Dear brothers and sisters,

We want you to know about letters that have been sent to the lay and clergy leadership of St. Stephen’s Church. Your senior warden received a letter signed jointly by the Rev. Henry Pease, president of the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Bethlehem, the Rev. W. Nicholas Knisley, vice-chair of Diocesan Council, and Bishop Paul V. Marshall. That letter is enclosed. Diocesan Council and the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Bethlehem consist of representatives elected by your sisters and brothers in some 66 other churches of the Diocese of Bethlehem.

Bishop Paul sent a separate letter to your clergy.

We have asked the following questions in our letter.

Does the Parish of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Whitehall, consider itself still to be part of the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem?

Does the Parish of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church consider itself still to be in communion with the Bishop of the Diocese of Bethlehem and under his canonical jurisdiction?

The leadership of your congregation has significantly decreased the parish’s participation in the mission and ministry of our wider community, even to the extent of informing Diocesan Council that your parish would not meet its constitutionally mandated financial assessment. Your leadership has also ignored several attempts by elected representatives of our diocesan community to enter into conversation about what they intend and how they understand the relationship of St. Stephen’s Church and the Diocese of Bethlehem.

We will be interested in how your lay and clergy leadership responds to these questions. We have decided to keep you informed because we suspect you, too, will be interested. We have resorted with some regret to formal communication by letter only after attempts to invite direct conversation with the vestry and parishioners of St. Stephen’s about the leadership’s apparent movement of the parish away from the diocesan community were rebuffed by the rector and senior warden.

For the sake of your sisters and brothers throughout the 14 counties of the Diocese of Bethlehem and for your own sake as parishioners of St. Stephen’s, we seek clarity about, whether the leadership of St. Stephen’s considers the parish to be part of the diocesan family, I.e., whether they are willing to live within the traditional understanding of what makes a church "Episcopal."

In the Episcopal church, congregations exist as such only in relationship with a duly elected bishop, specifically the bishop of the diocese where the congregation is located. The relationship of congregations among themselves and with the wider church community is defined by a diocesan constitution and canons developed and approved at one time or another by representatives of those congregations.

Suggestions by the leadership of your parish that the current problem is about homosexuality or the ordination of a gay bishops seem little more than attempts to distract from the matter at hand: governance and relationships within the Episcopal Church. Any congregation and its leaders are free to disagree on issues without risking their position in the diocesan community. The Episcopal Church in the United States does not focus on beliefs held by individual members.

We are bound together not by our imperfect understanding and expression of our beliefs but by our worship of God in Christ. "It is part of the reality of the Episcopal Church," our presiding bishop said recently, "that we live with divergent points of view regarding the interpretation of scripture and understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church…There is no neutral reading of scripture. We interpret various passages differently while seeking to be faithful to the mind of Christ. It is therefore important to recognize that people of genuine faith can and do differ in their understandings of what we agree is the Word of God."

May no one distract us from our unity in Christ expressed by our coming together in diversity as a faith community -- the community of the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem and the Episcopal Church USA -- worshipping God and allowing God’s work to be done by the body of Christ we are.

We have asked your parish leadership to respond to these concerns by May 5.

Sincerely yours,

The Rev. Henry Pease
President, Standing Committee

The Rev. W. Nicholas Knisely
Vice-Chair, Diocesan Council

LETTER OF PARISHIONERS TO DIOCESAN STANDING COMMITTEE AND BISHOP

May 2, 2004

The Rev. Henry Pease
President, Standing Committee
The Rev. W. Nicholas Knisley
Vice-Chair, Diocesan Council
The Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem
Diocesan House
333 Wyandotte Street
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 18015

Gentlemen:

This letter is offered in response to your letter dated April 23, 2004 and received by a number of our parishioners. The Rector has distributed copies to other parishioners who were omitted from your mailing. In addition, our Rector and Curate have shared Bishop Marshall’s letters to them together with their responses.

We are aware that our Vestry has informed Diocesan Council of their decision to redirect funding from the diocese to orthodox, local, national, and international organizations and ministries. We note that this action took place only after the decisions of the 74th General Convention supported by the leadership of the Diocese of Bethlehem.

Your comments regarding our movement away from participation in the Diocese of Bethlehem and the Episcopal Church USA are interesting in light of the fact that it is you who have imperiled our relationship with the worldwide Anglican Communion. The 74th General Convention has rejected the declaration of the bishops at the 1998 Lambeth Conference, the counsel of the Primates of the Anglican Communion, and the appeal of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

You ask if our parish leadership is, "willing to live within the traditional understanding of what makes a church "Episcopal." Please be reminded that our leadership never said we were leaving the Episcopal Church. Yet, we wonder if the diocesan leadership is willing to live within the traditional understanding of what makes the Episcopal Church USA a member of the Anglican Communion? Indeed, does the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem consider itself to be part of the Anglican Communion? If so, we would ask why you have chosen to persecute our parish before the publication of the Eames Report?

You write, "Suggestions by the leadership of your parish that the current problem is about homosexuality or the ordination of a gay bishop seem little more than attempts to distract from the matter at hand, etc." Herein lies the major reason our leadership is reluctant to enter into conversation with diocesan representatives. Please don’t tell us we are lying to you about what we believe the problem to be. On August 19, 2003 the overwhelming majority of our parishioners signed and forwarded to diocesan leadership A Statement of Repudiation and Disassociation From the Actions of the 74th General Convention of the Episcopal Church. Trust us when we tell you that we reaffirm our belief that sexuality is inherent in God’s creation of every human being in His image as male and female. All Christians are called to chastity: husbands and wives by exclusive sexual fidelity to one another and single persons by abstinence from sexual relations. God intends and enables all people to live within these boundaries, with the help and in the fellowship of the Church.

When there arise within the Church at any level tendencies, pronouncements, and practices contrary to biblical, classical Anglican doctrinal and moral standards, we must not and will not support them. The Church has no authority to ordain anything contrary to God’s Word written. If there is to be communication between us in the future you must accept our definition of the problem.

You go on to say, "The Episcopal Church does not focus on beliefs held by individual members." Our experience of Christian Community here at St. Stephen’s is contrary to your statement. The leadership of our parish actively encourages members to make their beliefs known as together we seek to make decisions consistent with the mind of Christ. As an example we cite that on this day a special parish meeting was called by our Rector and Vestry to obtain the viewpoints of all relative to the questions asked of our Vestry in your letter. Our question to you is, why aren’t the beliefs of individual members important to you? Weren’t they important to the Apostles?

The Parishioners of St. Stephen’s, Whitehall affirm the Faith of the Church as it is set forth in the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds and in the classical Prayer Book tradition. We believe that the Holy Scripture is superior to the canons. We join you in prayer for unity which as our Rector wrote to Bishop Marshall, "must be grounded in the teachings of Jesus Christ and His Apostles."

Sincerely yours,

The Parishioners of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church
Whitehall, Pennsylvania

CC: The Rt. Rev. Paul V. Marshall