A Friend and Ally Elected to Executive Council

We're delighted that Katie Sherrod has been elected to the Executive Council. Katie has been a long-term advocate for LGBT inclusion who has worked tirelessly behind the scenes in many previous General Conventions, and in the LGBT witness at Lambeth 2008. She is also one of the filmmakers who brought us Voices of Witness Africa. We celebrate with her that this year she is here for the first time as a deputy from the continuing Diocese of Fort Worth, and we are delighted that she will be able to bring her many gifts to the whole church as a member of Executive Council.

We also give thanks for the leadership of those Executive Council members (both LGBT and straight) who are stepping down this year.

Episcopalians Decline to Stop Gay Unions, Gay Clergy

By DANIEL BURKE
Religion News Service

Episcopal leaders on Thursday (June 14) rebuffed demands from overseas Anglicans to roll back their church's pro-gay policies, arguing that such decisions can only be made at the denomination's triennial conventions.

The church's 40-member Executive Council, which is headed by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, also declined a proposal from Anglican archbishops to create a separate church structure for conservatives who reject her leadership.

The panel, meeting in Parsippany, N.J., questioned overseas archbishops' power to "impose deadlines and demands upon any of the churches of the Anglican Communion or to prescribe the relationships within ... our common life."

The Executive Council declined to give a "yes or no, up or down decision," to all of the archbishops' demands, said the Rev. Lee Alison Crawford, a council member and rector of St. Mary's Parish in Northfield, Vt.

But Crawford said the council provided "a strong affirmation that the Episcopal Church is not going to go backward from the commitment to our (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) brothers and sisters."

A copy of the entire article is available by clicking here and scrolling half way down the page.

Presiding Bishop, Bonnie Anderson review Executive Council meeting

[ENS] Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and President of the House of Deputies Bonnie Anderson offer an overview of the recent Executive Council meeting, held June 11-14 in Parsippany, New Jersey. The Rev. Jan Nunley, deputy for communication for the Episcopal Church, reports.

Click here to watch the video.

Anglican Demand for Change Is Rebuffed by Episcopalians

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
New York Times
Published: June 15, 2007

The executive council of the Episcopal Church announced yesterday that it would not comply with demands from leaders of the global Anglican Communion to retract the church's liberal position on homosexuality and create alternative supervision for disaffected conservative Episcopalians.

The announcement came a day after the Anglican archbishop of Kenya said he would consecrate an American bishop in Texas to minister to alienated Episcopalians in the United States. In May, the archbishop of Nigeria installed a bishop in Virginia, a step considered by many to be outside the bounds of Anglicanism’s traditional lines of authority.

The churches in the Anglican Communion, which trace their heritage to the Church of England, have been brought to the brink of schism over the issue of homosexuality. The executive council’s action makes clear that the Episcopal Church, Anglicanism’s American branch, does not intend to back down.

snip

Bonnie Anderson, president of the church’s House of Deputies, composed of clergy and lay representatives, said: "The Episcopal Church has spoken quite clearly as to where we are on this."

Click here to read the entire article.

Parsippany Postcard #7

Winnie Varghese being interviewed by In the Life.

John Clinton Bradley
For Integrity
June 14, 2007 Parsippany, NJ

In the Life—the LGBT newsmagazine on public television—interviewed 5 LGBT members of Executive Council this afternoon about the response to the primates' communiqué. They were Kim Byham, Bruce Garner, Dottie Fuller, Winnie Varghese, and Lee Allison Crawford.

In the Life is currently working on a comprehensive segment about the debate over homosexuality within The Episcopal Church. The finished piece is slated to air in October.

Parsippany Postcard #6

Bonnie Anderson answering a question during the press conference.

John Clinton Bradley
For Integrity
June 14, 2007
Parsippany, NJ

A press conference was held this afternoon following adjournment of Executive Council. Present were a handful of reporters from church-related publications. A few reporters from secular publications and wire services joined the event by teleconference (though there were some technical difficulties that hampered their full participation).

I asked the Presiding Bishop what the Executive Council response to the primates' communiqué says to gay and lesbian people in the Episcopal Church and the United States.

The Presiding Bishop asked Bonnie Anderson, President of the House of Deputies, to answer the question. Anderson replied that the statement speaks to the entire Episcopal Church. The statement invites a continuation of the conversation with the Anglican Communion on the vocation of gay and lesbian people within the church.

