Both clerics, however, expect to retain some standing in the Communion that will better enable them to help "official" Anglicans dismayed by revised moral teaching as well as women's ordination, which the TAC says still creates serious division, despite the Windsor Report's contrary claim.

The consecration plans were in fact quickened by the Windsor Report, which was faulted by conservatives for inadequately addressing the Communion's current crisis and for its surprising hostility toward the faithful.

The two new prelates are needed for a special ministry "back into the Communion," to rescue "discarded and neglected" orthodox believers who are "stranded" or might otherwise leave Anglicanism altogether, said TAC Archbishop John Hepworth of Australia.

What the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) has done in the U.S., he said, the TAC hopes to do on a broader scale. "I am humbled, but I do know very deeply that this is the work of God," Dr. Moyer said. "I did not seek this."

Fr. Chislett said he had been "encouraged and humbled" by the "support (albeit not without robust debate at times)" for his impending consecration in the TAC and FIF, and even among some liberal Australian bishops.

THE CONSECRATIONS--seen by some as inopportune and "ill-conceived," and others as a creative and timely move toward unity based on truth instead of turf-are set for 7:30 p.m. today at Moyer's parish of Good Shepherd, Rosemont (near Philadelphia), with TAC and Anglican Communion bishops participating.

With support from FIF-Australia's Council, the TAC College of Bishops, and TAC's Australian province, Fr. Chislett will serve as a suffragan to Archbishop Hepworth, and (if all goes well) minister to FIF parishes within the "official" Anglican Church of Australia--a possibility to which liberal Australian Archbishop Peter Carnley is said to be surprisingly open.

Even though Chislett's diocesan is not supportive and could take action against him, the cleric appears assured of continued licensing as a priest in another Communion diocese and the ability to keep serving his parish of All Saints', Wickham Terrace, Brisbane.

Fr. Moyer will fill a vacancy as Bishop for the Armed Forces, a role that carries with it an auxiliary function, by which Moyer may help offer episcopal ministry to some of TAC's several hundred thousand adherents in some 20 countries around the world, or to non-TAC Anglicans who request such care.

Two bishops have previously served in the position, which is filled by agreement of bishops of the Anglican Church in America (ACA), TAC's U.S. branch, subject to approval by TAC's College of Bishops. After a year's consideration, ACA bishops unanimously elected the Rosemont cleric on November 30.

ACA Archbishop Louis Falk said his province tapped Moyer "for many reasons, not...least...his many years of committed, proven pastoral leadership and his untiring efforts to bring about full Christian unity and communion in proclaiming and living the Gospel of Christ." Despite a few vocal objectors, the appointment appears to have been welcomed among most ACA clergy and laity.

Falk said that the TAC's recent dialogue partner, the Anglican Province of Christ the King, was contacted about the move in advance but took no position on it. The bishop-elect also hopes to continue working with FIF and ministry within the Communion, though support for this among Communion co-religionists appears more limited--mainly, it seems, because there is no hope of an official cachet for Moyer's new role from the liberal leadership of the U.S. Episcopal Church (ECUSA) as there is in the Australian context.

Though FIF-NA issued a generally supportive official statement about the cleric's election, reaction also has been sharper than expected among individual FIF leaders in the U.S. and U.K., who apparently anticipated TAC involvement in a Moyer consecration, but say they were blindsided by the FIF-NA president's election as a TAC bishop. TAC leaders partly dispute the claim and say they regret the misunderstanding, but point out that they asked Moyer to serve as a bishop only after it became clear that he would not be consecrated under terms set by FIF (on which more in a minute).

Moyer is on leave as FIF-NA's president and has resigned as dean of the FIF convocation within the conservative Anglican Communion Network (ACN) within ECUSA.

With backing from his vestry and parish, however, he will continue his 15-year rectorship at Good Shepherd--which is still juridically in ECUSA, albeit "spiritually" aligned with the wider Communion. And, the bishop-elect appears virtually certain to remain licensed as a priest within a Communion diocese, either one led by one of his consecrators, or in the diocese in which he has been licensed for some time, Upper Shire, Malawi, within the province of Central Africa.

