ECM Representatives Meet Archbishop
Episcopal News Service. April 27, 1989 [89086C]
LONDON (DPS, Apr. 27) -- Representatives and officers of the Evangelical and Catholic Mission (ECM), a group of traditionalist bishops, clergy, and laity within the Episcopal Church of the United States, were received by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Robert Runcie, at Lambeth Palace on April 6.
The ECM group was led by its president, the Rt. Rev. Clarence C. Pope, Jr., diocesan of Fort Worth. In March, Pope led group presentations from the ECM to the Archbishop's Commission on Communion and Women in the Episcopate, chaired by the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, the Most. Rev. Robert Eames, during the commission's second meeting in Garden City, New York (Episcopal Diocese of Long Island); the ECM group also led presentations to the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Most Rev. Edmond L. Browning.
The March discussions were characterized by a desire, on the part of the ECM representatives, to find the way forward in the spirit of Resolution 1 of Lambeth Conference 1988. The Lambeth Conference sought to maintain "the highest possible degree of Communion" between those that differ on the ordination of women to the episcopate, and spoke of "courtesy and respect," while admitting differences of "principles" that touch upon the understanding of obedience to the Gospel.
The private conversations of the ECM representatives with the Archbishop in London were direct. They recognized the need for continued maintenance and propagation of a traditional expression of Anglicanism within the Episcopal Church in the United States. However, the ECM did not make definitive proposals to the Archbishop as to how this end should be achieved.
Runcie assured the ECM group that its concerns had been heard by the Eames Commission, and would be discussed at the Anglican Primates meeting in Cyprus in late April, in the context of the Eames Commission report to the Primates. Runcie suggested that there might be further conversations between members of the Eames Commission and the ECM after the Cyprus meeting.
In addition to Pope, the ECM delegation to the Archbishop included the Rt. Rev. Edward H. MacBurney, diocesan of Quincy; the Rt. Rev. A. Donald Davies, executive director of the ECM; Canon Brien Koehler, executive secretary to the Bishop of Fort Worth; the Rev. Rex D. Perry, director of development, Nashotah House (Theological College); Donald Sitz, Davenport, Iowa; and George Engleman, Fort Worth, Texas.