The Church of Rome extends an olive branch to Anglicans

The Roman Catholic Church holds itself out as the one true and original church to which one must return if one is to be a “True Christian.” The Eastern Orthodox Church holds the same view about themselves, but that is a subject for a later discussion. So to keep everyone happy and joined as one true church, one would have to join both I suppose.

Let’s look at the Church of Rome, shall we? The one true and original church was established some time after 60AD. The beginning of the Anglican Church came when by Joseph of Ariamethia established the first church at Glastonbury, in Britannia, in 37 AD. So much for the original part.

True?

The Anglican Church motto is Scripture • Reason • Tradition. Article Six of the Articles of Religion states:

VI. Of the Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for Salvation.

Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.

If you are having trouble deciphering that, what it says is if it not in the Bible you don’t have to believe it.

What is the Church of Rome’s motto? Not being really certain, one can only look at their actions and determine it is Dogma • Dogma • Dogma. The Church of Rome believes its dogma overrides Scripture. It discourages Bible reading because otherwise its adherents might ask why the Church says one thing and the Pope says another.

Examples?

Take the question of celibate priests and bishops. What does the Bible say? Let’s look at First Timothy Chapter Three

THIS is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

A True Church demands allegiance to God first. Where is Rome’s allegiance? To the “Church”, not the body of believers, but the Church of Rome. Example? Take a look at the handling of the various homosexual pedophile priests. When the Church found out, what did it do? Transfer them to another church jurisdiction and put them in charge of children’s programs.

It goes on and on. We returned to the Bible 500 years ago. There is no point in leaving it now.

This Anglican would be happy to have there be one Church of God. The Church of Rome is not the Church of God.

The Pope extends an olive branch to Anglicans, read Episcopalians, who are disturbed by homosexual priest and bishops. He offers to “let” them join a church which disregards the Bible and actively aids and abets homosexual pedophile priests and presumably bishops.

We can unify under our Lord when they return to Him. In the meantime, Hap to Pope, “NO!”

Just in case anyone missed the message, this Anglican is no longer acceptant of “Anglo Catholic” practices. We are a Protestant Catholic faith. We believe in the Bible. We accept the Protestant interpretation of the Book of Common Prayer to be as far towards Rome as we care to go. If you have any questions, ask yourself, “Is this supported by scripture?” Or, is it something invented by some guy with a backward collar to make himself feel more important.

Thoughts on the Roman offer of unity - Reception of Anglican Groups, etc.

It would seem that a united Christian church would be a grand idea and in keeping with the direction given us by our Lord. Yet, under what terms?

Recently Rome has offered up the prospect of receiving Anglicans in particular into their fold, thus increasing “unity.” Is this unity a good unity or a bad unity?

Before one can decide good or bad, one should look at the standard.

Are we to be a biblically based Christian church or not?

The answer for Anglicans is that we reformed our church to comply with biblical standards five hundred or so years ago.

And the Church of Rome? Do they conform to biblical standards?

The answer is clearly a resounding NO!

We wish to be catholic, as in universal, yet we are protestant. Is that a conflict?

Are we catholic? A loud YES! We believe in those things Christians have always believed in as defined in the Nicene Creed.

Are we protestant? Also a loud YES! We protested against the errors of Rome when that church left the Bible far behind. Rome consistently values tradition and self-serving, self-developed dogma over scripture. Their loyalty is to their “church” here on earth rather than to our Lord.

Would it be good to come together? Certainly!

On what terms? Simple, we can unify under our Lord when they return to Him. In the meantime, NO.

Blackberry 9530 Storm does not sync with Mac OSX - With MarkSpace or PocketMac

The Missing Sync for BlackBerry 2.0.2

Known Snow Leopard Compatibility Issues

• USB charging feature does not work for some devices on 64-bit systems.
• All other features, including synchronization, function properly with Snow Leopard.
• Phonebooks are wiped out or addresses are randomly duplicated.
• iCAL entries are randomly wiped out, reassigned or mixed up

This software is absolute rubbish and dangerous rubbish at that. The company apparently does know how to make software, the Windows Mobile software reportedly syncs perfectly. They seem to have abandoned the Blackberry software. Perhaps it is because RIM is coming out with Blackberry Desktop Manager for Mac. No way of telling.

