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CAMP ALLEN, TX: HOB dodged bullets on hot button issues
134 Episcopal bishops, 30 of them for the first time, met at Camp Allen, Navasota, Texas, this week to attend the HOB Spring meeting led by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori
By David W. Virtue with Mary Ann Mueller
www.virtueonline.org
March 21, 2012
At a press conference following the HOB meeting, VOL asked the Presiding Bishop, "In light of the fact that Dr. Rowan Williams has announced he is retiring at the end of the year and going back into academia, what do you see as the future of the Covenant, especially since you are on record as saying that it has 'passed its shelf life'?"
Jefferts Schori responded, "My sense is that The Episcopal Church will make a formal statement at General Convention. I certainly hope that statement expresses our desire to remain in communion and in covenanted relationship with other members of the Anglican Communion. My sense is that we have more and deeper mission partnerships across the Communion today than we did three or four years ago."
"I think the Covenant has been a helpful instrument in promoting dialogue and has created a great deal of conversation. I think we have done some important works as a result of the Covenant. So I see it as essentially as a positive thing, whether or not it is as binding in its present form is not as important to me as what it is able to achieve for the Anglican Communion," said Kansas Bishop Dean Wolfe.
When asked by Doug LeBlanc of "The Living Church" magazine about the presentation made by Bishop Little (Northern Indiana) and other bishops concerning some suggested revisions to Delegated Episcopal Pastoral Oversight (DEPO), Bishop Wolfe answered, "I think the work we that did on the revised DEPO document had wide expectance in the House. I thought it was a wonderful and generous sprit around the document both in Bishop Little's presentation of it and in the gentle editing which happened today."
Mary Ann Mueller, VOL associate, asked about the impact of the SCLM wrestling with same-sex blessing liturgies. "As this will slice across all dioceses and states do you think that The Episcopal Church's continued embracing of same-sex blessings has become another Communion-breaking issue and is leading The Episcopal Church deeper into schism from the Anglican Communion?"
Jefferts Schori replied, "We had a member of the Anglican Communion present with us, Bishop Justin Welbe, from the Diocese of Durham (UK), was scheduled for the meeting. His remarks at the close were about what he learned here and was going to take home both basically and about the way we functioned together.
"We did discuss the results of the Standing Commission of Liturgy and Music work, which will be brought to General Convention. We had some profound Indaba conversations that were marked by generosity and charity and I think a deeper understanding of the realities in different contexts."
Asked by another reporter if TEC's HOB might make a recommendation for who might succeed Rowan Williams, Jefferts Schori explained that the Primate of the Anglican Communion and ACC Standing Committee will be asked for recommendations for a member primate from their areas of the world to serve on the Crown Nominations Committee, and that work of nominating someone will fall to each of us in the coming months.
Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline
