US and Canadian Anglicans Withdraw from Global Church

No one was quite sure what the global Anglican church would do when the American church ordained their first openly, practicing gay bishop and began formally blessing homosexual unions. Well, now we know.

The U.S. Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada withdrew Thursday from a key body of the global Anglican Communion under pressure from conservative church leaders distressed by the election of a gay bishop in the United States and the blessing of same-sex unions in the two countries. Though the suspension of the two churches was said to be temporary, it marked the first formal split in the communion over the explosive issues of sexuality and biblical authority...The statement said the two churches were withdrawing from the Anglican Consultative Council, a key body for contact among the national churches, at least until 2008.

Is this the beginning of a new schism and a new denomination? Or is it just a power struggle within an existing structure to see whose ideas will prosper. Methinks the former is far more likely.