While Central African Archbishop Bernard Malango seems to be wavering on continuing that arrangement now, he licensed Moyer after ultra-liberal Episcopal Bishop Charles Bennison "deposed" him in 2002 without benefit of trial-a move denounced by many, among them both the present and former Archbishops of Canterbury, Rowan Williams and George Carey.

(A lawsuit filed by Moyer claiming that Bennison improperly deprived him of his status as an ECUSA priest is still pending; legal counsel reportedly believes that the lawsuit and various other aspects of Bennison's current legal position will stymie any threat to Good Shepherd's property.)

Fr. Moyer said he hoped "to be a bridge between the fully catholic elements of the Communion and faithful Anglicans outside it. I believe that's one of the reasons God has put this mantle on my shoulders. I have strong relations with people in the Communion and I want them to deepen as [Anglican] realignment manifests itself.

I'm a firm believer in the necessity of the realignment, so let's get on with it." "We seek to establish alternative Episcopal oversight in [Australia] to inspire the half-hearted, the depressed, the downtrodden-those priests and people who have thrown in the towel-to recapture the vision of faith...and to re-establish orthodoxy in places where it has all but vanished," Fr. Chislett said.

"The prospect of this consecration has put fresh courage into many of our people, and it became clear that not to go forward...would be demoralizing for those who have been looking to us for leadership."

Both bishops-designate are also keen to further TAC as the Continuing body most advanced in its resolve to become an Anglican Church in communion with the Holy See. FIF generally shares the goal of reunion with Rome, and the two FIF personages have accompanied TAC bishops to several meetings with Catholic officials.

While the consecrations will take place just before a critical meeting of Anglican primates (provincial leaders), TAC sources said that they were set to coincide with a meeting of TAC leaders planned before the dates of the Primates' Meeting were known. As well, Archbishop Williams was aware of the potential consecrations.

Both candidates were publicly deemed worthy of the episcopate by their respective FIF groups, and the prospective rites were noted in Hepworth's correspondence with Dr. Williams over the last year; Hepworth also has been working with Archbishop Carnley.

These facts were noted in the CHALLENGE and elsewhere; basic details of the trans-jurisdictional plan were reported in Chislett's case, but not outlined in Moyer's case until after his November 30 election.

Archbishop Williams was in fact the first church leader that Fr. Moyer called after his election. Not surprisingly, Williams was pastorally encouraging in speaking with the cleric, but later told reporters that the role envisioned for Moyer presented "serious canonical obstacles" to him continuing a priestly ministry within the Communion.

Mixed Reaction

The consecrations are a new development in the Anglican realignment sparked by women's ordination but dramatically augmented by recent pro-gay decisions in ECUSA and the Anglican Church of Canada. Still, they loosely fit into a growing pattern of anomalous, trans-jurisdictional arrangements--often involving foreign Anglican primates--that have been welcomed by embattled conservatives in North America. Even so, among those in the Communion and Continuing Church who most admire Moyer for his defense of the faith and his parish in the face of persecution, reactions have, as noted, not run entirely along expected lines. (Official confirmation that Chislett would also be consecrated came at deadline for this issue, leaving no time to obtain reactions to it before publication.)

Various conservative critics, some of them clearly FIF-NA members, asserted that Moyer's new role would take him outside the Anglican Communion, or that he could not function in different capacities in three different jurisdictions (TAC, Central Africa, and ECUSA). Some said that this would hurt FIF's relationship with the Network, the one U.S. body to which most conservative primates are now relating; or would upset the primates or their consideration of the Windsor Report.

FIF-NA leaders maintained as well that they had never been directly approached about a plan to consecrate Moyer a TAC bishop. They said they only began to learn of his election in confidence during the week of December 5, prior to its announcement on December 17. (TAC says that FIF-UK's leadership was similarly informed, ten days before the public announcement.)

