Diocesan Reconciliation Commission Statement

by The Rev. David Harper

From the Rector

Fifth Sunday of Lent, March 28, 2004

Dear Friends in Christ,

I announced at the Parish Meeting on March 14 that I had accepted Bishop Lee’s invitation to become part of a 14-member diocesan Reconciliation Commission. Hugo Blankingship, a member of Church of the Apostles, is also on this Commission.

The Commission met for the first time on Monday, March 15. In preparation for the next meeting, we were tasked with preparing individual statements to define our understanding of the problem we need to address, and for which we seek the path of reconciliation.

I wanted to share my statement with you, which I submitted to the Commission earlier this week. I ask for your prayers for this Commission. The next two meetings will be held on Saturday, April 17, and over the weekend of May 28-29.

THE PROBLEM

The decision overwhelmingly adopted by the House of Bishops at the 2003 General Convention to ratify the election of Gene Robinson (and also the passing of Resolution C051), has placed the Episcopal Church in a serious constitutional and faith crisis.

This is no mere domestic squabble between intransigent conservatives and trend-setting revisionists over inconsequential matters of debatable centrality. These actions have cut to the heart of our faith and order at home; dismembered our worldwide Anglican Communion; impaired relations with other major branches of the one holy, catholic and apostolic Church; and damaged our credibility with the Muslim world.

Those irreversible decisions in Minneapolis have been staggering in their impact. They:

• Defied the 1998 Lambeth Resolution, which passed by a vote of 526/70
• Ignored the urgent pleas of the Anglican Primates
• Grieved the majority of worldwide Anglicans, causing an unprecedented split within our Communion
• Created a painful division within ECUSA
• Invited censure from the Roman Catholic Church, and the dismissal of Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold from the ARCIC talks
• Caused the Russian Orthodox Church to break fellowship with us
• Eviscerated our credibility and dialogue with Muslims; and
• Exposed our fellow Anglicans in vulnerable parts of the 2/3 world to actual physical harm.

These are only a sampling of the dimensions of what has happened. There can be little cause for pride in these terrible consequences, all of which could have beeneasily envisaged by the episcopal, clergy and lay leadership in Minneapolis.

Reconciliation is a costly path to walk. It requires humility. It accepts responsibility for causing pain to another. It repents of the sin which inflicted the pain; and it offers restitution. Despite repeated calls to do so, neither the Presiding Bishop, nor any other bishops or deputies who voted to take ECUSA in this direction—including our own—have chosen that path.

The problem, as I have defined it, cannot be reconciled by exploring ways to "get over" what has happened, and return to life as it was before. The fabric of our common faith and life, already thin and fraying before Minneapolis, is now torn and ripped. It cannot be sewn back together.

This Reconciliation Commission will serve the Diocese well by:

• Acknowledging the gravity of the consequences of the actions of General Convention;
• Making effective and adequate provision for those "conservative" parishes within the Diocese who feel deeply alienated by those actions. Such provision must:
  • Recognize the legitimacy of their position;
  • Welcome their desire to remain part of the worldwide Anglican Communion;
  • Develop the structures that will serve the interests of all concerned, while providing conservative parishes with the legal and canonical protections they require;
• Report these to the Diocese with recommendation for adoption.

David R. Harper, Rector
Church of the Apostles, Fairfax