Posted on 09/21/2005 5:12:55 PM PDT by sionnsar
Later today, the Episcopal News Service is expected to announce the appointment of the “Special Commission on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion”. This commission will hold their first meeting at the Episcopal Church Center in New York on November 7. According to a letter from the Most Rev’d Frank T Griswold and the Very Rev’d George Werner, the commission’s purpose is
"to help prepare the way for General Convention to receive and respond to the Windsor Report, the communiqué of the primates from Dromantine, and the actions of the June 2005 meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council as they pertain to the life of the Episcopal Church and our relationship to the other provinces of the Anglican Communion. In doing so, the Special Commission will need to consider how we within the Episcopal Church can be faithful to God’s mission in the world as we continue to live with divergent points of view held by faithful men and women. The Special Commission will be charged with preparing a report for the Blue Book with resolutions if appropriate."
The following persons have been appointed to the commission:
The Most Rev’d Frank T Griswold, Chairman
Chicago, Province V
Episcopal Church Center
The Very Rev’d George L W Werner, Co-Chairman
Pittsburgh, Province III
Ms Sarah Dylan Breuer
The Rev’d Dr Ian T Douglas
Massachusetts, Province I
Episcopal Divinity School
The Rev’d Dr A Katherine Grieb
Virginia, Province III
Virginia Theological Seminary
The Rev’d Mark Harris
Delaware, Province III
The Rt Rev’d Dorsey F Henderson
Upper South Carolina, Province IV
Diocese of Upper South Carolina
The Rt Rev’d Katharine Jefferts Schori
Nevada, Province VIII
Diocese of Nevada
The Rt Rev’d Henry Louttit, Jr
Georgia, Province IV
Diocese of Georgia
The Rev’d Charles E Osberger
Easton, Province III
The Rt Rev’d Mark S Sisk
New York, Province II
Diocese of New York
The Rev’d Canon Rosemari G Sullivan
Virginia, Province III
Virginia Theological Seminary
Mrs Katherine Tyler Scott
Indianapolis, Province V
The Rev’d Francis H Wade
Washington, Province III
Mr Christopher Wells
Northern Indiana, Province V
The Rev’d Sandra A Wilson
Newark, Province II
(Read the rest here.)
A 14-member commission appointed by Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold and the Very Rev. George L. W. Werner, president of the House of Deputies charged with responding to the Windsor Report, is so completely stacked with liberals and revisionists it makes a mockery for any kind of independent unbiased conclusion and therefore unable to propose any possible discipline of The Episcopal Church.
The Special Commission was called to receive and respond to the Windsor Report, the February 2005 communiqué of the primates from Dromantine, and the actions of the June 2005 meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council and will present a report preparing the way for General Convention 2006.
But the group chosen would gladden the heart of any Communist politburo in its slavish desire to please Joe Stalin.
One of the commission's members, the Rev. Sandra A. Wilson of South Orange NJ was forced out of the Diocese of Colorado after acknowledging that she had "relationships" with two women in her congregation. The admission by the Rev. Sandra Wilson, 45, a black female pastor was cited in a confidential memo from Colorado Episcopal Bishop Jerry Winterrowd, and reported on by VirtueOnline and the Denver Post.
The memo's recipients were never identified, but sources said it was written to two women who accused Wilson in late March of "sexual and ethical misconduct," prompting Wilson's suspension from the pulpit. A third woman also filed a complaint but the nature of it has not been made public. Although a diocesan "response team" found the women's complaints "credible," Winterrowd reinstated Wilson saying the case was closed.
Official guidelines of the Episcopal Church forbid a priest from having a sexual relationship with a member of his or her congregation.
They all filed suit when they found they were not her one true love, wrote the Rev. Don Armstrong rector of Grace & St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Colorado Springs. "[Bishop] Jerry Winterrrowd prevailed on them to forgive her and leave her punishment to him when in the middle of the night she accepted a call elsewhere, complete with a good recommendations from Winterrrowd--who passed off a bona fide sexual predator on Sandy's new parish just like the Roman Catholic's have done with child molesters."
A source said a lesbian deacon was so mad she even spoke to conservatives about her disgust with Winterrowd, and as a member of Standing Committee threatened to blow the whole thing sky high.
Wilson was up for Bishop of Delaware and had to drop out when the story broke. She was also relieved of her rectorship in Minnesota by her vestry, said another report.
