msnchris70, I agree with much of what you say, except about the Pope, but please note that the Roman Catholic Church is bleeding members at the moment, despite any uptick a few Anglicans and Lutherans might provide. There are now more Protestants in Brazil than Catholics, who use to be 90% of the population. Authority works both ways, and sometimes it's abused.

Yes, this proves again that many things can be proven or disproven by using Scripture alone. This is again proof on why we have 30,000 different denominations all claiming that the Holy Spirit is leading them into All Truth and yet if this were true then there is one group that is being led by the Holy Spirit and the other 29,999 other Churches are wrong. The Holy Spirit doesn't make mistakes my friends, men do in the name of God.

Scripture is authoritative, good for reproofing and it is the word fo God. But many areas of Scripture are silent on what we may deal with today. Yes, the Bereans were searching the Scriptures but they were only searching the Old Testament and we need to not only search the Old, but we must search the New and then we must seek the council of our Bishops. If you don't have a Bishop you are probably a new sect of Christianity in the last few hundred years.
Original Christianity had Bishops, and the final court of appeals was the Pope. When you don't have a Supreme Minister or Prime Minister this is the problem that can happen quite easilly.

Thousands of traditional, orthodox and conservative Anglicans and Lutherans are coming home to the Catholic Church more now than ever before in record numbers for this very reason of Authority.

Topekan, let those who hold a different Scriptural interpretation separate if they must, just like those slave holders who justified their position with Berean-like searching of the Scriptures, just like the Loyalists in the Revolutionary War did in their stand to defend the biblical Divine Right of King, but those who separate have no claim of being 'faithful' Anglicans if the four Anglican Instruments of Unity agreed upon by Windsor do not recognize them, except as a self-righteous affirmation.

The so-called "self-righteous affirmation" described by StJohn's is actually the result of a Berean-like searching of the scriptures. Any denomination which ordains a bishop who leaves his wife (a disqualifier for such service) to set up housekeeping with his homosexual lover (another disqualifier for such service) has strayed so far from the scriptures that they have lost their path. Note that the breakaway congregations and diocesa attempted to get the ECUSA to bend from this sinful path, but found that their attempts were fruitless. The Archbishop of Cantebury was put in his position by men, as was Bishop V. Gene Robinson. The Word of God trumps the decisions of men any day.

The Convocation of Anglicans in North American (CANA) serves as only one of the spiritual homes for Anglicans in the United States who feel they can no longer be 'faithful' Anglicans in The Episcopal Church. There is also those who have aligned with the small Province of the Southern Cone, plus there is the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) and the Reformed Episcopal Church. Schismatics always seem to find it much easier to break away than to come together. And while claiming to be a home for 'faithful' Anglicans, none of these bodies is recognized by the Archbishop of Canterbury, have bishops who have been invited to Lambeth or are recognized by the Anglican Consultative Council or have standing with the Primates as a whole, though individual Primates oversee them. So who decides if not these Windsor agreed instruments of unity whether someone is a 'faithful' Anglican or not? Is it just a self-righteous affirmation?