Echoes of our own prejudice? We have to open our minds wide enough to risk hearing what we do not want to hear. For we have been taught to come to the Bible for solace. Does not Paul himself write of ‘the encouragement of the Scriptures’ (Rom. 15:4)? So naturally we cherish the hope that through our Bible reading we shall be comforted; we have no wish to be disturbed. Hence we tend to come to it with our minds made up, anxious to hear only the reassuring echoes of our own prejudice. — John R. W. Stott
Evangelical Christians may be rightly impressed by the depth and consistency of Roman Catholic moral teachings on sexuality, but our authority is the Bible. And the Bible’s clear declaration of the sinfulness of homosexuality and the inviolate nature of marriage as a union of a man and a woman puts evangelicals in the same public predicament. We also must respect the humanity of those who struggle with homosexuality and accept them with “respect, compassion, and sensitivity.” At the same time, we must remain faithful to the clear teachings of Scripture on the nature of sin. Nothing less than the Gospel is at stake. — Albert Mohler
Half of all Episcopal congregations (50.7%) are small or family-sized congregations whose average worship attendance is 70 persons or less (2007 Parochial Report data). Overall, only 63% of Episcopal parishes have at least one full-time paid clergy. Given the economic challenges, this percentage is expected to decrease. Another 25% are served by part-time clergy, unpaid clergy, retired priests, or by seminary students. The remainder report having no clergy at all or that they are served by supply or interim priests. — Chicago Bishop Jeffrey Lee
“The whole church is beginning to work towards more of a network rather than a vertical structure. We’re building it as we live it.” — Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori,
Behind both Cameron’s public pledge to export same sex marriage around the globe and the impending lawsuit against The Church of England is an aggressive and utopian secularism that rejects any Biblical standards or norms regarding human sexuality – indeed, any human behavior. — Phil Ashey, American Anglican Council
Let us look beyond the infidelities, the failure and the social breakdown towards a vision of society where couples are helped to stay together, even when it is difficult, for their own sakes, for the children, who are often the biggest sufferers and for the sake of society as a whole. For the truth is that those who have attacked marriage have put nothing in its place. — Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali
Dear Brothers and Sisters
www.virtueonline.org
August 9, 2013
There is nothing enviable about the job of being the Archbishop of Canterbury, the leader of some 70 million Anglicans. However hard you, try you won’t and can’t please everybody.
Former Rochester Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali as much as said so in a recent interview with VOL’s columnist Mary Ann Mueller, which can be seen here. http://tinyurl.com/nx9j6sj Nazir-Ali says that Archbishop Welby has an impossible task ahead of him as the 105th holder of the title. As such. the new Archbishop of Canterbury will face enormous challenges and an unenviable task, which is an impossible job for anyone.
“I think that we should pray that God will bless him in his work and in his ministry,” he said. “I think that the tensions of being the Archbishop of Canterbury between the Church of England, the State, and the Anglican Communion are probably not ones that can be resolved.”
Welby started out badly unable to entice Archbishops from the Global South to “dialogue” with him following his enthronement. He went on to sink both feet into the mire when he endorsed civil partnerships while eschewing gay marriage. This has not set well with the GAFCON folk which may have queered his pitch with them for good. We shall see.
On the plus side, he has echoed the need for gospel preaching, and taken on WONGA, a check cashing operation that soaks the poor by bolstering the credit union movement in the Church of England.
More recently he spoke to New Wine folk meeting in Somerset, England and called for a renewal of prayer and the life of religious communities, saying “there has never been a renewal of the Church in Western Europe” without it.
In the speech at the conference organized by the charismatic church organization, Welby said there had been “a fresh outpouring of the Spirit in worship” over the past 10 years, “it’s been the most amazing thing to see the depth of worship growing and deepening.”
So at one level, Welby wants to see the church renewed and, unlike his predecessor Rowan Williams who was not the slightest bit interested in renewal or evangelism as it didn’t fit his Affirming Catholicism though it made him the darling of theologians, Welby is a nuts-n-bolts evangelical who genuinely wants to see the church renewed. He knows that if the CofE is not renewed, it is finished. He once said his own former diocese, Durham, would be out of business in a decade unless there was renewal.
Making nice with Islam is a non-starter as the word ‘stan’ is now being attached to cities like London, Birmingham, and Leicester. Both religions are in the converting business. Islam is doing a better job than Christians in the UK with corresponding violence increasing against military personnel.
Archbishop Welby might well heed the words of the late Christian apologist Francis Schaeffer who said, “If you don’t fight the battle where the battle is being fought you will only beat the air with your words.”
The pansexual front line is where the battle is being fought. If Welby does not issue full, total clarity on human sexual behavior, he will ultimately lose the Anglican Communion. His headship will be nominal and the real leadership of the Anglican Communion will move to Nairobi and Abuja. He will effectively be disenfranchised.
