The House of Bishops met this week at Camp Allen in Texas for their regular spring meeting. The main topic of the meeting was to respond to the Primates' Communique issued in February. They crafted a letter called a Message for God's People that explained their collective response to the Communique. They also developed "Mind of the House" resolutions and issued an invitation to the Archbishop of Canterbury to meet with a group of the bishops and discuss the issues.
Southern Ohio's Bishop-elect Tom Breidenthal and Bishop Ken Price offer their reflections on the House of Bishops meeting. Click here to read Bishop Price's response. Click here to read the Bishop-elect's response. They also encourage folks to use this forum as a place to talk about the events this week -- and about other issues in the diocese.
2 comments:
I for one am glad that the House of Bishops affirmed the proper canonical role of the House of Deputies and of Executive Council. I am thrilled that they asserted our provincial autonomy, as well as our desire to remain within the Anglican Communion (with that autonomy and the Constitution and Canons intact). We are a Communion of autonomous churches, not a worldwide Church. I see this as an affirmation of the baptismal ecclesiology of the 1979 Prayer Book, which is under assault by many in the Anglican world. Most importantly, I am also glad that they spoke out for the inclusion of all and against violence and the violation of human rights for LGBT persons. I wish they had named the Church of Nigeria and Archbishop Akinola by name, while reminding us of the fact that there is violence and persecution against LGBT persons around the world. Freedom of assembly, of the press, and of speech, as well as equal protection of the law should be non-negotiable, and Anglicans seem to be more worried about who is sleeping with whom than about basic human rights. I hope that they will reject the other ultimatums of the Primates, and that the Episcopal Church will continue to move forward and solidify the real but incomplete gains that we have made toward the inclusion of all.
The attempt to centralize power with the primates and to make Lambeth into something that it is not, i.e. a legislative rather than consultative body, is a betrayal of Anglican tradition, and it began with the laughable historical and theological innacuracies of the Windsor Report, which whatever the intentions of the more moderate members of the Lambeth Commission, was always a document in service of schism and a primatial power grab.
I am very encouraged by the statements from Bishop Price and Bishop-elect Breidenthal. We are in good hands in Southern Ohio, as we continue to negotiate our differences with charity and move forward in mission for the sake of God's Kingdom, where all are welcome at the table.
Bill Carroll
Rector
Church of the Good Shepherd, Athens
Although our small branch of the Church repeatedly states that it wants to remain within the Anglican Communion, it is clear that it will do so only on its own terms. Autonomy in matters of government does not include freedom to retinterpret scripture and doctrine, at least not to the extent that our unilateral actions are binding of other Anglicans. Perhaps they, too, will in time come to understand that the Bible and the historical teachings of catholic Christianity on sexuality are wrong. Until they do, it is we who are separated from them and not the other way around.
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