The Episcopal Church Office of Public Affairs

Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop’s office notifies Diocese of Los Angeles of successful canonical consent process

Bishop-Elect Glasspool ordination and consecration on May 15

March 17, 2010

The Governance of The Episcopal Church: This information is another in an ongoing series discussing the governance of The Episcopal Church.
The Office of Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has notified the Diocese of Los Angeles that the canonical consent process for Bishop-Elect Mary Douglas Glasspool has been successfully completed.

As outlined under Canon III.11.4 (a), the Presiding Bishop confirmed the receipt of consents from a majority of bishops with jurisdiction, and has also reviewed the evidence of consents from a majority of standing committees of the Church sent to her by the diocesan standing committee.

In Canon III.11.4 (b), Standing Committees, in consenting to the ordination and consecration, attest they are “fully sensible of how important it is that the Sacred Order and Office of a Bishop should not be unworthily conferred, and firmly persuaded that it is our duty to bear testimony on this solemn occasion without partiality, do, in the presence of Almighty God, testify that we know of no impediment on account of which the Reverend A.B. ought not to be ordained to that Holy Office. We do, moreover, jointly and severally declare that we believe the Reverend A.B. to have been duly and lawfully elected and to be of such sufficiency in learning, of such soundness in the Faith, and of such godly character as to be able to exercise the Office of a Bishop to the honor of God and the edifying of the Church, and to be a wholesome example to the flock of Christ.”

Glasspool was elected Bishop Suffragan on December 5, 2009. Her ordination and consecration is slated for May 15; Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori will officiate.

A recap of the process

Upon election, the successful candidate is a bishop-elect. Following some procedural matters including physical and psychological examinations, formal notices are then sent by the Presiding Bishop’s office to bishops with jurisdiction (diocesan bishops only) with separate notices from the electing diocese to the standing committees of each of the dioceses in The Episcopal Church. These notices require their own actions and signatures.

In order for a bishop-elect to become a bishop, Canon III.11.4 (a) of The Episcopal Church mandates that a majority of diocesan bishops AND a majority of diocesan standing committees must consent to the bishop-elect’s ordination and consecration as bishop. These actions ”“ done separately – must be completed within 120 days from the day notice of the election was sent to the proper parties.

If the bishop-elect receives a majority (at least 50% plus 1) of consents from the diocesan bishops as well as a majority from the standing committees, the bishop-elect is one step closer. Following a successful consent process, ordination and celebration are in order.

From a letter to the editor here:

The full-page ad in the March 2 Post and Courier by The Episcopal Forum of S.C. begs for a response.

Some may respond by becoming members, others by raised eyebrows. My response is bemused and unpersuaded.

As a life-long Episcopalian, former dean of one of the Episcopal Church’s 11 seminaries, ordained priest for 49 years and author of several books including “A Church To Believe In,” I am less enthusiastic about the current state of the Episcopal Church (TEC) than members of the forum appear to be.

And I say this as someone who has visited nearly every diocese in this church, including Alaska and Hawaii, and preached or spoken in most. Also, I am a convinced Anglican with a deep loyalty to our Anglican heritage.

In its description of “I am an Episcopalian” the forum touches on many issues with which I have great sympathy: the dignity of every person, our ancient liturgy, women’s ordination, lay involvement and the world-wide body of 70 million members of which we are a part.

What it does not say as clearly as it ought is that this worldwide body, the Anglican Communion, is profoundly upset with the current activities of the Episcopal Church, to the point that a majority of its Primates (chief bishops in each international province) consider themselves in broken communion with it, and increasingly are officially recognizing the newly-formed Anglican Church of North America as a more authentic representative of true Anglicanism in this continent.

Why?

— Leading bishops and theologians of the Episcopal Church, including the presiding bishop, will not affirm Jesus Christ as the unique Son of God and the only way to salvation.

— While the Bible is mined for interesting theological ideas, TEC is unwilling to submit to the clear teaching of Scripture on many issues, including those of marriage and sexuality.

— TEC has consistently sided in its affirmations with the pro-abortion forces within government and society.

