VIRGINIA: Council agrees to continue full-inclusion discernment process
Episcopal News Service. February 1, 2008 [020108-03]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, meeting as its 213th annual Council January 25-26 in Reston committed to a continuing discernment process about the full inclusion in the life of the diocese of people living in same-gender relationships and heard its bishop defend ongoing property litigation.
Bishop Peter Lee told the Council that the litigation is "required to secure churches occupied by individuals who have abandoned the Episcopal Church."
"The shadow of that litigation is a present reality and I want to address it first so that we can move on to the more important matters of the mission and ministry required by God’s abundant love," he said in his address.
Lee explained that the litigation stems from the decisions of 11 congregations to leave the Episcopal Church. Those congregations "continue to use the Church’s property to the exclusion of those members who chose to remain loyal to the Episcopal Church," he said.
Saying that "defending our heritage and securing our future is expensive," Lee told the Council that the diocese has spent nearly $2 million thus far. Interest on a line of credit obtained to cover those costs is being paid from endowment income and not pledge money, the bishop added.
"At the conclusion of this litigation, we expect to pay off the line of credit by selling undeveloped and unconsecrated property, a process that is already under way," Lee said. "No one likes lawsuits but at the same time, our generation has a stewardship responsibility to protect the property of our churches for Episcopalians in the next 400 years."
Lee said the case "involves Virginia’s historic tradition of religious liberty."
"The recent motion of Virginia Attorney General Robert McDonnell to intervene in the case represents an intrusion by the state into the freedom of the church," he said.
The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia, as well as other faith communities in the state, have opposed the attorney general's move. The judge in the case is yet to rule on the attorney general's effort.
Lee noted that delegates from three of the continuing Episcopal congregations involved in the dispute -- St. Margaret’s, Woodbridge; St. Stephen’s, Heathsville; and The Falls Church, Falls Church -- were seated at Council for the second year in a row. Delegates from Church of the Epiphany, Herndon, joined them this year for the first time.
In a report to the Council, the R-5 Commission, which emerged from a 212th Council resolution of that number, reported on its effort to discern a possible "emerging consensus" regarding the permitting of "local option" for the blessing of same-gender unions.
The commission recommended that a newly constituted group compile and make available theological, catechetical, and liturgical resources within the Episcopal Church and the wider Anglican Communion for the pastoral care and spiritual support of same-gender couples in committed relationships. It also suggested that the new group hold four town hall meetings to share resources for education and to "establish a better sense of an 'emerging consensus' pertaining to 'local option' for the blessing of same-gender unions," and report to the next Council.
"This recommendation seeks to provide an ongoing commitment to discern ways of being generous and faithful in our common pastoral call, even as we acknowledge that we are not of one mind in this Diocese on the permissibility of 'local option' in the blessing of same-gender unions," the R-5 Commission's report concluded.
Lee, following those recommendations, said in his address that he will rename the group the "Windsor Dialogue Commission" and charge it "to continue the conversation with our gay and lesbian members, to help us maintain our already expressed desire to remain in relationship with the worldwide Anglican Communion, and to follow the recommendations of the Windsor Report."
"I believe the Diocese of Virginia can make a contribution to that global discussion especially, when we send our bishops to the Lambeth Conference this coming summer," he said.
The council adopted a "mind of the Council" resolution titled "Inclusiveness in Ordained Ministry" that said "in light of the emerging experience of our church," it would commit to a "process of discernment and reflection on the ordination and service of deacons and priests living in same-gender relationships." The resolution recommended that the bishop charge the Windsor Dialogue Commission to include the ordination question in its process of educational resource development, town hall meetings and reporting.
The Council adopted other resolutions to:
- to support the multi-faith campaign on climate change known as the “Genesis Covenant,” which is due to be launched in April and to establish environmental-awareness programs in the diocese;
- to support the work of the diocesan Hispanic/Latino Task Force in developing a five-year strategic plan to be presented at the next Council meeting;
- to stand with Native Americans in Virginia and support a resolution from The New Jamestown Covenant Summit of The Episcopal Church, which called for federal recognition of various tribes;
- to express its "deep dismay at the usurious practices of the payday lending industry and the exemption granted this industry by Virginia's General Assembly," and to call members of the diocese to urge the assembly to cap the interest rate at 36 percent;
- to commend Episcopalians "to pray regularly for peace in the Sudan and for God’s wisdom and guidance for the Episcopal Church in the Sudan as it elects a new archbishop" to succeed Joseph Marona who has retired and to pledge "our continued cooperation and engagement with the vital ministries of reconciliation and hope being carried out by the Episcopal Church of the Sudan";
- to urge the Virginia General Assembly to divest all Commonwealth funds from corporations that support genocide in Darfur and to urge the diocese and its members "to examine our own investments and divest from any companies that support the Government of Sudan in its genocidal actions in Darfur"; and
- to commit the diocese to working towards a "just and humane" U.S. immigration policy.
Council approved a 2008 budget of just over $4.8 million, which is an increase of more than 6.6% from 2007. When faced with a $6,790 cut to the scholarship program that underwrites all diocesan camps, delegates, clergy and staff took up a collection with pledges totaling more than $19,000 for Shrine Mont scholarships.
Complete information about the work of the 213th Council is available here.