None of the priests were from the six parishes. This, of course, was not by
their choice but in obedience to the Bishops bringing the ecclesiastical
covering. They secretly planned the service and held it in an orthodox church so
that Grew could not stop it and later could not be accused of holding an improper
service in an Episcopal Church.

They were catholic and evangelical, traditional and charismatic. The
ecclesiastical covering they brought was palpable. Bishop FitzSimons Allison's sermon
focused on the defense of the faith. He exercised his prerogative to choose
the Gospel lesson of Christ's warning to His disciples to beware of the leaven
of the Pharisees and Sadducees. He reminded us that the 2nd Bishop of Ohio,
the Right Reverend Charles P. McIlvaine (Mcilvaine - diocesan from 1832 - 1873)
issued strong warnings about rationalism and idolatry in church hierarchy.
"We don't know what repercussions there will be, but we certainly expect some,"
said Cynthia Brust, a spokeswoman for the conservative American Anglican
Council that helped arrange the service at Presentation of Our Lord Orthodox
Church. She said about 800 people attended.

The Episcopal Diocese of Ohio has about 24,000 members in 104 churches in
Northern Ohio. It has declined dramatically under Bishop Grew. At one point the
diocese had 40,000 members. Hundreds of Episcopalians representing five
Episcopal churches and one Anglican Church plant, from various communities in
northern Ohio turned out at Presentation of Our Lord Orthodox Church and did the
deed.

These orthodox folk and bishops say that their relationship with the Bishop
of Ohio is "impaired" due to his support of divisive actions at ECUSA's General
Convention last summer. Many participants refused to be confirmed, or have
their children confirmed, by Bishop Grew.

A new phase in the battle for the soul of the ECUSA has begun. Where it will
all end nobody knows.

"This business against the diocesan bishop is simply defiant and that's why
it's troubling," said Daniel England, a church spokesman said. Any notion that
England, ECUSA's communications director entertains that there is no war, or
if there is one he and his revisionist boss Frank Griswold won't show up, is
sheer fiction.

Speaking on behalf of the Presiding Bishop England said the actions were
totally contrary to the constitutional way that ECUSA carries on. Perhaps, but so
also were the Philadelphia (women) ordinations in 1974. This week's actions
may yet be heralded as a great prophetic act, just as many liberals thought that
accelerating females into the priesthood was prophetic at that time.

Another orthodox priest opined that when it comes to geographical dioceses a
monochrome network of geographical dioceses might well be passing into history
as quickly as an all-male priesthood did.

Bishop Grew, clearly miffed by this "invasion" of five orthodox bishops into
his diocesan territory could only say, "it saddens me that these five
congregations had to create a disturbance with our common church polity, in order to
focus attention once more on their minority position."

"There is no crisis in the Diocese of Ohio," he opined, "except the one
created by a group that hopes to hold on to attention that is slipping away as time
passes." Grew did not say whether disciplinary action would be taken. But
judging by past history the House of Bishops has little stomach for presentments,
because if you start them on these five bishops then someone is going to say
that presentment charges should be brought against Spong for his heresies, and
no one has the stomach to go there.

But clearly this is a personal snub of Grew, the humiliation of which he will
not soon forget. Their action also sent a loud message, not only to the
largely revisionist House of Bishops, but to Rowan Williams and it also sent a loud
beeping sound to the Eames Commission.

But the show of strength told Grew, and every other revisionist bishop, do
your damndest, we are ready and we will defy you, the canons and constitutions,
and if it ruffles Rowan Williams feathers and the Eames Commission, so be it.
We don't care.

While Grew's response has so far been muted, you can be sure we will soon see
a display of liberal tyranny that only the revisionists can muster. "Go in
peace to love and serve the Lord," will not be on their lips, you can count on
it.

Griswold himself has weighed in on this action saying that ECUSA's HOB was
busy putting together a plan for adequate episcopal care, and then cited the
Archbishop of Canterbury who, he said could only act consistent with the
constitutional and canonical structures of ECUSA.

Now what is fascinating and indeed ironic is that BOTH SIDES are claiming
Williams' for themselves in this struggle with each other. Canon David Anderson,
the American Anglican Council leader and Bishop Bob Duncan, leader of the new
Network both maintain that they have the archbishop's blessing for their
actions. So who's right? Inquiring minds want to know.

In London this week I quizzed ACNS News Editor James Rosenthal on this point
and he said it would be the first question and really only question he would
put to the Archbishop when next he saw him. The Anglican Communion Office is
clearly worried by this new development, because if it is not resolved
satisfactorily, the ACO office, already worn thin under Canon John Peterson, general
secretary for the Anglican Consultative Council, might find its organization and
structure irrelevant in the coming breakup of the Anglican Communion.

The ACO is also worried that monies are beginning to dry up and Frank
Griswold is not appearing with an open check book in hand any longer.

In the past, the Presiding Bishop has gone on record saying that he does not
think presentments is the "gracious" way to deal with these situations
preferring his much-ballyhooed and endless "conversation" to come up with a solution.

The HOB showed their pathological weakness when confronted last year with how
to deal with PA Bishop Charles Bennison and Pittsburgh Bishop Bob Duncan over
the handling of Fr. David Moyer, the traditionalist priest in Bennison's
diocese. Presentment charges against Bennison for being a heretic went nowhere,
and he too, has said that said that schism is worse than heresy. The HOB wimped
out and did nothing, sending a watered down resolution off to a sub-committee
where it sank and died without trace.

It is unlikely they have the collective will to punish these bishops, firstly
because it could create more problems than it resolves, and secondly as they
are retired and have no dioceses in their control, any victory would be
largely pyrrhic. There is a deeper fear Griswold must surely entertain that if
presentments against these bishops actually emerged from the Title IV Review
Committee it could trigger something truly horrible - a diocesan bishop threatening
to pull his whole diocese out of the Episcopal Church. A more horrible
scenario cannot be imagined.

At that point all hell would break loose. And the word 'hell' is used
advisedly. There is no plain with Sufi Rumi to meet on that would satisfy all these
parties, unless, of course, one deeply offends a pansexual practitioner, and
then gay pain and liberal tyranny merge into one hemlock-filled silver chalice
to be swallowed by the biblically orthodox on Frank's command. You can read all
the stories in today's digest.

AS IF TO REINFORCE THE SORRY STATE OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH, Dr. David Sumner,
journalist, author and Episcopal Church historian did some research on
ECUSA's latest figures and came up with the following information. He wrote
Virtuosity to say that ECUSA has experienced a 36 percent decline in membership
between 1966-2001 while at the same time ECUSA experienced a 63 percent increase in
the number of ordained clergy. The number of members per clergy has declined
from 343 in 1966 to 133 in 2001. More than 500 parishes have left ECUSA or
been closed between 1985 and 2001.

"I don't know how anyone can dispute these statistics. They all came from the
Episcopal Church Annuals." Dr. Sumner's book, A History of the Episcopal
Church has figures in the appendix, which is based on figures in the church's
official Redbook. (Virtuosity has a few copies of this book and is glad to make
them available to readers who are historically inclined for a donation to the
cause.)

It should be apparent, on any reading of the situation that nearly 40 years
of theological innovation, the watering down of doctrine, re-writing the Prayer
Book and adopting bizarre sexual behaviors is not working. It is creating
more pain than ever, polarizing Episcopalians, and Anglicans worldwide into
various camps, all in the name of a false inclusion and bastardized diversity that
is gospel denying and spiritually suicidal.

ONE MORE NAIL IN THE COFFIN OF REVISIONISM took place this week when it was
announced that revisionist bishop Richard Schimpfky (El Camino Real) was
finally given a financial package to go. He agreed to resign after years of
dissension.

Under his leadership the diocese declined from 30,000 to 12,000 when he first
took office in 1990, another example (like Grew) that revisionism has no
gospel, and in the end even their own people turn on them, because the writing on
the wall looks remarkably like Mene, mene, tekel upharsin.

A DISTURBING STORY OUT OF LONDON says the Archbishop of Canterbury wants
students to study atheism. Keen to counter the inadequacies of religious
education, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, reportedly wants school
students to have a grounding in atheistic concepts.

According to a report in Annanova and the Telegraph, Williams has recommended
Philip Pullman's best selling trilogy titled "His Dark Materials" for school
pupils.
The archbishop feels that Pullman's magnum opus, which ends with the death of
God, would help to counter the inadequacies of some religious education.
(Full story in the digest.)

I AM POSTING A NUMBER OF STORIES ON THE EVENTS THAT TOOK PLACE in Ohio, and
the wider implications for the Anglican Communion.

There are the usual Virtuosity columnists and a number of other stories
including a fine article by Dr. Peter Moore, president of Trinity Episcopal School
for Ministry.
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All blessings,

David W. Virtue DD