Orthodox African Primates, orthodox Episcopal bishops and priests are coming together under the banner of Common Cause to make it happen.

To add to the orthodox mixing bowl, yet another former Episcopal priest found favor with the color purple. The Archbishop of Kenya, the Most Rev. Benjamin Nzimbi announced that he will consecrate Canon Bill Atwood, General Secretary of Ekklesia, as Suffragan Bishop of All Saints Cathedral Diocese, Nairobi, in the Anglican Church of Kenya, to serve 18 Kenyan related congregations in North America. He will be consecrated August 30th in Nairobi.

With the slow break up of The Episcopal Church and the realignment now in full swing, this new consecration brings to three the number of "missionary" bishops and alternative Anglican jurisdictions in North America - AMiA, CANA and now something called the "'North American Anglican Coalition"' (NAAC) under Atwood.

While this is sure to up the aggravation factor for Episcopal Church bishops and Mrs. Schori, the upcoming consecration is primarily designed to send yet another signal to Dr. Rowan Williams that he will not be allowed to continue to dither forever over what he will do with The Episcopal Church (even if they do pay most of the Communion's bills). The future of the Anglican Communion hangs precariously in the balance. You can read my story about all this here or in today's digest. http://tinyurl.com/2hk2jm

A TASK FORCE of the Episcopal Church's Executive Council told the Anglican Communion today (June 14) that no governing body other than General Convention can interpret Convention resolutions or agree to deny "future decisions by dioceses or General Convention." "The Council declined to participate in a plan put forward by the Primates of the Anglican Communion in February for dealing with some disaffected Episcopal Church dioceses. The statement titled "The Episcopal Church's Commitment to Common Life in Anglican Communion," "strongly affirm[ed] this Church's desire to be in the fullest possible relationship with our Anglican sisters and brothers." "The Council declined to participate in a so-called Pastoral Scheme proposed by the Primates of the Anglican Communion for dealing with some disaffected Episcopal Church dioceses. In March the House of Bishops said the plan "would be injurious to The Episcopal Church" and urged the Council to decline to participate.

In short those five dioceses and possibly others who want to leave The Episcopal Church in October can go pound sand. If they try to leave with their properties, David Booth Beers will be waiting in the Narthex with legal papers in hand ready to sue them. Have a nice day.

The DIOCESE OF SOUTH CAROLINA has set August 4 as the date to re-elect the Very Rev. Mark L. Lawrence, rector of St. Paul's, Bakersfield, Calif., as Bishop of South Carolina. He was elected on the first ballot, the first time around but national church canons require consent from a majority of standing committees and bishops with jurisdiction before a bishop-elect can be consecrated. Fr. Lawrence failed to receive enough correctly notarized consents from standing committees within the 120-day period.

South Carolina has been without a diocesan bishop since the Rt. Rev. Edward L. Salmon, Jr. reached the mandatory retirement age of 72 in January 2006. He continues to serve as acting bishop by invitation of the standing committee. In a recent letter to the clergy of the diocese, Bishop Salmon stated that the consensus among South Carolina's diocesan leadership was that a majority of bishops and standing committees had intended to consent to the election of Fr. Lawrence, but that "technicalities had prevented it."

Delegates to the DIOCESE OF CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA'S first convention under its new Bishop Nathan Baxter were challenged to do more with less. According to a report by the Episcopal News Service, the diocese approved only one resolution, which contained a 10 percent decrease in spending. Baxter asked all congregations to make a sincere effort to work toward a full contribution of the diocese's "fair-share asking."

Baxter noted that there are some tensions that can hamper congregations. "We have little control over what will happen within the Episcopal Church or the Anglican Communion over the next several years," he said. "But if we 'bite and devour and are consumed by one another' then we will not glorify God; we will be just one more entertaining spectacle de jour to the world, no matter who is the victor or the justified. So, in Central Pennsylvania we will strive for 'the more excellent way.'"

The bishop made no mention of the fact that it is his liberal pals who have introduced innovations that have caused "tensions" within TEC. This diocese like other liberal dioceses is feeling the pinch of declining parishioners and money. Trust funds and endowments don't last forever. No evangelism, no new converts, closing parishes, decline. End of story.

The Bishop of the DIOCESE OF LONG ISLAND the Rt. Rev. Orris Walker had a heart attack while in Cuba recently. He is battling for his life in a hospital, sources told VOL. Walker through his assistant Ms. Diane Porter, Canon to the Ordinary, has asked the Archdeacons to be fully in charge of their archdeaconries which include Queens, Suffolk and Brooklyn.

VOL readers will remember a certain sodomite priest William Lloyd Andries who made it to the glossy pages of Penthouse in a story, 'The Boys from Brazil'. Canon Howard Williams was also featured in the story. Walker made him the Archdeacon of Brooklyn after firing the Venerable Peter Golden who had served the archdeaconry for eight years. Williams is still the rector of St. Augustine's in Brooklyn. The scandal that erupted ten years ago involved Andries who imported young men from Brazil and other countries for sexual purposes and then "married" one of them, Jairo Pereira.

