I hope you are correct but your theory sounds like psycobabble to me. Having said that, the world has changed since I was deeply involved in their politics. I guess I've changed too.
May God grant your theory.
Conservative Episcopalian???
I'm sure that has to be one that is a monogamous homosexual...
Seriously; this crap has been going on with them for decades, I have no clue why they would be bothered now.
Let 'em wallor in the pig sty they've made for themselves.
Its like the Democrats that want to switch parties in South Carolina--now that the Republicans have a HUGE majority. The SC GOP did the right thing--we're not interested in your membership. They weren't good enough when they were the opposition party, but now that we're a two-party state, well...
So now that the ship is so full of holes it can't possibly stay afloat, you see the rats jumping ship. More so than any other person, someone coming to Orthodoxy from Anglicanism--especially anyone 30 and older-- needs to be catechised intensely and over a period of years before baptism.
Paul
Conservative Episcopalians DO still exist. It was at one such conservative church that I was introduced to a God who opperated in a physical way in this world -- in other words: sacramentalism. And it is the priest there, whom I still consider a good friend and whom I know to be a man of God, who will not jump ship and leave his dying diocese. As some of his parishoners said last night, "Man, Fr. David's got guts." And yeah, he does. Does it take more to remain conservative in the PECUSA then to jump ship? As Fr. David told me when I asked him and his VERY conservative church why they don't leave, he painted this picture. Suppose Los Angeles was burning. The fire trucks don't run away. They put out the fire. He views PECUSA as Los Angeles. And he is staying to put out the fire.
Paul,
We must be patient and compassionate. The Lord calls us to the Truth, but sometimes our passions prolong that process. Let's be thankful that some Episcopalians are seeing the Truth more clearly than before and welcome them, just as we welcome all to the Paschal Feast (even those who come at the eleventh hour).
Adam
Paul, I don't think it is particularly helpful nor accurate to describe those caught in a painful situation as 'rats jumping the ship'. I didn't realize the mercy of the Lord and the gates of Heaven had closed after you became Orthodox. Maybe, the Episcopalians aren't the only ones needing additional catechism.
Since this is "net-writing" and no one can hear or know my intentions, there may be some misunderstanding of what I meant.
I do understand that people will leave a church for whatever reason and may or may not go somewhere else. In this case--Anglicans--the situation they are in is nothing new. I'd like to know why they are leaving; if its because of homosexual/feminist/pagan influences in that denomination, I'm curious as to why its taken this long--especially for anyone that is clergy. If there are theological differences--which there are; VERY BIG ones--I think there needs to be extreme caution in large numbers of disenchanted Anglicans coming to an Orthodox parish. Basically, I wouldn't join the other team just 'cause I was PO'd at the one I was on.
It has nothing to do with the parable of the workers; my issue is with what has impressed me about Orthodoxy and how it has preserved the Church and its teachings for centuries. And yes, I have some convictions on how things ought to be; I'm very skeptical about the W. Rite. If that was the 'way to go', it would have been one of the largest churches in the US for many years now. Seems to me its based more on being "non-threatening" or confortable; rather than a change. Of course, I could be way off base here!! It certainly wouldn't be the first time!
Paul
Hi, frequent lurker coming out of the woodwork.
"Conservatives switched sides...to push the envelope"?!! Is this true? Lord have mercy.
I'm thankful that St. Athanasius didn't do something like this.
Deb
Yep, Deb, it's true ...
http://www.virtueonline.org/port...ortal/
index.php
Two thoughts for Paul, from a convert to Orthodoxy from Anglicanism:
1. I couldn't agree more that it's better to run towards Orthodoxy than to run from another Christian body. Those who switch "teams" solely because they're ticked at their current church/hierarchy/rector/choir director/whatever tend to find lots of things about their new church that tick them off, too.
2. Fifteen months of catechesis was PLENTY, thank you very much. 
Well, the ‘way to go’ argument could also be made about the Eastern Rite as it is still rather small as well. I’m not sure we should be basing Truth or what-have-you on numbers. The Apostles numbered only 12 in the beginning.
Any disenchanted Anglicans aren’t going to be chrismated on their first or second trip to the Divine Liturgy, so I don’t think we have to worry too much about the invasion. I think if there are large numbers coming to Liturgy we should embrace our Prodigal Brothers and Sisters and show them love not suspicion.
To paraphrase Tip O’Neill, ‘church is local’. There are individual Episcopal parishes out there that aren’t teaching neo-Pagan nonsense. These are churches that have been around for generations where Great Aunt Ida donated a pew and Uncle George donated a stained glass window and mom played the organ and dad moved tables and chairs after pot-luck dinners. These parishes have been an oasis in the midst of the Culture Wars and the implosion of the larger Episcopal Chruch. Sometimes, it’s not easy for people to just leave; and, sometimes in the midst of crisis people don’t really see how bad things are until it’s too late.
