VirtueOnline Digest, Vol 17, Issue 24

[virtueonli...@listserv.virtueonline.org]

=================================
VirtueOnline Weekly News Digest
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Today's Topics:

1. Table of Contents (David Virtue)
2. VIEWPOINTS: June 30, 2017 (David Virtue)
3. WHEATON, IL: GAFCON Archbishops Consecrate Canon Andrew Lines
in Bishop Studded Occasion (David Virtue)
4. WHEATON, IL: Thirty Global Anglican Leaders Stand in
Solidarity with Anglican Church in North America (David Virtue)
5. WHEATON, IL: Anglican Diocese of South Carolina Joins The
ACNA (David Virtue)
6. WHEATON, IL: ACNA College of Bishops approves admission of
four new bishops (David Virtue)
7. South Carolina becomes the newest and oldest ACNA diocese
(David Virtue)
8. WHEATON, IL: ACNA Archbishop says 60 New Churches Planted,
Acknowledged ASA is down (David Virtue)
9. WHEATON, IL: "Come as you are, but leave transformed by the
love of Jesus Christ" (David Virtue)
10. Gloves Come Off in Bruno Trial (David Virtue)
11. Church of England and Methodists to discuss sharing clergy
(David Virtue)
12. Archbishop of Canterbury backs cross-party Brexit commission
to 'draw poison' out of negotiations (David Virtue)
13. Welby is guilty of rank hypocrisy (David Virtue)
14. LGBT people are in desperate need of truth. I was one of them
(David Virtue)
15. An open letter to (lesbian) Jayne Ozanne, from a CIT Director
- Dermot O'Callaghan (David Virtue)
16. The Safeguarding Industry has become a Witch Hunt (David Virtue)
17. Robert Benne: Defending Orthodoxy in a Polarized Society
(David Virtue)
18. What miracle(s) does the Church (of England) need on
sexuality? (David Virtue)
19. Bishop Bruno Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place (David Virtue)
20. JOY: What Does it Mean to be a Mature Christian Disciple? -
John 16:17-24 (David Virtue)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2017 11:55:13 -0700
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: Table of Contents
Message-ID:
<1498848913.3732332....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

*************************************
VIEWPOINTS
*************************************

1. GAFCON Archbishops and Bishops lay hands on new Bishop for Scotland
and Europe?
http://www.virtueonline.org/gafcon-archbishops-and-bishops-lay-hands-new-bishop-scotland-and-europe-acna-assembly-sees-gospel

*********************************************
ANGLICAN NEWS IN NORTH AMERICA
*********************************************

2. WHEATON, IL: GAFCON Archbishops Consecrate Canon Andrew Lines in
Bisho
http://www.virtueonline.org/wheaton-il-gafcon-archbishops-consecrate-canon-andrew-lines-bishop-studded-occasion

3.WHEATON, IL: Thirty Global Anglican Leaders Stand in Solidarity with
A...
http://www.virtueonline.org/wheaton-il-thirty-global-anglican-leaders-stand-solidarity-anglican-church-north-america

4.WHEATON, IL: Anglican Diocese of South Carolina Joins The ACNA
http://www.virtueonline.org/wheaton-il-anglican-diocese-south-carolina-joins-acna

5.WHEATON, IL: ACNA College of Bishops approves admission of four new
http://www.virtueonline.org/wheaton-il-acna-college-bishops-approves-admission-four-new-bishops

6.South Carolina becomes the newest and oldest ACNA diocese
http://www.virtueonline.org/south-carolina-becomes-newest-and-oldest-acna-diocese

7.WHEATON, IL: ACNA Archbishop says 60 New Churches Planted,
Acknowledged ASA down
http://www.virtueonline.org/wheaton-il-acna-archbishop-says-60-new-churches-planted-acknowledged-asa-down

8.WHEATON, IL: Come as you are, but leave transformed by the love of
Jesus.
http://www.virtueonline.org/wheaton-il-come-you-are-leave-transformed-love-jesus-christ


*********************************************
EPISCOPAL CHURCH NEWS
*********************************************

9.Gloves Come Off in Bruno Tria
http://www.virtueonline.org/gloves-come-bruno-trial


*********************************************
CHURCH OF ENGLAND NEWS
*********************************************

10.Church of England and Methodists to discuss sharing clergy
http://www.virtueonline.org/church-england-and-methodists-discuss-sharing-clergy

11.Archbishop of Canterbury backs cross-party Brexit commission to '...
http://www.virtueonline.org/archbishop-canterbury-backs-cross-party-brexit-commission-draw-poison-out-negotiations

12.Welby is guilty of rank hypocrisy
http://www.virtueonline.org/welby-guilty-rank-hypocrisy


********************************
CULTURE WARS
********************************

13.LGBT people are in desperate need of truth. I was one of them
http://www.virtueonline.org/lgbt-people-are-desperate-need-truth-i-was-one-them

14.An open letter to (lesbian) Jayne Ozanne, from a CIT Director -
Dermot O'Callaghan
http://www.virtueonline.org/open-letter-lesbian-jayne-ozanne-cit-director-dermot-ocallaghan


********************************
AS EYE SEE IT
********************************

15.The Safeguarding Industry has become a Witch Hunt
http://www.virtueonline.org/safeguarding-industry-has-become-witch-hunt

16.Robert Benne: Defending Orthodoxy in a Polarized Society
http://www.virtueonline.org/robert-benne-defending-orthodoxy-polarized-society

17.UK: What miracle(s) does the Church (of England) need on sexuality?
http://www.virtueonline.org/uk-what-miracles-does-church-england-need-sexuality

18.Bishop Bruno Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place
http://www.virtueonline.org/bishop-bruno-caught-between-rock-and-hard-place


*********************************
DEVOTIONAL
*********************************

19. JOY: What Does It Mean To Be A Mature Christian Disciple? - John
16:17-24
http://www.virtueonline.org/2-joy-what-does-it-mean-be-mature-christian-disciple-john-1617-24


END



------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2017 11:56:09 -0700
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: VIEWPOINTS: June 30, 2017
Message-ID:
<1498848969.3732376....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

"From many quarters today we keep hearing that the Church has to
'listen' more -- to millennials, the LGBTQ community, the transgendered,
feminists, and lots of other groups with particular agendas. I get it.
It's important that we talk and listen to one another, and I know as
well as anyone that consultation is an indispensable part of the life of
the Church today. However, when Jesus commissioned the Apostles to go
forth, he instructed them to teach, not listen, didn't he?" -- Fr.
Thomas Tobin

Here's the bottom line: No matter how much we strive to engineer
ourselves into post-humanity, no matter the fortunes invested by
transhumanist venture capitalists in increasing our intelligence,
exponentially expanding our capacity to love is the only way we will
ever truly enhance the human species. --- Wesley J. Smith FIRST THINGS

The scandal of clericalism. It is only against the backdrop of the
equality and unity of the people of God that the real scandal of
clericalism may be seen. What clericalism also does, by concentrating
power and privilege in the hands of the clergy, is at least to obscure
and at worst to annul the essential oneness of the people of God.
Extreme forms of clericalism dare to reintroduce the notion of privilege
into the only human community in which it has been abolished. Where
Christ has made out of two one, the clerical mind makes two again, the
one higher and the other lower, the one active and the other passive,
the one really important because vital to the life of the church, the
other not vital and therefore less important. I do not hesitate to say
that to interpret the church in terms of a privileged clerical caste or
hierarchical structure is to destroy the New Testament doctrine of the
church. --- John R.W. Stott

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
June 30, 2017

I am writing to you all from Wheaton, Ill., where the largest gathering
of global Anglican leaders ever to gather on U.S. soil is taking place.

It is a sight to behold as more than 30 global archbishops, some 50
bishops, hundreds of clergy, and many more lay delegates process down
the aisle of the famous Edman chapel on the grounds of Wheaton College,
one of the most prestigious Christian colleges in the country, to hear
1,400 voices lifted in praise and thanksgiving to God for allowing them
to preach and declare the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

It is a powerful to watch African, Asian, South American, Australian,
Canada and American bishops declare their undying loyalty to Jesus
Christ in the face of false talk of reconciliation, inclusivity and
diversity which leads only to compromise and ultimately spiritual death.

ACNA Archbishop, Foley Beach, set the tone for this triennial Assembly
with a rousing call to mission, calling on 1400 delegates to reach out
to their neighbors with the unchanging love of Jesus Christ by using
every means possible from words and works to a mouse click...whatever it
takes, above all not to be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is
the power of God unto salvation.

I, and my colleague Mary Ann Mueller, have written several pieces on
this august gathering of world class Anglican leaders. If there is going
to be a future for Anglicanism in North America, it will only be with
the Anglican Church in North America. ACNA is maintaining and
proclaiming a clear unalloyed gospel of hope, life and salvation. God is
clearly doing a new thing.

You can read all the stories of this illustrious occasion in today's
digest.

*****

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, got the biggest push back to
his call for "radical inclusion" when the Church of England Synod met
this week. An Oxford vicar by the name of Sam Allberry, self-described
as same-sex attracted, got up and said that despite his attractions to
men, he believed that to be a true follower of Christ then one had to be
celibate, just as our Lord was. He said that his sexuality was not a
matter of identity and that has become news. "Jesus Christ never married
or had a romantic relationship and never had sex. If we say sex is
intrinsic to human fulfillment then we say Jesus was sub-human. My
church has not become a safe place for me, I was bullied at school and
am now being bullied by Synod"." He said the CofE was in the process of
pastorally undermining the church's official teaching. The vicar got a
standing ovation.

Here is the two-minute clip every homosexual and Christian should watch:
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/two-minute-clip-homosexuality-every-christian-should-watch

*****

The lunacy of sodomy reached yet another peak (are there really any more
peaks?) when the Scottish Episcopal Church announced that Bishop Mark
Strange would be the next Primus of the Church, following the departure
of David Chillingworth.

Mr. Strange, it turns out, backs homosexual marriage, (no surprise) but
then announced that he was once in love with a man, but was now married
to a woman with three kids. (You can't make this stuff up).

The 56-year-old father of three is the youngest member of the SEC's
College of Bishops and has been Bishop of Moray, Ross and Caithness
since 2007.

Bishop Strange takes over as the Anglican figurehead in Scotland after
the Scottish Episcopal Church became the first major UK church to permit
gay marriage.

You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

The saga of Los Angeles Bishop, Jon Bruno, reached new heights this week
when the prosecuting attorney against Bruno called for a forensic audit
of a corporate entity controlled entirely by Bruno, whom he described as
"a rogue bishop." It marks a sharp escalation of the battle over the
imminent sale of a huge padlocked church near the Newport Beach
waterfront.

Jerry Coughlan, a local lawyer serving as Church Attorney on behalf of
the Episcopal Church, wrote that Bruno's "most recent conduct is simply
one more manifestation of his arrogant belief that the Episcopal Church
has no rights over him and Corp Sole." Corp Sole, which holds title to
the church in question, is a corporation allowed under California law
that has only one officer and director: the incumbent Bishop of Los
Angeles, currently Bruno.

Bruno's counsel, Vice Chancellor Julie Dean Larsen, wrote this week that
the "confidential sale of the NPB Property is not contrary to any order,
representation, or understanding given by the Presiding Bishop, the
Conference Panel or the Hearing Panel in this proceeding. ... The Bishop
and the staff of the [Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles] made no
representation that the property would be maintained in 'status quo.'"

For two years, Bruno has been in conflict with congregants of St. James
the Great Church. Until June 29, 2015, when Bruno ordered the locks
changed, the congregation worshiped in a 40,000-square-foot church on
prime real estate overlooking the bridge to the yachts and mansions of
Lido Island.

The congregation, led by the Rev. Canon Cindy Voorhees, has been
worshiping in a variety of places for two years, most recently in a
community room at Newport Beach City Hall. [The Living Church]

Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry, weighed in and publicly on the
proceedings against Bruno, and formally prohibited the revisionist
bishop from selling St. James the Great, Newport Beach property that is
in dispute that might well cost Bruno his job.

You can read a number of stories on this ongoing legal drama that could
still end up with Bruno being deposed and tossed out of the church.

*****

It is the beginning of summer and income is usually low. We must have
funds to continue, so I can continue to travel to conferences for you
our readers.

Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution through PAYPAL at
the link here: http://www.virtueonline.org/support-vol/

Or you can send a snail mail check to:

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In Christ,

David



------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2017 11:56:38 -0700
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: WHEATON, IL: GAFCON Archbishops Consecrate Canon Andrew Lines
in Bishop Studded Occasion
Message-ID:
<1498848998.3732447....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

WHEATON, IL: GAFCON Archbishops Consecrate Canon Andrew Lines in Bishop
Studded Occasion
Christianity without repentance is not true Christianity, said Nigerian
Primate to 1,400 ACNA delegates

By David W. Virtue in Wheaton
www.virtueonline.org
June 30, 2017

With guests from Scotland and England observing, some 50 global Anglican
archbishops and bishops laid hands on UK-born Canon Andrew Lines and
declared him to be a Missionary Bishop for Scotland and Europe under the
theological protection of GAFCON, a global Anglican movement of orthodox
archbishops and bishops reclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ in the
Anglican Communion.

This action was roundly denounced by the Archbishop of Canterbury,
Justin Welby, as "unnecessary". Welby condemned it as an ecclesiastical
"cross-border intervention", setting in motion what could be viewed as a
threat to both his authority and the hegemony of the Church of England.

Lines was described as a "godly and well learned man" by ACNA Archbishop
Foley Beach. Lines had been received into the Diocese of the South, an
ACNA diocese, and declared a priest in good standing.

Lines swore an oath of conformity. He promised he would hold his life in
conformity to the doctrines and discipline of the Church of Christ "as
the church has received them." Lines then signed an oath.

