Thursday, November 1, 2012

VirtueOnline - News - Exclusives - AUCKLAND: ABC Says Majority of Anglican Communion Will Never Accept SS Marriage.
Gay Activism Has Already Ruined Lutherdom Because LCMS-WELS-ELS Leaders Work with ELCA - No Problem!

WELS rewards these apostates,
because false doctrine unites.


VirtueOnline - News - Exclusives - AUCKLAND: ABC Says Majority of Anglican Communion Will Never Accept SS Marriage:

AUCKLAND, NZ: Archbishop of Canterbury Says Majority of Anglican Communion Will Never Accept Same Sex Marriage

By David W. Virtue in Auckland, NZ 
www.virtueonline.org 
October 26, 2102

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams told more than 2000 Anglicans gathered for the ACC-15 welcoming ceremony at Telstra Pacific Center that the vast majority of Anglicans will never come to terms with same sex marriage. He added that while some will recognize "public partnerships" they are not sure marriage is right.

The opening fanfare of the 15th the Anglican Consultative Council's brought the Archbishop of Canterbury on a Pacific tour that included Papua New Guinea in his final swan song before he departs as leader of the Anglican Communion. It also brought together the Anglican Communion's most liberal glitterati that include US Presiding bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, Southern Africa Archbishop Thabo Makgoba and other Anglican leaders from across the globe. 

However the Ugandans took a decision about two years ago not to participate in the Anglican Instruments, so they are not present. Kenya, on the other hand has sent three representatives. The Province of Nigeria is represented by New Zealand born CANA/ACNA Bishop Julian Dobbs. Notably absent are representatives of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (GAFCON) primates and numerous archbishops of the Global South who are shunning this event having made clear that they will have nothing to do with the left leaning ACC that has ignored their concerns over the drift of several branches of Western Anglicanism that have wandered away from gospel imperatives, endorsing a variety of sexualities that have no biblical base, and caused profound eruptions in the communion.

The multi-cultural event held mainly in Maori saw an aging group of mostly white people listening to a mostly Maori service. The civic welcome opened in the native Maori language and Maori hakas brought smiles and laughter from the audience in the opening moves by Maori Anglicans. Marching in procession behind them were young New Zealanders carrying signs representing Central Africa, Congo, The Episcopal Church, Hong Kong, Indian Ocean, Japan, Kenya, Korea Melanesia, Mexico, Burma (Myanmar), Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, North India, Rwanda, Philippines, Scottish Episcopal Church, SE Asia, Southern Cone of America, South India, Southern Africa, Sudan, Wales, West Africa, Sudan, West Africa, West Indies, Aotearoa (New Zealand).

A panel of four archbishops of the Communion that included Dr. Williams, Thabo Makgoba of Southern Africa, NZ Archbishop Winston Halapua of the Tikanga Pasefika, which includes the Diocese of Polynesia, and US Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori fielded questions in a lively give and take with Anglican youth.

In response to a question by one young Anglican student on the issue of same sex marriage, Williams replied, that the short answer is that the Anglican Church has quite a lot to say about this issue but it's not always the same thing. 

"For the vast majority of Anglicans in the world the idea of same-sex marriage is not one they can come to terms with. Even those who want to say that some kind of recognized public partnership for people of the same sex is a good thing, even they are not too sure whether calling it marriage is right if 'marriage' is something with all the symbolic and theological focus that it's had in the Bible and in history."

Williams said the disagreements must focus people on "another set of very delicate and difficult issues" around the fact that Christians "have been rejecting and even violent towards people with same-sex attraction and we have a lot of repenting to do there."

Jefferts Schori acknowledged "many people have found it difficult to hear what the Episcopal Church has said about these issues through its General Convention."

"Our understanding as a whole church is that people with same-sex attraction seek the same ability in life to live in a covenanted relationship with another person whom they love, that that can be a good thing, that human beings were not created to live alone - that is what Genesis says - and that therefore the church's task is to help all human beings live in holy relationships that can show the love of God to a world much in need of it," she said.

The Episcopal Church has been having this conversation for 50 years and we do not all agree, added the Presiding Bishop.

"Where we differ is what that [covenanted relationship] looks like, and that's where the conversation is having its most creative possibility. I doubt that we will ever all agree about what that covenanted or holy relationship will look like and what the boundaries are but, if we are unable to have the conversation, we are going to do violence to human beings who need not to live alone."

Calling the question "a pastoral matter," Makgoba said there is pain on all sides of the issue, adding "what is important is to respect the dignity of each person as created in God."

"As one of my predecessors once said about this: 'the Holy Spirit is not yet finished with us on this matter,'" he noted.

