New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson reflecting on the recent General Convention wrote saying that the most exciting action taken by the Convention was the election of the Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori as the 26th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church.

Speaking of his fellow bishops he said, "no one was more surprised by the election of the only female nominee than we were! The conventional wisdom indicated that despite a superior "showing" at our recent House of Bishops' evening with the candidates, Katharine was "unelectable" because of her relatively short tenure as a priest and bishop (five years of each), and because she might cause "offense" to the all-male group of Primates of the Anglican Communion."

Little did Robinson know that many conservatives voted for her to show up how morally and theologically bankrupt the Episcopal Church had become, and wanted to make that point in clear unequivocal terms to Rowan Williams and the Global South bishops. The other choices (all liberal white males) were just as bad, why not elect a woman and make the point clear with trumpets sounding!

Robinson said the most important legislation passed at the General Convention was the Episcopal Church's commitment to the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, a set of eight goals to end extreme poverty in the world and to fight debilitating diseases such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, and to empower women and children, so often the worst victims of poverty, disease, and injustice. Never mind that the church could not agree on the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, and His being the only way of salvation proffered by Scripture.

Perhaps the bishop could have suggested that the $9 million it cost to put on this self-congratulatory exhibition of feminist and lesbigay agitprop (GC2006) could have been better spent helping the poor by buying tens of thousands of anti-retroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS sufferers in Africa.

But the openly homoerotic bishop reserved his big gun for the passage of B033, the General Convention response to the Anglican Communion's Windsor Report. That report, you will recall, called on the Episcopal Church to repent of its actions in consecrating him, in order to preserve the Anglican Communion.

Most of what was asked for was complied with - including a virtual moratorium on the consecration of openly gay or lesbian priests as bishops of the Church, moaned Robinson. Many of the gay and lesbian deputies, in tears and feeling the cost, came to the microphone to say that they would vote "yes," he whined.

Now, of course, the reason they voted "yes" was to comply with Griswold's request, (or was that a demand with a lot of arm-twisting) in order to appease the Archbishop of Canterbury the Anglican Communion Office and Global South Primates.

But then Robinson blasted the "Network" calling them "extreme conservatives in the Episcopal Church" who announced that the actions of GC2006 had been woefully inadequate and "not enough" to satisfy them and the conservatives in the Anglican Communion. They declared themselves out of communion with the new Presiding Bishop-elect (she had voted to give consent to his election in 2003) and were intent on cutting ties to the Episcopal Church and attaching themselves to some other province of the Anglican Communion. Robinson was clearly hurt.

"To my eyes, it proved what we had suspected: that they came to Convention having already decided that nothing would be enough to have them give up their intention to divide the Church, rather than work for our reconciliation. To this bishop it felt like a kick in the teeth."

Not true. They came to convention because they want to remain in the Episcopal Church and believe that it is people like him who have departed the faith which they intend to hold onto it. It became clear while at GC2006 that this was no longer possible and finally, after several conventions of pushing the outrage of sodomite acceptance, they said enough was enough and they would have nothing more to do with Robinson or his ilk. They also came because they wanted a vote up or down on the Windsor Report. They got it. It's doubtful you will see many orthodox bishops at another convention. The fault, dear bishop, lies within thyself.

Furthermore, the Balkanization of the Anglican Communion was already underway long before GC2006. A major split occurred five years ago when the Anglican Mission in America (AMIA) was formed. It reached its peak with seven dioceses declaring themselves out of communion with the Episcopal Church.

But Robinson wasn't the only one to think Convention was a bust.

Daniel J. Webster, Director of Communications for the Diocese of Utah and former media advisor to several Episcopal dioceses and national entities wrote an article, "Waging Fragmentation" in which he said "all the rules got thrown aside because of threats from a faction of so-called Christians who are driven by power and control rather than grace and justice."

"I felt the Holy Spirit once again in the hall when the announcement came that the first female presiding bishop was elected. It was like a Pentecost wind blowing through our church. The polity of our church was working. It was open, transparent, and grace-filled." Odd thing about that, not one orthodox bishop said they felt the wind of anything blowing through General Convention, unless it was the loud noise of pluriform heresies sounding forth from Griswold. Webster then went on to make the utterly false statement that unnamed "misogynist bishops" snubbed female bishops at Lambeth 1998, which itself is a lie as I was there and no such acts ever occurred. There were women reporters from the London Times and Telegraph and not a single one wrote a story along those lines. If they had known about such "misogyny" you can be sure Ruth Gledhill of the Times would have been all over it. Then Webster makes the utterly false claim that "U.S. bishops treated the African polygamist bishops with respect and courtesy."

The first lie is that US bishops treated the Africans with courtesy. Perhaps Webster has forgotten the now memorable line of the former suffragan bishop of Massachusetts Barbara Harris who said of Lambeth 1998, "if assholes could fly this place would be an airport."

Secondly it is an outrageous lie that polygamous bishops were present at Lambeth. That is flat out untrue and VOL calls on Webster to name them. If it were true, reporters at Lambeth would have been all over such a bishop with front page stories in the Mail, the Guardian (especially the Guardian) and News of the World.

