From Wiki - So You Can Be the Hippest Lutheran on the Block

"Not so fast, buster."
Paul McCain's high school doctrine instructor.

This is what the pope is doing in England, Canada, and America:


A personal ordinariate is a canonical structure within the Catholic Church enabling former Anglicans to maintain some degree of corporate identity and autonomy with regard to the bishops of the geographical dioceses of the Catholic Church and to preserve elements of their distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony. Its precise nature is described in the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus of 4 November 2009[1] and in the complementary norms of the same date.[2]

The new structure is intended to integrate these groups into the life of the Roman Catholic Church in such a way as "to maintain the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion within the Catholic Church, as a precious gift nourishing the faith of the members of the Ordinariate and as a treasure to be shared".[3]

As an ordinariate of this kind is part of the Catholic Church, it professes that Church's principles and doctrines in their entirety and maintains fidelity to the leadership of the Pope.

Anglicans who join the Catholic Church can still choose to be part of the usual dioceses rather than of an ordinariate.

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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "From Wiki - So You Can Be the Hippest Lutheran on ...":

As an ordinariate of this kind is part of the Catholic Church, it professes that Church's principles and doctrines in their entirety and maintains fidelity to the leadership of the Pope.

Rev. Paul McCain provided this insite into the Lutheran Synods desire for the Antichrist's leadership.
"Father Neuhaus was able to make direct personal appeal to Pope John Paul which led to direct contacts with Cardinal Ratzinger, with the result that the The LCMS was again given a place at the table of discussion and dialog with Rome"
http://cyberbrethren.com/2009/01/08/a-grief-observed-richard-john-neuhaus-1936-2009/

Paul McCain goes on to state, "In both cases, he challenged me to think, to reflect, to grow and to strive for excellence in our common confession of Christ."

With his violent promotion of the false gospel of Universal Objective Justification there is no doubt that the Church of the Antichrist shares a common confession of Christ with McCain and with the other UOJists in the LCMS, WELS, ELCA and ELS.

Pope worshiping Father Richard Neuhaus stated it this way, "I will not plead that I had faith, for sometimes I was unsure of my faith, and in any event that would be to turn faith into a meritorious work of my own."

Lacking Christian faith, in fact persecuting Christian faith and Christ's Church through their confession of UOJ, the false teachers in the Lutheran Synods will have no problem begging for a seat at the Pope's table while he ascends to his earthly throne as the center of the New World Order religion. Even now they coddle the pedophiles, murderers and New Age practitioners while dogpiling faithful Christians like hobos on a hotdog.

Below Is the Process for Digesting the Episcopal Church. Admire the Guile of the Pope!

Cardinal Levada is in charge of this effort.

Decree of erection of
the Personal Ordinariate of
Our Lady of Walsingham

The supreme law of the Church is the salvation of souls. As such, throughout its history, the Church has always found the pastoral and juridical means to care for the good of the faithful.

With the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, promulgated on 4 November 2009, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, provided for the establishment of Personal ordinariates through which Anglican faithful may enter, even in a corporate manner, into full communion with the Catholic Church. On the same date, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published Complementary Norms relating to such Ordinariates.

In conformity with what is established in Art. I § 1 and §2 of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, having received requests from a considerable number of Anglican faithful and having consulted with the Episcopal Conference of England and Wales, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

Pretty sneaky, Ja Wohl!
Zay call me Wolf, but I am Christ on Earth.
Ask my Director of Communications,
who is free on bail.

ERECTS [GJ - This is the British effort, which will be followed by the American one on New Year's Day.]

the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham within the territory of the Episcopal Conference of England andWales.

1.The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham ipso iure possesses juridic personality and is juridically equivalent to a diocese. It includes those faithful ,of every category and state of life, who originally having beloned to the Anglican Communion, are now in full communion with the Catholic Church, or who have received the sacraments of initiation within the jurisdiction of the ordinariate itself or who are received into it because they are part of a family belonging to the Ordinariate.

2. The faithful o the personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham are entrusted to the pastoral care of the Personal Ordinary, who, once named by the Roman Pontiff, possesses all the faculties and is held to all the obligations, specified in the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus and the Complementary Norms as well as in those matters determined subsequently by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on request both of the Ordinary, having heard the Governing Council of the Ordinariate, and of the Episcopal Conference of England and Wales.

3. The Anglican faithful who wish to be received into full communion with the Catholic Church through the Ordinariate must manifest this desire in writing. There is to be a programme of catechetical formation for these faithful, lasting for a congruent time, and with content established by the Ordinary in agreement with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith so that the faithful are able to adhere fully to the doctrinal content of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and, therefore, make the profession of faith.

4. For candidates for ordination, who previously were ministers in the Anglican Communion, there is to be a specific programme of theological formation, as well as spiritual and pastoral preparation, prior to ordination in the Catholic Church, according to what will be established by the Ordinary in agreement with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and in consultation with the Episcopal Conference of England and Wales.

5. For a cleric not incardinated in the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham to assist at a marriage of the faithful belonging to the Ordinariate, he must receive the faculty from the Ordinary or the pastor of the personal parish to which the faithful belong.

6. The Ordinary is a member by right of the Episcopal Conference of England and Wales, with deliberative vote in those cases in which this is required in law.

7. A cleric, having come originally from the Anglican Communion, who has already been ordained in the Catholic Church and incardinated in a Diocese, is able to be incardinated in the Ordinariate in accord with the norm of can. 267 CIC.

8. Until the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham may have established its own Tribunal, the judicial cases of its faithful are referred to the Tribunal of the Diocese in which one of the parties has a domicile, while taking into account, however, the different titles of competence established in cann.1408-1414 and 1673 CIC.

9. The faithful of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham who are, temporarily or permanently, outside the territory of the Episcopal Conference of England and Wales, while remaining members of the Ordinariate, are bound by universal law and those particular laws of the territory where they find themselves.

10. If a member of the faithful moves permanently into a place where another Personal Ordinariate has been erected, he is able, on his own request, to be received into it. The new Ordinary is bound to inform the original Personal Ordinariate of the reception. If a member of the faithful wishes to leave the Ordinariate, he must make such a decision known to his own Ordinary. He automatically becomes a member of the Diocese where he resides. In this case, the Ordinary will ensure that the Diocesan Bishop is informed.

11. The Ordinary, keeping in mind the Ratio fundamentalis institutionis sacerdotalis and the Programme of Priestly Formation of the Episcopal Conference of England and Wales, is to prepare a Programme of Priestly Formation for the seminarians of the Ordinariate which must be approved by the Apsotolic See.

12. The Ordinary will ensure that the Statutes of the Governing Council and the Pastoral Council, which are subject to his approval, are drawn up.

13. The location of the principal Church of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham will be determined by the Ordinary in agreement with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and in consultation with the Episcopal Conference of England and Wales. Likewise, the Seat of the Ordinariate, where the register referred to in Art. 5 § 1 of the Complementary Norms will be kept, will be determined in the same way.

14. The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham has as its patron Blessed John Henry Newman.

Everything to the contrary notwithstanding.

Rome, from the Offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 15 January 2011

William Cardinal Levada
Prefect

+ Luis F. Ladaria, S.I.
Secretary

VirtueOnline - News - Exclusives - Former Episcopal Bishop Jeffrey Steenson to be named the first American Ordinary

Katezilla is driving droves into Roman Catholicism.

VirtueOnline - News - Exclusives - Former Episcopal Bishop Jeffrey Steenson to be named the first American Ordinary:

Former Episcopal Bishop of the Rio Grande, Jeffrey Steenson, is to be named the Ordinary when the Anglican Ordinariate is erected on January 1, 2012, sources tell VOL.

Word seeped out from the Vatican late last week that Steenson -- who left The Episcopal Church in 2007 over TEC's polity - has been tapped for the new post as the Ordinariate gets its first foothold in the United States.

The former Episcopal House of Bishops' member has been deeply concerned with the continued fracturing of Anglicanism. The Episcopal Church's insistence on autonomy has further distanced itself from other Anglican provinces and resulted in a shredding of the fabric of Anglicanism.

This reporter came into possession of a private communiqué late Wednesday revealing that Steenson is being tapped for the Ordinariate's top post. A second confidential source has confirmed the communiqué.

When asked if the former Episcopal Bishop of the Rio Grande has received the nod to be the first Ordinary the source replied: "Yes, Jeffrey Steenson will be the new Ordinary."

On Tuesday, a third source, The Bovina Bloviator Blog theorized that Steenson would get the miter.

"It is being noised Jeffrey Steenson, the former Bishop of the Diocese of the Rio Grande in the Episcopal Church, who was received into the Catholic Church in 2007 and is now a priest, will be named Ordinary of the American Anglican Ordinariate on January 1, 2012," the Bovina Bloviator posted under an Ordinariate Buzz header.

Steenson's Anglo-Catholic pedigree comes from being an Episcopal priest for 24 years including stints as the curate and rector at two Pennsylvania parishes -- All Saints' Church in Wynnewood, and Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, before going on to St. Andrew's in Fort Worth, Texas. From there he was elected, in 2004, to be bishop coadjutor for the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande under Bishop Terence Kelshaw. The former Rio Grande bishop has the distinction of being the 1000th Episcopal Church bishop consecrated with his "lappets" stretching all the way back to the first Bishop of Connecticut, Samuel Seabury who was consecrated in 1784. Steenson's consecrators included then Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, his predecessor Bishop Terence Kelshaw, Anglo-Catholic Bishop Clarence Pope, indigenous Bishop Mark McDonald, and ecumenical Bishop Anthony Burton from the Anglican Church of Canada. Steenson became the eighth diocesan bishop in 2005. He was an Episcopal bishop for two short years before swimming the Tiber.

