Podcasts about anglicans

In this interview, I'm joined by Fr. Ben Crosby, an Episcopal priest and Ph.D. student at McGill university, to discuss the 39 articles, Anglican theology, and how to restore the Episcopal Church to its theological roots. Along the way, Fr. Ben shares the fascinating story of how liberals and conservatives have both opposed the 39 articles, whether "via media" is a good way to describe Anglicanism, and why being more Protestant makes Anglicans more Anglican. It's a fascinating discussion, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I didhttps://substack.com/@bencrosbyBooks mentioned: IVP 1662 Book of Common Prayer: https://amzn.to/3UqkZO9Companion to the Book of Common Prayer: https://amzn.to/41zbWybAnglican Book of Homilies: https://amzn.to/412dMriWant to support the channel? Here's how!Give monthly:   / gospelsimplicity    Make a one-time donation: https://paypal.me/gospelsimplicityBook a meeting: https://calendly.com/gospelsimplicity...Read my writings: https://austinsuggs.substack.com/Support the show

What do Anglicans believe about Mary, the mother of Jesus? This edition of Ask the Church explores the Anglican view by asking three key questions: What must we believe? What may we believe? And what do we set aside as inconsistent with Scripture and tradition? From Mary's role as Theotokos (God-bearer) to questions about perpetual virginity, the Assumption, and the Immaculate Conception, this teaching shows how Anglicans honor Mary as the greatest of the saints while keeping Christ at the center. Listen now to gain clarity on this important aspect of Christian faith and tradition.

In this episode, host Jean Geran speaks with guest historian Michael Rutz about the historical experience of British Protestant dissenters in the 18th and 19th centuries. Drawing from his book The British Zion: Congregationalism, Politics and Empire, 1790–1850, Dr. Rutz explores how dissenting Christian communities navigated issues of religious liberty, education, social activism, and citizenship under an Anglican state church.

"...live your lives in Christ, rooted and built up in him..." (Col.2).   The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm Clemens Young Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, CA 6 Pentecost (Proper 11C) RCL 8:30 and 11 a.m. Sunday 27 July 2025 | SF Marathon   Hosea 1:2-10 Psalm 85 Colossians2:6-15, (16-19) Luke 11:1-13

Why do we keep saying ancient creeds and prayers? In this message, we explore how set words teach us to pray, anchor our belief, unite our community, and help us witness to Jesuslike a melody line we improvise ondrawing from Exodus 34, 1 Corinthians 15 and Revelation 12:11. To catch up on the latest sermons from Deep Creek, go to iTunes, Spotify ordeepcreekanglican.comand check out the website for more info about whats happening. We are a welcoming and growing multigenerational church in Doncaster East in Melbourne with refreshing faith in Jesus Christ. We think that looks like being life-giving to the believer, surprising to the world, and strengthening to the weary and doubting. Read the transcript below Bible Readings Old Testament Exodus 34:18 Good morning church. This morning we are privileged to be having two or rather three readings, one from the Old Testament and two from the new. And I'm going to read from you from the Old Testament, Exodus 34, verses 1 to 8. The Lord said to Moses, chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets which you broke. Be ready in the morning and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain. No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain. Not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain. So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones, and went up mount Sinai early in the morning, as the Lord had commanded him, and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him, and proclaimed his name the Lord. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming the Lord the Lord. The compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation. Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. May we too, I think, be like Moses, worshiping this God who is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in love and faithfulness. Amen. New Testament Readings 1 Corinthians 15; Revelation 12 And now Sam will bring us the two New Testament readings. Our New Testament readings for today are from one Corinthians chapter 15 and revelation chapter 12. Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preach to you which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved. If you hold firmly to the word I preach to you. Otherwise you have believed in vain. For what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the 12. After that he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. And last of all, he appeared to me also as to one abnormally born are now for revelation. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, now I have come to the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of this Messiah of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters who accuses them before our God. Day and night has been hurled down. They triumphed over him by the blood of the lamb, and by the word of their testimony. They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Therefore rejoice, you heavens, and you who dwell in them. But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you. He is filled. He is filled with fury because he knows that his time is sure. This is the word of the Lord. Sermon Well. Good morning again. Thank you so much for the privilege of being with you. to be part of the Staying Weird series, finding the weirdest people around to come and talk about a weird and wonderful thing, which is Christian faith and and to listen to a sermon. A 'Creed' for Listening So I've prepared, just a brief, creed for listening to a sermon. And so I wonder whether we just might encourage each other as we begin with this, this morning, so you can respond in the, in the bold type. All Scripture is God breathed. Congregation replies: And is useful for teaching, correcting, rebuking, and training in righteousness. We listen to sermons so that we might hear from God. I am really, really, looking forward to the sermon today! And even if it goes a bit too long, I wont mind at all. However, I do wonder, whats the point of reciting things that have been written for us by someone else? Wheres the authenticity in that? Which is a really great question. The 'Age of Authenticity' I'm glad you asked. We live in what sociologists call the age of authenticity, and that's what it means to be truly human, to make sure that you, you do you and you live your life in a way that aligns with with your heart, you, you, you don't just submit to what other people tell you to do, what other people say that you ought to be. You need to be authentic. Be true to yourself. Except, of course, when you come to the Anglican Church and what you do is what is in bold type on the screen. So what do you believe? Don't bother thinking. Just read these words off the screen. Would you like to confess your sins to Almighty God? No need to search your heart. Just repeat after me. would you like to, know what to say when you wake up in the morning? Well, open your prayer book and read Morning Prayer. As an advanced Anglican, there are prayers for the morning. The evening for the middle of the day, for before you go to bed, there is a special prayer to say every week of the year we've got you covered. No need to think. And is that perhaps the point of this? Adolf Hitler said, what luck for leaders that men do not think. But that's not the point, is it? Let me say very clearly that's not the point. All right, we come. We come to church so that we might think deeply about our faith. We come so that we might bring ourselves to this, that we might grow in an authentic, real Christian faith so that who we are would be what we confess to one another and to the world. And we do that joining with centuries of Christian people, theologians, philosophers, artists who have thought reflected deeply on what it means to be Christian, and many of them who also have said these prepared words of creeds and prayers. So how does this go together? How do we understand the significance, the value, the point of coming to church and saying things that someone else has written for us? Point 1 Saying what we dont know how to say I for four points as I as we go through today. The first is this why do we say prepared creeds and confessions and prayers, so that we are enabled to say what we don't know how to say? The Apostle's Creed that we said earlier that that was originally sort of from the earliest references around the fourth century, in wide use by the eighth century. These were a set of words that people would use when they are being baptised. So brand new Christians, what is the faith that you are confessing? And his. Here are the words to say it. It was a way of teaching new believers. How do we speak about God and so many of the creeds? They came out of controversy in the early years of the church. As Christians try to work out, how do we talk about God? What is God like? Where does Jesus fit? Who is the Holy Spirit? How do we answer those questions? Should we say that Jesus is created by the father? Or should we say that Jesus is sort of similar to the father? Is Jesus like a second God? That there's the father who's God? And then there's another God who's Jesus, and the Holy Spirit fits in somewhere. Like how? How should we answer? And they're deep questions, right? And so that the church elders, they got together and they thrashed this out over centuries, they worked this out. One of the great creeds of the church is having its birthday this year. The Nicene Creed was written in 425. 1700. I'm not good at maths, right? I'm employed to do different things. 1700 years ago. That's how long Christian believers have been answering the question, What is God's? What is God like? We say that God is the father, the Almighty creator of heaven and earth. God is the one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made of one, being with the father. There is a weight of theology and understanding in those tight words. And if only there was a college that you could go to. You could learn about what it all means. Talk to me afterwards. This sermon is not an advertorial, but there is so much to, to, to reflect on, to grasp. And that's been captured in these words for us so that we can say what we don't know how to say. And it's the same when we pray. The disciples came to Jesus and they said, Jesus, teach us to pray. And so he gave them words. In Luke's version, it's it's explicit. It says, when you pray, say this, here are the words to say when you pray. And as Anglicans, there are prayers that we have been given. Prayers that enable us to say what we don't know how to say. One of my favorites is the is the Thanksgiving. The general Thanksgiving. Megan has very helpfully printed out a number of the sort of the set prayers of the Anglican tradition. I think they'll be out in the foyer somewhere afterwards, or here at the corners of the stage. How do you say thank you to God? Well, the Anglican reformers, they knew that that English Christians weren't very good at being thankful. All right. So here are some words. Glorious, gracious God, we humbly thank you for life, for health, for safety, for freedom to work leisure, to rest, and for all that is beautiful in creation and in human life. They give me categories that I can feel goes on. But above all, we praise you for our Savior, Jesus Christ, for his death and resurrection, and for the gift of your spirit and for the hope of sharing in your glory. And I wonder of those theological phrases which ones are familiar and which ones do you tend to forget? Fill our hearts with all joy and peace in believing. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. What a gift that is. When I don't have the words, then these words written by others, written by our members of our family. They're a gift to us. Formwork, Scales Jazz Now I've lost where I'm up to in my notes. So we're unable to say what we don't know how to say. These words sort of become like formwork for faith. You know, formwork when you're. When you're laying cement. Pouring cement. You create the form that you can then pour the cement into. So it's like the framework that enables faith to sort of find its place. Right. But to shift metaphor, you could say maybe rather than just formwork, it's more like learning scales. And because we're actually doing something the, the, the creeds, the confessions, they're they actually are the expressions of faith. And but of course, nobody performs scales. You practice scales so that you can then perform faith. And really, there's something about saying these prayers, saying the creed which actually is our faith. So when we stood before and said, this is what we believe, we affirm the faith of the church. We weren't just practicing. We were confessing. We were doing what Christians do. And so, in a sense, the creed. It's like it's like the melody line in a jazz standard, right? My son is a jazz musician. And every time I go to see a jazz concert, it's like, I feel like there's an in-joke that I'm just not getting right. Have you ever been to that? So. And jazz musicians, they tell me that's exactly right. We know what we're doing. And the rest of you, you don't. And so I'm gradually learning. And I'm learning that jazz standards, they have a melody line. And then once once the band plays that melody line, then they sort of take turns at improvising, riffing on that melody line. And that's sort of what makes jazz interesting. It's the combination of head and improvisation. If it's just melody line, then it's all a bit same, same. And if it's just improvisation, then it's all a bit chaotic and but it's the improvisation on the melody line that's that's jazz. And what I've noticed when I go to see, John, I play, he goes to a, to an improv bar in, in Northcote. And it's really, it's fun. And they just get up and they'll, they'll call different people from the audience. It's like, Johnny, come play some drums with us, you know, Megan, come, come play some, some keys with us because that's what jazz people say, you know, and and then somebody says, what? What are we going to play? And somebody says, oh, you know, Watermelon Man and G. Okay. And so they just make it up and mind boggles and off they go. I've noticed that sometimes the band just gets a little bit out of hand. And they've, they've sort of lost it because I mean these are people who don't know each other. They've just sort of turned up. They haven't practiced this. And I see the bandleader tapping, tapping his head. And and I've learned that that means come back to the head, come back and play the melody line again. Again. We've all gone a little bit haywire. Let's come back to the head and just play that same thing that we know. Right? It's sort of like in the life of the church. Every now and then you'll see the vicar tapping ahead. Let's come on. Let's let's come back to the come back to the Creed. This is what we believe. Here is the anchor. These are the words that we say. This is the thing that holds us together. These are the words that we say that we don't know how to say. That's point one. Point 2 We say what we can all say Second point. We say what we can all say. I'm going to come back to those slides in a moment. Keep going. We get to the. There you go. We say what we can all say. Oh, no. No. That was the point. That was the end of the argument. Yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah. Because I need to refer to the Bible reading the Bible reading Exodus 34. This is great, isn't it? It's jazz. It's jazz. Yeah. Yes. Moses asks God, what's your name? Okay. Because Moses doesn't know. How will we know what God is like unless God tells us? Moses asked God, what is your name? And God says, the Lord, the the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. There is God's name. That is what God is like. There's the. There's the head, there's the melody line. There's the creed. Now listen to the words of the people of Israel. When the psalmist prays in Psalm 86, you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. They've learned how to address God in prayer. When Joel calls God's people to repent, he says, return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in love. And he relents from sending calamity, even when Jonah complains to God after the Ninevites repent, I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. In all these times. They're all improvisations. They're riffing on Exodus 34, on the Creed. That's that's the Christian life. We take these words that we've been given. And then we apply them in all the different aspects of our lives here in the creeds, in the confessions drawn from the words of Scripture. They give us a set of words that enables us to live this faith. Now we're on to my second point, which is that we say in the creeds what we can all say. I wonder if you're familiar with this song from Matt Redman. It's a beautiful song called The Heart of Worship. Matt Redman is essentially singing a confession. He is coming back to the heart of worship, to living all of life for Jesus, rather than just thinking that worship is all about singing a song. And this is a song that I find really difficult to sing. No, it's not because it's got a difficult melody or anything. It's hard to sing. It's easy to sing. It's a lovely song and it's just. It's just not my song. I'm really glad that Matt Redman has the opportunity to confess this change of understanding that he's moved from a position where he thought that where he had made worship all about a song, and now he's back to the point of recognizing no, actually, worship is all about Jesus. That's just not my story. There's lots of other things I have to confess. All right. So I could write lots of other songs about how Graham needs to confess sin. Okay, don't get me wrong, but this is just not one of them. So I find it hard to sing. I'm glad Matt can sing it. Contrast that with the words of the confession. Prayers. We have done what we ought not to have done. We have left undone what we ought to have done. Well, that's true of all of us. We have sinned against you in thought, word and deed, and in what we have failed to do. That's true of all of us. We have not loved you with our whole heart, and we have not loved our neighbor as ourselves. That is true of all of us. These these are words that we can all say. We can say this together. In the second reading from one Corinthians 15, Paul uses the language of handing on a tradition is it there? Yeah. I passed on to you what I first received. He's using the language of a relay race. You get the baton from somebody else and you hand the baton onto the next person. That's the gospel. That's the message that he preaches. His point is, this isn't new. What I am bringing to you, Corinthians, this message of Jesus who died in accordance with the scriptures and then who was raised in accordance with the scriptures and then appeared. This isn't new. This is not Paul's gospel that he has just made up. This is the church's gospel. This is God's gospel. And so when you come to Deep Creek and you say the words of the the Creed, this is not what Deep Creek believes, not just what Deep Creek believes or not what only deep, Deep Creek believes. This is what churches across Melbourne believe. But not just Anglicans believe this. Not just Australians, but people across the world. People of all denominations. This is what Christians believe. We say these things together. Point 3 We say what our community says In the scriptures and through the creeds and confessions of the church. We're given to say what we can all say together, and therefore we say what our community says. Hey, can we, skip onto the next slide for me, please? Fabulous. We say what our community says. I think at the moment we might just have a musical interlude. and I wonder whether anybody would like to join me in the next song. We're going to have to click through. Here's the song. Who would like to sing this with me? Please stand boldly. I'm not getting any takers. Now, partly that might be because we're all blues fans, and we're also thoroughly disappointed and disgusted and let down. This is the Carlton team song. Blue baggers sing this with pride when we get the opportunity to. And. You know, like the football song. This is, this is a song which it binds a community together. I'm glad that not everybody chose to sing this song, because if you're not a blue bagger, you don't get to sing this song. All right. Because this is our song. It's not yours. And there are other songs that I will not sing. I'm not the proud that I'm not the the pride of Brisbane town. I am certainly not with the mighty Fighting Hawks. So let's move on. The Creed is like our team song. That's what we get from revelation chapter 12. Revelation 12 A loud voice from heaven comes in and interprets our world. It announces salvation in the death and resurrection of Jesus. It says, now have come the salvation and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Messiah, Jesus has conquered. The voice reminds us that though the devil has been defeated, he has been cast down. He is not yet destroyed. Verse ten, he has been hurled down, no longer able to accuse us before God in heaven, but able to wreak havoc on the earth. He is filled with fury because he knows that his time is short. And so how will God's people live? How do Christians function in this kind of world? Knowing the victory of Jesus. And yet so often looking around the world and it does not look like Jesus is ruling. Sometimes it looks like the exact opposite. How do we live in that, in that space? Well, the answer comes in verse 11, there in bold, in the middle, and in two parts they triumph. First by the blood of the lamb. That's the answer by Jesus death on our behalf. Satan's hold over us is broken and we are free. But there's a second part. They triumph over him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. It's true. The defeat of Satan is only established. It's only secured by the work of Jesus. But we take hold of that victory for ourselves by the word of our testimony. Whether this is sharing our faith with one another here in church, or as we proclaim our faith to the world around us, the word of our testimony takes hold of the victory of Christ. Whether we make our testimony under the threat of death, or as an ongoing work of perseverance all the way until death. We hold on to the victory of Christ by the word of our testimony. Revelation 12 verse 11 says that there is a power in the act of testifying. It's not that the power to defeat Satan comes from the strength of your conviction. In the same way that just singing where the team that never lets you down means that you're never going to be disappointed when you go to watch Carlton play football, right? I know that that's true. I can tell you about that more later, but I'll need to go into therapy. Just saying something doesn't make it make it true. But we take hold of Jesus victory. We take our place in the fellowship of the church. And we triumph, therefore, over the devil's schemes. In reciting creeds and confessions, we say what our community says. We find our place in this community, this community of triumph. In the Lord Jesus. The church historian Jaroslav Pelikan. It's got an excellent name, but he was asked once, why do you say the Creed? This was his answer. My faith life, like that of everyone else, fluctuates. There are ups and downs and hot spots and cold spots and boredom and ennui and all the rest can be their own way. If you've seen Inside Out too. You'll know what that means. A feeling of listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occupation or excitement. Yeah, that describes Christian life for me often. UPS and downs. And so I'm not asked on a Sunday morning as of 920. What do you believe? And then you sit down with a three by five index card saying, now let's see, what do I believe today? No, that's not what they're asking me. They are asking me, are you a member of a community which now and for a millennium and a half has said, we believe in one God. And that for me, is the great power in the Creed to share in this shared confession. This privilege of testimony. You know, when you think about it, there's an added privilege of being able to confess this creed on Sunday mornings in Australia because it's like there is this Mexican wave of praise and confession that is going around the globe in these next 24 hours. We didn't kick it off, but there's not many people in the Pacific or in New Zealand. So where, you know, this is this is the when the Mexican wave really takes off, right. And we stand and we say the creed. And then across the day, across the planet, our brothers and sisters will say the same words, confess the same truth. We are part of this community. What a privilege that is. We don't overcome Satan on our own. We don't have to do this on our own. We participate in this community of faith. And you know, the same is true when we pray. When we confess together, we are confessing that we are part of this community. Confession Community You know, often when it comes to the confession, prayer in the service. This is how I hear it introduced. We're going to make this prayer of confession. And so we're going to have a time of silence for you to think about all the ways that you've failed Jesus over the last week. And then we'll pray the prayer together. And then I've got 15 seconds to think, which either completely underestimates how much I'm able to disappoint and fail Jesus over the last seven days, right? Or overestimates my the speed at which I can process all of that sin? And then what happens if after that 15 seconds I can't think of anything? I actually, I'm good today. You guys go for it. But but, I'll I'll join you in a moment. That's not the point, is it? There are some times that you will come to the confession prayer, and your mind will be filled with all the different ways that your life has not measured up to what it is that Jesus has invited us into. And you can be so overwhelmed with failure. But then here are words that just find a way through that mess. And there'll be other days when you'll come thinking that you're sort of okay. And here are words that remind you. Thought, word, deed. What we have failed to do. Really? When we come to confession, the invitation is are you ready and willing to join this community? This is a community that says this to God, that we confess that we have wandered from his way. We confess that we have failed to do what is right. We confess that God alone can save us. We have not loved one another with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbor as ourselves. This is what defines this community. Are you ready and willing to be part of that? To recognize that this is you? And that there is grace and salvation to be found in this community that holds on to the Lord Jesus. Increases in confessions. We say what we ought to say. We say what we can all say. We can say what our community says. And finally, finally take us to the next slide. We say what we want to be able to say with our last breath. Point 4 What we want to be able to say with our last breath In my early ministry, one of the very hardest things that I ever had to do was also one of the most privileged things that I ever got to do, and that was to go to minister at the bedside of people who were dying. And I had to go one day to visit Joan in palliative care. She was a member of our congregation not far from the kingdom. I was terrified. And I was I was given instructions. I said, go read the 23rd Psalm. And then take your prayer book and pray. Pray the confession. Pray the Lord's Prayer. Pray the general thanksgiving. pray the collect. And I read Psalm 23, and Joan was she. She was sort of unresponsive and labored breathing and thought, what the what am I doing here? And then as I opened the prayer book and began the prayer of confession. Her lips began to move, and and she prayed with me. And through the fog and all these years of praying just came out. It it was it was like muscle memory, but also it was it was soul memory. And her body had now remembered how to bring these words to God. And if I'm given the grace of knowing that I'm about to die. Then I want to build a habit of saying these creeds and confessions and liturgical prayers, so that I can declare my faith in the Lord Jesus when I'm dying, that I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting so I can confess my sins. As I wait to meet my Savior, I want to be able to thank God for life and health and safety. I want to be able to greet the morning, praying for my family and thanking God for bringing us safely to this new day. Asking that he would keep us by his mighty power. And grant that today we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger, but that he would lead in govern us in all things that we might always do. What is righteous in his sight? By reciting creeds and confessions, we are offered an invitation to build soul memory. And to say what we want to be able to say with our final breath. Conclusion So what's the point? What's the point of reciting things that have been written for us by someone else, or memorized words, remembered words, known words, familiar words. They can become rich practices of faith. Not just things that we do, but things we do that form us. We enlist our bodies as we. We stand or bow our heads. We use our voices. We declare, we pray, and we do it together. Not just me, but us. Together. And not just us, but together with believers across the globe and throughout the centuries. And so we see that these creeds and confessions, they they become for us like the good news of Jesus itself. Right? They're not my own invention. They're not the result of my creativity, my insight, or my spiritual fervor. These aren't originally my words, but they become my words when I receive them as a gift. And so, in the same way, the good news of Jesus, we didn't come up with this. We didn't create it ourselves. We don't need to construct this. We receive the good news. Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures and has risen that we might be saved. And that can be the gift to our hearts. We don't have to say these things in order to be Christian, but we get to say these things because we are Christian. What an amazing grace that is. Amen.

