Wilson, an evangelical priest, said that recently posted FAQs about the Calvary lawsuit on the Diocesan website were accurate and what the revisionist priest is telling people is a total misrepresentation of the truth with diocesan support for the bishop nearly total since General Convention, and every vote in every elected body has borne this out.

"The truth is Calvary is not paying any of their diocesan assessment, but is getting full privileges of being a parish in this diocese," said Wilson. "They constantly whine in public that our diocese does not send any money to “815” (the church's national headquarters) yet they themselves send no money to the diocese. They have been putting it into an escrow account since December 2003."

Wilson said this amounted to nearly $120,000 or 10 percent of the diocese's total income budget for 2005. "To date the Diocese has been able to keep things operating normally, but it's unrealistic to think that that can continue forever with this large amount of money being withheld."

"In the end, this is going to hurt everyone, not just the diocesan office, but those ministries that need to be supported out of those withheld monies. The diocese has earmarked approximately $200,000 in the 2005 budget for direct grants to parishes. It's hard to believe that there is enough to trim in other places so this area won't have to be touched," he said.

"This lawsuit is a boldface attempt to undo through legal means the majority will of this diocese, democratically decided, to remain in the mainstream of Christianity because Lewis and Calvary church has been remarkably unsuccessful convincing more than just a handful of Pittsburgh Episcopalians of the wisdom of their path," said Wilson.

Lewis is supportive of Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh (PEP) a revisionist organization with links to Via Media an organization that has sprung up in orthodox dioceses to hound orthodox bishops.

"Lewis recently invited all the clergy of the diocese to participate in a service of Christian unity and to pray to end the unhappy divisions in our church while at the same time refusing to withdraw the lawsuit," Wilson told VirtueOnline.

"The logic seems to be, we're suing on behalf of the diocese (even though something like 70-90 percent of the diocese wouldn't want us to) therefore it is a proper use of our diocesan assessment to pay our attorney's fees".

Calvary wants to pay its attorney fees out of the escrowed funds which in effect would be using diocesan funds to sue the diocese, in reality itself, he said.

"This is too disingenuous. Here is a man bleating for unity while trying to unseat an orthodox bishop whose only wish is to uphold the faith once delivered. He'll be lucky if a handful of the orthodox of the diocese would bother to attend such a farcical service."

The bishop has called the lawsuit a "scandal". In response Lewis said he will not drop the suit. Layman leader Lionel Diemel, president of PEP said he will endeavor to recruit other parishes and the national church to fight this move by the bishop and the Standing
Committee.

But Lewis admitted in the December parish "Agape" newsletter that he has financial woes of his own and anticipates a deficit for 2005. "We have not received enough pledges of support to carry out our mission and ministry in 2005. The good news is that we have enough money to support the parish. The bad news is that it is still in your
pockets."

The Diocese of Pittsburgh has 20,000 Christians in 77 multiple congregation parishes, spread over eleven counties. It is one of a handful of dioceses that actually grew in 2003. The diocese also serves through numerous organizations, institutions and mission agencies.

END