The Realignment has begun

By David W. Virtue

"Clergy are being threatened, vows of allegiance to the Episcopal Church are being exacted (even while international excommunications are rising), and canons are being misused to take over dissenting biblically orthodox churches. It is religious persecution, widespread, and it must be opposed." The Rev. Geoff Chapman, St. Stephen's, Sewickley, PA.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Another new development in the worldwide realignment of the Anglican Communion has just begun. It is the Network of Anglican Communion Diocese and Parishes(NACDP), and it promises to do and go where no one else has gone before.

It is, by any standard, a bold move that comes with the approval of the Archbishop of Canterbury but with no support from the leadership of the Episcopal Church. It is the brainchild of a handful of orthodox bishops led by the creative, risk-taking Bishop of Pittsburgh, Robert Duncan.

This group is but one more piece of the national and international chess set of the Anglican Communion that is positioning itself to realize a future for Anglicanism, or watch it dissolve into a federation or perhaps two communions.

There are a number of players now that include the American Anglican Council (AAC), Anglican Communion Parishes (ACI), Forward in Faith NA (FIFNA), the Primates themselves, the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), the Lambeth Conference, and now this new Network. And they are beginning to make their moves like chess pieces hoping, before September that no one will prematurely checkmate the ECUSA King (Frank Griswold) before the Eames Commission has done its work. We shall see.

One of the CAPA ten points was that by Easter of this year Frank Griswold must either repent or face Primatial judgment. That apparently has been nullified for the greater wisdom of the Global South bishops who are now prepared to wait till the conclusion of the Eames Commission report.

The formation of the new Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes was a major step forward for the North American Episcopal Church this week. All that remains to be seen is how it will all play out over the next few months. The truth is, time is running out for ECUSA's revisionists, a day of reckoning is at hand. Over the past few months Frank Griswold has taken more hits than any bishop in modern history.

Whole Christian churches, a dozen Anglican provinces and many of his own bishops have declared themselves in impaired or broken communion with him. Either Griswold doesn't get it, or he is prepared to fall on his sword over sodomy, or see himself hoisted onto a phallic cross of his own making. The public humiliation and embarrassment ECUSA has suffered over pansexuality, the international opprobrium he has received, will be the subject of history books for years to come. To avoid the personal humiliation, Griswold has had to transport himself to a plain to commune with his mystic hero Sufi Rumi.

That this desire for anal sex should have consumed years of talking, endless Primatial gatherings, millions of dollars, millions of air miles flown and more, are beyond all human comprehension.

The Church Fathers would roll over in their graves if they only knew. From the heights of the Arian controversy to pansexual misbehavior, from bowels of compassion to human bowels, the Episcopal Church has descended into Dante's Inferno as flames consume its very soul. In Pascal's famous dictum, The Episcopal Church has "licked the earth."

THE PRESS CONFERENCE held at Christ Church, Plano announcing the formation of the new Network saw a goodly line-up of print, radio and TV media from across the country. Present also was Jan Nunley, associate news director for the Episcopal News Service in New York. She came armed with a bag full of videos from her boss Frank Griswold explaining his side on the issues, which she handed out prior to the press conference. Observing this, Network officials quickly moved in telling her that her actions were inappropriate as this was not her show and asked her to stop. She did but not before she had distributed her entire bag of tapes.

The Network is a hopeful new beginning for ECUSA's faithful looking for a safe place from the storms of revisionist domination. It is an emergency type situation and temporary until the Primates and Rowan Williams decide how they will respond to ECUSA's theological and moral apostasy. This, we are told, will be clear following the conclusion of the Eames Commission report in late September.

The Network's Charter offers hope to biblically orthodox parishes caught in revisionist dioceses. We shall have to see how that plays out in the days and weeks ahead. Alternative Episcopal Oversight is the only acceptable option for this Network, anything less like 'pastoral care' is a non-starter.

But we have already begun to see what some revisionist bishops are prepared to do. Many have said they will not allow AAC to gain a foothold in their dioceses, and it seems most unlikely that these same bishops will allow the Network to come in either.

The leader of the Diocese of Florida, Bishop Stephen Jecko, released a statement saying he voted for the charter and supported it fully but did not sign because he is stepping down in nine days. He said he sent the document to his successor, Bishop John Howard, for review. "I applaud the work of this convocation and pray God's richest blessings upon the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes," Jecko said.

But several alternatives remain.

Leave ECUSA with the congregation, but drop the keys, endowment and walk away from the buildings. Leave ECUSA, hire a good lawyer with a good knowledge of Canon Law and fight the bastards for the properties. (This is by no means a lose/lose situation as Fr. David Moyer in the Diocese of Pennsylvania has discovered. He is still in his parish, and Bishop Bennison has been unable to get rid of him or to get the property. The same thing has happened to Fr. Eddy Rix at All Saints' Church, Wynnewood.)