In its official response, FIF-NA said that it hoped that Moyer's consecration would help him advance the organization's ongoing commitment "to bring together all who hold the historic Anglican Way" within and outside the Communion, and help FIF-NA meet "the pastoral and sacramental needs" of members no longer able to remain in their ECUSA parishes.

However, acting FIF-NA President, the Rev. Canon Warren Tanghe, said it was "by no means clear, as one considers reactions from around the Anglican world," that the bishop-elect will be able to assist in those ways after his consecration. FIF-NA's response emphasized that Moyer's move does not change the organization's "commitment to minister" to the majority of members who remain in ECUSA, or its participation in the ACN. Tanghe said that FIF-NA continues its efforts to secure an orthodox province in cooperation with both the Network and the Continuum.

Fr. Tanghe sees Moyer's consecration as a "decision by one FIF-NA member to further develop one of the connections FIF-NA has, one which he sees as a contribution to the cause of united Anglicanism," and said he would "pray fervently" for him in that regard. "But it does not reflect a decision by FIF-NA to go one way or another, i.e., with the TAC as opposed to other avenues." ACN Moderator, Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, said that, while he understands the "hostility" faced by Anglo-Catholics in much of ECUSA, Moyer's decision "raises difficulties in his relationship to the broader Anglican Communion."

Duncan acknowledged that the ACN has an alliance with several other groups, including extramural Anglican bodies. However, he said, the TAC is not one of them. In its official statement, FIF-UK said it trusted that Bishop-elect Moyer would "assist those in [ECUSA] who have been disenfranchised by the ordination of women as priests and bishops. We regret, however, that those responsible did not see fit to consult the bishops in [FIF] around the world before reaching their decision."

ON THE CONTINUING CHURCH SIDE, some objected to anything involving ECUSA. "We are not in communion with heretics, apostates and building worshipers, plain and simple," said one Continuer. But echoing some of the salient objections was Anglican Province of America Presiding Bishop Walter Grundorf.

"The current arrangements are contrary to the intention of the original election of Fr. Moyer," he said. The cleric "will not be eligible to serve as an episcopal visitor to FIF-NA parishes...He will be without jurisdiction in the...Communion [or] in ACN parishes of FIF-NA...And how will Fr. Moyer's consecration advance [the] unity of the FIF movement internationally and of the Continuing Churches with one another? Can such a unilateral act have anything but negative results...?" The critics, however, had their own critics.

The waiting had already gone on way too long, said one online observer. "The building is on fire and it's collapsing! The heroes are those who enter a burning building to help get people out...!" Of "assertions that Fr. Moyer can't be in the TAC and retain a Communion affiliation at the same time," Fr. Richard Kim, who operates a widely-read online news service, said: "The more pressing question...is how is it possible for one to be in FIF and remain in ECUSA at the same time?"

Noting Archbishop Malango's reported comment that Moyer must choose to be in or out of the Communion, Kim wondered if Malango realized he was saying that, "in order to remain aligned with him, orthodox Episcopalians must stay in a heterodox jurisdiction.

The same thing is effectively being said to the...Network." Another opined: "The comments from the 'conservative' bishops really reflect more about them and their apparent frustration at their own impotence and inability to act, than about Moyer's action..."

"God bless David Moyer, the ACA and the TAC for this bold move!" exclaimed one observer. "Thanks be to God!"

Same Group, Different Stories

Both the U.S. and Australian FIF groups have for some time sought "adequate" alternative episcopal oversight--a concept endorsed by Anglican primates--as part of hopes for Communion-recognized, separate orthodox jurisdictions. Both groups designated clerics they thought worthy to provide such care. Church of England FIF members and other traditionalists, who were granted "flying bishops" in response to women priests a dozen years ago, are now seeking a "third province" in the event of women bishops.

In Australia and England, the "official" leadership is willing to consider the proposed provisions for traditionalists. But Episcopal Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold has ignored FIF-NA's pleas for "flying bishops" for orthodox parishes in liberal ECUSA dioceses, nor could help be expected from General Convention, which had effectively declared women priest opponents outlaws. At present, only inadequate alternate episcopal care is on offer in ECUSA.

In nominating Fr. Chislett last year, the FIF-Australia Council committed itself to working with the TAC to provide alternate oversight, which, despite 12 years of requests, had never been provided in response to women priests in the Anglican Church of Australia. (The province has twice failed to approve women bishops, but the issue will return to the General Synod.) That situation, and the exchanges between Archbishops Hepworth and Carnley, gave rise to idea of "sharing" an orthodox bishop between the Australian province and the TAC.

Though theologically liberal, Carnley seems prepared to allow this provision. He acknowledges that it is not possible for a person to be simultaneously a member of his province and of a body not in communion with it. However, he has asked his church's Appellate Tribunal to determine if clergy can be legally licensed by two different churches at the same time--as in fact they have been between TAC and Communion dioceses for some years.

Hepworth said he had told Archbishop Carnley that Fr. Chislett would not function as a bishop until negotiations on the shape of the extended ministry to orthodox Anglicans across the TAC and Australian province were completed, albeit no later than November. At a January meeting between the parties, it was also agreed (inter alia) that a way must be found for TAC and FIF parishes in Australia to "cohese into a single entity," Hepworth said.

TAC believes that this new, "sacramentally distinct" entity would not just overlap but effectively redefine Communion boundaries. The model is one that TAC has sought (including in letters to Archbishop Williams) to promote as a "transferrable" pastoral solution for the "Canterbury Communion." Though it is not the approach some Continuing bodies would take, Hepworth said the TAC takes seriously the 1977 Affirmation of St. Louis' declaration of communion "with all faithful parts of the Anglican Communion." The Communion finally reciprocated to some extent in a 1998 Lambeth Conference resolution calling for reconciliation with Anglicans displaced from the Communion. With or without "official" sanction, though, the TAC intends continue pastoral aid for disaffected "official" Anglicans.

IN THE U.S., FIF-NA a few years ago named Frs. Moyer and William Ilgenfritz as potential "flying bishops" to minister to Episcopal traditionalists, or at least to those pushed out of ECUSA "but who wanted to remain within the Communion," said Canon Tanghe. Since all possibilities in ECUSA had been exhausted, the candidates' names were presented to godly Anglican primates in the hope that some among them might consecrate the clerics for U.S ministry.

The primates, however, did not think it "appropriate" to consecrate new bishops, though they were prepared to provide oversight for those who could no longer worship in their ECUSA parish, said Fr. Tanghe. They also appear unlikely to push for recognition of the ACN as a separate Communion body in the near term.

Nor did conversations with FIF-NA or -UK bishops indicate that they were willing to undertake such a consecration, Archbishop Hepworth maintained.

Then came last October's Windsor Report, which concentrated the minds of ACA leaders, and Fr. Moyer, leading to the election that surprised FIF, including Moyer himself, he said.

Quincy Bishop Keith Ackerman said that Moyer's consecration as a TAC bishop might have been "a positive step forward" if all parties concerned had been involved in the planning of it. "If you know about something in advance, you can work with it," he said.

Fr. Tanghe indicated that TAC representatives had over a period of time posed consecration scenarios, but only in general terms, usually without citing the names of the candidate(s). Tanghe said they were told that Communion primates would need to join TAC prelates in a consecration. Otherwise, the new bishop might serve some who had left ECUSA, but would put any Episcopal parish that he visited in "deep water" with its liberal bishop.

Tanghe conceded that a recheck of TAC publication last fall did reveal a mention of Frs. Moyer and Chislett in connection to the episcopate. "I missed it entirely; so did everybody." But that was not the same as a direct approach, he said.

Among those left out of the loop, lamented Bishop Ackerman, was Fr. Ilgenfritz, even though he was the other episcopal nominee and a vice president of FIF-NA.

Tanghe said that when the Executive Committee of FIF-NA's Council was able to consult on Moyer's election in early December, it took no action. However, individual members asked their leader not to proceed. Believing this was of God, though, Moyer was committed to going forward, Tanghe said. Writing subsequently in Forward Now, Fr. Tanghe commented that, since the primates rejected the appeal to consecrate Frs. Moyer or Ilgenfritz, he found it "hard to see why either of them should be held" to the terms of that appeal. For example, he suggested that few would think that, in the admittedly unlikely event that Fr. Ilgenfritz was elected an ECUSA bishop, that that cleric should "refuse, in the hope that the conservative primates will someday do what they have chosen not to do."

In a statement five days ago, seven serving and retired bishops aligned with FIF-NA praised Fr. Moyer's leadership, offered prayers and best wishes for his new ministry, and said that they support efforts "to bring together the various elements of the Continuum" in the overall cause of orthodox Anglican unity. "At the same time," they said, "we are primarily committed to working together within the Anglican Communion, for the strengthening of Anglican orthodoxy within the [U.S.], and for the support of the Anglican Communion Network, of which we are an integral part.

While Fr. Moyer's consecration may well be a way to bring the Continuum closer together, a good and laudable goal, that consecration will also be perceived by many as a stumbling block to the building up of an orthodox Anglican province within [the U.S.].

We recognize the reality of that perception, and therefore express reservation as to the timeliness of an action which does not have any prior approval of [FIF], either here or abroad." (Of course, FIF-NA, while heeding the primates' calls for U.S. conservatives to work together via the ACN, has acknowledged that a divide exists between it and the Network over women's ordination. Forward Now recently reported that, when FIF-NA Lay Canon Cris Fouse approached primates at AMiA's winter conference about the matter, the leaders said they felt that the women's ordination issue, which they do not see it being as important as the sexuality matter, would have to wait while the official process of "reception" (discernment] on the question continued. However, at least one major media outlet is said to have reported that women's ordination would be part of the focus of the February 21-25 Primates' Meeting.)

FOR HIS PART, ARCHBISHOP HEPWORTH conceded that he stepped more carefully in communicating consecration plans in light of the legal situation of Moyer and Good Shepherd, and in that regard had spoken with the parish's attorney twice in the last year. But he said that the TAC College of Bishops had approved Moyer becoming a bishop in 2003, and that minutes recording this action were sent to FIF leaders in England and America in February 2004. He cited various other signals sent in speeches, published writings, visits, and conversations.

"What I was trying to communicate was that the TAC was prepared to consecrate--we seemed to be the only ones; that the bishop would spring from the TAC and be part of its councils, but his ministry would be beyond our shores," Hepworth said. "The feedback I got [at least from some FIF Council members] was that this was clearly understood."

He said he thought he had "been as open as I could [about TAC's plans] within the bounds of being sensitive to the [fact that we are] in the middle of a war in Anglicanism" and surrounded by "people who have indicated they will oppose us..."

Hepworth said the consecrations of Chislett and Moyer respond to "the persistent and determined refusal of the Anglican Communion to address the persecution of traditional Anglican believers." Both FIF and TAC plainly have a particular concern about pressure over women's ordination, a break from apostolic order which they believe is as much a salvation issue as homosexual practice, since it creates a doubt about Holy Communion and other sacraments administered by female priests. Meanwhile, bishops who "flaunt their lack of belief and...defiance of moral law are treated as heroes," Hepworth commented.

The TAC "has been urged to do nothing" or to delay the consecrations, he said. "I have noted that there has been no delay by any other part of the church. Liberal appointments continue unabated. At the Evangelical end of the Anglican spectrum, Nigeria and Uganda continue to plant parishes in the U.S. Only those whose dreams include unity between Rome and Canterbury are urged to do nothing. And yet unity was the dream of Jesus on the night before the Passion."

END