New Zealand Aotearoa Archbishop Winston Halapua of Polynesia said NZ is on a journey with this pastoral matter. "It is painful that the church is divided over this. What is important is to respect the dignity of all people involved. The Holy Spirit has not yet finished with us on this matter."

Asked by one young Anglican if it was fun being leader of the church, Williams replied, "It is unavoidable to take some decisions in the name of the whole church and you know that they are going to hurt people very badly and you just have to be aware of the need to stay with the people that it hurts, and do the best you can," Williams said, adding that that reality about decision-making is not limited to the church and its bishops.

Asked whether it is fun being the leader of the Anglican Communion, Williams replied, "It depends which day of the week you ask me."

He went on to make a distinction between something being fun versus being joyful.

"And when I thank God for calling me to this job, which I do sometimes - sometimes through gritted teeth - I say thank you for the joy, the unexpected joy, even when it's not exactly fun," he noted.

Another young person raised the issue of women priests and added that some parts of the communion do not have priests. Archbishop Makgoba replied that the Anglican Church should have women priests, "All are created in God's image. God has no favorites, God has called us all of us to serve. We have had women priests for 20 years in Southern Africa."

Dr. Williams said attitudes have changed very rapidly and agreed with his two fellow bishops that while "we rightly celebrate the way in which women's ordained ministry has become part of the life of so many bits of the Anglican Communion," all of society must pay attention to the larger issue of the "dignity and security of women."

The question, he explained, of "whether we live in a society that degrades women, a society that doesn't allow women to be safe, a society which turns its face away from violence against women" is going to be "very much on our agenda during the weeks ahead."

Questioned on why the [Anglican] Church seems to be declining and why should young people join the Anglican Church, Jefferts Schori said the Anglican tradition has a lot to offer. "We should not accept answers handed down, but to wrestle with in Holy Scripture.

The New Zealand archbishop said, "You are the church today, challenge us."

Dr. Williams responded saying, "Christ died to take away your sins not your mind. The Christian faith puts before us an imaginative blazing of what to means to be a human being. He pours out his love and it explodes our humanity. It is not dull. Christianity gives us a vision of what it means to be a human being, it also promises to let us enter into the profundity of God's mystery. Our Anglican tradition tries to keep in play as many things as possible. Don't treat the bible as an infallible book of rules. We get help from tradition and we need to make the most of if it by using your mind. We must ask the hard questions. The Bible, tradition and reason bring together to play to our natural skill and humanity God has put into our persons. Our humanity then explodes."

The ACC is one of the four instruments of communion, the others being the archbishop of Canterbury (who serves as president of the ACC), the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops, and the Primates Meeting. The ACC was formed in 1969 and includes clergy and lay people, as well as bishops, among its delegates. The membership includes from one to three persons from each of the Anglican Communion's 38 provinces. Where there are three members, there is a bishop, a priest and a lay person. Where fewer members are appointed, preference is given to lay membership. 

The Episcopal Church is represented by Josephine Hicks of North Carolina; the Rev. Gay Jennings of Ohio; and Bishop Ian Douglas of Connecticut.

Jefferts Schori is attending the meeting in her role as a member of the Anglican Communion Standing Committee, which met here prior to the start of the ACC meeting. Douglas is also a member of the Standing Committee. 

Many orthodox Anglicans believe that the ACC has taken on international ecclesiastical and metro political power under former Archbishop George Carey that it was never intended for it to have. They also believe that it has been co-opted and paid for by The Episcopal Church which is the single biggest contributor to the ACC.

END

'via Blog this'

Tales from the Crypt - By Dimestore Liam



Dimestore Liam has left a new comment on your post "Mequon Connection in Jeske Exit":

Wow, I know a lot of those guys... I had no Idea the WELS had gotten so much crazier since my exit in 1992! Mark Jeske played in a "Christian Rock" band with a guy I knew, I met him at the '85 Youth Rally; Tom Jeske was my tutor at MLS that Fall... R.e. Mequon '78, Mark Porinsky was my Pastor from 1979-1985; Kenneth Jahnke was the emissary who had to explain why I was kicked out of St. Mark's, Flat Rock MI & then why Pastor Gore & I were 86d from the WELS a couple of years later, poor guy...

As for Mark Freier, I got in a shoving match with him in the chapel at HVLHS in 1987 because he was mis-quoting scripture in his sermon and I stood up and called him a liar, hahaha... He jumped down from the pulpit and took a swing at me. That wasn't the last time I had a run-in with him, either. That guy is a complete lunatic! Oh yeah, I also just finished reading Mark Braun's "A Tale Of Two Synods" immediately before getting online this morning, which is how I ended up on this website again...

