Jordan Hylden muses on looming meeting between Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and the US Episcopal bishops. The prospects are ugly for anyone who cares about the health of the church universal, as the odds are high that either (1) the US Episcopal Church will leave (or be forced out of) the Anglican communion for refusing to comply with the requests made last year at the Tanzanian conference that the US Church stop consecrating actively gay bishops (meaning no more Gene Robinsons), stop formal blessings of same-sex unions, and provide space for those who dissent or (2) that the more conservative Southern Hemisphere provinces will pull out of the global Lambeth Conference.
As a Roman Catholic who studies organizations and governance, I'm curious as to whether there are specific aspects of the RC polity that help insulate it from this sort of break up. Does having a global hierarchy have advantages in promoting unity relative to national hierarchies? I'm mulling taking a break from corporate governance to think about this stuff, so constructive comments and references would be welcome.