Do not buy this software and if you did - DO NOT USE IT. Save yourself!

Anglican Church in North America

Anglican Church – The name the Church of England goes by around the world. A series of self-contained, self-governing national churches guided by the principles established in England in the mid-1500s when the national church was reformed to correct the errors of the church in Rome and to remove foreign influences.

Since the Revolutionary War ended the Anglican Church in the United States had been known as the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States (PECUSA). It later dropped “Protestant” and has now dropped “of the United States.”

About 135 years ago a group split from the PECUSA over an understanding of baptism and a feeling that the PECUSA was becoming too “Roman” in their understanding of the church. This group became the Reformed Episcopal Church (REC).

In the 1960s radicals began to take over leadership positions in the church, advocating pacifism, abortion, homosexual primacy and other similar positions. For a church which had spawned roughly 40 percent of the country’s presidents and military flag officers, that was unacceptable to many. People dropped out, priests dropped out, no bishops dropped out. The dropouts formed small groups, which coalesced into parishes and dioceses, even into nationwide churches. Often mocked by TEC, they were known as the Continuing Church.

Some of the Continuing Churches of the Anglican denomination in the United States are attempting to coalesce into what would be known as the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). This process is slow and cumbersome, yet on a fast track. It is slow and cumbersome because it is being lead by people without clear vision and good communications skills. Its Arch Bishop selectee, Robert Duncan, was a TEC bishop until about six months ago. He was one of three bishops who finally left TEC, apparently following his flock. With 20/20 hindsight he has managed to style himself as the leader of the Continuum. A leader who lead his flock to follow God after 95 percent of them had gone ahead.

The ACNA has adopted the English 1662 Book of Common Prayer as their standard. Apparently this was done as it is the “Standard” of the Worldwide Anglican Communion. This is flawed reasoning as the Anglican Church is designed to be a national church. The logical book to adopt as standard was the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. That apparently could not be done as Bob Duncan and the other two leaders had backed the 1979 Book which claimed to be a Book of Common Prayer, but was not. The 1979 Book clearly paved the way for female and homosexual ordinations. They could not admit they were wrong. In addition, they want to be able to leave the 1979 book in place.

In addition, styling the new group as North American rejects the central concept of the national church. Although the Canadian Continuum is small, they deserve their own province.

The Continuum operates on a small budget. For instance, the REC’s Diocese of the West, covering about 40 percent of the country operates on a $30,000.00 per year budget. The ACNA being TEC retreads has full time paid staff and different ideas. They want each of the 700 parishes they expect to gain to give a one time “Thank Offering” of $1,000.00. That will give them a nice $700,000.00 nest egg from which to rule.

Below you will read the missive from the ACNA Chief Operating Officer. Before you read it, read my response. It will make your reading more interesting.

Dear Brad,

What, pray tell, should we be so thankful for that we should send you $1,000.00? Seven hundred parishes at a thousand a pop - $700,000.00. That is money. You tell us that this is a time that should be “marked by both celebration and gratitude.” For what?

The ACNA picked a guy who could not find his way out of the proverbial ecclesiastical wet paper bag. It apparently took him 40 years to recognize the TEC was headed to hell. In the mean time, he mis-led his flock.

We should be grateful the ACNA has decided to adopt the 1662 English Book of Common Prayer? I do not think so. The Anglican church was founded on a national model. We are Americans. Not North Americans, not English. We will use an American Book of Common Prayer. Perhaps you would like me to send you a copy of the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer?

We should be grateful that in the future your organization will live off the fat of our diocese with a tithe? How do you feel about 10 percent of $30,000.00? That is what you will get from our diocese.

I want an Anglican Church of the United States, not North America. I want a leader, not a follower.

Tell Bob and the boys, “No thank you.”

With all due respect,

Hap Arnold

Now, feel free to read the begging letter. Oh, yes – if this appeals to you send money.

-----Original Message----- From: news@theacna.org [mailto:news@theacna.org] Sent: Friday, May 08, 2009 10:50 AM Subject: [SPAM] Special ACNA Thank Offering

Greetings in the name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

I am writing to give you advance notification of a mailing that you should expect to receive early next week. It is a letter to you and your vestry from Archbishop-Designate Robert Duncan of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). Upon receipt I ask that you and your Vestry prayerfully receive this invitation of financial support with a gracious heart, and respond as generosity as you can for the sake of all that God has bestowed upon us and is doing among us.

