Separate But Equal?

From Reuters:

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Conservatives who have abandoned the U.S. Episcopal Church by the thousands in recent years are trying to form a separate-but-equal church, a move that could leave two branches of Anglicanism on American soil.
....

Minns, a former Episcopalian elevated to bishop by the Church of Nigeria and leader of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, said the new province could count on 100,000 people as its average weekly attendance. The Episcopal Church says its average weekly attendance is about 727,000.

BabyBlue objects to the phrase "separate-but-equal" and calls it offensive. I left this comment at BB's post:

With respect to equality under the law, "separate but equal" does not seem workable, because it turns out that separate is never really equal. I agree that the phrase is loaded, but in reference to the divisions in [the] Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, I can't quite see wherein lies the offense. Will the use of the phrase somehow work to injure the cause of those who want to separate? I can't see how, but I'm open to having the matter explained.

And then, from the Episcopal Café:

An article by Michael Conlon for Reuters details the GAFCON backed plan to create an alternative or parallel Anglican province in the United States. The article has a number of quotes by Bishop Minns of Nigeria and claims that the Communion is likely to recognize his efforts to create this new structure. Unfortunately there seems to be a lack of actual balanced reporting in the article.

I noted that much of the information in the article seems to come from Martyn Minns, Missionary Bishop of CANA (Convocation of Anglicans in North America), one of the groups seeking to separate from the Episcopal Church, who is hardly unbiased.

In a comment to the post at the Episcopal Café, Fr. Terry Martin says:

It is also worth noting that the 100,000 number includes other groups, like the REC, who are not part of the Communion, and are not likely to become part of the Communion any time soon.

The intention seems to be to suggest that 100,000 of their claimed members were previously part of TEC, which is simply not true. We don't have that number, although I would guess that it is closer to a couple of thousand, at best.

Reporting on church affairs seems to be quite a challenge, unless the article is a straightforward news story. Nuance and background are vital to religion stories, especially those which involve conflict within and amongst churches

H/T to Thinking Anglicans.

UPDATE: In a similar vein, please read Tobias' post, "Reminder About the Communion" at In a Godward Direction:

As the Duncanian coalition of former Episcopalians and never-were Episcopalians coalesces or congeals into form in a few weeks, they appear to remain hopeful that whatever they are will be recognized as a new Province of the Anglican Communion.

This is unlikely, for two reasons.

Continued over there.