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AS EYE SEE IT:  By John Donnelly     Like many people, I am often quite bewildered by the many, many conflicting messages that conservative/orthodox Episcopalians are receiving from our opponents in ECUSA.     The other day, I received a piece of hate mail from an Episcopalian in my diocese.  I have never met the person. He had heard about us from others in the diocese (Diocese of Newark), and had read our web site. He had heard that I am antigay, and was appalled at the Robinson election.  He suggested that bigots like me should leave the Episcopal Church’s.  For many of us, such love letters are a common occurrence. However, we receive a mixed message from others in the same c.  They say, We value you...we love you in God...please stay and dialogue with us Or, You may leave, but not with your property.   Maybe we conservative Episcopalians should pick up a daisy, and pull off the pedals, one at an item, asking, They love me?...they love me not?     For the tIme being, I personally do not wish to leave ECUSA.  But I resent the kiss and slap mentality of the liberal Episcopal community.   Coming up at 130th Diocesan Convention, the Diocese of Newark will be voting on a resolution to promote the Unity of the church’s in the Spirit of the Gospel. [Resolution 2004-11   http://www.dioceseofnewark.org/convention/resolutions.html ].   This resolution commends the Diocesan Convention of Upper South Carolina for setting a tone of reconciliation by voting to set aside all of these  divisive General Convention resolutions. They did so not because they believe in the actions of General Convention, but because they did not want polarization around these issues further to interfere with the ministry, mission, and unity of the Diocese. Through their resolution, they are committed to seek deeper unity, more profound love, and more faithful discipleship.     Does anyone else see the irony here?  The Diocese of Newark has led the charge in these battles for years and years, and now they commend a diocese for not polarizing the churches.  Where is the truth in this resolution?     The Rev. Canon John Donnelly co-Rector, St. Michaels, (Wayne, NJ) An American Anglican Council affiliate in the Diocese of Newark     END

Church of England Newspaper   Since the start of the Millennium the Church of England has maintained an average loss of 54,000 once-a-week-church goers per year.   Average weekly attendance figures for 2000 fell by more than 100,000 to an average of 1,166,000 in 2002, according to the latest provisional attendance figures, announced on Monday. The Church’s tried to counter the news of decline by focusing on a rise in monthly attendance figures among young people, but it is getting harder to encourage clergy in the face of pew drains such as those in Dioceses such as Lichfield and Liverpool where average weekly attendance went down by 4,700 and 3,000 respectively.     Signs of growth were highlighted in a statement accompanying the latest figures, pointing out that although regular weekly attendance among children remained static on the whole, the Dioceses of Manchester, Peterborough, Ripon and Leeds, Southwark, Southwell and Winchester all reported increases in each of their Sunday, weekly and monthly attendance levels for children and young people.     Whether this trend could grow to fill the reported loss of 108,000 churchgoers over two years is yet to seen.     The new figures also show the result of new measures to gauge more accurately the role of the country’s churches. Parishes were asked to start recording the number of young people attending activities other than worship over a typical month. These non-worship statistics could widen the goalposts in the future as churches eager to push up these figures find new ways of getting involved in their communities.     During 2002 a total of 162,000 under-25s attended non-worship activities and 41,000 adults are working with young people aged 11 and over.   END

By The Rev. Danny Janes Kalamazoo Gazette Friday, January 16, 2004   In response to the Rev. Cynthia Blacks Jan. 1 Viewpoint on Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson – I’m sad that so many people gloating over this election still don’t get it.   While they celebrate Bishop Robinson as an icon of inclusion, their denomination continues to suffer the hemorrhage of members who are fed-up with their pandering to the gay community. Wake up! How many years of loss and decline is the Episcopal Church’s going to overlook until they awake to the realization that they’re alienating the base of their constituency?   I speak from experience as a pastor. A few years ago, a lovely lady started visiting our churches from a local Episcopal congregation. We had not visited, contacted or solicited her in any way. She sought us out because she was aware of the historic connection between the Anglican/Episcopalian Churches and the Methodist Church’s. She knew that we were far less liturgical and more evangelical, but shared a common historical root through John Wesley.     Upon getting acquainted with her, I learned that she had been a devoted Episcopalian for many years. When I asked her why she had stopped  attending, she told me that she had struggled with the liberal drift of the denomination for a long time. The final straw was the appointment of an openly gay priest as pastor of her local parish. She said, I’m just too old, too tired and too fed-up to keep fighting the powers-that- be!     Please understand, I’m not out recruiting disgruntled members of other church’s. There are enough people who don’t know Jesus Christ in the community to fill every church around here.   The question is: Do you just keep dismissing these people as intolerant and unenlightened malcontents, or do you ever admit how terribly out-of- step you are with the grassroots majority? You can produce all the polls you want to prove your support -- but how many of those polls are filling your pews?     I don’t celebrate Gene Robinsons appointment as bishop. I grieve for a denomination that would elevate a man living an immoral lifestyle to its highest office of leadership. Forget the issue of homosexuality for a moment.   If I were to leave my wife and children for another woman, and be living in an adulterous relationship, would I be qualified for leadership in the church? Not in the churches I’m a part of! But apparently, it's all right for Bishop Robinson to have a relationship with his live-in lover precisely because he’s gay. We don’t dare criticize the promiscuousness and immorality of gays without suffering the accusation of being homophobes. The last time I checked, the Bible  condemns sexual promiscuity for heterosexuals and homosexuals alike! (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)     Rev. Black proudly stated, The fact that a mainstream Christian denomination, guided by the Holy Spirit in a democratic process, can affirm the ministry of a man who happens to be gay and ordain him as a bishop, means that all who are marginalized are affirmed. I beg to differ.   In my opinion, the fact that a drastically declining denomination, guided by a liberal agenda in a politically correct pursuit, can excuse the lifestyle of a man who advertises that he is gay and ordain him as a  bishop, means that all who disagree can take a hike.     My condolences to the faithful men and women of the Episcopal Church’s who still happen to believe that Biblical authority trumps bureaucratic tyranny.   The Rev. Danny J. Janes is senior pastor at Kalamazoo Wesleyan Church’s. New Anglican Churches begun in Atlanta and Rome, Georgia by CEEC     As events unfold in the life of the Episcopal Church’s USA, other Anglican and Episcopal jurisdictions are actively at work to establish new parishes where the orthodox faithful can find a home.  In recent weeks, two new Anglican church’s have been established in Atlanta and Rome that are receiving Episcopal oversight from the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Church’s.  The CEEC seeks to blend the liturgical, evangelical, and spirit-filled aspects of the Holy Church’s.     All Saints Anglican Church’s in Rome, Georgia, is a mission’s outreach of the Archdiocese of the Holy Trinity, Province of Christ the Good Shepherd.  The Most Reverend Max Broussard, Archbishop, has appointed the Very Reverend Mark C as Vicar of the mission.  All Saints is now meeting at Chapel Hill United Methodist Church’s in Rome and has been warmly received there.  The web site for All Saints is www.allsaintsac.org .     