In our final class on the Ecumenical Councils, we look at how Nicaea 2 was received by the Lutherans and the Reformed, and how historic Anglicanism fits into the picture. We discuss the "Homily on the Peril of Idolatry," the influence of later Gothic Revival and Ecuminism, how Anglicans approach the issues today, and finaly evaluate the Council from the perspective of our Anglican Formularies.Some Links:CB Moss on the 7th CouncilsAn Ad Fontes article on Protestentism and the Council"Nicaea II: Some Criticisms"

Jesus Delivered Us (6) (audio) David Eells – 7/20/25 We don't want to look too far down the road or worry about the “giants” that are in our Promised Land, because the Bible says, (Mat.6:34) Be not therefore anxious for the morrow: for the morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Just take the steps that are in front of you to come against the flesh and come against the spirits. Do the spiritual warfare that you can. He says, “Oh that my people would hearken unto me … I would soon subdue their enemies.” If you just walk in the right direction and swing your Sword, you are going to win the battle. (Jos.10:8) And the Lord said unto Joshua, Fear them not: for I have delivered them into thy hands; there shall not a man of them stand before thee. If you repent of what you know is wrong and hold fast to faith, you cannot help but win the battle. (Psa.81:14) I would soon subdue their enemies, and turn my hand against their adversaries. (15) The haters of the Lord should submit themselves unto him: But their time should endure for ever. (16) He would feed them also with the finest of the wheat; And with honey out of the rock would I satisfy thee. These are God's promises to us, but in your Promised Land, it is up to you, not the Lord, to give no place to the devil (Ephesians 4:27). Nowhere in Scripture are we to pray for the Lord to conquer our Promised Land. He gave us that authority, and He told us to take up our Sword and put the original inhabitants of the land to death. (Exo.23:32) Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. These are the lusts of the flesh and demon spirits. Make no covenant, no treaty, with them, although it's very easy to do because your flesh is always trying to bribe you or buy you out. Your flesh is always trying to get you to justify your position so that you can feel good while you live in the lusts of the flesh, but God says, “Make no covenant with them.” Have no affinity, no accord, with them. Do not humble yourself to them; instead, be merciless. God told them when they went into the Promised Land to have no mercy. (Deu.7:2) And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them up before thee, and thou shalt smite them; then thou shalt utterly destroy them: thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them. He wanted them to kill their enemies who controlled their land. There was one tribe, the Gibeonites, who deceived the Israelites into making a covenant with them (Joshua 9), and God was angry about that. Those Gibeonites ended up being a real thorn in their side (Joshua 10:1-28; 2 Samuel 21:1-14). (Num.33:55) But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then shall those that ye let remain of them be as pricks in your eyes, and as thorns in your sides, and they shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell. God said, “Have no mercy; slaughter them.” This is a type of us coming against our old lusts. He warned, (Exo.23:33) They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me; for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee. This is the truth, and so He said, “They shall not dwell in your land.” Remember that God does not order us to do anything that we cannot do through His power. (Php.4:13) I can do all things in him that strengtheneth me. People love to use this verse for material things but think about the spiritual things for which you can use this verse. You can overcome any lust of the flesh. Pray and examine your life and see what lust it is that has been taking advantage of you. Write it down and give some thought to it. Exercise faith against it because you have authority over that lust, and you will win when you swing your sword. That is God's promise. The best defense is a good offense, and when you go against the devil, being on the offense is the thing that brings him confusion. If you do not act to swing your sword, he is going to conquer you. That means we don't have any other choice but to take up our Sword and go into our Promised Land and win this battle. I know there are a lot of groups out there promoting instant sanctification through deliverance. People say, “Make it easy on me! Just cast all the demons out of me!” Well, we're wrestling with principalities, powers and rulers of darkness (Ephesians 6:12) and there are no shortcuts; there are some things we have to do. You have to obey the Word of God, understand your authority, and exercise your authority over these demons. If you do that, the results can be dramatic; however, there is no way to get around repentance. You cannot cast demons out of people who will not repent; you will just waste your time and the demons will run you in circles. The Bible says, (1Jn.1:9) If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Unrighteousness not only includes the demons, but also the lusts of the flesh. Demons come and prey upon the lusts of the flesh. The Lord Jesus said, (Joh.14:30) … for the prince of the world cometh: and he hath nothing in me. There was no “place,” no foothold, no ground in Him. (Eph.4:27) Neither give place (That's the Greek word topon meaning “place” or “region.”) to the devil. If you are “giving ground” to the devil, he will be there, and if you try to cast him out, he is still going to be there. If you are giving ground to him, he has a legal right to be there and he knows it. The devil knows his rights. The devil is a really good lawyer and he knows this Word better than you. There are no shortcuts, Saints. If you want deliverance from a demon that has been giving you trouble, maybe all of your life, you first have to confess your sins. The demon may have been passed on to you through your parents or come through your giving in to sin; if there is no confession, you will not prosper against that demon. (Pro.28:13) He that covereth his transgressions shall not prosper (He is not going to conquer his Promised Land, but it goes on to say,): Whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall obtain mercy. There's the condition, and here it is again. (Pro.28:18) Whoso walketh uprightly shall be delivered; But he that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once There is no shortcut in deliverance. If you don't confess but still somehow manage to get the demon out, he will come right back. He will just laugh at you or feign obedience and hide himself. You will not have accomplished a thing. You'll soon find out that you have the same problem and you'll wonder why it did not work. The reason it didn't work is because you did not obey. Do you want deliverance that gives you power and authority over the devil? Repentance with confession is the only way. It is the Blood that causes the death angel to pass over, and how is the Blood “applied”? (1Jn.1:7) But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin. It takes repentance to walk in the light, but a lot of people don't want to hear about the repentance part. They say, “Just come and cast these demons out of me.” This is why I say to examine yourself and find out if there is something you need to confess, and not just confess it to the Lord. The Bible says, (Jas.5:16) Confess therefore your sins one to another… Find somebody who is trustworthy and confess your sin to them; you don't need to confess your sin in front of everybody unless you have offended everybody. You see, God wants to humble you; that's why He says to confess your sins one to another. God does not want us to cover up our sin. It's easy to confess your sin to God and then just go on covering it up. There's a great motivation to turn from sin when you know that God expects you to confess your sin to someone. It has to be true repentance when confession is made. Don't be fooled by self-pity, because that can look a lot like repentance, but it might just be self-pity, which is what Esau had, and he lost his inheritance. (Heb.12:17) For ye know that even when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no place for a change of mind (That's what “repentance” is, it's a “change of mind.”) [in his father, (Not in the Greek)] though he sought it diligently with tears. He could not change HIS mind. You may have seen people cry, with tears running freely, yet they never change their ways. “Repentance” is not crying; “repentance” is “changing your mind.” There are many people full of self-pity because of the curse upon them. They want the curse off of them, but they're not willing to pay the price to get it. (Heb.12:14) Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord (This doesn't sound as if sanctification is an instantaneous process here, if He said to “follow after” it.): looking carefully lest there be any man that falleth short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby the many be defiled (Yes, bitterness can defile a lot of people, and this is why it needs to be dealt with immediately.); (16) lest there be any fornication, or profane person, as Esau, who for one mess of meat (He was following after the flesh.) sold his own birthright. (17) For ye know that even when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected (He was “reprobated.”); for he found no place for a change of mind though he sought it diligently with tears. You may wonder, “Well, what was wrong with his repentance?” It looks as if it was just self-pity. Godly sorrow brings repentance that does not let you turn and go back. (2Co.7:9) I now rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye were made sorry unto repentance (The Greek word there is metanoia and it means “a change of mind, change in the inner man.”); for ye were made sorry after a godly sort, that ye might suffer loss by us in nothing. (10) For godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation, a repentance which bringeth no regret (You will not fall back into the sin.): but the sorrow of the world worketh death. Do you know why “the sorrow of the world worketh death”? It's because when people are “sorry” in the way that the world understands “sorry,” they think that's all they need for God to forgive them, but then they fall right back into the sin. Seeing no power of God, they become discouraged and just go back into the world. We are responsible to repent, not just to be sorry. We must have sorrow unto repentance. The Bible says you have to change your mind and changing your mind may not even involve tears. I've seen people who blame all their problems on demons. These people run around looking for somebody to get the demons out of them, and if you try to help such people but fail, they'll blame you. In their eyes, it's your fault. It's always everybody's fault, except theirs. Getting demons out of people who sincerely repent and believe is not a problem, but the shallower a person's depth of commitment and repentance, the harder it is to get the demons out. If commitment to discipleship and repentance is deep, it's very easy to get demons out because God is always on your side. He is always there with discernment and direction. He is always there to force the demons to the surface. It's easy to get demons out of a repentant person. It's very hard to get them out of a person whose “repentance” is very shallow. Now, when we talk about the warfare of our mind, the Bible says we are to be (2Co.10:5) casting down imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. This is our spiritual warfare, because the primary way that the devil gets a foothold is when you don't cast down thinking that is not of God. Most demons come because you have given in to sin, and demon spirits are also passed on to us genetically through the blood. You can do something about that, too, but before or even after you came to the Lord, in some way, you gave in to sin. If you ask, “David, do you mean that before I came to the Lord, I had demons, and I still have them now that I've come to the Lord?” Yes, you need to remember that the Lord said He would not drive them all out at one time, and He meant that. Now it's possible that when people come to the Lord, some may receive total deliverance over areas of their lives that you're still wrestling with. You are wrestling with something; they are wrestling with something else. Some parts of their lives have been cleansed, and some parts of your life have been cleansed. God has left you some enemies to fight, and He has left them some enemies to fight. There are things in your former life that were dealt with by the Blood of Jesus, and now they are gone, and their gods are gone, too. They have been conquered. I am not talking about going back and dealing with sins that are covered by and washed in the Blood or things from which you are already delivered, but there are some things that we had in our former life that we carried over into this life. The temptation, the struggle, and the demon are still there. Those things that may still be troubling you were there in your former life. Before you were born again, that demon entered in and that's why you're having to deal with those temptations right now. Maybe it's a temptation that you've had all of your life, and demons are still taking advantage of you because that sin has not been washed in the Blood. Otherwise, you would have been cleansed of all unrighteousness. (1Jn.1:7) But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin. This is the cleansing, washing away, of the nature of sin. Of course, our whole life is under the Blood by faith, but when God pulls back that Covering, letting you see a particular sin, then it's time for you to take the Sword and come against it. But when you're in a trial of your faith, don't go back and dredge up those things that are gone, because that's just the devil trying to condemn you for things done in your past. The apostle Paul tells us how to deal with that problem. (Php.3:12) Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus. (13) Brethren, I could not myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing [I do], forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, (14) I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. God led His people through the Promised Land to be faced with enemies one at a time, and that's the way for us every day. Little by little, we are faced with our enemies, our temptations, and that's when the old flesh rises up and gives you the chance to swing your Sword. You might never have seen that particular enemy without a trial that caused the temptation to come to the surface. People like to pray away trials, but you see, God brings us through trials to show us the enemy. You cannot pray away trials because (Act.14:22) … through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God. It is tribulation itself that causes you to enter into the Kingdom. You are faced with something that causes the lusts of the flesh to surface, so that you get to see them and fight them and get free of them. This reminds me of Peter speaking to Ananias. (Act.5:3) Why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Spirit …? Ananias was responsible for that sin. Peter was not blaming the sin on the demon; he was blaming the sin on the person. (1Co.5:7) Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump… In this chapter, Paul speaks of fornicators, liars, drunkards, and so forth, telling them to (1Co.5:13) … Put away the wicked man from among yourselves. You may protest, “Wait a minute, David! They just have demons! They need deliverance!” No, the Bible says those people are responsible for giving in to that demon, so that means the demon is not responsible. If people are believers, then they have the power to repent and conquer that demon. When we understand that we are responsible for sin, then we understand that we have to repent. There is only one instance in the Scriptures where it teaches that the person to be delivered does not have to repent. (Mar.5:1) And they (the apostles) came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes. (2) And when he (Jesus) was come out of the boat, straightway there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. You find in Scripture that these spirits are called “unclean spirits.” “Spirits of infirmity” are also called “unclean spirits.” (Mark 1:23,9:25; Luke 9:42; etc.) Well, an “unclean spirit” is just a demon, and all demons are unclean. (2) …, straightway there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, (3) who had his dwelling in the tombs: and no man could any more bind him, no, not with a chain; (4) because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been rent asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: and no man had strength to tame him. Christians have physically wrestled and fought with those who have demons, but you should never do that. Your authority only stands as Jesus' authority. He gave you the authority to cast out demons. If you get out from under your God-given authority and into the flesh, the demons can hurt you. Just exercise your authority and command them to “Sit down and be quiet in the Name of Jesus.” Believe and they will obey you. (Mar.5:5) And always, night and day, in the tombs and in the mountains, he was crying out, and cutting himself with stones. (Every last one of these demons causes one to be self-destructive, and they are out to destroy you, too.) (6) And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshipped him; (7) and crying out with a loud voice, he saith, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the Most High God? (When they become excited or are faced with authority, many times, they cry out with a loud voice.) I adjure thee by God, torment me not. (8) For he said unto him, Come forth, thou unclean spirit, out of the man. The Bible says, (Mat.8:16) … and he cast out the spirits with a word. With the man in the tombs, He commanded it, upsetting the demon, and the demon began speaking. Sometimes when you command them to come out, they will start speaking. They will sit and talk with you all day long if you encourage dialogue, because they would like to deceive you with all kinds of information. This is not what you want. Our example is (Luk.4:35) And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the demon had thrown him down in the midst, he came out of him, having done him no hurt. Just tell them, “Shut up and come out.” Do not seek knowledge from a demon by speaking with them. This is an abomination in the sight of the Lord (Deuteronomy 18:10; Exodus 22:18; 1 Chronicles 10:13; etc.) People like to use this next verse to say that we should ask demons questions, but as we can see, this is not the norm. (Mar.5:9) And he asked him, What is thy name? (This is the only example in Scripture where Jesus asked a demon, “What is your name?”) And he saith unto him, My name is Legion; for we are many. There is generally a “captain,” a lead spirit in the bunch, who speaks for all, and many people in deliverance ministry have gotten this revelation by talking with demons. Here, it is very clear. (Mar.5:9) … My name is Legion; for we are many. (10) And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. In another account, the demons asked not to be sent to the pit. (Luk.8:31) And they entreated him that he would not command them to depart into the abyss. Commanding demons to go to the pit seems to be common among deliverance ministries. Well, we do not have that example, not one, in Scripture. Jesus did not command that here, and if there had been a reason to put those demons out of commission, don't you think that Jesus would have sent them to the pit? Demons have a good purpose on this earth, and that is to torment those who love sin, as we learned earlier. Remember the example of Paul turning Hymenaeus and Alexander over to Satan (1Ti.1:20) … that they might be taught not to blaspheme. It was to teach them a lesson. Another example from Paul was the man in fornication with his father's wife in (1Co.5:5) to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. When a person has repented, Jesus wants them to be delivered, but the job of demons is to make life miserable until you decide to repent. Even if all the demons you ever cast out were sent to the pit, there still would be more than enough left to handle the job. Let me share a testimony with you:   Sins of Flesh Fell Off Me by M. G. I was living and working in Japan when I first heard David speaking the real gospel of Jesus. I was always looking into eschatology and prophecy because I reckon the Lord was softening me up to hear the truth. I was a bit afraid of the end, as I was not a very godly person…. I'm not really sure how I found the teachings. I was at “The Edge Radio Show” on the internet and decided to listen to David in the archives. I had never heard of him. To my knowledge, I wasn't looking for anything he had to say, but the Lord led me to listen. I was raised Baptist and heard all that “fire and brimstone” from shouting, gasping old-time Baptist preachers. It never did that much for me. I've heard what the Catholics, Anglicans, Methodists, Lutherans, and even some Pentecostals had to say. But I never heard anyone speak with true power, authority and anointing, till I heard him speak that day on the computer. It knocked my socks off! I had never heard anything like it! And it was shot through completely with the glow of TRUTH. It spoke to my heart. I listened to all that he had to say and put it in my heart. It didn't lead me down the road right away to the crucified life and/or even a much closer walk with the Lord, but the seed had been planted. I was covered up with the cares of this wretched world. It probably took me another year before I started going to the UBM website, listening to the audios and coming to the Paltalk meetings. [Paltalk was an interactive chat we had during the live broadcast; we now have online teachings and the Outreach conferences twice weekly.] I started praying and seeking the Lord. I was devouring the teachings online with every free moment, learning a great deal. I received the baptism of water and the Holy Spirit. A lot, but not all, of the sin of my past life just fell away. I sought prayer in faith and agreement from UBM to quit smoking and drinking to excess, and it happened. My deliverance was not overnight, but all that stuff just withered on the vine over a period of weeks. I never even had any withdrawal symptoms. I just never smoked, or wanted to smoke, another cigarette ever again. All these things happened by the power of the risen Christ. I would never have been able to do it on my own. I had been a big smoker and drinker for almost thirty years. Try as I might, I had never been able to give up those bad habits.  I praise God for His love and mercy on me. I've never been tempted to smoke another cigarette, ever. I never get the feeling, “Oh, boy, do I need a drink!” It just doesn't happen. Praise His Name! Whenever I feel weak in my faith, I always hang on to the knowledge of the deliverance given to me by my loving Father through His Son, Our Lord Jesus. Now, demons are going to seek a body to live in because that is where they have what they call “rest.” The demon addressing Jesus said in (Mar.5:7) … What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the Most High God? I adjure thee by God, torment me not. They know that they are supposed to have rest until the “time” (Matthew 8:29). Jesus said (Mat.12:43) But the unclean spirit, when he is gone out of the man, passeth through waterless places, seeking rest, and findeth it not. He returns to the house out of which he came. They do not find rest in “waterless places.” It would be like you having to go through a desert; it's not where you want to go, is it? You would like to go where things are comfortable and cool, where there is plenty of water. It is torment to a demon to be outside of a body because in the pit, the abyss, there is no flesh for them through which they can fulfill their lusts. That's the problem for them, so on earth, they always want a body to inhabit, even if that body is an animal. (Mar.5:11) Now there was there on the mountain side a great herd of swine feeding. (12) And they besought him (Jesus), saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. (13) And he gave them leave. And the unclean spirits came out, and entered into the swine: and the herd rushed down the steep into the sea, [in number] about two thousand; and they were drowned in the sea. They really want to fulfill their lusts through people, but if they cannot have people, they will use pigs, etc.. I have talked to demons and there is a chain of command with them, a hierarchy. A lot of lower demons are extremely stupid; the lusts consuming them trip them up. For instance, they may be so prideful and so arrogant, wanting to show themselves, that they'll tip their hand. You will know what they are doing. And you'll find that the further down the line you go, the more stupid they are. Didn't the demons know that pigs cannot swim? How long are demons going to last in a herd of pigs that have been run off into a lake? The Bible tells us that Satan's wisdom was corrupted because of his beauty. (Eze.28:17) Thy heart was lifted up because of thy beauty; thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I have cast thee to the ground; I have laid thee before kings, that they may behold thee. If he had wisdom, he would have stayed where he was in heaven, but instead, his wisdom became corrupted. Demons cause destruction, as with the demoniac and the pigs. They cause whatever flesh they are in to be self-destructive. (I'm going to share some testimonies showing demons' destructive tendencies.) Notice that at the beginning of the story of the demoniac, it's just the leader, Legion, who is speaking (Luke 8:26), but as soon as Jesus commands them to come out, all of them start speaking (Luke 8:31-32). Many times when you are dealing with demons, more of them will manifest, and after you cast one out, sometimes another one will manifest. The Holy Spirit is causing them to manifest themselves as the Lord is driving them out before you. If you suspect something else is there, you have the authority to command a demon to manifest. You should be aware, also, that demons love to distract people and they'll put on a show for you, but don't get caught up in their theatrics. (Mar.9:25) And when Jesus saw that a multitude came running together (He did not want a spectacle.), he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I command thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. Some people will help the demons put on a show, but we should avoid that at all costs. Our example is Jesus, and nowhere did Jesus let them put on a show. Actually, it's best to avoid having conversations with them. I have read quite a few books by deliverance ministers who got into trouble because they talked to demons that lied to them. There was one man who had a good understanding of deliverance, but this man was casting “tongue demons” out of everybody. He didn't know that all demons can talk in tongues. The Bible says, (1Co.13:1) If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels… There is no “tongues” demon since all demons talk in tongues because they are fallen angels. These demons were obliging to this man's false doctrine by playing along with it to keep him in bondage. They will deceive you any way they can! This deliverance minister needed tongues, more than anything else, in order to cast out demons. Demons hate tongues. People report that demons actually spoke to them, saying, “Don't speak in tongues! That is a perfect prayer! Don't do that! We hate that!” I have had them scream out because they hated the Gospel being preached, and they do not like the Blood of Jesus. If you cannot do anything else, pray in tongues. Well, because this man had let the demons talk, they had deceived him into thinking that tongues were no good. Because he had let the demons talk, they had deceived him into believing that this was a “tongues” demon, a deceiving spirit. Now, remember that speaking in tongues doesn't make you holy. Many people who speak in tongues are in sin. Do you recall the people about whom the apostle Paul was writing that they should be thrown out of the church? (1Co.5:11) But as it is, I wrote unto you not to keep company, if any man that is named a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such a one no, not to eat. These people spoke in tongues, but that does not mean you are holy; following and obeying the Holy Spirit makes you holy. The Bible says in (Rom.11:29) For the gifts and the calling of God are not repented of. God will give you a gift that will stay with you to the grave, even if you are going to hell. Paul said, (1Co.9:27) but I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage: lest by any means, after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected. And this man said in 1Co 14:18  I thank God, I speak with tongues more than you all:  A lot of deliverance ministries believe in casting demons into the pit, but that's not what Jesus did. Jesus never sent them to the pit. Let's read the rest of this story. (Mar.5:12) And they besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. (13) And he gave them leave. Why did Jesus permit the demons their request? Most people, according to reasoning, would have said, “Send them out of the country. That way, they won't be able to bother anybody else.” I personally have had demons ask me whether they could enter into a dog, and I told them, “No, but you can find the nearest cockroach and enter into it!” Usually, I say, “No, you just come out!” You do not have to permit them to enter into anything. Demons are going to search until they find a vessel that they can enter because that's how they fulfill their lusts, and there's a demon for anybody who wants to sin. It makes no difference where you send them. You are not going to get rid of them. (Rev.9:2) And he opened the pit of the abyss; and there went up a smoke (smoke represents demons.) out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. There are millions of them, enough to darken the sun, so sending them to the pit does not make sense. If God wanted them out of the country or in the pit, that is where they would be, but He does not want that. They are here to torment mankind until men and women repent and come under the Blood of Jesus. Jesus did not send them out of the country because He understood the sovereignty of God. (Mar.5:13) And he gave them leave. And the unclean spirits came out, and entered into the swine: and the herd rushed down the steep into the sea, [in number] about two thousand; and they were drowned in the sea. Obviously, Jesus thought that this one man was worth more than two thousand pigs, which Jews were not supposed to have anyway. (Mar.5:14) And they that fed them fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they came to see what it was that had come to pass. (15) And they come to Jesus, and behold him that was possessed with demons sitting, clothed and in his right mind, even him that had the legion: and they were afraid. Unclean spirits like people to take off their clothes. And you know, there's certainly a lot of half-naked people walking around these days, and they all probably have unclean spirits. I want to emphasize one particular point about “the man with the unclean spirits.” Think about what that last verse says, “clothed and in his right mind.” When this man first saw Jesus, he was not in his right mind and so there was no way he could have repented. You cannot demand repentance from a person who is this demon-possessed. Some people say, “Well, a Christian cannot be demon-possessed because they are possessed by the Lord,” but Scriptures use the term “possessed” (Matthew 8:16,9:32,12:22; Mark 1:32,9:17; Luke 8:27; etc.) To be considered “demon-possessed,” a person could have a demon in possession of only one particular part of their Promised Land. It might possess them as an infirmity or in an area of their lusts. A possession of part of your nature has nothing to do with possessing your whole character, and very seldom does it go that far, however, “Legion” was possessing this man's whole mind. This man could not use his mind rationally at all, and since Jesus said, (Mat.15:24) … I was not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel, I suggest to you that this man was a Jew, and as a “child of God,” he had a Covenant right to deliverance. Otherwise, Jesus would not have done it. There are certain conditions under which we can cast demons out of a person without the person's permission. Jesus did not get permission from this man, but Jesus knew that He had a legal right to deliver this person. Just keep in mind that repentance is demanded in almost every place where a person has the mental capacity to repent. We do not generally have a right to go to demon-possessed people who are in the world. An exception would be where we consider that the faith of their family is involved; they are exercising faith for this person. Another exception would be that they are Christian, overcome by lusts of the flesh, and by the devil. Another would be by God's direction. Here's another testimony:   Healed of Epilepsy by the Lounsbury Brothers Email #1 (From Guatemalan missionary Wes to his brother Walt): The Lord has put someone in our path that needs HIS healing. She's around seventeen years old with epilepsy. Six years ago she had a seizure and fell into a fire. She must have been there for quite some time because her feet almost got cooked off. She went to a clinic. They carved out some of the burned flesh, leaving her feet resembling stubs. Besides the massive amounts of scar tissue, she has an external ulcer that has not healed from the accident. Yesterday she came to the orphanage with her mother and sister. We prayed over some hot water and had her soak her foot with the ulcer in it. The raw flesh on the ulcer was yellow, like dried pus. After about forty-five minutes of soaking, we took out the foot, cleaned it and wrapped it with a gauze bandage. They came back today for us to change the bandage again. We soaked the foot again to loosen the gauze, which was saturated with some type of dried, oozing substance. Getting that last part off, which was directly in contact with the ulcer was difficult because it had adhered quite strongly. As we pulled it off, we noticed that the once yellow tissue had turned a very healthy pink! The capillaries were so close to the surface that there was a small amount of bleeding. Trevor and I BELIEVE that God is healing this girl. Think of Joshua circling Jericho for seven days before it fell. He would have felt pretty stupid walking around with a trumpet if the Lord hadn't PROMISED him beforehand. The same thing applies here. Please spend time in prayer for her and give David a call, asking him to pray, also. When Trevor blessed her today, he asked the Lord to make her healing a witness for all those who know of her. Truly, this is our hope. I've been wondering if she wasn't demonically possessed with epilepsy—she was thrown into the fire, much like the mad man cutting himself with rocks and the epileptic that Jesus healed by casting out the demon. I never like thinking someone has an evil spirit inside of them. Could you ask David if he knows how to determine such a thing? He said in “Sovereign God” that he has the gift of discernment of spirits. As much as you can help would be greatly appreciated. Email #2 (From Walt to David Eells): Please pray with me and ask the Lord for a miracle to heal this young girl down in Guatemala. Emails #3 & 4 (From David Eells to Walt): We will pray and agree with you. Epilepsy is a demon spirit. (Mat.17:15) Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is epileptic, and suffereth grievously; for oft-times he falleth into the fire, and oft-times into the water. (16) And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. (17) And Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I bear with you? bring him hither to me. (18) And Jesus rebuked him; and the demon went out of him: and the boy was cured from that hour. (19) Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast it out? (20) And he saith unto them, Because of your little faith: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Is the girl a Christian? If so, she has a Covenant right to deliverance because it is the children's bread. If not, only God can give permission to cast out. Otherwise, the demons will just come back worse. Ask her to confess her sins. My suggestion is to ask those involved to pray for discernment of spirits. Demons rarely act alone. Gather several people with faith, preferably filled with the Holy Spirit, and command the demons to come out in Jesus' Name. Then believe that they have to obey because Jesus gave us total authority over the demons. (Mar.16:17) And these signs shall accompany them that believe: in my name shall they cast out demons… Don't believe whatever they say because they often lie. Ask them to believe to heal and restore her body. Jesus paid for that too: (Gal.3:13) Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: (14) that upon the Gentiles might come the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. (1Pe.2:24) Who his own self bare our sins in his body upon the tree, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed. (Psa.103:1) Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, [bless] his holy name. (2) Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all his benefits: (3) Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; Who healeth all thy diseases; (4) Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies. (Mat.8:16) And when even was come, they brought unto him many possessed with demons: and he cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all that were sick: (17) that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying: Himself took our infirmities, and bare our diseases. (Act.3:12) And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this man? or why fasten ye your eyes on us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made him to walk? (13) The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Servant Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied before the face of Pilate, when he had determined to release him. (14) But ye denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted unto you, (15) and killed the Prince of life; whom God raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses. (16) And by faith in his name hath his name made this man strong, whom ye behold and know: yea, the faith which is through him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. (Act.5:16) And there also came together the multitudes from the cities round about Jerusalem, bringing sick folk, and them that were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one. Emails #5 & 6 (Between Wes and David in a Q & A format) Wes: Hi! Walt forwarded your email about the girl with epilepsy to me. She, her mother and sister are staying with us now. The open ulcer on her foot is getting better every day. David: Praise God! Let's continue to believe for a total restoration of the foot! God is big. We shouldn't underestimate Him. Wes: Two nights ago I couldn't go to sleep, although it was 1:00 a.m. and I was exhausted. I decided to go downstairs and work on a paper I was writing. I was using a computer program to search for texts. I can't remember which words I was searching, but I came upon the story in Matthew about the epileptic. Now this might sound very strange to you, but I'm almost certain that I read the word “epileptic” from the “King James Version.” It wasn't until the next day, when I read it again, I realized they had actually translated the word as “lunatic” in the KJV. Could it be that the Lord actually had me read “epileptic” instead, because of this girl? David: Absolutely, Wes. God has done such things as that to me, also. I have heard people tell me things that I needed to hear. Later, I questioned them as to why they said it. I would then be told by the person and everyone around them that they had actually said something totally unrelated. Wes: What struck me most about the story was when the father said to Jesus, “Have mercy on my son: for he is epileptic, and suffereth grievously; for oft-times he falleth into the fire.” That's EXACTLY what happened to this girl! Six years ago her mother left the house and went to town to get something from the store. (They live in complete poverty in a village a few miles from here.) The girl usually woke up later in the morning, so her mother felt it was safe to leave early. When she came back, she found her daughter lying in the fire, the flesh completely cooked on one foot and third-degree burns on the other. After I read those verses, I wondered if this girl had an evil spirit. Their stories are so similar. David: She has an epileptic spirit and possibly more. Wes: I don't know exactly what I should be looking for. I feel uneasy about making a judgment as to whether someone DOES have a demon. Anyway, the next morning, my wife went to use the internet. She printed out your email that Walt forwarded to me. She didn't mention it; she just left it folded on the desk. I opened it up and read it. I knew immediately that God had given me a second witness, so that I could be SURE. I still have a lot of questions about what to do. I've never been in a position like this. I prayed last night that God would give me the discernment of spirits, but I don't really know what it means. I know that God has brought this girl to us, not only because of her foot, but because of this spirit afflicting her. I have a good friend down here with me who is strong in the faith; he could stand with me. This is strange territory for me. Is all I need to do is command the spirit of epilepsy to leave in the Name of Jesus? David: You need to know that you have authority to do this. Demons know when you have faith. That is the only condition on your part. (Mar.16:15) And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation. (16) He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned. (17) And these signs shall accompany them that believe: in my name shall they cast out demons… (Luk.10:19) Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall in any wise hurt you. (20) Nevertheless in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. It would be good to make sure she is a Christian and get her to confess her sins. (Jas.5:16) Confess therefore your sins one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working. Wes: Should I expect the demon to say something before it leaves? David: Not necessarily. But if the Holy Spirit moves you to command them to give their name, do it. Wes: What if she just sits there silently? Does it mean my faith isn't great enough? David: They don't always come out immediately. But you don't have to hang around till you see something. Walk by faith. Just know that they have to obey you. Wes: Should I ask how many spirits are in her? David: If you feel so to ask, yes. Wes: How can I believe them if they did tell me? I wouldn't want to leave one in there. David: They will obey you if you command them to tell their name, unless this is a mute spirit. Email #7 (From Wes to David): The spirit of epilepsy has left the girl! A pastor, his church, and I prayed over her. The spirit never responded. But the girl began to thank the Lord and cry. She finally fell down after about five minutes. She was “as dead” like the scripture speaks about the epileptic boy. In the midst of this “sleep,” she started to praise God very loudly and then went back under. It was very strange to me, nothing like I expected. She went to bed shortly after she woke. The next morning she and her mother were talking about the medicine she takes to fight off the epilepsy. Her mother told her, “The devil is tempting us not to believe!” Then they threw the medicine away. She is perfectly fine now. Her face looks different. Her eyes are more alert. These people are such awesome witnesses of faith to me. They cannot even read the Bible. But they understand the Gospel more than educated Christian Americans. Thank you very much for replying to my other email. All the information was very useful. Email #8 (From David to Wes): Praise the Lord! See how simple it is. That poor girl would have suffered the rest of her life if she had not run into someone like you who was willing to stand in faith. Sometimes the demon will try to come back by temporarily putting a symptom on you. When you accept it, he has permission to re-invade. Tell the girl and her mom to never accept it back. They have authority over the demons. Now, just pray and believe for the restoration of her foot. Jesus paid for a complete healing. Awesome! Praise God!! Christians who know their authority can, and should, cast out demons. I was doing it as a baby Christian, and although I didn't know a lot about it, I got some people delivered. (Mar.16:17) And these signs shall accompany them that believe: in my name shall they cast out demons… The only condition was to believe. Let me give you an example. Jesus was casting out an unclean spirit from a deaf and dumb man. (Mar.9:17) And one of the multitude answered him, Teacher, I brought unto thee my son, who hath a dumb spirit; (18) and wheresoever it taketh him, it dasheth him down: and he foameth, and grindeth his teeth, and pineth away (This sounds like an epileptic dumb spirit.): and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast it out; and they were not able. Why were they “not able”? (Mar.9:19) And he answereth them and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I bear with you? bring him unto me. His rebuke was for their lack of faith. The only condition in the scriptures for casting out demons is faith on the part of the person who is doing the casting out. (Mar.9:20) And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him grievously; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming. (21) And he asked his father, How long time is it since this hath come unto him? And he said, From a child. (22) And oft-times it hath cast him both into the fire and into the waters, to destroy him (There is that destruction again.): but if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us. (23) And Jesus said unto him, If thou canst! All things are possible to him that believeth. (Again, the condition is belief.) (24) Straightway the father of the child cried out, and said, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. (Mar.9:25) And when Jesus saw that a multitude came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I command thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. In the case of a child, Jesus said basically, “Come out of him, and do not go back!” You don't see Him doing this with adults. This is because they have their own choices to make, and if they choose to go back into the world, then the demons are going to return. If they fall back into temptation, the demon will come back, but children are not as responsible. The child's father said that the demon entered “from a child,” and so we see that Jesus gave us an example here, saying, “Enter no more into him.” You do not do that with adults. Also, the father wanted help from his unbelief: I.e. “I believe with the faith I have. Deliver me from my unbelief.” (Mar.9:26) And having cried out, and torn him much, he came out: and [the boy] became as one dead; insomuch that the more part said, He is dead. (27) But Jesus took him by the hand, and raised him up; and he arose. Here's another testimony from C.C.   Jesus Delivered Me from Familiar Spirits by C. C. In 2003, I was not a Christian. I was just a man living for himself. I had been a banker in Seattle when I began to hear faint voices in my head as I went to sleep. The voices grew stronger as time went by. There were many of them, different each night. I thought they were the voices of the dead speaking from beyond the grave. After several months, one of these “dead spirits” became more vocal with me. He called himself “David,” saying he was the soul of the brother of one of my best friends, who had died in a car wreck three years previous. This spirit's voice became so clear as to seem present in the room with me. [Note: C.C. had unknowingly become a “medium,” which is someone who is possessed with a spirit guide, a familiar spirit who mimics the dead.] He began telling astral and worldly “secrets” that I found fantastical at the time. He explained many things about the “after-life,” including how I had lived many lives myself and had been reincarnated several times. This spirit explained that he was my “guide,” sent by the “White Lodge” to help me achieve my “final potential.” He explained that he had to help guide my “last life” so I could go to heaven through gates guarded by a group of angels called the “Brethren.” He showed me many images and pictures of these gates. Souls would be permitted to pass through them when they had learned enough compassion through their many lives. He also turned me on to many New Age beliefs. In addition to him, I would speak to other spirits at night while in my bed. They would ask me to do things for them. One such example came from a spirit called “Misty” who wanted me to deliver some flowers to her dying grandmother. The spirit gave me the name and address of the hospital where this elderly lady was located. I went and delivered the roses anonymously to her. I thought I had some special gift to talk with the dead, as I experienced incidents of communication, and received “confirmation” and “insight” from the things these spirits revealed. The voice of the “spirit guide” began to become stronger as time went on. It got to where it was all I could hear. He always seemed to be as close as my throat, speaking from behind my head. It was a very unsettling feeling at the time. This went on for some time, with me learning and trusting all that this spirit “David” revealed to me. There came a night when I awoke in my bed to see a specter cloaked in darkness, black as pitch. He even seemed to suck the darkness into himself. I was terrified! Frozen in my bed as I stared at it, I noticed that my breath was visible in front of me, as if it were a winter night. The specter seemed to want to kill me. When I thought it would move to harm me, the presence of my “spirit guide” entered the room and scared it away. I could sense that it was afraid of him. He explained to me that it was a lost soul who sought me because of my gifts. He said that I was like a “light in the darkness” that all such spirits could see and would gravitate towards. The same thing happened the following night and onward for six nights. Each night, one more spirit came until, by the sixth evening, there were six of them at the foot of my bed. I could not have been more terrified, as they would all point at me with horrible, black, lifeless faces, seeming to want my death. By morning I was exhausted from the fear, hyper-vigilance, and lack of sleep for six full days. Upon waking, I heard the spirit “David's” voice, rushed and louder than ever. He said, “Hurry up and get dressed. You have to get downtown toward your work now, as fast as possible. Hurry up! Do it now!” I asked, “Is someone in danger?” He replied, “Yes. Hurry now!” Startled, I got dressed and drove downtown to see what was happening. While I was driving he kept saying, “Hurry, hurry!” When I got there, nothing was happening; it was just a normal day. Surprised to see nothing wrong, I asked him why he told me to rush. He replied, “I just wanted to see if you would obey me. I was testing you.” All day, I ignored him while I worked, as I was very angry. I was continually disturbed by his words, “obey me.” When the day was done, I went home, ignoring “David” the whole way, and wanting very much to understand. A friend once had told me the Bible discussed spirits and the dead; I decided to look it up on my computer. As I sat down to search the internet, I looked out over Puget Sound from my windows and could see nothing but blackness. The clouds had covered everything in such a dark, ominous way. It was unlike anything I had ever seen, especially so early in the evening. As I started to find Bible passages, the spirit's voice said accusingly, “What are you doing?” Agitated, I replied, “Nothing. Don't worry about it.” I came upon (Deu.18:10-13) There shall not be found in you one who passes his son or his daughter through the fire, one that uses divination, an observer of clouds, or one divining, or a whisperer of spells, or a magic charmer, or one consulting mediums [Hebrew for “consulter with a familiar spirit.”], or a spirit-knower, or one inquiring of the dead. For all doing these things are an abomination to the Lord. And because of these filthy acts the Lord your God is dispossessing these nations before you. You shall be perfect with the Lord your God. As I finished reading the words, I heard “David,” with a tone of deep aggression, say, “Don't read that!” Startled, I turned to see that he was now visible on my right. He looked just like one of the dark specters that had previously gathered around my bed. The room instantly grew cold. I was terrified, but replied, “I can read it if I want to!” He lunged for my throat with his dark, outstretched hand, taking a swipe at me. I fell sideways out of my chair and thought I was going to die, right there, in that dark room as he came upon me! I was on my knees. I called, “Lord, please save me!” A hole to the heavens opened up through my roof. I saw a flaming Sword coming down from heaven at me like lightning. It flew straight down and entered through the top of my head and traveled through my body, and pierced into the ground through me. A blast wave that was like a spiritual nuclear bomb went off from the fiery Sword within me, traveling like light through my entire place, destroying the spirit “David” as it flashed out from me. I sat there on my knees as the light went out from within me and the Sword left me. I then immediately saw a large bright light outside on my patio. As I squinted at it, I realized what I was seeing. In my mind, I heard the name “Michael.” He was holding the sword that had just been in my body. I was amazed and afraid! He was huge, bearing armor as bright as the sun, with many colors coming through it, shining brightly. He was looking at me through the large windows. I jumped up to my feet to run outside and see him. But as I opened the door, the light was gone. No one was there. I went to the spot where I had seen him standing, half expecting to see the ground melted away. I dropped to my knees to feel the ground as I thought it would be hot for some reason. When I looked up, the blackness of the clouds had given way to the setting sun. It seemed to not only pierce through the clouds, but to push them out of the way, making what seemed night turn into day! I stood there, utterly emotionally exhausted and physically tired from not sleeping for a week. I awoke the next morning on the seventh day of the ordeal. I had slept as soundly as a baby, without a single interruption or dark visit. I felt so good that morning. I can still remember how good it was—I felt like a million bucks! I got dressed and was thinking about everything that had happened to me and what it all meant. I no longer heard any voices. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I was in my “right” mind. I got into my truck and headed to work, feeling wonderful. As I came to the apex of a large bridge, I closed my eyes for a second. When I opened them, I was no longer in my truck! [Note: There was something spiritually that kept his truck humming along during this experience.] To my utter confusion, I was standing on a dirt road. My first reaction was to put my hands on myself to see if I was okay. As I looked down, I had all of my clothes on and was still wearing my boots. Bewildered, I saw a dirt road stretched out for as far as the eye could see. To the right and left, fields of golden wheat, ready for harvest, were moving back and forth as a warm wind blew over them. The sun was setting. It was casting the most beautiful rays of light through the waving grains of wheat. The soft color was unlike anything I had ever seen on earth. It was beautiful. My thoughts went back to myself. Where in the heck was I? I turned around to look behind me. I saw darkness. As I was trying to look into where the road behind me went, I felt a presence… I cannot even begin to explain in words … I turned around to see a man standing in the road before me. He was dressed in white. His clothes were of olden times and spotless. He had long, golden brown hair and a beard. As I looked at him, I realized Who He was. I could tell that He could see all of the things I had ever done wrong in my life—everything… As He looked at me, He put before me images of all of the wrongs I had done. Seeing them, I felt so heavy that I fell to the ground, my face falling into the dirt. I began to beg aloud, “Lord, please do not let me be before you. Please let me go. I am not worthy. Please let me go from before you, Lord.” It was so painful that He could see all of my sins. Feeling crushed onto the ground, my breath and tears mixed with the dirt of the road. As I tried to push away from Him, I looked up through my tears to see His perfect sandal in front of my face. I reached out and placed my hand upon His foot and said, “Lord, please forgive me. I am so sorry for what I have done against you…” Then I felt His hand on my shoulder, lifting me up off the ground and setting me onto my feet. He took His hand and reached before me, touching my chest, seeming to reach inside of me! He pulled out a black shining orb, which was spinning within His hand. I looked up from the orb into His face. He smiled at me and looked back down at the thing spinning in His hand. He then closed his hand around it and crushed it. When He opened His hand again, the orb had become like dirt that was on the road. He turned His hand, and the dirt fell back onto the road. At that moment, I felt SO FREE! All that had crushed me and held me down in life had been taken away forever! I looked into His eyes and saw them clearly for the first time. Amazingly beautiful, they were the same color as the light that I had seen shining through the shafts of wheat. As I looked, I felt (words could never portray): the love of my friends, the love of my brothers, the love of my mother, the love of God! I was so overcome with thanksgiving, I threw my arms around Him. His frame was as powerful as a rock, but gentle as a lamb. Then I held myself apart from Him. Looking into His smiling face, I said the most embarrassing thing that I have ever said in all my life! Looking at the long road, I said, “Lord, do you think we could stay here and play soccer together?” He laughed and, as I looked up from the road, turned and walked a few paces from me; I could see His perfect footprints in the dirt. I felt frozen, not knowing what to do. As if sensing that I felt paralyzed, He looked back, smiled and extended His hand, and motioned for me to follow Him. Even though He did not say the words, I could clearly hear the words “Follow me” in my mind. Looking down, I took my first foot and put it perfectly into His footprint. As I was about to take the next step, I closed my eyes for a second before trying to look back up at Him. And poof! Just like that—I was back in my truck, driving on my way to work. As I sat there, I cried, heaving deeply for the gift that He had just given me. I was so entirely undone. There was no greater happiness that I had ever known in my entire life. Then, the radio played a song called “Dead Man's Rope,” sung by Sting, recorded on the album called “Sacred Love.” I shall never forget listening to this song through my tears, barely being able to drive. The song speaks of how we try to walk away from our trials, not understanding that our trials will lead us to walk toward Jesus and His forgiveness. After this song ended, it began to rain heavily upon my truck just as the song describes… My life has never been the same since. Wow! Praise the Lord!

