Similarly, in a sex-infatuated age, Anglicans de-emphasized marriage as the solemn, lifelong union of one man and one woman. Small wonder a priest who abandoned his wife and children to embrace his inner gayness should have been seen, at least in New Hampshire, as a worthy successor to the apostles.
How much tolerance, nonetheless, can one church stand? Once they had swept the field, the tolerant -- who, overwhelmingly, are theological liberals -- made known that objections to the new order weren't to be entertained, got that, pal? Liberal bishops, apostles of inclusion, diversity and ambiguity, get downright unambiguous as to the duty of non-liberal communicants to get with the program.
General Convention, in 1997, ordered all Episcopal dioceses to start ordaining women -- including those that (with rightly immense respect for women) view the practice as theologically impossible. The Diocese of Washington for a while ruled out heterosexual males as candidates for vacant rectorships. Pennsylvania's bishop, having proclaimed the Church's right to rewrite the Bible if it wants, has been struggling unsuccessfully to depose a rector who argues, among other things, that no such right exists.
Not pretty. But, then, tyranny never is -- especially, perhaps, the tyranny of the "tolerant." What the primates this week are supposed to fix may prove unfixable. An early parting of the ways between tyrants and subjects seems the gentlest and likeliest outcome -- if you expect a tyrant to submit to a gentle outcome.
Who ever called us Episcopalians dull, I'd like to know.