Church’s of the Trinity in Acworth, Georgia (Cobb County) was formed by a group of families who left the Episcopal Church’s USA over the recent issue of the consecration of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire.  While the parish has not yet formally affiliated with any jurisdiction, it is also receiving Episcopal oversight from the Province of Christ the Good Shepherd.  Rev. C is now serving as Priest there as well.    The website for Church of the Trinity is  www.church ’ softhetrinity.net . Both churches are growing as word spreads of our existence, said Rev. C.  We intend to be churches where the faithful can hear the Word of God expounded and taught in depth without compromise, where the ancient Creeds of  the Church’s are adhered to, and where Anglican orthodoxy is maintained.  We  have an emphasis on community and building one another up in the faith.  We hope  to establish more parishes in the surrounding area.     The Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches is a member of the new Anglican Federation.  Rev. C is also the Abbot General of the Company of Jesus, a Franciscan and Benedictine third order religious community.  The COJ is an affiliate ministry of the American Anglican Council.   For more information, please contact Rev. C at 678-794-7826 or email him at frmark@companyofjesus.net .   END

By Elizabeth Bryant, Chronicle Foreign Service San Francisco Chronicle January 14, 2004   Lagos, Nigeria -- Obarou Adjarhu carries a Bible under one arm, and he knows his scripture. It says, according to Adjarhus reading, that homosexuality is a sin. Today, tomorrow and, as far as the 32-year-old Nigerian businessman is concerned, forever.   Those are the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah, he declared on the steps of this city’s Anglican cathedral, which is an island of calm amid the skittering traffic and jam-packed sidewalks of Africa’s largest city.   For a bishop to come out openly and say he is gay is a sin before God and man.   The bishop in question, Gene Robinson, was consecrated last year as an Episcopal bishop, over the objections of the mother Anglican church’s. Though Robinson lives in far-off New Hampshire, he is no stranger to this congregation or to Nigeria’s Anglican hierarchy, which is leading a growing international rebellion against accepting gays in the church’s.   The controversy exposes a fault line between the conservative Christianity flourishing in many developing countries and the more liberal doctrines preached elsewhere. It also underscores a long-standing intolerance of homosexuality in Africa, which carries important health-care implications.   In a continent that accounts for more than 70 percent of the 40 million people worldwide with HIV/AIDS, homophobia makes it more likely that gays will be denied the prevention and treatment programs available to others -- even as anti-AIDS drugs are becoming more accessible.   Gays are certainly not welcome in Nigeria’s 17 million-member  Anglican church’s, whose primate, Archbishop Peter Akinola, condemned the consecration of Robinson as bishop, calling it a satanic attack on the church’s of God. He even issued a statement on behalf of the Primates of the Global South -- a group of 20 Anglican primates from Africa, the West Indies, South America, India, Pakistan and Southeast Asia -- deploring the action and, along with Uganda and Kenya, formally severed relations with Robinson's New Hampshire diocese.   Akinola has emerged as the most vocal spokesman for conservative Anglicans who oppose the stance of the U.S. church’s -- which welcomes gays as parishioners and even, in some cases, as clergy -- and has warned that the issue may cause a schism in the Anglican church’s. If there is a break, many believe Akinola would be the driving force behind it.     The views of Anglicans in Africa are all-important to the church’s. The U.S. Episcopal Church’s, with 2.3 million members, is a small branch of the much larger Anglican church’s, with more than 77 million members worldwide. More than half of all Anglicans live in Africa, and many are vehemently anti-gay. Only South Africa, with its progressive gay rights legislative record, stands as an exception on the continent.   Homosexuality is a deviation from the scriptures, said Adebola Ademowo, archbishop of Lagos, which is home to the world’s largest Anglican province, or congregation. And we are not alone in this relief. All the other denominations here are just enthused with our stance. They are praying with us.   There is little outward evidence of Nigeria’s gay community. A fledgling gay rights group, Alliance Rights Nigeria, advertises no office address and its president goes by a pseudonym, Erilou.   Though out of sight, the number of gays is widely considered to be growing.   I think homosexuality is becoming more rant here, said Bisi Tugbobo, deputy country director of Pathfinder International in Lagos, a group working to combat HIV/AIDS. You hear about it. You read about it in the papers. But people don’t want to talk about it. Not in the churches. Not in the mosques.     As in many African countries, homosexuality is illegal in Nigeria, branded as a Western import or the work of black magic. Sodomy carries a sentence of up to 14 years, although jail terms are seldom meted out.   Homosexuality is a spiritual sickness, said Patience Fehintola, 62, another parishioner at the Lagos cathedral. It needs first of all repentance and soul cleansing. I’m disappointed in the American Anglican community.   Such condemnations are echoed widely among both Christians and Muslims in a country where religion permeates everyday life. Dilapidated trucks painted with slogans like Jesus is the Only Way stumble down the nation's pitted roads. Prayer grounds the size of football fields line the highway between Lagos and the southern city of Ibadan, packing in thousands who listen avidly to success tips from evangelical prosperity preachers.   In northern Nigeria, where a dozen states have adopted Islamic Shariah law, Shariah council head Hakeem Baba-Ahmed said accepting homosexuality will lead to a further erosion of our accepted principles of morality.   But Erilou, the president of Alliance Rights, says homosexuality has long been quietly tolerated in Nigeria. In a 2002 interview with Radio Netherlands, he noted that in northern Nigeria there are people called Dan Daudu, a name in the Hausa language that means men who are wives of men.   No accurate statistics on homosexuality exist in Africa. AIDS experts list it as a minor variable in a tangle of high-risk activities on the continent, starting with unprotected heterosexual sex.   But some AIDS activists fear that Nigerias entrenched homophobia and reluctance to address sex may undermine their battle against HIV. Nearly 6 percent of Nigerians, or 8 million people, are infected with the virus, according to government estimates. Health workers believe the real figures are far higher.     Not surprisingly, Nigerian religious leaders, who are beginning to preach HIV/AIDS awareness to their congregations, generally shy away from discussing homosexuality and instead stress celibacy.   Homosexuality is a very divisive issue for the church’s, said Samuel Kobia, the new head of the World Council of Church’s and an ordained Methodist minister in Kenya.   The government also turns its eyes away. Adenike Adeyemi, head of the federal government's reproductive health unit, said she does not know of any awareness campaigns specifically focusing on Nigeria’s gay community.   Homosexuality is not a taboo subject, but we have so many problems to deal with, she said. Well get to it. Probably.   The need to recognize the country’s gay population, despite opposition from the religious community, may become more urgent as the country grapples with its growing AIDS epidemic. A 2002 report by the U.S. National Intelligence Council ranked Nigeria – Africa’s most populous nation -- among five countries expected to drive the worlds rising number of HIV/AIDS cases in the coming years.   It's the hidden face of the iceberg, said Dr. Elisabeth Szumilien, of the aid organization Doctors Without Borders, who works on HIV/AIDS issues in southern and eastern Africa. We can’t target homosexuals (for treatment) because we don’t see them.   Copyright 2004 SF Chronicle

