----- Original Message -----

Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2000 1:10 PM

Subject: Ordinations in Singapore

Just want you to know that regardless of what happens this week, YOU are my Bishop. YOU are the "Defender of the Faith" in this diocese which includes many who would be excluded from full participation in the life of this church by Chuck Murphy and his followers. Money, real estate and political power must not be allowed to separate ANYONE from the oneness of God...including the thousands of gay and lesbian Christians in this diocese.

It is readily acknowledged by all who understand what happened in Singapore last week that the targets of Chuck Murphy and his supporters are the millions of voiceless gay and lesbian Christians in the Anglican Communion worldwide. The message of these exclusionists is not one of love, it is one of hatred. This message says to one group of Christians that they are not entitled to God's Grace unless they change who they are and submit to living the lies that make straight Christians comfortable. God's Grace knows no such limitation!

Bishop Salmon, please do not allow this heretical cancer begun in Singapore to spread into South Carolina. There is a big difference between making room for dissent and making room for a bloodless coup. Pay no attention to those who warn you of drawing a line in the sand. The line was drawn by Chuck Murphy and his followers last year and was crossed by him with his ordination in Singapore.

In my remarks to last year's Diocesan Convention I said that the Lambeth-based resolutions which we were considering at that meeting were nothing less than a Trojan Horse and that inside that Trojan horse were the leaders of the First Promise Movement. The 1999 Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina opened the gates of the city to the people inside that horse by supporting the exclusionist resolutions they sponsored. This week you stand alone at the gate. The decision of whether to allow that Trojan Horse to enter this diocese and destroy it is yours alone.

There is no right or wrong answer to this dilemma and I do not envy your role as the authority in these matters, but everything that I have been taught by this church that we both love so much tells me that we must ALWAYS err on the side of inclusiveness. My prayers are with you and your family this week.