— Far from honoring differences, as the forum says, TEC is involved in more than 60 lawsuits against its own churches and dioceses whom it considers unEpiscopalian because they cannot follow present leadership of TEC because of its lack of adherence to traditional Christian beliefs.

— TEC’s presiding bishop has consistently assumed powers that are uncanonical, and thereby unlawful under TEC’s own laws and constitution, and freely removes bishops and clergy who openly differ with her.

— In flagrant refusal to submit to worldwide Christian opinion, it has ordained a noncelibate homosexual as a bishop and is poised to ordain others as bishops who similarly live in relationships that disregard the biblical norm for sexuality.

— TEC’s House of Bishops will not discipline fellow members who widely disseminate outrageously unChristian views with impunity.

I believe that the vast majority of Episcopalians in the Diocese of South Carolina question the forum’s understanding of the Faith and Order to which we all have pledged allegiance.

Rather, we stand firmly and lovingly with our bishop and those clergy and laity who carry on effective ministries in Christ’s name throughout this Diocese.

THE VERY REV. PETER C. MOORE, D.D.
Ponsbury Road
Mount Pleasant

There are other doomsday scenarios out there, but the story is always the same. A lot of media hype, catalyzed by people’s irrational fear of the unknown. The notion of celestial apocalypse is very old indeed, and will probably stay with us for a while. We see a transposition of language, from the skies falling on our heads to more precise, science-inspired scenarios. Those who believe this kind of apocalyptic hype are simply refusing to learn from 400 years of modern science, preferring to live their lives with their eyes wide shut.

But I don’t want to end on a bad note. There is some good to this movement, in particular when it asks for a new “global spiritual awakening,” a move toward the betterment of humanity. How could anyone not want this? What saddens me is that it seems that only fear can mobilize people to make a change, be it for the worse or for the better.

Read it all.

Four bishops, 40 priests and thousands of parishioners from the Traditional Anglican Communion will petition the Vatican by Easter to be received into the Catholic Church.

Archbishop John Hepworth of Adelaide, primate of the TAC, said 26 parishes in Western Australia, Tasmania, NSW, Victoria, far north Queensland and South Australia hoped to be united with Rome by the end of the year.

The move comes as 100 Anglican parishes in the US and some in Canada have announced their decisions to convert to Catholicism en masse, voting to take up an offer made by Pope Benedict XVI in November in his apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus (On Groups of Anglicans). The initiative allows Anglican bishops, priests and entire congregations, if they wish, to join Rome.

Read it all.

(WCC News) “We need to emphasize time and again the sense of mutuality and interdependence as the basis of relationships between Christians”, said Dr Jenny Plane Te Paa, convener of the Anglican Peace and Justice Network (APJN). This is especially important at a time when “denominations are increasingly worried with internal, identity-centred issues and therefore risk a credibility crisis”, she added.

Te Paa was speaking at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland, after a meeting of the APJN members with staff of the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation and the World Student Christian Federation on Monday, 15 March.

“We all tend to claim our differences in ways that prevent us from acknowledging our commonalities, so that within the churches, the fidelity to our denominations becomes more important than our higher fidelity to our oneness in Christ”, said Te Paa. “Only a theology of mutuality can help us to transcend this through a truly ecumenical attitude”, she concluded.

Read it all.

What should Christians be doing?

The first task of the church is to be the church, because only when you do that do you have the ability to be a witness to the wider society. It is only when you worship God that you are then able to say what is true. Most Americans think that everyone believes in God. The God most Americans believe in is not the God of Jesus Christ. (For instance) Christians can’t assume that it’s okay to be in the military.

The title of your lecture is intriguing: “Why No One Wants to Die in America.” What does that mean?

It means that we live in a society that’s in deep death denial. Assuming that most Christians live like other people, thinking they can get out of life alive. It’s not going to happen. People care more about who their doctor is today than who their priest or minister is. Most Christians live lives of practical atheism. … Atheism isn’t explicitly a denial of God, it’s to live in a way that God does not matter.

—Theologian Stanley Hauerwas in a 2007 interview with the St. Petersburg Times

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s figures, Idaho has grown in population from 1,293,953 in 2000 to 1,545,801 in 2009. This represents a population growth of approximately 19.46%.

