Final Installment from "The Gene Pool" now available

Some final reflections from Bishop Robinson during the last days of his time in Canterbury have now been posted to The Gene Pool.

Thanks to the Rev. Dr. Cynthia Black and Dr. Katie Sherrod for their diligence in making this available to us all!

You can still watch all of the posts - from the beginning - HERE!

Too big a tent?

Savitri Hensmen writes in the Guardian:

As the Lambeth conference in Canterbury was drawing to a close, Michael Causer died. He was not an Anglican bishop, but an 18-year-old hairdresser, a popular lad described by his family as "definitely a 'people's person'. Our world will never be the same without him." He was the victim of a homophobic attack.

In other countries too, during the conference, virulent hatred of gays and lesbians continued to take its toll – sometimes in spectacular fashion. A gunman in Tennessee shot two people dead during a children's performance in a Unitarian church he thought too "liberal" before being overpowered. A Ugandan gay and lesbian rights activist was kidnapped by police in Kampala and tortured. A wave of homophobia swept Indonesian capital Jakarta, and arrests were reported.

In many countries, repressive laws fuel bigotry. All too often in schools and workplaces, temples and churches worldwide, people learn to hate or despise lesbians and gays. To Christians, this is tragic, not just for the victims: those who do not love their neighbour are spiritually dead. Yet talk among Anglican Communion leaders about homosexuality seemed oddly disconnected from the world in which most of us live, and the challenge to make it more just and loving.

Every decade or so, the Lambeth conference has urged bishops to champion human rights for all and enter into dialogue with the gay and lesbian community. But this has been widely ignored: blessing same-sex couples is apparently a far greater offence than allying with repressive governments to hunt them down.

Read it all here.

Bishop Robinson reflects on his experiences at Lambeth

U.S. News did this interview with Bishop Robinson about his experiences at the Lambeth Conference. In it he reflects on the impact of the witness that he is providing here, as well as the emotional impact of being excluded.

Read it all HERE

The Anglican Journal (Canada) on yesterday

Click HERE for The Anglican Journal's excellent coverage of yesterday's press briefing about the Windsor Continuation Group and the resulting fallout.

Bishop Michael Ingham of the Diocese of New Westminster is featured prominently throughout the article and offers several significant points including: "the suggestion of a pastoral forum 'institutionalizes external incursions into the life of our churches.'" In direct contrast to the stated goal of a "moratorium" on external incursions, Bishop Ingham reminds us that this proposal would make such incursions commonplace and the new way of doing business as Anglicans. This point, made in the article, is underscored by the language of the source document itself (CLICK HERE): "Such a scheme might draw on models [of]... family life (the way in which the extended family can care for children in dysfunctional nuclear families)...".

Archbishop Caleb Lawrence of the Diocese of Moosonee raised other concerns about the proposal released yesterday. He said, "Will it be used as an instrument to force people to conform and will it be another one of the situations where there is a right and wrong, black and white, and people will be divided from people even more? Will it be an instrument that will lead to a reconciliation or will it simply exacerbate the divisions we are in now?"

Read it all, HERE

Listening through Theatre

The constituent groups of the Inclusive Church Network, working collaboratively at the Lambeth Conference, continue to work toward contributing to the listening process that has been called for by the Anglican Communion since 1978.

As another opportunity for the Anglican Communion to listen to the stories and experiences of LGBT people, "Seven Passages", a play about the experiences of gay Christians, will be performed this week at the Lambeth Conference by a student group from Western Michigan University.

For more information, read THIS ARTICLE from mlive.com

There will be two performances in Kent University's Aphra Theatre:
Wednesday, 30th July at 20:00
Thursday, 31st July at 20:00

The proposed curia?

The Guardian, UK has THIS STORY about Friday's press conference in which the Archbishop of Canterbury was "enthusiastic" about the energy he senses around the proposed "Faith and Order Commission" (a body which the Guardian compares to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith).

Archbishop of Dublin supports Bishop Robinson

The Irish Times is reporting a conversation with the Archbishop of Dublin at the Lambeth Conference.

Archbishop Neil was at last week's event for bishops to meet with Bishop Robinson.