News Analysis   By David W. Virtue   The dirty tricks at Watergate did not bring Richard Nixon down.  He did that himself by denying his association with the plot once The Washington Post brought it to light.  Any leader of AAC who wants to survive in a position of vital influence in TEC should leave the AAC and apologize for the harm the dirty tricks have done to all, not just to TEC and the communion, but to faithful people with genuine dissent. Louie Crew, The Episcopal Church’s First Sodomite.     Louie Crew doth protest too much. For more than 35 years he and his pansexual pals have whined, pleaded, cajoled and subverted General Convention resolutions by using local option to press the homosexual agenda into the Episcopal Church’s, against all Episcopal history, the wisdom of the ages, 6,000 years of biblical history, the entire corpus of Holy Scripture, the Canons and Constitutions of The Episcopal Church’s, the Lambeth resolution and more.     Now he has the audacity to liken the American Anglican Councils recent public disclosures to Watergate.     Meanwhile his uberboss, Frank Griswold has lied and deceived his fellow Primates by signing a pastoral document he had no intention of following or keeping, then consecrating an openly gay bishop with Crews eminent delight and approval, and now he is watching while his lies and duplicities are slowly gutting the Episcopal Church’s, risking its ecumenical integrity with leading Christian denominations and emptying Episcopal pews.   The lies and hypocrisy of Frank Griswold would fill a book.   Episcopalians who oppose the consecration of a gay bishop are said to be preparing to engage in widespread disobedience to church’s law in 2004, according to revelations revealed in a document written by the Rev. Geoffrey Chapman, an AAC board member that outlined its strategy in a confidential document.     The document, which was leaked to the Washington Post, makes clear that traditionalist ECUSA leaders intend to severely challenge the authority of Episcopal bishops, and expect that both civil lawsuits and ecclesiastical charges against dissenting priests will result.     However, the AACs media director, Bruce Mason, said Chapman is not a policy spokesman and the council does not intend to supplant the current structure of the Episcopal Church’s. He did say it is the conservative forces who are remaining faithful to the Anglican Communion while the Episcopal Church’s is not.     Now let us go back in time. When the Episcopal Church’s was orthodox, who challenged the authority of the church’s when women’s ordination was illegally brokered into the church’s as a civil right when the church’s had not only not approved, it had not even entered into theological discussion over its validity?     Or homosexual misbehavior. What General Convention has ever passed a resolution approving the ordination of active homosexual priests to the priesthood? Its never happened. But its been going on for years. Furthermore priests and laity have entered into committed same-sex relationships in parish after parish with many a revisionist bishops approving blessings (under the altar) and Walter Righter walked away declared not guilty for ordaining an openly homosexual to the priesthood because the church’s said it had no canons against it.     Long before rites were approved at the last General Convention, they were going on in revisionist parishes with a wink and a nod from revisionist bishops. Whenever anybody said a word or raised an alarm, screams of homophobia echoed across the Internet and in diocesan publications. Thou shalt only feel pain, thou shalt not criticize. If you do, it is off to the Gulag you shall go for reparative therapy in sodomite acceptance. If you need help throw in some gay porno movies, Sewanee seminary will help you make the selection, (and we still want your checks to keep coming in.)     ECUSA theologian Dr. Ephraim Radner put it well when he wrote, The outrage over this leaked memo of the AAC is either a sign of disingenuousness or of numbed consciousness. The basic outline of this strategy has been public for some months, largely because it represents the Proposal of the Primates of the Global South for disciplining ECUSA (and New Westminster) that was presented at the October Lambeth meeting (this proposal is available at anglicancommunioninstitute.org ).     And the Rev. Don Armstrong a biblically orthodox priest in the Diocese of Colorado said the leak was much ado about nothing. It is the revisionists who have misbehaved, those of us associated with the AAC and the Anglican Communion Institute are simply and obediently maintaining the historical faith and order of the Anglican Communion--something I consider a creedal necessity. There was nothing particularly startling in the AAC memo--the revisionists broke communion by disobedience to the expressed position of the Church’s instruments of unity, which then caused ECUSA to be in violation to its own constitution and canons. This has resulted in more than half of the Anglican Communion severing ties with our province.     Louie Crew wants the leaders of the American Anglican Council to repent of their actions as though viable dissent has a prayer of working in the ECUSA. It doesn’t now and hasn’t had in more than 25 years.   Orthodox Episcopalians have drawn so many lines in the sand their backsides have developed permanent rashes as they have moved further away from ECUSAs apostasy and repeated accommodationism.     Faithful people with genuine dissent as Crew calls them, have been tried on, ridiculed, spat at, reviled, yelled at for being homophobic, uninclusive and lacking pluriformity, as to make their dissent a total mockery.   No. It is not the orthodox who need to repent, it is Crew and his sodomite pals and Frank Griswold who needs to repent of his actions that numerous Primates have asked him to do for consecrating V. Gene Robinson.     The folk at AAC have no intention of leaving ECUSA, they are fighting to take the church’s back from 40 years of theological and moral disorder, and because their plans were exposed, it changes nothing.     As far as dirty tricks goes, one only has to look at what clandestine Episcopal website revisionist priests and laity are up to in trying to destroy orthodox bishops like Bishop Peter Beckwith. Better still ask the priest in the Diocese of the Rio Grande who belongs to something called via media who tried to subvert the process for electing a new bishop to replace Terence Kelshaw by using mailing lists he had no business using to push for a new pro-sodomite bishop.     Or the sleazy way the selection committee in the Diocese of North Dakota tried to slip five pro-gay candidates into the process to select a new bishop and got found out when a sixth candidate was offered who said he was against same-sex rites.     The disorder in ECUSA didn’t start with the AAC, it began with Pike, Spong, Crew and his crowd, and before they try to take out and demand the leadership of the AAC repent they should remove the beam from their own eyes before trying to remove the splinter in the AACs.     END

14th January 2004   The Most Revd. Datuk Yong Ping Chung Archbishop &; Primate - Anglican Church’s in South East Asia   The Fourth AMIA Winter Conference Destin, Florida   Opening Address   Theme: Rediscovering the ancient/future Faith: Setting My People Free   Readings: Genesis 3:1-19,  Romans 5:6-11,  St. Johns 1:1-14   Praise God, from whom all blessings flow Praise Him, all creatures here below Praise Him above ye heavenly host, Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.   We gather in Destin, Florida tonight at this opening service of the 4th.   AMIA Winter Conference to worship God. We join the heavenly hosts and all the saints in every generation to sing the songs of everlasting praises and thanksgiving as recorded in Revelation chapter 5:   Holy Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty Who was and is and is to come You are worthy, O Lord To receive glory and honour and power For you created all things and by your will They exist and were created, You are worth to take the scroll And to open its seals For you were slain, And have redeemed us to God by your blood. Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, You have made us kings and priests to our God And we shall reign on the earth. We gather to proclaim to the whole world. Blessing and honour and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the throne And to the lamb for ever and ever.   We gather here tonight to testify to the great and mighty works that God has done in our lives as individuals and as a Mission. Indeed we testify that there have been renewal and revival taking place over and over again among our church’s in AMIA. We want to praise and thank God for His loving kindness and wonderful grace.   