In this moving sermon, Richard Boonstra from Prison Fellowship shares stories of hope, redemption, and the radical love of Jesus for those society often overlooks. Reflecting on John 4 and his own experiences in prisons across Australia, Richard challenges us to stay weird by following Jesus into uncomfortable places, where the harvest is ripe and lives are being transformed. Tune in to hear how God is working in prisons, and how were all invited to partner in the Kingdom work of rescue, restoration, and redemption. To catch up on the latest sermons from Deep Creek, go to iTunes, Spotify ordeepcreekanglican.comand check out the website for more info about whats happening. We are a welcoming and growing multigenerational church in Doncaster East in Melbourne with refreshing faith in Jesus Christ. We think that looks like being life-giving to the believer, surprising to the world, and strengthening to the weary and doubting. Read the transcript Our Bible reading today comes from John chapter 4, verses 3442, just after Jesus has been speaking with the Samaritan woman. My food said, Jesus, is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.Don't you have a saying? It's still four months until harvest?I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields.They are ripe for harvest.Even now, the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.Thus the saying one sows and another reaps is true.I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you've reaped the benefits of their labor.Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony.He told me everything I ever did.So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with him.And he stayed two days.And because of his words, many more became believers.They said to the woman, we no longer believe just because of what you said.Now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world. This is the word of the Lord. Introduction Good morning. Thank you for having me here this morning. my name is Richard Boonstra, and I'm the, the state manager for Victoria for Prison Fellowship. apologies to those who are here at the 8 a.m. service. You're going to hear the same things again, but, it's how it goes. I didn't come to the Ministry of Prison fellowship to work. it hasn't been part of my career. My career is, teaching. So I'm a school teacher and a school principal by trade, and I spent many years teaching and leading in Christian schools. However, in 2016 2017 we moved to Melbourne and I felt the need to just get out of Christian school, out of schooling and do something different. But my my passion for Christian ministry started when I was very young, newly married in in the 1980s, and it all started when I was at a small group, and it was a small group for newly married couples, and our small group leader said, hey, I'm a volunteer with Christian Fellowship, and we've got a workshop at Canning Vale Prison in a couple of months. We need some more volunteers. Who's interested? And I felt something in me just thought, yeah, let's do that. So I put my hand up, said, yeah, I'm interested. And my friend next to me, he said, yep, we'll do it. So we had to wait for a little while until the training day comes, because you don't go into a prison without training. By the time the training day came around and I could get the training done, my friend had dropped off. So it was just me. I still went ahead and did the training and, we completed the training. The day arrived of the workshop. I got in my car, drove down to Canning Vale Prison, which is about a half an hour of where I lived. Got out of the car in the car park, looked at the walls, the razor wire and I thought, what am I doing here? I had that moment where you sometimes have where you think if someone told me that they had to cancel it, I'd be okay with that? No worries. But they didn't. They still went ahead, so I thought. Stop it. Swallow it. Come on. So I went ahead. Went through the doors. Bang! No. Two doors in a prison opened at the same time. And they didn't just bang, bang, lock. Click. That was it. I was in, I couldn't get out if I wanted to. Anyway, I went through to the room where we had the workshop, and I'm sitting here thinking, oh, what am I doing? And, the guys came in and started coming in from the different units of the prison for the seminar, and it was like a fog that just the sun came out and disappeared. All that fear and apprehension just went and I thought, huh, I think this is where I should be. This is my happy place. And I just thought I had the greatest time. I had a great day just sharing with the guys. You know, one of the best things is to talk to them and treat them as people. Not to look at the greens that they were wearing, but to think of them as people and to treat them as people. From there, I straight away signed up to join a team and we went in to, Fremantle Prison. Fremantle Prison, if you don't know it, some of you may have been to Perth, may have been for a tour of Fremantle prison because now a museum and now that it's a museum, probably gives you an idea of what it was like. It was built in 1850s and nothing had changed. There were no toilets in the cell. There was just a bucket. And the cells were made for one two people per cell. It was pretty rough and spartan. We were a team of about 6 or 7 of us. There was myself and my friend from the Reform church. There was a Catholic nun who was with us as well, two salvo guys who probably looked like they came off the ark with Noah, a charismatic Baptist lady and a couple of Anglicans. And we worked so well together. And I thought, this is also what God wants to see people from different denominations working together, sharing the gospel. And that's what we did every Saturday afternoon for about five years. We ran a little chapel service in the prison. So that's my story. And that's why I became passionate about prison fellowship and reaching people in prison. So when we moved to Melbourne, the opportunity came up to work for it. I thought, yes, that would be good. So I did that. A Broken World: The Bad News First I'm going to start off with some bad news. There's good news and bad news. I'll start off with the bad news. We live in a broken world. That's the bad news that we know. And I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you already don't know. Both in and out of prisons, people are broken, and they don't treat each other as they should. They've lost sight of what it means to be truly human. To be living in peace with God and with themselves and with each other and with creation, to find that shalom. People have lost sight of it. But there is now I'm feeling, and we feel that in prisons too, the beginnings of a yearning. Dissatisfied with what the Western cultural mindset has led them to believe or has promised them, is not happening. And so they're looking for something different, looking for a different way of living. But first, I'll just show you some statistics from our prisons. As a slice, as a snapshot of the brokenness in our world, you can see that in the prisons at the moment, there are 6551 people in prison. A little bit up from what it was about a year ago. At the end of December last year, we were below 6000, which was really exciting. And I track these numbers, so I'm keen to see the numbers go down. And that's really because of the Victorian Government, the Department of Justice and Corrections Victoria and the prisons have a much more progressive attitude towards the people in prison. I just went on a tour of Western Plains Correctional Centre, which is a new one, opened up, and constantly the staff are talking about the people in our care. People in our care. They adopt a trauma informed and trauma based approach to caring for the people in prison. They're still there. They need to be there. They know that. But while they're there, let's see if we can help them. So that's really the attitude. But they're competing with the government policy. So the numbers are going up a little bit because of the recent controversies around bail and toughening the laws, the bail laws. So it means more people go to prison instead of go out on bail. So that's where we're at 6500 people in prison. 95% are men, a small proportion of women. But for a woman in prison, it's a lot harder. There's a lot more at stake for families and for kids when mum is in prison. So it's a very different kind of situation and scenario for volunteers going there. 40% are unsentenced. Now this is really interesting because we often think, oh, they're on remand. But when you're on remand, there's so much uncertainty and so much anxiety. What's going to happen? Where am I going to go? Because the remand centre that you're in won't be where you'll stay. You'll be shifted to another prison. Will I have a job when I finish my sentence? What's happening to my family? What about my kids and all this stuff? I've sat with a guy in Melbourne Assessment Prison and just I didn't have to say anything. I just sat with him and let him talk, because he needed to get a lot of stuff off his chest, stuff that was swirling around his mind. And just to have someone listen, who empathetically listened, was important for him. 14% of people in prison are Aboriginal. It's still an imbalance when you measure that against what the percentage of the Victorian population is 1% yet 14% of the prison population. So there's a big difference there. And that's multiplied when you look at places like Northern Territory and Western Australia and Queensland; there's a higher proportion of Aboriginal people. The prison I was visiting in Perth, Fremantle Prison, at one stage we were told there were 80% Aboriginal, and so many of them were Aboriginal people who came from way up north in the more cultural tribal areas, and they were in there for driving offences, which was crazy. But because of mandatory sentencing and things like that, they straightaway went to prison and it was nuts. So it was really great to minister to them, because they were lovely people to minister to and share with, and especially when we got Aboriginal volunteers to come in with us as well. That was fantastic. 60% that's gone up now 60% of people will return to prison within two years. So that's a statistic we want to hopefully drive down. If you measure that over ten years, it goes to 80%. 80% of people will return to prison. That's how hard it is, once you've been in prison, to shake that experience off and to make a life outside of prison. I met a guy in prison in Perth who was released, and about six months later he was back again. His name was Hynes. It was a long time ago, so it won't matter. But I said, Hynes, what happened? Why are you back? He said, where else can I go? He said, here I have a bed and three meals; out there, he had nothing. And that was sad that he could the only place he could go was just commit a crime and go back in again. A statistic that's not up there, but is 25% of people in prison come from 2% of Victorian postcodes. So there's a correlation. And the prison staff and the police call them prison collection areas. That's what they colloquially call them because they get so many people there. 66% of people in prison were in care or were adopted as kids. So that's where this whole idea of being trauma informed comes in. A high proportion of people and that's the same percentage of people have a mental health issue in prison as well, whether it be ADHD or all sorts of different stuff happening in their life. So there's trauma. Now, we say that doesn't absolve them of the responsibility for their actions. They still need to suffer the consequences for their crime and for what they've done. But at the same time, we help to understand them and help helps to understand their background, to help them to rehabilitate. So in all of this brokenness, we sense a yearning. We're sensing that more so now a yearning for something different. My life isn't going well the way it is. I want something different. And in a sense, it's the yearning for that shalom a yearning to be truly human again. To find that place where I'm free of guilt and maybe free of that endless cycle of offending and re-offending, offending and re-offending. But now for the good news. The Bible tells us that God was not happy with this situation. Back in Genesis 3, he already started that plan he took God took the initiative to sort it out, to fix it. He took the initiative and promised to restore all things. To restore our relationships with him. To restore our relationship with each other, and to restore our relationship with creation. This is the Kingdom of God. He stepped into our world himself in the person of Jesus. He entered our world, and through Jesus he initiated the Kingdom of God. Jesus initiated it. And at the end of Matthew you can read where he said, I'm going back, but I want you to keep going. I want you to keep growing it. The Kingdom of God was initiated by Jesus. Jesus entered our world and demonstrated showed us what a citizen of this new kingdom looked like. He deliberately reached out to the marginalized, the downtrodden, the oppressed and the imprisoned, the forgotten or invisible people. And then, through his death and resurrection, he opened up the way to restored relationships with God, with each other, and with creation. Jesus reached out to the ones that everyone else thought were weird. He went places where people thought, that's not it's weird to go there. He came to rescue, restore and redeem and then to call us to put our faith in him, to discover freedom the freedom of being released from sin and guilt and to find our true selves as God's children. One of the key things I say to people when I go into prison, when I sit down with guys in prison, is I am just as much a sinner as you are. Just because you're in prison and I'm not doesn't make me any worse or better than you. In fact, I don't use the word prisoner, because I don't define you by where you are. You're a person someone who God created. And so I see that. I see you that way. And I want you to know that I was in darkness, and I needed to find the light, and I did, and I found hope, and I found love, and I found what it means to be truly human. And I want to share that with you. So we approach people in prison with a sense of humility not coming in as the great white savior, but coming in as a humble person who has found hope and wants to share it. And so we see a little example of Jesus modeling that kind of way of reaching people. In John 4, we read from John 4 verses 34 to 42. But just a little bit of background about it where this happened was in Samaria. Wait, what is a good Jewish rabbi doing in Samaria? That was weird. He, Jesus led the way of being weird. He showed what it meant to be to be going to weird places. He and he deliberately did that. He chose to go that way. Now he's on his way from Jerusalem to go back to Galilee the place where he based his ministry in Galilee was strategic for him, but that's another story. But he diverted, and he went through Samaria. Wow. I'm sure his disciples must have thought, what are you doing? Why are we going this way? Do you know where you are? This is Samaria. But Jesus knew what he was doing. Jesus never did anything by accident nothing was a coincidence in Jesus' ministry. So he had a plan. He had an appointment. This was no coincidence. All along he planned to meet this woman at the well. That's just before this passage that we read it's the woman at the well passage. Who was she? A Samaritan that black mark; a woman black mark for the Jewish rabbis at least. Anyway, also she was regarded as a woman of ill repute. We don't know exactly what her story was, but chances are that a lot of that wasn't her own fault that she was a victim of a very patriarchal society where she was passed from man to man through no fault of her own, just because of that patriarchal mentality. Regardless of that, we know that she was one of the people that nobody wanted she was one of the weird ones, if you like, because she could only get water at midday. No one else was allowed to be with she wasn't allowed to be with anyone else. She could only get water from the well at midday. And so what does Jesus do? I love this. He comes up to this well. She probably sees him, but she just knows she better keep her head down and get on with what she's doing. And he speaks to her. And what does he say? Can I could you get me a drink of water? Whoa! She stops and looks said, did you just speak to me? What men don't talk to her, let alone Jewish men. And she just can't deal with it what's going on here? He asked for a drink of water. In one sentence, in a beautiful way, he reached out to her, treated her like a human being treated her normally and said, can you get me a drink of water? Well, it it worked, because it arrested her attention. She got him a drink of water, and then she engages in this long conversation with him during which he, in a beautiful way, teases out her life and gets down to the nitty-gritty of what's going on in her life. You can read the story for yourself later, but there's so much stuff that he's dealing with there. But needless short story short long story short, he loved her and she couldn't escape from it. She didn't want to escape from it. And he restores her gently so much so that she drops her water bottle and runs back to tell everyone in the town where she lives what has just happened. It's like suddenly she's been made new and she's been loved and cared for, and she sees a glimpse of what it means to be truly human. Why didn't she run away from him? I told the story in the first service in Brazil, in South America, and a few other countries now too, there are these prisons called humane prisons they're run on Christian principles. They're run by Christians. These prisons have no walls or fences. The inmates look after the keys and lock up the gates at night. It's amazing it's astounding. They have regularly Christian courses like Alpha running throughout the prison all different things happening. They have families come in families can come and visit and stay for the weekend with their loved one, like a conjugal visit. And they were interviewing one guy who was there, and he had been a notorious inmate he had escaped from lots of different prisons. And they got this guy and said we'll call him John John, you've escaped from all these other prisons. This one would be easy to escape from there's no walls, no fences. Why don't you escape? And you know what he said? Nobody escapes from love. Why would I want to leave there, he says. Here, in this prison, I'm loved. I'm cared for. Someone took the time to love me. And so why he's willing wants to stay there. Above the door going into one of the main prisons is, here enters the man; the crime stays outside. And I love that thought. So she, like this man, doesn't want to escape from him. She sits down and talks to Jesus, and then he opens her eyes. And incredibly, he does something towards the end of his conversation and I think this is significant. Here is this Samaritan woman so-to-say ill repute woman and Jesus says she says, who are you? He says, I am the Messiah. He discloses to her. And I believe for me, it's one of the first times he actually honestly, clearly says I am the Messiah I am he. And who does he do that to? A woman a Samaritan woman a woman who has a bad reputation. I think that's significant. That's weird in the eyes of the world that's weird. You know, if the Messiah was coming, you'd think he'd announce it to all the important rabbis and bishops or whatever. But no he chooses this woman, because many other times people sort of work it out are you the one? he says, don't tell anyone. But here he says it openly to her. Anyway, the disciples of which they come he's gone ahead, and they come and find him. And the disciples you've got to imagine, the disciples are just young; many of them are still in their teenage years and they come up to Jesus and Jesus, can we keep going? This is not a place for a good Jewish boy to be this is Samaria. They were thinking, if our parents saw us here right now, we'd be in so much trouble. But instead, they mutter amongst themselves and they finally work up the courage to go to Jesus and said, Jesus, you need some lunch. Should we go into the town and get you some food? I'm sure many times Jesus rolls his eyes. And then he says, my food is to do the will of him who sent me. And he says this sort of sort of a almost a bit of a cryptic way: my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Food the word food in Hebrew can also mean calling in life. So is he saying my calling in life? You're worried about food and bread and stuff like that, but I'm thinking, what is your calling in life? What are you here to do? He says, I'm here to do the will of my Father who sent me sent me to finish his work. And then he goes on and says, don't you have a saying, it's still four months until harvest? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the harvest. Look at the fields it's there, ripe for the harvest. Even now, the one who who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying, one sows and another reaps is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you've reaped the benefits of their labor. What's he saying here? He's saying to his disciples, that's what we're here for we're here we're called to bring in the kingdom, to share the good news, to share hope, to rescue. Open your eyes, guys it's time for the harvest, it's right now, it's right in front of you. So he teaches his disciples, as a good rabbi would. Rabbis didn't have classrooms they wandered around the country and they looked at something and they said, see that tree over there? Let me tell you something about that, and then they drew a lesson from that. So now the disciples are saying, you want some food? Sit down I'm going to teach you about what this food thing is all about. And I'm going to teach you why we're here today. We came here for a reason I want you to see something. So he says, open your eyes I've come here because there is a harvest here; people are really keen to hear the good news, and we'll find that out in a minute. The time to get harvesting is now. But then the really cool bit of this bit I like as well is towards the end remember, it's not just up to you; it's a partnership. One sows, another reaps, another packs the harvest up, another fertilizes, another waters it's a teamwork thing. And that's very much so for the ministry that we have at Prison Fellowship it's a team thing, it's a partnership. Deep Creek Anglican is very much one of our partners we are incredibly thankful, incredibly thankful for this church, for the way that you partner with us and walk alongside us and help us to do the work the kingdom work of sharing the gospel in prisons. So thank you for the amazing work that you partner with us in doing. It's like you're going in with us even though you're not physically there, you're going with us into prison and we thank you for that. Jesus looked at this woman and saw someone who was ready to hear the gospel and to be redeemed and restored. The impact of her story and I think this is amazing if you look at verses 39 to 42, this woman has gone back and dropped her water bottle and ran into town. And that's no small thing I said to someone, and I said to the group in the earlier congregation, it's like leaving your phone at home and realizing you've got it it's that essential; it's like an important object. But she this was so important, she just forgot everything else and went and told the people in her village. Let's read the passage again. Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony.He told me everything I ever did.So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them. And he stayed two days.And because of his words, many more became believers.They said to the woman, we no longer believe just because of what you said. Now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man is really, really is the Savior of the world. What a testimony. Have a think about what that would have been like she, being the woman she was, had to go back to her village. Now, that wouldn't have been easy to tell people about what has just happened to her. They've got a they've got an attitude towards her; they judge her. So she has persisted she's pushed through all of that attitude to finally get some to hear. And so they said, okay, we'll come and have a look. And when they come there, they're just amazed they're touched by him by Jesus as well. And Jesus stays for two days, and there's a two-day-long Bible college Bible study. They sit down wow that's like the first church planted in Samaria. That's weird that's weird. Think about it you grow up thinking that Samaria is one of those people, and that's where Jesus goes. I love it, I think it's amazing. And that's exactly what Jesus models for us to do to get out there into places where people think is weird. Jesus came to rescue, restore and and redeem the rejected, the marginalized, and the invisible people prisoners. To many in society, this is weird. I've gone a little bit behind here we are. Mark 2 verse 17 is one of my favorite verses in prison ministries as well. We use this in one of our programs. Here, Jesus clearly says who he's come for. He's talking to the Pharisees. He says he didn't come to those who think they're right.I've come for those who know that they're wrong.People that know they need to be restored and they need to be healed. But look at the word the favorite word in that passage for me, and I'll share this with the guys in prison when I share this passage with them is the word call. It doesn't say I have not come to force the righteous, but sinners, or I have not come to push the righteous, but sinners, or I have not come to drag all these words he says I've come to call a gentle but honest word, I've come to call the sinners. Jesus comes to call. And I say to the guys in prison, he came to call you. And what does call mean? That means a response is needed. So you need to think what you need to do with this are you going to respond to this call when Jesus calls you? Are you going to say, yes, I'm going to come in here because he's not going to force he's not going to push you or twist your arm or anything. He comes to gently but persistently call, and he'll keep calling. And we keep having an opportunity a choice to make a decision. Can you hear that call today? Many of us here today have have heard that call and have come to Jesus, experiencing his love and being constantly restored. Are you ready to go out and bring in the harvest? Remember the three points. The harvest is right in front of us. The harvest time is now. It's a partnership. We believe with Augustine, who first said, every saint has a past. Sorry every saint has a past; every sinner has a future. I read that again. Every saint has a past. Every sinner has a future. We want to share that the call of Jesus that we first responded to, the love that conquered us. We want others to hear that call and to discover God's love, joy, hope, and his rest. We have a harvest field in our prisons it's right here. It's not overseas; it's right here in our town and our city, and it's calling for people to come to join the harvest. Caring for Prisoners: Ministry in Action I'm going to show you a little video now. It'll give you a bit of an idea of our ministry. In this cell. Your biggest enemy is time you drown in a sea of it. And you think? And think. In those first days, my mind drifted to what was happening outside. It's Wednesday. You know. I wonder what my wife is doing. What projects are the guys working on? Is anyone talking about me? Or have they all just moved on? Their remorse and regret are constant companions. Over and over again, you remember that you've stuffed your life up. Reputation, family, friends, colleagues all lost in the blink of an eye, and the guilt of the hurt you've caused is like a heavy weight that stays on your shoulders. I'll admit, there were days when I felt that all hope all reason to continue had gone. I'll never forget the first time I was visited by Greg. I remember thinking it was strange that someone I'd never met wanted to come and talk to me. Up until then, I'd gotten pretty used to people wanting to distance themselves from me. In prison, you do everything you can not to draw attention to yourself. Don't tell jokes. Don't tell your story. Don't look people in the eye. But here in these chairs I could talk, I could laugh. I could share my regrets and talk openly about my failures. And it was met with kindness and friendship. Greg told me about himself. And in doing so, he told me about Jesus. I later learned that close to a thousand volunteers men and women are visiting prisoners, running programs, playing sports, and leading Bible studies through Prison Fellowship. Prisoners like me have been profoundly impacted by this ministry. Through it, we've grown in character. We've taken responsibility. We've built self-control, and we've expressed repentance. We've come to understand grace and forgiveness. And hope is powerful it brings life and light to your soul. I found hope here, and it grew within me. I learned dependence. I learned to pray really pray. I found myself with a peace that was totally at odds with my harsh and miserable situation. The gap between prison and the real world beyond the gates can be very daunting. You're asking the big questions again: how can I stay out for good this time? Is there anyone who can help me? Will I get a job? Can I restore those relationships? To have Greg and the others from Prison Fellowship to be there to help me bridge that gap was everything. All. Inmates are just like everyone else. They need purpose. They need grace. They need healing. They need someone to offer hope. That gives you a bit of an idea of what we do as a ministry. (It) covers most of the activities that our volunteers do in prison. The prison itself is not an active prison anymore the one in the film but it's a little bit like Fremantle Prison was like, very rough; lots of sandstone walls and barbed wire and bars. It wasn't a very pleasant place. This year has been going well for us as a ministry, in that we've had lots of good opportunities to get into prisons. There's still some prisons we've struggled to get into, but we're working on that. We've been able to serve, sharing love and friendship and ultimately the good news of the gospel and God's gracious love with people in prison. We also serve families who have a parent in prison or children who have a parent in prison, and often the families serve a social sentence themselves, which is very hard for them. So our key thing is visiting in prison. We have our volunteers go in and just be a presence we call it sometimes a ministry of presence just sitting there with guys and being prepared to share the hope that they have with people in prison when that opportunity comes up. But many times it's just someone to chat to to develop a friendship with. We have The Prisoner's Journey, which is an eight-week gospel course based on Christianity Explored but written from a prison perspective. So it's very successful and very well received by the prisons and by the men themselves. We have another course called Change on the Inside, which is not Christian-based, but it's on developing positive character. We also have our annual Easter Biscuit Bake, which I'm I'm told Deep Creek is a part of as well. So thank you for sharing in that and enabling people in prison to get a bag of home-baked biscuits with a gospel card at Easter, telling them the true meaning of Easter. And the impact of a biscuit on a person's life is amazing I've given them out to people in prison, and I've looked a guy in the eye who said, are these for me? I said, yeah. He said, I can't believe people would do this for me. So it has such a deep impact you'd think, just a biscuit but it certainly has a deep impact. A little thing goes a long way. We have a children's ministry or families ministry we call it Extraordinary Lives and in Victoria we do three things. We engage in one-on-one mentoring. Children with a parent in prison are six times more likely to go to prison themselves. So if we can have a mentor for them a younger person, a young adult who could walk with them, commit to spending time with them and share with them then we hope to change that statistic. I spoke with a grandmother on the phone who said, it's really hard she's a grandma, she's looking after the kids because mum can't have them and dad's in jail (or sometimes it's both mum and dad are in jail). He can't talk to anyone at school about it. He can't talk to his teachers about it. Just me. He needs someone to talk to. And so that's where a mentor comes in and can be that person he can talk to. We also have camps. We're running one residential camp, but also we have some day camps some day-outs. Churches host families, and the kids have a day together just doing some fun things like a Lego day, or we've taken them to Bounce or to the zoo or something like that and just help them have a good time and hope. The idea is to develop relationships and ultimately to get a mentor relationship happening. And then we do the Angel Tree campaign, which I'm told Deep Creek was a part of a few years ago. But you're more than welcome to join us this year in our Angel Tree campaign. This is a program where we facilitate the giving of Christmas gifts to children who have a parent in prison on behalf of their parent. So the person in prison fills a form in, writes down the name of their child and what they like and their age. We then send it out to churches who purchase the gifts and deliver them to the families. And again, like the biscuits, it's the little thing it's not so much about the gift, but it's all about connecting keeping families connected. So we get every year messages back saying, I can't believe my dad didn't forget about me that's great! Or my mum still remembered me and got me a present for Christmas and that's significant, that's special. So Angel Tree is a really good program it's a big program; it takes a lot of work, but we look for lots of churches to support us in that. We do a little bit of work in post-release as well. As people come out of prison I'd love to develop that further we do pick up people on the day of release and walk with them a little bit just in that first day, but we'd like to expand that if we can. People coming out of jail need at least two years of mentoring, and a home. They need a job, and they need mentoring. God is very active in our prisons and wants us to join him in furthering the work that he has started. But we can't do this on our own we know that. And just like Jesus shared in that passage we read, it is a partnership. We walk together with others with individuals and with churches. Churches like Deep Creek Anglican that walk with us in this journey and help us to achieve the things we can to spread the kingdom into prisons. Partnering in the Harvest So my challenge to you is, will you partner with us in that individually as well? And there's three things that you can do for that. Pray. Prayer is foundational for us. We have a prayer meeting every Monday morning on Zoom, and I put out a weekly prayer diary. We need people to pray for the ministry on a regular basis. Someone said to me once, Richard, the kingdom of God moves at the speed of prayer. And so please sign up if you want to get a prayer diary. There's a sheet on the back table there that I've got there that you can sign up to get a prayer door if you'd like to join us. Each week we put some prayer needs in there. Support Us Financially. Perhaps you're willing to support us financially. Maybe you're willing to make that sacrifice and to give as Deep Creek Anglican do that so well support us. But maybe as an individual, you want to support us by providing financial support. We offer everything we offer to the prisoners for free. We don't get any money back from our government funding it's all based on donations. Go as a Volunteer. To go and see that harvest field, to go and be one of the harvesters, to bring in that harvest in partnership with with many people from other different churches. One of the things we're initiating as well, in Victoria and across the country, is to have restoration hubs. We often have people come out of prison who have become Christians in prison, but need to be discipled when they come out. When they come out, one of the many challenges they face besides getting into society is to find a church that will be open and receptive. So we're looking to establish a network of churches across the country who would be willing to take in and look after someone from prison. It's a challenge, and it takes a lot of extra work. There's a lot of thinking that needs to go around that how do we handle that, with all the policies and child-safe policies and everything that goes with that? But it's still a commitment for a church to commit to us and to join with us as one of our restoration hub churches to support us. Deep Creek are already an amazing supporter for us. And so in many senses of the word, there is a restoration hub here already and we are thankful to Deep Creek for that. I'll be available at the end of the service, and if you want to come and chat with me more about the ministry, please feel free to ask any questions there. Prison Fellowship is a faith-based, for-impact organization seeking to grow the Kingdom of God that Jesus initiated 2000 years ago. Thanks for having me today.

