I know being a college educated ex-Episcopalian myself likely gives me less reason to post this but one of the main reasons I converted to the Catholic Church was its moral teachings, most specifically its teaching on the immorality of artificial contraception. That is why I can't help but comment on this doozy -- from Amy Welborn -- An interview that will go down in infamy.

Recently elected head of the Episcopal church in the United States, Bishop Kate Schori interviewed by the NY Times:

How many members of the Episcopal Church are there in this country?

About 2.2 million. It used to be larger percentagewise, but Episcopalians tend to be better-educated and tend to reproduce at lower rates than some other denominations. Roman Catholics and Mormons both have theological reasons for producing lots of children.

Episcopalians aren’t interested in replenishing their ranks by having children?

No. It’s probably the opposite. We encourage people to pay attention to the stewardship of the earth and not use more than their portion.

I am not one for intelligent commentary so bear with me. If an intelligent person happens to stop by there are plenty of nuanced words you can insert into my statements to make this say what you want to hear. Bishop Schori quite simply fails to realize that American Catholics do not tend to heed Mother Church on this particular teaching. In fact, Catholics contracept at the same rate as the rest of the nation. Fortunately this concerns our bishops who released the first document on the topic since the late 1960's in recent days. That would lead me to think that most new Catholics are NOT coming from large orthodox families with 12 kids. They are coming from conversions and from replacement rate Catholics. Furthermore, the Catholic Church in the United States is increasing in numbers despite the fact that ex-Catholics would supposedly make up the second largest Christian church in the US if they were all together in one denomination.

So our members are leaving in droves, contracepting just like the rest of the crowd and yet our numbers rise?

Care to explain those dwindling numbers again?

I'll give you a hint. The GROWING churches in this country have something in common and it has nothing to do with the birth rates of its members (a few of them being -- Assemblies of God, Orthodox, Catholic, Southern Baptist) ... The majority of churches whose memberships are decreasing also have something in common (a few of them being -- United Methodist, Evangelical Lutheran, Episcopal, Presbyterian Church USA, United Church of Christ) -- see 2006 Yearbook of Churches reflects membership and growth trends

And as Amy indicated, this Cafe Press item titled Kate Schori Goes Ecumenical is pure genius: