Message from the Chair-- John E. Hines
Diocesan Press Service. December 12, 1972 [72201]
Rt. Rev. John E. Hines, Presiding Bishop
Whatever else I have heard -- in the course of my visitations in the Church -- I have heard a virtually unanimous voice approving the "On to Louisville" exercise initiated by this Council and implemented by the Blanchard-Carr-Hunter et al axis. This does not mean that every visitation could be termed an unqualified success -- whatever criteria "success" might have. Some were partially defeated by lack of local planning, some by a degree of indifference, some by bureaucratic "over-kill." But the main thing appears to be that the integrity of the process stood up under a variety of conditions. The Executive Council has, indeed, gone to the Church -- as extensively as limited personnel -- and local communication -- would permit. And the quality of relationship between the Church and its Executive Council has been enhanced. There is, of course, much, much that remains to be done.
The more difficult aspect yet remains to be reckoned with. But the people who took on this responsibility, who helped to plan and implement it -- both from this Council and in the dioceses -- already have sufficient "brownie-points" (not that that was the objective) and can, with modest pride, "take a bow." A genuine service already has been rendered.
Several of us attended the meeting of the Assembly of the National Council of Churches of Christ in America held last week in Dallas, Texas. When the invitation was first extended -- by ecumenical groups -- to the NCC to hold the Assembly meeting there, it was only a few short years after the assassination of President Kennedy, and that memory -- together with the public attack on Mr. Adlai Stevenson -- was fresh in the minds of the General Board which had authority to deal with the invitation. There was the question raised as to-whether the NCC could get a fair hearing in Dallas -- and some thought it unlikely. But the decision held to honor the confidence of those who had invited the Council -- and the Dallas meeting justified the wisdom of that decision.
In a way -- it should have been of the nature of "a wake" -- that meeting. For the Assembly had before it the decision to vote itself out of business in favor of a rather radically different kind of structure for conciliar representation of Christian ecumenicity in the U.S.A. I will not dwell on the details -- since this Council had a review of it all about a year ago.
The meeting of the House of Bishops in New Orleans last month was -- in my view -- one of the most rewarding -- if not the most rewarding -- in my memory and in my association with that House. Obviously, the major matter was what would be the mind of the House concerning the ordination of women to the priesthood, and to the episcopacy. The House could have -- without total destruction of conscience -- discussed the report of its Special Committee (on the topic) and deferred action until the next General Convention. The House did not do that. It exercised its pastoral and teaching office, met the issue head on, debated it with forthrightness, and with high respect for differing opinions -- voted 74 to 61 -- with five abstentions -- that:"It is the mind of this House that it endorses the principle of the Ordination of Women to the Priesthood and of the Ordination and Consecration of Women to the Episcopate; therefore, be it
"RESOLVED, that the Committee on Constitution and the Committee on Canons be instructed to prepare the necessary constitutional and canonical changes to put this Resolution into effect for presentation at the General Convention of 1973."
The House further instructed the President of the House to ascertain -- as far as possible -- from the various Primates and Presiding Bishops of the Anglican Communion -- what, in their respective opinions, would be the effect of the action of this House of Bishops as it was taken in New Orleans -- and to convey those judgments to the bishops prior to the next General Convention. Obviously -- the matter is not settled. Only General Convention can do that. But it is cleanly and clearly "in the open" and the Church must deal with it with maximum wisdom and justice.
The House also devoted several hours to the whole matter of liturgical reform. It was a teaching and a learning session which I found very worthwhile. During the session theologians and liturgiologists were respected but not idolized. The pragmatic had its brave hour likewise.
Forgive me for a minor reference to some of the problems that accompany the privileges and joys of being in the office of Presiding Bishop. Many of our Church people have an inflated idea of the authority of this office. They have not read history enough -- nor taken in the ethos enunciated in the title, "The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America." Be that as it may -- some who view liturgical reform as total destruction of the Book of Common Prayer lament it vehemently -- and blame the Presiding Bishop for it -- solely!