Open Letter to the Crown Nominations Commission   From Archbishop Justin Badi Arama June 6, 2025   To: The Lord Evans of Weardale KCB DL, Chairman of the Crown Nominations Commission for the selection of the next Archbishop of Canterbury Dear Lord Evans, We send you greetings in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ and write following a recent meeting of the Primates Steering Committee of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches. We have been following the process of selection for the next Archbishop of Canterbury with prayerful concern. We treasure a shared history that includes Archbishop Thomas Cranmer and the other Reformation martyrs and those from the Church of England who, often at great cost, selflessly served the cause of the gospel in the lands we represent. Notwithstanding the grievous decision of the General Synod in February 2023 to turn away from the Church’s scriptural and historic teaching on marriage and human sexuality, we write to urge that the next Archbishop of Canterbury should be someone who will uphold the orthodox faith shared by the great majority of global Anglicans. By rejecting the authority of Holy Scripture, the General Synod also chose to reject the hopes and convictions of the Anglican Global South. In our Ash Wednesday statement of 2023 which followed, we therefore stated, with great regret, that we could no longer recognise the Archbishop of Canterbury as the ‘primus inter pares’ spiritual leader of the Communion. So while we recognise that the appointment of an orthodox Archbishop of Canterbury cannot of itself turn back the clock, this could be an opportunity to begin undoing the damage by showing that the Church of England is now willing to take seriously the deep concerns of her ‘daughter’ Churches.   It would also help to restore trust which has been undermined over the past twenty years by failure to exercise meaningful discipline where Provinces have unilaterally departed from the Apostolic faith, and by the neo-colonial manipulation of procedures to marginalise orthodox voices. In this instance we feel it is necessary to say that we are not at all confident in the process for choosing members of the Crown Nominations Commission from the wider Communion. It appears that, yet again, the convictions of Global South Anglicans will not be given the weight they deserve. Nevertheless, we assure you of our prayers for the task with which you and your colleagues have been entrusted in the hope that you will hear and take full account of those millions of faithful Anglicans who still hold the Church of England in great affection even though she has deeply grieved them. ‍Archbishop Justin Badi Arama, is Chairman of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches and Primate, the Episcopal Church of South Sudan https://www.thegsfa.org/news/open-letter-to-the-crown-nominations-commission

News Analysis   By David W. Virtue   Ted Mollegen, the 20/20 coordinator who will lead the hoped for expansion of ECUSA in 2004, is upset at dissenting Episcopal and Anglican brothers and sisters who opposed the recent election and confirmation of Canon Gene Robinson as the next Bishop of New Hampshire. In an Open Letter to the Dissenting American Bishops and Priests and to the Anglican Primates, Mollegen asks them to reconsider what they are contemplating and says he has the support of Holy Scripture to support his contention.   This is what he says. My concern is solidly based in the bible. In the Council of Jerusalem, the Church’s leaders concluded that gentile believers did not need to be circumcised. This decision overthrew a central part of the religious practice inherited from Judaism. The reasoning behind the Church’s decision was that uncircumcised gentile believers were seen to be exhibiting signs of the Holy Spirit. The situation with Canon Robinson is quite comparable.   In the New Hampshire Diocesan election, the duly elected leaders of that diocese affirmed that they clearly saw signs of the Spirit in Canon Robinson and his life and work, including his relationship with his partner, Mark Andrew. General Convention looked carefully, saw the same signs, and confirmed New Hampshire’s choice. This is why this autocephalous part of God’s church has selected and confirmed Canon Robinson to be New Hampshire’s next bishop. This action is clearly a break from the practice of the past, but it is also clearly not a break with the faith. The action is fully based on the bible, as explained further below.   Ted Mollegen does not understand Scripture and he does not know how to interpret it.   First of all, the Council of Jerusalem’s concern over circumcision (Acts. 15) was that the Judaizers said that circumcision was necessary for salvation (which it is not), and Peter came down hard on such thinking arguing that He [God] made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. Two verses later he said, but we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.   Mollegen says the situation with canon Robinson is quite comparable. Nonsense. It is not remotely comparable. Circumcision and homosexuality are not even on the same page. Genesis 17 shows circumcision as firstly a spiritual and only secondarily a national sign. It signified membership of the Israelite nation, (homosexual proclivities indicate you need help) visited on the Hebrew people following the exodus from Egypt. It was integrated into the Mosaic system in connection with the Passover. It is a foundation feature of NT Judaism, and occasioned the judaistic controversies of the apostolic period. The Jews in the NT had so associated circumcision with Moses that they had virtually forgotten its more fundamental association with Abraham. Our Lord had to remind them that it antedated Moses, and Paul is emphatic that it was the current understanding of the Mosaic connection which was obnoxious to Christianity and he constantly brings them back to Abraham.   Attempting to enforce circumcision repudiated the unmerited salvation offered freely by, through and in Christ. Homosexuality (all seven Biblical references) is repudiated in both Old and New Testaments, with Paul in 1 Cor. 6:9 making it abundantly clear that its practice alienated one from Christ’s future Kingdom ...neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate nor homosexuals... shall inherit the Kingdom of God.   To put the elimination of circumcision in Acts 15 on a par with or the brokering in of homosexual behavior is patently absurd, poor interpretation and bad theology.   Mollegen writes: The human authors of the bible did not know Christian life-committed unions of same-sex partners. Many of you who are forming divisive plans likewise do not have personal familiarity with Christian life-committed same-sex couples. Those of us who do have such familiarity can clearly see the signs of the Holy Spirit present in many life-committed Christian same-sex couples, in much the same way that those in many Christian heterosexual marriages show signs of the Holy Spirit. You will see these signs too, if you will only stop and look.   Mollegen makes two fundamental errors here. He says that the human authors of the bible did not know Christian life-committed union of same-sex partners.   First of all Scripture has a double authorship’ it is God-breathed words working through man. Both are necessary. Human authors did notwork apart from the Holy Ghost.   Secondly it is true that the authors didn’t talk of or anticipate same-sex unions, and what is more they wouldn’t have approved if they did. The prophets, priests and apostles would have gone back to the creation ordinance of Genesis, and the mandate male and female made He them...with the added proviso that God closed the sexual matrix and never re-opened it. Secondly God’s specific creation was heterosexual marriage between a man and a woman both for purposes of fellowship and procreation, the latter totally missing in homosexual activity.   The second Mollegen argument is pure ad hominum, ...you do not have personal familiarity with Christian life-committed same-sex couples, he writes. Really.   How does Mollegen know that? This writer is personally and deeply acquainted with such committed same-sex relationships and they are morally bankrupt from first to last. My brother-in-law was in such a committed relationship for 11 years and both he and his partner still died of AIDS. Furthermore, there is increasing and overwhelming evidence that faithfulness is virtually non-existent in homosexual relationships. It is presaged upon promiscuity with bath houses still in operation and casual homo-erotic sex is re-emerging with greater force with new statistics showing that bare-backing (non-condom sex) returning full blast, facts duly noted by the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta and ignored by ECUSA’s ardent homosexualists.   