Majority of Christians Reject Trinity // Trinity Anglican Seminary opens new center   The Bible isn't about people trying to discover God, but about God reaching out to find us. Christianity is not just about what we believe; it's also about how we behave. – John Stott   Hate never wins the final victory, "freedom does" -- the freedom of respect for one another and to "love thy neighbor as thyself." --- UK Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks   According to a YouGov survey, 41% of churchgoers aged 18 to 35 in England and Wales identify as Catholic, while 20% belong to the Church of England. In London, Catholics make up 35% of the city's Christians, more than Anglicans at 33%. The growth is spearheaded by younger churchgoers who outnumber Anglicans by more than two to one.   America doesn’t need a left-wing version of Joe Rogan. What it needs is our parents, pastors, teachers and coaches to fill the void in young men’s hearts. Our sons should not have to turn to books or podcasts or social media to hear this simple and powerful message: I like you. I want you to live a good life. Let me show you how. – David French   The Church is not a replacement for Israel wrapped in your national colors. It is not a religious booster club for your side of the political aisle. It is not America’s chaplain or moral validator. The Church is the Body of Christ: crucified, risen, and set loose in the world to witness to something far bigger than any political project. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer   Dear Brothers and Sisters, www.virtueonline.org May 30, 2025   It took two weeks to elect a new pope. It is taking one year to elect a new  Archbishop of Canterbury.  The Roman Catholic Church looks like they got it right. Whoever the Church of England elects will be wrong. There is not a prayer they will elect a person who is orthodox in faith and morals. That day is done.   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, according to a report in the Telegraph. The job has not been held by a woman in its 1,428-year history.   Dr Francis-Dehqani has been an outspoken critic of the immigration policy of successive governments. She is also pro-gay and would like the LLF report to be fully implemented in the Church of England. You can read more here:  https://www.virtueonline.org/post/church-of-england-may-get-its-first-female-archbishop-of-canterbury   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.   ***   Pope Leo must address clergy sexual abuse and massive US decline in church attendance.  “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’?”   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 turvy 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.   But he has yet to address the twin issues of clergy sexual abuse and declining Catholic attendance in the U.S. You can read more here:  https://www.virtueonline.org/post/pope-must-address-clergy-sexual-abuse-and-massive-us-decline-in-church-attendance   ***   In an exclusive report, VOL uncovered  The North American Anglican Journal, (TNAA)  an online forum for theological and historical discussions in the Anglican tradition for Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) clergy and laity, is apparently being underwritten at least in part by an extremist far right person who wants America to be a Christian nation while excoriating “Jews who need to apologize to the world.”   The TNAA print publisher is a C. Jay Engel who holds extremely disturbing political views that can only be described as xenophobic, racist, antisemitic and unchristian.   He is on record arguing that Jews "have largely operated at odds with the Old American way of life." The editor-in-chief of TNAA, Jesse Nigro, is apparently aware of Mr. Engel's offensive beliefs. (Engel has made no secret of them.)  Nigro appears to attend a LCMS congregation.   In a small office building purchased by developers, two men, including Engel are trying to build a Christian nationalist community in rural Jackson County, Tennessee, while attempting to build a right-wing podcasting business.   The two-part expose can be read here:  https://www.virtueonline.org/post/north-american-anglican-online-journal-is-underwritten-by-far-right-political-extremist  And here:  https://www.virtueonline.org/post/north-american-anglican-journal-has-deep-ties-to-alt-right-that-threatens-the-acna-part-2   *** Leaders from over 60 churches across all Scottish Parliament   constituencies  signed a letter to Scottish Parliament members (MSPs) asking them to stop the bill on assisted dying.   ‘The Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill’ is expected to be debated and voted on at ‘stage 1’ on Tuesday, 13 May. If it passes, it will progress to ‘stage 2’, where it can be amended. If it doesn’t pass, the bill won’t progress any further and won’t become law.   This draft law for Scotland describes terminally ill people as those who “have an advanced and progressive disease, illness or condition from which they are unable to recover and that can reasonably be expected to cause their premature death”.   Such a definition, say the church leaders, opens a “potential wide eligibility” which “does not include a prognostic timescale”.   Despite being addressed by the bill, the risk that patients are coerced into asking for assisted dying remains real because neither the text of the law nor a Policy Memorandum specify how doctors and nurses should assess potential coercion, these Christian leaders say. “Vulnerable patients may feel pressured by family members or caregivers, whether explicitly or implicitly, especially given the rising costs of care. Capacity assessments for assisted suicide are complex, and the individuals closest to the patient may be reluctant to carry them out due to the implications”.   *** NOTABLE DEATHS. Two men died recently; both were significant in their respective spheres of influence. The first was  Samuel Escobar,  a Peruvian pastor and theologian whose passion for social justice and evangelization resulted in a new field in missiology. He died aged 90 in Valencia, Spain.   In 1970, Escobar and fellow Latin American theologians René Padilla, Orlando Costas, and Pedro Arana coined the term misión integral to refer to a theological vision that sees evangelism and social justice as inseparable components of Christian life. They saw this principle as a way to apply the evangelical faith to the injustices they saw, highlighting that care for the poor was at the center of Jesus’ message.   At the inaugural Lausanne Congress in 1974, Escobar gave a plenary address to more than 2,000 Christian leaders from 150 countries, arguing that the church had a responsibility to address the poverty and deprivation affecting its most vulnerable members. I met him at Lausanne and corresponded with him over the years.   The second prominent death was Old Testament scholar  Gordon Wenham , best known for his commentaries on the Pentateuch and the Psalms. He died in Cheltenham, England, May 13, 2025, at the age of 81. You can read more here:  https://anglicanmainstream.org/article/gordon-j-wenham-1943-2025/   ***   Calvin Robinson  found a way to tick off four archbishops in a matter of months pleading  nolo contendere,  refusing to admit his guilt for the way he has behaved but neither admitting nor disputing the charges. Robinson is a man who loves the spotlight, but is not at all in love with those in authority over him telling him what to do.   His vocational journey would terrify a modern-day HR person. After the Church of England refused to ordain him, he was ordained as a deacon in the tiny Free Church of England, a conservative Confessing Anglican denomination with less than 20 congregations. In 2023 he joined the Nordic Catholic Church, “a conservative Old Catholic denomination of High Church Lutheran patrimony.” In 2024, he came to the U.S. and was a priest in the Anglican Catholic Church. Following a controversial gesture that some said looked too much like a Nazi salute, The Anglican Catholic Church removed Robinson from ministry four days later. Robinson then went “bishop shopping,” and was granted a temporary license by the Reformed Episcopal Church, part of the Anglican Church in North America. That ended up badly and nine days later the Reformed Episcopal Church revoked his license to be a priest. That’s five denominations in three years. The only good news here is that Robinson announced he would resume his priestly duties at St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Grand Rapids, where he has been serving as rector since last fall. But his license has been revoked so what is his future?   He might want to think about returning to England and have another crack at politics to which he is best suited, as clearly the pastoral ministry does not suit his massive ego needs for public attention. Perhaps the Brexit Party will take another look at him. One doubts that even the Ordinariate would have him. He is not yet 40, he still has time, but not, it seems for the pastoral ministry.   ***   If you want to know just how theologically vacuous Christians have become in the U.S. a recent survey revealed that an overwhelming majority of Christians reject the fundamental teaching of the  Trinity.   A striking new study from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University reveals a sharp divide between Americans’ self-reported Christian identity and their belief in a core doctrine: the trinity, where the God of the Bible exists as one inseparable deity in three persons—God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.   Though two out of three Americans call themselves Christian, only 11% of all adults—and 16% of self-proclaimed Christians—affirm this foundational tenet.   This new data, part of the American Worldview Inventory 2025 from veteran researcher Dr. George Barna, highlights a growing disconnect between Christian identity and theological understanding. While the trinity has been a cornerstone of Christian doctrine for centuries, the latest findings show that even among churchgoers, this foundational truth is largely misunderstood or rejected.   The report reveals that:   Only 40% of adults believe the God of the Bible exists and is active in their lives. Just 59% believe in the existence and influence of Jesus Christ. Only 29% believe in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. When combined, these statistics show that very few Americans hold a trinitarian view of God. Even among the most devout population segment—those with a biblical worldview—just 62% affirm the doctrine of the trinity.   Barna, CRC’s Director of Research and creator of the study, expressed concern about its implications. “These findings about America’s ignorance or rejection of the trinity are simply another in a long list of examples of people living without the truths and life principles of God shaping their life,” he said.   The data suggest a cultural drift not only away from biblical beliefs but from any clear understanding of who God is. Two earlier reports from the American Worldview Inventory 2025 show Americans are redefining God in their own image and are minimizing the role of God in their lives.   ***   At a time when Episcopal seminaries are merging, closing and dying,  Trinity Anglican Seminary  announced the official opening of  The Trophimus Center  in Ambridge, PA with a ribbon cutting ceremony followed by a dedication and consecration service on May 16, 2025.   The space will serve as a place for Trinity students to engage in liturgical formation, hosts classrooms and events, and invite the local community to participate in worship. It also supports the wider Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) and other mission partners as a keystone institution for leadership conferences.   The Rev. Cn. Dr. Bryan Hollon, Dean and President, said, “The Trophimus Center’s opening is a major advance in Trinity Anglican Seminary's mission to be a global center for Christian formation in the Anglican tradition. With its beautifully restored worship and meeting spaces, the Center equips our students in the beauty of Anglican liturgy while providing our community and the entire Province a central gathering place for learning, worship, and fellowship.   ***   The Anglican Church of Canada is collapsing.  In the year of our Lord 1967, the Anglican Church of Canada had 1,218,666 members and 272,400 worshippers on a typical Sunday. In a recent report, the church found 294,382 members on parish rolls and 58,871 people attending Sunday worship services.   “The religious institution many of us have long known and loved does not look now as it did even 20 years ago, and it will not look the same 20 years from now,” noted the report, “Creating Pathways for the Transformational Change of the General Synod.”   Waves of declining statistics will "evoke grief, fear and longing. ...This report does not seek to reverse current trends, but to respond to them to empower a much smaller church to thrive as it proclaims the gospel today and in the future.” You can read more of Terry Mattingly’s take here:  https://religionunplugged.com/news/2025/5/28/on-religion-the-collapse-of-the-anglican-church-in-canada   ***   LOVE FOR THE LEAST,  an outreach Christian ministry to Muslims, and one of the most effective evangelistic ministries in the world, estimates that Iran is now 10 to 15% believers.  That’s 8 to 12 million people.  “It’s moving so fast and hard to verify without endangering them,” the source told VOL. Of the 50,000 mosques, a majority are empty. Islam holds little sway among the people, only its leaders are fanatically Muslim and equally Jew hating.   I personally saw the beginning of a huge Iranian movement in Istanbul. Love for the Least is now in five countries. The Iranians in Armenia are adding a new church every week, I was told.   Love for the Least leaders say the latest disciple-making training class on the Swahili Coast by local leaders and the Anglican archbishop reports training 300 new Muslim background believers.   ***   VOL  exists to keep its readers informed about global Anglicanism. We wake up each day and ask the question what do our readers need to know to keep them informed so they can make good decisions. We are here because of readers like you. Would you consider a tax-deductible donation to keep the news coming. A PayPal donation link can be found here: here:  http://www.virtueonline.org/support.html If you are more inclined with checks, you can send your donation to: VIRTUEONLINE                                                                       P.O. BOX 111                               Shohola, PA 18458   Thank you for your support,   David   My Substack on the Middle East continues to grow. It is drawing a lot of attention from across the globe. You can access my Substack here:  https://davidvirtue2.substack.com/   I am a strong supporter of the state of Israel’s right to exist and prosper while confronting her enemies both foreign and domestic.

