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ST. JOHN EPISCOPAL MEMBERS FORM NEW CONGREGATION   By Frank E. Lockwood HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER     VERSAILLES - The leadership of an Episcopal parish opposed to the ordination of openly gay bishop Gene Robinson has been dismissed by Lexington diocesan officials.     St. John Episcopal Church, a place where heads of state have worshiped, has been downgraded from a parish to a mission. The move allows Bishop Stacy Sauls to dismiss the congregation leadership and provide direct pastoral supervision of the body. The move split the church and led to the creation of a new, independent congregation.     Sauls said the diocese executive council empowered him to take control of the conservative parish last week, because the council feared that the parish nine-member governing board would leave Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA) and take away church property and bank accounts worth $1.87 million. Sauls said members of St. John who want to remain in the ECUSA asked him to intervene.     I’m very concerned that if we had not done this, the group of loyal Episcopalians would have lost their church, and the leadership of the diocese could not allow that to happen, Sauls said. I think all the signs indicated there was a significant risk that they were days away from leaving the church.     But the dismissed members of the parish governing board, called a vestry, say they never planned to take the assets and werent preparing to abandon the denomination.     Instead, the parish was hoping the ECUSA would allow it and other traditionalist parishes in more liberal dioceses across the country to receive alternative episcopal oversight from more conservative bishops. Tom Thornbury, the top governing official of St. John  until the vestry was disbanded, called Sauls intervention painful, punitive and unnecessary.   In a statement read at Sunday services, Thornbury said Sauls actions have been destructive to individual families within our parish, to the unity of the parish, and the diocese as a whole.   As a bishop, this man is expected to lead his flock, not beat it into submission, Thornbury said. The only reason we can imagine why this bishop would act in such an ... unethical manner towards us is his deep animosity towards evangelical and orthodox Anglicans.   Sauls denies any animosity and said he is committed to working with conservatives and liberals alike.     It’s unclear how many people St. John is losing, although Sauls said yesterday it may have lost a majority of its members. The church average attendance was about 150. St. John has been a fixture on Versailles Main Street for more than 150 years. Two of its rectors became bishops of Lexington. Over the years, St. John visitors have included President George Herbert Walker Bush and Elizabeth II, the Queen of England and the Defender of the (Anglican) Faith.     But for the past decade, relations between St. John and diocesan leadership had deteriorated, Sauls said.     After the denomination general convention allowed an openly gay man, Lexington native Gene Robinson, to become a bishop, relations got worse.   The church protested Sauls vote supporting Robinson.   Then, the Versailles parish, which was seeking to hire a new priest (known as a rector), kept Sauls in the dark as it went about its search, the bishop said. The vestry eventually selected a finalist to lead St. John without consulting with Sauls first, the bishop said.     Former leaders of St. John say they followed ECUSA rules while going about their search. They now plan to focus on church-building, not lawsuits.     Mudslinging is not the answer, and were not going to partake in that, said former junior warden Paul Afdahl.     Pat Ewing, an Episcopalian for seven decades, says shell join the new congregation once it finds a place to worship. We’re getting rid of all that old baggage we had, and were going into a new church where we’ll be able to ... open up our Bibles, and go by what the Bible says, she said.     The Rev. Philip Haug, interim minister-in-charge at St. John, said he has confidence in Sauls. He has a difficult job ... and he doing it the way he thought was right and best for the future of the church. He has my full support.     http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/local/7705218.htm     END

Senior Bishops Also Ready To Cross Diocesan Lines, Plano-East Meeting Told     Report/Analysis By Auburn Faber Traycik The Christian Challenge (Washington, DC) January 13, 2004     IF THE OVER 3,000-STRONG Plano-East meeting January 9-10 just south of  Washington, D.C., is an example, the network of faithful Episcopalians emerging   within the Episcopal Church (ECUSA), but outside its official structure, is  becoming - as one speaker put it - a force to be reckoned with. The new Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes reportedly  has--among other things--the encouragement of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr.  Rowan Williams.     But, while it seems highly unlikely that he would presently support the  designation of it as a replacement for ECUSAâ₠-an unprecedented step--he may face  a hard choice on that score.     That is because the Network--even before its formal launching next week--is  already starting to be treated as the legitimate U.S. branch of the Communion  by several Anglican provinces and even other Christian bodies, said Pittsburgh  Bishop Robert Duncan and other principals at Plano-East in Woodbridge,  Virginia, sponsored by the D.C. and Virginia chapters of the American Anglican  Council (AAC).     The shift in ecclesial relationships is flanked by earlier announcements that  some 20 Anglican provinces considered their communion with ECUSA liberal  leadership broken or impaired, in the wake of the American Church consecration  of an actively gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson, and support for  optional  same-sex blessings. The actions--seen by most Anglicans worldwide as defying  scriptural authority, established policy, and widespread appeals--have quickened a process of realignment across the Communion.     The most remarkable recent illustration of the change taking place came in a  stinging letter to ECUSA Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, in which the Ugandan  Anglican Church--which earlier broke ties with ECUSA--turned back the U.S.  Church plans to send a delegation to the installation of Uganda new  presiding bishop. It also saw ECUSA offer of aid as an attempt to buy Uganda  silence and cooperation for its unbiblical policies.     The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not for sale, even among the poorest of us who  have no money, the letter declared. Eternal life, obedience to Jesus  Christ, and conforming to His Word are more important, said the Ugandans--who  invited Network representatives to attend their archbishop installation instead.     That is radical stuff, the Rev. Martyn Minns, rector of Virginia Truro  Church, Fairfax, told Plano-East participants, who outnumbered the some 2,700  faithful Episcopalians who attended October landmark meeting in Dallas  (Plano). Minns said the Ugandan event would be attended by Bishop Duncan, the  Network Moderator, and Dallas Bishop James Stanton, and others.     The formal inauguration of the Network--a move the AAC says is strongly  supported by many Anglican primates--is set to take place January 19-20 at Christ  Church, Plano, and to include among its participants representatives of at  least a dozen dioceses: Albany, Pittsburgh, San Joaquin (CA), South Carolina,  Florida, Central Florida, Dallas, Fort Worth, Quincy and Springfield (both in  Illinois), Western Kansas, and Rio Grande. THE NEW NETWORK also got a boost from a group of senior bishops which Minns  announced is now prepared to exercise episcopal ministry to marginalized or  embattled parishes across diocesan lines--with or without the permission of  the local ECUSA bishop.     Though there was speculation that this may involve foreign  bishops--canonically untouchable by ECUSA--Minns did not name names, and neither would other AAC  spokesmen TCC queried.     But the provision of adequate episcopal oversight for conservative parishes  in hostile circumstances has the backing of Anglican primates (provincial  leaders), who inferred at their October meeting in London that they will monitor  such provisions via the Archbishop of Canterbury role as consultant in the  matter.     Still, it appears virtually certain that there will be a need for bishops  willing to cross lines without permission. Already, ECUSA and AAC officials are  stalemated over a draft bishops plan that provides no override of the local  bishop if he fails to permit adequate alternate care (adequate being judged  by the recipients). And the stakes are growing higher by the day: some 100  parishes are said to have applied through the AAC for alternate episcopal care.     -Navigating Uncharted Waters-     Minns sparked amusement with his understatement that providing unauthorized  episcopal ministry--though pastoral in intent--may cause some controversy.     And of course, no one could expect that, for beleaguered faithful  Episcopalians,  it will be all smooth or swift sailing through uncharted Anglican waters.  Nor is the new Network likely to offer a panacea for all believing  Episcopalians, since it will not adopt the catholic position on women ordination.     Some confusion and questions were generated recently in the wake of Bishop  Duncan comments to the effect that the Network is not seeking to be a province  separate from ECUSA.     Indeed, it remains intertwined with a body that--despite its rebellious  pro-gay actions and the serious damage they have caused to Anglican unity and  ecumenical efforts--has yet to be de-recognized by the Archbishop of Canterbury  and/or the primates jointly. In remarks to reporters at Woodbridge, as well,  Duncan still held out hope that sufficient pressure could be brought to bear on  ECUSA to step back from its anti-scriptural position on homosexuality.     That was not exactly the message that some heard earlier--if not from Duncan, from other leading spokesmen--at the Dallas meeting and elsewhere.     One online commentator asked what happened to some conservative leaders  assertions that there would be a new province, that the irreformable ECUSA  would be `excommunicated, that no one was working on establishing a `church  within a church--a phrase lately used to describe the Network by both Duncan and  AAC President David Anderson, but a scheme that has been tried and failed.  (Based on its experience, the traditionalist Forward in Faith, North America, has  been urging some Communion-recognized means of separate existence for orthodox U.S. Anglicans since at least 1997, and had promoted similar concepts since  1976.)  As well, there have been largely fruitless prior pledges and pursuits  of alternate episcopal oversight, and, some have asked, could that be more  than an interim solution?     In sum--especially after a Pittsburgh diocesan move putting church property  into the hands of congregations was recalled in a bid to halt a lawsuit over  the motion--some have wondered whether the stay in network meant that a desire  to retain church property and remain in the club would again trump  theology, and genuine unity and communion.       But it is not that AAC spokesmen do not see the importance of clarifying  relationships and statuses--including that of the Network--along theological lines  within the Communion; it is that it is not up to U.S. faithful to  adjudicate that, the Rev. Canon Kendall Harmon of South Carolina told TCC in  Woodbridge.     Harmon and other AAC spokesmen see the realignment as requiring a patient  process in which their main task is to identify and gather their constituency  within ECUSA and fully establish the Network, so as to distinguish the faithful  for foreign bishops seeking to maintain fellowship, and to be ready (as Fr.  Minns put it) for other possibilities.     And they are encouraged by the international situation as they see it  developing. Though many U.S. faithful would have welcomed stronger, swifter action,  the conservative majority of primates--which only began to awaken to the state  of ECUSA about eight years ago--have already significantly changed the  Anglican landscape in that time. What was first solidly manifest at the 1998 Lambeth  Conference, is now evident in unprecedented declarations of broken communion  (by about 25 percent of provinces so far).     Some provinces have apparently responded to Archbishop Williams appeal for  forbearance, and are waiting for next September results from a new  commission. That panel, led by Irish Primate Robin Eames, is to sort out the legal and  relational implications of ECUSA unilateral actions within the  Communion--though it should be noted that there is a wide range of expectations about what  this commission will do, not all of them likely to be met.     And as the first Eames Commission promoted a doctrine of reception (testing  process) on women ordination at the expense of a hallmark of communion--the  interchangeability of ministries--one might well ask whether Eames II cannot  be expected to find ways of allowing and managing two sexuality doctrines in  one Communion as well.     