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REVISIONISTS BEGIN SPIN ON NEW NETWORK DOCUMENT

REVISIONISTS BEGIN SPIN ON NEW NETWORK DOCUMENT

News Analysis

By David W. Virtue

Episcopal Church revisionists have begun to spin the Network document presented at Plano this past week, with the Episcopal Church's leading homosexual revisionist Dr. Louie Crew announcing that he was surprised by its "tameness".

"They did not even insist on "alternate" or "alternative" episcopal oversight, only on "adequate" (the term used by the primates at their meeting in London last October), writes Crew who sits on the church's Executive Council.

This is not entirely true. While the document itself does not touch on that one particular issue, during a question and answer period Bishop Robert Duncan made it very clear that he and his colleagues were opposed to the Presiding Bishop's proposed "supplemental care" idea.

Duncan was very critical of the Presiding Bishop's concept of supplemental Episcopal care. "It is not the same thing as alternative Episcopal oversight, which is what we are asking for. This is the [Bishop] Bennison (Diocese of Pennsylvania) plan, it didn't work then and it won't work now."

It is totally untrue to say it was not mentioned and entirely disingenuous of him to say it was "tame". The purpose of the charter was to lay out in broad brush strokes terms for what the Network stands for and not to announce an item by item declaration on specific issues. Only women's ordination is mentioned in the charter and it said in Article VIII that "affiliates of the Network hold differing positions regarding the ordination of women and pledge that we shall recognize and honor the positions and practices on this issue of others in the Network."

It does not specifically mention episcopal oversight any more than it mentions V. Gene Robinson's enthronement as the church's first sodomite bishop, or Oklahoma Bishop Moody's ordination of a transsexual to the diaconate.

That was not the intention of the framers. The purpose of the Charter was to establish said Network, whose associated Dioceses and Convocations will constitute a true and legitimate expression of the world-wide Anglican Communion.

But it did touch on Mission and Authority. "We, as Dioceses and Convocations, commit ourselves to the propagation of the unchanging Gospel of Jesus Christ and the fulfillment of the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations. We further commit ourselves to the formation of disciples submitted to the historic Faith and Order of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church under the ultimate authority of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments."

And in its relationship to the world wide Anglican Communion, it had this to say. "We, as Dioceses and Convocations, commit ourselves to full membership in the Anglican Communion of Churches throughout the world, grounded in the classical Anglican formularies, and in submission to the moral and teaching authority of the Lambeth Conference and Primates Meeting. We commit ourselves to maintaining, rebuilding, and strengthening ecumenical relationships. We further commit ourselves to the ongoing re-union of the Anglican diaspora in North America."

Writes Crew: "The Network's official press release and foundational document sounded about as innocuous as a group of macho tail-gaiting Episcopalians at a football game or 4th-of-July picnic. Probably die-hards have not diminished their fervent commitment to a more radical and illegal take-over, but the rhetoric surely has toned down. I hope that signals that persons of good faith in the Network, and I assume that to be the vast majority, are committed to keeping the struggle within the family rather than to leave it. That is good news for all."

If Crew thinks the official press release is a lot of "macho tail-gaiting" then he will be in for a rude awakening when the bulk of the Anglican Communion's Primates begin to express themselves on the Network and recognize them, not the Episcopal Church as the official and legitimate expression of Anglicanism in North America. Already some dozen Primates have declared themselves out of communion with the ECUSA and Frank Griswold personally, and it will come as a great shock to him and to all revisionists when they wake up one morning to find that the number has gone over 18 (a simple majority) with this new Network statement.

When that happens, it won't be some 4th-of-July picnic. It'll be November the 5th (Guy Fawkes Day) with New Year's Eve all rolled into one.

It was very clear at both press conferences I attended that this Charter document is a loud signal to the whole Anglican Communion, "look a godly remnant exists in ECUSA that you can't ignore. We are here, recognize us", and that is exactly what the majority of the Primates will do in time, along with the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Crew writes: "The Presiding Bishop and the House of Bishops are working now on the details of a plan to cover "supplemental episcopal pastoral care." Earlier AAC leaders had insisted that the PB's proposal was not enough, that a congregation ought to be able to bring in a bishop of its own choice without having the permission of the bishop who currently exercises jurisdiction over them. Nothing has ever prevented a bishop from allowing another bishop to exercise episcopal functions within her/his diocese, but never have bishops been allowed to provide episcopal functions without the permission of the local bishop: Lambeth conferences have repeatedly made this point for decades."

"All parties will have to consider what "adequate" episcopal care is on a case by case basis, but that has always been true, and keeps us at the table," he says.

Nonsense, the Church of England has had flying bishops for years as a thorough going alternative for Anglo-Catholic priests who don't want liberal bishops in their churches, and it has worked. It could just as easily work in the ECUSA.

