Anglican Mainstream

By Mary Ann Mueller, Virtueonline

The Episcopal Church is slowly transforming itself from a Christian body of true believers into a politically correct, social justice organization with quasi-Anglican liturgical practices and barely identifiable religious overtones.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, is bent on dissembling and destroying the church from within. She has set her crosier to rein in any one who dares to disturb the status quo. Her legal minions are sent in to embroil dioceses and parishes in crushing courtroom battles over the legitimacy of titles to church properties.

Now the House of Deputies is set to overturn CG2006-B033 putting into place a number of other resolutions to insure the continued escalating ecclesial support of pansexual behavior now rampant in the post-modern American Episcopal Church.

At least seven Episcopal Dioceses are leading the frontal attack. The dioceses of El Camino Real (San Jose, California); Rochester (New York); Atlanta (Georgia); Newark (New Jersey), New Jersey (Trenton, NJ); Washington (District of Columbia) and Los Angeles (California) are sponsoring various legislative acts to crush B033, the hotly debated resolution which came out of General Convention 2006 calling for a quasi moratorium on the consecration of practicing homosexual — gay or lesbian — bishops.

B033’s wording – as passed in 2006 – reads: "The 75th General Convention calls upon Standing Committees and bishops with jurisdiction to exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church."

There is at least one diocese playing a game of smoke and mirrors as time counts down to General Convention 2009. The Diocese of Western New York (Buffalo, NY) says, on the one hand, it is important to follow the guidelines set down by B033 in its search for a new diocesan bishop. That diocese’s standing committee has called for the bishop’s search committee to "honor the mind of The Episcopal Church regarding acceptable candidates for the episcopate as expressed through the General Convention," while it seeks a replacement for Bishop J. Michael Garrison, who is retiring after10 years as Western New York’s spiritual leader.

On the other hand – in the same breath — the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Western New York "strongly recommends to the Deputation of the Diocese that the Deputation should work for or support efforts at the 2009 General Convention to rescind resolution B-033 of the General Convention of 2006."

This about-face position is based upon what the standing committee considers the "light of the theology shared by The Episcopal Church with the Anglican Communion in ‘To Set Our Hope on Christ’ " – TEC’s 135-page response to the Windsor Report. The 2004 document itself was the Anglican Communion’s formal response to the consecration of V. Gene Robinson as the first openly practicing homosexual to be elevated to the episcopacy.

Handing Bishop Robinson a miter sent ecclesial shock waves throughout the entire Anglican Communion and much of the rest of Christendom. Resolution B033 was an attempt on the part of General Convention to mediate the embarrassing problem and lessen the communal damage to Anglican unity while hopefully trying to prevent more spiritual harm and a church-wide implosion. That did not happen.

In fact B033 had a hard labor and an equally hard delivery. Since its embattled passage, the resolution has been a flash point of dissention and controversy. Across the Communion bishops refused to accept its dictates almost as soon as it was passed.

"… both the House of Bishops and House of Deputies bowed to intense pressure from the Presiding Bishop to pass B033, a resolution characterized by ill-defined language with no provision for enforcement or accountability," reported Virtueonline president and editor David Virtue following the end of the 2006 General Convention.

The Rt. Rev. William C. Wantland, retired bishop of the Diocese of Eau Claire (Wisconsin) and his assisting Bishop Jack Iker of the Episcopal Diocese of Forth Worth (Texas), recall the behind-the-scenes shenanigans used to force the passage of B033 in Columbus, Ohio.

According to Wantland, B033 should have died on the delivery table in the House of Deputies and never have been wheeled into the House of Bishops for resuscitation and passage.

This resolution originally started out as A161 presented by the Diocese of Texas. The original House of Deputies resolution expressed "regret for action and inaction that contributed to strains on communion and caused deep offense to many faithful Anglican Christians due to action by the 74th General Convention …"

The primary draft called for the various nominating committees, electing conventions, standing committees and bishops with jurisdiction to "refrain from the nomination, election consent to, and consecration of bishops whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion,"

First, the House of Deputies tried to give the resolution a death knell. After days of arguments and Special Legislative Committee meetings to frame the resolution in "Windsor language", the House of Deputies soundly defeated the resolution by a two-to-one vote. A motion to reconsider the vote was also defeated.

"One could have argued that the resolution at least met the minimum requirements of the Windsor Report," Bishop Wantland reported to a joint meeting of the American Anglican Council (ACC) and Forward in Faith – North America (FiF-NA) in Chicago, one month after the 2006 General Convention.

