The Least Attended Church Gathering; Facebook isn’t the social network anymore...more

U.S. high school seniors slip in math and show no improvement in reading The nation’s high school seniors have shown no improvement in reading achievement and their math performance has slipped since 2013, according to the results of a test administered by the federal government last year.

The results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, also show a longer-term stagnation in 12th-grade performance in U.S. public and private schools: Scores on the 2015 reading test have dropped five points since 1992, the earliest year with comparable scores, and are unchanged in math during the past decade.

“These numbers are not going the way we want,” said William J. Bushaw, executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board, an independent panel established by Congress to oversee NAEP policy. “We have to redouble our efforts to prepare our students.”...

New Evidence: Baby Body Parts are Big Business
...During the panel’s first hearing, Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., called one fetal tissue procurement business “the Amazon.com for human parts.”

The panel saved several screen grabs from recently shuttered websites that allowed customers to add baby organs such as brains, hearts, lungs, and livers to virtual shopping carts. Customers could select how many samples of each they wanted and from what gestational periods. Prices were highest for babies at 14-19 weeks gestation...

German nuclear plant suffers cyber attack designed to give hackers remote access ...Malware was also found on 18 removable data drives, mainly USB sticks, in office computers maintained separately from the plant's operating systems. RWE said it had increased cyber-security measures as a result.

W32.Ramnit is designed to steal files from infected computers and targets Microsoft Windows software, according to the security firm Symantec.

First discovered in 2010, it is distributed through data sticks, among other methods, and is intended to give an attacker remote control over a system when it is connected to the Internet....

Sweden Is Warned of Possible ISIS Attack Plot Targeting Stockholm The Iraqi government has warned Sweden that the terror group ISIS may be targeting that country's capital of Stockholm, a senior Iraqi security official told NBC News Tuesday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Iraq found intelligence "about an ISIS plan to target the Swedish capital Stockholm," involving seven or eight Iraqi citizens who were former members of al-Qaeda in Iraq...

Facebook isn’t the social network anymore ...Posting photos of your baby or your vacation, status updates that convey your mood or what’s on your mind, flirtatious messages to a secret crush—these are interpersonal interactions, the kind you’d typically share with people close to you, or at least people you have reason to believe are well-disposed toward you. But as Facebook has grown, and the average user’s friend list along with it, it has escaped the notice of almost no one that what you share on Facebook you might as well be sharing with the world. There are ways to limit the audience for a given post via your privacy settings, but those can be confusing and tedious to apply. It doesn’t help that Facebook’s own software monitors everything you do on the site in order to build up a profile of you that it can then use to help businesses serve you ads tailored to your precise demographic. When you consider all of that, the only thing surprising about the alleged decline in original sharing is that it took this long...

The Insurance Companies' Latest Target: Specialty Drugs  Read the headlines these days and you’d think the health insurance companies are going broke. It’s true most insurers offering Obamacare are losing money on it. UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest insurer, announced it will all but exit Obamacare next year because of those loses. But insurance companies have not fallen on hard times. Anything but.

Obamacare may be a bust, but the overall portfolios for most insurers, all those products offered outside the Obamacare exchanges, have earned staggering profits under Obamacare...

Hypocrites, assemble! Marvel to open new theme park in Dubai   What a bunch of hypocrites. Marvel licensed its name for a theme park in less-than-gay-friendly Dubai [The death penalty applies for homosexuality] that opens in August...

Flashback — It was just last month that Marvel threatened to boycott Georgia over the allegedly anti-gay Free Exercise Protection Act, which Governor Nathan Deal vetoed...

The Least Attended Church Gathering
...God has ordered things in His church in such a way that prayer is one of the foremost means by which He gives His people spiritual power and vitality for the advancement of His Kingdom through the preaching of the Gospel and the carrying out of deeds of love and mercy. So why does the church in the Western world fail so miserably at coming to the throne of grace in order to receive the grace and mercy needed on a daily and weekly basis (Heb. 4:16)?...


Norton Hall Band

Metamorphosis of Queen Elizabeth II

Published on Apr 21, 2016

The 90th Birthday of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Muslim Migrants in Germany Chant “Adolf Hitler” and "Allahu Akbar"...more

VIDEO :Muslim Migrants in Germany Chant “Adolf Hitler” and Allahu Akbar” ... They ought to make great citizens.

Obama: Churches should stop focusing so much on protecting life and marriage Basing his comments on "my own Christian faith," President Obama told the Catholic-Evangelical Leadership Summit that churches should spend less time focusing on abortion and same-sex “marriage.”

During a panel discussion on poverty at Georgetown University last Tuesday, Obama criticized churches for how they engage politically, focusing on "divisive issues" such as protecting life and preserving marriage.

The president said, "When it comes to what are you really going to the mat for, what’s the defining issue, when you’re talking in your congregations, what’s the thing that is really going to capture the essence of who we are as Christians, or as Catholics, or what have you, [poverty] is oftentimes viewed as a 'nice to have' relative to an issue like abortion."...

Heavy teen marijuana use may cut life short by 60 Heavy marijuana use in the late teen years puts men at a higher risk for death by age 60, a new long-term study suggests.

Swedish researchers analyzed the records of more than 45,000 men beginning in 1969 and 1970. The scientists from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm reported that 4,000 died during the 42-year follow-up period, and men who'd used marijuana heavily at ages 18 and 19 were 40 percent more likely to die by age 60 compared to guys who hadn't used the drug.

The authors of the new study, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, said the findings contradict previous research involving the same group of men...

