Following our meeting I went on to Albuquerque, New Mexico to preside at the ordination of Jeffrey Steenson as Bishop Coadjutor of the Diocese of the Rio Grande. At the point in the liturgy for objections to be made a priest I knew from my time as Bishop of Chicago stepped forward and urged Jeffrey not to allow himself to be ordained by one who had participated in the New Hampshire ordination. He also asked me to withdraw from the service. His tone and his words remained respectful and polite throughout. I thanked him and the service proceeded with no further objections.

At the time of the laying on of hands itself Jeffrey was surrounded by the twenty bishops who represented every point of view present in our common life. Their number included a bishop from Canada who was the preacher and a bishop from England who came to represent the Archbishop of Canterbury inasmuch as Jeffrey is the 1000th bishop in the American succession.

As I concluded the ordination prayer I thought to myself: this truly is the mystery of the church. All of us, standing in different places in what we perceive to be fidelity to the gospel, are able to come together to lay hands upon a fellow member of the body of Christ to share with us in a ministry of care and oversight. I found myself thinking too that perhaps the way forward in these difficult days has more to do with simply being the church in its various manifestations rather than trying to arrive at a common point of view on the matters that divide us. The mystery of Christ who meets us in the sacraments is larger than any point of view. I came away from the ordination with a deep sense of gratitude for the One who can hold in the unrelenting embrace of his reconciling love all of our passionately held perspectives, including our contradictions and the wounds we bear.

I look forward to our being together in March at Camp Allen. You have already received registration information and will be hearing more about the details of the meeting as the time approaches.

This comes as always with my prayers for each of you.

Yours in Christ,

Frank T. Griswold
Presiding Bishop and Primate

FOOTNOTE:
From David W. Virtue

Only two Network diocesans attended: John-David Schofield and Keith Ackerman. They attended "for Jeffrey", but made a very visible point (to Frank) by neither vesting nor processing, but simply sitting in their street clothes in the congregation. At the moment for the laying-on of hands, they came up in their street garb. Their point was: they were there simply for their friend Jeffrey; by their refusal to vest and by sitting as members of the congregation, Griswold would not be able to produce any photos at the Primate's Meeting and say, "look: even Network bishops have no trouble with me.