The actions and words of bishops like Charles E. Bennison of Pennsylvania and John Chane Bishop of Washington give ample evidence that they will stop at nothing to hold onto power even as they destroy the kernel, that is, orthodox remnants within their own dioceses and blast global south archbishops who won't roll over to their agenda.

Bennison boasted to a diocesan wide meeting of his Executive Committee recently how he had defeated Fr. David Ousley, retaining the property of St. James the Less, while he simultaneously sold off $2.6 million dollars worth of properties that were lying fallow, the victim of his own revisionist theology.

And this week the world and the Episcopal Church heard from Washington Bishop John Chane in a column in the Washington POST about what he thinks of Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola. It was diatribe of the highest order. I have unspun his words for you and included his rant in today's digest as well.

Hell hath no fury like revisionist ECUSA bishops scorned and excluded from the Anglican Communion. It should now be apparent that ECUSA's revisionist bishops will brook no opposition to their sodomite agenda, even and including pushing gay and lesbian priest nominees to replace the outgoing Bishop of California, William Swing.

When VirtueOnline revealed that two of the candidates to replace the revisionist Bishop Swing were a homosexual and a lesbian, an orthodox bishop wrote to say, "I hope they go ahead and do it. Let the whole world know that the ECUSA has no interest in obeying the Windsor Report, it's all a bad joke."

The ECUSA will do whatever it wants to do with 'local option' trumping resolutions of General Convention, the Windsor Report; the Global South Primates even the Archbishop of Canterbury himself. NOTHING will stop the revisionist steam roller. Nothing.

Regarding the slate of candidates to replace Swing, Dr. Louie Crew, the church's Integrity Emeritus Homosexual President had this to say: "The Diocese of California does not need a female bishop. The Diocese of California does not need a gay bishop. The Diocese of California does not need a black bishop. The Diocese of California does not need a lesbian bishop. The Diocese of California does not need a Southerner bishop. The Diocese of California needs as its next bishop the person best suited to shepherd its people. None of these other categories is a reason to vote for a person or to vote against a person. To use any of those categories as a deciding factor would be the work of the devil. It would not serve the diocese. It would not serve any of the candidates. It would not serve God."

All this begs the question as why there was not one ORTHODOX candidate for bishop! And the answer is; no one wants one. Any one of the above candidates who wins, will suit Louie Crew and Susan Russell, Integrity president just fine, the winner will continue the Lesbi-Gay agenda without missing a heartbeat!

The DIOCESE OF SOUTHERN VIRGINIA has officially begun its transition from its bishop, David Bane, to lead the diocese. At the 114th Annual Council Bane likened the last two to three years of his tenure marked by increasing tension and discord as a "high wire trapeze artist who actually has to let go and fly through the air. You are now at that moment. It has got to be filled with many emotions - fear, hope, excitement, anxiety and maybe even a touch of regret."

Bane, who got the push by his diocese with a little help from Bishop Clayton Matthews, Griswold's consigliore for bad boy bishops, said "there is heartache in this community around words and behavior and damaged relationships that must be identified, confessed, hung on the cross and put behind you."

The tension and discord came to a head in the fall of 2004 when a diocesan review committee reported on bad leadership by the bishop, "major ineptitude" in financial management and a near-total absence of accountability in diocesan operations. Three outside bishops concluded "that dysfunctional relations among clergy, lay leaders and bishops had plagued the diocese for decades."

The Rt. Rev. Robert H. Johnson was selected by the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Southern Virginia to become the diocese's interim bishop. He will serve until at least the middle of July, except for a period in late March or early April when he has a prior commitment. Another interim bishop is expected to be named in late summer.

In other business, the council adopted watered-down versions of two resolutions. One said that the council "fully embraces the Windsor Report in letter and spirit." The other said that councils of the Church have, and sometimes will, make mistakes but that Jesus, present through the Holy Spirit, can and will correct such error.

AND JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT there was nothing more to learn about Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, you can read a story in today's digest about his antics in Paris in the late 80s and early 90s. A retired bishop wanted to get it off his chest and said he was finally glad to tell someone the truth about Griswold, as he had watched with dismay the decline of The Episcopal Church under his tenure.

INTEGRITY'S LEGISLATIVE STRATEGY DURING GENERAL CONVENTION revealed.

Below is our overall strategy. As stated below, a specific platform is still being constructed, writes Susan Russell, Integrity president.

Before General Convention...

