Bishop James Stanton: GETTING TO WINDSOR?
June 21, 2006

A roller coaster is an apt description of this Convention. There are those tedious “clackety-clack” moments when the train is being dragged up hill. There are those moments of terror and thrill when the train is plunging toward what appears to be certain doom. There is the euphoria of the up surge again. There is the stress as you bank this way and that. At moments you may even be whisked upside down, or drenched when the train splashes its way toward home.

Yesterday, the Convention was rocked when the House of Deputies debated, then turned down resolution A161, which would have urged restraint on the consents to bishops “whose manner of life would lead to further strains on the Communion” and would also have deterred “this General Convention” from developing or authorizing rites for the blessing of same sex unions.

Over the last couple of years, the bishops of the Church and many others have repeatedly pointed out that only the General Convention could speak on how The Episcopal Church would respond to the Windsor Report. Given that the various attempts to amend this resolution were rebuffed, and that a substitute using strictly Windsor language was ruled out of order, this was the only resolution that would address the specific requests of the WR to declare a “moratorium” on either consents or rites. The defeat of the resolution was breathtaking. The Convention had spoken.

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