On Robinson's exclusion from the Lambeth Conference, Neil said, "I am just sorry he is not part of this conference."

Read it all HERE

Process, process, process - and not a story in sight!

It seems that about the only news coming from the Lambeth Conference is from Fringe Events like the ones we at Integrity and our allies in the Inclusive Church Network are hosting. Tonight's Eucharist hosted by the Inclusive Church Network promises to be a big point of interest. The Most Rev. Carlos Touché-Porter, Archbishop of Mexico, will preside, and the Rev. Canon Lucy Winkett of St. Paul's Cathedral, London will preach.

Aside from that, process stories about the lack of news coming out of Lambeth continue to waft from the secular press.

Alex Beam of The Boston Globe had this to say:

Unfortunately, snubbing Robinson didn't have the desired effect, as hundreds of bishops are staying away, to avoid rubbing shoulders with the men who consecrated bishops like Robinson and Schori. No delegates from Nigeria, Uganda, and Rwanda are attending. Even Michael Nazir-Ali, the bishop of Rochester, England, is boycotting the event. "Those who have gone against church teaching" - he means the Yanks - "should not attend representative Anglican gatherings," Nazir-Ali said.

To read the rest CLICK HERE

If you're looking for substantive news about the Integrity team's work in Canterbury, and that of our allies, be sure to read The Lambeth Witness, a daily publication about issues of interest set in the context of each day's theme.

To access The Lambeth Witness CLICK HERE

A friend among the stewards

Check out THIS POST from Allie, one of our friends among the Conference Stewards.

In her brief post, Allie is contributing to the conversation about the two Eucharists that happened on Sunday. In addition to the great pictures of both events, the post is worth your time just for this line:

"During the first [Eucharist] we sang that 'all are welcome in this place,' in the second we showed it."

Thanks, Allie!

Gene interviewed by Washington Post

Bishop Gene Robinson interviewed in video by Washington Post:

We've hit the big time now

Check out this coverage of the Lambeth Conference, courtesy of The Colbert Report.

Enjoy!

What I've learned from watching the West Wing

When there's no news, we move on to "process stories".

Theo Hobson, of The Guardian, UK, has written this review of the Indaba process - the process by which the bishops of the Communion are attempting to engage in structured listening around the issues being addressed by the Lambeth Conference.

Hobson's analysis is particularly interesting because it review's the process in the context of the pre-existing partisan divides, as he perceives them.

You can read it all HERE

Coverage of opening Sunday

Here are two views on the first Sunday in Canterbury.

First, from The New York Times, an overview that includes coverage of both the Opening Eucharist at Canterbury Cathedral and the Integrity/Changing Attitude Eucharist at St. Stephen's Field. Despite a few factual errors (it's Bishop Robinson, not Archbishop Robinson, and Bishop Katharine is not from Boston, etc.), it is a rather well-balanced look at the activities of the day.

Read it all HERE

Also, Episcopal News Service included the Integrity/Changing Attitude Eucharist in its coverage of opening Sunday activities.

Read it all HERE

Success on the Fringe

(left to right) Louise Brooks, the Rt. Rev. Christopher Senyonjo, Davis Mac-Iyalla,

Mia Nikasimo, the Rev. Michael Kimindu, Katie Sherrod, the Rev. Cynthia Black
Photo courtesy of Chris Ambridge, Integrity Toronto

A preview version of Voices of Witness: Africa was premiered at the Lambeth Conference last night as one of the Fringe Events available to bishops, spouses, and other conference organizers, staff, and participants. With more than 75 people in attendance, conference insiders report that it was one of the most highly attended Fringe Events at the conference to date.

In addition to Voices of Witness: Africa, the original project, Voices of Witness: 2006, was also screened. Following the screenings, a panel including the filmmakers and individuals featured in the film answered questions from the audience. The panel was moderated by Louise Brooks of IntegrityUSA.

The Voices of Witness series was begun in an effort to answer, in part, repeated calls from the Anglican Communion to engage in a Listening Process so that the Communion may understand the stories of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender persons more fully.

