Mrs. Jefferts Schori has threatened three orthodox bishops demonstrating that behind the façade of sweet-talking "reconciling" language there lurks a fist of conformity, veneered over with a facile spirituality. She is fast becoming the Red Queen in Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland."

"It was a painful separation; we had a large number of folk who wanted to stay behind and did. The original church was 600 with some 300 including nine of the 11 vestry electing to move with me. We walked away from a valuable property barely three years old with new gothic stone worth millions. It was very painful for me personally, but I saw that the gospel could not be compromised any longer. Truth had to triumph over institutional loyalty.

Three other orthodox Episcopal dioceses are in varying stages of disassociation, but have not publicly said with whom they would align themselves. The Diocese of Ft. Worth said it will seek membership in the Southern Cone on an emergency and pastoral basis.

The Bishop and Standing Committee will need to prepare a report on the constitutional and canonical implications and the means for accepting this invitation.

The property is currently under the authority of Armstrong and about 500 followers who supported him when he broke away from the Episcopal Diocese in March to join CANA, the Nigerian-based Anglican province under the ecclesiastical authority of Bishop Martyn Minns and Archbishop Peter Akinola.