By Luke Pelser   JUICY ECUMENISM June 10, 2025   Episcopal Church officials are emphasizing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) advocacy even as the Federal government and some corporations dial back their public embrace of Pride Month following the “Bud Light”  backlash  of 2023 and increasingly visible public skepticism of transgenderism. The denomination’s Manhattan headquarters hosted a special June 1 communion service to bless and commission Episcopalians participating in Pride Month celebrations. Led by Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe, the service featured a sermon delivered by transgender Episcopal Priest and activist the Rev. Cameron Partridge. The service took place at the Chapel of Christ the Lord at the Episcopal Church Center in New York. Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe celebrated the Eucharist while Partridge preached remotely from San Francisco’s St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church in the livestreamed event. Partridge, as was touched on briefly in the sermon, transitioned from a female to male identity in 2001 and went on to be ordained in the Episcopal Diocese in Massachusetts. In 2011, Partridge served at Boston University as its first transgender chaplain. In 2014, Partridge became the first transgender priest to  preach  at the Episcopal Church’s Washington National Cathedral. Among the most influential conversations Partridge had, then identifying as gay but not as transgender, when questioning whether or not to pursue ordination was with a Philadelphia gay clergyman named John, who, when asked by Partridge about being gay in relationship with his ministry, said “My life is defined by love, and being gay is how I love.” This largely focuses on the concept upheld by the Episcopal Church, which stands out in Partridge’s sermon, that the church should recognize the unique embodiments of every individual as a signpost of the divine image and that people ought to be glorified as such. This interprets and utilizes the idea from  Genesis 1:27  indicating that people are made in the  imago dei  (image of God). The sermon message drew from passages in the Gospel of John and the First Epistle of John emphasizing a connection and identity of those who follow Jesus Christ as being first and foremost children of God. “Both God and the community were not and would not be seen for who and what they were,” Partridge preached. Partridge cited  1 John 3:1  in support of this idea that reads, “The world does not recognize us for the world has not recognized God.” According to Partridge, Jesus Christ offers for the people of God a community defined by a shared love that illuminates the glory of unique individuals made in the image of God. The San Francisco Rector described that God’s glory shines through those who are truly recognized by him. The community of God is held together and becomes one through a shared radical love that rejects no person. The recognition of the light and glory of God in unique persons of the LGBTQ community is realized, not in spite of what they are but because of what they are, Partridge insists. Partridge described the love of God in action as the church and its members seeking out the light and uniqueness of every individual and to celebrate, recognize, and to allow that light to radiate even brighter through what Partridge describes as the “transformative love” of God. This is the exhortation that the preacher concluded with in sending out the Episcopal Church into the activities and events in the month of June. “As this month unfolds, as we celebrate Pride around and beyond our church, let us seek out and celebrate that light in one another. Let us actively seek to perceive one another, refusing the distortions and dehumanizing political rhetoric all too often uttered in the name of Christian theology. Let us behold and uphold one another in recognition of the divine beauty in which we stand, queer, trans and allied beloved,” the Episcopal priest concluded. Episcopalians have a long history of LGBTQ affirmation. In 1976, deputies to Episcopal General Convention adopted resolutions stating that “homosexual persons are children of God who have a full and equal claim with all other persons upon the love, acceptance, and pastoral concern and care of the Church” ( 1976-A069 ), and that they “are entitled to equal protection of the laws with all other citizens” ( 1976-A071 ).  What began as toleration shifted to required affirmation. In 2012 General Convention  authorized  canonical changes prohibiting discrimination in the ordination process on the basis of gender identity and or expression. In  2015 , immediately following the Supreme Court decision in  Obergefell v. Hodges , canon law was further changed for gender-neutral marriage rites between any two persons. The denomination’s  Book of Common Prayer  remains unchanged, but most parts of the Episcopal Church today hold that homosexual practice, transgenderism, and other configurations of gender identity and expression are not sinful and requiring of repentance. Instead, they are viewed as immutable characteristics central to a person’s identity and therefore merit special protection and privilege, as displayed in the recent Pride Eucharist. It can be tempting for Christians outside of the Episcopal Church who uphold a biblical sexual ethic and oppose same-sex and transgender practices on scriptural, theological, or moral grounds to quickly disregard these views as mistaken without first engaging their line of reasoning. The June 1 service and Pride Month in general raises important questions and ideas for Christians who oppose this view to wrestle with, including asking what it means to show radical love to our LGBTQ neighbors without condoning or unconditionally affirming practices that the Episcopal and other progressive mainline Protestant churches accept and promote. More from IRD: National Cathedral ‘Comes Out’ With Transgender Preacher

Three-year spending plan marks 36% jump over last period Proposals come after four years of growth in churchgoing Clergy stipends to rise by 10.7% under plans   By Muvija M REUTERS June 9, 2025   LONDON, June 9 (Reuters) - The Church of England will spend a record 1.6 billion pounds ($2.17 billion) over the next three years to boost clergy stipends and help cash-strapped parishes, it said on Monday, hoping to build on signs of a churchgoing revival among Britons.   The 2026-2028 spending plan is 36% higher than the previous period and will help revitalise local churches and outreach after four years of growth in church attendance, the mother church of 85 million Anglicans worldwide said.   A YouGov/Bible Society report this year found that a growing number of young men are attending church in Britain compared with before the COVID pandemic, upending an established trend of generational decline in Christianity across Western nations.   The number of regular worshippers across 16,000 Anglican churches in Britain grew 1.2% to 1.02 million in 2024. The country's overall population is roughly 68 million.   "Parishes and clergy are at the heart of everything we do in the Church ... It is also vital that we prioritise support for churches serving communities in the greatest need," the Church's interim leader, Archbishop Stephen Cottrell, said in the statement.   The plans to increase stipends - payments made to clergy to cover their cost of living - by 10.7% next year will be financed by the Church Commissioners, who manage the institution's 11.1 billion endowment fund. That fund grew by 10.3% in 2024.   The Church, under pressure over failures to handle child abuse complaints, said it would spend 30 million pounds on safeguarding work and confirmed 150 million pounds would be allocated to a redress scheme.   A separate Church Commissioners’ report estimated their reputational risk to be at an elevated level and warned of far-reaching impacts, as safeguarding failures undermine public confidence in the Church. ($1 = 0.7375 pounds)

