Fragmentation is indeed an awful problem. I grapple with the pain of it every day as I think of name after name of those I love who will no longer speak to me--after the earthquake that has been the past five or six years in this country and in whatever the evangelical movement is or was. --- Russell Moore

An excruciating string of high-profile evangelical scandals is a violent reminder that character really does matter over charisma. Pragmatism and celebrity culture are decadent trappings that empower well-spoken leaders to escape accountability, hide behind ministry "success," and set the stage for the gospel to be profaned. ---- Samuel James

The Christian and good works. Although we cannot be saved by works, we also cannot be saved without them. Good works are not the way of salvation, but its proper and necessary evidence. A faith which does not express itself in works is dead. --- John R.W. Stott

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
April 29, 2022

PUTIN, WESTERN CONSERVATIVES AND UKRAINE. Some Christians and other cultural conservatives have seen Putin's Russia as an ally in our culture wars. At least Russia steadfastly opposes same-sex marriage, gay pride parades, transgenderism, and every other manifestation of the LGBT revolution.

In this view, Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church are defending their culture and Christian civilization against the decadence of the Euro-American West.

In fairness, this view was more common before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and some of those who have articulated it, now have more nuanced views of the war.

But Russia is most emphatically not a good role model for America's culture warriors. Among many other reasons, for this fact: Russia has the highest abortion rate in the world.

There is something obscene about President Vladimir Putin crossing himself in a Russian Orthodox Church over Easter and then sending missiles into the Ukraine that kill women and children. But that is what is happening.

There is the undercurrent threat of nuclear war pushed by Putin's lapdog Sergey Lavrov. American Evangelical apocalypticists are having a field day predicting the end of the world as we know it, whisking evangelicals off to heaven, leaving behind most of the world to be annihilated by nuclear weapons unleashed by both sides.

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THE QUEERING of The Episcopal Church is almost complete. A few queer alphabet letters do remain. The church has yet to fully embrace a transgendered bishop, though TEC does have a couple of transgender priests. But give it time and the heavens will rend with new revelations from on high that God has declared himself anew for The Episcopal Church. It shall be done, for It is written.

Former TEC Bishop William Love of Albany, opened up at a lecture he gave at Hillsdale College, MI and revealed what happened when he stood up to TEC's Presiding Bishop and HOB, and its lay gaystapo. Here is what he said, and what it cost to fight for biblical truth in the face of intense pressure to perform homosexual marriages from the Episcopalian Church.

He told how he was betrayed by the Communion Partner bishops and said: "I was the lone voice that said, 'I'm not going to do this. I can't do this based on my understanding of what God has said through the scriptures regarding marriage.'" You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/anglican-bishop-opens-about-leaving-episcopal-church

TEC is pushing free money onto dying dioceses. A case in point is the Diocese of Nthn. Michigan which has fewer than 385 Episcopalians (less now since Covid-19). It got a $40,000 grant to use however it saw fit, no strings attached, and another $28,200 grant from the church's United Thank Offering.

Overall, TEC is in decline. My story; FIRST TIME: EPISCOPAL CHURCH DROPS BELOW 500,000 IN AVERAGE SUNDAY ATTENDANCE with "Plate and pledge," dropping $59 million, reveals just how fast TEC is dying.
The church's statisticians have said they won't give us future ASA only membership numbers, undoubtedly wanting to shield the Church Pension Fund.

Statistics released by the Office of General Convention show domestic membership doubling in the year-over-year membership rate decline and a tripling in the year -over-year attendance rate decline. In 2020 it dropped by 61,243 persons to 1,576,702 (-4%) from 1,637,945, while average Sunday attendance, the true indicator of local church health declined 60,232 persons to 458,179 (-12%) from 518,411.

These numbers indicate a doubling in the rate of membership and a tripling in the rate of attendance decline over the previous year. Media Average Sunday Attendance in the denomination has dropped from 57 persons in 2016 to 50 persons in 2020.

