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Anaheim Statement Continues to Gain Supporters: TLC 8.24.09 August 24, 2009

Posted by geoconger in 76th General Convention, Living Church.
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The Anaheim Statement endorsed by 34 bishops at the close of the 76th General Convention in Anaheim, Calif., has added two more bishops to its list of supporters.

The Rt. Rev. Charles E. Jenkins, III, Bishop of Louisiana, and the Rt. Rev. Harry W. Shipps, retired Bishop of Georgia, have endorsed the letter affirming their loyalty to the Anglican Communion in the wake of the adoption of resolutions C056 and D025 ending the moratoria forbidding the consecration of partnered gay clergy as bishops and the authorization of rites for the blessing of same-sex unions.

However, Bishop Jenkins also was one of the bishops who voted against D025 but in favor of C056. He later said he voted for C056 because his colleagues had responded well to his plea for graciousness. “I felt I was honor-bound to vote for it because these bishops had done what I had asked them to do,” he said. ” I felt that the process was a ray of hope for The Episcopal Church.”

In a series of letters to the Archbishop of Canterbury and primates of the Anglican Communion written at the close of General Convention, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and the President of the House of Deputies Bonnie Anderson have disputed the characterization of the adoption of the two resolutions as having ended the moratoria or a “walking apart” by the Episcopal Church from the Anglican Communion.

Speaking to the media on July 18 Bishop Jefferts Schori stated the votes were a “truthful attempt to deepen relationships” with the wider Anglican Communion. She added that “in 2009” there are “more and deeper relationships with parts of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion than five or 10 years ago.”

Overseas Anglicans, however, have so far not been persuaded by the Presiding Bishop’s explanation. On July 27, Archbishop of Canterbury released his reflections on the General Convention, voicing a sharply critical view of the votes. Archbishop Williams also took note of the Anaheim Statement, noting that a “significant minority of bishops” had “clearly expressed its intention to remain with the consensus of the Communion” on the issues of human sexuality and the moratoria.

Aides to the archbishop have also been noting the progress of the Communion Partners group of rectors in “loyal opposition” to the “current trajectory” of the Episcopal Church. The Rev. Russell Levenson, Jr., rector of St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, stated the fellowship as of Aug. 11 now includes 66 parish rectors whose congregations number nearly 60,000, ranging in size from his Houston parish of 8,500 members to the Church of the Incarnation in Lafayette, Louisiana with 20 members.

On Aug 17, the Rev. R. Leigh Spruill, rector of St George’s, Nashville, Tenn., and the group’s administrator, explained that the Communion Partners were not a protest group but rather a “missional fellowship committed to reviving classical Christianity” within the Episcopal Church. The group seeks to provide a place for those “committed to remaining within the Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church,” while also offering “theological and spiritual support” in the anxious days following General Convention, Fr. Spruill said.

“We are not just another group poised to split off,” he noted. “Because of our ecclesiology” as clergy committed to the Anglican way, the group believes that working towards the Archbishop of Canterbury’s goal of building an Anglican Covenant is a “reasonable” and “solid theological place to stand.”

The Anglican Communion is not an idol for us, but a gift from God,” Fr. Spruill said. The Communion Partners “offers us a way forward for us” to be faithful as priests to their faith and to the church, he said.

Assurances on Convention Actions ‘Unpersuasive,’ Archbishop Says: Living Church 7.27.09 July 28, 2009

Posted by geoconger in 76th General Convention, Living Church.
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First published in The Living Church.

The adoption of resolutions D025 and C056 by the 76th General Convention speaks to an unhealthy degree of theological ignorance and ecclesiastical incoherence at work within the higher councils of The Episcopal Church [TEC], Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said in a statement released July 27.

While the adoption of resolutions on rites for the blessing of same-sex unions and the consecration of gay clergy to the episcopate have not created a de facto schism, they do signal TEC’s likely removal to the periphery of the life and witness of the Anglican Communion through the creation of a two-tier communion of covenanting and non-covenanting provinces, Archbishop Rowan Williams wrote.

A spokesman for the archbishop said the statement titled “Communion, Covenant and our Anglican Future” had been released via the Lambeth Palace website as a “reflection” on the actions of the General Convention.

Archbishop Williams offered thanks to the convention for the “generous welcome” extended to him, and acknowledged the concerns of many bishops and deputies for the wider Anglican Communion and for the “crushing” social and economic problems faced by the developing world. He also affirmed that he had received Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori’s and president of the House of Deputies Bonnie Anderson’s assurances that the passage of D025 and C056 did not “have the automatic effect of overturning the requested moratoria, if the wording is studied carefully” on gay bishops and blessings.

However, he said these assurances would not be found persuasive by some and would be “unlikely to allay anxieties” within the Communion that TEC was going its own way. There were “two points which I believe need to be reiterated and thought through further” by TEC, Archbishop Williams said.

By moving forward on same-sex blessings and gay clergy, TEC erred by not engaging in a “painstaking biblical exegesis” and seeking a “wide acceptance of the results within the Communion” as “a major change naturally needs a strong level of consensus and solid theological grounding.”

This work has not been done, Archbishop Williams wrote. He emphasized that “a blessing for a same-sex union cannot have the authority of the Church Catholic, or even of the Communion as a whole.”

Nor should any member of the clergy—bishop or priest—be “living in a sexual relationship outside the marriage bond,” Archbishop Williams said. The homosexual or unchaste heterosexual “chosen lifestyle is not one that the Church’s teaching sanctions, and thus it is hard to see how they can act in the necessarily representative role that the ordained ministry, especially the episcopate, requires.”

By permitting gay clergy and same-sex blessings without first “including in its discernment the judgment of the wider Church,” TEC risked “becoming unrecognizable to other local churches,” the archbishop wrote. The actions of General Convention necessarily reconceived “the Anglican Communion as essentially a loose federation of local bodies with a cultural history in common, rather than a theologically coherent ‘community of Christian communities’,” he said.

The way forward, Archbishop Williams said, was through an Anglican Covenant that provided structures of “mutual recognizability, mutual consultation, and some shared processes of decision-making.”

He acknowledged that within TEC “some will not choose this way of intensifying relationships,” but he believed that “it would be a mistake to act or speak now as if those decisions had already been made.”

The Anglican tradition had “thus far” been able to contain “diverse convictions more or less within a unified structure,” Archbishop Williams wrote. If the present structures “turn out to need serious rethinking,” this was not a statement of the “end of the Anglican way,” but an opportunity for a “new era of mission and spiritual growth for all who value the Anglican name and heritage.”

‘Defense of Marriage’ Concern Will Get Further Review: TLC 7.17.09 July 19, 2009

Posted by geoconger in 76th General Convention, Living Church.
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First published in The Living Church.

During the final business session of General Convention on July 17, the House of Bishops turned back Resolution C023: Same-Sex Unions—Defense of Marriage Statutes, voting to refer the resolution to a standing committee of The Episcopal Church in the final legislative act at the Anaheim Convention Center.

The Rt. Rev. John B. Chane, Bishop of Washington, presented the resolution on behalf of the National and International Concerns Committee, urging concurrence with the House of Deputies in endorsing the resolution.

However, during the bishops’ private table groups, concerns were raised over the entanglement of the church in the political arena. The resolution calls upon “all Episcopalians to work against the passage of so-called ‘Defense of Marriage’ state statutes and state constitutional amendments, and, in states where such statutes or constitutional amendments already exist, to work for their repeal.”

The Bishop of Oklahoma, the Rt. Rev. Edward J. Konieczny, told the house he was concerned by the call for “all Episcopalians” to agitate for the repeal of the laws. He questioned the wisdom of having the church direct its members on such a divisive political issue.

Bishop Porter Taylor of Western North Carolina asked that the resolution be sent to a committee for review over the next triennium. No debate was held and it passed on a voice vote with minimum opposition.

The House of Deputies then received the resolution, and in the last legislative act of the convention, concurred with the bishops’ request, prompting the president of the house, Bonnie Anderson, to note this was the first convention in her memory that ended early with all outstanding legislative matters addressed.

Bishops Defeat Resolution on Mideast Violence: TLC 7.17.09 July 19, 2009

Posted by geoconger in 76th General Convention, Living Church.
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First published in The Living Church magazine

The House of Bishops of General Convention has rejected a resolution that condemns violence in the Middle East after opponents criticized its language for being unbalanced, anti-Israel and un-Anglican

Offered by the Committee on National and International Concerns, the House of Deputies endorsed a substitute Resolution B027: Peace between Israel and Palestine. The 12-part resolution called for peace in the Middle East and supported the two-state solution in resolving the crisis in Israel and Palestine.

However, the Rt. Rev. Edward S. Little II, Bishop of Northern Indiana, protested language in the legislation, which singled out Israel as the aggressor and the Palestinians as the victims in the conflict. Bishop Little said he stood not in support of the separation barrier — the wall built by Israel to protect itself from attack — but “to take a stand against terrorism”

The Rt. Rev. Marc Andrus, Bishop of California, disagreed. “The wall does not contribute to the lessening of suicide bombing,” he said, but a “tool” that “supports the illegal settlements” built by Israel on the West Bank.

The Bishop of New York, the Rt. Rev. Mark Sisk, stated that ascribing all the blame to Israel “is incorrect.”

The resolution eventually failed on a show of hands, 43 to 53.

Roll call votes on key issues: TLC 7.17.09 July 17, 2009

Posted by geoconger in 76th General Convention, Living Church.
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First published in The Living Church.

Resolutions D025 and C056 sparked three roll call votes during the House of Bishops’ sessions of the 76th General Convention in Anaheim, Calif.

The Rt. Rev. Kenneth Price, Bishop Suffragan of Southern Ohio, told the house on July 15 that the official tallies from the votes on D025 that rescinded the moratorium on gay bishops, on a motion offered by the Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe, Bishop of Northwestern Pennsylvania to discharge C056, and the final vote on C056 which authorized the collection and development of rites for the blessing of same-sex liturgies, would not be complete until the end of convention. The hand tallies taken by the six tellers at the meetings needed to be reconciled, he said.

Bishop Price reported that Resolution D025 was adopted by a vote of 99 yes, 45 no, 2 abstained.

The Rowe amendment was defeated on a vote of 94 no, 42 yes, 1 abstentions. Resolution D058 was passed on a vote of 104 yes, 30 no, 2 abstentions, Bishop Price said. .

Roll call votes are taken in the House of Bishops in order of seniority taken in order of consecration. The senior bishop present for the votes, the Rt. Rev. David Reed, retired Bishop of Kentucky, is Bishop 603 — the 603rd bishop consecrated to serve The Episcopal Church since its creation. The junior bishop is the Rt. Rev. J. Scott Mayer, Bishop of Northwest Texas — Bishop 1035 in order of consecration.

Bishops are listed in order of consecration. The votes are in this order: D025,  Rowe, and  C056.

David B. Reed, Retired Bishop of Kentucky (y y y)

William Frey, Acting Bishop of the Rio Grande( n _ _ )

Otis Charles. Retired Bishop of Utah (y n y)

Gerald McAllister. Retired Bishop of Oklahoma (n_ _ )

Rustin Kimsey. Assisting Bishop for Alaska (y_ _ )

Herbert A. Donovan. Assisting Bishop of New York (y_ _ )

James H. Ottley. Assisting Bishop of Long Island (y n y)

Leopold Frade. Bishop of Southeast Florida (y n y)

Peter Lee. Bishop of Virginia (y y n)

Don Wimberly, Retired Bishop of Texas (_ _ n)

Robert Ladehoff, Retired Bishop of Oregon (y n _ )

Douglas Theuner, Retired Bishop of New Hampshire. (y n y)

Arthur Williams, Jr., Retired Bishop Suffragan of Ohio ( y y _ )

E. Don Taylor, Assistant Bishop of New York ( _ y y)

Jeffery Rowthorn. Retired (American Churches in Europe) (n y n)

Orris G. Walker, Bishop of Long Island (y _ _ )

Frederick Borsch. Retired Bishop of Los Angeles  (y_ _ )

Christopher Epting. Bishop for Ecumenical Relations (y _ _ )

Barbara Harris. Assisting Bishop of Washington (y n y)

John Buchanan, Provisional Bishop of Quincy (y n y)

Robert H. Johnson, Assisting Bishop of Pittsburgh (y y y)

Sanford Hampton, Assisting Bishop of Oregon (y n y)

John W. Howe. Bishop of Central Florida (n y n)

Sergio Carranza-Gomez, Assistant Bishop of Los Angeles (y n y)

Edward L. Salmon. Retired Bishop of South Carolina (n y n)

Charles Keyser. Assisting Bishop of Florida (y y y)

Huntington Williams, Retired Suffragan, North Carolina  (y _ y)

Chester L. Talton. Bishop Suffragan of Los Angeles (y n y)

Victor Scantlebury, Assisting Bishop of Chicago (a n a)

Steven Charleston, Assistant Bishop of California (y n y)

Jerry A. Lamb, Provisional Bishop of San Joaquin (y n y)

Alfred C. Marble. Assisting Bishop of North Carolina (y n y)

Peter Beckwith. Bishop of Springfield (n y n)

James Stanton. Bishop of Dallas (n y n)

Jean Duracin. Bishop of Haiti (n y n)

F. Clayton Matthews, Office of Pastoral Development (y n _ )

James Jelinek, Bishop of Minnesota (y n y)

Edwin Gulick, Bishop of Kentucky and Provisional, Fort Worth (y n y)

Russell E. Jacobus. Bishop of Fond du Lac (n y n)

M. Thomas Shaw SSJE, Bishop of Massachusetts (y n y)

Alfredo Morante, Bishop of Litoral Ecuador (n n y)

Kenneth Price, Bishop Suffragan of Southern Ohio. (y n y)

Henry I. Louttit. Bishop of Georgia. (n n n)

Dorsey F. Henderson. Bishop of Upper South Carolina. (y n y)

Rev. David Jones. Bishop Suffragan of Virginia (y n y)

Catherine S. Roskam. Bishop Suffragan of New York (y n y)

Geralyn Wolf. Bishop of Rhode Island (n y n)

William Skilton. Assistant Bishop of the Dominican Republic (n y n)

Andrew Smith, Bishop of Connecticut (y _ _ )

Carolyn Irish. Bishop of Utah (y n y)

Paul V. Marshall. Bishop of Bethlehem (y n y)

Clifton Daniel. Bishop of East Carolina (y n y)

Henry Parsley. Bishop of Alabama (n y y)

Gordon Scruton. Bishop of Western Massachusetts (a n y)

F. Neff Powell. Bishop of Southwestern Virginia (y _ y)

Richard Chang. Retired Bishop of Hawai’i (y n y)

Rodney Michel. Assisting Bishop of Pennsylvania (y n y)

Catherine Waynick. Bishop of Indianapolis (y n y)

Bruce Caldwell. Bishop of Wyoming (y n y)

Charles Jenkins. Bishop of Louisiana (n n y)

Barry Howe. Bishop of West Missouri (y n y)

Chilton Knudsen. Retired Bishop of Maine (y n y)

Mark S. Sisk. Bishop of New York (y n y)

Wayne Wright. Bishop of Delaware (y n y)

John Rabb. Bishop Suffragan of Maryland (n n y)

John Croneberger, Assistant Bishop of Bethlehem (_ n y)

Charles von Rosenberg Bishop of East Tennessee (y y n)

William Persell. Retired Bishop of Chicago (y n y)

Keith Whitmore. Assistant Bishop of Atlanta (n n y)

The Rt. Rev. J. Michael Garrison. Bishop of Western New York (y n y)

D. Bruce MacPherson. Bishop of Western Louisiana (n y n)

Wendell N. Gibbs, Bishop of Michigan (y n y)

George Packard, Suffragan, Armed Services (n n y)

Edward Little, Bishop of Northern Indiana (n y n)

J. Jon Bruno.,Bishop of Los Angeles (y n y)

Michael B. Curry. Bishop of North Carolina (y n y)

Duncan Gray III. Bishop of Mississippi (n y n)

William O. Gregg. Assistant Bishop of North Carolina (y n y)

Stacy Sauls. Bishop of Lexington (y n y)

James Curry. Bishop Suffragan of Connecticut (y n y)

Wilfrido Ramos-Orench. Bishop of Central Ecuador (y _ _ )

James Waggoner, Bishop of Spokane ( _ n y)

David Jung-Hsin Lai. Bishop of Taiwan (n y n)

Katharine Jefferts Schori. Presiding Bishop (y n y)

Roy F. Cederholm Jr., Bishop Suffragan of Massachusetts (y n y)

Thomas C. Ely, Bishop of Vermont (y n y)

Philip Duncan. Bishop of Central Gulf Coast (n n n)

Don E. Johnson. Bishop of West Tennessee (y n y)

Neil Alexander. Bishop of Atlanta (y n y)

Francisco Duque. Bishop of Colombia (n y _ )

Michie Klusmeyer, Bishop of West Virginia (n y y)

The Rt. Rev. Lloyd Allen. Bishop of Honduras (n y n)

Gladstone B. Adams, Bishop of Central New York (y n y)

Pierre Whalon, Convocation of American Churches in Europe (y n y)

Marc Andrus, Bishop of California (y n y)

G.W. Smith, Bishop of Missouri (y n y)

James M. Adams, Bishop of Western Kansas (n y n)

John Chane. Bishop of Washington (y n y)

Gayle Harris. Bishop Suffragan of Massachusetts (y n y)

J.J. “Bud” Shand, Bishop of Easton (n n y)

Alan Scarfe. Bishop of Iowa (y n y)

David Alvarez, Bishop of Puerto Rico (y _ _ )

Joe Burnett, Bishop of Nebraska (y n y)

C. Franklin Brookhart, Jr., Bishop of Montana (y y y)

Rayford High, Bishop Suffragan of Texas (n n y)

Robert O’Neill, Bishop of Colorado (y n y)

George Councell, Bishop of New Jersey (y n y)

Steven A. Miller, Bishop of Milwaukee (n n y)

S. Johnson Howard, Bishop of Florida (n y n)

V. Gene Robinson, Bishop of New Hampshire (y n y)

Dean Wolfe, Bishop of Kansas (y n y)

Gary Lillibridge, Bishop of West Texas (n y n)

Kirk S. Smith, Bishop of Arizona (y y y)

Mark Hollingsworth, Jr., Bishop of Ohio (y n y)

Michael Smith, Bishop of North Dakota (n y n)

G. Porter Taylor, Bishop of Western North Carolina (y n y)

Bavi Rivera, Bishop Suffragan of Olympia (y n y)

James Mathes, Bishop of San Diego (y n y)

Edward Ambrose Gumbs, Bishop of Virgin Islands (n y n)

David Reed, Bishop Suffragan of West Texas (n y n)

S. Todd Ousley, Bishop of Eastern Michigan (y n y)

William Love, Bishop of Albany (n y n)

Barry Beisner, Bishop of Northern California (y n y)

Dena Harrison, Bishop Suffragan of Texas (n y n)

Nathan Baxter, Bishop of Central Pennsylvania (y n y)

Larry R. Benfield, Bishop of Arkansas (y n y)

Mark Beckwith, Bishop of Newark (y n y)

John C. Bauerschmidt, Bishop of Tennessee (n y n)

Dabney Smith, Bishop of Southwest Florida (n y y)

Robert Fitzpatrick, Bishop of Hawaii (y y y)

Thomas Breidenthal, Bishop of Southern Ohio (y n y)

Shannon Johnston , Bishop Coadjutor of Virginia (n n y)

Laura Ahrens, Bishop Suffragan of Connecticut (y n y)

Sean Rowe, Bishop of Northwestern Pennsylvania (n y y)

Edward J. Konieczny, Bishop of Oklahoma (n y n)

Gregory Rickel, Bishop of Olympia (y n y)

Mary Gray-Reeves, Bishop of El Camino Real (y n y)

Dan Edwards, Bishop of Nevada (y n y)

John Sloan, Bishop Suffragan of Alabama (y y y)

Mark J. Lawrence, Bishop of South Carolina (n y n)

Jeffrey Lee, Bishop of Chicago (y n y)

Sylveste Romero, Assistant Bishop of New Jersey (y _ _ )

Stephen Lane, Bishop of Maine (y n y)

Prince Singh, Bishop of Rochester (y n y)

Eugene Sutton, Bishop of Maryland (y n y)

Paul Lambert, Bishop Suffragan of Dallas (n y n)

Brian Thom, Bishop of Idaho (y n y)

Andrew Doyle, Bishop of Texas (n y n)

Herman Hollerith, Bishop of Southern Virginia (y n y)

J. Scott Mayer, Bishop of Northwest Texas (_ y y)

Dissenting Bishops Issue ‘Anaheim Statement’: TLC 7.17.09 July 17, 2009

Posted by geoconger in 76th General Convention, Living Church.
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Twenty-nine bishops have endorsed a letter affirming their desire to remain part of the Anglican Communion and Episcopal Church while being faithful to the calls for restraint made by the wider church.

Styled as the “Anaheim Statement,” the letter of dissent to the actions of the 76th General Convention pledged the bishops’ fealty to the requests made by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the 2008 Lambeth Conference, the primates’ meetings and ACC-14 to observe a moratoria on same-gender blessings, cross-border interventions and the ordination of gay and lesbian people to the episcopate.

In the hours after its release, the statement drew support from 23 diocesan bishops, four suffragan and assistant bishops, and two retired bishops and included bishops who voted on both sides of D025 and C056 — resolutions that rescinded the ban on two of the three Windsor Report moratoria.

Rising to speak on a point of personal privilege during the House of Bishops afternoon session July 16, the Rt. Rev. Gary W. Lillibridge of West Texas read a statement prepared by an ad hoc committee of concerned bishops.

“At this convention,” Bishop Lillibridge said, the house had “heard repeated calls for honesty and clarity” on The Episcopal Church’s stance on the contested issues surrounding sexual ethics. The attempts to “modify wording which would have been preferable to the minority in the vote were respectfully heard and discussed, but in the end most of these amendments were found unacceptable to the majority in the House.”

