DOUGLAS: Recall here, that the diocese is not the bishop and staff in some far off building in Hartford. No, the Diocese of Connecticut is the united witness and service to God's mission of all of us who call ourselves Episcopalians in Connecticut. There is no diocese separate from the combined reality of our local Eucharistic communities, and no congregation is thus separate from, independent of, the wider life of the diocese. We are all connected to, and accountable to, God and one another as the Diocese of Connecticut.

VOL: When his predecessor, Bishop Andrew Smith "pruned" the "Ct Six", the most prosperous and orthodox parishes, as they were called, he cut off their spiritual life and financial supply line to the diocese. At that time (2005), the "Ct. Six" put out a statement accusing Bishop Smith of abandonment of orthodox Anglican faith and order and continued harassment of faithful clergy and congregations in Connecticut.

"At its core, our disagreements with Bishop Smith involve the most basic issues of theology and Christian teaching. Since Andrew Smith became diocesan bishop in October 1999, he has expressed theology that exhibits a marked departure from Scripture truth and Anglican teaching. By word and action he has challenged essentials of faith including the nature of revelation, the person and work of Jesus, the authority of Scripture, and human sexuality. In June 2003, he ordained two non-celibate homosexuals to the diaconate. At General Convention 2003, he voted to confirm the election of V. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire; voted for approval of the blessing of same-sex unions; and voted against a resolution upholding the authority of Scripture. Despite the protest of numerous clergy and lay people of Connecticut, and in the face of warnings by the Primates, Bishop Smith and his two suffragan bishops participated in the consecration of Gene Robinson in November 2003. It is of particular and grave concern to our six parishes that the Bishop has fostered policies which effectively exclude from ordination all who follow traditional, catholic teaching on human sexuality and attempted to force congregations to conform to his unbiblical theology during the process of clergy succession."

Things and events have clearly not changed under Bishop Douglas. There is no indication that they will in the future. The latest effort to legally throw Fr. Ron Gauss and his parish out of Bishop Seabury church indicates that Douglas is following the same bell curve as his predecessor.

"Bishop Smith's actions represented an abuse of power. His threats of inhibition and deposition based on canons which are grossly misapplied here, seem designed to force us and our churches to conform to and financially support policies that have been declared by the Primates of the Anglican Communion to be "tearing the fabric of our Communion"," wrote the CT Six.

The chickens have come home to roost, financially speaking. With the income gone from the departure of the CT Six, the diocese is going into major decline. Bishop Douglas had to finally admit that. "He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to bear more fruit." (John 15: 1-2) That's quite a message for a Church Convention." said Douglas. The tragic truth here is that Douglas is pruning a good branch that is bearing fruit and leaving the half dead to remain and die.

DOUGLAS: Now that's the question, isn't it? That's the question that we are being asked: individually in our own lives, in the lives of our local Eucharistic communities, in the Diocese of Connecticut as a whole, and across The Episcopal Church. Do we need to prune back on something that once was alive in us but - for whatever reason - is no longer alive? What is it that we need to prune away in our own lives and in the life of the Church if we are indeed to put God's mission first in the 21st century?

VOL: Most, if not all, of the diocese will be pruned back to nothing as he and his predecessor have gotten rid of the very live vines that made his diocese viable. His diocese is out of step with the vast majority of world Anglicans who are Evangelical and Anglo-Catholic. Douglas and his diocese are part of a dying pan-sexually driven Western church that is killing itself off without any outside help.

DOUGLAS: Now many of the discussions looking at what God is up to in the world today reference a new understanding of the Church as being missional - the missional Church. The emphasis here is on the mission of God, not the mission of the Church. Let me say that again, the emphasis here is on the mission of God, not the mission of the Church.

VOL: The mission of God is the Great Commission, something the bishop seems to have conveniently forgotten. It is the gospel of God's free grace called to make disciples of every nation and baptizing them in the Triune Name. It is a gospel that demands repentance and change not affirming MDGs or good works for their own sake or endless anti-racism training courses.

DOUGLAS: Our vocation as Christians, by virtue of our baptism, is to participate with God in God's mission of restoration and reconciliation in the world; to heal the brokenness, division and alienation in the world around us, seeking right relation with God and each other in Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. In short, our baptismal work is to restore all people, and all creation, to unity with God and each other in Christ. Our work is not to keep some 20th century, or even earlier model, of the Church in business. Our work is to put God's mission first, not the Church first.

VOL: Perhaps he could start in his own diocese by first apologizing and then restoring Fr. Ron Gauss and his congregation to their property, cease litigation and put that money into the proclamation of the Good News and the Great Commission.

DOUGLAS: So, we in the Diocese of Connecticut are beginning to know what it feels like to be pruned back in order to grow in greater faithfulness to God's mission. We all know, if we care to admit it to ourselves and to each other, that the many ways we were the Church in the 20th century, no longer work for us today. And yet the challenges to the Church today are only a small subset of the challenges facing the world. We all know, whether we care to admit it to ourselves or to one another, that we are living in a time of profound financial crisis when the global economic system built on unconstrained and unlimited growth seems no longer to be working. Most of us are laboring more yet taking home less.

VOL: In Africa, Global South Africans have one-fiftieth the income of the average American household and yet their churches are growing by the millions. New Anglican dioceses are giving birth almost monthly in Nigeria, Uganda and Rwanda. Growth has nothing to do with the economy or the "challenges facing the world". The call of Christ stands above all this. The bishop has no gospel; therefore he sees no growth. The problem is the bishop believes too little, not too much. What he does believe is largely the fictional works driven "gospel" of Katharine Jefferts Schori and the TEC House of Bishops and what they call "mission." The Anglican Communion today is no longer white, western and wealthy. It is black, under 30 and female. Furthermore they would be shocked at just how wealthy this diocese and state is. Connecticut ranks as the third wealthiest state in America with an average per capita income of $64,644. And a lot of them are Episcopalians.

DOUGLAS: The Church, of course, is not divorced from the realities of the world and the challenges and changes that are occurring all around us in the 21st century. And neither is the Church divorced from the economic crisis in which we are all living. My guess is that every congregation, every local Eucharistic community in the Diocese of Connecticut, is encountering some kind of financial difficulty. No longer can we afford the staff and programs, not to mention the buildings and facilities that we have held so dear in the last century.

VOL: Perhaps the realization will dawn on Douglas that he no longer needs three bishops as "agents of reconciliation" to run a dying diocese. In time, will Bishops James Curry or Laura J. Ahrens get pink slips telling them they have been pruned from the vine and "cut back"? Perhaps the Living God will allow Bishop Douglas to act as His pruning knife for a dying diocese.

END

FOOTNOTE: At their Diocesan Convention delegates voted to approve a non-binding resolution asking the bishop to permit clergy to officiate at same-sex weddings.

At the same time they voted to postpone a resolution to endorse the Marriage Encounter Movement a religiously-based weekend program designed to help married couples by reason of discovering or re-discovering the need for God in their lives, to improve their marriage, grow closer to each other and improve commitment to each other.