We gather as a community of faith, redeemed through, and set free by, His precious blood, to wait upon the Lord for His words. With eager and sure expectation, in the context of vibrant worship, warm and intimate fellowship we want to explore the theme of this conference: Rediscovering the Ancient /Future Faith: Setting My People free   Our theme for this Conference was prayerfully chosen to draw our attention, to provoke our thoughts and to challenge our spirits.  It is a timely theme, especially in a time like ours. When the whole of Christianity is being challenged undermined and attacked, the people of God need to rediscover once again the essence of our faith, the truth about God Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and the reality about ourselves and the world we live.   John in the Island of Patmos was bewildered by what was going on around him. He asked what would happen to the church’s, God took him back to where it all started - the Throne Room in Heaven -   Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this. (Revelation 4:1)   But before that at the end of chapter 3 of the same book He says - He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches.   The Spirit is the Holy Spirit, which Jesus promised His disciples and all of us who are His followers. He said in John 14:26- the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and will remind you of everything I have said to you We, the people of God must be reminded that our beliefs and actions must be judged solely by the Word and the Spirit. We must never trust in ourselves alone neither should we allow our interpretations to rule our lives and our church’s.  Jesus Christ and His Word are the ultimate authority for us and for His Church’s. What has happened to our Church’s is that the absolute authority of the Bible the centrality and the uniqueness of Jesus have been so camouflaged by many man made elements through the history of the church’s.   We have allowed the contemporary cultures, the secular human desires, the worldly philosophies, together with the Canons and constitutions and whatever, to blind us of the Faith that was once for all entrusted to the Saints. Today we are here to rediscover the truth and the essence of our faith. We want to pray that this Winter Conference 2004 will help us to rediscover our ancient /future faith. We pray the TRUTH will set all our people free to declare that:   Our God is greater than any of these. Our God is Sovereign.  He is GOD.   Let me illustrate from the culture I know best, i.e. the Chinese culture.   In the Chinese culture the dragon is a very prominent feature.  The Chinese dragon holds a very important position in the hearts and minds of the Chinese. Consequently it has great influence in the arts, literature, music architecture, etc.  Basically, in the Chinese mind the dragon represents what is powerful, prosperous, glorious, strong and authoritative.  The Emperor was considered the direct descendant of the dragon and therefore he was responsible to heaven for the harmony on earth.  If you look at the paintings of the dragon in each Dynasty you will see the gradual evolution of the dragon.  Bit by bit as the years went on you see different elements added on to the dragon.  Today, you will find that most dragons would have the claws of an eagle, the paws of a tiger, the ears of an ox, the head of a camel, the neck of a snake, the horns of a deer, the scales of a large fish and it even has the eyes of the devil. You can almost see the Chinese imagination and the Chinese superstition joining forces to create a vivid symbol that was to be worshipped and adored. What men desired and longed for they added onto their object of worship. What they themselves have invented and created was used to fulfill their own desire and longing. Eventually they cannot separate the real from the imaginary. They are enslaved by their own understanding and followed their own desires of the flesh and they lived according to it and gave their lives for it.  If you start stripping off all the added features of the dragon, interestingly there remains a tiny little seemingly harmless snake. Unfortunately for them, the symbol of their hope and aspiration was so camouflaged that many could not see the evil they were building on and the hopelessness of what they worshipped.  As they get deeper and deeper into it they get more and more trapped in it.  There seems no way out.   Isn’t this exactly what the world has done to Christianity?   They have camouflaged our faith so much that they are not able to see the truth that belies them all. Through out the centuries, people have added their own opinions of what they thought Christianity should be. Again and again the invasion of contemporary cultures and the eagerness of the church’s to accommodate the cultures slowly alters the essence of our faith. Hence elements are added according to what they thought Christianity needed. They have set out formats and rituals that were once used to enhance the worship of God and made them the main focus of worship. They have distorted the Scriptures.  Some, like those picked up in the Book of Jude, have:   changed the grace of our God into a license for immorality and denied Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.   While others have added rules and regulations that bind the church’s to certain earthly establishments and they have allowed that to be the authority of the church’s.  We need to go back to our roots - the ancient faith.  We need to strip off all the added parts of man-made Christianity and rediscover once again the essence of our faith.  We need to once again see God as He is, in all His splendor and His glory.  We need to go up to the heavenly throne room, as John did, to fill our eyes with the awesomeness of His holiness and to surrender totally to His perfect sovereignty and to experience personally His wonderful, compassionate and unconditional love for us.   We need to go back to the beginning.  Even before the world was created, God was already there. Our faith begins with God.  Right from the first chapter, the first verse of our Scriptures it says, In the beginning GOD¦. Everything that God created was good.  He was pleased with what he made. He made man and woman in His own image and breathed into their nostrils the breath of life.  He loved them and wanted them to respond to His love.    He gave them the gift of Free Will so that they can make choices and to respond to His love freely and to enjoy the creation in which He has put under their care. All these God did because He loved us.  Man responded to Gods love. But man also took advantage of Gods love and misused the gift of Free Will.  He deliberately turned away from God and desired his own glory and followed the desires of his own flesh. In another word man rebelled and sinned against God.  We saw how it all started in our first reading of Genesis 3 tonight.  It is still here today.  We need to strip off the fluffs of the worldly euphemism and acknowledge the Doctrine of Sin. The Bible is very specific and clear. It calls SIN by its true name.   For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Roman 3:23)   In Romans 6:23 it also says the wages of sin is death. Indeed Sin separates us far from God and traps us into eternal damnation and death.   Let’s face it; we need help! We cannot set ourselves free. We need a Saviour to deliver us out of our bondage and set as free.  God, in His marvelous plans, has already provided us that help.   For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)   God sent His only Son Jesus into the world so that the world can have hope again.  Jesus quoted the Scriptures and declared His mission on earth.  He said in Luke 4:18-19:- The Spirit of the Lord is on me, Because he has anointed me To preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim Freedom for the prisoners And recovery of sight for the blind, To release the oppressed to proclaim the year of  the Lords favour.   Jesus did this by dying on the cross for our sins. In him we have redemption through his blood,  the forgiveness of sins.  ( Ephesians 1:7)   But God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)    Once again through the blood of Jesus our relationship with God is restored and once again we can call God Abba, Father. Jesus said I am  the way, the truth and the life.   No one comes to the Father except through me.  (John 14:6)   He is the only way because salvation can be found in no one else.  He is the truth, and the truth shall set us free.  He is the life, for He has the key to eternal life. This is Good News.  