"That the arrangement is entirely on Rome's terms should have hardly been a surprise to anyone who has read any Church History."

Gill said he had a face to face meeting around Anglicanorum Coetibus with Roman Catholic Archbishop George Daniel who is in charge of Anglican/Roman Catholic dialogue in Southern Africa. Gill was told that not only would there be no Ordinariate in Southern Africa, but that the conversion to Roman Catholicism required, would in many cases, go back "as far as Baptism" depending on the original church background of the convert.

"This was fizzed over by the blogging community. Archbishop Daniel (a former Anglican) is a highly sophisticated man, someone I have known and respected for more than 20 years, and he was as gentle as possible in breaking the news that we (all the Continuing Anglicans in Southern Africa) were an immature lot, and a long way away from the levels of theological education expected for acceptance as Roman clergy.

"Anglicanorum Coetibus or to quote the English press "the Popes Panzers parked on the lawns of Canterbury" (don't you think that is brilliant?) has been a very effective tool to prize some away from their Anglican roots, to entice them to denounce their Ordination and even their Consecration vows and their ministries and to abandon their flocks in order to fill some empty stalls in Roman Catholic Churches."

Gill said that this was not what those with stars in their eyes and their hands already grasping for St Peter's keys had been told.

"All we have done is to shuffle the cards already on the deck. We have moved them around to no good effect. It is a bleak picture."

The bishop of Southern Africa said his jurisdiction covers eight SADEC countries, at least 30 languages and many thousands of miles. He has seen it all. The faith can be costly, he told his audience. Two of his priests were brutally beaten and one was killed in townships where life is cheap, the murder rate is sky high, and one has to be extremely careful all the time.

"In the township of Atteridgeville, the Rev. Mike Maseko was pulled out of his car - in his clerics - and shot five times. One of the bullets has left a long scar across his forehead, where the hijackers coldly shot him in the head. Our Lord spared his life. I told him he must have something special to do..... Just last month another of my Deacons was shot and killed in a Pietermaritzburg township."

Gill blasted the defensive posture of Continuing Anglicans. "By our very definition as Continuing Anglicans, we have determined to defend that which we have received. We have often decided within our own minds that ours is a rearguard action against the "onslaught of liberalism" - a last ditch defense. A "walling in" of what we know and hold dear. 'No-one will take the Book of Common Prayer away from me..' If that is so, my dear friends, then I am afraid that we are all lost....and so is Anglicanism....and so ultimately will be the Christian Faith."

The bishop urged his listeners to cease looking inward, which he said would simply continue a circular downward movement in which Continuers could easily find themselves trapped.

"The Vicar General of Zimbabwe, Fr Wellington Murinda (a true evangelist and a great missionary Priest), tells his men in the field, "don't speak to me; show me the work." Ours has to be movement that is forward and outward - no matter what the personal cost or the danger.

"I expect utter commitment to the work of the Gospel from myself and from the clergy with whom I work. For us, it is a matter of the utmost urgency. There is a real loss of personal value and of spiritual awareness happening in the huge urban sprawls, the "squatter camps", around our cities. Not only that, but Islam is making massive strides into the youth of Africa - the church has to be on the march against such a concerted onslaught, fuelled as it is by millions upon millions of Saudi dollars.

"Souls are being lost - and this while we are the ones responsible for this particular era of the Church.

"I speak of Africa as an arena of spiritual conflict, how presumptuous of me, for what of the UK and Europe - now openly called 'post-Christian' - or for that matter, the USA and Canada where the number of Muslims is growing exponentially. Did you know that in the UK, ten years ago the most popular boy's name was Michael? It is now Mohammed.

"Where then are we to find these warriors, these Christian Soldiers? Amongst the Pentecostals? Amongst the Orthodox? Do we have a sufficiently 'soldier attitude' - or will we continue to play with liturgy or music or continue with our skirmishes for power and position?

"I do believe that as Continuing Anglican Christians we are "fighters by nature" [unfortunately mostly with each other.] and that we have shown that we are prepared to stand up for what we believe, even at great personal cost in many instances. I have to say how much I appreciate the sacrifices made, the difficulties faced - but what is needed amongst us is a far more offensive mentality. The first Disciples faced the same shortages as we are doing, and yet they triumphed - should we not be able to do the same?

"My challenge to you tonight (and I am obliged by the urgency of the historical moment in the life of the global church to issue such a challenge) is, "who will throw themselves headlong into this divine battle with me - which of us will stand and fight, and if needs be die together?

"Who is prepared to be numbered with that mighty host, seen by John the Divine, who the angel said had come through the great tribulation and "whose robes have been washed in the Blood of the Lamb".

VOL: This is the first of several stories coming from the world Continuing Anglican conference held this past week in Brockton, Massachusetts.

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