Anyone watching the church universal from the bleachers could not but conclude that major seismic shifts are taking place that will see new formations emerge in the 21st Century, formations that we have not seen since the Reformation of the 16th Century.

Who would have thought that African, Asian and Latin American Anglican Archbishops and bishops would cross great oceans to sweep into their ecclesiastical embrace like-minded orthodox parishes and priests in the U.S. who believe they can no longer stay under their own bishops fearing their own souls and those of their flocks. Such notions would have been unthinkable a few short years ago. Now it is occurring at an unprecedented pace, with the Nigerian Primate establishing his own Anglican Church on America's shores. It defies the imagination. But such is happening. And there is no reason to believe the pace will any time let up. If anything the pace is only quickening.

The most recent figures indicate that some 70 or more (mostly large) parishes have left the Episcopal Church and come under overseas oversight from a foreign province and diocese. These parishes, many of them large with four-figure congregations, have come under the care of at least four provinces of the Anglican Communion (Central Africa, Kenya, Southern Cone [the southern 2/3 of South America], and Uganda) and 15 dioceses within those provinces.

And now there is a move afoot to create a "Seventh Convocation" and bring them into a unified "structure." This is a move by Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan to bring these parishes who want to stay on the same page in the US, and he sees the Network as the vehicle to do it. This is part of the Network's mission to keep the ties between all orthodox Anglicans in this country, regardless of their jurisdictional arrangements, together. It is an interesting if not shrewd move and it is undoubtedly causing headaches at the Episcopal Church's national headquarters, which sees any such orthodox effort as an act of defiance and an attempt to diminish its own authority threatening their autonomy and inclusion in the wider Anglican body.

But it is not just The Episcopal Church that is seeing realignment within it, but fissures are showing up among Presbyterians, Lutherans, United Methodists, and The United Church of Christ - in fact most if not all the mainline Protestant denominations in the U.S. and Canada where orthodox believers no longer share the same religious worldview of their more liberal brethren.

The fault lines range from the ordination of women to sexuality issues that include same-sex marriages, rites for same-sex blessings, the ordination of homosexual and lesbian priests, and, in the case of the Episcopal Church USA, the ordination and consecration of an avowed non-celibate homosexual to the episcopacy.

Such acts, in and of themselves would have been unthinkable a few short years ago, but revisionists are using the "cover" of the civil rights movement to conceal their real objective-the overthrow of the eternal Word of God and morph their views into their churches as they see their denominations shrink. The answer, they think, is to find solace in a changing world by accommodating to it, rather than being a prophetic or counter cultural voice against it. They have turned H. Richard Niebuhr's Christ and Culture on its head. The accommodator of Christ to the views of the time erases the distinction between God and man by divinizing man or humanizing God, argued Niebuhr. Frank Griswold, ECUSA's Presiding Bishop is doing precisely that.

Theology is being turned into ideology with a new rallying cry: "open, democratic and nationwide" instead of "holy, catholic and apostolic."

As liberal denominations decline with their churches aging and emptying, a new evangelicalism has arisen in the land that is in turn Reformed, catholic, Charismatic and Pentecostal with mega churches, TV stations and new voices like those of Rick Warren, Ted Haggard, Joel Olsteen and others taking center stage. They have also brought with them new paradigms for social action and social justice.

Even the Evangelical Left in such persons as Jim Wallis, Tony Campolo and Ron Sider are being heard and listened to more by mainstream America and the church. The result is that the evangelical message has become more complex with issues ranging from the environment to care for the poor as well as hot button issues as gay rights and abortion.

There is a certain amount of irony in that an outspoken sin-and-salvation, social activist preacher in the person of Tony Campolo, (who is certainly no supporter of inclusion as it is understood by the Episcopal Church), is invited to preach at the ultra-liberal Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey annual convention recently...and gets a standing ovation from over 600 delegates. His message of personal salvation, you-need-to-get-right-with-Jesus, coupled with concern for the poor, "what this country needs is not free trade but fair trade," found ready ears, where a preacher like James Dobson or William Franklin Graham would not.

The vibrancy of this new generation of evangelical faith believers contrasts sharply with the older, staid mainline social gospel church preachers whose focus is more on this world salvation through UN resolutions, massive government intervention and aid, while the new evangelicals are happy to pour money into evangelical philanthropic organizations while arguing for bigger tax cuts.

But the axis of orthodoxy took a turn recently with a much needed boost from an unlikely quarter - the World Council of Churches meeting in Brazil.

In a story that got little press, Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev the bishop of Vienna and the chief Russian Orthodox delegate, whose worldwide flock number about 220 million members, said that a "tactical alliance" with Roman Catholicism "to defend traditional Christian values" might be necessary to ward off Liberalism in Western churches that allow women to serve in the clergy and permit same-sex marriages. He might have added, but didn't, the ordination of openly gay priests (male and female) and in the case of the Episcopal Church, the consecration of an avowed non-celibate homosexual to the episcopacy.

Speaking outside of the official WCC apparatus meeting in Porto Alegre, he said "The gap between the traditional wing, represented mainly by Orthodox churches and the Roman Catholic Church, and the liberal wing, represented by many Protestant churches, is only growing day by day," he said. "We," referring to the Orthodox and Roman Catholics, "are on the same side of the divide."