Or stay in ECUSA and apply for Alternative Episcopal Oversight and if the diocesan bishop doesn't like it he can inhibit you and you can fight back in civil court over one's employment rights being violated. Or you can leave the property, take the congregation and join the Anglican Mission in America (AMIA). Most of these folk who leave are fairly wealthy and can usually come up with seed money to buy new property and start over. It's a bit rough initially, but within a year or two they break ground and begin all over again. There was no weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth in Destin over lost properties at the recent 4th annual AM IA conference. The final option is you can leave your diocese and come under the protection of a Global South Primate like the two parishes in Atlanta did recently. In all likelihood the sitting diocesan bishop will inhibit and depose the rector in question, but the point has been made and once more the ugly, dark side of revisionist bishops who have no gospel to proclaim rears its head.

WHAT IS REALLY HURTING REVISIONIST BISHOPS is the growing loss of millions of dollars to diocesan coffers. Orthodox parishes have woken up to the fact that they don't have to bankroll the bishop's bankrupt agenda and apart from their assessment, they are not obliged to pay one penny more to the diocese thus inhibiting the bishop's 'mission' to spread the 'gospel' of sexual inclusion and depraved diversity.

There is also no legal requirement for a diocese to pay anything to the national church. That is entirely a free will offering.

So what is happening is that bishops like Bennison are now falling hundreds of thousands of dollars behind in funds necessary just to run the diocese. The logic is they will have less to give the national church to keep Griswold's failed "missional objectives" alive. Or they will have to tap their own Trust Funds. These bishops are also ratcheting up the pain threatening orthodox rectors if they don't come through with money over and above their assessment. But ecclesiastical law is on the side of the rector here.

I am told that dozens of dioceses are seeing shrinking budgets that will impact them at many levels including publishing their diocesan newspapers, restricting 'mission' however they define it, supporting mission parishes and much more. It is also apparent that it is not easy to access restricted Trust Funds that are earmarked for particular purposes. A bishop will need to go to court to have those changed.

With less monies coming in, there is less likelihood of a bishop spending thousands of dollars he doesn't have to hire lawyers to sue rectors and their parishes. Virtuosity has learned that the national church is not above kicking in money to help bishops who want to sue orthodox rectors and their parishes. The old saying is true, follow the money. In my father's house are many trust funds.

For revisionist bishops it is about money and ecclesiastical power and occasionally sex, and they will give them up with great reluctance. When you have no life-changing gospel to offer, all you have left at the end of the day is ecclesiastical power and idolatry, and bishops like Tom Shaw of Massachusetts and Charles Bennison of Pennsylvania have both in spades.

When the ECUSA House of Bishops meets in March we will know more about how things are working out, or not working out. Executive Council is obliged to give us the numbers, and everyone will know the truth when the books are opened.

REVISIONISTS RALLY. Concerned about the growth of such ministries at the American Anglican Council, the newly formed Network, The Anglican Communion Institute, Anglican Mainstream and others, a group calling themselves Via Media has been formed in seven dioceses to counter the orthodox 'threat'. They include Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh, Via Media in Albany, Concerned Episcopalians of the St. Lawrence Deanery, Episcopal Forum of South Carolina, Fort Worth Via Media, Remain Episcopal, Diocese of San Joaquin (CA), and Rio Grande Via Media. They are using a variety of tactics to keep the revisionist mindset and spin in ECUSA. If you hear from them you or see their name you have been warned.

SEMINARY NEWS. Virtuosity has learned that the drop in giving to parishes is impacting the hiring of new graduating seminarians. A source told Virtuosity that a number of seminarians who will be graduating in May, and who had been in conversations with parishes about being hired as curates, are now being told that the parish can't afford to hire them due to cutbacks in giving to the parishes. And who said this would all go away and Robinson's consecration would just be like women's ordination. How wrong they were. The chickens are coming home to roost.

IN TODAY'S DIGEST you can read an interview Virtuosity did with the Rev. Geoff Chapman, the priest involved in writing a draft of the document that was leaked to the media. You can get the straight scoop on what really took place without all the revisionist spin. I have also written a story about the spin Louie Crew and the Integrity crowd is putting on the new Network Charter. There is more international disapproval of Griswold's action in consecrating V. Gene Robinson with a statement from the new Archbishop of the Congo, and a Kenyan journalist weighs in on the possibility of international schism. Bishop James Stanton gives us his take on what happened in Plano, Texas and an Anglo-Catholic priest in the Diocese of Colorado issues a challenge to debate the issues with the ECUSA bishop out there. Episcopalian Theologian Dr Joe Murphy tells us why he has left the ECUSA for the AMIA and columnists Terry Mattingly and Mike McManus are up today with timely columns and is much more. Mel Gibson's movie The Passion continues to make a major splash with much heated back and forth over alleged anti-Semitism, but when the Pope saw it recently he was heard to say, "it is as it is." Forward in Faith leader Fr. David Moyer also takes a look at what is happening in ECUSA and is off to Lambeth see Rowan Williams to press the case for alternative episcopal oversight.

CORRECTIONS: In a previous digest I said that the AMIA had 50,000 members. That was inaccurate. It is 15,000. I also said the document passed and ratified by All Saints Pawleys Island was taken to Atlanta. Incorrect. It was taken to Columbia, SC.

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All Blessings,

David W. Virtue DD

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