The House of Bishops and their spouses met for their interim meeting at the Courtyard Marriott in downtown Minneapolis. At their September 20 business meeting, they adopted the following:
A Message of Love and Solidarity from the Bishops and Spouses to The Episcopal Church
For many bishops and bishops’ spouses of The Episcopal Church, next summer’s Lambeth Conference has become the occasion for a mixture of joy and sorrow, hope and disappointment. We cherish the bonds of affection that we enjoy with our Anglican siblings around the world. Gathering in prayer, study, and fellowship with our spiritual family is a gift for which we are profoundly grateful.
We, bishops and spouses choose to remain in community with each other as we navigate this passage in our common journey. We choose to remain one in the love of Jesus.
Our hearts are, however, troubled. The Lambeth Conference 2020 intentionally recognizes and underscores the important role bishops’ spouses play in the ministry of the episcopate. And yet, spouses of bishops in same-gender marriages have received no invitation to participate. Their exclusion wounds those who are excluded, their spouses, and their friends within and beyond the House of Bishops.
After faithful soul-searching, each bishop and spouse will arrive at a decision about how best to respond in the name of Christ. Some will attend and offer loving witness. Some will opt to stay at home as a different way to offer loving witness. Some will dedicate the resources not spent for Lambeth attendance to on-the-ground partnership projects as an alternative manifestation of our commitment to the Anglican Communion. Others will find different avenues to express the unwavering love of Jesus Christ.
The community of bishops and spouses supports and stands together in solidarity with each of our brothers and sisters in this Episcopal Church as they make these decisions according to their conscience and through prayerful discernment and invite the siblings of The Episcopal Church to join us in that solidarity.
A tally vote regarding the message was taken. The results of the vote were: Yeas 60, Nays 17, Abstentions 3
If ACNA had not left TEC, then I think the vote would not have been so lop-sided in favor of it.
Actually, I don’t think it would have made much difference. Keep in mind that of the 5 diocesan bishops, +Duncan and +Ackerman were deposed while still members of TEC. +Iker would have been deposed over his refusal to allow KJS to preside over a eucharist in his diocese. And the HoB would NEVER have consented to the bishops elected to replace +Duncan, +Ackerman and +Schofield. The disciplinary proceeding that triggered South Carolina’s departure would have led to the deposition of +Lawrence.
The net outcome would have been the same, more or less- the bishops would have been deposed, and replaced with “acting” bishops selected by KJS (quite probably the same ones). The depositions were going to happen, whether they left or not. In the best case scenario, all of them would by now be replaced with “Communion Partner” bishops, committed to WO and the eradication of Anglo Catholicism,
A lot has changed in 16 years.
Given that a couple days earlier, the business of the house was to cast Bishop Love into a star chamber disciplinary process, to punish him for maintaining the doctrine of the church, the title of this letter, “A Message of Love and Solidarity…” is a parody on itself.
What I can’t figure out about this vote is what happened to everybody. And early TEC press release I read stated there were something like 135 in attendance, but only 80 total votes were cast. Was this the last thing on the agenda?
But more important than either vote counts or self parody by TEC is that this letter, and the attendance at Lambeth by these bishops, constitute a HUGE LIE.
According to the House of Bishops, any bishop of the Anglican Communion who maintains that Lambeth 1.10 and the marriage liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer should be brought up on disciplinary charges and forced to accept gay marriage or be deposed. If they consider +Bill Love unfit to be a bishop, how could the possibly consider +Mouneer Anis, or +Ian Earnest or +Humphrey Peters? Much less the Gafcon bishops and the other conservatives from the Global South.
So, solidarity? Solidarity with other wealthy western cultural elites, with progressive theologies and no moral backbone.
Are retired bishops invited to Lambeth?
I think the correct answer (based on what I’ve read) is some retired bishops, but not all.
Welby has changed the rules from those followed in the past. According to various announcements, all “active” bishops are invited. According to stuff previously published by ENS, this has been taken to mean all suffragans, plus retired bishops currently serving in roles as provisional or assistant or assisting bishops.
There are somewhere between 150 and 160 TEC bishops who currently qualify. They may add a few more, as it seems very “in” right now for bishops to announce their retirement for just after Lambeth, with a co-adjutor election scheduled just before Lambeth, so the diocese can send a diocesan, a coadjutor, an assisting, and as many suffragans as they can afford. Plus all their spouses (minus a half dozen) so that the Western presence would be overwhelming and Welby would have roughly as many women in the photos as men.
The point of the exercise was to be sure that TEC could send as many bishops as Nigeria, in case Nigeria showed up, even though TEC is 1/10 the size of Nigeria in terms of members or ASA. Plus provide Welby with a small army of CoE suffragans and assisting bishops- CoE has about twice as many suffragans as diocesans. Plus this way, the rich western provinces almost double their number of bishops voting in favor of all things gay. Will allow TEC to have one bishop per 3000 ASA, while the GS will have one bishop per 30,000, if they are lucky, even if Nigeria and Uganda were to show up.
It is what we used to call racism, but now that it is the main way in which progressives maintain power in the Communion, they call it good disagreement.
Gene Robinson probably won’t be there then? Too bad. I remember him in New Orleans brow beating ABC Williams and thought he could be the one to give Welby a tongue lashing for disrespecting the (his) agenda. Sadly, Gene Robinson is still the most influential Anglican bishop of the last 100 years.
“And yet, spouses of bishops in same-gender marriages have received no invitation to participate.”
Response:
1 Corinthians 7 English Standard Version (ESV)
Principles for Marriage
7 Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” 2 But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. 3 The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4 For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. 5 Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
Love and solidarity are important to God and not to your fellow Bishops or your denomination. As Christ said if you love me keep my commandments. Do these bishops know what covenant love with God is?
60 “yea” votes for this statement? My friends, this needs a little salt. For the sake of the children these “+” lead, is it not more loving and kind to call this politic what it is? Or should we maintain an air of patient kindness in the name of unity?
“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.” Mt 5:13
“There exclusion wounds those who are excluded”
Holding errant leaders accountable is more important than hurt feelings.
There is good to be done here: “to be thrown out”