At the very minimum he understands that we now have two religions in The Episcopal Church and one of them has nothing to do with historic Christianity.

Within days five other bishops joined him in seeking 'alternative pastoral oversight.' They include the dioceses of Pittsburgh, Central Florida, San Joaquin, South Carolina, and Springfield. You can be sure more will come. This fracture of The Episcopal Church has not yet morphed into full blown schism, but these are early days.

Another realist voice was the Bishop of Quincy, the Rt. Rev. Keith Ackerman. (He has not as yet sought APO). Here is what he said: "We have noted with sorrow that actions taken at the 75th General Convention in Columbus, Ohio have caused an even greater chasm to exist between the American Province, and the Anglican Communion as articulated by the Lambeth Commission on Communion. We have failed to respond to the various Windsor Resolutions as requested by the Primates, and we have elected a Presiding Bishop who is on record as not supporting the spirit and the words of those Resolutions."

"Moreover the General Convention failed to reaffirm the necessity of belief in Jesus Christ, as the only begotten Son of God, who is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life." (St. John 14:6) Finally we approved the consecration to the episcopate of a priest who has been divorced twice and married three times. If the intention of this General Convention was to reconcile with the Anglican Communion, then we have failed."

A third realist voice is the Bishop of Pittsburgh, the Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan. He had a lot to say, including calling for a new Tenth Province of the Episcopal Church which would be fully Windsor compliant, positioning itself to maintain theological faithfulness with the vast majority of the Anglican Communion.

Then Duncan said this: "It is with sadness, but also with anticipation, that I write to you now that the General Convention of the Episcopal Church has provided the clarity for which we have long prayed. By almost every assessment the General Convention has embraced the course of "walking apart." I have often said to you that the decisive moment in contemporary Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion history occurred at General Convention 2003. At that time, in the words of the Primates, the Episcopal Church took action that would "tear the fabric of our Communion at its deepest level." Since that time, the tear has widened."

Before the last Eucharist he had said the Network and Windsor bishops would begin disassociating themselves from the inadequate Windsor resolution.

The Standing Committee also published its intent to "withdraw its consent, pursuant to Article VII of the Constitution of the Episcopal Church, to be included in the Third Province of the Episcopal Church" envisioning the drawing together of a new Windsor-compliant Tenth Province in the Episcopal Church.

The Episcopal Bishop of Springfield, Peter H. Beckwith, in calling upon the Archbishop of Canterbury to provide "alternative primatial oversight" in the wake of the General Convention, wrote this, with just a hint of irony; "As a church we have adopted a Gnostic Theology and a New Age spirituality and, since relativism is the order of the day, we are unable to assent to the Lordship of Jesus and the authoritative teaching of Holy Scripture." That was about the bluntest statement about what the theology of the Episcopal Church in Columbus.

THE second group of bishops can only be described as delusional, so much so, one wonders, if they had been at Woodstock in the 60s, they would have smelled the pot or seen the open and public displays of sex, or simply walked around with blinders on with "see no evil" attitudes.

Listen to what the Bishop of Florida, Samuel Johnson Howard had to say to his increasingly dwindling flock: "I would like to take this opportunity to tell you about all these good things (and more) accomplished by your church in the past two weeks in Columbus. The Church elected its first female Presiding Bishop, Katherine Jefferts Schori. It came as quite a surprise to me, to the thousands gathered at the Columbus Convention Center when it was first announced. However, any doubts many of us may have had concerning her experience or the relatively small diocese from where she comes were quickly answered as she took a visible leadership role in both the House of Bishops and House of Deputies to ensure successful passage of our various responses to The Windsor Report. Also, our church addressed The Windsor Report head-on and prepared a number of responses to our international partners. First, as I and the clear majority of the House of Bishops see it, Resolution B-033 created, in effect, the moratorium called for by Windsor; that is to effect a moratorium on the election and consent to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate who is living in a same gender union until some new consensus in the Anglican Communion emerges. I am pleased to say that after several days of faithful discernment, General Convention acted decisively!"

Say what? Howard should have waited till AFTER the Archbishop of Canterbury delivered himself with his verdict on GC2006. Dr Williams warned church leaders that there was "no way" the Anglican Communion could survive the crisis unchanged. He said that he favors a new system where churches in the 70 million-strong communion could opt to form a "covenant" where they made a formal commitment to each other. Those unwilling to join the covenant could choose to become "churches in association" which were still bound by historic links but did not share the same constitutional structures, he suggested. The relationship between the two types of province would be not unlike that between the Church of England and the Methodist Church, he said.

There is real touch of irony in Howard's statement. While he was at General Convention, yet another priest upped and left the diocese taking his flock with him. The Rev. Gil Crosby announced he was leaving the Diocese of Florida and forming All Saints Anglican Church culled from St. Francis of Assisi Episcopal Church. He holds his first Eucharist this Sunday. A group from St. Peter's provided a gift of wine for their first communion.

