As noted here earlier, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the USA (which is changing its name to just the "Episcopal Church," inspiring all kinds of speculation) is meeting in Columbus this week. The most newsy items on the agenda all have to do with homosexuality and the impact the ECUSA’s ordination of Gene Robinson, as well as blessing of same-sex unions have had on the global Anglican Communion. It is all rather complicated and involves various bodies in the Convention (there is a House of Deputies and House of Bishops).

In shorthand, I think this is correct: The Windsor Report, a document produced by a commission studying the issue on behalf of the Archbishop of Canterbury, said that bodies within the Anglican Communion had a responsibility to consider the impact of decisions made by their churches on the worldwide Communion, and should express regret for any actions taken that have caused disunity.

(Read: ECUSA)

One of the tasks of this GenCon is to deal with the Windsor Report, which is being done via various resolutions. The news today was that Bishop N.T. Wright of Durham released a report to the Convention that basically said that the proposed resolutions did not cleave close enough to the Windsor Report. The other news was that the Archbishop of York Sentamu was present at the Convention, supposedly not representing Rowan Williams, but it seems that no one believes that. Sentamu has echoed Wright’s report, and caused some surprise among some delegates, including one of the blogging bishops, by being, you know, black. ‘Cause he’s originally from Uganda.

Ruth Gledhill of the Times (UK) is blogging the news from London – this post from yesterday is an efficient place to get news on the General Convention.

The most interesting point of Gledhill’s most recent blog:

But it is not difficult to see why, given what is at stake, there has been this change of name, the array of flags on the podium, the sense that we are seeing the formation of a new federation that may or may not in the end be in full communion with Canterbury. It looks to me as though The Episcopal Church is indeed preparing "to walk apart".

There was a hearing tonight at which opinions on the resolutions were expressed, a hearing liveblogged here. If you read through the testimonies, you can clearly see the divide, which is wide and deep. The comments on the site (which is "reaffirming" or more traditional/orthodox) are on the edge of despair…convinced that the die has been cast and the rift is getting more serious as we speak.