As Harmon sees it, the tale will be told by how the Eames Commission  performs, how it interfaces with the global South, the response of global South  leaders, and where Williams places himself in regard to that. But he thinks the  odds favor the conservatives.     Unlike the women issue, about which he contended that scripture speaks  bifocally, Harmon told TCC that it wont work...to glorify the doctrine of  reception on the gay issue. You cant `receive something which has no  scriptural grounds, and which he said has been rejected by all four advisory  instruments of Anglican unity--the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth  Conference, the Primates Meetings and the Anglican Consultative Council.     Global South leaders, in particular, will not tolerate dual theologies on the  issue, he believes--something which also might suggest that they will not  long allow an unrepentant ECUSA to retain full membership status in a Communion  of which they are also a part.     As well, Harmon sees an edge in the fact that Eames II and Archbishop  Williams will have to take the existence of the Network into consideration in  formulating their positions--a Network he also said is already receiving growing  recognition within the Communion and ecumenically.       Moreover, he believes that liberal arguments about ECUSA pro-homosexual  innovations--that it no big deal, that it can be handled like women  ordination, that it not a Communion-dividing issue--are fast losing ground. It is a  process he thinks has been quickened by the performance of ECUSA presiding  bishop. Griswold supported the October statement of Anglican primates--which  grimly warned of a serious breakdown in commmunion if Robinson was  consecrated--and then proceeded to act as the gay bishop chief consecrator. While U.S.  conservative activists expected this result, some global South leaders were  shocked by it, Harmon said.     The bottom line, he told TCC, is that, international support for the U.S.  faithful is steadily increasing.     AND SOME LEADERS of the emerging Network have scored an approach too focused  on clinging to church property, the club, and/or the general status quo.     Last fall, Bishop Duncan told brethren in Canada that: We need to give up  our idolatries, our comfortable lives that include buildings, properties and  offices. We need to submit to godly leaders...     At Plano-East, AAC Chancellor A. Hugo Blankingship described the  unencouraging legal outlook on church property rights. But, while he noted that church  property is consecrated to the Lord and should be protected, he drew applause  when he added his belief that our orthodox clergy are our chief assets, and far  more important to us than the property. He also joined other speakers in  pointing to the conservatives own role in creating ECUSA dire situation, a  matter addressed with repentance and prayer during the meeting. This is our mess,  and we must deal with it, Blankingship said.     And in his final remarks at Plano-East, Minns asked: Which future do you  want? A safe and comfortable club for people who appreciate the finer things of  life, or are you willing to take the risk and become a missionary community  where all sorts and conditions of men and women are welcome?...Are you willing to  welcome the down and out as well as the up and out?...Not everyone who comes  will be properly dressed and know how to behave or when to sit or stand, but  saving lives is at the heart of God vision. The question is whether we are  willing to pay the price to make it our future. God vision for His Church is  not one of tidy little clubs that sing pretty little songs. God vision for  His Church is one of radical inclusion but it is also one of profound  transformation...     That vision was certainly encouraged and enlarged by moving talks given  during the meeting from representatives of some truly inspiring orthodox  ministries--Anglican Frontier Missions, which seeks to reach world  still-unevangelized; Five Talents, which aids the development of small businesses in developing  countries; Regeneration, a ministry to those seeking to overcome homosexual  attraction; SOMA (Sharing of Ministries Abroad); Alpha; and several others.     -Getting Connected-     And if anything sounded like a rejection of compromise, it was the engaging  talk by Diane Knippers, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy  and a member of ECUSA Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations.     The big lie is that one must choose between truth and unity, she said.  Rather, she declared: Genuine truth defines our unity. Genuine unity protects the  truth.     Noting the terrible blow that the General Convention decisions dealt to  Christian unity, she said it is preposterous that we are called schismatic or  separatist. We `dissenters are the ones committed to Christian unity.     Fr. Minns agreed. Will the Network divide [ECUSA]? he asked. No, that  division has already occurred.   Minns sees the Network as being a move of the Holy Spirit by which people  are getting connected over lines that used to separate us.     We are connected by a common vision for the Gospel and a passion for  mission; by a desire to see the Word of God proclaimed with sensitivity and power,  and apply its truth to our lives.     For members of dioceses that are part of its initial formation, the Network  will give an opportunity to bring orthodox leadership to our church at a time  when [its] very future...is at risk. It will allow new partnerships  and...relationships within North America and beyond, Minns told the Plano-East  gathering.     Reportedly, the Network will be open as well to conservative Anglicans in  Mexico and Canada, where New Westminster Bishop Michael Ingham and his diocese  have made some major waves over the issue of same-sex blessings.     For parishes that are not part of the founding dioceses it will give a place  to stand and a community with which to connect, Minns went on. Some parishes  may remain canonically within their existing dioceses, but seek spiritual  oversight through the Network, while some of the more isolated and embattled  parishes may become extra-territorial parts of the founding dioceses, or the basis  of new missionary districts, he said.     Individuals in parishes that have supported the General Convention decisions  have a few options, such as trying to build a network within their parish or  local community. Minns said the Network would also encourage the planting of  new churches.     What it will do is give hope and a place to belong for Anglican Christians  in North America who are committed to a biblical worldview and a biblical way  of life, Minns said. Around the Communion and ecumenically, he said, the Network gives us a way  to connect with those sisters and brothers around the world...who will no  longer recognize the current leadership of [ECUSA], he added.     Could it be a replacement for ECUSA? Only God knows, but well be ready.     -----------------

By Steve Levin Pittsburgh Post-Gazette January 07, 2004     A controversial resolution that called for local Episcopal parishes to maintain control of their property and buildings in defiance of church canon law has been withdrawn by attorneys representing Bishop Robert W. Duncan Jr. Resolution No. 6, passed at a diocesan convention in September, was at the heart of an October lawsuit filed by a Shadyside church against Duncan and the diocese board of trustees to prevent them from transferring ownership of any church property.     Duncan attorney, Joe Otto, said the bishop and the trustees withdrew the resolution on Dec. 9 during a special meeting. The withdrawal was contained in a response to the church lawsuit filed by Otto on Dec. 30 in Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas.     Resolution 6 may have confused [people] a little bit, said Otto, an attorney with the Downtown firm Dickie, McCamey & Chilcote. To the extent that it might have done that, it seemed to the diocese that it should be taken out of the picture and it has been taken out of the picture.     The Rev. Harold T. Lewis, rector of Calvary Episcopal Church and a plaintiff in the lawsuit against Duncan, said the withdrawal of the resolution was not sufficient.     We want a court declaration regarding the illegality of the resolution, Lewis said.     Even though the resolution was passed at the Sept. 27 diocesan convention by a 204-72 margin with 16 abstentions, Otto said it had no legal effect since it was not incorporated into church canon law. Duncan had told attendees at the convention that passing Resolution No. 6 would be about the spirit in which we would try to negotiate over property issues were any congregation to decide at some point in the future to leave its union with the diocese.     Denominational canon law and several cases adjudicated in civil courts hold that the diocese is the primary trustee of property in the Episcopal Church.     Resolution No. 6 and five others had been developed by Duncan and diocesan officials in response to the Episcopal Church USA tacit approval of same-sex blessings and its confirmation at its summer convention of an openly gay priest as bishop of New Hampshire.     Calvary lawsuit was not filed against the diocese but on its behalf through a legal procedure known as ad litem. It allows members of an unincorporated association -- in this case, the diocese -- to assert the need for compliance with the association constitution and laws.     The lawsuit was brought to preserve and protect the unity and integrity of the property of the national church, the Pittsburgh diocese and the parishes, missions and other institutions and organizations of those church bodies.     END

By David W. Virtue VIRTUOSITY     ATLANTA, GA--Two new Anglican parishes have been formed in the Diocese of Atlanta by clergy and laity who have left The Episcopal Church and come under the authority of the Province of the Southern Cone and its Primate The Most Rev. Gregory Venables. The new churches have called themselves New Anglican Church and Holy Cross Anglican Church, and will be located in northwest Atlanta and Loganville. The New Anglican Church, (a temporary name), held its first service on Sunday and Holy Cross Anglican Church will hold its first service February 8.     The New Anglican Church is made up of parishioners from St. Jude church, a biblically orthodox parish in Marietta, under the leadership of its Evangelical rector the Rev. Frank Baltz, 59, a 35-year veteran priest who has decided to stay with the parish and in the ECUSA.     The formation of the two parishes is not being viewed as an intervention by an outside Primate, said Baltz to Virtuosity, it is a rescue situation for Episcopalians who feel they cannot in good conscience stay in The Episcopal Church.     I blessed them as they left. We all in the parish feel very sad that our people had to leave at this time. There was no anger. Many have been very impatient and instead of working through the process they got ahead of  it. Nonetheless we blessed them and let them go.     Atlanta Bishop J. Neil Alexander was supportive of him in his loss. The bishop did not threaten me but seemed supportive of me and the parish, he told Virtuosity. Baltz said he was not sure he would stay in The Episcopal Church and would consider all his options down the road. I made no promises to the bishop. He understands we are orthodox, we havent changed any theology. We mentally disagree with him.     (Bishop Alexander is a revisionist who supports same sex rites and the consecration of V. Gene Robinson.)     St. Jude, which normally has 160 on an average Sunday dipped to less than half. The new Anglican Church saw 90 people at its first service with some 50 coming from St. Jude, and the other 40 coming from other area Episcopal churches, a parishioner told Virtuosity. Only two of the original vestry stayed at St. Jude.     The budget of the church had been $375,000 but it is expected to drop too less than half that when the shake out is completed.  Of the parish ten largest givers seven of them left the church, said a former parish member. It was the active leadership of the church who left and the most well heeled.     But funds had been drying up before the church split, and the departures will only escalate that process, said another parishioner.     Well-known lay Episcopal evangelist Lee Buck told Virtuosity, I am now an Anglican. I was in the ECUSA for 35 years, and I depart now with great sadness. I met Jesus 35 years ago at St. Paul, Darien, Ct. and now it has come to this. Bill Bugg an activist organizer Evangelical layman and influential in orthodox circles also left St. Jude.     The parting was amicable. We are not mad at anyone in the church; we left because of the apostasy of ECUSA (the national church) not because of St. Jude or the rector. We had to make a decision. It was about the faith, the truth of Holy Scripture. We left because of people like Jack Spong (former Bishop of Newark) who has denied every tenet of the faith. It was also about the consecration of V. Gene Robinson which was the last straw, said Buck. It was a matter of theological conscience; our intention is to be mission-minded reaching out to share the Gospel of Christ with others. That kind of thinking is not wanted any more in the ECUSA.     