Message from Bishop David Anderson       Bishop Anderson Beloved in Christ, Apparently the quintessentially uber-liberal Episcopal parish of All Saints, Pasadena, California has received more negative feedback recently than they are used to. All Saints, the home base for gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgendered-confused-and-anything-bizarre ministry on the far left edge of the liberal Diocese of Los Angeles (which is on the far left edge of the liberal state of California), has prided itself on ripping open the envelope of orthodox Christian faith and practice, first under former rector George Regas, and now Ed Bacon, who is the present incumbent. All Saints is active in community ecumenical relations but with a strongly "progressive" bent, so it is hard to be surprised when All Saints, Ed Bacon or his staff do something that treads on other people's comfort zone. Their present plans are to host a Muslim convention in their church - in holy and blessed space consecrated to the worship of Jesus Christ - and welcome some Muslims whose relationship to Islamist organizations is questionable.

From the Huffington Post: "Salam al-Marayati, president of MPAC [Muslim Public Affairs Council], explained the idea behind reaching out to All Saints as a venue:  'We wanted to provide an alternative model of positive Muslim-Christian relations ... in light of all the negativity surrounding Christians making nasty films about the prophet and Egyptian courts threatening Christians,' al-Marayati told HuffPost Wednesday." Muslim leaders and groups love to be invited into Christian churches to "tell their story," and speak from the pulpit, but I don't remember Christian leaders being invited to speak at Friday Prayers at the mosques around the country. The real irony is that if the Muslim Islamists ever do gain sufficient control of this country to install Sharia law, All Saints' Church might likely become All Martyrs' Mosque, and the gay rights activists of the community such as the Rev. Ed Bacon and his associate, Rev. Susan Russell, might find themselves on the wrong side of Sharia Law - the side that exterminates behavior they don't approve of.  I hope that doesn't happen, because it would be a bad day for all of us, Christian, Jew and Muslim. Now from the left coast to the first coast, and South Carolina. We are aware that the Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop, Katherine Jefferts Schori, is planning on a visit in January to Charleston so the remaining Episcopal Church (TEC) congregations can have a diocesan convention and elect the bishop Jefferts Schori has already chosen. The TEC game plan looks surprisingly like identity theft in the ecclesiastical domain. The TEC supporters gather together and have a convention, elect a new Standing Committee (which has also already been chosen for them) and a bishop, and then claim that they are the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, direct and unbroken from colonial times. They will use the existing Diocesan Seal, and will represent themselves to banks, insurance companies and all others as the actual and real Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina. Bishop Mark Lawrence will protest that no, he is the real bishop and his Standing Committee is the real Standing Committee of the Diocese of South Carolina, but it quickly begins to look like a television game show of a generation ago, where several people all claimed to be a certain person, and the contestants had to ask questions and figure out who was the real Professor of Pottery from Iowa. The difference is that that was a game show, meant to amuse, but in South Carolina, the legitimate diocese under Bishop Lawrence has the fight of its life on its hands. Regarding the insurance on the buildings and property, who is the lawful beneficiary? Regarding the bank accounts, what happens when the faux diocese presents signed signature cards and its convention's corporate resolutions? Some of this will wind up fairly quickly in court, using the "True Church" question - asking a court to determine which body is the lawful body. The Lawrence diocese will hope for a favorable ruling in state court, and will wish to rely on the previous South Carolina State Supreme Court ruling which declared the "Dennis Canon" null and void. For Jefferts Schori, this could be a difficult field to fight on, unless she opens a New York vs. South Carolina battle in Federal court, hoping to find the necessary grounds and attempting to bypass the State Supreme Court ruling. It will be both heartbreaking and tormenting to see how and when she commences her cannonade of Charleston and whether the historical Diocese of South Carolina can raise the money to stay in court and fight through to the end. Sooner or later, the Presiding Bishop of Ecclesiastical Litigation will overreach so far that she fails; I pray that it is now, and that an orthodox and catholic Anglicanism can be preserved from her grasp. Blessings and peace in Christ Jesus, +David The Rt. Rev. David C. Anderson, Sr. President and CEO, American Anglican Council