Within the larger Communion, the status of the Episcopal Church, USA, and the Anglican Church in Canada has changed, at least temporarily. As we consider the way(s) in which this status has changed, please bear in mind that our Presiding Bishop helped draft the Primate's Communiqué, and he attached his name to it along with all the others.

Over the past weekend, I have conferred with more than twenty of our Bishops, read the transcript of the press conference following the Primate's Meeting, and listened to the BBC interview of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Presiding Bishop, and others, and now I want to share with you my understanding of “where we are, just now.

First, the American and Canadian Churches have been asked to voluntarily withdrawal from participation in the Anglican Consultative Council for the period leading up to the next Lambeth Conference of all the Bishops of the Communion in 2008. The ACC is one of the four Instruments of Unity in the Anglican Communion, and it is a very key player in the affairs of the Communion. For example: it normally sets the agenda for the Primate's Meetings.

(The other three Instruments of Unity are: the Archbishop of Canterbury, the now annual Meeting of the Primates, and the once-in-a-decade gathering of all of the Bishops, worldwide, for the Lambeth Conference.)

While we have been asked to withdraw from normal participation in the ACC, we are being invited to send a delegation to its June meeting to explain far more fully than we have yet done how and why we made the decisions we did regarding the consecration of a gay man in a partnered relationship as Bishop of New Hampshire, and why we have authorized same-sex blessing in many parts of the North American Churches. We are being invited to explain how we understand these innovations to be congruent with the teaching of Holy Scripture and catholic and Anglican tradition.

Second, the Primates have indicated that a sufficient response to the recommendations of the Windsor Report has not been made by either the American or the Canadian Church. That Report (see CFE, November 2004), called for an expression of regret and repentance, not only for these innovations in and of themselves, but also for our blatant disregard of the effects of these innovations on the rest of the Communion. The Report asks that the Churches of North America bring their teaching and practice into conformity with that of the larger Communion. It requests a moratorium on the blessing of same-gender unions and the consecration of non-celibate homosexual persons until or unless a new consensus in the Communion has been reached.

In giving us until the next Lambeth Conference, the Primates have recognized that in the case of the Episcopal Church, the House of Bishops cannot by itself respond fully to Windsor's recommendations. It will take the next meeting of the General Convention in the summer of 2006 to do so. Third, in the light of the seriousness with which the North American Churches have been treated, the Primates agreed that further extra-territorial incursions should not be made, encouraged, or initiated by Provinces, Dioceses, or Bishops outside the Episcopal Church or the Anglican Church in Canada. However, a panel of reference is to be formed, urgently, and Alternative Episcopal Oversight is to be provided for clergy and congregations in conflict with their Bishops,

What does all of this mean? Both Churches, the Episcopal Church, USA, and the Anglican Church of Canada, have been asked by our brother and sister Anglicans from around the world to choose whether we wish to remain part of the Anglican Communion, or, in the words of the Windsor Report, to walk separately. We have been generously given until our General Convention in 2006 to make this choice (and, actually, we could take up until 2008 to do so, although the only presently available venue for the Episcopal Church to make this choice is next year's General Convention).

We have been told that our membership and fellowship in the Anglican Communion is highly valued, and no one wishes to kick us out or excommunicate us, but there must be conformity to the Communion's common understanding, teaching, and practice if we are to continue to enjoy that status. We have been given the space to make this choice carefully, prayerfully, and in a leisurely manner.

The unstated implication is inescapable. In the words of one of the leading Primates of the Communion, the Communiqué is written in extremely gentlemanly and diplomatic language, but it is unambiguous in what it says: Communion with those in the Episcopal Church, USA, and the Anglican Church in Canada who will not repent has been irretrievably broken. He went on to say that the Primates are equally clear that it is the Anglican Communion Network (which Central Florida joined in September of 2003) and those who will submit to the recommendations of the Windsor Report who are the true Anglican presence in the USA..

In my opinion we are at a pivotal point in Anglican history. Faithfulness to the teaching of the Scriptures and the whole of the catholic and Anglican tradition has been reaffirmed, and revisionist innovations have been rejected.

The choice before us is between genuine repentance, and with it restoration to full participation in the Anglican Communion...or permanent separation. True repentance in this context would not merely consist of expressing regret that others are troubled by our decisions and actions, but full compliance with the Lambeth Resolution that homosexual practice is incompatible with Holy Scripture AND a radical commitment to the pastoral care and concern for homosexual persons and the repudiation of any kind of discrimination or abuse toward them.

In his interview on the BBC on Sunday, February 27, the Archbishop of Canterbury said this, I think that what has been said to them this week is that the cost of carrying on with this particular set of unilateral decisions is very high. It might mean that they will not be welcome [in future Anglican gatherings].

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I have said over and over and over again that I will not leave the Episcopal Church. But that has always been based upon the assumption and conviction that the Episcopal Church would never leave the Anglican Communion. Indeed, the very first sentence of the Preamble to the Constitution of the Episcopal Church says this: The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, otherwise known as the Episcopal Church...is a constituent member of the Anglican Communion, a Fellowship within the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, of those duly constituted Dioceses, Provinces, and regional Churches in communion with the See of Canterbury, upholding and propagating the historic Faith and Order as set forth in the Book of Common Prayer.

God forbid, but if the Episcopal Church decides to walk away from the Anglican Communion it will also walk away from me. As I said to our Annual Convention in January,

I value the Anglican Communion immensely. Apart from the Communion my episcopacy means nothing. And should the Episcopal Church decide to ˜walk separately from the rest of the Communion we will become just another American protestant sect. I have no desire to move in that direction

I cannot tell you how all of this will play out. But I can say that these are momentous issues. The House of Bishops meets this month from March 11 - 16 in Camp Allen, Texas. The General Convention meets June 13 - 21 in 2006. There are difficult decisions ahead for all of us. Pray for the Church.

With love to you in our Lord,

John W. Howe

John W. Howe is the Bishop of Central Florida