wfn.org | [ENS] A word from the Presiding Bishop

["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@mail.epicom.org>]

Friday, February 25, 2005

A word from the Presiding Bishop

[ENS] The primates of the Anglican Communion and Moderators of the
United
Churches have met together in Northern Ireland to address common
concerns
and to share something of our lives and ministries in our own widely
different contexts.   We have carefully studied the Windsor Report and
how
we might best be a communion in the midst of the deep differences which
have
been brought into sharp relief around the subject of homosexuality. I
leave
Ireland grateful that we as primates have done our very best to find a
way
forward and to avoid creating an unproductive situation of winners and
losers.

These days have not been easy for any of us and the communiqué we
issued
gives some sense of our meeting and how we have struggled together. The
communiqué is the fruit of a great deal of prayer and reflects our
mutual
desire to move forward together.

As the communiqué was written with a view to making room for a wide
variety
of perspectives it is inevitable that no one will be pleased with all
aspects of it.	Some will not be pleased with the request from the
primates
(paragraph 14) that the Episcopal Church, along with the Anglican Church
of
Canada, "voluntarily withdraw" our members from the Anglican
Consultative
Council "for the period leading up to the next Lambeth Conference."
This
request, together with the opportunity for a hearing with the Anglican
Consultative Council (paragraph 16), gives space for speaking and
listening.
During this time the Episcopal Church will be responding to the
questions
addressed to us in the Windsor Report, as the primates have requested.
We
will have the opportunity to speak out of the truth of our experience.
I
welcome this opportunity knowing that the Episcopal Church has sought to
act
with integrity in response to the Spirit, and that we have worked, and
continue to work, to hon!
or the different perspectives very much present within our church.  Also
during this time, the Anglican Consultative Council will be listening
with
care to what we have to say.

The primates discussed the importance of pastoral care for all members
of
our Anglican Communion and have spoken clearly to the matter (paragraph
15).
I very much welcome the recommendation to the Archbishop of Canterbury
that
he appoint a "panel of reference to supervise the adequacy of pastoral
provisions" for "groups in serious theological dispute with their
diocesan
bishop, or dioceses in dispute with their Provinces..."  The bishops of
the
Episcopal Church are committed to the provision of such pastoral care to
those of various perspectives and have established a means of being
certain
it is provided which is described in Caring for all the Churches:
Delegated
Episcopal Pastoral Oversight. I am also pleased by the commitment made
by
the primates "neither to encourage nor to initiate cross-boundary
violations."

The communiqué notes that our meeting was "characterised by generosity
of
spirit, and a readiness to respect one another's integrity, with
Christian
charity and abundant goodwill."  I have faith and confidence in the many
ways in which the mystery of communion is lived among us. I am grateful
that
bonds of understanding and affection bind us together and call us to an
ever
deeper and more costly living out of the reconciliation brought about by
Jesus through the Cross. Again this week it was revealed that so much
more
unites us than divides us.

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

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