a day at the episcopal convention; liberals, conservatives, u2charist & bishop robinson & little chance of further catholic-episcopal dialogue by dav

The operative phrase being "little chance of further catholic-episcopal dialogue."

In some ways walking around the Episcopal gathering at the Columbus Convention Center was much like a Catholic Convention. There were people talking theology and men in collars and yes sisters in habits. There are a few Episcopal nuns left. I was told there are still 4 orders of Episcopal priests and brothers and 32 orders of sisters. I have no idea if that is correct. An Episcopalian Franciscan, named Brother Clark gave me those numbers. However, there were also many differences between this gathering and a Catholic gathering. There were a number of women in collars. The number of clergy and lay people with the gay flag stamped on their nametag was quite sizeable. Tuesday night's Eucharist celebration, dubbed the U2charist (their words not mine) was to say the least a bit different than what most traditional Catholics are accustomed to seeing. The U2charist was a combination of celebrating the Eucharist and Bono's, the lead singer of the Irish rock group U2, social activism.

And here is a very interesting bit:

Dave Hartline What about the decline of the mainstream Protestant churches that have embraced a more liberal theology?

Bishop Robinson I think the Bush Administration has a way of scaring Americans about minorities and other religions. They scared us into war as well. People go with what they are familiar with in times of trouble. However, I want to be clear. I call myself an Evangelical. We need to talk more about the Living God and less about church. People’s eyes glaze over when over whey they hear the word church.

Huh. +Robinson sounds a little paranoid. "What's wrong with the mainlines?" "Well, the Bush Administration...." And it would be amusing, if it weren't so sad, that Bishop Robinson finds common ground with Evangelicalism in their common lack of an adequate (to say nothing of orthodox) ecclesiology. Read the whole thing here.