Nigeria: 200 young Muslims protect Christians from attack; Coptic bishop warns that Middle East is losing hope ...more

Planned Parenthood Annual Report for 2013: 327,653 Babies murdered ...While it remains America’s biggest abortion corporation, the “nonprofit” continued to make money — bringing in $305.4 million last year and $305.3 million this year. Planned Parenthood continued to receive over a half-billion dollars in taxpayer money, as it took in $540 million in 2012 and $528 million in 2013...

United States Calls for Release of Pastor Saeed Abedini ...Abedini, an American citizen of Iranian descent was imprisoned in Iran in 2012 after being accused of working with the underground church movement. The American pastor was in Iran building a secular orphanage at the time of his arrest and detainment. Abedini has been sentenced to eight years in prison...

Canon Andrew White leads Top 100 UK Christians 2014  ...By overwhelming affirmation and democratic consensus, you have chosen Canon Andrew White – the ‘Vicar of Baghdad’ – as your No1 UK Christian for 2014. The first will be last, you say? Quite so: Canon White would not demur from that immutable kingdom principle of selflessness and humility. To be chosen for this honour is not an invitation to pride or an invocation of vanity. Nor is it a denigration of the efforts of other ministers or missionaries who contend for the Faith in a harsh and unforgiving world. This award is bestowed in appreciation of Canon Andrew White’s ministry of peace and reconciliation, and admiration for his faithful dedication to the cause of compassion amidst the deserts of unimaginable suffering and persecution. The citations were effusive...

Nigeria: 200 young Muslims protect Christians from attack ...
According to Pastor Yohanna Buru of the Christ Evangelical Church in Kaduna, the interfaith initiative was the first of its kind in the city. He said that Muslims volunteered to protect his church in response to a series of suicide bombings and attacks on Christian places of worship by Islamist militant group Boko Haram.

"I really appreciate their love and care," he said of the young Muslims, adding that it showed the possibility of lasting peace and harmony between those of different faiths...

Coptic bishop warns that Middle East is losing hope  More must be done in 2015 to combat the "suffering, destruction and devastation" of ancient Christian and other communities in the Middle East, according to a leading bishop from the region.

Bishop Angaelos, leader of the UK's Coptic Orthodox Church, warns that it is becoming "increasingly difficult" to give hope to those suffering gross violations of their human rights...

Severe Flu Cases on the Rise in U.S. ...Thirty-six states are now experiencing high levels of flu activity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, as this year’s flu vaccine may not fully protect against a strain known as influenza A H3N2 that is currently circulating and tends to be more severe.

Fifteen children age 18 and under have died from the flu as of Dec. 20, compared with four such deaths around the same time last year, according to the CDC. A number of hospitals are outpacing previous years, with some restricting visitors to prevent the spread of the virus...

Archbishop Okoh's address to the Humanum Colloquium

26 Dec 2014   
by Nicholas Okoh

Christian marriage in Africa faces the tension which marriages elsewhere experience. This includes complementarianism, which is the view that men and women have different but complementary roles and responsibilities in marriage, family, religious leadership, etc. It is based on the Creation in which God created them “male and female”. Men and women are designed to be different physiologically, emotionally and otherwise with the purpose of bringing different gifts to a relationship. In marriage, the complementarity of husband and wife is expressed very clearly in the act of conjugal love, having children, and fathering and mothering. As William Frey says:

“Today’s controversies are the logical and inevitable outcome of something that began a generation ago, the so-called sexual revolution. That revolution has not been bloodless nor painless. It has left a large number of wounded veterans. Who can count the broken marriages, the countless teen-age pregnancies, and the millions of convenience-motivated abortions?” [1]

Patricia Morgan corroborates that with this quotation from her recent book:  “…the sexual revolution is to the family what communism is to the market. Both entail … assaults on core institutions of civil society, leading to human misery that the state is not equipped to put right… in both cases, citizens lose the buffer of an intermediate form of social order… resulting in … defencelessness in the face of state power”[2] The family is, and has always been, this buffer. As God’s spiritual and moral agent in the world, the Church must continue to be the prophetic voice of God’s truth in the World, supporting the family.

The pressure on Christian marriage in Africa does not just replicate the pressures of western secular and postmodern revisionism of Christian tenets; it particularly involves reconciling the competing claims of our African tradition, the Gospel and modernity.  It involves issues like the complementarity of a man and woman in love, equality, monogamy, polygamy, indissolubility and mutual responsibility. Craig Blomberg identifies the debate of gender roles as one of the most volatile, not just in the Christian church but also in marriage, and advocates complementarity of man and woman in the home, which is an extension of the Church. On the debate about male headship in the home he argues that “while a few writers entirely separate the issues of home and church, most agree that the [church] was initially modelled on the [home]. If we can learn more about God’s design for husbands and wives, we should be able to make some valid inferences about men’s and women’s roles in the gathered community of believers”.[3] Headship of the family is reserved for the man; this applies both to Christian and Traditional marriage and family and is not debatable. the rest

Our recommendation is that, in order to save marriage in the postmodern world, there is a need to rediscover the complementarity of man and woman. This means consciously reversing philosophies and actions introduced by church and state through legislation, biblical revisionism and unguarded social liberty camouflaging under the banner of human rights. The Church must lead societies in returning to the Biblical pattern of marriage contracted under God, patterned after His ordinance; a union of man and woman who complement each other in shared but defined roles, developed as a unit of family for procreation of children which is necessary for the sustenance of human society.

How movies embraced Hinduism; Slain NYPD Officer saw streets as his ministry...more

NYPD Officer Rafael Ramos saw streets as his ministry   ...In fact, he was just hours away from becoming a lay chaplain and graduating from a community-crisis chaplaincy program before he and fellow New York police Officer Wenjian Liu were gunned down in their patrol car Saturday in Brooklyn.

The gunman in the two officers' killing, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, was found dead of self-inflicted gunshot wounds at a subway station immediately after the slayings...

Missing AirAsia flight: South Korean missionaries aboard  A pair of South Korean Christian missionaries and their 12-month-old daughter are among those on the missing AirAsia jet that lost contact with air traffic control on Sunday, it has emerged...

How movies embraced Hinduism (without you even noticing) Interstellar’s box office total is $622,932,412 and counting. It is the eighth highest-grossing film of the year and has spawned an endless raft of thinkpieces testing the validity of its science and applauding the innovation of its philosophy. But it is not so new. The idea that propels the plot – there is a universal super-consciousness that transcends time and space, and in which all human life is connected – has been around for about 3,000 years. It is Vedic.

