The litmus test of any radical departure from the church's pansexual agenda can always be gauged by TEC's official pansexual organization known as Integrity. Its leader, Susan Russell wrote this immediately after the HOB published its statement, "Integrity is gratified that the final response from the House of Bishops declined to succumb to the pressure to go backwards, but rather took some significant steps forward."

There you have it. Had it been otherwise, the screams of outrage, the cries of homophobia, of "dehumanizing gays" as Gene Robinson bluntly accused the Archbishop of Canterbury, would have been heard around the world.

What the final statement produced was a carefully nuanced change of tone, but no change in substance or direction of the Episcopal Church's position on same-sex blessings or future homosexual bishops. Only the 2009 General Convention can do that and that is about as likely to happen as hell freezing over.

Here is what the bishops concluded:

HOB: We reconfirm that resolution B033 of General Convention 2006 (The Election of Bishops) calls upon bishops with jurisdiction and Standing Committees "to exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion.

VOL: If Tracy Lind, a lesbian, and one of the candidates to become the next Bishop of Chicago should happen to win, Mrs. Schori, the HOB and the Standing Committees would have to decline to give her consents. We shall see.

HOB: We pledge as a body not to authorize public rites for the blessing of same-sex unions.

VOL: Publicly this is the case; privately they will continue based on 'local option'. When I challenged Los Angeles J. Bishop J. Jon Bruno in the press room about a homosexual wedding performed in his diocese (reported in the Sunday New York Times) - at his flagship parish - All Saints' Beverly Hills last weekend, Bruno said he had not heard about it and had not given it his authorization. He repeated his position in an elevator at the Intercontinental Hotel. What he did not say is that the diocese has been allowing same sex blessings for over a decade and they will continue. Sergio Carranza-Gomez, Assisting Bishop of Los Angeles, will perform a "high mass" at an upcoming gay marriage later this week. He will not be stopped. Furthermore, no clergy have ever been disciplined for performing these blessings.

Susan Russell of Integrity is on record as saying that 11 dioceses, either through their Convention or by edict of the bishop, have authorized gay weddings and they "happen" in others. As a part of the Statement discussion, one bishop said that the only honest way to approach the Primates and Archbishop of Canterbury is to state exactly which dioceses have authorized and which allow them.

HOB: We commend our Presiding Bishop's plan for episcopal visitors.

VOL: This is dead on arrival and has already been rejected by a number of orthodox bishops in The Episcopal Church. You can read their story here at VOL's website: http://tinyurl.com/367qe9

HOB: We deplore incursions into our jurisdictions by uninvited bishops and call for them to end.

VOL: These arose because of the innovations of the Episcopal Church and because Delegated Episcopal Pastoral Oversight (DEPO) keeps the power in the hands of the diocesan bishop around the throats of the local parish while granting token appearances by an outside orthodox bishop. Furthermore, the diocesan bishop still retains the right to visit an orthodox parish, if he or she so chooses.

HOB: We support the Presiding Bishop in seeking communion-wide consultation in a manner that is in accord with our Constitution and Canons.

VOL: "Consultation" means never having to say you're sorry or will change your mind about the direction of TEC. Mrs. Schori has made it clear that the Episcopal Church's Constitution and Canons are sacrosanct, and that TEC would never abide by, accept or sanction a universal set of canons that the whole communion would write and live by because TEC could be disciplined by such a body. It would also set a legal precedent over property disputes in the TEC.

HOB: We call for increasing implementation of the listening process across the Communion and for a report on its progress to Lambeth 2008.

VOL: The Anglican Communion has "listened" itself to death. Listening means never arriving at knowledge of the truth. Listening means wearing the other side down till they capitulate. Listening means accepting The Episcopal Church's position on sodomy. Listening might well win. A case in point is the decreasing number of primates now willing to take Holy Communion with Mrs. Schori. In Dromantine, the number was 22. In Dar es Salaam the number had whittled down to 7. "Listening" pays.

Also, VirtueOnline has learned that Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Consultative Council, has offered to Dr. Rowan Williams the "Irish solution", which is, wait long enough and peace will come. This is a strategy that Williams seems to have adopted based on his own words at a press conference in New Orleans. In other words, keep the "conversation" going forever and ever, and sooner or later the rest of the Anglican Communion will either cave in or Trinity Wall Street will use its considerable financial resources to buy more gabfests on "mission" to seduce Global South leaders that all is well in TEC. One should not listen to a handful of orthodox types and a homophobic news service like VOL to get your news. Ignore them.

HOB: We support the Archbishop of Canterbury in his expressed desire to explore ways for the Bishop of New Hampshire to participate in the Lambeth Conference.

VOL: This dog won't die. Liberal TEC bishops are privately outraged that Gene Robinson has not been invited FULLY into the Lambeth conference. They will set up a committee led by Mrs. Schori to explore said options with Williams. They will wear him down. Money will help.

HOB: We call for unequivocal and active commitment to the civil rights, safety, and dignity of gay and lesbian persons.

VOL: The issue has never been about the dignity of gay and lesbian persons, furthermore, why should they be accorded special rights as opposed to any other aggrieved group in America. It has always been about the behavior of homosexuals, a behavior that is specifically and clearly condemned in Holy Scripture, and will earn you a "do not pass go, go directly to hell" on that Day. Homosexuals and lesbians are playing Russian roulette with their bodies not only in disease factors (the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta records 26 known sexually transmitted diseases from anal sex) but spiritually, and with one's eternal destiny. That's a huge price to pay for living out sexual attractions that will condemn you for eternity. God is not mocked; we reap what we sow.

On hearing the news about the decisions by the HOB in New Orleans, Nigerian Primate Peter Akinola told VOL through a source, that the results from the HOB were as expected! "No real change of direction from the Episcopal Church, nothing is going to change with the Global South."

And that's the word.

END