According to Episcopal Church statistics, the Diocese of Idaho went from Average Sunday Attendance (or ASA) of 2,061 in 1998 to 1,732 in 2008. This represents an ASA decline of about 16% over this ten year period.

In order to generate a pictorial chart of diocesan statistics, please go [url=http://www.episcopalchurch.org/growth_60791_ENG_HTM.htm?menupage=50929]here[/url] and enter “Idaho” in the second line down under “Diocese” and then click on “View Diocese Chart” under the third line to the left.

The Diocese of Idaho’s website may be found here.

A parable: A few years ago I was part of a group that organized a large celebration event in the University Concert Hall in Cambridge. In one item we asked the whole orchestra to improvise on a given melodic shape and chord structure, in the midst of a giant chorus of praise sung by a sizable congregation. The majority of players were Christian. But some were not, among them a 14-year-old in the second violins. Later, she told others that she came to faith during this extravagant extemporization. Normally when she played in an orchestra she would play exactly the same notes as the seven others in a second violin section. Here, for the first time in her musical life, she discovered her own “voice,” but she found it through trusting, and being trusted by, others””and in the context of praise.

What was enacted for that girl through music was what the New Testament describes as koinonia, variously translated as fellowship,” “communion,” “togetherness,” “sharing.” In the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles we are told that on the Day of Pentecost, with the coming of the Spirit, three thousand converts devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers and had all things in common. Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s metaphor of polyphony comes to mind here. In polyphony, more than one melody is played or sung simultaneously, each moving to some extent independently of the others. A central cantus firmus gives coherence and enables the other parts to flourish in relation to one another. Bonhoeffer uses the image to speak of the relation between our love of God and the loves and desires that shape the rest of our lives. But we could also use it to speak of the relation of Jesus Christ to his church, and us to one another. polyphony of the Trinity, and by the Spirit we are granted, through him, a share in this trinitarian “enchantment.” Christians are thus polyphonic people. At Pentecost, in opening the disciples and crowds to Jesus Christ and his Father, the Spirit opens people out to one another. Those otherwise closed in on themselves””because of language, culture, race, religion””now find themselves resonating with one another, communicating, and living together in radically new ways. Later, Jew is reconciled to Gentile, the stubborn apartheid of that time subverted. People become responsive to one another, tuned in to one another (the reversal of Babel, where confusion and dissonance reigned). But uniqueness is not erased; the crowds in Jerusalem were not given one language. They heard each other in their “own tongues” or “native languages.”

More than this, as the New Testament makes abundantly clear, the Spirit not only allows difference but also promotes it: in 1 Corinthians 12, where Paul speaks of the church as the Body of Christ, the Spirit generates and promotes diversity, allotting “to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.” I discover who I am in koinonia””as I am loved and as I love in the power of the Spirit, with a forgiving love, rooted in God and now opened out to us through Good Friday, Easter, and Pentecost. My identity is discovered not despite but above all in and through relationships of this kind. The contemporary Greek Orthodox theologian, John Zizioulas is sometimes cited in this connection, in his insistence that my particularity is discovered in ecstatic love, “a movement toward communion,” as I am turned outward, as I am directed by and toward another person in love. We have all known what it is to greet at the station or airport a very close friend we have not seen for years: we don’t care what we look like; we run toward that person with a self-forgetful joy. We recall the father running out to greet the prodigal son, and the son discovering who he really is as he is embraced. Such is the ecstatic love at the heart of the Triune God, in which we are invited to share.

–Jeremy Begbie, Resounding Truth: Christian Wisdom in the World of Music (Baker, 1997)

By some measures, the success of the Xavier men’s basketball team rests not with a sharpshooting guard or a ball-hawking forward. Rather, it rests largely with a 5-foot-4, white-haired 77-year-old nun not afraid to rap on dormitory doors or to call players before dawn to ask about missed classes or late assignments.

Xavier, a Jesuit university in Cincinnati, is entering the N.C.A.A. tournament seeded sixth in the West Region with a 24-8 record. But Sister Rose Ann Fleming is a perfect 77-0. Since she became the academic adviser for Xavier athletics in 1985, every men’s basketball player who has played as a senior has left with a diploma.

