By David W. Virtue   GEORGETOWN, SC (6/5/2004)---One of the Akron Five bishops, the Rt. Rev. C. FitzSimons Allison has written a letter to the chairman of the Presiding Bishop's Council of Advice telling him that some of ECUSA's bishops are acting in a tyrannical manner to enforce canons when they have no faith to declare.   In a letter dated June 5, the retired Bishop of South Carolina told Bishop Charles Jenkins (Louisiana) that "we are now living with the result of a long deleterious accommodation to an increasingly secular age in which canons and territory are replacing faith and doctrine as the principle of our unity."   Allison ripped the Episcopal Church writing that "we are seeing the results of this replacement as bishops are demanding financial support from churches with the threat of reducing parishes' status, replacing the rectors and vestry, and taking over their property. These unprecedented acts of tyranny are examples of the frantic and arbitrary efforts to enforce canons when unfaithful bishops can no longer evoke free response on the ground of our mutual heritage of faith."   Allison said that ideally faith and order are inseparable when faith is not discounted.   "No one has voiced this apostasy [of separation] more clearly than Charles Bennison, the tulchan Bishop of Pennsylvania, who makes the false claim that the early church made "geography and bishops rather than theology or creed or scripture or tradition its basic organizing principle."   Allison said this Bennison doctrine is destroying respect for bishops, causing schism in the Anglican Communion and undermining the mission and integrity of ECUSA.   Allison blasted bishops who were forcing parishes to pay up or face their wrath.   "The conscientious duty of laity to contribute financially, or not, to the church's programs has been clearly stated by the official historiographer of ECUSA, Dr. John Booty, in #3 of the Church's Teaching Series, The Church in History: Dioceses and parishes can indicate their approval or disapproval of... [the church's] policies and activities by giving or withholding the money necessary for its work." (p. 72) This prerogative is now being removed by bishops who are unable to evoke free and willing support."   Allison said he looked forward to an open meeting with Jenkins on August 13 with the other [Akron Five] bishops with non-participating observers, "where we can bring the issues of faith before bishops and the church."   END

NEWS ANALYSIS   By David W. Virtue   WEST CHESTER, PA--A rare double event took place in the Diocese of Pennsylvania this past weekend - an event that encapsulates the contradictions inherent in The Episcopal Church and in the wider Anglican Communion.   A revisionist bishop who believes Jesus was a sinner and who forgave himself, and who likened the growth of the Anglican Church in Africa to the rise of the Nazi Party, behaved in a Hitlerian fashion by forcing his way, unwanted, onto an orthodox Bible-believing Episcopal parish.   Another bishop, an African Primate, one of 38, was warmly welcomed by an orthodox congregation that believes in the authority of Holy Scripture and unchanging truth, for the exact opposite reasons.   The first bishop, Charles E. Bennison (Pennsylvania) has poured scorn on the 'faith once delivered', arguing that the church wrote the Bible and could therefore could rewrite it, that God's revelation is continually evolving, and that one can find unity and truth through the collective mind and will of the contemporary church.   The other, an Archbishop, Bernard Malango (Central Africa) believes that God's truth is unchanging, and that timeless doctrines cannot be rewritten to suit the current zeitgeist.   Bennison believes that evolving truth means God has changed his mind about sexuality issues, and we should all just grow up and graduate from the dreadful strictures of heterosexuality to the glorious freedom of pansexual behavior, to draw a wider circle to include God's Kinky Ones into the church if not exactly into the kingdom.   The Archbishop, whose faith has been tested in the vortex of pain and suffering, believes that God's unchanging moral laws cannot be compromised to suit the tastes of a few post-modernist, whiny sodomites, while the Pennsylvania bishop believes, along with some 60 of his fellow ECUSA bishops, that whatever the culture demands, the church should quickly adapt and follow.   This past weekend, these two worldviews collided head on. And they symbolize in no small measure the dilemma the entire Anglican Communion faces as it waits anxiously for the Lambeth/Eames Commission to complete its task.   In truth these two worldviews can never be reconciled. Never. They are as far apart as God is from Satan, as heaven is from hell and Jack Spong (Newark ret.) is from Keith Ackerman (Bishop of Quincy).   And it is why the Lambeth (Eames) Commission is facing an uphill battle trying to find neutral ground where everyone can meet, get along and smoke peace pipes.   It is not going to happen.   Because if the Commission does allegedly find common ground we would see a liberal tyranny the like of which you are now only just beginning to see coming from the heterodox bishops in the Episcopal Church and in the Anglican Church of Canada.   If you think that Bishop Bennison, who won't allow orthodox graduates from Nashotah House or Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry into his diocese, or won't allow an orthodox graduate from one of those seminaries to be ordained in his diocese, or tried to prevent a fellow bishop who is orthodox from baptizing his grand-daughter in an orthodox parish, then you don't know what tyranny is, or you have blinders on and don't want to see what is going on.   And that has been the tragedy of the Episcopal Church's orthodox for the past 30 years. The orthodox have naively believed that if they drew enough lines in the sand and made the compromises necessary the other side would either see the light or at least come half way with them.   They were fools. It never happened.   The orthodox have drawn more lines in the sand than there are rings around Uranus, and whenever they thought they got close enough to a compromise or, heaven forbid, the other side might be wrong about sex, the other side screamed 'local option' and it was all over.   The revisionists have had one goal for three generations - to win the culture wars by turning the seminaries into theological and moral cesspools, seducing biblically illiterate bishops into feeling their pain of exclusion over sexual misbehavior, and watering down whatever doctrines they had left to make them camera ready for the United Religions Initiative.   In Canada this week, the Anglican General Synod voted to amend a motion on same-sex blessings to include a consultation on the experiences of gay and lesbian people. But a motion to amend this to also include "ex-gays and lesbians" was defeated.   Peter Ould, himself an "ex-gay" expressed his outrage in the following language. "Since the American Psychiatric Association voted to remove homosexuality as a disorder from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) 30 years ago, no evidence has emerged that there is a substantive biological, genetic or chemical basis to homosexual attraction."   Mr. Ould is right of course, but the revisionists led by their newly anointed primate Montreal Archbishop Andrew S. Hutchison did not want to hear that. And then to double the insult they went right ahead and elected a Vancouver gay priest to be the second-in-command for the Canadian Synod.   Jesus was right. "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's (read Bishops robes) clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them."   And now we are seeing the "fruit" in living technicolor and when you open it, you find it rotten to the core.   END

