Forshaw joined celebrity B.C. artist Tiko Kerr in pleading with Health Canada to release two new drugs under a program that is supposed to provide access on a "compassionate" basis to desperate, dying Canadians who are seeking drugs unavailable in Canada.

Health Canada, despite the objections of Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh, has refused to make the program available because the drugs are deemed too experimental and, taken together, might pose a health risk to the dying men.

"Our business is to provide locations for people to meet Jesus Christ," said the Rev. Canon Kurt Dunkle, the chief of staff for Bishop John Howard. "So it was vitally important for that location to be reopened and energized for that purpose."

The Rev. David Sandifer and approximately 160 members of Calvary Church left their building and the diocese following the years of tension sparked when the Episcopal Church USA elected an openly gay bishop for New Hampshire in 2003.

The consecrations took place in Arua, a town of 60,000 in North West Uganda near the borders with Sudan and the Congo. The diocese, with 800 churches and 200 clergy in a population nearing 2 million, is also a springboard for mission in those countries and has been a haven for refugees.

"Will the president intercede on behalf of this church to stop this investigation that has all the earmarks of a political retribution, since the president has so much respect for churches?" WND asked McClellan.

Responded the press secretary: "I'm not familiar with this specific enforcement action, but I think that that's something you need to address to the IRS, if it's an IRS enforcement action."