TEC Terminates Resettlement Program with US // Trinity Anglican Seminary Opens New Center   What we need is not more learning, not more eloquence, not more persuasion, not more organization, but more power from the Holy Spirit. – John Stott More than 60% of American adults report consuming Christian media in some form, whether through television, radio, podcasts, news websites, social media, or YouTube. This is not an occasional interaction — among these users, half engage with Christian content at least once per week --- NRB A Pew Research Center study conducted in 2024 found that for every American who converts to Catholicism, another 8.4 leave. The only reason that Catholicism is able to maintain a relatively steady share of the U.S. population – about 20% – is due to the high percentage of immigrants and migrants who are Catholic. --- The Conversation The motto of one newly elected American world leader: "Fight!" The other introduced himself to the world with his first public word as pope: "Peace." The contrast between President Donald Trump and Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV couldn’t be more stark — politically, personally or in their world views. --Laurie Kellman/The Associated Press   Dear Brother and Sisters, www.virtueonline.org May 16, 2025   It has been an incredible two weeks in the life of the Anglican Communion that included the election of a new pope that will undoubtedly have implications for whoever is the next Archbishop of Canterbury. With four of the seven candidates for ABC being women, it might behoove the deep thinkers in the Church of England to think long and hard about what the implications will be for Anglican/Catholic (ARCIC) talks and dialogue if they elect a woman. Oops won’t do it.   ***   The Anglican Diocese of North Africa elected a new bishop in the person of Ashley Null, a white westerner, the first elected Anglican bishop ever in this neck of the woods. He stands in the shoes of St. Augustine and promises to be just as orthodox, a stand that will not go down well with woke western Anglicanism that has succumbed to the siren call on issues like homosexuality, homosexual marriage and the ordination of women. Null rejects all three.   I was in Tunis for this memorable occasion and witnessed this unique consecration. I wrote several stories about this historic occasion which you can read here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/the-consecration-of-bishop-john-ashley-null   and here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/a-brief-history-of-anglicanism-in-north-africa and here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/tunisia-s-christian-heritage-includes-the-famous-martyrs-of-carthage   ***   Calvin Robinson , a mixed-race Anglican priest from Britain appeared once again in the news. He reared his head after being tossed out of the Anglican Catholic Church (ACC) for unseemly behavior following his appearance at a Mere Anglican Conference where he went off script and raged about women’s ordination. He was given his marching orders by his boss ACA Archbishop Mark Haverland, for, among other things antisemitism. He was briefly picked up by REC Bishop Ray Sutton, a bishop in the Anglican Church in North America, who then had second thoughts and dropped him like a hot potato. Robinson was also criticized by ACNA Archbishop Steve Wood who said in a statement; “I am concerned to have the Anglican Church of North America affiliated with a leader whose public comments and persona consistently fail to exhibit the love and grace of Jesus Christ.”   Robinson has floated around more Anglican jurisdictions than Donald Trump has had marriages, but he has managed to keep his little flock in Michigan with him. Where he lands next is anybody’s guess. He is very high church and Romish so the Ordinariate might have him, but who knows. You can read more here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/calvin-robinson-too-hot-to-handle-is-booted-from-the-reformed-episcopal-church   ***   The Episcopal Church continues its Gadarene slide into oblivion with the announcement that two dioceses that were set to merge have decided against it. According to Anglican Watch blog this amounts to ecclesiastical suicide.   The two Pennsylvania dioceses that previously shared Bishop Sean Rowe (now Presiding Bishop) as part of a partnership agreement voted on May 3 to end their six-year collaborative effort. The announcement spells bad news for both dioceses. It reflects an unwillingness to face the reality that both dioceses are facing an existential crisis that will only get worse with time.  Both dioceses have aging congregants in small parishes and very limited income; not enough to support a full time paid bishop. You can read more here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/decision-by-pennsylvania-dioceses-to-have-separate-bishops-underscores-episcopal-unwillingness-to-ac   ***   The Anglican Church of Canada is on death march to oblivion.  Its future is at stake. By any reckoning it is on life support. A panel of Anglican experts recently outlined six paths to ‘big change’ in church. A commission wrote a 48-page document offering six pathways along which the church could organize work to update and strip down its governance to improve efficiency, clarity and inclusion.   The commission, established by former primate Archbishop Linda Nicholls recommended major cuts to the size of the church’s organizational committees and governing bodies.   The commission’s recommendations are aimed at adapting the church to the needs of a smaller membership and a 21st-century social and political landscape, said the report.   All this is code for ‘we don’t have enough money coming in to keep the bureaucracy going and the lights.’ Here is the data for average Sunday attendance.   In 2001 it was 162,000, by 2019 it was 87,000, by 2022 it was 65,000. Would anyone be surprised if today, in 2025, it was under 50,000! How could a church be sinking this rapidly last beyond 2040! Meanwhile the population of Canada continues to grow. Today it stands at 38.8 million! Clearly immigrants are not rushing through the red doors to hear the latest word on homosexual inclusion. You can read more here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/death-by-a-thousand-cuts-anglican-church-of-canada   ***   The US resettling of Afrikaners from South Africa brought out a predictable response from The Episcopal Church and its presiding bishop.   A letter released from Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe said the denomination will terminate its partnership to resettle refugees with the U.S. government over a request to resettle Afrikaners after the administration had effectively halted the U.S. refugee program.   In a short response, Vice President JD Vance called the Episcopal Church's withdrawal from the refugee program "crazy" in a post on X Monday.   Vance, who identifies as Catholic, had previously accused faith-based groups, like the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, of relying too heavily on federal funds for refugee resettlement, suggesting financial motives over humanitarian concerns. You can read more here: https://religionnews.com/2025/05/12/episcopal-church-ends-refugee-resettlement-citing-moral-opposition-to-resettling-white-afrikaners/   ***   Trinity Anglican Seminary in Ambridge, PA announced the official opening of a new worship space and event center, The Trophimus Center , with a ribbon cutting ceremony on May 15, 2025.   It will be a place for Trinity students to engage in liturgical formation, hosts classrooms and events, and invites the local community to participate in worship. It also supports the wider Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) and other mission partners as a keystone institution for leadership conferences, said a press release.   The Rev. Cn. Dr. Bryan Hollon, Dean and President, said, “The Trophimus Center’s opening is a major advance in Trinity Anglican Seminary's mission to be a global center for Christian formation in the Anglican tradition. With its beautifully restored worship and meeting spaces, the Center equips our students in the beauty of Anglican liturgy while providing our community and the entire Province a central gathering place for learning, worship, and fellowship. This incredible facility will enable Trinity to form leaders steeped in our rich tradition and better equip the churches we serve to offer the gospel's beauty, depth, and truth to a world desperately seeking all three." You can read more here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/trinity-anglican-seminary-opens-a-new-worship-space-and-event-center-the-trophimus-center     ***   The number of Christians experiencing persecution worldwide has risen to an estimated 380 million in 2025, according to the annual World Watch List, released by Open Doors, a Christian anti-persecution watchdog.   