Wednesday, October 18, 2017

GAFCON Chairman Okoh's October 2017 letter

18th October 2017

To the Faithful of the Gafcon movement and friends from Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, Metropolitan and Primate of All Nigeria and Chairman, the Gafcon Primates Council.

My dear people of God,

On the 31st October, it will be 500 years since Martin Luther’s 95 Theses triggered the Reformation. He was fired by holy indignation because of the way ordinary Christians were being abused by a church which was turning the need for divine forgiveness into a money making machine through the sale of indulgences, but that led him on to see the root of the problem.

The message of God’s free grace in the gospel had been buried under layers of superstition and human tradition, which Luther and the Reformers then exposed to the light of God’s Word. The recovery of the Bible as the first and foremost source of authority in the Church was the basic principle of the Reformation. Everything else depended on this and still does.

Anglicanism claims to be an expression of Reformed Catholic Christianity, but the Canterbury Primates Meeting held earlier this month shows once again that the Anglican Communion is in urgent need of a new reformation. I and a number of brother Primates (representing between us over half of practising Anglicans worldwide) did not attend as a matter of conscience. We cannot ‘walk together’ with those who have abandoned the teaching of the Bible, but that is what the Communiqué issued from the meeting encourages us to do. The painful truth is that the authority of Scripture is being replaced by the authority of Canterbury.

There is no mention in the Communiqué of Lambeth Resolution I.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference where the vast majority of the Communion’s bishops reaffirmed the Bible’s teaching on marriage and sexuality, including the clear statement that homosexual practice is contrary to Scripture.

Same-sex ‘marriage’ is referred to merely as a difference of understanding while the only call to repentance is to those who have crossed provincial boundaries to support orthodox brothers and sisters unchurched by leaders who have rejected God’s Word.

The Conference also affirmed the LGBTI community and their lifestyle, while unequivocally disowning the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA), an orthodox Anglican Province.

If we may be reminded, it was the unwillingness of the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, to provide oversight to dissenting orthodox Anglicans in the USA as advised by the Primates Meeting that led to the formation of ACNA, to keep it in the Anglican Communion fold. ACNA is therefore authentically orthodox, Anglican and Gafcon altogether.

Let me humbly advise Canterbury here to take urgent steps to recognise ACNA as an authentic Province of the Anglican Communion before new realignments make that need unnecessary.

It appears that the Episcopal Church of the United States (TEC) and other revisionists have now got what they failed to get at the 1998 Lambeth Conference. It seems it is now ‘officially’ possible to teach the opposite of what the Bible teaches and still be fully part of the Communion, with the only penalty being a few procedural handicaps which in practice amount to very little.

Is this now how the Primates of the Anglican Communion understand ‘Walking Together’? It has become clear that the Communiqué does not represent the reality of the meeting.

Some Gafcon Primates did attend the meeting in the hope that they could make a difference, including Archbishop Gregory Venables of the Anglican Church of South America who was one of the original members of the Gafcon Primates Council in 2008. Commenting on the Communiqué, he has said ‘It does not reflect what I experienced and heard in the meeting. That’s fine, it might be somebody’s perception, but it wasn’t my perception and that leads me to ask more serious questions.’

Our Gafcon Jerusalem Statement and Declaration of 2008 got to the heart of a painful truth when it concluded that ‘we are a global Communion with a colonial structure’ and the appearance of a few African faces in those structures does not mean that anything has changed. The Primates Meeting Communiqué does not embarrass the Archbishop of Canterbury who, as widely reported just before the meeting began, refused to answer a journalist’s direct question about whether or not homosexual practice was sinful, but it should embarrass all Anglicans who seek to live under the authority of the Word of God.

Also, the outcome of the meeting helps the Archbishop of Canterbury to continue tolerating almost routine breaches of Lambeth Resolution I.10 in the Church of England, but it does not help the global majority of ordinary Anglicans who wish to see their families and societies enjoy the great blessing of godly living.

