What he would have heard would have confirmed his worst suspicions. Mother Jefferts Schori and the HOB offered a partial repentance over future consecrations of homoerotic bishops. Same-sex blessings will not get the official nod, but bishops will look the other way if they happen to occur in their own dioceses. Wink wink nod nod.

So having satisfied themselves, and apparently the Archbishop of Canterbury who has returned to England to cogitate on something called TEC's Baptismal Covenant, the Enlightened Ones, who apparently believe they have conned everybody, have no intention of reversing the direction of the Episcopal Church or back peddling on General Convention resolutions. Instead The Episcopal Church will press on to "reform the world" with Millennium Development Goals.

The irony, of course, is that the world will not be saved by MDG's any more than it will be saved by the Episcopal Church's new fangled gospel of inclusion and diversity. The Presiding Bishop herself admitted at the inaugural conference, held recently at the Desmond Tutu Education Center on the campus of General Theological Seminary in New York, that the MDG timetable probably wouldn't be met.

"Many take Jesus' words that the 'poor will always be with you' as letting us off the hook," she said. "The [MDG] goals are important because they hold our feet to the fire".

I don't know a single reputable commentator on these words of Jesus that ever indicated anything of the kind. The great social movements of the last 100 years were nearly all begun by followers of Jesus: World Vision, the Salvation Army, Food for the Hungry, Food for the Poor, Mother Teresa, to name just a few. This doesn't include a half dozen major justice organizations I know trying to eliminate child prostitution, slave labor, abuse of women and promoting female equality that don't have Jesus at the core of their mission statements. The Man from Galilee has deeply and profoundly affected even those secular movements that are not directly rooted in Judeo-Christian thought. Even if they scorn his person and work, they cannot ignore his teaching and message.

The grand sum of 0.7% of diocesan budgets earmarked for MDG's clearly won't be met in most dioceses as they face decline from fleeing, dues-paying orthodox Episcopalians. In orthodox dioceses, money will be used to pay lawyers to defend themselves against the raging legal inferno of the Episcopal Church's leadership and David Booth Beers, while TEC itself will spend millions of dollars to capture churches for non-existent future generations.

The argument can be made that if TEC can manage to keep buildings for a dozen souls, withered spiritually by years of social justice proclamation, then at least the buildings can be sold, to recoup losses, to upstart evangelical congregations, a variety of boutiques, the odd antique furniture store, and, if large enough, to nouvelle cuisine restaurants where the food is absolutely guaranteed to surpass the spiritual food dished up over the past 40 years by a group of aging passive aggressive sodomites bent on turning the baptismal font into latter day political theater.

For now, it is all coming unglued. Sept. 30 (the day this story is being penned) is a reverse D-Day for The Episcopal Church. It is the end of the line.

When the Global South Primates line up for battle against the tiny, fractious Episcopal Church it will be no contest. They will push The Episcopal Church back into the ocean for the whole institution to drown. They cannot do otherwise.

They have pleaded, cajoled, written reports, communiques, and spent millions of dollars meeting in one country after another trying to get the American church to back off on a behavior that excludes people from Christ's kingdom, all to no avail.

The Episcopal Church has failed to repent; its half repentance is no repentance at all.

The vast majority of the Global South will recognize the new ecclesiastical structure formed in Pittsburgh this past weekend, regardless of whether Dr. Williams recognizes it or not. If they decide to pull the plug on Lambeth next year and not go, they will represent 70% or more of Global Anglicanism, thus making a mockery of Lambeth that will at best represent a few million with more bishops but fewer Anglicans. After all, who needs to go through Canterbury to get to Jesus?

The hubris of the Church of England declaring it has 24 million baptized Anglicans when in fact a mere 1.25 million turn up in church on any given Sunday, while the Episcopal Church pleads it has 2.4 million with less than 800,000 practicing their faith at a local Episcopal Church, shows the bankruptcy of western post-Christian Anglicanism. Equally pathetic remnants can be found in Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

Thoreau, himself an unbeliever, would not have been fooled by any of this. He would have turned his back, walked out of the hotel and returned to writing "Walden Pond", a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, a far cry from the lush appointments of 815 Second Avenue, the church's national headquarters in the heart of high-priced Manhattan real estate.

Thoreau would then have picked up pen and paper and, while overlooking Walden Pond, written The Episcopal Church's official obituary.

END