A letter from six Anglican leaders to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold and the primates of the Anglican Communion, written after a group of traditionalist leaders met with them in April was released in May.

As promised in their letter to the First Promise Roundtable [TLC, May 16], the Most Rev. Maurice Sinclair, Primate of the Southern Cone, the Most Rev. Emmanuel Kolini, Primate of Rwanda, the Most Rev. Moses Tay, Primate of South East Asia, the Most Rev. Harry Goodhew, Archbishop of Sydney and Metropolitan of New South Wales, Australia, the Most Rev. Jonathan Onyemelukwe, Archbishop of Nigeria (Province II) and representing the Primate of Nigeria, and the Rt. Rev. Evans Kisekka, representing the Primate of Uganda, asked for compliance with the Lambeth resolution on sexuality and on the resolution requiring respect for bishops unwilling to ordain or license women. "These groups share a common concern for the state of ECUSA ... they represent those who wish to remain with their church and to see its illnesses healed."

Speaking of information they received during the post-Easter meeting in Singapore, they said, "What we have heard concerns us deeply. In sharing with you this preliminary report, we ask that you join us in considering its implications."

The primates and archbishops addressed nine areas encompassing liturgical reform, the gay-lesbian agenda and the repudiation of Lambeth resolutions, ordination of women and the 40-year decline of membership in the Episcopal Church even as the general population has doubled.

They said changes within the Episcopal Church have included important aspects that have taken it outside the historic Anglican tradition. These innovations, whether legally sanctioned or not, have not been made with consultation or evaluation by the Anglican Communion as a whole. Further, they say, implications beyond the borders of the United States have not been considered.

The primates said their concern over issues of homosexuality was not about "the implications of the gospel for people who experience homosexual drives," but of the "damaging results of unilaterally committing the church to a course of action with no sure basis in scripture, Anglican tradition or even medical science."

"We are surprised that ecclesiastical legislation and episcopal control should be used to enforce a program claiming to be liberal and inclusive," wrote the Anglican leaders. They are concerned for traditionalist Episcopalians who "have no future in the church if they cannot passively accept the innovations of the last decades."

Asking for an alternative form of episcopal oversight "be taken into account" on behalf of the traditionalist organizations, the archbishops and primates said, "We believe that failing any major changes in ECUSA, the appeals of petitioners cannot be long ignored."