wfn.org | [ENS] Presiding Bishop Reflections - Windsor Report

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EPISCOPAL NEWS SERVICE
								
 From the Presiding Bishop: A Word to the Church
Some preliminary reflections regarding the Windsor Report

Episcopal News Service
Issue:
Section:
St. Luke's Day

Posted: Monday, October 18, 2004
Corrected:

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

I write to you from London where I am attending a meeting of the Primates' 
Standing Committee.  I have had a matter of hours to review the Report of 
the Lambeth Commission on Communion, thus I will now offer only some 
preliminary observations.  It will take considerable time to reflect upon 
the Report, which consists of some 100 pages.  Over the next months it will 
be discussed in a number of venues, including the Executive Council meeting 
in November and the Winter Meeting of the House of Bishops in January. 
After an opportunity for further study and reflection, I will have more to 
say about the Commission's work.

The members of the Commission, chaired by Archbishop Robin Eames, clearly 
have worked with care and great diligence, and the fact that they have 
unanimously put forward the Report, which individually may give them pause, 
is no small accomplishment.

The Commission was obliged to consider a number of sometimes conflicting 
concerns, and therefore in these next days the Report will doubtless be 
read from many points of view and given any number of interpretations.	It 
is extremely important that it be read carefully as a whole and viewed in 
its entirety rather than being read selectively to buttress any particular 
perspectives.

As Anglicans we interpret and live the gospel in multiple contexts, and the 
circumstances of our lives can lead us to widely divergent understandings 
and points of view.  My first reading shows the Report as having in mind 
the containment of differences in the service of reconciliation. However, 
unless we go beyond containment and move to some deeper place of 
acknowledging and making room for the differences that will doubtless 
continue to be present in our Communion, we will do disservice to our 
mission.  A life of communion is not for the benefit of the church but for 
the sake of the world.	All of us, regardless of our several points of 
view, must accept the invitation to consider more deeply what it means to 
live a life of communion, grounded in the knowledge that "in Christ God was 
reconciling the world to himself."

Given the emphasis of the Report on difficulties presented by our differing 
understandings of homosexuality, as Presiding Bishop I am obliged to affirm 
the presence and positive contribution of gay and lesbian persons to every 
aspect of the life of our church and in all orders of ministry.  Other 
Provinces are also blessed by the lives and ministry of homosexual 
persons.  I regret that there are places within our Communion where it is 
unsafe for them to speak out of the truth of who they are.

The Report will be received and interpreted within the Provinces of the 
Communion in different ways, depending on our understanding of the nature 
and appropriate expression of sexuality.  It is important to note here that 
in the Episcopal Church we are seeking to live the gospel in a society 
where homosexuality is openly discussed and increasingly acknowledged in 
all areas of our public life.

For at least the last 30 years our church has been listening to the 
experience and reflecting upon the witness of homosexual persons in our 
congregations.	 There are those among us who perceive the fruit of the 
Spirit deeply present in the lives of gay and lesbian Christians, both 
within the church and in their relationships. However, other equally 
faithful persons among us regard same gender relationships as contrary to 
scripture.  Consequently, we continue to struggle with questions regarding 
sexuality.

Here I note the Report recommends that practical ways be found for the 
listening process commended by the Lambeth Conference in 1998 to be taken 
forward with a view to greater understanding about homosexuality and same 
gender relationships.  It also requests the Episcopal Church to contribute 
to the ongoing discussion.  I welcome this invitation and know that we 
stand ready to make a contribution to the continuing conversation and 
discernment of the place and ministry of homosexual persons in the life of 
the church.

The Report calls our Communion to reconciliation, which does not mean the 
reduction of differences to a single point of view.  In fact, it is my 
experience that the fundamental reality of the Episcopal Church is the 
diverse center, in which a common commitment to Jesus Christ and a sense of 
mission in his name to a broken and hurting world override varying opinions 
on any number of issues, including homosexuality. The diverse center is 
characterized by a spirit of mutual respect and affection rather than 
hostility and suspicion.  I would therefore hope that some of the ways in 
which we have learned to recognize Christ in one another, in spite of 
strongly held divergent opinions, can be of use in other parts of our 
Communion.

As Presiding Bishop I know I speak for members of our church in saying how 
highly we value our Communion and the bonds of affection we share. 
Therefore, we regret how difficult and painful actions of our church have 
been in many provinces of our Communion, and the negative repercussions 
that have been felt by brother and sister Anglicans.

In a "Word to the Church" following the meeting of our House of Bishops in 
September we wrote as follows. "We believe our relationships with others 
make real and apparent God's reconciling love for all of creation.  Our 
mutual responsibility, interdependence and communion are gifts from 
God.  Therefore, we deeply value and are much enriched by our membership in 
the Anglican Communion.  We also value Anglican comprehensiveness and its 
capacity to make room for difference."

One section of the Report recommends the development of a covenant to be 
entered into by the provinces of the Communion.  This notion will need to 
be studied with particular care.  As we and other provinces explore the 
idea of a covenant we must do so knowing that over the centuries Anglican 
comprehensiveness has given us the ability to include those who wish to see 
boundaries clearly and closely drawn and those who value boundaries that 
are broad and permeable. Throughout our history we have managed to live 
with the tension between a need for clear boundaries and for room in order 
that the Spirit might express itself in fresh ways in a variety of contexts.

The Report makes demands on all of us, regardless of where we may stand, 
and is grounded in a theology of reconciliation and an understanding of 
communion as the gift of the triune God.  It is therefore an invitation for 
all of us to take seriously the place in which we presently find ourselves 
but to do so with a view to a future yet to be revealed.

Here I am put in mind of the words of Archbishop Eames in the Foreword to 
the Report. "This Report is not a judgment.  It is part of a process.  It 
is part of a pilgrimage towards healing and reconciliation."  It is my 
earnest prayer that we will undertake this pilgrimage in a spirit of 
generosity and patient faithfulness, not primarily for the sake of our 
church and the Anglican Communion but for the sake of the world our Lord 
came among us to save.

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