Furthermore, most American families know someone, usually a relative or friend, or friend of a friend who is engaging in homoerotic behavior to their detriment.   It is arrogant of Mr. Mollegen to suggest that orthodox bishop’s clergy and laity donâted have familiarity with Christian life-committed same-sex couples’ so what if they did or didn’t, does that suddenly make it right, because Mr. Mollegen thinks that knowledge of such relationships automatically makes it right. This is a totally absurd argument and a fatuous piece of ad holmium reasoning.   Mollegen then goes right over the top. He writes: For Church leaders to take action now in opposition to New Hampshire’s and General Convention’s acts of discernment looks to me very much like blasphemy against the Holy Spirit -- because the competent authorities most familiar with the situation have found the signs of the Holy Spirit to be present in Canon Robinson’s life and work.   My God, if competent authorities suddenly agreed that we should all sprinkle anthrax on our steaks, we should all do it?   Mr. Mollegen has turned truth completely on its head. It is BLASPHEMY of Mollegen to turn Scripture upside down and distort its plain meaning to suit the proclivities of a handful of whinny sodomites who are demanding that the church accept their lethal behavior.  No, theblasphemy is being committed by Mollegen not the biblically orthodox in ECUSA for daring to call a lie the truth and to say something is true when it is a lie.   And what signs of the Holy Spirit are present in Canon Robinson’s life? That he was married, had two kids, then discovered he was gay, divorced his wife, then meets and mates with his boyfriend Mark Andrew! This is a sign of the Holy Spirit! What distorted perverted logic is this. It is distorted and perverted because Scripture will have none of it and neither will any of the world’s religions or leading Christian denominations.   So by Mollegen’s logic, the entire Roman Catholic Church, the Russian Orthodox Church, 20 million Southern Baptists and more are blaspheming the Holy Ghost because Ted Mollegen says so. This is beyond all human logic and totally laughable.   Then Mollegen says that, Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit was cited by Jesus in three Gospels as an unforgivable sin. Likewise, in three Gospels, he warns those who cause others to sin: ... It would be better for him to if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. For the sake of your own souls -- and the souls of those whom you lead -- I ask you the dissenting Episcopal and Anglican brothers and sisters to reconsider what you are contemplating as your response to the election and confirmation of Canon Gene Robinson as the next Bishop of New Hampshire.   So here we see Mollegen, having turned truth on its head, he now proceeds to use the very Scriptures that Jesus used against those who would abuse children to support his sick logic.   He writes: Jesus himself said nothing (that we know of) against homosexual unions. However, he clearly spoke against dividing the faithful. And he spoke severely against causing your followers to sin.   And he spoke quite strongly against judging others. I pray you, do not let your cultural heritages and emotional responses lead you and your followers astray -- please reconsider what you are about to do.   Jesus said nothing about homosexuality (though he may have done so based on John 21:25) because it was not even on the radar screen of contemporary or ancient Judaism. No one even considered homosexual behavior a viable sexual option. Jesus reaffirmed marriage between a man and woman as did the Apostle Paul who reaffirmed marriage as the ONLY acceptable venue for sexual behavior.   Jesus also had nothing to say about bestiality or bisexuality, does Mr. Mollegen think we should practice that?   Finally Mollegen cites Gamaliel ...If this plan or this undertaking is of men, it will fail’ but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!   You are right Mr. Mollegen it will and it is failing. The Episcopal Church is in a state of  total chaos and breakdown with thousands having left to join the AMIA and a new Episcopal structure is emerging to challe.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,   As this tumultuous year draws to a close in the life of the Anglican Communion we might well reflect for a moment on why it is necessary to uphold the ‘Faith once delivered.’   We are not playing word games here. Words have meaning and they change how we think and view the world. Think what Das Kapital and Mein Kampf did to a generation before us. Words matter. They change the way we think, influence our decisions and more. We act upon words every day of our life. We make decisions for good or ill on what we hear and learn, and words influence what directions we will take, what we support with our money and much more.   Virtuosity’s whole purpose is to defend the gospel of Jesus Christ as it is practiced within the context of the Anglican Way. There is nothing particularly new or startling about this, no mind-shattering revelations or illuminations, just the solid, defense of something that is true for us today as it was 2,000 years ago. It is a message that   has not changed with time, the passage of history, passing cultural fashions, the findings of science, advances in education, the new morality, or more.   Human nature we now know has not changed appreciably over aeons of history. Regardless of how well-educated we might be, however advanced in our understanding of how the mind and body works’ that intractable thing we call the ego rears its ugly head and we sin.   For the good that I wish, I do not do’ but I practice the very evil that I do not wish, said the Great Apostle, and he is right. The pull of power, the urge of libidos, and the false security of money pulls us down to equalize us all. None of us is exempt, including this writer.   I love words. I love what they do, how they influence lives, and more. Perhaps one day when I come to die someone will carve on my tombstone’ He used words well. I should be so lucky.   For most of you who have ‘endured’ VIRTUOSITY for another year, will note that many of my writers and contributors, essayists and columnists have used words far better than me, for they are better writers than I am, and know their subjects better than I do.   I am truly grateful for each one of them. I suffer from the sin of envy (among other sins), that God has enabled them to put together sentences more illuminating than my own, more powerful in their ability to persuade, and so I sit in awe of them. Still we must press on. Virtuosity is a calling and a ministry and it will go on into the New Year vigorously proclaiming, defending, and building up, at the same time pulling down strongholds of satanic influence. We will leave no stone unturned in the search for truth and exposing the lies and half-truths, the pomposity and venality of revisionist hegemony found in The Episcopal Church. We will reveal, expose and bring to the light, those things which we have done and those which we ought not to have done.   That does not mean that this writer comes covered in a mantle of perfection, far from it. I will make my own mistakes and hopefully you the reader will tell me so I can correct them. I expect that. I would be shocked if I did not hear from you.   IN TODAY’S LEAD STORY we continue to look at the implications of what a New World Anglican Order could look like if the Episcopal Church becomes, in effect, two churches. A ‘church within a church’ or para church, a church that is, that comes alongside the main body, drawing the good from it and leaving a dead carcass behind.   Events are shaping up fast. Two conflicting views over the future of the ECUSA is beginning to emerge and you can read the substance of that in today’s lead story.   TED MOLLEGEN, the point man for The Episcopal Church’s hoped for growth with General Convention’s 20/20 has written a propaganda piece at those who opposed Vicki Gene’s consecration. I have taken this apart for your edification. This man has managed to turn truth so violently on its head that cranial damage has ensued and now seems permanent. His blasphemous attack on orthodoxy and those who defend it is exposed for all to read.   ONCE AGAIN, THE DIOCESE OF PENNSYLVANIA LEADS THE WAY. The Rev. Douglas G. Scott, rector of St. Martin’s Church, Radnor has issued a stirring call to action on page 28 of Episcopal Life. It is an outrage, he writes, that Christianity seems to have little tolerance for the suffering fat. We should ask the obese to share with their faith community what it means to be at the margins of societal acceptance and learn from them.   