Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has urged the House of Bishops to reject Resolution D025.
 
Responding to a question from a member of General Synod on July 12 about General Convention Resolution D025, Archbishop Williams said he regretted the direction taken by the House of Deputies in repealing Resolution B033 from the 2006 General Convention.
 
Resolution B033 had asked bishops and standing committees to refrain from affirming the election to the episcopate of gay and lesbian clergy, while D025 “affirms that God has called and may call such individuals to any ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church.”
 
“As for General Convention, it remains to be seen I think whether the vote of the House of Deputies will be endorsed by the House of Bishops,” Archbishop Williams said. “If the House of Bishops chooses to block, then the moratorium remains. I regret the fact that there is not the will to observe the moratorium in such a significant part of the Church in North America, but I can't say more about that as I have no details.”
 
The Rev Gay Jennings, co-chair of the committee on World Missions that crafted D025 told a July 12 press conference that the new resolution did nothing new. It offered no canonical changes, but was merely “saying who we are as a church.”
 
It is a misconception to say that it “was the Episcopal Church against the world wide Anglican Communion,” on this issue, Ms. Jennings said. “Many other churches were trying to respond to this question.”
 
She added that General Convention did not “wish to walk apart” from the communion, and hoped overseas Anglicans would hear the “struggle to do and to be what we are,” she said.
 
The Rt. Rev. Leo Frade, Bishop of Southeast Florida concurred, stating D025 “expresses who we are.”
 
However, te Rev. Charles Osberger, clergy deputy from Easton and another of the World Missions Commission, stated he had been one of the two “no” votes cast by the deputies in committee on D025. He said the Episcopal Church “will have to be accountable” for its actions, but the resolution did fairly “express how this church is grappling deeply” with these issues.
 
(The Rev.) George Conger reporting from General Convention in Anaheim.
 
A one-year subscription to The LivingChurch Online also gives you convenient access to more than a year of archived issues, all for just $25! Click here to start your subscription to the TLC Online Edition today!