Pastor's Recitation

 

 

Bishop releases convention wrap-up

 

Dear People of God in the Diocese of Southwest Florida,

The General Convention has concluded its 10 days of legislative process that includes hearings, committee meetings, worship, debate and voting in a bicameral system composed of the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops. It began meeting to govern our church in 1785 and has met triennially to guide the policy, mission and budget for the subsequent three years ever since. Every deputy (clergy and lay) and bishop in participation represents the Episcopal Church from 110 dioceses in 16 countries. It is a huge gathering of Anglican Christians.

 

You have every reason to be proud of your elected deputation. They worked long hours and wrestled with sometimes difficult issues. The resolutions voted on included mission focus, the budget, health, education, social issues, church canons and evangelism.

 

An interesting reality of legislative process is this: The final tally on any vote cannot reveal nuance or discussion. One can agree with 99 percent of the content of a given piece of legislation and vote "no" because of a particular word or phrase. One can vote "yes" without fully agreeing with an approach. This reality does not translate well into newspaper headlines. It is important to be mindful of the fact that opinions, reports, blogs and news articles are sometimes inaccurate, misleading, or incomplete. I have heard that there are inaccuracies regarding this General Convention's work.

 

This convention did recognize the changing circumstances in particular civic jurisdictions regarding "legislation authorizing or forbidding marriage, civil unions or domestic partnerships for gay and lesbian persons." It called for "a renewed pastoral response" but did not authorize same-sex blessings.

 

The House of Bishops will be in theological discussion in the coming years regarding this pastoral issue. This is not new. An initial theological study from the Theology Committee of the House of Bishops was expected for Spring 2010 anyway. Resolution C056 expects the theological conversation to be held within the wider context of the Anglican Communion. The discussions in the House of Bishops at this General Convention were honest, caring, prayerful, respectful and thoughtful. Deep listening to one another characterized our time together. This particular focus may continue to unfold in years to come just as the issue of divorce and remarriage did within the church. Changes in the culture forced theological discussion regarding divorce at the Lambeth Conferences in 1920 and 1930. Our own General Convention slightly relaxed our canons regarding divorce and remarriage within the church first in 1946 and then set out current standards in 1973. The reality of faithful homosexual Christians was, to my knowledge, first mentioned at a General Convention in 1976 and at the Lambeth Conference in 1978.

 

Please note that no church canons regarding marriage were changed, or even debated, at this just concluded General Convention. The conversation is continuing within our church and the Anglican Communion about the pastoral approaches and theological understandings for gay and lesbian Christian's who are loved by God and respond to God's call.

 

This General Convention fully reaffirmed our complete participation within the life of the Anglican Communion at every level, including continuing in the Anglican Covenant conversational process. It was a gift that so many Anglican primates including the Archbishop of Canterbury attended this 76th General Convention.

 

There was much accomplished in Anaheim, Calif. The disciplinary canons of the church were entirely reworked to make them more about reconciliation. Consents were given for the elections of the bishops of South Dakota, Long Island and Central Ecuador. The Lesser Feasts and Fasts book was revised and retitled Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints. A second round of ecumenical dialogue with the Presbyterian Church was approved and full communion with the Moravian Church was adopted. A theological statement on interreligious relations was adopted. The denominational health plan for the Episcopal Church was approved, as was the lay pension plan.

 

There was much more dealt with that shapes the next triennium in the Episcopal Church. I invite you to read in more detail the reports about General Convention that will be found at www.episcopalchurch.org/episcopal_life.htm. Your deputation will offer an additional report soon. Thank you for your life-giving prayers and support. I pray that your remaining summer season is restful and fulfilling.

 

Yours in Christ,
Dabney T. Smith
Fifth Bishop of the Diocese of Southwest Florida

 

Congregational Council

 

 

Under the new Diocesan Canons the Bishop's Committee is now referred to as the Congregational Council.

 

The next meeting of the Congregational Council will be September 9th in the conference room at 7 pm.

 

Altar Guild Schedule for August

            August Anniversaries

Saint Raphael's Church

 Congregational Council, Staff & Services

E-Giving

Diocesan Convention

Taize Services 

The Americans Know This Will End in Schism
copublished, with permission, with The Times, 15 July 2009
by Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham
 
In the slow-moving train crash of international Anglicanism, a decision taken in California has finally brought a large coach off the rails altogether. The House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church (TEC) in the United States has voted decisively to allow in principle the appointment, to all orders of ministry, of persons in active same-sex relationships. This marks a clear break with the rest of the Anglican Communion.  

That wider tradition always was counter-cultural as well as counter-intuitive. Our supposedly selfish genes crave a variety of sexual possibilities. But Jewish, Christian and Muslim teachers have always insisted that lifelong man-plus-woman marriage is the proper context for sexual intercourse. This is not (as is frequently suggested) an arbitrary rule, dualistic in overtone and killjoy in intention. It is a deep structural reflection of the belief in a creator God who has entered into covenant both with his creation and with his people (who carry forward his purposes for that creation).  

