The following graphic image is a province map of ECUSA, showing the believed current status of each diocese regarding the consecration of Gene Robinson, and the believed relationship of the dioceses to the new confessing network. The dioceses who have endorsed the network, or probably will, are shown as purple. We recognize that this is a dynamic map, and it will be corrected, changed and redistributed as  needed. It is offered to further the understanding of how the politics of the current situation is affected by geography.     All Saints Pawleys Island Leaves ECUSA     Jay L. Greener Jan 8, 2004     In a resounding display of shared conviction, the parish of All Saints Church in Pawleys Island, SC, voted tonight to sever ties to the Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA) and to align itself with another Province of the Anglican Communion. Over 500 were in attendance to vote on two resolutions that will alter the church’s core documents. A congregation that claims over 1,000 parishioners and deep roots to its founding in 1745, All Saints officially amended its charter to reflect a revised statement of purpose, as well as its official affiliation. The vote affirmed the unanimous decision of the church’s vestry, made in October. The church joins nine international Anglican provinces that recently severed ties to the ECUSA an institution whose revisionist and liberal actions are increasingly placing it at odds with much of the rest of the Anglican Communion.     On two separate ballots, those present voted overwhelmingly to declare a new identity and affiliation as a church. On the first, which called for all references to the Episcopal Church to be removed from All Saints charter, the vote was 464 in favor, 42 against, and 1 abstention. On the second ballot, nearly 94% of those present voted to remove All Saints from the Episcopal Church and transfer its canonical residence to another Province within the Anglican Communion.     That other Province will most likely be the Province of Rwanda, and its missionary movement in this country, the Anglican Mission in America. That decision will be finalized at a parish meeting later this month. As people were leaving the meeting, they had opportunity to transfer their letters of membership individually, and the response was overwhelming.     All Saints Rector Emeritus, the Rt. Rev. Charles Murphy, addressed the gathering before deliberations began. He made it clear that it was not a regular parish business meeting, but a special meeting of the corporation concerned with amending the church’s official charter, adopted in 1902. His comments embraced the following points:   *The Episcopal Church USA of today is very different from the Protestant Episcopal Church of 1902 under which the original charter was drafted;   *The Episcopal Church has produced, by its actions, a major realignment in the Anglican Communion whereby two-thirds of the worlds Anglicans are now in a state of broken or impaired communion with ECUSA;   *All Saints Church has resisted the revisions of the Episcopal Church for years, working for renewal and change from within;   *The Episcopal Church has, in effect, abandoned the Faith and Order of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.   *There are now two strategies for addressing the international crisis: either to remain inside the ECUSA and become part of an orthodox ghetto, or move outside in order to come out from under coercive structures and canons, which is the strategy of the Anglican Mission in America.     The members of All Saints obviously agreed with their longtime leader, voting to follow an outside strategy from this point on.   All Saints and the Diocese of South Carolina have had strained relations for the last three years, due to actions on the part of the Diocese to claim interest in the churchs property, refusal of the Diocese to allow All Saints to vote at recent conventions, and recent efforts on the part of the bishop, Ed Salmon, to take over control of the parish. South Carolinas Judge Breeden has twice ruled that the Diocese has no interest in the property, which was deeded many years before the Episcopal Church even existed. All Saints will continue to worship in their current facilities, even as the diocese continues its efforts to remove them through the courts.     Overall, it was a ˜peaceful meeting where a few people spoke on each side of the issues, with one person observing that ˜the church was ready for this moment. In a recent statement, the leadership of All Saints reasserted its commitment to its members, the inhabitants of Waccamaw Neck Region, the worldwide Anglican Communion, and Christs Great Commission to His church.   The Impact of Robinson’s Consecration there is no absolute moral standard, then one cannot say in a final  sense that anything is right or wrong. By absolute we mean that which applies to all people, that which provides a final or ultimate standard.   There must be an absolute if there are to be morals, and there must be  an absolute if there are to be real values. If there is no absolute  beyond man’s ideas, then there is no final appeal to judge between  individuals and groups whose moral judgements conflict. We are merely left with conflicting opinions. - How Should We Then Live? By Francis  Schaeffer (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell, 1976), page 145.     Dear Brothers and Sisters,   The Robinson consecration is coming home to roost. Slowly but surely, in one parish after another stories abound of parishes suffering financially, parishioners feeling betrayed and departing, and much more.   It is not just a matter of international opprobrium and rebuke or even of orthodox bishops in ECUSA withholding monies from the national church; The New Hampshire action is now filtering down to the parish level. Virtuosity had predicted this would happen, as did many others, and now it is coming all too sadly true.     