The new Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes reportedly has--among other things--the encouragement of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams.

But, while it seems highly unlikely that he would presently support the designation of it as a "replacement" for ECUSA–-an unprecedented step--he may face a hard choice on that score.

That is because the Network--even before its formal launching next week--is already starting to be treated as the legitimate U.S. branch of the Communion by several Anglican provinces and even other Christian bodies, said Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan and other principals at "Plano-East" in Woodbridge, Virginia, sponsored by the D.C. and Virginia chapters of the American Anglican Council (AAC).

The shift in ecclesial relationships is flanked by earlier announcements that some 20 Anglican provinces considered their communion with ECUSA's liberal leadership broken or impaired, in the wake of the American Church's consecration of an actively gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson, and support for optional same-sex blessings. The actions--seen by most Anglicans worldwide as defying scriptural authority, established policy, and widespread appeals--have quickened a process of realignment across the Communion.

The most remarkable recent illustration of the change taking place came in a stinging letter to ECUSA Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, in which the Ugandan Anglican Church--which earlier broke ties with ECUSA--turned back the U.S. Church's plans to send a delegation to the installation of Uganda's new presiding bishop. It also saw ECUSA's offer of aid as an attempt to buy Uganda's silence and cooperation for its unbiblical policies.

"The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not for sale, even among the poorest of us who have no money," the letter declared. "Eternal life, obedience to Jesus Christ, and conforming to His Word are more important," said the Ugandans--who invited Network representatives to attend their archbishop's installation instead.

"That is radical stuff," the Rev. Martyn Minns, rector of Virginia's Truro Church, Fairfax, told Plano-East participants, who outnumbered the some 2,700 faithful Episcopalians who attended October's landmark meeting in Dallas (Plano). Minns said the Ugandan event would be attended by Bishop Duncan, the Network's Moderator, and Dallas Bishop James Stanton, and others.

The formal inauguration of the Network--a move the AAC says is strongly supported by many Anglican primates--is set to take place January 19-20 at Christ Church, Plano, and to include among its participants representatives of at least a dozen dioceses: Albany, Pittsburgh, San Joaquin (CA), South Carolina, Florida, Central Florida, Dallas, Fort Worth, Quincy and Springfield (both in Illinois), Western Kansas, and Rio Grande.

THE NEW NETWORK also got a boost from a "group of senior bishops" which Minns announced is now prepared to exercise episcopal ministry to "marginalized" or embattled parishes across diocesan lines--with or without the permission of the local ECUSA bishop.

Though there was speculation that this may involve foreign bishops--canonically untouchable by ECUSA--Minns did not name names, and neither would other AAC spokesmen TCC queried.

But the provision of "adequate" episcopal oversight for conservative parishes in hostile circumstances has the backing of Anglican primates (provincial leaders), who inferred at their October meeting in London that they will monitor such provisions via the Archbishop of Canterbury's role as consultant in the matter.

Still, it appears virtually certain that there will be a need for bishops willing to cross lines without permission. Already, ECUSA and AAC officials are stalemated over a draft bishops' plan that provides no override of the local bishop if he fails to permit "adequate" alternate care ("adequate" being judged by the recipients). And the stakes are growing higher by the day: some 100 parishes are said to have applied through the AAC for alternate episcopal care.

-Navigating Uncharted Waters-

Minns sparked amusement with his understatement that providing unauthorized episcopal ministry--though pastoral in intent--"may cause some controversy."

And of course, no one could expect that, for beleaguered faithful Episcopalians, it will be all smooth or swift sailing through uncharted Anglican waters. Nor is the new Network likely to offer a panacea for all believing Episcopalians, since it will not adopt the catholic position on women's ordination.

Some confusion and questions were generated recently in the wake of Bishop Duncan's comments to the effect that the Network is not seeking to be a province separate from ECUSA.

Indeed, it remains intertwined with a body that--despite its rebellious pro-gay actions and the serious damage they have caused to Anglican unity and ecumenical efforts--has yet to be de-recognized by the Archbishop of Canterbury and/or the primates jointly. In remarks to reporters at Woodbridge, as well, Duncan still held out hope that sufficient pressure could be brought to bear on ECUSA to step back from its anti-scriptural position on homosexuality.

