Comment 11 by inquisador

You may be right about that, but I'd be surprised. The trend in the CofE to date has been more away from the fundamentalist or literalist wing and towards a metaphorical reading of the text.

In Blighty that is for sure...the move away from the literal interpretation begun probably over 50 years back. Metaphorical is at least a tad more palatable then the rest of the hysteria and drooling!

But I think beyond that there is a spectre of the mainly African Bishops that are fiercely creationist, fundamentalist, evangelistic and torridly anti anything not of Bronze age pedigree!

And they are a potent financial and growing membership grouping in the C of E...very difficult to ignore!

GAFCOM

And would it surprise anyone to learn that an old acquaintance has been agitating for schism ever since he saw the glory and power floating just beyond his skeletal grasp... He was a driving force behind the open mutiny that eventually drove Catweazle back to obscurity. Unfortunately after a decade or more of sly manoeuvring behind Catweazle's back clutching his penknife in readiness to strike at a sign of weakness in his prey, he eventually gave up possibly considering that Rowan was there for life... and next thing after Ali gets bogged down whining about hard done by xians..Catweazle pulls the plug and leaves two other muppets to fight over the spoils!

Rt. Rev. Michael Nazir-Ali must be spitting blood and bile in equal measure!

But it seems to late to call the anticipated schism off...it now has a life of its own!