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Consecration will never affect the average Episcopalian. V. Gene Robinson, Bishop-elect of New Hampshire at GC2003   Special Report   By David W. Virtue, DD   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 America’s 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 Robinson’s consecration affects little congregations like ours in America 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     *****

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 millions of Americans. Wondering who am I, where I came from, and a missing link to the past and heritage. Joan Hackett and Mary Nelson will be instructors. My parents were not much interested in their antecedents. When I Asked them questions about the family they gave vague answers that obscured rather than illuminated. It made me wonder whether I was descended from a long line of undesirables! But I doubt whether they were that interesting. I have cousins on both sides of my family who are the keepers of the family histories. They supply me with information when I need it. I am gathering material to write a fictionalized account of four generations of my family. In discovering what might have happened to them I understand better what formed my parents and grandparents, and influenced me.   Some years ago I participated in a continuing education program on Family Systems Theory, which explored how the dynamics of family histories can repeat themselves in the lives of each generation. The exercise of drawing up a genogram of your family history, which identifies the patterns of marriage, children, divorce, births and deaths, can throw considerable light on your own experience.   None of us is self-made. None of us is a stand alone. Each of us Comes from somewhere. We have continuity to the past. We are the product of generations and our own choices. Erik Erikson describes the stage of Integrity in the Life Cycle as the acceptance of one 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 Integrity as the last stage in the life cycle.   I am presently reading The Hornet 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 to study the history he got interested in the period.   In Matthew’s account of the early childhood of Jesus (Matt.213- 23) we find that Jesus experienced this continuity with the past. Like his ancestor Joseph he was taken to Egypt. Jesus recapitulated the history of Israel by his sojourn in Egypt. Like Moses he was saved from certain death at the hand of the king of his day. When the time was come to return, the holy family left Egypt and traveled to Nazareth. Israel discovered its identity in Egypt, and the exodus from Egypt was the central point in the history of the nation.   Pharaoh tried to destroy the people in Egypt, but Moses brought them out into the land of promise. Just as Pharaoh failed to kill Moses, Herod, the new Pharoah, failed to kill the Savior. Eventually, Moses brought the children of Israel out of the land of bondage and death, and Moses' successor was to bring the people out of a worse bondage and a worse death, the death of sin. Jesus is seen as the successor of Moses; he came to save his people from their sins. Jesus is going to rescue us.   He is going to usher in the new exodus.   Matthew sees Jesus as fulfilling the Old Testament predictions. The history of Godchildren is recapitulated in the history of God’s Son. As Israel of long ago was led down to Egypt, so was Jesus. As Israel came out, so did Jesus. He embodies and fulfils the history of the people of God in his own person.     Michael Green, in writing about these stories about Jesus’s childhood, concludes Matthew makes it plain that God works through both surprise and continuity to bring about his purposes. The story of Jesus is utterly continuous with Abraham, with David and with the whole history of the chosen people. But it also bristles with surprises. Perhaps this is to encourage us to expect God to be working in our lives steadily and continuously, making sense of our past history, but also to be on the lookout for God's surprises in our lives, ready to grasp them and follow through their implications when they come. (The Message of Matthew, p.74)   Joseph was surprised by the angel of the Lord appearing to him in a dream and directing him to escape to Egypt. Yet in so doing he fulfilled the prophecies, and repeated the history of his family. When Herod ordered the 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 us to make sense of our family histories, to discover patterns of behavior that are to be either avoided or embraced. We are also meant to be on the look out for God’s 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. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Polk County, says the approval has left his parishioners feeling that their church has been hijacked by a small group of innovative thinkers.   It's a very small, but very vocal minority who is trying to impose upon the ancient church new belief systems, so 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. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, will lead the new congregation, which will begin worshipping at St. George’s Orthodox Christian Cathedral in Wichita at 10 a.m. on Sunday.   Flora said he and the group of former St. Stephen 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 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. George’s Cathedral, 7515 E. 13th St. But Flora hopes the congregation will grow and eventually have its own facility.   Leaving the 2.4 million-member Episcopal Church was a real hard decision, Flora said, but one I felt I had to make.   Other parishioners planning to join Flora agreed.   This has nothing to do with St. Stephen’s itself. It has everything to do with the Episcopal Church USA, said Bill Anderson, head of the St. Michael’s parish council.   My belief is that we have not left the Episcopal Church it has left us, he said. This is not a decision we took lightly, nor is it something that just happened.     END

By David Brooks December 30, 2003   George W. Bush was born into an Episcopal family and raised as a Presbyterian, but he is now a Methodist. Howard Dean was baptized Catholic, and raised as an Episcopalian. He left the church after it opposed a bike trail he was championing, and now he is a  Congregationalist, though his kids consider themselves Jewish. Wesley Clark’s father was Jewish. As a boy he was Methodist, then decided to become a Baptist. In adulthood he converted to Catholicism, but he recently told Beliefnet.com , I’m a Catholic, but I go to a Presbyterian church.   What other country on earth would have three national political figures with such peripatetic religious backgrounds? In most of the world, faith-hopping of this sort is simply unheard of.   Yet in the United States, we simply take it for granted that people will move through different phases in the course of their personal spiritual journeys, and we always have. Nearly 200 years ago, Alexis de Tocqueville was bewildered by the mixture of devout religiosity he found in the U.S. combined with the relative absence of denominational strife, at least among Protestants. Americans, he observed, don’t seem to care that their neighbors hold to false versions of the faith.     That’s because many Americans have tended to assume that all these differences are temporary. In the final days, the distinctions will fade away, and we will all be united in God’s embrace. This happy assumption  has meant that millions feel free to try on different denominations at different points in their lives, and many Americans have had trouble taking religious doctrines altogether seriously.     As the historian Henry Steele Commager once wrote, During the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth, religion prospered while theology slowly went bankrupt. This tendency to emphasize personal growth over any fixed creed has shaped our cultural and political life.   First, it 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 God’s wrath. In today’s megachurches, the technology is cutting-edge, the music is modern, the language is therapeutic, and the dress is casual. These churches are seeker-sensitive, not authoritarian.   The small groups movement, from which President Bush emerges, emphasizes intimate companionship and encouragement. Members of these groups study the Bible in search of guidance and help with personal challenges. They do not preach at one another, but partner with each other. The third effect of our dominant religious style is that we have trouble sustaining culture wars.   