So the PB believes that orthodox priests and bishops who have fled TEC's apostasies, heresies and pan-sexualities are akin to a deposed bishop and murderous thugs in Harare.

This is hubris beyond hubris. On hearing the news, outraged Episcopal bishops exploded.

The Rt. Rev. William Wantland, former Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Eau Claire and Assisting Bishop in the Diocese of Ft. Worth, opined, "It is tragic that Dr. [Jefferts] Schori would make such an untrue and irresponsible statement. It is the Diocese of San Joaquin and others like it that have had their property rights attacked, and countless orthodox parishes which have had their property seized by the minions of Dr. [Jefferts] Schori, often to be sold to Muslim groups, or even turned to secular use to prevent these congregations from worshipping in their church buildings. One must remember that it is orthodox Anglicans in Zimbabwe who are the victims, just as here in the U.S. If anyone is copying Mugabe, it is [Jefferts] Schori. "

The Rt. Rev. Dr Bill Atwood, Bishop of the International Diocese Anglican Church in North America and who is affiliated with the Anglican Province of Kenya remarked, "I will respond to her ridiculous claims with the philosophical and theological depth they deserve: 'We're rubber and you're glue. Bounce off us and stick to you.'"

The Rt. Rev. Jack Iker of the Diocese of Ft. Worth observed, "Not only is this an outrageous comparison to make, but it is a blatant misrepresentation of the truth. The Presiding Bishop should apologize for attempting to intentionally mislead people about the real situation in Fort Worth. Nobody has been denied access to their church home, on either side of the division."

The murders, beatings and state-sanctioned violence suffered by Anglicans in Harare under the Mugabe regime are akin to the discomforts faced by Episcopalians loyal to the national Church who reside in dioceses that have departed for the Anglican Church in North America, trumpeted Jefferts Schori.

This is not the first time the Presiding Bishop has made such odious comparisons. When she rose at the ACC conference in Jamaica in 2009 to complain, among other things, that a moratorium should be imposed on TEC, she said it would enable congregations leaving TEC to "alienate their property."

During the debate on the Anglican Covenant in Kingston, the Bishop of Peru, the Rt Rev William Godfrey, urged the ACC to take up the question of the property lawsuits in the US. "When good and godly men choose to set aside" the Biblical injunction not to take their disputes to court, "we must ask why."

The Anglican Communion "must put everything that is a problem on the table" for discussion, Bishop Godfrey added.

Jefferts Schori responded that "the reality is that those who have sought to remove property" from the control of the national Episcopal Church are the problem.

As usual, nothing could be further from the truth. One of the key principles set out in the appendix to the Dar es Salaam Statement required both parties "to give assurances that no steps will be taken to alienate property from the Episcopal Church without its consent or to deny use of that property to those congregations." Fearing a mutiny, the Archbishop of Canterbury called all parties to take a step back from what they were doing - "that we owe it to the Lord of our Church to do so."

The sad fact is the Episcopal Church is the aggressor in its legal (property) battles in the US unlike the Zimbabwean Anglicans who are the true victims in the hands of a despotic bishop.

The real truth is that Katharine Jefferts Schori has more in common with the state-supported renegade Dr. Nolbert Kunonga than with the persecuted victims of Kunonga.

END