Tomorrow, 50 Episcopal bishops are expected to consecrate Gene Robinson, the world's first divorced, openly homosexual man as a bishop of a major Christian denomination at a New Hampshire ice hockey rink, because an expected crowd of 6,000 can't fit in a church.

Robinson has said he might step down, if asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury, but then adds, "The only thing that could sway me would be if I heard a personal call from God to step aside."

That's unlikely. He enjoys his notoriety too much. Last week, the Archbishop of Canterbury held an extraordinary session with 39 "primates" (national leaders of the Anglican Communion) who represent 80 million Anglicans around the world, only two million of whom are US Episcopalians.

All 39 signed a statement affirming the "moral force" of a 1998 resolution agreed to by nine out of ten of the world's Anglican bishops (527-69) that "homosexuality is incompatible with Scripture."

They "deeply" regretted the actions of the Episcopal Church "to alter unilaterally the teaching of the Anglican Communion on this issue."

They warned that "if this consecration proceeds, we recognise... that the future of the Communion itself will be put in jeopardy... Many provinces are likely to consider themselves to be out of Communion with the Episcopal Church. This will tear the fabric of our Communion at its deepest level."

Yet Frank Griswold, the American Presiding Bishop, who signed that statement, will be leading the service to consecrate a gay bishop. He stands on both sides.

"It is almost impossible to imagine that a majority of bishops in one of the fastest dying provinces in the Anglican Communion could look with such utter contempt at the Anglican Communion and the overwhelming numbers against them, mock the world's leaders at numerous primatial gatherings, defy listening to the voices of their own people and proceed to do that which Scripture forbids.

It is the ultimate triumph of experience over revelation," writes David Virtue on his website, virtuosityonline.org. What will be the result?

First, perhaps 20 of the 38 provinces will no longer recognise the Episcopal Church. As a South American primate, the Most Rev. Gregory Venables put it, the consecration amounts to a "declaration of independence" by the US church.

The Anglican Communion has been living with two different views of Christianity for 25 years; it is time for a permanent parting of the ways. Archbishop Akinola, the vigourous primate of Nigeria who oversees 18 million black Anglicans, six times the weekly church attendance of America, Canada and England combined, asserts, "We do not have to go through Canterbury to go to God."

These events will splinter the Episcopal Church. Eight or more entire dioceses will declare their affiliation with orthodox Anglicans. They don't say they're leaving the Episcopal Church, since its apostate leaders abandoned them.

"I will not lead this diocese out of the Anglican Communion," said Bishop Bruce MacPherson of Western Louisiana... This diocese will follow the Archbishop of Canterbury and historic Anglicanism."

The Dioceses of Pittsburgh, South Carolina, Central Florida, Springfield and Quincy, IL, Fort Worth, Rio Grande (NM) and possibly Albany, Northern Indiana, San Diego, North Dakota and Dallas may take a similar stand.

Dallas Bishop James Stanton says his diocese has reduced funding the national headquarters "from $512,000 to zero....I am at peace, but greatly saddened."

Hundreds of conservative local congregations in liberal dioceses are likely to follow. Anticipating these developments, the primates pledged "to make adequate episcopal oversight of dissenting minorities within their own area of pastoral care in consultation with the Archbishop of Canterbury on behalf of the primates."

To facilitate the exodus, the American Anglican Council has created an application for churches seeking orthodox episcopal oversight on its website, www.americananglican. Revisionist bishops are fighting back.

Parishes which vote to exit are told they must leave their properties behind. So far, bishops have won every lawsuit. Orthodox Episcopalians are not intimidated. Indeed, 2,736 conservatives - including 47 bishops and 811 priests - attended a rally in Dallas which emboldened them.

"Our church will not follow the lead of bishops who have made the decision to legitimate the practice of homosexuality. We have started putting aside $200,000 we have been giving the diocese," says Dr. John Yates of the Falls Church where George Washington was once a vestryman.

Three other vibrant Northern Virginia parishes are doing the same. How many lawsuits can Virginia Bishop take on?

"It will be messy, like the past. It will be missionary, like the future," says Pittsburgh Bishop Bob Duncan. "It will demand our best: charity and trust and patience and courage."