I imagine they'll be growing soon, what with the 815 heading for schism, and all.

"Communion with Canterbury" and "Apostolic succession" would be my questions for them if I were you. I'm guessing "not completely" on the former (because of the existence of ECUSA, but that may cease to be an issue after September 30 from Canterbury's point of view) and "Porvoo Communion" on the second (which may well be an adequate answer).

I'm also wondering if Rome will be getting any applications for parishes to go "Anglican Use/Pastoral Provision" in Virginia soon, too.

Interesting times.

As for the Tiber, you needn't swim it -- there are plenty of bridges, after all. My only fear in you crossing is that you may find the Novus Ordo mass insufficiently High Church for your sensibilities. The hymnal of the St. Louis Jesuits is a cross we all have to bear on this side of the Tiber, after all.

Yes, I can't quite track a connection to the Communion.

Virginia is actually a tradional haven of fairly low church Episcopalianism, so I'm not married to high church expectations. My only rules are no drumsets and no liturgical dance.

Like I said, no promises.

Fascinating to track your ongoing ECUSA story. I'm on the Parish Council of our Roman Catholic church, and we've got a little situation as well. We are plumb out of priests. Shouldn't be a shocker, but we're suddenly getting very rattled in the mitred set. Wholesale consolidations are in the offing unless something radical is done.

So headquarters has asked for input (amazingly). A simple step would get us far, I belive, and I've spoken up about it. Let most of the 100 or so former priests in our diocese who left and got married come on back. Instant capacity, and not the big deal it might seem. We Catholics in fact have only a partial ban on married priests -- former Episcopal, Lutheran priests have come over. We're in communion with plenty of other churches who have it as a norm. It's just not a big step, really. And, as a bonus, it may throw the door just a bit wider to joining forces with the likes of some of you lot.

Of course, things could easily go the other way for we papists. There are growing numbers of apostolic churches here in the US, some loopy left and some radical right but a few right in the middle. It will be interesting to see how the various churches of yesterday (like mine) look a few years from now as competition heats up. I know that if we can't get our act together here, my family and I are going church shopping. More and more people I know are doing the same. I'm a traditionalist and won't take to changing easily, but at some point it just makes sense to step back and take a look at your church.

The good news to me in all of this is that there are so many people questioning and pushing and striving for a church that makes sense to them. In Europe they appear to have simply walked away from religion in droves. I'm not sure what a society looks like a generation or two down the line with no spiritual grounding.