Let's keep rowing: Reflections on the meeting of the House of Bishops

“Were you able to come up with a solution during your meeting in New Orleans ?” That question has been asked of me more than once since I returned to Miami from the House of Bishops' meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury and representatives of the Anglican Consultative Council from around the world.

Being asked if we are close to a definite solution reminded me of a Cuban joke in which a young boy keeps nagging his father on their trip to Miami . The little boy keeps asking over and over, as children do on long trips, “Are we there yet? How much longer before we arrive in Miami ?” The exasperated father tries to ignore the little boy, but after a while he turns to the boy and says, “Shut up, and keep rowing.”

Indeed, we are not “there” yet, and as we continue to work toward a solution to the disagreements within the Anglican Communion, we are going to need to “keep rowing” hard to reach an understanding that takes into consideration our Constitution and Canons. The statement of the mind of the House of Bishops that you can read in this issue of The Net is a product of long meetings that included intense discussions among nearly 200 bishops of the Episcopal Church with widely differing points of view, and I believe it provides us a way to move forward.

I believe that our present discussion is much more about ecclesiology than about sexuality. The Episcopal Church in the United States was formed not as a remnant of the British Empire, but as a church founded in spite of its Mother Church and as a consequence of the American Revolution in the 18 th Century. Our form of government differs from that of the other members of the Anglican Communion, and as I hope you remember from your confirmation classes, our decision-making process is not exclusive to the bishops, but also includes the other clergy and the laity. The General Convention of the Episcopal Church is paramount in our governance, and unlike other Provinces where bishops are regarded as close to Almighty God in authority, we are committed to a democratic and inclusive form of government for our church.

A central charism of our church is that we all can be different--and differ widely from each other in opinion and practice--but always we are able to find our union in the Eucharist. Our history shows us our ability to remain united in the midst of controversies like slavery, discrimination and racism, birth control, remarriage of divorced persons, Prayer Book revisions and women's ordination.

During my episcopacy I have invited all in our diocese to minimize destructive rhetoric and to continue in our common discernment of our Lord's will for our Church's mission. No one can find the truth alone or just by hanging around with those who happen to be in agreement. We must continue listening to one another and working together in the service of a common God. Yes, we do need to achieve more clarity in our understanding of what Jesus is calling us to do, but for that we must keep rowing—and in fact we may often have to heed exactly the words of the father in my story: “Shut up, and keep rowing.”

I say this because some insist on saying that the sky is falling and that nothing we do will satisfy the rest of the Anglican Communion. I say to them that they are wrong and that we will continue united regardless our differences.

A case in point is the issue of women's ordination, which our Episcopal Church approved in 1976, and which was later approved by other provinces like Canada , England , Wales , Ireland , the West Indies, Australia , New Zealand , Brazil , Central America , Mexico and some African provinces, like South Africa under the leadership of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Regardless of these approvals, women priests from any of these Anglican Provinces are not allowed to celebrate the Eucharist in Nigeria and some other African provinces or in the Middle East or the Latin countries that form the Province of the Southern Cone. So we still have divisions in the Anglican Communion in our understanding of the role of women in the church, but in spite of that, the issues that unite us are many more than those that divide us.

Next July the 2008 Lambeth Conference will take place. As they have every ten years since the 19 th century, bishops from all around the world will gather at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury. I have received my invitation and look forward to meeting with my sister and brother bishops from around the world and continuing our deliberations about the many issues that affect the world and the church. We enrich each other by praying and working together to strengthen our mission. We must remember that we are not alone on this planet, and that we must be in touch with and learn from each other. We will continue searching for clarity to know how to proceed toward finding the proper balance between our fidelity to justice and our fidelity to the process of common discernment.

In the meantime, we must continue praying for the unity our Lord Christ wishes for his Church. We must continue respecting and caring for each other. Let's keep rowing toward our destination of liberty and justice, of being a church in which we are faithful to what God requires of us: “To do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with our God.”

+Leo Frade