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Anglicanism |
 October
18, 2004
St. Luke’s Day
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
I write to you from London where I am attending a meeting of the Primates’
Standing Committee. I have had a matter of hours to review the Report of
the Lambeth Commission on Communion, thus I will now offer only some
preliminary observations. It will take considerable time to reflect upon
the Report, which consists of some 100 pages. Over the next months it
will be discussed in a number of venues, including the Executive Council
meeting in November and the Winter Meeting of the House of Bishops in
January. After an opportunity for further study and reflection, I will
have more to say about the Commission’s work.
The members of the Commission, chaired by Archbishop Robin Eames, clearly
have worked with care and great diligence, and the fact that they have
unanimously put forward the Report, which individually may give them
pause, is no small accomplishment.
The Commission was obliged to consider a number of sometimes conflicting
concerns, and therefore in these next days the Report will doubtless be
read from many points of view and given any number of interpretations. It
is extremely important that it be read carefully as a whole and viewed in
its entirety rather than being read selectively to buttress any particular
perspectives.
As Anglicans we interpret and live the gospel in multiple contexts, and
the circumstances of our lives can lead us to widely divergent
understandings and points of view. My first reading shows the Report as
having in mind the containment of differences in the service of
reconciliation. However, unless we go beyond containment and move to some
deeper place of acknowledging and making room for the differences that
will doubtless continue to be present in our Communion, we will do
disservice to our mission. A life of communion is not for the benefit of
the church but for the sake of the world. All of us, regardless of our
several points of view, must accept the invitation to consider more deeply
what it means to live a life of communion, grounded in the knowledge that
“in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself.”
Given the emphasis of the Report on difficulties presented by our
differing understandings of homosexuality, as Presiding Bishop I am
obliged to affirm the presence and positive contribution of gay and
lesbian persons to every aspect of the life of our church and in all
orders of ministry. Other Provinces are also blessed by the lives and
ministry of homosexual persons. I regret that there are places within our
Communion where it is unsafe for them to speak out of the truth of who
they are.
The Report will be received and interpreted within the Provinces of the
Communion in different ways, depending on our understanding of the nature
and appropriate expression of sexuality. It is important to note here
that in the Episcopal Church we are seeking to live the gospel in a
society where homosexuality is openly discussed and increasingly
acknowledged in all areas of our public life.
For at least the last 30 years our church has been listening to the
experience and reflecting upon the witness of homosexual persons in our
congregations. There are those among us who perceive the fruit of the
Spirit deeply present in the lives of gay and lesbian Christians, both
within the church and in their relationships. However, other equally
faithful persons among us regard same gender relationships as contrary to
scripture. Consequently, we continue to struggle with questions regarding
sexuality.
Here I note the Report recommends that practical ways be found for the
listening process commended by the Lambeth Conference in 1998 to be taken
forward with a view to greater understanding about homosexuality and same
gender relationships. It also requests the Episcopal Church to contribute
to the ongoing discussion. I welcome this invitation and know that we
stand ready to make a contribution to the continuing conversation and
discernment of the place and ministry of homosexual persons in the life of
the church.
The Report calls our Communion to reconciliation, which does not mean the
reduction of differences to a single point of view. In fact, it is my
experience that the fundamental reality of the Episcopal Church is the
diverse center, in which a common commitment to Jesus Christ and a sense
of mission in his name to a broken and hurting world override varying
opinions on any number of issues, including homosexuality. The diverse
center is characterized by a spirit of mutual respect and affection rather
than hostility and suspicion. I would therefore hope that some of the
ways in which we have learned to recognize Christ in one another, in spite
of strongly held divergent opinions, can be of use in other parts of our
Communion.
As Presiding Bishop I know I speak for members of our church in saying how
highly we value our Communion and the bonds of affection we share.
Therefore, we regret how difficult and painful actions of our church have
been in many provinces of our Communion, and the negative repercussions
that have been felt by brother and sister Anglicans.
In a “Word to the Church” following the meeting of our House of Bishops in
September we wrote as follows. “We believe our relationships with others
make real and apparent God’s reconciling love for all of creation. Our
mutual responsibility, interdependence and communion are gifts from God.
Therefore, we deeply value and are much enriched by our membership in the
Anglican Communion. We also value Anglican comprehensiveness and its
capacity to make room for difference.”
One section of the Report recommends the development of a covenant to be
entered into by the provinces of the Communion. This notion will need to
be studied with particular care. As we and other provinces explore the
idea of a covenant we must do so knowing that over the centuries Anglican
comprehensiveness has given us the ability to include those who wish to
see boundaries clearly and closely drawn and those who value boundaries
that are broad and permeable. Throughout our history we have managed to
live with the tension between a need for clear boundaries and for room in
order that the Spirit might express itself in fresh ways in a variety of
contexts.
The Report makes demands on all of us, regardless of where we may stand,
and is grounded in a theology of reconciliation and an understanding of
communion as the gift of the triune God. It is therefore an invitation
for all of us to take seriously the place in which we presently find
ourselves but to do so with a view to a future yet to be revealed.
Here I am put in mind of the words of Archbishop Eames in the Foreword to
the Report. “This Report is not a judgment. It is part of a process. It
is part of a pilgrimage towards healing and reconciliation.” It is my
earnest prayer that we will undertake this pilgrimage in a spirit of
generosity and patient faithfulness, not primarily for the sake of our
church and the Anglican Communion but for the sake of the world our Lord
came among us to save.
The Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church, USA
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