The divorce papers came through all finalized, but who gets what isn't settled yet, not with The Episcopal Church's local parishes pledging to appeal a circuit court judge's ruling.

Judge Diane Goodstein ruled late Tuesday in favor of the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, Bishop Mark Lawrence's diocese that left the national church in 2012, ruling that the diocese and two-thirds of area parishes that left with it had the right to depart and take more than $500 million in property with them.

But that ruling marks just one step in a longer journey, said the Right Rev. Charles G. vonRosenberg, bishop of The Episcopal Church in South Carolina, which comprises area parishes still aligned with the national church. That's right. He'll take it all the way to the Supreme Court of the US, if he has to, because he believes the present cause requires them to respond in this way, vonRosenberg wrote in a pastoral letter distributed Wednesday.

"We will persevere as we seek justice, even though the personal and financial costs will be significant."

With an appeal ahead, those costs for both sides will keep mounting.

So far, the Diocese of South Carolina and the 38 parishes that separated from the national church have spent $2 million on legal fees, Bishop Mark Lawrence reported. They will continue to raise money to fight the appeal. The Episcopal Church has spent far more nationwide to fight similar lawsuits.

"It's shameful to continue using church money in this way," Lawrence noted.

He added that the diocese just wants to move on, independent of The Episcopal Church, which is the North American province of the global Anglican Communion. "While they speak peace, they engage in litigation," opined Lawrence, whose diocese filed the lawsuit.

Holly Behre, a spokeswoman for vonRosenberg's diocese, couldn't say how much they have spent. "Some of that information is confidential, and some we just don't have the data available for at this point."

After voting to leave, the Diocese of South Carolina sued the national church and the diocese vonRosenberg now heads, arguing that those leaving had legal right to parishes' properties along with the diocesan name, seal, and other identifiers.

That lawsuit has dragged on for more than two years. It has included a three-week nonjury trial last summer that tapped 59 witnesses, spanned 2,523 pages of transcripts, and 1,200 exhibits.

Both sides say it threatens to distract them from the church's larger mission.

"I have tried zealously and steadfastly to focus on the mission at hand -- to make disciples and spread the good news of Christ," Lawrence said.

So now it will go all the way to the Supreme Court -- presuming of course if they will even hear the case.

The good news on all this is Judge Goodstein's decision is the latest legal loss for TEC. The Illinois Court of Appeals upheld a decision that held that the Diocese of Quincy (Ill.) was entitled to keep their property in a case similar to the one in South Carolina. Last month, the highest court in Illinois, the Illinois Supreme Court, refused to hear an appeal in the case.

The Episcopal Church also lost a decision in its case against the Diocese of Fort Worth, appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and was denied a review. The case will now resume in a trial court there, under findings by the Texas Supreme Court that favor the Anglican diocese.

To date, TEC has spent some $40 million on lawsuits; if they persist in what looks to be endless litigation, that figure would well double. It is interesting that this is not being framed in terms of "God's Mission", but surely those dollars could have gone to support the Church's mission, if not to save souls, to at least alleviate poverty, complete the cathedral in Haiti, assist displaced persons into resettlement programs, resist sex trafficking across the globe, and much more. No, instead, The Episcopal Church won't do that. Better to sue and sue again even though "the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands." (Stephen's Speech to the Sanhedrin: Acts 7:48).

You can read a number of stories on this historic decision in today's digest.

*****

The Diocese of Southeast Florida elected a new bishop this week, a well-educated gentleman who has international panache. The Very Rev. Peter Eaton from St. John's cathedral in Denver takes over from the onetime evangelical Leo Frade who, after he got the job, rolled over on the hot button sexuality issues. Despite his education, Eaton will not oppose same sex marriages or rites for same.

You can read the full story of his election in today's digest.

*****

The law lowered the boom on Maryland Suffragan Bishop Heather Cook this week indicting her on thirteen charges in the death of a Baltimore bicyclist, including homicide, drunken driving, texting while driving, and leaving the scene of an accident.

Marilyn Mosby, Baltimore City state's attorney, announced on Jan. 9 that her office was charging the 58-year-old cleric from the Diocese of Maryland with killing Thomas Palermo on a Saturday afternoon in December while he was out for a ride.

Prosecutors have said since January that Cook could face more than 20 years in prison.

Cook, who has been in a treatment facility since the accident, has a court appearance scheduled for Friday, but her attorney, David Irwin, said it is likely to be procedural and the case continued.

Since the accident, details of Cook's past drinking have come out, raising questions about what Episcopal officials knew and whether she was receiving any support since becoming the diocese' first female bishop last year. Cook was charged in a dramatic 2010 drinking-and-driving incident, the bare bones of which top diocesan officials knew when they selected her as a candidate, but which they did not share with the broader body that voted to choose her.

So she was drunk at a party that PB Katharine Jefferts Schori and Bishop Eugene Sutton attended, so why should both of them not be charged with depraved indifference?

You can read more stories on this huge embarrassment for the Episcopal Church and the fallout and possible consequences.

*****

Murder and mayhem in Texas. The eldest son of the Rev. Israel Ahimbisibwe, Isaac Tiharihondi, has been arrested in Mississippi and charged with two counts of capital murder. Ahimbisibwe, his wife Dorcas, and their five-year-old son Jay were found dead in their west Houston apartment on Feb. 2 after they failed to show up for church Sunday and did not respond to numerous attempts to contact them.

Ahimbisibwe, a native of Uganda, was vicar of Church of the Redeemer and a chaplain at the University of Houston. He had previously served as an assistant at Holy Spirit, Houston. Emmanuel, 17, Ahimbisibwe's middle son, is in boarding school in California.

"While I am relieved authorities have found Isaac, I am heartbroken that he has been charged with capital murder," said the Rt. Rev. C. Andrew Doyle, bishop of Texas. "This only adds to the tragedy of their deaths and raises more questions than it answers."

So three deaths doesn't qualify as capital murder, then what does? These whiny liberal bishops are so bent on not seeing evil for what it truly is, until it comes back, later, to bite them in the backside. Bishop Heather Cook has a serious drinking problem, but compassion for her situation demanded we overlook her "problem" until she killed someone; now the diocese is going to pay for it bigtime. PB Jefferts Schori laid hands on a convicted Roman Catholic pedophile bringing him into The Episcopal Church priesthood even though a psychiatrist said he would likely reoffend. Will the idiocy never end?

"Let us also pray for our courts and our prisons, that all involved will be given clarity of mind, peace and wisdom. Our Book of Common Prayer reminds us to 'pray that any that are held unjustly be released and that those who are guilty find repentance and amendment of life,' said Doyle. So does he really think that a man who kills three people is being unjustly held?

You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

It was inevitable, of course, the Marriage Task Force is calling for gender-neutral language in the marriage canon. What a surprise. Proposed changes would allow clergy to solemnize same-sex unions. The A050 Task Force on the Study of Marriage is recommending that the 2015 meeting of General Convention authorize Episcopal Church clergy to officiate at same-sex marriages.

The task force proposes the change in its just-released Blue Book report by way of a resolution (numbered A036) that would revise Canon I.18 titled "Of the Solemnization of Holy Matrimony" (page 58 of The Episcopal Church's canons here).

The revision removes, among many edits, the language of I.18.2(b) that requires couples to "understand that Holy Matrimony is a physical and spiritual union of a man and a woman." Removing that and other gender-specific language from the canon, the report says, addresses the mandate in the group's enabling resolution that it "address the pastoral need for priests to officiate at a civil marriage of a same-sex couple in states that authorize such."

Section 3 of Canon 18 would be rewritten to, in part, remove the requirement that the couple sign a declaration stating they "solemnly declare that we hold marriage to be a lifelong union of husband and wife as it is set forth in the Book of Common Prayer."

The revision would recast the requirement in the canon's first section that clergy conform to both "the laws of the state" and "the laws of this Church" about marriage. The rewritten portion of that section would require that clergy conform to "the laws of the State governing the creation of the civil status of marriage, and also to these canons concerning the solemnization of marriage."

