Curry was in the diocese of San Diego recently promoting his "loving, liberating and life-giving" message, at a Good News Festival. He was whooping it up in a familiar cadence style more commonly found in black churches.

Curry's message about God's all-consuming love comes with no parameters, definition or boundaries. Much like his message to a certain royal couple, it was more a pep rally for love in a time of angst, a PR campaign for love, a Human Resources appeal to our better nature, a motivational speaker designed to hype the crowds.

So, which of the four loves is Curry appealing too? C. S. Lewis would certainly have asked the presiding bishop what the blazes he was talking about. Is it eros, agape, philia or storge? Curry never tells us.

"Love when you feel like it, and love when you don't," Curry said. "Love when you believe it, and love when you don't. Love on the mountaintop, and love in the valley. But love always."

This is meaningless drivel.

The one frequent word Curry uses is "liberating," which undefined is code for no boundaries for human sexuality. Or perhaps he wants orthodox believers to be liberated from their "fundamentalism" about sexuality.

It is ironic that Curry is holding this revival in a diocese that lost fully one quarter (nine) of its parishes during the reign of Bishop Jim Mathes because they refused to bow to the Moloch god of pansexuality. The diocese has never recovered from the loss under Mathes and probably never will. Latest diocesan figures reveal that in 2020, Average Sunday Attendance was 4685. By 2021, it had dropped by 44% to 1483. Clearly love does not conquer all. Perhaps Curry should ask Bishop Bill Love what "liberating and life-giving love" felt like after being pushed out of his diocese.

The bigger question is, does Curry even understand what revival is?

Revivals have three components.

The first is that revival is instigated by God through the power of the Holy Spirit. It cannot be conjured up like the spirit of Banquo. Either God's Holy Spirit does it, or it isn't revival.

Secondly, revival is always preceded by much prayer. No prayer, no revival. Were there earnest days of prayer prior to Curry's revival call? I did not read of any.

Thirdly, and most importantly, revival draws people to the revelation of their sinfulness that they cry out to God, falling on their faces (not on their backs as in the Toronto blessing), pleading God's forgiveness. Think of the Welsh revivals, which, by the way started with a young layman, not a bishop. Evan Roberts was only 26 when the Welsh Revival broke out 1904. It had God's special imprint: the spontaneous outbreaks of singing, prayer, open repentance, and confession.

The Welsh were not singing 'love is all you need'; on the contrary, they became deeply aware of their sinfulness which separated them from God. Without true repentance, they would not see the kingdom of God.

That's a far cry from Curry's love talk in San Diego. One reads nothing of the awfulness of sin and its consequences in his sermons. Curry wants us all to love, love, love.

No, Curry's revival is no revival at all. It is a happy, clappy avoidance in dealing with sin and God's gracious offer of pardon and forgiveness in the Cross to deal with our sin.

TEC will continue its decline into oblivion. Michael Curry hasn't got the power of God in him to save it.

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