To preview Voices of Witness: 2006 CLICK HERE

To preview Voices of Witness: Africa CLICK HERE

To contribute to the Voices of Witness: Africa project, and to help ensure that it will be completed, please CLICK HERE

An Inclusive Eucharist at the Lambeth Conference

PRESS RELEASE
from the
Inclusive Church Network

“From Strangers to Friends”
A space for grace at the Lambeth Conference

This Saturday at 7pm in the Keynes Lecture Theatre, University of Kent, Canterbury, inclusive Anglicans from around the world will celebrate the culmination of a year’s work preparing for the Lambeth Conference.

Canon Lucy Winkett, leading speaker and broadcaster, and first woman Precentor of St Paul’s Cathedral, will give the address ‘Strangers to Friends’ at a Eucharist celebrated by the Most Revd Carlos Touché-Porter, Archbishop of Mexico and leader of the ‘global centre’.

The Revd Giles Fraser, Vicar of Putney and President of Inclusive Church, says:
‘A Church in which all are welcome is a Church worth believing in and worth fighting for. This is the Church of traditional Anglicanism where the good news of Jesus Christ is offered as good news for everyone. At this time of tension and division, may we all be transformed by God's reconciling Spirit.’

For over a year, inclusive groups from across the Communion, including the Progressive Christianity Network, the Chicago Consultation, Inclusive Church, WATCH, Affirming Catholicism, Changing Attitude, LGCM, the Association of Black Clergy, The Evangelical Fellowship for LG Christians, Integrity and The Modern Churchpeople’s Union, have been working together to create a vision of unity in diversity to bear witness to the all-encompassing love of God at the Lambeth Conference. A collection of essays, Together in Hope, edited by Canon Adrian Alker of the Progressive Christianity Network, will be launched at the Party following the Eucharist.

Strangers to Friends: an Inclusive Eucharist and Party
Saturday, July 26, 7pm
Keynes Lecture Theatre, University of Kent

Contact:
iclambeth@gmail.com
Clare Herbert, 07504 577 210
www.inclusivechurch.net

Quarreling Anglicans

By DAVID YOUNT
Scripps Howard News Service
2008-07-16 00:00:00
www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=YOUNT-FAITH-07-16-08

Even before Christianity was institutionalized, there were churches -- local Christian communities within the far-flung Roman Empire connected only by the faith they shared.

We know some of their names from the letters that St. Paul wrote to them -- Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae, Thessalonica, and Rome itself. In each case, Paul instructed the Gentiles in the Christian faith and was not above admonishing them to put an end to their quarreling.

...

Despite bickering, heresies, and schisms, such has been the vigor of Christianity that the Church has endured.

But quarrels continue. This month, just as the leaders of the 80 million-member worldwide Anglican Communion assemble in England for the Lambeth Conference, the denomination risks self-destruction.

...

The Anglican dispute sharpened this month when the Church of England agreed to the future appointment of women as bishops. Traditionalists claiming to represent 1,300 English clergy threaten to abandon the church altogether rather than accept women as leaders. It is not an idle threat. Years ago, when the Church of England approved opening the priesthood to women, 500 clergymen broke away to join the Roman Catholic Church.

The current presiding bishop of the U.S. Episcopal Church happens to be a woman. Katherine Jefferts Schori says the quarrel is "another chapter in a centuries-old struggle for dominance by those who consider themselves the only true believers."

Gene says no thanks to being an exhibit at Lambeth

The Rt Rev. Gene Robinson, although an elected diocesan bishop in the Episcopal Church has not been invited to attend the Lambeth Conference of bishops of the Anglican Communion. Lambeth Palace offered him a place in the Marketplace - the exhibit hall for the conference. Here is his letter in response:

I first want to thank Ed and Bruce and Tom. (ed.note - the bishops who tried to negotiate with Lambeth for Gene and the House of Bishops) They have been so true to what they were asked to do by the Presiding Bishop. They have been in close communication with me. I have felt very supported by them. They have represented me extremely well.

I want to be clear than I am not here to whine. I learned of the result of this negotiation on Friday evening. I have been in considerable pain ever since.

But I want to acknowledge that I am not the first or last person to be in pain at a House of Bishops meeting.

