God help the Episcopal Church!

After this weekend's election of an unrepentant lesbian as suffragan bishop in Los Angeles, the Archbishop of Canterbury issued the following statement.

"The election of Mary Glasspool by the Diocese of Los Angeles as suffragan bishop elect raises very serious questions not just for the Episcopal Church and its place in the Anglican Communion, but for the Communion as a whole.

The process of selection however is only part complete. The election has to be confirmed, or could be rejected, by diocesan bishops and diocesan standing committees. That decision will have very important implications.

The bishops of the Communion have collectively acknowledged that a period of gracious restraint in respect of actions which are contrary to the mind of the Communion is necessary if our bonds of mutual affection are to hold."

God help us all.

An opinion on the recent Anglican/Roman news

There is much buzz about the recent pronouncement from Rome setting up a pathway for en masse Anglican defections to the Roman Catholic Church. In many ways this mirrors a similar program already in effect in the USA only, allowing for re-ordination of married Anglican clergy and for parishes to continue to use Anglican Prayer Book worship while Roman Catholic (there are several in Texas, Massachusetts, and I believe Virginia already). This would now be available world-wide with the additional caveat that they would be able to set up parishes and have their own hierarchy without depending upon local RC bishops to give permission (a stumbling block in some places). What has not changed is that Anglicans still have to convert to Roman Catholicism and clergy have to be re-ordained (not have their orders recognized as valid).

Impact in the USA? Minimal to ECUSA I would think. Many who have been leaning Rome-ward have already jumped. It might be an attractive option to some of the alphabet soup of continuing churches who have already separated from The Episcopal Church, particularly those who separated in the 1970's and are of a more Catholic Anglican understanding. I would also speculate that only a minority of those who are recently separated into the Anglican Church in North America will be interested since most involved are of the Evangelical Party, and have adopted non-catholic understanding of Holy Orders (not to underestimate the long-standing animousity by evangelicals toward Rome). Those from the more Anglo-catholic dioceses of Ft. Worth, San Joaquin, and Quincy, as well as those under the new ACNA Bishop Ilgenfritz from Forward in Faith would have a better fit with Rome than the ACNA in the long run.

Impact on the Anglican Communion? This could be devastating to the Catholic Anglican movement in the Church of England, which has been pushed to the edge over recent legislation to introduce women into the Episcopate.

This could also gain steam in Australia and Catholic Anglican pockets in Africa.

And the formal document itself has not been released in full, so details are scarce at this time.

My biggest disappointment is that it will further weaken the witness of the Catholic position in the Anglican Communion.

So, what about St. John's on all this?
1) We are still a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan in good standing.
2) There are no plans for St. John’s to investigate this option.
3) I have a hard time believing Anglican Orders are "utterly null and completely void" as Leo XIII promulgated about us (or something to that effect). As the USA option currently stands, I am not eligible for re-ordination because I was confirmed as a child in the Roman Catholic Church. There is no hint by Rome that this would be changed.

We have had a small number of parishioners leave St. John's in recent years and convert to Rome, and we have also had former and lapsed Roman Catholics join us. Ultimately God is in charge and we remain faithful to the 'faith once delivered to the saints' as a parish, and as a priest, in The Episcopal Church. This puts us at odds with Rome (being in the Episcopal Church), and most of ECUSA (the faith once delivered to the saints).

May God help us all.

yes, the authentic Gospel IS a scandal!

The London Times is covering the Synod in England, and the tone of this article, and those objectors reported in it, sums up how secularized the media is, and even some in the pews and pulpits.

The work of the Church IS TO EVANGELIZE EVERYONE! Because Jesus is Lord and the only way to the Father. There is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved.

Thank God the Synod at least passed this legislation. My guess is that it would not pass in the Episcopal Church's General Convention this summer.