The Anglo-Catholic Bishop of the Rio Grande shed the purple in December 2007 and was received into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. This was done in Rome, Italy, at the Basilica of Saint Mary Major during a private ceremony officiated by Bernard Cardinal Law, the former Catholic Cardinal of Boston and then archpriest at a Roman basilica.

The former Episcopal bishop embraced the Pastoral Provision that allows for former Anglican clergy to become Roman Catholics and eventually recoup their priesthood. The Pastoral Provision is the precursor to the unfolding Anglican Ordinariate and will operate along side of it for those converting priests who do not wish to become a part of the Ordinariate yet want to become Roman Catholic.

One year after becoming a Roman Catholic, Cardinal Law ordained Steenson as a Catholic deacon. Fourteen months late, he was priested by Archbishop Michael Sheehan in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, located within the Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe, which overlaps the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande.

Since becoming Catholic, Steenson has kept a high profile in his new Catholic circle. He has been active at various levels and has been seen at several Anglican Use events including attending Anglican Use Conferences where he has been the keynote speaker or the preacher at the solemn high Mass. In addition, he has been actively working hand-in-glove with American Catholic bishops as they hammered out the details of how the Anglicanorum Coetibus would be implemented in the United States.

In November, Steenson was introduced to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops by Donald Cardinal Wuerl. The Cardinal was then tasked with the implementation of the Anglicanorum Coetibus in the United States. Steenson was on hand when the Cardinal announced the January 1 date for the formal erection of the American Ordinariate.

The soon-to-be-named Ordinariate leader was educated at Harvard Divinity School and holds a doctoral degree from Oxford.

Steenson is now in Houston, Texas, where has been on the faculty of St. Thomas University and St. Mary's Seminary. He has also been instrumental in helping to set up the theological training that his brother bishops and priests will undergo in order to become fully formed Catholic clerics. He has worked at helping to develop the specific elements needed in the formation and retraining program. The former Episcopal bishop has worked closely with both Cardinal Wuerl and Daniel Cardinal DiNardo to get the unique seminary preparation program setup and running in time for the establishment of the Ordinariate on New Year's Day.

Once the Ordinariate is established, Steenson will be in charge of a non-geographic-type diocese, which encompasses the entire United States from Alaska to Florida and New York to Hawaii.

Since Steenson is married with grown children, according to Anglicanorum Coetibus norms, he can never be elevated to the rank of bishop. However, he will receive the honor due a bishop and will be in the temporal and limited sacramental charge of an as-of-yet-to-be-named Ordinariate; although, he will be prevented from celebrating episcopal sacraments such as ordination.

Once the Ordinariate is established, the initial membership is expected to eclipse the Rio Grande's numbers. Waiting in the wings are at least 67 priests, as well as a bishop or two, and several established Anglican Use parishes that may or may not be incorporated in the new Ordinariate as it unfolds including the thriving Texas parishes: Our Lady of the Atonement, San Antonio; Our Lady of Walsingham, Houston; and St. Mary the Virgin, Fort Worth. Other established Anglican Use congregations include: St. Thérèse Little Flower in Kansas City, Mo; St. Thomas More, Scranton, Penn; and St. Anselem's, Corpus Christi, Texas.

Recently, several Episcopal parishes converted to the Roman Catholic Church in anticipation of the Ordinariate. They include: St. Timothy's, Fort Worth, Texas; St. Luke's in Bladensburg, Md.; and All Saints Sisters of the Poor in Catonsville, Md.

There are also several Traditional Anglican Communion (Anglican Church in America) congregations scattered around the country poised and ready to convert en masse to Roman Catholicism and be brought into the Ordinariate.

Steenson was unavailable for comment.

This story is copyright, but may be forwarded and posted with full recognition of the source.

---Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline

'via Blog this'

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Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori's Aggression Against Anglican Leaders
Jefferts Schori attacks Archbishop Rowan Williams with the Charge of Double-Mindedness

NEWS ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY

By Sarah Frances Ives
Special to Virtueonline
www.virtueonline.org
December 19, 2011

In Jeffert Schori's recent book, The Heartbeat of God, she cleverly weaves together her vision of the future Episcopal Church-interfaith communities partnered with a huge United States government. She writes, it is all about, "Mission, mission, mission", (91) and describes many different projects that parishes can start in tandem with the government and other secular groups. Jefferts Schori's underlying terror in this book is clear: create more projects at the parishes or the Episcopal Church is going to disappear. Get to work, peons. Our ship is sinking.

