General Convention to Consider Blessings

As of this moment, on Saturday evening, the Episcopal News Service has not published this story on their website, but subscribers to breaking news via email have received the ENS article by Mary Frances Schjonberg .  The Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music will propose a Church-wide trial use of same-gender blessings at the 2012 General Convention.  If the resolution is passed, the three years between conventions would see a reflection on the Episcopal Church's "understanding of marriage in light of both societal norms and civil law."  Then the 2015 convention would decide whether to formalize the blessings as part of our official liturgy. God speed the passage of full sacramental equality, even in the Diocese of Albany!

ENS reports:

The Episcopal Church would spend three years using a rite for same-gender blessings and studying its application under a resolution that the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music has agreed to propose to the 2012 meeting of General Convention.

During that same time period the church also would reflect on its understanding of marriage in light of changes in both societal norms and civil law if convention agrees to a related resolution the commission will propose, according to the Rev. Ruth Meyers, SCLM chair.

The SCLM's decisions are the outcome of 18 months of work in response to General Convention's mandate (via Resolution C056) that it work with the House of Bishops to collect and develop theological resources and liturgies for blessing same-gender relationships, and report to the 77th General Convention in 2012 in Indianapolis.

The commission will present convention with 176 pages of material, including a rite of blessing, a theological essay on the issues involved in blessing same-gender relationships, a pastoral resource to guide clergy and trained lay people who would prepare same-gender couples to receive a blessing (the church requires heterosexual couples to engage in pre-marital counseling as well) and a discussion guide for helping congregations and other groups to discuss the rite and other materials.

The resolution that would authorize a three-year trial use of the liturgy also will ask for the continuation of the "generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of this church," called for in C056, Meyers said, including allowing for adaptation of the rite for local use. And, the resolution would have the commission report to the
2015 meeting of convention on how all the materials are used.

Meyers said Oct. 15 that she and the commission want to invite the church to "receive the [blessing] material prayerfully as a resource that we hope will be useful for the church but [also] as work along the way and not as a final, finished product and a definitive statement."

"We have had a wide consultative process and so have got input from a number of people, and it still needs to be received by the wider church," she told Episcopal News Service during a telephone interview from the commission's meeting in Bloomington, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. "This is new territory for the Episcopal Church and so as we use material we expect we will learn more that will influence the content of the material that will help us refine the liturgy even further."

The commission decided to call for a three-year study of marriage as a result of feedback it received during the months it spent developing the C056 resources, according to Meyers.

"Throughout the triennium as we did our work on this people asked us questions about how this related to the understanding of marriage that the church has had up until this point and whether this liturgy itself was intended to be a marriage," she said. "The resolution called for us to develop a liturgy of blessing and that is what we have done, but we realized there is great need for the church to reflect more generally – in light of changing societal and cultural realities, and a whole range of changes in civil law – on how we understand marriage."

The commission's C056 work will become part of a report it must submit to convention detailing both its work on all matters referred to it during the triennium and any resolutions it proposes for convention to consider. Such reports of all the church's committees, commissions, agencies and boards are assembled into what is known as the Blue Book and the collection is released some months before each meeting of convention.

Meyers said the commission plans to ask the General Convention office to release the C056-related materials prior to the anticipated publication of the Blue Book so that it can be discussed at the March
2012 meeting of the House of Bishops and at the General Convention deputy training sessions during pre-convention provincial meetings.

Since the commission began discussing how to proceed to C056's mandate, the SCLM has conducted the "open process" called for in the resolution, Meyers said. Four task groups that included people from outside the commission worked on the topics of liturgy, theology, pastoral concerns and legal and canonical concerns. The liturgical task group received what Meyers said were hundreds of blessing rites, some dating to the 1970s. After the group developed a set of principles for reviewing the rites, they read each one and borrowed from some of them, she said.

The SCLM completed a first draft of all the materials in June and then invited 133 Episcopalians to review them. Using an online process, the reviewers made "extensive comments totaling in the thousands," Meyers said. The task groups then made major revisions based on those comments.

The rite and the theological essay were discussed during the House of Bishops meeting in September, according to Meyers. SCLM members, including the three bishops who serve on the commission (Tom Ely of the Diocese of Vermont, Pierre Whalon of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe and John McKee Sloan of the Diocese of Alabama), have reported to the House of Bishops on a regular basis.

