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A Word from the Editors

A busy summer has come and gone since we published the last issue of Open Minds. June's Diocesan Convention disappointed Albany's moderates and liberals with another example of parliamentary aggression. On the other hand, mainstream Episcopalians here and elsewhere were buoyed up by the proceeds of July's General Convention, which included two resolutions that represent long strides toward full inclusion of homosexuals in the life of the Church. That the Evangelical Lutheran Church passed similar resolutions in August was more good news.

But not for everybody. Bishop Love's public statements during General Convention (Available on video at anglicantv.blip.tv) and his post-Convention reflections (on the Albany website) are gloomy indeed. It is not now clear how his distress at the proceeds of GC 2009 will be translated into action by this Network diocese. Clues may emerge during his meetings with the deaneries in September and early October. The first such meeting, on September 8 at St. Paul's, Troy, was reported by the Albany Times-Union to be very lively indeed!

The big issue before The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion right now is the forthcoming Covenant, which the Windsor Report trumpeted as “the way forward.” Will our Church sign it in 2012? Will individual dioceses be able to sign it even if the Church does not, as Bp. Love and his fellow Communion Partners hope? Stay tuned, and stay informed.

This issue of Open Minds presents essays by Fr. John Perry on General Convention and Fr. E. Walton Zelley on the down side of the proposed Anglican Covenant. We also offer a condensation of Dennis Wisnom's sharp-eyed, enthusiastic reports from Anaheim, where he served as an unpaid but priceless volunteer. Thank you, Fr. John, Fr. Walt, and Dennis!

Bob and Marya Dodd, Editors

General Convention and our Anglican way of being ‘Church’

Rev. John Perry

Father Perry is the Rector of Christ Church, Hudson.

The history of The Episcopal Church and its General Conventions indicates, I believe, that the Church gives thoughtful consideration over time, listening and responding to a wide spectrum of opinion, before serious matters are finally decided.

For an example of this, we have the Church's long debate about women's ordination. This year's Convention made decisions about some equally serious matters. Resolution D025 pertains to “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.” The resolution says it is appropriate to ordain such individuals as priests and bishops. It also acknowledges that “Christians of good conscience disagree about some of these matters.” And, Resolution C056 directs the Church to “collect and develop theological and liturgical resources” for the blessing of same-sex unions, and says that bishops within civil jurisdictions where same-sex unions are legal “may provide generous pastoral response to meet the needs of the members of this Church.” The next General Convention will receive a report on these resources and then may take further action as it feels called. Both of these resolutions passed by very substantial margins. Both issues have been debated and discussed throughout the Church for many years.

General Convention's approval in 2003 of the consecration of Gene Robinson triggered a measure of dissent within the Episcopal Church, and more so in parts of the wider Anglican Communion, particularly in the Global South. The Episcopal Church was asked, for the sake of the Communion, to refrain from taking further precipitate action. In response to Bishop Robinson's consecration, and to authorizing the blessing of same-sex unions by a Canadian diocese, the Windsor Report in 2004 called for the adoption of a Communion-wide Covenant that would bind member churches to certain common understandings of Christian teaching and to mutual accountability.

* * * * *

At General Convention in 2006, the Episcopal Church responded to the dissenters in the Anglican Communion by calling for restraint — a moratorium — on further consecrations of gay or lesbian bishops. This moratorium has been honored. However, criticism of the Episcopal Church nevertheless continued, unabated, among the small circle of dissidents within our Church, and in parts of the Anglican Communion. Such criticism seems unwarranted, for the Episcopal Church has thus far done what was asked.

This year's General Convention passed resolutions that indicate the direction our Church is now taking. In response, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has issued a statement, Communion, Covenant and our Anglican Future, criticizing these actions. Other criticism has come from conservative Episcopalians, and from certain bishops abroad. Among other things, critics say the Episcopal Church is ignoring its responsibilities to the Anglican Communion. Renewed emphasis is being placed on the need for an Anglican Covenant. A small number of conservative Episcopal bishops have claimed that our primary allegiance is to the Archbishop of Canterbury and to the Anglican Communion, rather than to our own Episcopal Church. They envision that individual dioceses might sign an Anglican Covenant, binding themselves to such allegiance and to certain doctrinal teachings, whether or not The Episcopal Church so signs.

