A pastoral letter to The Episcopal Church: Pentecost continues!
Issued June 2, 2010
Pentecost is most fundamentally
a continuing gift of the Spirit, rather than a limitation or quenching of
that Spirit.
The recent statement by
the Archbishop of Canterbury about the struggles within the Anglican Communion
seems to equate Pentecost with a single understanding of gospel realities.
Those who received the gift of the Spirit on that day all heard good news.
The crowd reported, "in our own languages we hear them speaking about
God's deeds of power" (Acts 2:11).
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.
That growing awareness
does not deny the reality that many Anglicans and not a few Episcopalians
still fervently hold traditional views about human sexuality. This Episcopal
Church is a broad and inclusive enough tent to hold that variety. The willingness
to live in tension is a hallmark of Anglicanism, beginning from its roots
in Celtic Christianity pushing up against Roman Christianity in the centuries
of the first millennium. That diversity in community was solidified in the
Elizabethan Settlement, which really marks the beginning of Anglican Christianity
as a distinct movement. Above all, it recognizes that the Spirit may be speaking
to all of us, in ways that do not at present seem to cohere or agree. It also
recognizes what Jesus says about the Spirit to his followers, "I still
have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit
of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak
on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the
things that are to come" (John 16:12-13).
The Episcopal Church has
spent nearly 50 years listening to and for the Spirit in these matters. While
it is clear that not all within this Church have heard the same message, the
current developments do represent a widening understanding. Our canons reflected
this shift as long ago as 1985, when sexual orientation was first protected
from discrimination in access to the ordination process. At the request of
other bodies in the Anglican Communion, this Church held an effective moratorium
on the election and consecration of a partnered gay or lesbian priest as bishop
from 2003 to 2010. When a diocese elected such a person in late 2009, the
ensuing consent process indicated that a majority of the laity, clergy, and
bishops responsible for validating that election agreed that there was no
substantive bar to the consecration.
The Episcopal Church recognizes
that these decisions are problematic to a number of other Anglicans. We have
not made these decisions lightly. We recognize that the Spirit has not been
widely heard in the same way in other parts of the Communion. In all humility,
we recognize that we may be wrong, yet we have proceeded in the belief that
the Spirit permeates our decisions.
We also recognize that
the attempts to impose a singular understanding in such matters represent
the same kind of cultural excesses practiced by many of our colonial forebears
in their missionizing activity. Native Hawaiians were forced to abandon their
traditional dress in favor of missionaries' standards of modesty. Native Americans
were forced to abandon many of their cultural practices, even though they
were fully congruent with orthodox Christianity, because the missionaries
did not understand or consider those practices exemplary of the Spirit. The
uniformity imposed at the Synod of Whitby did similar violence to a developing,
contextual Christianity in the British Isles. In their search for uniformity,
our forebears in the faith have repeatedly done much spiritual violence in
the name of Christianity.
We do not seek to impose
our understanding on others. We do earnestly hope for continued dialogue with
those who disagree, for we believe that the Spirit is always calling us to
greater understanding.
We live in great concern
that colonial attitudes continue, particularly in attempts to impose a single
understanding across widely varying contexts and cultures. We note that the
cultural contexts in which The Episcopal Church's decisions have generated
the greatest objection and reaction are also often the same contexts where
women are barred from full ordained leadership, including the Church of England.
As Episcopalians, we note
the troubling push toward centralized authority exemplified in many of the
statements of the recent Pentecost letter. Anglicanism as a body began in
the repudiation of the control of the Bishop of Rome within an otherwise sovereign
nation. Similar concerns over self-determination in the face of colonial control
led the Scottish Episcopal Church to consecrate Samuel Seabury for The Episcopal
Church in the nascent United States – and so began the Anglican Communion.
We have been repeatedly
assured that the Anglican Covenant is not an instrument of control, yet we
note that the fourth section seems to be just that to Anglicans in many parts
of the Communion. So much so, that there are voices calling for stronger sanctions
in that fourth section, as well as voices repudiating it as un-Anglican in
nature. Unitary control does not characterize Anglicanism; rather, diversity
in fellowship and communion does.
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? In our context bowing to anxiety by ignoring that
sort of double-mindedness is usually termed a "failure of nerve."
Through many decades of wrestling with our own discomfort about recognizing
the full humanity of persons who seem to differ from us, we continue to work
at open and transparent communication as well as congruence between word and
behavior. We openly admit our failure to achieve perfection!
The baptismal covenant
prayed in this Church for more than 30 years calls us to respect the dignity
of all other persons and charges us with ongoing labor toward a holy society
of justice and peace. That fundamental understanding of Christian vocation
underlies our hearing of the Spirit in this context and around these issues
of human sexuality. That same understanding of Christian vocation encourages
us to hold our convictions with sufficient humility that we can affirm the
image of God in the person who disagrees with us. We believe that the Body
of Christ is only found when such diversity is welcomed with abundant and
radical hospitality.
As a Church of many nations,
languages, and peoples, we will continue to seek every opportunity to increase
our partnership in God's mission for a healed creation and holy community.
We look forward to the ongoing growth in partnership possible in the Listening
Process, Continuing Indaba, Bible in the Life of the Church, Theological Education
in the Anglican Communion, and the myriad of less formal and more local partnerships
across the Communion – efforts in mission and ministry that inform and
transform individuals and communities toward the vision of the Gospel –
a healed world, loving God and neighbor, in the love and friendship shown
us in God Incarnate.
May God's peace dwell
in your hearts,
The Most Rev. Katharine
Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church
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