The church - one of two Episcopal congregations in Modesto - owes $150,000 to the Fresno-based diocese, parishioners and clergy said. The closure is based on dwindling attendance - and giving - at the Carver Road church, which draws about 50 Sunday worshipers.

'For many years, (this church) donated a lot of capital to the diocese,' said Ken Hicks, 59, of Stockton, a vestryman. 'Now that they are in need to build it back up, the diocese has turned their back on us.'

John Sentamu and I first met twenty years ago in the Rank Room of Wesley Hall, Cambridge. He was in his final year at Ridley and I had just started at Westcott. The "induction" course of co-counselling and psycho-babble was in its second day.

Led by the Rev. Ian Tarrent, Anglican priest and senior chaplain to the University of Nottingham, the worship service was conducted with liturgy projected on a large screen. Texts included Acts 1:1-11, and a reading with the response, "waiting, waiting, waiting for the Spirit to come." The opening hymn was "Holy, Holy, Holy," and the prayers included a confession and absolution.

The honour of this high calling carries with it an equally high responsibility to proclaim the unchanging gospel in a changing world, to offer the hope of transformation through a relationship with Jesus Christ to a generation of spiritual seekers, and to work alongside the Archbishop of Canterbury to provide steady leadership to guard the historic faith of the Anglican Communion. We pledge Archbishop Sentamu our sincerest prayers.