2008_01_20_AVM_Meeting

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AVM Meeting: Jan 19, 2008
St. Andrew's Church, Albany, N.Y.

Report by Claire Stahler, Secretary, Albany Via Media

Four articles, two Times/Union, one Daily Gazette (Schenectady) and Capitol News 9

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There is also a note on our Letters Page.

A MEETING OF THE MINDS, SATURDAY, JANUARY 19, 2008

Over 200 faithful members of the Diocese of Albany filled the sanctuary of St. Andrew’s Church in Albany for an event that brought the President of the House of Deputies, Bonnie Anderson, to share a time with us. The day was an effort to bring us together to worship God and to question together. Albany Via Media arranged the day and the good people of St. Andrew’s were our gracious hosts.

We began with a 1 PM celebration of the Holy Eucharist, the celebrant being our Bishop Love, with Ms Anderson as one of the participants. In a reading from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, we heard that our our walk, in this life, should be distinguished by humility, gentleness, patience, and tolerance for one another. By so doing, we would be "preserving the unity of spirit in the bond of peace". This same theme was found in the Gospel for the day, and was reiterated in Bishop Love’s sermon, in Ms Anderson’s remarks and in the discussions that followed.

In his sermon, Bp. Love described Christian unity "as a work in progress"

and went on to say that it is expressed in our purpose, our will, and our mission. Some highlights from the sermon include these points:

* We are called upon to share the message of hope joy, and eternal life, and to listen to our Lord as he speaks to us.

* Our goal is unity with each other and with God. Effecting this unity has challenged the Church over the centuries.

* Our mission has been clearly described as going out into all the world baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

* "We are all in this together", sharing the Gospel, reaching out, and filling the void in us and in the world. In so doing, we experience God’s love and His promise of unity with Him.

* We need to listen to the quiet voice calling us to be one with Him so that His light might shine from us.

* We are all broken and in need of God’s grace. Our significance has God’s grace as its source and is based on our relationship with God. The fullness of God’s mercy and truth is found in and through Jesus Christ. A challenge that we face is to love our enemies who persecute us. Love is the "most powerful force in the universe". God’s love is the "greatest of gifts".

* We are called to love our God above all else, and to love one another as
we love ourselves, but our brokenness gets in the way of loving God and one another.

* The Church struggles to understand God’s Word.

* Questions have been posed about justice and how we can live that out.

Others have asked about how we are to live with the gift of sexuality.

* Because unity with God and with each other is our goal, we need to be aware that the world is watching and listening to us as we wrestle with this challenge. All that we do, indeed all facets of our lives, must center on Jesus Christ.

Following the Eucharist, we gathered for a period of conversation with Bonnie Anderson. Bishop Love joined in this time. Bonnie made these points during the effort:

* Regarding Christian unity, we need to realize how we express ourselves to each other. We enable unity when our relationships happen in communion with God.

* We find Christ in our lives while working with each other in a spirit of comprehensiveness and "generous orthodoxy".

* We are encouraged to create times and places where different points of view can be expressed and supported. We need to be intentional about the work of conversation, interaction, and reconciliation. We need to be brave enough to talk about our differences.

* The bicameral structure of General Convention was described as a "circular power model".

Some hard questions were posed to both Bishop Love and to Bonnie Anderson.

Many of these reflected the frustration of moderate and liberal voices that feel silenced and shut-out of the councils of the Diocese of Albany. In response to Bishop Love’s raising of the issue of sexuality, one participant offered a glimpse into the history books. During the tenures of Bishops Hogg and Ball, workshops and conferences were presented to the Commission on Ministry and to the Standing Committee. These events were an opportunity to learn about the physical, social, and spiritual aspects of homosexuality.

Presenters included gay priests of this diocese, among others. That this happened, in the past, might bode well for the future. With the day’s emphasis being on the need to be in conversation with one another in order to facilitate our quest for unity with God and with each other, it is hoped that the Diocese will, once more, enable such a process of study and interchange to happen. We have much to learn from each other. There is hard work to be accomplished in the vineyard, the Millenium Development Goals, for example. Let us all get to work!

