Members of the steering committee for Via Media, USA, have authenticated, but sought to diminish the significance of plans already underway for the “Day After” the 2006 General Convention. The plans, documented in a draft copy of minutes from a Sept. 29 meeting of the steering committee, include the attempted removal from office of bishops and lay leaders in dioceses affiliated with the Anglican Communion Network and their replacement with persons the organization believes will remain obedient to the Constitution and Canons of the General Convention.
“The steering committee meeting was not open to the public and the minutes were not intended for public release,” said Joan R. Gunderson, who is listed at the end of the four-page document as temporary secretary. The steering committee, she said, met prior to the start of the Sept. 29-Oct. 2 annual meeting in Dallas, which was open to the public. Mrs. Gunderson, who is also vice president of Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh, an independent local organization affiliated with Via Media, USA, said the “strategy discussion” was part of a “what-if” contingency plan based on a “worst-case scenario” in which after the 75th General Convention next June in Columbus, Ohio, the Episcopal Church would remain in a smaller Anglican Communion with the majority of Anglican provinces in Africa breaking communion with the See of Canterbury and the network bishops seeking to follow.
“What will be our response the ‘Day After’ when the bishops start announcing they are in a ‘new’ Anglican Communion and the Network is ‘recognized’ as the only legitimate expression of the A.C. in North America?” the steering committee asked itself. “Blank presentments” for abandonment of communion should be prepared in advance along with documentation to have the “see” declared vacant and an “interim bishop” appointed, the draft minutes reported. The interim bishop would then be given a previously prepared request for a special convention “so that vacant spots in diocesan government can be filled (trustees, council, standing committee, commission on ministry, etc.).”
Christopher Wilkins, facilitator for Via Media, USA, said he arrived late for the Sept. 29 steering committee meeting and had not yet seen a copy of the draft minutes, but that the contingency plans as reported are consistent with the organization’s mission statement which says in part that the “alliance of associations of laity and clergy is committed to promoting and protecting the faith, unity, and vitality of the Episcopal Church as the American expression of Anglican tradition.”
“When there are challenges to remaining in the Episcopal Church, people need to face that,” Mr. Wilkins said.
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