Bishops Sign Supplemental Statement Following 'Word to the Church'
Episcopal News Service. January 19, 2005 [011905-1]
Continuing their response to the Windsor Report addressing communion among Anglicans worldwide, a group of at least 21 Episcopal bishops have signed a supplemental statement (see text below) following the "Word to the Church" adopted almost unanimously by the House of Bishops January 13.
A total of 143 bishops attended the House of Bishops' day-and-a-half meeting January 12-13 in Salt Lake City, where the Word to the Church [http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_56787_ENG_HTM.htm ] was drafted and passed with only one "no" heard at voting. Meeting in plenary, the bishops finalized the document in a two-hour editing session.
Yet the group of 21 bishops agreed that the response "didn't go far enough, and that the Windsor Report asked us to deal with three issues directly," South Carolina Bishop Edward L. Salmon Jr. told ENS in a January 19 telephone interview. He said the supplemental statement -- which was neither received nor regarded by the House of Bishops as a minority report -- was not intended as an "in-your-face response" but rather as an honest assessment of views shared by the signatories. "What we wanted people to hear is that the bishops who signed this statement were willing to respond to the requests of the Windsor Report."
Salmon said the bishops engaged in "some very frank discussion" with each other during the meeting, which spanned 11 hours and was closed to visitors and the media. The South Carolina bishop, whose regular attendance and participation at House of Bishops meetings throughout the 15 years of his episcopate has been praised by his peers, emphasized the importance of clear conversation around issues: "I don't think people can do business without frank discussion… I don't think we're ever going to get anywhere if we're not willing to talk to each other seriously."
Salmon said the group of 21 would have preferred the House of Bishops "to respond at the front end" of its recent meeting on matters of moratoria on ordaining additional openly gay bishops, and on blessing same-sex unions. He said that deferring this conversation to the House of Bishops' upcoming March meeting "sends a message" to the Communion, and asked "what does that behavior mean?"
The majority of bishops voted, however, to wait for the Primates' response before addressing the moratoria issues, and acknowledged that far-reaching decisions must be put not only to the House of Bishops, but also to the full General Convention. "Obviously, we're not in agreement," Salmon said.
Bishop Ed Little of Northern Indiana, a member of the House of Bishops planning committee, said "the [bishops'] task was to come up with a more general word for the Presiding Bishop to take to the Primates Meeting in February, and then we would address directly and with specificity the requests of the Windsor Report once the Primates have heard us and made their statement."
He added, "There was a wide range of perspectives addressed in Salt Lake City and we need to talk a bit more, but we do have to come to a response on all three of the requests of the Windsor Report—the moratorium on ordination of non-celibate homosexuals to the episcopate, on same-sex blessings, and also on the crossing of boundaries by bishops."
The House of Bishops will continue its deliberations on the Windsor Report during its annual Spring meeting March 11 - 17 at Camp Allen in Texas.
A Statement of Acceptance of and Submission to the Windsor Report 2004
January 2005
We the undersigned Bishops:
(1) Accept the Windsor Report's key idea of "autonomy-in-communion, that is, freedom held within interdependence"
(2) Pledge in the future to maintain the bonds of affection by only making decisions that are "fully compatible with the interests, standards, unity and good order" of the Anglican Communion
(3) Acknowledge that as a province we have "acted in ways incompatible with the Communion principle of interdependence, and our fellowship together has suffered immensely as a result"
(4) Seek for ECUSA to comply in full with the unanimous recommendations of The Windsor Report by:
a. Expressing its regret for its own role in breaching the proper constraints of the bonds of affection in the events surrounding the election and consecration of a bishop for the See of New Hampshire and for the consequences which followed
b. Calling on the Executive Council, and recommending to the next General Convention, that they express their own regret in these terms
c. Effecting "a moratorium on the election and consent to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate who is living in a same gender union until some new consensus in the Anglican Communion emerges"
d. Effecting a moratorium on all public Rites of Blessing of same sex unions and calling on those bishops who have authorized such rites to withdraw their authorization and express their regret that by such authorization they breached the proper constraints of the bonds of affection
e. Endeavoring to ensure commitment of all bishops to the common life of the Communion
(5) Reaffirm our commitment to engage with the Communion in our continuing study of the biblical and theological rationale for recent actions because "these potentially divisive issues...should not be resolved by the Episcopal Church on its own" (General Convention 1991 B020)
Signatures of Bishops (as of January 13, 2005):
| Henry Scriven | Assistant, Pittsburgh |
| David J. Bena | Suffragan Albany |
| Gethin B. Hughes | San Diego |
| Keith L. Ackerman | Quincy |
| John W. Howe | Central Florida |
| William J, Skilton | South Carolina |
| Robert Duncan | Pittsburgh |
| James Adams | Western Kansas |
| Stephen H. Jecko | Assistant, Dallas |
| Daniel W. Herzog | Albany |
| James Stanton | Dallas |
| Bertram Nelson Herlong | Tennessee |
| Edward L. Salmon, Jr. | South Carolina |
| Jack Iker | Fort Worth |
| Don A. Wimberly | Texas |
| James B. Folts | West Texas |
| Gary R. Lillibridge | Coadjutor, West Texas |
| John David M. Schofield | San Joaquin |
| D. Bruce MacPherson | Western Louisiana |
| William C. Frey | Colorado, retired |
| Peter Beckwith | Springfield |