What would Paul have done if James and Peter and John and the rest had insisted, after all, on circumcision?
"What would Paul have done if James and Peter and John and the rest had insisted, after all, on circumcision?"
Fundamental difference: Paul, James, Peter and John all DIRECTLY experienced theophanies, divine revelations, angelic visitations, the direct presence of God, etc. They did not have "faith". They had empiricial, scientific certitude of the literal truth of what they were teaching. God spoke to them, literally, visibly and in the first person.
That is not true of this bishop or any other bishop that I know of. God and angels do sometimes speak to people (demons too, so we have to be cautious). And when it happens, these people stand forth with divine authority and the world had better listen. But they have to IDENTIFY that authority as such. Joan of Arc is an example. She didn't hide her mission and the repeated divine revelations and visitations that expressly gave her instructions.
But these bishops? They never claim any such thing. The all work like the scribes of old, arguing from reason and existing authority.
Had Paul, Peter, James and John been unable to come to an agreement, it would have been an indication that Christianity was untrue, because God would have been appearing, giving conflicting rudder orders and permitting the destruction of the Church even by those to whom He directly revealed Himself. Of course nothing like that happened. And if it had, we can expect that God would have appeared to correct it.
God is not going to appear to correct anything in the Episcopalian Church. Men here are forced to decide on faith. And no bishop alive, nor the Pope, claims to have had a direct theophany instructing him to go in a certain way. They talk about prayer and authority and reason. None of them say: "The Angel told me to ... x".
That's why it's different, and parallels cannot be drawn. Paul and Joan of Arc stood on the same plane, with God and Angels directly addressing them and telling them to do something. There's no bishop claiming that at all today, which means it isn't happening.