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ECUSA BISHOPS BEGIN TO LAY PLANS IN SECRET E-MAIL OVER PROPERTY DISPUTES
By David W. Virtue
http://www.virtueonline.org
11/4/2005
A HIGHLY confidential e-mail about what should be done over property disputes in the Episcopal Church was recently sent out to some 32 persons including 28 bishops by Bishop William E. Swing of the Diocese of California.
Billing itself as the first meeting of the Property Disputes Steering Committee, the conference call was set in motion by Bishop Swing and included, among its recipients, the Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold and his attorney David Booth Beers and a raft of bishops including Larry Maze, Catherine Roskam, David Jones, William D. Persell, Paul V. Marshall, Robert Anderson, John Chane, Andrew Smith, John Curry, John Mathes, Henry Parsley, Charles E. Bennison, Ted Gulick, Robert Rowley, J. Jon Bruno and more. Not all the e-mail addresses could be identified.
The hour long conference call which took place on October 26 had an agenda which included agreeing on the scope of their work and sharing documents before face to face meetings. Wrote Swing: "If I might add, it seems that it would be important to keep this teleconference agenda simple and not attempt to solve problems. Merely figuring out what is and isn't our goal is agenda enough . . . plus the introductions and planning for the future."
The meeting, while not overtly stating it, is an outgrowth of a Property Task Force, with legal overtones, set up by the bishops at their recent meeting in Puerto Rico, an ominous admission that the Episcopal Church might come apart at the seams with millions of dollars being spent on lawsuits over divided and fleeing parishes who believe that the Episcopal Church has abandoned the historic Christian Faith.
At that time the House of Bishops created a 10-member task force of attorneys and other experts to help defend the Episcopal Church and its dioceses against attempts by congregations or other dioceses to secede from the Episcopal Church with their property.
It would appear that the liberals are running scared and they fear a massive loss of parishes, properties and priests now and beyond GC2006. Gene Robinson's consecration has come home to roost and revisionist bishops are circling the wagons fearful for their pending losses.
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