So how should we move forward? The process of reformation is never smooth sailing, but we can be sure that as we remain faithful to our vision of restoring the Bible to the heart of the Anglican Communion, we shall have success in God’s good time. Already, Gafcon is enabling training, building global mission relationships, gathering the marginalised and resourcing Anglicans worldwide. Our next conference in Jerusalem in June 2018 will mark a further step in the great project of reformation begun ten years previously and by the grace of God will enable Anglicans around the world to walk together in the true communion of gospel partnership.

The Most Rev’d Nicholas D. Okoh
Archbishop, Metropolitan and Primate of All Nigeria and Chairman, the GAFCON Primates Council
Found here

Ferrying the Primates across the rubicon: Lambeth Resolution I.10 and the 2017 Primates Meeting   ...The 2017 Lambeth Primates’ Communiqué makes no mention of Lambeth I.10 and indeed seeks to undo all of its effects. It expresses “sadness” that the Scottish Episcopal Church, like the Episcopal Church USA before it, has proceeded to bless same-sex marriages in the church in the Name of the Triune God. The “consequences” of this action are a 3-year suspension from representation or voting in certain councils.
What, I might ask, follows when these consequences expire? I think the answer is quite obvious: by 2020 same-sex marriage will have been accommodated as a moral option within the Anglican Communion. The Communiqué goes on to say: “We welcomed the news that the Church of England has embarked on a major study of human sexuality in its cultural, scientific, scriptural and theological aspects and anticipated considering the results of this work at a future meeting.” Is there any doubt that the new study will discover that the unchangeable standard of marriage and abstinence is, well, changeable after all? Is there any doubt the “cultural and scientific” aspects of postmodernity will open a way around the clear teaching of Scripture?
The 2017 Primates’ Meeting was, contrary to appearances, a disenfranchising of the Global South and a dis-enhancing of the Primates’ authority. The agenda and Communiqué were clearly prepared in advance, and the indaba process prevented any real dissent. The false tears for the absence of three major Provinces were accompanied by the back-hand of fellowship to the Anglican Church in North America: “you are not Anglican, but we love you as Christian brothers anyway.” Read carefully, the 2017 statement is the utter reversal of the Primates’ Communiqué ten years ago.
As I see it, the 2017 Primates’ Meeting was an attempt, using the prestige of Canterbury and funds from New York, to undo Lambeth I.10 and the Global South movement that resulted from it...

Monday, October 16, 2017

America, Your Campuses Are Madhouses; Five Party Girls in a Convent...more

America, Your Campuses Are Madhouses. Why Are We Paying For This? ...All of these protests and disruptions have two things in common. The first is a student body that is increasingly fanatical, irrational, unhinged, and dynamic in the worst way possible. Just a few short years ago, even the most militant and zealous student-activists needed some sort of catalyst to muster the energy to protest. Today’s protester students—bored, underworked, overly stimulated by progressive media, and convinced they are living in a social carbon-copy of Montgomery, Alabama, circa 1962—cannot be bothered with all that waiting. If they can’t find something real to protest, they’ll make it up.

The second common feature to these protests is no less pervasive but far more frightening: college administrations who, through their own obsequious cowardice, have become utterly powerless against the activists running amok on their campuses...

What happened when five party girls went to live in a convent?
 
...The collision of these polar opposite worlds under one holy roof is played out in a new series, Bad Habits, Holy Orders, which starts next week on Channel 5.

From the moment the women arrive on the convent’s doorstep, wearing thigh-high boots and mini-skirts and swearing like dockers, it’s evident the nuns will have to draw on their oft-rehearsed virtues of patience and tolerance.

‘They are dressed very provocatively and I think it’s wrong,’ remarks Sister Francis, deputy head nun who has been at the convent for 47 years. ‘Promiscuity now seems to be the norm, rather than a relationship of love and trust.’...

