"As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people from this time forth and forever." 
Psalm 125:2 NKJV

• A message from Bishop David Anderson
• Event: Steadfast in Faith Lecture series at Newport Beach
• Albany: Convention passes canons banning same-gender marriages, blessings
• California: Bishop Andrus affirms Supreme Court ruling, issues guidelines for marriages
• England: Religious engineering: a dangerous game
• Canada: Alberta Pastor Ordered to Publicly Apologize and Remain Silent on Homosexuality

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A message from Bishop David Anderson

Beloved in Christ,

Last week I wrote that the orthodox Anglicans seemed to be pressed between Islamic militancy on the one hand and a homosexual agenda on the other, both of which are aided and abetted by some governments. I would like to discuss several more examples of this situation.

Since the California Supreme Court established, in effect, homosexual marriage in California, Episcopal dioceses in California are rushing to establish policy guidelines. Many revisionist parishes are demanding the right to conduct full-scale gay marriages, and until their diocese permits this, are declaring that they won't do any religious marriages for heterosexual couples, but will only do blessings of civil marriages for them as well as gay couples. They insist on absolute parity between Adam and Eve on one hand and Adam and Steve on the other. Who is in charge of this insane asylum, anyway?

In England, the Earl of Devon banned gay marriages at his castle and walked into a hornets' nest of homosexual push-back. Although he has decided that there will be no hosting of civil marriage ceremonies at all, for any couples, the homosexual activists are trying to have his ancient castle's inheritance tax exemption revoked because it isn't gay-friendly. But wait, it gets worse in Canada.

A Christian pastor in Canada has been ordered to apologize to a gay man and pay for the expenses of the complainant and a witness who came to testify at a hearing. Apparently the pastor had written remarks critical of homosexual behavior in a letter to the editor of a local paper. A gay activist complained, the letter was branded "hate speech" and he was ordered to make restitution. The fact that the letter was submitted to a public forum, and yet one man whose feelings were hurt could file a claim, AND WIN, says that truly the lunatics are in charge of the asylum. I suppose that answers my rhetorical question in paragraph two above.

If, in the wonderful world of the internet, one person writes something in one country and posts it to the internet, and it is reposted or available almost anywhere in the world, is the writer to be found liable in any country in the world where someone is offended? Perhaps the gay activists are already clapping their hands and can't wait to find a country and a court to bring some of us up for a trial. But this sword of insanity cuts both directions. Some gay activist may be advocating over the internet certain freedoms and behaviors that are illegal in some countries. If he or she were to be reported to the authorities by someone offended in such a country, and then tried for those writings, he/she could just as easily be at risk.

Now to the Muslim side of the equation. The Church of England Newspaper (CEN), on page one in an article titled "Government Warned Over Sidelining of Christians" by Toby Cohen, gives fair warning to the government and advises that the government must act on the recommendations of a recent report on Government and Church relations. Then the CEN, on page 11, continues in their Comment section with an article exposing the anti-Christian and pro-Muslim policy of the Brown government. This article helps to explain why things are getting as bad as they are in the UK, and who is behind it. Hazel Blears, speaking for the government, says that to sideline Christianity is a "common sense policy." The full text is absolutely worth reading.

One might think that all of this Islamic advancement promoted by governmental entities seems like a bad dream, but it has gone so far in some instances that there is no waking up from it. In Irvine, California, at the University of California Irvine, which is a prestigious and well-regarded  American university, the university authorities and campus police seem bent on creating an environment that will eventually extinguish their own culture. In a May 22, 2008 article by Jonathan Constantine Movroydis and Reut Cohen, the extent of the Muslim Student Union's (MSU) growth and power is documented. The MSU holds several annual events, at which members unashamedly voice support for terrorist groups and denounce Israel, America, and the Western world. According to Movroydis and Cohen, the MSU intimidates other students, especially Jewish ones, and the campus police are unwilling to intervene.

On a more positive note, in a few days several of our AAC staff and I will be traveling to Jordan and Israel for GAFCON. Our staff is assisting in some areas, such as registration, to free up others to be participants. My wife, MaryAnne and I will be there in two capacities: representing the American Anglican Council, which is a Common Cause Partners signatory; and also as a CANA/Nigerian bishop and wife. We are praying for a lifting of the mist and a clear vision of the preferred and God-directed future for orthodox Anglicans, as we together face these two great challenges to Christianity: theological revisionism and Islam.

