wfn.org | House of Bishops retreat marked wit

[ENS.parti@ecunet.org]

April 3, 1997
Episcopal News Service
Jim Solheim, Director
212-922-5385
ens@ecunet.org

97-1723
House of Bishops retreat marked with anxiety in time of transition

by Jerry Hames and James H. Thrall
      (ENS) An air of anxiety hovered over the House of Bishops
retreat in early March at the Kanuga Conference Center in
Hendersonville, North Carolina, as bishops shared apprehensions about
what the future holds and wrestled with questions about their own
identity as a community.
      The sadness of parting also marked the meeting, as the bishops
started to say their goodbyes to Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning,
whose term comes to an end this year. 
      Yet not all was somber. Members of the house performed a series
of skits on the final evening in an uproarious celebration of Browning's
leadership. "We laughed. Oh, we laughed," recalled one bishop. In a
surprise to Browning, his wife, Patti, showed up for evening's festivities.
      And at a press briefing following the four-day meeting, several
bishops said that a willingness to talk about issues and a new expectation
of civility helped ameliorate the concern many felt about "life after
General Convention" in Philadelphia this summer.

An urge to engage the issues
      Bishop Sam Hulsey of Northwest Texas, chair of the agenda
planning committee, said that his committee threw out part of the planned
schedule in response to requests that the bishops have an opportunity to
talk about convention issues.
      "I think that [the willingness to engage in discussion of issues] is
very good news about how we're going to do our business in
Philadelphia," he said.
      The bishops voiced particular concerns about how they were to
make an informed choice in selecting the next presiding bishop, the
magnitude of the questions that would face them at General Convention,
and the fact that, despite strong attendance of 139 bishops, 15 diocesan
bishops were noticeably absent at this last meeting before convention.
Among those absent were three of the four bishops who refuse to
recognize women priests, and several others who sympathize with their
position or have other concerns about what they see as liberal trends in
the church.
      "The question is `Who's going to pick up the initiative to bring
these various groups together'" said Bishop Charles Duvall of the
Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast. "Is there any mechanism to make that
happen between now and General Convention?"
      The bishops also were eager to begin to discuss such issues as the
Concordat of Agreement with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA), world mission, funding for the church's national
ministries, and a recommendation that would make mandatory the right
of women to exercise their ministry in every diocese. Having met
together with the ELCA Conference of Bishops last fall, the bishops
paused to participate in a telephone hookup with the conference's March
meeting. They also continued with a six-year study of the sin of racism
and heard a report from the Church Pension Group.

Selecting a new presiding bishop
      Bishop David Bowman of the Diocese of Western New York, said
that much time was spent discussing the office of the presiding bishop
and the leadership qualities needed. He said newer bishops want a means
by which they can learn about those who will be nominated for presiding
bishop in mid-April. 
      In one "mind of the house" statement, the bishops agreed not to
vote for any last-minute candidate for presiding bishop who had not
undergone the same physical and psychological testing and background
checks that others had.
      Browning described what it has been like to be presiding bishop
as part of the house's reflection on the qualities they wanted to see in the
new presiding bishop. In his sermon at the closing Eucharist, Browning
noted that "the ones who will allow themselves to be considered for my
job would have to have been without vital signs for a good many years
not to know the difficulties that swarm around it. It is not for the faint of
heart, that is for sure."
      His bottom-line assessment, however, was that the position was
"hard, but good," he said. 
      "It's not fun being caricatured and criticized. . . . It's not fun
making the kind of financial decisions we've had to make. Scandal is not
fun," Browning said. "But to travel around this church of ours and see
how ordinary people love their churches, how good they are, how hard
they work, how involved they are in the lives of the poor in their
communities--it is a great joy."
      One of his greatest satisfactions, he said, has been the experience
of the House of Bishops. "I wouldn't trade for anything the life we have
had together, you and I," he said. 

Statement addresses style of doing business
      The bishops also approved a statement about the manner in which
they will do business at convention in an attempt by both the House of
Bishops and House of Deputies to avoid the kind of rancorous debate that
divided the bishops at the 1991 General Convention in Phoenix. The
public discord led to a series of closed sessions and caused the presiding
bishop to call for the annual spring "retreat" meetings of the House of
Bishops in an effort to restore collegiality.
      Yet, of the 139 bishops at the meeting, 60 have been elected
within the past six years, including some who have never attended a
General Convention. These newer bishops made it clear, Hulsey said,
that for them the Phoenix troubles were ancient history.
      As the bishops noted in a communique to the church issued at the
meeting's conclusion, "How far we have come over these last six years.
We have learned to listen with care to each other in our table discussion
groups. We have listened to our wise elders and our most junior
members."
      Having known only the more collegial atmosphere of the House of
Bishops in recent years, the newer bishops pointed out that "their frame
of reference was very different," Hulsey said. "We used the phrase `sea
change' and `turning the page.'"
      In their communique, the bishops quoted Browning's comments:
"We are keenly aware that we are at a time of great change. . . .
Because this is an unsettling time, an experience of the desert, the place
in between, we are called to be mindful . . . to choose who we are, and
how we will be with intention."

--Jerry Hames is editor of Episcopal Life, the national newspaper of the
Episcopal Church. James H. Thrall is deputy director of news and
information.