And while it is true that a bishop like Geralyn Wolfe (Rhode Island) has welcomed Quincy Bishop Keith Ackerman to preside at traditionalist parishes in her diocese, Bishop Charles Bennison (Pennsylvania) reneged on a promise he made to the Anglo-Catholics when he ran for bishop and promptly reversed himself immediately he took office.

When Bishop Allen Bartlett was Bishop of Pennsylvania he cut a deal that allowed flying bishops, but Bennison blew it off when he became the bishop.

And the result has been years of legal conflict, still unresolved in the diocese, with both the Archbishop of Canterbury and Frank Griswold, ECUSA's Presiding Bishop trying to knock some sense into Bennison, but with no success!

But in a by-lined story, 'U.S. Episcopal faction OKs charter', leader by Christopher Curtis of Gay.com / PlanetOut.com Network, he cites Crew as saying that "spiritual authority" is an ambiguous phrase meant to avoid violating canon law.

"Once we get into matters of confirming Episcopalians or ordaining priests, then it's a violation. But that didn't happen," he said.

Again that was not the purpose of the Charter. But rest assured that events are moving towards an inevitable climax. The status quo will not be maintained forever. One cannot turn on a pressure cooker and leave it running indefinitely; sooner or later it will blow.

The high profile organization AAC and now this Network are not whistling Dixie and unless they are playing a vast con game with no hope of winning, then they will have mud all over their faces if it all collapses. They will be publicly humiliated before the entire Anglican Communion and the laughing stock of revisionists and liberals everywhere.

They will lose the respect of the world's orthodox leaders, as well as ECUSA's orthodox desperately looking for a safe place to land and much more.

"We already have a network of Anglican dioceses," said the Rev. Susan Russell, the current president of Integrity. "It's called the Episcopal Church. It's been around for 200 years. A well-financed temper tantrum by a bunch of conservatives is not going to change that with, dare I call it, a 'Chicken Little Theology.'"

"The conservatives have been saying the sky is falling in an attempt to prove it would eventually fall after Bishop Gene Robinson was consecrated. But it hasn't. Just as they said the church would fall apart and people would leave in droves, we're almost into February and none of that has happened," Russell said.

But increasing evidence is mounting that Robinson's consecration IS unlike anything else ECUSA has done. The reaction way exceeds the women's ordination debacle by light years.

Never before have a dozen Primates of the Anglican Communion declared themselves in impaired or broken Communion with ECUSA. Never before has a Network with a dozen diocesan bishops come out publicly saying they are the legitimate heirs of orthodoxy in the Episcopal Church.

And what about this statement: "The Steering Committee shall ensure that the congregations of each convocation shall come under the spiritual authority of a bishop approved by the Steering Committee. A convocation (cluster) shall be considered active when it consists of at least six worshipping congregations."

You can be sure this is going to be acted on very shortly. The issue isn't if but when. Watch for the month of February. Virtuosity will report all.

And then there is the money issue, which is drying up dioceses faster than an oases in a desert sun. Just about every diocese is suffering, with orthodox parishes holding back millions of dollars from revisionist diocesan bishops. They have never done this before. They have finally woken up to the fact that money talks, and they resent bankrolling a revisionist agenda that doesn't include saving souls or advancing the mission of Christ to bring the gospel to all people, regardless of race, class, gender or sexual orientation.

And then there's new word that seminarians graduating from liberal seminaries can't get vocations once they graduate because parishes don't have the money to employ them. Now that will surely put a few bishops' knickers in a twist. The revisionist well is drying up faster than anyone thought possible.

One result from this, and it has already begun, is that revisionist bishops are using strong arm tactics to coerce money from orthodox parishes, with threats of reducing the parish to mission status if they don't cough up more money. By doing this it allows the bishop to take over and put his own people in.

Writes Russell: "The GLBT (gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgendered) leadership of the Episcopal Church does not see the formation of this network as a serious problem. The reality is that these dioceses came from the brink of leaving. They're still a part of the dysfunctional Episcopal family, or as I like to call it, 'My Big Fat Anglican Family.'"

Really. And the revisionists, this time, might just be "One Big Fat Loser" when the final curtain call comes. The revisionists have never made one convert to Christ, never. And you cannot keep the shop open indefinitely when you have nothing to sell. Sooner or later you hang out a bankruptcy sign, and it might be right under the other sign that says, "The Episcopal Church Welcomes you." David Virtue dvirtue236@AOL.com

NOTE: If you are not receiving this from VIRTUOSITY, the Anglican Communion's largest biblically orthodox Episcopal/Anglican Online News Service, then you may subscribe FREE by going to: www.virtuosityonline.org. Virtuosity's website has been accessed by more than 700,000 readers in 45 countries on six continents. This story is copyrighted but may be forwarded electronically with reference to VIRTUOSITY and the author. No changes are permitted in the text.

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