VirtueOnline Digest, Vol 17, Issue 18

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=================================
VirtueOnline Weekly News Digest
http://www.VirtueOnline.org
=================================

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Today's Topics:

1. Table of Contents (David Virtue)
2. VIEWPOINTS: May 5, 2017 (David Virtue)
3. LAGOS: GAFCON Primates Will Consecrate Missionary Bishop in
England (David Virtue)
4. GAFCON-UK statement in response to the Primates' Communique
(David Virtue)
5. GAFCON UK responds positively to Primates' Communique
(David Virtue)
6. Anglican renewal in Brazil (David Virtue)
7. ZIMBABWE: Things Fall Apart for Kunonga . . . Anglican Church
Turns Screws On Embattled Cleric (David Virtue)
8. Church of England 'homophobic' says gay marriage vicar
(David Virtue)
9. Parents are using a "dubious interpretation of human right
legislation" to pull students out of the classes (David Virtue)
10. Pope Must Resist Surrendering to Radical Islam (David Virtue)
11. UMC Court Rules Against Lesbian Bishop (David Virtue)
12. There Will Be No Religious Left (David Virtue)
13. WELCOME! (David Virtue)
14. Responding to the Gafcon communique: "Gretna Green and the
dog that didn't bark"-opportunities and omissions (David Virtue)
15. 'Worshipping the equality-god is a dangerous thing to do....'
(David Virtue)
16. REFORMATION FOR RIGHT NOW (David Virtue)
17. Alternative Non-Resurrection Lifestyles: 1 Corinthians
15:29-34 (David Virtue)
18. The Lull: John 21: 1-19 (David Virtue)


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

Message: 1
Date: Thu, 04 May 2017 15:48:53 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: Table of Contents
Message-ID:
<1493927333.87883....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

VirtueOnline Weekly News Digest - Desktop & Mobile Edition
www.virtueonline.org
May 5, 2017


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

1. GAFCON to Plant Bishop in UK * "Regrettable" says Scottish Episcopal
Primus...
http://www.virtueonline.org/gafcon-plant-bishop-uk-regrettable-says-scottish-episcopal-primus-anglican-church-canada-continues


*********************************************
GLOBAL ANGLICAN NEWS
*********************************************

2.LAGOS: GAFCON Primates Will Consecrate Missionary Bishop in England
http://www.virtueonline.org/lagos-gafcon-primates-will-consecrate-missionary-bishop-england

3.GAFCON-UK statement in response to the Primates' Communique
http://www.virtueonline.org/gafcon-uk-statement-response-primates-communique

4.GAFCON UK responds positively to Primates' Communique
http://www.virtueonline.org/gafcon-uk-responds-positively-primates-communique

5. Anglican renewal in Brazi
http://www.virtueonline.org/anglican-renewal-brazil

6. ZIMBABWE: Things Fall Apart for Kunonga...Anglican Church Turns
Screws on embattled cleric
http://www.virtueonline.org/zimbabwe-things-fall-apart-kunonga-anglican-church-turns-screws-embattled-cleric


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

7.Church of England 'homophobic' says gay marriage vicar
http://www.virtueonline.org/church-england-homophobic-says-gay-marriage-vicar

8.Parents are using a "dubious interpretation of human rights
legislattion" to pull students out of classes
http://www.virtueonline.org/parents-are-using-dubious-interpretation-human-right-legislation-pull-students-out-classes


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

9.Pope Must Resist Surrendering to Radical Islam
http://www.virtueonline.org/pope-must-resist-surrendering-radical-islam

10.UMC Court Rules Against Lesbian Bishop
http://www.virtueonline.org/umc-court-rules-against-lesbian-bishop

11.There Will Be No Religious Left
http://www.virtueonline.org/there-will-be-no-religious-left


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

12.WELCOME!
http://www.virtueonline.org/welcome

13.Responding to the Gafcon communique: "Gretna Green and the dog that
didn't bark" - opportunities and omissions
http://www.virtueonline.org/responding-gafcon-communique-gretna-green-and-dog-didnt-bark-opportunities-and-omissions

14.'Worshipping the equality-god is a dangerous thing to do....'
http://www.virtueonline.org/worshipping-equality-god-dangerous-thing-do


*****************************************
THEOLOGY
*****************************************

15.REFORMATION FOR RIGHT NOW
http://www.virtueonline.org/reformation-right-now


*********************************
DEVOTIONALS
*********************************

16.Alternative Non-Resurrection Lifestyles: 1 Corinthians 15:29-34
http://www.virtueonline.org/alternative-non-resurrection-lifestyles-1-corinthians-1529-34

17.The Lull: John 21: 1-19
http://www.virtueonline.org/lull-john-21-1-19


END



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

Message: 2
Date: Thu, 04 May 2017 15:49:57 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: VIEWPOINTS: May 5, 2017
Message-ID:
<1493927397.87953....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

There will be no religious left in the long term because the religious
left, as it is currently constituted, doesn't even believe in its own
religion. --- Rod Dreher

The whole agender, transgender, and LGBT agenda is about accepting as
normal what is patently disordered. That is all it is. It promotes a
kind of rebellion in the very young teens as a way to annoy their
parents and make it culturally acceptable. This forever tendency has
been through such things as smoking, drug experimentation, tattoos,
piercings, weird hair styles, weird clothes, etc. etc. Now they are
doing it with gender experimentation. Why? Because they can. It gives
them a sense of power by offending the older generation who are their
authority figures. -- Dr. Bruce Atkinson

The real secret of expository preaching is not mastering certain
techniques, but being mastered by certain convictions. --- John R.W.
Stott

"Be careful, be very careful. What has happened here will come to you."
-- An elderly priest in Iraq, to Fr. Benedict Kiely.

"Shouldn't the issue of Middle Eastern Christians wake up European
civilization to its core identity? Shouldn't we in Europe and the West
be telling ourselves that these attacks are also aimed at us?" --
Mathieu Bock-C?te, in Le Figaro.

In the Middle East, Christianity is over in Iraq due to Islamic
extremism; in Europe, Christianity is committing suicide. --- Giulio
Meotti

Dear Brothers and sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
May 5, 2017

The news dropped like a bombshell on the Anglican Communion. Archbishop
Justin Welby got hit with an ecclesiastical MOAB. All his talk of
"radical new Christian inclusion," "mutual flourishing", "good
disagreement" and other bland statements of optimism got bombed to
smithereens.

The Global Anglican Futures Conference (GAFCON) of Primates said they
will appoint a "missionary bishop" for orthodox Anglicans in England and
Europe, bypassing Anglican Churches in England and Scotland.

The move came in the form of a communique this week from Lagos where
some 24 leaders including archbishops, bishops and leading clergy were
led by Archbishop Nicholas Okoh of Nigeria. They came from nine Anglican
provinces and five provincial "branches". GAFCON represents the majority
of world Anglicans.

The authority of Scripture, the failure to preach a clear gospel message
and the acceptance of pansexuality in a number of Western provinces
brought on this crisis, with the Global South adamantly refusing to
compromise the teaching of Scripture on homosexual behavior.

In their communique they said, "During our meeting, we considered how
best to respond to the voice of faithful Anglicans in some parts of the
Global North who are in need of biblically faithful episcopal
leadership.

"Of immediate concern is the reality that on 8th June 2017 the Scottish
Episcopal Church is likely to formalize their rejection of Jesus'
teaching on marriage. If this were to happen, faithful Anglicans in
Scotland will need appropriate pastoral care.

With reference to churches planted in England but outside the CofE by
the orthodox Anglican Mission in England (AMiE), they said, "These
churches are growing, and are in need of episcopal leadership.
Therefore, we have decided to consecrate a missionary bishop who will be
tasked with providing episcopal leadership for those who are outside the
structures of any Anglican province, especially in Europe."

The AMiE said in a statement that they were "delighted" by the move; "We
thank God that the number of AMiE churches is growing and that an
increasing number of individuals are exploring ordination with us. As a
result, we have an urgent need for more episcopal leadership." They said
the consecration of a missionary bishop will help it "achieve our gospel
ambition of planting 25 healthy Anglican churches by 2025 and 250 by
2050".

The GAFCON communique did try to reassure orthodox members of the Church
of England, and said this; "We are aware that some Christians within
these provinces who are contending for the faith may at first perceive
the news of a missionary bishop as a threat to their hopes for reform
from within."

By contrast, The Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Most Rev.
David Chillingworth, said the actions of the GAFCON primates was
"regrettable" and said the action lacked respect for the territorial
integrity of each province. "This move is a breach of that
understanding." You can read full reports on all this in today's digest.

*****

The Anglican Church in Ireland's ruling general synod will meet for its
annual meeting in Limerick this week, and it is set to vote on a
same-sex relationship motion calling on bishops to approve thanksgiving
prayers for gay couples.

A private member's motion by Dr. Leo Kilroy stops short of calling for a
change in Church teaching, but it asks the synod to acknowledge "the
injury felt by members of the Church who enter into loving, committed
and legally-recognized, same-sex relationships, due to the absence of
provision for them to mark that key moment in their lives publicly and
prayerfully in Church".

If approved the motion asks bishops to present their suggestions to the
next annual synod meeting in 2018 but any proposals would not actually
be approved until 2019 at the earliest.

It comes as GAFCON, a group of orthodox Anglican primates within the
worldwide Anglican Communion, vowed to appoint a "missionary bishop" for
conservative Christians in the wake of what it sees as a liberalizing
trend in Anglican Churches.

The move bypasses traditional authorities such as the Archbishop of
Canterbury and Archbishop David Chillingworth, Primus of the Scottish
Episcopal Church, which is set to approve a change in teaching on gay
marriage next month.

*****

The Anglican Church of Canada continues to spin its slow disintegration.
David of Samizdat writes, "What is a bishop to do when his diocese no
longer has the money to pay for clergy salaries or building maintenance,
when members of his parishes are either fleeing or dying? Other than
donning a rainbow miter and, with an increasingly embarrassing air of
desperation, be so inclusive the main requirement for membership is to
believe in anything, the only thing left is to spin the truth so
brazenly that there is, as Joseph Goebbels noted, "a certain force of
credibility" to the underpinning lie.

Thus, when the Diocese of British Columbia has to sell buildings just to
stay afloat and maintain pension funds, the church's mission, according
to Matthew 28:19 using the Standard New Amplified Revised Liberal
(SNARL) translation, becomes:

"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, and build socially, affordable
housing in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost."

Here is what a diocesan press release announced:

"The Anglican church building in Ladysmith, formerly St. John the
Evangelist, will become a seniors' housing complex."

The Left Rev. Logan McMenamie, Bishop of the Diocese of British
Columbia, said the move to sell the church to the Ladysmith Resources
Centre Association for social housing, was made in the spirit of
fulfilling the Christian mission of the church.

"The ministry of the Anglican church will not end," said McMenamie.
"Socially, affordable housing is a big priority for the diocese as we
move ahead."

The Ladysmith Resources Centre Association plans on redeveloping the
site to create 30-40 units of affordable housing dedicated to seniors,
people with developmental disabilities and others who have trouble with
the rental market. You can read the full story here:
http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/old-anglican-church-to-become-seniors-housing-in-ladysmith-1.17914923

*****

Since the first reading at General Synod 2016 of a resolution to allow
for the solemnization of same-sex marriages, eight couples have been
married in three Anglican Church of Canada dioceses--with more planning
on walking down the aisle in the coming year.

Four weddings of same-sex couples have taken place in the diocese of
Niagara, three in the diocese of Toronto and one in the diocese of
Ottawa, according to the offices of the respective diocesan bishops.
Toronto and Ottawa also noted that several other same-sex couples in
their dioceses are in the process of preparation for marriage.

Bishop Mary Irwin-Gibson, of the diocese of Montreal, said she is
currently going through a discernment process with four same-sex couples
considering marriage.

Bishop Logan McMenamie, of the diocese of British Columbia, announced at
a diocesan synod in autumn 2016 that he will "move forward with the
marriage of same-sex couples in the diocese" on a case-by-case basis.
When the Anglican Journal contacted his office in March 2017, no
same-sex couples had yet approached the diocese about the possibility of
marriage.

Following the first reading of the motion to change the marriage canon
(church law) of the Anglican Church of Canada to allow for the marriage
of same-sex couples--which was initially, but incorrectly, declared as
being defeated in a vote--several bishops publicly announced they would
nonetheless marry same-sex couples.

Niagara Bishop Michael Bird, Ottawa Bishop John Chapman, Toronto
Archbishop Colin Johnson, then Huron Bishop Bob Bennett and then
Coadjutor (now diocesan) Bishop Linda Nicholls all stated that they
would marry same-sex couples as a pastoral measure, citing an opinion by
General Synod Chancellor David Jones, that the marriage canon as it
stands does not actually bar same-sex marriage.

