VOL: Sure, talk of sex is boring. We have been sexed to death in The Episcopal Church. It was the pansexualists who raised the issue in the first place with a small group of strident homosexuals demanding their place in the church without having to change their behavior. Yes, we are all sick of it, so why don't groups like Integrity and Changing Attitude end their campaign and stop badgering the church? They are arguing that their behavior is good and right in the eyes of God when not a single verse of Scripture nor any serious theologian down through the ages or Council of the Church Universal has ever embraced sodomy.

PERCY: To be sure, Anglicanism is not the only denomination trying to find a way through the mire and myriad of conversations on sexuality. But as a global church, Anglicans would quite like to change the subject, please. The Anglican Communion knows that its public mission and ministry is perpetually blighted by the issue and will remain so until it can draw a line under this debate and finally move on.

VOL: Hopefully the Global South Primates will finally draw the last line in the sand next month in Canterbury and bid Mr. Percy (and possibly the ABC) and the rapidly declining Western Church adieu. As far as raising the subject is concerned, it was not the orthodox in the communion who raised the issue. It was a small handful of Western, morally compromised sodomists. They should just stop, but they won't. They have screamed, yelled and demanded that their lifestyle be accepted, even if it means splitting the communion to get full acceptance.

PERCY: The Anglican Primates from around the world gather from 11-16 January 2016 at the behest of the Archbishop of Canterbury. This is, we are told, a last-ditch attempt to stop the Communion either imploding or exploding -- a steady, solid, prominent planet in the ecclesial universe, and that might be about to morph into a burning star. Brightly shining, but nonetheless burning -- frictionally breaking apart.

VOL: Very probably. It is a make or break time if the pansexualists and their primatial supporters like Michael Curry (USA), Fred Hiltz (Canada), Barry Morgan (Wales), and others don't repent.

PERCY: Yet other churches have faced the divisive issue of sexuality with a bit more nuance. The Church of Scotland, for example, deemed that same-sex relationships were a "matter of liberty of conscience, guaranteed by the Church, on matters that do not enter into the substance of faith." Here, the question of same-sex relationships was left to the liberty of conscience of individuals, congregations and their ministers.

VOL: You cannot nuance sin. It won't be managed. Scripture overrides "liberty of conscience." When Scripture is definitive, there can be no compromise. Human sexuality is a creation ordinance. It is an ontological issue that did not suddenly emerge from the primeval swamp. Recently the Archbishop of the Sudan made it clear in a letter that, despite his country's very real problems like war, poverty, and endless violence, homosexuality is a litmus test of biblical proportions, and he and his province will not compromise for the sake of a faux unity. You can read his take here: http://tinyurl.com/pg3ksqf

PERCY: There are two problems with this compromise, and they are ones that the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Anglican Primates, would do well to avoid next month. First, the concession maintains discrimination and perpetuates an injustice against lesbian, gay and bisexual people, and so runs contrary to the spirit of the 2010 Equality Act in the UK. Second, and despite initial appearances, the two interpretations of "liberty of conscience" are not in fact symmetrical. They appear to be chiral.

VOL: NO one is discriminating against homosexuals per se. Orthodox Anglicans believe sodomy is a sin, just as fornication and adultery. Stealing is a sin. No one believes that a charge of kleptomania (like homophobia) would stand up in a court of law against someone who stole your car. Secondly, the church is not the state. The Church speaks truth to power. If the state wants to allow sodomite marriage, that does not mean the church has to follow.

PERCY: Making heterosexual relationships the exclusive and traditional default position, the Kirk in Scotland effectively chose this second scenario. The relatively small numbers of traditionalists and conservatives who reject same-sex unions and gay marriage in churches, are, in effect, dictating the menu for everyone else.

VOL: They are not. The "menu" was written by God, not by Western conservatives or anyone from the Global South. Conservatives want only to be faithful to Scripture and not allow the culture (or Mr. Percy) to dictate the terms of the debate.

PERCY: We must live with diversity.

VOL: We call it perversity, and the Global South have made it clear, along with conservatives like ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach, that they will not compromise for the sake of their souls and those to whom they daily minister.

PERCY: How might churches manage to live well with constrained differences and minorities? Moreover, in a way that does not stigmatize minorities, and caters for them in a nondiscriminatory way?

