The move to widen the administration of the Lord's Supper is bound to increase, not decrease, divisions in the Communion. What for Sydney is an imperative of the gospel is seen by others as close to a denial of it. Still, if we are to have this discussion it is better to have it as well-informed as possible as to what it is exactly that our opponent believes. I trust this article will work towards that end.

The annual meeting of the Anglican Relief and Development Fund was held last week in Vero Beach, Florida. I took the opportunity to talk to Bishop Duncan, and Archbishops Anis, Nzimbi, and Akrofi about the state of the fund today and its future as a beacon of hope to poor regions and people around the world.

"I think the formation of a new province is going to come much more quickly than any of us really thought. I think it will be up and running in early 2009."

While in Savannah, Katharine Jefferts Schori alluded to Jesus not being God’s only provision for salvation. There is a sense of pious humility that accompanies such a false teaching: “Who am I to assert Jesus to be the only way to heaven?” In today’s pluralistic age of “tolerance” and “inclusivity,” such language is usually met with nodding heads and affirmation. As Leslie Newbigin states:

There is an admirable air of humility about the statement that the truth is much greater than any one person or any one religious tradition can grasp. The statement is no doubt true, but it can be used against the truth when it is used to neutralize any affirmation of the truth. (The Gospel in a Pluralist Society).

WARNING: OFFENSIVE CONTENT

But what happens when those who "stoop low" to help the "uneducated" find that the "ignorant" masses reject the lessons of their betters? What happens when, say, the minority vote makes up a large percentage of the voting electorate that defeated Proposition 8 in California?

Rage. Blinding, ugly, disgusting rage.

Those of you who know my Calvinist inclinations might find this post ironic and funny at the same time. Good Shepherd is the first and only parish I've served. When I arrived in the summer of 2002, I stepped into a parish steeped, for most of her 125 year history, in Anglo-Catholicism. Thirty years before my arrival, my predecessor a VTS grad moved the parish in a more "broad" direction theologically but retained the high liturgical tradition. All of this was very strange and difficult for me but to my mind at the time, there were hills worth dying on and liturgy just wasn't one of them. While I made a few minor changes, I largely concentrated on what I considered the most vital needs...starting up and leading weekly bible studies (there had not been bible studies for decades), bibles in the pews, starting an adult Sunday school to catechize the parish adults who were largely unaware of the most basic tenets of the Christian faith. Six years later, I am very happy I decided to leave the liturgy alone...in fact, I've grown to love it...

5) This isn't the Episcopal Church.

Our country is far juster, far more interested in the rule of law, far more stable, far more popular, far less vicious, and far more conservative. It is completely within our power as conservatives -- with God's help -- to transform this country's political landscape if we so choose. It will be very hard and very long. The next two years will be appallingly painful. Every week or month, we'll be reminded of the judgement of God -- and our challenge will be not to get angry, or despairing, or inactive, but rather to humble ourselves all over again, repent, acknowledge the horrible consequences of our compromises, corruption, passivity, and loss of principle, and continue turning away from the wrong path and seeking the right one.

It is precisely here that the third and most “pragmatic” of the three rationalizations comes into play: Senator Obama will make the buses run on time and put a “chicken in every pot" and thereby, ipso facto presto viola, create social conditions from within which fewer moms will feel the need to kill their unborn babies. Electoral victory for Senator Obama, in other words, will reduce the number of future abortions theoretically even though it means that thousands of non-theoretical of babies will be killed directly on the way…

Begin with Heart Preparation:
Come into God's Presence with Worship.
Thank God for his great mercy and many blessings.
Ask God to extend his mercy to us and to our nation.

Over the years Planned Parenthood has reported total profits of over $700 million. That is 700,000,000 reasons to deny a child life. Taypayer money now accounts for 34% of Planned Parenthood's income. An uninformed nation is financing the abortion campaign of deception. It certainly helps explain Planned Parenthood's vigorous opposition to legislation that would provide informed consent. In a strange twist, such groups have become the very thing they have accused the unborn of being - a parasite on the face of our nation.

