Washington Window: April 2007: Bishops rebuff Primates on vicar plan

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By Jim Naughton
Washington Window
Vol. 76, No. 5, April 2007

The House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church has recommended that the Church reject a proposal from the Primates of the Anglican Communion that would essentially create a church within a church for Episcopalians at odds with the Church’s views on same-sex relationships.


		News resources Bishops’ Mind of the House Resolutions Bishops comment on request to Canterbury, others actions Bishops request meeting with Archbishop of Canterbury Interpreting the proposed Anglican Covenant by the Rev. Dr. Katharine Grieb Communiqué from the Primates of the Anglican Communion News, commentary and conversation about the meeting The Episcopal Church’s new online news site

Meeting at the Diocese of Texas’ retreat center last month, the bishops also passed a resolution requesting a meeting with The Most Rev. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Primates’ Standing Committee.

The Bishops did not discuss the Primates’ request for a moratoria on the consecration of bishops in same-sex relationships and on the authorization of rites of blessing for such relationships, but approved a letter to the church saying that “gay and lesbian persons, are full and equal participants in the life of Christ’s Church.”

(See Bishop John Bryson Chane’s letter about the meeting.)

Williams described the bishops’ actions as “discouraging,” but in need of “further discussion and clarification.”

At press time, he had not responded to the invitation to meet with the House of Bishops, nor had he indicated whether he intended to exclude the Episcopal Church from “full participation” in the Communion, as he and the Primates had threatened to do in a communiqué released after their meeting in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania in February.

In a “Letter to God’s People,” released after the meeting, the bishops said they could not endorse the Primates’ plan to create a “Pastoral Council” to supervise the work of a “Primatial Vicar” to oversee dioceses and congregations that were at odds with the actions of the Church’s General Convention.

Under terms outlined in the communiqué, two members of the Council would be nominated by the Primates and two by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. Williams would appoint the chair. The vicar would be nominated by a group of about 20 Episcopal bishops who have been critical of the Church’s response to the Windsor report, and approved by the Presiding Bishop who would delegate certain powers to the vicar.

“We believe this proposal contravenes the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church,” the bishops wrote. “Moreover, because it is proposed that this scheme take immediate effect, we were compelled, at this March meeting, to request that the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church decline to participate in this aspect of the Communiqué’s requests.”

(Read “A Message to God’s People”)

Seven of the Episcopal Church’s 111 dioceses have requested alternative oversight, and approximately 50 of the Church’s 7,200 congregations claim that they are now under the jurisdiction of another Primate within the Communion.

Bishop Stacy Sauls of the Diocese of Lexington said he thought that a primatial vicar arrangement could be structured to “meet the needs of our members who conscientiously cannot accept the actions of General Convention in 2003,” but not if it involved oversight by representatives of other provinces.

Jefferts Schori, who has already expressed a willingness to name a vicar, said the issue would be discussed in greater detail when the bishops met again in September.

Bishop Mark Sisk of New York said that accepting the Primates’ scheme might have had a negative influence on property disputes between the Episcopal Church and departing congregations. “The concern is that that would indicate we are, in some sense, subservient to the primates, rather than simply a church in fellowship with them,” he told The New York Times. “And that could have significant legal implications.”

The Primates had imposed a September 30 deadline on the bishops to respond to the recommendations presented in the February communiqué. While several bishops stressed that the house had not made its final response to the communiqué, others acknowledged that it was now unlikely that the Episcopal Church would satisfy the Primates demands.

At a news conference after the meeting, Jefferts Schori was asked why she had supported the communiqué.

“My response to the Primates then was that this was the best we could do. I said I would bring the communiqué back to the House of Bishops and present it to them,” she said.

Asked if she supports the resolutions that emerged from the meeting, Jefferts Schori said: “They have emerged as a sense of the House [of Bishops] and as leader of this house I certainly will support them.”

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