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By Ted Schroder January 4, 04     Last week I received a letter addressed to the churches of Amelia  Island Ministerial Association from Claudia Sovilla, of the Amelia  Island Genealogical Society. She was extending an invitation to the  members of the church’s, who are interested in genealogy and history to  attend the Genealogy Course and Mary Fears program in January. She  wrote, The Churches have great resources for information and members with stories of their ancestors. This area is rich in history. Tracing roots has transformed genealogy from a methodical past-time to a raging  passion for millions of Americans. Wondering who am I, where I came from, and a missing link to the past and heritage. Joan Hackett and  Mary Nelson will be instructors. My parents were not much interested in their antecedents. When I  Asked them questions about the family they gave vague answers that obscured rather than illuminated. It made me wonder whether I was  descended from a long line of undesirables! But I doubt whether they  were that interesting.     I have cousins on both sides of my family who are the keepers of  the family histories. They supply me with information when I need it. I am gathering material to write a fictionalized account of four generations of my family. In discovering what might have happened to them I understand better what formed my parents and grandparents, and influenced me.     Some years ago I participated in a continuing education program on Family Systems Theory, which explored how the dynamics of family histories can repeat themselves in the lives of each generation. The exercise of drawing up a genogram of your family history, which identifies the patterns of marriage, children, divorce, births and deaths, can throw considerable light on your own experience.     None of us is self-made. None of us is a stand alone. Each of us Comes from somewhere. We have continuity to the past. We are the product of generations and our own choices. Erik Erikson describes the stage of Integrity in the Life Cycle as the acceptance of ones own and only life cycle and of the people who have become significant to it as something that had to be and that, by necessity, permitted of no substitutions. It thus means a new different love of one's parents, free of the wish that they should have been different, and an acceptance of  the fact that one's own life is one's own responsibility. It is a sense  of comradeship with men and women of distant times and of different pursuits, who have created orders and objects and sayings conveying human  dignity and love. (Identity and the life Cycle, p.104) Erikson placed Integrity as the last stage in the life cycle.     I am presently reading The Hornets Nest, a novel of the American revolutionary war in Georgia and the Carolinas, by Jimmy Carter. In writing about those times former President Carter is also trying to understand his continuity with  his family members who settled in Georgia. By writing about that period  he is getting in touch with what it must have been like for his ancestors. Some of the characters are based on them. He said that he  began to study his family history in 1998. It was the 100th birthday of his ancestor who moved to southwest Georgia. As he started study the history he got interested in the period .     In Matthew's account of the early childhood of Jesus (Matt.2:13-23) we find that Jesus experienced this continuity with the past. Like his ancestor Joseph he was taken to Egypt. Jesus recapitulated the history of Israel by his sojourn in Egypt. Like Moses he was saved from certain death at the hand of the king of his day. When the time was come to return, the holy family left Egypt and traveled to Nazareth. Israel discovered its identity in Egypt , and the exodus from Egypt was the central point in the history of the nation.     Pharaoh tried to destroy the people in Egypt, but Moses brought them out into the land of promise. Just as Pharaoh failed to kill Moses, Herod, the new Pharoah, failed to kill the Savior. Eventually, Moses brought the children of Israel out of the land of bondage and death, and Moses' successor was to bring the people out of a worse bondage and a worse death, the death of sin. Jesus is seen as the successor of Moses: he came to save his people from their sins. Jesus is going to rescue us. He is going to usher in the new exodus.     Matthew sees Jesus as fulfilling the Old Testaments predictions. The history of God's children is recapitulated in the history of God’s Son. As Israel of long ago was led down to Egypt, so was Jesus. As Israel came out, so did Jesus. He embodies and fulfils the history of the people of God in his own person.     Michael Green, in writing about these stories about Jesus  childhood, concludes: Matthew makes it plain that God works through both surprise and continuity to bring about his purposes. The story of Jesus is utterly continuous with Abraham, with David and with the whole history of the chosen people. But it also bristles with surprises. Perhaps this is to encourage us to expect God to be working in our lives steadily and continuously, making sense of our past history, but also to be on the lookout for God's surprises in our lives, ready to grasp them and follow through their implications when they come. (The Message of Matthew, p.74)     Joseph was surprised by the angel of the Lord appearing to him in a dream and directing him to escape to Egypt. Yet in so doing he fulfilled the prophecies, and repeated the history of his family. When Herod ordered the massacre of the boys under two years old he didn’t realize that he was repeating the sin of the Pharaoh who opposed Moses. At the right time the angel directed Joseph and Mary back to the land of Israel. There they were warned in a dream not to settle in Judaea but to go to Galilee.     How often do we repeat the history of our ancestors? Sometimes we slip into committing the same sins as they did. Joseph was enabled to survive and flourish, to take care of his family, and to move on toward fulfilling divine destiny because he obeyed the guidance that was given him.     God is working in our lives steadily and continuously. He encourages us to make sense of our family histories, to discover patterns of behavior that are to be either avoided or embraced. We are also meant to be on the look out for Gods surprises in our lives, and be willing to grasp them and follow through on their implications when they come.     What surprises will God have in store for you this coming year? Whatever they are, they are meant to be for your good. When you respond to them positively you will find that you will be fulfilling your divine destiny.     The Rev. Schroder is the rector of the chapel on Amelia Island  Plantation. He is an Episcopal priest.     END

The group was formed in protest to the approval of an openly gay Episcopalian bishop.     Tampa, Bay Florida     The group was formed because of disagreement about the approval of a gay bishop. Episcopal churches in the Bay area are now part of a new breakaway network of dioceses.   The new group was formed because of disagreement about the approval of an openly gay Episcopalian bishop.     Mark Sholander, a church leader of the St. Albans Episcopal Church in Polk County, says the approval has left his parishioners feeling that their church has been hijacked by a small group of innovative thinkers.     It’s a very small, but very vocal minority who is trying to impose upon the ancient church new belief systems, so it’s frustrating, said Sholander.     Sholander says the network is a way to preserve their beliefs that have existed for more than 500 years. Leaders of the network want to eventually be recognized as the authentic Episcopalian church by Anglican bishops overseas.       END

BY SUZANNE PEREZ TOBIAS The Wichita Eagle     About 40 members of an Episcopal church in east Wichita have established a new congregation within the Orthodox Church, citing their disapproval of the decidedly liberal drift of the Episcopal Church in recent years. The Rev. John Flora, 57, retired rector of St. Stephens Episcopal Church, will lead the new congregation, which will begin worshipping at St. Georges Orthodox Christian Cathedral in Wichita at 10 a.m. on Sunday.     Flora said he and the group of former St. Stephens parishioners have grown frustrated with the Episcopal Church, including its approval of its first openly gay bishop in August.     When I found the Episcopal Church in college, I really believed I had found something that was connected to the ancient church and was going  to remain steadfast, Flora said. But my experience in the past 31 years as a priest is, there’s been a slippery slide into theological relativism, and that’s not where I’m at.     Officials with the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas, including Bishop Dean Wolfe, were out of town for the holidays and could not be reached for comment.     Melodie Woerman, spokeswoman for the diocese, said that news of Floras new church mission was a surprise, and that church officials would be unlikely to make a comment until they learned more about the situation.     