For some European intellectuals, and even some of our own commentators, the Scopes trial never ended. For them, the forces of enlightened progress are always battling against the rigid, Bible-thumping forces of religion, whether represented by William Jennings Bryan or Jerry Falwell.     But that’s a cartoon version of reality. In fact, real-life belief, especially these days, is mobile, elusive and flexible. Falwell doesn’t represent evangelicals today. The old culture war organizations like the Moral Majority or the Christian Coalition are either dead or husks of their former selves.     As the sociologist Alan Wolfe demonstrates in his book, The Transformation of American Religion, evangelical 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 church’s 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 don’t 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 church’s general convention (who also affirmed that some dioceses are celebrating gay unions).     After months of controversy, he was consecrated in November. The Catholic Church has reiterated its position on homosexuality, one that is a stark contrast to the Episcopal Churches. In July, the Vatican denounced homosexual acts as deviant behavior and said the church could not condone gay marriage or adoptions by gay couples.     In September, the American Catholic bishops said they would support a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. While it is too soon to assess the fallout, some Episcopal clergy members told of an unusually high rate of arrivals and departures in recent months.     They said the newcomers were far different from casual church shoppers checking out a Sunday sermon. Many of the new arrivals say they intend to join, and some have already been confirmed or received into the church by their bishops.     They’re not coming in as they used to even three years ago announcing, `Im just church shopping, I’m just looking around, said the Rev. Elizabeth M. Kaeton, rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chatham, N.J. The people I’ve seen recently have come to me and said, `Sign me up, I’m ready. Ms. Kaeton, who is openly gay, supported the ordination of Bishop Robinson but said she had not dwelled on the issue in her church.     She said her parish of about 300 families had recently gained 15 new members, many of them from Catholic churches, and lost one to a Catholic church. Even for some heterosexuals, the Episcopal Church’s stance on homosexuality was the main reason for switching.     Mr. El-Naggar, a retired C.I.A. officer and college instructor, said that when he read the news about the church’s decision to back Bishop Robinson, he got out the Yellow Pages and phoned the closest Episcopal church.     He said he was pleased to discover that the rector at Calvary Episcopal Church was a woman, because he had always questioned the Catholic Church’s opposition to ordaining women. He now attends Calvary Episcopal and said he had been stunned at the open theological debate there over homosexuality and other issues.     I am trying to be a good Christian, and I have never felt that spiritual freedom I feel now in the Episcopal Church, Mr. El-Naggar said. Some new Episcopalians also mentioned that the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church had caused them to rethink their affiliation. First came revelations that some bishops had covered up abuse, then some Vatican and American officials suggested that gay priests were to blame for the problem.     We felt increasingly alienated by the Catholic Church, said Robert J. Martin, 56, a lawyer in Philadelphia who lives with his partner, Mark S. Petteruti, 45, a horticulturist. Both men were cradle Catholics. Until 1988, Mr. Martin was a Catholic priest in the Augustinian order.     This year a deacon at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Philadelphia invited them to join a small group of gay church members who meet once a month for dinner. The couple soon began attending Sunday services at St. Paul’s, which is directly across the street from the Catholic church where, 30 years ago, Mr. Martin was ordained a priest.     What was most impressive was the fact that the straight people were welcoming us as a couple, and as potential members of the congregation, Mr. Martin said. We felt included and affiliated almost immediately.   In Fort Wayne, Dr. de Silva moved in the opposite direction. She was raised Episcopalian and was bringing up two adopted children in that church. But, she said, she could not accept the church’s stance on homosexuality because it violates the first commandment, to be faithful to God. She said she objected when her children were taught about gay rights in church Sunday school.     She began attending St. Elizabeth Anne Seton Catholic Church. She has read the catechism cover to cover, she said, and has already been confirmed. The advantage of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox 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.     It’s 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 church’s bedrock, like its secretary and the two men who used to volunteer to mow the lawn every Tuesday, Father Allen said. All but one left for Catholic churches, he said.     The exodus, Father Allen said, was the result of years of dissatisfaction for many parishioners. St. Francis, which had about 300 members, is known as an Anglo-Catholic parish, meaning that in worship style it retained Catholic traditions like a devotion to Mary, the rosary and a solemn high Mass with Gregorian chant.     For members long opposed to the ordination of women, a gay bishop was the end of the road. I think many people in this parish came to the conclusion that there was the apparent absence of any kind of authority that operates to restrain the Episcopal Church in any way, Father Allen said. They wanted to be part of a church which they saw as being bigger than American culture, which had an authority which went beyond our cultural conventions.     END

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

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 Robinson’s election to the episcopate. The vote was delayed a day because of an Internet message calling attention to the bishop-elect connection to a youth ministry Web site that had links to hard-core pornography.   David Virtue, founder of www.virtuosityonline.org and the originator of that message, said a conservative bishop had called him at midnight the night before he posted it.   He said, you’ll take the lid off the church if you do this, Mr. Virtue says. I did do it, and the lid came off. The article about the bishop’s ties to the youth site, posted at 4 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 4, triggered an emergency meeting of Episcopal leaders a few hours later. By early afternoon, TV camera crews were pouring into the convention conference center.   Although Mr. Robinson was cleared a day later of having any connection to the pornographic links, the lesson was clear any self-appointed Web master could influence an entire denomination.   Since then, more activists have taken to their keyboards. Very few have any journalism training and most say they make no money at it. All say its a spiritual calling to get the news out.   When Bishop Michael Ingham of the Diocese of New Westminster near Vancouver, B.C., decided to shut down a conservative mission church four days before Christmas, one of his fellow Canadian priests sprung into action.     Within hours of the Ingham story appearing on the Web site of the National Post, a Toronto-based newspaper, the priest had sent copies around the world. Traditionally, the institution has controlled church news, said the priest, a man in his 30s whose Internet nickname is Binky the Web Elf. Now the Internet supercedes regular media. This news about New Westminster would not have appeared in a church newspaper for a month, [but via the Internet] what a bishop says in North America can be read by a bishop in Central Africa in a few hours.   He gets 1,500 to 2,000 visits a day to his site, Classical Anglican Net News, also known as www.anglican.tk . So much news is pouring out from various Episcopal-related sources from around the world that he posts two daily briefings.     People are hungry for this, so they come where it is, he say. Even [Episcopal News Service director] Jim Solheim wrote us, saying he checks us daily.   