North Korea retains its position as the most dangerous country for Christians, followed closely by Somalia and Yemen. Central Asia remains a region of concern, with China, a nation of approximately 1.41 billion people, ranking 15th on the list.   Open Doors CEO Henrietta Blyth expressed concern about the growing threat to religious freedom, particularly in countries with strong international trade ties, such as China. She urged governments to consider religious persecution when forming alliances. “We want the question of freedom of religion or belief to be one of the perspectives they think about,” Blyth said, emphasizing the need for faith and religion to be included in vulnerability assessments.   The report also highlights the increasing use of advanced technology, including artificial intelligence, to suppress religious activities. In China, facial recognition technology is being deployed to monitor church attendance, with mandatory use in state-sanctioned churches. Noncompliance often results in raids or closures. Such systems have been reportedly exported to other nations, including Iran, which ranks 9th on the list.   Conflict continues to be a significant driver of persecution in regions such as Nigeria, ranked 7th, where Christian communities face attacks by armed militants. Despite Christians making up nearly half of the population, villages and churches are frequently targeted, with men killed and women taken hostage.   But the main point is that throughout these challenges is the resilience and unwavering faith of persecuted Christians.   ***   Who will be the next leader of the Church of England? The position of Archbishop of Canterbury has been vacant since January 2025 writes George Pitches.  Who will be the person to guide the Church of England through what has been a volatile era of polarization, safeguarding scandals, yet spiritual awakening amongst the youth and renewal in the UK.   The Crown Nominations Commission, which consists of 17 members and must decide by a 2/3 majority, will short list and interview candidates before eventually making a recommendation to the prime minister. The PM then forwards the name to King Charles III, the supreme governor of the Church of England, who formally makes the appointment.   Predicting the next archbishop is notoriously difficult – Welby himself was a famously left-field choice. However, a number of names have been placed in the frame, including several female bishops. If appointed, they would make history by becoming the first ever woman to become Archbishop of Canterbury.   Here are seven prospective candidates:  Rt Rev Martyn Snow, Bishop of Leicester; (lead bishop for the Living in Love and faith report.) So pro-gay. The Rt Rev Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, Bishop of Chelmsford. Guli was one of 44 bishops to sign an open letter in support of priests being allowed to enter into same-sex marriages in 2023. The Rt Rev Graham Usher, Bishop of Norwich, but has ruled himself out of contention by committing to serve on the commission that will nominate the archbishop. The Rt Rev Rachel Treweek, Bishop of Gloucester, supported the celebration and blessing of “faithful monogamous same-sex relationships.” Enough said. The Most Rt Rev Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York, but he has come under criticism for his role in recent safeguarding scandals, with some clergy calling for his resignation. The Rt Rev Dame Sarah Mullally, Bishop of London. She described the prayers of blessing for same-sex couples as a “moment of hope for the Church”. The Rt Rev Helen-Ann Hartley, Bishop of Newcastle supports “full inclusion of LGBTQIA+ people in the life of the Church”, including the introduction of same-sex marriage.   It is fascinating in that it took less than two weeks for the Roman Catholic Church to find and elect a new pope following the death of Pope Francis. It is taking a year for the Church of England to find a new archbishop, and even then, whoever is chosen, won’t satisfy large sections of the church or most of the Anglican Communion.   And you wonder why Church of England evangelicals (CEEC) want a separate province to proclaim the gospel. How that will play out is still anybody’s guess.   VOL believes that the only person missing is a trannie hairdresser from Three Cocks Lane, Gloucester. He/she would have their credentials drawn from the Bully Pulpit School of Indifferent Theology.   ***   On a slightly better note, there is word of a 'quiet revival' in the UK that should encourage the Church. Evangelical leader John Stevens has welcomed new findings from the Bible Society’s Quiet Revival report based on a study of 13,000 people by YouGov for the Bible Society, challenging the long-held assumption that churchgoing in the UK is in terminal decline.   It found that church attendance among adults has in fact risen from 8% to 12% in the last six years —an increase of over 2 million people. Most strikingly, attendance among 18 to 24-year-olds has quadrupled, from 4% to 16%, with young men seeing the largest rise, from 4% to a remarkable 21%.   In a new post on the website of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, Stevens noted that these changes reflect a deeper spiritual longing: “Young people say they are more spiritual … those who attend church report higher life satisfaction and connection to their communities.   “Secular liberalism has not delivered the happiness and freedom that it promised, with ever-increasing loneliness and mental health issues.   "Young people bear the impossible burden of having to define their own identity, and young men are tired of the relentless castigating of so-called ‘toxic masculinity’.   This longing has sparked interest not just in evangelical churches but also in Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.   Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy are attracting those drawn to tradition and transcendence, while Bible-teaching evangelical churches are welcoming seekers with a clear message and community rooted in Scripture.   The Chief Executive of the Bible Society, Paul Williams, said the findings of their study were “highly significant" and should “transform the perception of Christianity and churchgoing in England and Wales”.   A co-author of the report, Dr Rhiannon McAleer, added, “These are striking findings that completely reverse the widely held assumption that the Church is dying.   "While some traditional denominations continue to face decline, broad-based growth—especially in Catholic and Pentecostal churches—is painting a very different picture.” You can read more here: https://www.virtueonline.org/post/signs-of-quiet-revival-in-the-uk-should-encourage-the-church-says-evangelical-leader   ***   Christians are praying that more British MPs will be persuaded to reject Kim Leadbeater's assisted suicide bill when it is debated again in the House of Commons today. The Westminster debate comes just days after the Scottish Parliament backed similar proposals for Scotland put forward by Lib Dem MSP, Liam McArthur.   Ciarán Kelly, director of The Christian Institute, called the bill "extremely dangerous" and said it was "no overstatement to say this is a matter of life and death. Should this bill become law, doctors would legally be permitted to help adults deemed to be terminally ill to kill themselves," he said.   ***   I am grateful for those of you who supported my desire to attend the consecration of the new Bishop of North Africa in Tunis. I met a group of wonderful people especially and including several African bishops and archbishops who read VOL. For them VOL is their most vital source of news about the Anglican Communion and they implored me to keep going despite my age.   VOL only exists because of readers like you. Please consider a tax-deductible donation to keep the news coming. A PayPal donation link can be found here: here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support.html   If you are more inclined with checks, you can send your donation to:   VIRTUEONLINE                                                                        P.O. BOX 111                                Shohola, PA 18458   Thank you for your support,   David   My Substack on the Middle East continues to grow. It is drawing a lot of attention from across the globe. You can access my Substack here: https://davidvirtue2.substack.com/   I am a strong supporter of the state of Israel’s right to exist and prosper while confronting her enemies both foreign and domestic.

