In a Sept. 28 letter to members of the House of Bishops, Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold offered his assessment of the involvement by the Archbishop of Canterbury with the Sept. 19-22 meeting of ‘Windsor compliant’ bishops of The Episcopal Church held at Camp Allen in Texas.

Contrary to advance and follow-up information to the contrary, Bishop Griswold insisted the “Texas meeting was in no way held at the Archbishop’s initiative nor was it planned in collaboration with him. The two bishops from the Church of England did not attend as delegates of the Archbishop, nor were they empowered to speak on his behalf except to give the message that ‘the bishops meeting are bishops of the Catholic Church in the Anglican Communion.”

Bishop Griswold said that statements such as the one released by the bishops gathered at Camp Allen are usually divisive.

“I have seen during these nine years how unhelpful it can be for us as a community when we separate ourselves from one another by signing, or not signing, statements,” he said. “As we have learned position statements can easily occlude the more subtle dimensions of agreement and disagreement, which is where our deepest engagement with one another can occur.

“It also needs to be said that the assessment of the responses of the Episcopal Church to the Windsor process is not the responsibility of self-chosen groups within the Communion,” he said.

While confident that not all of the bishops who signed the Camp Allen statement seek the replacement of The Episcopal Church in the Anglican Communion, Bishop Griswold could not say the same about the Colorado-based Anglican Communion Institute (ACI), some members of which assisted with some of the planning for the meeting in Texas. He specifically mentioned a document, which he said fomented schism, that was posted on a website maintained by the ACI.

Bishop Griswold also shared his thoughts about a meeting of Global South Primates held at the same time in Kigali, Rwanda. The call for “a separate ecclesiastical structure of the Anglican Communion in the USA” as contained in the communiqué issued at the conclusion of the meeting would bring about the disintegration of the Anglican Communion, he said.

“The suggestion of such a division raises profound questions about the nature of the Church, its ordering and its oversight,” he wrote. “I further believe such a division would open the way to multiple divisions across other provinces of the Communion, and any sense of a coherent mission would sink into chaos. Such a recommendation appears to be an effort to preempt the Windsor process and acting upon it would create a fact on the ground, making healing and reconciliation – the stated goal of the Windsor process –that much more difficult to achieve.”

Bishop Griswold also took issue with the Global South communiqué for questioning the ability of Presiding Bishop-elect Katharine Jefferts Schori to represent all diocese of The Episcopal Church.

“The role of primates is to bear witness as fully as possible to the life and complexities of their own provinces,” Bishop Griswold said. “I have sought to bring to the primates’ meetings the wide range of opinions and the consequent tensions within our own Church. I have every confidence that Katharine will do the same. Furthermore, the voices from dioceses that the Kigali communiqué fears will not be heard seem to be well represented among the primates themselves.”

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