Long-term, 61% of Episcopal parishes saw their attendance decline 10% or greater in the past five years. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/first-time-episcopal-church-drops-below-500000-average-sunday-attendance

One diocese -- Mississippi -- is looking at its future and two priests say that the traditional model of ministry is no longer viable. The diocese has declined 26.2% from 2011 to 2020, with no end in sight. They talk about "emerging models" of "doing" church which includes retired, non-stipendiary priests, two job priests and much more. This diocese, like all dioceses face uncertain futures, as decline accelerates with fewer and fewer dues paying Episcopalians. You can read the full story here:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/dfc_attachments/public/documents/3301495/MSEpiscopalian_April_2022.pdf

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A DARK CLOUD HANGS OVER GAFCON. The possibility of women bishops being consecrated in the Global South could derail the Anglican realignment.

The recent skirmish over the possibility of a woman being ordained a bishop in the orthodox (evangelical) Anglican Province of Uganda, a staunch GAFCON supporter, raises the specter of a growing number of Global South provinces capitulating to the idea - a possibility thought impossible just a few short years ago.

A recent news report that Uganda is ready to ordain women bishops, a move that could usher in the most substantial change to the highest order of ministry in the Anglican Church of Uganda, shook up GAFCON leaders. It was later qualified by the Ugandan Archbishop, Stephen Kaziimba, that they would stick with an agreed upon moratorium until there is a consensus among GAFCON primates.

A small handful of Global South provinces have to date ordained women to the episcopate. They include the Province of The Episcopal Church of South Sudan in the person of Elizabeth Awut Ngor, Diocese of Rumbek in 2016. The Anglican Church of Kenya in the person of Emily Onyango, Diocese of Bondo in 2021 and the Rev. Rose Okeno, 52, of Butere, a rural diocese. The Anglican Church of Southern Africa in the person of Ellinah Wamukoya, Bishop of Swaziland in 2012 and Margaret Vertue, Bishop of False Bay, in 2012. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/could-consecration-women-bishops-global-south-derail-anglican-realignment

VOL correspondent Mary Ann Mueller has written a fine historical record of the continued rise of women priests and women bishops and its spread within the Anglican Communion from Florence Li Tim-Oi to Maria Grace Tazu Sasamori.

"The Anglican Communion in Japan (Nippon Sei Ko Kai) consecrated its first woman bishop over the weekend. Maria Grace Tazu Sasamori was made the Bishop of Hokkaido on Saturday (April 23) in a ceremony held at the Christ Church Cathedral in Sapporo. The event was presided over by Archbishop Luke Kenichi Muto, the primate of the Japanese Anglican Church." Sayonara Nippon Sei Ko Kai. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/womens-ordination-continues-spread-within-anglican-communion

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The American Anglican Council has issued a new call to arms with the publication of THE DANIEL DECLARATION: A Call to Mission, a Place to Stand

Canon Phil Ashey writes "that since 1996 when the American Anglican Council was formed, our mission has been to bring clarity out of confusion both within the culture and within the Church. Historically, our mission has been to always reform the Church, to keep it biblically-faithful, and to inspire its leaders to be faithful, courageous, and resilient. When we published our AAC Statement of Faith, A Place to Stand, a Call to Mission (1997), it quickly became a standard by which clergy and congregations differentiated themselves from false teaching within The Episcopal Church. In fact, until the GAFCON Jerusalem Statement and Declaration (2008), A Place to Stand was a principal foundation on which biblically faithful and courageous Episcopalians sought to reform their Church." You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/daniel-declaration

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A new book is out that documents the birth and rise of The Anglican Network in Canada; Protest, Providence, and Promise in Global Anglican Realignment. On June of 2002, a theological bombshell dropped in the Diocese of New Westminster, BC, Canada, when ultra-liberal bishop Michael Ingham, in consort with his synod, voted to authorize same-sex blessings.

It sent up a theological mushroom cloud that would soon cross the globe, enveloping and forever changing the Anglican Communion. The first result was clergy and delegates from eight parishes walked out to form the Anglican Communion in New Westminster. Later, it caused the formation of the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC), which, in turn, would become a diocese in the much larger body of the Anglican Church in North America. It would resound at the Lambeth Conference in 1998 with a resolution (1:10) declaring marriage only between a man and a woman. Finally, it caused the formation of GAFCON and inevitably, realignment in the Anglican Communion.