By David W. Virtue, DD www.virtueonline.org May 26, 2025   My story on the involvement of The North American Anglican (TNAA) journal with alt-right extremists triggered a response with new evidence of even deeper involvement of some TNAA writers that pose an existential threat to the Anglican Church in North America.     Mr. C Jay Engel's involvement with TNAA is just the tip of the iceberg for that particular online journal and Mr. Nigro, TNAA editor in Chief, a source told VOL.   VOL has learned that Lee Yue, a writer for TNAA is also a writer for several far-right online magazines. He once wrote a submission at TNAA for an ethnically separated episcopate, and was published at Antelope Hill Press (a neo-Nazi press) under a pseudonym.  His blog describes himself as a NazBol (National Bolshevik) and contains translations and musings on various Portuguese fascists under Salazar ( https://epeuthutebetes.wordpress.com/tag/nazbol/ ).  Yue is - at best - ambivalent about Jews and African Americans, and has maintained on twitter/x that while it is not a sin to marry interracially, one has a duty to perpetuate one's race and that "temporal punishment" may occur for marrying interracially.   Brandon Meeks, formerly the poetry editor at TNAA, was recently exposed as a child sex criminal, and also falsifying his academic history.   https://ministrywatch.com/anglican-scholar-accused-of-falsifying-academic-credentials-hiding-criminal-past/ . Further, Meeks began posting explicitly alt-right tweets in the last year or so before his exposure.   James Clark - the author of The Witness of Beauty and Other Essays, and the Book Review Editor at The North American Anglican whose writings have appeared in Cranmer Theological Journal, Journal of Classical Theology, and American Reformer, as well as other publications - gave a positive review to Stephen Wolfe's book on Christian Nationalism, never mentioning the ethnonationalism contained in Wolfe's advocacy; even when it was pointed out to him that a white supremacist is literally quoted on the very first page of the book.   Jesse Nigro himself is in the orbit of several key players within the far-right Christian Nationalist movement, including explicit kinists and antisemites. For the unenlightened, Kinism is a controversial ideology that emphasizes the importance of preserving racial and ethnic identities within society. It is a movement that began in the early 2000s in the United States in some Reformed theological circles and churches. Kinists assert that whites have a “God-given right” to preserve their own kind and live separately from other races in their own communities. The term 'Kinist' was coined in opposition to what members of the movement view as neo-Babelists, progressive Christians that advocate inter-racial marriage, globalism, and the New World Order.   Nigro hosted Darrell Dow and reviewed the kinist manual "Who is My Neighbor? - An Anthology of Natural Relations" on his podcast, and described it as sitting on his coffee table.  When the book's co-author, Thomas Achord, was discovered to be running a grotesquely racist alt twitter account, Nigro maintained that Achord was falsely accused and helped raise money after Achord was fired. When Achord finally admitted it was his account, Nigro simply deleted all references to the Achord affair. His "following" tab on X/Twitter is full of racists and antisemites. He's taken the down the link to contributors on the front page of NAA, but it's available on Google:    https://northamanglican.com/contributors/   The question must be asked, is Mr. Nigro and others using TNAA and his connections with Anglican Compass, Logos, etc. to mainstream alt-right ideas into the ACNA? If so he is partially successful. C Jay Engel was invited to give a talk at a REC church back in October ( https://www.facebook.com/GraceAnglicanScranton/photos/on-saturday-october-12th-cjay-engel-from-chronicles-magazine-will-be-speaking-on/881167524040292/?_rdr ). If it's just bad judgement, then Mr. Nigro is exercising bad judgement in only a single direction.   It is absolutely vital that the far- and alt-right is kept as far from ACNA as possible, the source told VOL.   END

SPECIAL REPORT   By David W. Virtue, DD www.virtueonline.org May 22, 2025   THE North American Anglican Journal, (TNAA) an online forum for theological and historical discussions in the Anglican tradition for Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) clergy and laity, is apparently being underwritten at least in part by an extremist far right person who wants America to be a Christian nation while excoriating “Jews who need to apologize to the world.”   The TNAA print publisher is a C. Jay Engel (see Advent 2024 hardcopy issue) who holds extremely disturbing political views that can only be described as xenophobic, racist, antisemitic and unchristian.   He is on record arguing that Jews "have largely operated at odds with the Old American way of life." The editor-in-chief of TNAA, Jesse Nigro, is apparently aware of Mr. Engel's offensive beliefs. (Engel has made no secret of them.)  Nigro appears to attend a LCMS congregation.   In a small office building purchased by developers, two men, including Engel are trying to build a Christian nationalist community in rural Jackson County, Tennessee, while attempting to build a right-wing podcasting business.   Local TV NewsChannel 5 revealed that Pastor Andrew Isker and his sidekick C.Jay Engel want to “repeal the 20th Century.” They want to go back to America as it existed before the Civil Rights movement. They want to take away the rights of women to vote. And they are prepared to accept a Protestant dictator to achieve their goals. A Protestant Franco is inevitable, he said.   https://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/confronting-hate/christian-nationalist-c-jay-engel-doesnt-want-you-to-believe-me-you-can-see-the-evidence-yourself   In one Engel Contra Mundum podcast they argued that, "the Holocaust narrative must be turned on its head. Instead of the world apologizing to Jews for not having done enough to prevent the evils of Nazism, Jews need to apologize to the world," the headline ran.   The Contra Mundum podcast is being billed as the "Number One Christian Nationalist Podcast in the World” — also highlighted their willingness to flirt with ideas that critics call antisemitic and with characters who engage in Holocaust denial.   Engel himself has argued that "the Jews as a collective have largely operated at odds with the Old American way of life, rooted as it is in European Christendom." In 2023, Engel faced criticism online for liking a meme featuring the words “the more you notice” and the star of David — which critics perceived as an allusion to a common antisemitic notion that one can discover the evil influence of Jews by noticing patterns of behavior by people of Jewish descent.   In another exchange, Engel posted "I don't hate the Jews," but added that he had "never even opined on that debate and the Holo" — apparently, a reference to the Holocaust.   Engel has also posted several times on X about starting an audio book company that offers recordings of the memoir of a Belgian Nazi collaborator, as well as books of a New Zealand white supremacist and Holocaust denier.   Contrary to Engel’s own posts, the podcasters insisted in their written statement that Engel does not own or operate that company — “though he did share it on behalf of a friend over a year ago as part of a broader interest in historical content.”   Engel pointed to what he called “one of the great American heroes of the 20th Century, Charles Lindbergh.” A part of the America First movement of the 1930s, the famed aviator opposed U.S. entry into Europe's war against Adolf Hitler. Lindbergh faced public backlash after he blamed Jews and what he saw as Jewish-controlled media for pushing the nation into war.   Furthermore, Engel is a major donor to David Irving, the infamous Holocaust denier.  See: https://irvingbooks.com/blog/friends-of-irving-books/   Engel was described at the website as an “exceptional collaborator who enriches our literary community.”  Engel also hosts @chroniclesmag Podcast which has been described as a production of Chronicles Magazine, the original outlet for paleoconservative thought and a bastion of the extreme Right in America.   You can read more here: https://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/confronting-hate/men-behind-tennessees-christian-nationalist-settlement-this-country-belongs-to-jesus-not-the-jews https://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/confronting-hate/christian-nationalist-c-jay-engel-doesnt-want-you-to-believe-me-you-can-see-the-evidence-yourself https://x.com/PhilNvestigates/status/1857556822413947013?s=46   It appears that many TNAA contributors are unaware of Engel's support.   TNAA's editor Jesse Nigro claims: “The print journal is currently on hiatus and has never received financial support beyond regular subscription payments from readers.” VOL's readers are left to inquire whether this statement applies to TNAA platforms other than print.   END

By Arlie Coles THE LIVING CHURCH May 20, 2025    PUT FOTO HERE PLEASE Ray Sutton, as dean of Cranmer House, prays over-students during a graduation in the 1990s. The polarized scene in the 1990s Episcopal Church had produced an educational consensus among conservatives: choose Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry (now Trinity Anglican Seminary) or Nashotah House. These two seminaries were trusted sources of education and networking during the Anglican realignment and remain known conservative powerhouses today. Lesser known is that there were cross-jurisdictional plans to add a third to their number: Cranmer Theological House, a seminary of the Reformed Episcopal Church (REC). Founding and Early Years The REC, which left the Episcopal Church in 1873 over the latter’s tolerance of Anglo-Catholicism, approached the millennium precariously. It counted 5,783 communicants in 1987—down nearly 40 percent in 30 years—and its Philadelphia Theological Seminary (PTS) suffered from low enrollment and high staff turnover. To reinvigorate PTS, trustees named a new president in 1991: Ray Sutton. Sutton, formerly a Presbyterian minister and leader of the Christian Reconstruction movement of the 1980s, had brought his Tyler, Texas, church to the REC in 1989. His reconstructionist book That You May Prosper won him both an honorary doctorate from the Central School of Religion and the presidential nod, representing bold, potentially revitalizing ideas. Under Sutton, PTS shed its expensive historic building and sought accreditation from the Association of Theological Schools. Trustees planned new evening and satellite classes, “flexible arrangements” they considered key to survival in the 21st century.   Meanwhile, the Episcopal Church had begun ecumenical dialogue with the Reformed Episcopal Church. By 1994 Sutton was his church’s representative to General Convention, and both churches had identified “mutual recognition of [their] ordained ministries” and pursuit of “joint … educational programs” as goals. In this atmosphere of attempting turnaround, novel pedagogy, and outreach into the Anglican Communion, Cranmer House was founded as a new REC seminary—with substantial help from conservative Episcopalians. Cranmer House launched in September 1994, operating gratis from a Shreveport chapel built by pharmaceutical magnate M. Allen Dickson at his company warehouse. Dickson was the seminary’s main benefactor—and an assisting priest at nearby St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Seminarians followed a modular work-study schedule. Morning classes lasted for three weeks; afternoons and evenings were free for work in Dickson’s warehouse. The connection to Dickson came through Peter Toon of the Prayer Book Society. Toon taught at Philadelphia Seminary under Sutton and at Cranmer House its first year. Toon’s colleague Louis Tarsitano became Cranmer House’s first dean, stating plainly in 1994 that the school aimed to train conservative ministers by “combin[ing] efforts among traditional-minded Episcopalians and Anglicans in America.” Tarsitano and Toon left their posts the next year. (Toon also departed Philadelphia Seminary and began another educational venture, Cranmer Seabury House, soon after.) Sutton, who had resigned from PTS, became the second dean, and Cranmer House graduated its first students in 1996. New Techniques As Cranmer House grew, so did its inroads with conservative Episcopalians. At its 1998 commencement, Harold Johnson, rector of St. Francis’ Episcopal Church in El Paso, Texas, preached and received an honorary doctorate. Bimonthly advertisements in The Living Church promised an “earn-while-you-learn” experience at Cranmer House and frankly targeted Episcopalians by 1999: “The Episcopal Churches need well-educated men and women. We educate.”    Cranmer Theological House ad in 1998. | TLC archives Simultaneously the seminary built international connections. Though it boasted of a cooperative arrangement with the University of Brighton and an extension campus in Germany, Cranmer House’s true global Anglican arrival came at the 1998 Lambeth Conference. Sutton, in England to defend his earned doctorate, visited Lambeth and met bishops from the Church of Uganda. Those contacts would be critical for Cranmer House to pilot new ecclesiastical techniques later repeated by Anglican realignment leaders. In March 1999, two graduates were ordained deacons at Cranmer House—by Bishop Terence Kelshaw (the Rio Grande) for Bishop Samuel Ssekkadde (Namirembe, Uganda). Kelshaw then licensed the deacons for service at Johnson’s parish in El Paso. This proxy ordination caused confusion. The Living Church called the deacons Ugandans; VirtueOnline clarified they were Americans who had never visited Uganda. Kelshaw hastily said he had obtained permission from Bishop Robert Hargrove (Western Louisiana) to hold the ordination in his diocese.   The movement of these two graduates, with a third later ordained by Hargrove, into Episcopal ministry—without following Episcopal ordination pathways—drew the attention of disaffected Episcopal leaders. That year, Bishop John-David Schofield (San Joaquin) gave Cranmer House’s commencement address, received an honorary doctorate, and declared he would soon send students to Cranmer House, it being “one of only three” acceptable seminaries. Meanwhile, Sutton was elected bishop suffragan. The REC invited Archbishop Moses Tay (South East Asia) to lay hands on Sutton at his consecration, seeing a “providential crisis point” in the Anglican Communion and aiming to “create solidarity with fellow evangelical Anglicans.” Also invited were six Ugandan bishops and several conservative Episcopal bishops. REC Bishop Royal Grote, preaching four days before the consecration, dared listeners to see God’s preservation of the REC to that date as purposed for “revivifying the Anglican Communion.” Sutton was consecrated as suffragan bishop of the REC’s Diocese of Mid-America on July 29, 1999, at St. Paul’s in a double bill with a Cranmer House seminar on “the mission of the Church in our times.” Though neither Tay nor the Episcopal bishops attended, the Ugandan bishops did, poised to lay hands on Sutton—until Bishop James Stanton (Dallas) arrived in Shreveport and dissuaded them. In this attempt to have Anglican Communion bishops irregularly consecrate a bishop for America, the REC anticipated Tay’s seismic Singapore consecrations of John Rodgers Jr. and Charles H. Murphy III by exactly six months. The Ugandan bishops, not providing consecration, provided students: that August, two Ugandan priests matriculated at Cranmer House. In October, Cranmer House awarded an honorary doctorate to Archbishop Livingstone Mpalanyi Nkoyoyo, primate of the Church of Uganda. Clergy of the Reformed Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church in North America gather at Church of the Holy Communion Anglican Cathedral, Dallas, today’s home of Cranmer House. Unexpected Contributions Cranmer House left Shreveport for Houston in 2001 with its goals unmet. Accreditation remained elusive: despite pursuing membership in the Association of Theological Schools since 1999, Cranmer House reported affiliation with only Douglas Wilson’s Association of Classical Christian Schools through 2002 and is unaccredited today. Once-promoted links with Lancaster University and Louisiana State University and extension programs in Little Rock and Phoenix—the latter two backed by the now-defunct Central School of Religion—faded. Cranmer House neither joined Trinity and Nashotah in Episcopal esteem nor produced enough conservative ordinands to “revivify the Anglican Communion.” Instead, Cranmer House’s most important contributions to the early Anglican realignment were the institutional relationships and ecclesiastical techniques it fostered. The seminary brought together evangelical and Anglo-Catholic realignment factions and demonstrated the role external institutions could play for their cause. When in 2002 Bishop Robert Duncan (Pittsburgh) described “the genesis of [his] worldview change” toward cross-jurisdictional transfer and relicense of clergy outside Episcopal structures, he attributed it to a 1999 visit from Sutton. Those techniques echoed the Cranmer House practice and formed the strategic backbone of the coming realignment. Intercommunion and cross-licensing of Episcopal and REC clergy soon followed in the dioceses of Fort Worth and Pittsburgh, and the REC became a founding jurisdiction of the Anglican Church in North America in 2009 alongside both those dioceses. Duncan served as the ACNA’s first archbishop. Now in its 31st year, Cranmer House operates from Dallas with Sutton as its chancellor. It advertises an online extension school and a relationship with Dallas Theological Seminary, recently launched the Cranmer Theological Journal, and graduated four students into ministry in May 2024. This year, it launched an extension campus in Atlanta. The REC, now a subjurisdiction of the ACNA, reported 5,968 communicants in 2023. This revised essay corrects the name of the Reformed Episcopal Church’s Diocese of Mid-America, which Raymond Sutton first served as a suffragan bishop.   Arlie Coles is a lay Anglican from the Diocese of Dallas who writes about modern Episcopal history and polity. She is also a machine-learning researcher serving on General Convention’s Task Force on Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property.

Last Friday, the statistics unit of the Church of England released an ‘early snapshot’ of attendance figures, based on the returns from the count that happens in churches in October last year. The headline looked promising: Attendance at Church of England churches grew for the fourth year in a row last year, preliminary figures show. Before looking at some of the details, it is worth reflecting on this process of collecting statistics. Some will object to the whole exercise; I have clergy friends who refuse to engage in this at all, since weighing pigs does not make them any heavier. My response is: no, but weighing your pig does tell you whether it is growing fatter or thinner, and might lead you to take action as a result. Others will object to the obsession with numbers, saying that it is people and the gospel that matters. The difficulty with this is that these numbers are people, and counting them tells you about whether the C of E is fulfilling the basic mandate that Jesus gave to all his followers to ‘go and make disciples…’ (Matt 28.19). All through Acts, Luke recounts the work of the Spirit in directing, encouraging, and equipping the apostolic community, and the repeated refrain is that ‘the Lord added…the word grew…’ and so on. And for these reasons, the Archbishops’ Council expresses its goals in terms of numbers as well; it is in one sense legally obliged to do so, since charity trustees must act for the good of the charity based on evidence—and numbers are evidence. We should also note that it is often the historic denominations, the ones most commonly in decline, who have historic central resources to undertake this kind of exercise. The ‘new’ churches don’t have the resources, and are busy doing other more productive things. This leads to a skewed impression in the media, since these new churches never send out press releases, so it is only the decline of the historic denominations which hit the headlines—though we will return to this in a while. The full figures have previously been released in the Autumn, a full year after the numbers were counted, but for the last couple of years the early figures have been released, and these have been found to be representative of the fuller picture. To understand the figures, you need to be aware of the four metrics the Church uses: 1. Average Weekly Attendance (AWA) The average number of people attending all services (not just Sundays) in a typical week. This includes: Sunday services, midweek services, and school services if they’re acts of worship. This is used to reflect total weekly church activity and reach. 2. Average Sunday Attendance (ASA): The average number of people attending church services on Sundays. This includes all Sunday services (morning, evening, and so on) but it excludes midweek services. 3. Usual Sunday Attendance (USA) (less commonly used today): Historically, this was a more informal estimate of how many people usually attended Sunday services. It was often self-reported or estimated, rather than calculated over specific data periods, but it has largely been replaced by ASA for more consistent reporting. 4. Worshipping Community Attendance (WC): The number of individuals (not the weekly average) who attend services regularly, not necessarily every week. It is defined as the number of people who attend at least once a month or are otherwise known to be part of the worshipping life of the church. This reflects the breadth of engagement, not just weekly attendance; it is a controversial figure statistically, but it compensates for the fact that you might have the same number of people attending, but they might attend slightly less frequently. This would show as a decline in the above statistics, even though the same number of people are coming. So what did the figures say? Here are the summary paragraphs from the press release: The overall number of regular worshippers across the Church of England’s congregations grew to 1.02 million in 2024, a rise of 1.2 per cent, according to an early snapshot of the annual Statistics for Mission findings.It was the second year in a row in which the Church of England’s “worshipping community” – the combined number of regular members of local congregations – has stood above a million since the Covid-19 pandemic.The numbers in the pews on a typical Sunday [average Sunday attendance] was up by a further 1.5 per cent to 582,000 in 2024, extending rises over recent years.And overall in-person attendance across the week [average weekly attendance] edged upwards by 1.2 per cent in a year, and stood at just over 701,000 last year, according to the early figures. (Note that the USA is not given here.) The big question here is whether we are continuing to see recovery from the loss of attendance during the Covid lock down and the closure of church buildings, or whether there is a change to the underlying trend. This is best assessed when the numbers are presented graphically, as on the right—which a friend has kindly done for me (thanks Amanda!). The three graphs are plotted on the same scale so that you can compare them. All three graphs confirm the comment in the press release: While the overall figures show that in-person attendance has not fully reached pre-pandemic levels, the figures suggest it is moving closer to the pre-pandemic trend. But of course this ‘pre-pandemic trend’ was one of straight-line decline. So, yet again, overall attendance figures have still not even reached the level we would expect if decline had continued at the rate as before—that is, if all our efforts in investing in church planting and rejuvenation, and having a more urgent focus on mission and evangelism and the making of disciples, had not resulted in any slowing of decline, let alone a reversal to overall growth. That is worth pausing on for a minute to take it in. We have not yet reached the attendance numbers at the expected level of decline. The last graph, WC, looks as though there might be hints of a change in trend. But the other two suggest otherwise; the curve since 2021 is concave, not convex or on a straight line, showing that the year on year ‘recovery’ growth is diminishing, and statistically this is what you would expect if the numbers were drifting back to the previous trend, rather than changing it. So what is going on? There are certainly things happening in different parts of the C of E, but what is leading to this overall picture of what appears to be an underlying trend of continued decline? These are the things that strike me, and which I have gleaned from various conversations in the last week. The first is that, with current levels of migration, the country’s population is growing but about 1% a year—so you need to knock that off these statistics to get a real sense of actual growth. Many migrants are coming from areas where Christianity is the norm, and some areas of the country, especially those with cheap and poor housing, will feel the benefit. One clergy friend, in a poor area in the north of the country, told me: ‘our own congregation had 5 or 6 GMH in 2019 and now has c. 80!’ Some anecdotal research suggests that Covid accelerated decline in church attendance particularly in white British communities, especially in the north, but that ethnically mixed areas, cities, and places in and close to London have been more resilient. Many parishes are struggling to recruit incumbents, or are appointing candidates who are not up to the job, and whom they would not have appointed if there were a choice. Another friend reported hearing a suffragan bishop commenting about how few people were applying for posts and how the bishop had to work hard to persuade some parishes to accept a candidate who, in better times, they would never have considered. The mix of longer vacancies and fewer effective incumbents means decline; as I reported seven years ago (!) research by the Church House team demonstrates that having stipendiary ministers who are competent and intentional about growth is the single biggest factor in whether a church grows or not. The real challenge here is that the collapse in the number coming forward for ordination training means that this lack of leadership will be felt for years to come—and the effect is probably only just beginning to bite. Perhaps those seeing the importance of lay leadership in church planting were not so foolish after all? Within the Church, there is a huge differential in where growth and decline is happening. I know of many Anglican churches which are growing, planting, and grafting into existing churches or buildings. At our clergy chapter yesterday, many had tales of seeing people coming for baptism, both children and adults, where numbers had previously been low. And yet in other contexts there is decline and even collapse. I heard this week of a challenging rural context, where a good appointment was made for incumbent a few years ago, but this person has now left—the job of juggling a multi-parish benefice with too many buildings and little vision for growth, and with an elderly age profile, was too much. And it will be very difficult to make another appointment. The age demographic alone in many rural areas, where church attendance has historically been disproportionately high, means that many Anglican churches will simply disappear in the next decade. This will keep a downward pressure on the overall figures—but also means that there is a radical change in the configuration of the Church of England, shifting it from being more rural and ‘middle of the road’ with large liberal elements, to being more urban and suburban, and more evangelical, charismatic, and ‘orthodox catholic’. And if you want to see the variability across the country as a result of different diocesan leadership, just compare Southwell and Nottingham, where I am, with Canterbury. Last year, the numbers of children attending in this diocese had returned to 2019 pre-Covid numbers. In Canterbury, the numbers are 50% of what they were. But here is the big puzzle posed by context: what about the ‘quiet revival’ and its impact in the Church of England? Why are we seeing continued decline, when there is credible news of people, especially young people, coming to faith or expressing interest and curiosity? Some Church of England churches are certainly experiencing this—but many are not. The headlines of the C of E continue to put people off; let me give you some examples. For some reason, while we are still waiting for the serious theological work to be done, the LLF process (looking at questions of marriage and sexuality, in case you’ve been living on Mars for the last few years) still continues on, despite having lost its key staff member in Church House. A ‘consultation’ is happening in dioceses, though it is not clear what this will achieve, and the early feedback is that it feels shambolic. And, bizarrely, the Business Committee has included in the July Synod agenda a Private Members Motion asking for the House of Bishops to remove any requirement of clergy to uphold the Church’s doctrine of marriage in their own lives—despite the fact that theological work is being done on this very questions over the summer, and that it will report to Synod next February. Christopher Landau explains, in a Twitter thread, why this is so important with his customary clarity: Why would clergy entering into same-sex marriages risk splitting the church, in a way that clergy entering civil partnerships has not?First, we need to appreciate one reason why the compromise of the last twenty years or so has (imperfectly) endured. The tendency of ‘conservatives’ to assume that all clergy are living within the stated discipline of the church is (I think) a key, overlooked factor.Ever since the House of Bishops concluded that civil partnerships were not inherently contradictory to church teaching, and thus clergy were permitted to enter them, two increasingly divergent responses have emerged.One group continues to teach the traditional teaching of the church, and I would suggest has continued to work alongside openly gay colleagues on the assumption that there is a shared, ongoing commitment to this teaching.Another group has tended to downplay the church’s continuing teaching on sexual ethics, has quietly ignored it, or has campaigned for that teaching to change – even though many such clergy entered training having assented to ‘Issues in Human Sexuality’.Given the stance in ‘Issues’, it was hardly disingenuous for ‘conservative’ clergy to assume that all clergy were – to paraphrase the ordination service – fashioning their own life and that of their household ‘according to the way of Christ’.Serving clergy entering same sex marriages (as the Jeremy Pemberton employment tribunal case proved, even as far as the Court of Appeal) would indicate a fundamental change to the church’s own understanding of its legitimate discipline.Whatever one’s view, it is surely difficult to describe this as a minor change, or merely something that requires (as ‘Together for the CofE’ has suggested) a ‘pastoral response’.There needs to be a depth of honesty: changing this aspect of clergy discipline would be indicative of a change in conviction about the nature of marriage. Otherwise the Pemberton ruling makes no sense.And to change the current stated teaching on marriage would have implications for everyone, and their deeply personal decisions about what it means faithfully to live out their Christian call – not least in a culture profoundly confused about sex.We are in danger of seeking to change pastoral practice for some clergy, without first having changed the teaching (or doctrine) that logically informs such practice. Not for the first time, I am praying for theological coherence! Secondly, some insist on pressing issues around ethnicity by deploying ideas from critical race theory and ‘racist anti-racism’, and making claims about the legacy of slavery and reparations which do not stand up to scrutiny. So we are appointing ‘racial justice officers’ in dioceses where there is no evidence of there being an issue with racial justice, and make appointments which have been shown not simply to be ineffective but to actually make the problems worse. It is claims that the £100m being set aside for Project Spire (on reparations) is not depriving parishes of badly needed resources—when it obviously is, since this is money that cannot be drawn on. And the whole Project is clearly outwith the Church Commissioners’ charitable aims. These approaches are deeply divisive and demotivating. Thirdly, we still have senior leaders in the Church saying things in public which are just so unhelpful to church growth and mission. This is the comment by a cathedral dean on Facebook this week: Dear Friends, I have been reflecting on my faith, ministry and life and want to say unapologetically, that I am an inclusive, liberal, progressive, liberationist (read justice, inclusion, Liberation Theologian/priest). Jesus is my model and total inspiration. Feel free to call me woke if you wish. I seek to build bridges with all traditions and communities who seek equality, justice, peace and the flourishing of all people. I would not claim there are no virtues expressed here. There is plenty of support for questions of justice and peace in Scripture. But it is interesting that this person sees Jesus as ‘model and inspiration’ rather than ‘Lord and saviour’. The gospel expressed in these terms looks, to many people, like a humanist, political, and left-liberal project. There is an interesting question to be debated about whether the teaching of Jesus is compatible with such an approach. But we need to note that there are no signs whatever that ‘inclusive progressive’ churches are part of this ‘quiet revival.’ As I explored with Dr Rhiannon McAleer in our discussion, the churches which are growing are those which offer a sense of experiential encounter with God—and those which offer (in David Goodhew’s words) ‘full fat faith’ which is distinctive and counter cultural, and not merely replicating a political position that people can find elsewhere. God is doing something in our country. People, especially young people, are being stirred up to ask questions about faith. But the Church of England, through the foolishness of its leadership, appears to be doing its best to sidestep this by continuing to press divisive and demotivating issues. Something needs to change.

By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor  CHRISTIAN POST May 20, 2025 A female bishop may become the first woman to hold the position of archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England, according to odds posted by British betting firms.  Guli Francis-Dehqani, bishop of Chelmsford, 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. Her rise comes at a time of growing visibility for female bishops, a change enabled only in 2014 when the Church of England altered its laws to allow their appointment. According to numbers released last year by the Church of England General Synod, women comprise around 30% of bishops in the denomination. The nomination process is handled by the Canterbury Crown Nominations Commission, which will be chaired by Lord Evans of Weardale, the former director general of MI5. The commission's first meeting will occur later this month, with at least two more in July and September. 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. Francis-Dehqani, 58, was born in Iran and fled the country with her family following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Her brother, Bahram, was shot dead in 1980. Her father, then the Anglican bishop in Iran, survived an attempt on his life, as had her mother, who was the daughter of another bishop. The family settled in the United Kingdom, where her father served as a bishop in exile, according to The Times. She later studied at Nottingham and Bristol universities, was ordained in 1999, and became bishop of Loughborough in 2017 before moving to Chelmsford in 2021. Michael Beasley, bishop of Bath and Wells, and Thabo Makgoba, archbishop of Cape Town, are also considered strong candidates. Star Sports has listed Makgoba, the most senior Anglican bishop in South Africa, at 25 to 1. Francis-Dehqani has drawn attention for her criticism of immigration policy in the U.K.  Last week, she responded to Prime Minister Keir Starmer's comment that Britain was becoming an "island of strangers," saying that immigrants "are not 'strangers' but friends who fully participate and contribute as we worship, serve, and live life together."  "Political leaders must acknowledge that words matter because they influence how people perceive and treat vulnerable people. It can never be acceptable to dehumanize migrants as if they are not deserving of dignity, compassion, and rights," she added.  Betting firms caution that early favorites have not always secured the role. When former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey retired in 2002, Michael Nazir-Ali was thought to be the likely successor. But the role ultimately went to Rowan Williams. Likewise, in 2012, John Sentamu and Christopher Cocksworth were seen as front-runners before Justin Welby was appointed, despite not being on most early lists.