Prepared by Claire M. Stahler, Secretary, Albany Via Media

Albany times-Union, Sunday, Jan. 20

A fractured church seeking common faith

By MARC PARRY, Staff writer
Click byline for more stories by writer.
First published: Sunday, January 20, 2008

ALBANY -- They prayed together. They recited the Nicene Creed together. They sipped from the same chalice.

On Saturday, the top lay official in the liberal-leaning U.S. Episcopal Church joined conservative Albany Bishop William Love in the first public forum of its kind since Love's consecration.

Bonnie Anderson, president of the Episcopal Church's House of Deputies, challenged the more than 200 people gathered at St. Andrew's in Albany to come up with a model for the national church of how believers of different views can communicate.

"You cannot get on with God's work until you trust each other," Anderson said.

Division has fractured the church since the 2003 consecration of V. Gene Robinson as its first openly gay bishop. Speakers at Saturday's event -- a service led by Love followed by a question-and-answer session -- stressed unity and communication. But the exchanges were sometimes tense.

The event was organized by Albany Via Media, a group of liberal-to-moderate local Episcopalians. Members generally disagree with Love's opposition to ordaining gay clergy and blessing same-sex marriages, and they want the Albany diocese to remain in communion with the national church.

"We talk about the struggles of the church, and we seem to think that it all has to do with sex," Love said during his sermon. "That's only a symptom of something much deeper. That issue much deeper is God's word. How is it to be understood? How is it to be interpreted? How is it to be lived out?"

Some speakers told the bishop they felt shut out of diocesan events and publications. Some criticized links to conservative religious Internet sites on the diocesan Web page. One said he wasn't comfortable being referred to as a "sodomite" or "heretic" on a Web site recommended by the diocese.

Love said he could check the policy regarding links. He also suggested that if the speaker found the material offensive, "Don't read it."

That drew loud disapproval from the audience and, later in the session, an apology from Love.

Anderson's visit attracted attention on several religious Web sites. Some commentators expressed disappointment Love would even participate. On one Web site billed as a place for "traditional Anglicanism in America" and linked to on Albany's diocesan Web page, a commentator wrote of the bishop: "He may be operating under the adage, 'Keep your friends close -- and your enemies closer.' "

In interviews at St. Andrew's Saturday, though, people on both sides of the ideological divide gave the bishop credit for showing up. A lot of credit.

"This is true Anglicanism, where you come together even with a divergence of views," said David Kennison, senior warden at St. George's Church in Schenectady and a former Albany Via Media board member.

The Rev. Peter Schofield, a conservative from Christ Church in Schenectady, said he feels Albany Via Media has been "very disruptive in the diocese." But he, too, praised Saturday's service.

"If we did worship together a lot more often than we do, I think we'd have a lot less problems," he said. "We're all one in Jesus."

Marc Parry can be reached at 454-5057 or by e-mail at mparry@timesunion.com.

Also, from the Albany times-Union, Friday Jan. 18

Episcopal aide seeks to mend relations

ALBANY -- The highest-ranking lay officer of the national Episcopal Church will be in Albany Saturday for an event organized to build bridges between different wings of the church.

Episcopal House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson will speak at 2 p.m. at St. Andrew's Church, focusing on the state of the church and the broader Anglican Communion -- and how that affects the Albany diocese.

The address will be preceded at 1 p.m. by a celebration of the Eucharist, led by Albany Bishop William Love.

"This is the first time since Bill Love became bishop that a high-ranking representative of the national church has met with the bishop and with other Albany Episcopalians in a public forum," said Robert Dodd, president of Albany Via Media.

Albany Via Media, the group sponsoring Saturday's event, is made up of liberal-to-moderate local Episcopalians who want to keep the Albany diocese in communion with the national church.

A rift has split the Episcopal Church since the 2003 consecration of V. Gene Robinson as its first openly gay bishop. Last month, a diocese in central California became the first full diocese to break away from the national church.

Love is a conservative bishop, but his diocese includes a substantial liberal-to-moderate faction. Love's predecessor, Daniel Herzog, was an outspoken national opponent of ordaining gay clergy. The retired bishop made news in March with the announcement that he had rejoined the Roman Catholic Church.