Blessings and Peace in Jesus Christ,

The Rt. Rev. David C. Anderson, Sr.
President and CEO, American Anglican Council

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Event: Steadfast in Faith Lecture Series at Newport Beach

Source: St. James Anglican Church, via email

NEWPORT BEACH, June 12, 2008 – Radio broadcast veteran Warren Duffy will speak at St. James Church Wednesday, June 25 at 7 pm on "Who are the 2008 Nicolaitans?"  as part of the church's "Steadfast in Faith" lecture series.

For a decade, afternoon drive-time radio listeners in Southern California tuned in to hear the daily talk program "Duffy and Company - Live From L.A."  Duffy is a veteran of nearly 50 years in radio broadcasting.  After a stint as the PR Director for the Beach Boys and a bout with recreational drug use, he returned to his Christian faith.

A complimentary light supper will be offered at 6 pm.  The lecture is free, however a freewill offering will be received.

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Albany: Convention passes canons banning same-gender marriages, blessings

Source: Episcopal News Service
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
June 10, 2008

The Episcopal Diocese of Albany, meeting June 6 in its 140th annual convention, passed new canons prohibiting same-gender blessings and ordaining and licensing only those clergy who are married to a member of the opposite sex or "celibate and abstinent."

In his address to the convention meeting at Camp of the Woods in Speculator, New York, Albany Bishop William Love said the canons "are consistent with past and current diocesan policy and are not in violation or contradiction" with the Episcopal Church's canons.

The new canons "are not intended to be divisive, although some have come to see them that way," he said. "But rather, they are intended to provide clarity, in a time where there is great confusion within the Episcopal Church as well as the Anglican Communion concerning marriage and sexual relations outside of the confines of marriage between a man and women."

He noted that the canons "apply to everyone, regardless of one's sexual orientation. There is one standard concerning sexual relations by which we are all called to live. While recognizing that many heterosexual couples have chosen to engage in sexual relations outside of marriage, the Church will not bless such unions." ...

The rest of the article may be found at the link above.

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California: Bishop Andrus affirms Supreme Court ruling, issues guidelines for marriages

Diocese of California website
June 9, 2008

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I welcome the ruling of the California Supreme Court affirming the fundamental right of all people to marry. I am writing to you now to recommend a path to use this decision to strengthen our support of our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered sisters and brothers, and our continued witness to God's inclusive love.

Clergy and lay leaders in the diocese have been working for the rights of LGBT people and for their full inclusion in our Church for more than forty years. Today, we continue to walk a journey that includes:
- Bringing the witness of our LGBT sisters and brothers to this summer's Lambeth Conference,
- Combating a ballot initiative this November that will attempt to take away the rights recently recognized by the California Supreme Court,
- Providing leadership at next summer's General Convention to bring our marriage practices and theology in line with our fundamental baptismal theology.

For far too long the onus has fallen on marginalized people to bear the burden of inequalities that exist within the Church, and the decision by our state's Supreme Court has given us the opportunity to level the playing field.

To that end, the Diocese of California seeks to provide, by advocacy and example, a way forward for The Episcopal Church so that the marriage of same-sex couples will be a part of our official marriage rites, without distinction. Although The Episcopal Church does not have canonical rites for same-sex marriage, it is our goal that all couples be treated equally by the Church, as they are equally loved by God.

I therefore provide you with the following pastoral guidelines:
- I urge you to encourage all couples, regardless of orientation, to follow the pattern of first being married in a secular service and then being blessed in The Episcopal Church. I will publicly urge all couples to follow this pattern.
- For now, the three rites approved for trial use under the pastoral direction of the bishop, adopted by resolution at the 2007 Diocesan Convention (see appendix), should be commended to all couples (again, regardless of orientation) to bless secular marriages.
- All marriages should be performed by someone in one of the secular categories set forth in California Family Code, section 400 (see appendix), noting that any person in the state of California can be deputized to perform civil marriages. The proper sphere for Episcopal clergy is the blessing portion of the marriage.
- The understanding of The Episcopal Church currently is that blessings are an extension of the pastoral office of the bishop. I ask that you continue to inform me of all same-sex blessings.
- Couples who have been married under the auspices of the California Supreme Court ruling must have the same pre-marriage counseling as that required of any couple seeking marriage or blessing of marriage in The Episcopal Church. This should be understood as an offering of the Church's support for marriage.
- I urge Episcopalians, clergy and lay, to volunteer as Deputy Marriage Commissioners. There are over 4,000 civil same-sex marriages planned in a short period of time in the city of San Francisco alone and the city is asking for help in meeting demand. I intend to volunteer for this at my earliest opportunity.
- This would be one sign of affirmation for the Supreme Court ruling from our diocese. By city requirement, clergy will not be allowed to wear collars when presiding at secular marriages. (For more information about how to be deputized, see the attached appendix.)
- All people receiving blessings of civil marriages in the Diocese of California are free to use the same degree of publicity (e.g., newspaper notices).