E-mails coming into Virtuosity’s mailbox by the dozen, tell stories of individuals and families leaving in despair and disillusionment, taking themselves off to the Anglican Mission in America, one of several Orthodox branches of the Christian Church, the Roman Catholic Church and  more.     There is also the interesting side bar of orthodox Episcopal parishes growing as believing families leave revisionist parishes that affirm homosexual behavior or who cannot sign off on the creeds, Scripture and  more. So in order to remain in the Episcopal Church they sometimes drive 20 or 30 miles on Sunday to find a biblically faithful parish. And when they do, they rejoice.     One layman wrote to me his story and I have written it up for you in today’s digest. It is set in Americas heartland, and it is a sad story of the decline of a once proud parish into mission status and, by years end will, in all probability, close its doors.     The sad truth is that there are some 3,465 Episcopal parishes in the ECUSA (nearly 50 percent of the entire Episcopal Church) have 37 members  actually attending on Sunday and the Robinson consecration will push most of them into extinction. It is only a matter of time.     In Pawleys Island, All Saints will make a decision tonight (Thursday) about what they will do, that is, will they leave the Diocese of SC and ECUSA and officially join with the AMIA, or will they not.     Liberal bishops, who have sat on the fence, are suffering alongside  openly revisionist bishops as they watch the slow but inevitable decline. It is now either/or; the middle ground of compromise is fast disappearing. Many of the smaller parishes may stay temporarily propped up now that ECUSA is in concordat with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), but that is a short-term stay of execution. The former Bishop of Colorado now wishes he hadnt voted for Robinson.   One bitter former ECUSA employee wrote: I am seeing the destruction of two ECUSA congregations. . . bit by bit. The destruction is, I think, part of the whole death wish syndrome of sodomites. They are so anxious for the church  -- any denomination -- to declare they are sinless, that they are willing to reduce to ruin anything that appears to be an obstacle. Here and there, the destruction does give them money and power, both de jure and de facto.    A Lutheran pastor and Virtuosity reader wrote and told me this week, that things were no better in his church, and says that what is happening to ECUSA is happening to his own church as pansexualists take over and biblically illiterate, theologically flabby Lutheran bishops have no stomach to fight on scriptural grounds or hold back the flood of sad sack, feel your pain stories from pansexualists.    There is even a story about a Presbyterian pastor (PCUSA) and editor of The Presbyterian Layman about to be tossed out of his church because he urged Presbyterians to withhold undesignated gifts to the denomination because of its support for partial-birth abortion, homosexuality, and other practices that violate scripture. For daring to stand up to the powers that be, the Bible-believing Presbyterian minister may be stripped of his ordination credentials for criticizing leaders in his denomination.      Writers like George Orwell and Malcolm Muggeridge saw it all coming. The truth is, we are just seeing the beginning of the decline.     On the other side there are wonderful stories of orthodox ECUSA parishes (both Evangelical and Anglo-catholic) that are growing, because these rectors have a vigorous understanding of what the gospel is, and how to communicate it.     A group of some 20 top orthodox rectors in the country meet once a year to exchange stories, to listen and learn what God is doing in their lives and churches. These are parishes with 500 plus members, and while I am not privy to their conversation, it hardly takes a brain surgeon to figure out what they talk about.   The question is, do any of these men have futures as bishops in todays moral climate? One doubts it, but one remains hopeful. No wannabe bishop would ever obtain consents if he did not agree to the ordination of  women, and it is only a matter of time, if it hasnt already come, that Standing Committees will want to hear words like inclusion and diversity if a person steps up to the plate to be a bishop - buzzwords for pansexual acceptance.     These world class rectors may have already reached the height of their careers. It is a sad indictment of the current sick situation the ECUSA finds itself in - hated by a majority of the primates, despised by Global South bishops, several of whom now openly accuse ECUSA of using money to bribe them.     The story of Jesus and the temple money changers now has a familiar 21st Century ring to it. There is nothing new under the sun. Money (the Western churches have it), Sex, (The Western churches are morally bankrupting over pansexuality) and Power revisionist bishops are exercising it to abolish faithful orthodox priests) is now writ large over the ECUSA.     All the while the Global South has no money, and their churches are growing like crazy, sex stays within monogamous marriage between a man and a woman, and power is interpreted as authority, not half-crazed power-mad bishops like a Schimpfky or Bennison or Shaw who hate orthodoxy with a living passion, and who would sooner see the church die than compromise their heterodox unbelief.     What heart of darkness so fills these bishops that they can turn the truth of God into a lie? Do they not understand the Last Judgment, the final sorting out of those who believed and those who didnt. And what of Gods first judgement descending on the household of faith. Do they honestly believe that God will wink and nod and say, of course you changed my mind, how brilliant and brave of you.  