She tells us what to do about any problem in glib and superficial terms that include disparate advice such as to eat our protein, wash our dishes by hand, celebrate layoffs in the Episcopal Church, support the Obama health care bill, call ourselves beloved, criticize the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, make the United States government limit capitalistic profits, declare unity in the Episcopal Church, and plant gardens on the church lawns.

Jefferts Schori bounces from one subject to another with the rapidity of a writer not disciplined by transitional ideas or even rational thought. On page 23 within four sentences, Jefferts Schori drags in, with her typical pell-mell fashion, Katrina and its aftermath, genocide in Rwanda, global AIDS, torture for terrorists, and health care reform in our country. With all her vast pronouncements, she doesn't even bother with a bibliography to support her ideas and includes only seven notes for quotes (two of which are from the Book of Common Prayer).

The only really clear part of this book is that Jefferts Schori supports the Obama health care bill. She continually advocates for this bill in simplistic terms. "Providing basic health care for everyone in this country would be a relatively trivial issue economically if our defense budget went on a diet."(17)

In nearly every chapter, she works that theme and attacks those who oppose the Obama health care bill. Remember her modus operandi? Humiliate and taunt opponents rather than rationally address issues. She derides the criticism of this bill describing it as, "The ranting about health care that this country endured for months as Congress debated reform bills-the ranting that still continues on cable news shows."(27)

Mixed in with her seemingly endless stream of stereotypical political views are Jefferts Schori's odd Biblical interpretations. For example, Jefferts Schori describes Jesus' holy entry into Jerusalem for His crucifixion as the same as "the cowpoke's blessing, 'Happy Trails.'"(48) Her tasteless reference is to the Dale Evans-Roy Rogers theme song, "Happy Trails to you, until we meet again."

In yet another example, Jefferts Schori humiliates the seventy disciples sent out by Jesus. Jesus said he had given these disciples the power to tread underfoot the forces of the enemy (Luke 10:20). But Jefferts Schori mocks them as she writes, "Those seventy just go and they go ahead of Jesus. They're not following him around-they're the advance team, the roadies."(83) Hauling the rock'n roll bands equipment around, roadies (according to folklore) live a wild lifestyle. These disciples faithfully served Jesus and courageously went out into a dangerous world, yet she labels them with a term synonymous with pleasure-seeking hedonists.

Jefferts Schori also criticizes those who evangelize by telling others about Jesus Christ. She praises a man who came to her same conclusion, writing, "He said he finally learned that his job wasn't to get somebody to say a verbal formula about accepting Jesus as personal Lord and savior, but to make a space that was safe enough for others to say what they really think and feel."(75) She taunts both those who evangelize for Jesus and those who accept His ministry. She says about the leper who received healing from Jesus, "Actually, he's a bit whiny about it."(22)

Time and time again, Jefferts Schori reveals that she has no depth conception of the struggles involved with working out one's salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12) Faithful people who testify that Jesus is Lord might actually have accepted Him as their Savior, in the midst of severe hardships, and, in doing so, found the great redemption of our Lord.

That apparently means nothing to Jefferts Schori. She declares her easy Islamic theology about the Beloved by commanding everyone to claim the divine baptismal promise given only to Jesus. Beginning with the scripture from Luke 3:22, Jefferts Schori writes, "'You are my beloved, and in you I am well pleased.' If we're willing to risk hearing that and being transformed by it, we have begun to participate in Jesus' reality. It is a hopeful saying for most of us-we don't quite believe that we can be all that pleasing to God, because we think we know more about ourselves than God does. But it was also an aspiration in Jesus' ears-he aspired to live into the fullness of God's intent."(121)

Jesus aspired to live into this? I might aspire to write something like Tolstoy's War and Peace but whether this will happen is surely in question. So Jesus aspired to live into the fullness of God's intent? Does she mean Jesus maybe hoped to do something like God might have wanted? Jesus sounds like a pretty foggy character here, not anything like the powerful revelation of the Godhead the Gospels portray.

Jesus did not have a goal to live into this, but had the full powers of God within his heart and soul. As very God of very God, begotten not made, he did not have a goal to be the beloved Son but was already both God and man.

Jefferts Schori's Islamic theology directly results in her ordination of Rev. Bede Parry. She probably told this sexual predator he was God's beloved, if her book is any indication. She tells the reader continually that all are beloved and have the same reality as Jesus. (pp. 121, 140-142, 155-156 and many more)

In another one of her Biblical distortions, she changes "Blessed are the peacemakers" to "Blessed are the Change Makers."(67) She does indeed truly qualify as a "change maker" for, as we have seen, her desire to destroy the scriptures appears to know no bounds.

This event of an entirely non-Christian theology from a Presiding Bishop might be unprecedented in the history of the Christian faith and bears watching.

The roots of Jefferts Schori's theology lie in mystical Islam called Sufism, although she might have picked up her odd theology from some New Age appropriations of this. The most famous expressions of her Islamic theology are the whirling dervishes, solitary dancing in a circle done in a group with their minds seeking ecstasy. They spin and spin until full of some spirit, they fall into high giddiness.