VOL: Who is stigmatizing minorities? Who is discriminating against whom? I have never in 40 years seen a conservative priest deny Holy Communion to a gay man. In fact, I once saw former ACNA Archbishop Bob Duncan give Holy Communion to Dr. Louie Crew in the Pittsburgh cathedral. "But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily..." (1 Cor. 11:28-34 KJV). Conservatives don't judge personally, they affirm scriptural teaching and let people make up their own mind. The Roman Catholic Church maintains a strong position on homosexual activity as "intrinsically disordered," but I have never heard of a priest standing at a communion rail and telling a gay man, "You can't partake of the body of Christ." It has never happened. Another example: Conservative Catholics rail against politicians like Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden taking Holy Communion because they believe in gay marriage and abortion, but no one physically stops them at the communion rail. That's called freedom of conscience.

Words like "discrimination," "stigmatization," "homophobia," and "hatred" were invented by pansexualists to make heterosexuals feel guilty for things they have never felt, said, or done. It has been one of the great lies endlessly repeated to cower orthodox Anglicans into believing things they have never believed, in much the same way that cries of racism by the new Episcopal Presiding Bishop is designed to whack White Privilege and to make Whites feel guilty for just being white.

PERCY: Is this a recipe for diversity of practice that inexorably leads to irreparable disunity? Not really. The Church of England already knows how to live with this kind of reality. Some of the more catholic-inclined clergy and congregations already exercise their liberty of conscience on women priests
and women bishops. They've opted out, and reasonable (some would say overly generous) provision is made for them. Some of the more evangelically inclined clergy and congregations don't always hold services that technically conform to stricter interpretations of canon law on robing or liturgy; they also
exercise a liberty of conscience.

VOL: A case can be made that the issue of WO is a slippery slope to pansexuality, but the two are not connected. Scripture is clear that "homosexual offenders will not inherit the kingdom" (I Cor. 6:9). One's salvation is not at stake if one believes and practices ordaining women. Apart from the theological issue of WO, there is little evidence that women clergy have made churches grow or that their leadership skills have led to greater growth or unity in the church. In the Episcopal Church, men have left in droves, and today two thirds of TEC is largely women over 60, with the other third being old men and a few families. What about women clergy has benefited churches?

PERCY: The church becomes, in effect, a sad and unwelcoming restaurant with a rationed menu, where the diners who tried to order a meat dish were made to feel terribly guilty. Or more likely, quietly asked by the sullen owner, or embarrassed waiter, to take their custom elsewhere. The diners duly leave. In effect, this is the adopted position of the Church of England by the current Archbishop. But a national church must cater for the whole palate of the population. That is what a broad church does.

VOL: Pansexualists not only do not feel guilty but they have made millions of straight heterosexuals feel enormously guilty for not accepting their abominable behavior. In the US Episcopal Church, the gay agenda has totally overwhelmed the Church with gay rites, canonical changes, and formalizing gay marriage, and if a conservative bishop dares whisper a word that gay marriage is wrong, people like Susan Russell rise up and accuse them of "institutional homophobia." The truth is conservatives have been tossed out of their parishes, sued by bishops for their properties, threatened with impeachment if they even side with an orthodox bishop (think Bishop Jack Iker), and yelled at for being homophobic, lacking diversity and not being inclusive enough. This has gotten to the point that if the ACNA was not in play, such an institution would have had to be invented to cope with all those who felt abandoned because the church left them.

PERCY: The Archbishop of Canterbury could begin the Primates' meeting by accepting responsibility for the part the Church of England has played in perpetrating this discrimination and the subsequent injustices -- and publicly repenting of them.

VOL: No, the Archbishop of Canterbury should heed the Global South Primates. They have warned him that sodomite acceptance has cost them tens of thousands of Anglican lives at the hands of Islamists because of what the West has approved. That's the truth and the ABC should apologize for prevaricating on the issue when he knows what the Bible says and teaches.