The new church, St. Michael the Archangel Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church, will be the first Western Rite Orthodox parish in Kansas. It will join a growing number of Orthodox congregations that use a Western form for their liturgy, rather than the more characteristic Byzantine Rite.   The liturgy of the new church will be similar to that of the traditional Anglican Book of Common Prayer, Flora said, with some additions to make it conform to Orthodox theology. Becoming an Orthodox priest, which he plans to do on Easter, will complete a personal and theological evolution for Flora.     During seminary, he participated in a dialogue group between Anglican and Orthodox church’s, and he has been interested in Palestinian issues and Orthodoxy ever since. For now, the new St. Michael parish will hold worship services in the chapel at St. Georges Cathedral, 7515  E. 13th St. But Flora hopes the congregation will grow and eventually have its own facility.     Leaving the 2.4 million-member Episcopal Church was a real hard decision, Flora said, but one I felt I had to make.   Other parishioners planning to join Flora agreed. This has nothing to do with St. Stephens itself. It has everything to do with the Episcopal Church USA, said Bill Anderson, head of the St. Michael parish council.     My belief is that we have not left the Episcopal Church, it has left us, he said. This is not a decision we took lightly, nor is it something that just happened.      END

By DAVID BROOKS December 30, 2003     George W. Bush was born into an Episcopal family and raised as a  Presbyterian, but he is now a Methodist. Howard Dean was baptized  Catholic, and raised as an Episcopalian. He left the church after it  opposed a bike trail he was championing, and now he is a Congregationalist, though his kids consider themselves Jewish. Wesley Clark's father was Jewish. As a boy he was Methodist, then decided to become a Baptist. In adulthood he converted to Catholicism, but he recently told Beliefnet.com , I’m a Catholic, but I go to a Presbyterian church.   What other country on earth would have three national political figures with such peripatetic religious backgrounds? In most of the world, faith-hopping of this sort is simply unheard of.     Yet in the United States, we simply take it for granted that people will move through different phases in the course of their personal spiritual journeys, and we always have. Nearly 200 years ago, Alexis de Tocqueville was bewildered by the mixture of devout religiosity he found in the U.S. combined with the relative absence of denominational strife, at least among Protestants. Americans, he observed, don’t seem to care that their neighbors hold to false versions of the faith.     That’s because many Americans have tended to assume that all these differences are temporary. In the final days, the distinctions will fade away, and we will all be united in God's embrace. This happy assumption has meant that millions feel free to try on different denominations at different points in their lives, and many Americans have had trouble taking religious doctrines altogether seriously.     As the historian Henry Steele Commager once wrote, During the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth, religion prospered while theology slowly went bankrupt. This tendency to emphasize personal growth over any fixed creed has shaped our cultural and political life.   First, its means that Americans are reasonably tolerant, generally  believing that all people of good will are basically on the same side. In London recently, President Bush said that Christians and Muslims both pray to the same God. That was theologically controversial, but it was faithful to the national creed. Second, it has meant that we can relax severity. American faiths, as many scholars note, have tended to be optimistic and easygoing, experiential rather than intellectual.   Churches compete for congregants.     To fill the pews, they often emphasize the upbeat and the encouraging and play down the business about Gods wrath. In today’s megachurches, the technology is cutting-edge, the music is modern, the language is  therapeutic, and the dress is casual. These churches are  seeker-sensitive, not authoritarian.   The small groups movement, from which President Bush emerges, emphasizes intimate companionship and encouragement. Members of these groups study the Bible in search of guidance and help with personal challenges. They  do not preach at one another, but partner with each other. The third  effect of our dominant religious style is that we have trouble  sustaining culture wars.     For some European intellectuals, and even some of our own commentators, the Scopes trial never ended. For them, the forces of enlightened progress are always battling against the rigid, Bible-thumping forces of religion, whether represented by William Jennings Bryan or Jerry Falwell.     But that’s a cartoon version of reality. In fact, real-life belief,  especially these days, is mobile, elusive and flexible. Falwell doesn’t represent evangelicals today. The old culture war organizations like the Moral Majority or the Christian Coalition are either dead or husks of  their former selves.     As the sociologist Alan Wolfe demonstrates in his book, The Transformation of American Religion, evangelical church’s are part of mainstream American culture, not dissenters from it. So we have this paradox. These days political parties grow more orthodox, while religions grow more fluid. In the political sphere, there is conflict and rigid partisanship.     In the religious sphere, there is mobility, ecumenical understanding and blurry boundaries. If George Bush and Howard Dean met each other on a political platform, they would fight and feud. If they met in a Bible study group and talked about their eternal souls, they’d probably embrace.      END

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN THE NEW YORK TIMES     The decision this year by the Episcopal Church USA to ordain an openly gay bishop has set off a wave of church switching, according to dozens of interviews with clergy members and parishioners across the country.   Some lifelong Episcopalians have left their church’s, saying the vote to affirm a gay bishop was the last straw in what they saw as the church’s long slide away from orthodoxy.     Many of these people have started attending Roman Catholic church’s. It breaks my heart, said Shari de Silva, a neurologist in Fort Wayne, Ind., who converted from Episcopalian to Catholic this year. I think the Episcopal Church is headed down the path to secular humanism. Some Episcopal parishes, meanwhile, are welcoming clusters of new members, many from Roman Catholic church’s, who say they want to belong to a church that regards inclusivity as a Christian virtue.     The newcomers include singles and families, gay people and straight people. I dont see how and why God would want his church, his worshipers, his sons and daughters to become carbon copies of each other, said Youssef El-Naggar, a former Catholic in Front Royal, Va., who recently joined an Episcopal church there.     While the switching is not always between the Episcopal and Catholic Church’s, this appears to be the most common kind. Episcopal and Catholic Church officials say it is too early for them to tally the gains or losses. At the start of the year, the Episcopal Church USA claimed about 2.3 million members, the Catholic Church about 65 million.     It was only in June that the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire elected the Rev. V. Gene Robinson, who has been openly living with a male partner, to be their next bishop. In August, Bishop-elect Robinson was approved by delegates at the church’s general convention (who also affirmed that some dioceses are celebrating gay unions).     After months of controversy, he was consecrated in November. The Catholic Church has reiterated its position on homosexuality, one that is a stark contrast to the Episcopal Church’s. In July, the Vatican denounced homosexual acts as deviant behavior and said the church could not condone gay marriage or adoptions by gay couples.     In September, the American Catholic bishops said they would support a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. While it is too soon to assess the fallout, some Episcopal clergy members told of an unusually high rate of arrivals and departures in recent months.     They said the newcomers were far different from casual church shoppers checking out a Sunday sermon. Many of the new arrivals say they intend to join, and some have already been confirmed or received into the church by their bishops.     They’re not coming in as they used to even three years ago announcing, `Im just church shopping, I’m just looking around,  said the Rev. Elizabeth M. Kaeton, rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chatham, N.J. The people I’ve seen recently have come to me and said, `Sign me up, I’m ready.  Ms. Kaeton, who is openly gay, supported the ordination of Bishop Robinson but said she had not dwelled on the issue in her church.     She said her parish of about 300 families had recently gained 15 new members, many of them from Catholic church’s, and lost one to a Catholic church. Even for some heterosexuals, the Episcopal Church’s stance on homosexuality was the main reason for switching.     