June 13, 2014

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience - among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God... 
- Ephesians 2:1-4
 
Have we fallen down the rabbit hole?     The Rt. Rev. David Anderson

Dear Friends of the Anglican Realignment,

From time to time I advise you on dangerous issues within Anglicanism or issues dealing with attacks against Christianity, such as militant Islam or the radical gay and lesbian agenda. Today the alarm can touch on the latter as well as US Constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and religion.

The New York Times has a persistent, unrelenting liberal bias that sees everything through the lens of their own acceptable point of view. Seldom do I find an article that I can agree with in its entirety. The Times does provide me with a limited free online compilation of their daily articles, and I do glance through them and occasionally read one that provokes my interest. The following is from an article that is worthy of your attention.

Michael Paulson, writing for the NY Times, looks at the growing bias and prejudice on college campuses against orthodox Christian groups that won't knuckle under to the college or university diversity policies. In most of these cases, an organization, even a religious one, must allow ANYONE to join, without regard to their beliefs, and ANYONE must be electable as an officer, even as president or chaplain of the group. Even if they are atheists or non-Christians, or in the case of a Jewish student group, a non-Jew, they must be allowed to run for a position as an officer.

 

If you don't knuckle under, then your group is de-registered, unable to use mandatory student social dues that are collected, unable to use campus space for meetings, unable to use campus communication boards to post times and places of meetings, and unable to have official faculty advisors. All that is lacking is to brand any student who belongs to such a student Christian/religious group a hatemonger and kick them out of college or university. After all, no one wants hatemongers around, and limiting the presidency and officer positions in your Christian Bible group to Christians is a priori evidence of hate, or so some college and university heads would have us believe...read more from Bishop David Anderson.

 
What should we be praying for in a new Archbishop for the Anglican Church in North America?


Almighty God, giver of every good gift: we thank you for miraculously raising up a new Anglican Movement and giving us a courageous Archbishop, Robert Duncan, to lead our Anglican Church in North America these past five years. Look graciously now on your Church, and send your Holy Spirit to guide the hearts and minds of the College of Bishops who will choose an Archbishop for our Province, that we may receive a faithful Apostle who will lead us in mission and evangelism with our brothers and sisters around the world, and who will care for your people and equip us for our ministries in North America, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, friends of the Anglican realignment,

The College of Bishops of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) will gather to elect a new Archbishop beginning Thursday evening, June 19 and, if necessary, adjourning Sunday evening June 22. I am grateful for the Collect (above) that we have been able to pray during these recent weeks leading up to the election of a leader to succeed Archbishop Bob Duncan. I am also grateful for our Lord's hand upon the ACNA, its growth under the inspired leadership of Archbishop Duncan, and our opportunity to celebrate both during Provincial meetings June 23-28 at St. Vincent's College in Latrobe, PA.

There has been much speculation on the blogs regarding the possible candidates for Archbishop, the "handicapping" of their odds to succeed, and politicking for and against certain bishops, etc. I'm going to refrain from any further comment on all that, and to resist any temptation to prognosticate. Instead, I'd like us to take that Collect quite seriously and drill down deeper, asking ourselves the question: "What should we be praying for in a new Archbishop?"...read more.
Article X: But God...

In this week's Anglican Perspective, Canon Phil Ashey discusses our need for God's grace to go before us in order to do good works or even come to Him.

From Article X:
...Wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will...

Article X: But God...
Article X: But God...

Royal Grote elected Presiding Bishop of the REC
By George Conger
Anglican Ink
June 12, 2014

The Rt. Rev. Royal U. Grote, Jr., has been elected Presiding Bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church of the Anglican Church in North America. On 11 June 2014 at the 54th General Council meeting of the REC held in Blue Bell, Penna., Grote was elected to succeed the Most Rev. Leonard Riches as the church's senior bishop.