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Anglicans were commanded to “go forth and evangelise” yesterday in a dramatic assertion of missionary fervour that could jeopardise carefully built-up relations with Muslims, Jews and other faiths.
The established Church of England put decades of liberal-inspired political correctness behind it in a move that led one bishop to condemn in anger the “evangelistic rants”.
For Muslims, to convert to another religion is condemned as apostasy.
The Church’s General Synod, meeting in London, overwhelmingly backed a motion to force its bishops to report on their “understanding of the uniqueness of Christ in Britain’s multifaith society” and offer guidance in sharing “the gospel of salvation” with people of other faiths and none.
The move echoes 19th-century missions to Britain’s overseas colonies, with the difference being that modern-day evangelicals want to be mandated to carry out these missions on home turf.
The Rev Nezlin Sterling, who represents the black-led churches and is a minister in the New Testament Assembly, said that the marginalisation of Christianity was proceeding at a rapid rate, with further examples reported every day.
She said that the churches were so anxious to be politically correct that they were in danger of forgetting their mission. “We have positioned ourselves like the disciples did immediately after the death of Christ, behind closed doors, paralysed with fear of the world.”
Evangelisation should be a priority, she said. “Every person in my mind is a potential convert.”
The move was proposed by Paul Eddy, a lay member from the Winchester diocese, who said that he was aware of the religious and cultural tensions in many parishes in England. He also understood “the distress that talk of the historic Crusades can evoke” and that, to some, sharing the Christian gospel equates to sharing the “values of the West”.
He quoted Mahatma Gandhi’s advice to British missionaries to India: “I would suggest first of all that all of you Christians, missionaries and all, begin to live more like Jesus Christ. Second, practise your religion without adulterating or toning it down.”
He said that the uniqueness of Christ must not be compromised by Anglicans. “It does no harm for the Church to re-state it’s beliefs time and time again and then to go further — in this case commending good practice in making that belief known.”
The Rev Andrew Dow, a vicar in Cheltenham, said he did not think bishops should be put through a “sort of doctrinal and theological Ofsted”. It was something the whole Church had to wrestle with. “I believe we are in danger of losing our confidence in this great although admittedly difficult truth,” he said. The Church needed to recover its confidence in proclaiming that “Jesus is the only saviour”.
Referring to conversion, he continued: “The dreaded ‘C’ word, we are terrified of it. But why? We need to recover our nerve. We need to refute the lie that to be evangelistic is to be a religious bigot or fundamentalist fanatic.”
However, the Bishop of Hulme, Stephen Lowe, who leads the Church’s mission in urban life, told The Times that he was “saddened” by the debate.
Condemning the “evangelistic rants” of some members, he said: “There are one or two contributions that worried me because they did not seem to have any understanding of the nature of relationship that precedes good evangelism.” He added: “There’s an element of people who have not got experience of living and spreading the gospel in a multicultural, multifaith context telling those who do have that experience how to do it. That makes me very uneasy.”
He conceded that a Muslim would expect a Christian to proclaim his faith. “But it has to be on the basis of mutual respect and mutual understanding.” Earlier, legislation introducing women bishops cleared its first hurdle at the Synod.
After more than two hours of debate, members voted to send draft legislation allowing women bishops and a draft code of practice to the revision committee stage.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5711595.ece

"local" events have international consequences.

A big problem with the Bishop's pre-emptive strike on Bishop Duncan is that they have proven the international bishops right -that The Episcopal Church USA has a vendetta against traditionalist (evangelical and angl0-catholic) and are not only bending scripture to their own agenda, but are also distorting their own canons in a power grab.

Here is an article from the London Times as proof of this...
In addition to the article below, the numbers of bishops/provinces/standing committees/primates speaking out about it increases daily. Go to www.kendallharmon.net/t19 for that ongoing tally.

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September 23, 2008

Archbishop of Canterbury urged to create new province for US conservatives
Senior bishops express "shock" at the Episcopal Church's decision to depose the Bishop of Pittsburgh
Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent

The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams is facing growing pressure to create a new Anglican province for conservatives after a leading evangelical was effectively defrocked in the US.
Six senior Church of England bishops have come out in support of deposed US bishop Bob Duncan, declaring themselves “deeply saddened and shocked.”
Headed by the Bishop of Winchester, the Right Rev Michael Scott-Joynt, the Bishops of Blackburn, Chester, Chichester, Exeter and Rochester joined in declaring their belief that the deposed Bishop of Pittsburgh remains “a bishop in good standing in the Anglican Communion.”
In an interview with The Times, the Bishop of Rochester Dr Michael Nazir-Ali said the time had now come for Dr Williams to create a new province for conservatives in the US.
Another senior bishop, a former primate of the Southern Cone province in Latin America, also wrote an open letter to Dr Williams demanding the immediate suspension of The Episcopal Church from the Anglican Communion and for the recognition of a new conservative province.
Bishops of The Episcopal Church voted last week to depose Bishop Duncan after deciding that he had breached canon law by “abandonment of the communion of the church.”
Bishop Duncan has led his diocese, from the Church’s conservative evangelical wing, in a rebellion against the liberal direction of the wider church in the West.
Next month, under his leadership, the diocese had been expected to vote to join the Province of the Southern Cone, headed by British-born primate Bishop Gregory Venables.
Bishop Venables has already received Bishop Duncan into his province and a majority in the diocese is expected to go ahead with the vote and join him there.
But a minority will remain with the US-based province and work on re-establishing the Pittsburgh diocese, marking the beginning of myriad expensive and lengthy legal battles over who owns the churches and other valuable ecclesiastical properties attached to the diocese.
Bishops of the Episcopal Church voted by 88 to 35 at a meeting in Salt Lake City to remove Bishop Duncan from all ordained ministry.
It is significant that Church of England bishops as senior as Bishop Scott-Joynt and Dr Michael Nazir-Ali continue to recognise Bishop Duncan’s ministry.
Their statement will increase speculation that the split in the US church is heading over the Atlantic to Britain.
Dr Nazir-Ali told The Times: “I hope that a province of the orthodox in America will be recognised in the Anglican Communion.” He said that what had happened to Bishop Duncan showed that a structural solution was necessary.
A new province would be the 39th province of the communion. It would not be the first to share geographical territory with another province. In Europe, there are two Anglican jurisdictions operating already: the Church of England and The Episcopal Church.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, who is visiting Lourdes this week, made no comment. At Lourdes on Wednesday this week, he will be addressing a pilgrimage of Anglican bishops, clergy and laity. He will be sharing the platform with Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Holy See’s Council for Christian Unity.
Unless the springs at Lourdes work one of their rare miracles, Anglicans will emerge more aware than ever that innovations such as gay bishops, women bishops and women priests have ended all hopes of re-uniting the Anglicans and Catholic churches, split since the Reformation four centuries ago.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article4812865.ece

A great bit of advice from The Living Church news editor

In our day of blogging, and quick comments on news websites, I have been amazed at the amount of uncharitableness by the posters. Favorite sites like www.kendallharmon.net/t19 and www.standfirminfaith.com have to be constantly vigilant to monitor postings and remove/edit personal attacks and the like. It is one reason I don't have comments enabled on this blog. I don't have time to edit spam postings or uncharitable comments. The worst example of commments are the website for The Detroit Free Press!

Concerning the articles on The Living Church website about Lambeth Conference, news editor Steve Waring has this to say....and I think it is GREAT advice!

I would like to remind everyone one more time that pointed personal attacks and uncharitable comments shed little light and reveal far more about the person making the comments than they do about the character of the conference organizers, importance of what the conference produced or what is likely to happen to the Anglican Communion in the future. Rather than being the cause for caustic sarcasm and vicious personal attacks this information ought to drive every Christian to their knees in prayer. The body of the third largest branch of Christianity is suffering - every part of it - whether you happen to identify with it, are in communion with it or not. In the name of Christ, I ask all Christians please to think carefully and prayerfully before posting funny songs, analogies to the Titanic (and other famous historical disasters) as well as unrelentingly negative criticism. I assure you that while such things will undoubtedly get a brief laugh they won't change anything in the long run. This is a time for speaking the truth in love. I was here and I can tell you that there were important things accomplished and it was not a complete failure/disaster/joke or mistake.
May the Risen Christ have mercy on us all,
Steve Waring,
news editor
The Living Church magazine

Lambeth review from The Living Church

from www.livingchurch.org

What the Lambeth Conference Accomplished
Posted on: August 3, 2008
The Lambeth Conference accomplished some very important work, but in the closing press conference on Aug. 3, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said if the North American churches do not accept the need for a moratorium on same-sex blessings and the consecration of additional partnered gay bishops, then the Anglican Communion is no further forward.

Archbishop Williams listed three accomplishments for the 20-day Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops in Canterbury, England:

1 Bishops proved they could speak to each other respectfully and prayerfully.
2. They expressed a strong commitment to remain unified.
3. The Millennium Development Goals demonstration in London on July 24 proved that even “in its current rather wobbly state,” the Anglican Communion was capable of accomplishing significant action and witness.

On the other hand, the idea of moratorium was apparently not taken seriously by many bishops from The Episcopal Church. Bishops Jon Bruno of Los Angeles and Marc Andrus of California already have said they would not attempt to stop the blessing of gay relationships in their dioceses, and in the Diocese of Massachusetts on Aug. 2, two priests participated in civil same-sex marriages for two couples inside Episcopal churches.

