By David W. Virtue SAGINAW, MI — (7/24/2004) Three biblically orthodox rectors in the Flint River Convocation (Deanery), in the Diocese of Eastern Michigan, angry and disappointed by the church's consecration of an openly homoerotic non-celibate bishop; the affirmation of same-sex blessings and other doctrinal innovations, have resigned from their parishes and one has renounced his orders in the Episcopal Church. Their departure will leave hundreds of parishioners rootless, without spiritual direction and nurture and with a theologically and morally flawed revisionist bishop in the person of Ed Leidel who voted for Robinson's consecration and who favors same-sex blessings. "It's a disaster," said one of the priests, "the bishop has no idea what he is doing. He just doesn't get it. This is a new diocese and he is its first bishop. He will probably be its last. There is no future here. No gospel is being proclaimed, and in time it will all die. The diocese was formed in the Nineties and already has financial problems." What doubly angered the priests was that Leidel allowed a non-celibate gay man and his partner to come in as an interim priest at St. Jude's in Fenton, Michigan. "We were betrayed, the bishop lied to us. He said he would never do that," they said. Then he did. The three priests are the Rev. Dr. Greg Tournoux, Christ Church, Owosso; the Rev. Dave Kulchar, Trinity Church, Flushing and the Rev. Scott Danforth, St. Dunstan's, Davison. The priests spoke to Virtuosity represent one third of the Flint River Convocation of nine parishes. The rectors are young, and while each is in a different space with regard to how they have acted and their future plans, the Robinson consecration was the last line in the sand for the three men. "We struggled as to whether we should remain in the ECUSA," they told Virtuosity. In the end they resigned. The Rev. Dave Kulchar, 46, of Trinity Church, Flushing took a three month sabbatical and his parish is discerning their future. "I was told by Leidel that if I spoke to my parish about realignment I would be brought up on charges and that DEPO was not an option." This week Fr. Kulchar was inhibited by Leidel because he would not pledge loyalty to the bishop. Deposition, though not automatic, could follow. "In a season of divided loyalties, you would have thought he could have adopted a 'don't ask don't tell' policy until we heard from the international community. This means I cannot do marriages, funerals, supply, preach in any way represent myself as a priest according to his letter. I am a PBS (Priest in Bad Standing). That is the pastoral response to those who are walking away from the church? Fortunately the Kingdom and our God is bigger than human institutions. I am now forced to look to the Network for foreign oversight or go the way of the AMIA. For one who wanted to hang in there with other orthodox folks as long as possible I was pushed out." Kulchar who recently ended a 3-month sabbatical to discern his future says his congregation has been torn apart by the actions of their bishop. "I saw an early copy of the DEPO document before it came out, and I did not see DEPO as being a viable alternative," Kulchar told Virtuosity. "Leidel asked me if I saw this diocese as being hostile, and I said not up to this point. But then Leidel said that if a priest even speaks about DEPO he will be deposed. How does he know what the priest wants to do if there is no free choice?" Kulchar, who resigned June 1, had been asked by orthodox parishes to do supply work, but Leidel requested a loyalty pledge. Kulchar refused. "It is a season of divided loyalties, and my hope was that grace would be given till we heard from the Lambeth Commission, and I had hoped to serve those people in the interim. Leidel refused." Kulchar said he briefly did supply work till he was inhibited by Leidel. Said Leidel, "The canons require the Standing Committee give their advice and consent...after reading your e-mail, they did not give their consent on the grounds that you are not willing to uphold your ordination vows and obey and be loyal to the bishop." Kulchar said his former parish had 70 souls but it was now down to 30. Over 80 percent opposed the Robinson consecration but they were divided over an appropriate response. "I said we needed to align ourselves with the Network and apply for DEPO. He could not get consensus. I felt in my conscience I should resign and try and be pastoral as well." The priest said his future was uncertain but he intended to stay and live in Flushing, Michigan. "What the bishop has done to Fr. Kulchar is utterly despicable and immoral," said Fr. Gene Geromel of St. Bartholomew's in Swartz Creek. "Here is a priest who served Leidel well and at this point he is going after Kulchar's livelihood. The priest has children and he will not allow him to do supply work or any ministry, anywhere," he told Virtuosity. "They don't just want us to go away they want to obliterate us," said Fr. Geromel. "It is not enough to ignore or go your separate way; it is to destroy all that we stand for and to make an example of us to others who might stand up to their agenda. Fr. Kulchar is a case in point." The Rev. Dr. Greg Tournoux, 45, rector of Christ Church Owosso, resigned for the same reasons in mid June. "General Convention's blessing of same-sex unions and Robinson's consecration was the final straw," he told Virtuosity. "We had 400 communicants with an average attendance that grew to be the largest in the diocese. Now it is dying. We were particularly successful bearing in mind that the church was in a high unemployment area." "The parish has given me a sabbatical of six months which ends in December," he told Virtuosity. "I am doing three things - spending time with my family; working on a second doctorate in Religious Studies at Trinity in Indiana, and thirdly I am seeking the Lord's direction. I want to remain a part of the one holy, catholic and apostolic church as we Anglicans have received it." Dr. Tournoux said he had been approached by four different denominations, but had not made up his mind where to go. "I am evangelical, catholic and charismatic and a member of Forward in Faith, the traditionalist wing of the Episcopal Church." Tournoux says he opposes women's ordination and is not unsympathetic with the AMIA. The rector said that his name has even been submitted for several senior positions in The Episcopal Church, including a bishopric. Tournoux said he took his congregation from 70 to 300 and he did it through establishing 30 cell groups with leadership development using three distinct Eucharistic traditions. "We were successful bearing in mind that we were located in a rural small town with an average weekly attendance of 240 and an 11 percent unemployment rate. After the Vickie Gene fiasco a trickle of people began to leave." "One thing is for sure I won't sit around and be a leader of a morgue or mausoleum," he told Virtuosity. "I don't believe the bishop gets it. The truth is we are a small dying dysfunctional, incompetent, inept outfit. I don't want to spend the rest of my time that doesn't want to do something great for Jesus Christ," said Fr. Tournoux. "Time is short hell is hot and the stakes are high," he said. Since departing, Tournoux said the congregation has divided up with four different responses. "One group stayed, another group left for other churches that were not Anglican, a third group left and have not found a church home and a fourth group comprising a new leadership base have begun a new work outside of The Episcopal Church." Despite his departure, Tournoux said he was still excited about the future, "and I intend to serve in Holy Mother Church." The Rev. Scott Danforth, 51, rector of St. Dunstan's in Davison, Michigan chose to resign and renounced his orders. He is an evangelical and charismatic from California and has been in the diocese for nine years. "I have had an ongoing frustration with the direction and theological path of the church and I saw no hope of its ever changing," he told Virtuosity. "I am looking to teach and have found a non-Anglican congregation that my family and I now attend. I have left St. Dunstan's and ECUSA." He said he plans to pursue teaching. He said General Convention was one symptom of a much larger problem that included theology, integrity and authority. "I built a solid core of lay leadership, but the church is fractured over the issues. People have taken different directions. We lost a number of people over the issues. We had up to 120 on a Sunday; it dropped to 60 but is now down around 40. The parish will continue to struggle with the unbiblical direction of the National Church as they experience depleting numbers." The priest said he was in a process of soul searching and reflection. The Rev. Steve Dewey, 55, Grace Church, LaPeer, MI another orthodox priest in the diocese said he was not threatening to leave ECUSA but was considering joining the NETWORK. "Bishop Leidel said it was schismatic, but we have ceased and desisted all funding to the diocese and the national church," he told Virtuosity. He said the Diocesan Standing Committee won't harass him about money till the Archbishop of Canterbury speaks in October following the release of the Lambeth Commission report. "We are hoping and praying for the best, but planning for the worst," he said. "My parish has sent a resolution to our Diocesan Convention in October that effectively denounces the actions of Bishop Leidel to affirm the Robinson consecration and same-sex blessings. We will see how that goes." "I have 300 souls and I have to take of all of them and while there is some division in my congregation, we will do what we have to do to proclaim the orthodox faith." Dewey said he had lost four families since the Robinson consecration. "We have done reasonably well helping people to stay on board doing something." Fr. Dewey predicts there will be a mass exodus of parishioners and priests if the decision is not to discipline the Episcopal Church. "They have denied, delayed and hoped it would all go away. There has been some success, but it won't go away, the authority of Holy Scripture is not up for negotiation." Fr. Dewey describes himself as an evangelical catholic. Both Danforth and Dewey served as deans of the diocese and were the bishop's right hand men, representing the bishop in their respective convocations, so the betrayal is particularly hurtful. Said Fr. Danforth, "We served the diocese faithfully; we gave the bishop and the diocese committed service and this fuels the irony of the whole situation." Fr. Gene Geromel, rector of St. Bartholomew's in Swartz Creek, Michigan left the Episcopal Church over four years ago and is now an independent congregation though it remains a Forward in Faith parish. "I have not been deposed nor inhibited," he told Virtuosity. He described the departure of the parish as an exceptional circumstance, and said the bishop would never let that happen again. "I do not minister sacramentally to any Episcopalians in the Diocese of eastern Michigan," he told Virtuosity. Leidel has allowed Bishop Keith Ackerman, Diocese of Quincy to do confirmations, but he is not sure how much longer that will continue, he said. "We have kept our property and Bishop Ackerman has been allowed to administer, so far. We don't know what the future holds. We have also signed up to join the NETWORK under the Forward and Faith name." Fr. Geromel said over 70% of the parishes now had fewer than 70 persons on any Sunday. He reiterated that what Leidel had done to Fr. Kulchar was indeed despicable and immoral. "They want to obliterate us. It is not enough to ignore us; it is to destroy all that we stand for and to make an example of us to others." "They use canons to see to it that they have absolute power. No Roman bishop has the power that Leidel has seen to it that he has himself. It is very clear to me that when an organization disintegrates it tightens its control. This is precisely what is going on in The Episcopal Church." Another Anglo-Catholic Episcopal priest, The Rev. Darryl Pigeon of Trinity Parish, Croswell-Lexington, has withheld contributions to the diocese and has said he would not receive communion from Leidel. Another priest who asked not to be named, said that the diocese has recognized that redirecting funds has hurt them, but there was no sense of panic as yet. The diocese does not receive money to stay afloat, but the diocese is dependent on part time and semi-retired priests and mutual ministry teams for Sunday coverage, he said. In writing about Anglicanism, the bishop said, "The Anglican Church is a Church that is tolerant of ambiguity," apparently not enough for his orthodox priests. For them he is anything but ambiguous. Leidel said that The Anglican Church is a Church that is more communal than doctrinal, but that too is a fiction. Bishop Leidel came to the Diocese of Eastern Michigan seven years ago after it split in the 90's. He is its first bishop. He will be its first and last bishop of diocese, said a knowledgeable insider. Bishop Leidel did not return an E-mail requesting his perspective on what is taking place in his diocese. — END —

