www.virtueonline.org
8/2/2008
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The $12 million Lambeth Conference is over and many are now asking was it worth it. What exactly did the 600 plus bishops really accomplish besides long discussions about the rightness or wrongness of pansexual behavior and how Millennium Development Goals will save the world for God? A contrast with GAFCON, a similar Anglican gathering, is instructive.
GAFCON: Unity around the gospel
LAMBETH: Disunity
GAFCON: Joy
LAMBETH: Joylessness and disharmony
GAFCON: A clear definition of the gospel
LAMBETH: No gospel talk
GAFCON: Mission defined by the Great Commission
LAMBETH: Mission loosely defined but at its heart Millennium Development Goals
GAFCON: A desire to win the world for Christ
LAMBETH: Interfaith talk
GAFCON: On sex. Heterosexual marriage or celibacy. No argument
LAMBETH: Pansexuality bringing about discord, anger and mistrust
GAFCON: No one is called homophobic. Homosexuals called to repentance and faith.
LAMBETH: Anybody who doesn't agree with the church's homosexual agenda is homophobic
GAFCON: Preoccupation with how to transmit the gospel.
LAMBETH: Has nothing to transmit except loosely defined mission.
GAFCON: A ringing endorsement to preach God's unchanging truth.
LAMBETH: Truth unattainable. We find truth in each other. Hegelian synthesis revisited
GAFCON: Moral absolutes.
LAMBETH: Moral relativism.
GAFCON: Future bright and strong.
LAMBETH: Uncertain, highly doubtful there will be another Lambeth Conference.
GAFCON: Leadership strong and going forward.
LAMBETH: Lackluster, uncertain trumpet sound.
GAFCON: The Eclusive claims of Christ
LAMBETH: Full Inclusion without repentance
Just before putting this digest to cyber bed, VirtueOnline learned that several reporting secretaries of the Indaba groups have been disciplined by their American bishops for being gay sex offenders. When we know more, we will tell you. This is devastating news. If you thought posing a transgendered priest about Kent University was bad enough, then having real live sex offenders should take the GAFCON folk right over the edge.
If you could be here to see and experience the overwhelming and pernicious presence of the homosexual lobby and media presence you would be stunned. They are the majority media (though they are not press). They are in the faces of bishops with their microphones, asking the same old questions about homophobia. When they don't get the answers they want, they gay bait. Some of the bishops catch on, others don't.
The worst example of bullying was the Pacific Coast reporter who got in the face of the diminutive, gentle Archbishop Mouneer Anis of Egypt. It was painful to watch, but the reporter got shouted down by yours truly and some other reporters as well because of his attitude. "Love/justice" the much ballyhooed language of pansexual activists only applies to their abominable behaviors, not to the sensitive consciences of orthodox believers.
"Listening" for homosexuals means agreeing with them. They will wear you down till you agree to agree with them or you can leave the church all the while they whine about inclusion.
Today, the penultimate day before the Lambeth Conference breaks up, the pansexual lobby is out in force and they are upset. They are walking around campus furious at remarks made by Bishop Charles Jenkins (Louisiana) who said that five of his American Indaba bishops would observe the moratoria on same-sex blessings and consecrate no more homosexual bishops. Said Jenkins, "I think part of the sacrifice that most are willing to make is that we will accept a covenant and the moratoria mentioned therein."
This went down like a lead balloon and the pansexual media are looking to spin this. The last thing they want is anyone restricting sexual appetites that are not on their agenda and they won't heed anyone. They are out to win at any price and at all costs. Rowan or Charles be damned.
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Four Bishops of South Asia came out with a statement today condemning homosexuality and the strife here at Lambeth. Before tomorrow comes around, a statement is expected from the African (CAPA) bishops along similar lines.
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SAN DIEGO Bishop Don Mathes thought he had a tiger by the tail when he said he got an apology from Southern Cone Primate Gregory Venables for crossing into his diocese to rescue orthodox parishes. The media went wild, but they got it wrong. Venables never apologized for taking parishes under his ecclesiastical wing; he simply apologized for not informing Mathes in advance. Nothing changes. Mathes got quite worked up about it all and was looking for a Mennonite mediator to continue the process. He can forget about it. Venables is not interested. He'll be around if more parishes want to flee Mathes' grip.
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There's a phantom bishop here at Lambeth, according to Riazat Butt, religious affairs correspondent for The Guardian newspaper. To add to the ever-growing categories of bishops, the Guardian can now add an eighth: phantom bishops. Conference organisers say there is a bishop who did not register, but decided to come anyway. The archbishop of Canterbury and master of ceremonies Rowan Williams is not on the list; however Cormac Cardinal Murphy O'Connor, the most senior figure in the Catholic church of England and Wales is.
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It's no picnic here. Veteran gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell had his 40-foot banner urging them to "Stop Crucifying Queers" fluttering in the breeze. Of course nobody is crucifying anybody here, but it makes bad theater. The television media crowd love it though some tell me privately they are fed up with Tatchell's antics.
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The Catholic Church takes no pleasure in the tensions within the Anglican Church, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor said in a Friday address to Anglican bishops at the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury. Discussing the progress of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) on Church unity, the cardinal suggested that ARCIC's work on the nature of the Church is relevant to present Anglican disputes. While voicing his confidence in the commission's work, he said the path to church unity "might be longer than we had imagined at first."
The cardinal, who is now the Archbishop of Westminster and head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, noted that he had co-chaired ARCIC for 26 years until 1999 and continued to be involved with the commission after stepping down. He recounted the early years of the commission, which he described as "heady days." Now it is all heading down the drain. These talks could go on till the Second Coming and nothing would change except that the Anglican Communion will just head further down the revisionist road to nowhere. The truth is ARCIC is dead. So is IARCUM. A decent burial is the best thing for both. The future of the Anglican Communion is GAFCON and they are not interested in talking to Rome about mergers and acquisitions.
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While Rowan has put the kibosh on Gene Robinson administering the Eucharist in the UK, it is not the same north of the border. "Scotland leads on tolerance - will the Church of England follow?" screamed one headline. While Robinson was refused a place at Anglicanism's high table because he is the only bishop to live openly with a gay partner, Scottish Episcopalians feel differently. The Archbishop of Canterbury has no jurisdiction in Scotland. So tomorrow, Bishop Robinson will celebrate communion and preach in St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow. If you want another example of the dying pansexual western liberal Anglican Church, this is it.
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Fred Hiltz, the Archbishop of Canada is crying the blues because the Canadian Church didn't get more of a voice at Lambeth. The moral of that story is you have to have more homosexuals than TEC and more money, and he doesn't have either. Fiat Lux. Ultra-liberal New Westminster bishop Michael Ingham got more press than Hiltz and that sticks in Hiltz's craw.
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