While some of Paul's words are poorly considered, I think the general gist of his posts are worth serious consideration.
Those departing Anglicanism for Orthodoxy should become Orthodox because they reject even the "orthodox" Anglicanism of the past. That is, they should become Orthodox for the sake of becoming Orthodox, not because the Anglican communion (specifically the PECUSA) is disintegrating--morally, doctrinally, and liturgically. There should be a true metanoia, a fundamental change of mind.
And I've said the same thing to the numerous adherents of Lutheranism, as my own former delusion was the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. One shouldn't become Orthodox because the LCMS/ELCA is falling apart but because one rejects the Lutheran confessions at some point and believes the Orthodox teaching to true and the Orthodox Church to be the Church established by Christ.
The sad reality for many members of these failing church bodies (Anglicans, Presbyterians, Lutherans, etc.) is that doctrinal seriousness has been absent for a long time, and it has affected the catechetical and moral grounding for a generation or more. Orthodox pastors would be wise to consider carefully how much catechesis and liturgical immersion is called for in receiving these individuals.
And, in a parting shot, I'd suggest that the instruction given to so many members in "non-denominational" and "Bible" churches is of only minimally better quality than that seen in the mainlines. "What does this mean to me?" indeed.
How can an Orthodox Christian question the authority of Metropolitan Phillip or the wisdom of St. Tikhon of Blessed Memory both of whom have declared The Western Rite valid?
There are dangers in one's becoming Ultra Orthodox.
Mom's always reading Son. 
Yes, well, in that case ...
It was definitely Derek's idea!
1. Hi "Mom"
2. Ahhh the good old days before the invention of "caller ID."
3. I can just hear you and Derek laughing like girls over your antics, and I assume you disguised your voices with some dialect.
4. In our church we joyfully sing the old hymn "The Church's One Foundation is Jesus Christ Her Lord." When we allow politics in the church to get in the way of our service to Jesus, the devil justs sits back and enjoys the show.
Thank you Father Basil.
I certainly meant no harm in anything I've written; I left the LCMS for the precise reasons you stated. It was extremely hard--mostly because I had to leave behind a culture ingrained in both my mother and father's families.
Keith,
I assure you, I am not ultra-Orthodox; seems that term is thrown about rather loosely these days.
My point is not to question the wisdom of any priest, bishop, metropolitan, or patriarch; its just observation. I need to conform myself to the Church, not the other way around. I'm not saying mistakes have been made, but there are plenty of Orthodox churches out there. Personally, I would gravitate towards the Russians and other Slavs, but if I had to go Greek, so be it. I don't belong to a parish community to be social or feel comfortable; if that happens, great. There was no ordination of women, tithes paying for abortions, nor was there any homosexual pandering in my former religion. What was there was a Western delusion that is not easily broken. While the West may have been Orthodox before the Slavs, they have been heterodox for much longer. I think its very dangerous if the Orthodox in America position themselves as just an answer to depravity.
I apologise if I have not been clear or have been caustic. If anyone wants to discuss this with me, rather than dominate Father Joseph's site with this argument, feel free to email me.
bpwitt@bellsouth.net
Paul
Don't any of you miss the days when you went to church to worship God? Not to worry about the latest fad of the House of Bishops or what theological innovation would be forced upon you this week. When you knew that there would be a priest there who was part of the church under a bishop who represented the other bishops going back to the first Pentecost? Those days still exist.
They exist in Orthodox Churches.
When you get fed up struggling with the issues that have crippled, are crippling, and continue to cripple the worship, witness, and mission of the Episcopal church -- try an Orthodox Church. Visit the nearest one, whichever jurisdiction has one nearby: Orthodox Church of America, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of the United States, the Antiochian Orthodox Church, the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia, and likely, there are others of which I am unaware.
Fifty years ago I found something in an Episcopal church service. Something was there. I could not define it, I didn't know what it was, but I knew I found something and that it was something I would keep always. I kept it for 17 years, and then I had to struggle to keep it. Something was trying to take it away from me, to tell me they had a new rock, that my rock was false. That for almost two thousand years it had been a false rock but no one knew. Now, in the "enlightened 20th century" we knew better. After 25 years of struggling with the Episcopal church, I left. I just couldn't take going to church and leaving angrier and more and more disheartened any more.
But in Orthodoxy, I found again that rock again, the rock that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ commented on in the Apostle Peter. And I have found out that there is so much more to that rock than I ever imagined. There is so much, I don’t even know how much I don’t know, but I now know the day will never come when there will be nothing more to learn about the rock.
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