Sounded great at first...

...but then...

A number of Episcopal churches, laity and clergy have broken away from the Episcopal Church USA and sought to be placed under the jurisdiction of the worldwide Anglican communion. These churches have now organized themselves into a new church denomination, making a loose knit association of churches into a unified body and becoming a rival to the more liberal Episcopal Church USA...

A collection of breakaway Episcopalians have formed a single denomination to rival the mainstream U.S. church, cementing a schism that was largely prompted by the election in 2003 of a gay bishop.

Their new "Anglican Church in North America" said it includes four dioceses that recently split from the Episcopal church, as well as several splinter groups, 1,000 clergy and an estimated 700 parishes, said the Rev. Peter Frank, spokesman for the Right Rev. Robert Duncan, bishop of Pittsburgh, who months ago lead his diocese away from the Episcopal church. A spokesman in the Episcopal church said he was dubious the numbers were that high.

The new church will seek recognition from the world-wide Anglican communion, including its leader, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams. It is unclear how the larger church will deal with a rival on American soil to an existing church body. The tension will no doubt spark fresh lawsuits over the ownership of church property, dozens of which have already been filed from California to Virginia in recent years.

The problem is a failure to go all the way...

The new body comprises church members who believe it violates biblical teaching for a church leader to be a homosexual. Therefore, the group would bar gays from the priesthood. "We certainly identify homosexuality as something that is not appropriate for those in leadership in the church," Mr. Frank said. The group will permit women to serve as priests, but not as bishops, he said. The Episcopal church's decision to ordain women priests in the 1970s led to the earliest friction within the body and some dioceses never ordained women, even though the church's presiding bishop is female.

By leaving women as pastors/priests, the new Anglican church leaves the door open to reject Biblical teaching as dictated by the culture. As I have pointed out before, that is where it all starts: certain parts of the Bible are ignored or waved off as being a cultural construct. First one piece goes, and then another and pretty soon you look around and wonder how you got to the point where an openly practicing and unrepentant homosexual is serving as a “Bishop” in your denomination.

The Bible is not a buffet line, with parts to pick and choose as the culture dictates. I applaud these brothers and sisters for leaving a heretical group but I would urge them to reconsider their choice to ordain women as pastors in their churches.