Conservative Episcopal Minority Submits to Windsor Report, Rejects Unrepentant ECUSA Bishops
by Jim Brown
January 20, 2005
(AgapePress) - A conservative Anglican bishop says the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA) has responded inadequately to a Church of England report that urged the denomination to repent for consecrating an openly homosexual bishop.
While meeting recently in Salt Lake City, Utah, the ECUSA bishops reacted to the Lambeth Commission's "Windsor Report," expressing what they called "sincere regret" for the global tensions they have created within the Anglican Communion. However, the bishops did not apologize for consecrating Bishop Vicki Gene Robinson, who lives with his homosexual partner, as Bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire. Nor did the bishops act on requests from Anglican leaders for a moratorium on consecrating bishops in same-sex relationships and performing blessing ceremonies for same-gender couples.
Bishop Bob Duncan of the Diocese of Pittsburgh leads a network of dissenting conservative dioceses. He says the bishops use "graceful language" in their statements of regret, but their inaction "contradicts the words."
"The Worldwide [Anglican] Communion is really not going to tolerate this innovation, and eventually the American church is going to have to face the music," Duncan asserts. He says he never really supposed the American Episcopal Church would submit to the recommendations of the Windsor Report, but in fact, fully expected the U.S. denomination's leadership to continue in its "arrogance and self will."
That is quite a contrast to what the American bishops' English counterparts did the same day, the conservative Anglican clergyman points out. "The English House of Bishops accepted the report and all its recommendations," he says, while the U.S. church behaved "like people in the States in some circumstances. We like to get our way, and we've got the power to do that, at least in the short run. But it doesn't honor God."
In light of Episcopal Church's inaction, Duncan and 20 other ECUSA bishops have signed a statement of their acceptance of and submission to the 2004 Windsor Report. The Bishop of Pittsburgh has emerged as a leading voice among Anglican conservatives, a minority within the U.S. denomination, but a group whose values appear to be much more in synch with the vast majority of Anglicans worldwide than do those of the ECUSA House of Bishops.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