New Anglican Church has appointed a steering committee chaired by Dr. Brian Thoms, a professor at Georgia State University, and will call a rector in the next several months.  Rev. Bill DeArteaga, is an associate priest of the new congregation, which includes many Hispanics.  Father DeArteaga is fluent in Spanish.     Explaining New Anglican Church action, Dr. Thoms said, The recent actions of the Episcopal Church is in direct contradiction to Holy Scripture and indicates a fundamental abandonment of faith in the authority of the Bible and the traditions of the Anglican Communion.     St. Alban priest resigns     The Rev. Dr. Foley Beach rector of St. Alban in Monroe, GA also announced his resignation from The Episcopal Church, and his parish, to open Holy Cross Anglican Church. This issue (sexuality) is only a symptom of a deeper problem regarding the  authority of the Bible and the place of Church tradition in the modern Church, he said in a letter to his former congregation, I have come to the conclusion  that I can no longer serve the Lord as an Episcopal priest.     In August with the approval by General Convention of a non-celibate homosexual man to be a bishop and the local option regarding liturgies for the blessing of same unions, the Church brought its internal and immoral crisis to each one of us.  I have spoken loudly against these actions without any serious thought to the future.  After meeting with Bishop Alexander on December 2, it was clear to me that I could not remain under his leadership.     Canon David Anderson, President of the American Anglican Council said he understood why these two parishes left ECUSA but at the same time he urged churches in orthodox dioceses to have patience as efforts were being made to restore orthodoxy in the Episcopal Church.     Addressing the move, Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables, Primate of the Province of the Southern Cone of South America said, They would have been lost to the Anglican Church otherwise. At our Primates meeting in October, we all agreed that adequate oversight must be provided. We cannot just stand idly by while congregations are being lost to the Anglican Communion.     The new churches are now under the jurisdiction and a part of the Diocese of Bolivia whose leader is Bishop Frank Lyons, a bilingual American who has lived and ministered in the Province of the Southern Cone for many years. Bishop Lyons expressed regret that the Episcopal Church was separating itself from the Anglican Communion. They have freely decided to go their own way, regardless of the consequences and in spite of heartfelt concern. The reality of what they have done, who they are, and how they regard the rest of Anglicanism needs to sink in.  I think the majority of the Anglican World is in a profound grieving process at the moment.     The effects of the decisions of the Episcopal Church in the United States (ECUSA) to choose a candidate for bishop who is sexually active outside marriage and to declare same-sex blessings to be within the bounds of faith, continue to have negative impact around the world.     END

From: Mary Ailes, Truro Church, Fairfax, VA JANUARY 9   PLANO EAST CONFERENCE, VIRGINIA     When a diocesan bishop goes into another diocese to celebrate the Eucharist, the bishop cannot just show up and start celebrating.  That would be like Tony Blair dropping into the White House and ordering new drapes for the East Room.  It just not done.  Bishop Peter Lee, Bishop of the Diocese of Virginia, graciously gave his consent for Bishop Bob Duncan, Bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, to celebrate the Eucharist at the opening of the Plano East Conference (Jan. 9-10) today, sponsored by the American Anglican Council chapters of the Diocese of Virginia and the Diocese of Washington. Did Bishop Lee ever dream that Bishop Duncan would lead a Eucharist of nearly 3,000 Episcopalians?     Tonight was the kickoff for the follow-up conference to the historic gathering of Episcopalians in Texas last October 7-10.  Called Plano since that was the original site for the conference until the numbers grew too large (around 2,500 people as I recall) and had to be moved to Dallas.     Tonight nearly 3,000 Episcopalians are registered for this gathering in Virginia.  What is going on?  The place was packed.  Instead of being discouraged, we are being encouraged.  Instead of being beat down, we rise up.  Though the seas are rough - and they are rough - we fix our eyes on Jesus.     We are gathering in the Hylton Memorial Chapel in Woodbridge, Virginia, just off I-95 north of Richmond and south of Washington.  The Chapel is unique - a conference center that seats thousands, but is designed as a traditional congregational church, including a steeple!  It is a perfect setting for worship.     I arrived just as the Processional began.  The long line of clergy - men and women of many different traditions - processed into the Chapel as we sang Praise to the Lord the Almighty, the King of creation.  This was followed by God of Grace and God of Glory.  Songs of worship then followed the procession and we sang Shout to the Lord and Be Unto Your Name.  As I gazed around the room I saw so many faces I didn’t recognize - where are these people coming from?  And I also saw so many old friends - so many that I haven’t seen in a very long time.     The collect we prayed was inspired.  O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you, bring the nations into your fold, pour out your Spirit upon all flesh, and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.     Outside the winds were blowing cold, a cold wind from the North.  It is so cold here you can feel it in your bones.  But inside this great hall it was warm, as though we need this strengthening for the days that lie ahead.  The world outside is cold, but our hearts are being warmed for the task, God willing.     Hebrews 12 and Matthew 14 were read and Bishop Duncan preached from those texts.  Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. (Hebrews 12).  We also read the magnificent account of Jesus walked on water, terrifying His disciples, as the storm raged.  Take courage! Jesus says to them.  It is I.  Don’t be afraid.     Bishop Duncan took the podium and gave a strong word to the thousands gathered on this blustery winter night. Been in any storms lately? he asked.  Yes, I thought, quite a few actually.  Feel like it was someone else decision that put you in the boat the you find yourself in today? he asked.  Yes, you could say that.     It was a far worse storm than anticipated, Bishop Duncan said, wondering if the terrible night would ever end.  Any of us find ourselves doubting lately, feeling like sinking?  What a great Gospel we have, what a great Gospel passage is before us tonight before our sinking souls.     It has felt that way sometimes, as we read the letters and quotes from our bishops and wonder what is going to happen.  Will the storm be too much? But how we can say that when we have such a great Gospel for our sinking souls.  It is such a great Gospel, even for our apparently sinking church. We must persevere and not be afraid     Discipline and Discipleship are the same word, Bishop Duncan told us.  But then he had a tough question for us.  Before this present crisis, he asked, would others have known our commitment to discipleship?  How sorry I am for how laxed I have been, he said of himself.  This storm is not just their doing.  Forgive me, Lord, forgive me - how good you are that despite my unworthiness and sinfulness you would come to me on the sea.  And still I doubt and sink.  Even now you reach out your hand to catch me up.  How can we end but to say All praise to the Lord Jesus Christ.  We are here to accept our hardship, to weather our storm no matter how long the night may be.  Jesus endured the hostility himself so we would not have to endure. Have we resisted to the point of shedding our blood - brothers and sisters, He has.  Set your eyes upon Him.  Lay aside your sin, every bit of rebellion and look to Him.  Then you shall run, then persevere, then the prophet promise shall be fulfilled in you.  Have you not known, have you not heard, the Lord is the everlasting God.  He does not faint or grow worry, His understanding is unsearchable, He gives strength to the weary, they shall mount up with wings as eagles.     Eagles.  As he spoke this word I remembered the scene in the new film Return of the King.  The picture was so vivid - the Eagles come to rescue Sam and Frodo, there at the end of all things.  I want to remember that picture in those moments when I feel discouraged, when I feel weary, that I shall set my eyes on Jesus.       Bishop Duncan also reminded us that is not only for discipline in our discipleship as followers of Christ that we have gathered for this meeting. It is also for encouragement.  We have more especially come together to be encouraged, he said.  The truth is that whenever we turn to Him, whenever we turn from the storm, and from our sin and the sin of others, we receive heart, we are given courage, we become again both loving hearts and brave hearts.  The encouraged disciples of Jesus Christ - and that is our whole purpose in this awesome gathering.  Have we not been driven to worship and to proclamation - to encourage one another?     Bishop Duncan concluded with an amazing story that only just happened in the past few days.  He was ringing up US Air to change his flight reservations. US Air is a big deal in Pittsburgh, it Hub.  There a lot in common between US Air and the Episcopal Church USA.  So Bishop Duncan calls up to change his flight and the woman on the phone is making the arrangements and handling all the details.     Suddenly she breaks in with a question for him, as if it has just occurred to her.  Are you Bishop Duncan? she asked him directly.   He was surprised.  Uh, yes, he told, I am.  He wasn’t sure what was going to happen next.     I pray for you every day, the woman from US Air told him enthusiastically. I thank God for what you are doing.  Bishop Duncan was speechless and very moved.  One never knows where the encouragement will come from.     My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly trust in Jesus name. When darkness seems to hide his face, I rest on his unchanging grace in every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil. Tomorrow we should learn the latest news - which I will pass on to you.  We will be hearing from Kendall Harmon (Canon Theologian for the Diocese of South Carolina) on Anglican Essentials.  He knows what it like to walk through the fire - even friendly fire.  Please pray for him - and for our friends in the Diocese of South Carolina.  They remind me a bit of the Scots in Braveheart.  We must hang together or surely we will hang separately.     Martyn Minns, Diane Knippers, Hugo Blankingship, Thomas Logan, Kendall, and Andrew Pearson will be speaking in a panel presentation and that should be quite interesting.  There will also be panels in the afternoon on World Mission, Local Mission and the Mission of the Church in the Next Generation. Martyn will give the closing address.  All I can hear right now - because I have it playing in the background as I type is Sir William Wallace crying Freedom!     Bishop Gerard E. Mpango, Bishop of Western Tanganyika, Tanzania will give the closing prayer and blessing.  Is this a great church or what!     Thank you for your prayers.  If you have any questions - please let me know!     God bless you!     Mary Ailes Truro Episcopal Church Fairfax, VA     END

