Episcopal News Service
Monday, July 31, 2006

Central Florida group pledges loyalty, seeks healing

By Mary Frances Schjonberg

[ENS] A nationwide alliance of Episcopal laity and clergy says that
recent efforts by seven dioceses to seek different alignments within
the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion have made those
dioceses “a stumbling-block to the faithful, and a millstone around
the church’s neck.”

Via Media USA, which aims to counter a campaign by some Episcopal
dioceses for what they term “alternative primatial oversight,” issued
the statement by email July 29 to what the group called “a Church in
Transition.”

Also on July 29, 135 Episcopalians met in the sanctuary of St.
Richard’s Episcopal Church in Winter Park, Florida, at a gathering
sponsored by Episcopal Voices of Central Florida, a Via Media USA
member. The group issued a statement which it invited people to read,
sign and circulate “among your parish friends and others opposed to
the actions of our diocesan leadership.”

The dioceses of Central Florida, Fort Worth (Texas), Pittsburgh,
Springfield (Illinois), San Joaquin (California) and South Carolina
have announced they are seeking “alternative primatial oversight.” The
Diocese of Dallas recently announced it had asked the Archbishop of
Canterbury for “direct primatial oversight.”

No diocesan convention has yet ratified these actions.

There are Via Media USA-affiliated groups in the dioceses of Albany
(two groups), Dallas, Fort Worth, Pittsburgh, Rhode Island, Rio
Grande, San Joaquin, South Carolina, Southwest Florida, Springfield
and Tennessee, as well as in Central Florida.

The Via Media USA statement says its members saw “hope and faith”
evident during the just-concluded General Convention, and in the
election of Nevada Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as the 26th
Presiding Bishop and Bonnie Anderson as president of the House of
Deputies.

“We are confident that General Convention’s actions, including the
dearly-bought resolutions related to the Windsor Report, will be
accepted in the spirit in which they were offered,” the statement
says. “They show the Episcopal Church reaching out with sincerity,
unity, and integrity to a world in need, and not least to its Anglican
Communion partners.”

The statement says that the dioceses seeking realignment acted in a
premeditated way and are determined to “walk apart” from the Episcopal
Church.

“However sweetly they phrase their words, these words are declarations
of schism,” the statement continues. “These individuals seek to
separate a part of this church from the rest of it, isolating dioceses
and parishes from the church in the process.”

The Church’s leaders must act to “protect the church and enable it to
move forward faithfully in Christ’s mission,” the statement adds.

“Our intent is to find and support the faithful Episcopalians who will
rebuild the Episcopal Church in dioceses where it has been broken,”
the statement concludes.

The Orlando Sentinel newspaper reported July 30 that the Episcopal
Voices gathering attracted people from 23 congregations, including 20
clergy. Thirty clergy had previously issued a statement disagreeing
with the stance of diocesan leaders.

The Episcopal Voices statement says that the signers recognize their
“allegiance” to the Episcopal Church, calling it “a true branch” of
the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ.

“We do not accede to any actions, efforts, letters or resolutions by
Central Florida’s diocesan leadership or its conventions which seek to
disassociate us further from the Episcopal Church, the actions and
authority of General Convention, or from the fellowship of the
Anglican Communion,” the statement says.

It pledges signers to seek reconciliation within the diocese, and to
“worship together, stay in community with each other, care for our
neighbors and in love, follow Jesus, who was and is the perfect
expression of love in the world.”

Central Florida Bishop John Howe said told the Sentinel in an e-mail
message from England that the meeting did not trouble him.

“These are good people who love the Episcopal Church — as do I,” he
said. “They do not want to be separated from it — nor do I.”

But Howe disagreed with Episcopal Voices’ analysis of the dispute.

“It is The Episcopal Church (as a whole) that has chosen to ‘walk
apart’ from the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Anglican Communion,”
he said.

The full text of the statement is available at http://www.episcopalvoicescf.org/

The full text of the Via Media USA statement is available at

http://viamediausa.org/press.html

— The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is national correspondent for the
Episcopal News Service.