DALLAS, TX (AgapePress) - Conservative Episcopalians are renewing their commitment to Christ and repudiating the actions of their denomination's general convention.

Declaring and preparing -- that is the theme of this week's three-day "A Place to Stand" conference, hosted by Christ Church in Plano, Texas. The church's rector, David Roseberry, referred to the event as the greatest Anglican family reunion in his lifetime.

Roseberry urged the nearly 3,000 people in attendance to announce their solidarity with the bishops who stood against the consecration of homosexual Bishop V. Gene Robinson. The rector asserts that, as many in the Church believe, scripture clearly condemns homosexual activity.

"We are declaring that we believe the gospel of Jesus Christ as this church has received it," Roseberry said, describing the Bible as "sufficient, marvelous, true, life-giving," and something that "should not, under any circumstances imagined or unimaginable, ever be changed."

The rector told the packed crowd at the conference that a tremendous opportunity exists for Anglicans who are willing to stand against their denomination's rejection of the Bible's teaching.

"Today could begin one of the greatest missionary enterprises in the history of the Church: the conversion of the culture," Roseberry said. "We can today introduce a single word into the vocabulary of the North American church that could have immense ramifications for all time -- 'Obey.'"

On hand for the conference are 46 bishops, 46 deacons, 799 priests, 1,413 laypersons and 103 seminary students, who represent 600 parishes and 105 dioceses in the Episcopal Church USA (episcopalchurch.org). Members at the conference are drafting a resolution that calls on primates of the Anglican Communion to create a new alignment for Anglicanism in North America.

But some Episcopalians say the conference represents the rumblings of a rankled minority within the church. Rev. Dan Webster of the Episcopal Diocese of Utah told Associated Press that this week's meeting does not represent most Episcopalians.

"We live in ambiguity. That's what the Episcopal Church has been about for centuries," Webster says, "and now we are faced with a loud voice of a small group of people who want the Anglican Church to represent itself in one way."

According to the Utah clergyman, scripture is not necessarily to be taken at its word. "One of the things that I was always taught is that we love the Bible so much that we never take it literally," Webster says.

But while Webster and some in the ECUSA are suggesting that a small group of conservatives are attempting to divide the denomination, Bruce Mason, a spokesman for the American Anglican Council (americananglican.org), says that is not the case. He says the council sees the Episcopal Church USA leadership as having taken the actions that are potentially dividing the Anglican community worldwide -- something the Dallas gathering is trying to prevent.

Mason told Associated Press that one of the primary goals of the conference is to send an urgent appeal to the worldwide leaders of the Anglican Church. "We need them to create for us someplace that we can call home and stay a part of the Anglican Communion, whether that be a body like a province or something else," he said.

"What we're trying to do," Mason says, "is build a new unity in the Episcopal Church among Orthodox believers -- and by extension, with the rest of the Anglican Communion."

ECUSA Governed by Upper-Middle-Class 'Elites'

The president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy (ird-renew.org) (IRD) told the meeting of conservative Episcopalians they should be shocked but not surprised by the Episcopal Church's approval of an openly homosexual bishop; she says many signs pointed in this direction.

The IRD's Dianne Knippers told those gathered that the ECUSA's acceptance of a "cultural disaster" has contributed to the current rift in the Episcopal Church.

Noting that more than half of the children growing up in the U.S. today will spend a significant period of their childhood without the presence of their biological father, Knippers says it is no wonder Episcopalians across the U.S. are divided over the election of Bishop Robinson, a baby-boomer who left his wife and children for a homosexual partner.

The American Anglican Council board member says many things have contributed to the ECUSA's decision and its general stance on issues relating to homosexuality -- issues that are now dividing not only the denomination, but the international Anglican community.

Knippers says she could blame the current rift in the Episcopal Church on "reality TV" and sexually explicit shows like Sex and the City, but as a sociologist in training she points to a number of cultural factors. She says the Episcopal Church leadership is captive to a particular type of culture.

"Our church is governed by upper-middle-class American elites who came of age in the 60s and 70s. They listen to NPR, and they don't watch Fox News," she says. According to Knippers, nearly 90% of the diocesan bishops who voted on Gene Robinson's consecration were in seminary in the 60s and 70s, which she says is "not a good sign."

The conservative spokeswoman contends that when these leaders cut their ties from the doctrine of marriage, from basic Christian teaching about sexuality, and from core sources of authority, it was "a stunning display of the prevalent social values of American campuses 40 years ago."

A Call for Repentance

But rather than focusing on blame, Bishop Robert Duncan, vice president of the American Anglican Council, is challenging conservative Episcopalians to repent for their part in the sins of the denomination.

"All of us who have been a part of this church have done things from time to time that have actually contributed to us coming to this point -- not speaking up, not speaking clearly and teaching clearly out of the Bible," he says.

At the Dallas conference, Duncan told bishops, clergy, and lay attendees they must do more than simply state their objections to the consecration of a homosexual bishop. He said in addition to repenting before the Lord, Orthodox Episcopalians must reach out and offer God's "transforming love" to all homosexuals.

A Call for Unity

And Canon David Anderson, the American Anglican Council's president and CEO, issued an even more startling challenge -- one that many evangelicals might strongly oppose on biblical grounds. Anderson told traditional Episcopalians that they should provide "a safe and ongoing role" for those in the denomination who favor the ordination of celibate homosexual priests.

Although Anderson says all who value the authority of scripture must agree that the homosexual lifestyle should not be held up as a favorable example, he is quick to point out that homosexuals should not be shunned by the Episcopal Church. He says the church must be careful, in the midst of its concern over these controversial sexual issues, not to become "anti-gay."

"What we really want to be is a place where gay and lesbian people can find healing and wholeness and a restoration to the person that God intended them to be," Anderson says.

The American Anglican Council's leader added to this a call for unity within the church, asking Episcopalians, whether charismatic or evangelical, to put aside their differences and unite against growing apostasy in the denomination. He urged denomination members to lay aside disagreements over divisive issues such as the ordination of women and of homosexuals, and rally around a common loyalty.

"We are not without our tensions, and we acknowledge and own those tensions we live with. We are not minimizing them," Anderson said, "but we are saying for the sake of the gospel and in order to have the unity that is required for this kind of trial, we will work together, and we will live together under the sovereignty of Jesus Christ."

© 2003 Agape Press.