Princeton op-ed: Conservatives have no right to free speech
•An op-ed in the Princeton University student newspaper attacking conservatives' right to free speech has triggered an impassioned response from many students, and even a professor.

•The column contends that conservatives don't deserve the "right to speech" because "if conservative arguments were strong...they would not meet political opposition."

276 killed in deadliest single attack in Somalia’s history
The most powerful bomb blast ever witnessed in Somalia's capital killed 276 people with around 300 others injured, the country's information minister said early Monday, making it the deadliest single attack in this Horn of Africa nation. The toll was expected to rise.

In a tweet, Abdirahman Osman called the attack "barbaric" and said countries including Turkey and Kenya had already offered to send medical aid. Hospitals were overwhelmed a day after a truck bomb targeted a crowded street near key government ministries, including foreign affairs....

Storm Ophelia: Ireland on lockdown as UK braces for 80mph winds ...Ophelia has put Ireland on lockdown and left more than 120,000 homes without power, as parts of the UK brace for hurricane-force winds and the Met Office warns of a potential "danger to life"....

The Black Death is killing people: Why is Madagascar facing its worst plague outbreak in years?  Madagascar sees cases of plague nearly every year in the rainy season.

This year is different. Instead of cases in the hinterlands where plague is endemic, the disease — which is initially spread by flea bites and was known as the Black Death in medieval times — has spread to the capital, Antananarivo, and other densely populated cities for the first time, killing 45 people and sparking panic.

By Monday, 387 cases had been reported, including 167 in the densely populated capital...

Friday, October 13, 2017

Anglican Unscripted Episode 334


Oct 13, 2017
Anglican Unscripted is the only video newscast in the Anglican Communion. Each Episode Kevin, Canon George, Allan, and Bishop Gavin bring you news and perspective from around the globe. Please Donate - http://anglican.ink/donate

Thursday, October 12, 2017

Smart Devices Are Rewriting The Criminal Justice System; The Transgender Matrix: It’s Time to Choose the Red Pill ...more

Smart Devices Are Snitching On Owners And Rewriting The Criminal Justice System   A new type of court case is slowly but steadily emerging within the American legal system: alleged crimes being detected from data supplied by smart devices.

Several cases over the last few years have focused on data transmitted within the modern smart home, while a couple of others add an extra dimension of police completely reconstructing a crime scene based upon data collected from the home as well as the various Internet-connected devices that we wear.

The very nature of the 1st, 4th and 5th Amendments to the Constitution appears to be at stake...

Police in Pakistan Beat Christian Boy to Death, Father Says   Police in Pakistan beat a 14-year-old Christian boy to death on Monday (Oct. 9) because he had gotten into a fight with a Muslim classmate who tried to bully him into renouncing his faith, sources said.

Mushtaq Masih, father of Arsalan Masih, said that his son was a student at a private center in Jhabran Mandi village, Sheikhupura District in Punjab Province. Arsalan was at the center when seven policemen from the Bahu Chowk Police Post arrived at about 5 p.m. in their official vehicle and stormed the premises, Masih told Morning Star News...

Boy Scouts Will Allow Girls to Join
The Boy Scouts of America announced Wednesday that it will welcome girls into their program and “enable them to advance and earn the highest rank of Eagle Scout.”

The BSA Board of Directors, which approved the move unanimously for older girls, said the decision “comes after years of receiving requests from families and girls.”...

Hollywood is brave so long as the targets are easy
Everything about the Harvey Weinstein sex scandal is shocking.

From the number of alleged victims, to the high-profile celebrities who say they were abused by the Hollywood heavyweight, everything about this story is stunning.

What isn't shocking, however, is that the entertainment industry, whose members pride themselves on their supposed courage, is full of cowards...

