Delegates to a special convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas voted March 6 to adopt and enter into the Anglican Covenant.
The move makes the 30,000-member North Texas diocese among the first dioceses (Central Florida is another) to affirm the Covenant’s call for mutual accountability among worldwide Anglicans.
Delegates also voted 185–101 to dissociate the diocese from General Convention actions last summer that have led to more public blessings of same-sex couples.
The diocese has posted the texts of the two resolutions [PDF].
The votes followed a call by the chairman of the Anglican Consultative Council to renounce the notion that the gospel “is all about us.”
“The hour is getting late,” said the Rt. Rev. James Tengatenga, Bishop of Southern Malawi, quoting lyrics from Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower.”
“Time for our games is running out,” the bishop added. “In fact, I believe it has run out already. It is time to focus on Jesus. … It is not about you but about Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
The diocese’s adoption of the Covenant — irrespective of what the Episcopal Church might decide someday on the matter — carried heavily by voice vote.
The convention earlier adopted, 176–147, a motion to affirm diocesan membership not just in the Anglican Communion but also in the Episcopal Church — a signal that the Rt. Rev. James Stanton’s commitment to keep the diocese in the church enjoys majority support.
The convention coincided with the 17th anniversary of the 63-year-old Stanton’s consecration as bishop. The diocese continues to grow in spite of several non-rancorous parish secessions the bishop negotiated successfully.
Delegates voted expressly not to embrace provisions of Resolution D025 that refer to holy love uniting many same-sex partners and the church’s openness to the possibility of these partners’ call to ministry. The resolution likewise dissociates the diocese from D025’s declaration that “Christians of good conscience [may] disagree about some of these matters.”
A second part of the resolution dissociates the diocese from General Convention’s Resolution C056, which calls for “an open process for the consideration of theological and liturgical resources of the blessing of same gender relationships” and urges a generous pastoral response toward gay and lesbian communicants in secular jurisdictions that allow gay marriage and civil unions.
The Rev. David Houk, rector of St. John’s Church, Dallas, said the resolution was meant to strengthen “our central message” as Anglicans. The Rev. Edward Monk, rector of St. John’s Church, Corsicana, said, “We want to reinforce what we believe,” so as “to keep ourselves on mission.”
Fred Ellis of St. Thomas the Apostle Church, Dallas, objected that General Convention had not called specifically for blessing same-sex unions such as Ellis and his partner enjoyed years ago at the beginning of their relationship — “being able to stand at the altar of the church” and make “public profession of what [we as] partners felt for each other.”
The blessing conferred on Ellis and his partner was not sanctioned by the diocese, the bishop said.
The Rev. Phil Snyder, a Dallas deacon, countered that the Rt. Rev. John Chane, Bishop of Washington, was using the General Convention resolution “as the rationale to allow not just same-sex blessings but also marriage.”
Bishop Tengatenga’s sermon deplored the modern tendency to make the gospel “our [own] truth, our little clique’s version of it.”
“Is the truth we have been charged with not bigger than that?” he asked. “Is the Jesus who has given us the task not the same Immanuel? … Sometimes I get the feeling that we are too obsessed with protecting and preserving our version of Anglicanism that we lose sight of the task of proclaiming the Good News. … I believe the Gospel is bigger than Anglicanism or any other denomination whatsoever.”
William Murhcison
1 Comment
It should be noted that the author is decidedly biased in favor of the decisions made at this called convention, as I am against them. I was present and voted in this called convention. I noted how many votes were cast against both proposals. It represented considerable numbers of clergy and laity opposed to both actions (or one might say a house divided against itself). Bishop Stanton charitably acknowledged how much he suffered with the notion of up and down votes, of which he said he has been on the losing end more than once.
One speaker noted the absence of any attempt to our call from the gospel to be reconcilers. Others noted that the wordings of our resolutions fail utterly to listen to the experiences of gay and lesbian Christians.
This special convention was one more exhausting walk through the cesspool of heightened emotion. I appoint myself as spokesman for many who would like to see a day when we (like most of the dioceses of The Episcopal Church) had meetings, sharing our faith and calling, without controversy or focusing on issues that so clearly divide us as a diocese and as a nation.
wylie miller+