Another delusional bishop was Robert Gepert of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Michigan, who said he saw the Holy Spirit clearly at work in the hearts and minds of the delegates attending the Episcopal Church's General Convention. "We hear religious folks talk about the movement of the Holy Spirit. But I often wonder, is this a real aspect of God? Is a divine spirit actually at work in the world, helping us make decisions? If you ask me, the answer is a resounding "yes." Gepert said that while news stories about the convention tended to focus on debates over such issues as the election of gays as bishops, Gepert indicated that something else -- not easy to define and yet very powerful -- also occurred. He says the Holy Spirit became especially evident to him during prayer and worship services. He also sensed the moving of the spirit of God in other ways. He said he glimpsed it working in himself and others in the election of the Rt. Rev. Katherine Jefferts Schori!

Perhaps the most delusional miter was Pennsylvania Bishop Charles E. Bennison who ought to be labeled as basically Unitarian for his theological utterances, topped only by "12 Theses" John Shelby Spong the former Bishop of Newark. Here is what he said on the election of Bishop Schori to the rank of Presiding Bishop: "It was a Pentecostal moment that I shall never forget, one reminding me that the Spirit blows where it wills. But we hear the sound of it!!"

He does? Somehow that Spirit blowing sound was not heard by anyone else as far as this writer could recall. It must have all been blowing between Charles' ears.

The third group of bishops could best be described as pragmatists. Their leader was John Chane the Bishop of Washington. Right after Resolution B033 was passed, he and some 20 (or was it 30, no one will tell us who signed up) bishops signed a 'Statement of Conscience' dissenting from the action of Resolution B033 complaining bitterly about the political process, saying the conversation had been framed in a flawed paradigm, forcing the bishops to choose between two goods-the full inclusion in the life of the Church of our brother and sister Christians who happen to be gay or lesbian and our full inclusion in the life of our beloved Communion.

They also didn't like the fact that it failed to honor the integrity of the House of Deputies by bringing undue pressure to bear on that body an they particularly didn't like any language that could be perceived as effecting a moratorium on one part of the Body (read gays and lesbians) calling it "discriminatory."

But this group voted for B033 because pragmatically speaking they knew Frank Griswold needed this resolution as a sop to Archbishop Rowan Williams and the Global South archbishops and bishops.

A fourth group represented by Texas Bishop Don Wimberly tried to put the best face on what happened by saying he intended to remain in The Episcopal Church and the Communion and his diocese will continue its missionary work of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ -- transforming lives. But his fence sitting days are done, because the Episcopal Church is irretrievably fractured and humpty has fallen off the wall.

Dr. Williams was not fooled for a moment. In a statement following General Convention he pulled the rug out from under everyone except the handful of orthodox bishops. He stiffened his spine and said the gig was up.

He announced that he had drafted plans to expel the American Episcopal Church from the worldwide Anglican Church, and offer it only "associate" membership. It is schism in all but name, wrote an editorialist for the London Times.

Under his proposals all 38 provinces of the Church will be invited to sign a "covenant", setting out the traditional biblical standards on which Anglicans around the world can agree. Those who refuse to do so will forfeit the right to full communion and will either have to cut their links with Canterbury altogether or be offered a looser arrangement similar to the status agreed with the Methodists three years ago. There is no way The Episcopal Church can sign this statement in good conscience.

In short, The Episcopal Church is toast, along with the Anglican Churches in Canada, New Zealand, most of Australia and possibly the liberal Scottish Episcopal Church and perhaps Ireland. We shall see.

But the bells were surely tolling in Nigeria. Within days of Dr. William's promulgation, Nigerian Primate Peter Akinola announced he was laying hands on Virginia Rector Martyn Minns and making him bishop of some 20 plus Nigerian parishes in North America. It was almost as though he was expecting this to happen, and he dived right in, much to the annoyance of Virginia Bishop Peter Lee who labeled the actions of the African Archbishop as "an affront to the traditional, orthodox understanding of Anglican Provincial Autonomy."

Crossing borders has now become an all too standard practice. Attempts to slow or stop the practice will prove futile.

As VirtueOnline predicted before General Convention, the exodus of orthodox Episcopalians will only accelerate. Already the largest, most widely attended parish in North America announced it was up and leaving. The rector of Christ Church, Plano, Texas will take over 4,000 members out of the ECUSA, almost the entire size of Bishop Schori's Nevada diocese.

The liberals and revisionists just don't get it. They still think they can forge ahead appealing to gays and lesbians, not realizing that their message of inclusion forfeits them the right to call themselves Christian let alone Episcopalian. In time they will wither and die, that is their fate.

A new day has dawned. We now have clarity. Orthodox Episcopalians will scatter to the four winds choosing other Anglican jurisdictions, Rome for some, Orthodoxy for others. But a new Anglican Province drawing in the vast majority of North American Episcopalians (who will henceforth be known as Anglicans) seems almost certain. It is all just a matter of time.

END