The March/April issue of the diocesan newspaper The Harvest newspaper arrived on my desk this week filled with news of the departing Christ Church, Overland Park which voted to remove itself from the diocese and the ECUSA and come under the Province of Uganda and Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi.

The spin put out by a reporter called Melodie Woerman in the newspaper regarding the departure of Christ Church is appalling in its disinformation.

She writes: "Christ Church also is a member of the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes known as "the Network" an organization formed in 2004 HOPING TO REPLACE THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH AS THE AMERICAN SEGMENT OF THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION.

Nowhere in any of the statements of the Network does it say anything about replacing the ECUSA. A loyal opposition yes; an inside strategy yes; an exit strategy, no. Bishop Duncan made it clear when the NETWORK was formed (and I was there) that's its purpose was to be a "biblically driven missionary movement...an action-oriented group focused on addressing the urgent crisis of the men, women and children in the pews who feel disenfranchised and abandoned by ECUSA, many of whom are experiencing intimidation and harassment in revisionist dioceses."

If the Network has changed its mission statement I have not been informed.

The NETWORK has been acknowledged by the Archbishop of Canterbury and many global south primates, and if it ever does become a third Anglican province it will only happen because all other avenues have been explored and failed, but to date that has not happened and Duncan has given no indication that it will.

The Network arose to provide the kind of safe harbor for priests and parishes like Christ Church in Kansas.

So when Bishop Wolfe describes the American Anglican Council (AAC) and the Network statement about the true condition of the Episcopal Church as "filled with lies, inaccuracies and half-truths," and what they have done is "a terrible disservice to all those who struggle for the unity of the Episcopal Church" he is simply blind to the truth that the consecration of V. Gene Robinson has alienated the Episcopal Church from the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches and has caused a major rift with the Global South Anglican Communion and may result in ECUSA either withdrawing itself from the communion or face being isolated. If he is not aware of this he has total blinders on.

To his credit Bishop Wolfe said he wanted to keep the departure of Christ Church out of the courts, but that might be because the diocese could not finance a $1.7 million mortgage debt the church has and because the parish agreed to pay him $1 million over 10 years for the property which will keep his coffers from totally emptying out. Furthermore he doesn't have the Trust Funds or "angels" with deep pockets in his diocese he can draw upon to fight Christ Church in the courts.

But Wolfe then admitted that the departure of Christ Church would put a financial strain on the diocesan budget, "We will seek to cut costs and increase revenues." But then his diocesan administrator admitted that of the remaining 49 parishes, a third have fewer than 100 members and cannot survive without diocesan assistance. "Operating reserves will cover this year's budget shortfall caused by the absence of Christ Church's apportionment payments...but that will work for one year."

What happens then? Simple. Wolfe will start closing churches and already that has started. In the same issue of the newspaper a photo appears of the bishop reading a "letter of secularization" closing down a church in Fort Scott for lack of parishioners. Why? No gospel was being proclaimed and the parish died.

Wolfe still doesn't get it. If you have no message to proclaim who the hell is going to come?

Wolfe writes: "I've been very proud of the Episcopal Church in the United States, the way in which is has tried to incorporate diversity, the way in which it has tried to hold theological tensions together."

Has Wolfe got blinders on? There are dozens of dioceses that won't admit graduates from Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry (TESM) precisely because it is orthodox and is churning out Bible-believing clergy who could make his and other liberal dioceses grow. He doesn't want them in his diocese preferring graduates from liberal ECUSA seminaries like EDS, GTS and VTS who churn out graduates who have less than six hours of biblical studies in their degree programs!

Writes TESM Dean Paul Zahl, "so many bishops have simply refused, as a matter of policy and for years now, to allow their postulants and candidates for the ministry to consider coming to us. This has never helped (the cause of unity). It reinforces the walls of dis-affection, as opposed to playing on our famous Anglicans "bonds of affection."

So what does Bishop Wolfe have to say about this? Where is the much bally-hoed diversity he talks about?

And what about revisionist bishops like Orris Walker of Long Island who have spent the last 20 years literally persecuting orthodox priests in his diocese, or Jack Spong in Newark or Barbara Harris and Tom Shaw in Massachusetts who brook no discussion opposing sodomite priests functioning with their blessing, while orthodox ordinands like Simon Barnes who jump through all the hoops for ordination finally get told he cannot be ordained because he is not "inclusive" enough. And then there are the dozens of stories about what Charles Bennison has and is doing to orthodox parish priests in the Diocese of Pennsylvania.

So where is the diversity Bishop Wolfe talks about?

Does he have any idea the fear orthodox priests live under every day in revisionist dioceses? Would he like to read some of my e-mail I get from them? Does he have any idea what these priests face from their wives who will no longer allow their own children to attend their own husband's parish for fear of falling into the hands of sodomite leaders and their pro-gay theology teachers?

And what of the harassment letters these orthodox priests get from their revisionist bishops demanding ever more money to support the "mission" of the diocese that supports a liberal agenda and does not include evangelism and disciple-making?

And what about DEPO, that much bally-hoed notion of providing a safe place for orthodox priests like the Rev. Ron McCray with another bishop? It never got off the ground because it delegated nothing to nobody. Bishops like Wolfe still want to retain the power with some phony notion that an outsider could look in now and then. It has never worked even once and it never will.

Writes Wolfe: "I'm saddened that we were not able to hold the tension in this diocese in this situation, but in a great many places that center is holding, and it gives me hope."

Not for much longer bishop. The center is not holding and Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold admitted that out in Salt Lake City recently at an Episcopal communicators conference.

Wolfe's world is crumbling around him. Thousands of Episcopalians are fleeing the Episcopal Church and after GC2006 the avalanche will pick up speed if the ECUSA does not repent and back the Windsor Reports recommendation. Of course we all know it won't. The Episcopal Church is on a roll to oblivion. The vast majority of parishes in ECUSA have less than 75 members and their age group is in the mid-sixties, what is their future?

Bishop Wolfe is blind, but then Jesus said there would always be people who are, and he could do nothing for them if they chose to stay in their blindness. Sadly Bishop Wolfe is not alone in his blindness and unless the scales fall from his eyes and those of his fellow revisionist bishops, he and they will blindly lead their dioceses and themselves into oblivion.

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