And His command to us is: go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of  the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. (Matthew 28:18-19)   Yes, the World needs Jesus. The Anglican Communion needs Jesus AMIA needs Jesus, your church’s needs Jesus, you and I needs Jesus. We all needs to be set free from the bondage of sin. And Jesus is the only answer.   Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are here precisely for this.  The Mission of AMIA is to go and tell the world about our wonderful Saviour. Go and tell everybody that there is hope.  Plant new church’s for the love of Christ Let us strip off all the fluffs of the man-made Christianity and let us rediscover our ancient Faith together for the future for our children and children’s children. I pray that each one of us while we are here will experience the awesomeness of the presence of God among us.  We truly be so inspired by the Spirit of God that we want to fall on our knees and join the heavenly host and sing , Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty Who was, and is, and is to come,..   I pray that we will experience the love of God so intimately that His love will compel us to live our lives in responds to His love.  And His love will give us boldness to witness for him and truly be the light and the salt of the world.  I pray that we will be filled with His compassion for the lost that our desire in life is to share with others the Good News of Jesus and to see others come into the Kingdom of God. I pray that we will faithfully proclaim Jesus Christ and faithfully pass on the faith to the next generation.   Through the rediscovery of our ancient faith God wants us to be set free to move forward for the future. This is His promise for us when we take the step of faith:   Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?   I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland to give drink to My people, My chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim My praise. (Isaiah 43:18-21)   Let us pray:   Thank you our Father in heaven for this wonderful promise Thank you Lord Jesus for setting us free from all the bondages of sin and the hindrances of our time.   Thank you Holy Spirit for reviving us, renewing us and empowering us. Almighty God Father, Son and Holy Spirit send us out from this AMiA Winter Conference2004 to win this nation and all the nations of the world for you .In Jesus precious and mighty name we pray. Amen.   END

By The Rev. Dr. Ephraim Radner   Senior Fellow, The Anglican Communion Institute   The only thing surprising about Bishop Johnsons pastoral letter is the level of vituperative hostility;  the content itself represents a consistent ignorance about the Anglican Communion and a willful denial about ECUSAs standing, externally and internally, with respect to its canonical legitimacy in the eyes of both that Communion and many of our own members. As I have noted elsewhere, the outrage over this leaked memo of the AAC is either a sign of disingenuousness or of numbed consciousness.      The basic outline of this strategy has been public for some months, largely because it represents the Proposal of the Primates of the Global South for disciplining ECUSA (and New Westminster) that was presented at the October Lambeth meeting (this proposal is available at anglicancommunioninstitute.org ).  In brief, the Proposal calls for the larger Communion, along a certain timetable, to withdraw its recognition of those bishops who consented to Robinsons election, participated in his consecration, or supported the local option resolutions regarding same-sex blessings;  it also calls on the Communion to maintain its recognition of those bishops and others who opposed these measures as the legitimate representatives of the Episcopal Church’s.   These recognized leaders would then be affirmed as those capable to acting by rights according to the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church’s.     The AAC -- through its leaders and individual members, both present at Lambeth and subsequently -- have affirmed the thrust of this Proposal.   We didn’t need a publicity splash to know this. In case Bishop Johnson and others hadn’t noticed, even though the Proposal was not officially accepted by the Primates meeting as a whole, it has been put into place by individual Primates in their relationships with ECUSA already, albeit in an uncoordinated fashion.  The process for deciding who is the real Episcopal Church’s is well underway;  and thus far, the weight is stacking up in favor of the AACs contention.    This is a process that the larger Communion has set in motion quite independent of the AAC, and its implications and outcome are tied to the center, not the periphery, of ECUSAs leadership legitimacy.   If any of this comes as a surprise to bishops of ECUSA, it can only be because they have once again closed their eyes to what the majority of the Anglican Communion is actually saying, doing, and committed to being. Then again, such willful blindness no longer strikes people in the larger Communion as odd, since it seems to have characterized all the decisions and actions people like Bp. Johnson claim were done publicly and above board: the public trashing of the Scriptures, of the historic faith and order of the Church’s, of our Constitution, of the previous commitments of the General Convention, of Communion teaching and agreements, of the bonds of our common life -- that this constitutes established means of peaceableness over against the deceit of those upholding the teaching and witness of our historical faith is damning statement of Bp. Johnson's own stunted moral vision.   In short, nothing new.  The AAC is not an outlaw organization;  membership in and support of its work is not a breaking of communion with ECUSA;  no one should be frightened by Johnson’s bluster.     Rev. Don Johnson - Concerning The AAC Memo & Bishop Johnson   From The Rev. Don Armstrong Rector, Grace & St. Stephens Colorado Springs, CO   Much is being made of a leaked American Anglican Council strategy memo and a Pastoral Letter from the Bishop of Western Tennessee. I would say that this is all much to do about not much.  Bishop Johnson is simply over reacting.   Remember, it is the revisionists who have misbehaved, those of associated with the AAC and our own ACI are simply and obediently maintaining the historical faith and order of the Anglican Communion--something I consider a creedal necessity. The revisionists will try to spin this memo to turn the tables--and I for one don’t want to empower that parlor trick by paying it too much attention.   There was nothing particularly startling in the AAC memo--the revisionists broke communion by disobedience to the expressed position of the Church’s’s instruments of unity, which then caused ECUSA to be in violation to its own constitution and canons. This has resulted in more than half of the Anglican Communion severing ties with our province. The AAC memo simply states that it is serious business to reorder the church’s--and that we are prepared to take the necessary steps to which faithfulness calls us.     The statements contents have been vocalized in many ways and are not illogical if compared to the Global Souths Disciplinary statements that can be found on the ACI web site.   I think the important thing to remember is that this is not a one size fits all response that the AAC has articulated. There are dioceses that will respond as a whole, there are parishes that will leave for a new structure which we are currently developing, there are parishes that will just hide out (which for them might be the only option given the givens) and there are congregations who will stay in ECUSA, but with a strong and networked presence of commitment to the truth (certainly this is where Grace Church’s, Colo Spgs will be).     On January 19 and 20 I am participating as a regional (Mississippi to Rocky Mountains) representative to the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes official organizational meeting in Plano at the personal invitation of Bishop Duncan. We will be developing ways to address, articulate and support all four of the above possible responses to the oppressive posture of the revisionist Episcopal Church’s and its leadership. I can report more fully and knowledgeably when I return.   I do believe it will be our combined witness and resistance from our various circumstances that will in the end reestablish faith and order to a broken and dysfunctional Anglican presence in the United States. Certainly that is my hope and prayer.

