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byzanTN,

As a general principle I agree with you. However, I suspect that you and I would agree that there are some issues that one should work to see changed from within the Church.

If I believed in NAMBLA I would certainly not stay in the Church.

If I believed in women priests I might have grounds to remain in the Church and seek to change the Church because 1. there are examples of female leadership in the early Church, though so far as we know, none were Presbyters and 2. many women function today almost as priests in Churches where there aren't enough priests to go around.

Finally, since I believe and I think you do as well, that there ought to be married priests and that while the Church has the right to banned them I believe they are today seriously mistaken in so doing, I would dissent from the Church and remain within her.

I don't believe that this position is a "slippery slope" but then again I'm not certain.

Dan L

On the second issue above, of women clergy, I have two further illustrations that have recently come to me.

First, NPR broadcast a report from Guatamala, obviously a traditonal Catholic country. They first interviewed a Catholic priest who though very faithful was near exhaustion and despair over the work load he had and couldn't meet. Then they interviewed some members of growing Protestant or, as they say, Evangelical groups. Accounts of pastoral care some by clergy some by laity some by men and some by women abounded. All of these accounts of pastoral care resulted in conversions away from the Church and to these evagelical groups.

I don't know who exactly made the observation. But several observed that unless the Church found ways to use more people in more pastoral roles this trend of conversions would continue. Does this argue for a more serious minded convents? Clearly. Does this argue for a female priesthood? I doubt it, but do not know.

SIGNS AND WONDERS IN INDONESIA

By David W. Virtue

ON THE INDONESIAN BORDER. Pastor Choo, (not her real name) has seen miraculous occurrences take place before her very eyes.

On the Island of Tarakan off the coast of Indonesia a woman gives birth and suddenly is crippled, her hands and feet cease to function, she becomes mentally disturbed and she can no longer speak. Over the next two months she sells off all her jewelry to pay doctors, hospitals, numerous witch doctors, invoking family gods looking for a cure. She is a Buddhist. Nothing happens. She can no longer take care of the baby. The doctors finally say they cannot help her. She and her family lose hope. She lives in a Kampong (village) some distance from Tarakan.

Then she hears about some Anglican missionaries who have come from Malaysia that are meeting in a house. Perhaps they can help her. She is brought to the house where members of the church begin to pray over her. After prayer and counseling over many days she begins to improve. On the 5th day she is taught to call on the name of Jesus. She is still not a believer, but she does what she is told. Within hours she is completely healed. She confesses Christ. Her baby is restored to her.

A man in the village cannot sleep; the pain in his shoulders will not go away. He goes to Singapore to see the best doctors, but the pain continues. He returns to Tarakan and contemplates suicide. He hears about some missionaries from Malaysia in his Kampong. Pastor Choo: "We went to sing carols in his house. He invites us in. He tells us about the terrible pains he is having; we lay hands on him and pray for him. He is suddenly healed and confesses Christ."

These stories could be multiplied over and over.

For Pastor Choo a diminutive Chinese lady with a brilliant, radiant smile, this is normal. It is First Century Christianity in operation. She is a missionary who heeded the call from the Anglican Church in Sabah to reach out beyond the borders of Malaysia to the Chinese community dotted throughout Indonesia and its myriad islands, in the most densely populated Islamic nation on earth.

"I prayed. I asked God if it was me He wanted to serve Him. I was living in Tawau, Sabah serving the Lord in the Chinese community there. It was safe and comfortable, but the call went out from our Archdeacon Albert Vun to reach out beyond our borders. I felt God was saying to me go."

"Tarakan is an island in Indonesia, you can get there from Tawau in Malaysia by ferry in three hours, but it is a different world," she told VirtueOnline.

Though not ordained she is recognized as a pastor by the Anglican Diocese of Sabah. The Anglican Church (CMS) is recognized by the Indonesian government and has a 100-year history mostly for ex-pats but it has not been doing evangelism. The church is kept artificially alive but there is no gospel being preached, said Pastor Choo.

"I was in charge of the Chinese zone in Tawau, but we were given a vision in the year 2,000 to reach out to Indonesia. A vision was born. When the archdeacon issued the challenge I prayed and after getting peace I decided to go."

Pastor Choo made two missionary trips to spy out the land and to see if there was a specific place God was calling them too.

"On a secondary missionary trip a businessman joined us and we met a Taiwanese missionary in Tarakan who had been working there for 10 years and he confirmed that a Chinese speaking church was possible and necessary in Tarakan."

"We immediately scouted out for a building to establish a house church. God led us to a brand new house that was big enough to worship and praise Him in and as a place for us to live."

"We needed another miracle. We needed money. Many times I pray for money. We needed 20,000 Ringgit (Malaysian dollars) about $5,000 (US) but we did not have it. A businessman who exports prawns to the US and Japan came through with the money after learning that his containers were being rejected and the government wanted to destroy them all. He asked that we pray that the containers not be destroyed but returned to him. He said he would give us a donation if the containers were returned in one piece. We all prayed they would be returned to him. They were. He then gave us the 20,000 Ringgit for one year's rental."

