SPECIAL FORUM, APRIL 29

Stirrings in the Episcopal Church

News media reports have prompted a number of members of the St. Philip’s congregation to ask one another and the pastors, “What is going on in the Episcopal Church (USA) and in the Anglican Communion?”

The news has to do with a long list of differences reported in the Church and the Communion over:

· The 2003 consecration of Bishop Eugene Robinson, a gay man in an open, committed partnership.

· The response of the ECUSA to the Windsor Report by the Anglican Primates challenging this action.

· The withdrawal or threatened withdrawal of some American parishes from the ECUSA.

· The action of some African branches of the Communion in offering oversight for the disaffected churches.

· Important theological disagreements among Anglicans.

· The manner of governance in the ECUSA and the exercise of authority within the American church and among the participant churches in the Anglican Communion.

An article in the New York Times has called the possibility of a rupture between the ECUSA and the wider Anglican Communion a “Divorce that the Church Should Smile Upon,” to which David Bird, Dean and Rector of Trinity Cathedral in San Jose has remarked, “Not a divorce but an annulment.”

Our Spiritual Life

Anglican women delegates to the 2007 United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) pledged to take their commitment "to remaining always in 'communion' with and for one another" to the wider Anglican Communion, and especially the 38 Primates, as a model for reconciliation.

The delegation of more than 80 women, representing 34 countries in the worldwide Anglican Communion, issued a statement March 3 vowing "to remain resolute in our solidarity with one another and in our commitment, above all else, to pursue and fulfill God's mission in all we say and do."

Acknowledging the "global tensions so evident in our church today," the women delegates "do not accept that there is any one issue of difference or contention which can, or indeed would, every cause us to break the unity as represented by our common baptism. Neither would we ever consider severing the deep and abiding bonds of affection which characterize our relationships as Anglican women."

By their statement, the Anglican delegates believe they are offering a women's way forward for reconciliation within the Anglican Communion at a time when theological differences regarding issues of human sexuality are causing tensions.

"The women of the Communion have, I believe, moved from bewilderment to outrage at the ways in which a small cabal of leaders have continued to insist that the issues exercising them alone over human sexuality are inevitably to preoccupy us as well," said Jenny Te Paa, an Anglican delegate and ahorangi, or dean, of Te Rau Kahikatea, the College of St. John the Evangelist in Auckland, New Zealand.

What the Primates have failed to realize, Te Paa said, is that "the priority focus for Anglican women always has been the pressing issues of life and death, which are daily facing too many of the women and children of God's world. How can we compare the needless horrific suffering of women and girls being brutally raped when collecting firewood or water with the endless hysteria of male leaders wanting to debate whether gay men have full humanity or not?"

For the Anglican women, the mission to work together to heal God's world takes precedent over their theological differences. In their statement, they pledge to live out reconciliation for the sake of a suffering world.

"This sisterhood of suffering is at the heart of our theology and our commitment to transforming the whole world through peace with justice," the statement says. "Rebuilding and reconciling the world is central to our faith."

Excerpted from an article by K. Jeanne Person and Matthew Davies for the Episcopal News Service.

Closer to home, the questions I’ve heard are “What does all this have to do with us?  How might it affect the selection of a new Bishop for our diocese?  What do our priests think about it all?”

On Sunday, April 29, Pastor Mary and I will lead an open Forum at St. Philip’s to clear information and to discuss the issues for our congregation and the wider church.  The Forum will be held at 11:30 a.m., after morning services, and will include a light lunch.  Jerry Witherspoon, a layman from St. Jude’s in Cupertino and long active in leadership in our Diocese, will be our speaker, to bring us up to date and guide the discussion. In addition, Deacon Brian Nordwick, Diocesan Administrator, will be our preacher that day, and will be on hand to assist with the panel discussion.

Between now and then we shall put together a packet of resource articles for those who want information about the issues and make it available o on Sundays and in the church office.  I have found the following internet sites to be giving good coverage to Episcopal Church news:

· Natl. Episcopal Church: www.episcopalchurch.org

· Diocese of El Camino Real - http://www.edecr.org

· Anglicans Online - http://anglicansonline.org

· New York Times and Washington Post websites

             Rev. Bill Kelly, Assisting Priest

Anglican Women Seek to Model Reconciliation