Why I did not Join the Episcopal Church in the First Place
1. Authoritarian Bishops- especially the blatantly sexist Jack Iker of the Diocese of Fort Worth. At least the UMC wasn't conducting an actual witch-hunt for gay clergy the way the Diocese of Fort Worth and the Diocese of Dallas were.

2. An utterly ignorant African priest who served as a locum in the parish I was attending in Irving.

3. I wanted to attend church with Mom, and Mom was UMC.

4. The conflict between progressives and conservatives made respectful dialogue impossible.

Of those three reasons, 2 and 3 are no longer relevant. 1 is still a concern. If I absolutely need complete freedom from control from above, I need to be in a congregational denomination like the UCC. OTOH, if my problem was just with certain schismatic and ultra-conservative bishops, and I can get on with ordinary conservative bishops just fine, TEC would have a structure more like the UMC one I'm used to. Plus, I do think that episcopacy is biblical, though I don't think we have to follow Biblical models if we have a good reason not to. But we can't just abandon them for no reason. Therefore, I need to do more research into the Reformation and the Reformed and the Puritans reasons for abandoning Episcopacy.


As for Reason 4, I need to see if the conflict has died down a bit, to see if progressives, moderates, and conservatives can dwell in peace in TEC, as they do in the UCC. Because, if conservatives can get along in the UCC, and the UCC, though it's even more liberal then TEC,
can remain a member in good standing of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, then the UCC clearly has more of the essence of the Church then TEC, episcopacy notwithstanding!