Bishop Wolf’s Letter on General Convention

July 22, 2009

 Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ:

 Thank you for keeping the General Convention in your prayers these past two weeks. Members of our deputation were faithful in their responsibilities, and lived through the challenging events with open-heartedness and serious devotion. The deputation team was comprised of of 4 clerical and 4 lay deputies: The Rev. Craig Burlington, The Rev. Bill Locke, The Rev. Scott Gunn, The Rev. Jennifer Pedrick, Missy Bennett, Caryl Frink, Mary Ann Kolakowski, and Dee Tavolaro, along with alternates in attendance, The Rev. Jennifer Phillips, The Rev. Al Barnaby and Becky Gettel. As you see these deputies in the coming weeks, please thank them for their dedicated service to our diocese and the wider Church and Communion.

 The House of Deputies and the House of Bishops addressed hundreds of resolutions, the passage of which occurred when both houses concurred on the resolution at hand. Two resolutions received significant attention in the mass media, and many others are important for our diocesan life. The call for church-wide health insurance, should result in lower costs for medical coverage. Our Church’s commitment to the Church in the Sudan, reaffirms our Companion Diocese relationship with the Diocese of Ezo. A reduction in the apportionment responsibilities to The Episcopal Church will have a small but important effect on our diocesan budget. The firm support for Hispanic ministry, matches our diocesan focus for this mission. The two resolutions that resulted in the most media attention were Resolutions D025 and C056 dealing with issues related to sexuality. As is often the case, these resolutions have been interpreted in different ways by different people.

 Resolution D025 deals with the discernment and call of suitable individuals to ordained ministry.

 “Resolved, That the 76^th General Convention recognize that gay and lesbian persons who are part of such relationships [committed same-sex partnerships] have responded to God’s call and have exercised various ministries in and on behalf of God’s One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church and are currently doing so in our midst; and be it further Resolved, That the 76^th General Convention affirm that God has called and may call such individuals, to any ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church.”

 This resolution affirms the existing canonical responsibility of the Bishop, Commission on Ministry, and Standing Committee in vocational discernment to the ordained ministries of our Church.

 The ministry of gay and lesbian priests and deacons in our diocese has been exemplary, and the discernment process, deployment, and committee and commission membership remain fully open to the participation of all.

 Resolution CO56 asks the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music to “collect and develop theological and liturgical resources” for the blessing of same-sex unions and report their findings to the next General Convention in 2012. This allows for a theological context in which to discuss potential liturgical rites. The resolution goes on to say, “bishops, particularly those in dioceses within civil jurisdictions where same-gender marriage, civil unions, or domestic partnerships are legal, may provide generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of the Church.

 My oft-stated policy for the Diocese of Rhode Island remains the same; Until such time as General Convention officially authorizes such rites, I will not authorize same-sex unions in our churches or on any church property.

 Both resolutions passed by overwhelming majorities, approximately 2-1, and I believe both clearly express the mind and direction of The Episcopal Church. Personally, I was grateful for the clarity. However, in my opinion, these resolutions effectively supersede the moratoria requested of us by our wider Anglican fellowship, in regard to the consent to the episcopate of a partnered gay or lesbian person, and the provision of “generous response,” as stated above.  I remain committed to the Windsor Process, as many of you know, and this was the predominant reason why I voted “no” on both resolutions.

 Our Presiding Bishop was masterful in her knowledge and use of Robert’s Rules of Order, leading us with a firm and gentle hand through many, and often complicated, deliberations. There was a good spirit in the House of Bishops, and a sincere desire to honor both the direction of the Church and the integrity of those who hold a different point of view.

 As I prepare to go on vacation, I give thanks to God for you who give so generously to the life and mission of Christ in our diocese. During the Convention, I read Paul’s second letter to the Church at Corinth. There were a few verses that leapt off the page, as if I had never read them before. They come from the eighth chapter. “…the troubles they have been through have tried them hard, yet in all this they have been so exuberantly happy that from the depths of their poverty they have shown themselves lavishly open-handed.”  Good and faithful ministry has its joys and sorrows, yet in the fullness of Jesus’ love the risen life always prevails.

 Thank you for being that risen life for me and for the communities in which you serve.

 Yours faithfully,

Geralyn Wolf

Bishop of Rhode Island

Presiding Bishop’s Letter on General Convention 2009

July 22, 2009

My brothers and sisters in Christ:

The 76th General Convention is now history, though it will likely take some time before we are all reasonably clear about what the results are.

We gathered in Anaheim, as guests of the Diocese of Los Angeles, for eleven full days of worship, learning, and policy-making. The worship was stunning visually, musically, and liturgically, with provocative preaching and lively singing.