The twenty-year journey has been ably documented in this volume and dedicated to the late James I. Packer (1926-2020) teacher, author and friend, who on that fateful day in June walked out with his fellow Anglicans, never more to return. Packer was later deposed by the bishop. He responded to being told he had abandoned the ministry, retorting "poppycock", a bishop, he said, can revoke your license but he cannot negate your ministry. I have reviewed it here: https://virtueonline.org/anglican-network-canada-story You can buy the book at this link. I urge VOL readers who want to know about how we got to where we are today to buy this book.
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Down under in Australia a line is being drawn in the sand which could decide the future of the road Australian Anglicans will take -- will it be orthodox or revisionist?

A volume of essays has been written in the hope that all Australian Anglicans and especially members of General Synod will be equipped and encouraged to hold fast to the historic Christian teaching about marriage and to hold out the pure gospel of God's grace in Christ to all people." An Appellate Tribunal Opinion and the Future of the Anglican Church in Australia hangs in the balance.

You can download your copy of the book at this link. (PDF and ePub formats.) https://www.australianchurchrecord.net/lits/

The Line in the Sand -- edited by Robert Tong, Claire Smith and Mike Leite -- is jointly published by The Australian Church Record and The Anglican Church League.

The General Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia meets Sunday 8 May to Friday 13 May 2022. Read and send a message of support for our Anglican brothers and sisters who are holding the line.

You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/line-sand-appellate-tribunal-opinion-and-future-anglican-church-australia

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A final resolution was reached in the decade long legal struggle over half a billion dollars' worth of property in South Carolina. Episcopalians and departing Anglicans received final word in a mixed ruling that concluded the last major church property dispute in the North American Anglican realignment.

Fifteen Anglican parishes, including the historic St. Michael's Church and St. Philip's Church in Charleston, will retain title to their properties, while 14 parishes will be required to turn over their church properties to Episcopalians, including the Camp St. Christopher Conference Center and Old St. Andrew's Church in Charleston, the oldest surviving church building in South Carolina.

The ruling from the South Carolina Supreme Court follows nearly a decade of litigation in which the parties disputed ownership of more than $500 million worth of church properties. The case, which originally involved 36 parishes, took several twists and was repeatedly appealed.

"From our decision today, there will be no remand," the five justices wrote. "The case is over."

You can read several stories about this here: https://virtueonline.org/final-resolution-reached-south-carolina-episcopal-case

Canon lawyer Allan Haley weighed in on this decision here: https://virtueonline.org/south-carolina-supreme-court-divides-baby

How it will all finally play out is still anyone's guess.

***

A decidedly nasty turn of events took place in the Anglican Church of Canada when it was revealed that Archbishop Mark MacDonald resigned over sexual misconduct allegations. He had a unique role in the ACoC as the National Indigenous archbishop for the church. He formally relinquished the exercise of the ordained ministry pursuant to Canon XIX, effective April 20, 2022. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/anglican-church-canada-archbishop-resigns-over-sexual-misconduct-allegations

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The English Churchman reported that the Lambeth Conference plans to restrict media access: Journalists must agree with principles of the conference or be denied accreditation.

"Can there be anything more injurious to a free and democratic society than censorship of the press? It is shocking therefore to read the following in the Media information for the 2022 Lambeth Conference: "The Lambeth Conference reserves the right to deny or withdraw accreditation of journalists from media organisations whose activities run counter to the principles of the spirit of the conference, or put the accreditation to improper use or act in a way not consistent with the principles of the organisation."

Are they really expecting the secular media to be willing or able to pledge support of the 'principles and spirit' of Anglicanism in order to report on the Lambeth Conference?

VOL has applied to go and take two reporters. We await a decision from Lambeth Palace. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/lambeth-conference-restrict-media-access-journalists-must-agree-principles-conference-or-be-denied

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The LGBTQ+ advocacy group Integrity announced it was formally dissolving. The Episcopal News Service noted that the nonprofit organization that has advocated for full LGBTQ+ inclusion within The Episcopal Church since 1974, is now officially defunct, having effectively ceased its ministry over the last four years amid controversy over its mission and management.

In late March, Integrity USA (also known as Integrity Inc.) withdrew from The Consultation, a consortium of progressive Episcopal organizations that it had been a member of since 1985. Integrity USA "is now in the post-dissolution winding-up phase," the organization's last president, Ronnie Ward, wrote to Consultation convener Laura Russell.

