Joint Standing Committee: Bishops 'Clarified All Questions'

10/03/2007

The Episcopal Church “has clarified all outstanding questions” directed explicitly to its bishops in the Windsor Report, according to a majority of members of the Joint Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council and the Primates.

The joint standing committee met concurrently with the House of Bishops during its meeting Sept. 20-25 in New Orleans. The report was released Oct. 2 without the endorsement of five of the 14 members.

“In preparing this report, we have been careful to distinguish between the response to the two questions concerning the Windsor Report which the Primates addressed to the Episcopal Church and on which they requested an answer by 30 September 2007, and other urgent but distinct matters raised in that Communiqué, for the resolution of which no specific date was set,” the report stated.

The 19-page report is divided into two sections: The first part evaluates the bishops’ response to same-sex blessings and the consecration of partnered homosexual persons as bishops. The second section addresses pastoral provisions for parishes and dioceses alienated by recent General Convention decisions concerning human sexuality.

The committee believes that whatever pastoral provision is ultimately approved must be acceptable to the dioceses and parishes requesting it. The report commends the "episcopal visitor" plan announced in New Orleans by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as a promising starting point. The committee concluded that no agreement will be possible as long as "incursions by uninvited bishops" continue in the United States.

“As a Joint Standing Committee, we do not see how certain primates can in good conscience call upon The Episcopal Church to meet the recommendations of the Windsor Report while they find reasons to exempt themselves from paying regard to them,” the report stated. “We recommend that the Archbishop remind them of their own words and undertakings.”

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has begun soliciting the views of the primates on the bishops' latest statement on gay bishops and rites for the blessing of same-sex unions. The joint standing committee report and the views of the primates will be among a variety of resources Archbishop Williams will use in finalizing his invitation list to the Lambeth Conference of bishops next year and in determining the next steps to be taken by the Anglican Communion in the “Listening Process” study of homosexuality.

This article comes from The Living Church Foundation
http://www.livingchurch.org/

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