I kid you not. The obvious solution, Virtuosity believes is to consecrate an openly fat man who is in a committed relationship with his refrigerator. Do you Douglas take Kelvinator to be your awfully wedded significant other, to have and to hold, till high cholesterol do you part... Dear friends, it is utterly impossible to out-satirize this stuff. With the removal of the twin sins of gluttony and sodomy it just gets easier and easier to become an Episcopalian. Will we abandon the Prayer Book in time? Perhaps we will all live long enough to see a fat bisexual with bestial proclivities who has a hankering for non-neutered Dalmatians publicly consecrated in a NYC bathhouse. Frank Griswold will preside. ECUSA has become a lunatic asylum and the lunatics are in charge.   And our Bible reading today is taken from First Bennison (Pennsylvania Episcopalian Page B) chapter 1 verse 1: Moses smashed the tablets brought down off Mount Sinai to free the Word of God to be heard not seen.  How long will the Standing Committee put up with this lunatic?   IN A RECENT NEWS ARTICLE THE PRESIDING BISHOP Frank Griswold gave some instructions to his Executive Council on the relationship between truth and community. This is what he said: Truth is discovered in communion.   Schism is the shattering of communion. In order to discover God’s truth, everyone has to be at the table.   The Rev. Lawrence D. Bausch, rector of Holy Trinity Church, San Diego, begs to disagree. He argues the exact reverse. He offers four examples when leaving the table has occurred because truth had been discerned and not agreed to.   First, the calling out of Abraham and his descendents as followers of Yahweh, separating them from their neighbors. This is a recurrent theme throughout the Old Testament. Secondly, the separation of Christians from Jews over the identity of Jesus. Third, the conciliar definitions including the creeds and canon of Scripture which determined acceptable parameters for communion. And fourth, the English reform under Queen Elizabeth I, which resulted in separation from the Catholic Church.   It’s amazing how much rubbish Griswold manages to get away with unchallenged by his fellow bishops.   RECENT REPORTS in newspapers like the Church of England newspaper and on the Internet that Anglo-Catholics and groups like the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) are ready to run to Rome are exaggerated and premature. In discussions with various leaders in Episcopal Anglo-Catholic circles, word is that while talks and visits to Rome have been undertaken no one is going anywhere. The TAC under the leadership of Archbishop Falk and more recently the newly anointed Archbishop John Hepworth admit that while seeking unity to the fullest degree is desirable no one is going to abandon the Anglican tradition. Merger with Rome is not imminent. Furthermore, Rome never acts in a hurry, even to embrace hurting Anglicans under siege from revisionist forces. All in good time.   THE REFORMED EPISCOPAL CHURCH has had a defection. Bishop Gregory Hotchkiss has resigned over the REC’s stance against gay marriage. Even the most orthodox of jurisdictions are not immune, it would seem, from all this craziness over homo-erotic behavior.   SPRINGFIELD BISHOP PETER BECKWITH reports that no presentment charges have been made against him despite coming under heavy fire from a group of hard-line revisionist gay and lesbian priests and laity in his diocese who want him gone. (Virtuosity exposed their tricks in a secret chat room where they used anonymous names to blast the bishop).   Beckwith wrote to VIRTUOSITY, I have heard there has been some interest/desire/attempt to present me for 1) Teaching against the doctrine of the Church’ and 2) Abandoning the Sacrament of the Church.  I’m told 1 is because I will not recognize Gene Robinson’s ministry, allow blessing of same sex relationships or likely to welcome clergy into the Diocese who would.  I’m told 2 is because I did not visit a new mission initiative in our Monroe County before I pulled the plug on it.  After 15 months of preparation we were aiming at having 200 at the first service.  20 showed up.  In the seven weeks of operation, it was reported between 13 and 20 people participated per service.  We had about 80K left to invest after which the congregation would have to raise the 100K annually to support the operation.  That seeming most unlikely led to my decision. Frankly I consider theirefforts to present me laughable! Thank you Bishop.   AND IT WILL COME AS NO SURPRISE, that the Religious Newswriters Association picked the Gene Robinson consecration as the top news story of the year. But it is very revealing that not one of the bishops who supported Robinson has expressed any concern that he accepted a Person of the Year award from a gay soft porn website, PlanetOut, and a gay  magazine, The Advocate.   Second top story is Michael Ingham’s attempted slaughter of 11 godly parishes in the Diocese of New Westminster. They are still open for business and thriving.   And in the DIOCESE OF COLORADO the bishop there one Jerry Winterrowd now expresses regret for supporting the election of the nation’s first openly gay bishop. He says the church was not ready. Winterrowd, who retires on Dec. 31, said he went into August’s General Convention of the Episcopal Church USA intending to vote against the election of Gene Robinson as New Hampshire bishop. His rationale: Robinson’s election would fly in the face of the church’s desire to delay setting policy on blessing same-sex unions. But Winterrowd said he became convinced that each diocese had the right to elect its own bishop. Subsequently, I would say that I am on very thin ice there, Winterrowd said. Indeed you are bishop. Very thin.   IN CANADA, the Bully of Vancouver, Michael Ingham closed down the fledgling mission parish of Holy Cross in Abbotsford, BC. The timing of the Anglican Bishop’s pre-Christmas closure of the church is ironic.   In attempting to include new ideas, the Anglican Church is making sure there is no room in the inn for traditionalist thinkers. The parishioners must defend their faith. If this was happening in another country, Holy Cross would be listed under the persecution of Christians. That it should be persecuted at the hands of its own infrastructure is alarming, wrote one priest.   The parish priest James Wagner remains committed to his congregation, saying, we will continue to worship, even though we’re apparently not recognized formally. We hear a lot about tolerance and diversity and how diverse views should be respected. It seems to me a strange way to resolve conflict, said a parish layman.   Holy Cross is a mission church, which is distinct from an incorporated parish. Holy Cross voted by overwhelming majority to accept the offer of Bishop Terry Buckle of Yukon to lead them. The Bishop later withdrew.   Ten years ago when the small parish of St. George’s Anglican Church in Hamilton, Ontario, was disestablished, it was re-born immediately as St George’s Reformed Episcopal Church and functions as a traditional Anglican parish. It is flourishing. There is hope.   And this from WASHINGTON BISHOP JOHN CHANE’S KORANIC CHRISTMAS MESSAGE And what was God thinking . . . when the Angel Gabriel was sent by God to reveal the Law to Moses? 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?     DEMOCRATIC FRONT RUNNER HOWARD DEAN was once an Episcopalian in Vermont. But owing to a squabble about the construction of a pathway on a nine-mile stretch of land along Lake Champlain opposed by a group of Episcopalians, he left the Episcopal Church. Apparently the much vaunted Doctrine of Inclusion hit a snag and the wannabe next president left the ECUSA.   I WROTE TO CANON PATRICK MAUNEY, the Episcopal Church’s Director of Anglican and Global Relations this week asking if the Episcopal Church was still planning to go ahead and send money for the poor Gulu’s in Uganda, even though Frank Griswold has been disinvited to attend the consecration of their new archbishop. I got no answer. Unless Virtuosity hears otherwise you can safely assume the gift will not be going out to these poor starving Ugandans, which goes to prove that money and politics are inextricably twined in The Episcopal Church.   