House of Bishops Retreat Marked with Anxiety in Time of Transition
Episcopal News Service. April 3, 1997 [97-1723]
Jerry Hames, Editor of Episcopal Life, the national newspaper of the Episcopal Church
(ENS) An air of anxiety hovered over the House of Bishops retreat in early March at the Kanuga Conference Center in Hendersonville, North Carolina, as bishops shared apprehensions about what the future holds and wrestled with questions about their own identity as a community.
The sadness of parting also marked the meeting, as the bishops started to say their goodbyes to Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning, whose term comes to an end this year.
Yet not all was somber. Members of the house performed a series of skits on the final evening in an uproarious celebration of Browning's leadership. "We laughed. Oh, we laughed," recalled one bishop. In a surprise to Browning, his wife, Patti, showed up for evening's festivities.
And at a press briefing following the four-day meeting, several bishops said that a willingness to talk about issues and a new expectation of civility helped ameliorate the concern many felt about "life after General Convention" in Philadelphia this summer.
Bishop Sam Hulsey of Northwest Texas, chair of the agenda planning committee, said that his committee threw out part of the planned schedule in response to requests that the bishops have an opportunity to talk about convention issues.
"I think that [the willingness to engage in discussion of issues] is very good news about how we're going to do our business in Philadelphia," he said.
The bishops voiced particular concerns about how they were to make an informed choice in selecting the next presiding bishop, the magnitude of the questions that would face them at General Convention, and the fact that, despite strong attendance of 139 bishops, 15 diocesan bishops were noticeably absent at this last meeting before convention. Among those absent were three of the four bishops who refuse to recognize women priests, and several others who sympathize with their position or have other concerns about what they see as liberal trends in the church.
"The question is 'Who's going to pick up the initiative to bring these various groups together"' said Bishop Charles Duvall of the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast. "Is there any mechanism to make that happen between now and General Convention?"
The bishops also were eager to begin to discuss such issues as the Concordat of Agreement with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), world mission, funding for the church's national ministries, and a recommendation that would make mandatory the right of women to exercise their ministry in every diocese. Having met together with the ELCA Conference of Bishops last fall, the bishops paused to participate in a telephone hookup with the conference's March meeting. They also continued with a six-year study of the sin of racism and heard a report from the Church Pension Group.
Bishop David Bowman of the Diocese of Western New York, said that much time was spent discussing the office of the presiding bishop and the leadership qualities needed. He said newer bishops want a means by which they can learn about those who will be nominated for presiding bishop in mid-April.
In one "mind of the house" statement, the bishops agreed not to vote for any last-minute candidate for presiding bishop who had not undergone the same physical and psychological testing and background checks that others had.
Browning described what it has been like to be presiding bishop as part of the house's reflection on the qualities they wanted to see in the new presiding bishop. In his sermon at the closing Eucharist, Browning noted that "the ones who will allow themselves to be considered for my job would have to have been without vital signs for a good many years not to know the difficulties that swarm around it. It is not for the faint of heart, that is for sure."
His bottom-line assessment, however, was that the position was "hard, but good," he said.
"It's not fun being caricatured and criticized. ... It's not fun making the kind of financial decisions we've had to make. Scandal is not fun," Browning said. "But to travel around this church of ours and see how ordinary people love their churches, how good they are, how hard they work, how involved they are in the lives of the poor in their communities -- it is a great joy."
One of his greatest satisfactions, he said, has been the experience of the House of Bishops. "I wouldn't trade for anything the life we have had together, you and I," he said.
The bishops also approved a statement about the manner in which they will do business at convention in an attempt by both the House of Bishops and House of Deputies to avoid the kind of rancorous debate that divided the bishops at the 1991 General Convention in Phoenix. The public discord led to a series of closed sessions and caused the presiding bishop to call for the annual spring "retreat" meetings of the House of Bishops in an effort to restore collegiality.
Yet, of the 139 bishops at the meeting, 60 have been elected within the past six years, including some who have never attended a General Convention. These newer bishops made it clear, Hulsey said, that for them the Phoenix troubles were ancient history.
As the bishops noted in a communique to the church issued at the meeting's conclusion, "How far we have come over these last six years. We have learned to listen with care to each other in our table discussion groups. We have listened to our wise elders and our most junior members."
Having known only the more collegial atmosphere of the House of Bishops in recent years, the newer bishops pointed out that "their frame of reference was very different," Hulsey said. "We used the phrase 'sea change' and 'turning the page.'"
In their communique, the bishops quoted Browning's comments: "We are keenly aware that we are at a time of great change. ... Because this is an unsettling time, an experience of the desert, the place in between, we are called to be mindful... to choose who we are, and how we will be with intention."