wfn.org | ACNS3646 For the Primates of the Anglican Communion

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

ACNS 3646     |     USA     |	  24 OCTOBER 2003 

For the Primates of the Anglican Communion

by the Most Revd Frank T. Griswold

[ACNS source: Episcopal News Service]

My dear brothers in Christ,

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I returned home from our meeting at Lambeth grateful for the spirit of
candor in which we shared our thoughts and feelings. I thank God for the
opportunity to come together in Christ's name and for the strong bonds
and mutual affection that exist between us. I pray that our common
commitment to mission and God's ongoing work of reconciliation will
continue to bind us together in Christ in the days and years ahead. I
remind myself that the church is not our possession but the risen body
of Christ of which each one of us is a limb and member in virtue of our
baptism.

As I tried to make plain in the course of our meeting, we in the
Episcopal Church have been dealing openly with the place of homosexual
persons in the life of our church for at least thirty years. Though the
question still remains unresolved, the presence among us of deeply
faithful men and women whose lives reveal the fruit of the Spirit, and
whose primary affections are ordered to persons of the same sex, has
brought us to this difficult, and very public, moment. I recognize that
while many in our church give thanks for where we have come, many others
are deeply pained and distressed. I further recognize how our decisions
have also affected you and I hope you know how profoundly I regret the
pain our Province's action has caused many of you.

One of you once said in the context of our Bible study: "The Holy Spirit
can be up to different things in different places." As hard as it might
be for sisters and brothers in Christ in other contexts to understand
and accept, please know that broadly across the Episcopal Church the New
Hampshire election is thought to be the work of the Spirit. This does
not mean everyone in our church is of that mind. There are also those
who honor the decision of New Hampshire but are not sure it is of the
Spirit. As well, I am keenly aware that there are faithful Episcopalians
who are deeply unsettled and believe what we have done is contrary to
God's will. However, for the greatest part, these persons are committed
to remaining within the Episcopal Church and, in a spirit that is truly
Anglican, believe that those with divergent points of view can live and
pray together within the same household of faith. 

As I promised you, upon my return to the United States I spoke with
Canon Robinson and shared with him the deep concern that so many of you
expressed and the gravity of what may lie ahead. In my conversation with
him, and in public comments, he has expressed both his anguish and his
continuing sense that he is called to go forward.

I must tell you that at this point there is every reason to believe the
consecration will take place on November 2 as scheduled. I appreciate
that when the consecration takes place, as we said in our statement: "We
will have reached a crucial and critical point in the life of the
Anglican Communion." As much as this is true, the prediction made in the
statement that the Communion's future "will be put in jeopardy" will
not, I pray, come to pass. I believe it is for us to live into this
unknown future in faith knowing that, as we declared in our statement,
"What we hold in common is much greater than that which divides us." It
is my hope and my prayer that the Spirit of truth, who makes known to us
the mind of Christ, will be our guide as each of us in our own context
seeks to embody and proclaim the gospel of the One who is our Truth.

I much valued Archbishop Rowan's comments about the nature of communion.
I agree that communion is not primarily about structures. Communion is a
gift from God manifested in the various webs of relationship among and
between us. Our communion strengthens us so that we can carry out God's
mission on earth. Though we affirm our allegiance to the Scriptures and
the Creeds, our unity in the body of Christ does not mean we have only
one way of reading the Bible, nor do we need to be in agreement about
all of the contemporary issues with which we are called to struggle.
Concerns of sexuality present themselves differently in our various
contexts. I believe that as we continue to struggle deeply and honestly
with matters of sexuality we will have much to learn from one another
and we will become more mutually responsible and interdependent in the
Body of Christ. Being in communion, however, does not in any way mean
that you as Primate or your Province necessarily agree with the actions
taken by the Diocese of New Hampshire or the General Convention of the
Episcopal Church. 

Please be assured of my prayers for each one of you. Please pray for me
as I try to oversee the life and witness of this Province and as I seek
in these difficult days to advance God's ministry of reconciliation.

Yours ever in Christ's love,

The Most Revd Frank T. Griswold
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church, USA

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