The Holy Spirit Excuse

A couple of months ago I read the announcement that the Episcopal Sect of Brazil had voted to permit same-sex marriages, and I noted the use of the "Holy Spirit Excuse". This is where almost any innovation can be justified because it is supposedly endorsed by a movement of the Holy Spirit on the issue.

"The General Synod of the Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil – the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil (IEAB) has approved changes to its canons to permit same-sex marriages. Civil same-sex marriages have been legal in Brazil since 2012. 

The decision would not require liturgical changes, the IEAB said in a statement, because gender neutral language had already been introduced into its service for the solemnization of marriage in the 2015 Book of Common Prayer. 

The move was overwhelmingly carried by the Synod members with 57 voting in favour and three against; there were two abstentions. 

'Canonical changes were approved in an environment filled by the Holy Spirit and with mutual love and respect,' the IEAB said in a statement. 'It was preceded by long, deep and spiritual dialogue. This dialogue formally started in 1997, but had been going on much earlier, and reached the whole Province since then through indabas, conferences, consultations, prayers, biblical and theological publications.'”

I am sorry, but the Holy Spirit does not act to contradict God's word no matter how long and deep and  spiritual you think you have indaba-ed about an innovation.

This was the same excuse that was used when Gene Robinson was elected, the same excuse when same sex marriage blessings were approved, and I am sure that it will be used with whatever comes up next.

Whenever someone pulls out the Holy Spirit excuse, stop and test it against scripture and tradition before you accept it as a real possibility.

St. Paul: "Pray also for me"

In this Sunday's reading from Ephesians 6:10-20 Paul uses the imagery of an armed soldier to illustrate the fact that we are at war against a formidable enemy,

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." 

This selection ends with Paul reminding the Ephesians that there is one more weapon in the arsenal that he and they need before marching off to battle,

"Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak."

 When we pray for our bishops, priests, and deacons, pray that they too may be given a message to make known with boldness the mystery of the Gospel, that they might be men with chests, wearing the whole armor of God.

And priests, pray that your congregants might be similarly armed as they go out into the world proclaiming the Gospel!

How to Build a Youth Ministry... Not!

The Anglican Church of Canada has been in decline for years. They have lost members as fast as the Episcopalians in the U.S. have been losing. In 2005, a study presented to Anglican bishops reportedly showed,

"...at the present rate of decline - a loss of 13,000 members per year - only one Anglican would be left in Canada by 2061."

What is driving Canadians away from the Anglican Church of Canada? Many say that it is the secularization of society. While that is likely to be one cause of the decline, false teachings and spiritually dead clergy are real millstones around the neck of the Church that are dragging it down.

Over at the Anglican Samizdat blog, example after example of false teachers and erring bishops and priests have been presented. The most recent example being of one the Rév'd Jean-Daniel who acts as Assistant Priest (Children, youth, families, and students) at Christ Church Cathedral (Montreal) and Christian Chaplain at McGill and the Université de Montréal.

Christ Church Cathedral's web site reveals that they fly the rainbow flag with pride,

"Christ Church Cathedral prides itself on being fully welcoming and affirming of LGBTQ members of our community. We display the rainbow flag near our front doors as a way of honouring this commitment publicly. In recent years, as an important part of our outreach, we have participated in the community day and the parade as part of the Montréal Pride festivities. 
While there exists no formal LGBTQ group at the Cathedral, we host activities on a regular basis which bring together those who are interested in participating. We have held OUT masses, seasonal get-togethers, BBQs and discussion groups."

All this helps explain the presence of the Rev'd Jean-Daniel at the Cathedral and why his bizarre beliefs are welcomed by some of the ever dwindling numbers of Anglicans in Canada.

Anglican Samzidat posted the following tweet from "rév Jean-Daniel  ⚜️ ⛪ 🎒 🌈 Pasteur jeunesse/youth pastor; aumonier/chaplain @McGillU ; père de jumelles parfaites/daddy to perfect twins; simply Christian in heaven, Anglican on earth"

"When, 'Hey, would you like to learn about Jesus?' doesn't work, I try, 'Hey, can you help me build a mutually supportive community to overthrow the cisheteronormative capitalist patriarchal classist empire and bring about a renewed creation?'
Because that's what I mean."

Oh yeah, that will really draw the youth to the Christ.

When people use language like, "cisheteronormative capitalist patriarchal classist empire", I usually assume that they are over-educated, over-indulged, pompous progressives who are clueless as to what spreading the Gospel really entails.