He should know, if he hasn’t already been told, that the Global South is almost fully united against any sort of sexual behavior outside of marriage between a man and a woman — please don’t raise the old saw about polygamy; that went out the window long ago. You won’t find one single polygamous priest, bishop, or archbishop in the Anglican Church in Nigeria or Kenya or Uganda or Rwanda. Polygamy is a giant fiction.
Islamic leaders have used homosexuality in the West to condemn Christianity in Africa. They have also made considerable inroads pressing their case for marriage in various countries in Africa and persecuting Christians. Actions in one country have consequences in another.
The ballgame is his to win or lose. Time is running out for him. The GAFCON II folk, all 1300 of them, will meet in Nairobi in October. They will make it clear then if the Anglican Communion led by Archbishop Welby has a future or not. Time will tell.
*****
Is Anglican reconciliation really possible in the Anglican Communion? A headline in the Canadian Anglican Journal screamed with joy, Bishops dialogue in “great hope”.
Anglican bishops from a dozen countries met in a consultation in Cape Town, South Africa, to discuss reconciliation “with great hope,” they said in a collective statement issued at the conclusion of their meeting. The dialogue was one in a series of meetings, established to help heal divisions within the Anglican Communion.
This fourth meeting focused on reconciliation and included presentations on Truth and Reconciliation commissions in South Africa, Canada and Burundi. The 18 bishops — from Kenya, South Africa, Burundi, Zambia, South Sudan, Malawi, Ghana, the US and Canada — also heard about reconciliation efforts in The Episcopal Church, which has been divided over issues of sexuality, as well as efforts being made elsewhere in Africa and North America.
But the truth is those assembled represented the most liberal of bishops in the Anglican Communion. Their idea of reconciliation did not include any notion of the damage done by lawsuits initiated by TEC’s liberal bishops inspired by Katharine Jefferts Schori and the millions spent on property disputes. Reconciliation is a fiction. There can never be any reconciliation on basic issues of human sexuality. The Global South and the liberal/revisionist west are deadlocked and nothing short of repentance by western pan Anglican pansexualists can change that. I address this in my lead story in today’s digest.
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The General Convention of the Episcopal Church adopted the Safe Church Resolution (B008) in 2003 to “Protect Children and Youth from Abuse.” The Safeguarding God’s Children program was developed to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse in everyday life and ministry. By keeping our children safe, we can empower them to grow, receiving and responding to God’s love.
Apparently, that message is not going down well in the Diocese of Upper South Carolina. Is St. Mary’s, a politically connected Midlands, S.C.-area Episcopal congregation, rocking with Bishop Andrew Waldo in covering up child abuse? The bishop should come clean.
In response to the allegations, a super secretive meeting of the membership of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Columbia, S.C. has been called for next week. Powerful church leaders are endeavoring to keep it under wraps.
“Fr. Phil Webster and Bishop Andrew Waldo have decided in their pastoral discretion that it is important to the health of the St. Mary’s community to share certain factual information with the members of the parish concerning recent matters affecting the life of that community,” an email from the congregation’s senior warden Steve Mungo reads.
Mungo is the powerful CEO of Mungo Homes – a regional builder headquartered in Columbia, S.C. The meeting will “be open only to the membership and paid staff of St. Mary’s” and that “the matters discussed in the meeting will be strictly confidential.”
In fact to ensure confidentiality, “membership status will be verified at the door, and the signing of a legally binding confidentiality agreement will be required.
“This will be an informational meeting with limited opportunity for question and answers to clarify the information presented by Father Webster and Bishop Waldo,” the email concludes, urging members to “sit in silence to listen for the voice of God.”
They can sit in silence for just so long; then someone will talk. When they do, VOL will let you know.
*****
The Diocese of Central Gulf Coast will be looking for a new bishop. Bishop Philip M. Duncan II announced this week that he would be retiring and has called for the election of his successor. In a letter dated July 31, Bishop Duncan writes that his diocese has set July 25, 2015, as the date for the ordination and consecration of his successor.
“As I begin my retirement, I will have been ordained 45 years and will have been your bishop for more than 14 years,” the bishop wrote. “In December of 2014 I will celebrate my 70th birthday and it seems right to me, while I am still healthy and have Kathy’s support, to exercise Episcopal ministry in a different way, as we begin this new phase of our life and ministry together.”
His tenure has not been marked with success. In 1992 the diocese’s Average Sunday Attendance (ASA) was 8,042. It went up slightly in 1998 to 8,171. Then in 2008 it plunged to 6,590. The latest figure for 2011 is 6,258, a drop of 1,784 souls from 1992. During this time, the newly formed Anglican Mission in America made huge inroads when parishes split and left the diocese and TEC.