My own pain was sufficient enough that for 36 hours I felt the compelling urge to run, to flee. My inspiration for staying came from my conservative brothers in this house. I have seen John Howe and Ed Salmon and others show up for years when there was a lot of pain for them. I see Bill Love and Mark Lawrence, and I know it is a very difficult thing for them to be here right now. For me, the worst sin is leaving the table. And that is what I was on the verge of doing. But, largely because of you, I stayed. Thank you for that.

I want to tell you why I declined the invitation as it was proposed. I really had high hopes that something might work out. I have been talking with the Anglican Communion Office for almost a year now. I got my first phone call four days before the invitations to Lambeth went out. I thought something would work out.

The offer to be hosted at the Marketplace is a non-offer. That is already available to me. One workshop on one afternoon and being interviewed by the secular press was not anything I was seeking. I wasn't going to Lambeth to have another interview with the secular press. If interviewed at all, I want to talk with a theologian. I want to talk about the love of Christ. I want to talk about the God who saved me and redeemed me and continues to live in my life. I want to talk about the Jesus I know in my life.

But my mind boggles at the misperception that this is just about gay rights. It might be in another context, but in this context it is about God's love of all of God's children. It's a theological discussion, it's not a media show. I have been most disappointed in that my desire was to participate in Bible study and small groups, and that is not being offered. It makes me wonder: if we can't sit around a table and study the Bible together, what kind of communion do we have and what are we trying to save?

I am dismayed and sickhearted that we can't sit around a table, as brothers and sisters in Christ, and study scripture together.

It has been a very difficult 48 hours sitting here and hearing your plans for Lambeth.

In my most difficult moments, it feels as if, instead of leaving the 99 sheep in search of the one, my chief pastor and shepherd, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has cut me out of the herd.

I ask two things of you. Some of you have indicated that if I am not invited, you won't go either. I want to say loud and clear - you must go. You must find your voice. And somehow you have to find my voice and the voices of all the gay and lesbian people in your diocese who, for now, don't have a voice in this setting. I'd much rather be talked to than talked about. But you must go and tell the stories of your people, faithful members of your flock who happen to be lesbian and gay.

For God's sake, don't stay away.

And second, please don't let them separate me from you. Please don't let that happen. It will be difficult, and we will have to be intentional. I know that the last thing you will need at the end of the day is another meeting just so I can catch up with you. But I hope you will be willing to stay in touch with me.

From the day I have walked into this House I have been treated with respect and welcome, even, and perhaps especially, by those of you who voted no on my consent.

I can never thank you enough for that. I will always and every moment treasure your welcome and your hospitality.

Don't let them cut me off from you.

All this is really sad for me and for my diocese. I won't have the experiences you will have, to share with them. But I will be there in the marketplace, willing to talk with anyone who wants to talk, especially with those who disagree with me. If you know me at all, you know that that's true.

Now, my focus has to change. Maybe this is what God has in mind. I had hoped to focus on the community of bishops at Lambeth, making my own contribution to its deliberations. But now, I think I will go to Lambeth thinking about gay and lesbian people around the world who will be watching what happens there. I will go to Lambeth remembering the 100 or so twenty-something's I met in Hong Kong this fall, who meet every Sunday afternoon to worship and sing God's praise in a secret catacomb of safety - because they can't be gay AND Christian in their own churches. I will be taking them to Lambeth with me. They told me that the Episcopal Church was their hope for a different, welcoming church. They told me they were counting on us. Yes, the things we do in the Episcopal Church have ramifications far, far away - and sometimes those ramifications are good.

I hope we can talk about the ways we can stay in touch in Lambeth. I will be praying for you, all the time. I know it will seem very strange, being separated from you. But we can do it if we want to. I have nothing but respect and sympathy for the Archbishop of Canterbury and the difficult place he is in. I was trying to help him, and it just didn't work.

Pray for me. I will need that. A lot.

Read the negotiations and news here.

