THE EXECUTIVE EDITOR OF THE LIVING CHURCH, in a recent Editor’s Column “What I didn’t Miss” (February 25 issue) asks a question of the church. He refers to our Diocese of Central New York and St. Andrew’s, Syracuse which the diocese in partnership with the national church is suing for recovery of property. “Is this really worth the cost of litigation?” Kalvelage asks. The implied answer is no, suggesting even by the Column’s caption “Hostile Takeover” that the diocese is “taking over” somebody else’s property, the seeming possessions of St. Andrew’s.

Regular readers of The Living Church know the editorial staff there has made common cause with the Anglican Communion Network and the American Anglican Council. Though you also may be a sympathizer of their cause, let this blog entry be a warning. Do not for a moment think that the forbearance and good will of the Episcopal Church leadership will suffer much longer the assaults of the Network against our governance and discipline. A corrective course of action is already building. Anything less would leave us all complicit in the Network strategies for alienation and control of the church, primary of which is to first align with an ecclesiastical entity outside the governance of the Episcopal Church and then monetize church property as their own, effectively circumventing General Convention, the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church and every precedent of order and discipline in the church.

Theirs is a strategy worthy of Andrew Fastow and Enron in the 1990s, blinding in its brains and wiliness, and as morally bankrupt. If the members of the Network, especially the dissenting clergy and bishops were truly righteous in their religious disdain for the Episcopal Church, they would renounce their vows taken in a church they no longer acknowledge as valid and create their own authority. What they want though is their dissent and the privileges and property that they accrued from membership in the institution they would now reject.

We must proceed boldly and decisively in response to these self-proclaimed enemies of the church. Now is no longer the time for dialog, as if listening to the passionate assurances of the chief officers of Enron at its collapse would change in the least the consequences of their ongoing criminal behavior. We can no longer put off facing down these adversaries simply because they are erstwhile members. The truth is they are no longer fellow Episcopalians. Though they remain our brothers and sisters in Christ, they have declared themselves implacable enemies, and as Oprah would advise "when somebody tells you who they really are, believe them."

Get this point firmly in mind. The reality of their intent upon taking control of the Episcopal Church must not be glossed over in our care and compassion for the Network as former members of our fellowship. They have broken faith. There is no more room for discussion. Yet this is precisely what Kalvelage would ask of us in his question, “Is this really worth the cost of litigation?” Kalvelage would argue that we naively accommodate Network and Primatial demands hitherto totally without precedent, appease Network aggressions against our governance to our own everlasting detriment, all as the Network steals us blind.

This is what the Network is doing while it can. While the rest of the church suffers “rolling black outs,” and struggles in the heat of the noonday sun to discern God’s will for all of God's people especially including the poor and suffering, the oppressed and degraded, Network leaders and sympathizers stand aside in self-righteous celebration as the cause of our distress. Like the evil-possessed Enron cult of traders, they are trading on the fears and anxieties of the people to their own profit, even creating the crises of confidence, all the while thanking God for their windfall of ill-gotten blessings. A curse on them all! They are not even using their own capital resources, but would take ours to use against the church. It is time to bell the beast.

Let all take heart by a recent resolution of the House of Bishops delivered out of their deliberations in Texas in response to the Dar es Salaam Communique by the Primates of the Anglican Communion. Our House of Bishops has finally pronounced their voice in the Episcopal Church and joined us in our commitment to respect the dignity of every human being, especially all who have been baptized into the life and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is as if the House of Bishops, having listened, has finally heard what is being said (and more importantly, done and planned) by the Network and responded, "Enough! Do as you must. So will we and here it is that we stand. Good luck, and if it is your will, good bye!"

Said at greater length and in the bishops' own words -

"It is incumbent upon us as disciples to do our best to follow Jesus in the increasing experience of the leading of the Holy Spirit. We fully understand that others in the Communion believe the same, but we do not believe that Jesus leads us to break our relationships. We proclaim the Gospel of what God has done and is doing in Christ, of the dignity of every human being, and of justice, compassion, and peace. We proclaim the Gospel that in Christ there is no Jew or Greek, no male or female, no slave or free. We proclaim the Gospel that in Christ all God's children, including women, are full and equal participants in the life of Christ's Church. We proclaim the Gospel that in Christ all God's children, including gay and lesbian persons, are full and equal participants in the life of Christ's Church. We proclaim the Gospel that stands against any violence, including violence done to women and children as well as those who are persecuted because of their differences, often in the name of God. The Dar es Salaam Communiqué is distressingly silent on this subject. And, contrary to the way the Anglican Communion Network and the American Anglican Council have represented us, we proclaim a Gospel that welcomes diversity of thought and encourages free and open theological debate as a way of seeking God's truth. If that means that others reject us and communion with us, as some have already done, we must with great regret and sorrow accept their decision." About time. Amen.

This breaking of relations to which the bishops refer at the end of the preceding long passage, is what has happened in St. Andrew’s, Syracuse and the cause of our current litigation against this parish. The Living Church would have us allow this breaking of faith to proceed apace without opposition. From Milwaukee, WI they would mind our local business, telling us basically to "Let them take all your products, goods, services and value with them, it doesn't really matter anyway, it's just property." This of course is a nonsensical argument at best, and suspiciously duplicitous at worst. If it were only property, then why did the leadership of St. Andrew's, Syracuse sneak into a deed office and try to change the title of the property into their own name? Clearly it has value to them. They want it even if they don't want to honor and respect the custodial obligations by which they occupy this property.

In a word, the diocese is not attempting to “take over the church’s property.” The property already belongs to the Diocese. In our governance the diocese is owner of both the “franchise” and property of the church. Parishes are custodial agents, not only custodial agents mind you but, yes, in regard to the disposition of property only custodial agents.

The Diocese of CNY and the national church has every right and duty to maintain the church’s inheritance and to protect collective assets from all adversarial assaults including thievery, for distribution into subsequent generations of Episcopalians as a resource for future faith initiatives. St. Andrew’s, Syracuse initiated the “hostile takeover” by entering a deed office to surreptitiously change the church’s title information. They will be held accountable for their action not because they must be punished but because the church must be protected, especially from the sins of pride, deceit and avarice, especially from its erstwhile members. We owe this litigation to our children, painful as it is.

Hopefully this litigation will serve toward building a solid ground of legal precedent. Though we should never want to go to court, indeed scripture finds great offense in doing so, when compelled, we must and will do so. To do otherwise, to let the current leadership of St. Andrew’s, Syracuse change the brand name of a member parish and take all the property assets, in a word to steal the products, goods, services and value of the Episcopal Church into their own image, would be an unconscionable failure of fiduciary responsibility with disastrous repercussions throughout the church.

Let the Anglican Communion Network and American Anglican Council, and any one else of similar mind, now take fair warning. The Episcopal Church is forbearing, open, inclusive, full of good will, yet not to be treated as a doormat in our own home.