[Sunday] evening’s gath­er­ing at All Saint’s Cathe­dral after tea on the grounds was an Open­ing wor­ship freely flow­ing with hymns brought by West­ern mis­sion­ar­ies yet touched by an African vigor and sway. It also brought var­i­ous speak­ers to the podium to focus our atten­tion on the East African Revival of the 1920s and 30s and which had a sec­ond or renewed out pour­ing of the Holy Spirit in the 1970s. Indeed as the Chan­cel­lor of Uganda Chris­t­ian Uni­ver­sity reminded us in a stir­ring address””“We speak of the East Africa Revival as if it is a relic of his­tory. It is not just a relic”¦not just a move­ment in his­tory; it is a liv­ing move­ment today.” (Para­phrased from my jot­ted notes from his address) This move­ment which has as its cen­ter the Death and Res­ur­rec­tion of Jesus Christ, the call of the Holy Spirit for believ­ers to “Walk in the Light” and the neces­sity of repen­tance, pub­lic con­fes­sion of sins and putting of wrongs right in the believer’s life, as well as a cor­re­spond­ing call for humil­ity and bro­ken­ness, was and remains a mighty pres­ence in the Church in Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and Tan­za­nia. This revival like so many great revivals in his­tory was pre­dom­i­nately a lay move­ment. It calls every man to be a Bible stu­dent, respon­sive to the lead­ing of the Holy Spirit, tran­scend­ing denom­i­na­tional bound­aries yet seek­ing to keep (in the phrase I remem­ber from sev­eral decades ago in the Renewal Move­ment of the 1970s and 80s) “the fire in the fire­place.” Indeed as the Chan­cel­lor noted, from the heart of this liv­ing move­ment today’s Church is pre­sented with some prob­ing questions:

What is the cause of cold­ness and dead­ness in our churches?
Why are peo­ple allowed to come to the Lord’s Table who are liv­ing in known sin?
What can be done to bring revival to the Church?

Read it all.

Appeals to scriptural authority and the urgency of a revival that spread across East Africa characterized the opening session of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in Nairobi, Kenya on Monday. The evening spotlighted the experience of Global South Christians who are both hosting the conference and leading the renewal movement.

“If you are to get anything from East Africa at GAFCON 2, revival begins with an individual,” shared Dr. John Senyonyi of Uganda Christian University. “Revival doesn’t begin with the church, it begins with me when the Holy Spirit convicts me, I bow and say ‘Lord, may you begin with me.'”

Senyonyi was one of several speakers who came to faith through the 1930s-1970s revival, but warned of danger in talking of it as though it were a relic of history when it was a “lived experience” that could be shared in.

Read it all.

A senior figure in the Church of Ireland has criticized members of his own church for being dismissive of Catholics.

Anglican Archbishop Michael Jackson of Dublin also said his members needed to be kinder to fellow Protestants who had married Catholics.

Referring to a recent political debate on abortion, Archbishop Jackson said, “I remember earlier this year the deeply pejorative remarks I heard directed against the Roman Catholic Church by members of these dioceses to me because of its stance and principle on abortion.

“The comments were conversational but it was, more than anything, the assumption of an entitlement to be dismissive more than the criticism of content of the other tradition that came across as instinctive,” he said, writing in The Irish Times newspaper.

Read it all.

It is easy in a gathering like GAFCON to see only the things that set us apart. To hear only the different accents, to have the eye caught up in the beads, and the linen, the silk and the embroidery, and to get lost in colour for a while, and then to continue the worldwide pastime of separating pale and dark. To look around and see only difference. Here. And Here. And Here.

But that would be settling for the surface of things as the way things are. And it is not the way things are for believers.

In the first gathering at GAFCON we sing and pray, and listen to the word of God together, because of our communion, not because of our difference. We sing songs of praise to God because we are thankful that there is something that binds us together that is stronger than cloth, stronger than colour.

Read it all.

TALK about taking control of your own romantic destiny! Amid the quagmire of crazy bride stories we’ve heard this week has emerged a pearler about a woman who got married to, well, herself.

Mary-Anne was apparently so upset at turning 30 without a ring she threw herself a big fake wedding at a five-star venue with about 100 guests.

The Melbourne woman’s wedding planner Sarah McCawley from weddingwish.com.au says it was one of the most memorable weddings she has ever organised.

Read it all.

Clearly this payout trend is unsustainable, but what politician dare touch it?

Social Security is not that difficult a problem in theory (at least in comparison to Medicare), except for the politics of it all. Numerous things could be done to put the system in the green.

Possible Ways to Make Social Security Actuarially Sound

Raise retirement age
Raise or eliminate the cap on payroll taxes
Cut benefits
Collect Social Security on personal income
Implement a Tiered Cap structure
Means Testing

Democrats would oppose 1 and 3. Republicans might oppose all but 3. So, how does this mess end if politicians won’t touch it?