Another tweet from Jean-Daniel's twitter feed proves me right,

"People say academia is too esoteric and hyperspecialised.
But until there is a tenured position as professor of religous themes in young adult literature, and I have it, I say, 'It isn't enough yet.'"
9:18 PM - 2 Aug 2018

The wannabe future tenured professor of "religous" themes in young adult literature had better start using spell-check if he hopes to get that highly coveted position at McGill University.

The false gospel of revisionist, progressive ideology will fail in the long run as young people are smart enough to figure out that the men, women, and transexuals in clerical dress are puffed up, hyper-specialized idiots who haven't a clue as to how to live and breathe the Gospel of Christ.

Unless Jesus intervenes, the prediction that "only one Anglican would be left in Canada by 2061" will  indeed be shown to be correct.

St. Paul's Advice: Go Ahead and Sing Those Psalms and Hymns

Every chorister needs to memorize these verses when confronted by someone who wants a music free church service (we had an 8 o'clock service that was just that).

"Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." 

Ephesians 5:15-20

In my experience, singing the psalms takes practice and is not something that the average pewsitter can participate in. Nevertheless, the choir can get a lot out of their efforts, and in some parishes the choir may outnumber the pewsitters, particularly during special services and on Holy Days, so those are good times to let the choir sing the psalms.

If your spirit is in need of a little boost, here are over 2 hours of psalms sung to Anglican Chant by the  Westminster Choir directed by Martin Neary,

A Brief Observation

During the Obama years, this blog used to get regular visits from a Department of Justice computer (don't ask how I know). Since President Trump was sworn in, those visits have stopped.

Hmmm....

The World's Best Bread Recipe Ever

There are few aromas that people find as alluring as that of fresh baked bread. I can imagine primitive man walking miles to return home or to the next village when he smelled that. The only other primitive aroma that might rival bread is a barbeque after a fresh kill.

The world is hungry for a great bread recipe. It need look no further than John 6:35,41-51

"Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 

Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ They were saying, ‘Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, “I have come down from heaven”?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, “And they shall all be taught by God.” Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’"

Jesus not only is the best bread you will ever taste, but he also provides the best drink as well.

Try it, you'll love it.

It is the best thing since sliced bread.

The Anglican Reformation Began in 2008 - Stephen Noll

Just as trying to pin down a date for the Protestant Reformation has proven to be problematic, where to draw a mark on the timeline of history for the Anglican Reformation will forever be debated (if Anglicanism survives as an important Christian entity).

Stephen Noll has written extensively on the rift in the Anglican Communion and states that the 2008  Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) marked the beginning of the Anglican Reformation, although the roots had sprouted at least 5 years earlier as he describes in his "Commentary on the 2018 GAFCON Letter to the Churches Part Five: Reforming God’s Church",

"I have documented (see Essay 4 of my book and also here) the rejection of Lambeth I.10 and the failure of the Instruments to discipline the Episcopal Church in the years that followed the 1998 Lambeth Conference, culminating in the consecration of an openly homosexual bishop in 2003. The so-called 'Windsor process,' which occupied much time and expense, warned that the actions of the Episcopal Church might 'tear the fabric of the Communion at its deepest level' but then did nothing about it. The responsibility for the failure of the Instruments of Communion to discipline those who had violated biblical doctrine and morals is unequally placed: the Primates, especially those from the Global South, called repeatedly for repentance and obedience throughout this period and most clearly in 2007, but their call was undercut and ultimately negated by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Communion Office. 

As Lambeth 2008 approached with no resolution of the crisis, Archbishop Peter Akinola commissioned a Statement for the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa (CAPA), titled 'The Road to Lambeth,' which warned:
The current situation is a twofold crisis for the Anglican Communion: a crisis of doctrine and a crisis of leadership, in which the failure of the 'Instruments' of the Communion to exercise discipline, has called into question the viability of the Anglican Communion as a united Christian body under a common foundation of faith, as is supposed by the Lambeth Quadrilateral. Due to this breakdown of discipline, we are not sure that we can in good conscience continue to spend our time, our money and our prayers on behalf of a body that proclaims two Gospels, the Gospel of Christ and the Gospel of Sexuality. 

 We must therefore receive assurances from the Primates and the Archbishop of Canterbury that this crisis will be resolved before a Lambeth Conference is convened. There is no point, in our view, in meeting and meeting and not resolving the fundamental crisis of Anglican identity. We will definitely not attend any Lambeth Conference to which the violators of the Lambeth Resolution are also invited as participants or observers. 

Archbishop Rowan Williams ignored 'The Road to Lambeth' and invited all the bishops of the Episcopal Church except Bishop Gene Robinson (note: the offense was not just Robinson’s example but the teaching of those who elected and consecrated him, as Jesus makes clear in Matthew 5:19 and 18:5-6). 

In consequence, the Global Anglican Future Conference met in Jerusalem in June 2008. A reformation had begun."

I hate to argue with Dr. Noll, but I will believe it when I see a wholesale rejection by GAFCON bishops of their invitations to the next Lambeth gathering. If that happens this next time around, I will name GAFCON 2018 as the beginning of the Anglican Reformation because as long as people remain in communion with Canterbury,  reformation will be tethered to the dead weight of the Church of England, the Episcopal sect USA, the Canadians, the Scots, Wales, and all of those rotten branches that refuse to repent of the damaging innovations that they have promoted over the past several decades.

Torn Ligaments

In this Sunday's reading from Ephesians 4:1-16, Paul compares the unity of the Church to the parts of a human body knitted together by ligaments. 

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it is said,‘When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive;   he gave gifts to his people.’(When it says, ‘He ascended’, what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knitted together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

Every time that I have heard a sermon that drew from this passage (or from 1 Corinthians 12-30 in which Paul employs a similar argument) the primary focus has been on spiritual gifts. Now I know that a rector looking out on a congregation in which the 1/3 rule probably applies (1/3 of the people do 3/3's of the work), wants the do-nothings in the crowd to hear these words and to come up during coffee hour to volunteer to join the altar guild or some other worthy service.

Not once in all my years have I heard an Episcopal priest talk about Paul's warning,

"We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming."

 That probably strikes too close to home. The winds of doctrinal change have been tossing Episcopalians about for decades, and most of that wind has been blowing out of the mouths of bishops and priests, the very members who are supposed to be guardians of doctrine and protectors of the rest of us from being tossed to and fro resulting in torn ligaments and separated body parts left in pieces on the Anglican battlefield.

Those crafty and deceitful clergy are the ones responsible for tearing apart the ligaments of the body of the Church.

Thankfully there is a skilled surgeon available who can knit the torn ligaments and create a whole, functioning body.
.
We just have to call on Him and allow Him to operate on us.

And Jesus is His name.

Can Men Who Claim to Be Women Be Lesbian?

The transexual train has run into a lesbian wall called "Stonewall". Stonewall is a group in the U.K. that is all things LGBT and whose mission statement is,

"We're here to let all lesbian, gay, bi and trans people, here and abroad, know they're not alone.
We believe we're stronger united, so we partner with organisations that help us create real change for the better. We have laid deep foundations across Britain - in some of our greatest institutions - so our communities can continue to find ways to flourish, and individuals can reach their full potential. We’re here to support those who can’t yet be themselves.
But our work is not finished yet. Not until everyone feels free to be who they are, wherever they are."

Their mission that everyone should "feel free to be who they are" is causing the ruckus. A person's identity is now based on feelings which of course are forever subjective to change, and this becomes a problem when a transexual genetic and anatomic male who identifies as a woman decides he is still sexually attracted to genetic and anatomic females. Stonewall apparently decided to address this sticky situation by asserting that such an individual can call themselves a lesbian.  This ruffled some "real lesbians" as reported in The Times,

"Lesbians have accused Stonewall, the gay rights organisation, of erasing biological women by saying that 'male-bodied persons with penises' can be lesbians.
The Lesbian Rights Alliance (LRA) has sent an open letter to Stonewall demanding that it take the L out of LGBTQ because it makes 'lesbians invisible and erases lesbians through its promotion of the Trans Agenda”'.
The 135 signatories say that Stonewall supports the 'absurd idea that male-bodied persons with penises can be lesbians'.
They say that lesbians are biological women who are sexually attracted to, and have sexual and emotional relationships with other biological women only.
They wrote: 'If we refuse to accept these men as lesbians you label us transphobes and ‘Terfs’, unleashing a torrent of hate speech upon us from your supporters.'
Transgender activists refer to women who disagree with them as 'Terfs' — trans-exclusionary radical feminists.
The LRA said: 'We urge you to stop claiming to represent us and leave the L out.'”

Just to show you how out of touch I have been, this is the first time that I have learned of the term "Terf — trans-exclusionary radical feminists".

This whole thing is ironic to me because for years I endured the teaching of a revisionist priest who at every opportunity derided "American individualism" yet he was fully supportive of the LGBTQ agenda, an agenda which is all about people being "free to be who they are, wherever they are."

At some point absolute freedom disintegrates into things like an LRA Terf war over an LGBTQ Stonewall. One might say that absolute freedom perverts absolutely.

Before I get caught in the crossfire, I'm getting the L out.