Distinguishing tolerances. It is very easy to tolerate the opinions of others if we have no strong opinions of our own. But we should not acquiesce in this easy-going tolerance. We need to distinguish between the tolerant mind and the tolerant spirit. Tolerant in spirit a Christian should always be, loving, understanding, forgiving and forbearing others, making allowances for them, and giving them the benefit of the doubt, for true love 'bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things' (1 Cor. 13:7). But how can we be tolerant in mind of what God has plainly revealed to be either evil or erroneous? --- John R.W. Stott

LGBTQ Revolutionaries Wage War Against Biological and Ontological Realities: Two Men, or Two Women, Cannot Procreate -- It is Not Just Difficult, but Impossible. --- Albert Mohler

Dear Brothers and sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
August 13, 2021

For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. -- Mark 8:17

It has been two weeks of revelations the like of which we have not seen in years.

In a book, Peter Akinola: Who Blinks First?: Biblical Fidelity Against the Gay Agenda in the Global Anglican Communion, former Nigerian Primate Peter Akinola lays bare the duplicity of former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams.

It paints him as devious, scheming and not the least bit orthodox on morality. It views him as engaging in deliberate acts of conspiracy, complicity and collusion, wily, deceitful, and thoroughly sold out to western pan Anglican pansexuality; while trying to placate and pacify African Anglicans.

It reveals that Williams was more comfortable with American Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, and a CofE homosexual dean in the person of Jeffrey John, whom he tried to promote to bishop, than with his nemesis, Peter Akinola.

Williams thought Akinola was a fundamentalist African Anglican rube (as did John Shelby Spong). Williams considers himself the learned intellectual, Affirming Catholic. He thought he was smarter and better educated and would win the culture war over sexuality in the Anglican Communion. Williams believed the Nigerian Archbishop would blink first over homosexual practice that is racing like an out-of-control virus throughout the Anglican Communion.

It never happened. You see Williams grossly underestimated the former Nigerian Primate, and for his sin he saw the birth of GAFCON, in what could be an alternative Anglican communion.

The book outlines their history together as Anglican leaders and the pressure each archbishop faced to compromise the Bible's clear stance over homosexuality.

Williams said Akinola would blink first, but he was wrong. AIDS dead wrong. The Nigerian leader had been inoculated by the proscriptions of Scripture on homosexuality, while Williams was prepared to fudge Scripture for a postmodern view of sexuality that a secular West was inhaling and to hell with what "uninformed" African Anglicans thought.

Here is an excerpt from the book; "Which of the two competing forces should he [Williams] disappoint? Should it be his gay supporters or the resolute fellow Anglican leaders?

"Neither of the two options was attractive to him. And so it was that the man who came with a soaring ego into office left it with his aura badly shattered. Williams might have been a brilliant theologian, but his education in practical leadership, particularly in managing dire conflicts, was evidently limited. Rather than surrender, he beat a retreat into the protective cocoon of inaction. If he could not bend the Anglican Communion to legitimatize homosexuality, at least it was within his power to erect a protective shield around its proponents. This he struggled to do all through his tenure, through deliberate acts of conspiracy, complicity, and collusion, Williams pushed the Anglican Church to a dangerous precipice. Archbishop Akinola had warned him of this, and events proved him right."

I have written two stories about all this here: https://virtueonline.org/who-blinks-first-rowan-williams-challenges-peter-akinola and here titled Williams and the Politics of Denial https://virtueonline.org/rowan-williams-and-politics-denial

To date both combined stories have had over 10,000 reads.

The book is a page turner. You can buy it here on kindle for under $10. https://www.amazon.com/Peter-Akinola-Biblical-Fidelity-Communion-ebook/dp/B088ZYLNXR/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

*****

Closer to home, a book ZOOM MEMOIRS records conversations with Bishop John H. Rodgers Jr and the Rev. Dr. Stephen Noll.

These memoirs of Rodgers, a scion Anglican leader, cover a remarkable historical time period in US Anglican affairs. His interactive conversations with theological, missionary and educator Stephen Noll bring to life a portrait of this great Anglican leader at a turning point in the history of North American Anglicanism.

Rodgers, now 90, is at once an evangelical theologian, seminary dean and Anglican bishop. Noll takes the lid off the man and brings his life to us with its ups and downs, his multiple "retirements" and God's continual pull on his life through the peregrinations of The Episcopal Church.

One area of history that I am personally acquainted with, but could never gain all the facts, largely because most bishops refused to talk about it, concerned the struggles within the AMIA and the birth pangs of the ACNA. The relationship between AMIA Bishop Chuck Murphy (now deceased) and ACNA Archbishop Bob Duncan was cloaked in silence though I knew that they fought bitterly over the leadership of the ACNA.

