Thanks!

The pool of gifted Episcopalians which the Joint Nominating Committee presented for election to assorted boards and councils at this Convention was rich indeed.  The Consultation Steering Committee, as we engaged in our usual process of recommending some candidates for consideration, was hard pressed to choose. We hope very much that those persons not elected to the positions for which they ran will remain in that pool from which the presiding officers make appointments to interim bodies.  You serve this church in so many ways already and we need you! Thank you for offering yourselves and for participating in The Consultation's discernment process.

The Consultation Steering Committee 

Creating a Culture of Justice

Most Episcopalians are members of congregations which subscribe to a culture of charity. Such congregations readily support food pantries and other direct service programs which benefit the poor. Perhaps fewer congregations are engaged in ministries of justice which involve efforts to change those policies and structures which create and maintain poverty.

How can a congregation move to a culture which embraces both charity and justice? ENEJ's new Economic Justice How-To Manual is designed to answer this question. It provides a rich array of material which enable reflection on the role of justice in our faith tradition. This begins with our baptismal covenant's mandate that we "strive for justice and peace for all people" and goes on to cite the prophetic traditions and words of Jesus.

The Economic Justice How-To Manual then goes on to described how various dioceses and congregations are engaged in ministries of advocacy, community organization, community economic development and community investment.

It begins with dialogue says ENEJ Advocacy chair, Dianne Aid. "Help people reflect on such questions as what is a living wage, what is the definition of poverty and what is it like to live on a poverty income? Who gets welfare and what are the challenges they face? Poor people, for example, have to work shifts when no child care is available. How is it that the undocumented are working? Why don't they become American citizens? What are some actions our parish could take to make our community or society more just? For wealthy congregations a good reflection question is "What is socially responsible investing?"

"We have come a long way since the Michigan Plan was adopted by the 1988 General Convention, says ENEJ president Michael Kendall.

ENEJ's new manual reflects the evolution of social practice and a much broader array of strategies for action is encompassed under the heading of economic justice"

Mike Maloney
Si se Puede!ur

Has the Covenant Train already left the Station?

There has been much talk of covenants at this General Convention. As that conversation continues, it behooves us all to remember that there are several kinds of covenants in play.

In addition to the baptismal covenant – which does not resonate in the rest of the Communion the way it does in The Episcopal Church – there are missional covenants, structural or canonical covenants; and creedal or confessional covenants.

There are several groups preparing draft covenants to present at Lambeth 2008. Peter Akinola, the Archbishop of Nigeria, is preparing one; Archbishops Drexel Gomez, primate of the West Indies; and Maurice Sinclair, retired Archbishop of the Southern Cone, are preparing another draft; and the Archbishop of Canterbury has appointed a 10-person working group to prepare a draft.

In addition, a group composed of chancellors and attorneys is reviewing the things by which Anglicans order what we do.

They are reviewing the principles espoused in the canons and constitutions, the prayer books, the rubrics, other rules and resolutions and teachings of all the provinces of the Anglican Communion to articulate to the archbishop of Canterbury and the primates in what areas the provinces are in harmony with one another and in what areas they are not.

The members of this group are chancellors from Hong Kong, the West Indies, Ghana, Seychelles, the United States, Canada, and England; and Canon Gregory Cameron, Director of Ecumenical Affairs and Studies, Anglican Communion Office, and Secretary to the Lambeth Commission; and Professor Norman Doe, Director of the Centre for Law and Religion, Cardiff University, Wales, and member of the Lambeth Commission.

Covenants developed and adopted by only a few privileged people have no legitimacy.

The question of whether the Anglican Communion should even have a covenant is still very much in the air. The adoption of any covenant will change the very nature of Anglicanism in deep fundamental ways.

It already is clear that the idea that Anglicans will develop a covenant is moving quickly toward becoming a given. It also is clear that the process of developing a covenant will be left largely in the hands of male primates and other bishops – although three of the chancellors involved in the group reviewing the laws of the provinces are women.

This should be deeply disturbing to people who love classical Anglicanism, because stopping this train could be very difficult.

Katie Sherrod

Say It With Flowers, Not Nails
(abridged with permission from TheWitness.org)

Monday was the day that the two most controversial resolutions assigned to the Special Committee on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion finally saw debate on the floor of the House of Deputies. Some of it was informative. A lot of it was passionate. But one point that a large number of those stepping to the microphone made was not helpful at all:

"I think the resolution deserves to be passed without amendment because the Special Committee has worked so very hard on it to craft it carefully."

There are far, far more important questions for those voting on legislation to ask than how hard the committee worked on the proposed resolutions. With respect to the resolutions related to the Windsor Report, I would suggest that these are the central ones:

1) How far can I go and how much can I personally give to create room for and extend grace to those around me and those around the Communion with whom I disagree?

2) What can I not sacrifice without sacrificing my integrity and the integrity of the Good News of Christ as we, however provisionally, perceive it in this context and community?

3) As the Archbishop of York so movingly put it, where do I see the marks of Christ crucified in this legislation?

