Daily Encompass on A161

Resolution A161 promises to be one of the key responses to the Windsor Report . . . if the General Convention can agree on how to word the resolution. After hours of debating and word-smithing and six days into the convention, the Special Committee tasked a subcommittee to combine resolutions A161 and A162 to streamline the approval process.

If responses to the resolution so far are any indication, it may be extremely difficult to come up with a resolution that can gain approval in the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies. Speaking of the resolution as it stands, the Rev. Dr. Kendall Harmon, Canon Theologian of the Diocese of South Carolina, said, “It has all the earmarks of a resolution that was driven by consensus. It’s an attempt to solve a huge crisis by committee which is a very difficult if not a losing proposition.”

The resolution begins with a shaky start when it states “we are obliged to urge . . . to refrain. . .” As direct as the American branch of Anglicanism has shown itself to be in its unilateral actions, it is disturbing to see the lack of conviction, accountability, and enforcement implied by this statement. The Windsor Report asked for a moratorium, and the phrase “we won’t” would suffice for compliance.

The “manner of life” that presents a challenge to the communion should also be explicitly stated. The Windsor Report specifically asked for a moratorium on the consecration of bishops living in same-gender unions. This General Convention has had no problem inserting language relating to individuals’ sexual identity and behavior into numerous resolutions, and it could certainly do so in its response to the Windsor Report.

The second and third resolves, taken together, read almost like the Department of Defense’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. The resolution addresses the development and authorization of rites of same-sex blessings, although the issue has always been the practice of same-sex blessings. The third resolve provides a clever loophole by allowing for a breadth of pastoral responses, public or private – a clause that will undoubtedly be used to justify blessing of same-sex unions in parishes and dioceses. The inclusion of the phrase “at this time” might cause one to ask the same question posed by the Rt. Rev. James M. Stanton, Bishop of Dallas: “How about an hour after this resolution passes?”

The fourth resolve is interesting for its very direct apology to the gay and lesbian community and their supporters. ECUSA would do well to express the same level of heartfelt regret to its brothers and sisters in the Anglican Communion.
Without an appropriate expression of regret to the Anglican Communion for the actions taken and enforceable moratoria on consecrations and the practice of same-sex blessings, the Episcopal Church will have rejected Windsor and chosen to walk apart.