In October 2010, the commission met for five hours with representatives of the church's Province I to hear about their experience with same-gender blessings.

Nearly 200 members of the House of Deputies met March 18-19 in Atlanta for a historic churchwide consultation on same-gender blessings sponsored by the commission. The SCLM had invited one lay and one clergy deputy from each of the church's 109 dioceses and three regional areas to hear about and reflect on its work to date on the mandate given to it in General Convention 2009.

House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson said that the Atlanta consultation was historic both for its topic and because a large group of deputies have never before gathered together outside of General Convention for church business and to discuss a topic due to be taken up at the next meeting of convention.

Resolution C056 also asked the SCLM to invite theological reflection and dialogue about its work from around the Anglican Communion.
Episcopal Church bishops were asked to discuss the church's work on
C056 with the bishops of any companion diocese relationships they may have and with the members of their so-called "indaba groups" from the
2008 Lambeth Conference of bishops.

In addition, the theological and liturgical principles for evaluating rites for blessing same-gender relationships that the SCLM developed for its C056 work were turned into a survey to which Anglican Communion bishops were asked to respond, either electronically or on paper or during conversation with commission members or other bishops.

In August, Meyers and Ely spent a half day in Canterbury, England, presenting the commission's work to that point to the International Anglican Liturgical Consultation.  The communiqué from the IALC meeting noted that the two SCLM members "hear[d] from IALC members in response to that province’s [the Episcopal Church's] exploratory theological rationale and liturgical principles for the development of rites for the blessing of committed same-gender relationships."

Much of the SCLM's work on C056 has been funded in a unique way. In July 2010, Church Divinity School of the Pacific was awarded a $404,000 grant by the Arcus Foundation to support the work. Through a contract with the Episcopal Church, the grant made it possible for the Berkeley, California-based school to help facilitate the commission's work. Meyers is the CDSP Hodges-Haynes Professor of Liturgics and the Rev. Louis Weil, Hodges-Haynes Professor Emeritus, is a SCLM member.

In July 2011, CDSP received an additional $90,000 from the Arcus Foundation and a $75,000 grant from the E. Rhodes and Leona B.
Carpenter Foundation to support the completion of the C056 work.

-- The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is national correspondent for the Episcopal News Service.

Comments

[Rev. Paul Hartt]

I thought that it might be of value to know what a well-known progressive Bishop next door to Bishop Lawrence has to say in a recent editorial. See the editorial by Bishop W. Andrew Waldo of the diocese of Upper South Carolina in the Charleston Post and Courier: http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2011/oct/22/22waldo/

[John White]

I have no doubt that Rev. Hartt sees the bishop of South Carolina as a defender of the faith against forces of modernism. But his argument is specious in that it sets up a false dichotomy. Bishop Lawrence has nullified the C&C of The Episcopal Church in his diocese. He refuses to receive the Presiding Bishop. He makes no reference to Episcopal on his official website. This is prima facia evidence of abandonment of the Church authority he has sworn to uphold. As someone who has read Spong, I had many criticisms. But his intellectual arguments are designed to suggest a framework of faith for those who find “orthodox” faith problematic. And there are very real differences between intellectual constructs and concrete, destructive action. Shall we subject the purveyors of ideas to an orthodox Inquisition while elevating as defenders of the faith those who reject duly constituted Church authority? This would be an ironic double standard, indeed.

[John White]

Canon Brown knows that I gave no assurances. Indeed, my point was the opposite, a clear caution to the bishop and the diocese. Once a diocese nullifies the constitution and canons of The Episcopal Church (which no one can deny has happened in the Diocese of South Carolina), an impaired communion clearly exists. As long as the Bishop of Albany honors his stated intention not to leave The Episcopal Church, no charges can, or will, be made. But it is the conservative, neo-Anglican element in the diocese which poses a challenge to the bishop's position. If they succeed in pushing the bishop in the direction of South Carolina, then it will not be the progressives of the diocese or the national Church that will have to raise the issue of abandonment. Let's see how far Albany is prepared to go in imitation of South Carolina. Actions speak louder than words.

[Rev. Paul Hartt]

Is it really not evident to everyone that we have some kind of double standard at play? Bishop Spong can abandoned the Faith for three decades without ten minutes of attention from any disciplinary body of this Church.

But no one in authority seems to care about abandoning the actual Faith of the Church. No Title IV actions there. No, what is at issue is only complete control under any pretext whatsoever over any strong traditionalist voice pointing out the obvious fact of the genuine abandonment.

[Christopher Brown+]

The Diocese of South Carolina has not abandoned the "faith and discipline" of the Episcopal Church. I have visited Charleston many times over the past 20 years, and it has been obvious to me that South Carolina is one of the healthiest and most vibrant dioceses in the Episcopal Church.

So far as the charges against Bishop Lawrence are concerned, the current investigation is in its early stages and it is hardly clear how it will turn out. Mark Harris of Preludium (one of sharpest and most reasonable progressive voices on the web) has expressed skepticism about the charge of "abandonment of Communion." He makes the key point, "Abandonment, if it is to have much meaning, needs to be reserved for, well, abandonment."

Father Harris does wonder if Bishop Lawrence has displayed a level of "defiance" that is "unbecoming [of] a clergy person" (and I don't believe he has), but his point regarding the charge of "abandonment" still stands.

And I welcome John's assurance that AVM is not planning to accuse Bishop Love of abandoning the faith and discipline of the Episcopal Church.

[John White]

Canon Brown is unafraid of jumping to extreme conclusions. The trouble is, he is looking at consequences through the wrong end of the spyglass. He is right that The Episcopal Church is not likely to go after the Diocese of Albany. Neither are the progressives among us about jeopardize our position in TEC. After all, it is our church. As TEC continues its trajectory toward radical inclusiveness, Bishop Love has more to fear from the influence of conservative rejectionists, who will push him further toward the position of South Carolina. In that unfortunate diocese it is not the progressives who brought about division, but their bishop, who freely and intentionally has abandoned the “faith and discipline” of The Episcopal Church. It is the progressives who most fear and have the most to lose from such a course. It is the conservative element that is most influential with Bishop Love who are most likely to bring about the fearful future that Dr. Brown envisions.

[William F. Hammond]

The SCLM proposal to continue with "generous pastoral response" indicates clearly, I think, that use of the trial liturgy would not be required. I think it unlikely that General Convention would attempt to require same-sex unions in the forseeable future before a preponderant majority of the states have acted to permit the same civilly.

Meanwhile there is the call for the Church to spend a while reflecting on its understanding of marriage in the light of changes in societal norms and civil laws. If "norms" is understood in the statistical sense, such changes in societal norms since World War II might be seen to include dramatic increases in the incidence of (1) mothers who work outside the home, (2) divorce, and (3) teenage sexual activity.

[Ann Gaillard]

I would hate to see in this diocese the kind of litigious actions taken in South Carolina. I agree with Fr. Brown that such actions would be destructive on many fronts. But when will the diocese begin to be willing to have constructive dialogue with the moderate/progressive minority? Ultimately, ignoring the minority is just as destructive as litigation. Quite simply, progressives will A) stop giving to the diocese; or B) leave the Episcopal Church in this diocese, and either leave church completely or seek other faith communities, like the ELCA.

[Christopher Brown]

Dave DiSisto asks an interesting question. I think we can be certain that General Convention will continue to move forward. What will happen if we reach the point that diocesan canons conflict with national canons? I don’t see Bishop Love backing down. Will he and others be charged with “Abandonment of Communion” for not conforming to the faith and discipline of the Episcopal Church?

My sense is that folks from the national church are more likely to let things stand with the Diocese of Albany than progressives from within the diocese – if only because local progressives live daily with the diocese of Albany and are unhappy with the current situation. One could easily imagine a situation similar to the current litigation against Bishop Mark Lawrence by South Carolina progressives.

Forcing the issue, or attempting to depose members of the diocese, would be destructive. I don’t think there would be any winners. If there were a split, progressives would undoubtedly get the properties, but lose most of the clergy, and probably a majority of the laity. Many parishes would close, most would be hurt. Finances would be tenuous, to say the least, and decline inevitable.

Is this what we want?

[Dave DiSisto]

I received it today also. I've been wondering what impact it will have on our diocese and its canon 6.1 and 6.2. I'm pleased with TEC moving this forward. What is the consensus on how it will play out at the General Convention in 2012? I'm hoping to see some conversation on this once it gets published on the Episcopal News Service website. I'm also going to re-post this blog on my Facebook page.