Just as Niemoller became one of the founders of the Confessing Church which opposed the nazification of German Protestant churches, we are seeing today in the U.S., with the homosexualization of The Episcopal Church, the rise of confessing churches that stand in opposition to the pansexual (LGBT) agenda that is ripping and tearing at the fabric of a once proud denomination.

The Episcopal Church is on a collision course with history. It has collided with Holy Scripture. It is also on a crash course with the vast majority of the Anglican Communion. For its sins, it is on a Gadarene slide to oblivion.

We see now a church of 850,000 aging men and women, living on the memory of a faith they can barely articulate. The seminaries have long since emancipated from the faith once delivered to the saints. The pulpits are now vomiting up the bile of a morally bankrupt culture as emptying pews, partially filled with geriatric Episcopalians, find themselves anaesthetized from spiritual truth.

Future historians will marvel at the sheer blindness and ecclesiastical self-destructiveness of a church that was once the spiritual home of America's elite.

The ecclesiastical battle that has been simmering for years has now moved into open warfare. Litigation is rising in numerous dioceses as revisionist bishops, sensing their new found power and financial resources, spend millions of dollars on lawyers to preserve properties, even as the pews empty. Faithful parishioners, fearing for their souls and those of their children, flee to spiritual safe harbors. Faithful priests, preaching in borrowed buildings, are replaying the story of the catacombs with the aid of the media and the Internet.

It is a nightmare with no end in sight.

This week brought both clarity and defiance. Episcopal bishops, meeting in Camp Allen, Texas, rejected an ultimatum handed down to them by the 38 Primates of the Anglican Communion, led by Archbishop Rowan Williams, to cease and desist from performing same-sex blessings and ordaining non-celibate homosexuals to the episcopacy and to provide a safe place for orthodox priests and parishes caught in revisionist dioceses. The bishops paused, momentarily, and then raised a fist of defiance at Dr. Williams and the world Anglican leaders by deliberately thumbing their noses at a Sept. 30 deadline, and accusing the same primates of trying to drag the American branch of the Communion back into "a time of colonialism." They then invited Dr. Williams to a three-day prayer meeting, on U.S. soil, to deliver the coup de grace, to tell him, presumably, that their unanimous decision had the blessing of the Holy Ghost. (Most of the remnant orthodox bishops did not attend).

For those of us watching on the sidelines, it was an eerie moment: the final playing out of 40 years of stubborn rebellion against Holy Scripture and the Moral Order. The bishops, lead by a woman whose gospel is not the Great Commission but Millennium Development Goals, are playing out her nihilistic, post-modern gospel to the trumpet sounds of a church that heralded a new human trinity: first in Edmond "no outcasts" Browning; then Frank "my door is open to all" Griswold; and in Mrs. Schori, the New World Order of social amelioration, which has finally replaced the Kingdom of God on earth. Fiat Lux.

To make the point that the bishops will brook no opposition, they refused to allow orthodox congregations to have oversight from any overseas conservative bishops. Therefore, there will be no Tenth Province or 39th Province, and there will be no Primatial Vicar. The Panel of Reference is dead on arrival, leaving the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops to administer, with a rod of ecclesiastical iron, the fate of orthodox priests, free to use their mitered fists to strike down any priest, vestry or parish that dare oppose them. The bishops' message was clear: a "pastoral scheme" would be injurious to the Episcopal Church, injurious to whom and how? The truth is, orthodox priests and their parishes are powerless against the sodomite steamroller. It is they who are being "injured" by the new revisionist TEC gospel, which the Apostle Paul declares is "another gospel." This is being done by these very same bishops who took oaths to drive away false doctrine! The bishops are demanding no less than absolute submission to their own twisted interpretation of the canons.

Look what happened to Fr. Mark Hansen of St. John's in Connecticut. The bishop made a lightning grab for his parish and assets, took his computer, placed a private guard around the church, put a woman priest in his place and tossed Hansen to the wolves. Another five parishes are waiting in the shadows for the other shoe to drop.

This past week, Florida Bishop John Howard thumbed his nose at the Archbishop of Canterbury's Panel of Reference Florida report, rejecting it out of hand, and is now ready to cast the Rev. Neil Lebhar and his Redeemer parish, via inhibition and deposition into ecclesiastical outer darkness. There will be no mercy. It is the triumph of canons over Scripture; the constitution of the church, bricks and mortar, over against the exposition of God's truth and the salvation of souls. Twenty parishes have already left, denuding the diocese of its income and making it as powerless as Samson without his hair.