“Sometimes, she’ll schedule an appointment or an academic meeting right in the middle of practice,” said Xavier Coach Chris Mack, whose team will play Minnesota in the first round on Friday. “I’ll say, ”˜Sister, we have practice at 4.’ She’ll say, ”˜No, this is important.’ ”

Read it all.

By some measures, the success of the Xavier men’s basketball team rests not with a sharpshooting guard or a ball-hawking forward. Rather, it rests largely with a 5-foot-4, white-haired 77-year-old nun not afraid to rap on dormitory doors or to call players before dawn to ask about missed classes or late assignments.

Xavier, a Jesuit university in Cincinnati, is entering the N.C.A.A. tournament seeded sixth in the West Region with a 24-8 record. But Sister Rose Ann Fleming is a perfect 77-0. Since she became the academic adviser for Xavier athletics in 1985, every men’s basketball player who has played as a senior has left with a diploma.

“Sometimes, she’ll schedule an appointment or an academic meeting right in the middle of practice,” said Xavier Coach Chris Mack, whose team will play Minnesota in the first round on Friday. “I’ll say, ”˜Sister, we have practice at 4.’ She’ll say, ”˜No, this is important.’ ”

Read it all.

This is not a nation of teetotalers or regular exercisers, new government data show.

The National Health Interview Survey, based on telephone interviews with 79,000 adults over three years, has found:

Ӣ61% of people in the USA drink alcohol. These are adults who have had at least 12 drinks in their lifetime and at least one drink in the past year.

”¢31% of people do enough regular leisure-time physical activity to get health benefits ”” that is, moderate exercise for 30 minutes five times a week or vigorous activity for 20 minutes three times a week.

Read it all.

To mark the Dying Matters Coalition’s first Awareness Week (15th-21st March 2010), the Church of England is encouraging churchgoers to talk openly about dying and death, in a new podcast suitable for sermon and housegroup use.

Within the four-minute podcast, available here, Dying Matters’ director Hilary Fisher says: “I think it’s absolutely fantastic that the Church of England has joined the Coalition because they have such an important role in the community.”

She adds on the subject of breaking down the wall of silence that exists around death, dying and bereavement issues: “The only way we’re going to get people talking about dying is for you to talk to your neighbours, to talk to your friends, to talk to your loved ones, to talk to the people that you see in church.

Read it all.

Government and third sectors will work together over the next five years to tackle key environmental issues such as climate change and sustainable development, according to the vision set out in Shaping our future, a new report published this month.

The report is the work of the joint Ministerial and Third Sector Task Force, set up in April 2009, involving ministers and officials from Defra, the Office of the Third Sector, the Department for Energy and Climate Change, the Department for Communities and Local Government and 16 third sector organisations.

They jointly agreed a vision for 2015, that: ”˜The third sector shapes the future by mobilising and inspiring others to tackle climate change and maximising the social, economic and environmental opportunities of action.”

Read it all.

Government and third sectors will work together over the next five years to tackle key environmental issues such as climate change and sustainable development, according to the vision set out in Shaping our future, a new report published this month.

The report is the work of the joint Ministerial and Third Sector Task Force, set up in April 2009, involving ministers and officials from Defra, the Office of the Third Sector, the Department for Energy and Climate Change, the Department for Communities and Local Government and 16 third sector organisations.

They jointly agreed a vision for 2015, that: ”˜The third sector shapes the future by mobilising and inspiring others to tackle climate change and maximising the social, economic and environmental opportunities of action.”

Read it all.

Yet it is adults who make a marriage, not children. When I interviewed the Dalai Lama a few years ago , the celibate monk lectured me first on the perils of masturbation and then on my relationship. “Too many people in the West have given up on marriage,” he said. “They don’t understand that it is about developing a mutual admiration of someone, a deep respect and trust and awareness of another’s needs.”

Many of the elderly people I have interviewed over the past 20 years have felt more passionately about marriage than anything else in their lives. The 89-year-old Duchess of Devonshire, the last surviving Mitford sister, said: “The perfect marriage is about companionship and friendship, but we don’t give it a chance to flourish. The middle part can be very difficult, but in my generation often those who were miserable for a bit ended up as close as can be.”