By Chuck Collins June 9, 2025   England’s Act of Uniformity of 1549 was the first time in the Church of England that liturgical uniformity was ordered for all. It aimed to convert the hearts and minds of the English people for the transformation of society.   The 1549 Book of Common Prayer was a theological and liturgical tsunami: a night-and-day change from the Medieval Roman Catholic worship and theology. Gregory Dix commented, “With an inexcusable suddenness, between a Saturday night and a Monday morning at Pentecost 1549, the English liturgical tradition of nearly a thousand years was altogether overturned.”   The new Prayer Book was mandated for use in every church in England starting Pentecost Sunday, June 9, 1549. This Book was the work of the Archbishop of Canterbury, but also that of a committee of six bishops and six other learned men under the presidency of Thomas Cranmer. They reportedly began with Cranmer’s working draft, and had as few as three weeks of actual in-person discussions.   The Book was never intended to be but an interim step toward the unashamed Protestantism of the Edwardian Church of England. Cranmer “began planning a second edition as soon as the first was off the presses” (G.J. Cuming). The first Book was not printed in a people’s edition or pocket size as a permanent book would indicate, but only in “altar size” for the clergy. The more Protestant 1552 revision became (verbatim, with a few minor changes) the 1559 and the 1662 editions of the Book of Common Prayer - the standard for all future Prayer Book revisions in the Church of England.   In the words of the 2008 Jerusalem Declaration: “We rejoice in our Anglican sacramental and liturgical heritage as an expression of the gospel, and we uphold the 1662 Book of Common Prayer as a true and authoritative standard of worship and prayer, to be translated and locally adapted for each culture.”   Cranmer’s Prayer Book was in English, not Latin, which represented a gigantic move to make worship the work of the people and not just a priest doing his magic at a high altar.   It removed all suggestions of Eucharistic sacrifice, transubstantiation, the invocation of saints, and purgatory. Stone altars, which suggested that Jesus is re-sacrificed in every mass, were replaced by wooden communion tables placed in the midst of the congregation.   The Word of God (God’s promises proclaimed) replaced the priest as the instrument by which grace is offered in the sacrament. Other sacerdotal priestly actions were summarily removed: the lifting-up (elevation) and adoration of the sacrament, sanctus bells, and the prayer invoking the Holy Spirit (the “epiclesis”).   Whereas in the Middle Ages the wine of Holy Communion was considered too holy for non-clergy, the new Prayer Book ordered that everyone, lay and clergy alike, were to receive both the bread and wine. Private confession to a priest was offered as a pastoral option for some who would find it helpful, but it was no longer a requirement for receiving Holy Communion.   What was Cranmer trying to do? To teach the grace and mercy of God for sinners. “Thomas Cranmer devoted the full powers of his position as Primate of All England to inculcating the Protestant faith into every fibre of English life and law” (Ashley Null). Week-after-week Anglican worship takes the congregation from guilt to grace to gratitude (from the Commandments to the Creed to the Prayer of Thanksgiving after communion).   Each Sunday Anglicans rehearse the saving actions of Jesus Christ for sinners. “What he [Cranmer] wants us to see is that Prayer Book worship is, first to last, justification by faith set forth in liturgy so that it might be re-apprehended and re-experienced in regular acts of devotion" (J. I. Packer).   Cranmer’s Prayer Book is “the only effective attempt ever made to give liturgical expression to the doctrine of ‘justification by faith alone’” (Gregory Dix).  Zac Hicks says it best: “What overwhelmed Cranmer was God’s love for him in Christ, and once that love seized him, the Archbishop became fiercely committed to the clear proclamation of that good news. In other words, Cranmer’s vision for liturgical renewal was intensely fixated on the gospel. His evangelical convictions drove his liturgical decisions.”   The Rev. Canon Chuck Collins is a reform theologian who regularly writes on Anglican issues. He resides in Texas.

Students in front of Hamu Mukasa Library, built, in part, with USAID monies   By the Rev. Dr. Stephen Noll June 9, 2025 Modern Uganda was largely related to the United Kingdom in the 20th century – first as a “protectorate” and later as a member of the British Commonwealth. Similarly Anglican missions in Uganda were sponsored by the Church Mission Society in England, which fortunately was led by the philosophy that “the evangelisation of Africa must come from the Africans.” For this reason, African church leaders took over the bulk of educational work, including training clergy at Bishop Tucker Theological College (1913-1996). When the Anglican Church of Uganda determined to “enhance” Bishop Tucker College to the university level, its leaders turned to America, and I became UCU’s first Vice Chancellor (President). This statement is overly simplistic. My wife, Peggy, and I received an unexpected call from God in 1999. At the time, we frankly could not understand why the Lord would choose two people who had never sought mission work and who had never even been to Africa.  But He did. Looking back, I count my experience as an orthodox Anglican and an American citizen as one reason for the University’s remarkable progress during my 10 years. Let me list some ways: UCU (Mukono campus) residence halls, including Nsibambi Dormitory (right corner) that was constructed, in part, with USAID funding   Global Anglicans  – In the late 1990s, I had become increasingly involved with Anglicans from the Global South, capped off by my presence at the 1998 Lambeth Conference. During my ten years at UCU, I traveled around the world twice and contacted numerous church leaders and mission societies. In return, we hosted visitors and missionaries on campus from many countries, including a cohort of American college students each semester who lived with and studied with their African counterparts. U.S. Embassy  – I was fortunate to have two supportive U.S. Ambassadors during my time. Ambassador Jimmy Kolker (2002-2005) in particular was a model of cooperation, endorsing our application for a University Charter, helping our staff to get travel visas to the USA, and even speaking to the student body immediately after the Afghanistan invasion in 2003. His successor, Steven Browning (2006-2009), supported us in obtaining the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) grants described below.  Books . When I first visited UCU in January 2000, I discovered that it had a good theological library but almost no books in other subjects. By God’s grace, I found out about and applied for a USAID grant to receive (new) textbooks; in July of the same year, a container van with 16,000 books arrived on the campus. We received two subsequent shipments over the next 10 years in the same program. Grants for Capital Projects . I became aware of USAID’s “American Schools and Hospitals Abroad” (ASHA) program in 2001 when President George Bush announced his “Faith-Based and Community Initiative,” which was extended to overseas partnerships. UCU Partners, the non-profit organization I had helped found, provided the home base for a series of four grants under ASHA, totaling $2.1 million toward the building of a residence hall and the beautiful Ham Mukasa Library. The University more than equaled the USA contribution from its own capital funds. Fulbright Scholars . Fulbright Grants are offered to U.S. scholars to have a study period overseas. When I first arrived, Fulbright scholars were restricted to Uganda Government universities, but after UCU was chartered, we began to receive an increasing number of research scholars to the campus. Most notably, the first Fulbright grantee, Dr. Karen Drake from Bethel University in Minnesota, helped found the Nursing Program at UCU, which is recognized as the best in the country.  The Hamu Mukasa Library and Nsibambi Dormitory were partially paid with USAID money,  The cooperation UCU received from the United States in the university’s formative years was critical to its growth and reputation. Over the past quarter century, it has graduated more than 30,000 students and has a current enrollment of 14,000 spread over six campuses The University now offers a full menu of degrees, including engineering, law and medicine; and it is considered one of the top universities in East Africa. Uganda Christian University has always been self-sufficient, reliant on tuition and fees paid by Ugandan students and their families. However, as outlined above, support from the US government has provided strategic investment to UCU, increasing its quality and ability to equip Ugandans to make a difference in their country and communities. The Rev. Dr. Stephen Noll, was UCU’s first Vice Chancellor (2000-2010) and is a Board Member for UCU Partners, based in Pennsylvania, USA.