US move on gay bishops may widen Anglican split

Reuters
Friday, 15 June 2007

Leaders of the Episcopal Church told worldwide Anglican bishops they had no authority to try to make the church's US branch change its stand on the consecration of gay bishops.

The Executive Council of the US Episcopal Church approved a statement questioning the authority of the worldwide church's top bishops "to impose deadlines and demands upon any of the churches of the Anglican Communion," the formal name for the 77 million-member global church.

The statement was in response to a communique issued in February when the church's presiding bishops, or primates, met in Tanzania. The bishops called for the 2.4 million-member US church to declare by the end of September a moratorium on the consecration of openly homosexual gay bishops.

It was the 2003 Episcopal Church consecration of Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the first bishop known to be in an openly gay relationship in more than four centuries of church history, that triggered the dispute.

In addition, the bishops at the African meeting urged the US church to end "public rites" blessing same-sex unions and to allow for a US-based "primatial vicar" to oversee disaffected followers, some of whom have already put themselves under the jurisdiction of conservative bishops in Africa and elsewhere.

In the statement approved at the end of a four-day meeting in New Jersey, the Executive Council said the requests made by the primates "are of a nature that can only properly be dealt with by our General Convention."

snip

The statement expressed a desire for a continued full relationship with the worldwide church but added:

"At various times in our history, we have struggled to embrace people who have historically been marginalised. . . today this struggle has come to include the place of gay and lesbian people and their vocations in the life of the Church."

Click here to read the rest.

Episcopal panel rejects Anglican demand

By RACHEL ZOLL
AP Religion Writer
June 14, 2007

NEW YORK --A key Episcopal panel defied conservatives Thursday, saying that Episcopal leaders should not cede authority to overseas Anglicans who want the church to halt its march toward full acceptance of gays.

The Episcopal Executive Council said that Anglican leaders, called primates, cannot make decisions for the American denomination, which is the Anglican body in the United States.

"We question the authority of the primates to impose deadlines and demands upon any of the churches of the Anglican Communion," the council said in a statement, after a meeting in Parsippany, N.J.

The worldwide Anglican Communion has moved toward the brink of splitting apart since the Episcopal Church consecrated its first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, in 2003.

In February, Anglican leaders demanded that Episcopalians allow a panel - that would include Anglican conservatives from other countries - to oversee conservative Episcopal parishes in the U.S. Episcopalians also were given until Sept. 30 to unequivocally pledge not to consecrate another openly gay bishop or authorize official prayers for same-sex couples.

The Executive Council did not speak directly to the other demands in its statement Thursday, but said it has struggled "to embrace people who have historically been marginalized."

"Today this struggle has come to include the place of gay and lesbian people and their vocations in the life of the church," the council wrote.

The document approved by the 38-member panel of clergy and lay people is not the final word from the U.S. church. Episcopal bishops will give the denomination's official response during a meeting Sept. 20-25 in New Orleans. The prelates strongly indicated at a March gathering that although they wanted to stay in the communion, they considered the demands unacceptable.

Click here to read the rest.

Executive Council puts disaffected dioceses on notice about constitutional changes

Members authorize Anglican Covenant monitoring group
By Mary Frances Schjonberg, June 14, 2007

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal Church dioceses that change their constitutions in an attempt to bypass the Church's Constitution and Canons were warned by the Executive Council June 14 that their actions are "null and void."

The Council passed Resolution NAC023, reminding dioceses that they are required to "accede" to the Constitution and Canons, and declaring that any diocesan action that removes that accession from its constitution is "null and void." That declaration, the resolution said, means that their constitutions "shall be as they were as if such amendments had not been passed."

The action came on the last day of its four-day meeting at the Sheraton hotel in Parsippany, New Jersey. The Council spent June 11, 13, and 14 in New Jersey, and on June 12 traveled to the Episcopal Church Center at 815 Second Ave. in New York City. Earlier in the day, the Council issued its reply to the communiqué issued by the Anglican Primates at the end of their February meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. ENS coverage of that statement and a link to the statement itself is available here.

At the close of the meeting, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori congratulated the Council for engaging a variety of issues "faithfully and with clarity," recognizing the diversity of opinion that exists within the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. She also noted that Council learned that there are sometimes other ways to cope with tough issues rather than legislation that can result in winners-and-losers situations. She observed that during the Parsippany meeting, members worked pastorally behind the scenes to achieve consensus on some issues.

