The choice between walking together and walking apart is thus not something the Report considers properly subject to some process of local discernment within various Provinces - as might be the particulars of its recommendations. Rather, the choice stands as the fundamental starting point for this process of discernment itself. It cannot and must not be put off, if the Communion's life is to be respected and upheld. And those bishops, priests, and leaders of our North American churches are thereby either naïvely or irresponsibly distracting their flocks from this basic decision by deferring its articulation to some point beyond the present. No one should be under any illusion but that the shape of this choice - already made or deferred - will inform the outcome of the Primates Meeting in February, 2005, and thus the very shape of the Anglican Communion of the quite immediate future.

Just as the Report itself "calls on" Anglican churches around the world to "halt and find ways of continuing in our present communion," so we call on bishops, diocesan standing committees, diocesan conventions, and local parishes within the American Anglican context, to make their choice for "walking together," and to do so formally and publicly without delay.

To this end, we offer the following two resources:

* First, a draft "Statement of Regret": to be signed and issued by any bishop, diocesan standing committee, diocesan convention, or congregation who has either openly affirmed the acts of General Convention 2003 (and related actions) that have contributed to the current crisis in the Communion, or who has failed to state their public opposition to them. The Statement could rightly be issued by any bishop, diocese, or other representative group or individual in these churches who are committed to being identified with the ongoing life of the Anglican Communion.
* Second, an Affirmation of Compliance to the Anglican Communion's common life, to be made by a bishop, diocesan standing committee, diocesan convention, or congregation, most suitably within the context of a liturgical act.

This Affirmation calls on all members of ECUSA and the Anglican Church of Canada to encourage their leaders to adopt some appropriate version of these statements and affirmations as soon as possible, before the gathering of the Primates' Meeting in February 2005.

I. Proposed Statement of Regret
We, as [a] bishop[s]/diocese/congregation of the Episcopal Church (USA) wishing to signal our desire that the Episcopal Church (USA) remain within the Anglican Communion, welcome the Windsor Report and its call to the imperatives of communion - the repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation enjoined on us by Christ.

We see in the Report's vision of life in communion under the supreme authority of Scripture a commitment we share. We recognize in its account of our current illness, symptoms within our part of the body of Christ. We welcome its call to respond to the hurt and offence that have resulted from recent events in order that we may walk together rather than walk apart.

We regret that, in consenting to/affirming the election and consecration of Gene Robinson to the See of New Hampshire, we in ECUSA have breached the proper constraints of the bonds of communion.

We also regret the hurt and alienation and other painful consequences that followed from our breaching of the bonds of communion in this way.

We recognize that ordination is to the whole church and so we commit ourselves not to repeat this breach.

We affirm we will neither ordain nor consent to the consecration of any unmarried, non-celibate persons.

We regret that General Convention declared it within the bounds of our common life to explore and experience liturgies celebrating and blessing same-sex unions.

We recognize that to proceed unilaterally with the authorization of public Rites of Blessing for same sex unions before such time as there is consensus within the Communion permitting this constitutes action in breach of the legitimate application of the Christian faith as the churches of the Anglican Communion have received it and a breach of the bonds of affection in the life of the Communion.

We affirm that, as [a] bishop[s]/diocese/congregation of the Anglican Communion, we will honor the Primates' Pastoral Letter and the call of the Windsor Report and not authorize public Rites of Blessing for same sex unions.

II. An Affirmation of Compliance to Life in Communion
This Affirmation can be made in a number of contexts, but is properly done within the context of corporate prayer. We suggest doing so as part of the Prayers of the People in the Eucharist; as part of a formal Litany before the Eucharist; or as part of the prayers during the Daily Office prayed in common. (Advent of this year is an obvious season for repentance and renewed commitment to Christ in Communion.)

The following suggested prayers are based on various elements in the Windsor Report itself as it discusses the reality and character of communion itself.

A brief litany of commitment to life within the Anglican Communion (to be adapted in form of address as appropriate)

We give thanks for the communion we share in Christ, offered to us in this fellowship of Anglican churches around the world, and rooted in the common life of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We gratefully accept the divine obligations of this gift of communion, and beseech God's grace in complying with their purpose and in fulfilling them before the eyes of the world.

We repent of all words and actions on our part and on the part of our churches that would put in question the divine authority under which we live, deny the fabric of our communion and breach the bonds of our mutual affections.

We commit ourselves to a life worthy of the communion we share: avoiding actions of our own that would break our relations with others, submitting to common counsel within the Anglican Communion on matters that touch the larger body, nourishing the marks of our common identity, respecting the instruments that maintain our unity, and seeking amongst one another a common mind in Christ.

We ask God to bless the Anglican Communion of which we are a part, to use it faithfully as a sign of God's own mission in the world, and to preserve our own ministries in charity and truth within its midst.

A Statement from the Primates gathered at the first African Anglican Bishop's Conference held in Lagos, Nigeria, October 2004

We are gathered at an extraordinary and historic meeting of Anglican Bishops from all over Africa. We do so grateful for the Faith once delivered to the saints and the generosity of those who first brought the good news of Jesus Christ to the African continent.

We have come to celebrate the coming of age of the Church in Africa and we look forward to taking our rightful place in the various councils of the wider church. In that context we have received the Windsor Report prepared at the Primates' request and in preparation for our meeting in February we offer the following preliminary reflections:

We are very grateful for the hard work of the Commission members and the dedicated servant leadership offered by the Most Reverend Robin Eames. We believe that the Windsor Report offers a way forward that has the potential of being marked with God's grace.