UC Berkeley Touts $15 Minimum Wage Law, Then Fires Hundreds Of Workers After It Passes Hundreds of employees at the University of California at Berkeley are getting schooled in basic economics, as the $15 minimum wage just cost them their jobs. Too bad liberal elites “fighting for $15” don’t get it.

A week after California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the state’s $15 minimum wage boost into law, UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks sent a memo to employees announcing that 500 jobs were getting cut...

Martyr killed by bulldozer becomes symbol of growing persecution of Christians in China ...A Christian woman's fateful and defiant stance in front of a bulldozer last week evoked the memory of Tiananmen Square and has become a rallying cry against persecution at the hands of the Beijing government.

The woman, identified by Christian activists as Ding Cuimei, wife of the Rev. Li Jiangong, was trying to stop the government-ordered demolition of Beitou Church in the central Hena province city of Zhumadian. Unlike the iconic man who brazenly stopped a tank in the 1989 uprising, Ding was pushed into a ditch and buried alive as horrified congregants watched helplessly.

“Bury them alive for me,” a member of the demolition team said according to a report by China Aid, a nonprofit focused on human rights and religious freedom in the world’s most populous country. “I will be responsible for their lives.”...

Bangladesh professor hacked to death by Islamist militants   ...Islamic State claimed responsibility for the killing of the professor for "calling to atheism", the U.S.-based SITE monitoring service said quoting the militant group's Amaq Agency.

Police said the murder was similar to other recent attacks on secular bloggers by Islamist militants. But fellow university teachers said Siddiquee, while active in cultural events, never spoke or wrote anything about religion or Islam.

"Professor Rezaul was killed in a similar fashion as the killings of bloggers," Shamsuddin said, adding he was a peaceful person and had no enemies...

Canon Phil Ashey: Just the facts on the Anglican Consultative Council

Posted April 23, 2016

The 16th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council ended this week in Lusaka, Zambia. I could tell you my interpretation of what the council did, which is quite different from Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby’s interpretation.   However, I think it would serve you best if I focused on just the facts and let you draw your own conclusion.

◦On January 15, 2016, the Primates of the Anglican Communion resolved as follows: “It is our unanimous desire to walk together. However given the seriousness of these matters we formally acknowledge this distance by requiring that for a period of three years The Episcopal Church no longer represent us on ecumenical and interfaith bodies, should not be appointed or elected to an internal standing committee and that while participating in the internal bodies of the Anglican Communion, they will not take part in decision making on any issues pertaining to doctrine or polity.” Addendum A, paras. 7 and 8

◦On April 19, at the conclusion of the Anglican Consultative Council, an internal body of the Anglican Communion, the delegates from The Episcopal Church wrote in “A Letter from Lusaka”: “We want to assure you that we participated fully in this meeting and that we were warmly welcomed and included by other ACC members.”

◦According to the Anglican Communion Office,  Bishop of Connecticut, Ian Douglas proposed or seconded several resolutions for ACC-16. These include but are not limited to resolutions on:

◾Anglican inter-faith engagement
◾Ensuring both continuity and turnover of the leadership of the Anglican Consultative Council
◾An Anglican Congress

the rest

GAFCON Nairobi Communiqué 2016

Primates’ Council Communiqué
April 22, 2016 – Nairobi, Kenya

Introduction
We the Primates of the Global Anglican Future Conference met in Nairobi, Kenya from April 18-21, 2016. We give thanks for the gracious hospitality of the Anglican Church of Kenya, their Primate, the Most Rev. Eliud Wabukala, and All Saints Cathedral Diocese. As the location for GAFCON 2013, All Saints holds a special place in our history and in our hearts, and we have been encouraged to be here again.

We began our meeting with prayer and a Bible study that focused on Mark 2:1-12. In this passage, the Scriptures retell the story of a man who could not walk, but was assisted by friends who helped bring him to Jesus. Unable to get their friend through the front door, they loved him enough to find another way.

It is a story about the grace of God at work both in the power of fellowship and the merciful love of Jesus. We ourselves have received His forgiveness, and because He first loved us, we are passionate about doing all that we can to bring others into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. We met this week to find practical ways of removing obstacles so that all those who need healing can be brought close to Jesus, be forgiven of their sins, and walk again.

Mission and Discipleship
GAFCON works to guard and proclaim the unchanging, transforming Gospel through biblically faithful preaching, teaching, and programs which free our churches to make disciples by clear and certain witness to Jesus Christ in all the world.

This week we made progress on a wide variety of initiatives to build up the body of Christ. We planned for GAFCON 2018, approved a program that will facilitate bishops’ training, received good news from our provinces and branches, added staff to further the ministry, and made a transition in Primatial leadership. We have also paid careful attention to the facts that have arisen from the Anglican Consultative Council’s meeting in Lusaka.

GAFCON 2018
As a global family we are continuing to make preparations for GAFCON 2018. This will be the third conference since our founding, and the ten year anniversary of the Jerusalem Declaration. The GAFCON movement uniquely draws together the majority of the world’s Anglicans, both clergy and laity, into one proportional and representative body.

We are excited to gather for worship that represents the breadth of the Anglican Communion, as we come together under the authority of the Bible. The conference will provide teaching from God’s Word, fellowship that spans continents, break-out sessions that teach on the themes of mission, discipleship, and evangelism, especially in places where persecution is rife.

It is our hope and prayer that disciples will be so inspired by the vision of the glory of God among the nations, that the Church will be revived and joyously released to spread the love of Jesus.

A coordinator has been appointed to take this work forward, a planning team is being formed, and more will be shared in the coming months.

