The other two bishops in the news briefing included: Eleanor Sanderson, the bishop assistant of Wellington. She is one of five women bishops in New Zealand. Archbishop Ng Moon Hing, the former primate of South East Asia, participated in the briefing.

A question came up from one of the reporters about clericalism in the church.

The Presiding Bishop answered: "When the self gets in the center and Jesus is pushed out, the church is just another organization among many others."

Unbeknownst to him, and probably unwittingly, he described exactly what is going on in The Episcopal Church -- Jesus has been pushed out of The Episcopal Church and the church has become "just another organization among many others."

Jesus is spoken about and Michael Curry talks about, what he describes as, the Jesus Movement. But Jesus is not in the room, just His Name is bantered about.

"I love the Episcopal Church. I was baptized in it according to the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. I love it, there's no question about that," the Episcopal Presiding Bishop told the gathered reporters. "But it's not good enough just to be The Episcopal Church. It's not good enough. We need to be the Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement. Jesus began a movement of people whose lives were centered on Him. His way of love, His way of life became their way of life. They changed the world in the First Century. If it happened for them in the First Century it can happen for us in the 21st Century."

What has replaced the Person of Jesus in the room is the cult of self ... self's desire for sexual gratification; self's laser focus on the trinity of self-aggrandizement of diversity, inclusion, and equality at all costs including the self-destruction of The Episcopal Church.

Michael Curry is one who is pushing hard to be all inclusive and all embracive at all costs.

"We in the Anglican Communion live with a plurality of views on marriage," he said in a separate statement supporting same-sex marriage. "That there is what might be called 'a traditional view of marriage between a man and a woman,' and that view is held probably by the majority, certainly, of Anglican churches around the world and probably Anglicans--but that there is another view equally to be respected: a view that includes and embraces same-sex couples who seek the blessing of God on their loving relationships, their commitments and their families."

This focus on self has been on full display at Lambeth. Six lesbian and gay bishops from the United States, Canada, and Wales, along with an Episcopal bishop-elect, showed up in England, bringing their bed partners with them.

As functioning bishops in the Anglican Communion, they were formally invited to participate in Lambeth Conference however with the clear understanding that their "spouses" were to remain home. The bishops and bishopettes moaned and groaned about how they were being discriminated against.

"The Lambeth Conference made, I think, a Faustian deal with somebody that the spouses of LGBTQ bishops who were explicitly not invited -- we're not going to be sleeping in the same room. It's third-grade. It's not a very mature outlook on things," Mary Glasspool (New York-assistant) complained to the Episcopal News Service when she had to find separate sleeping accommodations for her "wife."

Lambeth's prohibition was ignored. The lesbian and gay bishops put self first over and above the expressed desire of Lambeth Conference organizers, and brought their "spouses" with them.

The same thing happened 14 years ago when Bishop Vicky Gene Robinson (IX New Hampshire) put self first. He was expressly not invited to Lambeth, yet he showed up at Lambeth to make his presence known and hawk his gay agenda. Now there are four more homosexuals in the Episcopal House of Bishops with another gay about to join it.

"It's a big deal to be invited (to Lambeth)," Thomas Brown (X Maine) said. "The presence of LGBTQ people throughout the world required, it seems to me, that the Archbishop of Canterbury reckon with the fact that LGBTQ people are part of our church and they're part of our faith communities, and they are proclaiming the gospel."

However, the "gospel" they are proclaiming is not the Gospel of Christ.

Bishop Brown's "husband," Thomas Mousin, himself an Episcopal priest, was not invited to Lambeth, but that didn't deter him from accompanying his gay bishop "husband" to Lambeth.

"I feel like I'm going to this conference fortified by my experience ... that it doesn't feel like those two aspects of my life are in conflict with one another at all," Fr. Mousin told the Portland Press Herald, a Maine newspaper. "I can be a faithful Christian, a priest, and openly gay and in a committed relationship."

Upon arriving at Canterbury, the Six-Pack of bishops were feted by a mini Pride parade even before Lambeth was called to order. The arriving bishops marched in support of full LGBT+ inclusion in Canterbury and in solitary with their brother and sister bishops in rainbow shirts.

Another showdown between self and the historic biblical teachings came over the attempt to reaffirm Lambeth 1:10, the 1998 Resolution declaring traditional marriage is between a man and a woman until death; that homosexual practice is rejected as incompatible with Scripture; and the legitimizing or blessing of same-sex unions is ill advised as is the ordination of those involved in same-gender relationships.

When the Lambeth Call on Human Dignity -- the latest term for human sexuality -- called for the reaffirmation of Lambeth 1:10 as the definitive understanding of Christian marriage, those who embrace and support and encourage the woke trinity of diversity, inclusion, and equality were furious that traditional marriage should be considered the gold standard in the Anglican Communion.

In the end, both the traditional Global South bishops supporting Lambeth 1:10 and the woke Global North bishops rejecting Lambeth 1:10 ended up putting out separate and competing communiques.

Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline