From The Desk Of Karl Keating

The Episcopal Church has elected a woman to be the presiding bishop in the U.S. Katherine Jefferts Schori, who has been the bishop of Nevada for five years, is now "the first woman primate in the Anglican church," as London's "Guardian" put it. The newspaper went on to say:

"The result of Bishop Schori's election has implications not only for the unity of the U.S. Episcopal church but also for the Anglican communion around the world, already threatened with a split over homosexuality. It will affect the church's relationship with the Roman Catholic church, which has declared the impossibility of women serving as priests and has recently warned the Church of England that its discussions would be damaged if it moves to promote women to the episcopate.

"There are 77 million Anglicans around the world, and the Archbishop of Canterbury is their head. The American branch of the Anglican communion, the Episcopal Church, has only 2.3 million members, one quarter of whom are over 65.

The Anglican Church in general--and the Episcopal Church in particular--has been riven with dissension ever since women were ordained to the priesthood. Things got worse when they were ordained to the episcopate and worse still when an openly gay bishop was installed.

Since its founding in the sixteenth century, the Church of England has had the British monarch as its titular head. This means that since 1953 a woman, Elizabeth II, has been leading the church, but in a political rather than a ministerial capacity. Schori's election marks the first time that a woman has been put in charge of a whole national church. The only higher step left would be for a woman to be appointed Archbishop of Canterbury.

Inasmuch as the Episcopal Church is not only tiny (fewer than one percent of Americans belong to it) but has been in rapid decline for decades, one wonders why so much attention is paid to the denomination--especially by the Catholic Church.

There are twenty times as many Baptists as Episcopalians in the U.S., but when Catholics hear about ecumenical discussions, which Protestant denomination comes to mind? Do they envision our representatives sitting down with Baptists or maybe with Lutherans or Methodists? Yes, sometimes, but usually the image is of Episcopalians sitting across the table.

That's a fair image because, in fact, an inordinate amount of energy has been expended on relations with the Episcopal Church over the last several decades--but with what result?

Ecumenism always has had two chief goals: to get to know what the other party really believes and to move toward corporate union.

Years ago, many Catholics, even Catholic bishops and priests, misconceived what Protestants believed and why they believed it. Protestants had corresponding misconceptions about us. But it never was particularly difficult to learn what others believed, if you were so inclined. You just had to read what they wrote about themselves.

We are long past the point of misconstruing what Episcopalians believe, but we have made no progress on the second and greater goal, corporate union (which, in truth, means Protestants becoming Catholic, since it is only the Catholic Church that is the Church that Christ founded). The goal of union receded into the distance as the Episcopal Church moved toward self-destruction. Why are we still chasing something that is getting ever more distant?

Frankly, I wish the Catholic leaders in America would stop talking about trying to effect a union with the Episcopal Church. It's not going to happen. It never had much chance of happening, and today there is less chance of it than ever. It's time for benign neglect.

As the Episcopal Church fissures, with conservative segments spinning off into churches of their own, we will see individuals and perhaps whole congregations cross the Tiber. That will be welcome, but each time that happens, the rump Episcopal Church that remains will stand in ever greater contrast to the Catholic Church in terms of beliefs and sensibilities, until finally the Episcopal Church will be so far distant on the horizon that it will be lost to sight entirely.