At the invitation of the Most Rev. George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury, a group of bishops, representing a wide range of perspectives and backgrounds, met for four days at the Holy Cross Monastery in West Park, N.Y., in mid-November. Archbishop Carey was not present and the Most Rev. Frank Griswold, Presiding Bishop, was the host.

The other bishops present were: the Rt. Rev. Simon Chiwanga, Bishop of Mpwapwa, Tanzania; the Rt. Rev. Terence Finlay, Bishop of Toronto; the Rt. Rev. Josiah Idowu-Fearon, Bishop of Kaduna, Nigeria; the Rt. Rev. Chilton Knudsen, Bishop of Maine; the Most Rev. Peter Kwong, Archbishop of Hong Kong; the Most Rev. Glauco Soares de Lima, Primate of Brazil and Bishop of Sao Paulo; the Rt. Rev. John Lipscomb, Bishop of Southwest Florida; the Rt. Rev. Michael Scott-Joynt, Bishop of Winchester, England; and the Rt. Rev. Peter Watson, Bishop of South Sydney, Australia.

The bishops participated in the monastic rhythms of the Holy Cross community, and took part in structured dialogues on homosexuality within the larger context of human sexuality.

The consultation demonstrated the great value of facilitated dialogue and, participants hoped, created the possibility for similar dialogue in all parts of the Anglican Communion. The experience of the West Park consultation called to mind words from the Report of the Lambeth Conference:

"The challenge to our Church is to maintain its unity while we seek, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to discern the way of Christ for the world today with respect to human sexuality. To do so will require sacrifice, trust, and charity towards one another, remembering that ultimately the identity of each person is defined in Christ (section 1, Report)."

Bishops contacted by The Living Church would not comment further on the meeting, stating that participants had uniformly agreed to make no public comment beyond the statement crafted by the group.

The Anglican Communion News Service contributed to the article.