This shift of emphasis and allegiance amounts to a very different vision of the church. It can well be argued that this model puts our time-honored, orthodox Anglican way of understanding ‘church’ in danger of being overturned. It is significantly closer to the hierarchical, doctrinaire Roman Catholic Church, with its central authority and obligatory teachings. But we are not Romans. Five hundred years of Anglican and Episcopal heritage has firmly rejected that model.

In his statement, Archbishop Williams acknowledges that two attributes of Anglican identity are at odds here: mutual responsibility among the churches of the Anglican Communion, versus the autonomy of individual churches. He, along with those bishops from the Global South and the conservative Episcopal bishops, says that of these two, mutual responsibility must be the predominant value. This means when other Anglican churches in other countries disagree with us (The Episcopal Church) about what they say are basic doctrinal issues, we must bow to their wishes. They say the Episcopal Church has no right to decide such issues for itself.

The point can be made, however, that this amounts to ceding authority to foreign powers. Not ceding authority to foreign powers was one of the very cornerstones of Anglicanism. The original Articles of Religion, the founding statement of the Church of England (written in 1571), says that ecclesiastical government “is not, nor ought to be, subject to any foreign jurisdiction” (see Article XXXVII, page 875 of the Book of Common Prayer).

In his recent statement, Archbishop Williams says of those in same-sex unions, that “their chosen lifestyle is not one that the Church's teaching sanctions.” Calling homosexuality a ‘choice’ is problematic, widely disputed by scientific evidence. The point can also be made that the Archbishop seems here to be laying claim to a Pope-like hierarchical authority, seeking to definitively state for the Church what its teaching is, although he has no such authority and there are widely divergent views on the Church's positions.

As for the proposed Covenant, it should be noted that the Communion as a whole has yet to come to common agreement about what should and should not be in such an agreement. It should also be noted, I believe, that Anglicanism throughout its history has resisted having confessional statements that define boundaries of what is acceptable and what is not, beyond the Creeds shared by all Christians. A Covenant could well be seen as such a confessional statement. Queen Elizabeth I, a primary shaper of Anglican understanding, faced in her own time with fiercely divergent beliefs, resisted uniformity beyond that of the Book of Common Prayer itself, saying that the Church “does not make windows into men's souls.”

When General Convention passed Resolutions D025 and B056, it was fully aware of this history, fully aware of its secure place in Anglican ethos. It “reaffirmed the continued participation of The Episcopal Church as a constituent member of the Anglican Communion” (Resolution D025). At the same time, it did not cede its authority to make decisions about how the Holy Spirit is guiding it.

These resolutions uphold what many in this Episcopal Church understand to be the deeply Christian values that are expressed when two people seek and serve Christ in each other, in bonds of mutual, loving, holy commitment.

Perhaps the last word should be given to Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori. Acknowledging the varied reactions to General Convention, she has said, “We are simply trying to express the state of discernment in this church at this time, recognizing that there is not unanimity within our own church and certainly not expecting that there will be unanimity around the Communion, but we must be faithful to the call of God as we hear it.”

Norman Hoffmann (1927-2009)

A native of St. Louis, MO, Norman Hoffmann, who died on September 3 after a short illness, was a member of St. Stephen's Church in Schenectady for 40 years, serving on its Worship Committee and Finance Committee and functioning as a Chalice Bearer and Lector. Very active within the Diocese of Albany, Norman was a Trustee, a member of the Standing Committee, and President of the Metropolitan Deanery. In 1994, he served as a deputy to General Convention. One of the founding members of Albany Via Media, Norman served on its Board of Directors from 2003 until his death.