LIBERAL TEACHINGS BRING CHURCH SPLIT ORTHODOX EPISCOPALIANS FORM OWN CONGREGATION By Geneive Abdo Tribune religion reporter June 6, 2004 Disillusioned with the liberal teachings of the national Episcopal Church, a group of orthodox Episcopalians will hold its first service Sunday at the Church of Christ the King in Evanston, a new congregation born of a nationwide conflict. Wes Schneider, one of the founders, hopes the breakaway church--believed to be the first in Illinois, if not the Midwest--will draw similar-minded Episcopalians from throughout the Chicago area. The congregation, being launched in a rented 74-year-old gothic church on Sheridan Road that is lined with Tiffany stained-glass windows, is one of dozens of breakaway churches sprouting across the United States as conservatives part ways with the Episcopal Church USA. The division in the national church over social issues, including gay rights and the ordination of women, has been widening since leaders approved V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay cleric, as bishop in New Hampshire last year. The split has left liberals with a church dwindling in numbers and facing doubts over its place in the more conservative worldwide Episcopal body, the Anglican Communion. For conservatives who believe they represent the true Episcopal Church, the challenge will be whether to try to join the Anglican Communion as a separate group or try to reclaim the Episcopal Church USA. Bishop William Persell, head of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, said the new congregation is "unfortunate" and a "distraction" from the mission of the Episcopal Church. But he said the diocese would not take measures to oppose it. Schneider said he was inspired to establish a church because his former congregation, the Church of the Holy Comforter in Kenilworth, had become too liberal. His parish pastor, Rev. Robert Myers, endorsed Robinson's consecration. Then, in January, Myers delivered a pastoral address saying the Bible is not the direct word of God, Schneider said. "When Rev. Myers said the Bible is not the word of God, I knew I had to leave the church," said Schneider, sitting inside the Church of Christ the King, located five miles from his former congregation. Repeated requests for an interview with Myers and other church administrators went unanswered Friday. The theological debate between liberal and orthodox Episcopalians is primarily over the degree of authority of Scripture. Other faiths are locked in similar conflicts. Traditional and modernist Muslims are split over whether the Koran should be literally interpreted and applied to modern life, and the divide among Christians surfaced after the debut of the movie "The Passion of the Christ." Director Mel Gibson and his supporters argued the film represented a literal interpretation of the Bible. But others said the Gospels were not meant to be taken at face value. Rev. David Anderson, president of the conservative American Anglican Council, a national organization, said the dispute in the Episcopal Church has reached a new phase. "How one lives out their sexual life is only the symptom of our dispute," said Anderson. "The underlying cause is the authority of Scripture. The orthodox give it serious authority and the revisionists do not. "What we have in liberal dioceses is bishops who no longer believe what Christianity has taught for 2,000 years but have put a New Age spin on things." Canon Kendall Harmon is part of the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes, a breakaway movement that wants to reclaim the Episcopal Church in the United States. Some of the new churches in the United States have joined the network, founded earlier this year, primarily in protest of Robinson's consecration. Harmon, a scholar, accused the Episcopal Church USA of repudiating the Bible. "Some think you should stand in judgment of the Bible. But in fact, the Bible stands in judgment of us," he said. The controversy sparked by Robinson's appointment is global. At least nine of the 38 Anglican provinces worldwide have ended relations with the U.S. church. In Evanston, the new Church of Christ the King is leasing a building that for 60 years had housed an evangelical church. Rev. Joseph Murphy, formerly the rector of St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Reedville, Va., will lead the congregation. "We are following a traditional Christian approach to liturgy and life," Murphy said. The church's founders said they have not decided if they will join the breakaway Anglican network. They plan to wait until a congregation is formed, and they are uncertain how large it might be. But they said one thing is certain: They no longer consider themselves Episcopalians, but part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. That is a claim Bishop Persell challenged. "Episcopalians in the United States are part of the Anglican Communion," he said. "Thus, if they no longer consider themselves Episcopalians, they can't be part of the Anglican Communion." Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune

By Dr. Edith M. Humphrey June 4, 2004 Last night, following Evening Prayer, nine Bishops of the ACC who remain faithful to the Scriptural teaching on sexuality stood up before General Synod. They issued a statement of regret and exhortation to the Anglican Church of Canada, for which they have been unjustly criticized. I am thankful for their forthright assertion that the "opinion" of the current Synod was "in error," "contrary to the teaching of Scripture and the tradition of the undivided Church," "the Lambeth Conference of 1998," "the…ecumenical consensus of the Church," and "the 1997 Guidelines" of the Canadian HOB. Unfortunately, customary Canadian politesse has led my dear friends and our leaders to call for restraint while the house is on fire. Resolution A-134 was bad enough: it settled for a three-year extension to a discussion that has gone about as far as possible, ending in theological impasse between irreconcilable positions. it implied that the issue of blessing homoerotic relationships may well not be a matter of doctrine—that is to be decided. The imported last minute amendment to "affirm the integrity and sanctity of committed adult same sex relationships" is downright darkness. Indeed, it uses theological terms ("sanctity"), and this means that the framers of this resolution have already decided how it is that the three-year discussion will conclude. For if something is deemed "holy," who is the church, or any church council, to forbid it? Indeed, any synodal permission to "bless" is simply icing on the cake. Those currently blessing these so-called "unions" will continue to do so, undisciplined, for they are simply "affirming" what "God" has already accepted; those parishes and dioceses desiring to begin this practice will do so unencumbered, for they have seen that even dissenters in the Canadian Church have no stomach to do anything stronger than "regret" such actions. Last night's statement from the traditionalist bishops said that this "may be causing confusion in the