This action has come about after repeated unsuccessful requests by the Standing Committee urging Bennison to resign as bishop because of his inept running of the diocese and allegations that millions of dollars were spent on Camp Wapiti without approval of the diocese, while parishes close and diocesan staff is being laid off.

More than 150 clergy and delegates met at Grace Church in Galesburg, Illinois and passed the following five resolutions.

Said Bishop Ackerman to VOL:

1. We reaffirmed our constitution that we must endeavor in all things to maintain unity with the See of Canterbury and the Anglican Communion.

This is, after all, New Orleans where good days are hard to find and where America's worst natural disaster is barely a year old. A number of Episcopal churches are still digging out from heavy water inundation; tens of thousands of homes are being rehabilitated, half the population has still not returned and government bureaucracy ties up progress and sin in the streets, runs rampant.

"Those who are the harshest critics of the leadership of the Church might well ponder the first chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans in its entirety. Paul's concern to show the need that all have for new life in Jesus Christ brings an indictment of sin that includes each of us. Yes, Paul condemns the hot sins of the flesh as the outgrowth of idolatry, but he condemns no less the cold sins of the human spirit: gossip, slander, those who are heartless and ruthless.