A true witness for Christ

Today is the Birthday In The Lord of Eric Liddel "The Flying Scotsman," the son of Scottish missionaries.

Liddell was born 16 January 1902, Tientsin, China and died 21 February 1945, Weihsien, China.

A gifted athlete, he excelled at rugby as well as running. He first gained national recognition by winning the 100- and 200-metre runs at the Amateur Athletic Association championships in 1923.

At the 1924 Olympics, Liddel dropped out of the 100-metre run—his strongest event—because the final was scheduled for a Sunday. Instead, he trained for the 200- and 400-metre runs. At the Games, he finished third in the 200-metre run and turned in a remarkable performance to win the 400 metres. Starting in the outside lane, Liddell sprinted out of the blocks and set such a blistering pace that two racers stumbled trying to keep up. He won the race in a record time of 47.6 sec.

The experiences of Liddell and his teammate Harold Abrahams were portrayed in the film Chariots of Fire (1981)

A year after the Olympic Games, Liddell returned to China to do missionary work with his father. Eric died of a brain tumour while interred in a Japanese camp during World War II.

In an interesting bit of trivia, the brilliant Scottish actor who played Liddle, in Chariots, Ian Charleson was a respected Shakespearean actor. Mere moments after completing a performance of Hamlet, Charleson collapsed and died from complications of AIDS. He was forty years old - just three years younger than Liddle was when he died in the Japanese concentration camp.

In preparation for the role, Charleson read the bible from cover to cover. The clip below, from the film, was scripted by Charleson himself.

Stupid statement of the week

May of us with an interest in the Lutheran debate over spirituality and sexuality have followed their agonizing struggle over human sexuality with some sense of sympathy as we Episcopalians understand the passions involved.

Today it was announced that the compromise proposal to be deliberated by the ELCA will be to allow individual congregations to chose to accept partnered GLB clergy. The report is here

I actually think that's a very good decision. It is a victory for the GLB community.

Of course things aren't all happiness in Lutherland. The conservative group is not happy about the proposal.

I really should have business cards printed up that say simply, "I am a member of the stupid person of the week club." That way, I could simply hand one to every person who reveals his/her brain death.

This week the card would go to The Rev'd Erma Wolf, associate pastor of the Split Rock Lutheran Church (ELCA) in South Dakota and vice chair of the conservative group in the Lutheran Church, Coalition for Reform (CORE).

I laughed aloud when I read this

When any church finds itself accommodating its teachings to the ways of the culture, that church is in trouble. No Church has the authority to overturn the Word of God.

Imagine that! A female pastor telling the church that it cannot reinterpret the Word of God in light of modern understanding and that tradition must triumph.

I remember that day in November 1970 when the first woman was ordained a pastor in the Lutheran Church. That overturned the World of God which tells women, like Wolf, their place is to keep silence in church and that they are to be subordinate to men in all things.

This idiot, Erma Wolf owes her livelihood and ministry to the accommodation of culture and overturning the World of God. This is a good example that fundamentalists all suffer from same lack of morality and that the Anglican Communion doesn't have a monopoly on cherry picking presbyters.

Erma, here's your card.

Read the AP report here.

Duncan, membership and falsehoods

It's always interesting to surf the web: one never knows exactly where one will eventually alight nor what one will find.

What I found was some interesting "misrepresentation" of facts on the ecclesial community of deposed bishop Robert Duncan's web page. What I found was that Duncan and his minions are incapable of understanding The Queen's English.

We are members of the worldwide Anglican Communion, a fellowship of more than 70 million Christians that developed from the Church of England . . . we are united not only by our historical ties, but also by our form of worship, which is based on a common prayer book, and our system of church government, which is ordered around an overseer, called a bishop.

Apparently no one bothered to tell Bob that the "Four Instruments of Communion" disagree with his assertion for the moment. The primates just said that Duncan's Folly is not part of the Anglican Communion. Apparently individual Episcopalians are, but Duncan's group is not according to the Primates' press release.

14. The Windsor Continuation Group Report examines in Section H the question of parallel jurisdictions, particularly as raised by the Common Cause Partnership . . . Significant concerns were raised in the conversation about the possibility of parallel jurisdictions. There is no consensus among us about how this new entity should be regarded, but we are unanimous in supporting the recommendation in paragraph 101 of the Windsor Continuation Group Report. Therefore, we request the Archbishop of Canterbury to initiate a professionally mediated conversation which engages all parties at the earliest opportunity.
    

The Blog-father called it in a 2007 post.

I can't imagine that they will gain such approvals from the Primates, let alone the ACC. This collage of organizations include some that have been declared "not in Communion" for some time. To simply graft them in without serious study of the theological difference that divide them from the larger Communion would seem to be foolhardy. Beyond that, if the Primates allow this splinter group full membership, they will have also given permission for similar groups to form in their own backyards. That should be enough to give most of the Primates reason to have serious reservations about this new structure.

Either Duncan is correct and the primates are liars, or the primates are correct and Duncan is a liar. There is no consensus as to how this new entity should be regarded. It is not a province,; it is not a church; it is not part of the Anglican Communion. Apparently individuals attending these ecclesial communities are considered Anglicans, but the organization is not.

The AC web pages do not list Duncan and his cohort of deposed/irregular bishops as bishops of anything.

Duncan's site then turns to the numbers game:

Since its founding n January [2007], the Network has grown to include 10 dioceses and scores of individual parishes and ministers. There are some 200,000 Episcopalians, more than 2,200 Episcopal clergy and 900 parishes with some relationship with the Network. Already, Network affiliates make up more than 10 percent of all Episcopalians. [Emphasis original]

Even if we include all the people and groups that have split from TEC since 1830, it would be very difficult to arrive at a figure of nine hundred ecclesial communities and 200,000 members. Their December 2008 figures are not to be trusted. When one subtracts the Canadians and the REC membership, Duncan's group has at best about 60,000+.

But just supposing their figures are correct that means the Network has not grown in two years. I find that very interesting.

After I wrote this post,* Thinking Anglicans also posted on the numbers game. It appears that not only have the schismatics not grown, but they have actually declined. According to February 2009 Network figures, (from deposed bishop Iker's site)their weekly attendance is 81,000+ and the ecclesial communities in Canada is down to twenty-four from thirty-four.

On every Sunday morning, some 81,311 people worship at the 693 congregations of the Anglican Church in North America.

I thought Duncan said 200,000 communicants and nine-hundred ecclesial communities. That means an attrition of about 120,000 communicants about about 200 ecclesial communities all in two months. But we must remember that the schismatics have always inflated their numbers and importance.

You might want to read this and this.

[UPDATE] Fr. Jake points us to Mark Harris post at Preludium on the numbers game.


* I usually write my posts a couple of days in advance of posting. That allows me to work out most of the bugs, add or subtract, and catch most of the spelling/grammar errors.

Schofield to ignore WR and Primates' request

This will come as absolutely no surprise, but it took less than two weeks for the dementors to make their first move. It comes in the familiar form of deposed bishop Dave Schofield.

His plans for a Schofieldreich are moving forward and will open a mission in Nevada, according to his ecclesial community's web page.

Fr. Howard and Deacon Erin Giles, clergy in good standing of the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin, are forming a core group to plant an Anglican church in the Las Vegas/Henderson area of Southern Nevada. A group of twelve is planning Ash Wednesday and Lenten Soup Suppers in private homes. Please contact us so that you can join us in fellowship and in seeking the Lord.

Our first Sunday worship will be on Palm Sunday with a full schedule through Holy Week at an undetermined location.

I love this part of the "mission statement":

We will seek those who are lost, and bring again those who were driven away, and will bind up those who are broken, and will strengthen those who are sick (Ez. 34:15,16a), by continuing stedfastly [sic] in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers (Acts 2:42); holding fast the profession of our faith without wavering, provoking one another unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, but exhorting one another as we see the day approaching (Heb. 10: 23- 25).

There it is again, the poor persecuted "real" Christians who were driven away. They will all be called back to the "profession of our faith without wavering, provoking one another ...."

All that in the what is arguably the divorce capital of the world. Oh; I forgot - they threw out what Jesus said about divorce. So much for not wavering from the faith. (Interestingly, 82+ percent of the population say they are religious.)

And, they aren't going to provoke anyone. I laughed aloud when I read that bit of propaganda.

All this would really be funny except they are serious about this. They really believe their own press releases and propaganda. I guess it's true: Tell a lie often enough and you'll believe it.

The question to be asked is: "Why move into Nevada?" I think part of the answer is that Schofield knows he is going to lose a huge chunk of "his" faithful for two reasons.

1. The primates do not recognize a new super province of North America. They had all their eggs in the new province basket and the store keepers wouldn't buy them - yet. That has created a certain amount of delusion to set in among the "persecuted."

2. The courts will rule in favour of The Episcopal Church. When the buildings are returned to TEC, those who were too attached buildings and stayed in the pews (without a theological change) will remain with the buildings again.

Dave has to replace those people and Nevada is a logical place to deceive them into joining the quasi ecclesial Reich.

Dave knows this game too well. There are few Episcopal Churches in Nevada and there are miles and miles of sand between each parish/mission. Does that sound familiar? It's how he stole (temporarily) most of TEC's property and other assets in San Joaquin.

He will move in preaching his twisted gospel of hate and spread his lies about TEC. So there you have it. A repeat performance of San Joaquin.

But, remember, it is the Episcopal Church that refuses to abide by the Windsor Report. The schismatics are toeing the Windsor line.

What I would like to know is, what censored words escaped the lips of Duncan, Iker, Minns and Alinola. Schofield is definitely the weakest link. He has always been a bull in a china shop. He cannot be controlled - ask three Diocese of California Bishops about that. He is a law unto himself. Once he get's an idea, he cannot be reasoned with (as if he ever could).

After the primates' meeting and the "lay low" facade of the GS primates, I can bet this went over like a lead balloon. I'll venture a guess that they want to give Dave a gentle shove overboard and cut the rope on the life preserver.

By the way, as you may have noticed (if you followed the links in this post) our Blog-Father, Jake, has acquiesced to our pleading and made the home place public again. He is not and will not blog there, but will allow us to revisit the great posts of the past.