Mr. El-Naggar, a retired C.I.A. officer and college instructor, said that when he read the news about the church’s decision to back Bishop Robinson, he got out the Yellow Pages and phoned the closest Episcopal church.     He said he was pleased to discover that the rector at Calvary Episcopal Church was a woman, because he had always questioned the Catholic Church’s opposition to ordaining women. He now attends Calvary Episcopal and said he had been stunned at the open theological debate there over homosexuality and other issues.     I am trying to be a good Christian, and I have never felt that spiritual freedom I feel now in the Episcopal Church, Mr. El-Naggar said. Some new Episcopalians also mentioned that the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church had caused them to rethink their affiliation. First came revelations that some bishops had covered up abuse, then some Vatican and American officials suggested that gay priests were to blame for the problem.     We felt increasingly alienated by the Catholic Church, said Robert J. Martin, 56, a lawyer in Philadelphia who lives with his partner, Mark S. Petteruti, 45, a horticulturist. Both men were cradle Catholics. Until 1988, Mr. Martin was a Catholic priest in the Augustinian order.     This year a deacon at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Philadelphia invited them to join a small group of gay church members who meet once a month for dinner. The couple soon began attending Sunday services at St. Paul’s, which is directly across the street from the Catholic church where, 30 years ago, Mr. Martin was ordained a priest.     What was most impressive was the fact that the straight people were welcoming us as a couple, and as potential members of the congregation, Mr. Martin said. We felt included and affiliated almost immediately.     In Fort Wayne, Dr. de Silva moved in the opposite direction. She was raised Episcopalian and was bringing up two adopted children in that church. But, she said, she could not accept the church’s stance on homosexuality because it violates the first commandment, to be faithful to God. She said she objected when her children were taught about gay rights in church Sunday school. She began attending St. Elizabeth Anne Seton Catholic Church. She has read the catechism cover to cover, she said, and has already been confirmed. The advantage of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox church’s is that there is a central authority that tends to hold the church together, and unfortunately the Anglican experiment, which was a wonderful experiment for almost 500 years, lacked that, Dr. de Silva said.     For many the move between the Episcopal and Catholic Church’s is a natural transition. The Episcopal Church, which is the American branch of Anglicanism, is considered the bridge between Roman Catholic and Protestant Christianity. For three decades, these two denominations have seen plenty of back and forth, said Robert Bruce Mullin, professor of history, world mission and modern Anglican studies at the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in New York.     As the Episcopal Church began ordaining women and dropped the ban on communion for divorced people, Professor Mullin said, conservative Episcopalians began to leave, while many socially liberal Catholics began to join.     Its hard to remember that 30 years ago, the Episcopal Church was one of the more conservative church’s on issues of social morality, he said. Since the 1970s, when Episcopalians began building a network of church’s that agreed to be open and accepting toward homosexuality, gay Catholics have been quietly joining Episcopal parishes.     Among clergy members, it is not unusual to find Episcopal priests, especially women, who are converts from Catholicism. Clergy crossovers also go in the other direction.     A small number of married Episcopal priests are now allowed to minister in Roman Catholic churches that lack their own clergy members. But the pace of church swapping among parishioners appears to have picked up this year. In some cases, whole groups have jumped.     About 25 percent of the congregation at St. Francis Episcopal Church in Dallas recently left after the votes on homosexuality, said the rector, the Rev. David M. Allen. Those who left included some of the church’s bedrock, like its secretary and the two men who used to volunteer to mow the lawn every Tuesday, Father Allen said. All but one left for Catholic churches, he said.     The exodus, Father Allen said, was the result of years of dissatisfaction for many parishioners. St. Francis, which had about 300 members, is known as an Anglo-Catholic parish, meaning that in worship style it retained Catholic traditions like a devotion to Mary, the rosary and a solemn high Mass with Gregorian chant.     For members long opposed to the ordination of women, a gay bishop was the end of the road. I think many people in this parish came to the conclusion that there was the apparent absence of any kind of authority that operates to restrain the Episcopal Church in any way, Father Allen said. They wanted to be part of a church which they saw as being bigger than American culture, which had an authority which went beyond our cultural conventions.       END

Dear Brothers and Sisters,     WELCOME TO 2004!     First of all, I want to thank all of you who contributed so generously to the ministry of Virtuosity during this past year. I am grateful that it meant so much to you, and that you allowed me to travel to get the news that you needed and wanted to read. Thank you for your support. I am deeply grateful.     VIRTUOSITY'S readership grew by leaps and bounds in 2003 with more than 500,000 (560,000 by year's end) folk going to the website and reading the news. This is most gratifying. The greatest jump in readership occurred at General Convention with more than 300,000 hits since September. Virtuosity's website is being accessed at the rate of more than 60,000 hits per month and that figure is climbing so my webmaster tells me.   Hundreds more sign on to get the digest directly into their computers well before daybreak and breakfast. (The digest downloads at 4am Eastern Standard Time.) I am told that the figure of one million readers will access the website by July.     I am truly grateful Virtuosity is meeting a need. From the beginning it has been this writer's intention to give you the unvarnished no spin zone truth about what is going on in the Episcopal Church and in the wider Anglican Communion. I have coupled that with stories that reflect the culture wars going on in the church and in the wider world. In many cases the two overlap.     I am deeply grateful to Virtuosity’s columnists, Mike McManus, Terry Mattingly Frederica Mathewes Green, Ian Hunter, Uwe Simon-Netto, Lekan Lotufodunrin (Nigeria) who wrote stories from a biblical world view to address issues of the family, faith and culture. Virtuosity’s resident theologian Dr. Robert Sanders also took some long hard looks at ECUSAs theological bearings and saw them askew. And a special thanks to all those sources who sent me story tips and quotes, and who could not reveal their names for fear of reprisal from their revisionist bishops, I thank you. Without you a goodly number of stories would never have been written. My special thanks for your bravery in writing to me.     I also want to thank all those who sent me stories that I used from all over the world. You are too numerous to name in person. I was glad to hear from NZ, Australia, South Africa, Canada, Singapore, England, Nigeria, Uganda, Sweden, Europe, the old Soviet Union and many more. My deepest thanks to you and I hope you will continue to send me stories in 2004.     I also want to pay tribute to the growing group of orthodox women who are emerging in leadership roles in The Episcopal Church, particularly Jan Mahood, President of Episcopalians for Traditional Faith, Chris Fouse, Forward in Faith, US Diane Knippers, IRD Diane Stanton for her work with the Uganda Christian University Theologian Edith Humphrey and so many more. It is a pleasure to be associated with you and to receive your news. I am in your debt.     This year also saw the addition of Mr. Robert Turner to Virtuosity’s staff. He took responsibility for Virtuosity’s website. For those of you who access the website you will notice a whole new look for 2004. I am indebted to Robert for making this happen.     Finally, a special note of thanks to my attorney Mr. John H. Lewis, Jr. who kept me from going over the edge so many times, often working long into the night, when most of you slept, checking and editing my stories for legal niceties and much more. A note of thanks also to my board for their unfailing support of my ministry, especially to TK. Thank you.     IN TODAY'S DIGEST you will read my six-part: 2003 - YEAR IN REVIEW. It is somewhat detailed, perhaps more than you would care to read, but there are some important historical landmarks that cannot be lightly passed over. Please feel free to float this around to your Episcopal friends and encourage them to join Virtuosity so they will no longer be in the dark about what is going on in the Episcopal Church. Pass the torch around.     