Following discovery of a voting error, which showed that the motion had
actually passed its first reading, Bird, Chapman and Johnson said they
would still go ahead with same-sex marriage. However, Bennett and
Nicholls issued another statement, clarifying that their diocese was
"committed to ongoing consultations" as required by the same-sex motion.
At press time, no changes to diocesan policy regarding the marriage of
same-sex couples had been made.

This is all happening before the vote in 2019 to finalize approval of
same-sex marriage in the Anglican Church of Canada, writes David of
Samizdat. "If it seems chaotic, it is because it is: Fred Hiltz says he
has no authority to prevent it, Michael Bird and other bishops have
cheerfully declared they can proceed because no one can find anything in
the canons that says they can't and, even though synod has pronounced
same-sex marriage a matter of theology, Bird et al. have effectively
said, no it isn't it's pastoral.

"Considering the energy, time and passion invested in this, and the
ensuing mayhem, it would be reasonable for an outsider to assume that
there are thousands or, at the very least, hundreds of same-sex couples
clamoring to be joined in unholy matrimony in an Anglican church. But
no: there have been eight so far.

"Eight! That's 0.000044% of the population; on the positive side, it a
beautiful illustration of how effective the ACoC's efforts to be
relevant are to average Canadians."

*****

GAFCON is playing a strategic role in the renewal of the Anglican Church
in Brazil, reports the Rev. Charles Raven.

"Most Christians in the UK probably have only the haziest idea of what
Anglicanism looks like in South America. The Edinburgh Missionary
Conference of 1910 inhibited Protestant and Anglican missionary work in
the continent at a time when the English language was (and still is)
marginal. This is unlike most other areas of the Anglican Communion
where the British influence was much stronger.

"And yet, out of the continuing crisis in the world wide Anglican
Communion, and in spite of official persecution in the area, a
reinvigorated and missionary church is emerging in South America. In
fact, the pattern of North America is being repeated -- just as a new
GAFCON recognized Province, the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA),
arose out of the aggressive and assertive revisionism of the American
Episcopal Church (TEC) and the Anglican Church of Canada, so in South
America a new orthodox Province is coming into being as the Anglican
Episcopal Church of Brazil (IEAB) and various TEC satellite provinces in
central and northern South America follow the lead of their North
American counterparts.

"This new emerging Province is based on the Anglican Diocese of Recife,
an area of northern Brazil bordering the Atlantic Ocean which
constitutes the eastern tip of the South American continent. Until
recently it was part of the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil, having
been planted as a missionary diocese in 1974 under the visionary
leadership of Bishop Edmund Knox Sherrill, a convinced evangelical. The
diocese prospered, while the rest of the IEAB declined as it fell under
the financial influence of The Episcopal Church of the United States."

The is remarkable missionary work is being led by a dear friend of mine,
Bishop Miguel Uchoa. You can read the full report in today's digest.

*****

Once upon a time the Church Army (UK) was an army of salvation. Its
mission statement read, "We are a mission community of people who are
transforming lives and neighborhoods throughout the British Isles and
Ireland. We are committed to bringing people to a living faith in Jesus
Christ by sharing our Christian faith in words and action and enabling
the wider church to do so."

Not anymore. Canon Mark Russell, Chief Executive of the Church Army is
decidedly pro-gay and has come out in favor of something called Diverse
Church. He commends it as an excellent resource for the wider church. "I
have been encouraged by the way Diverse Church fosters deep commitment
to Jesus Christ as found in Scripture and the joy and hope that is found
in His Gospel. Since being asked to be part of their pastoral
facilitation team I have seen first-hand how transformative this
community has been for many of its members in helping them to flourish
in their local churches. Diverse Church shows how loving Christian
community can bring young people back to life in God."

Diverse maybe, but biblical and faithful to Scripture, no more.

*****

A landmark new report conveys the findings of the "world's first
systematic global investigation into the responses of Christian
communities to persecution."

The Background: The global persecution of Christians has been frequently
documented and reported on over the past decade. But Under Caesar's
Sword: Christian Response to Persecution reveals for the first time how
Christians around the world respond to persecution. The project is a
partnership of the University of Notre Dame's Center for Ethics and
Culture, the Religious Freedom Institute, and Georgetown University's
Religious Freedom Research Project.

According to the report, a team of 17 leading scholars of global
Christianity carried out the project through qualitative field research,
including interviews with persecuted Christians, conducted between
October 2014 and November 2015. The purpose of the investigation was to
"achieve a better understanding of these responses in order to assist
persecuted Christians and those who wish to act in solidarity with
them."

The report defines religious persecution as "any unjust action of
varying levels of hostility directed to religious believers through
systematic oppression or through irregular harassment or discrimination
resulting in various levels of harm as it is considered from the
victim's perspective, each action having religion as its primary
motivator."

The modes of persecution, the study notes, include arbitrary detention,
coercive and unjust interrogation, forced labor, imprisonment, beating,
torture, disappearance, forced flight from homes, enslavement, rape,
murder, unjust execution, attacks on and destruction of churches, and
credible threats to carry out such actions.

The Findings: The investigation found that Christian responses to
persecution tend to fall into three types, ranging from reactive to
proactive: survival, association, and confrontation.

The report defines and explains each of the three types of response and
how often they are used. Responses of survival (used 43 percent of the
time) are strategies whereby Christians aim to preserve the life and the
most characteristic activities of their communities, including worship,
education, community life, and sometimes evangelization. Strategies of
association (38 percent) are more proactive include engaging in
interreligious dialogue, cooperating with other Christian communities,
and forging coalitions and partnerships inside countries. Strategies of
confrontation (19 percent) are those in which Christians openly
challenge the persecuting government or non-state actors. This can
include acceptance of imprisonment or martyrdom as a mode of witness or,
more rarely, taking up arms against a government or rival social groups

Evangelicals and Pentecostal Christians are more likely to be persecuted
than mainline Protestants, Catholics, Orthodox Christians, or other
Christians associated with ancient churches, the report notes. In
response to such persecution, evangelical and Pentecostal Christians are
more likely to engage in strategies of survival or, on rare occasions,
confrontation. They are less likely, however, to engage in strategies of
association. Mainline Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox Christians, on
the other hand, are more likely to respond through strategies of
association.

*****

Roman Catholic and Coptic churches have agreed to recognize each other's
baptisms. The decision was disclosed in a common declaration signed on
April 28 by Pope Francis and Pope Tawadros II of the Coptic Orthodox
Church. Francis was on a solidarity visit to Egypt in the wake of the
Palm Sunday bombings that left 47 Coptic Christians dead and many
injured.

Under the agreement, the churches undertake not to repeat baptisms done
by the other church. This long-standing practice followed the split
between the two churches dating from the Council of Chalcedon (451).

The statement commits the churches to work together for a shared
formulation of the Lord's Prayer and a common date for celebrating
Easter. While in Egypt, Pope Francis addressed a peace conference hosted
by the Grand Imam of al-Azhar. [Source The Living Church]

*****

The Archbishop of Canterbury was in Jordan this week and reflected on
meeting Iraqi Christians on the first day of his visit to Jordan, Israel
and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

He visited St. Paul's Anglican Church in Amman, Jordan and heard the
stories of persecuted Christians.
"It was their stories which I found especially moving. The intense
suffering of Iraqi Christians does not end when they leave Iraq. As I
listened, there was this awful sense of lives torn apart. People are
divided from their children and families and have no idea what will
happen. One woman has children in both Germany and the Netherlands, but
has been refused entry to both so she doesn't know when or if they will
ever be reunited. One man told me he has no hope at all. He said he is
caught between Islamic State, the government and NGOs who further
discriminate against him because he is a Christian.

One woman told the ABC that she can endure persecution as a Christian
because the Bible teaches that that is to be expected. What she did not
expect was that the worldwide church would ignore their plight.

The ABC prayed for God's protection over their community. He also prayed
that the Western Church would be stirred up to do something. "We are
human beings with our persecuted brothers and sisters. We must embrace
them. We must also find ways of improving things in this region. We do
not want a Middle East without Christians. Christians have a long
history in the Middle East, they are still here, and they surely must be
part of its future."

*****

New research has found fewer than one in three Britons believe faith
matters.

Ipsos Mori found 30 per cent of people said religion is important to
them, a figure significantly lower than the global average of 53 per
cent.

The statistics place Britain among the least religious countries in the
world, with only Sweden, Belgium and Japan ranked lower.

The survey, which polled 18,000 people across 23 countries, also found
four in five Britons believe the country has become more hostile towards
immigration.

It concluded fewer than one in ten people believe healthcare will
improve in future.

According to the 2011 census, 14.1 million - around one in four - people
in England and Wales reported that they had no religion.

While the proportion of the population who identify as Christian
declined from 72 per cent in 2001 to 59 per cent in 2011, all other main
religious groups - including Islam - grew.

*****

The Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows was ordained and consecrated the
eleventh Episcopal bishop of Indianapolis April 29, making her the first
black woman to lead a diocese in the history of the Episcopal Church and
the first woman to succeed another woman as diocesan bishop.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry led the service as chief consecrator and
was joined by more than 40 bishops from across the church. Nearly 1,400
participated in the service at Clowes Hall on the campus of Butler
University. Diocese of Chicago Jeffrey D. Lee preached. From 2012 until
her election as bishop, Baskerville-Burrows served on Lee's staff as
director of networking in the Diocese of Chicago.

*****

Nashotah House will play host to Living Sacrifices: Repentance,
Reconciliation, and Renewal" will focus on the history of Anglicanism
and the future of the Anglican Communion. June 6 - 9

Scheduled plenary speakers include:

The Most Rev. Josiah Idowu-Fearon, Secretary General of the Anglican
Communion
The Rev. Paul Avis, visiting professor at the University of Exeter's
Department of Theology and Religion and editor in chief of Ecclesiology
The Rt. Rev. Geoffrey Rowell, Bishop of Basingstoke from 1994 to 2001
and Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe from 2001 to 2013
The Rev. Ephraim Radner, professor of historical theology at Wycliffe
College, University of Toronto
The Rt. Rev. George Sumner, seventh Bishop of Dallas
Dr. Garwood Anderson, professor of New Testament and Greek at Nashotah
House Theological Seminary
The Rev. Michael Cover, assistant professor of theology at Marquette
University and a member of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Consultation in
the United States
Dr. Wesley Hill, assistant professor of biblical studies at Trinity
School for Ministry
The Rev. Michael Poon, former director of the Centre for the Study of
Christianity in Asia at Trinity Theological College, Singapore
Dr. Christopher Wells, executive director of the Living Church
Foundation
Dr. Susan K. Wood, SCL, professor of systematic theology in the
Department of Theology at Marquette University

For more information or to register:
Visit www.nashotah.edu/conference

*****

Just when you thought that North American Christianity couldn't get any
more bizarre along comes this. At Denver's newest church, the aim is to
have a mind-altering experience.

The International Church of Cannabis opened its doors on Thursday after
a number of legal roadblocks and considerable media buzz. Painted with
vibrant, rainbow-colored murals by Spanish artist Okuda San Miguel and
American artist Kenny Scharf, the church is apparently a vision to
behold.

"When one takes the sacrament and meditates on the meaning of the
murals, one may have what feels like a transcendental experience,"
states the church's website. "In those moments, one receives the meaning
one requires at that time."

Members of the church are known as Elevationists. Their faith holds that
"an individual's spiritual journey, and search for meaning, is one of
self-discovery that can be accelerated and deepened with ritual cannabis
use."

As Elevationist Lee Molloy told The Huffington Post: "When we ritually
take cannabis our mind is elevated and we become a better version of
self." The only question is, why didn't TEC think of this when it was
running after pansexuality. There is a natural link between potty
theology and pot.

*****

Things just get better-n-better for the ACNA. More than 70 were
confirmed on Sunday by Bishop John Guernsey at Falls Church, Virginia,
an ACNA parish led by the Rev. John Yates. When did you last hear of an
Episcopal parish confirming a number like that in ANY parish in the
U.S.?

*****

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David



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

Message: 3
Date: Thu, 04 May 2017 15:50:11 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: LAGOS: GAFCON Primates Will Consecrate Missionary Bishop in
England
Message-ID:
<1493927411.89614....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

LAGOS: GAFCON Primates Will Consecrate Missionary Bishop in England
AMiE priests will now have episcopal oversight
Primates fear Scottish Episcopal Church will formalize their rejection
of Jesus' teaching on marriage
No "single solution" but only true failure would be to waste time
through inaction, say Primates

By David W. Virtue, DD
www.virtueonline.org
April 30, 2017

GAFCON Primates, led by the Most Rev. Dr. Nicholas Okoh meeting in Lagos
this past week, released a communique saying they will consecrate a
missionary bishop in England tasked with providing episcopal leadership
for those outside the structures of any Anglican province, especially in
Europe.