In this episode of Ask the Church, we explore the meaning, history, and practice of the sign of the cross. Is it biblical? Is it required? And why do so many Christians—especially Anglicans—use this gesture in worship?In under five minutes, you'll learn:- How the sign of the cross helps unite our heart, mind, and body in worship- When it's commonly used during worship- How it functions as a “physical prayer” rather than a rote ritual- Why it's not required—but can be spiritually enrichingWhether you're new to liturgical worship or just curious to learn more about Anglican practice, this video offers clarity and encouragement.

In the first part of our discussion on the Seventh Council, we discuss some of the difficulties with properly representing the Council, the background issues, and the Council itself. Next week we will discuss some of the implications of the Council for Anglicans today.

In this episode Rhys and Joel talk with Fr Chris Moore, Chair of the Fellowship of St Alban & St Sergius. We discuss the history and purpose of the Fellowship and talk more broadly about the Eastern Orthodox tradition, why people are drawn to it and how Anglicans can benefit from engaging with it.  The Fellowship's annual conference is coming up: 20-22 August at Ripon College Cuddesdon, just outside Oxford.  Resources recommended by Fr Chris:Melito of Sardis - On Pascha Dumitru Stăniloae - Orthodox Spirituality: A Practical Guide for the Faithful and a Definitive Manual for the Scholar Timothy Ware - The Orthodox Church St Basil the Great - On the Human Condition St Ephrem the Syrian - Hymns on Paradise Sebastian Brock - Treasure House of MysteriesThe Ancient Faith website The two Orthodox churches in Oxford that were mentioned: https://holytrinityoxford.org.uk and https://www.stnicholas-oxford.orgYou can email us at holycofe@gmail.com or follow us on X at @holycofe1.

