During this hot summer I have been privileged to witness important movement toward greater Christian unity at both our 80th General Convention of The Episcopal Church in Baltimore in early July, and at the 15th Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops held at Canterbury in England in late July and early August.

At General Convention important progress was made in the passage of full communion agreements with Canadian Lutherans in our Churches Beyond Borders work, with finalization after many years of a full communion agreement with the Church of Sweden, as well as ongoing work toward full communion with Bavarian Lutherans, a topic which is on the calendar already for voting at the 81st General Convention.

The General Convention voted to re-establish the Standing Commission on Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations, replacing the current Task Force on Ecumenical and Interreligious Work.  The Task Force Statement on Interreligious Relations and two Guidelines for Muslim and Jewish Relations were also made available to the whole Church. And we join with the World Council of Churches and our Lutheran partners in supporting “Thursdays in Black: Towards a World Without Rape or Violence.”

The Lambeth Conference made significant progress toward building unity among our family of Anglican churches throughout the world. For us, the bishops of The Episcopal Church, the Lambeth Conference turned out to be a valuable and uplifting experience. Ninety-seven women bishops participated in the conference. There was no movement at the conference to expel our Episcopal Church from the Anglican Communion because of our support for same-gender marriages. We were welcomed, and we listened and learned from our sisters and brothers from throughout the world. And they listened to us as we studied Scripture in small-group Bible studies and as we together issued “calls” to the whole church on such issues as human dignity, evangelism, ecumenism, the environment, and science and faith. For many, as well as for me personally, the Lambeth Conference proved to be an experience of spiritual transformation which we want to share with the people of our dioceses.

During a summer of continuing racial, political, and economic division, let us give thanks to God that our beloved church has been given this gift of a season when both our General Convention and the Lambeth Conference have been graced by a gracious new spirit of unity.

The Rt. Rev. R. William Franklin chairs the Task Force to Coordinate Ecumenical and Interreligious Work.