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PLANO, Texas - Conservative Episcopalians are gathering today to establish an unprecedented nationwide organization to unite opponents of last year's consecration of their denomination's first openly gay bishop.
Activists say the new Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes won't be a breakaway denomination or schism but rather a "church within a church." Nonetheless, it's a potentially serious challenge to Episcopal Church leaders.
The two-day meeting to form the network involves bishops, clergy and lay delegates from 12 dioceses representing 235,000 members, a tenth of the nation's Episcopalians.
The network's temporary leader, Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, says the meeting will give the denomination's traditionalist wing "some sense there is a future."
The American Anglican Council, which helped organize the group, has denied that the network's goal is to be a replacement for the Episcopal Church. That claim started in a confidential network memo that was leaked to the media last week.
Delegates at the meeting plan to adopt an organizational charter, elect leaders and debate how to help conservatives in liberal dioceses. Observers and reporters are barred from the meeting.
The network has been tightlipped about most details, including who wrote the charter draft and what it proposes. Plans were fashioned up to the last minute.
Some leaders in the church have spoken out against the group, including Bishop Don Johnson of Memphis. He vowed to work against those he says want to "sabotage" and "destroy" the church.
The Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of the international Anglican Communion - bodies that trace their heritage back to the Church of England. Many national Anglican churches have denounced or broken fellowship with the Episcopal Church over the consecration last November of V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay cleric, as bishop of New Hampshire.
Still, one of the reasons conservative parishes won't bolt is that under secular law they usually surrender their properties to the denomination. The Rev. Donald Armstrong from Colorado Springs, Colo., a delegate representing Midwestern and mountain states, says, "We've got a $12-million facility and we can't just walk away from it."
The Episcopal Church's national leader, Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, has proposed a plan for special visiting bishops to minister to conservative parishes. American Anglican Council leaders have rejected Griswold's system, however, because decisions would rest with liberal bishops they distrust.