* We encourage Integrity members to use an online form (www.integrityusa.org/resolutions) to report General Convention resolutions passed by their diocesan conventions and provincial synods.

* Integrity's national leadership is conferring with our allies in The Consultation (which met last week in Seattle) and the Claiming the Blessing coalition (which is meeting in Columbus during March) on our GeneralConvention platform. This platform will be made public by the end of March.

* We encourage local Integrity representatives (especially from chapters, networks, and circles) to schedule meetings with their bishops and deputies during April and May. The purpose of these meetings is to share Integrity's platform and determine the level of support from bishops and deputies. Local representatives are encouraged to report the outcome of these meetings using an online form (to be created).

* We will publish an ad in Episcopal Life and the Living Church during May, explaining the key planks of our platform.

* We will identify a deputy and bishop to serve as Integrity's "floor leaders" during General Convention.

During General Convention...

* We will publish an ad in the first edition of the Convention Daily explaining our platform.

* During registration, we will hold a briefing for all bishops and deputies who wish to attend.

* We will distribute resolution status reports to bishops and deputies at the beginning of each day. These reports will list resolutions of special concern to Integrity, their status, and our position on them.

* Our volunteers will monitor key committee meetings and sessions of both houses of convention.

* When appropriate, we will enlist speakers to address key resolutions in committee meetings and in both houses.

* The leadership team will work closely with floor leaders and legislative volunteers to respond to developing situations in committees and in both houses.

* We will hold nightly status and strategy meetings that are open to members and allies.

In THE DIOCESE OF FLORIDA, the Rev. Bob Coon, Church of the Advent, in Tallahassee, announced that he was leaving with his assistant the Rev. Travis Boline and a sizable portion of their congregation, have formed Holy Cross Anglican Church. This Sunday will be the last that members of some families will worship together at the Episcopal Church of the Advent. The church's minister and nine of its 12 vestry members and around half the congregation are breaking from the Episcopal Church. Coon is leading the second wave of churches out of the diocese. Coon recently said, "The church that called me into service has left me" he spoke for thousands of believers in the Episcopal Church. The new parish will come under the Archbishop of Kenya, the Most Rev. Benjamin Nzimbi.

Two retired priests, the Rev. Harry Douglas and the Rev. Lee Graham, will preside over Ash Wednesday services at Advent. Douglas. Douglas was one of the founders of the church, which ironically will celebrate its 47th anniversary that day. "Those who remain loyal to Advent Church will be rewarded," he said. Now I wonder what that is; eternal life perhaps? a check from Bishop Howard? We wait breathlessly for the revelation. The wife of a rector in the area said the bishop is in a state of denial about what is going on. A third wave of parishes is set to leave after GC2006.

Bishop Howard has, to date, inhibited 13 priests, but by the middle of April that figure will have doubled to some 26, said Coon. A source told VirtueOnline that in every case where a priest has been deposed, he or she has been replaced by a moderate to liberal person. This also applies to diocesan committees, said the source.

ANOTHER CHURCH, St. Andrew's in Savannah, Ga. has left ECUSA for the Reformed Episcopal Church. In a unanimous vote, the church has become the first locally to leave the ECUSA. This is the parish of the late much-beloved Lou Tarsitano. You can read the full story in today's digest.

In the DIOCESE OF TEXAS, Bishop Don Wimberly apparently left out an important paragraph in his address to council with the written version that has only recently been posted to the diocesan website. Here is the notable omission that is in the written address that he did NOT say at council.

"If the General Convention of the Episcopal Church decides, in the words of the Windsor Report, "to walk apart" from the rest of the communion, it is my intention not to do so. We are a communion with deep and abiding ties to our Anglican bothers and sisters." "I wonder why he left this out of his verbal comments," mused a diocesan leader. "I think he added these comments to make his statement stronger after your response David." One hopes.

ARCIC talks will resume says Roman Catholic Bishop Brian Farrell, the secretary of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity. There was "no question" that the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Consultation [ARCIC] would continue. He said the "decision has already been made" and added that the general topic of ARCIC III will be the "local and universal Church". Bishop Farrell said the Vatican would continue in dialogue with the Anglican Communion, in whatever "shape" the Communion "might take" in the future. Talks between the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches are to continue despite the election of the homosexual bishop Gene Robinson in 2003.

EPISCOPAL CHURCH CLERGY will get a pension benefit upward adjustment. The Church Pension Group president Dennis Sullivan announced in Alexandria, Virginia recently that it would make "meaningful across-the-board increases" in benefits. Clergy with a history of very low compensation will see the biggest increases, averaging 18 percent. Those with the highest earning history will have an average 12 percent increase.

Sullivan said the decision is one of many the pension fund has made in recent months in response to its excellent financial picture. As of the end of 2005, Sullivan said, the fund had an all-time high of $7.6 billion available for pension benefits plus sizable additional reserves.

ACROSS THE SEAS things are going from bad to worse. Uganda is running out of energy and the whole Anglican Province is praying for rain. Uganda is experiencing a severe energy crisis -- 24-hour rolling black-outs and load shedding every other day, writes Allison Barfoot, assistant to the Archbishop. Read more here: http://www.monitor.co.ug/bizfin/bf02071.php.

In Northern NIGERIA, the Christian Community is under fire from Islamic extremists. They are on the rampage with one of our own, Bishop Ben Kwashi of Jos in the direct line of fire. Archbishop Peter Akinola writes: "From all indications, it is very clear now that the sacrifices of the Christians in this country for peaceful co-existence with people of other faiths has been sadly misunderstood to be weakness." Akinola's predecessor, Abp Adetiloya established Christian congregations in the northern provinces, knowing the danger that would ensue, but believing Christ's command to preach and teach the Gospel to the ends of the earth should be paramount. The first attacks on Christians in Jos took place on Sept. 9, 2001. Coverage of these attacks was dropped by the world's media after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 in the USA. The democratically-elected President of Nigeria is a Christian, but he inherited a Federal Army Officer Corps comprised of Muslims. When the northern Provinces declared the Law of Shyr'a as civil law, the President was helpless to do anything about this declaration. Pray for them.

THIS WEEK, Bishop Ben Kwashi (Jos) wrote thanking those who prayed for his family saying, "God opened my eyes to see and I saw that the host of the army of those on their knees on our behalf far outnumber, beyond mathematical equations, the number of those who wish us harm. We have been surrounded by love, support and prayers. The testimony of all of the recent happenings is the miraculous healing that the prayer of the church has brought upon Gloria, myself, the children and the entire diocese."

The bishop said assessments of the damages done to the home and the office revealed the need to replace several doors, windows, furniture and carpets because and a lot of damage to property in the home. They made away with 150,000 naira belonging to the Christian Institute, about a thousand pound sterling cash which was in the office, more than 20,000 naira belonging to Gloria, Rinji and sundry, and about another 60,000 naira from the office and office personnel. These losses we count as nothing." He said security agencies are working very hard to unravel the mystery of who wants me dead and why. We request that you pray for them that God will bring to light whatever was done or hidden in the darkest places."

In IRELAND, a priest wrote a hard hitting AS EYE SEE IT column for VOL on the state of the church there and you can read that in today's digest. Alan McCann has dared to say that the bishops in his province have no theological clothes and the evangelical ones are not public in their defense of the faith. "The truth is that for us we really have two churches within the church of Ireland - almost divided on the border north and south." Read this story and pray for this man and for Ireland. If his bishop or Archbishop Robin Eames comes after him, we will let you know. You can find more news about Ireland at Reform Ireland's website: www.reform-ireland.org is the Reform website.Another website is: www.irishangle.com

A REPORTER AT THE World Council of Churches convention in Brazil, said the Archbishop of Canterbury, allegedly made the following comments. "I believe if there is ever to be a change in the discipline and teaching of the Anglican Communion on this matter it should not be the decision of one Church alone" and "On a matter where traditionally there has been a very clear teaching, 'there must be 'the highest degree of consensus for such a radical change.'"

Now there is really nothing new in these statements. They echo what Dr. Williams said at Dromantine where the Primates met, the question is what will he do if California elects an openly gay person to be the next bishop? Will this be the final straw?

IN OTHER WCC NEWS. It was announced at Porto Alegre, Brazil that Anglicans will have a significant role in the World Council of Churches over the next seven years, both through representation on the Central Committee and also by the election of Dr. Mary Tanner, a member of the Church of England, as one of eight regional presidents of the WCC. The presidents serve as the public voice and face of the WCC in both their geographic regions and also worldwide in the period between General Assemblies, as well as being ex officio members of the WCC Central Committee. Dr. Tanner was elected president for the European region.

The real issue here is who cares. The WCC, like the NCC is largely irrelevant. It has lost most of its credibility over the years having imbibed a basic socio-political gospel. Evangelicals who number more than 70 million in the US alone are not the slightest bit interested in the machinations of the NCC as it neither touches their lives nor speaks for them. Millions are reading The Purpose Driven Life; no one cares about NCC resolutions.

SELWYN HUGHES DIES. The Founder of Crusade for World Revival (CWR), a fundamentalist evangelical organization, who wrote more than 50 books expounding the Bible and how to live a Christian life died recently. He was described by the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, as a "giant in the faith". He was 77. Hughes was particularly known for his devotional notes entitled Every Day with Jesus, now some of the most popular daily Bible study tools in the world, with nearly a million readers an issue. Source WDC Media News

PARIS. A government commission set up at the request of the President of the French National Assembly has concluded that homosexual 'marriage' and adoption by homosexual couples, and medically assisted procreation for homosexual couples should not be permitted by law. The decisive factor to the report's conclusions, after an investigation of more than a year, was the commission's decision to act "to affirm and protect children's rights and the primacy of those rights over adults' aspirations." Source (LifeSiteNews.com). You don't think this message is likely to filter down to Griswold and the deep thinkers at 815 Second Avenue, do you?

IN CANADA the news just gets worse. Departing members of the parish of Holy Cross, a Japanese-Canadian parish in East Vancouver, paid the parish's back assessment of $30,290 to the diocese of New Westminster before they left the church in late 2005. The parish had withheld its annual contributions following a 2002 diocesan council decision to allow the blessing of same-sex unions in the diocese. After the parish's elected wardens, treasurer and several members of the parish council announced their departure from the parish late last year, diocesan bishop Michael Ingham invoked diocesan Canon 15 and appointed new bishop's wardens. Most members of the parish council left the parish after their rector, the orthodox Rev. Dawn McDonald, decided to take charge of a parish in the diocese of Yukon. So Ingham moved and in his Stalinist fashion got the church to give him money again.

In the DIOCESE OF OTTAWA a furor erupted over Bishop Peter Coffin granting the Rev. Linda Fisher Privitera, a lesbian priest in the Episcopal Church USA "temporary permission" to function as a priest in his diocese. While she has assured him that she will not perform same-sex blessings and will abide by the diocesan policy on sexuality, local orthodox priests and laity are up in arms over the appointment. The debate reached national level but the bishop is standing by his decision. The bishop also said there had been no change in policy in the diocese. "I have expressly forbidden same-gender blessings and we continue to respect the house of bishops' statements and this diocese will continue on its path of study, prayer and dialogue on matters related to human sexuality." said Bishop Coffin in an interview with the Journal.

A NEW BOOK by Reginald Bibby titled "Restless Churches" concludes that since two million Canadians still claim to be Anglicans, but only about 640,000 are on parish rolls. By 2061 there may be one person in the Canadian Anglican Church. So the church has a huge audience that could be won back.

But Keith McKerracher a marketing expert and a member of the Anglican Church of Canada's communications and information resources committee says that his long background in marketing makes him skeptical of that idea. "People who reject a "brand" are far more difficult to win back than people who have never used the product." He undertook a survey of 100 Anglican priests across Canada; 43 responded. "Almost half of them believe that the Anglican Church is ignoring the issue of decline, and are crying out for a lot more to be done. About 20 per cent held the view that everything is OK. The remainder sat on the fence."

"The bishops did have a long, animated discussion about my presentation. Since the presentation, there has been no response from the church hierarchy. I can understand why. All bishops and the primate are busy trying to respond to overfilled schedules, and having to work with shrinking resources. The most probable reason, however, is that everyone is waiting for someone else to claim leadership on the issue, for each potential leader sees his or her personal agenda as already too crowded," he wrote.

Perhaps there is a lesson here for ECUSA's hierarchy. If ECUSAN's reject the Episcopal Church "brand" name they won't easily, if ever, be won back. Declining church membership is an issue in Canada as well as the US.

Dr. Wendy Fletcher, the first Anglican principal of the Vancouver School of Theology since the union of the Anglican Theological College and Union College in 1971, and the first woman to lead VST, a liberal institution that trains Anglican priests and other church denomination leaders, said in her installation address, that many mainline churches, and many of their theological schools, are concerned about decline. "This question rises up from the belly of our fear: Can these bones live? - or in less elegant prose - How will we survive?" Fletcher said that the question of survival had led liberal theological institutions like VST sometimes to somehow try to become "relevant" in worship, structures, and even theology. "Paradoxically, our reach toward relevance appears to have drawn us increasingly further from our goal," she said. A salient point might be to get back to basics, like Who is Jesus, Why did He come to earth, the meaning and purpose of his death and resurrection. Some good starting points.

