Standing Committee meets in London, reaffirms call for 'gracious restraint'
Episcopal News Service. December 18, 2009 [121809-01]
Matthew Davies
The Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion, during its Dec. 15-18 meeting in London, has issued a call for "gracious restraint in respect of actions that endanger the unity of the Anglican Communion."
According to the text of the resolution, the call for "gracious restraint" came in response to the recent election of the Rev. Mary Glasspool, a partnered lesbian woman, as a bishop in Los Angeles, as well as the decision by some dioceses in the U.S. and Canada "to proceed with formal ceremonies of same-sex blessings," and the "continuing cross-jurisdictional activity within the communion."
The committee said its call reaffirms Resolution 14.09, passed by the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) at its meeting last May, which urges "the implementation of the agreed moratoria" on such actions. The ACC is the communion's main policy-making body. The moratoria on same-gender blessings, cross-border interventions and the ordination of gay and lesbian people to the episcopate were first proposed by the 2004 Windsor Report and have been reaffirmed by successive Primates Meetings and supported by the 2008 Lambeth Conference of bishops.
The Episcopal Church's General Convention, meeting in July, passed Resolution D025 saying that God's call to ordained ministry is "a mystery which the church attempts to discern for all people through our discernment processes acting in accordance with [its] Constitution and Canons ..."
Glasspool is the first openly gay priest to be elected bishop since the passage of Resolution D025 and the first since the 2003 election and consecration of New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson. Robinson's consecration as bishop prompted the Windsor Report with its call for a moratorium on such actions.
"The Episcopal Church, a member of the Anglican Communion, for more than the past 30 years has been working on gradual, full incorporation of gay and lesbian people," said Los Angeles Bishop J. Jon Bruno Dec. 18 after hearng about the Standing Committee's resolution. "We have worked to be people of gracious restraint for all these years and have now come to a place in our lives that is normal evolutionary change which compels us to move from tolerance to full inclusion."
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and the Rev. Ian Douglas, Angus Dun professor of World Christianity at Episcopal Divinity School and bishop-elect of the Diocese of Connecticut, are among those attending the Standing Committee meeting, which is being held behind closed doors at the Anglican Communion Office in London. Both left for home following the meeting and were unavailable for comment.
Another key issue being addressed by the committee is the revised text of a proposed Anglican covenant, a set of principles intended to bind the Anglican Communion in light of recent disagreements over human sexuality issues and theological interpretation. The Standing Committee released the final text of section 4 on Dec. 18. All four sections of the covenant are now being sent to the communion's provinces for consideration.
Representatives of the ACC decided last May that the Ridley Cambridge Draft of the covenant needed more work before it could be presented to the communion's provinces for adoption because the disciplinary process outlined in its fourth section had not received the same degree of consideration and comment by the communion's 38 provincial churches that sections 1-3 had.
In late May, Archbishop of Canterbury appointed a small working group to consult with the provinces about section 4 and its possible revision and to report to the Standing Committee. The ACC also requested that the Standing Committee approve a final form of section 4.
The committee, which usually meets annually but has met biannually for the past three years, is the interim body that oversees the day-to-day operations of the Anglican Communion Office and the programs and ministries of the four instruments of communion: the Lambeth Conference; the Anglican Consultative Council; the Primates Meeting; and the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Standing Committee is made up of 15 members elected from among the ACC and the Primates Meeting.
The complete text of the resolution follows.
Resolved that, in the light of:
1. The recent episcopal nomination in the Diocese of Los Angeles of a partnered lesbian candidate
2. The decisions in a number of US and Canadian dioceses to proceed with formal ceremonies of same-sex blessings
3. Continuing cross-jurisdictional activity within the Communion
The Standing Committee strongly reaffirm Resolution 14.09 of ACC 14 supporting the three moratoria proposed by the Windsor Report and the associated request for gracious restraint in respect of actions that endanger the unity of the Anglican Communion by going against the declared view of the Instruments of Communion.