Expansion of Communion Partnership
is announced

Archbishop Valentino L. Mokiwa of Tanzania has agreed to serve as one of three "Communion Partner Primates," said a group of 13 diocesan bishops who have been working on a modified version of the Episcopal Visitors concept first announced by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori at the House of Bishops meeting in New Orleans.

"Many within our dioceses and in congregations in other dioceses seek to be assured of their connection to the Anglican Communion," said Bishop D. Bruce MacPherson of Western Louisiana, a partnership spokesperson. "Traditionally this has been understood in terms of bishop-to-bishop relationships. Communion Partners fleshes out this connection in a significant and symbolic way."

Archbishop Mokiwa was installed as primate of Tanzania May 25 in Dodoma. The other Communion Partner Primates are Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi of Burundi and the Most Rev. Drexel Gomez, who will retire as Archbishop of the West Indies later this year.

The bishops said they are committed to transparency and "the observance of diocesan boundaries within The Episcopal Church." The group will communicate about their work to the Presiding Bishop, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Primates' Meeting and the Anglican Consultative Council among others.

The initial group of four Communion Partner Bishops has grown to 13. They are: William H. Love, Albany; John W. Howe, Central Florida; James M. Stanton, Dallas; Russell E. Jacobus, Fond Du Lac; Michael G. Smith, North Dakota; Edward S. Little, Northern Indiana; Geralyn Wolf, Rhode Island; Mark J. Lawrence, South Carolina; John C. Bauerschmidt, Tennessee; Don A. Wimberly, Texas; Gary E. Lillibridge, West Texas; James M. Adams, Western Kansas; D. Bruce MacPherson, Western Louisiana.
The bishops said that they will only minister in areas where they are invited. They are encouraged that other bishops, clergy and congregations of The Episcopal Church who share the groups' objectives have expressed the desire to join with them.

Full text of "Communion Partners"

Communion Partner Rector's Statement


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