Austin Statement (July 13, 2018)

Jul 16, 2018 by Jill

from The Communion Partners of the Episcopal Church following the 79^th General Convention, meeting in Austin, Texas:

1 During the 79^th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, we prayed the Collect for Proper 9:

O God, you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbor: Grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to you with our whole heart, and united to one another with pure affection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

This prayer captures both the hope and the challenge we have experienced at this General Convention.

2 We give thanks to God for the way that members of our church who share the same baptismal identity have reached out to one another at this convention in common devotion to our Lord and in mutual affection, in order to seek common ground. We too seek to “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3). Yet, in the midst of disagreement, the challenges to our communion in Christ are profound.

3 We are grateful that the convention has commissioned a Task Force on Communion across Difference (Resolution A227). This Task Force follows upon the “Communion across Difference” statement of the House of Bishops in 2015, which recognized the “indispensable” place that the Communion Partners have in our church’s common life, as a witness our church needs.

4 The work before the new Task force is to “seek a lasting path forward for mutual flourishing consistent with this Church’s polity.” The Task Force will bring together in equal numbers members of the church who affirm a traditional understanding of marriage and those who affirm same-sex marriage in order to “speak the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15). The goal is to discover ways, in consultation with the wider Anglican Communion and others, to walk together with integrity as brothers and sisters in Christ within the structures of the Episcopal Church. This is a hopeful development.

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Read also: AUSTIN, TX: The politicization of General Convention by Mary Ann Mueller, Virtueonline