Paganism ancient and modern has always found this ethic, and this belief, ridiculous and incredible. But the biblical witness is scarcely confined, as the shrill leader in yesterday's Times suggests, to a few verses in St Paul. Jesus's own stern denunciation of sexual immorality would certainly have carried, to his hearers, a clear implied rejection of all sexual behaviour outside heterosexual monogamy. This isn't a matter of "private response to Scripture" but of the uniform teaching of the whole Bible, of Jesus himself, and of the entire Christian tradition.  

The appeal to justice as a way of cutting the ethical knot in favour of including active homosexuals in Christian ministry simply begs the question. Nobody has a right to be ordained: it is always a gift of sheer and unmerited grace. The appeal also seriously misrepresents the notion of justice itself, not just in the Christian tradition of Augustine, Aquinas and others, but in the wider philosophical discussion from Aristotle to John Rawls. Justice never means "treating everybody the same way", but "treating people appropriately", which involves making distinctions between different people and situations. Justice has never meant "the right to give active expression to any and every sexual desire".  

Such a novel usage would also raise the further question of identity. It is a very recent innovation to consider sexual preferences as a marker of "identity" parallel to, say, being male or female, English or African, rich or poor. Within the "gay community" much postmodern reflection has turned away from "identity" as a modernist fiction. We simply "construct" ourselves from day to day.  

We must insist, too, on the distinction between inclination and desire on the one hand and activity on the other - a distinction regularly obscured by references to "homosexual clergy" and so on. We all have all kinds of deep-rooted inclinations and desires. The question is, what shall we do with them? One of the great Prayer Book collects asks God that we may "love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise". That is always tough, for all of us. Much easier to ask God to command what we already love, and promise what we already desire. But much less like the challenge of the Gospel.  

The question then presses: who, in the US, is now in communion with the great majority of the Anglican world? It would be too hasty to answer, the newly formed "province" of the "Anglican Church in North America". One can sympathise with some of the motivations of these breakaway Episcopalians. But we should not forget the Episcopalian bishops, who, doggedly loyal to their own Church, and to the expressed mind of the wider Communion, voted against the current resolution. Nor should we forget the many parishes and worshippers who take the same stance. There are many American Episcopalians, inside and outside the present TEC, who are eager to sign the proposed Covenant. That aspiration must be honoured.  

Contrary to some who have recently adopted the phrase, there is already a "fellowship of confessing Anglicans". It is called the Anglican Communion. The Episcopal Church is now distancing itself from that fellowship. Ways must be found for all in America who want to be loyal to it, and to scripture, tradition and Jesus, to have that loyalty recognised and affirmed at the highest level.
___________________________________________________________________
Tom Wright is Bishop of Durham
 

Fulcrum Press Statement

 

 

on the decision by the House of Bishops of TEC to pass D025

The decision, by a 2-to-1 majority, of the House of Bishops of TEC to pass D025 represents a further determined walking apart by the American Church and must have significant consequences for the relationship of TEC to the Church of England and the Anglican Communion. 

It is important to recognise the multiple levels at which the resolution disregards the mind of the Communion both in relation to human sexuality and the nature of life together in Communion as expressed in the Windsor Report and the Anglican Covenant. It:

In relation to the Anglican Communion and the Windsor and Covenant Processes, the Windsor Continuation Group stated that "A deliberate decision to act in a way which damages Communion of necessity carries consequences. This is quite distinct from the language of sanction or punishment, but acknowledges that the expression and experience of our Communion in Christ cannot be sustained so fully in such circumstances. A formal expression of the distance experienced would therefore seem to be appropriate" (Para 45). General Convention's actions clearly reject the Windsor Process and are incompatible with the affirmations and commitments agreed by ACC in the proposed covenant. A formal expression of distance, with consequent limiting of involvement in Communion counsels, must now follow if the Windsor and covenant processes are to retain credibility in the wider Communion. 

In relation to the Church of England, it has recently been reaffirmed, with regard to the Church of Sweden, that "the teaching and discipline of the Church of England, like that of the Anglican Communion as a whole as expressed in the Lambeth Conference of 1998, is that it is not right either to bless same-sex sexual relationships or to ordain those who are involved in them" and that "changes in the understanding of human sexuality and marriage" will lead to impairment of relationships and limit the inter-changeability of ordained ministry.2 These consequences must now logically follow in relation to those bishops within TEC who have voted to support D025. They could be expressed by such means as actions under the Overseas Clergy Measure and a decision that the Church of England not be represented at future TEC consecrations. 

Over coming weeks, in discerning a proportionate response to this latest development it is important that

Almighty and everlasting God,
by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church
is governed and sanctified:
hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people,
that in their vocation and ministry
they may serve you in holiness and truth
to the glory of your name;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.