PALESTINIAN CHRISTIANS TO BE SCAPEGOATS FOR DANISH CARTOONISTS? Gunmen from Islamic Jihad and Fatah have announced their intention of attacking churches in Gaza in protest against the cartoons of Muhammad published in Denmark last September. But the newly elected armed Islamist group Hamas publicly rejected the targeting of churches over this issue, even offering to provide military protection for one church building. We shall see. Now if you ever wondered just how real the threat of Hamas is to Israel and the Free World you can see them here in full color. This video clip speaks for itself. WARNING! This is not for the faint of heart. http://www.pmw.org.il/asx/PMW_hamas_suicide.asx

And for a little light humor read this:

The Ten Network Bishops as Items on a Mexican Restaurant Menu

1. I'm waiting for General Convention. $4.95
2. I'm waiting for Lambeth. $4.95
3. I'm waiting for the Primates to act. $4.95
4. I'm waiting for General Convention and Lambeth. $5.95
5. I'm waiting for General Convention and the Primates to act. $5.95
6. I'm waiting for Lambeth and the Primates to act. $5.95
7. I'm waiting for two General Conventions and Lambeth. $6.95
8. I'm waiting for General Convention, Lambeth, and the Primates to act. $7.95
9. I'm waiting for two General Conventions, Lambeth, and the Primates to act. $8.95
10. HOUSE SPECIAL. I'm waiting for General Convention, Lambeth, the Primates to act, and the ECUSA to repent. $10.95 (All orders come with corn chips and mild salsa.)

Allegations of financial misconduct are rocking the ORTHODOX CHURCH IN AMERICA, whose former treasurer says top officials misappropriated millions of dollars in donations from agribusiness titan Dwayne Andreas, U.S. military chaplains and ordinary parishioners across the country. The highest officers of the 400,000-member denomination, an offshoot of the Russian Orthodox Church, are accused of using the money to cover personal credit card bills, pay sexual blackmail, support family members and make up shortfalls in various church accounts. The former treasurer, Deacon Eric A. Wheeler, said the greatest fear of the church's leaders in the late 1990s was that Andreas, the retired chairman of Archer Daniels Midland Co., would visit Moscow and discover that they had not used his donations to renovate a church and build a conference center. So they prepared a modern-day Potemkin village, ordering a brass plaque that could instantly transform a Moscow law office into the "Andreas Conference and Communications Center," he said. Source: The Washington POST.

CORRECTION. In my story on V. Gene Robinson and the history of Alcoholics Anonymous I quoted a therapist saying this: "They tried recovery through their Church and the Oxford Group (not the Oxford movement) where they were not accepted as people of worth. They turned away from the Church (both happened to be Congregationalists from different parts of the country who did not know each other) and they deliberately refused to affiliate with any Church or other organization as AA." A reader wrote this: "Bill Wilson was an Episcopalian, member of Calvary Church, NYC. He had help write the 12 steps from Rev'd Sam Shoemaker, his Rector. The Oxford Group was an Anglican group based on accountability, with 5 steps. Bill W. and Rev'd Shoemaker expanded it to 12. Shoemaker's wife founded the Anglican Fellowship of Prayer."

My story on THE FOUR HORSE(WO)MEN OF THE EPISCOPAL APOCALYPSE provoked this from a Fr. Tripp Norris of St. Columba's Church in Atlanta, GA. "Things aren't quite as bad in that diocese as you have made them out to be. During Bishop Alexander's tenure here we've started one parish a year. St. Columba's, my parish, held its first Mass the Sunday after General Convention. At that Mass 463 were present and we've grown in 2 years to more than 852 parishioners while worshipping in a school, as we look forward to moving into our own church building which will be completed around Easter this year. Atlanta continues to be one of the faster growing dioceses in the country. Regarding money and the diocesan budget: it's true that the diocesan budget has been impaired by parishes not paying their full 10% assessment. Much of the reduction is due to General Convention, in my opinion. However it's also true that some of the reduction in assessments is due to economic factors, but the diocesan budget is normalizing. I very much want him to stay in Atlanta. But were he to become the next Primate, your prediction of more Episcopalians leaving the Church would be one of the more absurd statements in your article - of which there were many.

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