Primates' communiqué, Windsor report draw praise, criticism
Episcopal News Service. February 6, 2009 [020609-01]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
The leader of the effort to form a new Anglican entity in North America said February 6, through a spokesman, that he is "certainly open to mediated conversations" called for by the primates of the Anglican Communion, but added that his organization "will need to see what exactly is being proposed and what ground rules can be agreed on before committing further."
The Rev. Peter Frank said he was authorized to speak on behalf of Robert Duncan, the deposed bishop of Pittsburgh who led the majority of that diocese's members and leadership out of the Episcopal Church. Duncan is one of a number of individuals and groups who have responded to the primates' communiqué and an accompanying report from the Windsor Continuation Group issued February 5.
The primates' communiqué is available here. The Windsor Continuation Group report is available here.
The other responses included ones from House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson, the Anglican Network in Canada, the Chicago Consultation, the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) and Integrity USA.
Among the many issues they addressed in their communiqué, the primates acknowledged that "there is no consensus among us" about how to regard the group led by Duncan, but said the members support a continuation group recommendation (in paragraph 101 of its report) that Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams "establish at the earliest opportunity a professionally mediated conversation at which all the significant parties could be gathered."
Duncan made no mention of the primates' call for mediated talks in his official statement responding to the February 5 communiqué issued after the leaders or primates of the Anglican Communion's 38 provinces ended their five day meeting in Alexandria, Egypt. Instead, in that statement, he portrayed the members of the proposed new "Anglican Church in North America" as people "who are attempting to remain faithful amidst vast pressures to acquiesce to beliefs and practices far outside of the Christian and Anglican mainstream."
Anderson told ENS that "the primates spoke in a new voice in their communiqué." Anderson, who plans to issue a full statement next week, went on to say that "while I didn't agree with everything they said, I appreciated their emphasis on relationships and their commitment to mission. The Windsor Continuation Group is another matter. They seem firmly anchored in the past, yearning for a centralized authority that can solve all of our problems. This is troubling, because centralization disenfranchises the laity, and diminishes the importance of the witness of the local church."
In their communiqué, the primates called for the development of a "pastoral council" and Williams' ability to appoint of "pastoral visitors" to assist in healing and reconciliation given the current "situation of tension" in the Anglican Communion. They also encouraged all parties in the current controversies to maintain "gracious restraint" with respect to actions that could exacerbate the tensions, such as same-gender blessings, cross-border interventions and the ordination of gay and lesbian people to the episcopate.
The continuation group, which last met in December 2008, has been charged with addressing questions arising from the 2004 Windsor Report, a document that recommended ways in which the Anglican Communion can maintain unity amid diversity of opinions, especially relating to human sexuality issues and theological interpretations.
More details about what both the primates and the continuation group said February 5 are available here.
Duncan is the leader of the collection of several self-identified Anglican organizations, known as the Common Cause Partnership, which announced in December 2008 the creation of what they called an Anglican "province in formation." It is meant, they said, for those who say that the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada promote erroneous biblical interpretation and theology, particularly in terms of the doctrine of salvation and acceptance of homosexuality. It would thus be a theologically based province that would overlap the geographic boundaries of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada.
A statement issued by Lambeth Palace, Williams' London office, the day after Duncan's December announcement, noted that there is a prescribed series of steps necessary for the amendments of existing provincial constitutions and the creation of new provinces, few of which the partnership has begun.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori told ENS February 5 that discussions among the primates revealed that there is "little patience with the idea of parallel jurisdictions and a continued urge toward the expectation of reconciliation."
"I welcome the opportunity for mediation and would expect my brothers who have offered shelter to the refugees to use their influence to bring the refugees' leaders to the discussion table," said Jefferts Schori.
In his February 6 statement, Duncan noted what he called the communiqué's "honesty" about "our damaged and fractured relationships" and said that "those of us in the Common Cause Partnership who live face to face with the stark realities of unjust depositions, lawsuits, and forced evictions from church buildings and homes are acutely aware of the need for resolution."
"We are committed to help the process however we can," he wrote. "We are aware, however, that the innovations, punitive lawsuits, and abuses of the Episcopal Church continue to take a toll. They proceed unrepentant and undeterred. We of the Common Cause Partnership and the emerging Anglican Church in North America will do our part for the good of the Anglican family we value so much."
Martyn Minns, the missionary bishop of the Common Cause Partnership member Convocation of Anglicans in North, said in a statement that the Episcopal Church is to blame for what he called "the brokenness in the Communion."
His Province of Nigeria-sponsored organization is "saddened to read that within hours of agreeing to this statement [Jefferts Schori] is already questioning whether the primates' call for gracious restraint is something to which the Episcopal Church wants to make a commitment." Minns added that CANA is "disappointed" that the primates "were not unanimous in their call to repentance for those who continue to defy" what he called the "teaching" of Lambeth 1998 Resolution 1:10, which says in part that homosexuality is "incompatible with Scripture."
Meanwhile, Integrity USA, a group that advocates for the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the life of the Episcopal Church, said in a statement that it is "disappointed but not surprised" that the communiqué "repeated the all-too-familiar call for moratoria on the election of bishops in same-gender unions, rites of blessing for same-sex unions, and cross-border interventions."
"Calling a halt to actions that violate the polity and boundaries of the autonomous national churches that are constituent members of the Anglican Communion is preserving the historic unity of the church," said Integrity president Susan Russell. "Scapegoating a percentage of the baptized by excluding them from a percentage of the sacraments of the Body of Christ is participating in the appeasement of bigotry. They're apples and oranges."
Russell said that Jefferts Schori is "absolutely correct in stating that moratoria are a matter for General Convention."
"Integrity USA believes that General Convention will reaffirm that all the sacraments are open to all the baptized," she added, encouraging Episcopalians to talk with their bishops and General Convention deputies about the issues as they prepare for convention.
Chicago Consultation co-convener Ruth Meyers said in a statement that "we reject the false choice suggested by the primates communiqué that God asks Episcopalians to deny either faithful mission with the worldwide Anglican Communion or full inclusion of our gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered sisters and brothers."
Meyers, who is professor of liturgics at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, said that the group of Episcopal and Anglican bishops, clergy and lay people will work at General Convention "with a broad coalition of allies to achieve full inclusion of all the baptized in the Episcopal Church and to be a voice of witness with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people across the Anglican Communion." She added that the coalition believes the baptismal covenant requires such efforts.
"The Chicago Consultation believes that the Anglican Communion is, at its best, a manifestation of the body of Christ in which the Holy Spirit blesses members from different cultures and contexts with various gifts," Meyers said. "As Christians, we are called to live in communion with one another, but also to embrace all of the Spirit's gifts -- graciously and fearlessly."
The Province of the Southern Cone-affiliated Anglican Network in Canada said in a statement that it is grateful that the primates "addressed the 'continuing deep differences' in the communion, acknowledging the 'depth of conscientious conviction involved' and that 'the Lambeth 1998 Resolution 1:10 in its entirety remains' the undisputed position of the Anglican Communion on sexuality."
The network's statement welcomed the prospected of mediated conversations about the proposed new province and added that "the call for 'gracious restraint' clearly shows their desire to preserve faithful Anglican parishes and protect clergy while the communion continues to wrestle with the profound theological divide."
Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, said he was "encouraged" by the proposal for a "professionally mediated conversation" involving North American churches at odds over the issue of sexuality and said he was prepared to be a part of it.
In a telephone interview with the Anglican Journal, Hiltz also said that it appeared relationships among church leaders, which had been ruptured because of bitter divisions over the issue, were being repaired. "I think we’re on the way toward healing within the communion," he said.