EDITORIAL By David W. Virtue, DD  www.virtueonline.org                                                                                                                         March 22, 2026 Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, told  The Christian Post  this week that the Anglican Communion might not survive. (The article can be read here:  christianpost.com .) If the Communion ultimately fails, much of the responsibility will lie with leaders like Williams, who consistently refused to take a definitive stance on issues of sexuality. His various efforts to preserve unity—including the now largely discredited Windsor Report—proved unsuccessful in holding the Communion together. Williams bears significant responsibility for the theological confusion and institutional weakness he left behind. His tenure produced a conflicted Communion that even Justin Welby—his evangelical successor—has been unable to steady. The situation in the West has further deteriorated, and the current leadership appears more concerned with symbolic progress than doctrinal integrity. At least in the Western provinces, the Communion’s decline is undeniable. Meanwhile, the Global South has assumed leadership of a new movement—the  Global Anglican Communion —which has become a distinct entity apart from the Canterbury-centered tradition. The two driving alliances,  GAFCON  and the  GSFA , now lead the effort to maintain biblical orthodoxy, while the Western churches appear intent on discarding their spiritual and theological heritage. The Methodist example is instructive. They, too, have divided, forming the  Global Methodist Church to proclaim the gospel faithfully and make disciples—something Western liberalism seems to have lost the ability to do. Would Williams also consider Methodism to be in decline? Williams is mistaken. The crisis facing Western Anglicanism is not a natural evolution but a manifestation of divine judgment upon a church that has abandoned biblical authority. His own province, the  Church in Wales , is now led by an openly lesbian archbishop—an indication of just how far from orthodoxy the institution has strayed. To expect revival from such leadership is wishful thinking. It is akin to believing that an old Ford might somehow transform into a BMW if one waits long enough. Williams’s Hegelian approach—hoping for harmony through synthesis—led the Communion into its current state of disarray. Now he laments its possible demise. Cura te ipsum , Mr. Williams. Physician, heal thyself.

By Martin Davie CHRISTIAN TODAY March 22, 2026   The American screenwriter Aaron Sorkin is best known for his seven series American political drama The West Wing, which was first aired between 1999 and 2006, and is generally regarded as the best TV political drama ever produced. What is not well known is that The West Wing was a spin off from ideas which Sorkin first developed when he wrote the script for a movie called The American President which came out in 1995.   This film is about a fictional American President called Andrew Shepherd (played by Michael Douglas). Shepherd, a Democrat, is a widower who begins a romantic relationship with Sydney Ellen Wade (played by Anette Benning) who is a lobbyist for an environmental campaign group which wants the Shepherd administration to introduce legislation to drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions.   Shepherd is running for re-election and his Republican opponent, Senator Bob Rumson, uses Shepherd’s relationship with Wade to attack Shepherd, arguing that she is a dangerous left-wing political activist who burned the American flag during an anti-apartheid demonstration, and is a member of the left-wing campaign organisation the ACLU (The American Civil Liberties Union).    The climax of the film comes when Shepherd gives an impromptu press conference at the White House after Wade has broken off their relationship because she feels he puts political expediency before his principles.   In this press conference Shepherd gives a barn storming defence of his beliefs, his actions and his relationship with Wade. Addressing the question of his own membership of the ACLU (something on which he has previously refused to comment) he responds to Rumson with some of the best lines in the film:   ‘For the record: Yes, I am a card-carrying member of the A.C.L.U. But the more important question is why aren't you, Bob? This is an organization whose sole purpose is to defend the Bill of Rights, so it naturally begs the questions. Why would a senator, his party's most powerful spokesman and a candidate for president, choose to reject upholding the Constitution?’   I have recently been thinking about these lines from The American President, and particularly Shepherd’s question ‘why aren’t you, Bob?,’ in connection with the issue of why there has been disappointingly little support from Christians in this country to the ‘2025 Westminster Declaration on Faith, Freedom and Public Life’ which was launched in September last year.   In 2010 a Christian manifesto entitled ‘Westminster 2010: Declaration of Christian Conscience’ was published with a list of signatories including the former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, Cardinal Keith O’Brien of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, Mgr Michael Nazir-Ali, and the campaigner for religious freedom Baroness Caroline Cox, as well as other senior clerics, the principals of three theological colleges, and the leaders of several Christian organisations like the Evangelical Alliance and the Christian Medical Fellowship.   The manifesto was a statement of Christian values which called on politicians to ‘protect the right of Christians’ to hold their beliefs and ‘act according to Christian conscience’ with the issues of the protection of human life and the defence of marriage mentioned as two particular areas of concern.   The 2010 manifesto was an important and influential declaration at the time when it was issued and helped to highlight the issue of the protection of Christian values and the consciences of Christian believers in contemporary British society.   Fifteen years later, a group of Christians convened by Mgr Nazir-Ali, who were concerned by the growing erosion of Christian values and respect for the consciences of Christians in the years since 2010, decided that the time had come to produce an updated and expanded version of the 2010 manifesto and the 2025 declaration was the result.   In the words of the opening to the 2025 declaration: ‘Some of the choices made by Parliament and others in authority about the nature of human life, family relationships, sex education in schools, end-of-life care, and the use and development of new technologies are having serious consequences. By ignoring Britain’s Christian heritage we have endangered human life, weakened society, and created a fragmented nation uncoupled from its formative traditions, and without a unifying vision for its future.’   The 2025 declaration was produced as a result of input from a range of different Christian traditions, including the Anglican, Roman Catholic, Free Church and Pentecostal traditions, with the members of the steering group which oversaw its production including Mgr Nazir-Ali, Major General Tim Cross, the journalist and author Robin Aitken, the CEO of Voice for Justice UK the Rev Lynda Rose, and Dr Tony Rucinski, a researcher and campaigner on family and social issues.   The 2025 declaration covered a wider range of topics than the original 2010 version to cover ‘freedom of belief and of conscience,’ ‘the value of human life,’ ‘marriage, family and children,’ ‘parents and school education,’ ‘biological sex and gender,’ ‘the role of the university,’ ‘and AI and moral reflection.’   On ‘freedom of belief and of conscience’ the declaration states: ‘We uphold freedom of religion and belief for all, as enshrined in Human Rights law. This means the freedom to manifest and practise our faith in public and in private, and a reasonable accommodation of this in the workplace. Individuals have a right to change their faith or beliefs, freely and without coercion.’   It further adds: ‘Democracy in Britain was founded upon Christian beliefs about human dignity and equality. For that democracy to survive –– free of coercion by those now actively seeking to reframe our society and culture – and for the wellbeing of all, we urge that freedoms of belief, of conscience, and of speech, be protected through legislation and policy.’   On ‘the value of human life’ the declaration affirms that ‘All human beings are made in the divine image, and invested with dignity, equality and freedom’ and that as a consequence:   ‘We oppose the termination of life in the womb, whether by pharmaceutical or surgical intervention. Accordingly, there must be freedom of conscience for medical, administrative and other staff to decline participation in any procedure relating to abortion, including handling aborted foetuses, or stem cells derived from the destruction of embryos.   ‘Further we oppose the causing or hastening of death by pharmaceutical means or by the withdrawal of nutrition and water. This is contrary to Christian belief, and alien to a civilized society. At the end of life, while it is permissible to administer analgesics with the sole purpose of relieving pain, the intentional causing or hastening of death by any means, direct or indirect, is unacceptable to Christian consciences. We are praying that assisted suicide will not become law, but if it does, consciences of Christians and others should similarly be protected from having to take part in any procedure the intent of which is to cause or hasten death.’   On ‘marriage family and children’ the declaration states; ‘We believe the normative and best expression of family is the marriage of a man and woman bound together in a lifelong union for mutual love and support and the raising of children. We are concerned at the number of children raised by couples who have not made a public lifelong commitment to one another in marriage, whether civil or religious, or raised by those who choose to be single parents. Marriage benefits husband and wife, their children, and wider society, in ways that no other arrangement can replicate.’   