Read it all.

Yet it is adults who make a marriage, not children. When I interviewed the Dalai Lama a few years ago , the celibate monk lectured me first on the perils of masturbation and then on my relationship. “Too many people in the West have given up on marriage,” he said. “They don’t understand that it is about developing a mutual admiration of someone, a deep respect and trust and awareness of another’s needs.”

Many of the elderly people I have interviewed over the past 20 years have felt more passionately about marriage than anything else in their lives. The 89-year-old Duchess of Devonshire, the last surviving Mitford sister, said: “The perfect marriage is about companionship and friendship, but we don’t give it a chance to flourish. The middle part can be very difficult, but in my generation often those who were miserable for a bit ended up as close as can be.”

Read it all.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said Monday it opposes the Democratic health care plan heading for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives because of its language on abortion.

The group noted that it liked the House health care bill because it would continue the strict ban on federal financing of abortion. But it said the Senate version would open the door to federal financing, and it is the Senate version heading to the House for a vote.

Senate Democrats have insisted their bill would not allow federal financing of abortion, but George and the Catholic group disagreed.

“The Catholic bishops regretfully hold that it must be opposed unless and until these serious moral problems are addressed,” said Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, the president of the conference.

Read it all.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said Monday it opposes the Democratic health care plan heading for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives because of its language on abortion.

The group noted that it liked the House health care bill because it would continue the strict ban on federal financing of abortion. But it said the Senate version would open the door to federal financing, and it is the Senate version heading to the House for a vote.

Senate Democrats have insisted their bill would not allow federal financing of abortion, but George and the Catholic group disagreed.

“The Catholic bishops regretfully hold that it must be opposed unless and until these serious moral problems are addressed,” said Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, the president of the conference.

Read it all.

The Anglican Catholic Church of Canada is formally seeking union with the Holy See under the provisions of the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus.

Read it all.

The Anglican Catholic Church of Canada is formally seeking union with the Holy See under the provisions of the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus.

Read it all.

As an Anglican seminarian from an Evangelical background I was introduced to the concept of the via media or ‘middle way.’ It was explained that the Anglican faith was a ‘middle way’ between the extremes of Protestantism and Catholicism. Anglicans were meant to be open to the truths to which both Protestants and Catholics witnessed. In matters of liturgy, sacred music, spirituality and doctrine the Anglican was meant to be informed by both the Catholic and the Reformed traditions. While this was good in theory, as Cardinal Newman observed, in practice the via media was no more than a good idea.

It was no more than a good idea because no one actually practiced the Anglican via media, or if they did, they did not do so for long. That’s because Christianity is a dogmatic religion. We need to have a firm set of beliefs to undergird our religious practice, and everything else in our religion needs to be an outgrowth of what we believe. Unfortunately for those who wish to follow the Anglican ‘middle way’ Protestant and Catholic beliefs contradict more often then they complement one another.

Therefore, while it may be possible to worship in a way that combines Catholic and Protestant traditions, it is impossible to hold to both Protestant and Catholic beliefs at the same time. Consequently Anglicans end up being either Anglo Catholic or Evangelical. The only stream of Anglicanism which, it might be argued, holds to the via media are the mainstream liberals, but that is not because they hold the Catholic and Protestant beliefs in balance, but because they don’t really believe in either. Their via media is really more of a via negativa–not a middle way, but a negative way.

A case can be made, however, for a new understanding of the Anglican via media.

Read it all.

As an Anglican seminarian from an Evangelical background I was introduced to the concept of the via media or ‘middle way.’ It was explained that the Anglican faith was a ‘middle way’ between the extremes of Protestantism and Catholicism. Anglicans were meant to be open to the truths to which both Protestants and Catholics witnessed. In matters of liturgy, sacred music, spirituality and doctrine the Anglican was meant to be informed by both the Catholic and the Reformed traditions. While this was good in theory, as Cardinal Newman observed, in practice the via media was no more than a good idea.

