Details on Episcopal Reversal

The Episcopal News Service reports from the Convention...

The 75th General Convention June 21 approved a resolution that calls on bishops and Standing Committees to "exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion."

Resolution B033 comes in response to the Windsor Report's suggestion that the Episcopal Church "effect a moratorium on the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate who is living in a same-gender union until some new consensus in the Anglican Communion emerges" (Windsor Report, paragraph 134).

Resolution B033 was brought to the Convention at mid-morning of June 21, the final legislative day, during an extraordinary joint session of the Houses of Bishops and Deputies. Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold relayed the text of the resolution that was proposed by Bishop Dorsey F. Henderson of Upper South Carolina, the bishop chair of the Special Legislative Committee on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.

"We are trying to deal with something that does not fit easily into the legislative process," Griswold told the bishops during their discussion. "I hope we can find a way in which to maneuver through this that doesn't make us victims of the legislative process that gets us absolutely nowhere. If we aren't clear by lunchtime, we might as well forget the whole thing."

He added, "If we don't have something substantial, it will be very difficult for the Archbishop of Canterbury to invite the Presiding Bishop to the Lambeth Conference. I do know the complexity of what the Archbishop dealing with, in communion terms, and he needs for something clear to come from the Episcopal Church."

Presiding Bishop-elect Katharine Jefferts Schori urged support for the original resolution. She compared further strain on the relationship between the Episcopal Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion as similar to separating conjoined twins.

"Ethically, one cannot proceed to separate two conjoined twins until one is reasonably certain both can survive on their own and live full lives.

"I don't think we're certain that the two offspring are capable of living separately and healthily," she said.

"My sense is that the original resolution is the best that we're going to do today," she added. "But I can only support it if we understand that it's not slamming the door. It has to leave the door open for further conversation and consideration in the very near future."

During the debate in Deputies, Jefferts Schori asked to be invited to speak to the House. The deputies agreed and she reiterated the comments she made in the House of Bishops, saying that the image of conjoined twins came to her the day before when Bishop Charles Jenkins of Louisiana spoke of there being one church and two minds.

She went on to say that she is "fully committed to the full inclusion of gay and lesbian Christians in this church," she said.

This is a classic example of what the Episcopal church proclaims itself to be... The Middle Way.

My guess is that the middle way is going to leave no one happy for long. The conservatives are going to ask for (demand?) more. A clearer statement. A longer moratorium that is to become permanent. The liberals are going to see this as a repudiation of their consecration of Gene Robinson. They are going to look to a quick end to the moratorium. Some may even try to force the issue by bringing forward candidates to cause a confrontation.

Katharine Jefferts Schori used the analogy of conjoined twins. I think a better analogy is the debate in the US over abortion. There simply isn't much middle ground. What needs to happen, and there is hope for this in the resolution, a hope expressed by Schori, is a prolonged engagement between the liberals and conservatives on this issue until there is broader agreement, and, when agreement cannot happen, an agreement to disagree.

This can happen. Sucess will come when both sides recognize that there is a great deal more to the Episcopal church than this single issue. There is, dispite any differneces on this particular issue, plenty of reason for us to gather around the communion table together.

If we define our church by the differences on this issue, however, no resolution will be of use, and the end is near.

GP