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House of Bishops Celebrate's 200th Anniversary by Unanimously Adopting a Statement of Unity

Episcopal News Service. October 4, 1989 [89159]

PHILADELPHIA, September 28 -- The vote was unanimous.

More than a hundred bishops, including the traditionalists who had formed the Episcopal Synod of America (ESA) in Ft. Worth and those who had applauded the consecration of the first woman bishop in the Episcopal Church, stood together and voted away the acrimony that had threatened the unity of the Episcopal Church.

At a closing press conference Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning called the statement, unanimously accepted by the House of Bishops, and the mood of the House itself "a major shift" and said his "fondest hope has been realized," adding that the church has "moved beyond a kind of legalism we have been living in."

Bishop Clarence Pope of Ft. Worth (Texas), who had earlier been elected president of the ESA, agreed with the Presiding Bishop that a new period of respect had been initiated. He said that through patience and the grace of God "we have removed the siege mentality." He quickly added that the convictions of the traditionalists "are the same -- but now we can move forward together. The atmosphere has changed so that it makes it more possible for us to do our ministry."

First woman bishop saunters into history

From the very beginning it was clear that this House of Bishops was going to be different from any other one in the 200 years since the House was founded in Philadelphia in the aftermath of the American Revolution.

Everyone knew that this was the anniversary of the convention that established the House of Bishops at Philadelphia's Old Christ Church in 1789, and certainly everyone knew that this would be the first time in the Anglican Communion a woman would take her place among the bishops of the church.

At a banquet the night before the opening session, Barbara Harris, suffragan bishop of Massachusetts, was introduced as one of 17 new bishops and received a standing ovation. Yet when she sauntered onto the floor at the opening session and looked for an empty seat among the bishops and their wives, it was a casual action that attracted little attention. This House of Bishops had decided not to seat bishops in order of seniority and to invite spouses to sit on the floor for plenary sessions, so Harris was almost inconspicuous as one of many women on the floor.

When her name was finally called, and she answered with a resounding "here," there was no reaction; and the House went about its business.

There was a certain tension in the air because the whole church was looking to this session of the House to solve the lingering question of whether or not the Episcopal Church could live with its differences. There were also signs of growing impatience that the church's agenda was being dominated by a single issue.

A yearning for unity was on everyone's mind as the Presiding Bishop called the meeting to order: "We will embark as a community upon a matter of the highest seriousness and consequence," he said. In sketching an agenda filled with those issues that have threatened the unity of the church, Browning said he was referring to "those issues of community, of principle, and of practice that threaten to divide and polarize us and yet also contain promise of uniting us in deep communion."

The pressing question, he said, was: "How do we as bishops live together in ways that promote the mission and unity of the entire church?" The answer to that question would be of great importance not only for members of the Episcopal Church, but also for other provinces in the Anglican Communion. Referring to the "laboratory-like" quality of the Episcopal Church, Browning said: "What happens here among us. . . will be central to the debate and decisions in other provinces in the Anglican Communion."

A process that worked

Drawing on a model from last summer's Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops, the House of Bishops met every morning in small groups for Bible study, prayer, and reflection. The same small groups met all week and served as the forum to reflect on all the issues that came before the House.

It was a process, Browning said, that "will allow us to listen carefully to each other, to hear first-hand, without the distorting effects of distance and misinformation." It was also a process everyone hoped would produce a pastoral letter that would answer the kinds of questions the bishops brought to this historic meeting of the House.

Bishop Richard Grein of New York, who headed the committee that produced the House's four-page statement, said the process itself modeled the attempt of clergy to live together with differences. The small groups were confronted immediately by questions that flowed from opening-day presentations by Bishop Mark Dyer of Bethlehem, (Pennsylvania) and Dr. Mary Tanner of the Church of England, both members of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Commission on Communion and Women in the Episcopate, chaired by Archbishop Robert Eames of Armagh (Ireland). Bishop William Wantland of Eau Claire, one of the founders of the ESA, placed before the House the concerns that emerged from that meeting.

Dyer and Tanner told the bishops that conclusions of the Eames Commission rest on three theological concepts -- koinonia, reception, and provisionality. Dyer said that koinonia, the sense of Christian community at one in Christ, pervades the Eames Commission report because "union with God and one another and the world is a basic theological principle of Scripture and life. It is the reality of the historical signs of the time in which we live." He continued, "The world is seeking a deeper sense of koinonia, a deeper level of friendship."

Tanner spoke about reception, the process by which a doctrine is accepted by the church. She said that the process came directly from the "primitive life of the church as a way of the body of Christ discerning and being kept in the faith of its Lord." Critical to the process of reception is the role of the faith community, Tanner said. Its members must test the insight and teaching of ordained leaders of the church. "Through this continuing process of discernment and response, in which faith is expressed and the Gospel impartially applied, the Holy Spirit, not us, declares the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the faithful can live by it." Tanner added that maintaining the faith is, however, a corporate and universal responsibility, and not the prerogative of one group or province alone.

Provisionality, in the sense used by the Eames Commission, does not refer to the "validity, fruitfulness, or truthfulness of women episcopally ordained." Rather, the commission said that "within an open process of reception there is inevitably a provisionality about the development itself...."

Bishop Wantland reminded the House of the purpose of traditionalists who formed the ESA in Fort Worth last June. "We have been alienated, isolated, and marginalized and so there is a danger of separation. Traditionalists have felt willing to struggle no more, on the edge of being pushed out of the church," he said.