THE BISHOP OF OHIO CLARK GREW went on the offensive this week about a group of parishioners who left a parish in Hudson, Ohio. This is what he said on radio WKSU: I think the tension I feel is, and I don’t want to devalue the authenticity of scripture claim that people make that this is a matter of scriptural authority, but I think, deep within that posture is a deep-seeded homophobia and an inability for people to see gay and lesbian people as children of God. Other members on the panel took him to task and you can read the he said/she said into today’s digest. He has some very revealing thoughts about a parallel jurisdiction in the ECUSA.   RE: CHRIST AND CIVILIZATION article. I received a mountain of e-mails expressing anger and disgust at the turn the article took in the latter quarter of the four-part series in its attack on Orthodox and Catholic Christians. Virtuosity regrets such attacks and maintains that the thrust of the article, which is that without Christ we would not have Western Civilization, as we know it, still stands. I am publishing a number of LETTERS reflecting various views on the article, and Virtuosity invites anyone with a knowledge of the origins of Western Civilization to write a contra piece for publication.   I HAVE POSTED A NUMBER OF STORIES today for your interest and edification. This will be the last digest for the Year 2003. When next I write it will be in the first week in January with a YEAR IN REVIEW story.   With that will come a new website makeover for 2004. It will be easier to navigate with a full explanation coming from Virtuosity’s webmaster, Mr. Robert Turner.   I WANT TO THANK ALL OF YOU who contributed so generously to Virtuosity this past year. By doing so you made it possible for me to travel and write the stories you needed to read to keep abreast with events as they unfolded in The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. I am indebted to all of you who supported me with checks both large an small. Thank you.   The year 2004 will be even more turbulent Virtuosity predicts than this past year. It will certainly be break point for The Episcopal Church. What will all the alphabet soup of groups do within and without ECUSA? How will they coalesce? Will they? Who will still be standing at the end of the day? Will it be full-blown schism or a parallel ‘church within a church?’ We shall know more in due course. Stay tuned.   Please keep this writer in your prayers, and if you can support this ministry, please do so either by going to PAYPAL at my website www.virtuosityonline.org , or by sending a donation via snail mail to VIRTUOSITY, 1236 Waterford Rd., West Chester, PA 19380. Thank you for your support. God bless you all and have a very happy New Year.   All blessings,   David W. Virtue DD

At Christmastime in the remote mountain valleys of Fujian, it is possible to pick up the live sounds of a brassy approximation of Silent Night or Onward Christian Soldiers or even Jingle Bells.   Each year at this time, the 15-member brass band of the Hutou Christian Church are on the march. Farmers, construction workers, and small business owners temporarily leave their jobs to assemble the only brass band, amateur or professional, anyone in this region has heard about.   They even have a new CD.   China is not known for participatory Christmas celebrations. But in these terraced Fujian mountain villages, where the lines between official and unofficial churches are blurred beyond recognition, well, Christians will be Christians when December rolls by.   The Hutou church was officially founded in 1983, though it started with more than a thousand Chinese unofficial believers. As pastor Li Qing Ling tells it, the band is a gift. The church considered what it could give to their city of 100,000 and decided it should be something different that everyone would enjoy.   We decided to have a brass band because in the countryside, you need a sound that people can hear. This is a very open area, he says.   Music plays a large role in Hutou services’ members proudly point to a drum set and electronic keyboard in their 800-seat sanctuary. But to drum up, so to speak, a brass band - took nights of planning, months of fundraising, lining up the proper talent, and sewing uniforms.   After three years of work, the church sent a delegation in 1996 to a music shop in Quanzhou, on the coast. They purchased 12 instruments.   Each year for the next five years, they bought another. Progress was slow since band members first needed to learn how to play the instruments they signed up for.   Yet now the Hutou Christian Church Brass Band tours with three trombones, two snare drums, a bass drum, two clarinets, three trumpets, a cymbal, and three alto horns. A saxophone was purchased this year, but you can’t hear it yet. The sax player is still learning how to blow his jazzy riffs.   END

by Michael J. McManus   Pollster George Barna reported recently that three-fifths of Americans believe cohabitation is an acceptable behavior.  In fact, two-thirds of Catholics see no problem with unmarried couples living together, nor half of all Protestants and even 49 percent of born-again Americans. What’s more, Barna says The moral perspectives of Americans are likely to continue to deteriorate. Compared to surveys we conducted just two years ago, significantly more adults are depicting such behaviors as morally acceptable.   Certainly, the number of couples living together has soared from only 520,000 in 1970 to 5 million today, a ten-fold increase in a generation. That’s double the number who marry in a year. Cohabitation, not marriage, is the primary way male-female unions are formed.   However, Scripture is clear.  Flee fornication, St. Paul wrote (I. Cor 7:18). I cited that quote in England, and a very dignified dowager interrupted me to exclaim, Jesus never said anything about it.   Yes he did.  Remember the woman at the well, who Jesus said had five husbands and the man you now have is not your husband’ (John 4:18).   The problem, as I see is two-fold: ignorance of cohabitation’s consequences by the general public, and a willful avoidance of the issue by America’s clergy.   Sociology backs up Scripture on the evil of cohabitation. Since men and women living together begin with minimal commitment, there’s greater unhappiness - more infidelity, more conflict and even violence, more illness and depression.   Sociologist Pamela Smock estimates that 45 percent of such couples undergo premarital divorce, which can be painful and complicated.  A woman at a Christian publishing company told me she lived with a man for six years, and desperately wanted to leave, but felt trapped: We bought a house together and he doesn’t want to sell it.   Many live together to test their potential for marriage. Big mistake. Marriages that are preceded by living together have 50 percent higher disruption rates than marriages without premarital cohabitation, according to the National Survey of Families and Households.   St. Paul sagely wrote, Test everything. Hold onto the good. Avoid every kind of evil. Cohabitation may be perceived as a test, but it is an embracing of evil. A stunning 43 percent of unmarried couples have children, vs 46 percent of married couples.   Yet have you ever heard a sermon on cohabitation?  I bet not. In scores of cities, I’ve asked pastors if they have preached on it. One hand in 50 goes up. This moral abdication is perhaps the major reason why Barna found Christians have a higher divorce rate than atheists.   There is an alternative.  A third of America’s churches now provide a more appropriate way for couples to test their relationships - with a test called a premarital inventory.  The man and woman are asked if they agree or disagree separately to 150+ one sentence statements:   At times I am concerned about the silent treatment I get from my future spouse. I am concerned that my future spouse sometimes spends money foolishly.   I am hoping that after marriage my future souse will change of his/her behaviors.   A computerized report is prepared comparing what the man and woman said on each issue. Result: a tenth of couples decide not to marry. Studies show that their scores are equal to those who marry and later divorce.  So they are avoiding a bad marriage before it has begun!   In 1992, my wife and I added another component, having couples in solid marriages administer the inventory. Clergy will normally provide only an hour of feedback. They do not have time to talk through scores of issues that a couple aged 50 can provide. With both genders present, mentor couples can actually do a better job than clergy or counselors.    From 1992-2000, 302 couples were mentored at our home church.  Of that number, 21 dropped out part way through, mostly to break up.   Another 34 couples met with their mentors six evenings, but decided not to marry.   Thus, more than 50 couples avoided a likely divorce.  But of those who did marry, there have been only seven divorces or separations in a decade.  That is a 3 percent failure rate, or a 97 percent success rate.   That’s  not just marriage preparation - but marriage insurance. What’s more, we created an organization called Marriage Savers that has trained 3,000 mentor couples across the country, whose churches often have even lower divorce rates. To learn more, see marriagesavers.org .   Why doesn’t your church, synagogue or mosque set a goal in 2004 to radically reduce your congregation’s divorce rate?   END TXT Copyright   2003 Michael J. McManus

