We write you to encourage you to remain steadfast in your support of the
consecration of Gene Robinson as Bishop-coadjutor of New Hampshire on November
2, 2003. We know that this is not an easy time for you or for the church.
We are profoundly grateful for your witness that our faith and this church
are stronger than our fears or the threats of division. Although your actions
and statements have given us much reason for thanks and no especial cause
for concern, we are aware that many will counsel distancing yourself from
the consecration or working to see that it does not take place.
It is clear to us that no crisis in this church or in the wider Communion
will be averted if Canon Robinson's consecration is delayed or canceled.
Issues concerning the inclusion of homosexual persons in the life of the
church and of the validity of their ministries in it, as well as larger issues
of human sexuality, scriptural authority, and ECUSA and Anglican polity,
will not be settled for a very long time.
Judging from what we have seen, particularly in Pittsburgh and Dallas, the
vocal minority in our church that has seized upon this consecration as a
cause célèbre will go forward with its schismatic plans whether
or not Canon Robinson is consecrated bishop. In fact, this group will be
much encouraged to even greater mischief by any “victory” handed to it.
The long-term view is perhaps even more worrisome. The increased responsibilities
that some of your Primate colleagues are seeking to claim for themselves
threaten to make fundamental changes in the collegial nature of the Communion
and will surely interfere with longstanding democratic traditions within
the ECUSA. We believe that this movement should be halted and reversed, and
that the ECUSA should take no actions, such as diminishing in any way its
support of New Hampshire’s prayerful choice of its next bishop, that would
encourage those who seek to make this fundamental and destructive change.
It is vital to the work of the Communion that each province be able to witness
to its respective society in the most effective and pastoral manner open
to it. As much as we value the unity of the Anglican Communion, we value
more the cause of Jesus Christ. To stop or delay the consecration of the
next bishop of New Hampshire can only encourage forces that threaten the
Episcopal Church, USA, from within and without, and that would diminish its
unique and faithful witness to Christ to the world.
Our prayers are with you in these difficult times.
Faithfully,
Lionel E. Deimel
Susan Boulden
Co-conveners, Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh
