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	Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams (left) and Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori listen to a reporter's question during a news conference during the House of Bishops meeting. Photo by Melodie Woerman

Bishops’ statement is enough, Anglican committee says

By Matt Davies
Episcopal News Service

The Episcopal Church has “clarified all outstanding questions” relating to its response to the requests of the Windsor Report, according to a report released Oct. 3 by the Joint Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council and the Primates of the Anglican Communion.

The report also said a statement from the House of Bishops issued Sept. 25 answered questions from the Primates, the archbishops or presiding bishops of Anglican provinces around the world, which asked for clarifications from The Episcopal Church by Sept. 30.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has sent the report to all the Anglican Communion’s Primates and members of the Anglican Consultative Council, asking them to consult in their provinces and respond to him by the end of October.

The committee’s 19-page report in two parts comes in response to the House of Bishops’ Sept. 20-25 meeting in New Orleans.

The first part of the report addresses the Episcopal Church’s response to the Windsor Report, released in 2004 with recommendations of how the Anglican Communion can maintain unity amid differing theological viewpoints.

The second part addresses pastoral issues concerning dissenting groups within the church, gay and lesbian people, and issues of polity within the Episcopal Church, including a call for unauthorized interventions by bishops in other jurisdictions to cease.

The Primates, in a Feb. 19 communiqué issued in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, requested that the House of Bishops make “an unequivocal common covenant that the bishops will not authorize any Rite of Blessing for same-sex unions in their dioceses” and “confirm that the passing of Resolution B033 of the 75th General Convention means that a candidate for episcopal orders living in a same-sex union shall not receive the necessary consent unless some new consensus on these matters emerges across the Communion.”

Met with bishops

The Joint Standing Committee (JSC) and the Archbishop of Canterbury met with the House of Bishops for part of its New Orleans meeting, but by the time the committee members departed, the bishops were still formalizing their response.

In its report, the JSC reiterated that the bishops pledged themselves not to authorize public rites in their dioceses “until General Convention takes further action.”

The report further noted that the bishops do “not have the power to bind future actions of General Convention, in the same way that most of the general synods of the Provinces of the Anglican Communion cannot be bound by any part or section of their polity.”

At the time the report was issued Oct. 2, all but four members of the JSC had responded to endorse its content.

The JSC recommends that the Archbishop of Canterbury encourage further consultation “on the issue of the provision of pastoral care and oversight for dissenting congregations and parishes...” and that such consultation “could be taken in conjunction with the scheme for ‘episcopal visitors,’” announced by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori at the House of Bishops meeting and supported by the bishops in their statement.

Ten bishops have accepted Jefferts Schori’s invitation to serve as “episcopal visitors” to dioceses that have requested this provision.

The JSC said it also is mindful of the increasing levels of litigation within the Episcopal Church “and of the call of the primates at Dar es Salaam to bring an end to such litigation.”

In its New Orleans’ statement, the bishops recognized the need for “communion-wide consultation with respect to the pastoral needs of those seeking alternative oversight, as well as the pastoral needs of gay and lesbian persons in this and other provinces.”

Acknowledging the need for incursions to cease, the JSC noted the bishops’ commitment to uphold the principle of local jurisdiction.

The report cites communiqués from the last four Primates’ meetings in which they call for the integrity of each other’s provinces to be respected and note the urgent need to bring an end to all interventions and for the recommendations of the Windsor Report to be embraced.

In its conclusion, the JSC acknowledged that consecration of a gay bishop in 2003 had damaged the life of the Anglican Communion but said that with the issuance of the House of Bishops’ statement, “the Communion should move towards closure on these matters, at least for the time being.”