Day 6, Bishop Lillibridge (click here) reflects on a difficult day in the House of Bishops which considered and passed D025.
Archive for July 13th, 2009
Bishop’s Audio Report (Monday, July 13)
Monday, July 13th, 2009Bishops Pass D025
Monday, July 13th, 2009
DWTX from Anaheim - Saying it reflects where The Episcopal Church is at this time, the House of Bishops on Monday passed, 99 to 45, resolution D025 which declares that the process of discerning candidates for ordination follows current Episcopal Church canons.
Basically, D025 affirms the desire of The Episcopal Church to participate fully in the life of the Anglican Communion while continuing to listen to the stories of gay and lesbian persons, and says calls to the ordained ministry are determined through our discernment process.
The crux of the resolution is carried in its sixth and seventh resolves. As it was received from the House of Deputies, the sixth resolve “affirms that God has called and may call such individuals [gay and lesbian persons] to any ordained ministry in The Episcopal Church through our discernment processes acting in accordance with the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church.
A motion by Bishop Dorsey Henderson of Upper South Carolina added that “God’s call is a mystery which the Church attempts to discern for all people acting in accordance with the Constitution . . .”
In proposing the amendment, Henderson acknowledged that “What we do affects each other. I can’t do anything in my diocese that does not affect the rest of the church. I think we have not worked out what it means to be part of something larger. I would hope that this amendment states to the larger church that we are aware of what we do and the effect that has on the larger family, and yet we continue to struggle with these issues.”
Bishop Geralyn Wolf of Rhode Island, chair of the World Mission legislative committee which crafted resolution D025, had advised bishops to reject the measure because it could threaten a proposed Anglican covenant and undermine “mission at home and abroad because it presumes a theological understanding that we have not in fact established.”
But Bishop Mark Hollingsworth of Ohio, who authored a second amendment that added the words “and that” in front of “God’s call is a mystery” and other supporters said the vote is “an honest reflection of who we are as a church and where we are.” Whether or not D025 overturns B033, passed at the 2006 General Convention, “remains to be seen,” said Hollingsworth.
Bishop Henry Parsley of Alabama and others who voted “no” said passage of the resolution would not be well-received by some members of the Anglican Communion.
“I long for us to be an inclusive church, but not a polarized church,” he said. “We need to be a part of the larger Anglican Communion in what we do in this matter. I think it will be interpreted internationally as a rejection of B033. I actually think it’s more nuanced and subtle than that.”
Bishop Duncan Gray of Mississippi reflected that with or without the amendment, the resolution neither overturned nor did not overturn B033. “I’m not sure B033 ever had the weight of a canon,” he said. “It had the weight of mutual trust and forbearance.”
Some bishops said that the resolution assures access to the ordination process but is not a guarantee of ordination. “We are guaranteed access to the process, not the ordination,” said Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, whose election in 2003 was the flashpoint for the past six years of conflict. Robinson said he hopes the church can “avoid some sort of train wreck” over the resolution.
For Bishop Gary Lillibridge, the importance of the resolution lies in the seventh resolve that “acknowledges that members of The Episcopal Church, as of the Anglican Communion, based on careful study of the Holy Scriptures and in light of tradition and reason, are not of one mind and Christians of good conscience disagree about some of these matters.”
“That resolve accurately reflects where we are as a Church,” said Lillibridge. “If it is descriptive, I am in favor of it. But if it is proscriptive, telling me what I can and cannot do as a bishop, that’s an entirely different thing for me.” Ultimately Lillibridge and Bishop Suffragan David Reed voted against the resolution.
Because the bishops amended the resolution as it was received from the House of Deputies, it will now return to deputies for their action.
Eucharist Highlights Episcopal Pageantry, UTO Mission
Monday, July 13th, 2009
DWTX from Anaheim – Episcopal News Service – On July 12, Episcopalians at General Convention went to a Sunday service that was somewhat different from the thousands that occurred around the church that day. This Eucharist took place in a cavernous hall, was led by the current and two former presiding bishops, and featured a symbol of church members’ generosity: the United Thank Offering “ingathering.”
Leaving discussion, debate and theological differences at the door, the estimated 7,000 Episcopalians stood together to experience a variety of pageantry expressed in radiant vestments, in soulful music and in one of the clearest sacramental displays of the church’s mission: the acknowledgement of the $6.7 million collected by the United Thank Offering over the past triennium.
Each diocese was introduced as representatives approached the altar and presented slips of paper with the dollar amount they raised over the past triennium for UTO, a grant-making agency that supports work that alleviates human suffering.
UTO grants are funded in large part with the money that Episcopalians deposit in small cardboard “blue boxes,” which they keep in their homes and offices. The total amount of money available to grant in 2008 was $2.1 million; in 2007, $2.2 million; and in 2006, $2.4 million, according to UTO President Regina Ratterree.
The Diocese of West Texas has been the recipient of a UTO grant more than once. Most recently, the Uvalde Food Pantry organized by St. Philip’s Episcopal Church received a $40,000 grant to purchase the pantry facility from which food is distributed throughout th;e community.
Worshipers added another $28,168.92 during the offertory collected during the service.
