The efforts of conservative and evangelical Episcopalians to create a "network" within the Episcopal Church runs the very real risk of causing a schism - one that could tear the Anglican Communion apart. They say that they don't want to do that, but they also say that unless they get their way and eventually take over the Episcopalian leadership, they'll engage in widespread disobedience to church laws and decisions. In essence, they're talking out of both sides of their mouths and aren't being entirely forthright about what they intend.
Jane Lampman writes for The Christian Science Monitor:
After a meeting with Anglican leaders last fall designed to calm the crisis, the Archbishop of Canterbury supported the idea of a network to provide "alternative episcopal oversight" for orthodox believers in the US who say they can no longer accept leadership from liberal bishops. But US conservatives rejected the plan for implementing that oversight that was developed by the Episcopal leadership.
[I]n the US, the reality remains that a majority of bishops and clergy support decisions made last summer, when the bishops voted 62 to 43 in favor of V. Gene Robinson. "That action was not just the West stepping out on its own, but the result of a long period of reflection and conversation over Jesus' ministry," says the Rev. Jon Strand of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Natick, Mass. "Sometimes the Holy Spirit leads us to places that appear to be division and invites us to reflect more deeply on our understanding of the breadth of God's love."
It seems to me that unless evangelicals learn to live with this, they will indeed ignite a schism, going off to form new church structures that don't have any formal ties with the Anglican Communion, the Episcopal Church, or even the Church of England. The Protestant Reformation split up Christendom over serious theological issues like whether faith or works helps one get to heaven and questions about transubstantiation. Now, Protestants are looking to break things up even more over... what? Whether a person is attracted to the same sex rather than the opposite sex? Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
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