***

GJ - Freier's "Emergent Church" in South Lyons, Michigan is now a Covenant congregation. Like Kelm starting an ELCA church, Bob Mueller and Paul Kuske started a Covenant parish - with three WELS pastors getting it going.

Freier emerged as a consultant being paid about $50,000 to advise Parlow's congregation in how to make a faster exit from Lutherdom.

Freier bragged on his website that he would perform a marriage for anyone, any religion - atheist, Hindu, you name it.

Mark Freier will coach you to success.


Dimestore Welcomes the Un-WELS-come



Dimestore Liam has left a new comment on your post "Intrepid Lutherans - Pastor Paul Rydecki Suspended...":

Pastor Rydecki- Welcome to the ranks of those thrown out of the WELS! In 1992, the self-described "Brethren" of the WELS here in Michigan did essentially the same thing to Pastor John Gore (and got rid of me at the same time simply because I defended my pastor & mentor) that has now been done to you. I won't go into extensive detail here, but the excuse they used was similar in that they called us "crypto-Catholics" for believing what we had been taught from childhood as Lutheran doctrine. If you are interested in more detail, you can contact me at DimestoreLiam@live.com - God bless you & god luck!

***

GJ - Not to downplay the nastiness of Missouri, but WELS has a well deserved reputation for vindictive, mean-spirited, personal vendettas. John Seifert had a personal grudge against Marc Schroeder (son of Salty) in Columbus, Ohio. Therefore, Seifert kicked out Schroeder and Prince of Peace (now LCMS) for the very unionism that he (Seifert) supported as a member of the WELS Synodical Council. I offered my advice and quotations to Schroeder and his friends, but they did not show any gratitude.

This is WELS, the land of the rotten,
Grudges there are ne'er forgotten, look away, look away, lookaway UOJ.

The issue with John Gore was the Word consecrating the elements. Imagine teaching what is clearly taught in the Scriptures and Confessions. That will never do, said WELS, so they ousted Gore and Dimestore.

WELS is consistent. They mock the efficacy of the Word, so they are are lost in confusion about the efficacious Word consecrating the elements. Because they mock the Word, they elect Jim Huebner as their VP, to replace Wayne Mueller, since both mock the Word in their solemn declarations.


The Cloud of Witnesses - Justification by Faith



The arguments in favor of universal absolution are being tossed about like the buildings and ships caught in that storm with the disarming name - Sandy. Let's look at each one.

Romans 4:25 - Pietists like Rambach and Webber enjoy turning the resurrection of Christ into justification without faith, but the slogan Raised for Our Justification! has a tinny sound when the entire chapter is examined, especially in light of Genesis 15 and Galatians 3.

John 1:29 - Luther treats Behold, the Lamb of God in great detail in his Galatians Commentary. The UOJ Hive should study that commentary some day, perhaps place it in the WELS Essays Files for contrast. Luther treats the verses extensively as an atonement passage, because it concerns the atonement and not world absolution without faith.

Ambrose - Poor Ambrose. He was not the world's greatest theologian, but he wrote a fine passage about justification by faith. The UOJ Keystone Kops love to quote one part of that paragraph, but not the entire paragraph in context. No one with any reading comprehension can mine UOJ from the Apology of the Augsburg Confession.Stop slandering Ambrose: he should not be associated with Bishop Stephan's pimp.


Samuel Huber versus Hunnius and Leyser - The first UOJ stylist in the Lutheran realm was Samuel Huber, who changed from Calvinism to Luther's doctrine, joining the Wittenberg faculty when the ink was barely dry on the Book of Concord. Huber began teaching the universal righteousness of mankind, getting all Buchholzy and attacking the Lutherans. Hunnius and Leyser, with impeccable orthodox credentials, crushed the false doctrine of Huber and sent him empty away. To this day Huber sounds hauntingly like Walther, Pieper, JP Meyer, Sig Becker, and David Valleskey.


Robert Preus - The UOJ Stormtroopers stopped mentioning Robert Preus when I repeatedly quoted their authority in his last book. Preus wrote perfectly dreadful stuff in favor of UOJ earlier, in the 1980s, and he also supported the Church Growth Movement at Concordia Seminary, Ft. Wayne. But his last book, even when edited by his sons, contains many excellent passages overturning UOJ, and they come from the orthodox theologians, not from the UOJ Pietists.





Now these pitiful false teachers of UOJ cling to their New NIV paraphrases and hope they can fool the sheep into buying Murdoch's latest pornographic offering.

The Church and Changers are hotter than Georgia asphalt for the New NIV.