Susan Russell Comments on Rowan's Advent Letter

O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

Dear Integrity members and friends:

By now you have read the Archbishop of Canterbury's Advent letter. In contrast to the well-known hymn quoted above, Rowan Williams' letter gives LGBT Anglicans scant hope of liberty from the bonds of ecclesiastical discrimination. He erroneously states that Lambeth Conference 1998 Resolution 1.10—which rejects "homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture"—is the clear consensus of the entire Anglican Communion. He decries General Convention 2003's approval of the consecration of Bishop Gene Robinson and its affirmation of local rites for blessing same-gender relationships. He expresses frustration at our House of Bishop's failure to implement clear moratoria on additional LGBT bishops or blessing rites. He denigrates the Episcopal Church's polity—which includes all orders of ministry in decision making. He defends his decision not to invite Bishop Robinson to the 2008 Lambeth Conference. He expresses his intention to appoint yet another task force to talk about LGBT Anglicans rather to us—again ignoring the now 30-year old commitment to listen to our witness. With prophetic leaders like Rowan Williams at the helm of the Anglican Communion, one could despair that LGBT Anglicans will continue to mourn in exile until Jesus comes again!

But, lo, we are promised that Emmanuel will come to us. Despite the present oppressive reality, we are invited to rejoice in our future liberation. There are glimmers of hope. For example, a broad coalition of individuals and organizations around the world is emerging to ensure that the voices of fairness and inclusion are heard at the Lambeth Conference next summer. Groundwork is also being done to move beyond B033 and advance marriage equality at General Convention 2009.

You can help Integrity prepare for our witness at the Lambeth Conference and beyond by making a year-end donation for this important work. Secure, online gifts can be made by going to www.integrityusa.org and clicking the blue DONATE NOW button in the left margin. All contributions to Integrity are tax deductible.

Integrity remains committed to the full inclusion of all of the baptized into the Body of Christ. With your prayers, witness, and support we will continue to work within the Episcopal Church to accomplish that Gospel Agenda.

Blessings,

The Rev. Susan Russell, President

Chicago Consultation on Rowan's Advent Letter

The Chicago Consultation

December 14, 2007
For immediate release

The following statement, in response to the Archbishop of Canterbury's Advent Letter, comes from the steering committee of the Chicago Consultation, an international Anglican group that favors the full inclusion of gay and lesbian Christians in the Anglican Communion. The Consultation has more than 50 members, including two Primates of the Anglican Communion, 10 diocesan bishops in the Episcopal Church, and representatives from Brazil, Canada, England, Ghana and New Zealand. It recently completed its initial meeting at Seabury-Western Seminary in Evanston, Ill. For more information see the attached release.

From the steering committee of the Chicago Consultation:

"The archbishop's lengthy letter contains not a word of comfort to gay and lesbian Christians. In asserting the Communion's opposition to homophobia, he gives political cover to Archbishop Peter Akinola and other Primates whose anti-gay activities are a matter of public record. We are especially troubled by the absence of openly gay members on the bodies that may ultimately resolve the issues at hand. The archbishop's unwillingness to include gay and lesbian Christians in this process perpetuates the bigotry he purports to deplore."


For more information contact:
Jim Naughton
jnaughton@edow.org
202-537-7162

Archbishop of Canterbury's Advent Letter

To: Primates of the Anglican Communion & Moderators of the United Churches

Greetings in the name of the One 'who is and was and is to come, the Almighty', as we prepare in this Advent season to celebrate once more his first coming and pray for the grace to greet him when he comes in glory.

You will by now, I hope, have received my earlier letter summarising the responses from Primates to the Joint Standing Committee's analysis of the New Orleans statement from the House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church. In that letter, I promised to write with some further reflections and proposals, and this is the purpose of the present communication. Although I am writing in the first instance to my fellow-primates, I hope you will share this letter widely with your bishops and people.

As I said in that earlier letter, the responses received from primates differed in their assessment of the situation. Slightly more than half of the replies received signalled a willingness to accept the Joint Standing Committee's analysis of the New Orleans statement, but the rest regarded both the statement and the Standing Committee's comments as an inadequate response to what had been requested by the primates in Dar-es-Salaam.

So we have no consensus about the New Orleans statement. It is also the case that some of the more negative assessments from primates were clearly influenced by the reported remarks of individual bishops in The Episcopal Church who either declared their unwillingness to abide by the terms of the statement or argued that it did not imply any change in current policies. It should be noted too that some of the positive responses reflected a deep desire to put the question decisively behind us as a Communion; some of these also expressed dissatisfaction with our present channels of discussion and communication.

Click here to read the rest.