This special Thank Offering was presented to and strongly endorsed by all of the Lead Bishops and Stewardship Group when our Provincial Council met last month to formally accept the 28 dioceses and dioceses-in-formation from all across North America. The idea is to collect an average of $1,000 from each of our more than 700 congregations. It will allow us to start-up effectively and meet the initial financial needs of the new provincial office. In the years ahead, the operations of our province will be funded by regular tithes from our dioceses, not extraordinary congregational offerings.

Full details of this extremely important offering including a sample bulletin insert, suitable for reproduction, and a return envelope will be enclosed in this forthcoming mailing. This offering can be taken on Pentecost and subsequent Sundays up to June 21st (the Eve of the Inaugural Provincial Assembly). We would also encourage your church to include news of this offering in leaflets and newsletters the next few Sundays.

This is an incredibly exciting time marked by both celebration and gratitude. No one among us doubts what the Lord has undertaken for us. The outcome of this offering will be instrumental to our start-up as we begin to fulfill our mission of "Reaching North America with the Transforming Love of Jesus Christ." Thank you in advance for your support and please do not hesitate to contact me directly should you have any questions.

I remain deeply grateful for the tremendous privilege of serving you and your parish.

Blessings, Brad B. Root

Chief Operating Officer Anglican Church in North America (724) 266-9400 brad.root@theacna.org

Barack Obama – Why do people think he is anti-business?

He is not just anti-business. 0bama is anti-American, anti-capitalism, anti-Christian and anti-freedom.

The now President Obama has never in his entire life had a real private sector job. Never. He has never had to work for a living where his output determined his pay. He was the victim of equal outcome education. This man’s first executive experience is the job of President of the United States.

Surrounded in his early years by homosexuals, socialists and communists, he came out pretty well considering. He looks good in a suit and doesn’t drool when not talking. That pretty much qualified him for Democratic office in Illinois, at least in the big city precincts he was elected from.

After eight years of constant mainstream media and Hollywood assault, the people thought they wanted CHANGE.

Now they have change. Not money, but the change that is left after the bills are paid. Not one heck of a lot of change, either.

Barack Obama ran for office saying he would be the agent of CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN. We suppose that is as opposed to change you cannot believe in.

We have change. The market (and our retirement) is at a bit less than half of what it was under President Bush’s watch. We are incurring a tax burden about double that under President Bush. We are turning over our health care to a CZAR for rationing to balance the budget. After all, old people are going to die anyway. Why waste treatment on them, merely to extend their otherwise miserable lives. It is clear that there is not enough access to infanticide, thus the government is decreeing that all health professionals are required to provide infanticide services. This is regardless of their personal beliefs. The right of those who wish to murder their child supercedes others right to not participate.

We bail out companies too big to fail with money taken at the point of a gun from those too small to resist.

KEEP YOUR CHANGE

Faith, Hope, and Charity

One of the more amazing stories from the Second World War is from the defence of Malta. The situation was desperate. There are plenty of accounts of the heroism of the people, of the sailors who managed to get supplies through to the island, and of the garrison who defended it. Due to the complete incompetence of the civil service and the lack of foresight on the part of the politicians, Malta's air defences were woefully under-strength at the outbreak of the war, and, by the end of 1940, the fighter defences were down to just three Gloster Gladiator fighters.

These three out of date and hopelessly slow fighter planes managed to give a very good account of themselves in battle, being flown by RAF officers whose skill must have been stretched to the limit by the Gladiator's upper high-mounted wing, paltry armament, and slow airspeed when pitched into battle against the faster Aeromacchi and other modern aircraft operated by the Italian Regio Aeronautica.

Note the names these three little outdated aircraft bore as they were thrown into frontline action way beyond their expected capability. They were "Faith", "Hope", and "Charity. Charity survived the longest, holding out until, finally, a squadron of Hurricanes could be flown in to Malta and then enhanced with more, and eventually even Spitfires. As most will recognise, the names come from St Paul's first letter to the Corinthians Chapter 13, which famously begins "Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." Ironic, too, that the word, which has now been debased to mean "free handouts" actually meant, in the days of King James 1, "love". And that in the sense of the Greek word "philos" and not, as the word again seems to have been debased, to mean "eros".