January 15, 2004   Dear fellow Episcopalians in West Tennessee,   As the Bishop of The Diocese of West Tennessee, it is my privilege to serve beside you in witness to Christ. In this particular circumstance, I do so now as one who must uphold the doctrine, discipline and worship of the Church’s I have sworn to defend. No matter what ones opinions are about the more controversial decisions reached at our last General Convention, one has to admit that they were done publicly and above board. Using the long established means to reach decisions as a Church’s gathered in Convention, the outcome and resulting actions were literally done before the eyes of the world.   Loyal opposition and honest dissent to such actions are legitimate and should be honored by all. I have been careful to do so. However, deceitfulness and subversive sabotage justified in the name of serving Christ cannot be overlooked. To this point, I direct your attention to an article in the January 14, 2004 issue of The Commercial Appeal outlining publicly the American Anglican Councils confidential game plan for the destruction of The Episcopal Church’s U.S.A. by becoming a replacement jurisdiction, even if it means disobedience of canon law on a widespread basis as deemed necessary. At this time I have in my possession the full text of the confidential letter cited in the article. In as much as what has been done in darkness has now been brought into the light, I urge you to read for yourself this document that lays out the American Anglican Councils plan of destruction.   I do not endorse, nor will I have this diocese in any way associated with this effort, and I will use all the power of my office to see to it that our clergy and congregations will not be in any formal membership arrangement with this or any other such group seeking to destroy the Episcopal Church’s. To this end, I am taking the following initial steps: First, I am posting in its entirety on our diocesan web page ( www.episwtn.org ) the letter from the American Anglican Councils representative, the Rev. Geoffrey W. Chapman, who writes on behalf of the American Anglican Council and their Bishops Committee on Adequate Episcopal Oversight. It is their response letter to Episcopal congregations across the country who have requested what they describe as Adequate Episcopal Oversight. Specifically, this letter refers to oversight by a bishop who has bought into the American Anglican Councils plan to sabotage The Episcopal Church’s. This secret plan is very different from AACs public statements to the effect that it would work within The Episcopal Church’s under its Constitution and Canons to bring about change in Church’s policies.     Second, I have called a special meeting of the Standing Committee. I am asking for its advice and counsel concerning what next steps need to be taken by my office regarding our clergy and congregations formally affiliated with the American Anglican Council and, implicitly, with its agenda.     Third, while it may be obvious from the tone of this letter, I want to go on record in saying that I am not, nor have I ever been, a member of the American Anglican Council. Further, I do not endorse, support or condone their plan to methodically create anarchy in the Church’s.   Fourth, until the American Anglican Council made explicit what many already thought was their real agenda, I have spoken with respect for the bishops, members of the clergy and lay persons who have found in this organization a place to express their honorable dissent and loyal opposition. It is to you that I address the following:   It is my firm belief that most of you who have associated with the American Anglican Council did so for honorable reasons with no idea that their avowed actual goal is to destroy The Episcopal Church’s as it currently exists. However, according to their own documents, they seem to advocate whatever means necessary to innovatively move around, beyond or within the canons to do so. I know that not everyone associated with the American Anglican Council is of one mind. However, these revelations that have just come to light may help clarify your thinking about their agenda. As such, I hope that you will see this as an opportunity for you and your congregation to rethink and officially disassociate with this organization.     I ask your prayers for our Church’s, our Diocese and for our clergy and lay leaders who will be asked to help me be faithful in accomplishing this ministry for Christ's witness and love. To that end, I remain  Faithfully yours,   The Rt. Rev. Don E. Johnson Bishop of West Tennessee   (As provided for in Title III, Canon 24, Section 5, this Pastoral Letter is to be read at each service on either Sunday, January 18th, 25th, or February 1st, 2004, or announced as being available, and a sufficient number of hard copies should be provided to those requesting them.)     END

Archbishop calls for greater evangelistic efforts to reach US for Christ     By David W. Virtue     DESTIN, FL (January 14, 2004)-More than 900 packed the ballroom of the Hilton hotel here last night, in the largest gathering  yet of the fast growing Anglican Mission in America - a movement spawned from the dying river of the Episcopal Church’s and its embracive apostasy. The joy was palpable as the mostly former Episcopalians worshipped, drawing energy from a hundred voice choir, raising holy hands, invoking orthodox Trinity to bless the fruit of their labors, as the 4 th annual winter conference got underway.   Who is the Lord of your life, cried the Rev. Mike Hesse, Destin area rector of Immanuel Anglican Church’s, an AMIA parish.   JESUS roared the crowd.     A Shofar sounded as an instrument of warfare and pending victory. The AMIA-ites sang, we will follow ancient paths and discover future faith, well embrace Christs mystery that will set the people free. HE will set his people free.     This theme seemed to echo the freedom many now found no longer being associated with the Episcopal Church’s.   Those gathered here included African Archbishops Bernard Malango (Central Africa), Emmanuel Kolini (Rwanda), and Balufuga Dirokpa (Congo) while Archbishop Metelemele (Tanzania) sent Archdeacon Npiruka as his official representative and the Primate of India J. K. Samuels met with Bishop Murphy and gave his endorsement. Also present was a Nigerian bishop John Rucyahana, Bishop of Shiyra, Rwanda and from South East Asia, Archbishop Yong Ping Chung. There was also two ECUSA bishops and more than 100 AMIA priests and several ECUSA priests weighing their options as they consider their future outside ECUSA.     They sang we must stand against the tide...and keep your Word, a reminder that the church’s they had left no longer applied or was relevant to their spiritual needs.   In his opening sermon Primate Yong Ping Chung told the assembled crowd that they were gathered to testify to the great works God has doing in their lives as individuals and as a mission, only 4 years old. There has been renewal and revival taking place in our AMIA churches.   The theme  of the conference is Rediscovering the Ancient/Future Faith.   The hope of Christianity is being challenged and attacked, Christian people need to rediscover the truth about God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and the world in which we live. Our actions must be judged by the Word of God and not let our interpretation rule our lives. Jesus Christ and his word is the ultimate authority for our churches.   We have allowed the temptations of our cultures and secular human desire, worldly philosophies together with canons and constitutions of the church’s to blind us to the faith that was once entrusted to the saints.   Today we are here to rediscover the truth and essence of out faith, to rediscover our ancient/future faith and truth that will set out people free. Our God is greater than any other, our God is sovereign and he alone is God.   The world has camouflaged our faith, people have added their own opinion, the invasion of the contemporary culture and eagerness of the church’s to accommodate the culture has altered the essence of our faith.   Elements are added because they thought that was what Christianity needed. They have distorted the scriptures, they have changed the grace of God into license about immorality and denied Jesus Christ’s own sovereignty and Lord.     We need to go back to our roots and ancient faith, and discover once again the essence of our faith, to see God in his entire splendor and his glory. We need to go back to the beginning. Before the world was created God was there. Our faith begins with God...in the beginning God.   We need to strip of the fluff of worldly euphemisms and acknowledge our sin. God is very specific and clear, and calls sin by its true name...for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, he said. His command to us is go and make disciples of all nations...baptizing them in the name of the Trinity. The Anglican Communion needs Jesus, the AMIA needs Jesus; We all need Jesus. We need Jesus to set us free from the bondage of  sin.   The archbishop said the AMIA should reach out to the lost 130 million in the US who do not yet know Jesus. We desire to win lost souls for Jesus, it is the desire of our hearts and life to bring Good News to all those around us. Let us make it our commitment, he concluded.   END

