Nothing resolved

Religion | ECUSA passes a watered-down response to the Windsor Report and sets itself on a collision course with the Anglican Communion | Edward E. Plowman

COLUMBUS, Ohio— Memo to new Episcopal Presiding Bishop-elect Katherine Jefferts Schori: Don't bother packing your bags; it appears you and most of your fellow bishops won't be invited to the next Lambeth meeting of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

The full fallout from actions and inactions at the General Convention of the Episcopal Church (ECUSA) last week in Columbus, Ohio, is still unknown. But one thing seems clear: Despite desperate last-minute maneuvers and arm-twisting at the convention, the church failed to pass the test for remaining in the Anglican Communion.

The crisis had its origins in a long drift away from biblical authority and traditional Anglican teaching, according to many conservative bishops and other clergy. In the every-10-years Lambeth gathering of the world's Anglican bishops in 1998, the majority adopted a tenet that said homosexual practice is incompatible with Christian teaching. But in 2003, ECUSA approved the consecration of priest Gene Robinson, a divorced and long-time partnered gay, as bishop of New Hampshire.