No going backwards on TEC's sexual agenda
Jurisdictional boundary crossings will not cease, Says Presiding Bishop
Williams will come to the US on fund-raising tour
News Analysis
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
8/8/2008
There will be no going backwards on The Episcopal Church's pansexual agenda, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said in a live webcast from New York. The Bishop of New York, Mark Sisk who sat with her agreed.
Asked if a moratoria affecting the Episcopal Church's LGBT lobby would halt further ordinations and same-sex rites, Jefferts Schori said, the Episcopal Church has been living in a "season of gracious restraint for some time and I don't see there is any church-wide push to end that in the coming months. The General Convention is going to have to consider these issues. General Convention is the only body that really can decide to do anything significant related to them. Individual bishops have always made their own decisions within the canonical responsibilities of their dioceses."
When asked how Lambeth affects the status of gay and lesbian church members, Jefferts Schori said, "We were very clear, for an overwhelming majority of the bishops of this church, that the well being and adequate and appropriate pastoral care of gay and lesbian members of the church is a significant mission issue for us. We have been having conversations and debate for more than 40 years. Even though other parts of the communion may not understand that, we have been working at this for a long time. Our conversations are not going to end."
Interpretation: Diocesan bishops exercising local option will make the final decision. If liberal and revisionist bishops decide to continue either of these activities, Jefferts Schori will plead she is powerless to stop them, if challenged by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Bishop of Massachusetts, Tom Shaw said in an interview from Boston following Lambeth that he will continue to ordain gay clergy, which he called "pastorally important." He also said that local priests will continue to bless same-sex marriages, although Shaw said that those priests are doing so on their own, and that "I haven't authorized anybody to do anything." His "see no evil, hear no evil" approach policy does not apply to orthodox priests where he has demonstrated a scorched earth policy over the years.
Sisk said he realized how difficult a conversation about homosexuality is in some cultures and contexts. Simply to be talking about homosexuality was "offensive and shocking, even," he said. Continuing this conversation is going to be a serious challenge. "There are places where churches are in the minority and where to be associated with homosexuality is to be associated with evil. Lives are quite literally in danger. I was reminded of just exactly how straight the line is between our actions and the kind of oppressive circumstances in which some of our brothers and sisters live in parts of the world where we are a tiny minority," he said.
Sisk did not say he would ask his priests to cease offering rites for same-sex blessings nor he did say he would cease ordaining pansexualists to the ministry. At issue was the call by the Lambeth Conference for a moratoria on blessing same-sex unions and consecrating partnered homosexuals to the episcopate and crossing jurisdictions to minister to orthodox Episcopalians under siege from liberal and revisionist bishops.
During the webcast, questions were accepted from a live audience in New York and via email, one of which touched on crossing boundaries. Mrs. Jefferts Schori said such incursions into other dioceses "do not reflect positively on the mission of the church. The overwhelming majority [of bishops] sees incursions as inappropriate and needing to cease. That said, I'm not terribly hopeful that they will stop," she said.
Both bishops noted that there is often a lack of understanding in other parts of the world about The Episcopal Church. "I was surprised at questions about basic theological tenets and whether we really believe them or not. It's a reminder that even though we may think all Anglicans believe the basics of the faith, not everybody believes that we believe them," said Jefferts Schori.
Addressing the development of a proposed Anglican covenant that would outline basic beliefs, Jefferts Schori said, "there was great willingness to think about a covenant that spoke positively about what we do share as members of the communion. There was really no interest in producing a covenant that defined who could be excluded." A committee called the covenant design group will meet this fall to consider the comments from the bishops and possibly produce another draft that will then be made public and presented to the international Anglican Consultative Council in May.
"The ACC will make a decision about what to do next, whether to send it back for further revision, reject it or send on to the provinces for consideration," said Jefferts Schori. Sisk said one bishop in his group talked about how important it is for families to have standards, "but I said that you stick together, even if you disagree." Jefferts Schori said that "one bishop came up to me and said, 'What you're doing is making it very difficult for me, but your job is not to make my life easier. You need to be paying attention to the pastoral realities in your own context as I need to be in mine.'"
Sisk said that in church, "there is only 'us,' not a 'them and us'" and that the roles of gay and lesbian people have been "affirmed time and time again." Sisk said that in 1998, the structure of the legislative sessions seemed "designed to produce winners and losers," but this time "there was not a sense of winners and losers at the end of the day." Jefferts Schori praised a book on the listening process and invited everyone to read it.
The Lambeth conference ended with a shortfall of one million British pounds, (US $2 million,). When asked what TEC would do about it, Jefferts Schori, said Episcopal Church bishops provided bursaries for bishops in other provinces to come to Lambeth, but she did not say she would pay anything more to help defray costs to Lambeth. She said the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams has expressed a desire to come to the U.S. to do fundraising.
NOTE: As the sound and visual quality of the event was poor and occasionally broke up, VOL depended on a literal translation of the speakers' words from the ENS.
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