ANOTHER ANGLICAN ALTERNATIVE
(Tuesday) "Thirteen Episcopal bishops opposed to their church's approval of an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire plan to announce today that they are forming a rival network of dioceses and parishes, Bishop Robert W. Duncan of Pittsburgh said." Link

What it sounds like is that the conservatives / traditionalists have figured out that it would be really difficult to actually leave the denomination (too many legal entanglements). So they're going to do their best to ignore the heterodoxical denomination's structure by implementing a strong network. They're also hoping that the Anglican jurisdictions around the world will eventually recognize the network as the legitimate Anglican presence in the North America.

The network is calling itself "Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes" -- not all that inspiring but descriptive.

I think the weak point in the whole scheme will be in appointing new bishops -- since the US Episcopal polity requires approval of both the House of Bishops and the General Convention of all episcopal ordinations.

UPDATE: One of my readers, an Anglican, has written in to tweak my analysis. Here's what he says, "Bishops-elect in the Episcopal Church only have to be confirmed by the General Convention if their election is within 120 days of the convention meeting itself. Otherwise, they are usually elected and confirmed by their own diocesan convention. In other words, had Gene Robinson been elected sufficiently earlier in the year, he would have still made headlines and there would still be repercussions throughout the Anglican Communion, but his whole election/confirmation process would have gone no farther than the Diocese of New Hampshire."

Thanks, Brian!