In a turgid, damning letter, the clergy, who did not identify themselves, wrote, "Here we are, just a few months away from the Lambeth Conference, and we find ourselves in an impasse: the Bishop of New Hampshire without an invitation to attend the meeting, the poachers from the Global South hunting in the U.S.A. and Canada, the schismatics trying to steal TEC's property, the Nigerian post-colonial neo-crusader-in-reverse uttering threats, and the Archbishop of Canterbury giving the impression that he is willing to sacrifice the Episcopal Church in order to appease the radical conservatives and thus maintain the unity of an already fractured Anglican Communion."

The irate clergy went on to describe themselves as "truly orthodox Anglicans" who want to preserve not only the identity, but the essence of Anglicanism, and refuse to accept the new religion crafted by some of the power greedy Third World hierarchs and the lunatic fringe of American conservatism, lamenting what they called "perturbing, bewildering and irritating times for the truly orthodox Anglicans.

"The truly orthodox Anglicans [themselves] reject the selective literalism of the biblical exegesis propounded by the new religion, as well as the hypocritical morality based on that kind of hermeneutics," they wrote.

"They [we] reject the notion that lay people and priests do not have an equal share with the bishops in the governance of the Church. The truly orthodox Anglicans reject the allegation that gay and lesbian people are not beloved children of God and cannot be fully included in the ordained ministry of the Church.

"They [we] reject the Primates Meeting pretension to define doctrine, to enact legislation and to impose discipline on the autonomous Provinces of the Anglican Communion, as the new religion would have it.

"And the reason why the truly orthodox Anglicans reject all these enormities is because they disfigure Anglicanism and destroy its very being.

"I do not believe for a moment that the Archbishop of Canterbury would be so naïve as to think that, by ceding to the demands of the Global South radical Primates, he will keep them in the flock and remain himself as the titular head of the Communion. This notion is wishful thinking, at best, since the new religion advocates have been increasingly disrespecting him and his office, and are already making plans to set up their own international ecclesial body. As we know, last December 26 the Primate of Nigeria and a coalition of his minions announced a conference in the Holy Land to chart the Church's future course, that will take place next June, just before the Lambeth Conference which some of them have said they plan to boycott.

"The truly orthodox Anglicans, while respecting each other's autonomy, want to preserve the bonds of affection which have kept us together across the world, as well as to maintain the centuries-old concept of unity in diversity.

"The truly orthodox Anglicans uphold justice, because justice is God's passion and an inherent characteristic of God's Kingdom."

NOW it should be noted first of all, that these unidentified clergy, who are undoubtedly the majority in the Diocese of Los Angeles (the handful of orthodox clergy there have all but left the diocese) are not remotely orthodox. This is to take, misuse and commandeer the word "orthodox", turn it on its head, and make it mean the exact opposite of what the word really means. It is the height of hubris.

For these clergy to say they are orthodox is a bit like saying Jack Spong, the former Bishop of Newark, is actually a Christian and that his 12 (Unitarian) Theses will one day take the place of the Nicene Creed and the Episcopal Church will quadruple over night with homosexuals because V. Gene Robinson and Louie Crew say so. Such fiction is for novels.

Secondly, Rowan Williams has given no hint that he will sacrifice The Episcopal Church. In fact, he has said quite the opposite. He said in New Orleans, at the HOB meeting last September, that the Episcopal Church has substantially met the standards of the Dar es Salaam Communique, making it very clear that Lambeth 2008 will absolutely take place, on his terms, and ignoring a request by Archbishop Peter Akinola to postpone it in order to clarify a few things.

Furthermore, Williams has called for more "listening", a much favored word by liberals, to stretch the process till conservatives agree or leave. In London last week, he said schism was not on the table and those who go to GAFCON in the Holy Land should come along to Lambeth the following month. (Most of course will not.)

The LA liberal clergy are reading the tea leaves all wrong. Williams has lost the trust of truly orthodox Primates and bishops precisely because orthodox Primates believe he has abandoned the gospel on sexuality and doctrinal issues which is why they are holding GAFCON. A de facto schism has already occurred. While they are not black-balling or bad mouthing Lambeth, they believe that if they go to Lambeth, it will be a trust betrayed and they will only be participating in a schmooze effort by Williams and the ACC to make it look as though everything in the garden is fine when it is not! They will not participate in what they believe is a false effort to calm turbulent waters, while an ecclesiastical Tsunami gathers far out at sea.

These liberal clergy accuse the truly orthodox of accepting some "new religion crafted by some of the power greedy Third World hierarchs and the lunatic fringe of American conservatism." This is a falsity and a lie.

It is the liberals who have crafted a "new religion" abandoning orthodox beliefs and practices, proposing new innovations and turning sexuality on its head. "The faith once delivered for all to the saints," are not words found in the mouths of liberals because they could not utter them.

To say that truly orthodox Anglicans don't believe homosexuals are loved of God is to do violence to Lambeth Resolution 1:10 (1998), which made the very point that homosexuals are loved, but that their behavior is unacceptable. For these liberal clergy to say otherwise is a flat out lie.

Furthermore, to say they want autonomy, while wanting to stay part of the communion, is a bit like teenagers saying they want to behave exactly as they want, to hell with family rules, and expect their parents to agree with it. Sooner or later, the teenager ends of up in an institution, or the parents do.

The Episcopal Church has made it very clear it wants no common Anglican canons or constitutions because it would violate their right to do exactly as they please including using "local option" whenever they wanted to break the rules. The present efforts to find a Covenant that all will agree on is, increasingly, falling on hard times with liberals, more than conservatives, picking it to death!

These LA liberals say they believe in "justice" and, by implication, orthodox Anglicans don't. What they mean by "justice" is to allow sexual perversions that not one scholar of theology or history would ever say has anything to do with justice. Equating "justice" for sodomites with justice for Blacks and the Civil Rights movement has angered large sections of the Black community. No one is born homosexual; one is, however, born black (or white) and that is not about justice.

For these liberals to call themselves orthodox is to blaspheme the very word itself. This letter should be publicly rejected and repudiated by orthodox bishops in The Episcopal Church and across the Anglican Communion.

END