The ordinary people may not have the theological tools to stand up to their leaders. They often don’t have that extra bit of information that allows them to say this is their church, too. Now through the Internet, their story is being told.   Not that bishops are taking this lying down.   I have drawers full of hate mail. The Internet has enabled the technological equivalent of drive-by shootings, Bishop Ingham told a Canadian magazine, MacLeans. I’ve had to learn to deal with a level of malevolence and sheer hatred that I frankly didn’t know existed in the church.   Washington Bishop John B. Chane, another church liberal, termed Mr. Virtue mean-spirited in a June 22 sermon.   We’re not as creative or direct as David Virtue at sharing our side of the story, he confided. We have to break that noose.   The church’s leading liberal Internet activist is Louie Crew, founder of the Episcopal homosexual caucus Integrity.     Mr. Crew, 67, who nicknames himself Quean Lutibelle posts items like Queer Eye for the Heterosexual Imagination and other offerings at http// www.andromeda.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/rel.html .   The site, which gets about 800 hits a day, has 3,000 pages of Episcopal minutiae history, lists of diocesan contacts, links to other Episcopal sites, articles, essays, photos, statements, audios of sermons, even an invitation to a renewal of vows for him and his partner.   A retired English professor from Rutgers University, Mr. Crew says he spends 12 hours a day processing material.   Before the Internet, he says, There was spin. Now there counterspin. We have to listen to points of view we don’t like. I have convictions and support them, but don’t want to be an ideologue.   Atop his Web site is the queen of spades, a title bestowed upon him by Mr. Virtue. In return, Mr. Crew awarded Mr. Virtue the title of joker.   Mr. Virtue, 59, a New Zealand native who lives in West Chester, Pa., began writing investigative articles for Episcopalians United, a conservative group, in the mid-1990s. Finding church politics habit-forming, he created his Internet site in 1998. To date, it has received 500,000 hits, 300,000 since the General Convention.   He also sends out a news digest several times a week to 100,000 readers.   He estimates he works 70 hours, seven days a week. Contributors send in about $80,000 a year, he says, which, after expenses, ends up at $35,000 a year. All of his postings are first checked by an attorney.   It’s what I feel called to do, he says, to bring the light of the Gospel on the revisionist nonsense of the Episcopal Church and to show it morally bankrupt. To do this, you have to bring the sludge to light.   Some of Mr. Virtue’s material gets distributed by the Rev. Richard Kim, 76, a retired Episcopal priest who runs an informal news service out of Detroit from an America Online account.   He searches newspapers, secular wire services and church Web sites all over the English-speaking world for documents and articles to circulate. He also has an extensive network of church contacts who send confidential reports to him.   Nothing’s a secret anymore, he says. Bishops in the church can no longer do things quietly. Anything that put out quickly goes around the globe. The Internet has allowed people to challenge assumptions, critique them and given ordinary people a chance to raise questions that would not ordinarily be raised.       Copyright © 2004 News World Communications, Inc

From www.anglican-mainstream.net   They were looking for a million signatures affirming orthodoxy by Christmas Day, and got them.     We will wind up fighting pew to pew and steeple to steeple. Canon David Anderson, President, American Anglican Council. The AAC emerged as the central orthodox player in the forefront of the spiritual battle being waged against the liberal/revisionist hegemony of The Episcopal Church and its innovators. The fast growing Episcopal organization had 14 chapters across the US with more signing on.   A regional AAC meeting in Atlanta elicited a screaming Associated Press headline Episcopalian schism coming. ECUSA emerging leading orthodox bishop Robert Duncan told AAC delegates who are angry about the recent consecration of an openly gay bishop to remain patient, assuring them that early skirmishes will be within the next 60 days.     The Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan (Pittsburgh) vice president of the American Anglican Council did not specify what those skirmishes would be, but he hinted at a move toward a possible split in the American church.   Duncan and AAC president the Rev. Canon David C. Anderson - two leading critics of V. Gene Robinson’s consecration - reported at the organization Georgia chapter meeting that they are drafting a charter for the Network of Confessing Dioceses and Parishes. Both said it would be a church within a church.     The Bishop of Atlanta, Neil Alexander disinvited the AAC. He forbade the organization from meeting in any church in the diocese. The only orthodox-evangelical parish in the area was denied an advertisement in the local diocesan newspaper, and the AAC was also forbidden to buy an ad in the paper. Another excellent example of Episcopal inclusion.     Duncan and Anderson reaffirmed that a split between orthodox Episcopalians and liberal factions seemed inevitable - although that may be years down the line. In the meantime, the Network of Confessing Dioceses and Parishes would address the immediate concerns of conservative Episcopalians, they said.     ACROSS THE COUNTRY in one diocese after another, orthodox and revisionist forces were arrayed like armies facing each other across a great unbridgeable divide. In nearly every diocese the forces are uneven. In some dioceses like South Carolina the orthodox side is strong, but the vocal minority had the national church leadership and attorney David Booth Beers beating the drums for them. In the Diocese of Albany, it is lopsided in favor of the orthodox but the minority at a recent diocesan convention were vocal, loud and pushy. In swing dioceses like Tennessee, Southwest Florida and Florida the armies are more evenly arrayed, while in Colorado the scales are tipped marginally toward liberals, but the orthodox are financially well- armed, theologically astute and they know how to fight. Bishop Robert ONeill, barely into his first year as bishop was asked to resign for his voting record at GC2003, as was Presiding Bishop Griswold by a serious theologian and a number of theologically orthodox priests.     In the DIOCESE OF OKLAHOMA Bishop Robert Moody pulled the license of a godly deacon this week for opposing General Convention resolutions on same-sex blessings and Gene Robinson’s election, in a sermon he preached, while in the DIOCESE OF NORTH CAROLINA a group of rectors covering the Research Triangle, the Piedmont Triad, and Charlotte, challenged the approval Bishop Michael Curry gave to the Gene Robinson’s consecration and sex-same union blessings.     And as the year closed the orthodox in the DIOCESE OF NEW WESTMINSTER found some safety and power in numbers (11 ACiNW parishes versus one revisionist bishop). Their plight got the full attention of the national church body. Bishop Victoria Matthews (DIOCESE OF EDMONTON) was appointed to lead up a task force to examine alternative oversight for dissenting conservative parishes in Canada.   In the DIOCESE OF WASHINGTON Bishop John B. Chane announced that he intended to create a committee to help develop optional liturgical rites which clergy in the Dioceses of Washington could use to bless same-sex unions.   Fr. David Moyer and his congregation, the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, PA applied for alternative ecclesiastical oversight to get out from under the revisionist Bishop of Pennsylvania, Charles Bennison.     THE FANTASY CONTINUED with The Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts trying for the umpteenth time to search for reconciliation on sexuality issues. The Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston the president of the seminary wanted to bring together people in an atmosphere of mutual respect.   The news came in that Frank Griswold had resigned ARCIC talks between Roman Catholics and Anglicans while Nigerian Anglican Province announced it would set up a US branch to protect and afford its members a place of worship without interference or interaction with the new gay bishop-Gene Robinson.     