Following a story I wrote about the inhibition of Fr. Tom Tirman in the Diocese of Indianapolis, VOL was told the horror stories of another priest whom Bishop Catherine Waynick terminated. The priest's wife committed suicide. Another priest in her diocese, Fr. John Russell, killed himself after Waynick sent a broadcast e-mail to numerous people in the Diocese about his mental state saying she was suspending him. He had just gone through a divorce and his sister had recently died. He blew his brains out. The careers of numerous moderate (not including conservative) male priests litter the landscape of Central and Southern Indiana, a priest told VOL.

In the Diocese of Pennsylvania, sociopathic bishop Charles E. Bennison was accused by a black woman priest, the Rev. Lula Grace Smart, of being directly responsible for the death of her husband, also a priest, after Bennison threatened to close his parish. The priest, Fr. Vivian Smart, was so distraught he died of a brain aneurism. When Bennison came to the hospital, the Rev. Lula Grace Smart threw him out of her husband's hospital ward telling the visiting bishop that "the last thing he needs to hear is your voice and you are the reason he is here." Bennison still has his job despite being accused and admitting that he covered up his brother's (also a priest) sexual abuse of a minor. By contrast, Fr. David Ousley, an Anglo-Catholic priest in the diocese, was inhibited, deposed, and lost his church in a court battle, but took all of his people. The church is now closed. Thrice-married Bishop Walter Righter took a walk following a phony trial because the church has no core doctrine on sexuality.

Across the denomination, bishops engage in sexual immorality and prideful heresy while punishing priests for not abandoning their flocks. It is not merely truth that has been turned on its head; it is the absolute invasion of evil into the life of the church, an evil no one could possibly have imagined half a century ago.

Other statements by TEC bishops, including declarations by some that they will defy the primates' communique and continue lawsuits against local parishes and individual clergy and vestry members, also point toward the church's total disregard for the Anglican primates' authority and for Communion relationships, said Canon David C. Anderson AAC president.

Furthermore, last week's rejection of South Carolina Bishop-elect Mark Lawrence, based on procedural technicalities, shows up pointedly The Episcopal Church's absolute submission to their own twisted interpretation of the canons.

The deeper issue here is: so what if he had won consents, would it really matter. As Bishop Lawrence he would have no power to change the direction and course of the Episcopal Church; that is a done deal. If he is elected and he attempts to take the diocese out of the Episcopal Church, he will be threatened by Mrs. Schori, just as she did San Joaquin Bishop John-David Schofield.

The worst provocation of the week was, undoubtedly, the presentment charges against an octogenarian bishop, the Rt. Rev. William Cox, a godly Anglo-Catholic and Evangelical bishop. This man of God faces a court trial for ordaining two priests and a deacon in the Diocese of Kansas thus violating the Constitutions and Canons of the TEC. His sin: he failed to get permission from the local diocesan bishop.

You could scrape the hypocrisy off the walls on this one. Both presenting bishops are among the worst the TEC has to offer. Dean Wolfe, Bishop of Kansas, cut a deal with the largest parish, Christ Church, Overland Park, and accepted a proposal to let them keep their property in exchange for $1 million over ten years to keep his diocese afloat. He did that under Griswold's regime. Had he done that in the time of Mrs. Schori, David Booth Beers, Schori's legal Doberman, would have been all over him. Robert Moody, Bishop of Oklahoma, is so theologically light-headed he thought it acceptable to ordain as deacon a known male transvestite, who then proceeded to use money he had kept hidden from his wife and children to go to Thailand for a sex change operation! Moody never said a word.

Now the HOB is bringing charges against this godly bishop for wanting only to maintain the faith, but they wouldn't dare go after Jack Spong for his blatant heresies summarized in his twelve theses. What is happening to Bishop Cox is pure legalism and a concern for process not the faith once delivered to the saints.

The Windsor Bishops are now firmly in the revisionist camp, another outcome of last week's HOB meeting. The Network bishops, now cornered and sidelined, must ask the question, what now? The Diocese of San Joaquin will answer that question in October.

Those "moderate" bishops (Windsor Bishops) who thought they could keep their heads in the sand and be safe are fools and cowards. The sodomites will not be satisfied with "tolerance", they never have been. That's been the myth all along. Tolerance is dead. Only full acceptance of sodomy is acceptable. With the coming of homosexual "marriage", anal sex will become a "wholesome example" and belief in that "wholesome example" will be required. Speaking out in favor of scripture and quoting the biblical condemnation of homosexual conduct will be grounds for presentment.

In countries like Canada and the UK, it is now a crime to speak out against sodomy. You can be arrested, tried in court and go to jail for saying sodomy is wrongful behavior.

The homosexual agenda in state legislation around the U.S. is making it illegal to criticize gays. The Episcopal Church has endorsed this dark slide into sexual totalitarianism.

The Covenant being written, at the request of the Windsor Report, is also a farce, because, it can't work. There is no way revisionists and orthodox Anglicans can jointly write and approve an Anglican Covenant that will do what such a covenant must do i.e. clearly state the core beliefs of Anglicans and provide for the discipline of Provinces and Churches that violate these core beliefs. We now have two very different understandings of the Christian Faith at work, diametrically opposed to each other.

Dr. David Kyle Foster of Mastering Life Ministries calls it the Judas Church, which will brook no opposition. It is a church full of "kissing Judases" so well described by sociologist and author Dr. Os Guinness.

The HOB reaction to the Tanzania communique was, "unbiblical, arrogant and unduly nationalistic," wrote an evangelical priest to his flock. He is right. Now the TEC must decide if it will leave the Anglican Communion, take its sixteen or so provinces -- bought and paid for, and form its own communion.

They may have no option. The Global South Primates have spoken with finality about homosexuality. Lambeth resolution 1:10 stands as the litmus test. The deadline Sept. 30 was given to the TEC. The House of Bishops have pre-empted that.

One archbishop has already spoken up. Southern Cone Primate, the Most Rev. Gregory Venables, says we must move to separate as quickly as possible. He blasted the TEC by saying that their protestation that they want to remain Anglican is specious when viewed in the light of their actions. "In any other context it would be laughed at. The contention that the request of the Primates violates the polity of the Episcopal Church is just as hollow."

He nails it precisely when he says this: "In all of their meetings and discussions, Episcopal Church leaders have failed to see that the issues involved are not just matters of disagreement about the order of the Church (though they are that). We are concerned because the Church has always taught and understood that the content of belief and behaviour impacts salvation."

"Episcopal Bishops claim authority they do not have when they selectively apply Scripture and dispassionately ignore the pleas of those with whom they have been linked for years. That is not only manifest in what is said, it is writ large in bold letters as they reject the Panel of Reference and file new legal actions targeting individual church members. It is behaviour not even worthy of a social club, much less what is expected in the Church. The reference to the Preamble to the Constitution of The Episcopal Church is a particularly painful illumination of the heart of the American leadership."

Now, says the Evangelical archbishop, we must move to separation as quickly and as gracefully as possible. May God have mercy on the Anglican Communion.

The Episcopal Bishops still want time. The House of Bishops' rejection of a pastoral council is not The Episcopal Church's final word on the primates' communique, Mrs. Schori says. "This was merely a recommendation for Executive Council to reject it," she said. She wants a series of town-hall style meetings and consultation across The Episcopal Church. This is more delaying tactics. She and they will say the same thing again about the Sept. 30 request, only later. They will keep us talking, until we all die or quit. That has been the tactics of the liberals and revisionists from the very beginning. Frank Griswold did it time and time again after each Primates meeting, and then he consecrated the openly homoerotic Gene Robinson in total defiance of the Primates meeting in London in 2003.

Delays have only served the revisionists. They have succeeded in weakening the voice of the Global South, a group still strong but just as divided. The HOB has called their bluff. Delays have also exposed the weak links in the Anglican Communion Network, who have no intention of ever leaving the Episcopal Church. Their sin is loving the church more than loving the Lord of the church. Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan faces fierce resistance in his own diocese from lesbigays and liberal social activists.

Make no mistake about it, in time the new orthodoxy will seek out new heresies, which will be purged by new inquisitions. This latest round of "affirming the tension" is only a phase in the Episcopal Church's ongoing politics of personal destruction, writes Canon Gary L'Hommedieu. You can read what he says here: http://tinyurl.com/36jyzl

The Gadarene race to the cliff edge by The Episcopal Church cannot and will not be stopped. They want to take the orthodox with them. The latest figures reveal that less than 1.4% of the adult population has engaged in gay sex in America, most are young and their life expectancy is 20 to 30 years less than the rest of the population. http://tinyurl.com/2csahv Louie Crew types are not being sought after in gay bars and the church wants us to roll over for that!

The church is a hospital to heal sinners. We all qualify. But the Episcopal Church no longer sees anal sex as a sin and the revisionist bishops have but one agenda: to destroy remnant orthodox believers in parish after parish, in one revisionist diocese after another. They will not settle until they have killed us all off.

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