Tonight there will be an hour long debate in the House of Lords to consider Democratic Unionist Party peer Lord Morrow’s motion to annul The Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006, which came into force on 1 January, and which will also be the subject of a High Court case in March.
Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006
Lord Morrow to move that a Humble Address be presented to Her Majesty praying that the Regulations, laid before the House on 24 November, be annulled. 3rd Report from the Merits Committee (Dinner break business, 1 hour)
Written Answers in the House of Lords on this topic on 13 December were as follows:
7 CommentsEquality: Sexual Orientation
Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty’s Government:
Whether the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 would require all schools actively to promote homosexual civil partnerships to children from primary school age to the same degree that they teach the importance of marriage. [HL447]
Lord Rooker: No. The regulations are not concerned with what is taught in schools. That is rightly a matter for the Department of Education, Northern Ireland.Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty’s Government:
Whether the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 would require a printing shop run by a Christian to print fliers promoting gay sex.[HL448]
Lord Rooker: No. It would be entirely within the spirit of the regulations for a printing shop run by a Christian to refuse to print fliers promoting gay sex, so long as that printer also refused to print fliers promoting heterosexual sex outside the realm of marriage.Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty’s Government:
Whether the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 would require a family-run bed and breakfast to let out a double room to a transsexual couple, even if the family consider it to be in the best interests of their children to refuse to allow such a situation in their own home.[HL449]
Lord Rooker: No.Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty’s Government:
Whether the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 would make it illegal for a heterosexual police officer, fire fighter or member of the Armed Forces to refuse to join a Gay Pride event promoting the homosexual way of life.[HL450]
Lord Rooker: No.Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty’s Government:
Whether they have received representations from Coherent and Cohesive Voice, a network of Christian leaders about the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 (SI 2006/439); and, if so, when; how many representations have been received; and in what form.[HL451]
Lord Rooker: We have received no representations from this group.
Updated Tuesday
The Panel of Reference, established by Archbishop Rowan Williams in response to the request of the Primates and Moderators of the Provinces of the Anglican Communion in their Communiqué issued from Dromantine, Northern Ireland, in February 2005, has issued a report on the submission made to it some time ago by the Diocese of Fort Worth.
The Fort Worth (FWS) submission is by the Bishop and Standing Committee of the Diocese who are in theological dispute with ECUSA concerning the ordination of women to the presbyterate and the episcopate… and are concerned that the action of the General Convention of ECUSA in passing Canons which makes women’s ordination mandatory makes it impossible for the Diocese at some future date to receive confirmation of the election as their bishop of a man who disapproves of the ordination of women to the presbyterate and/or episcopate.
The report can be read in full here. (PDF format)
The Diocese of Fort Worth has published an html copy here.
The response of the Diocese of Fort Worth to this report can be read here. No doubt it will appear Has now been posted on the diocesan website later as well.
Note that this matter is separate from the more recent application of Fort Worth (and other dioceses) for “alternative primatial oversight”.
Updates
Episcopal News Service reported it this way: Panel of Reference tells Episcopal Church it should clarify stance on women’s ordination.
The Living Church has Panel of Reference Responds Favorably to Fort Worth Appeal and Bishop Iker: Ruling Gives Traditionalists ‘Moral High Ground’.
The Telegraph has Anglicans ‘can reject women priests’.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has Panel backs diocese’s gender policy.
The newspaper coverage of him continues. Now the Christian Science Monitor has An African archbishop finds common ground in Virginia.
Don’t overlook David Roseberry’s account of his meeting with Archbishop Akinola either, part of the set of articles previously linked here.
28 CommentsThe Church Times has a report by Pat Ashworth covering the recently leaked letter from Rowan Williams to the primates, in which it was disclosed that Dr Williams invites Dr Jefferts Schori to Primates’ Meeting.
Today, in the Telegraph Jonathan Petre reports that Archbishop fears Church schism in gay row. This is based on an interview in an ITV documentary to be aired tomorrow in Britain (11 am, ITV1). According to the Telegraph:
The Archbishop of Canterbury has admitted that he fears losing control of the worldwide Anglican Church, which is on the brink of schism over homosexuality.
In a surprisingly frank assessment of the crisis, Dr Rowan Williams said that he feared anything that set Christians more deeply at odds with each other.
“And because I am an ordinary, sinful human being, I fear the situation slipping out of my control, such as it is,” he said…
“I fear schism, not because I think it’s the worst thing in the world but because, at this particular juncture, it’s going to be bad for us. It’s going to drive people into recrimination and bitterness.”