Church." In fact, the whole week, entitled "catharsis and switch" by one shrewd analyst, is already a major stumbling block. The hemorrhage of the ACC has begun: those who stay have as much to fear as those who escape this schismatic province. Is there a fearless leader to the south or the global south who will offer refuge? Let us pray so. Would that our cautious leaders had not simply expressed thanks to the Bishops of the Global South, and support for the AciNW! Would that they had emulated those courageous bishops directly to their south, who last August stood "filled with sorrow!" Those U.S.A. pastors (admittedly in an un-Canadian American style) roundly rejected the action of ECUSA's General Convention as an act that "divided itself from millions of Anglican Christians around the world." Surely the Canadian synod has likewise departed from the historic church, and from those who hold to the truth amidst dangerous conditions, even by speaking out of both sides of the mouth. Though this synod has not agreed to bless same sex unions, nor to consecrate a practicing fornicator, it has called these arrangements blessed, smiled on "gay" and pro-gay schismatic leaders, and suffered its newest Primate to criticize his dissenting bishops as divisive. Confusion reigns supreme. Article XXI may be a certain comfort, since it is true that the Church has seen hard times. But how do we know that this communion has simply "acted unwisely" and that it is "still the Body of Christ." Has any prophet seen the candlestick still upright? Theologians with the acumen of Pannenburg and Packer have called this a communion-breaking issue. It is true that homoerotic sin is no graver than any of the garden variety iniquities that would bind us all. However, not to discipline those who have acted without reference to the rest of the Church, to assert that this state is blessed, and to set up a constitutional quibble about whether this is a doctrinal issue, and to malign those who dissent from the decision —these acts are deadly. How can faithful Canadians continue to be complicit with those who are determined to lead the Church away from the truth, or spend more time in synods that doubt Biblical, historical and ecumenical teaching? Continued discussion is to engage with the Enemy in his "Hath God said?" rhetoric. Many faithful Anglicans in Canada must now choose between their well-meaning leaders, who have asked them to so engage, and their conscience. Perhaps the international community will intervene in our confusion and timidity, whether or not we deserve it. Is this a "doctrinal issue"? How can it be otherwise? The Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) considered debates about eating non-kosher food theological, and called on the churches of God to act together. If food matters to catholicity, how much more does our sexuality! Sexuality has to do with our doctrine of humanity (anthropology). Anthropology is directly related to the doctrine of the church, and to the doctrines concerning our triune and holy God, in whose image humankind, male and female, have been created. In the wake of ECUSA's apostasy, the ACC has veered off the way of the Lord. It has taken its candlestick to a new altar. It is colluding with the spirit of this age. May those Canadian shepherds who still hear the word of the Lord on this issue wake up, and hear God's voice, "Come out of her, my people, lest you partake in her iniquities." And may they take counsel with the whole people of God to decide how best to do this. Edith Humphrey is Associate Professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. An Anglican layperson, she served as Professor of Scripture at Augustine College, Ottawa, Canada, from 1997 - 2002. Prior to her departure, she served as Dean. Before her service at Augustine College, she had an extended career as Lecturer at several colleges and universities in Canada. Her Ph.D. is from McGill University, Montreal. As well as being the author of numerous articles, she is the author of two books, Joseph and Aseneth (Sheffield Academic Press, 2000), and The Ladies and the Cities, Transformation and Apocalyptic Identity in Joseph and Aseneth, 4. Ezra, the Apocalypse and The Shepherd of Hermas (JSOT Press, 1995). She is a co-author of Longing for God: Anglicans Talk about Revelation, Nature, Culture, and Authority (ABC Publishing, 2001). She was a member of the Canadian Primate's Theological Commission, and the New Westminster Dialogue on Sexuality. (END)

By David W. Virtue, DD www.virtueonline.org February 3, 2026 Two distinguished emeritus archbishops, John Chew (Southeast Asia) and Mouneer Anis (Egypt), have written a history outlining the journey of the Anglican churches in the Global South following the heretical theology and disastrous behavior of a number of North American Episcopal bishops. Three archbishops—Mouneer Anis, John Chew, and Peter Akinola (Nigeria)—met informally in Cairo in 2003 with no fixed agenda except to reconnect more formally with other orthodox primates and provinces of the Global South, following the disastrous consecration of an openly homosexual American bishop in the person of V. Gene Robinson. This action galvanized the Global South bishops as nothing had ever done before. The world of the Anglican Communion would change forever. The book traces the history of that change by the Global South from the first Global South encounter through nine encounters and conferences, also called "trumpets." The use of the word "trumpets" is not without significance. They are biblical references symbolizing important announcements, calls to worship, warnings, divine interventions, and judgments. For the Global South, it was a clear call to a warning of God's judgment on Western Anglican provinces which had departed from "the faith once for all delivered to the saints." With the Church of England publicly and joyfully welcoming same-sex couples, a milestone had been reached. Archbishop Samy Fawzy of the Anglican Province of Alexandria reaffirmed Resolution 1:10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference that forbade legitimizing or blessing same-sex unions. A red line had been crossed, alienating 75% of the Anglican Communion and announcing an impaired and broken communion. The Global South issued an "Ash Wednesday statement" arguing that the Church of England could no longer take the lead of the Anglican Communion while it openly disregarded the traditional teaching of the Communion. They went one step further, saying that the current Archbishop of Canterbury no longer had the moral qualification to lead the Anglican Communion. Participants at "The Ninth Trumpet" encounter in Cairo (2024) cemented their claims on the communion. The GSFA's 1st Assembly drew 13 active primates, 44 bishops, 46 clergy, and 36 lay leaders. They approved a covenantal structure that made all faith and order matters the responsibility of the Primates Council. Henceforth, they would be responsible for guarding the faith. They declared the Anglican Communion's instruments of communion "dysfunctional," thus negating the Windsor Continuation Group's efforts that were never followed through. They concluded by saying that the GSFA would fulfill their historic vocation in a rapidly changing communion to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, to build one another up in their faith, and foster true unity. As a result, the growth of the Anglican churches in the Global South has been