Worries over Episcopal Church unfounded, bishop says

Providence Journal
December 11, 2004

BY RICHARD C. DUJARDIN
Journal Religion Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Traditionalist Episcopalians seeking to create a network to keep them connected with the worldwide Anglican Communion are wasting their time, says a bishop who helped to draft a major report on Anglican unity.

Those Episcopalians need not worry, said Episcopal Bishop Mark Dyer, because the U.S. Episcopal Church will "never" be thrown out of the Communion.

The bishop, who spoke to Rhode Island's Episcopal clergy at a meeting this week at St. Martin Church, served on the 17-member Lambeth Commission that was created by the Archbishop of Canterbury to recommend ways of holding the Anglican Communion together in the wake of the U.S. Episcopal Church's decision to ordain an openly gay man as bishop of New Hampshire.
Though the final report, issued two months ago, stopped short of recommending the ouster of the U.S. church, it called on the church to express its "regret" that the bonds of affection within the Anglican Communion were breached by the action. It also urged a moratorium on future ordinations.

The report asked the 25 bishops who took part in the ordination of Bishop V. Gene Robinson to look into their consciences and consider withdrawing from any "representative functions" within the wider communion.

It also addressed the bishops abroad who, without consent, intervened and offered pastoral support to U.S. parishes at odds with their local bishops. The report called on them to apologize for violating the traditional Anglican practice of one bishop per jurisdiction.

The Anglican Communion Network, which held a convocation at the Rhode Island Convention Center two months ago, is one of the groups that had been anticipating that the U.S. Episcopal Church would be censured or thrown out, if not now, then in coming months. The missionary movement has drawn the support of several Rhode Island parishes and others around the country.

Bishop Dyer, who teaches at Virginia Theological Seminary, said those expectations are unfounded.

"[The U.S. Episcopal Church] won't be thrown out because no one has the canonical authority to do that," Bishop Dyer said. "Some will argue that the Archbishop of Canterbury can do that. But anyone who knows Archbishop Rowan Williams knows it will never happen."

Bishop Dyer, a former Roman Catholic and Benedictine priest, joined the Episcopal Church after the Vatican questioned some of his writings questioning papal authority. He is the retired bishop of Bethlehem, Pa.

In an interview after his talk to clergy, Bishop Dyer said he has no idea as to whether the wider Anglican Communion will ultimately approve the blessing of same-sex relationships or the elevation of active gays to the episcopate.

But he said he personally believes that the potential for schism between the United States and the rest of the Anglican Communion will be lessened after a meeting of the world's Anglican Primates next month, and by a meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in June.

"Anglicanism works best when problems are worked out face to face," he said.

Bishop Dyer observed that under the recommendations contained in the report, the U.S. Episcopal Church still needs to explain, if it can, the theological rationale for the action that it took in New Hampshire.

He said that one way in which Robinson's ordination differs from the decision in the 1970s by the Episcopal Church to ordain women priests is that, in the case of women priests, the Americans had consulted with other Anglican bodies, and kept the rest of the Anglican communion aware, even if the other provinces did not feel they could back women priests.

The problem with the Robinson ordination, Bishop Dyer said, was that the Episcopal Church held no such talks, and proceeded with the ordination after being warned by other Anglican Primates that it would be harmful to the unity of the Communion.

Bishop Dyer said the U.S. Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Frank Griswold, understood the implications. Before taking part in the consecration, the presiding bishop spoke with Pope John Paul II and with the cardinal in charge of ecumenism for the Roman Catholic Church, and so knew that by taking part in the ceremony he would have to resign as co-chairman of the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue, which he did.

Although the findings of the Commission were wrapped in secrecy until they were released, several newspapers in London were awash with false reports that it was going to recommend that the U.S. Episcopal Church be ejected.

Bishop Dyer said that on the eve of the report's issuance, the commission chairman, Archbishop Robin Eames of Armagh, met with members one more time and laughed: "If one of you leaked that, you're a darn good liar, aren't you."