TWO top bishops last night warned Tony Blair must answer to God for toppling Saddam Hussein.   By TREVOR KAVANAGH Political Editor THE SUN February 1998   The Bishop of Durham and the Archbishop of York blasted the war in newspaper interviews. In an astonishing grab for the moral high ground, they admitted Saddam was wicked but claimed the allies were not the right people to oust him.   Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham, accused the PM and President George Bush - both devout Christians - of a strange distortion of Christianity to justify action.   He compared them to white vigilantes going into Brixton to stop drug dealing. Dr David Hope, Archbishop of York, reminded the Prime Minister of the higher authority he will have to face one day and urged churchgoers to pray for his soul.   Referring to Saddam, he said: Undoubtedly a very wicked leader has been removed but there are other wicked leaders. His words echoed Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams’ warning that Mr. Blair would be called to account.   END

By David W. Virtue, DD   Some years ago, the main-line Christian denominations were taken over by leftists’ the process is even more far gone in Europe than in America.   Hence this utterly bizarre news story: Two Top Bishops Last Night Warned Tony Blair Must Answer to God for Toppling Saddam Hussein. Yes, That’s right. God was in Saddam’s corner all the way. The Bishop of Durham and the Archbishop of York blasted the war in newspaper interviews. In an astonishing grab for the moral high ground, they admitted Saddam was wicked but claimed the allies were not the right people to oust him.   Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham, accused the PM and President George Bush - both devout Christians - of a strange distortion of Christianity’ to justify action. He compared them to white vigilantes going into Brixton to stop drug dealing.   If anyone understands that reference, send us an email’ I’m completely in the dark. And if England and America weren’t the right people to oust Saddam, who were? All those other nations who have been lining up to do the dirty work all these years, I guess.   Dr David Hope, Archbishop of York, reminded the Prime Minister of the higher authority he will have to face one day and urged churchgoers to pray for his soul. Referring to Saddam, he said: Undoubtedly a very wicked leader has been removed but there are other wicked leaders.   Meaning, I guess, that God will fault Tony Blair for not removing the Mullahs, Kim Il Jong, and a few others. Well, Reverend, give him time. Meanwhile, when it comes to removing very wicked leaders, the score is: Tony Blair and George Bush--(remember the Taliban), Church of England clerics--. Bishops’ warning to Blair

Pride Goeth Before a Fall Unless You’re Gay and it is Deemed Okay   COMMENTARY   By David W. Virtue, DD www.virtueonline.org June 4, 2025   The culture has approved of homosexual unions and so have most of the mainline churches and their seminaries. By all accounts there is no going back, only forward, even if the end result is the destruction of the souls of those who practice it and the churches that once preached the gospel.   No more. The die has been cast. In the case of The Episcopal Church, Resolution B012 sealed the deal for homosexual marriage. It was done in the name of inclusion, diversity and equality. The Bible was barely consulted, the texts as the late Louie Crew (the church’s leading lay homosexual) observed were never kind to gays and the “clobber passages” were recast to make homosexuality acceptable to the biblically illiterate. Basically, it was ‘never confuse the bible with absolute truth, we can never know it anyway.’   What matters is how I feel, and that God accepts me as I am and I don’t need to change. If you can’t accept that, you are the homophobe, the Pharisee, the hater; we’re in the clear. And the world agreed and so apparently have most churches. Never mind that millions of queers never materialized in the churches; they were constantly being told they were welcome, that the welcome mat was out and the big red doors were always open. The pews remained empty.   Years of being forced to listen to gays make their case, the constant drumbeat of stories of alleged hate, neglect and fear drove a ready and gullible public to accept their “story.” Feelings triumphed truth. Those with biblical, orthodox views were pushed to the margins, and out the door, even as the church ramped up its doctrine of inclusion that all are welcome.   Of course, you were only welcome if you agreed with them. If you did not, you were shown the door. Former Albany Episcopal Bishop William Love learned that lesson the hard way. More recently Charlie Holt got a rude lesson in inclusivity when he ran for Bishop of Florida. He got dumped not once but twice in his efforts to procure the top slot. He’s gone. His replacement whoever he or she is, will be full on for same-sex marriage.   But as theologian Carl Trueman observed, Gay marriage did not destroy the world as we know it. That’s because marriage had been destroyed long ago with the advent of no-fault divorce. It turned the institution into a sentimental bond, not a relationship designed for both companionship and procreation. It downgraded children, making them peripheral to any normative understanding of the marital union. And that made the necessarily sterile notion of gay marriage entirely plausible. It also reinforced the acceptability, even desirability, of IVF and surrogacy. All of these things are now normalized, and all raise very serious challenges for Christians.   And now another Pride month is upon us. “We can hope this year will continue the trend of becoming more low-key. A less pornified public square benefits us all. But if it does so, it would be premature to assume that this is unmitigated good news. It might simply indicate that so much of Pride’s ambitions have become an intuitive part of our culture and that orthodox Christian attitudes are even more outlandish than they were before,” writes Trueman.   But should we oppose Pride and all its heresy? Should we give Pride a pass because it has all been normalized?   Jim Caviezel, the Hollywood actor who played Jesus in The Passion of the Christ, and a committed Catholic, has become more animated in speaking out against Pride.   Every time Pride Month comes around, it becomes evermore significant that even if some believe  the tide is turning on public LGBT+ solidarity , it still remains very much “in power”, and is  arguably still the most significant front-line issue  both within and beyond the Church, at least for now.   For Christians, this sheds further light on the wider significance of our convictions. It also offers a very live and pressing context in which to recover the importance of  a more combative Christian approach  to challenging ideologies which directly oppose Christian convictions, especially those which carry deeper implications. For a long time, we have not wanted to look like ungracious Pharisees, and so we have almost acted as though it is societally immaterial whether or not somebody embraces LGBT+ ideology because, either way, we all rely upon the grace of God. Whilst this is definitely the case, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23) this does not mean the toleration of all sins and all lifestyles is irrelevant, not least in its consequent effects upon wider society.   “I have spoken before of  why it is especially important to challenge LGBT+ ideology within the Church rather than in society . This remains the priority for Christians. However, sometimes ideologies need to be  challenged  in society because our toleration of them  there  leads to their toleration within the Church too. There is also the case of our basic love of neighbor, and how willing we are to support ideas which will ultimately have negative effects on a great many people.”   “Well, they just started saying it out loud in front of the cameras,” said Caviezel.   Christians are going to have admit that they capitulated in the face of the pansexual steamroller and repent of their sin of cowardice. The consequence of normativity for Christian morality has been great. The churches may never recover; that is why we had a Reformation 500 years ago and why we will need another one today.   God is not mocked. The stones would cry out if we said nothing at all. But some of us are, at great cost. The cross was never a place for wimps and compromisers. It is a place for repentance and a new start. Perhaps June will be that month. END Attachments area