On September 7, Norman's family and friends gathered at St. Stephen's to celebrate his life. His lifelong friends, retired Bishop of Albany David S. Ball and the Rev. C. Joseph Sitts assisted Fr. James McDonald, Norman's Rector, at the Eucharist. Norman's survivors include Charlene, his wife of 47 years, and their daughter, Kathryn.

Dennis Wisnom, who provided material for this tribute, speaks for all of us: “We all felt privileged to know and work with Norman. His dedication to the Episcopal Church was unwavering and anyone who ever met him always felt afterwards that they had been chatting with a longtime friend. We in Albany Via Media will miss him greatly, yet we know his spirit will always remain with us.”

As Others See Us

Robert T. Dodd

Propagandists know that if you repeat a lie or half truth often enough, it will come to be accepted as true. Since +Gene Robinson was installed as Bishop of New Hampshire, opponents of that step and others taken by our Church have claimed that “Twenty-two of the 39 Anglican provinces have declared themselves to be out of communion, or in impaired communion, with the Episcopal Church.” The image that they have tried to convey — with some success — is that of some 60 million overseas Anglicans glowering at two million Episcopalians. This oft-repeated claim floats somewhere between half true and completely false. It is true that 22 primates, most of them in the Global South, have made such declarations. How many of the bishops, priests, and lay persons whom the primates claim to represent share their dark views of our Church? How many were even asked for their opinion?

We are so used to our Episcopal polity, in which the clergy and laity share power and responsibility with bishops, that we forget that few other provinces are as democratic as ours. Six overseas visitors to our just concluded General Convention were impressed by what they saw and heard there. (The July 11 issue of Episcopal Life Online summarizes an interview with these visitors.) “The lay people are part of [your] structure, they are not left out, ” said Rev. Victor Attoe-Baffoe of Ghana, one of six overseas visitors to our General Convention. “If you go to synod in [our] province, all you see on the platform is the purple colors.” Kenya's Esther Mombo, one of two visitors who served on the commission that produced the Windsor Report, agreed. She was impressed by the “sense of engagement” evident in our Episcopal House of Deputies. “There's no sense of you being told and you follow.”

New Zealand's Rev. Dr. Jenny Te Paa, who also attended our last General Convention, expressed concern that “too many Episcopalians are being affected by their sense of loss of face or vulnerability in belonging to the Anglican Communion.” “The Communion treasures you,” she said. “It can't do without you.” Fr. Luiz Alberto Barbosa of Brazil picked up the same theme. “Don't be afraid of being excluded from the Anglican Communion,” he said, “because you are not alone. There are a lot of other provinces and people that support what you are doing.”

The strongest support for The Episcopal Church came in Rev. Te Paa's speech to the House of Deputies, which can also be found on Episcopal Life Online. A member of the Lambeth Commission that wrote the Windsor Report, she felt that The Commission's members had known far too little about our polity. The result was “unprecedented vilification of the Episcopal Church and especially of its leadership.” Te Paa praised our Church for patience, saying, “Your generosity of spirit in spite of all you have suffered so unjustly and unnecessarily over the past few years is just so perfectly admirable.”

Te Paa's speech also includes sisterly counsel for us not to fixate on one issue — sexuality — and to have a care for our indigenous brothers and sisters. It's worth careful reading. You will want to recall its generous words for our Church when you hear or read the tired litany, “Twenty two of the 39 provinces....”

GC 2009: A Volunteer's Perspective

Dennis Wisnom

This is a condensation of a talk given by Mr. Wisnom to his parish, St. Stephen's, Schenectady. He serves on the Board of Directors of Albany Via Media.

For very different impressions of General Convention, see the Diocese of Albany website, which includes reports by Bp. Love and several deputies. The Editors

This year's General Convention theme was Ubuntu–“I am because we are.” Let me briefly tell you why I decided to volunteer this year. I have served as a delegate to Diocesan Convention from St. Stephen's Church since 2004. In 2007 and 2008, respectively, I placed my name in nomination to serve as a deputy to General Convention from the Diocese of Albany. Unfortunately, I neither won nor received enough votes to be considered for the third ballot. This is why I served as a volunteer.