And toward the end of this book, spinning wildly in her theology without a Savior, Jefferts Schori begins a series of swipes at Anglican and Episcopal priests, bishops and archbishops who oppose her. The great fallacies exhibited in her thinking are Jefferts Schori's Great Spins.

Ordaining Gays and Lesbians

Jefferts Schori's first Great Spin is her claim that the Episcopal Church has found unity about the ordination and consecration of gays and homosexuals, even though she acknowledges that most places in the Episcopal Church "are shrinking, either slightly, or precipitously." (187) She writes about the decision to ordain gays and homosexuals, "The Episcopal Church recognizes that these decisions are problematic to a number of other Anglicans. We have not made these decisions lightly. We recognize that the spirit has not been widely received in the same way in other parts of the Communion."

What she doesn't mention is that the decision to ordain gays and lesbians has not been widely received in the Episcopal Church and many internally complain about this decision. Indeed, tremendous unrest and turmoil exists within the Episcopal Church. Look at the rapidly declining numbers to see that many are fleeing from this church.

There is no unity in the Episcopal Church and what does exist comes at least partially because of social and canonical pressure placed on people by some bishops, including Jefferts Schori. With its heavy-handed legal action against priests that speak out, the ordained ministry is full of anxious men and women with suppressed words and contagious fear. Who will be the next victim in the frequent accusation of abandoning the communion? How secure is any ordination anymore with the new disciplinary canons granting more power to authorities? Any perceived unity exists because tremendous effort has been put into silencing those who support the Anglican Communion yet stay within the Episcopal Church.

Jefferts Schori also lashes out at unidentified church leaders. She describes a person and then opens it up to multiple people writing, "Congregations wracked by the misbehavior of leaders know something about that, and in The Episcopal Church in the past few years there's been a fair amount of that....A petty tyrant claims the divine right of judgment, power over life and death. . . It happens all around us all the time, when some human tyrant resolves to control other people's lives...Maybe the local bishop decides that he'll only permit priests to move into the diocese who agree with him on every important issue, no matter what their other gifts or shortcomings might be."(207) In her use of an exclusive male pronoun, Jefferts Schori shows her belief that only male bishops do these actions and she targets only them.

We can only speculate to whom she is referring, but that in itself is unprofessional. Why talk about tyrants in leadership of the church and leave everyone around her to fill in the blanks? That's the definition of gossip. Anyway, Jefferts Schori's tyrants might be those in the episcopate who have left the Episcopal Church or could be the Church of England leaders that she recently attacked.

In Jefferts Schori's second Great Spin, she claims that the Episcopal Church has, in solid unity, rejected Archbishop Rowan William's Covenant, as well as the Lambeth 1998 decision of the Anglican Communion about the consecration of homosexuals and lesbians.

Jefferts Schori continues with her pompous use of the royal "we" as she addresses Rowan Williams with these challenging words, "As Episcopalians, we note the troubling push toward centralized authority exemplified in many of the Archbishop of Canterbury's statements." (169) She-still using the "we" pronoun-complains bitterly about sanctions the Episcopal Church could suffer because they consecrate noncelibate gays and lesbians. "We are further distressed that such sanctions do not, apparently, apply to those parts of the Communion that continue to hold one view in public and exhibit other behaviors in private-a wink and a nod to things that go on but are not publicly recognized-such as partnered same-sex clergy in the Church of England." (170)

Taunts Rowan Williams

She then taunts the leaders in the Church of England, and more specifically Archbishop Rowan Williams, by saying that "ignoring that sort of double-mindedness is usually termed a 'failure of nerve.'"(170) She strengthens her attack on Williams by writing, "Why is there no sanction on those who continue with a double standard?"

Her use of the term "double-minded" (not one in common parlance) makes the reader wonder if Jefferts Schori is strengthening her statement by reference to scriptures using this phrase. One of these scriptures reads, "Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you men of double mind." (James 4:8)

The Jefferts Schori Great Spin is now that the Episcopal Church has allowed open homosexual and lesbian relationships for priests and bishops, the church has found purity and strength. She implies that because Church of England have closeted homosexual partners with a "wink and a nod," these United Kingdom church leaders are behind the time and ineffective.

Jefferts Schori's Great Spin says to the Church of England, recognize noncelibate gays and lesbian priests and you will have spiritual, emotional and social purity and strength.

Don't believe it, Archbishop Williams. Ordaining and consecrating sexually-active gay and lesbian priests has unleashed a destructive force in the very midst of the Episcopal Church from which it will likely not recover.

Jefferts Schori Attacks Bible

Jefferts Schori's Great Spin creates many victims, with the Bible itself as among its first victims. The Church overlooked Paul's Letter to the Romans and then soon the Bible faded away in the minds of the priests to a secondary source pulled out to help us understand New Age writers such as David Whyte.

