Let's just agree that TEC and ACNA now represent such wildly differing perspectives that it is safe to say they are two separate religions, related to each other only by the misfortunate circumstance of having the same parent. Thankfully, ACNA and TEC have now made their cases with sharp contrast. Heretofore, some people were confused and thought there was common ground. The cause of that misperception is now corrected. Of course some will continue to find common ground after GC2009, but in the coming years that too will slip away.
One thing is for sure; a lot of people are not going to continue with ‘business as usual’ after the TEC General Convention just ended… kicking the can down the road as the 32 signatories to the letter are doing. Would that these 32 TEC bishops learn to think, speak and act with the clarity of either PB Schori or AB Duncan. They don’t think there is common ground, so why should anybody else? Vive la difference.
For nearly 10 years new Anglican churches, most of them with singleminded devotion to conservative theology and traditional family values, have been popping up all over the place. They are getting bigger and stronger by the week as Episcopal churches are getting smaller and weaker. Is GC2009 going to be the final straw that accelerates the trend? I think it will, but I’ve been wrong before.
Inevitably, the gulf between the two churches will widen. For example, TEC will now create liturgies for LGBT, and perhaps ACNA will return to liturgies from before 1979. How will such changes affect the relative growth rates? Only time will tell.