That was not exactly the message that some heard earlier--if not from Duncan, from other leading spokesmen--at the Dallas meeting and elsewhere.

One online commentator asked what happened to some conservative leaders' assertions "that there would be a new province," that the irreformable ECUSA "would be `excommunicated,' that no one was working on establishing a `church within a church'"--a phrase lately used to describe the Network by both Duncan and AAC President David Anderson, but a scheme that has been tried and failed. (Based on its experience, the traditionalist Forward in Faith, North America, has been urging some Communion-recognized means of separate existence for orthodox U.S. Anglicans since at least 1997, and had promoted similar concepts since 1976.) As well, there have been largely fruitless prior pledges and pursuits of alternate episcopal oversight, and, some have asked, could that be more than an interim solution?

In sum--especially after a Pittsburgh diocesan move putting church property into the hands of congregations was recalled in a bid to halt a lawsuit over the motion--some have wondered whether the "stay in" network meant that a desire to retain church property and remain in "the club" would again trump theology, and genuine unity and communion.

But it is not that AAC spokesmen do not see the importance of clarifying relationships and statuses--including that of the Network--along theological lines within the Communion; it is that it is not up to U.S. faithful to "adjudicate" that, the Rev. Canon Kendall Harmon of South Carolina told TCC in Woodbridge.

Harmon and other AAC spokesmen see the realignment as requiring a patient process in which their main task is to identify and gather their constituency within ECUSA and fully establish the Network, so as to distinguish the faithful for foreign bishops seeking to maintain fellowship, and to "be ready" (as Fr. Minns put it) for other possibilities.

And they are encouraged by the international situation as they see it developing. Though many U.S. faithful would have welcomed stronger, swifter action, the conservative majority of primates--which only began to awaken to the state of ECUSA about eight years ago--have already significantly changed the Anglican landscape in that time. What was first solidly manifest at the 1998 Lambeth Conference, is now evident in unprecedented declarations of broken communion (by about 25 percent of provinces so far).

Some provinces have apparently responded to Archbishop Williams' appeal for forbearance, and are waiting for next September's results from a new commission. That panel, led by Irish Primate Robin Eames, is to sort out the legal and relational implications of ECUSA's unilateral actions within the Communion--though it should be noted that there is a wide range of expectations about what this commission will do, not all of them likely to be met.

And as the first Eames Commission promoted a "doctrine of reception" (testing process) on women's ordination at the expense of a hallmark of communion--the interchangeability of ministries--one might well ask whether Eames II cannot be expected to find ways of allowing and managing two sexuality doctrines in one Communion as well.

As Harmon sees it, the tale will be told by "how the Eames Commission performs, how it interfaces with the global South, the response of global South leaders, and where Williams places himself" in regard to that. But he thinks the odds favor the conservatives.

Unlike the women's issue, about which he contended that scripture speaks "bifocally," Harmon told TCC that "it won't work...to glorify the doctrine of reception" on the gay issue. "You can't `receive' something" which has "no scriptural grounds," and which he said has been rejected by all four advisory "instruments" of Anglican unity--the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference, the Primates' Meetings and the Anglican Consultative Council.

Global South leaders, in particular, will not tolerate dual theologies on the issue, he believes--something which also might suggest that they will not long allow an unrepentant ECUSA to retain full membership status in a Communion of which they are also a part.

As well, Harmon sees an edge in the fact that Eames II and Archbishop Williams will have to take the existence of the Network into consideration in formulating their positions--a Network he also said is already receiving growing recognition within the Communion and ecumenically.

Moreover, he believes that liberal arguments about ECUSA's pro-homosexual innovations--"that it's no big deal, that it can be handled like women's ordination, that it's not a Communion-dividing issue"--are fast losing ground. It is a process he thinks has been quickened by the performance of ECUSA's presiding bishop. Griswold supported the October statement of Anglican primates--which grimly warned of a serious breakdown in commmunion if Robinson was consecrated--and then proceeded to act as the gay bishop's chief consecrator. While U.S. conservative activists expected this result, some global South leaders were shocked by it, Harmon said.