The primates have long railed against the softening stand taken by the
Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Justin Welby, over homosexuality
in the Church of England and released the 'nuclear option', saying they
will now consecrate a bishop on English soil.

"During our meeting, we considered how best to respond to the voice of
faithful Anglicans in some parts of the Global North who are in need of
biblically faithful episcopal leadership. Of immediate concern is the
reality that on 8th June 2017 the Scottish Episcopal Church is likely to
formalize their rejection of Jesus' teaching on marriage. If this were
to happen, faithful Anglicans in Scotland will need appropriate
pastoral care.

"Within England there are churches that have, for reasons of conscience,
been planted outside of the Church of England by the Anglican Mission in
England (AMiE). These churches are growing, and are in need of episcopal
leadership. Therefore, we have decided to consecrate a missionary bishop
who will be tasked with providing episcopal leadership for those who are
outside the structures of any Anglican province, especially in Europe."

The Primates said they were aware that some Christians within these
provinces who are contending for the faith, may at first perceive the
news of a missionary bishop as a threat to their hopes for reform from
within, and, while acknowledging there was no "single solution", they
said the only true failure would be to waste time through inaction.

The Primates, which included ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach, offered a word
of encouragement to faithful Anglicans within European provinces and
reassured them that they have our prayers and support.

"In our Global North provinces, the challenges are different. With the
increasing influence of materialism, secularism, and the loss of moral
foundations, our people in these provinces face dangers that are subtle,
but spiritually dangerous," they said.

The Primates called on all faithful Anglicans to pray for the continued
renewal of the Anglican Communion, and the spread of this reform
movement.

The primates also discussed the ongoing civil war in South Sudan, and
the challenges faced by the church in that province. This conflict has
displaced millions, many of whom have found a temporary home in northern
Uganda. The Anglican church there is caring for these refugees as best
it can, but the region's resources are currently overwhelmed. The GAFCON
Primates commissioned the Primates of Uganda and Kenya to visit the
South Sudan to explore ways they can work with other ecumenical
partners to offer mediation that might bring about an end to this
conflict.

The Primates also bewailed the dual threats of insurgent Islamism and
drought. They also highlighted the targeting of Christians and churches
in northern Nigeria and the daily dangers there and elsewhere that
continue to be real. Combined with drought conditions, there is the
potential for widespread famine in Sub-Saharan provinces.

GAFCON is a global family made up of 9 provinces and 5 branches
representing the majority of the world's Anglicans. In 2018, the Global
Anglican Future Conference will meet in Jerusalem on the 10th
anniversary of the founding of GAFCON. The theme will be "Proclaiming
Christ Faithfully to the Nations".
Some 1,700 delegates are expected to be in attendance.

END



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

Message: 4
Date: Thu, 04 May 2017 15:50:29 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: GAFCON-UK statement in response to the Primates' Communique
Message-ID:
<1493927429.89689....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

GAFCON-UK statement in response to the Primates' Communique

http://www.gafconuk.org/news/gafcon-uk-statement-response-primates-communique
April 30, 2017

GAFCON-UK would like to thank the GAFCON Primates for their courageous
spiritual leadership, consisting of clear re-statement of the essentials
of the faith, and practical action to take forward the mission of global
Anglicanism in the 21st century.

We appreciate the way in which the Communique both looks back -- to the
witness of those who brought about the Reformation of the Church in the
16th century; and looks forward -- to the exciting vision of
multicultural and united Anglicanism which will be celebrated at the
third GAFCON conference in Jerusalem, 2018.

The statement also reminds us of the serious suffering experienced in
many parts of the world, where Anglicans minister sacrificially with
only a fraction of the necessary resources, yet they remain faithful,
trusting in God to provide. As affluent Westerners we repent of our
complacency and lack of compassion, and commit ourselves to partnering
more intentionally to support the church where it serves in contexts of
desperate need.

The Primates go on to talk about the challenges in the Global North,
"the increasing influence of materialism, secularism, and the loss of
moral foundations" which are "spiritually dangerous". We recognize the
need to repent of our participation in a weak version of the Christian
faith which has too often failed to point out these dangers or even made
accommodation with them.

This accommodation and 'cultural captivity' is seen in the failure by
many Anglican leaders in the UK to hold to the key principles of Holy
Scripture as speaking clearly to God's will for human flourishing, and
of requiring unequivocal obedience whatever the cost. It is shown, for
example, in unwillingness to be clear about the uniqueness of Jesus and
the authority of the Bible, and rejection of clear biblical teaching
God's gift of sex and marriage, and of celibate singleness.

This has contributed to the increasing concern that many faithful clergy
and lay people in the Church of England, the Episcopal Church of
Scotland and the Church in Wales feel about the revisionist trajectory
of these churches. As the Communique points out clearly, some Anglicans
are already outside of these structures and need Episcopal oversight;
others may do so soon.

So we warmly welcome the decision of the Primates to consecrate a
missionary Bishop who will fulfil this function. We appreciate the way
GAFCON has recognized that this intervention is giving global support to
one of a number of initiatives being taken by biblically orthodox
Anglicans in Britain; others include the work being done to strengthen
the Free Church of England. Meanwhile the Primates have generously
expressed respect for and continued warm fellowship with those who for
the moment are choosing to remain within the official structures and
contend for orthodox biblical faith there, while warning that inaction
in the face of revisionist pressure is not a faithful option.

We understand that more will be revealed about the plans for the
consecration in due course. We commit ourselves to prayer about this and
invite all who hold to the historic and trustworthy teaching of our
faith to join us.

END



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

Message: 5
Date: Thu, 04 May 2017 15:50:40 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: GAFCON UK responds positively to Primates' Communique
Message-ID:
<1493927440.89648....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

GAFCON UK responds positively to Primates' Communique
They warmly welcome missionary bishop to UK
Scottish Episcopal Church Primus says action is "regrettable"

By David W. Virtue, DD
www.virtueonline.org
May 3, 2017

GAFCON UK thanked the GAFCON Primates for their courageous spiritual
leadership, consisting of clear re-statement of the essentials of the
faith, and practical action to take forward the mission of global
Anglicanism in the 21st century, in the recent GAFCON communique.

"We appreciate the way in which the Communique both looks back -- to the
witness of those who brought about the Reformation of the Church in the
16th century; and looks forward -- to the exciting vision of
multicultural and united Anglicanism which will be celebrated at the
third GAFCON conference in Jerusalem, 2018," said the GAFCON-UK leaders.

"The statement also reminds us of the serious suffering experienced in
many parts of the world, where Anglicans minister sacrificially with
only a fraction of the necessary resources, yet they remain faithful,
trusting in God to provide. As affluent Westerners, we repent of our
complacency and lack of compassion, and commit ourselves to partnering
more intentionally to support the church where it serves in contexts of
desperate need.

The Primates go on to talk about the challenges in the Global North,
"the increasing influence of materialism, secularism, and the loss of
moral foundations" which are "spiritually dangerous". We recognize the
need to repent of our participation in a weak version of the Christian
faith which has too often failed to point out these dangers or even made
accommodation with them.

"This accommodation and 'cultural captivity' is seen in the failure by
many Anglican leaders in the UK to hold to the key principles of Holy
Scripture as speaking clearly to God's will for human flourishing, and
of requiring unequivocal obedience whatever the cost. It is shown, for
example, in unwillingness to be clear about the uniqueness of Jesus and
the authority of the Bible, and rejection of clear biblical teaching
God's gift of sex and marriage, and of celibate singleness.

"This has contributed to the increasing concern that many faithful
clergy and lay people in the Church of England, the Scottish Episcopal
Church and the Church in Wales feel about the revisionist trajectory of
these churches. As the Communique points out clearly, some Anglicans are
already outside of these structures and need Episcopal oversight; others
may do so soon.

"We warmly welcome the decision of the Primates to consecrate a
missionary Bishop who will fulfil this function. We appreciate the way
GAFCON has recognized that this intervention is giving global support to
one of a number of initiatives being taken by biblically orthodox
Anglicans in Britain; others include the work being done to strengthen
the Free Church of England. Meanwhile the Primates have generously
expressed respect for and continued warm fellowship with those who for
the moment are choosing to remain within the official structures and
contend for orthodox biblical faith there, while warning that inaction
in the face of revisionist pressure is not a faithful option.

We understand that more will be revealed about the plans for the
consecration in due course. We commit ourselves to prayer about this and
invite all who hold to the historic and trustworthy teaching of our
faith to join us.

SCOTTISH EPISCOPAL CHURCH

By contrast, The Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Most Rev.
David Chillingworth, said the actions of the GAFCON primates was
"regrettable" and said the action lacked respect for the territorial
integrity of each province. "This move is a breach of that
understanding."

"In June, the General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church will reach
the final stage of consideration of changes which would make possible
same-sex marriage in our churches," he wrote in response to the GAFCON
primates.

The news that GAFCON intends to send a missionary bishop to Britain is
regrettable, he said.

"The outcome of the synodical process which will take place in June is
not a foregone conclusion. The voices of clergy and lay people from
across Scotland will be heard both in debate and in the voting process.
The Scottish Episcopal Church is working closely with those who find
this proposal difficult to accept. Whatever the outcome may be, it is
our intention to be and to remain a church which honors diversity."

Chillingworth repeated that commitment to honoring diversity and
difference in an interview with the BBC's Good Morning Scotland program,
in which he declared himself saddened, but not surprised, by the GAFCON
announcement. He said that he hoped the appointment of a missionary
bishop would not sharpen divisions within Scottish church.

END



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

Message: 6
Date: Thu, 04 May 2017 15:50:52 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: Anglican renewal in Brazil
Message-ID:
<1493927452.89736....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Anglican renewal in Brazil

By Charles Raven
https://www.gafcon.org/news/anglican-renewal-in-brazil
April, 2017

Gafcon is playing a strategic role in the renewal of the Anglican Church
in Brazil.

Most Christians in the UK probably have only the haziest idea of what
Anglicanism looks like in South America. The Edinburgh Missionary
Conference of 1910 inhibited Protestant and Anglican missionary work in
the continent at a time when the English language was (and still is)
marginal. This is unlike most other areas of the Anglican Communion
where the British influence was much stronger.

MIguel Uchoa And yet, out of the continuing crisis in the world wide
Anglican Communion, and in spite of official persecution in the area, a
reinvigorated and missionary church is emerging in South America. In
fact, the pattern of North America is being repeated -- just as a new
GAFCON recognized Province, the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA),
arose out of the aggressive and assertive revisionism of the American
Episcopal Church (TEC) and the Anglican Church of Canada, so in South
America a new orthodox Province is coming into being as the Anglican
Episcopal Church of Brazil (IEAB) and various TEC satellite provinces in
central and northern South America follow the lead of their North
American counterparts.

This new emerging Province is based on the Anglican Diocese of Recife,
an area of northern Brazil bordering the Atlantic Ocean which
constitutes the eastern tip of the South American continent. Until
recently it was part of the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil, having
been planted as a missionary diocese in 1974 under the visionary
leadership of Bishop Edmund Knox Sherrill, a convinced evangelical. The
diocese prospered, while the rest of the IEAB declined as it fell under
the financial influence of The Episcopal Church of the United States.

Matters came to a head after the 1998 Lambeth Conference. The Diocese of
Recife under Bishop Robinson Calvacanti was the only Brazilian Diocese
to support Resolution I.10 which reaffirmed biblical teaching on
marriage and stated specifically that homosexual activity was
incompatible with Scripture. This resistance to the revisionist
programme led to Bishop Calvacanti, and the vast majority of the clergy
who supported him, having their ministerial authority withdrawn.
Fortunately, Archbishop Greg Venables, Primate of the Anglican Church of
South America (formerly the Southern Cone) agreed to recognize the
orthodox clergy and give them oversight until more permanent
arrangements could be made.

The IEAB then began legal action to strip the Diocese of Recife of its
assets and finally succeeded in 2015. As a result, on 12 March 2016, the
new Anglican Diocese of Recife was launched as a new church recognized
under Brazilian law with over 60 pastors and more than 45 congregations,
including the largest Anglican church in Latin America, (one of the
largest of all the Americas) under the leadership of the current bishop,
Miguel Uchoa.

In the providence of God, this newly liberated diocese is becoming a
strategic centre for mission. The GAFCON Primates have authorized Bishop
Miguel Uchoa to provide episcopal oversight throughout central and
northern South America for Anglican churches who are unable to continue
as part of revisionist dioceses. Reflecting this wider mission, the
Anglican Diocese of Recife is now in the process of reconstituting
itself as the Anglican Church of Brazil.

At a recent GAFCON Consultation on Church Planting, I had the privilege
of meeting Bishop Flavio Adair Torres Soares, a suffragan bishop of the
Anglican Church of Recife who embodies the missionary vision of this
province in the making. Seventy new churches have been planted in the
last five years and as well as having oversight of the church planters,
he is planting a church himself! The pattern of growth is organic, being
based on multiplying cell groups which build discipleship into the very
fabric of the church's structures.

