The three-second summary:
At some point -- exactly when varies, some say the 1930s acceptance of contraception, some say the inability to bring apostate Bishop Pike to heel, some say the ordination of women, some say the revised 1979 prayer book, some say the ordination and consecration of practicing gays -- many members of The Episcopal Church said it's gone off the rails into apostasy and heresy. (A cradle Episcopalian, I left almost 24 years ago.)
A few other CofE church plants (Anglican church of Canada for example) have done the same. The vast majority of world-wide Anglicanism, now centered in Africa, South America and Asia, have not.
The actions of the American church have been causing great turmoil in the world-wide Anglican Communion, and a major rift is underway. Sadly the tear lines are not just separating the apostate from the faithful, but side tears are separating the various wings of the church from each other -- Anglo-catholic, Evangelical and Charismatic (as somebody put it).
And in the American church there is the big issue of who really owns the property. Until about 1980 the parish did. But when a number of churches left in 1977, property and all, to become conservative Continuing Anglican churches (I am a member of same), the Episcopal church enacted a new canon that said that the diocese actually owns the property, even if they didn't put so much as a dime into it.
And that's the fight going on here.
(By contrast, our province's canons explicitly prohibit the diocese and province from any ownership of the property beyond the dollar amount of a loan to a mission. When my church paid off the last of the loan from our Archbishop a couple years back, we then owned the property free and clear.)
Thanks, that helps.
I mentioned on another thread that I'm attending the Falls Church while I'm out here on detail, which split from the Episcopal diocese awhile back.
Being a good Baptist I wasn't paying much attention to the split until I got out here. It's worse than a very public, messy divorce.
On the plus side, I am learning all about the Book of Common Prayer while I'm out here. :-)