Ubuntu–“I am because we are.” May the
Lord bless us and may He be with us as we
seek to do his work in the world.

Coming to and being a part of the General Convention of The Episcopal Church was the best Episcopal experience that I've had in my 26 years in the Church. General Convention had such a profound impact on me because I was able to see that the Church is so much bigger than what we have, as our parish and diocese are. General Convention gives the Episcopalian a broader sense of what it means to be the Church in a larger context. Far more important, among all the people who attend General Convention, you see the face of Christ in each other and you get a profound sense of the Holy Spirit, especially through our worship and deliberations, where charity and respect abound. There's a favorite song of mine, written by Ted Monica, a former priest of this diocese, called “The Body of Christ.” Its refrain goes, “We are the Body of Christ, radiant with the light of the Son, We are the Body of Christ, many though we are, we are One.” This is how I felt throughout General Convention. Even though we hailed from different dioceses, and we share deeply held convictions about theology and scripture, we are all in this together. We are one because we are the body, the Church. Jesus Christ is at the center of all that we do.

There were several Convention highlights that I'd like to share with you. First was the daily Community Eucharist that we shared in the hall. Sometimes, the Eucharist was in Spanish, sometimes blessings were offered in a tongue familiar to Native Americans, and the text of our worship didn't always come from the Book of Common Prayer or The Hymnal 1982. It came from a variety of sources including Enriching Our Worship and music came from Lift Every Voice and Sing, and Wonder, Love and Praise. A great gift of the Eucharist was that we were encouraged to sit with Episcopalians whom we didn't know. We sat at round tables and walked to different stations for the administration of Communion. I didn't make it to Eucharist every day, but I heard a vast array of preachers, including Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, Dr. Bonnie Anderson, President of the House of Deputies, Abigail Nelson, Vice President for Episcopal Relief and Development, and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

One especially memorable Eucharist for me was Sunday's UTO In-gathering. The celebrant was the Presiding Bishop, assisted by former Presiding Bishops Frank T. Griswold, III and Edmond Browning. I had had a chance to meet Bishop Griswold and his wife Phoebe at the Hilton Hotel the day before. In the 1960's, when Bp. Griswold became a priest, his first parish was St. Andrew's, Yardley, PA. My father, Bill, and my brother and sisters worshipped there and referred to him as “Father Uncle Frank.” For this reason I've always felt a personal connection to Frank Griswold.

The Community Eucharists were a perfect opportunity to worship and pray together as the family of God. Sadly, however, part of the family was not present. The deputation from the Diocese of Albany chose not to participate in and skipped the daily Eucharists, and instead had a service at an offsite location with members of the American Anglican Council. I only spotted them at the Community Eucharist on the first day I was there.

The second Convention highlight for me was fellowship. Almost every day, I had lunch with the members of the Western New York deputation. I lived in their diocese for seven years and even now return often to visit. I had dinner with the WNY deputation one night at the Cheesecake Factory. I kept in close contact with longtime friends The Very Rev. Canon Barbara and Dr. Al Price, also from WNY. Back in May at the Province II meeting held in Albany, I became fast friends with the Bishop of Rochester, Prince Singh. At Convention, Bishop Singh invited me to come each night to the hospitality suite hosted by the Diocese of Rochester in the Hilton Hotel. They had an array of finger foods and sandwiches, salads and cookies, and the people were great. The best part was everything was free of charge to me!

