Perpetuating a Crisis

The beat goes on. Ten days ago this rally took place on the steps of the state capital after days of media events. The focus is now on Connecticut to turn this diocese into the poster child for persecuting dioceses. The article below betrays the real spin in the message: the Episcopal Church as constituted is in the words of Bishop Duncan a counterfeit church, and that he and the others intend to replace it.

Rather than forming a new denomination outright, this group wishes to create the conditions where they can leave the Episcopal Church with some sense of international legitimacy that previous schisms from the Episcopal Church were not able to obtain. They have one unifying point, and it is not Jesus Christ. They are unified in their opposition to modernism as embodied, for them, in sexuality.

This was a staged political gathering designed for secular media attention in a major media market. Reconciliation is not the goal. They wish to create the conditions for ejection so that they can claim martyrdom.
_______________

From: http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-episcopal0513.artmay14,0,6945847.story

Episcopal Clergy At Capitol Denounce Church On Gay Issue

By FRANCES GRANDY TAYLOR Courant Staff Writer

May 14 2005

Episcopal clergy from the United States and abroad joined the priests known as the "Connecticut Six" at the state Capitol on Friday to denounce what they called the "false teaching" of the U.S. Episcopal Church on gay issues and to call on its leaders to repent.

[snip]

Friday's rally culminated two days of activities that included a Thursday night worship service that drew hundreds to Bishop Seabury Church in Groton. The Rev. Ronald Gauss of Bishop Seabury Church is one of the priests threatened with removal for being "out of communion" with Smith.

[snip]

Bishop Robert Duncan of the diocese of Pittsburgh and head of the Anglican Communion Network said, "We are here to warn the people of this nation that there is a counterfeit abroad in the land that looks and sounds like the real thing but has no currency when you try to spend it."

[snip]

Other visiting bishops included Bishop Donald Harvey of Newfoundland, the leader of the Anglican Communion Network in Canada; Bishop Jack Iaker of Fort Worth, Texas; Bishop James Adams of Western Kansas; retired Bishop Fitzsimmons Allison of South Carolina; retired Bishop Andrew Fairfield of North Dakota; and Bishop Samuel Chukuka of Nigeria.