wfn.org | Episcopalians discuss Ministry of reconciliation

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

For more information:

Episcopal News Service
James Solheim
jsolheim@dfms.org
212/922-5385
http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/ens

GC2000-090

Ministry of reconciliation to be focus for next four triennia

by Jan Nunley

     (ENS-DENVER) It's just one resolution, out of many passed at 
the 73rd General Convention. Yet it comes out of an extraordinary 
grassroots process that has the potential to start a revolution 
in the way the Episcopal Church works on controversial issues 
such as women's ordination and same-gender blessings.

     Resolution D023a proclaims the first four triennia of the 
21st century to be a Season of Reconciliation. It calls for the 
appointment of a committee of ordained and lay leaders to study 
the scriptural and historic role of reconcilers, and to prepare a 
pastoral letter and study guide. In addition, the Executive 
Council is asked to recommend a formal process for dispute 
resolution and reconciliation to the 2003 General Convention in 
Minneapolis.

Two coasts, two views, one goal

     The roots of the resolution lie in, among other things, 
conversations between the Rev. Brian Cox of Santa Barbara, 
California, and Dr. Louie Crew of Newark, New Jersey. Cox is a 
conservative rector who runs an organization called the 
Reconciliation Institute. Crew is a Rutgers University professor 
and the founder of Integrity, an affinity group for lesbians and 
gay men in the Episcopal Church. Both men networked with friends 
on both sides of the theological divide, in person, by phone and 
online, with the driving conviction that there are more things 
that unite Episcopalians than there are that divide them.

     A steering committee was formed of Cox, Crew and six others: 
the Rev. Ed Bacon of Pasadena, California; the Rev. Mary Hays of 
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; the Rev. Elizabeth Kaeton of Newark, 
New Jersey; the Rev. Richard Kew of Murfreesboro, Tennessee; the 
Rev. Dorsey McConnell of Edmonds, Washington; and Ted Mollegen of 
Glastonbury, Connecticut.

Meetings of minds and hearts

     Their initial efforts resulted in an unusual gathering of 22 
self-identified liberals, moderates and conservatives at St. 
Alban's Episcopal Church in Edmonds, Washington, in November 
1999. Quickly dubbed the "Seattle 22," the group spent three and 
a half days listening to each others' hopes and fears for the 
future of the Episcopal Church and their place in it if the other 
side--or any side, for that matter--prevailed in the controversy 
over sexuality. This "trial run" of a possible reconciliation 
process told them much about what could and could not be 
accomplished in such meetings, including the vital lesson that 
more time was needed to establish trust and a sense of safety 
among participants.

     The session also convinced them such an attempt could be 
worthwhile. A little more than four months later, the steering 
committee formed the New Commandment Task Force--named for Jesus' 
mandate to "love one another" in the Gospel of John--and 
announced four regional reconciliation meetings. The first, 
conducted in Short Hills, New Jersey, in May, produced a proposal 
for reconciliation, which was signed by all but one participant, 
a conservative who issued a stinging minority report criticizing 
the group for not considering "amicable divorce," "flying 
bishops" or a separate non-geographical province as possible 
solutions. 

     The Short Hills report contained elements of what later 
became resolution D023a, including a recommendation for the 
church to study the reconciliation process and issue a pastoral 
letter and study guide for congregations. A second meeting, held 
in Dallas in June, came back with a recommendation that the first 
four triennia of the 21st century be "a Season of Reconciliation" 
in the church. That, too, was made part of D023a. 

     Two more meetings are scheduled for November 2000, in 
Pasadena, California and South Bend, Indiana.

Truth and reconciliation? Not yet

     The Dallas meeting also proposed a church-wide "Truth and 
Reconciliation Commission," modeled on South Africa's, that would 
hear stories of "sins against groups within ECUSA...against other 
Christian traditions...[and] against other religious traditions." 
It also called for regular "mutual ministry review" of bishops, 
including the presiding bishop, the two Houses of General 
Convention, and Executive Council. These proposals were also 
included in the original draft of the resolution, but were 
dropped in the final amended version.

--The Rev. Jan Nunley is director of communications for the 
Diocese of Rhode Island, and a member of the original "Seattle 
22."