House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson echoed those sentiments, saying that the members had used their gifts and skills in an atmosphere of prayer. She singled out Belton Zeigler of South Carolina, who opposed the Council's statement on the Primates' Communiqué, thanking him for speaking his mind and taking "the will of the group with great grace."

Resolution NAC023 names the dioceses of Fort Worth, Pittsburgh, San Joaquin and Quincy.

Some council members argued against naming the dioceses, including Ted Yumoto of San Joaquin, who said the resolution was a "statement of alienation" rather than reconciliation.

Bishop Julio Holguin of the Dominican Republic also urged the Council not to name dioceses but to make the resolution more obviously applicable to all dioceses. He also called on the Council to "soften [the resolution] in favor of dialogue." Bishop David Alvarez of Puerto Rico disagreed, saying that the resolution needed "more teeth."

The Rev. Gay Jennings of Ohio reminded the Council that General Convention had agreed about how to "order our common life" through its Constitution and Canons, and that the specific dioceses' actions have been "injurious to our common life."

Lexington Bishop Stacy Sauls, who helped to draft the resolution, said it was important to name the dioceses, in part because a judge in any future legal action connected with the dioceses' actions might ask why the Church never made a statement against those constitutional changes.

Covenant-development review process
Rosalie Ballentine of the Virgin Islands, chair of the International Concerns (INC) Committee's draft-covenant subcommittee, told the Council her group was surprised and pleased with the depth of the responses to the questions in the study guide on a draft of an Anglican Covenant.

Among the responses, 201 came from the laity, 100 from priests and deacons, 64 from organizations and groups including General Convention deputations, 27 from parishes, and 18 from bishops. The stack of responses is about three inches high and they range from one-sentence replies to each of the guide's questions to 10-page replies.

The comments are meant to help Council create a response to the draft covenant at its October meeting in Detroit, Michigan.

"The drafting committee will be informed by these responses but will not be constrained by them," Ballentine said, adding that the sub-committee will urge the drafting group to consider stances taken by previous meetings of General Convention about issues that are now included in the draft covenant.

In a related action, the Council approved Resolution INC021, authorizing Jefferts Schori and Anderson to appoint a work group to draft the Council's response. That group would also follow the covenant-development process, enable comments from the wider Episcopal Church and provide comments on behalf of the church to the Communion's Covenant Design Group.

The Windsor Report, released in October 2004, proposed a covenant as a way for the Anglican Communion to maintain unity amid differing viewpoints. The Primates received and discussed the draft during their February meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. They then released both it and an accompanying report to the entire Communion, asking for comment from of the 38 provinces by January 1, 2008.

Based on those responses, it is expected that a revised version of the covenant will be presented to the 2008 Lambeth Conference of Bishops, to be followed by a final text that would be proposed to the 2009 meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC). If the ACC adopts the text, it would offer it to the provinces for consideration.

The Executive Council's guide and the work group come in response to Resolution A166 passed by the 75th General Convention this past June. The resolution calls for the Episcopal Church, "as a demonstration of our commitment to mutual responsibility and interdependence in the Anglican Communion," to support the process of the development of an Anglican Covenant "that underscores our unity in faith, order, and common life in the service of God's mission." It also called for the INC and the Episcopal Church's members of the Anglican Consultative Council to follow the development processes of an Anglican Covenant and report regularly to the Executive Council as well as to the 76th General Convention in 2009.

In a letter to the Episcopal Church at the close of its March 2-4 meeting in Portland, Oregon, the Executive Council said "responding to the draft covenant does not presuppose agreement with the terms and principles advanced in the draft."

Click here to read the rest.

Integrity Thanks EC008 Work Group & Executive Council

620 Park Avenue #311 Rochester, NY 14607-2943
800-462-9498 info@integrityusa.org www.integrityusa.org

June 14, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Integrity wishes to express its appreciation to the members of the EC008 Work Group for its report and recommendations to Executive Council in response to the primates' communiqué. We are gratified that four gay and lesbian members of Executive Council—Kim Byham, Bruce Garner, Dottie Fuller, and Winnie Varghese—provided input to the report. We are pleased the report says that:

• Only General Convention can properly deal with the primates "requests" for moratoria on additional LGBT bishops and the blessing same-gender relationships.
• The primates do not have the authority to impose deadlines or make demands on member churches of the Anglican Communion.
• Coercion and political posturing will not lead to reconciliation.
• The Episcopal Church has historically struggled to embrace the marginalized. Today that includes gay and lesbian people.