As a consequence, it says: ‘We call for policies and legislation which strengthen marriage and family life, and we reject ideologies which weaken family ties by falsely claiming that other types of relationship are of equivalent value to marriage. While affirming the importance of mothers and fathers jointly raising children, we also believe that those who find themselves single parents deserve society’s support.’   On ‘parents and school education’ the declaration argues that it is parents and guardian rather than the state who have:   ‘… primary responsibility for their children’s education and upbringing. Parents must, therefore, have the right to withdraw children from teaching which conflicts with their beliefs and values.’   It also argues that: ‘While children need to be taught about different beliefs, values and lifestyles in our plural society, this is not the same as promoting various lifestyle and sexual ideologies, such as are being disseminated in schools. Training teachers to understand the traditional view of the family, and ensuring that view is taught in classrooms, is vital for the wellbeing of our children. This includes teaching the normative role of marriage between a man and a woman in raising and nurturing children, and in sustaining family life.’   Furthermore, because the purpose of education is to broaden the minds and enrich the lives of pupils it follows that:   ‘… there should be a balance in teaching children skills needed for employment, such as IT and business studies, and a knowledge of our history, literature and art which can provide them with appreciation of our rich cultural heritage.’   On ‘biological sex and gender’ the declaration affirms ‘the givenness of biological sex’  while at the same time noting that ‘compassion for those confused about their gender’ is a ‘Christian duty.’  It adds that now that:   ‘… the Supreme Court has ruled that the terms ‘man’ and ‘woman’ in the 2010 Equality Act refer to biological sex, the Department of Education must ensure that classroom teaching reflects this ruling.’   On ‘the role of the university’ it notes that ‘universities have sprung from Christian roots,’ and emphasises ‘the need for freedom of speech and of belief among faculty and students as central to the true purpose of education’ and the threat to this posed by ‘group think’ and ‘cancel culture’ which are ‘leading to the closing of the western mind.’   Finally, on ‘AI and moral reflection’ the declaration states that AI, like other inventions, ‘arises from the creativity of human beings, made in the image of their Creator.’ It notes that although AI can bring ‘’much benefit to the practice of medical science, engineering, and many other professions’, it ‘can never attain the ability of moral discernment, nor will it ever be able to empathise or establish authentic relationships’ and concludes that ‘If we believe we are relating to a fellow person, we have become fools.’   The declaration calls on the government to establish a body to oversee the future development of AI which would ‘include Christians trained in moral thinking and decision making.’ The purpose of this body would be to ‘ensure that innovation is tested with discretion and does not take place in a moral and spiritual vacuum, especially where it affects human life, relationships, children’s education and development, and the dignity of work.’   The 2025 Westminster Declaration is a very important manifesto as it is probably the only Christian statement which covers freedom of belief, life issues, university education and the development of AI in one comprehensive document.   The declaration has been published in partnership with Citizen GO, an organisation which promotes public participation in the political process, as an online petition which can be read and signed at www.2025WestminsterDeclaration.org . If 100,000 people sign the declaration this will trigger a debate in Parliament on the issues it raises.     Unfortunately, at the time of writing it has only been signed by 3,712 people. The question this raises is why this is the case. Why has it not been promoted more widely and achieved a far larger number of signatures? The points made by the declaration are not extreme or idiosyncratic. They are a consensus, mainstream, orthodox Christian response to key issues facing contemporary British society and there must be hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Christians who would agree with them. Why, then, the lack of signatures?   If we ask why modern British society has come to be shaped so profoundly by ‘progressive’ ideas about society and ethics with roots in Neo-Marxist ideology and by the LGBTQI+ movement, a key part of the answer is because people who hold to a progressive or LGTQI + viewpoint have been vocal in stating what they believe and active in promoting it. To use the old slogan, they have been prepared to be ‘out, loud and proud’ about their convictions. Christians need to take a leaf out of their book and do the same.   So, to return to where I began this article, my challenge to any Christian who is not yet a signatory of the declaration is ‘why aren’t you, Bob?’

The Prince of Wales is not a regular churchgoer like his father the King or his late grandmother THE INDEPENDENT                                                                                          March 21, 2026 Prince William is reestablishing his commitment to the Church of England and his “quieter” approach to faith ahead of his role as future King. The Prince of Wales is set to attend the Archbishop of Canterbury’s enthronement this week and has met with Dame Sarah Mullally for tea in a bid to “draw a line in the sand” on the topic. Unlike his father, King Charles, and the late Queen Elizabeth II, the 43-year-old is not a regular churchgoer and largely attends during family and formal occasions, with an aide telling The Sunday Times that he is keen to “build a strong and meaningful bond” with the church before becoming supreme governor. An aide to William told the newspaper: “The Prince of Wales’s commitment to the Church of England is sometimes quieter than people expect, and for that reason it is not always fully understood. “Those who know him well recognise that his connection to the Church, and to the sense of duty that comes with it, runs deep and is grounded in something personal and sincere. Faith, service and responsibility are themes that have long shaped the role he will one day inherit, and they are things he approaches in his own thoughtful way. “At a time when institutions can be seen simply through a social or cultural lens, he understands that the Church’s role goes beyond this. It is not only part of the nation’s heritage, but a living expression of faith, rooted in prayer, compassion and a belief in grace and redemption.” The aide added that the prince intends to approach the relationship as his “authentic self” and understands the role he will inherit from his father. A source close to the prince said: “This week is an opportunity to be very clear in people’s minds, when he walks into Canterbury Cathedral, of where he stands. For him, it is a drawing of a line in the sand of where he’s at and it’s really important that it [the question over his commitment to the Church] is cleared up. “His feeling is, ‘I might not be at church every day, but I believe in it, I want to support it and this is an important aspect of my role and the next role and I will take it very seriously, in my own way’.” Prince William was baptised at six weeks old and confirmed at the age of 14, but has failed to build a substantial relationship with Lambeth Palace. However, Dame Mullally, a former chief nursing officer for the NHS, has offered a new opportunity for the future king, with it thought that the two had bonded over their mutual support for football team Aston Villa. William is not a regular churchgoer like his father Both he and the Princess of Wales met with the new Archbishop last month and discussed the role of the church over tea and cake. A royal aide said: “The prince recently had a warm and substantive conversation with the new archbishop, reflecting his genuine interest not only in the Church’s work, but in its role as a guardian of a distinctive and ancient English spiritual tradition that remains relevant in contemporary life.” END

By Jon Brown                                                                                                    CHRISTIAN POST    March 20, 2026   Rowan Williams, who served as archbishop of Canterbury from 2002 to 2012, questioned whether the Anglican Communion would continue to exist during a recent interview.   "I don't know whether the [Anglican] Communion will survive," Williams told Clerical Whispers in an interview published earlier this week.   Williams, whose book Solidarity: The Work of Recognition is scheduled to be published next week, said he would not attend the installation service of Archbishop Sarah Mullally, who will be formally installed as the 106th archbishop of Canterbury on March 25 at Canterbury Cathedral after making the 87-mile trek there from London on foot.   "You don't want to be Marley's ghost," Williams said of why he was foregoing attendance at his successor's installation. The installation follows her formal election service last month at St. Paul's Cathedral in London, during which the Rev. Paul Williamson was ejected from the service for shouting his objection to her confirmation.   Williams, who said the job of archbishop is "no walk in the park" and that there were many times he questioned whether serving in the role was "worthwhile," warned that Mullally would likely have to struggle with the same contentious issues he did during his tenure, singling out women's ordination and "the same-sex question" as key flashpoints.   While he noted that "some of the bitterness has gone out of" the women's ordination controversy, at least in England, Williams acknowledged that issues of gender and sexuality were effectively splitting the Anglican Communion globally. Mullally has expressed views supporting both women's ordination and same-sex blessings.   Last month, the Church of England's General Synod voted to end plans for stand-alone blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples in churches after extended debate.   Williams went on to suggest that the fractious battles taking place within Anglicanism are symptomatic of larger cultural fissures in society, which he attributed to "the pace of social change, the environmental crisis, a sense of a loss of control on lots of people's parts — of decisions being made elsewhere."   "And particularly that sense of powerlessness — 'I do not know where the levers are that will give me some control.'"   When it was first announced last October, Mullally's appointment prompted outrage from the Global Anglican Futures Conference (GAFCON), a global movement of conservative Anglicans, whose leaders responded by repudiating her office's historical spiritual authority.   The Most Rev. Laurent Mbanda, chairman of the GAFCON Primates Council, said at the time that the Church of England had "chosen a leader who will further divide an already split Communion."   Mbanda asserted that due to "the failure of successive Archbishops of Canterbury to guard the faith, the office can no longer function as a credible leader of Anglicans, let alone a focus of unity."   "As we made clear in our Kigali Commitment of 2023, we can 'no longer recognize the Archbishop of Canterbury as an Instrument of Communion' or the 'first among equals' of global Primates," he added.   GAFCON launched in 2008 in Jerusalem, and the first official gathering of the Global Anglican Communion was held last week in Abuja, Nigeria. Despite initial plans to the contrary, the organization stopped short of electing someone to formally rival the archbishop of Canterbury.   Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post.

