"To look at scripture through the exclusive lens of "bonds of affection" and not also the "bonds of faith" would mean that [the Apostle] Paul must express regret for the hurt he caused Peter in the confrontation over "table fellowship with Gentiles." Paul would also be guilty in his rebuke of the Judaizers in Galatians and Jesus himself seemed insensitive to the affection he owed to the Sadducees and Pharisees."

"To ask Primates and Bishops to cease their ministry to believing Episcopalians in dioceses with unfaithful leaders is to ask them to place polity over doctrine and acquiesce in an Apostolic Succession devoid of Apostolic faith. Must diocesan boundaries be barriers to the proclamation of the Gospel and Anglican nurture to faithful Episcopalians?

"The glaring example of the failure of the Commission to recognize the role of doctrine and faith is its use of Canon VIII of Nicea. It is true that the canon sees no justification for two bishops in one city but the canon, unlike the Commission, is demonstrably concerned with orthodoxy. Those victims of the Cathari and Novation heresies must "...observe and follow the dogmas of the catholic and Apostolic Church." It is abundantly clear that the church that produced this canon had Catholic bishops in cities with Novation bishops (e.g. Acesius, Novation bishop at Constantinople).

"Since the "Come and See" report of Anglican Bishops and Primates to the Presiding Bishop and the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1999 there has been an acceleration of the departure from Anglican faith, "as this church has received it," with no workable vehicle for support and ministry to faithful Anglicans in unfaithful dioceses.

"The House of Bishops' vote (85-64) against Bishops Ackerman's resolution B001 at General Convention, 2003, in effect was a vote against the very vows Bishops took at their consecrations. Attempts to maintain the unity of our church on the foundation of bonds of affection without the bonds of faith is both unscriptural and unworkable.

"The Presiding Bishop has declined to affirm or disseminate Archbishop Rowan Williams' short and succinct critique of Spong's "12 Theses" because he claims he knows many people who say they can remain Episcopalians only because of Jack Spong. If we need no savior, if God does not answer prayer or intervene in history, if atheism is true and Christ did not die for our sins (as Spong asserts) and these teachings are acceptable and officially uncriticized or refuted, then our unity is based on something other than the Christian faith. Our predicament is not Jack Spong but Episcopal bishops denying and violating their sworn oath to be loyal to the faith "as the church has received it."

"It is likely that ECUSA leadership will continue to show no more respect for the "bonds of affection" in the Anglican Communion than it has for the "bonds of faith" in the Christian church. To claim a loyalty to diocesan boundaries over loyalty to Christian faith can scarcely be excused from the charge of idolatry.

"As 'bonds of faith' are replaced by 'bonds of affection' and the latter bonds are separating like Elmer's glue in water, it is no wonder that increasing desperation is leading bishops to evermore unprecedented illegal and tyrannical use of canons to hold the church together by coercion, depositions, and extortion.

"Did any of us foresee the necessity of the wise advice that "when the Bishop summons you, take a lawyer?" Hundreds of years of respect for the Episcopal office is being dissipated by Bishops trading their spiritual for a temporal authority, one denied to them in 1789 by laity who remembered Archbishop William Laud and the Star Chamber tyranny.

"Faithful Episcopalians can thank God for the Anglican Communion's true Bishops and Primates who are willing to nurture and encourage congregations and who see North America as a mission field desperately in need of the Gospel neglected by the Episcopal Church."

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