Indeed in this 2011 book, Jefferts Schori has intensified her attack on the scriptures through her non-orthodox interpretation of Biblical scriptures.

Jefferts Schori hopes that the Episcopal Church will achieve this destruction of the scriptures and even the orthodox Christian faith without repercussion. The church has brushed past Lambeth 1998, yet danger now lurks for those who stay in the Episcopal Church, yet respect the spiritual authority of the Anglican Communion. Bishops who defy Lambeth 1998 already label negatively anyone who questions the ordination of sexually active gays and lesbians. Formerly those who do not endorse the ordination of gays and lesbians were called homophobic, but now in The Heartbeat of God Jefferts Schori says those remain loyal to the Anglican Communion have "colonial attitudes." (169)

Now the litmus test in the Episcopal Church is not whether salvation can be found in the Bible, but whether you believe in the consecration of gays and lesbians. Priests are encouraged to force back concerns and sign on the dotted line, or they might end up like the priest from Accokeek, Maryland, Rev. Samuel Edwards, defending himself in federal court against an outraged Bishop Jane Dixon.

Other issues also have come rolling out. Some gay and lesbian priests first shed the heterosexual marriage and the kids, but then start shedding the first committed homosexual relationship because there were mistakes made. Then the Episcopal Church wonders, how many homosexual relationships are allowed? The answer seems to be as many as they want.

Some believe we have the bishop or priest in a committed heterosexual or homosexual relationship with some sexual activity on the side.

Jefferts Schori ordained a sexual predator, Rev. Bede Parry, and left him in the midst of the Episcopal Church. The Presiding Bishop defends herself by saying she only knew of one of his multiple victims. She knew of only one mangled and pain-filled life? Only one life that will remember the horror of an older man forcing himself on him before the victim had a developed will? The horror exists in that Jefferts Schori didn't recognize that one victim is more than enough to know that this predator should not be ordained.

No, recognizing homosexual and lesbian committed relationships does not lead to social peace or spiritual purity. No, we just increase the "winks and nods" until the mangled Bible lies destroyed and the oppressed Episcopal Church cries out for relief.

In her latest book The Heartbeat of God, Jefferts Schori is spinning out of control with her Biblical interpretations and idiosyncratic pronouncements about the Episcopal Church. It is as if Jefferts Schori warbles "Happy Trails, Beloved." to hedonists and a sexual predator, yet unleashes a tirade against bishops she calls "tyrants" who support Archbishop Rowan Williams and the Anglican Communion. And in Jefferts Schori's book The Heartbeat of God, we have a wink and nod about what is really happening in the Episcopal Church.

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Sarah Frances Ives is a regular contributor to Virtueonline. She lives in Washington DC with her husband and two children

The Winter Lull in Teaching Invites More Publishing

More books? No!!

There are three main areas of publishing coming up:

1. The Justification book will be revised and expanded, with the long-expected extra research added soon. My part will add a chapter on Walther's Pietism, the Walther mythology promoted by the LCMS (with obvious deceit), and the truth about Stephan. Another section will deal with Huber's post-Concord enthusiasm for UOJ, the origin of the Robert Preus quotations.
2. I expect to get a rough draft done or at least started on the murder mystery, which is designed to be an entertaining apologetic. My non-Ichabod friends are very interested while the Ichabodians are deadly silent. That is the idea, since the book is aimed at outsiders.
3. I am going to expand into e-books so that others can participate. I have unseen helpers who can increase the number of titles produced. Every title will still be available in print, but each will be planned as e-books and promoted with Google AdWord (which I tried for free). I know next to nothing about this area, so it will be learning by doing and getting advice from others. I visited a bookstore today, and the front entrance featured e-book readers, which Mrs. I. has already tried and appreciated.

• "Nobody reads Ichabod," but the page-reads since June of 2010 total 837,000. 
• Bethany's site has another 13,000 page-reads in the same time period. 
• Moline Memories has 37,000 page-reads. 
• Sassy Sue and Friends has around 9,000 page-reads.

I enjoy the ongoing efforts to thwart, block, silence, and refute what I post. That has come back to bite more than one person, simply because the suppressed truth has a way of emerging on its own, without any help from me.

Lawsuit charges US Presiding Bishop knowingly ordained a paedophile: The Church of England Newspaper, June 29, 2011 « Conger

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori works closely with ELCA's PB Mark Hanson,
who works closely with WELS and the LCMS, under the cover of Thrivent.

Lawsuit charges US Presiding Bishop knowingly ordained a paedophile: The Church of England Newspaper, June 29, 2011 « Conger:


First published in The Church of England Newspaper.

The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church has declined to respond to questions concerning her ordination to the priesthood of a paedophile.  Her silence has prompted questions from liberals and conservatives in the church about what she knew of the Rev. Bede Parry’s confessed abuse of boys, and when she knew it.