Integrity USA's status as a nonprofit corporation in Illinois was voluntarily dissolved in January. While some local chapters continue to maintain a presence, the national network has been dormant since 2018, when General Convention approved a resolution granting full churchwide access to same-sex marriage rites.

It is probably irrelevant whether they stayed or disappeared. The organization had seen the passage of homosexual marriage (B012) in TEC and the ouster of a bishop who refused to bend to TEC's theology.

***

It's official. GAFCON 4 will meet in Kigali, Rwanda next year. After two meetings in Jerusalem in 2008 and 2018, and one in Nairobi in 2013, the organizers of the five-yearly Global Anglican Future Conference have decided that the 2023 meeting will be held in Kigali.

The conference has been a landmark in international Anglicanism. The first meeting in Jerusalem drew bishops, clergy and laity from around the world and the Jerusalem Declaration formulated there has since become a key document for the movement that has followed.

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THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND rolls from one crisis to the next. Archbishop Justin Welby reels from crisis to crisis, uncertain of what to do or how to do it.

Welby apparently suffers from depression and has been under treatment for at least two years. Welby said a book written by his daughter on her own struggle with depression had encouraged him to get help.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has said his faith acted as a "safety net" during his struggles with depression. Welby told BBC Radio 4 it was "very odd" to feel the love of God and a "real, vicious sense of dislike of oneself" simultaneously. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/archbishop-canterbury-says-his-faith-helped-during-depression

THE PUBLIC wants Justin Welby and his fellow "woke" Bishops thrown out of Parliament, a new survey has found. Your time is up, Justin! According to an exclusive, the Techne UK poll for Express.co.uk, 62 percent of respondents said that Church of England Bishops have had their day in Britain's Parliament. A mere 19 percent thought that they should be allowed to stay in the House of Lords. The findings come after fury over the way Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, used his Easter sermon to claim that the Government's new policy for illegal migrants crossing the Channel on small boats was "unGodly".

Welby, who planned to continue his apology tour to Canada to lament, repent and atone for relationships and actions affecting indigenous communities, now says he will not be meeting with survivors of the Mohawk Institute or visiting Woodland Cultural Centre during his trip to Canada. No reason was given.

If you think the Church of England was not sinking into irrelevance and wokeness, consider this. An open iftar for Ramadan was held at Coventry cathedral where Allahu Akbar was wailed out through loudspeakers. Think about that. Would Muslims offer one of their mosques to hear Christian hymns declaring that Jesus was the only way to God and salvation only through Him? Unlikely. You can see it here: https://twitter.com/ActivePatriotUK/status/1519626165329268739

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CULTURE WARS

Some excellent stories can be found at these links here:

The Transgender Revolution and the Death of Truth: https://virtueonline.org/transgender-revolution-and-death-truth

The Roots of the LGBTQ Revolution: https://virtueonline.org/roots-lgbtq-movement

American Churches are Killing Christianity: https://virtueonline.org/american-churches-are-killing-christianity

Genital Mutilation is not a sacred Journey: https://virtueonline.org/genital-mutilation-not-sacred-journey

Why does God use flawed people to represent Him?
https://virtueonline.org/why-does-god-use-flawed-people-represent-him-and-his-mission

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A NEW BOOK, jointly written by myself and former Episcopal layman Brad Hutt with input from canon lawyer Allan Haley, titled The Great Episcopal Church Robbery: 6,400 Congregation Properties Heisted by Radical Clergy is out and I am offering it to readers for a tax-deductible donation of $30.00 or more. This book follows my earlier book THE DESTRUCTION OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

The Great Episcopal Church Robbery tells the story of the purposeful take-over and co-opting of the Episcopal Church by radical clergy. As active participants of this 45-year-old Episcopal church dispute, the co-authors witnessed Dioceses, parishes, and congregations struggle to maintain Biblical orthodoxy and keep their church property in the face of an aggressive Episcopate hell bent on making the Episcopal church over in their own image by:
Ordaining women and homosexuals in violation of scripture.
Forcing churches to bless same sex marriages.

As the voice for Anglican orthodoxy - the Gospel is unequivocally central

You can make a tax-deductible donation for the book and to keep the news coming to you. You can make a donation here by check, credit card or PAYPAL.

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