On Death and Dying

When we come in to this world, truly it is on only one condition, that condition is we must leave. All come in. All go out.

Through this world we all pass. Why? This world is a testing ground that each soul must pass through. When all the souls have passed through the earth, it will cease to be. We cannot just go to heaven now, we and all the rest must take the test. God does not test us. He does not put troubles on our back. The troubles we are tested with are the doing of man, random events and the devil. While He does not test us, He does watch how we do. As parents, our most important job is to insure our children get into heaven. Our second most important job is to be there to greet them. A measure of how you have done here is how your children do here. If you do your best and they do their best, all is well. No matter how much or how little you are tested, so long as you do your best (not merely claim to be trying) that is good enough with God’s help.

As imperfect beings with free will, we will never be perfect and will always make bad choices. God has a plan for us – JESUS. Jesus by one single sacrifice one time atoned for all mankind for all time. Recall Jesus’ words in the Gospel according to Saint John, beginning at the First Verse of the Fourteenth Chapter: “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” So, if you accept the saving grace Jesus provides, you are heavenbound. He has a place for each of us.

What about those who are not Christians? In Mere Christianity on page 65, CS Lewis writes, “… the truth is God has not told us what His arrangements about other people are. We do know that no man can be saved except through Christ; we do not know that only those who know Him can be saved through Him. But in the meantime, if you are worried about the people outside, the most unreasonable thing you can do is remain outside yourself."

The real point of this is that we do not know what arrangements, if any, God has made for other people. We know what arrangements He made for us when He sent His Son to give His life that we might live. Why take chances.

What is ahead of us in heaven? That is not so clear. What we know for sure is that it is good. Jesus told us that this world is like heaven “viewed darkly, as through a glass.” CS Lewis refers to this world as The Shadowlands. Life there is like here, except real.

Too many people have been visited by both angels and their family members who have gone before to doubt we will join those who have gone before us in happiness. All things required for our happiness will be there. To questions like, “Will I be able to fly?” One must answer, ‘Either you will be able to fly if that is what you want or you will be so happy with what is there, you won’t remember you wanted to fly.” Not a perfect answer, but an honest one.

When we think of death, it seems so final. No one comes back from death. Not true, Jesus did and both Moses and Elias visited Jesus in the presence of the disciples. On the other hand, for the rest of us, it is a one way trip. Think of death as in years gone past, Australia. When one left England for their new life in Australia, they were never to come back. Because of the time involved in the sailing transit, they were for the most part never heard of again. Did they still live? But, of course. Was their life better than in England? But, of course. At the same time, it was a one way trip. In this sense, we all go to Australia; Christians, at least. Concentrate on reuniting with your family in Australia. Make sure you don’t miss the boat.

Concentrate not on the temporary separation, but rather unity in heaven for eternity.

A French OMLT infantryman describes interaction with the 506th Infantry (Airmobile) in Afghanistan

The US often hears echoes of worldwide hostility against the application of its foreign policy, but seldom are they reached by the voices of those who experience first hand how close we are to the USA. In spite of contextual political differences and conflicting interests that generate friction, we do share the same fundamental values - and when push comes to shove that is what really counts.

Through the eyes of that French OMLT (Operational Mentoring Liaison Teams) infantryman, you can see how strong the bond is on the ground. In contrast with the Americans, the French soldiers don’t seem to write much online - or maybe the proportion is the same but we just have less people deployed. Whatever the reason, this is a rare and moving testimony which is why I decided to translate it into English, so that American people can catch a glimpse of the way European soldiers see them. Not much high philosophy here, just the first-hand impressions of a soldier in contact - but that only makes it more authentic.

Here is a translation of the original article in French:

We have shared our daily life with two US units - the first and fourth companies of the 506th Infantry (Airmobile). To the common man, it is a unit just like any other. But we live with them and got to know them, and we henceforth know that we have the honor to live with one of the most renowned units of the US Army - one that the movies brought to the public as a series showing “ordinary soldiers thrust into extraordinary events”.

Who are they, those soldiers from abroad, how is their daily life, and what support do they bring to the men of our OMLT every day? Few of them belong to the Easy Company, the one the TV series focuses on. This one nowadays is named Echo Company, and it has become the support company.

