This reminds me of the old football adage, “when you throw a pass, three things can happen, and two of them are bad”.  The Supreme Court can decide to not take the case.  Or they can take the case and rule in favor of the breakaway churches, or they can rule that “church law” is beyond the State and that the Episcopal Church is in fact the Trustee for all Episcopal Churches and congregations.  If the latter that will probably trump any state rulings in Virginia, South Carolina, etc.  Risky business those unintended consequences.

If SCOTUS takes this, it will be a game-changer regardless of what they decide.

#1, pardon my French, but that is like looking at the glass 1/24 empty.

#3, the comment was purely reflective.  I am in a parish and diocese which is not going to leave The Episcopal Church in my expected lifetime.  St Luke’s has “nothing to lose” so perhaps your view is appropriate for them.  If I were Wacamaw Island, or Truro in VA, I might have a different view of the risks.

Because the departing group lost below, there really is no downside to rolling the dice with the Supreme Court of the United States.  If certiorari is not granted, they are no worse off than they are now.  The impacts on the Virginia situation are minimal, because of the peculiarities of that state’s law, a law that will rise or fall on its own merits.  South Carolina hasn’t ripened sufficiently to perceive whether there is good Constitutional grist there for one side or the other.  I guess we have Texas and Pennsylvania in the wings, also, don’t we?