Read it all and make sure to take a careful look at the charts.

–Milwaukee, WI, October 21, 2013

Over the last decade there has been a steady exodus of the faithful out of The Episcopal Church, USA. One congregation, Holy Cross Anglican Church, was one of those. And, after two years of meeting in a classroom for Sunday Worship, Holy Cross is now meeting at 550 N 95th St. Milwaukee 53226.
Holy Cross is growing and helping other grow as followers of Christ as well.
From one of the newer families that have joined us since Spring, 2013 says this about Holy Cross,

Holy Cross is a great place for families to worship together. When our family visited Holy Cross for the first time, we were delighted with how welcoming the congregation is. They didn’t mind that we had our baby with us, or even that she wasn’t perfectly quiet the whole time. In fact, having small children participating in worship is regarded as a blessing by the congregation. At Holy Cross, you will find generations of families worshiping together, being fed by the faithful preaching of the gospel and by the sacraments. For this reason, and for many others, I really believe that the spiritual life of our family is greatly nourished by our involvement at Holy Cross and that it is a great place for our little one to grow in the knowledge and love of the Lord. ”“ Caleb Evans

Holy Cross Anglican Church
Exists to
Make disciples of Jesus Christ,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,
And teaching them to observe all that Christ has commanded us. Matthew 28:19-20

If you would like more information about this church, please contact Fr. Patrick Malone at (262) 207-4113 or email at HolyCrossAnglicanWI [at] gmail[dot] com.

You may find the video here.

Watch it all (a little over 33 minutes).

Update: a short 3 minute video with excerpts from the Press Conference may be found here.

Archbishop Welby’s whirlwind visit to Nairobi on Sunday provided an opportunity for him to take the measure of six Primates and half-a-dozen other key leaders, including the General Secretary of GAFCON, Dr Peter Jensen, and the retired Nigerian Archbishop, the Most Revd Peter Akinola, in a private meeting at All Saints’ Cathedral.

The conservatives also had an opportunity to size up Archbishop Welby. All of those questioned after the meetings expressed a personal regard for the man, but were sceptical that his office could provide a solution to the divisions within the Church if it sought to take a neutral stance.

“Archbishop Welby’s statement ‘The old ways are no longer appropriate, the old structures no longer work,’ given on the eve of GAFCON, give us hope,” Dr Jensen said. Nevertheless, the future envisioned by Archbishop Welby “began with GAFCON 2008”, Dr Jensen said. “It’s time for him to catch up.”

Read it all (scroll to the bottom of the page).

Leaders of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) refuted characterizations in the western press of the gathering as a breakaway movement, with recently retired Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney responding that “nothing could be further from the truth.”

Instead, the FCA General Secretary portrayed the movement as seeking to model how the worldwide Anglican Communion can function “particularly when the Communion insists on strong theological standards” centering on the bible.

“There is a temptation to change Christian faith to comply with surrounding culture,” Dr Jensen observed at the press conference on the opening day, October 21st, 2013. “We think this has occurred far too often in the world.”

Read it all.

We’ve found already just in the first half day how many people from around the world appreciate this website, but also how many are not aware of the material that is available to help resist the tide of pansexualism. Other ministries being displayed range from mission and evangelism, relief and development, and theological education.

One such ministry is BUILD, a programme developed by the Church of Uganda over the past decade. This provides biblically faithful training for local clergy and lay ministers in the midst of the ministry they are already doing. The programme takes them through a series of modules which participants complete in groups and on their own, that systematically build biblical knowledge, practical skills and godly character, in a way that enables them to equip others ”“ so it has a multiplying effect. Hundreds have so far been trained in this way at comparatively low cost. The church is beginning to share the programme with neighbouring Anglican Provinces. Canon Stephen Kewaza has been leading the programme from the COU education department. More can be found on www.buildcurriculum.org . Over the next few days I hope to feature more ministries like this from the global south….
Recently retired Archbishop of Sydney Peter Jensen, the secretary for GAFCON 2, had to briefly fight back tears as was overwhelmed by the reality of the fulfillment of months of hard work and preparation. A list of countries represented was read out, which included Bermuda, Burundi, Fiji, Argentina, Gambia, India, Iran, Mauritius, Myanmar, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Singapore, South Sudan, Uganda, Germany, Sierra Leone and many others. Why are we here? Jensen asked, and said that the structures of the old communion could not contain the new wine of today’s confessing Anglicans. Our task is repentance from “captivity to the world”, and recovery of the true Gospel which leads to transformation. “We are here to support each other especially where there is false teaching in the church, and where there is poverty and persecution.”