COMMENTARY   By David W. Virtue, DD www.virtueonline.org June 9, 2025   Some 15 Episcopalians met recently in the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island to have a respectful conversation on same-sex marriage, with a view, presumably, to bridge the gulf between opposing views.   For the Rev. Scott Gunn, one answer is to bring together a group of people who “disagree about things that are important to each individual” and engage in thoughtful discourse “in a loving and respectful way.”   “Jesus told us to love our neighbors,” Gunn told TLC, “And we don’t always agree with our neighbors. I think the conversations that we’re having are important, not only because they’re about same-sex marriage, but they’re helping us practice the skill of having difficult conversations with people that we are called to love.”  But nowhere does Jesus in his plea to love our enemies meaning "loving our neighbors" does it imply abdicating the basic tenets of the faith which Gunn is advocating.   Episcopal Bishop Larry Provenzano of Long Island emphasized the need to continue the work of reconciliation throughout the church by acknowledging and listening to diverse viewpoints on same-sex marriage. Without compromising core theological principles, the Church must “prioritize understanding” as if there is no absolute across difference to maintain unity.   Well just how much have homosexuals in the Episcopal Church loved those who disagree with them? They haven’t. There has been no compromise. They have been told by people like the late Louie Crew, the late Jack Spong and (the Rev.) Susan Russell, a fierce lesbian, that if you don’t conform then get the hell out of TEC.   Look what happened to Bishop Bill Love of Albany, or the bishop wannabe of Florida, Charlie Holt.  He was told not once but twice he was unacceptable as bishop even though he was prepared to compromise his personal belief on the altar of same-sex marriage for the “higher good” of the diocese. He was toast after lesbian priestess Susan Russell weighed in.   And then there is the case of David Duggan, frequent contributor of devotional essays to these pages, who opposed the ordination of a practicing homosexual (supposedly married to a man, with an adopted daughter to boot). The "ordinand" used Duggan's opposition to secure a "No Stalking Order of Protection" against Duggan while lying under oath, which cost him two-years worth of income to vacate. Duggan's efforts to get recompense for this violation of canons and normal principles of law have so far been unfruitful. But faith persists.   These gatherings do nothing; the die has been cast. TEC will never reverse itself on B012 and they will never tolerate disagreement. There is not a chance in hell that a person with orthodox views on sexuality would ever be elected a bishop in the Episcopal Church again. Never. The small highly vocal gay and lesbian bishops would never give consents.   These gatherings are a veneer of religiosity. It is one ‘white-washed tomb’ talking to another ‘white-washed tomb’ in the hope that the corpse doesn’t have to hear what the other really thinks. “On the outside you appear to people as righteous but, on the inside, you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness,” said Jesus. (Mt. 23:27-28)   These gatherings are designed to relieve the consciences of those who know that TEC will never change its mind or retreat from its new position. And they don’t care if the church goes under in the next decade or so as boomers die off, the check books dry up, and there is no replacement. If columbaria were traded on the Nasdaq, it would be a buy.   SEX IS THEIR IDENTITY NOT CHRIST   Future historians will marvel that western Christianity was divided, not over the two natures of Christ or the atonement or the bodily resurrection of Jesus, but about who should be permitted to have sex with whom.   It bears repeating that God created ‘male and female’ (Gen 1:27 and 5:2) and He closed the sexual matrix never to reopen it. Jesus affirmed that God created humans as male and female, and that marriage is between one man and one woman. (Mark 10:6-9) He had no need to reinvent the sexual wheel to affirm homosexual unions.   ‘COMMUNION ACROSS DIFFERENCE’   Communion across difference ran the headline in The Living Church. What communion? The communion’s fabric has been torn and will never be repaired. GAFCON and GSFA bishops will no longer sit down with TEC or the Anglican Church of Canada, and now the Church of England. The “difference” is deep and wide and will never be bridged. It is wider than the River Thames, and with a winter storm it would wash them all away.   A Thoughtful Dialogue on Same-Sex Marriage. Really!   The church is as divided as Russia is from the Ukraine; as Gaza is from the rest of Israel, and the notion that we can all get along over tea and crumpets, but not bullets, is pure fiction. TEC has split, it is forever divided. The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is a witness to that divide and they are not going away. They are vigorously doing evangelism and discipleship to reach the next generation for Christ.   TEC has no message for generations X, Y and Z. None. They have tried twice passing resolutions at General Convention to double the church and it has fallen flat. If they think that woke issues will draw people, they are wrong, dead wrong. You can get all that from the New York Times and left-wing social media. Waving gay flags from atop church steeples or from pulpits changes nothing. It is all virtue-signaling.   The local Methodist church near where I live is down to 10 people. They now wave a gay flag and loudly proclaim their allegiance to homosexuals. None attend. The local Two Queers coffee shop ignore the church. In a year the Methodist church bishop will claim the property, sell it off, and someone will throw the gay flag in the garbage bin. Sic transit gloria mundi.   The Rev. Dr. Matthew S.C. Olver, executive director and publisher of THE LIVING CHURCH, a convener of the group, wryly noted that looking at the context of the U.S. church, it might seem that the progressive side won the debate on marriage for same-sex persons. On that point he is absolutely right. TEC won, and for their sin the church will wither away in a generation; the judgment of God for all to see.   END

Reputation risk ‘at an elevated level’ in wake of John Smyth case and historical safeguarding failures, says report Fiona Parker THE TELEGRAPH 09 June 2025   John Smyth, who ran Christian youth camps, carried out psychological, sexual and physical abuse over five decades Credit: CH4 NEWS/UNPIXS The organisation that manages a large part of the Church of England’s assets is bracing itself for a recruitment crisis in the wake of its latest abuse scandal, a report suggests. The Church Commissioners of England has described its reputational risk as “at an elevated level” after the Anglican Church apologised for more historic safeguarding failures and a review into one prolific abuser prompted the  Archbishop of Canterbury’s resignation . It comes as the body that manages the Church’s endowment fund – its largest source of revenue – announced a 10.3 per cent return last year, taking the value of the fund to £11.1 billion at the end of last year. In November, the extent of abuse carried out by  barrister John Smyth , who abused up to 130 boys and young men over several decades, was revealed in a damning report. Smyth, who died aged 77 in 2018, used his role at Christian summer camps to meet victims, yet his crimes were not reported until 2013, decades after many were carried out. The  2024 Makin review , found that the “abhorrent abuse” by Smyth could have been  exposed four years earlier  if Justin Welby, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, had contacted the authorities and done more to follow up on reports. Mr Welby announced his resignation days after the report, and formally ended his tenure earlier this year. A replacement for the highest position in the Church of England is yet to be decided, with the selection process not set to conclude until later this year.   