Communion
Partner bishops urge support of Anglican Covenant
Seven bishops who met with the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace on Sept. 1 have issued a statement urging widespread support for the Anglican Communion Covenant, which is still in draft form.
The statement came from Bishops Mark J. Lawrence (South Carolina), Gary R. Lillibridge (West Texas), Edward S. Little, II (Northern Indiana), William H. Love (Albany), D. Bruce MacPherson (Western Louisiana), Michael G. Smith (North Dakota) and James M. Stanton (Dallas).
The statement was released Sept. 7 by Bishop MacPherson.
The seven bishops, who all belong to Communion Partners, asked "bishops, priests, deacons and laypersons of The Episcopal Church who support the adoption of the Anglican Communion Covenant to record such endorsement on the Communion Partners' website."
The bishops also expressed their hope that General Convention will approve the covenant in 2012.
"We encourage dioceses and congregations to study and endorse the Anglican Communion Covenant when it is finally released and to urge its adoption by General Convention, or to endorse the first three sections of the Ridley Cambridge Draft and the Anaheim Statement, and to record such endorsements on the Communion Partners website," they wrote.
The statement defied speculation among critics of the Communion Partners bishops that the bishops intend to remove their dioceses from The Episcopal Church. The bishops reaffirmed their commitment to "remain constituent members of both the Anglican Communion and The Episcopal Church."
Citing General Convention Resolution B030, which Bishop Smith proposed and which the convention referred to Executive Council, the bishops encouraged "companion domestic mission relationships among dioceses and congregations within The Episcopal Church."
Resolution B030 proposed linking such cooperative ventures to the Domestic Missionary Partnership. The DMP represents 13 smaller dioceses, including that of Bishop Smith, and it invites support from other dioceses.
The statement followed open speculation by Albany Via Media on whether Bishop Love is attempting to lead his diocese out of The Episcopal Church.
"They been looking for [a] way to break from the Episcopal Church and take the property with them," said Albany Via Media's president, Clair Touby of Saranac Lake, N.Y., in an interview with the Albany Times Union.
The dioceses of Bishops
Lawrence, Love and Stanton were affiliated with the Anglican Communion Network.
The bishops and the dioceses declined to follow the Anglican Communion Network's
leadership out of The Episcopal Church.
—From the Web site of The Living Church.