In a documentary on Canterbury Cathedral to be broadcast on ITV tomorrow, the archbishop added: “We can’t take it for granted that the Anglican Communion will go on as it always has been.
“Of course that’s unsettling, of course that’s painful for everybody, but there’s no way of moving on without asking the hard questions.”
No doubt more will be reported when the documentary has been broadcast.
Update
Having watched the TV documentary and corresponded with the ITV press office, I can now confirm that this interview with Rowan Williams was recorded around Easter 2006.
Judith Maltby in the Guardian writes about Epiphany quoting 17th-century Cornish poet Sidney Godolphin.
Geoffrey Rowell in The Times also writes about Epiphany, quoting (among others) Lancelot Andrewes.
And Christopher Howse in the Telegraph finds that the Wilton Diptych is linked to Epiphany.
3 CommentsNewspapers in the Northern Virginia/Washington DC area have just published several items:
The Washington Post has this article: Episcopal Churches’ Breakaway in Va. Evolved Over 30 Years by Alan Cooperman and Jacqueline L. Salmon.
The Falls Church News-Press has two pieces: Homophobia’s Suspect Motives by Nicholas F. Benton and Anything But Straight: Holy Dispatch from Canada by Wayne Besen.
Why the Episcopal Schism Affects All Religions by Jo Bailey Wells first appeared on the website of Duke University.
Update Friday morning
I should also have included two comments by Matt Thompson which he made before Christmas on Political Spaghetti:
I’m flabbergasted
No, but seriously …
Update Sunday afternoon
Episcopal News Service has posted this report: VIRGINIA: Episcopal parish reorganizes, elects new vestry.
38 CommentsI mentioned previously that the Church of England Newspaper would be carrying a defence of the so-called Covenant for the Church of England (CCE). It appears in this week’s edition and can be read at Anglican Mainstream.
The title given to the article there is A Covenant for a Confused Church. The author is Chris Sugden.
The list of signatories and the Questions about it can be found here. The full text of the document is here.
47 CommentsUpdated Saturday
The Bishop of Texas, Don Wimberly, has convened another meeting of bishops at his diocesan conference centre, Camp Allen.
There are reports from the Living Church ‘Windsor-Compliant’ Bishops Reconvene at Camp Allen
and from Episcopal News Service Second meeting of self-styled ‘Windsor Bishops’ begins.
There is also a statement on his website from the Bishop of Fort Worth, Jack Iker:
Second meeting of Windsor bishops at Camp Allen which starts out with the words “A second meeting of the so-called “Windsor Bishops” …
I have not yet been able to locate the Texas diocesan magazine article cited by ENS or the letter to which it refers.
Concerning the earlier Camp Allen meeting, the Archbishop of Canterbury recently wrote:
The Episcopal Church is not in any way a monochrome body and we need to be aware of the full range of conviction within it. I am sure that other Primates, like myself, will welcome the clear declarations by several bishops and diocesan conventions (including those dioceses represented at the Camp Allen meeting earlier this year) of their unequivocal support for the process and recommendations of the Windsor Report. There is much to build upon here. There are many in TEC who are deeply concerned as to how they should secure their relationships with the rest of the Communion; I hope we can listen patiently to these anxieties.
According to Bishop Iker:
Windsor Bishops hold that Lambeth 1:10 is the teaching of the Anglican Communion on matters of human sexuality, and we are committed to the Windsor Report as the way forward for the Communion as regards its recommendations against the blessing of same sex unions and the ordination of persons engaged in sexual relations outside the bonds of Holy Matrimony. We are agreed that the response of the 2006 General Convention to the Windsor Report is inadequate, and we are intent on remaining in an unimpaired relationship to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Primates of the Anglican Communion.
The original statement from Camp Allen bishops said:
We accept and affirm the Windsor Report and view adherence to it as furthering the vocation to heal the breaches within our own Communion and in our ecumenical relationships. Furthermore, we endorse the recommendation of the Windsor Report, as supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury, for the development of an Anglican Covenant.
The Windsor Report properly belongs within the larger framework of Anglican teaching, as expressed, not least, in successive Lambeth Conferences, including the resolutions of Lambeth 1998 (among which is Resolution 1.10). We understand this to be the mind of the Communion for teaching and discipline.
At the time of that meeting, there were apparently conflicting statements about how it had been organised in the first place.
Update According to Stand Firm there are four new attendees at this meeting who were not present at the first, namely:
The Rt. Rev. Charles Jenkins Diocese of Louisiana
The Rt. Rev. Duncan Gray Diocese of Mississippi
The Rt. Rev. Russ Jacobus Diocese of Fond du Lac
The Rt. Rev. Henry Parsley Diocese of Alabama
and five previous attendees are not present at the second meeting:
The Rt. Rev. Mark L. MacDonald Diocese of Alaska
The Rt. Rev. C. Wallis Ohl, Jr. Diocese of Northwest Texas
The Rt. Rev. Geralyn Wolf Diocese of Rhode Island
The Rt. Rev. John-David Schofield Diocese of San Joaquin
The Rt. Rev. John B. Lipscomb Diocese of Southwest Florida(Also Bishop John Howard of Florida who attended only part of the first meeting.)
Update In the absence of the Texas documentation mentioned at the start of this article, this letter from a Texas priest offers some information.
Update Saturday
The Living Church reports that Meeting of ‘Windsor Compliant’ Bishops Adjourns Without Statement.
David Roseberry from Christ Church Plano in Dallas, Texas, which disassociated from the Episcopal Church (ECUSA) and the Diocese of Dallas in September, has written at great length about “The Journey of Christ Church, Plano”. Christ Church has this statement on its website:
As of September 15, 2006, Christ Church is a parish under the temporary pastoral oversight of The Rt. Rev. William (Bill) Godfrey, Bishop of Peru, and is also a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
More detail is in Q&A About Our Future.
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The material is published at the Stand Firm website and is in five parts:
Breaking Up is Hard to Do
Are You My Mother?
Considering CANA
Considering AMiA
The Letter, Lambeth, and a Little Bit More
Sacrifice, Law and the Catholic Faith: is secularity really the enemy? is the title of the 2006 Tablet Lecture by James Alison. You can read this lecture in full (except for the footnotes) here.
Another lecture sponsored by The Tablet nearly two years ago, on a related theme, was Rendering Unto Caesar – Catholicism, Politics, Law and Democracy by Aidan O’Neill QC. You can read that lecture in full here (and continued here), and also the other material preceding and following it, here.
8 CommentsGiles Fraser writes in this week’s Church Times about Covenant theology for everyone.
67 Comments…The Bishop of Durham, Dr Tom Wright — basically, Mr Covenant as far the present crisis is concerned — gets it spot on: “All those who believe in Jesus belong at the same table.”
Yet there are those for whom this new testament is not enough. They want a new new testament, creating a sub-division within the category “all those who believe in Jesus”. They want to write a new new testament that will distinguish first- and second-class Christians. And the sign of this unbiblical covenant is to be sound doctrine, as defined by a small coterie of conservative Evangelicals…
In The Times Katharine Jefferts Schori writes that A new year is a fine time to search for shalom, Isaiah-style.
See also this video at YouTube of Katharine Jefferts Schori, then Bishop of Nevada and Presiding Bishop nominee, answering the question: “What are the priorities for the new Presiding Bishop?” Recorded May 1, 2006. (hat tip JN)
In the Guardian John Sentamu writes that Ethics must shape our global economy.
Christopher Howse in the Telegraph writes about Our splendid but unseen synagogues.
18 CommentsThe Church Times reports that Bishop Pete Broadbent has disowned the “covenant” document. Read Pat Ashworth’s report here.
30 CommentsFirst, the New York Times published this news article on Christmas Day (in the paper edition it was a front-page story): At Axis of Episcopal Split, an Anti-Gay Nigerian by Lydia Polgreen and Laurie Goodstein. Lydia Polgreen reported from Abuja, and Laurie Goodstein from New York.
It includes some interesting quotes from Archbishop Drexel Gomez:
…He [Akinola] has been chastised more recently for creating a missionary branch of the Nigerian church in the United States, called the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, despite Anglican rules and traditions prohibiting bishops from taking control of churches or priests not in their territory.
“There are primates who are very, very concerned about it,” said Archbishop Drexel Gomez, the primate of the West Indies, because “it introduces more fragmentation.”
Other conservative American churches that have split from the Episcopal Church, the American branch of the Anglican Communion, have aligned themselves with other archbishops, in Rwanda, Uganda and several provinces in Latin America — often because they already had ties to these provinces through mission work.