“The current policy, well, I wouldn’t say policy of the American church, but some of the practices of dioceses, or certain dioceses, in the American church continues to put our relations as a Communion under strain and some problems won’t be resolved while those practices continue,” Archbishop Williams said. “I might just add, perhaps a note here. One complication in discussing all this is that assumption, readily made, that the blessing of a same-sex union and/or the ordination of someone in an active same-sex relationship is simply a matter of human rights … That’s an assumption I can’t accept because I think the issues about what conditions the church lays down for the blessing of unions has to be shaped by its own thinking, its own praying.”

Archbishop Williams was asked what was meant by the Windsor Continuation Group’s recommendation for a moratorium on public rites for same-sex blessings. Different parts of the world define public rites of blessing in different ways, adding to the confusion, according to Archbishop Williams. A primates’ communiqué following a meeting in Brazil in 2003 noted that in some places private prayers were said, but that was not intended to include public liturgies.

“There are those in the U.S.A. who would say ‘pastoral response.’ Well, it’s a blessing and I’m not very happy about that,” he said.

Innovations to church teaching on homosexuality in North America caused roughly 280 of the 880 invited bishops of the Anglican Communion to boycott the Lambeth Conference. According to registration information provided to The Living Church and Church of England Newspaper, the total number of Anglican bishops who pre-registered was only 617, and not all of them were present. The two largest provinces – Nigeria and Uganda – did not send any bishops. There was one bishop registered from Rwanda and five from Kenya. Conference organizers included all of the ecumenical bishops in attendance to arrive at the total of 670 present when registration closed on July 21.

Many of the bishops who were absent and a number who did attend the Lambeth Conference attended the Global Anglican Fellowship Conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem in June. GAFCON and the absence of more than 30 percent of the bishops of the Communion were frequently mentioned during the conference. The absence of so many bishops from the Global South increased the proportional representation of bishops from The Episcopal Church to nearly a quarter of the overall total.

For various reasons the conference will probably run a deficit of at least $2 million. A document titled “Lambeth Conference Finances” dated January 2008 estimated that the bishops’ conference would cost about $9 million with the spouses’ conference adding another $2.5 million. The document notes that more than 40 percent of conference participants would require some sort of financial assistance in order to pay the $8,000 conference fee. During the closing press conference Archbishop Williams said conference organizers were studying various ways to cover the probable shortfall.

“We knew this would be difficult,” he said. “I don’t think I can go into details because I don’t have direct management of the question … I’m rather concerned about that.”

Steve Waring

Lambeth has concluded.

The every 10 year gathering of Anglican Bishops has ended, and although a 44 page report has been issued, it still begs to be seen whether the Episcopal Church (via her bishops and The General Convention in 2009) will actually do the things required of her to continue be an active participant in the life of the Anglican Communion, or will de facto 'walk apart'.

Here is a video synopsis with a bishop from West Africa and Bishop Keith L. Ackerman of Quincy, IL (my 'bishop protector).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjgTDnXi9bQ

The report can be read in full here.
http://www.lambethconference.org/reflections/document.cfm

Other comments from Bishops and Organizations can be found here
www.kendallharmon.net/t19

And please continue to PRAY, PRAY, PRAY for the conversion of the Church, beginning with forgiveness for own own sins and failings as well (see today's sermon at the 10am Service).

Lambeth heating up...

Not just the weather. Rather, there intial report of the Windsor Continuation group, which has been working on a way forward in defining and reforming the Anglican Communion (and what it means to be a communion). It doesn't look good for those in the Episcopal Church who would like to continue with Same Sex Blessings and the like. It also makes arrangements for oversight of parishes/dioceses/provinces in disarray due to having to break with those keeping the new religion.

But it is an initial report, and you can guess that the majority of the cadre of 'progressive' bishops and their lobbying groups have been working late into the night to figure out how to influence their indaba groups and to derail the process.

But if they can't - they will probably find a fancy way to say they will agree, and then disregard it.

Pray, Pray, Pray for the Church, for the bishops, and for resolve to take the chastening we need...we all need if we are be valid 'sons'.

A bishop from Sudan speaks

The Church in Sudan is persecuted: War, Famine, Islamic Jihad.

The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church!

Here is a faithful bishop speaking at the Lambeth Conference. Too bad so much time is going to have to spent talking about ECUSA and other Western Church's unfaithfulness....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lPnu8zVJ2k

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake - not SELF-righteousness sake (ie..something that makes yourself more comfortable or happy, instead of sacrifice for His sake!...)

Lambeth reporting

Compared with Lambeth 1998, there is LOTS more reporting going on, from inside out. Bishops are blogging like crazy!!! 1998 was well covered by reporters, and now the bishops themselves are giving their own spin on things.