"I returned to Tawau with the good news that we had made a start. I then lead a team of four back to Tarakan in August 2000. One of the men on the team was a businessman and he paid the rent for two more years. All the signs were telling us that God wanted us to start the work immediately."

We had a vision and only one friend on Tarakan, now we had to find a way to introduce ourselves to the Chinese people, said Pastor Choo.

"In the Chinese calendar it was Moon Cake, but these were not available in Tarakan so we brought 200 boxes of Moon Cake to Tarakan to the Chinese speaking people and we went from house to house and give them the moon cake and invited them to our first Sunday service. On August 15, 2000 we held our first service and two elderly Chinese men in their 70s came. They were not Christians. On the first Sunday they received Jesus."

Pastor Choo said they kept on doing evangelism, going from house to house on the island of Tarakan with its population of 150,000. "We knew that about 10 percent were Chinese. Slowly we made new converts. We had a team of four and after several months of evangelism two women stayed and two left."

"We concentrated on evangelism using ALPHA and nurturing every new believer. Prayer was our priority. When people got converted, and if they could read, we gave them a copy of the whole bible in the Indonesian language."

From two men at the first service the church started to grow. "By the end of 2004 we had a weekly attendance of 200." They have called their house church, The Church of Christ, Cornerstone. The first Anglican Church in Eastern Indonesia was open for business.

"We have had Pentecost experiences here. Sometimes the Holy Spirit fills the whole person and people are set free from spiritual bondages and receive the gift of speaking in tongues. God is using ordinary people to fulfill his purposes," she said.

Choo said that because of the new immigration laws in Malaysia some of the Indonesian workers who live in Sabah have been compelled to return to Indonesia when their visas run out. Many have become Christians in Sabah and so they bring the gospel back with them. That is helping the Church to grow in Indonesia, she said.

God has continued to give her a vision for how to move forward. "We start small cell groups; we mobilize the church with intense Bible studies. We have started a school so we can get a visa for a year. We can come in as English teachers."

But Choo attributes the greatest growth of the church to prayer. "We encourage people to pray, pray, pray, to build up their lives with prayer and devotion to God. We emphasize speaking and teaching the truth without compromise."

Chinese culture, she says, is steeped in traditional bondage. "We are not allowed to conduct funeral services. We have learned that as we honor God, God honors us. We will never compromise with syncretism. It is Jesus or nothing."

Choo has developed a group of Chinese businessman, 40-plus in ages who want to move aggressively to spread the gospel throughout Indonesia. "The Chinese people do not convert easily to Christ." She describes how her treasurer first accepted the Moon Cake but would not accept Jesus. "We kept on praying for him. He read through the Bible six times in less than four years. He finally got converted," she said with a smile. "We prayed and God answered our prayers in His timing."

Pastor Choo said Cornerstone will be a sending church. "There is no full time Chinese pastor at the present time. The first Chinese vicar passed away. We hope to have a full time Chinese pastor by 2006."

Other churches were not keen to do evangelism, but after we started our church it awakened other churches in Tarakan, said Choo.

"We took a leap of faith, other churches looked the other way at the way we worshipped, but then they began to imitate us even in simple things like the ethical way we did our banking. Some of the bank managers were impressed and came to our church. We had strict accountability."

"Our purpose now is to contribute to the education of young people and we have started an English play school. We are also planning to have youth workers and send them to Bible school. My heart's desire it to produce our first pastor. The harvest is ready from the crops. God is raising up leaders and we have two youth workers and we will recruit another one in June to send to Bible school."

Choo says the most important thing is to get a godly vision then you know your direction and you can work out your vision. "You always need a vision, and we have one for the Chinese people of Indonesia."

We are sending out missionary teams two by two. We are beginning to conduct revival meetings in homes, not churches. In one day we saw three receive Jesus and five reaffirm their faith. We see miracles taking place and people are delivered from evil spirits and spiritual bondage."

For myself I am very thankful to God for my four years in Tarakan. I have gained so much experience that I would never have gained if I had not stepped out in faith."

Choo is still based in Tarakan where she can only stay for 30 days and then must return to Tawau. "It is a privilege to enter the mission field. Tarakan is a mission field. I have never seen so many miracles happen in the last five years. God is doing a new thing; people are being converted and filled with the Holy Spirit. We are hoping for revival and a great harvest of souls for Indonesia."

FOOTNOTE: Owing to the delicate political situation in Indonesia Pastor Choo must remain anonymous.

As a Byzantine, I have no problem with married priests. My understanding is that mandatory celibacy is a matter of discipline in the Latin Church. They could change it if they so desired. Reading JPII's statements on the issue of women's ordination, it seems to me that issue is closed and not open to change. Someone else may differ, but that's the way I read it. Granted, our priests often do need help, especially in situations such as the one you mentioned. Laity could do more to help out, especially in areas that don't require ordination. I think that might have been one of the reasons for bringing back the permanent diaconate after Vatican II, to gain some additional help for priests. Most of the priests I have met from the less-developed world seem to think our U.S. priests have an easy time of it, anyway. Of course, perceptions can be mistaken, but those mission priests may actually have more taxing jobs.