The marvelous David Brooks points out that "[p]eople are moving into self-segregating communities with people like
themselves, and building invisible and sometimes visible barriers to
keep strangers out. . . . The music, news, magazine and television markets have all segmented, so
there are fewer cultural unifiers like Life magazine or Walter Cronkite. Forty-million Americans move every year, and they generally move in
with people like themselves, so as the late James Chapin used to say,
every place becomes more like itself. Crunchy places like Boulder
attract crunchy types and become crunchier. Conservative places like
suburban Georgia attract conservatives and become more so." (Link: All Cultures Are Not Equal – New York Times.)
If the Episcopal Church moves toward non-geographical bishop-parish relationships, we’re going to see a similar phenomenon. Parishes and dioceses that are markedly traditionalist, or markedly modernist, will become more so. As a result, a traditionalist- or modernist parish’s delegation to its diocesan convention is likely to become increasingly homogenous. So, too, will a traditionalist- or modernist diocese’s delegation to General Convention. That doesn’t bode well for the church’s ability to bridge the theological and cultural gaps between its constituent groups.
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