Episcopal Head Offers Report Amid ‘Misinterpreted, Exaggerated’ Claims

The presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church wrote a letter to members of the denomination Wednesday to summarize the results of their recently concluded triennial conference and to clarify the details behind two resolutions that have drawn notable, and mostly negative, attention from the media.

Despite the reduced budget, the church body still decided to commit 0.7 percent of its budget to the Millennium Development Goals on top of the 15 percent already committed to international development work.After eleven full days of worship, learning, and policy-making, those who gathered in Anaheim, Calif., for the 76th General Convention adopted a budget that will result in the loss of church staff and represents “a significant curtailment of church-wide ministry efforts, in recognition of the economic realities of many dioceses and church endowments,” reported Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.

“As a Church, we have deepened our commitments to mission and ministry with ‘the least of these,’” Jefferts Schori stated, citing from Matthew 25.

“We have committed to a domestic poverty initiative, meant to explore coherent and constructive responses to some of the worst poverty statistics in the Americas: Native American reservations and indigenous communities,” the Episcopal leader continued.

Jefferts Schori also reported on the adoption of a health plan to serve all clergy and laity and reported about the revisions made to the church body’s rules to better keep churchgoers safe, “especially from abuse, neglect, and exploitation” at the hands of church clergy and staff.

Despite such gains, however, the presiding bishop noted that what captured headlines were two resolutions, “the consequences of which were often misinterpreted or exaggerated.”

“Some have insisted that these resolutions repudiate our relationships with other members of the Anglican Communion. My sense is that we have been very clear that we value our relationships within and around the Communion, and seek to deepen them,” clarified Jefferts Schori.

The two resolutions that the bishop referred to specifically were Resolution D025, titled “Anglican Communion: Commitment and Witness to Anglican Communion,” and Resolution C056, titled “Liturgies for Blessings.”

While D025 states that The Episcopal Church reaffirms its “abiding commitment” to the Anglican Communion, it also states that the church body affirms that “God has called and may call … to any ordained ministry in The Episcopal Church” gay and lesbian persons “living in lifelong committed relationships characterized by fidelity, monogamy, mutual affection and respect, careful, honest communication, and the holy love which enables those in such relationships to see in each other the image of God.”  Click here for entire article