Wilson is past president of the Union of Black Episcopalians, was the first African-American woman rector in the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Consider the commission's members:
Sarah Dylan Breuer of Frederick, Maryland (Province III); LIBERAL and LESBIAN. At her Blogsite she informs us that her astrological sign is Taurus and she was born in the Zodiac year of the Dog. She is a member of Integrity, a lesbian and a "NT scholar" who is a postulant to holy orders via the diocese of Maryland. http://www.sarahlaughed.net/
Rev. Dr. Ian T. Douglas of Episcopal Divinity School (Province I); LIBERAL
Rev. Mark Harris of Lewes, Delaware (Province III); REVISIONIST. Here is what he recently said: "Those working for realignment are not countering fascism; they are supporting precisely the binding together and unity of belief and practice (on their terms) that is the mark of fascism in practice."
Rev. Dr. Katherine Grieb of Virginia Theological Seminary (Province III); LIBERAL. She blasted Bush over his $82 Billion supplemental budget for the continued war against and occupation of Iraq.
Rt. Rev. Dorsey F. Henderson Jr., bishop of Upper South Carolina (Province IV); MODERATE but will go with the flow. He voted for D039 and but against Robinson's consecration.
Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, bishop of Nevada (Province VIII); REVISIONIST. She consented to the consecration of V. Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire. She never went to seminary.
Rt. Rev. Henry Louttit Jr., bishop of Georgia (Province IV); MODERATE. He did not consent to the consecration of V Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire.
Charles E. Osberger of Wye Mills, Maryland (Province III); EVANGELICAL.
Rt. Rev. Mark S. Sisk, bishop of New York (Province II); REVISIONIST. He also consented to the consecration of V. Gene Robinson.
Rev. Canon Rosemari Sullivan of Virginia Theological Seminary (Province III); LIBERAL. She has been the celebrant and preacher at Integrity/Virginia.
Katherine Tyler Scott of Indianapolis, Indiana (Province V); LIBERAL
Rev. Francis H. Wade of Washington, D.C. (Province III); LIBERAL Christopher Wells of South Bend, Indiana (Province V); MODERATELY ORTHODOX layman.
Rev. Sandra A. Wilson of South Orange, New Jersey (Province II) REVISIONIST.
"We were seeking a group of people of diverse opinion of the highest quality who can handle such complex issues as these," Werner told Episcopal News Service. "I am deeply grateful to those who have accepted this appointment."
"This committee is a sham--it has one possible outcome--to reject Windsor and to lead us out of the Communion. These are people, with the exception of Bishop Henderson, who would rather belong to a sexually tantalizing American denomination than a Holy and Historic worldwide Communion," said an orthodox priest in Colorado Springs.
There were no NETWORK bishops included in the list nor were their any non Network Evangelicals or Anglo-Catholics. There were also no orthodox theologians like Dr. Ephraim Radner or Dr. Philip Turner.
The Windsor Report was released in October, 2004 by the Lambeth Commission on Communion, established by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 2003 in response to reactions in the world-wide Anglican Communion to the election and consecration in 2003 of openly homoerotic V. Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire.
The report also addressed the decision of the Canadian diocese of New Westminster to permit the blessing of committed same sex relationships.
The primates of the Anglican Communion issued a communiqué at the end of their meeting in Dromantine in Northern Ireland. The primates asked, among other points, that the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada "respond through their relevant constitutional bodies to the questions specifically addressed to them in the Windsor Report as they consider their place within the Anglican Communion."
In June, the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), the principal deliberative body of the Anglican Communion and one of its four "instruments of unity," agreed with the primates' request that ACC members from the United States and Canada voluntarily withdraw from active membership on the council for the time leading up to the next Lambeth Conference in 2008. Those members did withdraw and attended the June meeting as observers. They and others made requested presentations to the ACC about both church's experience with same-gender relationships.
The Special Commission will be charged with preparing a report for the Blue Book with resolutions if appropriate.
The first meeting of the Special Commission on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion will take place Monday, November 7, at the Episcopal Church Center in New York.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. He has been a "don't rock the boat" guy from the beginning, although he has allowed orthodox parishes in his diocese a LOT of free rein. My parents have hung in there because he has not interfered with their parish.
I guess we'll see what sort of mettle he has.
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