PERCY: There is also widespread myth in the Anglican Communion that the dioceses and congregations of the global south now form the majority and are the only ones growing numerically. Moreover, this myth has some leverage. It prompts reactionary post-colonial guilt in Anglican churches, and those in the USA, Canada, and New Zealand. So when it comes to divisive debates, more moral ground is ceded to African churches, amongst others, than might be judicious. But a new study by the Spanish Anglican academic Daniel Munoz suggests that in the geography of worldwide Anglicanism, the evidence claimed for the number of Anglicans is questionable. The Church of England counts 25 million members; in Nigeria, the figure is 18 million. But in both cases, actual numbers attending every Sunday are a small fraction of this. The claimed numbers are unreliable -- perhaps deliberately exaggerated to acquire leverage in debates.

VOL: I have spoken with Nigerian Anglican leaders and they stand by their 20 million attendance figures, as do Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and other African provinces. The Global South owns the Anglican Communion, the West is dying, and the latest reports say the Church of England will cease within a generation. Who wants to join with a corpse except in a coffin! It has been well stated that the Anglican Communion today is overwhelmingly black, under 30 and male/female. The West with its emptying and dying churches have no moral high ground. The ACNA is now numerically bigger than the Anglican Church of Canada. Go figure. It is the Church of England that is offering up spurious statistics citing about 29 million Anglicans. Truth is, only one million Anglicans attend church each week in England, and there are now more practicing Muslims in England than Christians.

PERCY: The Archbishop can do little to re-narrate his background -- as a privileged white male; Etonian, upper-class; and related to titled people, who has little experience of powerlessness. Indeed, in terms of powerlessness, it is hard to see how he can enter into it, let alone comprehend it. His negotiations as a businessman in sensitive areas of Nigeria, whilst winning plaudits in the media, are not the same as the work of reconciliation and arguably not the right 'fit' for the church, where first-hand experiences of powerlessness are often important for shaping episcopal ministry. Indeed, any ordained ministry.

What the Archbishop must not do, I think, is use the Primates' Conference to affirm dissonant voices from the global south in order to uphold an oppressive conservative coalition that is determined to denigrate those of a more liberal persuasion. It may be important for the Archbishop to remember that the Scottish, Welsh, and Irish Anglican churches have all been far more positive and open-minded on the issue of same-sex marriage and civil partnerships.

VOL: The Global South's "dissonant voices" can be counted on one hand. They are not the voice of the vast majority of the Global South or even the whole Anglican Communion. Being "open minded" has been the death knell of the Welsh and Scottish churches. They are all on life support. And yes, the Global South primates are no longer impressed with Welby's Etonian education, and they don't need to go through Canterbury or Lambeth to get to Jesus either. They will no longer bow before the "sacred" throne of Canterbury just to stay in an old white boys club that will only marginalize them in time.

PERCY: A non-inclusive church is an evangelistic dead-duck.

VOL: Really? REALLY?! If that was the case, why did Gene Robinson's elevation to the episcopacy not result in tens of thousands of homosexuals rushing into the Episcopal Church? It never happened. The Diocese of New Hampshire saw a massive exodus, and people are still trickling out. Sodomite acceptance and gay marriage have seen couples with children flee Episcopal churches, and those who are staying are doing so out of personal loyalty to their parish and a fixation with the church graveyard and newly built columbariums.

Percy's screed offers no solid alternative other than the full acceptance of pansexuality, and that dog won't hunt with the Global South or orthodox Anglicans in North America, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. Within a generation most Western Anglican churches will be empty and their buildings sold to thriving independent evangelical churches. Others will be made over into Islamist mosques, saloons, and art galleries. Percy is living in the dream world of Oxford spires inhabited now by people like himself and Rowan Williams, whose disastrous leadership forced him out of office 8 years early because the pressure was too great and he could not find a Hegelian synthesis to keep the communion together.

Percy's timed broadside at Welby and the Global South will not stop the inevitable death of Western Anglicanism. Percy thinks that resorting to poetry will fix our problems. POETRY! What a joke. That's about as bad as TEC's new PB exhorting Episcopalians to "don't worry be happy." ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach will not be fobbed off, despite the efforts of Canadian Archbishop Fred Hiltz to marginalize him. Percy's rant to create a "commonwealth" to remedy the situation won't work, either. Unless there is full repentance by the Western Anglican provinces, whose presence has been called for by GAFCON chairman Eliud Wabukala of Kenya, then the Anglican Communion as we know it is finished.

END