Archbishop Gomez said he understood Archbishop Akinola’s actions because the American conservatives felt an urgent need to leave the Episcopal Church and were unwilling to wait for a new covenant being written for the Anglican Communion. The new covenant is a lengthy and uncertain process led by Archbishop Gomez that some conservatives hope will eventually end the impasse over homosexuality…
Second, there is an interesting article analysing the history of the Virginia congregations known as The Falls Church and Truro Church by Dr Joan R Gundersen: How “Historic” Are Truro Church and The Falls Church?
103 CommentsIn the last few weeks, we have heard a lot about the two “historic” churches in Virginia whose congregations are among those that have recently decided to withdraw from The Episcopal Church. Both Truro Church and The Falls Church have been characterized as being older than The Episcopal Church. The Falls Church web site suggests that George Washington was once a vestry member of the church. The history on the Truro web site makes the same claim for Truro Church. Somehow, these historical assertions are supposed to make us feel that the decision to leave The Episcopal Church is especially poignant and important.
Let me be clear: I believe that any decision to leave The Episcopal Church, by an individual or a group, is a sad occasion. There is a lot of confusion and misinformation being distributed concerning the actual history of these parishes, however. Neither is the direct descendant of a colonial parish. Neither can claim George Washington as a past member of its vestry or its congregation. Both are “new” church plants from the 1830s and 1840s. In most places in the United States, founding dates in the antebellum period would be quite old enough to justify a claim of being “historic,” but these two parishes have sought the additional aura associated with George Washington and our colonial past. How “historic” are they?
The Archbishop of Canterbury preached at Canterbury Cathedral. See this Lambeth Palace press release.
The full text of his Christmas sermon can be found here: ‘The poorest deserve the best’.
8 CommentsThe Archbishop of Canterbury has issued his Christmas message in several languages, you can read it in English here, and translations into Spanish, French, Arabic, Portuguese, Korean, and Dutch are also available.
Dr Williams also wrote an article for The Big Issue on the Archbishop’s Hopes for 2007.
The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church has issued her Christmas message in both English and Spanish. You can read it in either language here.
Dr Jefferts Schori also wrote this reflection, In this season: light in the darkness.
6 CommentsUpdated Wednesday and again Saturday
The reliability of this text (dated 18 December) has been the subject of some questions during the past day, so I have been slow to link to it. However, it is now available in full both here and here.
The part dealing with the Primates’ Meeting in Tanzania in February reads as follows:
…As Christmas approaches, preparations continue to be made for the Primates’ Meeting in February in Tanzania. A provisional outline of the programme is almost ready – but I am particularly glad that we shall have opportunity to celebrate in the cathedral in Zanzibar the anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in 1806, another great sign of God’s faithfulness and of what can be achieved by Christ’s disciples when they resist the powers of this world.
This meeting will be, of course, an important and difficult and important encounter, with several moments of discernment and decision to be faced, and a good deal of work to be done on our hopes for the Lambeth Conference, and on the nature and shape of the Covenant that we hope will assist us in strengthening our unity as a Communion.
There are two points I wish to touch on briefly. The first is a reminder of what our current position actually is in relation to the Episcopal Church. This Province has agreed to withdraw its representation from certain bodies in the Communion until Lambeth 08; and the Joint Standing Committee has appointed a sub-group which has been working on a report to develop our thinking as to how we should as a meeting interpret the Episcopal Church’s response so far to the Windsor recommendations. In other words, questions remain to be considered about the Episcopal Church’s relations with other Provinces (though some Provinces have already made their position clear). I do not think it wise or just to take any action that will appear to bring that consideration and the whole process of our shared discernment to a premature end.
This is why I have decided not to withhold an invitation to Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as the elected Primate of the Episcopal Church to attend the forthcoming meeting. I believe it is important that she be given a chance both to hear and to speak and to discuss face to face the problems we are confronting together. We are far too prone to talk about these matters from a distance, without ever having to face the human reality of those from whom we differ. However, given the acute dissension in the Episcopal Church at this point, and the very widespread effects of this in the Communion, I am also proposing to invite two or three other contributors from that Province for a session to take place before the rest of our formal business, in which the situation may be reviewed, and I am currently consulting as to how this is best organised.
The Episcopal Church is not in any way a monochrome body and we need to be aware of the full range of conviction within it. I am sure that other Primates, like myself, will welcome the clear declarations by several bishops and diocesan conventions (including those dioceses represented at the Camp Allen meeting earlier this year) of their unequivocal support for the process and recommendations of the Windsor Report. There is much to build upon here. There are many in TEC who are deeply concerned as to how they should secure their relationships with the rest of the Communion; I hope we can listen patiently to these anxieties…
There has already been extensive blogosphere comment on the passage quoted above, and also on the section concerning invitations to the Lambeth Conference in 2008 (see the original for this).