The Makin review found that Justin Welby had been given a detailed account of John Smyth’s abuse in 2013. A section of the 2024 Church Commissioners for England annual report suggested there were concerns about the effects on its own recruitment. The report said: “Reputation is important for any charity, and the Church Commissioners considers its reputational risk currently to be at an elevated level. “Members of the public, whether they consider themselves part of the Church of England or not, can quickly form opinions about the Church as an institution based on what they see/hear/read in various forms of media, which understandably impacts their perception and view of the Church Commissioners.” Referring to the Smyth case and Mr Welby’s resignation, the authors wrote: “This case and other safeguarding failures undermine public confidence in the assertions made by the Church, including the Church Commissioners, about the importance of, and priority given to, safeguarding. “The potential reputational impacts could be far reaching; for example they may in turn make it more difficult for us to attract and retain staff.” Slavery reparations The same part of the report also referred to controversial slavery reparations, which were set to total £100 million over a nine-year period. It named the Fund for Healing Repair and Justice, an investment fund that will aim to raise £1 billion for members of communities affected by slavery, following criticism that the £100 million sum was not enough. Acknowledging the reparations issue, the report read: “The highly significant and contested nature of the Church Commissioners’ work researching and responding to historical links with African chattel enslavement also attracted significant attention, comment and, in some cases, criticism. “Further reaction (including negative comment) to this programme of work is expected when the intended new Fund for Healing, Repair and Justice is launched, making investments and issuing grants.” Meanwhile, it was revealed that clergy would receive a pay rise of nearly 11 per cent next year as their stipends continue to catch up with salaries. The two key measures for clergy pay, the National Minimum Stipend and the National Stipend Benchmark, will both rise by 10.7 per cent next year, to £33,350 and £34,950 respectively. END

over 2000 orthodox Episcopalians to gather this week at AAC  Plano east meeting in Virginia   This Friday and Saturday, January 9-10, 2004, the Virginia and Washington DC Chapters of the American Anglican Council (AAC) will host their Plano-East gathering at the Hylton Memorial Chapel in Woodbridge, Virginia.  The event, theme A Place to Stand, A Call to Mission, is designed as a follow-up to the AAC’s A Place To Stand: Declaring, preparing conference that was held in Dallas, Texas in October 2003 (also known as the Plano Conference). Over 2000 people have already registered for the Virginia event and   registrations continue to come in at a rapid pace. (Over 2700 Episcopalians attended the Dallas conference.)   The Virginia gathering will feature several of the keynote speakers from the Dallas event, including the Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan, Bishop of Pittsburgh and acting Moderator/Convener of the newly forming Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes. (An organizational meeting for the Network will be held in Plano, Texas on January 19-20, 2004.)   Also speaking in Woodbridge will be the Rev. Canon Dr. Kendall Harman, Canon Theologian of the Diocese of South Carolina, as well as a number of leaders in the local Virginia Episcopal community, including the Rev. John Yates, rector of the Falls Church, the Rev. Canon Martyn Minns, rector of Truro Church, and the Rev. John Guernsey, rector of All Saints Church.  All Saints is serving as the host church for the event.   This conference is about proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ and moving forward with the mission of the Church, said the Rev. John Guernsey. It is also another opportunity for orthodox Episcopalians to take a strong and unified stand against the grievous actions of the Episcopal Church.   Registrations have been received from 49 dioceses and 25 states and they keep pouring in, added Fr. Guernsey. The overwhelming response shows that Episcopalians remain deeply troubled by the actions of ECUSA.   The conference has four goals:   -- To declare our faith and commitment to the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the Anglican Communion.   -- To encourage faithful Episcopalians and help us understand and prepare for the emerging realignment of an orthodox and vital Anglicanism in the United States. -- To prepare and strengthen ourselves and those whom we serve to become a missionary church dedicated to the Great Commission.   -- To inspire the next generations to seek the face of God and to equip them to stand on His Word and share the Good News of Jesus   The conference is free and parallel tracks are offered for youth and children, including babysitting for infants.  More information can be obtained on the conference and on registration by visiting the AAC-Virginia website at http://www.aacvirginia.org .   Media are welcome to attend the Plano-East gathering and should contact Bruce Mason or Claire Whitehill at the AAC office to register (202-296-5360).  On Friday afternoon, Fr. Guernsey, Canon Minns and others will be available for interviews. Bishop Duncan may also be available.   -----   EVENT LOCATION:   The Cecil D. Hylton Memorial Chapel 14640 Potomac Mills Road Woodbridge, VA. 22192 Phone: (703) 590-0076 For directions, visit: www.hyltonchapel.org EVENT SCHEDULE:   FRIDAY, JANUARY 9, 2004 4:00 pm - Registration begins 7:00 pm - Gathering Call to Worship 7:30 pm - Welcoming Address: The Rev. John A.M. Guernsey Festival Eucharist: The Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan, Bishop of Pittsburgh, preacher and celebrant   SATURDAY JANUARY 10, 2004 8:00 am - Late Registration 8:30 am - Gathering Worship, Morning Prayer and Bible Teaching: The Rev. Dr. John W. Yates 9:15 am - Anglican Essentials: The Rev Dr. Kendall Harmon 10:00 am - Panel Discussion: Latest Developments &’ the Emerging   Realignment   The Rev. Canon Martyn Minns, Diane Knippers, The Rev. Canon Dr. Kendall Harmon, Hugo Blankingship, Andrew Pearson   11:30 am - 1:00 pm - Lunch, on your own 1:00 pm - It’s All About Mission: International Mission, Local Mission,   Youth and Young Adult Mission 4:00 pm - Closing Address: The Rev. Canon Martyn Minns 4:30 pm - Adjourn   ----   The American Anglican Council is a network of individuals, parishes, specialized ministries and Episcopal Bishops who affirm Biblical authority and mainstream Anglican orthodoxy within the Episcopal Church. For more information on the AAC, please visit http://www.americananglican.org .   END

News Analysis   By UWE SIEMON-NETTO UPI Religion Writer   The following question is of course highly speculative and may sound slightly off the wall, but it still makes some sense: Could 2004 be a Nigerian year? Consider the following: Chances are that pope John Paul II, who is very ill and tired, will not last for another 12 months. Who will take his place?One of the likely prospects is Cardinal Francis Arinze, 71, an Ibo from Nigeria and now prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation on Divine worship. He is tough, energetic knows how to handle youth -- and most importantly perhaps - - is an expert on Islam.   Then consider another branch of Christianity -- the Anglicans. The most powerful traditionalist voice is that of archbishop Peter Akinola, primate of the Anglican province of Nigeria with 17 million-18 million faithful.    His see, Abuja, may well become the Canterbury of the 21st century, just as Constantinople once proclaimed itself the second and Moscow the third Rome. As conjecture in Anglican circles goes, the current archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, will continue to waffle on the crisis in the Episcopal Church USA.   But time is running out. Ten out of the 11 African primates want to cut ties with the tiny American offshoot of Anglicanism, or at least the diocese of t he first openly homosexual bishop, Gene Robinson. Most Asians and Latin Americans feel the same way. And Peter Jensen, archbishop of Sydney in Australia, has already mused aloud about the possibility of shifting his allegiance from Canterbury to Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.   Akinola has already made clear that he will not let Americas’ wealth persuade him to make doctrinal concessions to what he considers the Western heresies.   In other words, there’ll be a split in world Anglicanism.   Now let’s guess on: Nigeria is not only home to two of the most powerful Christian prelates involved in the lesser clash of cultures -- the one pitting Scripture against false doctrine. Nigeria is also the place where the big culture war is being fought -- the conflict between radical Islam and Christianity, both growing rapidly.   Chances are, then, that Nigeria may become the main focus of religion reporters in the New Year -- or perhaps not. To begin with, nobody can predict when the pope will die, and who will take his place. Given the Church’s 2,000-year history it is very likely that after the polish pope’s 25-year reign, it will once again be an Italian’s turn.   It could be that Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn of Vienna will succeed him, or Cardinal Phillippe Barbarin, archbishop of Lyon and a man of great personal holiness, or maybe even the ageing Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, the German prefect of the Pontifical Congregation for the doctrine of Faith, who might bring theological order back into the Roman Church.   Or it could be anybody. Suffice it to say the biggest religion story of 2004 will presumably come from Rome, and that five things can be considered a given about the new man on St. Peter’s throne:   1. He is a disciplinarian, which John Paul II is not, which accounts for a considerable theological chaos in the Church.   2. He has John Paul’s passion for the young.   3. He is, like John Paul, able to garner the respect of representative of other faiths, especially Islam.   4. He shares his commitment to ecumenism, without which it would be hard t o accomplish the next pontiff’s perhaps most important task:   5. He must continue John Paul’s strategy of re-evangelizing Europe and thus strengthen the Christian Church against the potential onslaught of Islamic radicalism.   There are many small signs pointing to Europe’s slow spiritual recovery: There is the fact that 70 percent of the new ordinands in the Church of England are evangelical. There is the reawakening of Christian intellectual life in France -- and the missionary zeal of the Catholic and Protestant churches in that most secularized of all European nations.   There is substantial evidence for a reawakening of religious interests in Germany, where pastors suddenly rank second-highest in the public’s estimation of various professions, and where on regional television religious programs are the most popular. Another sign is that the American feature film Luther is a resounding success in the land of Luther, where only 20 years ago Protestant theologians called the Reformer passe. These developments tend to be subtle -- less obvious than bloody acts of terrorism committed by terrorists in the name of Islam, or conflicts between Sunni and Shiite Muslims dominating the television news from Iraq.   But for the moment, sociologists of religion from both sides of the Atlantic agree, it looks as if in 2004 vibrant Christianity will be the most powerful faith in the world. Meanwhile, Islam may well provide bigger headlines, but has yet to find the ground it has lost 1,000 years ago.   Unless, of course, you consider militant Islamism the true voice of that religion. In that case, most Christian, Muslim and Jewish theologians would beg to disagree.   END

EDITORIAL   The TELEGRAPH 28/12/2003   It is a regrettable aspect of modern life, as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, asserted in his Christmas Day sermon, that those who show religious faith should sometimes be treated as figures of fun. The nervous sniggering about the Prime Minister’s religious faith which ripples over the surface of the media from time to time, he asserted, is part of the same fear and unease towards religion that manifests itself in the proposal to ban the wearing of Muslim headscarves in French schools.Dr Williams would be wrong, however, to assume that when people show irreverence towards religious figures it is necessarily a scornful response to their faith. If Dr Williams feels personally the object of mirth, he should reflect on some of the secular aspects of his work. The leaking of his Christmas Day sermon, much of which was trailed in a newspaper last Sunday, is typical of the tawdrier political practices developed by the New Labour spin machine but is unworthy of the office of Archbishop of Canterbury. A sermon is supposed to be a private communion between the priest and his congregation, not a media event, leaked and spun in advance to favoured journalists.   Dr Williams has become adept at using the media to his own ends. Yet he does so not to offer spiritual guidance but to advance a soft-Left political agenda. A full page of the Daily Mail last week was devoted to a piece by Dr Williams proffering family financial advice. The credit explosion has made life a lot easier in all sorts of good ways, he wrote. But it is in danger of slipping out of control unless we have some better regulation and some new attitudes. The Archbishop would more likely find himself being taken seriously were he to render unto the Government the business of financial regulation and concentrate a little more on spiritual leadership.   Since Dr Williams became Archbishop of Canterbury the Anglican Church has been riven by the debate over homosexual clergy. It is not easy to see how politically-correct Episcopalians from Virginia can be reconciled with fundamentalists from central Africa who are driven to preach blood and hellfire whenever the word homosexuality is mentioned, nor to see how schisms can be prevented. Dr Williams’s approach to the problem, however, seems to be not even to try.   In June, during the controversy over the abortive appointment of Dr Jeffrey John as Bishop of Reading, Dr Williams’s secretary for public affairs, Jeremy Harris, penned a memo worthy of Alistair Campbell. The issue of homosexuality, suggested the memo, has to be managed in media terms by seeking to take the sting out of it and displacing it in the public mind. The memo went on to suggest a number of attractive alternative stories by which the media might be deflected from the issue of Dr John. ABC, as the memo referred to the Archbishop, was advised to deliver a reading of his own poems, make a high profile Lords’ intervention or announce a theological prize.   Unfortunately for Jeremy Harris, a former BBC journalist, the media turned out to be less gullible and less trivia-obsessed than Lambeth Palace imagined. Most newspapers stuck to the real story, the disquiet over the appointment of Dr John and into the circumstances of Dr John’s late decision to step down.   Dr Williams has been no less morally flabby on the issue of Islamic terrorism. On Christmas Day the Pope appealed to God to rid the world of the scourge of terrorism. The Archbishop of Canterbury, on the other hand, reserved his clearest condemnation for the West’s counter-terrorism campaign. Imprisoning terrorist suspects in Guantanamo Bay and Belmarsh prison, he complained, sends out the wrong message to Muslim societies. Those of the Christian faith, he said, should show themselves to be on the side of humanity by making sacrifices for the sake of justice.   The sacrifices to which Dr Williams refers presumably involve risking another terrorist attack on the scale of September 11. So far, the counter-terrorist campaign has been remarkably successful in preventing al-Qaeda attacks in Europe and America, in spite of that organisation’s strikes elsewhere in the world. Moreover, this has been achieved without any curtailment of the rights of ordinary Muslims in Britain and America, who are free to practise their faith with a degree of freedom of which Christians in many parts of the Islamic world can only dream. Does Dr Williams really suggest that humanity would better be served by refusing to imprison those who, given the chance, would delight in making a nuclear attack on a Western city?   Dr Williams has yet to deliver a poetry reading in the manner suggested in the Lambeth Palace memo. But if he does treat us to his poetry we hope it will give us greater reason to take him seriously than many of his public pronouncements, which, thus far, have echoed Edward Lear rather than Alfred Lord Tennyson.   END

December 2003   Dear Friend of Ekklesia,   The decision of the Presiding Bishop and others to proceed to consecrate V. Gene Robinson despite the unanimous voice of opposition from other Anglican provinces, the Archbishop of Canterbury, other denominations, and even other faiths has wounded the Christian faith around the globe and isolated the Episcopal Church. Approximately 52 million Anglicans are in church each Sunday around the world. Already, the leaders of 50 million have declared impaired communion. Some have even gone beyond that. Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, West Africa, Rwanda, Central Africa, South East Asia, and Tanzania have formally broken communion. Those provinces represent about 35 million Anglicans.I have been dispatched with a diplomatic pouch of documents to consult with Anglican Primates and Archbishops about finding their way forward. They are deeply committed to Biblical faith. They are also committed to those of us w ho maintain historic teaching and have rejected the actions of the Presiding Bishop and the General Convention. Working with faithful Anglican primates is a two way street. There is no question that we need their leadership and help, but they also live in circumstances of great need. To help address that in recent months your gifts to Ekklesia have helped accomplish many vitally important-even lifesaving-projects. Together this year we have:   Provided more than twenty tons of grain for famine relief in Central Africa:   * Bought and outfitted a small fleet of commercial fishing boats for Lake Malawi. These boats will provide food for starving people, jobs, and income to the diocese for ministry.   * Been building two radio stations in Tanzania that should be going on the air-any day. They will provide Christian teaching, English classes, health education information, and advertising income for ministry from advertising revenue. Helped primates travel to critically important Anglican Communion meetings.                                      * Provided bicycles for all the clergy in Antsiranana Diocese m Madagascar as a memorial gift in thanksgiving for the ministry of Bishop Keith Benzies who died in office last year.   * Helped replace grants, scholarships, and other gifts that have been withdrawn or refused as a result of the crisis.   * Played a critical role in bringing continuing Anglicans together and helping to facilitate an emerging federation of jurisdictions.   Though the situation is grave, there is cause for rejoicing. Not only is Ekklesia working closely with the American Anglican Council, Forward in Faith, and Anglicans United, we are actually bearing fruit. Our labor has helped provide a spiritually secure future. Many questions remain about institutional life an d property, but faithful primates have committed to provide Episcopal oversight for those of us who remain committed to the Anglican Way in America. Ekklesia has been at the center of the conversations and commitments to provide faithful oversight for you. To go on, though, we need your help.   We must raise about $100,000 by Easter in order to operate, travel, and answer the poignant and urgent requests that come to us almost daily from overseas. Obviously, we do not receive any support from the national church. Overseas primates are deeply committed, but do not have financial resources. It is partners like you that that have helped us accomplish miracles over the last  eight years. Now, a Biblically faithful Anglican church in North America is within reach! Will you help?   Yours in Christ,   The Rev. Canon Bill Atwood, D. Min. General Secretary   PS. Please check out our web site ( www.ekk.org ) and order my new book about the crisis. Wild Vine-Fruitful Vine: Crisis in the Anglican Communion. You can order them through Forward in Faith at 1-800-225-3661.20

By Adelle M. Banks RELIGION NEWS SERVICE   Bishop V. Gene Robinson, elected in June as the first openly gay bishop of the Episcopal Church, was named the Religion Newsmaker of the Year by members of  the Religion Newswriters Association. His approval and consecration, and the ensuing threats of schism in the U. S. church and the wider Anglican Communion, were collectively cited as the top religion news story of 2003 -- a ranking shared with criticism of the Anglican bishop of Vancouver, British Columbia, who approved same-sex unions.   About a third of the 240 members of the Religion Newswriters Association took part in the annual survey. More than 80 percent of these selected Robinson as the top newsmaker.   The top 10 religion news stories were ranked as follows: 1. Turmoil mounts within the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion after Robinson’s approval and consecration, and Vancouver Bishop Michael Ingham’s action. 2. The pending war in Iraq split religious communities, with mostly mainline Protestant denominations opposing it and many evangelicals supporting it.   3. The definition of marriage becomes a key area of controversy after Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules gay couples have a right to civil marriage and the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down a ban against homosexual sodomy.   4. A Ten Commandments monument is removed from Alabama’s State Judicial Building and the man who got it installed there, Roy Moore, is removed from his post as the state’s chief justice.   5. Roman Catholic Church efforts to implement plans combating priestly sex abuse draw praise and criticism. Archbishop Sean O’Malley succeeds Cardinal Bernard Law as leader of the Boston Archdiocese.   6. Pope John Paul II marks the 25th anniversary of his election amid growing concerns about his health and debate over his eventual successor. 7. Slumping economy prompts budget cutbacks in many denominations.   8. Presbyterian Church (USA) keeps fidelity and chastity clause, maintaining its ban on noncelibate gay clergy. The denomination elects its first woman pastor as moderator.   9. The U.S. Supreme Court decides to hear a California case challenging the inclusion of the words under God in the Pledge of Allegiance.   10. The suspension of Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod official David Benke of New York, for participating in a post-9/11 interfaith service, is overturned.   Officials of Valparaiso University issued an apology to the denomination’s members after holding an interfaith service marking the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.   END