By Michael Nazir Ali                                                                                THE TELEGRAPH                                                                                              18th March 2026   I remember, during the Iraq-Iran war in the 1980s, seeing teenagers and old men being given green keys to Paradise and marched off to be cannon fodder for the Iraqi guns. When they were killed (or “martyred”), their parents or children, and the whole neighbourhood, were ordered to celebrate their martyrdom with lights and religious music.   Since childhood, I have been familiar with the Shia celebrations of Muharram, when the martyrdom of Hussain, grandson of the Prophet of Islam, at the hands of a so-called usurper of the Caliphate, Yazid, is mourned with weeping, chanting, self-flagellation and ordeals of fire, as a way of identifying with the martyrdom.   Hussain’s brother, Hassan, is also thought by the Shia to have been killed by Yazid’s father, Mu’awiya, through poisoning. Thus giving to him also the title of martyr or shahid . Their father Ali, cousin and son in law of the Prophet, regarded by the Shia as their first Imam, had earlier been murdered by a fanatic, too. This makes him, in Shia eyes, another martyr – indeed the pre-eminent martyr.   The subsequent history of the various Shia sects was often of persecution, exile and death, at the hands of whichever group happened to be dominant at the time. This has evolved into an entrenched understanding of the virtue of suffering for their beliefs, which is not found in more triumphalist versions of Islam.   In the run up to, during, and following the Islamic revolution in Iran, such an understanding of suffering has been pressed into service by its leaders. Every act of repression by the Shah and his agents, every setback and every difficulty has been understood in the context of the martyrdom of the first Shia imams or leaders.   Among the Ithna Ashariyya or Twelver Shia, the dominant sect in Iran, the age-long expectation that the twelfth Imam or Mahdi, who is believed to be in hiding, will return along with Jesus and establish a rule of justice remains lively. A leading Ayatollah once asked me, “When Jesus comes again will he be with our Mahdi?”   An understanding of suffering and of striving in the way of Allah has been married to this eschatology, or theology of end time. As an Iranian government minister said to me, “Iran’s foreign policy is built on the struggle for justice for the oppressed (musta ‘dafin) everywhere.” This is because such a struggle hastens the return of the Mahdi and his rule of justice. As the Iran-Iraq war demonstrated, if this struggle results in mass martyrdom, this is thought to only hasten the coming of the Imam Mahdi.   Iran’s creating of and strengthening of its proxies, whether in Iraq, Syria, the Yemen or Gaza, is based on such an eschatology of establishing the rule of God and thus hastening the return of the Mahdi. It should not be seen as merely the creation of Iranian hegemony in the region, though, in terms of realpolitik, such an ambition cannot be excluded. When British sailors were taken captive, during Ahmadinejad’s presidency, they were released precisely at Eastertide and the reason given was that this was to acknowledge Jesus’s ascension to heaven, from where he will return to aid the Mahdi in establishing his just kingdom.   This supposed commitment to justice, of course, sits uneasily with revolutionary regime’s record of brutality to its own people. Thousands of the political opposition were martyred in the 1980s, leading to even some Ayatollahs protesting and dissociating themselves from such actions.   Religious minorities, such as the Bahai and Farsi-speaking evangelical Christians, have regularly been imprisoned, excluded from civil society and killed, either judicially or extra judicially. Members of the ancient Jewish community have had their property confiscated, as “enemy” possessions, if they had a relative in Israel.   The Zoroastrians, Iran’s native religion, have been so reduced that there are now more of them in India and Pakistan than there are in Iran. Over the years,protests led by students and women have been dealt with harshly, as have the most recent ones, demanding an end to the regime.   The populist paramilitary group known as theBasij, under the supervision of the IRGC, has been responsible for much of the harassment of women regarding “modest dress”. They have also been behind extra-judicial killings, the confiscation of property and the closing of churches and other places of worship not to the regime’s tastes.   As a movement, theBasijare heavily invested in the Iranian market and derive much of their strength from these resources. They are also the group that has supplied the IRGC with personnel for adventures in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Both corporately and individually, their membership has bought in heavily to Shia ideas of martyrdom and has given them an innovative twist in justifying both their domestic and their international operations.   What the West, and its allies, need to understand is that the rhetoric coming from Tehran is influenced by this martyr complex. It is not merely bluff or defiance but is deeply rooted in Shia psychology, understood in the light of contemporary circumstances.   If the regime were to fall, either as a result of aerial warfare or because of “boots on the ground”, the Islamist revolutionaries have a ready-made force for indefinite resistance to whatever takes the place of the present regime and to its allies. Withdrawal to the mountains and deserts, as well as exile, is an aspect of sharing in the sufferings of their imams, and resistance to the “ungodly” will be understood as hastening the return of Imam Mahdi and the restoration of Sharia-based rule.   Such an awareness of a martyr complex needs to be fed into the political and military calculations now being made. If the regime survives, this will be seen as a vindication by Allah of the sacrifices made by the IRGC, the Basij and the regime generally. Their programme of theocracy, or Wilayat Al Faqih (the rule of the ‘Ulama or experts in Shari’a), will be reinforced as expressing the will of the absent Imam. This means the Iranian people having to bear even more repression and denial of their basic freedoms of thought, expression and belief.   If the military action results in a change of regime, there must be preparations to prevent the Basij and other elements from being able to wage an indefinite guerrilla war, whether from within or outside Iran or both. The difficult tasks of maintaining the structures of civil society, as well as of creating new institutions, need to be planned for now rather than later, which, as Iraq has shown us, maybe too late.   There are large numbers of people in Iran – students, women, minorities, academics and even elements in the Iranian Bazaar or market – who will want to cooperate in the emergence of a new Iran. It will need to be rooted in Iran’s ancient civilisation, from which it can draw inspiration for the urgent task of reconstruction when the ayatollahs fall.   Msgr Dr Michael Nazir-Ali is President of OXTRAD: Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy & Dialogue based in Oxford, UK His website can be accessed here:   www.michaelnazirali.com

Islam's Theology Nullifies Everything Christian About a Place of Worship  COMMENTARY   By David W. Virtue, DD                                            www.virtueonline.org                                                                   March 19, 2026   Ramadan is a sacred moment for Islam. It is not so for Christians or Jews. While it is a significant religious event for Muslims, all three religions do emphasize fasting as a means of spiritual reflection and atonement. With Ramadan, we are slowly but surely seeing the encroachment and dismantling of cherished Anglican institutions as Islam is invited into once-hallowed Christian places of worship.   At Bristol Cathedral last week, a group of Muslims sat on the floor eating their Ramadan Iftar meal. For liberal-minded Anglicans, it might look like a gesture of hospitality — a moment of interfaith goodwill. But is it?   According to an observer, the call to prayer was sounded at the cathedral entrance. Here is what that prayer proclaims:   "Allah is the greatest… I testify there is no god but Allah… I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah… Come to prayer."   Historically and culturally, the Adhān (Arabic: أذان) literally means the call to prayer proclaimed five times a day from a mosque. It functions as: •          A proclamation of Islamic faith •          A claim that a place has become a site of Muslim prayer •          A signal that an area belongs to the "realm of Islam" (dar al-Islam)   Do liberal and progressive Anglicans and Episcopalians understand what this means — or what it does to their churches?   At Sewanee: The University of the South — the Episcopal Church's only university, owned by 28 southern dioceses and home to an official seminary — an end-of-Ramadan feast was recently held with this welcome from the Muslim Student Association: "MSA seeks to unify both Muslims and non-Muslims at Sewanee through various cultural events and gathering opportunities, all aimed at increasing awareness and understanding of Islamic culture."   As one longtime observer of Sewanee noted, "Only a racist would ask: Why are those who didn't create this university now telling us what the university is? That is why incrementalism defeated Christianity at Sewanee — because of the anti-racism ideology."   A Canadian school banned children from eating in its cafeteria during Ramadan to avoid offending Muslim students.   In Islam, culture and religion are inseparable. Consider Gaza, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. Try being a Christian in any of those countries.   Several Episcopal churches actively celebrate Ramadan through interfaith events, typically including iftar dinners where Muslims break their fast. Notable examples include:   •          St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in San Jose, CA: Hosts interfaith iftars to support the Muslim community during Ramadan. •          St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Arlington, VA: Organized a Ramadan iftar dinner featuring a Turkish meal and discussion about the significance of Ramadan. •          Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration in Dallas, TX: Hosts an annual Ramadan dinner to promote interfaith understanding. •          Epiphany Episcopal Church in Rochester, NY: Collaborated with the American Turkish Friendship Association for an iftar dinner. This names but a few Episcopal churches.   The outrage here is not simply that Christianity and Islam are different religions competing for converts. It is that Islam is a conquering religion that would destroy Christianity if given the opportunity.   Theologically naive Episcopal priests — some of whom may have studied only one book of the Bible in seminary — warmly welcome Muslims into their churches without grasping that, by doing so, they effectively nullify those buildings as Christian places of worship.   The Middle East tells the story plainly. Christianity in the region has fallen from roughly 13–20% of the population in the early 20th century to around 3–4% today, due to persecution, conflict, and emigration. Christianity originated in the Middle East, with some of the earliest communities established in the 1st century AD. Over the centuries those communities have faced systemic persecution — particularly during the Ottoman Empire — and more recently the rise of extremist groups like ISIS, compounded by political instability, civil wars, and economic crises in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon.   Christians today make up just 2% of Israel's adult population and roughly 4% of the broader Middle East–North Africa region. Most are of Arab and Palestinian descent; while their relationship with the Israeli state is uneasy, they are free to worship without fear. The region still contains some of Christianity's holiest sites — the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Church of St. Anne, and the Church of All Nations, among others.   There are roughly 10–12 million Arab Christians living in the Middle East today. That number is an estimate because population data varies by country and is affected by migration, war, and low birth rates.   Best current research estimates suggest there are between 500,000 and 1,000,000 Christians from a Muslim background (MBBs) across the Middle East today, most affiliated with Protestant churches. Were Iran ever to overrun Israel — a near-impossibility — those Christians would have almost no place at all.   The foolishness of American Episcopal churches cannot be overstated. The prevailing doctrine of niceness is a recipe for spiritual and theological disaster and cultural capitulation.   According to The Stream, Muslims are buying and converting American churches into mosques — and Americans are angry. But is their anger directed at the right source? A year-old video of Muslim cleric Muhammad Musri, president of American Islam and chairman of the board of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, recently went viral on X. In it, he argued that Christianity is dying in America, preparing the way for Islam:   "A lot of Christians are leaving their faith, especially the young generation. The churches are emptying out. The Pew Research Center has shown that in the last 10 years, 28% of people have left the church and become atheists or agnostics. They are not impressed anymore by the dogma that someone 2,000 years ago was crucified for their sins. They are searching for something more meaningful, consistent with science and with the principles we know today. Islam is the answer for them, and we are jumping on the opportunities."   He continued: "As these churches empty out… we are buying them. We bought three churches so far and converted them into mosques, and now we have one we are buying with a school… The people who are part of that community one day will be Muslims. So we will make it into a mosque and an Islamic school for our children and their children, inshallah [Allah willing]… I ask Allah to give Islam victory in this country."   This is what happens when progressive Christians dilute their faith. In the end, nothing is left — and when nothing is left, a stronger force moves in.   END

