Episcopal Bishops Apologize for Gay-Bishop Divisions
Heeding to the advise of the Windsor Report, the ECUSA House of Bishops apologized and expressed "sincere regret" for the divisions that arose within the Anglican Communion through the denomination's decision to consecrate an openly gay bishop
The bishops of the Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA) on Thursday expressed “sincere regret” for the divisions that arose within the worldwide Anglican Communion through the denomination’s unilateral decision to consecrate an openly homosexual man as bishop last year. While the bishops’ “word to the church,” penned at their closed door meeting regarding the Windsor Report on homosexuality and unity, was the largest step taken on the part of the ECUSA to amend its broken relationships with dozens of international Anglican Communion church bodies, it failed to address the Report’s recommendation to plan a moratoria on the ordination of non-celibate homosexuals as well as the blessing of same sex unions.
“We as the House of Bishops express our sincere regret for the pain, the hurt, and the damage caused to our Anglican bonds of affection by certain actions of our church,” the bishops’ statement read. “Knowing that our actions have contributed to the current strains in our Communion, we express this regret as a sign of our deep desire for and commitment to continuation of our partnership in the Anglican Communion.”
Nearly two-thirds of the church bodies within the 77-million Anglican Communion have severed fellowship ties with the ECUSA for its decision to consecrate Gene Robinson, an actively homosexual man, as bishop, during the 2003 ECUSA General Convention. In light of the divisions, the head of the Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury, commissioned a task force to draft a comprehensive document regarding the contentious issue of homosexuality entitled the “Windsor Report.”
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The report, release in November 2004, recommended both the ECUSA and those who broke ties with them to “express regret” for their actions. Furthermore, the report recommended the ECUSA place 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.”
In regards to the latter recommendation, the Episcopal bishops said they will consider the issue at its March meeting since they do not want to “act in haste.”
“We have not had sufficient time to give substantive consideration to recommendations in the Report calling for a moratorium on diocesan boundary violations or the call for a moratorium and further discussion of the authorization of liturgical texts blessing same sex unions,” the statement read.
The bishops said they hope to have a better understanding of the recommendation after the international heads of the Anglican Communion consider the Windsor Report in February 2005.
“We believe it is extremely important to take the time to allow the Holy Spirit to show us ways we can engage with people throughout our church in a consideration of all of the invitations for further reflection and the recommendations of the Windsor Report,” the bishops wrote.
At a news conference held after the statement’s release, Utah Bishop Carolyn Tanner Irish took pains to explain that the bishops’ statement was not an apology for consecrating Robinson, but was rather an expression of regret for the tensions that arose thereafter,
Meanwhile, Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan, moderator of the conservative Anglican Communion Network (ACN) – a group that opposes the ordination of Robinson, said the bishops’ statement is “graceful” in language but not in “behavior.”
“The Episcopal Church USA often uses ‘graceful’ language but our behavior (‘the politics of power’) contradicts the words,” said Duncan.
According to the ACN, a group of 21 bishops have issued a “Statement of Acceptance of and Submission to the Windsor Report 2004,” in light of “the House of Bishops failure to issue a definitive statement on moratoria and to submit to the Windsor Report as asked by the Communion.”
The group of 21 conservative bishops plans to present their statement to the international February meeting of the Primates.
The House of Bishops’ closed-door meeting was held on Jan. 12-13, at Salt Lake City, Utah.
The following is the full text of the Word to the Church by the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church.
To the faithful in Christ Jesus, greetings in the season of Epiphany. We rejoice together with you that God has “caused a new light to shine in our hearts” revealing God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ our Lord. The sufferings of our brothers and sisters in the aftermath of tsunamis in South Asia and flooding and mud slides in California and here in Utah where we are meeting, make us long all the more for this new light revealed to us in Christ. We are mindful as well of the suffering around the world caused by global poverty, HIV/AIDS, malaria, other diseases, and war. In this suffering world we are called to “serve and signify God’s mission to the world, that mission whereby God brings to men and women, to human societies and to the whole world, real signs and foretastes of that healing love which will one day put all things to rights” (Windsor Report, paragraph 3).
