Free Republic

<p>Episcopal Church officials yesterday announced a $3 million shortfall in the church's 2004 budget, caused chiefly by parishes and dioceses withholding funds to protest the ordination of a homosexual bishop.</p> <p>The shortfall equals 6 percent of the $48 million in revenue the church had expected this year. Church officials, according to documents obtained by The Washington Times, have revised the budget to $45.1 million.</p>

A man from Wilsonville makes the difficult decision to leave the Episcopalian Church after it consecrates an openly gay bishop The Marine Corps has left its mark on Robert W. Hawkins. He stands, even sits, straight and tall. His graying hair is trimmed close to his head. When he speaks, it is with an abiding sense of authority and that, he'll tell you, is the root of the problem. Hawkins, 48, a resident of Wilsonville and a former major in the Marines, is now a former Episcopalian. He's made the painful decision to walk away from the church that he...

<p>PLANO, Texas — Dissident Episcopalians upset over the consecration of a gay bishop formed an unprecedented national protest group Tuesday — a network of conservatives who pledged to work with each other and oppose church leadership.</p> <p>Yet the creation of the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes stopped short of a schism with the Episcopal Church, raising the prospect of church-by-church fights for authority and control.</p>

<p>PLANO, Texas — Today, a founding group of more than 100 conservative Episcopal leaders will adopt a charter "to give hope to the orthodox of the Episcopal Church, with some sense there is a future."</p> <p>The closed-door meeting, essentially a constitutional convention to create a "church within a church" for theologically orthodox Episcopalians, will also elect officers, a steering committee and draw up plans for various bishops to offer "adequate Episcopal oversight" to conservative congregations that request it.</p>

<p>Episcopal conservatives, making good on their threats to form an ecclesiastical and legal shelter for theologically orthodox believers, meet today and tomorrow in a Dallas suburb to hammer out the details.</p> <p>About 120 people, including bishops and representatives from 12 dioceses, will gather at Christ Episcopal Church in Plano to draw a charter for a "Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes."</p>