He added: "Traditional Christianity's very survival is in jeopardy. We have no right to delay this strategic alliance, because in 20 to 40 years it will be too late."

The orthodox prelate who is in charge of Russian Orthodox Church relations with the European Union, said they have less in common with some fellow members than they once had and said urgency demanding rapprochement, arguing that an alliance with Roman Catholics should not be a matter of dogma and should precede the resolution of many centuries-old differences between the two oldest branches of Christianity, some differences dating back to the Great Schism of 1054.

Pope Benedict XVI has placed closer ties with Orthodox churches as a top priority of his papacy. The two sides are working to prepare a historic meeting between the pope and the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Aleksy II.

And the cracks and fissures are showing up everywhere in Western liberal churches.

Last October the Lutheran Church of Sweden voted to bless same-sex marriages. As a consequence, the Russian Orthodox Church severed ties with the Lutherans. The Russian Orthodox Church criticized the Church of Sweden for undermining the family and jeopardizing the welfare of children.

The Church of Norway in Exile declared that ALL the bishops of the Church of Norway have been cast out of Christ's true Church. This is in response to the CoN Doctrinal Board's statement that both approval and disapproval of homosexual relations were valid interpretations of Scripture.

In a pastoral letter, Bishop Børre Knudsen said, "It appears as though the bishops have forgotten the word sin, and scarcely understand the sentence, 'the wages of sin is death.' In the Doctrinal Board they have let loose the ancient serpent. He is hissing today as before, 'Hath God really said?' And they have let themselves be seduced like Eve. Contrary to God's clear Word they themselves wish to determine what is good and what is evil. Serpentlike, they speak with forked tongue and set forth truth and lies as equally valid views."

The Swedish church has been transformed into a unique church organization, functionally atheistic, adjusted to the contemporary culture and contextual in the sense that it mirrors the society and the dominant ideologies of the day. Openly homosexual church leaders in post-modern western churches are urging an inclusive Christianity at precisely the moment when evangelicals of one stripe or another are becoming more counter culture and standing in opposition to present moral trends.

The comparative data for what is left of the Lutheran state churches in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, or the remnant of the Calvinist churches in Holland and Scotland speaks volumes. And then, of course, there is the Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Church in Canada who are losing membership by the week. One can only conclude that Liberal, Protestant Christianity is in its death throes.

"Official ecumenism with the leadership of post-Reformation churches has become more difficult; particularly in ethical questions we are drifting apart. This is leading to the self-destruction of these churches, as has become evident in the Anglican Communion but also in some Lutheran churches," wrote Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

All this time the evangelical Protestant churches in America are vibrant and growing and evangelical Christianity in Africa, Asia and Latin America is booming faster than gold rushes.

Regardless of where you come down politically, the impressive evangelical numbers won media attention during the last two presidential races.

Listening and reading some of the best of the evangelicals like Rick Warren, Michael Green, John R. W. Stott, and J.I. Packer to name but a few, one can only be impressed by the zeal, knowledge, and commitment of such men and the next generation of clergy that men like Warren and Stott are training. Their audiences are worldwide and growing daily.

These men and women orthodox Christians are committed to the essentials of the faith 'once delivered', and they see it as a supernatural, revealed faith, and they believe in a living God of love who can be reached through prayer, providing guidance, consolation, and purpose. Unlike their fundamentalist counterparts who are more judgmental, focus on guilt, are sometimes racist and xenophobic, the new evangelicals are caring, driven to good works while maintaining a vibrant faith in the midst of a culture viewed by many as going to hell in a hand basket.

What is even more compelling is that while liberal churches are lowering their standards (the Episcopal Church is moving towards open communion), the evangelical Protestant churches are, in fact, raising them, asking more of people, demanding that they tithe their monies to the church and they must be prepared to witness "give an account of the faith that lies within them" to others. These churches have a future because they make expectations of their people, demand higher standards of discipleship and are committed to sharing the faith with others. These purpose-driven churches are filling rapidly. People clearly want spiritual boundaries and borders for themselves and for their children. The rants of John Shelby Spong find no place in their churches.

While the major media, Hollywood, and other denizens of the Left despise orthodox Christians, Catholic and Protestant, the churches of the faithful are prospering and are bearing spiritual fruit.

Europeans despise America for being too Puritan, while Islam condemns us for being too pornographic, and there is truth on both sides. But America is in the midst of an evangelical renaissance. Who would have though that movies like the Passion of the Christ, Narnia, and authors like C. S. Lewis, Rick Warren and the last pope are filling movie theaters and their books selling by the tens of millions. Hollywood, Wall Street and Washington are blinded by lust, money and power, and their eyes are too blind to see, but the Hinterland is where truth is often found, and there an evangelical renaissance is taking place. The great universities, too, are simply out of touch with mainstream America.

The new orthodox alliances taking shape in the Episcopal Church with Global South Anglicanism and the orthodox coalitions in the wider Christian world bode well for the future of world Christianity which numbers more than two billion adherents, and growing by the tens of millions in such countries as China and Africa.

How it will all play out we do not know. But God is clearly doing a new thing, and that's as it should be.

--This article may be forwarded and posted on websites and blogs but with no changes in the text. www.virtueonline.org

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