The votes on Resolution D025 and C056 had made it clear that a majority of bishops believed it was time to “move forward on matters of human sexuality.” While grateful for the “clarity” these votes had brought, Bishop Lillibridge asked his fellow bishops to join him seeking “to find a place in the Church we continue to serve” and endorse a five-point statement of loyalty to the Communion.

The statement:

* reaffirmed the bishops’ “constituent membership in the Anglican Communion, our communion with the See of Canterbury, and our commitment to preserving these relationships”;

* reaffirmed their “commitment to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of Christ as this Church has received them”;

* reaffirmed their “commitment to the three moratoria requested of us by the Instruments of Communion”;

* reaffirmed their “commitment to the Anglican Communion Covenant process currently underway, with the hope of working toward its implementation across the Communion once a Covenant is completed”;

* reaffirmed their “commitment to ‘continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship’ which is foundational to our baptismal covenant, and to be one with the apostles in ‘interpreting the Gospel’ which is essential to our work as bishops of the Church of God.”

At the close of the afternoon session, 20 bishops endorsed the letter, with nine morre adding their names during the evening.

“This was not a statement of division,” the Rt. Rev. Edward J. Konieczny, Bishop of Oklahoma — a conservative leaning bishops who had not signed the statemen —said at a news briefing after the session. It was a “statement of unity” that acknowledged “we have listened to one another intently.”

The House of Bishops’ second media spokesman, the Rt. Rev. James Mathes of San Diego and a supporter of the actions taken this week in the House of Bishops, said he believed the statement offered “clarity of where they are.”

A copy of the letter has been forwarded to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Its initial signatories include:

The Rt. Rev James Adams, Western Kansas

The Rt. Rev Lloyd Allen, Honduras

The Rt. Rev David Alvarez, Puerto Rico

The Rt. Rev John Bauerschmidt, Tennessee

The Rt. Rev Peter Beckwith, Springfield

The Rt. Rev Franklin Brookhart, Montana

The Rt. Rev William Frey, Rio Grande

The Rt. Rev Dorsey Henderson, Upper South Carolina

The Rt. Rev John Howe, Central Florida

The Rt. Rev Russell Jacobus, Fond du Lac

The Rt. Rev Don Johnson, West Tennessee

The Rt. Rev Mark Lawrence, South Carolina

The Rt. Rev Gary Lillibridge, West Texas

The Rt. Rev Edward Little, Northern Indiana

The Rt. Rev William Love, Albany

The Rt. Rev Bruce MacPherson, Western Louisiana

The Rt. Rev Alfredo Morante, Litoral Ecuador

The Rt. Rev Henry Parsley, Alabama

The Rt. Rev Michael Smith, North Dakota

The Rt. Rev James Stanton, Dallas

The Rt. Rev Pierre Whalon, Convocation of American Churches in Europe

The Rt. Rev Paul Lambert, Suffragan-Dallas

The Rt. Rev David Reed, Suffragan-West Texas

The Rt. Rev Sylestre Romero, Assistant– New Jersey

The Rt. Rev John Sloan, Suffragan–Alabama

The Rt. Rev Jeffrey Rowthorn, Retired-Convocation of American Churches in Europe

The Rt. Rev Don Wimberly, Retired-Texas

Bishops Agree on Mary’s Virginity: TLC 7.16.09 July 17, 2009

Posted by geoconger in 76th General Convention, Living Church.
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First published in The Living Church magazine.

The House of Bishops affirmed the virginity of Mary the Mother of God during its July 16 morning legislative session at the 76th General Convention.

In a jocular debate that spoke to the exhaustion many of the bishops are feeling on the ninth business day of the convention, the bishops amended resolution A099 Lesser Feasts and Fasts: Additional Commons, adding the word “virgin” before the name of the Mother of God in collects offered for the use by the church.

The Rt. Rev. Wayne Smith, Bishop of Missouri, presented the resolution, noting that there had been some concerns expressed in committee hearings about the commons used for the Mother of God. There were “three ways to refer to her: Mary the God-bearer, the theotokos; Mary of Nazareth; and the Blessed Virgin Mary,” he said. Bishop Smith said using these varied terms underscores the theological diversity of views held within the Episcopal Church on the person and charism of Mary.

Bishop Michael Smith of North Dakota stood and said “I rise in defense of our Lady,” eliciting guffaws from the house. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori noted, “I don’t think she needs it,” to more laughter from the bishops. Bishop Michael Smith then offered an amendment inserting the word “virgin” before Mary’s name where used in the new collects, stating that the church’s teaching on the virginity of the Mother of God should be underscored in the new rites.

The Rt. Rev. Otis Charles, retired Bishop of Utah, spoke in opposition, stating “the term theotokos stands by itself.” Mary the god-bearer was a term of “long tradition and honorable to Our Lady.”

Bishop Wayne Smith accepted the amendment, suggesting that Mary be styled, “the Blessed Virgin Mary, the god-bearer.” The Charles amendment was accepted by voice vote, with limited opposition.

The Bishop of Albany, the Rt. Rev. William Love, rose to support the amended resolution saying he could “imagine all the spin that would come out of this convention” if the resolution was rejected. He said the headline “Episcopal Church Denies the Virginity of Mary” was one he did not wish to read, eliciting cries of ‘shame’ from the bishops present.

Bishop C. Franklin Brookhart of Montana reminded the house of the words of the Chalcedonian Creed: “Mary the Virgin, the God-bearer, the theotokos,” and urged adoption of the resolution. It passed unanimously.

Retired bishops keep their vote: TLC 7.16.09 July 17, 2009

Posted by geoconger in 76th General Convention, Living Church.
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First published in The Living Church magazine.

The House of Bishops has rejected the second reading of a constitutional amendment that would have stripped retired bishops of their vote in meetings of the house.

During Thursday morning’s business session of the House of Bishops at General Convention in Anaheim, Calif., the bishops voted 72-39 to refer resolution A052: Amending Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution, to committee. Moves to strip retired bishops of their vote in the House of Bishops began in the 1940s, and failed at the 1979, 1988 and 1997 General Conventions.

The present amendment had its first reading at the 2003 General Convention and was adopted. The House of Bishops amended and adopted the resolution at its second reading in 2006 with the House of Deputies concurring.

The resolution was presented by the Committee on the Constitution with a recommendation to concur. The Rt. Rev. Charles Keyser, assisting bishop in the Diocese of Florida, objected.

“This convention has been about inclusion and enfranchisement,” he said. “Now one of our first orders of business has been disenfranchisement.”

Bishop Keyser urged the house to address the concerns over retired bishops’ voting practices by judicious amendment of the canons, “fixing this not with a shotgun, but a surgical approach.”

The Rt. Rev. Geoffrey Rowthorn, retired Bishop of the American Convocation of Churches in Europe, urged the house to reject the constitutional amendment. Some of the members of the house seemed to be in dread of the “retired bishops’ gang,” who “rode into town” to “vote on the wrong side” of contentious issues.

Bishop Rowthorn said fears of a political manipulation by conservatives of the bishops’ proceedings were misplaced. Of the retired bishops present for the vote on Resolution D025, which ended the church’s ban on gay bishops, “22 had voted yes, and 4 no,” he said.

The Bishop of New Jersey, the Rt. Rev. George Counsell, noted he had voted in favor of the amendment in 2006 but would now vote against, as he believed the issue was “not jurisdictional but theological.”

The Rt. Rev. Dabney Smith, Bishop of Southwest Florida moved the matter be referred to a standing committee for review. The motion passed on a show of hands, 72-39, effectively killing the amendment for the fourth time in 30 years.

Bishops Call for Development of Liturgies for Same-Sex Blessings: TLC 7.15.09 July 16, 2009

Posted by geoconger in 76th General Convention, Living Church.
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The House of Bishops on Wednesday adopted a substitute version of Resolution C056, calling for the church to collect and develop “theological resources and liturgies for the blessing of same gender relationships.”

The resolution permits bishops in states where same-sex marriage or civil unions are legal to “provide a generous pastoral response” to same-sex couples, which could include pastoral rites for the blessing of same-sex unions, effectively compounding the repudiation of the Windsor Report process and the proposed Anglican Covenant by repudiating Resolution B033 of the 75th General Convention.

After two postponed sessions, debate resumed on C056 during the bishops’ Wednesday afternoon session. An ad hoc working group of 26 bishops presented a substitute for C056. It was led by Bishop Pierre Whalon of the American Convocation of Churches in Europe and Bishop Thomas Ely of Vermont, and included a cross section of the house, from Bishop Edward Little of Northern Indiana to Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

The substitute sought to assuage fears from conservatives by substituting language calling for the “design” of liturgies with that of “collecting and developing” them. Bishop Robinson contended that “to design liturgies was different” from studying them. “If at some point we were to have liturgies,” he said, this resolution would help the church see “what they would look like.”

Bishop Stephen Charleston, Assistant Bishop of California, spoke of his discomfort with the language of collecting, arguing that “to collect implies no movement.” However, he understood the resolution sought to walk the “fine line between pushing toward doing something and standing still.”

Bishop Steven Miller of Milwaukee said that the working group believed the language put forward meant to say “see, here is what it might look like.”

Bishop Sean Rowe of Northwestern Pennsylvania rose and moved an amendment to discharge the resolution. “I believe this is exactly what we don’t want to do, he said. “It continues to legislate matters that require discernment.”

The church should “allow people the personal generosity” to engage in study in this area, he said, “without legislation.” The Rt. Rev. Kirk Smith of Arizona concurred, saying the House of Bishops needed to “find a way out of the box” of finding a legislative solution to a theological problem. “I would prefer a pastoral letter” to the church on this question, he noted.

Bishop Robert Fitzpatrick of Hawaii suggested perhaps “it is better to be silent” on these things and “allow the conversation to continue.” And Bishop Andrew Rowe of Texas observed that “discharge is a legislative act,” and would be useful way forward in the circumstances.

But Bishop Robinson objected, saying “we don’t need to demonize the legislative process.” Bishop John Chane of Washington added that “we are a legislative body. To discharge this dishonors the process of calling us together.” Bishop M Thomas Shaw of Massachusetts agreed that it was a “misunderstanding to say discernment doesn’t happen through the legislative process.”

A roll call vote on Bishop Rowe’s motion to discharge was taken and it failed 94 to 42, with 1 abstention. The resolution as a whole was put to a vote and it was adopted 104 to 30, with 2 abstentions.

News Analysis—Pushback in HOB on Gay Blessings: TLC 7.15.09 July 15, 2009

Posted by geoconger in 76th General Convention, Living Church.
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Read it all in The Living Church

Resistance has grown within the House of Bishops to adopting Resolution C056: Liturgies for Blessings which would authorize local pastoral rites for the blessing of same-sex unions.

The hesitation over endorsing gay blessings comes not from a lack of votes for passage, or from fears of an international backlash from the Anglican Communion or the Archbishop of Canterbury. Rather, there is a sense that the progressive agenda can only go so far before a second conservative exodus takes place.

From the tenor of the debates this week, and the evidence of the house’s 99-45 vote on Monday to overturn the ban on gay bishops, support for gay blessings has a solid base of political support. This marks a political shift of the house over the past five conventions, such that when he spoke on July 10, former Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold found himself on the conservative wing of the house.

