and would circumvent the authority of diocesan bishops. Still, England said, the denomination needs to hear all voices in the debate over homosexuality. The confidential document was sent to interested congregations Dec. 28 by Chapman, of Sewickley, Pa., on behalf of the Washington-based American Anglican Council, which is helping organize the network.     AAC media director Bruce Mason said Chapman is not a policy spokesman and the AAC does not intend to supplant the current structure of the Episcopal Church. However, he said, the conservative forces remain faithful to the Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church does not.     The Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of the international Anglican Communion - bodies which trace their heritage back to the Church of England. Many national Anglican churches have denounced or broken fellowship with the Episcopal Church over the consecration last November of V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay cleric, as bishop of New Hampshire.     Chapman’s memo deals with strategy for individual, conservative parishes in liberal dioceses that oppose the denominations gay policies and want to be ministered to by traditionalist bishops from outside their areas - instead of their regular, local bishops.     A clause in the Episcopal Church’s constitution says a bishop must not exercise his office in another diocese unless the regular bishop requests this.     Chapman is scheduled to brief Plano participants on the situation faced by local congregations. He is rector of the largest congregation in the Pittsburgh Diocese whose bishop, Robert Duncan, is a leader of the new network.     The denominations national leader, Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, has proposed a plan for special visiting bishops to minister to conservative parishes. AAC leaders have rejected Griswold’s system, however, because ultimate decisions rest with liberal bishops they distrust. The issue of so-called adequate episcopal oversight is on the agenda of a closed-door meeting of all Episcopal bishops March 19-24 in Navasota, Texas, and of a special committee dealing with the split on gays in the international Anglican Communion.     Chapmans 2,500-word memo lays out a two-stage process for parishes that have lost faith in Episcopal leadership.     In the first stage, parishes would practice spiritual realignment but remain within the letter of Episcopal Church law in order to hold ownership of their buildings.     In stage two, he said, they would seek negotiated settlements on parish property, hiring of future priests and other contentious matters, with guidance from friendly bishops overseas. If deals aren’t reached, widespread disobedience would occur.     In an interview with The Associated Press, Chapman said he has spoken with scores and scores and scores of churches who say liberal bishops have pressured them not to protest Robinsons consecration, to join dissenting organizations or to withhold contributions.     Its religious persecution, it’s very real, and it’s happening, and were trying to figure out how to help these churches, he said.   *****

December 28th, 2003     Dear Friends,     I am Geoff Chapman, Rector of St Stephen’s Church in Sewickley, Pa. (Diocese of Pittsburgh). I am responding to you on behalf of the American Anglican Council and their Bishops Committee on Adequate Episcopal Oversight (AEO). Thanks for contacting us; we very much want to network with you in these difficult times and be of real help to you. The AAC Strategy Committee has been working for months on AEO. In consultation with a wide circle of friends - inside this country and beyond - we have clarified our strategy and are now moving to implement it. I am serving as their response person for AEO, and I want to brief you on our progress. This document will get you up to speed on where we are going. Please keep this document confidential, sharing it in hard copy (printed format) only with people you fully trust, and do not pass it on electronically to anyone under any circumstances.     1) Our ultimate goal is a realignment of Anglicanism on North American soil committed to biblical faith and values, and driven by Gospel mission. We believe in the end this should be a replacement jurisdiction with confessional standards, maintaining the historic faith of our Communion, closely aligned with the majority of world Anglicanism, emerging from the disastrous actions of General Convention (2003). We believe this goal is now pressed upon us by the Holy Spirit as a result of the rejection of the historic Christian faith and the rejection of biblical and Communion authority by the leadership of ECUSA. We will lead our congregations and partners in making the adjustment to adopt this strategy. We seek to retain ownership of our property as we move into this realignment.     2) As an intermediate step, we will respond to the urgent pastoral need in our country by offering Adequate Episcopal Oversight to parishes or remnants of parishes who share our deeply held convictions, proceeding under the guidance of our Bishops and the Primates. Bp Griswold’s offer of Extended Episcopal Care is unacceptable, fundamentally flawed and disingenuous, and does not meet the needs of our parishes or the intentions of the Primates. Our AEO will maintain confidentiality in the application process, and seek transfer of Parish oversight across geographic diocesan boundaries to an orthodox bishop, the right of pastoral succession, liberty of conscience In financial stewardship (the right to redirect funds), and negotiated property settlements affirming the retention of ownership in the local congregation.       The implementation of Adequate Episcopal Oversight will normally follow a two-step, Stage 1 Then Stage 2 process.     Stage 1 will feature spiritual realignment while remaining within the letter of current canons. Parishes would publicly announce that their relationship with their diocesan Bishop is severely damaged because of the events of the summer, and that they are now looking to one of the Primates or an AAC orthodox Bishop for their primary pastoral leadership Announcements will need to be carefully phrased to avoid canonical violations.     During the months of Stage 1, we will begin to reform our relationships to build the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes. We will move to initiate support structures for fellowship and strategy, We will act courageously and faithfully to support at risk parishes. We will creatively redirect finances. We will refocus on Gospel initiatives. We will innovatively move around, beyond or within the canons to act like the church God is making us Stage 1 will enable congregations/clusters to keep clear use of their buildings for the foreseeable future, and would give critical time to strengthen our leadership circles for what promises to be a turbulent spiritual season.     Stage 2 will launch at some yet to be determined moment, probably in 2004. During this phase, we will seek, under the guidance of the Primates, negotiated settlements in matters of property, jurisdiction, pastoral succession and communion, If adequate settlements are not within reach, a faithful disobedience of canon law on a widespread basis may be necessary.     Some congregations have already proceeded to Stage 2because of local circumstances. While we cannot offer AEO under an AAC diocesan Bishop at this time, we do have non-geographical oversight available from offshore Bishops, and retired Bishops. We may also be able to offer oversight from special designated priests acting on behalf of our AAC Diocesan Bishops.     3) Our local strategy for developing AEO will have to keep our goal and current hostile circumstances in mind. We call it a cluster strategy and it will closely sync with the establishment and spread of the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes. We are developing clusters of churches (3-30 churches per cluster) in 15-30 varying dioceses. These churches would join the Network and apply for AEO whenever possible as diocesan clusters. When they are prepared, we will sequence public announcements of their intentions to realign in successive weeks to build impact. These churches will need Clergy and Vestries who are unified, well networked, and ready for a season of conflict if necessary.     Smaller, isolated congregations that cannot connect with a supporting cluster will be welcome to apply, but encouraged to make a public announcement later in 2004. They will sail in the wake of the leadership of stronger clusters.     Parishes/clusters that go through this process in a Stage 2mode and Bishops who receive such parishes/clusters will be at risk of litigation and presentment, and should be prepared for such.     An AAC Bishop could be available to go with any parish/cluster to meet with the diocesan Bp, as needed. We think the presence of an AAC Bishop with a stated partnership with the Primates could change the dynamics of such a meeting.   