None of this is happening in isolation. Bishop Miguel Uchoa is part of
the leadership team of 'Caminemos Juntos' (Let's walk together!), a
joint venture between GAFCON aligned leaders in South America and the
ACNA's Greenhouse church planting movement based in Chicago. Their
mission, to reach Latin Americans throughout the Americas, gained real
momentum after the second global GAFCON Conference. Caminemos Juntos'
next gathering for all of the Americas will be held in Recife from 5-7
October 2017.

It has been said structures follow life and that principle is being
worked out in South America as new structures driven by the gospel
emerge. In Bishop Miguel's words what is at stake is this: "For them
(the IEAB) faith is an expression of the spirit of the age and the
multi-faith vision is accepted. Jesus is just part of God's revelation,
but never the only one. For us, Faith is our only reason to live, faith
in Jesus Christ alone as Saviour and Lord".

It is sobering to remember that when the Archbishop of Canterbury talks
of the Anglican Communion 'walking together' he includes Provinces like
Bishop Miguel describes. Thankfully, the emergent Anglican Church of
Brazil and the Caminemos Juntos are demonstrating a very different
'walking together'. The future of the Communion depends upon which path
its leaders will walk.

This article was originally written for 'Evangelicals Now', a monthly
Christian newspaper based in the UK



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

Message: 7
Date: Thu, 04 May 2017 15:51:09 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: ZIMBABWE: Things Fall Apart for Kunonga . . . Anglican Church
Turns Screws On Embattled Cleric
Message-ID:
<1493927469.89759....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

ZIMBABWE: Things Fall Apart for Kunonga . . . Anglican Church Turns
Screws On Embattled Cleric

By Fidelis Munyoro
THE HERALD
allafrica.com/stories/201705010059.html
May 1, 2017

The Anglican Church has instructed its lawyers to recover everything the
church lost to ex-communicated bishop Dr Nolbert Kunonga following the
Supreme Court ruling last month.

The superior court ordered the bishop to pay the Anglican Church
$427,000 as compensation for shares he sold after he led the church into
schism in 2007.

The shares were owned by the Church of the Province of Central Africa
(CPCA) in various firms and by command of the law, the decision of the
Supreme Court is final and binding on all subordinate courts.

The Anglican Diocesan secretary, Reverend Clifford Dzavo, said Dr
Kunonga was yet to comply with the Supreme Court ruling.

"We met our lawyers Gill, Godlonton and Gerrans last week on Friday
after the court ruling," said Rev Dzavo.

"We have instructed them to follow up the matter and recover the money
and everything that we lost to Kunonga.

"It's another process which needs to be done in accordance with the
dictates of the law and we are doing exactly that."

Dr Kunonga is the former Anglican bishop and head of the Diocese of
Harare CPCA. The Supreme Court upheld the High Court decision last month
ordering the cleric and his allies to pay $427,892, plus interest and
court costs to the Diocese of Harare.

Justice Paddington Garwe threw out Dr Kunonga's contention that the
shares were sold to meet the costs of running the affairs of the church.

He found that the assets had not been used for the benefit of CPCA, but
in furtherance of the interests of the new church Dr Kunonga and his
allies had formed.

In 2013, the Supreme Court resolved the dispute in the Anglican Church
pitting the CPCA and diocesan trustees, Harare province under case
number SC48.12.

In that judgment, the court made findings that Dr Kunonga and other
trustees formed a new church in January 2008 and the former bishop was
consecrated and enthroned as the archbishop.

It was also noted that they continued to use CPCA assets without
approval of the provincial synod, in furtherance of the interest of
their new church.

Dr Kunonga and his allies had no right once they seceded from the church
in 2007 to continue holding onto the church assets, the court found.

Dr Kunonga withdrew the diocese from the CPCA to form the Anglican
Church of Zimbabwe after the province began ecclesiastical proceedings
to investigate the controversial bishop on charges of fraud, heresy and
attempted murder. When he formed his church, Dr Kunonga clung on to the
Anglican property for five years, while denying church members access to
the properties, it was revealed.

At the height of the property control dispute, Dr Kunonga and his
followers, including Beaven Michael Ngundu, Alfred Tome, Justin Nyazika
and Winter Shamuyarira, decided to dispose of the church's property in
the form of shares it owned in various companies.

The unilateral sale of property and shares prejudiced the church members
of $427,892.



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

Message: 8
Date: Thu, 04 May 2017 15:51:21 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: Church of England 'homophobic' says gay marriage vicar
Message-ID:
<1493927481.89843....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Church of England 'homophobic' says gay marriage vicar

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-39770736
May 1, 2017

The first Church of England vicar to marry a same-sex partner has
accused the church of being "institutionally homophobic".

He made the comments after he was told he would not get a new parish
when he leaves his existing one in London.

The Reverend Andrew Foreshew-Cain is leaving his congregation in West
Hampstead as he is moving to the Peak District with his husband.

He said he felt under constant pressure being a gay man working in the
Church.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 live's Stephen Nolan, he said: "The people of
the Church of England, the worshipping congregations up and down the
country are amazing people who worship and serve their local communities
and do tremendous amounts of good in lots of places and for the most
part they are welcoming and accepting of the LGBTI community.

"The problem is with the leadership of the Church which maintains and
promotes policies and practices which are discriminatory against LGBTI
people."

He added: "There's this constant pressure of being a gay man working for
the Church of England, in an institution which is institutionally
homophobic and has policies and attitudes towards the LGBT community
which are harmful."

Father Foreshew-Cain has been a vicar for 27 years and is the vicar of
St Mary with All Souls, Kilburn, and St James in West Hampstead.

He has told his congregation he plans to leave in July as his husband is
now working 200 miles away.

He said after he married in 2014, he received a letter from his bishop
saying he would not be allowed to work in another job within the Church.

"That's discrimination and in any other part of the world that would be
illegal," he said.

A spokesperson for the diocese of London said: "Andrew Foreshew-Cain is
currently a member of the clergy in the Diocese of London.

"We understand that he has plans to move to Manchester for personal
reasons but the diocese has not received his resignation at this time."

END



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

Message: 9
Date: Thu, 04 May 2017 15:51:44 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: Parents are using a "dubious interpretation of human right
legislation" to pull students out of the classes
Message-ID:
<1493927504.89846....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Parents are using a "dubious interpretation of human right legislation"
to pull students out of the classes
Ban parents from pulling children out of religious education classes,
Church of England says
Parents are using a "dubious interpretation of human right legislation"
to pull students out of the classes

By Camilla Turner
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
April 27, 2017

Parents should be banned from pulling their children out of religious
education classes because they are preventing students from learning
about Islam, the Church of England has warned.

Derek Holloway, the Church's lead on religious education (RE) policy,
said that those with "fundamentalist" religious beliefs are "exploiting"
laws which give them the right to withdraw children from the lessons, in
order to stop them from learning about the Muslim faith.

He said that parents are using a "dubious interpretation of human right
legislation" to pull students out of the classes, warning that such
actions create a "dangerous" precedent.

Mr Holloway, who taught at comprehensive schools in Essex and Wiltshire
before taking up his current post in the C of E's education office, said
that the right to withdraw children from RE lessons risks being hijacked
by those who want to "incite religious hatred".

Youngsters must learn about other religions and world views so that they
know how to get along with people from different backgrounds and
beliefs, Mr Holloway said.

RE lessons, along with other school subjects, can help efforts to combat
extremism and foster better community relations, he added.

Writing in a blog on the Church of England's Facebook page, he said:
"Sadly, and dangerously, the right of withdrawal from RE is now being
exploited by a range of 'interest groups' often using a dubious
interpretation of human rights legislation.

"The right of withdrawal form RE now gives comfort to those who are
breaking the law and seeking to incite religious hatred".

The Church believes the right for parents to withdraw children from RE
should be repealed and a national statement of a child's entitlement to
RE lessons should drawn up.

Mr Holloway said that the right to withdraw students from RE lessons
"perpetuates the myth" that the classes are in some way linked to
collective worship, when in fact they contribute to a "broad and
balanced curriculum" by teaching children about a range of faiths and
beliefs.

"Through RE teacher social media forums and feedback from our RE
advisers, I am aware that some parents have sought to exploit the right
to withdraw children from RE lessons," Mr Holloway told the Press
Association.

"This is seemingly because they do not want their children exposed to
other faiths and world views, in particular Islam.

"We are concerned that this is denying those pupils the opportunity to
develop the skills they need to 'live well together' as adults."

This also puts schools in an "impossible position" as they have to show
Ofsted inspectors they are preparing pupils for life in modern Britain,
Mr Holloway warned.

"Anecdotally, there have also been some cases in different parts of the
country of parents with fundamentalist religious beliefs also taking a
similar course," he said.

"This is not confined to any one particular religion or area of the
country. "

The Church of England is far from alone in this view and we support the
broad consensus across the sector - both from teachers and RE advisers -
that the right of withdrawal from RE is being exploited by a minority
and should now be reviewed."

Mr Holloway added that the Church does not want to see parents' rights
to withdraw pupils from assemblies reviewed or scrapped.



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

Message: 10
Date: Thu, 04 May 2017 15:51:58 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: Pope Must Resist Surrendering to Radical Islam
Message-ID:
<1493927518.90429....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Pope Must Resist Surrendering to Radical Islam

By Jules Gomes
http://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/
May 1, 2017

Pope Francis is visiting Egypt--the world's largest Arab country with
the Arab world's largest Christian population. Never before have the
ancient Coptic Christians faced such persecution. Three weeks ago, on
Palm Sunday, two bombs killed 47 worshippers. Pope Francis desperately
wants to rekindle interfaith dialogue with Grand Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb,
head of Al-Azhar Mosque and University, the heart of Sunni Islam.

Al-Azhar froze dialogue with the Vatican after Pope Benedict linked
Islam to violence in his famous Regensburg Lecture in 2006. Last year,
Francis invited el-Tayeb to the Vatican and restored the relationship in
a meeting sealed by symbolic hugs and kisses. 'Our meeting is the
message,' Francis said, echoing the words of the high priest of the
cybernetic revolution Marshall McLuhan, 'The medium is the message.'

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said in a statement that the Pope
and the imam had 'mainly addressed the common challenges faced by the
authorities and faithful of the major religions of the world.' The Pope
presented the Grand Sheikh with a copy of his encyclical, Laudato Si, on
climate change and economic inequality. Pope Francis did not publicly
mention jihad, or violence in the name of Islam, or freedom of religion,
or human rights for Christians in Egypt.

Since then we do not know how many Christians in Egypt have died as a
result of global warming or economic inequality. What we do know is that
the persecution of Christians has escalated after General Abdel-Fattah
al-Sisi ousted the Muslim Brotherhood from power and took over as
president. Pope Tawadros II, head of Egypt's Coptic Church and a Sisi
supporter, said Copts were attacked about once a month. The state
continues to discriminate against the right of Christians to build and
maintain churches.

So how is Pope Francis going to dialogue with Grand Sheikh Ahmed
el-Tayeb on his visit to Egypt? He has to be gracious as a guest of the
Grand Sheikh. He has to be sensitive to the precarious situation faced
by the Copts and other Christian denominations. But can he remain silent
and avoid the most contentious issues in the arena of dialogue with one
of the most respected Sunni Islamic authorities in the world? Imagine,
Pope Francis persuading the Grand Sheikh el-Tayeb to issue a fatwa
(legal ruling) prohibiting violence against Christians! What a victory
for interfaith dialogue that would be.

Pope Francis will need to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.
But if he is going to achieve peace between Islam and Christianity in
Egypt through interfaith dialogue he cannot ignore the elephant in the
room. He will have to politely but pointedly ask the difficult questions
that nearly all Christian-Muslim interfaith dialogue ducks and dodges.
How does one interpret the texts of terror in the Koran? Is apostasy
punishable by death? How does a faithful Muslim understand jihad in a
pluralistic society?

Pope Francis must not give into the fourth temptation to be nice and
adopt the Church of England's model of interfaith dialogue set by
Michael Ipgrave, Bishop of Lichfield. I'm sitting in one of Britain's
best libraries for the study of Islam. The friendly librarian has piled
up all six glossy volumes on Christian-Muslim interfaith dialogue edited
by Ipgrave on my desk. So has he mentioned jihad? I'm dying to find out.
I run my finger through the indices under "J." Jacobites, James II,
Japan, Jeremiah, Jesus, Jews... then a long jump to justice... but what
joy, no jihad! Could he have mentioned the war under "H" for Holy War or
"W" for war? No. He won't. He's not an Egyptian Copt or a Turkish
Melkite or a Nigerian Anglican. He's never lived as a dhimmi
("protected" person--an euphemism for subjugated person) under Shariah
law. He's British. He's nice. He's inclusive.