The House of Deputies comprises clergy and lay deputies elected by each diocese. Any major decision made by the Episcopal Church requires the assent of the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops.

Dodd characterized Anderson of Michigan, as a liberal.

It remained unclear Thursday whether Love would stick around on Saturday for Anderson's presentation and the ensuing question-and-answer session at St. Andrew's, which is at Madison and North Main Avenues. Questions are expected to touch on issues such as outreach to other denominations and how other conservative dioceses accommodate their liberal-to-moderate minorities, Dodd said.

The overall theme steals a page from "the Gospel of Joan Rivers," Dodd joked. It's called " 'Can we talk?: Faith and Diversity in the Episcopal Church.' "

"The thing we'd like to get across to Bill Love is how significant a minority we are," said Dodd, a retired professor of geology and planetary science who lives in Columbia County. "And the fact that working together we can make a much better diocese."

Marc Parry can be reached at 454-5057 or by e-mail at mparry@timesunion.com .

National Episcopalian leader encourages dialog

Event addresses divisions between local members

BY TATIANA ZARNOWSKI
Gazette Reporter

Different points of view have always existed within the Anglican Communion, Bonnie Anderson told about 250 people gathered at St. Andrew's Church in Albany on Saturday.

So the current split between conservative Episcopalians and more moderate and liberal congregants is not new.

The highest-ranking lay officer for the national Episcopal Church urged members of the Albany Diocese, which includes 120 churches in eastern New York, who don't see eye to eye to communicate with each other.

"I'm here to help in a process of opening conversation," said Anderson, who lives in Michigan and serves as the president of the House of Deputies for the church, which is headquartered in New York City.

"We've always been trying to figure out how to live together," she said. "I've heard some of you complaining about not feeling connected or feeling isolated; Part of that is your own responsibility," Anderson said.

Rather than waiting for the church leadership to take care of lay people, they should speak up ,to the bishop with their concerns, she said.

Bishop William Love joined Anderson and the Rev. James Brooks~McDonald, pastor at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Schenectady, for a panel question-and-answer session after Anderson spoke.

Albany Via Media, a group of moderate and liberal Episcopalians seeking a voice in a cpnnservative-led diocese, sponsored the event ,and brought Anderson to speak.

Brooks-McDonald helped found the Via Media group. "It is to my belief the first time that a major officer of the church has met with Bill Love," Via Media President Robert Dodd said.

Via Media, literally "the middle way" in Latin, formed after the 2003 consecration of V. Gene Robinson as the first openly gay bishop split the church. Several Via Media members asked Love pointed questions about ways they feel the diocese has excluded them, requesting to have their events listed on the diocese Web site, their 'articles published in the diocese news- letter and to have a table at the annual conference.

Love responded that focusing on their differences would divide, not unite, the diocese. "The question is, 'What are we going to talk about, and how are we going to talk about it?'" he said. "I haven't been overly enthusiastic about jumping into anything that will add to the prob- lem."

But others saw it a different way. "The lack of communication is one of the most painful things in this diocese," Dodd said. "We need to have opportunities to share ideas so the other doesn't become hostile."

Still, he and others lauded Love for attending the event. The bishop also gave the homily at a communion service immediately , before Anderson's talk.

The role of gays in the church was clearly a point of contention for several people who ques- tioned Love. "I'm not comfortable being called a sodomite or a heretic," said one young man in the audience, referring to links from the diocese Web site that apparently paint gays with that verbiage. "I would suggest that if that offends you, don't read it," Love responded, but he recanted that .statement and promised to review ! the Web links a few minutes later after a self-described "straight, i married man" rose and spoke with emotion.

"I am stricken that you would allow such a hateful word to be used in a diocesan publication," the man said. Love said he does not use such words and treats people of various viewpoints with respect. However, the Bible is clear on sexuality, he emphasized. "There's one standard for all of us," Love said. "And that is that if people are going to be engaged in sexual relations, it's within the confines of marriage."

Capitol News 9

Debate in the Episcopal Church
Updated: 1/20/2008 8:31 AM
By: Curtis Schick

Capitol News 9