February 28, 2007

Dr. Bonnie Anderson, President of the House of Deputies

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop

Members of the Executive Council of The Episcopal Church

Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

We write as the Steering Committee of The Consultation, a coalition of independent justice organizations that publishes ISSUES at General Convention. We write to you out of our deep concern for the implications of the Primates' Communique from the recent meeting in Tanzania. We affirm the February 23rd statement of President of the House of Deputies Bonnie Anderson, especially as she wrote:

"To honor all of the Primates’ requests would change the way the Episcopal Church understands its role in the Communion and the way Episcopalians make decisions about our common life. Our church makes policy and interprets its resolutions and Canons through the General Convention and, to a lesser extent, the Executive Council.  (This ensures) that the voice of the clergy and the laity of our Church will be heard as the Church discusses and debates the Primates’ requests and that that process will not be pre-empted by the House of Bishops or any other group."  As the body which serves as interim General Convention, the Executive Council appropriately makes decisions about our common life. "All Anglicans must remember that the second Lambeth Conference in 1878 recommended that "the duly certified action of every national or particular Church, and of each ecclesiastical province (or diocese not included in a province), in the exercise of its own discipline, should be respected by all the other Churches, and by their individual members." This has been the tradition of the Anglican Communion. To demand strict uniformity of practice diminishes our Anglican traditions.

"Our baptismal promise to seek and serve Christ in all people must be very carefully considered when we are being asked as Episcopalians to exclude some of our members from answering the Holy Spirit’s call to use their God-given gifts to lead faithful lives of ministry. Our promise to strive for justice and peace and respect the dignity of all people binds us together. The Episcopal Church has declared repeatedly that our understanding of the Baptismal Covenant requires that we treat all persons equally regardless of their race, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, disabilities, age, color, ethnic origin, or national origin.

We, in fact, hold the following to represent the best and deepest conviction of our Church and hope that any response to the Primates will include them:

•    A significant portion of our Church clearly does not receive the statement of Lambeth 1.10 that "homosexual practice is incompatible with Scripture" and we are unable to accept that it is "the standard of teaching" in the Anglican Communion even as we recognize that perhaps a majority of persons in the Communion hold it to be true.

•    Baptized persons, including clergy, who are gay or lesbian, many of them living in same-sex relationships openly in our faith communities, are valued members of the Episcopal Church.  That is a simple statement of who we are, even though we understand that a significant number of Anglicans worldwide do not understand how this can be so. To these Anglicans we say: "Come and see!"

•    The pastoral life of many of our parishes includes these persons and the fullness of their lives, something that we committed ourselves to in 1976 (a commitment that, in part, prompted the first call for dialogue on this issue by the Lambeth Conference of 1978).  Conversation with this pastoral practice must be part of any Communion-wide listening process for it to have integrity for us.  At the same time, we expect to have to be in dialogue with fellow Anglicans who absolutely disagree with us on this matter.

We particularly affirm President Anderson's conclusion: "Our tradition of autonomous churches in the Anglican Communion, that come together because of our love of Christ and our common heritage, has allowed us to focus on mission and evangelism to our broken world which is in desperate need of the Good News of God in Christ. In recent times, however, we have spent too much of our time, talent and treasure debating if we ought to deny some people a place at the table to which Jesus calls us all. Instead, we must listen to each other – really listen and not just read reports – so that we can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit moving through all of us and calling us to be more faithful."

In Christ,

For Associated Parishes for Liturgy and Mission

The Rev. Canon Robert Brooks

The Rev. Katherine M. Lehamn

The Rt. Rev. Joe Morris Doss

for Episcopal Women's Caucus

Ms. Marjorie L. Christie

The Rev. Elizabeth M. Kaeton

for Episcopal Asiamerica Ministry Advocates

Ms. Hisako Miyazaki Beasley

Mr. Warren J. Wong

for Integrity

The Rev. Michael W. Hopkins

The Rev. Susan Russell

for Episcopal Church Publishing Company

The Rev. Mark Harris

The Very Rev. Tracey Lind

for ISSUES

The Rev. Ronald H. Miller

The Rev. MIchael O. Shirley

for Episcopal Ecological Network

Mr. Steve MacAusland

for National Episcopal AIDS Coalition

Mr. Christopher M. Haley

The Rev. Davis L. Norgard

The Rev. Richard F. Brewer III

for Episcopal Network for Economic Justice

The Ven. Michael S. Kendall

The Hon. Byron Rushing

The Rev. Geoffrey B. Curtiss

for Province VIII Indigenous Ministries

Ms. Rebecca Clark

for Episcopal Peace Fellowship

The Rev. William E. Exner

Mr. Tim Yeager

The Rev. Jacqueline Goler Lynn

for TransEpiscopal

The Rev. Cameran E. Partridge

The Rev. Gari Green

for Episcopal Urban Caucus

Mr. R.P.M. Bowden

Ms. Diane B. Pollard

for Union of Black Episcopalians

Ms. Patricia Abrams

The Rev. Sandra A. Wilson

Coordinator

Ms. Mary H. MIller

Consultants

The Rev. Floyd Gamarra

The Rt. Rev. Barbara C. Harris

The Rev. Canon Edward W. Rodman