Last week Fr. Parry resigned as an assistant priest on the staff of All Saints Episcopal Church in Las Vegas.  On June 23 he was named as a sexual predator in a lawsuit filed by a Missouri man against Conception Abbey, a Roman Catholic monastery and seminary in Missouri.

Fr. Parry admitted he had abused the victim in 1987 in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Kansas City Star, but told both newspapers he had not reoffended since that time.

The lawsuit, filed in Nodaway County Circuit Court in Missouri, alleges that Parry joined the Benedictine order in 1973, leaving the abbey from 1979 to 1982 to study at St. John’s University School of Theology in Collegeville, Minnesota.  Upon his return to the abbey, Br. Parry was appointed secretary to the abbot and director of the choir.  In 1983 he was ordained to the priesthood.

The lawsuit contends that between 1973 and 1979, Br. Parry confessed to abusing three boys, and in 1981 confessed to having had sexual contact with a student at St. John’s.  Br. Parry allegedly confessed his actions to his ecclesial superiors at Conception Abbey and St John’s College, but was permitted to remain in the order if he underwent psychological counseling.

ELCA Presiding Bishop Hanson and PB Jefferts Schori  meet every so often.
The December 2011 meeting included the Canadian counterparts, eh?

The 1987 abuse case was the fifth reported to the abbey, the lawsuit said.  After learning of their son’s abuse at the hands of Fr. Parry, the parents of the choir boy demanded the abbot, Fr. Jerome Hanus, take action.

Fr. Hanus, who now serves as Archbishop of Dubuque, Iowa, told the parents Fr. Parry had had a “mental breakdown” and would undergo psychiatric counseling.  The abbey sent Parry to church-run clinic for abusers at the Servants of the Paraclete in New Mexico. After he completed his stay, he was suspended for three years and forbidden to return to the abbey.  Fr. Parry found work in the Southwest at Lutheran and Catholic parishes as a music director.

In 2000, the lawsuit states, Fr. Parry underwent psychological testing after he applied for admission to another monastery.  “The results of this testing revealed that Fr. Parry was a sexual abuser who had the proclivity to reoffend with minors,” the lawsuit stated, adding this information was shared with the abbey, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Vegas and the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada.

Fr. Parry acknowledged the truth of these allegations, but said the Episcopal Diocese had not been informed of his history in 2000, when he began working as music director  at All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Las Vegas.

However, he told the Episcopal Bishop of Nevada, the Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori of the 1987 incident when he applied to be received as priest in the Episcopal Church in 2002.

In an interview with The Star, Fr. Parry stated the allegations in the lawsuit were true.  “When I left Conception Abbey in ’87, it was for sexual misconduct,” he said. “But that was all that was ever said or known.”

After serving as music director for two years at All Saints, Parry said he noticed “they needed clergy, and I felt called. I talked to the bishop, and she accepted me. And I told her at the time that there was an incident of sexual misconduct at Conception Abbey in ’87. The Episcopal Church doesn’t have a ‘one strike and you’re out’ policy, so it didn’t seem like I was any particular threat. She said she’d have to check the canons, and she did.”

On June 23, members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, held a rally outside of All Saints Church to demand the Episcopal Church “come clean about why they hired [Parry] despite clear ‘red flags’ in his past,” and to “aggressively seek out others he hurt and prod them to call police and prosecutors.”

“The reason that this is so horrific is that the Episcopal Church authorities knew about Father Parry’s history, and yet they still allowed him to come and work here,” SNAP president Barbara Blaine told reporters.

Joelle Casteix, the western regional director of SNAP asked church officials not to “split hairs, make excuses, and be silent.”

“Shepherds have a duty to protect [their] flock, help law enforcement, warn unsuspecting families and work hard to find and help others who’ve been wounded,” she said.

Asked to comment on the allegations, a spokesman for the Presiding Bishop told The Church of England Newspaper, “We do not comment on lawsuits or allegations” and referred questions to the Diocese of Nevada.  The Diocese of Nevada did not respond to questions as of our going to press.

In comments on the initial press accounts of the lawsuit printed on the liberal church blog, Episcopal Café, hitherto stalwart supporters of the Presiding Bishop urged her to explain her actions.

The Bishop of Bethlehem, (Pennsylvania), the Rt. Rev. Paul Marshall, was not surprised by the church’s response.  When lawyers for the national church “threaten and cajole diocesan bishops not to reveal multiple sex-abuse cover-ups at the highest level lest former leaders be embarrassed, what can we expect?” he wrote on the Episcopal Café website.

“On paper, we are a one-strike church, but in reality, too many people are walked. [The national church] refused comment on this story with principled-sounding obfuscation, which essentially tells it all, doesn’t it?” Bishop Marshall said.



