Posted on 07/23/2005 12:13:18 PM PDT by sionnsar
Nineteen invited bishops from across the theological spectrum reported “frank, respectful” discussion “on a variety of issues that have caused pain and dissension within the Episcopal Church” at the conclusion of a July 18-21 meeting in Los Angeles, hosted by the Bishop of Los Angeles, the Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno.
One of the initial invitations proposing the meeting said the purpose was “to discuss a final settlement.” However, a number of other explanations were offered in subsequent communications, leading one participating bishop to deny to the diocesan communications officer knowledge of any official purpose a few weeks before it began.
Shortly after the official opening, the Rt. Rev. John B. Chane, Bishop of Washington, made it known that he would leave if “it became clear that details of the meeting were being revealed while it was in session.” Jim Naughton, communications director for the Diocese of Washington, said “the bishops pledged to each other to keep details of the meeting confidential.”
A three paragraph bulletin released at 6:30 p.m., July 21, in Los Angeles stated the bishops “focused on a variety of issues that have caused pain and dissension within the Episcopal Church and have threatened to continue fracturing relationships within the Anglican Communion." They were invited, the release said, to “continue discussion begun in Navasota, Texas, in March that led to the covenant responses of the House of Bishops to the initial requests put forth by the Primates who met in Northern Ireland in February, 2005.”
In a July 21 interview with The Living Church, Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold praised the diverse roster of bishops invited, but said he was otherwise unaware of developments, owing in part to his participation in a panel discussion during the third International Conference on Afro-Anglicanism, held July 20-27 in Toronto. Bishop Griswold commended the informal conversation among bishops that began in Navasota, telling other members of the house in a March 31 letter that he shared enthusiasm for the way the informal gathering had enabled the entire house to honor “the Spirit” in “ways that might have been constrained if the agenda had been more defined in advance.”
The meeting in Los Angeles was preceded by another informal meeting focused on the Windsor Report from June 19-22 in St. Louis. Fourteen diocesan bishops, including six of the 19 who participated in the Los Angeles meeting, “agreed that the Windsor Report provides the way forward for the entire Anglican Communion …[and] submit[ted] themselves to the Windsor Report’s requirements, both in what it teaches and in the discipline it enjoins,” according to the Rt. Rev. John B. Lipscomb, Bishop of Southwest Florida, who signed a press release on behalf of the group. The release is published on the website of the Diocese of Upper South Carolina.
On July 11, Bishop Lipscomb, told members of his diocese in an internet letter that he believed the time was coming when all Episcopalians would need to decide whether they wished to live in mutual submission with the other member churches of the Anglican Communion and that those who choose the Communion “have a rightful and constitutional claim to be the Episcopal Church in the United States.”
The Los Angeles meeting participants:
+The Rt. Rev. James M. Adams,
Diocese of Western Kansas
+The Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno,
Diocese of Los Angeles
+The Rt. Rev. John B. Chane,
Diocese of Washington
+The The Rt. Rev. Robert W. Duncan,
Diocese of Pittsburgh
+The The Rt. Rev. Dorsey F. Henderson,
Diocese of Upper South Carolina
+The The Rt. Rev. Daniel W. Herzog,
Diocese of Albany
+The Rt. Rev. Mark Hollingsworth, Jr.,
Diocese of Ohio
+The The Rt. Rev. Jack L. Iker,
Diocese of Fort Worth
+ The Rt. Rev. Don E. Johnson,
Diocese of West Tennessee
+The Rt. Rev. John B. Lipscomb,
Diocese of Southwest Florida
+The Rt. Rev. Edward S. Little,
Diocese of Northern Indiana
+The Rt. Rev. D. Bruce MacPherson,
Diocese of Western Louisiana
+The Rt. Rev. James R. Mathes,
Diocese of San Diego
+The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson,
Diocese of New Hampshire
+The Rt. Rev. Catherine Roskam,
Diocese of New York
+The Rt. Rev. Edward L. Salmon,
Diocese of South Carolina
+The Rt. Rev. Stacy F. Sauls,
Diocese of Lexington
+The Rt. Rev. Chester L. Talton,
Diocese of Los Angeles
+The Rt. Rev. Geralyn Wolf,
Diocese of Rhode Island
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. Have they fallen in line with the Vatican yet?
Not to overly stata the obvious, but is there any way that Gene Robinson could participate in such a conference with an open mind? Doesn't he have a slight conflict of interest?
The speculation has been that's more towards speaking across the gulf, rather than towards unity. Somewhat like dividing the assets in a divorce.
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