How’s this for a rough analogy: The Anglican Communion is to its constituent churches, as the American Bar Association is to the bar associations of various states.
All state bar associations send delegates to the ABA, I believe. I’m a member of a state bar (two, actually) and also of the ABA. Similarly, I’m a member of ECUSA and, at least to a certain extent, of the Anglican Communion.
But unlike my state-bar membership, my ABA membership is purely voluntary, a convenient way to associate with other lawyers for various purposes — whereas my state-bar membership is that which makes me a lawyer in the first instance.
I could stop being an ABA member today and it would have essentially zero impact on my (professional) life. But I cannot stop being a member of the state bar, at least not without ceasing to be a lawyer.
I suspect that many Episcopalians feel roughly that way about the Anglican Communion and ECUSA. They could stop being “Anglicans” and probably not even notice. But they would not be at all eager to stop being Episcopalians.
Why is that — what’s so special about being an Episcopalian? Different people have different reasons. For many, perhaps the biggest reason is that (at least in recent decades) the Episcopal Church has been perhaps the least dogmatic of all the Christian churches. What you happen to believe theologically seems to be not nearly as important as whether you try to live your life as a follower of Jesus.
If the Anglican Communion were to decide that these two priorities must be reversed, a great many Episcopalians would likely think otherwise.
Leave a Reply