About the Windsor Report

As many of you know, Canterbury has issued a document called 'The Windsor Report,' which has addressed the "goings-on" in the Anglican Communion. The report itself may be accessed on line through our diocesan web site, www.edwm.org/lambeth.

Before addressing the mechanism set up for the bishops of the Episcopal Church, U.S.A. to receive and comment on the document, it is important to know what the Archbishop of Canterbury was asking for in setting up a Commission to report to him.

The Commission, dubbed The Lambeth Commission, received a mandate from Rowen Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, to investigate the legal and theological ramifications of the Episcopal Church electing and consecrating a bishop living in a committed same sex relationship, and the action of the Diocese of New Westminster, Canada, to authorize services for same sex unions. In addition, the Commission made recommendations on ways of maintaining the highest degree of communion possible in the circumstances resulting from the decisions mentioned in the previous sentence.

While the charge to the Commission was broader than what I have mentioned above, the decisions of our Church and
of the Diocese of New Westminster, and the way Anglicans are to be in relationship with one another are of particular interest to all of the Anglican Communion.

As I am out in the parishes of Western Michigan for visitations and meetings, I am asked why there have been no statements about the Windsor Report from my office? There have been no formal statements from me because the House of Bishops agreed on a procedure at our meeting last September, prior to the release of the Report.

The procedure involves two meetings for the bishops of our Church. The first of those meetings is the gathering of bishops in their Provinces. Our Province meeting of bishops is scheduled for the end of November. At that time discussion on the Report will take place to prepare us for the second meeting. The second meeting will be of the entire House of Bishops and will take place in January. At the January meeting we will issue a statement about how we receive the report and the implications the report will have for the Church in America and our relationship with the world wide Anglican Communion.

Following the January statement from the House of Bishops, the Diocese of Western Michigan will begin a study of the Report so that Episcopalians here will have an opportunity to know its content and to discuss who we are as Episcopalians and who we are as members of the Anglican Communion. While the strategy for studying the Report has not yet crystallized, look for study groups to begin to emerge in parishes as we move into the Spring of 2005.

The events which precipitated the Windsor Report, including bishops crossing geographical boundaries, have given us an opportunity to examine carefully who we are, what we stand for, and what it means to be in relationship with our sisters and brothers who call themselves Anglicans the world over. I am looking forward to this process of defining and identity-claiming as we seek to grow into all that God created us to be.

May the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing through the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)