Gay blessings were raised during the 2003 General Convention, Bishop John Chane of Washington told The Living Church, but the vote to confirm the election of V. Gene Robinson as bishop, coupled with the press of other business, made it clear “the time was not right.”

However, “now is the time to proceed with these rites,” Bishop Chane told the house on July 14. The debate that followed indicated a majority of the bishops were ready to go.

The first sign that all was not well arose when Bishop Dean Wolfe of Kansas rose at the start of the C056 debate and cautioned the house against offering aggressive amendments. “Sometimes it takes very little” to “move us from agreement to division,” he observed. He asked the bishops to practice a “generous orthodoxy” to the conservative minority who might be troubled by same-sex blessings.

After twenty five minutes of debate, with only the acting Bishop of the Rio Grande, the Rt. Rev. William Frey, rising to speak in opposition, Bishop Clifton Daniel of East Carolina told the house the lack of input from the conservative side made him uneasy. The “silence is ominous,” he observed, adding “I need your voice to inform my conversation.” Bishop Peter Beckwith of Springfield responded by asking “Why waste time? Why waste my time? Why waste your time?”

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori prorogued debate to the afternoon, and the afternoon’s debate was then postponed to Wednesday. Suggestions that delay could be postponed such that the convention would not be able to take up the resolution sparked outrage from Bishop Marc Andrus of California.

In an afternoon closed session, the bishops organized a self-selected ad hoc group to discuss how best to go forward with the resolution. Bishop Andrus told The Living Church at a July 15 press briefing he could not say who took part in the deliberations, but did stress the pastoral importance of C056 to his diocese. Whether C056 passes General Convention or not, California will keep its “focus on pastoral care and marriage equality,” Bishop Andrus said, and we “will continue to do blessings.”

While scheduled for discussion today, the matter has not yet been set down for business by the Dispatch Committee of the House of Bishops.

Bishops Weigh Authorizing Local Same-Sex Blessing Rites: TLC 7.14.09 July 15, 2009

Posted by geoconger in 76th General Convention, Living Church.
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The House of Bishops moved one step closer towards authorizing local pastoral rites for the blessing of same-sex unions, debating Resolution C056: Liturgies for Blessings.

Set down for action on the Supplemental Calendar 3 for the sixth business day on July 13, the resolution was the first order of legislative business in the morning session of July 14.

The Bishop of Missouri, the Rt. Rev. Wayne Smith, offered C056 to the house on behalf of the Committee on the Prayer Book, Liturgy and Church Music. He said the committee had a number of resolutions to consider and consolidated them into C056 as an “omnibus resolution.”

Speaking for the Committee, Bishop Jeffrey Lee of Chicago said the resolution “calls for the development of rites for blessing and a theological rationale” for same-sex unions.

The resolution “helps to define ourselves in relation to the Anglican Communion.”

The Rt. Rev. Dean Wolfe of Kansas cautioned the house against offering aggressive amendments. “Sometimes it takes very little,” he said, to “move us from agreement to division.” He asked the bishops to practice a “generous orthodoxy” to the conservative minority who might be troubled by same-sex blessings.

The Suffragan Bishop of Maryland, the Rt. Rev. John Rabb offered an amendment that was originally offered as a minority committee report by the Bishop of Alabama, the Rt. Rev. Henry Parsley. The Parsley amendment sought to alter language that offered blanket permission for a “generous pastoral response” to same-sex couples, to one confining it to states that had adopted same-sex marriage or civil union laws.

The Rt. Rev. Otis Charles, retired Bishop of Utah, objected to the amendment, saying it was an “attempt to narrow and limit” pastoral care along state boundaries. The Bishop of San Diego concurred, noting that the amendment would relate pastoral generosity to geography.

Bishop James Adams of Western Kansas asked Bishop Smith of Missouri if pastoral generosity included liturgical blessings. Bishop Smith replied that the committee had considered adding a specific provision for liturgies, but believed it best not to enumerate the forms pastoral generosity might take so that “liturgies could be included” without being named.

The “reality of marriage of same-gender couples is coming to you soon,” Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire told the house, objecting to the conditional language of the resolution. The word ‘may’, “implies a bishop might not do so,” he said, adding that “I would argue that all of us are about providing generous pastoral responses.”

However, the Rt. Rev. S. Johnson Howard, Bishop of Florida, told the House “what we don’t need is a resolution instructing us to be pastorally generous.”

The Bishop of Lexington, the Rt. Rev. Stacy Sauls, opposed the Parsley amendment, saying it “relies implicitly” on the bishop for implementation. Bishop Marc Andrus of California said he too was opposed, as “pastoral responses are occasioned by pastoral needs.” The Bishop of Maryland, the Rt. Rev. Eugene Sutton, asserted that “generosity for a few is not generosity.” Following further debate, the amendment was put to a vote and failed.

The Bishop to the American Convocation of Churches in Europe also offered an amendment, one that would soften the language of the resolution by deleting the request for formal study and development. “A lot of theology has been done by liturgists without recourse to wider theological considerations,” Bishop Pierre Whalon said, adding that he “did not want to continue that practice.”

Bishop J. Neil Alexander of Atlanta said he “saw no evidence that Eucharist or baptism” waited “upon a committee” before it was celebrated by the Church. “Collecting and analyzing rites is part of the theological work,” he said. Bishop John Chane of Washington also objected, saying “now is the time to have this formal discussion” on rites for same-sex blessings.

The Acting Bishop of the Rio Grande, the Rt. Rev. William Frey, questioned whether it was permissible to permit gay blessings when it was not authorized by the Book of Common Prayer. “How can we give permission to violate the Constitution,” he asked.

Bishop Clifton Daniel of East Carolina rose to ask the conservative bishops in the house to speak, noting that none save Bishop Frey had to that point risen to speak. The “silence is ominous,” he observed, adding “I need your voice to inform my conversation.”

Bishop Peter Beckwith of Springfield rose to Bishop Daniel’s challenge, saying he opposed the resolution. “Why waste time? Why waste my time. Why waste your time?” with these debates, he asked. “I believe this is another clear instance of the church being shaped by the secular culture rather than the secular culture being shaped by the church.” He said this “takes us farther away from the Windsor Report,” and asked the chairman for a roll call vote upon the conclusion of debate.

Bishop Stacy Sauls then offered what he called his “most important thing I have ever said” to the house. “Thirty-six years ago, our church responded to secular culture by allowing divorced persons to remarry,” adding that “remarriage after divorce was the moral equivalence of adultery.” He argued that this was a greater change to the nature of marriage than same-sex blessings, and urged the House to support those gays and lesbians who “seek to live in a morally equivalent way.”

The Presiding Bishop prorogued the session until July 15 for further debate and a final vote.

Convention Criticized for ‘Choosing to Walk Apart’: TLC 7.14.09 July 15, 2009

Posted by geoconger in 76th General Convention, Living Church.
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First published in The Living Church

The Bishop of Durham, the Rt. Rev. N.T. Wright has issued a sharp rebuke to the 76th General Convention for approving Resolution D025, saying it “marks a clear break” with the Anglican Communion.

On July 13, the House of Bishops adopted an amended version of D025, effectively overturning the pledge made in Resolution B033 at the 75th General Convention in 2006 not to affirm the election of clergy in active same-sex relationships. The House of Deputies concurred with the Bishops on July 14.

In a letter to the Times of London to be published on July15, Bishop Wright likened the state of international Anglicanism to a “slow-moving train crash.” With passage of D025, the Episcopal Church had “finally brought a large coach off the rails altogether,” marking a “clear break with the rest of the Anglican Communion.”

General Convention was “ignoring” the pleas of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Anglican Consultative Council, the Primates and the Lambeth Conference for a “moratorium on consecrating practicing homosexuals as bishops.”

General Convention had rejected the Windsor Report and the proposed Anglican Covenant, Bishop Wright said, and was “formalizing the schism they initiated six years ago when they consecrated as bishop a divorced man in an active same-sex relationship,” the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Bishop of New Hampshire.

The Episcopal Church by its vote, he argued, had “chosen to ‘walk apart’.”

He rejected the “appeal to justice as a way of cutting the ethical knot in favor of including active homosexuals in Christian ministry,” saying it “simply begs the question.”

Justice did not mean “treating everybody the same way,” but “treating people appropriately”, he argued, “which involves making distinctions between different people and situations. Justice has never meant ‘the right to give active expression to any and every sexual desire’.”

The Episcopal Church was now distancing itself from the fellowship of the Anglican Communion, he argued, and raised the specter of recognizing the Anglican Communion in North America, writing that he hoped that ways could be found “for all in America who want to be loyal to [the Anglican Communion], and to scripture, tradition and Jesus, [and] to have that loyalty recognized and affirmed at the highest level.

The Rev. Ian Douglas, a member of the Anglican Consultative Council, and clergy deputy from Massachusetts, told The Living Church that there had been communications between the highest levels of the Episcopal Church and the Church of England over D025 over the past few days, noting that claims that the Episcopal Church was walking away from the Anglican Communion were untrue, as D025 was not crafted as a repeal of B033.

The Committee on World Missions received 13 resolutions concerning B033: six that “called for a full repeal” of the 2006 resolution, six that called for “a strengthening of the non-discriminations canons” and one resolution that stated “where we are as a church.” Fr. Douglas said D025 was an “invitation to dialogue, not a rebuke of the Anglican Communion’s instruments of communion.”

Passage of D025 May Place TEC Outside Communion: TLC 7.13.09 July 14, 2009

Posted by geoconger in 76th General Convention, Living Church.
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The House of Bishops’ adoption of Resolution D025 on July 13 was an honest act that fairly stated the mind of the majority of the House of Bishops, progressive bishops argued. But members of the minority stated the vote ends the Episcopal Church’s compliance with the pledge made by the 2006 General Convention in Resolution B033 to abstain from consecrating more gay bishops, ends the Windsor Process, snubs the Archbishop of Canterbury, and places the Episcopal Church outside the Anglican Communion.

The Bishop of Rhode Island introduced D025 to the house as chair of the World Missions Committee, noting the bishops on the committee had recommended by a vote of 3-2 to reject adoption. Bishop Geralyn Wolf then enumerated the committee’s reasons for urging its rejection, saying “some” of the Episcopal Church’s overseas dioceses, while privately welcoming of the ministry of gays and lesbians, were “not theologically or culturally ready” for the innovation.

Adopting D025 “rejects” the Windsor process and jeopardizes the Anglican Covenant, and “doesn’t reflect the voices” of the wider Anglican Communion, Bishop Wolf said. It presumes a “theological understanding” of the question that has not, however, been reached, and while it may describe the “mind of the House,” the resolution “lacks clarity” and is open to a “variety of interpretations that will not be helpful in the Anglican Communion.”

The resolution “should be seen through the lens of world ministry,” Bishop Wolf continued, and sometimes it is necessary to “sacrifice for this ministry,” she said in urging its rejection.