Bishops’ Training
The Bishops’ Training Institute, launching in September 2016, will equip bishops to be men of prayer, diligent in Bible study and godliness. The inaugural class will bring together twenty new bishops from across the world. Its vision and mission is to equip today’s bishops for effective ministry by seeking the wisdom of the whole church, and especially senior bishops. It will gather, train, mentor, challenge, and sustain episcopal leadership so that today’s bishops will be empowered to live for Christ and make Him known.

Growth
We give thanks for the continued growth of GAFCON. Our meeting included representatives from ten provinces (Congo, Kenya, Myanmar, Nigeria, North America, Rwanda, South America, South Sudan & Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda) and two branches (Australia and the United Kingdom).

We also celebrated the newest branch of the movement that has been founded in New Zealand. While we were meeting in Nairobi, 500 people came together in Auckland and Christ Church, New Zealand to stand together for the truth of the Gospel. They have our full support, and we are excited to see what God will do in and through them in the years to come.

Staffing the Movement
GAFCON has demonstrated that it is a growing movement that now requires more staff to undergird its development. Mr. James Stileman has been appointed as our Operations Manager to work with the General Secretary, the Most Rev. Peter Jensen, in growing GAFCON’s capacity to serve the movement. The Rev. Canon Charles Raven is heading a new office of Membership Development, and will be working to increase and strengthen GAFCON’s branches and provinces. Ms. Tina de Souza has joined us to head our Communications Department, and she has overseen the development of our website and overall communications strategy. We welcome this team, and give thanks for their dedication to the cause of Christ.

Leadership
We also give thanks for the wise and faithful leadership of the Most Rev. Eliud Wabukala, as his term as our Chairman comes to an end. His six years of service came at a critical time in the life of our movement, and he has put us on a good footing as we enter this next chapter of our life together.

We are excited to announce that the new chairman of the Primates’ Council is the Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, Primate of the Anglican Church of All Nigeria. He is joined in leadership by the new vice-chair, the Most Rev. Stanley Ntagali, Primate of the Anglican Church of Uganda. Archbishops Okoh and Ntagali have been deeply committed to the GAFCON movement since its founding, and are well prepared to lead.

Canterbury to Lusaka
We went to Canterbury out of a desire for unity. In our hearts we desire to see the tear in the fabric of the communion mended. The sanctions passed at that meeting were the mildest possible rebuke to only the worst of the offenders, but they were one step in the right direction. Regrettably, these sanctions have not been upheld. This is disappointing, but sadly not surprising. A more comprehensive statement appears in the appendix to this document.

Conclusion
This is an important time in the life of our churches. The grassroots outpouring of messages of support has shown the strength of our movement, and we are deeply thankful for the prayers of our laity and clergy over the last few months. We are a global family of authentic Anglicans standing together to retain and restore the Bible to the heart of the Anglican Communion. Please continue to pray for our global Anglican future.

Members of the Primates’ Council Present
The Anglican Church of Kenya                                                                                                                       The Most Rev. Eliud Wabukala
Anglican Church of All Nigeria                                                                                                                      The Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh
Anglican Church in North America                                                                                                              The Most Rev. Foley Beach
Province de L’Eglise Anglicane au Rwanda                                                                                                The Most Rev. Onesphore Rwaje
The Anglican Church of Tanzania                                                                                                                 The Most Rev. Jacob Chimeledya
The Church of the Province of Uganda                                                                                                       The Most Rev. Stanley Ntagali

Appendix: From Canterbury to Lusaka

Last January, we spent time together at the Primates Gathering contending for a restoration of godly order within the Anglican Communion. The sanctions passed at that meeting were not in themselves capable of restoring order, but they were a potential first step.

At that meeting, we acknowledged the reality of the “significant distance” between us and “expressed a desire to walk together” if possible. This distance was created when The Episcopal Church walked away from the Anglican Communion’s doctrine on sexuality and the plain teaching of Scripture.

Within hours of the meeting’s end the public responses from many bishops, clergy, and lay people of The Episcopal Church made it clear that they did not desire to share the same journey. The biblical call to repentance is a call to make a 180 degree turn. It grieves us that many in The Episcopal Church have again rejected this call. While we desire to walk together, until there is true repentance, the reality is that they are deliberately walking away from the Anglican Communion and the authority of Scripture at a distance that continues to increase.

The recent meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in Lusaka, Zambia has again highlighted the inability of the current instruments to uphold godly order within the Communion. Delegates from the Episcopal Church, by their own admission, voted on matters that pertained to polity and doctrine, in defiance of the Primates. This action has damaged the standing of the Anglican Consultative Council as an instrument of unity, increased levels of distrust, and further torn the fabric of the Communion.

Nonetheless, we give thanks that these events have brought further clarity, and drawn GAFCON closer together in the mission of the Gospel. We are of one mind that the future of the Anglican Communion does not lie with manipulations, compromises, legal loopholes, or the presentation of half-truths; the future of our Communion lies in humble obedience to the truth of the Word of God written. What others have failed to do, GAFCON is doing: enabling global fellowship and godly order, united by biblical faithfulness. This unity has provided us with great energy to continue to work for the renewal of the Anglican Communion.

Found Here

Anglican Unscripted Episode 225

Apr 20, 2016

Anglican Unscripted is the only video newscast in the Anglican Church. Each Episode Kevin, George, Allan and Peter bring you news and prospective from around the globe.
Please Donate - http://anglicanink.com/donate

Movie Dance Scenes Mashup

Love it!

