Matt Kennedy at Stand Firm:
Monday, July 28, 2008 • 12:05 pm
Press Conference 5:00pm
++Aspinall:
Welcome back and thanks for being here a 2nd time. You should have both documents I spoke of today the first being the draft reflection and the second being the 3rd preliminary document of the WCG
++Clive Hanford is here as the chair of the WCG
++Herft is here from the Reflections group.
++Hanford: As you know we had the second hearing on the WCG this afternoon and I spoke the other day about the first hearing and the first part of our presentation. As you know these are preliminary observations intended to stimulate dialog and that process is paying off. We presented today the last stage of the preliminary observations. If you recall the first set of observations was entitled “Where we are” the second “where we would like to be” and this one is “How do we get there”
I have several comments:
1. On the question of the moratoria. We observe here that there have been calls for
moratoria with regard to blessings of same sex relationships, consecration of non-celibate homosexuals and the extra-jurisdictional interventions. And we renew these calls
We believe that that a call for a moratoria on all of these will help us to pull back, take stock, draw breath, and dialog together as we go forward from here.
2. We suggested 2 ways of responding: 1. The swift formation of a pastoral Forum. Something like this has been called for by the Windsor Commission, the Primates at Dromantine, and at Dar Es Salaam and we have called for this forum to be appointed by the ABC with a bishop as the chairman working closely with the ABC and the membership which represents the breadth of communion in terns of geography and view.
We have seen that this could be a body that could respond quickly were there is a pressure point in the communion.
We suggested that as the covenant process unfolds this Forum might be included in the Covenant as a mechanism for achieving reconciliation.
2. And then what about those parishes and dioceses and provinces that gave broken away from their dioceses or provinces?
We have spoken of moratoria particularly applying to activities of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada but we also recognize that provinces like Nigeria, Uganda, and the Southern Cone have been involved in interventions. We wish to include them in the moratoria and we hope to find a way of healing the breach cause by the interventions.
What we are proposing is a kind of safe place into which these diocese and parishes can come which will not be dependent upon primates or others in other provinces, but they will be held in a sort of holding bay, a safe place that will have a link to that pastoral Forum we spoke of and they can hold there in trust until the day when through dialog they can return to their parent bodies.
We have been trying to find analogies: it is like a younger member of the family who is not getting on with parents at the moment or is out of court in the family an aunt or and uncle can take them under the wing and work for reconciliation. They are not out of the family but they are in a safe place.
The principle of “escrow” is another way of providing a short hand illustration of this idea. If I am buying a house I put my money with a solicitor who holds it in trust and then hands it over to the person from whom I am buying the house.
These are fundamental ideas provided as a way of putting us forward into the next stage to at least give us a basis to go forward.
Thank you
Archbishop Herft: Let me put forward the scheme in which I have been working. As I understanding it, the design of the conference is that every bishop should have a voice and be listened to and bring their own perspectives to bear
The bibles study groups of eight or so feed into the indaba groups of about 40 which are designed as respectful ways of listening to each other in small breakaway groups and as the whole group of 40 gathers. Each group has a facilitator and a reporter who records what is said and repeats it back to the group so everyone can hear what has been said.
Each group is asked to nominate 3 persons for the reflections group and that was done, and then when the group is selected, we do our work.
The reports from the indaba groups come in and the reflections produced take in not only the written content but the spirit and the soul of what has taken place. We hope to provide a document that reflects a narrative. Not large reports but what is happening as bishops engage in respectful conversations.
So the first document has a number of possibilities and there are other things that are sill being sorted out. By tomorrow afternoon we should have a fuller document.
We have had some feedback this morning and we will re-write the document in keeping with what we have heard.
The themes that we have so far outlined include the introduction to the Conference and the retreat. The narrative was formed through the bible studies and indabas and by attention to the indaba group reflections documents
So far we have identified several areas. The first draft document is before you. It is a very preliminary document already we have had people say that this is not what they were saying. We hope at the end of the day to be able to provide another document that incorporates the four indaba principles:
1. Faithful to gospel
2. Faithful to the indaba process of listening
3. Faithful to the communion
4. Faithful to the bishops gathered
Questions:
Steve Waring: I would like both bishops to comment in section C number 14, the section of the Reflection document that deals with the communion and evangelism. It seems support those isolated in their dioceses by affirming initiatives like GAFCON and if you read that in terms of the escrow language used in the Preliminary report we see, well, I see in this a creation of a distinct parallel provincial system in the Americas.
Herft: I have a cross against that very section on my sheet, the group that suggested it wants to rework this. I cannot speak definitively on that section yet in any case.
Aspinall: these, again, are shorthand
Hanford: The escrow idea is not something that will build and bud but it is a temporary idea to deal with those who are already out. It is not something that should grow. It is meant to be a diminishing body as diocese and parishes return to their homes.
Kallsen: how far back would this go? Are you saying that churches that have left, say to Uganda or Nigeria, years ago give their property back?
A: that is the sort of detail that would have to be worked out. This is a preliminary document
Ruth: In the Report, there seems to be the implicit suggestion that Gene Robinson should resign? Secondly, the conservative provinces and diocese which have become engaged in border crossing, some of them, have asked for provincial oversight from the ABC, is this essentially what is happening?
Hanford: The idea did not directly come up as a result of that. That latter point will be something considered as we put flesh on the escrow concert.
We are not intending to imply that VGR should resign as a result of what we are calling for. We are aware that he was elected bishop as a result of the processes of the Episcopal Church whatever we think of the results of those processes.
Q: You said you are offering a safe place for conservative dioceses and provinces but there seems to be no safe place for gay and lesbian people in the communion. It does not seem balanced.
Hanford: I hear what you say and it may not be balanced in a number of areas because it is preliminary and will not go far enough on a number of fronts
I would say that on page 3 we did under those bullet points: ministering pastorally and sensitively reaffirm Lambeth 1.10 about people being welcomed and treated properly and we call for all bishops to work with their governments for the decriminalization of any homosexuality
Q: Naugton: Do you think that the Report will be acceptable given that some even in the Continuation group support the ordination of gays and lesbians?
Hanford: I hope that the Report will be accepted in an early stage of conversation and dialog. These are preliminary and we hope to have people to go on them. What we are trying to do is get to a point where we can have that dialog on a wide place
Q: You make a point to say that this report is a preliminary one. What is next? Where do these observations go?
Handford: There is one set of observations divined into 3 parts. We will now as a group take on what we have heard as the response; those things that we have heard from the floor and written observations that have been put to us plus whatever we have heard as conversations. We take them all to the net stage. We are working on a time scale that leads up to the ACC meeting in May of next year
Before we get there we will advise the ABC. That is where we are
Hearft: But I would add that this conference may take this report up through the indaba process and produce something in the Reflection.
Riazza Butt: if you follow the logic through to the end, the conclusion is that you are telling people both to stop consecrations of partnered gay clergy and yet you say that the process of consecrating VGR is valid.
Hanford: we are asking now not that VGR be defrocked. We do not have defrocking in the church now. We are just saying there should not be any more consecrations or same sex blessings.
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