Jensen explained that a drafting committee will work on communiqué and statement to be read out at the end of the conference. But a word of warning: “We can plan a conference, but what is God’s plan? What is he going to do? Something different and unusual? How will God manifest his glory here?”

Read it all.

Check it out (Hat tip to Lent and Beyond) .

The Archbishop was visiting Kenya to offer condolence and solidarity following the attack, while encouraging Archbishop Eliud and other bishops and clergy ministering around the Nairobi area.

Following his sermon Archbishop Justin had lunch with Archbishop Eliud, five Kenyan bishops and those Anglican primates who had arrived early in Nairobi for the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), which starts today.

The Archbishop was unable to attend the conference due to a prior engagement in Iceland and the baptism of Prince George in London, but has sent a video greeting.

Read it all.

ARCHBISHOP Stanley Ntagali is expected to lead a delegation of 200 people from Uganda, to attend a global conference of church leaders to discuss the gay crisis in the Anglican Church.

Read it all from an article the day the conference began.

Asked if GAFCON was a breakaway Anglican movement, Secretary of the Primates Council Archbishop Peter Jensen said: “Nothing could be further from the truth. It wishes to work in [and] with the Anglican Communion on the very issues Archbishop Welby mentioned. We seek to model how the communion can be when it insists on strong theological standards.”

Archbishop Welby is clearly taking note of the words of the Primates Council of GAFCON when it met in London in April 2012 and said that the Primates Meeting of the Anglican Communion should elect their own chairman.

This conference was not supposed to happen. There was no trigger event like the Lambeth conference and its invitation to the consecrators of Gene Robinson to attend, which lit the fuse for the first GAFCON in Jerusalem in 2008. GAFCON at Jerusalem was ignored by the Anglican instruments of communion because they did not believe it would happen.

Read it all.

Into thy hands, O Lord, we commend ourselves this day. Let thy presence be with us to its close. Strengthen us to remember that in whatsoever good work we do we are serving thee. Give us a diligent and watchful spirit, that we may seek in all things to know thy will, and knowing it, gladly to perform it, to the honour and glory of thy name; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.

So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual which is first but the physical, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. I tell you this, brethren: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

–1 Corinthians 15:41-50

Amid deep division in the worldwide Anglican Communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby on Sunday emphasized the need for mission and evangelism.

“The more seriously we take the Bible, the more effectively we will be able to deal with our divisions,” Welby said.

Read it all.

Three people, including a girl aged eight, died when gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on a wedding party outside a Coptic Christian church in Cairo.

At least nine others were wounded in the attack in Giza, officials said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Egypt’s Coptic Christian community has been targeted by some Islamists who accuse the Church of backing the army’s overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi in July.

The unidentified attackers fired indiscriminately as people left the church

Read it all

Makes the heart glad–KSH (Photo courtesy of David Ould).

Leading up to this event, African Anglicans said the situation in the global church had gotten worse since 2003. “We have a new Archbishop of Canterbury who is born again and has a testimony,” said Uganda’s Archbishop Stanley Ntagali. “I have personally met him and I like him very much. But, the problems in the communion are still there, and they don’t change just because there is a new global leader. In fact, 10 years later, the crisis has deepened.”

Many African Anglican conservatives draw inspiration for reform from the renowned East Africa revival, which started in Rwanda in the 1930s. “We need to learn from our history,” said Kenya’s Archbishop Eliud Wabukala. “Divisions about the Bible had spread to some missionary organizations in East Africa after the First World War, but the leaders of the East African Revival knew that there could be no true evangelism and no true revival unless the scriptures are allowed to speak as what they really are, the inspired Word of God.”

Read it all.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has made a detour of more than 8,000 miles to visit Kenya – on his way to Iceland.

Archbishop Justin Welby, who arrived on Saturday night, gave sermons at All Saints Cathedral on Sunday morning.

He made the “last-minute” 24-hour trip to offer condolences after the Westgate centre attack, Lambeth Palace said.

He is also meeting conservative Church leaders who are in Nairobi for this week’s conference of the traditionalist Anglican group, Gafcon.

Read it all.

Nairobi conference confirms major realignment in Anglican Communion

Opening news conference, Monday 21st October 2013

The second Global Anglican Future Conference, which opens today in Nairobi, is confirmation that the churches involved in the GAFCON movement are committed to the Anglican Communion and modelling how the communion should operate in the 21st century.

Organisers say the movement has grown since the first conference in Jerusalem in 2008.

“We have exceeded the first GAFCON both in number and reach” said the General Secretary of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, Dr Peter Jensen. “We have also surpassed all expectations here in Nairobi.”