Bishop Robert Giffin says he will defend Fr. Robinson to the hilt against all nay sayers      By David W. Virtue and Mary Ann Mueller  www.virtueonline.org   June 5, 2025      The peripatetic Calvin Robinson has made yet another denominational move – his sixth. He has connected with the Anglican Province of America. The other five include The Church of England; The Free Church of England; The Nordic Catholic Church; The Anglican Catholic Church; The Reformed Episcopal Church/ACNA; and now the Anglican Province of America.   The Anglican Province of America (APA) under Bishop Robert Todd Giffin (I Central & Western States) is willing to give Robinson and his displaced congregation safe harbor.     “Many have asked me about Fr. Calvin Robinson. I have met him only once, at the Joint Synods of 2023 in Orlando,” Bishop Giffin prefaces in a May 25 Facebook posting. “I have monitored the situation from afar and was very clear within the APA that I thought the situation was handled poorly. Moreover, due to this and other matters.”   “I believe Fr. Calvin potentially represents a pivotal piece in traditional Anglicanism. I would welcome him into my Diocese …”   However, Bishop Giffin feels his ability to openly welcome Calvin Robinson into his diocese would be contingent upon Robinson being “welcomed by the wider APA and G3/G2.”    The first glimpse of what would eventually become the APA was initially founded as the American Episcopal Church (AEC) in 1968 as a way to preserve traditional Anglicanism since the Episcopal Church was starting to fall off the theological rails.   As is typical with Anglicanism, and the Continuing Anglican Movement, the AEC was fraught with internal and external battles over authority, theology and Anglican identity. Eventually the Anglican Province of America would emerge in 1995 with Walter Howard Grundorf as its first Presiding Bishop, a post he held until 2021 when Chandler Holder Jones (II APA) took the helm. Bishop Grundorf is currently Bishop-in-Residence at St. Alban’s Anglican Cathedral in Oviedo, Florida which is the cathedral church for APA’s Diocese of the Eastern United States.    Bishop Giffin is the founding bishop of the APA Diocese of the Central & Western States, but he realizes that bringing Calvin Robinson on board could be problematic with other bishops within his sphere, as Reformed Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Ray Sutton quickly found out when he attempted to provide Robinson safe harbor. His brother-bishop Steve Wood (III ACNA) immediately protested and Bishop Sutton backed down.   Bishop Giffin is concerned about the pushback which could be generated by the wider APA family particularly within his G3 connections.   “I believe Fr. Calvin potentially represents a pivotal piece in traditional Anglicanism,” Bishop Giffin posted. “I would welcome him into my Diocese if and only if he was welcomed by the wider APA and G3/G2.”   The G3 churches comprise a group of Continuing Anglican jurisdictions – the Anglican Catholic Church (ACC); the Anglican Church in America (ACA); and the Anglican Province of America (APA) – forming the Anglican Joint Synods, which are pursuing interchurch cooperation and eventual corporate unity.    According to Wikipedia the Anglican Province of America is also in communion with the Diocese of the Holy Cross, (DHC); the Reformed Episcopal Church (REC); and the Traditional Anglican Church (TAC) – formerly the Traditional Anglican Communion.   Even though Anglicans splitter, they are always seeking ways to heal those rifts. That is how the Anglican Church in North America came into being. It was Bishop Robert Duncan’s (I ACNA) dream to seek the bringing together of various parts of fractured American Anglicanism. ACNA is the fruition of Bishop Duncan's Common Cause Partnership dream.   Bishop Giffin fully believes in the healing of fractured Anglicanism.   “There is a way that the conservative and orthodox leaning ACNA and continuing Anglican churches can get together: a new ‘Common Cause Partnership’, but comprised of only non-woke, non WO dioceses, clergy, and parishes/missions,” he explains. “We eschew all arguments pertaining to traditional vs contemporary liturgy, as well as east vs west celebration of the Eucharist. We take a play from the original playbook, and start talking. I was there in the beginning, and know how the cards were played. We lost.”   Bishop Giffin is all in. He's willing to give up his miter and crozier for Anglican unity.   “Let REAL unification begin. Everyone lays their cards and miters on the table. I would gladly give up my miter for true unity between the ACNA and continuing Anglican churches if the faithful present felt I was no longer needed or superfluous,” he states. “Short of that, I will continue to push for a new vision that is much broader than the G3/G2 for traditional Anglicans and not merely a boutique Western Rite.”   However, the main question currently facing Bishop Giffin is will his G3 brother-bishops accept Calvin Robinson sheltering in his upper Midwest Diocese of the Central & Western States. Or will Bishop Giffin face withering criticism which could harm the G3 coalition.   “I would be surprised if under a banner of truce, I could receive Fr. Calvin under my care, as he would, most appropriately in Michigan, be geographically part of my Diocese,” Bishop Giffin noted in his May 25 Facebook posting. “If however that occurred, I would welcome both him and St. Paul’s, always cautioning discretion, as it has always been the same for all priests, deacons, and laity under my care.”   Bishop Giffin apparently has started receiving flack over his desire to reach out pastorally to Calvin Robinson and his flock.   “Let me now be on the Record after the (May 30) Anglican Unscripted episode which has just aired. Yes, I would receive Fr. Calvin Robinson as a priest into this Diocese, hopefully with the blessing of our Presiding Bishop, +Chandler Holder Jones, to ensure he will be received by the entire APA. This is what I would wish for Calvin+, that he would have a home with our entire Province,” the APA Bishop emphatically states on May 30. “If he does not, given the G3 situation which I understand but with which I do not subscribe, I will still receive Fr. Calvin into my Diocese with much regret on all sides. It is right for both the pastoral care of Fr. Calvin but also a parish that needs support given all these changes and abrupt redirections.”   Bishop Giffin is full-throated in defending his decision to bring Robinson and his independent parish under his watchful episcopal wing.   “I do think it incredibly important to mention that the situation with Fr. Calvin Robinson has zero to do with any ‘allure to celebrity’ (as has been suggested) and all to do with attempting to provide pastoral care and minister to a priest who I believe has not been treated appropriately,” Bishop Giffin posted on May 31. “Do not mistake what I may do for Fr. Calvin to be anything else save caring for a priest in need. He is first and foremost a priest, who serves a parish, also in need, and I felt compassion and responsibility when made aware of this need. I will not pass them on the other side of the road and turn my eyes away. People need to stop reading any more into it than that.”    Robinson says he wears each “cancellation” as a badge of honor.   “Every time, every single time, these cancellations have been blessings,” Robinson told the conferees on May 9 while speaking at the Campaign Life Coalition’s ProLife Youth Summit in Ottawa, Canada. “Every single time I'm storing up treasure in heaven.”   “This is why I'm speaking to you today. You need to get ‘cancelled for Christ,’” he said. “And I'm not talking about causing trouble for the sake of causing trouble.”   “I'm talking about standing firm in the faith,” he continues. “Speaking truth at all times. NEVER compromising to be nice. Always aim to be good. Always aim to put Christ first in everything that we do.”   Many however believe that Robinson’s public grandstanding on woke issues including the ordination of women is more about his ego and politics than gospel proclamation.   Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline.

