What we will have a freshly charged folks, looking to grow and free of the toxic leadership of years past.

Yes, just keep believing that Michael, since we know that all of the evidence suggests that waves and waves of new people are breaking down the doors of TEC parishes everywhere - especially in those dioceses like Newark that have been rid of pesky conservatives for years.  You should really have a chat with TEC’s statistics keepers though, because they seem to be missing this massive new growth.  And perhaps you might also give a call up to the Bishop of the Diocese of British Columbia and tell him that he has all the wrong statistics and that he no churches need to be closed down and sold due to all of these new members.  Perhaps you could also call my own diocesan HQ and let them know that all of their talk about financial crisis due to alarming drops in membership is just silly talk and the best course of action is to insert their heads deep into the sand.  Heh, it worked for Baghdad Bob right????  Didn’t it?

With my tongue in my cheek, let me say that there was no one from Truro Church hanging around Ridley Hall when the Covenant group were here working on the Ridley Cambridge draft last year. On a more serious note, the make up the Covenant Design Group was significantly diverse, represented a breadth of the Communion, and wrestled to come up with the draft that they did. It has been a strategy in recent years to imply something long enough, despite all evidence to the contrary, in the hope that in due course people will start to believe the assertion is true.

In the DCNY, the diocese took control of seven parish buildings (four church buildings and three rectories), they’ve sold three church buildings and two rectories and to my knowledge have the other two for sale.  The only “positive” is that they have accumulated some cash.  Given the poor income from the remaining DCNY parishes the outlook is not good.  Since 2003 the DCNY has lost tens of thousands of dollars in assessments, they’ve looked bad in suing congregations, and there are few really positive stories out of any of this.  pecusa’s future looks bleak, not only in the DCNY, but in the many dioceses that TitusOneNine highlights regularly.  The CP and liberals can play power games, the ACNA will instead serve Christ and His gospel.  Michael, you can have the empty churches and dwindling congregations.

btw, I would guess that the DCNY has spent more in legal fees since 2003 than they collected from the sale of church buildings.  Brilliant action not only in the DCNY, but all over pecusa.