And then the final word, depart from me I never knew you. Searing and sobering words indeed.     There is no denying it; no weaseling one's way round it. It is there for all to see. The Episcopal Church has sown to the wind and it is now reaping the whirlwind.   BUT OCCASIONALLY THERE IS A RAY OF SUNSHINE. This week the Queen announced a new BISHOP OF READING. We are delighted that Canon Stephen  Cottrell is to be the next Bishop of Reading. We warmly welcome the appointment of a dedicated evangelist, a leader in mission and a teacher-pastor to this important post, said Dr Philip Giddings, Convenor of Anglican Mainstream UK. His outstanding work at Springboard has commended him widely as a Catholic Evangelist in the Church of England said Rev David Banting, vicar of St Peters Harold Wood, Essex.   Canon Michael Green, Wycliffe college, Oxford also gave the new bishop rave reviews. Score one for the Bishop of Oxford, Richard Harries who made it possible. Jeffrey John is history.     I WROTE TO CANON PATRICK MAUNEY at National Church headquarters, the  church’s chief dispenser of Episcopal largess to overseas provinces  seeking money for various projects, asking whether in light of the Province of Uganda’s dis-invitation to Frank Griswold to attend the onsecration of their new Primate, and alleged bribery charges, would he  still go ahead and send the money, (for the Gulus) even though ECUSAs delegation was not welcome at the new Ugandan Primates consecration? He  wrote back saying The DFMS has not declared itself out of communion with anyone and so all our budgeted grants remain on offer and will be sent if accepted.     I’ll write to the Primate in a couple of months and see if they got the check.     MUCH IS BEING MADE ON THE INTERNET about how the AHMANSON FOUNDATION (he’s an Episcopalian) is busy funding conservative causes, some of which are Episcopalian like the Institute for Religion and Democracy and other orthodox groups as well. There is talk of sinister efforts by Mr. Ahmanson to undermine ECUSAs liberal bias. Really. One wishes he had that sort of power. He doesn’t.     So here’s turnabout for the books. Software entrepreneur Tim Gill of the Gill Foundation is a Colorado-based nonprofit philanthropic organization providing grants to nonprofit organizations, for people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities that make up American society.   Since its inception, the foundation has invested nearly $40 million in nonprofit organizations throughout the country, with a focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and HIV/ AIDS organizations and non-LGBT organizations located in Colorado. With an endowment of approximately $200 million, the Gill Foundation is the country’s largest funder of LGBT organizations. Does ECUSAs Integrity org. get money from the Gill Foundation and where did the $300,000 war chest come from that was used to push the PR campaign for Robinsons confirmation at GC2003?   Inquiring minds want to know?     THEN THERES THE NEW BISHOP-ELECT one James Cowan, 52, of the Anglican Diocese of British Columbia “essentially Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands (13,400 souls) who said in an interview that it’s time for Anglicans to take a page out of some of the New Age spiritual movements.   I hope to set up, fairly soon, a discussion in the diocese about what evangelism for this diocese looks like, he said. This is a very different age. Missionaries would talk about the faith and compare the two faiths, and sometimes there would be baptisms and conversions and sometimes there wouldn’t. But the dialogue was always between people who believed in something. Now, for the first time, you have a complete generation or perhaps more where they claim no religious affiliation.     He said the answer might be in the New Age movement. Perhaps he and New Westminster bishop Michael Ingham can seek enlightenment together while banging Native American drums and dancing in circles, or they could invite Frank Griswold out to the Pacific Northwest teach them both how to dance the Circle Dance of Dispossession. It did wonders for ECUSAs House of Bishops, God knows what it will do for Canadas flaky lot of Purple.     I AM POSTING A NUMBER OF STORIES in todays digest that should be of interest to you. Based on the Biblical injunction let another man/woman praise thee and not thine own lips, I am posting a story from the Washington TIMES about the Internet and its impact on The Episcopal   Church. VIRTUOSITY and this writer receives a favorable review. The writer is Culture Editor Julia Duin.     PLEASE NOTE THAT STORIES ARE NOW BEING POSTED DIRECTLY TO THE WEBSITE   ON A DAILY BASIS. You can keep up with the news as it breaks. Its all on the front page. www.virtuosityonline.org .     CORRECTION: In my last digest I said that four ECUSA dioceses - Springfield, Florida, Central Florida and South Carolina held special Diocesan Conventions to discuss the crisis in ECUSA. That was incorrect.   Springfield held its annual synod in October. There was not a special synod. The fourth diocese was Pittsburgh.   By the time you receive this digest I will be in Charleston, SC to cover the Anglican Communion Institutes annual meeting with scholars, Primates and bishops coming together to discuss the issues of the day. I will post directly to the website as the news breaks.     PLEASE MAKE EVERY EFFORT to cover this ministry with your prayers and support it with your charitable dollars. For me to get you the news I do need your support. You can make a tax-deductible donation at the website www.virtuosityonline.org and hitting the PAYPAL link. You can send a check 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

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-elects connection to a youth ministry Web site that had links to hard-core pornography.

