The formal response to the Primates' Communiqué was adopted late Tuesday by the House of Bishops by a virtually unanimous vote. It reflected our very deep appreciation of the Anglican Communion and our strong desire to maintain and nurture our role within it, while asserting our determined commitment to include gay and lesbian persons in our common life. In our statement, the bishops reconfirmed our vote at the 2006 General Convention to "exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion." This reconfirmation constitutes our continuing agreement with that resolution and acknowledges that such language pertains specifically to non-celibate gay and lesbian persons. We also repeated our pledge not to authorize public rites for the blessing of same sex unions until a broader consensus emerges in the Communion, or until General Convention takes further action. We noted that we hope to draw upon the benefits of the Communion-wide process of listening to the experiences of gay and lesbian persons.

We commended our Presiding Bishop for her plans to provide episcopal visitors for dioceses at irreconcilable odds with her own ministry as Primate and we support her commitment to consult with the wider communion in pastoral matters, seeking creative solutions that are in accord with the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church. We supported the Archbishop of Canterbury in his desire to include the bishop of New Hampshire at next year's Lambeth Conference. We called for commitment to the civil rights, safety and dignity of gay and lesbian persons. We deplored the incursion of uninvited bishops into our dioceses.

No one achieved everything he or she wanted in our statement. To your Virginia bishops, our traditionally centrist attitude seemed to be the prevailing attitude of the House of Bishops. We share the viewpoint of many of our brother and sister bishops that our response to the Communiqué meets the requests put to us by the Primates.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • - Anglican: Primary Source • -- Statements & Letters: Bishops • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Bishops • Sept07 HoB Meeting

1. midwestnorwegian wrote: “You spin me right around baby right around, like a record baby, right around round round”.  “Centrist attitude”?  Spin Mr. Lee.  Pure spin. September 28, 1:35 pm | [comment link]

2. VaAnglican wrote: I suppose one day when Louie Crew, Susan Russell, and KJS are the only ones remaining in the Episcopal Church, one of them will suddenly be the “centrist” of the bunch as well. September 28, 1:44 pm | [comment link]

3. Tar Heel wrote: That “centist attitude” comment made me laugh out loud.  Glad I had no liquid in my mouth at the time. Centrist attitude in Virginia = Lawsuits R Us. September 28, 2:07 pm | [comment link]

4. The_Archer_of_the_Forest wrote: Centrist…interesting. Central as to what exactly? I mean, in the grand Christian spectrum, even the more conservative folks in ECUSA these days would be moderate to liberal anywhere else in Christianity with the exception of maybe UCC. September 28, 2:32 pm | [comment link]

5. Phil wrote: No comment.  When Peter Lee is involved, that usually gets me in trouble. September 28, 2:49 pm | [comment link]

6. Gone missing wrote: Centrist indeed . The religion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has no place for the middle of the roader. After all, the only thing found in the middle of the road is emptiness and dead armadillos. September 28, 3:29 pm | [comment link]

7. Eugene wrote: Maybe by centrist he meant that although it may not please the fringe10% or so, it will please the most of the church.  Let’s face it there is not going to be a mass exodus over this. September 28, 4:14 pm | [comment link]

8. palagious wrote: If its the ABC’s “desire” to invite Bishop Gene, then what’s stopping him?  Its not as though recanting on the Lambeth invitations would be any greater betrayal of the AC than what’s happened recently.  Remember, “centrist” now has lurched way left of where it used to be when there was a vibrant “right”.  So, I’m not sure but “centrist” may be appropriate.  DioVa may not be Newark, New Hampshire or Los Angeles “left” but they are not Pittsburgh, South Carolina or San Joaquin “right”.  They are more of an “enabling” diocese at this point. September 28, 4:22 pm | [comment link]

9. Larry Morse wrote: Soomeone inform me please: Where did this notion that the ABC wants to invite VGR come from? I don’t remember any such thing.  Larry September 29, 8:13 am | [comment link]

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