May 2024   Dear [Rector, Deacon},   I’ve attended St. Paul’s since 2007. Last Pentecost Sunday was the first time I didn’t want to be there. Saturday evening I read the draft of the new St. Paul’s website that may be launched this Friday. I was impressed by the new look, and then I found the phrases listed below that were scattered throughout the site. It was like a slap in the face. I didn’t sleep at all Saturday evening and have been in turmoil since then.   The past two years have been ones of severe spiritual anxiety since I read former Bishop Wolfe’s statements in June 2022 concerning the Supreme Court’s decision on abortion and my subsequent exploration of the St. Bart’s website and its lauding of people’s sinful choices. My faith has never wavered but has become much more emboldened and deepened as I have suffered great mental anguish—I’m not being hyperbolic—about the Council of Trustees and now the proposed St. Paul’s website.   The Episcopal Church, the Church of England, and other progressive denominations have compromised Biblical principles in response to pagan worldly pressure. I have slowly but surely turned against the CofE, the national Episcopal Church, and my Diocese. I had looked forward to serving on the Council of Trustees, but the experience began to sour in December 2022 when the president gave the Council a document as a springboard for an action plan. I responded to the president with several objections . I could have lived with the initial proposals and tried to ignore them, but then I began finding subsequent portions accepting homosexuality and the promotion of transgender issues. Once again I wrote her a lengthy letter (always copied to the Bishop and to the Canon for the Ordinary) about how upset I was and my Scriptural reasons for my ideas.   The spring of 2023 was a roller coaster of emotions as I tried to understand how the Episcopal Church could promote teachings that were in clear violation of numerous Biblical passages throughout the Old and New Testaments. I even wept for ten minutes during a Council of Trustees meeting, much to my embarrassment, because I was so distraught. Finally I could no longer be a part of a body that overwhelmingly (probably 100%) supported all that I was against, so I resigned my post in July 2023. I thought that all would be better in my life, but that was not to be.   I am embarrassed that St. Paul’s actively supports pride parade and pride month, and even has a booth at the parade. We can surmise that most of the people in attendance are not living celibate lives and, therefore, are engaged enthusiastically in sexual immorality. Heterosexuals are guilty of the same sins if the man and woman aren’t married to each other. Sexual sin is an equal opportunity employer. How can St. Paul’s be part of an event that might have a drag queen show, and especially in front of children?   My great dissatisfaction with the Episcopal Church at large began even earlier when I enrolled in Education for Ministry in Fall 2018. In August 2023, the facilitator and I thought it best that I do not enroll in the third year for two reasons: [1] I had stated in class that transgender ideology was a great danger; [2] a book we were to read in Fall 2023, Beyond a Non-Binary God: A theology for Trans Allies. That such a book would be adopted by EfM for supplementary reading and discussion grieved my spirit and angered me. It is no surprise that EfM and the Episcopal Church have embraced a liberal political bent that runs counter to many Biblical teachings. It appears to me that in a desperate chase for increasing attendance, the church has turned to politics and worldly views over the Word of God. These are wrong priorities. “Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.” (1 John 2:15).   I purposely have not quoted Bible passages about these sexual behaviors in this letter. You know quite well what they are. St. Paul was clear and direct. Romans 1:16—32 is my touchstone (one of many) that describes the descent of people into utter wickedness because they have rejected God and followed their own desires. Clergy and others who explain away this passage will one day stand before God for “approving of those who practice them” (evil things just listed) and will be liable for leading people astray. I’d like to hear what exactly God got wrong in his word transmitted through St. Paul in Romans 1. What did Jesus misunderstand about marriage between a man and woman when he referenced Genesis in Matthew 19?   I can say with certainty that if the new website appears and includes the statements below, then I will immediately take a sabbatical from attending St. Paul’s beginning today and continuing through the month of June. This will allow me to avoid any reference in church to pride month. That means that I will obviously not fulfill any verger or lector duties, will not sign checks, and will not step foot in the church. After a lot more prayer during June, I will then decide what path to take.   I’m sorry that it has come to this. I was hoping against hope that a blatant acceptance of the homosexual agenda in a public way would not appear at St. Paul’s.   Sincerely,   David Littrell   Postscript April 2025: I left the Episcopal Church on April 11, 2025, the day before St. Paul’s was once again participating in the gay pride parade, which was held during the holy season of Lent and the day before Palm Sunday.   David Littrell is a retired university professor from the Midwest.

“Your Eminence, ‘Which has greater value...the combined and total financial value of all our Archdiocese’s assets, or the value of a girl’s life lost to evil’?”   COMMENTARY   By David W. Virtue, DD www.virtueonline.org May 29, 2025   By all accounts the new Pope Leo XIV is getting rave reviews from Catholics and Protestants alike. He comes across as humble, self-effacing, and approachable with a non-celebrity, non-mega church humility-like approach to his job. He seems to be without a flaming ego that needs constant reinforcement by an adoring public.   That he is an American is clearly a plus at a time when everything seems topsy turvey in America with a government and president having imbibed a winner take all approach to life. Pope Leo is a breath of fresh air.   He is steering the Catholic ship between the Charybdis of MAGA and the Scylla of Woke with skill and alacrity.   He turned his back on a Gay PRIDE flag waved at him in a walkabout; and then spent only 17 seconds shaking hands with vice-president J.D. Vance preferring to hold long meetings with other leaders.   He has made the right noises on abortion and gay marriage. He outlined a clear Catholic teaching on marriage and abortion, noting that family is based on a "stable union between a man and a woman" and that the unborn enjoy dignity as God’s creatures.   Plus, plus on all counts. But the story does not end there. Not by a long shot.   The two major issues he must face are critical to his church’s very survival at least in the US -- clergy sexual abuse and the falling away of millions of Catholics from the fold.   How he handles these two issues will determine his future and legacy.   Let’s start with Catholics leaving the church. There is a mass exodus. The Roman Catholic Church in America is cratering. While there are a few intellectual evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics who are becoming Roman Catholic, the overall trend is in the other direction.  Actually, the Roman Church is hemorrhaging members…by the millions.   While a multiyear decline in Christianity in the U.S. may have leveled off, according to a new survey by Pew Research Center, the survey found Catholics are seeing the greatest net losses of believers compared to other religions in the U.S. The data indicate that for every one person received into the Catholic Church, another 8.4 individuals have left the faith, either altogether or for another worship tradition. This increases the trend Pew found in 2014, when 6.5 Catholics left the faith for every person who entered.   Pew’s new survey also shows just 29% of the nation’s Catholics attend religious services weekly or more often. Altogether four in 10 Catholics attend religious services monthly or more.   In addition, support among U.S. Catholics for legalized abortion, homosexuality and other stances at odds with church teaching has increased over the past decade and a half.   None of these figures should make Pope Leo happy and if he wants to see the church in the country of his birth survive and thrive, he must reverse the current trend. That is a tall order for a nation fast becoming post-Christian. The strength of his church lies in the Global South, as it does for global Anglicanism. The migration of Catholics from Latin countries is the one best hope for America.   CLERGY SEXUAL ABUSE   The Roman Catholic Church in America is riddled with abusive homosexuals and pederasts at the very highest levels of the church, and unless they are rooted out, they will bring the whole house of cards down around themselves.   