I begin reading one of Ipgrave's 'sexed-up' interfaith dossiers. A jet
of verbiage hits me in the face. Some expert on Christian-Muslim
Interfaith dialogue is spraying the page with scholarly voodoo.
'Dialogue...is not a business of finding common ground in some
transcending principles or beliefs: that would be to presume a
meta-logue, a universal discourse that transcends local realities. On
the contrary...true dia-logueoccurs when Christians and Muslims come
together, each with their respective logos, and engage the common
challenges of the social contexts that they share, struggling through
(dia) the real issues of life.' What is the author trying to say?

An essay by Mohammed Hashim Kamali boasts that 'Islam is the only great
religion among the Abrahamic faiths that accepts religious pluralism,
extends recognition to other faiths, gives the followers of other
scriptures a recognized and protected status, and refuses compulsion as
a basis of its own propagation.' None of his dialogue partners dares to
challenge this outrageously overblown claim.

While Egyptian Christians are being blown up in churches, these nowhere
men in their nowhere land are writing all their interfaith books for
nobody. Experts in interfaith dialogue are not supposed to bonk Muslims
on the head with polemical verses on jihad from the Koran. They need to
discuss how Christians can collaborate with Muslims and people of other
religions on issues of justice, peace and the common good. But does
Christianity and Islam even share 'similar conceptions as to what
constitutes the common good?' asks Robert Reilly, senior fellow at the
American Foreign Policy Council. 'The urge to answer in the positive is
so great as to make these questions seem almost rhetorical,' he points
out. This is where Pope Francis needs to be cautious.

Christians and Muslims may use the same words, but if these terms are
not defined, they can mean very different things. The word "peace" is
one example. For Muslims, ultimate peace is achieved only by bringing
all things into submission to Islam through the rule of Shariah. Reilly
cautions against such dissimulation in his book The Prospects and Perils
of Catholic-Muslim Dialogue. He cites Dr Muzammil Siddiqi's statement in
the 2001 West Coast Dialogue that 'aggression is never allowed in
matters of faith.' Siddiqi does not reveal the whole truth. In
'classical Islamic jurisprudence, after Islam has been offered to
non-Muslim states or entities three times, their refusal to accept it
makes them the aggressor.' Then they are fair game, never mind Siddiqi's
smokescreen!

Pope Benedict XVI was not taken in by this humbug. In his Regensburg
Lecture, he affirmed that an idea of God without reason leads to
violence. Yet, in the 30-odd Catholic-Muslim interfaith shindigs in the
US, this question of reason in Islam--what Reilly calls a
"re-hellenization" of Islam is never addressed seriously, never mind the
question of jihad.

'Islam needs peace within itself...the lack of that peace is at the
source of the strife in the Muslim world today. Islam is at war with
itself. To pretend otherwise does a disservice to Muslims and Christians
alike,' writes Reilly.

Pope Francis must walk in the footsteps of Benedict XVI, upholding his
predecessor's conviction that 'truth makes consensus possible and keeps
public debate rational, honest and accountable, and opens the gateway to
peace. Fostering the will to be obedient to the truth, in fact, broadens
our concept of reason and its scope of application, and makes possible
the genuine dialogue of cultures and religions so urgently needed
today.'

Pope Francis must not settle for the lowest hanging fruit to appease
Muslims. Grand Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb must respond with equal candour,
reason and grace.

END



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

Message: 11
Date: Thu, 04 May 2017 15:52:11 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: UMC Court Rules Against Lesbian Bishop
Message-ID:
<1493927531.90436....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

UMC Court Rules Against Lesbian Bishop
United Methodist Top Court Makes Clear: "Openly Homosexual and
Partnered" People Cannot be Clergy, Bishops

By John Lomperis
Institute on Religion & Democracy Press Release
www.TheIRD.org
April 28, 2017

Today the Judicial Council of the United Methodist Church issued a
complex, highly anticipated decision provoked by openly partnered
lesbian activist Karen Oliveto of San Francisco. Last year, the rapidly
declining Western Jurisdiction, home to less than three percent of
United Methodists, acting unilaterally to elect her as bishop. Since
being elected, Oliveto has used her prominence to demonize congregations
holding to traditional United Methodist doctrine as "bad churches."

This binding ruling clarifies several matters in United Methodist church
law: Because of church standards only recognizing monogamous,
heterosexual marriage and disapproving of sexual relations outside of it
(Paragraphs 161B, 161F, 310.2d, and 2702.1b of the UMC's governing Book
of Discipline), which UMC clergy must vow to uphold, any "partnered
homosexual ... does not meet the minimum standards" for ordination, and
a minister found to be "openly homosexual and partnered" cannot be made
bishop. To be disciplined for violating separate provisions prohibiting
the ordination of "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" (Paragraphs 304.3
and 2702.1b), it can be enough to prove that a minister is in a same-sex
civil marriage. This replaces an earlier church-law standard under which
partnered gay clergy, in several cases, could only be removed if they
answered awkward questions about their "genital sexual activity." Some
liberal UMC officials treated this as a loophole for avoiding
disciplining such clergy as long as they refused to answer such
questions.

However, they declined to immediately cancel Oliveto's election, saying
that normal review processes must be followed to determine if she
violates these standards.

In separate decisions, the Council invalidated a resolution from the
Northeastern Jurisdiction promoting disobedience to the church's
sexuality standards and ruled that the even liberal-leaning regional
conferences like New York and Northern Illinois must make "full
examination" of ordination candidates to screen out those unwilling to
abstain from homosexual practice, adultery, or pre-marital sex.

UMAction Director and 2016 General Conference delegate John Lomperis
responded:

"The Judicial Council had a difficult task of ruling on the narrow basis
of church law that has been carefully developed over the years to
protect the rights of clergy accused of wrongdoing--sometimes well
beyond the bounds of reasonable doubt and to the point of sidelining
concern for victims.

"I celebrate that these landmark rulings should now make it
significantly easier to bring accountability for pastors who choose to
violate biblical standards for sexual self-control. We are slowly but
increasingly strengthening biblical accountability in our church.

"I am disappointed that the Judicial Council did not go further by
acting directly to immediately remove Dr. Oliveto from office, in light
of her dishonest and illegitimate election, as I requested in the legal
brief I submitted. But these decisions move us closer, if not as quickly
as I wish, to preventing those who so blatantly violate our biblical
standards, lie to the church, and mistreat its members from serving as
bishop.

"It is important for my fellow United Methodists to understand that we
are in a transitionary period between now and the 2019 special General
Conference, and that there is still much that we all can and must do in
the next two years to address the heart-breaking problems that continue
in our beloved, troubled denomination.

"UM Action will have more to say in the days ahead. In the meantime, we
urge our fellow church members to work together to take action at our
upcoming annual conference sessions, to continue the momentum for
biblical accountability in 2019, and to encourage each other in prayer,
biblical faithfulness, and fruitful ministry."

END



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

Message: 12
Date: Thu, 04 May 2017 15:52:27 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: There Will Be No Religious Left
Message-ID:
<1493927547.90539....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

There Will Be No Religious Left

By Rod Dreher
THE AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/there-will-be-no-religious-left/
April 25, 2017

A lot of people don't want to hear it, but it's true: in the future, you
will either be a religious conservative, or secular. The religious left
will evaporate.

Don't take my word for it. Take the word of Daniel Cox, the head of
research at PRRI, a firm whose religious views tend towards
progressivism. Excerpts:

The first and perhaps most significant reason for skepticism is that
there are far fewer religious liberals today than there were a
generation ago. Nearly four in 10 (38 percent) liberals are religiously
unaffiliated today, more than double the percentage of the 1990s,
according to data from the General Social Survey. In part, the liberal
mass migration away from religion was a reaction to the rise of the
Christian right. Over the last couple decades, conservative Christians
have effectively branded religious activism as primarily concerned with
upholding a traditional vision of sexual morality and social norms. That
conservative religious advocacy contributed to many liberals maintaining
an abiding suspicion about the role that institutional religion plays in
society and expressing considerable skepticism of organized religion
generally. Only 30 percent of liberals report having a great deal or
quite a lot of confidence in organized religion. Half say that
religion's impact on society is more harmful than helpful.

More:

Another challenge confronting the progressive religious movement is the
yawning generational divide in religious identity. Young liberals today
are simply not that religious. Nearly half (49 percent) of liberals
under 30 are religiously unaffiliated, according to the General Social
Survey, which is more than the number who belong to all Christian
denominations combined. Only 22 percent of liberal seniors are
unaffiliated, while the overwhelming majority identify as religious.
Your average left-leaning Christian is pushing 50. Coaxing young
progressives to join a movement that would require them to reset their
approach to religion is no small undertaking.

Read the whole thing.

I would add this to the critique: liberal religion is simply
insufficiently substantive to hold most people, particularly across
generations. It is also true that milquetoast moderate bourgeois
Christianity isn't going to hold people either, but that's true for the
same reason that liberal Christianity won't do it either. If
liberalizing religion to make it a better fit for post-Christian
modernity were the answer, the Protestant mainline would be booming now.
I don't doubt that there are many true believers within liberal
Christian circles -- some of them comment here -- but I do doubt that
most of them will be able to pass that faith on in the same way to their
children. To be sure, it's not easy for any of us, not in these times.
But the problem, I believe, is much more serious for religious liberals.

Cox, the researcher, explains why: because younger people who identify
as liberal are far less likely to be religious.

The late Cardinal George of Chicago once said, explaining why liberal
Catholicism is a dead end:

Behind the crisis of visible authority or governance in a liberal church
lies a crisis of truth. In a popular liberal society, freedom is the
primary value and the government is not supposed to tell its citizens
how to think. The cultural fault line lies in a willingness to sacrifice
even the gospel truth in order to safeguard personal freedom construed
as choice. Using sociology of knowledge and the hermeneutics of
suspicion, modern liberals interpret dogmas which affront current
cultural sensibilities as the creation of celibate males eager to keep a
grasp on power rather than as the work of the Holy Spirit guiding the
successors of the Apostles. The bishops become the successors of the
Sanhedrin and the church, at best, is the body of John the Baptist,
pointing to a Jesus not yet risen from the dead and, therefore, a role
model or prophet but not a savior. Even Jesus' being both male and
celibate is to be forgotten or denied once the risen Christ can be
reworked into whomever or whatever the times demand. Personal experience
becomes the criterion for deciding whether or not Jesus is my savior, a
point where liberal Catholics and conservative Protestants seem to come
to agreement, even if they disagree on what salvation really means.
Liberal culture discovers victims more easily than it recognizes
sinners; and victims don't need a savior so much as they need to claim
their rights.

All this is not only a dead end, it is a betrayal of the Lord, no matter
the good intentions of those espousing these convictions. The call to
personal conversion, which is at the heart of the gospel, has been
smothered by a pillow of accommodation. The project for a liberal
Catholic church is as unoriginal as the project for a liberal
reinterpretation of the mission for the church. A church, all of whose
ministries, construed only functionally, are open to any of the
baptized; a church unwilling to say that all homosexual genital
relations are morally wrong; a church which at least makes some
allowance for abortion when necessary to assure a mother's freedom; a
church accepting contraception as moral within marriage and prudent
outside of marriage; a church willing to admit the sacramentally married
to a second marriage in complete sacramental communion; a church whose
teaching has to stand the acid test of modern criticism and personal
acceptance in order to have not just credibility but legitimacy--there
is nothing new in all this. It already exists, but outside the Catholic
church.

More broadly, we could say that many of the things liberal Christians
believe in and advocate, in contradiction to normative Christian
orthodoxy, already exist outside the church, period. Liberal
Christianity often appears as a somewhat desperate attempt to sanctify
modern beliefs. More to the point, Philip Rieff had the number of
liberal Christianity, saying in 1966's The Triumph of the Therapeutic
that Christian pastors and priests would desperately but futilely try to
update their doctrines to accommodate the modern world -- especially
regarding sexuality -- but would fail, in part because there really is
no credible way to do this. The testimony of the Bible is simply
overwhelmingly against what they want to do. Rieff didn't say this, but
I will: the labor one has to accomplish to "liberate" Christianity from
traditional Biblical sexual ethics is so immense that you have to tear
down the entire castle to free the prisoner from the dungeon.

Rieff's theory of culture explains why liberal Christianity has no
future. Here is a longish Rieff passage explaining his theory. In a
nutshell, Rieff says that culture, of which religion is a part, is
defined by what it prescribes and what it forbids. A culture based on
knocking down taboos, on forbidding to forbid, is an anti-culture. It
cannot do what a culture must do. Aside from advocating for the
legitimization of homosexual desire and the approbation of sexual
permissiveness, what does liberal Christianity really stand for? If it
amounts to just the desiring individual and the sacrosanct quality of
his own personal interpretation of Scripture and the Christian
tradition, then liberal religion cannot do anything other than dissolve.

