(AgapePress) - Orthodox Episcopalians at the "A Place to Stand" conference in Dallas have unveiled their official "call to action" statement. It falls short of a call to break away from the main denomination.

The mainstream press has been poised to say members of the American Anglican Council are leaving the Episcopal Church. But AAC president Canon David Anderson made it clear to those at the conference that was not going to happen. To those Episcopalians outraged with their denomination's approval of an openly homosexual bishop, he had these words: "Don't jump ship until we can get the lifeboats in place."

Anderson told conservative Anglicans they are "standing on the fulcrum of history," and pleaded with them to remain patient in this time of crisis.

"Wait out the night with us. We need every man and woman here, every orthodox believer at home. Don't leave -- the fight is just beginning," Anderson said.

"God did not prepare you and bless you and equip you with both natural and supernatural gifts in order to go into battle and run for safety. This is your hour; this is your destiny; this is your church. We are the legitimate Episcopal Church of our fathers and mothers."

Anderson emphatically dispelled the idea of becoming a parallel province to the Episcopal Church.

"We are the rightful heirs of all the culture, legacy, and faith of the Episcopal Church," he stated to applause. "The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, and the 60-plus bishops and the majority of the deputies disregarded holy scripture's plain meaning, disregarded the doctrine and discipline of the church's 2,000 years' experience, disregarded the global Anglican family's plea to stop."

That disregard by the church's leadership, Anderson said, has left the Episcopal Church "shattered and shipwrecked." He stated that the decisions made in support of same-sex blessing ceremonies and the confirmation of an openly homosexual bishop had two effects: they pulled the presiding bishop and much of the clergy and lay leadership out of the global Anglican tradition, and "slapped the family in the face with an arrogant disregard for family relationships."

Following Anderson's address, thousands of traditionalist Episcopalians rushed to sign a "call to action" statement proclaiming the Great Commission as their highest calling and repudiating the actions of their national church. Thousands of Episcopalians have already signed on to a statement calling on the leadership of the Episcopal Church to "repent and reverse" their unbiblical actions.

Members of ECUSA Still Must Make Choice
Earlier in the conference, an Episcopal bishop told conservative members of his denomination that they have a choice between being a biblical fundamentalist or a "constitution and canons" fundamentalist.

Ten years ago, Keith Ackerman was the last traditionalist bishop to be elected in the Episcopal Church USA. He was approved by one vote -- the bare minimum. But recently, an openly homosexual man -- Vicki Gene Robinson -- was approved of bishop of New Hampshire by a much wider margin than was Ackerman.

Ackerman says contrary to what the left-wing hierarchy of the Episcopal Church believes, no one has been given the authority to revise scripture. And the "interesting" times we live in today call for strong commitment from believers, he says.

"You and I, we are not the Savior," he says, "but we are called to a living relationship with the Lord Jesus, who is our Savior [and] who not only laid down His life but shed His blood, dying upon the cross for our sins, rising from the dead to open the Kingdom of Heaven to us, and will return again."

Speaking to Episcopalians at the "A Place to Stand" conference wrapping up today in Dallas, the Quincy, Illinois, bishop said those in the church cannot ask the Anglican world leaders -- or anyone else -- to rescue them from the crisis their denomination is undergoing. The only one who can rescue them, he says, is Jesus.

"Beloved in Christ, you go back to the 'well of life.' Jesus is not a way, Jesus is not a truth, Jesus is not a life -- Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the Father but by Him."

Ackerman says conservative Episcopalians must be willing to step out in faith in whatever they do, which he says involves listening to those who are in constant prayer.

Learn from Third World Evangelicals
Meanwhile, an orthodox Episcopal minister says conservatives in his denomination they need to learn from Anglican leaders in the Global South.

In the past, calls for fraternal correction within the Anglican Communion have been ignored. But with the onslaught of biblical revisionism taking place within the Episcopal Church USA, traditionalist leaders believe that trend may soon change. One of those leaders, Canon Bill Atwood, says Anglican primates from Third World countries realize they cannot be in a position of condoning evil.

"The Global South has a different view than the Western industrial nations," Atwood says. "Their faith is biblical; they embrace absolute truth. Their faith is evangelical; it seeks conversion. Their faith is collaborative; and it calls for consultation."

Atwood says Anglican leaders from the Global South are rightly separating from what he calls "post-modern liberal revisionist plura-form moral relativists" in the church. The enormous tension rising in the Anglican Communion, he says, needs to be confronted.

"In the Global South, they see that the unthinkable has happened -- and that is, that the church is being complicit in leading people away from the redeeming love of Christ. And that is exactly antithetical to what we're supposed to be doing," the minister says. "We're supposed to be bringing people to the redeeming love of Christ, not leading them away."

According to Atwood, those leaders in the Global South can and must address this issue because they are people of evangelical faith. They believe the Episcopal Church must become fully, biblically faithful, he says -- or a new ECUSA will have to emerge.

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