Seven Episcopal bishops urge covenant endorsement at all church levels
Episcopal News Service. September 8, 2009 [090809-01]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
Seven Episcopal Church bishops who met September 1 with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams say that dioceses and congregations ought to endorse the proposed Anglican covenant, either in its current partial draft form or when a text becomes final.
The call came in a September 7 statement which also urged the church's General Convention to adopt an Anglican covenant when it next meets in 2012.
Bishops Mark Lawrence of South Carolina, Gary Lillibridge of West Texas, Edward Little of Northern Indiana, Bill Love of Albany, Bruce MacPherson of Western Louisiana, Michael Smith of North Dakota and James Stanton of Dallas met with Williams at Lambeth Palace in London.
The bishops said in their statement that they discussed their concerns in light of some of the actions taken at the July meeting of General Convention and the subsequent episcopal nominations of people "whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion," in the words of Resolution B033, passed by the General Convention in 2006.
In early August, the dioceses of Minnesota and Los Angeles included openly gay partnered priests on their slates of candidates for election as bishops later this fall. A majority of bishops with jurisdiction and diocesan standing committees must consent to the ordination of the two bishops suffragan to be elected in Los Angeles and the diocesan bishop in Minnesota. The church's canons (III.11.4) require such consent in all bishop elections.
The seven bishops said they told Williams that General Convention's actions during its July 8-17 meeting in Anaheim, California "have essentially rejected the teaching of 1998 Lambeth Resolution 1.10 [on human sexuality] as the mind of the communion, and raise a serious questions whether a covenant will be adopted by both Houses at General Convention 2012."
The convention passed two resolutions (D025 and C056) that focused on issues of human sexuality and the Episcopal Church's commitment to the Anglican Communion.
Resolution D025 affirms "that God has called and may call" gay and lesbian people "to any ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church." Resolution C056 calls for the collection and development of theological resources for the blessing of same-gender blessings and allows bishops to provide "a generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of this church."
The bishops said in their statement that they "understand the divisions before us, not simply as differences of opinion on matters of human sexuality, but also about differing understandings of ecclesiology and questions regarding the independence or interdependence of a global communion of churches in discerning the mind of Christ together."
Meanwhile, the seven reiterated their "commitment to remain constituent members of both the Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church."
The seven bishops account for half of the Episcopal Church bishops who are members of the Communion Partners, which describes itself as a "relational fellowship" of primates, bishops and clergy who are committed to the unity of the church but also support honoring requests from Anglican Communion leaders to the Episcopal Church for moratoria on the blessing of same-sex unions, the ordination of openly gay persons to the episcopate, and cross-border interventions.
The Communion Partners have said that individual dioceses could sign onto a covenant whether or not the General Convention agreed to do so.
The idea for an Anglican covenant was first cited in the 2004 Windsor Report (paragraphs 113-120) and has been supported by all the instruments of communion as a way for the Anglican Communion to maintain unity amid differing viewpoints, especially on human sexuality issues and biblical interpretation.
The Anglican Consultative Council in May postponed releasing the Ridley Cambridge draft of the covenant to the communion's provinces for consideration. The council asked that the draft's Section 4, which contains a dispute-resolution process, be given more scrutiny and possibly revised.
A small working group is reviewing Section 4. The members, all of whom served on the original Covenant Design Group, have called for provincial responses by November 13, 2009. The working group will meet November 20-21 in London and report to the Standing Committee meeting December 15-18. (The Standing Committee is a group of elected representatives of the ACC and the Primates Meeting).
ACC's resolution asking for more work on Section 4 called for the revised text to be sent "only to the member churches of the Anglican Consultative Council for consideration and decision on acceptance or adoption by them as the Anglican Communion Covenant."
On July 27, Williams offered some reflections on General Convention in which he said (in paragraph 25) that "there should be a clear answer" to the question of whether "any elements" within a province that does not "respond favorably to the invitation to covenant" could "adopt the covenant as a sign of their wish to act in a certain level of mutuality with other parts of the communion." The bishops noted Williams' remark in their statement.
The bishops' statement calls for dioceses and congregations to study and endorse either a final text when it is release or to endorse the current draft's first three sections immediately. They also ask that those endorsements be recorded on the Communion Partners website and that "bishops, priests, deacons and laypersons of the Episcopal Church" who support the adoption of an Anglican covenant should record their sentiments there as well.
The seven bishops are also among the signatories of the Anaheim Statement that reaffirms their support of the moratoria. The statement, so-called because it was released in Anaheim on July 16 as General Convention was drawing to a close, said that while some bishops tried to modify the wording of some of the convention's actions, "it is apparent that a substantial majority of this convention believes that the Episcopal Church should move forward on matters of human sexuality."
In their statement about their meeting with Williams, the bishops ask for additional endorsers of the Anaheim Statement, as well as the "public support" of bishops and primates elsewhere in the communion.
Pointing to convention's Resolution B030, which was sponsored by Smith, the bishops encourage dioceses and congregations to form "companion domestic mission relationships" within the Episcopal Church. They also encourage the growth of relationships between Communion Partners and primates, bishops, provinces and dioceses in other parts of the communion "in order to enhance the ministry we share in the life of the communion."
Finally, the seven bishops offered themselves for use in the House of Bishop's 2004 plan for Delegated Episcopal Pastoral Oversight. The plan was formulated after some congregations disagreed with the 2003 convention's consent to the ordination of Diocese of New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson and the recognition (via Resolution C051) that congregations that were blessing same-gender relationships "are operating within the bounds of our common life." DEPO allows for a mediated decision for another bishop to provide pastoral oversight to a congregation.