If we set out to serve God

If we set out to serve God and do His work but get out of touch with Him, the sense of responsibility we feel will be overwhelming and defeating. But if we will only roll back on God the burdens He has placed on us, He will take away that immense feeling of responsibility, replacing it with an awareness and understanding of Himself and His presence. Many servants set out to serve God with great courage and with the right motives. But with no intimate fellowship with Jesus Christ, they are soon defeated. They do not know what to do with their burden, and it produces weariness in their lives. ...Oswald Chambers  image

Christian converts from Islam fear retaliation in EU; PP calls Cruz "Biggest Threat"...more

Muslim Migrant 'Apostate' Converts To Christianity Fear Murderous Islamic Retaliation In Europe  Many migrants who are recent converts to Christianity fear retaliation from Muslims and that converting may become a “death sentence.”

One of the more surprising aspects of the migrant crisis has been the number of Muslims from places like Syria and Afghanistan, that have been converting to Christianity in Austrian churches. The Archdioceses of the Austrian capital in Vienna can hardly keep up with the requests as they get five to ten per week.

So far this year 83 percent of the recorded adult baptisms into the Catholic faith have been Muslims compared to 2015 when they were only 33 percent reports Kurier....

Mississippi gov. signs ban on abortions that rip babies ‘limb from limb’   Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant (R) today signed into law the Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act, which will ban dismemberment abortions in Mississippi starting July 1.

Dismemberment abortions, also known as “dilation and evacuation” or “D&E” abortions, involve dilating a woman’s cervix and then using a sopher clamp and curette blade to dismember an unborn child and remove his or her body parts....

'Drone' hits British Airways plane approaching Heathrow Airport A plane approaching Heathrow Airport is believed to have hit a drone before it landed safely, the Metropolitan Police has said.

The British Airways flight from Geneva was hit as it approached the London airport at about 12:50 BST with 132 passengers and five crew on board.

After landing, the pilot reported an object - believed to be a drone - had struck the front of the Airbus A320...

Planned Parenthood Says Ted Cruz is 'Biggest Threat' to Abortion Industry  ...a badge of honor

Supreme Court to Hear Case of Christian-Owned Pharmacy's Refusal to Sell Abortion-Inducing Drugs 

Anglican Unscripted Episode 224

Apr 15, 2016

Anglican Unscripted is the only video newscast in the Anglican Church. Each Episode Kevin, George, Allan and Peter bring you news and prospective from around the globe.
Please Donate - http://anglicanink.com/donate

How Legalism Has Destroyed the Communion -Stand Firm

What no one is saying . . .
This week, the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), one of the four Anglican “Instruments of Communion,” is meeting in Lusaka, Zambia. In the life of a desperately compromised institution, it has been no surprise that the decision of the overwhelming number of Primates of the Anglican Communion has been ignored. The Episcopal Church (TEC) has not only led the rebellious charge to incorporate sexual practices that are proscribed by Scripture, but they (and a few other Anglican Provinces) also have gone a step further…they are blessing what God calls sin.

What is absolutely remarkable is the great absence of institutional voices to say that what TEC (and other similarly minded Provinces) is doing is wrong. It’s not really hard. W.R.O.N.G. Easy to say, but it isn’t being said.

Instead, the emphasis is on “positive” contributions from TEC and on apologizing to “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,Transgendered, ‘Questioning,’ and ‘Inquiring’” (LGBTQI) people. Most of the apologies center around asking for forgiveness for not fully incorporating those with leanings or behaviors of LEBTQI into the life (and leadership) of the Church.

We are constantly bombarded with people demanding that their lifestyle choices be affirmed and blessed. The problem is that things do not exist in a vacuum. There is a reason that God does not bless same-sex sexual intimacy. It is not because He arbitrarily sets boundaries and capriciously declares some things out of bounds. It is because same-sex sexual intimacy is fraught with problems. Anecdotal accounts suggest that the “typical” same-sex couple is two professors, perhaps in their sixties who have been faithfully living together for decades, reading Dostoyevsky and sipping sherry in the afternoon, occasionally stopping to discuss philosophy. In fact, same-sex relationships are tragically unstable. The last data I saw reported that fewer than 10% of same-sex relationships (i.e., the sexually active ones) are monogamous for even five years, with huge numbers of same-sex active people having 100 to even 500 partners in a life time.

Of course, the activists would claim that such instability is the fault of the judgment that same-sex active people experience. The problem lies, they say, with the hateful and homophobic rejection that such people experience, which destabilizes their relationships...

Church of Norway endorses gay marriage

Stott Bowdlerized
Recently I bought a copy of John Stott’s brief and famous exposition of the Christian gospel, Basic Christianity, which I intended to give to a friend. The book was first published in 1958 and has sold several million copies. It is at once simple and refined, gentle and uncompromising, and many people in the Anglophone world can trace their conversions to reading Stott’s little masterpiece. If any “spiritual classics” were published during the second half of the twentieth century, Basic Christianity surely is one.

The copy I bought is a fiftieth-anniversary reprint by Eerdmans and includes a new preface by Stott himself, who died in 2011. I read the preface mainly out of curiosity, not intending to read the book again, and this sentence caught my attention: “It was obviously necessary to update the language, not least by use of a modern translation of the Bible, and to respond to sensitivities relating to gender. We are grateful to Dr. David Stone for taking care of these sensitivities.”

 

The subject of gendered pronouns has of course become controversial in recent years. Although I myself take an old-school view on the question—“he,” “him,” and “his” for general antecedents, though occasionally “his or her” sounds appropriate to my ear—I was prepared to accept the need to alter Stott’s original text in order to avoid causing offense. The elderly Stott’s “not least” sounded worrisome, but how bad could it be?...

