Episcopalians removed from Anglican Communions's ecumenical dialogues
by Matthew Davies
[Episcopal
News Service] The Rev’d Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the
Anglican Communion, has written to those Episcopalians serving on the communion's
ecumenical dialogues informing them that their memberships have been discontinued.
The decision
is likely to affect five Episcopal Church members serving on Anglican dialogues
with the Lutheran, Methodist, Old Catholic and Orthodox churches, as well
as one member of the Inter-Anglican Standing Committee on Unity, Faith and
Order, who has been invited to serve as a consultant.
Kearon's
announcement came in a June 7 letter outlining the next steps following Archbishop
of Canterbury Rowan Williams' Pentecost letter.
Williams
had proposed in his May 28 letter that representatives currently serving on
ecumenical dialogues should resign their membership if they are from a province
that has not complied with moratoria on same-gender blessings, cross-border
interventions and the ordination of gay and lesbian people to the episcopate.
He specifically referred to the May 15 consecration of Los Angeles Bishop
Suffragan Mary Douglas Glasspool and the unauthorized incursions by Anglican
leaders into other provinces. Glasspool is the Episcopal Church's second openly
gay, partnered bishop.
Jan Butter,
communications director for the Anglican Communion, confirmed that the membership
change applies to all ecumenical dialogues.
Butter told ENS that the Anglican Communion's secretary general, in consultation
with the archbishop of Canterbury, appoints members to the ecumenical commissions
and to IASCUFO. "He therefore can ask people to stand down," he
said.
Episcopal
Church members who were serving on the Anglican-Orthodox Theological Dialogue
are the Rev’d Thomas Ferguson, the Episcopal Church's interim deputy
for ecumenical and interreligious relations, and Assistant Bishop William
Gregg of North Carolina.
Bishop
C. Franklin Brookhart of Montana had been a member of the Anglican-Methodist
International Commission for Unity in Mission and the Very Rev’d William
H. Petersen, professor of ecclesiastical and ecumenical history of Bexley
Hall, Columbus, was serving on the Anglican-Lutheran International Commission.
The Rev’d Carola von Wrangel, rector of Christ-the-King in Frankfurt,
Germany, a parish in the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe, had
served on the Anglican-Old Catholic International Coordinating Council.
The Rev’d
Katherine Grieb, an Episcopal priest and professor of New Testament at Virginia
Theological Seminary, was the IASCUFO member who has been invited to serve
as a consultant.
Kearon
said he has also written to Archbishop Fred Hiltz of the Anglican Church of
Canada "to ask whether its General Synod or House of Bishops has formally
adopted policies that breach the second moratorium in the Windsor Report,
authorizing public rites of same-sex blessing," and to Archbishop Gregory
Venables of the Southern Cone, "asking him for clarification as to the
current state of his interventions into other provinces."
Some dioceses
in the Canadian church have made provisions for blessing same-gender unions
and Venables has offered oversight to conservative members of parishes and
dioceses breaking away from the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of
Canada.
No mention
was made in Kearon's letter of ecumenical commission members from other provinces
-- such as Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda – that are currently involved in
cross-border interventions in the United States.
The moratoria
were first mentioned in the 2004 Windsor Report, a document that made several
recommendations on how the communion might maintain unity amid disagreements
over theological interpretations and human sexuality issues. The moratoria
have since been supported by the communion's primates, at their February 2009
meeting, and the Anglican Consultative Council, the communion's main policy-making
body, at its May 2009 meeting.
Presiding
Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori on June 2 issued a pastoral letter to the
Episcopal Church, in which she referred to Williams' letter and urged continued
dialogue with those who disagree with recent actions, "for we believe
that the Spirit is always calling us to greater understanding."
"We
are distressed at the apparent imposition of sanctions on some parts of the
communion. We note that these seem to be limited to those which 'have formally,
through their Synod or House of Bishops, adopted policies that breach any
of the moratoria requested by the Instruments of Communion.' We are further
distressed that such sanctions do not, apparently, apply to those parts of
the communion that continue to hold one view in public and exhibit other behaviors
in private. Why is there no sanction on those who continue with a double standard?"
On June
7, the Episcopal Church's Office of Public Affairs issued a resource for Episcopalians
clarifying the distinction between the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.
"The Episcopal Church is an autonomous church which is a member of the
worldwide Anglican Communion, serving God and working together to spread through
word and action the good news of God in Christ," the release said. "General
Convention, made up of the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies, has
ultimate legislative authority ... and through its canonical actions sets
forth governance of the church."The Episcopal Church's General Convention,
meeting in July, passed Resolution D025 that declared the ordination process
open to all people. Glasspool is the first openly gay priest to be elected
and ordained as bishop since the passage of Resolution D025.
Jefferts
Schori said in her letter that "the Spirit does seem to be saying to
many within the Episcopal Church that gay and lesbian persons are God's good
creation, that an aspect of good creation is the possibility of lifelong,
faithful partnership, and that such persons may indeed be good and healthy
exemplars of gifted leadership within the Church, as baptized leaders and
ordained ones. The Spirit also seems to be saying the same thing in other
parts of the Anglican Communion, and among some of our Christian partners,
including Lutheran churches in North America and Europe, the Old Catholic
churches of Europe, and a number of others."
—Matthew Davies
is editor and international correspondent of the Episcopal News Service.
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