This Stage 1, Stage 2, Cluster Strategy has several advantages: It will¦         * (1) build rising orthodox network DNA among the networked churches. Churches in the clusters would gain formative experiences of working together, depending upon each other, praying together, linking with the Global South, and if need be, suffering together. This would be invaluable for the months and years ahead.         * (2) give us our best shot at a success. Any isolated parish that moves alone into the revisionist line of fire at this point is going to be in peril. Congregations moving in clusters have the advantage of leveraging their combined strength.         * (3) generate significant public attention both within this country and among our world-wide partners.         * (4) build position for any settlement talks in the future.     4) We are building a network of Cluster Moderators who will serve emerging clusters as they gather. These leaders should have a servant’s heart and a broad base of support in their own parishes that will enable them to come alongside conflicted or imperiled congregations. They must be able to bridge the lines of our coalition with genuine respect for the differences within the orthodox community. We will identify these key leaders as soon as possible.     5) We would cover everything in intentional, dependent Christ-centered prayer, seeking the Holy Spirits leading and provision at every point, Prayer support cells will be developed around the country and mobilized at critical moments.   Here are some Frequently Asked Questions: 1) What does it take to apply for AEO (Adequate Episcopal Oversight)? Normally we would ask for the signature of the Rector and a supporting vote of the Vestry. When you have reached this point of decision, send the application to the AAC office. There is no need to inform your Bishop yet of the application. We will inform him with you in due time. You can find the application and guidelines here:   http://www.americananglican.org/News/News.cfm?ID=827&c=21     2) Does AEO mean that the orthodox overseeing Bishop would have control of the call, licensing, and canonical residence of the clergy? We do not know the answers to that, but our Bishops will be exploring these issues as we move forward. The AAC bishops are not prepared to sign off on an arrangement that will leave a congregation in continuing high risk, and that means that issues of spiritual authority, pastoral succession and episcopal oversight must be solved, That Is the fundamental difference between Adequate Episcopal Oversight envisioned by Canterbury and the Primates and the Episcopal Care offered by Griswold. However, there are many details yet to be ironed out.     3) What legal liabilities would you face if you wanted to leave your current diocese? Recent litigation indicates that the local diocesan authorities hold almost all the cards in property disputes and clergy placement if they want to play hardball     But we think that the political realities are such that American revisionist bishops will be reticent to play hardball for a while. They have just handed the gay lobby a stunning victory, but are being forced to pay a fearsome price for it. The opposition at home is far greater than they anticipated and the opposition overseas is serious and inflamed. ECUSA will certainly lose members and funds at a high rate over the next months, accelerating their decline. In one short summer they have managed to radicalize all the orthodox in our communion and take away the middle ground where so many of our members have hidden! This has put many (perhaps even most) parishes in conflict and made the survival of many smaller parishes a large and urgent question. No one is very happy about this inside ECUSA, and the American public is hardly cheering the events in New Hampshire.     ECUSA leaders know well how conservatives could quickly become the victims in the public mind. They also know that all of our AEO work will eventually find its way across the desk of the Archbishop of Canterbury (ABC). All of this together will create pressure for them to cooperate with the ABC/Primates call for AEO. So we suspect that there will be a window of time before they return to hardball tactics.     The AAC has a new Legal Resources link on their home page, and if you or your new Vestry need help in this area, we would suggest contacting them.   http://www.americananglican.org/Issues/IssuesList.cfm?c=47     4) Can we redirect our funds? This is happening on a widespread basis. There are several strategies to consider. Some parishes have used donor intent to trump diocesan canon. The argument goes something like this¦ In these conflicted times we will offer our congregation pledge forms with options to indicate their preferred use of their funds. The options go¦ Would you like to have a canonical portion of your gift sent (1) to the Diocese? (2) To the National Church? Or (3) To the Vestry for their judgment on whether to pass on funds to the Diocese or National Church? All redirected funds will go to Anglican missions who are committed to biblical faith, values and Gospel ministry?     The Vestry then informs the Diocese that they feel it important to allow their members to follow their conscience. Arguing for freedom of conscience and the honoring of donor intent is very difficult for liberals to oppose, regardless of the strength of your state law. And it should give your parish some breathing room as you seek to move through this difficult season together.     For a biblical/theological understanding of redirecting funds, look at John Guernsey’s talk from the Dallas Conference. You can find it here:   http://americananglican.org/News/News.cfm?ID=784&c=21 ...

The consecration of Bishop V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay man, is tearing apart the Episcopal church   By BRIAN NEARING, Staff writer January 11, 2004   Keith St. John is a cradle Episcopalian-- born and raised in his faith. In 1989, he gained prominence as the nation’s first black, openly gay elected official when he won a seat on the Albany Common Council.     I see my sexuality, which cannot change, as a blessing and gift from God, said the 45-year-old lawyer, who tried twice in the 1990s to push a gay rights bill through the council. The Rev. Brad Jones, rector of Christ Church Episcopal, on State Street in Schenectady, also is a lifelong Episcopalian. Now 46, he has seven children and will celebrate his 20th wedding anniversary this year.     Jones once was gay but said he believes he was healed through prayer. He said he believes homosexuality is a sin and that he suffered from a form of spiritual illness akin to alcoholism, gambling or sex addiction.   I was prayed back into the kingdom, he said. God did not create me to be a homosexual. Our culture and society have grabbed onto this wishful thinking that people are born that way.     The two men stand on opposite sides of a fault line in the Episcopal Church that split wide open after a majority of U.S. bishops voted in August to ordain V. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire. Robinson is openly gay.     Conservatives, like Jones, see homosexuality as biblically unacceptable. But St. John and others consider that an outdated and prejudiced view of human sexuality that the church must move beyond.     Thats a profound question being debated by the 2.3 million members of the Episcopal Church USA.     While the debate over the acceptance of gay clergy has raged nationwide, it has been particularly divisive in the 12,000-member Albany Episcopal Diocese, which has in the past been more conservative than the church at large. In 1989, Albany Bishop David Ball opposed a city gay rights bill -- 13 years after his church’s General Convention voted to support civil rights for homosexuals.     Today, Albany Bishop Daniel Herzog is working with a movement that would join conservative dioceses in a network that would refuse to recognize Robinson or any openly gay clergy. Several churches in New Hampshire, opposed to the gay bishop, have asked Herzog to provide oversight.     Conversely, if conservatives consummate their network, liberal churches in conservative dioceses may seek oversight from other liberal dioceses, said the Rev. Keith Owen of St. Paul’s Church in Albany, whose church welcomes gay members.     Some Albany clergy have formed their own group to oppose Herzog. They say the network would create a schism that might never heal, possibly throwing ownership of church property and other assets into a legal fight.     Opposition mounts     Herzog, who has been bishop since 1998, is a leader in the American Anglican Council, which contends that the church is straying from a strict interpretation of the Bible. The council receives funding from Pittsburgh billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, who also is a major supporter of the Heritage Foundation and other conservative causes. Jones church in Schenectady is affiliated with the council, as is the Church of the Messiah in Glens Falls.   