phenomenal. In 1900, Africa represented just 1% of the Anglican Communion. By 2005, that figure had risen to 55%, and today, Global South churches comprise 75% of the Communion. They are the vibrant majority whose voices are now being heard above the din of "scornful wonder" and "sore oppression by schisms rent asunder, and heresies distressed,” derived from the hymn "The Church's One Foundation." Once voiceless during the colonial era, the Global South now stands as a vibrant majority whose voice is now being heard. These churches remain steadfast, refusing to follow certain Western churches that have departed from the faith and traditions handed down by the saints over centuries. The delicate relationship between the GSFA and GAFCON got a brief mention with a statement that read, "We did not try to bring GAFCON under the GSFA or the opposite, but simply to coordinate ministries." GAFCON and GSFA have shared beliefs but different aims. Both groups share fundamental beliefs about the Christian faith, but they differ in their aims and approaches to the Anglican Communion. GAFCON, also known as the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, is a renewal movement that has declared the creation of a "Global Anglican Communion." This movement is led by Archbishop Laurent Mbanda of Rwanda. GAFCON seeks to restore the Anglican Communion's original structure as a fellowship of autonomous provinces bound together by the Formularies of the Reformation. By contrast, the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans is committed to maintaining the unity of the visible church and the fabric of the Anglican Communion. They honor the 1998 Lambeth Conference Resolution 1:10 and are not aligned with the Canterbury Communion or the Church of England. The two groups have long shared a common view that the Communion is no longer working, but they differ as to how to respond to the crisis. This historic volume comes with a heavy appendix of more than 120 pages and 43 pages of photos. It is a must-read for concerned Anglicans and scholars tracing the ups and downs of the communion over a turbulent period in its continuing journey to bring about the kingdom of God. END

OPINION by Carl R. Trueman THE CHRISTIAN POST February 5, 2026 Reports of the financial struggles and decline in membership among large American denominations have become so commonplace that they often elicit little more than a shrug. But every now and then, a report arises that warrants attention. A recent Religion News Service article gives helpful insight as to why “Protestant denominations are losing members, particularly the Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist and other historic mainline groups,” including the Southern Baptist Convention. The inclusion of the SBC is significant because, unlike the other denominations, which “have suffered schisms as they moved in more progressive directions,” the SBC is theologically conservative. Conservative Christians should take note. The article ironically features a photograph of two queer clergy. If ever one wished to render the church’s message obsolete and her existence pointless, adopting queerness would seem a most excellent way to do it. Queer theory is the perfect tool for demolishing any “oppressive” dogma or claim to transcendent truth. But if the church has no truth to proclaim, why does she exist? Or, more pointedly, why should anyone bother with her? H. Richard Niebuhr aptly summarized the irrelevance of liberal Protestantism: “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross.” And yet even that seems quite robust compared to queer Jesus and a gospel with no apparent purpose other than decrying traditional Christianity and affirming the fluid identities of autonomous individuals. One reason for the dying of the churches is that God’s truth died in so many of them many years ago. We are merely living at a time when the interest payments have come due. Cuts to the administrative structure of these denominations look set to be swift and sharp. Yet that hints at another problem in American Christianity: a decades-long creeping prioritization of church agencies over local church ministry. Following the money is a sound way to see who and what an organization deems most important. Overpaid administrative agencies are one good example of this. Now, this is not a monopoly of the liberal mainstream. In the conservative Presbyterian world, there are denominations where agency heads earn in excess of $300,000, typically much more than the average congregant or even the most well-paid ministers. Yet it is the ministers who preach each week and do the work of frontline ministry. Ralph McInerny said that when a sports coach is paid more than the top professors at a university, something is deeply wrong. This principle applies to denominations too. Other denominations — conservative, orthodox denominations — not yet facing quite the same crisis should learn from this. The travails of the SBC indicate that the problem of church decline is not restricted to those who deny the Resurrection or choose their own preferred pronouns for God. Perhaps it has as much to do with priorities as with orthodoxy. That message seems to be resonating with at least some mainstream leadership who are looking to more grassroots, parish-level organization as part of the solution. And they rightly note a growing anti-institutional dimension of modern American culture. Scott Thumma, co-director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, comments that “organized religion” does not appeal to many today but that “you have people who are still interested in spirituality, some sort of gathering around something higher than themselves, but not in these particular forms.” Herein lies the deepest problem the churches face: the separation of “spirituality” from Christian faith and practice, two things that can only take place when anchored in an ecclesiastical context. In recent years, there have been calls for the re-enchantment of the world, calls that see our contemporary malaises, whether of morality, identity, or meaning in general, as the result of the prosaic world of instrumental reason that shapes so much of our cultural landscape. I sympathize with this to a point: The world is more than atoms, and life is more than a biological process just as surely as the roof of the Sistine Chapel is more than paint splashed onto plaster. And yet seeing metaphysical depth in this world is not the same as seeing truth in this world. The prophets of Baal lived in an enchanted world, and it did not save them. Mediums and astrologers live in an enchanted world, and yet offer nothing but nonsense to their clientele. If enchantment simply means seeing the world as a more mysterious place, it is useless as an idea. More pointedly, Christianity stands in judgment over and in opposition to all enchantments but its own, and the agency by which that is made a reality is the institutional church. Leaving the Church for unspecific spiritualities is not encouraging. More likely it is just another manifestation of the therapeutic society’s fallacious answer to the human desire for meaning. The Religion News Service article makes depressing but instructive reading, from its use of the queer pastors’ picture, to its revelations of the financial priorities of churches, to its commentary on anti-institutional spirituality. There are lessons here for all Christians. Originally published at First Things.