Bishop Jeffrey Lee of Chicago asked for twenty minutes table time for the bishops to discuss the resolution, which was extended for a further ten minutes. Once the bishops reconvened, the Bishop of Upper South Carolina, the Rt. Rev. Dorsey Henderson, offered an amendment to the sixth resolved, asking substitution for the phrase that stated God “has called and may call” gays and lesbians to the ordained ministry with the statement that this call to ordained ministry was a “mystery” that was discerned by the church “for all people” in accordance with its constitution and canons.

“This is family talk,” Bishop Henderson declared, adding that “what we do affects a larger family.” He said that by being circumspect, we “can both pledge our commitment to the Anglican Communion” and continue to “debate the issues before the Anglican Communion” in the spirit of the Windsor Report.

Debate began on the amended resolution, with the bishops quickly dividing on their interpretation of what it meant. The Suffragan Bishop of Maryland, the Rt. Rev. John Rabb endorsed the Henderson amendment, urging the church to “continue the process of discernment.”

Bishop Michael Curry of North Carolina felt the amendment was helpful as it affirmed that “God’s call is God’s call; for us it is a mystery.” The language of the amendment presumes that “gay and lesbian people may be called” to the ordained ministry. Bishop John Bauerschmidt of Tennessee also supported the amendment, noting that its language was “descriptive” rather than “prescriptive” and “moves the resolution further along.”

But Bishop Nathan Baxter of Central Pennsylvania said he had “mixed emotions” about the Henderson amendment as he was seeking a way “to rescind or override B033.”

Bishop Baxter said he “really would like to see us honoring sacramentally same-sex unions,” and “honor what we see as holy in our experience.” While the Episcopal Church should be “concerned with its covenant with the Anglican Communion,” it should also be “concerned about our commitment to gays and lesbians.”

Bishop J. Neil Alexander of Atlanta rose in opposition, saying the amendment “renders things muddier.” Bishop Stephen Lane of Maine also urged rejection, saying the bishops should speak honestly about what they believed.

Bishop Thomas Ely of Vermont argued that “God has affirmed and will continue to call gays and lesbian people into the ordained ministry. That is not a mystery to me.

“The mystery is the person,” Bishop Thomas Ely said. If the amendment means the church will be open to the ordination of gays and lesbians, he said it had its support. “If it in any way questions that call to God, I would find that a great disappointment.”

Bishop J. Jon Bruno of Los Angeles said that if “we baptize people of all sexualities” we should be able to ordain them. “We don’t need any more study on this issue,” he said, and urged the Episcopal Church to be clear on this point. “Gays and lesbians have a right to the ordination process under our canons.”

“It is God who calls” an individual to the priesthood, Bishop George Counsell of New Jersey said, stating he preferred not to use the “language of rights” in describing ordination. He contended the amendment served to “put God at the center of all this.”

When a division was called, the Hollingsworth amendment was adopted 78 to 60 on a show of hands.

The Bishop of Arkansas, the Rt. Rev. Larry Benfield then rose to read a prepared statement in support of the original resolution saying that as the Trinity was a mystery, so was sexual love. It was fearful to say “we will restrict love because of a chromosomal make-up,” he contended, and argued that the theology was already in place by a reinterpretation of the creeds to permit honoring same-sex attractions as being holy.

But Bishop Michael Smith of North Dakota warned that endorsing the resolution would be a “negative response to the Windsor report,” and asked for a roll call vote. Five other bishops rose to endorse his motion, and it carried.

Bishop Gary Lillibridge rose in opposition to the resolution, but turned to the last resolve that stated “Christians of good conscience” may “disagree about some of these matters.” He told the house he did “not want to lose” that promise of forbearance of toleration of the minority.

The Rt. Rev. Clifton Daniel of East Carolina endorsed the resolution, saying it affirmed that the Episcopal Church was a member of the Anglican Communion. He disputed the statement that Lambeth 1.10 “represents the mind of the Anglican Communion on human sexuality,” saying it was the mind merely of the bishops at Lambeth in 1998. He proposed an amendment to the opening paragraph of the resolution that stated the Episcopal Church remained a “constituent” member of the Anglican Communion. There was no debate on the motion and it was adopted unopposed.

On the resolution as a whole, and the Bishop of Massachusetts, the Rt. Rev. M. Thomas Shaw, urged adoption. “I don’t know how much more we can ask of people,” he said. “It is time now to act.” Bishop Mark Beckwith of Newark concurred, saying this resolution removed the taint of B033 and “offers a statement as to who we are.”

The Rt. Rev. Stacy Sauls of Lexington, speaking in favor, said the resolution made no canonical changes and “does nothing other than to state what is true.” The Constitution and Canons “govern the discernment process,” he said, adding that “what this does is correct any misconception that B033 changed our canons.”

The Bishop coadjutor of Virginia, the Rt. Rev. Shannon Johnston, said he “personally agrees with every word of the resolution,” but would vote against it as it “breaks faith” with the Anglican Communion. The Anglican Consultative Council “gave us a great gift” in postponing consideration of Section 4 of the Anglican Covenant draft. “Now we are shooting the gap” created by the delay, and changing the debate by rejecting the Windsor process.

“We can affirm all we want,” that we are constituent members of the Anglican Communion, but that does not make it so, Bishop Johnston argued. The “Communion is too much to lose,” he said, urging its defeat.

“If the resolution passes, the Episcopal Church will cease to be part of the Communion,” said Bishop William Love of Albany. He read out to the house the Archbishop of Canterbury’s statement to the July 13 session of General Synod, which urged the bishops to defeat D025. Adopting the resolution would not simply “stress or tear the fabric” of the Communion, he said, “it would totally shred it.”

But Bishop Edwin Gulick of Kentucky disagreed, telling the house that the “passing of the resolution will not end the moratorium.” Distinguishing between intentions and actions, Bishop Gulick said the moratorium would be broken when the Episcopal Church consecrated a new gay bishop. He then turned to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and asked if this was not so. Bishop Jefferts Schori said that was “my understanding of it. We have been asked to exercise restraint, and we have done so.”

Bishop Mark Lawrence of South Carolina turned to natural law and church teaching in support of rejecting the resolution.

Bishop William Gregg, Assistant Bishop of North Carolina, noted that “God was not calling us to consensus.” He stated that “when synod has made a decision, the decision becomes real when the whole body receives the decision.”

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori noted the lateness of the hour, and called the question. A roll call vote was taken and the house adopted the amended resolution 99 to 45 with two abstentions.

Unlike the scenes surrounding the affirmation of the election of Bishop Robinson at the 2003 General Convention, the bishops filed out of the House in somber mood, and no applause came from the gallery. While some bishops left the Robinson vote in 2003 in tears or singing the doxology, the July 13 vote ended with most exhausted.

Resolution D025 now goes back to the House of Deputies for concurrence.

Bishops Endorse Mandatory Health Plan: TLC 7.13.09 July 13, 2009

Posted by geoconger in 76th General Convention, Living Church.
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First published in The Living Church.

The House of Bishops has endorsed resolution A177 calling for a denomination-wide health insurance plan.

During the afternoon business session on July 12, the Rt. Rev. Gayle Harris, Suffragan Bishop of Massachusetts, introduced the resolution on behalf of the Church Pension Fund Committee. The “mandatory” plan offers health insurance coverage for all “clergy and lay employees who are scheduled to work a minimum of 1,500 hours annually.”

Bishop Harris told the house the proposal had been under review for several years and would result in extensive cost savings for the church as a whole. Approximately “95 percent of dioceses will see savings,” she said, as a denomination-wide plan would “spread the liability or risk” across the church. The plan provides a $5 million lifetime cap, compared to a private sector average of $2 million, and provides a “superior insurance product.”

It would be “portable within the Episcopal Church”, but would be subject to “local control” and dioceses “may allow some to opt out” of the plan if they have comparable or superior coverage from the private sector.

She added that “pension payments will not be used to subsidize health care.” For every dollar collected by the Medical Trust, “92 cents would be used to pay claims, 7 cents for administration, and 1 cent for reserves,”—a ratio not matched in the private sector insurance market.

The Bishop of Albany rose to question the mandatory nature of the policy, however Bishop Harris stated that dioceses “will always have the option for those who have equal or better insurance to opt out—but dioceses may not opt out.”

The Bishop of Western Louisiana noted that “we have congregations where the only way we have full-time clergy has been to allow them to go into another program for coverage.” The Rt. Rev. D. Bruce MacPherson said the proposed rates “will force some congregations to move to part-time clergy with no benefits.”

The Bishop of Alabama queried the plans “agility,” noting his diocese had moved from the Medical Trust, to a self-insured plan to a Health Savings Account high-deductable plan offered by Blue Cross/Blue Shield—each time seeking better coverage for a better cost. He asked whether a denominational program would be competitive without private sector pressure.

Bishop Harris responded that the program would be responsive to changing market conditions, but was also client friendly. The Medical Trust was a not for profit, she argued, and its primary goal is service to the customer.

Bishop James Adams of Western Kansas affirmed his colleague’s statement, saying his experience with the Medical Trust had been very good. “There are few people whom I trust apart from our Lord. One is the Medical Trust, the other is the Pension Fund,” he said.

Bishop Mark Lawrence of South Carolina concurred, saying he had “utter confidence in the Church Pension Fund” and endorsed the program. The Rt. Rev. Chilton Knudsen, retired Bishop of Maine, urged the bishops to “capture this opportunity now.”

After a number of other bishops rose in support of the resolution, the matter was put to the vote and was endorsed by the House, with only two voices raised in opposition. If endorsed by the House of Deputies, the denomination plan will take effect in 2012.

Motion in English Synod to Recognize ACNA: TLC 7.11.09 July 12, 2009

Posted by geoconger in 76th General Convention, Living Church.
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First published in The Living Church

A private member’s motion asking the Church of England to recognize the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) has been submitted to the General Synod of the Church of England. While the motion will not come up for debate at the current meeting of Synod, it serves to sharpen the focus of the 76th General Convention on the consequences of backing away from the 2006 pledge made with Resolution B033.

Synod is meeting in York from the July 10-13. On July 10, a private member’s motion was submitted asking for a debate on the Church of England’s formal relationship with the ACNA. To be considered for debate, a private members motion must receive the support of 100 members of synod. Approximately 75 members have so far endorsed the motion.

Traditionally only one or two such motions are considered at each session of Synod, and in creating the agenda for forthcoming session, the Synod’s Business Committee generally looks to the number of signatures received in order to set the priority for debate.

Questions were also put to the Chairman of the House of Bishops and Chairman of the Ministry Division from members on the attitude of the House of Bishops to the ACNA. The Bishop of Bristol, the Rt. Rev. Michael Hill, told synod the House of Bishops there was no “representation” by the House of Bishops at the installation of the Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan as Archbishop of the ACNA, and so far the bishops had not considered the question of the Church of England’s relationship with the ACNA.

But the Bishop of Durham, the Rt. Rev. N.T. Wright, told Synod the House of Bishops’ Theology Committee had agreed on July 10 to study the ACNA’s constitution and canons at their fall meeting.

Who had the authority to recognize the ACNA was not clear, Bishop Hill said, but would likely first be considered by the bishops.