I go regularly to www.kendallharmon.net/t19 for resources, including links to bishop's blogs.
I also like Ruth Gledhills blog - she is the religious correspondant for the London Times.
http://timescolumns.typepad.com/gledhill/
Here is an article I find particulary interesting from Ms. Gledhill's blog.

Lambeth Diary: Into the 'Miry Pit' of Chaos.
It's about a hundred degrees and getting hotter in the Big Top at Lambeth but the £1 million black hole in the budget at the Lambeth Conference means they can't afford air conditioning. Expect fainting bishops to be ferried out by ambulances any moment now, if they don't start shooting each other first. The press conference this morning was a farce. Excommunications officers declined to comment on who is here for reasons of 'security' but declined to say what the 'security' issues were. Apparently there are some Nigerian bishops at the conference but we are not allowed to know who they are. Even the totally harmless and innocuous Church Press here are being denied access to the evening Eucharists. As for me, I was told yesterday that it was worth applying to attend the afternoon indaba groups. Today there is one called 'Never say No to Media', led by Rev Dr Joshva Raha, tutor at the Centre for Mission Studies at Queen's, Birmingham. I applied and they said no.
The conference is falling apart and it is only day two of official business. The Sudanese bishops, who were, astonishingly, stationed as Salisbury with the US Presiding Bishop and her team before the conference, have almost derailed the whole thing by virtually calling for Gene Robinson's resignation. One of their two statements today is here.
The funding crisis is more severe than we realised. A senior source has told me that the conference is up to £2 million in debt, and they are at a loss of how to meet this. 'We can't pay for it,' he told me, looking desperate. The prospect of the bailiffs turning up at Lambeth Palace to requisition some of those lovely old paintings of previous Archbishops is to unbearable for words. The Church Commissioners cannot help out because their trust deeds restrict financial aid to the English church only.
An emergency meeting has been called for the Commissioners and the Archbishop's Council immediately after the conference. Will TEC be handed the begging bowl? A bit embarrassing, isn't it, if on the one hand the conference organisers say, your legally elected bishop cannot come. And then on the other, they say: 'Help! Save us from our debt!'
This is why, I understand, we are all sweating like the proverbials. The big blue top where the bishops have their plenaries is, literally, hotter than hell itself. The prospect of air conditioning was explored, but when the estimate came in it was turned down. They just couldn't afford it.
And of course think of all that accommodation that has been booked. More than 230 rooms, presumably paid for, and lying empty. What a shame.
Poor Rowan Williams is trying his best, as we report. The retreat went well, the Archbishop seemed even to be beginning to enjoy himself. There are some genuinely good ideas for covenant and canon being worked out here. The trouble is, too many of the bishops don't want to know. It really is increasingly difficult to see how the Archbishop is going to resolve this mess. As he said yesterday, it will take nothing short of a miracle, and none knows how many Anglican bishops still believe in those.

Moscow and Rome weigh in....

Apparently only the shrinking parts of the Anglican Communion gets it right, and the rest of Catholic/Orthodox Christendom is wrong????

