Episcopal Church's rift has asset edge

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PITTSBURGH -- The unmentioned word here at "Hope and a Future," a gathering of 2,500 conservative Episcopalians, is "money."

Now that some church split seems virtually assured over the 2003 consecration of openly homosexual New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson, the fight will be over how the Episcopal Church will divide its assets.

The Anglican Communion Network (ACN) has a team of six lawyers on call. The Episcopal House of Bishops, in turn, has a 10-member "property task force" in the works.

The ACN, a consortium of dioceses, bishops, laity and clergy representing more than 200,000 Episcopalians, organized this three-day conference at the David C. Lawrence Convention Center to rally the conservative troops.

"We've reversed Genesis," Bishop Keith Ackerman of Quincy, Ill., told the crowd about the recent actions on moral issues by the Episcopal Church of the USA (ECUSA). "We've brought chaos out of order. We've created God in our own image."

Two African archbishops counseled conservatives to hold firm in their battles with the ECUSA, which also threatens to split the worldwide Anglican Communion.

"We're with you all the way," Nigerian Archbishop Peter J. Akinola said in his speech. Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda also spoke yesterday.

Nineteen bishops from both U.S. sides met in July in Los Angeles to discuss ways to divide assets. Although Washington Bishop John B. Chane threatened a walkout if anyone divulged what was discussed, Bishop Robinson revealed details about the gathering in a Sept. 23 interview with the Associated Press.

Several bishops were "livid" about Bishop Robinson's disclosures, according to a Sept. 28 story in the Living Church, an Episcopal publication.

At stake in the dispute are millions, if not billions, of dollars in real estate, endowments, pension funds and investments involved in a denomination founded in 1789.