A TEC chart shows a –30.2% drop from 1992-2008, and a 23.1% drop from 2001-2011. During that time the area population increased by more than 305,000 from 1992-2008.
*****
Diocese of Dallas Bishop Suffragan Paul Lambert has been named chaplain of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew. Bishop Lambert was introduced June 20 during the Brotherhood’s National Council meeting at the Hilton Garden Inn near Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
“We’re honored Bishop Lambert will be our spiritual leader,” Brotherhood President Robert Dennis said. The Brotherhood of St. Andrew has more than 4,000 members in 390 Episcopal and Anglican churches in the U.S. and thousands more worldwide. “I’m looking forward to working with him to further the Brotherhood’s goal of bringing men and youth to Jesus Christ.”
Bishop Lambert is a Brotherhood Life Member.
“Always remember your story,” Bishop Lambert told Brothers, who are dedicated to bringing Jesus Christ to men and boys. “If you do that, nothing can stop the Brotherhood. Remember – Jesus started with just 12 men.”
*****
Another church closed in London, Ontario this past week. A Service of Deconsecration for The Church of the Hosannas (1541 Hyde Park Road,) will be held Thursday, September 5th at 7 pm, reception to follow. Bishop Terry Dance will preside over its death. Now notice the spin. In January the Church of the Hosannas and the parish of St. Aidan’s reorganized and now worship together at St. Aidan’s church on Oxford Street West. Together this new community is developing a new ministry to seniors in the Northwest of London. “We come together in September to deconsecrate a church knowing that the 125 year legacy of those who have worshipped at Hosannas is being carried forward in a new and dynamic ministry”…to the dying.
*****
The Very Hip Rev. Gary Hall, new dean of Washington’s National Cathedral, declared that he is a non-theist. In a recent Washington Post profile by Sally Quinn he said, “I describe myself as a non-theistic Christian,” Hall confided to Quinn, echoing infamous retired Episcopal John Shelby Spong, who once routinely regaled an approving Phil Donahue and other talk shows with his provocative disbelief of Christian orthodoxy. “Jesus doesn’t use the word God very much,” Hall insisted. “He talks about his Father.”
Hall asked, “Where I am now, how do I understand Jesus as a son of God that’s not magical? I’m trying to figure out Jesus as a son of God and a fully human being, if he has both fully human and a fully divine set of chromosomes…. He’s not some kind of superman coming down. God is present in all human beings. Jesus was an extraordinary human being. Jesus didn’t try to convert. He just had people at his table.”
So does this “non-theistic” Cathedral Dean believe in a personal deity who uniquely reveals Himself in Jesus Christ, as Christianity traditionally teaches? Hall sounded skeptical.
So here we have the head of the nation’s most prestigious cathedral declaring that he is NOT a theist.
Hall says he is worried about the exodus of young people from the church, though he assumes it’s pervasive for churches rather than especially true for shriveling and aging liberal old-line Protestant denominations like his own. “We’re in a period where people under 50 don’t see the church as a credible place to explore their questions about God,” he said, although there are in fact many thriving congregations with young people. They just aren’t Episcopalian. Some of them, especially in Washington, are Anglican, having quit the old Episcopal Church because of views like Hall’s.
*****
Forward in Faith welcomed the appointment of Canon Jonathan Goodall SSC as Bishop of Ebbsfleet. Fr. Jonathan brings with him significant diocesan and national experience. As a former bishop’s chaplain, as a staff member at Lambeth Palace, and as a key participant in ecumenical relationships and dialogue nationally and internationally, he is well equipped for his new role as bishop, counselor, spokesman and advocate. His expertise will complement that of the other Provincial Episcopal Visitors, the Bishop of Fulham, and the other bishops of the Society, with whom he will work closely. *****
A senior cleric in the Diocese of Monmouth was elected to serve as its new Bishop. Richard Pain (56), who has been Archdeacon of Monmouth for the past five years, was chosen to step up and lead Monmouth Diocese as its bishop.
The decision was announced by the Archbishop of Wales, Dr. Barry Morgan, as the doors of Newport Cathedral were opened, signaling the end of the meeting of the Electoral College. The 47 members of the College, which included all the Welsh diocesan bishops, had been meeting privately inside the locked Cathedral all day to elect the new bishop with a two-thirds majority. His diocese covers the south-east corner of Wales to the border with England. A source told VOL, “He’s another liberal stooge elected – but it could have been worse, it could have been Jeffrey John.” Indeed.
*****
While Wales is slowly dying, the Anglican Church in Burundi created a new diocese and consecrated a new Bishop to serve the growing numbers of Christians in the parishes found in the south-western part of the country.
The new Diocese of Rumonge, created from the southern part of Bujumbura Diocese, will be the 7th diocese of the Anglican Church of Burundi and will consist of about 50 parishes and numerous sub-parishes.