Dear Bishop Lee’   Please read this carefully through until the end.  This is a hard e-mail, tough love, and I know that you have been getting many hard e-mails, sadly even hateful e-mails.  This message is not one of hate but words of one man speaking straight to another.  I have labored long on this message in love believing that you are an adult and old enough to take hard truth.  Please prayerfully consider what I have said.  Time is short.   Much has happened in the life of the church since I shook your hand at Olivet Episcopal Church’s 150-year anniversary earlier in 2003. As part of our family’s ministry to historic re-enactors (see www.historicfaith.net http://www.historicfaith.net/ , Rev. Harper had asked us to help with preparations and we were there in 1850 clothing (I have attached a photo from the event).  I was touched when you stated that you found a power in the old (1845 vice 1928) liturgy, but was not convinced.  There has been twenty years for me to judge your words by.   In 1984 as bishop, you received me into the Episcopal Church. I believe that this confirmation service at Truro was your first confirmation service as bishop of the Diocese of Virginia.  Later, you were the bishop that licensed me as a lay preacher when my family and I were at Christ the Redeemer.  You were the bishop who I looked to when I began the local discernment process for ordination.  While talking with you at a dozen after-church receptions does not make a deep friendship, you have been my bishop since you became bishop in Virginia.   As you have been my bishop, I have carefully read much of what you have written and listened carefully to what you have said. You are an intelligent and articulate man and I believe that you have some love for the Episcopal Church.  From what I have read, heard, and seen, I am deeply concerned for your soul.  It seems clear that you have valued the game of church politics and opinions of fellow bishops over your sworn duty to uphold the faith outlined in scripture and our catholic tradition.   I shook your hand at Olivet but I was a little guarded for I believed that when the clear decision point came to choose between the Apostolic faith and the progressive, world loving, rationalistic apostasy that has come into vogue within ECUSA, you would choose the latter.  I was right.   Years ago, you wrote in the Virginia Episcopalian that you saw your duty as Bishop to avoid clarity (what I call fuzzing up) on issues that would divide, such as the immorality of homosexual acts.   This is not the position of a bishop defending the faith.  Your duty is to make spiritual truth clear not to obscure it.  You have acted like a shepherd that will not divide wolves from sheep.  I could give you many scriptural references including the words of Jesus that show that light should not unite with darkness.  Lovingly, and actively, we are to engage the world so that those who sin are come from darkness to light but that is not to have common cause with them.  Scripture set a different course for those who are believers and even higher standards for those who are leaders among Christians.   Some time after that article on your commitment to be fuzzy in the Virginia Episcopalian, I believe around 1997, you instituted the Call to Holy Life at Virginia Theological Seminary to open the school to active homosexual partnerships in lieu of the previous policy that forbade sexual intercourse outside the bonds of marriage, adulterous relationships, and the practice of homosexuality.  By this action (and actions do speak louder than words) you clearly demonstrated that even within your own diocese, you would be go with the flow even it that meant jettisoning the moral teachings of Jesus.  You used your skill at turning phrases to fuzz up this issue.  At the time you instituted the Call to Holy Life you stated you were seeking a policy more in keeping with Anglican comprehensiveness than the previous statement and more in keeping with the biblical balance of the Christian tradition.   Fine words, as I would expect from a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Duke Law School, but VTS, since your action and under your leadership, has become a hotbed of homosexual activism. VTS is the place in your Diocese where church leaders are  training and you are responsible For the type of leaders you train there.  At the time of A Call to Holy Life, in my deep concern and as part of my discernment process, I exchanged a series of e-mails with you in an attempt to find out where you stood on the authority of scripture and the nature of sin, in particular on the sexual sin, which was being promoted by the apostate.  It was not easy to get a clear answer from you to this fundamental question - did you believe that homosexual practice was sin.  I was at first hopeful when you read my e-mails and took time to reply.   The ongoing exchanges with you, as courteous as they were, eventually convinced me that you did not have a moral compass that would enable me to seek ordination under your leadership.  In my heart, I knew then that when a vote on accepting same-sex immorality would come, you would choose Sodom rather than Zion.  Thus, I left off the ordination process and after subsequent statements and actions by you, left off active life in a local Episcopal Church for a couple of years, moving instead to support our non-denominational ministry.  Recent actions of yours has shown that I made the right decision.  Since you put The Call to Holy Life into place, VTS students who hold the orthodox faith have told me repeatedly how they feel under siege for their beliefs.   Your recent vote and past actions are clearly destroying our diocese.  Unless you publicly and proximately repent for your part in this apostasy, the diocese you claim to love will fall to pieces, to the despair of the many faithful priest and laity who have stood by you through your past moral fuzziness.  Through your actions, the Episcopal Church, USA has become a scandal within the historic, orthodox, catholic faith.  You stated that in your recent votes: I had a difficult, even wrenching time deciding. I prayed a lot. I consulted widely, with clergy and lay colleagues, with other professionals, more formally with the deans of the regions, and the Standing Committee. I studied scripture anew.  I was particularly struck by the 15th Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles where the apostles and elders of the church in Jerusalem adapted the requirements of Jewish law to the reality of the situation of gentile converts in Antioch.  My reading of scripture convinces me that the Gospel is ever-increasing its power to erase the barriers that we human beings erect among ourselves.   Did you prayerfully read what the Apostles decided in Acts 15:20?  One of the minimum requirements that the Apostles placed on the Gentiles was to avoid sexual sins - no compromise, no fuzziness.  The requirement for the gentiles was a beginning not the end.  The Apostles decision also had the assumption that God’s ministers would teach the Gentiles to live a life of increasing righteousness through faith, not a life of wantonness masquerading as righteousness.  Again, in your reading of scripture as in past actions as bishop, you cling to the politics and ignore the requirements of faith.  You also stated, I was also struck anew by the centrality of a theology based more on grace than on law.  In Philippians 3:8-14, Paul wrote to the Philippians yearning for a righteousness that comes not from the law but for a righteousness that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.  Paul continues, I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.   Phillippians 4:9 states, The things which ye both learned and received and heard and saw in me, these things do: and the God of peace shall be with you.  Do you, a bishop, understand the grace that Paul preached?   Do you understand how repentance, the complete turning away from Sin, and Grace are related in Paul’s teaching?  Romans 6:1-7 shows this clearly: What shall we say then?  Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?  God forbid.  We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein?  Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were buried therefore with him through baptism unto death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection’ knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin’ for he that hath died is justified from sin.   God Forbid indeed!, and you should have done all in your power to forbid the consecration of Vickie Gene Robinson and the acceptance of same-sex blessings.  What did Paul tell Titus that a Bishop should do? Holding to the faithful word which is according to the teaching, that he may be able to exhort in the sound doctrine, and to convict the gainsayers (Titus 1:9).  As a bishop you took the vows, and have been supported comfortably by the Church as bishop, but you are NOT holding to the faithful word and 2000 years of church doctrine. You are undermining, not defending the faith.  