See Sarah Dylan Breuer, Fr Jake, Tobias Haller, and also see reader comments at Stand Firm and titusonenine.
Update
Remarks elsewhere suggest not everybody knows about the Joint Standing Committee of the Primates and the ACC and its working group of four people (2 primates, 2 ACC members) set up to advise the ABC. See my earlier report here, which said:
This letter includes information about the initial report Joint Standing Committee’s group of four “set up to advise in the wake of the Episcopal Church’s 75th General Convention”:
…You will recall that the Joint Standing Committee appointed a small group of representatives from its number (two Primates and two laypeople, along with staff support) to assist me in preparing an initial response…
The membership of this group is not named in the letter but is: Archbishop Bernard Malango (Central Africa), Archbishop Barry Morgan (Wales), Mrs Philippa Amable (West Africa), and Mrs Elizabeth Paver (England). Their initial thinking is presented as follows:
It is clear that the Communion as a whole remains committed to the teaching on human sexuality expressed in Resolution 1.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference, and also that the recommendations of the Windsor Report have been widely accepted as a basis for any progress in resolving the tensions that trouble us. As a Communion, we need to move forward on the basis of this twofold recognition.
It is also clear that the Episcopal Church has taken very seriously the recommendations of the Windsor Report; but the resolutions of General Convention still represent what can only be called a mixed response to the Dromantine requests. The advisory group has spent much time in examining these resolutions in great detail, and its sense is that although some aspects of these requests have been fully dealt with, there remain some that have not. This obviously poses some very challenging questions for our February meeting and its discernment of the best way forward.
Update Saturday
The letter has been reported now by Associated Press , see for example, Episcopal conservatives may be invited to global Anglican meeting.
The Times has Pius Ncube of Bulawayo writing the Credo column: Homeless but not hopeless in Africa.
Christopher Howse writes in the Telegraph about Myrrh beyond the gloom. There is a leader entitled The babe in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
In the Guardian the Face to Faith column We must not forget that Bethlehem is under siege is written by Alan McDonald who is the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
The Guardian also has a leader, Beyond belief which is related to the front page report, Religion does more harm than good – poll.
(A related news report by Stephen Bates is Devout Poles show Britain how to keep the faith.)
The Church Times leader is Two cheers for sentimentality.
8 CommentsThe visit of British church leaders to Bethlehem is widely reported. See for example the Telegraph report ‘Bethlehem wall’ shock for Williams. The BBC has had Church leaders in Bethlehem visit and Israel barrier saddens Archbishop. The Evening Standard has Bethlehem wall is ‘deeply wrong’ says Archbishop. The Guardian had ‘We are facing the hardest Christmas yet’.
ACNS release with excellent photos (click on them to enlarge) Church Leaders Pledge Support for Christians in Bethlehem.
Lambeth Palace release, including full text of RW’s remarks, Archbishop – Bethlehem’s troubles remembered.
Update Saturday morning
The Times has published an article by Rowan Williams published under the title Pray for the little town of Bethlehem together with a news article Christians suffer for Iraq, says archbishop, a leader Symbols and Substance and a related report ‘All my staff at the church have been killed – they disappeared’.
The Lambeth Palace press release is here: Archbishop – Middle East Christians need support.
For more material about the visit, see this special website.
For a partial transcript of this morning’s Radio 4 Today interview go here. For the BBC audio of this interview go here.
8 CommentsNow back to our regularly scheduled coverage of the Virginia schism.
The Church Times has a report by Doug LeBlanc Property at issue as nine churches quit ECUSA.
Archbishop Peter Akinola has issued A Letter of Greeting from Archbishop Peter Akinola to the congregations who have recently joined CANA in which he says this:
…Sadly, I have also heard that some are suggesting that you are now affiliated with a Church that seeks to punish homosexual persons. That is a distortion of our true position. We are a Church that teaches the truth of the Holy Scriptures and understands that every person, regardless of their religion or sexual orientation, is made in the image of God, loved by God, and deserving of the utmost respect. That is the conviction that informs our passion for evangelism and drives our determination to establish new dioceses and congregations. We have no desire to place anyone outside the reach of God’s saving love and that is why we have supported well reasoned statements such as Resolution 1.10 from the Lambeth Conference in 1998 and also the section of the Dromantine Communiqué, which condemns the “victimization or diminishment of human beings whose affections happen to be ordered towards people of the same sex.”
