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Friday, March 11, 2005 - A statement from the Claiming the Blessing collaborative following our meeting at the Cathedral College in Washington, D.C., from March 9-11, 2005, regarding the Primate's Meeting February 2005 Communiqué.
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (1 Corinthians 12:27) To our sisters and brothers throughout the Anglican Communion: we hold you in deep care and concern.
The church in the United States of America has much of which to repent for our actions toward those around the world -- for our complicity in the social and economic ills of poverty, health, environmental injustice, and the marginalization of women.
Additionally, we are embarrassed by many of the foreign policy initiatives and interventions of our government. All too often, it has taken unilateral actions that have exacerbated rather than alleviated injustice, and we repudiate these actions.
We confess that we have left many things undone for our sisters and brothers in the developing world. Nevertheless, we are convinced there is nothing to repent of in moving beyond a mere "inclusion" of the most marginalized to a full embrace of all the baptized into the life of the church.
It is because we hold you in deep affection that we believe it is vital that we all remain at the many tables that bring us together. It is particularly vital that our Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) representatives remain at the ACC table at its meeting this year and in the coming years for these reasons:
Healthy relationships are not fostered by the banishing and silencing of people and groups. Healthy bodies cannot say, "I have no need of you," even for three years.
The voice of women is vital, and must be heard. Specifically, we note that the only two provinces that are represented by bishops who are women, the U.S. and Canada, would be excluded by the recommendation of the Primates' communiqué.
Unlike the Primates' gathering, the ACC includes the voices of the largest order of the baptized: the laity.
It is one thing to value unity; it is another thing to make a false idol of it by sacrificing those who are on the margins. What we seek instead is Prophetic Unity, which reflects the preferential option of Jesus for the outcasts in society to build the Beloved Community.
Jesus calls us to walk together. In the Gospel of John (chapter 9), the religious leaders attempt to create an "Us vs. Them" mindset during their repeated questioning of the formerly blind man. He refuses to accept that divisive mindset. Likewise, we have not and will not walk away from any table where two or three are gathered in the name of Jesus.
As St. Paul teaches: For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one spirit we were all baptized into one body -- Jews or Greeks, slaves or free -- and all were made to drink of one Spirit. (1 Corinthian 12:12-13)
Signed by members of the Claiming the Blessing collaborative (Beyond Inclusion, Integrity, The Oasis-Newark, Oasis/California, Oasis/Missouri, Every Voice Network, The Witness/Episcopal Church Publishing Company, Episcopal Women's Caucus):
Peggy Adams, member, All Saints Church, Pasadena CA
J. Edwin Bacon, rector, All Saints Church, Pasadena CA
Cynthia Black, dean, Cathedral of Christ the King, Kalamazoo MI
Kim Byham, member, All Saints Church, Hoboken, NJ
Louie Crew, member, Grace Episcopal Church, Newark, NJ
Rosa Lee Harden, vicar, Holy Innocents' Episcopal Church, San Francisco CA
Lyn Headley-Deavours, member, St. Andrew's & Holy Communion Episcopal Church, South Orange NJ
Michael Hopkins, rector, Church of St. Luke and St. Simeon, Rochester NY
Kevin Jones, member, Holy Innocents' Episcopal Church, San Francisco CA
Elizabeth Kaeton, rector, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Chatham NJ
Mike Clark, Christ Church Cathedral, St. Louis MO
John Kirkley, interim rector, St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church, San Francisco CA
Joseph Lane, rector, Good Shepherd Episcopal Church, Belmont CA
Christine Mackey-Mason, member, All Saints Church, Pasadena CA
Susan Russell, senior associate, All Saints Church, Pasadena CA
Jason Samuel, vicar, Church of the Transfiguration, Lake St. Louis, MO
Katie Sherrod, member, Trinity Episcopal Church, Fort Worth TX
John Simonelli, member, Trinity Episcopal Church, Solebury NJ
Ethan Vesely-Flad, member, Christ Episcopal Church, Poughkeepsie NY
Jim White, member, All Saints Church, Pasadena CA
Claiming the Blessing is an intentional collaborative ministry of leading Episcopal justice organizations (including Integrity, Oasis, Beyond Inclusion and the Episcopal Women's Caucus) in partnership with The Witness, the Every Voice Network and other individual leaders in the Episcopal Church, focused on promoting wholeness in human relationships, abolishing prejudice and oppression, and healing the rift between sexuality and spirituality in the church.
CTB: Response to the Primates
