None of this started yesterday; nor in the last decade. And if any doubt remained as to the state of the Church's soul, if any hope lingered for renewal and reformation within the body, General Convention 2006 should have extinguished hope and doubt alike. The convention, which ended last week in Columbus, Ohio, underscored in the brightest of reds that the Episcopal Church no longer recognizes any authority outside of these triennial conventions.

On Tuesday, June 20, the House of Deputies defeated a resolution that committed the church to specific restraints on the consecration of candidates for the episcopate in same-gender partnerships. The bishops adopted a new resolution on the next day committing the church to exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of "any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life is a challenge to the wider church."

Begin with demolition work. First, paint the Gospels as fundamentally unreliable, unhistorical, and biased. Now, this will mean rough going, for several reasons. If you are to pull this off, your audience has to be unaware of the last hundred years of New Testament (NT) studies. Otherwise, they will know that every attempt to discredit the NT has failed miserably.

We have been dealt a blow that has knocked the wind out of us. Let's be kind to ourselves, breathe a little, before we try to move on. Nothing has to be decided or done in the next few hours or days. Let's catch our breath, remembering that breath is a powerful image of the Holy Spirit in the Old and New Testaments.