Group Warns of Launching Church Faction

By RICHARD N. OSTLING

.c The Associated Press

PLANO, Texas (AP) - Episcopalians opposed to a gay bishops consecration and other liberal church trends are threatening to establish a ``church within a church that could pose a significant threat to leaders of the denomination.

A two-day meeting beginning Monday of the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes involves conservative bishops, clergy and lay delegates from 12 dioceses with 235,000 members, a tenth of the nation’s Episcopalians. The networks temporary leader, Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, says the meeting will give traditionalists ``some sense there is a future.

Delegates will adopt an organizational charter, elect leaders and debate how to help conservative parishes in liberal dioceses. Planners insist the network isnt a breakaway denomination or schism, but a ``church within a church.

Outside observers and reporters have been barred from the meeting and the network has been tightlipped about most details, including who wrote the charter draft and what it proposes.

One reason conservative parishes don't want to officially leave the church is that under secular law they usually surrender their properties to the denomination. The Rev. Donald Armstrong, a delegate representing Midwestern and Mountain states, says of his Colorado Springs, Colo., parish, ``Weve got a $12 million facility and we can’t just walk away from it.

The Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of the international Anglican Communion, consisting of denominations that stem from the Church of England. Many foreign Anglican churches have denounced or broken fellowship with the Episcopal Church over its November consecration of New Hampshire's V. Gene Robinson, who has lived for years with a gay partner.

A dispute over network intentions last week showed the edginess of the moment. A leaked memo from a network leader said the ``ultimate goal was a ``replacement jurisdiction aligned with the conservative majority in world Anglicanism.

The host bishop, James Stanton of Dallas, says calling the network schismatic ``gets things exactly backwards because ``the act of schism was the national denomination's approval for Robinson.

On Sunday night Canon David Anderson, president of the American Anglican Council that is helping organize the network, charged that attacks were unleashed to "derail the network meeting."

Anderson said the Episcopal Church’s actions created the need for a new structure through which orthodox Episcopalians can remain in full fellowship with Anglicans worldwide, and any replacement" is up to overseas Anglican leaders who suggested the idea.

Within the United States, the crunch point is likely to involve conservative congregations existing under pro-gay bishops. The Episcopal Church's presiding bishop, Frank Griswold, has proposed a plan for temporary visiting bishops for disgruntled conservatives, but network leaders say its inadequate.

Parishes in 37 dioceses have applied to the network to provide visiting bishops. An ecclesiastical tangle would result if the network sends bishops into dioceses without permission from regular local bishops.

Last week’s leaked memo said such disobedience of church law ``may be necessary and conservatives should be prepared to risk trials in church or secular courts.

However, Bishop Stanton opposes such lawbreaking. He wants a positive tone so the network can gain further support among the 43 Episcopal bishops who voted against the elevation of Robinson. Sixty-two bishops backed Robinson.

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