Earlier in the month the Rt. Rev. John H. Rodgers expressed similar sentiments in an interview with VOL. He said this, "I think a major division of the Anglican Communion is likely." When asked if eventual schism in the whole Anglican Communion with evangelicals in Africa and the West simply saying "we have had enough" and will go their own way, with TEC announcing that it has 15 countries lined up that will be their communion, Rodgers said, "yes, that seems most likely to me in the not so long run."

After exposing the Archbishop of Canterbury's real views on homosexuality in an article entitled "Williams Stealth Endorsement of Gay Agenda revealed in S.P.R.E.A.D. document" http://tinyurl.com/2knr5p the new interim Dean of TESM commented, "What a shocking mess! It is not just TEC! God is humbling us. We have assumed a global Anglicanism that is true and good and turned a blind eye to its actual condition. We have been idolatrous about the Anglican Communion. The truth is that for us to be faithful Anglicans we can no longer be simply identified with the present Anglican Communion. It must be reformed or divided."

At the Network conference in Bedford, Texas, Duncan elaborated on his views following a formal address saying that reformation of The Episcopal Church is a lost cause. Later, during a question-and-answer session, he criticized the Archbishop of Canterbury for not intervening more forcefully.

"The American province is lost and something will have to replace it," he said.

Bishop Duncan expressed his disappointment that the Archbishop of Canterbury had not supported Network members in ways that he and other Network leaders had hoped. "Never, ever has he [Williams] spoken publicly in defense of the orthodox in the United States. The cost is his office. To lose that historic office is a cost of such magnitude that God must be doing a new thing."

The aura of instability that now surrounds the communion is being heightened by the threat of 12 Primates to not attend Lambeth next year and by Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney suggesting an alternate Lambeth be held in London. Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola is also thinking of a gathering on African soil.

The CAPA bishops lead by Akinola maintain that the fabric of the Communion has been irreparably torn. This was borne out by many of the orthodox primates refusing to take communion at the recent primates' meeting in Tanzania.

In a statement called the Road to Lambeth, the CAPA bishops said that if those bishops who consecrated Gene Robinson were invited to Lambeth they would refuse to attend.

West Indies Archbishop Drexel Gomez told this writer that if there is a large group who do not attend [Lambeth] it will change the structure and significance of the Lambeth Conference.

It might well signal the end of the Anglican Communion. Gomez opined, "The big question is how can you have a meeting of the leaders of the communion in one place while refusing to address the issues that are tearing the communion apart and preventing the Anglican Communion from moving forward?"

The thoughtful archbishop, who desperately wants to keep the communion together, said that if the 12 Primates don't show up or only a small portion does, it means that half of the bishops representing two-thirds of the communion won't be represented. "The decisions of Lambeth represent the mind of the communion. We are seriously challenged by the present situation," said Gomez.

A coalition of orthodox Primates from the Global South, meeting in London recently, said that a fourth Global South Encounter is needed if the break up of the Anglican Communion is to be averted.

The real test will come when the US House of Bishops meets in New Orleans in September and the Archbishop of Canterbury makes a cameo appearance.

At this point in time, Williams garners little respect from the Network bishops although he commands authority from the Windsor bishops, who have privately said that they would be prepared not to attend Lambeth next year in order to keep the Episcopal Church in the communion.

On all sides there is a sense of betrayal. Conservative Episcopal theologians are divided, stretching and straining friendships over whether the apostasies and heresies of the Episcopal Church are worthy of flight or fight.

Dr. Williams, the upholder of homosexuality and homosexuals, has balked over the consecration of more openly homoerotic bishops and same-sex rites much to the anger of both British and American homosexual advocates. He is promoting a universal Covenant to hold the communion together. Many believe it is too late for that.

Now orthodox leaders like Bishops Duncan and Rodgers believe Williams is seriously compromised and will not acknowledge their orthodoxy or the pain they are going through as faithful Episcopalians who want only to uphold the faith once delivered for all to the saints. They feel horribly let down. Williams has done nothing to intervene as one Evangelical and Anglo-Catholic priest after another in the Episcopal Church gets ecclesiastically slaughtered, inhibited, deposed, and sued with their pensions being stifled by revisionist bishops. He is blind or indifferent to their plight; his silence leaves them feeling deeply betrayed.

If nothing of significance happens in New Orleans, when the Common Cause Partners meet in Pittsburgh at the end of September they may well signal that they too will not attend Lambeth along with many Global South bishops and archbishops. It will make schism inevitable.

September 30, 2007 will mark the day and year that will go down in Anglican history as the single greatest schism since the Reformation and the Archbishop of Canterbury will have no one to blame but himself.

END