When the film’s astronaut hero (Matthew McConaughey), declares that the mysterious and all-knowing “they” who created a wormhole near Saturn through which he travels to save mankind – dissolving his sense of material reality in the process – are in fact “us”, he is simply repeating the central notion of the Upanishads, India’s oldest philosophical texts. These hold that individual human minds are merely brief reflections within a cosmic one...

Pain Relievers Tied to Reduced Skin Cancer Risk

Aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs taken orally may reduce the risk for squamous cell carcinoma, a review of studies has found.
 

Squamous cell carcinoma, caused by exposure to ultraviolet light over a lifetime, is the second most common form of skin cancer (after basal cell carcinoma). If caught early, it is almost always curable; left untreated it can be disfiguring or deadly. A topical Nsaid, diclofenac (brand name Voltaren and others), is used to treat actinic keratoses, a type of lesion that can develop into skin cancer if not treated.

 

Researchers, writing in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, analyzed data from nine studies of various designs. Some used aspirin and Nsaids, some aspirin or non-aspirin Nsaids alone. Over all, use of Nsaids reduced the risk for squamous cell skin cancer by 18 percent. Using aspirin alone also reduced the risk, though the reduction was not statistically significant....

Albert Mohler: Newsweek on the Bible—So Misrepresented It’s a Sin

Monday December 29, 2014

Newsweek magazine decided to greet the start of 2015 with a massive cover story on the Bible. For decades now, major newsmagazines have tended to feature cover articles timed for Christmas and Easter, taking an opportunity to consider some major question about Christianity and the modern world. Leading the journalistic pack for years, both TIME and Newsweek dedicated cover article after article, following a rather predictable format. In the main, scholars or leaders from very liberal quarters commented side-by-side those committed to historic Christianity on questions ranging from the virgin birth to the resurrection of Christ.

When written by journalists like Newsweek‘s former editor Jon Meacham or TIME reporters such as David Van Biema, the articles were often balanced and genuinely insightful. Meacham and Van Biema knew the difference between theological liberals and theological conservatives and they were determined to let both sides speak. I was interviewed several times by both writers, along with others from both magazines. I may not have liked the final version of the article in some cases, but I was treated fairly and with journalistic integrity.

So, when Newsweek, now back in print under new ownership, let loose its first issue of the New Year on the Bible, I held out the hope that the article would be fair, journalistically credible, and interesting, even if written from a more liberal perspective.

But Newsweek‘s cover story is nothing of the sort. It is an irresponsible screed of post-Christian invective leveled against the Bible and, even more to the point, against evangelical Christianity. It is one of the most irresponsible articles ever to appear in a journalistic guise... the rest

The opening two paragraph of the article sets the stage for what follows:

“They wave their Bibles at passersby, screaming their condemnations of homosexuals. They fall on their knees, worshipping at the base of granite monuments to the Ten Commandments while demanding prayer in school. They appeal to God to save America from their political opponents, mostly Democrats. They gather in football stadiums by the thousands to pray for the country’s salvation.

They are God’s frauds, cafeteria Christians who pick and choose which Bible verses they heed with less care than they exercise in selecting side orders for lunch. They are joined by religious rationalizers—fundamentalists who, unable to find Scripture supporting their biases and beliefs, twist phrases and modify translations to prove they are honoring the Bible’s words.”

Of the Father’s love begotten...

Of the Father’s love begotten, ere the worlds began to be,

He is Alpha and Omega, He the source, the ending He,

Of the things that are, that have been,

And that future years shall see, evermore and evermore!

O that birth forever blessèd, when the virgin, full of grace,

By the Holy Ghost conceiving, bare the Savior of our race;

And the Babe, the world’s Redeemer,

First revealed His sacred face, evermore and evermore!

O ye heights of heaven adore Him; angel hosts, His praises sing;

Powers, dominions, bow before Him, and extol our God and King!

Let no tongue on earth be silent,

Every voice in concert sing, evermore and evermore!

Christ, to Thee with God the Father,
And, O Holy Ghost, to Thee,

Hymn and chant with high thanksgiving,
And unwearied praises be:

Honor, glory, and dominion,

And eternal victory, evermore and evermore!

...Au­rel­i­us Pru­den­ti­us image

Once in Royal David's City

King’s College Choir

Albert Mohler: “And Them That Mourn-Celebrating Christmas in the Face of Grief and Death”

Families across the Christian world are gathering for Christmas even now, with caravans of cars and planeloads of passengers headed to hearth and home. Christmas comes once again, filled with the joy, expectation, and sentiment of the season. It is a time for children, who fill homes with energy, excitement, and sheer joy. And it is a time for the aged, who cherish Christmas memories drawn from decades of Christmas celebrations. Even in an age of mobility, families do their best to gather as extended clans, drawn by the call of Christmas.

And yet, the sentiment and joy of the season is often accompanied by very different emotions and memories. At some point, every Christian home is invaded by the pressing memory of loved ones who can no longer gather — of empty chairs and empty arms, and aching hearts. For some, the grief is fresh, suffering the death of one who was so very present at the Christmas gathering last year, but is now among the saints resting in Christ. For others, it is the grief of a loss suffered long ago. We grieve the absence of parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles and siblings. Some, with a grief almost too great to bear, suffer the heartbreak that comes with the death of a child.

For all of us, the knowledge of recent events of unspeakable horror and the murder of young children make us think of so many homes with such overwhelming grief.

Is Christmas also for those who grieve? Such a question would perplex those who experienced the events that night in humble Bethlehem and those who followed Christ throughout his earthly ministry. Christmas is especially for those who grieve... the rest 
image

...for the message of Christmas is nothing less than the death of death in the death and resurrection of Christ.

To watch for Christ...

Do you know the feeling, in matters of this life, of expecting a friend, expecting him to come, and he delays?... Do you know what it is to be in anxiety lest something should happen which may happen or may not, or to be in suspense about some important event, which makes your heart beat when you are reminded of it, and of which you think the first thing in the morning. Do you know what it is to have a friend in a distant country, to expect news of him, and to wonder from day to day what he is now doing, and whether he is well? Do you know what it is so to live upon a person who is present to you, that your eyes follow his, that you read his soul, that you see all its changes in his countenance, that you anticipate his wishes, that you smile in his smile, and are sad in his sadness, and are downcast when he is vexed, and rejoice in his successes? To watch for Christ is a feeling such as all these; as far as feelings of this world are fit to shadow out those of another. ...John Henry Newman image

Vicar of Baghdad: Jesus is All That Remains for Christians in Iraq

Russ Jones
Friday, December 19, 2014

The Vicar of Baghdad maintains, Jesus, “the refugee child,” is all that remains for Christians in Iraq.

Forced to leave Baghdad for fear of terrorist activity, Canon Andrew White delivered his annual Christmas message from Bethlehem this year, according to Christian Today.

“This Christmas as we celebrate what we have, let us not forget that we too are celebrating the birth of a refugee who had nothing but gives us everything,” White wrote on his Facebook page. “As we delight in what we can give to people this Christmas let us not forget what this Christmas is really all about the time when this refugee child comes to all of us as the one who leads us to God and offers us the most wonderful gift possible this Christmas.”

White explains that a "refugee tent for Jesus" has been placed in a refugee camp in the northern region of Baghdad where members of his staff clothe and feed those suffering at the hand of ISIS.

“All you have got left is the love of that refugee child. That to us in the Middle East is all that matters this Christmas. He is still everything to our Christians in Iraq and he can still be everything to us.” Here

Reading in the age of Amazon-what's next; 'Jihadi Brides'; Episcopal Church Baptisms Dry Up...more

North Korean Internet Goes Dark in Wake of Sony Hack   North Korea’s limited access to the Internet has been cut off, according to a network-monitoring company, days after the U.S. government accused the country of hacking into Sony Corp...files.

North Korea, which has four official networks connecting the country to the Internet -- all of which route through China -- began experiencing intermittent problems yesterday and today went completely dark, according to Doug Madory, director of Internet analysis at Dyn Research in Hanover, New Hampshire...

The Everything Book: reading in the age of Amazon
...As Amazon popularized ebooks over the last decade, it catalyzed a necessary change in our reading habits. By 2007, when the first Kindle emerged, the publishing world had to compete with Facebook, mobile games, and a hundred other distractions; to retain their vitality, books needed to adapt. Over the years, Amazon has stuffed its e-readers with features making them easier to read, like embedded dictionaries and translators; it’s added a social network; it’s even introduced a feature that seamlessly turns text into audio and back at our convenience. Books are vessels for transmitting ideas, and today the vessels have ideas of their own own: about what we should read, and how we should read it.

Hundreds of millions of tablets and e-readers have been sold, but today we're still inclined to think of a book as words on a page. Amazon's success with Kindle has hinged on recognizing how much more they can be. So where does the company go from here? In a series of rare, on-the-record interviews for Kindle’s 7th anniversary, Amazon executives sketched out their evolving vision for the future of reading. It's wild — and it's coming into focus faster than you might have guessed...

New Archaeological Finds Shed Light On Old Testament Life ...These finds shed light on life in the Old Testament era. One of the finds, a series of clay seals called bullae, lends credence to the Biblical accounts of the reigns of Kings David and Solomon...

Young British Women Being Groomed as 'Jihadi Brides' ...British young women are reportedly being groomed by terrorists to become “jihadi brides.” Terrorists are reaching out to teen girls through social media; the girls are offered free travel to the middle east if they agree to marry ISIS members....

Episcopal Church Baptisms Dry Up
...The report reveals that in U.S. dioceses, baptisms are down five percent from 27,140 in 2012 to 25,822 in 2013. Similarly, marriages are down four percent from 10,366 to 9,933 (the denomination has seen a 40 percent decline in children baptized since 2003 and a 46 percent decline in marriages over the same period). The losses are not evenly distributed, with some dioceses performing worse than others: in the Diocese of Northern Michigan, where an ordained Buddhist was elected (and later failed to gain consent from other dioceses) to be bishop in 2009, zero children were confirmed in 2013.

McVitie’s Victoria Christmas Choir TV Ad

Christian Colleges vs. Hookup Culture; Flaw that lets anyone listen to your cell calls; Why do small towns in SD need tanks and grenade launchers?...more

‘Ukraine Catholics being driven underground,’ say Church leaders Ukrainian Catholic leaders have warned that their Church is being driven underground again, a quarter of a century after it was re-legalised at the end of Communist rule.

“In Crimea and eastern Ukraine, we’ve already effectively returned to the catacombs,” said Father Ihor Yatsiv, the Church’s Kiev-based spokesman. “It’s a sad paradox that history is being repeated just as we commemorate our liberation. But after a couple of decades of freedom, we again look set to lose our freedom.”

The priest spoke as Ukrainian Catholic communities in Russian-occupied Crimea approached a January 1 deadline for re-registering under Russian law. He said the Byzantine Ukrainian Catholic Church had no legal status in Russia and would therefore be unable, in practice, to register...

Attacks on Christian Girls on the Rise in Pakistan "In Pakistan, rape is used as an instrument of arbitrary power over Christian girls, who come from poor and marginalized families. It is a form of violence that wants to reiterate the submission to Muslims."

Christian Colleges vs. Hookup Culture
...Though deplorable incidents of sexual assault and rape can still take place anywhere—even in the dorm rooms of faith-based colleges and universities—we see several religious schools offering up a distinctly different response to sex on campus. Rather than a move toward radical autonomy, these schools are making institutional changes to help counter alcoholism, hookup culture, and sexual assault.

In 2011, President John Garvey of Catholic University provoked a firestorm of controversy when he announced that Catholic University was assigning all incoming first-year students to single-sex dormitories. To defend himself against accusations of prudishness and heteronormativity, Garvey wrote an editorial for the Wall Street Journal, citing student wellbeing as his primary consideration...

The Response To North Korea’s Attack On Hollywood Is Disastrous And Cowardly   ...This isn’t tabloid hackery, it’s digital war waged by a terrorist regime. Maybe it’s more a cyberbattle defeat than a cyberwar defeat, but it sure would be nice to know far more about U.S. policy in response to such attacks. The silence — apart from anonymous U.S. officials saying “Yep! Looks like it was North Korea, then, doesn’t it!” — is deafening...
North Korea Behind Sony Hack? If So, It Had Help, Expert Says
Watch out world: North Korea deep into cyber warfare, defector says

German researchers discover a flaw that could let anyone listen to your cell calls ...The flaws, to be reported at a hacker conference in Hamburg this month, are the latest evidence of widespread insecurity on SS7, the global network that allows the world’s cellular carriers to route calls, texts and other services to each other. Experts say it’s increasingly clear that SS7, first designed in the 1980s, is riddled with serious vulnerabilities that undermine the privacy of the world’s billions of cellular customers...

Ibuprofen boosts some organisms life spans ...Researchers used to scoff at the idea of extending life span, but it turns out to be surprisingly easy—at least in organisms such as mice and worms. Drugs that prolong survival of these creatures—aspirin and the antidiabetes compound metformin, for example—are already in many of our medicine cabinets. Several studies suggest that ibuprofen is also worth a look. Ibuprofen suppresses inflammation, which underlies many age-related diseases and might contribute to aging itself. In addition, people who take ibuprofen for a long time have a lower risk of developing two age-related illnesses, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, several analyses found...

Even Small Towns Are Loading Up On Grenade Launchers  ...The police departments of the two largest cities in the state, Sioux Falls and Rapid City, and the sheriffs in their surrounding counties, Minnehaha and Pennington, are listed in the Pentagon’s documents as receiving only a few rifles. But the town of Mitchell (population 15,500) is listed with $733,000 worth of equipment. The sheriff of Codington County (population 27,500) with $415,400. And when we reach the South Dakota Highway Patrol, headed by Colonel Craig Price, things get wildly out of hand: $2.7 million worth of full-tracked carriers, armored trucks, grenade launchers, and other equipment. Robots, riot guns, night sights, a military helicopter: the Highway Patrol has you covered if war breaks out in the Bad Lands and the Black Hills...

Andrew Klavan: Black Leader Al Sharpton

Anglican Unscripted 146 - The Church of Enron

Dec 17, 2014

Anglican Unscripted is the only video newscast in the Anglican Church. Every Week Kevin, George, and Allan bring you news and prospective from around the globe. Please donate at http://anglican.tv/donate

00:00 Kevin and George discuss Clergy MBAs

Mohler: Movie review of "Exodus"; Christian Converts Find Safe Houses in England...more

Sydney Hostage Siege Ends With Gunman and 2 Captives Dead as Police Storm Cafe ...The hostages who died were a 34-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman, the police said. One of the injured people was a police officer, who was treated for an injury to the face and was in good condition, the police said...

Albert Mohler: Moses Without the Supernatural—Ridley Scott’s “Exodus: Gods and Kings”  Timed for a Christmas season release, director Ridley Scott’s intended blockbuster, Exodus: Gods and Kings hit the big screens this past weekend. On its opening weekend the movie shot to the top of the box office charts, displacing the latest Hunger Games movie, but falling considerably short of expected receipts.

The best single line analysis of the movie and its failure to garner either critical acclaim or more viewers was offered by Eric D. Snider of GeekNation: “This big dud isn’t blasphemous enough to be outrageous, emotional enough to be inspiring, or interesting enough to be good.”

Well, I partly agree with the first two points of criticism, but I did find the movie interesting. Indeed, I even liked much of the movie, and I would not argue that mature and thoughtful Christians should not see it, even if the concerns about it are major. And make no mistake, the concerns are major...

As for Moses, the depiction offered by actor Christian Bale grounds Moses’ sense of divine call in a severe knock to the head from a rock, followed by what might well be a hallucination, with the 11 year old boy speaking to Moses beside the bush that burned but was not consumed. Completely missing from the portrayal is any explanation that God has chosen Moses as his instrument for bringing Israel out of captivity and that God was acting in faithfulness to the covenant made with Abraham.

Fleeing Persecution, Christian Converts Find Safe Houses in England   As a 17-year-old convert to Christianity living in Pakistan, Ali (not his real name) was stabbed in the chest and left for dead by Muslims upset he had rejected their faith.

When he fled to England, his assailants tracked him down and threatened him.

A chance meeting with an Anglican priest led to temporary lodgings with a Christian family interested in offering refuge to Christian converts from Islam.

“I can’t tell you where I live — not the town, not even which part of the country,” Ali said. “I want friends but am nervous about forming friendships in case, at a moment’s notice, I have to move house again.”...

They Got Abortions When the Test Said Their Baby Would be Disabled, But The Tests Were Wrong  The pro-life movement has been raising the ugly specter of abortions on babies with disabilities for years and now a new article in the Boston Globe confirms that the tests supposedly showing a baby having a mild or sever disability may be wrong.

Calling unborn babies defective if they are prenatally diagnosed with genetic conditions foreshadows a dangerous path toward eugenics. The problem of a society that is prone to abort babies at a rate of 60, 70 or even 80 percent for those diagnosed with Down Syndrome is bad enough. A disability is certainly no reason to have an abortion...

Grocery store surprises customers with their rendition of 'Jingle Bells'

Story here

Bishop Julian Dobbs Advent Bible Series: Part 3

Advent 3 from Julian Dobbs on Vimeo.

Part 3: Why Is Jesus Coming Back?

Anglican Unscripted Episode 145

Dec 12, 2014

Anglican Unscripted is the only video newscast in the Anglican Church. Every Week Kevin, George, and Allan bring you news and prospective from around the globe. Please donate at http://anglican.tv/donate

00:00 Is the Church of England sinking?

The gloom of the world is but a shadow...

I am your friend and my love for you goes deep. There is nothing I can give you which you have not got, but there is much, very much, that, while I cannot give it, you can take.

No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in today. Take heaven!

No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant. Take peace!

The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach is joy. There is radiance and glory in the darkness could we but see - and to see we have only to look. I beseech you to look!

Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging its gifts by the covering, cast them away as ugly, or heavy or hard. Remove the covering and you will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love, by wisdom, with power.

Welcome it, grasp it, touch the angel's hand that brings it to you. Everything we call a trial, a sorrow, or a duty, believe me, that angel's hand is there, the gift is there, and the wonder of an overshadowing presence. Our joys, too, be not content with them as joys. They, too, conceal diviner gifts.

Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty - beneath its covering - that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven.

Courage, then, to claim it, that is all. But courage you have, and the knowledge that we are all pilgrims together, wending through unknown country, home.

And so, at this time, I greet you. Not quite as the world sends greetings, but with profound esteem and with the prayer that for you now and forever, the day breaks, and the shadows flee away.

This letter was written by Fra Giovanni Giocondo to his friend, Countess Allagia Aldobrandeschi on Christmas Eve, 1513. image

A.S. Haley: Decision in South Carolina Case Expected Soon

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Today, at the request of Circuit Judge Diane Goodstein, both sides in the South Carolina case are submitting proposed forms of a final decision and order for her to sign. She will most likely use one of the two versions as a basis for her own written decision, which she could issue as early as next week.

The South Carolina decision, when it comes, will not be written on a blank slate. As a trial judge, Judge Goodstein is bound to follow and apply precedents of the South Carolina Supreme Court. In 2009 that Court handed down its decision in the case of All Saints Parish Waccamaw v. Protestant Episcopal Church in South Carolina, and thereby established that church property disputes in the State are to be decided under "neutral principles of law."

In the context of the present dispute, this means that the Court will base its final decision upon a close examination of the various deeds and other documents evidencing ownership and title, as well as the governing documents (constitution, canons, articles and bylaws) of the parishes, the Diocese, and of the Episcopal Church (USA) itself.

As to the ability of the Diocese to withdraw from ECUSA, it would seem that it has already been finally adjudicated (by the courts of Illinois) that there is no language in the Constitution or canons of ECUSA which would prevent a Diocese from withdrawing. That is also a decision drawn under neutral principles, and so is in harmony with the method shown in the All Saints Waccamaw case. I should think that Judge Goodstein will find the reasoning of those two cases both persuasive and binding upon her...  the rest

A parish affiliates with ECUSA by virtue of being a member of an ECUSA Diocese, and when that Diocese withdraws, the parish's affiliation is thereby terminated as well -- as long as the parish chooses to stay a member of the withdrawing Diocese. Here the Diocese freely allowed its member parishes to choose which affiliation they wanted to keep, and did nothing to prevent the withdrawal of those that wanted to remain with ECUSA.

Anglican Unscripted Episode 144

Dec 10, 2014

Anglican Unscripted is the only video newscast in the Anglican Church. Every Week Kevin, George, and Allan bring you news and prospective from around the globe. Please donate at http://anglican.tv/donate

00:00 Dead on Arrival

Raping and Beheading the Faithful; Gay marriage and the death of freedom; Just say NO to Ouija...more

Raping and Beheading the Faithful: Muslim Persecution of Christians  ...Muslims beheading Christians was a visibly growing spectacle throughout the month of August. Islamic State [IS] militants cut off a Christian man's head—after compelling him to say the shehada, the Islamic profession of faith, "There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger." When the shehada is spoken before Muslim witnesses, the speaker becomes Muslim and thus, in theory, safeguards his life and possessions from the jihad. Not so for this hapless man, who, after renouncing his Christian faith for Islam, was still slaughtered on camera...

Why I Left Feminism (Or, How Feminism Left Me) ...Here’s how it happened...

Return of the Rhythm Method ...As of 2010, only about 22 percent of women used “periodic abstinence," an umbrella term that includes counting days, measuring temperature, and tracking cervical mucus to predict fertility. Women with a master’s degree or higher were far more likely to use these methods than their less-educated peers. Their ranks may grow, though, as new apps and other technologies make it easier to manage the historically error-prone task of measuring, recording, and analyzing one’s cycle in order to stay baby-free...

Gay marriage and the death of freedom ...I hate to rain on this fabulous parade, but there’s a massive problem with this happy-clappy rallying cry. And it’s this: everywhere gay marriage has been introduced it has battered freedom, not boosted it. Debate has been chilled, dissenters harried, critics tear-gassed. Love and marriage might go together like horse and carriage, but freedom and gay marriage certainly do not. The double-thinking ‘freedom to marry’ has done more to power the elbow of the state than it has to expand the liberty of men and women.
There are awkward questions the ‘freedom to marry’ folks just can’t answer. Like: if gay marriage is a liberal cause, how come it’s been attended by authoritarianism wherever it’s been introduced?...

Just say NO to Ouija
...A Ouija board is not, in any way, a game. Let’s be honest. People use them to contact spirits, whether of the dead or of any other sort. It is worth stating here that the Bible makes it clear that there is a spiritual world beyond our physical senses. It contains good and evil forces, and we are not to seek to communicate with these either for news of the future or for any other purpose. Good spirits are off limits because we are commanded to pray to the God they serve, and bad spirits are forbidden because they always seek to deceive and harm us. Some relevant Bible verses include:

'Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God' (Leviticus 19:31)

'Let no one be found among you who…practises divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord…' (Deuteronomy 18:10-12)...

Facebook Army to Police GOP Candidates The digital army sprung to life with a click of a mouse in a nondescript office park in Alexandria. Less than 10 miles away, at the White House, the phones began to light up. One call came into the switchboard and then another. Thousands of people flooded the phone lines.

It was early August 2014, and the callers were conservatives lambasting President Obama for promising what they described as "executive amnesty." The deluge of angry activists was not the work of a heavily coordinated national campaign, a pricey phone-banking operation, or really an exhaustive effort of any kind.

It resulted from a single post on Facebook...

Archbishop Justin Welby On Anglican Communion: ‘There Is A Possibility That We Will Not Hold Together'

By Trevor Grundy
12/09/2014

CANTERBURY, England (RNS) In a lengthy interview in The Times of London, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby predicted that the Anglican Communion might not hold together because of strong disagreements on the ordination of women as bishops and full rights for LGBT people.

The candid interview came at the end of Welby’s visits to the 38 provinces (or country-states) that make up the Anglican Communion.

Welby said that although individual churches remain “strong, resilient and thriving,” the differences among them remain profound.

“I think, realistically, we‘ve got to say that despite all efforts there is a possibility that we will not hold together, or not hold together for a while,” he said. “I could see circumstances in which there could be people moving apart and then coming back together, depending on what else happens.”... the rest

A bit of snow in CNY...

Dec 10, 2014

Sigh!

Bishop Julian Dobbs Advent Bible Series: Part 2

Advent 2 from Julian Dobbs on Vimeo.

Part Two:  Ready for His return [Luke 21, Matthew 24]

Archbishop Welby: “I’m absolutely not saying ‘Unity at all costs’ — quite the reverse.”

Anglican Mainstream

Dec 6, 2014

 

A full page interview with Archbishop Justin Welby  in The Times 6/12/14
Here-Subscription

“I think, realistically, we’ve got to say that despite all efforts there is a possibility that we will not hold together, or not hold together for a while,” the Most Rev Justin Welby told The Times. “I could see circumstances in which there could be people moving apart and then coming back together, depending on what else happens.”…………..

Learning to disagree without hatred has been a theme of the Archbishop’s ministry. He argues that “good disagreement” is vital (although some churches did not accept that). He did not want to see the same level of bitterness that had characterised some disputes in the past. There had been a danger, he admitted, of parts of the Anglican Communion drifting into that.

He could not ask people to give up views they strongly held. “But what you can ask is for people to engage with those with whom they disagree, not expecting to be convinced, or even to convince, but to understand the other person’s humanity and why they come to such a different view.”

Unity, however, could not come at the price of truth and integrity. “I’m absolutely not saying ‘Unity at all costs’ — quite the reverse. Truth and integrity matter hugely.” This was equally true for the Church of England, especially on the question of women bishops, approved by the Synod in November... the rest

"Puppy"-starring the Minions

Minions - PUPPY from Sydney Fernandes on Vimeo.

I love the Minions!

Anglican Perspective: Recovering Our Identity in Christ this Advent

December 5, 2014
Canon Phil Ashey

AAC Weekly Update

Survey About Relationships In America; Women and the Myth of Marriage Declining... more

WH mum on possible Israel sanctions   White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest on Friday would not discuss whether the Obama administration is considering sanctions against Israel for ongoing settlement construction in East Jerusalem.

"I'm not going to talk about any internal deliberations," Earnest said during a press briefing after he was pressed about discussions on sanctions against the U.S. ally.

While Earnest reaffirmed the strong bond between the two nations, he called the settlements "illegitimate" and said the U.S. was deeply concerned about the settlement activity...

'Unauthorized' Aliens With Jobs Outnumber Non-College-Grad Adults Seeking Jobs    Aliens illegally holding jobs in the United States outnumber all unemployed people who are not in management, professional or related occupations as well as all unemployed who are 25 and older and who do not have a college degree, according to an estimate of "unauthorized workers" published by the Chief Actuary of Social Security Administration and employment data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The BLS only counts as "unemployed" people who have actively looked for a job in the past four weeks.

“We estimate that the number of unauthorized workers grew from 4.8 million in 2000 to 8.0 million in 2007, the peak of the last business cycle,” the Office of the Chief Actuary of Social Security said in an analysis published in April 2013....

Will the Sexual License Mandate Destroy Christian Educational Institutions?  The predicament of individual Christians faced with legal or organizational requirements to acquiesce in the sexual revolution and provide goods or services that contribute to sin, reviewed in a recent article by the present author, is mirrored in a similar requirement being made on Christian institutions. The difference is that whereas individuals are threatened with loss of job, fines, or imprisonment, organizations are threatened with loss of existence if they do not conform.

The drama of institutions struggling to maintain their Christian identity in a hostile legal and social environment is now being played out by two excellent Christian collegiate institutions in markedly liberal jurisdictions, Gordon College in Massachusetts, and Trinity Western University, in British Columbia.

Not content with dismantling laws and policies which made Judeo-Christian morality the moral framework of society at large, social liberals now seek to deny traditional Christians the right to maintain their own private, voluntary institutions in which Christian sexual morality is enforced... 

Good News About Relationships in America: Findings from a New, Large, Nationwide Survey  A new and very large nationally representative survey of Americans is shedding much light on the religious and relationship lives, behaviors, and attitudes of adults. It’s called the Relationships in America study, and a report on it was released earlier this week from the Austin Institute. I’m a senior fellow of the Institute, and had a hand in the survey’s design and construction—approved by the University of Texas—and in editing the report whose key findings I’m about to describe.

As an early reader noted, the report is like a train wreck—it’s horrifying and fascinating at the same time. Take a look for yourself. While there’s more bad news than good, in this essay I want to dwell on the positive...

Women and the Myth of Marriage Declining ...With 50 years of experience behind us, what are the facts? What do the data show about women and marriage? About women and their need for men?

Ironically, while women are, in fact, not marrying as early and the decline in marriage is a reality, digging deep into the data shows that by the time women are in their 30s, about 70 percent of them are married (that’s only around 5 percent less than in the past)...

A.S. Haley: Is a Church that Sues Itself a Church?

December 5, 2014

The highly litigious Episcopal Church in the United States of America (“ECUSA”) has settled a lawsuit with itself, according to a press release from its rump group (which cannot legally be called a “diocese”) in South Carolina.

Shall we run that one by our eyes again? ECUSA has settled a lawsuit which it brought against itself.
OK, technically I should say: one arm of ECUSA has agreed to take money from another arm of ECUSA in settlement of a dispute the two arms had with each other, and that went to court. Is that clearer?

No? My, but you are being picky. Let me try one more time, in a bit more detail.

ECUSA is this epiphenomenon that is rather like the village of Brigadoon. One day or so you suddenly see it (if you’re lucky enough), and then for a very long time, you don’t. It arises (when it does), not out of its own doings, but of those of its constituent members.

Oh, you may think you see ECUSA far oftener than that, for if you follow lawsuits, ECUSA is perpetually in the news. Every time you see or hear of ECUSA in that sense, it is as the plaintiff in yet another lawsuit against one of its own churches, or dioceses.  the rest

But stop and think for a moment: in the world of ECUSA, it is nothing for one arm of the Church to sue another arm of the same Church, and claim that it is a victim of bad-faith dealings by its fellow member -- entitling it to wipe out that member's entire net worth! I suppose that all the vestries and rectors whom ECUSA has sued personally for punitive damages and bad faith should take some small amount of consolation from the realization that for ECUSA, it's nothing personal, and nothing that ECUSA wouldn't hesitate to use against its own.

What a Church! What a Christian example to fellow Christians!

Anglican Unscripted Episode 143 - TEC Sues Itself

Dec 5, 2014

Anglican Unscripted is the only video newscast in the Anglican Church. Every Week Kevin, George, and Allan bring you news and prospective from around the globe. Please donate at http://anglican.tv/donate

00:00 TEC Sues Itself... and wins

Men and women are at their noblest and best...