'via Blog this'

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GJ - The Wisconsin Synod is no different from these huge, rich apostate denominations. WELS is just smaller and poorer, less able to settle out of court with all the details sealed under court order.

Shipping European Churches East

Schools make good prisons.
I can get you a volume deal for two colleges, two preps, and a seminary.

bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Mid-Week Advent Service, December 21, 2011":

 Interesting twist in the story of the decline of Christianity in Europe. While Western Europe is closing church after church, Eastern Europe is building new churches, and is buying up the disused altars from Western Europe: Europe's Perishing Parishes Dutchman Helps to Liquidate Dying Churches, By Benjamin Dürr http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,805075,00.html "Altars often find new places in Eastern Europe," says de Beyer. "There's a big demand there because new churches are always being built."

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http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,805075,00.html


A drastic exodus from the church is underway in the Netherlands. With two churches shuttered each week, one man has become the country's top advisor on how to repurpose the once holy buildings. Some are demolished, while others find new life as mosques, stores and even recreation centers.

 
The church pews will be sold according to size. The shortest ones, at 3.6 meters (12 feet) long, can be purchased for €40 ($52), the longer six-meter pews for €60. Churchgoers in the Dutch town of Bilthoven have already carried 17 pews out of their sanctuary.

The pews will not be a problem, says Marc de Beyer. But the organ and the baptismal font weighing hundreds of kilos at the back of the church will be more difficult.
Marc de Beyer is an art historian in Utrecht, located about a half an hour by train from Amsterdam, but one could also call him a liquidator. He's a man who shuts down churches. When a parish is dissolved, when a church is shuttered, de Beyer is there. And he has a lot to do.

Some 4,400 church buildings remain in the Netherlands. But each week, around two close their doors forever. This mainly affects the Catholics, who will be forced to offload half of their churches in the coming years.

"And that's just the beginning," says de Beyer.

His voice echoes in the vaulted building, where the dim autumn sunshine falls sideways through the window panes. De Beyer stands behind a block as large as a freezer chest. Until July 1, 2006, it was the altar at the St. Lawrence church in Bilthoven, north of Utrecht. But on that day the church become real estate and the altar where believers had been blessed, married and mourned became a hunk of cement.

At first, there was discussion about converting the church into a community center. But the Catholics wanted to sell quickly, and a project company bought the consecrated property. In the coming year, St. Lawrence will be demolished, making room for 62 apartments in its place.

"Architecturally, the loss can be borne," de Beyer says. The church was built in the 1960s, when the Catholic communities in Bilthoven and De Bilt grew so rapidly that the two districts needed three churches between them. It was built quickly and simply.

Empty Pews

For years the number of faithful has been declining. The trend has swept across all of Western Europe, with churches forced to close in France and Belgium too. But in the Netherlands, Christianity's retreat from society has been particularly drastic. The Protestant Church alone loses some 60,000 members each year. At this rate, it will cease to exist there by 2050, church officials say.

The trend has led to the mergers of churches from several communities. St. Lawrence in Bilthoven has consolidated its congregation with that of eight other churches. But none of these amalgamations need more than one church, one organ, and one altar crucifix. All the other chalices, crosses and pews need to be disposed of. The problem, de Beyer says, is that holy items don't sell particularly well. The buildings themselves quickly find new renters, though.

In Helmond, some 80 kilometers south of Bilthoven, a supermarket even moved into a defunct church in 2001. A bookstore has opened in a former Dominican church in Maastricht, while in Utrecht and Amsterdam churches have been turned into mosques. Of the Netherlands' some 17 million citizens, about 850,000 practice Islam. Still, many other churches are simply being demolished.

For the last three years de Beyer has been closing down churches. He was there when a "strategy plan" was developed for the turning the St. Catherine's Convent into a museum. Together with the foundation for religious art heritage, he has also written a handbook with instructions for closing a church in six steps -- from inventory to divestment. It has been distributed among the different parishes since April, and will soon be translated into English.

'The Best Solution'

Recently de Beyer attended a symposium in Germany, and soon he'll speak in Belgium. After all, churches aren't just dying in the Netherlands. When he reaches point 5.4 in his manual, entitled "demolition," people are often forced to catch their breath, he says.

"But when a church has little purpose, emotional value or historical significance that can be the best solution," de Beyer adds.

Still, de Beyer thinks of himself as a rescuer of temples. He wants to preserve their value. His instructions are meant to help distinguish between the valuable and the worthless. He often personally shows up to the churches to provide guidance and support. Pews and Bibles are usually sold to members of the congregation.
"Altars often find new places in Eastern Europe," says de Beyer. "There's a big demand there because new churches are always being built."

A few weeks ago one parish in Arnheim decided on a totally new use for its church, which had stood empty for some five years. In late November St. Joseph's church opened a skate park, with ramps and obstacles in the nave, charging €3.50 to spend a day skating between holy figures. Since then church attendance has been respectable.