The strange phenomenon of 'wandering bishops'

Another follow-up on the bishop of the Open Episcopal Church and his controversial stands. More importantly its a reflection on the plethora of bishops which have historically been the result of schism in the church. From the Telegraph.

A hundred years ago, Britain and America were awash with episcopi vagantes, "wandering bishops" who were no sooner made bishop than they would fall out with their denomination and found another one. Peter Anson's classic study Bishops At Large (1964) details the contorted "successions" produced by these manoeuvrings, and also contains pictures of splendidly robed Primates consecrating each other in their "cathedrals" (which often served a double purpose as the front room of their terraced house).


A few years ago, the episcopi vagantes had all but died out; but furious schisms in Anglicanism have revived their number. Archbishop Blake is a former Church of England priest who leads the Open Episcopal Church, a liberal, gay-friendly denomination which offers itself as a "an alternative to Rome and fundamentalism": "We have an authentic and traditional mandate inherited through the unbroken succession of laying on of hands from the first apostles. For the rejected and marginalised we can offer a valid church which will not turn you away from the sacraments simply because you are a sinner. The divorced, the homosexual, the drug addicts and thieves, all are welcome at the feet of Jesus and, yes, at his sacramental table too. Rome may choose to exclude you from communion but we will not and, with us, you have a church every bit as "valid" and every bit as "Catholic" in liturgy and tradition."

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/damian_thompson/blog/2009/02/22/jade_goody_archbishop_blake_and_the_strange_phenomenon_of_wandering_bishops