wfn.org | [ENS] Bishops sign supplemental statement following 'Word to the

["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@mail.epicom.org>]

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Bishops sign supplemental statement following 'Word to the Church'

ENS 011905-1

[ENS] Continuing their response to the Windsor Report addressing
communion
among Anglicans worldwide, a group of at least 21 Episcopal bishops have
signed a supplemental statement (see text below) following the "Word to
the
Church" adopted almost unanimously by the House of Bishops January 13.

A total of 143 bishops attended the House of Bishops' day-and-a-half
meeting
January 12-13 in Salt Lake City, where the Word to the Church
[http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_56787_ENG_HTM.htm ] was drafted and
passed with only one "no" heard at voting. Meeting in plenary, the
bishops
finalized the document in a two-hour editing session.

Yet the group of 21 bishops agreed that the response "didn't go far
enough,
and that the Windsor Report asked us to deal with three issues
directly,"
South Carolina Bishop Edward L. Salmon Jr. told ENS in a January 19
telephone interview. He said the supplemental statement -- which was
neither
received nor regarded by the House of Bishops as a minority report --
was
not intended as an "in-your-face response" but rather as an honest
assessment of views shared by the signatories. "What we wanted people to
hear is that the bishops who signed this statement were willing to
respond
to the requests of the Windsor Report."

Salmon said the bishops engaged in "some very frank discussion" with
each
other during the meeting, which spanned 11 hours and was closed to
visitors
and the media. The South Carolina bishop, whose regular attendance and
participation at House of Bishops meetings throughout the 15 years of
his
episcopate has been praised by his peers, emphasized the importance of
clear
conversation around issues: "I don't think people can do business
without
frank discussion... I don't think we're ever going to get anywhere if
we're
not willing to talk to each other seriously." 

Salmon said the group of 21 would have preferred the House of Bishops
"to
respond at the front end" of its recent meeting on matters of moratoria
on
ordaining additional openly gay bishops, and on blessing same-sex
unions. He
said that deferring this conversation to the House of Bishops' upcoming
March meeting "sends a message" to the Communion, and asked "what does
that
behavior mean?"

The majority of bishops voted, however, to wait for the Primates'
response
before addressing the moratoria issues, and acknowledged that
far-reaching
decisions must be put not only to the House of Bishops, but also to the
full
General Convention. "Obviously, we're not in agreement," Salmon said.

Bishop Ed Little of Northern Indiana, a member of the House of Bishops
planning committee, said "the [bishops'] task was to come up with a more
general word for the Presiding Bishop to take to the Primates Meeting in
February, and then we would address directly and with specificity the
requests of the Windsor Report once the Primates have heard us and made
their statement."

He added, "There was a wide range of perspectives addressed in Salt Lake
City and we need to talk a bit more, but we do have to come to a
response on
all three of the requests of the Windsor Report-the moratorium on
ordination
of non-celibate homosexuals to the episcopate, on same-sex blessings,
and
also on the crossing of boundaries by bishops."

The House of Bishops will continue its deliberations on the Windsor
Report
during its annual Spring meeting March 11 - 17 at Camp Allen in Texas.

- - - - -

A Statement of Acceptance of and Submission to the Windsor Report 2004

January 2005

We the undersigned Bishops:

(1) Accept the Windsor Report's key idea of "autonomy-in-communion, that
is,
freedom held within interdependence"

(2) Pledge in the future to maintain the bonds of affection by only
making
decisions that are "fully compatible with the interests, standards,
unity
and good order" of the Anglican Communion

(3) Acknowledge that as a province we have "acted in ways incompatible
with
the Communion principle of interdependence, and our fellowship together
has
suffered immensely as a result"

(4) Seek for ECUSA to comply in full with the unanimous recommendations
of
The Windsor Report by:

a. Expressing its regret for its own role in breaching the proper
constraints of the bonds of affection in the events surrounding the
election
and consecration of a bishop for the See of New Hampshire and for the
consequences which followed

b. Calling on the Executive Council, and recommending to the next
General
Convention, that they express their own regret in these terms

c. Effecting "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"

d. Effecting a moratorium on all public Rites of Blessing of same sex
unions
and calling on those bishops who have authorized such rites to withdraw
their authorization and express their regret that by such authorization
they
breached the proper constraints of the bonds of affection

e. Endeavoring to ensure commitment of all bishops to the common life of
the
Communion

(5) Reaffirm our commitment to engage with the Communion in our
continuing
study of the biblical and theological rationale for recent actions
because
"these potentially divisive issues...should not be resolved by the
Episcopal
Church on its own" (General Convention 1991 B020)

Signatures of Bishops (as of January 13, 2005):

Henry Scriven (Assistant, Pittsburgh)
David J. Bena (Suffragan Albany)
Gethin B. Hughes (San Diego)
Keith L. Ackerman (Quincy)
John W. Howe (Central Florida)
William J, Skilton (South Carolina)
Robert Duncan (Pittsburgh)
James Adams (Western Kansas)
Stephen H. Jecko (Assistant, Dallas)
Daniel W. Herzog (Albany)
James Stanton (Dallas)
Bertram Nelson Herlong (Tennessee)
Edward L. Salmon, Jr. (South Carolina)
Jack Iker (Fort Worth)
Don A. Wimberly (Texas)
James B. Folts (West Texas)
Gary R. Lillibridge (Coadjutor, West Texas)
John David M. Schofield (San Joaquin)
D. Bruce MacPherson (Western Louisiana)
William C. Frey (Colorado, retired)
Peter Beckwith (Springfield)

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