By Adelle M. Banks RELIGION NEWS SERVICE     Bishop V. Gene Robinson, elected in June as the first openly gay bishop of the Episcopal Church, was named the Religion Newsmaker of the Year by members of  the Religion Newswriters Association. His approval and consecration, and the ensuing threats of schism in the U. S. church and the wider Anglican Communion, were collectively cited as the top religion news story of 2003 -- a ranking shared with criticism of the Anglican bishop of Vancouver, British Columbia, who approved same-sex unions.     About a third of the 240 members of the Religion Newswriters Association took part in the annual survey. More than 80 percent of these selected Robinson as the top newsmaker.   The top 10 religion news stories were ranked as follows:   1. Turmoil mounts within the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion after Robinsons approval and consecration, and Vancouver Bishop Michael Inghams action.   2. The pending war in Iraq split religious communities, with mostly mainline Protestant denominations opposing it and many evangelicals supporting it. 3. The definition of marriage becomes a key area of controversy after Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules gay couples have a right to civil marriage and the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down a ban against homosexual sodomy.     4. A Ten Commandments monument is removed from Alabamas State Judicial Building and the man who got it installed there, Roy Moore, is removed from his post as the states chief justice.     5. Roman Catholic Church efforts to implement plans combating priestly sex abuse draw praise and criticism. Archbishop Sean OMalley succeeds Cardinal Bernard Law as leader of the Boston Archdiocese.   6. Pope John Paul II marks the 25th anniversary of his election amid growing concerns about his health and debate over his eventual successor.   7. Slumping economy prompts budget cutbacks in many denominations.   8. Presbyterian Church (USA) keeps fidelity and chastity clause, maintaining its ban on noncelibate gay clergy. The denomination elects its first woman pastor as moderator.     9. The U.S. Supreme Court decides to hear a California case challenging the inclusion of the words under God in the Pledge of Allegiance.   10. The suspension of Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod official David Benke of New York, for participating in a post-9/11 interfaith service, is overturned.     Officials of Valparaiso University issued an apology to the  denominations members after holding an interfaith service marking the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.   END

Layman writes Bishop Lee Regarding His Recent Actions   Dear Bishop Lee;   Please read this carefully through until the end.  This is a hard e-mail, tough love, and I know that you have been getting many hard e-mails, sadly even hateful e-mails.  This message is not one of hate but words of one man speaking straight to another.  I have labored long on this message in love believing that you are an adult and old enough to take hard truth.  Please prayerfully consider what I have said.  Time is short. Much has happened in the life of the church since I shook your hand at Olivet Episcopal Church’s 150-year anniversary earlier in 2003. As part of our family’s ministry to historic re-enactors (see www.historicfaith.net http://www.historicfaith.net ), Rev. Harper had asked us to help with preparations and we were there in 1850 clothing (I have attached a photo from the event).  I was touched when you stated that you found a power in the old (1845 vice 1928) liturgy, but was not convinced.  There has been twenty years for me to judge your words by.     In 1984 as bishop, you received me into the Episcopal Church. I believe that this confirmation service at Truro was your first confirmation service as bishop of the Diocese of Virginia.  Later, you were the Bishop that licensed me as a lay preacher when my family and I were at Christ the Redeemer.  You were the bishop who I looked to when I began the local discernment process for ordination.  While talking with you at a dozen after-church receptions does not make a deep friendship, you have been my bishop since you became bishop in Virginia.     As you have been my bishop, I have carefully read much of what you have written and listened carefully to what you have said. You are an intelligent and articulate man and I believe that you have some love for the Episcopal Church.  From what I have read, heard, and seen, I am deeply concerned for your soul.  It seems clear that you have valued the game of church politics and opinions of fellow bishops over your sworn duty to uphold the faith outlined in scripture and our catholic tradition.   I shook your hand at Olivet but I was a little guarded for I believed that when the clear decision point came to choose between the Apostolic faith and the progressive, world loving, rationalistic apostasy that has come into vogue within ECUSA, you would choose the latter.  I was right.     Years ago, you wrote in the Virginia Episcopalian that you saw your duty as Bishop to avoid clarity (what I call fuzzing up) on issues that would divide, such as the immorality of homosexual acts.   This is not the position of a bishop defending the faith.  Your duty is to make spiritual truth clear not to obscure it.  You have acted like a shepherd that will not divide wolves from sheep.  I could give you many scriptural references including the words of Jesus that show that light should not unite with darkness.  Lovingly, and actively, we are to engage the world so that those who sin are come from darkness to light but that is not to have common cause with them.  Scripture set a different course for those who are believers and even higher standards for those who are leaders among Christians.     Some time after that article on your commitment to be fuzzy in the Virginia Episcopalian, I believe around 1997, you instituted the Call to Holy Life at Virginia Theological Seminary to open the school to active homosexual partnerships in lieu of the previous policy that forbade sexual intercourse outside the bonds of marriage, adulterous relationships, and the practice of homosexuality.  By this action (and actions do speak louder than words) you clearly demonstrated that even within your own diocese, you would be going with the flow even it that meant jettisoning the moral teachings of Jesus.  You used your skill at turning phrases to fuzz up this issue.  At the time you instituted the Call to Holy Life you stated you were seeking a policy more in keeping with Anglican comprehensiveness than the previous statement and more in keeping with the biblical balance of the Christian tradition.   Fine words, as I would expect from a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Duke Law School, but VTS, since your action and under your leadership, has become a hotbed of homosexual activism.     