Later this month, Herzog and Bishop Suffragan David Bena, his assistant, will go to Plano, Texas, where Episcopal bishops will discuss the proposed diocesan network.     Herzog’s office declined interview requests, but the bishop has posted several items about the matter on the diocesan Web site.   After Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan announced last month that Albany and 12 other dioceses already had agreed to join the network, three dioceses in Florida backed away. Herzog, meanwhile, wrote that media reports that Albany had already joined the network were somewhat inaccurate, although he said he and Bena support the network proposal ... we are watching to see how this takes shape.     On Dec. 18, he reported to diocese priests and deacons that he and Bena would go to the Plano meeting, though he closed his message by asking: How does anyone get the nutty idea that we can take a diocese anywhere?     The Plano meeting isn’t going to be a declaration of independence, said Cynthia Brust, a spokeswoman for the council. We are looking at how to form the network, and see who’s in and who might want to wait.     Yet many Episcopalians have already made up their minds.     Calls for unity     Some churches in the Albany diocese are defying Herzog and have formed a group to prevent the bishop from taking the diocese into any separate network. St. John is a founding member of that group, called Albany Via Media, based on a Latin phrase meaning middle way.     Rector James Brooks-McDonald, co-president of Albany Via Media and rector of St. Stephens Church in Schenectady, said the groups’ purpose is to shed light on what is going on and to keep the diocese within the Episcopal Church USA.     He notes that Herzog is trying to use money to pressure the national church. After the controversy over Robinsons ordination erupted, Herzog allowed local churches to withhold all their contributions from the national church. Before that, a church had to forward at least 10 percent of their donations.   Yet this is not an abstract dispute among church leaders. Even within his own church, Brooks-McDonald said, the issue has divided people.     We’ve had two or three families leave, although I’m not sure why they did, he said. But we’ve had four or five new families come in. This issue has hit some families very personally.   Nor is it seen as a simple question of acceptable sexual orientation.     The issue now isn’t ultimately about homosexuality, Jones said. Its about the word of God. Is it authoritative or can we pick and choose?     St. John counters that such narrow interpretations of the Bible reflect the prejudices of an earlier age. He notes that Scripture has been used to justify such practices as slavery and the stoning of adulterers.     The Old Testament was written in a very different time, St. John said. Would our diocese have us believe that we should treat women the way they were treated back then?     Theres no dispute that the situation could land in the civil courts if the network forms and starts taking action.     The moment they do anything that looks like a schism, the lawsuits will begin to fly, said Owen, who helped circulate a letter signed by about 350 clergy and lay people opposing the Herzog’s support for the network.     Youd have a fight over real estate, endowments, other assets. It could take a decade to settle, Owen said. It would be so ugly and so messy.     On that point, he and Jones, the more conservative pastor from Schenectady, sadly agree.   This is the kind of things that makes lawyers giggle with delight, but it just makes my head hurt, Jones said, adding that the church is in a dangerous situation.     If the church exists in a generation from now, he said, it will be very, very different than what anyone knows now.   All Times Union materials copyright 1996-2004, Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation, Albany, N.Y.   *****

Episcopal Dissenters Plan Their Strategy By Alan Cooperman Washington Post Staff Writer January 11, 2004; Page A03     More than 2,600 Episcopalians from across the country gathered in Northern Virginia this weekend to express their outrage over the consecration of a gay bishop, and the plea they heard from church leaders was: Hold on. Be patient. Work from within. That plea, however, did not come from supporters of New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson, who is divorced and has lived openly with a male partner for 14 years. It came from bishops, priests and lay leaders who have denounced Robinsons election as heretical and have heaped opprobrium on the recent course of the Episcopal Church.   The meeting Friday and Saturday at Hylton Memorial Chapel -- a cavernous auditorium next to the Potomac Mills shopping mall in Woodbridge -- was a prelude to an even bigger gathering slated for Jan. 19-20 in Plano, Tex., that will formally establish a network of traditionalist Episcopal congregations across the United States.   The networks rise has often been described as a schism. But its founders repeatedly stressed at the Virginia meeting that they are not breaking away from the 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church USA.     Rather, they intend to stay inside the legal structure of the church while fighting for its direction and for international recognition as the legitimate North American branch of the 75 million-member Anglican Communion.     We’re not going anywhere s aid the networks convener, Bishop Robert W. Duncan Jr. of Pittsburgh.     To make this crystal clear, the associations proposed name is the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes of the Episcopal Church, Duncan said.     Behind this position is a stark legal reality: Courts across the country have ruled that a congregation that secedes from a hierarchical church loses all right to its former property. In the Episcopal Church, this general principle is bolstered by the Dennis Canon, a church law that places ultimate ownership of every parish’s land, buildings and real property -- from the steeple to the hymnals -- in the hands of its diocese and the national church.   A congregation that walks away, in other words, leaves with nothing.     There is no such thing as a parish leaving the Episcopal Church, said James Solheim, spokesman for the national church. People can leave. Clergy can leave. But even if every single person left, the diocese would come in and appoint a vicar and reorganize the parish.     What might happen if an entire diocese seceded from the church is unclear, because none has tried. But Solheim said the church’s attorneys would argue that all of the dioceses property should remain with the national church. Having seen how fiercely the church has fought for property in the past, the fledgling networks organizers clearly believe they have a better chance of wresting control from inside than of waging a legal battle from outside.     It’s going to be interesting, since were claiming to be -- were acting as -- the Episcopal Church, and the other side is claiming its the Episcopal Church, Duncan said in an interview. Obviously, the way the laws are written here, none of us who is a bishop of a diocese is going to claim to cease being a bishop of the diocese, or going to claim that our diocese ceases to be part of the Episcopal Church. That would be foolish.     Judging by the vigorous applause at the Virginia meeting and interviews with participants, the idea of an upstart church within a church appeals to many -- but by no means all -- disenchanted Episcopalians.     If they’re going to try to stay within ECUSA, I’m not comfortable, said Jean Gruhn, 44, of Springfield, Va., using an acronym for Episcopal Church USA.     To Gruhn and her husband, Daniel, she said, Robinsons election as a bishop in June, followed by his confirmation at the church’s General Convention in August and his installation in November, was the last straw after years of liberal drift in the church.     Were still vacillating, and hopefully this meeting will help us decide, she said. But we know we won’t be staying in the Episcopal Church.     Since the 1970s, a few congregations have attempted to leave the church while holding onto their properties. Conservative bishops -- those who opposed prayer book revisions and the ordination of women in the past, or who oppose the ordination of gay clergy now -- have been just as adamant as their liberal counterparts in crushing such efforts to take church properties.     Just last week, members of All Saints Waccamaw Neck Church on Pawleys Island, S.C., a wealthy parish with 50 acres of prime real estate sandwiched between country clubs, voted 468 to 38 to break away and join a splinter group, the Anglican Mission in America.     