Today's Holy Smoke is a curtain-raiser for ‘Recovering the Sacred', a Spectator event at St Bartholow-the-Great in the City of London in which a panel of experts will explore the rediscovery of traditional worship and theology by young Anglicans and Catholics. The event will be held on Tuesday 8th July; for more details, and to book tickets, go to: spectator.co.uk/churchIn today's episode Damian Thompson talks to Anglican James Vitali and Catholic Georgia Clarke, two Generation Z professionals bursting with enthusiasm for their faith. It's an exhilarating discussion; don't miss it. Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

Today's Holy Smoke is a curtain-raiser for ‘Recovering the Sacred', a Spectator event at St Bartholow-the-Great in the City of London in which a panel of experts will explore the rediscovery of traditional worship and theology by young Anglicans and Catholics. The event will be held on Tuesday 8th July; for more details, and to book tickets, go to: spectator.co.uk/churchIn today's episode Damian Thompson talks to Anglican James Vitali and Catholic Georgia Clarke, two Generation Z professionals bursting with enthusiasm for their faith. It's an exhilarating discussion; don't miss it. Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

It's boom time for Islam. According to the most comprehensive study of global religious affiliation in a decade, there are now two billion Muslims in the world. The study, conducted by Pew Research, also finds there's an interesting twist in the data about the growth of those with no religion. CONRAD HACKETT was the senior researcher on the project.Despite the growth of Islam, there were markedly fewer Muslims attending this year's Hajj celebrations in Mecca. The pilgrimage is required of every able Muslim but numbers were down. The reason, however, is even more intriguing. Associate Professor MILAD HAGHANI from Melbourne University studies urban risk and resilience.Christianity may be thriving in much of the global south but, for the Anglicans of Melbourne, times are tougher. They're now just 5.5 percent of the population, according to the census. Will their new Archbishop be able to turn around the fortunes? RIC THORPE is currently the Anglican bishop of Islington in London, where he's been a successful church builder. What's his plan for the Melbourne diocese?GUESTS:CONRAD HACKETT - senior researcher at Pew ResearchAssociate Professor MILAD HAGHANI from Melbourne UniversityMelbourne Archbishop RIC THORPE 

Christianity may be thriving in much of the global south but, for the Anglicans of Melbourne, times are tougher. They're now just 5.5 % of the population, according to the census. Will their new Archbishop be able to turn around the fortunes of a shrinking church base? RIC THORPE is currently the Anglican bishop of Islington in London, where he's been a successful church builder. What's his plan for the Melbourne diocese?

Matt Ehret is back in Grimerica to discuss the global current and ancient going ons.... He has been busy making all kinds of great content including his trilogy, Revenge of the Mystery Cults, delves into the influence of ancient mystery religions on contemporary institutions and societal engineering. And the documentary series The Hidden Hand Behind UFOs.   We talk about incompetence vs intention, the fall of the 'Rules' based order, the death cult, what happened in 1971, global cults, Maurice Strong, China v the West, ai and bots, the 30 years war, Confucius, Chinese and Korean tv vs Hollywood. The death of the Hero's Journey.   In the second half we get into legislating culture, the woke right, Templars and Rosicrucians, Theosophy - black or white, Plymouth Brethren, The mystery cults, inversion, the Jesuits and Anglicans, Esoteric vs Exoteric, Tavistock, spiritual alchemy, magical working and Montreal church destruction.   In addition to his geopolitical and historical analyses, Ehret has explored the intersection of occult traditions and modern psychological operations. His trilogy, Revenge of the Mystery Cults, delves into the influence of ancient mystery religions on contemporary institutions and societal engineering. amazon.com Furthermore, Ehret co-created the documentary series The Hidden Hand Behind UFOs, which examines the historical and psychological aspects of the UFO phenomenon, linking it to broader themes of social control and cultural manipulation.   https://matthewehret.substack.com/ https://canadianpatriot.org/ https://x.com/ehret_matthew   To gain access to the second half of show and our Plus feed for audio and podcast please clink the link http://www.grimericaoutlawed.ca/support.   For second half of video (when applicable and audio) go to our Substack and Subscribe. https://grimericaoutlawed.substack.com/ or to our Locals  https://grimericaoutlawed.locals.com/ or Rokfin www.Rokfin.com/Grimerica Patreon https://www.patreon.com/grimericaoutlawed   Support the show directly: https://grimericacbd.com/ CBD / THC Tinctures and Gummies https://grimerica.ca/support-2/ Eh-List Podcast and site: https://eh-list.ca/ Eh-List YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheEh-List Our Adultbrain Audiobook Podcast and Website: www.adultbrain.ca Our Audiobook Youtube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/@adultbrainaudiobookpublishing/videos Darren's book www.acanadianshame.ca Check out our next trip/conference/meetup - Contact at the Cabin www.contactatthecabin.com Other affiliated shows: www.grimerica.ca The OG Grimerica Show www.Rokfin.com/Grimerica Our channel on free speech Rokfin Join the chat / hangout with a bunch of fellow Grimericans  Https://t.me.grimerica https://www.guilded.gg/chat/b7af7266-771d-427f-978c-872a7962a6c2?messageId=c1e1c7cd-c6e9-4eaf-abc9-e6ec0be89ff3   Leave a review on iTunes and/or Stitcher: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/grimerica-outlawed http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/grimerica-outlawed Sign up for our newsletter http://www.grimerica.ca/news SPAM Graham = and send him your synchronicities, feedback, strange experiences and psychedelic trip reports!! graham@grimerica.com InstaGRAM https://www.instagram.com/the_grimerica_show_podcast/  Purchase swag, with partial proceeds donated to the show www.grimerica.ca/swag Send us a postcard or letter http://www.grimerica.ca/contact/ ART - Napolean Duheme's site http://www.lostbreadcomic.com/  MUSIC Tru Northperception, Felix's Site sirfelix.bandcamp.com 

After four years and over a hundred episodes, we bring Appalachian Anglican to a close with one final conversation—both a retrospective and a bridge to what lies ahead. Bishop Darryl Fitzwater, Dcn Adam, Josh, and Aidan reflect on the importance of doctrinal fidelity, the dangers of theological innovation, and the enduring role of Scripture and tradition in shaping the Church's future. The conversation emphasizes that the Church is a steward, not a master, of doctrine and how Anglicans can live faithfully in an age of rapid change and ecclesial fragmentation.Though this is the final chapter of Appalachian Anglican, the conversation continues through a new endeavor: The American Catholic, launching in Summer 2025. Stay tuned for a fresh voice rooted in the same commitment to theological sanity, liturgical richness, and the building of Catholic communities across North America.For questions or clarifications, reach out to us @darryl@ascensionwv.org

The Declaration of Independence uses the words 'God,' 'the Creator,' and 'Divine Providence,' but many of the Founders were highly skeptical of both Christianity and also organized religion, preferring the scientific and rational ideals of the Enlightenment. In this episode, we explore the tensions between religion and reason in the Declaration of Independence. Topics include the following: -Theistic and deistic beliefs in the Founders, including Franklin and Jefferson -The different religious groups in the Colonies, from Baptists and Catholics to Anglicans and Quakers -Biblical and theological arguments for and against revolution as well as submission to the King -Grievance #20 in the Declaration, which references the Quebec Act of 1774, which allowed for the establishment of Catholicism in the Canadian colony of Quebec -Jefferson's Act for Establishing Religious Freedom (1779) -The Establishment Clause in the First Amendment

Christian nationalism is a phenomenon we usually associate with the United States. But it's also a driving force behind Vladimir Putin and his war on Ukraine. MARLENE LARUELLE specialises in the fusion of religion and global politics at George Washington University. She writes about Russian Christian nationalism in the Journal of Illiberalism Studies. Why is taking so long to choose a new leader of the world's 80 million Anglicans? It took the Catholic Church about three weeks from the death of Pope Francis to elect his successor, Pope Leo. But it's almost seven months since Justin Welby resigned, in controversial circumstances, as Archbishop of Canterbury. MADELEINE DAVIES of The Church Times in Britain has some answers – and a tip about his replacement.How did a young man go from being a racist teenage thug,  who did gaol time, to one of the world's leading Catholic writers. You can thank that lovable character from the G.K. Chesterton novels, Father Brown. JOSEPH PEARCE became captivated by the gentle, crime-solving priest, turned his life around and became a biographer of Chesterton and J.R.R. Tolkien. He brought his extraordinary story to Australia recently as a guest of Hartford College, a liberal studies school in Sydney.GUESTS:Marlene Laruelle Research Professor and Director of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at the George Washington University. Madeleine Davies journalist at The Church TimesJoseph Pearce is a US based British philosopher and author

Why is it taking so long to choose a new leader of the world's 80 million Anglicans? It took the Catholic Church about three weeks from the death of Pope Francis to elect his successor, Pope Leo. But it's almost seven months since Justin Welby resigned, in controversial circumstances, as Archbishop of Canterbury.MADELEINE DAVIES of The Church Times in Britain has some answers – and a tip about his replacement.

The Anglicans of Melbourne have gone all the way to London to find their new archbishop.Last weekend they elected Richard Thorpe, currently the Bishop of Islington.It could be quite a shake up for Melbourne, where Anglicanism has balanced traditional-style worship with a more low-key evangelicalism.Bishop Thorpe's background suggests he prefers a more charismatic style.GUEST:Madeleine Davies is Senior Writer at the Church Times

On the phone-in: Experts, Eric Murphy and Barry Walker answer questions about heat pumps and other heating and cooling systems. And off the top of the show, we speak with Cynthia Pilichos and Liz LeClair about the decision over the weekend on NDAs by the Anglican Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

If you are a conservative, Bible-believing Christian, there's a lot to like about the Rev. Calvin Robinson. Raised in England, he stood up to the liberalism of the Church of England and, as a result, that church would not ordain him. He is a powerful communicator who puts his gifts in service of pro-life causes, the sanctity of marriage, and other important issues. Then there's the “other” Calvin Robinson. If you've been following the news about Robinson this week, you probably know that Calvin Robinson, too. That Calvin Robinson is an agent provocateur. He made what appeared to be a Nazi-like salute at a pro-life event in January. He has been fired or suspended from media and ministry jobs. This Calvin Robinson is a guy who seems to be in love with the spotlight, but not at all in love with those in authority over him telling him what to do. The producer for today's program is Jeff McIntosh. The host is Warren Smith. Until next time, may God bless you.

In today's fragmented Christian landscape, tribal loyalties sometimes overshadow biblical truth. At Disciple Nations Alliance, we're frequently asked where we fit theologically. The answer? We don't wear a denominational jersey—and that's by design. In this episode, we unpack why choosing Scripture over systems isn't theological compromise but an emphasis on the heart of God's mission.Rather than aligning with a single tradition, we stand on clear, foundational truths: Jesus is King, His kingdom is advancing, and His method is disciple-making through the Church—holistically and incarnationally—grounded in a biblical worldview. These truths transcend denominational lines and unify believers from Pentecostals in Latin America to Anglicans in Africa.This conversation is a call to elevate Scripture above interpretive frameworks, to approach theology with humility and charity, and to focus on telling the full biblical story.Make a matching gift donation by June 10!View the transcript, leave comments, and check out recommended resources on the Episode Landing Page!Learn More about the 2025 DNA Forum in Panama

Friday, 9 May 2025   Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Matthew 10:2   “And the twelve apostles, the names, they are these: First, Simon, being called Peter, and Andrew, his brother. James the ‘of Zebedee,' and John, his brother” (CG).   In the previous verse, Jesus called His twelve disciples together and gave them power over spirits and sicknesses. Matthew continues his narrative with, “And the twelve apostles.”   The word apostolos, apostles, is introduced. It signifies a delegate or one who is sent. In this case, being apostles of Jesus, they are essentially ambassadors of Jesus for the mission of conveying the gospel. Understanding that, it next says, “the names, they are these.”   Matthew will give a list of the selected men. They are not the same names recorded in each gospel, but they are the same people, being described by the differing names each possessed, such as Simon being Peter. The names are recorded in Matthew 10:2-4, Mark 3:16-19, Luke 6:13-16, and Acts 1:13.   In all lists, Simon (Peter) is recorded first, while Judas the betrayer is listed last. Each time they are listed, they are divided into three separate groups of four each. However, the internal grouping of each group is not always the same.   For an extensive analysis of the patterns of groupings, names, and relationships of these apostles, consulting the commentary of Charles Ellicott will provide great detail. Of these men, the list begins with, “First, Simon, being called Peter.”   The name is derived from the Hebrew name Shimon, which, in turn, is derived from the verb shama, to hear. Thus, the name means Hearing or He Who Hears. Peter is derived from the Greek petra, a rock, and this is the meaning of the name. He is also called Kephas, the Aramaic name meaning Rock. Next, it says, “and Andrew, his brother.”   The name is derived from anér, a male human, a man, a husband. The meaning is Manly, but that can also be equated to Courageous or Brave. Next is “James the ‘of Zebedee.'”   Both names are given detailed explanations in the commentary on Matthew 4:21. The last name in this verse is given next, saying, “and John, his brother.”   The meaning of this name was also explained in Matthew 4:21.   Life application: It is not uncommon to see people on social media call themselves Apostle This or Apostle That. The implication is that they are to be likened to the apostles in the Bible.   There is a problem with this. The title, as noted above, signifies a delegate. One does not designate oneself a delegate or an ambassador. Rather, that appointment comes from the one they represent. In the case of an apostle of Jesus, it means a person must be appointed by Jesus.   There are certain qualifications for the position that are explained in the Bible, none of which apply today. Like the sons of Israel, there is a set number of apostles. In the case of the sons of Israel, there are the twelve born to Jacob through his wives Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah.   There are also the two sons of Joseph who were adopted by Jacob as his own, as is recorded in Genesis 48. This makes a total of fourteen sons. Likewise, there are the twelve apostles named by Jesus in the gospels. There is then Matthias, who was selected to replace Judas in Acts 1.   This is then followed by Paul, who was personally selected by Jesus, “as by one born out of due time” according to 1 Corinthians 15. Thus, there are fourteen named apostles. Like the sons of Israel, that is all there are. Therefore, to claim to be an apostle of Jesus is biblically incorrect and unacceptable.   Denominations, such as Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodox, Swedish Lutheran, Anglicans, etc., who claim apostolic succession do so without biblical support. There is no such thing.   Be careful to evaluate people in the ministry based on their adherence to Scripture, not on a title, degree, or capability (such as knowing Hebrew or Greek). Instead, what matters is how they handle Scripture.   The Bible designates the number of sons of Israel. It also designates the number of apostles of Jesus. In this process, God is providing us with information. Patterns are made for us to understand what is on God's mind and what He is doing in the stream of redemptive history. Pay attention to such things, and a greater understanding of the workings of God will be realized.   Lord God, how grateful we are to You for Your wonderful and amazing word. We stand in awe at the wisdom behind it. For thousands of years, man has been studying it. And yet, it continues to provide us with new information from day to day. Praise You for Your word! Amen.  

Can Catholics believe in both a historical Adam and Eve and modern evolutionary theory? We explore how Church teaching reconciles faith and science, along with insights on Jesus' divinity in the Gospels, the death of a pope, and Catholic relations with Protestants and Orthodox Christians. Join The CA Live Club Newsletter: Click Here Questions Covered:  04:24 – Why in the debate with Bart Ehrmann, he had a disagreement about Jesus saying He was divine in the synoptic gospels? Why?  18:11 – I heard a claim that the Church wanted Luther dead, is this true?  24:11 – How should we treat the death of the Pope? Can we say he is already in heaven?   31:13 – How can the historical Adam and Eve fit in with modern evolutionary science?   44:24 – Was Jesus born in a cave or a house?   47:03 – Can I go to a Protestant service, if I still go to Mass?   49:18 – I heard there is a reentering of communion between Rome and Anglicans. Will this be on hold with the passing of Pope Francis?  52:16 – Can you explain the Orthodox claim that the church was originally beyond just Rome because Peter founded a church in Antioch?  

pWotD Episode 2911: Pope Benedict XVI Welcome to Popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 624,120 views on Monday, 21 April 2025 our article of the day is Pope Benedict XVI.Pope Benedict XVI (Latin: Benedictus XVI; Italian: Benedetto XVI; German: Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Alois Ratzinger, German: [ˈjoːzɛf ˈʔaːlɔɪ̯s ˈʁat͡sɪŋɐ]; (16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as pope occurred in the 2005 papal conclave that followed the death of Pope John Paul II. Upon his resignation, Benedict chose to be known as "Pope emeritus", and he retained this title until his death in 2022.Ordained as a priest in 1951 in his native Bavaria, Ratzinger embarked on an academic career and established himself as a highly regarded theologian by the late 1950s. He was appointed a full professor in 1958 when aged 31. After a long career as a professor of theology at several German universities, he was appointed Archbishop of Munich and Freising and created a cardinal by Pope Paul VI in 1977, an unusual promotion for someone with little pastoral experience. In 1981, he was appointed Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, one of the most important dicasteries of the Roman Curia. From 2002 until he was elected pope, he was also Dean of the College of Cardinals. Before becoming pope, he had been "a major figure on the Vatican stage for a quarter of a century"; he had had an influence "second to none when it came to setting church priorities and directions" as one of John Paul II's closest confidants.Benedict's writings were prolific and generally defended traditional Catholic doctrine, values, and liturgy. He was originally a liberal theologian but adopted conservative views after 1968. During his papacy, Benedict advocated a return to fundamental Christian values to counter the increased secularisation of many Western countries. He viewed relativism's denial of objective truth, and the denial of moral truths in particular, as the central problem of the 21st century. Benedict also revived several traditions and permitted greater use of the Tridentine Mass. He strengthened the relationship between the Catholic Church and art, promoted the use of Latin, and reintroduced traditional papal vestments, for which reason he was called "the pope of aesthetics". He also established personal ordinariates for former Anglicans and Methodists joining the Catholic Church. Benedict's handling of sexual abuse cases within the Catholic Church and opposition to usage of condoms in areas of high HIV transmission was substantially criticised by public health officials, anti-AIDS activists, and victim's rights organizations.On 11 February 2013, Benedict announced his (effective 28 February 2013) resignation, citing a "lack of strength of mind and body" due to his advanced age. His resignation was the first by a pope since Gregory XII in 1415, and the first without external pressure since Celestine V in 1294. He was succeeded by Francis on 13 March 2013 and moved into the newly renovated Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in Vatican City for his retirement. In addition to his native German language, Benedict had some level of proficiency in French, Italian, English, and Spanish. He also knew Portuguese, Latin, Biblical Hebrew, and Biblical Greek. He was a member of several social science academies, such as the French Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 03:27 UTC on Tuesday, 22 April 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Pope Benedict XVI on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Niamh.

A Sermon for Maundy Thursday 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 by William Klock In our Epistle today we hear Paul's description of what took place in the upper room, as the Passover meal came to a close.  This little paragraph is at the core of our liturgy of the Lord's Supper.  Paul tells how Jesus took the bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to his disciples with those familiar but often misunderstood words: “This is my body.  It's for you.  Do this as a memorial of me.”  And similarly with the cup saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.  Whenever you drink it, do this as a memorial of me.”  The Christians in Corinth, hearing those words read out would remember the stories told by the disciples about that night.  Just like we do, they'd mentally fill in the whole setting from Jesus washing their feet, to the Passover meal, to Jesus taking the Passover bread and one of the Passover cups and linking it with himself and what he was about to do.  They'd be thinking about this new covenant.  A mystery to the disciples, but the Corinthians knew the story of the cross, too.  They knew that the body of Jesus, broken, and his blood poured out at the cross established something new.  The Jewish Christians there new especially that when they shared in this meal that Paul described, it was like the Passover meal they'd known all their lives, but now in Jesus it meant something new and something better.  Not just an exodus from Egypt, but an exodus from sin and death.  Not just being led by God into a land of milk and honey, but being led by Jesus and the Spirit into God's new creation.  As Passover reminded the Jews year after year after of the Lord's deliverance and how he'd established a covenant with them, how he'd made them his people, and how he'd given them a hope for the future, so the Lord's Supper, every Sunday, reminded them how Jesus had delivered them from sin and death, how he'd marked them as his people in their baptism—not just in water this time, but by pouring his Spirit into them, and it pointed forward to God's promises of world to be conquered by his people.  But not Canaan.  Now it would be the whole world as this new people went out, proclaiming the gospel and living the life of the Spirit.  This community shaped by the Lord's Supper, by this new Passover, was God's future right here in the present, God's new creation in the midst of the old, God's light in the middle of the darkness.  Not perfectly, of course, but still God's future here and now. We forget.  That's why God gave Israel the Passover.  That's why Jesus gave us his supper.  So we don't forget what he's done.  So we don't forget who we are.  So we don't forget the task we've been given to do.  And so we don't forget our future hope.  But still we forget.  And that's why Paul wrote this to the Corinthians.  If we back up to the previous paragraph, to 11:17, he writes to them, What I have to say now isn't a matter for praise.  That means he's about to rebuke them for something they've been doing wrong.  He goes on: When you meet together, you make things worse, not better.  Stop and think about that.  I tend to think that when Christians meet together to worship, even if we don't get everything right, it's still a good thing.  We're better off for it.  On the whole God is pleased.  And yet Paul's saying that when the Corinthian church gets together, what they're doing is so wrong, that on the whole, it's a bad thing, not a good thing. So what are they doing?  He writes, To begin with, I hear that when you come together in the assembly there are divisions among you…  So when you gather together into one meeting, it isn't he Lord's Supper that you eat.  Everyone brings their own food to eat, and one person goes hungry while another gets drunk.  Haven't you got houses to eat and drink in?  Or do you despise God's assembly, and shame those who have nothing?  What shall I say to you?  Shall I praise you?  No, in this matter I shall not!   That doesn't sound very much like the Lord's Supper, does it?   Remember that in the very early church, the Lord's Supper was probably connected to a fellowship meal.  It hadn't yet become the symbolic meal that it would, where we eat a little piece of bread and take a sip from the chalice.  But in Corinth this had ceased to be a truly shared meal.  It sounds like the rich were separating themselves from the poor.  While they ate like gluttons and got drunk, the poor members of the church went hungry.  The rich people probably thought they were doing well.  After all, it was very gracious of them to let the poor—many of them slaves—have anything to do with their meals.  If they were still pagans, knowing nothing of the grace of God, the poor wouldn't be here at all.  Another case of the Corinthians getting everything horribly wrong, but patting themselves on the back for how gracious they were. And Paul rebukes them.  Back in Chapter 5 he wrote, “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.  Therefore let us keep the feast!”  But if this is how they're doing it, it may be a feast, but it's not the feast.  It's not the Lord's Supper.  Brothers and Sisters, if we don't come to the Lord's Table as one, we don't come at all.  Again, Paul warns the Corinthians: If this is how you keep the feast, it's better if you don't—because this isn't the feast.  In fact, if we jump down to verse 27, Paul writes: It follows from this that anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.  Everyone should test themselves.  That's how you should eat the bread and drink the cup.  Now, we should stop there and make sure we hear him.  “Test yourself before you eat and drink.  Test yourself how?  He goes on:  You see, if you eat and drink without recognising the body, you eat and drink judgement on yourself.   The flow of Paul's logic here is so simple there really shouldn't be any question about it.  What's the context of this rebuke?  The Corinthians weren't united when they came to the Lord's Supper.  They were letting worldly divisions and distinctions divide them up.  To put it in terms of our Epistle this past Sunday from Philippians 2: They didn't share this mind amongst themselves.  They weren't being humble as Jesus is humble.  And so Paul reminds them that the Supper was instituted by Jesus to remind us of him and to remind us who and what we are in him.  And now he warns them that if you eat and drink of the Supper without recognising the body, you eat and drink judgement on yourselves.  What's the body?  That's one of Paul's ways of talking about the church—especially when he wants to stress our unity and interdependence. So what he's saying is that central to coming to the Lord's Table is doing so as one people.  The cross has overcome all our differences.  There is no longer rich nor poor, slave nor free, Jew nor gentile, man nor woman.  It doesn't mean those markers are gone.  It's that in the pre-gospel world, those differences divided us all up, but the cross now makes us one.  That's part of how the church puts God's future, his new creation on display here and now.  It's one of the ways we show the world the beauty of the gospel.  Without this unity, the Lord's Supper is just another meal—like any other worldly meal, where you invite the people who are like you or the people you want to score points with.  Ironically, it's become common for Christians to flip Paul's warning on its head and to fence off the Table from other Christians who have different views of how the Lord's Supper works.  To “recognise the body” is taken to have something to do with Jesus being present in some way with the bread and wine, and we'll only let people come to the Table if they agree with us on how exactly that works.  Which is just the sort of thing Paul is warning against.  Jesus instituted the Supper to be a powerful symbol of our unity in him, but we keep it to ourselves and keep others away who disagree over what exactly that means. I have to think that this is one reason the church in the West is in such decline.  Our churches are too often divided between rich and poor, or divided along political lines or ethnic lines, and while there's certainly a place for division over serious theological error, most of our division are over matters that should never be a source of division.  Paul certainly thought that lack of unity was a problem.  He goes on in verse 30: That's why several of you are weak and sick and some have died.  But if we learned how to judge ourselves, we would not incur judgement.  But when we are judged by the Lord, we are punished so that we won't be condemned along with the world.  So, my brothers [and sisters], when you come together to eat, treat one another as honoured guests by waiting for each other.  If anyone is hungry, they should eat at home, so that you don't come together and find yourselves facing judgement.   When we think about the Lord's Supper, we so easily get distracted and hung up on other things.  The idea of “real presence” seems to dominate the discussion in Anglican circles these days.  When Veronica and I were married, before the service began the priest warned the congregation that only those who believe that Jesus is “really present” in the bread and wine were allowed to come to the Table.  I was livid—in part because there wasn't really anything we could do about it at the time, but mostly because that's not what Anglicans believe.  Or at least what we're supposed to believe.  It may all be an interesting theological discussion, but if we pay attention to Paul, that's not how the Lord's Supper works.  It's not about what might or might not happen to the bread and wine.  Brothers and Sisters, it's about eating and drinking in memory of what Jesus has done for us.  It's about participating in him and in his death and resurrection—this new exodus by which he has delivered us from sin and death and made us a new creation.  And in light of that, it is vital that we come to the Table as one.  Not rich or poor, not slave or free, not Jew or gentile, not man or woman, but as the people redeemed by Jesus, a people filled with God's Spirit, a people who have been made a new temple where Jesus, the Spirit, and the good news of his death and resurrection—where his salvation—is mediated to a dying world.   Let's pray: Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.    Amen.

