Communiqué from the House of Bishops Meeting at Camp Allen, Texas
Episcopal News Service. March 25, 2004 [032504-1]
During these days of Lent we, your bishops, gathered for our Spring meeting in order to reflect together on our common ministry in the service of the gospel. We write now to share with you some sense of the fruits of these days. Within a framework of the Daily Office and Eucharist, and our daily Bible study of the Letter to the Ephesians, we explored the meaning of our ministry in relationship to our call to serve before God "day and night in the ministry of reconciliation," as the ordination liturgy for a bishop tells us.
Tensions within our church have invited us to explore more fully the mutual forbearance and respect that only the Spirit can give. We believe that only by being present to one another in a stance of truthfulness and faithfulness can we be available to God's reconciling love. As we are willing to do the costly work of being together across difference we can create the trust that is essential if we are to serve you in a ministry of care for all the churches.
We have labored over these last months, and more intensively over the days of our meeting, to develop a plan to attend to the pastoral needs of those who feel themselves disaffected or alienated from their bishop because of decisions of the 74th General Convention. The plan, entitled "Caring for all the Churches," is consistent with the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church and our ministry as chief pastors. After listening to many voices within our church and around the Anglican Communion we believe we have found a way forward. It is our earnest prayer and expectation that this plan will meet the expressed needs for delegated episcopal pastoral oversight called for at this time in the life of our church.
We are committed to caring for all of our people, regardless of their differing points of view. We are also deeply aware that the ministry we share as bishops exists solely for the well being of all God's people. Therefore, we pledge ourselves to working together with generosity of spirit in order that the church might live the fullness of the gospel for the sake of the world.
Our further work on global reconciliation reminded us of the larger world for which Christ died, lives again, and brought us back again to the question of mission. Here, we were reminded by one of our presenters, Willis Jenkins of the Standing Commission on World Mission, that "mission can be a practice of actively engaging with what our differences mean, and it is a way of reconciliation for both church and world."
We were blessed by the presence of Archbishop Martin Barahona, Primate of Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central de America, Archbishop Joseph Marona, Primate of the Sudan, and Archbishop Ellison Pogo, Primate of Melanesia. The presence of these three primates from other parts of our Communion sharpened our focus and made us acutely aware of the vastly different contexts in which brother and sister Anglicans seek to proclaim and live the gospel. They spoke of celebrations and struggles in the midst of poverty, war, and disease.
As well, the words of the Rt. Rev. Edward Neufville, the Bishop of Liberia, brought before us the struggles of his war-torn country and the continuing effort of the church there to be a source of peace and reconciliation. We also offered prayers for and sent greetings to our brothers and sisters in Haiti, who are living through a time of social and political violence and upheaval.
The efforts toward reconciliation on the part of our brothers and their churches brought to life for us the words of Saint Paul's Letter to the Ephesians. We are inspired and humbled by their witness as they strive "with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph. 4:2).
We came away from our days together strengthened, challenged and committed anew to God's mission in the world which is, as our Prayer Book tells us, "to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ."
May we, your bishops, and all who are members of Christ's risen body, be renewed in this mission as we live these days of Lent and come with joy to celebrate the Paschal Feast.