While only a handful of the approximately 140 bishops attending the House of Bishops spring meeting voted against the covenant statement on March 15, neither traditional-minded nor progressive bishops were united behind the document, and a significant portion of conservative bishops missed the vote.

The total number of “nays” is uncertain. One bishop present told THE LIVING CHURCH that “there were four or five no’s”, while Bishop Paul V. Marshall, Bishop of Bethlehem, wrote after the vote, “my own conscience did not permit me or eight other bishops to vote for it.”

Bishop James Kelsey of Northern Michigan voted against the covenant saying he opposed the moratorium as a “misuse of power”. “I feel it is a legislative restriction of the authentic discernment of diocesan communities," he wrote in a letter to his diocese. "I further feel this is an inappropriate use of the consent process. Bishops are asked to give consent as a kind of a check and balance, but not as a prime mover in the process. This feels to me like a unilateral action of the bishops, thereby excluding any options by the rest of the Church.”

Two diocesan bishops told the House on Saturday that no matter what was decided, nothing would deter the blessing of same-sex unions in their dioceses.

Bishop Jon Bruno of Los Angeles told the Los Angeles Times that though he would observe the moratorium against the blessing of same-sex unions, he would not impose the moratorium on his clergy nor discipline those who performed the rites—a stance at odds with one conservative bishop’s understanding of the moratorium, which he told THE LIVING CHURCH he believed extended to all clergy, not merely bishops.

Within the ranks of traditionalist bishops, interpretations over the meaning and effectiveness of the document differ widely. Immediately after the vote, Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh told THE LIVING CHURCH that on “one level we are buying time, and I guess that’s good as it acknowledges all of the things the primates have been saying to us”.

In a formal statement released on March 17, Bishop Duncan wrote, “I am grateful that the bishops in Texas did finally begin to engage the real concerns of the wider Anglican Communion, although the statement issued falls short of what the primates were looking for.”

“I voted against [the covenant],” Suffragan Bishop David Bena of Albany wrote to his diocese, “because I believe it is too weak and possibly duplicitous. Most of those present, however, did vote for it as the best we could do under the circumstances.”

Bishop Bena was “cautiously optimistic” however, “because I saw how hard both the left and the right worked together to tailor something that actually answered the demands of Windsor and the [primates'] communiqué.”

One of the principals of the working group that created the covenant, Bishop John Lipscomb of Southwest Florida, stated, “It was an excellent meeting of the House. Bishops on all sides of the current questions in the life of our church worked diligently to find a creative response to the primates’ communiqué.”

Also present for the meeting were Anglican Communion Network Bishops James Adams of Western Kansas, John W. Howe of Central Florida, Edward Salmon of South Carolina, and William Skilton of South Carolina (suffragan), and newly consecrated Bishop Jeffrey Steenson of the Rio Grande.

A number of bishops affiliated with the Anglican Communion Network were not present at the vote. Bishop Daniel Herzog of Albany was abroad, a guest of the diocese of Down and Dromore in Northern Ireland, preaching on St Patrick’s Day at Downpatrick—the sight of St. Patrick’s grave.

Suffragan Bishop Henry Scriven of Pittsburgh had left Camp Allen by Tuesday’s vote, as had Bishop James M. Stanton of Dallas. Bishop Stanton attended the first two days of the meeting, but returned to Dallas to be present at the birth of his granddaughter.

American Anglican Council chairman and Springfield Bishop Peter Beckwith took ill in Atlanta while on his way to the meeting and did not attend. Others who did not attend: Bishop Terry Kelshaw of the Rio Grande, Bishop Keith Ackerman of Quincy, Bishop Jack Iker of Fort Worth, and Bishop John-David Schofield of San Joaquin.

(The Rev.) George Conger