During the recent House of Bishops' meeting in San Diego [TLC, Oct. 17], the Rt. Rev. Robert W. Duncan, Bishop of Pittsburgh, presented a document which proposes wide-reaching changes in the structure of the Episcopal Church.

Titled "Jubilee Bishops' Initiative for a Free, Vital, Missionary and Enduring Episcopal Church," it was presented to the Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold, Presiding Bishop, and his council of advice.

Bishop Duncan would not comment on the document, other than to say it has been given to a committee for further revision before being brought for discussion before the whole house. He said it needs to be "brought to a place where bishops on all sides" can talk about necessary things in order to avoid schism. Bishop Duncan said Bishop Griswold asked that the document not be circulated.

The paper, which appears on various Internet sites, recalls Bishop Griswold's call to a season of Jubilee - a time of freedom and recovery during which sinful and oppressive structures are suspended. It joins in the spirit of jubilee, specifically asking, "old controls must be suspended and new models must emerge for these extraordinary days. We are prepared to ask ourselves and others whether there is any alternative to the patterns which bishops representing opposing views in the Episcopal Church have dominated one another and our congregations."

It asks the bishops to work for the "fullness of gospel Truth, as we individually understand it. Yet we also declare ourselves committed to the unity of our church ..."

The document advances four courses of action - at the national, diocesan, congregational and global levels - for bishops to consider, pray over and deliberate.

On the national level, the document proposes the Presiding Bishop and other bishops work to deepen unity in the Episcopal Church and to make a commitment to refrain from coercive national legislation within the General Convention.

It asks for a willingness, at the diocesan level, to allow for alternative episcopal oversight when parishes feel they would benefit from "a more supportive bishop;" consideration to allow diocesan assessments to be "directed to the diocese of the overseeing bishop;" and commitment to find ways through the ordination process for "theological minorities" within dioceses.

At the congregational level, the document seeks renewal of mission through evangelism ... "especially through the agency of vital congregations." It seeks, in two steps, means for keeping parishes intent on leaving within the church by exhausting all possible alternatives to such action and by determining whether use of civil courts is destructive to the life and witness of the diocese and whether or not there is a better way to resolve property issues.

The Rev. David Anderson, rector of St. James' Church, Newport Beach, Calif., and a spokesperson for the initiative, said the document presented to Bishop Griswold was revised during the House of Bishops' meeting. The copy being shown on Internet sites is not the working document, he said. The working document is, to his knowledge, in the hands of about eight bishops who are making further revisions.