Windsor Committee Report
Report of the Group to Discuss and Consider the Windsor Report
As directed by this resolution, Bishop Powell appointed the following persons to serve on the Windsor Report study group:
Lon Atkins
St. Mark's-Fincastle - Roanoke Convocation
Carter Brothers
St. John's-Roanoke - Roanoke Convocation
James Gilman*
Trinity-Staunton - Augusta Convocation
Marion Kanour
St. Barnabas & Trinity-Lynchburg - Lynchburg Convocation
Kenneth King
St. Mark's - Fincastle - Roanoke Convocation
Kris Kramer
Grace-Radford - New River Convocation
John Lane+ **
Trinity-Staunton - Augusta Convocation
Frances McCoy
All Saints-Norton & St. Mark's - St. Paul - Abingdon Convocation
Robert Miller+
Christ-Blacksburg - New River Convocation
Scott Russell *
Chaplain-Virginia Tech & Christ - Blacksburg - New River Convocation
Joan Boyd Short
Christ - Big Stone Gap - Abingdon Convocation
Al Weed*
Trinity - Arrington - Lynchburg Convocation
Timothy Vance***
St. Paul's - Salem - Roanoke Convocation
- appointed after 1st meeting
** committee chair
*** resigned after 1st meeting
+ Deputy to General Convention 2003
The group met five times (3 times at Grace Church, Radford, and 1 time each at St. Paul's, Salem, and St. Thomas Church, Christiansburg). We wish to thank the clergy and people of those three parishes for their hospitality. During the course of these meetings, we worshiped, prayed, and ate together, as well as engaging in thoughtful discussion and debate. Between meetings we communicated extensively by e-mail.
A. The Windsor Report addresses certain issues facing the Anglican Communion.
We agree that:
1. As Christians, we all want to be faithful followers of Jesus. As Anglicans, our obedience in Christ is rooted firmly in Scripture, mediated by Reason and Tradition.
2. We value being part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and prayerfully take our membership and relationships seriously.
3. As members of the Anglican Communion, we are committed to serving Christ through:
- liturgy in the vernacular of each worshiping group of people, which connects us to the historical faith,
- the proclamation and hearing of the Word of God;
- the recitation of the Apostles and Nicene Creeds;
- the sharing of the Body and Blood of Christ and the spread of the Gospel through evangelism and baptism; and
- the dedication to the service of others, particularly the most needy.
4. Mutual Responsibility and Interdependence in the Body of Christ is the way in which the constituent bodies of the Anglican Communion are called upon to operate together in unity. Accordingly, the constituent bodies have certain obligations to the Communion when they are considering significant innovations in belief and practice. These obligations include:
- engaging the Anglican Communion in an official process of dialogue regarding any significant innovation in belief and practice; and
- engaging in a process of dialogue at Diocesan and Provincial conventions so that responsible consideration and conversation regarding innovations and their impact occurs at all levels of jurisdiction.
5. A bishop is more than simply the chief pastor to a local church (diocese) and represents the "universal to the local and the local to the universal."
6. Different provinces have different qualifications for bishops. Some provinces, for instance, do not permit bishops to be divorced and remarried. Others do not ordain women as bishops.
7. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Lambeth 1998, the Anglican Consultative Council in 2002, the meeting of Primates in 2003, and the report of the Theology Committee of the House of Bishops (2003) all counseled against the ordination of a bishop living in a same gender union.
8. The decisions at General Convention 2003, permitting the ordination of a bishop living in a same gender union and recognizing that some bishops permit the development and use of liturgies celebrating and blessing same-sex unions, constituted significant innovations in belief and practice.
9. Homosexual persons are members of the Episcopal Church in all four orders of ministry: laypersons, bishops, priests, and deacons. We are deeply troubled by the instances in which such persons are persecuted by society, both in the United States and elsewhere. We pledge to oppose mistrust, discrimination, scapegoating, and hatred wherever they are found.
10. Pastoral and sacramental care should be given for the spiritual needs of members of the Episcopal Church who find themselves at odds with their rector or bishop. We agree that communication should be maintained between the bishop and those who find themselves in disagreement with their bishop, as well as between the rector and any such parishioners.
B. Our study group, in addressing the Windsor Report, is not in agreement in all areas:
1. We disagree about the interpretation of Scripture and of theology, and how to discern what God is calling us to do as individuals and as church.
2. We disagree about what is adiaphora (things that do not make a difference) and what is core doctrine.
3. We disagree about when and where unilateral action of significant theological innovation should be taken by a Province within the Anglican Communion, without reception of the innovation by the communion.
4. Saddened by the prospect of schism, we disagree generally about how to resolve the issues raised by the 2003 General Convention actions regarding the ordination of gay bishops and the blessing of same-sex unions and related liturgies and specifically about how the General Convention of 2006 should respond to the Windsor Report recommendations for pursuing Anglican unity.
C. Despite our profound disagreements and differences, we are united in our love for Christ and his church. Spending time and energy to seek unity within the Episcopal Church and within the Anglican Communion is valuable.
D. In response to the Windsor Report's recommendations and call for unifying action:
1. We commend the House of Bishops for its Covenant Statement issued prior to General Convention 2006, which included its expression of regret, apology and repentance for the pain and damage caused within the Anglican Communion by the bishops’ actions at General Convention 2003.
2. We commend the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church's decision to withdraw our delegates to the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in June 2005.
3. We commend the Anglican Consultative Council for inviting Episcopal Church representatives to address the controversial actions of General Convention 2003.
4. We commend the House of Bishops for agreeing to withhold consent before General Convention 2006 to the election of any bishop.
5. We commend the Primates for recognizing that proper consideration of the Windsor Report’s unity recommendations required time to allow the Episcopal Church to consider and act upon these recommendations at General Convention 2006.
6. We commend those bishops who have provided for delegated episcopal pastoral oversight as set out by the House of Bishops. We further commend those bishops who, in the spirit of WR, have been willing to provide such oversight with the full permission of the bishops with jurisdiction in each case.
7. We endorse the call to the diocese and its parishes to engage fully in mission and ministry with other parishes, dioceses, and provinces within and outside the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.
8. We recommend, based on our own experience as a study group, that the other efforts at communication and reconciliation passed in Resolution # 10 of the 86th Annual Council be carried out.
As a study group, we spent many hours on the task assigned us: praying for the church, the diocese, its parishes, and one another; reading documents, spending five Saturdays in four-hour meetings and even more time in travel, learning more about the members of our group, developing a sense of trust, listening carefully, questioning and debating one another openly, exchanging ideas and resources by e-mail.
Although we represent a broad spectrum of opinion on the principal issues before us, we respect and love one another much more than when we began. We hope and pray that we will continue to find ways to walk on a journey of faith together with the people of this diocese, the members of the Episcopal Church, and the members of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Respectfully submitted,
Lon Atkins
Carter Brothers
James Gilman
Marion Kanour
Kenneth King
Kris Kramer
John Lane
Frances McCoy
Robert Miller
Scott Russell
Joan Boyd Short
Al Weed