African bishops to a man, have repudiated polygamy with Uganda Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi telling my Episcopal parish in Paoli, Pennsylvania that while his grandfather had six wives and his father had three, he has had only one and is deliriously happy. None of his bishops would be permitted to have multiple wives. If tribal leaders with multiple wives convert to the Christian Faith they are told they cannot be leaders while they have several wives. That practice died a century ago and resurrecting it now is a shameless lie.

Webster said that B033 resolution, run up the mast by Griswold at the last moment as a sop to the failed discussion on the Windsor Report, should not have been "swallowed" even if the PB wants you too. Wrote Webster: "Don't let the work of the Holy Spirit and all the good and faithful servants of God be thrown away. Don't give up the democratic polity of the Episcopal Church for the patriarchal, authoritarian polity of the Church of Nigeria." Really.

That so-called authoritarian policy on matters of faith and morals has caused that Anglican province to grow from 18 million to 20 million in the last 2-3 years while The Episcopal Church has declined to less than 800,000 practicing Episcopalians most of whom are in their mid sixties and won't be around to pay their bishop's salary 10 years from now.

Webster then ripped The Episcopal Church's orthodox believers: "The reality is the Communion was broken before the vote. The homophobic, misogynist, biblical literalists had their plans in place. They are acting them out now."

He then went on to rip The Diocese of Ft. Worth. "It [Ft. Worth] wants out of the Episcopal Church because a female presiding bishop was elected. They've wanted that for a long time. They want to align themselves with someone, and I mean some one, who shares their unjust view of the world. It's not theology. It has little to do with God and everything to do with male dominated power on this earth." Really. In case Webster doesn't remember, the advent of women priests is a new innovation shared by no other ancient liturgical church on earth and it was brokered into the ECUSA on the wave of women's rights and the feminist movement. There was not one scrap of theological work done on women's ordination till AMIA bishops did a study two years ago.

"Now the Archbishop of Nigeria wants his own bishop for North America. He's chosen and consecrated Martyn Minns from Truro Parish in Fairfax, Virginia., as bishop for the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA). Archbishop Peter Akinola already has a covenant agreement with the Reformed Episcopal Church (REC) in America that broke away from the Episcopal Church in 1873. Why doesn't he just use their bishops?" wrote Webster.

Why? Because Akinola respects diversity and inclusivity which Webster doesn't. He's also color blind.

"They want to align themselves with someone ... who shares their unjust view of the world. It's not theology. It has little to do with God and everything to do with male dominated power on this earth." And who has being doing the "dominating" in the Episcopal Church these last 35 or so years? The revisionists have systematically pushed, cajoled, screamed, voted for and yelled homophobic, racism and every other epithet they can think of as they have demeaned, marginalized and finally pushed the orthodox out of the church misusing the canons in the process. "This Schism Brought to You by the IRD", cries Webster. Really. Don't blame the messenger. The truth is this schism was brought to you by Pike, Spong, Crew, et al and they will take the Episcopal Church to the grave before they give in that sodomy is not approved of by the blessed Trinity.

Webster says it isn't possible for a diocese to leave the Episcopal Church. "If a bishop were to leave the church, the episcopal seat of that diocese would simply be ruled vacant, and a bishop would be sent as chief pastor for the remnants until such time as an election could take place according to the canons." On this point he may be right, but it would need to be tested in the courts, and if "neutral principles" are applied, as they have in the state of California, don't count on a win for the liberals. In that state parishes have triumphed over dioceses in their desire to control properties.

"We must never make the survival of the Anglican Communion an end in itself, the Churches of the Anglican Communion have never claimed to be more than a part of the one holy catholic and apostolic church," says Webster, quoting Archbishop Michael Ramsey. This begs the question, why he is so concerned about Ft. Worth if the communion is not worth saving?

So let the Anglican Communion go down the drain for the sake of a handful of Western lesbigays. I doubt very much that Peter Akinola will let that happen. He may well siphon off the vast bulk of the Anglican Communion and let the Western Anglican/Episcopal churches rot and die. He would be well within his ecclesiastical rights, because he believes that truth is more important than unity.

"Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold has been preaching, living, and holding up reconciliation throughout his nine years' tenure. Those who come to hear him, those who are interested in reconciliation, are those whose minds and hearts are open to live a new dream of Christ's body on earth," writes Webster.

FACT. Frank Griswold has upheld reconciliation on the backs of faithful, orthodox believers who don't believe you can compromise on the essentials of the 'faith once delivered to the saints', and his pluriform talk has pushed the Episcopal Church right off the table and into possible schism. Some reconciliation.

"The forces who do not want a reconciled world won in Columbus. It was a setback. It was injustice at best and evil at worst," says Webster.

The truth is there never was or has been reconciliation in the TEC. The more Griswold talked it up, the more things kept falling apart. The AMIA, CANA, AAC, Network to name just a few entities give ample proof of that.

The truth is the liberals and revisionists got their ox gored at GC2006 and their voting for B033 was not a victory for anyone. The Episcopal Church is finished, it is dying and no one can now rescue it, not Katherine Jefferts Schori, Rowan Williams or Mr. Webster.

END