"Under the rules of the House of Deputies, once an issue is defeated and a motion to reconsider is defeated, this issue may not ever be considered again at that Convention," the bishop explained. "It is dead. It never came to the House of Bishops."

This is when the fancy legislative tap dancing began.

"A resolution was then presented to the House of Bishops later that same day — on Tuesday evening – that was an attempt to re-legislate the same issue," Bishop Wantland explained.

"It was determined that this resolution had all kinds of legal problems," said the bishop.

The first legal problem was Rule 28 of the House of Deputies which emphatically states: "Neither a Question once determined, nor any Question of like import, shall be drawn again into debate or presented for action again during the same Convention, except by the adoption of a motion to reconsider the action previously taken on such Question."

House of Deputies Rule 31 further explains that motions to reconsider are not amendable and need a super majority (two-thirds) vote. Section 31(b)(7) continues to further clarify: "No question can be twice reconsidered unless it was materially amended after its first consideration."

Resolution A161 died on the floor of the House of Deputies.

Meanwhile, then Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold decided to scoop up the dead House of Deputies resolution and breathe life into it. He called for a suspension of the rules and a joint meeting of both the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops to hammer, stretch, pulverize, and reconfigure A161 until it morphed into B033. That piece of fancy footwork got them around Rule 28.

"Well, suspension of the rules gets you around procedural matters, "Bishop Wantland told his Chicago audience, "but not substantive matters."

The Episcopal News Service reported that Presiding Bishop Griswold, in an address to both General Convention’s legislative houses, said: "We need to be mindful of the dynamics that have brought us to where we are. Some among us feel that expressions of restraint with regard to the Office of Bishop demean the dignity of those among us who are gay and lesbian…

"Others among us may be opposed to expressions of restraint, which would make it more difficult for them to justify their apparent need to establish a separate ecclesial body." Presiding Bishop Griswold went on to take a swipe at the growing body of Episcopalians who were finding it increasingly untenable to remain in TEC as it drew further away from established Anglican orthodoxy and sound biblical truth. In a specially called joint "Windsor Session" the Presiding Bishop pled with both legislative houses to pass the resolution.

"As your Presiding Bishop and chief pastor, I now ask both houses to consider the following resolution. I do so knowing that consideration in the House of Deputies may require special action."

For the House of Deputies to even consider the resolution’s reformulated draft, the Committee on Dispatch of Business had to immediately move for a Special Order of Business and Debate.

After the revised resolution was presented to both legislative houses, each deputation went on to discuss it among themselves to find acceptable common ground.

Bishop Wantland, who now resides in Oklahoma, was not a part of the House of Deputies discussion, but he was an active part of the House of Bishops debate.

Newly-elected Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori reluctantly spoke in favor of the resolution. In less than six months, as the first female primate in Anglicanism, she would preside over the House of Bishops and become the leader of The Episcopal Church.

"Even in the House of Bishops, there were some serious problems," Bishop Wantland recalled.

He said that under House of Bishops’ rules, if five or more bishops call for a roll call vote, it has to be honored. It was not.

"When a roll call vote was asked for by the House of Bishops the Presiding Bishop over ruled that," the Oklahoma bishop recalled. "He doesn’t have a right to make that decision."

The bishops then asked for a vote to over rule the chair. That, too, was denied. The upshot was that the House of Bishops passed B033 by voice.

"We had a voice vote in the House of Bishops," Bishop Wantland said. "We don’t know who voted or how any given individual may have noted on the matter. We were denied that in violation of the Rules of the House [of Bishops]."

Even as B033 passed in the House of Bishops, bishops scrambled to distance themselves from the document.

Bishop Wantland reported that the traditional orthodox bishops were unsatisfied with B033. It did not meet the minimum requirements of the Windsor Report, which called for repentance on the part of The Episcopal Church for its actions which rent asunder the fabric of the Anglican Communion. It also called for a moratorium on the episcopal consecration of persons engaged in sexual relationships outside of marriage, and a suspension on the blessing of same-sex unions.

Meanwhile on the other side of the aisle, the liberal revisionist bishops, led by Bishop John Chane (Washington, DC), said that they would not abide by Resolution B033 because: "We’re not going to put any limitation on our homosexual brothers and sisters."

For the past three years, B033 has been on the books, but mostly ignored.

With General Convention 2009 only months away, dioceses are scrambling to be first in line to voice their cry to repeal B033 or defang it.

The Diocese of Rochester was the first to file a resolution seeking to nullify the effects of GC2006-B033, The New York diocese’s resolution states the "76th General Convention affirms that standing committees and bishops with jurisdiction are not bound by any extra-canonical restrains – including but not limited to the restraints set forth in Resolution B033 passed by the 75th General Convention – when considering consent to the ordination of any candidate to the episcopate."