Integrity also thanks Executive Council for receiving the report by an overwhelming majority.

PRESS CONTACTS
The Rev. Michael Hopkins, Past President
585-256-3597 [home]
585-546-7730 [office]

Parsippany Postcard #5

Bonnie Anderson speaking to Executive Council.

John Clinton Bradley

For Integrity

June 14, 2007

Parsippany, NJ

This morning Bonnie Anderson, President of the House of Deputies, officially presented to Executive Council a report from EC008 work group—which was tasked with developing a response to the primates' communiqué. Four gay and lesbian members of Executive Council—Kim Byham, Bruce Garner, Dottie Fuller, and Winnie Varghese—provided input to the report.

The report was titled "The Episcopal Church's Commitment to Common Life in the Anglican Communion." Its key points included…

• Only General Convention can properly deal with the "requests" of the primates.
• The primates do not have the authority to impose deadlines or make demands on member churches of the Anglican Communion.
• Coercion and political posturing will not lead to reconciliation.
• The Episcopal Church (TEC) strongly affirms its desire to remain a full member of the Anglican Communion and does not wish to walk apart.
• TEC has historically struggled to embrace the marginalized. Today that includes gay and lesbian people.
• TEC takes seriously the concerns expressed by some in the Anglican Communion and has attempted to respond to them sensitively and positively.
• Executive Council agrees with the House of Bishops that the proposed pastoral scheme is ill-advised and that TEC should decline to participate.
• TEC supports the process of developing an Anglican Covenant.

Three resolutions related to the report were approved by Executive Council:

• Accepting the report of the work group.
• Welcoming the "Report of the Communion Sub-Group" and encouraging the House of Bishops to consider its findings as they prepare for their September meeting.
• Concurring with the House of Bishop's resolution rejecting the proposed pastoral scheme and directing the key recommendations of the primate's communiqué to General Convention.

Executive Council declines to participate in Primates' 'pastoral scheme,' says only Convention makes policy

Members 'respectfully ask' Presiding Bishop to decline as well

By Mary Frances Schjonberg, June 14, 2007

[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Church's Executive Council told the Anglican Communion June 14 that no governing body other than General Convention can interpret Convention resolutions or agree to deny "future decisions by dioceses or General Convention."

The Council declined to participate in a plan put forward by the Primates of the Anglican Communion in February for dealing with some disaffected Episcopal Church dioceses.

The statement, titled "The Episcopal Church's Commitment to Common Life in Anglican Communion," "strongly affirm[ed] this Church's desire to be in the fullest possible relationship with our Anglican sisters and brothers."

The text of the statement and its accompanying resolutions passed with limited debate.

The statement agreed with the House of Bishops, which said in March that the so-called Pastoral Scheme "would be injurious to The Episcopal Church." An accompanying resolution (EC012) also "respectfully requests the Presiding Bishop to decline as well." The statement itself "respectfully ask[s] our Presiding Bishop not to take any of the actions asked of her by this scheme."

The action came June 14 on the last day of a four-day meeting at the Sheraton hotel in Parsippany, New Jersey.

The statement, and three resolutions, form a response to portions of the communiqué issued by the Anglican Primates at the end of their February meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The communiqué contained the Pastoral Scheme and called for the Episcopal Church "to effect a moratorium on the election and consent to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate who is living in a same gender union until some new consensus in the Anglican Communion emerges."

At the 75th General Convention in June 2006, in Columbus, Ohio, bishops and deputies agreed in Resolution B033 on the last day to "call upon Standing Committees and bishops with jurisdiction to exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion."

The communiqué also called for an end to "public rites" for blessing of same-gender relationships.

The General Convention has never authorized a liturgy for blessing same-gender relationships. In 2003, the Convention recognized, in Resolution C051, that "local faith communities are operating within the bounds of our common life as they explore and experience liturgies celebrating and blessing same-sex unions." This has meant that some diocesan bishops have allowed priests to bless such unions as a pastoral response to members of their congregations.