The Bishop of the Lagos West Diocese of the Anglican Province of Nigeria, the Rev Peter Adebiyi disclosed the plan in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, said the church which would be called the Church of Nigeria in the US would be established as soon as it was feasible and a priest posted there. We have told our people to leave the US Episcopal Church and give us time to set up our own, because out members are spread across the states in the US, Adebiyi explained.   There were growing signs of convergence amidst increasing fragmentation in the North American Anglican scene. A three-day conference in Orlando, Florida drew more than 50 bishops, clergy priests and laity from a dozen splinter Anglican groups from the Continuum, the Reformed Episcopal Church, other Anglican groups and two orthodox bishops from The Episcopal Church. Collectively they represent more than 165,000 Anglicans in the U.S. and abroad.   Held under the banner of the U.S. Anglican Congress, the conference was held at St. Luke’s Cathedral, a flagship ECUSA parish in the Diocese of Central Florida under the spiritual authority of The Rt. Rev. John Howe. The Rt. Rev John Lipscomb, Diocese of Southwest Florida was also present, as was a bishop from the Anglican Mission in America, the Rt. Rev. John Rodgers. Retired ECUSA Bishop the Rt. Rev. C. FitzSimons Allison (SC) also attended and gave an anecdotal history of ECUSAs slow decline and fall. The Rev. Todd Wetzel, executive director of Anglicans United (formerly Episcopalians United), brought the conference together. What we are seeing is a movement towards convergence, said Bill Bugg an ECUSA layman from Atlanta in his opening remarks, and this theme carried through discussions for the next three days. A new realignment is in process, said the Rev. Todd Wetzel, and this conference was a microcosm reflecting a greater realignment, a macrocosm of seismic proportions going on in the wider Anglican Communion.   A recently completed document on Women’s Ordination put together by leaders of the AMIA nixed women to the priesthood but said they could go as high as the diaconate.     The Episcopal Church found itself in broken communion with eight of the Communion’s largest provinces and in impaired communion with 24 other provinces. In total ECUSA was now out of favor with some 38 million Anglicans worldwide. Furthermore, both the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches had shunned him and recently he chose to resign from ARCIC talks under pressure from the Archbishop of Canterbury’s council of advice.   THE PRIMATE OF CENTRAL AFRICA The Most Rev. Bernard A. Malango, wrote Griswold a letter telling of his betrayal your actions have caused. There may be some clever way of describing it in your mind so that you can live with it. We have ways of describing it as well. It was dishonest, false, and a great betrayal. How can there be any hope for a shared future when communications and commitments mean nothing? In meeting after meeting, you have either stayed silent or have protested that ECUSA and your bishops are overwhelmingly orthodox, that you believe the Bible and the Creeds and the faith of the church.   THE PRIMATE OF SOUTHEAST ASIA Yong Ping Chung unanimously rejected the purported consecration of Dr V. Gene Robinson (Robinson) regretted that communion with the ECUSA as well as those who voted for the consecration and those who participated in the consecration service was now broken.     VIRTUOSITY learned of an Episcopal webring where clergy and laity could write anonymously to each other using fake E-mail addresses with one single objective - to bring pressure to bear and ultimately presentments against orthodox bishops who were not willing to conform to General Convention recently passed resolutions affirming same-sex blessings and V. Gene Robinson’s consecration. It was a sinister development hosted by the Episcopal Church leading sodomite, Louie Crew at his website.     In the DIOCESE OF NORTH CAROLINA Bishop Michael Curry held a secret meeting with 30 vicars and told them to conform to his will and that of General Convention or else. He told them he did not want them to talk about alternative episcopal oversight and strictly charged them not to discuss what is going on in the wider Anglican Communion.   And then there was the story about a parish in the DIOCESE OF OHIO where Bishop J. Clark Grew II faced a revolt from spiritually hungry parishioners at Christ Church, Hudson, Ohio. This parish was a cash cow to the bishop, but the godly Anglo-Catholics and Evangelicals were tired of political sermons and wanted spiritual food not temporal stuff easily obtainable from any local newspaper. Some 60 of them met at another church for Bible studies and worship. Bishop Grew got wind of the alternative worship and wrote a letter threatening to any clergy who showed up to perform sacramentally. Seven did.   The DIOCESE OF FOND DU LAC voted to send a letter of disassociation from the Gene Robinson consecration and the same-sex blessings resolutions of GC2003. Bishop Russell Edward Jacobus and the Executive Council permitted individuals to direct their giving through the congregations away from 815, ECUSA national church headquarters.   But in the DIOCESE OF HAWAII their diocesan convention reported figures for baptized members had plunged 12.5 percent over the last two years along with an additional 11.8 percent drop in communicants of good standing. Bishop S. O. Chang, a revisionist who formerly worked at 815 in New York is a close friend of Frank Griswold.   Perhaps fearing a revolt Bishop Robert ONeill told his clergy in Colorado Springs that resolution CO51 did not authorize same sex blessings and that he wouldn’t allow any to take place until something definitive comes out of General Convention which would not happen for another three years.   And the AMERICAN ANGLICAN COUNCIL president Canon David Anderson heated up the action in his Advent message, telling readers that orthodox Episcopalians have many reasons to be hopeful right now.   Three dioceses announced the formation of a network of dioceses and congregations to reform the Episcopal Church which is telling a lie with the things they approved last summer. Next month clergy and lay representatives will join bishops from as many as 13 dioceses in Plano, a Dallas suburb, for a constitutional convention. Pittsburgh Bishop Robert W. Duncan is the moderator of the new Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes. He has begun to emerge as the Primus inter pares of the Episcopal Church. This rival church within a hurch would continue to adhere to the pre-General Convention 2003 constitution and canons of the Episcopal Church.   Canon Bill Atwood of EKKLESIA, the international outreach arm of this emerging group is working with the vast majority of orthodox Primates to coalesce around Holy Scripture and against the Robinson consecration. And the recent merger of two ministries, the Scholarly Engagement with Anglican Doctrine, (SEAD) and the Anglican Institute to form THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION INSTITUTE (ACI), as the theological brains behind this new movement, and suddenly there was a whole new ball game.   The ultimate prize is international recognition as the legitimate expression of Anglican Christianity within North America.     THE ANGLICAN PROVINCE OF UGANDA issued a stunning rebuke to ECUSA and to Frank Griswold personally over the November Gene Robinson consecration. In a scathing public letter, they let it be known that they will refuse to allow a delegation from ECUSA to attend the upcoming consecration of their new archbishop. The American Anglican Council applauded the Ugandan Church actions and further decried ECUSA’s apparent attempt at financial manipulation.   The Anglican Province of Uganda reiterated that it had broken off all ties with the Episcopal Church over its support for the consecration of an actively homosexual bishop and said it was praying for the newly formed Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes. They then invited a delegation from the Network to attend the consecration.   And in the DIOCESE OF CONNECTICUT, Bishop Andrew D. Smith ordained an avowed lesbian, Sherrell Osborn, to the priesthood in Christ Church cathedral in Hartford over the objection of two priests, Ronald S. Gauss and Alyn Benedict. The Bishop of Connecticut had promised his diocese that he would appoint a bipartisan task force to advise him on how the diocese should proceed on issues of human sexuality following GC2003.   