News Analysis   By David W. Virtue January 14,2004     DESTIN, FL-In what is a sign of the growing influence of the Anglican Mission in America, four Primates of the Anglican Communion appeared at the 4th Annual Winter conference here yesterday to add support though not officially endorsing the mission.     Prior to this, only two Primates, Emmanuel Kolini (Rwanda) and Yong Ping Chung (South East Asia) have recognized the Anglican Mission, consecrating six AMIA bishops to the American scene over the last four years. The appearance of four more Primates, including Bernard Malango, (Central Africa); Fidele Diropka (Congo), Mtetemala (Tanzania) – his representative the Rev. Francis Npiruka was present,  Benjamin Nwankiti (Nigeria) as well as the Primate of the Church’s of South India J. K. Samuels who met earlier with Bishop Murphy and gave the mission his endorsement; another African bishop, John Rucyahana, and several ECUSA bishops, demonstrates the growing influence and public recognition the AMIA is receiving from a number of Anglican Communion leaders.   The Archbishop of Canterbury has still not recognized the Mission, but sources tell Virtuosity that he will see their leaders, Bishops Charles Murphy and John Rodgers later in the year.   When the AMIA first sprang into existence, ECUSAs Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, fearful that the AMIA might be recognized in his own backyard, raced across the Atlantic and implored then Archbishop George Carey not to recognize them. His trip was successful. Carey condemned the movement as schismatic and pled with all parties not to break rank with the Episcopal Church’s.   The AMIA has more than 50,000 members with some 60 parishes plus missions, with new parishes coming on board and start-up parishes opening every few weeks.   END

An Exclusive Interview with Bishop Charles Murphy   By David W. Virtue     PAWLEYS ISLAND, SC-The leader of the fast growing Anglican mission to America wears a heart pacemaker these days, but that hasn’t stopped the pace of growth of his mission to bring the gospel to Americans who want something more than Evangelical Lite in worship and spongy feel-good sermons. The 56-year old leader is laid back, though still imposing, bearing in mind that he was once offered the job as rector of the largest Episcopal Church’s in the US (in Houston) and was offered a chance to run for Bishop of Florida.  He turned down both offers. Chuck, as he is known by friend and foe alike, is a former Episcopal priest who is, by any standard of measurement, on a roll. But he is not without his detractors. Mention his name and you get one of two responses. He’s either the devil incarnate who left the Episcopal Church’s when he should have stayed to reform it, or he is the savior of Anglicanism in the US by offering a safe place for Episcopalians who can no longer abide the church’s leftward swing to revisionist thinking in faith and morals.     His detractors say he is a renegade Episcopal priest with powerful ambitions to have his own show; that his Anglican Mission is a jump start operation to split the ECUSA. He would argue, as do his followers and not a few Episcopal bishops and Anglican Primates that he is merely responding to the 40-year breakdown in the ECUSA and the cry of thousands of laity who want an alternative place to practice the Anglican expression of their faith. Oddly enough it is not just the Episcopal Church’s revisionists like Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold who hate him, a goodly number of Evangelicals dislike what he is doing as well.   His more immediate problem is a clash he is having with the Episcopal Bishop of South Carolina, Ed Salmon, over the property the AMIA headquarters shares with All Saints Waccamaw, a 1,000 person evangelical Episcopal Church’s that was, till recently, a parish of the diocese and the Episcopal Church’s.   I interviewed the bishop recently in his office in Pawleys Island.   VIRTUOSITY: The Bishop of South Carolina, Ed Salmon, has declared All Saints Waccamaw a mission. He has excommunicated the vestry and put in his own vestry. Where does that leave you?   MURPHY: We had a special corporate meeting last Thursday night. We had 500 adults present, two-thirds of the adult membership. 42 voted against changing the church's charter and 38 voted against leaving the ECUSA. 462 overwhelmingly voted for consensus. It was very positive. We are severing all ties and coming under the oversight of another province. The membership wants to come under the oversight of the AMIA and to transfer their canonical letters to the Episcopal Church’s of Rwanda.   In short we have moved on. Bishop Salmon has appointed another vestry with four new families. Ed [Salmon] is moving forward to set up a shadow vestry, a mission committee, and reduce the church’s to a mission.   VIRTUOSITY: The parish voted overwhelmingly to end its relationship with the Diocese. Have you heard from the Bishop? What has been response?   MURPHY: We met Friday at a local hotel with 10 people and appointed a senior warden, a junior warden, and the rest of the committee and the new mission committee. He will write and present his side and take out a a ull page parish advertisement.   VIRTUOSITY: Will you walk away from the properties if you have too?   MURPHY: Yes we will. The reality is the Dennis Canon can be used retroactively. If it happens, the congregation will leave. This is the cost of discipleship.   VIRTUOSITY: The courts have determined that the dioceses and national church’s had no interest in this property. Even though Ed Salmon appealed, Judge John  Breeden Jr. said a second time under a motion that the diocese had no interest. He issued a summary judgment saying in effect that it was not worthy to be taken up and made a trial over. Ed Salmon has gone to the Appellate court to get a ruling.   On Sept 19, 2000 the diocese filed a notice in the public records of Georgetown, SC, which states that the subject property is held in trust for the Episcopal Church’s and the PECUSA in the Diocese of South Carolina. The filing of this notice precipitated this action. It was all initiated by Ed Salmon. He filed using the Dennis Canon; it is in the records of the Georgetown Courthouse.   If the Dennis Canon wins it would set legal precedent and hurt everyone. That is regrettable.   It troubles me to be in litigation because of 1 Cor. 6. At the same Paul also appealed to Caesar because he could not get justice from the religious courts and he appealed to the secular courts. If you have good cause in the ecclesiastical setting, I think it is right to appeal.     VIRTUOSITY: Do you think that the AMIA could be the evangelistic arm of the new Network of Confessing Dioceses and Parishes?   MURPHY: It is too early to know. The Network has not sorted out the specifics.   VIRTUOSITY: With the emerging creation of this Network on the horizon why do you believe it would still be best for orthodox parishes to leave the ECUSA?   MURPHY: I believe that there are two strategies among the orthodox that are presently being implemented. There is the inside strategy which argues that the best way forward is to fight within the system. This is about either reform and correction of the ECUSA which idea may now be largely abandoned, or at least a safe haven, shadow-government church’s within a church’s - an orthodox ghetto.   