Thirty-four American bishops have announced they will honour the calls for restraint made by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Anglican Communion, and have issued a letter of dissent from the actions of the 76th General Convention.The 34: including 27 diocesan bishops, five suffragans and assistants, and two retired bishops, affirmed their desire to conform the discipline of the Episcopal Church while also complying with the requests made by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the 2008 Lambeth Conference, the Primates’ Meetings and ACC-14 to observe a moratoria on same-gender blessings, cross-border interventions and the ordination of gay and lesbian people to the episcopate.
The ‘Anaheim Statement’ has drawn support from both sides of the ecclesial aisle, and includes bishops who voted on both sides of D025 and C056 --- resolutions that rescinded the ban on two of the three Windsor Report moratoria. While united in what they will do about the 76th General Convention, the bishops are divided as to the implications of the vote, with some signatories saying it signifies a “walking apart” by the Episcopal Church from the Communion, while others state the votes were a reflection of intentions, not actions.
Rising to speak during the House of Bishops’ afternoon business session of July 16, Bishop Gary W Lillibridge of West Texas read the statement of dissent. “At this convention,” Bishop Lillibridge said, the House had “heard repeated calls for honesty and clarity” on the Episcopal Church’s stance on the contested issues surrounding sexual ethics.
The attempts to “modify wording which would have been preferable to the minority in the vote were respectfully heard and discussed, but in the end most of these amendments were found unacceptable to the majority in the House.” The majority of bishops believed it was time to “move forward on matters of human sexuality,” the statement said.
While grateful for the “clarity” these votes had brought, Bishop Lillibridge asked his brethren to join him seeking “to find a place in the Church we continue to serve” and endorse a five-point statement of loyalty to the Communion.
The statement reaffirmed the bishops’ “constituent membership in the Anglican Communion, our communion with the See of Canterbury, and our commitment to preserving these relationships;”
reaffirmed their “commitment to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of Christ as this Church has received them;”
reaffirmed their “commitment to the three moratoria requested of us by the Instruments of Communion;” reaffirmed their “commitment to the Anglican Communion Covenant process currently underway, with the hope of working toward its implementation across the Communion once a Covenant is completed;”
And, reaffirmed their “commitment to ‘continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship’ which is foundational to our baptismal covenant, and to be one with the apostles in ‘interpreting the Gospel’ which is essential to our work as bishops of the Church of God.”
By the close of the afternoon session, 20 bishops endorsed the letter, with a further 14 adding their names on the last day of General Convention. “This was not a statement of division,” observed conservative Bishop Edward Konieczny of Oklahoma. It was a “statement of unity” that acknowledged “we have listened to one another intently,” he said, though he had not endorsed the statement.
The House of Bishops’ second media spokesman, the Rt Rev James Mathes of San Diego --- a supporter of the actions taken this week in the House of Bishops --- said he believed the statement offered "clarity of where they are.”
Where and what the General Convention has done, however, remains in dispute.
Bishop Henry Parsley of Alabama, a signatory of the Anaheim Statement told an Alabama newspaper that the votes did "this does not repeal the moratorium; it says we're open to all people. It affirms our relationships with the Anglican Communion and acknowledges that there are many who don't agree. It's very respectful. We continue to seek the mind of Christ."
However, the Bishop of South Carolina Mark Lawrence was less sanguine. Writing to the clergy of his diocese, he stated the actions of General Convention “contravened the clear teaching of Holy Scripture and breached the bonds of affection within the Anglican Communion.”
Bishop Lawrence noted that the protests that the church was “moving too quickly” on this issue was unpersuasive. “If blessing same-sex unions is morally wrong now, it will be morally wrong in the future.”
Gay blessings were not an issue of secondary importance akin to “the one St Paul writes about in I Corinthians 8 of a morally neutral activity such as eating meat offered to idols. In that situation whether to eat or refrain from eating was to be guided by the conscience of other Christians.”
What General Convention had done was to redefine “the nature of Christian marriage and the teaching of the universal church about the proper context in which to use the gift of sexuality.
The problem isn’t the speed at which the train is moving down the rail: it is the destination to which it is headed,” Bishop Lawrence said.
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