Addressing the assembled 1,400 delegates, Nigerian Primate Nicholas
Okoh, leader of the largest province of the Anglican Communion, praised
God for the Jesus revolution. "The universal challenges today include
climate change, increase in violence and terrorism, a fierce spirit of
independence, freedom itself, human rights, migration, hunger, poverty,
HIV/AIDS and nuclear threats. In all the challenges, it has never been
easy for men and women to speak in the name of God and make disciples.
The Great Commission is not about personal advancement or personal
interest, but for the glory of God.

Okoh said that the New Testament was clear in that the disciples were
given a comprehensive authority from the Father to rebuke, encourage,
but noted that a time would come when people would not put up with sound
doctrine and gather around them teachers with "itching ears" and turn
aside from the truth.

"Take heed to the flock over which God has given you. Beware of false
teaching. In most cases, heresies and false teaching is not necessary
obvious. Falsehood is a mixture of truth and falsehood. This creature is
partly animal and partly human. Flee from such teaching.

"Keep your head in all situations. Do the work of an evangelist. People
of God, it is never true to water down the gospel message, in fact, I am
convinced that the opposite is true when we concentrate on delivering
the gospel of Jesus Christ, people will be cut to the heart and repent.
Christianity without repentance is not true Christianity. We must refute
erroneous doctrines, contend for the faith of the Church. We are to
place teaching above ceremonies which is gaining the ascendency.

"Bishops, clergy and lay people must be concerned with spreading the
gospel to all nations.

"In different parts of the world there are a great cloud of witnesses.
The Uganda martyrs, the traditional thought forms in Nigeria is another
and you, ACNA, are also paying the price.

As you go, avoid fruitless controversies and meetings, spend quality
time in spreading the gospel message. Preach and pray in the power of
the Spirit, call on the power of God in the name of the Holy Spirit and
it will revolutionize your church. If you do, the dead will rise, blind
eyes will be opened to hear what has not been heard...follow it."

"To you (Andy) Lines, I say keep going and keep moving. Jesus our Lord
who is sending you out today is the chief missioner and He makes you
more than a conqueror. I will be with you, He says to the close of the
age."

END



------------------------------

Message: 4
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2017 11:57:03 -0700
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: WHEATON, IL: Thirty Global Anglican Leaders Stand in
Solidarity with Anglican Church in North America
Message-ID:
<1498849023.3733009....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

WHEATON, IL: Thirty Global Anglican Leaders Stand in Solidarity with
Anglican Church in North America
ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach says Anglicans must see and respond to
mission harvest at their front door
The Harvest is ripe Beach told 1,400 Anglicans. New urgency to proclaim
gospel to a broken world, he says

By David W. Virtue in Wheaton, IL
www.virtueonline.org
June 28, 2017

The Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America, the Most Rev.
Foley Beach, told 1,400 delegates to the triennial Assembly of the ACNA
meeting at Wheaton College, a leading evangelical liberal arts
institution, that a harvest of souls, a mission field, lies at their
doorsteps, and they should be actively evangelizing them for the
kingdom.

Foley Beach In his sermon, Beach said that despite the fact that there
were 2.2 billion Christians, some 40,000 denominations, and 300,000
congregations, there was still a tremendous need for people to hear the
Good News of Jesus Christ in a world in turmoil.

"Our country is politically, socially and economically divided. The
Church is in confusion and it needs the Good News of Jesus Christ.
People are suffering all around us. They need healing. Mission is around
us, mission is on our doorstep."

The words of Jesus, "to go into all the world," are needed now more than
ever. Echoing Jesus' words, Beach said that the harvest is plentiful but
the laborers are few. "We need to send out fresh laborers into the
harvest."

"I see a plentiful harvest in the world. I see people who are in pain,
living in fear, lonely, acting out of anxiety, looking for meaning and
direction on our doorstep.

"Too many Christians in North America are Christians on Sunday morning.
Too many Christians receive from God but do not give [of themselves] for
God. Pray earnestly for the Lord of the harvest. We have many organizers
but not enough agonizers. The world is not only on our doorstep but it
is in our home. We can touch people with a click of a [mouse pad. We can
touch whole communities with a single click."

Beach said there was a real hunger for spiritual things. People, he
said, are going to bed hungry, suffering from addictions, sexual
brokenness and physical sickness. "Stop being dress up Christians, it is
time for Christians to be in the market place and get involved in God's
mission."

With a roar of hope and approval, some 1400 voices proclaimed in song,
"O God our help in ages past, our hope for years to come."

They affirmed their faith singing, "You will not be shaken, God of our
salvation, You are the rock we stand on."

Present, for what was described as the largest single gathering of
global Anglican leaders on American soil, were the Archbishops of
Nigeria, Nicholas Okoh; Greg Venables of South America; Mouneer Anis of
Egypt; Deng Bul Yak of South Sudan; Stanley Ntagali of Uganda; Jacob
Erasto Chimeledya of Tanzania; Moon Hing Ng of Southeast Asia; Zacharie
Masimango Katanda of the Democratic Republic of Congo; Benjamin Kwashi
of Jos; Nigeria; Onesphore Rwaje of Rwanda; Jackson Ole Sapit of Kenya;
Daniel Yinkah Sarfo of West Africa and Glenn Davies, Archbishop of the
Diocese of Sydney.

Nicholas Okoh Bishops included; Grant LeMarquand, Bishop for the Horn of
Africa, the Rt. Rev. Flavio Adair, Bishop in the Diocese of Recife,
Brazil, John Fenwick, Bishop of the Northern Diocese, The Free Church of
England, Paul Kiptoo Masaba, Bishop of Sebei Diocese, William Suarez
Mendez, Bishop of Cuba (Reformed Episcopal Church), M?rcio Medeiros
Meira, Bishop in the Diocese of Recife, Brazil, Michael Nazir-Ali
Retired Bishop of Rochester, Gary Nelson, Bishop of North West
Australia, Rennis Ponniah, Bishop of Singapore, Southeast Asia, Samy
Shehata, Area Bishop of North Africa (Egypt, Jerusalem, Middle East),
Evilasio Tenorio, Bishop in the Diocese of Recife, Brazil, M?rcio
Sim?es, Bishop in the Diocese of Recife, Brazil, Sammy Wainaina, Provost
of All Saints' Cathedral, Province of Kenya, Philip Wright, Bishop of
Belize, Province of West Indies and Hector Tito Zavala, Bishop of Chile,
Province of South America.

OTHER ECUMENICAL guests included:

The Most Rev. Craig W. Bates, Patriarch of the International Communion
of the Charismatic Episcopal Church; The Rt. Rev. John F. Bradosky,
Bishop of the North American Lutheran Church; Dr. Galen Carey, Richard
Condie of Tasmania, Australia; Vice President of Government Relations,
National Association of Evangelicals; The Most Rev. Melchisedek,
Archbishop of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania; representing The Most
Blessed Tikon (Metropolitan of All America and Canada) Orthodox Church
in America, the Most Rev. Gregory Ortiz Bishop of the Diocese of the
Northeast, the International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal
Church; The Most Rev. Janis Vanags, Archbishop of the Lutheran Church in
Latvia; The Rev. Larry Vogel Associate Executive Director Commission on
Theology & Church Relations, representing The Rev. Dr. Matthew Harrison,
President of the Lutheran Church -- Missouri Synod; The Rev. Dr. David
M. Wendel, Assistant to the Bishop for Ministry and Ecumenism, North
American Lutheran Church; The Most Rev. K.P. Yohannan, Metropolitan of
Believers Church; The Rt. Rev. Danny Yohannan, Bishop in Believers
Church; Dr. Tuvya Zaretsky, Director Staff Training and Chair, Jews for
Jesus.

END



------------------------------

Message: 5
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2017 11:57:23 -0700
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: WHEATON, IL: Anglican Diocese of South Carolina Joins The
ACNA
Message-ID:
<1498849043.3733029....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

WHEATON, IL: Anglican Diocese of South Carolina Joins The ACNA
The ACNA is planting one new church a week, said Archbishop Foley Beach

By David W. Virtue in Wheaton, Il
www.virtueonline.org
June 27, 2017

The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is planting one new church a
week, Archbishop Foley Beach told delegates to the triennial gathering
of some 1400 Anglicans, at Wheaton College, in the heartland of
America's Bible belt. The ACNA also officially received The Anglican
Diocese of South Carolina as the newest diocese with some 9,000 members
- the largest of 31 dioceses in the orthodox Anglican body. The diocese
broke away from the Episcopal Church over the authority of Scripture and
TEC's embrace of homosexuality and gay marriage in defiance of Lambeth
resolution 1.10.

The Rev. Canon Phil Ashey, of the ACNA, who introduced the vote, said
the Diocese far exceeded canonical requirements for reception.

Bishop Mark Lawrence acknowledged his diocese's pilgrimage out of TEC
and rejoiced that his diocese was now officially aligned with the ACNA.
Delegates voted unanimously to receive the diocese. After leaving TEC in
October 2012 the diocese was accepted into the Global South in August
2014 until a formal decision was made in 2016 to join the Anglican
Church in North America. That action required two formal votes.
Addressing delegates, Lawrence described the action as a homecoming for
the Diocese of South Carolina. "We as a diocese have a 300-year history
and this is a new chapter that we take up today along with you."
Lawrence described it as a convergence, and said it was a new chapter in
the life and journey of the diocese. Lawrence cited the poet Robert
Frost who said, "Home is that place where when you come there, they have
to let you in. Well you didn't have to let us in but you have and it
feels like a homecoming for the Diocese of South Carolina and for me as
her bishop."

Egyptian Archbishop Mouneer Anis and chairman of the Global South
Primates Steering Committee which provided the Diocese of South Carolina
with provisional primatial oversight within the Anglican Communion after
the Diocese of South Carolina voted to leave the Episcopal Church, said,
"It was great news to hear that the Diocese of South Carolina decided to
join the Anglican Church in North America. I'm sure this will bring joy
to the heart of God and will be a blessing to the whole continent of
North America." He praised Lawrence and said he hoped his presence would
be for the expansion of God's kingdom.

The Diocese of South Carolina sent an official delegation as a witness
to the ACNA Assembly at Wheaton College, a Christian liberal arts
college ranked by Forbes among the Top 100 Colleges and Universities in
its 2015 rankings.

Later this week some 50 Anglican bishops will lay hands on Canon Andy
Lines and declare him a Missionary Bishop for Europe under the
ecclesiastical protection of GAFCON, an act that brought forth anger and
disappointment from Justin Welby the Archbishop of Canterbury. He
accused the GAFCON archbishops of "boundary crossing".

Other speakers that will engage delegates include UK Bishop Michael
Nazir-Ali, Egyptian Archbishop Mouneer Anis, and American missiologist
Ed Stetzer and Louie Giglio. Archbishop Foley Beach is hosting the
gathering

Archbishop Beach described the gathering as the single most important
provincial conference for Anglicans in North America which has drawn
leaders from across the country, Canada and Mexico.

Beach said the theme of the Assembly, "Mission on our doorstep"
highlighted the necessity for Anglicans to reach out with the love of
Christ to lost Americans. Some 122 chaplains will also be in attendance.

END



------------------------------

Message: 6
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2017 11:57:46 -0700
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: WHEATON, IL: ACNA College of Bishops approves admission of
four new bishops
Message-ID:
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WHEATON, IL: ACNA College of Bishops approves admission of four new
bishops

ACNA Press Release
June 28, 2017

The College of Bishops approved the admission of four new members at its
June 2017 meeting in Wheaton, IL.

With the Rt. Rev. Ray Sutton's installation as the Presiding Bishop of
the Reformed Episcopal Church, The Very Rev. Walter Banek was elected as
a Suffragan Bishop to assist Bishop Sutton with episcopal
responsibilities in the Diocese of Mid-America. The Rt. Rev. Mark
Lawrence, Bishop of South Carolina, joined the College in anticipation
of the Diocese of South Carolina's admission into the Anglican Church in
North America. The Rev. Canon Andy Lines was elected as a Missionary
Bishop for Europe. In addition, The Rt. Rev. Peter Manto's election as
Co-Adjutor in the Diocese of the Central States was also approved.
Bishop Manto had previously been a Suffragan Bishop in the Diocese of
the Central States under Bishop Dan Morse.

The Very Rev Walter Banek, grew up in Chicago, IL, the son of immigrants
who came to the United States from Germany following World War II. He
studied Architecture for two years at the University of Illinois
(1970-1972) before deciding to transfer to Moody Bible Institute
(1972-1975) where he received his BA in Bible Theology. He received his
M.Div from Cummins Theological Seminary in Summerville, SC in 2000.

At Moody, the Rev. Banek met his wife, Nelda, and they were married in
1975. They moved from Chicago to Oklahoma where they first became active
in Tanglewood Reformed Baptist Church in Sand Springs, OK, and then in
1981, joined Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Tulsa, OK
(1978-1991).

He was ordained a deacon in the Reformed Episcopal Church in 1989,
ordained a priest in 1993, and unanimously elected as Suffragan Bishop
in 2017.

The Rev. Banek and his wife Nelda have four children, as well as three
adopted Russian siblings. They have seventeen grandchildren.

The Right Rev. Mark Lawrence was born in Bakersfield, CA, and was
educated at California State University, Bakersfield (BA, 1976) and
Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry (M. Div. 1980) Ambridge, PA. He
has also received honorary degrees from Nashotah House (D.D. 2008) and
Sewanee (D.D. 2009). He has ministered in a wide variety of parish
settings from suburban church plant, rural mission, inner city church,
to downtown parish in California and Pennsylvania.

In 2008, he was consecrated the 14th Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of
South Carolina at the Cathedral of Saint Luke and Saint Paul in
Charleston, SC, and led the Diocese of South Carolina to join the ACNA
by a unanimous vote in their Diocesan Convention on March 11, 2017.

Bishop Lawrence has been married to Allison Kathleen Taylor since 1973.
They have five children, and 21 grandchildren.

The Rev. Canon Andy Lines, 57, became a Christian as a teenager through
youth camp ministry. Following university studies he served in the 2nd
Royal Tank Regiment (London-based) from 1979--1988 as a lieutenant and
then a captain.