In anticipation of that vote, South Carolinas Bishop Edward L. Salmon Jr. had already moved in December to fire the governing vestry council of All Saints, replace its pastor and reduce its status to a mission church, placing it under his direct control.     Yet Salmon is one of the founders of the network and calls himself an orthodox Episcopalian, meaning that he hews to traditional, biblical teachings, including the position that homosexual activity is a sin. He said he fully shares the opposition of the Pawleys Island congregation to recent actions by the national church, including Robinsons consecration and steps toward allowing ceremonies blessing same-sex couples.     If Pawleys is an orthodox parish in an orthodox diocese, what’s going on? Its certainly not that we have a theological difference, the bishop said in a telephone interview. Its an authority issue. Its a lawlessness issue.     Salmon added that division and schism doesn’t solve problems, it just spreads them around. The strong way to deal with that is within the system.     The Rev. Chuck Murphy, former pastor of the Pawleys Island congregation, left the Episcopal Church nearly four years ago and was consecrated as a bishop by an Anglican prelate in Rwanda. He now serves as chairman of the Anglican Mission in America, which has about 60 congregations and claims to be part of the Anglican Communion but not the Episcopal Church USA.     Murphy said he is a proponent of an outside strategy for change, in contrast to what he called the inside strategy adopted by the network.     I believe the inside strategy is an attempt to find a way so that people can keep the four Ps -- position, power, property and pensions -- within ECUSA, without having to embrace the latest theology of ECUSA, he said.     Last month, 13 bishops signed a memorandum of agreement to form the network. But several subsequently said they were acting only as individuals, not on behalf of their dioceses.     The Rev. Martyn Minns, rector of Truro Church in Fairfax, told yesterday’s gathering that 12 dioceses are expected to send representatives to the networks organizing conference in Texas.     While that represents only about a tenth of all the U.S. dioceses, Minns described the network as a new structure within the Episcopal Church that is rapidly becoming a force to be reckoned with. It’s first goal, he said, is to obtain alternative episcopal oversight-- church jargon for calling in conservative bishops to minister to conservative congregations that feel out-of-sync in such liberal dioceses as Washington, D.C.   Ultimately, organizers said, they hope the network will win recognition from the archbishop of Canterbury and the heads of Anglican churches around the world as the true Anglican body in America.     Could it become a replacement for ECUSA? Only God knows, Minns told the assembly. But we’ll be ready.     © 2004 The Washington Post Company   *****

Plan to Supplant Episcopal Church USA Is Revealed   By Alan Cooperman Washington Post Staff Writer January 14, 2004     Episcopalians who oppose the consecration of a gay bishop are preparing to engage in widespread disobedience to church law in 2004, according to a confidential document outlining their strategy.     The document makes clear that despite their public denials of any plan to break away from the 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church USA, leaders of the traditionalist camp intend to severely challenge the authority of Episcopal bishops, and expect that both civil lawsuits and ecclesiastical charges against dissenting priests will result. The six-page strategy paper, obtained by The Washington Post, was confirmed as authentic yesterday by its principal author, the Rev. Geoff Chapman, pastor of St. Stephens Church in Sewickley, Pa.     After reviewing the document, James Solheim, a spokesman for the national church, called it very provocative. The strategy it outlines, he said, is going to plunge us into litigation for decades.     The document, dated Dec. 28, is addressed from Chapman to Episcopalians who have contacted the American Anglican Council, a Washington-based group marshaling opposition to the Nov. 2 consecration of New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson.     Robinson, who has lived with a male partner for 14 years, is the first openly gay prelate in the 75 million-member Anglican Communion, a worldwide family of churches descended from the Church of England. His election has sparked international protests from Anglicans who view it as a unilateral American rejection of biblical injunctions against homosexuality.     The document says the American Anglican Councils Strategy Committee has worked for months to win permission for traditionalist bishops to oversee congregations that are unhappy under their current, more liberal bishops. But, it says, this adequate episcopal oversight is just an intermediate step.     Our ultimate goal, it says, is a replacement jurisdiction . . . closely aligned with the majority of world Anglicanism. Chapman, in a phone interview, said that means traditionalists hope their network of parishes will supplant the Episcopal Church USA as the recognized Anglican offshoot in the United States.     The document outlines a two-stage process. Initially, conservative parishes would announce that their relationship with their diocesan bishop is severely damaged. They would seek the care of a more orthodox U.S. or foreign bishop but not engage in legal confrontations over church property.     In the second stage, probably in 2004, traditionalists would seek negotiated settlements over property and the right to have like-minded priests and bishops. If settlements cannot be reached, the document says, faithful disobedience of canon law on a widespread basis may be necessary.     Chapman maintained that liberal bishops who have long preached tolerance are now crushing dissent by threatening parishes and priests who oppose their revisionist position on homosexuality.     In such circumstances, he said, disobedience would be faithful because the purpose of church laws is to uphold the gospel. When they are distorted . . . and used to restrict or oppose the gospel, then canon law itself has to be challenged, he said.   The document notes that sitting bishops hold almost all the cards in property disputes and clergy placement if they want to play hardball. But, it adds, we think that the political realities are such that American revisionist bishops will be reticent to play hardball for a while. They have just handed the gay lobby a stunning victory, but are being forced to pay a fearsome price for it.   The full text of the document is available at washingtonpost.com .     © 2004 The Washington Post Company     NOTE: the full text of the Chapman letter can be found at   http://www.virtuosityonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=109     *****

We must not be complacent about communist and woke ideology: Marxism and related ideologies are still very much with us. The Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall may have come crashing down some 35 years ago, but the pernicious threat that is Communism and godless Socialism remain. They are found throughout Western institutions, be it the media, academia, or the political and cultural arenas. In a recent piece I examined a new book by the important Christian thinker Os Guinness:  Our Civilizational Moment: The Waning of the West and the War of the Worlds  (Kildare, 2024). In it he argues that there are four major harmful waves that are crashing over the West: The Red Wave: Radical MarxismThe Rainbow Wave: The Sexual RevolutionThe Black Wave: Radical IslamismThe Gold Wave: Corrupt Elitism I already examined his thoughts on Islam and its war against the West:  https://billmuehlenberg.com/2025/08/10/os-guinness-on-israel-the-west-and-islamism/    Here I want to look at the Red Wave which he discusses in Chapter 4. He explains it this way: The Red Wave is the combination of radical and revolutionary political movements that have flowed down from the French Revolution in 1789. Along with the Enlightenment, the French Revolution is a watershed event in the breakdown of Western Civilization, and its ever-evolving influence is now global and spreading. With deadly accuracy, the great revolution and the revolutions it has spawned, all aim at the heart of the evils and weaknesses of the West, and the West has never recovered from the forces of its eruption. In the shape of its current formulations, the French Revolution is now undermining even the American Revolution and calling the ideas and ideals of the American republic into question. (p. 89) Guinness looks at the traditional revolutionary movements and the earlier emphasis on economics, and then notes how the culture has become the new form of Marxism: Below the major shifts from economic to cultural