President of the House of Deputies issues statement after meeting with Council of Advice

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_92523_ENG_HTM.htm

[Episcopal Life Online] 11 Dec 2007--In a statement issued after the December 3-5 meeting of the President of the House of Deputies Council of Advice, President Bonnie Anderson said she and Council members "spent a considerable amount of time discussing how the wider church can support those Episcopalians who want to remain in the church when and if their bishops attempt to lead their dioceses out of the Episcopal Church."

Anderson said the Council also discussed how the Episcopal Church "can best create the safest space possible for the largest number of Episcopalians" to remain in the church.

"I have learned during my travels throughout our church that there are Episcopalians in every one of those disaffected dioceses who need our prayers and our support," Anderson said in her statement. "I was very moved by the conversations I have had this year with such Episcopalians in the dioceses of Fort Worth, Pittsburgh and San Joaquin."

The Council, composed of 15 persons, is appointed each triennium by the president of the House of Deputies under the authority of Title I, Canon 1.1(b) and gives the president, upon her request, consultation and advice.

The text of Anderson's statement, issued after the meeting at the Robert Treat Hotel in Newark, New Jersey, follows.

"Safe space" for whom?!