The Living Church

Year Article Type Limit by Author

The Living ChurchFebruary 25, 2001Bishop Griswold Warns Against Schism to Executive Council by Steve Waring222(8) p. 10

Which is worse heresy or schism?

The Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold, Presiding Bishop, opened Executive Council Feb. 5-8 in Parsippany, N.J., with this rhetorical question.

Heresy can be corrected over time by the community and sometimes what is thought to be heresy, such as the belief that the Earth is the center of the universe, is later found to be true, Bishop Griswold said.

Schism, on the other hand, is difficult to repair once a break has been made, he noted. Truth is discovered in communion. Schism is the shattering of communion. In order to discover God's truth, everyone has to be at the table.

Bishop Griswold concluded his opening address by encouraging council members to look beyond personal desire to a higher purpose.

How we make decisions is just as important and sometimes more important, Bishop Griswold said, than what we decide. The truth of God rests on the consensus of our experiences because seeking truth is a corporate task.

Council members were to devote a substantial portion of the agenda to discussion on how to implement General Convention resolution AO45. The resolution calls for creation by Jan. 1 of a task force to "visit, interview, assess and assist the people and the Commissions on Ministry, Standing Committees and Bishops of the three dioceses" which have not implemented canons mandating that women have full and equal access to ordination and deployment.

Of the three dioceses cited as not being in compliance, Fort Worth, Quincy and San Joaquin, the Rt. Rev. Keith Ackerman, Bishop of Quincy, is a member of the council and was in attendance for this session.

In order to facilitate "candid conversation" on how to implement the resolution, council went into executive session for most of the day on Tuesday. A morning plenary was devoted to discussing the possible negative implications, while an afternoon session discussed its positive aspects.

The format was developed with the assistance of an outside management consultant.

Council planned to use the morning session on Feb. 7 to compile results and arrive at a decision.