EKKLESIA APPEALS FOR FUNDS FOR GLOBAL SOUTH PRIMATES

By Julia Duin

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

January 5, 2004

The direction of the Episcopal Church is increasingly being determined not by its clergy or church institutions, but by a group of determined Internet jockeys whose reach encircles the globe.

They are men who spend 12 to 14 hours a day sending out posts to message boards, fielding replies or overseeing blogs, or journals on the Internet, about the conflict tearing the 2.3-million-member denomination apart: the Nov. 2 consecration of the first openly homosexual Episcopal bishop.

On Aug. 5, the Episcopal General Convention meeting in Minneapolis confirmed Canon V. Gene Robinsons election to the episcopate. The vote was delayed a day because of an Internet message calling attention to the bishop-elects connection to a youth ministry Web site that had links to hard-core pornography.