The Year 2004 will I believe, be even more traumatic than 2003, if that is possible. But events are shaping up in the Anglican Communion that will reach boiling point. There will be no going back, no more compromises with truth, no more talk of pluriform truths. The Global South is a sleeping giant no more, and they have the numbers. They also have a clear fix on the nature and content of the gospel. They will continue to flex their muscle in the face of the revisionist West, and they will no longer tolerate apostasy and heresy in faith and morals. That day is done.     What is at stake is the very Faith once delivered nothing less. What is involved is the very truth of the gospel, a gospel that promises redemption and grace, forgiveness and hope, (that no so-called inclusionist gospel can begin to offer) - with lives changed forever by the power of the Holy Ghost, redeemed by the Son and brought into right relationship with the Father of lights - God himself.     In the US we await the outcome of a church within a church a parallel church of orthodox believers who will stand against the Moloch ECUSA, which has sold its soul for bad sexual practices, compromised theology and much more. We are in for a long, bumpy ride, and those laid-back Canadians will continue to bear the brunt of anger from The revisionist bully bishop Michael Ingham and show us all what it means to stand.     There will also be new alliances as the Anglican Continuum grapples with its own place under the Anglican sun. We will not be able to ignore the growing influence of the Anglican Mission in America (AMIA) as it continues to gobble up thriving ECUSA parishes. There would seem to be no let up in sight there. Virtuosity will report on it all.     You can also be sure that, as their influence diminishes, revisionist bishops and their parasitic homosexualists will continue their quest for greater power, because that is all they have left in their armory. They have no faith, no transforming gospel, only raw naked power propped up with trust funds - dead men’s money - accumulated in the years of plenty, but will now surely diminish in the coming lean years.     THIS PAST YEAR saw a new Archbishop installed in Canterbury, an openly homosexual priest consecrated a bishop, an emergency meeting of Primates and much more. It is all posted in a six-part YEAR IN REVIEW that you can read today. I am posting a number of end-of-year stories and columns which I think will be of interest to you.     The growing and widening influence of Virtuosity is by no means the doing of this single writer, it is the collective wisdom and writings of many, with the profound belief that God has raised up this ministry for such a time as this. I could not exist without your prayers and financial support.     I do hope you will continue your prayerful and financial support in 2004. Please note that I am in the process of sending out personal letters for tax purposes to those who made donations. Please be patient while I attend to this. I am doing this between heavy writing schedules.     Later this week I will be attending the ACI conference in Charleston, SC following which I shall be going to the AMIA Conference in Destin, Florida.     Please support this ministry with your tax-deductible donation. You can send a gift through PAYPAL at the website www.virtuosityonline.org , or you can send a gift by snail mail to: David W. Virtue, VIRTUOSITY, 1236 Waterford Road, West Chester, PA 19380 . Thank you for your support.     All Blessings,     David W. Virtue DD   END

By Julia Duin THE WASHINGTON TIMES January 5, 2004     The direction of the Episcopal Church is increasingly being determined not by its clergy or church institutions, but by a group of determined Internet jockeys whose reach encircles the globe.     They are men who spend 12 to 14 hours a day sending out posts to message boards, fielding replies or overseeing blogs or journals on the Internet, about the conflict tearing the 2.3-million-member denomination apart: the Nov. 2 consecration of the first openly homosexual Episcopal bishop.     On Aug. 5, the Episcopal General Convention meeting in Minneapolis confirmed Canon V. Gene Robinsons election to the episcopate. The vote was delayed a day because of an Internet message calling attention to the bishop-elect’s connection to a youth ministry Web site that had links to hard-core pornography.     David Virtue, founder of www.virtuosityonline.org and the originator of that message, said a conservative bishop had called him at midnight the night before he posted it.     He said, “You’ll take the lid off the church if you do this, Mr. Virtue says. I did do it, and the lid came off. The article about the bishop’s ties to the youth site, posted at 4 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 4, triggered an emergency meeting of Episcopal leaders a few hours later. By early afternoon, TV camera crews were pouring into the convention’s conference center.   Although Mr. Robinson was cleared a day later of having any connection to the pornographic links, the lesson was clear: any self-appointed Web master could influence an entire denomination.     Since then, more activists have taken to their keyboards. Very few have any journalism training and most say they make no money at it. All say its a spiritual calling to get the news out.     When Bishop Michael Ingham of the Diocese of New Westminster near Vancouver, B.C., decided to shut down a conservative mission church four days before Christmas, one of his fellow Canadian priests sprung into action.     Within hours of the Ingham story appearing on the Web site of the National Post, a Toronto-based newspaper, the priest had sent copies around the world.     Traditionally, the institution has controlled church news, said the priest, a man in his 30s whose Internet nickname is Binky the Web Elf. Now the Internet supersedes regular media. This news about New Westminster would not have appeared in a church newspaper for a month, [but via the Internet] what a bishop says in North America can be read by a bishop in Central Africa in a few hours.     He gets 1,500 to 2,000 visits a day to his site, Classical Anglican Net News, also known as www.anglican.tk . So much news is pouring out from various Episcopal-related sources from around the world that he posts two daily briefings.     People are hungry for this, so they come where it is, he says. Even [Episcopal News Service director] Jim Solheim wrote us, saying he checks us daily.     The ordinary people may not have the theological tools to stand up to their leaders. They often don’t have that extra bit of information that allows them to say this is their church, too. Now through the Internet, their story is being told.     Not that bishops are taking this lying down.     I have drawers full of hate mail. The Internet has enabled the technological equivalent of drive-by shootings, Bishop Ingham told a Canadian magazine, MacLeans. I’ve had to learn to deal with a level of malevolence and sheer hatred that I frankly didn’t know existed in the church.     Washington Bishop John B. Chane, another church liberal, termed Mr. Virtue mean-spirited in a June 22 sermon.     We’re not as creative or direct as David Virtue at sharing our side of the story, he confided. We have to break that noose.     The church’s leading liberal Internet activist is Louie Crew, founder of the Episcopal homosexual caucus Integrity.   Mr. Crew, 67, who nicknames himself Quean Lutibelle posts items like Queer Eye for the Heterosexual Imagination and other offerings at http://www.andromeda.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/rel.html .     The site, which gets about 800 hits a day, has 3,000 pages of Episcopal minutiae: history, lists of diocesan contacts, links to other Episcopal sites, articles, essays, photos, statements, audios of sermons, even an invitation to a renewal of vows for him and his partner.     A retired English professor from Rutgers University, Mr. Crew says he spends 12 hours a day processing material.     Before the Internet, he says, There was spin. Now there’s counterspin. We have to listen to points of view we don’t like. I have convictions and support them, but don’t want to be an ideologue.     Atop his Web site is the queen of spades, a title bestowed upon him by Mr. Virtue. In return, Mr. Crew awarded Mr. Virtue the title of joker.     Mr. Virtue, 59, a New Zealand native who lives in West Chester, Pa., began writing investigative articles for Episcopalians United, a conservative group, in the mid-1990s. Finding church politics habit-forming, he created his Internet site in 1998. To date, it has received 500,000 hits, 300,000 since the General Convention.     He also sends out a news digest several times a week to 100,000 readers.     He estimates he works 70 hours, seven days a week. Contributors send in about $80,000 a year, he says, which, after expenses, ends up at $35,000 a year. All of his postings are first checked by an attorney.     It’s what I feel called to do, he says, to bring the light of the Gospel on the revisionist nonsense of the Episcopal Church and to show its morally bankrupt. To do this, you have to bring the sludge to light.     Some of Mr. Virtues material gets distributed by the Rev. Richard Kim, 76, a retired Episcopal priest who runs an informal news service out of Detroit from an America Online account.     He searches newspapers, secular wire services and church Web sites all over the English-speaking world for documents and articles to circulate. He also has an extensive network of church contacts who send confidential reports to him.     Nothings a secret anymore, he says. Bishops in the church can no longer do things quietly. Anything that’s put out quickly goes around the globe. The Internet has allowed people to challenge assumptions, critique them and given ordinary people a chance to raise questions that would not ordinarily be raised.       Copyright © 2004 News World Communications, Inc. END

