June 20, 2014

My son, do not forget my law, but let your heart keep my commands;
for length of days and long life and peace they will add to you. Proverbs 3:1-2 NKJV

A Message from Canon Ashey

Dear Friends in Christ,

At the time we sent out this weekly update we had received no news of the selection of a new Archbishop for the Anglican Church in North American (ACNA) by the College of Bishops. We know that they are meeting in conclave and deep in prayer - and that they are being joined by many others all over the country. I encourage you to keep up your prayers. As I wrote last week, please pray that they would select a bishop who is a man of prayer, with spiritual gifts of faith and discernment, who calls upon the power of the Holy Spirit, walks in humility and peace, and has God-given vision for our Church as we move forward.

Your servant in Christ,

Phil+

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.

Anglican Perspective: Article X

This week's Anglican Perspective looks at the last portion of Article X of the 39 Articles of Religion.

New Growth as Anglicans Gather to Select Leader

IRD

By Jeff Walton

June 19, 2014

Bishops of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) have encouraging news as they convene this evening to begin the process of selecting a new leader: a growing flock. The fledgling denomination, launched in 2009, has seen membership grow by 13 percent to 112,504 members and attendance by 16 percent to 80,471 attendees....

Heavenly Father, to whom all the saints in heaven and earth adore and bend the knee: Pour out your Holy Spirit on our bishops as they gather together to elect our new Archbishop. Grant that they may have all wisdom and discernment; a spirit of revelation and the knowledge of your will, the confidence in your guidance in the decision to be made; this we ask in the Name of and for the glory of the One who is, was, and ever shall be, your Son our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Presbyterian Lay Committee repudiates action of Presbyterian Church USA redefinition of marriage
The Layman
June 19, 2014

DETROIT, MICHIGAN, JUNE 19, 2014 - A statement of protest by the Presbyterian Lay Committee repudiating the action of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA to redefine marriage.

The 221st General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) has approved both an Authoritative Interpretation of the Constitution and an amendment to redefine marriage. In the name of 1.8 million Presbyterians nationwide, the General Assembly has committed an express repudiation of the Bible, the mutually agreed upon Confessions of the PCUSA, thousands of years of faithfulness to God's clear commands and the denominational ordination vows of each concurring commissioner. This is an abomination.

The Presbyterian Lay Committee mourns these actions and calls on all Presbyterians to resist and protest them. You should tell your pastor and the members of your session that you disapprove of these actions. You should refuse to fund the General Assembly, your synod, your presbytery and even your local church if those bodies have not explicitly and publicly repudiated these unbiblical actions.

God will not be mocked and those who substitute their own felt desires for God's unchangeable Truth will not be found guiltless before a holy God. The Presbyterian Lay Committee will continue to call for repentance and reform: repentance of those who have clearly erred at this General Assembly and reform of the PCUSA according to the Word of God.

Presbyterian Lay Committee
Board of Directors, June 19, 2014

The religious cleansing of Iraq's Christians

FoxNews

By Lela Gilbert

June 19, 2013

Just a year ago, after months of bombings, shootings and kidnappings, Baghdad's Monsignor Pios Cacha made a grim prediction. He said that his Iraqi Christian community was experiencing the kind of religious cleansing that eradicated the country's once-thriving Jewish community half a century before.

His rather prophetic words made headlines in Lebanon's Daily Star: "Iraqi Christians fear fate of departed Jews."

Father Cacha's reflections couldn't have been more prescient. As he knew very well, Iraq was once home to 135,000 Jews. Today less than ten Jews remain in the entire country.

And now, with the raging incursion of ISIS - a brutal Al Qaeda affiliated terrorist group - the religious cleansing of Iraq's Christians is nearing completion as well.

Iraq's Christian community is hardly a western innovation or a colonial relic. It dates from the 1st Century, when two of Jesus' disciples - St. Thomas and St. Thaddeus (also known as St. Jude) - preached the Gospel in what was then Assyria. There has been a Christian presence in Iraq ever since....

March de triomphe!

Family Research Council

June 19, 2014

Whoever said the marriage debate was over must not have been anywhere near the U.S. Capitol this morning. After months of hearing the courts' opinion on marriage, today America heard from the voters those courts trampled. Thousands of people from states all across the country descended on Washington, D.C. to show the nation that we care about protecting marriage and will do anything to stand up and fight for it. Pro-family groups like FRC, churches, state activists, and cultural leaders gathered on the lawn of the most powerful Congress in the world and sent one resounding message: the fight for marriage is not over.

More than 150 buses, filled with the marriage supporters the media insists do not exist, cheered through the passionate speeches of Republicans and Democrats, blacks and Hispanics, and the young and old -- all united in the belief that marriage is "our very nature. No law can change it." Senator Rick Santorum, Governor Mike Huckabee, the Catholic Church's Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, and leaders from across the Hispanic and African American communities rallied the crowd with the reminder that we are not marching for a cause that's lost. "You want a social program that cannot fail?" asked Reverend Eugene Rivers, "Support traditional marriage and the family."

Others pushed back on the notion that the pro-marriage majority in America are somehow on the wrong side of history. "History doesn't have sides," said one young leader, "but truth does."...