Marxism, the underlying revolutionary algorithm applied to all of life, is the same. The power differential between “oppressor and oppressed” is not only political; it can be found everywhere – in families, in schools, in businesses, in relationships of every kind; in fact, everywhere, with no exception (including, of course, themselves). This means, logically, that there is not a single relationship and no human situation absolutely anywhere that is not vulnerable to revolutionary accusations. The shifts from classical to cultural Marxism are therefore significant, but the foundational analyses of the two types of Marxism both proceed in broadly the same way: the radicals’ task is to analyse the difference between the “majority” and the “marginal minority,” the “normal” and the “abnormal” or “queer,” the “powerful” and the “powerless,” and above all, to discover the “oppressors” and the “victims.” (p. 96) He goes on the say this: One major problem arises from the fact that the Marxist tactic of elevating and exploiting “victims” and “victimhood” is emotionally explosive, as it appeals directly to resentment. The revolution stirs up relational emotions that are personal, and then inflates and blends them with justice that should be objective and impersonal. The resentment stirred against “the haves” by “the have-nots” is bad enough, but the endless, indulgent probing of victimhood from every other possible angle of “intersectionality” serves to stoke feelings of hurt, resentment, bitterness, revenge, and hate that prove impossible to be assuaged. The politics of cultural Marxism is essentially destructive because it focuses on the subjective, personal emotions at the expense of objective, impersonal justice for all. That is why, traditionally, Lady Justice is blindfolded with scales tipped by neither fear nor favor. The radicals fixate on victimhood as a matter of the past rather than the present, and on hurts rather than healing, so the result is a perpetual stirring of rage and hate rather than any striving towards justice. (p. 97) Our Civilizational Moment: The Waning of the West and the War of the Worlds by Guinness, Os (Author)  He examines cultural Marxism and the ‘long march through the institutions’ in more detail, discussing figures like Lukacs, Gramsci and Marcuse. He notes how successful it has been in taking over the universities, the media, politics, and even business. The woke takeover of society involves everything from woke education to woke finance. Guinness says this about what it all entails: It is a serious mistake to think that “wokeism” is a purely political problem that can be solved by purely political solutions. At its core, wokeism is cultural, and a cultural revolution, but it is also a cultural and educational revolution with openly religious overtones. The term “New Faith” is apt, for wokeism is a pseudo-religion like so many of the avowedly secularist ideologies that flowed from the French Revolution. Far more than progressive against conservative, let alone Democrat against Republican, the new faith is cosmic and apocalyptic – a total war of the oppressed against the oppressors, with all of humanity on one side or the other, in a fight to the death over reality, truth, words, authorities, and boundaries. (p. 104) Looking further at the scene in the West, and especially in America, Guinness rounds off the chapter with these ominous words: At the end of the line, the worst-case scenario for America would be a merger between two movements: cultural Marxism (or wokeism), the revolutionary ideology at the radical left; and progressivism, the ideology of the ruling elites of the managerial regime. As each party seeks to co-opt the other for its own purposes, they would together create an almost irresistible trend towards oligarchic one-party politics and a centralized and administrative state that could grow into a woke Leviathan. . . . The result would be a one-party state and a perfect match for Benito Mussolini’s infamous formulation of his own fascist government: “Everything within the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State. His fascist regime is said to have been the first to declare itself totalitarian.   Were this dread specter of a society totally engineered by the state to materialize further, a newly radicalized America would take its place next to a long-radicalized China, and together, these two autocracies, one soft and one hard, would tower over humanity and the world as a two-headed superpower despotism, the likes of which the world has not seen in the modern era – as if Stalin and Hitler had won at the same time and formed a lasting alliance of dictators.   God forbid. But long before such a dire result, the impact of cultural Marxism in the form of variance such as Critical Race Theory, represents a disaster for the American republic. In the words of James Lindsay’s searing book  Race Marxism , cultural Marxism, in the form of the Red Wave overall, is a “one-hundred-year-long spear that is being thrust into the side of Western civilization.” (pp. 106-107) Worrying times indeed. But Guinness does not just leave us with bleak prospects for the future. In a forthcoming piece I will look at his closing words in the book and what he says we can do about resisting these menaces and help turn things around.   END

Chris Brain in a video used in a BBC documentary in November 1995 By Judy Sture Special to Virtueonline www.virtueonline.org August 24, 2025   With wearying regularity, along comes another case of historic, wholly predictable, abuse in the Church of England. Yet again, we see the utter gullibility, stupidity, and failure of all common sense and critical thinking processes that seem to characterize the upper echelons of HMS Church of England whenever a predator hoves into view.   Back in the 1980s and 90s, the soon-to-be-Rev Chris Brain was the man of the hour, an inspired leader, capable of getting bums on seats and attracting the youth vote to church. For several years, he ran a high-profile weekly event in the northern English city of Sheffield, known as the Nine O’clock Service (NOS). This ‘service’ consisted of a Sunday night multimedia rave session, that focused on er, rave culture:   ‘Young and beautiful, they danced to the sound of acid-house music pumped out of 500-watt sound systems, beneath laser lights and surreal images projected all around them. Bikini-clad go-go dancers, eyelids powdered, lips glossed, hip bones jutting…. lost themselves amid hundreds of fellow clubbers who had queued around the block just to get in.’( https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/21/chris-brain-priest-sexual- assault-church-of-england/)   What could possibly go wrong? It is church, isn’t it? For the last few weeks, Brain has been on trial accused of committing 37 sexual offences against 13 women during his reign of er, influence. The court heard that he ran his own cult - using his position to abuse a ‘staggering number of women’. He was viewed by his alleged victims as a God-like ‘prophet’ whom they ‘worshipped’.    Well folks, even without going any further, I suggest that there may have been one or two pointers there that should have raised a few questions back in the day. But let’s continue…Victims finally got Brain to court last month, and former NOS members, clergy, and a bishop, were duly rolled out to give evidence. On 20 August, he was found guilty of 17 counts of indecent assault and cleared of a further 15. Jurors failed to reach a verdict on four counts of indecent assault and the rape charge.   So, I hear you ask breathlessly, how did we get to this point? Well, let’s see. I would suggest we got to it by a combination of all the usual suspects – as listed above - utter gullibility, stupidity, the closing down of all common sense and critical thinking processes, alongside a wholesale failure of spiritual discernment, in the face of a narcissist who bamboozled a succession of authority figures in the CofE into facilitating his fantasies. Because fantasies they were, and boy, were they facilitated - to the extent that the court heard evidence showing that:   ‘This lanky, cocky young bass guitarist was transformed and enabled to become a powerful, abusive “controlling maniac” cult leader responsible for leaving a trail of broken women in his wake. Many were left as shells of their former selves, isolated from their friends and families, depressed, broke, and suicidal…..To say no to him was to say no to God.’ ( https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/21/chris-brain-priest-sexual- assault-church-of-england/ )   He even had a rota of female followers to ‘put him to bed’ at night, involving ‘massages’. mmm…where have I heard about this sort of thing before…? And all this was known at the time! Hats off to the then-curate of St Thomas’s church, Dr Mark Stibbe, who raised the alarm to the Bishop of Sheffield in no uncertain terms. But the Bishop of Sheffield, David Lunn (now safely deceased), told a BBC documentary in 1995 that he was ‘very impressed’ by Brain’s ‘integrity’, and duly rebuked Stibbe about not carrying out witch hunts in the diocese. That hasn’t aged well, has it? The then-Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, was also impressed with Brain – leading to a meeting between them, of which Brain recalled: “He said to me, ‘I’d be very happy to see an NOS in every town and city in the UK’”. Right. As someone else has said, thank God for unanswered prayers.   Brain was part of a Christian rock band (oxymoron, anyone?) which evolved into the NOS at St Thomas Church, Sheffield, before relocating to a larger space at Ponds Forge in the city centre.   Upon securing a venue for his fantasy-empire-building project, Brain set about attracting followers, sorry, worshippers, to his vibrant, eco-friendly, new-age-inspired, ‘services’ in which he promoted a sexualised concept of ‘church’ that showed up the drabness of the er, Church, and its older members. Who needs hymn books when you can have a rave in the nave? Come as you are! Clothed or semi-clothed as you feel! Wow – you can even get to put me to bed if you play your cards right! He ‘preached’ about all things to do with nature, the universe, and ‘using your force’, later describing the NOS as ‘an evolving experiment’ which embraced ‘club culture’ by creating ‘a natural ecstasy’. Wow. Pretty much everything except Jesus, then.   He was even invited to contribute a chapter to the Archbishop’s book on the Decade of Evangelism: An explosion of stroboscopic lighting and high-powered computer simulations bombarded the 15,000-strong congregation; performance art and energetic rave dancers led people in worship; loud house music and rap pulsated across the field; and the leaders of the service exhorted everyone to participate in global and planetary salvation, to “make God happen now” and “use their life force”. Extract from Chris Brain's chapter in Treasure in the Field, the Archbishop's Companion for the Decade of Evangelism ( https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/21/chris-brain-priest-sexual- assault-church-of-england/ )   The Bishop of Sheffield gave him the ‘freedom to experiment’, and hey – did he experiment! With multiple women, over multiple years. At Pond’s Forge, massive weekly crowds, some driving long distances to attend, were drawn into what was obviously a cult, with ‘worship’ focussed on the leader rather than God. All clearly visible at the time, of course.   Somehow, Brain was accepted into theological training in 1990. Amazingly, or unsurprisingly, depending on your level of naivety, critical thinking ability or position in the hierarchy of the CofE, his ordination was ‘fast-tracked’, and he was ordained in 1991 (deacon) and 1992 (priest), after only a year of study, if I have read the reports correctly. His tutor, Rev Marilyn Parry, objected to his ordination on the grounds of him being too much the focus of attention at the NOS. She also found him arrogant, and he often missed study deadlines. Sadly, or as-expected, again depending on your level of nous, she was ignored, because he was running such an important ministry. Rev Parry had even reported at the time that she once called Brain and was told by a female acolyte that he couldn’t come to the phone because one of her colleagues was giving him a massage. Criticise my hindsight vision if you like, but I’m pretty sure that even circa 1991-2, that should have rung some alarm bells.   Others had also noted his grandiose behaviour prior to his ordination, but it went ahead anyway. Staggeringly, considerable sums of NOS money were spent in acquiring the exact cassock worn by Robert De Niro in the 1986 film, The Mission - for Brain to wear at his ordination. Cult Rule 101 – the leader gets what he wants, when he wants it.   Other obvious cult behaviours and practices included the vetting of new members, who were then encouraged to separate themselves from their relatives and secular life, to focus on the NOS being their new family. People were sorted into discipleship groups and were encouraged to give their time, funds and self-identity to the NOS and Brain. Many felt enable to leave or to return to their old life. He told his victims he wanted to ‘empower them’; they couldn’t ‘be spiritual without being sexual’ and that they should use their ‘healing gifts’ to massage him, making them feel that being subservient to him was serving God.   A core group of beautiful young women formed his ‘homebase team’, tasked with caring for Brain, his wife and child. This is where the ‘putting to bed’ came in, involving ‘massages’ and so on. Being on the core team involved 24/7 cover, and being on a rota for ‘living in’. Who would have thought it?   In 1995 the then-Archdeacon of Sheffield, Stephen Lowe, discovered Brain had been having ‘inappropriate sexual relationships’ and informed Bishop Lunn. Giving evidence in the trial, the Rt Rev Lowe said: ‘I put it to Chris that he had had sexual relationships with 20 or 40 women from NOS and he said, quite definitely: ‘It was many more than that, maybe double’. There was a bullishness to his response of my accusation and that is etched in my memory.’   Cue the end of the NOS. Anyone interested can read more about it in Roland Howard’s book The Rise and Fall of the Nine O’Clock Service: A Cult Within The Church? I have barely scratched the surface here.   Obviously, the main concern here must be the wellbeing of the victims. There may well be more hurting women out there that we do not yet know about, and if so, who knows what they may have gone through? Nothing that we can say or do can make up for the trauma caused by this man. But we must also look at the responsibility of those who facilitated Brain’s actions.   The court case has highlighted the level of top-down approval and door-opening that was instrumental in allowing his abuse to flourish. Whistleblowers such as Mark Stibbe and Marilyn Parry were ignored and/or castigated. Bishops and at least one archbishop thought the NOS was a Jolly Good Wheeze for the CofE, thereby enabling a cult to emerge, ultimately sexually abusing a considerable number of women. Of course, even one abused woman is too many – yet here we are talking about many, many women, and even from the horse’s mouth, double what he was confronted with.   Questions that ought to be answered: How did Brain manage to persuade the vicar of St Thomas’s in Sheffield to let him use the church in the first place, for what were effectively raves dressed up as church? How did he get into theological training? Who signed off that decision? Where was the discernment process on both sides in all this? How did he get fast tracked into ordination in a year? Why? What justification was used for any of these decisions at the time? Why did nobody question the stuff he was saying and doing in the ‘services’? Why did nobody question the behaviour of the ‘congregations’ at the NOS? Why was there no spiritual or practical oversight of his activities? Why was there nobody of sufficient seniority or brain (pardon the pun) to challenge the emergence of an obvious cult flourishing in the heart of the Sheffield diocese? Was it the money that was coming in? Was the NOS deemed to be a good advert for new members of the CofE? And finally, two questions to which the answer is bound to be ‘no’: Are we seriously to believe that nobody knew any of the ‘bad stuff’ until 1995? Does anyone seriously believe that we have got a handle on how to prevent all this happening again in 2025? I’ve had reason before to write about the absolute idiocy of those in charge of the church while abusers are de facto supported to carry on their abuse. And here we are again. What does any of this say about the intellectual, emotional and moral standards and capabilities of those in power in the CofE in the recent past? A blind and deaf chimpanzee would have spotted something amiss here. What does the Bible say about the role of pastors? Acts 20:28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God which he obtained with his own blood. Matt 7:15 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. And about discernment? 1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. Were any of those in authority at the time of the NOS doing any of this? No. They ignored the voices of those raising an alarm and chose instead to allow a false prophet - a classic narcissist - to play them, bringing the church, the faith and the name of God into disrepute. Is anyone ever going to be held to account for any of this? Only, I suspect, when we see a herd of porcines in flight over Lambeth Palace.   For more click here: https://news.sky.com/story/cult-leader-chris-brain-abused-position-to-sexually-assault-staggering-number-of-women-court-hears-13390845   Dr Judith Sture is a regular contributor to Virtue Online, based in the UK.

