CFC Belfast links up with ecumenical, LGBT affirming Corrymeela

Ephesians 5:11: “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”

Today, more than ever, the charismatic movement offers two primary problems.

The first is the traditional problem associated with charismatism, the preoccupation with signs and wonders, things like speaking in tongues and their so-called ‘prophecy’.

The second, more recently prevalent problem is that of its growing links with the ecumenical movement.

We have seen that in the likes of the Emmanuel Church based in the Craigavon area of County Armagh, where one of its lead pastors, Alain ‘Ecumenical’ Emerson (pictured, above), glorified the founder of the anti-Christian Romanist order of the Jesuits, Ignatius of Loyola, while another of its lead pastors, Dave Wylie, called a Papist monk a “hero of church history”.

We have seen that in the likes of ‘ABBA prayer dancer’ Pete Greig, founder of 24-7 Prayer, offering his advice on gathering a crowd to the Roman Catholic Church in Austria.

We have seen that in the likes of Keith Mitchell, or Mitch (pictured, below), as he matily likes to be known, pastor of Crown Jesus Ministries in Belfast, inviting in a Roman Catholic charismatic, Ron Huntley of Divine Restoration Ministry, to speak at his church last autumn.

And it is one of Keith’s, sorry, Mitch’s pals in his charismatic pentarchy in Belfast (Crown Jesus Ministries, UT Belfast, Orangefield Presbyterian Church, Newtownbreda Baptist Church / Comedy Club and CFC Belfast) which is the latest we have discovered to have shown its ease with the ecumenical movement.

It is the latter of the five we specified which has demonstrated its disregard for the Word of God in this most important matter.

CFC (Christian Fellowship Church) Belfast has a number of campuses, as it were, with meetings taking place at CFC East, CFC Inner East, CFC South, CFC Holywood, CFC Antrim and CFC Sign Language. Its overall leader is Owen Crane (pictured, top).

The idea of having regular meetings (twice a month they meet separately and twice a month they join in with CFC East) for those with hearing difficulties is certainly a very good, and indeed thoughtful and noble one.

We want to make that very clear before we say anything else – this is a fine thing to do.

However, sadly, we have discovered that CFC Sign Language held a retreat at the ecumenical den of iniquity known as Corrymeela.

Regular readers or those who observe religious matters generally in Northern Ireland will be well aware of the nature of Corrymeela, it is the home of ecumenism in this country, set up specifically to ignore and minimise the very clear and vital differences between the Reformed Protestant and Roman Catholic faiths.

Its leader until last year was an open sodomite and Romanist, Padraig O’Tuama, and it holds each year a conference celebrating sodomy called ‘Blessed are the Brave’.

The reality of this retreat is revealed on the Corrymeela Facebook page in a post published back in February, while it appears, going by the CFC Sign Language Facebook page, that the retreat took place last October.

Corrymeela reveal this retreat took place in their Facebook post dated 11 February as they publicise a video encouraging other groups to book retreats with them.

The post says: “We’d love to welcome your group to our beautiful Ballycastle home to support you as you bring change in your lives and communities.

“In our inspiring new film, our friends from CFC Deaf Community and Lower Shankill Methodist have shared how welcomed and renewed they felt by their stay with us.”

The message then ends with a number of “hashtags”, including #change, #peace, #reconciliation, true ecumenical watchwords.

As we have said already, and cannot stress enough, for we know how those who despise this page’s witness will be eager to lay a false charge against us, we believe it is a very good thing to make church more accessible for those with hearing difficulties, but all this is doing is serving to create a positive image in the minds of more people of this ecumenical pit.

Corrymeela is a site wholly given over to religious compromise, and it is a site wholly given over to the utterly repugnant to God’s Word notion of LGBT affirmation within the church.

God pronounced His curse on this sin repeatedly through Scripture.

He called it an “abomination” in Leviticus 18:22, He called it “vile”, “against nature” and “unseemly” in Romans 1:26-27 and we are reminded of His judgment on such sin in Jude v 7.

That verse says: “Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”

What a fearful judgment awaits the unrepentant homosexual, yet Corrymeela encourages such individuals on in their sin, calling the practitioners of that which God deplores “brave”.