Although initially expecting 1100, the final total is 1,352 Archbishops, Bishops, clergy and lay people, men and women, from almost 40 countries.
The number of bishops attending is 331, of whom 30 are Archbishops.

Read it all

Yet there are troubling signs that Roger Olson and his self-styled “post-conservative” Evangelicals approach Scripture and tradition in ways that are more modernist than orthodox. They refuse to let the Great Tradition (the Catholic-Protestant-Orthodox consensus which C.S. Lewis dubbed “mere Christianity”) ever trump an individual’s interpretation of Scripture. This is what can be called nuda scriptura””the idea that the Bible is self-interpreting, needing only the Christian individual to make sense of it. In contrast, Martin Luther’s sola scriptura used the great creeds to fight for the primacy of Scripture over late medieval tradition.

Olson asserts that the Great Tradition has been wrong in the past, which just goes to show that all tradition is “always . . . in need of correction and reform.” Evangelicals should reject any appeal to “what has always been believed by Christians generally” because tradition by nature protects vested interests. The creeds are simply “man-made statements.” They all need to be re-examined for possible “revisioning of doctrine” based on a fresh reading of scripture. Nothing is sacrosanct, everything is on the table. Only the Bible is finally authoritative. But even that is too often mistaken for revelation itself, which in reality consists more of the “acts of God” in history than the words of the Bible. Post-conservatives tend to reject the idea that the actual words of the Bible are inspired, and often prefer to speak of “dynamic inspiration,” in which the biblical authors but not their words are inspired.

Read it all from First Things.

This photo is just wonderful and made my morning brighter. It is on the front page top of the (London) Times Ipad edition–KSH.

For these two United Methodist men, the only thing missing from their love story is a holy ceremony officiated and blessed by a United Methodist pastor in the presence of their family and friends in Birmingham, Ala.

That day will come on Oct. 26, and retired United Methodist Bishop Melvin Talbert will officiate at their wedding.

[Joe] Openshaw, [Bobby] Prince and [Bishop Melvin] Talbert are publicly defying the denomination’s law book, which states marriage is only between a man and a woman and that no ordained United Methodist elder can officiate at a same-sex union.

They do this knowing the consequences.

Read it all.

More than 30 United Methodist pastors from Eastern Pennsylvania have agreed to jointly officiate a same-sex marriage next month, an unprecedented showing of solidarity for an embattled colleague that could lead to their ouster from the pulpit.

The colleague is the Rev. Frank Schaefer, who faces a Nov. 18 church trial in Chester County for officiating at the 2007 marriage between his son and another man.

Schaefer’s fellow pastors call that an act of love, not a prosecutable offense. They gathered Thursday at a Philadelphia church and, after more than two hours, agreed to preside as a group at a same-sex marriage, a step they hope jolts the larger church.

Read it all.

Bishop Robert Paterson says without an injection of public funds – or a massive donation from private sources – many of the 45 Anglican churches will become un-usable within 20-30 years.

Some need expensive structural repairs and the bishop says smaller congregations simply won’t be able to raise the funds needed to put things right.

Read and listen to it all.

First, I am an Anglican because it is biblical. I appreciate the great authority that Anglicanism gives to Scripture. Article 6 of the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion states that the Bible is the ultimate and final authority in all matters of faith, and nothing should be taught as doctrine or necessary for salvation that is not clearly taught in Scripture. Moreover, I believe that Anglicanism rightly places Scripture at the very center of all its ministries (e.g., liturgy), devotion (e.g., Book of Common Prayer), and foundational documents. It wants to immerse God’s people in the Scriptures.

Second, I am an Anglican because it is historical. I appreciate Anglicanism’s respect for the history and tradition of the Church. While its official conception took place in the mid-16th century, it still identifies itself with the catholic Church of the centuries prior to the Reformation. It seeks unity with the historic Church. As such, it receives and affirms the Apostle’s, Nicene, and Athanasian creeds as authoritative summaries of what Scripture teaches and what the Church believes. Also, it follows the traditional church calendar and draws wisdom from many of the great theologians of the past (e.g., Article 29 mentions Saint Augustine).Read it all.

Iran’s positive attitude in its negotiations with the US, Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia over its nuclear programme marks a clear shift in policy.

This welcome development, seen during the past week in talks in Geneva, follows Tehran’s willingness to go along with the Russian-initiated deal on chemical weapons in Syria ”“ where Iran is backing the Assad regime. The Islamic Republic appears to be softening its longstanding policies in favour of a more conciliatory approach. The shift is caused by the country’s long-term decline in the Middle East ”“ and Tehran’s recognition that it must act on this decline. Iran’s stance will hold the key to a number of interlocking regional conflicts, so identifying its cause helps shape policy responses to it.Read it all.