//TEC: Psychedelic Priest Kicked out // RCC Numbers Plummeting // TEC News - Bishop AWOL The revival in Britain is real, but the data reveal a sobering detail: Catholic and Pentecostal churches are seeing increases in attendance, while the Church of England is in decline. Why? Because too many Anglican leaders have sought to imitate the world rather than stand against it. – Rev. Dr. Ronald Moore   God intends us to penetrate the world. Christian salt has no business to remain snugly in elegant little ecclesiastical salt cellars; our place is to be rubbed into the secular community, as salt is rubbed into meat, to stop it going bad. And when society does go bad, we Christians tend to throw up our hands in pious horror and reproach the non-Christian world; but should we not rather reproach ourselves? One can hardly blame unsalted meat for going bad. It cannot do anything else. The real question to ask is: Where is the salt? --- John Stott   Beware of manufacturing a God of your own: a God who is all mercy, but not just; a God who is all love, but not holy; a God who as a heaven for every body, but a hell for none; a God who can allow good and bad to be side by side in time, but will make no distinction between good and bad in eternity. Such a God is an idol of your own, as truly an idol as any snake or crocodile in an Egyptian temple. The hands of your own fancy and sentimentality have made him. He is not the God of the Bible, and beside the God of the Bible there is no God at all. --- Bishop J. C. Ryle Dear Brothers and Sisters, www.virtueonline.org August 22, 2025   If the election and consecration of an avowed homosexual to the episcopacy in the person of Gene Robinson wasn’t bad enough; (Vickie Gene wasn't married at the time of his "consecration"), the election of an avowed (but unmarried) lesbian to be the next Archbishop of the Church in Wales, sealed the deal for the orthodox Global South.   This is quite possibly the straw that will break the camel’s back of any more talk of Indaba, unity, pluriform truths, and why-can’t-we-all-just-get along notions. They have evaporated with the morning tide. The Anglican Church in Nigeria excommunicated the Church in Wales as they did The Episcopal Church when Robinson was made bishop. GAFCON and GSFA archbishops complained mightily.   At a level that not even the Welsh bishops imagined, it will not only do enormous damage to the communion as a whole, but it will jeopardize evangelism in the predominantly Islamic Global South, even as Anglican churches are growing by leaps and bounds, and the Church in Wales is on a fast track to oblivion.   With the Church in Wales in serious decline the question must be asked what if the archbishop pays a visit to her cathedral ere she retires, and finds it empty?   The news brought outrage, disappointment and anger at the action by the House of Bishops in the Church in Wales. Global South Anglicans, which are predominantly theologically evangelical, are saddened, angry and rightly fear pushback from the Islamic community who view homosexuality as a grave sin.    “The crime of homosexuality is one of the greatest of crimes, the worst of sins and the most abhorrent of deeds, and Allah punished those who did it in a way that He did not punish other nations. It is indicative of violation of the fitrah, total misguidance, weak intellect and lack of religious commitment, and it is a sign of doom and deprivation of the mercy of Allah,” according to official Islamic teaching. In Islam, sodomy is viewed as a reprehensible act.”   Global South Anglicans who are overwhelmingly orthodox in faith and morals, are experiencing persecution on a scale never before seen with over 7,000 Nigerian Christians killed in the first seven months of 2025 by jihadist groups in various parts of Nigeria, a new report by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) has revealed. An additional 7,800 people in the West African country were seized and abducted. You can read more here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/welsh-election-of-lesbian-archbishop-will-jeopardize-evangelism-in-the-islamic-global-south   *****   The Archbishop of York , Stephen Cottrell and four other CofE bishops excoriated Israel this past week, blaming Israel for causing what they call a “deliberate famine” in Gaza. The bishops also demanded recognition of Palestine “regardless of facts on the ground”.   The Church of England’s animus towards Israel is, by now, well established. The five bishops took it up a notch this week, and in unprecedented language threw Israel under the bus, blaming the small, besieged democratic state for the ongoing war, accusing Israel of “starvation,” “deliberate famine” and “terrible injustices” being inflicted on the hapless people of Gaza.   The bishops demanded a Palestinian state “regardless of the facts on the ground,” which, if conceded too, would see the obliteration of Israel within a decade if not sooner.   The bishops’ statement was the largest pile of sanctimonious excrement since an effort to broker same-sex unions into the Church of England; an effort that looks increasingly like a failed project. There are more blood libels in their combined statement than hot dog vendors in Manhattan.   Here is what the bishops said; “We continue to call for an immediate end to this war and for negotiations leading to lasting justice, security and peace…a deliberate famine is being inflicted on the people of Gaza and Air drops of aid are dangerous and entirely inadequate substitutes for what is needed: the unimpeded delivery of aid through the U.N. and other established humanitarian organizations.”   You can read more here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/archbishop-of-york-cofe-bishops-excoriate-israel   *****   Poor old Justin Welby can’t catch a break. The former Archbishop of Canterbury, whose legacy lies in tatters, has been denied Permission to Officiate by the bishop of Southwark, where Welby has settled, according to a report in Private Eye.   His diocesan bishop, who was once loyal to him, has so far declined to give him permission to officiate (PTO) that would be necessary for him to minister as a volunteer. VOL reached out to Southwark Bishop Christopher Chessun for comment, but he could not be reached.   *****   From Dr. Jules Gomes in Vatican City   The U.S. Catholic Church is plummeting in membership, with nine out of 10 cradle Catholics abandoning it to become religious “nones,” a bombshell study has revealed.   “More and more of those raised Catholic are leaving,” the study published in the University of Notre Dame’s Church Life Journal on August 12 concludes. Examining church attendance figures from 1973 onward, philosopher Michael Rota and sociologist Stephen Bullivant, both committed Catholics, note that “while many religious groups in the U.S. have experienced decline over this period, Catholics are doing particularly poorly.”   For Catholics hoping Leo XIV’s election as the first American pontiff would spark an increase in churchgoing, the survey presents challenging findings. The survey also calls into question the credibility of recent reports detailing widespread conversions of youth to Catholicism. You can read more here: https://stream.org/mega-exodus-rocks-u-s-catholic-church-9-out-of-10-cradle-catholics-defect/   *****   The ACNA has postponed the trial of Bishop Stewart Ruch, III. A public statement from the Ecclesiastical Court for the Trial of a Bishop said they are in the process of reviewing thousands of pages of investigative records, trial exhibits, and transcripts in preparation for the resumption of the trial which is set for Oct. 6, 2025. In other ACNA news, David Roseberry, former rector of Christ Church, Plano has written a two-part series on the ACNA that is worth considering. ACNA at the Crossroads: A Gentle Critique and a Hopeful Restart Pressures and our Polity, Leaders, and What Could Come Next. They can be viewed at his substack. Here are some highlights: The Problems We Now Face Overlapping Jurisdictions Returning to the lifeboats and bedfellows metaphors, we now have areas of the country where two or three—sometimes I’ve counted seven—jurisdictions have staked a flag in the same region. That is confusing, to say the least. Some bishops ordain women for other dioceses but don’t welcome them as priests inside their own. Others welcome women priests but will not ordain them. Others ordain women but restrict them from serving as rectors. And a few promote women in every leadership role to the point of requiring clergy to affirm the position or remain silent. Two Added Pressures on the Province include the persistent challenge of human sexuality in our Western culture. The ACNA has affirmed marriage as between a man and a woman. Period. But the surrounding culture has not stopped pressing—redefining marriage, gender, and identity in ways we could not have imagined in 2009.   