By Ted Schroder Jesus said, "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one." (John 10:27-30) Sheep are helpless creatures. They are not able to protect themselves. They have no weapons, no protective armor, no ability to strategize or to outwit their enemies, no speed to outrun them. Predators have a field day with sheep. Evolution doesn't work for sheep. It is not a question of the survival of the fittest. Having been bred for human convenience the wooly animals are completely dependent on their shepherd. This is the analogy Jesus uses to remind us that we are helpless in the face of those things that prey upon us, those things which threaten our security, those things which frighten us and destroy our peace, those things that seek to snatch us out of the hand of God and destroy our faith, hope and love. Our natural predators are doubt and despair, anxiety and fear, bitterness and resentment. We are vulnerable to financial setbacks, to unexpected health problems, to relationships that disappoint us, to accidents and tragedies. It is possible for us to do something about protecting ourselves from known dangers. We try to secure ourselves against disaster - we would be irresponsible and shortsighted if we didn't. But no one can completely control all the circumstances surrounding them. We cannot dictate the conditions of the economy, or the actions of other people. We cannot force other people to fulfill our expectations. We are interdependent. If we place our total and complete trust in what other people may or may not do, in the reliability of companies or politicians, and they prove unable to protect us, we panic. We can't altogether trust in continued, increasing prosperity, in continued good health, in continued peace in the world. Faith in God cannot prevent bad things happening to us. "God causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." (Matthew 5:45) Life can be full of suffering. How we handle it is the test of our faith. Lil Holley was a short, buxom lady who reigned over our kitchen. As a child I spent a great deal of my time in that kitchen with the staff. They were part of my extended family. Lil was given to strong language at times when she was exasperated. One lunch-time, I was home from high school, when, with her head in the oven, she started cussing me out for no apparent reason. I was standing on the other side of the kitchen, minding my own business, and could not understand why she should light into me in such a fashion. She thought I was standing behind her and pushing her into the oven! When she realized that I was on the other side of the room, she started to wonder whether she had suffered a fainting spell. Then we all felt it. It was an earthquake tremor. My mother was sick in her bedroom upstairs at the time. I thought she might be frightened, so I ran out the door and up the back staircase, which kept moving on me, in a strange way. When I arrived at the bedroom I found my mother half out of the bed to unplug an electric heater so that a fire might not be caused. We had all heard about fires following earthquakes and devastating badly damaged towns. I went back down the front staircase, and saw the unmistakable sign of an earthquake - the light fixtures were swaying to and fro. Bottles had crashed down from the shelves, making an awful mess on the floors. Then the quake stopped, to be succeeded by a quiet, as everyone caught their breath, and wondered what damage had been caused. For several days aftershocks would occur, but none as violent as the first. The chief question on people's minds was, "Where was the epicenter?" for we knew that the damage would be greatest there. On this occasion the epicenter was found to be offshore in the Tasman Sea. In Florida, a different kind of earthquake can happen. As underground streams dry up in droughts, the limestone aquifer will contract, and a sinkhole suddenly can form. The earth caves in, taking anything that sits upon the surface. Houses, roads, automobiles, can disappear into the sinkhole. Earthquakes are the result of the expansion and contraction of the earth, the shifting of the tectonic plates that make up the surface of the earth. They are completely outside human control. No one can forecast when an earthquake or a sinkhole will happen. It could happen tomorrow, or not for ten years. It could happen where we live, or somewhere else. Jesus tells us that ultimate protection and peace of mind is to be found only in the Lord. We are truly helpless apart from Christ. It is he who gives us the security of eternal life, the guarantee that we will not be snatched from the protective power of God. When Jesus said, "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand", he is telling us that he will give us a life that is full of the splendor and magnificence of the life of God. He is telling us that he will give us a life that none can ultimately destroy, or diminish, or degrade; a life that is everlasting, that endures into the glory that is heaven. He is telling us that he will give us a life that is secure, in which there is no deprivation of the presence and the power of God, a life that will know the serenity of God even if the world collapses around us. How can this be so? Jesus says: "My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one." We can be confident in the power of God to protect us because he is greater than all the problems that could prey upon us, and that he has given us into the care of Christ, who is one with him in this care and concern. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ... For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:35,38,39) There are two errors we tend to fall into. First, we tend to over-estimate our own ability to protect ourselves. We think that we have the personal strength to be self-sufficient. There are many people who think that they can survive in their own strength, and beat the system by themselves. The image Jesus uses is telling - we are sheep, and ultimately, when trouble looms in our lives, we are helpless on our own. We just don't have the ability to fend off the predatory elements. We are fragile creatures, vulnerable to attack. We are not made to survive on our own. Secondly, we under-estimate the ability and desire of God to protect us. Jesus said, "I know my sheep." God knows everything about us, even to counting the numbers of hairs on our heads. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without him knowing it. Jesus promises us protection. We need not fear. Yet we are often unwilling to admit our need, and to acknowledge that God can take care of us and will if we let him. The message of the Scriptures is, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31) "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." (Philippians 4:13) What is it that is preying upon you, upon your mind? What is it that seeks to snatch you out of the hand of God? What is it that seeks to destroy your peace and assurance of God's love? Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice and follow me." Listen to the promises of Jesus rather than the voice of your fears. Follow him in faith to the way of safety.

By Ted Schroder The Lord's Prayer is a prayer of liberation. It is the cry of an oppressed people for deliverance from a cruel tyranny. It is the yearning of an enslaved people for freedom. It is the desperate desire of a victim of abuse for safety. It is the plea of the sick for healing, and the rejected for acceptance. It is the longing of the exile for home. All these things Israel experienced as it awaited the coming of the Messiah. That was why Isaiah prophesied, "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'" (Isaiah 52:7) So when Jesus first began his ministry in Galilee he proclaimed the good news of God: "The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" (Mark 1:15) The kingdom of God came with Jesus. In his life and ministry the kingdom of God arrived. Jesus is the king of the whole earth through whom God will rule. God had arrived to deliver his people from bondage, to liberate them, not from foreign oppressors as they thought, but from evil, guilt, fear of death and rebellion against his rule. Therefore the proper response was to repent, to turn one's life around, and accept the freedom God was offering in Christ's salvation and service. This inner turning or process of being turned, accompanied a deep change at the core of one's being. The kingdom of God was ushered in by Jesus in his first sermon in Nazareth: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (Luke 4:18) When we pray, "your kingdom come", we are praying that what Jesus proclaimed, taught, and accomplished through his death and resurrection, would become a reality in our lives. We are praying that he would reign in our lives, and give us the victory over anything that would prevent us from living in the fullness of God's life. What does the coming of God's kingdom in our lives through Jesus as Victor, Liberator and Lord mean for us? St. Paul tells us that the "kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." (Romans 14:17) When we pray for the coming of God's kingdom into our lives, we are praying for these three gifts of grace. Righteousness is the gift of being made right with God through the atoning death of Christ. Peace is the gift of access to God by Christ's sacrificial act of reconciliation. Joy is the gift of resurrection hope, as the work of the Christ's Spirit is made a present reality. But despite these gifts of salvation we still experience spiritual poverty and real personal pain. Liberation from a cruel tyranny doesn't eliminate or banish the effects of a long occupation or exile. There is much rebuilding to be accomplished. Recovery takes a long time - a life time. That is why we need to pray continually, "Your kingdom come." The kingdom of God comes incrementally throughout our lives. There are stages of recovery we must go through. Our liberation takes a lifetime. We have work to do in our personalities, in our desires, and in our relationships. We continue to be held in bondage by those aspects of our lives that prevent the kingdom of God coming into fruition. Let me list some of them. There are our personality defects: our introversion, our defensiveness, our quirks, our temptation to criticize others, to look at the bad not the good, to tear down people rather than build them up, to be quick to judge before we know all the facts, to blame others or circumstances for our own failings, to excuse ourselves, and be full of self-pity; to be so wrapped up in what we want to say that we don't listen or take an interest in others; to be self-righteous, convinced we know all the answers, that we are better, smarter, richer, prettier, and can therefore look down on others; our proneness to exaggeration, and to say what is not true, to be boastful of our achievements; our disorganization, our unpunctuality and rudeness; our inability to relax, and our need always to be doing something; our lack of imagination and spontaneity, fear of taking risks or leaving our comfort zone; our tendency of wanting to be in control, our gullibility or our skepticism; and our ingratitude. Our personality defects continue to cause us and others pain rather than afford us and them pleasure. There are our desires: we want to accomplish a number of worthwhile goals but we are frustrated by the conflicting demands on our resources of time, money, and health. We complain, and get depressed by our seeming inability to do what we want to do. Our emotions enslave us rather than release us. There are our relationships with others who disappoint us, or who oppose us. We seem at odds with people we expected better from. Instead of being encouraged by them we feel used by them. They do not seem to be interested in us but only in how we can entertain them. These relationships are oppressive rather than liberating. When we pray "Your kingdom come" we are praying that Jesus would liberate us from these so that we can become whole: better, purer people. What are we acknowledging each time we pray, "Your Kingdom come"? We are responding to God's invitation to enter his kingdom. Jesus said we must accept God's invitation when it is given. He told the parable of the man who prepared a great banquet and invited many guests. He sent his servant to those he had invited, "Come, for everything is now ready." But they made excuses, and said they couldn't come. When the servant reported their excuses the master became angry and ordered his servant to invite the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. He sent him to go to the roads and country lane and invite more people so that his house would be full. "I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet." (Luke 14:15-24) We must not put off the invitation to feast at God's table, to fellowship with him now, if we want to feast with him in heaven. Jesus is telling us to respond to God's call now to become part of his kingdom. If we want God's liberating kingdom to come into our lives we must respond to the invitation. If we don't we will regret it. When we pray, "Your kingdom come" we are desiring that we will put it first. Jesus said, "Seek first God's kingdom and his righteousness." (Matthew 6:33) We have to get our priorities right. Those who were invited had other worthy and important things to do, but they were not as important as responding to God's call. We can miss out on God's kingdom if we don't respond immediately. We all have many things to do in life, but we need to put this first. Results at first will seem infinitesimal. Jesus said that God's kingdom starts small and unnoticed. He told the parable of the mustard seed (Matthew 13:31,32) to illustrate that the kingdom of God begins minutely in a person's life. It begins with tiny acts of unselfish love and gratitude. It begins with humility. It doesn't require grand acts or magnificent gestures. The kingdom of God grows in us secretly and almost imperceptibly when we apply ourselves to prayer and following Jesus. "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain - first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest is come." (Mark 4:26-29) No one would have thought that the life of a Jewish carpenter in an obscure part of the Roman Empire would attract much notice. Yet that seed of God's kingdom grew into the most powerful spiritual movement this world and history has ever seen. The coming of God's kingdom in Jesus has affected more people than we can count. Yet it all starts in the life of one person at a time, beginning with the seed of God's Word. It is hard for us to see the results of our prayers. Jesus reminds us that there is a secret work of God going on in our souls which we cannot see. Just because the farmer cannot see the growth of the seed, doesn't mean that it isn't growing. The kingdom of God grows within us. We facilitate the coming of God's kingdom when we nurture the interior life, and work on our inward attitudes through reflection. It is not what is going on around us that is important but what is going on inside us. Jesus said, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 17:20,21) This can also be translated that the kingdom is "among you" even when you cannot see it, just as it was present on earth in the Person and ministry of Jesus. People could not see the kingdom in Jesus when he came. When we pray, "Your kingdom come" we are committing ourselves to doing whatever it takes to give us the victory over anything that is not of God. This involves waging war against the enemy. If we want the kingdom of God to come in our lives we must be prepared to pay the price, to win this battle in the power of Christ. We have to choose sides in this spiritual war. We cannot serve two masters. We must choose between God and mammon, between serving in God's kingdom by following Jesus, or by being a slave to Self's kingdom by following our selfish pride. Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it." (Matthew 13:44-46) We are recognizing the value of what we are fighting for with Christ. We are investing our life, and our future in this conflict. That is why Jesus said: "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." (Matthew 19:23,24) Praying, "Your kingdom come" is acknowledging that everything we have is on loan from God, to be used in his service. When his kingdom slowly comes into our lives we will be gradually liberated, free to enjoy the love he longs for us to experience.