From: Mary Ailes, Truro Church, Fairfax, VA   January 10     When I got up this morning in the dark, the temperatures outside in the single digits, I asked myself, why are you doing this?  Haven’t I heard it all?  How many of these things have I gone to?  Will I really hear anything new?  Does anyone really have any idea what is going to happen?  Wouldn’t it be better just to stay in the warmth of this bed and let someone else do it? Why don’t I just become a Quaker But I got up. And out into the dark I went.  What I found when I got to Plano East were now 3,000 Episcopalians - all fired up for Jesus.     Imagine this.  I feel like I have been able to stand on tiptoe and look through a small window and catch a glimpse of what may be coming.  And friends, it looks real good.  Come look through the window with me.     Imagine this.  I am rushing through a quick lunch today at a local Potomac Mills Burger King and a young man walks over to me at the beverage counter. May I ask you a question? he asks tentatively, as his two young children run to join his wife at their table.  I said sure, thinking he must have seen the name badge I was still wearing.     Who are all those people over at Hylton Chapel? he asked me.  Ive never seen so many cars over there before.     Oh, that 3,000 Episcopalians. I answered simply.     His eyes opened wide.  Episcopalians? he whispered incredulously.     His wonder, his amazement mirrors exactly how I feel right now as I write to you.  I did not expect - at all - to go to this meeting today and come home feeling as though I have been on a major spiritual retreat.  I am now so use to living in the valley that I forgot there are mountains.  I am so excited by what God is doing in our midst - and this is really happening - that I hope we can build strong bridges between us, though the miles may separate us.  It looks like it could be a Second Reformation.  And to think I almost turned over and went back to sleep.  It might be cold.  But it is warm.     The Revd John Yates, rector of the Falls Church Episcopal in Falls Church, VA, opened the day with an exhortation on the primacy of the Scriptures in the church.  The church has always through the ages to submitted to the Scriptures as God informative guide, he said.  In the last few generations our church has tolerated leaders who have jettisoned the Scriptures.  We now have to say enough is enough.  We bow to the authority and the total trustworthiness of Scripture.  We remember Ridley, Latimer, and Cranmer who held fast to this authority even though it cost them their lives.       Ridley, I think, the one who was tied to a burning fire with Latimer in the First Reformation.  Ridley, the one whom Latimer encouraged in their last moments with the immortal words Be of good cheer, Master Ridley, and play the man.  For today shall light such a candle ... that shall never go out. The candle is lit, the winds blow strong, they blow cold here in Virginia - but the flame still burns.       I am up in the balcony in the full to capacity hall.  Richard Crocker is at the podium and introduces David Bickel, president of the Washington DC Chapter of the American Anglican Council to welcome us to this conference. Many in the Washington diocese cannot see what causes the alarm from General Convention.  They see it as a cafeteria plan - why should it impact anyone else?  The DC-AAC has worked to show what corporate accountability means from the biblical perspective.  ECUSA is not an island.  We are in relationship with all the Christian community throughout the world.       Kendall Harmon, Canon theologian to the Diocese of South Carolina and editor of the Anglican Digest.  He looks like he just walked straight out of Hobbiton.  Richard Crocker says Kendall is the Leader of the Re-asserters. I think he Samwise Gamgee.  He is also the one who wrote the Minority Report of One at General Convention opposing CO51, the Resolution endorsing Same Sex Unions.  Kendall takes the podium and speaks on Anglican Essentials, from a talk he gave at Plano I.  I know his talk is now available at his website http://titusonenine.blogspot.com .  But here are some highlights:     ANGLICAN ESSENTIALS:     We are catholic Christians: What it means above all is a sense that we stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before.  Take the time to pay attention to the history of the Holy Spirit.  What does Augustine say about idolatry  - Augustine said idolatry was to worship anything that ought to be used and use anything that ought to be worshiped.  Catholics are those who plead for order.  God put together the universe in an orderly way.  Order has an important place in the work.  We find order in the liturgy.  The liturgy becomes and obstacle to worship because it becomes a Baskin Robbins liturgy - each week a different flavor.  Crammer sat down to write a book of COMMON prayer.  The more important the decision the more we should consult because we are a conciliatory church.       Kendall says he learned a lot from St. Paul Darien, CT. Drove five hours one way to worship.  God exists. So He is to be worshipped for who He is.  Worship Him in Spirit and in Truth for the full glory of Him.  The charismatic movement is a wakeup call to the church.  Terry Fullum also taught that in addition to worship, there is the power of the Holy Spirit.  Dynamite.  God is a God who places the same power in His people the same power that God uses to resurrect His Son from the dead.     We believe in the authority of the Bible.  1958 Lambeth Conference Report: The church is not over the Holy Scriptures, but under them.  In this sense that the process of canonization of the books of the Bible possess authority.  The books were recognized by giving witness of the Apostles of the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord ... To that apostolic authority the church must ever bow.  We have a problem in the Episcopal Church - God is apparently doing a new thing but God does not do new things that are at odds with who God has revealed himself to be.     It is really about Jesus, Kendall said.  Jesus Christ is the center of it all.  Jesus is the most interesting person of all.  The Life of Jesus, the Crucifixion of Jesus, the Resurrection of Jesus - this is Jesus born, died, risen for you - what are you going to do about it?     To be a Christian does not mean one starts with the world and oneself and moves into the cross, but one starts at the foot of the cross and then from there move out to oneself and the world, Kendall said.  The cross is the center of it all.  The author is enters His own story.  Jesus is God with skin.  But we took that wonderful gift and we said no.  I will rule this world, I will be as God - Crucify Him!  But the very same God who is refused by the world on Good Friday uses it to transform the world that crucifies Him.  He has taken upon himself the rejection of Himself by the world.     Just moving people into the community and getting them excited about liturgical worship.  That not it!  It about rescuing the lost. We must be reconciled to God - meaning you are not reconciled to God now.  We are in a church where the liturgical common life is set increasing at odds with the world view.  How many people in this parish have met Jesus Christ personally and have been transformed by His love?     There must be a realignment in Anglicanism.  In Minneapolis the Episcopal Church decided to risk the church - all four authorities - Lambeth, the Primates, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Anglican Consultive Council said don’t do it.  We did not consult them and we did it anyway.  It is not catholic it will not stand.  The Spirit of God was grieved a way of life that is in contradiction of holiness was celebrated. This is not catholic it will not stand.  The Holy Scriptures were quickly dismissed or deliberately twisted - this is not catholic, it will not stand. In Minneapolis, the Gospel of Jesus Christ was replaced with a therapeutic Gospel, a gospel of affirmation in the hands of a satisfied therapist.  If we embrace the biblical Gospel we are threat to this new gospel - they see it as unjust and unchristian.  There are two Gospels clashing in Anglicanism and we have only been given One Gospel.  We must stand together.     The assembly rises to our feet in sustained applause.  Yes, we will stand together.  We must.     Then comes another memorable moment at Plano East.     Tom Logan, Rector of Calvary Church of Washington.  Comes to the podium and sings boldly Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.  The hall joins him in the song.  We have been bamboozled, run amok and we need to declare the authority of the world of God.  It is not a doctrine of inclusiveness that will save us, but Jesus who will save us - we know this because the Bible tells us so.  Where is your faith?  The Word of God, the message of hope has gotten the African Americans through the darkest days, Tom told us.  He confesses that he has been complacent because he thought there were more pressing issues of what he has to face.  Calvary Church is surrounded by these issues and thought he was complacent.  All this discussion about sexuality was for the white community, he confesses. Very moving.  Very moving. He is so transparent as he speaks. How do I know there is a healing power in Jesus? He asks.  The Bible tells me so.  We need to get the light of the Word shine in our lives, in our discussion, in 815, in Lambeth Palace, in this little light of mine.  He concludes with the entire place breaking out into This Little Light of Mine.  The place starts rocking.  Awesome!     The question is asked: Is this crisis really different from other crisis?     Kendall Harmon comes to the podium.  The ordination of women is brought into this discussion about ordaining non-celibate homosexuals.  But it is very different.  We see that England used the New Testament, the Scriptures, to make their case for women ordination.  There was a scripturally based argument.  There are New Testament passages that were used to make this case.  But there are no scriptural grounds to uphold the consecration of Gene Robinson or the passage of C051.  Some tried to take the Bible and maintain that what we think that what the Bible says is not really what the Bible says.  So they tried to reinterpret the Bible culturally and say that this book doesn’t apply to us.  But this didn’t work.  Walter Wink grants the fact the Bible is overwhelming against it so let just cast the Bible aside.  Please provide me a solid biblical argument to make this change, Kendall said.  The Word of God is brought by the Spirit of God into the Church of God.  The Church is the means into which the Word is brought into the world.  The Anglican Communion has said something different about sexuality than the ordination of women.  The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Primates, the Lambeth Conference, and the ACC all said not to consecrate Gene Robinson, but this was not the case in the women ordination.  They are not the same, don’t be fooled by that argument.     Diane Knippers,  President of IRD talks about exposing three myths about what happened at General Convention:     #1 This Represents the Future - This is not true, Diane said.  The sexual ethics are not new but from the 20th century. It is the timeless standards of Scriptures that matters.      #2 For the Poor & Oppressed - The actual victims of the sexual revolution are racial minorities, the poor, and our children.      #3 Undermining Christian Unity - the truth is that General Convention dealt a terrible blow to Christian unity.  Relations with the wider Anglican Communion, evangelicals, Orthodox, Roman Catholics, charismatic, etc., were broken.  Denominational lines do not mark the boundaries of Christendom.  We dissenters have learned our lessons well.  The big lie is that one must choose between truth and unity. They are the different sides of the same coin.  Genuine truth defines our unity, genuine unity protects the Truth. Martyn Minns - The Network of Anglican Dioceses and Parishes: The network is a network of Anglican dioceses and parishes within the Episcopal Church.  It is not a part of official structure, but a structure to be reckoned with. This network was discussed with Archbishop of Canterbury prior to his meeting with Primates.  The name was his suggestion.  A network of confessing churches, not dissenters.  There will be a meeting in Plano on Jan. 19-20th.  Writing bylaws.  12 Dioceses represented.  They will come to agree set of convictions.  How do you join?  Individual dioceses will join by action of their own standing committees and diocesan councils. Individual parishes will join by an action of their own congregation - congregational meetings.  Some parishes need adequate oversight.    Geoff Chapman is working with at least 100 parishes that have asked for oversight and the network will provide this.  What will do it for us?  Our hope it will give everyone a community of faith - a community with a renewed emphasis on mission, to not be ashamed of being Anglican.  It will give parishes new orthodox leadership to our churches, along with new partnerships in North America (including Canada - like New Westminster).  It will give parishes a place to stand and fellowship.  Some may participate without agreement from diocesan bishop. This may cause some controversy - but it is not our intent.    What about members of parishes who have supported GC?  Build your own network within your own congregation - you are not alone.  Connect through the internet, meet together and pray and seek the Lord decision.  It may be that you are called to remain a faithful remnant or perhaps not.  We also hope to encourage the planting of new churches. Planting churches is a proper way to propagate the parishes.  Uganda wrote a stinging letter to the Presiding Bishop disinviting him to the consecration of a new bishop.  We prefer to be poor.  We would like to welcome a member of the network instead, they told Griswold.  Bishops Duncan and Stanton are going instead.  That is radical stuff.  Southern Cone has also embraced the network.  We see this happening around the Anglican Communion.  Will the network divide the Episcopal Church?  No.  That division has all ready occurred.  The network will give hope and a place to belong.  Could it become a replacement for ECUSA.  Only God knows - but we will be ready.   Hugo Blankingship - He is the former chancellor of the Diocese of Virginia. At Plano I a group of lawyers met to discuss the critical issues that could confront parishes, including property rights, redirecting of funds, clergy pensions, assets, protection of clergy.  More than 70 lawyers came at 7:30 a.m. in Plano and have signed up to help.  