wfn.org | [ENS] House of Bishops adopts 'Covenant Statement'

["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

House of Bishops adopts 'Covenant Statement'

ENS 031505-1

[ENS, Navasota, Texas] -- The House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church
adopted, by nearly unanimous vote late this afternoon, "A Covenant
Statement" that includes "a provisional measure to contribute to a time
for
healing and for the educational process called for in the Windsor
Report"
(full text of Covenant Statement follows below).

Preparation of an additional "Word to the Church" document to accompany
the
Statement is a priority for the bishops' agenda tomorrow, March 16, the
final day of their six-day meeting of retreat and private reflection at
Camp
Allen, an Episcopal conference center in Navasota, Texas.

The bishops have widely praised the spirit of collaboration and
collegiality
that marked their framing of the Statement.

The Episcopal News Service will post March 17 wrap-up interviews about
the
bishops' meeting.

The House of Deputies, to which clergy and laity are elected, and the
House
of Bishops together comprise the General Convention, the chief
legislative
body of the 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church. The General Convention,
which meets every three years, will next convene in June 2006 in
Columbus,
Ohio. General Convention's work is carried out between triennial
meetings by
the Episcopal Church's Executive Council, to which representatives are
elected from both the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops..

- - - - -

House of Bishops' Spring Meeting
Camp Allen, Texas
March 15, 2005

A Covenant Statement of the House of Bishops

We have received the Windsor Report as a helpful contribution to our
relationships with Anglican brothers and sisters across the world. We
recognize its recommendations as coming from a broadly representative
commission inclusive of bishops, clergy, and laity and as an attempt to
speak as equals to equals. We experience it as being in the best
tradition
of autonomy within communion and as helpful in our efforts to live into
communion. Likewise, we appreciate receiving the communiqué from the
February meeting of the Primates and take seriously the perspectives and
convictions stated therein.

It is our heartfelt desire to be responsive and attentive to the
conversation we have already begun and to which we are being called and
as a
body offer the following points.

1. We reaffirm our commitment to the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral of
1888
and each of its individual points. We reaffirm our earnest desire to
serve
Christ in communion with the other provinces of the Anglican family. We
reaffirm our continuing commitment to remain in communion with the
Archbishop of Canterbury and to participate fully in the Anglican
Consultative Council, the Lambeth Conference, and the Primates' Meeting,
and
we earnestly reaffirm our desire to participate in the individual
relationships, partnerships, and ministries that we share with other
Anglicans, which provide substance to our experience of what it is to be
in
communion.

2. We express our own deep regret for the pain that others have
experienced
with respect to our actions at the General Convention of 2003 and we
offer
our sincerest apology and repentance for having breached our bonds of
affection by any failure to consult adequately with our Anglican
partners
before taking those actions.

3. The Windsor Report has invited the Episcopal Church "to effect a
moratorium on the election and consent to the consecration of any
candidate
to the episcopate who is living in a same gender union until some new
consensus in the Anglican Communion emerges" (Windsor Report, para.
134).
Our polity, as affirmed both in the Windsor Report and the Primates'
Communiqué, does not give us the authority to impose on the dioceses
of our
church moratoria based on matters of suitability beyond the
well-articulated
criteria of our canons and ordinal. Nevertheless, this extraordinary
moment
in our common life offers the opportunity for extraordinary action. In
order
to make the fullest possible response to the larger communion and to
re-claim and strengthen our common bonds of affection, this House of
Bishops
takes the following provisional measure to contribute to a time for
healing
and for the educational process called for in the Windsor Report. Those
of
us having jurisdiction pledge!
 to withhold consent to the consecration of any person elected to the
episcopate after the date hereof until the General Convention of 2006,
and
we encourage the dioceses of our church to delay episcopal elections
accordingly. We believe that Christian community requires us to share
the
burdens of such forbearance; thus it must pertain to all elections of
bishops in the Episcopal Church. We recognize that this will cause
hardship
in some dioceses, and we commit to making ourselves available to those
dioceses needing episcopal ministry.

4. In response to the invitation in the Windsor Report that we effect a
moratorium on public rites of blessing for same sex unions, it is
important
that we clarify that the Episcopal Church has not authorized any such
liturgies, nor has General Convention requested the development of such
rites. The Primates, in their communiqué "assure homosexual people
that they
are children of God, loved and valued by him, and deserving of the best
we
can give of pastoral care and friendship" (Primates' Communiqué,
para.. 6).
Some in our church hold such "pastoral care" to include the blessing of
same
sex relationships. Others hold that it does not. Nevertheless, we pledge
not
to authorize any public rites for the blessing of same sex unions, and
we
will not bless any such unions, at least until the General Convention of
2006.

5. We pledge ourselves not to cross diocesan boundaries to provide
episcopal
ministry in violation of our own canons and we will hold ourselves
accordingly accountable. We will also hold bishops and clergy
canonically
resident in other provinces likewise accountable. We request that our
Anglican partners "effect a moratorium on any further interventions"
(Windsor Report, para. 155; see also 1988 Lambeth Conference Resolution
72
and 1998 Lambeth Conference Resolution III.2) and work with us to find
more
creative solutions, such as the initiation of companion diocese
relationships, to help us meet the legitimate needs of our own people
and
still maintain our integrity.

6. As a body, we recognize the intentionality and seriousness of the
Primates' invitation to the Episcopal Church to refrain voluntarily from
having its delegates participate in the Anglican Consultative Council
meetings until the Lambeth Conference of 2008. Although we lack the
authority in our polity to make such a decision, we defer to the
Anglican
Consultative Council and the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church
to
deliberate seriously on that issue.

The bonds of affection are not ends in themselves but foundations for
mission. Therefore, we re-commit ourselves to work together throughout
the
communion to eradicate HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other
diseases,
to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, and to address the other
efforts mentioned by the Primates' Communiqué (para. 20). We dedicate
ourselves to full and open dialogue in every available venue through
invitations for mutual visitation, intentional exploration of the
theological perspectives and spiritual gifts that our diverse cultures
offer, and collaborative partnerships for the purpose of shared mission
in
Christ.

___________________________
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