By Sheena MacLean and Vanessa Walker The Australian June 3, 2004 It looks like a typical glossy magazine, complete with a soft-focus picture of nubile Home and Away star Kate Garven gazing from the cover. Its headlines entice readers inside with teasers such as "Intimacy in Marriage" and an interview with Hollywood director Mel Gibson. But Embrace magazine's purpose isn't simply circulation and profits. Its ultimate aim is to bring people closer to God. Network Ten's controversial new program Good Sex, which is produced by the Anglican Church in Sydney, along with enterprises such as the Queensland-produced Embrace, are part of a bold approach by many Christian groups to promote their message using marketing tactics they have previously criticized the secular media for—particularly the focus on celebrity and sex—to reach more receptive and bigger audiences. Embrace was launched this month to capitalize on the 20,000 women who attend Christian conferences around the country. Once it has a foothold in what manager Mark Badham calls the "great untapped market," he hopes to sell it on newsstands, pitched at a wider readership. Badham, who runs Mark 4:8 Strategic Communications and employs a team of Pentecostal editorial staff, has entered the market with a print run of 10,000. "Traditional Christian magazines have been owned by faith denominations and they see them as a form of ministry," he says. "But this is different. We are building a celebrity factor into the magazine so people are attracted to the cover and then we're giving them the ministry inside." The strategy, he says, is built on the back of a change in Australia's religious demographic. Gone is the stereotypical musty do-gooder reading his or her church's monthly newsletter; the new Christian is often a young person attending a charismatic denomination who expects modern content with a sharper image. "Australia is experiencing a dramatic shift in its religious landscape, with people flocking to high-energy, contemporary Pentecostal and Evangelical churches, while most traditional churches are experiencing significant decline," Badham says. "We've got to keep up with this." Mark Hadley, director of radio and TV for Anglican Media Sydney and the innovator behind Good Sex, agrees. "The church has to keep up with change. In the 1950s when people wanted to communicate they hired halls and had speakers. In Australia that led to large events like the Billy Graham crusade," he says. "Now people exchange ideas in the mass media. It has become extremely important for the church to grapple with that and use the mass techniques that are available. If we don't keep up with the change in technology we will be communicating with an ever-diminishing group of people." Good Sex, on sabbatical from its 11:30 PM timeslot to make room for Big Brother Up Late until July 28, features Christian panelists including sexologist Patricia Weerakoon and advertising copywriter Janet Evans talking frankly across issues such as orgasms, pornography, and cyber-dating and has another eight episodes to run. So novel is the approach, it has attracted the attention of The Washington Post and London's The Times. After it was offered the late-night timeslot by Ten, the team at Anglican Media decided to forgo the usual televangelism and create a new show. They had to find something that would appeal to 25-to-35-year-old men, the carry-over audience inherited from Sports Tonight in the earlier slot. "Some people say it's terribly hypocritical using sex to sell the gospel but we think there is something viable to discuss. People are interested in sex," says Hadley. "We have to adapt to the way people are living. With society focused on the sexual smorgasbord we think there is room there for a sex program being used as a means to tell people about God." Few religious groups have the financial firepower of the Sydney Anglicans. Their media unit, under the Evangelical drive of Archbishop Peter Jensen, produces the church's biggest newspaper, the monthly Southern Cross, with a readership of 44,000, as well as three websites, 30 hours of TV programming a year, and 20 half-minute or one-minute radio spots a year. In the scramble for a slice of the internet action a few years ago, the charismatic and Pentecostal churches decided against joining the larger mainstream National Council of Churches, forming a new group, the Australian Christian Churches, instead. They found themselves outmaneuvered, however, by the Sydney Anglicans in a race to register the domain names Christianity.net and Christianity.org. The move caused some angst, not only with the new group but with members of the NCC as well, who saw the exclusivity of the move as less than charitable. It wasn't seen to be in the spirit of Christianity, says ABC Radio religious commentator John Cleary. Many thought the council should have been the body to register the names on behalf of the traditional churches. The anecdote might sound like background static to the main tunes being played by the religious media, but it illustrates the cultures and currents at work. "There is an undercurrent of bitter trench warfare out there that is sometimes papered over," says Cleary, who presents the ABC's Sunday Nights program. Church attendance is down for the main Anglican and Protestant denominations but the drop appears to have been offset largely by rises in Evangelical (Baptist, Churches of Christ) and Pentecostal (Assemblies of God and Christian City Church) denominations, according to the latest National Church Life Survey. With this increasing influence of the Evangelical and fundamentalist movements has come greater use of mass communications and an ability to tap into new media. While mainstream churches struggle for their place on commercial television—the Australian Churches Media Association's Reverend John Dalziel says it is currently pressing the Australian Broadcasting Authority to exercise its clout and force more reasonable viewing times for religious programs—the country's only dedicated Christian television channel is broadcasting 24 hours a day on cable channel Optus. The Maroochydore-based Australian Christian Channel, backed by small independent churches, is financed largely by a Queensland businessman, Mike Jeffs, who runs a cellular phone company. Jeffs, says general manager Neil Elliott, started the channel five years ago when after an encounter with God he "felt the calling." It is run as a not-for-profit organization and also depends on donations but does not solicit on air for funds, unlike similar channels overseas. Content on the Australian Christian Channel is about 20 percent local with the rest coming from North America and Europe. Elliott says the most popular programs include worship from Christian City Church at Oxford Falls and the Hillsong Church, both in Sydney, as well as an American youth program crammed with music called Day 7. The Hillsong independent church, headed by husband and wife pastors Brian and Bobbie Houston, has