More have come forward and more are invited to join the pool.  We live in a complex society - legal ramifications in what we do or don’t do.  Many clients say they are tired of being told not what to do.  All this talk about hiring lawyers sounds as though we are advocating law suits.  Not so.  Great majority of law suits are instituted by liberal dioceses.  Hope is that we can resolve difficulties peacefully.  It should be the last resort.  It compels us though to be ready.  Catch the excitement of our time, dangerous times, and yet there seems to be building up a quiet confidence that God is in charge and a good day is in front of us.  It could be we are entering a Second Reformation.  Why would anyone want to miss out on what God is going to do?     We broke for lunch and my head was spinning.     International Missions     The Revd Tad de Bordenave, Director of Anglican Frontier Missions: Missions must remain a priority - how will we be known, we will be known as the missionary churches.  We do much of the Great Commission do very very well. But there is a major piece that is scarce.  The notion of all.  Each and every one - go and make disciples of each and every nation.  Are there disciples in that nation, are there structures, is there Scriptures, are there pastors, Christian education, health care in that nation.  Jesus expects and calls us to go to the nations.     Jim Oaks - Five Talents.  Craig Cole is in the Philippines and then is going to India to spread the word about Five Talents.  Jim says we are rich beyond imagining.  The cost of our lunches - even if it was a modest lunch - would feed an African child for a week.  Jesus talks a lot about feeding the body as well as the soul.  Jim says we have skills about business that are invaluable.  He then tells his story.  He was invited to go to Africa and he had a good laugh about that.  He had just started a new business and thought it was impossible to go to the Sudan for two weeks and told his wife, his Home Group, his family, and God that.  And that was that.  Three months later he was in the Sudan.     It very dangerous business to dare God to do things.     Edwina Thomas - SOMA.  Edwina tells the story of a church in Pakistan that she visited that was built in the center of the city.  It was built to blend in with the rest of the city, you really couldn’t tell it was church while it was being built.  Edwina was taken up to the top of the tower.  She learned that when the church was built and finished the time came for them to place the cross on top of the dome.  They gathered in the tower after the completion of the church, Edwina was told, and a man went out to the top of the dome to lift high the cross.  As he started to get it into place, he was shot and fell to his death.  Time passed and another man went up to the dome to lift high the cross, and he too was shot to death.  This went on and on - one by one.  Edwina could see the bullet holes.  Then one day, the Muslims stopped shooting.  They learned that the Christians wouldn’t stop, they would keep at it, lifting high the cross.  And so the cross is there.  Tears stream down my face.  And I am not the only one.  I am a member of the Order of the Daughters of the King.  Lift High the Cross is our official hymn. I will never be able to hear it again without thinking of that church in Pakistan.     Time to Pray: And so we start to pray.  People split up into groups of six. The first part of the prayer is dedicated to repentance.  We begin by repenting for the pride and arrogance of our church.  There is a hush over the room as thousands break into small groups and begin to pray for repentance.  Then we pray asking God to give us humility in place of pride. Father we repent that we have seen ourselves as a church that gives dollars, that we have it all - but what we really need is to receive from other parts of the Anglican Communion, the great contribution of our faith.  Forgive us for the ways we have dishonored our brothers and sisters around the world. Father, we ask you to forgive us in Jesus Name.  We then were asked to pray for martyrs who are suffering around the world for their faith.  Father we ask you that you will protect those who suffering for Jesus sake around the world.  Forgive us for our inactivity in the mission, we have been more concerned about our issues and not for the salvation of the lost.  We then pray for the missions that have been presented this afternoon.  Father, here we are before you.  We do have some energy, some money, some time.  Father, change us - help draw us, change us, to choose to give generously to fulfill your great commission.  We want this DNA of the Great Commission in this emerging network.     Local Missions     Jenny Noyes - Alpha Course.  What exactly is Alpha?  Jenny outlines the Alpha Course, now called the most effective evangelism tool today.  Alpha is friendship-based evangelism.  How can churches find out more about running an Alpha Course?  We are going to have the Alpha Conference in April 19-20 at the National Presbyterian Church in Washington with Nicky Gumbel.     Bob Ragan; - Regeneration.  Vice President of Exodus International.  What are the lies we typically battle with?  The same time we bless the lie, we curse the truth.  It is a lie that it is genetically predetermined.  Science has never proven this is true.  These studies are not repeatable.  Identical twins study - where one twin does, and one twin doesn’t.  Not a solely genetically caused disorder.  My creator knows me best.  We need to promote in our churches the truth.  When the truth is not spoken the lie is too easily believed.  We need the testimonies in our church - not the political but the redemptive.  What does healing really mean?  Sanctification is a better word for it - a process that we are all involved in.  How do we define success for those who are sexually broken? We all go through the sanctification - we all go through death-styles that God brought us out of in His redemption.  This does not change overnight, by daily choices.  Bob is asked do you still struggle?  He is no longer overwhelmed, but he must maintain his health and if he doesn’t he becomes vulnerable.  It not sexual, it emotional.  His perspective has changed.  How do we pastorally help those who are caught in sexual brokenness?  Allow God to search your heart first.  Before we pick out the spec on others eyes - gay specks with straight planks.  Great quote.  We can take off our masks.  Sexual brokenness and identity are one - shame and self hatred are one.  And so when one was attacked, the other was attacked as well.  Talk to those who have been there.  Be the image bearer of Jesus Christ.  God Truth -speak with compassion.  God Love with boundaries.  Bob looks over the thousands and says, I can begin to have hope that I wont have to apologize for being an Episcopalian.  When Bob went to sit down the applause began and kept going and going and going and then the people rose to their feet.     Steve Schlossberg - LAMB Center for the Homeless, Fairfax City: There was a problem in our church.  Strangers came to the church with needs and left as strangers.  Strangers don’t come to the Episcopal Church.  The LAMB Center was created.  There is a table where people are met, food is shared, the Bible is studied, people who are strangers to one another, to county services, to the church and to themselves - people are met.  The rest of the story is that we need them.  We will parish without them.  They are broken, and they know it.  We are broken and we forget it.  This is at least half the reason God calls us to the poor - we need to know our own poverty.  And when we meet those who know impoverishment we are going to be changed, carried to the foot of the cross by the people we came to save.  When you meet people on the street they are very good at surviving.  It is impossible not to admire how they survive, but it impossible to keep that admiration up because they are not surviving, they are not living.  One of our temptations is to go into survival mode and not really live.     The Revd Tom Herrick - Church Planting: Why do we do Church Planting?  The reasons that come to mind begin with the Great Commission.  Evangelism has to happen in such a way that it changes people lives.  Reach new generations is another reason to do Church Planting.  New churches are like adding new registers at Best Buy before Christmas.  If there was a way to add more registers, even more people will go to Best Buy.  That just about sums it up.  Think about it the next time you’re at Best Buy. Time to Pray: Once again people are gathering into groups for prayer.  First to pray and give thanksgiving for Alpha and for the Alpha Ministry, the Regional Office in Washington and for Nicky Gumbel.  The people begin to pray for the Alpha.  This is very cool - to see, after all these years, people praying for the Alpha Course.  What a mighty work of God - to see how this tool for evangelism has become a staple in what is happening in the Episcopal Church.  Then the people begin to pray for the April Conference. Imagine, 3,000 people are now praying for the Alpha Conference.  This is just totally amazing!  Totally amazing!  Then we pray for the issue that Bob brought up - for forgiveness for sexual immorality.  The issue is not sexual, it is emotional.  Until we are committed to a lifestyle of emotional healing, not only in our physical bodies, but in the Body of Christ.  This was followed by a time of prayer for the homeless.  Pray for ministries like the LAMB Center and pray that they will prosper.  We then asked the Lord to open our eyes to the problem of homelessness around us, as individuals and as the church.  Then we are asked to sit down.  The vicars of church plants and missions are asked to stand and we pray for them.  Build up in them faith, the power of Your Holy Spirit, and the ability to see beyond the normal to that of what you want to do, gather around them key lay leaders and laity to build up Your church in a new place.  Pray for their families who have also put themselves on the line.  Thank you Father that you are in the business of multiplying us.  Take your law of sanctification and so make us holy so that we will be made attractive to those who are hurting and lost and will find the Church.     And now comes the part where the window opens.     The Mission of the Church: The Next Generation   The Youth lead a time of contemporary spirit-filled worship.     David Young, Youth Leader from Christ the Redeemer: Shares about the vision for the Next Generation, followed by a skit.  A really good skit from the youth - how is the issue affecting our young people in our churches?  They open the door for us. Ashley Barker; - College student - William & Mary - major of neuroscience - went to Minneapolis General Convention and member of All Saints Episcopal Church: College is a time for social, spiritual, emotional, and philosophical growth.  She been spending time thinking about why she believes what we believe.  College students are seekers of Truth and seekers of God.  The life of a college student is a time of transition, purpose, and potential.  But a great and successful life awaits on the other side.  God promises to get us through this hard and exciting time.  College students are excited to get through and become the leaders of God Anglican Church. The audience roared and jumped to their feet in resounding applause.     Christopher Douglas; - High School student: The problem is not just homosexuality, but adherence to Scripture.  It is there so that we can continue to transform into Christ-like people.  We need to stop trying to save the Episcopal Church as we’ve known it to be - we have been trying to save a church that has not been following God for a long time.  We need to turn to kingdom work - focus away from the politics, the titles, the buildings of the church and to a God who is bigger than these things.  Awake O sleeper, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.  Do not let yourselves be taken in by fools who are filled religious sales talk. Everything is exposed by the light.  The image of Christ: Christopher is teaching from the Scriptures!  We need to live and walk as a transformed church, not a human church that will once again die.  Let us rise from the dead not as a church that will die and perish but as a transformed church.     Yes, it happens again.  The place jumps to its feet and the applause roars.     And then we sing - led by the youth:   I will bless the Lord forever I will trust Him at all times He has delivered from all fear He has set my feet upon a rock And will not be moved And I’ll say of the Lord You are my shield My strength My portion Deliverer My shelter, Strong tower My very present help in time of need. We bow our hearts, we bend our knees O Spirit make us humble     Time of Prayer: We gathered around all the young people under the age of 22. It was awesome.  I feel like I have gotten a glimpse of the future church and it is AWESOME!     Final Address - The Revd Martyn Minns, Rector, Truro: Do you believe that God has a plan for you?  A Hope for you?  A future for you?  Are we willing to talk into God plan, claim God hope, and go into God future?  