Canon I.18 contains the majority of the rules in the church's canons about clergy officiating at marriage. Canon I.19 governs the "preservation of marriage, dissolution of marriage, and remarriage" and as such refers to "husband" and "wife" in its third section. The Book of Common Prayer, which Article X of the church's constitution authorizes, refers to marriage on page 422 as Christian marriage being "a solemn and public covenant between a man and a woman in the presence of God." It uses gender-specific language throughout "The Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage," "The Blessing of a Civil Marriage" and "An Order for Marriage" rites, as well as in its "Additional Directions" section.

With the slow decline of normal heterosexual marriage America is on a path of self-destruction. Joe Bissonnette, writing in Crisis magazine on "The Totalitarianism of Same-Sex 'Marriage'" says the legalization of same-sex "marriage" does not bring with it the innocent blood that cries to heaven, though it is perhaps the single most audacious social engineering initiative in American history. The way in which it has been imposed in state after state, as courts have seen fit to ignore ballot initiatives, sets the stage for a United States Supreme Court ruling on par with Roe vs. Wade.

The Supreme Court has announced it will rule on same-sex "marriage" in this sitting -- exactly ten years after Canada legalized same-sex "marriage." It is important for Americans to look at what has happened in Canada.

The legalization of same-sex "marriage" is not about allowing something; same-sex "marriage" is already taking place. It is not about recognizing something; spousal and survivor benefits, family tax incentives and any other advantages to marriage were being or could have been granted without calling it marriage. The legalization of same-sex "marriage" is about prohibiting a definition of heterosexual marriage as normative. It is about the state denying the right to speak one of the most obvious truths about human nature. It is about a conspiracy to enforce collective madness, cultivate psychological dependence and achieve totalitarian control.

Nonetheless TEC will continue on its gadarene slide into the abyss. At this point where else can it go.

*****

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby wants businesses to pay more tax. He is upset that businesses are using foreign countries with more attractive tax laws as a haven for tax saving.

He kept his strongest comments for the role taxes play in ensuring that companies contribute to the societies in which they operate, he told the BBC.

"There has always been the principle that you pay the tax where you earn the money. If you earn the money in a country, the revenue service of that country needs to get a fair share of what you have earned."

Welby's point about contributing to the society in which a business operates by paying tax in that country would be more convincing if the Church of England paid taxes. The church collects £1billion a year in donations, spends £189 million in salaries and has an investment portfolio worth £5.5 billion.

The church, of course, is a charity and does not operate for profit -- although the £5.5 billion looks suspiciously like profit to me. In spite of its spiritual aspirations -- none of which seem particularly in evidence these days - as an organization, the CofE runs as a business.

It doesn't help that in 2012 when the government threatened to impose a VAT tax on church building renovations, the church pleaded to be exempt from that tax, too.

"To be clear: I don't think churches should have to pay tax. However, since churches are in that privileged position in our society, a church leader who whines about businesses minimizing their taxes deserves all the ridicule we can muster: his organization is a consummate tax dodger," writes Canadian blogger Samizdat.

*****

President Barack Obama wants Christians to know Islam is not the only religion that has inspired violence and terror.

"Unless we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ," Obama said Wednesday. "And in our home country, slavery, and Jim Crow, all too often was justified in the name of Christ."

Obama made the comments while giving a major speech on religion at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. Citing Islamic, Jewish, and Christian scripture, Obama touted his own faith.

"This prayer tradition has brought us together, giving us the opportunity to come together in humility before the Almighty and to be reminded of what it is that we share as children of God," he said. "And certainly for me this is always a chance to reflect on my own faith journey. No matter the challenge He has been there for all of us. He certainly strengthened me through the power of his spirit."