This liturgy affirms that a woman has made a good and holy decision to have an abortion. It provides strength and healing after making a difficult choice. It brings closure to an often intense and emotional process. It is intended to be celebrated with friends. - Affirming A Choice, A Liturgy by Diann L. Neu distributed by Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.

I have never been completely comfortable with the argument that orthodoxy equals numerical growth because, well, it doesn't. The apostles met with unprecedented numerical growth. They also met with rejection, persecution, suffering and the sword. Jesus was at first adored by crowds and then deserted by them (John 6). I think that the proclamation of truth ends as often in numerical decline as it does in numerical increase. Error, more often than not, meets with stunning success. Just ask the Mormons, the Trinity Broadcasting Network, or Joel Osteen. The fact is that in these last days people seek teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear.

It must also be noted that Council was in error in its 1978 statement that RCAR “appears to advocate an unconditional right to abortion” and is thus inconsistent with this Church’s position. This Church does advocate an unconditional legal right to abortion, as expressed in its oft-repeated “unequivocal opposition” to legislative abridgement of that right; the RCAR/RCRC is a coalition of faith communities that, among other things, seeks to preserve that legal right. In addition, although different faith communities may express their positions in different ways, all members of the coalition share this Church’s further position that the decision to terminate a pregnancy should be made according to individual conscience and should not be made lightly or for frivolous reasons.

On the Conservative "Witness"
The "witness" of conservative leaders who remain in TEC should be marked by:

1) Less communication with the outside world and the media, as that merely serves to highlight our differences, weaken our church's reputation, and embarrass progressives

2) Less communication with parishioners about the national church, since they could become troubled by the national church's actions; this could lead to requests to do something, which would add to mounting pressure on clergy and bishops to distance themselves from our leadership's actions -- which would definitely take away the appropriate focus on local parish mission and ministry, besides making clergy and bishops very uncomfortable

3) helping progressives figure out how to make small concessions that will help them feel better about themselves and make them look better to various outside, troubling forces in our church

4) creating a healthy and functional equilibrium between the two sides, such that we would definitely have less tension and publicity and outcry from certain divisive forces in our parishes; dis-equilibrium creates tension, allows the media and other divisive forces within TEC to publicize "problems" within TEC, besides which it makes one side look like bullying meanies; further, dis-equilibrium highlights "differences" in our church rather than obscuring them, which leads to "activism" from the proletariat, which leads to discomfort for many of us...

The flowers are blossoming into a kaleidoscope of shapes and colors. The congregations are blossoming with a variety of ministries and languages. The church's programs are blossoming into vibrant systems of education, assistance, development and growth.

But how do we know which principles and practices are mere “matters of opinion” and which are something more? What criteria do we employ to discern the difference between what must be believed and what is disputable? This is a particularly troubling question in light of current controversies in the Anglican Communion and beyond. Some on the left, for example, argue that homosexuality falls under the category of “opinion”. The Rev. Susan Russell, the president of Integrity USA, the Episcopalian organization promoting the blessing of non-celibate homosexual relationships appeals to Romans 14 as if it self-evidently applies to sexual relationships. Others do the same with regard to divorce and remarriage, the ordination of women, and the use of birth control.

Many Pharisees and the teachers of the law assumed that their encyclopedic knowledge of scripture equated to salvific knowledge of God. But though they knew, cognitively speaking, the Law and the Prophets, they remained blind to the One who fulfilled both. “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life” Jesus told them, “and it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39) It is quite possible to memorize large swaths of scripture and never find Jesus. The bible is not the narrow path. The bible is the map that shows us how to find it. Deep love for and extensive study of scripture is good and right for it represents God's self-disclosure, his perfect law, his perfect word. But we cannot forget that the bible reveals the Revealer. Its purpose is to reveal God’s nature and character and to conform us to his Son Jesus Christ.

"I felt it appropriate to write this open letter not only to assure those of you suffering the throes of burdened conscience, metaphorically imprisoned by the forces of religious intolerance headquartered at the Gale School, that liberation is at hand..."