Greetings to all of you in the Episcopal Church, from Taiwan to Europe, Alaska to Ecuador, and everywhere between and beyond. I am grateful for the opportunity to address you again, and I thank Trinity Church, New York, for once more making this format possible.
I am sure that many of you are well aware of the general results of the House of Bishops meeting in New Orleans, but I would like to take a few moments to give you a bit more context and a few more details about what the bishops did together there. As we did in February, we will take the bulk of our time together to engage in conversation, and your questions are invited as a way to prompt that conversation.
We met intentionally in New Orleans, as an act of solidarity with the people of Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf coast, so that we might represent the prayers and concern of the whole church, and offer a small contribution to the rebuilding effort. We were told that 100,000 housing units were lost during Katrina and its aftermath, displacing nearly 250,000 people. Of those housing units, only about 4000 have been made habitable once again. Essentially all of the subsidized housing was lost, and many of us experienced the reality of police officers living in our hotel because there was no other alternative. Many of the bishops and their spouses, as well as a number of our Anglican Communion visitors, participated in various rebuilding efforts on one day of meeting. We pounded nails, placed dry wall, distributed sandwiches, and listened to the stories of despair and hope. Faith communities, including the Episcopal Church, are the backbone of ongoing relief and rebuilding efforts, and it appears that their primary role will continue to be vital.
When we first began to share the plans for this meeting, I asked the bishops to consider bringing a financial offering to relieve the suffering and contribute to rebuilding. As a result of an ingathering in the Convention Center in New Orleans, the same site that was the locus of so much death and suffering during the flooding, the dioceses of Louisiana and Mississippi received nearly 1 million dollars for their work. We celebrated your generosity in an ecumenical worship service, backed by the wonderful jazz of Irvin Mayfield, Jr. and his band.
The rebuilding efforts continue, and will for many years. Your participation, whether in prayer, financial gifts, or in physical labor, is needed now. Volunteers of all sorts are needed, and you can find out more by contacting the offices of each diocese. Go and contribute to the transformation, bring new life out of death and destruction, and be transformed yourselves.
The first part of our meeting was an opportunity for the bishops to hear from our Anglican Communion visitors, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, and to share our own joys and concerns with them. We heard some challenging words about different contexts around the Communion, and shared our own. We discovered, as we did in our labors in New Orleans and Mississippi, the reality and depth of our interconnectedness. When one part of the body suffers, all suffer. When one part rejoices, the spirits of all are lifted.
The latter part of our gathering produced a statement which represents a remarkable consensus among the bishops. The truly surprising aspect of this statement was its almost complete unanimity. With the exception of a small number who did not stay for the rest of the meeting following the Archbishop’s departure, the overwhelming majority of bishops engaged in the work of developing the statement with profound respect for one another. While there are parts of the statement that challenge each of us, we were able to stand together in offering it to the wider church. In that statement, we agreed to several things:
- we reaffirmed Resolution B033 of the last General Convention, which asks bishops and standing committees to exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of anyone whose manner of life represents a challenge to the wider church
- we pledged not to authorize public rites for blessing same-sex unions
- we commended a plan for episcopal visitors, using bishops within our church in circumstances where diocesan bishops have sought alternative oversight
- we urged the end to incursions by uninvited bishops
- we encouraged communion-wide consultation about the requests for alternate oversight, in ways that respect our polity
- we encouraged the listening process across the Communion, and look forward to hearing reports about that process
- we asked the ABC to seek a way to fully include the Bishop of New Hampshire in the Lambeth meeting
- we called for unequivocal and active commitment to the civil rights, safety, and dignity of gay and lesbian persons
This statement was received by our visitors on the Joint Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council and the Primates. Their overwhelming conclusion was that we have answered what was asked of us as the bishops of this church.
Some within our own church have expressed their displeasure with our statement, displeasure that comes from both ends of the spectrum. We reaffirmed commitments made at the last General Convention to wait and consider carefully before consenting to the election of another openly gay and partnered bishop, and to wait before authorizing rites for blessing same-sex unions. Those who seek the full sacramental inclusion of gay and lesbian Christians lament another delay. Those who seek a complete bar to their full and sacramental inclusion lament our unwillingness to deny that possibility. Those who are unhappy with the decisions of recent General Conventions in these matters, both for reasons of undue delay or for indications of theological change, did not hear what they yearned to hear. Both ends of the spectrum are being asked to remember the rest of the body.
The same challenge is presented in terms of alternate oversight. We agreed that there is some possibility for shared ministry, yet others will be dissatisfied that it is not a full turning over of the presiding bishop’s ministry to another primate.
This statement both affirms the church’s commitment to the full dignity of gay and lesbian persons and cautions us to wait before their full sacramental inclusion. There is a fundamental tension there that will continue to challenge us all. That is an Anglican stance, unsatisfactory at some level to many, yet it recognizes that the body is larger than any one of us. It is not unlike the settlement that Elizabeth I urged on the English Church, saying that each could believe what he wished in his heart, but common worship would continue to include the broadest possible spectrum.
To those who argue from a perspective of justice that delay is immoral, I can only say that our ability to retain our connections within this church and around the Anglican Communion also continues our ability to advocate for the full dignity of gay and lesbian persons around the globe. It also means that our work toward the relief of human suffering, and to putting our gospel beliefs into action, has more possibility when we can work through the vast networks of the Communion than we can alone.
To those who argue that consideration of a change in our understanding of sexual ethics is inappropriate, I can only say that we have changed our understandings before, for example about divorce and remarriage, about contraception, and about polygamy. There is abundant reason to continue our theological exploration of this topic, and as our Anglican Communion visitors noted, it seems to be the vocation of the Episcopal Church to keep this matter before the rest of the Communion for discussion.
One of my predecessors was fond of saying, “in this church there will be no outcasts.” I concur, and I challenge each one of us to consider who it is we would most like to be rid of. That person, my friends, is the image of Christ in our midst. There will be no outcasts in this church, whether because of sexual orientation or theological perspective. God has given us to each other, to love and to learn from each other. May God bless each and every part of this body.