THE EVANGELICAL FELLOWSHIP IN THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION statement on the appointment of the Archbishop of Canterbury  Charting a way forward for the Church of England and the Anglican Communion   “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord,“plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11)   The Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion (EFAC) joins Anglicans across the world in praying for Bishop Sarah Mullally on the announcement that she is to become the next Archbishop of Canterbury.   Bishop Sarah takes up her role as the Archbishop of Canterbury at a difficult time for both the Church of England and the Anglican Communion. The Church of England is deeply divided over issues of human sexuality and proposed “ Prayers of Love and Faith ”. Within the Anglican Communion there has been a significant loss of confidence in the role of the Archbishop of Canterbury. In both contexts there is a cry for leadership which is consistent with our rich Anglican theological and doctrinal heritage.   As Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop Sarah will have a unique opportunity to lead a process to reset the Anglican Communion and its leadership.   In late 2024 the IASCUFO NAIROBI-CAIRO PROPOSALS (“ Renewing the Instruments of the Anglican Communion ”) was produced for feedback. EFAC welcomed the opportunity to offer an initial response to this important report. It was clear from the document that the proposals had been produced in response to two interconnected problems: The anachronism of colonial era structures for the Anglican Communion when the vast majority of active members are now found in the Global South. The broken and impaired relationships of the Anglican Communion which have arisen due to doctrinal differences, especially to do with biblical anthropology and marriage. These have been in contention for several decades and been the subject of previous reports offering different paths of renewal. They have become more acute since the Bishops and General Synod of the Church of England in 2023 opened the way for the blessing of same sex relationships. The election as Archbishop of the Church in Wales of a person openly living in a same-sex civil partnership has further complicated the situation. The IASCUFO Nairobi-Cairo Proposals include the following proposals: That the 1930 Lambeth Conference description of the Anglican Communion be amended, including the deletion of the phrase “ in communion with the see of Canterbury ” and its replacement with words which include “ bound together through … historic connection with the See of Canterbury ”. That the existing structures be changed, including a rotating presidency of the Anglican Consultative Council. EFAC Global believes these changes need urgent implementation. However, these changes alone would not be sufficient. EFAC also believes that the Anglican Communion needs not just structural adjustments, but an agreed coherent theological and doctrinal basis and we strongly urge that consideration be given to the adoption of the Global South Fellowship of Churches Covenantal model. Unless something similar is adopted, many provinces will continue, in conscience, to disengage and there would appear to be no realistic basis for going forward together as a communion. The Lambeth Conference of 1920 put it this way: “ The Churches represented in  [the Communion]  are indeed independent, but independent with the Christian freedom which recognises the restraints of truth and love. They are not free to deny the truth. They are not free to ignore the fellowship .” Not all differences can be tolerated. Most people within the Communion do not see how the authorisation of rites of blessing for same sex unions are compatible with the teaching of scripture, tradition and reason. If Anglicans are to walk together, there must be a convergence in our understanding of the truth. If there is no convergence in our understanding of the truth, we will need to begin to learn to walk apart. We earnestly hope and pray that this will not prove necessary. Our prayer is for repentance, healing and restoration. Like any major change the steps which will be required to enable the Communion to continue to walk together will be challenging and will involve wise and determined leadership and we will pray for Bishop Sarah as she takes up this weighty responsibility. Bishop Stephen Hale Acting General Secretary *****  EFAC Statement in response to "Renewing the Instruments of the Anglican Communion" Dec 19, 2024 STATEMENT BY THE EVANGELICAL FELLOWSHIP IN THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION IN RESPONSE TO THE IASCUFO NAIROBI-CAIRO PROPOSALS (“Renewing the Instruments of the Anglican Communion”)   EFAC welcomes the opportunity to offer an initial outline response to this important report, thanking its writers for their sincere and prolonged engagement with the broken nature of our Anglican Communion. What follows sets out what we understand to be its central themes, and aspects of it which we welcome and aspects where we have questions and concerns. It is clear from the document that these proposals have been produced in response to two interconnected problems:   The anachronism of colonial era structures for the Anglican Communion when the vast majority of active members are now found in the Global South. The broken and impaired relationships of communion which have arisen due to doctrinal differences, especially to do with biblical anthropology and marriage. These have been in contention for several decades and been the subject of previous reports offering different paths of renewal. They have become more acute since the Bishops and General Synod of the Church of England opened the way for the blessing of same sex relationships in 2023.   The proposals can be summarised as follows:   A number of amendments to the classic description of the Anglican Communion adopted by the Lambeth Conference including the deletion of ‘in communion with the See of Canterbury’ to be replaced by, inter alia, ‘historic connection with the See of Canterbury’ (76) . A number of changes to the existing Instruments, notably a rotating presidency of the ACC.   We welcome a number of elements in the report including :   The removal of ‘in communion with the See of Canterbury’. This description has been used to try and delegitimise the new orthodox Provinces, recognised by both the GSFA and GAFCON, and to imply that any breaking of communion with Canterbury is tantamount to leaving the Communion. The recent decisions of the Church of England have meant that, irrespective of who the next Archbishop of Canterbury is, he or she will not be a person whose leadership can be acknowledged by many members of the Communion as primus inter pares.   The recognition of the sad reality that as currently constituted the churches of the Anglican Communion have fallen even further short of the Church’s call to be “one, holy, catholic and apostolic”: no longer having in common that they “uphold and propagate the Catholic and Apostolic faith and order” but simply seeking to do so; and no longer bound to each other “by mutual loyalty” due to recent actions by various provinces, most recently the Church of England. As a result, it is accepted that the churches of the Communion are no longer in full communion with each other but only seeking “the highest degree of communion possible”.   The statement that “Solemn calls to unity may sometimes function as an abuse of power, as they seek to enforce a closeness of relationship that would suppress or deny important differences” (45) and the call to those “who call themselves progressive or liberal…to grant graciously the degree of seriousness with which their fellow Anglicans take the matters at hand and concede the consequences of some degree of diminished communion” (48). 4. The acknowledgment that “The Covenantal Structure of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches … may be viewed … as a helpful contribution to the discernment of doctrinal and ethical truth within the Communion … in hopeful service of the unity and faithfulness of the Anglican Communion” (56).   1. https://www.anglicancommunion.org/ecumenism/iascufo/the-nairobi-cairoproposals.aspx?fbclid=IwY2xjawHAJeJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHWMGRsAKocYvrMrgB8RwmHUGcJDgDsMQCJubQOIzy  xOt1CoAnVSOhOfa0g_aem_PX6oHSgsfRp0R3ygcTxDlQ&sfnsn=scwspmo   2 Numbers in parenthesis refer to paragraph numbers in the IASCUFO paper.  