This book is a must read, a period piece on the birth of an authentic Anglican voice in North America. Rodgers is revealed as a reconciler, bringing together contrary forces ranging from high church Anglo-Catholics to snake belly low evangelicals. He straddles the AMIA/ACNA fence with grace, wit and fervor.

The Foreword by The Very Rev. Dr. Henry L. Thompson III, current Dean and President of TSM brings more force to the book. You can buy this volume from Anglican House Publishers, https://anglicanhousepublishers.org/

*****

Down under in the Anglican Church of Australia, progressive and evangelical forces locked horns over the future of that province. GAFCON Australia is forming a new diocese in preparation to what they see will be the inevitable brokering in of homosexuality into the Anglican Church of Australia. GAFCON Australia outlined its plan to support Anglicans who leave the Anglican Church of Australia over doctrinal revision which overturns the plain teaching of Scripture.

However, the Anglican Primate of Australia, the Most Rev. Geoffrey Smith, tore into the idea and ripped plans by GAFCON Australia to form a new diocese.
It feels like the life of our church is being undermined from within, said the archbishop.

"We need to be clear that the opinion of the Appellate Tribunal has not changed the doctrine of the Anglican Church of Australia. The Appellate Tribunal can't change the doctrine of anything. All the Appellate Tribunal can do in these matters is respond to questions concerning the Constitution of the Anglican Church of Australia and the Canons adopted by the General Synod."

Then the Bishop of Newcastle, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Peter Stuart, came out on August 9, lifting the "restraint" on clergy allowing them to conduct a blessing of couples married in a same-sex marriage. He wrote a Pastoral Letter to his diocese signaling his approval.

Then the Archbishop of Melbourne and former Primate Philip Freier weighed in with an ad clerum calling the move "unnecessary" and said it was "an attempt to shed redress responsibilities "

Freier wrote; "I agree with the Primate's view that there is no need for this "new church entity" -- Anglican doctrine has not been changed by the recent Appellate Tribunal opinion or the effect of the Diocese of Wangaratta's application of the national churches' "Canon Concerning Services". Undoubtedly, the proponents of this initiative think differently for the reasons they describe.

GAFCON's board blasted back, demanding that the archbishop apologize for his charges and said he should withdraw them. "This extraordinary suggestion is simply not true. Nor is this suggestion helpful for the survivors of sexual abuse. Sexual abuse by clergy and the institutional cover up of that abuse or avoidance of redress responsibilities are indefensibly evil."

Given the gravity of the archbishop's accusation, we are at a loss to understand why it was not put to us before publication. Our chair has written to the archbishop asking him to retract his comments."

You can read all about it here; https://virtueonline.org/australian-anglican-primate-rips-gafcon-plans-form-new-diocese
Here: https://virtueonline.org/statement-board-gafcon-australia and here:
https://virtueonline.org/australia-bishop-newcastle-defiantly-approves-same-sex-blessings

The tumult will continue. Schism looks inevitable.

*****

Across the Tasman in New Zealand, the new Church of Confessing Anglicans, a GAFCON plant announced the formation of South Auckland Anglican Mission. This brings to 17 the number of new orthodox Anglican plants in New Zealand. This number is up from the 12 original churches who left the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia for its policies over same sex marriage and steadfast refusal to preach the gospel of God's grace. God is clearly honoring Bishop Jay Behan for his stand.

*****

The Church of England seems to be going from bad to worse in almost everything its two Archbishops touch. The Rev. Giles Fraser, a progressive CofE priest took a hearty swipe at Welby and said the Church is on the brink of revolt, announcing further that even a former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, feels betrayed.

"A quiet but unmistakable rebellion is taking place within the Church of England, a groundswell of anger bubbling up from that most British of institutions: the Parish Church. And support for it shows no sign of waning," wrote Fraser.

"The current trajectory of our church is a huge mistake and the leadership is out of touch with ordinary churchgoers," said George Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury. "It is time to rally the troops."

He was writing in support of the newly formed Save the Parish movement. However, it is not former Archbishops that are at the core of this new movement, but ordinary parishioners and parish priests who believe that the church itself has turned against them. They have witnessed how the center of gravity in church affairs -- as well as the funding -- has shifted from the local parish towards an increasingly bureaucratic and centralized church structure.

There is no love lost between Welby and Carey. In 2017, Carey rebuked Welby after Welby asked Carey to step down from his role as an honorary assistant bishop after a report found Carey mishandled abuse claims.