Tells the story of the life saving service that saved people shipwrecked off the coast.  After a while the life saving was replaced by a comfortable club that forgot it original mission - to save shipwrecked people.  When we invite Jesus into our lives he brings his rowdy friends into his churches. The Gospel is radical inclusion and profound inclusion.     The Gospel is radical inclusion and profound transformation - instead of accommodation and acclamation.  So many of our leaders want to rewrite it or ignore it.  We must stand firm in our faith in the confidence in our God who has began a work in our lives will finish.  We do not stand alone but are surrounded a vast majority of Christians throughout the ages and throughout the world.  We must come together with different denominations who share our passion for Christ and His redeeming love, from across the nations and around the world.  What we are experiencing a global realignment - removing old institutions and new structures.  Old power base of the North and West with new leaders from the South and the East.  Do it.  Stay engaged in the work of the gospel and let God deal with the structures.  Stay engaged as a witness of Christ as an ambassador of Grace.  Pray.  Pray is what we do before, during, and after we act.  Prayer does more than we can ever imagine - only source of power to transform our lives as well as others, face to face with the power that transformed the evil of the cross with the glory of the resurrection.  Behold I know the plans I have for you.     Final Prayer - Bishop Mpango of Tanzania: He reminded us that there are 45 million Anglicans standing with you and praying for you.  And then he gave the final prayer and blessing.     And this is just the beginning!     I hope this is helpful and encouragement to you.  We are not alone.  The candle continues to burn - and it will never go out.  May we have the courage of the Pakistani Christians who would not fail in lifting high the cross.  May we not fail and lift high the cross.  For it is there, at the foot of the cross, that we find our hope.     Mary Ailes Truro Episcopal Church   END

By David W. Virtue     CHARLESTON, SC--There is a need for mechanisms of order and discipline in the Anglican Communion if it is to survive, says the president of the Anglican Communion Institute, Dr. Christopher Seitz. Addressing several hundred attendees at a conference here, Seitz, Professor of Divinity at the University of St Andrews, Scotland said, one can actually hear the timbers of our Communion boat creak, and there seems to be little sign that the winds are calming. The Communion has been hit by a tsunami, and we are salvaging what we can and hoping things have not gone beyond the possibility of repair.     At virtually every level of our life, we have been affected by the events of the past six months. The stress and strain has left no one-lay person, clergy, theologian-untouched, he said.     We are heeled way over, shipping water, the seas are rough, we are working hard on deck, there is much activity, much worry, much concern, some people have been washed off deck, some have jumped into lifeboats, the boat is stretched to the limit, and there is concern about sustainability: of the boat and of ourselves.     Seitz told the conferees of theologians, Episcopal clergy and concerned laity, that any talk of a federation must be rejected. We are a Communion, unlike the Lutheran World Federation, which consists of independent national churches. Anglicanism has found its life and mission in a genuine Communion of accountability and interdependence. Within the US, we have tried to emphasize this with the language for a network now forming: Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes.     If some leaders in ECUSA wish to be a local American denomination, one among many others claiming new truth in a New World setting, we at ACI have maintained a different vision: an Anglican Church true to its Communion past and present as the Body of Christ, and not an assemblage of body parts with different goals and different Masters.     Seitz expressed puzzlement, though not surprise, at the failure of the post New Hampshire Episcopalianism to declare itself no longer bound by the promises and responsibilities of Communion life.     With all the talk of fresh insight and conviction and new Holy Spirit teaching, why does this talk not find its logical end-point: a kind of declaration of independence from Communion promises and common life? Since its actions indicate a wish to be independent, logic would demand that talk of a genuine Communion-a single body in Christ, as He is our single and only Lord-cease.  And indeed, after New Hampshire, it is hard to imagine that next year Primates meeting, or the Lambeth Conference in five years, will look as they once did, ever again.     We are facing an unprecedented moment in the life of the Anglican Communion. At no point in its long history can a direct analogy be found which would help us determine what kind of response is required. We are at a moment of reckoning with fateful consequences for the identity of Anglicanism as an international Communion of Churches.     Seitz expressed concern that the Communion would devolve into a federation of independent national bodies internally divided and denominated according to individual preferences and wishes.     Dr. Philip Turner, former Yale theologian and Episcopal priest asked, will we divide into two bodies - one composed in large measure of white people from the United Kingdom, North America, Australia and New Zealand and another composed in large measure of people of color from the Global South?     Turner argued that it was still possible to have a Communion of churches that was self-governing, self-supporting and self-propagating. But unless the Archbishop of Canterbury and the primates are willing to impose some form of discipline on the Diocese of New Westminster and ECUSA, there is virtually no hope of maintaining Anglicanism as a communion.     Turner said the actions of New Westminster and ECUSA constituted a direct attack upon this tradition, and in so doing threatened to subvert the basic identity of the Anglican Communion.     Turner argued that Anglicanism could remain a communion if ecclesial integrity and tolerable diversity could be maintained.     Citing reasons against that possibility, Turner said using Scripture proofs, formularies, creeds or confessional statements, political or legal authority, Episcopal, canonical or otherwise, or referring to historical or social developments would not work.     But under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, ecclesial integrity and tolerable diversity could be sustained if the whole of the Bible and historical circumstances functioned in an ordered fellowship of worship and prayer, disputes were resolved through shared will to unity and shaped by the cross, free and open theological debate with mutual correction, inhibited changes in practice until wide agreement about novelties is reached and that there are limits upon the autonomy of any given parish, diocese or province within the Anglican Communion.       Turner cited Cranmer (rather than Hooker) as his model, saying that Cranmer grounded his vision of the prayers of the church in Holy Scripture and the practice of the early fathers rather than in ecclesial authority, doctrinal propositions, or canon law. Cranmer insisted on the communal reading of Holy Scripture in the context of ordered worship which lead to edification and Godliness.     I believe that ecclesial integrity and tolerable diversity are best held in balance by communal reading of Holy Scripture in the context of worship and the ancient prayers of the church, and by the ordering authority of bishops who insure constancy of practice in the midst of a communion of people whose lives manifest the virtues present in Christ own life. Turner rejected the Roman Catholic answer, which combined the notion of the development of doctrine with Papal teaching authority. He also rejected the Lutheran and Presbyterian notion that sought to bridge the gap between the original witness of the Apostles by means of doctrinal summary of Scripture witness as well as the Evangelical answer in the reading of Scripture controlled by a fixed interpretive grid.     Drawing on the history of Cappadocian Trinitarianism, Scottish theologian Dr. Thomas Smail said that the future of Anglicanism, is learning to live with the Holy Spirit, is the particular challenge that is confronting us now and will continue to confront us in the years ahead.     A Cappadocian Trinitarianism (as opposed to an Augustinian Trinitarianism and the West with its relativizing of the distinctiveness of the divine persons) opens the door to a recognition of the distinctive ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Church. This has implications for theology, for pastoral practice, for worship, and gives us hope that through the confrontation of clashing convictions, the Spirit will yet lead his people into all the truth that the Father gives us through the Son.     END

BOSTON (AP) Archbishop Sean P. OMalley yesterday urged Catholic lawyers to oppose same-sex marriage, saying the institution of marriage and the family are under assault and lawyers need to help protect them.    The social cost of the breakdown of family life has already been enormous, Archbishop OMalley said at the annual Red Mass, which is dedicated to judges, lawyers and others in the legal system.   It not a question of live and let live, it a question of right and wrong, Archbishop OMalley said.     Later, in an interview, he said: We hope that [Catholic lawyers and judges] will use their profession and their understanding of the law to defend marriage. They’re in a better position than any of us to understand what needs to be done to correct a very complicated situation that the court has put us in.   The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in November that the state cannot deny marriage rights to same-sex couples, a ruling applauded as a civil rights milestone by homosexual activists. The court gave the Legislature six months to pass a law that complies with the ruling.     At a Catholic Lawyers Guild luncheon following the Mass, former Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork assailed the Massachusetts ruling, calling it untethered from the state and federal constitutions.     If anything justifies the term judicial tyranny, this one does, said Mr. Bork, who converted to Catholicism last year.     Gary Buseck, executive director of Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment on Archbishop OMalley statements.     Archbishop OMalley was installed July 30 as the head of the Boston Archdiocese, which has an estimated 2.1 million parishioners.     His first priority was to settle hundreds of clergy sex-abuse lawsuits filed by people who accused priests of molesting them, and the archdiocese of covering up the scandal. In September, the church agreed to an $85 million settlement.     Http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20040112-123616-4956r.htm   END

By David W. Virtue VIRTUOSITY   CHARLESTON, SC--The rectors of one of the largest parish churches in the Diocese of South Carolina has sent a letter of personal regret to AMIA Bishop Chuck Murphy and to the rector of All Saints Church, Waccamaw for its decision to withdraw from the diocese. The Rev. Marc Boutan, associate rector of St. Philip Church, a flagship parish in the heart of Charleston, said some 15 clergy and laity signed a letter saying, We, some of your fellow clergy of the Diocese of South Carolina, gathered coincidentally for the Anglican Communion Institute at St. Philip Church, wish to convey our deep sorrow over this loss.     Although we have been separated to some extent by the legal actions you have taken against the Diocese over the land issue, your friendship, your talent, your vitality and leadership in the cause of Jesus Christ over the years have been wonderful gifts to us -- not something we can relinquish easily. We hate to see our alliance come to this end. We will miss your participation in our common life.     We wish you would reconsider your decision. We need your voice along with ours to stand for the historic Christian faith against the tide of revisionism. We appeal to you give the Anglican Communion an opportunity to discipline ECUSA, and then move together toward the best solution.     Fondly in Christ,   Rev. Haden McCormick, rector Rev. Marc Boutan, Associate rector   (15 Signatures followed after this letter.)   END

