From an email sent by the ANGLICAN CHURCH IN AMERICA

Diocese of the Northeast

CATHEDRAL OF ST. PAUL

279 Congress Street, Portland, Maine 04101, (207)828-2012

The Rt. Rev. George D. Langberg, Bishop



TRADITIONAL ANGLICANS MOURN EPISCOPAL CHURCH, WILL HOLD REQUIEM MASS

Actions taken by the recently-concluded General Convention of the
Episcopal Church USA have prompted the Traditional Anglican Communion's
Bishop of the Northeast to declare a period of mourning "in observance
of the death of the Episcopal Church," concluding with a Requiem Mass
to be held at St Paul's Cathedral in Portland next Wednesday.

Bishop George D. Langberg of the Anglican Church in America cited
Resolution D058, which proposed that the Episcopal Church declare "its
unchanging commitment to Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the only name
by which any person may be saved," and that it "renew our dedication to
be faithful witnesses to all persons of the saving love of God
perfectly and uniquely revealed in Jesus and upheld by the full
testimony of Holy Scripture." The resolution was rejected by the
Convention.

"Now combine that," continued Bishop Langberg, "with the new
Bishopess-elect's statement (in her homily at the Convention's
concluding Eucharist) that 'Our mother Jesus gives birth to a new
creation'. I don't know what religion she represents, but I know it
isn't Christianity. The Episcopal Church many of us knew and loved is
obviously dead, although we can probably expect the corpse to be around
until the money runs out."

At Mass this week, the Very Rev. Lester E. York, Dean of the Anglican
Cathedral of St. Paul said, "What was once a great part of Christ's
Church here on Earth has become now nothing but a wealthy cult. No one
can sit on the fence after these actions. Either you worship man, or
you worship Christ. The Episcopal Church can no longer be considered
Christian."

Many members of the Anglican Church in America, the American component
of the worldwide Traditional Anglican Communion, are former
Episcopalians who left the church, some of them a generation ago, over
doctrinal and worship-related issues. The Communion has member churches
in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia/New
Zealand and is seeking intercommunion with the Vatican. It stands with
the historic Church of England in its obedience to Scripture and its
adherence to the three orthodox creeds of Christendom, and its worship
follows the Book of Common Prayer of 1662 (England) and 1928 (America).

"The time has come when the faithful who clung to the hope that their
church would see the light and submit its will to Christ must now
realize that the Episcopal Church they once knew no longer exists. Our
doors are open to them and to all who have been made spiritually
homeless by the death of their church," Bishop Langberg concluded. Dean
York will lead the Requiem Mass for the Episcopal Church at the
Anglican Cathedral of St. Paul on Wednesday June 28th at 5:30 PM. "The
church body that was so dear to many of us is dead," finished Father
York. "It deserves at least a decent burial."