Men and women are at their noblest and best when they are on their knees before God in prayer. To pray is not only to be truly godly; it is also to be truly human. For here are human beings, made by God like God and for God, spending time in fellowship with God. So prayer is an authentic activity in itself, irrespective of any benefits it may bring us. Yet it is also one of the most effective of all means of grace. I doubt if anybody has ever become at all Christlike who has not been diligent in prayer. ...John R. W. Stott image

Militants kill 36 Christian quarry workers in Kenya; More Pastors Embrace Talk of Mental Ills...more

How Pastors Are Passing the Leadership Baton
Every pastor is an interim pastor.

That statement may sound harsh or abrupt, but it’s becoming a catchphrase. Saddleback’s Rick Warren commented about the quote on Instagram, noting that it’s something his dad—also a pastor—said repeatedly. As William Vanderbloemen and I explain in Next: Pastoral Succession That Works (Baker Books), a day will come for every church leader when a successor takes his place.

And based on our research, the smartest churches address succession head-on. A church that doesn’t handle it well faces significant losses, sometimes to the point of no return. Crystal Cathedral is now bankrupt due in part to succession issues. The same is true of many once-prominent churches, like Earl Paul’s Chapel Hill Harvester Church, that are now gone. An outstanding long-term pastorate offers no guarantee that a church will survive, let alone thrive...

Al-Shabaab militants kill 36 Christian quarry workers in Kenya ...Militants from the Somalia-based al-Shabaab terror group have killed 36 mainly Christian quarry workers, intensifying security fears in much of Kenya’s north.

Witnesses said the attackers surrounded the camp in a remote district near the Somali border shortly after midnight on Tuesday, roused the sleeping workers and ordered those who could not prove they were Muslims to lie on the ground before spraying them with bullets.

It was the second such massacre in recent weeks. On 22 November, al-Shabaab militants stopped passengers on a Nairobi-bound bus and killed the 28 Kenyans who could not recite the Muslim statement of faith known as the Shahada....

More Pastors Embrace Talk of Mental Ills
...In a study by Matthew Stanford, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor University, 71 percent of Baptist pastors said they were unable to recognize mental illness. In another study, he found that while 55 of 70 seminaries offered pastoral counseling electives, directors said that students were often unable to fit them into their schedules.

People have knocked on the parsonage door of Eagle Springs Baptist Church at all hours to speak with Mr. Brogli about depression, domestic violence, self-injury, hoarding, drug and alcohol addiction, and bipolar disorder...

Anglican Unscripted Episode 142

Dec 3, 2014

Anglican Unscripted is the only video newscast in the Anglican Church. Every Week Kevin, George, and Allan bring you news and prospective from around the globe. Please donate at http://anglican.tv/donate

00:00 Is the church about to reunify?

From God Christ's deity came forth...

From God Christ's deity came forth,

His manhood from humanity;

his priesthood from Melchizedek,

his royalty from David's tree:

praised be his Oneness.

He joined with guests at wedding feast,

Yet in the wilderness did fast;

he taught within the temple's gates;

his people saw him die at last:

praised be his teaching.

The dissolute he did not scorn,

Nor turn from those who were in sin;

he for the righteous did rejoice

but bade the fallen to come in:

praised be his mercy.

He did not disregard the sick;

To simple ones his word was given;

and he descended to the earth

and, his work done, went up to heaven:

praised be his coming.

Who then, my Lord, compares to you?

The Watcher slept, the Great was small,

the Pure baptized, the Life who died,

the King abased to honor all:

praised be your glory.

...By Ephrem of Edessa image

Dutch doctors to approve organ donation euthanasia; Abortion Coverage in Obamacare Plans; ...more

Dutch doctors to approve organ donation euthanasia ...The astonishing thing is not that some ethicists approved of the notion of organ donation euthanasia. Crackpot ideas are a dime a dozen in bioethics journals. The astonishing thing is that the leading doctors’ group in The Netherlands is about to adopt this policy.

Can’t it foresee the appalling abuses which will take place? The most obvious is that patients with neurodegenerative conditions will feel immense pressure to end their lives so that others can live longer. Their lives will resemble the cloned young people who are raised from childhood to be organ donors in Kazuo Ishiguru’s novel Never Let Me Go. Their teachers and carers teach them submissiveness and resignation to their fate. Death is called “completion”; they have finished the task they were born for.

Similarly, poor Dutch people afflicted with ALS or multiple sclerosis will be constantly reminded that the longer they live, the more younger, more active people will have to suffer. Their lives will only be meaningful if they choose euthanasia. Direct pressure will not be necessary; they will get the message every day on the radio, on the television news, in the glossy weekend magazines...

Gay Marriage Acceptance by Finnish Lutheran Archbishop Prompts Mass Resignations From Church; Nearly 8,000 Resign Over Weekend ...As many as 7,800 people have resigned from the Lutheran Church in Finland since the parliament approved a law legalizing same-sex marriages on Friday, which was backed by Kari Mäkinen, the Archbishop of Turku and Finland.

Mäkinen reportedly said that he was "rejoiced" by the passage of the law, YLE News reported on Sunday...

Study: 200 Babies Are Aborted for Every 1,000 Births in America ...The report stated, “Among the 37 areas that reported by marital status for 2011, 14.5% of all women who obtained an abortion were married and 85.5% were unmarried. The abortion ratio was 43 abortions per 1,000 live births for married women and 373 abortions per 1,000 live births for unmarried women.”...

NYC: 78% of Abortions Were Black and Hispanic Babies ...The Abortion Surveillance report published by the CDC, for which the latest abortion numbers are for 2011, show there were 76,251 abortions in New York City that year.

For that total, 9,550 abortions were of white babies, which is 12.5% of the total; 35,188 babies were black (46.1% of total); 23,959 were Hispanic (31.4%); and another 7,554 “other” abortions, 9.9%, which includes Asians and Native Americans, as well as those babies not reported by race.

Abortions of black and Hispanic babies combined totaled 59,147 – that is 77.56% of the total abortions in NYC...

Pro-life Website Reveals Abortion Coverage in Obamacare Plans ...The website, Abortion in Obamacare, contains healthcare research conducted by the Family Research Council (FRC) and the Charlotte Lozier Institute. The organizations launched the site after a video surfaced of Jonathan Gruber, a key architect of Obamacare, calling the law’s lack of transparency a “huge political advantage.”

“By launching ObamacareAbortion.com we are attempting to do what the Obama Administration has not been willing or able to do for the 2015 new enrollment,” Arina Grossu, director of the FRC’s Center for Human Dignity, said during a press conference Thursday. “That is, to inform Americans about abortion coverage in Obamacare plans and expose the great difficulty in obtaining this information.”