An explanation for those outside the church   By Peter Leach Artillery THE CRITIC 11 October, 2025   Sarah Mullally is to be the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury, which has upset a number of Christians, especially in the Anglican community here and abroad, and particularly in Africa. Though if you aren’t a Christian, you may be confused as to why many are unhappy with the appointment. Most of the negative commentary is either written for a church audience, and hence does not explain precisely why this statement or that stance is such a problem, or it attacks her identity politics and lack of charisma — charges that could just as easily be made about a non-Christian selected to run a public body.    But for Christian believers, the Church of England isn’t simply a Quango headed by a state functionary. The theology, integrity and gender of the incumbent are key parts of what it means to lead the Anglican communion, which is why there has been such an issue with her appointment.   Let us take some of the issues in turn, starting with the most obvious point of difference from her predecessors: her gender.   Women’s ordination didn’t just arrive last Friday; the Church of England first ordained women in 1994, and first consecrated female bishops in 2015. The appointment of a female archbishop arguably makes things hotter for those within the church who oppose all such ordinations, but they have found workarounds so far and will probably continue to do so. But since Mullally has put the issue back in the spotlight, let us consider it.   In the life of the church, 1994 is extremely recent. For nearly all of church history, women’s ordination was unknown. Partly this is because of extremely plain statements in the Bible. As Paul the Apostle puts it in 1 Timothy 2:12, “I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man.” This command has been subject to any number of creative re-readings over the last few decades, but it still stubbornly says exactly what it seems to be saying. Consequently this is a straightforward matter of obedience, which Mullally (along with her enablers, male and female) is not obeying. This is a problem for one who claims to be a servant of Christ.   The fiercest fights in church history have not historically been over ethics or power but over the identity of the God we worship   The issue, however, is deeper than a single arbitrary rule. In fact, the rule is not arbitrary. The Bible is a realist about sex, unlike our modern culture: God created it, it is good, and so men and women are different, and both are good. In particular, men are made to govern and women are made to nurture. The interplay of the two sexes is beautiful; the overthrow of the distinction leads to all kinds of chaos. Societies which attempt to treat men and women as interchangeable are setting themselves up for problems they cannot solve and cannot understand.   It goes deeper still; the interplay between men and women is an echo of the love between God and the church, with God in the masculine role. Church leaders are his representatives as he speaks to his bride. Their masculinity is part of their representation. To ordain women is to lose some of our understanding of the love of God — a thing the church cannot very well do without.   Same-sex blessings Mullally has been closely involved with the so-called “Prayers of Love and Faith”, proposed marriage-like prayers for same-sex couples. When PLF was approved she described it as “a moment of hope” for the church, leaving little doubt as to her own opinion. It is this position, rather than anything about the ordination of women, that has caused the most consternation from conservatives. GAFCON and GFSA, two large alliances in the worldwide Anglican Communion, both speak of it as a key driver for continued suspension of ordinary relations with Lambeth.   Once again the history of the church is instructive; any kind of acceptance of same-sex unions was unknown to Christianity before about the last hundred years, and has only found widespread traction in about the last thirty. (Of course, popes, televangelists and many others have had their moral failings, but these were always recognised as failings and a subject of scandal when revealed.) And once again this is in part because of extremely plain statements in Scripture. Such behaviour is an “abomination”; those who practice these things “will not inherit the kingdom of God”. There is a famous story about Sodom and Gomorrah with which you may be dimly aware. Scripture is at pains to point out that this sin, like all others, will be forgiven for anyone who repents; but it is a sin, and forgiveness does require repentance. (Of course, for all the creative reinterpretations that have flourished here as well, the real reason for the church’s shift is evident to anyone with half a brain: the culture moved, and the church wanted to move with it.)   Here there is an important difference from the issue of women’s ordination. While Scripture is clear on that topic, it is silent on its precise seriousness; most conservatives would not suggest that disobedience around women’s ordination is necessarily the death of faith. But the matter is very different with sexual immorality (of which same-sex unions are of course only one example); here God repeatedly warns us that unrepentant disobedience means judgement. To our culture, obsessed with sex and thereby cheapening it, this seems a strange overreaction. In reality, however, God could hardly do otherwise. Sex is deeply significant, the closest you can get to another human being and therefore an act with enormous power. Any parent can testify to its life-giving strength; any victim of sexual abuse, to its destructive force. God takes it seriously because it is serious.   Mullally, and all those in the Church of England who share her stance, is therefore not only disobedient, but a false teacher. She encourages others to do things that will lead to their destruction. Jesus describes such teachers not as sheep or shepherds but as wolves.   Calling the Holy Spirit “She” Of all the issues with Mullally, however, arguably the most serious is one which has received relatively little attention. In prayers from last year, she speaks of the Holy Spirit as “she”. While Mullally herself does not appear to use this language often (one hopes for her sake that these prayers were an ill-thought-through one-off), the usage reflects a push in the church towards “inclusive language” about God.   The immediate error here has already been highlighted. While God is the creator of sex and therefore beyond sex in himself, God is masculine towards us. Male and female are specifically created to give us this image. To switch these pronouns is to reinvent mankind’s relation to God. But behind this error is a far deeper one that has nothing at all to do with gender.   It is impossible to convey the seriousness of this without speaking for a moment of the most important thing in the world, something I rather tremble to do. But here goes: the point of the Christian faith is God. In Islam, the righteous get to go to a heaven in which they experience many earthly delights, but God himself is notable by his continued distance. The Christian hopes for something far different: God himself. We want to be with him; we are promised that we will see his face. In these human words he promises us something which is beyond human language or understanding, the only thing that satisfies all our desires. Augustine is always quoted on this topic but worth quoting again: you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.   This basic reality, the promise of seeing God, underpins the whole structure of the Christian faith. Unlike other philosophies and religions in which we work our way to our goal, this goal is beyond us and must be given, a gift of forgiveness and adoption and glory. This is the entire purpose of Jesus’s life, death and resurrection. God came down to man that man might be lifted up to God.   This is why the fiercest fights in church history have not historically been over ethics or power but over worship, particularly over the identity of the God we worship. It is the first of the Ten Commandments: no other gods, and no idols. The issue with Mullally’s prayer, to be clear, is not as much the pronoun as the arrogance. If we love God, we will receive him as he reveals himself to us and worship him with humble gratitude. But those who consider themselves free to reinvent God as they please are demonstrating simply that they do not know God at all, they do not want him as he is, and they do not love him. This is a different religion entirely, wearing the corpse of Christianity as a skin suit.   No Roadmap Readers may perhaps want me to conclude with some kind of call to arms, a call to leave the Church of England or directions on how to fight within it. But I refrain. I think both are viable options; though I myself left a decade ago over these issues, I have many friends still within and I wish them only success; it would be beyond my expertise to strategise for them.   My aim in this piece is not to provide a roadmap for the future but an accurate assessment of the present. In particular I am concerned for the observer and the new explorer, especially those drawn to Christianity by the collapse of the culture that has abandoned it. It is vital for these readers to understand that there is a living faith in a living God, and not to be defrauded by the current ascendancy of its dead counterfeit.   Peter Leach is the Minister of Grace Church, Coventry.

PRESS RELEASE Oct. 10, 2025  The Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy ("JAFC") filed a lawsuit on Oct. 6 against the Anglican Church in North America ("ACNA") for injunctive relief and damages, alleging that the ACNA violated federal and state trademark and unfair competition laws in an effort to effectively achieve a hostile takeover of the JAFC.  During an emergency hearing on Oct. 8, a federal judge of the U.S. District Court for South Carolina noted that the ACNA's actions appeared "aggressive" and directed the ACNA to "hold off" on conducting a meeting it had scheduled for 6 p.m. that evening. The JAFC has repeatedly reached out to Archbishop Steve Wood and the ACNA to amicably resolve the parties' differences but has received no response.  The JAFC will continue seeking solutions even as the judicial process proceeds. The JAFC is confident that the truth will prevail, and its chaplains will continue to do the good work that they have done for nearly two decades.  The JAFC is an independent, nonprofit organization that provides for the care, training, ordination, and endorsement of chaplains, with various participating Anglican bodies. The chaplains serve in the U.S. military, other federal and local government agencies, hospitals and hospice programs, law enforcement, and other vocational and voluntary chaplaincies. END

No business as usual: Global South will not compromise    Archbishop Gomez Address to Anglican Communion Institute     The following address was given by Archbishop Gomez (Primate of the West Indies) at the Anglican Communion Institute Future of Anglicanism Conference held in Charleston, SC on January 8-9, 2004.     By The Most Rev. Drexel W. Gomez   Recent events in North America have placed the entire Anglican Communion into a state of crisis.  We are, as Anglicans, at a critical crossroad in our pilgrimage as a Communion.  I refer of course to the actions of the Bishop and Synod of the Diocese of  New Westminster in Canada where same sex blessings were officially endorsed and authorized by the Synod and subsequently implemented as a matter of diocesan policy.  These actions in New Westminster must be considered against the background of an existing official policy that forbids such actions and a Provincial authority that refuses to enforce the policy.  Meanwhile many Anglicans in New Westminster are suffering and enduring spiritual persecution simply because they have elected to remain faithful to the historic teaching of the Church which prohibits homosexual practice in conforming to the universal teaching of Holy Scripture. In the United States, four actions have contributed to the growing state of chaos in worldwide Anglicanism.  They are:     1. The action of the Diocesan Convention in New Hampshire in electing a non-celibate homosexual living in an openly gay relationship as the Coadjutor Bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire.   2. The confirmation of the election by the General Convention.   3. The Consecration of Canon Gene Robinson.   These actions must be viewed in the context of:   a. The declared official teaching of the Anglican Communion as stated in Lambeth 1:10.   b. The repeated affirmation of Lambeth 1:10 by subsequent Primates Meetings.   c.    The specific condemnation of same sex blessings from the Primates Meeting in May 2003.     4. The approval of General Convention [2003] in regard to same sex blessings. There are persons who admit that we face a problem but wish to minimize the impact by reminding us that, Anglicanism, since its beginning has been forged on the anvil of ecclesiastical controversy (Philip Thomas in Sykes, Booty and Knight, page 250).  Paul Avis, The problem of [Anglican Identity] is perennial.  It is as old as Anglicanism itself, but it has surfaced particularly strongly at times of greatest stress and conflict (page 11).  [The Anglican Understanding of Church].  In its mid-16th century efforts of Bishops Jewel and Parker to determine Anglican Identity over and against rival claims of Roman Catholicism.  At the end of the century, Hooker - Of the Laws of ecclesiastical polity in which he defended and defined the integrity of Anglican polity over and against the radical puritans.     The work of Cosin and Hammond led to the restoration of monarchy in 1660 - 62.  