The Transgender Matrix: It’s Time to Choose the Red Pill ...But a funny thing happened. After about eight years, I gradually awoke. I realized the simple biological truth: I was still a man, had always been a man, and always would be a man. In terms of The Matrix, I took the red pill. With newfound clarity of vision, I could see that everything I had believed about the trans-life was a lie. God’s original design of two innate biological sexes, male and female, cannot be overthrown by taking hormones, having surgery, and living a masquerade.

I wanted “true reality,” and I found it in Jesus Christ. No longer was I willing to live an artificial life. When I realized the peace and joy of living in the true reality of my God-given sex, I decided that I needed to share my life story. My goal is to empower and help others who no longer want to live the trans-life to see a way out, too...

What Two Former Trans Men Want You To Know About All The Lies   ...“I wish I had been challenged by a doctor,” he says. “I went to an endocrinologist, who gave me a prescription on the first visit, before my blood work results even came back. ‘It’ll be fine, congratulations!’ was his attitude. The doctor should’ve challenged me.”...

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Discovering Gold in God’s Word; Harvey Weinstein and the New Puritanism...more

Trump’s North Korea Threat-Theater Is Working
The heated rhetorical exchanges between Washington and Pyongyang have once again fired public interest in Korean war scenarios and the Korean information war.

Obvious truth tends to die in Beltway media darkness, but The Washington Post finally noticed the intent and utility of the Trump administration’s orchestrated information warfare operation, something Observer readers know I began covering in March and emphasized in August and September while mainstream media dismissed Trump as incompetent...

Discovering Gold in God’s Word -Videos on how to read and apply God's word more effectively.

Harvey Weinstein and the New Puritanism
I feel Harvey Weinstein’s pain. He was brought up in the Playboy culture and now Hugh Hefner is dead.

He’s befuddled. He was told the girls were all good time girls and that all he had to do as a powerful guy was appear in his bathrobe and they would jump in the tub with him for a fun time.

Suddenly women are appearing who are shocked. Yes shocked that such things should be going on!

Now the girls are getting all indignant and saying they don’t like that sort of stuff and poor Harvey’s lost his job and is crying about it like a big baby and saying, “Please let me have my job. I promise I’ll go to therapy!”...

No, Traditional Marriage and Family Are Not ‘Recent Inventions’  Those who hate the traditional married family unit utilise all sorts of means to attack it, denigrate it, and undermine it. One quite common ploy used over the past few decades is to claim that the family structure of mum, dad and the kids, cemented by marriage, is an historical aberration.

They say this is really just a fluke of history, and they even claim that it only really ever existed in the 1950s! This sort of radical historical revisionism and social deconstructionism has been heard far too often by those on the left. But it just happens to be patent nonsense...

UK: Oxford college bans 'harmful' Christian Union from freshers' fair   An Oxford College has banned the Christian Union from its freshers’ fair on the grounds that it would be “alienating” for students of other religions, and constitute a “micro-aggression”.

The organiser of Balliol’s fair argued Christianity’s historic use as “an excuse for homophobia and certain forms of neo-colonialism” meant that students might feel “unwelcome” in their new college if the Christian Union had a stall...

Google pushing hard for national law to criminalize Christian beliefs and federalize “transgender rights”  ...Introduced by U.S. Representative David Cicilline (D-Rhode Island), an open homosexual, HR 2282 would prohibit employers with 15 or more employees from “discriminating based on sexual orientation or gender identity, subject to the same exceptions and conditions that currently apply to unlawful employment practices based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin,” according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS). But its tenets go well beyond this.

As pointed out by Life Site News, the bill’s far-reaching impact would greatly expand the potential for lawsuits to be filed against private individuals who choose of their own volition to not affirm behaviors that they believe to be immoral before God. This is already happening under state and local “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” laws that LGBTQ activists are taking full advantage of to persecute anyone who disagrees with them...

Plague outbreak in Madagascar spikes to almost 400 cases
...Of the 230 new suspected cases reported since the WHO's Oct 4 update, 17 have proved fatal, the WHO said. The new cases lift the outbreak's number of suspected, probable, and confirmed cases to 387 and the number of deaths to 45.