We should be praying that homosexuals, like all others who know not Christ, are saved by the blood of Jesus, even as were “some” in the church of Corinth.

CFC Belfast as an organisation needs to apologise and repent for such an appalling form of compromise as this and we would urge anyone reading this familiar with any of the CFC branches mentioned above to challenge them for what is, at the very best, a ghastly error of judgment.

It also raises questions once again for the other four churches on such particularly cosy terms with CFC Belfast.

What does Mitch and Crown Jesus Ministries think of Corrymeela and LGBT affirmation?

What does Rev Gareth MacLean (minister), Gary Ball (Associate Minister) and Orangefield Presbyterian Church think of Corrymeela and LGBT affirmation?

What does UT (Ulster Temple Elim) Belfast think of Corrymeela and LGBT affirmation?

What does Pastor Trevor Ramsey (Senior Pastor, pictured, below), Pastor Tim Robinson (Community Pastor), Pastor Jonny Wright (Associate Pastor) and Newtownbreda Baptist Church think of Corrymeela and LGBT affirmation?

These are major questions as these five churches continue to be linked closely.

Of course, previous major issues we have pointed out previously have been utterly ignored and disregarded, but we are faithfully, as God leads us, doing our best to draw this to their attention and then pray God will speak to hearts and cause people to wake up and separate from the workers of compromise and deceit in our land.

You, dear reader, can do this too by contacting any of the churches above, urging them to disassociate themselves with CFC Belfast or urging CFC Belfast to publicly declare what they did was utterly contrary to Scripture and repent for it.

Do not concern yourself with whether or not your message will get through to them, but rather follow the advice God gave Ezekiel when He called Him into His service.

Ezekiel 2:5-7: “And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them. And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house. And thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear: for they are most rebellious.”

Let us simply sow the seed and let God give the increase.

Laugh yourself to heaven at Newtownbreda Baptist Church / Comedy Club

1 Corinthians 1:17-18: “For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”

In this modernistic, liberal age, many forms of worldly entertainment have been brought in to try to attract a crowd.

These can be quite successful (though that is absolutely no excuse for employing them), as the popularity of churches like the Vineyard and various community / fellowship type churches has proven.

Mostly, it entails the introduction of worldly music with a thin veneer of Christianity from the worship bands.

However, a far more offensive to God form of worldly entertainment was brought into a Baptist church in Belfast on Sunday, 10th February.

For Newtownbreda Baptist Church brought in a stand-up comedian to take their Sunday night service two Lord’s days ago.

Yes, you are reading that correctly, this is not a joke – Newtownbreda Baptist Church became Newtownbreda Comedy Club for the night as a stand-up comic took the platform in this most modern, trendy, hipster of Baptist churches.

Mark Ritchie (pictured on the right of our top image), a Scotsman, apparently blends comedy with a religious message as his routine, which has seen him perform at the well-known Edinburgh Fringe Festival, an annual event for aspiring and established comics alike.

His stand-up tours have taken on frankly blasphemous titles, including “For The Love Of God” and “God Only Knows”.

These are commonly used oaths by the unconverted when expressing exasperation or confusion as they grievously take our precious Saviour’s wonderful name in vain.

Yet here is a man who claims to be proclaiming God’s Word using such blasphemies to make money.

And he is directly disobeying the Third Commandment, which can be found in Exodus 20:7 and says: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.”

And here was this man in Newtownbreda Baptist Church being paraded as an admirable and appropriate character to provide spiritual guidance to those in attendance.

This is how Newtownbreda Baptist Church / Newtownbreda Comedy Club promoted the event on facebook: “We have Mark Ritchie coming for a night of community and comedy. We’ll be having @percyscoffeeandfood there and also a free BBQ”.

So it’s a night of community and comedy? No mention of the cross at Calvary? Sure that wouldn’t draw the punters in quite like a few jokes and a cheeseburger.

We have not heard the routine / sermon / message brought by Mark Ritchie to Newtownbreda. Rather oddly, it is the only service held there in months which does not appear to have been uploaded to the church’s website. Why would that be?

However, we have listened to a 35 minute routine by Mark Ritchie at a church in England from two years ago and for that to even be considered a religious sermon is frankly offensive.