Abortion Activist Compares Baby to Cancer Tumor; Islam and the radical West...more

Abortion Activist Compares Baby to Cancer Tumor Wielding coat hangers, a coalition of sixty abortion rights groups organized a rally in Warsaw, Poland, over the weekend to protest a proposed law that would further restrict legal abortions in the country.

One of the protesters, Anna Jakobic, said that the right to an abortion must be defended, especially if one has a baby with disabilities. “No government can decide this. Maybe they also want to prohibit oncological operations? Cancer is also live tissue,” she said...

Islam and the radical West
...There’s a great deal of literature about how young Muslim men—often born in the West to middle-class and not particularly religious households—get turned on to jihad. Think of Mohammed Emwazi, the University of Westminster graduate later known as Jihadi John. Or Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, of Fort Hood infamy. Or Najim Laachraoui, who studied electrical engineering at the prestigious Catholic University of Louvain before blowing himself up last month in Brussels. Or Boston’s Tsarnaev brothers and San Bernardino’s Syed Farook.

It’s a long list. And in many cases investigators are able to identify an agent of radicalization. Maj. Hasan corresponded with extremist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. Laachraoui seems to have come under the spell of a Molenbeek preacher named Khalid Zerkani. The Tsarnaevs took their bomb-building tips from “Inspire,” an online English-language magazine published by al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen.

But the influence of the Awlakis of the world can’t fully account for the mind-set of these jihadists. They are also sons of the West—educated in the schools of multiculturalism, reared on the works of Noam Chomsky and perhaps Frantz Fanon, consumers of a news diet heavy with reports of perfidy by American or British or Israeli soldiers. If Islamism is their ideological drug of choice, the political orthodoxies of the modern left are their gateway to it...

British Muslims becoming a nation within a nation British Muslims are becoming a nation within a nation, the former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission has warned.

Commenting on a ground-breaking survey, Trevor Phillips said we are “in danger of sacrificing a generation of young British people to values that are antithetical to the beliefs of most of us, including many Muslims”.

He called for a new, tougher approach to integration and the abandonment of “the failed policy of multiculturalism"...

Christian man brutally hacked to death in Pakistan
The body of a Christian man who was hacked to death in Pakistan has been paraded through the streets in protest at the police's refusal to act.

Nazeer Masih, 55, was attacked with an iron rod and a chopping knife on April 6, leaving him battered with a cut throat. Masih, a Christian, was with a Muslim friend at the time who was left seriously injured by the attack...

The ongoing genocide of Middle Eastern Christians; 21 Christians 'slaughtered by ISIS in Syria'...more

Christian communities, which like the Jews, predate Islam, are being targeted for eradication  The Christian communities of Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon are well on the way to joining their Jewish cousins. The Jewish communities of these states predated Islam by a millennium, and were vibrant until the 20th century. But the Arab world’s war on the Jewish state, and more generally on Jews, wiped out the Jewish populations several decades ago.

And now the Christian communities, which like the Jews, predate Islam, are being targeted for eradication.

The ongoing genocide of Middle Eastern Christians at the hands of Sunni jihadists is a moral outrage. Does it also affect Israeli national interests? What do we learn from the indifference of Western governments – led by the Obama administration – to their annihilation? True, after years of deliberately playing down the issue and denying the problem, the Obama administration is finally admitting it exists.

Embarrassed by the US House of Representatives’ unanimous adoption of a resolution last month recognizing that Middle Eastern Christians are being targeted for genocide, the State Department finally acknowledged the obvious on March 25, when Secretary of State John Kerry stated that Islamic State is conducting a “genocide of Christians, Yazidis and Shi’ites.”...

21 Christians 'slaughtered by ISIS in Syria'
Scores of Christians were killed by ISIS during the group's occupation of al-Qaryatain, it has emerged.

The Syrian Orthodox Patriach has told of the horrific treatment Christians suffered under ISIS rule in the town, which was re-captured by the Russian-backed Syrian army last week...

How Islamists Are Slowly Desensitizing Europe And America ... Although Europe is further along in this process, there is a clear relevance to the United States. We are already being instructed on college campuses and by our own president that Muslims are a sort of protected class regarding criticism. President Obama even went so far as to censor French President François Hollande when he used the forbidden phrase “Islamist terrorism.”

The latest incident of shaming those who do push back is happening in Kansas, where the Islamic Society of Wichita invited Sheik Monzer Talib to speak at a fundraising event on Good Friday. Talib is a known fundraiser for Hamas, the militant Islamist Palestinian group that the United States classifies as a terrorist organization. He even has sung a song called “I am from Hamas.” U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo dared to put out a press release objecting to the speech out of concern that it would harm the Muslim community, particularly in the wake of the Brussels terrorist attack.

In response, the mosque claimed Pompeo stoked prejudice and Islamaphobia and that they had to cancel the event because of protest announcements and because some individuals on Facebook made some offhand comments about guns. Cue a local media frenzy, letters to the editor accusing Pompeo of government overreach, and the predictable arrival of two CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) representatives to skewer Pompeo.
 

This is just one example of how criticizing or questioning the actions of a Muslim community—even one that is supporting a Hamas fundraiser—has become anathema...

A.S Haley: Who Has Their Values Straight?

Coming To A Preschool Near You? ...Recently, one of Montview’s four-year-old students was expelled after her mother questioned the administration’s controversial curriculum that openly promoted homosexual behavior and transgenderism in the classroom. The child’s mother wanted an opportunity to opt her daughter out of the classroom discussions focusing on sexuality, same-sex relations, and gender issues, believing that her four-year-old is far too young to participate in sex education and related topics at school. The mother told the Denver Post, “I think, at this age, they don’t know what bias is. They could have kids from Mars and they would still play with each other.” But the mother made the foolish mistake of thinking that it is her parental right to judge when, where, and how her daughter is exposed to sensitive issues. So how did this issue even come to mom’s attention? Interestingly, mom became concerned about the sexual indoctrination program at Montview when her daughter came home from school and expressed worry that her father might not like “girls” any more...

