Communion Partners Communiqué (Epiphanytide 2021)

“I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father” (John 15:15).

We, Communion Partner leaders from the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada, gathered virtually by video conference from January 11-15, to take counsel together. The form of our meeting underscores the significance of the global health crisis our world is suffering. We are mindful of the social and political unrest that has marked this past year, in so many places, and held these concerns in our prayers. Upwards of forty persons, bishops, clergy, and laity, from twenty-five dioceses of the global Anglican Communion participated in our gathering. We give thanks to God for the opportunity to be together in these challenging times.

During our meeting we focused our attention on the summer of 2022, during which three significant events in the life of our churches are now scheduled. The Lambeth Conference will be held, gathering bishops from around the Anglican Communion to take common counsel together. The two-year delay of the conference due to the pandemic creates additional opportunities for networking by Communion Partners across the Communion. The General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada will also take place in 2022, as will the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. Our conversation was guided by the process of preparation for these events.

Within the Episcopal Church, we discussed the work of the Task Force on Communion Across Difference, commissioned by the 2018 General Convention. The Task Force was charged with finding a lasting path forward for mutual flourishing for all parties, following canonical changes in 2015 allowing for same-sex marriage in the Episcopal Church. Within the Anglican Church of Canada, we also discussed the Legal Opinion, requested by the Anglican Communion Alliance from noted canon lawyers, on the status of recent decisions that permit dioceses to ignore the Marriage Canon which remained unchanged at General Synod 2019.

In both churches, more work needs to be done to secure the “the indispensable place that the minority who hold to this Church’s historic teaching on marriage have in our common life, whose witness the Church needs” (from TEC General Convention Resolution 2018-A227). An indispensable place requires robust structures, and an accompanying ecclesiology that will support them. We seek a sustainable settlement for those who hold the church’s traditional teaching on marriage.

We were briefed on and discussed Living in Love and Faith, a suite of resources commissioned by the bishops of the Church of England around issues of identity, sexuality, relationships, and marriage. The resource is intended to guide conversations in the Church of England around these issues in the next period of its life. We were joined by colleagues in the Church of England for this portion of our meeting, as well as across the week.

Leaders from the Global South joined us for part of our meeting, briefing us on the 2019 document, A Proposal on The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches Structure. The presence of colleagues from this part of the Communion was a great blessing. We were encouraged to hear that the Global South Fellowship of Churches continues to extend “the right hand of fellowship” (Gal. 2:9) to Communion Partners. This is a time of transition, and formation of structures, within the Global South, aimed at the continued renewal of the Anglican Communion in evangelism, discipleship, and mission. We heard clearly that our focus must be outward, not inward. We were encouraged to see Communion Partners as participants in this process of renewal.

We heard from clergy from across both churches about the particular challenges facing them in parish ministry. Participants spoke of their need for connection with other Communion Partners, especially in situations where clergy and parishes are isolated within dioceses in their witness to the church’s historic teaching on marriage. Communion Partners has a role to play in knitting together the fabric of our churches.

The theme of friendship, from the Gospel of John, gradually emerged in our conversation over the course of the week. Participants spoke of the connection between a theology of friendship, and the idea of mutual flourishing within the church. Differences on important matters in the church need not require division. In the midst of crucial differences within our churches, we seek to walk together with other friends, even if walking at a distance. Jesus calls us friends, and this points toward an ecclesiology of friendship, binding us together in communion with others, even when we are not in agreement.

Prayers continue for the Diocese of Albany in the Episcopal Church, after the conclusion of the disciplinary process against its bishop, our colleague, the Rt. Rev’d William Love, for whom we also pray. We noted flaws in the judgment rendered by the Hearing Panel, even as Bishop Love concludes his own ministry in Albany. We continue to take issue with the perceived arbitrary nature of disciplinary actions such as these, which extends latitude to some in the enforcement of canons, but not to others. This double standard, which allows majorities to act with impunity, is capricious in nature, and undermines the church’s authority.

We took note of the Radical Vocations Conference (RadVo), now scheduled for September 23-25, 2021, at the Church of the Incarnation, Dallas. The Conference, featuring the Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, N.T. Wright, Fleming Rutledge, James K.A. Smith and others, will gather young adults discerning a call to the ordained ministry. The event, sponsored by Communion Partners and others, aims at the raising up of a new generation of leaders, a matter of critical concern to both the Anglican Church of Canada and the Episcopal Church.

There is much to be done in the time that remains before the summer of 2022. We ask your continued prayers for all of us in the work that lies ahead. May God inspire us with the Holy Spirit as we seek to respond to Jesus’ call to us as his friends, and to live fully into the calling.

Communion Partners Steering Committee:

The Rt. Rev. Michael Smith, Chair
Diocese of Dallas

The Rt. Rev. Greg Brewer
Diocese of Central Florida

The Rt. Rev. Michael Hawkins
Diocese of Saskatchewan

Ms. Sharon Dewey Hetke
Diocese of Ontario

The Rt. Rev. Annie Ittoshat
Diocese of the Arctic

The Rev. Fariborz Khandani
Diocese of Athabasca

The Rev. Jackie Ruiz
Diocese of Honduras

The Rev. Leigh Spruill
Diocese of Texas

Dr. Christopher Wells
Diocese of Dallas