The Council acknowledged the communiqué as "a good-faith contribution" to the on-going discussion about Anglican identity and authority, but said that the "requests of the Primates are of a nature that can only be responded to by our General Convention." The Convention next meets in the summer of 2009.

The Council's statement "question[ed] the authority of the Primates to impose deadlines and demands upon any of the churches of the Anglican Communion."

"Assertions of authority met by counter-assertions of polity are not likely to lead to the reconciliation we seek," the statement said. "Our salvation is not in the law but in the grace of God in Jesus Christ our Savior; so too with our relationships as Anglicans."

The Council said that "the only thing we really have to offer in that relationship is who we are -- a community of committed Christians seeking God's will for our common life."

The statement claimed unity through baptism, said that "we are, whether we wish it or not, God's gift to each other" and acknowledged that the church has historically struggled to embrace people who have been marginalized -- a struggle that includes the current debate over the place and vocation of gay and lesbian people in the life of the church.

Connected to the statement, Council passed Resolution EC010 to receive and adopt the statement the group has drafted.

The second resolution (EC011), titled "Commending the report of the Communion Sub-Group," refers to the report of an Anglican Communion group which generally gave the Episcopal Church positive marks for its response to various requests to explain its decisions regarding same-gender blessings, the episcopal ordination of an openly gay and partnered priests, and its desire to remain a part of the Anglican Communion. The resolution encourages the House of Bishops to consider the report as it prepares to meet in September.

The third resolution (EC012), "Executive Council's response to the House of Bishops' Mind of the House Resolution on the Proposed Pastoral Scheme," refers to the House of Bishops' declaration in March that a plan the Primates put forward for dealing with some disaffected Episcopal Church dioceses "would be injurious to The Episcopal Church." The bishops' resolution urged that the Executive Council decline to participate in it and the proposed statement would in fact have Council decline and "respectfully ask our Presiding Bishop not to take any of the actions asked of her by this scheme." EC011 concurs with the bishops' statement.

The Council rejected an attempt by member Belton Zeigler of South Carolina to substitute a resolution asking the House of Bishops to reconsider its refusal to participate in the pastoral scheme. Zeigler's substitute resolution would have asked Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori to convene a pastoral council to determine which parts of the Primates' scheme the Episcopal Church could participate in without violating its Constitutions and Canons.

Jefferts Schori and House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson appointed the EC008 Task Group. Resolution EC008 named Anderson, who is vice president of Council, to chair the work group. (Jefferts Schori is president of the Council.)

The members of the task group, in addition to Anderson, are Puerto Rico Bishop David Alvarez; Los Angeles Bishop Jon Bruno; Sharon Denton of the Diocese of Western Kansas; the Rev. Dr. Ian Douglas of Massachusetts; Delbert Glover of Western Massachusetts; the Rev. Canon Mark Harris of Delaware; the Rev. Timothy Kimbrough of North Carolina; the Rev. Gay Jennings of Ohio; and Lexington Bishop Stacy Sauls. Anderson's chancellor, Sally Johnson, was a consultant to the task group. Council members Kim Byham (Diocese of Newark), Bruce Garner (Diocese of Atlanta), Dottie Fuller (Diocese of El Camino Real), Dennis Stark (Diocese of Rhode Island) and the Rev. Winnie Varghese (Diocese of New York) also met with the group.

Douglas, who is also a consulting theologian to the House of Bishops' Theology Committee, acted as a liaison between the two groups as the theology committee worked on a study document meant to help bishops in gathering comments in their dioceses prior to the bishops' mid-September meeting in New Orleans where they will formulate a further response to the communiqué.

The Executive Council meeting continued on June 14 and ENS will report on the rest of the day's action in a story later today.

-- The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is national correspondent for the Episcopal News Service.

Click here for the original article.

Parsippany Postcard #4

Rosalie Simmonds Ballentine reporting to Executive Council.

John Clinton Bradley
For Integrity
June 14, 2007
Parsippany, NJ

This morning Ms. Rosalie Simmonds Ballentine Esq. delivered to the entire Executive Council a report about received comments on the proposed Anglican covenant. [Click here to read details reported yesterday to the International Concerns Committee. Yesterday Ballentine reported that 210 responses were received from individual laity. Today Ballentine said the correct number was 201.]

