Can the Episcopal General Convention Repair the Church's Rifts?

When the triennial General Convention of the Episcopal Church meets this week in Columbus, Ohio, its House of Deputies and House of Bishops will consider 11 key resolutions that will have a direct impact on the relationship between the Episcopal Church and the 38 other provinces of the worldwide Anglican Communion. 

These resolutions have been proposed by a Special Commission on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion appointed by the two heads of General Convention, the president of the House of Deputies, George L.W. Werner, and the presiding bishop, Frank Griswold. One draft resolution expresses “our own deep regret for the pain that others have experienced with respect to our actions at the General Convention of 2003 and we offer our sincerest apology and repentance for having breached the bonds of affection in the Anglican Communion by any failure to consult adequately with our Anglican partners before taking these actions.” Another counsels those responsible at various stages of the election process for new bishops “to exercise very considerable caution” in electing “bishops whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion.” A third resolution recommends against the authorization of “public Rites of Blessing for same-sex unions, until some broader consensus in the Anglican Communion emerges.”

Other resolutions concern the integrity of diocesan boundaries, pastoral care of conservative dissenting parishes on the one hand and gay and lesbian Christians on the other, and various other recommendations intended to strengthen communion, such as including international representatives with voice but not vote on decision-making bodies in the national church, and committing the Episcopal Church to exploring whether an “Anglican Covenant,” recommended by the Windsor Report, might be developed as a way of heading off future crises.

The question on many peoples’ minds is: Even if these resolutions are passed by General Convention in their current form, would they be enough to satisfy the Episcopal Church’s domestic and international critics, thereby forestalling a major split in the Anglican Communion? Some conservative critics assert that the resolutions give the appearance of conformity while having merely the effect of slowing, not stopping, a liberal agenda that the Episcopal Church has given no signals it is willing to reconsider, let alone “repent” of. According to these critics, by apologizing for “any failure to consult” rather than “failure to consult,” in counseling “caution” rather than a moratorium on electing gay bishops, and in tacitly assuming that “some broader consensus” on same-sex unions will emerge in the wider Anglican Communion different from the conservative stance, these resolutions fall far short of the mark.

Conservatives have thus not expressed much optimism that these resolutions will make a substantive difference in the current crisis, and are predicting that nothing short of a complete about-face on the part of General Convention will avert a split both in the Anglican Communion and within the Episcopal Church itself.

Liberal critics, meanwhile, see no reason to apologize for taking actions that, according to them, are simply in keeping with Jesus’ gospel of inclusion and justice. While perhaps sympathetic to the pain such actions have necessarily caused those on the opposite side on these issues, they do not regard the actions themselves as in any way contrary to what faithful Christians are required to do, pointing out that following Christ is a costly proposition, and that refraining from proclaiming and living the gospel for the sake of a false unity would be a breach of integrity.

Continued on page 2: Differing definitions of sin.... »