These are interim measures as the Diocese of California and The Episcopal Church continue our journey in the context of this prophetic opportunity provided by the California Supreme Court's ruling. I have already initiated a process to arrive at a more studied, permanent answer for Episcopal clergy presiding at same-sex marriages in this diocese. That process includes the formation of a panel of diocesan clergy to make recommendations about how to move toward equality of marriage rites for all people. These recommendations will be discussed across the diocese resulting in an official diocesan policy.

In the coming days, I will publicly state my opposition to the initiative to overturn the Supreme Court ruling. The Diocese of California will publish advertising around June 17 celebrating the Supreme Court ruling and inviting same-sex couples to our churches for pre-marital counseling and nourishment in communities of faith.

As always, I welcome your wisdom, your insights and your input on these matters, and I continue in my commitment to work for a Church that sees all of God's children through the same eyes that God does.

Peace,
The Rt. Rev. Marc Handley Andrus
Bishop

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England: Religious engineering - a dangerous game

Commentary from the Church of England Newspaper
June 13, 2008, Page 11

So it's official, what this newspaper has been claiming for some time, that our government has been sidelining Christianity and promoting Islam - and not at the behest of many Muslims. At all levels of government, from quangos, to local authorities, to the police, to Home Office advice on forced marriages, to funding Islamic projects, education authorities and the headscarfery games, to halal meat foisted on non-Muslim children, to the gradual strangulation of critical scholarship in colleges and universities, a whole raft of weird and wonderful legislation has been passed, in a decade.

A mass expansion of Islamic schools is planned soon, cementing apartheid in the teeth of the Cantle Report, and religious hate crime legislation has put a chill factor over freedom of speech and religious debate. The police have recently told evangelists to quit an area since it is a Muslim district. And now the government has said that it has all along very deliberately sought this path, it is no accident, and at the same time it says that to sideline Christianity is a 'common sense' policy, in the words of Hazel Blears.

The president of Malaysia has called for Muslims in the UK to be given even more privileges and rights, using British colonial history as an excuse - oddly ignoring the far more brutal Islamic colonisation and religious enforcement never practised by Britain.

The report "Moral, Without a Compass" published by the Von Hugel Institute has discovered that the government has deliberately ignored the vast Christian tradition on which all charitable and welfare work is based in the UK, and thereby buying goodwill from hardline Islamists. We should ask Ms Blears why there are so many social crises: youth crime, educational decline, difficulty recruiting to the caring professions, coarsening of culture, sheer selfishness: hello Ms Blears - steepling moral decline as Christianity declines in influence.

According to Ms Blears it is government policy to pour resources into Muslim communities in order to buffer the effects of radicalisation on young men. New Labour is the party that chose to invade Iraq, against the advice of all religiously informed agencies, including this newspaper: we warned that western military power can bring down a regime, but cannot change a culture. And the government is doing precisely the same in the UK, it is colluding with hard-line Muslim ideologues, the source of the problem, and not challenging fundamentalism in terms of liberal, post-Enlightenment thinking. It has failed to connect with modern Muslims and is simply allowing very conservative Imams to speak for 'the' Muslim community, as if it were a single unit. As a result, in a decade, the UK faces a large and growing fundamentalist block claiming the right to its own legal system, a highly dangerous fragmenting of our once unified Kingdom. The government is playing with fire.

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Canada: Alberta Pastor Ordered to Publicly Apologize and Remain Silent on Homosexuality

Source: LifeSiteNews 
By Tim Waggoner
June 9, 2008

Ottawa - On Friday, the Alberta Human Rights Commission ordered Alberta pastor Stephen Boissoin to desist from expressing his views on homosexuality in any sort of public forum. He was also commanded to pay damages equivalent to $7,000 as a result of the tribunal's November decision to side with complainant and homosexual activist Dr. Darren Lund. The tribunal has also called for Boissoin to personally apologize to Lund via a public statement in the local newspaper.

The remedy order demands the pastor to pay $5,000 to Lund personally for the "time and energy" he has expended and for the "ridicule and harassment" he has faced. Combined with that financial burden, Boissoin must also pay up to $2,000 in expenses to one of Lund's witness, provided she produces records of such costs.

Boissoin was first hauled before the Human Rights Commission to answer to a complaint filed by Lund, an assistant professor at the University of Calgary. Lund made his complaint after Boissoin published a letter to the editor in the Red Deer Advocate, in which he denounced homosexuality as immoral and dangerous, and called into question new gay-rights curricula permeating the province's educational system. ...

The rest of the article may be found at the link above.