Obama went on to condemn violent jihadists who are "betraying" Islam. He specifically called out the Islamic State group that has "carried out unspeakable acts of barbarism" in the Middle East and the militants who recently massacred the employees of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

"This is not unique to one group or one religion," Obama cautioned. "There is a tendency in us, a sinful tendency that can pervert and distort our faith. And in today's world when hate groups have their own Twitter accounts and bigotry can fester in hidden places in cyberspace, it can be even harder to combat such intolerance. But God compels us to try."

You can read what the Rev. Dr. Robert Munday has to say about Obama's remarks in today's digest.

*****

Eric Metaxas, evangelical Episcopalian, American author, speaker, and TV host who is best known for two biographies, Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and The Heroic Campaign to End Slavery about William Wilberforce, took a swipe at faculty and alumni in a convocation address at Sewanee, University of the South, this past week. It was a courageous stand to make at The Episcopal Church's only university that is more liberal than most secular colleges.

Some of his comments:

"We are standing up for the principle of freedom. Freedom means we are free -- free to hold beliefs with which others disagree. Free to hold beliefs that might even be stupid beliefs."

"If we do not stand up for those with whom we disagree, we stand for nothing."

"Now today it seems to me that there is a particular move afoot on campuses and elsewhere to marginalize and even to demonize voices of traditional and historic Christian faith. That's one of the big issues of our time."

"This is troubling for the reasons I've just stated, but it's even more troubling than that."

"Because to think we can have real and enduring freedom and real liberal education without robust voices of faith ignores history. Our American traditions of freedom and social reform cannot be divorced from robust expressions of faith -- and I don't mean privately, I mean in all spheres of society and culture. I mean in the free marketplace of ideas."

"There's a special relationship between freedom and faith in America, and it's one the Founders understood and put at the heart of all our freedoms intentionally."

One wonders what Jon Meacham was thinking when he heard these words. Here is a man who publicly condemned ACNA Archbishop Bob Duncan in the pages of NEWSWEEK calling him a fundamentalist and more. Political correctness has seeped into the pores of Sewanee.

You can read Metaxas's full text in today's digest.

*****

The new Bishop of Burnley is caught up in a row, just days before he is officially appointed to the role.

Campaigners are angry that the consecration service for the Rev. Philip North at York Minister on Monday has been changed to accommodate his views as a traditional Anglo-Catholic who voted against the ordination of women priests or bishops.

Defending the decision, which was made by the Archbishop of York Dr. John Sentamu, the Rev. North said, "While I also appreciate the Archbishop's arrangements for my consecration are difficult for some, it should not in any way undermine my absolute passion to serve as a Bishop to all and to care for, love and support all churches in the Diocese of Blackburn regardless of their theological tradition.''

He was supported by Dr. Sentamu who said he wished to make it clear that the new arrangements were made at his suggestion.

He added, "I met with the Rev. North to discuss with him how his consecration would be handled given his theological convictions about the consecration of women to the episcopate.

"The Rev. North is not the sort of priest who would insist on a particular set of arrangements for his consecration and any suggestions to the contrary are mistaken.''

History was made this week when Dr. Sentamu consecrated the church's first female bishop, the Rev. Libby Lane, in a service at York Minster attended by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Justin Welby and many female bishops from churches around the world. The ceremony was disrupted by a protesting vicar who shouted "not in the Bible'' as the Rev. Lane was presented to the congregation.

The part of the ceremony that has been changed to accommodate the new bishop's views is the symbolic "laying on of hands'' to bless him. Usually all bishops and archbishops present at the consecration place their hands on the candidate and pray for them.

Instead, only two bishops, who themselves have never ordained a woman priest, will lay their hands on the Rev North.

Controversially referred to as "theology of taint'', this suggests that bishops who lay hands on women to ordain them are somehow "tainted.''

*****

BREAKING: Canada's top court rules doctors can help kill patients; overturns assisted suicide law. In a momentous ruling, Canada's highest court unanimously ruled to open the door for a doctor to help kill someone nearing the end-of-life stage, a ruling comparable to the sweeping Morgentaler ruling 27 years ago that allows a doctor to kill someone at the earliest pre-born stage of life.

In Carter v. Canada, the Court overturned a previous law prohibiting assisted suicide, in effect reversing the previous 1993 Rodriguez decision in which it said the state's obligation to "protect the vulnerable" outweighed the rights of the individual to self-determination. The ruling makes Canada join the ranks of Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Belgium, as well as Oregon and Washington, in allowing assisted suicide.

"Section 241 (b) and s. 14 of the Criminal Code unjustifiably infringe s. 7 of the Charter and are of no force or effect to the extent that they prohibit physician-assisted death for a competent adult person who (1) clearly consents to the termination of life and (2) has a grievous and irremediable medical condition (including an illness, disease or disability) that causes enduring suffering that is intolerable to the individual in the circumstances of his or her condition," the court stated in the 9-0 ruling that affects the lives of every Canadian who are or may be, terminally ill.

The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada responded saying it was deeply disappointed with the Carter decision and called on the Federal Government to move quickly to respond to today's Supreme Court's assisted-suicide ruling in Carter v. Canada.

"Today Canada has crossed a threshold by opening the door to assisted-suicide and voluntary euthanasia," said EFC President Bruce. "Our society has a long legal history of unambiguously affirming the sanctity of human life. The Court has ruled that in some circumstances the killing of a person will be legal. Euthanasia has come to Canada."

By including the "administration of medication" in its definition of physician-assisted death, the Court has decriminalized not only assisted-suicide (defined as a person killing himself) but also voluntary euthanasia, in which medical professionals do the actual killing.

*****

The Anglican Diocese of Quebec could soon be extinct, says a news report out of the north.

As the Rev. Yves Samson speaks to his congregation in the Quebec town of Trois-Rivieres, two things stand out: the bilingualism of the sermon and the dearth of parishioners.

Samson holds nothing back when he says that, without radical change, the Anglican Diocese of Quebec could soon be extinct.

"If we want to keep going on (the old) track we will all die," Samson says in an interview after his French and English sermon to a room full of near-empty pews in the St. James Anglican Church.

Several Protestant churches across Quebec have closed rather than turn bilingual. Samson's church is Anglican in name only. The 10 people who showed up to mass on a recent Sunday included Baptists, Presbyterians and Unitarians. The reverend said becoming ecumenical and bilingual is "the new reality" for former anglophone Protestant churches outside the Montreal area.

The new reality reflects the fact that in most regions outside Montreal, Anglo-Quebecers, and much of their culture, are on the verge of disappearing.

The Anglican Diocese of Quebec includes three of the province's main cities - Trois-Rivieres, Sherbrooke, and Quebec City.

The Anglican Diocese of Quebec produced a gloomy report in 2014 about the future of its parishes, which span an area larger than the size of France.

Almost half of its churches have fewer than 10 regular services a year and close to 80 per cent of its churches have a regular attendance of fewer than 25 people. Forty five per cent of its churches ran a deficit in 2012. A stunning 64 per cent of congregations said last year that within five years they would be closed or be amalgamated with other churches.

"We see a grim portrait of our future in this diocese," the report concluded.

*****

Officials from the United Methodist Church and Episcopal Church have joined together at the Washington National Cathedral to mark an agreement bringing the two old-line Protestant denominations closer together.

"Today as Episcopalians and United Methodists, we remember who we are kin too. We celebrate our family tree and our common roots in the Lord Jesus Christ," proclaimed the Rev. Dr. Kim Cape, General Secretary of the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church.

Cape gave the January 25 sermon at the Episcopal cathedral, declaring the day "historic" and that the two communities were acting "to mend a long division."

Principles in the agreement were adopted in 2006, but the service was the first occasion for a United Methodist minister, The Rev. Canon Gina Gilland Campbell, to preside over a celebration of communion at the Washington National Cathedral. Campbell serves on staff at the cathedral.

"Today the United Methodist Church and the Episcopal Church formally recognize an interim Eucharistic agreement and agree that those things that bind us together are stronger than those things that pull us apart," Cape stated. "There is rejoicing in heaven."

You can read the full story by Jeff Walton of The Institute for Religion and Democracy in today's digest.

*****

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