Church of the Word
JOHN GUERNSEY'S COMMENTS ON WINDSOR REPORT 2004

Dear Friends,

The much-anticipated report of the worldwide Anglican Communion’s Lambeth Commission was released in London this Monday, October 18. I spent the day in the American Anglican Council office in Washington, helping to analyze the 93 page document and prepare statements for the media. Thank you for your prayers for my role!

The document, known as “The Windsor Report 2004” (named for the location of the Commission’s final meeting), contains many positive and important statements, yet it falls far short of what is needed to bring the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion through the present crisis.

Part of the difficulty in interpreting the report is because it has been written in the style of British diplomacy, which is especially puzzling to many of us Americans, who prefer blunt speech. Travelers to London know the famous warnings on the Tube (the subway), “Please mind the gap,” whereas the American equivalent is “WATCH OUT!” And so when the report says “the Episcopal Church is invited to express its regret” does it mean “you must or there will be serious consequences”? It will take some time for the implications of such statements to be fully known.

In the meantime, let me highlight a few important points, both positive and negative:

1. The report vindicates the position taken by biblically faithful churches, such as All Saints’, by affirming that “the Anglican Communion has always declared that its supreme authority is scripture” (paragraph 42).

2. It clearly affirms that the teaching of the Anglican Communion is expressed by the 1998 Lambeth Conference of Bishops resolution (I.10) “rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture.”

3. It makes the vital distinction between appropriate diversity in the Church on non-essential matters and inappropriate departures from essential Church teaching. “It has never been enough to say that we must celebrate or at least respect ‘difference’ without further ado. Not all ‘differences’ can be tolerated” (paragraph 89). The message is that the current teaching of the Episcopal church about human sexuality is an unacceptable departure from essential Christian truth.

4. It makes clear that the crisis in the Anglican Communion has arisen because of the actions taken by the Episcopal Church and in the Anglican Church of Canada in defiance of the Church’s teaching. It is the actions of the General Convention (voted for by our Bishop) that have threatened the unity of the Church, not those taken by parishes like All Saints’ in opposing them.

5. It calls upon the Episcopal Church to express regret for its actions and to put a moratorium on further consecrations of homosexual bishops or blessings of same sex relationships. But within a few minutes of the report’s release, U.S. Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold issued a statement defiantly asserting the positive place of homosexual bishops, priests and deacons and giving no hint of a willingness to consider a moratorium. Some other American bishops are being similarly defiant. The Bishop of Vermont, whose clergy bless same sex unions using a slightly edited version of the Marriage service from the Book of Common Prayer, said yesterday that such blessings will continue.

6. Unfortunately, the report does not call for true, biblical repentance. The call for expressions of “regret” has already been taken by a number of bishops to mean that they need only say they regret that people have been hurt, but need not be sorry for what they have done. The Bishop of Chicago, for example, has said, “I feel I did the just thing and the right thing in voting for Gene Robinson, so I don’t apologize for that, but I at the same time regret the unintended consequences of my actions.” Clearly, this will not be satisfactory to many around the world.

7. The report mistakenly trusts the Episcopal Church to correct its own errors. It invites those who had a role in consecrating Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire and those who authorize same sex blessings voluntarily to withdraw from Anglican gatherings. Bishop Duncan of Pittsburgh, the Moderator of the Anglican Communion Network, said, “The report assumes the Episcopal Church is healthy enough to police itself, and for 30 years the Episcopal Church has been doing its own thing.”

8. It asks those who, in response to the crisis in the U.S., have crossed diocesan boundaries without the permission of the local bishop, to stop doing so and to express “regret” for having done so. Sadly, the report makes a moral equivalence between the rescue efforts by some overseas bishops to help beleaguered orthodox parishes and the heretical actions of the Episcopal Church which made such rescue efforts necessary. As Diane Knippers of the Institute on Religion and Democracy put it, this is to imply “equivalence between the arsonist who started the fire and the fireman who must take an axe to the door in order to save the innocents caught in the burning building. Both actions are destructive, but the former are criminals and the latter heroes.” Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, who is committed to overseeing orthodox parishes in the U.S. for Nigerians and others, issued a statement which said, “We have been asked to express regret for our actions and ‘affirm our desire to remain in the Communion’. How patronizing! We will not be intimidated. In the absence of any signs of repentance and reform from those who have torn the fabric of our Communion, and while there is continuing oppression of those who uphold the Faith, we cannot forsake our duty to provide care and protection for those who cry out for our help.”

9. The report mistakenly asserts that the plan for Delegated Episcopal Pastoral Care (DEPO) of the House of Bishops is a sufficient response to the crisis facing orthodox parishes in hostile dioceses. As the Deans of the Network stated last March, DEPO is “a cumbersome bureaucratic process controlled by the very overseers from whom relief is sought. It inadequately deals with episcopal pastoral care and fails entirely to address such issues as ordination, the calling of clergy, church planting, finances or property….[T]he bishops have made clear by the terms of the plan for DEPO that the rejection of biblical authority and the endorsement of sexual intimacy outside of marriage are now the settled teaching of our Church; all that remains is to regulate the speed with which this new teaching is imposed on orthodox Episcopalians”.

10. The report proposes that the Anglican Communion establish a core covenant that all members of the Anglican family would agree on as a way of avoiding future crises caused by unilateralism on the part of one of the branches of the Communion.”

11. In its final paragraph, the report warns that if its recommendations are not followed “we shall have to begin to learn to walk apart” (paragraph 157). But Archbishop Akinola stated bluntly, “The Episcopal Church and Diocese of New Westminster [of Canada, which blesses same sex unions] are already walking alone on this and if they do not repent and return to the fold, they will find that they are all alone. They will have broken the Anglican Communion.”

It is important to remember that, as eager as we are for resolution of this crisis, this report is not the end of the story. The All Africa Bishops Conference will be held next week in Nigeria. Bishop Duncan and a number of orthodox primates from outside of Africa will be in attendance (as will our own Edwina Thomas!). We at All Saints’ and others throughout the Anglican Communion Network will be listening carefully to what they say about our future. Then in February, the 38 Primates (Archbishops) of the Anglican Communion will meet to act on the Windsor Report, deciding if they will accept, reject or change its recommendations.

It is an exciting time to be a Christian! We are called to bear witness to the Gospel in a denomination and a culture which have lost their moral and spiritual bearings. Please continue to pray for the clergy and Vestry as we listen to the Lord’s guidance for our life together.

I will hold an information session about these wider church issues at 12:45 p.m. on Sunday, October 31 in the multi-purpose room. Come with your questions!

Faithfully yours in Christ,

John A. M. Guernsey