By the Rev. Whitey Haugan God in His wisdom has presented us with the two most important questions that have ever been asked, "Where are you?" and "Who do you say I am?" The first was to Adam after he had disobeyed God in the Garden and found himself and his wife in a state of separation, aloneness, confusion and fear. The second was to Peter so that Peter would recognize Jesus was God in the flesh. The first had to do with spiritual location--separation and loss of intimacy with God. The second had to do with spiritual relocation---recovery of relationship and intimacy with God. The Old Testament is built around the first question and the New Testament Gospel is built around the second question. Both questions are always there for every person in every generation. Both are prophetic questions calling for every heart to question where it is and where it needs to be. Most especially are they questions for those who know Christ and find themselves in the Episcopal Church. The national leadership has chosen to doubt God's Word and substitute human thinking and experience to define faith and morals thus placing itself outside God's Word. This is what happened in Genesis and it's what's happening now. As a result those of us who have been recovered in Christ recognize the spiritual peril the leadership has placed us in. Gen 6:5 records that peril, "The Lord saw how great man's wickedness had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time." "Every, only, all" is descriptive of where we are. Isaiah notes the subtlety that slowly erodes our spirit to where we see our leadership living out his prophetic words (5:20) "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." Isaiah sums up the condition, the location, of the people of God in 5:30 "...And if one looks at the land, he will see darkness and distress; even the light will be darkened by the clouds." And we hear the Word of God, "Where are you?" Then an amazing thing happens to Isaiah. He sees the Lord, high and exalted, seated with the angels and his only response is to recognize his own sinfulness. "I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty." It is this response God honors and sends an angel with a live coal to touch Isaiah's lips with the words, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." It is the recognition of God's presence and the need for repentance that God honors. It is here that God asks "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?" Isaiah responds, "Here am I. Send me." Isaiah knows where he is and opens himself to do whatever God wants. God sends him to the people to tell them where they are and to keep on telling them "...until the cities lie ruined...until the houses are deserted...until the Lord has sent everyone far away...and the land is utterly forsaken (6:11-12). Apply this prophecy to the Episcopal Church. People leaving, churches leaving, not in droves but in a here-and-there way over a period of time. Ask how many have left in the last several decades - hundreds of thousands, dioceses dwindling, bishops with their heads in the sand, falling back on the old secular methods of intimidation and legal manipulation, hoping to keep their lands, titles, money and power. Malachi recognized the depravity of clerical leadership when he wrote, "For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, and from his mouth men should seek instruction---because he is a messenger of the Lord Almighty. But you have turned from the way and by your teaching have caused many to stumble...So I have caused you to be despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not followed my ways but have shown partiality in matters of the law (2:7-9). It is all written in the Scripture. "Where are you?" God is asking. This is where we are. But more. God is calling believers, who know their heritage is a holy and faithful one, to be willing to be sent and to respond, "Here am I. Send me." It is not just bishops and clergy He is calling but everyone who bears the name of Jesus in their heart. It is the remnant faithful. Now we come to the second question, "Who do you say I am?" Recovery time is at hand but how will God do it? It is all wrapped up in Jesus and whether or not we trust Him and who He claims to be. Thomas wasn't sure until Jesus told him to touch Him. When he did he said, "My Lord and my God." If Jesus is Lord and God, His Word is our authority. What does His authority say to us? There is a pattern He gives us which contains principles of action that depend totally on Him. If we really answered the first question of location we have said that repentance is our attitudinal position wherever and whenever and we are ready to do whatever He wants. Acts 1 and 2 is a great place to go for that pattern and its principles because that is exactly where we are in relationship to what is happening in the Body of Christ right now. We are waiting for the promise of God to act in His Spirit for His people who have seen their heritage lying in waste and ruins. Let's unpack a few of its passages. 1:4-5 Jesus has been resurrected and for forty days He has been teaching about the Kingdom of God but Luke quotes only two things Jesus said so these must be of extreme importance. They must have been filled with great expectation about what it will look like and what it will do. They want it quickly. But Jesus says "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." PRINCIPLE ONE: DON'T LEAVE JERUSALEM Jerusalem is the heart community of the heartland, Israel, in which is the symbol of the presence of God's heart, the Temple. When Jesus wept over Jerusalem He wasn't weeping for the buildings or the geography. As the Son of Man He was weeping on behalf of the people to His Father. As the Son of God He was weeping for what would have to be done for their salvation. He was weeping for where they were and where He would have to go for them (Lk.13:34-35). We need to see the body of believing brothers and sisters as Jesus sees them, His Jerusalem. Our emotions are stirred in so many ways for the 'where.' Jerusalem is not bricks and mortar but the family. Jesus says that we are not leave our family. The institution may fall away but the Body is to stay together. Keep your Jerusalem, the believers, together. PRINCIPLE TWO: STAY IN THE WORD AND WAIT When negative events overwhelm us we want immediate action. Again Jesus provides us with wisdom here. He is in charge and wants us to rely on Him and His action. He knows our human condition, instant gratification and right away. He knows we tend to leave God and define His Kingdom in our terms. That is what the national leadership has done and where are they? Sitting at the gates of hell. It's too warm there. So Jesus in His inimitable way says, "Wait..." Important word here. Wait on what God will do in His time and way. But "wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about." Don't run ahead of God. Remember Abraham and Isaac, Joshua on his way to Jericho, Gideon and the 300. They waited on God, listened for His instructions and He delivered for each and to each exactly what was necessary in their situation. Stay in the Word for instruction and wait for the leading of the Spirit. PRINCIPLE THREE: TRUST THE FATHER'S TIMING Waiting is important for us spiritually. We live in an instant gratification culture. The disciples were plagued by the same problem. They asked Jesus, vs.6, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" It sounds like they had it all figured out. It would be a visible kingdom and Israel would have supreme power to replace Rome. Its all about land, titles, property and financial security, just like the errant bishops. And is it going to be right now so we can enjoy it? Jesus has already told them that the Kingdom of God is within, internal not external. It is a kingdom of the heart where Jesus rules and it is eternal. It has nothing to do with times or dates. So in our present situation where we fret over how soon the American church will be realigned and how long we should hold out and we begin to set God's schedule for Him Jesus says, "Don't leave Jerusalem...wait...it is not for you to know times and dates which the Father has set by His own authority..." Remember how we pray 'Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven?' The kingdom already exists and we are part of it. It is here already. Trust the Father's timing and His authority. PRINCIPLE FOUR: RELY ON THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT There is a wonderful observation that is critical for us now, "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience but spiritual beings having a human experience." It's important to see everything in spiritual context. Vs.8 You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. If the Kingdom is within then we will be given spiritual direction, insight and the kind of nudging that can only come through the Word as He leads. But it will be an activity of the Spirit in the heart and confirmed by the larger Body. Rely on the power of the Holy Spirit in the heart and in the Body. PRINCIPLE FIVE: JESUS HAS CALLED US TO BE WITNESSES A new lifestyle is given to us. It is a spiritual lifestyle. Vs.8 You will be my witnesses. Instead of the world's witness which is the exaltation and furthering of the self we are called to live a life that reflects the life of Jesus, His ideas, His actions, His teachings and His attitude. Especially His attitude, "I only do what my Father wills.. I and the Father are One." A witness of Jesus is one who does only what Jesus wills because with Him in our hearts we are one. He prayed for that on the night He was betrayed, that we would be one as He and the Father were one and that we and our brothers and sisters would be one as well. PRINCIPLE SIX: THE LORD HAS GIVEN US A MISSION The secular world is lost. Its goals and aspirations are from the evil one. They lead to separation from God, self-idolatry, false religion and eternal aloneness. People are lost in the secular society so, vs.8, You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Here Jerusalem is our family, our brothers and sisters in the Body. Judea is our community, where we are in our neighborhood, friends and social circles and also other churches where Jesus is only a name but not a reality. Samaria may be where our job is, the people we work with and the casual acquaintances we meet and across town. The ends of the earth are where we go on vacation, on the job or are transferred and move to. On each level we are called to be witnesses to Jesus. The Lord has given us a mission to be a witness to Him wherever we go and where He may lead us. It will be to say, "Here am I, send me." PRINCIPLE SEVEN: MEET TOGETHER CONSTANTLY AND IN PRAYER In the secular world there is no real home for the heart. No matter what club, church, company or organization we join there is no spiritual home for the heart. The Body of Christ is the only true family where the heart can be reconciled to God and to other hearts. The shadow of the Cross covers the Body and is the means by which we are saved and is the lifestyle of the Body. It is interesting that the word translated into our word witness is the Greek word marturion, martyr. One who lays down his life and lets the Lord live through him. We are witnesses together. Vs.14 They all joined together constantly in prayer. They were vulnerable to the work of the Spirit in each other's presence, each heart given to God together. Meet together constantly and in prayer. So we have had seven principles that we are called to practice while we wait. But there is another leading in His Word and that is about the kind of structure that the Spirit led the early Body of Christ to form. It enabled the believers to measure their effectiveness to keep the Body strong and growing. This structure is an essential one for us to consider as we move forward. One of the caveats we must face is that if we are simply changing names and