While serving in the army, Canon Lines was seconded to Operation
Raleigh. After marrying and on leaving the army, he studied at All
Nations Christian College and went to Paraguay as a missionary,
co-ordinating and teaching Bible courses for the church's lay and
ordained leaders. In October 2000, he became General Secretary (now
Mission Director/CEO) of Crosslinks. He is Chairman of the Anglican
Mission in England and also Chairman of the GAFCON UK Task Force.

The Canon Lines has been married to Mandy for 29 years and they have
three children (Alex, born in 89, and now married to Bryony, Zoe, born
in 1992, and Lizzy, born in 1995). They live in New Malden, Surrey
(England) and attend Emmanuel Church in Wimbledon.

Canon Lines enjoys reading military history, Spanish-speaking, cycling,
rugby, second-hand bookshops, and amateur dramatics.

Bishop-elect Lines will serve clergy and congregations who are outside
other Anglican structures in Europe, providing an opportunity for
ordination and oversight from a perspective of Biblical orthodoxy.
Though seated in the Anglican Church in North America College of
Bishops, he will be primarily operating overseas.

Bishop Peter Manto sees his role as "providing pastoral care for the
clergy in our diocese and the parishes they serve, strengthening the
networks of relationships between the various parishes, encouraging
cooperation among the various parishes, and initiating outreach into
each region--all the while being certain that we remain true to our Lord
and His Gospel."

In addition to being a parish pastor for over 35 years, he was the
church-planter for a non-denominational church in Mason, OH, that he
later guided to become Trinity Church in the Reformed Episcopal Church.
On Dec. 7, 2013, he was consecrated as the Bishop Suffragan of the
Diocese of the Central States (Reformed Episcopal Church and the
Anglican Church in North America).

Bishop Manto has been married to his wife, Janice, for 43 years, and
they have four adult children and nine grandchildren.

END



------------------------------

Message: 7
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2017 11:58:17 -0700
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: South Carolina becomes the newest and oldest ACNA diocese
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South Carolina becomes the newest and oldest ACNA diocese
New ACNA diocese has colonial CofE roots

By Mary Ann Mueller
VOL Special Correspondent
www.virtueonline.org
June 28, 2017

WHEATON, ILLINOIS -- At 9:42 AM on Tuesday (June 27, 2017), the Diocese
of South Carolina was unanimously voted into affiliation with the
Anglican Church of North American (ACNA), making the diocese, led by
Bishop Mark Lawrence, not only the newest diocese in the American
Anglicanism, but also the oldest jurisdiction in the newest Anglican
expression in the United States.

The new ACNA Diocese of South Carolina has its roots in Colonial America
dating back to the mid 17th century as a Church of England (CofE) plant.
It is one of nine original Episcopal dioceses which was formed following
the separation from the mother church in England following the
Revolutionary War.

South Carolina's affiliation with ACNA makes it one of five former
Episcopal dioceses which have disaffiliated with The Episcopal Church
and, eventually, realigned with ACNA. In 2009, four of the former TEC
dioceses (Pittsburgh, Quincy, Fort Worth and San Joaquin) were founding
ANCA dioceses, just as South Carolina was a founding diocese of The
Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America in 1789. The
State of South Carolina is one of the original 13 colonies which
eventually formed the United States of America.

Colonial roots

The Diocese of South Carolina has a rich spiritual history. Records show
that the first Anglican worship service took place on April 19,1660,
near-present day Beaufort. By 1680, St. Philip's, the mother church of
the Diocese of South Carolina, was being established in Charleston as a
Church of England plant, thus making the colonial-era parish the oldest
religious congregation in South Carolina. In 1706, the Church of England
was made the established church in South Carolina, giving the CofE
official status in the South Carolina colony. Other colonies which gave
the CofE establishment standing included: Virginal (1609); New York
(1693); Maryland (1702); North Carolina (1730); and Georgia (1758).

Having been ordained by the Church of England, colonial clergy were
required to pledge allegiance to the Crown and offer prayers for the
King George III and the British Parliament. However, during the
Revolutionary War, such royal loyalty and prayers became acts of
treason. After the Paris Treaty was signed in 1783 ending the
Revolutionary War, the colonial Anglicans were left with a problem as
the remnants of the American church were organized or reorganized.

Within two years following the end of the War of Independence, the
disorganized and disestablished church in South Carolina was getting on
its feet and, on May 12, 1785, it held its first church convention thus
establishing itself as a new, wholly American diocese. About the same
time (1784-1785), eight other former colonial Anglican churches were
also reorganizing including: Massachusetts, Connecticut. Pennsylvania,
Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. Finally, in 1789,
the original nine dioceses formed the first General Convention, thus
creating the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States.

The first Bishop of South Carolina was Robert Smith. He was consecrated
by Samuel Seabury (I Connecticut), Samuel Provoost, (I New York); and
James Madison (I Virginia). Bishop Smith was the sixth bishop to be
consecrated by The Episcopal Church at the beginning of a long line of
Episcopal bishops. Two hundred and thirteen years later, in 2008, Mark
Lawrence was consecrated as the XIV Bishop of South Carolina, making him
the 1,025th bishop consecrated by The Episcopal Church.

The l-o-o-n-n-n-g-g-g-g road to ACNA

Bishop Lawrence was first elected bishop in the autumn of 2006. Even
before his consecration as the XIV Bishop of South Carolina, he had a
battle with The Episcopal Church.

His first battle came in the spring of 2007 when Presiding Bishop
Katharine Jefferts Schori tossed his election out for a "technicality."
One of TEC's many foreign dioceses did not file properly its consent to
his election as an Episcopal bishop.

So, the diocese elected him a second time. There was great concern on
the part of The Episcopal Church that as bishop, Mark Lawrence, a
theological conservative, would lead the historic diocese out of TEC. He
assured them that it was his intension to remain Episcopalian and keep
the diocese in The Episcopal Church.

However, the breaking point was about to be reached for other TEC
dioceses because of the combination of the 2003 election of Vicky Gene
Robinson, a partnered gay man, as the IX Bishop of New Hampshire coupled
with the 2006 election of Katharine Jefferts Schori, the female
Presiding Bishop and Primate of The Episcopal Church. She is a woman
with questionable theology. In 2007, Bishop John-David Schofield (IV San
Joaquin) was the first to realign with his diocese to the Southern Cone
(the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of America). He was followed
in 2008 by Bishop Robert Duncan (VII Pittsburgh); Bishop Jack Iker (III
Fort Worth); and Keith Ackerman (VIII Quincy).

While other dioceses were disaffiliating with The Episcopal Church
Bishop Lawrence did all he could do to keep South Carolina in. The
Diocese of South Carolina stayed, trying to work with TEC.

"We took the steps necessary in good conscience to differentiate
ourselves from the positions and actions of the TEC leadership while
still remaining in the denomination," Canon to the Ordinary James Lewis
explained in an October, 2013 article entitled: The real story behind
our split with The Episcopal Church.

"It's true that our people were torn about TEC's shift away from
historic Anglican beliefs, but we remained part of the denomination,
until last year, when it ruled that Bishop Lawrence had 'abandoned' the
church and took steps to remove him from the leadership role to which
members of the diocese had elected him," the canon explained.

But, finally, the "unbiblical, unChristian, unAnglican unseemly" and
heretical drift of The Episcopal Church became too much. The final
breaking straw came at the 2012 General Convention, when resolutions
were passed which "embraced an understanding of human nature that is
genderless." At that time, Bishop Lawrence realized that a line had been
crossed and that action "marked a departure from the doctrine,
discipline and worship of Christ as this Church has received them."

On July 11, 2012, Bishop Lawrence addressed his fellow bishops in the
Episcopal House of Bishops for the final time.

"These resolutions, in my opinion, are disconcerting changes to the
doctrine, discipline and worship of the Episcopal Church -- to which
every bishop, priest and deacon is asked to conform, " Bishop Lawrence
told the House of Bishops. "More importantly they mark a departure from
the doctrine, discipline and worship of Christ as this Church has
received them, therein making it necessary for me to strongly
differentiate myself from such actions."

That differentiation meant that he would not return to the HOB, and most
of the South Carolina delegation left General Convention grounds early
to return to the Palmetto State. When all was said and done, Bishop
Lawrence shepherded his three-century old diocese out of The Episcopal
Church. In all, 80 per cent of the parishes agreed with their bishop's
action. He was disposed by then Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts
Schori, for his action and he is still locked in a battle over buildings
as well as the corporate name and identity of The Diocese OF South
Carolina with The Episcopal Church IN South Carolina with Domestic and
Foreign Missionary Society.

When the Diocese of South Carolina disaffiliated with The Episcopal
Church it became an independent Anglican jurisdiction. But since Bishop
Lawrence was a duly consecrated and experienced bishop he could continue
to maintain a full slate of apostolic sacramental care for the
parishioners within his separating diocese: baptism, Eucharist,
confirmation and ordination.

When the Diocese of South Carolina severed ties with The Episcopal
Church, the newly-orphaned diocese received heart-felt support from many
Anglican leaders from around the world, particularly in the Global
South, including being visited by numerous Anglican bishops to
demonstrate their support. Letters of support came from Kenya, Egypt,
Uganda, the Global South Primates, GAFCON, the Fellowship of Confession
Anglicans (FCA) and ACNA.

In addition, retired Church of England Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali (CVI
Rochester-UK) has been South Carolina's visiting bishop since 2010, a
post he still holds. Bishop Nazir-Ali was on hand Tuesday when his
"American" diocese became a formal part of ACNA. He is scheduled to give
a plenary session teaching on The Gospel in Culture during the ACNA
Assembly.

"Many members of the global Anglican Communion feel as we do that TEC
has departed from historic Anglican beliefs," Canon Lewis explained in
his 2013 article. "Most agree TEC has embraced a radical fringe
scriptural interpretation that makes following Christ's teachings
optional for salvation."

The South Carolina bishop carefully bided his time. He was not initially
jumping from TEC into any other Anglican jurisdiction. He quietly and
methodically sought the Lord's will for the next step the diocese was to
take. He prayed, he sought quiet retreat, he waited for the Lord to
speak, and he remained faithful to his vows to the Lord as a priest and
as a bishop. And he remained faithful to his people as their bishop and
leader.

During the time of patient waiting, both he and more that 100 of his
priests and deacons were defrocked by The Episcopal Church.

After going it alone for a couple of years, Bishop Lawrence realized the
need to somehow be connected canonically with global Anglicanism and
that the Lord was leading him to seek provisional primatial oversight.
This came through the umbrella of the Global South Primates who, in
2014, scooped the Diocese of South Carolina into their protective care
and reconnected Bishop Lawrence and his diocese with the wider Anglican
Communion.

Behind the scenes, and while still at the 2007 Primates' Meeting -- one
of the instruments of Anglican unity -- the Global South Primates'
Steering Committee realized the need to form a Primatial Oversight
Council to provide conservative Episcopal dioceses with primatial
oversight.

In 2006, when Katharine Jefferts Schori was elected as the XXVI
Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, nine conservative Episcopal
dioceses: Fort Worth, Dallas, Quincy, Pittsburgh, San Joaquin, South
Carolina, Central Florida, Albany, and Springfield petitioned Archbishop
of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, for Alternative Primatial Oversight
(APO). Their collective plea fell on deaf ears. Within a short period of
time, the dioceses of San Joaquin, Pittsburgh, Fort Worth and Quincy
left. The dioceses of Dallas, Central Florida, South Carolina, Albany
and Springfield remained.

"Recognizing the faithfulness of Bishop Mark Lawrence and the Diocese of
South Carolina, and in appreciation for their contending for the faith
once for all delivered to the saints, the Global South welcomes them as
an active and faithful member within the Global South of the Anglican
Communion, until such time as a permanent primatial affiliation can be
found," wrote Egyptian Archbishop Mouneer Anis in 2014. The Archbishop
is also the Chairman of the Global South Primates' Steering Committee.

Chile Archbishop, Hector Zavala, then Presiding Bishop of the Anglican
Church of the Southern Cone of America, welcomed the Diocese of South
Carolina as his protectorate while Bishop Lawrence continued to seek
God's ultimate will for the disaffiliated diocese. Archbishop Zavala was
one of the many Global South bishops who visited the Diocese of South
Carolina during its travels in uncharted territory, to provide
encouragement and support to Bishop Lawrence and his flock.

However, the Anglican Communion Office takes a dim view of Southern Cone
bishops providing oversight for dioceses and ecclesiastical bodies
located outside of the Anglican Church of South America province which
includes Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.

Once Bishop Lawrence found safety in the Southern Cone, just as the
realigning dioceses of San Joaquin, Fort Worth, Quincy and Pittsburgh
had previously, he could turn his full attention to discerning God's
next step for the extra-provincial diocese.

In 2016, another Anglican diocese separated from its Brazilian parent.
The Anglican Church -- Diocese of Recife was born when Anglican
Episcopal Church of Brazil, like the American Episcopal Church,
"followed increasingly the direction of a liberal and revisionist
theology that moved away from the Holy Scriptures preaching another
gospel."

Now the Diocese of Recife is a part of GAFCON.

ACNA comes into being

The Anglican Church in North America was formed in 2009 as a result of
the hard work that Pittsburgh Bishop Duncan (I ACNA) did to bring
together various factions of the Anglican Continuum into a unified
church body in North America. When ACNA was constituted, the four former
TEC dioceses became founding dioceses of the new Anglican entity in the
United States and Canada.

Slowly Bishop Lawrence was drawn toward ACNA. In 2013, a task force was
established to explore affiliation with the Anglican Church in North
America and the affiliation dance was begun. By 2015, the diocese
explored more deeply the possible compatibility with an affiliation with
ACNA.

ACNA may not be an "official" province of the Anglican Communion, but it
is a provincial member of GAFCON and the Fellowship of Confessing
Anglicans. Archbishop Foley Beach (II ACNA) is also recognized as a
seated and voting Global South primate and he participated in the 2016
Primates' Gathering at Lambeth. The Primates' Gathering was called by
Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, to try an initial polite
conversation between the various Anglican primates. In the recent past,
Global South primates have boycotted Primates' Meetings or refused to
join in fellowship with then Episcopal Presiding Bishop, Katharine
Jefferts Schori.