All this makes clear that earlier attempts to reform the Instruments by seeking moratoria, repentance, and renewed covenantal affirmations and commitments have not succeeded. We continue to hope and pray that those whose actions have led to this tragic failure will repent in order that fellowship may be restored and we welcome the work of GSFA and GAFCON to reset the Communion and create structures which can enable full communion to continue between churches and faithful Anglicans based on Catholic and Apostolic faith and order. Questions and concerns: In forthcoming months as the report and its proposals are digested, discussed and developed in preparation for the ACC meeting in 2026 we hope attention will be given to various questions and concerns, including for us: An explanation for the absence of any engagement with GAFCON. Engagement with GAFCON will be essential if IASCUFO is fully to engage with the deep differences and divisions within the Anglican Communion. Whether the bold redefinition of the Communion is sufficiently reflected in the practical proposals which are seemingly minimalist and risk being largely symbolic but leaving the underlying power structures of the Communion intact (for example, in the continued parity between all 5 historic regions despite the very different number of worshipping Anglicans in them). We are concerned that more needs to be done, given the unprecedented levels of mistrust and non-participation in the legacy instruments, if the “ecclesial deficit” we face is to be addressed. It would appear that the underlying assumption implied in the theological methodology of IASCUFO’s approach is that, contrary to the Communion’s clear past statements, the teaching of Scripture on matters of human sexuality is unclear and so the areas of disagreement are to be treated as adiaphora and the subject of unending dialogue until the Lord returns (43, 57). Is this what is being claimed? Does the revised definition of the Anglican Communion not significantly water down the historic identity of global Anglicanism and (in contrast to the GSFA Cairo Covenant and GAFCON’s Jerusalem Declaration) fail to offer an ecclesiology clearly under the authority of the Word of God? In particular, in contrast to the Cairo Covenant and earlier attempts to address the Communion’s travails such as The Windsor Report and the proposed Anglican Communion Covenant, there appears to be no place for exercising discipline against teaching judged to be contrary to Scripture. While the recognition of the need for distance or differentiation is welcome, how does a “commitment to making room for each other” not amount to acceptance of “serious doctrinal error and moral jeopardy” (48) within the Anglican Communion? Conclusion EFAC Global therefore welcomes the full acknowledgment by IASCUFO of the wounds of division in the Communion and the proposal that the Communion is no longer to be defined by relationship to Canterbury. It is vital, however, that in ongoing reflection on our calling as the Church, the state of the Communion, and the report’s proposals to find a new way forward, that we are not found to come under the Lord’s judgment through the prophet Jeremiah: ‘they have healed the wound of my people lightly’ (8:11).   Bishop Stephen Hale  Acting General Secretary EFAC Global Bishop Keith Sinclair  Chair of EFAC Global Trustees

By Mouneer Anis October 8, 2025   The Church of England has announced the appointment of Sarah Mullally as the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury. I had anticipated her appointment since the Church’s General Synod of February 2023, when Mullally led the motion to allow blessings for same-sex couples—a move strongly endorsed by Archbishop Welby. Her leadership in that moment made clear the trajectory that has now culminated in this appointment.   By choosing her, the Church of England has effectively distanced itself from the vast majority of Anglicans in the Global South, who have consistently upheld the traditional Christian teachings on marriage and ordination. Many had hoped for a path toward healing and reconciliation within the deeply fractured Anglican Communion. Instead, this decision appears to close that door and signals an affirmation of the unorthodox and unilateral direction taken by the Church of England and several other Western provinces.   The Church should not embrace every new trend or innovation that arises in the surrounding culture. While it is called to engage the world with love and understanding, it must also guard its spiritual identity and moral integrity. When the Church loses its distinctiveness, it risks blending into the world it is meant to transform. To remain faithful to its calling, the Church must discern carefully, accepting what aligns with the gospel and rejecting what contradicts it. Only by retaining this holy distinctiveness can the Church continue to be the salt that preserves and the light that guides a darkened world. It is increasingly evident that the Church of England is following in the footsteps of the Episcopal Church in the United States—a path marked by progressive theological and ethical positions that are heretical and have widened divisions with the rest of the Anglican family.   The appointment also risks deepening the gap between the Church of England and its ecumenical partners, particularly the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches, for whom questions of doctrine and tradition remain central to communion.   This does not diminish the reality that women have always played a vital role in the life and mission of the Church. From the biblical witness of faithful women such as Mary Magdalene and Priscilla, to the countless women who have sustained the Church through prayer, service, and motherhood (both biological and spiritual) over the centuries, their ministry is indispensable. Yet, at the same time, it is impossible to ignore two thousand years of unbroken Christian tradition regarding marriage (between a man and a woman) and Holy Orders (which are reserved for men). This unbroken tradition is matched by and rooted in the plain sense of Scripture in both Testaments.   Orthodox Anglicans now have a historic opportunity to reform and redesign the Anglican Communion. Established in 1868 after the first Lambeth Conference a year earlier, the Communion’s colonial structure is outdated. The needed renewal should be built on a covenantal relationship among member provinces, united in their commitment to uphold traditional Anglican faith and practice. Such provinces must embrace the principle of interdependence—walking together in mutual accountability, not in hierarchy or domination. What affects all should be decided by all. If these decisions on marriage and ministry had been decided by all, Anglicans would never have departed from the orthodox tradition on marriage and ministry. Therefore, leadership of this renewed Communion should arise from the people, through transparent and representative election, rather than inherited privilege. In this vision, the Global South Covenantal Structure, which we in the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) have developed, offers an inspiring and practical model for building a faithful, reformed, and truly global Anglican Communion. It is worth mentioning that fourteen Global South provinces have already adopted this new structure.   The GSFA Covenantal Structure corrected the current dysfunctional Instruments of Communion that led to the fragmentation of the Anglican Communion. It is composed of the following three sections.   Section 1: “have a doctrinal basis for the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA), where membership of the ecclesial grouping is not merely by geographical location but by way of agreement to clearly enunciated Fundamental Declarations in keeping with orthodox faith.”   Section 2: “to express the group’s common life by way of relational commitments to one another in discipleship, mission and ministry. These relational commitments will be actualised through specific Task Forces, which we envisage will work with other doctrinally orthodox global bodies, dioceses and parishes in the Anglican Communion.”   Section 3: “to establish conciliar structures for the Churches of GSFA so that particular Provinces/Dioceses in their respective Churches and together as the Church universal have a clearer process for addressing ‘Faith and Order’ issues, establishing the limits of diversity, holding each other accountable to a common dogmatic and liturgical tradition, and making decisions which carry force in the life of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA).” Doctrinal, relational, and conciliar agreement “makes the GSFA an effective and coherent ecclesial body with member Churches in full communion with each other. The goal is to be an ecclesial body that is faithful to God’s revealed word and effective in Gospel mission to the world.”   The appointment of Sarah Mullally as head of the Church of England makes it clear that the time has arrived for different Anglican orthodox groups to join together. We need a new united Communion with such a strong Covenantal Structure.   Mouneer Anis was the first Anglican archbishop of Alexandria, Egypt.