The Rev. Marcus Walker, the London priest who started the Save the Parish campaign, has argued that parishioners are facing "the last chance to save the system that has defined Christianity for 1,000 years" and warned of "a lot of demoralized priests and parishioners". You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/england-church-brink-revolt

*****

The Episcopal Church continues its downward spiral with more dioceses and churches in trouble. The Bishop of Vermont, Shannon MacVean-Brown, says her diocese faces an uncertain future. In a letter to the diocese, she said an independent financial assessment of the diocese revealed a "financial cliff is on the horizon."

"The bishop envisioned financial shortfalls early on in her ministry, and we can reaffirm that there is, in fact, trouble ahead, likely in the first quarter of 2023, where, without intervention, expenditures will far exceed revenues," said the auditor. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/bishop-vermont-says-diocese-faces-uncertain-future

Another bishop who should have gotten the heave-ho but did not is Bishop Skip Adams who has been called upon to assist in Eastern and Western Michigan during Bishop Whayne Hougland's suspension for an extramarital affair. Hougland awaits the outcome of a Title IV disciplinary action.

Truth is Adams has unresolved issues of his own that should have led to his removal as bishop of Central New York

Now it should be noted that adultery is the last remaining sexual sin in TEC. All other sexualities ranging from fornication and sodomy to homosexual marriage and the full range of LGBTQ sexualities are now no longer sexual sins, having been delivered of the sin, guilt and shame by General Convention resolutions.

Adams' past reveals a man whose behavior is nothing less than untruthful and contemptuous. You can read more here: https://virtueonline.org/bishop-skip-adams-called-assist-eastern-western-michigan-during-houglands-suspension-extramarital

At a time when almost every TEC diocese is in decline with shrinking ASA and lower incoming monies, the Episcopal Church is planting seeds for 30 new ministries. A press release said a diverse array of 30 new church and missional communities received approval for $650,000 in grants during the Episcopal Church Executive Council's meeting in June.

So, what's the message of these "plants"? why talk of racism and anti-racism training, climate change news, and new laundromats to encourage people to have clean clothes, while ignoring their need for clean souls. God forbid. Bishop Michael Curry's semi-Pelagian views will not excite Nones to fill episcopal pews.

For a satirical look at the latest TEC nonsense; EPISCOPAL CHURCH SAYS IT IS LOOKING FOR A PULSE AS IT FACES THE FUTURE. You can read my take here: https://virtueonline.org/episcopal-church-says-it-lookng-pulse-it-faces-future

*****

There is a lot of boasting from TEC-ites that ACNA'S recent sex scandals make them hypocritical because of their stand against homosexuality. A snarky guest contributor article in the COVENANT section of The Living Church magazine, titled ACNA'S SCANDALS AND MINE by Steve Schlossberg, outlines the "ugly smirk" and "enormous leer" that he feels about ACNA's recent moral failings.

"They're not only as bad as we are [in the Episcopal Church] or as bad as they believe we are, they're actually worse: on top of being morally degenerate, they've now been exposed as hypocritical."

Really. The ACNA College of Bishops quickly fired one bishop for porno; allowed another to resign because he did not discipline one of his priests quickly enough and a third could be dumped if it is found he did not act promptly in dealing with a layman who was later charged by authorities with sexual offenses against children.

It should be noted that it is a lot more difficult for a bishop to discipline a layman than a priest over which the bishop has total control. A group of women calling themselves #ACNAtoo, "a grassroots group of concerned advocates, congregants, former congregants and trauma-informed professionals advocating for survivors of #ACNAtoo sexual abuse and mishandling in ACNA's Diocese of the Upper Midwest" is fueling a social media firestorm that wants payback for the United Methodist bishop's leading role in the "gay Anglican" letter approved by 100% of the ACNA bishops.

In other ACNA news, sexual misconduct allegations prompted the resignation at Truro Anglican, a leading Anglican parish in suburban Washington, D.C. It is under new leadership for the second time in a year. Truro Anglican Church interim Rector Tim Mayfield was asked to resign by the Senior Warden of the historic Fairfax, Virginia church in what was presented as the best way forward for the parish. The resignation follows the results of an investigation which concluded that two allegations of past misconduct were "credible," but did not render a verdict on the veracity of those claims.

Two women within the Truro congregation first reported one year ago unwanted, inappropriate touching that occurred four years prior. That information only became known recently to the congregation, which knew Mayfield was under investigation, but not for what cause.

