Please come by to meet with us, to listen to the Lunchtime Speakers,
to have conversation on whatever is on your mind, and to learn about our work for Justice and Peace.
ISSUES Staff
THE CONSULTATION and
The Chicago Consultation:
Some of you may have been wondering about these
two very different organizations that have similar names.
THE CONSULTATION is a coalition of 13 diverse peace and social justice organizations, organized
following the General Convention of 1982. It seeks to work on a broad collection of issues that affect persons in the church
and in society. The Consultation also is the sponsor of ISSUES, a daily publication distributed at General Convention and
staffed by members of the various organizations represented. For a comprehensive overview of the member organizations and
the broad range of our concerns,, visit our website http://www.theconsultation.org. It contains our Platform of issues for
this 76th General Convention as has been developed for every General Convention since 1985.
One of the original members of The Consultation
is Integrity, and this organization is an important part of the leadership of the coalition. Its concern for issues affecting
GLBT individuals also is a major priority of The Consultation.
The Chicago Consultation, a group of Episcopal and Anglican bishops,
clergy and laity, has come into being more recently, following the 2006 General Convention and is more centrally focused on
the negative implications and consequences of Resolution B-033, passed at that General Convention, and the inclusion of all
the baptized in all the sacraments of the church, including ordination to all orders of ministry. Members of Integrity and
others associated with The Consultation have collaborated with the Chicago-based group to ensure positive outcome on GLBT
issues at this convention.
The opportunities to work for a just society are great and it is with the cooperation and the initiative of many
that all will succeed. Both organizations welcome your support.
Diane Pollard and Byron Rushing
Gifts of Integrity
As Integrity members, volunteers and well-wishers begin to arrive at Convention, we come with hopes and
dreams and, yes, gifts for the Church.
First, a prediction
– General Convention WILL move beyond B033 and WILL move forward on blessing equality.
Second, good news – while he is in Anaheim, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams will meet
with eight deputies “in a session that is intended in part to address lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)
issues in the church.” They represent a diverse variety of ministries.
Dialogue is always good. This is a remarkable opportunity
for Williams to see how the Holy Spirit is working in the lives, vocations and relationships of LGBT Episcopalians.
What’s
more, it’s a chance for him to begin to understand how that work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of LGBT Episcopalians
– and LGBT Anglicans around the world -- can help him do his job as an “instrument” in the Anglican Communion.
The Anglican
Communion includes the powerless as well as the powerful. Much energy has been spent dealing with powerful men in the Communion
who are opposed to any inclusion of LGBT Anglicans. Perhaps now some of that energy might be refocused on those faithful
LGBT Anglicans in many parts of our Communion who are at the mercy of powerful men in their nations’ Anglican churches.
LGBT Episcopalians
will – as they always have -- offer themselves, their stories, their prayers and their resources to Williams as well
as their commitment to taking the Good News from Anaheim out to a wider Communion that:
1. Differences do not have to lead to division
2. The truth will
set us all free.
LGBT Episcopalians and those who love them are NOT “the problem” facing our church. Indeed, we are part
of the solution and as such, we challenge the rest of the church to stand with us as in committing ourselves to unity in diversity
as we respect the dignity of every human being.
Katie Sherrod, Integrity
The Consultation
Platform for
Baptismal Ecclesiology
The Consultation Platform supports the resolution on baptismal ecclesiology, submitted by
Bishop Neil Alexander of Atlanta. A resolution calling for continued study of baptismal theology could seem relatively innocuous
to those detached from the current struggles for justice, order, and maintenance of traditional constitutional principles
in the Anglican Communion. In fact, that which is at stake forms the basis for the Episcopal Church’s position and goes
to the very heart of the reforms that have been taking shape in the Episcopal Church over the last two generations.
The Consultation
believes that the most accurate way to summarize the basis for the reform movement taking place in the church, and most specifically
in the North American Anglican Churches of Canada and the United States, is to say that the early church’s baptismal
theology has been rediscovered and is steadily, if all too gradually, being actualized in the life of the church. We believe
recovery of the early church’s baptismal ecclesiology is God’s will for our time and that it is an important part
of the special vocation of the Episcopal Church.
ISSUES will explain our position in a series of daily doses, and in each instance we are
urging your support for the resolution that will continue the work of the Baptismal Consultation, co-sponsored by Presiding
Bishop Katharine Jefferts-Shori and the Associated Parishes for Liturgy and Mission.
Joe Doss, APLM
