An invited group of primates of the Anglican Communion, bishops of the Episcopal Church, and representatives of various organizations met in Nassau, Bahamas, Aug. 21-22 to discuss the "pastoral crisis" engendered by General Convention's passage of two resolutions: A045, enforcing the ordination of women, and D039, recognizing and supporting some relationships outside of marriage.

The meeting, hosted by the Most Rev. Drexel Gomez, Archbishop of the Province of the West Indies, and co-sponsored by the Most Rev. David Gitari, Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Kenya and the Most Rev. Maurice Sinclair, Primate of the Southern Cone, was attended by American Bishops Keith Ackerman (Quincy), Jack Iker (Fort Worth), James Stanton (Dallas), Stephen Jecko (Florida), Edward Salmon (South Carolina), Robert Duncan (Pittsburgh), and Daniel Herzog (Albany). Bishop John-David Schofield of San Joaquin, who is recovering from surgery, sent a representative.

Organizations including Scholarly Engagement in Anglican Doctrine (SEAD), American Anglican Council (AAC), Ekklesia, Forward in Faith North America, and the Prayer Book Society were represented, as were bishops from Brazil, Singapore, and the "Continuing Anglican" churches.

A letter sent by Archbishop Gomez to Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, and "the other primates of the Anglican Communion" detailed the concerns of "The Nassau Coalition." Resolution A045 "mandating enforcement procedures," the letter states, "constitutes a repudiation of the consensus of Anglicanism as expressed at the 1998 Lambeth Conference. It also ignores the recommendations of the Virginia Report and the Eames Commission." The former document, subtitled The Report of the Inter-Anglican Theological and Doctrinal Commission and published in 1999, reads in part, "when decisions are taken by Provinces on matters which touch the life of the whole Communion without consultation, they may give rise to tension as other Provinces ... reject what has been decided elsewhere. The Eames Commission has stressed the need for consultation prior to action, and for charity and patience ..."

The letter continues that Resolution D039 "seeks to normalize a new sexual ethic" and "shows no adequate respect for the warning against divisive teaching and practice issued by the primates' meeting in March 2000."

The coalition described the effects of these actions of General Convention as a "pastoral emergency in ECUSA" which also "threatens the integrity of the Anglican Communion. It entrenches impaired communion." Some "appropriate arrangement ... for traditional Anglicans to exercise their ministry without let or hindrance" is urgently needed. "In the meantime, the pastoral emergency is so serious Episcopal visitations become necessary ... this will involve the crossing of diocesan boundaries in appropriate circumstances."

The Rev. Canon Bill Atwood, general secretary of the Ekklesia Society, said, "The wonderful news is the commitment to cooperation." That the meeting attracted "leaders of such stature - theologians, ministry leaders, archbishops - shows it is untenable to say there is no crisis. A single province doesn't have the authority, the competence, to make decisions unilaterally." In particular, he said, such resolutions as those by General Convention are "devastating to bishops dealing with fundamentalist Islamics, for example."

"Everybody's talking," he said. "There are some differences of opinion on timing, strategy, but these were the brightest theological minds in the Anglican Communion. The wording [of the letter] was not done lightly." He stressed that the issues discussed were not personal but theological.

Prior to the primates' meeting, the board the American Anglican Council "officially recognized the consecrations of the Rt. Revs. Charles Murphy and John Rodgers, Jr." and affirmed the sanctity of marriage, while stating it "deeply regrets and deplores the ambiguity of Resolution D039 ..." Chief operations officer Diane Stanton said the AAC seeks to provide "new orthodox structures for persecuted congregations, a parallel support system, without breaking canon law. We are not going to divide the church. We want to enable [those congregations] to stay in the Episcopal Church." A statement from Bishop Stanton, president of the AAC board, says further, "We seek to explore a new orthodox structure within the Episcopal Church, and will work to unite orthodox Anglican bodies in the USA under the banner of mainstream Anglicanism."