A significant length of time goes by before he even mentions the Bible and then he reads a single verse therefrom, before going back to telling his little stories, which had the most tenuous of links to what he was apparently talking about. All of them were uproariously funny though, at least if you listened to the congregation / audience, so that means it’s ok.

Was there mention of how we might be saved? No.

Was there mention of the substitutionary death on the cross by our Lord Jesus Christ? No.

Was there mention of repentance and sorrow over sin? No.

Was there mention of the atoning blood of Jesus which washes away all sin to those who believe on Him? No.

Not much of a message then, was it?

The upshot of the message, as far as we could gather, was that we should engage in a “daring culture”, whatever that’s supposed to mean.

This “daring culture” certainly doesn’t involve over encumbering yourself with knowledge of or serious study of God’s Word, it seems to be more about making bold, impressive sounding, yet meaningless statements.

Certainly, there was some very dubious phraseology employed to, we assume, describe someone becoming a Christian.

He spoke on several occasions of people “making a first time response to Jesus”. What is that supposed to mean? What, then, is a second or third time response to Jesus?

Of course, the terms “getting saved”, “being born again” or “having your sins washed away” are so terribly old fashioned, though increasingly even those terms are being polluted by some churches.

When Mark Ritchie appeared at Newtownbreda Baptist Church two weeks ago, he claimed that “26 people said yes to Jesus”. Newtownbreda Comedy Club repeated that phrase, though they claimed it was 25.

Of course, one might ask, if 25/26 people “said yes to Jesus”, what was the question?

The top of this article shows that God used what the worldly person would consider the “foolishness of preaching” the cross of Christ as his ordained means of sharing the gospel and bringing sinners to repentance.

This point is further demonstrated in Romans 10:13-14, which says: “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?”

The worldly person certainly doesn’t think stand-up comedy is foolishness, that’s why theatres up and down our land are regularly packed out with those wishing to hear the latest comic, most of whom promote the foul and whose language is still fouler.

In what we have heard of Mark Ritchie, there was absolutely NO mention of the cross of Christ, though of course he wasn’t preaching anyway, he was simply bringing the world into the church.

And Newtownbreda Baptist Church invited that man into their church, whose very tour titles take the Lord’s name in vain.

Sadly, this is not the first time we have been forced to highlight this church, which is located in east Belfast.

Only last month we pointed out its membership of the Evangelical Alliance, a grouping headed up by Peter Lynas, who is habitually involved with Romanists and promoting relationships with Rome.

His ecumenical activities are too numerous to reproduce here, but you can click here to get a rundown of his compromise with Rome, which includes praising so-called Protestant ministers and church officers for running down to Dublin to cower before the Pope.

Highlighting this Baptist church, and others, saw us attract great opprobrium but the fact remains Newtownbreda Baptist Church continues to be yoked with a group that includes creation deniers and Jesuit promoters and is evidently more than happy to be so.

Even when this was brought clearly into their view they decided to harden their neck and continue in the same direction.

Indeed, within a matter of weeks of us highlighting this unholy alliance, Newtownbreda Baptist Church had invited ‘Papist’ Peter Lynas down to speak at their Sunday night service, and he also spoke about the document he produced looking at what he suggest be the church’s response to the rising tide of sodomy and transgenderism.

It is called ‘Transformed’ and it is certainly not recommended to any church or Christian, containing as it does the suggestion by Peter Lynas himself that churches provide “trans” accessible toilets in churches.

The document he wrote says that “providing toilets that are clearly accessible to trans people will be an important part of the welcome provided by churches and charities”.

But Newtownbreda Baptist Church, whose pastor is Trevor Ramsey (pictured on the left of our top image), saw fit to invite him down and now they are turning to an easy-believist stand-up comic who is seeking people to “say yes to Jesus” without actually preaching the gospel.

What a cheap gospel is being taught – ‘come on in, grab a hot dog, have a laugh, we’ll give God a brief mention, stick your hand up to say you like Jesus and now you’re on your way to heaven’.

This is outrageous and Newtownbreda Baptist Church / Comedy Club is guilty of encouraging this sort of shallow gospel message.

May God save Ulster from such disrespect for His Word and His House.

Psalm 89:7: “God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.”