"We are not going to Rome. We have chosen to stay together, to remain with the ACA," the three bishops emphatically stated in a VOL Exclusive. "With regard to the dioceses of the Northeast, Missouri Valley and West, we should advise you that these dioceses will remain with the Anglican Church in America."

The six US bishops are: Louis Falk, the President of the ACA House of Bishops and the retired bishop of the Diocese of the Missouri Valley, and the first Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion; David Moyer, the Bishop-in-Charge of the Patrimony of the Primate and Bishop of the Armed Forces; Louis Campese, the Bishop of the Pro-diocese of the Holy Family and the resigned bishop of the Diocese of the Eastern United States; George Langberg, retired Bishop of the Diocese of the Northeast; Welborne Hudson, retired Bishop of the Armed Forces; and James Stewart, retired Bishop of the West.

Archbishop Hepworth also noted in a recent e-mail to VOL that ACA Bishop Juan Garcia, Bishop of Puerto Rico, is also interested in the Ordinariate. But since, unlike The Episcopal Church, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops does not extend past US borders, the Puerto Rican bishop will have to become a part of a Caribbean Ordinariate when and if it is established.

Father Scott Hurd, Cardinal Wuerl's liaison to the Catholic Conference of Bishops ad hoc committee for the Ordinariate told VOL, from his office in Washington, DC, that the current status of the American Ordinariate is that the ball is now back in the Vatican's court.

"It's public knowledge that we have concluded the information gathering stage," Fr. Hurd noted. "That information has been communicated to the CFD (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) in Rome. They are the decision making agency. So in a sense the ball is in the CDF's court."

It is now up to Cardinal William Levada to decide the next step in the erection of an American Ordinariate.

"It is the CDF's decision. I think conditions are very favorable for the establishment of an Ordinariate in the United States," Fr. Hurd noted. "Things in England have been happening with great rapidity. One can hope that things will be processed quickly for the United States as well."

Archbishop Hepworth willingly acknowledges that there will be an ACA remnant remaining once the Ordinariate is established.

"I think enviably there will be an ACA which remains," the Archbishop said, although he doesn't know what shape the American church or the TAC will take in post-Ordinariate Anglicanism.

---Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline