I care what happens in the Anglican Communion, but since I became Orthodox I've been told to "stay out of Anglican business". This statement reveals testy territorialism and a partisan view of the Church. I am no longer qualified to make observations because I don't belong to the Anglican "party."

This view of the Church speaks of what is wrong with TEC's leadership, sensitive as it is to the radical fringe steeped in the "realpolitik" approach to power. The good news is that these folks are discovering that power maneuvers that work in secular society don't always work in the Church. The universal Church, to which faithful Anglicans belong, has shown itself to be more than a match for players of partisan politics. It is simply too big to be handled and too vibrant to be silenced.

Because average Episcopalians remained complacent about oddballs like Pike and Spong, and continued funding Episcopal seminaries without asking what these institutions were teaching, they often didn't know how much ground was being excavated under their feet. A critical year for excavations was 1993 when Pamela Chinnis, President of the House of Deputies "came out" as the mother of a gay son, and pledged to use her appointment to put homosexual deputies on committees of General Convention.

That was also the year that Bishop Otis Charles, former Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School, told the House of Bishops that he was living a homosexual lifestyle. By 1993, it was already too late to put the genie back in the bottle, and ECUSA had been further weakened by the departure of catholic clerics to the Continuum.

The practice of ordaining homosexuals in ECUSA, which the average Episcopalian is told has been openly discussed for decades, in fact advanced quietly and surreptitiously. The 1977 House of Bishops meeting failed to censure Bishop Paul Moore (NY) who ordained the first lesbian priest against the mind of the House of Bishops. Moore knew very well that the average Episcopalian wasn't on board with this disastrous innovation.

Most people in the pews, even the biblically illiterate, wanted holy men to teach holiness and to administer holy sacraments to them and to their children. Nevertheless, the 1977 House of Bishop tabled censure of Bishop Moore because the bishops were divided on women's ordination. Bishops who upheld historic catholic discipline and order did not want to be forced to ordain women, so they adopted a conscience clause, which would be used by revisionist bishops as grounds for ordaining homosexuals.

Looking back at how TEC came to its present troubled state, it is evident that women were a pawn in the game of power politics. To achieve acceptance of homosexual clergy, it was first necessary to break the back of catholic order and discipline by ordaining women. Having reached this conclusion, and after further study of the sacerdotal priesthood, my own conscience did not permit me to remain a "priest" and so I set aside TEC orders in March 2006.

My inhibition by Bishop Sauls in 2005 provided me opportunity to step back and rethink the question of women's ordination. My former bishop unintentionally granted me a great favor. I now dedicate myself to study, writing, and speaking, with an audience well beyond any I ever imagined as a priest in ECUSA. Women's ordination continues to be a source of division among Anglicans, and between Anglicans and other Christians in the one holy catholic and apostolic Church.

In a recent interview with J.I. Packer, David Virtue raised this question: "On women's ordination. CANA is opening up the subject and AMiA has opened up this subject, do you think that pursuing women's ordination as an issue will eventually bring schism and division among the orthodox?" Packer responded: "My hope is that the ordination of women will never bring about church division. This is not a part of the gospel, it is a secondary issue rather than a primary one and I would hope that an amicable arrangement, not to everyone's full satisfaction, but a workable arrangement, can be arranged that have differed historically can come together. It is hoped that 10 splinter bodies will come together in the Common Cause diocese."

With respect to both David Virtue and J.I. Packer, I believe they have missed the point. Women's ordination led the way to the present schism, causing division within the Anglican Communion, and between Anglicans and Orthodox and Roman Catholics. Unless Anglicans deal with the question, there is little hope for healing the schism and much less hope of unity in the Body of Christ.

Where are Anglicans to find opportunity to address this and other pressing matters? Certainly not at Lambeth 2008. Faithful Primates who attend Lambeth will receive no honor and their voices will not be heard. The organizers will handle that venue so as to hush legitimate questions and real conversation. The Archbishop of Canterbury may value unity in principle but he can't guarantee open discussion of anything controversial and expect the Communion to hold together. In reality, Lambeth is a media event, not a council of the Church.

That being so, there is need of a true council of Primates and that is the purpose of the Global Anglican Future Conference to be held in Jerusalem. Bishop Ijaz Inayat of Karachi has this advice for the Anglican Primates: "GAFCON will be the second biggest event in church history after the Council of Nicea and deserves to be called GAF Council of Jerusalem 2008. The time is at hand to clearly define once again what the Church ought to believe and what not.

What is Biblical and canonical is the debate of the time all over the world like never before. This debate has engaged believer and otherwise at different blogs and websites like never before and I would request all brothers and sisters to put all their efforts into these discussions... The Lord said, 'You cannot serve two masters'. It is time that we declare that we will serve the Lord of life like Joshua...Come over to GAFCON and your spirits will be refreshed and conscious satisfied. The Lord will take care of the rest." (See http://www.globalsouthanglican.org )

Bishop Inayat will not be granted a visa to attend GAFCON in Jerusalem. Yet he pledges his prayers on behalf of that historic pilgrimage to ground zero of our Faith. This is one reason that I am more hopeful for Anglicans now than ever. Power politics doesn't play out in the Church the same way it does in secular society because the Church is full of people who pray and don't feel the need to be in the news. That's real power and it can't be channeled or silenced by Lambeth handlers.

---Alice C. Linsley teaches Philosophy, Critical Thinking and Ethics at a private college in Kentucky. She was an Episcopal priest until she set aside TEC orders in March 2005. She resigned as Rector of St. Andrew Episcopal Church in Lexington, KY on the Sunday that Gene Robinson was consecrated. In February 2007 she joined the Antiochian Orthodox Church. She no longer believes that women priests are part of God's order and plan for the Church.