Details on Tanzania Meeting Few For Western Louisiana Bishop

From The Living Church:

01/26/2007

The Rt. Rev. D. Bruce MacPherson, Bishop of Western Louisiana and president
of the Presiding Bishop's Council of Advice, has accepted an invitation to
attend the primates' meeting in Tanzania on Feb. 14. He joins the Rt. Rev.
Robert W. Duncan, Bishop of Pittsburgh and moderator of the Anglican
Communion Network, as the other voices from The Episcopal Church that
Archbishop of Canterbury proposed including in an Advent letter to the
primates.

"The Episcopal Church (TEC) is not in any way a monochrome body and we need
to be aware of the full range of conviction within it," Archbishop Rowan
Williams wrote. "I am sure that other primates, like myself, will welcome
the clear declarations by several bishops and diocesan conventions
(including those dioceses represented at the Camp Allen meeting earlier this
year) of their unequivocal support for the process and recommendations of
the Windsor Report. There is much to build upon here. There are many in TEC
who are deeply concerned as to how they should secure their relationships
with the rest of the Communion; I hope we can listen patiently to these
anxieties."

In a Jan. 26 interview with The Living Church, Bishop MacPherson said he had
very few specific details as to what responsibilities he and Bishop Duncan
would have during the meeting or how long the two diocesan bishops would be
staying in Tanzania.

"I was asked to attend by the Archbishop of Canterbury," he said. "I spoke
with the Presiding Bishop after accepting and informed her of the invitation
and my decision."

Last month after a Dec. 4-6 meeting of the Presiding Bishop's Council of
Advice in Weehawken, N.J., Episcopal News Service published an article in
which it was noted that the council had discouraged Archbishop Williams from
inviting "additional 'dissenting' bishops from this church" to the February
14-19 primates' meeting in Tanzania. Bishop MacPherson said the council was
not scheduled to meet again before the primates' meeting, but the group
often conducts business by telephone conference call and it was possible
that they would confer in that manner prior to the start of the primates'
meeting.

"This is an important meeting, a time during which the Windsor Report and
the direction forward with the development of a Covenant will play a
significant part in their time together," Bishop MacPherson wrote in a
letter to his clergy that was published on the internet website Drell's
Descants. "Importantly, the response of our General Convention 2006 to the
Windsor Report will be addressed as a part of this work. The outcome of this
gathering of the primates could have a significant impact on not only
Episcopal Church, but the Communion as a whole. I ask that you hold this
meeting in your prayers, and know that in a few days I will be sending out a
suggested prayer for use in our worship, and commended to the diocese for
personal use."

Bishop MacPherson said the prayer resource for the primates' meeting was
planned before he received the invitation to participate.

"This invitation is not just about me, but it is about us, the Diocese of
Western Louisiana and the faithful ministry that we hold up before the wider
church," Bi shop MacPherson wrote in his letter to the clergy.

Steve Waring