You seemed to stated with pride:   Since I was consecrated in 1984, I have consented to the consecration of nearly 200 bishops.  I have not voted against a single one, not those who were divorced and remarried, not the poor administrators and preachers, not even those bishops who now threaten to leave the church. I  believe strongly that the people of a local diocese, when the election is properly and fairly held, are the best people to determine who will best lead their diocese.  Just as the apostles respected the local circumstances of the people of Antioch, so the General Convention respected the circumstances of the people of New Hampshire.   The apostles clearly set limits and conditions (faith and  repentance) on God’s grace and even stricter conditions for Church leadership.  Why can’t you?  The Church gave you the vote of consent to defend the faith as a faithful steward.  The pride you have in never having shown leadership, not once since 1984, in the consecration of 200 bishops is shameful.   If, in 1984, you found that you did not have the judgment or moral fortitude to vote down unworthy candidates for bishops, then you should have stepped down then.  If you cannot see the problem with your actions now, you should step down now.  A sea captain whom never steers a ship or a medical board than never denies a medical license to a medical student is acting criminally, even murderously.  Your action or in this case inaction is killing the Episcopal Church and more importantly hindering the work of the Gospel to turn people from death to life.  Do you so disrespect the Church and your calling that you believe that anyone who walks in the door will do as a bishop?  Even he non-spiritual, political wisdom of the business world understands the concept of checks and balances, and of the criticality of selecting competent leaders.   Do you understand what apostasy is?  Do you realize that you are joining with those who are actively seeking to turn the Church away from the authority of scripture and the faith delivered by the Apostles? Second Peter Chapter Two clearly talks about people wedded to apostasy. Verses 18-21 (Message version) is especially clear: They are loudmouths, full of hot air, but still they’re dangerous. Men and women who have recently escaped from a deviant life are most susceptible to their brand of seduction. They promise these newcomers freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, for if they’re addicted to corruption--and they are--they’re enslaved.  If they’ve escaped from the slum of sin by experiencing our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ, and then slid back into that same old life again, they’re worse than if they had never left.  Better not to have started out on the straight road to God than to start out and then turn back, repudiating the experience and the holy command.   Recent statements by the revisionists, clearly demonstrate that they have no loyalty to the Christian faith.  In his Christmas Day message, your fellow bishop, John Bryson Chane stated the following And what was God thinking... when the Angel Gabriel was sent by God to reveal the sacred Quran to the prophet Muhammad?  And what was God thinking... when the Angel Gabriel was sent by God to reveal the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God?  (see http://www.cathedral.org/cathedral/worship/jbc031225.html ).   Do you really want to through your lot in with the ECUSA proponents of Islam?’ a religion that worldwide continues to martyr more Christians in its name than any other.  This is so much more than promoting slavery to deviate sexual practice, as terrible as that is’ this is collaborating with those who are anti-Christ. Islam does not accept that Jesus is Christ and fights against or enslaves those who do - Muslims are not fuzzy about what they believe. I know of what I speak.  I have read the Qu’ran.  I have talked at length to both moderate and fundamental Muslims.  Having preached to and talked with Sudanese Anglican refugees when I was in Cairo with USAID and here in the United States, I have heard first hand accounts of what our Christian brothers and sisters have endured, and this death, rape, and torture is a worldwide reality, even under advanced Islamic governments.  I worked in Jordan, West Bank/Gaza, Turkey, and Egypt.  I have watched Saudi state television present the master plan of converting the world to Islam and have visited many places where historic churches were converted forcibly to mosques (they don’t switch back).   I have reviewed government assessments on the views and actions of Islamic Jihadist (Christian fundamentalist are NOT like Islamic fundamentalists).  I have read the words of American Mullahs and Imams. Now your fellow bishop has proclaimed the truth of Islam in our national cathedral and his fellow bishops remain silent.  This fact will not be lost on the Islamic world.  It will be used to justify the murder of thousands.   Would you consent to the elevation of a Islamic Mullah as Episcopal Bishop if a diocese put him forward?  Do you believe that Jesus would accept the teachings of Islam?  Jesus cannot be Lord is what Muhammad said in the Qu’ran is true and from the Angel Gabriel. To accept Islam is to deny the Jesus of the Gospels. Peter, will you choose to be light or darkness?, hot or cold?, sheep or wolf?  There is no more time for sitting on the fence, no middle way of inclusion with evil, no more time for fuzz-ing up truth. This is not to say that there is not room in Anglicanism for differences of opinion or understanding but there are limits to how broad the Anglican road is.  It is a wide highway, but you have helped drive the Episcopal Church through the guardrail straight for a cliff--an abyss. You must turn 180 degrees immediately to avoid the crash and the resulting death in flames.   Do you not fear the judgment of God in this matter?  Being a bishop is no defense, if you believe the Gospel accounts and Epistles’ judgment will be stricter for those in Spiritual leadership, whether they are legalistic, fundamentalist Pharisees or rationalistic humanist Sadducees.   The last time I saw you at Olivet you stated that you were moved by the power of the old 1845 version of the liturgy.  I quote that liturgy now in the hope that you will be moved by its power to publicly repent.   I exhort you, in the Name of God, to remember the profession which you made unto God in your Baptism. And forasmuch as after this life there is an account to be given unto the righteous Judge, by whom all must be judged, without respect of persons, I require you to examine yourself and your estate, both toward God and man’ so that, accusing and condemning yourself for your own faults, you may find mercy at our heavenly Father’s hand for Christ’s sake, and not be accused and condemned in that fearful judgment.   Should you decide that your pride or your convictions will not allow you to make a public confession of sin and repentance in this matter, I will no longer be able to offer you the hand of fellowship.   Until I see that you have repented of your recent heinous actions, I will not accept communion from your hand though this deeply grieves me. Should you decide to humbly and clearly repent, then I with saints and angels will rejoice and weep tears of joy.   I will continue to pray for you, as hundreds of others are, that you will turn back to the faith. If you wish to meet one-on-one to discuss these matters, I will gladly work to meet your schedule, come to Richmond, and meet with you.  The one occasion that I feel that I can still break bread with you is if we came together to privately discuss this issue.  As one who has been saved by grace from my past evils, I am more than willing to go to some length to see your considerable gifts and talents recovered for the kingdom and to see our beloved Diocese of Virginia turned from wreaking at the bottom of the abyss.   Please think twice and pray about what I have said before hitting the delete key...   Your brother in Christ,   Jim Craft Manassas, Virginia