When the Pastors Fear the District Pope, There Is Tyranny.
When the DP Trembles at God's Word, There Is Sound Doctrine



KJV Isaiah 66:1 Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? 2 For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My Word.


Febreze has left a new comment on your post "Here You Stand, WELS - With McCain and Cascione Ch...":

Oh the irony!

"You have never attempted to instruct me from God’s Word. Instead, you have attempted to instruct me from your personal interpretations, rationalistic conclusions and philosophical assertions. The doctrine of the WELS and the doctrine of God’s Word are not necessarily the same thing. Neither I nor any pastor nor any congregation has ever subscribed unconditionally to the WELS doctrinal statements, and yet you have continued to insist that such a subscription is mandatory for all WELS pastors. You have insisted that we must confess This We Believe as our “own personal confession,” in addition to the Book of Concord. This is pure sectarianism."

"But rather than showing me where my exegesis was faulty, you simply insisted that you have personally studied these things, written a synod convention essay on it, and therefore, you must be right. You have boldly claimed that the WELS cannot be wrong on this issue, and that the doctrine of justification can only be studied to demonstrate how the WELS is right. There can be no study done by the pastors of our district that might call into question the WELS position. This is pure Romanism."

"Until now, I have treated you all as brothers and have been willing to study and discuss these doctrinal differences with you without condemning anyone as a heretic. But in true papistic fashion, you have refused from the beginning even to admit the possibility that you could have erred or that the WELS doctrinal statements may be wrong. You called me to repentance for preaching that “all who trust in Christ are absolved before God’s courtroom.” You stood in front of my congregation and called me a false teacher for teaching the Gospel that sinners are justified by faith alone in Christ, and now you have suspended me from the ministerium of the WELS."

(http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2012/10/letter-to-wels-district-president-jon.html)

---

"The papists formulated the definition of church...from an analogy like this: Just as the republic of Venice, the kingdom of France, [or] the German empire consists of a certain order of rulers and subjects [and] certain laws and customs, so among the clergy who are in the succession of orders the church of Christ is so bound that whatever they determine and believe must of necessity be accepted by all and one must under no pretext depart from them ( Febreze – This We Believe and all essays in the WLS Essay file, especially Becker’s UOJ ones). For [they believe that] this assembly cannot err in doctrine in any respect, for the church is 'the pillar and foundation of truth,' 1 Tim. 3:15. Therefore , against this political figment of the imagination it was necessary to set this position, that the church is not such a visible assembly but rather that it is the flock of such sheep as, known by Christ and in turn knowing Him, can never be plucked out of His hands, as Christ Himself defines His church, John 10:14 and 28....Because in this opinion [of the papists] many,..., flatter themselves that since they're members of the visible church (Febreze - WELS) they cannot be condemned..." (Chemnitz, Loci Theologici, p. 1308)



KJV Isaiah 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!


Links about Justification by Faith 
and Justification without Faith (UOJ)



Luther's Galatians endorsed by reader

Luther's Galatians on Gnesio Lutherans

Roman Catholic adjunct Jack Kilcrease as Humpty Dumpty

Calov, quoted by Robert Preus, repudiated the UOJ position of WELS

Kilcrease, the McCain tutor, equivocates.

Buchholz is anti-Luther

Pastor Bickel on Tossing Rydecki Under the Bus

Church and Changer Jeff Gunn and His Mequon Class of Shrinkers

Paul McCain and Jon Buchholz - Bedfellows of Apostasy

Abraham Is the Common Theme in Justification - Justification by Faith

Pastor Rydecki's Account of His Suspension - October 9th

Intrepid Account October 6th- Pastor Rydecki Suspended

LutherQuest (sic) Opposes Justification by Faith

Warming Up the Tar and Feathers on LutherQuest (sic)

Pastor Bickel Answers Jon Buchholz

Kokomo Statements - WELS UOJ - JP Meyer

Jack Kilcrease Showing Signs of Stress

Dr. Lito Cruz and Brett Meyer Dispatch the UOJ Stormtroopers on Extra Nos

Latest Links

DinoLutheran Asks Impertinent Questions

Clarification from David Becker

Three Comments from Sola Fide

Otten Celebrates Rydecki's Removal: Two Front-Page Stories

Mixed Messages from LutherQuest (sic)

Departing from the Confessions - Berean

Loyalist-Conservatives and Holy Mother Synod

Jack Cascione Dusts Off Iron Maiden

Wauwatosa Influence in WELS

Mighty in the Scriptures - Luther Sermon Passage

False Claims by WELS

UOJ Is Pavlov's House

Reu on Unionism