A source told VOL that we can expect sensational news coming out of the Diocese of Long Island. "Ten years after the 'Boys from Brazil' what will be revealed is going to make the Penthouse article looking like a children's story. What is to come will expose the corruption of Walker, Porter and Williams." Stay tuned.

From the DIOCESE OF COLORADO comes the latest word from the Rev. Don Armstrong, rector of Grace Church & St. Stephen's in Colorado Springs.

The petty harassment by Diocesan attorney Martin Nussbaum continues of Grace Church & St. Stephen's.

Nussbaum has so far managed to freeze a scholarship trust fund that has benefited hundred's of parish college students, but now will only be collecting interest until the property issue is settled.

Also frozen at Grace Church is the parish's discretionary fund--which has most recently been used to help families of soldiers from Fort Carson serving in Iraq--little does the bishop care about those who defend his freedom of religious persecution.

The parish rector has been also been forced off the board of Ecumenical Social Ministries by board president and Roman Catholic priest Don Dunn--the diocesan attorney's own pastor.

THE PRIMUS OF THE SCOTTISH EPISCOPAL CHURCH, the Most Rev. Dr. Idris Jones, will join Archbishop Carlos Touche-Porter of Mexico as a patron of Inclusive Church, a U.K.-based organization that advocates for "a liberal, open church which is inclusive of all," regardless of race, gender or sexuality.

Inclusive Church also announced that Touche-Porter will be visiting England in September to partake in two major conferences promoting the diversity of Anglicanism and underscoring the need for a worldwide Anglican Communion that upholds plurality and inclusiveness.

"We are increasingly concerned that attempts to make the Communion less diverse are a distraction from the Gospel and are jeopardizing our ability to be witnesses to the love of Christ for the world," an Inclusive Church news release stated. The article also raised "serious doubts about the necessity and draft wording" of the proposed Anglican Covenant.

In November 2002 the then Pro Tempora Bishop of Mexico, Bishop Martiniano Garcia Montiel wrote a letter pardoning the former Archbishop of Mexico, Samuel Espinoza, and the former Bishop of Northern Mexico, German Martinez, for embezzling two million dollars given by The Episcopal Church USA. No restitution was requested.

Mexico has been one of the biggest financial and spiritual disasters in the Anglican Communion. There has been virtually zero church growth in Mexico. Now their leadership is involved in this call to inclusivity! The sickness just grows deeper and more pervasive.

THE PRESIDING BISHOP OF TEC KATHARINE JEFFERTS SCHORI visited Cuba to participate in the consecration of two suffragan bishops recently. Nerva Cot Aguilera and Archdeacon Ulises Aguero Prendes were consecrated to assist interim Bishop Miguel Tamayo in the local oversight of some 40 congregations serving Cuba's estimated 10,000 Episcopalians. The two were consecrated June 10 at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Havana. Cot is the region's first woman bishop. Anglican and Episcopal bishops from Europe and North, Central and South America joined representatives from a number of Cuban faith traditions, including Greek Orthodox and Afro-Cuban clergy, along with the head of the Religious Affairs Office for the Communist Party of Cuba, Caridad Diego, who told the BBC her government was proud that the country had a woman bishop. Since 1992, Article 8 of the Cuban Constitution has stated that the country's communist government "recognizes, respects and guarantees freedom of religion." Also present were bishops from Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, and Spain, among other countries.

SIXTEEN INDEPENDENT ANGLICAN BISHOPS from the U.S. and abroad will meet June 19-23, 2007 in Williamsburg, Virginia, to celebrate the 400th Anniversary of the First Holy Communion in Virginia. A commemorative service will be held in the Historic Church on Jamestown Island at the exact site of the first communion celebrated June 21, 1607, by the Rev. Robert Hunt. Hunt was chaplain to the first landing at Jamestown when 104 men and boys came ashore and founded a new nation. The bishops are from nine states and five countries.

The ANGLICAN CHURCH IN AMERICA announced it has a new bishop. Meeting in Dallas, TX, the clergy and people of the Diocese of the Missouri Valley (Anglican Church in America) elected Fr Stephen Strawn, Rector of St. John's, Quincy, Illinois, to be the Bishop Coadjutor of that diocese. Bishop-elect Strawn will succeed the Most Reverend Louis Falk, quondam primate both of the ACA and of the Traditional Anglican Communion. The Diocese of the Missouri Valley consists of twenty parishes in a geographical territory in the middle of the US extending from Minnesota to Texas. The ACA came about as a result of the defection of approximately 40% of the Anglican Catholic Church (ACC). There was no "merger" of the American Episcopal Church and the ACC. This action was the result of a meeting in Deerfield Beach, FL in October, 1991. The ACA is part of the worldwide Traditional Anglican Communion.