VTS is the place in your Diocese where church leaders are training and you are responsible for the type of leaders you train there.  At the time of A Call to Holy Life, in my deep concern and as part of my discernment process, I exchanged a series of e-mails with you in an attempt to find out where you stood on the authority of scripture and the nature of sin, in particular on the sexual sin, which was being promoted by the apostate.  It was not easy to get a clear answer from you to this fundamental question - did you believe that homosexual practice was sin.  I was at first hopeful when you read my e-mails and took time to reply.     The ongoing exchanges with you, as courteous as they were, eventually convinced me that you did not have a moral compass that would enable me to seek ordination under your leadership.  In my heart, I knew then that when a vote on accepting same-sex immorality would come, you would choose Sodom rather than Zion.  Thus, I left off the ordination process and after subsequent statements and actions by you, left off active life in a local Episcopal Church for a couple of years, moving instead to support our non-denominational ministry.  Recent actions of yours has shown that I made the right decision.  Since you put The Call to Holy Life into place, VTS students who hold the orthodox faith have told me repeatedly how they feel under siege for their beliefs.     Your recent vote and past actions are clearly destroying our diocese.  Unless you publicly and proximately repent for your part in this apostasy, the diocese you claim to love will fall to pieces, to the despair of the many faithful priest and laity who have stood by you through your past moral fuzziness.  Through your actions, the Episcopal Church, USA has become a scandal within the historic, orthodox, catholic faith.  You stated that in your recent votes:   I had a difficult, even wrenching time deciding. I prayed a lot. I consulted widely, with clergy and lay colleagues, with other professionals, more formally with the deans of the regions, and the Standing Committee. I studied scripture anew.  I was particularly struck by the 15th Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles where the apostles and elders of the church in Jerusalem adapted the requirements of Jewish law to the reality of the situation of gentile converts in Antioch.  My reading of scripture convinces me that the Gospel is ever-increasing its power to erase the barriers that we human beings erect among ourselves.     Did you prayerfully read what the Apostles decided in Acts 15:20?  One of the minimum requirements that the Apostles placed on the Gentiles was to avoid sexual sins - no compromise, no fuzziness.  The requirement for the gentiles was a beginning not the end.  The Apostles decision also had the assumption that Gods ministers would teach the Gentiles to live a life of increasing righteousness through faith, not a life of wantonness masquerading as righteousness.  Again, in your reading of scripture as in past actions as bishop, you cling to the politics and ignore the requirements of faith.  You also stated, I was also struck anew by the centrality of a theology based more on grace than on law.  In Philippians 3:8-14, Paul wrote to the Philippians yearning for a righteousness that comes not from the law but for a righteousness that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.  Paul continues, I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.     Phillippians 4:9 states, The things which ye both learned and received and heard and saw in me, these things do: and the God of peace shall be with you.  Do you, a bishop, understand the grace that Paul preached? Do you understand how repentance, the complete turning away from Sin, and Grace are related in Pauls teaching?  Romans 6:1-7 shows this clearly:     What shall we say then?  Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?  God forbid.  We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein?  Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were buried therefore with him through baptism unto death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection; knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin; for he that hath died is justified from sin.     God Forbid indeed!, and you should have done all in your power to forbid the consecration of Vickie Gene Robinson and the acceptance of same-sex blessings.  What did Paul tell Titus that a Bishop should do? Holding to the faithful word which is according to the teaching, that he may be able to exhort in the sound doctrine, and to convict the gainsayers (Titus 1:9).  As a bishop you took the vows, and have been supported comfortably by the Church as bishop, but you are NOT holding to the faithful word and 2000 years of church doctrine. You are undermining, not defending the faith.  You seemed to stated with pride:     Since I was consecrated in 1984, I have consented to the consecration of nearly 200 bishops.  I have not voted against a single one, not those who were divorced and remarried, not the poor administrators and preachers, not even those bishops who now threaten to leave the church. I believe strongly that the people of a local diocese, when the election is properly and fairly held, are the best people to determine who will best lead their diocese.  Just as the apostles respected the   local circumstances of the people of Antioch, so the General Convention respected the circumstances of the people of New Hampshire.   The apostles clearly set limits and conditions (faith and  pentance) on Gods grace and even stricter conditions for Church leadership.  Why cant you?  The Church gave you the vote of consent to defend the faith as a faithful steward.  The pride you have in never having shown leadership, not once since 1984, in the consecration of 200 bishops is shameful.     If, in 1984, you found that you did not have the judgment or moral fortitude to vote down unworthy candidates for bishops, then you should have stepped down then.  If you cannot see the problem with your actions now, you should step down now.  A sea captain whom never steers a ship or a medical board than never denies a medical license to a medical student is acting criminally, even murderously.  Your action or in this case inaction is killing the Episcopal Church and more  importantly hindering the work of the Gospel to turn people from death to life.  Do you so disrespect the Church and your calling that you believe that anyone who walks in the door will do as a bishop?  Even the non-spiritual, political wisdom of the business world understands the concept of checks and balances, and of the criticality of selecting competent leaders.     Do you understand what apostasy is?  