ECUSA Map Shows Diocese Status on Consecration

The following graphic image is a province map of ECUSA, showing the believed current status of each diocese regarding the consecration of Gene Robinson, and the believed relationship of the dioceses to the new confessing network. The dioceses who have endorsed the network, or probably will, are shown as purple. We recognize that this is a dynamic map, and it will be corrected, changed and redistributed as needed. It is offered to further the understanding of how the politics of the current situation is affected by geography.

All Saints Pawleys Island Leaves ECUSA

Jay L. Greener

Jan 8, 2004

In a resounding display of shared conviction, the parish of All Saints Church in Pawley’s 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’s 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’s 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’s 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’ s 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’s 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’s Great Commission to His Church

The Impact of Robinsons 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’s 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 another 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’s 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 todays digest. It is set in Americas heartland, and it is a sad story of the decline of a once proud parish into mission status and, by years 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 extinct.