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND has accused Sony Corp. (SNE) of using an English cathedral as the backdrop to a violent computer game and said it should be withdrawn from shop shelves. The church said Sony did not ask for permission to use Manchester Cathedral and demanded an apology. The popular new PlayStation 3 game, "Resistance: Fall of Man," shows a virtual shootout between rival gunmen with hundreds of people killed inside the cathedral. Church officials described Sony's alleged use of the building as "sick" and sacrilegious.

David Wilson, a Sony spokesman, told The London Times: "It is game-created footage, it is not video or photography. It is entertainment, like Doctor Who or any other science fiction. It is not based on reality at all. Throughout the whole process we have sought permission where necessary."

The Very Rev. Rogers Govender, the dean of Manchester Cathedral, said: "This is an important issue. For many young people these games offer a different sort of reality and seeing guns in Manchester cathedral is not the sort of connection we want to make."

An article by Jonathan Petre of the Daily Telegraph that a powerful COALITION OF CONSERVATIVE ANGLICAN LEADERS is preparing to create a parallel Church for conservatives in America in defiance of the Archbishop of Canterbury, provoking the biggest split in Anglican history, is about 50 percent accurate according to VOL's sources. The UK's Telegraph reports that a coalition of "conservative" primates, based in Africa, is attempting to create an alternate episcopal structure to give shelter to those in the US church under siege by "progressive" supporters of homosexuality.

The truth is, it is not that simple. Another story from the London Times recently said four dioceses would immediately breakaway from the Episcopal Church has also turned out to be inaccurate and premature.

What is happening is that a coalition of Common Cause orthodox Episcopal leaders are laying out plans for a disengagement from TEC, if and when both property issues and recognition by the Archbishop of Canterbury can be guaranteed. To date there is no sign that David Booth Beers, acting for Mrs. Schori, will in any way relent on property issues, or that the ABC is ready to admit the bishops of CANA, AMiA or the newly formed North American Anglican Coalition (NAAC) under the soon to be newly anointed Bill Atwood.

THE PROPOSED ANGLICAN COVENANT which was discussed by the International Concerns Standing Committee of Executive Council this past week, revealed some interesting statistics. Ms. Rosalie Simmonds Ballentine Esq., chair of the subcommittee charged with soliciting and receiving feedback on the covenant, reported that a total of 411 responses were received by the June 4th deadline. She said the subcommittee reviewed...

* 210 responses from individual laity
* 100 responses from individual clergy
* 18 responses from individual bishops
* 27 responses from parishes
* 64 responses from dioceses or organizations

Ms. Ballentine said that were roughly four responses against the covenant for every one response in favor.

The Rev. Dr. Ian Douglas, a member of the subcommittee, added that only a small minority of responses were completely for the covenant as proposed or against any form of covenant. Most responses were nuanced-stating conditions under which a covenant might be acceptable or unacceptable.

REPENT AMERICA will fly a message of hope over Philadelphia's annual homosexual event on July 10. Thousands involved in the homosexual lifestyle can look heavenward for a message of hope during Philly Pride Presents' annual $10,000 taxpayer-funded "Pride Parade and Festival," a celebration of homosexuality, being held at Penn's Landing Great Plaza in Philadelphia.

Repent America (RA), a national evangelistic organization that reaches out at homosexual pride events across the country, has hired an aerial advertising company to fly a banner with a message of hope over this year's event. The banner, "JESUS CHRIST: WWW.HOPE FOR HOMOSEXUALS.COM," will be flown over the Great Plaza at Penn's Landing near Columbus Boulevard between Market and Walnut Streets starting at approximately 2:00 p.m.

"Today, thousands of people will gather in the City of Philadelphia to promote the sin of homosexuality. The most loving response of the Christian to his neighbors is not to ignore their public celebration of sin, but to go and warn them of the judgment to come, having compassion on those who are broken," stated Repent America director Michael Marcavage. "Although most of the people that will attend today's event are proud of their sins and have no shame in participating in sexual deviancy, there are those among them who question their involvement. This flight of hope is for them."

Finally, a story out of Rome said the head of Italy's influential bishops' conference has received a second envelope containing bullets and a death threat, following comments he made opposing same-sex unions, news agencies reported.

An envelope containing three bullets arrived on Saturday at the Genoa archdiocese of Monsignor Angelo Bagnasco. A single bullet was sent on April 27.

Mgr Bagnasco, who is leading a campaign against legislation that would give many legal rights to unmarried couples, including gay ones, was given bodyguards several weeks ago after graffiti threatening him was scrawled on buildings.

Question, will we see this coming to an orthodox Episcopal bishop, priest or journalist soon. It's not impossible.

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