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The Realignment has begun

"Clergy are being threatened, vows of allegiance to the Episcopal Church
are being exacted (even while international excommunications are
rising), and canons are being misused to take over dissenting biblically
orthodox churches. It is religious persecution, widespread, and it must
be opposed." The Rev. Geoff Chapman, St. Stephen's, Sewickley, PA.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Another new development in the worldwide realignment of the Anglican
Communion has just begun. It is the Network of Anglican Communion
Diocese and Parishes(NACDP), and it promises to do and go where no one
else has gone before.

It is, by any standard, a bold move that comes with the approval of the
Archbishop of Canterbury but with no support from the leadership of the
Episcopal Church. It is the brainchild of a handful of orthodox bishops
led by the creative, risk-taking Bishop of Pittsburgh, Robert Duncan.

This group is but one more piece of the national and international chess
set of the Anglican Communion that is positioning itself to realize a
future for Anglicanism, or watch it dissolve into a federation or
perhaps two communions.

There are a number of players now that include the American Anglican
Council (AAC), Anglican Communion Parishes (ACI), Forward in Faith NA
(FIFNA), the Primates themselves, the Anglican Consultative Council
(ACC), the Lambeth Conference, and now this new Network. And they are
beginning to make their moves like chess pieces hoping, before September
that no one will prematurely checkmate the ECUSA King (Frank Griswold)
before the Eames Commission has done its work. We shall see.

One of the CAPA ten points was that by Easter of this year Frank
Griswold must either repent or face Primatial judgment. That apparently
has been nullified for the greater wisdom of the Global South bishops
who are now prepared to wait till the conclusion of the Eames Commission
report.

The formation of the new Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and
Parishes was a major step forward for the North American Episcopal
Church this week. All that remains to be seen is how it will all play
out over the next few months. The truth is, time is running out for
ECUSA's revisionists, a day of reckoning is at hand. Over the past few
months Frank Griswold has taken more hits than any bishop in modern history.

Whole Christian churches, a dozen Anglican provinces and many of his own
bishops have declared themselves in impaired or broken communion with
him. Either Griswold doesn't get it, or he is prepared to fall on his
sword over sodomy, or see himself hoisted onto a phallic cross of his
own making. The public humiliation and embarrassment ECUSA has suffered
over pansexuality, the international opprobrium he has received, will be
the subject of history books for years to come. To avoid the personal
humiliation, Griswold has had to transport himself to a plain to commune
with his mystic hero Sufi Rumi.

That this desire for anal sex should have consumed years of talking,
endless Primatial gatherings, millions of dollars, millions of air miles
flown and more, are beyond all human comprehension.

The Church Fathers would roll over in their graves if they only knew.
From the heights of the Arian controversy to pansexual misbehavior,
from bowels of compassion to human bowels, the Episcopal Church has
descended into Dante's Inferno as flames consume its very soul. In
Pascal's famous dictum, The Episcopal Church has "licked the earth."

+++

THE PRESS CONFERENCE held at Christ Church, Plano announcing the
formation of the new Network saw a goodly line-up of print, radio and TV
media from across the country. Present also was Jan Nunley, associate
news director for the Episcopal News Service in New York. She came armed
with a bag full of videos from her boss Frank Griswold explaining his
side on the issues, which she handed out prior to the press conference.
Observing this, Network officials quickly moved in telling her that her
actions were inappropriate as this was not her show and asked her to
stop. She did but not before she had distributed her entire bag of tapes.

The Network is a hopeful new beginning for ECUSA's faithful looking for
a safe place from the storms of revisionist domination. It is an
emergency type situation and temporary until the Primates and Rowan
Williams decide how they will respond to ECUSA's theological and moral
apostasy. This, we are told, will be clear following the conclusion of
the Eames Commission report in late September.

The Network's Charter offers hope to biblically orthodox parishes caught
in revisionist dioceses. We shall have to see how that plays out in the
days and weeks ahead. Alternative Episcopal Oversight is the only
acceptable option for this Network, anything less like 'pastoral care'
is a non-starter.

But we have already begun to see what some revisionist bishops are
prepared to do. Many have said they will not allow AAC to gain a
foothold in their dioceses, and it seems most unlikely that these same
bishops will allow the Network to come in either.

The leader of the Diocese of Florida, Bishop Stephen Jecko, released a
statement saying he voted for the charter and supported it fully but did
not sign because he is stepping down in nine days. He said he sent the
document to his successor, Bishop John Howard, for review. "I applaud
the work of this convocation and pray God's richest blessings upon the
Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes," Jecko said.

But several alternatives remain.

Leave ECUSA with the congregation, but drop the keys, endowment and walk
away from the buildings. Leave ECUSA, hire a good lawyer with a good
knowledge of Canon Law and fight the bastards for the properties. (This
is by no means a lose/lose situation as Fr. David Moyer in the Diocese
of Pennsylvania has discovered. He is still in his parish, and Bishop
Bennison has been unable to get rid of him or to get the property. The
same thing has happened to Fr. Eddy Rix at All Saints' Church, Wynnewood.)

Or stay in ECUSA and apply for Alternative Episcopal Oversight and if
the diocesan bishop doesn't like it he can inhibit you and you can fight
back in civil court over one's employment rights being violated. Or you
can leave the property, take the congregation and join the Anglican
Mission in America (AMIA). Most of these folk who leave are fairly
wealthy and can usually come up with seed money to buy new property and
start over. It's a bit rough initially, but within a year or two they
break ground and begin all over again. There was no weeping and wailing
and gnashing of teeth in Destin over lost properties at the recent 4th
annual AM IA conference. The final option is you can leave your diocese
and come under the protection of a Global South Primate like the two
parishes in Atlanta did recently. In all likelihood the sitting diocesan
bishop will inhibit and depose the rector in question, but the point has
been made and once more the ugly, dark side of revisionist bishops who
have no gospel to proclaim rears its head.

WHAT IS REALLY HURTING REVISIONIST BISHOPS is the growing loss of
millions of dollars to diocesan coffers. Orthodox parishes have woken up
to the fact that they don't have to bankroll the bishop's bankrupt
agenda and apart from their assessment, they are not obliged to pay one
penny more to the diocese thus inhibiting the bishop's 'mission' to
spread the 'gospel' of sexual inclusion and depraved diversity.

There is also no legal requirement for a diocese to pay anything to the
national church. That is entirely a free will offering.

So what is happening is that bishops like Bennison are now falling
hundreds of thousands of dollars behind in funds necessary just to run
the diocese. The logic is they will have less to give the national
church to keep Griswold's failed "missional objectives" alive. Or they
will have to tap their own Trust Funds. These bishops are also
ratcheting up the pain threatening orthodox rectors if they don't come
through with money over and above their assessment. But ecclesiastical
law is on the side of the rector here.

I am told that dozens of dioceses are seeing shrinking budgets that will
impact them at many levels including publishing their diocesan
newspapers, restricting 'mission' however they define it, supporting
mission parishes and much more. It is also apparent that it is not easy
to access restricted Trust Funds that are earmarked for particular
purposes. A bishop will need to go to court to have those changed.

With less monies coming in, there is less likelihood of a bishop
spending thousands of dollars he doesn't have to hire lawyers to sue
rectors and their parishes. Virtuosity has learned that the national
church is not above kicking in money to help bishops who want to sue
orthodox rectors and their parishes. The old saying is true, follow the
money. In my father's house are many trust funds.

For revisionist bishops it is about money and ecclesiastical power and
occasionally sex, and they will give them up with great reluctance. When
you have no life-changing gospel to offer, all you have left at the end
of the day is ecclesiastical power and idolatry, and bishops like Tom
Shaw of Massachusetts and Charles Bennison of Pennsylvania have both in
spades.

When the ECUSA House of Bishops meets in March we will know more about
how things are working out, or not working out. Executive Council is
obliged to give us the numbers, and everyone will know the truth when
the books are opened.

REVISIONISTS RALLY. Concerned about the growth of such ministries at the
American Anglican Council, the newly formed Network, The Anglican
Communion Institute, Anglican Mainstream and others, a group calling
themselves Via Media has been formed in seven dioceses to counter the
orthodox 'threat'. They include Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh,
Via Media in Albany, Concerned Episcopalians of the St. Lawrence
Deanery, Episcopal Forum of South Carolina, Fort Worth Via Media, Remain
Episcopal, Diocese of San Joaquin (CA), and Rio Grande Via Media. They
are using a variety of tactics to keep the revisionist mindset and spin
in ECUSA. If you hear from them you or see their name you have been warned.

SEMINARY NEWS. Virtuosity has learned that the drop in giving to
parishes is impacting the hiring of new graduating seminarians. A source
told Virtuosity that a number of seminarians who will be graduating in
May, and who had been in conversations with parishes about being hired
as curates, are now being told that the parish can't afford to hire them
due to cutbacks in giving to the parishes. And who said this would all
go away and Robinson's consecration would just be like women's
ordination. How wrong they were. The chickens are coming home to roost.

IN TODAY'S DIGEST you can read an interview Virtuosity did with the Rev.
Geoff Chapman, the priest involved in writing a draft of the document
that was leaked to the media. You can get the straight scoop on what
really took place without all the revisionist spin. I have also written
a story about the spin Louie Crew and the Integrity crowd is putting on
the new Network Charter. There is more international disapproval of
Griswold's action in consecrating V. Gene Robinson with a statement from
the new Archbishop of the Congo, and a Kenyan journalist weighs in on
the possibility of international schism. Bishop James Stanton gives us
his take on what happened in Plano, Texas and an Anglo-Catholic priest
in the Diocese of Colorado issues a challenge to debate the issues with
the ECUSA bishop out there. Episcopalian Theologian Dr Joe Murphy tells
us why he has left the ECUSA for the AMIA and columnists Terry Mattingly
and Mike McManus are up today with timely columns and is much more. Mel
Gibson's movie The Passion continues to make a major splash with much
heated back and forth over alleged anti-Semitism, but when the Pope saw
it recently he was heard to say, "it is as it is." Forward in Faith
leader Fr. David Moyer also takes a look at what is happening in ECUSA
and is off to Lambeth see Rowan Williams to press the case for
alternative episcopal oversight.

CORRECTIONS: In a previous digest I said that the AMIA had 50,000
members. That was inaccurate. It is 15,000. I also said the document
passed and ratified by All Saints Pawleys Island was taken to Atlanta.
Incorrect. It was taken to Columbia, SC.

THE NEWS AS IT HAPPENS IS NOW BEING POSTED SEVERAL TIMES A DAY TO THE
WEBSITE. If you want up to the minute breaking news it can all be found
at www.virtuosityonline.org. It is all on the front page. Past digests
can be reached by going to the DIGESTS and ARCHIVES.

PLEASE SUPPORT THIS MINISTRY. Virtuosity needs your support. Without it
we would not exist. There is no one in the Anglican Communion that
brings you the news in a timely accurate way as Virtuosity. No one. You
have two options. You can make a donation through PAYPAL at the website,
or you can send a check by snail mail to David W. Virtue, VIRTUOSITY,
1236 Waterford Road, West Chester, PA 19380. Please be generous. Thank you.

All Blessings,

David W. Virtue DD

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