(Full disclosure: I am LCMS Lutheran; I have never been an Episcopalian, though I have been substitute-organist in Episcopal churches perhaps a half-dozen times, the last time being 7-8 years ago.)
I think it is the ultimate, pitiful irony of all this, that the National Cathedral, in order to regain its standing as an orthodox-in-doctrine Christian church, would have to break off its American affiliation and come under the bishopric (if that is the correct term) of John Guernsey, who oversees those Episcopal churches in the US who have come under the [Anglican] Church of Uganda.
Every time I have gone to DC I have made a side trip to the Cathedral, but the last few times I visited, I felt perhaps a little like Peter or Paul, the saints for whom the Cathedral is named, at the Temple: they belonged there, God was worshipped there, but the doctrine there was all twisted--and both would have known Jesus' prophecy, that ultimately the Temple had to be destroyed by pagans, in order for God to have a place where He could be worshipped in Spirit and in truth. I hope the same fate does not have to befall the Cathedral.
I appreciate your history and remarks. I left TEC in NOV 2003 when it consecrated the new, open homosexual, NH bishop Gene Robinson. Fled to the LC-MS and found a home. My last 3 strongest memories of the national cathedral are (1) POTUS #40 RWR’s 2006 funeral (positive), (2) the 2001 memorial service for the victims of 9/11 (negative), and (3) the 2011 Virginia earthquake which damaged some of the finial stones and buttresses - a Divine sign, perhaps? The 9/11 service, for me, was marred when they invited an Islamic cleric into the sanctuary and allowed him to deliver a prayer. I support eccumenism, to a point. All I need to know about Islam I learned on 9/11. The current dean of the national cathedral is wallowing/celebrating in the mire of a dying denomination. It is hard to watch, and I try not to for fear of ending up like Lott’s wife.