Bishop Lawrence liked what he saw in ACNA. He was impressed with ACNA's
focus on evangelism and mission, which is similar to his own. He also
was pleased to see Archbishop Beach become a valued member of the GAFCON
and voting member of the Primates' Council. It is also important for him
to again be a part of a group of bishops. As a member of the ACNA
College of Bishops, he'll be in the company of 65 brother bishops, some
of whom he already knows from the Episcopal House of Bishops, including:
William Wantland (IV Eau Claire); Edward MacBurney (VII Quincy); Andrew
Fairfield (X North Dakota); Peter Beckwith (X Springfield); Jack Iker
(III Fort Worth); Keith Ackerman (VIII Quincy) Robert Duncan (VII
Pittsburg); and David Bena (Albany-suffragan).

By the time the 2017 Annual Convention rolled around, Bishop Lawrence
was ready to shepherd his diocese into ACNA, five years after an earlier
diocesan convention voted to disaffiliate from The Episcopal Church and
the diocese entered into the wilderness.

Tuesday morning ACNA responded

American Anglican Council Canon, Phil Ashey, presented the "first action
item" of the Provincial Council's meeting after Archbishop Beach called
for the reception and seating of the Diocese South Carolina as a part of
the Provincial Assembly, Provincial Council and Anglican Church in North
America.

Canon Ashey explained that the Diocese of South Carolina made a very
detailed 122-page application for admittance to the Anglican Church in
North America. He was impressed with the paperwork and called it
"exceptional in every regard," and that the jurisdiction under the
oversight of Bishop Lawrence more than exceeded the minimum requirements
for joining as a diocese.

ACNA canon law requires a new diocese have at least a dozen
congregations with an individual ASA of 50 and a total diocesan ASA of
one thousand. The Diocese of South Carolina far exceeds those minimum
requirements. It has 53 congregations, of which 39 of them have an
individual ASA of 50 or more with an diocesan ASA of 9,085, making it
one of ACNA's larger dioceses. Other ACNA dioceses with more than 50
congregations include: the Anglican Network in Canada (72); Pittsburgh
(70); Fort Worth (62); and the Great Lakes (58).

The Diocese of South Carolina has 53 congregations served by 138 clergy
ministering to 22,149 baptized members. There is also a 2017 diocesan
budget of $2,248,004. With the addition of more than 50 new worshipping
communities, ACNA's congregation count is pushed past the one thousand
mark, the goal ACNAs founding archbishop had hoped would be met quickly,

ACNA's Governance Task force, which combed though the Diocese of South
Carolina's application, made an unanimous recommendation to the
Executive Committee that the diocese be admitted. The Committee
concurred, so Canon Ashey presented the Diocese of South Carolina's
application for vote and approval with "great joy" to the Provincial
Council.

When Archbishop Beach called for the vote, he was met with a loud and
enthusiastic "Aye!" He was met with total silence when he asked, "All
opposed?"

When Archbishop Beach said "motion carried", the room exploded in a
thunderous, extended standing ovation.

Bishop Lawrence and his flock had finally found a spiritual home. The
Anglican Church of North America opened its doors to the Anglican
pilgrims.

"It gives me great pleasure to witness the move of the Anglican Diocese
of South Carolina to become an integral constituent of ACNA," Archbishop
Mouneer Anis said following the vote, calling Bishop Lawrence "a
faithful man of God" and also said that South Carolina's affiliation
with ACNA "will bring joy to the heart of God."

A new chapter

Looking grayer, Bishop Lawrence, the newest member of the ACNA College
of Bishops, addressed the assembly with a voice full of emotion.

Quoting poet Robert Frost, he said: "Home is that place that when you
come to it, they have to let you in."

"Well ... you didn't have to let us in, but you have, and it feels today
like a homecoming for the Diocese of South Carolina and for me, the
bishop," continued Bishop Lawrence. "This is a new chapter we take up
today along with you."

The Diocese of South Carolina has written many chapters since the Gospel
was first spoken by a Church of England priest on South Carolina soil in
1660.

"We start a new chapter that will be formative for us and trust that it
will be fruitful for the Anglican Church in North America," he said,
explaining that it is not only men and women who have God-given
vocations, but parishes do, provinces do and dioceses do.

Bishop Lawrence and the Diocese of South Carolina have found their new
vocation as a part of the Anglican Church in North America in their
continuing journey to proclaim the Gospel, celebrate the Sacraments and
faithfully live out what God has revealed as the diocese's destiny after
five years of prayer and struggle and sacrifice and waiting.

"Now that we're home ..." he concluded, "... it is a place that when we
come here you have to let us in."

Following laughter, applause and a short prayer of thanksgiving, the
audience spontaneously broke into the full-throated four-part singing of
the Doxology.

By Tuesday evening, the Diocese of South Carolina was listed as ACNA's
30th diocese on Wikipedia.

Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular
contributor to VirtueOnline



------------------------------

Message: 8
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2017 11:58:38 -0700
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: WHEATON, IL: ACNA Archbishop says 60 New Churches Planted,
Acknowledged ASA is down
Message-ID:
<1498849118.3733157....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

WHEATON, IL: ACNA Archbishop says 60 New Churches Planted, Acknowledged
ASA is down
Always forward, everywhere forward, always forward for the sake of Jesus
Christ, declared Beach

By David W. Virtue in Wheaton
www.virtueonline.org
June 30, 2017

One new Anglican church was planted each week across North America last
year, ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach told 1,400 delegates to the triennial
Assembly being held at Wheaton College this week. He acknowledged that
Average Sunday Attendance was down, but said many churches had not
submitted congregational reports for quality control. He expected the
figure to rise.

He said God continues to bestow His grace on ACNA and said there were
now 1,000 congregations, 30 dioceses (South Carolina will make 31) plus
a jurisdiction for chaplains. ACNA has 52 active bishops, 1,700 clergy
with ministries across North America, including Canada, Mexico and Cuba.

Beach called on dioceses to be "church planting entities and machines,
ministering to those who have the least ministering to them." He said
the ACNA was endeavoring to raise $2 million (a matching grant of $1
million is on the table) for mission and the province was now "better
place financially." The Lord has provided the funds we have needed with
hundreds of small donations, he said.

Looking to the future, Beach acknowledged the presence of over 200 youth
at the Assembly, acknowledging there was a long way to go, "but we are
headed in the right direction."

He said the ACNA was now being taken "very seriously" by a number of
ecumenical bodies and other Christian denominations who held closely to
the gospel.

Beach said the Catechism review committee was getting closer and would
finish by early 2018.

On the Marriage Task Force, the archbishop said it was vital to take
marriage back from the culture, to preach biblical, Christian marriage
to our children. "They need to be exposed to be God's plan for marriage
and family life."

On the Task force on Holy Orders, he said David Hicks, Bishop Ordinary
of the Diocese of the NorthEast and Mid-Atlantic of the Reformed
Episcopal Church, is working to produce a final draft for the bishops.
The Task Force notes that the Anglican tradition has been strengthened
by the existence of "three strands" of theological perspective over time
-- Anglo-Catholic, Evangelical/Reformed, and Charismatic. The existence
of these three strands has provided a level of flexibility and breadth
in Anglicanism, which has been the hallmark of our tradition.

Beach made an impassioned plea following the Scottish Episcopal Church's
acceptance of homosexual marriage and said they had rejected "God's
Word."

Beach noted that in some Church of England dioceses, they have already
allowed some of their (Scottish) teaching (on sexuality) and events to
occur. "Many have cried out for help for years." In response to that
unbiblical teaching, the GAFCON primates would now send a Missionary
Bishop to Scotland and Europe, he said.

END



------------------------------

Message: 9
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2017 11:59:00 -0700
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: WHEATON, IL: "Come as you are, but leave transformed by the
love of Jesus Christ"
Message-ID:
<1498849140.3733189....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

WHEATON, IL: "Come as you are, but leave transformed by the love of
Jesus Christ"
"Come and see, watch and listen" says ACNA/GAFCON bishop, to ACNA
Assembly

By Bishop Bill Atwood
www.virtueonline.org
June 30, 2107

NOTE: Bishop Atwood gave this brief but powerful message to some 1,400
delegates at the ACNA Assembly this week which saw more than 30 global
Anglican leaders including 50 bishops in attendance.

You will see a message here at this ACNA Assembly which should be
ubiquitous throughout our Communion, but sadly is not. Here there is
this Gospel message that says, 'Welcome! Come as you are, and let the
love of Jesus Christ transform you to become the one you were created to
be--whom you long to be but may have thought it was impossible. Come
join this happy band who are discovering Gospel and Kingdom life that is
so fulfilling, it must be shared."

But there is a competing message echoing in too many institutional halls
that says, "Come as you are, stay as you are, and celebrate whatever you
have been and done." This tragic message leaves people bound in the
tangles of their sin with no hope that they might find the better way
for which they long.

And so we observe the stark difference between light and dark, life and
death. Sadly, many in the culturally compromised institution are so
deeply committed to preserving structural unity, they are not only deaf
to the Gospel message, they are hostile to it and those who declare it.

Listen to what institutional leaders across the globe are saying. You
will hear two starkly different messages. There is a great common Gospel
theme among those here in the ACNA--GAFCON and international voices
gathered here. There is encouragement--even commissioning--to take the
Gospel into the world. It is why we need GAFCON in this hour. It is the
only body in the Anglican Communion in which there is full agreement
about Biblical faith. But, then, listen closely to others who speak from
institutional structures, how their message differs and exalts its
structures rather than the Gospel. Listen well, and choose the direction
you will go. It is not a theoretical, philosophical decision. It is one
of eternal consequence.

The Rt. Rev. Dr. Bill Atwood is Dean of the ACNA for International
Affairs and Bishop of The International Diocese, ACNA. He is also a
GAFCON/GFCA Ambassador



------------------------------

Message: 10
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2017 11:59:21 -0700
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: Gloves Come Off in Bruno Trial
Message-ID:
<1498849161.3733210....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
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Gloves Come Off in Bruno Trial

By Kirk Petersen
THE LIVING CHURCH
http://livingchurch.org/
June 28, 2017

The attorney who is prosecuting disciplinary proceedings against Bishop
J. Jon Bruno of Los Angeles has called for a forensic audit of a
corporate entity controlled entirely by Bruno, whom he describes as "a
rogue bishop." It marks a sharp escalation of the battle over the
imminent sale of a huge padlocked church near the Newport Beach
waterfront.

A forensic audit is a rigorous examination of financial records
conducted, among other reasons, to gather evidence of suspected fraud or
embezzlement.

Jerry Coughlan, a local lawyer serving as Church Attorney on behalf of
the Episcopal Church, wrote that Bruno's "most recent conduct is simply
one more manifestation of his arrogant belief that the Episcopal Church
has no rights over him and Corp Sole." Corp Sole, which holds title to
the church in question, is a corporation allowed under California law
that has only one officer and director: the incumbent Bishop of Los
Angeles, currently Bruno.

Bruno's counsel, Vice Chancellor Julie Dean Larsen, wrote this week that
the "confidential sale of the NPB Property is not contrary to any order,
representation, or understanding given by the Presiding Bishop, the
Conference Panel or the Hearing Panel in this proceeding. ... The Bishop
and the staff of the [Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles] made no
representation that the property would be maintained in 'status quo.'"

Since two years ago this week, Bruno has been in conflict with
congregants of St. James the Great Church. Until June 29, 2015, when
Bruno ordered the locks changed, the congregation worshiped in a
40,000-square-foot church on prime real estate overlooking the bridge to
the yachts and mansions of Lido Island.

The congregation, led by the Rev. Canon Cindy Voorhees, has been
worshiping in a variety of places for two years, most recently in a
community room at Newport Beach City Hall.

The lockout occurred less than three months after Bruno signed a
contract to sell the property for $15 million, without previously
notifying the congregation or the diocese's standing committee. That
sale, to a developer who planned to raze the building and build luxury
condominiums, fell through after members of the congregation launched
civil and disciplinary actions.

But earlier this month, after learning that Bruno might be again trying
secretly to sell the property, the disciplinary Hearing Panel urgently
directed Bruno to disclose "the exact status and related documentation
of the alleged sales contract."

Bruno's counsel responded by the deadline with a list of legal and
canonical objections to the inquiry, without mentioning any possible
sale. The Hearing Panel, chaired by Bishop Herman Hollerith IV of
Southern Virginia, sanctioned Bruno on June 17 and ordered him not to
close any sale while the panel continued its deliberations.

The two-page sanction document said the secret sale plans, and the
failure to provide information to the panel, "is disruptive, dilatory,
and otherwise contrary to the integrity of this proceeding." Bruno's
counsel later confirmed the planned sale, saying the confirmation had
been forbidden under a confidentiality agreement with the buyer,
Burnham-Ward Properties LLC. The sale, for an amount not yet disclosed,
is scheduled to close July 3.

Coughlan, who had been affable and humorous throughout 20 hours of
public testimony in March, pulled no punches in his latest brief. He
described Bruno as "a rogue bishop" with a "personal vendetta against a
congregation."

Coughlan wrote that the secrecy and timing of the proposed sale
"necessarily leads to serious questions about his motive. Is he covering
up some financial impropriety? Does he stand to gain personally from
this sale? Respondent's conduct is so suspicious that the Church
Attorney now believes a forensic audit of the books of Corp Sole is
necessary."

The brief was filed in response to Bruno's appeal of the June 17
sanction.

The Hearing Panel has not said when it expects to rule on the original
charges against Bruno, which include misrepresentation and "conduct
unbecoming a member of the clergy." The panel has the authority to oust
Bruno as bishop and even to strip him of his priesthood.

