"Presiding Bishop: ACC Presentation will Invite Dialogue"

[The Living Church] May 23, 2005--Members of the Episcopal Church’s theology delegation to the Anglican Consultative Council hearing on homosexuality next month joined Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold May 20 at the Episcopal Church Center in New York City for a strategy session.

Writing to the national Executive Council on May 18, Bishop Griswold invited the Rt. Rev. J. Neil Alexander, Bishop of Atlanta; the Rev. Michael Battle, associate dean for academic affairs and vice-president of Virginia Theological Seminary; the Rt. Rev. Charles Jenkins, Bishop of Louisiana; the Rt. Rev. Catherine Roskam, Bishop Suffragan of New York; the Rev. Susan Russell, president of Integrity; and Jane Tully of C-FLAG to "organize our thoughts and determine how best to express them in ways that will have the greatest chance of being heard and understood as fellow members of Christ’s risen body."

The Episcopal Church’s presentation will "fall into three sections," the Presiding Bishop noted. The seven-member team will address issues "scriptural and theological; the reality of homosexuality in the life and experience of faithful persons and families; and a witness to the fact that divergent points of view on issues of sexuality need not be church dividing, and that those who stand in different places can make common cause together in the service of Christ’s mission."

While the Anglican Consultative Council will "pay for three persons to represent us" in Nottingham, Bishop Griswold wrote, he added that "I feel that we are best served by sending six, in addition to myself, and I have every confidence that these six persons will represent the Episcopal Church with faithfulness and grace."

The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada will each have an hour and a half to respond to the primates’ Feb. 24 communiqué. "This will include time for queries, clarifications and conversation with the members of ACC, as our presentation needs to be put forward in a gracious and open-ended way that invites dialogue and conversation," Bishop Griswold wrote.

The host for the opening service will be the rector of St. Peter’s, the Rev. Canon Andrew Deuchar, who served as Archbishop George Carey’s secretary for Anglican Communion affairs.

The host for the opening service will be the rector of St. Peter’s, the Rev. Canon Andrew Deuchar, who served as Archbishop George Carey’s secretary for Anglican Communion affairs.