We give a brief overview of the Seven Ecumenical Councils and discuss our general relationship to them as Anglicans.

Patrick kicks things off with a trip down memory lane, reminiscing about the iconic film Jurassic Park and its connection to the groundbreaking news about dire wolves being brought back to life. He explores the intersection of science and ethics, using iconic movie moments to guide his thoughts. Later, Patrick discusses tradition within the church and the evolution of its practices. As always, he wraps it up with some thought-provoking listener calls. Scientists have brought back dire wolves using ancient DNA, with the first born on October 1, 2024, over 10,000 years after their extinction (01:08) Rita - I was asked to have my feet washed on Holy Thursday. Since I am a woman, can I accept? Was there a specific reason Jesus only washed the feet of the men? (10:00) Lily (7-years-old) - Did Jesus still love Judas after he betrayed Him? Is it okay to wear a Rosary as a necklace? (12:46) Catholics set to exceed Anglicans for first time since Reformation (20:02) Rob - My godson is a non-practicing Catholic and getting married outside the Church. How can I explain that I can't go to his wedding? (30:19) Alex – Do you think it’s a good idea for someone who sexually assaults a woman to be forced to financially support the child and mother? (37:17) Tommy - What is the Christological perspective from Palm Sunday about God bestowing a great honor on Jesus by giving him a better name before all others? (45:02)

Don't be shy, send me a message!I am delighted to be joined by Canon Ned Lunn at Bradford Cathedral for this special Easter episode! I ask him:What is a Canon?What is a Cathedral?What is Easter, for Anglicans?Anglicans are, of course, members of the the Church of England or members of any Church in communion with it.You can find Bradford Cathedral on Youtube: @bfdCathedral Message me anytime on Instagram, @FlemingNeverDiesE-mail: AlbionNeverDies@gmail.comCheck out my https://www.youtube.com/britishcultureCheck out my Red Bubble shopSubscribe to my newsletter for update e-mails, random postcards, and stickers: https://youtube.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=b3afdae99897eebbf8ca022c8&id=5165536616Support the show

Want to reach out to us? Want to leave a comment or review? Want to give us a suggestion or berate Anthony? Send us a text by clicking this link!Something unexpected is happening in Catholic churches around the world. While mainstream narratives suggest declining religious participation, a quiet revolution is brewing in the most surprising demographic: Gen Z. We're witnessing a remarkable surge in young Catholics embracing traditional liturgical practices, with recent data showing Latin Mass communities growing despite official Vatican restrictions. The Atlantic reports that these communities have been relegated to school gymnasiums and storage rooms, yet continue to attract devoted followers – particularly young ones. Studies show 44% of Latin Mass attendees are under 45, compared to just 20% in regular parishes.This trend isn't limited to America. In the UK, Catholics now outnumber Anglicans two-to-one among Gen Z, part of a pattern observed across all age groups. The Bible Society's research reveals Christianity growing after decades of decline, driven specifically by young adults seeking community, meaning, and connection in an age of social media fragmentation and mental health challenges.What's drawing the younger generation to ancient liturgical forms? For many, it's the reverence, beauty, and historical connection missing in contemporary worship. As one attendee simply put it: "This is a place where we more easily meet God." Others value the ceremonial aspects, Gregorian chant, periods of silence, and emphasis on sacrifice that characterize traditional practices.This phenomenon appears to follow what scholars call the "strict church hypothesis" – religious groups tend to thrive when membership demands commitment and sacrifice. In our increasingly secular world, perhaps the future of faith lies paradoxically in its ancient past.What do you think is driving this traditional religious revival among young people? Share your thoughts in the comments below.Support the showSponsored by Recusant Cellars, an unapologetically Catholic and pro-life winery from Washington state. Use code BASED25 at checkout for 10% off! https://recusantcellars.com/Also sponsored by Quest Pipe Co. Get your St Isaac Jogues pipe here: https://questpipeco.com/discount/Amish?redirect=%2Fproducts%2Fst-isaac-jogues-limited-edition********************************************************Please subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKsxnv80ByFV4OGvt_kImjQ?sub_confirmation=1https://www.avoidingbabylon.comMerchandise: https://shop.avoidingbabylon.comLocals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.comRSS Feed for Podcast Apps: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1987412.rssSpiritusTV: https://spiritustv.com/@avoidingbabylonRumble: https://rumble.com/c/AvoidingBabylon

It's a small world. The great David Rieff came to my San Francisco studio today for in person interview about his new anti-woke polemic Desire and Fate. And half way through our conversation, he brought up Daniel Bessner's This Is America piece which Bessner discussed on yesterday's show. I'm not sure what that tells us about wokeness, a subject which Rieff and I aren't in agreement. For him, it's the thing-in-itself which make sense of our current cultural malaise. Thus Desire and Fate, his attempt (with a great intro from John Banville) to wake us up from Wokeness. For me, it's a distraction. I've included the full transcript below. Lots of good stuff to chew on. Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. 5 KEY TAKEAWAYS * Rieff views "woke" ideology as primarily American and post-Protestant in nature, rather than stemming solely from French philosophy, emphasizing its connections to self-invention and subjective identity.* He argues that woke culture threatens high culture but not capitalism, noting that corporations have readily embraced a "baudlerized" version of identity politics that avoids class discussions.* Rieff sees woke culture as connected to the wellness movement, with both sharing a preoccupation with "psychic safety" and the metaphorical transformation of experience in which "words” become a form of “violence."* He suggests young people's material insecurity contributes to their focus on identity, as those facing bleak economic prospects turn inward when they "can't make their way in the world."* Rieff characterizes woke ideology as "apocalyptic but not pessimistic," contrasting it with his own genuine pessimism which he considers more realistic about human nature and more cheerful in its acceptance of life's limitations. FULL TRANSCRIPTAndrew Keen: Hello everybody, as we digest Trump 2.0, we don't talk that much these days about woke and woke ideology. There was a civil war amongst progressives, I think, on the woke front in 2023 and 2024, but with Donald Trump 2.0 and his various escapades, let's just talk these days about woke. We have a new book, however, on the threat of woke by my guest, David Rieff. It's called Desire and Fate. He wrote it in 2023, came out in late 2024. David's visiting the Bay Area. He's an itinerant man traveling from the East Coast to Latin America and Europe. David, welcome to Keen on America. Do you regret writing this book given what's happened in the last few months in the United States?David Rieff: No, not at all, because I think that the road to moral and intellectual hell is trying to censor yourself according to what you think is useful. There's a famous story of Jean Paul Sartre that he said to the stupefaction of a journalist late in his life that he'd always known about the gulag, and the journalist pretty surprised said, well, why didn't you say anything? And Sartre said so as not to demoralize the French working class. And my own view is, you know, you say what you have to say about this and if I give some aid and comfort to people I don't like, well, so be it. Having said that, I also think a lot of these woke ideas have their, for all of Trump's and Trump's people's fierce opposition to woke, some of the identity politics, particularly around Jewish identity seems to me not that very different from woke. Strangely they seem to have taken, for example, there's a lot of the talk about anti-semitism on college campuses involves student safety which is a great woke trope that you feel unsafe and what people mean by that is not literally they're going to get shot or beaten up, they mean that they feel psychically unsafe. It's part of the kind of metaphorization of experience that unfortunately the United States is now completely in the grips of. But the same thing on the other side, people like Barry Weiss, for example, at the Free Press there, they talk in the same language of psychic safety. So I'm not sure there's, I think there are more similarities than either side is comfortable with.Andrew Keen: You describe Woke, David, as a cultural revolution and you associated in the beginning of the book with something called Lumpen-Rousseauism. As we joked before we went live, I'm not sure if there's anything in Rousseau which isn't Lumpen. But what exactly is this cultural revolution? And can we blame it on bad French philosophy or Swiss French?David Rieff: Well, Swiss-French philosophy, you know exactly. There is a funny anecdote, as I'm sure you know, that Rousseau made a visit to Edinburgh to see Hume and there's something in Hume's diaries where he talks about Rousseau pacing up and down in front of the fire and suddenly exclaiming, but David Hume is not a bad man. And Hume notes in his acerbic way, Rousseau was like walking around without his skin on. And I think some of the woke sensitivity stuff is very much people walking around without their skin on. They can't stand the idea of being offended. I don't see it as much - of course, the influence of that version of cultural relativism that the French like Deleuze and Guattari and other people put forward is part of the story, but I actually see it as much more of a post-Protestant thing. This idea, in that sense, some kind of strange combination of maybe some French philosophy, but also of the wellness movement, of this notion that health, including psychic health, was the ultimate good in a secular society. And then the other part, which again, it seems to be more American than French, which is this idea, and this is particularly true in the trans movement, that you can be anything you want to be. And so that if you feel yourself to be a different gender, well, that's who you are. And what matters is your own subjective sense of these things, and it's up to you. The outside world has no say in it, it's what you feel. And that in a sense, what I mean by post-Protestant is that, I mean, what's the difference between Protestantism and Catholicism? The fundamental difference is, it seems to me, that in Roman Catholic tradition, you need the priest to intercede with God, whereas in Protestant tradition, it is, except for the Anglicans, but for most of Protestantism, it's you and God. And in that sense it seems to me there are more of what I see in woke than this notion that some of the right-wing people like Chris Rufo and others have that this is cultural French cultural Marxism making its insidious way through the institutions.Andrew Keen: It's interesting you talk about the Protestant ethic and you mentioned Hume's remark about Rousseau not having his skin on. Do you think that Protestantism enabled people to grow thick skins?David Rieff: I mean, the Calvinist idea certainly did. In fact, there were all these ideas in Protestant culture, at least that's the classical interpretation of deferred gratification. Capitalism was supposed to be the work ethic, all of that stuff that Weber talks about. But I think it got in the modern version. It became something else. It stopped being about those forms of disciplines and started to be about self-invention. And in a sense, there's something very American about that because after all you know it's the Great Gatsby. It's what's the famous sentence of F. Scott Fitzgerald's: there are no second acts in American lives.Andrew Keen: This is the most incorrect thing anyone's ever said about America. I'm not sure if he meant it to be incorrect, did he? I don't know.David Rieff: I think what's true is that you get the American idea, you get to reinvent yourself. And this notion of the dream, the dream become reality. And many years ago when I was spending a lot of time in LA in the late 80s, early 90s, at LAX, there was a sign from the then mayor, Tom Bradley, about how, you know, if you can dream it, it can be true. And I think there's a lot in identitarian woke idea which is that we can - we're not constricted by history or reality. In fact, it's all the present and the future. And so to me again, woke seems to me much more recognizable as something American and by extension post-Protestant in the sense that you see the places where woke is most powerful are in the other, what the encampment kids would call settler colonies, Australia and Canada. And now in the UK of course, where it seems to me by DI or EDI as they call it over there is in many ways stronger in Britain even than it was in the US before Trump.Andrew Keen: Does it really matter though, David? I mean, that's my question. Does it matter? I mean it might matter if you have the good or the bad fortune to teach at a small, expensive liberal arts college. It might matter with some of your dinner parties in Tribeca or here in San Francisco, but for most people, who cares?David Rieff: It doesn't matter. I think it matters to culture and so what you think culture is worth, because a lot of the point of this book was to say there's nothing about woke that threatens capitalism, that threatens the neo-liberal order. I mean it's turning out that Donald Trump is a great deal bigger threat to the neoliberal order. Woke was to the contrary - woke is about talking about everything but class. And so a kind of baudlerized, de-radicalized version of woke became perfectly fine with corporate America. That's why this wonderful old line hard lefty Adolph Reed Jr. says somewhere that woke is about diversifying the ruling class. But I do think it's a threat to high culture because it's about equity. It's about representation. And so elite culture, which I have no shame in proclaiming my loyalty to, can't survive the woke onslaught. And it hasn't, in my view. If you look at just the kinds of books that are being written, the kinds of plays that are been put on, even the opera, the new operas that are being commissioned, they're all about representing the marginalized. They're about speaking for your group, whatever that group is, and doing away with various forms of cultural hierarchy. And I'm with Schoenberg: if it's for everybody, if it's art, Schoenberg said it's not for everybody, and if it's for everybody it's not art. And I think woke destroys that. Woke can live with schlock. I'm sorry, high culture can live with schlock, it always has, it always will. What it can't live with is kitsch. And by which I mean kitsch in Milan Kundera's definition, which is to have opinions that you feel better about yourself for holding. And that I think is inimical to culture. And I think woke is very destructive of those traditions. I mean, in the most obvious sense, it's destructive of the Western tradition, but you know, the high arts in places like Japan or Bengal, I don't think it's any more sympathetic to those things than it is to Shakespeare or John Donne or whatever. So yeah, I think it's a danger in that sense. Is it a danger to the peace of the world? No, of course not.Andrew Keen: Even in cultural terms, as you explain, it is an orthodoxy. If you want to work with the dominant cultural institutions, the newspapers, the universities, the publishing houses, you have to play by those rules, but the great artists, poets, filmmakers, musicians have never done that, so all it provides, I mean you brought up Kundera, all it provides is something that independent artists, creative people will sneer at, will make fun of, as you have in this new book.David Rieff: Well, I hope they'll make fun of it. But on the other hand, I'm an old guy who has the means to sneer. I don't have to please an editor. Someone will publish my books one way or another, whatever ones I have left to write. But if you're 25 years old, maybe you're going to sneer with your pals in the pub, but you're gonna have to toe the line if you want to be published in whatever the obvious mainstream place is and you're going to be attacked on social media. I think a lot of people who are very, young people who are skeptical of this are just so afraid of being attacked by their peers on various social media that they keep quiet. I don't know that it's true that, I'd sort of push back on that. I think non-conformists will out. I hope it's true. But I wonder, I mean, these traditions, once they die, they're very hard to rebuild. And, without going full T.S. Eliot on you, once you don't think you're part of the past, once the idea is that basically, pretty much anything that came before our modern contemporary sense of morality and fairness and right opinion is to be rejected and that, for example, the moral character of the artist should determine whether or not the art should be paid attention to - I don't know how you come back from that or if you come back from that. I'm not convinced you do. No, other arts will be around. And I mean, if I were writing a critical review of my own book, I'd say, look, this culture, this high culture that you, David Rieff, are writing an elegy for, eulogizing or memorializing was going to die anyway, and we're at the beginning of another Gutenbergian epoch, just as Gutenberg, we're sort of 20 years into Marshall McLuhan's Gutenberg galaxy, and these other art forms will come, and they won't be like anything else. And that may be true.Andrew Keen: True, it may be true. In a sense then, to extend that critique, are you going full T.S. Eliot in this book?David Rieff: Yeah, I think Eliot was right. But it's not just Eliot, there are people who would be for the wokesters more acceptable like Mandelstam, for example, who said you're part of a conversation that's been going on long before you were born, that's going to be going on after you are, and I think that's what art is. I think the idea that we make some completely new thing is a childish fantasy. I think you belong to a tradition. There are periods - look, this is, I don't find much writing in English in prose fiction very interesting. I have to say I read the books that people talk about because I'm trying to understand what's going on but it doesn't interest me very much, but again, there have been periods of great mediocrity. Think of a period in the late 17th century in England when probably the best poet was this completely, rightly, justifiably forgotten figure, Colley Cibber. You had the great restoration period and then it all collapsed, so maybe it'll be that way. And also, as I say, maybe it's just as with the print revolution, that this new culture of social media will produce completely different forms. I mean, everything is mortal, not just us, but cultures and civilizations and all the rest of it. So I can imagine that, but this is the time I live in and the tradition I come from and I'm sorry it's gone, and I think what's replacing it is for the most part worse.Andrew Keen: You're critical in the book of what you, I'm quoting here, you talk about going from the grand inquisitor to the grand therapist. But you're very critical of the broader American therapeutic culture of acute sensitivity, the thin skin nature of, I guess, the Rousseau in this, whatever, it's lumpen Rousseauanism. So how do you interpret that without psychologizing, or are you psychologizing in the book? How are you making sense of our condition? In other words, can one critique criticize therapeutic culture without becoming oneself therapeutic?David Rieff: You mean the sort of Pogo line, we've met the enemy and it is us. Well, I suppose there's some truth to that. I don't know how much. I think that woke is in some important sense a subset of the wellness movement. And the wellness movement after all has tens and tens of millions of people who are in one sense or another influenced by it. And I think health, including psychic health, and we've moved from wellness as corporal health to wellness as being both soma and psyche. So, I mean, if that's psychologizing, I certainly think it's drawing the parallel or seeing woke in some ways as one of the children of the god of wellness. And that to me, I don't know how therapeutic that is. I think it's just that once you feel, I'm interested in what people feel. I'm not necessarily so interested in, I mean, I've got lots of opinions, but what I think I'm better at than having opinions is trying to understand why people think what they think. And I do think that once health becomes the ultimate good in a secular society and once death becomes the absolutely unacceptable other, and once you have the idea that there's no real distinction of any great validity between psychic and physical wellness, well then of course sensitivity to everything becomes almost an inevitable reaction.Andrew Keen: I was reading the book and I've been thinking about a lot of movements in America which are trying to bring people together, dealing with America, this divided America, as if it's a marriage in crisis. So some of the most effective or interesting, I think, thinkers on this, like Arlie Hochschild in Berkeley, use the language of therapy to bring or to try to bring America back together, even groups like the Braver Angels. Can therapy have any value or that therapeutic culture in a place like America where people are so bitterly divided, so hateful towards one another?David Rieff: Well, it's always been a country where, on the one hand, people have been, as you say, incredibly good at hatred and also a country of people who often construe themselves as misfits and heretics from the Puritans forward. And on the other hand, you have that small-town American idea, which sometimes I think is as important to woke and DI as as anything else which is that famous saying of small town America of all those years ago which was if you don't have something nice to say don't say anything at all. And to some extent that is, I think, a very powerful ancestor of these movements. Whether they're making any headway - of course I hope they are, but Hochschild is a very interesting figure, but I don't, it seems to me it's going all the other way, that people are increasingly only talking to each other.Andrew Keen: What this movement seems to want to do is get beyond - I use this word carefully, I'm not sure if they use it but I'm going to use it - ideology and that we're all prisoners of ideology. Is woke ideology or is it a kind of post-ideology?David Rieff: Well, it's a redemptive idea, a restorative idea. It's an idea that in that sense, there's a notion that it's time for the victims, for the first to be last and the last to be first. I mean, on some level, it is as simple as that. On another level, as I say, I do think it has a lot to do with metaphorization of experience, that people say silence is violence and words are violence and at that point what's violence? I mean there is a kind of level to me where people have gotten trapped in the kind of web of their own metaphors and now are living by them or living shackled to them or whatever image you're hoping for. But I don't know what it means to get beyond ideology. What, all men will be brothers, as in the Beethoven-Schiller symphony? I mean, it doesn't seem like that's the way things are going.Andrew Keen: Is the problem then, and I'm thinking out loud here, is the problem politics or not enough politics?David Rieff: Oh, I think the problem is that now we don't know, we've decided that everything is part, the personal is the political, as the feminists said, 50, 60 years ago. So the personal's political, so the political is the personal. So you have to live the exemplary moral life, or at least the life that doesn't offend anybody or that conforms to whatever the dominant views of what good opinions are, right opinions are. I think what we're in right now is much more the realm of kind of a new set of moral codes, much more than ideology in the kind of discrete sense of politics.Andrew Keen: Now let's come back to this idea of being thin-skinned. Why are people so thin-skinned?David Rieff: Because, I mean, there are lots of things to say about that. One thing, of course, that might be worth saying, is that the young generations, people who are between, let's say, 15 and 30, they're in real material trouble. It's gonna be very hard for them to own a house. It's hard for them to be independent and unless the baby boomers like myself will just transfer every penny to them, which doesn't seem very likely frankly, they're going to live considerably worse than generations before. So if you can't make your way in the world then maybe you make your way yourself or you work on yourself in that sort of therapeutic sense. You worry about your own identity because the only place you have in the world in some way is yourself, is that work, that obsession. I do think some of these material questions are important. There's a guy you may know who's not at all woke, a guy who teaches at the University of Washington called Danny Bessner. And I just did a show with him this morning. He's a smart guy and we have a kind of ironic correspondence over email and DM. And I once said to him, why are you so bitter about everything? And he said, you want to know why? Because I have two children and the likelihood is I'll never get a teaching job that won't require a three hour commute in order for me to live anywhere that I can afford to live. And I thought, and he couldn't be further from woke, he's a kind of Jacobin guy, Jacobin Magazine guy, and if he's left at all, it's kind of old left, but I think a lot of people feel that, that they feel their practical future, it looks pretty grim.Andrew Keen: But David, coming back to the idea of art, they're all suited to the world of art. They don't have to buy a big house and live in the suburbs. They can become poets. They can become filmmakers. They can put their stuff up on YouTube. They can record their music online. There are so many possibilities.David Rieff: It's hard to monetize that. Maybe now you're beginning to sound like the people you don't like. Now you're getting to sound like a capitalist.Andrew Keen: So what? Well, I don't care if I sound like a capitalist. You're not going to starve to death.David Rieff: Well, you might not like, I mean, it's fine to be a barista at 24. It's not so fine at 44. And are these people going to ever get out of this thing? I don't know. I wonder. Look, when I was starting as a writer, as long as you were incredibly diligent, and worked really hard, you could cobble together at least a basic living by accepting every assignment and people paid you bits and bobs of money, but put together, you could make a living. Now, the only way to make money, unless you're lucky enough to be on staff of a few remaining media outlets that remain, is you have to become an impresario, you have become an entrepreneur of your own stuff. And again, sure, do lots of people manage that? Yeah, but not as many as could have worked in that other system, and look at the fate of most newspapers, all folding. Look at the universities. We can talk about woke and how woke destroyed, in my view anyway, a lot of the humanities. But there's also a level in which people didn't want to study these things. So we're looking at the last generation in a lot places of a lot of these humanities departments and not just the ones that are associated with, I don't know, white supremacy or the white male past or whatever, but just the humanities full stop. So I know if that sounds like, maybe it sounds like a capitalist, but maybe it also sounds like you know there was a time when the poets - you know very well, poets never made a living, poets taught in universities. That's the way American poets made their money, including pretty famous poets like Eric Wolcott or Joseph Brodsky or writers, Toni Morrison taught at Princeton all those years, Joyce Carol Oates still alive, she still does. Most of these people couldn't make a living of their work and so the university provided that living.Andrew Keen: You mentioned Barry Weiss earlier. She's making a fortune as an anti-woke journalist. And Free Press seems to be thriving. Yascha Mounk's Persuasion is doing pretty well. Andrew Sullivan, another good example, making a fortune off of Substack. It seems as if the people willing to take risks, Barry Weiss leaving the New York Times, Andrew Sullivan leaving everything he's ever joined - that's...David Rieff: Look, are there going to be people who thrive in this new environment? Sure. And Barry Weiss turns out to be this kind of genius entrepreneur. She deserves full credit for that. Although even Barry Weiss, the paradox for me of Barry Weiss is, a lot of her early activism was saying that she felt unsafe with these anti-Israeli teachers at Columbia. So in a sense, she was using some of the same language as the woke use, psychic safety, because she didn't mean Joseph Massad was gonna come out from the blackboard and shoot her in the eye. She meant that she was offended and used the language of safety to describe that. And so in that sense, again, as I was saying to you earlier, I think there are more similarities here. And Trump, I think this is a genuine counterrevolution that Trump is trying to mount. I'm not very interested in the fascism, non-fascism debate. I'm rather skeptical of it.Andrew Keen: As Danny Bessner is. Yeah, I thought Danny's piece about that was brilliant.David Rieff: We just did a show about it today, that piece about why that's all rubbish. I was tempted, I wrote to a friend that guy you may know David Bell teaches French history -Andrew Keen: He's coming on the show next week. Well, you see, it's just a little community of like-minded people.David Rieff: There you go. Well, I wrote to David.Andrew Keen: And you mentioned his father in the book, Daniel.David Rieff: Yeah, well, his father is sort of one of the tutelary idols of the book. I had his father and I read his father and I learned an enormous amount. I think that book about the cultural contradictions of capitalism is one of the great prescient books about our times. But I wrote to David, I said, I actually sent him the Bessner piece which he was quite ambivalent about. But I said well, I'm not really convinced by the fascism of Trump, maybe just because Hitler read books, unlike Donald Trump. But it's a genuine counterrevolution. And what element will change the landscape in terms of DI and woke and identitarianism is not clear. These people are incredibly ambitious. They really mean to change this country, transform it.Andrew Keen: But from the book, David, Trump's attempts to cleanse, if that's the right word, the university, I would have thought you'd have rather admired that, all these-David Rieff: I agree with some of it.Andrew Keen: All these idiots writing the same article for 30 years about something that no one has any interest in.David Rieff: I look, my problem with Trump is that I do support a lot of that. I think some of the stuff that Christopher Rufo, one of the leading ideologues of this administration has uncovered about university programs and all of this crap, I think it's great that they're not paying for it anymore. The trouble is - you asked me before, is it that important? Is culture important compared to destroying the NATO alliance, blowing up the global trade regime? No. I don't think. So yeah, I like a lot of what they're doing about the university, I don't like, and I am very fiercely opposed to this crackdown on speech. That seems to be grotesque and revolting, but are they canceling supporting transgender theater in Galway? Yeah, I think it's great that they're canceling all that stuff. And so I'm not, that's my problem with Trump, is that some of that stuff I'm quite unashamedly happy about, but it's not nearly worth all the damage he's doing to this country and the world.Andrew Keen: Being very generous with your time, David. Finally, in the book you describe woke as, and I thought this was a very sharp way of describing it, describe it as being apocalyptic but not pessimistic. What did you mean by that? And then what is the opposite of woke? Would it be not apocalyptic, but cheerful?David Rieff: Well, I think genuine pessimists are cheerful, I would put myself among those. The model is Samuel Beckett, who just thinks things are so horrible that why not be cheerful about them, and even express one's pessimism in a relatively cheerful way. You remember the famous story that Thomas McCarthy used to tell about walking in the Luxembourg Gardens with Beckett and McCarthy says to him, great day, it's such a beautiful day, Sam. Beckett says, yeah, beautiful day. McCarthy says, makes you glad to be alive. And Beckett said, oh, I wouldn't go that far. And so, the genuine pessimist is quite cheerful. But coming back to woke, it's apocalyptic in the sense that everything is always at stake. But somehow it's also got this reformist idea that cultural revolution will cleanse away the sins of the supremacist patriarchal past and we'll head for the sunny uplands. I think I'm much too much of a pessimist to think that's possible in any regime, let alone this rather primitive cultural revolution called woke.Andrew Keen: But what would the opposite be?David Rieff: The opposite would be probably some sense that the best we're going to do is make our peace with the trash nature of existence, that life is finite in contrast with the wellness people who probably have a tendency towards the apocalyptic because death is an insult to them. So everything is staving off the bad news and that's where you get this idea that you can, like a lot of revolutions, you can change the nature of people. Look, the communist, Che Guevara talked about the new man. Well, I wonder if he thought it was so new when he was in Bolivia. I think these are - people need utopias, this is one of them, MAGA is another utopia by the way, and people don't seem to be able to do without them and that's - I wish it were otherwise but it isn't.Andrew Keen: I'm guessing the woke people would be offended by the idea of death, are they?David Rieff: Well, I think the woke people, in this synchronicity, people and a lot of people, they're insulted - how can this happen to me, wonderful me? And this is those jokes in the old days when the British could still be savage before they had to have, you know, Henry the Fifth be played by a black actor - why me? Well, why not you? That's just so alien to and it's probably alien to the American idea. You're supposed to - it's supposed to work out and the truth is it doesn't work out. But La Rochefoucauld says somewhere no one can stare for too long at death or the sun and maybe I'm asking too much.Andrew Keen: Maybe only Americans can find death unacceptable to use one of your words.David Rieff: Yes, perhaps.Andrew Keen: Well, David Rieff, congratulations on the new book. Fascinating, troubling, controversial as always. Desire and Fate. I know you're writing a book about Oppenheimer, very different kind of subject. We'll get you back on the show to talk Oppenheimer, where I guess there's not going to be a lot of Lumpen-Rousseauism.David Rieff: Very little, very little love and Rousseau in the quantum mechanics world, but thanks for having me.Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