The new website attempts to shed light on the confusion over abortion coverage. But even the site’s authors found that difficult to do. The site’s homepage says the information on the site is limited “by the Obama administration’s failure to make abortion coverage information easily available.” And some insurance providers were reluctant to divulge information. Assurant Health and FirstCare Health Plans in Texas refused to disclose information. United Healthcare in Rhode Island never returned calls about its abortion coverage, instead transferring researchers to its Medicaid/Medicare office...

Vicar of Baghdad: Four Iraqi Christian Kids Beheaded After Refusing to Convert to Islam

-Telling ISIS Militants 'No, We Love Jesus'
By Samuel Smith
December 2, 2014

Four Iraqi Christian children, who were all beheaded by the Islamic State, refused to betray Jesus and graciously died in his name when the ISIS militants gave them one last chance to say the Islamic words of conversion, the Rev. Canon Andrew White revealed in a recent interview.

In an interview last week with the Christian Broadcast Network published on the Orthodox Christian Network, White, who is the only Anglican vicar in Iraq and is know as "The Vicar of Baghdad," detailed the plight of Christians in Iraq and recounted two instances when Islamic State's forceful conversions directly pulled the strings of his heart.

Speaking on ISIS' brutal mistreatment of religious minorities, White recounted the recent incident when ISIS militants beheaded four kids, all of whom were under the age of 15, when the kids refused to say that they would follow the Prophet Muhammad and told the ISIS fighters that they will always "love" and "follow" Jesus. the rest

During this Advent season...

During this Advent season as we celebrate the new relationship between God and his people, may that be mirrored in our renewed relationships with spouses, children, family and those near and dear to us. May we speak tenderly to each other amidst all the rush of the season and transform the shopping days till Christmas into the true Advent of Christ. ...Casely Essamuah image

GAFCON Chairman Archbp. Wabukala's Advent Letter 2014

To the Faithful of the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans and friends
from Archbishop Eliud Wabukala, Primate of Kenya and Chairman of the GAFCON Primates’ Council
Advent 2014

‘We look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.’  (2 Corinthians 4:18)

My dear brothers and sisters,

Greetings in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, ‘the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end’.

During this Advent Season we shall be preparing for the joyful celebration of the first coming of our Lord Jesus, but let us also rejoice that we have the promise of his second coming in glorious majesty as Lord, Saviour and Judge, and be willing to stake our lives on what we do not yet see, the fulfilment of the promises of God.

It was this confidence that kept the Apostle Paul from despair despite all the setbacks and suffering of his apostolic ministry and with deep insight he cuts right through earth bound ways of thinking when he writes ‘For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal’ (2 Corinthians 4:18).

This is a truly radical perspective. It brings our lives into line with what is ultimately real and gives us a hope that is not defeated by immediate challenges and loss. This is true whatever the crisis that confronts us and we must continue to pray for those whose lives have been devastated by the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, but the difference biblical hope makes is seen most clearly when persecution and violence are unleashed.

As I write these letters, I find that very often I need to emphasise the need to pray for and stand with our bothers and sisters who are experiencing heart-rending suffering as radical Islamic influence grows in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Here in Kenya, al-Shabab gunmen have just murdered twenty-eight non-Muslim passengers from a bus they ambushed in northern Kenya. In some parts of the world Christian communities now live with the constant threat of violent death. One of the most shocking attacks in recent weeks was the burning alive of a young Pakistani Christian man Sajjeed Mashah and his pregnant wife Shama Bibi in a brick kiln near Lahore. How do Christian communities manage to carry on in such circumstances unless they look to ‘the things that are unseen’? As we pray for those who suffer, let us resolve to be of the same mind and to be faithful to Christ wherever he has placed us.

The threat of atrocity is now truly global. Following the jihadist killing of a young soldier on duty at Canada’s national war memorial in Ottawa, I was moved by the gentle yet bold response of Bishop Charlie Masters, recently appointed Moderator of the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC). He spoke of shock and grief, but also how the founding fathers had named the country and he said  “they called it the Dominion of Canada, based on Psalm 72:8 ‘he shall have dominion from sea to sea…’ and that was speaking about the Lord Jesus, that he has dominion in this country”. For Bishop Charlie, part of the response to this murder was national repentance to bring the country back to its founders’ vision. The dominion of the Lord Jesus Christ is a reality unrecognized by many, but one day all creation will bow the knee and the greatest service we can do for our nations is to win them for Jesus Christ by the proclamation of the glorious gospel of the Prince of Peace.

The Anglican Network in Canada is part of the Anglican Church in North America which was formed following our first Global Anglican Future Conference in 2008. Such steps of radical faith demonstrate our trust in the Advent hope of the ultimate triumph of the gospel. For the New Testament writers, the expectation of Christ’s return was an encouragement not to waver from sound doctrine or godly living, but on crucial issues such as sexual morality and the uniqueness of Jesus as Saviour and Son of God we are in a Communion where there is no longer a common mind.

Some say this does not matter. For instance, the ‘Bishops in Dialogue’ group after their Coventry meeting earlier this year claimed that we must maintain visible unity despite everything because ‘now we see through a glass, darkly’ (1 Corinthians 13:12). In other words, things will only become clear in heaven. This is a bad mistake. It is true that there is much about our future state that we do not yet understand, but God has given us the inspired Scriptures as a lamp to our feet and a light to our path (Ps.119:105). Our future hope cannot be turned into an excuse for compromise or silence when Scripture is clear. For Anglicans the collegial mind of the Communion on sexuality and Scripture remains the orthodox position as strongly reaffirmed by the 1998 Lambeth Conference which continues to call us to obedience and pastoral responsibility. Dialogue is no substitute for doctrine.

Despite these challenges, I am confident that our efforts are not in vain. The crucial contribution of GAFCON to the future is that in an increasingly confused Communion it has a clear confessional basis in the Jerusalem Statement and Declaration which keeps the gospel at its heart. And where the gospel is, there will be life.

So may the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ establish your hearts in all that is good, make you strong and courageous in his service and bring us all with great joy to that day when the Church Militant here on earth shall become the great Church Victorious.

Archbishop Eliud Wabukala,
Primate of Kenya and Chairman of the GAFCON Primates Council

Posted November 27, 2014

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