19th Century Oxford Movement - the conservative theological and politically  conservative defense of Anglican Identity in the face of an emerging secular  state.     While we cannot deny that the identity has been our constant companion of our Anglican ecclesiastical journey, we are presently faced with an acute challenge as the nature and future of Anglican Communion, the worldwide family of legally autonomous but spiritually and pastorally interdependent churches that are in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury.    In 1930, the Lambeth Conference defined the Anglican Communion as follows:   The Anglican Communion is a fellowship within the one holy catholic and apostolic church, of those duly constituted dioceses, provinces, or regional churches in communion with the See of Canterbury, which have the following characteristic in common:   They uphold and propagate the catholic and apostolic faith and order as they are generally put forth in the Book of Common Prayer as authorized in their several churches. They are particular or national churches and as such, promote within each of their territories a national expression of Christian faith, life and worship; and they are bound together not by a central legislative and executive authority but by natural loyalty sustained by the common counsel of the bishops in conference.   Alongside is the 1930 Lambeth statement we must place the Lambeth 1948 declaration on the dispersed nature of Anglican authority regarded by some as a classical definition of the nature of Anglicanism.   The positive nature of the authority which binds the Anglican Communion together is moral and spiritual, resting on the truth of the Gospel, and on a charity that is patient and willing to defer its common mind.   Authority, as inherited by the Anglican Communion took the individual church of the early centuries of the Christian era, is single in that it is derived from a single divine source, and reflects within itself the richness and historicity of the divine Revelation, the authority of the eternal Father, the incarnate Son, and the life-giving Spirit.  It is dispersed among Scripture, Tradition, Creeds, the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments, the witness of saints, and the consensus fidelium, which is the continuing experience of the Holy Spirit through the faithful in the church.     It is then a dispersed rather than a centralized authority having many elements which combine, interact with and check each other; these elements together contributing a process of mutual support, mutual checking, and redressing of errors of exaggerations in the many-sided fullness of the authority which Christ has committed to His Church.      Where this authority of Christ is to be found mediated not in one mode but in several we recognize in this multiplicity of God loving provision against temptations to tyranny and the dangers of unchecked power.     In respect of this dispersed authority at the very heart of Anglicanism we should note that ECUSA actions, sighted above, displayed a distinct lack of charity and an unwillingness to defer to the common mind of the Anglican Communion as declared at Lambeth and reaffirmed by subsequent Primates Meetings.    In addition ECUSA has violated the process of mutual support, mutual check up by taking unilateral action without conference with other members of the Communion.      Indeed the contempt towards the other members of Anglican family displayed by ECUSA, clearly demonstrates an inherent weakness in our Anglican system that offers no clear guidelines for holding each other accountable and for admonishing one another.      While many have found solace in the absence of a central authority, there are many voices within the global community insisting that the time has come for us to introduce some mechanism in our common life to prevent each Province from going in separate directions without reference of the fellow members of the Body.     Some of you may recall that Archbishop Sinclair and I raised this issue in To Mend the Net. Despite the urgency of our appeal, the document has not been debated on the level of the Primates, having been relegated to the Standing Commission on Doctrine.  Copies have been supplied for the new Commission appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury to advise on the structural and judicial issues which have arisen out of the actions taken by ECUSA and the Diocese of New Westminster.     One of the factors that has blocked clear focus on the authority issue in Anglicanism is the fear of a Vatican-style central authority coupled with a dread of the Archbishop of Canterbury assuming the role of pope with the implicit dangers of unchecked power and authoritarianism and monolithic conformity.     The existence of these phobias have led some in our midst to refuse to face up to the reality that we have no established mechanism, as Anglicans, for dealing with the resolution of the conflicts for the building up of the Body of Christ. II.     Our present crisis in the leadership many Anglicans to question the merits of the highly acclaimed comprehensiveness and diversity at the heart of Anglicanism. As members of a culturally diverse worldwide communion of churches, Anglicans are habituated to the idea that communion can co-exist with considerable diversity of belief and practice.     The varieties of faith and practice that are a feature of Anglicanism are held together at a fundamental level in the communion that Anglicans have with  one another across divisions of churchmanship that does not mean that all  varieties of belief are equally valid, or that the differences do not matter, or that Anglicans should not be striving for greater coherence and cohesion; onlythat there is something that is greater, deeper and stronger than all these differences- the fact that all the baptized belong to the one Christ and in Him to one another.   This idealistic portrayal of Anglican diversity and comprehensiveness does not address the situation created by contradictory and mutually exclusive teaching and practice within the one body as presented in our present crisis that challenges us to accept the validity of contradictory and mutually exclusive teaching and homosexual practice.      Furthermore, our incorporation into Christ at baptism issues us a common life, a common faith and a discipline of Christ-like lifestyle. Our Anglican devotion to its diversity of comprehensiveness obscures very often the need for boundaries.  There are patterns of behavior which place us outside of the boundaries of the Christ-like life.  There are too many advocates of Anglicanism without boundaries.   III.  The challenge to the Catholic tradition   Anglicanism has always maintained its allegiance to its catholic tradition, its historical continuity in the life, worship and ministry of the Church, and to the authority of the undivided church of the early centuries. The catholicity of Anglicanism has been justified historically - Ecclesia Anglicana represented at the Council of ARLES 314.  In addition, the Celtic Church existed before the arrival of Augustine of Canterbury in 557.      The English Church existed before the Reformation and all Anglican Churches trace their origins to the Church of England and thereby to the historic catholic tradition. The catholicity of Anglicanism is justified theologically because Anglicanism incorporates an upholds the ancient structures of the catholic church, the canon of Scripture, the historic creeds, the dominical sacraments of holy baptism and the Holy Eucharist (put in the context of liturgies that trace this lineage to the liturgies of the early church) and the historic episcopate.  These structures of catholicity are enshrined in the Chicago Lambeth Quadrilateral (Lambeth 1888).     The catholicity of Anglicanism can be supported polemically by its acceptance of the General Councils of the undivided church and its commitment of its council on Catholicism.  Despite the fact that the Roman Catholic Church does not recognize Anglican orders, eucharists and authority, Anglicanism affirms its membership within the one, holy and catholic and apostolic Church along with the Roman Catholic Church and the historic churches of Orthodoxy.     Our present crisis poses a threat to our catholic heritage because the acceptance of homosexual practice as a holy pattern of living represents a departure from the historic tradition.  Representatives from the Roman Catholic Church and some segments of the Orthodox churches have already indicated their opposition.  It is noteworthy that the Presiding Bishop has resigned from ARCIC and the Vatican has suspended the meeting of IARCUM until further notice.  The Oriental Orthodox have cancelled the bilateral meetings with the Anglican Communion and the Russian Orthodox Church has issued a strong condemnation of ECUSA actions. IV   Threat to our reformed heritage.     Although  the English Church predated the Reformation, it was strongly influenced by the Reformation especially in regaining its Biblical center of gravity.  The central place of the Bible in the life of the Church has been jeopardized by the actions of ECUSA and New Westminster.  It has been clearly demonstrated by several scholarly works that the Bible does not support homosexual practice.  I refer you especially to the treatment of this violation of Scripture in our booklet entitled, Claiming our Anglican Identity - The Case Against ECUSA. V. A departure from Anglicanism appeal to reason and sound learning.     Under normal circumstances, one would have expected the authorities in ECUSA, out of respect for this Anglican proclivity for sound learning, to have initiated serious and diligent inquiry into the theological and ethical dimensions of the issues related to homosexual practice before embarking on a deliberate course of action to promote change in the church historic and Biblical teaching and practice.      Instead we observed a refusal to travel the road of serious theological dialogue.  All too often, we were informed by the leadership of ECUSA that there were several views within ECUSA in respect homosexuality without any attempt to examine each approach with a view to arrive at a consensus.      I am convinced that the leadership of ECUSA is not interested in a serious theological approach to the issues since they are driven by a secular cultural agenda. In this regard, we note that our two publications - True Union in the Body and Claiming Our Anglican Heritage have not received any formal response form ECUSA.    In both of these publications, we have set out in an orderly and well-reasoned manner the arguments for the retention of the Church historic teaching on homosexual practice.  In addition, we have detailed ECUSA violations of the teaching and historic order of the Church.  In my opinion, we must place some pressure on ECUSA to mount a reasoned response by circulating our material to all and sundry. VI. Our present crisis requires some major realignment within Anglicanism -     1. Within ECUSA - According to its own self-definition, ECUSA is a constitutional member of the Anglican Communion. is communion with the See of Canterbury.  The emergence of the Network of [Anglican Communion] Dioceses and Parishes should lead to the determination as to which grouping fulfills the terms of ECUSA declared self-definition. In addition, it should agitate for a critical and objective assessment of ECUSA violation of its constitution and self-definition as an integral member of the Anglican Communion and in communion with the See of Canterbury.  We hope that that this aspect will not escape the attention of the new commission.     2. Within the South/South bloc of Anglican Provinces, where the overwhelming majority of Anglicans reside (at least 50 million of 75 million).  A majority of the Primates and Provinces have firmly declared an altered status of relationship with ECUSA ranging from impaired communion to a complete break of communion. Within the grouping there is 100% agreement that the actions of ECUSA are unacceptable.  In addition, there is a strong consensus for some form of discipline to be applied.      It is quite clear that there will be no possibility of business as usual without repentance and disavowal.     In a real sense, the future of the Communion will be determined by the response of the Global South to the proposals from the new commission.      The Global South is not prepared to compromise on the non-acceptance and repudiation of the actions of ECUSA and New Westminster.      While we hope and pray for the continuation of the Anglican Communion, we of the Global South cannot and will not accommodate the numerous violations of ECUSA within our ongoing life.     As a member of the new commission, I request your prayers for all members as we begin our formal work on the 9th of February.  We must present our report by September 30 [2004].  We are all cognizant of the fact that so much rides on our recommendations and their acceptance by the decision-making instruments of the Communion.      Please pray that the Spirit of God will lead us to a positive determination that will enable the worldwide Anglican Communion to prosper in mission and ministry in this century and for the foreseeable future.