Another profound joy for me was volunteering. Intent on serving in Anaheim, I had been surprised, a month earlier, when I received my schedule and only one shift was listed! I phoned the volunteer coordinator, who explained that the computer had automatically given every volunteer one shift and that I wasn't the only person who called. She assured me that I could sign up to do more shifts once I arrived in Anaheim. As it turned out, when I arrived in Anaheim on my first full day, I filled out a contact sheet so that the volunteer supervisors could call me if they needed me. I was able to volunteer in Public Safety, making sure each attendee had a badge. I also served at the main registration desk and at the Episcopal Church Women Secretariat, where I entered data from a questionnaire into a computer and tallied the results of almost 50 questionnaires.

During General Convention, the House of Bishops took up 2 resolutions which I think speak volumes about where we are today as The Episcopal Church. Resolutions D025 and C056 gained the attention of the secular media. Let's turn our attention to D025. At the end of General Convention 2006, Presiding Bishop Griswold and Presiding Bishop Elect Katharine Jefferts Schori pressured both Houses to adopt Resolution B033, which called for a moratorium on admitting anyone whose “manner of life” presented a challenge to the rest of the Anglican Communion. This obviously meant partnered gay and lesbian persons. Resolution B033 passed, and the Episcopal Church exercised restraint because of what was asked of us in the 2004 Windsor Report. In essence, the adoption of Resolution D025 at this summer's General Convention repeals B033. Bishop Barbara Harris, who preached at the Integrity Eucharist before the vote on B025, said “that having served its purpose, B033 needs to be superseded by something that recognizes the dignity of all God's human creatures.” It was fascinating to watch the debate of this resolution on the floor of the House of Bishops.

The other resolution that gained the attention of the secular media was C056, which asked both Houses of General Convention to develop liturgical resources and add to the Book of Occasional Services, a service for the blessing of same-sex unions. The vote on this action of the House of Bishops was swiftly in favor of developing resources for the purposes of blessing same-sex unions.

Bishop Love is very angry about the passage of these two resolutions. Immediately before the vote on D025 was taken, he stated that if it passed, “it would be the end of the Episcopal Church as we knew it.” He also went on to say in an interview on Anglican TV (anglicantv.blip.tv) that these resolutions will be “a curse for the church, not a blessing.” It remains to be seen whether the Diocese of Albany will leave the Episcopal Church and become the Anglican Diocese of Albany as has happened in Pittsburgh, San Joaquin, Fort Worth and Quincy. If that were to happen, we who remain would become the continuing Episcopal Diocese of Albany, we would elect a new bishop, the Presiding Bishop's office would be involved, a new Standing Committee would be formed, and so on. However, I don't want to spend a lot of time speculating about something that hasn't happened.

I will go to General Convention again and have already started compiling a list of hotels for Indianapolis in 2012. GC 2009 was a profoundly joyful experience where I really could see the face of Christ in other people and could watch the Holy Spirit at work. I met a lot of wonderful people, one of whom — the President of the House of Deputies, Dr. Bonnie Anderson — has agreed to return to Albany during this triennium. If nothing else, General Convention allows Episcopalians to come together for worship, fellowship and growth.

An Anglican Covenant ?

Father Walt Zelley

A retired priest from the Diocese of New Jersey, Father Zelley is a member of the Church of St. John in the Wilderness, Copake Falls.

One of the recommendations of the framers of the Windsor Report was the formulation of an “Anglican Covenant” which would set forth the “bedrock” doctrinal affirmations that members of the “Anglican Communion” might be expected to subscribe to if they were legitimately to describe themselves as Anglican Christians in Communion with other Anglican Christians throughout the world. The draft “Covenant” was expected to come before the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in Anaheim, California, this summer. However, it is reported that the Presiding Bishop and the leadership of the Episcopal Church favored putting off voting on whether this Covenant should be subscribed to until the next General Convention when this province of the Anglican Communion will have had time to study it, disseminate it among the clergy and communicants of this church for their discussion and input, and formulate a response. A group of Bishops, including our own Diocesan, Bishop Love, have stated their intention to sign on to the Covenant immediately whether or not the general Convention chooses to put it up for a vote this year.