AND IN PROVINCE NINE, which is composed of overseas dioceses within the US Episcopal Church, things recently got so hot for one bishop that he invited a number of his supporters to join him in laying siege to his own cathedral. Thankfully it appears that no gunplay occurred on sacred ground, but Ecuador Bishop Jose Neptali Larrea-Moreno is under ecclesiastical indictment for his refusal to cooperate with an investigation into longstanding financial irregularities. Larrea who had reportedly refused to attend General Convention because of fears that he would be arrested upon arrival on US soil, knows the Episcopal Church is on to him over serious unresolved questions of diocesan finances he oversaw.     A DIRTY LITTLE WAR going on in the DIOCESE OF SOUTH CAROLINA between the diocese along with ECUSA versus All Saints Church Waccamaw, erupted to the surface. The bishop, Ed Salmon stepped in and on December 17, excommunicated the vestry of All Saints Church and in a letter declared that the Vestry had vacated its offices as Vestry Members and that the Bishop had reduced All Saints to a mission. He then said he would appoint a mission committee to replace the current Vestry as the governing body at All Saints Church.   AND AS IF TO THROW MORE GASOLINE on the already overheated Anglican Communion facing schism, Bishop V. Gene Robinson announced that he wanted to marry his partner Mark Andrew. I Want To Marry screamed one newspaper headline. I am very supportive of the right to marry, Robinson said in a telephone interview with The Eagle Tribune newspaper.  And just when you thought there was no bottom to the outrage, V. Gene Robinson accepted an award from a soft-core porn website. Robinson was named Person of the Year for 2003 from PlanetOut a soft-core porn website, for his unprecedented achievement and its impact on the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. PlanetOut interviewed Robinson where he happily accepted the award. The Advocate the nation leading gay and lesbian newsmagazine, also named him person of the year, giving him a front cover picture in full bishop regalia.     Gay bishop named years top newsmaker said RELIGIOUS NEWS SERVICE. 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.   Colorado Episcopal Bishop Jerry Winterrowd expressed regret that he supported the election of the nation's first openly gay bishop, saying the church was not ready. Winterrowd, who retired Dec. 31, said he went into August General Convention of the Episcopal Church USA intending to vote against the election of Gene Robinson as New Hampshire bishop, but then didnt. Subsequently, I would say that I am on very thin ice there, Winterrowd.     A NEW THEOLOGICAL CHARTER WILL FORM THE BASIS FOR DISSENTING   EPISCOPALIANS. The Anglican Communion Institute announced the appearance of a new document drawn up for the orthodox Anglican presence within the United States and Canada. Titled The Theological Charter for Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes of ECUSA and the Anglican Church of Canada it follows in the same line as other ACI documents, including Claiming Our Anglican Identity and Steps of Discipline but is meant to serve as the theological mission statement for Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes in North America. It has been adopted by the bishops who form the leadership for this network, whose Moderator is the Rt. Revd. Robert Duncan.   A tornado ripped through St. James Church in Houston, but the school was left standing. A number of bishops died in 2003, the most notable being Paul Moore of New York. Known as a limousine liberal, the patrician bishop felt the pain of the poor and disenfranchised women without affecting his own lavish lifestyle.     THE YEAR ENDED QUIETLY, but beneath the surface the plates are ready to move again as new ecclesiastical earthquakes develop in the Year 2004. we wait with baited breath.   END   *****

By David W. Virtue AND AN OFFICIAL PROPOSAL obtained by Virtuosity from the Primates of the Global South The Anglican Communion Institute, which had met in Nairobi, Kenya, offered a two-stage proposed plan of action.  Stage One - Emergency Action - called on the Standing Committee of the Diocese of New Hampshire to rescind its approval of Canon Gene Robinson’s nomination for election, prior to November 2, 2003. Failing that Stage Two - Formal Structures - would kick in and from November 2, 2003 and Easter, 2004 if repentance was not forthcoming after Easter, 2004 only those orthodox ECUSA bishops who uphold a commitment to the Holy Scriptures and to the historic faith and order of the church would continue to have full participation in the affairs of the Communion, including voice and vote in the councils of the Communion.  The rest would be out of communion. This discipline would take the following from Bishop Ingham would be reduced to observer status in the Communion (no voice, no vote). His further participation in Communion affairs would be suspended.Mechanisms would be implemented to protect parishes and clergy in New Westminster who maintain a commitment to the historic faith and order of the Communion.Sydney Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen threatened to split the Church and transfer his allegiance from the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Primate of Nigeria over the issue of gay clergy. We must recognize the possibility that the Anglican Communion will actually divide, Dr Jensen said in an interview. It is conceivable, I have to say, that two world Anglicanism’s may develop, perhaps with two mutually exclusive centres. Instead of looking to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, for moral authority, Sydney could look more to Nigeria orsome other place for the chairmanship of the board. And that was just for starters.It is not just the Episcopal Church that will come unraveled, the implications of Robinson’s consecration is having a rippling effect across the globe and among many Christian denominations.In UGANDA Archbishop Livingstone Mpalanyi Nkoyoyo announced that he had broken communion with the ECUSA bringing to three the number of African provinces who had broken communion with the American branch of Anglicanism.IN CANADA things went from bad to worse. Michael Ingham the New Westminster Bishop called the actions of the biblically orthodox Vancouver 11 ACiNW parishes schismatic saying, It is clear that the intransigence of the leadership of the dissenting group may force our negotiations to focus on structural separation (schism) rather than reconciliation. In view of this, diocesan officers must exercise both a fiduciary and a stewardship responsibility to preserve the territorial integrity of the diocese, and the assets of its parishes, for the future of the Anglican Church in British Columbia.AND IN THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH the call went out for Griswold to resign. Two rectors in the Diocese of Colorado who run CommunionParishes.com with some 6,000 supporting Episcopalians wrote a letter which invited anyone who felt so inclined to sign and send directly to the church’s national headquarters in New York.IN DAYTON, OHIO a number of Episcopal churches formed an independent Anglican Fellowship in the wake of actions by the Episcopal Church’s General Convention last August. Andy Figueroa, Webmaster and former Director of Communications with the Episcopal DIOCESE OF SOUTHERN OHIO resigned his position after the August decisions. These are painful times for Episcopalians who feel they have been betrayed by their leadership, he said.Figueroa announced the formation of Christ the King Anglican Fellowship. The fellowship, inspired by the Anglican Congress (a movement working to unite separate Anglican churches in the US and Canada), is a collaborative effort with Christ the King Reformed Episcopal Church (REC).In the DIOCESE OF THE RIO GRANDE the evangelical Bishop Terence Kelshaw said this, We are not traditionalists as some would rudely and scornfully dismiss us, but we are men and women of God who (as The Message would put it) will not be turned into traitor to Him who called us by the grace of Christ by embracing a variant message, another gospel, and one which turns the unchanging Gospel of Christ on its head!The Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Njongonkulu Ndungane, issued a statement responding to the reported severing of ties with theEpiscopal Church in the USA by the Anglican Church in Nigeria. Ifthese reports are accurate, my prayer is that the Nigerian bishops willcome to reconsider their action and await the outcome of the commission established by the worldwide Communion.

By David W. Virtue VIRTUOSITY In the orthodox DIOCESE OF PITTSBURGH, bishop Robert Duncan was called evil at a special diocesan convention by pro-sodomite revision is forces with bleeding heart liberal laity writing letters saying that he had stolen the church from them. Duncan had said he would allow parishes who did not agree with General Convention election ofRobinson to choose their own pathway. In the DIOCESE OF ALBANY, a small faction of liberal priests unhappy with the way Bishops Dan Herzog and David Bena voted at GC2003 tried to pull off a coup d’etat hoping to turn the diocese towards sexual inclusion (read perversity) with an alternative vision for the diocese. They tried and they failed.And in the DIOCESE OF COLORADO the new bishop Robert J. ONeill who came in on a ticket of moderation and inclusion to replace thecompromised Jerry Winterrowd asked two of the most revisionist bishops in the Episcopal Church - Tom Shaw of Massachusetts and the former suffragan Barbara Harris to co-consecrate with James Jelinck at his own consecration.Griswold threw down the gauntlet and told the ANGLICAN COMMUNION DROP DEAD! He told Associated Press that he openly supported Gene Robinson's confirmation because Episcopalians in New Hampshire had overwhelmingly chosen him in their local election and had the right to make thatchoice. Griswold also argued that Scripture does not condemn same-sex relationships, a position conservatives vehemently reject.In the UK The Church Society, an evangelical organization within theChurch of England, called for the expulsion of the Episcopal Churchfrom the Anglican Communion for promoting a non-celibate homosexual to the episcopate. In a letter addressed to the Primates of the AnglicanCommunion dated September 15, the Church Society argued that therecent action by the Episcopal Church of the USA in agreeing toconsecrate Gene Robinson is not an isolated incident but it serves toshow how that body acting corporately has set themselves outsidehistoric Christianity. The denomination has become a (North American)sect.Then news came that CANON JOHN PETERSON of the Anglican Consultative Council was attempting to manipulate the agenda of the primates October meeting in order to nullify conservative outcomes. Some classified documents were inadvertently given to Dr. Paul Zahl, an American orthodox Dean and a member of the International Anglican Doctrinal and Theological Commission [IADTC]. This deep-sixed Peterson control of the Primates meeting.ECUSA were untenable. There must be one Anglican Province in thecountry-regin in fellowship with Canterbury, not two the concept oftwo overlapping jurisdictions is untenable for several reasons. For theArchbishop of Canterbury to remain in communion with those bishops,clergy and congregations that endorse the election and consecration ofBishop-elect Robinson would morally and doctrinally corrupt theAnglican Communion itself.SYDNEY ARCHBISHOP Peter Jensen weighed in suggesting that the American arm of the worldwide church be expelled. He said time was running out for the Archbishop of Canterbury to act on homosexual issues dividing the worldwide Anglican Church.A GATHERING OF NEARLY 3,000 ORTHODOX ESPICOPALIANS IN DALLAS still shell-shocked by GC2003 decision to confirm Robinson, heard the Rev. David Roseberry issue a clarion call, we are finally free and we know what is at stake. God still does change lives and that we declare. We declared our support at General Convention on August 5 and we stood up on the votes and we asked for the intervention of the Primates.At Dallas, A PLACE TO STAND - A CALL TO ACTION was distributed to the attendees. The statement upheld the Great Commission, repudiated the actions of General Convention, repented for its part in the sins of the Episcopal Church, and called upon the Episcopal Church to repent and to reverse the unbiblical actions of the General Convention, stating its objection to the consecration of Canon Robinson as a bishop of theChurch.FORWARD IN FAITH LEADER Fr. David Moyer called for full cooperation with Evangelical and Charismatic wings of the ECUSA, to achieve the goal of cleansing the Church and working towards renewal and reform.THE POPE SENT PRAYERS TO THE AAC meeting through Cardinal Ratzinger, bypassing  815 and a rebuke to Frank Griswold, a pointed at that did not go unnoticed by revisionists. A wrenching split in the fabric of the Communion if the Primates did not act it was predicted. Couragebreeds courage, said the Bishop of Pittsburgh to the 2,700 attendees.THE PRIMATES also said they would intervene in the Episcopal Churchthen they met in Lambeth, and move to throw Frank Griswold and theEpiscopal Church out of the Anglican Communion. THE LAMBETH CONFERENCE Some 37 Primates were ready to act as they gathered in Lambeth. And act they did. What emerged was the most honest, most difficult meetingany could recall reflected Robert Duncan with reports of the power ofprayer and the falling of the Holy Spirit reported. Questions of lawand constitutionality nearly derailed the meeting. The Communionscenter and its power shifted to the Global South. The Primates Meetingreplaced the Anglican Consultative Council as the Communion’s keydecision-making body (between Lambeth Conferences). Rowan Williams achieved presidency on his terms and his turf and the limits ofAnglican diversity were clearly delineated. Scripture and LambethConference teaching were determinative and Provinces could breakcommunion with errant partners and Ecumenical and Inter-Faithconsiderations mattered profoundly. It was also a time to organizeprovincial responses to schism.Midway into their deliberations an unscripted press conference was held on the grounds of Lambeth Palace. Irish Archbishop Robin Eames told reporters that the Primates were telling their stories representing the cultural differences, while saying that there was a tremendous anxiety to maintain the Anglican Communion on a basis of collegiality,cooperation and the common faith.The UK movement REFORM urged the Primates to stand firm.A Statement at the conclusion of the meeting by the Primates said theactions of New Westminster to authorize a Public Rite of Blessing forthose in committed same sex relationships, and by the 74th GeneralConvention of the Episcopal Church (USA) to confirm the election of apriest in a committed same sex relationship to the office and work of aBishop, threatened the unity of the Communion as well as relationshipswith other parts of Christ Church, as well as mission and witness,and relations with other faiths, in a world already confused in areasof sexuality, morality and theology, and polarize Christian opinion.The Primates of the Communion were given enhanced responsibilityentrusted to them by successive Lambeth Conferences, and they re-affirmed their common understanding of the centrality and authority ofScripture in determining the basis of their faith.In a unanimously-agreed statement, they strongly reaffirmed the globalAnglican teaching on homosexuality, with the Primates concluding thatif this consecration proceeds, we recognize that we have reached acrucial and critical point in the life of the Anglican Communion. Theysaid that the future of the Communion itself would, therefore, be putin jeopardy. If Robinson is made a bishop, the statement said, hisministry would not be recognized by most of the Anglican