Born in 1946, Bishop Grote was reared in the Philadelphia-area and was trained for the ministry at the Reformed Episcopal Seminary. Ordained deacon and priest, in 1976 he became the Rector of St. Philip's Reformed Episcopal Church, in Warminster, Penna., and was called to St. Luke's Reformed Episcopal Church in New Providence, NJ in 1978.

In 1984, he was elected Assistant Bishop of the Diocese of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, and in 1991 he was translated as bishop of the Special Jurisdiction of North America by the General Council to oversee the planting of congregations in the Central and Western American states. In 1996 he was translated to the new Diocese of Mid-America based in Texas.

A one-time lecturer at the Reformed Episcopal Seminary, Bishop Grote is lecturer in Dogmatic Theology at Cranmer Theological House in Houston, where he also serves as chancellor. 
 

Plea for help from Canon White in Baghdad
Canon Andrew White
June 11, 2014

Things are so bad now in Iraq, the worst they have ever been. The Islamic terrorists have taken control of the whole of Mosul which is Nineveh the main Christian stronghold. The army have even fled. We urgently need help and support.

Please, please help us in this crisis.

Iraq is now in its worst crisis since the 2003 war. ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria Group), a group that does not even see Al Qaida as extreme enough, has moved into Mosul, which is Nineveh. It has totally taken control, destroyed all government departments. Allowed all prisoners out of the prisons. Killed countless numbers of people. There are bodies over the streets. The army and police have fled, so many of the military resources have been captured. Tankers, armed vehicles and even helicopters are now in the hands of ISIS.

The area is the heartland of the Christian community. Most of our people come from Nineveh and still see that as their home. It is there that they return to regularly. Many Christian's fled from back to Nineveh from Baghdad, as things got so bad there. Now the Christian centre of Iraq has been totally ransacked. The tanks are moving into the Christian villages destroying them and causing total carnage. The ISIS militants are now moving towards Kirkuk, major areas to the Oil fields that provide the lifeblood of Iraq. We are faced with total war that all the Iraqi military have now retreated from....read more.
 
 

The Cleansing of Iraq's Christians Is Entering Its End Game 
By Nina Shea 
June 10, 2014

The government of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, fell overnight to the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, also called the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Mosul's panic-stricken Christians, along with many others, are now fleeing en masse to the rural Nineveh Plain, according to the Vatican publication Fides. The border crossings into Kurdistan, too, are jammed with the cars of the estimated 150,000 desperate escapees.

The population, particularly its Christian community, has much to fear. The ruthlessness of ISIS, an offshoot of al-Qaeda, has been legendary. Its beheadings, crucifixions, and other atrocities against Christians and everyone else who fails to conform to its vision of a caliphate have been on full display earlier this year, in Syria.

As Corner readers will remember, in February, it was the militants of this rebel group that, in the northern Syrian state of Raqqa, compelled Christian leaders to sign a 7th-century dhimmi contract. The document sets forth specific terms denying the Christians the basic civil rights of equality and religious freedom and committing them to pay protection money in exchange for their lives and the ability to keep their Christian identity...read more. 
 
Is Gay Marriage Destroying the United Methodist Church?
By Timothy Morgan
June 11, 2014

"Irreconcilable" disagreement over same-sex unions is once again prompting debate over splitting the historic United Methodist Church (UMC), one of America's largest denominations.

"If we are one church, we cannot act as if we are two. If, in reality, we are two churches, it may not be wise to pretend any longer that we are one," concludes a statement last month from 80 traditionalists from across the UMC, which has 7.7 million U.S. members. (An additional 4.4 million members are overseas.)

The statement says the UMC is facing a crisis in four areas because:

- Pastors have violated or said they are willing to violate the Book of Discipline ban on same-sex marriages. (The Book of Discipline is the church's most authoritative guide.)

- Pastors and other leaders realize that there are no "meaningful consequences" for violating the Book of Discipline by officiating at a same-sex union. (In one instance, two clergy were given a "24-hour suspension without pay" for marrying gay couples.)...read more.
 
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