Chicago Diocese — Bishop Persell responds to the Primates Meeting communique

Bishop William Persell has responded to the communique of the recent Primates Meeting in Tanzania with a statement to the clergy and laity of the diocese, and the larger church. In his statement, Bishop Persell pledges to continue his support for a fully inclusive church, one that is characterized by "compassion, shared authority, mutual ministry, justice and respect for the dignity of every human being."

Excerpt: "Patience is appropriate on matters affecting the fundamental nature of a faith community's identity, but we should not allow such concern to unduly compromise our efforts to carry out the Gospel mandate of restoring all people to the unity of God in Christ. . . As bishop of Chicago I will not sacrifice the gifts we enjoy as an inclusive church so that we might conform to a doctrinal uniformity that is antithetical to our historic identity and experience. I will continue to invite gay and lesbian Christians into the full life and ministry of our diocesan community, and celebrate their gifts of ministry and covenanted relationships."

The full text is a downloadable PDF here.  

Admittedly, there are those within our Church, both in our diocese and he larger Communion, who prefer we suspend our efforts at full inclusion for the sake of a seat in the Communion’s councils. That approach, which we engaged in 2005 by our voluntary withdrawal from the Anglican Consultative Council, and institution of a moratorium on episcopal consents, has done little to increasesympathy and understanding of our church culture and experience among our critics. To continue in this fashion would undermine our integrity as a Spirit-led community, and constitute a moral injustice for our gay and lesbian members. I, for one, am not prepared to make that sacrifice. I continue to be profoundly grateful forthe contributions of our gay and lesbian members, lay and ordained, in our diocesan life.

 

My hope and prayer for our church is that we continue our witness for inclusion, and not allow our fforts to bring the Good News to those in need, here in our local communities, or in the wider world, to bedistracted or hindered by this present dispute. The world is hurting and we must respond.

On Sunday, February 25 I will be traveling to New Orleans to join other members of the board of Episcopal Relief and Development to see firsthand how our Church is helping in the Katrina recovery effort. A number of our congregations have formed long-term covenants with their counterparts in Louisiana and Mississippi, expandingthe vision of our strategic plan which calls on congregations to share resources and talents with each other “so that each congregation is in partnership with at least one other in substantive areas of ministry.”

Shortly after my return I will be heading to South Africa to attend the “Towards Effective Anglican Mission” conference in Boxburg, South Africa. Convened by South Africa’s Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, the conference will focus on how Anglicans can effect change on poverty, international debt, AIDS/HIV through advocacy and the Millennium Development Goals. The situation we face is dire, aspresented by Archbishop Ndungane: “”In our world there is global apartheid where the rich are getting ‘stinkingly’ rich and the poor are getting desperately poor. We know that there are more than 800 million people living in poverty in the world … this is not only immoral, it is a sin, it is evil.”

Building on the generosity of our Convention Eucharist offering and the many tangible efforts in mutual ministry with our companion dioceses and the people of the Gulf Coast, I am confident we will do all we canto redress the immorality that supersedes our present polity dispute: Our failure to love our neighbor as ourselves. Through our continued faithfulness to being a Church of compassion, shared authority, mutual ministry, justice and respect for the dignity of every human being, we will be a witness to the world of an Episcopal Church committed to incarnating Christ’s new commandment.

May this Lent be an opportunity for all of us to discern more deeply God’s Word and call to service in this broken world.

That statement is a source of great relief and comfort to me, as it will be to a lot of people I know. Thank God he's not pussyfooting around with those bullies any more. I had the opportunity to have lunch with Bishop Pursell a few months back, before we closed Holy Innocents, and he was very frank over lunch in discussing the tactics of the biblical-inerrancy conservatives that's basically a form of spiritual bullying. He mentioned then how many of the "Network bishops" refuse to share Eucharist with everyone else at their meetings; the African primates picked up this trick at the last meeting in Ireland and it really played out this time in Tanzania (although apparently one of them, Bishop +John Chew, received communion).

Just last Sunday, I was talking to a fellow St Nick's member, who is a very "out" young gay man and who is currently being bullied a bit in his discernment committee meetings.Yes, bullied, over the issue of his sexuality, with all kinds of inappropriate questions being asked by one person, who sounds a little too obsessed with the gory details. My church friend was feeling really disgusted over the whole thing, and defensive, and not a little depressed. He's the mainstay of the parish in many ways, and I hope he feels emboldened and encouraged by +Bill's strongly supportive words. 

[tags]Chicago, Episcopal, Gay Clergy[/tags] 

Chicago Diocese — Presiding Bishop offers reflection on the Primates Meeting

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has invited Episcopalians to a season of fasting regarding action on rites of blessing for same gender unions, and confirming candidates for episcopal ministry who are living in same gender partnerships. Returning from the biennial meeting of Anglican Communion Primates held Feb. 15-19 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the presiding bishop offered her reflection on the recommendations in the Primates Communique addressing the Episcopal Churchs response to the Windsor Report.

Still waiting to see what Bishop Pursell's and Bishop Scantlebury's response will be to the Primates' Meeting, the Communique, and our own Presiding Bishop's response.

Frankly, it's a puzzlement. There's a lot of confusion out there, and not a little angst and agita. No one seems to really know what ++Katherine means by fasting, or if everyone should "fast" (presumably, give up on marriages or consecrations of bishops for "a season,") or if only gay Christians must bear the burden.

A comment I saw at Fr. Jakes: take the example of the Danes under Nazi occupation. If some must be marked out as "other," than all must be marked out. I'm currently mulling over the thought of making rainbow-colored hymnbook markers or nametag necklaces out of thin satin ribbon.