been remarkably adept at tapping into popular culture and attracting young people through its music. It has a congregation of about 15,000, produces a half-hour TV program that is shown in 120 countries, a quarterly magazine, CDs, DVDs, and books. Wes Jay, of Melbourne media consultancy Woodlands Media, says there has been an explosion in the Christian CD and DVD market. He estimates Hillsong has sold about 7 million records worldwide—that's about three times as many as Delta Goodrem. Nineteen Christian records have made it to gold or platinum status (sales of 35,000 and 70,000) and 12 of those have been from Hillsong. Christian music was worth about $30 million last year. Parallel to the explosion in religious music sales is the growing use of the internet and a searching for answers beyond the local parish and away from the traditional gatekeepers of spiritual information, the religious institutions. About 80 percent of Australian net traffic flows to overseas sites. Most visit the Gospel Communication Network, an alliance dedicated to spreading the gospel over the web, and Belief Net, which provides chat rooms and resources on a range of beliefs, according to online research company Hitwise. The 25-to-34 age group makes up nearly a third of all users. In Australia there are more than 150 Christian sites and scores of others on just about every topic, from paganism and Gnosticism to Zoroastrianism and Taoism. Radio and books are the other spheres of influence. There was only one community radio license awarded to a religious group 25 years ago, to 2CBA-FM in Sydney. Four more were added by 1992—in Launceston, Perth, Hobart, and Adelaide—and that was followed by an explosion in the late 1990s, with about 40 licenses around the country today, says Phillip Randall, president of the Association of Christian Broadcasters. The most popular religious website in Australia in April was that of book distributor Koorong Christian Products. Managing director of Koorong, Paul Bootes, says the industry is worth about $80 million and growing. Although he will not disclose how much of the market Koorong has, with 11 shops it is the largest distributor of Christian books. "It's growing because people are getting tired of living a materialistic lifestyle and are looking for a spiritual solution," says Bootes. Cleary says some religious groups in Australia have borrowed strategies from the US, where many of the rapidly growing churches base their evangelism purely on marketing techniques. They survey an area, a demographic group, to find out what that group's aspirations are and then they build the church on that group. "It is taken to such an extreme that in many of these churches you'll find no religious symbols whatever, not even a cross. Once you take Christianity to that extreme, what is there left of the gospel? Nothing but a giant marketing exercise," says Cleary. "Those sort of techniques are the sort of things that groups from Australia go to the states to learn about," and are pitched at Mark Latham's "aspirationals." Even a number of the larger, more traditionally conservative Evangelical denominations are influenced by American-style marketing. "It's causing within groups like the Salvos and Baptists some tension over what the nature of the whole Christian enterprise is," says Cleary. "Is it to have mega-churches in which you've got 10,000 people hanging off the walls or is it to be some sort of moral, social, and cultural influence in the community?" There was now a re-examination of this approach theologically, "but if you are out there in the pews at Hillsong or Christian City Church, these are still the dominant style." However, Reverend John Henderson, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, says the figures on church attendance do not give the full story. While they show many more people are going into Pentecostal churches "they are also going out, sometimes at a faster rate." He says traditional Australian religious institutions don't throw the kind of resources and money into media the way Americans do, although some churches are gradually upping the ante, taking their message to the forefront and "making it a little more transparent about who they are and what they stand for." Snapshot of a Broad Church The mainstream churches have always had a strong tradition in print media. Many publish state-based weekly tabloid newspapers with sizeable circulations such as the Catholic Leader in Brisbane (13,000). There are also monthly or quarterly magazines and newsletters. These include the Uniting Church's Journey magazine (16,000), and The Lutheran (8,600). President of the Australian Religious Press Association, Reverend Robert Wiebusch of Adelaide, says there are about 195 publications. A number of churches are moving into online publishing to save costs. ABC Radio has six religious programs, producing 13 hours of programming a week. The Religion Report on Radio National has the biggest audience, averaging 94,000 for 2003, and Encounter reaches 85,000 listeners. Other programs include The Spirit of Things, The Ark, and Sunday Nights with John Cleary, which have audiences in the 50,000 to 60,000 range; and For The God Who Sings on ABC Classic FM (36,000 for 2003). Jesuit Publications produces three main magazines: Australian Catholics appears five times a year, has a circulation of 221,000, and is distributed to schools and parishes; the high-quality monthly public affairs magazine Eureka Street; and the bi-monthly Our Madonna. Among the most popular general religious publications is Alive, an independent non-denominational magazine published 11 times a year by Media Incorporated, which also produces the bi-monthly Australian Christian Woman. Under commercial TV rules, 1 percent of broadcast time needs to be religious content, which is equivalent to one hour a day. This can take the form of programs or spots in the schedule and stations have flexibility on the time these are shown. State Christian television associations and churches produce and pay for the production of programs and spots. A 15-second spot to air on Channel Nine in Victoria, for example, costs $600-$700. The biggest selling religious book in Australia, apart from the Bible, is The Purpose-Driven Life by Californian pastor Rick Warren, founder of Saddleback Baptist Church. It has sold upwards of 100,000 copies in Australia (11 million worldwide). By way of comparison, the top-selling novel The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown has sold 160,000 copies. END