The press by conservative members of General Synod for recognition of the ACNA as a formal part of the Anglican Communion comes the day after Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams urged General Convention not to back away from B033. At the July 9 Eucharist, Archbishop Williams thanked the Episcopal Church for its invitation to Anaheim, and “to share something of my mind with you; and so thank you too for your continuing willingness to engage with the wider life of our Communion.

“I do realize that this engagement has been, and still is, costly for different people in different ways,” he said. “Some feel impatient, some feel compromised, some feel harassed or undervalued, or that their good faith has been ungraciously received.”

The archbishop said he had come to California with “hopes and anxieties,” stating “I hope and pray that there won’t be decisions in the coming days that could push us further apart.”

However, he refrained from saying what the consequences might be of repudiating B033. The move to recognize the ACNA put forward by conservative members of General Synod appears to answer that question.

Bishops Approve Lay Pension Benefits: TLC 7.11.09 July 12, 2009

Posted by geoconger in 76th General Convention, Living Church.
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First published in The Living Church

Providing pension benefits to the lay church employees was a matter of justice that has been too long delayed, the Bishop of New Hampshire told members of the House of Bishops on the fourth legislative day of the 76th General Convention in Anaheim, Calif.

Rising to address the house following the introduction of Resolution A138: Establishing a mandatory lay employee pension system, the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson said that as a member of the board of trustees of the Church Pension Fund (CPF) he could report that it had done due diligence in investigating the fiduciary implications of providing pensions to lay church employees who worked more than 20 hours a week.

“I can attest to you that the best resources and best people” at the CPF had been working on this plan, Bishop Robinson told the House.

However, the need to pay was independent of the ability to pay, Bishop Robinson said.

The lay pension program requires the church, its congregations and affiliated institutions to provide pension benefits to lay employees working more than 1,000 hours per year.

The employees could chose a defined benefit plan, which would vest after five years and would be portable within the Episcopal Church, or a defined contribution plan which would, according to the plan chosen by the diocese, vest immediately, or up to five years after the start of employment, and would be fully portable

The plan would be mandatory, the Rt. Rev Gayle Harris, Suffragan Bishop of Massachusetts and chairman of the Church Pension Fund committee at General Convention, told the house. Parishes would not be unduly burdened by the costs of the new benefit, which she said would be $20.80 per pledge unit per year.

The Rt. Rev. Chilton Knudsen, retired Bishop of Maine, urged adoption of the resolution. This was a “matter of justice and a matter of the health of the soul of the church,” she said.

However, the Bishop of Springfield, the Rt. Rev. Peter Beckwith, questioned the mandatory provisions of the resolution, stating the “feedback” he had had from his diocese was that there were “a number of people who don’t want or don’t need” this plan.

“If enacted,” he said, this “will cause heartburn and difficulties” for small parishes, and would serve to drive down lay wages. The additional costs would lead some churches to reduce the hours worked of their employees below the threshold of 1,000 hours, or lead to layoffs.

“The concept is great,” Bishop Beckwith said, “but to make it mandatory will cause injustice.”

The Rt. Rev. Claude Payne, retired Bishop of Texas and member of trustee of the CPF said “this was the best we could come up with,” and spoke of his own secretary, now in her 90s, who had no pension benefits from the church following a lifetime of service.

Denying pension benefits to lay employees was racist, the Rt. Rev. Nathan Baxter of Central Pennsylvania observed, noting that many sextons and church workers were African-Americans and often left a life time of service to a church or school with “a handshake or a purse.”

The Assistant Bishop of California, the Rt. Rev. Stephen Charleston, reminded the House that his own service to the Episcopal Church began as a lay assistant to former President Bishop John Hines. Those years were not credited to his clergy pension and as retirement approached, he was conscious of their loss to his finances.

The Rt. Rev. Peter Lee, retired Bishop of Virginia, told the house that offering pension benefits to the church’s lay employees was a natural “consequence of the Baptismal theology adopted by the Episcopal Church in the 1979 Prayer Book.”

However, the Bishop of Albany, the Rt. Rev. William Love pressed the committee on the point of portability, saying it not all church secretaries spent their entire careers within the Episcopal Church. Without portability of benefits, church workers would be “short changed,” with the CPF keeping funds set aside, but not yet vested. The Bishop of the American Convocation of Churches in Europe, the Rt. Rev. Pierre Whalon rose also to voice concerns about portability.

The Bishop of Oklahoma, the Rt. Rev. Edward J. Konieczny, a member of the CPF trustees, sought to reassure the House on this point, and the resolution was adopted on a voice vote with five voices in opposition.

Bishops Debate Proposed Additions to Church Calendar: TLC 7.11.09 July 11, 2009

Posted by geoconger in 76th General Convention, Living Church.
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First published in The Living Church.

The question, “Who are the saints and how are they known?”, animated discussions of resolutions proposing revisions of the church calendar and the Book of Occasional Service on Friday, the third legislative day of the House of Bishops, at the 76th General Convention in Anaheim, Calif.

The philosophical and theological debate arose during discussions of Resolutions A096: Church Calendar, Additional Calendar Commemorations; A097 Lesser Feasts and Fasts: Authorize Trial Use of Commemorations; A098: Lesser Feasts and Fasts: Holy Women, Holy Men Revision Principles; and A089: Liturgy Daily Prayer.

Rising on behalf of the Standing Committee on Liturgy and Music, the retired Suffragan Bishop of Connecticut, the Rt. Rev. Jeffery Rowthorn, said eight years of “hard work” had gone into producing a calendar of “holy women, holy men,” and was being offered for “optional observance and for trial use.”

The new calendar was “more representative across time of space of Christian witness than any other calendar” in the Christian world and offered an “extraordinary array of men and women empowered by the Spirit for the work of ministry,” Bishop Rowthorn said.

The Bishop Arizona, the Rt. Rev. Kirk S. Smith, rose, however, to protest the way the new saints had been chosen, arguing the new book turned on its head the traditional customs of how Christians came to venerate worthy saints. It was “an attempt to impose an educational agenda” by imposing worthy but “p.c. people” onto the church.

He added that he had “some real questions” about the “orthodoxy of some of the people” selected, and called for the church to return to the custom of “local veneration”– selecting the saints through a “bottom up rather than a top down” process.

The Suffragan Bishop of New York, the Rt. Rev. Catherine S. Roskam, rose and asked the chairman whether the new book conflated actions and individuals. While she favored adding more women to the calendar, the new book had conflated “women’s ministries with honoring women.”

The Bishop of Missouri, the Rt. Rev. Wayne Smith, noted the resolution offered the book for trial use and the Standing Committee on Liturgy and Church Music welcomed comments in the coming triennium.

Turning to Resolution A097, Lesser Feasts and Fasts, the Bishop of Minnesota, the Rt. Rev. James Jelinek, urged a revision of the new book by removing the English language texts of the Rite 1 collect, and replacing them with a Spanish language version.

“Rite 1 is the language of the past … it is evangelism for English teachers,” while “Spanish is the language of the future of the church,” Bishop Jelinek said.

Several bishops rose in opposition to Bishop Jelinek’s motion, including the Rt. Rev. Pierre Whalon of the American Convocation of Churches in Europe, who noted that all documents produced by the church already must be translated into Spanish and French.

The Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold III welcomed the spirit of the Jelinek motion, but noted that “usually there is a biographical sketch, lessons” and other materials linked to the collect, asking whether it would be unwise, unwieldy, and aesthetically challenging to substitute a Spanish for English language prayer.

The Rt. Rev. David Reed, Suffragan Bishop of West Texas, stated he had a “great love for the language of Rite 1” and was “uneasy” with attempts to remove it from the worshipping life of the church.

“I have always defended the right of people to speak Spanish in the church,” the Rt. Rev. Leo Frade, Bishop of Southeast Florida, said. “I must defend the right of people to speak English,” he said, urging rejection of the Jelinek resolution, which was defeated on a voice vote from the house.

The retired Bishop of Chicago, the Rt. Rev. William Purcell, then rose to speak of his unease with the gender-neutral language of some of the collects, which showed a “desire to omit the word, ‘Father’.”

It was “confusing to remove the ‘Father’ when we also say ‘Son’ and ‘Holy Spirit’,” the bishop said, noting that such language confused the Trinitarian language of the rites. The resolution was put to the house and passed on a divided voice vote.

At the start of the afternoon session, Bishop Smith of Missouri said the “principles of inclusion” in the new edition of Lesser Feasts and Fasts were not to select only the “heroes of the faith,” but also to add the “humdrum workers of the faith” by whose actions the faith was strengthened and propagated.

The Rt. Rev. William O. Gregg, Assistant Bishop of North Carolina, rose to speak in opposition to Resolution A098. He said he was “concerned that saints are about honoring people and their lives, not their works.”

The Bishop of Kansas, the Rt. Rev. Dean Wolfe concurred, saying that while he believed that one of the new additions to the calendar, James Muir, was “a great photographer,” his words were not always “edifying to the people.”

Personal holiness was not always a criteria for recognition, the Bishop of Bethlehem, the Rt. Rev. Paul V. Marshall said, noting that we know little of the state of Handel’s soul, but many were able to experience the divine though the gift of his music.

Bishop Smith of Missouri added that some of those included in the calendar were modern versions of the “Doctors of the Church,” such as Thomas Aquinas. “Aquinas did not live a life of heroic effort, and we nothing of him apart from his work,” he said, yet he has been honored by the Western Church for his theological works.

Bishop Smith of Arizona asked the House to amend A098, instructing the Standing Committee on Liturgy and Church Music to review the names of those selected for inclusion in the calendar. The amendment was accepted by the house by a show of hands, and the resolution adopted on a voice vote.

Resolution A089 was an omnibus bill that covered “all funding aspects of SCLM,” Bishop Smith of Missouri told the House.

The Rt. Rev. Charles Keyser, retired Suffragan Bishop for the Armed Forces and Assistant Bishop of Florida, urged adoption of the resolution, saying its provisions for prayers for the adoption of children would be most welcome.

Bishop Whalon concurred, telling the house he had used with great profit similar Roman Catholic prayers when he and his wife adopted their daughter.

A question was put to the chairman, what was meant by the term “Christian anti-Judaism”? — a term condemned by the resolution, which directed the SCLM to “collect, develop and disseminate materials that assist members of the Church to address Christian anti-Judaism expressed in and stirred by portions of Christian scriptures and liturgical texts.”

Bishop Smith of Missouri explained that “anti-Judaism” moved beyond anti-Semitism. It was not a “racial category but refers to the religious practices of our forbearers and referred to the Good Friday liturgy” from the church’s history.

The retired Bishop of New Hampshire, the Rt. Rev. Douglas Theuner, warned the house that it needed to be “prepared to explain” what it meant by “Christian anti-Judaism,” as the explanations offered so far were unclear.

After the session closed, the Rt. Rev. Stacy Sauls, Bishop of Lexington, conceded that we “were all confused” by distinctions being drawn between anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism, but said he understood the resolution to be asking the church to step back from some its historical liturgies and statements, such as the 1662 Book of Common Prayers Good Friday Solemn Collects that were “prejudiced” against the Jews.

The press briefing officer for the House of Bishops, the Rt. Rev. James Mathes of San Diego, directed those with questions to the Convention Journal report where “all was explained.”

The Rt. Rev. Dabney Smith of Southwest Florida asked the house why the Book of Occasional Services was being revised at this time. Bishop Smith of Missouri responded the current book was a result of over 20 years of additions and it was now “time to step back” and review the book as a whole, as it now lacked editorial “coherence.”

The House passed the resolution on a voice vote, with only a handful of objections.

Bishops Join Central Ecuador Consent Controversy: TLC 7.10.09 July 11, 2009

Posted by geoconger in 76th General Convention, Living Church.
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First published in The Living Church

A tissue of lies was all that supported claims made by three of the four deputies from the Diocese of Central Ecuador that the episcopal election process in their diocese was corrupt, the Rt. Rev. Wilfrido Ramos-Orench told the House of Bishops at the close of their afternoon session on July 10.

The Rev. Luis Fernando Ruiz was elected Bishop of Central Ecuador by the House of Bishops March 17 after the diocesan convention deadlocked 18-18. Bishop Ramos, the Provisional Bishop of Central Ecuador, broke the tie by sending it to the House of Bishops for resolution.

However, during the July 10 afternoon session of the House of Deputies, the Rev. Lourdes Inapanta, clergy deputy from Central Ecuador asked the deputies to reject Resolution B023 affirming his election. A clerical error prevented Fr. Ruiz’s elections materials from being distributed to the deputies, and the vote was postponed.

At the close of the simultaneous session of the House of Bishops, the Rt. Rev. Francisco Duque, Bishop of Colombia, rose on a point of personal privilege and told the bishops he had been approached by Spanish-speaking deputies, concerned by what they had been told about the election by the Central Ecuador delegation.

Included among the papers distributed to the bishops for that session, was Resolution D050 submitted by Ms. Inapanta, which asked for new elections in the diocese, citing 13 flaws in Fr. Ruiz election.

Bishop Duque told the bishops that certain “unjust remarks” had been uttered against Fr. Ruiz and Bishop Ramos, and he asked Bishop Ramos to clear the air over the allegations.

Bishop Ramos told the bishops the “last 48 hours have been very painful. The integrity of the process has been challenged. My integrity, my reputation is at stake.

“One of our delegates is making lies,” he said, and “I feel betrayed.”

Bishop Ramos said the bishop-elect was a “man of integrity” and if “we don’t move forward it could be disastrous for the future of the diocese.”

The Presiding Bishop’s Deputy for Pastoral Development, the Rt. Rev. Clayton Matthews, told the house that the former Bishop of Central Ecuador, the Rt. Rev. Neptali Larrea, had been deposed unanimously in 2005. An investigation subsequently found that no elections had been held since 1979 for the Standing Committee.

The Episcopal Church has been helping Central Ecuador “become an Episcopal diocese” once again, he said, and had engaged the Rev. Gay Jennings to serve as a consultant to the diocese. Fr. Riuz’s election had been conducted according to “best practices,” Bishop Matthews said.

Bishop Ramos stated the Committee on Consecration of Bishops had given Fr. Ruiz its unanimous consent, and urged the bishops to support their choice. Central Ecuador verged on falling back into the “dysfunctional system” and could regress to “where we were before,” unless the bishops stood firm.

The Troika at GC Anaheim July 11, 2009

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Bishops Griswold, Browning Welcomed Back to HOB: TLC 7.10.09 July 11, 2009

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First published in The Living Church.

Passions and opinions brought into General Convention often had a way of dissipating under the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit, the former Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold, III told members of the House of Bishops on July 10.

Present at the request of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, Bishop Griswold and former Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning paid their first visits to the House since their retirements, with each offering an avuncular view of the issues before the house.

“It’s wonderful to come back” and to share this fellowship with you, Bishop Browning told the morning session on July 10. The trip to Anaheim was doubly poignant, the 80-year old bishop said, as it was in Anaheim in 1985 he was elected Presiding Bishop.

“Much has happened in my time,” Bishop Browning noted, adding that as he looked through the resolutions awaiting action from the house, “things really haven’t changed too much,” as “some really difficult things are still before us.”

As “one who loves this church very dearly,” Bishop Browning said he prayed often for the bishops in the midst of the difficulties they were facing. Drawing upon the text of his sermon given in Anaheim in 1985 after his election, Bishop Browning urged the bishops to remain united, holding on to a “common love for one another that heals” worries and divisions.

Bishop Griswold rose to thank Bishop Jefferts Schori for her invitation to attend convention, noting that the custom for former presiding bishops was to “just fade away.” He then lauded the “graceful and articulate way” that she had kept the house “on course in the midst of extraordinary stress.”

However, he reminded the bishops, “we do not live for ourselves” alone as bishops but are part of a wider global whole, offering an oblique word of caution and restraint to the bishops

Drawing upon memories of his first General Convention in 1976, where he served as a deputy, Bishop Griswold recalled hearing a “nun from a diocese opposed to women clergy” announce that she had switched sides and now supported the innovation. He further recalled a “Texas priest” who had been commanded by his wife to vote against ratification of the new Book of Common Prayer, yet by the end of convention had become an ardent supporter.

When we “arrive with fixed and passionate points of view” to convention, we sometimes find our “fixity becomes more malleable,” he said, adding that he had “seen that process occur by the work of the Holy Spirit,” and expected the “mystery of intervention will occur once again.”

Deputies, Bishop Griswold noted, were “elected to a specific General Convention,” and often had “no assurance that they will be reelected.”

“Hence there is an urgency” at times, he observed, about their deliberations. Bishops, however “take a long view.”

“Sometimes urgency is the order of the day, sometimes it is the long view,” Bishop Griswold said.  But this “interaction can create tensions,” but the church yet remained under the sovereign power of God.

Bishops Reconsider Mission Funding Endorsement: TLC 7.09.09 July 9, 2009

Posted by geoconger in 76th General Convention, Living Church.
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First published in The Living Church.

The House of Bishops voted to reconsider its endorsement of Resolution A069: Funding the Mission Funding Office. At the close of the business session today during General Convention in Anaheim, the Rt. Rev. Robert C. Johnson, retired Bishop of Western North Carolina, asked the house to reconsider its July 9 vote endorsing the multi-year $5 million program to create a major fund development program for The Episcopal Church.

The Rt. Rev. John W. Howe, Bishop of Central Florida, added that there had been no debate when the resolution was adopted the previous day. Prudence required that a “massive fundraising project needed some discussion.”

The explanation for the resolution proposed by the Standing Committee for Domestic Mission and Evangelism stated the 75th General Convention in 2006 had created a task force to build up the church’s grant and major gift programs. A069 would build upon the work of the task force to “expand staff capacity to develop relationships and cultivate donors.”

Bishop Johnson told The Living Church that question of reconsidering the resolution “came up in our table groups” at the start of the meeting. “I’m not opposed to A069, but I think we felt that we needed more information as it is a big project” with “significant” funding and administrative needs, he said.

However, the Bishop of New York, the Rt. Rev. Mark Sisk, said the motion to reconsider A069 was a healthy move for the house, as “sometimes good ideas get passed through” the legislative process and do not the attention deserved.

In other action of the house, bishops endorsed Resolution A004, the amended convention calendar, and Resolution E001, affirming the election of Dr. Gregory Straub as secretary of the House of Deputies.

Resolution A008, Program for Formation for Newly Elected Bishops, was adopted after a friendly amendment was proffered by the Rt. Rev. Andrew Smith, Bishop of Connecticut, with a single vote in opposition, while A165, Women and Money, was discharged with no objections on the recommendation of the Church Pension Fund committee, as it was redundant.

A resolution recommitting The Episcopal Church to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) elicited strong support, but also sparked debate over its proper wording. D019 called for an increase from .07 percent to 1 percent of the non-governmental revenue of The Episcopal Church be set aside to support the MDGs.

The Rt. Rev. Robert O’Neill, Bishop of Colorado, rose to offer his support for the increase in support for the MDGs, saying the $1 million set aside by The Episcopal Church had served as seed money to raise a further $2 million to serve the poor. It was a “work worthy of our calling,” he said, an act made “in love, to love, for love” that showed The Episcopal Church at its best.

While expressing his support for the MDGs, the Rt. Rev. James Adams of Western Kansas voiced concern over the financial implications of the increase, noting that many small parishes were struggling to meet the .07 mark and would not be able to go any higher. “I really fear that we just can’t do it, and will put churches in the position of having felt that they failed,” he said.

Increasing giving was “about leadership”, the Bishop of San Diego, the Rt. Rev. James Mathes, said. The mark of .07 “had been the UN goal,” he explained, and should be seen as a floor for giving.

The Rt. Rev. Marc Andrus, Bishop of California, offered an amendment that would split the giving equally between advocacy and programs such as Nets for Life, the anti-malaria campaign. By investing in advocacy, Bishop Andrus argued, the church could multiply the effects of its giving — a view supported by the Bishop of Wyoming, the Rt. Rev. Bruce Caldwell, and the Rt. Rev. Kirk Smith, Bishop of Arizona, who told the house that the advocacy work of Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation had been critical in getting his diocese on board with the MDGs.

However, the Rt. Rev. Andrew Smith of Connecticut rose in opposition to Bishop Andrus’ amendment, arguing that “if we want to do advocacy, we should find another way to fund it.” The Rt. Rev. Leo Frade concurred, saying “taking away money” from anti-Malaria campaigns “will kill many people.”

Bishop O’Neill said he was “sympathetic to advocacy work” but malaria was a preventable disease that “killed 3000 children a day.” Funds should not be diverted from that important work, he told the house. The Andrus amendment was put to a vote, and was defeated. The amendment as a whole was adopted on a unanimous voice vote.

Bishops also endorsed Resolution D016 on establishing shared ministries with the church’s ecumenical partners, which recommended the creation of guidelines for Episcopal-Lutheran, Episcopal-Presbyterian and other shared congregations. The Rt. Rev. C. Christopher Epting, the Presiding Bishop’s deputy for ecumenical and interfaith relations, noted that while Lutherans had voluminous canons governing the organizations of these congregations, The Episcopal Church had none.

The Rt. Rev. Gladstone “Skip” Adams, Bishop of Central New York, said guidelines would be most “helpful with shared ministries with Lutherans” in his dioceses, and “especially with Presbyterians where the politics conflict.” The resolution was adopted with a single vote in opposition.

The Rt. Rev. Edna “Bavi” Rivera, Provisional Bishop of Eastern Oregon, offered resolution C051 on behalf of the Committee on Social and Urban Affairs, calling for support for wounded soldiers, and the establishment of Episcopal Veterans Fellowships for each diocese. The resolution passed without debate or opposition.

A resolution entitled Strengthening Small Churches: A113 brought by the Committee on the Church in Small Communities was strongly endorsed by the Bishop Suffragan of New York, the Rt. Rev. Catherine Roskam, who noted her diocese had the largest number of small congregations of any domestic diocese.

Bishop Sisk told the Living Church that while New York had a reputation of an urban diocese it had over 100 small and rural congregations. He had backed the resolution as there is “always a lot more to learn from the experience of others” in small church ministries, he said. The resolution was adopted unanimously.

