The Right Reverend John Bryson Chane
Bishop of Washington
February 22, 2007
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Like many of you, I have spent the last several days studying and praying
over the recent communiqué from the Primates Meeting of the Anglican
Communion and our Presiding Bishop’s Word to the Church. Like many of you, I
feel that I do not yet have sufficient information about what is expected
from the Episcopal Church to make a conclusive judgment about all of the
recommendations that the Primates have put before us.
It is not yet clear to me which of our Church’s governing bodies is best
equipped to make a full response to the Communion. Nor do I fully understand
what the plan that designates a “primatial vicar” for those who do not
accept certain actions of our Church would look like in practice. That is to
say nothing of whether this intrusion in our governance can be justified.
I will learn more about these issues through conversations next week with
the Presiding Bishop, and through the deliberations of our Executive
Council, which meets March 2-4, in Portland, Oregon. I hope to write to you
again after the annual spring meeting of the House of Bishops, which begins
on March 17 at Camp Allen, in Texas, but let me make a few observations
today.
I am deeply distressed that the Primates spent so much time discussing the
internal life of the Episcopal Church and devoted so little attention to the
woeful state of our global community. The Gospel summons us to a unified
effort against the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, hunger,
poverty, human rights violations, the degradation of women and children and
the behavior of corrupt governments. Yet the Primates continue to behave as
though quashing dissent on issues of human sexuality were the central
calling of the Christian faith.
Regarding the recommendations to the Episcopal Church, I am willing to be
persuaded that a temporary compromise on issues of governance may be
necessary to keep the Anglican Communion intact. However, under no
circumstances will I support a moratorium on the consecration of individuals
living in same-sex relationships to the episcopacy, and under no
circumstances will I enforce a ban on the blessing of same sex unions in the
Diocese of Washington, if that, in fact, is what the Primates are asking us
to do.
Christians throughout the world are born into cultures that persecute,
stigmatize and deny the dignity of God’s gay and lesbian children. We
marginalize them, make them scapegoats and refuse their manifold gifts. The
Episcopal Church is as guilty of these offenses as any other, and in
recognizing this we have begun a journey of repentance. In its fourth
decade, this journey is still incomplete, and its success, as ever, is in
doubt. How agonizing then, in this holy season of Lent, to see the
Archbishop of Canterbury succumb to the Archbishop of Nigeria and call upon
us to remain in our sins.
Please pray for the Anglican Communion, for the Episcopal Church and your
brothers and sisters in the Diocese of Washington as we reason together to
find our way forward.
In Christ’s Peace, Power and Love,
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