One side or the other is likely to appeal any ruling the Hearing Panel
makes, which means the conflict will continue to dominate the closing
months and years of Bruno's episcopacy, which began in 2002. Like all
Episcopal priests, Bruno, 70, is required to retire by the time he turns
72. His successor has been elected. The Rev. John H. Taylor will be
consecrated as bishop coadjutor on July 8.

***

Bishop J. Jon Bruno and the church attorney prosecuting his case have
responded to a church panel's sanctions on the sale of St. James the
Great in Newport Beach. The dueling motions can be seen here.

+BRUNO 29-PAGE APPEAL
LINK: https://www.scribd.com/document/352453325/Bruno-Appeal#from_embed

EPISCOPAL CHURCH ATTORNEY'S 16-PAGE RESPONSE TO +BRUNO MOTION TO END
SANCTIONS
LINK:
https://www.scribd.com/document/352449097/Church-Attorney-s-Response-to-Bruno-Motion-to-End-Sanctions#from_embed



------------------------------

Message: 11
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2017 11:59:57 -0700
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: Church of England and Methodists to discuss sharing clergy
Message-ID:
<1498849197.3733272....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Church of England and Methodists to discuss sharing clergy

By Callum May
BBC News
June 27, 2017

Methodists and the Church of England are to discuss allowing ministers
and priests to serve in each other's Churches.

The step would in effect end a division in protestant Christianity that
has existed in Britain since the 1700s.

The plans have been released jointly by the Churches at a time when they
have lost worshippers.

They require approval from both the Church of England and Methodist
governing bodies.

The Methodist Church claimed 195,000 members last year, compared with
263,000 in 2007, while numbers attending Church of England services have
fallen by 12% in the last decade.

The proposals are included in a report produced by both Churches called
"Mission and Ministry in Covenant".

Under the plans, a new Methodist "president-bishop" would join Anglican
bishops to ordain Methodist ministers to serve in the Church of England.

Ministers and Anglican priests would then be able to serve in either
Church.

Some local congregations already share premises, but these plans
represent the first time since the death of John Wesley that Anglicans
and Methodists will be able to share ministry.

Wesley was an Anglican whose teaching led to a split in the Church of
England, after his death in 1791, and the foundation of the Methodist
church.

The Rev Gareth Powell, the secretary of the Methodist conference, said:
"Methodists and Anglicans urgently need a set of proposals to enable the
two Churches to move towards fuller communion, sharing more profoundly
in mission and ministry.

"The model of a president-bishop in these proposals... is a deeply
Methodist way for John Wesley's people to engage at every level with the
Church of England in mutual planning for pastoral oversight and
Christian mission."

The Rt Rev Christopher Cocksworth, the Bishop of Coventry, said the
plans were "workable".

He said: "The solution is built on the centrality of the historic
episcopate and the bishop as minister of ordination.

"The scheme as proposed will enable dioceses, districts and local
churches to engage in creative pastoral planning for the good of the
mission of God in this country."

The plans will need to be approved by the Methodist conference and
Church of England General Synod before any changes are made.

More from the Church Times:
https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2017/30-june/news/uk/new-unity-scheme-proposes-methodist-bishops-and-anomalous-priests#.WVOoH1Zdy4A.email



------------------------------

Message: 12
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2017 12:00:15 -0700
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: Archbishop of Canterbury backs cross-party Brexit commission
to 'draw poison' out of negotiations
Message-ID:
<1498849215.3733336....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Archbishop of Canterbury backs cross-party Brexit commission to 'draw
poison' out of negotiations

By Jack Maidment
THE TELEGRAPH
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
June 25, 2017

The Archbishop of Canterbury has urged Theresa May to set up a
cross-party commission to advise her on Brexit to "draw much of the
poison" from negotiations.

The Rt Rev Justin Welby said talks over the UK's withdrawal from the
European Union will be "fierce", that differences in what should be
aimed for "divide our politicians and our society" and that a hung
Parliament will almost inevitably bring about an "understandable
temptation for every difference to become a vote of confidence".

But he warned that it would be a "disaster" if the UK's negotiators went
into bat against the "united determination of the EU" without having the
"confidence" that they have the full backing of Britain.

As a result he has backed calls for a cross-party approach to Brexit
talks.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday the Anglican leader contrasted the
inspiring "spirit of Grenfell" which has been shown in the wake of the
tower block fire with the divisive "zero-sum, winner takes all" rows
over Brexit in Westminster.

He said: "We need the politicians to find a way of neutralising the
temptation to take minor advantage domestically from these great events.

"We must develop a forum, or commission, or some political tool, which
can hold the ring for the differences to be fought out, so that a
commonly agreed negotiating aim is achieved.

"The future of this country is not a zero-sum, winner takes all
calculation but must rest on the reconciled common good arrived at
through good debate and disagreement."

Referring to the prospect of a commission, which has been floated by a
number of senior politicians, the Archbishop said: "It would be under
the authority of Parliament, especially the Commons.

"It would need to be cross-party and chaired by a senior politician, on
Privy Council terms.

"It could not bind Parliament, but well structured it could draw much of
the poison from the debate."

The archbishop warned that failure to arrive at a consensus on the UK's
Brexit aims risked turning the UK "inwards" and could "forfeit the
opportunity to be a country the world admires".

But Priti Patel, the International Development Secretary, rejected the
Archbishop's stance.

She told BBC Radio Five's Pienaar's Politics: "I think the point is,
this isn't about commissions. The public voted last year to leave the
European Union.

"Our job as Government now is obviously securing the right deal for the
country and not re-running those arguments of Remain and Leave from last
year."

END



------------------------------

Message: 13
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2017 12:00:35 -0700
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: Welby is guilty of rank hypocrisy
Message-ID:
<1498849235.3733339....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Welby is guilty of rank hypocrisy

By Jules Gomes
http://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/
June 25, 2017

Justin Welby has thrown George Carey to the wolves. Homo homini lupus
est! Man is wolf to man. The Archbishop of Canterbury is wolf to his
predecessor. Justin Welby has asked George Carey to step down as
assistant honorary bishop of Oxford, after the Moira Gibb report found
that senior figures in the Church of England colluded for over 20 years
with sexual predator Bishop Peter Ball.

Has justice been done? Is this yet another juggling trick at the
Barchester Episcopal Circus? If justice has been done, why has the Rev
Graham Sawyer, the heroic victim at the centre of the abuse scandal,
uttered these nightmarish words: 'The church continues to use highly
aggressive legal firms to bully, frighten and discredit victims ... In
my own case, I continue to endure cruel and sadistic treatment by the
very highest levels of the church.'

George Carey has stepped down. So why is Sawyer is still facing 'cruel
and sadistic treatment by the very highest levels of the church'? Is he
pointing his finger at the current archbishops Justin Welby and John
Sentamu? In that case, should Justin and John swallow their cyanide
pills and walk the plank?

All abuse--sexual, emotional, physical or psychological--is an
abomination. The victims of abuse cry out to heaven for vindication.
When institutions collude to silence them, heaven weeps. When bishops
perpetrate the most perverse of abusive acts, and other bishops protect
them, covering up their sins under cope and mitre, heaven bleeds.

The Church of England smears saints, and shields scoundrels. I addressed
the Ball scandal in a column this time last year, and pointed out how
while the CofE was eulogising Bishop Ball and protecting his image, it
was demonising Bishop George Bell of Chichester. Ball, the pervert, was
busy fiddling with boys, while Bell, the hero, was standing with
Dietrich Bonhoeffer against Adolf Hitler.

Justice has been done. That's what Welby wants the world to believe. Two
previous archbishops have apologised. But somewhere there is a smelly
dead rat. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. The ghost of King
Hamlet is hovering over Lambeth Palace. It is the ghost haunting Wobbly
Welby for his hypocrisy. "Hypocrisy in the highest! Pietas ficta in
excelsis!" it wails in a shrieking tremolo, pointing a shaking finger at
wavering Welby.

"Hypocrite" is made up of two words--hupo (under) and krino (to judge).
It literally means, "to judge under" as a person judging someone from
behind a screen or mask. The true identity of the person is covered up.
In Greek drama, actors held over their faces oversized masks painted to
represent the character they were portraying. The 'hypocrite' is one who
plays a part on the stage. 'You hypocrite, first take the log out of
your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of
your brother's eye,' says Jesus.

Welby's blatant hypocrisy came to the fore when he dished out bonuses of
?1 million to the Church of England's 10 senior fund managers last
month. 'The payments brought charges of hypocrisy from City critics who
say the CofE has opened a gap between what it tells other people to do
and what it does itself,' wrote journalist Steve Doughty.

So why did Welby preach hellfire and brimstone against the bonus culture
when he was on the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards? 'What
is it essentially about bankers that means they need skin in the game?
We don't give skin in the game to civil servants, to surgeons, to
teachers,' he said in 2013. So why did Welby not give bonuses to
hardworking vicars in inner-city parishes? Ironically, at that time
Welby 'accused banks of "hypocrisy" in continuing to pay their staff big
bonuses while insisting they are undergoing a cultural overhaul.'

Welby's hypocrisy took a quantum leap forward earlier this month when he
wrote to the Primates of the Anglican Communion criticising the
appointment of Canon Andy Lines as the new missionary bishop for GAFCON.
Welby dusted off the ancient Canons of the Council of Nicaea (325 AD),
claiming that the creation of such missionary bishops was a grave
violation of Canons 15 and 16. Andy Lines was about to commit the mortal
sin of "border crossing" (trespassing into another bishop's diocese).

Here, Welby is being a hypocrite on two counts. First, on BBC Radio 4 he
blamed terrorism on religious scriptures that have 'been twisted and
misused.' Isn't this precisely what he is doing with the Canons of
Nicaea? Second, Canon 15 forbids the transfer of bishops, presbyters and
deacons (not just bishops!) from one diocese to another. In that case,
Welby needs to return to the diocese where he was first ordained as
deacon and step down as Archbishop of Canterbury! Or at least return to
the See of Durham, where he was bishop before he made his career move to
Canterbury, which was precisely the reason why Canon 15 was framed! It
was to prevent bishops falling into the trap of careerism. If a bishop
moved to another bishopric, the council decreed, he must go back. A
council in Alexandria called a bishop who moved to another diocese an
"adulterer."

Above all, Welby's rank hypocrisy stinks to high heaven regarding his
own presence at the camps where the pervert John Smyth was abusing
Christian boys. Initially Welby denied any knowledge of the abuse even
though he was dormitory officer at the Iwerne Christian camp during the
mid-1970s where John Smyth, the camp's chairman, had groomed and beaten
more than 20 boys and young men. Welby said that he had 'no contact'
with the organisation between moving to Paris in 1978 and his return to
the UK in 1983. However, this month Welby changed his tune after fresh
evidence emerged that he had indeed had come back to the UK and given a
talk in 1979 to people at the camp, which was also attended by Smyth.

Numerous questions remain unanswered. The Gibb Report also points a
finger at former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. If Welby has
asked Carey to step down as assistant bishop, why has he not asked
Williams to surrender his licence to practise as an Anglican priest?
Moira Gibb also states nine other bishops who were part of the cover-up.
Why are they not named? Are they still in ministry? Will Welby ask them
to step down as well?

Yes, Lord Carey and other leaders of the Church of England behaved very
poorly by the standards of today. The Gibb Report shows that this was as
much about confusion as collusion. Other arms of the State responsible
for enforcing the law against Ball colluded with him and covered up his
crimes by handing him a slap on the wrist and not a hefty custodial
sentence. But time and time we discover that in every institution of the
State, the church and the voluntary sector and even the BBC and
footballing authorities handled victims of abuse appallingly.

Gibb herself admits that the Church of England had no safeguarding
policy at the time that Peter Ball's crimes came to light. It was a year
later that such a policy came forward. Now we are weighed down by
policies. And yet, clergy are abused, bullied and harassed, often by
their own bishops. But Welby chooses to ignore the unanswered questions
that constitute the heart of darkness in his church. Instead of
addressing the state of the Church of England, Welby and Sentamu have
deployed a weapon of mass distraction and are using special powers to
call for an emergency debate on the 'unanswered' questions about the
state of the nation at the Church of England's ruling general synod next
month. General Synod's agenda has zero mention of the Gibb Report.
However, its farcical agenda, which borders on the script of a Peter
Rogers' "Carry On Church" movie, will discuss reaffirmation of baptismal
vows for transgender people and banning therapy for homosexual people
who are seeking to become heterosexual. So it is okay for a male to
become female but it is not okay for a homosexual to even seek to become
heterosexual? Sheesh!

The Gibb Report has very strong words that the Church of England will
need to take very seriously if there is to be any change at all. 'We
were struck during this review by a manifest culture of deference both
to authority figures in the Church, particularly bishops, and to
individuals with distinctive religious reputations--or both. This
deference had two negative consequences. Firstly, it discouraged people
from "speaking truth to power." Then, on the few occasions where people
did speak out and were rebuffed by a bishop--the summit of the
hierarchy--there was nowhere else to go.'

The actor's mask hiding Welby's face is slipping. Some day he will have
to go. Unless Welby goes, there will be nowhere else to go.



------------------------------

Message: 14
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2017 12:00:54 -0700
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: LGBT people are in desperate need of truth. I was one of them
Message-ID:
<1498849254.3733379....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

LGBT people are in desperate need of truth. I was one of them

OPINION

By Doug Mainwaring
https://www.lifesitenews.com/
June 28, 2017

LGBT people are starved of the truth of the Gospel in today's world. I
should know. I was one of them.

I divorced my wife, left the Church and lived as a gay man for more than
a decade. I even publicly promoted same-sex marriage. Since then,
attracted first by the irresistible pull of natural law and then the
Gospel, I have returned to my wife, pulled our family back together,
returned to full communion with the Catholic Church and am now a
marriage, family, and children's rights activist.

Increasing numbers in the church think it is a kindness to refrain from
speaking truthfully to the same-sex attracted and gender-challenged.
This is a dangerous untruth, jeopardizing millions of lives.

