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The ACR has been receiving the daily Bible readings and devotionals offered by the Presbyterian Church in Canada which are Biblically reliable and well done! They offer intercessory pray and a podcast of the daily devo. Check it out: Presbyterian Church in Canada Daily

At the lead and invitation of the Faithful and Welcoming Fellowship in the United Church of Christ, the Association for Church Renewal embraced plans for a national event in August 2010 in the Chicago area to encourage God’s call to a new generation of leadership for ministry in the historic mainline churches. The ACR decision at its March meeting came in recognition that the crisis and confusion of the mainline denominations has become the crisis of the entire North American church. All of the mainline churches face a crisis of leadership. Prayer for reformation and a new generation of ECOT leadership must intensify now with the hope that God in his grace will call many over the year and half to come.

NOTE: The term “ECOT” has come into the lexicon of mainline terminology from the Faithful and Welcoming Fellowship who first coined the acronym representing “Evangelical, Conservative, Orthodox, Traditional” to cover a wider diversity of self identification among those with a heart for mainline reformation.

The Anglican and Lutheran Churches in Canada are planning a joint national meetings in 2013 and are actively engaged in plans to share space for their denominational offices. “If full communion is really going to have some sense of visibility across the Canadian church, there has to be some pretty bold steps we take together to help people realize that we are in fact churches in full communion, ” said Archbishop Fred Hiltz.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Canada upheld Biblical standard for marriage and ordination in 2007. The Anglican Church continues to struggle with growing division over these critical issues. Both churches are experiencing ongoing decline and financial crisis. Hiltz, however, denied that this was pushing them together, “I think we’re moving together in our relationship as churches in full communion, not out of fear but out of hope”, he said.

Epsicopal Life

Greg Epstein, the humanist chaplain at Harvard University is building a ‘church without God’, a God-free model of community he hopes will grow into a nationwide network of humanist centers that perform many of the functions of church. His book, “Good Without God” scheduled for publication this year is a sort of credo to ground the effort.

The community in Cambridge offers a monthly schedule of parenting classes, small groups, and guest speakers. The parenting group which now includes about 10 families is studying a course called, “Compassionate Communication.”

Fred Edwords of the American Humanist Association says, “This is a new mission field, if you will, but are those vineyards ripe for the picking?” Last month the Humanist community in Cambridge hosted a holiday style celebration of Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday and is hosting a talk by humanist writer and director Joss Whedon who created “Buffy the Vampire.”

Worldwide Religious News

On March 19th, the UCC HIV and AIDS Network issued a statement encouraging condom distribution at places of worship in conjunction with a presentation to the UCC Wider Church Ministries Board. According to Rev. Michael Shuenemeyer, the UCC Executive for health and wholeness advocacy said, “the practice of safer sex is a matter of life and death. People of faith make condoms available because we have chosen life so that we and our children may live.” The longer statement says, “making condoms available at houses of worship and faith-based educational settings provides opportunities to open conversations that can save lives . . . Condoms are a sign that people of faith take sexuality seriously as part of human life and that we endorse all options for preventing HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases.”

The UCC report is critical of recent remarks by Pope Benedict XVI, citing that 3/4 of all AIDS deaths worldwide were in sub-sahara Africa. The Anglican Bishop Andrew Proud of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa in a recent article in the Trinity Journal for Theology and Mission recently pointed out, however, that the sexual politics of churches like the UCC compromise the churches witness in Africa, legitimizing the behaviors that cause AIDS, undermining the vast work of the church in combating HIV, abetting the Islamization of Africa and exposing Christian brothers and sisters to violence.

Image: Jesus Distributing Loaves and Fishes

Time magazine in its latest edition offering ten world changing ideas for 2009, includes “The New Calvinism”. They are recognizing a new emphasis in North American Christianity that bucks the trend of seeker friendly evangelical drift. They are calling it “Evangelicalism’s latest success story”, that emphasizes an “utterly sovereign and micromanaging deity, sinful and puny humanity.” They cite the ESV Study Bible which sold out its first printing and the popularity of Reformed Blogs like, “Between Two Worlds.”

Time: The New Calvinism

On March 1st, Rev. Carmen Fowler became the President of the Presbyterian Lay Committee and the Executive Director of the Layman. She has previously served as the Co-moderator of the Presbyterian New Wineskins, and Executive Director of the Presbyterian Coalition. Carmen has served in pastoral positions in both small and very large Presbyterian churches.

In her opening challenge to the PLC she said, “There is a Biblical mandate for each of us and all of us to grow up in every way into Christ who is the head; for each of us, as integral and essential parts of the body, to be connected to and coordinated by the One who is the Head; and for all of us to do the work that we are uniquely called and equipped to do in order that the work of God be accomplished in the world. Ephesians 4 captures it beautifully. We, however, have failed to live it out.”

Carmen will take the reins of one of the largest mainline renewal groups from ACR Vice-President, Rev. Parker Williamson. Parker Williamson notes: “Carmen Fowler will bring an articulate, spirit filled, dynamic leadership to mainline renewal.” To hear Carmen speak on the call of Christ to discipleship:
Rev. Carmen Fowler: John 14

Three leading Lutheran theologians have powerfully responded to the Task Force proposals that would allow those in same gender sexual relationships to serve as ordained ministers, diaconal ministers, deaconesses and associates in ministry.

Dr. Robert D. Benne said, “I believe it is incontestable that the scriptures and the moral teaching of the Christian church throughout the ages - and presently that of the ecumenical church-proscribe homosexual relations of any sort. I am not satisfied with appeals to sincerity and tolerance, especially since I think Christian teaching is clear. And I am certainly not satisfied with those appeals when the recommendations of the task force lead to no teachings at all on the subject, but yet lead to sharp changes in practice.”

Rev. Paul R. Hinlicky, Roanoke’s Tice Professor in Lutheran studies says he’s contemplating a divorce, “Not from my wife of 35 years, but from my denomination.” “In fact, the Church, including member churches of the Lutheran World Federation, especially the younger churches of Africa and Asia, Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestant Evangelicalism overwhelmingly dispute this unscriptural revision of the doctrine of marriage as also many do in the declining and dying liberal protestant churches of North America. The real voice of the people of God across the world and through the ages seems to matter not at all in this social statement draft any more than Holy Scripture.”

Rev. Carl Braaten, co-founder of the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology, professor emeritus of systematic theology, Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago, said, “The social statement professes not to know the difference between right and wrong on crucial matters of human sexuality.”

ELCA News Service

Though the Archbishop of Canterbury says that full recognition of the new province will take years, the largest province of the Anglican Communion, Nigeria with over 25% of all Anglican members in the world led the way with a unanimous decision of its standing committee to be in full communion with the emerging Anglican Church in North America.

Bishop Duncan, leader of the Anglican Church in North America, welcomed the decision. The Episcopal Church in the U.S. is currently in a state of impaired communion with Nigeria and a number of other African, Asian, and South American provinces representing a large majority of global Anglican Christians.