[jecIIny]

By remaining in communion with Canterbury they are at least indirectly in some form of communion with PECUSA. They may have stretched the bonds of communion to the near breaking point but a formal breach has not yet occurred. I suspect that one will occur though by the end of the year. There are two possibilities. I don't actually see much likelihood of a compromise.

1. Rowan Williams will break communion with PECUSA (unlikely).

2. The African and other 3rd world bishops will break with Canterbury along with a sizable percentage of conservative minded Anglicans in the US and England.

[bobjam]

It is generally understood that there are four instruments of unity holding the Anglican Communion together:
1) being in communion with the See of Canterbury
2) membership and participation in the Anglican Consultative Council
3) the primates meetings (once or twice a year)
4) the Lambeth Conference of all bishops (every 10 years)

ECUSA and the Anglican Church of Canada have effectively been suspended from the Anglican Consultative Council, and Pres Bishop Griswald and Archbishop Hutchinson (ECUSA and Canada primates, respectively) were shut out of the last Primates meeting in Ireland. Thus two instruments of unity have been broken. The next Lambeth Conference will not occur until 2008, but few expect a big happy gathering of everyone. If the revisionists are not shut out, it is doubtful the Africans will show up. So much for instrument #4. In regards to the See of Canterbury, there's a growing movement afoot in the provinces to remove references to the See of Canterbury from their constitutions. Nigeria has already done this. The process of eliminating instrument #1 has begun and will culminate in the Church of England being forced to choose between the ECUSA crowd and the Nigeria crowd. That choice will either be made by Queen Elizabeth II or Tony Blair (the thought is that judgement will prevail over passion and, when backed into a corner, England will dump ECUSA).