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[Back to index of February 2008 articles] New Group Is Working Toward
The Diocese of Washington is well represented in a new group formed late last year to build international coalitions and develop a strategy for the full inclusion of gay and lesbian Christians in the life of the Church. Called the Chicago Consultation, the 50-member group met for the first time at Seabury-Western Seminary, in Evanston, Ill., Dec. 5-7. Its goals include persuading the Episcopal Church to permit the blessing of same-sex relationships and to removing barriers that keep gay candidates from being elected as bishops. "Some people call it the gay agenda, but we call it the Gospel agenda," said the Rev. Bonnie Perry, rector of All Saints, Chicago and co-convener of the Consultation. "We are asking our church and our communion to see what God has created and know that it is good." Bishop John Bryson Chane, Jim Naughton, the diocese's canon for communications and advancement and the Rev. Carol Cole Flanagan, the diocese's former canon for congregational development, serve on the group's steering committee. The Rev. Canon Howard Anderson, warden of the Cathedral College, attended the gathering, as did the Rev. Tim Boggs, associate rector at St. Alban's, D.C. Boggs will coordinate the consultation's fundraising efforts, and Naughton is serving informally as its communications officer. The consultation includes two primates of the Anglican Communion—Archbishop Martin de Jesus Barahona of Central America and Archbishop Carlos Touche-Porter of Mexico, who was unable to attend due to illness; 10 bishops from the Episcopal Church, including eight diocesan bishops or bishops-elect; four members of the church's Executive Council; numerous General Convention deputies, and representatives of groups such as Integrity, Claiming the Blessing and Inclusive Church. At its initial meeting, the consultation heard papers by the Rev. Canon Marilyn McCord Adams, Regius Professor of Divinity at Christ Church, Oxford University; Bishop Stacy Sauls of the Diocese of Lexington; Dean Jenny Te Paa of St. John's College, Auckland, New Zealand and the Rev. Frederick Quinn of Salt Lake City, Utah. "Homophobia is a sin whose end time is now," Adams told the group. Human institutions are riddled with systemic evils, she said. "Our calling is to discern which ones are ripe for uprooting and to take the lead in eradicating them, beginning in the garden behind our own house!" In breakout sessions, members began to develop strategies to advance the cause of full inclusion at the Lambeth Conference in July and at the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in Anaheim in 2009. Participants also voiced opposition to the current draft of a proposed Anglican Covenant, which would create a centralized governing body with authority over member churches for the first time in the Communion's history. "There was tremendous energy in the plenary sessions, and even more in the breakout groups," said the Rev. Ruth Meyers, academic dean at Seabury, and co-convener of the Consultation. "It was such a talented and committed group that eventually we abandoned some of the formal presentations and started identifying our priorities and making plans." Participants focused particular attention on building international coalitions to work against what the Rev. Mpho Tutu, executive director of the Tutu Institute for Prayer and Pilgrimage in Alexandria, Va., called "interlocking oppressions," the web of economic, political and social factors that determine who has access to power, resources and social approval, and who does not. Since its initial meeting, the group has hired a part-time coordinator; published several of the papers it received on the Episcopal Café Web site (http://www.episcopalcafe.com) and begun work on a Web site (http://www.chicagoconsultation.org) scheduled to go online this month. Participants from other churches in the Anglican Communion included the Very Rev. Victor Atta-Baffoe, dean of St. Nicholas College, Cape Coast, Ghana; Bishop Michael Ingham of the Diocese of New Westminster, Canada; Te Paa; the Rev. Jane Shaw, dean of divinity, New College, Oxford and the Rev. Giles Fraser, founder of Inclusive Church in the United Kingdom. [Back to index of February 2008 articles]
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