places and not open to what God is leading us into we can miss the very thing we need to be a vital Body of Christ. If we are just interested in promoting Anglicanism and not what Anglicanism is all about we will miss the boat. A former Presiding Bishop is quoted as having said that his life regret as a clergyman was that he loved the church more than he did the Lord. We can be so enamored with Prayer Books, formal liturgies and heritage that we lose the essence of why they are there. And we have to ask the hard question. What is more important, being an Anglican or being a disciple of Jesus? Here we have the issue of Jesus' teaching about wineskins. Are we pouring new wine into old wineskins or are we willing to let Him shape the skins to hold His new wine as He pours it? In Genesis Adam and Eve fumbled around and tried to make clothes out of leaves. It was God who made clothes for them and we need to remember that. Jesus also gave us a cryptic statement in regard to what needs preserving, "Remember Lot's wife." So how do we let the Lord dress the Body of Christ? The Lord has provided us a pattern in Acts 2:42-48. The Apostles were led to use have four basic spiritual materials to guide them as they clothed and formed the Body. If one of them is missing you don't have the Body of Christ. Especially now while are waiting for God to not only reform us but also re-form us, this passage is our assurance that we are on the right path. Vs.42 They devoted themselves to the apostle's teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. First, apostle's teaching. Here they did as they did with Jesus, studied the Word and His words. They also gave personal testimony as we saw in Peter's sermons and in Paul's travels. They were not only teachers but evangelists as well and lived their witness by example. Vs.43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. Second, fellowship. They operated in small groups, in house churches, prayer groups and shared their lives with one another practicing the gifts of the Spirit as they ministered to one another. Vs.44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. It is this personal home prayer and sharing group that builds the heart of the Body. This is a very special need in most of our present churches. Too much reliance on Sunday and church services breeds an unhealthy institutionalism which is part of our present problem. When hearts are vulnerable to one another in the Spirit then the Body is strengthened. Third, breaking of bread. This was the Lord's Supper in the first century. They remembered His Cross, His death and His Resurrection and listened to His Word. This was how they worshiped. Vs.46 Everyday they continued to meet together in the Temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Fourth, prayer. Prayer was multifaceted. There was personal and private prayer, shared prayer for one another as they met, extemporaneous prayer, intercessory prayer and liturgical prayer. Vs.47 And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. If these four elements are the measuring rod they will honor God's Word and His Spirit will be the source of incredible blessings. They will always guarantee a healthy Body of Christ. This is the structure by which the remnant of God builds His Kingdom in this world. It is the vehicle for His Spirit to work. It is the structure that will keep us honest as we wait for God to form and re-form us. So the two questions are still there and we need to hear God's voice in them. "Where are you?" and "Who do you say I am?" We need to take stock of where we are as the Word gives us the its principles of analysis. Then when He speaks to us are we willing to say "Jesus is Lord, I trust Him and I will wait on Him." But I will also work on building the Body while His reforming is taking place. The summary statement may well be what the kingdom in this world is all about: Acts 4:32-35 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. From time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. The Rev. Harold "Whitey" Haugan is a retired Episcopal cardinal rector living in Jacksonville, Florida and is a leading voice for orthodoxy in the Episcopal Church. He is the author of a book on marriage.

By Ted Schroder "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else." (Acts 17:24,25) God, who made and supervises everything in the universe, cannot be captured in human shrines which human beings have built. Any attempt to limit or localize the Creator God, to imprison him within the confines of manmade buildings, structures or concepts is ludicrous. God sustains our lives, we are dependent on him for everything. We do not make God. God makes us. God makes us to bear his image, and to be his dwelling place on earth. "You are God's building. Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you." (1 Corinthians 3:9,16) The tabernacle, and later the temple, was central to Israel's worship. Even Jesus when on earth upheld the temple as the father's house. The woman of Samaria, raised the age-old question of the correct location for worship. Jesus primarily answered by saying that the time was coming - and it did come on the day of Pentecost, after he ascended to heaven - when even the temple would have no real relevance to worship. Instead, the true worshippers would worship in spirit and in truth. (John 4:7-24) We must worship, not simply outwardly by being in the right place and taking up the right attitude, but in our spirit. Jesus is pointing to the need for complete sincerity and complete reality in our approach to God. God is seeking such to be his worshippers. He is actively seeking us out to worship him in this way. This new kind of worship would mean that we would no longer need holy buildings in order to worship the holy God. Instead we ourselves would be made holy by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. The sacrifices which were made in the Old Testament tabernacle and temple would no longer need to be made, since Christ had made the supreme and final sacrifice, and since Christian believers would be offering their daily lives as living sacrifices. (Romans 12:1) The offering of ourselves is holy and pleasing to God because it is our spiritual act of worship. Who we are, what we do, how we relate to God and one another, is part of our worship. A building is no longer the temple or house of God: it is God's people who are now so called. A building is not to be a holy place; rather God's people are called to be a holy people. Wherever God's people gather, that place is holy. Certainly, from a purely practical point of view, buildings are necessary for a meeting place of God's people, but they do not replace them. When we look at the Old Testament, it seems that God deliberately chose a tabernacle as the symbol of his presence among his people because of its mobility. For forty years God's people moved when God moved, and the tabernacle was carried easily with them. From the very start, God intended that his dwelling should be in the midst of his people (Exodus 25:8); but because of the sin and rebellion in their hearts, his habitation had to be symbolically expressed in the tabernacle. Therefore the design of the tabernacle was given in great detail by God to Moses. Even the ark of the covenant, the special symbol for God himself, was essentially mobile: "You shall put the poles into the rings on the side of the ark, to carry the ark by them." (Exodus 25:14) This emphasized the fact that everything about their lives was temporary. Every time they moved they had to put up their tents and then take them down again. Every time they wanted to worship they had to set up and take down again. This mortal life is a time of change, of moving from one day to another. Nothing is permanent. Change and decay in all around I see; O Thou who changest not, abide with me. (Henry F. Lyte) In his book, People-Centered Evangelism, John Havlik summed it up like this: "The church is never a place, but always a people; never a fold but always a flock; never a sacred building but always a believing assembly. The church is you who pray, not where you pray. A structure of brick or marble can no more be a church than your clothes of serge or satin can be you. There is in this world nothing sacred but man, no sanctuary of man but the soul." (p.47) For the first two centuries, the church met in small groups in the homes of its members, apart from special gatherings in public lecture halls or market places, where people could come together in much larger numbers. Significantly these two centuries mark the most powerful and vigorous advance of the church, which perhaps has never since been equaled. The lack of church buildings was no hindrance to the rapid expansion of the church; instead, in comparison to the situation after AD 200, it seemed a positive help. Argentinian pastor Juan Carlos Ortiz closed his church building for a month to see if the church could survive under times of persecution. It continued to flourish in the numerous small cell groups within the congregation, and more money came in during that month than ever before. When a congregation goes through times of dislocation due to a building program it can be the opportunity for growth. We discover whether we are truly excited about the Gospel rather than the building. Do we invite people to visit our worship because we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, or do we say to them to wait and come when we are in our newly renovated quarters? Is the focus on the content of our faith, or on the external meeting place? Christ is both the architect and builder of his church (Matthew 16:18). Each church therefore needs to come humbly to Christ to ask his guidance and direction, and not just to copy the developments of another place. Although the basic principles should be the same, the detailed outworking of those principles will naturally vary. In particular, Christ's timing is all-important. What does Christ want us to be and to become at this stage of our lives, and the life of our congregation? Christ is described as the cornerstone, on which the whole building depends (1 Peter 2:4f.). The Church rests on the total unique Event of which Christ is the center. As soon as a church moves away from the centrality of Christ, it at once ceases to be God's dwelling place. It is Paul who made it quite clear to the Corinthians that he was 'resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.' (1 Corinthians 2:2) All true believers are being built into a holy temple, "for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit." (Ephesians 2:22) The presence and activity of the Spirit is indispensable before the church can ever be a place where God himself dwells. This is one of the greatest needs in the church today. A failure to see this will lead to constant frustration. We may adopt new structures, introduce new services, work hard on new plans and construct new buildings; but unless we are constantly experiencing the new wine of the Spirit, all will be in vain. The first Christians did not start to share their goods in a free and full manner till after the bomb of the Spirit exploded in their souls at Pentecost. Before then, they would be morally incapable of this free and joyful sharing. You quickly lose interest in the church if you have nothing invested in it. It may be helpful to remember that most buildings under construction look a terrible mess, at least to the untrained eye, until the last stage is reached. When our kitchen was recently renovated it seemed almost impossible that we would be eating and cooking there again. The same is true of the church. The dust and dirt, chaos and confusion, of church life may make it hard to believe that a congregation could really be the temple of God. Yet if we have faith and patience, the architect and builder is hard at work, and knows very well what he is doing. On this earth we can never claim to have 'arrived'. The apostle Paul was well aware of this in his own personal life. 