Surprise!

Late today word came from Camp Allen in Navasota, Texas, that the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church passed three resolutions in response to the Primate's February Communique. All three express the desire of the Episcopal Church to remain a part of the Anglican Communion, and can be summarized this way:

1. The House of Bishops believes that the "pastoral oversight" proposal "would be injurious to the Episcopal Church.
2. The House of Bishops requests a meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury and members of the Primates' Steering Committee at their earliest convenience.
3. The House of Bishops presents their first in-depth response to the Primates' Communique.

In addition, the House's briefing officer for the day, the Rt. Rev. Catherine Roskam, Suffragan Bishop of New York, said, "While this was not dealt with by resolution, great concern was expressed about human rights violations for gay and lesbians, particularly in Nigeria, and the need for us as Anglicans and Christians to advocate against it."

Many conservatives are stunned and shocked, like Randall Foster of Texaglican. Many are already penning nasty responses, which can be sampled over at the Stand Firm web site or Brad Drell's Drell's Descants.

The liberals and moderates are also stunned. Richard writes that he is "speechless" in his latest blog post at Caught by the Light. Many, like Mark Harris on his Preludium blog and Jim Naughton on his daily episcopalian, have posted preliminary comments and promised a more in depth analysis later. Comments posted at these blogs so far have tended to express surprise and hope without aiming barbs at the conservatives.

In my opinion, this represents a very hopeful development for the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. In response to the Primates' continued attempts to invest most or all of the power of the Anglican Communion in themselves, and to their February ultimatum, the majority of our bishops have said, "No!" They point out that these developments are distinctly un-Anglican, and they may finally be calling the so-called Global South Primates to account.

We shall see what transpires over the next days and weeks. So far the Archbishop of Canterbury has shown himself unwilling to meet with the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church--the Rt. Rev. Paul Marshall, Bishop of the Diocese of Bethlehem, even goes so far as to call it shunning in his If the Pope can go to Turkey, Can the ABC go to Texas? If Rowan Williams truly wants to hold the Anglican Communion together, then he must accept the House of Bishops' invitation, as must the members of the Primates' Steering Committee. Otherwise, they will show by their actions that conformity is more important than honest relationships in the Anglican Communion.

Peace,
Jeffri