Our learning included training in Public Narrative, as well as news about the emergent church, in the LA Night presentation.

We welcomed a number of visitors from other parts of the Anglican Communion, including 15 of the primates (archbishops or presiding bishops), other bishops, clergy, and laity.

You can see and hear all this and more at the Media Hub: http://gchub.episcopalchurch.org/

The budget adopted represents a significant curtailment of church-wide ministry efforts, in recognition of the economic realities of many dioceses and church endowments, which will result in the loss of a number of Church Center staff who have given long and laudable service. Yet we will continue to serve God’s mission, throughout The Episcopal Church and beyond. This budget expects that more mission work will continue or begin to take place at diocesan or congregational levels. Religious pilgrims, from the Israelites in the desert to Episcopalians in Alaska or Haiti, have always learned that times of leanness are opportunities for strengthened faith and creativity.

As a Church, we have deepened our commitments to mission and ministry with “the least of these” (Matthew 25). We included a budgetary commitment of 0.7% to the Millennium Development Goals, through theNetsforLife® program partnership of Episcopal Relief & Development. That is in addition to approximately 15% of the budget already committed to international development work.

We have committed to a domestic poverty initiative, meant to explore coherent and constructive responses to some of the worst poverty statistics in the Americas: Native American reservations and indigenous communities.

Justice is the goal, as we revised our canons (church rules) having to do with clergy discipline, both as an act of solidarity with those who may suffer at the hands of clergy and an act of pastoral concern for clergy charged with misconduct.

The General Convention adopted a health plan to serve all clergy and lay employees, which is expected to be a cost-savings across the whole of the United States portion of the Church. Work continues to ensure adequate health coverage in the non-U.S. parts of this Church. The Convention also mandated pension coverage for lay employees.

Liturgical additions were also included in the Convention’s work, from more saints on the calendar to prayers around reproductive loss.

What captured the headlines across the secular media, however, had to do with two resolutions, the consequences of which were often misinterpreted or exaggerated. One, identified as D025, is titled “Anglican Communion: Commitment and Witness to Anglican Communion.” It

• reaffirms our commitment to and desire to pursue mission with the Anglican Communion;
• reiterates our commitment to Listening Process urged by Lambeth Conferences of 1978, 1988, and 1998;
• notes that our own participation in the listening process led General Convention in 2000 to “recognize that the baptized membership of The Episcopal Church includes same-sex couples living in lifelong committed relationships ‘characterized by fidelity, monogamy, mutual affection and respect, careful, honest communication, and the holy love which enables those in such relationships to see in each other the image of God’”;
• recognizes that ministry, both lay and ordained is being exercised by such persons in response to God’s call;
• notes that the call to ordained ministry is God’s call, is a mystery, and that the Church participates in that mystery through the process of discernment;
• acknowledges that the members of The Episcopal Church, and of the Anglican Communion, are not of one mind, and that faithful Christians disagree about some of these matters.

The other resolution that received a lot of press is C056, titled “Liturgies for Blessings.” The text adopted was a substitute for the original, yet the title remains unchanged. It

• acknowledges changing circumstances in the U.S. and elsewhere, in that civil jurisdictions in some places permit marriage, civil unions, and/or domestic partnerships involving same-sex couples, that call for a pastoral response from this Church;
• asks the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music, and the House of Bishops, to collect and develop theological and liturgical resources for such pastoral response, and report to the next General Convention;
• asks those bodies to invite comment and participation from other parts of this Church and the Anglican Communion;
• notes that bishops may provide generous pastoral responses to the needs of members of this Church;
• asks the Convention to honor the theological diversity of this Church in regard to matters of human sexuality.

The full text of both resolutions is available here: http://gc2009.org/ViewLegislation. I urge you to read them for yourself. Some have insisted that these resolutions repudiate our relationships with other members of the Anglican Communion. My sense is that we have been very clear that we value our relationships within and around the Communion, and seek to deepen them. My sense as well is that we cannot do that without being honest about who and where we are. We are obviously not of one mind, and likely will not be until Jesus returns in all his glory. We are called by God to continue to wrestle with the circumstances in which we live and move and have our being, and to do it as carefully and faithfully as we are able, in companionship with those who disagree vehemently and agree wholeheartedly. It is only in that wrestling that we, like Jacob, will begin to discern the leading of the Spirit and the blessing of relationship with God.

Above all else, this Convention claimed God’s mission as the heartbeat of The Episcopal Church. I encourage every member of this Church to enter into conversation in your own congregation or diocese about God’s mission, and where you and your faith community are being invited to enter more deeply into caring for your neighbors, the “least of these” whom Jesus befriends.

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church