I am convinced that yelling at each other, and demeaning each other publicly or privately, will not bring about the effect that I am looking for in my Episcopal Church. The best of political and procedural maneuvers will not be satisfying. What is the use of a convention floor victory gained by only 1 vote? Or even 20?

If only to clarify for both liberals and conservatives our foundation and basic beliefs, we will need to have moments when we can share openly. To only throw stones is to miss the strategic value of the truism, "Know thine enemy." For then you can pray and work specifically for the changes you believe are of God.

I can't leave, either. I want to be obedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
The Rev. Robert G. Eaton
St. John's Episcopal Church
Tulare, California

As an Episcopalian for more than 30 years, I watched my denomination gradually accept nonbiblical teachings, then antibiblical teachings, and then observed the purveyors thereof seizing power and demanding compliance.

I watched the notorious Bishop John Shelby Spong deny every major tenet of the faith and receive no sanction or punishment. I am now watching the church openly persecute its conservative members, to the point where more than 8,000 have quit in the past two years, including more than 70 of its clergy. Sadly, I too have had to leave my denomination, ...