Note well, religious conservatives: if the essence of your religious
conservatism is merely a reflection of your social milieu, your religion
will dissolve in your children's generation too. I know a number of
older folks who might be fairly described as religious conservatives,
but who have failed to transmit the faith to their offspring. Of course
this is not a matter of data transfer, but rather a matter of
cultivation. Not every plant in a garden will flourish, because they are
organic, not mechanisms. So it is with human beings. Nevertheless, I am
convinced that many, many conservatives who happen to be Christian are
far too trusting in the habits of culture to pass on the faith. Given
the post-Christian -- and increasingly anti-Christian -- qualities of
the broader culture, if you are not affirmatively and meaningfully
traditionalist in your approach to and practice of faith, your kids are
more likely than not to lose the faith.

Let me end by reaching out to middle-aged and older readers who identify
as liberal Christians, or as religious liberals within non-Christian
traditions. Are your adult children practicing the faith? Why or why
not? Do you think the way you brought them up in the faith had anything
to do with the decision they have made? I'm not accusing you; I just
want to understand this phenomenon.

UPDATE: A reader writes to recount a conversation with a senior leader
in a Mainline Protestant church, who said, ruefully, that even the
healthiest liberal congregations "are like mules: they're perfectly
healthy, but they can't reproduce."

UPDATE.2: Reader Jeremy Hickerson comments:

Here's an example from my church that shows Rod is right to say that
mainline or liberal Christianity is straying far from the faith. I give
it out of honesty and dismay, and I'm still going to stay part of my
church, but it shook me and made me question whether I did wrong by my
kids by bringing them up in this church. I posted earlier that one of my
two daughters is practicing the faith, and I have seen a number of
children grow up in this church and stay in the faith. The thing that
drew me and my wife to the church in the first place was the involvement
of youth in the worship service the first time we visited. And my
experience growing up in the evangelical church rules out that branch of
Christianity for my, I have no regrets about not bringing up my kids in
an evangelical church.

Here's what happened yesterday. I was teaching an adult Sunday School
class. In Methodism, we have what we call the "Wesley Quadrilateral".
This is 4 tools to arrive at decisions about doctrine, practice, etc.
They are Scripture (which should be given the most weight of the four),
Tradition, Reason, and Experience. A few weeks ago someone had brought
this up in the S.S. class and I had asked if there were any limits to
what we could change using the Quadrilateral. The general response was
that there were no limits. Yesterday I said that the limits, the core
that we could not touch were:

1) Humans are sinful
2) Jesus is God and human
3) Jesus died to pay for our sins
4) Jesus rose from the dead

There was a big uproar and massive disagreement with this. One person
spoke up and said, look, Jeremy's not crazy, this is basically just part
of the apostle's creed. I pointed out that we had just recited this in
the service a half hour ago. Another person said that my list of four
was ecumenical enough that Catholics, Orthodox, Evangelicals, would all
agree with it. So out of the 15 to 20 in the class, 2 agreed and the
rest didn't or didn't say anything.

This class is very close, and they are all my close friends. We have
basically raised each others kids over the years. This is a great group.
But it shook me to the core.

What really bothered me was not so much that people didn't themselves
believe the core of Christianity. I'm not surprised that might be the
case -- a big strength our church is accepting people where they are at.
If they want to come be part, we welcome them. This follows the example
of Jesus when he was on earth. What bothered me was that they felt it
was out of place and wrong for a church to stand up for the faith it has
in its doctrinal statement. Like they were surprised that this sort of
thing would be said at a church. I thought they knew we were a church.

And there you have it. These days, a congregation that is not
affirmatively orthodox in its theology will become de facto liberal ...
and then will evaporate.

The religious liberal Daniel Schultz gives a decent definition of the
difference between religious conservatives and religious liberals:

Speaking in very broad terms, liberals see faith as giving them ethics,
rather than a universal morality. That is, religious belief provides
moral guidelines, but these still have to be applied to individual
situations, with quite a bit of room left for diverse outcomes. This
makes sense if you stop to think about it: if the world you live in is
pluralistic, you accommodate different possible answers to the same
questions. But if you live in a culture with more agreement on what
God's will is and how it should be applied, you're more likely to see
that as universal. (Again, this is very broad, and it's possible to make
too much of the distinctions.)

When liberals think about morality, then, they see a heuristic, not a
law.

I would rephrase it this way -- again, speaking very broadly: Religious
liberals regard Scripture and Tradition as suggestions, perhaps ideals,
but reserve to themselves the right to re-interpret in context of their
own time and place, and according to their own needs and desires.
Religious conservatives regard Scripture and Tradition as authoritative,
and disclosing eternal moral and theological truths that bind human
understanding and conduct. Another way to look at it: religious liberals
think of religion as primarily what Man says about God, while religious
conservatives think of religions as primarily what God says about Man.

There will be no religious left in the long term because the religious
left, as it is currently constituted, doesn't even believe in its own
religion.



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

Message: 13
Date: Thu, 04 May 2017 15:52:40 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: WELCOME!
Message-ID:
<1493927560.90546....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

WELCOME!

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves..."

By Duane W.H. Arnold, PhD
www.virtueonline.org
May 2, 2017

Among a few of us, we've named it as the most unfriendly church in the
city. I've attended services there probably twenty times over the last
couple of years. In all those times of attending, I've never had a
person ask my name, wonder if I was visiting or, apart from passing the
peace, shake my hand. In a congregation that ranges from 150 to 200,
I've found this to be odd. If nothing else, I would think they might
wonder about this person in a suit and tie with hair down to the middle
of his back who was sitting up front in the third row. I've "met" the
pastor of the church at the back door after the service (although he
never asked my name), but only when he has not hurried away after saying
"hello" to the first twenty people, even though he saw visitors in the
line.

This last Sunday, I decided to try again.

My wife was on a business trip and my bandmate, Michael, was doing
special music for a Methodist service. I was on my own. I went online to
see if anything special was happening at the church in question. My eye
fell on the date of April 30th. There was to be a "Town Hall" meeting
after the morning service to discuss future plans for the church. There
was an open invitation to attend. This time, I knew, was going to be
different. I took my shower, shaved, put on my suit and tie, got in the
car and drove the twenty minutes to their downtown location. Having
parked the car, I went up the front steps to the door of the church.
Several people were just behind me, so I held the door open. No one even
said "thank you". Alright, the weather was grey and rainy. Maybe they
were just in a hurry. As I passed through the second door separating the
narthex from the sanctuary, a bulletin was wordlessly thrust into my
hand by an unsmiling woman who seemed very annoyed with her given task
for the day.

One of the reasons I first considered attending this church is that it
has a gloriously beautiful sanctuary. It could easily manage to seat a
thousand people. The architecture comes right out of the Renaissance. I
made my way up the side aisle to the third row from the front. I knelt,
said my prayers, and regaining my seat looked around. Yes, only about
150 today. The service was choppy and uninspiring, broken up with
announcements, a couple renewing their wedding vows on their anniversary
(everyone applauds) and two offerings - one for the church and one for
missions. The homily was given by an assistant. Overly prepared (after
all, the pastor was sitting there listening) it was heartfelt but
lackluster. The Eucharist was celebrated, the final blessing given, and
then another announcement was given by the pastor asking the people to
attend the "Town Hall" meeting at a location in the church that, while
being known by the regulars, was a mystery to me. I persevered. Spotting
someone who looked semi-official, I asked for directions. He seemed
taken aback. Eventually, overcoming what seemed to be consternation, he
pointed in the general direction.

Navigating through a maze of doors and hallways, I found the place. The
powerpoint presentation was in the process of being prepared. So, for
twenty minutes I stood, a cup of coffee in my hand, waiting. No one
approached me or offered a seat, a greeting or even a smile. So, I stood
where I was in the back of the room. Fifty people had now made their way
into their chairs.

Finally, all was in readiness.

The pastor of the church stood before the assembled group and explained
that they had hired an architectural firm from Chicago to do a
feasibility study on what could be done to maintain and improve their
facilities. This meeting was to be the first of six presentations over
the coming year. The purpose was not merely to look at the physical
structure of the church, but to align improvements with the values and
mission of the congregation. All this, it was known, was being done at
some considerable expense.

The representative of the architectural firm stood, introduced himself,
and began the powerpoint presentation. First came the overlays of the
property, the streets and eventually the floor plans with the changes
that were envisioned. Three architectural elevations with varied
concepts were placed on easels. While the deferred maintenance costs for
the present facility were estimated at $4.5 million dollars over the
coming years owing to the historic nature of the church, no estimates
were yet available for the architectural improvements that were
envisioned. It was clear, however, that the cost was going to be
considerable. The improvements on the physical facility, however, would
obviously be matched by a "re-branding" of the church, complete with a
new look to the side facades, signage and "showing a new face" to the
city. They came to these preliminary decisions only after a detailed
survey of the congregation and numerous face to face interviews with the
clergy and lay people of the church to establish priorities. Switching
to the next page of the powerpoint presentation, he showed the results
of the survey and interviews.

The number one need, expressed by all, was that the architectural and
branding changes that were to be made should express one thing above all
else...

That they are a "welcoming church"...

I turned, went into the hallway, and left by the backdoor, now locked to
anyone from the outside.

END



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

Message: 14
Date: Thu, 04 May 2017 15:52:53 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: Responding to the Gafcon communique: "Gretna Green and the
dog that didn't bark"-opportunities and omissions
Message-ID:
<1493927573.90558....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Responding to the Gafcon communique: "Gretna Green and the dog that
didn't bark"-opportunities and omissions

By Gavin Ashenden
www.virtueonline.org
May 1, 2017

Responding to the Gafcon communique: "Gretna Green and the dog that
didn't bark"-opportunities and omissions.

Marriage as source of contention has history between England and
Scotland. In 1754 Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act came into force in
England. It was designed to stop young people marrying without parental
consent under the age of 21. It didn't apply in Scotland, where boys
could marry at 14 and girls at 12. So generations of 'minors' fled to
Gretna Green to be married by the village blacksmith. Scotland didn't
even require the celebrant to be a priest or civil servant.

Once again, at least in Christian terms, the Anglican Church in Scotland
is going to have a different attitude to marriage from the Anglican
Church in and of England.

When the Gafcon Primates recently met in Lagos, they did so knowing that
in a matter of weeks the Scottish Episcopal Church "was likely? to
formalise their rejection of Jesus' teaching on marriage." This prospect
provokes a crisis of belief and authority amongst Anglicans in the
British Isles. It also ramps up the pressure for the recognition of gay
marriage south of the border. People will argue with the force of
nothing more than common sense, that it makes no sense being able to
have an Anglican 'gay wedding' in Gretna Green, but not in Carlisle 10
miles down the road, in England.

Homosexual marriage is the Rubicon that biblical Christians may not
cross under any circumstances. That being the case there will be a
number of clergy and congregations whose relations with their bishops in
Scotland are severed by the vote in their Synod.

Arguments about the historicity of the physical chain of apostolic
succession being valid for Anglican bishops, disappear into thin air
compared with the obvious impossibility of relating to a bishop
consecrated to be a guardian of the apostolic faith who has been
derailed by secularist arguments and abandoning Biblical principles.;
and just as importantly, a religious spirit working against the Holy
Spirit.

At last, in the face of this perversion of the faith that was always
going to challenge the integrity of the Church somewhere, sometime, the
Gafcon Primates have acted and promised a missionary bishop.

That much is all clear and very good.

But what follows in the communique is less clear and may be less than
good.

Communiques are a little like crosswords. The have clues, codes and
solutions. This one is no different. The blessing of those who remain
within the structures is intended to encourage people like Rod Thomas,
the Bishop of Maidstone, the one and only bishop available for
conservative evangelicals in the whole of the Church of England. He in
particular will feel the new missionary bishop as a threat to his
responsibilities and his constituency.

It is generous of the Primates to remember that he needs recognition and
encouragement in what must be a lonely place. As they carefully comment,
many people are weighing up whether the Church of England can be saved
for the faith, or whether it has been swept too far down the secular
stream by currents that are too strong to allow it to turn around. This
affects whether or not they leave of stay.

But there is an odd analysis in the rather clumsy linking of the one
missionary bishop with the two constituencies of the Church planting
AMiE, and the orthodox Scottish Episcopalians.

He would have to be a very gifted and most unusual man to gain the
theological confidence of both these groups. For the truth is that the
Church planters of AMiE don't really believe in bishops or use them.
They have cheerfully and energetically planted and opened churches under
the chairmanship of prominent lay figures if a bishop was not available.
The clergy do not see themselves as deriving their orders or their
ministerial mandates from anyone but the Holy Spirit. They are de facto
Congregationalists. The question has often been posed without any ill
intent, as what is it that makes them Anglicans at all?

The Scots Episcopalians are very different and will expect a bishop who
has the expectations of relating to them as a bishop. The Church
planters of AMiE do not feel the need of that kind of a bishop. They may
not expect any kind of bishop, since they have done very well so far
without much more than a nod towards anything episcopal.

Yet bishops, apart from being guardians of the faith, have their
functional uses. They are like the Lego blocks which allow ecclesial
superstructures to be more easily connected to each other. And these
connections are exactly what orthodox Anglicans in England and Scotland
need if they are to avoid the centrifugal scattering that is the pattern
of the orthodox sheep fleeing the ravenous heretical wolves down the
ages.

Apart from this odd and probably unmanageable missionary bishop for two
incompatible constituencies, there is as Sherlock Holmes described in
the short story "Silver Blaze' "the dog that didn't bark in the night."

Why is there no mention of the Free Church of England in this
communique? It must be evident to the Primates that the FCE is going to
play a key role in the renewal of orthodox Anglicans in the British
Isles. By what may be a serendipity of history they already constitute a
GAFCON episcopate. Through their relations with the Reformed Episcopal
Church which itself is a constituent part of ACNA, they are both a
conduit and a bridge into Gafcon. Ignoring them is more than odd. The
consecration of a missionary bishop without reference to them would set
up two Gafcon episcopal jurisdictions. This would not only contravene
clause 11 of the Jerusalem Declaration, but it would set in place
exactly the competing and parallel structures that have so weighed down
and complicated orthodox jurisdictions elsewhere.

A simplistic reading of this communique would suggest that the Scottish
crisis is providing the catalyst for some kind of regularising of the
rather irregular Anglicanism of AMiE, with the offer of a safety net for
any Scots who might care to use it in extremis.

But this won't do as a strategy for the future of orthodox Anglicanism
in the UK. There is a very broad spectrum of Anglican orthodoxy
stretching from AMiE at one end, through the FCE and lapping up to the
feet of the Society of St Wilfred and Hilda at the Anglo-Catholic end.
What is needed is a strategy that gives episcopal expression to the
constituent parts of this spectrum; effectively a coalition and a
college of missionary bishops to provide the right spiritual care for
their communities and represent and hold the spectrum together by their
mutual commitment and vision. One AMiE missionary bishop falls too far
short of this.

Of course one reason for restricting this initial act to a bishop for
desperate Scots and Church planting independent Anglicans, is that it
avoids a confrontation with Archbishop Justin Welby. Neither of these
two groups belong to his jurisdiction. Perhaps they have judged that
this is not yet the moment to confront him, but rather to fire the
Missionary bishop across his bows so to speak, to warn him of what will
follow if the C of E imitates the Scottish Episcopal Church.

If so, they misjudge the strategy of the Archbishop of Canterbury. For
as long as he can he will stick to the undertaking not to consent to the
change in the law. But meanwhile, he will foster a climate of 'good
disagreement' designed to produce the maximum inclusion of the erotic
and romantic homosexual culture within the C of E. A change in the law
is not always necessary to affect a change of culture or spirit. If
Jesus was clear on anything in the Gospels however, he was clear that
hiding behind the protection and practice of the law whilst offending
God in spirit, was an attitude and practice he refused to condone but
instead exposed and confronted.

There is still time to remedy the analysis and implement a wiser and
wider vision. The Gafcon Primates are to be congratulated on their
courage in having at last taken this first step of principle. It is
better to be abreast of the curve than a long way behind it.

Archbishop Foley Beach is coming to England in June to preside over a
celebration of the 90th anniversary of the union of the Free Church of
England with the Reformed Episcopal Church and an associated forum of
representatives of that wide spectrum of orthodox Anglican witness
taking counsel together; a spectrum which as yet appears to be beyond
the focus of the Gafcon primates' radar. Perhaps he can carry back with
him a refreshed vision of what is required to establish an orthodox
Anglican episcopal jurisdiction; one that holds the different interests
and spiritualties together and binds them in a unity of purpose and
identity that will be essential to the health and witness of a renewed
faithful Anglicanism.

END



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

Message: 15
Date: Thu, 04 May 2017 15:53:09 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: 'Worshipping the equality-god is a dangerous thing to do....'
Message-ID:
<1493927589.90606....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

'Worshipping the equality-god is a dangerous thing to do....'

By GAVIN ASHENDEN
www.virtueonline.org
April 27, 2017

The danger with not choosing a god for yourself, is that other people
may choose him for you.

Beware the 'equality-god'; he is becoming more demanding; recently he
has made looking people in the eye considerably more dangerous.

Gangland culture knows all about the significance of looking. "Who are
you looking act", like so many challenges isn't the question it pretends
to be. The person asking the question knows very well who is being
looked at. The real question is "who the **** do you think you are-
looking at me straight in the eyes when you should be lowering them as a
sign that you are inferior to me."

One of the great differences between life in the city and life outside
it, is what you do with your eyes. In the city, people usually shuffle
past each other with eyes averted. In the country the greeting of a
stranger as you pass starts with looking them right in the eyes.
Catching someone's eye is a matter of courtesy and respect in the
country; in the city, it's might be a challenge.

Looking has just got more complicated for students at Oxford University.
The University's 'Equality and Diversity Unit' has been directing
students' behaviour in its Trinity term newsletter. It has been telling
students that if they fail to make eye contact with another student, it
might constitute racism. More specifically than that, it might actually
constitute a racial micro-aggression which could have the effect of
undermining the other person's mental equilibrium, and lead to actual
ill-health.

University has been a place above all where all questions are
encouraged. No longer. Now you dare not enquire of someone where they
were 'originally' from. Because that's no longer curiosity, that's
racism.

The equality-god has turned the inquisitive and shy into political
deviants.

Words don't always give the whole game away. Equality is not really
about equality, any more than phobia is about phobia. But they are words
that can be used to accuse someone of a thought crime.

Thought crime is really quite new. Frighteningly it is a symptom of
totalitarian states. Until the 2010 Equalities Act, a crime could only
be committed, if in the eyes of the "man on the Clapham Omnibus" to
quote a famous judge, the accused was believed to have shown evidence of
having intended a crime; "Mens rea" for the teckys.

Forgetting, the sexism of it being a man, and the ageism and elitism of
it being an omnibus, the judge was really talking about average common
sense.

But not any more. Now the State decides if you have committed a thought
crime, a blasphemy against the equality-god. It doesn't matter what you
thought you thought. It only matters if the State, or its agencies, like
the "Equality and Diversity Unit" say you thought.

Human religious instincts never go away under the weight of secularism,
they just go underground. Get rid of the One God, and you just replace
Him with other lesser gods. Disrespecting this lesser equality-god, has
become a political blasphemy; and you can now be prosecuted for this
blasphemy.

But the equality-god is growing in strength in our culture. His devotees
pass more and more laws to enforce obedience. Laws which are supposed to
defend our freedoms now threaten them; even our freedom even to have our
own thoughts.

Instead, the laws that enforce obedience to the equality-god are
authorised to determine what your thoughts are. Politics which should
have been secular has become again a religion. Blasphemy which was
struck off the statute books long ago, has been reintroduced. If you
transgress with an '-ism' or if you develop a 'phobia', you have
committed blasphemy and become an outlaw.

Once where you could choose how and if you looked at a person, now
someone else decides for you. Questions you thought you could ask
because you wanted to know the answer, have been turned into
mini-violent 'micro-aggressions'.

Paradoxically Oxford is not a place of equality at all. It is a place
filled with the intellectual elite. You would hope that being so clever
they would notice the pseudo equality-god was threatening their
freedoms. What happens in universities in one decade, filters through
everywhere else, a few years later.

But if the students and faculty at Oxford don't or can't challenge the
equality-god, perhaps more is needed than raw intelligence?

It may be that what is called for are virtues accessible to anyone who
actually cares about freedom; -- like common sense and courage. Amongst
the lesser gods or values they will serve us better than
pseudo-equality. Better to chose your gods than have others impose
theirs on you.

END



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

Message: 16
Date: Thu, 04 May 2017 15:53:24 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: REFORMATION FOR RIGHT NOW
Message-ID:
<1493927604.90605....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

REFORMATION FOR RIGHT NOW

By Lee Gatiss
https://www.e-n.org.uk/
May 1, 2017

With the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's famous stand against
indulgences this year, there's already been much debate about the legacy
of those tumultuous events.
Naturally, we want to repudiate the violence of those times and must
regret that there was division between churches (because many turned
away from the light). Ultimately, however, the Reformation clarified a
very necessary distinction between teaching that leads people astray
spiritually, and the more edifying teaching of the Bible -- freshly
released into the world in a language people could understand.

Five Solas

Reformation theology is sometimes summarised in Five Solas (or Solae):
it was about salvation by grace alone (Sola Gratia) through faith alone
(Sola Fide) by Christ alone (Solo Christo), which we know through
Scripture alone (Sola Scriptura), and all to the glory of God alone
(Soli Deo Gloria). I'm not sure it was ever summarised quite so neatly
at the time, and there were other issues of immense importance which are
not accounted for here (such as the doctrine of the Lord's Supper -- for
which our English Reformers went to the stake).

Yet clearly, when it comes to our understanding of salvation, those five
points are extremely important. Let's think here about Sola Scriptura
and the way the Reformation recovered the Bible for the church.

Holy enthusiasm for Scripture

'All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for
reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness' (2 Timothy
3.16). This verse is beloved of evangelicals everywhere, and rightly so.
It sums up why we show such holy enthusiasm for the Bible. It is not so
much inspired as expired, breathed out by God! But as well as being the
Word of God himself, the Bible is also a terrifically useful book;
indeed, it was given to us in order that we might use it. It is an
infallible and inerrant instrument for teaching, rebuking, correcting
and training us.
That's why the Reformers of the 16th century were so excited about the
Bible -- both translating it and teaching it. It's why William Tyndale
spent such time and energy in the dangerous work of translating the
words into English and smuggling them into England. It's why Thomas
Cranmer made sure every church in the land was furnished with a copy,
because 'the Scripture of God is the heavenly meat of our souls'. As he
preached (in one of the Church of England's official Homilies): 'Let us
diligently search for the well of life, in the books of the Old and New
Testament, and not run to the stinking puddles of human traditions,
devised by human imagination, for our justification and salvation.' And
so: 'These books therefore, ought to be much in our hands, in our eyes,
in our ears, in our mouths, but most of all, in our hearts.'

Bible pastorally applied

One of the best things about the Reformation is not its big characters
and dramatic events; it is the return of warmhearted, pastorally
applied, biblical preaching to the church. I discovered this recently
for myself as I was putting together 90 days in Genesis, Exodus,
Galatians, & Psalms with Calvin, Luther, Bullinger & Cranmer (Good Book
Company), a resource to help people read the Bible alongside the
Reformers. They were observant readers and gifted teachers of the Word,
with a passion for understanding and passing on the world-changing
insights God had shown them there. As I dusted down their old
commentaries to see if there was anything of value in them for today, I
felt I had discovered hidden treasure.
The Reformers wanted to make sure that the church always kept the Bible
at the heart of its life and doctrine. We've been blogging through The
Thirty-nine Articles of Religion on the Church Society website over
Lent, and that emphasis has been crystal clear in our Reformation-era
confession. For example, in Article 6 it says : 'Holy Scripture
con-taineth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not
read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any
man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be
thought requisite or necessary to salvation.'
Scripture is utterly sufficient, just as Paul also said in 2 Timothy 3.
It alone makes us wise for salvation in Christ. It alone can light the
way, and it contains everything we need for eternal life and present
godliness. Nothing ought to be demanded of us which Scripture itself
does not demand, and no burden imposed on us which is not imposed by
Scripture. At one stroke, this way of looking at things undercuts all
the pardons, pilgrimages, priestcraft, relics and other erroneous
doctrines of the late medieval church.

Pure Word preached

Part of the definition of the church, according to the Reformers, was
that it is 'a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure Word
of God is preached' (Article 19). And yet that church cannot 'ordain any
thing that is contrary to God's Word written, neither may it so expound
one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another.' This is great
Reformation doctrine: Scripture is our supreme, coherent and consistent
rule, both for salvation and for ordering our lives together as the
church.

Bible by the Beach

That's why the theme for Bible by the Beach this year (in Eastbourne 28
April -- 1 May) is 'Firm Foundations -- Reformation for Today.'
Reformation today has to be based on the same firm foundation as the
Reformation of yesteryear: the sufficient and supreme Word of God.
That's why I won't just be giving talks on the history (as exciting as
that is) but expounding Romans -- one of the key Bible texts of the
Reformation. Indeed, John Calvin said of it that: 'when any one gains a
knowledge of this Epistle, they have an entrance opened to them into all
the most hidden treasures of Scripture.'
This is also why, if we prize our heritage as churches of the
Reformation, we must be careful to keep the reading and preaching of the
Scriptures at the heart of all we do. Management and marketing
techniques which rely on the tactic of 'unique selling points' may
accomplish some temporary success. But only the 'unique scriptural
perspective' gives us access to the mind and power of God for our
salvation.
Cranmer exhorts us: 'Let us night and day muse, meditate and contemplate
the Scriptures. Let us ruminate, and (as it were) chew the cud, that we
may have the sweet juice, spiritual effect, honey, kernel, taste,
comfort, and consolation of them.' Yet are we content with milky
sermonettes of 15 minutes and a perfunctory fast-food daily reading?
Only solid meat will bring solid reformation.