Cardinal Sarah recently made an impassioned plea to his brother priests
and bishops to stop depriving the same-sex attracted from the 'hard
parts of the Gospel' and to instead lavish us with its life-giving truth
that we too might live in freedom as sons and daughter of God.

It was the truth of the Gospel -- especially the hard truths about
needing to repent and change my life -- that drew me back to the
Catholic Church.

Late March 2013 was a busy time for me. My wife and I took our family
plus three of our youngest son's high school varsity football team
friends to Myrtle Beach for spring break. Less than 36 hours later, I
was on a flight back to Washington, D.C., to speak at the National March
for Marriage and to participate in a panel at the Heritage Foundation
stating my opposition to same-sex "marriage" because of its impact on
children.

After the march and rally, I flew back to the peace and quiet of Myrtle
Beach. The next day was beautiful, and after lunch I went for a walk by
myself in the surf. I was glad to get away from all the hoopla and
crowds and to begin to decompress after an intense couple of days.

Suddenly, my cell phone started ringing and vibrating like crazy. I was
being bombarded with calls and text messages. I reluctantly pulled my
cell phone out of my pocket -- after all, I was on vacation, and at that
moment I regretted bringing my phone along with me for the walk.

I looked at the screen, and it displayed one text after another from
friends around the country: "Rush Limbaugh is talking about you."
Momentarily stunned, I hightailed it back to the house to get to a
radio. Sure enough, Rush was talking about a piece that LifeSiteNews had
carried the previous day: "I'm gay, and I oppose gay marriage." (FYI --
I used the term 'gay' because I realized early on that almost no one
knew what I was talking about when I used the term 'same-sex attracted'
to describe myself).

Although the piece was originally published at Public Discourse a couple
weeks before, it was the LifeSiteNews headline (which differed from the
PD headline) that caught the attention of Rush and his staff. Rush's
website provided a link to the LifeSiteNews article.

The important takeaway is this: LifeSiteNews, by republishing, retitling
and adding a picture to the piece greatly amplified the impact of the
story.

Would you consider supporting the great work of this organization, to
bring the truth to millions of people who wouldn't otherwise hear it
elsewhere. Click here to donate

LifeSite's summer fundraiser is almost over, and we are still in need of
support from our readers to keep this mission fully operational. There
is so much work to be done for life and family!

This is from Rush's archive:

. . . There's also a Republican Tea Party member, a guy named
Mainwaring. He's gay, and he has a piece that I have here in my Stack.
He's just opposed to gay marriage like you can't believe.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here is this guy Doug Mainwaring. I mentioned earlier, Doug
Mainwaring is cofounder of the National Capitol Tea Party Patriots . . .
Basically the headline says it all: "I'm Gay and I Oppose Gay Marriage."
His piece says, "Marriage, from the state's perspective, is about kids.
Period. That's the reason the institution exists. We should tremble at
and fear the notion of undoing it."
That message got through to 10 million-plus Rush listeners thanks to
LifeSiteNews.

The full transcript can be found here. http://tinyurl.com/ycorzvb4



------------------------------

Message: 15
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2017 12:01:20 -0700
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: An open letter to (lesbian) Jayne Ozanne, from a CIT Director
- Dermot O'Callaghan
Message-ID:
<1498849280.3733428....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

An open letter to (lesbian) Jayne Ozanne, from a CIT Director - Dermot
O'Callaghan

June 22, 2017

Dear Member of General Synod,

Explanatory note

As a former member of General Synod in the Church of Ireland over some
four decades, and encouraged by former Church of England General Synod
member Revd Canon Dr Chris Sugden, I would like to say a few words to
explain the attached Open Letter that I have written to Jayne Ozanne and
all members of General Synod.

I recently sent an almost identical letter addressed to Jayne
personally, hoping to persuade her privately to withdraw for a year her
Synod motion opposing 'conversion therapy'.

Jayne responded to me with a strongly worded letter characterising my
request as amounting to bullying and bribery, and refusing to work
alongside me to try to find an agreed position regarding the claim that
such therapy is 'harmful and not supported by evidence', and therefore
unethical. I shall leave it to you to decide whether the charges of
bullying and bribery are justified.

Jayne also said that under Synod's standing orders she would not be able
to withdraw her motion even if she wanted to. I am surprised at this --
in the Church of Ireland such a withdrawal is readily possible.
I have researched the science and found that the Royal College of
Psychiatrists has misled the Church of England at a number of points
(for example as noted in the Pilling Report paragraphs 205 -- 208 and
209 -- 213). Similarly, as noted in the attached letter, the UK Council
for Psychotherapy has repeatedly declined my requests for evidence to
support its claim that therapy is harmful.

I fear that the Church may make a great mistake if it does not ask to
see the evidence. Sadly, it is no longer adequate to rely on the
assurances of the mental health Establishment. I have discussed the
matter further with Dr Peter May in a short video available (below).
https://youtu.be/56I4HihNg1g

Signed: Dermot O'Callaghan

*****

Dear Jayne,

It was good to meet you last year at a fringe meeting of the Church of
Ireland General Synod. I hope that members of the Church of England
General Synod might similarly listen to an Anglican voice from Ireland.
In the light of your negative response to my recent letter addressed to
you personally, I believe I must now write an open letter in similar
terms to your colleagues on General Synod.

You have tabled a motion that Synod endorse the 16th January statement
by the UK Council for Psychotherapy [UKCP] et al, that "the practice of
conversion therapy is unethical, harmful and not supported by evidence."
The lead author of that statement is Janet Weisz, CEO of UKCP. I have
had extensive correspondence with UKCP over their claim that therapy to
reduce same-sex attraction is harmful. On 30thJune 2015 I wrote to Ms
Weisz, "I am sorry that you have not addressed the fact that even the
American Psychological Association's systematic review[1] could find no
recent research that would justify them in saying that sexual
orientation change efforts are harmful. Your avoidance of this question
reinforces the impression that you are not able to point to a single
peer reviewed study that shows a causal link between therapy and harm
[please correct me on this if I am wrong],". Ms Weisz did not reply.

http://www.core-issues.org/UserFiles/File/DO_C_letter_to_J_Ozanne_and_General_Synod_C_of_E_Edited.pdf

In 2013 I also corresponded with the Bishop of Buckingham, who had been
vocal on the matter. I said, "I hope you will not feel it unreasonable
that I should ask you for the name of just one reputable study to
represent the 'overwhelming evidence' that such therapies are harmful.
My conviction on this is such that if you can do this, I shall donate
?100 to a charity of your choice." The bishop declined my offer.

I would make the same offer to you, Jayne - ?100 to a charity of your
choice. And if, as I anticipate, your researches don't yield even one
study that follows participants through therapy and finds that on
average they were harmed more than helped (using a scientifically
recognised measure of distress), I would appeal to your integrity not to
support the unscientific 16thJanuary statement.

Further, the claim that therapy is 'not supported by evidence' is really
a half-truth: by the same evidential standard, the case for banning it
is not supported by evidence either. The simple fact is that no
randomised controlled trials, which might enable us to determine the
matter, have been carried out.
There is an ideological background to this. An article in the Journal of
Medical Ethics last year[2] said, "[M]easures meant to change sexual
orientation are ... deeply alarming, even and indeed especially if they
are safe and effective ... widespread use of reorientation therapy,
although not intrinsically bad, could have disastrous effects on sexual
minorities, potentially dooming queer communities to extinction."[my
emphasis]

I would ask you, Jayne, to withdraw your motion for a year and engage
with me to find the truth on this matter. I shall be glad to work
constructively with you, and you can always propose it again next year
if you wish. Failing such withdrawal, I would urge Synod members please
to reject the motion. Otherwise, are we to say, "Without evidence from a
single scientific study, we denied people freedom to have therapy to
reduce unwanted same-sex attraction even to save their families"?

Yours sincerely
Dermot O'Callaghan

Director, Core Issues Trust
Endorsed by Revd Canon Dr Chris Sugden [General Synod (2005-2010, 2011-
2015)].
Directors:
Dr Michael Davidson, CEO (NI); Andrea Minichiello Williams (CEO
Christian Legal Centre); Dermot O'Callaghan (Church of Ireland, NI)
Council of Reference:
Mr Andrew Comiskey (CEO Desert Stream /Living Waters), USA; Professor
Robert Gagnon, (Pittsburgh Theological Seminary), USA; Rev David
Johnston, (Presbyterian, NI); GB; Canon Dr Chris Sugden (C of E, GB);
Rev Hadden Wilson (Baptist, NI)



------------------------------

Message: 16
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2017 12:01:44 -0700
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: The Safeguarding Industry has become a Witch Hunt
Message-ID:
<1498849304.3733464....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

The Safeguarding Industry has become a Witch Hunt

By Jules Gomes
http://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/
June 29, 2017

My blood ran cold the day I watched The Crucible. It was a "reality
show" vividly depicting how the vindictive hysterics and histrionics of
a young woman infatuated with a married man could destroy an entire
community. The Crucible is a partially fictionalised portrayal of the
infamous Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay
Colony in the spring of 1692.

What freaked me out was the realisation that justice was now at the
mercy of hysteria. The Salem witch trials are back in the form of the
new 'safeguarding' hysteria in the Church of England.

Anxious to wash the blood from his hands while the mob bays for more,
Archbishop Justin Welby has thrown one of his predecessors to the wolves
and is determined to put an end to the global ministry of Archbishop
George Carey.

How did safeguarding, which rightly exists to protect the vulnerable,
get turned on its head to punish the victimised innocent? Now the powers
that be have decided to pursue anyone they believe to be guilty. But
guilty of what? They treat a sin of omission as if it was the sin of
commission. If a person is deemed not to have fulfilled their
responsibility in adequate safeguarding, albeit many years previously
when no such concept existed, that person is now going to be held
responsible, penalised and punished. The media frenzy that follows
effectively destroys the reputation of the person.

The hysteria began with Jimmy Savile. Savile's acts were an abomination.
So are all who perpetrate such dreadful acts on innocent children and
adults. But where does responsibility start or end for those caught up
in it? For example, if a sergeant has misbehaved, should the general be
sacked? Of course, if his captain or major knew something and did
nothing, they should be dismissed, but should the colonel and the
general also take full responsibility and be removed? What of the
politician?

We are now in a Kafkaesque situation where it is impossible to satisfy
all the authorities' requirements. Equally we are in an Orwellian
society, where anyone who does not spy on the rest and report any real
or imagined faults is held guilty. Justin Welby is becoming a new Borgia
in relation to Savonarola, where the planning of a person's destruction
becomes paramount because they do not agree with him. He may argue that
he is simply allowing the safeguarding process to take place unimpeded.
But by his actions he has shown the opposite.

The Church of England and its hierarchical structures have chosen to
take safeguarding into a new stratosphere. They have weaponised it in
order to protect themselves. This weapon has now become not only
defensive but also offensive. In its offensive form it is immensely
destructive. With no lower limit on the time since the event or the
smallness of the omission, this weapon could be used selectively to
remove from ministry anyone the hierarchy may have taken against.

Whether offensive or defensive, the weaponisation of safeguarding will
ultimately alienate anyone from entering the priesthood or from taking
any role within the church, whether choir member, lay preacher or
archbishop. Yet, this ticking time bomb is not recognised. Truth has
been turned on its head. Truth is now kicking its legs, calling for the
world's attention, and everyone is silent.

Everyone lives in fear. No one knows who will be next. The witches are
watching. Soon they will be pointing. Then they will start screaming.
And the next head will be strung up on the gallows.

The Rev'd Dr Jules Gomes is pastor of St Augustine's Church, Douglas, on
the Isle of Man.



------------------------------

Message: 17
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2017 12:02:03 -0700
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: Robert Benne: Defending Orthodoxy in a Polarized Society
Message-ID:
<1498849323.3733464....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Robert Benne: Defending Orthodoxy in a Polarized Society

By Joshua Cayetano
JUICY ECUMENISM
https://juicyecumenism.com/2017/06/27/robert-benne-defending-orthodoxy-polarized-society/
June 27, 2017

As the disease of division continues to infect political and religious
communities, Professor Robert Benne from Roanoke College encouraged
Christians to seek unity in orthodox doctrine while maintaining respect
for different political convictions. His teachings contextualize the
aphorism, "In essentials, unity; in doubtful matters, liberty; in all
things, charity."

During the Two-Day Symposium on Religious and Political Disagreement at
St. Olaf College, Benne delivered an autobiographical lecture entitled
"Trying to Live as Christian in a Polarized Church and Society." Using
the narrative arc of his live as a backdrop, Benne warned the Church
against subordinating doctrine to the secular progressive political
agenda which, in his words, "want religious-based moral values,
especially religious sexual ethics, to get out of the public life."

Benne described his deep sadness as the Evangelical Lutheran Church of
America (ELCA) began to integrate "the polarizing trends set loose in
the 60's" (e.g. feminism, the LGBTQ movement, black power,
anti-imperialism) into its DNA to the detriment of orthodox Church
doctrine. The ELCA adopted a "widely disliked quota system" and came
within three votes of banning the name of God as Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit from the language of worship.

Additionally, in response to the cultural aversion for anything vaguely
imperialistic, the ELCA moved to suspend all new mission work and
"confined itself to accompaniment." The ELCA defines accompaniment as
"walking together in a solidarity that practices interdependence and
mutuality." In Benne's estimation, this move was no more than a rollback
of the Great Commission to satisfy the ever-growing secular culture's
demands.

Before politicizing their beliefs, Benne argued Christians should
maintain religious solidarity on key orthodox beliefs, namely the nature
of marriage, the personhood of God, and the proliferation of the Gospel.
Without unity on the orthodox front, religious communities will enter
the public square as a fractured body.

Benne clearly defined the path from religious conviction to political
judgment as a perilous one. Thus in Benne's estimation, the purpose of
religious unity is not political unity, but political tolerance. In the
tradition of Luther's "two kingdoms" theory, Benne posits Christians
should not separate their convictions from their politics, nor should
they fuse them. Separationism and fusionism in the public square can be
as fatal to the Church as any wayward doctrine.