Lexington’s Episcopal bishop, Douglas Hahn, suspended for a year   Douglas Hahn has been suspended from his position as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Lexington for a year.

The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry, presiding bishop of the national Episcopal Church, imposed the suspension effective March 9, after Hahn admitted that he had had a sexual relationship with an adult female parishioner, and that he “intentionally withheld” that information while seeking to become Lexington’s bishop, according to a news release from the diocese.

Hahn said in a letter dated March 14 that he was sorry for the hurt his behavior had caused and that the suspension was part of an agreement reached between himself and Curry...

Justin Welby and the Fiery Cauldron of a Broken Family

Such a Church—joyful, obedient, loving, and free...

Instead of always being one of the chief bastions of the social status quo, the Church is to develop a Christian counter-culture with its own distinctive goals, values, standards, and lifestyle, a realistic alternative to the contemporary technocracy which is marked by bondage, materialism, self-centredness, and greed. Christ’s call to obedience is a call to be different, not conformist.

Such a Church—joyful, obedient, loving, and free—will do more than please God: it will attract the world. It is when the Church evidently is the Church, and is living a supernatural life of love by the power of the Holy Spirit, that the world will believe. ...John Stott

Cybercom sounds alarm on infrastructure attacks; Chastity and the Cosmo Girl...more

Cybercom sounds alarm on infrastructure attacks
The commander of the U.S. Cyber Command warned Congress this week that Russia and China now can launch crippling cyberattacks on the electric grid and other critical infrastructures.

“We remain vigilant in preparing for future threats, as cyberattacks could cause catastrophic damage to portions of our power grid, communications networks and vital services,” Adm. Mike Rogers, the Cyber Command chief, told a Senate hearing. “Damaging attacks have already occurred in Europe,” he stated, noting suspected Russian cyberattacks that temporarily turned out the lights in portions of Ukraine...

Chastity and the Cosmo Girl
 When Helen Gurley Brown took over as editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan in 1965, the magazine became a mouthpiece for the sexual revolution.  Cosmo, as it came to be known, reflected and promoted the values of Brown’s book, “Sex and the Single Girl.”  To this day the magazine is known for its suggestive covers, and articles that focus on sex, relationships, fashion, beauty, and more sex.

So it was no small surprise when the magazine’s website recently included a feature piece that told the stories of three twenty-something women who’ve chosen to remain abstinent until marriage.  All of them, whose real names were changed, spoke openly about how faith informed their decisions.

How’s this for a quote out of Cosmo?  “I decided I wanted to wait when I read St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body.  In it, he discusses how Christ loves us totally, definitely, and sacrificially through his body, and that is what sex was created for us to do as well – to love others totally, definitely, and sacrificially through our bodies.”  That’s from 22-year-old Sara, who says most of the guys she dates already know about her views on sex.  She reports having many good platonic friendships with guys “because it sort of eliminates any possible sexual tension.”...

 Liturgical Time Travel
...For while our lives run their courses from day to day, we can always keep in mind the events of our salvation that changed the course of liturgical time: the Incarnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ...

The Beginning Of The End For Obamacare: Largest US Health Insurer Exits Georgia, Arkanasas ...In a statement, UnitedHealth said that "the company is evaluating the viability of the insurance exchange product segment and will determine during the first half of 2016 to what extent it can continue to serve the public exchange markets in 2017."...

The Mighty and the Almighty: George W. Bush
George W Bush and The Armies of Compassion Born to an Episcopalian father and a Presbyterian mother in 1946, George Walker Bush was baptized as an infant into the Episcopal Church. Thirty-one years later he married a Methodist and, after a long struggle with alcohol, joined a Non-Denominational community Bible study, met Billy Graham, went teetotal, and began to describe himself as “born again”. This personal conversion experience would go on to play a central role in the way he presented himself and his administration, both to the American public and on the international stage. While the jury is still out on the degree to which Bush’s Christian faith was subject to political calculation, it undoubtedly manifested itself in a kind of missional zeal that shaped both his national and foreign policy – a zeal that he made no effort to disguise. Bush’s presidential inaugural address in 2001 pledged America to a particular goal: “when we see that wounded traveler on the road to Jericho, we will not pass to the other side.” Bush certainly endeavored to uphold this over the eight years that followed...

Albert Mohler: Keeping the Faith in A Faithless Age
...“The Christian church now finds itself facing a new reality. The church no longer represents the central core of Western culture. Though outposts of Christian influence remain, these are exceptions rather than the rule. For the most part, the church has been displaced by the reign of secularism.”...

Anglican leader says DNA tests have revealed his real father The archbishop of Canterbury says DNA tests have identified his real father, but the revelation hasn’t shaken his sense of identity.

Earlier this month, DNA analysis of Archbishop Justin Welby’s mouth swabs determined that his father was not whisky salesman Gavin Welby but civil servant Sir Anthony Montague Browne. Browne and Welby’s mother, Jane Williams, both worked as aides to Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Saturday’s announcement from Welby, leader of the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion, followed an investigation by the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Welby said: “I find who I am in Jesus Christ, not in genetics, and my identity in him never changes.”...

An Archbishop’s Remarkable Paternity
Surely the BBC is already producing a new post Downton Abby miniseries based on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s fantastic discovery that his biological father is actually a former secretary to Winston Churchill with whom his mother trysted shortly before marrying the man all believed to be the father.