Following the Small Church vote, and Bishop Johnson’s motion for reconsideration, the House was prorogued until 9:30 Friday morning, July 10.

Bishops Dive into Legislation after Closed-Door Session: TLC 7.09.09 July 9, 2009

Posted by geoconger in 76th General Convention, Living Church.
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First published in The Living Church magazine.

The House of Bishops began its legislative work of the 76th General Convention with a closed-door discussion of Resolution B033.   The July 8 afternoon executive session did not discuss the merits of the 2006 resolution which pledged restraint on consecrating further gay bishops or authorizing public rites for the blessing of same-sex unions, but discussed whether the bishops would prorogue their session this afternoon to observe the House of Deputies committee of the whole meeting to discuss B033.

The Rt. Rev. M. Thomas Shaw SSJE, Bishop of Massachusetts, said the bishops could not agree amongst themselves whether to attend the first of two special meetings devoted to B033.  While Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has urged General Convention to move on from B033 to discuss current issues facing the church, the deputies believe it is important to hold the discussion, Deputy Sally Johnson said.

“Our house has not had an opportunity to discuss [B033] since 2006,” Ms. Johnson said on July 9, while the bishops have had several opportunities in the intervening triennium to engage over this issue.

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop, opened the business session by welcoming overseas and ecumenical guests.  Present for the first business session were primates: Archbishop Phillip Aspinall of Australia, Archbishop Mauricio de Andrade of Brazil, Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi of Burundi, Archbishop Fred Hiltz of Canada, Archbishop Martin Barahona of Central America, Archbishop Henri Isingoma of the Congo, Archbishop Nathaniel Uematsu of Japan, Archbishop Solomon Yoon of Korea, Archbishop Carlos Touche-Porter of Mexico, Bishop Samuel Azariah (the Moderator) of the Church of Pakistan, Presiding Bishop Edward Malcdan of the Philippines, Bishop Albert Chama (the Dean) of Central Africa, and the retired primates of the Congo and Scotland, and ACC Secretary General Canon Kenneth Kearon, and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.

The primates of Tanzania and the Sudan were also expected to arrive, Bishop Jefferts Schori said, who also welcomed bishops and clergy from Cuba, Ghana, Israel, Kenya, Liberia, Myanmar and South Africa.

In a brisk session that saw little debate or controversy, the bishops adopted by unanimous voice vote Resolution A077, Episcopal Health Ministries. The Bishop of Western Kansas, the Rt. Rev. James Adams, rose to offer a personal endorsement of the resolution endorsing “health ministry” as an “organizing concept” of “outreach and pastoral care” for the church.

The Committee on Liturgy presented Resolution A095 updating the Church Calendar to commemorate Harriet Bedell, James Theodore Holly, Oscar Romero and the Martyrs of El Salvador, Tikhon, Vita Dutton Scudder, and Frances Joseph Gaudet. The resolution was passed without debate or dissent.

The House adopted an amended form of Resolution A137 — Church Pension Fund, continuing the task force studying employment practices in the church, but discharged Resolution A048 and A114 upon recommendation by the Committee on Stewardship and Development. Resolution A081 on accommodating the people with disabilities was adopted with no discussion or debate after a technical amendment was offered by the Bishop of Minnesota.

Resolution A069 that called for funding the Mission Funding Office was adopted without debate, with two votes cast in opposition, while Resolution A076 introduced by the Committee on Ecumenical Relations calling for Dialogue with the Church of Sweden was passed without discussion with one vote in opposition. Resolution A075 approving further dialogue with the Presbyterian Church was adopted after a friendly amendment was offered by the Suffragan Bishop of New York, the Rt. Rev. Katharine Roskam.

The Assistant Bishop of Oregon, the Rt. Rev. Sanford Hampton, closed the meeting with a plea to the House to exercise generosity. The working poor — the maids and housekeepers employed by the hotels used by General Convention — should not be overlooked and be tipped generously, the bishop said, sounding a chord he has sung in past gatherings of General Convention.

GC Anaheim: The Assistant Bishop of Oregon July 9, 2009

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Bishop Robinson–‘You Bet We Are’ the ‘Gay Church’: TLC 7.08.09 July 9, 2009

Posted by geoconger in 76th General Convention, Living Church.
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First published in The Living Church magazine.

The Episcopal Church should proudly wear the mantle of being known as the “gay church,” Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire told a lunchtime audience at General Convention July 8.

Speaking to about 75 deputies and visitors to General Convention at an event sponsored by the Consultation, an association of progressive church-related advocacy groups, Bishop Robinson spoke to the issue of whether “LGBT Equality is a Matter of Justice?”

Answering in the affirmative, Bishop Robinson urged the deputies to follow their consciences and disavow 2006 General Convention Resolution B033 that pledged that the Episcopal Church would refrain from consecrating gay bishops or authorize public rites for the blessing of same-sex unions.

Bishop Robinson predicted that the 2009 Convention “will be one of those conventions, like 1976 and 2003, where history is made.” He urged his audience to watch how their diocesan deputies and bishops voted and see that they “stand up for what is right.”

The Anaheim Convention was a “historic moment,” he said, telling the audience they could help “give birth to this new church of ours.” Gays and lesbians who did not know Christ, or who had left the church in disagreement with its traditional teachings, are a vital mission field, he said.

During an impromptu question and answer session, Bishop Robinson urged gay and lesbian activists to “focus on the great moveable middle” at General Convention.

“They no longer hate us. They even look kindly on us,” he said, and “toleration beats abuse.”

However, toleration was not enough. “God’s love is about celebrating one another” in the fullness of their diversity, he said.

Bishop Robinson said he knew that “there are a lot of Episcopalians who say they are embarrassed when people say you are the ‘gay’ church.” To this, Episcopalians should say, “You bet we are.

“We are the church of the people of color, the church of women, the church of the mentally ill,” he said, a church of no outcasts.

Presiding Bishop: ‘Idolatry’ of Individualism Causing Church Crisis: TLC 7.08.09 July 9, 2009

Posted by geoconger in 76th General Convention, Living Church.
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First published in The Living Church

During her opening address to the 76th General Convention on July 7, Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori denounced as “heresy” the proposition that individual believers can find salvation through Jesus Christ.

In a wide ranging address that summarized the work before General Convention, the Presiding Bishop stated that the “crises” facing the church all had “do with the great Western heresy that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God.”

This belief was “caricatured in some quarters by insisting that salvation depends on reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus,” she said. This “individualist focus is a form of idolatry, for it puts me and my words in the place that only God can occupy, at the center of existence, as the ground of all being.”

Bishop Jefferts Schori’s was reflecting on the convention’s theme concept of ubuntu, that all creation is inter-related: “I am because we are, and I can only become a whole person in relationship with others.” Drawing upon the Jewish theologian Martin Buber, Bishop Jefferts Schori said there can be no “I” without “you,” and “you and I are known only as we reflect the image of the one who created us.”

At a July 8 press conference, a spokesman for the House of Deputies, Indianapolis lay deputy Katherine Tyler Scott, said she understood the Presiding Bishop to have said that excess individualism was a form of idolatry. “This is the antithesis of what the Episcopal Church stands for,” she said.

The spokesman for the House of Bishops, the Rt. Rev. Michael Curry of North Carolina, declined to comment on the Presiding Bishop’s statement, responding instead that he believed the “message of the prophets of Israel” was a communitarian one, wherein the people of God must live in mutual responsibility with one another.

Another bishop, who asked not to be named, described Bishop Jefferts Schori’s view of salvation as being difficult to reconcile with the vows taken at baptism and Paul’s statement on confession (Romans 10:8-10).

Professor Christopher Seitz of the Anglican Communion Institute noted that the presiding bishop needed to define her terms. If by the “Western heresy” she meant the individualism of the Enlightenment, the priority of the individual conscience as articulated by Kant, or the need for individual certainty in science and history suggested by Lessing, “these are bedrock foundations of TEC liberalism.”

As a matter of history, there is no individualist heresy, the Rev. Ephraim Radner, professor of historical theology at Wycliffe College in Toronto told The Living Church. Jesus calls individuals “by name” and saves them “one by one,” he said, and a catholic theology cannot deny this.

“Her remarks would suggest simple ad hominem arguments against conservative evangelicals, masking as theological incoherence,” Fr. Radner said.

Quiet opening for the House of Bishops: TLC 7.08.09 July 8, 2009

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First published in The Living Church.

The opening legislative session of the House of Bishops of the 76th meeting of General Convention opened on a quiet note on July 8, with the bishops setting their house in order in preparation for ten days of hearings and legislative business.

Of the 280 bishops of the Episcopal Church, 161 active and retired members of the House had registered to attend General Convention, with 124 on site for the opening day.

After prayers were offered by the chaplain, the Secretary of the House of Bishops, the Rt. Rev. Kenneth L. Price, retired Suffragan Bishop of Southern Ohio, called roll and held that the quorum of 66 bishops needed to conduct business had been met. Bishop James Waggoner, Jr., of Spokane was accounted present in Anaheim, but was reported to be ill and unable to attend the opening session.

Bishop Price announced that the senior member of the House of Bishops present was the retired Bishop of Utah, the Rt. Rev. Otis Charles, while the Rt. Rev. J. Scott Mayer, Bishop of Northwest Texas, was welcomed as the junior member of the house. The bishops also noted the recent death of their colleague, the Rt. Rev. Robert O. Miller, the ninth Bishop of Alabama.

This meeting of General Convention will be asked to affirm the elections of the bishops coadjutor of Long Island, South Dakota and Ecuador Central.

Other moves noted by the House of Bishops since their last meeting were the naming of the retired Bishop of Western Missouri, the Rt. Rev. John Buchanan, as Provisional Bishop of Quincy and appointment of the Suffragan Bishop of Olympia, the Rt. Rev. Edna ‘Bavi’ Rivera to the post of Provisional Bishop of Eastern Oregon.

Bishop Price also announced that two bishops had submitted their voluntary renunciation of orders, the Rt. Rev. Edward MacBurney, retired Bishop of Quincy, and the Rt. Rev. David C. Bane, retired Bishop of Southern Virginia. However, at last month’s meeting of the Anglican Church in North America, Bishop Bane disputed this statement.

Officers for the meeting were appointed: vice-chairman, the Rt. Rev. Richard O. Chang, retired Bishop of Hawaii; secretary, Bishop Price; chairman of the committee on the dispatch of business, the Rt. Rev. Wayne Wright, Bishop of Delaware; assistant secretaries the Rt. Rev. Catherine M. Waynick, Bishop of Indianapolis, and the Rt. Rev. Michael G. Smith, Bishop of North Dakota; and teller, the Rt. Rev. Arthur Williams, retired Suffragan Bishop of Ohio.

Bishop Price offered the house a proposed resolution that would renumber the rules of order for the house, noting the substance of the rules were not being changed, but were being renumbered so as to conform to the system used by the House of Deputies.

The meeting closed following the offering of a courtesy resolution offered by the retired Bishop of New Hampshire, the Rt. Rev. Douglas Theuner, who asked the house to convey their greetings to the Rt. Rev. Robert Mc. Hatch, retired Bishop of Western Massachusetts, in recognition of his 99th birthday.

The House will reconvene at 4:30 today.