Bloodless Coup

Money, honey. The Episcopal church in America is a small denomination relative to other Protestant stripes and certainly compared to the Catholic church. They really can't afford to lose either their homobigots or the more liberal members. Add to that the fact that the real growth in the worldwide Anglican communion is in developing areas with a more openly antigay attitude, and there you go.

This kind of cynical bs is why my cradle-Episcopalian hub and I bolted for the local UU church last year.

Well honestly I don't get why they'd be that invested in staying in the Anglican community. And if money is the immediate and primary concern, why they aren't more actively suing the churches that are splintering off for control of church property.

And sure the Catholic Church is much bigger, but by marginalizing reformer types it's put its dominance in Latin American into question - not something you'd think the church would want to do if its wealth and power were on the line.

Ah, but you're using logical thinking!

It's a very tradition-oriented church; I think that plays into why the US church is staying in the Anglican communion.

As for why they aren't going after the splintering-off US churches I really don't know, but I recall that at least one diocese -- ours -- was in sympathy with the anti-gay stance (we got a letter explaining why this was perfectly OK) and that's probably true in other parts of the country as well.