March 5, 2019
Dear Friends in Christ,
As many of you are aware, next week is the spring meeting of the House of Bishops in North Carolina, which I will be attending. One troubling matter that my fellow bishops and I will be discussing at length will be Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby’s decision not to invite spouses of bishops who are in same-sex marriages to the 2020 Lambeth Conference.
The Lambeth Conference is considered the worldwide Anglican Communion’s most important conference, bringing together all active bishops and their spouses to seek God’s guidance for the future of the Church. 2020 was to be a breakthrough year for the conference. For the first time in history, LGBTQ bishops are invited to attend and participate (that was not the case at the last Lambeth in 2008, when Bishop Gene Robinson was purposely excluded). However, news that the welcome does not extend to their spouses has cast a pall over the event, and Sheila and I, along with many of my bishop colleagues and their spouses, have considered not attending.
As of this writing, the Diocese of New York is taking a strong lead as we decide our course of action for Lambeth 2020. That diocese is home to the one sitting Episcopal bishop affected by Archbishop Welby’s decision, Assistant Bishop Mary Glasspool (the decision also will also apply to the bishop-elect of Maine when he becomes the bishop and one bishop in the Anglican Church of Canada).
The Rt. Rev. Glasspool is the first lesbian bishop in the Anglican Communion and is married to Becki Sander. On Friday, Bishop Glasspool and the two other Diocese of New York bishops, Bishop Andrew Dietsche and Bishop Suffragan Allen Shin announced that, after much deliberation and with mixed feelings, they will attend Lambeth, and Ms. Sander will accompany Bishop Glasspool to England, though she will not be permitted to participate in official meetings and activities.
In the letter, which I encourage you to read in full here, the Diocese of New York’s three bishops explained their goal in attending Lambeth:
We are graced by the lives and witness of the countless gay and lesbian priests, deacons and laypersons who have enhanced and magnified our common life by the depth of their faith, by their courage, and by the self-offering of their lives to the service to God and God’s children. We will be taking to Lambeth the lives and stories of the LGBTQ people of our diocese. We will be taking the hard histories and the holy graces of people who have asked only to receive from their church the dignity and love which they have received from their God. We will bear witness to the struggle and the triumph, and we will give voice at Lambeth to the voiceless many who will not be there. We will carry to Lambeth the spirit raised this year on the 50th anniversary of Stonewall in this our own diocese, and the celebration of World Pride Week. We go to Lambeth so that you will be at Lambeth.
After much prayer and discernment, Sheila and I have concluded, also with mixed feelings, that we must join Bishop Glasspool and Ms. Sander at Lambeth to support them, as well as the other two gay bishops and their spouses. With renewed purpose, we will also carry to Lambeth the voices of the LGBTQ community in the Diocese of California and beyond.
Please pray for us and our colleagues as we prepare for Lambeth, and pray especially for those who still lack access to the full sacramental life of our Church.
In faith,
+Marc Andrus
It was really a stupid move on Welby’s part. The worse part of it is that it continues to provide a platform for these yammering airheads.
The upside is that it is now absolutely clear to the Global South that the ENTIRE purpose of the 2020 Lambeth is to force gay culture, gay liturgy, and gay marriage into their churches. Every day from now until Lambeth they will hear about it, and every day during Lambeth they will experience it. Day after day after day.
What a courageous sacrifice. But life calls for hard decisions.
The TEC bishops will now probably make a once a year pilgrimage to London to commemorate their sacrifice in attending Lambeth on behalf of their gay brethren. Well, ok, so some years it will be Paris or Tuscany. But at least once a year from now until Trinity Wall Street runs out of money.
But, after all, TEC bishops eat lobster with Montrachet on Fridays in Lent and pretend they are fasting.
+ Marcus why not resolved to stand with the bishops who come from the Middle East, Africa, South and South East Asia where your fellow Christians are persecuted and even put to death for their faith?
All my adult life I have been a thoughtful and considerate Christian and a friend of the underdog. However, I am really struggling to understand these so-called bishops whom I call Wrong Reverends (not the Right Reverends, as they are titled) who are pretending to be the defenders and teachers of the Faith and symbols of unity. It’s extremly sad to see the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Least Reverend (not the Most Reverend, as he is titled) leading the Communion down hill.
I bet you, Lambeth 2020 is taking shape to be a conference about the rights and wrongs and rights of being gay-partnered “bishops” and not about the proclamation of the Gospel.
I rather wish this whole business of Lambeth Conference being called off. This would be a good damage control strategy to minimize the terrible damage that has already being done to God’s church.
Is it God’s church anymore, or has it become the church of the world?
BAZINGA!!! This is the core of my problem with revisionist Christianity. They invert the God/Man relationship. Mankind no longer needs repentance or amendment of life because we expect God to adjust to how we want to live our lives. To misquote JFK: ask not what you can do for God (yeah bad theology) but rather ask what He can do for you!
Is it God’s church anymore, or has it become the church of the world?
Perhaps Bishop Andrus can introduced a resolution at Lambeth deploring the exclusion of the same-sex spouses. See how that goes….
He will be retired with his monster blood pension by then
? Ridiculous. Oh vey! What a martyr.
I was trained in seminary by the same rector, Bob Creamer, as +Andrus was.
While +Andrus certainly has gifts and a high IQ, he is absolutely heretical at points. Would LOVE for Dr McDermott and yours truly to debate him and his Canon but would rather see him believe the Bible, Creeds, 39 Articles and the “faith once delivered to the saints.”
>>Does this verbal feinting threaten the future of Lambeth 2020? Of course not. The Episcopal Church does not mean to boycott the Lambeth Conference any more than Justin Welby means to enforce Lambeth Resolution I.10.<< Just sayin'.
Question-
Being that Gene Robinson is now the “flying bishop” for gay marriage in Communion Partner dioceses, is he “active”? Even if not, TEC could put a final nail in the Lambeth coffin by appointing Robinson as an “assistant bishop” in any of its 100 domestic dioceses- which would instantly result in a Lambeth invitation.
Now that I think about it….do we actually know that Robinson has NOT already been invited? Either as a participant or speaker? Welby and Idowu-Fearon instigated this controversy over spouses for some purpose (I mean, they did it, and apparently for some purpose). It is a very effective smokescreen if it is intended to divert attention from something else they are up to.
I am shocked, really. What a horrible thing to say!
I guess I am lucky you did not read it before I toned it down.
Naw… just having a moment of fun with sarcasm.
Question-
Being that Gene Robinson is now the “flying bishop” for gay marriage in Communion Partner dioceses, is he “active”? Even if not, TEC could put a final nail in the Lambeth coffin by appointing Robinson as an “assistant bishop” in any of its 100 domestic dioceses- which would instantly result in a Lambeth invitation.
“We are graced.” Like Cowbells, we need more verbs.
There’s nothing wrong with “grace” as a verb.
Now the usage here is problematic, I admit.
Thanks to Justin Welby hypocrisy there will be a massive boycott from GAFCON and the Global South Primates at Lambeth 2020.