Then there is the ongoing Bishop Ruch drama. It has dragged on far too long. Legal complexities, confidentiality, and documentation have tangled even our most capable leaders in a sticky thornbush.   Our factions —evangelicals, charismatics, Anglo-Catholics, progressives—often behave less like theological movements and more like political parties. If we keep acting like rival parties, we’ll get what politics has given America: endless division, no forward motion.   Because there is no College of Clergy or Laity, the ownership of fixing these broader important issues—all of them—rests squarely on the bishops. There is no other group with the authority to act.   *****   If you want to really know what is going on in missions that is successful read along. LOVE FOR THE LEAST (L4L) a global ministry to the Muslim world reported 26 baptisms in Istanbul recently! A jailed former Muslim now a Christian convert was jailed for his faith. While in jail, M****d h led 15 others to faith, three of whom he's identified potential as church leaders. This is what happens when you stick a church planter in prison. L4L reports that their three-year-old network now has 180 churches in six countries, reaching four generations of disciples. “We've trained 20+ new Ir-nian Believers during our first three days, baptized 26, and are now spending four days training new church leaders. We need to make sure they have the basics down. The group is doing really well. Today we're working on spiritual gifts, abiding and identity in Christ and Discovery Bible Study (growing disciples).    A PLEA FOR SUPPORT: We have a persistent issue with the Ir-nians being evicted from their Istanbul apartments for hosting church gatherings. The only way to stop this harassment is to register the churches as an "Association," giving them some legal protections. It will cost us about $10,000 to make this happen. Prayers appreciated. They're an incredibly high-yield investment.  You can support them here: https://lovefortheleast.org/give/   *****   PSYCHEDELICS AND THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. You sometimes have to wonder when and where the craziness will end in TEC, perhaps when the last church closes.  The RNS reports that the Bishop of Georgia Frank Logue concluded that a priest involved in psychedelics back in 2016 should finally be given the heave-ho after a 13-month investigation. The priest whose name happens to be Hunt Priest, committed “conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy” and “conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation,” said the bishop. It took them five years to figure it out.   After 20 years in the priesthood, they finally gave him the boot. Priest pivoted from being a parish priest to founding the nonprofit Ligare, a Christian psychedelic organization. Endorsing psychedelics was apparently too much for the bishop.   Perhaps TEC can change its mantra from The Episcopal Church Welcomes You to: HIGH, HARD AND HOMO - A Church for you. Come as you are, stay as you are.   *****   Apparently, the former Bishop of Florida, Samuel Howard Johnson has gone missing. But they are not expecting his body to wash up on the Florida coastline. He’s wanted by church prosecutors for Title IV complaints over his failure to be nice to homosexuals who wanted ordination when he was bishop. Howard committed the “sin” of discriminating against gay and lesbian clergy, in part by requiring them to be celibate if they wished to be licensed in the Diocese of Florida. CELIBATE! That is a dirty word in TEC, you could get kicked out of the church just for saying the word. Needless to say, Howard probably thinks this is a witch hunt as he has retired. If they push him to appear he could leave TEC and join the ACNA as one of his confreres Bishop John Howe did just north of him in Central Florida.   *****   Anglican Watch , a watchdog group for the Episcopal Church, is calling for the immediate resignation of the Rev. Barb Kempf, who serves as the national intake officer for complaints against bishops under the church’s Title IV clergy disciplinary processes. The move follows a series of dismissals by Kempf on pretextual bases, including canonically unauthorized fact finding efforts, false and misleading interpretations of church canons, and repeated refusals to obtain needed information from complainants.   In one case, Kempf brushed off a clergy disciplinary complaint against retired Massachusetts bishop Alan Gates involving taking a child across state lines for purposes of sexual abuse. Gates failed to report the matter to law enforcement as required by state law and church policy.   Anglican Watch also reports this. The Diocese of Central New York Title IV intake officer the Rev. Julie Calhoun-Bryant doesn’t understand her role regarding a situation involving allegations of misconduct by the Rev. Rebecca Roberts, rector of St. Peter’s Episcopal in Cazenovia, New York . Since then, Anglican Watch has received a copy of Title IV intake officer The Rev. Julie E. Calhoun-Bryant’s intake report, which recommends dismissal of the complaint on the basis of a lack of evidence of misconduct.   There’s a huge problem with that: It is not within Calhoun-Bryant’s authority as an intake officer to make findings of fact or assess evidence. As a Title IV intake officer, Calhoun-Bryant gets to ask one question, and one question only, under the canons that authorize her work: Assuming the matters complained of to be true, would they constitute material violations of church canons?   In other words, it doesn’t matter if the allegations seem zany, unsupported by evidence, not consistent with her knowledge of the case, or anything else. The key goal of the Intake Officer is to decide whether or not the facts presented, if any were true, would constitute an “Offense” under the Canons. (Title IV.6.5). This determination expressly excludes any determination as to the actual truth of the allegations.”  You can read more of Anglican Watch’s reports here: https://www.anglicanwatch.com/   ***** Influential evangelical leader James Dobson has died; his family institute announced in a post on social media on Thursday. He was 89. “He went home to be with the Lord peacefully, following a brief illness,” the statement read.   *****   Interested in where your ministry ranks in global Anglicanism. Of the top 45 most widely read Anglican ministries, VOL ranks No.2 after the Episcopal News Service (ENS). You can read more here: https://bloggers.feedspot.com/episcopal_blogs/   *****   CORRECTION. In a recent Viewpoints I said there were no ACNA parishes in Philadelphia. I erred. There is one REC parish, the Church of the Atonement in Northern Germantown.   *****   VOL is now being read in 55 countries of the world, with hundreds of new readers going to our new website, according to WIX, a powerful, no code website builder. Please consider throwing a few tax-deductible bucks VOL’s way. Where else will you get this withering take on the Anglican Communion. I take no salary but I have several staff to pay and the Internet is not free. You can make a tax-deductible donation to keep the news coming. A PayPal donation link can be found here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support.html   If you are more inclined with checks, you can send your tax-deductible donation to: VIRTUEONLINE                                                                 P.O. BOX 111                         Shohola, PA 18458   Thank you for your support,   Yours in Christ,   David   My Substack on the Middle East continues to grow. It is drawing a lot of interest and attention from across the globe. You can access it here: https://davidvirtue2.substack.com/   I am a strong supporter of the state of Israel’s right to exist and prosper while confronting her enemies both foreign and domestic. My latest report can be seen here: “Peace, peace when there is no peace” https://davidvirtue2.substack.com/publish/posts/detail/171472359?referrer=%2Fpublish%2Fposts%2Fpublished