Some members of our Diocesan Family might be tempted to ask, “Why would anyone object to subscribing to a statement of basic beliefs which might serve to unify the Churches of the Anglican Communion? The first objection is that setting forth a standard of “orthodoxy” to which the various provinces which comprise the Anglican Communion would have to subscribe to be considered authentically “Anglican” would put us in the very un-Anglican position of being a “confessional church.”

The Roman Catholic Church has always been a “confessional church,” holding the theology of St. Thomas Aquinas (i.e. Thomistic Theology) as the standard of orthodoxy and thus the litmus test against which all the formulations of Catholic theologians must be measured along with the “infallible teachings” of the Papacy.

This, of course, gets them into the kind of pickle they find themselves in, for example, when Aristotle's theory of “Natural Law” which Aquinas espoused, forces Popes and Catholic theologians to continue in the 21st century to condemn the use of birth control devices and lobby against the distribution of condoms in countries where AIDS is rampant.

Other Reformation Churches are identified as “confessional churches” because they have statements of orthodox belief, e.g. the Lutheran “Augsburg Confession” and the Calvinist Reformed Church's “Westminster Confession.” In the English Reformation there was no such instrument involved. The closest to it were the “Thirty Nine Articles,” which spelled out where we differed from the Roman Catholic Church from which we had separated.

It is significant, I believe, that the “Thirty Nine Articles” have been relegated to the “Historical” section at the back of our Common Prayer book, and probably the vast majority of Anglican Christians don't even know that they exist. Anglicans over the years have been wary of setting up written in concrete theological statements of orthodoxy, believing that truth is most likely to arise from the free interchange of ideas, and thus, until recently, we have been content to allow a very wide roof under which theological diversity is welcome and honored. What has principally united Anglicans over the centuries has been the way we worship. (“Lex orate, Lex credente” - the rule of worship is the rule of faith) What has united us more then anything is the Book of Common Prayer.

To say that we are not a confessional church with a set in concrete standard of orthodoxy does not mean that we have no statements of agreement to which most Anglicans over the years since they were formulated have generally subscribed. The major one is The Lambeth Quadrilateral, an instrument which was formulated to describe what would be the “bottom line” for Anglicans in any ecumenical discussions. They were:

1. The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as containing all things necessary to salvation. 2. The Apostles and Nicene Creeds as the summary statements of the Christian Faith. 3. The “Two Gospel Sacraments”: Baptism and the Holy Eucharist. 4. The three-fold ministry of Bishops, Priests and Deacons.

This is all we would ask of other Christian bodies who would enter into Communion with us, so why can't we be content to allow these to be the “bottom line” for us Anglicans to be in communion with each other?

The third problem with providing a “Covenant Statement” of Anglican Orthodoxy has to do with the source of authority in the Church and Anglican polity. What, for example, is the nature of the Anglican Communion? It is this author's understanding that the Communion is a confederation of autonomous national churches or “provinces”. For a long time in our Church's history, there was no concept of an “Anglican Communion”. Each national church was, as it remains, a “law unto itself”.

The highest authority in the Episcopal Church, for example, is the General Convention, and the chief prelate is the Presiding Bishop. We are democratically governed in the formulation of canons, and revisions of our Prayer books and Hymnals, etc. Other provinces of the Anglican Communion may not be governed in the same way, but they share with us in being a “law unto themselves.” In short, Anglicanism is not an hierarchical church.

No other ecclesiastical body, be it the Lambeth Conference, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the meetings of the primates, or the Anglican Consultative Council has any authority over any of the constituent provinces. And this includes drawing up a standard of orthodoxy called an “Anglican Covenant,” to which an autonomous national church would be forced to subscribe in order to be in full communion with other churches in the “Anglican Communion.”

Like most priests of the Episcopal Church, I was a convert to this Church. I was drawn to it by two things: the richness and reverence of its worship, and the openmindedness and toleration of differences while maintaining the sense that we are in communion with each other because in our Baptisms we have become one with Christ and thus with each other. I still believe that these are our greatest strengths. I would hate to see them compromised.