They have a terribly strong American accent - from our point of view the language they speak is not even English. How many times did I have to write down what I wanted to say rather than waste precious minutes trying various pronunciations of a seemingly common word? Whatever state they are from, no two accents are alike, and they even admit that in some crisis situations they have difficulties understanding each other.

Heavily built, fed at the earliest age with Gatorade, proteins and creatine - they are all heads and shoulders taller than us and their muscles remind us of Rambo. Our frames are amusingly skinny to them - we are wimps, even the strongest of us - and because of that they often mistake us for Afghans.

Here we discover America as it is often depicted: their values are taken to their paroxysm, often amplified by promiscuity, lack of privacy, and the loneliness of this outpost in the middle of that Afghan valley. Honor, motherland - everything here reminds of that: the American flag floating in the wind above the outpost, just like the one on the post parcels. Even if recruits often originate from the hearth of American cities and gang territory, no one here has any goal other than to hold high and proud the star-spangled banner. Each man knows he can count on the support of a whole people who provides them through the mail all that an American could miss in such a remote front-line location: books, chewing gums, razor blades, Gatorade, toothpaste etc. in such way that every man is aware of how much the American people back him in his difficult mission. And that is a first shock to our preconceptions: the American soldier is no individualist. The team, the group, the combat te am are the focus of all his attention.

And they are impressive warriors! We have not come across bad ones, as strange at it may seem to you when you know how critical French people can be. Even if some of them are a bit on the heavy side, all of them provide us everyday with lessons in infantry know-how. Beyond the wearing of a combat kit that never seem to discomfort them (helmet strap, helmet, combat goggles, rifles etc.) the long hours of watch at the outpost never seem to annoy them in the slightest. On the one square meter wooden tower above the perimeter wall they stand the five consecutive hours in full battle rattle and night vision goggles on top, their sight unmoving in the directions of likely danger. No distractions, no pauses, they are like statues nights and days. At night, all movements are performed in the dark - only a handful of subdued red lights indicate the occasional presence of a soldier on the move. Same with the vehicles whose lights are covered - everything happens in pitch dark even fil ling the fuel tanks with the Japy pump.

And combat? If you have seen Rambo you have seen it all - always coming to the rescue when one of our teams gets in trouble, and always in the shortest delay. That is one of their tricks: they switch from T-shirt and sandals to combat ready in three minutes. Arriving in contact with the enemy, the way they fight is simple and disconcerting: they just charge! They disembark and assault in stride, they bomb first and ask questions later - which cuts any pussy-footing short.

We seldom hear any harsh word, and from 5 AM onwards the camp chores are performed in beautiful order and always with excellent spirit. A passing American helicopter stops near a stranded vehicle just to check that everything is all right; an American combat team will rush to support ours before even knowing how dangerous the mission is - from what we have been given to witness, the American soldier is a beautiful and worthy heir to those who liberated France and Europe.

To those who bestow us with the honor of sharing their combat outposts and who everyday give proof of their military excellence, to those who pay the daily tribute of America’s army’s deployment on Afghan soil, to those we owed this article, ourselves hoping that we will always remain worthy of them and to always continue hearing them say that we are all the same band of brothers.

The Beast devouring our Livelihood and Liberty

How the government tells us when they are lying and when they don’t.

The dilemma, the government needs to fund highway maintenance without cutting essential programs such as welfare and bureaucracy.

The Headline: National commission wants to hike fuel taxes, impose driving fees to pay for highways

The Story: The government wants to move to a new system that taxes motorists according to how much they use roads.

The real Problem: A gas tax hike was one of the reasons Democrats lost control of the House and Senate in the 1994 elections.

So, what? They want a mileage-based revenue system. This means equipping every car and truck with a device that uses global positioning satellites and transponders to record how many miles the vehicle has been driven, the type of roads and time of day. Creation and installation of such a system would take about 10 years. This clearly means a system that knows where you are, when you are and all the Orwellian consequence. So, what the government needs to do is assure the sheeple such a system will be designed to prevent vehicles from being "tracked in some big brotherish way."

Analysis – The American Sheeple are so stupid they will wholeheartedly agree. After all, these are the same people who find high school graduate 30 year patrolman police officers making about $100,000,00 a year, retiring at age 55 at $125,000.00 per year, plus medical, to be underpaid.