After thirty years of attending an ELCA parish and engaging in internal,
formal resistance, Benne and his wife decided to part ways peaceably and
join the North American Lutheran Church (NALC), which branched from the
ELCA during the summer of 2010.

Even seven years later, Benne said he still endeavors to exercise
patience and charity toward those who stayed, and prays for the renewal
and reform of the ELCA and the NALC.

Benne, along with Miroslav Volf and other lecturers at the symposium,
are strongly in favor of constructive Christian engagement in politics.
The key to public engagement as an orthodox Christian is to a) always
prioritize the ultimate before the penultimate, b) critically analyze
our own political stances, and c) maintain respect and charity toward
opposing views. Christians' goal of public engagement should be to
leaven society with the gospel of Christ, remaining firm with
essentials, tolerant with non-essentials, and charitable in everything.

END



------------------------------

Message: 18
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2017 12:02:26 -0700
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: What miracle(s) does the Church (of England) need on
sexuality?
Message-ID:
<1498849346.3733546....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

What miracle(s) does the Church (of England) need on sexuality?

by Ian Paul
https://www.psephizo.com/
June 26, 2017

There was a brief report in the Daily Mail online that the Archbishop of
Canterbury, Justin Welby, believes 'that the Church of England will need
a miracle from the Holy Spirit to solve its long-running row over gay
rights.'

The Most Reverend Justin Welby said the divisions cannot be healed by
human hands but only by divine intervention. His remarks indicate
deepening desperation among Anglican leaders over the irreconcilable gap
between liberals who demand gay equality within the Church and
conservative evangelicals who say that gay sex is sinful.

I was interested that it was this one sentence that an eagle-eyed
reported picked out from the fairly brief paper explaining the process
of creating the promised teaching document on sexuality; perhaps it is
still surprising that church leaders expect God to be involved in their
processes? The paragraph quoted is worth reading in full:

We do not expect the teaching document, or the process of writing it, to
achieve reconciliation of all views across the Church of England. Such
reconciliation, were it to happen, would be the work of the Holy Spirit,
not of human hands or brains. But we need our internal debates to be
grounded in the best available scholarship, across many disciplines and
to draw in the perspectives of people in all their difference. And we
need the whole process to happen prayerfully, and with the supportive
prayers of our fellow Christians across the world. If the teaching
document can express clearly the ground on which we are agreed -- and be
very clear about where we disagree, and why -- it will have done its
work well.

It is interesting to note the phrase 'were it to happen', indicating
some doubt that the disagreement will ever end. And I think quite a few
people in Synod will be curious about the last sentence; this reads like
a mapping exercise, not a teaching document. 'Teaching' involves
discerning the truth, and expressing that in a way which can be passed
on. It's not clear that mapping alone will achieve what is needed. And
will there be boundaries to the issues on which we disagree? Are there
grounds for that? After all, there are clergy who don't even agree that
God exists in any meaningful sense; is that the kind of disagreement
that we might include?

I would certainly agree that we need a miracle--in fact, it seems to me
that we need three miracles, in three distinct areas.

The first is in relation to what I think can only be called the furious
assault on the Church's current teaching on sex and marriage. It is
currently taking the form of two motions in the July session of General
Synod, one from Chris Newlands and Blackburn diocese on liturgies for
transgender people undergoing transition, and the other from Jayne
Ozanne on what she calls 'conversion therapies'. I previously commented
on Chris Newlands' motion, including the Radio 4 discussion I had with
him. But following that, I wrote to him and suggested we talk about a
'friendly' amendment, where we could agree on the important pastoral
issue, but where we might remove the request for liturgy since there is
no agreement on this, and such a debate would simply be divisive. In
reply, he was not willing to consider this, since he was clear that
liturgy was what was needed--and that there could be no negotiation.

Jayne Ozone's Private Member's Motion on 'conversion therapy' has been
criticised by Dermot O'Callaghan, a former member of the Synod of the
Church of Ireland, for lacking supportive evidence.

In 2013 I corresponded with the Bishop of Buckingham, who had been vocal
on the matter. I said, "I hope you will not feel it unreasonable that I
should ask you for the name of just one reputable study to represent the
'overwhelming evidence' that such therapies are harmful. My conviction
on this is such that if you can do this, I shall donate ?100 to a
charity of your choice." The bishop declined my offer.

I would make the same offer to you, Jayne -- ?100 to a charity of your
choice. And if, as I anticipate, your researches don't yield even one
study that follows participants through therapy and finds that on
average they were harmed more than helped (using a scientifically
recognised measure of distress), I would appeal to your integrity not to
support the unscientific 16thJanuary statement.

The whole question of change of sexual orientation is a controversial
one--though one strange thing about the discussion is that, outside the
church, promoters of gay rights are very happy to agree that sexuality
and sexual orientation is fluid. But the two things that are concerning
here are the lack of scientific evidence involved, even on the part of
the Royal College of Psychiatrists (whom O'Callaghan believes has misled
the Church of England in evidence they have provided) and the lack of
engagement. O'Callaghan reports that:

Jayne responded to me with a strongly worded letter characterising my
request as amounting to bullying and bribery, and refusing to work
alongside me to try to find an agreed position regarding the claim that
such therapy is 'harmful and not supported by evidence', and therefore
unethical. I shall leave it to you to decide whether the charges of
bullying and bribery are justified.

The third current part of this assault is Jayne Ozanne's attempt to have
'spiritual abuse' recognised as an additional, separate category of
abuse alongside physical, sexual, domestic and emotional abuse. In her
paper arguing for this (which received national press coverage and was
discussed on Radio 4's Sunday programme last week), she specifically
names HTB and Alpha, New Wine, Spring Harvest, Soul Survivor, True
Freedom Trust, and the Evangelical Alliance as organisations in which
spiritual abuse takes place because of 'their attitude to the Holy
Spirit'. She goes on to argue that the Church's current teaching
position, that sexual intimacy properly belongs in male-female marriage,
is inherently abusive to LGBTI Christians.

I am reluctant to use the term 'evil' to describe this relentless attack
on church teaching, since it does not help to demonise individuals--and
I have valued the engagement on this blog with people with whom I
disagree yet from whom I continue to learn. Yet these moves appear to be
of a different order. They lack a willingness to discuss, and they are
often undertaken in close partnership with individuals and organisations
who have, in the past, been seriously antipathetic to the Church and to
Christian faith. I don't see any obvious prospect of such campaigns
abating the near future.

The second area we need a miracle is in handling the legacy of historic
abuse. Last week, Dame Moira Gibbs released her report 'An Abuse of
Faith' on the way the Church of England handled former bishop Peter
Ball's abuse of teenagers.

The review found that "Ball's conduct has caused serious and enduring
damage to the lives of many men... Peter Ball betrayed his Church and
abused individual followers of that Church" and "The Church colluded
with that rather than seeking to help those he had harmed, or assuring
itself of the safety of others."

Stephen Kurht comments on the radical change that is still needed in
church culture:

The most tragic aspect for me, as a Church of England Vicar, is my total
lack of surprise at these findings. I'm a fervent believer in the Church
of England and its mission to share God's love with as many people
within this country as possible. But none of this will count for
anything until the Church of England reaches a proper clarity over
safeguarding.

The review acknowledges that safeguarding procedure has improved within
the Church of England over the last few years. But this is not enough.
The only thing that will prevent such cases and institutional collusion
with them reoccurring, will be a change of culture within the Church of
England.
But there remains the fundamental difficulty of how to deal with
spurious accusations. It is not a little ironic that George Carey's son,
Mark, was recently cleared of a charge which looked from the beginning
to be entirely implausible--but had to endure an agonising five months
from October last year to April this before the decision was made that
the accusation was groundless. The needed change in culture which
focusses on individuals rather than defending the institution cannot
work without a comparable review of how to filter out spurious claims.

The third area where we need a miracle is in the area of Christian
leaders articulating confidence in orthodox teaching on sexuality. For
the Church of England, I cannot recall any public statement by any
bishops expressing such confidence. I am not interested in criticising
my bishops; I don't think it is helpful, and their job is already
difficult and complex enough as it is. I am also acutely aware that no
individual wants to be known as 'the anti-gay bishop' or 'the one
obsessed with sex'. But it seems odd to me that those who question the
Church's current teaching position (and, it has to be said, the pretty
clear teaching of the New Testament) feel no such reticence. Neither do
the leaders of other denominations; Catholic leaders don't equivocate on
their church's position, and see this example of Andrew Wilson
addressing the question of transgender. It is not just bishops are are
reluctant, it is also others who exercise episcopal ministry in other
ways. The leaders of one of the networks mentioned in Jayne Ozone's
paper on spiritual abuse have been conspicuous by their silence--and it
is creating a vacuum of confidence for members of the network on the
ground.

It is not just the external situation which I think makes bishops
nervous, but the internal one of disagreement. Since bishops are
supposed to be a 'focus of unity', they are rightly nervous of
alienating clergy and churches with other views. But surely this 'focus
of unity' is supposed to be around the Church's teaching, and not simply
a holding it all together by not offending anyone. At the heart of this
is the phrase 'radical new Christian Inclusion, ... founded in
scripture, in reason, in tradition, in theology and the Christian faith
as the Church of England has received it' used by the Archbishops of
Canterbury and York in their rapid response to the February synod
debate. If it is 'new and radical' how can it be 'founded in scripture'
etc? What does the phrase mean?

As David Baker asks:

As you have written publicly calling for 'a radical new Christian
inclusion in the Church' after last week's General Synod I wanted to
write and ask the question which many are now asking: what exactly is
that?

You see, the thing is, I've always thought the gospel was radically
inclusive already. I've always believed that 'the vilest offender who
truly believes, that moment from Jesus a pardon receives' -- as the
famous hymn puts it. And when I look back on churches of which I have
been a part, I recall them including paedophiles, an associate of the
Kray twins, pornography addicts, adulterers -- and others, including
myself, whose middle class respectability masked sins which might have
been less obvious but were equally heart-breaking to God. We, together,
were vile offenders (in the eyes of God's law if not of the world) who
chose to repent and believe. And gloriously, all of us were welcomed and
included! When you add in the mind-blowing mix of age, ethnicity and
background as well, that seems pretty inclusive already.

We need not one but three miracles: that the assaults on the Church will
abate; that we will see a change in culture about abuse without leaving
church leaders vulnerable to spurious claims; and that we will hear some
clear, confident teaching on sexuality. It feels like quite a lot to
ask--but we need them soon.

Ian Paul: theologian, author, speaker, academic consultant. Adjunct
Professor, Fuller Theological Seminary; Associate Minister, St Nic's,
Nottingham; Managing Editor, Grove Books; member of General Synod. Mac
user; chocoholic. Tweets at @psephizo



------------------------------

Message: 19
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2017 12:02:49 -0700
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: Bishop Bruno Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Message-ID:
<1498849369.3734082....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Bishop Bruno Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place

By Allan Haley
http://accurmudgeon.blogspot.com/
June 25, 2017

The Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los
Angeles, has landed himself in a difficult spot. As detailed in this
earlier post, http://tinyurl.com/ydhdgxlf he entered into a contract in
2015 to sell the property of St. James the Great in Newport Beach to a
developer for a price of $15 million, without bothering to inform its
parishioners beforehand. When the congregation and its vicar protested,
he changed the locks and kicked them out.

This being Bishop Bruno, litigation soon ensued -- between the parish
and its Bishop, and between the original donor of the church's property
(who sought to enforce a restriction on the use of the property for
anything besides church purposes). The parishioners also brought charges
of fraud, misrepresentation and "conduct unbecoming a member of the
clergy" against +Bruno before the national body's Disciplinary Board for
Bishops, as detailed in this earlier post. http://tinyurl.com/y9eadm5m

The litigation grew nastier. Matters even began to sour between Bishop
Bruno and his own Diocese's convention. Eventually, the original
purchaser pulled out of the contract (because of the litigation, no
doubt), +Bruno rejected all attempts at mediation / conciliation with
the parishioners, and the Disciplinary Board's review panel ordered the
matter (over +Bruno's hypocritical objections) to a full-blown, public
hearing, which took place over three days at the end of March of this
year.

In the civil courts, meanwhile, +Bruno achieved mixed results. The
parishioners' lawsuit to stop him from selling the property was
dismissed, but his suit against the original donor has not fared well.
On February 24, the Court of Appeal reversed a decision by the trial
court which had denied the donor's motion to strike +Bruno's "slander of
title" claim against it. The decision ordered the trial court to strike
the claim from the lawsuit and award the donor its attorneys' fees and
costs incurred as a result of its filing. The fees and costs will have
to be paid out of the Bishop's own corporation sole, since it was the
plaintiff against the donor. In another ruling, the trial court found
the original donor had failed to record a renewal of its deed
restriction as required by law to keep it enforceable. That freed +Bruno
to sell the property, but by then (as we now learn -- see below) the
original buyer had backed out.

After the disciplinary hearing concluded on March 30, the hearing panel
took the matter under submission for briefing before issuing its
decision. The Bishop's attorneys asked the panel to dismiss all charges
against him, while the attorney prosecuting the charges asked the panel
to find him guilty and suspend him from active ministry for up to a year
while fashioning a remedy that would foster reconciliation -- for which
+Bruno to date has shown no interest whatsoever.

On June 14, before the panel had issued any decision, one of the
complainants submitted colorable evidence that +Bruno had entered into a
new contract to sell St. James while the disciplinary proceedings were
going on. The panel asked +Bruno's attorneys to disclose to it whether
he was under contract with a buyer or not, and when they gave evasive
replies, the panel issued a sanctions order on June 17 directing +Bruno
not to sell or contract to sell the property until "further order of the
Hearing Panel."

Now comes word from Anglican news sources that on June 22, +Bruno's
attorney sent an email to the panel in which she disclosed that Bishop
Bruno had signed a contract to sell the property to another developer --
just three weeks after the disciplinary hearing (the purchaser signed
the contract a month later). She explained that neither +Bruno nor his
attorneys could respond substantively to the panel's inquiry earlier
because he had been bound by a "confidentiality clause" in the purchase
contract, which the parties had just agreed to modify so that he could
disclose the fact of the sale.