Archbishop Justin Welby’s 86 year old mother, Lady Williams of Elvel (her second husband ascended to the House of Lords), herself a former Churchill secretary, released her own astonishing statement prompted by a DNA test that was “an unbelievable shock,” though surely not as much as to her son...

A.S. Haley: San Joaquin-Fifth District Holds that Minority Controls Corp Sole

Fifth District Holds that Minority Controls Corp Sole
In a rather contorted opinion published today, the Fifth District Court of Appeal in Fresno, California ruled that although "the trial court made several errors in its analysis of the case", it would nevertheless affirm that court's decision to turn over all the disputed property of the former Diocese of San Joaquin to the remnant Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin, which was first organized in March 2008 after its predecessor voted to leave the Episcopal Church (USA).

In so deciding, the Court of Appeal first rejected the contention that ECUSA and its remnant group were collaterally bound by the final decision of the Illinois Appellate Court rendered last year, which reached the opposite result for the Anglican Diocese of Quincy. It did not consider the Illinois case to be on all fours with this one, because the title to the church property in Illinois was held by an Illinois not-for-profit corporation, while in the San Joaquin case, the title was held by a California corporation sole.

With all due respect, this is a distinction without a difference. A corporation sole is every bit as much a religious organization as a religious not-for-profit corporation. The key question in the California case is: which diocese -- the Anglican one that withdrew from ECUSA in December 2007, or the newbie Episcopal one that started up on March 29, 2008 -- has the legal control of the corporation sole under California law?

The decision by the Court of Appeal does not address this key question. Indeed, it barely mentions the Anglican Diocese, and does not acknowledge its separate existence under California law, let alone its connection to the corporation sole. (The Episcopal plaintiffs made a strategic decision not to name the Anglican Diocese in their lawsuit, and to make the corp sole a plaintiff as though they already controlled it, because they wanted to pretend that they were the "only" diocese in San Joaquin. It looks as though the strategy confused the civil courts -- as it was doubtlessly intended to do.)

The case is not over yet -- the Anglican parties can ask the Court for a rehearing based on the factual mistakes it made in its opinion, and if the Court refuses to grant that request, they can ask the California Supreme Court to review the decision, which the Court of Appeal ordered be published in the official reports. (The California Supreme Court tends not to review unpublished opinions.) If such a request is filed, the parties will not know the disposition of the case for another 60 to 120 days.

'Forgive' says Anglican priest who lost 27 family members to suicide attack  When Rev. Fayaz Adman learned of the suicide bombing of Christians celebrating Easter in a Lahore, Pakistan, park March 27, he hadn't fully healed from a similar bombing two-and-a-half years before.

His wounds weren't physical. They were emotional and spiritual. The bombing in 2013 killed 85 members of the All Saints Anglican Church in Peshwar. Twenty-seven of the dead belonged to his family.

Fayaz, an Anglican priest in West Bolton, near Manchester, learned of the bombing through a phone call and subsequent television report. He traveled to Pakistan the next day to see how he could help the survivors...

Rev. Canon Phil Ashey: Reflections on Archbishop Mouneer Anis’s Boycott

Posted April 6, 2016

The announcement yesterday by Archbishop Mouneer Anis (Jerusalem and the Middle East) that he will not be attending the upcoming Anglican Consultative Council meeting (ACC-16) has sent shock waves through the leadership of the Anglican Communion. His decision to not attend was filled with characteristic grace. He said he was not opposed to The Episcopal Church (TEC) participating in the meeting’s general sessions. He said he was dismayed by ACC Chairman Bishop Tengatenga’s denunciation of the authority of the Primates gathering in January to address matters of faith and order between the Churches , including discipline for TEC’s approval of same-sex marriages. Archbishop Mouneer has been characterized as an “institutional moderate” and was among the majority of Primates who agreed, for the sake of the Communion, to continue to “walk together” provided TEC stepped back from positions of leadership in ecumenical bodies representing the Anglican Communion, leadership positions on Inter-Anglican Standing Committees, and decisions on Anglican doctrine and polity. His willingness to entertain TEC participating in general sessions was especially gracious, since they would have been able to participate in agenda items such as “The Bible in the Life of the Church” which clearly involve matters of doctrine.

The Episcopal Church’s intention to continue to participate in the Joint Standing Committee of the ACC (also known as the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion), was just too much. It was a clear and direct rejection of the discipline prescribed by the Primates.  It is an act of rebellion aided and abetted by Chairman Tengatenga’s denunciation of the Primates authority.  No doubt, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s deafening silence — in the face of this rebellion against the authority of the very meeting of Primates that he convened—is just too much.

There comes a point when institutions become so corrupt and compromised that they are irredeemable. Continued participation simply enables the institutions’ corruption. Archbishop Mouneer has recognized this point, and has justifiably stepped back. His decision comes after the GAFCON provinces of Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya decided to not attend ACC-16. Each of the remaining GAFCON and Global South provinces and their Primates who joined the majority in January prescribing gentle discipline for TEC must now decide whether there is any reason at all to attend ACC-16... the rest

Anglican Unscripted Episode 223

Apr 4, 2016

Anglican Unscripted is the only video newscast in the Anglican Church. Each Episode Kevin, George, Allan and Peter bring you news and prospective from around the globe. Please Donate - http://anglicanink.com/donate

Stacy Sauls dismissed as TEC COO

04 Apr 2016
by Michael Curry

As you know on December 9, 2015 I placed Bishop Stacy Sauls, Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Sam McDonald, Deputy Chief Operating Officer and Director of Mission, and Mr. Alex Baumgarten, Director of Public Engagement and Mission Communications, on Administrative Leave pending an investigation into formal complaints and allegations of potential violations of personnel policies of the DFMS, received from multiple members of the staff of the Presiding Bishop.

