Secession

After the Anglican primate announced a plan to permit local dioceses to withdraw from national church organizations ("provinces") if they disagreed with them, four U.S. dioceses jumped at the chance. Among those were the diocese of San Joaquin Valley, a rural stretch which hasn't even caught up to the ordination of women (almost all Episcopal dioceses have ordained women since the late 1970s at the latest), not to mention the ordination of gay people, the issue ostensibly dividing the church.

The divergent dioceses wish to affiliate themselves either with each other or, as several conservative Southern California congregations have done, with a foreign diocese (the California congregations now profess allegiance to the Bishop of Uganda -- I don't have to tell you where he stands on gays).

How satisfying it must be to seceed -- to say you are no longer part of a group but you're on your own. It must feel righteous and bold and exciting. I'll bet it is what a lot of conservatives all over the country -- not Episcopalians, but all kinds of conservatives -- would like to do. Imagine if the San Joaquin Valley, or the Bible Belt as a whole, could seceed from the U.S. -- I'll be they would if they could.