Other sources are now reporting that not only is +Bruno selling the St.
James church property, but also its rectory and a huge commercial
property which his corporation sole owns in Anaheim. The total sales
which he reportedly has currently in escrow come to approximately Forty
Million Dollars ($40,000,000).

In his desire to recoup the money he has squandered on over twelve years
of litigation -- against parishes, their clergy, and (as shown above)
generous donors to his Diocese -- Bishop Bruno has now landed himself
between a rock and a hard place. He is under a direct disciplinary
command not to complete the sale of St. James. But his contract with the
purchaser provides that he will be in default -- and liable for damages
and costs -- if he does not sign the deed in escrow.

Can the Hearing Panel actually block the sale? No, it cannot, since it
has ecclesiastical jurisdiction only, and that is over Bishop Bruno, not
the purchaser. But it can certainly discipline him for flouting its
order. Such discipline could include suspension from his ministry (he
will reach mandatory retirement age in late 2018), or even deposition (a
drastic step he has not hesitated to take in the past against dissident
clergy).

Will the Dennis Canon's trust provisions affect the marketable title to
St. James property? Again, no: the Canon applies only to property in the
name of a parish, and not to property held by a corporation sole or by a
Diocese. (That was the ruling of the Fifth District Court of Appeal in
the San Joaquin case last year.)

However, it appears from the latest stories linked above that the new
purchaser runs the risk of displeasing the City Council of Newport
Beach, if it tears down the church to put up some industrial or
commercial complex -- for which it will need a zoning change. So the
developer may find it convenient to let +Bruno out of his contract,
after all.

There is no doubt that +Bruno's underhanded conduct has thrown a monkey
wrench into the deliberations of the Hearing Panel. By selling the
property while the disciplinary panel was considering his case, +Bruno
in effect attempted to bypass its authority to maintain the status quo
until it reached its final decision. No court likes to be told that a
defendant has acted on his own, and surreptitiously to boot, to alter
the status quo while the court has the matter still under submission.

Do not expect, therefore, that Bishop Bruno might wiggle out from this
dilemma unscathed. It may cost his corporation sole still more money,
and it may cost him his bishopric. I will update this post when the
Panel renders its decision.

UPDATE 06/24/2017: Bishop Bruno has filed with the Disciplinary Board
for Bishops an appeal of the Hearing Panel's sanctions order. The
attachments to the appeal dispel some of the mysteries surrounding his
dealings with the Newport Beach property. We learn:

1. The original purchaser pulled out of the sales contract in early
November, 2016.

2. At that time, Bishop Bruno was contacted by other "potential
purchasers." Though there was no express canonical jurisdiction of the
Diocesan Standing Committee over the Bishop's corporation sole, Bishop
Bruno sought and received on November 16 the consent of the Standing
Committee to a future (unspecified) sale of the property, in order to
obviate one of the disciplinary charges against him (that he had entered
into a contract to sell the property without obtaining the consent of
the Standing Committee as required by the national canons in the case of
sales of property by a Diocese).

3. The discussions with purchasers crystallized into the present buyer,
which signed a "Due Diligence and Confidentiality Agreement" with the
Bishop on April 19, 2017, and then entered into a formal purchase and
sale agreement on May 25, with escrow to close on July 3.

4. The "colorable evidence of a pending sale" furnished to the Hearing
Panel by one of the complainants consisted of a screen capture of an
online property reporting service that indicated a title insurance
policy had been ordered from Fidelity Title for the property on June 6,
2017 -- a sure sign that an escrow had been opened. (I assume there are
similar title policies ordered for the other sales which the "Save St.
James" group has reported as pending, making up the $40 million total
mentioned in the post.)

5. Bishop Bruno turned down a request earlier this year from a long-time
parishioner at St. James to allow her mother's ashes to be interred
there in accordance with her dying wishes. The parishioner appealed to
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, but was told it was a decision which
Bishop Bruno alone could make, as the Presiding Bishop had no authority
over him.

6. Bishop Bruno is utterly non-repentant about keeping his dealings with
the property out of the purview of the disciplinary proceedings. Once
the initial sale complained of fell through, he believed there was no
restraint of any kind on his ability to enter into a new sales contract
for it.

7. He has asked the full Disciplinary Board to set aside the sanctions
order of June 17, so that he will not go into default under his current
sales contract.

Some further observations on these disclosures:

A. The "consent" by the Standing Committee (both the one in 2015 and the
one in November 2016) was a meaningless gesture. In neither instance was
the Standing Committee given any particulars about the sale, so its
"consent" was uninformed, and for outward form's sake only.

B. We still do not know the amount +Bruno has contracted to accept for
the church property, or for any of the other properties he is selling:
$40 million is just an educated guess, based upon tax roll values.
Nothing could demonstrate more clearly +Bruno's determination to keep
all particulars of his dealings as a corporation sole from both his
Standing Committee and his Diocese as a whole.

C. The Standing Committee is itself complicit in these matters, and acts
as a willing rubber stamp for anything +Bruno decides to do. It has
requested that he amend the articles of his corporation sole to provide
for oversight and consent of its property dealings, but that is only a
request -- as was the request the Convention made to +Bruno to disclose
the finances of his corporation sole. He has thus far ignored both of
them.

D. By virtue of his office, Bishop Bruno stands in a fiduciary
relationship to his Diocese and to its governing bodies. A fiduciary
under law has a duty to act in utmost good faith toward those who have
put their trust in him. +Bruno's secretive conduct is the polar opposite
of how a fiduciary is supposed to act toward those in his charge. For
him, it's all about the money: business comes first, and to hell with
fiduciary duties that get in the way.

E. Thus far, the complainants are the sole members of the Diocese who
are trying to compel Bishop Bruno to observe fiduciary standards of
conduct, and they are a decided minority. The Hearing Panel is their
last resort. The Diocese of Los Angeles is receiving exactly the kind of
fiduciary care that it asks for -- especially after its Board voted in
May 2014 to transfer the Newport Beach property to the corporation sole,
where it could be sold without +Bruno having to account to anyone.

F. Bishop Bruno's claim that the Panel "lacks jurisdiction" to direct
him not to sell the property, while accurate in a church constitutional
sense, ignores his fiduciary duties to the church of which he is an
episkopos -- the Greek word for "overseer" or "guardian", used since the
earliest days to describe the role and functions of a bishop. The Panel
most certainly can sanction him for breach of his fiduciary duties
toward his Diocese and its governing bodies, because such breach is the
essence of "conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy." If you can't put
your trust in a man ordained to serve God, whom can you trust?

G. The whole charade of this matter puts ECUSA's Title IV procedures to
the ultimate test. It brings into sharp relief the actual autonomy of
dioceses and their bishops in relation to the national body itself,
which is surprisingly weak in light of how recent Presiding Bishops and
their Chancellors have sought to portray its supreme authority in civil
litigation over church property. Oh, yes -- the Presiding Bishop and
hired attorneys will swoop down upon any hapless rector and parish (or
bishop and diocese) who dare to try to leave ECUSA, and drag them into
never-ending and ruinously costly litigation, regardless of the harm
done to its reputation. But let one of their own have his sovereign
authority to act in his own diocese be challenged, and just watch how
effete ECUSA will be in response. It has taken over a year to bring
Bishop Bruno to this point, and he still defies the authority of the
disciplinary bodies to hold him accountable for his conduct unbecoming.
(It is ironic that the ENS is currently carrying a lead story on how
bishops learn to be bishops.)

The proof will be forthcoming shortly. First the Board will act on the
appeal (it has been asked to do so by next week, when Bishop Bruno is
obligated to sign escrow papers to close the sale), and then the Hearing
Panel will have to agree upon a final decision. Well, not really
"final", because then there will be a motion for reconsideration,
followed perhaps by a further appeal. You get the picture.

END



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Message: 20
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2017 12:03:37 -0700
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: JOY: What Does it Mean to be a Mature Christian Disciple? -
John 16:17-24
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<1498849417.3734128....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

JOY: What Does it Mean to be a Mature Christian Disciple? - John
16:17-24

By Ted Schroder
www.tedschroder.com
July 2, 2017

Jesus has told us that he is the true vine and that we need to abide in
him, remain connected to him in a personal relationship if we wish to
bear fruit in our lives -- the fruit of the Spirit which is love, joy,
peace etc. Jesus has come to enable us to become mature, complete, whole
as human beings. Without him we are deficient, immature, incomplete. He
wants to share with us the life of God so that we may live like him in
the power of his Spirit. When we think we can live independently of him,
and try to be self-sufficient, we fail to fulfill God's purpose for our
lives. Life without Christ is a life that seeks happiness in all sorts
of directions and fails to find it. It results in frustration, in
boredom, in regret. True happiness, true joy is to be found in God who
is true goodness, beauty and truth. The search for happiness in God
leads to true joy.

The kingdom of heaven is like 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" (Matthew 13:44). When you find the treasure of
the Gospel of the kingdom of God you want to possess it, and enjoy it
forever. Once we discover it we find that nothing else compares with it.
It transforms life so that you never want to be without it.

This is the authentic happy life, to set one's joy on you, grounded in
you and caused by you. That is the real thing and there is no other.
Those who think that the happy life is found elsewhere, pursue another
joy and not the true one...there are those who do not want to find in
you their source of joy. That is the sole happy life, but they do not
really want it.....The happy life is joy based on the truth. This is joy
grounded in you, O God who are the truth....This happy life everyone
desires; joy in the truth everyone wants. (St. Augustine, Confessions,
Book X.xxii (32), xxiii (33))

C.S. Lewis entitled the story of his early life, Surprised by Joy
because he experienced in his search for God what he called Joy. He had
an imaginative intimation of a sense of momentary desire which made
everything that had happened to him insignificant in comparison. There
was a sense of surprise and of incalculable importance, something quite
different from ordinary life and even from ordinary pleasure; something
in another dimension. He writes that in a sense the central story of his
life was about nothing else. "It is that of an unsatisfied desire which
is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction. I call it Joy. Joy
has one characteristic, and one only, the fact that anyone who has
experienced it will want it again." (C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy, p.20)

God gives us these experiences of transcendent joy at various times in
our lives to pierce our consciousness and get our attention. It may come
in a moment of reflection, of something we may be reading or hearing or
seeing: a piece of music, a song, a sunset, a poem, a scene or event in
our lives. The Spirit speaks to us through Scripture or through
someone's words or work of art or through nature. We experience joy. But
there may also be joy in sorrow, in loss, in the awareness of the
fragile gift of this life. "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever
you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your
faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that
you may be mature and complete, not lacking in anything" (James 1:2-4)
The opposite of joy is sorrow. There are times in our lives when we go
through the valley of the shadow of death and are tempted to despair.
Sorrow enters our lives and we grieve the loss of loved ones and the
disappointments of failed expectations.

Joy comes when we recognize that when we face difficult times in our
lives, we are given the opportunity to develop into maturity. Rather
than running away from difficulties we find the strength in Christ to
learn from them and to triumph over them. We become complete persons.
Immaturity results from people who are protected from the testing of
their faith and who quit rather than persevering. Joy is the experience
of having faced and endured trials rather than dropping out for
something easier. Joy is being able to look back on our life's journey
and seeing where we persevered and fulfilled our responsibilities. We do
so, not in our own strength, but in the strength which Christ supplies.
As he endured for the joy set before him so can we. "Let us fix our eyes
on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set
before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the
right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such
opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose
heart." (Hebrews 12:2,3)

The goal is to become mature and complete, lacking in nothing so that we
are ready for heaven where true happiness is to be found. "You have made
known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your
presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand" (Psalm 16:11)
Christ wishes his people to be happy. But on this earth we cannot know
such joy all the time. Heaven is the place of pure joy. As we get ready
for Heaven here on earth we shall have some of the joy which belongs to
Heaven.

Jesus gives us this promise if we abide in him, remain connected to him
in the power of his Spirit. "I have told you this so that my joy may be
in you and that your joy may be complete" (John 15:11) This joy is a
state of the soul. The joy of Jesus is the joy of abiding in His
Father's love. It ought to fill us with joy to know that we are loved of
the Lord, even as Jesus Christ is loved.

What was the joy that Jesus had?... The joy of Jesus was the absolute
self-surrender and self-sacrifice of Himself to His Father, the joy of
doing that which the Father sent Him to do. 'I delight to do Thy will.'
Jesus prayed that our joy might go on fulfilling itself until it was the
same joy as His. Have I allowed Jesus Christ to introduce His joy to me?
(Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, August 31)

Bessie McCrary Bowie was my mother-in-law. Born and raised in Marianna,
Florida she graduated from Converse College and was destined for a
career on the stage when she met and married my father-in-law Dr. Clyde
Bowie, a urologist in Anderson, S.C. After giving him seven children she
faced the testing of her faith in Christ when her husband contracted
multiple sclerosis in his early fifties. She raised and educated all her
children while caring for him for over twenty years. She exhausted her
wealth during this time without losing her joy. Her children never lost
their faith. To the contrary their facing of various trials matured them
in their discipleship. Two daughters married pastors and her son became
a pastor. She lived on a limited income until she was 97. She was always
a joy to be with. In all her troubles I never saw her in despair. She
was an inspiration to us all. God made her mature and complete in him.

After the return from the exile in Babylon, Nehemiah led the Israelites
in rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. When it was completed they
assembled before the Water Gate and Ezra read from the book of the Law
of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could
understand what was being read. Then Nehemiah said to them all, "Do not
mourn or weep." For all the people had been weeping as they listened to
the words of the Law. Nehemiah said, "Go and enjoy choice food and sweet
drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is
sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your
strength" (Neh. 8:8-10).

Is the joy of the Lord your strength? Make his joy your joy. Have you
allowed Jesus Christ to introduce his joy to you? Find your strength in
the joy of the Lord.

END



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