wfn.org | ACNS 3616 Presiding Bishop's statement on AAC meeting in Dallas

["Anglican Communion News Service" <acnslist@anglicancommunion.org>]

ACNS 3616     |     USA     |	  9 OCTOBER 2003

Presiding Bishop's statement on AAC meeting in Dallas

[ACNS source: Episcopal News Service] My initial response to the meeting of
the American Anglican Council just ending is that, regardless of what has
been said or concluded, those gathered in Dallas are our brothers and
sisters in Christ. Baptism establishes an indissoluble bond between those
who are baptized and the Risen Christ. So too baptism binds us together in
such a way that we cannot say to one another "I have no need of you."

It therefore concerns me deeply when Christians use inflammatory rhetoric
when speaking of one another or issue ultimatums. In such a climate, mutual
pursuit of ways to build up rather than tear down is made more difficult,
and the vast deposit of faith upon which we all agree is obscured. At the
same time, we must acknowledge and respect our brothers and sisters who feel
alienated by certain actions of the recent General Convention. We must take
seriously their grief and anger and seek as best we can to stand with them.

I would like to add one further thought. I have just returned from giving a
retreat to a group of Episcopalians engaged in social service ministries
within the United States and Latin America. They are working to transform
the world, sometimes person by person. This is the ministry of
reconciliation to which all persons of faith are called, and it is the
mission of the Episcopal Church today and the primary focus of most of its
members. Division and splintering, while much in the news, are not the
spirit which gives life to our church.

In a letter I sent last week to bishops of the Episcopal Church I expressed
my hope that the reconciling energy of the divine compassion may flow
through our church and our Anglican Communion and witness to a way of being
that gives hope to a world so in need of love. This continues to be my hope.

The Most Revd Frank T. Griswold

Presiding Bishop and Primate
Episcopal Church, USA

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