Laura Kuenssberg talks to Justin Welby, the former Archbishop of Canterbury. As the figurehead for the 85 million people in over 165 countries who call themselves Anglicans, he presided over some of the key events in the Commonwealth of the last ten years, including the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. But his tenure was clouded, and eventually ended, by an abuse scandal that shook the church. This interview is the first with Justin Welby since he resigned. The Interview was made by Clare Williamson and Lucy Shepherd. It was hosted by Laura Kuenssberg. The editor is Sam Bonham. Thanks to our colleagues all over the BBC, and all over the world, for their support making The Interview.

The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church share a common origin, but over time, differences in theology, practice, and leadership have led to a significant split. In this episode, Pastor Jeff and Tiffany revisit their recent conversation with Reverend Greg Kronz to debrief what makes these two denominations distinct and why thousands of churches chose to leave the Episcopal tradition and form the Anglican Church in North America.

My Story   Talk 11 Brasenose College, Oxford (1959-1962) Part 2 Welcome to Talk 11 in our series where I am reflecting on God's goodness to me throughout my life. Last time I finished by sharing with you how God powerfully spoke to me after a Philosophy tutorial through a verse in Psalm 119. Today I'll be talking in more detail about my spiritual experience at Oxford, which, looking back on it, was to be far more significant for my future life and ministry than the academic programme I was following. The most important thing a young Christian can do when going up to university is to make sure right from the start that they find, and have regular fellowship with, other Christians. There are two main ways of doing this, either by joining the Christian Union or by attending a local church – or preferably both, which is what I did. Christian Union and Local Church The CU at Brasenose was part of the OICCU – Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union. Each college CU would have its own weekly meeting for prayer and Bible study, but there was also a regular Saturday night Bible Study held at the Northgate Hall, situated close to the Oxford Union building. This was well attended by Christians from across the whole university, and I became a regular attender at both these gatherings. I appreciated the opportunity to meet Christians from different denominational backgrounds, and, bearing in mind my experience of the Anglican chaplain at Brentwood School, was particularly pleased to discover that some Anglicans actually did profess the believe the Bible! However, much as I enjoyed fellowship with these good people, having been only recently baptised in the Spirit, and having begun to appreciate Pentecostal worship, I was very aware that something very important was lacking in their meetings – the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. Of course, things are very different today, but in those days the Charismatic Renewal had not yet begun and most Anglicans, who in my experience tended to view other denominations as somewhat inferior, were highly suspicious of, if not totally unaware of, the rapidly growing worldwide Pentecostal Movement. And, of course, I was eager to enlighten them! But first a word about the local Pentecostal church. At the time, the only Pentecostal church in Oxford was the Elim Church situated on the Botley Road just beyond Oxford Railway Station. I was keen to attend there because, however valuable membership of a Christian union may be, there really is no substitute for the life and fellowship of a local church. So throughout my time at Oxford I regularly attended on Sundays both the morning and evening services, which meant incidentally that I missed both lunch and dinner in college because the mealtimes clashed with the times of the services. More importantly, on my very first Sunday in Oxford, it was there that I met three other students who were from Pentecostal churches, which led to our meeting regularly for prayer and to the formation of the Students' Pentecostal Fellowship.     Students' Pentecostal Fellowship The students I met after church that first Sunday morning in Oxford were, Michael Collins who came from Dorchester AoG and was in his second year at St. Peter's Hall reading Engineering, and Gladys Bland and John Miles who, like me, were in their first year. Gladys was from East Ham AoG and was doing postgraduate work in English Literature at Somerville College, and John was from Gloucester AoG and was reading English at Regents Park College. We were all delighted to meet each other because up to then there had been relatively few Pentecostals attending university. We soon became firm friends and agreed to meet regularly together for fellowship and prayer, particularly for spiritual gifts and for Christian students from a different denominational background to be baptised in the Spirit. Michael had a friend called Philip who was already Spirit filled, and he joined our prayer group too. I will never forget the day, early in our first year, when there was a prophecy in one of those meetings that people of all denominations, including professors and university lecturers, would be baptised in the Spirit. As I've already mentioned, the Charismatic Renewal had not yet begun or, if it had, we had not heard of it, and to be honest, I really wondered if that could possibly happen. But it did, and in our own small way we were to be a part of it. What we didn't know then was that similar groups were forming in other universities. There were students from a Pentecostal background at Cambridge and London Universities too, and once we heard about this we naturally wanted to get in touch with them. And a key person to help us do that was Richard Bolt. Richard had been an Anglican ordinand but after he was baptised in the Spirit in an AoG church in Durham his course at Clifton Theological College was terminated because he was laying hands on other students and praying for them to speak in tongues. Shortly after this he was welcomed by AoG and became an Assemblies of God minister based in a small assembly in Colchester. However, as the Lord was using him in healing and in leading others into the baptism in the Spirit, Richard's ministry extended well beyond Colchester as he took time to travel to universities and colleges to encourage Pentecostal students and to pray for others who wanted to be filled with the Spirit. He was certainly a great encouragement to me and my family. My mother was baptised in the Spirit under his ministry. But before I knew anything about how the Lord was using Richard, the thought had already crossed my mind that we ought to form, at least in Oxford, a university society for Pentecostal students. The Baptists had what was known as The John Bunyan Society which met every Sunday afternoon in Regents Park College where John Miles was a student. He and I attended this quite often and I mentioned to him that I thought it might be good to have something similar for Pentecostals. As a result of this, John wrote to Aaron Linford, the editor of Redemption Tidings, the AoG weekly magazine, and asked for advice. And it was at this point that Richard Bolt told us about the Pentecostal students at Cambridge and London. All this led to a gathering in London early in 1961 when the Students' Pentecostal Fellowship (SPF) was formed. Richard Bolt was recognised as its Travelling Secretary and Donald Underwood, a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, as General Secretary. We organised annual weekend house-parties where students were exposed to the ministry of Pentecostal leaders, and evangelistic missions where students would sing, testify, and preach during the summer vacations. We also published a magazine known as The Pentecostal and developed a postal library service where students could borrow books by Pentecostal authors. At Oxford our group grew in numbers during our second year, partly due to an influx of students from Culham College led by Andrew Parfitt, the son of the AoG pastor at Maidstone, but also because our prayers were being answered and students from other denominations were getting baptised in the Spirit. But that leads me to how I personally started to be used in leading others into the baptism. Leading others into the baptism It all began a few weeks after I had started at Oxford when, after one of those Saturday night Bible Studies in the Northgate Hall, I was looking at a book on the bookstall which was about a revival that had broken out somewhere in Africa. Chris, one of my Anglican friends from Brasenose, saw what I was looking at and asked me if I had any personal experience of revival. So I began to tell him about the baptism in the Holy Spirit. As a result, Chris started to seek the baptism and came along to the Elim church where the pastor laid hands on him and prayed for him. But nothing happened and after a few weeks Chris came to me and said, I want you to pray for me. I'm coming to your room tomorrow and I want you to lay hands on me and pray for me. I was frankly unsure how to respond to this. I was very new to all this myself and I did not know if I had the authority to lay hands on him. I didn't know if such things were the responsibility of pastors, and I wasn't a pastor. But Chris was very insistent and so I agreed. The next day was Saturday and there were no lectures or tutorials for me to attend, so I decided to spend the night in prayer. This was something I had never done before, and have not done very often since, but I realised the seriousness of what Chris had asked me to do and I wanted to get it right. When Chris came the next day, we chatted for a bit, and then he said, Well, are you going to pray for me or not? I think he may have sensed that I was putting it off because, despite my night of prayer, I was nervous about it. He knelt down in front of me, and I plucked up courage and, quietly speaking in tongues, gently placed my hands on his shoulders. But nothing seemed to happen, and I didn't know what to do, when I remembered that in the Authorised Version (which most of us were still using in those days) Acts 19:6 says that it was when Paul had laid his hands upon the Ephesians that the Holy Spirit came on them and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. In other words, the Spirit came on them after Paul laid his hands on them.  And I found myself prophesying over Chris that he would receive, and that he would receive that very day. At which, Chris got up, said thank you, and left me. And I was left wondering if I had done the right thing. I had my answer at eight the following morning. I was still asleep, having had no sleep the previous night, when I was woken by something digging me in my ribs. It was Chris with his umbrella. What was he doing here?             Oh, it's you Chris. What on earth are you doing here? And then it occurred to me that he might have come to tell me what had happened, so I added,             You haven't received the baptism, have you? To which he responded as he continued to dig me in the ribs,             O ye of little faith! He had, of course, received, and he told me how it had happened. After he had left me he had returned to his room and had been reading a book by, or about, the famous missionary to China, Hudson Taylor. The book emphasised that in addition to faith we need courage in our Christian lives, and Chris realised that that was just what he needed. He looked up from the book intending to say, Yes, Lord. Give me courage. But instead of doing so, he found himself speaking in tongues! Little did I know it then, but Chris was to be the first among hundreds, if not thousands, of people who have begun to speak in tongues through the ministry the Lord has given me. But that's closely related to the subject of spiritual gifts and how I began to exercise them. Beginning to exercise spiritual gifts Shortly after I was baptised in the Spirit I visited the bookshop at the AoG National Offices at 51 Newington Causeway, London. I bought every book they had on the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts. As a young Baptist I had received little teaching about the Spirit and none whatsoever on spiritual gifts. And I was eager to learn. I devoured books like Harold Horton's The Gifts of the Spirit and Donald Gee's Concerning Spiritual Gifts, and I learnt that the baptism in the Spirit is not an end in itself, but a gateway to supernatural gifts like tongues,  interpretation, prophecy, and healing. And I was longing to receive and be used in whatever gifts the Lord might have for me. As it happened, I didn't have long to wait. I was still in my first year at Oxford when I was confronted with a situation at the church I was attending. The Elim church in Oxford was a well-attended lively church where the gifts of the Spirit were regularly in operation. On a Sunday morning there were often prophecies, tongues and interpretation. Some of my Christian friends from Brasenose came along to experience Pentecostal worship and so far I had not been embarrassed in any way by what went on in the meetings. However, one Sunday morning, when fortunately none of my friends was present, somebody spoke in tongues but there was no interpretation. No explanation was given for this and, although I was still new to these things, I knew that the Bible was very clear that speaking in tongues in church should be interpreted. I probably should have asked the pastor about this, but he was a busy man and I did not know him very well. Consequently I kept quiet about the matter, but was still concerned that everything was not quite as it should be. Shortly after that, when Richard Bolt was visiting, I told him about this and asked him what I should do. He said, The answer is very simple David. You interpret. To which I replied, But I don't have the gift. He then said, Then ask for it. But, bearing in mind that 1 Corinthians 12:11 tells us that these gifts are given as the Holy Spirit determines, I asked, But I know God wants me to have it? His answer to this was along the following lines. The very fact that I was concerned about it might well indicate that God wanted me to have it. And, anyway, we know from God's word that it is his will that tongues in church should be interpreted. So I would be in God's will if I went ahead and interpreted it. I should pray about it and next time it happened I should ask God for the interpretation and then speak out in faith. Our heavenly Father gives good gifts to his children when they ask him. Although I still had questions, I decided to do what he said and over the next few weeks kept asking the Lord about the matter. Then, one Sunday morning it happened. Someone spoke in tongues and I waited, hoping that someone else would interpret it. But when no one did, I asked the Lord to give me the right words to say and immediately a few words came into my mind which I began to speak out in faith. I say in faith, but I have to confess that my faith was mingled with doubt. I was half expecting the pastor to intervene and say that this was not the right interpretation! But to my intense relief he said nothing, and after the meeting people came and thanked me for my interpretation. So from time to time, I continued to interpret tongues, but still with the occasional doubt if what I said could really be the interpretation. And later in the series I will tell you how God wonderfully confirmed the genuineness of my gift when I interpreted a tongue that was identified as a language spoken in Africa. God certainly did some wonderful things while I was at Oxford, and I realise now that I was already exercising a ministry while I was there. I was leading our SPF prayer group, teaching others about spiritual gifts, as well as preaching in churches from time to time. It seems that others were recognising this before I did, and I was soon asked to share my testimony at the AoG National Youth Rally held in the Birmingham Town Hall and to contribute an article in Redemption Tidings entitled Pentecost in Oxford University. The Lord was clearly preparing the way for my future ministry. Next time, I'll tell you about my developing relationship with Eileen which led to our marriage immediately after I graduated and how I ultimately decided not to go to Bible College as originally planned, but to accept the pastorate of the Assemblies of God Church in Colchester.

The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church share common roots, but over time, theological shifts and leadership structures have created key differences. In this episode, Pastor Jeff sits down with Reverend Greg Kronz to break down the Anglican Church's hierarchy, beliefs on communion and baptism, and why many churches have chosen to leave the Episcopal tradition.If you didn't listen to Part 1, be sure to check it out for more background on this conversation.Here's What We Discussed:01:05 - Anglican Church Hierarchy Reverend Greg explains the leadership structure within the Anglican Church, from the Archbishop to bishops and dioceses. He also shares insights into the role of GAFCON, a global network of Anglican bishops, and its impact on the future of the church.06:16 - Lay Leadership and Church Governance How do Anglican churches function at the local level? Reverend Greg discusses the role of rectors (pastors), lay readers, and vestries in church governance, and why he prefers the title of "pastor" over "priest" or "father."07:21 - The Anglican View on Communion Unlike the Roman Catholic belief in transubstantiation, Anglicans view communion as a symbolic but deeply meaningful act. Reverend Greg explains the theological basis for this belief and how communion plays a central role in Anglican worship.08:54 - Baptism in the Anglican Church Do Anglicans baptize infants or only adults? Reverend Greg breaks down the differences between infant baptism and believer's baptism, emphasizing that baptism does not guarantee salvation but serves as a covenant commitment.11:39 - The Role of Scripture in Anglican Theology Anglicanism holds that Scripture is the inspired, inerrant Word of God, but interpretation must be done within the context of its genre and overarching biblical themes. Reverend Greg discusses how Scripture is central to Anglican belief and why many Anglicans have distanced themselves from the Episcopal Church.13:00 - Clerical Vestments and Worship Structure Why do Anglican pastors wear certain robes? Reverend Greg explains the meaning behind clerical vestments and how church traditions, such as colors and garments, have evolved over time.17:08 - What to Expect in an Anglican Worship Service From liturgical readings to music, Anglican services blend structure and tradition. Reverend Greg describes a typical service, including the use of hymns, contemporary songs, creeds, and sacraments.We love your feedback! If you enjoyed this episode, leave us a review. If you have any questions or comments on today's episode, email me at pastorjeff@lowcountrycc.orgVisit my website https://www.jeffcranston.com and subscribe to my newsletter. Join me on Sunday mornings at LowCountry Community Church. Check-in with us on Facebook or Instagram @pastorjeffcranstonRemember, the real power of theology is not only knowing it but applying it. Thanks for listening!