Moscow, 8 July 2008 (Interfax):
The Moscow Patriarchate expressed concern about the Anglican Synod’s decision yesterday to ordain women to the episcopate. “Undoubtedly, this decision is an utterly unhealthy step in the inter-Christian dialogue, as it further alienates the Anglican Communion from the Apostolic tradition”, Fr Igor Vyzhanov, head of the secretariat for Inter-Christian Relations of the MP Department for External Church Relations, stated to an Interfax-Religion correspondent on Tuesday. Fr Igor also said that the Anglican Synod’s decision to ordain women to the episcopate “is a very painful blow to the unity of the Anglican Communion, as it aggravates the division amongst Anglicans. Unfortunately, the decision was predictable because very liberal tendencies prevail in many Christian Churches today, particularly in the Anglican Communion”, he said.
In the late 19th to the early 20th centuries, the Orthodox saw the Anglican Church as “the closest to us amongst the western Christian Churches”, he said. “A very serious dialogue resulted, leading to hopes that good relations between the Orthodox and Anglicans would have good prospects”, Fr Igor said. “If we look at documents of that time, one simply cannot believe that it was the same church then, because, now, regretfully, we see how the Anglican Communion increasingly abandons the traditional understanding of church life”, he said.
In his opinion, the present decision of the Anglican Communion manifests “the tendency of secular European thought to follow everything through to its logical conclusion”. Fr Igor emphasised that church life and the sphere of religious faith “is not the place to apply the rational logic of secular society”. In this connection, he quoted the words of a well-known philosopher that said, “Any thought carried through to its logical conclusion becomes an absurdity”. “We see what absurd results flow from an application of liberal ideas to, for example, Christian moral standards”, Fr Igor said.
He noted that the MP shall attentively follow the developments at the Lambeth Conference, the largest meeting of representatives from all the Anglican churches, which is scheduled to begin on 16 July and run through 3 August. He mentioned that this conference shall discuss, amongst other things, questions of Anglican cooperation in the field of Christian moral theology; in particular, it shall examine the question of homosexuality, both the ordination of openly gay individuals and the blessing of homosexual unions.
Interfax-Religion
http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=25357 (in Russian)
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8 July 08 - RV) The Vatican Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity issued a Statement Tuesday regarding recent events within the Anglican Communion.The Council is headed by Cardinal Walter Kasper. The statement reads: “We have regretfully learned of the Church of England vote to pave the way for the introduction of legislation which will lead to the ordaining of women to the Episcopacy.The Catholic position on the issue was clearly expressed by Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II. Such a decision signifies a breaking away from the apostolic tradition maintained by all of the Churches since the first millennium, and therefore is a further obstacle for the reconciliation between the Catholic Church and the Church of England.This decision will have consequences on the future of dialogue, which had up until now born fruit, as Cardinal Kasper had clearly explained when he spoke on June 5 2006 to all of the bishops of the Church of England at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury.The Cardinal has been invited once again to express the Catholic position at the next Lambeth Conference at the end of July”.

Sorting out the news from England

I gleaned this from the Telegraph (London) paper which explains the timetable, and a glimmer of hope for repentence, or perhaps our Lord will return first!

"The church's drafting group is now likely to draw up legislation which will bring in women bishops, by 2014 at the earliest, with only an as yet unwritten national code of practice to cater for those who firmly believe the Bible teaches that bishops must be male, as Jesus and his apostles were.
However those who oppose women bishops say their views must still be taken into account, and pointed out that a two-thirds majority will be needed for the legislation to be agreed in two or three years' time"

For more information, try
www.kendallharmon.net/t19

EDIT - Anglicanism takes one step further away from the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church...

... the C of E votes to allow the introduction of the novelty of women into the Episcopate, further damaging the cause for Christian Unity through sound theological doctrine.

When you try to change the nature of a Sacrament contrary to the teaching of the Universal Church (remember Rome and Eastern Orthodoxy constitute 1.5 BILLION Christians, Anglicanism 70 MILLION), you lessen your claim to be a member of the Church Catholic (without whose faith you CANNOT BE SAVED - Athanasian Creed), and become just another protestant sect.

God help us as He sorts it all out.....
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EDIT - here is someone who is writing in the same vein, from the London Telegraph newspaper.

The Church of England is Protestant again
Damian Thompson
Monday, July 7, 2008, 11:27 PM GMT
A couple of hours ago, the Church of England decisively severed itself from its Catholic roots. By voting to ordain women bishops without significant safeguards for traditionalists, it reasserted its identity as a Protestant Church. Whether it will be a liberal or conservative Protestant denomination remains to be seen. But any hope of unity with Rome and the Orthodox has gone forever.
I'm not sorry. From the moment the C of E voted to ordain women priests in 1992, it cut itself off from the Catholic mainstream. But unexpectedly generous safeguards allowed traditionalists to cordon themselves off from the rest of the Church, persuading themselves that they, rather than the main body, preserved its true Catholic identity.
This was always a delusion, and now it is truly unsustainable. The General Synod tonight made a commonsense decision. If you have women priests, you must have women bishops - indeed, I remember Dr David Hope, then Bishop of London, telling me that the Church should in theory have started with women bishops and then moved on to priests.
What the Anglo-Catholics have lost tonight is their standing in the Church of England. They are no longer honoured traditionalists who have been allowed to preserve an (almost) watertight communion of their own, nurtured by powerful bishops who sustain their sacramental purity.
From now on, they will be the C of E's granny in the attic, whose eccentricities are tolerated only at family get-togethers. If, that is, they are silly enough to stay.
What a painful debate this was. This time round, in contrast to 1992, the Synod knew it was demolishing a wing of the building, and there was preciously little triumphalism. Dr Rowan Williams seemed especially crushed: he had argued - reluctantly - for tight safeguards for traditionalists, but the assembly ignored his advice. That doesn't bode well for Lambeth.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/damian_thompson/blog/2008/07/07/the_church_of_england_is_protestant_again