We believe that the Windsor Report correctly points out that the Episcopal Church USA and the Diocese of New Westminster have pushed the Anglican Communion to the breaking point. The report rightly states that they did not listen to the clear voices of the Communion, rejected the Counsel of the four Instruments of Unity and ignored the plea of the Primates of the Global South in their statements issued on October 16th and November 2nd, 2003.

We call on the Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Church of Canada to take seriously the need for "repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation enjoined on us by Christ" (Windsor Report [134]) and move beyond informal expressions of regret for the effect of their actions to a genuine change of heart and mind. Failure to do so would indicate that they have chosen to "walk alone" and follow another religion.

We note with approval that the Windsor Report calls for a moratorium on the election and consecration of any candidate to the episcopate who is living in same gender union and the use of rites for the blessing of same-sex unions. We urge the Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Church of Canada to take this call to heart mindful of Lambeth Resolution 1.10 "We cannot advise the legitimizing or blessing of same sex unions nor ordaining those involved in same gender unions." Failure to do so would indicate that they have chosen to "walk alone."

The Windsor Report acknowledges the great pain that has been inflicted upon faithful communities that have resisted doctrinal innovations within Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Church of Canada. However, we reject the moral equivalence drawn between those who have initiated the crisis and those of us in the Global South who have responded to cries for help from beleaguered friends. To call on us to "express regret" and reassert our commitment to the Communion is offensive in light of our earlier statements. If the Episcopal Church USA had not willfully "torn the fabric of our communion at its deepest level" our actions would not have been necessary.

We note with approval the recognition that extraordinary episcopal care is needed for congregations alienated from their diocesan bishops. We remain convinced that the adequacy of that care should be determined by those who receive it, and we are looking for clear evidence that the Delegated Episcopal Pastoral Oversight proposal is effective by this measure.

We are encouraged by the suggestions offered for restructuring the various instruments of unity to strengthen our common life. We look forward to the day when the voices of the majority of the Anglican Communion are adequately represented in those various instruments.

We are committed to the future life of the Anglican Communion, one that is rooted in truth and charity, and faithfulness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
A Word From Tom Wright
by Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham and Member of the Lambeth Commission (Oct 24, 2004)

The main reason the Lambeth Commission was asked to talk about communion life and structures rather than about sex was because there would have been no point in doing the latter. The Lambeth Conference 1998 had already reaffirmed the church's stance on the subject, by a very substantial majority; and this had in turn been underlined by the ACC. The Primates had then made it very clear that to break this line in the case of Gene Robinson would have enormous and damaging implications for the Communion, and the Archbishop of Canterbury had reinforced this. Thus all four 'instruments of unity' had already spoken; what more could the Commission have said? If they do not hear Lambeth and the Primates, neither will they be convinced even if Robin Eames were to rise up and repeat it all. (read more)
Upon Receipt of the Windsor Report, 24 October 2004
by The Rev. Prof. Christopher Seitz, President, Anglican Communion Institute (Oct 24, 2004)

“As a friend of mine said, I’m an Episcopalian, not an Anglican.”

In this brief comment from one of the many, newly proliferating blogs, we glimpse something of what is at stake, in this moment God has prepared in his Providence, for American Episcopalians and their Anglican counterparts throughout the world.

Evangelical churches in the United States believe they are mysteriously, invisibly united with all those who confess Jesus Christ as Lord -- no matter what their historical or ecclesial heritage. This is what, in part, it means to live in a New World and look to Jesus Christ as Lord. Liberal Protestants used to work at this coal face too, but have long since not bothered.

We now have an Old World version of this same New World ecclesiology. That is, US Anglicans who wish to cut themselves off from their, mysterious but visible, union with other Anglican Christians throughout the world.

The burden was never on the former evangelical or liberal protestant groupings, which might well have shied away from a confession like, “I believe in One Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church.” Contested though that claim might be for Anglican Christians, it still had a foundation in a worldwide Communion and ongoing dialogues, until recently strained but not broken, with other such Communions of visibly catholic Christians.

So the real question is: will American ‘episcopalians’ now become that full-stop, and not something called Anglican? Is the New World going to claim still another New Spirit of separation, a ‘Spirit’ with which Anglicans in particular wrestled from their inception, opting to side with Old World Communion instincts, whether initially in Scotland or later in the Church of England.

So, then, the question raised by the Windsor Report is: will a new denomination of ‘episcopalians’ become a new ‘New World’ expression of local religious conviction, calling itself Christian and seeking to give content and mission to that claim, and so joining others in the New World supermarket of religions?

Whatever its failings, the recently released and long-awaited Windsor Report does not promote such a vision of Anglican Christian witness and mission. Yet almost immediately, the Presiding Bishop of the American branch of Anglican Christianity has said, ‘I am an Episcopalian,’ and we of the episcopal denomination, to borrow a phrase, ‘hold certain truths to be self-evident.’ ‘Self-evident’ is the same conceit once adopted by New World humanists convinced of a category ‘self-evidence,’ whatever that empiricism might have hopefully meant then, and might now mean, in our rights and self-interest fog bank of freedom and individual rights.

Seabury sought to connect American Anglicanism to its Communion roots, as did the colonially inclined William White.

The new breed of American episcopal Bishops, led by their Presiding Bishop, has played the ultimate New World trump card, by saying: we are boldly going where ‘humankind’ has not gone, or cannot know yet about. This claim may seem to have the hands of ‘self-evidence’ but it surely has the voice of ‘new like never ever before.’

This claim outstrips the desires of the New World-ers of the 17th and 18th centuries, but to atone for its tardiness, it brings an offering yet more New World than anyone then could have imagined, that is, an episcopally denominated expression of Christianity nowhere in evidence in history or in ecumenical manifestation. And so, the newest of the New World religions after all, even in a late harvest and New World Epiphany.

END