COMMENTARY By David W. Virtue, DD www.virtueonline.org May 19, 2025  AS The Episcopal Church sinks slowly into the sunset, attempts to spin its future grow quantifiably by the week. Hope springs eternal in the progressive breast even as church doctors and journalists declare the patient dead and the undertakers are at the door waiting to remove the body.   Such is the recent pronouncement by Kevin Martin in a piece Revisioning the Church in a Post-Progressive Society, in the latest issue of The Living Church. “We are living in a time of monumental change, both politically and          culturally, in North America. This can be an opportunity for the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada to rethink our mission to and role within our respective contexts,” he writes.   Describing himself as a priest educated primarily in classical liberalism, a social moderate, but a Prayer Book Catholic steeped in the creedal faith of traditional Anglicanism, Martin, who has served 50 years in ministry acknowledges that progressives have had a major effect on our society and especially the Episcopal Church. “The latest information from the Pew Research Center points out that the progressive left is a very small portion of the electorate and is predominantly white and wealthy. The Episcopal Church maps onto this demographic; we are 85 percent white, and our main diversity is gender identity. The best way to describe progressives in both our society and in the church is that they are influencers.”   Progressivism and the Episcopal Church   “If progressivism, as a political and social ideology, has been set back in government, it has not been set back in the Episcopal Church. Progressives hold almost all offices of our denomination and continue to be advocates for the justice mandates they uphold. I believe Progressives will remain a significant voice in the Episcopal Church because they are supported by Boomers and GenX who are now in their 50s to 70s and still remain active leaders. Why not?” Martin says he does not identify as a progressive, but readily admits that progressives and their concerns for the justice mandate of Scripture have made contributions to Anglicanism. I believe the recent statement from the House of Bishops about immigration is important and fits with many scriptural statements and Jesus’ concerns for the vulnerable among us. It is appropriate, biblical, and consistent with much of the church’s mission. We are at a significant moment, he says. He talks of decline in numbers, loss of influence and a need for reassessment. “Because of our decline in numbers and loss of influence in our society, our church has already, before the election, begun a reassessment of our life. This is simply repeating what our new Presiding Bishop has said. Bishop Sean Rowe was elected on the first ballot of the House of Bishops and has a very clear mandate to carry out this reassessment of past assumptions and which was called for in two previous General Conventions.”   Martin called for a “big tent vision,” and cited the Protestant Reformation; The Welsh and English evangelicalism of Wesley and Whitefield with its adjunct social consciousness represented by Wilberforce; The rediscovery of patristic faith and Catholic order led by the Oxford Movement; The ecumenical Social Gospel Movement; The post-World War II Ecumenical Movement; The Pentecostal/Charismatic Movement of the 1970s and 80s; The Civil Rights movement that was supported by many of our courageous leaders, such as Presiding Bishop John Hines and the Progressive/social justice of recent decades.   “This Big Tent image is consistent with worldwide Anglicanism which incorporates many of these. We are not a win/lose community,” he says.   Nowhere does Martin mention the horrible mess homosexuality and the passage of a gay marriage resolution into canon law has done to TEC, or the birth of the Anglican Church in North America which came out of that horrific decision to ordain a practicing homosexual to the episcopate.  Not a word. Nothing about all the bishops and hundreds of priests who fled TEC and lost their parishes and pensions over this unbiblical decision. Martin remained in the safe and secure mostly evangelical Diocese of Dallas which stayed in TEC. (Is the diocese evangelical anymore?)   TEC is in a win/lose community. TEC lost. While recognized by the Archbishop of Canterbury, it is not recognized by the vast majority of the Anglican Communion – at least 80 percent. TEC and the Global North is dying while the Global South is rising.   Martin says the church has two paths before it. The first option and the dominant voice right now is to “join the resistance,” double down specifically on our DEI commitments, and remain a small, declining community that has lost much of its influence.      “The second option is a re-centering of our mission and our self-narrative. We can recapture the wider voices of Anglicanism, especially those of the Global South. Anglican Churches of the Southern Hemisphere are mostly fast-growing communities that appeal to a much wider demographics of their various countries. How might we speak to the growing diverse communities of our country in our context?”   One wonders if Martin has read the 1998 Lambeth Conference Report or the Jerusalem Declaration (2008) or the GSFA communique issued at the 2024 First Assembly meeting in Cairo which railed against the division caused by those Provinces of the Communion which have departed from the historic faith. The Assembly took an historic step forward to strengthen faithful Anglican unity and witness.   Does Martin know that the GAFCON archbishops and bishops have already severed ties with Canterbury and the GSFA bishops no longer recognize the Archbishop of Canterbury as primus inter pares.   The GAFCON movement as a fellowship of confessing Anglicans said the communion was now torn asunder, and they published the Jerusalem Declaration as the basis of the fellowship to counter the moral evil that had invaded the communion. Martin has completely glossed over the “tear” in the communion. In the eyes of the orthodox and majority Anglican Communion TEC no longer exists.   The real issue is that the Episcopal Church has completely lost the plot over gospel proclamation in favor of a bucket load of woke issues that don’t touch souls or save lives. It is doubtful that a single Episcopal priest could defend or preach justification by faith alone in the finished work of Christ at the cross. Failing that you have kissed your church goodnight and all the money in the Church Pension Fund won’t keep the church going or save it.   Furthermore, no one really cares what other people think about TEC and the positions it holds. Do you think Trump or his MAGA followers give a fig about TEC’s General Convention views on sodomy or gay marriage?   Another path for the church is to reach out to the MAGA types with a message that just as they changed the culture, they can change the church.     The first path maintains our isolation and refusal to engage our wider community for the sake of the Gospel proclamation, says Martin. What gospel proclamation? There hasn’t been “gospel proclamation” since before Presiding Bishop John E. Hines died, the last theologically conservative PB who opined; “I have loved the Church more than I have loved the Lord of the Church.”   Martin wants a “revisioning” of TEC that includes the Global South, but the Global South bishops have already blown off TEC and the CofE and they won’t listen any more to what TEC thinks, says or preaches. They are history.   Marriage is not written in stone and all homosexuals will eventually die along with their lesbian cohorts. And if they resuscitate a dying church, they can reap the benefits or if not, at least share in the spoils of its liquidation.   Martin is living in a delusionary world; a world of ecclesiastical make belief; his revisioning of TEC is the stuff of fiction and a B grade movie.   The apostle Paul wrote; “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!” Gal. 1:8-9 (NIV)   TEC has been under a curse (the judgement of God) for at least 40 years, perhaps longer, and death by a thousand cuts will be its epitaph.   END

BabylonBee.com May 15, 2025   NEW YORK, NY — According to sources, a group of Episcopalian parishioners has found a strange old book hidden underneath one of their church's pews.   The book, labeled "Holy Bible" on the front of it, was apparently unknown and completely foreign to everyone at the church, leaving leaders in fear that the church may have been infiltrated by right-wing religious extremists.   "It contained strange text and verses we had never seen before," said Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe. "Just a cursory glance through this ‘Bible' was troubling. It appears to speak of an almighty deity none of us are familiar with in any way. This seems like it would be the sacred text for fringe, right-wing people who adhere to a dangerous set of fundamental values. We've launched a full investigation into how this ‘Bible' could have been brought into our church so we can prevent it from ever happening again."   The congregant who discovered the book was still shaken up over the incident hours later. "I've heard things about this book," said parishioner Lawrence Daly. "Terrifying things. People who read and believe the things in this book believe in a ‘God' who will someday hold unrepentant people accountable for something called ‘sin' and… and… I'm sorry, I can't talk about it. I knew I had to notify the church leaders about it. An Episcopal church is the last place for a book like this."   At publishing time, sources close to the Episcopal Church said an investigation was underway to determine the identity of the book's owner and root out any hint of Christianity from its congregation.