Executive Council unanimously passed two related resolutions…

1. Expressing appreciation to all who commented on the proposed covenant.
2. Authorizing appointment of a writing group to draft a collective response for consideration by the entire Executive Council at its October meeting.

Executive Council set to discuss communiqué, Anglican covenant responses

Proposed statement, summary of draft covenant response lead June 14 agenda

By Nan Cobbey and Mary Frances Schjonberg, June 13, 2007

[Episcopal News Service] A task group of the Episcopal Church's Executive Council will propose June 14 that Council tell the Anglican Communion that no governing body other than General Convention can interpret Convention resolutions or agree to deny "future decisions by dioceses or General Convention."

A draft of the statement, titled "The Episcopal Church's Commitment to Common Life in Anglican Communion," says it "strongly affirm[s] this Church's desire to be in the fullest possible relationship with our Anglican sisters and brothers."

The draft would have the Council decline to participate in a so-called Pastoral Scheme proposed by the Primates of the Anglican Communion for dealing with some disaffected Episcopal Church dioceses. In March the House of Bishops said the plan "would be injurious to The Episcopal Church" and urged the Council to decline to participate.

The draft of the statement was released to Council members and staff the afternoon of June 13 at the Council's meeting in Parsippany, New Jersey. The draft, and three proposed accompanying resolutions, will be discussed by the entire Council June 14.

The statement was written by the EC008 Task Group, which was called for by the Council (via Resolution EC008) during its March 2-4 meeting in Portland, Oregon.

Also on June 14, Council will hear the report of a sub-committee of its International Concerns Committee (INC) summarizing comments solicited by a study guide aimed at helping the Episcopal Church respond to the draft version of a proposed Anglican Covenant.

Meetings of the Executive Council's INC, Administration and Finance (A&F), Congregations in Ministry (CIM), and National Concerns (NAC) committees took up most of the day on June 13. Those committees, along with the EC008 Task Group, will bring resolutions for the Council to consider during two plenary sessions on the meeting's last day, June 14. The Council began meeting June 11 in at the Sheraton hotel in Parsippany, New Jersey.

Click here to read the rest.

Parsippany Postcard #3

Davis addressing Executive Council.

John Clinton Bradley
For Integrity
June 13, 2007
Parsippany, NJ

Davis Mac-Iyalla, Director of Changing Attitude Nigeria, addressed a plenary session of Executive Council this afternoon. Davis was invited to share with the full council a 15-minute version of the testimony he offered to the International Concerns and National Concerns committees on Monday.

Parsippany Postcard #2

Bishop Ingham speaks to Executive Council.

John Clinton Bradley
For Integrity
June 13, 2007
Parsippany, NJ

The Rev. Michael Ingham, Bishop of New Westminster and the Anglican Church of Canada's representative to Executive Council, reported during a plenary session this afternoon on two important events in his province.

Ingham discussed the Archbishop of Canterbury's meeting with the Canadian House of Bishops last April. Ingham described the time with Archbishop Williams as spiritually beneficial—with Williams revealing his deep scripture knowledge and generous theology. However, Ingham said he was disappointed that the Canadian bishops did not have the opportunity to share with Williams their experiences. Ingham recommended that, when the Episcopal Church's House of Bishop meets with Williams in September, the format allow for two-way conversation.

Ingham also discussed the pending General Synod He said that that resolutions regarding the blessing of same-gender relationships are likely to consume a majority of the synod's time—as it did during the Episcopal Church's 2006 General Convention in Columbus—causing other important resolutions to be tabled. Earlier in the day, during a report to the Standing Committee for International Concerns, Ingham expressed his belief that the majority of lay and clergy delegates to General Synod are in favor of same-gender blessings but that the majority of bishop are not—meaning that same-gender blessings are unlikely to be authorized.

Parsippany Postcard #1

Ian Douglas (left) talks about responses to the proposed Anglican covenant.

John Clinton Bradley
For Integrity
June 13, 2007
Parsippany, NJ

The proposed Anglican covenant was discussed by the International Concerns Standing Committee of Executive Council during its Wednesday morning session.

Ms. Rosalie Simmonds Ballentine Esq., chair of the subcommittee charged with soliciting and receiving feedback on the covenant, reported that a total of 411 responses were received by the June 4th deadline. She said the subcommittee reviewed…

• 210 responses from individual laity
• 100 responses from individual clergy
• 18 responses from individual bishops
• 27 responses from parishes
• 64 responses from dioceses or organizations

Ms. Ballentine said that were roughly 4 responses against the covenant for every 1 response in favor of it.