world, withmany provinces likely to consider themselves out of communion with the U.S. Episcopal Church (ECUSA).AMERICAN CONSERVATIVES SAW VICTORY AT LAMBETH with Frank Griswold being told in clear and blunt terms that if appeared at, and/or consecrated Gene Robinson he would be declared anathema by the Archbishop of Canterbury and in time expelled from the Anglican Communion. Lines hardened and there was no way back for the leader of the theologically liberal Episcopal Church if he went through with the consecration of Gene Robinson.In an effort to put the best spin on the Lambeth meeting the Diocese ofNew Hampshire issued a statement saying, we echo their affirmationthat what we hold in common is much greater than that which divides usin proclaiming Good News to the world. We commend their resolve tofollow the 1998 Lambeth resolution calling for the Church to listen tothe experience of homosexual persons, and ... to assure them that theyare loved by God and that all baptized, believing and faithful persons,regardless of sexual orientation, are full members of the Body ofChrist.But the Coptic Orthodox Church at its Annual Clergy convention presided by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark formally condemned Homosexuality, the Ordination of Homosexuals and Same-Sex Marriages.In the meantime, The AMERICAN ANGLICAN COUNCIL prepared for arealignment. We are beginning the process of realignment ofAnglicanism in North America that the Primates laid out for us in theirstatement. Our course is getting clearer each week, said the Rev.Canon David Anderson, AAC President. With the Archbishop ofCanterbury encouragement, the AAC Bishops Committee on AdequateEpiscopal Oversight is coordinating requests for oversight, said CanonAnderson. We are proceeding deliberately and carefully to insure thatthis oversight is available sooner rather than later. The AAC Boardalso moved forward with the establishment of a Network of ConfessingDioceses and Parishes in the Episcopal Church.In a separate note Archbishop Drexel Gomez who attended theExtraordinary emergency meeting of primates said the appointment ofRobinson was  unacceptable by an overwhelming majority of Primates,and said dreadful consequences of sodomy to a state, and on the extent to which this abominable vice may be secretly carried on and spread, we cannot, on the principles of sound policy, consider the punishment as too severe.ROBINSON CONSECRATEDAmidst much hoopla Robinson was consecrated on an ice hockey rink in Durham, NH Nov. 2, 2003.  First came the objectors. The Rev. Dr. Earle Fox launched into a statement about the high percentage of homosexuals who engage in anal and oral sex. After he began to talk about rimming he was interrupted by Griswold who asked him to get to the main point of his speech. Fox then talked about the physical and spiritual consequences of homosexual behavior and that God would never bless such a behavior. Next up was a woman parishioner from the parish of St. Mark Episcopal Church in Ashland, NH. Meredith Harwood read a prepared statement that said to press forward with this consecration was to turn one back on almighty God, and the clear teaching that sexual activity outside of marriage was wrong. Inclusivity without transformation is not the gospel of Jesus Christ, she said. Finally the Suffragan Bishop of Albany, David Bena stood up and read astatement on behalf of 38 ECUSA and Canadian bishops, and said thechosen lifestyle of Robinson was incompatible with Scripture and thatto proceed with this consecration stands at odds with that teaching.Krister Stendahl read a letter from the Archbishop of Uppsala commending the occasion. In his speech Robinson spoke of those who find themselves on the margins and who have not known the year of the Lord’s favor.Following the objections a group of dissenters left the ice rink and attended an alternate Eucharist at Durham Evangelical Free Church.Worldwide outrage reached fervor pitch.The AMERICAN ANGLICAN COUNCIL protested the consecration and twenty Anglican primates who opposed the ordination of homosexuals announced that they would split from their North American counterparts. The primates made public their decision to break away from the Episcopal Church of the USA.THIRTY-EIGHT BISHOPS signed a letter of objection to the consecration. Their statement read in part said, In keeping with our consecrationpledge to guard the faith, we, the undersigned bishops are registeringour objection to the consecration of a person whose chosen lifestyleis incompatible with Scripture and the teaching of this church. Weendorse the assessment of the Primates of the Communion who wrote that as a result of this consecration...The future of the Communion itselfwill be put in jeopardy. In this case, the ministry of this one bishopwill not be recognised by most of the Anglican world, and manyprovinces are likely to consider themselves to be out of Communion with the Episcopal Church (USA).A number of Primates of the Global South responded to the consecration of Gene Robinson saying, It is with profound sadness and pain that we have arrived at this moment in the history of the Anglican Communion. We are appalled that the authorities within the Episcopal Church USA(ECUSA) have ignored the heartfelt plea of the Communion not to proceed with the scheduled consecration of Canon Gene Robinson. They have ignored the clear and strong warning of its detrimental consequences for the unity of the Communion...CENTRAL FLORIDA BISHOP JOHN W. HOWE blasted Griswold saying he should resign.  My heart is breaking over yesterday consecration of the Bishop Coadjutor of New Hampshire, he wrote. By virtue of this action, we in the Episcopal Church, USA have ignored the counsel of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Meeting of the Anglican Primates (as recently as two and a half weeks ago, which you yourself signed!), the Anglican Communion Council, the most recent Lambeth Conference (in 1998), and the Theology Committee of the House of Bishops.IN THE DIOCESE OF NEW JERSEYa pregnant lesbian priest who runsDiocesan happenings, a sort of Cursillo for youth was exposed byVirtuosity with both bishops approving her position, seeing nothingcontrary to Scripture or even common sense, to allow this awful rolemodel to run a youth program.WHILE IN CANADA the New Westminster Bishop came down hard on seven orthodox parish priests and said he was bringing them up on charges. The bully of Vancouver, Michael Ingham, officially charged all seven clergy with disobedience.AND IN THE DIOCESE OF PUERTO RICO, The Rev. David Alvarez was inhibited, one of three orthodox priests including a universityprofessor for standing up to the bishop there, a bishop who supportedECUSA same-sex blessings and the ordination of an avowed sodomite.MEANWHILE ECUSA LEADERS WRESTLED OVER the meaning of Episcopal oversight. The first view, that of adequate episcopal oversight, was being pushed by the American Anglican Council with the blessing of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Primates. ECUSA Presiding Bishop had a different take on what that means. He argued for alternative Episcopal care, a different notion altogether. What the orthodox wanted was a flying bishop arrangement not unlike that in the Church of England. The AAC created an application process for congregations seeking adequate episcopal oversight.AN OPEN