Many agreed that the Scripture readings also seemed divinely appointed: From Isaiah, the congregation heard the call for God’s people to “beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.” From Ephesians, they were reminded that Christ Jesus “is our peace” who “has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.”
And from Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, they heard a timely interpretation of Jesus’ first instruction for the mission field as recounted in Luke 10:1-9 – travel light, offer peace, and proclaim the reign of God has come.
“Episcopalians are like Boy Scouts,” Jefferts Schori said. “We like to be ready, with prayer book, hymnal, and bulletin in hand, and a Swiss army knife in our back pocket to open the wine bottle… This very convention is a testimony to our love for order, our desire to process and organize and structure our lives together.”
“The challenge is that structure or culture can become an idol, an image of our lust for control. Jesus isn’t interested in taking extra rations or all the comforts of home or in making hotel reservations for every stop on the journey.”
She then directed that challenge to convention-goers: “When you leave this place, how much more stuff will you have than when you arrived? You can ship the papers home, but are you open enough to receive what is offered here – from the housekeeper in your hotel room, the deputy across the aisle, an international or ecumenical visitor, or the person who beats you to the microphone?
Many said those words resonated with them in terms of work to be done at convention, but also as they relate to mission in the world.
– Mary Frances Schjonberg, Pat McCaughan, the Rev. Jerald Hyche, Marjorie George contributed to this report.
Former PB Browning Honored
Monday, July 13th, 2009DWTX from Anaheim – Episcopal News Service — The Episcopal Peace Fellowship (EPF) on July 11 honored former Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning and his wife, Patti, as “living examples of Christ’s prophetic witness” with the John Nevin Sayre Peace Award.
Surrounded by family, friends, and former colleagues — including West Texas Deputy Robert Browning, Edmond’s brother, and Robert’s wife Marylee — the Brownings were given a copy of an icon originally commissioned for former Utah Bishop Paul Jones, a pacifist forced to resign his episcopate because of his opposition to World War I. The Sayre award is named after a founding member of the U.S. branch of the interfaith Fellowship of Reconciliation, which was instrumental in founding EPF in 1939. Both organizations advocate for peace and nonviolent conflict resolution.
Former Presiding Bishop Browning grew up in the Diocese of West Texas where he was active at Camp Capers as a young person. After his ordination, he served Church of the Good Shepherd in Corpus Christi (1954 to 1956), and Church of the Redeemer, Eagle Pass (1956 to 1959). He later became Bishop of Okinawa and then Bishop of Hawaii, serving as Presiding Bishop from 1985 to 1997.
Brian Grieves, outgoing director of the Episcopal Church’s advocacy center, recounted how Browning went to a leper colony soon after arriving as bishop of Okinawa. “Receiving the instructions on how the service would proceed, he was told that the leprosy patients who would be confirmed would have a lovely linen doily placed on their heads, so the bishop could lay hands on their heads without touching them.
“Ed Browning said, ‘I don’t think we’ll be needing the doilies,’ and for the first time he laid his hands upon the confirmands and touched them,” Grieves said.
Grieves also described walking down Second Avenue in New York with Patti Browning. “There would be a homeless person on the side of the street. Patti would say, ‘Brian, give him a dollar.’ And I did, although I was always a little skeptical.”
“Patti is not skeptical,” said Grieves. “Patti has such a passion for the marginalized and oppressed people and poor people and identified so deeply with them because she, too, has the heart of a pastor. And that’s why we are honoring these two people tonight, out of that deep sense of pastoral care.”
Accepting the award, Browning said, “I think this has been one of the most meaningful things that has happened during the course of our time together and our ministry together.
“We feel extremely blessed and loved in a way that … has meant everything in the world to us,” he said. “We both have shared that sense the last few hours.”
– by Sharon Sheridan, copy editor of Episcopal Life, revised.
Same-gender Blessings Proposal Moves to House of Bishops
Monday, July 13th, 2009DWTX from Anaheim – Episcopal News Service — A resolution asking for the collection and development of theological resources and liturgies of blessings for same-gender unions for consideration at the next General Convention is headed to the House of Bishops.
The resolution invites participation in the process by others throughout the worldwide Anglican Communion and also asks the Anglican Consultative Council, the communion’s main policy-making body, to be “invited into conversation regarding this resolution and the work that proceeds from it.”
The Prayer Book, Liturgy and Music committee recommended adoption of an amended version of Resolution C056 on July 13, with bishops supporting it 6-0 and deputies 26-1. It would direct the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music, in consultation with the House of Bishops Theology Committee, to collect and develop the materials and to “devise an open process … inviting participation from dioceses, congregations and individuals who are or have already engaged in the study or design of such rites throughout the Anglican Communion.”
The resolution asks that “all bishops, noting particularly those in dioceses within civil jurisdictions where same-gender marriage, civil unions or domestic partnerships are legal, may provide generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of this church.” It also says that “no bishop or other member of the clergy shall be compelled to authorize or officiate at such liturgies.”
Alabama Bishop Henry Parsley supported the resolution but filed a minority report advocating deleting the reference to “all bishops” so as to focus on the six states where same-gender marriage or civil unions are legal.
– by Sharon Sheridan