All Saints Pawley Island Leaves ECUSA

Jay L. Greener

Jan 8, 2004

In a resounding display of shared conviction, the parish of All Saints Church in Pawley Island, SC, voted tonight to sever ties to the Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA) and to align itself with another Province of the Anglican Communion. Over 500 were in attendance to vote on two resolutions that will alter the church core documents.  A congregation that claims over 1,000 parishioners and deep roots to its founding in 1745, All Saints officially amended its charter to reflect a

 revised statement of purpose, as well as its official affiliation. The vote affirmed the unanimous decision of the church vestry, made in October. The church joins nine international Anglican provinces that recently severed ties to the ECUSA an institution whose revisionist and liberal actions are increasingly placing it at odds with much of the rest of the Anglican Communion.

On two separate ballots, those present voted overwhelmingly to declare a new identity and affiliation as a church. On the first, which called for all references to the Episcopal Church to be removed from All Saints charter, the vote was 464 in favor, 42 against, and 1 abstention. On the second ballot, nearly 94% of those present voted to remove All Saints from the Episcopal Church and transfer its canonical residence to another Province within the Anglican Communion.

That other Province will most likely be the Province of Rwanda, and its missionary movement in this country, the Anglican Mission in America. That decision will be finalized at a parish meeting later this month. As people were leaving the meeting, they had opportunity to transfer their letters of membership individually, and the response was overwhelming.

All Saints Rector Emeritus, the Rt. Rev. Charles Murphy, addressed the gathering before deliberations began. He made it clear that it was not a regular parish business meeting, but a special meeting of the corporation concerned with amending the church official charter, adopted in 1902. His comments embraced the following points; 

*The Episcopal Church USA of today is very different from the Protestant

Episcopal Church of 1902 under which the original charter was drafted

*The Episcopal Church has produced, by its actions, a major realignment in

the Anglican Communion whereby two-thirds of the world Anglicans are now

in a state of broken or impaired communion with ECUSA

*All Saints Church has resisted the revisions of the Episcopal Church for years, working for renewal and change from within

*The Episcopal Church has, in effect, abandoned the Faith and Order of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

*There are now two strategies for addressing the international crisis

either to remain inside the ECUSA and become part of an orthodox ghetto, or move outside in order to come out from under coercive structures and canons, which is the strategy of the Anglican Mission in America.

The members of All Saints obviously agreed with their longtime leader, voting to follow an outside strategy from this point on.

All Saints and the Diocese of South Carolina have had strained relations for the last three years, due to actions on the part of the Diocese to claim interest in the church property, refusal of the Diocese to allow All Saints to vote at recent conventions, and recent efforts on the part of the bishop, Ed Salmon, to take over control of the parish.

South Carolinas Judge Breeden has twice ruled that the Diocese has no interest in the property, which was deeded many years before the Episcopal Church even existed. All Saints will continue to worship in their current facilities, even as the diocese continues its efforts to remove them through the courts.

Overall, it was a ˜peaceful meeting where a few people spoke on each side of the issues, with one person observing that ˜the church was ready for this moment. In a recent statement, the leadership of All Saints reasserted its commitment to its members, the inhabitants of Waccamaw Neck Region, the worldwide Anglican Communion, and Christ Great Commission to His Church. The Impact of Robinson’s Consecration. If there is no absolute moral standard, then one cannot say in a final sense that anything is right or wrong. By absolute we mean that which applies to all people, that which provides a final or ultimate standard.

There must be an absolute if there are to be morals, and there must be an absolute if there are to be real values. If there is no absolute beyond man ideas, then there is no final appeal to judge between individuals and groups whose moral judgements conflict. We are merely left with conflicting opinions. - How Should We Then Live? By Francis Schaeffer (Old Tappan, NJ Fleming H. Revell, 1976), page 145.

 Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Robinson consecration is coming home to roost. Slowly but surely, in  one parish after other stories abound of parishes suffering financially, parishioners feeling betrayed and departing, and much more.

It is not just a matter of international opprobrium and rebuke or even of orthodox bishops in ECUSA withholding monies from the national church The New Hampshire action is now filtering down to the parish level. Virtuosity had predicted this would happen, as did many others, and now it is coming all too sadly true.

E-mails coming into Virtuosity mailbox by the dozen, tell stories of

individuals and families leaving in despair and disillusionment, taking themselves off to the Anglican Mission in America, one of several Orthodox branches of the Christian Church, the Roman Catholic Church and more.

There is also the interesting side bar of orthodox Episcopal parishes growing as believing families leave revisionist parishes that affirm homosexual behavior or who cannot sign off on the creeds, Scripture and more. So in order to remain in the Episcopal Church they sometimes drive 20 or 30 miles on Sunday to find a biblically faithful parish. And when they do, they rejoice.