We decided at our September meeting in 2004 to set aside this time so we might together begin to receive the Windsor Report with humility. We have met for a day and a half in Salt Lake City. We welcome with gratitude the work of the Lambeth Commission on Communion. We realize this is a long-term effort which will most likely extend beyond our March meeting. In the meantime, we aim to practice the more intentional consultative processes called for by the Windsor Report. We also anticipate the Executive Council of our church joining in this consultation.
In this spirit of intentional practice, we affirm that all need to repent, as the Archbishop of Canterbury reminded us in his Advent Letter 2004. We repent of the ways we as bishops have sometimes treated each other, failing to honor Christ’s presence in one another. Furthermore, too often we have also failed to recognize Christ’s presence fully manifest in our sister and brother Anglicans around the global communion. We honor their full voice and wisdom. We desire mutuality. We recognize our interdependence in the Body of Christ.
Moreover, we as the House of Bishops express our sincere regret for the pain, the hurt, and the damage caused to our Anglican bonds of affection by certain actions of our church. Knowing that our actions have contributed to the current strains in our Communion, we express this regret as a sign of our deep desire for and commitment to continuation of our partnership in the Anglican Communion.
We note here that our decision-making structures differ from those in many parts of the Anglican Communion and that our actions require conciliar involvement by all the baptized of our church, lay and ordained. Therefore we as bishops, in offering our regrets, do not intend to preempt the canonical authority of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. At the same time, we are keenly aware of our particular responsibility for episcopal leadership.
We long for the fullest expression of the gift of communion that God has given us through Christ. “The communion we enjoy with God in Christ and by the Spirit, and the communion we enjoy with all God’s people living and departed, is the specific practical embodiment and fruit of the gospel itself” (Windsor Report, paragraph 3). We rejoice in our partnership in the worldwide Anglican Communion and affirm anew our commitment to the interdependence of this church as a member of the Anglican Communion.
We agree that one important expression of our communion would be a Communion-wide study and discernment process on matters of human sexuality as recommended by Lambeth Conferences of 1978, 1988 and 1998 and are eager to continue to respond to this challenge. This would be a sign of respect for gay and lesbian persons in our common life and of our ongoing pastoral care for them. We also believe that such a process would strengthen our communion. By doing so, we will be able to share more of the prayerful conversations and studies on the ministries and contributions of homosexual persons in the church that have enriched our experience for many years. The Presiding Bishop has already established a committee to offer a theological explanation of how “a person living in a same gender union may be considered eligible to lead the flock of Christ” (Windsor Report, paragraph 135).
We pray our brothers and sisters throughout the Anglican Communion will forgive us and that together we may remain in steadfast relationship so we might open our lives and our hearts to one another and learn how the Holy Spirit is acting in our different contexts. We are eager to take steps to make this possible, and particularly would welcome invitations to visit other Anglican provinces to learn from them the many ways they are vital witnesses to the healing love of Christ, often in very difficult circumstances.
During this brief meeting we humbly struggled in our deliberations to discern how best to receive the Windsor Report. We had an extensive discussion about 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” (Windsor Report, paragraph 134). We have only begun a serious and respectful consideration of how we might respond. Further, we have not had sufficient time to give substantive consideration to recommendations in the Report calling for a moratorium on diocesan boundary violations or the call for a moratorium and further discussion of the authorization of liturgical texts blessing same sex unions. (Here we note that there are those among us who do not agree with the statement in paragraph 144 of the Windsor Report that “the Episcopal Church has by action of Convention made provision for the development of public Rites of Blessing of same sex unions.”)
In February 2005 the Primates of the Anglican Communion will consider the Windsor Report. We commit ourselves to a more thorough consideration of the range of concrete actions identified in the Report at our House of Bishops meeting in March 2005. We do not wish to act in haste. We believe it is extremely important to take the time to allow the Holy Spirit to show us ways we can engage with people throughout our church in a consideration of all of the invitations for further reflection and the recommendations of the Windsor Report.
We seek together the epiphany of Christ’s reconciling love for the world, which lies at the heart of the mission we share. It is our prayer that along with Anglican Christians around the world we may be faithful to God’s mission.
The following is the full text of the Statement of Acceptance of and Submission to the Windsor Report 2004:
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)
