Bishop Beisner's reflection on the House of Bishop's meeting

Reflection on the House of Bishops from Bishop Barry Beisner

26 March 2007

Dear Friends in Christ:

I was very happy to return to the Diocese last Friday afternoon from my first House of Bishops meeting. As I said to you at the end of February, in anticipation of that meeting, I saw the House as an organization in search of itself, given the enormous changes in its membership and leadership, and the equally enormous pressure of finding its way forward through the current crisis in the Anglican Communion.

Much of our attention was focused on the Millennium Development Goals, which we in Northern California discussed and made commitment to last November in Diocesan Convention. Several other reports were received and discussed, including the state of human need and the Church’s continuing response and rebuilding efforts in the region devastated by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the challenges facing our military people and their families upon returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, global Anglican initiatives on theological education and the interpretation of Scripture, and the state of current efforts to remove congregations and alienate property from the Episcopal Church, to name some of the more urgently important ones. Of course, the reports which took most of our time, and (sadly) probably the only ones most people have been paying attention to, were the reports on the draft Anglican Covenant and the Primates’ Communiqué.

I trust that by now you have had a chance to review carefully the three resolutions and—more importantly—the summary statement of the Bishops entitled a “Message to God’s People.” I had them sent to you immediately, because of my concern that our discussions and decisions in our diocesan family be well-informed. I hope and expect that those conversations will be as wonderfully open and honest, and filled with baptismal regard for one another, as was the work of the Bishops. I am thinking not only of the conversations which will be taking place between us in the usual gatherings (like Deanery Clericus), but also of some extraordinary gatherings which are tentatively being planned to help us explore the proposed Covenant.

As you are aware, in spite of our Presiding Bishop’s expectation that no decisions would be made at this meeting, the overwhelming majority of us felt that part of the Communiqué needed immediate attention, if our commitment to go forward in the Covenant process and remain fully engaged in the Anglican Communion was to be taken seriously. Quite simply, we felt that the Communiqué’s “Pastoral Scheme,” with its creation of a “Pastoral Council” that would form immediately (the deadline for our Presiding Bishop to make her appointment to the Council, we learned, was actually a week prior to the start of our meeting), and exercise real power in the life of our Church, was a problem. I shared the majority’s concerns about the need to address the constitutional and canonical implications of this matter more fully—we had been told, after all, that we had until September 30; I also shared the majority concern that an inadvertent shift in power to one of the four “Instruments of Unity” at this time might have the unfortunate effect of derailing the Covenant process. In addition, for the sake of clarity, I want you to know that I joined in the effort to refer the resolution entitled “A Statement to the Church” to the Bishops’ Theology Committee, because I thought it basically sound but needed more work; that failing (by a vote of 61-53), having participated in efforts at amendment, I voted in favor. I also joined in expressing the fervent desire of all the Bishops to meet directly with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Primates Standing Committee. I am still guided by the Windsor Report, and I am sincerely committed, along with the rest of the Bishops, to being fully engaged in doing the work of strengthening the Anglican Communion and our place in it.

Let me emphasize that point: in spite of what you may have read in the secular press (or the many even-more-out-of-touch-with-our-reality religious bloggers), we did not act to reject an “ultimatum” from the Primates. It is a serious distortion to think of the Communiqué in such terms. Some of the Primates see it that way, no doubt; but many (including the two who were with us) do not, and the House of Bishops commendably refused merely to be reactive, but is seeking to be positively responsive and to stay fully engaged. We are committed to a process which will take time, and require great patience, trust, and a willingness to resist the temptations to catastrophize the situation, or to grasp at simple, technical solutions to complex problems, or to indulge in black/white thinking—something not really very true to Anglicanism . I believe that the way in which the Bishops worked together last week can serve as a model for us all.

When I returned home, it was immediately to become immersed in the Province VIII conference on stewardship and evangelism then underway in Sacramento. The title of that conference was “Life Transformed by Water and the Spirit.” My hope is that we can be more truly focused on God’s transforming work among us in the Diocese of Northern California, and in the Anglican Communion, to which we belong. I am happy to be able to report that I have experienced it in the House of Bishops. I am grateful for you prayers, which truly helped to make it so.

Yours in Christ,
+Barry