One laymen wrote to me his story and I have written it up for you in today’s digest. It is set in America’s heartland, and it is a sad story of the decline of a once proud parish into mission status and, by year end will, in all probability, close its doors.

The sad truth is that there are some 3,465 Episcopal parishes in the ECUSA (nearly 50 percent of the entire Episcopal Church) have 37 members  actually attending on Sunday and the Robinson consecration will push most of them into extinction. It is only a matter of time.

In Pawleys Island, All Saints will make a decision tonight (Thursday)  about what they will do, that is, will they leave the Diocese of SC and ECUSA and officially join with the AMIA, or will they not.

Liberal bishops, who have sat on the fence, are suffering alongside openly revisionist bishops as they watch the slow but inevitable decline. It is now either/or the middle ground of compromise is fast disappearing. Many of the smaller parishes may stay temporarily propped  up now that ECUSA is in concordat with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), but that is a short-term stay of execution. The former Bishop of Colorado now wishes he hadnt voted for Robinson.

One bitter former ECUSA employee wrote I am seeing the destruction of  two ECUSA congregations. . . bit by bit. The destruction is, I think, part of the whole death wish syndrome of sodomites. They are so anxious for the church  -- any denomination -- to declare they are sinless, that they are willing to reduce to ruin anything that appears  to be an obstacle. Here and there, the destruction does give them money and power, both de jure and de facto.

A Lutheran pastor and Virtuosity reader wrote and told me this week, that things were no better in his church, and says that what is  happening to ECUSA is happening to his own church as pansexualists take over and biblically illiterate, theologically flabby Lutheran bishops  have no stomach to fight on scriptural grounds or hold back the flood of sad sack, feel your pain stories from pansexualists.

There is even a story about a Presbyterian pastor (PCUSA) and editor of  The Presbyterian Layman about to be tossed out of his church because he urged Presbyterians to withhold undesignated gifts to the denomination because of its support for partial-birth abortion, homosexuality, and other practices that violate scripture. For daring to stand up to the powers that be, the Bible-believing Presbyterian minister may be stripped of his ordination credentials for criticizing leaders in his denomination.

Writers like George Orwell and Malcolm Muggeridge saw it all coming.

The truth is, we are just seeing the beginning of the decline. On the other side there are wonderful stories of orthodox ECUSA parishes  (both Evangelical and Anglo-Catholic) that are growing, because these rectors have a vigorous understanding of what the gospel is, and how to communicate it.

A group of some 20 top orthodox rectors in the country meet once a year  to exchange stories, to listen and learn what God is doing in their lives and churches. These are parishes with 500 plus members, and while I am not privy to their conversation, it hardly takes a brain surgeon to figure out what they talk about.

The question is, do any of these men have futures as bishops in today moral climate? One doubts it, but one remains hopeful. No wannabe bishop would ever obtain consents if he did not agree to the ordination of  women, and it is only a matter of time, if it hasn’t already come, that Standing Committees will want to hear words like inclusion and diversity if a person steps up to the plate to be a bishop - buzzwords for pansexual acceptance.

These world class rectors may have already reached the height of their  careers. It is a sad indictment of the current sick situation the ECUSA finds itself in - hated by a majority of the primates, despised by  Global South bishops, several of whom now openly accuse ECUSA of using money to bribe them.

The story of Jesus and the temple moneychangers now has a familiar 21st Century ring to it. There is nothing new under the sun. Money (the Western churches have it), Sex, (The Western churches are morally bankrupting over pansexuality) and Power (revisionist bishops are exercising it to abolish faithful orthodox priests) is now writ large over the ECUSA.

All the while the Global South has no money, and their churches are

growing like crazy, sex stays within monogamous marriage between a man and a woman, and power is interpreted as authority, not half-crazed power-mad bishops like a Schimpfky or Bennison or Shaw who hate orthodoxy with a living passion, and who would sooner see the church die than compromise their heterodox unbelief.

What heart of darkness so fills these bishops that they can turn the

truth of God into a lie? Do they not understand the Last Judgment, the final sorting out of those who believed and those who didn’t. And what of God's first judgement descending on the household of faith. Do they honestly believe that God will wink and nod and say, of course you changed my mind, how brilliant and brave of you.  And then the final word, depart from me I never knew you. Searing and sobering words indeed.

There is no denying it no weaseling one’s way round it. It is there for all to see. The Episcopal Church has sown to the wind and it is now reaping the whirlwind.