The bottom line, he told TCC, is that, international support for the U.S. faithful is steadily increasing.

AND SOME LEADERS of the emerging Network have scored an approach too focused on clinging to church property, "the club," and/or the general status quo.

Last fall, Bishop Duncan told brethren in Canada that: "We need to give up our idolatries, our comfortable lives that include buildings, properties and offices. We need to submit to godly leaders..."

At Plano-East, AAC Chancellor A. Hugo Blankingship described the unencouraging legal outlook on church property rights. But, while he noted that church property is consecrated to the Lord and should be protected, he drew applause when he added his belief that "our orthodox clergy are our chief assets, and far more important to us than the property." He also joined other speakers in pointing to the conservatives' own role in creating ECUSA's dire situation, a matter addressed with repentance and prayer during the meeting. "This is our mess, and we must deal with it," Blankingship said.

And in his final remarks at Plano-East, Minns asked: "Which future do you want? A safe and comfortable club for people who appreciate the finer things of life, or are you willing to take the risk and become a missionary community where all sorts and conditions of men and women are welcome?...Are you willing to welcome the down and out as well as the up and out?...Not everyone who comes will be properly dressed and know how to behave or when to sit or stand, but saving lives is at the heart of God's vision. The question is whether we are willing to pay the price to make it our future. God's vision for His Church is not one of tidy little clubs that sing pretty little songs. God's vision for His Church is one of radical inclusion but it is also one of profound transformation..."

That vision was certainly encouraged and enlarged by moving talks given during the meeting from representatives of some truly inspiring orthodox ministries--Anglican Frontier Missions, which seeks to reach world's still-unevangelized; Five Talents, which aids the development of small businesses in developing countries; Regeneration, a ministry to those seeking to overcome homosexual attraction; SOMA (Sharing of Ministries Abroad); Alpha; and several others.

-"Getting Connected"-

And if anything sounded like a rejection of compromise, it was the engaging talk by Diane Knippers, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy and a member of ECUSA's Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations.

"The big lie is that one must choose between truth and unity," she said. Rather, she declared: "Genuine truth defines our unity. Genuine unity protects the truth."

Noting the "terrible blow" that the General Convention decisions dealt to Christian unity, she said it is "preposterous that we are called schismatic or separatist. We `dissenters' are the ones committed to Christian unity."

Fr. Minns agreed. "Will the Network divide [ECUSA]?" he asked. "No, that division has already occurred."

Minns sees the Network as being a move of the Holy Spirit by which "people are getting connected over lines that used to separate us."

"We are connected by a common vision for the Gospel and a passion for mission"; by a desire to see the Word fo God "proclaimed with sensitivity and power," and "apply its truth to our lives."

For members of dioceses that are part of its initial formation, the Network "will give an opportunity to bring orthodox leadership to our church at a time when [its] very future...is at risk. It will allow new partnerships and...relationships within North America and beyond," Minns told the Plano-East gathering.

Reportedly, the Network will be open as well to conservative Anglicans in Mexico and Canada, where New Westminster Bishop Michael Ingham and his diocese have made some major waves over the issue of same-sex blessings.

"For parishes that are not part of the founding dioceses it will give a place to stand and a community with which to connect," Minns went on. Some parishes may remain canonically within their existing dioceses, but seek spiritual oversight through the Network, while some of the more isolated and embattled parishes may become extra-territorial parts of the founding dioceses, or the basis of new missionary districts, he said.

Individuals in parishes that have supported the General Convention decisions have a few options, such as trying to build a network within their parish or local community. Minns said the Network would also encourage the planting of new churches.

What it will do is "give hope and a place to belong for Anglican Christians in North America who are committed to a biblical worldview and a biblical way of life," Minns said.

Around the Communion and ecumenically, he said, the Network "gives us a way to connect with those sisters and brothers around the world...who will no longer recognize the current leadership of [ECUSA]," he added.

"Could it be a replacement for ECUSA? Only God knows, but we'll be ready."

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