Things are in such turmoil that what would ordinarily be a milestone, the election of the first female leader of the ECUSA, Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, is quite overshadowed by the prevailing sense that she isn't going to be able to keep her church off the rocks.
Twenty-five years ago, fundamentalists stepped up their drive to take over the leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention. A lot of liberal Baptists left, many joining the Episcopalian Church. Now we see the trend playing out in reverse, in the Episcopalian Church. Baptist churches split all the time, thanks to their de-centralized leadership, but it's a big deal when a more hierarchically structured church like the Anglicans split. Not the least factor, as in any messy divorce, is money--who's going to own the buildings, the furnishings, the income?
The English Established Church... will more readily pardon an attack on 38 of its 39 articles than on 1/39 of its income.
-- Karl Marx, Capital
Trivia: my own denomination celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of ordination of female ministers this year. It's been in general decline for a generation or two now, but not because of them, per se.
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