Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding” (Rom. 14:19).
We greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ as Communion Partner Bishops following the 81st General Convention of The Episcopal Church, held in Louisville at the end of June, 2024. Bishops are particularly charged with guarding the “faith, unity, and discipline of the Church” as a whole (BCP, 517). We reaffirm our commitment to this apostolic ministry. As we reflect upon our experience of this Convention, the Apostle Paul’s words to the church in Rome capture something of our renewed hope for the Episcopal Church.
Christ himself is our peace (Eph.2:14), and our foundation as a Church (1 Cor. 3:11). The peace we pursue is his peace, and the building up we seek is founded on him. There can be no other enduring basis for our life together. We are grateful to our colleagues in the House of Bishops for the graceful way in which our deliberations took place and our work was done. We rejoice at the ways in which this Convention as a whole was marked by peacemaking and mutual upbuilding in the name of Christ.
The Task Force on Communion Across Difference, first commissioned by the Church at the 2018 Convention and renewed again in 2022, played an important role in the work of this Convention. This Task Force’s charge acknowledged “the indispensable place that the minority who hold to this Church’s historic teaching on marriage have in our common life, whose witness our Church needs,” and called for the seeking of “a lasting path forward for mutual flourishing consistent with this Church’s polity” (Resolution 2018-A227; Resolution 2022-A056) both for those who believe that marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman, and for those who believe it is a covenant between two people. The Task Force included equal numbers holding both theological positions, working together to find this path forward.
The Task Force sponsored a number of canonical resolutions that were adopted by the Convention, among them one that secures access to the ordination and call process in dioceses, no matter a candidate’s theological conviction on whether marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman or between two people. Another resolution adopted a canonical change that allows a bishop to call upon another colleague to provide pastoral support to clergy and congregations in circumstances when the bishop is unwilling to provide oversight for a marriage. These canonical changes are expressions of communion across difference; a practical working out of the pursuit of peace and mutual upbuilding that we saw at work at Convention.
A matter of particular concern at this Convention involved the marriage liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer. As Communion Partner Bishops, we reaffirm our commitment to the Church’s traditional teaching that “Holy Matrimony is Christian marriage, in which the woman and the man enter into a life-long union” that is “intended by God for their mutual joy; for the help and comfort given one another in prosperity and adversity; and, when it is God’s will, for the procreation of children and their nurture in the knowledge and love of the Lord” (BCP, pp. 861, 423). This is an understanding well-attested in the Holy Scriptures, Church tradition, and Anglican teaching.
At the same time, we understand that other Christians of good will and commitment to the Scriptures hold a different conviction that marriage is a covenant between two people. As bishops, we recommit ourselves to our life together in the Church across this difference, and to reaching out and ministering to the LGBTQ+ community, who are also our brothers and sisters in Christ. We pledge ourselves to walking together as closely as possible in a life of mutual service.
The Convention passed a first reading of a gender-neutral liturgy for inclusion in the Book of Common Prayer, that will become part of the Prayer Book when finally adopted in 2027. The current marriage liturgy, with its robust statements of the Church’s traditional teaching, will continue to be included in the amended book. Other canons adopted by the Convention also clarified that the memorialization of the present 1979 Prayer Book, adopted at the 2018 Convention, has canonical force, ensuring its continued use, along with its marriage liturgy, across the Church, without restriction.
These canonical changes make clear that we are a Church of two teachings on marriage, but also ensure that those who uphold the traditional teaching have a valued place in the Church. As the Communion Partner bishops wrote in our 2022 Baltimore Statement, “If we are to be a church with differentiated teaching on marriage, with latitude afforded to our members, the church’s traditional teaching will need expression in liturgies, rubrics, and catechisms that continue to be authorized by this Church, and freely available to its members, for liturgical use and as an adequate expression of their faith.” The canonical changes at this Convention provide the means for this continued teaching and its expression.
We were encouraged not only by the legislative action of the Convention, but also by the election of the Rt. Rev’d Sean Rowe as Presiding Bishop. The Presiding Bishop-elect has called for a “relational jubilee” from the infighting that has plagued the Church in recent years. We heartily concur, and pray for him as he begins his new ministry. This Convention marks a time of renewed hope. We hereby recommit ourselves to the apostolic work of peacemaking and mutual upbuilding, which is ours as bishops, within the life of our own Episcopal Church and the wider Anglican Communion.
The Rt. Rev’d Lloyd Allen
Bishop of Honduras
The Rt. Rev’d John Bauerschmidt
Bishop of Tennessee
The Rt. Rev’d Greg Brewer
Bishop of Central Florida (res.)
The Rt. Rev’d Brian Burgess
Bishop of Springfield
The Rt. Rev’d Pastor Elias Cardenas
Bishop of Columbia
The Rt. Rev’d Fraser Lawton
Assistant Bishop of Dallas
The Rt. Rev’d Daniel Martins
Bishop of Springfield (res.)
The Rt. Rev’d Michael Smith
Assistant Bishop of Dallas
The Rt. Rev’d George Sumner
Bishop of Dallas
The Rt. Rev’d Moises Quezada
Bishop of the Dominican Republic
The Rt. Rev’d Juan Carlos Quiñones
Bishop of Ecuador Central