So far, 277 (71.6%) of the illnesses involve the pneumonic form of the disease, while 106 are bubonic, 1 is septicemic, and 3 are unspecified. The overall case-fatality rate is 11.6%.''...At least eight healthcare workers from one district hospital have contracted the disease since Sep 30...

Anglican Unscripted Episodes 332-333


Oct 10, 2017
Anglican Unscripted is the only video newscast in the Anglican Communion. Each Episode Kevin, Canon George, Allan, and Bishop Gavin bring you news and perspective from around the globe. Please Donate - http://anglican.ink/donate


Oct 10, 2017

A.S. Haley: Judges Who Are Indifferent to Injustice
...It is a sad day for judicial integrity in South Carolina when its present and former judges are so concerned to circle the wagons around one of their own that they are willing to let half a billion dollars' worth of charitable property change hands for reasons on which no three of them could even agree. If the fact that the Hon. William T. Howell and the Hon. H. Samuel Stilwell were willing to have such a brief filed on their behalf is any indication of the respect that South Carolina judges have for their own integrity, then what can one expect from the South Carolina Supreme Court? And even if Justice Hearn withdraws from any participation in deciding the petition for rehearing, what guarantee can there be that a truly neutral fifth justice can be appointed to resolve any tie?

All eyes are now upon the justices of the Supreme Court of South Carolina. May they do the right thing, see through the hollowness of the arguments in defense of Justice Hearn, and in the end provide the parties with the fair and impartial tribunal that they deserve.

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Episcopal Priest: Women Need Abortions; Harvey Weinstein vs Billy Graham ...more

Episcopal Church Priest: Women Need Abortions and a Right to Abortion is “Necessary”  Tennessee Episcopal Priest Kira Schlesinger believes so strongly in legalized abortion that she wrote a book to reconcile her Christian beliefs with the killing of unborn babies.

In her new book “Pro-Choice and Christian: Reconciling Faith, Politics, and Justice,” Schlesinger criticizes churches that “shame” and stigmatize women who abort their unborn babies. She said church congregations should have more open conversations about abortion, and support women who have them...

Google Sponsors Event Honoring President of Nation’s Largest Abortion Provider 
Internet giant Google is sponsoring an event honoring Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood – the nation’s largest abortion provider.

Google is a Platinum ($25,000) sponsor of the Center for Community Change’s “Community Champions Awards” event, which will be held Thursday, October 12, at the Howard Center in Washington, D.C., a Google spokesperson confirmed to CNSNews.com on Monday...

16 U.S. States Come Together To Ban Shariah Law ...Alabama (two bills), Arkansas, Florida (two bills), Indiana (two bills), Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi (four bills), Missouri (two bills), North Carolina, Oklahoma (seven bills), South Carolina (two bills), Texas (six bills), Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming (two bills)...

Harvey Weinstein vs Billy Graham   ...But the Harvey Weinsteins and Bill O’Reillys of the world are reminders that women in subordinate positions to men often feel pressured into closeness, and that this pressure almost always serves male libido and ego more than it serves women. If women often do not have the professional/economic leverage to afford rare or nonexistent access to male leadership (and I think that’s often true), how much less do they have leverage to refuse a meeting or a conversation because of uncomfortable circumstances?...

One Man’s Dream Destroyed Millions: The Pitiful Legacy of Hugh Hefner ...
Hugh Hefner, the founder of Playboy Enterprises and its chief ideological incarnation, died on Thursday at age 91 at the Playboy Mansion, immersed in the fantasy he created. He will be buried next to Marilyn Monroe, Playboy’s inaugural centerfold.

