Bishop Walker’s Response to the Primates’ Communiqué

Diocese of Long Island:
  Response to Anglican Primates' Communiqué

Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ says:
“The first commandment is this: Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is the only Lord. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.”

These words which begin our Eucharist, this Collect for Purity, is a test given to us on how we fulfill the Law and the Prophets.  Just this past week, a good friend, Marian Wright Edelman, addressing the Ecumenical Advocacy Days spoke words to that assembly which echo this purification which we seek:  “Each child is God's own beloved…How we treat each child is how we treat God…God didn't make different classes of children…”  Though Marian is speaking about young children, I believe her words speak clearly as to my concerns about the communiqué and the whole tone of discussion that has been going on in the Anglican Communion regarding some of God's children.

Our baptismal covenant makes it quite clear that each and every one of us is God's own beloved, and how we treat each other is a direct reflection on how we treat God.  Amongst this community of faith in the Anglican Communion it is clear there are no different classes of God's people.

One of my deepest concerns is that we talk about some of God's children and refuse to talk with those very children about their experience and encounter with the Divine Lover of Humankind.  Has my brother, Bishop Robinson of New Hampshire, actually been in deep dialogue with the Primates of the Communion?  Have my brothers and sisters who work so diligently as priests in my diocese been contacted by other Bishops of the so-called Windsor Compliant Bishops, or by the Primates, to learn more about how God in Jesus is working great deeds in their ministry and their lives?  I do not wish to presume that to be the case, but I dare say I would be shocked if that were true. 

For forty years, this part of the Communion has listened, studied, prayed, discerned and come to hear the voice of the Spirit. Much like Peter in the Book of Acts, we have been moved by the Spirit of God to include those whom others consider unclean – but God through baptism, has made each and every one of us beloved and clean. This is about Jesus' Lordship. This is about Jesus in the lives of our LGBT brothers and sisters; and who are we to declare them unclean for God has called them chosen and his beloved . Our part of the Communion, in prayer, discernment, after much study and listening, are like Philip, who in that same Scriptural Book leaps out of the chariot and incorporates one considered an abomination by the religious establishment and “seeing nothing stopping him from doing so,” baptized the Ethiopian eunuch.

Our part of the Communion, through our prayerful and deliberative process, the General Convention, agree with Peter in the Book of Acts: “And God, who knows the human heart, testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us; and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us. Now therefore why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of (these) disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear?  We believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will” (Acts 15:8-11). Jesus, in Matthew's Gospel, makes it abundantly clear:  “You have heard it said to those of ancient times…But I say to you…” (Matthew 5:21ff).

We need no other scripture but these to justify what we hear the Spirit saying to the Church.  “It has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us” to be a church that seeks the fullness of the gifts of the Body that all bring to the Holy Banqueting Table be you female/male; black/white/brown/yellow; straight/lbgt; young/old; or what ever label you wish to use. This is our gift to the worldwide Anglican Communion, and our brothers and sisters of the greater Communion are free to accept this gift or to refuse this gift.

But I cannot forget the conclusion to John the Beloved's Gospel. The words of the Collect for Purity and Marian Edelman echo these powerful words of the Master:  “Do you love me?”  “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.” “Then feed my sheep.”  How many times is the Lord going to keep asking us this question?

Some demand that we become “Windsor Compliant.” I cannot tell you how we were told numerous times during General Convention by the Secretary of the Anglican Communion and other members of the Windsor Commission, that the report was a part of a long process. It was a call to all parts of the Communion to listen and to explore ways of being in deeper communion when issues, such as the ordination of women, which is still a contested issue in some of these same Provinces and Dioceses even after 30+ years of a wonderful experience of this Divine gift to the Church, or human sexuality arise.  How can a report demand compliance?  How can a report make immediate demands on one part of the body that functions like no other in the Anglican Communion without doing violence to that body?  And in fact, I believe, we did respond in the best way that we could under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

The communiqué seems to ask us to ignore the reality of 200+ years of the Anglican Communion, which, by the way, we began with our little revolution of separation from England. We in The Episcopal Church cannot look askance at the reality of our polity. Whether the Primates like our tradition or not, the laity and clergy have been an integral part of our governance and must remain so. We must remind them that the skepticism of having Bishops making demands ignores the deeply ingrained reality of a country where no Bishop from the Mother Country would set foot for almost 200 years, and who refused to consecrate our first elected Bishop.

The very concept of the Primates making demands on this part of Christ's Body without making equal demands on other “offending” parts of the Body is a sham. How can the grievous ignoring of Church doctrine defined since Nicea pertaining to the integrity of diocesan boundaries be held as of a lesser value or concern? This is not just a matter of polity. It is a matter of recognized “catholic” doctrine, for it gives scandal to the people of God when ignored and blatantly flaunted or encouraged. It seems to me they need to be called to immediate compliance.

Lambeth 1998 1.10 is often cited as if it were a dogmatic statement of the Church. So, has our brother the Archbishop of Nigeria stopped his moves to criminalize the sheep of the Lord entrusted to him by Jesus who happen to be gay?  I saw no demand made of him, in this communiqué to do all in his power to stop this law, which he vocally and wholeheartedly supports, in compliance with the same resolution that he confronts us?  If Lambeth resolutions have such gravitas, why do we ignore those resolutions of 1978 and 1988 which, if the current view is to be accepted, demand that we also use the sciences of sociology and psychology, to understand the issues surrounding human sexuality?

It is my firm belief that the Primatial Vicar, as envisioned by the Primates, rapes our Church. It does indeed set up the very structure of an alternative Province, as the Primates envision it, and as some of our discontented brothers want and insist on. This is not of God as I read the scriptures, or our Constitution and Canons. 

I have been down this road of the full inclusion of my brothers and sisters because of my race. I have been down this road for the full inclusion of my sisters as we made the ordination of women a reality to all the ordained ministries.  I am now walking down this road again for the full inclusion of my brothers and sisters who are God's gay and lesbian children to share with us their God-given gifts for all of those same ordained ministries. We cannot go backwards, for we have heard the Spirit speaking to the Church. To go backward would be to say we have not acted under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and that would be to commit the greatest sin – to sin against the Spirit. Yes Dr. Edelman, you are correct.  How we treat each child of God is how we treat God.  How are we feeding the sheep Christ places in our charge?  Lord, you know I love you!

A healthy response requires that we are all treated with equal integrity, dignity, and respect. This communiqué does not do so, in my opinion. I only wish that my brother, Bishop Robinson was also invited to talk with the Primates at Dar-es-Salaam, along with my brothers from Pittsburgh and Western Louisiana. Gene you do have it right: “This is not about a gay agenda. This is about God's agenda. This is about Jesus' agenda.”  “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward…” (Matthew 10:40-41).

I close with the words of a wonderful mystic who also referred to Jesus as our Mother - Blessed Julian of Norwich:  “From the time these things were first revealed I had often wanted to know what our Lord's meaning was. It was more than fifteen years after that I was answered in my spirit's understanding. ‘You would know our Lord's meaning in this thing?  Know it well. LOVE was his meaning. Who showed it you? LOVE. What did he show you? LOVE. Why did he show you it? FOR LOVE. Hold on to this and you will know and understand love more and more.  But you will not know or learn anything else – ever!'”  ( Revelations of Divine Love )