'Not that I am already perfect... but one thing I do... I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.' (Philippians 1:12-14) As a community of believers we can never afford to stand still. We can never be complacent. We recognize that the present is temporary, and serves as a preparation for what lies ahead of us. Our mortal bodies are dwelling places of God, yet they are impermanent. We are nomads on a journey. We are here today and gone tomorrow. What keeps us going and making life worthwhile is the knowledge that what we do matters eternally, and that we are going somewhere important. There is a purpose in our journey. We have a clear destination and a compelling reason for traveling. Paul, the tent-maker, puts it this way: "Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come." (2 Corinthians 5:1-5) To our minds this present existence is solid and real, whereas our coming existence seems shadowy and insubstantial. Paul teaches us that the reverse is true. The life which is to come - our destination - is strong, permanent and real; the present life is lived among the shadows. To assure us that this is so, we have been given the Spirit, to dwell within us. The presence of the Spirit within us is signified by our longing to arrive in our permanent home, where we can unpack for the last time and enjoy what God has planned for us in his presence. The Spirit is the down-payment of what is to come, like an engagement ring, pledging and guaranteeing the wedding day. Abraham, who lived in a tent, once 'looked forward to the city which had foundations, whose builder and maker is God.' He and others 'all died in faith, not having received what was promised, but having seen it and greeted it from afar... Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.' (Hebrews 11:10,13,16) (I acknowledge use of material from I BELIEVE IN THE CHURCH, chapter 8, The Building of God, by David Watson, Eerdmans, 1978)

By Ted Schroder August 8, 2004 DuPont Company manufactures Kevlar, a bullet-proof material used in bullet-resistant vests. It is rated to stop most 9 mm or .357 caliber bullets. On their website they claim that personal body armor saves lives. And the people whose lives have been saved have powerful stories to tell. Their stories are listed on the DuPont Kevlar Survivors' Club. More than 2,800 law enforcement and corrections officers have survived potentially fatal or disabling injuries because they were wearing their personal body armor. In 1987 the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and DuPont formed a partnership club whose goals are: To reduce death and disability by encouraging increased wearing of personal body armor. To recognize and honor those who, because of wearing body armor, survived life-threatening or life-disabling incidents. To serve the law enforcement community by collecting and sharing this important information. The wearing of a vest often means the difference between life and death. Injuries to our armed forces in Iraq have been reduced by the wearing of body armor. Injuries to our spirit, soul and body would be reduced by the wearing of, what St. Paul calls, "the breastplate of righteousness." "Stand firm then ... with the breastplate of righteousness in place." (Ephesians 6:14) The breastplate worn by the Roman soldier covered the upper part of the body from the base of the neck to the thighs: the thorax and the abdomen. Like a bullet-proof vest it protected the essential organs of the body: the heart and the lungs, the kidneys, liver and intestinal system. People in premodern times often believed that these organs were the seat of the feelings and the affections, the conscience, the desires, and the will. Splagchna is the Greek word for the viscera: the heart, the lungs, the liver and the intestines. The Greeks held these to be the center of the emotions, especially of anger, of anxiety, of fear, and even of love. So then in classical Greek the splagchna means the inner parts of man, which are the seat of the deepest emotions. The verb formed from this word means to be moved with compassion and affection - the emotion which moves a person from the depths of his being. In the King James Version of the Bible it is translated as "bowels", e.g. "I long after you in all the bowels of Jesus Christ." (Philippians 1:8), or "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies." (Colossians 3:12) In the NIV it is translated "affection" and "compassion" respectively. St. Paul is asserting that our inner emotions need to be protected from potentially disabling or lethal attacks. Most of us have either experienced such attacks ourselves or have seen the effects of those attacks on people we know. The world is full of people who have become disabled emotionally through being the victims of abuse. They did not know how to protect themselves, and as a result have become casualties, emotional basket-cases. Instead of being healthy and whole people who can enjoy relating to others they are fearful, timid, and phobic, living very restricted lives. Or, at the other extreme they have so hardened themselves against vulnerability that they ride rough-shod over others, and leave behind them a multitude of bruised and wounded sensitivities. The breastplate of which St. Paul speaks, is meant to give a general sense of security and confidence as we enter the marketplace of life. Most of us are aware of how vulnerable we are to being emotionally wounded by the attacks of others or the circumstances of life. The breastplate is meant to protect our conscience, our feelings, our affections, our desires, and our wills. How does it do that? St. Paul explains how it works from his own experience. He contrasts how he formerly protected himself, with how he protects himself as a Christian believer. His former confidence, was in the flesh - i.e. his self-confidence, or his self-righteousness. You could say that he used to wear the breastplate of self-righteousness. "If anyone else thinks that he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: [look at my pedigree, my family background, education, religious training, professional qualifications and attainments, my track record, my citations for meritorious service, etc.] But what was to my profit I now consider a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ - the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith." (Philippians 3:4-9) Peterson puts it this way: "I didn't want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ - God's righteousness." St. Paul found, that religious, and successful as he was, he had, over the years, constructed a straight-jacket of self righteousness. Scott Peck in The People of the Lie, calls such people evil. He says that they project their evil onto others through scapegoating. They feel themselves to be faultless, and that all the evil in the world is the fault of others. "As life often threatens their image of perfection, they are often busily engaged in hating and destroying that life - usually in the name of righteousness... Utterly dedicated to preserving their self-image of perfection, they are unceasingly engaged in the effort to maintain the appearance of moral purity. They worry about this a great deal. They are acutely sensitive to social norms and what others might think of them... The words 'image,' 'appearance,' and 'outwardly,' are crucial.. they intensely desire to appear good. Their 'goodness' is all on a level of pretense. It is, in effect, a lie... They cannot or will not tolerate the pain of self-reproach. The decorum with which they lead their lives is maintained as a mirror in which they see themselves reflected righteously." Peck says that such people hide from themselves. "We see the smile which hides the hatred, the smooth and oily manner that masks the fury, the velvet glove that covers the fist." One of the places such people are most likely to be found is within the church. I will never forget meeting with a prominent lady in one of my former congregations who was always charming to me in public, always smiling, and apparently happy. But in a private meeting she tore into me, accusing me of all sorts of ridiculous behavior and motivations. I was stunned by unexpectedness and the ferocity of her attack. Looking back on it I could see how demonic it was. She was a terribly unhappy woman who was looking for a scapegoat for her own problems. Peck writes that, "the evil hate the light - the light of goodness that shows them up, the light of scrutiny that exposes them, the light of truth that penetrates their deception." Apparently the Holy Spirit, through some biblical teaching I had been doing, had convicted her of her condition, but the devil persuaded her that I was the problem. Peck maintains that healthy adults submit themselves, one way or another, to something higher than themselves, be it God, or truth, or love, or some other ideal - they have a conscience and they follow it. The people of the lie are those who have a strong will, are determined to have their own way, and need to control others. They refuse to submit to anything outside of themselves. Once I was summoned to a meeting with a former church member who asked me, "You don't think that you have come here to teach us anything, do you?" In his arrogance and unteachable spirit he thought that he did not need to learn anything from my ministry of the Word, and that, to the contrary, I needed to submit myself to his direction. Scott Peck calls this attitude, "malignant narcissism." St. Paul calls it "confidence in the flesh." It is a straight-jacket of self-righteousness. If we want to stand in the battle of life, and protect our inner life, we cannot trust in our own righteousness, our own good works, our own pedigree, our own family name, our own success, our own moral goodness, or our own attempts at justifying ourselves in the eyes of God. "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags." (Isaiah 64:6) We are sinners, and because of that vulnerable to the attacks of the forces of evil. We are vulnerable to being condemned by our guilty consciences, being swept away by our wounded feelings and affections, being trapped by our excessive desires, being slaves to our weak self-centered wills. If we rely on these things we are lost, because we trust in ourselves as our own savior. The only way we can stand confidently before God is by being clothed in the righteousness of Christ. We put on the breastplate of righteousness when we, by faith, accept that Christ took our sins upon himself, and replaces our sins with his righteousness. God imputes Christ's righteousness to us. Christ puts to my account in his ledger, imputes to me, the righteousness of His Son. He clothes me with it. So God sees only the righteousness of His Son covering me, clothing me completely. That is the beginning, what makes me acceptable in God's sight. After imputing to me Christ's righteousness, he imparts to me, as I live into that standing before God, the righteous character of Christ. Sometimes that is called infused righteousness. It is comparable to a blood transfusion, where the blood from one person is put into the circulation and the blood of another. As Christ's righteous character becomes more and more a part of us, we grow stronger and more confident in the face of conflict in our lives. When we put on the breastplate of righteousness in this way, and suffer an assault on our conscience, our feelings, our desires, and our values, and we experience depression, sadness and injury, we call upon the righteousness, the purity, the love of Christ to protect us. Nothing else can. Nothing else can stop the bullet of temptation to defend ourselves, to retaliate, to strike back, and to despair. But by putting on the breastplate of the righteousness of Christ we are safe. We can then join the survivors' club, and have a powerful story to tell to the world, which desperately needs to hear it.