In 1953, Hefner pulled pornography out of the seedy back cultural alleys, dressed it up in sophisticated costume and speech, gave it a stylish, debonair set, made it look liberating and libertine, and pushed it into the mainstream as Playboy Magazine. He was not so much a revolutionary as a man who understood his times. He knew the “right side of history” when he saw it. He saw the weakness in the flank, struck shrewdly (and lewdly), and won the cultural battle: the old sexual mores have been decisively thrown down and pornography is pervasive. But at what cost?...

Two Pakistan Sisters Murdered By Father In 'Honour Killing'   A young woman and her 10-year-old sister were murdered by their father in Pakistan in a so called 'honour killing', police said today.

Abdul Gani killed his daughters - 20-year-old Shamim and Noreen - and later confessed to the crime upon his arrest, according to DSP Fazal Wahid...

Monday, October 09, 2017

Anglican Unscripted Episode 331 Primates Meeting 2017


Oct 9, 2017
Anglican Unscripted is the only video newscast in the Anglican Communion. Each Episode Kevin, Canon George, Allan, and Bishop Gavin bring you news and perspective from around the globe. Please Donate - http://anglican.ink/donate 

Tuesday, October 03, 2017

‘Satanic’ Fashion Show Held At London Church; Searching for Meaning in Las Vegas...more

Clergy Denounce ‘Satanic’ London Fashion Week Show Held At St. Andrew Holborn Church  A fashion show in London last week left many aghast as it transformed an ancient and venerated church into a Satanically inspired display, with transvestite models dressed as the devil. Though the designer and fashionistas claim it was all in the name of art with no ill-will intended, the church has expressed its deepest regret.

Turkish designer Dilara Findikoglu’s collection was displayed in St. Andrew Holborn church in Central London as part of the Spring/Summer 2018 London Fashion Week. But rather than reflect or honor the setting, a 1,000-year old church, the show became a tribute to Satanism...

The Satanic Temple Wants to Force Christian Bakers to Make Cakes Honoring Satan ...In the blog, called “According to Matthew,” Greaves said that sexual orientation is not a protected class under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and that Christian business owners may start winning their cases at the U.S. Supreme Court level.

"For this reason, The Satanic Temple has announced a plan for those who feel alienated or oppressed by the privileged status that religion holds over sexual orientation: Request your homophobic baker make a cake for Satan," Greaves wrote...

Albert Mohler: Searching for Meaning in Las Vegas Today, most Americans awoke to news from Las Vegas that is nothing less than horrific. For so many in Las Vegas, Sunday night must have seemed like the night that would never end.

In the face of such overwhelming news, we naturally seek after facts. We want to know what happened, and when. We want to know who did it. By mid-morning the facts were staggering. More than fifty people are dead and hundreds wounded after a lone gunman opened fire on a music festival from a perch in a hotel room 32 floors above. The attack was deadly, diabolical, and premeditated.

The shooting is already described as the worst in American history. The gunman, believed to be Stephen Paddock, killed himself as police prepared to storm his hotel room, from which he had aimed his deadly gunfire. The facts emerged slowly, and are still emerging. Paddock had no notable criminal record. He had worked for a defense contractor, owned two private aircraft, and was known to own guns. He was reported to like Las Vegas for its gambling and entertainment. No one seems to have considered him a threat. His brother, contacted after the massacre, said that the family was beyond shock, as if “crushed by an asteroid.”...

 I used to think gun control was the answer. My research told me otherwise Before I started researching gun deaths, gun-control policy used to frustrate me. I wished the National Rifle Association would stop blocking common-sense gun-control reforms such as banning assault weapons, restricting silencers, shrinking magazine sizes and all the other measures that could make guns less deadly.

Then, my colleagues and I at FiveThirtyEight spent three months analyzing all 33,000 lives ended by guns each year in the United States, and I wound up frustrated in a whole new way. We looked at what interventions might have saved those people, and the case for the policies I’d lobbied for crumbled when I examined the evidence. The best ideas left standing were narrowly tailored interventions to protect subtypes of potential victims, not broad attempts to limit the lethality of guns...