There is no sign of it letting up even though Episcopal Church leaders have made it very clear that priests and parishioners who attempt to leave with their properties will face harsh legal retribution that in some cases will include lawsuits against clergy as well as vestries.

Here are the latest figures on fleeing parishes.

Since its inception seven years ago, the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) under Rwandan Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini has currently 116 congregations with another 39 in various stages of formation. "The majority of our congregations are church plants, well under a third affiliated as congregations from TEC," says Cynthia Brust, AMiA Communications Director. Only Anglican Mission congregations are under the oversight of Rwanda. They have four bishops led by the Rt. Rev. Charles "Chuck" Murphy and are based in Pawleys Island, South Carolina.

Uganda, under the jurisdiction of The Most Rev. Henry Orombi claims 35 parishes.

Bolivia, under the jurisdiction of the Rt. Rev. Frank Lyons claims 35 parishes. Writes Lyons: "Bolivia has 35 churches. There are new startups (church plants) some of which go better than others which may account for discrepancies in an overall total."

Nigeria under The Most Rev. Peter Akinola and its North American affiliate, - the Convocation of Anglicans in North America - (CANA), which has its own bishop, the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, claims 37 registered churches in 15 states plus the District of Columbia.

Kenya, under the jurisdiction of The Most Rev. Benjamin Nzimbi claims some 20 parishes. They will consecrate Canon Bill Atwood to represent their interests in North America.

Uganda, under the jurisdiction of the Most Rev. Henry Luke Orombi claims 26 parishes. They announced that they have elected the Rev. John Guernsey to serve as bishop for their congregations in the United States.

The Province of the Southern Cone under the Most Rev. Gregory Venables, which includes Argentina and the Diocese of Recife claims 14 parishes, organized with Argentina 5, Recife 5, and Southern Cone including Peru 4, making for a grand total of 293.

This figure will only continue to grow and expand over the coming months with major defections starting in October following the Sept. 30 deadline set by the Primates in Tanzania earlier this year.

The main "Continuing Anglican," (Continuum) have a combined 825 parishes that have left The Episcopal Church since 1977. (This figure is not absolute).

The Reformed Episcopal Church was formed in 1873. They have 120 churches. The Charismatic Episcopal Church did not emerge from the Episcopal Church. The CEC began with Pentecostal pastors discovering sacraments, liturgy and the Church Fathers. The CEC is "reformed Catholic" but in a formative way that mirror images many of the Continuing Churches: these churches come from people who were sacramental/liturgical but got involved with charismatic renewal in the 1970s and 1980s. The CEC founders were pentecostals who got involved with sacraments, liturgy and the Fathers. Some have additional affiliates in other countries.

Here are their numbers:

* American Anglican Church. (11)
* Anglican Catholic Church. (90)
* Anglican Catholic Church of Canada. (42)
* Anglican Church in America. (86)
* Anglican Church in the USA (Va). (20)
* Anglican Churches of America. (2)
* Anglican Episcopal Church. (5)
* Anglican Independent Communion Worldwide. (2)
* Anglican Orthodox Church. (7)
* Anglican Province of America. (76)
* Anglican Province of Christ the King. (58)
* Christian Episcopal Church. (4)
* Diocese of the Holy Cross. (16)
* Episcopal Missionary Church. (33)
* Holy Catholic Church (Anglican Rite). (35)
* Orthodox Anglican Church. (11)
* Reformed Episcopal Church. (120)
* Southern Episcopal Church. (3)
* United Anglican Church. (11)
* United Episcopal Church of North America. (30)
* Anglican Use parishes (Roman Rite) in the US (8) with three probably to be added.
* Charismatic Episcopal Church (approx. 85) They recently underwent a serious split with about 35 leaving the CEC.
* Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches. The CEEC web site indicates that there are 50 plus churches under CEEC jurisdiction in the US.

In addition to the above figures those parishes sympathetic to Forward in Faith (NA) within the Episcopal Church number about 75.

Not included is the Anglican Communion Network which currently has ten dioceses, six convocations and the international conference stretching from coast to coast, border to border. As of January 2007, ACN dioceses and parishes count 200,000 laity and 2,200 clergy in more than 900 congregations, with the number of affiliated parishes growing weekly.

The Episcopal Church, which lays claim to some 7,500 parishes spread across 100 dioceses, has repeatedly said that this represents a miniscule number of parishes. Even when the vast majority of parishioners of a parish leave (with a small minority staying), the TEC still regards them as being on the books. The same is true for a parish leaving TEC. From their perspective there has not been a significant change.

What The Episcopal Church doesn't say is that many of those leaving are cardinal parishes like Christ Church, Plano, which has more parishioners attending on any given Sunday than the entire Diocese of Nevada (the former diocese of Mrs. Schori, the Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop),or the Diocese of Northern Michigan, which has shrunk to some 28 parishes which see less than 900 on an average Sunday, about the same number who attend the Church of the Good Samaritan in Paoli, Pennsylvania.

The big question is how does this all shake out in a realignment that could see a new North American Province emerging in the coming months? Would the Archbishop of Canterbury recognize such a province? That remains to be seen. It is not completely certain, but he cannot be unmindful of the Sept. 30 deadline the Episcopal Church has been given to repent and agree to the demands of the Windsor Report.

Given the ever-growing population of American Anglicans under overseas jurisdictions, two issues emerge:

First, since Anglican congregations in some of our major cities are under different Episcopal jurisdictions, how will they work together? If these congregations find a way to serve together for the sake of serving their regions, then mission and evangelism could flourish. However, if they do not find ways to collegially work together to serve their regions, then these congregations will never get beyond being chaplaincies to those who choose to affiliate with them.

Secondly, there has been a lot of public comment about how these overseas jurisdictions are temporary and a coalition is being formed that reflects steps in the development of a proto-province. If a new, national Anglican province is actually formed, then who, if necessary, will be willing to lay down his claim to episcopacy for the sake of the visible and structural unity of this new province? How flexible will these new bishops (and the archbishops they serve) be for the sake of reaching the United States with the Gospel? Or, to put it negatively, how stuck will this new province be in old TEC models that are committed to maintaining personal and structural power, no matter what the cost?

These issues are not for the future. They are in front of us now. Already, seeds have been sown that have germinated into mistrust between episcopacies and jurisdictions that act more in competition than in fellowship. There is already mistrust towards those who do or do not have "the true faith of the Apostles."

"The welcome good news of the stated collegiality of Common Cause coalition must filter down to the way local congregations serve one another if the lofty desire for a new and mission minded Anglican province in the United States is to succeed."

None of us know truly how malformed we are by the ecclesiastical structures that have formed us. Unless we find ways to work, pray, and strategize together for the sake of mission, an Anglican province in the States will never have the spiritual dynamism of our sisters and brothers in the Global South. Instead, we will merely reflect the chaplaincy model we have inherited from the Church of England.

END