LETTER TO THE DIOCESE OF EL CAMINO REAL from The Standing Committee revealed a totally dysfunctional bishop in the person of Richard L. Shimpfky which saw financial shortfalls and clear canonical violations by the bishop. This matter will be resolved by his removal me time in 2004.Following his consecration V. Gene Robinson, the new activist homosexual bishop of New Hampshire said he believed a split was possible and if there must be a parting of the ways then so be it. He said it may be time for his denomination to split because of theological differences.ONE OF THE GREAT EFFORTS AT RECONCILING OPPOSING VIEWS to come out of the recent Lambeth Conference was a commission set up by Dr. Williams and headed up by Irish Primate Robin Williams to explore diverse views on homosexuality. A group of scholars was put together and told to come up with a report by September 2004.DIOCESE OF FT. WORTH, Bishop Jack Iker opined at his diocesan convention that he had about had enough and told his people so. I am weary of the battles and debates, but I will not be silenced or intimidated. I will not give up or give in or go away. Like many faithful Episcopalians across the United States, I am alarmed by the relentless efforts in this Church to create a new religion - call it Episcopalianism - which is increasingly at variance with the teaching of Holy Scripture and historic Christianity. I am tired of the General Convention religion that attempts to give us a new and improved version of Christian faith and practice every three years.TWO BISHOPS and a major orthodox Episcopal organization called on the Presiding Bishop to resign following his consecration of a non-celibate homosexual to the episcopacy. Central Florida Bishop John W. Howe, Bishop William Wantland (Eau Claire ret.) and a national Episcopal ministry called Communion Parishes with more than 6,000 signed up members, said Griswold should step down as ECUSA leader. Just under half of Colorado clergy are part of the Communion clergy of that diocese. They said Griswold was leading the Episcopal Church away from the historic Christian Faith and towards increasing isolation both in the Anglican Communion and in worldwide Christianity, because of his pansexual views.While in the DIOCESE OF NEVADA the clergy and laity approved a resolution permitting same-sex blessing ceremonies but then said it would not be enacted in any parish until a parish policy was adopted, the priests consented and there was a Christian community which could also bless the relationship.BUT THE BIG ISSUE IN THE COMING MONTHS WILL BE OVER PROPERTY. David Booth Beers, the Presiding Bishop’s chancellor said if a congregation leaves the ECUSA the remnant will retain title to church property for the diocese. It became apparent that ECUSA’s revisionist bishops real interests were power and property, not the gospel and mission.But revisionist bishops were not getting it all their own way. In the DIOCESE OF COLORADO, theologian Dr. Ephraim Radner and evangelical priest Don Armstrong struck the new revisionist bishop, Rob Oneill with some theological lightning bolts of their own. They wrote him a letter saying his choices were to disassociate himself from the actions of General Convention and honor his consecration vows to uphold the historic faith and order of the church, or have the integrity of your convictions and depart, leaving the Diocese of Colorado to find new leadership.FORWARD IN FAITH, NORTH AMERICA released a letter they sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and to certain select Primates of the Anglican Communion urgently requesting a consultation with Dr. Williams to ask his support for their plan to appropriate and implement the Primates resolve to make adequate provision for episcopal oversight by the consecration of the two men previously nominated as episcopal candidates. Dr. Rowan Williams ignored their letters.The RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH announced that it was impossible to maintain further contacts whatsoever with a church that elevated a homosexual to the post of bishop and with the bishop himself. We will not be able to co-operate with those people either in the realm of theological dialogue or in the humanitarian, religious and public spheres. We cannot afford even to a certain degree share their position, which is, in our opinion, profoundly anti-Christian and sacrilegious, read the ROC statement. The ROC burned down a church in Russia where a priest had married two gay men.And the ANGLICAN CHURCH IN NIGERIA sent Griswold another message saying you can take your money and shove it. Primate Peter Akinola said it would be preposterous for dioceses and bishops in his country to continue to receive assistance from the church in America. The Primate of the Anglican Church in Nigeria who is also President of the Nigerian Christian Association (CAN) said the severance of relationship between the Anglican Communion in his country with its counterpart in the U.S. over the ordination of Rev. Gene Robinson, a gay, was TOTAL.And Caribbean Anglicans wouldn’t accept an American gay bishop either, warning of overwhelming opposition to the ECUSA. The CARIBBEAN ANGLICAN COMMUNION will maintain a formal relationship with the Episcopal Church while keeping the matter under critical review pending the findings of a commission expected in a year, said a statement.And a meeting of the ANGLICAN ORIENTAL ORTHODOX INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION, which was to have taken place at Walsingham was postponed at the suggestion of the Heads of the Coptic Orthodox Church (His Holiness Pope Shenouda III), the Syrian Orthodox Church (His Holiness Patriarch Zakka I) and the Armenian Orthodox Church, Catholico state of ilicia (His Holiness Catholicos Aram I), who met in Antelias, Lebanon, on 17 and 18 October 2003. The reason the present time is clearly a moment of uncertainty in the life of the Anglican Communion, with the consecration of a homosexual person in a committed, same-sex relationship as a Bishop within the Episcopal Church (USA), they said.And in the DIOCESE OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA a resolution affirming the Statement of the Primates of the Anglican Communion of October 16, 2003 was defeated by an extremely small margin of 167 - 161 at their annual Convention.While in the DIOCESE OF CENTRAL NEW YORK, delegates of St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Syracuse, declined to participate in a worship service in which representatives of the diocese101 parishes were invited to pour small bottles of water into a bowl. Bishop Gladstone Skip Adams blessed the water, symbolizing the common life of the diverse diocese that stretches from Canada to Philadelphia and Utica to Waterloo. As lines of people emptied small vials of water into clear bowls, orthodox priest Raymond Dague carried a bottle of olive oil to the bishop. This is a sign of how fractured the Anglican community is, you cannot mix water and oil.And in the DIOCESE OF NORTHWEST TEXAS a good ol boy rancher named Ray Snead from Dalhart, TX did a straw poll of his diocese and learned that though the bishop who is orthodox, those surrounding him were not, but who exert a lot of power in the diocese. Of some 3,300 letters he sent out polling Robinson’s consecration 84 percent said they did not approve. END OF PART FIVE