Presbyterians took root in the American colonies after the Anglicans and Congregationalists. This raised questions about the relationship between the church and state. Today, W. Robert Godfrey explains how Christians navigated these issues. With your donation of any amount, request American Presbyterians and Revival: Lessons from the Nineteenth Century. You'll receive W. Robert Godfrey's teaching series on DVD, plus lifetime digital access to the messages and study guide: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/3941/donate Meet Today's Teacher:   W. Robert Godfrey is a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow and chairman of Ligonier Ministries. He is president emeritus and professor emeritus of church history at Westminster Seminary California. He is the featured teacher for many Ligonier teaching series, including the six-part series A Survey of Church History. He is author of many books, including God's Pattern for Creation, Reformation Sketches, and An Unexpected Journey.   Meet the Host:   Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of ministry engagement for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, host of the Ask Ligonier podcast, and a graduate of Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. Nathan joined Ligonier in 2012 and lives in Central Florida with his wife and four children. Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts

Nika Spaulding Kay Daigle Why celebrate Lent? In this episode of the Beyond Ordinary Women Podcast, Nika Spaulding joins Kay Daigle to discuss all things Lent. Although we may think that Lent is only for Catholics, Anglicans and other liturgical churches, it isn't. Nor is it all about fasting. Celebrating Lent means focusing on Jesus as we prepare our hearts for Easter. So how do we celebrate Lent? How does it work and who should participate in it? When did Christians begin celebrating this season? What are its benefits? What is fasting all about? How should we celebrate it? Nika deals with all of these questions. We encourage you to plan ahead to participate in Lent beginning on Ash Wednesday, which occurs March 5 this year. If you prefer you can watch this episode on video. Recommended resources Readings for Lent N.T. Wright's Lent for Everyone series. This year is Lent for Everyone: Luke, Year C--A Daily Devotional N.T. Wright's new devotional, From Wilderness to Glory: Lent and Easter for Everyone. The Crucifixion by Fleming Rutledge Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter.  Each day's devotional is an excerpt from a different author's work. Music that draws you to Christ Timestamps: 00:21 Introduction to Lent 05:13 Background of Lent 07:09 Fasting 10:29 Adding in spiritual rhythms during Lent 13:55 Preparing your heart, soul and mind for Easter 16:00 Lent calls us to reflect on the brevity of life 24:06 Other reflections during Lent 25:10 Lent involves community 26:44 Lent is an invitation to repentance & reconciliation 28:32 Suggestions for what to do, read, etc. TranscriptKay >> Hi. I'm Kay Daigle of Beyond Ordinary Women. Welcome to this podcast and video episode of the Beyond Ordinary Women Podcast. We are so glad to have you with us today. Today, our topic is “Why Celebrate Lent?” and our guest speaker is Nika Spaulding. Welcome, Nika. Nika >> Thanks, Kay. I'm excited to be. Kay >> I'm always so happy when you join us. You give us such a depth and wealth of information, and it's so encouraging and positive. A few months ago, and it seems like just yesterday, Nika and I recorded an episode “Why Celebrate Advent? We talked about why we thought that was a great thing for Christians to do. At that time, we decided we would do one on Lent as well. And so here we are. It's already time. It doesn't seem right! Nika >> Doesn't seem right. I feel like it was yesterday. Kay >> I can't believe we're talking about Lent. And you know the day we're recording this, we still have a little bit of time. But still it's coming up and it won't be long before it's here. Nika >>Yeah. Kay >>  And I suppose since we talked about the fact that neither one of us had ever celebrated Advent until we were adults. You didn't grow up in the church, and I grew up in a non-liturgical church. And we just kind of thought that Catholics do that. We don't; we're Protestant. So I'm assuming that you and I are the same on Lent, that we didn't practice Lent until we were adults as well. Nika >> Yeah, exact same. I would say the biggest difference was I probably didn't even know Advent existed until I was an adult. But Lent I did know because of the very thing you're talking about because I had buddies who are Catholic. I remember seeing them with ashes on their head and not being able to eat certain foods, and so I knew Lent existed. But to me it was this kind of bizarro thing that once a year my Catholic buddy's did. That was the extent of what I understood about it. Kay >> Yeah, and all my Catholic friends— I heard them at school talking about what are you giving up for Lent? What are you giving up for Lent? And I thought, this just seems . . . Nika >> Yeah. Why would I give up anything? Kay >> Why are you giving up anything? And they weren't real happy about it, so it didn't make me want to celebrate Lent. You know, I just,

Exactly a month into his new term, President Donald Trump's latest major pick, Kash Patel, has been appointed as the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation after a grueling confirmation in the US Senate. Tulsi Gabbard had earlier been confirmed as the Director of National Intelligence. Both these are positive from India's point of view: they signal that the sinister Deep State may well be reined in, after decades of anti-India activism on its part.Over the last week or two, there have been revelations after revelations of bad faith on the part of the disgraced US establishment, most notably in the shadowy USAID agency, which, it appears, was the absolute “Heart of Darkness” of the Deep State, neck-deep in covert operations, election interference, and general mayhem all over the world, and certainly in India.Trump himself emphasized that $21 million in covert funds had gone towards affecting election outcomes in India. Presumably the reduced majority Modi got in 2024 could be traced back to this. Fortress AmericaThe general contours of Trump's foreign policy are beginning to emerge. I predicted a month ago, before Trump had taken over, in ‘Greenland, Canada, Panama: Chronicles of a Foreign Policy Foretold', that Western Europe, and the United Kingdom in particular, would find themselves treated as irrelevant to the new order to come. That has happened.In fact, things have gone beyond what I anticipated. In a nutshell, Trump is downgrading the Atlantic, and his focus will be on the Americas, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific. Which, from a historical perspective, makes sense: the world's economic center of gravity is moving towards Asia; trade flows in the Pacific and the Indian Oceans are increasingly more important than in the Atlantic; and a few centuries of European domination are pretty much over.Sorry Europe, Atlanticism is at an endTo put it bluntly, the vanity that Europe is a ‘continent' is now being exposed as hollow: to be precise, it is merely an appendage, an outpost, to vast Asia. Europe is at best a subcontinent, like India is; it should probably be renamed as ‘Northwest Asia'. The saga of ‘Guns, Germs and Steel' post the Industrial Revolution is winding down rapidly. There is some schadenfreude in that the UK becomes even more irrelevant: just a small, rainy island off NW Asia.The Putin-Trump dialog suggests that Ukraine, and even NATO, are now superfluous. Atlanticism has been a constant in US foreign policy, mostly pushed by two forces:* Eastern European-origin State Department officials who have inherited a blood-feud with Russia from their ancestors, eg. Brzezinski, Albright, Nuland, Blinken, Vindman* an ancient intra-Christian schism between the Eastern Orthodox Church and (for a change) an alliance of Roman Catholics and Western Protestants like Lutherans, Anglicans and Calvinists.It is time that the Americans realized they've been turned into cats'-paws by these forces, and turned their backs on these ancient animosities, which have almost no relevance today. In fact one could argue that a NATO-Russian alliance is the right solution in the medium term, because otherwise both could become puppets of China. Bringing the Ukraine war to an end is a start.The general tone of the Trump White House implies a Fortress America. In practice, this seems to mean that instead of being Globocop, the US focuses on a) the Americas, North and South, b) the Pacific Ocean, d) the Indian Ocean, in that order.A new Monroe Doctrine in the AmericasThe attention being paid to Canada and Mexico over and above the tariffs issues suggests that there is a plan to create a stronger and more unified North American entity; the noises about “Canada the 51st state” and “Gulf of America” suggest that maybe a new NAFTA-style agreement could be inked, especially now that the warming Arctic Ocean makes the thawing tundra of Canada more appealing.It is true that there is no immediate thrust for a Monroe Doctrine-style exclusive US ‘sphere of influence' in South America, but I suspect it is coming. Already, there have been positive vibes between Trump and Argentina's Milei, and Salvador's Bukele: the former for his DOGE-style chainsaw-wielding that's showing results, and the latter for his strong law enforcement.The Island Chains and other red lines in the PacificIn the Pacific, there has been pushback against China's moves on the Panama Canal: there are two Hong-Kong-based entities (read proxies of the Chinese government) controlling ports around it: Balboa on the Pacific side, and Cristobal on the Atlantic side.On the other hand, there is increasing global support (with the judicious use of Chinese carrots such as BRI) for the annexation of Taiwan by China, including, if necessary, by force. A Lowy Institute study (“Five One Chinas: The Contest to Define Taiwan”) suggests that some 119 UN member states accept the official Chinese position on ‘reunification'. Only 40 countries are not on board with China's claim of sovereignty over Taiwan.It is very likely that there will be a showdown between the US and China over Taiwan, within the next two years. It is said that Xi Jinping has given a timeframe of 2027 for all this. It will be interesting to see how many states that condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine will condemn China's future attack on Taiwan. Chances are that many will be strategically silent.Japan, Australia, South Korea and other friends of the US will have a hard time keeping the peace in the Pacific. The “Three Island Chains” act as increasingly critical red lines to contain an aggressive China. In fact, the Asia Maritime Initiative is speaking of five island chains (“China's Reach Has Grown, So Should the Island Chains”), including those in the Indian Ocean (remember the “String of Pearls” intended to tighten around India's throat).The three island chains: 1. Taiwan, Japan, Philippines; 2. Guam, Marianas; 3. Hawaii(Source: China is making waves in the Pacific, Alexandra Tirziu, Jan 2024 https://www.gisreportsonline.com/r/china-pacific-conflict/)Meanwhile, in a show of aggression far from its shores, three Chinese warships indulged in “live firing” in international waters between Australia and New Zealand, and commercial aircraft were warned to keep away. This is a warning to Australia, which, thanks to AUKUS foolishness, cancelled French submarines and now await British submarines… in the 2040s.The increasing relevance of the Indian Ocean and the Middle EastMuch of the world's trade, including 75% of global maritime trade and 50% of its daily oil shipments, go through the Indian Ocean.The main issues will be the control of the Straits of Malacca and Hormuz, and the alternative routes being explored by China via the Isthmus of Kra in Thailand, possible use of Coco Islands and other Myanmarese ports including Sittwe and (a bit of a stretch for China) access to Chittagong. There are also troublesome pirates, including Houthis, that make for perilous journeys leading to the Suez Canal, the Gulf of Aden, and the Red Sea.Interestingly, the US is making moves in the Indian Ocean that will support both the IMEC (India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor) and I2U2, the India-Israel-UAE-US economic partnership. IMEC is the old Spice Route, revivified.There is also the proposed Ben-Gurion Canal through the Negev Desert in Israel that would benefit Saudi Arabia as well (its futuristic NEOM city is nearby), and this would be made feasible by Trump's proposed transformation of Gaza. It would be an alternative to Suez.Following up on the Abraham Accords, Trump 2.0 would like to bring the Gaza war to an end, and create an environment in the Middle East where Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE et al will form a counter and a buffer to the machinations of Iran and Turkey.The Indo-US joint communique is a statement of intentIt is in this global context that we need to analyze the joint communique between the US and India after the Trump-Modi summit. Both nations will be attempting to advance their own strategic doctrines. The US would like India to become a non-treaty ally. India would like to keep its multi-alignment policy going, along with Atmanirbharatha. These may make any bilateral progress a little rough but some give and take will work.There are a few specific areas of interest:* Defense* There is an effort by the US to wean India away from its dependency on Russia for weapons. The most evident carrot here is the F-35 advanced fighter jet, which has now been offered to India for the first time, along with other conventional weapons such as Javelin anti-tank missiles, Stryker infantry combat vehicles, as well as the P8i Poseidon anti-submarine patrol aircraft, and various drones* The P8i is already in service in India, and it would help keep an eye on the southern Bay of Bengal with its proximity to China's submarine pen on Hainan Island* The F-35 raises some questions. In the Bangalore Air Show it was pitted against the Russian Su-57, which is a lot less expensive. Also, the F-35 needs extraordinary levels of maintenance for its ‘stealth' coating. Finally, should India invest in building its own AMCA 5th-generation fighter jet rather than buying?* Even though there will be co-production agreements, the US is a whimsical supplier (remember Tarapur), and there will be little transfer of technology, so military procurement and cooperation must be carefully thought through by India* Trade and Investment* The goal is to reach $500 billion in bilateral trade by 2030, which would involve a doubling from current levels ($200 billion in 2023). Besides, the Trump doctrine of reciprocal tariffs and zero trade imbalance may make some of this difficult* Indian firms are planning to invest $7.35 billion in the US* Energy* India will now get access to US civil nuclear technology, but there's a small twist: the clauses invoking civil liability for nuclear damage will be deleted. This is reminiscent of Pfizer's covid-era contract with developing countries: Pfizer was assured of indemnity (with the local governments being liable) in case of injury or death caused by its vaccine. This sounds like a bad idea* India will increase its purchases of US oil and natural gas. This is a win-win: it will increase US imports to India, thus reducing the trade deficit, and India will be assured of additional supplies* Technology and Innovation* A whole raft of actions have been proposed, including a tie-up between the US National Science Foundation and the Anusandhan National Research Foundation in India, a program called TRUST, another called INDUS innovation, and one in the area of space collaboration, titled NISAR* Multilateral Cooperation* The Quad, IMEC and I2U2 figured in communique, but also something called the Indian Ocean Strategic Venture. I note this nomenclature progress with approval: there used to be the Asia-Pacific, then it was the Indo-Pacific, and now the Indian Ocean is being singled out* In the area of counter-terrorism, the communique explicitly named Pakistani entities such as Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Toiba, among others. This is a welcome change from the shadow-boxing indulged in by the Biden administration and others, whereby Pakistani terrorists were treated as ‘assets'* The extradition of Tahawwur Rana, a Pakistani-Canadian now in a Los Angeles jail, to India for investigation into his role supporting David Headley, in the 26/11/2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, is a welcome sign, after the curious Biden exertions in the Pannun case* People to people links* Indian parents are spending $8 billion a year to support 300,000 Indian students in the US. This amounts to a sort of ‘foreign aid', and also incidentally supplies a lot of especially STEM graduates to the US economy* Facilitating visas, which have become frustratingly difficult for Indian business and leisure travelers to the US. Last year, the wait for just a visa interview was 452 days in Chennai (as compared to 15 days in Beijing), which probably was the result ot the Biden State Department ‘punishing' India for refusing to toe their Ukraine sanctions line* The legal movement of students and professionals between the two countries is to be eased.Overall, this is a statement of intent: both Modi and Trump are laying their cards on the table, and they will both (as they should) bargain hard to benefit their own nations. But India is no longer being treated as a pariah as it was since the Pokhran blasts, the denial of cryogenic rocket engines (via, yes, the Biden Amendment), and so on.As Trump moves towards the inevitable multipolar world, he does not wish to leave Asia to eager hegemon China; as he wishes to move the US out of military entanglements in far-off places (for which he expects Europe and others to bear the burden of their own defense), it is natural for him to want India to punch its weight in Asia.A mutually beneficial relationship free of the supercilious lectures by previous Democratic administrations (eg Daleep Singh on Ukraine sanctions, and he was, ironically enough, the great-grand-nephew of Dalip Singh Saund) would be welcome from the Indian point of view. Having a counterweight to China, and a G3 instead of a G2, would likewise be useful from the US point of view. Thus, there are glimpses of a possible win-win situation.2222 words, 22-02-2025 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rajeevsrinivasan.substack.com/subscribe

This time co-hosts  Korey Maas (Lutheran), Miles Smith (Anglican), and D. G. Hart (Presbyterian) talk about whether non-denominational Christianity is the future of American Protestantism and what stake confessional Protestants have in denominational structures. The basis for discussion is  sociologist Ryan Burge's analysis of church statistics whose numbers indicate the remarkable increase of non-denominational Protestantism.  Methodists, Lutherans, Baptists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, and Congregationalists may sound like the ecclesiastical equivalent of Ford, Lincoln, Chevrolet, and Buick, but institutions matter to Christian faith and practice as much as they do to the manufacturing and sale of automobiles.  Follow the Anglican co-host @ivmiles and the Presbyterian co-host @oldlife.   

Saturday, 15 February 2025   Therefore by their fruits you will know them. Matthew 7:20   “Hence, from their fruits you will know them” (CG).   In the previous verse, Jesus spoke about what happens to the tree that doesn't bear good fruit. Because it doesn't provide fruit for man, it will be cut down. As was seen, having tied the words into their greater context, this pointed to the law versus grace.   The law is likened to a tree with bad fruit because it cannot provide suitable nourishment for man. It was never intended to do so apart from Christ's perfect fulfillment of it. But this means that He was already in a state of perfection, not that He was imperfect and attained perfection through the law. Understanding the greater context, Jesus next begins His summary thoughts of this part of His thoughts with, “Hence.”   The word ara, hence, is introduced here. It is an illative particle, meaning that it is given when drawing an inference. It is stated when a conclusion is reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning. Jesus' conclusion concerning those who are likened to bad trees is that “from their fruits you will know them.”   In the case of false prophets, the main subject of this short line of thought, one will be able to discern a false prophet by the fruit he bears. People don't need to, nor should they be expected to, judge someone simply because of how he looks when preaching. Nor should a judgment be made merely by his oratory skills. Such externals as that can be completely misleading.   Rather, fruit is something external, but which is derived from inside. It expresses that inner aspect in a demonstration of one's true character. This is to be found in the teaching of such a person as well as a close inspection of the way he lives his life when apart from his time of teaching. These things help identify what a person is really like.   Life application: There are preachers, priests, and teachers who present themselves as if they have great holiness when in church. Catholics, Anglicans, and others wear flowing garments, have big poofy hats, and carry rods with crosses on the top of them. They step carefully and move rigidly showing themselves to be models of piety.   And yet, they may be homosexuals or (as it is common in some churches to ordain women today) lesbians. The disgraceful acts they conduct while away from the church identify their true character. They may even bring their vile teachings into the church while speaking of “inclusion” and “tolerance.” These are code words for the acceptance of perversion and immorality. These are their fruits.   Others may know the Bible well and speak against such things, but they teach law observance rather than the grace of Jesus Christ. They bring people into bondage and a yoke that was removed from Israel on the cross of Calvary. Do not touch! Do not taste! Observe this day to be holy! Their legalism goes on and on. They do not understand grace, they will not permit grace, and they shun those who trust in grace. These are their fruits.   Others may have a carefully constructed message, present it well and demonstrate piety, while reminding people of their theological training and background, and yet they may have lied about the college they attended. They also may have more love of sound doctrine than for the Lord who authored the word that gave the doctrine in the first place.   These may be harder to identify, but eventually, their fruit will be exposed. A good but sad example of this was Ravi Zacharias. He meticulously presented outstanding doctrine, was an exceptional orator, and presented himself as a well-trained and sound theologian. And yet, it was discovered that his life was a lie. He was a sexual deviant, and he claimed positions that he never possessed.   Unfortunately, even though many in evangelical circles knew or suspected these things, they did not speak up because of his influence. People's lives were harmed and surely many were disillusioned and removed themselves from fellowship because of what they heard. These were his fruits, and they were only exposed after his death when it was too late. But the Lord will render His judgment.   Check! Investigate! Don't be duped by such externals, even if they include incredible doctrine. Unless you can personally evaluate the individual, always be wary concerning your esteem for him. Instead, send your praise and esteem directly to Jesus who deserves all glory!   Lord God, help us to discern what is right or wrong concerning those we come to for instruction. It is so easy to get allured into a comfortable state around authority figures when we should instead be on guard concerning them and their doctrine. Help us in this, Lord. May our direction be set on a good path, not partaking in unwholesome fruit. Amen.

What hath Martin Luther to do with Thomas Cranmer? This episode explores a fascinating shared history between Anglicans and Lutherans. These two Reformation-born groups were not only finding their feet at the same time, they were also interested in friendship from early on. We'll also be learning what it means to be Lutheran, and what Anglicans and Lutherans continue to do together and learn from each other today.We talk about Lutheran "distinctives"; how politics can be a way of holiness; how Henry VIII was asked to sign the Ausburg confession; and why the Lutherans are asking for an 8th ecumenical council (which might put them out of a job).This is part of our series on Episcopal Church Full Communion Partners. You can warm up to these conversations by listening to our interview with Christopher Wells, "Who Cares About Communion?," Episode 129.Our guest today is Lutheran Bishop, Reformation scholar, and motorcycle man, the Most Rev. Matthew Riegel. Matthew is Bishop of the West Virginia-Western Maryland Synod in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. As a scholar, his primary research interest is the sanctification of ecclesiastical politics. Matthew serves on the West Virginia Council of Churches' Civic Life and Faith Task Force, and in a previous life has worked as a park ranger. Who Cares About Communion? with Christopher WellsWittenberg articles of 1536Fraternal Appeal to the American ChurchesLiving Church EventsGive to support this podcast

In this episode of FACTS with Stephen and Tyler, we are honored to welcome special guest Bishop Darryl Fitzwater for a deep dive into how Anglicans should view the Blessed Virgin Mary. In part one of this two-part series, we explore key doctrines surrounding Mary, including the Immaculate Conception, her Perpetual Virginity, and the Bodily Assumption. Join us as we examine these teachings from theological, historical, and scriptural perspectives, shedding light on their significance for Anglican theology and spirituality. Don't miss this enriching discussion that sets the stage for part two! If you'd like to donate to our ministry or be a monthly partner that receives newsletters and one on one discussions with Dr. Boyce, here's a link: https://give.tithe.ly/?formId=6381a2ee-b82f-42a7-809e-6b733cec05a7 Here is a link to Bishop Fitzwater's podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/appalachian-anglican/id1553731575 #FACTSPodcast #BlessedVirginMary #ImmaculateConception #PerpetualVirginity #BodilyAssumption #AnglicanTheology #ChristianDoctrine #Maryology #TheologyDiscussion #BishopDarrylFitzwater #AnglicanTradition #EcumenicalDialogue #FaithAndTheology #ScriptureAndTradition #MarianTheology

In this episode of FACTS with Stephen and Tyler, we are honored to welcome special guest Bishop Darryl Fitzwater for a deep dive into how Anglicans should view the Blessed Virgin Mary. In part one of this two-part series, we explore key doctrines surrounding Mary, including the Immaculate Conception, her Perpetual Virginity, and the Bodily Assumption. Join us as we examine these teachings from theological, historical, and scriptural perspectives, shedding light on their significance for Anglican theology and spirituality. Don't miss this enriching discussion that sets the stage for part two! Here is a link to Bishop Fitzwater's podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/appalachian-anglican/id1553731575 #FACTSPodcast #BlessedVirginMary #ImmaculateConception #PerpetualVirginity #BodilyAssumption #AnglicanTheology #ChristianDoctrine #Maryology #TheologyDiscussion #BishopDarrylFitzwater #AnglicanTradition #EcumenicalDialogue #FaithAndTheology #ScriptureAndTradition #MarianTheology

The Pudcast returns with co-hosts  Korey Maas (Lutheran), Miles Smith (Anglican), and D. G. Hart (Presbyterian) in the after glow of a very long holiday season -- that seems to get longer the older the observer becomes.  The recording starts with question of whether the five to six weeks between Thanksgiving and New Years -- when everyone seems to return to pandemic levels of output in the workplace -- is too long.  Included is attention to the particular aspects of holiday observance among Lutherans and Anglicans (with Lutherans getting lots of credit for using the phrase, "The Divine Service" most often).  Material that stimulated the discussion was Ross Douthat's speculation that secular liberalism has run out of steam and Eli Lake's report on the Jewish-Americans who wrote so many of the secular Christmas songs.  Listeners who have not seen Whit Stillman's movie, "Metropolitan" should do so asap even if it is no longer Christmas or Advent or Debutante Ball season.    Owing to the recent death of former POTUS, Jimmy Carter and Donald Trump's election victory, the co-hosts also speculated about the effects of past and future presidents on the religious vibe in the United States and elsewhere.  Bonus content: here is an introduction to Washington Irving's Old Christmas, a story that shaped American customs surrounding the holiday.  

In this week's episode of Right to Life Radio, John Gerardi and Jonathan Keller dive into key pro-life updates and legal battles. They discuss Harmeet Dhillon's appointment to the Department of Justice and its implications for civil rights and pro-life advocacy. Special guest Anne-Marie Payden, Executive Director of Tulare King's Right to Life, shares insights on the grassroots fight to stop the new clinic in Tulare and the local efforts to prevent it, including a precedent-setting court case involving CCNRs. The episode wraps up with a look at the UK's push to legalize physician-assisted suicide and what that could mean for similar debates in the United States.

Ann Widdecombe, the former Conservative Party minister, joins Dr Gavin Ashenden in this 90th episode of Merely Catholic, the podcast series for the Catholic Herald, to discuss the resignation of Justin Welby as Archbishop of Canterbury and the future of the Church of England. Miss Widdecombe, who, like Dr Ashenden was a member of the Church of England before converting to the Catholic faith, charts the leadership difficulties and challenges which have split Anglicans in the last 30 years and discuss the prospects of reconciliation. She and Dr Ashenden consider the strong possibility that the next leader of the Church of England and the Worldwide Anglican Communion will, for the first time in history, be a woman.

Pastors Dan Borvan (URCNA), Chris Drew (OPC), Zack Groff, and Ryan Biese (PCA) joined our panel to talk about the latest hot trend in the Reformed and evangelical worlds—ministers and young people decamping to the Anglican communion...whatever that is.  Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5gWHDesuuE https://religionunplugged.com/news/2024/10/1/will-anglicans-save-evangelicalism https://juicyecumenism.com/2024/09/26/wheaton-anglican-pipeline/ https://juicyecumenism.com/2024/10/08/anglo-catholicism-west-virginia/

Today, on the Christian History Almanac, we remember the creation of the never-dull Lambeth Conference amongst the Anglicans. Show Notes: Support 1517 Podcast Network 1517 Podcasts 1517 on Youtube 1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts 1517 Academy - Free Theological Education What's New from 1517: Junk Drawer Jesus By Matt Popovits Listen to 1517 Executive Director Scott Keith and Magnus Persson on the latest Re:Formera podcast Signup For Free Advent Church Resources for 2024 The Inklings: Apostles and Apologists of the Imagination with Sam Schuldheisz Hitchhiking with Prophets: A Ride Through the Salvation Story of the Old Testament by Chad Bird More from the hosts: Dan van Voorhis SHOW TRANSCRIPTS are available: https://www.1517.org/podcasts/the-christian-history-almanac CONTACT: CHA@1517.org SUBSCRIBE: Apple Podcasts Spotify Stitcher Overcast Google Play FOLLOW US: Facebook Twitter Audio production by Christopher Gillespie (gillespie.media).