The Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) on Tuesday 21st June in Nottingham, England, has been filled with tenseness and anxiety. The day saw a total of 10 representatives from the US Episcopal Church (ECUSA) and the Anglican Church of Canada give presentations on their liberal attitudes towards homosexuality, to members of the Council from 50 countries.
To the audience which included the head of the 77 million-strong Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, both US and Canadian presenters openly defended homosexuality and gay bishops. They mainly called for continuous consultation and debate on the theological aspect of the dividing issue, yet they appealed for unity in Christ within the Communion worldwide.
The US Episcopal Church released a 130-page paper to the Council yesterday titled "To Set Our Hope on Christ: A Response to the Invitation of Windsor Report Paragraph 135". The paper was prepared by a group of seven theologians and one historian at the request of Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, head of the US Episcopal Church.
According to the foreword by Bishop Griswold, the Episcopal Church has been seeking the answer to the question of homosexuality for nearly 40 years, however the document aims to address a more fundamental question on the holiness and faithfulness in human intimacy.
The document argued that "members of the Episcopal Church have discerned holiness in same-sex relationships and have come to support the blessing of such unions and the ordination or consecration of persons in those unions."
Bishop Griswold explained in the foreword, "...a majority of the representatives of the wider church - bishops, clergy and lay persons - have felt guided by the Holy Spirit, a gain in light of prayer and discernment to consent to the election and consecration (of homosexual clergy)," though the Church has not reached a common mind on the issue.
"This paper is an explanation of how this action could have been taken by faithful people it makes the positive case...it does not attempt to give all sides of an argument or to model a debate," he added.
"We believe that God has been opening our eyes to acts of God that we had not known how to see before," quoted the document.
According to the Anglican Journal, Bishop Griswold, in opening the American presentation yesterday, said the US Episcopal Church is "committed to the life and witness of the Anglican Communion" and "beyond our differences ... we are called on Christ to love."