By Jeffrey Walton Juicy Ecumenism February 5, 2026 Christians are contesting an alternative gospel in the present age, one that promises fulfillment through the longings of the self, according to speakers at a prominent Anglican conference. Expressive individualism is an alternative gospel, insisted the Rev. Vaughan Roberts. “It is saying if you fulfill the longings of the self, if you look within, and resist all the pressures of external authorities, then you’ll find the fruitful and fulfillment you long for. That’s a gospel message, but it’s a false gospel, it’s a lie, and increasingly we’re seeing the effects of it: dehumanization, desoulment.” Roberts, an Anglican clergyman who serves as rector of St. Ebbe’s Church, Oxford, spoke at Mere Anglicanism January 22-24 in Charleston, South Carolina. Themed “Gospel Identity in an Age of Expressive Individualism” the semiannual gathering has a reputation for engaging speakers that “develop disciplined, educated laypeople and clergy who are prepared to play their part in the renewal of Anglicanism.” One of seven presenters, Roberts contrasted expressive individualism with the view of the Church as “the soul of the world.” “Because, in Christ, we have been and are being humanized,” Roberts proposed. Ethics and Ontology Mere Anglicanism conference director and St. Philip’s Anglican Church Rector the Rev. Jeff Miller framed the conference as convened by Anglicans and centered around Anglican worship services held at the recently restored St. Philip’s Church. But the conference goal was working “in service to the whole Church” inviting both Anglicans and speakers from other Christian traditions with expertise in addressing the year’s convening topic. The 2026 gathering featured theologians and scholars including Roberts, Anglican priest and apologist The Rev. Dr. John Dickson of Wheaton College, and former Bishop of Rochester Dr. Michael Nazir-Ali. They were joined by Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Dr. Al Mohler, Grove City College Professor and Presbyterian Minister The Rev. Dr. Carl Trueman, and Roman Catholic Scholar Mary Eberstadt of the Faith and Reason Institute in Washington D.C. Mohler, who jokingly identified himself as “Baptist by theology but an Anglican by taste” sought to trace the development and embrace of the tenets of expressive individualism in western culture. The seminary president noted that “The only way you can be wrong now is to say that anyone’s expression of their individual identity is wrong.” He traced this to the writings of figures including French Enlightenment thinker Immanuel Kant, philosopher and German idealist Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and theologian and philosopher Friedrich Schleiermacher. “Where are ethics rooted?” Mohler asked, adding that “it’s not just ethics, it’s ontology; you have a war on being. It is about the denial of even a natural order.” Despite a difficult cultural environment, Mohler suggested that Christians have a task at hand: lean into ordinary means of grace, have babies, and train boys to be men. Where this might end, expressive individualism’s “Brave New World” was examined by Carl Trueman, who identified a crumbling of external authority as playing a big role. Trueman spoke on Teleology and how in modern life “Our end is something we choose for ourselves.” In such a world, given ends come to be seen as oppressive while authenticity is a hallmark of a culture defined by expressive individualism. “Modesty and self-restraint look fraudulent,” Trueman noted, and “Not performing life in public is seen as sinister.” The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self author cited U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance’s recurrent use of profanity on social media as an example, something that would have scandalized political leaders in prior generations. “It prizes autonomy and personal feelings over external natural limits,” Trueman observed. A woman’s biology is also considered a threat in expressive individualism, Trueman noted, saying that it is not just interested in autonomy, it is interested in being God. “Disenchantment doesn’t explain it, desecration does,” Trueman stated. The Grove City College professor advised recapturing embodiment, friendship, and ritual. “Where do we do that? Church. It provides rituals that truly make us human,” Trueman added. “The Church is the place where humanity is realized.” Dying to Live What might an adequate Christian response to expressive individualism look like? Former Church of England bishop and Roman Catholic monsignor Dr. Michael Nazir-Ali considered Jesus’ ethic for finding fulfillment, insisting in his presentation that “Your bodies are not your own, they belong to the other.” Selflessness, sacrifice and service, Nazir-Ali listed, are traits cultivated in the historic Church that go beyond crisis and conversion. The gospel’s credibility is seen in Christians’ service to those around us. Nazir-Ali cited a comment from a Chinese orphanage worker that Christians purposefully adopt “the bad ones” in the sense of children requiring special attention and care, those whom the world may not see as of value. “People find love in this place” Nazir-Ali recounted of those who come to seek treatment at a Christian hospital in the Middle East. This, Nazir-Ali identified, is the unique Christian contribution to society. But every generation has to be converted, and “when we do so, we receive what has been squandered.” An Informed Optimism Catholic Scholar Mary Eberstadt in her presentation considered non-philosophical roots of the crisis, identifying a “massive disturbance of the human ecosystem.” Titled “You are Not Your Own: Life, Liberty, and the Human Body,” Eberstadt’s lecture noted that we now live in an era in which there are fewer people whom each of us interact with in every stage of life. “Shrink the number of relationships and identity decreases alongside,” Eberstadt determined, considering consequences to changes in family formation. But the Church, Eberstadt noted, has a role in reversing this isolation. “It is not just that the religious are more likely to form families, there is something about living in families that makes people more religious.” The Faith and Reason Institute research fellow was both candid about cultural challenges but also made the case for an informed optimism: the rational grounds that Christianity might receive a fair hearing in the years ahead. Hope can be found in a Christian counterculture growing in intentional religious communities, classical schools, “people who want to live the faith,” Eberstadt proposed. She touted Ivy League Christian groups as well as the Catholic Information Center in downtown Washington, D.C. as among vibrant expressions of such a counterculture. “Church teachings about who we are and what we are here for is true,” Eberstadt insisted, adding that the truth of Christian teaching is visible in the consequences of living without it. Eberstadt was joined in her optimism by Presbyterian writer and attorney Justin Whitmel Earley, who spoke on “Friendship in a Fragmented World.” “You cannot become yourself by yourself,” Earley contended, sharing from his personal experiences and friendships across decades. The Body Teaches the Soul author listed rituals of sacred significance, embodiment and friendship as important. “The destination of humans is to be fully loved and fully known,” Earley established, noting that “you can’t