wfn.org | [ENS] Theologians offer response to Windsor Report request

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

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Theologians offer response to Windsor Report request

Paper cites 40-year consideration of same-gender relationships

ENS 062105-2

[ENS, Nottingham] -- Answering a request of the Anglican Communion's
international Lambeth Commission, the Episcopal Church has today
released a
paper titled "To Set Our Hope on Christ: A Response to the Invitation of
Windsor Report	Paragraph 135."
Published in booklet form and online [www.anglicanlistening.org], the
paper
has been prepared by a group of seven theologians and one historian at
the
request of Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold. Booklets may be ordered
through Episcopal Books & Resources [www.episcopalbookstore.org].

In his foreword to the 130-page text, Griswold writes: "The Episcopal
Church
in the United States welcomes the request made in paragraph 135 of the
Windsor Report: 'We particularly request a contribution from the
Episcopal
Church (USA) which explains, from within the sources of authority that
we as
Anglicans have received in scripture, the apostolic tradition and
reasoned
reflection, how a person living in a same gender union may be considered
eligible to lead the flock of Christ.'

"The Episcopal Church has been seeking to answer this question for
nearly 40
years, and at the same time has been addressing a more fundamental
question,
namely: how can the holiness and faithfulness to which God calls us all
be
made manifest in human intimacy?"

The foreword continues: "Though we have not reached a common mind we
have
come to a place in our discussion such that the clergy and people of a
diocese have been able, after prayer and much discernment, to call a man
living in a same sex relationship to be their bishop. As well, a
majority of
the representatives of the wider church -- bishops, clergy and lay
persons
-- have felt guided by the Holy Spirit, a gain in light of prayer and
discernment to consent to the election and consecration."

The paper was offered earlier today in Nottingham, England, to the
international Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) as part of a
presentation
made by the Episcopal Church as invited by the ACC.

"As this paper is an explanation of how this action could have been
taken by
faithful people it makes the positive case," the Presiding Bishop states
in
the foreword. "It does not attempt to give all sides of an argument or
to
model a debate" or "to replicate or summarize the conversations that
have
taken place in the church over nearly 40 years. The Appendix does that."

The theologians who prepared the paper are:

The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle of the Virginia Theological Seminary;
The Rev. Dr. Katherine Grieb of the Virginia Theological Seminary;
The Rev. Dr. Jay Johnson of the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley;
The Rev. Dr. Mark McIntosh of Loyola University Chicago;
The Rt. Rev. Catherine Roskam, Bishop Suffragan of New York;
Dr. Timothy Sedgewick of the Virginia Theological Seminary; and
Dr. Kathryn Tanner of the University of Chicago Divinity School.
Dr. Pamela W. Darling, a historian of General Convention legislation and
Episcopal Church ministry, prepared the Appendix "which delineates the
formal contents of the debate over these last four decades," the
Presiding
Bishop said.

The paper is divided into five parts:

Introduction;
Holiness, God's Blessing and Same-Sex Affection;
Contested Traditions, Common Life: The Episcopal Church's Historical
Witness
to Unity-in-Difference;
Eligibility for Ordination; and
Walking Together by Grace.
Part II cites a "growing awareness of holiness in same-sex
relationships"
which "has caused the Episcopal Church to face some difficult questions
we
did not always want to face. Might Christ the Lord, unfolding the
mystery of
his redeeming work, be opening our eyes to behold a dimension of his
work
that we had not understood? In other words, might what we had thought to
be
a crucial and defining division within the human family -- between those
of
same-sex desire and those of heterosexual desire -- be in fact a
biological
or cultural difference or cultural difference (as between male and
female,
slave or free) that has been overtaken by our common Baptism into his
crucified and risen Body? Many have begun to answer 'yes' to those
questions
(page. 25)."

The paper makes a case for "the universal call to holiness of life in
human
relationships," stating: "The Episcopal Church has called all in
relationships of sexual intimacy to the standard of life-long commitment
'characterized by fidelity, monogamy, mutual affection and respect,
careful,
honest communication' and the 'holy love which enables those in such
relationships to see in each other the image of God' (Resolution D039,
73rd
General Convention of the Episcopal Church). The experience of holiness
in
some same-sex unions has called for and deepened our sense of how these
life-long unions of fidelity can be seen to manifest God's love" (page
26).

Two theologians, Margaret R. Miles and Bishop Frederick H. Borsch, have
offered early comment on the paper.

Miles -- who is Emerita Professor of Historical Theology from the
Graduate
Theological Union, Berkeley - is former Bussey Professor of Theology,
Harvard Divinity School; former dean of the Graduate Theological Union,
and
1999 president of the American Academy of Religion. Borsch - who is
Professor of New Testament and Anglican Studies at the Lutheran
Theological
Seminary in Philadelphia - is retired Bishop of Los Angeles, former
Professor of New Testament and Dean of the Chapel at Princeton
University,
former dean of the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley, and
a
past elected member of the Anglican Consultative Council.

Writes Miles: "In the context of 16th century religious conflict and
violence, Anglican theologian Richard Hooker described the genius of
Anglicanism as its willingness to ask its members only that they
participate
faithfully in the sacramental life of the community. In our own time,
differences of conviction regarding homosexuality and the ordination of
lesbian and gay Christians are again pressing Anglicans to reexamine the
basis of communion and community.

"'To Set Our Hope on Christ' provides a rich and concrete account of
what it
means to live by faith. It describes the process by which the Episcopal
Church has moved, in prayerful and thoughtful commitment to following
Christ, from thinking of the Body of Christ as a community of 'mere
like-mindedness' to envisioning a 'diverse and complex catholicity.'
Urging
that decision relating to sexual matters occur in the context of
pastoral
rather than ideological concerns, the document proposes that unity of
participation and mission 'need not require uniformity of belief in all
matters.'

"'To Set Our Hope on Christ' is a record of the thoughtful and prayerful
deliberations -- theological, scriptural and experiential -- of
Christians
committed to seeking the mind of Christ. It is a powerful and moving
statement."

Writes Borsch: "Not everyone, of course, will agree, just as Christians
in
the past have disagreed on certain matters involving both theology and
faithful Christian living, as, for example, remarriage after divorce.
But
the Episcopal Church's response to the Anglican Consultative Council
offers
a gracious and well-reasoned biblical, theological and ethical case for
the
full discipleship and place in the Church of celibate Christians of
same-sex
orientation and those who are committed, alongside heterosexual
disciples,
to leading life in faithful relationships while seeking to follow the
Lord
Jesus.

"The report also sets the matter in the context of the lengthy
discussions
in the councils of the Episcopal Church."

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