The following resolution, B033, passed the House of Bishops and House of Deputies at the Episcopal General Convention without amendment:

Resolved, the 75th GC, receive and embrace the Windsor Report's invitation to engage in a process of healing and reconciliation; and be it further

Resolved that this convention therefore call upon standing committees and bishops with jurisdiction to exercise restraint by not consecrating any bishop whose manner of life poses a challenge to the church and would lead to further strains on communion.


I don't think this is a good idea, and would have voted against it. For those of you who aren't Episcopalian, the election of Gene Robinson, who is a gay man living with a partner, caused a great deal of controversy in the Anglican Communion; the Windsor Report basically asks us to impose a moratorium on consecrating gay people as bishops, and on same-sex blessings (which some dioceses here and in Canada have done), for bishops who participated in the consecration of Bishop Robinson to consider removing themselves from representative functions, and a few other things. this resolution is meant to answer the Windsor Report. however, first, conservatives in the Episcopal Church don't feel this is an adequate response to the Windsor Report because it isn't binding; in fact, some bishops have already publicly dissented. conservatives in the church may very well perceive it as an insult - I would. second, this resolution asks a minority in the church to fall on their swords. in fact, we decided that a minority was going to fall on their swords for the rest of the church. if all LGBT Episcopalians had volunteered to fall on their swords, I could perhaps condone this, but they have not - we asked them to, and it seems we asked them to for nothing. besides this, our new Presiding Bishop's gender poses a challenge to the church and will certainly lead to strains in the rest of the Communion. the same could be said of the new Bishop-elect of California, who has been married thrice (fortunately not all at the same time). what are we going to do about that?

Bishop Jefferts Schori supported this resolution, and asked the House of Deputies to pass it. she's definitely lost some points with me.

Bishop John Chane and around 20 other bishops have signed on to the following statement:

We, the undersigned Bishops of this 75th General Convention, in the confidence of the Gospel and out of love for this great Church, must prayerfully dissent from the action of this Convention in Resolution B033 (on Election of Bishops). We do so for the following reasons:

The process used to arrive at Resolution B033 raises serious concerns about the integrity of our decision-making process as a Church. In particular we note that we discussed a resolution, A162 , on Tuesday, but were never given an opportunity to act upon it. Instead, we were presented with a different resolution this morning, and were given only 30 minutes for debate and discussion. This resolution bears great consequences both for the Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church and unfortunately was not adequately discussed.
Our conversation has been framed in a flawed paradigm, forcing us to choose between two goods -- the full inclusion in the life of the Church of our brother and sister Christians who happen to be gay or lesbian and our full inclusion in the life of our beloved Communion.
The process that brought about the reconsideration of this matter failed to honor the integrity of the House of Deputies by bringing undue pressure to bear on that body.
Our witness to justice has been prophetic in this nation and in the wider Anglican Communion on the issues of the full inclusion of people of color and persons who are differently-abled. For more than 30 years women been permitted to be included in the councils of this Church as lay deputies to this Convention and as deacons, priests and bishops. This witness to full inclusion has borne the fruits of the Spirit and is incarnate in the faces and lives around these tables and throughout the Church. The language of this resolution too much echoes past attempts by the Church to limit participation of those perceived to be inadequate for full inclusion in the ordained ministry.
Any language that could be perceived as effecting a moratorium that singles out one part of the Body by category is discriminatory.
We are absolutely committed to the future of this Communion and the process of healing the strain that we readily admit and regret exists, and has been exacerbated in our own house by events today. We must participate in this process with our own integrity intact and thus we are obliged to make this dissent. We intend to challenge the rest of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion to honor the promise to include the voices of gay and lesbian in the conversations about the future of the Communion. We pray for the Church, for our Communion, and for our lesbian and gay brothers and sisters.