Episcopal News Service March 5, 2007
Listening: Anglican women, pledging communion with one another, seek to model reconciliation
UNCSW delegates proclaim a women's way forward in broken times
By K. Jeanne Person and Matthew Davies
[ENS] As the Anglican women delegates to the 2007 United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) conclude their work this week in New York City, they are pledging to take their commitment "to remaining always in 'communion' with and for one another" to the wider Anglican Communion, and especially the 38 Primates, as a model for reconciliation.
The Anglican delegation of more than 80 women, representing 34 countries in the worldwide Anglican Communion, issued a statement March 3 vowing "to remain resolute in our solidarity with one another and in our commitment, above all else, to pursue and fulfill God's mission in all we say and do."
Acknowledging the "global tensions so evident in our church today," the women delegates "do not accept that there is any one issue of difference or contention which can, or indeed would, every cause us to break the unity as represented by our common baptism. Neither would we ever consider severing the deep and abiding bonds of affection which characterize our relationships as Anglican women."
By their statement, the Anglican delegates believe they are offering a women's way forward for reconciliation within the Anglican Communion at a time when theological differences regarding issues of human sexuality are causing tensions.
On February 19, at the conclusion of a meeting near Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the Primates issued a communiqué the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops to "make an unequivocal common covenant" by September 30 not to authorize same-gender blessings within their dioceses and to confirm that Resolution B033, passed at the 75th General Convention last summer, means that a candidate for bishop who is living in a same-gender relationship "shall not receive the necessary consent unless some new consensus on these matters emerges across the Communion."
"If the reassurances ... cannot in good conscience be given," the communiqué says, "the relationship between the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion as a whole remains damaged at best, and this has consequences for the full participation of the Church in the life of the Communion."
In the view of the Anglican women, the Primates' warning is inconsistent with the Christian mission of reconciliation and compassionate ministry, and a decidedly male approach to struggling with difference. All of the Primates are men of power, they note, except for Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.
Full story and photos: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_83098_ENG_HTM.htm
--The Rev. K. Jeanne Person is associate rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity in New York City. Matthew Davies is international correspondent for the Episcopal News Service.
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