Over the weekend I stumbled across a posting on Calvin Robinson's Facebook    Yes, Calvin. The source of the “misinformation” was from your own Facebook        By Mary Ann Mueller  VOL Special Correspondent  www.virtueonline.org  May 19, 2025      Calvin: You had posted the two communiques from Reformed Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Ray Sutton on Facebook concerning your shifting status with the REC. First, the issuance of License to Service in Word and Sacrament, dated May 5, 2025; and then the Removal of License to Serve in Word and Sacrament, dated May 14.   At which you commented: “But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. (Matthew 5:36) …   “But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.” (James 5:12)   I simply followed the comments below. And in so doing I found what was obsessively a certificate incardinating you into the Diocese of Florida from Archbishop Nectarios of the Old Dominion Eparchy, and giving you priestly facilities to represent the Orthodox, baptize, celebrate Mass, anoint the sick, marry and bury. There was also a screenshot of the certificate.   I had no need to doubt. The signed and dated “certificate” was posted on YOUR Facebook. YOU HAVE TOTAL CONTROL over your Facebook posts and comments and you a keep close enough eye on comments that you would immediately delete anything which would be deemed as false or questionable.   Nothing was deleted. The last time I checked, a few minutes ago, Steve Victory's posting still wasn't deleted. It still might not be by the time this is posted on Virtue Online.   I was simply reporting on what was found on your own Facebook, no one else's.   It didn't seem as anything unusual considering your history in denominational border crossings – the Church of England, the Free Church of England, the Nordic Catholic Church, the Anglican Catholic Church, and the Reformed Episcopal Church with ties to the Anglican Church in North America. It was perfectly logical to me that a jump into Anglican Orthodoxy would not be all that great a leap.   I also reported: “The next question is who exactly is Bishop Nectarios Victory who granted a Certificate of Incardination to Calvin Robinson? He turns out to be Steve Victory, who identifies himself as the senior pastor at Epiphany Celebration Anglican Church in Eustis, Florida.   However, his credentials seem to be on shaky ground because in February of this year the Orthodox Anglican Church announced the “Removal of Priestly Faculties of Fr. Steve Victory.”   I'm glad Presiding Bishop Joshua A Arena-Gilliam of the Anglican Orthodox Church in North America fleshed out Victory's status: “My response to the article as the Archbishop of the Orthodox Anglican Church:    “In light of the recent publication of this article, I believe it is important to offer clarification on several points.   “The former OAC priest, Steve Victory—now identifying as Bishop Nestarios Victory—had all ministerial faculties removed on May 1, 2025 by the Bishop Ordinary of the Orthodox Anglican Church following a thorough investigation into conduct deemed incompatible with the Gospel and the sacred responsibilities of the priesthood.   “Although he is still listed as the representative for the Orthodox Anglican Church with the Department of Defense for the Armed Forces Chaplains Board, the necessary steps are already underway to appoint a new individual to that role.   “Furthermore, Mr. Victory is not authorized to function in any capacity on behalf of Epiphany Celebration Anglican Church in Eustis, Florida. The spiritual care and oversight of the faithful Orthodox Anglicans in that parish are presently being provided by Father William Barr   “Faithfully, ++ J. A. Arena-Gilliam”    I am sorry Calvin that VirtueOnline generated a false story through me. It was not done intentionally, but the information came from your Facebook.   I do pray for you and hope that you will be able to find an Altar and Pulpit to your suiting soon and that you will be able to settle in for a very long time.   Fr. Richard Bowyer was at St. Paul's for 28 fruitful years before you came along.   But you have to realize you are a lightning rod! You keep a high profile and draw controversy. You seem to relish it.   “As Warren Cole Smith at Ministry Watch comments: “The Anglican Church in North America needs someone with Calvin Robinson’s gifts. And Robinson needs a mentor. He needs accountability and structure. He needs to show up in a pulpit every Sunday morning to preach to people he knows, and who know him, not to thousands of people he doesn’t know at a conference that hired him for the spectacle he might create.”   I pray you can take his words to heart and learn from them.     Prayerfully yours in Christ, Mary Ann Mueller        Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline.

PRESS RELEASE   Ambridge, PA 5/14/25     Trinity Anglican Seminary announced the official opening of The Trophimus Center in Ambridge, PA with a ribbon cutting ceremony on May 15, 2025 at 4 p.m. and a dedication and consecration service on May 16, 2025 at 6:30 p.m.   The space serves as a place for Trinity students to engage in liturgical formation, hosts classrooms and events, and invites the local community to participate in worship. It also supports the wider Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) and other mission partners as a keystone institution for leadership conferences.   The Rev. Cn. Dr. Bryan Hollon, Dean and President, said, “The Trophimus Center’s opening is a major advance in Trinity Anglican Seminary's mission to be a global center for Christian formation in the Anglican tradition. With its beautifully restored worship and meeting spaces, the Center equips our students in the beauty of Anglican liturgy while providing our community and the entire Province a central gathering place for learning, worship, and fellowship.   This incredible facility will enable Trinity to form leaders steeped in our rich tradition and better equip the churches we serve to offer the gospel's beauty, depth, and truth to a world desperately seeking all three." To meet the need for a larger event venue and more flexible worship space, The Trophimus Center was purchased in 2019 by a generous donor on behalf of Trinity Anglican Seminary.   The Center accommodates up to 300 guests and provides a majestic setting for preaching, worship, and hands-on liturgical training. It is equipped with modern audio-visual technology suited to Anglican liturgy and includes adaptable classroom and conference spaces for Trinity and its mission partners.   The space which formerly housed the United Presbyterian Church, has been completely renovated and restored. New features include a bowl for the baptismal font which is custom made of stone from the ancient city of Ephesus, the home of Trophimus—the namesake of the center. Also featured are an elevated pulpit, large restored Tiffany-inspired stained-glass windows, a domed ceiling, and soon a restored 1926 pipe organ.   For more information about Trinity Anglican Seminary, visit tas.edu About Trinity Anglican Seminary Trinity Anglican Seminary is to be a global center for Christian formation in the evangelical Anglican tradition, producing outstanding leaders who can plant, renew, and grow churches that make disciples of Jesus Christ. For more information, visit tas.edu Media Contact: Christina Thornburg Associate Director of Media Relations christina.thornburg@tas.edu Work: 724.385.8026 Cell: 724.494.0913 tas.edu

Calvin Robinson too hot to handle is booted from the Reformed Episcopal Church  By Mary Ann Mueller  VOL Special Correspondent  www.virtueonline.org   May 15, 2025      Well, it didn't take long for the Rev. Calvin Robinson to be “cancelled” again. A mere ten days. He is quickly running out of options.    On May 5 Reformed Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Ray Sutton (XVII REC) graciously offered personal episcopal oversight to Robinson so that he could provide sacramental care to his church St. Paul's Anglican Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The congregation voted on May 4 to leave the Anglican Catholic Church – property intact – and temporarily landed under Bishop Sutton's episcopal covering until they can find permanent ecclesial mooring.   Since Robinson has been serving that church as priest under the Anglican Catholic Church, on May 5 Bishop Sutton also granted him faculties – the licensure to preach and provide Sacramental care – for a period of one calendar year “unless revoked by me or my successor.”   Well, Bishop Sutton has revoked Robinson's licensure. With Robinson being notified of the action via email.   “After much prayer and counsel from fellow bishops, who have not required me to revoke licensure, I have decided I must withdraw it effective this day,” Bishop Sutton said in a May 14 email notifying Robinson of his change of status.   Robinson is to receive official documentation of Bishop Sutton's decision through the mail.   “Thank you for your kind and obedient service in the short time you've been under my licensure,” Bishop Sutton continued. “I wish you every best in the service of our Lord.”   Surprisingly Fr. Calvin, as Bishop Sutton calls him, accepted this latest twist in stride.    “It is done,” he posted on Facebook. “Bp. Ray Sutton is a good man. One of the best Anglican bishops I know. If even he can't find a place for me, even temporarily, perhaps God is sending me a message.”   Usually, Robinson excoriates his bishop when he is shown the door. This time he is keeping his tongue.   However, it was Bishop Sutton who ran into a firestorm over shepherding Robinson.     The Reformed Episcopal Church is a founding member of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) and Robinson's even temporary connection with REC was just too close for comfort for Archbishop Steve Wood (III ACNA) who openly voiced his disdain.   “I am concerned to have the Anglican Church of North America affiliated with a leader whose public comments and persona consistently fail to exhibit the love and grace of Jesus Christ,” he explained on May 12 in an ACNA news release. “I have concerns about Rev. Robinson’s ability to uphold the full commitments of our Anglican tradition, and his ability to model the Christ-like virtues of peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, and love, I know all of our permanent licensed clergy abide by in the daily exercise of their priestly duties. I do not do not personally believe the Rev. Robinson is a good representative of the Anglican Church in North America.”   Fr. Calvin Robinson – who is increasingly becoming a church hopping problematic “Anglican” priest who even now, within a space of two weeks, has broken the very loose ties he had with the Reformed Episcopal Church.   But he has mastered the art of “playing priest.” He's all over the board. His priestly ordination came through the Nordic Catholic Church which is an Old Catholic Church body of high church LUTHERAN patrimony, that is based in Norway. The Old Catholic tradition developed as a response to the actions of Vatican I.   The Living Church reports that Robinson was re-ordained deacon by the Nordic Catholic Church in order to be ordained priest because the NCC did not recognize the validity of Robinson's ordination to the transitional diaconate through the Free Church of England.   After his priestly ordination he quickly connected with the Anglican Catholic Church, which is a part of the ANGLICAN Continuum that grew out of the 1977 Congress of St. Louis. He was seeking an altar – any altar and attached pulpit. He seeks ecclesial legitimacy and fraternal acceptance, but he shows little denominational loyalty.    Calvin Robinson is an Englishman who received his sacerdotal ordination through a Norwegian bishop. Robinson now lives in the United States and is known to travel the world. His American visa was recently yanked when he was in Israel and he had to travel to the land of his birth to have the American visa reissued so he could return to his new home in Michigan.   He also frequently hobnobs with conservative traditional ROMAN CATHOLICS who embrace the Tridentine Latin Mass and who ran a fowl of the late Pope Francis.   Now Robinson is himself apparently celebrating the Tridentine Latin Mass, which is no small feat since he has had to spend long hours learning Latin and all the very specific movements that the Traditional Latin Mass entails.   Robinson’s Latin Mass caught the eye of Jeff Walton of Juicy Ecumenism who is quick to point out that with Robinson celebrating Mass in Latin he has chucked Article 24 of the Thirty-Nine Articles. The Articles of Religion are one of the Anglican Formularies.   Walton writes on Juicy Ecumenism: “Robinson continues to make unexpected theological bedfellows, celebrating a Latin mass soon after his licensure by the REC, a jurisdiction that upholds the 39 Articles of Religion, including Article 24 that states ‘public Prayer in the Church, or to minister the Sacraments, in a tongue not understanded of the people’ is ‘a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God.’”   Robinson is now left licking his wounds. Where does he go from here?    If Robinson is dipping his toe in the Tiber, he could never swim the Tiber with his priesthood intact. He is dragging too much denominational baggage behind him: too many cancellations, too many broken denominational ties, too many public conflicts with bishops, too many foolish actions – behavior unbecoming a priest.      Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline.