Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Bishop Mark Sisk of New York spoke about the Lambeth Conference today on a web cast. The conversation, a kind of modified press conference with viewers e-mailing questions, will be available soon at episcopalchurch.org

Here are a few things that struck me, feel free to add your own observations in the comments, but remember, we require you to use your full name.

I was encouraged by what both bishops had to say about the future of the proposed Anglican Covenant. The appendix of the St. Andrew’s Draft of the covenant, which provides detailed and convoluted procedures by which one province might prosecute and eventually marginalize another, appears to be dead in the water.

The Presiding Bishop said there was “great unanimity in rejecting the latter portions” of the covenant among the bishops at the conference. Bishop Sisk said he felt “great relief” in hearing “almost universally” that the bishops had “no desire to have the coercive element in it.”

Regarding the timetable for ratification of a covenant, Bishop Sisk said he didn’t think we would receive the document—which must be approved by the Anglican Consultative Council in May—in time to give it careful consideration before our General Convention in July.

Regarding the moratoria on the consecration of gay bishops living with partners and on the authorization of rites to bless same sex relationships, Bishop Sisk said he was surprised by “the extent to which the ‘gracious restraint’ the Episcopal Church has adopted was unknown.”

(Gracious restraint is code phrase for “swallowing our consciences on issues regarding glbt people for the sake of unity in the Anglican Communion.”)

Sisk said this restraint had been “enacted at great cost” and that “the spirit I find is one of willingly providing that restraint.”

If you are hoping that the General Convention will overturn or otherwise modify Resolution B033 of 2006, you have work to do in the House of Bishops, because Mark Sisk is hardly a conservative.

Bishop Jefferts Schori also spoke about the “Lack of information and the misinformation” that exists about “this Episcopal Church of ours.” She said she was asked whether the Episcopal Church held to the basic statements of the creed, etc. “Not everybody believes that we believe them,” she said.

Bishop Sisk said that the Episcopal Church is “by no means alone” in working for full inclusion of gay and lesbian Christians. He was pleased at “the number of other provinces across the Communion who are very supportive of the kinds of concerns we are trying to address.” However, he added, that in many parts of the Communion, association with a church that is perceived to be “pro gay” is dangerous. This is especially true in areas in which Christians constitute a small religious minority.

“Their lives are quite literally in danger,” he said. “[It is] yet another excuse for the dominant culture to demean them and sometimes violently so.”

He also said that many bishops in the developing world were frustrated by the amount of time spent discussing sex at the conference.

The Presiding Bishop said she was not optimistic that incursions by conservative primates into liberal jurisdictions would stop. She also said that the Archbishop of Canterbury may be coming to the United States to raise money to help pay the debt of the Lambeth Conference, which is estimated to be about $2 million.

John T. Connolly of the Philadephia Bulletin writes:

The Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania has issued its opinion that the bishop should be deposed for covering up the sexual abuse of his brother.

Rt. Rev. Charles E. Bennison, Jr., 64, was found guilty of two counts of engaging in conduct unbecoming of a member of the clergy on June 26. The Standing Committee of the Diocese of Pennsylvania presented a resolution in which the majority of member favored deposition of Bishop Bennison, and all favored a sentence that would preclude the bishop from ever serving as a clergyman again. The sentencing document, dated July 30, said that Bishop Bennison's persistent denial of wrongdoing was pivotal in reaching the decision to remove him from service in the clergy.

"Bishop Bennison's inability to accept the fundamental wrongfulness of his own misconduct is a critical factor - the most critical factor, the determining factor - to consider in fashioning an appropriate sentence," the document reads.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will conduct a live webcast to talk about the Lambeth Conference on Thursday, August 7 at 2 p.m. Eastern time (1 p.m. Central, noon Mountain, 11 a.m. Pacific).

Originating from the Episcopal Church Center, 815 Second Ave., New York City, the webcast will be accessible through the homepage of the Episcopal Church's website at www.episcopalchurch.org.

Questions will be accepted from the live audience and via email at newsline@episcopalchurch.org. Phone-in questions will not be accepted.

Phil Groves, who led the Listening Process for the Anglican Communion Office received this letter and permission to share it:

From: Pradeep Kumar Samantaroy Sent: 02 August 2008 20:35 To: Phil Groves Subject: Love Unites

Dear Phil,

It was nice to talk to you this evening. I thank God for your ministry of listening. I know it is one of the most important yet challenging ministries of the Church today. I wish to share some of my thoughts with you.

I am serving the people of the Diocese of Amritsar, Church of North India, in the states of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. I came to attend the Lambeth Conference with lot of questions in my mind about the issue of human sexuality as I knew this issue has threatened the unity in the Anglican Communion. Coming from a conservative back-ground I was not even prepared to listen to any person who supported the gay and lesbian people. However, the Indaba experience has changed my opinion. After listening to the stories of bishops coming from different cultural contexts I have become aware of the pain and agony people have bear because of our attitude towards each other. Further, I am convinced that despite their different and often opposite positions all are committed to live and grow within the Anglican family. The binding force in a family is love. If we love one another we learn to transcend our differences and don't hesitate to sacrifice our own interests for the sake of the family unity. This is possible only when we are willing to listen to each other. The amount of sacrifices I make is dependent on the depth of my love and intimacy of my relationship.

As for me I have decided not to be hasty in judging the gay and the lesbians. I wish to learn more about their life and problems. I have also decided to regularly pray for them. I wish to encourage the other members of the Anglican Communion to do the same.

You may share my thoughts with other like-minded persons.

Prayerfully

Bunu (Bishop P. K. Samantaroy)

P.S. Please feel free to edit my letter as English is not my first language

Randall Palmer of Reuters writes:

OTTAWA (Reuters) - There seems little chance that all Canadian Anglican clergy will honor the moratorium on blessing same-sex unions requested by the worldwide Anglican communion.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, leader of the global Anglican church, warned on Sunday that the 80-million-member church would be "in grave peril" if the U.S. and Canadian branches did not agree to moratoriums on same-sex blessings and on the ordination of gay bishops.

But the head of the Canadian church, Archbishop Fred Hiltz, told Reuters in a phone interview on Wednesday it would be especially tough for Bishop Michael Ingham of the British Columbia diocese of New Westminster to halt the homosexual blessings altogether.

Hiltz pointed out that the decision-making synods of four more Canadian dioceses have in the past year asked their bishops to authorize same-sex blessings.

UPDATED
In a private correspondence conducted eight years ago, Rowan Williams, now the Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote that gay sexual relationships can “reflect the love of God” in a way that is comparable to marriage, according to Ruth Gledhill in The Times.

Gay partnerships pose the same ethical questions as those between a man and woman and the key issue for Christians is that they are faithful and lifelong, he believes.

Dr Williams is known to be personally liberal on the issue but the strength of his views, revealed in private correspondence shown to The Times, will astonish his critics.
....
In an exchange of letters with an evangelical Christian, written eight years ago when he was Archbishop of Wales, Dr Williams describes his belief that Biblical passages criticising homosexual sex are not aimed at people who are gay by nature.

Instead, he argues that scriptural prohibitions are addressed “to heterosexuals looking for sexual variety in their experience”.

He says: “I concluded that an active sexual relationship between two people of the same sex might therefore reflect the love of God in a way comparable to marriage, if and only if it had about it the same character of absolute covenanted faithfulness.”

Although written before he became Archbishop of Canterbury in 2002, Dr Williams describes his view in the letters as his “definitive conclusion” reached after 20 years of study and prayer. He refers to it as his “conviction”.

Read it all here.

UPDATE: 6 p.m. EDT
The Times carries an editorial on the Archbishop's holding of public and private views:

There is nothing dishonourable or hypocritical in this. But there are dangers. The Church will miss the lead that an archbishop should offer on matters of practice and belief. Simply waiting for time to ease divisions and persuade his opponents is naive: they are ready to push their agenda hard. The great archbishops have been men of spiritual courage. Dr Williams has views that are important for the Church. They should be aired.

The letter from Dr. Pitt to the Dr. WIlliams is here and below:

UPDATE 6:30 p.m. EDT
A pdf of Archbishop Williams responses are here and below:

UPDATE 7 p.m. EDT
Mary Ann Sieghart writing in The Times says Williams was selected as a liberal and should govern as one:

It is not as if members of the Communion did not know Dr Williams was a liberal when they chose him. And, despite Africans' claims that the process was a colonial imposition, they did choose him: although the appointment was formally made by the Queen on the recommendation of the Prime Minister, the Archbishop's name was put forward by an electoral college made up of Church members. It consulted widely, in a process that took far longer than a papal convocation, and was endorsed by a meeting of all the Anglican primates in the Communion.

UPDATE: 8 p.m. EDT
The Guardian report is here

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Videos were shown at the outset of each day of the 2008 Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Communion. These videos introduced participants to the day's theme. Trinity Wall Street has all ten videos available at their web site.

Lambeth Journal 7 introduces the theme and rationale for Equal in God's Sight: When Power is Abused. Jane Williams, wife of the Archbishop of Canterbury explains the unique call for Christians to lead by serving, as when Jesus says leaders should wash the feet of those they serve. Joan Devashayam, wife of the bishop of the Diocese of Chennai, South India, tells of how the church saves girls from a life of prostitution. Others share stories of violence against women and children and the hope that the church can change this culture of abuse

Lambeth Journal 9, Listening to God and Each Other: The Bishop and Human Sexuality, features a conversation between Tom Shaw, Bishop of Massachusetts and Philip Baji, Bishop of Tanga, Tanzania. The bishops discuss the relationship between the dioceses they serve and with each other. Bishop Baji tells of his request to meet with gay and lesbian clergy in Massachusetts and Bishop Shaw relates how the clergy felt they had been heard with compassion. Baji says we can disagree with one another but not hate, that running away from one another will not solve anything. He says we "make the way by walking the way." Their conversation begins about 2 minutes and 30 seconds into the video. It follows a predictable speech on "lifestyles" by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The last video, Lambeth Journal 10, Fostering Our Common LIfe: The Bishop, the Covenant and the Windsor Process, features the Stewards, young people from around the Anglican Communion who helped with logistics for the bishops and their spouses. The unfailingly helpful and polite support by the Stewards was praised by all. The Stewards speak from their faith and hope for the communion. One Maori steward notes that they hope for a communion based in love for one another instead of rules. As he says, as a Maori, his people's experience is that those with power make the rules for their own benefit and not the benefit of those without power.

Bishop Trevor Mwamba, Botswana, speaks on this video on the role of covenant in the communion. He believes a covenant relationship arises from a spirit of reverence of that which is best in life. A covenant based in rules and regulations kills the spirit, causes us to "walk on eggs" and brings forth a spirit of fear. Bishop Gabriel Shoji Igarishi of Japan believes now is a time to wait. We cannot have a covenant until we understand the circumstances of one another. Bishop Neil of Ireland encourages walking together, we do not need to be in total agreement or have a legalistic set of rules to walk together.

Watch them all here.

Why does Rowan Williams bow down before those belligerent African Anglican bishops and their conservative supporters who view homosexuality as "unnatural" and a "sin"? By doing so he is not only betraying the spiritual welfare of gay Anglican communicants but also undermining any claims his church has to be established asks Will Self in The Evening Standard, UK.

The Archbishop may assert that there is scriptural authority for the denial of equal opportunities to gay Anglicans, yet this is the same Old Testament fundamentalism that leads to denying the discoveries of Galileo or Darwin - not something he subscribes to at all. Besides, his is an explicitly political church - he owes his own appointment to a prime minister - and Britain is a nation where gay rights are enshrined in law, including the right to same-sex union. If Dr Williams wants his church to remain the official state religion in this country, he and his male bishops should get with the programme when it comes to the full recognition of women and homosexuals, instead of insisting that there be a moratorium on any further ordinations of openly gay priests, let alone - gulp! - women bishops.

But, most worryingly, the Archbishop's position gives ammunition to those regimes where institutionalised homophobia and misogyny have truly tragic consequences. Two of the bishops who've been vocal in their lambasting of the liberals hail from Uganda and Nigeria, states where punitive laws against homosexuals are still on the statute book: a man was sentenced to death for being gay by sharia courts in northern Nigeria only last month

Orombi: a child of empire, is the headline in The Guardian today. Priyamvada Gopal writes that Archbishop Orombi's claims of colonialism by Archbishop of Canterbury reveal a colonized mindset. She sees the anti gay rhetoric from Orombi as learned from the British colonists as the church and the empire moved across Africa:

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IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, June issue, has an in-depth report and analysis of the effect of humanitarian efforts to mitigate the devastation caused to the poorest of the poor by climate change:

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The Episcopal Relief and Development program, Nets for Life, has succeeded in preventing malaria in many parts of the world. With the success of the distribution of treated mosquito netting, the effort will be increased over the next five years. Nets for Life partners with Episcopalians and corporations to raise funds for the prevention of malaria. According to Episcopal Life Online:

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International development agency Christian Aid says the blame for the collapse of the latest Doha Development Round talks in Geneva lies squarely with major agricultural exporting countries putting self-interest above other considerations according to a report in Ekklesia.

The talks were supposed to result in a deal that would help poorer countries develop through trade.

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While Anglican bishops were meeting in Canterbury, senior Christian and Muslim scholars and leaders were meeting in the United States seeking common ground in their different faiths to foster better understanding between Islam and the West according to Reuters.

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Citing changing demographics and a steady increase in complaints from people of faith, a federal agency last week released an updated compliance manual on religious discrimination in the workplace according to USA Today.

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Sitting in airports with wifi and traveling home after the Lambeth Conference, bishops reflect on their experiences and offer thoughts on "what now?"

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Now that the Bishops are on their way home, the press is trying to make summarize the just completed Lambeth Conference and the pundits are polishing their crystal balls to tell us what it all means.

Press summaries are found on Thinking Anglicans here and here. TA also points to the audio of the final press conference here.

Here is epiScopes summary of Lambeth news and here is the ENS report of the last day.

John F. Burns of the New York Times says Anglicans to Seek Pact to Prevent Schism.

Here is Rachel Zoll's (AP) take.

The Telegraph says that Archbishop Williams is upbeat after Lambeth.

Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks plenary to the Lambeth bishops generated some letters to the editor in the Jerusalem Post.

The Guardian's lead is here.

The Times' lead is here.

The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin says that Anglicans need "space without pressure."

In many ways the Lambeth Conference had dual personalities. There was the listening, engaging personality of the Indaba groups, along with the Bible Studies, the worship. Then there was the organizational side where the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Anglican Communion Office and the Bishops attempted to find a structure by which the Communion could hold together.

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Do religions survive because they are useful in combatting infectious disease? One researcher thinks so and he has some data to support his thesis. Here is the report from the Economist:

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Michael Sean Winters, author of Left at the Altar: How the Democrats Lost the Catholics and How the Catholics Can Save the Democrats has an interesting article in the New Republic about two of the three Catholics that are reportedly on Barack Obama's short list for the Vice President slot on the ticket:

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That's going to do it for me, folks. I am heading home on Monday, and will probably be laying low for awhile. I have more strong feelings than are helpful about what has happened here, and I am not yet sure how I think our Church should respond to it. But those are conversations for another day.

UPDATED:

The Blogging Bishops offer some thoughts onthe final day of the Lambeth Conference. Most emphaized the value of the conversations at Lambeth. Several expressed disappointment at the "Reflections" document issued earlier today.

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At the end of the Lambeth Conference, John F. Burns writes another profile of Bishop Gene Robinson and describes both the man at the center of the storm and the tough road ahead for Anglicanism if it is to positively build on the work of Lambeth.

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By Jim Naughton

The Archbishop of Canterbury put the squeeze on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada today, saying that the Anglican Communion would be in “grave peril” if the North American churches did not adopt a moratorium on same- sex blessings and the consecration of gay bishops.

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By Jim Naughton

I darted around this morning talking to bishops, and what follows is more a reporter’s notebook that a fully-crafted story. In summary, I would say bishops of the Episcopal Church, and those generally sympathetic to it are saying that they thought that the conference went very well and moved the issues in the right direction; that they were glad that no definitive statement on some of the controversial issues was planned, and that they recognized that gay and lesbian people were talked about, rather than talked with.

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The Archbishop of Canterbury's final presidential address to the 2008 Lambeth Conference is now online.

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The Reflections Document from the 2008 Lambeth Conference is now online.

Here is the section on the Windsor Report and the three moratoria. I have boldfaced a problematic and I think erroneous addition since yesterday's draft in paragraph 145, and what I consider helpful phrasing in paragraph 146:

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By Jim Naughton

The last morning of the Lambeth Conference was marked by low clouds, occasional rain and a subdued atmosphere on the University of Kent campus. We are to receive the final draft of the reflections on the indaba process at 2:30 p .m (9:30 a. m. , EDT) and a copy of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s third and final presidential address at 3:30. A press conference with the archbishop is scheduled to begin at 4:30, and the closing Eucharist at 6. I will be writing, rather than attending the Eucharist.

