Another English referee who is finding it difficult to deliver the red card is the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Episcopal Church of the United States of America has been warned repeatedly, but has remained impenitent. The final warning from the world body came last year but at the recent 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church there was a clear and unmistakable refusal to accede to the warning.

I have had no such conversation with either church. In fact, I received a call today from the Rev. John Yates, rector of The Falls Church, to apologize for the assertion in the story and to assure me that there is no such plan on the part of The Falls Church. I also received today an e-mail from the Rev. Martyn Minns assuring me that no such decision had been made at Truro.

All sides agree it's about much more than homosexuality, the immediate battleground: it goes to the core of how churches should relate to their culture and each other. But the dissension is intensified because sexuality is such an emotive issue - for the progressives, it's a matter of justice and human rights; for the orthodox, it's about truth and fidelity.

* However, these very divisions are occasions upon which the church, if it is obedient to Christ's charge to be one, can enter more deeply into the unity to which it is called. You have heard me say it over and over again: "We are One Church." We must be obedient to Christ's charge to be one even as Jesus and the Father are one. We are One Church. Jesus himself gathers us, calls us, and sends us forth to share the Good News of salvation.