wfn.org | [ENS] Bulletin: Primates support 'pastoral visitors' to assist in healing Anglican divisions

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

>Episcopal Life Online
>February 5, 2009

Bulletin: Primates support 'pastoral visitors' to assist in healing  Anglican
divisions

Final communiqué encourages 'gracious restraint' by all sides

>By Matthew Davies

[Episcopal News Service -- Alexandria, Egypt] Anglican leaders meeting  in
Egypt have affirmed the recommendations of the Windsor Continuation  Group
and called for the development of a "pastoral council" and the  appointment
of "pastoral visitors" to assist in healing and reconciliation given the
current "situation of tension" in the Anglican Communion.

In a communiqué released on the final day of their February 1-5  meeting in
Alexandria, Egypt, the primates are also encouraging all parties in the
current controversies to maintain "gracious restraint" with respect to
actions that could exacerbate the tensions, such as same-gender  blessings,
cross-border interventions and the ordination of gay and lesbian people  to
the episcopate.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori told ENS that she is  encouraged
by the tone of the communiqué, but acknowledged that "the long-term  impact
of 'gracious restraint' is a matter for General Convention," the  Episcopal
Church's main legislative body that next meets in July in Anaheim,
California.

"We are going to have to have honest conversations about who we are as a
church and the value we place on our relationships and mission  opportunities
with other parts of the communion and how we can be faithful with many
spheres of relationship at the same time," she said. "That is
tension-producing and will be anxiety-producing for many, but we are a
people that live in hope, not in instant solutions but in faithfulness  to
God."

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams told the media on February 5  that
"the spirit of this meeting has been very constructive. I don't think  many
people have changed their minds, but there has been a willingness to  listen
and find accommodation for one another."

The Windsor Continuation Group report is available here
(http://www.anglicancommunion.org/commission/windsor_continuation/WCG_Rep ort
.cfm). An electronic version of the primates' communiqué is available  here
(http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/news.cfm/2009/2/5/ACNS4574).

>A full ENS report will follow.