be radically vulnerable without rituals of commitment.” Such rituals include regularly being physically present with others, such as weeknight conversation over drinks with friends on a porch. They can lead to being fully known without secrets. “Virtual church is not church; you need embodiment of relationships,” Earley declared. Cultural engagement is also an aspect of being “citizens of Christ’s Kingdom” according to Southern Seminary Associate Professor of Church History Stephen Presley. Presley, who serves as Director of Education and Engagement at the Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy, suggested that the second century world of the early Church is like our world where Christianity is a choice, rather than inherited from the broader culture around us. Because of this, we can mine early Church responses to paganism for an effective response in our own era. These points include catechesis, citizenship, cultivating leaders, and celebrating hope. “I’m optimistic about the schools and programs, I see things popping up all the time,” Presley encouraged. “Cultural discernment is at a premium right now.” The Soul of the World Behind loud, confident declarations of identity lurks an insecurity, Roberts of St. Ebbe’s Church insisted, surveying the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians and asking how the Church can be the soul of the world. St. Paul, Roberts explained, finds a secure identity and “Christian identity doesn’t depend on what we do.” “If your identity is built on success, that is full of anxiety,” Roberts shared, noting that identity based on success leads to being terrified of failure. In contrast, there is “huge security in being a much-loved child of God” and secure identity is what the world longs for. “Individual fulfillment is an oxymoron; we are not designed to find fulfillment in ourselves,” Roberts declared. Rather, there is a captivating purpose seen in the saints, people who “let the light through” and bring glory to God. The Church of England clergyman prioritized the proclamation of “a big gospel.” “Are we focusing on a little gospel for a little me, what I want: health, wealth, therapeutic?” Roberts asked. What people really want, he identified, is a “full-fat” Christianity, not aesthetics or chasing a fad. Mere Anglicanism’s presentations were each characterized by tough talk about cultural challenges but also a real hope for the future. “Don’t panic, focus on your small sphere of influence, consecrate,” Grove City College’s Trueman advised of how to operate in the current cultural moment. “The light never shines so brightly as in the darkness,” St. Philip’s Church Rector Jeff Miller encouraged.

By Sheena MacLean and Vanessa Walker The Australian — June 3, 2004 A glossy new Christian magazine resembling a lifestyle publication is aiming to reach women through celebrity interviews, relationship features, and contemporary design — all while promoting a Christian message. Embrace magazine, along with media ventures such as Network Ten’s Good Sex, produced by the Anglican Church in Sydney, represents a growing trend among churches to use modern marketing and media strategies to reach broader audiences. Organizers say the approach recognizes shifting religious demographics, particularly the growth of younger, charismatic, and Pentecostal congregations seeking relevant and visually engaging content. Church media leaders argue that if Christianity is to communicate effectively today, it must use the same mass-media tools that shape contemporary culture. From television and radio to music, books, and websites, religious organizations are increasingly adopting professional marketing strategies. Some applaud the innovation, while others worry the methods risk reducing faith to branding. Still, proponents insist that meeting people where they are — through the media they already consume — is essential for modern evangelism. END

By David W. Virtue ROSEMONT, PA — The Primate of Central Africa, Archbishop Bernard Malango, visited the Church of the Good Shepherd and was warmly received by the Anglo-Catholic congregation. Accompanied by the Rt. Rev. Edwin Barnes, retired Bishop of Richborough, Malango spoke of the extraordinary challenges facing the Anglican Communion and emphasized global solidarity with traditionalist congregations. Because of his role on the Lambeth Commission, Malango refrained from performing episcopal acts, asking Bishop Barnes to conduct confirmations instead. He addressed financial sacrifices faced by provinces refusing funds from churches that support same-sex agendas, stressing faithfulness over material security. Clergy present expressed gratitude for the archbishop’s support and for the encouragement offered during a period of ecclesial tension. END

ST. CATHARINES, Ontario — June 4, 2004 The Anglican General Synod voted to amend a motion on same-sex blessings to include consultation with gay and lesbian members. However, a proposed amendment to include those who identify as “ex-gay” was defeated. Commentator Peter Ould criticized the decision, arguing that it excluded the voices of individuals who claim to have experienced change or healing from same-sex attraction. He accused the synod of selectively applying the language of inclusion while sidelining dissenting perspectives. The debate highlighted ongoing tensions within the Church over sexuality, identity, and pastoral care. Critics claimed the exclusion demonstrated political motivations rather than a commitment to broad listening. The decision intensified frustration among conservative members who said their experiences were ignored. END

By Jonathan Petre and Jonathan Wynne-Jones The Telegraph — June 7, 2004 Conservative archbishops representing more than half of the global Anglican Communion called for the expulsion of the Canadian Church after it described same-sex relationships as possessing “integrity and sanctity.” The move dealt a significant blow to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, as traditionalist leaders sharply criticized the Canadian General Synod’s language affirming same-sex unions. They argued that Canada should face the same consequences as the Episcopal Church in the United States, which had approved the consecration of the first openly gay Anglican bishop. The intervention has complicated efforts to preserve unity within the Communion. Although the synod delayed a formal vote on blessings, a last-minute amendment referencing the “sanctity” of such relationships angered conservative leaders. Global South primates said the term effectively placed same-sex unions on the same theological footing as marriage and pre-empted wider doctrinal debate. In a joint statement, several primates warned that such language “rewrites the Christian faith” and could deepen divisions within the worldwide Church. Church leaders acknowledged that the controversy may destabilize the Lambeth Commission’s work and could ultimately lead to a formal split within Anglicanism. END