The women did not pursue legal or civil action and did not ask for or receive financial compensation from the church. You can read Jeff Walton's fine and fair coverage of this event here: https://virtueonline.org/sexual-misconduct-allegations-prompt-resignation-truro-anglican

*****

A bruhaha erupted recently over what jurisdiction the Armed Forces belong to. There was scurrilous reporting on the issue from AnglicanTV, (Kallsen/Conger) which tried to show dissension over the issue.

AnglicanTV endeavored to create a problem when there wasn't one.

Bishop Felix Orji Diocesan Bishop, Anglican Diocese of the West and Coordinating Bishop of CONNAM called the Anglican TV report -- Anglican Unscripted - "lies". CoN is not stealing JAFC from ACNA. JAFC was created by CoNigeria in 2012 as a Diocese before it became a Jurisdiction in ACNA in 2014. "It has been part of both Provinces since then. We are fine with that arrangement considering their unique ministry."

Bishop Bill Atwood, Dean for International Affairs and Chair of the ACNA Chaplaincy Task Force said The Conger/Kallsen report was completely false and issued this statement.

"At the most recent Provincial Council during his report, Bishop Jones described the relationship saying, "The Chaplains need the ACNA, and the ACNA needs the Chaplains. Our cohesiveness and joint commitment to sharing the Gospel is the strongest it has ever been."

We work together seamlessly under the Canons of the Anglican Church in North America. The chaplains are thrilled to be able to make many significant contributions nationally and internationally to the overall ministry of the Anglican Church in North America (in addition to their chaplaincy work)."

You can download the pdf here: https://anglicanchurch.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/20210728-ACNA-JAFC-CONNAM-a-Joint-Statement-.pdf

*****

The Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) has elected its second female bishop.She is Rose Okeno, who will preside over the Butere Diocese. She becomes the second female Bishop. Dr. Emily Onyango, was ordained in January 2021 as assistant Bishop, becoming the first woman to hold a high-ranking position in the ACK.

According to Daily Nation, the elections, which were presided over by Mr. Myron Mukuna, the diocesan chancellor, went into second round of voting after the preliminary one failed to produce an outright winner. Running against the Bishop elect were Venerable John Anzaya and Reverend Harrison Etindi.

The question is, will this create a major crisis for GAFCON primates and the growing Global South. In the West, women bishops are ordained, even lesbian bishops. The ACNA does not recognize, nor will it ordain women to the episcopacy. Some dioceses will not even ordain women priests. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

*****

THE GROWING SCHISM IN THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION. Is it time for a new Anglican Communion?

It should be apparent by now to both Archbishop Justin Welby and Josiah Idowu-Fearon, Secretary General of the Anglican Consultative Council that the divisions within the Anglican Communion will not go away and are, in fact, irreversible.

Divisions are deepening almost monthly, with increasing fragmentation over homosexual practice. New revelations about the trajectory of the Church of England, the Mother church, with a 'Living in Love and Faith' "reconciliation" report touting full homosexual acceptance, only ratchet up the anger among Global South primates, solidifying their determination never to compromise with Western pan-Anglican pro-homosexual attitudes and behaviors. Peter Akinola's book gives credence to the idea and seems almost inevitable. It will be interesting to see what comes out of the next GAFCON conference in Kigali, Rwanda, next year.

You can read my own take on the future of the Anglican Communion here: https://virtueonline.org/growing-schism-anglican-communion

*****

Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world today.
The 50 countries where it's most dangerous to follow Jesus in 2021 finds 3 in 4 martyrs are in Nigeria, ranked among 10 worst persecutors for first time.
Every day, 13 Christians worldwide are killed because of their faith.
Every day, 12 churches or Christian buildings are attacked.
And every day, 12 Christians are unjustly arrested or imprisoned, and another 5 are abducted.

So reports the 2021 World Watch List (WWL), the latest annual accounting from Open Doors of the top 50 countries where Christians are the most persecuted for following Jesus.

You can read more here: https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2021/january/christian-persecution-2021-countries-open-doors-watch-list.html

It is sad, but not surprising, that we hear little or nothing from Archbishop Justin Welby about Anglican Christians in Nigeria, the largest province in the Anglican Communion who daily face persecution.

*****

BARNABAS FUND reports on just how bad things are in China with this report.

Local officials in Qushan County, Zhejiang Province, China have removed crosses from the masts of fishing boats in a targeted attack on Christians. County officials also removed the word "Emmanuel" painted on boats and warned fishermen that they would be blocked from obtaining fishing permits if they did not allow the removal of Christian symbols. You can read more news about persecuted Christians around the globe here: https://barnabasfund.org/

*****

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