By the Rev. Samuel L. Edwards     While they sought to establish a more perfect union, the framers of the federal Constitution made no pretense that their work was perfect.   That being so, they provided various means for redressing imbalances, refining imperfections and curbing abuses as the experience of living under the Constitution brought them to light. The essential powers of government were divided into three branches in which the powers of each were to be limited by the other two and the powers of all ultimately by the people. The built-in checks on the judiciary included the right of the President to appoint judges with the consent of the Senate, the power of the Congress to limit the jurisdiction of the federal courts in matters not specifically reserved to them, and the impeachment power. Also included was the process for amending the Constitution.     It is time the Constitution was amended in order to make the judiciary more accountable to the people in whose name and by whose commission they hold office while at the same time enabling judges to retain their independence to the greatest extent that prudence will tolerate. It is only in this way that an effective curb can be put on a corporate culture in which far too many judges are not content to interpret the law, but rather see themselves obligated to improve on it through decrees from the bench which are essentially legislative in character.     This sort of activism is the essence of critocracy - rule by judges. It breaches the wall erected by the republic’s Founders to separate the legislative and judicial spheres and so undermines the principle of popular sovereignty through elected representatives that lies at the very heart of the American constitutional order.     During the debates over the ratification of the Constitution of 1789, critics of the new document (among whom were the likes of Patrick Henry, George Mason, and Thomas Jefferson) raised objections against granting judges life tenure. They warned that it would reduce judges’ accountability to the citizenry on whose fundamental authority they were raised to the bench. It would lead at length to a judicial despotism that would in the end overthrow government by the people’s elected representatives on both the state and federal levels, thus replicating in a different form the very problem that led to the separation of the colonies from Great Britain. Recent history strongly suggests that these initial anxieties were well-placed and that Alexander Hamilton was seriously mistaken in his expectation (expressed in The Federalist, No. 78) that the judiciary would ever continue as the weakest branch of the federal government: Indeed, it seems that it now has become the strongest, before which quail the magistrates and representatives elected by the people.     The early critics of the 1789 Constitution deemed the threat of impeachment an insufficient control on judicial grandiosity: Jefferson referred to it as scarecrow and a bugbear which they fear not at all. He seems to have been right in this: The infrequency of the impeachment of judges over the past two centuries is less a testimony to the integrity of the federal judiciary as guardians of the Constitution than it is to the unwillingness of the Congress to use it except in the most egregious cases of moral turpitude. Never has a judge been impeached for opinions which misrepresent and undermine the meaning of the Constitution. This cannot have escaped the notice of the occupants of the federal bench.     It is worth noting, as well, that when the Constitution was written, life expectancies were notably shorter than they are today. It was exceptional if a judge (or anyone else) lived into his seventies or eighties. In such a time, the absence of a limit on judicial tenure was no great problem, since the Grim Reaper would generally limit it, and with it the potential of the average judge to inflict serious damage on the law. Now, however, with people regularly living long past their seventh decade of life, a judge appointed to the bench in his fifties may easily be expected to serve for a quarter-century or more. The scope for his doing lasting damage is concomitantly increased, especially since he is well aware that unless he is notoriously corrupt, he has absolute job security regardless of how outrageous to the Constitution and laws his judicial opinions might be.     Given such considerations, it would be prudent now to limit judicial tenure. This could be done by according to each federal judge and Supreme Court justice a fixed term of office that would be longer than those enjoyed by any elected federal official. A period of not less than ten nor more than twelve years would seem to be about right. Then, at the biennial general election following the conclusion of the tenth year of the judge’s term, he or she would be required to submit to a vote for or against retention in office by the voters who live in the judicial district or circuit over which the judge has jurisdiction. (In the case of the Supreme Court, of course, the vote would be nationwide.)     If the people voted to retain the judge or justice, he or she would be continued in office for another term. If, however, they voted not to retain the judge, he or she would be retired and disqualified from appointment to any federal judicial post for a fixed number of years afterward. The President would then be obliged, with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint someone else to the post.     The most predictable objection to such a change is that it would impair the independence of the judiciary. This objection is less weighty than it seems at first: As personal responsibility is a necessary accompaniment of liberty, so in a republic official independence must be balanced by meaningful accountability. The unfettered independence of any branch of government from the other branches or from the people is a threat to republican government. The Constitution exists in the first place to ensure that no such independence is ever established.  The change proposed here actually would have minimal impact on judicial independence: While there would no longer be life tenure, judicial tenure would still be for a longer period than that enjoyed by any elected federal official. In addition, the current provision against the reduction of judges’ compensation during their tenure would remain in place.     The appointment of judges would remain in the hands of the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, and the Congress would retain its impeachment authority unimpaired. The proposed amendment would reinforce the existing checks on judicial power by adding further level of regular accountability to the electorate.   It just may be that the addition of this kind accountability would be one part of a general remedy for the diminishing regard in which the federal courts are held, thanks to decisions that are seen as flatly wrong, or even immoral, by large sectors of the republic’s citizenry.   The people realize intuitively the truth what Jefferson expressed when he wrote, Our judges are as honest as other men, and not more so. They have, with others, the same passions for party, for power, and the privilege of their corps. . [T]o whatever hands confided, with the corruptions of time and party, its members would become despots. [1820, letter to Jarvis] It is time that the people be given a voice in judging their judges.     Fort Washington, Maryland 19 December 2003     + + + + + + +     Proposed Text of Amendment     ARTICLE ##     Section 1. The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in  one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from   time to time ordain and establish. The judges, both of the Supreme and   the inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior for a term of not less than ten nor more than twelve years, and shall, at  stated times, receive for their services a compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office. The term of office for a judge shall be deemed to commence from the date of his qualification  for the same.     Section 2. At the general election for the members of the House of Representatives next after the expiration of his tenth year in office, the name of every judge not resigning shall be submitted to the electorate of the jurisdiction in which he serves for a vote for or against retention in office. If he is retained, he shall be continued in office for an additional term of not less than ten nor more than twelve  years. If he be not retained, his office shall be vacated three months following the aforesaid general election (unless his term expires prior thereto) and the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate,  shall appoint some other person to the office so vacated.     Section 3. The provisions of this Article shall be applicable to all judges of the courts of the United States in service at the time of its ratification by three-fourths of the legislatures of the several States. The name of every judge of the courts of the United States in office for more than ten years at the time this Article becomes effective and not resigning shall be submitted to the electorate of the jurisdiction in which he serves for a vote for or against retention in office.     