Do you realize that you are joining with those who are actively seeking to turn the Church away from the authority of scripture and the faith delivered by the Apostles? Second Peter Chapter Two clearly talks about people wedded to apostasy. Verses 18-21 (Message version) is especially clear: They are loudmouths, full of hot air, but still theyre dangerous. Men and women who have recently escaped from a deviant life are most susceptible to their brand of seduction. They promise these newcomers freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, for if theyre addicted to corruption--and they are--theyre enslaved.  If theyve escaped from the slum of sin by experiencing our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ, and then slid back into that same old life again, theyre worse than if they had never left.  Better not to have started out on the straight road to God than to start out and then turn back, repudiating the experience and the holy command.   Recent statements by the revisionists, clearly demonstrate that they have no loyalty to the Christian faith.  In his Christmas Day message, your fellow bishop, John Bryson Chane stated the following And what was God thinking... when the Angel Gabriel was sent by God to reveal the sacred Quran to the prophet Muhammad?  And what was God thinking... when the Angel Gabriel was sent by God to reveal the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God?  (see http://www.cathedral.org/cathedral/worship/ Do you really want to through your lot in with the ECUSA proponents of Islam?; a religion that worldwide continues to martyr more Christians in its name than any other.  This is so much more than promoting slavery to deviate sexual practice, as terrible as that is; this is collaborating with those who are anti-Christ. Islam does not accept that Jesus is Christ and fights against or enslaves those who do - Muslims are not fuzzy about what they believe. I know of what I  speak.  I have read the Quran.  I have talked at length to both moderate and fundamental Muslims.  Having preached to and talked with Sudanese Anglican refugees when I was in Cairo with USAID and here in the United States, I have heard first hand accounts of what our Christian brothers and sisters have endured, and this death, rape, and torture is a worldwide reality, even under advanced Islamic governments.  I worked in Jordan, West Bank/Gaza, Turkey, and Egypt.  I have watched Saudi state television present the master plan of converting the world to Islam and have visited many places where historic churches were converted forcibly to mosques (they dont switch back).     I have reviewed government assessments on the views and actions of Islamic Jihadist (Christian fundamentalist are NOT like Islamic fundamentalists).  I have read the words of American Mullahs and Imams.   Now your fellow bishop has proclaimed the truth of Islam in our national cathedral and his fellow bishops remain silent.  This fact will not be lost on the Islamic world.  It will be used to justify the murder of thousands.   Would you consent to the elevation of a Islamic Mullah as Episcopal Bishop if a diocese put him forward?  Do you believe that Jesus would accept the teachings of Islam?  Jesus cannot be Lord is what Muhammad said in the Quran is true and from the Angel Gabriel. To accept Islam is to deny the Jesus of the Gospels.     Peter, will you choose to be light or darkness?, hot or cold?, sheep or wolf?  There is no more time for sitting on the fence, no middle way of inclusion with evil, no more time for fuzz-ing up truth. This is not to say that there is not room in Anglicanism for differences of opinion or understanding but there are limits to how   broad the Anglican road is.  It is a wide highway, but you have helped drive the Episcopal Church through the guardrail straight for a cliff--an abyss. You must turn 180 degrees immediately to avoid the crash and the resulting death in flames.     Do you not fear the judgment of God in this matter?  Being a bishop is no defense, if you believe the Gospel accounts and Epistles; judgment will be stricter for those in Spiritual leadership, whether they are legalistic, fundamentalist Pharisees or rationalistic, humanist Sadducees.     The last time I saw you at Olivet you stated that you were moved by the power of the old 1845 version of the liturgy.  I quote that liturgy now in the hope that you will be moved by its power to publicly repent.   I exhort you, in the Name of God, to remember the profession which you made unto God in your Baptism. And forasmuch as after this life there is an account to be given unto the righteous Judge, by whom all must be judged, without respect of persons, I require you to examine yourself and your estate, both toward God and man; so that, accusing and condemning yourself for your own faults, you may find mercy at our heavenly Fathers hand for Christs sake, and not be accused and condemned in that fearful judgment.   Should you decide that your pride or your convictions will not allow you to make a public confession of sin and repentance in this matter, I will no longer be able to offer you the hand of fellowship. Until I see that you have repented of your recent heinous actions, I will not accept communion from your hand though this deeply grieves me. Should you decide to humbly and clearly repent, then I with saints and angels will rejoice and weep tears of joy.     I will continue to pray for you, as hundreds of others are, that you will turn back to the faith.   If you wish to meet one-on-one to discuss these matters, I will gladly work to meet  your schedule, come to Richmond, and meet with  you.  The one occasion that I feel that I can still break bread with you is if we came together to privately discuss this issue.  As one who has been saved by grace from my past evils, I am more than willing to go to some length to see your considerable gifts and talents recovered for the kingdom and to see our beloved Diocese of Virginia turned from wreaking at the bottom of the abyss.   Please think twice and pray about what I have said before hitting the delete key...     Your brother in Christ,   Jim Craft Manassas, Virginia

My consecration will never affect the average Episcopalian. V. Gene Robinson, Bishop-elect of New Hampshire at GC2003     Special Report   By David W. Virtue VIRTUOSITY     The Bishop of New Hampshire is in for a rude awakening. His consecration is affecting not only the entire Anglican Communion causing whole provinces to disassociate themselves from the ECUSA, it is drying up funds to The Episcopal Church from orthodox dioceses, and now it is beginning to affect local parishes as well. Here are the consequences to one parish in Americas Heartland. A lay leader in a conservative congregation in a liberal diocese sent the following report.     The question was raised at a recent parish meeting, where is the Episcopal Church going?     We are really going through a difficult time as a result of the Gene Robinson consecration, he wrote to Virtuosity.     Since September, both our attendance and our giving has declined by at least 20 percent.  We are more than $8,400 in arrears to the diocese--not because we want to withhold it--but simply because we cant pay it.  In pledges for 2004, we only have about $75,000 which is about half of what we had in 2003 from half as many households and not enough to keep a full-time priest, and part-time secretary, organist-choirmaster, and sexton.     And that’s not all.     He writes: I think everybody on the vestry and about 95 percent of the congregation opposes what the Episcopal Church has done.  The rector tells me there are three or four individuals in the parish who think it was a good thing.  He wants to find a way to hold the parish together and remain in the Episcopal Church, but what are we to do?     Last Sunday the rector told him that four families had recently left the church.  They told him basically, We stayed until the end of the year--liked you asked--but nothing has happened and so were leaving.     I wish Gene Robinson could come and look this congregation in the face on Sunday morning to see what he hath wrought.  Even for those members who supported his consecration, it still affects them because of what is happening to their parish.     If nothing happens--if the powers that be do not provide an alternative for congregations like ours--I fear that we will dissolve and most members will leave before the end of the 2004. At best, I think most people will still leave and we will become a mission congregation with aid from the diocese.  But I have also heard that this same thing is happening in several other parishes in our diocese.     Gene Robinsons consecration affects little congregations like ours in Americas Heartland because we have been told all of our lives that we are a [capital] Church and we do things together and what one diocese or person does affects the whole Church.     Bishops and theologians have told us all our lives that we are not like those congregational churches where congregations and pastors do their own thing.     Now we are learning the truth, our Anglican theology is coming home to roost.     END

By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent THE TELEGRAPH 1/5/2003     The Church of England may have to split in two if women become bishops, one with female clergy and one without, an official report has concluded. An enclave for opponents of women priests could be created to avert a mass exodus when women are consecrated, possibly within five years.     The faction, effectively a church within a church, could have its own archbishop, bishops, parish clergy and training colleges. But it would exclude women clerics.     Proposals for a traditionalist third province have been floated before but this is the first time they have received official recognition.     They are included in a draft report on women bishops by a working party headed by the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir Ali. The report is due to be considered by the House of Bishops this month and could be debated by the General Synod this year.   The proposals for a third province are certain to provoke a fresh bout of infighting in the Church, which is already reeling from the civil war over homosexuality.     Although they are only one of a handful of options suggested in the draft report, they will horrify many in the Church, who will regard them as far too extreme.     Liberal supporters of women bishops will denounce them as officially sanctioned schism, especially as they threaten a new set of divisions in an institution already riven by dissension.   A recent survey suggested that, 10 years after the Church first ordained women priests, up to a quarter of the clergy remains implacably opposed to women becoming bishops.   Moreover, a number of senior bishops is still resistant and the Archbishop of York, Dr David Hope, has said that he would resign if women were consecrated while he is in office.   The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has privately made clear that he is sympathetic to the idea of a third province.   The draft report, which has taken three years to complete, outlines a series of strategies that the Church could adopt if, as seems certain, it goes ahead with women bishops.   At one end of the spectrum, it could decide to make no provision for dissenters, although Church leaders recognise that this would create widespread protest. At the other, it could opt for a third province, which would be fiercely opposed by most of the bishops.   A compromise could be tried by building on the present system of traditionalist flying bishops, which was created to minister to dissenters when women were ordained as priests.   But many acknowledge that even that would not placate diehard opponents of female consecration.   END

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 churches, 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 mill ions 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 ones parents, free of the wish that they should have been different, and an acceptance of the fact that ones own life is ones 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 Matthews 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.   Pharoah tried to destroy the people in Egypt, but Moses brought them out into the land of promise. Just as Pharoah 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 Gods children is recapitulated in the history of Gods 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 Gods 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 mass acre of the boys under two years old he didn’t realize that he was repeating the sin of the Pharoah 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 u s 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.   Its a very small, but very vocal minority who is trying to impose upon the ancient church new belief systems, so its 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 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. 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 NEW YORK TIMES 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 Clarks 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, dont seem to care that their neighbors hold to false versions of the faith.     Thats 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 Gods 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 meant 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 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 todays 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 churches 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 churches, saying the vote to affirm a gay bishop was the last straw in what they saw as the churchs long slide away from orthodoxy.     Many of these people have started attending Roman Catholic churches. 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 churches, 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 Churches, 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 churchs 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 Churchs. 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.     Theyre not coming in as they used to even three years ago announcing, `Im just church shopping, Im just looking around,  said the Rev. Elizabeth M. Kaeton, rector of St. Pauls Episcopal Church in Chatham, N.J. The people Ive seen recently have come to me and said, `Sign me up, Im 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 churches, and lost one to a Catholic church. Even for some heterosexuals, the Episcopal Churchs 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 churches 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 Churches 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 churches on issues of social morality, he said. Since the 1970s, when Episcopalians began building a network of churches 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 churchs 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