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Today, much talking about the talk, so to speak: How language challenges us. How we hear things, how we say things, and how to truly listen--and speak--when there's so much noise. The Bishops are coming to the end of indabas and bible study with colleagues from around the world, and are feeling pangs of sadness at it being time to go, wonder at what has been accomplished (even if it hasn't seemed like much to those outside).

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Andrea Useem writes on Health.com's Poked and Prodded blog about the condition known as runner's high, and her own experience with it during her first marathon. The exultation she felt reminded her more of a religious experience than of any chemical rush, she says, and it piqued her interest enough to drill down into the phenomenon a bit more, interviewing Andrew Newberg, MD, a researcher who has explored brain imagery and how it changes during meditative experiences. Useem points us to a Pew event transcript in which Newberg and others talk about this phenomenon, and goes on to tie it back to her marathon experience:

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The Roanoke Times points out that even pastors sometimes have to just get away. They interviewed about two dozen local clergy members from various denominations and came away reporting just how difficult it is for many of them to take that time off. The Rev. Barkley Thompson of St. John's Episcopal in Roanoke, Va., was one of those priests—trying to get out the door for his vacation even as he was being interviewed, Book of Common Prayer in hand as his family loaded up for the trip.

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Update with reactions

The penultimate draft of the Reflections paper from the Lambeth Conference is now available on the conference web site. Section K on the Windsor Process is likely to have the immediate impact in setting an agenda for our Church. The Windsor section and the Sexuality sections of the report are published below. To see the Covenant section, read below.

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Archbishop Fred Hiltz of Canada has put his finger on the principal disconnect at the Lambeth Conference, the highly relational indaba groups, and the more political hearings held to influence the work of the Windsor Continuation Group and the Covenant Design Group Marites N. Sison of Anglican Journal writes:

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By Jim Naughton

A touching, revealing moment at the press conference just now. The bishops have been talking for several days now about sacrifice. “What are you willing to sacrifice” to keep the communion together?” The clear implication is that Western churches must sacrifice their desire to include gay Christians more fully in the Church.

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By Jim Naughton

Expect a flood of journalistic activity today a little after 5 p. m. Canterbury time. (That’s noon on the East coast of the US.) That’s when the bishops will release the most recent draft of their reflections, and when they will begin a previously unscheduled hearing, which will be their last real opportunity to influence the reflections that will be released near the end of the conference tomorrow.

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Yesterday was the first really uncomfortable day in the Indaba groups for the bishops as their conversations turned to matters of human sexuality and the proper response of the Church to gay and lesbian Christians. Most the reports are that the discussions were frank and honest and mostly loving.

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By Jim Naughton

Mouneer Anis, presiding bishop of Jerusalem the Middle East, has just given the most extraordinary interview here at the Lambeth Conference. If you want to know why homosexuality is a difficult issue within the Anglican Communion, and why the media culture here is so debased, this interview and the ruckus around it are helpful.

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By Jim Naughton

Press briefers at the Lambeth Conference continue to speak encouraging words to Left Wing Inclusion Mongers--trademark pending--even as a disappointing draft of the bishops' reports on human sexuality emerged from the indaba groups.

Canon Gregory Cameron, of the Anglican Communion Office, secretary of the Covenant Design Group, discussed progress toward a covenant at this morning’s news conference, and was at pains to emphasize that the St. Andrew’s Draft of the covenant is open to revision.

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First draft of the Lambeth reflection on the bishop and human sexuality:

THE CONTEXT OF OUR TALKS

We met in a spirit of generosity and prayerful humility which enabled us to listen patiently to each other. Apologies have been expressed in the Indaba groups by some of the Episcopal church who had no idea that their action in the consecration of the present Bishop of New Hampshire had caused such a negative impact in many parts of the Communion. Although there has been a great appreciation of one to one conversation, there is the need to develop further the trust in the relationships that have started here.

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Jim Mathes, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego, had a meeting over breakfast with Bishop Gregory Venables, Presiding Bishop of the Southern Cone. After an apology was offered on the part of Bishop Venables, both bishops have committed themselves to trying to find a way to resolve the tensions over "incursions" in the Diocese of San Diego.

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