Many parishes did leave, most walking away from their buildings and leaving them to the local bishop, and with 90 percent or more of the parishioners in tow, started anew down the road. Only in California have the courts been in favor of properties going to the parish priest.

The orthodox argued all along that is the liberals, revisionists and pansexualists who have left the 'faith once delivered', and that they are the true inheritors of Anglican orthodoxy and they are going nowhere. We are staying because we are faithful; it is you who have departed said the leading exponent of orthodoxy, ACN Moderator, Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan. Thus was born the American Anglican Council and later the Anglican Communion Network as a 'safe place' for the orthodox to gather under. No diocese threatened to leave the Episcopal Church, though individual parishes did leave, and thus was born the Anglican Mission in America.

A court case in the Diocese of Pittsburgh tested that theory and the ruling, though mixed, demonstrated that the Dennis Canon was firmly in place, allowing little wriggle room for either Bishop Duncan or his nemesis, the Rev. Harold Lewis to declare an out and out victory.

And so it became a Mexican standoff. The Via Media was born in a number of orthodox dioceses in an attempt to gain a beachhead with their inclusive gospel and to pose a threat to the bishop if he should ever suggest he might leave and take the diocese out of ECUSA.

Tensions heightened and increased over the months as the push was on for Dr. Rowan Williams to declare his hand.

Groups of liberal and conservative bishops crossed the Atlantic in secret meetings to make their case that The Episcopal Church was in a state of crisis and that he, as its titular head must do something.

One cannot imagine the enormous strain Archbishop Williams must be under. He has been accused by liberals of betraying the church's homosexuals with pro-gay Guardian writer Stephen Bates viciously attacking Williams calling him an archbishop "who increasingly appears to have the backbone of a jellyfish."

Not any more.

When the Episcopal Church's 75th General Convention met in Columbus, Ohio recently it was the liberals who floated the balloon, (on the very first day), that the ECUSA name was henceforth over and we would all be known as The Episcopal Church with their 16 flags forming a backdrop on the dais in the House of Deputies, where a cross once stood. While they didn't say it outright the message was clear - if the conservatives don't like it and the Archbishop caves in, and if we don't have "our" clarity on the Windsor Report, then a rival communion might be in the wind.

VirtueOnline correspondent Auburn Traycik traced this theme in a detailed story "TEC" - Poised To Become A Rival Anglican Communion? She correctly diagnosed, that Episcopal hierarchs had a "Plan B" should the Episcopal church be forced to "walk apart" from the global church over its obstinacy in refusing to endorse the demands of the Windsor report.

The Rt. Revd. Pierre W. Whalon, Bishop in charge of the Convocation of American Churches in Europe seemed to kick things off with his pointed comment during the convention that TEC "is the only global [province] in the Anglican Communion." And in fact, TEC includes not only the U.S. but jurisdictions in the Caribbean, Latin America, and Europe.

The message was clear - if Anglican primates want to kick TEC out of the Communion, they will be kicking out little Honduras or Ecuador along with it. (Both are part of TEC's Province IX, which also includes Colombia, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Litoral and the Dominican Republic; TEC also has extra-provincial or –territorial jurisdictions in Europe, Haiti, Micronesia, the Virgin Islands, Taiwan, and the U.S. Armed Forces.) You can read that story here: http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=4361

But then London Telegraph religion writer Jonathan Wynne-Jones broke the story on Sunday with a screaming headline: "Liberals may split from Canterbury over homosexuals."

Liberal clergy in Britain are preparing to turn to America's Anglican bishops for leadership in a move that could produce "civil war" and destroy the Church of England, he wrote.

According to Wynne-Jones a delegation of influential liberals flew out to the American Church's General Convention in Ohio last month to discuss building closer ties with their counterparts in the United States.

Jones doesn't name them, but VOL saw Michael Ingham the ultra-liberal bishop of New Westminster; John Paterson, Bishop of Auckland and former Primate of NZ and, one wonders, if York Archbishop John Sentamu was not complicit in this conspiracy.

Leading figures from both sides of the Atlantic, including the Canadian primate, Archbishop Andrew Hutchinson, apparently held talks last week to discuss their reaction to Dr. Williams's comments. Hutchison spoke at Southwark cathedral declaring that his replacement would, in all probability be a woman, thus sticking it to the Archbishop of Canterbury and cementing his relationship with the American Church. (AT GC2006 Hutchison paid tribute to the ECUSA for the $250,000 (US) it was given to help them over their financial problems).

The Rev. Philip Chester, vicar of St Matthew's, Westminster, disclosed that they had met senior bishops in the American Church to explore ways of establishing a stronger network between liberal parishes. "Building closer ties with the American Church is the way forward," he said.

The Very Rev Colin Slee, the Dean of Southwark, (where Hutchison spoke) said that there would be "civil war" in the Church of England if Dr. Williams pushed through his plans for a biblically conservative "covenant" that excluded the liberal wing of the Anglican Communion. "We are on the brink of a breaking point in the Church of England," said Mr. Slee. "Liberals have been tolerant and permissive of other points of view and what they have to realize is that their liberality must be defended."

This is nonsense. Mr. Slee should spend some time in the Diocese of Pennsylvania or New Westminster, British Columbia to see how bullying bishops like Bennison and Ingham operate. He would get a different perspective on things.

Among ideas discussed were the twinning of English and American parishes, and inviting more clergy from the US to come to England on placements, according to Jones.

There is also the radical possibility of an American bishop "overseeing" a liberal parish in this country, whose members feel marginalized by the imposition of traditional beliefs. "I think we'll see over the next three or four years liberals worldwide beginning to work together to defend the true Anglican heart, which is broad, tolerant and generous and is under attack," said Slee.

Clearly it is now open season on crossing diocesan boundaries.

With the gay agenda firmly entrenched in both the US and Canada churches and growing in England, the parting of the ways may not be far off.

If that is the case, Archbishop Williams will be deemed a hero by the vast majority of the Anglican Communion, and while he will be vilified for it by people like Bates, Slee and the Church Times, he may yet be heralded as the savior who saved the Anglican Communion from inevitable destruction.

END