Consider this story: “There was a young girl who loved our Lord and was befriended by an associate priest who raped her. In great shame and deep sorrow, the girl told her parents who would not believe her because priests supposedly are ‘holy men.’ The parents of the girl spoke to the pastor who defended the associate and claimed their daughter was lying. When the parents told their daughter to remain quiet, she then killed herself. A young girl’s life was lost to the predatory behavior of a so-called holy priest. To my knowledge, the rapist suffered no consequences. Here is my question, Your Eminence, ‘Which has greater value...the combined and total financial value of all our Archdiocese’s assets, or the value of that girl’s life lost to evil’?”   Our Lord’s response would be overwhelming; It is best that a millstone be tied around the priest’s neck and he be dumped into the ocean, than he ever offends (abuses) a child of God. And there is not a shred of Biblical evidence that such a person be shielded by the seal of the confessional. This is the fallback bullshit Catholic position to shield the vilest offender who in this case happens to be a priest.   This is not an isolated story. It has been and continues to be repeated hundreds of times. Men with boys is an even bigger story. Consider the late Cardinal McCarrick who took young seminarians to his bed. He almost got away with it but the public outcry was so great he was defrocked by Pope Francis after being convicted of sexual misconduct in a canonical trial.   As of November 21, 2019, there were 6,488 names in the USCCB database, including 5,808 priests, 35 bishops, 108 deacons, and 47 seminarians, for a total of 5,998 accused clerics and future clerics. We don’t have the updated 2025 figures.   Many who have written on the needed characteristics of the next pope have said such things as “The next pope needs to call the bishops to proclaim the faith boldly; to restore respect for the sacraments; to unify the polarized elements of the Church.” Few pundits note that purging the Church of the Lavender Mafia, of the homosexual priests and bishops who run the Church, is arguably the most important and the most difficult of all tasks a new pope will face.  We believe it is.   Pope Benedict failed to do the cleanup because he was old, frail, and sick—but even more so because the resistance to his efforts was so strong. If Pope Leo has the cojones, he needs to clean house starting in his own backyard. He needs to root out every sodomist cleric regardless of how high they have climbed in the hierarchy.   Veteran Vatican watcher Dr. Jules Gomes has documented it all, noting that the U.S. Catholic Church has spent $5 billion on clergy sex abuse allegations in 20 years. A 106-page study records a total of 16,276 “credible allegations” of abuse of minors by priests, deacons, and religious brothers, which were reported by dioceses, eparchies, and men’s religious communities in the U.S. over the last two decades.   Bishops have had to sell churches to pay settlements as insurance companies meet less than one-fifth of the expenses. Dioceses and religious orders were forced to bear 84% of the costs, resulting in bishops selling churches, reorganizing parishes, and filing for bankruptcies, with several dioceses explicitly citing the settlements as a reason to declare bankruptcy.   Four in five victims were male and one-fifth of the victims were female, the survey recorded, confirming reports by The Stream and other experts of a “lavender mafia” dominating the Latin-rite Roman Catholic priesthood.   More than half the victims were between ages 10 and 14 (56%) at the time the abuse occurred or began, with 24% ages 15 to 17 and 20% ages nine and younger. (Again think Jesus and millstones).   The report estimated the number of perpetrators to be 4,490, with a combined 95% of all alleged perpetrators being priests, either diocesan (80%) or religious (15%). Four percent are religious brothers and 1% are deacons (diocesan or religious).   This is what Pope Leo must attend to without delay. His own credibility as the leader of 1.4 billion Catholics is on the line.   END

Commentary By David W. Virtue DD www.virtueonline.org June 2, 2025 It took two weeks to elect a new pope. It will take more than a year to elect a new Archbishop of Canterbury. The politicking is fierce. A recent report put the Iranian born woman bishop, Guli Francis-Dehqani, bishop of Chelmsford, as the leading contender, but all bets are off till the moment of truth arrives. You can read that story here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/church-of-england-may-get-its-first-female-archbishop-of-canterbury   But there are some truths behind the scenes that VOL has learned that will explain how it is impossible for someone who is orthodox in faith and morals to win the coveted Lambeth Palace. The Church of England may get its first female Archbishop in the Church of England, according to odds posted by British betting firms.    Guli Francis-Dehqani, 58, has emerged as the leading candidate to become the next archbishop of Canterbury. British betting firms have placed her as the early favorite to succeed the Rev. Justin Welby, who stepped down in January.   Francis-Dehqani's odds were placed at evens and 2 to 1 by the firms Ladbrokes and Star Sports, according to  The Telegraph . If selected, she would become the 106th archbishop of Canterbury and the first woman to hold the office. According to numbers released last year by the Church of England General Synod, women comprise  around 30% of bishops  in the denomination.   A nomination requires support from two-thirds of voting members in a secret ballot, with a formal nomination for Welby's successor expected by autumn. Last November, Welby announced his decision to step down in the wake of criticism over the Church's handling of an abuse scandal involving barrister and Christian camp leader John Smyth.   The Church of England’s moment has come and gone. When they elected Justin Welby over Michael Nazir-Ali then Bishop of Rochester, the mistake proved fatal. Like a wounded Serengeti lion, the death of the Church of England is only a matter of time.   Of course, the CofE carries on like nothing matters more than itself. It pays no mind how their choice will impact the Global South. The front runner is an Iranian-born refugee who could be first female archbishop of Canterbury, speaks volumes about where the CofE is at. The job has not been held by a woman in its 1,428-year history.   A source in the CofE described the process as a complete and utter farce. “They are playing chess on the deck of the Titanic. There are just three orthodox members – one clergy, two lay out of 17 people in the selection process. The Good Ship Lambeth is about to go the same way as The Episcopal Church, led to the cliff’s edge by Welby, and pushed.”   “Only diocesan bishops have any power. Only 2 or 3 have any claim to orthodoxy. One is living with another man in a flat down the road from his cathedral. There are several suffragans holding Provincial Visitor roles but they don't have any votes or influence. Three out of the 17 on the new Commission for appointing the ABC are orthodox. It will require 14 votes for a candidate to cross the finishing line and be nominated.”   “It is all over. Welby filled the House of Bishops with his liberal management stooges. They voted for the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) report, without going through the legal requirements for any change, and they will get one of their own for ABC. Someone who ticks as many diversity boxes as possible has the best chance.”   The source says those who remain in the Church of England have choices - They can stay and hope that their own local church remains unaffected and untainted. (It won't). They can leave and join one of the church plants set up by the Anglican Mission in England (AMiE) or GAFCON, but it is not Anglicanism as we know it. And we know the difficulties with ACNA. They can become Roman Catholics with a much greater optimism now that Leo XIV is in charge. And there is a growing suggestion that the Great Schism may soon be over.   They can join one of the many Orthodox churches now present in the UK, but many of them have close ties with Moscow. And the language and Eastern liturgy pose formidable obstacles. There are even smaller groupings which may cater for some former Anglicans, but the question is whether they are truly Anglican or episcopal. Many will simply cease to attend organized worship.   “The Church of England, like the historic Conservative Party here in the UK, has been led into trackless wastes by a series of disastrous leaders. It is not going to recover its dominant role in England, as the number of those seeking ordination is plummeting; many are retiring, unreplaced; the astonishing financial waste and incompetency of dioceses means that they are selling off clergy housing, amalgamating churches into ever larger groups, and nobody is left to lead worship.” He believes that Leo XIV may be about to preside over a golden age for his Church here in England. Whatever the problems, it remains largely orthodox and protected from cultural Marxism.   END