The Dallas/Fort Worth meeting of 46 bishops and archbishops, "the Dallas Statement," and content of their public conversations and talks received considerable coverage [TLC, Oct. 19, 26]. Neither issue made any mention of the sponsors of this meeting. Intrigued, I read the Dallas Statement (TDS). It refers to its co-hosts, the Bishop of Dallas and Archbishop David Gitari of Kenya, and lists its attendees.

The meeting was of like-minded prelates, with two of their members as hosts. The U.S. contingent of 12 bishops, five of them retired, is not surprisingly a roundup of "the usual suspects" (to quote Casablanca). These bishops are continuously active in U.S. conversations about saving the Episcopal Church from what TDS calls "unbridled liberalism."

Many of the bishops present from other parts of the Anglican Communion, whatever their concerns about sexual ethics, carry the pastoral weight of the debilitating effects of international debt. Here the concern of TDS was not "unbridled liberalism," but the need for the church "to assist her suffering Saviour in the alleviation of the pain and suffering of the poor."

TDS joins two concerns - sexual ethics and the international debt. It does so by focusing on "the generational family." I believe TDS on sexual ethics is bad theology, badly done. TDS is much better on the issue of debt reduction. TDS is at times amazingly arrogant, being committed to something it calls "orthodox Anglican faith," stating what it will not permit, and labeling as separated, and calling to repentance, those who choose beliefs and practices outside the boundaries of the historical biblical faith."

Reflecting on how these two ethical concerns came to be linked, and so poorly, raises for me again the question of sponsorship. Who organized, invited and paid for this gathering? And why? TLC could do us a service by doing a bit of investigative reporting.

(The Rev.) Mark Harris

Newark, Del.