[B]ishops and congregations not associated with the Network will soon rush to join. . . Woe to the clergy and the congregations that don't join the Network, for they will be removed from the Network dioceses and left dangling, says that bishop.

Accordingly, bishops and congregations not associated with the Network will soon rush to join. Splinter groups -- like the Reformed Episcopal Church as well as the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) -- will become part of the Network. Woe to the clergy and the congregations that don't join the Network, for they will be removed from the Network dioceses and left dangling, says that bishop.

If anyone should question the legal right of the Network to take Episcopal Church properties, no worry. Network lawyers are going to make that possible. This particular bishop is having a supremacy canon passed so that his diocesan convention will be supreme over actions of the Episcopal Church's General Convention. (Will he be the Supreme Bishop?)

This bishop told his clergy that a three-year wait is not needed nor should they wait until General Convention 2006. The great split that has been engineered is already happening. The bishop gave them permission to take the word "Episcopal" off of their church signs and to add the word "Anglican."

The bishop ends by saying that he will not be mean like liberal bishops. And "the uglier the Episcopal Church acts, the sooner the day of the split will hasten."

We will abide. Although the Southern Cone finds us unacceptable, we will abide. Even though the Archbishop of Canterbury and the primates and Anglican Consultative Council sever us from their fellowship, we will abide.

There have been people inside the Episcopal Church and outside the Episcopal Church who have been plotting our church's demise long before there was an Episcopal election in New Hampshire: for almost half a century. The plotters have been living in a fury of win-lose for generations. Finally, they have assumed that they cannot win and take control of the Episcopal Church so they seek to destroy it and assume control as the orthodox remnant. Timing is everything for them. They see the present moment as the perfect storm where wealthy American ideologues and angry African bishops and cultural divides and shocked ecumenical and interfaith partners converge to assist their victory.

What they don't realize is that the Episcopal Church has more staying power than they suppose. When our bishops, priests, and deacons took a solemn oath at ordination vowing to be loyal to the doctrine, discipline, worship of the Episcopal Church, we meant it. Millions of laity for hundreds of years have confirmed their faith in context of the Episcopal Church -- in good times and bad. Together we gave our sacred honor to the revelation of God in Christ as lived out in the Episcopal Church. Our history has been earned with countless sacrifices. We have all been embarrassed as well as enhanced; won some, lost some. With prayer, sweat, and endurance we have built cathedrals, seminaries, religious communities, youth camps, schools, social ministries, hospitals, and churches. We will abide. Although the Southern Cone finds us unacceptable, we will abide. Even though the Archbishop of Canterbury and the primates and Anglican Consultative Council sever us from their fellowship, we will abide. Personally, I don't think that the Archbishop of Canterbury would ever do that, but should he dismiss us, we will abide.

I genuinely grieve that we have all reached this moment. But this is not the last moment, only a passing moment. There will be fairer days, and in the light I expect to see the Episcopal Church afloat on the deep and sailing. This mutiny will fail. The Episcopal Church will abide.

May God have mercy on us all. And may the unity in the Body of Christ be manifest.

The Rt. Rev. William E. Swing is bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California and the founder of the United Religions Initiative. He may be reached at bishop@diocal.org.