By David W. Virtue, DD www.virtueonline.org July 14, 2025   British Anglican theologian Dr. Ian Paul tore into the Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, accusing him of fudging the issue over same sex marriage. He specifically accused the archbishop about the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) report calling it “disastrous”, “divisive” and “damaging” to the Church of England.   Dr. Paul pointed the finger at former Archbishop Justin Welby describing the LLF report he engineered as “ill conceived”, “incoherent” and “open to misrepresentation.”   In an open letter to the Archbishop of York, Paul said the discussion in dioceses around the country only highlighted just how divided we are, and that the LLF process, far from enabling us to 'live with difference', has exacerbated division.    In a jab at Cottrell himself, the theologian said he suspected that the conversation in York wouldn’t have been much different.   Paul then took aim at the conflicted archbishop saying that The Church of England is not divided at all in its doctrine. “As you know very well, canon law is very clear on both where we get our doctrine (that is, our understanding and our teaching; 'doctrine' is just the Latin-based word for teaching), and what our doctrine of marriage is.”   Cottrell, who should have resigned over his safeguarding failures but did not, now finds a church more divided even as the See of Canterbury remains empty.   Has Living in Love and Faith come to an end, asks Paul? In an open letter to the Archbishop of York, Paul bluntly stated that “the doctrine of the Church of England is grounded in the Holy Scriptures, and in such teachings of the ancient Fathers and Councils of the Church as are agreeable to the said Scriptures. In particular such doctrine is to be found in the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, The Book of Common Prayer, and the Ordinal.   “The Church of England affirms, according to our Lord’s teaching, that marriage is in its nature a union permanent and lifelong, for better for worse, till death them do part, of one man with one woman, to the exclusion of all others on either side, for the procreation and nurture of children, for the hallowing and right direction of the natural instincts and affections, and for the mutual society, help and comfort which the one ought to have of the other, both in prosperity and adversity.”   IT'S SIN!   Sexual intimacy outside the context of the marriage of one man and one woman is sin and should be met with a call to repentance, said Paul. “It has been reiterated both by statements in the House of Bishops and by answers to questions on General Synod on multiple occasions, including in LLF debates. You have been part of the HoB which issued such statements.”   Paul ripped into Cottrell accusing him of being double-minded. “When you made your statement after the February 2023 debate, on Radio 4, that sexual intimacy is appropriate for anyone in a ‘permanent, faithful, stable’ relationship (without defining any of those terms), you contradicted the doctrine of your own Church, something you vowed to uphold.”   “When I challenged you on this, you denied that they are contradictory, and claimed that you still believed the doctrine of the Church, and that in February 2023 you ‘misspoke under pressure’. Stephen, these claims are not credible! The heart of our problem is that we have bishops and archbishops who do not believe the doctrine of their own Church!”   “You said you believed that this was not an issue that should divide the Church; that you respected and valued the conscientiously-held theological convictions of those who saw the issue differently. On what basis do you believe this? Where has the theological work been done on this? You appear to be saying, by archiepiscopal fiat, that this subject is a ‘thing indifferent’, one of the adiaphora, despite the fact that, all through scripture, and all through the history of the Christian church, it certainly is not.”   Paul took the gloves off and lit into the archbishop; “the belief in marriage as between a man and a woman was the ethical distinctive in the first-century world, and the first followers of Jesus, even if they were gentile, adopted the same (Jewish) position. On what grounds should we dispense with this? I cannot find anywhere where you have given an answer to this.”   “This whole debate is precisely around what does indeed constitute the ‘sinfulness’ that we need to repent of—and it cannot be reduced to ‘disagreement’. All our canons, all our liturgy, and all the previous statements of the House have been clear on this. Why are you confused?”   Paul tore into Cottrell saying, “you demonstrate that you do not understand the position of those who disagree with you. This isn’t a matter of personal ‘theological conviction’; it is a matter of whether we believe our own doctrine and the teaching of Jesus himself. This is not about ‘feeling able’ to do one thing or another. It is about whether or not the Church of England has the integrity of its own convictions.”   In a final blast at the archbishop, Paul accused Cottrell of ‘a failure of Christian love’.   “As we head into General Synod in York, those of us who do believe ‘the doctrine of Christ as the Church has received it’ on questions of marriage and sexuality are faced with being led by an archbishop who does not actually understand our concerns, who does not appear himself to believe that doctrine, who has created immense division in the Church of England and the Anglican Communion, who has led a process that has avoided starting with theology, and who fails this test of love by telling us how we ought to feel about it.”   Cottrell has never answered the accusations of Paul. A knowledgeable insider told VOL that Cottrell is a theological lightweight that would not know how to answer Paul. He sees his episcopate status transcending all debate. END