In the city of Dijon in the early 15th century, a large communion host embossed with an image of Jesus as judge was suddenly seen to be bleeding.
Like a large, chewy communion host (any other Catholics out there?), it's not big on flavor.
MATT DELLINGER: Your story this week tells of a political split within the American Episcopal Church and the larger Anglican Communion, which, as you point out, was born of a political compromise.
Mr. Mason and others say the selection of Bishop-elect Robinson threatens to divide the United States church, which includes 2.3 million people, as well as the larger Anglican Communion, an association of 70 million people in churches in 164 countries.
Dr. Berry believed that humanity, after generations spent glorying in itself and despoiling the world, was poised to embrace its role as a vital part of the larger, interdependent "communion of subjects" in the cosmos.
And as the church has elevated its progressive wing — ordaining female and gay bishops — it finds itself increasingly isolated within the larger Anglican Communion, the more traditional worldwide family of Anglican churches.
We pay attention for intrinsic reasons: it is one of the largest Christian communions, complex because of and coping with "autocephaly" which complicates ancient ways of organizing the Church.
In November 2006, 15 conservative Episcopal churches voted to split from the Diocese of Virginia over the ordination of openly gay bishops and clergy in other dioceses of the Episcopal Church; these churches continue to claim affiliation with the larger Anglican Communion through other bodies outside the United States.
Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, who leads the largest province in the communion, said at a news conference, "It's quite clear we have been in turmoil".
But in recent years, bitter wrangling between the liberal bishops who predominate in the Episcopal Church in America and the many conservative prelates in Africa, the communion's largest demographic group, have threatened to hasten a historic schism in what has been a loose confederation of self-governing churches.