As I am sure you have heard, there is a bill currently being debated by the Nigerian Legislature that addresses the topic of same-sex marriages and homosexual activism. The Standing Committee of the Church of Nigeria, in its desire to see the strengthening of marriage and family life in our society, has commended the legislators for tackling this difficult issue. We have no desire to see our nation follow the path of license and immorality that we have witnessed in other parts of the world. And we also oppose the severe sanctions of Islamic law.
We recognize that there are genuine concerns about individual human rights that must be addressed both in the framing of the law and its implementation. I am glad to inform you that while the Honorable Speaker of the House, a Moslem, wanted the immediate and outright passage of the bill, the Deputy Speaker, an Anglican, persuaded his colleagues to allow full public debate on it.
I am troubled, however, by the silence of outside commentators concerning the rights of the clergy, Christians, and particularly converts to our Church whose lives are threatened and too often destroyed because of mob violence. I see no evidence of compassion for those whose rights are trampled on because of the imposition of unjust religious laws in many parts of the world. There seems to be a strange lack of interest in this issue…
You can read the whole letter here on the CANA website.
There is also a letter there from Bishop Martyn Minns headed A Pastoral Letter for the new CANA Congregations. You can read that one here. He writes in part:
…Media coverage of our actions has been quite extensive. It has been prompted by the national and international implications of our decisions along with the reality that this is an unprecedented movement of congregations out of The Episcopal Church. As expected, not all of the media coverage was positive. I want to address one recurring untrue accusation concerning our attitude towards homosexual persons. Our vote was not an “anti-gay” vote. We affirm that as Christians we believe that every person, regardless of their sexual orientation, is made in the image of God, and deserving of the utmost respect. As the Dromantine Communiqué (issued by the Primates when they met in Ireland last year) states, “. . . we continue unreservedly to be committed to the pastoral support of homosexual people” and oppose “the victimization or diminishment of human beings whose affections happen to be ordered towards people of the same sex.” And we have and must continue to witness to these convictions by our words and actions. I have attached a recent letter from Archbishop Peter Akinola that addresses this same issue from his perspective. Please notice the difference between what he actually says and believes and the dismissive tag lines that are often attributed to him.
Another persistent untrue theme is the way in which we care for those who voted to remain in The Episcopal Church. As I have said repeatedly, and I am sure you have heard from your own clergy and lay leadership, everyone is welcome to participate in our common life regardless of their vote on this or any matter. We are not monochrome congregations but diverse communities whose unity is in Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. If someone tells you that they voted against the resolution, then I encourage you assure them that they are loved and included as full members of the family of God in this place. If there is any way in which I can help in this matter please let me know. My calling is to provide for the care and nurture of every member of our growing fellowship.
You may have read a response to our actions from Bishop Peter Lee. While his disappointment was to be expected, I am saddened that his language seems strangely harsh. I am particularly troubled by the rather blatant attempt to create fear and division by the use of the phrase “Nigerian Congregations Occupying Episcopal Churches”. This is not the Bishop Lee that I know and respect. I look forward to the return of his more usual tone of creativity and generosity. We all know that while we may have changed our ecclesiastical allegiance we remain loyal and faithful Anglican Christians in America. The character of our communities remains the same.
The question of property seems to loom large in many people’s minds. I draw your attention to the following press statement that was released yesterday by Truro and The Fall Church, “Anglican Churches Comply with Virginia Statute Requiring Reports of Their Congregations’ Votes.” It clearly states our belief that we have a valid and compelling claim to the various church properties which we have for generations “occupied”. We also believe that this should be handled in a respectful conversation with the leadership of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia. We are trying to avoid both costly litigation and a media circus. Initial signs from the meeting of the Standing Committee and Executive Board are encouraging and we are preparing to engage in substantive conversation after the Christmas Holidays…
Some of the press reports which may have prompted these letters can be found below:
Washington Post Episcopalians Against Equality by Howard Meyerson
Nation Holy Homophobia by Richard Kim
Economist Wars of religion – Schism in Virginia
Falls Church News-Press Editorial: No Surprise To Us Locals
The press release about voting reports mentioned by Bishop Minns, Anglican Churches Comply with Virginia Statute Requiring Reports of Their Congregations’ Votes can be found here (PDF).
The Living Church had this interview with Bishop Peter Lee Bishop Lee: Extension to 30-Day Standstill Agreement Possible.
51 Comments