From The London Guardian-
Here in the US, the Episcopal Church (ECUSA) is run on strictly democratic lines. Each parish is a private corporation with a vestry, consisting of lay members of the congregation, as its board of directors. The governing body of the national church is General Convention, which includes House of Bishops and House of Deputies consisting of elected lay and clergy representatives from each diocese.
Of course it makes not one whit of difference. Priests run their churches as they please and the national church's policies are set by the überpriests, cardinal rectors and bishops who've managed to shinny up the greasy pole of ecclesiastical office politics. Church politics in ECUSA mimics secular US politics at its dirtiest, in a virulent, concentrated form. There is lobbying and logrolling, clergy are bullied, laypeople are manipulated and in the end the policy-makers, iron fist in velvet glove, get their way.
Episcopalians watched this political process play out for over 20 years as the church's organisational elite campaigned to win support for the blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of openly non-celibate homosexuals. After winning their protracted battle for liturgical revision, policy-makers turned their fancies to sexuality and, in 1985 induced General Convention to approve a resolution calling to "dispel myths and prejudices" against homosexuality. In 1994, after extensive politicking, and long before the ordination of Bishop Gene Robinson, General Convention approved a resolution calling for a report on rites for the blessing of same-sex unions.
More here-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/feb/08/general-synod-anglican-episcopal-church
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