The diocese bases its objection on the strong-armed tactics Griswold used to force the passage of the hastily penned resolution to mollify, rather than comply with, the demands of the Windsor Report. The New York diocese also agreed that some less-than-kosher methods were used to force the issue.

"As a result of the Windsor Report, the 75th General Convention was under extraordinary pressure to enact a moratorium on the election, consent, and consecration of further gay or lesbian bishops," said the Rochester diocese in its resolution. "The House of Deputies rejected such a resolution (A161) on June 20, 2006. However, the very next day, the former Presiding Bishop [Griswold] used highly unusual parliamentary tactics to force a vote on Resolution B033."

The Diocese of El Camino Real penned an identical resolution, C015, titling their "Consecration of Bishops" to the Diocese of Rochester’s C007 titled "Ordination Process". Each draft resolution has been sent to the Committee on Canons.

Both New Jersey-based dioceses, the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey, whose See City is in Trenton, and the Diocese of Newark, sent in similar resolution drafts seeking to clarify that only the established canon law of The Episcopal Church can be the benchmark for the confirmation process of a bishop-elect.

In defense of its resolution C033, the Diocese of New Jersey explained that "the existing canons of The Episcopal Church are intended to be comprehensive and contain all processes and provisions that are to be used for the discernment of vocation for the episcopate."

Meanwhile, the Diocese of Newark argues, in its defense of its resolution C024 — which has been assigned to the Committee on Canons — that GC2006-B033 "was never intended to be permanent."

The Episcopal News Service reports that Newark delegate Kim Byham said that B033 was meant to be a "pre-Lambeth Conference" resolution only and that its usefulness has run out. He said that the 2006 resolution was passed merely as an "attempt to negotiate" with the members of the Episcopal Church and the wider Anglican Communion who were strongly opposed to the 2003 election and consecration of the Bishop of New Hampshire.

Bishop Wantland disagrees with Byham’s position on B033. In an e-mail to VOL, the bishop stated, "It [B033] was intended to be permanent so far as the Windsor compliance body is concerned. Unless the Windsor Report is withdrawn, repeal of B033 puts TEC in direct violation of Windsor."

Clearly not all dioceses are concerned about the demands imposed on The Episcopal Church by the 2004 Windsor Report. Both the dioceses of Atlanta and Washington affirm, in their defense of their similar resolution drafts, which both have been sent to the Committee on National and International Concerns, that "Resolution B033 was an attempt by The Episcopal Church to help continue the discussion prompted by resolutions passed at Lambeth Conference in 1978, 1988, and 1998 and in respond to portions of the Windsor Report and the requests of the Primate of the Anglican Communion."

Washington’s resolution C039 calls for "The Episcopal Church to confirm to the non-discrimination provision of Canon III.1.2 when considering consents to episcopal elections…"

Meanwhile, the Diocese of Atlanta resolution C010 not only asks for the direct repeal of B033, but also that "The Episcopal Church acknowledges with regret the further oppression visited on lesbian and gay members of this church by Resolution B033 and its application."

Revisionist Episcopal leaders in Georgia are more concerned with the wounded feelings and injured pride of a few vocal radical homosexuals than the spiritual impact and internal damage being wrought on the vibrant Evangelical Anglican Communion whose ecclesial roots stretch back to New Testament times.

The Diocese of Los Angeles has filed Resolution C036 calling for the repeal of CG2006-B033 with no further explanation. "[Be it] Resolved, the House of ___ concurring, That the 76th General Convention abide by the canons of The Episcopal Church; to respect the responsibility of each diocese to discern prayerfully the will of God in calling leaders; to refrain from restricting the potential field of candidates on the bases of gender and sexual orientation; and thus to retract General Convention 2006 Resolution B033."

"Episcopal Life" recently reported that the current Presiding Bishop is cool to the idea of revisiting B033. She would much rather just leave it lay.

"It is far more helpful for us to say something significant about where we are in 2009," Jefferts Schori said. "Conventions have passed resolutions in the past and they have rarely been revisited. New resolutions have been passed that state where the church is at that point."

Meanwhile, House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson is spoiling for a fight saying that the original dynamics around the passage of B033 "were such that a full and thorough discussion of B033 was difficult to have."

She now believes that the past three years of reflection, between conventions, will give the Anaheim convention the insight and wisdom it needs to properly dispatch the business of B033.

"The foundational question," Anderson told Episcopal Life," is: does the General Convention still support the use of ‘restraint when consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose lifestyle posed a challenge the wider church?’ "

—Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline
 

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