BUT OCCASIONALLY THERE IS A RAY OF SUNSHINE. This week the Queen announced a new BISHOP OF READING. We are delighted that Canon Stephen Cottrell is to be the next Bishop of Reading. We warmly welcome the appointment of a dedicated evangelist, a leader in mission and a teacher-pastor to this important post, said Dr Philip Giddings, Convenor of Anglican Mainstream UK. His outstanding work at Springboard has commended him widely as a Catholic Evangelist in the Church of England said Rev David Banting, vicar of St Peter Harold Wood, Essex.

Canon Michael Green, Wycliffe college, Oxford also gave the new bishop rave reviews. Score one for the Bishop of Oxford, Richard Harries who made it possible. Jeffrey John is history.

I WROTE TO CANON PATRICK MAUNEY at National Church headquarters, the church chief dispenser of Episcopal largess to overseas provinces seeking money for various projects, asking whether in light of the Province of Uganda dis-invitation to Frank Griswold to attend the consecration of their new Primate, and alleged bribery charges, would he still go ahead and send the money, (for the Gulus) even though ECUSA’s delegation was not welcome at the new Ugandan Primate consecration? He wrote back saying The DFMS has not declared itself out of communion with anyone and so all our budgeted grants remain on offer and will be sent if accepted.

I’ll write to the Primate in a couple of months and see if they got the check.

MUCH IS BEING MADE ON THE INTERNET about how the AHMANSON FOUNDATION (he is an Episcopalian) is busy funding conservative causes, some of  which are Episcopalian like the Institute for Religion and Democracy and  other orthodox groups as well. There is talk of sinister efforts by Mr. Ahmanson to undermine ECUSA liberal bias. Really. One wishes he had  that sort of power. He doesn’t.

So here is a turnabout for the books. Software entrepreneur Tim Gill of the Gill Foundation is a Colorado-based nonprofit philanthropic organization providing grants to nonprofit organizations, for people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities that make up American society.

Since its inception, the foundation has invested nearly $40 million in nonprofit organizations throughout the country, with a focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and HIV/ AIDS organizations and non-LGBT organizations located in Colorado. With an endowment of approximately $200 million, the Gill Foundation is the country’s largest funder of LGBT organizations. Does ECUSA Integrity org. get money from the Gill Foundation and where did the $300,000 war chest come from that was used to push the PR campaign for Robinson’s confirmation at GC2003?

Inquiring minds want to know?

THEN THERE THE NEW BISHOP-ELECT one James Cowan, 52, of the Anglican Diocese of British Columbia “essentially Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands (13,400 souls) who said in an interview that it’s time for Anglicans to take a page out of some of the New Age spiritual movements.

I hope to set up, fairly soon, a discussion in the diocese about what evangelism for this diocese looks like, he said. This is a very different age. Missionaries would talk about the faith and compare the two faiths, and sometimes there would be baptisms and conversions and sometimes there wouldn’t. But the dialogue was always between people who believed in something. Now, for the first time, you have a complete generation or perhaps more where they claim no religious affiliation.

He said the answer might be in the New Age movement. Perhaps he and New Westminster bishop Michael Ingham can seek enlightenment together while banging Native American drums and dancing in circles, or they could invite Frank Griswold out to the Pacific Northwest teach them both how to dance the Circle Dance of Dispossession. It did wonders for ECUSA House of Bishops, God knows what it will do for Canada’s flaky lot of Purple.

I AM POSTING A NUMBER OF STORIES in today’s digest that should be of interest to you. Based on the Biblical injunction let another man/woman praise thee and not thine own lips, I am posting a story from the Washington TIMES about the Internet and its impact on The Episcopal Church. VIRTUOSITY and this writer receives a favorable review. The writer is Culture Editor Julia Duin.

PLEASE NOTE THAT STORIES ARE NOW BEING POSTED DIRECTLY TO THE WEBSITE ON A DAILY BASIS. You can keep up with the news as it breaks. It is all on the front page. www.virtuosityonline.org.

CORRECTION In my last digest I said that four ECUSA dioceses -

 By the time you receive this digest I will be in Charleston, SC to cover the Anglican Communion Institute annual meeting with scholars, Primates and bishops coming together to discuss the issues of the day. I will post directly to the website as the news breaks.

PLEASE MAKE EVERY EFFORT to cover this ministry with your prayers and support it with your charitable dollars. For me to get you the news I do need your support. You can make a tax-deductible donation at the website www.virtuosityonline.org and hitting the PAYPAL link. You can send a check by snail mail to David W. Virtue, VIRTUOSITY, 1236 Waterford Road, West Chester, PA 19380. Thank you for your support.

All Blessings,

David W. Virtue DD