That last question is absolutely essential. We are indeed called to mutual submission to one another out of reverence for Christ. We are called to proclaim with our lives as well as with our words "Christ and him crucified," as St. Paul says (though one would hope we would not do so without proclaiming also the resurrection life!). But I have heard far too many people of late suggesting that we are walking the way of the Cross as long as someone gets crucified, and far too often the someone who will suffer most will be someone other than the speaker. This is not the language of Christian faith; it is the rhetoric of empire, of the "rulers of the nations" Christ spoke of who use their power to dominate the weak.

As the Rev. Dr. Ruth Myers so movingly testified today in the House of Deputies, it is not the way of Christ crucified and risen if you're the one with the hammer and nails and someone else -- least of all your sister or brother in Christ, your friend, your mother, your daughter or son -- who did not choose your sacrificing them who will be subjected to your will on the matter.

Christ's way of mutual submission for mutual empowerment of discipleship and mission demands that none of us impose on others a price that we will not pay ourselves. That's how we give thanks – to God for Christ's full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice for all of us for all time, and to Christ's disciples (including committee members) striving to discern God's will for us at this General Convention.

Sarah Dylan Breuer

Honor God: Say No to Torture

As the legislative process at General Convention creeps along, a pair of key resolutions calling on the church to speak out for human rights are among the dozens that are in danger of falling into the purgatory of "unfinished business." At least two resolutions from dioceses calling on the Episcopal Church to denounce torture (C-028 and C-033) hung in the balance as of Monday evening, as did a third calling for the closure of the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay (D-028). With torture, the abuse of detainees, and the practice of "extraordinary rendition" all capturing weekly headlines in the international media, it would be a shame for these three to be left unattended.

Fortunately, there are many things that individual churches and dioceses can do this very month whether or not the national church manages to emerge from the Windsor quicksand and speak out on these critical human rights issues. In honor of June 26th, the U.N. International Day in Support of Torture Victims, a series of actions and educational programs will be happening over the next two weeks. The National Religious Coalition Against Torture launched a national campaign on June 13th with a full-page ad in The New York Times, and individual church leaders can sign the petition online at http:\\www.nrcat.org.

If your parish wishes to join in this important campaign, visit http:\\www.signsyourway.com to purchase a 2’ x 6’ banner for less than $70. A number of congregations will be ringing their church bells at noon on June 26th at the precise time when an interfaith group of religious activists are planning to engage in civil disobedience in front of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. The group of progressive Episcopalians, Catholic Workers, Jews, Muslims and others will call for the closure of the Guantánamo prison and for trials -- if not the release -- of prisoners who have been held without charge, many for years. More information about how you can act to speak out against torture can be found at: http:\\www.witnesstorture.org and http:\\www.SayNoToTorture.org.

Ethan Vesely-Flad

A Truthful Conversation, Not Just A Vote

Perhaps, to the extent the world is concerned at all with General Convention 2006, it is now more focused on the election of the Rt. Rev. Katherine Jefferts Shori than it is on the Windsor Report. By any standard electing a woman Presiding Bishop is an extraordinary event, and brings with it a satisfying symmetry since it has happened just thirty years after authorizing the ordination of women. That could be quite a good thing, since we might now begin to look upon the Episcopal Church’s response to Windsor not so much as a matter to be settled at General Convention as an ongoing process of conversation.

Whatever specific action this General Convention takes or doesn’t take cannot appease those in our province who do not want to be part of the Episcopal Church, nor is it likely to soothe those who want to stay but have not accepted the idea of full participation by all the baptized in the life of the Church. Nor will it suddenly fix problems other churches in the Anglican Communion have with their naughty American cousins.

Whatever happens next will depend on conversation – within the Episcopal Church, and with other Anglican churches. That conversation will have to consist of something better than reports and resolutions rushing past one another. It is no secret that up until now, more of the conversation has taken place within the Episcopal Church than elsewhere in the Anglican Communion. Regardless of the fact that Lambeth conferences and the Windsor Report itself have called for conversation in good faith, the Anglican Communion has quite frequently talked about LGBTs but rarely if ever with them. In one country one Anglican Church is even supporting legislation that would actually criminalize any sort of conversation with or listening to its own lesbian and gay members.

Archbishop Tutu would no doubt advise us that reconciliation requires truth as well as a desire to reconcile. If the past thirty years’ journey for gay and lesbian inclusion has taught the Church anything, it is the importance of telling the truth. People who can’t be honest about who they are cannot participate and contribute fully. Just as parishioners all across our Church cannot be asked to return to the closet to avoid discomfort for others, the Church must be truthful as well. Would clergy, counseling a family in conflict, counsel them to create a “space” based on a false reality? By first acknowledging the truth about one another, parties in conversation can move from talking past one another to genuine communication and understanding.

To put it bluntly, “compliance” with the Windsor Report has been highly selective. Some who fault the Episcopal Church’s response have themselves violated provincial boundaries and neglected pastoral responsibilities towards their own LGBT members. So there is a lot to talk about, more in fact than merely talking about us.

That prospect is not so unlikely as some might imagine. Our new presiding bishop brings experience and insights from serving on the Special Commission on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. The discussions at this General Convention have not all consisted of heat to the exclusion of light; something has been learned. We should build on what we have learned and restart the conversation – this time a real one, with talking and respectful listening by both sides.

Bob Van Keuren

Just enough space
to ask that additional donations be sent to The Consultation, 1430 S. Hanover St, Baltimore, MD 21230. Thank you very much!!
Ron Miller