Section 4. No person failing to be retained as a judge of the courts of the United States shall be eligible for appointment as a judge in any of the courts of the United States for a period of four years after the conclusion of his term in office. No person resigning as a judge of the courts of the United States within two years of the end of his term in office shall be eligible for appointment as a judge in any of the courts of the United States for a period of four years after the date of his resignation, except that this provision shall not apply in cases of judges resigning to assume a position on a higher court of the United States to which they have been appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.     Section 5. The Senate of the United States, within ninety days (Sundays excepted) from the date of its submission to the Senate, shall accord each person nominated by the President of the United States to the office of judge in any of the Courts of the United States a vote consenting or not consenting to said nomination.     Section 6. The Congress shall have power to enforce the provisions of this Article by appropriate legislation.     The Rev. Sam Edwards is a priest in the Anglican Province of Christ the King

BY SUZANNE PEREZ TOBIAS The Wichita Eagle     About 40 members of an Episcopal church in east Wichita have established a new congregation within the Orthodox Church, citing their disapproval of the decidedly liberal drift of the Episcopal Church in recent years.   The Rev. John Flora, 57, retired rector of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, will lead the new congregation, which will begin worshipping at St. George’s Orthodox Christian Cathedral in Wichita at 10 a.m. on Sunday.     Flora said he and the group of former St. Stephen’s parishioners have grown frustrated with the Episcopal Church, including its approval of its first openly gay bishop in August.     When I found the Episcopal Church in college, I really believed I had found something that was connected to the ancient church and was going to remain steadfast, Flora said.   But my experience in the past 31 years as a priest is, there’s been a slippery slide into theological relativism, and that’s not where I’m at.     Officials with the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas, including Bishop Dean Wolfe, were out of town for the holidays and could not be reached for comment.     Melodie Woerman, spokeswoman for the diocese, said that news of Flora’s new church mission was a surprise, and that church officials would be unlikely to make a comment until they learned more about the situation.     The new church, St. Michael the Archangel Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church, will be the first Western Rite Orthodox parish in Kansas. It will join a growing number of Orthodox congregations that use a Western form for their liturgy, rather than the more characteristic Byzantine Rite.     The liturgy of the new church will be similar to that of the traditional Anglican Book of Common Prayer, Flora said, with some additions to make it conform to Orthodox theology. Becoming an Orthodox priest, which he plans to do on Easter, will complete a personal and theological evolution for Flora. During seminary, he participated in a dialogue group between Anglican and Orthodox churches, and he has been interested in Palestinian issues and Orthodoxy ever since. For now, the new St. Michael parish will hold worship services in the chapel at St. George’s Cathedral, 7515 E. 13th St. But Flora hopes the congregation will grow and eventually have its own facility.     Leaving the 2.4 million-member Episcopal Church was a real hard decision, Flora said, but one I felt I had to make.   Other parishioners planning to join Flora agreed.     This has nothing to do with St. Stephen’s itself. It has everything to do with the Episcopal Church USA, said Bill Anderson, head of the St. Michael parish council.     My belief is that we have not left the Episcopal Church; it has left us, he said. This is not a decision we took lightly, nor is it something that just happened.     END

BY Soledad O’Brien   Duncan explains why he and his group are challenging the Episcopal Church leadership over the ordaining of the first gay bishop.  He says they are basing their challenge on the scripture, not opposition to homosexuality Dissenting Episcopal Bishop     Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan on CNN   BY Soledad O’Brien   Duncan explains why he and his group are challenging the Episcopal  Church leadership over the ordaining of the first gay bishop.  He says they are basing their challenge on the scripture, not opposition to homosexuality.     SOLEDAD O’BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: One of the dissenting Episcopal bishops joins us this morning from Pittsburgh.     The Right Reverend Robert Duncan, who’s been named moderator of the rival network, is with us.   First, give me a sense of how much support do you have for your organization? RT. REV. ROBERT DUNCAN, BISHOP OF PITTSBURGH, NETWORK OF ANGLICAN COMMUNION DIOCESES & PARISHES: Well, there are 13 bishops who came  together to make a commitment to form this network and those 13 bishops represent 13 dioceses, which are dioceses from coast to coast and from the Canadian to the Mexican border.  We estimate that about a third of the members of the Episcopal Church across the country stand in clear opposition to what the Episcopal Church did this summer.     O’BRIEN: You’re challenging the church leadership.  We heard from Susan Candiotti a list of some of the issues. What specifically do you think is the main issue that your rival group has problems with?     DUNCAN: Well, the main issue actually is the authority of scripture and the person and work of Jesus Christ.  While the outward symptom or sign is the consecration of a man who’s in a same sex partnership and the blessing of same sex unions, what this really is symptomatic of is a disregard and even an abandonment of fundamental clarity in scripture.     And it’s a movement for the whole...     O’BRIEN: So you -- so forgive me for interrupting you.   DUNCAN: Yes?   O’BRIEN: I’m just trying to clarify here.   DUNCAN: Sure.   O’BRIEN: You’re saying it’s not that you have a problem that the bishop is openly gay, you feel the scripture does not support it?   DUNCAN: Yes, that’s exactly right.   O’BRIEN: Does the scripture support open gay members?   DUNCAN: The -- again, what scripture does is to call people to a life of holiness and self-sacrifice and taking up the cross.  So what scriptures do is saying that God's love is for absolutely everybody. So, of course, God's love is for gay people, as it is for folks with any kind of falling or failing or sin.     O’BRIEN: So you wouldn’t oust your gay members but you would like to oust your gay bishop?     DUNCAN: Well, no, let’s be clear. What we’re asking of our gay members, like we’re asking of our straight members, like we’re asking of those who are tempted to adultery within a marriage and those who are tempted to steal or cheat or lie, any of that list of moral failures, what we’re asking of them is to turn and live a new life.     O’BRIEN: So you’re saying that the bishop who’s been consecrated is living a life of moral failing and all your homosexual members are moral failures?     DUNCAN: Well, I’m saying that I’m a moral failure, that we’re, you know, Christianity has a view of human beings that says we don’t do what god wills for us to do.  And this is why what’s happening in the Episcopal Church is so off track, because the Episcopal Church is saying that you don’t have to change, you don’t have to be transformed.  Just as you are is just fine.     And you’re just as you are, sort of in god’s love, is one thing.  But once you receive God's love, God asks you to live a new way, to live for him, to mirror him, to live in a kind of holiness that’s so different from the way things are in the world.     O’BRIEN: There’s been a proposal -- and we only have a few seconds -- that would, under the conservative parishes, those who are uncomfortable with the authority of the liberal bishops would be allowed to sort of have a different leadership.     Would you agree with that kind of proposal?  Would that be something that would work toward solving the dispute between the two sides?  DUNCAN: Well, absolutely.  That’s one of our, one of the main things we are working for.  And it’s one of the things that the international leaders of our Anglican Communion called for.  Very important for people who are, who are actually, in some cases, being persecuted, being told they have to change. What it is Christians have understood in every age, in every place, and that the Episcopal Church has moved in a way that’s just totally innovative and unconnected.     O’BRIEN: The Right Reverend Robert Duncan joining us this morning.     Thank you.   END