The outside strategy is to go offshore, seek canonical residence in another province, appeal to the international Primates for backing and support and get out from under the coercive structures and canons of the Episcopal Church’s so we can move forward with the mission.   All Saints, Waccamaw has chosen the outside strategy. On Thursday night All Saints said they can no longer remain a part of the ECUSA and will seek canonical residence off shore in another province, in this case Rwanda. They are applying for affiliation in the AMiA.   VIRTUOSITY: Why are you doing it at this time?   MURPHY: We believe that a house divided against itself cannot stand and therefore the creation of a shadow government or another house within a house is a failed strategy. It may take years, decades, but it will happen. Just the strains in the Anglican Communion show that a house divided against itself cannot stand. The real solution is an outside strategy, inside the Anglican Communion but outside the ECUSA.   VIRTUOSITY: Would you like to be recognized by Canterbury?   MURPHY: I believe there is a realignment going on in the Communion and I will need to know where Rowan Williams ultimately lands before I am able to answer that question. Ultimately, the answer to that question must come from our two overseeing archbishops. We are going to meet with Williams in March and perhaps we will get more clarity in answer to my question.   VIRTUOSITY: Do you think the Episcopal Church’s is the answer the AAC prayer for continued unity? MURPHY: I believe that a house divided against itself cannot stand¦We should have had discipline and correction in the House of Bishops 30 years ago.   VIRTUOSITY: Some have said you are calling yourself a Presiding Bishop?   MURPHY: No. I am a Bishop and the chairman of the Anglican Mission.   VIRTUOSITY: There is a group, the Anglican Communion Institute, calling for quiescence in the face of revisionism. They argue that the orthodox, though opposed to revisionist actions, should just wait, pray, be humiliated and let the Holy Spirit lead. Do you believe in such a strategy?   MURPHY: Thank God for pacifism, and I am so glad there are few of them.   There are four Ps: Power, position, properties and pension, but we cannot let those four Ps be the determining factors. I dont think it is bad to have four things necessary for a vibrant organization, but it is regrettable if those 4 Ps become the ultimate determining factor. All Saints, Pawleys, though is concerned about property, but for All Saints those 4 Ps are not ultimate. We have to risk our jobs to keep our jobs.   VIRTUOSITY: There is implicit in this argument that those who stay no longer think the Reformation was a good thing. How would you respond to that?   MURPHY: I would not be an Anglican if I thought the Reformation was bad. I would be a Roman Catholic.   THANK YOU

BY DAVE MUNDAY Of The Post and Courier Staff   The decision of a South Carolina parish to leave the Episcopal Church has left many in the Diocese of South Carolina confused and hurt, according to the chairman of a committee that tried to work out a compromise.   I think there’s a lot of hurt, the Rev. Craige Borrett, rector of Christ St. Paul’s Episcopal Parish of Yonges Island, said Sunday. We are breaking with family. Theres a tear in the family.  Borrett and other members of the diocesan standing committee met for several hours Jan. 5 with the vestry of All Saints Church of Pawleys Island to try to find a way to keep the parish from voting to leave the denomination, which it did Thursday, he said.   The majority in the diocese, and those at All Saints, are deeply concerned about the crisis in the Episcopal Church, Borrett said in a report after the meeting. We strongly believe that our working together is the best witness in this struggle.   The committee asked the parish to delay its vote for a year to allow time for leaders of the worldwide Anglican Communion, the Episcopal Church’s parent group, to come up with a plan to discipline the Episcopal Church for approving an openly gay bishop last summer.   In return for All Saints delaying the vote, the standing committee offered to ask S.C. Bishop Ed Salmon to:    -- Drop an ongoing lawsuit over the diocese asserting a legal interest in the property (should the congregation decide to leave the denomination).     -- Give All Saints a seat, voice and vote at the next diocesan convention (privileges lost three years ago after All Saints sued the diocese over a public notice stating its interest in the property).     -- Reinstate All Saints vestry (which Salmon declared ineligible for office last month after the vestry voted to recommend that the congregation leave the Episcopal Church).     -- Restore All Saints to a parish (Salmon demoted the congregation to a mission after the vestry’s vote).     -- Cancel a scheduled meeting to appoint a new vestry.   Salmon agreed to all the recommendations except dropping the lawsuit.   In light of the fact that the appeal of the lawsuit has already been heard, and the ruling from the court is still pending, the bishops discernment was to wait for the court’s ruling, Borrett said in his report.   All Saints leaders said that if Salmon was not willing to drop the lawsuit, they would proceed with the vote to leave the denomination. The congregation voted Thursday to cut its ties with the Episcopal Church USA and come under the oversight of the Episcopal Church of Rwanda, an African member of the Anglican Communion.   The decision was a big disappointment, Borrett said.   There was no imminent threat of the bishop coming up there and forcing them to do anything, he said. Everybody said, Please, don’t do it, and they went right ahead and did it.   Salmon could not be reached for comment Sunday.   Salmon appointed a new vestry Friday, but there are no immediate plans for an alternate service for those remaining loyal to the Episcopal Church, which is usual denominational policy, said the Rev. Kendall Harmon, the dioceses communications officer.   It’s still our hope that cooler heads will prevail and there might be a way for this decision to be reconsidered, he said.   That’s the hope of many in the diocese, according to the Rev. Marc Boutan, associate rector at St. Philips Church in Charleston.   We need your voice along with ours to stand for the historic Christian faith against the tide of revisionism, Boutan said in a letter sent to All Saints leaders this weekend.   The diocese and All Saints agree that the Episcopal Church went beyond the boundaries of acceptable Anglican practice in approving an openly gay bishop. But All Saints can no longer hope to reform the Episcopal Church, Rwandan Bishop Chuck Murphy, a former rector who is the church’s main leader, said before last Thursdays vote.   All Saints is home to the Anglican Mission in America, a network of churches that have left the Episcopal Church but maintain ties to the Anglican Communion through the primates of Rwanda and Southeast Asia.   The diocese, on the other hand, plans to join an emerging network of Episcopalians who publicly oppose the denominations actions on sexuality. Those in the network hope the majority of the primates (the 38 provincial leaders of the Anglican Communion) will recognize them as the legitimate expression of the Anglican faith in America.   The vote puts the congregation of All Saints at risk of losing the use of the property, which includes the historic chapel and $10 million worth of new buildings on 50 acres. Episcopal Church laws state that individuals can quit the Episcopal Church, but the property must remain for the use of those loyal to the denomination.   It's a risk were willing to take, the Rev. David Bryan, one of the church’s pastors, said in a Sunday sermon in the historic chapel that’s used for traditional services. We believe the truth is more important than property.   Many of the 38 votes against leaving the denomination Thursday came from those who attend services in the old chapel, said longtime member George Saussy.   I’m still an Episcopalian, he said. I guess I’m a visitor here this morning.   He planned to keep attending services in the old chapel as usual. Most of those in the old church don’t pay much attention to what goes on in the newer buildings across the street, he said.     Most of the 468 members who voted to leave the denomination attend more contemporary services in the newer complex, which includes a much bigger auditorium with projection screens for praise and worship songs.   END