Too familiar?

It is easy to give lip service to this idea, but to drag our heels and
lag behind in our lives. As Luther says in his commentary on Galatians:
'At the first, when the light of the gospel began to appear, after such
a great darkness of human traditions, many were zealously bent to
godliness. They heard sermons greedily and had the ministers of God's
Word in reverence. But now, when the doctrine of piety and godliness is
happily reformed, with so great an increase of God's Word, many which
before seemed earnest disciples, become despisers and very enemies. They
not only cast off the study of God's Word, and despise its ministers,
but also hate all good learning.'

Lee Gatiss is Director of Church Society and Lecturer in Church History
at Union School of Theology.

FOOTNOTE: Lee Gatiis will be a featured guest speaker at CANA East Synod
May 4-6 in Binghamton, New York along with ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach



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

Message: 17
Date: Thu, 04 May 2017 15:53:38 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: Alternative Non-Resurrection Lifestyles: 1 Corinthians
15:29-34
Message-ID:
<1493927618.90648....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Alternative Non-Resurrection Lifestyles: 1 Corinthians 15:29-34

By Ted Schroder,
www.tedschroder.com
May 7, 2017

St. Paul has been arguing that the main thing about the Gospel is that
Christ died for our sins and was raised from the dead. He cites as
evidence that Christ appeared to hundreds of his followers after his
resurrection. He notes that some people do not believe in a resurrection
from the dead for anyone let alone Christ. If this were so then it would
nullify the Christian faith and would leave no hope for those who had
died in Christ. But, and it is an emphatic 'but' that contradicts those
who would deny the resurrection, he goes on to say, Christ has indeed
been raised from the dead, and there are consequences to that fact of
history. Christ is fulfilling God's future purpose of salvation. His
resurrection inaugurates a sequences of events in history. He gives us a
new view of the future when the enemies of our souls will be destroyed.

"Now if there is no resurrection....." He circles back to look at the
alternatives to belief in the resurrection for there are millions of
people who do not believe in it. If there is no resurrection then there
are logical consequences which affect our worldview and daily lifestyle.
He cites three implications.

First, if there is no resurrection then death if final and there is no
point in preparing for it. That in fact is the attitude of most people.
They put off making wills, making arrangements for their funerals, or
preparing to meet their Maker. They don't see this life as a preparation
for the next life. While they may have a vague believe in the
resurrection or heaven their default drive in life is to ignore the
future. In previous centuries people took seriously getting ready for
death. Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667) wrote Holy Dying as a manual for
self-examination and meditation in preparation for death.

St. Paul refers to those who were baptized for the dead. There are many
interpretations for this reference and Mormons have taken it as reason
to seek out dead ancestors and baptize them. But there is no evidence
for that in Scripture. Instead it is likely to refer to those who were
dying and not likely to live much longer who were believing Christians
but had not yet been baptized. Baptism was taken seriously in the early
church. Many delayed baptism until just before death for fear that they
might sin after baptism. They were urged to be baptized but deferred it
until the last moment, when on the death bed they were purged from the
sins and could meet the judgment of God with a clear conscience.

Baptism is a form of death and resurrection. "Don't you know that all of
us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We
were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that,
just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father,
we too may live a new life" (Romans 6:3,4). As Calvin explains it, "if a
catechumen [a convert under instruction], who already in his heart
embraced the Christian faith, saw that death was impending over him, he
asked baptism, partly for his own consolation, and partly with a view to
the edification of his brethren." Death for the Christian is looking
forward to the future life in Christ and leaving a witness for those he
was leaving behind on his journey. There would be no point in doing this
if death was final and there was no resurrection. If there is no
resurrection then the last days are spent looking back at life with
nostalgia and coming to terms with the end of life.

Much modern literature deals with trying to make sense of life and
handling grief in the face of death. Few novelists and screen writers
today have a belief in the resurrection. Their alternative lifestyle is
morbid, depressing and offers no hope. But it is different for those who
prepare for their death and the death of their loved ones with a view to
the future life in Christ. We look forward to a new life full of joy and
peace.

Secondly, if there is no resurrection this life should be lived as
pleasantly as possible. We should avoid anything that would cause us
pain or suffering. We should go along to get along with people. We
should not put ourselves in danger. Instead we should protect ourselves
from any possible conflict. If that means avoiding relationships that
are difficult, so be it. We keep people at arm's length so that they
cannot hurt us. We do not allow ourselves to get emotionally involved
where we might be disappointed or rejected. We do not make many
commitments that might cause us have to fulfill responsibilities that
are onerous. We cushion ourselves from losses by avoiding risks. We make
sure that we have insured ourselves against any disasters. We do not
invest in principles or convictions that might be contradicted by
popular opinion and force us to take a stand. Our basic belief is in
self-preservation for we trust no one but ourselves to take care of us.

This is in contrast to St. Paul who endangered himself every hour for
the Gospel. He died every day to his comfort and was threatened with
death many times. What is his gain in this taking a stand for Christ and
the Gospel if there is no resurrection? Down through the ages and
especially today Christians have been willing to be martyred for their
faith. So many by their courage and sacrifice won for us the freedoms
and liberties we enjoy. So many witnessed at the cost of pain, of
persecution and death. So many endured conflict and took risks in
relationships, and were willing to sacrifice themselves in marriages and
in raising their families. We remember them every All Saints' Day for we
believe, because of the resurrection, that we shall meet again, never to
be separated from them. So in this life we never forget those who have
gone before us because we believe that in the life to come we share in
their blessedness.

Lastly, if there is no resurrection "let us eat and drink for tomorrow
we die" (Isaiah 22:13). Jesus told the parable of the rich fool who
planned for future success in his business and said to himself, "You
have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat,
drink and be merry." He was the epitome of the self-indulgent who spent
all his money on himself, living in luxury, enjoying his affluence and
planning to complete his bucket list on his own schedule, without regard
for anyone else. "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your
life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared
for yourself.' This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things
for himself but is not rich toward God." (Luke 12:18-21) If there is no
resurrection, if there is no eternity, this life loses all its virtues
and values. Take away the idea that this life is a preparation for the
life to come and there is no accountability for self-centeredness. "It
is useless to argue that this should not be so and that men should not
be good and honorable simply for the sake of some reward. The fact
remains that the man who believes that this is the only world tends to
live as if the things of this world are all that matter." (William
Barclay)

If you mix with people who have alternative non-resurrection lifestyles
-- who do not believe in the resurrection, you will be influenced by
them and they will corrupt you. If people live as they please without
any regard for the resurrection they are ignorant of God. Do not be
misled by your peer group. Bad company corrupts good character. Come to
your senses and live as those who believe in the resurrection and the
new life that is in Christ.

END



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

Message: 18
Date: Thu, 04 May 2017 15:53:54 -0400
From: David Virtue <da...@virtueonline.org>
To: "virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org"
<virtue...@listserv.virtueonline.org>
Subject: The Lull: John 21: 1-19
Message-ID:
<1493927634.90665....@webmail.messagingengine.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

The Lull: John 21: 1-19

By Roger Salter
Special to Virtueonline
www.virtueonline.org
May 1, 2017

Matters are not always straight forward for the followers of Jesus. We
are living an illusion if we are expecting a charmed life without
perplexity and setbacks. Sometimes the gospel is presented in this
fashion - for the Christian a smooth and prosperous life lies ahead free
of trouble, uncertainty, and disappointment. If that were the case many
would embark upon the Christian life purely out of self-interest (as
some mistakenly, no doubt, do).

Christians live a life which in the providence of God reveals their
weaknesses and susceptibilities to temptation. Nothing more effectively
brings us closer to God in total dependence, humility, and repentance.
We were saved without any hope in ourselves and we are educated
continually in the truth that the Lord is our only hope without whom we
cannot do for a moment.

In spite of the Lord's former appearance to Peter after the resurrection
Peter still has much to learn about himself, his Lord, and the divine
purpose for him.

At Jesus' command Peter and his colleagues are waiting in Galilee for
the risen Lord's appointed meeting with them. In the meantime there is a
very significant lull in the disciples' communication with their Master.
After the huge event of Easter morning life for Peter and his friends is
becalmed. A season of respite follows the resurrection. Excitement is
given time to abate. Divine activity is never frantic and observes a
wise pace.

The disciples need quiet and time to absorb God's mighty act of raising
Jesus before the next episode of divine disclosure. While they are
waiting what better occupation for a band of fisherman than fishing?
Besides the disciples need to eat and it is obvious to them as to where
food may be find. They will rely on their professional expertise. They
are not incapacitated men in spite of recent developments. They have
confidence in themselves in a simple situation and it is obvious that
success will come their way when they man their boat. A spot of night
fishing will fill in their time and the catch, which they do not doubt
will occur, will fill their stomachs. How well they will cope.

But the expectations of these men were dashed. Night fishing is a highly
fruitful occupation - but not on this occasion. Men of great experience
caught absolutely nothing. They were coming back to shore with empty
nets and their appetite after all their effort and dejection was very
keen. Empty boat and no breakfast. It was a dismal beginning to their
day.

But transformation was waiting at the edge of the tide.

'Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did
not realise that it was Jesus" (v4).

The timing of Jesus is simply beautiful. He is early, awaiting the weary
return of his friends. They are frustrated. He is looking forward to
reunion. In the dimness of dawn the disciples do not discern that it is
Jesus standing by the sea. They see the silhouette of a stranger. They
hear his greeting. "Friends, haven't you caught any fish?". He knows
their failure in spite of their distance from land. When Jesus meets us
he knows full well the circumstances of the encounter.

The disciples call out, "No". Jesus surpasses their natural and acquired
talents as successful navigators and businessmen. "Throw your net on the
right side of the boat and you will find some." The Lord is in command
of nature. The fish are at his bidding. His guidance is infallible. His
promise is sure. The men toss the net from the right side of the vessel
and the result is astounding. These hefty men of physical prowess were
unable to haul in the net loaded with large fish.

John recalls a similar incident early in their association with Jesus
(Luke 5: 4- 7). This beloved disciple alerts Peter, "It is the Lord".
Immediately Peter springs into action, quick off the mark as usual.
Seeing to presentable attire he jumps into the water, wading to shore,
the disciples following with their massive catch towed by the boat.

Jesus proves his reliability and provision for his own. He averts any
lingering sense of desertion. A haul of fish is amazingly furnished in
spite of the disciples' judgement that none were to be found and there
were obvious signs that a meal was being prepared - fish and bread (v9).
Jesus calculated what was necessary to commence the cooking and
requested the remainder - which he also provided - to ensure that the
supplies for breakfast were sufficient.

The Lord invites his "special men" to eat. "Come and have breakfast".
The disciple's absence of sustenance gave Jesus opportunity to sustain
them. His handling of bread and fish recalled to their minds the
marvellous miracle of the feeding of the five thousand (John 6:1 -15).
He establishes his Messianic credentials.

The disciples satisfy their physical hunger. But Jesus knows the
character of Peter.

He hungers for the knowledge as to whether he has any future in Jesus'
service. He has seen the the risen Lord but he offended and betrayed him
gravely. Where, in Christ's estimation, does Peter stand now.

The arrangement of the breakfast rendezvous is not only to confirm the
faith of the apostles but to powerfully reassure Peter of the Lord's
forgiveness, acceptance, and commissioning as a witness.

Three times Peter denied Jesus. Three times Jesus denotes Peter's role
as messenger of the gospel (15-19). It is a thorough re-grounding of
Peter in his life's vocation. It allays all his personal doubt. It
indicates his destiny as missionary and martyr, and all the while in the
care of God (the security of foreordination).

The lulls in our lives have a purpose also. We take stock of ourselves
and our endeavours. It is only in the presence of Jesus and with his
guidance and provision that we are fruitful. We cannot claim our
capacities and campaigns as successful. It is all of God, all of grace
from calling to conclusion. Who is the One we need and sometimes lack
because of our hubris and misplaced self-confidence? "It is the Lord!"
>From who do all resources and blessed results come? "it is the Lord!'

The Rev. Roger Salter is an ordained Church of England minister where he
had parishes in the dioceses of Bristol and Portsmouth before coming to
Birmingham, Alabama to serve as Rector of St. Matthew's Anglican Church.



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