Eucharist as the context for unity

The bishops took time out from their busy agenda to attend a festive Eucharist on Sunday at Philadelphia's Old Christ Church, site of the birth of the modern-day Episcopal Church. The Rev. James Trimble, rector of Old Christ Church, focused on unity, and greeted the bishops as "shepherds of various flocks" who had come to proclaim "the one shepherd, Jesus Christ."

Trimble subtly referred to modern-day tension among some of the bishops, noting that the first House of Bishops had gathered amid controversies that could have divided them. "They came to realize that the mission of the church and its survival was more important that ecclesiology," he said.

Trimble suggested that the church is confronted by a needy world, and has spent too much time looking inward to matters that affect its own life at the expense of its mission. "We have been tinkering with the plumbing for so long," he said, "somehow we have to get about God's ministry to the world."

A similar thread connected the Sunday Eucharist with daily meditations and Eucharist at Christ Church. The Presiding Bishop's daily homilies took the bishops, using modern-day and scriptural parables, through a process of discerning anger, and confessing sin and disunity, to a reflection on the truth of the ultimate reality of communion with and through the person of Jesus Christ.

"We are in communion because of Jesus, not Canterbury," said Browning. "When we move beyond anger, when we share the broken, fragile bread, we find the Lord Jesus," he continued.

Final plenary declares peace in the family

The gathering expectation for a statement from the bishops that would resolve the tension focused on the final plenary session where the draft was shared with the bishops.

The statement firmly but pastorally reaffirmed its understanding of the authority of bishops, drawing on a resolution from last summer's Lambeth Conference of all Anglican bishops. The resolution, similar to an article of the Episcopal Church Constitution, underscored "respect for diocesan boundaries and the authority of bishops within those boundaries." It further stated that it was "inappropriate behavior for any bishop or priest of this Communion to exercise episcopal or pastoral ministry within another diocese without first obtaining the permission and invitation of the ecclesial authority thereof."

The House of Bishops statement called on the church to "be pastorally sensitive to those who do not accept the ordination ofwomen to the priesthood and episcopate." It said that the "grace-filled bond of collegiality" so apparent at the Philadelphia meeting would help the bishops "share each other's burdens and sufferings and thereby witness to the life of loving communion with God...."

Bishop Clarence Pope of Fort Worth, president of the traditionalist ESA and a long-time opponent of the ordination of women, called Bishop David E. Johnson of Massachusetts to the podium and told a hushed house, "It has been a joy to be here." He then embraced Johnson and the Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning to the applause of the bishops.

"We recognized that a great deal that was pulling us apart was not personal," Johnson said later in an interview. "We reclarified that, although we disagree, we have a common ministry" as bishops. "We have not broken communion in any way." It was Johnson's diocese that had elected Barbara Harris the first women bishop in September of 1988.

In an interview Wantland clarified the position of the ESA bishops, stating that they have not changed their position on the ordination of women -- they all remain opposed to the ordination of women as priests and bishops. The difference now, Wantland said, is that he believes none of the ESA bishops will ever be forced into a position where they would feel the need to exercise episcopal authority in other dioceses without the permission of the bishop. "The House of Bishops will be open and will work in charity and trust to avoid adversity and confrontation," Wantland said.

One immediate sign of the new emphasis on dialogue and mutual understanding was the announcement by Bishop Pope in a closing press conference that ESA bishops would meet with members of the Episcopal Women's Caucus to discuss the variety of issues surrounding women's ministries.

One bishop said he would be embarrassed to return to his diocese and tell his people that all the House discussed was the controversy over women in the priesthood and episcopate. "There are so many other issues that demand our concern," he said.

That eagerness to move on was clearly expressed in the closing words of the statement: "We leave with a renewed sense that the power of God's love, which we have shared, impels us to ministry in the midst of a world torn by racism, poverty, and gross injustice."

A series of resolutions dealt with some of those issues. For example the House

  • called upon Executive Council to accelerate its response to the mandate of the 1988 General Convention to develop a comprehensive statement of policy and a plan of action regarding stewardship of the global environment, paying particular attention to the massive environmental problems of ozone depletion and the global warming trend.
  • commended the ministry of the Appalachian Peoples' Service Organization in the midst of the coal miners' strike in southwestern Virginia and the ministries of the Presiding Bishop and the Bishop of Southwestern Virginia in their efforts to seek a just and peaceful resolution to the dispute.
  • sent a letter of greetings to the people of Lebanon appealing to all parties to seek peace and to use the good influence of their offices to assist in the release of all hostages and calling for reconciliation for all the peoples of Lebanon and for the restoration of liberty to those being held against their will.
  • accepted the report of the Seminary Deans Dialogue Committee to enact a three-year trial plan of student evaluations seeking to establish a uniform way of reporting on progress of seminarians to diocesan bishops.
  • adopted a substitute resolution requesting the House of Bishops Committee on Theology to prepare a position paper on the church's understanding of the Holy Scriptures as "The Word of God" for the benefit of the House's own study.
  • sent greetings to the Old Catholic Church on the centenary anniversary of the Union of Utrecht that "assures them of our prayers and thanksgiving for their faithfulness in the Gospel and our prayers for God's continuing blessings on Old Catholic churches."
[thumbnail: The Rt. Rev. Mark Dyer, b...] [thumbnail: The Rt. Rev. Lyman Ogilby...]