At my request, the firm of Curley, Hessinger and Johnsrud conducted an independent investigation into these complaints and allegations. In calling for an independent, external investigation, I presumed neither guilt nor innocence, but committed only to a search for the truth. That search for the truth required a thorough and comprehensive investigation. The investigators met with or had phone conversations with over 40 different persons, including the three individuals named in the complaints, and reviewed thousands of pages of documents. The Episcopal Church offered no constraints nor influence on the investigation, and the confidences shared with the in-dependent investigators have been safeguarded.

The actions that I am taking are based on the facts determined and findings reached by that independent investigation.

Findings and Action

Our task as staff is to serve The Episcopal Church in such a way that it can serve the world in the Name and in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. We are therefore all called to strive for and adhere to the highest standards of personal and professional conduct embodying the love of God and reflecting the teachings and the way of Jesus.

I am saddened that the investigation has concluded that two staff members violated these standards. Specifically, Sam McDonald and Alex Baumgarten were found to have violated established workplace policies and to have failed to live up to the Church’s standards of personal conduct in their relationships with employees, which contributed to a workplace environment often inconsistent with the values and expectations of The Episcopal Church. Both are therefore immediately terminated.

The investigation concluded that Bishop Stacy Sauls did not violate workplace policy, was unaware of the policy violations of the two staff members reporting to him, and operated within the scope of his office. No further investigation is warranted. Nevertheless, given the needs for staff leadership in light of my priorities for the direction of the Church, Bishop Sauls will not continue as Chief Operating Officer of the DFMS. Conversations are underway to implement this decision... the rest

Bishop Mouneer Anis decides not to attend the 2016 ACC Meeting in Lusaka

Added: Letter to the primates from Mouneer Anis on ACC Lusaka

A.S.Haley: In Lieu of an April 1st Post

Friday, April 1, 2016

I set out to write an April Fool's Day post, as I have done in the past, but my sense of humor is in short supply these days. Things are going from bad to worse so fast that there is little time to savor what human comedy remains.

Take the 2016 primary campaigns, where each party's candidates have made mincemeat out of Ronald Reagan's Eleventh Commandment. (I'm not sure if the Democrats ever acknowledged its wisdom to begin with, but no matter -- Sanders and Clinton are now going at it tooth and claw.) Just imagine the level of discourse to which the chosen nominees will descend in the general election contest this fall. And I'm not sure just how the media could egg things on more than they have already, but no doubt they will find a way. To paraphrase H.L. Mencken: "No one ever went broke  underestimating the nadir to which the media can sink."

Or take the craziness that infests college campuses across the land -- a mixed worship of victimhood and political correctness that has brought us such absurdities as "intersectional feminism", which is just another form of campus bullying that passes for a serious academic subject.

Or take the massive assaults on religious freedom, which have now become daily news events, but which are reported as though they are laudable signs of progress in the culture war against "bigotry" and "homophobia". Those terms are now even being used by erstwhile religious ones against their own; is it any wonder that the secular world considers Christians (but not, e.g., Muslims) fair game?

Even closer to home, we have the internecine wars among Episcopalians being fought out -- against the highly specific and contrary advice of St. Paul -- in the civil courts. Those once-revered institutions have proved largely incapable of dealing -- just as St. Paul warned! -- with religious disputes, especially today with something so preposterous as ECUSA's Dennis Canon. The Canon was adopted as a sinister measure to deter the departure of dissident congregations from the Episcopal Church, and it has succeeded in seizures of property far beyond anything the Borgias ever could have contemplated. Just imagine being able to create at one stroke a perpetual lien on all church property in all (well, almost all) fifty States -- with a self-executing forfeiture clause -- and all done, mirabile dictu, by a phantom "vote" of which no trace remains in the official archives!... the rest

What is the Anglican Consultative Council meeting for?

Mar 31, 2016

By Chris Sugden and Vinay Samuel, Church of England Newspaper:

The Archbishop of Canterbury has written to urge all Anglican primates to attend the Anglican Consultative Council in Lusaka from April 8-19.

The primates of Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda have indicated that their representatives cannot attend because the spirit of the Primates Meeting in Canterbury, which introduced consequences for TEC and its participation in Communion decision-making on doctrine and polity, appears to be being overridden or ignored.

The issue of trust has emerged again. Trust was undermined by the invitation to Lambeth 2008, to the TEC Bishops who had consecrated Gene Robinson, in July 2007 before the September deadline for TEC’s response to the questions of the Dar-Es-Salaam primates meeting. The Jerusalem GAFCON Conference of 2008 was the direct result.

Archbishop Okoh of Nigeria argues that the orthodox have been manipulated by the revisionists and misled. He writes: “In spite of the hollow restrictions placed on The Episcopal Church, ( in January) the Presiding Bishop of TEC and the Chairman of the Anglican Consultative Council have avowed that the Primates had no authority to take that decision. “

Despite past history the GAFCON Primates decided to attend the January meeting. They demonstrated a love for the unity of the Communion but on a basis of common faith. They have not yet given up on the Communion. But ACC’s actions so far confirm their suspicions that they are being misled and manipulated and even an orthodox Archbishop of Canterbury cannot stop it.

How can ACC not accept the Primates’ decision? Why is it arrogating such roles to itself? Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda are right in drawing a firm line on the sand. Their approach is principled, not managerial or political...  the rest