“Sunday 4th August 2013 will be a significant day for the Province of the Anglican Church of Burundi as the new diocese of Rumonge is created from the southern part of Bujumbura diocese,” said Nasasagare Guy, the Church Communicator in Burundi.
The special occasion will be used to inaugurate the new diocese and consecrate its first bishop, the Rev. Pedaculi Birakengana who has been the Provincial Secretary for the province.
In an interview, the Rev. Birakengana acknowledged that God is all-powerful and can take “weak vessels and fill them with his grace in order that unity and thanksgiving may overflow and bring Him glory.” He added: “Even though it’s a challenge to lead a new diocese, with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, it will be done.”
*****
The popular press has lately given a great deal of attention to the increasing acceptance of same sex marriage in certain parts of the country. It has also followed referenda and litigation concerning whether marriage can be understood as something between two people-with no reference to the sex of the parties-rather than exclusively between a man and a woman. The meta-narrative woven by advocates of same sex marriage is that “love is love,” regardless. The sex or gender of the people involved has no bearing on the quality of the “love” that exists between the two. That “love” is what is recognized and formalized in the act of Holy matrimony.
The increased visibility of transgender people is a natural corollary of genderless marriage. Consider recent headlines around Kristin (formerly Chris) Beck, the former Navy SEAL who underwent sex reassignment surgery. Beck insists that the armed forces must become open to transgender Americans, “The military needs to get past gender and look at people like me as a person, not just as a male or female, and understand that I can still do a great job.” Beck has chronicled her story in the book Warrior Princess.
Gay marriage removes sex and gender as a consideration in the act of uniting two people as husband and wife. It essentially argues that sex and gender are not meaningful. The same is true for transgendered people–sex and/or gender are also devoid of meaning. That is to say, for transgendered people the experience of being a sexed person is at odds with their internal psychological experience of being gendered. In other words a transgender man-unlike an intersexed individual-has male chromosomes, male reproductive anatomy, male sex hormones, and yet internally identifies as a woman. To complicate matters, transgender does not imply a certain type of sexual orientation.
We can add transgender as a new “first” to the litany of “firsts” celebrated by progressive Presbyterians. The first openly transgender man will now lead More Light Presbyterians (MLP), a LGBTQ advocacy organization active in the Presbyterian Church (USA). MLP has announced the appointment of Alex McNeill as Executive Director. McNeill comes to the position with a litany of experience among liberal religious groups including serving as Development Director for the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. McNeill’s role, according to the organization, will be to “help MLP chart a new strategic direction to help empower individuals to become advocates for LGBTQ inclusion and equality in their own congregations and communities.”
The deeper question is: Will there ever be an end to the whole sexuality nightmare that now inhabits the mainline churches and is slowly killing them?
*****
Former U.S. Senator Harry Byrd, Jr. was buried on Saturday in Winchester Virginia after a brief funeral at Christ Episcopal Church, with which the Byrd dynasty was long associated. Presiding at the funeral was his former colleague, retired U.S. Senator John Danforth, an ordained Episcopal clergyman who also presided at President Reagan’s funeral.
Being Anglican or Episcopalian was almost synonymous with being in Virginia’s upper reaches from Jamestown onward. For all of its defects–and it did have some–the kind of Episcopalianism practiced by the Byrds was a good civic religion which inculcated a sense of fairness and equity into those who led our society. Its doom came when society decided that this kind of belief and conduct structure was too bourgeois and philistine for its taste. Subsequent events have shown that the replacement has not been an improvement.
The worst part of it is that a great deal of the destruction of the old Episcopal ethic came at the hands of Episcopalians themselves, specifically, by the left-wing ministers who have come to control the church. The old Episcopal Church and people like the Byrds who inhabited it are largely gone. Those who want to make it in this life and the life to come must make other arrangements.
At the funeral at Christ Episcopal, Danforth, who said Byrd invited him to conduct his funeral several years ago, hailed Byrd for his “cheerfulness and civility.”
The old Episcopal elite is largely fading from the scene, as that denomination becomes marginal, and its historic ethos, once rooted in Virginia’s socially stratified agrarian Tidewater, is mostly forgotten in the modern world of suburbs and mega churches.
*****
Nearly four months after his son’s suicide, popular pastor Rick Warren returned to the pulpit at the Southern California mega church he founded. It was the first time Warren had taken the Saddleback pulpit since his 27-year-old son Matthew shot and killed himself on April 5.
In the sermon, first in a series called “How To Get Through What You’re Going Through,” Rick Warren said he had the perfect role model for his struggles.
“God knows what it’s like to lose a son,” Warren said.
He remained mostly composed, but choked back tears at times, including when he thanked his surviving two children.
“How proud I was of Amy and Josh, who for 27 years loved their younger brother,” Warren said. “They talked him off the ledge time after time. They are really my heroes.”
*****
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