The Rev. Dr. Ian Douglas, a member of the subcommittee, added that only a small minority of responses were completely for the covenant as proposed or against any form of covenant. Most responses were nuanced—stating conditions under which a covenant might be acceptable or unacceptable.

The Rev. Dr. Lee Alison Crawford, another member of the subcommittee, said that many respondents offered thanks for the opportunity to comment on the covenant.

The Rev. Canon Mark Harris concluded that the subcommittee had reached consensus on three recommendations to the entire Executive Council…

1. That a hard copy of all responses be forwarded to the Anglican Communion Office and the Covenant Design Group.
2. That Executive Council appoint a writing group to draft a collective response to the proposed covenant for approval by Executive Council during its October 2007 meeting.
3. That the writing group communicate with the House of Bishop Theology Committee.

Ms. Sandra McPhee, chair of International Concerns Standing Committee, asked Canon Harris and Ms. Ballentine to prepare a written and oral report for presentation to the entire Executive Council on Thursday.

Episcopal Leaders Developing Response to Anglican Requests

By Lillian Kwon
Christian Post Reporter
Tue, Jun. 12 2007 01:03 PM ET

A draft of a response to the requests of worldwide Anglican leaders is ready for U.S. Episcopal bishops to consider.

Three months before The Episcopal Church's deadline (Sept. 30) to respond to the Anglican Communion's latest communiqué requesting the American church body to make an unequivocal pledge not to authorize same-sex blessings and confirm another openly gay bishop, the Executive Council began a four-day meeting Monday to discuss the draft report.

House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson, who chairs a work group appointed earlier this year to draft a potential response, announced that the Executive Council – the Episcopal Church's governing body – reportedly discussed the draft report in private conversation Monday and will discuss it during an open plenary session on Thursday, according to the Episcopal News Service.

...

In the meantime, Davis Mac-Iyalla, an Anglican gay-rights advocate from Nigeria and founder of the country's only gay-rights organization – Changing Attitude Nigeria – is on a speaking tour across U.S. Episcopal Churches and met this week with the Executive Council's Concerns (INC) and National Concerns (NAC) committees.

He claimed that Church of Nigeria Archbishop Peter Akinola has been directly involved in a bill that would impose a five-year jail sentence for relationships, activism, advocacy and shows of affection among lesbian and gay people. The Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act 2006, currently pending before the Nigerian legislature, bans both same-sex "marriage" and those who advocate for gays.

Claiming 2,500 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender members in his organization, Mac-Iyalla said, "It is wrong to say that homosexuality is a Western, imported culture," according to Episcopal News Service.

He urged The Episcopal Church to petition the Nigerian government to oppose the bill.

"Our hope is in The Episcopal Church," he said. "If you don't speak out for us, we don't know where we will take our voice."

Although Akinola initially supported the bill, he later expressed concerns "about individual human rights that must be addressed both in the framing of the law and its implementation.

Click here to read the entire article.

Executive Council prepares for communiqué response

By Mary Frances Schjonberg, June 11, 2007

[Episcopal News Service] The Executive Council, the Episcopal Church's governing body between General Conventions, began its four-day meeting June 11 in New Jersey learning that a draft of a response to the Anglican Communion Primates' latest communiqué was ready for their consideration.

In a public plenary session, House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson said that Executive Council members would discuss during private conversation later in the day a draft report of the EC008 Task Group, requested by the Executive Council (via Resolution EC008) during its March 2-4 meeting in Portland, Oregon. (Council normally spends some time during each meeting in such private conversation.)

The EC008 Task Group document suggesting a Council response to the communiqué issued by Primates of the Anglican Communion at the end of their February meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania will be discussed during an open plenary session on June 14.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Anderson appointed the EC008 Task Group. Resolution EC008 named Anderson, who is vice president of Council, to chair the work group. (Jefferts Schori is president of the Council.)

The Executive Council meeting, at the Sheraton hotel in Parsippany, New Jersey, began with three hours of committee meetings on the morning of June 11 and another two hours in the late afternoon with the plenary session in between. Council had dinner with representatives of the host Diocese of Newark.

Click here to read the entire article.