It was no more than a good idea because no one actually practiced the Anglican via media, or if they did, they did not do so for long. That’s because Christianity is a dogmatic religion. We need to have a firm set of beliefs to undergird our religious practice, and everything else in our religion needs to be an outgrowth of what we believe. Unfortunately for those who wish to follow the Anglican ‘middle way’ Protestant and Catholic beliefs contradict more often then they complement one another.

Therefore, while it may be possible to worship in a way that combines Catholic and Protestant traditions, it is impossible to hold to both Protestant and Catholic beliefs at the same time. Consequently Anglicans end up being either Anglo Catholic or Evangelical. The only stream of Anglicanism which, it might be argued, holds to the via media are the mainstream liberals, but that is not because they hold the Catholic and Protestant beliefs in balance, but because they don’t really believe in either. Their via media is really more of a via negativa–not a middle way, but a negative way.

A case can be made, however, for a new understanding of the Anglican via media.

Read it all.

Almighty God, who in thy providence didst choose thy servant Patrick to be the apostle of the Irish people, to bring those who were wandering in darkness and error to the true light and knowledge of thee: Grant us so to walk in that light, that we may come at last to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever.

Almighty God, who in thy providence didst choose thy servant Patrick to be the apostle of the Irish people, to bring those who were wandering in darkness and error to the true light and knowledge of thee: Grant us so to walk in that light, that we may come at last to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever.

Joseph’s…brothers also came and fell down before him, and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” But Joseph said to them, “Fear not, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he reassured them and comforted them.

–Genesis 50: 18-21

Joseph’s…brothers also came and fell down before him, and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” But Joseph said to them, “Fear not, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he reassured them and comforted them.

–Genesis 50: 18-21

Almighty God, who has taught us in thy holy Word that the law was given by Moses, but that grace and truth came by Jesus Christ: Grant that we, being not under the law but under grace, may live as children of that Jerusalem which is above, and rejoice in the freedom of our heavenly citizenship; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

Almighty God, who has taught us in thy holy Word that the law was given by Moses, but that grace and truth came by Jesus Christ: Grant that we, being not under the law but under grace, may live as children of that Jerusalem which is above, and rejoice in the freedom of our heavenly citizenship; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

A video posted on a militant Web site calls for Muslims in Nigeria to use “the sword and the spear” to rise up against Christians in Africa’s most populous nation, according to a translation released Tuesday by a U.S. group that monitors militant sites.

The video on the Ansar al-Mujahideen forum, a Web site sympathetic to al-Qaida, comes in the wake of a series of religious massacres and riots in central Nigeria. The video shows television news footage and graphic images of those killed as a narrator tells viewers “the solution is jihad in the cause of Allah,” according to a translation provided by the SITE Intelligence Group.

“Negotiations, dialogues and protests will not stop the advancement of the enemies and their massacres,” the narrator says. “Nothing will stop them but the sword and the spear.”

The narrator also says the “crusader West” is interested in Nigeria for its abundant oil reserves. He also refers to President Umaru Yar’Adua, a Muslim from northern Nigeria, as a “tyrant” who allowed for the killing of a sect leader whose group’s attacks on police stations and rioting left more than 700 people dead in July.

Read it all.

A video posted on a militant Web site calls for Muslims in Nigeria to use “the sword and the spear” to rise up against Christians in Africa’s most populous nation, according to a translation released Tuesday by a U.S. group that monitors militant sites.

The video on the Ansar al-Mujahideen forum, a Web site sympathetic to al-Qaida, comes in the wake of a series of religious massacres and riots in central Nigeria. The video shows television news footage and graphic images of those killed as a narrator tells viewers “the solution is jihad in the cause of Allah,” according to a translation provided by the SITE Intelligence Group.

“Negotiations, dialogues and protests will not stop the advancement of the enemies and their massacres,” the narrator says. “Nothing will stop them but the sword and the spear.”

The narrator also says the “crusader West” is interested in Nigeria for its abundant oil reserves. He also refers to President Umaru Yar’Adua, a Muslim from northern Nigeria, as a “tyrant” who allowed for the killing of a sect leader whose group’s attacks on police stations and rioting left more than 700 people dead in July.

Read it all.