That's My Church! - Rebel Alliance Division

The Anglican Communion Network took the first steps this week toward organizing relief for those local systems not eager to be paid a visit by the TEC Death Star:

BEDFORD -- Dissident Episcopalians from across the nation approved a plan Tuesday aimed at creating a federation of Anglican groups opposed to liberal church decisions, such as the U.S. church's election of a gay bishop.

Eighty delegates to the annual council meeting of the Pittsburgh-based Anglican Communion Network took the initial steps to form a federation of Anglican groups still in the Episcopal Church, along with other groups that have left.

The actions came at a two-day meeting at St. Vincent's Episcopal Cathedral.

"This will begin the gathering of fragmented bodies into one unified body of traditional orthodox Anglicans in North America," Fort Worth Bishop Jack Iker said.

Iker helped found the Anglican Communion Network in 2004 amid controversy over the 2003 consecration of an openly gay man, the Right Rev. Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire.

The 24-county Diocese of Fort Worth is one of 10 affiliated with the Anglican Communion Network.

There are 111 dioceses in the Episcopal Church. More than 900 individual congregations are a part of the network.

The developing federation's goal is to bring together Anglican groups in the U.S. and Canada, each of which would retain its autonomy but embrace a common cause, said Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan, who was re-elected to a three-year term as moderator of the network.

"This will encourage Episcopalians who have felt there's no place left for them," said Bishop Keith Ackerman, leader of the Diocese of Quincy in Illinois and a former rector of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Arlington.

He said he expects many of the 53 Anglican groups in the U.S. that have organized in opposition to policies of the U.S. Episcopal Church to join the developing federation.

Network partners

Among the initial partners are the American Anglican Council, the Anglican Mission in the Americas, the Anglican Network in Canada, the Anglican Province of America, the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, the Anglican Essentials Federation, Forward in Faith North America and the Reformed Episcopal Church.

More in this article. Meanwhile, the American Anglican Council has issued a fresh demand for transparancy in the ongoing TEC legal pounding of secessionist parishes over property issues, wanting to know just where the hell TEC is getting the money to fund all this litigation.

Frankly, I'm a little murky on the make-up of the various dissident factions, but it seems that they are coming together to form a coherent, alternative structure, one that will appeal immensely to us conservatives. I would expect that this movement will only be energized by the events that will unfold over the next six months or so. The more you tighten your grip, KJS, the more systems will slip through your fingers.