In 1977 a group of American Episcopalians, acting in resistance to the ordination

of women and to the revision of the Book of Common Prayer (see Firing Line #S171), broke away and formed a new entity, called the Anglican Church in North America. The ACNA soon split, and the following year one of the offshoots, the Anglican Catholic Church, consecrated four bishops, among them Robert Morse. Mr. Vree outlines the reasons for the schism ("Sometimes we say to them [conservatives who have remained in the Episcopal Church], 'We go to prepare a place for you.' " Is the breakaway church a nostalgic splinter group? Not at all, says Bishop Morse: "I would say we are part of an avant-garde movement--I mean, we hope we are in the tradition of the excitement of someone like Pope John Paul II or Solzhenitsyn. There is a great shakeout of orthodox Christians taking place, and if you can reach the Episcopalian, who is a very interesting

minority in American life, of a certain decision-making class-- . . . if we can excite your Episcopalian with orthodox Christianity, we hope that with this we will begin a renewal of the reunion of Eastern and Western Christendom--Orthodox, Roman Catholics, and Anglicans."